Saying that Gin Kuroka missed having a stable office would have been nothing less than a big fat lie. She had always been a sort of free spirit, roaming around the continent from one village or city to the next. She liked to brag that she had seen everything and done everything that there was to do. That, of course, was an exaggeration. Many things remained undiscovered. Gin knew that, otherwise she would have thought that there was really no point in traveling anymore. Well, exploring, rather. The act of traveling itself still remained a necessary evil.

Considering her type of build, the former Kazekage would have no problem actually getting to where she was going. She rarely became tired before reaching her destination and would even forfeit nights of sleep, knowing full well that she could do without it without much of an impact on her performance. The real problem lay in the fact that she was, well, slow. And that was putting it nicely. For a shinobi of her level, she should reach Kumogakure in little over two days. And that was with time allotted to sleep. She could make it there in four days if she was lucky, and without stopping to rest.

Gin Kuroka's speed had been an issue for some time now. The last straw was realizing that her preteen son - Ren - could run circles around her before she even managed to make it across the room. In other words, it was a matter of pride now. She needed to work on her speed. It was a fact that she was seemingly the last to realize. She let a sigh escape her lips. Being completely honest, she was somewhat pissed off. Her own laziness and desire to postpone traveling to the Village Hidden in the Clouds made it so that she was now late to the Chuunin exams. By the time she reached the village, the first round would probably be halfway done.

That wasn't really a problem - without any of her children or students attending, she had no real investment in any of the little maggots trying to get promoted. Quite frankly, she couldn't care less. The problem was that she would no longer be able to place a bet on a candidate or scope their abilities before choosing to put a significant amount of money on one of them. Her money? Ha! Never. Sanosuke's money. It was always his money that she bet. Whatever she made all went to her kids, smuggled into the Hidden Sand Village by any means necessary.

That was a perfect segway into the other problem that came along with her travel to Kumogakure: Seeing Sanosuke Flynt, current Raikage number... Number... She had lost track at 16. Whatever. The point was, they had parted on not so great terms the last time they had seen each other. Sure, she had been in his coronation (if one could call it that), clapped with everyone else and cheered for the new head of the village. He deserved it, there was no doubt about that. They had seen each other briefly, exchanged a polite hello and some small talk. But that had been it.

After all they had gone through, after becoming... Whatever they were, there was now nothing. And then a few weeks ago, a messenger bird arrived at her window with a letter attached to its claw, inviting her to stay at his estate while the Chuunin exams were going on. She was to be his official guest. Whether or not this was under an alias in order to protect the integrity of his international political standing, Gin hadn't asked. She figured that his estate was large and that they wouldn't really have to interact much if they didn't want to.

Not only that, but she also assumed that this was an excellent opportunity for his to invite several other notable figures both from the Lightning Country and from neighboring regions. In other words, it wouldn't just be the two of them and a bunch of servants. So she had agreed, concluding that she had other business to attend to in the country and that now was as good a time as any. And with the amount of people attending, there would be no shortage of worthy opponents to train with. All in all, it was a decent deal. She wrote back to Sanosuke saying that yes, she would go. And he had written back a nice letter detailing how the preparations were going and how he looked forward to having the estate to themselves. To themselves. Great.

That was the reason why she had made up silly excuses - she needed to find someone to look after the house, she couldn't leave just yet - in order to postpone heading out. Having recently run out of reasons to confine herself within the swampy borders of Kirigakure no Sato, she had decided to head out. Maybe she would run into some bandits along the way. That would help her blow some steam. Odds were high, since she was taking the main roads (or would be after she crossed the ocean) and it was the season for nobles to travel. The Chuunin exams were a known spectacle, after all.

However, in the four days that she had been on foot nonstop, there had been nothing. Security had been increased tenfold since the last exams. Fucking yay. Gin felt just like jumping for joy as she finally stood in front of the village gates, handing her paperwork over to one of the many guards. Noting the letter and pass with the Raikage's official seal on it, she was let through without any hassle or additional documents. Hell, she was even escorted inside by a young girl who insisted that she be contacted immediately if Gin ever needed anything.

The older woman had jokingly asked if a need for extra blankets and a glass of warm milk counted. The girl had nodded vigorously and told her that she would go out of her way to bring her the cushiest blankets and highest quality milk in minutes. The aforementioned items were in her room - the milk still warm - when she got there. Well, at least there was quality service to look forward to during her stay in Kumogakure.