[Futago Kumori]

Kumori lets out one of her rare sighs as she continues to sit at the gate, her right leg crossed over her left and her white nin-sandal tapping on the ground underneath her as she sees nobody approaching, as sometimes happened at some hours of the day. Her white cheongsam top and pants were light and breathable enough that she wouldn't overheat in the middle of combat, but when there was none to be had, she couldn't exactly keep herself warm all that easily. The clothing was also somewhat plain, though the pink-peach floral pattern along the edges of her top certainly drew the eye in a natural way. Her straight black hair was fastened into a ponytail behind her head, swaying in the occasional breeze that was the only movement she'd seen for the past hour. The armor she wore over the top of her cheongsam was, by contrast, a darkened black, standing out against the paleness of the rest of her clothing as it protects her arms, her collarbone, and her hips. While it might seem like it provides too little protection, the mesh armor she wears underneath the cheongsam is more than enough to keep her safe from most attacks. Adding to some of the protection she has, her weighted training blade is laid across her back, ready to grab hold of and swing about if need be, along with the weapon pouch on her left hip. The Kusagakure headband wrapped around her head so that the symbol of her ninja village is proudly displayed on her forehead is a clear indication of her loyalties, should anyone actually happen to show up at the gate.

She leans her head back, staring up at the bright blue sky with only the occasional puffy marshmallow-white cloud drifting lazily by as the sussuration of the grass in the momentary gusts of breeze seems to punctuate just how quiet everything else is.

Finally, with her sigh being ignored, she lets out an even more rare noise: Kumori, sometimes jokingly and sometimes reverently called The Great Blade among her clansmen, actually whines aloud.

"I'm so boooooored, Kojirou-kun."

[Honō Kojirou]

Nobody shall pass illegally.

Kojirou was a shield of the village now, alongside his childhood friend Kumori. That meant he was responsible for maintaining order in the channeling passage through their village’s gate, allowing people to and fro to enter and leave The Village Hidden In The Grass. It was a mighty, divine duty bestowed to him by their new Lord, clearly as a sign of Ichī’s appreciation of Kojirou’s skills (and definitely not a silent cry for the oblivious swordsman to promote to Chūnin already, since he had the requirements other than sufficient experience reporting for duty).

Unlike Kumori, however, he didn’t easily get bored. As if a statue, he stood firm with his dark-red haori waving in the gentle breeze, a Katana Case stationed a few meters behind him leaning on the wall. His hair, too, was tied in a ponytail akin to Kumori’s, but his was bristled and mane-like.

"But enemies could try and infiltrate our village any day, Kumori,” he reminded her, keeping his gaze forward towards the road leading out of the tall grass, through taller grass, then through shrubbery and woods, and then through wherever, "Must be vigilant. Can’t let anything distract us-"

The sight of a panda in the distance cut his words short, but upon being noticed, it rolled itself away from sight, causing a tear to run down Kojirou’s cheek. "… P-Panda-kun…”

[Futago Kumori]

Kumori sighs in defeat when Kojirou exclaims that enemies might try to infiltrate their village, knowing full well that he's right, but she can't help but to feel boredom. She'd gone from training almost entirely by herself or only with her clan's hijutsu to spending most of her time staring out at the wilderness, practically daring anyone to come and have her try her hand at slashing them apart. Instead, the wilderness had seemingly seen fit to kill her with boredom rather than with the excitement of combat. She looks at Kojirou through the corner of her eye as he talks about the fact that they needed to be vigilant and attentive, only for him to suddenly cut himself off.

In an instant, she's looking directly forwards again, leaping up from her seat on the wooden chair and causing it to fall backwards as she drops to a ready stance and her right hand reaching back and up to grab hold of her weighted and wooden training blade, causing nearby civilians to go tense and move out of the way of her gaze, making way like a tunnel of humans... only to catch sight of the black and white fat and furry form of the panda bear rolling away from view into the viridian bamboo forest. With an unamused face, Kumori returns to a more relaxed stance, standing taller than before as she considers smacking Kojirou upside the head. She decides she'll do it later, when they're not surrounded by witnesses to such unprofessional action.

"Yes, but getting too focused like this makes me antsy. You know that damn well."

As she speaks, Kumori is picking the wooden chair back up and setting it up on all four legs once more so she can sit down in it. She's already tapping her foot again.

[Honō Kojirou]

Hmh… that was an issue with her – impatience. Maybe they could find a way to make the passing, silent time more entertaining. He wished Saya was here, too – the Academy trio could play games and stuff… although, he could never come up with games. He was mostly just tugged along by the two, and he hadn’t realized that they valued the small amounts of time they had with him before he had to go back to his clan’s elders for all of that Kekkei Genkai training.

But now, they were all shinobi, and Kojirou had a library of all of his clan’s Lava Release techniques in the form of scrolls – and he’d shown competence in mastering some of them all by himself. That was why he had much more time away from them compared to the Academy days… but he kind of missed being tugged around by them. It made him feel very appreciated.

"Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmh…” Kojirou wasn’t a deep thinker, but he could come up with a game that didn’t compromise their duty. Something that involved seeing things… like ‘I Spy’. Yeah, that! It wasn’t a game he came up with, but he felt a sense of pride thinking about it in this scenario. "I got an idea!” he declared with a fistbump, "I spyyyyyyyyy… with my eye… something green.”

A hooded figure, in the meantime, was making their way out of the thick, distant grasslands and approaching the village. And their duties as Gate Guards were about to be tested.

[Futago Kumori]

Kumori seems to become interested again when Koji seems to be thinking. She'd never heard such a long thinking sound from the young man; she wasn't aware of him thinking for long at all, as he favored simpler concepts and ideas. It had clearly worked well for the other Genin, regardless of whether or not other people regarded him as being simple himself. If anyone had dared to vocalize such thoughts, Kumori would have put their faces in the dirt for daring to say such a thing about her friend. While he might be a bit of a goofball at times, he was clever to a point, and she kind of liked that about him. So when he suddenly lights up with an idea, she's excited at first, but then he states that he spies something green.

Kumori's face turns completely and firmly expressionless as she stares at him, though she does notice the hooded figure in the distance as he approaches, since his movement is being closely tracked by the kunoichi's peripheral vision.

"Koji-kun... if you say you're spying grass, I'm going to beat your face in."

Of course, Koji could very well be spying on grass, and Kumori could very well beat his face in, as long as she gets in quick enough. She would likely be just a bit faster, comparatively, than his lava, but now the hooded figure is approaching, and her focus shifts instantly to lock onto the stranger, and she gets up from her chair, holding her left hand out, palm forward to stop him. With him not being familiar for Kumori, she needs to stop and check his identification. Of course, most of the other people coming and going from the village were checked to a somewhat lesser extent, through chakra sensory to see if their chakra was aligned with anyone that had tried to engage in hostilities against the village. Strangers needed to be stopped and identified; sensors wouldn't have knowledge of anyone else's chakra signature.

[Honō Kojirou]

Kojirou feared Kumori’s wrath. Silent, casual, monotone look on her face paired with such a threat, of course he couldn’t have been looking at grass, right? "I-I wasn’t… looking at grass, I was… uhhhh…” he stuttered, trying to save his skin in a hurry by moving his vision all around the distant scenery, "I-I was looking at the… uhhhh, l-lea-”

Leaves, yes. There were a few trees visible atop the tall grass plains – although, in this season, the trees were naked for leaves. "… Leverage?”

Oh well, the stranger approaching them saved him. Now focused on them, Kojirou kept his eyes on the hooded person approaching the gate, even when Kumori made them stop in their tracks. They fiddled a little at her gesture, trying to pick up their identification card, but Kojirou began seeing bulges on their stomach, chest and- what on earth?

He must’ve been seeing things, as if other ‘creatures’ were waving their legs under the person’s cloak. "Kumori, I’m not seeing things, am I…?” he asked his friend and fellow Gate Guard, causing the hooded figure to step back in a panic. "W-Wait, wait, I can- uh, ow, guys, stop shaking…” the very, very young voice mumbled under his hood, "W-We’re almost there, we won’t be spotted…”

…

They didn’t seem that intimidating now. What on earth was the meaning of this, though? At this rate, Kumori could just pull the cloak off and expose the trio underneath to the failure of their prank.

[Futago Kumori]

Kumori would have given Koji one of her most withering gazes for the answer he'd suggested, if she wasn't busy dealing with the newcomer at the gate, particularly because they seemed to be moving very oddly. In fact, they seemed to be quite clumsy in trying to get the identification card to her, and as she starts to hold up the card to get a good look at the person's face to compare the drawn portrait, the person looked away, and that was a very obvious red flag for her as a guard. She starts to reach back and over her right shoulder for the handle of her training sword, then realizes that what she can see of the face looks very young as well.

She moves her hand away from the weighted sword and sighs as she takes the identification card firmly in hand, then does a quick movement with her fingers to make the laminated card fling itself under the hood and right into the child's face. At the same moment, she tugs open the cloak to show the trio of children underneath it, propping up their friend as the "face" of their little game. As much fun as it would be to knock the tower down with a little kick, she instead tugs the boys off of one another, starting with the top and then the middle child to set them back on their feet more gently than a fall would have, though she's still a bit rough and firm with them, the way one would expect a parent to be with their children who had just gotten themselves into trouble.

"If you boys have a good reason why I shouldn't take you up to the Kusa Lord and let him know that you three were trying to sneak into the village, you should probably speak up now..."

[Honō Kojirou]

Welp, their cover was blown now. Kumori had little patience for these… rather young pranksters, but Kojirou silently gave them approval for their brave attempt at tricking a shinobi. Either way, they were kind of screwed now – they were found clearly outside of the borders of any settlement, unsupervised and… vulnerable to many things, wild and human.

Their parents would slaughter them.

"O-Owwwww…” one of the boys sulked, twiddling his fingers while the two others were too frightened to even look Kumori in the eyes. Kojirou, upon second look, finally recognized one of the kids – these weren’t just strangers from outside places – they were from here! "Wait, aren’t you Chieko’s neighbor’s kid?” Kojirou asked casually, pointing at the pouting shy guy who looked away in shame.

"… P-Please don’t tell mum… w-we were just curious…”

"I’m sorry, but what you’re doing is dangerous. You could’ve been attacked by that panda over there!” Kojirou reprimanded them, once again pointing at the poor panda in the far distance just trying to live its life, "Or someone could’ve kidnapped you – that happens a lot, y’know! Just look at how worried you made Kumori feel!”

"S-Sorry!”
"We thought… w-we could do ninja stuff, we’re in the Academy now…”
"I-I learned how to transform, too! Maybe I could… transform into… w-we just wanted to see what was outside…”

Twiddling, fidgeting between each other, they clearly knew the risks but couldn’t help their curiosity. Kids, man. "W-We aren’t hurt! We didn’t go that far, a-and… h-how could you see through our disguise? We spent hours on that…”

”Well, duh! They’re real shinobi, Kumato! I told you it wouldn’t work-"
"But we learned about disguises and sneaky stuff… and Sensei said we were very good at it…”

[Futago Kumori]

Kumori had been considering not to let them into the village and had been wondering just what she was going to do with three clearly young brats; the threat to take them to the Kusa Lord had been only partially a bluff, as she'd wondered what the Kusa Lord would want done with them, since it was really too dangerous outside of the village for three youngsters to hang around. That was, until Koji seemed to recognize one of them as being the son of someone within the village, and then the three outed themselves as Academy Students. She's about to give them an even harsher reprimand, but she's young enough to remember having personally done such things herself, either for pranks or just to see what she could get away with.

She sighs as they argue with one another, which is giving her a headache, slowly but surely. Finally, she snaps, though she's not angry enough to actually beat them for their poor decisions... Though that work could be left for their parents. She's just nonplussed enough to interrupt them when Kumato states that their sensei said they were good at the disguises and "sneaky stuff".

"Your sensei is right, you three were at least good enough to get this close to a gate guard. But getting caught is normally a death sentence; keep that in mind and think on that when you're goofing off, okay?"

She brings out her wooden training sword from off her back like she's planning on using it on them, watching them cower in fear before she uses the greatsword to point their way into the village.

"Get moving, before I kick your asses!"

Once they get sprinting, she sighs and then looks at Koji out of the corner of her eye.

"A panda is the most dangerous thing you can think of? Really? Anyways, do you wanna write the letter to their parents, or should I?"

[Honō Kojirou]

Yeah, they scurried off pretty fast. Kumori was good at intimidating kids – that remained a constant throughout the years they’ve known each other… a little overboard, at times. Kojirou didn’t mind, though – her terrifying nature always ebbed away as quickly as it came.

"Pandas are dangerous!” Kojirou protested in honor of the mighty, giant pandas out there, "I once saw one bite a bamboo stick this thick in half as if it was made of marcipan! And bamboo’s harder than human flesh! They’re not to be underestimated!” But they are to be mounted and ridden around with like horses at times… hypocrite.

Now… when it came to the inevitable letter that had to be sent to their parents, Kojirou didn’t want to bother Kumori any more – she already looked a little impatient and worn out from dealing with kids instead of an actual challenge. "I got this, Kumori! They know me well,” he assured her before pulling up a pen and paper from his Katana Case, using the same box as a table while he began writing:

‘From: Kojirou of the Honō Clan, Eastern Gate Guard
To: Respective Parents of Kumato and co.

Kumato showed up outside of the village walls with his friends trying to sneak back in as a disguise. I think he did well for the first few seconds, but his friends’ legs poking the big adult cloak gave them away. Sneaking out of the village at such a young age is dangerous, and Kumato should know better! He’s a very smart kid, so he should know not to worry his parents like that! Anyway, good luck with his Academy studies!

Koji

PS: Kumori might kill him if he tries that trick again.’

Whistling innocently, Kojirou bit his thumb and formed a handseal before slamming the ground, summoning out of a small smoke cloud the rather bratty Hanatarō, a lion cub he’d got to know very well. "Hanatarō, mind you bring this to Chieko’s neighbor? Y’know, the lady whose cat you tried to-"

"WOAH, WOAH, WOAH – you can’t say that! Father’s gonna eat me if he finds out I did th-"

"A-Anyway, bring this letter to her. Her son did an oopsie again.”

"Oh, bet.”

And with that, the lion cub was on his way. Just in time for a worried lady carrying an infant in her arms to run up to the two Gate Guards – unexpectedly, she held an identification card in her hand too. "P-Please, excuse my intrusion! I’m being targeted by bandits – I think they’re nearby, too!”

[Futago Kumori]

Kumori is at least pleased that Kojirou is taking up the job of writing the letter; while Kumori was great with action and words of force, Kojirou had always been much more skilled with speaking and de-escalation. He'd been the one to get them out of jams the most when they'd been on the other end of the troublemaking, and she always considered him a good friend for that alone, not to mention his somewhat humorous antics of his own that often brought the rare smile to her face. In spite of his silly panda rant, she still doesn't consider any panda a real threat, though she'd also not go out of her way to attack one. If it fell on her, even in death, it would probably hurt quite a lot, and they seemed about as soft and gentle as puppies. They might have teeth and claws, but they seemed to reserve those teeth and claws for greenery.

She watches with at least a little bit of interest when Kojirou summons a small lion cub, giving the intelligent animal-like companion the letter to deliver to Chieko's neighbor, with their humorous exchange at least being a nice distraction from the usual boredom of working as a gate guard. And right away, a worried woman with an infant runs up to the gate with her identification card held out, though her strange politeness was odd in this situation where she's being targeted by nearby bandits. Kumori roughly nudges the woman aside, towards Kojirou, though she's careful not to jostle the infant in her arms. While she's not going to outright accuse her of something, her interaction was slightly strange, but first, Kumori needed to make sure and assess the bandit situation with full focus, looking out towards the road and gesturing other civilians to stand aside for now.

Her weighted practice blade held in a ready position, she waits to see who appears, speaking out of the side of her mouth at Kojirou while she waits to see what caused such excitement.

"Kojirou, make sure this woman is safe and cared for. I'll fight off any bandits."

[Honō Kojirou]

The woman… was perplexed when she was nudged over to Kojirou’s defense. Still holding the clothed child in her arms, Kojirou patted her shoulder and nodded: "It’s going to be alright. We’ll chase them off, they won’t hurt you.”

"Oh… t-thanks…”

Kumori didn’t move out to trigger a possible ambush from the bandits, instead staying and forcing them to come out of hiding – the area near the gate was open and would provide the bandits with few sources of cover. Terrain advantage. Kojirou was willing to wait things out, but the woman holding the baby suddenly panicked: "M-Maybe they’re trying to set up camp nearby! Please, you gotta deal with them!”

"Oh… okay!”

Kojirou immediately darted into the grasses and disappeared into the woods… at first, the woman looked a bit relieved at his disappearance, and what he was doing was quite reckless, but two things made her think otherwise – the sudden complaints in the distance-

"ARGH! TAR IN MY EYES!”
"WASH IT OFF! WASH IT OFF NOW!”
"*choking sounds*”
"PFFFFFF, IT’S EVERYWHERE! I CAN’T SEE SHIT!”
"IS HE EVEN HUMAN? HE JUST SPLATTERED LIKE A SLIME!”

And the real Kojirou walked out from the gate itself, surprising the mother as he was holding a bag of treats he went to share with Kumori for a moment: "You gotta need some… they’re gonna pop out soon.”

"W-Wait, if you’re here… w-who just- was that some sort of Clone?”

"Yup! Nechi Bunshin no Jutsu, one of my favorite Jutsus… why, is that weird? I am a full-fledged shinobi, after all!”

"H-Huh… I-I mean, splendid! Thank you so much-"

The bandits quickly leapt out of hiding, all covered in black tar and clearly thrown aside by the sudden troll of a Tar Clone that smeared them in its tar insides. "They got nowhere to hide now! Give ‘em hell, Kumori!”

[Futago Kumori]

Kumori seems unopposed to Kojirou running out to apparently attack the bandits. She knows him too well to think that he would be so reckless normally, as she'd trained with him plenty in the Academy for a few years, and even occasionally training together afterwards, though originally the gate guard job and her position as a Genin Team member would have made it more difficult until recently when they'd been put on gate guard duty together. Without turning her head to look at the approaching Kojirou, she reaches over to the offered bag of treats, takes one, and slips it into her mouth to chew on while they complain about the tar.

"Thanks, and good job. I didn't wanna have to keep up this Suna stand-off all day long."

As soon as the group leaps out of hiding, covered as they are with the black tar from one of Kojirou's clone, Kumori rushes out at them, leading with the wooden training sword. With its heavy iron core, it's still capable of putting bandits such as them down, and is even capable of killing, though for now at least she's just looking for pain compliance where she can get it, or breaking limbs to make the bandits incapable of interfering where she can't. Sweeping their legs is her priority, using her naturally greater speed to avoid counterattacks as she smacks the back of knees, then the soles of their feet once they drop down to the ground. The Futago clan's Hijutsu definitely comes in handy, and the great heaviness of her training sword helps to ensure her strikes are hard enough to make getting up or resisting further to seem like a bad idea.

As though to firmly leave a lesson for the bandits, she faces one last bandit, whom she'd left mostly alone until this point, and thrusts the blunted wooden tip into his nose, breaking his nose and then forcing him to the ground with the weight of her training sword until he's sprawled on his back. Kumori takes a moment to shove his face aside so that he's not drowning in the blood that comes from his nose as she sighs from the workout of swinging that heavy sword around so much. She felt she was gradually getting better at using its great weight, though, and soon she'd be strong enough to wield it without so much trouble.

"Okay, Kojirou! I'll take care of checking the woman and the baby for anything, if you wanna handle the bandits themselves..."

[Honō Kojirou]

Yeah, things got easier once the random guys hiding in the shrubbery leapt into the light, ruining their element of surprise – and Kumori didn’t appear to pull her punches. Albeit, based on the outcome, maybe she wanted intel from the guys – where were they from, who sent them, who led them, and why on earth they were planning to ambush a Gate Guard… so she didn’t execute them. They didn’t seem that much of a threat anyway, so it’d leave a bad taste in Kojirou’s mouth if they didn’t at least get to the case.

Kumori still beat the crap out of them, though – even if her wooden sword was, well, wooden, it was heavy, tough, and broke both bones and spirits. It was always shocking to see her movements momentarily sharpen in magnitude thanks to… well, however her clan’s Hijutsu worked. Even to this day, it was varying to some degree – the machinations of the Futago’s blood rush that helped them gain a huge edge in certain aspects of their fighting capabilities. How it worked and what resulted from it was still sort of left in the air, unbeknownst to him that it did vary from member to member.

"I’ll wrap them up, then – maybe the higher-ups wanna know where they’re stationed,” he declared, performing a couple handseals to manifest a glob of liquid earth – pale saffron in color, quickly hardening to an elastic substance, and malleable to mold a Rubber Rope which was used to tie all defeated bandits up; arms, legs, all to the point where they posed no danger to even children poking them with sticks. In times past, Kojirou had dealt with opposition from goons like these by executing them in the midst of combat – they always served as threats to his village and its people, not to mention the rest of the Land of Fields, and they had the guts to engage in combat head-on, so honor played a part in their fate as well. These guys, however… they barely had a chance to fight back. If they wished to, he’d take their challenge and end things then and there, but… for now, this would do. Higher-ups could deal with them.

Meanwhile, the lady with the baby looked… a bit mortified. She tried to play it off as mere shock from the battle itself, but… all Kumori had to do to spoil her game was to lift the cloth holding the child.

There was a doll in there.

[Futago Kumori]

Kumori stares down at the doll for a moment, feeling rage boiling up as her grip on the wooden sword tightens hard enough that the woman can probably hear the wooden fibers being stressed by her fingers squeezing so hard. Instead of using her weapon, however, she decides to use a different display of her strength and her anger, so she grabs up the doll and throws it aside before grabbing hold of the collar of the woman's dress and physically lifting her up with both hands, glaring up at her so intensely that she's certain that the killing intent in her eyes might finish the woman off before she even gets to start on the beating.

After a moment with her just glaring up at the woman, she calms slightly and lowers her back down until only her tiptoes are touching the ground, ensuring the woman won't be able to run or build up enough force or momentum to fight back as Kumori begins the job of carrying her over to Kojirou to tie her up as well. In the meantime, she explains her actions.

"Her 'baby' was nothing more than a child's toy. I think she was attempting to sneak in under the guise of a helpless innocent mother assaulted by bandits, expecting us to be overwhelmed, or perhaps that we would be too busy dealing with them to give her as much scrutiny as we normally would."

At this point, Kumori moves down to squat in front of the woman, fixing her with another death glare again, her face showing just how much she'd like to break a few bones.

"I'm sure one of them will talk as long as I get some access to their holding cells, until the Kusa Lord decides what we should do with them."