Arc Two, Lost Mission; Chapter One, The Well
"Aren't C-Ranks supposed to be better than D-Ranks?" Tetsuko dully complained. They had just arrived in the town the request had come from and dropped off the supplies they'd been asked to bring. Somehow, the town's well had dried up a couple of days previous and they were quick to ask Suna for help. Since there hadn't been any sightings of missing nin or bandits in the area, the Kazekage had sent Temari's team to investigate the dry well and give the people water, sealed safely away in scrolls.
Initially, Kentsu and Tetsuko had been absolutely thrilled. None of the genin had ever gone more than a mile past Suna's protective cliffs and they couldn't wait to see the world beyond. It took only an hour of sand dune after sand dune after sand dune after sand dune for their enthusiasm to wane, however.
When they arrived around dusk, they found that the town was equally as much of a buzzkill. Its buildings had been built of the same materials in the same style as in Suna, with the only real noticeable difference being how small this place was and its lack of cliffs. After turning the water over to the legal authorities - they weren't exactly ninja, but they were stronger than civilians, certainly - a tall and grumpy blonde led them to the town's well, where a couple of strangers helped to lower first Temari, then Mokuren, and finally the blonde woman. The tunnel was completely dry, and at the bottom there was an intersection with a horizontal tunnel coated in cracked sand, the sort that one found right after a flash flood. "This was an ancient river that has flowed underground through this area for as long as anyone could remember. I don't believe it dried up naturally." She told them.
Temari nodded and followed her along the tunnel. It narrowed as they continued through, forcing them to leave their guide as they began to crawl. Eventually it became too small a gap and the two crawled backwards until they reached the blonde, who had waited impatiently and was very cross when they had no explanation to offer.
The town's leader hadn't expected them to find the problem immediately, however, and had made arrangements for the four of them. Tetsuko complained about the beds, but Kentsu was out the second his head hit the pillow.
The next morning the team mostly split up. Temari was going to hear more detail on how and when the water had disappeared and gave them the morning to themselves while she did so. Mokuren took the opportunity to explore.
Dressed in a long robe - one of Kentsu's, but he hadn't noticed the theft - she left her hitae-ate in the room she was sharing with Temari and headed out. After about an hour, she found a nice little restaurant. An elderly lady waved her towards a table, too busy writing something on the counter to even look up.
Mokuren consequently seated herself and thought for a moment about what she wanted, but was soon enough interrupted by the shattering of a glass. She leapt up to see that the old lady was staring at her, ashen-faced.
"Mei?" She croaked, and tears began to slide along the wrinkle lines on her face.
Mokuren relaxed her stance, but continued to watch the woman warily. "My name isn't Mei."
The woman's eyes widened and she hurriedly wiped away her tears. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..." She whispered. "You just... You look like someone I used to know."
Mokuren noted the past tense. "I'm sorry to bring up something you're uncomfortable remembering. I can leave..." She spoke sincerely enough. Briefly she imagined running into a lookalike of her father and her chest constricted painfully.
"No, its fine. You're fine. It was just a shock." She explained, her voice quivering slightly, and the subject was dropped. The woman still seemed to be avoiding looking at her when Mokuren paid the bill for her meal.
As she stepped out onto the street, she could hear arguing nearby. Curious, she closed in on the voices until they were just around the corner.
"But I just don't have that kind of money!" A woman was protesting.
There was a snort."I'm not lowering the price just because you can't afford it."
"But, my children..!?"
"Do you know how many times I've heard that today? It's annoying! If you want your children to live, then find a way to get that money for them!"
"A-alright..."
That certainly sounded suspicious. When the woman made to pass an alleyway two minutes later, Mokuren pulled her in for a chat.
On the other side of town, people grouped along the side of a street, nervously watching the two boys bearing Sunagakure no Sato hitae-ate.
"If they learn about Dorin-sama's..."
" -gakure might ban us from using it?!"
"They're just children..."
"Don't look them in the eyes..."
Kentsu and Tetsuko heard none of these whispers. They'd worn their forehead protectors because it hadn't occurred to them not to - why wouldn't they, after all? They had no idea that they would interfere with their plans for the day; namely, trying to find out who would want to dry the well and why.
"Where should we look first?" Kentsu mused.
"We've been going nowhere?!" Tetsuko asked, exasperated. They'd been walking for ten minutes already. "I thought you said you knew what you were doing!"
"I will know, once we've gotten a lead!" Kentsu insisted. "So you're in charge of that part."
"I thought you had a lead already!"
"How about that alley?" Kentsu asked with a frown, pointing it out.
"Don't ignore me!" Tetsuko squawked at him, flapping his arms for added effect. They searched various alleyways and places, not really sure what they were even looking for, until they were both very hungry. At that point they gave up - temporarily! - to look for lunch instead. They noticed a very busy restaurant and approached it, but the man at the door turned them away, saying apologetically, "The restaurant will close in fifteen minutes. There would not be enough time for you to finish a meal."
"What?" Kentsu asked disbelievingly. He could clearly see on the doors what the closing times were and he was absolutely certain that it was nowhere near that time yet.
Noticing where the boy's black eyes had wandered to, the man by the door gulped audibly. "Ah, today's a holiday, so we close earlier for it."
"Today's not a-"
"Yes it is." Tetsuko whispered. "Today's the Daimyo's birthday."
Kentsu made a face, kicked sand at the man by the door - who was an absolutely awful liar! - and then walked off to find a nicer place. When he thought he'd found one, a pale, sweating boy around their age moved in his way and claimed with a shaky voice that the restaurant was completely full and reserved for the next couple of hours. When Kentsu confronted this boy about the Daimyo's birthday, the boy burst into tears, sobbing angrily about straws or something, and Tetsuko dragged Kentsu away hurriedly before he could cause a bigger scene.
"We don't really need food, do we?" The black-haired boy said weakly, his stomach growling fiercely. The sound was barely quieter despite the hands Tetsuko was using to apply pressure on it.
Kentsu gave him an exasperated look. "We need to try somewhere smaller." He decided, and after the third time someone turned them away after they'd walked in, they finally found one that would give them food. Just in time, too, because Tetsuko was nearly crawling by this point. The food was burnt and the old lady in charge glared at them throughout the meal, but they were too relieved to care. They began their search again, fervor restored.
After a few minutes, Tetsuko suddenly stopped and pressed himself against a wall beside an alleyway. "There's someone with a bunch of barrels." He whispered as an explanation. Kentsu nodded.
"You got the money?" A boy's voice asked.
"Y-yes, right here..."
"None of this is fake? You're not a setup from those shinobi I saw walking around today?"
"No! Of course not!" The woman's voice denied, still sounding fearful.
"Alright then. This amount of money will get you a couple barrels of water. How did you manage to -?"
At the word 'water', Kentsu ran around the corner, ignoring Tetsuko's warning as he kicked the strange teen into a wall. The teenager's cropped hair was brown, and his eyes were a surprising light blue. He was fairly tall but thin, with skin just a little lighter than Kentsu's own, and he coughed up a few drops of blood as he tried to get up. Kentsu pinned him down. "Where did you get this water?" He demanded.
"Please, let go of me!" The brunet begged, wriggling around like a fish.
"Where?" Kentsu repeated.
"The man I work for, Dorin-sama, he keeps a hundred full barrels at his estate for times like these." The explanation was hurried, and terrified. Unnoticed by either, the woman standing off to the side smiled dreamily and clapped once.
"Why are you selling them, then?" Tetsuko asked, feeling slightly disgruntled.
"The town needed water, too!" He explained.
"Then shouldn't you have given away the water for free?" Kentsu argued.
The teenager's eyes teared up. "I'm going to get fired for this." The boys assumed he meant selling the water. "Obaachan relies on me... I need to have some way of paying for food, for the two of us."
After a quick shared glance with Tetsuko, Kentsu asked, "What's your name?"
"Eiro." Was the answer.
Kentsu backed away, stood up and offered a hand. "Sorry about hurting you, I thought you might have been the guy who drained the well."
"Forgive me... you were right." Eiro said in return, forming a one-handed seal as Kentsu helped him up.
"... huh?"
And in a blink, Kentsu's back was against a wall, his wrists trapped by cuffs made of rock and a kunai at his throat. "If you move an inch, I'll kill him." The brunet told Tetsuko. He seemed emotionless now. "How many of you are -" He was interrupted when he suddenly flew sideways, towards Tetsuko. The woman who'd hit him disappeared in a poof of smoke, replaced by a familiar figure who walked forward and lifted Eiro a few inches by his lapel.
"Would you like to tell me the real truth?" Mokuren yawned, using her free hand to cover her mouth. When the boy merely squawked incoherently, she shrugged and dropped him, hitting the base of his neck quickly before throwing his unconscious body over her shoulder. She walked out of the alleyway and then turned, frowning at her teammates. "Are you two coming or not?"
"I'm stuck to a wall!" Kentsu barked at her.
She sighed and shook her head before walking back and making a couple hand signs as she positioned herself by the wall. "Fuuton: Daitoppa!" She declared, and a gust of wind snapped the cuffs and smacked Kentsu into a wall. Turning to her other teammate, Mokuren said, "Can you carry him? My hands are full."
"I don't need carrying!" Kentsu argued, trying to pull himself back up. Tetsuko rolled his eyes and walked over to help.
Temari was smiling strangely when she re-entered the room. Her team stood up, eager to hear what she'd learned. It had been almost an hour since Mokuren had dropped Eiro in front of her sensei and she'd taken him for questioning. "This guy is a nukenin." She began. "A Doton user who quit because the chunin exams were too hard, apparently. He's from one of the minor ninja villages and was paid by the local lord, Dorin, to redirect the local well onto his property and help sell the water to villagers because he is convinced they are refusing higher taxes while hiding fortunes from him and... mocking him, somehow? Dorin sounds a bit paranoid, really." Temari sighed, moving a stray hair away from her eyes. "However, as far as the Doton user knows, Dorin has not hired any other ninja. I'm going to go over by myself and arrest him, you should repack anything you've unpacked and pay anyone you've robbed." She dismissed them, walking off.
"Why does she think we've stolen things?"
Mokuren figured this wouldn't be the best time to mention her new earrings. "Temari-sensei didn't get much sleep last night, so she's a bit off."
"Did she find a spider?"
"No, she found a pea."
They looked at her blankly. Mokuren sighed. "Did you never read fairy tales?"
"What do fairy tales have to do with anything!?" Kentsu snapped, annoyed with Mokuren's roundabout ways.
Mokuren stretched, popping her back. Tetsuko wrinkled his nose in annoyance. "It's nice to be out amidst sand again, isn't it, boys?"
"No." They chorused - all three of them, because Mokuren knew they'd say that.
"Jinx, you owe me a day without complaints." She smirked.
They glared at her in reply, but Temari at least found it amusing. Her chortling stopped suddenly though, and the two girls instantly dropped into stances.
"What's going on?" Tetsuko asked immediately, while Kentsu copied the girls and began looking around nervously.
"Fifteen." Temari muttered. "That noise..."
"Will someone tell me -!?"
"We're surrounded." Mokuren told him. The bandits came all at once, although Temari was able to blow them away before they reached any of them.
"Kuchiyose no jutsu!" Temari activated the summoning technique and a large white weasel appeared. Mokuren knew him to be Kamatari, but her teammates had not met the summon before. This attack was not as a wave, and this time even with Kamatari a few of bandits made it to the genin. Mokuren kicked one away and barely managed to block a kunai from reaching Kentsu, who was fighting the third bandit. Tetsuko stood frozen, and Mokuren exasperatedly chucked a kunai by his foot. It snapped him out of it, but she still needed to interfere twice more while he fought.
Because of the situation, none of them realized until it was a little late that a roaring sound had slowly built up all the while. The moment the cause of the sound became visible, the bandits pulled away. Mokuren's eyes followed theirs; seeing the cloud of yellow growing on the horizon... she froze.
End Note: I remember there was confusion about the pea thing, probably should address it. Temari isn't actually so frail as to be bothered by a pea, of course. She's a very strong ninja of the Sand. But Mokuren thinks that Temari acts a little high and mighty, and that's why. Mokuren makes up a lot of stories, honestly. I keep forgetting that the perspective forces readers to take her words seriously.
