Gakuto wasn't sure about this, but she supposed she had to accept it. In the last week or so, the Chiba Shrine had practically imploded into a wild brand of chaos that Gakuto had managed not to witness before. She'd been with the shrine for seven months now, and never had she seen all the women there whipped into such a frenzy. They had a new object arriving, and an exceedingly valuable one at that. Preparations had been going into overdrive lately, as the arrival date encroached.

Gakuto reflected on the sight of her teacher that morning. Kura had slid the door to Gakuto's room open at high speed, half way lunging herself inside just as the younger of the pair had finished getting dressed. Mostly out of breath, and covered in some sort of dust from who-knows-where, her teacher had asked a favor of Gakuto in a loud but somewhat wheezing voice. Despite all the well made plans they could have made instead, somehow Kura had arranged for an arrival of... certain guests... to take place during all these chaotic preparations.

The young girl wondered how that woman survived without her sometimes, but she supposed that sometimes that was what students were for: running errands for you when you planned your days poorly.

The cool late-winter air glanced over her skin, making her cheeks somewhat rosy but not truly chilling her. The winter weather was already starting to lift. Konoha was a hot, humid place usually, and the winters here were brief and usually quite mild. Once March came in a few weeks, it would probably start getting hot again. Gakuto admitted to herself, as she adjusted the collar of her shirt to sit a bit higher and guard her neck from the chill, that she was ready to see winter over and done with. She'd had enough strange experiences in the cold, and she was ready for some in the muggy heat of summer instead.

Gakuto stopped just outside the last towering red gate, at the end of the path to the Chiba shrine. From here she would lead their guests back up the hill, through the other gates, and up to the shrine. But she had to let those guests arrive first.

As usual, she heard them before she saw thim. It was a jumble of four signatures coming her way: the shrill, annoying call of Kakashi, a gentle and high thrum like a shamisen, an angry, waspish tone, and finally….a strange, low rumble, that was somehow overlayed with a bright bell tone. That last one was a strange one, Gakuto noted. Those two sounds felt like entirely different beings, trying to talk over each other.

She didn't really have time to think about that though, because now the quartet had come into view and spotted her as well.

Kakashi raised a hand casually, waving at her as they approached. He raised a brow, speaking once they were all huddled around the outside of the gate.

"I'm surprised it's just you here to greet us, Gakuto. It's good to see you." He said casually, the edge of his visible eye crinkling up with some form of amusement.

Gakuto met his amusement with a bored expression, and swallowed whatever witty comment she had been formulating.

"Kura-sensei is super stressed out this morning, so I'm going to go easy on you today, old man. Welcome to the shrine, it'll just be me leading you up." She said, bowing her head slightly in greeting. This casual reply earned a few surprised glances from the three children who had plodded in alongside him. Gakuto studied them with dark eyes and slightly more interest.

"That explains a lot." Kakashi responded, seeming at ease with her casual disrespect. Her commentary always managed to amuse him, especially with how stubborn she was about being rude to him. A funny, precocious child. "Oh, this is Gakuto, you three. She's Kura's student. Gakuto, let me introduce them."

Kakashi gestured first to the girl standing closest to him. She was short, and a bit stocky, and had a round, pretty face framed by soft pink hair. Gakuto noted that she liked her already. Very pretty. She was the signature that sounded like a shamisen, a gentle sound, but could reach frantic volumes quite quickly. "This is Sakura."

Next he pointed to a grinning, blond haired boy, who was busy bouncing on his heels. Gakuto was reminded a bit of Lee. They had the same energy at least. He was also the one with the strange signature, that wrestled and talked over itself. Gakuto also thought that he looked a bit sticky, and noted that she didn't want to touch him if she could at all help it. "This is Naruto."

Finally, Kakashi gestured to his remaining student, a grumpy, skinny boy, with dark hair and eyes. Gakuto supposed he was pretty, in the sort of way that made his jaw and nose look very breakable. He was the angry, waspish signature that she had picked up on. Gakuto disliked him immediately, and by the looks of him he would agree to dislike her as well quite easily. "And this is Sasuke."

They all nodded to her, and she nodded in return. "Good to meet you." Gakuto replied, tucking her hands into her sleeves and turning to lead them up to the shrine. "Now let's get going. It's cold out here."

As they began forging their way up the hill, with Gakuto at the front, Kakashi picked up the pace of his steps to catch up and walk next to her.

"Now, I know you hate to be helpful to me at all, but what has Kura so stressed? It isn't like her-"

"You've known her longer than I have, you now she bites off more than she can chew. So this is like her."

"Alright, fair. But what's going on? Not sick again is she?" Kakashi pressed, cocking his head as if to stress his curiosity.

Gakuto shrugged, giving in to giving him a straight answer finally. "We have a new object coming in, and she didn't mean for it to happen at the same time as this visit. She's been cleaning the cottage, cleaning the temple, cleaning the archive...lot of cleaning. And probably some other stuff, but she was covered in dust last time I saw her...so I bet more cleaning."

"Ahh, I see now." Kakashi replied, putting a hand to his chin and nodding as if this conversation was much deeper than it really was. "And what did she tell you to do with us?" He asked as a follow-up.

"Pretty standard, I was just going to give you all a tour and she'd meet up with us later." Gakuto answered.

"Ah, well, if that's the case-" Kakashi hopped up one of the steps ahead of them, and turned to address the four students. "I'll be seeing you all later! I've already toured this place a million times, not to mention I think a certain lady needs my support in this trying time. Take good care of them, Gakuto! I'm depending on you." He gave the girl a cheeky glance, before his body flickered and he vanished. Presumably, he had sped much further ahead of them, leaving the four without dubious adult guidance.

Gakuto wondered briefly if he was actually going to be helpful, once he found Kura.

"I've been here before, but only for holidays and stuff." Sakura stated, resting her chin in her hand. "My mother and I always found it really neat that only women live here. You all must be a really independent bunch!"

Gakuto shrugged. "I mean, I guess so. It's pretty comfortable for me, so I tend to forget."

Naruto cocked his head. "Forget what? About men?"

Gakuto nodded sagely. "Yeah, and it's really wonderful for a few seconds. And then I remember. Kura-sensei claimed that, because she was raised here, she never saw a man until she was almost five or six. And then the first one she saw was Lord Third of all people. She told me that she was convinced all men just looked like old leather bags for a hot minute."

Sakura and Gakuto shared a snicker, and Naruto and Sasuke somehow felt like third and fourth wheels, respectively. There's a certain kind of discomfort boys around that age sometimes feel when they aren't the center of attention, and they were starting to feel it close in on them. Or maybe it was just closing in on Naruto, Sasuke seemed okay with not having to talk much for the time being.

The three of them, for the last hour or so, had been led along the shrine's many paths by Gakuto.

The Chiba Shrine was a large compound, seated atop a hill at the edge of Konoha. A winding, well tracked path led up to it, passing through many traditional red gates until reaching the summit. There, at the top of the hill, an outer stone wall circled the entire compound. The living quarters and cottages of the shrine maiden's were dotted within the wall, around the outer edges. The main shrine structures sat at the center of the vaguely circular area. The central building was about two stories tall, made of carefully varnished and painted wood, and flanked by smaller but similarly designed outbuildings. Porches wrapped around the outer walls, and an entrance sat at each cardinal direction. Small flower beds and ornamental ponds were scattered throughout the grounds, attempting to bring tranquility to the surprisingly busy area.

Gakuto had informed them that within that set of buildings were all the important ceremonial and public areas. Display rooms, libraries, reading rooms, and even some event spaces for funerals, weddings, and other general shrine activity. Beneath that building were the real archives though, dug down into the earth of the hill. According to her, there was a catacomb-esque system under the building, with only one entrance and exit. Anything of major value or importance was kept there, under the cool earth, to secure it from fire, theft, or any other sort of damage.

Now, that they had finished up, Gakuto had brought them back to Kura's cottage. They all sat in a line of adolescents at the edge of the porch, removed from the hub hub in the center of the compound.

"So this place is kinda like...just a little towns of moms and sisters right?" Naruto piped up, unable to keep himself from breaking into the conversation now. "Iruka-sensei brought me here last year, I think it was for Oban. It was a lot of fun, but now that I think about it...I didn't really notice it was just a bunch of ladies everywhere." He crossed his arms, seeming to think very hard about this information he had been presented with. "Seems kinda neat, now that I think about it. I bet the food is good here, and I bet all the ladies smell nice all the time."

Gakuto shrugged. "Now that I think about it, it probably does smell better than what a town of men would smell like. And the food is pretty good. So I guess you're right."

"You've been really quiet Sasuke, what do you think about it?" Sakura asked, trying to catch the black haired boy's attention as he sat at the end of their little formation. Gakuto and Naruto both seem to shift a little, unwittingly both being members of the same 'I'm glad Sasuke has been keeping his mouth shut club'. Sadly, and despite her usually quite good judgement, Sakura seemed to be insistent on liking the boy.

"Not a whole lot. I knew of this place before, but I hadn't visited. My family had a private shrine, for our own deity, and we stored our own objects, so it wasn't ever necessary to come here." Sasuke shrugged, having been picking dirt out of the bottom of his sandals. "I also don't tend to celebrate holidays, so there's that."

Naruto narrowed his eyes in suspicion. That was more polite than he had expected it to be. Gakuto seemed a little disappointed, on the far end of the row. She had been hoping he would say something out of turn, giving her a chance to affirm her dislike...but she supposed that could wait. After all, she could hear a familiar pair of signatures arriving from the din of chakra static in the main portion of the shrine.

Bells and chirping birds.

"Hey kids! Sorry for deserting you lot." Kura called, stepping up the stone path to her little cottage. "I see you four have managed not to burn the shrine down when I wasn't looking. Color me glad!"

She was smiling, but the darkness around her eyes screamed of the need for a good meal and some sleep. An afternoon nap was imminent, if it could be allowed. Her warmly tanned skin looked a bit washed out, and her shock of red hair seemed to be actually a bit messy rather than 'fashionably tousled' as it usually was. Kakashi trailed behind her, seeming quite cheerful and well rested in comparison. At least by Kakashi standards.

He raised a hand in greeting. "Glad to see you all didn't kill each other. I had my doubts."

Kura hopped up on to the porch, sliding the door open and motioning the others up. "Now c'mon, kids. It's chilly out here still. I'll make us something for lunch, sound good?"

There was a chorus of nods, and a excited shuffle of sandals into the warmth of the house.

"So what's this new object called again?" Kakashi asked, leaning his elbow on the table and propping his chin up. The low table in Kura's house usually didn't have this many people surrounding it, but it wasn't uncomfortable.

Kura, stationed in the kitchen, ladled out a fragrant bowl of soup and passed it off to Naruto. The boy sniffed it once, before seeming satisfied and retreating back to the table with his lunch. It smelled like beef, ginger, and onions, and a satisfying tangle of udon noodles rested at the bottom of the bowl. The red haired woman then ladled herself out a bowl, and came to join everyone else at the table.

"It's a set of sacred bows, Asuza-Yumi. A lot of shrines and temples have them, as holy relics, and this will be our first time having a set of them in many years." Kura explained, plopping down on a cushion and sipping some broth from her bowl.

"Oh! Oh!" Naruto sat up. "So they're weapons? Like, holy weapons?" Naruto spoke up.

Kura pursed her lips. "Uh, well, they are weapons! Sort of. They really shouldn't be used to fight. Actually, I would really prefer no one ever try that. Ever."

Naruto inclined his head to the side, like a confused puppy. "Why's that? Are they just that powerful? Like super scary?"

Kakashi tapped the boy lightly on the head. "You're being rude, Naruto, eat your food." He said, ignoring Naruto's whine of protest.

Kura waved her hand, trying to dissuade him from scolding his student too much. "No, no, Kakashi he's alright. Erm, well, you see these bows were never meant for fighting. They're rarely ever fired, maybe once or twice a year at ceremonies. And they technically don't have any sort of power. They're just very valuable, and well made." She slurped up a jumble of noodles, and her next words were muffled a bit by her chewing. "So, for lack of a better way of putting it, they're just really pretty antique weapons. Two of 'em. One black, and one vermilion."

Now Kakashi looked surprised, as well, and it was his turn to start asking a few too many questions. "You're making all this issue over a few antiques? With all that was going on, I expected a little more."

Kura shrugged. "Not our fault every object we get isn't some weapon of mass destruction. Actually, it's sort of a relief to be handle something without some underlying power. Ninja tools and real weapons get troublesome, you know." She replied. "Either way, these things are still like...incredibly valuable. Like…more money than you could imagine valuable."

Sasuke chimed in. "I get it, so they will still be targeted by thieves. That explains all the extra measures you're taking."

Kura nodded, gesturing at the boy. "Right, absolutely correct." She said, and the boy seemed effortlessly smug at her response. "Anyway, anyway, all you best eat up, and get some rest this afternon! I may be tired now, but I'll be at full strength come morning. You best be ready, Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura. Gakuto already knows what's coming."

The three genin seemed confused, glancing at their own teacher. Kakashi blinked, seeming to have just now remembered something. "Oh, whoops, I forgot to tell you three about that part didn't I?"

Sakura immediately looked a bit more worried. Naruto was busy slurping down soup. Sasuke was busy putting too much effort into being impassive about everything, as per usual.

"We're just here to help with things around the shrine, right?" Sakura questioned, seeming to hope that was the truth.

"Oh, well yes, but not just that. You're all going to be doing a bit of supplemental training with Kura here. She's a taijutsu expert, you see! And I think the three of you could use some toughening up. You're all awfully soft." Kakashi informed them, reaching over and patting Kura on the shoulder. "I think she can fix that. Right, Kura?"

Kura laughed, loudly, setting down her bowl and casting a knowing glance to the other adult at the table. "You really forgot to tell them? You're so lax, Kakashi. And pretty cruel too. My physical training isn't easy, you should have given them more mental preparation time. Isn't that right, Gakuto?"

The dark haired girl, who had been quietly observing the rowdy conversation, smirked against the rim of her teacup.

"I'm looking forward to the morning already." Gakuto said, sliding her eyes over to the three genin, who were looking more nervous by the second. "I'll make sure to help out best I can."

Team Seven mutually agreed that, from the tone of her voice, the Gakuto wasn't going to help them much at all.