Near the edge of the Land of Stone

A woman entered a small, crooked building near the main road that would lead all the way to the Land of Fire from the Land of Stone where she was coming from. As she passed through the creaky wooden door of the decrepit looking building, it appeared that it was supposed to be some sort of tavern, a wayside roadstop for weary travelers to rest their muscles, strengthen their bones and harden their spirit for the travels to come.

Calmly, with a gray cloth cloak wrapped around her body and a hood covering most of her head and part of her face, the woman walked past the tavern's counter, placing a few coins on it with a subtle nod towards a table in the far corner of the small dilapidated building, where a man wearing a similar hooded cloak was seated with two pitchers on the shoddy table in between the chair he sat on and an empty one.

Settling herself upon the empty wooden chair, the woman looked at the hooded man opposite to her and let out a soft sigh. The man simply looked up from his pitcher for a moment, before looking back into the liquid which was swirling within the aluminium container. "Thought you were dead, ma'am. Haven't heard a peep from you after that whole Inabayama incident...not to mention the fact that your student's been acting quite harshly on her own, making quite a name for herself in certain circles of society."

"Let's just say that I'm here now, that's all that matters," The woman sighed again, grabbing the pitcher on the table in front of her and gulping down the liquid it contained, making a sour expression when placing the pitcher down again. "Let's get down to business, shall we? We both know that I am not stupid enough to just waltz into Konoha at a time like this, I need to get in there subtly and without being detected...do you have a solution for this issue?"

A dry chuckle escaped the man's throat, as he reached into his cloak, pulling out a small envelope which he carefully opened to reveal its contents: two pieces of paper neatly folded and a small photograph. "This is the person you will need to seek out in case you want to get in without raising too many alarms," The man slid the envelope and its contents over the table into the woman's direction. "I thought trying to pry the information which you seek from the hokage himself might've been a dumb thing to do and would raise too much suspicion, but this woman...this kid is Guanyin Chiaki, she's supposed to be the hokage's assistant, the closest thing you'd get to him is her."

The woman looked at the two pages, which seemed to describe some basic information, her overall ninja rank, her scores in the academy and even her mission count. The added bonus for Risu, was her name, which she knew all to well, after all...she knew both Daremo or Rather Nanashi, as his real name was and there was also the Guanyin prodigy Hanbei, who had actually managed to aid her in reversing the tenketsu destruction brought upon her by that monster Hyuga Tsuyo. "Cute girl...pity such a child happens to be the person I need, let's hope she isn't a stubborn one...or that face may lose a lot of its luster," The woman put the papers and the picture into the envelope, tucking it away into her own cloak. With a simple nod, she stood up again from the table and walked straight out of the crooked little wayside tavern again, back onto the road towards the Land of Fire and ofcourse the village hidden in the leaf.

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