;; reflections on innocence (p/i)

[❥;; bexx]

flashback

Sayuri was stranded on an island--with no means to escape. It was as though the skies above wanted to play games with her. First it was the violent waves and then now it was stranded. The only thing she got going for her was that she was not alone. At least she had Ren there with her. If not, she wouldn't know what to do. Having left the safety of the little town to seek a journey across the oceans, she really hadn't expected the journey to be so complicated. Maybe she was to blame for most of the complications; but she also blamed it a little on the cruelness if fate. If only fate could turn in her favor for once. But it wouldn't be notorious for being cruel if that was an option.

She sat on the sandy plains of a remote island. This place we far from ideal. Their boat had been hit with a violent wave while they were sailing; going to an unknown destination. They were lucky to make it to shore alive. But the real problems began to rise here. They had managed to settle the basic problem of food by cooking wild animals but now there was the problem with getting back to the ocean waters. Their craft having been carried by the vicious water was long gone somewhere and now they no longer had a boat that could continue their journey. So were they planning on just being left for stranded here? Was that where her fate would let her end up as the final point?

Ren had reassured her that he would find a way for them to leave. If he couldn't find a way,  he would make a way. Although trusting in his skills and word, she wasn't about to just be blindly hopeful. Their first night had come and gone without much trouble but it was only after waking up that she would start to wonder again how long it would be before without much trouble was going to slowly start to fade. And until then, what were they going to do?She was sure that she at least needed to do something to try and get them out of the mess.

Even though she had not be plagued with nightmares or weird dreams; a miracle upon itself, she found an unsettling and uneasy feeling surrounding her when she awoke the next morning. It couldn't be explained; or that there were just no words that could begin to offer the right explanation. She woke with a start, for a moment honestly afraid of something. That disturbed her because she didn't have the convenient excuse that it had been a nightmare she had just awoken from. Her sleep was dreamless as far she could tell. Then where did this feeling come from and why was it so great that it felt almost suffocating? She was at a loss for any kind of justification. 

A few seconds of blankness and then she would be forced back into reality. The reality which told her that she was stranded on an island and that she would need to get her act together if she didn't want to be stranded there forever. She looked at the smoke and ashes that were the remnants of the bonfire Ren had made the night before and then stared at the sleeping figure of Ren himself. She couldn't just sit there doing nothing since he had done so much. She would take advantage of the fact that he was still sleeping to try and act upon her thinkings. Just sitting wasn't going to get anything done after all.

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flashback

And so she would get up from the sandy plains, brushing her clothing off of any particles of sand. She was not a good sight she understood. But she was hardly going to worry about appearance when she had much more important things to worry about. Besides, there was just the two of them so it hardly would cause problems. If anyone else were to come and question her, she would merely say that this was the result of being almost killed out in the ocean. It was definitely good that she had managed to make it out of the chilling water alive. Everything else wouldn't matter to her. Her only concern now was if she could get out of here. If she hurried, she may still have a chance. 

She didn't wait for Ren to wake up to begin her search of the island. The island itself was filled with an abundance of trees, and she found that aside from trees and animals, there really wasn't much else. After one full tour of the place, she would return to the sandy plains, in search of her katana. It had been left there from the day before when Ren had used it to cut the rabbit it roast. After retrieving her weapon, she made her way back the same way she first went. She was going to go and get them some wood to hopefully recreate a craft of some sort. Though she wasn't sure the likeliness of that happening, it was worth a shot.

She walked into the forest of trees and began to look around. There were trees of many different sizes, with more of the really big ones. She knew that she would have to cut down the trees with something. Her katana just wouldn't do. But there didn't seem to be any other weapon, unless Ren miraculously had one. But then, Ren always miraculously had one thing or another so if he really did have a saw or something, she wouldn't be surprised. She looked around her, knowing that at that moment there was little she could do without the right equipment. She was going to have to leave the raft building to Ren when he woke up. But she needed something to do, anything. She didn't have that many things she knew how to do, sadly. It would take a few minutes before she finally found something.

She decided that it would be best if she hunted for food. Food always seemed to be a problem and especially on an isolated island as this one. When she had first landed here she had already taken a quick tour of the place, revealing nothing edible. But she hadn't quite done a thorough search. Besides, when she landed, she was tired and the sun had already begun to set. If she had overlooked something, it would have been perfectly normal. She only hoped that the new day and a refreshed self would let her find something. Anything other than animals. Even though she had enjoyed the rabbit, she still felt a little guilty for eating it. 

She set out to highs and lows, trying to find something she might have missed when she had first toured. She found that there were blueberries and cranberries hanging from a tree. There were remnants of plants sprouting from the ground and the mass quantities of it indicated that somebody had come here before and decided to plant them there. But where were they? The forest didn't seem to have anything. Could the rabbits have eaten all of what was planted? She knew that rabbits had a craving for plants, especially large quantities of them. They wouldn't be able to survive without some sort of food out here. So the possibility of the vegetables falling victim to the rabbits became more and more visible.

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flashback

But she was still believed that there were vegetables untouched somewhere on the island. She did another thorough search of the land, going by inches to see if she could have overlooked. But a second time would reveal nothing again. Flabbergasted by the inability to find something so simple, she would return to the forest again. It was unbelievable. She hadn't been dreaming of seeing the remnants of the plants. So then, where were they? She would be trying to find them as she continued to walk. And she would find them; some twelve or so hours later because right then her foot slipped on the mud and sent her rolling down a rather steep muddy slope. She had been too immersed in her thinking to look where she was going.  

She let out a little scream as she went flying forward, her body hitting the muddy slope and rolling down it. To add on to her already dirty attire. The slope wasn't as steep as that of a cliff or a mountain but it was steep enough that it took a few seconds of rolling before she would stop. Her head crashed into a tree trunk after stopping, knocking all the living daylights out of her. Feeling the initial pain from her head, her eyes would close and she would enter a state of unconscious. She definitely had not planned for that to happen. But she was unclumsy in her own right, so that it was just natural that she would find herself at a bottom of a slope.

Ren on the other hand had just awoken from deep slumber himself. He had slept longer than he intended especially on a surface like sand. He wasn't that fond of the particles in any way. But he must have been too tired to care the night before. Yawning loudly, he started to stand up. He noticed that the fire he had started was all but distinguished by now. He looked left and right, trying to find Sayuri. He had half expected her to continue to be sleeping when he woke up but it was already late morning. The sun was already streaming warmth down on the island. And his passenger was nowhere to be found. Thinking that she had probably gone to wash up, he didn't take much attention to her absence.

He was thinking about the plan he had had before. He was going to have to build a raft. It was a good thing that before he had gone under the water he had grabbed his emergency kit. It had all the necessary equipment to ensure that he could get a raft made and ready in no time. He retrieved his kit from his right. It contained a hammer, some rope as well as some first aid equipment in case an injury was to fall on him. He figured that he would need a lot of wood and logs for the raft since it needed to be big enough for two people to travel on. It also needed to be sturdy to support the weight of them. He was already thinking that it would take him most of the day just collecting the wood.

He didn't wait for her to come back to start looking for wood. The faster he started the faster he would be done and the faster they would be able to get off the island. If she came back and found that he wasn't there, she could use common knowledge to deduce that he was out in the forest trying to cut down tree trunks to make them a raft. Taking his bag along with him, he would make his way towards the forest area, anticipating that the day was going to be tiresome and cruel. He wasn't one that like physical labor, at least not too much of it. But they'd landed here and he couldn't ask a girl to go and chop down trees.

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flashback

As he reached the abundance of forestland, he would look around at where he was and he would be searching for a the perfect size of trees to start chopping. His tools were good on small and medium sized trees. Any of the massive ones that must have been planted there some hundred of years ago were not wise. And so he calculated the rough amount of how much wood he would need so that he could at least have an idea of how much chopping he would need to do. He realized that such calculations were a waste of time since he was going to have to chop down one tree to see just how much wood he got from it in order to even begin to calculate. He quickly got to work, assuming that he would at least have two or three trees chopped before the afternoon was over.

The cool breeze that swept over the island was an asset for Ren. He couldn't possibly work under humid conditions. As he swung a spade and then his hammer at one small sized tree, he would officially begin his long working day. The tree wasn't as small as what he had expected. It had looked skinny on appearance but he forgot appearance could be deceiving. He would take an hour or so before he would be able to get the wood from that one tree. He would go ahead and chop down a couple more of those small sized trees before he would finally take a break, some three hours later. By that time he had already more than a handful of wood to be used for the raft. But he was far from done, he knew.

He would tie the bundle of wood with some string he had in his bag  so that it would be easier for him to carry and make his way back to the sandy plains. He was expecting to find Sayuri sitting back on the sand and maybe even preparing lunch for him to get back. So he raised an eyebrow when he came back to a deserted beach. Where did she go? He had been gone for a minimum of four hours already and if she had gone to take a quick bath of sorts in the ocean, she would have come back by now. He put down the wood he was holding and would start to search for the girl. After a thorough search of the beach and revealing nothing, he decided that it was best to do a thorough search of the island itself. He wasn't too worried at that moment though, not at this point.

Meanwhile, Sayuri was still unconscious, having hit her head quite hard against the tree trunk to break her fall. She lay there at the bottom of the slope, not moving. She wouldn't know how much time would have passed until she woke up again or that Ren was out abovee trying to search for her. She would be quite busy, tending to another one of the dreams that came whenever she closed her eyes; with the exception of the night before. This dream was just like the one she had had on the boat. It would detail another mission. She would find that the amount of time it took for her to regain consciousness was enough for her to dream of the happenings of two missions; one after another. 

And so, the search party began for Ren. He was looking high and low, past first the forestland which he had come from and making a full circle around the island. He made sure to search even the unlikeliest of places. Even if he didn't expect her to be under a boulder for instance, he didn't want to overlook any details. But he would overlook that one detail where he didn't think if going down that steep muddy slope to see if she may be down there. That was an error of judgment, that would cost him not being to find her until some six hours later.

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Mission Name Help!
Mission Rank: D
Mission Description: The snow build-up in Yuki no Kuni and the chilling weather has caused the snow to turn into ice. This is especially dangerous as the ice is covered in seconds by new snowfall. An elderly woman walking to the village slipped and has sprained her ankle.
Mission Objective: Find where the old woman is, assist her back into village and to the Yukigakure Hospital to treat her ankle.
Reward: 500 Ryo | 25 EXP

flashback

Yukigakure no Sato and Yuki no Kuni were both hit with steady snowfall again. It was a snowstorm that was waiting to happen. It seemed that the land would always find an abundance of snowstorms and blizzards. They were literally hit with one every couple of days, with the only difference being the severity of each one. Like the last night when the entire village was fast asleep the skies had decided it was good to give the village some more snow, raining down about five inches of it for the villagers to wake up to this morning. And the snow still hadn't stop when she woke up a couple hours ago. She had been told that the village was going to be expecting ten inches of snow by the end of this afternoon. It just meant that the streets would be filled with car accidents or people that injured themselves walking on black ice.

She yawned softly as she sat up on her bed, having slept a rather good night despite all that snowfall. She caught a glimpse from the window behind her the monstrosity of the storm that was still raging. Flakes of visible snow were piling up on the window sill and also the grounds below. She knew that there was going to be more to come in the upcoming hours. Sighing, she got out of bed and dressed herself in her normal attire of a suit and skirt. Despite it being snowing and such, she would never wear anything but. She hurried down the wide staircase and made her way to the kitchen, to find her brother already up.

"Kiddo, you're going out in that thing?" He looked at her skirt and raised an eyebrow. She would nod her head and sit down on the chair opposite him where a servant would hand her her daily cup of hot chocolate. She didn't find anything wrong with her attire at all. In fact, she knew lots of people that took to the same kind of dress walking around the village. "Daijoubu Nii-sama~ I'll wear boots and a heavy coat." she reassured him. Giving her a rather a skeptical glance he would rise from his chair informing her that he was going to be gone most of the day for training with his team. She was just going to have to find something to do to occupy her time for the day. After he left, she would finish her hot chocolate before leaving the mansion.

The cold waft of air caught her as she left the house and began walking down the main streets of Yukigakure no Sato. She had not expected to be bored since she had wanted to spend her day with her brother. But intead she was now on the streets trying to kill time. The snowfall was not yet too heavy as she walked down the main street. She noticed how there were fewer vendors out doing business because of the snow. That was expected. Who would want to stand out in the freezing cold with snow falling on their heads. Originally she had wanted to stay home too but she would be equally as bored if she were to stare at four walls all day. She rather spend a few hours outdoors and breathing in fresh air, even if it was cold air.

She was wearing boots and an overcoat with a hood over her silver locks, protecting her head and feet from the bitter cold. As she continued to walk, she noticed that the salting trucks were out at work again. She wondered how long they had started working this morning. It was definitely not just now since she had done a mission of salting not too long ago. She waved at the crew and bowed to the crew for their hard work. Their hard work was often overlooked by the village. If only she could help them in some way. But she was only a Genin and definitely didn't have the authority to do much. Eventually--one day she will!

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flashback

She guessed that the only thing left to do in the village was either a mission or just mindless wandering. After the salting mission she wasn't sure if she wanted to take up a mission just yet. Even though she wanted to help out the village as best as she could, she was starting to get wary of the constant snow-related missions. She had done two consecutively about clearing the streets of the village. There was interaction with the crew but other than that there was no interaction at all. She would only actively take a mission from the Yukikage Tower if it had nothing to do with the substance called snow. She didn't hate it but she certainly hated having everything she did connect in some way with it. There was no real demand for missions to be completed any way.

She moved right from the Yukikage Tower, hesitating only a little as she looked at the big building before. She was tempted to go in and check out the mission board like she always did but she bit back the temptation. She knew that she only had to take one look at the board before she would snatch a slip off of the board and walk out again. She hated knowing herself so well. It was really scary sometimes. So she decided that she would pass the village gates and then see what would happen from mindless wandering. It sucked to be bored and it sucked to be cold alongside of that. Her feet would take her to just in front of the village gates when she saw someone running up to her.

The person that was running towards her was carrying something in one hand and looked a little frantic. As he approached her, he would stop for a moment, trying to catch his breath. The boy had short blond hair and saphire colored eyes. "Are you a Genin?" he asked as soon as he found his voice to speak. She nodded her head. "Good, take this. I gotta run. Sensei needs me to do something real quick and I don't have time to take the mission." He shoved the slip he was carrying into her hand and then sped past her down the main streets. She turned her head to see that he had already disappeared down the street. So she was going to have to do a mission after all. Though she didn't mind helping a fellow shinobi, she still wondered why he'd take a mission knowing that he couldn't complete it. The mission was already stamped as active, meaning that it had been assigned. 

So she was left with no choice. She read through the mission quickly. That little bastard! The mission required his assistance of an elderly lady who had sprained her ankle out in the country. He had come running to her meaning that he must have come from the country. Way to leave a stranded old lady out in a blizzard! She shoved the mission slip in the pocket of her trenchcoat and hurried past the gates of Yukigakure. The guards looked at her with odd glances but didn't stop her as she sped past them and into the country. She quickened her pace even more as she met the familiar scene of Yuki no Kuni. There was really nothing special about the country, just snow snow and more snow.

She knew she would have to find the old lady first. Who knew how much time had passed since the mission had been written and for that little bastard to take it and give it to her. It could have been hours. Looking up at the falling flakes of snow, she would have to gain even more speed as the search began. The landscape was of a very beautiful white that if there was someone trapped amidst it, it could probably beboth easy and hard to find. The blizzard was not letting up, clouding her vision as she started to look for a figure who either sat or lay on the snow. It was harder than she thought to find. She would probably have exactly half an hour for her to find her client before the blizzard would start to be a real pain in the ass. This was just great!

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Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Technique)
Rank: D
Type: Supplementary / Ninjutsu
Range: 0 - 10 meters
Special: Flickering is forward-moving, meaning the user will rush almost instantly to wherever they are facing. The user can flicker once per thread, plus once more each time retrained.
Description: Shunshin no Jutsu is a basic ninjutsu technique used across the shinobi world by all, ranging from the most basic shinobi to the legends of lore. Considered is a high-speed movement technique, it allows a ninja to move short to long distances at an almost untraceable speed - to an observer, it appears as if the user has teleported. Such a feat is accomplished by using chakra to temporarily vitalise the body and move at extreme speeds they would otherwise be unable to reproduce. In the end, the user will appear and disappear in an instant, allowing them to retreat or attack suddenly should they need it. To facilitate the movement the ninja will often use nearby elements such as mist, sand or leaves to mask their appearance or disappearance.
Domain: Shunshin - Universal Ninjutsu.

flashback
{starting Shunshin retraining}

She looked at the falling snow and gave an exasperated sigh. Even though she was technically running as she sped to find the old lady, the heavy amount of snow that was on the ground made it difficult for an actual all-out run. And she only had half an hour! She really needed to pick up the pace. Since she had already loss about ten minutes of her time using just her muscles, she thought it was going to be better if she borrowed the help of her chakra. Namely, she was thinking of a jutsu she'd learned a long time ago called Shunshin. It was a fast moving jutsu and she had learned it once almost a year ago. Now it was time for her to call upon it's services again as she tried desperately to find her client.

Shunshin was a combination of running and chakra. She would have to power her feet with enough chakra to carry her through a maximum of ten meters in distance. Since she knew that she probably wouldn't have to use her chakra for anything else during the mission, she would use a bit of it for this jutsu. It was an ease of movement and if done right enabled the user to move faster than a blink of an eye. Since this was a Taijutsu that used chakra she stopped at a certain point of her search, readying her body's chakra for it. Since she was pressed for time, there was no room for failure. 

The good and bad thing about this jutsu was that the only thing that was of concern to her would be her chakra. Chakra was never an issue for her since she had gained a lot of experience with control. She needed the most effort in streaming of her chakra to her feet so that she could release it for the power run. Her chakra had been dormant for some time now and she was now forced to activate her chakra more. She closed her eyes and felt her chakra starting to run in her body.

She felt that her chakra was starting to become more active as she stood. The snow fell continously around her as she did so. Her feet felt the continuous surge of energy and began to feel numb. She knew that she would have to hurry if she wanted to get through the grounds of Yuki no Kuni at a faster pace she would have to hurry with the process of actually preparing for the jutsu. By this time she had used another couple of minutes of her precious time.

Once she was certain that she was ready with the chakra built up to her feet, she opened her eyes, hit by the blizzard that had once more graced her eyes. She had to  have her pupils adjusting once more to the blazing snow. She released the chakra from the chakra points in her feet and then ran forward with the chakra powering her run. She was definitely feeling the pace level change as she sped forward. Even though it was only allowed to move her forward, she knew it was sufficient for this mission.

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flashback

She ran forward with her chakra releasing with her as she ran. The wind and snow blew against her face even if she was running faster than speed of light. She felt the steady release of chakra, her energy was starting to sputter. Ah no, she was losing her chakra flow and it was affecting her speed. After a few seconds, she was already coming to a full stop. She had traveled six meters which wasn't bad considering the amount of chakra she had used for it. But there was more that was needed for the full ten meters. She didn't have time to wait and think any longer. She will have to keep going.

The amount of chakra no longer mattered as long as she got somewhere every time she used it. The more time she spent stalling with her chakra, the more time she was wasting from actually trying to find the old lady. In this kind of blizzard there was no telling what could happen. And the worst of it was that the temperature was dropping steadily as the minutes ticked by. It was just vital that she needed to prioritize her what she was doing. The search was steadily going  on, even as she was retraining the jutsu at the same time. Deciding not to keep going in just one direction, she would stop and steer her body to the right.

The mission slip hadn't said where the old woman was last seen. But guessing the speed of the old lady and the harshness of the weather, she could have gone far. She would veer to the right having already travelled five meters forward. Powering her feet with her chakra again she moved swiftly forward to her right. Moving fast did allow her more than one benefit. She was allowed to not let her eyes be hindered by the falling snow. She needed to keep a sharp eye though because her speed was now infinitely faster. The balls of feet didn't even feel like her own as she ran.

There was much more to shunshin than just running forward but she had decided to use a lower ranked version of the jutsu just so that she could have room for error. She felt the wind against her face as she moved and within a few seconds she was another five meters to the right of where she was standing. She still couldn't find the old lady anywhere which was starting to unnerve her. But she would keep searching. Had she gone the wrong direction or just not far enough? But the possibility of her not going far enough wasn't possible factoring the other factors that she had took notice of. She stopped again and looked around. Snow was all that met her eyes.

So the only available option was if she had gone the wrong direction. This was so troublesome. She steered her body to the left now and she would now have to shunshin back to the place she had been before and then keep going forward in the left direction. Her eyes again took note of the white landscape. God she had to find that old woman soon before she froze to death! She cursed under breath before bracing herself for another run. The chakra burst wasn't huge, thankfully or else she would have a time trying to get around this thick snow even if she had the right jutsu in mind. So her choice of using this rank of jutsu had been right after all.

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flashback

She had a lot of her body's chakra built up in her legs so that she was able to move without any more trouble or time wasted. She advanced forward, her eyes squinting as she rushed back to where she was. The balls of her feet were carried by the force of her chakra and in an instant she was back to where she started, five meters to the left again. She only needed another five meters to the left again. She guessed that the old lady wouldn't have gone farther than five meters. The wind was now changing direction, hitting her straight in the face.

Five more meters to go she told herself as she focused her chakra to her her feet again. Just a little bit more. She would find that her feet would start to numb again while more of her body's scattered chakra was streamed to her legs. She was starting to love shunshin a lot more as she used it more often. She sprinted forward and it took a mere second of time plus a small amount of her chakra to get her to her destination. It was interesting how she was able to now control how far she went with her energy. The moment she stopped releasing, the moment she would stop running. Both worked together in perfect harmony. 

She was certain that she had finally gotten the hang of shunshin even though she had done so long ago. But since she had not used it as often as her other jutsus, she felt that it was necessary to retrain at certain times just so she could get her game and ease back. It was her first learned Taijutsu and she knew that she would be able to benefit from it when the time came. And having trained now, she felt she had not lost the initial abilities when she first learned shunshin.

{end shunshin retraining}

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flashback

And as she turned on her heel for a three hundred sixty look of the country as she stopped using shunshin. Her eye was keen, searching for a figure. And soon she would come upon a person that was covered with snow. Her light purple overcoat was literally covered with so much snow that it turned white and blended itself together with the scenery. She had almost missed the light purple while the blizzard blazed on. But thankfully age had found her or else she may really freeze to death under such harsh conditions. She would tread over to the huddled woman. Her stride was slow against the slowly thickening snow.

She squinted against the flakes which came showering overhead. Snow was literally blowing in her face, clouding her already limited vision. She fought a fierce battle with mother nature with mother nature apparently winning most of the time. It was a challenge walking the few steps towards the figure and even though she was wearing boots, her feet would sink into the cold. The cold and wetness of the snow sank into her skin, causing the natural coldness of the winter air to be added with an extra dose of chill. It took a couple of minutes of maneuvering before she finally found herself within range of the huddled figure. 

"Are you alright?" her voice was almost lost in the howling winds. The figure turned as she addressed her. She was indeed an old woman with frail grey hair. Her grey locks were tucked neatly in the hood of the overcoat. The snow that was coming down had only managed to stick to the ends of her hair. Her skin was wrinkled indicating her age. The old lady's eyes lightened up when she saw Sayuri. "Oh dear, have you come to help me?" She smiled at her and then nodded her head. "I'm sorry I took so long." she had wanted to find the woman sooner. 

The little prick that had originally taken the mission had took the slip earlier that morning and had taken his sweet old time doing other things. Only during the only afternoon did he happen to recall in that thick mind of his that he still had a mission to take care of. She sighed and then shook her head. She then quickly assessed the injury of the old woman. There was nothing serious other than her swollen ankle. The old woman must have been out here for a long time. Sayuri brushed off the excess snow on the overcoat and then looked towards the surrounding. It was about a total of twelve meters away from the village gates.

"Does anywhere else hurt other than your ankle?" her voice was a soft whisper, a tone she only used with elderly people. The woman shook her head and Sayuri nodded. She grasped the old woman's wrinkled hands that were as cold as ice. Sayuri was even more angry as she knelt beside her client. But there wasn't much time to waste. She had to get her to the village hospital to have her ankle checked out. But under these conditions, how was she going to achieve this? There wasn't anything out here except snow barrens and the two of them. She timed herself to at least think of a way to solve the problem in five minutes.

 

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flashback

And she wouldn't need five minutes to come up with a solution merely because there was only one solution that she could see. As previously mentioned they were stranded alone here in the country, the duo of young and old with the old of the two being injured. They were covered in snow with a blizzard threatening to overtake them at any minute. There were only two options available for her right now, either to offer the old woman support so that she could help her get to the village which would require the woman to be able to stand on her feet or she was going to have to carry her. But knowing the conditions that they were surrounded it, she doubted the first option was viable. She would give it a try anyway and found that she was quite right. "I'll carry you." her sentences were short and to the point.

The old woman would attempt to say otherwise but Sayuri would not hear it. It was futile to argue with her if her mind was set to it. The old woman would try to get up only to moan and sit back down on the snow covered ground afterward. Her point was proven. She told her that carrying her would be the only way that she would be able to get her to the village hospital so that they could have her ankle checked before the blizzard was going to hit them in full swing. It was after this explanation that the old woman would finally let up on the possibility of having her being carried. Sayuri knew that she wasn't being difficult. It was just that she thought it was bothersome for her. It was her job as the mission taker even though the original mission taker wasn't her. But that was beside the point.

She would take note that she needed something to help her balance with the added weight of the woman on her back. Having carried someone on her back before she knew how hard it was to stabilize and walk at the same time. Back when she was in the little town she had carried her guardian once and she needed the help of her katana to support her. In these kinds of weather conditions and with the heavy snow blinding her almost, the need for an object to help her was more than necessary. But where to find this object? She had forgotten her katana at the mansion today because she hadn't expected to take on a sudden mission involving any use of it. There was not even a stick in sight for her to borrow. Her foot tapped the snowy ground, her fingers drumming on her overcoat as she pondered a possible solution.

And it wouldn't take long before the solution came to her. She was going to use Yuki no Kami. Yuki no Kami allowed her to borrow any water source and turn it into anything she wanted meaning that she could turn the water into some kind of weapon to help her in replacement of her katana. She didn't even think twice as she formed the handseals and then released her chakra. She would borrow the water from the air particles around to create a staff out of hard ice. Since she had retrained the jutsu many times, her solidifying ability was very good. The chakra she had released for this jutsu was equal to that of a C rank and the staff would form almost instantly. She tested the staff and found that it was very sturdy. Thank God. And then she would turn to the old woman and tell her to wrap her arms around her so that she could carry her. She complied and got on her back.

The added weight of the old woman was really one that needed the help of the staff. The bulk now on her back was too much for her to handle on normal dry land much less one that was covered with inches of snow. She began to walk, taking first baby steps to test her balance. As she got more adjusted to the weight of the old woman she would continue in bigger steps, walking first to the right for six meters. She was confident that they would be able to get to the village very soon with the help of her staff. It helped her push her body forward against the blinding flakes of snow as the wind blew them against her face. This was quite the mission for her to take but at least she would end up helping someone in real need.

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flashback

The road back to the village never felt so long for her. In fact it felt like an eternity before she would reach halfway. She was taking very cautious steps as she advanced forward knowing that if she took too big of steps she could risk injuring herself with the added weight. The old woman noticed this and asked her if she was too heavy for her. Turning her head to face her, she would shake her head and offer a reassuring smile. She was her client and most importantly she wanted her to be treated for the injury. She would turn to face forward again, noticing that she was going to have to walk north from that direction for another six meters before the village gates would even be visible. The blinding snow was making it much harder to go forward but at least she would be able to get to the turning point of the direction so that the snow wouldn't be blasting in her face.

She decided it was probably good to maintain a constant stream conversation between her and the old woman. There was really nothing else to do now as they walked slowly. She thought maybe a little conversation would help alleviate the fact that she wanted to take a torch and melt all the snow that she could. She questioned the woman for the reason why she had decided to come out when there was a snowstorm raging. Her answer was that she had had to send her grandson to shinobi academy. He was way too young to venture such a long way from the country to the village in such horrible weather. Such a good grandmother, she thought with a smile. Sayuri wanted to have a grandmother like that; or just parents in general that could take such good care of her. But she guessed she was lucky to have a brother that did all of that. There were the clan elders too, of course.

She continued to say that she had just been walking out of the village back home when she slipped on some black ice and sprained her ankle. A mission slip had been sent to the Kage tower when surveillence teams were out patrolling. Apparently they thought that because they were only responsibly for surveying that other things had nothing to do with them. They said that it was a shinobi's job and that they'd be able to help her better and had just left her stranded. If she ever found out who had said that to her she would make living hell rain on them. It was never just a shinobi's job to do something and it was definitely not morally right for them to just leave an injured old woman to fend off a snow storm on her own. What were people thinking? She heaved a sigh as she finished telling her story and shook her head. This village needed to have better rules for the non-shinobi. Just because they had a headband on their heads makes them God apparently.

Where was civil duty or was that non-existent in this village? But she would not think of this as she finally turned north and began to trudge the six meters to the village gates. By now she was much accustomed the old woman's weight and also of walking on the inches of snow. She didn't mind much that her feet were red and cold as they sank deep into the snow. She was almost there. Sayuri told the old woman her name and that she was a shinobi that had taken on the mission. She didn't mention that it was under the condition that somebody else had originally taken the mission. She would just continue to walk, seeing the gates more and more visible as she walked. It was a about ten more minutes of solid walking before she would see the guards standing guard the gates. Finally they were there!

It seemed like forever that she had first taken on the mission. As she drew near the guards with the old woman, she flashed the mission slip from her pocket and passed the gate. The ice staff was still in her hand as she walked past the gate and officially entered the village. Here at least the roads were cleared periodically by the crew. She still needed the staff to help her down the main street. Their next destination was going to be to the village hospital which was a street or so away from where they were currently walking. The mission was almost done!

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flashback

The village streets were definitely much better for walking than out there in the disaster known as the country. She didn't know how anybody could make it across the lands to get to the village or from the village to wherever they were going in that horrible setting. Nobody was even responsible for at least shoveling a couple of roads which could allow people to not have to fight their way to get from point A to point B. She shifted the old woman's weight a little as she continued down the main streets, beads of sweat forming on her forehead even though it was bone-chilling cold. It was really hard work trying to trudge across inches of snow. But now that the feat was accomplished she felt rather proud. A couple of people she recognized were looking at her and offer to give her some help. Who was there to help her and the old woman when they were out in the country? She declined their gestures and would keep going.

The hospital of Yukigakure was a large five story building that most consisted of hospital beds and rooms for the injured. There was the Emergency Room, also known as the ER, the ultrasound rooms and also the receptionist on the first floor. The second floor housed all the operation rooms for medical shinobi to perform surgery. Only the very serious of patients needed surgery. The three floors above that were all hospital rooms of different sizes depending on what the patient needed or wanted. Some wanted privacy and would prefer one person rooms. The hospital was able to accommodate to that too. Usually the staff there were bustling around the first floor as most of the walk-ins had emergencies of their own right. Some would think that their conditions were an emergency and would request doctor assistance almost immediately. Others would actually come into the ER with serious injuries or conditions which needed immediate medical attention.

As she stepped inside the hospital through the sliding automatic doors, she would find that it was unusually quiet. She looked at the clock that was mounted on the wall. It was still too early for the usual swarm of people to invade the rather large space. She would put down the old woman gently onto a plastic chair and ask for her basic information. Then she would walk over to the reception's area where a nurse was busy sorting patient records. Upon noticing Sayuri, she would immediately put down what she had been doing before and tend to her with a big smile. At least some people were nice around here and gave a damn! She would give the nurse the basic information of the old woman and tell her what had happened to her. Naturally because of the low traffic at that time, the old woman was admitted into one of the ER rooms immediately, with a doctor waiting for her.

She helped the old woman up from the chair and walked towards the room slowly, her body supporting that of the woman's. The whole examination period took about ten minutes at most before she was discharged with the diagnosis that the only thing wrong with her was a swollen ankle which would need to have weight kept off of it for the next week or so. Thanking the doctor, Sayuri would take the woman back to the plastic chair so that she could sit while she adjusted her clothing to prepare to carry her back to the country and then across it to her house. Again the old woman would want to refuse and again she would refuse to hear it. It was really nothing since she told her she needed her morning exercise. And in a few moments, the girl would have the old woman on her back again and would be carrying her back down the main streets of Yukigakure, making her way to the village gates.

By now the sun was already shining making it a little warmer at least in temperature. The afternoon was fast approaching and she was going to take the old woman back to her house. She told her that her son would be off work soon so then he could go and pick up her grandson from school. At least that problem was taken care of. Nodding her head, she would walk slowly past the guards and once more into the country land. She was surprised to find that by this time the road was much easier. It was probably due to her already growing accustomed to walking in inches thick snow that it failed to be a problem. She would walk at a steady pace, not wanting to go too fast in case she went way ahead of herself and fell down on the snow.

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flashback

Sayuri would trudge along the snow covered grounds, having the support of her staff again. The snowfall had let up a little which was at least a momentary relief. The old woman would tell her the directions to getting her back to her house. Nodding her head she would follow the directions closely, turning right and left as indicated. During the trip, the two of them were talking and laughing, trying to take the brunt of the snow and the weather out of their heads. And for the most part it worked. The return trip, which was of longer distance, took a lot less time then the first time because she was already used to the momentum that the snow offered for her. She didn't know how long they had walked before she would finally see a wooden direction board indicating that they were nearing a town. So there was a town in Yuki no Kuni? That was new.

She would find that the little town was warm and comfortable. She guessed that the place didn't have shinobi living in it, mostly consisting for families with children aspiring to become shinobi. It was one of those places that were small but provided a warm atmosphere despite the climate. The streets were much smaller than Yukigakure but they were well-kept. There was no snow that accumulated the roads or sidewalks which she guessed was the efforts of the townspeople. She didn't know how many people lived in that town but apparently the old woman would tell her that the population was quite small. Everyone knew everyone else in the town and they were all good friends. One day Sayuri would want to live in such a place too. It was much cozier than the big village, that was for sure.

But it wasn't that easy she knew. She was a descendent of the Yukina Clan and as one of the backbones of the village, the clan needed to uphold to their name. She was expected to be the best of the best and anything that was less than that would be seen as a disgrace of bearing the Yukina Clan name. Sometimes she felt so much pressure from the elders that she would wish her fate was different; that she could be born into a non-shinobi family and didn't possess a kekkei genkai. But she soon realized that being part of the clan had its perks too, especially because it was a kekkei genkai. Many of the normal shinobi wanted to have that sort of ability too. She was going to have to eventually choose whether she wanted to succeed as an elder of that clan. But thankfully she was still young.

She would turn down a couple of side streets and reach the residential parts of the town. As they got to the old woman's house, her neighbor would come to greet them, asking what had happening. After explaining to her the circumstances, she would offer to take care of the old woman so that Sayuri could be on her way. Nodding her head again, she would help the old woman back into the house first and make sure that there was hot water on the stove before taking her leave. Before she left, the old woman would thank her for all the help she gave her. In a joking manner, Sayuri told her that the way for her to thank her was for her to make some rice cakes for her the next time she visited since the old woman had boasted about her rice cakes as being the world's best ice cakes. The woman agreed and bid farewell to her.

It didn't take long for her to find the entrance of the town again. She took note that the town wasn't well off but it wasn't poor either. It had lived up to it's standards as a town. She knew that she would eventually find herself visiting this place again, especially the old woman. She would probably be able to help out her grandson with some of the academy work since she had had to go through six years of that before becoming a Genin. Adjusting her headband a little, she would walk out of the town, her face holding a satisfied expression.

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flashback

The journey back to Yukigakure no Sato was amazingly easier than she had first imagined. She found that with the extra weight from her body removed, she was allowed to walk a little faster in the snow. She still needed the help of her staff once in awhile when her foot would meet with hidden black ice. The black ice was so slippery that she was sure that a fall from it would not have been good at all. They needed to salt the area at some point so then people wouldn't get killed just trying to travel. She would have to speak with someone, anyone about this matter as it was a hazard that had been ignored for the longest of time. She was going to have to actually speak to one of the crew representatives some time in the next couple of days. She would make her way back home first before going to the Yukikage Tower.

She made her way down the main streets of the village again and then made her way to the Yukina mansion. She was in a desperate need of a change of clothing that she couldn't wait until she got to the Yukikage Tower to get her mission reward. She ran up the flight of stairs and then went to her room to change her clothing. In a few minutes she was running down the stairs and out the door again, the completed mission slip in her hand. She was ecstatic that she had finished a mission already without meaning to and that she had helped a person in the process. Killing two birds with one stone. She ran down the snowy streets in her overcoat and made her way to the Tower. She noticed that the blizzard was not as strong now which meant that the wave of snowstorm had yet to hit.

The Yukikage Tower was at the end of the main street and after a few minutes of walking, she would find herself standing in front of the building. It was amusing that she had recalled how she wanted to take a mission only that morning and had forced herself not to because she had no interest in taking petty mission. But then she had turned right around and found herself caught in the middle of one without realizing it. She would venture inside the tower and head towards the reception area where she had received the last mission rewards. By this time the receptionist now recognized her. She walked up to her and handed her the mission slip, telling her that she had completed it. Eyeing the title of the mission she would turn her eyes to look at Sayuri.

"You hadn't had the mission approved by me, dear." She put down the mission slip on the desk while she heard Sayuri's response. She raised an eyebrow because she knew that the girl wasn't lying. She remembered having approved the mission to the blonde haired Genin early in the morning. She sneered as she was sure that she was not going to give the man another mission any time soon. She took out the ryo box and paid the girl five hundred ryo, awarding her for her hard work. She thanked the woman and turned to leave the tower, smiling at the fact that she had gotten money. It was her lucky day. As she walked out of the tower, she would come colliding with the blond haired shinobi that had given her the mission that morning. She definitely wasn't in the mood to entertain him.

"Lass, give me that mission money." She bluntly refused. He was a gruff and she had no interest and no heart to listen to what else she had to say. She just turned to leave but he would not let her. It was then that her anger was unleashed on her. As he grabbed hold of her arm, she turned on her heel and took out a kunai from her weapon pouch adn took it to his neck hissing that he'd better scram right that very second before his throat was going to have an extra slash. He saw the seriousness in her eyes and heard it in her tone. He nodded his head and then ran back down the streets, not looking back at her as he did so. Good, he knew danger when he saw it.