"That's...! Squad Leader!" Matsuri hears over the radio in her ear, and lowers her brows as she takes in a startled breath. "Squad Leader..!"
"Go."
"Food court! He's in food court!"
"What that close..? The hell..?" Matsuri silently agrees with the sentiment as she glowers at the lifeless alley she is watching. Just the street over..? What kind of jonin does that..? "Team check in at position one! Now."
"Where?" Matsuri hears and shakes her head in disbelief. Even though she is a lowly genin, she knows where position one is at least. Gaara, the kage himself, had assigned numbers to all the basic landmarks of Sand years ago, for the betterment of organised defense of the village, and those same numbers were drilled into all Sand academy students.
"Sigh. Hospital roof.. " Came the reply, and Matsuri thought she could hear the speaker's eyes rolling. "Newbies.."
"Oh.. Shut it.. Just say what it is next time ok.!? Enroute."
"Enroute." Matsuri says and gathers her chakra to the bottoms of her feet. As she sprints to the top of the hospital wall as quickly as she can, she frowns. Too slow, again! she thinks as she sees the dark forms of the hastily assigned squad squat low on the flat surface, stark against the orange light of the setting sun. She wonders briefly if they have been there for hours, and counts three: two males, one female. One of the males, curiously, wears a dark green Leaf flak jacket and forehead protector.
"Explains much." Remembering the odd question. Leaf nins certainly wouldn't know Sand's defensive arrangements any more than Sand knew Leaf's. She wonders why this Leaf nin is even here, considering that Leaf was destroyed a few weeks ago. Didn't they recall all their people to help rebuild?
The woman leans low by the edge, elbow on her knees with a pair of binoculars affixed to her face. Matsuri is startled to find she wears a porcelyn mask, shaped to resemble a green, snarling, saw-toothed demon with a pair of sharp horns draping down from the forehead. Such a mask, she knows, is assigned to those who specialise in the violent disposing of people. Matsuri swallows a sudden lump in her throat.
She dispises violence. Greatly.
"That him..? Is that the target..?" Matsuri hears the leader say over the radio as she winds the rope of her weapon, a johyo, back into place.
"Standy by." Replies the masked woman. "The light show's definitely like what was on the vid, but.."
"But what?"
"Could be nothing. It's from that soup wagon that had the explosion this morning... The one from Leaf. The merchant might just be making repairs."
"Copy." the leader squaws over the radio. "Don't want an international incident. Get a firm visual before proceeding."
"Copy." The masked woman says, "that's makes this difficult." She turns the horrible mask Matsuri's way, and Matsuri swears she is being judged under her weighty gaze. She struggles to school her face into the sturdy expression a nin should have, regardless of rank.
"Matsuri!" The woman calls out.
"Hai.!"
"You were the last to see him.." The masked woman begins as she rises to her feet. Matsuri tries not to look at the unnerving porcelin mask too closely, an focuses her eyes upon the woman's forehead protector tied about her neck.
"Yes." She says.
"You reported that he called you by another name, then turned away, correct?" Before Matsuri can nod, the woman says,
"Good. We have to do this quiet."
Sent via Blackhole
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