One Long Mission

The weather in this village was the most bizarre that he'd ever seen. It went from torrential downpours to nearly summer weather to this creepy personalized crap that was going on now. And the worst part is that Sarutobi Asuma was followed by a bubble of rain—like that the day he'd died—every time he stepped outside.

He was an active man. How was he supposed to spend all damn day in the house? He needed to train, yeah, but he also needed to be able to smoke on his breaks. And forget walking anywhere. Dusty walkways were suddenly mud holes as he walked down them. Not to mention the many female villagers he'd pissed off by accidentally getting them soaked. And buying his own food from the stalls was out of the question!

His only concession was that the weird weather stopped when he went inside, but Ino-chan had forbidden smoking in the apartment above her shop, and he didn't blame her. Really, three days into this and he was starting to hate life.

Okay, so, he was supposed to have met Choji and Shikamaru to go over some details for the team's new mission for the next day—he could tell Ino-chan separately or make Shikamaru do it—but when he'd opened the door to the restaurant the Akimichi heir had picked, he ended up in a land with crazy colored birds dropping stuff on his head.

He rubbed his head where some weird looking shell bracelet had struck as he looked at the attached note. Return of shinobi? Riku no Sato? Michi no Sato? What the hell was going on here?

The sudden desire for a cigarette claimed him, and he patted the pocket where he normally kept them, only to find it empty. Whatever kind of trick this was, it wasn't funny.