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~*Yuzuki*~

"The place we're looking for is about half a day's travel NNW of The village hidden in the Leaves. If we go around we could probably shave about two hours off our travel if we head directly to the village and then skirt around it." Yuzuki replied to Kazin as they made their way towards their destination, continuing to keep her eyes peeled for anything abnormal that would catch her eye. Her copies dancing and weaving around with her, and each other so bait, distraction and real were harder to tell apart. Parania was not an illness when you were a shinobi, it was a survival instict. Yuzuki pretty well kept to herself when not spoken too as they traveled along. She internalized everything and having her mind come up with possible placed to duck and hide if something nasty like Rogue ninja should come after them. A part of her was nervous that their jounin was gone, she didn't like thinking that, as a group, they could no longer cover all the bases at once. The Raikage was a wise man, Mana, being the lightning user, was good at medium and close combat from what she saw of him out of the corner of her eye when she was training. Kazin already stated that he was a taijutsu focus with ninjutsu back up, and she was a... well.... aspiring genjutsu user with a slightly above 'crappy' use of her taijutsu and basics to work off of. She hoped that she wasn't going to be rendered absolutely useless when the time came, and hopefully they could avoid conflict until she learned more techniques so that she could be better back up.

She looked over her shoulder for a breif moment to make sure that the others weren't falling behind, as an appointed leader of the group, it would be rather embarassing, not to mention tarnishing to her record, if she left the rest of her squad behind. The day seemed tranquil enough, things were still and silent for the most part, spare the birds and the odd cricket. Despite the apparent lack of activity in the forest, Yuzuki still tried to make as much of a ghost of herself as she could, more out of practice for the Silent Kill skills that they taught at the academy. Her ideal tactics had become; paralyse the enemy with the genjutsu she learned, then backstab them before they could recover. The faster and quieter that she could do that, the less chakra and time it would consume in the end. Granted... if they didn't have to, she was happy with that. She was nervous, though her features betrayed nothing but a stoic stone face. She was determined to make sure that Chiyu didn't feel he made a mistake assigning her to as the squad leader for this mission.

Keeping a close watch around them with his Byakugan, he was continuing to leave no traces behind. Kazin watched as the traces of the squad's footprints dissolved. They were all doing well considering this was their first mission. They were silent, they had set up set positions for each member, and they were all wary of their surroundings. Kazin was quiet while they ran. His full attention was used for his Byakugan. He was constantly flooded with a barrage of the sight of different chakra networks. Being in the forest, everything was alive. Being a Hyuga, he could easily differentiate the different chakra, but it was still a demanding ability. It's use of chakra was low, but it required a great focus to use it on the go. As each of his teammates had responded to them, he nodded respectively towards each of them.

~*Yuzuki*~

"We're almost at the border now, but I doubt we'll make it over the boarder by nightfall. We'll travel for a few more hours until it gets dark and then we'll rest for the night and get our barings again in the morning." Yuzuki could understand Mana's seeming impatience to get there, she was wanting to get this operation over with as well, but she didn't want to risk too much by traveling too fast and getting sloppy with their stealth and their cover. Now that they were getting close to the Fire boarder they may be putting themselves at greater risk, they were out of their homeland now, and being out of familiar territory was usually never a good thing. Yuzuki continued to lead the way, stopping rarely to get her barings and make sure that they were going in the right direction. Once they passed the boarder, Yuzuki became a little more sensitive to things that could be wrong. She wasn't sure what was in place and what was out of place here, she was periodically calling her team to a halt so that she could look around and observe things for a while. She wasn't sure if it was just her paranoia or if something was out there. Most likely the former. Between the stress of her first mission as a leader and the unspoken pressure of trying to desperately catch up and surpass her younger sister, she was on edge and feeling rather uncomfortable. She ignored whatever whinning that Mana said with the sudden, periodic stops and the five minutes it usually took for her to be satisfied for her enought to keep going.

By the time it got dark, they were only about five hours travel from the place they were heading too. Yuzuki called one final halt when they approched a huge tree that would be good shelter, protection and a decent place to sleep.
"Lets stop here for tonight, its the night of the new moon if I remember correctly so we won't have much light, and I don't want to light anything up that would give use away. We'll rest in that tree tonight and finish our quest first thing in the morning. In truth we aren't that far but we might get lost in the dark if we go much further for too much longer. We should probably rest up and replenish our chakra anyways. We'll use that tree, no campfires tonight boys, sorry."
Yuzuki bounded up to the top of a rather large, thick tree and looked around. There didn't seem to be anything nesting here so they should be okay. She motioned her team-mates to follow her. Once they were up she took one more look around to see if she saw anything while what little light they had left was casting anything at all. Yuzuki lowered herself in between two branches of the tree and snuggled down, trying to disappear as much as she could. Her two copies vanished in puffs of smoke behind the cover of the leaves.
"We'll take rotations in watches tonight. I'll take first watch because... well... it takes me a while to wake up after I fall asleep so it would be better if I didn't get any before my watch."



((Unfortunatly Raz doesn't really know what's going on so I'm trying to stall a little till Nor gets back. sweatdrop ))

~*Yuzuki*~

"Thanks, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to sleep yet. I'm still a little uncomfortable with this place, to be honest. Its far away from home and I'm not totally use to it. But... you should get some sleep too, or at least try and rest a little. We can really have you sleep jumping now can we?" Yuzuki leaned back a bit and looked skywards. She watched the stars as they began to dance in the sky, her eyes narrowed and hardened slightly. How long had it been sense she was able to enjoy the stars? How long ago did that weak little girl that she was lay on the roof when she was supposed to be in bed while she gaved up at them so carefree and dreamed dreams that were unobtainable? Not long enough apparently, there was still much work for her to do, and the fact that it wasn't safe enough to practice genjutsu, taijutsu or ninjutsu was also something of a frusteration. At least she would have an outlet for all this anxiety now that she was away from her home hidden in the clouds. Granted, it was kind of nice here. She would probably be more comfortable if their sensei were here to help them watch their backs. But that wasn't an option now. It was only them out here and she was in charge.
"Hey Mana... why did you deside to take the path of the Shinobi?"

~*Yuzuki*~

"I know what you mean, I want to get this over with too so that I too can get back to my training. But I also don't want to rush so that we make mistakes. I am in charge, and my actions can directly influence whether we make it back alive or not."Yuzuki thought about what Mana said in responding to her question. She didn't think it selfish of him, really. How was she much different? Her goal of gaining so much power through jutsu that she eclipsed all in her shadow... not caring who she had to step on to get what she wanted. But when the question was turned around, she really didn't know how to answer so that the boy who took a seat beside her wouldn't feel offended by her powerlust and jealousy fueled ambitions.
"Have you ever heard about the tale of the Scorpion and the Frog?" Yuzuki answered carefully. Her tone not shifting but her eyes slowly scanned the area around once more before she continued. "Once upon a time, there was a scorpion looking to cross a great river when he came across a frog sitting on the rivers edge.
"Frog," The scorpion said. "I beg you, please carry me across the river on your back so that I may reach the other side."
"I would be a fool to do you such a favour," the frog replied. "For if I carry you across the river you will sting me and I shall surely drown."
"It would be I who would be the fool," the Scorpion replied. "For if I stung you while we were crossing the river, then I too would drown. To kill you is to kill me."
The frog, after hearing that, had no qualms about giving the scorpion a ride, and let him crawl onto his back. Half way across the river the frog felt a sharp sting in his back, and cold venom flowing through his body.
"Why?" cried out the frog. "Why would you sting me? Now we shall both drown."
"I know," replied the scorpion as he sank benieth the waves. "But I couldn't help myself, I'm a scorpion and to sting in my nature."
Yuzuki closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm like the scorpion in the story; I'm a shinobi because it is in my nature. My shinobi bloodline has been traced back to the begining of the shinobi wars long before the Uzumaki allience even came into existence. For better or worse... I'm born to sting like the scorpion."
Yuzuki trailed off, deep in thought, it was difficult to tell if she was talking to conferm what she was telling Mana or if she was just thinking out loud.

Kazin knew sleep was essential, especially after training for a good deal of the day, and then sparring with Chiyo-Sensei. Before he lay down for bed, he deactivated his Byakugan. He unwrapped the bandages from his battered hands, then applied his balm. There was a slight sting, but then his hands grew numb. He finally settled down and got as comfortable as he could.

"Whenever it is my turn, wake me up. We all need rest to finish our mission tomorrow." Kazin said as he closed his eyes. "We need to all be 100 percent. Goodnight guys."

Kazin quickly fell asleep, wanting to be fully energized.

~*Yuzuki*~

Yuzuki was just starting to get comfortable when she head the cry of some sort of wild animal, she sat up and listened carefully for a while, when she heard the second bellowing she turned to Mana, keeping her voice low.
"Wake up Kazin-senpai and prepare to either engage or move out. I don't know what's making that noise, but we should be careful. If it just passes us by then we won't worry, if it attacks we'll see what we can do to stop it. If we can't handle it, we fall back. No heroes, understood?"
Yuzuki tried to pin-point where the sound was coming from so that she could keep an eye open for whatever it was that was making that noise. She had heard of creatures that made noises like that before from various sources, she had never encountered on before, so she wasn't sure what to expect. She pulled out the spool of wire that she tucked away in her abdomen gaurd... shinobi's verson of duct-tape in her opinion- versitale, relable and if used properly a bloody gift from the gods- she also pulled a few more things out of her pouches that were behind her. If she didn't have to use jutsu then she wouldn't, death could come just as swiftly and silently from ninja's tools and weapons than it could come from any jutsu. She took some time to loop some of the wire around a few branches so that if she needed too, she could entangle whatever or whoever it was quickly and move for the kill before it had a chance to attack.

~*Yuzuki*~

Yuzuki looked around again for whatever made that noise. Her mismatched eyes slowly and carefully scanned each and every bush on the ground to see if she could find the source of that cry.
"I don't know for sure, but I think it was coming from somewhere over there. I hope its just an animal too, by the sounds of it, it was... but I've never heard anything like that before." Yuzuki replied, showing Mana were she thought the sounds were coming from with a point of the finger and a slow panning of her hand. She was starting to calm down a little now, scenario's were going off in her mind and cold calculations were starting to process. Even if it was something dangerous, cold logic and careful planning would win through. Everything in the living world had its strengths and weaknesses. If it bleeds, Yuzuki was sure that she could kill it... or at least wound it to the point of making it retreat. Seeing as she had yet to see this thing, she wasn't sure what she was getting herself and her team mates into.