Good Chemistry[p ayame, salzem]

Mission Link



There have been a lot of reports lately of rogue bandits ambushing people in the desert and stealing all of their supplies. It has been making travel to and from Suna difficult for civilians and merchants. Jace wasn't assigned to an official mission, but with his personal values and the Leaf's ties to Suna he couldn't just sit still while this was happening. So he decided to take it upon himself to do something about it. Of course he didn't think it was smart to go alone. 

Now that Ayame and he had reconnected, he thought this would be a good chance to give her some actual mission experience and work on their chemistry as a real two-man squad. So he was waiting at the village gates now for her to arrive. The boy had sent her a letter with one of his crows early this morning explaining the situation and asking her to meet him here. He hadn't been waiting very long, but he hoped that she would arrive soon.

Ayame heard of the rogue bandit attacks around the desert, due to being an outsider traveling there.

When a crow tapped upon her windowsill with a letter, she looked it over genuinely. Ayame noticed the letter did not have a stamp, an address, or a receiver as listed, nor did it have a seal to prevent others from. Not wanting to open someone else's letter, she wrote her own not back.

"Dear Sir or Ma'am,

You have forgotten to pay patronage to Suna by not placing a stamp upon this letter. I have not opened it nor read it. You also need to put an address and adressee on the letter to prevent it from ending up in the hands of a civilian. Please enclose some mint chocolate chip ice cream next time to make up for your mistakes."

Ayame smiled to herself upon writing the letter, before offering the bird one of the fish from her morning bento and handed the bird the letter to give back to twhomever sent it. If the letter had really been meant for her by one of her Konoha ninja, someone would have left it at her door considering they were all in the same hotel, Yen being in the room across the hall from hers. Whoever would get the letter next would be in for a pleasant treat though and that would be enough to make her happy as she continued to near her breakfast-lunch.

It was hard to ignore the recent strings of violence, robbery and other malevolent acts outside Sunagakure, especially when the smell of blood had recently been so prevalent in that general direction. In fact, it was so intense, he wouldn't be surprised if someone WITHOUT enhanced senses had been noticing the strange salty smell. That was why, early that morning before anyone had gotten up, Salzem had made his way out into the desert in hopes of finding and taking down whoever was dumb enough to hinder Sunagakure's allies in such a way....

At least, that was his plan. When he made his way out to Suna's gates, however, he found that Jace, a familiar face from the Jounin exams was standing right there, looking like he was waiting for someone. Cocking his head to the side in confusion, the Lycanthrope walked right up to the older uchiha, wondering if he too had his thoughts as to what was going on.

"Hey uh.... Jace." Salzem said, waving somewhat casually. "Did you smell it too?" Suddenly, Salzem paused, his eyes glazing over as he remembered that he was but a mere uchiha and had not the nose his bloodline gave him. "I mean.... You know whats going on out there...? People are dying. What are you doing here?"

The boy was more than a little confused when his crow returned with a letter from Ayame. This girl was really something else. She should have known exactly who it had come from. No one else that they knew used crows the way that Jace did. Still, he figured he might as well play along. Taking out another piece of paper and a pen, he scrawled a new letter. It read as follows:


         Ayame,

The bird tapped at her window again with another note. She could make out that the front was addressed to her but the ink had run from it making it difficult to decipher. She then opened the letter and found that most of the ink had smeared. She vaguely made out the words "Village stealing", "bigger issue", and "chemistry," but only barely.

Ayame took another piece of paper from her hotel room and wrote back,

"Dear Mr. Bird Man,

Please wait for your ink to dry before sending your letters, so that I can read them in their entirety if they are addressed to me. I have no clue whether village stealing is a bigger issue than chemistry, perhaps you should ask someone more qualified than a leaf genin.

PS You forgot my Icecream and the Stamp, sir"

She gave the letter back to the bird and gave it another chunk of meat from her brunch Bento. and then going to finish her rice balls.

Salzem nodded in both respect and agreement as Jace noted that he was there for the same purpose, for tracking down the fools that dare shed that much Suna blood and so jovially as well... All that they were waiting for now was the uchiha's "Student"... And so they waited... And waited... and waited some more. When the lycan heard they would be waiting, he didn't expect a full 10 minutes of absolute nothing while people were fighting and dying out there in the desert, just outside the gates it smelled like... Whoever Jace's comrade was, they deserved 1 or 2 good smacks to the back of the head or something... Perhaps the older Uchiha would grant the tai-jutsu specialist the distinct pleasure of delivering this discipline upon his student... It would certainly make Salzem feel better...

About a minute later while the lycan stared off into space, imagining the amount of people dying with each new scent of fresh blood-splashes, a bird came down to Jace from within the village, landing on his arm with a letter in it's mouth.... A letter...? No doubt from the uchiha's alleged student... Make that 3 good smacks to the back of their head or something and forget it being an option of discipline.... It was going to happen...

The dark-haired ninja crossed his arms and stared at the bird as it flew out of sight once more, staring off in it's direction LONG after it disappeared from sight.

"Some student you got." The lycan noted, tapping his bicep with his finger as he waited ever-so impatiently for this kid to arrive. "You don't mind if I... just... I dunno... Hit them or something...? For postponing this act-of-good-grace?"

Salzem nodded in agreement that he had come with the same intention as Jace. It was pretty obvious that the other boy was becoming quite impatient as ten minutes had already passed and Ayame still hadn't shown up. Just when the young blonde was about to apologize on behalf of his student the messenger crow reappeared with another letter of his own.

He couldn't believe it. He read the letter over again to himself before reading it aloud to his would-be teammate on this self-imposed mission. He was certainly beginning to get annoyed himself at this point. "I'll take care of it. She's my student after all. I'm sorry about this." he responded to the dark haired boy's request to smack some sense into the girl.

Quickly, he jot down another, almost identical, note and sent it off to the girl, making sure the ink was dry. With the small edits, the note read as follows:

                          Ayame,

                                                                         
                                                                                              -Jace Uchiha


That girl was seriously going to get it when she got here. Jace decided that if he received another letter instead of the girl that he and Salzem would leave without her. He would just reprimand her when he returned instead. "Alright. If she doesn't show up in 10 minutes or if I get another letter instead then we're going by ourselves. I can't wait any longer than that while innocent blood is being spilled." the boy said between grit teeth as he crossed his arms in front of his chest and began tapping his right index finger on the crook of his elbow.

Ayame got a note again, this time she could actually read the damn thing. Oh, it was Jace! Why the hell couldn't he have just gotten her? He was literally a few doors down from her.

Ayame sighed getting her tools and stuff together and heading to Suna's gates as requested where she saw the two boys waiting rather impatiently as she ran up in a matter of minutes with her ride ball in her mouth as she carried her backpack in her arms.

She noticed it was Sal and Jace there. "Where's Orokana?" she responded immediately, confused at her other team member's absence. "I thought you said we had our third team member with us, but I don't see him" Ayame looked at Salzem "Wait... why is Salzem here?"  she also asked.

Her mind went to a lot of dark places. "Did oro request a transfer? Oh god this is all my fault!"

Then she handed him his notes, the first on entirely blank, the second smudged with ink, and the third rude and intact. " And Why are you writing so rudely to me, sensei? Did I do something to upset you?" She looked almost afraid like he was going to yell at her.

"I didn't even know it was you or even addressed to me considering you never wrote anything on the first one, and the second one is completely illegible" she said matter-of-factly handing the botched letters to Jace, one of them devoid of any type of marking whatsoever, and the other all smudgy and splattery. Her tone was slightly upset but not in any way rude, she was more confused and timid than anything.

Ayame took a breath. "And you forgot the stamp and the ice cream"

"Also, you could have just came to my room and gotten me, I'm only a few door down from you, I believe" she mentioned a little flustered.

She looked to Salzem and then looked out the gate. "We have permission from the Hokage and Kazekage to leave the village to do this, right? I don't want a lecture when we get back." her voice was timid and unsure as usual, but no longer upset with Jace's rudeness.

Salzem rolled his eyes as Jace assured him that this student of his would be dealt with by him and him alone, waiting another minute or two before someone was finally headed their way and it was.... Ayame...? Jace's student and the person they were all waiting for was AYAME??? Well... he couldn't very well discipline her now... Were she anyone else though and he wouldn't have hesitated to beat the ever-loving piss out of them for making them wait so long with something this important. The lycan was taken aback as the girl began freaking out suddenly seeming to panic With him simply even being there, like he was going to be some sort of issue. She then babbled on, asking if Oro requested a transfer and that it was all her fault if he did... Oro... Guy was nothing less than a soft-head stupid excuse for a ninja who's worth is only measured in his sarcasm... If killing weren't illegal, they lycan would have dug his claws into his throat LONG ago! Granted he might've regretted it hours later once the rush of adrenaline and vengeance wore off, but that certainly wouldn't have stopped him from giving the disrespectful twit what he deserved.

Immediately, Salzem's face went dark, glowering off to the side as Ayame and Jace discussed the letters they had sent to one another. If anything, his anger had made him even more antsy, even more determined to bash in the faces of those that would deface sunagakure in this manner... He could see it now... there would be many unconscious forms, each one ready to pay dearly for the crimes they committed... He didn't know Koroshi's policy on criminals and if his no-kill policy applied to them, but he was fairly certain he'd like them to pay in blood.

Salzem snapped too as Ayame turned to him and spoke, asking if they got the Kazekage's permission to go out and deal with this, that she didn't want to be yelled at when she got back. To that, the lycan scoffed.

"I don't believe we need permission when we're fighting bandits, Ayame. We're doing Sunagakure a favor and not asking anything in return." Salzem turned to Jace, the chosen leader of this little unofficial mission. "Well, now that we are all here, can we go?"

Within minutes it seemed Ayame finally showed up. She didn't even apologize for the letters she sent back or the fact that she had kept Salzem and Jace waiting for so long. The first thing she actually said was to ask where Orokana was. That didn't make any sense to Jace. Why would she think Oro was here? It was obvious that she had confused him by the look on his face. 

Then it suddenly clicked when she started asking why Salzem was there and if Orokana had requested a transfer. His gaping mouth closed immediately and his right hand smacked hard against the front of his own face for a moment before he took a deep breath and finally stopped her so he could speak. "So obviously no one told you. After that fiasco of a training session with the three of you I requested the team be immediately disbanded and reorganized into a more strategic squad. There was no way the four of us would have made it far on our own." He paused for a moment to let that sink in before continuing. 

"So in all reality, there never was a team. I was told the higher ups would contact you about it, but apparently they never did. Salzem just showed up here and we decided to go together." he explained quickly. It came out a bit rushed, his complete impatience at the situation shining through clearly. "And I wrote you that way because it was the third letter I had to send to you! You know very well that no one else uses a crow as a messenger except me." the anger made his voice rise for a moment before he caught himself and took a deep breath to speak calmly. "The next time you receive a letter from a crow you will open it immediately, do you understand?" he said so calmly that it was scary, the words emphasized by his hazel green eyes swirling into the crimson that was the sharingan. 

"Yea. Let's go." he said to Salzem finally after ignoring Ayame's query as to whether or not they had gotten permission. Without hesitating he turned and took off through the gates and headed into the desert. As he did, he began to go over their strategy. For a makeshift squad they were pretty well balanced which made it much easier to come up with a way for them to use each of their abilities to the fullest extent that played well off of each other and flowed with one another. It was good in theory, but implementing it wouldn't be as easy.

"Sal. I want you to take the lead. With that strange wolf transformation you have it should be no problem for you to locate the enemy by scent. Ayame. You will be in the middle of us at all times. We can't let the medic get injured. That's basic for any team. Keep a three meter distance between yourselves at all times. Sal, since you're in the lead it's your job to set the pace. Don't go too quickly or we won't be able to keep up, but don't go too slow either or the enemy could get away." It was basic formation strategy. They all learned it while at the academy, but putting it into action was an entirely different story. Jace didn't know how much actual battle experience either of them had so it was best to lay it out as simply as he could.

As they ran and when he finished his first words he paused for a moment, biting the thumb on his right hand enough to cause a small amount of blood to spill. Making a few short seals, he slammed his hand into the sand and an enormous crow appeared. "My Lord." she greeted him. "You better be taking care of yourself. You know how I worry about you." 

"Now isn't the time, Shiora. I need you to fly ahead of us and keep an eye out. Don't fly too low and if you spot anyone don't get too close. I don't want to alert the enemy of our presence if we don't have to. When you find something report back to me immediately. Now go." he said quickly, the large black bird increasing her speed and altitude so that she was far ahead to scout and high enough to be mistake for a normal crow. 

"Right. Now we have both Sal and Shiora tracking the enemy. I'll act as the team's strategist and support watching the two of you from the rear. Sal. Once we encounter the enemy I want you to charge in first. Take their attention off of Ayame and myself. Don't worry about being injured too much, Ayame is a great healer. But don't be reckless either. Ayame. Keep an eye on the surrounding enemies and don't get too close to the front lines. I'll support Sal with my genjutsu. Understand?"