Young and a Menace

[Amy]

Aimi didn't even bother trying to hide the look of annoyance on her face. She didn't care how readable and transparent she was being. At least, not right now she didn't. Right now she was too focused on getting out of this.

“Give me one good reason why I should have to do this.” Her voice was defiant in tone, not pretending she was right but truly believing she was. Taiko, though, just seemed to be fed up with her...like usual.

“Because you’re a Shinobi and it’s your job?”

And with that one sentence, Aimi knew that she couldn’t win this fight. Taiko’s no-nonsense tone was even more apparent than her own. Plus, he had the annoying advantage of being her superior. Even if she won, sometimes it didn’t matter and she still lost. But today that didn’t matter. Today, she wanted her reason, even if she had lost.

“I’m not asking why I have to go on a mission, genius.” The look that that earned her said that she’d be training upon her return until she either puked or passed out. But still, she persevered. “I’m asking why all of a sudden solo missions aren’t good enough. You and I both know that I am not good at playing nice.”

Taiko sighed and gestured weakly in Aimi’s direction.

“That. Exactly that. That where there is why you have to. You will eventually become useless if you cannot ‘play well’ with others. You haven’t done a mission with anyone since the academy, except for-”

“Don’t say it.” Aimi interrupted sharply, her features stony, glaring.

“Except for with Hoten,” Taiko finished, unbothered by Aimi’s sudden anger. Uncaring about her crossed arms and sucked in cheeks that he knew she was biting, hard. She still wasn’t hiding how she felt and now it was clear she was ready to leave. “You have the potential to be one of the best Shinobi this village has ever seen. Better than your parents, better than me. But you, you are not even close to that point. So, go get your things and go meet your mission teammate. Now.”

Aimi glared for a moment more but she knew that if she stayed too long she would regret it greatly. So, since that wasn’t an option she went with the brattiest choice she had available. Bowing with as much attitude as she could and with as much snark in her voice as she could muster she exited the room with a simple and militant “Yes, Sir.”

---------------------

Staring at the mission briefing that had been left at the office for her, Aimi tried to change the look of disgust that she could sense on her face. Not only had Taiko gotten her put on a mission that could take an indeterminable amount of time. A mission that had essentially no information, only that it was a retrieval mission. He had put her on a mission was she was the underling. And the frosting on the cake was that her superior was an Enkouten. Known for their...politeness? Maybe, Aimi didn’t really know why she didn’t like the Enkouten. But she just was pretty sure that she didn’t like them.

But if they were polite, well, the thought alone made Aimi shudder. Oh, right. That’s why she thought they were all nice. She’d only met one, once, and they were so calm and hardworking and really annoying and she had scared them away. And this one, this one couldn’t escape her.

Getting a bad report though, that wasn’t an option. Aimi had to prove that she could do this so that she didn’t have to do it again. It was why she was at the meeting point early, why she had read all of the notes. It was why she was leaning against a rock angrily muttering to herself under her breath. Pretty immune to the rest of the world while she tried to figure out how she was going to get through this.

[Yura]

I wonder what she's like, Mitsuo thought to himself as he sauntered down a busy Iwagakure street. Hhis travel pack casually slung over his shoulder, Mitsuo walked with a small bag of candies in his hand, popping the occasional one in his mouth as he walked. In his other hand he held his most recent mission assignment, detailing the need for he and another shinobi to do....something. Or rather, to retrieve something. What that something was, he supposed they would figure out, but the one thing that he did know was the name of the person on the mission with him: Tanaka, Aimi. He couldn't really say that he knew her, or even that he had heard of her, but that was something that he was sure he would learn as the mission went along. She was a lower rank than him which technically made him the leader of this mission, a position that he seldom got to explore. Sure he had led a mission or two with Kota, but Kota was...well...different. Maybe I'll make a new friend, he thought optimistically. All of his missions lately had been with either Kota or Tats so he was actually looking forward to the chance to work with someone new for a change.

As he approached the designated meeting spot, Mitsuo spotted the woman from a distance leaning up against a large boulder. The vertically challenged brunette had a bit of a scowl on her face, but perhaps she was simply deep in thought. It would do him no good to jump to conclusions so early. "You must be Aimi!" He called out to her as he approached, stuffing the mission assignment paper in his pocket. "Enkouten, Mitsuo." He said, introducing himself, "Everyone calls me Mits, though, so you can if you want. Candy?" He asked, holding out the small baggie, "I didn't have a chance to eat much today and this was the best I could do in a hurry."

[Amy]

Aimi’s eyes involuntarily fluttered closed when could hear the exclamation point at the end of his greeting. She hated being right. Really, really hated it in this case especially. But now was the time when it was most important to suck it up. Put on the mask and suffer in silence. So before even a full second had passed, before there was any chance of anything off being detected, Aimi was upright and had a small and hopefully kind looking smile on her face.

"That would be me."

While he talked, Aimi took a quick assessment. He was tall but honestly, that was to be expected. Everyone she met was tall to her. It was annoying, it would probably always be annoying but it wasn’t something that bothered her anymore. Couldn’t go around letting yourself be intimidated by everyone you ever met. He had pleasant features. He was marked up too, which told Aimi he knew how to get his hands dirty at least. He was also eating candy which was odd to Aimi, but at least he hadn’t tried to touch her.

She supposed that so far he was OK. So far.

Shaking her head and waving her hand at the bag, Aimi declined the candy. Never much had developed a taste for sweets. Having already decided that she was not going to use his nickname, Mits, unless he insisted, she ignored the offer and moved past it.

"I have plenty of rations if you want something other than the candy."

That was nice of her to offer. Aimi could do nice. Talking about the mission she could do even better. Even with that pesky grudge about not being the mission leader.

"Unless they gave you more information than they gave me, it looks like all we have is a map and a guy’s name. What I can’t figure out is if we have so little information because the village is withholding it or if the guy we’re meeting is. Seems odd though, right?"

Aimi wasn’t usually one to be concerned about things but something about the lack of information definitely made her feel uncomfortable.