Kameko had arrived back in Kumogakure a couple days ago and was fortunate to have the day to spend on whatever interests she cared to. So, early this morning, she had decided to hike up to the Durian Tree of Knowledge. She had visited it for the first time in years upon returning from Konoha for a squad meeting and had found the hike up to one of the highest and most beautiful points in the village to be a rather strenuous one; so, she had resolved to make that hike again and again until that was no longer the case. Besides the little challenge that she had set for herself, it would be a good workout, a bit of cross-training from the swordsmanship drills that she normally filled her days with.

It was in this pleasant manner that she passed the morning hours before climbing back down and setting about the daily activities that required her attention. One of these things was picking up her mail. Fortunately, the box was not nearly as full as it had been after the couple weeks she had been gone to Konoha. As always, there were the ads that always ended up in her mailbox, which promptly went in the trash as she sorted through them, but, mixed in there, was a letter. Curious, she pulled it out while discarding the rest of the ever-present junk mail.

Opening it, she quickly scanned the letter. ‘Kaekio? Why would she be asking me to dinner?’ A little confused, she turned the letter over as though expecting to find more on the back, but the simple invitation to join her for dinner at a local ramen shop after the girl finished up a mission was all that the letter described. She had been acquainted with the girl at some point when they were children, but she had not interacted with her really beyond that, so besides a vague idea of what a teenaged version of the blue haired girl might look like, she was basically a stranger. The Ryuzoji clan were large enough that despite their being ‘cousins’ they hadn’t had much to do with one another, but to be fair, she was a few years older than Kaekio. Though unsure of what had precipitated the invitation, she certainly wasn’t opposed to getting to know her cousin better.

Returning to her apartment, she showered and passed the rest of the day catching up on paperwork and running various errands around the village which had piled up in her absence. Soon enough, the appointed hour arrived, and the young woman left to head to the ramen shop. The summer’s evening was comfortably warm, and she wore a pretty little sleeveless blue dress, belted at the waist with a full mid-thigh length skirt, and a pair of black flats. The ensemble was completed with the tools of her trade: the sheathed katana which hung from her belt along with her weapons pouch and the silver on black of her hitai-ate glinting out from where it sat as a headband in her dark hair. Since acquiring the second-hand katana, it was never far from hand, and she had developed a habit of carrying her gear with her while she had been traveling, so much so that it felt odd to go out without any element of it.

It was easy enough to find the ramen shop that Kaekio had mentioned in her letter, and when she arrived a few minutes before the suggested time, she did not see the blue-haired teen in the restaurant. Preferring a table instead of the bar, Kameko asked for a table for two and went ahead and took a seat, ordering a water when the waitress came by to ask about it. She was a few minutes early, but she imagined that she might have to wait a bit on Kaekio anyways. Missions rarely had a set “end” time, especially as one got to higher levels within the hierarchy of the shinobi world. Kameko had only been promoted to Chuunin upon her return to Kumogakure, but she remembered vaguely hearing something months back about her cousin winning the Chuunin exams, which of course would have led to her promotion to that rank atleast. That had been a while back, and Kameko, having not yet returned to “active-duty” at the time of the exams, hadn’t paid much attention to it; she wondered what the girl had been up to in the meantime, and of course, what had led to this out-of-the-blue invitation.