Expanding the greenhouse: Part 2 (Private)

Mission: Ghost of a Rose (Continued from here)

Masashi's Stats at the time:

The Unseen University was the village’s main administrative building for the shinobi contingent in Hoshigakure and was one of the most secure locations in the village. It was the most logical location for this meeting, because Masashi could set up the meeting in one of the secure conference rooms. The only downside was that the Unseen University wasn’t what you’d call close to his home. It took him a while to get there, but he still made it in plenty of time to be the first person in the meeting room. It wasn’t long after his arrival that the squad arrived, one after another.

First to arrive was Tao Aburame, the Chuunin member of the squad. He was five feet, eight inches tall, with black hair, extremely pale skin, dark sunglasses covering his eyes, and a slim build hidden under a long coat. He wore his Hitai-Ate traditionally around his forehead. That was typical of the Aburame in Hoshigakure; they liked to have an air of mystery about them. Tao nodded to Masashi as he walked in and took a seat at the far end of the table. ‘Must be the strong, silent type.’ Masashi thought to himself as he returned the nod and watched him sit down. He was hoping that if anything, the Aburame would be the one to have the most important information, as he can scout with his bugs, and hopefully they can give their host significant information.

The next person through the door was Izuhara Hyuuga, one of the squad’s two Genin members. She was roughly the same height as Tao, ash-grey hair, cream-coloured skin, and pure white eyes, a result of her unlocked Byakugan. She wore a kimono of sky blue with a white belt, sandals, and her Hitai-ate around her throat like a loose gorget. She had a similar build to the Aburame, likely the result of her intense training to learn the Gentle Fist technique that was almost second nature to their clan. Masashi hadn’t seen much of it, but he know it was not something you wanted to get hit with. She was less dour than her teammate and walked into the room with a smile on her face. She bowed to Masashi and Tao separately before saying “Hello, it’s nice to meet you.” She then went and sat beside Tao. Masashi would smile and nod in response to her bow and would reply “it’s nice to meet you too.”

The next person though the door was the squad’s Jounin team leader, Hatano Sarutobi. He was slightly shorter than Masashi at six feet tall but had a sturdier build to him. He definitely had more meat on his bones than the Uzumaki did, but you couldn’t tell from the way he moved. His hair was bright red and his eyes were like emeralds. His skin was quite tan from spending a great deal of time outside. He wore traditional shinobi garb with the Jounin flak vest on top. His Hitai-ate was worn as the buckle of his belt. Masashi had seen him around a few times and had met him once before. He was an energetic man; full of personality. Masashi liked him; it was hard not to. Hatano walked over to Masashi and held his hand out, which the Uzumaki Chuunin accepted with his own hand. “It’s good to see you Masashi!” Hatano said to him. “Likewise, Hatano” Masashi replied with a smile. “How’s the wife” he asked. Hatano grinned “She’s good, keeping me honest.” The Jounin let out a laugh. “What about you? When are you going to settle down?” Masashi chuckled. “Haven’t found the right girl yet. Don’t worry, I’m sure someone will deign to have my at some point.” That got another laugh out of Hatano. He patted Masashi on the back and then took his seat on the other side of Tao.

It was getting close to the arranged meeting time and they were waiting on one more person; Toyama Uchiha, the other Genin on Hatano’s squad. Masashi looked over at the door, then back to the other three members of the squad. “Don’t worry.” Hatano said “he’ll be here.” Masashi smiled and waited patiently for the final member to arrive.

Luckily, they didn’t wait long; one minute after the meeting’s start time, Toyama burst through the door, panting. Toyama was still a kid, recently graduated from the academy, five feet, six inches tall, and fairly scrawny. He had dark hair, pale skin, and brown eyes. He wore a pair of black shorts, a white t-shirt, with a red jacket on top. His Hitai-Ate was worn in the traditional fashion on his forehead. “Sorry I’m late.” He said between breaths. “Slept through my alarm.” Izuhara shook her head slightly and Tao raised his head slightly, almost as if he was rolling his eyes. “No harm done Toyama.” Masashi said to him as he gestured to the last seat beside Izuhara, which the Uchiha boy gratefully sank into, avoiding his teammates eyes. Now that they were all here, the meeting could begin.

“Let’s get started.” Masashi said to the group. “I asked you to come here to discuss a discovery you came across on one of your other missions; the Haven White Rose. Without getting into too much detail, I’m trying to collect as much information on them as I can. Anything you can remember about them; rough location, specific conditions of the area, date and time, any detail you can think of no matter how small.” Because of the nature of the mission, he couldn’t divulge too much, but he was hoping they would be as forthcoming as possible. The smallest detail could provide the piece of the puzzle necessary to find the roses again.

They sat there for a minute, pulling together memories of that time period. Hatano started by giving some background on what was happening at that time. “We were on a mission around Tachibana…” the Jounin said, referring to the Tachibana wildlife preserve. “…there were reports of more Jaws activity, attacking caravans, typical bandit behaviour, so we were tasked to find the group and deal with them.” Hatano was referring to the Jaws of Grima, a large organisation of rogue ninja and unsavoury types that were a constant thorn in the side of Hoshigakure’s council. Toyama piped up at that point; “it was about a week and a half ago; we had just picked up the trail of a pair of bandits. Tao’s insects were tracking them when one of the groups had stopped following the trail and veered off towards something.” Tao nodded an affirmative to corroborate Toyama’s recounting. “While the rest of the insect groups kept going to follow the trail, we stopped to see what was going on.” Izuhara jumped in at that point. “That’s when we spotted them. The roses, I mean. There was three of them all close together.”

Masashi nodded as he wrote this information down. “Perfect. What can you tell me about the area you found them?” Toyama responded. “It was on the northwestern edge of the reserve. We were on the outside of the reserve’s borders, circling north. They were sitting just outside the treeline.” Masashi noted this down as well. “Okay, so it’s fairly well aerated soil because of the nearby vegetation. Likely benefits from other plants being nearby. Anything else you can think of?” The next response came from Tao, at least he thought it was Tao; “Rain.” A single word that was softly spoken and almost barely heard by the Uzumaki Chuunin. “That’s right!” Hatano exclaimed, smacking his forehead with the palm of his hand. Masashi looked at him quizically. “It must have rained at some point in the twenty-four hours leading up to us being there. The ground was moist in that stretch of Grass.” ‘That could be it.’ Masashi thought to himself as he finished documenting everything. “Perfect. Thank you very much for your time. I think I have everything I need.” Masashi would say to Hatano and his squad. “I appreciate your help with this. I’ll be in touch if I have any more questions.” The four shinobi nodded and proceeded to leave the meeting room. There was a lot of work still to be done; Masashi wanted to visit the National Archives to see if there’s any information documented there regarding the White Rose, to see if the information he acquired here matches up with anything that may be recorded there.The Kozai Yuki National Archives wasn’t too far from the Unseen university, so it took only a couple minutes for him to travel between to two locations.


The National Archives was an impressive structure; the vast majority of its interior were taken up by shelves upon shelves of books and scrolls, the Village’s combined wealth of knowledge. ‘Well, almost everything.’ Masashi thought to himself with a smirk. The research he’d been doing was not included here, and he was sure that some other people were just as equally stringent with at least some of their knowledge. He didn’t bother the librarians; he knew exactly what books he’d needed to look through. Sections on the village’s history, anything related to flora and fauna of Haven Country. Something may have been written in passing that would help confirm the information he’d received from Hatano and his team. It was going to take some time as there was plenty of information to sort through.

He didn’t realise how long it would actually take; Masashi spent the better part of 4 days in the archives combing through every text and scroll he could get his hands on that would seem to have any remote chance of a lead. He had seen 2 references to a pure white flower but nothing beyond that. “Seems all I have to go on is the information from Hatano’s team…” Masashi said with a sigh. He put the literature on the return racks and left the Archives. As he was walking down the steps, he was intercepted by a runner from the Hogokage’s office. Turned out that there was a storm brewing in the Tachibana area that was noticed by Haven’s Sensory team. Masashi thanked the man and rushed home to collect his gear. He had a lead to follow.

[Exit to here]

WC: 1716
TWC: 2523 (WC carried forward to next topic)

Approval 2/3