Who ever knew three foot-long sealing scrolls could weigh so much? Rokumaru couldn't even blame his nearly nonexistent strength this time as they even made that Chuunin groan when he handed off the sack they were held in. Roku's back and trapezium muscles screamed at him to walk through the dunes faster, if only his leg muscles would allow him. 'Note to self: develop some jutsu to glide on sand. Working titles: Sand Skates, Sand Sled, whatever I settle on needs a little alliteration.' He filed that thought away for later.

To scrape a little cash together Roku was tasked with delivering supplies, mainly rations and water, to one of the way stations out in the middle of nowhere in Kaze no Kuni. The Chuunin who gave him the pack stressed that Roku was to hurry in handing off these supplies to the guards staffing the station, as they would only have about a days worth of food and water at this point or even less depending on the heat this past week. There were few places in all of Wind Country where fresh water could be found, and Suna and it's underground springs accounted for most of the precious agua.

He left early that morning just as the sun was cresting over the horizon, and by now it was practically already setting since Rokumaru was taking so long. Maybe next time he'd take a mission that wasn't so physically intensive, or at least trust the mission scroll when it advised how much a supply scroll could weigh. At least he was getting a good workout and an excuse to lay around for the rest of the day.

He climbed a rather tall dune of sand, calves crying from the effort as the lactic acid already started to burn them, and finally caught sight of the camp he was meant to deliver supplies to. It was a few tents and a single stone building sitting atop a tall, flat dune that obviously gave a good view of the surrounding area for a few miles in all directions. It was only a few hundred yards ahead of him and Rokumaru could see a figure waving at him as soon as he came into sight of the way station. The figure didn't come out to meet him, though. [/i]'Oh yeah that's fine, guys, I'll come to you. What's a few hundred feet when your leg muscles are ready to rise up in revolt?'[/i] When Roku made Chuunin he would make sure to be as lazy as the rest of them seemed to be.

It took a few minutes to reach the dune, and two just to climb up the rather steep path up to reach the way station itself. At the top he slung the pack down in front of him in triumph and collapsed in a heap, a few Suna-nin walking over to grab the package. A woman with red hair like his own reached down and opened it up, confirming all three scrolls were accounted for and with a nod to two men with headscarves. She picked it up, with considerably less effort than Roku or that Chuunin in the village did, and walked off to unpack it.

The two men stopped in front of Rokumaru and their shadows provided some much-appreciated shade for the sweaty Genin. One dropped a half-full plastic bottle of water on his chest which Roku snatched up greedily, draining it completely despite what he was sure was the taste of backwash from someone at the camp. He imagined it was the woman's just to stave off disgust.

"We appreciate those scrolls and all, but this is a restricted area. Your orders were to drop off the pack and go, not take a nap as soon as you arrived," the man in the right said with no shortage of callousness.

"Just...just give me five minutes to catch my breath!" Roku pleaded to the men, but received no mercy that day. The one who spoke muttered a quiet 'sorry' and pushed Rokumaru down the sand dune with his foot. At least slide down didn't take any effort.~

WC: 708/600
Mission complete