Saizo would walk outside. He had just heard some grand news that he had been assigned a super special awesome mission. An A-rank mission at that. He had never really taken one on his own. He probably wasn't taking this one alone either. He wished he was though. He was still unclear as to the details of this mission and how it was all going to fit together in the whole scheme of things. It was probably going to involve some fighting. That much was for sure. Who they were killing, and how tough it would be was yet to be seen. Hopefully his backup would arrive soon. He was way to excited to hide in the back line for this one. "I'm so excited for this!" he would say out loud, in the middle of the street at that. Strangely enough though, there was no one in the street. It was pretty early, but not that early. He was sure of that much. He would walk towards the meeting place that was specified on the mission details. Only thing they had told him about this mission. At least he wasn't alone. Missions alone were never as fun as when its with a team. At least with a team, you are free to make mistakes and your team can help you as long as you haven't fucked up too bad.

Pirate attacks were becoming more and more frequent though. It was like they had something to be confident about again. Sure, the old Umikage that put them down was dead, but that couldn't possibly be the only reason they have decided to show there ugly mugs around town again. Saizo hoped that he could shut them down again. Or at least he hoped he could lend a hand. He hated pirates. He hated his dad for being a pirate. He hated his dad more then every other pirate. He hated Hozuki pirates a lot too. Couldn't stand his fellow clansman as pirates. It was avery pure hatred. It was strange for Saizo to hate anything really, but something about pirates really ignited his flame. He had yet to be told they were hunting pirates, but he would definitely be pleased about it.

It was a brisk morning in Shippuu. The wind was calm and cool as many clouds drifted over the morning sky. The clouds were blocking the sunlight just enough to prevent the sun from spreading its warmth. Kamina let out a quick yawn, his breath barely visible as it wasn't that cold. His toes were tingling in the cool weather since they were unprotected in Kamina's sandals. In fact his entire body was somewhat chilled with this brisk morning weather but it would soon pass as the clouds were moving and by noon the sun would be shining and it would get warm once more. Kamina scratched an itch on the back of his head and then adjusted the string on his hat to more a comfortable position as it swung against his back. His attention was caught by an echoing voice. The echo repeated 'I'm so excited for this-this-this' as it bounced off the many shop walls. The echo itself was faint but to hear it Kamina must of been close to its source.

"Judging by the lack of people out at this time, and also by the fact that the ones that are out are nowhere near as enthusiastic as that echo... It must of came from the boy I am taking along."

Kamina mistakenly said his thoughts aloud, catching the attention of few passerby's. He had requested this chuunin in particular for this mission. Not because his skill set was quite suited for it but he thought that it was time he started training more shinobi for the next level. He chuckled softly to himself and shoved his hands in his pockets as he walked further down the street, taking one last left turn onto a street with even less people. As he had figured there was a young man standing much further down the street. If he had any extra energy he might of spent it on picking up his pace but seeing as it was morning and he was tired, he slowed down even more. Even at this new slow pace it didn't take long for him to catch up to the boy. After getting close enough he looked at the boy one last time before bringing his hand up close to his face and then squinted at his palm for a solid couple seconds.

"Hey. Are you Saizo Hozuki?"

Saizo would turn around, surprised that someone would know his name. It was an unfamiliar voice, after all. "Yes, thats me. And you are?" he would ask rather confused at the stranger who had come up to him as he was trying to make his way to the meeting spot. Maybe he was some sort of courier? He didn't really dress like a courier. Then again, Saizo had never met a courier before, so he wasn't quite sure what they dressed like. He couldn't rule that possibility out just yet. Jumping to conclusions was rude though. What he should have been doing, is waiting to give the man a chance to explain who he was and what he was doing. More importantly, he needed to find out how he knew his name. He couldn't have recognized his face from somewhere, could he? Saizo definitely didn't remember him. Maybe they met at some sort of party or something crazy. That seemed unlikely. Saizo didn't go to many parties after all.

Maybe he was a ninja too. It would explain how he knew him or at least make it more believable that he knew him. Hmm. Maybe he wanted an autograph? Saizo wasn't that famous yet, but in due time he would probably have people flock all over him for stuff, like his socks. It would sure be a pain. It would be a nice pain though. He sure did like his hat though. A straw hat. Seemed really nice for sailing and the breeze of the Hidden Hurricane. Not exactly his kind of style though. He was eager to get on his mission though, so he would hope this guy would let him go soon. He still had to meet up with the team leader and such. Hopefully his tardiness wouldn't leave a bad impression. Oh shoot, maybe he wouldn't get anymore A-Rank missions cause of it. That would be terrible. How else would he get famous without doing the intense stuff? Well, it couldn't be helped. Guess he just had to flow like the water and hope it all went smoothly.

Kamina peeked over his hand once more at the boy before he got off his response. In all honesty he was relieved that he found him so quickly, he didn't want to have to spend all day looking for the kid. He shoved his hand back in his pocket and motioned for the boy follow him with a quick nod.

"I'm Kamina, I'll be leading the mission today sooooooooo lets go."

Kamina started walking towards the gates and Saizo shouldn't of been too far behind him. As the walked past each intersection of the town the walls only got closer and closer, which was a good sign since Kamina really had no idea which way the closest gate was. That thought was shrugged away as he thought about the mission. Taking a chuunin along on an A ranked mission probably wasn't his smartest idea. Hell if the boy managed to get himself killed Kamina would surely catch hell for it.

"Alright kid when we get out there and the fighting starts... Hmmmm what should you do? Well do whatever it is that you do aaaaaaaaand don't die. Yup that about sums it up."

After taking a right turn onto a slightly more crowded street Kamina could see the gates a few blocks down from where they were. He let out a quick sigh of relief and picked up his pace slightly. He couldn't help but let his mind wander towards strategy as they walked. Kamina would do his usual thing of course but what would the pirates do. Obviously a sneak attack would be best, or else they might take canon fire. Taking a quick glance back at the boy he remembered that Hozuki's could turn their bodies into water which would be handy seeing as most pirates would be using improvised weapons. Kamina decided he would wait until he knew more about Saizo before coming up with any definite plans.

EH? THIS GUY WAS A NINJA? He was a ninja and a Jounin? Really? Seemed so unlikely, though. He must have been joking, right? Although, it would explain how he knew his name. He was one of the only Hozuki members that still belonged to the village, if not the only one, so it would be only natural that his name would be spread around a bit when it came to ninja rosters, and he was a jounin. Wait! He was the Jounin meant to lead the mission then! That helped explain what he was refereeing to when he was saying to go. Saizo would run up to his back to catch up after watching him start walking away. He did know that he was taking the long way around, right? As the path he was initially on was far more direct. Luckily they did end up in the desired location. Maybe he just wanted to spice up the trip over. They ended up in the gates. Not exactly where he thought they were going. Having heard that they would be traveling by sea. Of course, this was an island, so maybe they were heading off in a different dock from the ones in Shippuu.

He then mentioned fighting. Of course there would be some degree of fighting to be expected from an A-Rank mission, but what exactly were they fighting? "Uhm, Kamina-sensei, what exactly are the details of the mission, or more specifically, what are we fighting?" he would ask, curios as to not only where they should be heading, but what he should be looking out for. Maybe they were fighting wolverine bears. Those were some pretty easy opponents. Probably wouldn't fall under A-Rank material though. It was probably going to be harder then simple animals. This guy also didn't seem like the intellectual kind. Seemed like Saizo in a way. Just go with the flow. This would be an interesting day.

As Kamina and Sai were walking through the gates it became apparent to him that this might be as easy as he would of hoped. In the ideal situation Kamina wouldn't have to worry about Sai and Sai could take out some of the pirates even maybe even a solid chunk of them. On the other hand one of the worse case scenarios would be that Sai got overwhelmed by some of the more adept pirate and was killed or seriously injured. Kamina let out another sigh and rubbed his eyes softly. This is going to be one interesting day

They weren't too far past the gates when Kamina's attention was drawn behind him as Sai asking questions. That and the fact that he had just been called sensei. He'd never been a sensei before, it was weird hearing himself be called that for the first time. This was all followed up with questions about the mission and it was about time the kid knew what he was getting into.

"I suppose you should know what were doing... Our A rank mission is... We are making a dangerous voyage to candy mountain. I'll be honest with you. It's going to be dangerous and you probably wont survive. Yeah I think that's the jist of it."

Kamina wasn't quite sure how he managed to say all of that with a straight face. He just kept on walking towards the harbor which wasn't all that far away. He couldn't wait to see what Sai's reaction would be.

Shocking. Saizo would stop in place after hearing about the mission. His face was completely shocked and turning pale. Candy Mountain? Candy Mountain!? Candy Mountain! He couldn't believe that he was going there. To go all the way to the mountain. It would be amazing. He couldn't possibly believe that this was happening. It was like a dream come true. Going to Candy Mountain. He had heard so many... Wait, no he hasn't. He had never heard of someplace so silly. He had just been lied to, right? If so, then this was a stupid prank. To be tricked into a fake A-Rank? No, the kage and elders wouldn't have let such a stupid mission slip past. Maybe this Jounin was just dyslexic. Read it all wrong. He snapped out of his shock and confused state and jogged back up to Kamina, a little peeved about all of that.


"So whats the real mission."

He tried not to sound angry, which he was usually very good at, being more carefree then the common person, but to be going on a mission that could shape the future of his ninja reputation and future career had put him in a sort of serious mood. Most normal low ranking missions didn't share this sort of affect on him but this was, not only a dangerous assignment but a two-man mission from the looks of it. This would mean that they wouldn't have much room for error between the two of him. Only one person able to save the other. It was far more intense then the usual 4-man teams that genin usually belonged to. The harbor was quite windy. Sea air blowing through it. It felt very suiting for an adventure.

Kamina and Saizo had continued to trudge on along the roadside towards the nearest harbor. Specifically speaking they were going to board a somewhat small vessel that would normally be operated by no more than a dozen men. However due the circumstances of the mission it was going to be just them. The reasoning behind this was that a small trade vessel like this one was a prime target for the pirate crew that had been sailing these waters for the past few weeks. So they were setting a trap for them. It was a rather common plan but it was going to be hard to fully operate a boat with only the two of them.

"Well Sai our actual mission is to take down a group of pirates and the leaders of said orginization. Normally this wouldn't be a problem for a single ninja like myself. The special circumstances being that at least one of these pirates are capable enough to use ninjutsu. Its also been reported that more than a handful rival a Jounin in strength while the rest are closer to chuunin in strength. But the easy part of the mission is the fact that they are all on a few boats so in essence if we target the boats we can take a few out if not delay the majority of them while we focus on the stronger target. All together there are 25 pirates according to the last report. We are tasked with killing them all and bringing back Docci's head. Oh Docci is the head pirate. The captain? I think? Minor details, but yeah shouldn't be a problem right?"

Kamina expected the chuunin to be scared, or nervous at the least. Most people are when faced with odds such as these but it Kamina was confident in their abilities. If Kamina could take out Docci quickly then the rest shouldn't be too hard considering without ninjutsu they wont be able to touch Sai. And Kamina can always fly around on his crystal dragon. Alas they were finally coming up to the harbor where their boat was docked. He greeted the captain of the ship who they had purchased it from and informed them that the ship was ready to go. All they had to do was lower the sails, pick up the anchor and man the rudder. Ha rudder was a funny word.

Rudder was a funny word, wasn't it. Well the delay was gone and the mission was truly about to begin this time. He was confident in the jounins abilities. If he was allowed to take this mission and also allowed to be in charge of the life of a fellow ninja in terrible circumstances such as this, then right there was enough reason to believe in this mans capabilities. On top of that, they were killing pirates. One could say that pirate and thief killing was a speciality of the young Hozuki. He was more then just glad to hear that he was being recognized to do something so precarious. This was finally the shot he had been waiting for. The time he could show his skills and maybe reap some of the rewards on the ship for himself. Er, or rather give them to the village. Bad habit, taking things like that. His father must have rubbed off on him a little more then he had thought. Well enough of that.

Saizo followed the man to the small little docking station where there little trade boat sat. Hmm? Did they have a crew? To man a vessel of tat side with only the two of them wasn't a very favorable situation. Of course, risking the lives of non-ninja personal would be even more unappealing. This wasn't going to be an impossible feat. Saizo was well endowed with the sailing life and probably could man the boat just as well as a twelve man team could. He was a tad too lazy to do so, though. Maybe the jounin could do it. "Well, lets get started, right?" he said as he jumped on the boat.