The hills in Iwagakure had a nice view, as much as Gin hated to admit anything positive about the village. Her bias towards it was not something that she could get rid of so easily. After all, she had served as Kazekage for almost ten years. Her dislike for Iwagakure and he way its government ran things was deeply rooted, though she was slowly getting over it. The weather this morning was foggy and cool, quite the opposite of what she was used to in Sunagakure, were the heat was ever present. Here, a thin blanket of mist covered the entire village. Gin shivered. She wasn’t used to anything below 40 degree Celsius weather, despite having already been in Iwa for over a month. She couldn’t complain, though. She was living a comfortable life. She had all the alcohol and food that she wanted and the room that the Aoi Bara provided her was more than what she needed to live.

The former Kazekage had known nothing but poverty for the most part of her life. She was a simple merchant, then an orphan, and then a middle class shinobi until she was promoted to a completely different lifestyle. Though honestly, the way she lived had hardly changed. She still spent the same amount of money on the same things – alcohol, clubs and perverted novels. And none of that had changed, even ten years later. She skimmed over one of the many smut-filled books that she had read over and over again. This one – 50 shades of something or other – wasn’t really the best one that she had with her, but it always got a good laugh out of her. She had decided to take the day off today, for the most part and she found that this was a nice way to start off her morning.

The former Kazekage sat on a bench in the hillside of one of Iwagakure’s many mountains. She stretched her legs and looked at the view one more time before returning to the book. But of course, this was Gin. Nothing ever went according to plan. She always knew that and was therefore always ready to change her strategy or schedule or whatever in order to adapt. It was an acquired skill. So in the back of her mind, the young woman was braced for an interruption. Not that she would mind it. It was nice to have something different to do than go on missions and train herself. And with her number of students growing, adding one more to the list wouldn’t be a problem at all.

Hiroto was walking along one of Iwa's grounds, his hands clasped behind his back as he thought about what spices to get his mom from the sparse foliage that dotted the Land of Earth. While there weren't many plants in the Land of Earth, nor were they of a large variety, due to its barren lands, his mother had grown so accustomed to them that it had made her well-versed in adapting her meals to fit the spices that Hiroto occasionally brought back from his strolls in the wilderness, if he brought back any at all.

His mother was the only thing he had left. She loved being left to her work, spending hours every day tidying up the house and preparing for her only son's next meal. She had never thought of remarrying, and had moved out of the Kanetsu clan compound after her husband's disappearance all those years back. While she still loved him, she did not hold the same burning belief as Hiroto that he was still alive somewhere. Over a decade of absence threw that hope away.

Hiroto continued walking, looking bored as ever. His eyes often contained that sharp tinge of intelligence when he was scanning the surroundings for any plants he could borrow some spices from, but most of the time, he looked as laid-back as some of the Naras in the Land of Fire. How the pride of the clan managed to deteriorate into this state was something the elders had always tried and failed to find out.

Soon, he came upon the magnificent sight of the hills of Iwagakure. It was his main objective of coming here; the spices were just a side objective. He wished to enjoy the beautiful scenery of Iwagakure from the Sightseeing Cliffs, one of the few places that his father had taken him to before his disappearance. And he, being the stuck-up 'pride of the clan' that he had been, having been dotted on by the elders, had admonished his father and distanced himself for a week for having cut into his training time.

Hiroto spotted a person sitting on the bench, occasionally reading the book but also sparing some attention to the beauty of the surroundings. Seeing no one else in the area, he approached the person.

“Oh, is that book something something of gray?” he asked, hands still clasped behind his head. "I heard you can get it in one of the more adult districts of Iwa."