It's been a while since I've written anything, I hope you enjoy! :)
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters.
The sun was high in the sky and only one small fluffy cloud lazily drifted by. The leaves of the trees filtered the warm sunlight on the well traveled road below them. "Are we almost there yet?" a child whined, "It feels like we've been walking for days..."
"Tokiro stop whining. We've only been on the raod for two hours," a gentle voice told the boy. Long, crimson hair swayed slightly as a slender woman laughed and turned towards the boy. The woman looked past the boy to see several others traveling closely behind. They were their friends and colleagues. Three wagons were drawn by donkeys and several other men and women plus a few more children were all talking merrily with each other as they traveled to their next location. They were a group of merchants that were making their way to the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The entire group was in high spirits, they had done really well in the Land of Sand. "Look, even little Yukimi isn't whining and she's only two years old," the woman teased the boy as her bright emerald green eyes followed him. The boy had messy, short dark hair and honey colored eyes and looked to be between six and seven years old.
"Hmph!" Tokiro huffed and crossed his arms across his chest, a slight blush tinged his cheeks pink as he turned his face away, embaressed to be compared to the toddler. The woman reached out her hand and touseled his hair, a small smile on her lips. He looked up at the woman and she smiled kindly down at him. Tokiro smiled back brightly and her gaze softened slightly. She had first met the small boy about four years prior, he hadn't been much bigger than little Yukimi. The group of merchants had been making their way through the Land of Water and came across a small, ransacked village. Amongst the carnage the boy was found crying over the corpses of his parents and was wounded badly. nearing death himself. The woman had saved the boy and took him with the group when she learned he would be all alone. She cared deeply for him and raised him as though he were her own child, now he was the most important person in her life. She couldn't stand the thought of leaving the younger Tokiro all alone, she had been orphaned herself when she was young. The only difference was that she was old enough to remember the carnage of the Third Great Shinobi War and remember how her entire family was slaughtered. The only peace she could find in Tokiro's situation was that he was not old enough to remember what had happened.
"Sey-chan!" Tokiro called to the woman loudly, snapping her out of her thoughts. He looked up at her a little worried since it took her so long to respond. She smiled down at him reassuringly as she caught his expression, his big brown eyes watching her a moment longer before asking, "Sey-chan, um, when are we going to get to the village?" His expression changed as he looked up at her eagerly, his eyes brightening.
"You're always so impatient," the woman laughed and shook her head, her laughter was soft and kind, "We should be there soon, Tokiro, it's absolutely beautiful traveling weather. The sun is shining and the breeze is cool, enjoy this down time while you can, you know how busy we will be once we get to the village." She reached out and touseled his hair again and chuckled when he swatted her hand away. She hummed softly to herself as they continued down the road and one of the other travelers approached her, asking her questions about their next stop.
"Look! Look!" Yukimi's small voice rang out from behind them catching their attention. When the woman shifted her gaze down the road she could see the gate to the village a distance away. Tokiro cheered at her side, his eyes lit up excitedly as he ran ahead of them a little, a big grin on his face.
"Hey," a mans voice hummed from behind the woman causing her to jump, "Ah, sorry, didn't mean to startle you." The man chuckled before continuing, "You have all of the trade documents right? I always get so nervous about this paperwork stuff..."
"Don't worry about it, I have everything we need right here," she patted the bag that hung from her shoulder to her hip, "I'll take care of everything at the gate. Please make sure you have everything organized and ready with the group when they are ready to do the inspection."
"I don't know what we'd do without ya," the man smiled at her kindly, "You take care of so much of the legal and financial work for our entire group. It's a lot and you always do it without a complaint and then you work hard to sell the merchandise as well. You always seem to brighten everything up too."
The woman flustered a little at his last comment and held her hands up, "Well, I'm not sure about brightening things up, but I don't mind helping everybody. Also, Ayame is more than capable of doing everything that I'm doing. She really is very organized and gifted when dealing with numbers." The womans green eyes looked up at the gate as they approached it. "I'll leave everything here to you," she said to the man and hastened her pace towards the gate, pulling away from the rest of group. She could hear the man callout out to their colleagues, organizing the group, as she approached the gate.
"Ah, you must be the group of merchants that our superiors told us about," a shinobi at the gate greeted the woman as she approached, "We've been expecting you."
"Yes," the woman said with a smile as she reached for her bag and set it on the counter. She pulled out several packets of documents and went through them one by one, "These are our licences and permits to travel and trade, these are all of our identifications, and this is a list of all of our inventories. Our carts will be set up in the order of the lists to make it easier for inspection." The woman handed the man the documents, he had a bandage across his cheeks and nose, black paint on his chins, and thin eyes.
The guard looked through the documents and commented, "You seem to have everything in order, this should be quick. I'm Kotetsu, by the way. We ca nstart by indentifying everbyody if you don't mind."
"Of course," the woman smiled and introduced herself, "I'm Seyuri Ishikawa, thank you for allowing us the chance to visit your village."
Kotetsu stared for a moment as his eyes looked over the young woman in front of him, according to her identification she was 25 years old. She had long, dark crimson hair that flowed loosely down her back to her waist. Her body was slender and lean and she was about 5 feet 4 inches tall and she was wearing simple short sleeve pale green dress that ended at her knees. He couldn't help but notice how the dress accentuated her small waist and slim hips, her breasts, though not huge, were not too small either. Her face was delicate with a small nose, soft pink lips, creamy smooth skin, and long dark lashes lined her bright green emerald eyes. Though he thought the woman was very pretty, the thing he noticed most about her was her presence. When she smiled at him it was almost as if the sun were shining and he couldn't help but smile back. "Okay," he said looking down at the stack of indentification and setting one down on the desk, "One down. Could you please have them come over when I call their names?" Seyuri nodded and headed back towards her group. She explained what was going on soon and returned to Kotetsu to let him know they were ready. The entire process went smoothly and the inspection was quick, it was all done within an hour of their arrival. "Our Hokage has assigned a team of shinobi to show you all the village and help you get to the inn. They are on their way now," Kotetsu as he looked down the road and spotted four shinobi heading their way, "Looks like them now."
Seyuri followed his stare and watched as the four shinobi approached. She first noticed a teen boy with spikey blonde hair talking excitedly with his comrades. Her green eyes then turned to a pink haired kunoichi as she scolded whacked the blonde teen and scolded him. A black haired teen tried to diffuse the situation, but he too ended up with a lump on his head from the kunoichi. Last she noticed a tall man walking behind the teens reading a book, completely uninterested in what they were fighting about. He had spikey silver hair and the man's face was mostly covered by a mask and his shinobi headband covered his left eye.
"Kakashi!" Kotetsu called out from next to Seyuri, "I didn't realize your team would be taking this mission. I mean this is a D ranked mission after all."
"It seems Lady Hokage wants to take it easy on us since we had such a rough go with our last mission. Naruto just released from the hospital yesterday, so this was her way of getting him to leave her alone," the masked man said as he put his book in the pouch at his hip. "This is the group here I take it?" Kakashi asked looking around at the group and their carts of merchandise.
"That's right. We just finished processing them in and were waiting for you to arrive," Kotetsu said then turned to Seyuri, "Ms. Ishikawa I hope I get a chance to see you since I don't get much time off, I hope you don't sell out before I get a chance to buy something."
"We will be open from early morning till about ten o'clock, so I'm sure you'll be able to look and find something you like," Seyuri said as she faced Kotestu then turned to face the four shinobi that just arrived, "I'm Seyuri Ishikawa, it's very nice to meet you." She greeted them cheerfully and gave them a small wave with a bright smile on her face.
"Why do we have to do such a lame mission?!" the blonde teen groaned looking depressed.
"Naruto!" the pink haired kunoichi punched him in the head and he hit the ground. The group watched the scene unfold with wide eyes and Tokiro took a step out in front of the group.
"Yeah, well maybe we don't want a lame shinobi like you showing us around!" the small boy yelled and pointed at Naruto.
"You little runt! What would you know?!" Naruto exclaimed as he stood up and made a face at Tokiro, teasing the small boy.
"Now, now, Naruto," the silver haired shinobi said exasperatedly, "How many times have a I told you already? You can't speak to the clients like that."
"Yeah!" Tokiro exclaimed and crossed his arms over his chest with a triumphant look then made a face at the blonde shinobi.
"Tokiro," Seyuri said said as she looked down at the small boy and placed a hand on his head, "You know, he kind of reminds me of a boy I know." Tokiro made a disdainful face and turned away embarressed. Seyuri chuckled to herself at his reaction then turned back to the shinobi, "I apologize for the rudeness, I hope you can forgive him."
"There's nothing to apologize for," the kunoichi said with a smile, "That behavior is expected of a child, not from a full fledged shinobi. I hope you can forgive this idiot for his rude comments, he just can't seem to learn." She elbowed the blond teen in the ribs then began to introduce everybody, "Before we get going let me introduce us. I'm Sakura Haruno, the idiot is Naruto Uzumaki, this is Sai, and this is our Captain Kakashi Hatake-sensei." Naruto made a pouting face and Sai waved with an awkward smile.
"It's very nice to meet you all, I'm Seyuri Ishikawa," Seyuri said with a small bow, her long hair falling over her shoulders. She introduced the rest of the group to the shinobis and was quite pleased to find them friendly and energetic.
"Alright," Kakashi said with a closed eye smile, "Now that we all know each other I think we should get started. Naruto, Sakura, and Sai will be showing you all to the inn. If you have any questions be sure to ask them. After you are all unpacked they will show you where you will be permited to sell your merchandise and take you on a small tour of the village. The Hokage has requested that the leader of your group meet with her, I will be escorting that person to the meeting then back to the inn afterwards."
"That's all you little missy," one of the merchants said and put a hand on Seyuri's shoulder, "Seeing as you manage the entire group, you're probably the best one for this. We really don't know what we'd do with out you."
"I really don't think I do as much as you think I do. What if I decided to settle down and marry?" Seyuri jokingly asked and laughed when the mans eyes widened at her question, "I'm only joking, you don't need to worry about me leaving anytime soon. I certainly do not have any plans on getting married. I'll go meet with the Hokage, I'll see you all later." She waved at the group and stepped towards Kakashi.