The Land Below (Mission/Taichi)

Masuyo wore the standard gear most Shinobi in Iwagakure wear. Her footwear consisted of standard black sandals fitted for comfort and security. With the toes and heel left exposed they provided additional balance, while the rest of the foot up to the ankle was protected by the thick material of the sandal. The soles of the sandals are reinforced with hardened material to resist heavy impacts and wear. Fishnet tights draw from her feet all the way up the entire length of her legs designed to fit snugly and providing minimal warmth while still remaining breathable in hotter conditions. A pair of tight black shorts reach down nearly five inches above her knees. White bandage wrap is wrapped around her right thigh which has a navy blue holster strapped over. Around her waist she wears the basic utility belt which carries two green holsters on her right side along with a tool pouch around her back side and a canteen to the far left. She wears a red lapel on her left side extending down to her knee not interfering with her access to her tools.

A red top is worn with loose sleeves reaching down just a little past her elbows. This is reinforced with a brown leather flak jacket provided by Iwagakure's armory which serves as issued the issued armor. This is accompanied by an additional tool pouch which is wrapped around the abdomen facing the front instead of being on the rear. On both hands Masuyo wears a set of fingerless black gloves backed with small steel plates providing comfort and protection. Around her neck Masuyo wears her forehead protector as a collar. The black cloth is tied in a knot around the back side of her neck with the steel plate facing the front for identification. The steel plate has Iwagakure's emblem engraved on the front. Masuyo has straight black hair which extends down to her mid back. Two strands of hair drop down touching her chest which leads into her bangs which are cut shorter and swept to her right side. She stands at 5'9 weighing approximately 145 lbs. Her fair skin is complimented with her voluptuous form which is completed with a pair of hazel eyes.

The two have been on foot several hours after leaving the village. It was six in the evening and sunset had just settled in. As they were losing daylight Masuyo began instinctively searching for a place to settle in for the night. Camping along the side of the road was never a smart idea. If one were to veer from the path it would be best to do so for half an hour at least. Otherwise, finding a well-hidden place to kick back was the most preferred option. She would stop and turn around to face Taichi. "It's getting dark. It is best we start setting up camp. Before we do so, we need to sketch the landscape first. After all, we are still on a mission. Time to whip out your sketching equipment. We can make it to that abandoned monastery up ahead and use that for shelter as well as a vantage point."

A steep dirt road transformed into an old staircase which traveled up the mountain. It led them to a ruined wooden gate granting access to the rest of the ruins. Masuyo carefully entered, avoiding touching and bumping into things as best as she could. "The trick is to make as little impact as possible. Do that and your enemies will slip right past your resting spot. Typically on high-risk missions we will also have to take turns on watch, but that's not the case here." Within the monestary walls she scanned the area, looking upwards at the ascending peak of the mountain showing an observation tower. It was perfect for Taichi. "Go to the tower up at the peak and use that as your observation. Sunset is ideal for scouting.
It gives a better, natural contrast to the land than a midday sun. Features tend to stand out more. You should be able to access the tower through an underground passage through the main temple on the other end. I will set up camp in there while you do that. Good luck!"

Giving Taichi a little salute she approached the temple at a jaunty pace passing through the double doors. She would get to work by unloading her bag and all that stuff while Taichi went off to work.

While Tachi wasn't too fit or had that much weight, he started to get tired of all the walking after he left the village, he knew about the mission sure... it is meant to be a mission about scouting the landscape, but he just found it a bit too tedious, he knew he wouldn't get into major shinobi missions off the bat as a genin, but he wasn't expecting something like writing details about the land... on second thought, perhaps it was better to just walk for hours on end then trying to draw up details of the land, he wasn't exactly the best person with a pencil. Masuyo went to a sudden stop however and turned around to face Taichi, telling him that it's time to make camp soon and to bring out his sketching equipment, with him slightly sighing. It looks like he will have to write soon, it seems to be just like what his granddad said sometimes... be careful what you wish for, you might get it.

He had noticed Masuyo being extra careful with the old staircase which went up the mountain, passing through the wooden gate and any pebbles or rocks on the ground he saw, he didn't really care about, until Masuyo turned around to tell him about making as little impact as possible, so people wouldn't get the idea that people had traveled through this location, he quickly used his foot to push back some of the pebbles he slightly kicked off from walking. "Right... sorry." they continued to walk into the ruins, but stopped once again when she told Taichi to go up the tower at the peak, he kept his bag with him however, and raised his hand to his forehead to look at the tower properly, but looked back down to see Masuyo saluting him, realizing that his hand was in a position to salute back, he didn't meant to intentionally do that at first, but that works.

He started to go further into the ruins, walking up to another set of old stairs with cracks all over it, and even major pieces of the stairs just torn off, so he proceeded carefully so he didn't trip on anything, and tried his best to not leave anything disturbed. He reached to a higher point of the ruins where the walls were far more torn down and broken then the floor below, but thanks to that he could see the tower clear as day, and it wasn't that far to walk. 

He managed to make it up to the tower relatively easy, with a bit of walking but he finally got to the entrance, it seemed odd that the tower was somehow still in a decent condition compared to the ruins earlier, but Taichi wasn't complaining. He walked inside the tower to see a set of circling stairways connected to the walls that led to the top, but the best part for Taichi was that the stairs weren't cracked that much, so it looked safe to walk up through. He made his way up to the top quick enough and was now at the top of the tower, there's a metal pole up at the absolute top of the tower however and Taichi started to climb up at the top walls to reach it, which didn't prove too difficult and he was now at the top with a strong grip on the pole, sitting in the middle to balance himself so he wouldn't slide back down or anything.

He's in a tight position, but he managed to reach out for his notepad in his bag with his spare arm and placed it on his lap, he then managed to grab a pencil deep down in his bag which was a bit of a pain, but he got to it. He could finally get to sketching, he adjusted himself properly on the side of the pole so he didn't have to grip as tightly and wrapped his left arm around the pole so he still locked himself in but his left hand, he's holding the notepad and a pencil in his right hand. He started to look at the different angles he could see from up top, especially on the side of where he could see the sun setting down, some people might consider it a good view with  the number of vegetations, trees and rocks down on the ground with a nice cleared path in the middle, but Taichi wasn't one for "views". He started to sketch down what he could however, as the side with the sun setting down has more details of the landscapes then the other sides, he started to think about how to sketch this. "Should I have the sun in the sketch? hmm... I'll add it just in-case." he started to draw the sun first since it was starting to touch down, then he would move onto the green of the land such as vegetation and trees since that was mostly on the left and right sides of the view, so then he could focus on the road and clearing in the middle.

He started to be careful with drawing his lines, as his grip on the pole felt a bit shaky which was shaking his left hand with the notepad, but he still continued on. Taichi felt like about 20-30 minutes had passed as he got most of the basic details down on sketch, but perhaps it was better he added more detail to it. "Hmm... well, it is a mission and it's best I treat it as such, can't have a drawing that could be done by a kid." he started to add more lines and scribbles to details of what he could see in his shot, such as the exact positioning and shape of larger rocks in his view, the patterns of the trees, the exact way the roads had been carved along with the dirt on the side, it was, in Taichi's opinion an exact replica of how he saw this side of the landscape put to paper, he could feel that nearly an hour had passed and it was best he started to head back down.

As he started to make his way back down from the top of the tower and back into the ruins, he looked at his sketch more carefully to notice a few lines and details might look a bit shaky, perhaps because of the slight shaking from when he had his grip on the pole, but the general idea of what the landscape looked like is all there. He remembered the way he went up to head back down to the ruins, finding the double doors that Masuyo went through, he went through himself to try and find Masuyo his pencil was back in his bag but he had the notepad wrapped around his right arm. "Sensei? I've done the sketch." he said, hoping that she'd hear him as he can't see her anywhere.

Taichi vanished as he began running the errand. Masuyo was not certain she knew the way to the observation deck, but through most common examples it was accessed through the mountain. It was common for the architecture for the Land of Earth. The natural stone formations provided incredibly durability and structural integrity. Much more than what wood and nails could achieve. Masuyo could start with setting up camp, starting a fire, and getting food ready. Fortunately for them, the main temple was quite secure. What appeared to be damaged was simply tossed aside furniture and lighting. It was apparent whomever abandoned the monastery was in a rush. Either that or it was looted by a handful of brigands who had little respect for the place. Regardless, some cleaning and reinforcement would make it not a terrible compound at some point in the future, even. Setting up camp was as simple as rolling out her bedroll. Done!

Next was a fire. It was impractical to carry around firewood. She had a tinder kit with her, but in their current climate there was no need to waste good tinder when it could easily be foraged, along with her food and firewood. It was time to go hunting.

She left the monastery grounds shortly after clearing the area she was going to deem their campsite and unrolling her bedroll. Masuyo was a fairly experienced survivalist. Being raised in the rustic mountains of the Land of Earth honed her to be very outdoorsy. Finding good, dry tinder and wood was no problem. Although cutting fresh logs seemed practical, moisture within the freshly cut wood would make for poor firewood. A bundle of sticks tucked under her left arm and a handful of tinder in her right hand made for a satisfying assortment of fire stuff. She would return to the spot to drop off the fire making items before returning to the outdoors to continue foraging for food. There were things she knew to avoid, as well as knowing the bare minimum to survive. The juniper berries that grew on the trees were not sweet, and the pine nuts were nothing special. Their altitude threw the idea of fish off the menu. She would be unlikely to come across a snake, and their meat was not particularly grand.

She spent the remainder of her time scouring the local area of their camp. Because, believe it or not, wildlife was not readily available at the doorstep. Though, roughly half an hour later, she caught a buck. Capturing it was easy with Ninjutsu. With no precognitive abilities, or any perception of Ninjutsu, it fell for the most basic traps. Executing it was no issue, either. She would dress the animal on the spot. Dragging a dead carcass was a lot of effort back to camp, and left quite a trail. Wrapping some venison in its own hide and securing the hide shut with its antlers was a convenient setup and made use of its body. She was rewarded with thirty pounds of lean venison in a meaty sack of flesh. Masuyo locked her arms around the antlers and had the meat sack against her back. She would hike back up to the monastery just in time before Taichi returned.

Setting her game a few feet from the base of her bedroll she would start a fire by piling the sticks she gathered in a spacious manner, inserting tinder in key places. With a match box she would light the tinder, discarding the match in the flames as it helped ever so slightly get the fire started. In a matter of moment she had fire. Of course she was more than capable of simply using fire Ninjutsu, but that would be a waste of energy. A low fire helped illuminate the inner temple as the sun was beginning to fade away and dusk settled in. Masuyo reached in her backpack to retrieve a small bag of flour. It was one of the basic provisions that offered infinite possibilities to work with. Using a stick she would draw out some coals from the fire, setting a dutch oven upon them, and then scooping from more coals onto the lid and closing the dutch oven allowing it to preheat.

Masuyo would work on fixing a pie crust using flour, water, and salt to line a ceramic pie dish she had also packed in her backpack. A meat pie was very basic survival food. She had packed a few basic vegetables in her backpack. At least for the first few days they would eat well. Preparing an onion into slices she would dress the pie crust with venison, salt and pepper, flour, and onion. She would add layers until the pie crust was filled, which at that point she would lay a pie crust on top. Adding a bit of water within the mixture she sealed the edges and set the pie in the dutch oven to allow it to bake. Masuyo would prepare the rest of the meat into jerky. Stringing the meat across a few sharpened sticks she would let it smoke over the fire. Being caught up in her work she had almost forgotten about Taichi.

His presence coming down the staircase alerted the Jounin as she turned to face the doorway. "Ah, finally back?" Through further inspection as he approached the campfire she caught something off. He had his notepad out, and a pencil sketch? Masuyo set her hands on her knees as she sat back on her hind legs. "Did you...sketch with a pencil on a notepad?" She said genuinely curious. It was the wrong move to start off the mission. The notepad was smaller than a full sheet of parchment, and pencils limited the writer's ability to add detail. But the most insulting of all...

Masuyo's eyes fixed on the notepad in Taichi's arms. Ruled paper... Her eyes squinted sharply at the paper as she focused through the general low visibility and flickering flames in her peripheral. She tried her best to relaxed herself. It was not the time to be bickering at Taichi in these tight situations. Masuyo calmed herself, allowing her feet to go their separate ways from her current sitting position, allowing her bottom to touch the ground resting in a knock-kneed fashion. "Well, I hope you still have the image rather fresh in your mind. You can use the notepad sketch to the best of your ability, but we need this on parchment and charcoal.
Aside from using something you can't easily turn in, and using pencil, you also sketched on ruled paper. This work needs to be presented professionally, as your work here will be used as reference for the next year by our administration for development and routing. You wouldn't use a pencil for your signature, would you? A sketch is no different."

Masuyo would retrieve a bottle from her backpack as well as a small metal tankard. The bottle was whiskey. Uncorking it she poured herself a small amount to sip on gradually throughout the evening. It was a fine time to unwind. Taking a small swig of the liquor she swished it around in her mouth allowing the booze to naturally dilute in her saliva. Swallowing the hard liquor she sighed in relief. "Don't obsess yourself over the drawing.
Detail is fine, as long as its important and helps the reader easily read it.
No need to spend hours. It'll get tossed in a year or so anyways." Masuyo followed as a bit of advice. It was true. It was wasteful to devote so much energy on a simple sketch of the area. In some cases, Taichi would not have the time on his side. Taking another swig of whiskey she stared at the fire. Dinner wouldn't be ready for at least an hour and a half.

When he walked down the ruins through the double doors to represent his drawing to Masuyo, he had expected to have some form of recognition for trying to take this mission seriously, if this was yesterday he wouldn't imagine going out on a mission to draw some random landscape but he came to terms earlier that he had to simply suck it up and just do whatever missions the village throws at him, or more specifically... whatever missions his sensei threw at him. After her rather... dismotivating advice to Taichi for how serious he tried to take the mission, he just wanted to argue at her so badly, but he showed very clear restraint as he clenched his fist, before releasing it. "Yes, sensei..." that's all he he said. He should've realized that writing on ruled paper with a pencil instead of parchment with a charcoal was such an idiotic mistake, it's laughable but it certainly grinded his gears that she didn't acknowledge the effort he tried to push in.

He sat down a bit away from Masuyo, bringing down his bag on the side and putting the notepad down on the ground, he opened up his bag to go through everything he packed, and brought out a piece of parchment, along with a smaller bag which carried charcoal, delving his hand into the small open bag, he carefully brought out his charcoal and placed it accordingly into his right hand, while holding the parchment with his left hand, and having a good view of the notepad with the sketch on the side should he need to make reference as he started to draw away, though he didn't put in as much effort this time with what Masuyo suggested. "Second time's the charm, right?"

The mission of drawing the landscape had started to seem less and less significant, which helped him clear his mind to start treating the drawing as a second-hand nature thing to do while he was thinking of other matters, such as how he's treated Masuyo so far. He's given her shit as he realized that a while ago but he's a bit too prideful to admit that he's in the wrong, he nearly opened up at one point as suggested when he put down his parchment for a second to look at Masuyo, but instantly went back to his drawing of the landscape, from what he could remember from the view itself and the sketch on the notepad as a reference which sitting next to him.

It had been a little less than half an hour. Masuyo was two glasses of whiskey in before she stored her bottle. Getting wasted outside the village walls was not something she typically liked to practice. Especially not in uniform. If any enemies were proactively stalking them for whatever reason they would be doomed. Still, during their low risk mission is was not necessarily bad to have a drink. There was peace in the temple. The feint sound of a crackling, low fire was coupled with the silent sketching of Taichi. Through instinct she would occasionally glance at the openings and surrounding area to ensure they were not being followed. She was not paranoid by any means, though it paid to keep an active surveillance on the land. Taichi broke the silence, offering the sketch to Masuyo. She would take it without word, judging eyes glaring at the detail. It was eons better than his previous, the charcoal and better medium giving her a much more profession layout of the land. "Excellent. Now this is something we can turn in." Handing the parchment back to Taichi she would again speak.

"Keep that stored in your backpack." Masuyo grabbed her glass, tilting her head back gathering a single drop whiskey left over. Placing her glass in her backpack she would undo her flak jacket, removing the brown leather armor and setting it aside with her bag. Removing the lid from the dutch oven she retrieved the fully cooked meat pie, setting it gingerly on top of her jacket. Today, it would serve as a surface to display the food. "Dinner's ready!" She announcement, clapping her hands together with nothing but pure happiness of her face. Serving a quarter of the meat pie she placed it in a bowl handing it to Taichi, again doing the same for herself. She hoped he was bright enough to pack his own eating utensils. Although she always carried a spare she wanted him to be prepared for his own tasks.

Taking a heaping spoonful she chewed on the prepared dish, closing her eyes and nodding in approval of her own wilderness cooking ability. Fixing the way she sat she would cross her legs. Setting her bowl on her lap she would recline, using her arms as support to hold herself up. There was a bit of awkwardness between them. Masuyo found Kameko a lot easier to talk to. Taichi was not one much for conversation. Her consistent complaining and matter-of-fact tone gave Masuyo a lot to work with. Taichi seemed more of the obedient type,
taking orders and carrying them out with little question. She could not recall a time she was such a person. Even now she still finds something to talk about.
There was always much to learn. "Soooooo...why are you here?" Masuyo said this implying she wanted to know more to why Taichi chose to become a Shinobi in the first place.

A lot of restraint from Taichi just simply not outbursting is because of the lessons his Grandpa gave him, every time Taichi acted like a little shit around him, he would get grounded or punished in some way, and with Masuyo punishing him earlier back at the village for showing some attitude, she reminded him of his grandpa, which is why he's not showing the usual attitude he has, he's grown to be slightly sheltered because of his grandpa but that's to cut down on the rebellious tendencies that Kotōshura members sometimes have, and you could say it's working since Taichi should be more of an asshole then being the obedient type, but even he knows when to take some situations seriously and just shut up about it.

After Masuyo grabbed his complete sketch and gave a approval, which gave him a slight smile for a few seconds, and he placed it in his bag after she asked him to, he knew that the silence between them is... awkward, but he really didn't know what to say without it being related to the mission, which might be seen as whining on his part, but it might be best to create some sort of conversation between them instead of being quiet all the time, Taichi was about to say something until she said that dinner is ready, which he let out a sigh in relief.

He grabbed the bowl that Masuyo handed to him, he was expecting utensils to be given to him as well until he got the message after a few seconds of awkwardness. "Oh... alright." he placed the bowl on the side for the second to go through his bag, and going through a lot of his packed stuff, but also being careful to not mess up the sketch he managed to find a pack of utensils nicely wrapped up, which he brought out a set for the pie, he brought the pie back up to his lap and was about to start eating away before he paused and looked at Masuyo. "Oh sorry, thanks for the pie." he said it casually, so it could be taken into a disrespectful way.

He started to eat his pie, finding it not that bad, after bite and bite he found himself to really like it, but his eating was paused when she asked her question, which seemed odd. "I'm here because of the mission?" he asked in a curious way, but it took him a bit to realize what she really meant. "Got it... well, I really have no resolve to be a ninja... I just grew into it, you can thank my grandpa for that, it's not that I'm complaining though, being a ninja is probably more exciting then working as a register at some random store." He let out a sigh once more for what he was about to say next. "You see, my grandpa is apart of the clan effort to crack down on the rebellious tendencies that we Kotōshura sometimes have, and I'm meant to be a result of that, whenever I acted like an asshole, he always put me into place." he didn't say any further, as he wanted to hear her opinion of it, he started to eat the pie once more and listened to whatever response she'd give.

Masuyo was intrigued. Not by Taichi, but more-so his development. She was not particularly a psychology major, nor did she care much about it, however seeing Taichi change was a unique thing to see unfold. A bit of discipline and guidance was enough to alter his persona. At least around her. The kid who used to talk back was now obedient, and somewhat fearful of the Jounin. Masuyo was unsure if she felt comfortable being such an authoritarian figure. She always saw herself as more of the laid back, supportive kind. The kind of instructor where her students and former students respected and understood she was the leader, though could be in a casual setting as well. Perhaps the lack of comrades was the case. It could be awkward to have recently met someone and to try and get to know them. Especially if they had the title of a superior. She could tell some of his habits were forced.

Still, it was nice hearing Taichi's voice, as it was used for something more than agreements and confirmations followed by nodding. Compared to Kameko, Taichi was more ordinary. In fact, being a Shinobi was nothing more than a job to him as much as it was some form of therapy. A Shinobi was a type of anger management for him which was interesting. He had quite a mouth on him sometimes, though underlying anger issues was something she never expected. "Just a job, eh? Hope you end up damn good at it. Those with greater motivation may be better than you. And those people will not always be your ally. I'll try and find some sort of drive if you ever want to live long enough to retire. Twenty years is a long time to muck through." Stuffing her face she chewed, before resuming to speak with a mouthful. "But it seems like you still have a lot more lumps to take before those rebellious tendencies mellow out."

Swallowing her mouthful of food she patted her lips with a clean napkin she had on her before setting the empty bowl on the floor next to her. "Though, I wouldn't become a total tool. Bow when you need to, but don't overdo it. People will take advantage of you that way. Heed my words and you'll end up like me: alive. Your life isn't worth the political pettiness and poor decisions of the board. The friends you make along the way will believe the same thing." With her meal done she began stripping herself from most of her burdensome gear. She was left with her standard clothing, kunai holster, and forehead protector. Everything else was stashed neatly. "Well, if you have nothing else you want to do or say,
I suggest its time to doze off." From then, if Taichi had nothing more to add to their day, Masuyo would add fire and stoke it one last time before getting comfortable in her bedroll. The additional shelter provided by the temple made their camping conditions quite comfortable. It was safe to have a large fire to last them a good couple hours. More than enough time to fall asleep.

He gave out a sigh after her speech about other ninjas having a motivation that drives them to be shinobi, he doesn't deny that such shinobi do show quite an interesting, passionate side to themselves when they have that drive, but Taichi? he has no such drive, at least anything that has something on friends or family, he does have a certain goal but it might seem silly. "I guess I do have one drive, to learn my clan's jutsu, I find explosions really cool... but my grandpa says I'm not ready, that I need to "develop" more, whatever that means." he did have some idea, but he didn't know if he meant for Taichi to grow more as a person, or for him to grow more powerful in terms of ability. "If you think my rebellious tendencies can be a problem, you should meet my dad. He mostly goes out on trips or doing some sort of business for the village but the few times he actually visits... oh man." A light chuckle escaped him, his dad can be a drama queen about the smallest things, but he is still very much respected in his family.

He finished up his pie a bit ago, putting the bowl to the side along with the utensils in it, he then rubbed the napkin across his mouth, and then placed it down on the bowl, letting out a light sigh, after hearing everything she had to say. "It's hard to find that balance, people don't want me to be an ass, and now you're telling me to do that sometimes? whatever." he didn't go any further, or much less wanted to argue about it. He would've, but he's too tired to really drag out some sort of argument. If Masuyo didn't have anything to say about what Taichi said, he would've also started to bring out his bedroll and just lie down on it and sleep for the night.

Masuyo wondered how well Taichi would mesh with Kameko, and Jinn for that matter. She had dealt with them individually, though having them together in the same session would be interesting to see unfold. Taichi's attitude would most likely need correcting. She was unsure how the others would cope with it. Certainly Kameko would be willing to give him some mouth in return. A simple sigh following Taichi's last statement was her response. It was late and she had little energy to discipline him there.


[At the crack of dawn]


Masuyo was fully geared and ready. Due to her experience in the field she was rather conditioned to be up right when dawn hit. Something Taichi had not developed yet. Or rather, Masuyo wanted to be up before Taichi. She was successful is finding him asleep when she got up. She donned her gear and dressed up in silence while attempting not to cause any commotion. She wouldn't want to ruin Taichi's surprise. She approached the foot of his bedroll finding the boy still in his slumber. Squatting down she placed both palms on the floor. Suddenly, the floorboards will break just below Taichi's feet as a slab of earth flipped upright. This would fling the boy's body over as a raised wall of stone was erected before Masuyo. The disturbance would most likely woke the boy up from his sleep. "Rise and shine!" Masuyo would casually strolled around the earthen wall to witness Taichi's awakening.

"You have ten minutes to pack up and get ready. I'll be waiting for you outside the monastery gates." Turning her back she would head out the temple. She made it explicitly clear to ignore anything he said, too, until he made it with her outside the gates. She was expecting some sort of shock factor out of him, and that's what she planned to capitalize off of. Standing outside the gates she waited for Taichi to meet her before they could head out to the other part of the land they needed to scout.

After hearing the sigh from Masuyo, it seems there wasn't much more discussion that was happening for the night. It turned out, Taichi was more tired then he thought and went to sleep pretty quickly. He's one of those types of people to not dream easily, and if he were to somehow dream he wouldn't even remember an ounce of it, but surprisingly enough he had a more vivid dream this time around, but it didn't last very long however as he suddenly woke up from being flinged across the room, rolling around when he landed on the ground and slightly scratching his skin on the stone surface.

He instantly got up, with his hand to his head looking around to see the wall that has been erected from the ground, and Masuyo behind it. He couldn't really speak back as he still felt like he's half-asleep, and couldn't really register what just happened, but he knew the scratches he got were definitely a result of Masuyo, and he gave a glare at her before standing up properly, which was slightly wobbly. He went back near the spot he was launched from and grabbed his bag and started to bring out a new outfit for the day, very similar to the ninja outfit he's currently wearing, he got out of his outfit and got into the fresh ones, placing the ones he was wearing before into his bag and checking around him to see if he had everything packed.

Everything is pretty much ready to go for Taichi, so he brought his bag onto his back and started to head outside the temple and head towards the gates that he was instructed to meet her at. He managed to easily catch up with her outside the gates and he's ready to go for their next part of the mission. He didn't say anything and remained silent however, as it seems he's still a bit sore about the stunt that Masuyo just pulled several minutes ago.

All set and ready to go, Masuyo turned to Taichi. "Ready to head out?" This was more of a confirmation to get moving than an actual question. Masuyo would start leading the way back to the village regardless of his response. Upon their arrival back she would hope Kameko and Jinn would be freed by then. She had plans for a group training session for a while now. Currently it seems like the perfect opportunity to enact that.

[Exit -> Iwagakure Gates]

He let out a sigh, deciding to let go of the stunt she just pulled as it seems either she's not picking up on the slight passive-aggressiveness he's throwing out, or she's already moved on from the stunt she pulled. It's best he probably does too, and gave a response to her question. "Yeah, let's head back." when she started to lead the way, he quickly followed along with her, heading back to the village. He started to think, maybe he shouldn't of judged this mission so harshly in the first place, as he was whiny about it at first but it honestly wasn't that bad, things were awkward between him and Masuyo because he wasn't very straightforward or communicative with her, perhaps it'll go better next time.

[Exit -> Iwagakure Gates]