Kaylee waited outside the gates of the Death Valley. Her partner for the mission would be coming soon and she was told that it was supposed to be a Chuunin from the death valley and that she was supposed to wait outside the gates for him the morning of the mission. Kaylee looked differently from the way she had when she'd graduated the chuunin exams. Her hair had grown slightly longer and she'd also grown slightly taller, and wore her headband on her forearm. She was excited to see who her partner was and waited patiently, leaning against the gates and humming quietly.

Narcissus looked back at the house as he headed for the gates. He was going to his first B-Ranked mission and had wanted to know everything was gonna be cool. His mom had annoyed him all night talking about he needed to make sure he had all the supplies just like Kazuya had told him. She'd also yelled at him about how he needed to be nice to his teammate. The entire time he just nodded politely and then left. Now he was at the gates where he was looking at his teammate. "Kaylee?" She'd grown taller and her hair was longer. "Hi," he said.

The voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't be sure of who it was until she turned around. As she saw Narcissus, her eyes lit up immediately. "Narcissus!" she said gleefully. "You're my partner?" If she'd been excited for the mission before, it was nothing compared to now. But then again, the last time she'd seen him they were still teammates in the Chuunin exams, and it'd never seemed like he liked her too much. She didn't think he'd ever gotten used to her, perhaps it was because she saw so young. But regardless, she didn't hold a grudge. A wide grin was on her face as she waited for his answer. She felt TK stir with a little resentment, but he still refused to come back out, regardless of the fact that she was going on another B-ranked mission.

Narcissus smiled at Kaylee for like the first time since they'd been partners. "Yes," he said. "I'm your partner." He then shrugged and sighed. "You ready to go," he asked. Because he sure was. He'd been waiting for this since the day Kazuya had finally let him have a B-Ranked. He could have sworn that his Kage was trying to keep him from the best of ninja.

Kaylee smiled and nodded as Narcissus asked her if she was ready. "Of course!" she said with a grin. "Let's go!" She started off excitedly, looking behind her to see if he was coming. She'd missed him alot since the chuunin exams but never really had time to think about it. "Have you ever been on a B-ranked before Narce?"

Narcissus followed Kaylee. She sure was excited about this. Catching up to her so they could walk side by side he became silent when she asked had he ever been on a B-Ranked mission. "Well, not exactly," he said. "How about you?" Narcissus didn't want to talk about this, but how could he tell her without hurting her feelings?

Kaylee became silent for a moment when Narcissus asked if she'd been on a B-ranked before, and her smile faded. She hadn't expected him to ask, but she supposed she should've since she asked him. "Yeah, I went on one about a month ago. It sounded boring at first, but it turned out to be...pretty difficult," she said quietly. Her squad'd lost two out of the four ninja who went, and she was lucky she'd came back at all. She'd leave that part out though. "We should be to the village in about an hour or so," she said, changing the subject, and continuing to walk, any air of excitement she had before was gone now. And now she couldn't help but think if something bad would happen on this B-ranked two. Afterall, they only had two people this time.

Narcissus put his hands behind his head. "Oh..." He said feeling as though he was behind. He wondered what had happened on her first mission. Maybe someone didn't come back, but that was usual right. Ninja put their lives on the line everyday, big deal. They were suppose to be prepared for death. "This one should be easy seeing as though they only sent two of us," he said noticing she wasn't as bubbly as before.

Kaylee kept her gaze ahead as she spoke. "Fewer numbers isn't always better Narce," she said, sounding a little too mature for her age. Her expression changed as she looked at Narcissus with a small smile. "But we should be fine. The village is only an hours distance from the vallies and we were only given one person to protect." She added a little hop in her step as she went now. She didn't want it to seem like she couldn't handle the life of a ninja. Especially in front of her former teammate, who'd never thought very highly of her to begin with.

After an hour or so, they reached the village. It was guarded pretty heavily too. One of the guards at the gates inquired about their business. "I'm Kaylee Tiashi of the Snow Valley. Me and my partner were assigned to escort one Fukashi Harani back to the Death Valley." Then the guard eyed them suspiciously and asked for their passports. Kaylee took hers out and showed the guard, then the guard looked to Narcissus and asked for his name and passport.

Narcissus put his hands behind his head as Kaylee said that small numbers weren't always good. "Whatever," he mumbled as he continued to follow her. Once arriving in the village he let Kaylee speak. He wished the guard would ask about why they were escorting the guy back to the Death instead of the Snow, because currently he hadn't exactly introduced himself. When the guard looked at him Narcissus dropped his arms to his side and pulled out his passport. "Narcissus Grey of the Death Valley."

The guard looked at his passport and nodded. "All right, I'll get someone to take you to him. Justwait here a minute," he said, walking away. A moment later the guard came back with another dude who took them to a house, which was also guarded. It was the only house in the valley that was guarded. Kaylee looked at Narcissus with a shrug and followed the man into the house. A somewhat tall man came into the room and greeted them with a smile. "Hello there!" he said cheerily. "Is there anything I can get you two? We won't be leaving until tomorrow morning afterall." Kaylee sighed. It'd be better if we left tonight, because then if anyone knew about the departure tomorrow they'd be caught off guard... she thought. "No thank you," she said, then looked to Narce.

Narrcissus looked at the guy as he came in and asked them if they would like anything. "Yeah, a move on," he said under his breath. He wasn't told they'd be staying overnight. And just who was this guy, telling them they'd be going in the morning. They were the ones doing this mission. This guy was suppose to move when they moved, not the other way around.

Kaylee sighed. She didn't really want to stay here any longer than she had to. The sooner they got this guy back, the sooner they were out of danger. She walked up to Harani and looked up at him. "Excuse me, but why are we leaving tomorrow morning? It's not even near nightfall and it'll only take an hour or so to get to the Death Valley." He looked down at her with that same cheery smile on his face. "Well, you see, I don't quite have my things ready yet," he said. Kaylee looked at him incredulously. "But you knew we were coming today, why didn't you have it ready to leave?"

Narcissus wasn't done with this guy. "Listen you prick, what do you mean you don't have your things ready. Kay's right, you knew we were getting you today and I wasn't planning on staying overnight. So pack your stuff so we can hit the road. You've got thirty minutes," he said and then leaned back against the wall with a smug look on his face.

Kaylee looked at Narce as he started going off on the guy, then looked back to Hirani, who was wearing a shocked expression. "You can either have your stuff ready to go in 30 minutes, or we'll just leave without you," she said looking at him. She was sure not many people liked being talked to that way by an eight year old, but not every eight year old was one of your bodyguards. Hirani blinked and sighed. "Alright, alright, I'll get my things." With that he walked off into a different room. Kaylee looked at Narce with a smile. "Good job," she said with a small giggle.

Narcissus smiled. "Not bad yourself," he said. He then looked around the office. Something was fishy about that guy. Why wasn't he ready? Narcissus wondered if someone had stopped by and threatened him before they arrived, but it was impossible for anyone to know they were coming. He sighed and decided to keep his mouth shut.

(I swear, as much as these two don't act like it, they might as well be best friends -.-)

Kaylee stood with her back against one of the walls, waiting for Hirani to be ready. (I'm gonna change the mission up a little, hehehe) After about 20 minutes though, one of the servants came out and looked at them, then said "I thought you left with Mr. Hirani ten minutes ago." Kaylee looked at him and said "Uhm, no we told him to get his stuff ready. Why, is he not here?" she asked, suddenly alert. The servant shook his head. "No, I saw him leave with you ten minutes ago, like I said. Or, someone who looked like you I guess." Kaylee looked at Narcissus with an alarmed expression. "We have a problem. Come on, we have to go find him," she said, running out of the house.

(yeah)


Narcissus sighed. This guy was taking forever. He then looked up when the servent came in. As the guy came in speaking nonsense Narcissus started for the door. He knew something was wrong. This was far too easy. He then followed after Kaylee. "Where are we going to start, he could be anywhere," he said.

Kaylee looked at Narcissus when he asked where they were going to start. "I'm not sure..." she hurried back over to the servant and asked him which direction they'd gone, then went back over to Narcissus. "He said that they went in the direction we came from. But if they're trying to kidnap him, they're probably going that way just to trick him." Sighing, Kaylee pulled out a scroll and a kunai and cut her finger with it, smearing the blood on the scroll. She then did a jutsu with the scroll in hand and placed it on the ground. "Ninja Art: Ice Beast Summoning!" she said, putting the scroll on the ground. Out of the smoke of the jutsu stood a large metal wolf. "Go see what you can sniff out," she said to it before it ran off at a breakneck pace. Looking at Narcissus, she said "We gotta get a move on too," before taking off in the same direction.

Narcissus sighed. "This is annoying," he said as he took off. "I'm guessing they're going to either kill him or ask for a ransom or something," he said. "Either way, we're not going to let it happen," he said. He then moved forward.

Kaylee looked at Narce as he stated what they were probably going to do. "Got that right," she said, looking back ahead. After a few minutes Raasu (the metal wolf thing) ran back up to them. Kaylee's eyes brightened. "He found them," she said, quickly climbing onto the wolf then looking at Narce. "Hop on. He moves alot faster than we do," she said with a smile.

"You've gotta be kidding me," he said as climbed onto the wolf. This mission was turning out to be more and more annoying. He just had to ask for a B-Ranked. Oh well, I asked and I got, better get over it and concetrate before we get ourselves killed.

Kaylee smiled as Narce climbed on. "Hold on," she said as the wolf started running at a breakneck pace again. After only seconds, it slowed down to a stop and Kaylee climbed off. After Narce'd climbed off, the wolf disappeared in a poof of smoke. Kaylee swallowed and headed off the path and into the trees where Hirani supposedly was. Well, at least it's not an ambush this time, she thought, a little scared. After a few seconds, she saw two men sitting next to Hirani, who was tied up on the ground, discussing what they should ransom him for.

Narcissus jumped off and climbed into the opposite tree. He looked down at the two guys. He was right, they were planning ransom. Looking to Kaylee he nodded. "I'll take the idiots down there, untie Hirani and get him out of here," he whispered. He then pulled a kunai out. "On my mark, ready, set, go."

Kaylee looked at Narce as he said that he'd take the two ninja. "Narce, we don't-" she started, but then he started counting down. But we don't know how strong they are, it could take both of us, she thought, pulling out a kunai. She'd free Hirani, but after that she was helping Narce. He'd get mad at her for not listening to him, but she'd done this before. As he said go, Kaylee quickly jumped down and started slashing through the ropes with her kunai. If she could just get a couple loose, then they'd be good to go. The two ninja looked at her in shock, not knowing that anyone had been there. Then one of them caught sight of Narcissus. "There's two of 'em!" the one said, then the other one said with a smirk "I'll take the boy, you can handle the girl," before looking at Narce and aiming a kunai at him. Kaylee stopped cutting the ropes as she heard the one say that he was gonna take her and instinctively swung around to face him.