A question of position

When Yamato received the message, he couldn’t believe his eyes. He remembered mentioning Mori to Asahi but he hadn’t expected a familiarity at this level this fast. Perhaps the two men knew of each other even before Yamato’s praise, perhaps there were more than one person vouching for the eyepatched man whose past seemed to be protected closely. Kumo. Yamato knew where he was from. He remembered that brief word, as it was the only thing Mori seemed open with in such a direct way. Even admitting his past work there had been a lot of handwaving and trailing off. Regardless of his suspicious aura, Yamato had placed his trust in the man. It remained to be seen, if that was about to prove foolish. This very mission could have been the perfect time to find out where Mori stood. A great opportunity to betray the acting Kage and the shinobi who had so blindly trusted him. Also a great opportunity to showcase his skill and loyalty. Yamato was excited. Or nervous. It was hard to tell. Either way, his heart rate was higher than it had been on any job he had taken for a while. Of course, he was not the only reason. This was also Yamato and Asahi’s first job - and first outside meeting in general - in a while. The blonde Yamanaka would have been excited for this moment even if it wasn’t for the man who might or might not have been the criminal Yamato had been after for months.

With a lot hanging on his shoulders, Yamato walked towards the meeting point mentioned in the message. He looked different, even if he had kept most of his style. His hair was cut short to no longer interfere with the increasingly physical work he had been doing. His trusty white jacket was leaning on his shoulder, revealing more of the most damning piece of the puzzle: a black shirt. The arsenal of weapons he was carrying were now more visible: katanas, shuriken, kunai, you name it. He always had at least on hand on one of the swords sitting in a sheathe tied to his belt. If he heard a sound he couldn’t immediately place, his other hand would quickly make its way towards one of the throwable weapons. He was visibly uneasy.

He noticed Mori had already arrived. He was wearing black. Yamato pushed down the questions, hoping the funeral he had dressed for was not his. He calmed his nerves and approached the man he had grown fond of fast and then entirely ghosted. Perhaps he would have understood, being a man of a certain age with a past in the same line of work. "Morning, Mori." Yamato addressed the man with a smile. "You are not entirely done with this line of work after all? Hopefully you’ve come back with good feelings?".

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Post WC: 479
Total WC: 479/1000

Yamato coughed. His face gave away his feelings, so there was no reason to hide them. He spoke. "You know I hate to disagree with you Asahi. But I think actually. When you learn in a dream, but you know you’re not dreaming, THAT’S a Mori.". He then mimed touching Asahi’s forehead, alluding to the Ninshu trick the blonde man had learned from the eyepatched man. A trick Yamato knew the leader of the village was also familiar with. Yamato then shook his head at himself. He turned towards the man he was speaking about in third person as if he wasn’t there. "Excuse me, but you see, back in old… Nevermind.". His shame had turned into anxiety and then confusion by the time he gave up on the sentence. "What is a Mori? Solve our dispute, won’t you? Does the name have a meaning?".

Yamato waited for an answer if Mori decided to give one, but regardless of any attention, Blondie remembered the reason the three had met up. It was such a joy being in the same place at the same time with friends he had not spent time with for some time, and never together. Yet it felt like a friendly gathering as well, at least partially. Mori made a comment about Yamato’s new hairstyle. "Yeah..." he gave in, "I loved the long hair for a while, but with the summer around the corner it was just too much. You don’t seem to have changed your style much at all lately. If it isn’t broken, do not repair, correct?". Yamato was visibly proud of the casual lingo he had picked up from around the town. "I thought you might have lost the eyepatch by now at the very least. Have you had no time to have it healed, or are you hiding something under there?" Yamato asked with a smile, indicating the last question was a joke, but there was a bit of paranoia deep in his heart that did want to hear Mori’s answer, or at least watch his reaction. As long as there was no cotton, Yamato was going to stay calm.

He had to focus. As much as he would have preferred, this was not a gathering for tea and biscuit. They had a job to do. "Truly an excellent team you have picked, Asahi. I would hate to sound like I’m insulting the capabilities of the rest of our village’s forces, but… Very efficient, to say the least. If I was a more casual person maybe I’d use the words… All killer no filler?". Yamato did not know where that came from. His cheeks turned red from embarrassment, and he looked down, away, in every direction to hide it. "LET’S TALK SHOP.". Oh no. While trying to cover for his last words, he had once again found himself in unknown verbal territory. He could only guess that the time he had been spending locked away with his research, not making any contact with other people had worn down the social abilities he had been working on for his entire stay in Tanbo. "Let’s… Review the missions ahead of us shall we?" Yamato fixed his last statement with shame.

Yamato had no reason to herd the cats, it seemed, as Asahi seemed to be on top of the case. Yamato shook his head with a smile. He had forgotten his place, lately used to only taking smaller missions with newer shinobi and having to lead groups rather than participate as equals. This reminded Yamato that there were stakes, more than a vegetable that might be squashed or a cat gone missing. There could be actual danger ahead of him, not just summer heat and patience. He regained his focus with his heartrate increasing with the clocks turning in his head, coming up with all of the thousands of ways the mission could go wrong, resulting in one, two or three deaths within the group. He wanted to avoid any of those options if possible, then looking out for his own life if it was not.

Yamato scowled in jealousy, seeing Asahi’s ride. This was not the ‘equal’ group work he had in mind. Mori and himself still had to walk on foot it seemed, even though it seemed like this could have been something the deputy kage could have handled, renting out a couple of steeds for his accompanying shinobi. Well, there was no reason to fret it now. He just had to do his job, and maybe he could snidely comment about this situation to Asahi when they were having tea. "Next time we should hire a carriage." he whispered out, then immediately changing his mind, "Nevermind, I guess carriages aren’t exactly cut out for shinobi work… Or that common in Tanbo, come to think of it. Although I hear the Hashimoto’s are cooking up something with horses.". Yamato sighed and followed the trail of Asahi and his steed.

Yamato closed his eyes, focused, and used another technique he had picked up from Mori to sense the world around him. Perhaps simply looking back would have been enough, seeing as how closely they were being followed. The chakra sensory side of things also seemed important only a second later when Yamato realized there were large signatures from both sides of the group that were invisible to the naked eye, on top of the small group that seemed to be following them from about fifty meters away. Yamato reached out to Mori’s forehead to share the information with him in the swiftest way. It might not have been necessary if Mori picked up on the chakra signatures at the same time. "Ready for action?" Yamato asked, "Have you stretched your old bones properly?". He had a smile on his face. The chakra signatures were getting closer, ready to ambush them from three sides.

All of a sudden, a hurricane of shuriken and kunai started raining down. Yamato used the Rainbow Fort Seal to defend their passengers and their ride as much as he could. Behind the falling metal, a figure was jumping down towards them, seemingly have jumped from a shadowy winged animal companion that was flying even further above. Most likely seeing this as the sign, the rest of their shadowy stalkers ambushed the shinobi of Tanbo from all three sides. They were not close enough for Yamato to get a good look at them yet. The blonde man performed the handseals two summon two shadow clones, getting ready for the battle.

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Post WC: 1089
Total WC: 1568