[Oonakayama Asahi]

This was awful it was the worst way to spend his time he felt, but here he was doing it anyways. A small pile of books were already stacked beside him, and another pile was opposite. Asahi was reading....Why was he reading? To find the meaning of a symbol that he had found with Risuki so they could help the Katsue figure out who was taking all of their scorpions, and for what reason they were doing it. It also helped that she was helping, of course he did his best to not stare, or sneak glances, but it was difficult when he found her so pretty.

So to further distract himself he buried his nose into the books, and desperately hoped that the answers would appear before them so they wouldn't have to spend so much time researching. Of course he knew that there were a bunch of different types of missions that they could take, or get, but this wasn't exactly high up on his priority list. Still it would be valuable later on, if he proved his mettle here then when the next Chunin Exams were held he would have more experience, and stand a better chance at succeeding through them.

"Have you found anything yet?" He turned his head to look at his companion, already he could feel the boredom, and drowsiness slithering its way through his mind.

Karamatta Risuki

Mission Link

[Karamatta Risuki]

Risuki herself was also reading, although she was doing it on the floor, and occasionally "resting her eyes" so that she wouldn't strain them. Of course, this opened herself up for more glances from the other Genin, until she would start to slip her head down, which forced herself away again before her head could smack down into the open book. Of course, this meant that their work would be that much more lengthy, but Risuki could barely help it. Trawling through the Sunagakure library for information on the various nomadic tribes both within and without Sunagakure alliances was even more dry than the desert that they'd built their home in.

She's actually just starting to lose her focus again when Asahi asks her if she's found anything, and she rapidly opens her eyes all the way, then closes her eyelids just a little bit so she didn't look like she'd been surprised by the question. Although she had been, since they'd both been silent for hours, and she was still quite tired from all the excitement of the scorpion breeding pit yesterday.

"Nah, nothin' yet. I'm startin' to think we oughta just flip through books until we find one with pictures of the tribal emblems, we might have a faster time doin' that..."

[Oonakayama Asahi]

Thankfully she hadn't seemed to notice the glances he did steal at her, but they were both in the same boat it would seem when it came to having found absolutely nothing of value in these books. This is why he hated reading, nothing good ever came out of reading a book. At least nothing tangible, though it was affording him some more time with her. So that helped a bit. Letting a pout curve on his lips he let his face flop into the book that he was reading, and he gave a loud groan.

"Uuuggghhh they make this sound so easy in Academy....Research is the easy part they said, it'll be useful they said....I think they all lied to just get us to stand still, and read." He frowned, and groaned again not moving his head out of the book in the slightest. All he wanted to do was just go to sleep, but that wasn't going to help them get further in their mission. They finally had a clue about the Scorpionnappers, if they failed here then the Katsue would be angry at them probably.

"Why don't they have tracking scorpions! They could've just sniffed the cloth like a hound, and we'd be able to just skip this part, uuuuggghhh...." He groaned again.

Karamatta Risuki

[Karamatta Risuki]

Risuki groans as well when it seems that Asahi has similarly had no luck, especially since it seems like they have quite a large number of books to go through. It didn't help that the majority of them were outdated, including even information on nomadic clans that had actually come to Sunagakure since their publication, and even a few that were missing since they had been helpful in constructing the village of Sunagakure but had since returned to a nomadic lifestyle, thus leaving them out of the listings, since it had been assumed they would settle down with the Hidden Village in order to maintain a better quality of life. Some, it seemed, put a higher value on freedom than on well-being, which sounded foolish to her.

She did make a few surprising finds in at least one book, though, this one containing information on the Karamatta clan, back when it had been a nomadic tribe instead of integrating into the Hidden Village. This one had actually fully distracted her from the mission, and she was far too guilty to say anything about it to Asahi. Risuki stopped in her perusal of another book in order to carefully read up about some of the history of her own clan, and some of the information she actually found quite shocking, though she would say nothing to the boy. This would mean absolutely nothing to him, after all.

[Oonakayama Asahi]

Her silence piqued his interest, and being as nosy as he was he simply looked down at her admiring the sheen of her red hair, like one of the desert sunsets that he often saw from the top of the village walls. Before abandoning his current pursuit of knowledge, and crawling down next to her, and perhaps intruding a bit into her personal space, but he was curious. Maybe she had found something, and was to enthralled with the knowledge to immediately reply to him. So he peered over her shoulder towards the book she was reading, noting that it had something to do with the clans of the village, which was actually smart. Well it was one clan in particular, and he thought to himself.

"Do you think the Karamatta clan are responsible for the scorpion=nappings?" He questioned curiously, but if she did think so, he would disagree with her. While his knowledge on the varied clans of Sunagakure was scattered at best, he doubted the Karamatta would want to do such a thing. They after all were primarily Taijutsu fighters he was pretty sure? Or was it something else? Taijutsu he felt was their specialty but he knew nothing about their special clan techniques. "What would they want to do with Scorpions though? It doesn't suit their style as far as I know...." He furrowed his brow in consternation.

If this was the truth it could potentially lead to a war between two powerful clans, and they couldn't allow that to happen. Though unbeknownst to him he was misunderstanding everything entirely, but he was at least trying to be logical about it at the very least. Whether that was good or bad remained to be seen, but he sincerely hoped it wasn't the Karamatta clan who had done these things.

Karamatta Risuki

[Karamatta Risuki]

Risuki, being one of the Karamatta, sighs when it seems that Asahi had managed to sneak up on her and had managed to catch sight of what she had actually been researching instead of searching for the clan that had left behind their symbol, likely unintentionally, at the scorpions' breeding grounds when they'd managed to kidnap a few of the giant bugs. She felt a little bit guilty, especially now that she'd been caught looking into something that had nothing to do with their mission, and so she replaced the book where she'd found it.

"No, the Karamatta clan isn't involved. It was a false lead, that's all."

She especially didn't want him looking further into her own clan, or he might catch sight of some of the secrets she herself might have stumbled upon accidentally. She'd have to see her clan leader about some of the information she just found, although what they should do about it, she had no idea. Or even if anything should be done about this in the first place. In any case, she grabs hold of another book and sighs as she opens it, which causes dust to fly out from between the pages, and she has to wave her hand in the air to clear the dust away while she coughs.

[Oonakayama Asahi]

"Oh that's unfortunate....I thought we were gonna be close to figuring it out." he sighed a bit before looking at the stack of books again. Dread overtook him once more, but rather than be discouraged he slowly pushed himself back to his feet, and grabbed the next volume of Sunagakure history. If anything he felt that Oonakayama Arashi would be proud of him for finally reading up on the villages history like she had told him to do even if it wasn't in the way that she wanted him to. Though there was still an issue that was weighing on his mind. Sitting back at the table he let his frown form unabated for the first time.

"When we go to confront the thieves....We can just detain them right? Bring them back here to the village for sentencing?" Asahi didn't know if he was ready to become as ruthless as some shinobi already. Especially since his career had just started, but there was that nagging feeling he had in the pit of his stomach. If they were going to be forced to kill them, would that really be anything worth justifying? Would they actually be doing good in the world? Could he become a hero like that?

Karamatta Risuki

[Karamatta Risuki]

Risuki has started going back to her normal reading of the various clans of Sunagakure, already starting to go into a half-aware trance when Asahi mentions how he was hoping they had gotten close to figuring out who had taken the scorpions. She lets him sit back down and start reading through the history again when he speaks up once more, and she lifts her head to look at him when he speaks, and notices the frown on his face when he insists through a question that they detain them and then bring them back to Sunagakure for their sentencing. Almost right away, Risuki has a memory of one of her youngest teammates screaming and crying, with an arrow sticking through her hand. For just a moment, she feels some intense desire to see any and all bandits be given the worst torture imaginable, but she manages to quell those thoughts, for now.

"If they let us detain them, we'll detain them. If they want to fight to the death, that might be more difficult than it's worth..."

She remembers again his desire to become a hero, an ideal that she doesn't think can be reached any more than one could get to the moon. But then, people had become heroes before...

"I'll give them the option, but if they don't give me any other options, then I'm not going to let them hurt either of us."

[Oonakayama Asahi]

He hears her answer, and he thinks for a moment about it. She would give them an option, but if they didn't cooperate then it would be a fight, and in a fight like that. What would he do to protect those close to him? There had to be a way, but if he wasn't strong enough then that limited his options, and getting innocent people hurt because he was trying to save the bad guys at the same time wasn't going to be good enough. There were a lot of things that he had to figure out before he could achieve his goal, but he would figure it out.

"Then that's all I can ask." He said to her with a bright smile, everyone had their own path to walk, and it wouldn't be fair of him to drag her down his. He could meet her halfway, and if all else failed he was sure that his Iron Sand would come in handy for detaining their enemies.

There was a blush on his cheeks though from her declaration of not letting the bandits harm either of them. She was a little older than him he knew, but she sounded super cool when she talked like that. Admiration coated eyes as he gazed at her before burying his face back in the book to continue their combined research hoping that the answers they sought would come sooner rather than later.

Karamatta Risuki

[Karamatta Risuki]

Risuki has to look through several more books, and the light is starting to fade outside before she tosses another book at the wall, apparently finding absolutely nothing despite having looked through it cover to cover. All the reading and flipping through the books seems to have given her quite a headache, which wasn't really all that difficult in such a boring mission, particularly the one that seemed to involve reading non-stop for multiple hours. She stands up suddenly from her sitting position and, after making sure Asahi is actually awake and not just pretending to read so he can get some rest in, she lets him know what she's about to go and do.

"C'mon, we're gonna take another quick break. The books aren't gonna walk away, and if we just keep staring at all these words on pages, we're gonna go insane and still not have a completed mission to turn in, so we won't be any closer to figuring out who took the scorpions."

It might have been a bit rough to somewhat "invite" him to take a break in such a way, but he was really growing on her, although she would not be the first one to admit such a thing. Whether he agrees to this break or not, she walks outside and runs her fingers through her short red hair as she watches the sun setting at the horizon. The rare breeze wasn't too hard, for once, so she got to enjoy the heat of the sun on her tan skin while still being lightly cooled by the breeze while she starts to consider their options; they'd gone this far without a single clan looking anything like the emblem they'd found.

[Oonakayama Asahi]

Was she asking him to accompany her? He didn't really need any further provocation than that, and so he placed his book down. Stretching out like a lazy cat he stood up, and followed after her with a smile. The breeze felt even better since his clothes were much lighter than hers the breeze kissed all parts of his body equally, and just closed his eyes happily.

"Eh I've had to read so much lately. My cousin, and dad are making me study more history than usual. It's not quite as boring as this, but I prefer stories with heroes, and dragons. This though...." he stuck his tongue out making a 'blech' sound at the same time. "I feel like this is what they do to people in order to make them confess to their crimes." perhaps he was a bit to honest for his good, but it was the truth. "Honestly if it weren't for you sticking it out with me I might've given up already." there was a light blush on his dark features as he admitted that, but hopefully she wouldn't notice it.

He still had a far ways to go before he could muster up the courage to act on what he felt. To become strong enough to ask, and still he had a few years to go. There was plenty of time for him, silently he sage nodded to himself.

"Should we go get something to eat?" he asked with a tilt of his head, it had to be close to dinnertime right?

Karamatta Risuki

[Karamatta Risuki]

Risuki has to agree that stories about heroes and dragons would probably make for much better reading, and one might think there would be at least a few stories like that in the histories of the clans of Sunagakure, but they were incredibly dull and dry. In spite of her boredom and her aggravation at having spent so much time researching the clans, their histories, and their insignias, she had to giggle a little at the joke about making people read through these texts to torture them into confessing their crimes. Then she feels a little flushed as well when he admits that if it weren't for her doing this with him, that he would have given up already.

The suggestion comes that they might get something to eat, but she shakes her head and sighs with resignation.

"The hunger will motivate us to search that much harder in order to eat when the mission is complete and we've turned in the answer of who has been taking these scorpions."

After the sun sets, its round circular eye disappearing under the sand in a wavy sort of shimmering dip, she starts to head inside while the redness of the sun still lights the sky, muttering softly under her breath as she walks, expecting Asahi to follow.

"Damn, damn, damn. You'd think that with all the research we've been doing we would've found at least one insignia that matched even a little. You'd think it wasn't a clan insignia at all-"

The revelation stops her in her tracks, possibly making Asahi bump into her back, but if he did, she was built solidly enough that she wouldn't be toppled over by him.

[Oonakayama Asahi]

There was a slight groan when she denied him food, but she was right hunger was a good motivator, and it would make them work much faster. Though that didn't mean that he had to like it at all. So after a few more minutes of enjoying the breeze outside, he'd follow her back inside. There was no point in him standing outside all alone though he only made it a few steps before he hit something solid, or someone, and looked up to realize he had run into Risuki. More heat built up in his face, and he quickly stepped away no reason to make things awkward. Instead he looked past her at the doorway wondering if there was someone else in their study area, but he didn't see anyone.

"Is everything okay? Did you see a ghost or something?" He asked her curiously though he knew how silly the question was, but there was a part of him that wanted to protect her from the unseen foe, since she had sounded so cool earlier saying that she would protect him. Though he felt way to embarrassed to actually say it out loud. Maybe one day he'd work up the courage, but that day wasn't today.

Karamatta Risuki

[Karamatta Risuki]

Risuki quickly turns back towards Asahi, her eyes wide and surprised, but not apparently with him bumping into her. It was almost as if he might as well have not bumped into her at all, but her wide eyes makes it clear that she was having a moment of surprise, not fear. Finally, after a moment, she manages to gather her thoughts enough to express what she was now considering over the studying of the various clans.

"What if what we're looking for isn't a clan emblem, but the emblem of some kind of bandit organization instead?"

She could barely believe she hadn't considered it before, but now she grabs hold of his wrist and starts trying to drag him along to the study hall again, to try and get him to follow her to another section of the hall to get to a list of all the different books that contain information on the various bandit organizations, in addition to mercenaries and even a few rogue tribes with no known standing among actual clans. Thankfully, they can ignore most of the other tribes rather than searching through them.

"Well, it sucks that we have to start over again, but at least now we can ignore any bandit groups that don't have anything to do with any of the tribes or clans... That should make this at least a little bit faster, and there's not nearly as many mercenary groups as there are clans..."

[Oonakayama Asahi]

Was it truly that simple? Had they just been looking in the wrong place this entire time? If it was an organization, and not a clan that would narrow it down immensely. The moment she grabs his wrist his face heats up a little, but it was always hot in the desert so that was perfectly normal. Being dragged along by her wasn't entirely bad anyways. So what if they had to start over? He got to hang out with her for a little longer, and that was worth all the failure in the world to him. Though he would have to keep those thoughts to himself, he was sure that if Big Sis found out, she wouldn't like it.

First he had to become a hero, to be that strong then he could move onwards with the rest of his life, and this was his first stop on that goal in particular. If he managed to help stop this scorpion organization then that would look really good for him in the future.

"Yeah but it'll go faster now that we can narrow our search down! You're a genuis!" he praises her honestly because he wouldn't have ever thought about it belonging to some third party organization. When their village history was filled with so much strife it was only natural to assume that it was another clan who was trying to cause issues.

Karamatta Risuki