Patrol Duty:

As a shinobi of the exchange program between Konohagakure and Kirigakure, it was imperative that Hanza display continued participation in showing the worth of the program. Even outside of his position on squad two, Hanza had decided to take a mission on his time. Nothing displayed dedication more than using ones free-time to aid the village.

After offering up his services, Hanza found himself served with an order to patrol, making up for a lack in current manpower, possibly due to security preparations for the upcoming exams. As he packed up his supplies - Kirigakure uniform - including a long-sleeved black shirt which fit tightly to his body , black pants, and a slate gray lower-quality flak jacket that was often given to genin who were less likely to be involved in direct combat with other shinobi. Upon his head he fastened his headband tightly, wearing the Hidden Mist symbol with pride. It was not every day that Hanza felt any sort of pride for his home, but as he grew away from it, he longed for it. He felt the desire to represent it.

He was to arrive at the construction zone around an hour before midnight, and the patrolling was to take place for eight hours in total. As he left home, he made sure to secure the door and snatched his small pouch of weapons before dashing into the streets, moving at quite a high speed to anyone who was not trained as a shinobi.

He was only told where to go, so he was to assume he would be doing this alone as he bolted through the streets, slipping by stragglers and last minute runners to the stores and markets. Most people did not enjoy the night of Konoha on a weekday. Academy aged children were not even permitted on the streets this late, a curfew was enforced to keep them out of trouble.

“Okay, looks like I’m here.” he voiced to himself quietly as he stood before the expansive zone of half-built structures beneath a single dimly lit street lamp.

WC: 347/1500

Upon arriving in Konoha Sumire immediately thrust herself into a mission. She didn't know anyone here and if she was honest with herself she wasn't sure if she wanted to. One thing she did know was that good sake costs money.

Between arriving and checking into a rinky dink hostel Sumire had very little time to truly explore. She only settled on Konoha because without true training she wasn't ready to be all on her own yet. Let alone to go on some half assed hunt to find her mother. She didn't even know what the woman looked like. Her horns were probably just a genetic anomaly. The more she told herself this through the more she knew she was lying. The only truth under it was that as a ninja she was truly underdeveloped. Reckless and careless as she may be, Sumire isn't stupid. Wandering village to village is dangerous and she's barely a genin.

Taking a C Rank mission was a hasty decision. Deciding on Konoha was a hasty decision. Regret seeped into Sumire quickly and gripped her but she couldn't leave. She had taken a mission with this village and she was sticking herself here until she could qualify to be a Chunin.

So much thinking and so little wine

Sumire laid back on her pillow and checked the clock. she had hours before she had to leave for this mission and it was probably best if she took a nap first.

Sumire stretched her tired limbs before departing for the construction yard. She was dressed in rather tight fitting athletic wear. She also had a grey pouch with weapons and wore durable close-toed shoes. The mission she'd been assigned was C rank and obviously, she wasn't going to be alone. She was still just a genin after all. Her walk to the construction yard was pretty long but there was no one out to bother her at least. Konoha really was a different place after nightfall. It almost spooked her how the whole atmosphere felt as though it changed.

Sumire arrived at the location where she was supposed to meet her patrol partner a little later than eleven. Punctuality wasn't her best character trait but at least she was making an effort. It was hard not to spot her partner. He stuck out like a sore thumb. His hair was snow white and his skin from the distance she was at looked paler than her own. Upon closer inspection, his kirigakure headband glinted under the glow of the single lamp post. Was this he partner? or someone who simply shouldn't be here.

Was this a drug deal?

Either way, the horned girl trod up to him warily and spoke in the smoothest voice she could.

"So," pause "you come here often?"

WC: 477/1500

Hanza was sometimes unsure of the correct way to go about seemingly insignificant tasks. It was hardly abnormal to see him lose focus and start off into something unrelated altogether. He was forcing himself to remain vigilant on this one though. Childish curiosity was something he knew he would soon be abandoning altogether. As one climbed through the ranks as a shinobi, such behaviors were expected to shed, like a winter coat. Or maybe more like a shell. More of a permanent change in demeanor.

Regardless, Hanza had set his eyes on growing up a bit during this phase of his life. So as he stood prim and proper, looking around at the buildings, construction barriers, caution tape, even some pulley systems and advanced sorts of vehicles to move around the building materials. The art of construction, despite the presence of chakra, was still rather archaic. Some things in life were best left less complicated. Some people preferred the simple life, it was so much less complicated and painful than the life of a shinobi was.

As he stood within the glowing beam of moonlight, that seemed to plummet down from the heavens into the streets, he wondered just what a patrol would entail. Would dangerous street thugs find a way to make trouble for the young Kiri man once again? Or would it be an uneventful shift?

A red exclamation mark could have appeared above his head suddenly with a comic alert sound based on how startled he was by the sudden voice at his side and behind just a little. To the left in fact. The smooth feminine voice brushed over his ear suddenly and without hesitation, nearly jolting him completely out of his socks.

“Gah, uh hello there. No, I actually don’t come here very often...I don’t really think anyone in their right mind could find a reason to come here often...unless they work in construction but that’s rather specific...”

He had erupted into a sort of weird, long-winded rant after being startled. His only response to such a thing, he guessed in retrospect. It wasn’t like Hanza to come off rude at all, only perhaps frantic. He hoped immensely that the horned woman had not taken him negatively.

“Im sorry, I should be more polite. My name is Hanza, I’m supposed to be starting my patrol of the construction district right now...who are you? What brings you here tonight, of all places?” He smiled brightly as he finished his question.

Only moments after that conversation, a crash and a clang would occur just over a building or two. Several large metal pylons had collapsed and it was enough commotion that Hanza would be almost definitely irresponsible not to investigate the sound. Either someone or something was causing mischief, or there was an extremely unfortunate accident that needed to be reported in before an entire building collapsed on his watch.

WC: 492
TWC: 839

The young white haired man jumped quite comically as Sumire spoke to him. It took her best efforts not to laugh at his behavior as he chattered frantically about the construction yard. Hanza, as he'd called himself, spoke a lot like a business man or a lawyer. He spoke properly and seemed a little uptight but he didn't seem mean. Quite the opposite actually.

"Do you always scare so easy? You'll make yourself an easy target that way. Also, I'm Sumire your partner. Well for this mission at least." Sumire flashed her signature grin at the young man. She gained some relief from knowing he wasn't some creep standing out in the middle of nowhere. But what did that make her walking up to spook him?

Hanza had received some premium advice and Sumire was going to receive premium money as soon as this mission was over. She was more than excited to buy something nice for herself. She wanted to see more of Konoha before she bolted too but, that'd probably come after some intense training. It's not like Konoha was even a bad place. What she experienced in it was rather nice actually. Excluding the walk to the mission site but, what city is nice after dark. If all went to plan this mission would be boring and uneventful and she'd drink off all her money before starting a new one.

Sumire turned to examine the white haired boy again. Affirming her thoughts from earlier he did indeed have on the full kiri set of gear. The question itched at her again.

"Why are you taking missions in Konoha?"

Sumire only mildly regretted her choice of words. A question was a question but she didn't want it to come out like that. She sealed her lips as she waited for an answer.

Suddenly, loud banging brought Sumire's attention over to the sound of the noise. It was building or two away. Sumire frowned in its direction. This mission was supposed to be a cake walk.

"Just my lucky day," She groaned.

Who decides it a good idea to bang around in a construction zone at night? Idiots that's who.

Sumire lept into action, running towards the sound. As she rounded the corner of the building, She came upon a smug looking boy. He was no older than thirteen and held a duffle bag over his shoulder.

"Hey, asshole!" Sumire shouted starting up at the boy "What the hell do you think you're doing? Its two in the morning. Are you asking to get mugged?" Sumire assumed a stance of sass. She copped her hip to the side and rested her closed fist on it as she glared down at the boy who looked ready to wet himself. He fidgeted with his bag and stared up at her face or more specifically her horns. Sumire's facade faltered for a bit before she felt her annoyance grow once more.

"Well?"

WC: 980/1500

A boy packaged with awkward kindness and gentle demeanor, Hanza would fall across a social conversation like a deer on a frozen lake. That naive personality he so often ran into trouble with would freeze him up. This woman was not at all afraid to converse and it was evident that nerves, at least not apparent ones, did not terrorize her the way they did the gentle icy man. Sumire, as she had introduced herself, had a voice like silk and a certain air of confidence which made her the type of person who might have intimidated Hanza the most.

“But if I were too friendly in response to a surprising voice directly next to me, an assailant would have taken me down effortlessly. All they ever drilled into my skull in that academy was vigilance. It’s nice to meet you, Sumire. ”

Her line of inquiry was solid. It was a question Hanza would mill around in his head before answering. Why was he taking missions in Konoha? Well, there was a short answer and there was a long answer. The Kōri clansman would give the horned woman the short version out of kindness and consideration. He did not wish to bore her already.

“In the exchange program we are expected to treat the village we are stationed in as our own. We perform the missions and tasks within said village as is our duty as shinobi.”

He finished that statement, like some sort of strange airy-voiced computer system. Honestly, though, Hanza did not have a better answer for her. It was something required of him. His preparations for the chunin exams had left him distant and even less socialized than usual. That said, Hanza would give her another of those gentle smiles to assure her that he was just painfully awkward and not a bad person.

He would begin to make his way briskly toward the sound of the collapsing structures, speaking to his teammate as he did.

“We really should go check out whatever it is making all of that noise. It may have been an unfortunate slip or something, but you never know.”

It was before he could take more than a few additional steps that Sumire would shout at a young boy, no older than thirteen. He had clearly been the source of the racket as he immediately gave a look of guilt when approached by the angry horned woman. Hanza would stand back for a moment to see if the boy would confess to Sumire outright or if he would become defensive. The damage he had caused in what seemed to be an effort to spray paint a building that had not even been erected yet. In doing so, he had knocked down a ladder which tumbled into a few much larger steel beams and knocked them to the ground.

It was not even half as bad as it had sounded from two blocks over. Either way, the now silent and shivering young man would have to clean up this mess. Before they could escort him back to his home and allow his parents to bestow upon him whatever punishment they would for his curfew violation.

Hanza had a clever idea that would bring him slightly out of character, adopting a role to make forcing a young teen to clean up after himself a piece of cake.

“ Hey, Sumire. You don’t think this kid has ever heard what they used to call Kirigakure no sato. Do you? I didn’t think so. Chigiri no Sato, the village of the bloody mist. Curfew breakers like this guy are tough, they don’t feel the need to let anyone know they’ve left home at this time of night. If he doesn’t pick up this mess...you know what we will have to do, don’t you?”

A nice, silly little good cop, bad cop routing was sure to get this youngster to learn a valuable lesson in how to carry himself properly. Staying awake behind curfew was dangerous, and sometimes even lethal.

[Exit Thread]

WC: 681
TWC: 1520/1500 Mission