Snippet #2283346

Sugahara Matsu, happy as the fat old scholar and now miserable with his new mission into the world, wandered aimlessly through the hidden village's common ground. He occasionally greeted an old acquaintance here and there, but more often he uncharacteristically ignored their salutations, such was his fret. Eventually his feet led him to the briefing office, where shinobi and kunoichi could always be found gathered, waiting to take on new missions.

"Tomoki," he greeted as he climbed the wide, shallow steps that had been built into the small knoll on which the simple hut sat. The young genin waved in wordless greeting. Aoyama Tomoki was thirty years Matsu's junior, but his carefree spirit was a nice match for the older man's kindliness, and so they had become friends of sorts although they didn't associate much. Matsu saw next to his friend stood a slim young slip of a kunoichi, wearing distinct scarlet cowl loose about her neck and shoulders, which placed her to him as Mashio Miyazaki -- the Scarlet Slash, as the youngsters had taken to calling the newly-raised chunin. Matsu's nicknames unfortunately had generally been jests if not outright insults, but he gathered that the girl had been something of a prodigy of her age group.

"Good afternoon," he greeted, prompting Tomoki to make formal introductions between the two. The girl, upon hearing his name, did not successfully hide the dismissive look in her eyes. Matsu did not blame her -- few things clashed as strongly as the up-and-coming of a younger generation with the downward-sliding of the older. Perhaps she even thought him resentful.

"Forgive my intrusion, but if you are here for a mission I have one that you may wish to consider," he said as he reached into the sleeve of his robe, withdrawing the slim black dispatch and offering it to the girl. It was his opinion that the mission called for a certain recklessness uncharacteristic of his many chunin acquaintances. But recklessness was practically synonymous with youth, and by reputation this Scarlet Slash was perhaps just the chunin he needed to lead him on this dratted mission.