I am sorry that this chapter is rather short; I will make an honest attempt to lengthen future ones. And I will possibly update sooner because of its length.

Thanks so much to those who reviewed; so far those who have really enjoy it so I will keep going for them :).


In the next couple weeks she traveled through lightning territory, doing her best to remain inconspicuous. She eventually settled in a spot on the ocean across the sea from the land of snow. For some reason she didn't feel so boxed in with the ocean at her back. She found a hide-away in the rocks and trees of the coast where she hunkered down for a few days to rest after she took the standard precautions to make sure that her spot would remain undetected. Then she settled into a sort of waking sleep induced by the herbs she had brought along in the pouches at her waist.

It was a sort of sleep that created extreme chakra reproduction. She fed this chakra to her snakes so that they could function and live as if they were their own entity. She herself didn't sleep until three days of this vast creation of chakra had passed and then she slept hard and deeply leaving her snakes as guards to her seemingly dead body.

Food was rather a pressing need when she awoke because of so many days without it. She would not use anymore of her food pills for anything but anything but an absolute emergency. She had two options, she could forage and dig for roots and other such foods in the forest, or she could find a town and buy the food that she desperately needed. She was torn between the two options. Necessity drove her to find a town yet her anti social tendencies pulled against that need and made her preference the foraging option. Once again her elite training kicked in and she had to do the one that made the most sense despite her own fears. She went and found a town; actually it was more of a city many miles away from her camp to get the supplies that she needed.

She had a small amount of money, enough to buy her food in her present state of need but not much more than that. She had never had to shop for food like this before; usually on missions she just ate soldier pills once a day until she got back to her village. But now she was not going back, now there was nobody at her 'home' with sustenance to fuel her empty stomach.

She waited in the trees in the edge of afore mentioned city, memorizing the lay out and spotting ninja lookout posts and hangouts. The city didn't seem to be too heavily guarded. It was not on the coast so it did not have to look out for an attack coming by ocean and it was not exceptionally close to a border so it did not have to worry too much about foreign attacks. The only reason ninja would really need to be here would be to keep the peace, at least she surmised that was the only reason.

She had difficulty deciding how to go into the town. She couldn't go in wearing the black snarling mask, over her face, as she would have liked. She refused to go without some kind of disguise, and changing her appearance by ordinary ninja means was not a solid enough option for her. In the end she used her snakes as a cover over her, she used the image of a middle-aged man. She hoped that this identity would blend in the best and leave her inconspicuous. To help her blend in even more she took her black cloak and filled it with an assortment of pinecones, moss, grass, leaves, anything that was readily available. This stationed on her back like a pack she hoped to appear to be a farmer coming into town to sell his goods.

A deep calming breath, and then she ventured forth. She had done this before; on several missions she had assumed such a disguise as this. Only before she had had comrades to rely on, and to share the weight of a mission, not this time. Her Sensei had always taught her that solo missions were foolish, there was no such thing as it being better to work alone. His words were "there is a reason we send out and train ninja in teams". She saw the truth in his words and never doubted them. But now there was nobody else she could lean on so she walked on alone.

With her face safely hidden behind her disguise she jumped from the trees and walked down the road that led to the main street. She bent over slightly under her load to make it look like it was heavy, adding more believability to her image.

She walked boldly up to the city, she kept her head down and hidden under the hat she had fashioned her snakes to make also. Nobody turned to look at her passing, her image was normal here. The ninja in the lookout post at the entrance did not even give her a passing glance.

The houses on the edge of the city were farther apart but as she walked farther into the city they were built closer together. Several ragtag street urchins peeked out from the sheltering shadows of the alleys. She took note of them just like she did to all the other people that she passed whether they were ninja or not.

When she found a good draining ditch to dump the contents of her cloak in. She slipped her arms into the empty cloak and started toward the part of town more populated at the current time of day. The market place. With her head still bowed low she walked down the busy streets with one eye looking out for trouble and the other looking for the supplies she needed.

It didn't take too long for her to find what it was that she needed. Firstly she needed herbs for several of her jutsue's, she knew that she did not have the funds for all of the things that she needed. A store by the name of 'Exotic Herbs' had in stock several of the ingredients that she needed. Another ingredient she found at a common street side vender that boasted its exotic plants for healing. She bought rather sparse quantities.

She next stepped up to another street-side vender selling the locally grown fruit, it would be the cheapest. She couldn't eat it until she was alone because of her disguise; she glanced at the fruit rubbing a hand over an apple before slipping it into her bag. Her stomach hurt; soon she was sure it would fall to digesting itself as a way to fill the void.

She did manage to get out of town before she fell on the food like a starving wolf. Only the first few bites were rushed, after the tastes filled her mouth her ninja self control kicked in. She ate slowly, giving her empty stomach time to adjust to the food she was now giving it. Even though she did she still had a sore stomach when she set off for her hide-away.

A couple of days later when she had restored her body to what she considered normal, she finally started to thoroughly consider her new problem. How was she going to get the rest of the herbs she needed? She couldn't find them in any one place unless it was in a ninja herbs store or in a specialized green house, she would not find either of those outside a ninja village. She needed money, and she needed it rather badly. She had used what little she had had to get the supplies she needed the most. But still they would not last long. A couple weeks at the most, she would like to have more because of her status as missing nin. Her chakra super reproduction sleep would only happen with the help of the herbs, she risked running her snakes very low on chakra if she did not get those herbs. She had to come by more money if she was going to solve this dilemma.

For the first time in her fourteen years Sitka needed to find herself a job. Not a normal civilian job, a ninja job. She had to find a bounty book, she was gonna go head hunting.


I know this is a really boring chapter but it was kind of necessary to advance the plot and her personality so please bare with me.

Reviews are greatly appreciated!!!!!