[Graded]A Kick in the Pants

[Bolin!]

On all accounts, today's weather was something to enjoy. The sun was out and wasn't too hot. There was a cool breeze gentle enough to not bother. Plenty of people wandered through the street which brought an energy to the day. Even then, Saburo felt a pang of disappointment in his gut. For the second time in his career as a shinobi, he had been passed up on a position in the Village's Mamorinku. It was understandable; even with his skill in taijutsu he had spent the last few years shuffling papers around in the Academy. That wasn't exactly a skill set to brag about. Maybe his time would have been better spent on securing a mission today.

The crowd today made the walk right next door to the Hokage Building much longer than anticipated. The slow pace left him to fidget with his headband as he tried to think more on it. He thought about how his brother would tell him to not give up at times like this; that this was a greater chance to prove himself by overcoming past failures. Perhaps he was right. But that probably didn't matter today.

With a quiet sigh, Saburo finally reached the Building, but something caught his eye before he entered. It was that kid... Nara Shikado? Yeah, that was him. Doing well for himself as a Chūnin it seemed too. A thought occurred. Trying to politely edge into the kid's view and wave him to the side.

"Hey. Shikado," he said, "You have a minute to talk?"

[The Legend Excalibur]

It'd been a.... rough few weeks for Shikado, to say the least. His joint mission for Gold Country, while successful, had nearly gone to crap due to some faulty intelligence on the part of the client, which was purposeful by his judgement. What should have been a simple recon contract turned into a critical sabotage and escape objective. Had it not been for the Kumogakure shinobi that'd been apart of their team, he wasn't entirely sure if he and his cousin would have been able to make it out in one piece.

The trip back to the village had taken longer than usual, due to having to be cautious and use back roads and trails to avoid any more unnecessary attention, and with him being his usual wary self, he didn't get much sleep. Upon their arrival a few days ago, he'd need to start on the mission report, which managed to get done in between several long overdue periods of rest.

Yawning, still somewhat tired yet much better off than he'd been for the last several days, Shikado made his way towards the Hokage Building, to submit the official synopsis of the mission. He briefly wondered if it'd be upgraded to a B-Rank assignment, due to the misinformation they'd been given, and the danger that had presented itself.

"Hmph." He noticed someone beckoning him over, identifying them as Saburo, who'd he had a brief... let's say misadventure with in Suna. "Saburo..." He began, walking towards him. "I was about to turn in a report but I can spare a few minutes, sure. What's going on?"

[Bolin!]

"Just curious how you've been recently," he replied placing his hands into his pockets. "Especially since we've haven't talked since... Well, you know."

It was honestly something of an embarrassment to Saburo to remember it. They had managed to pull through it without too much of a scene, but he remembered he did have a little bit to explain. It was a rough patch, but it wasn't the first big mistake he had made. He wondered where his old teammates were nowadays. They had outranked him pretty quickly while he was stuck at the Academy, he was sure, but hopefully they were doing good for themselves out there. Especially...

He adjusted his headband as he took back his focus. "Anyway, it's good to see you taking missions." He thought again for a moment, then continued. "Listen. Have you thought about what you want to do outside of your missions? Not to put on a lecture, but I worked at the Academy for years after the Enma-Yaku Incident without a single mission. I barely made promotion because of it... Have you thought of joining any of the Village's organizations?"

[The Legend Excalibur]

He rubbed his neck awkwardly as he thought back to the incident. The fact they'd been able to get through it without major trouble could be chalked up to luck, if anything. It also made him nauseous at even the smell of alcohol. Which was itself odd due to him being underage, by Konoha's standard. "Outside of missions?"

He hadn't really put much thought into it. He was a busybody, so downtime fit him poorly. He'd make a habit of choosing assignments with lengthy run times, usually some kind of patrol mission, to keep him occupied. When in village, he'd spend much of his time his clan's forest, either practicing their hiden techniques, creating his own, or hunting the deer that roamed about it."I don't really do much besides missions, actually." He let out a short, embarrassed chuckle, laughing at his own work ethic.

After his year of leave, it'd only take about a year or so for him to make Chuunin, and that's been about 2 years ago. Shikado wasn't really a rank climber. He didn't seek out positions or promotions. If he were to stay a Chuunin the rest of his career, he'd be content with it. All that mattered to him was doing assignments that benefited the village.

"Like the Medical Corps or the ANBU? He let out another small chuckle. "I'll admit I'm sneaky Saburo. But not that sneaky."

[Bolin!]

Saburo couldn't help but laugh himself. It was good to be aware of your limits in his opinion. Even if he himself could lose track of his own at times. It was something he almost envied Shikado for. If he had had any sense of his own limits as a kid, he might not have gotten in as much trouble as he did.

"Nothing wrong with admitting it," he said with a smile.

But this, he thought, could be a good opportunity for the young Nara as well. Even if it might not matter at his age, this sort of thing would prepare him for the future in more ways than one. Something that Saburo himself wish he could have thought of back then.

"You could try Mamorinku, though." He cocked his thumb back down the street. "I just came from there and they have a patrol division. It might be a lot of walking around in the woods, but I'm sure they can use the help and I think it would be a good place to improve your skills. If you'd like, I could introduce you after you've reported in."

[The Legend Excalibur]

"Mamorinku?" The village's main defensive corps, it handled most of the villages infrastructure when it came to external threat; maintaining patrol routes, doing sweeps of the forests for bandits and other criminals, maintaining and monitoring the sensory outposts, Mamo, as it's usually called, saw to that and more. It wouldn't be exactly out of character for him to consider applying it; plenty of his clan already were apart of it, seeing as their hiden techniques were versatile enough to be useful in all of the divisions.

Saburo had a point. It would be a good place to nurture his skills and talents off mission, while still remaining field active. After a moment's consideration, he shrugged. "You've got a couple of points, Saburo, I'll admit. And the worse that can happen is I'm not accepted, so why not." He said, patting the older Jounin on the shoulder. "If you think it'd be a good idea, I'll just follow your lead."

[Bolin!]

Saburo nodded and led the young man back down the street, now going quicker as they walked along with the people. It felt kind of weird, playing the role of impromptu recruiter. Especially after having just been denied a position. But maybe, he thought, it could at least be better this way.

He held the door for Shikado and closed it behind them, sealing them in with the sounds and traffic of several men and women going along their way. For the moment, he took refuge by the reception desk where they wouldn't have to dodge wayward couriers. It was a hectic way of doing things, but it was why Saburo had considered the patrol division over the others. Office life wasn't really the sort of thing he was into. At least in the forest, he could be a ninja.

"So, here it is," he said, raising his voice slightly above the crowd. Then he pointed to a nearby hallway. "The recruitment offices are over there. We're gonna want the door marked 'Sekkoutai'. And, uh- Well, I'll show you. Come on." Taking advantage of a large group passing in their direction, Saburo followed in their wake, looking for... was it the second door on the right?

[Director]

Fanho had just been handed over the entire reins of Mamorinuku so his hands were quite full with paper work, rallying the divisions, and pushing forward a new era of Mamorinuku members. Since being over the Katameru he had experience in dealing with the entire organization, it was the first time he had to oversee all which meant excelling in all. It also meant until he could find suitable heads he'd have to do majority of the branch work. Fanho just walked out of the Sekkoutai's office, which to answer Saburo's question it was indeed the latter not the prior. Fanho's secretary in tow who was a few years older than himself, to be quite frank Fanho was used to being younger than everyone aside from the Juuin and a handful of promising Chuunin. It was kind of odd, and he got quite a few odd stares but they quickly fell in line after he quickly adapted to his new position.

"Take this up to my office, I've got to get with the Kanjitoru in the next thirty minutes and discuss the state of our sensory outposts." Fanho handed her quite the fat file filled with papers trying to spill out as she had to carry it in two hands. She quickly walked away her heels clacking on the marble floors. Fanho saw the duo, a Nara and the Jounin looking quite perplexed at which door it was to enter through. By now Fanho spoiled their surprise, and figured they might have been lost turning something in or reporting something. "Hey, I'm Awai, Fanho. Is there something I can help you guys with?" With a warm smile, Fanho greeted the two.

[Bolin!]

The hustle and bustle in this building sure was something. Was there really this much paperwork to be done? Saburo could only wonder at it. There were surely reports from the various outposts throughout the country, but what were most of those, really? All these behind-the-scenes activities boggled his mind a bit. Even more reason that he wished to throw his lot in with the patrol division. How much paperwork could there even be to walking a route? This were the thoughts that went through his head as he led his young friend along the crowds. Even if the group they followed gave them a bit of space from the rest of the tide of people, that didn't change that just beyond the throng of people had made it difficult to see which offices they had passed. Thankfully, a parting in the crowd gave them an opportunity to progress directly into an unexpected encounter.

In all honestly, Saburo was taken aback for a moment. He wasn't oblivious; he knew who had just approached them. The display board bearing the likenesses of each division lead as well as Mamorinku's director made that clear on his earlier visit. While he had not known the man's name- or even his clan of origin- until now, he knew from the start that was the man in charge of it all. In hopes of not wasting Fanho's time, Ro thought it best to get straight to the point.

"Yes, sir," he began- even in the rush of activity here respect was still due. "My name's Yojinoka Saburo and this-" he motioned to the young Nara with him, "is Nara Shikado. I was just telling him about your organization, sir, and suggested that he should apply for a position with Sekkoutai. Is this their office?" He pointed to the door that Fanho had just exited. In truth, he could see the sign from here- and remembered it from his previous visit- but he considered that asking would more tactful than to just push his way past a higher-ranked shinobi.

[The Legend Excalibur]

The Mamorinku Main Building was an impressive sight, though Shikado still wasn't prepared for the rushed atmosphere of work that filled the inside. Though, he supposed, he should've guessed it'd be like this for the base of the village's defenses. Doing his best not to stand out, he followed behind Saburo, who seemed to know where he was heading. As they walked, he thought about if he was really qualified for a place here. He wasn't put off by the seemingly inhuman workload of paperwork and bookkeeping; he handled those well enough. What really was eating at him, was he ready to be apart of team again? It been a few years since then...

Lost in thought, he almost walked into Saburo, who had stopped. His face was once of minor shock, and told that he recognized the shinobi who'd approached them. Awai Fanho. He'd be lying if he said he recognized the name or the face. His distant cousin didn't appear that much older than him nor Ro, yet he spoke with a confidence and demeanor that led him to believe he had experience beyond the two of them. Following the Ro's lead, he addressed Fanho properly.

"Sir. He said, bowing his head slightly. "It's as Saburo-san here said, I'm here to apply to the organization. If they'll have me.

[Director]

Fanho's face grew a smile as he scratched his chin. "I see, perfect. You two come with me. I'll do your application here and now." Fanho began to walk off as he waved to usher them with before stopping immediately. "Oh, and don't worry about the honorifics and stuff. I don't care for it. I'm younger than you Saburo, and only older than you by a year Shikado. Its weird when people call me sir or something." Fanho resumed his stride as he motioned for them to keep following him. They walked through the lobby of Mamorinuku before reaching a grand staircase that led down below ground level. As they walked down the winding staircase which continued for a bit Fanho began to poke questions at the duo. "So what brings you two to apply? I imagine its for a love of the village, a chance to freely patrol, or maybe I'm wrong and its something completely different?" Fanho tucked his hands into his pockets nonchalantly not really befitting a professional appearance but a relaxed, carefree one.