“Have you lost your damned mind?” Bokuden growled angrily at the elderly man standing in front of him, “Do I look like a babysitter to you? You can’t honestly expect me to believe that there are no other shinobi more suited to take this assignment. Assigning me to accompany some random wanderer on a mission… it’s insulting. If you don’t trust the girl and want her watched you should never have given her a mission of any importance, rather than calling me in to clean up your mistakes after the fact.”

“Calm yourself Bokuden,” the older man replied stoicly, “Don’t forget that no matter your standing within the village you are still addressing a representative of the raikage’s office and are expected to offer a certain measure of respect.”

“Do you think I give a damn about who you represent?” Bokuden barked back, clearly irate with the mission that he had just been assigned to go on, “This assignment is absurd and I’d like an explanation as to why it was felt necessary to send me on this assignment when there should be plenty of other Shinobi just as capable as I to play babysitter to random people you choose to allow to live and work in the city. If she is such a security threat, why not just kill her and be done with it?”

“That isn’t the point and you know it,” the old man snapped back angrily, slamming his hand down onto the desk in front of him, “You have been assigned this mission and you are expected to complete it. Do you understand me?” The emboldened man immediately began backtracking as he saw Bokuden place his hand onto the tsuka of his sword, his killing intent spilling out into the room around him. “I- I apologize. What I meant to say was that this is a mission of grave importance to our village and we need to send someone we are sure can do the job without fail. Think of the partner assigned to you as an assistant.”

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“I don’t know why I even bother dealing with these people,” Bokuden mused to himself as he stood atop the village wall at the Northern gate, scanning the area for the arrival of whoever this girl was that he was going to be responsible for on this mission, “And she’d better not be late. If she isn’t here in five minutes I’m going on without her.” As the thought crossed his mind a new figure suddenly came into his view from the corner of his eye. Blonde hair, small stature, fairly well put together and groomed for a shinobi, especially a wanderer; was this the girl that they had assigned for this mission? An A-Rank mission? By all accounts this woman fit the description given to him upon being assigned this mission to a tee. Somehow, neither her appearance nor her presence were inspiring confidence in Bokuden that she was prepared for this kind of an assignment. Once again the thought of simply leaving her behind and completing the mission on his own ran through his head, but was immediately silenced by the displeasure that would accompany having to listen to those old fools at the raikage’s office complain about it.

With that in mind he began his rapid descent down to ground level, going from rooftop to rooftop until the drop was safe enough to do without risking injury. Landing a bit out in front of where the woman was standing Bokuden raised himself and walked towards her, removing the matching mission scroll he had been given and displaying it to her. “Hattori Haruko, correct?” inquired immediately, wasting no time in trying to get this job underway, “You’ll be accompanying me on a mission today, I trust you have already versed yourself in the details. If you have any questions or need anything clarified, ask now. If not then we should head out.”

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Mission Completion: 670/2500

Haruka was getting ignored. Scratched that she was more than ignored at her partner's apparent lateness. Granted she had just arrived onto the scene a few seconds ago, the fact that she were waiting on them were getting on her nerves. It should have been the other way around, at least in her opinion – for than either one would have been late. The emotions that she was feeling didn't play across her face, rather her stroking the handle of a kunai absentmindedly was the only one can tell that she were ignored. Only those close to her knew that the stroking of the kunai was a tick that had developed at a young age and apparently it hadn't gone away. The faintly, almost ghostly sound of someone jumping down from the rooftops, grabbed the woman's attention – head swirling towards the sound. The woman barely manage to keep track of the person's movements, as they descended a front of her.

Grey eyes with flecks of blue in them took stock of the man who would be escorting her on this mission. A slight frown marred her feature, disappearing as soon as it came. There weren't much that could be tell about the white haired man. He stood taller than her. He had a sword scrapped onto his person, and other than the fact he had the Kumogakure head band nothing else could be determine. The lack of information that presented itself from his appearance, gave Haruka pause – seem like they didn't trust anyone to escort her. Granted she didn't know what rank he was, only thing she knew that he was apparently higher than a chuunin. . .

A smirk played across her face momentarily, disappearing no sooner had it appeared, whoever this man was didn't want to anytime. He were all business. Or maybe he was ignored in having to babysit the wandering ninja. This were apparent by the inquisitive remark, questioning her name, which she nodded to along with flashing a scroll similar to his. “Yeah, I have read the parameters and understand it perfectly. ” There wasn't anything to complicated about the mission. All they have to do was clearing out some scum of the world, who were making amuck of things. Something that she were accustom of doing such missions. And never do they get old. “And you are?”

While the woman had read the the parameters of the mission, she were still curious about certain aspects that didn't pertain to this mission. Yeah, she knew that the village didn't trust her. Why should they? She's a wandering shinobi, with no loyalties to any village, she could be a  a murder for all they knew. So until her motives are discovered, something she believed her escort would try to figure out during this mission, they would undoubtedly treat her like a threat.  A threat that they rather take out now before allowing it to fester into something greater. And it was this that made her wonder, if the man before her had been authorize to kill her if he deemed her as such? There wasn't any use in just thinking about such things, she might as well voice her question and hope for an answer – highly unlikely though. So steeling her resolve, and preparing for the bullshit that will spew from his mouth “I can only assume that you have authorization to kill me if you deemed me a threat, correct? Or have the echelons already decided such an action and just using you to deliver the killing blow?” The words she spoke held no fear or acceptance of the matter, it was neutral.

“Eh it doesn't matter. You don't trust me and I don't trust you. Guess that's what makes us shinobi good are what we do.” She said nonchalantly, shrugging slightly “Well seeing how I'm not native here, I will allow you to lead the way.”

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1283/2500