Requesting Aid (Kaishi)

Hina was taking a small break and decided that maybe catching up with the Old Man would be good for her. He was quite busy, but he wasn’t getting any younger. So, checking on his well-being wasn’t strange, was it? She didn’t care. On her way into the Hokage’s office, a small girl would run straight into her, dropping all of the letters in her satchel. However, the one in her hand didn’t budge in the slightest. She held onto it as if her very life depended on it. ”Hey, kid. You alright?” Hina would ask, kneeling down to help her pick up all of the mail she was carrying. ”Oh, uhm, I’m terribly sorry, Lady Senju. I just..” Hina would snicker, interrupting the girl, ”Hina is fine. What’s that?” Her finger would point to the paper in the girl’s hand. ”I-Uhm. It’s a letter..” the girl would begin before looking a round. She would place her hand up next to her mouth and lean in real close to Hina’s ear. ”It just came in from the Rain. It’s not good. I was taking it to Lord Hokage.” Hina would furrow her brows, handing over the collected mail from the floor. ”I’m on my way there now. I’ll take it. Pretend you didn’t see it.” The girl would nod and scurry off without another peep.

Seeing the blood stained paper, Hina would make her trip to the office much quicker. Without a single knock or wanting, Hina would burst into the room, closing the door quickly behind her. ”Forgive me, Kaishi. You’re going to want to see this… Now.” Hina would say in the most stern voice that she could muster. She would stride over to the desk swiftly as she held out the note. Red smeared across the page with a very direct message scribbled on the surface. Honestly, it looked like a child wrote it. ”SOS. Storm Attack. Amekage can’t be trusted. The Rain requests Aid.” Even if it was some prank, it was urgent enough that they should at least check it out. This was right on their border. Surely, Kaishi wouldn’t just overlook this note. She knew he didn’t care to get into the affairs of other villages, but they couldn’t fight off a Storm assault on their own.

Why can I never finish Moulin Rouge...

The thought occurred to Kaishi briefly, flickering through his head in a flash before the nature of his current situation brought him back to reality. He pressed pause on his film, wiping the lone tear from his right eye as he turned to face his former student and fellow Senju. "Hina, wonderful to see you and - well this seems urgent.."

Kaishi frowned, tracing over the blood stained letter with his thumb for a moment before going over it's contents somewhat lazily. "I don't believe for a second a Shinobi worth their salt would provide a letter in this particular form. The contents aren't encrypted in any way, the message is far too on the nose.. There's no cover if this had been intercepted it's just.. a bit too performative. I lean towards it being a prank, however.."


Kaishi furrowed his brow, raising a small cup of tea to his lips for a sip before he'd continue to speak. "I think we should still go check on the Rain, and this gives a good enough reason to do it. I want a squad dispatched for recon with orders to not engage any targets they can't kill immediately. I want an evaluation of what's going on in the village, and then I want that squad back in my office for debrief."

Hina would listen to Kaishi speak. He was highly critical of the letter, as she had expected. ”I understand where you’re coming from. I thought the same thing, but it seems like it’s written by a child, no? Could be a young genin? Or perhaps the situation is bad enough that they couldn’t think straight? Whatever the case, I still find it concerning, since this isn’t like them.” It seemed that Kaishi already had his mind made up, but Hina still wanted to plant that seed in his mind. It was rare they ever received any messages from the Rain, much less something like this.

Kaishi would give his order that he wanted a team dispatched to take care of these rumors. He wanted a team that could recon without getting ahead of themselves and attacking the first man they saw. Well, they certainly had a variety to choose from. An unconfirmed matter that they couldn’t just waste their ANBU on, so they would just have to send a more experienced team. A team that could make swift decisions should the need arise, but wouldn’t go rogue causing an unnecessary mess. ”Sayuri seems a good choice. Quick and relatively level headed. She could take those genin with her. Team prodigy, as I like to call them. Izumi, Ogata, and Takashi. They should be experienced enough to follow orders, but this could be a new challenge for them. On the other hand, maybe they’ll learn how to think on their feet.”

Of course, Hina was looking for any displeasure with her choices, although she was sure there wouldn’t be much disagreement. Surely, Kaishi would want his best for a mission like this. If things went south, they’d be able to handle themselves.