Snippet #2292806

"No," the young kunoichi replied, when she felt collected enough to do so. She gritted her teeth as she rolled to her good side and climbed to her feet. Without looking at Akimoto at all, she moved past him to retrieve her ninjato from where it lay from she had been disarmed. With a somewhat awkward motion she resheathed the small, straight ninja blade in the black lacquered scabbard at her side. "Well fought," she mumbled formally, still not making eye contact. She busied herself with minor actions such as dusting herself off, checking various fastenings, rolling her shoulder -- anything to avoid the inevitable.

Like the armored-nin, Miya was her own harshest critic, and where two good friends would have congratulated each other on their successes, it appeared that these two could only see their own defeat in the duel. Finally, unable to postpone any longer, she made her way over to Sugahara Matsu, ready to hear him declare her defeat. That it was the fat old scholar as the judge somehow made the anticipated blow sting all the more.

"11-9 Akimoto-sama," the scholar declared, pointing to the armored-nin as the winner. Miya tched, angry at hearing the results though not surprised. The numbers themselves didn't mean anything -- it was the ratio between them that told the story. A decisive victory could have been two-to-one, or maybe even a three-to-two ratio. Anything smaller was hardly conclusive, and barely even worth the title of victor. 11-to-9 was essentially tossing a coin to declare the winner. Let the faux-samurai have his hollow victory, she thought bitterly.

((Not sure if Zetsumie will agree to lead the mission or not, so I'm leaving it there. Depending on Zetsu's response, Matsu will either give Akimoto the black dispatch with the missive inside, or tell the two chunin that Z's in charge.))

***** *****

The missive was simple. Any child could read the basic characters that spoke of a man who was going to be going to the city to look for work. In it he asked for his love to be given to the recipient's family, and made other sentimental gestures before concluding. Rather a simple message, to hide such a fateful mission. Translated from the code that the Spirit Fox clan used to encrypt their missives, and the small paper scroll said something else entirely. Even now, despite having verified the message numerous times, Matsu wondered whether or not there had been some mistake.

Investigate and verify claim that Emperor Hasegawa's son Shuhei is gripped by a kami-spirit.
Depending on outcome, hold position and report for further instructions.
Leave no trace of presence.

Even this transcribed message seemed laden with unspecified undertones, although Matsu was no expert on such things. 'Leave no trace of presence' never needed to be stated to a Spirit Fox shinobi -- when it was specified it generally meant that there was a possibility of assassination. He trembled at the thought of being involved in a mission to kill an Imperial Prince, especially the 10-year-old Shuhei.

"We start on the morrow," he said to the others involved. Although the oldest of them all he was by far the least experienced in field work, and a genin besides. He was glad to hand the reins over to the new mission leader. Still unsure of why the his old sensei Arashiyami Kozaburo had sent him on this mission, he would do his best to stay out of the way and leave the work to the more skillful of the party.