Guard duty at the Suna gates!

He was dressed in his casual attire, but of course equipped with his ninja equipment: the standard kunai and shrunken, as well as his confidence which was always a requirement on the field as a shinobi. He zipped in to and zoomed right out of the Mission headquarters, wasting no time with irrelevant, empty conversations and greetings with people who meant nothing to him. Today, he had his mind made up to finish this mission, and hopefully he would not come back injured as he had last time.

While he wouldn’t usually mind doing such a task, as it was one of the easier things for a shinobi to do within the village that did not present any form of physical hassle, Soyo couldn’t help but groan as he entered the guard station, somehow having arrived earlier than intended. As he swung the door open, Soyo immediately headed towards the couch in the corner of the room. Sitting down and releasing a sigh, Soyo glanced towards the clock hanging on the far side of the room. From the time alone, it would be 10 minutes before his shift would start. Not enough time to take a nap, but enough time that it would tick by slowly. He assumed he would’ve arrived a few minutes early, but not a whole 10 minutes before he was required to start active duty. 

Hopping down from the rooftops and gently landing on his feet with the assistance of some chakra, Soyo stood up straight and began walking towards the guard station, which happened to be directly next to the main gates of Sunagakure no Sato. Not really pushing anyone out of his way, the shinobi began to weave his way through the crowd, taking a few pushes here and there from the flow of the crowd, but still able to make his way to where he needed to go. He saw a pretty face or two on the way, and would’ve stopped, if not for the pay that the mission would provide him. 

As he ran from rooftop to rooftop, heading towards the main gates, Soyo scanned the various figures moving about. While it was difficult to pick out a short individual within a crowd of adults, Soyo’s superb vision, honed through his years of practicing kyujutsu – or simply throwing senbon and kunai – would aid him some in trying to see if the boy would be among the countless persons. Though like any other person, it would be challenging to find one specific person within a large crowd. As he swung the door open, Soyo immediately headed towards the couch in the corner of the room. Sitting down and releasing a sigh, Soyo glanced towards the clock hanging on the far side of the room. After standing on a rooftop for two minutes, seeing if he could spot any one who could closely resemble the boy had failed, Soyo immediately decided he may as well go to the guard station and ask around there. 

Usually, guard duty was assigned to chunins of Sunagakure no Sato, however due to a shortage of active chunin for the time being, the current Kazekage, along with the council, deemed the task fit for genin to do while they addressed other issues the village currently faced. While Soyokaze enjoyed doing missions not deemed solely for genin, the position of gate duty was certainly something that was menial and lackluster in daily events. Of course, there was the prospect of certain individuals with unique traits showing up, perhaps even someone he could amuse himself with for a short chat as he worked, but the likelihood of such was rather low. 

Closing his eyes, in hopes of letting time fly faster, as looking at the clock for the next few minutes wouldn’t speed up time; Soyo went to idly thinking about anything that came to mind. Things such as what he’d do for dinner, what he could do tonight, or whom he could meet up with all floated in mind, yet he never reached anything conclusive. 

As he took his position in one of the guards’ booths at the entrance, Soyokaze immediately turned his vision towards the land outside the village. While it wasn’t often that he trekked out that far, it was still part of his home in a sense. Soyo opened up the envelope containing his work requirements, and read the instructions of how to check IDs and what to do in case someone didn't have one or came back faulty. With that in mind, he approached the gate, and sat at the empty stand. He then opened the gate, to allow travelers to enter. Soyo took notes on who left, because at this early in the morning there wasn't many people who would be entering the village. After about five minutes, the first person to enter the village walked through. Soyo almost didn't notice him because he was so busy jotting down the ninja and citizens that were leaving the village in the log book. He walked right past the booth as he entered, and Kaze had to call him over. He quickly apologized, stating that this was his first time entering one of the main five villages and didn't quite know where he was suppose to get checked in. Kaze simply smiled and said it was fine, then he checked his ID and told him to carry on when everything checked out.

It took a few minutes before there was a sign of anyone coming to the village, yet soon enough Soyokaze saw dots in the distance, on that could easily be identified as a caravan. Sometime would pass before they would be within earshot, thus Soyokaze looked about the other guards, each seemingly as bored as Soyokaze.

Once the travelling caravan had arrived at the gates, Soyokaze easily counted to upwards of fifteen people with the caravan, a decent sized one, though he had seen a larger one quite a few years ago. Seeing as it was solely the caravan coming in for the time being, Soyokaze figured that they’d split up the duties between identifying the individuals and denoting if any proved to be a threat to the village.

As the group split up in to groups of three, Soyokaze easily saw that the three coming towards him were related. From the faces, there was a resemblance between the trio of a young girl and her parents. With a polite smile, Soyokaze asked for their I.D.s which the guy, who he presumed was the father and husband, handed to him roughly. After quickly flipping through them, he noted that they all matched and they all shared a similar family name. Without much of another thought, Soyokaze handed their I.D.s back to the father while offering a polite smile to him and his supposed wife and daughter. He handed the little girl a candy bar from the desk he was stationed at. A light blush covered her cheeks while the mother *shushed* her and led her forward. With a stare, the gruff dad followed after his family into the village. Soyokaze released a sigh, as he looked back to the desert. It looked as if more people could be seen in the distance, but fortunately, Soyokaze’s allotted time was coming to a close, so he wouldn’t need to worry much about having to deal with a bunch of people. He walked off his station and towards the paymaster with a triumphant look. "Not bad for a first mission, I guess."