Mission Details:

The sounds of a woodpecker drifted upon the warm breeze drifted, mixing with the rhythm of the water slowly trickling over the rocks in the stream below. Kaito sat there, perched on a rock overlooking the stream and the small clearing that lay beyond the bend of the riverbed. It'd taken over a week to get here from Kirigakure and yet his partner for the mission, a Leaf Kunoichi he'd never met, hadn't even arrived yet. It was a shame really, since the Land of Waterfalls literally bordered Hi no Kuni, and Kaito had traveled over an ocean and through the entirety of the Land of Fire to make it here. If anything, he'd been under the impression that if anyone would be late it'd be him.

Nonetheless, Kaito hadn't wasted his time here, already he'd started mapping out the patrols of the shinobi of Takigature. The many caves and waterfalls of the forested region making excellent locations to steal oneself away from prying eyes, as reputable as the shinobi from this land might be, it'd been far too easy to avoid detection so far. Perhaps that was the reason this was location their targets had chosen to resettle. A shinobi from Konohagakure and a kunoichi from Kirigakure, both deserting their duty and fleeing to some minor country in the hopes of secluding themselves away from those that would come looking for them.

While it was Kaito's aspiration to become a Hunter-nin, as his mother was before him and his grandmother before her had been, it was still an immense honor to be assigned this mission as a chuunin. Of course, Kaito had not just been selected for his skills as a shinobi, but because this task required a degree of cooperation with ninja outside of the Hidden Mist that few Hunter-nin would be willing to allow. This wasn't just the hunting of missing-nin, the two genin Kaito and his Leaf partner were hunting had insulting their respective nations on the eve of the last day of the chuunin exams, using the festivals to sneak away into the night.

Kaito understood that this mission was more political than a simple assassination of rouge ninja. Working with his partner would be key to making sure Konoha's view of the situation didn't sour. While it was important to make sure their targets were killed, is was just as imperative that no one caught word of their desertion in the first place. Kirigakure might be use to the occasional missing-nin, and the Hunter-nin were freely employed during such occurrences, but Konoha wanted to save face by keeping it hush hush. Kaito didn't particularly care, he'd seen enough of Konohagakure during the Chuunin Exams to know that despite their good intentions, the people of Hi no Kuni were often delusional when it came to the reality of the world around them. Some people simply needed to be made an example of.

Kaito stood on the stone he'd been perched upon, drawing his Yari from his back before taking aim and hurling it downward, towards the water below. He'd killed people before, quite a few actually, and he'd been pretty good at it so far, so the thought of killing a former comrade didn't faze him at all. To date, he'd already killed five former Kiri-nin who had deserted, as well as various bandits and ninja for various reasons. Death was normal, or at least the act of killing came easy to him now. As Kaito jumped into the stream a few feet below, grasping the shaft of his weapon before pulling it free from the mud and clay below and revealing a rather large pale blue scaled trout, he couldn't help but remember the first life he had ever taken, and how different it had felt then verses now. All the tears shed that day, the begging from both him and his friend as his grandmother held his hand to the hilt while she forced him to push the blade deeper. Even now, the memory made him shake his head in disgust.

Bringing his catch to the small campsite he'd set up just inside of the cave overlooking the stream, perhaps fifteen meters from the riverbank, Kaito placed the large fish on a smooth rock he'd cleaned earlier. Pulling two senbon to pin the still wiggling creature down, Kaito reached for a kunai before making one clean cut, separating the fish from tail to gullet and pulling out it's organs before reaching in, feeling with his fingers and ripping out the creature's spine. It took a few minutes to remove the bones, once complete he cut the head off and buried the waste under a rock so no one would find it.

Poking the coals of the fire he'd smoked out, separating the smooth blackened stones from the depree and ash, Kaito formed the Dog Hand Seal, weaving chakra into water that covered his hands and forearms so he could pick up the stones without harming himself. The stones sizzled loudly as the medical-nin placed them over two holes filled with glowing coals. Once he split the meat of the fish in halves and threw them on the stones, Kaito covered them with more heated stones, before lastly covering the cooking food with clay to lock in the heat. It wouldn't take long for the fish to cook through, as the stones would help sear the meat as the heat from the coals below cooked through the rest of the fish.

Twenty minutes later, Kaito had a handmade clay plate he'd made earlier in the morning sitting with a similar crafted cup, waiting with freshly seared trout, a mix of local berries and wild carrots, as well as a small amount of wine he'd brought from home. A welcoming gift for his partner from Konohagakure, whenever she decided to appear. Though he'd been pouring the wine back into the flash, this was the third meal he'd prepared, having arrived to the meeting point late yesterday afternoon. Kaito didn't particularly mind though, it was nice to take the time to relax a little, and other than dodging the occasional patrols, he'd found the Land of Waterfalls rather pleasant so far.