About a week had gone by from his park mission he took. Takeshi had been busy helping out his parents around the house and doing errands. He was a little sleepy since it was still early in the morning, heck the sun wasn't even out yet. Takeshi could still smell the morning dew out in the grass and it was a little chilly. Today was the day, today that Takeshi got his first C ranked mission. The mission wasn't supposed to be hard, the only real danger was that there could be an animal attack. Besides that, it was supposed to be easy, but Takeshi learned after that cat mission to always be prepared. His job was to just escort a group of merchants from the Grass country border to the village gates. The path they would be taking was being watched by fellow Konoha ninja, and in reality the group could be safe without an escort. However they wanted to be sure they could make it without any problems. Takeshi didn't really have much with him, he was dressed in his normal attire and had a medium sized backpack on. The backpack held Takeshi's lunch that his mother made for him that morning, which was just a simple penut butter and jelly sandwhich. He also had a bottled water with him but that was pretty much it.

He didn't have any ninja tools yet because he was just a genin, and if he wanted some he would have to buy them. They weren't too expensive, but he was busy saving up his money for the time being. After about twenty minutes Takeshi arrived at the village's main gates that was used for trade with other countries. The main gate was heavily guarded with jounin level ninja, there were even rumors that the Anbu also watched the main gate. Takeshi looked around trying to see if he saw anybody from the Anbu, he didn't. It kinda disappointed him a little bit but he knew that the Anbu weren't supposed to be seen by anybody anyway. As he continued to go the main gate office to check in with them, his mind started to wander off. He started to think about his future as ninja and where it would take him. That's something that ninja don't like to think about because they know how it could possibly end for them. That dark possibility was a reality for many of Takeshi's predecessors, which, in its own way paved the way for him and many others. As he grew closer to the gate office, he shook off those dark thoughts and presented his papers to one of the jounin that helped guard the gate at all times. The papers that Takeshi gave the jounin was basically the mission from the Hokage, his own ninja papers, and the approval papers from the Hokage.

After giving all the papers a quick glance, he pick a up a stamper and stamped something on all the papers. As he gave the papers back to Takeshi, he wished him good luck on his mission, and in succession Takeshi said thank you in a polite manner. He put his papers into his bag and started his way down the path. Looking up as he walked out, the gates we're huge. This was the first time Takeshi really had the chance to see them up close and by himself. He saw them once before while he was an academy student which was quite a awhile back to say the least. Looking back on it, they gates seemed to be bigger, and brighter in a silly way. He gave one last glance at the towering gates above him and increased his pace to try to make up some time. While he was looking up, he could see the sun starting to rise creating the purplish red with a little blue hue in the sky. I was really beautiful, but Takeshi could only see so much due to the trees around him. He could hear the birds starting to chirp more in their nests. He some a few flying up in the sky looking no more than little black arrows in the sky. As a kid ,Takeshi always found birds to be interesting creatures. They had absolute freedom, being able to fly anywhere with little worries from anything else. The speed they had to go from one country to another was astonishing, Takeshi even heard that birds are used as a line of communication between countries.

Takeshi looked around with deep woods on both sides of him, he looked back and saw that the gate looked fairly close to him, though he tell he made some good distance. He could hear the animals in the woods starting to become a little bit more active as the minutes passed. Some branches cracking here and there, some birds singing their song along with the fast pitter-patter of squirrels. The sun had risen a little more and the sky was starting to change more into a light bluish color. Takeshi was able to see deeper into the woods than before, but not that much. Takeshi wasn't sure about the exact time currently, but he knew it had been awhile. He could start to feel his legs starting to burn a little bit as he continued to walk down the path. The burning wasn't enough to make him stop any time soon, so to get his mind off of it, he decided to think about something else. He thought about his father who, at this moment, was probably out at the docks catching fish. His father was a nice man who never complained about his work, in fact he actually loved his work. He would talk about it all the time, sometimes would tell Takeshi the story about how he had almost caught this huge fish out at sea I his youth. Takeshi to loves that story, he went on to think about his mother and her pretty red hair which was even brighter than Takeshi's. His mother was a pure Uzumaki, which basically meant that her bloodline was strong. Pure Uzumaki's chakra had not been diluted over the years by other clans. His mother never really explained this matter, and Takeshi never really understood it much either, but he did inherit this trait, along with the bright red hair.

When Takeshi regained his thoughts he noticed the sun was above his head. Looking back, the village gate was completely out of sight, and the trees seemed to have gotten less dense. Instead they seemed to start to become scattered. This was a signal to Takeshi that he was getting close to his mission objective. The burning in his calves was starting to slow him down, so he decided to take a break near a tree. The tree seemed out of place for some reason, it just seemed to be taller than all the other trees. After sitting, Takeshi noticed that he was slightly parched, so he took off his backpack and grabbed his water bottle. He took one sip of water and swished it in his mouth and spit it back out. He took another sip and drunk it, then got back up slung his bag over his shoulder. While still walking he put the water bottle back into his bag. After a short while he noticed that the trees were spread out from each other and all he saw was grassy plains. Looking up farther ahead of him, he could see some bright colors. As Takeshi walked up closer he could hear someone yelling. He could also start to see four other figures that wasn't really saying anything.

As Takeshi walked up closer to the group of people, the guy who was dressed in bright colors saw him and got quiet for a second. Then in a flash ran towards Takeshi at full speed, in any other situation, Takeshi would have probably got ready to fight, but thanks to the mission details, he knew this person wasn't a enemy. This man was named...! Before Takeshi could finish his thought, the man in bright colors was right in front of him and began to yell something out to Takeshi. HI! My name is Tanama Housuki!! Who are you?!?! Takeshi was shocked at how this man was, the mission details didn't say anything about this. He wasn't really sure how to react to the man, so he just said his name. After a rather long conversation about pearls, Takeshi managed to get Tanama and his men to go back to the village. It was just a little over mid day so they should have been able to make it back to the leaf the same day. Throughout the way back, all Takeshi could hear was Tanama talking about his sales and money, he even tried to sell Takeshi something. The other men who were with Tanama didn't say too much, but in the current situation, how could they say anything. By the time they made it back to the leaf, the sun was just about down, Takeshi handed Tanama over to another group. Shortly afterwards he checked back in with the gate jounin and made his way back home. He didn't eat the lunch his mother packed for him, so that was his dinner. After he ate the sandwich he went to bed, tired from his mission.

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