The House on the Bay

Kazekage's Meeting

The office had a musky, dry air to it, while dust clung onto anything it could attached itself to, a large curved desk sat in the middle of the room, while all around it clutter was everywhere. Notes and scrolls with ancient symbols, which at the right angle seemed to glow sprawled out onto the ground, like a sandstorm had blown in from the desert outside, claiming the space for itself.

The evening sun glowed and crept its way in from the large window at the back of the office, as a middle aged man in long white robes sat at his desk, reviewing files and various books and scrolls in between sentences. He sighed and proceeded to reach into the right bottom drawer of the desk, pulling out a small box of cigars, after a quick, but pleasurable smoke, he returned to his work, the scent of tobacco still pungent in the air. He reaches into the innards of his cloaks to reveal and silver pocket watch, the time read as 8:30. "Damn him," he said in a husky voice, " I called him 3 hours ago, where the hell is h-"

"Jeez if I knew you were going to be uptight about it I would have come sooner" a sarcastic voice comes from the right corner of the semi circular shaped room, nearest to the door. The robed man jumps in slight surprise, then scowls, and "Damn you, sometimes I wish you weren't a ninja, anyway what took you so long?" Akio stepped out of the corner, revealing an assortment of bandages and gauze wrappings. "Well," he said, a tinge of embarrassment came from his voice, while he scratched the back of his head, " I was about to come, then the Old Hag found me again...."

A smirk rang across the second man's face; he reclined in his chair as he laughed. "Still getting the snot beaten out if you by Kate huh, HA! To think you were a candidate for Kazekage," he laughed harder now, while Akio grumbled to himself. "What the hell do you want anyway?!?" The embarrassed man yelled, ready beat the crap out of his "Highly Respectable" superior.

"Ha ha, what?, did I make you miss a hot date?" That comment thoroughly pissed off the damaged ninja, who stomped up to the Kazekage's desk lightly tossing a small blue box admits the unorganized papers and reports. "Actually," he retorted, anger flaring up his tone, "you did, Thanks jack-ass" Akio turned to leave, done talking to his boss, while the Kazekage picked up and inspected the ring box, now realizing what he had just said.

"How long have you two been together now, three years?"

Akio stopped at this, sensing that the man had felt sorry for what he had said, "Three years today...". the Kazekage sighed and stood up, he had known Akio his entire life, ever since they had first met in the academy all those years ago. "you know", he began "When you first rushed into my office like a bat out of hell to tell me you were now going out with Megan Hōseki, I thought you had taken a long walk into the desert!" he laughed at this, remembering the gleaming smile on his face, and the way he slid and crashed into his office that day yelling obscure, non-sensible cry's of joy. "ha.. and to think, Her of all people, the prettiest, smartest student in the academy with one of us slack-offs that would piss off the teacher just for the hell  it," he walked toward his old friend now, clasping a hand onto his shoulder, "And now twelve years later, you're about to pop the question, and I became the fucking Kazekage for Christ sake!" Akio chuckled at this, bringing his head up.

"yeah, I didn't think they would accept you after the Scorpion Incident"

"Ha ha, the look on Sensei's face when he went into his house!"

"He was cleaning out scorpions for weeks until he finally found the summoning scroll!"

The men laughed and laughed, recalling old memories for what seemed to be an hour, acting like they did in school, just a bunch of slackers with wild dreams. "Ha ha, well I know you're dying to get back to her as soon as possible, so lets go over your mission." the Kazekage started for the door, ushering Akio to follow through the buildings hallways. "I warn you though," He began, "this will not be any easy mission, Megan told you it was B-class?"