A clear film swiped across beady glass eyes. The puppet bounced along a tree branch, occasionally fluttering its flexible leather and metal wings. If examined close up by a bird watcher, its use would be easily found out. Fortunately it was programmed with a flight distance much like the small song bird it was pretending to be, fleeing from any threat that got within a certain range. It chirped, preened its fake feathers, and pecked the ground as it observed the subject K9-3 train in the backwoods of the Hidden Leaf ninja village.
Eventually the boy grew tired of his morning training and left the forest. The not-songbird followed at a distance to the edge of the woods. It went no further, constricted by its programing to stay in an area where it would could camouflage. At the end of its range it sent a short electronic signal to its closest village bound comrade to carry on its watch. Another puppet, much better disguised than it picked up the switch off signal and followed the electronic 'ping' of K9-3's locator chip. A fake pidgeon, much more convincingly designed since the real thing tended to get close to humans, trailed after the child nonchalantly.
Several miles away in an underground bunker Eoptis began her shift watching the surveillance videos of subject K9-3. Four eyes watched a set of monitors providing feed from hidden cameras all across the Leaf village and a couple dozen mecha birds in and around the area. She was excited to see what the subject was up to today, since the boy had become a ninja his time was preoccupied with missions all over the village. As unprofessional as it was Eoptis hoped that K9-3 was having a good day, it was hard to watch someone for years and not get attached.
Today the boy's team had caught the Fire Daimyo's cat, Tora, for the eighth time since they'd started doing missions. Someone really oughta send the daimyo's mate an informational pamphlet on domestic feline care because she was really bad at it if the poor thing felt the need to flee so often. The tap of a key switched the view on the monitors from the eyes of fake birds to the lenzes of hidden cameras in the mission room of the Hokage's building. Tapping a different key turned up the speakers sitting on both sides of her station. Eoptis's eyes curved into a smile at K9-3 tantrum over having to do unglamorous grunt work. When the mistress finally decided to recruit the child, that sort of attitude would have to be trained out of him.
Her long lavender ears pricked forward at the words "C-ranked mission". She scrambled to her hooves and stared intently at the humans on screen. Was it finally happening? Was the Leaf jinchuuriki finally being allowed to leave the village?!
Yes?
Yessss!
Eoptis practically pranced in place as the details of the mission were given to K9-3's team. She committed them to memory: Wave country, bridge builder, escort and bodyguard. With the flat of her tail blade she pressed the big red button reserved for this very occasion. A red light filled the bunker and the sounds of her teammates rushing to the surveillance room. First to reach her location was Boar, who'd been cooking lunch in the feeding area next door. Billie and Eagle-sensei arrived at the same time from the training room on the other side of the bunker. Billie was rapidly demorphing and came through the circular doorway first and was followed immediately after by their teacher.
"Details." Eagle-sensei commanded in her sharp clicking voice that cut through the questions of her teammates. It was the only actual actual sound in the room aside from what came from the speakers, it silenced the not-voices of her teammates who quickly remembered to behave professionally.
[The subject K9-3 is going on a C-ranked mission to the Land of Waves.] Eoptis saluted her team leader and tried her best to keep the giddiness out of her thoughtspeech. [The object of this mission is to escort the bridge builder, Tazuna, back to his home while keeping him safe from threats on the road.]
"It would take several days for them to travel between the two countries on foot with a civilian." Eagle noted. Their teacher nodded her leather covered head as she thought about the information provided. Rubber lids half covered Eagle's glass eyes as she continued, "War Prince Ssipik reported that that area was unstable and dangerous..." The robot groaned in annoyance.
[Let me guess,] Boar thoughtspoke and crossed his strong arms in front of his plush chest. [This bridge builder gets some ninja to escort him home and once they get there they see all the mess that's gone down. Since the Leafies tend to be soft and like to 'do the right thing' they'll probably stick around and try to help out the poor Wave folk.]
[Good.] Billy replied curtly and leaned back on her thick tail. [The longer K9-3 is away from the village the more time the mistress has to work on him. If things get bad enough there's a war prince right there to step in.]
"That is true." Eagle-sensei nodded. Using her segmented tail the robot motioned for Eoptis to put the monitors on record. An order that the student quickly carried out whilst keeping an eye turned towards the team.
Their teacher headed for the rounded door and gestured for her pupils to follow. The sounds of hooves and talons and boots filled the bunker as the team marched solemnly to the common room. They all knew that this day would come eventually but that still didn't prepare them for what would come next. Metal talons lifted up a plastic guard box under the large television and then pressed the big important red button it guarded from accidental activation. The screen lit up black as the multispecies team sat in a semicircle around it.
After a few seconds a familiar face appeared on the television. Gray eyes stared stared down at them from the large screen, there was a camera and a microphone near the top of tv that she could observe them with. The surgical mask covering her mouth and chin hid her expressions. For Billy, Eagle, and Eoptis it had been over a decade since they'd last seen their mistress' real face. For Boar it had been about two years since. They told her the details of the subject's mission and how soon he'd be leaving the safety of the walls of the Leaf village. Once finished they waited with baited breath to hear the words of their glorious leader.
"Hello my children," She started. Her grey eyes curved upward into a smile. "I understand that this had been a long and strenuous mission. You even lost a valued teammate along the way. I am thankful for your service and loyalty, thus you shall be rewarded before your next assignment. I can arrange a couple weeks vacation to the land of the Moon…"
Excited clapping from Eoptis' thin little hands interrupted the mistress. She only raised a fuzzy red brow at her young creation's joy before continuing on. "In addition, you all have earned a good smile."
Eyes widened and the shinobi leaned towards the monitor in anticipation. The paper mask inched down to reveal a warm radiant grin. Seeing it filled their minds with a giddy happiness that clouded their thoughts. When the mistress commanded them to sleep they dropped almost instantly.