Nagare looked out of his front window, and the sky was brilliant red. Looked like sunset was setting in already. He opened his front door with a sigh, closed it behind him, and walked down the well-paved roads to the Kage’s mansion. He hadn’t had a mission in a while, and figured it would be a bit refreshing to go on one. He met Reika in her usual seat, with a stern expression present on her soft face. “Hey, Reika.” he never really regarded to her as “kage” or any other sort of honorable name, just by her first name. He wondered if it ever bothered her, not that he would change his habits, just to see if it urked her.

“What is it, Nagare?”

“Just wanted to see if you had any new missions up...”

An annoyed look was now on her face, more pleasant than the one that had previously occupied it. She handed him a sheet of paper, and said “go on this one with another. It shouldn’t take a ninja of your level too long.” Nagare blushed a little, then grabbed the paper with a smile. “I’m on it.”

Rinshi sat on his porch step his face shaded by the red sky that housed the setting sun, wind gusts through his stiff black hair, he began to piddle with his thumbs as it was the only thing amusing him at the time. “Man today is starting to become such a drag, I think i might die of boredom,” he exaggerated. “Guess its just one of those days.”

Rinshi had not been placed on a team since his graduation and has been unable to be placed on one since, he grew tired of training against his beaten, worn down taijutsu dummy’s. A few minutes later he started sulking and entered a short state of depression, then a fire insinuated inside him. “Thats it im tired of waiting, the Kage is gonna give me a mission or place me on a team or I’m going to lose it!” Rinshi stood with determination and sprinted towards the Kage’s mansion with great haste.

Nagare strode out of the Kage’s mansion looking impatiently at the sky. It was still a red-orange shade, and he craved for the moon to come out. He did love the night more than the day, after all, and the sun hurt his eyes, especially with this shade of color. He shielded his eyes and read from the mission paper. He would apparently be working with a Genin, by the name of Rinshi Hyuga. “A member of the Hyuga clan all the way out here? This should be interesting” he thought to himself as his feet hit the solid rocks underneath him. He turned a corner and found some kid sitting on the ground. He was looking up at the sky, casually. “HEY!” Nagare called out. “Are you Rinshi?” The kid turned around and screamed, running from Naga. “I guess not.” He continued down the twisted streets, questioning people he passed for the location of this Rinshi fellow. He eventually returned to the Kage’s mansion, and barged in, half-angry, half-confused. “Reika! Where is this kid?”

Rinshi moved swiftly down the smooth twisting streets approaching the Kage’s Mansion. “There’s the Mansion, I’ll give that Kage a piece of my mind,” Rinshi skipped up the flight of steps to the Kage’s Office, he did not slow his pace as he became more anxious the closer he got to the door. At full sprint..... WHAM.....THUD...... as he collided with the Kage’s Door as he didn’t notice the print on the door that read “PULL,” Rinshi quickly got to his feet brushing himself off, he pulled the door he saw the Kage at her desk, and a mysterious man standing before her.

Nagare was caught by surprise when a loud noise shook the walls. Afraid someone was trying to hurt the Kage, he jumped out of his seat, and turned. The door slowly opened, and a kid was standing there, with red marks on him from where he slammed into the door. “I guess it’s safe, then” Nagare muttered, as he turned to the Kage. “Who’s this?”
“This, Nagare, is Rinshi Hyuuga.” Nagare looked at the kid again, and his eyes were a clear sign of his lineage. They were a pure white, almost like snow, with a slight purple tint. He found himself staring at them for a few seconds before looking at Rinshi as a person rather than a pair of eyes. He approached the Genin, who was only a bit shorter than he was, and outstretched a hand. “Hello there. As the Kage said, I’m Nagare Souseiji. And I must say, it’s quite nice seeing a Hyuuga all the way out here. I suppose we’ll be doing this mission together.” He handed Rinshi a paper that outlined their mission, and it’s objective.

Rinshi stood furiously breathing at a very heavy rate, as he noticed the man staring at him he became less agitated and stood straight as the man approached him holding out a sheet of paper. Rinshi observed the contents awestruck by the statement Nagare made to him, he questioned in his thoughts, “Is this guy serious, a mission, for me, and what does he mean by a Hyuga all the way out here?” Rinshi took the paper and closed his eyes in a sensible way, “Nice to meet you Nagare.” Rinshi held out his hand waiting for Nagare to greet it with a handshake.

Nagare watched as the kid breathed pretty harshly for a moment, and then straightened out before grabbing the paper. He held out his hand, and said, “Nice to meet you, Nagare.” Nagare did love it when people were polite, although he broke that rule himself often. He gripped Rinshi’s hand with a smile. “Nice to meet you too, Rinshi.” He then returned to the task at hand. “We’re going to be getting rid of a...beetle infestation, in the Tower of Heaven. You know, that huge tall tower that’s under construction in the south? I honestly haven’t been there too many times, but it’s pretty scary.” He turned back to the Kage for a moment. “Thank you for the task, Reika. We’ll be back soon.”

Rinshi stood in shock, as the word lingered in his mind: BEETLE BEETLE BEETLE, He began to quiver at the thought of the disgusting things. He then snapped out of this state of mind, and straightened himself out as he muttered, “This certainly will be a challenge, ack Disgusting creatures.” Rinshi bowed to the Kage, turned, and exited the Office following behind Nagare. Rinshi noticed a keen sense of dependability from the man, but question his somewhat happy go lucky attitude.

Nagare knew exactly where the Tower of Heaven stood in the quiet that was Kumo. The night had fallen over the sky, and the moon shone overhead with white rays blasting down, more subtle than the sun’s. He walked and talked, taking necessary turns, inching closer to the Tower. “So Rinshi, the Tower of Heaven is pretty tall. I want you to make sure you don’t go falling off of it, because trust me, it wouldn’t be good for either of us. As for the mission itself, I trust you can help kill beetles. What we’ll be really looking for is the queen, as she probably has most of the eggs with her. Do beetles even have queens? I have no idea.”

He looked again at Rinshi, who followed behind with a smile. “Tell me about yourself, kid. How old are you, what are your goals, you know, whatever you want. We need some conversation to make this walk more interesting.”

Rinshi followed behind Nagare for what felt like hours as the he talked about the tower and the mission until he asked, “Tell me about yourself, kid. How old are you, what are your goals, you know, whatever you want? Rinshi smiled at Nagare and began to speak, “Well im 13 and I’ll be 14 in a couple of weeks, my goal...my goal is to restore honor and reclaim glory to the Hyuga Clan by becoming Kage.” Rinshi with a strong sense of pride in his voice then stopped, clenched his fist and trembled, “What good would it be if i can’t be apart of a team,” he doubtfully proclaimed.

“Decent goal, if you ask me. I think it’s pretty good of you to set your goals so high.” Nagare thought about the age difference between him and the kid. He was only a few years older than Rinshi was. By the time Rinshi was his age, he could probably be a Jounin himself. “Well, follow your heart and dreams, as they say.” They turned a corner and crossed a long field before reaching the infamous Tower of Heaven, the half completed building standing many stories about them. They climbed the stairs carefully, as not to fall, and reached the top within an hour. The entire apex of the tower was covered with beetles, and they circled the tower as well, flying eerily in the air. “This is it.”

Rinshi standing behind Nagare, shivering at the swarms of beetle flying, he attempted to calm himself, “Alright no worries you can do this, just,” suddenly 3 beetles one after the other circled over the pairs head and landed before them. Rinshi closed his eyes momentarily to mentally calm his self for the battle, he noticed Nagare ready for an attack with kunai in hand. Rinshi quickly pulled a kunai from his right pant leg anticipating Nagare’s first move that Rinshi would follow up with. The group beetle continued to intimidate Rinshi but never attacked, he then noticed Nagare strongly eyeing the disgusting vermin.

Nagare grew eager to kill the damn things as they scattered and flew around he and Rinshi, ready to attack. “What the hell kind of beetles are these?!” They danced in circles, taking moments to fly closer and bite. Nagare was bitten a few times, and got irritated quickly. “Rinshi, take the left, there are a lot of flying ones, I’m sure you could dispatch them with that kunai. I’ll take the right, and once we finish of these ones, we can find their eggs.” He then pulled out a summoning scroll, which was pitch black in color and covered in intricate symbols, and summoned a few bats to help him fight. He jumped back as the bats flew from beetle to beetle, eating them hungrily. He charged up chakra in his throat, and released a simple fire jutsu that was sure to take care of some more of them. “Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu!” He called out, and a massive sphere of flames burned through the beetles in a straight line. Many of their dead bodies now lined the ground, but many more flew in their place. “Damn, there’s a lot of them...”

Rinshi following Nagare’s orders, stood before at least 9 beetles oozing a bubbly yellow liquid from what he believed was there mouth. Rinshi started channeling his chakra while at the same time throwing two kunai at the liquid oozing from the front beetles mouth only then did he noticed that the liquid was a sort of acid, as the kunai shifted from solid matter to a black and greenish bubbling liquid. The beetles started to fly one above the other spitting at Rinshi he nimbly dodged the streams of acid, He thought to his self, “What the hell are these things, ranged attacks won’t work and if i get to close i'll be melted into a puddle,” Rinshi quickly created the necessary hand signs and performed the Bunshin no Jutsu: Shadow Clone Technique, instantaneously 2 perfect clones stood by Rinshi, the three then simultaneously threw a barrage of shuriken 3 per hand impaling each of the beetles on top of there heads.

Soon the beetles’ numbers thinned, and many of them were dead upon the hard rocks of the tower. Nagare order his bats to make another round, eating the remainder that were flying. “Okay, now we go after the queen....” Nagare took a few looks around the top of the tower that they stood on. It seemed that all that was left here were corpses, no nest or anything. “So we’ll search inside of the tower, then” he said as he made his way back to the steps. He figured it was probably on the next floor, since the majority of the beetles couldn’t be far from their queen.

Nagare and Rinshi ascended the stairs to the second floor and with no surprise finds the queen, a behemoth sized beetle at least 20x their size, but the Queen pays no mind to the pair of ninja, Rinshi then notices another beetle on top of the Queen........ Rinshi quickly comes to the conclusion. “NAGARE ARE THEY DOING WHAT I THINK THEIR DOING,” Rinshi says in a panic as a greenish tint covers his face, he then bends over and pukes on the floor. Rinshi able to recover shivers as he notices Nagare standing in amazement, Rinshi then becomes aggravated as he then starts yelling at Nagare, “ARE YOU SERIOUS, Its One Thing To Be A Perv, Its Another Thing To Watch To Insects Fucking Till The Sun Comes Up!!!

“I’m observing another species mate, there is nothing perverted about it.” He decided to get rid of this pest problem once and for all. He made a series of hand signs associated with Katon techniques. “Fire Release: Hunter Cerberus Bombs!” He launched three massive fireballs from his throat, and they all impacted the Queen and burst, leaving the Queen and her “lover” to die in the fire. The eggs began to burn as well. He looked over to Rinshi. “Make sure you practice jutsu often, so you can do damage like that soon.” He released the hand seal, and looked at the ever-burning flames. “So, uh...how’re we gonna put out the fire?”

Rinshi stared at the flames reflecting in his eyes, he then turned towards Nagare, “Like the heck i'm suppose to know, well it is late how bout we stay the night and rest a bit, your fires should keep us warm.” Rinshi stood waiting for Nagare’s response as he noticed that Nagare had a distant look in his eyes as if something were troubling him.

Rinshi then tapped Nagare on his shoulder asking him, “Well how bout it?”

”

Nagare stared at the flames as Rinshi suggested they camp the night out there. He couldn’t take his eyes off of the blaze, scared that it would ruin the tower. “No..I’ll put out the flames, and then we’ll head back to the Kage. I’ve gotta be somewhere later on....” this was a blatent lie. It was like, past midnight. He just wanted to be home, but he didn’t want to admit that to Rinshi. He approached the flames. “Water Release: Water Trumpet” and he spit a plume of water out onto the flames, like a hose. The fire stopped burning, and all that was left of the insects were some random charred legs and shells. He turned back to Rinshi. “Shall we head out, then?”

Rinshi nodded in response as the two turned their backs and exited the tower, as they began their trip back to the Kage’s Office, Rinshi had something on his mind that he needed to let out. Rinshi came to a halt as the two were walking at least ½ of the way to the Kage’s Office, “Nagare, this mission with you has made me realized my skills must be sharpened and for that i must further my training, so what i am asking is if you would please become my Sensei?”

“Heh, kid. You keep surprising me, and it’s not a bad thing. I can’t really say so myself, it’s up to Reika, but I’d gladly accept you as a pupil if she says it’s alright.” He blushed a little. It was nice knowing that a Genin actually wanted to be on his squad, made him feel smart and strong or something. He fixed his glasses for a second, and then they continued the walk back to the Kage, turning the mission in with joy. Reika gave them their reward, and Nagare returned home with the same smile lingering on his face.

{Exit, Thread Closed}