Snippet #2299693

Sugahara Matsu recommended that they all spend time in preparation and meet back at the mission office within the hour. Actually, he didn't recommend it so much as phrase it as a question -- his habit whenever in the tricky situation of speaking to juniors who outranked him. Still a genin despite his middle years having come and gone, the fat old scholar found himself in that tricky situation an awful lot.

He returned to his hut and gathered a few things that he wouldn't want to leave without, but as the pile grew larger and larger he spent a comparable length of time paring the selections back down to a manageable weight. After this he tidied his room, knowing he might not be returning to it for several months. If at all... he couldn't help but add. Not for the last time he wondered just why he'd been picked for such a mission -- one so obviously out of his depth.

After leaving his small hut Matsu ventured to the stockpile, where a small clutch of people stood in line, requisitioning the many communal items that the clan stored. When his turn finally arrived, he asked for a few weapons that he felt most comfortable with, but the bulk of his requisitioning was in the form of food, supplies, maps and other more practical provisions. Sure he packed several kunai and a bō staff that looked like a peasant's walking stick, but combat simply wasn't his forte and if the likes of Zetsumie, Akimoto and Miyazaki couldn't defend themselves, it was unlikely that his efforts would change the tide.

He returned around the time agreed upon, and waited for the others. Their mission would be a long one -- even reaching the capital would take weeks of hard travel -- and they would have several hard choices along the way. Starting with the direction and manner of their travel...:

"I propose that we travel east to the port town, and commission a coastal boat or fishing trawler that will take us north along the coast and then back west along the river to the capital. Longer, perhaps -- but safer by far." Whether or not the others agreed, he didn't know. His opinion wouldn't weigh heavily in their minds, that he knew.