She and her partner are patrolling the outskirts of Suna, checking the sand and rock walls for damages, and ensuring that the nearby buildings are safe and don't need help.

Their route extends to the nearest oasis, a day's walk for civilians but only a matter of hours for shinobi. The oasis hosts an outpost including several teahouses, spas, an inn and a gambaling parlour that they're not meant to know about.

It's become a popular and relatively safe place for civilians to spend a few days outside of the village, even during wartime. As the last stop for many merchants before they reach the village proper, it's well protected and has a rotating guard of visiting shinobi, which they're currently part of.

They take a rest at a popular teahouse there and get halfway through a plate of mochi when the chatter in the room drops down to near silence before picking back up, quieter.

The kunoichi straightens up and looks over, locking eyes with a gorgeous woman dressed in bright crimson to match the streak of red painted over her lips and the dusting over her eyes. She saunters over with a sway of her hips, the outer gauze layer of her clothes flaring out with her confident stride.

She stops at the table with a smirk, staring straight at the guard and no one else. "Buy me a drink, sweetheart."

The kunoichi looks over to her partner but he's staring intently out of the window. She looks back at the woman. "Uh...me?" She hesitantly points to herself, confused.

The woman giggles and leans forward, the low and slightly parted collar revealing the curve of her chest. "Yeah, I'm talking to you, beautiful. I'm Mayumi."

A fitting name, for she certainly is no pain to look at.

"On patrol today?" Mayumi muses and then, instead of finding a chair in this crowded place, simply sits on the kunoichi instead.

"Yep," the kunoichi squeaks out. "Patrol. Patrolling."

Mayumi giggles.

It takes a moment but the conversation picks up and time flows far too quickly. Their talk is only cut short when the other guard clears his throat awkwardly. "We should, uh...our break is almost over."

"Oh, uh…" The kunoichi sits there for a moment longer.

Mayumi giggles and presses a soft kiss to the kunoichi's cheek before standing up from her lap. "Go on then. I'd hate to distract such a responsible woman."

The guard stands to join her partner and leaves with a few too many backwards glances. She stops at the door, near the bar, and after a moment she orders a pretty and expensive drink to be delivered.

The guard can't help but wonder if Mayumi will still be here when the shift ends.

When the Taki seductress enters the teahouse her target has yet to arrive. So, nothing better to do, Yuwaku chats up a guard while she's waiting for the bloodline smuggler to appear. She usually goes for naive ones just to ruin them but there is no such thing as too much intel, after all.

Yuwaku's target arrives shortly after and she observes them while continuing 'Mayumi's' flirting with the kunoichi patroller. Not so long after the surprisingly chatty guard has left, her target leaves as well.

Yuwaku sips her free drink and composes her report in her head before leaving to prepare the next step of her mission.

The warehouse she needs to visit isn't far but is outside the main paths shinobi or civilians traverse and, more importantly, hidden behind seals that mimic the landscape. It's a pain to find but the security is excellent. If you aren't actively looking for it, you won't find it, courtesy of the traveller sealing squad.

She's barely left the warehouse's vicinity, her own gear filled up on supplies and clutching a list of what needs to be restocked, when Yuwaku sees footprints in the dry sand. Her own, not yet hidden, and one more set that seems to double back on itself more often than not - unsure or pacing.

Yuwaku tracks the footsteps, keeping close to the illusion of the giant, lone-standing pillar of rock that covers the warehouse.

The guard she flirted with in the teahouse is standing at the backdoor to the warehouse, half inside the illusion and able to see the building in its entirety, staring up at it in shock.

Sensing something behind her, the guard turns, only to come face to face with the Taki seductress.

Yuwaku smirks. "Oh, what a pity."

"We can't ignore this! One of our kunoichi has vanished without a trace just outside Suna's walls!" a councilman exclaims.

"That happens all the time, not to mention there was a major sandstorm last evening, you shouldn't make a ruckus just because it happened to be your niece," another rebukes.

"It's not because she's my niece!" the man counters, even if it is precisely because of that and everyone knows it. "There hasn't been an incident like that for a long time. Not so close to our village!"

"It's a common occurrence," someone else sighs. "Almost every week there's a sudden sandstorm, and every month there's one big enough to wipe out merchant caravans. The kunoichi was unlucky."

"Those who died until now were shinobi returning from exhausting missions or civilians who couldn't protect themselves!" the upset councilman argues.

"The team just got off patrol without encountering any troubles, and the shinobi confirmed that your niece said she was heading straight home," another councilwoman muses.

The person sitting across from the concerned councilman nods. "If it was a normal enemy, calling for backup would only be a matter of sending up a flare. The route your niece would have used is well traversed by our shinobi and any signal would have been perceived for miles. Since we lost her tracks after the sandstorm, there is no doubt in my mind of what happened."

"Someone could have used the sandstorm as a cover to kill her," the councilman insists.

"Please, it's ludicrous to think that anyone but a Suna is able to move through a sandstorm that big. Even our ninja know better and seek shelter in an event like this."

The Kazekage pinches the bridge of his nose as he watches his advisors scream at each other.

While he would usually dismiss this as an accident, this is the second group that has gone missing near the area in recent times. They had suspected a sandstorm at that time as well since the desert, despite their best efforts, remains a death trap.

"I'll send some jounin to investigate," the Third Kazekage interrupts. "Two teams, it should be more than enough. I assure you, we'll follow this to the end, no matter where it leads."

The civilian merchant politely steps out of the way of a mountain of a man in a thick black leather trench coat, a blank headband sewn just under the left collar.

The civilian continues down the street for a time, pauses, and then backs up a bit. "Are you...lost?"

A young man is standing by the roadside, holding a badly sketched map. "Yeah, I just moved in recently," he laughs sheepishly. "I love the beach so I wanted to move closer to the coast."

"You picked the perfect place," the civilian cheers, flapping around the long stock list in hand. "We even have our very own mermaid."

"Oh, like a theatre thing?" the young man asks, confused.

"No, like a real one! You can see her sometimes, just off on the horizon. She can command the water, and it dances for her." The civilian looks around and leans in with a grin. "She even ate someone who was dumping trash into the water."

The young man nods along, eyes widening. "Incredible."

"A mermaid," one kuniochi scoffs, where the team perched on the edge of the cliff face, staring down into the water below. "It's some Kiri, I tell you. Stealing our supplies and messing around with dumbass civilians."

The young man from before rolls his eyes. "Shut up, someone's going to hear you."

"Here," says the shinobi leader with a frown.

The other two snap to attention.

They watch as the civilian merchants unload crates into the small patch of wet sand just beside the cliff face. It's a struggle with the wet sand and the horse-drawn carts so it takes a while. The tide is already rising by the time the civilians leave.

An hour later, the water is only just lapping up against the supplies when a huge wave ripples up and slams over it, crashing against the cliff face and throwing up foam. The crates get swept away by the tide despite how heavy they look.

They float as well, trailing out into the water for a long moment before an even stronger wave surges up and the crates launch forward, cutting through the ocean and speeding off towards the distance.

"Alright," the leader sighs. "Let's go swimming."

The next day, the team of three meet up with four more as backup and join a large fishing vessel as travelling hands for hire. After a whole day of half-hearted work, night falls and they slip away once the fishing vessel nears the patch of water where they finally lost sight of the crates.

They run across the water until the form of an island takes shape, the sky dark enough now that the sliver of moon still visible in the night sky only highlights the very crest of the small waves lapping at the shore.

The shinobi leader takes point, darting across the wet sand to crouch behind a low rock wall. After a brief scan to make sure the way is clear, he gestures back to the jounin following him and stands.

The First Kazekage stands in front of the shinobi, a frown on his face. The Second Hokage stands behind, arms crossed.