A Peaceful Patrol

"Of all the people that could've been chosen to come to these exams, why did they have to pick me? I don’t mind watching the brats compete I guess, but security is hardly my specialty."

Tsumi had been patrolling around the Leaf's coliseum for the last couple of hours. Anbu members from each village would typically come along on trips like these in case there was a threat to any of the kage, to the genin, or for any other reason they might be needed. This time she was assigned to join them. The Hidden Leaf had an entirely different atmosphere from the one she was used to in the Mist. The place felt calm, yet also full of energy and life. She was used to looking over her shoulder most of the time back home, so the fact that she found herself feeling safer and more comfortable here was disconcerting in its own way. She had no reason to expect any danger, but she didn't want to let her guard down either.

She wasn't the most social type, typically sticking to herself unless she had a reason to do otherwise. As she continued her patrol alone, she noticed one of the matches was about to begin. Her job didn't often have her interacting directly with genin, so she wasn't sure who either of the competitors were, but curiosity compelled her to take a break for a moment and watch the match anyway. As she sat in silence watching the beginning of the match, she noticed a much more cheerful-looking Leaf shinobi walking in her direction.

Rei had been enjoying her time during the chuunin exams, it was nice to see her young comrades competing and showing off their skills to the village. So far it seemed to be going well at least, nothing out of the ordinary really and it was something she was eternally grateful for. Though a bout had just started, she wasn't really familiar with the pair fighting below so they got more of a cursory glance while she looked for seating. Unfortunately, with the tournament having started much earlier in the day she had to find somewhere just a little less crowded. It was then she found a Mist shinobi sitting mostly isolated from the rest. The Uchiha offered her a friendly smile as she decided it was about time she made some new connections.

For Tsumi however, the moment their eyes locked she might notice a chill. There was something not quite right about this kunoichi, but she wouldn't be able to put her finger on it. Rei didn't seem to notice either way as she stood politely to the side, tilting her head "Excuse me, do you mind if I join you?" Assuming the answer was returned affirmative, she turned to sit back. "Thanks! It's nice to be away from the crowd, huh?" she settled in to continue the spectacle. Quietly for now, she thought over what she knew of the Mist village. This woman seemed to be a bit older, which meant she had lived under the previous Mizukage and the horrible caste system. It was sure to be a tender topic, and one that she didn't feel like delving into just yet.

"Oh, sorry. I should introduce myself! Rei Uchiha" This was always one of her favourite parts of introductions, her surname tended to bring out some reasonably strong reactions due to the infamy of the clan. How would this Mist shinobi react?

Uchiha, huh?, Tsumi thought to herself. She had never met an Uchiha herself, but she had heard of the clan of course. They were notorious for their long history in the founding of the Leaf village, and their tendency to be naturally gifted paired with that Sharingan of theirs gave them a reputation for being gifted shinobi. Perhaps that would explain the feeling she had gotten, that the girl approaching her was more than her kind appearance let on. Nevertheless, she wasn't the sort to make assumptions about people prematurely, and she didn't want to let any sign of surprise show on her face.

"The name is Tsumi, nice to meet you. I was just keeping a lookout and I must've gotten a bit distracted watching the match. Seems like a good bunch of kids this time around. But you're right, this part of the coliseum is nice and quiet. Never been a huge fan of crowds. How about yourself, what brings you here?" Tsumi wasn't exactly a "people" person, but something about Rei here struck her as the sort of person she'd want to keep as an ally if at all possible.

Rei had considered showing off her sharingan as part of her little reveal, not only was it a better shock factor but it would let her read even the most minute detail on Tsumi's face to check how she really felt. Unfortunately, the Mist ANBU had quite the poker face and there was nothing to go off. Perhaps this woman didn't really have a strong feeling either way, after all the Mist was notoriously isolated prior to the rise of their new Mizukage.

"Lookout? And why would that be?" she pried innocently, relaxing in her seat while occasionally glancing off to the match at hand. Of course there was going to be lookouts, with so many high profile people here it was inevitable that they needed protection. Konoha had taken on a lot of the guard duty seeing as they were hosting this event, with their own ANBU standing guard dotted around the place, standing out like a sore thumb. However, being the one who had planned a majority of the Leaf's defence she knew that the crowd had just as many not wearing masks, ready to jump in if required. "They do look promising don't they? Kids have really advanced since I was in the academy.. I didn't even learn about summoning techniques until I was well into my career and I've counted at least three of these genin using it." She shrugged in the end, nodding in agreement with her judgement upon the crowds.

"Me? Today I suppose I'm just here to watch the festivities." It didn't seem to be a very truthful answer, in fact if she was paying attention Tsumi might notice the wily Uchiha was subtly interrogating her. Carefully chosen conversation, and a tactic that she might well be accustomed to. If she did, it might occur to her that this girl held the same title. Though her disposition was entirely wrong and seemed to natural to be fabricated. It would be up to the Mist kunochi as to how she would deal with these little tricks.

It wasn't exactly a secret that everyone was on high alert due to having so many important people in attendance. The Uchiha sitting next to her was either completely oblivious or was messing with her. It seemed safe to assume it was probably the latter. She had a feeling the girl knew a lot more than she was letting on, and was maybe even in a position of some power in the Leaf, but decided against jumping to any conclusions. "Might as well play along" Tsumi thought to herself. "It's just a precautionary measure, nothing to be too concerned about. Can never be too safe right?"

"You're right about the kids though, some of them are on an entirely different level from what I remember at that age". Tsumi had thought about this a few times in the past herself. It hadn't been all that long since she was a genin, and she suspected Rei was even younger than she was. It had been maybe a decade now at most. Were the newer generations really advancing this quickly now, or was it all in her head? The whole line of thinking accomplished little more than making her feel old, so she decided to move on.

"You seem to be watching the event pretty closely, got any favorites to win?" The question was genuine enough. She was legitimately curious to hear her take on the proceedings and learn about some of the more promising genin at the event, but she was also hoping to get some more clues about the girl. Rei didn't seem particularly threatening, but she sure as hell wasn't just a casual spectator, and the lack of certainty made Tsumi a bit uncomfortable. With any luck, she'd get a better idea of who Rei was, and what she was actually doing here.

"I suppose not! Though I'd say right now we're about as safe as we can be." She giggled, it seemed like this Mist shinobi was going to keep on the professional look for now so she would just let her go. Personally, she was less worried about the important people in the audience. Kaishi could take care of himself, and the Mizukage was infamous for her own prowess due to her long history of bloodshed. Which only left the Raikage, who was something of an unknown quantity for the Uchiha but seeing as he wore the hat, it was likely he knew how to take care of himself.

"It's amazing! I'm not sure I could have competed at this level if these lot were around" Another little falsehood of course, not that it mattered. She had taken on the chuunin exams rather early as well, going on to compete with little difficulty while coming out to be one of the few graduates of her year. Things had been a little different back then of course, usually the trials were a little more dangerous, with less interference from the proctors. These days it was far more common for matches to be called early, after all a dead genin was seen as a waste, particularly when they weren't on mission.

"Hrmm, favourites?" She tapped her chin, gazing upwards for a moment as she thought back through what she had seen so far. "Well, I'm only really familiar with Konoha's competitors, but the snake and toad duo are strong competitors... That Lariat boy also seems to be a good pick. If I'm honest though I wouldn't be the best judge" she shrugged. "The rest seem to have gotten a little lucky, but who knows what could happen"

Tsumi leaned back in her chair and thought for a moment. It was clear by now that her usual serious demeanor wasn't getting her anywhere. Rei was answering her questions, but she didn't seem terribly keen on opening up too much. She seemed like the sort who might respond to a more casual approach, and in all honesty, it sounded nice to lighten things up a bit anyway. She sat silently for a few seconds while she thought of the best direction to steer the conversation. Finally something came to mind. Neither of them seemed too familiar with too many of the participants, but maybe a little game would liven things up a bit.

Although she would never admit it to anyone, Tsumi had a bit of a weakness for gambling. It wasn't about money or anything self-serving, she merely got a thrill out of it. Usually she was able to refrain, but on the rare occasion that she gave in, she'd come up with some weak excuse to try and make herself feel better about it. Today she told herself it was just to see if the Uchiha would go along with it, and to see what kind of wager she might make. "I'm just doing it to get some more information, right? Nothing wrong with that" She thought to herself. A small grin crossed her face. "Care to make the exams a little more interesting? Just a friendly bet, whatever stakes you like. The Leaf against the Mist. Whichever village's kid wins in the finals wins the bet. And if the Cloud wins we'll call it a draw. You interested?"

Rei sat in silence for a moment after she had answered all the Mist kunoichi's questions, letting her process and decide on how best to continue the conversation. Thankfully, Tsumi had something in mind, but it wasn't what Rei had been expecting of her. A bet for who would win this little tournament of theirs. She wasn't entirely sure if it was a fair bet, the leaf had pitted four of the entrants into fights with each other for the second round, but if it was just some friendly betting she couldn't really see the harm in it.

"A wager? Well I'm not sure that's ethical, how do you know I haven't trained some of those kids to have nasty little tricks?" She smiled, using this to reveal that she was at least a jounin, the chuunin of the village tended to take care of the Academy students after all, with Jounin taking on genin teams of three. "Though that could be fun! What are we going to be putting on the line? I'm not too familiar with the guidelines for these things!"

Tsumi was relieved to see Rei playing along with her suggestion. It seemed like she was finally making some headway, and the little comment she made about teaching the children was enough to tell her at least some of the very basics about the girl's background. "Good enough for now, no reason to try and go digging through her whole life story," she thought.

"As far as I'm concerned teaching the kids some "nasty little tricks" is par for the course. If someone's eliminated because they're not ready for some surprises here and there that's their own fault. In fact, it's probably one of the more important lessons to take away from the exams I think. I'm sure you know as well as most that being unprepared for the unexpected is likely to just get them killed someday."

"And as far as the bet is concerned, we can keep it simple if you like. Let's say when all this is over the loser treats the winner to a meal." . As far as she was concerned this was a win/win. It really made the wager more about village pride than anything. No harm in that. And whether she won or lost she'd get a free recommendation of somewhere good to eat.   "Does that work for you?"

"I suppose that's true, though it doesn't look like any of them are hiding their tricks this year.. I'm pretty sure one of them used the first of the Eight Gates." Tsumi was right of course, this was all a learning experience. Of course a number would be granted the rank of Chuunin it was more of a situation for the villages to come together and learn from eachother. Even now she had deployed a number of ANBU simply watching to investigate any new techniques that could be useful for the future or to earmark some names for the internal Bingo book for any explicitly dangerous entrants.

"Well that sounds more than fair! Low stakes work for me" If anything, even if she lost chances were she could treat her new acquaintance to a free meal thanks to her contacts around the village. "It's a deal, lets see how it all goes." With all this excitement, the round had been called and a winner revealed. Which meant the combatants were ushered out and the proctors went to work getting the arena prepared for the next set of candidates.

"So, how are things going in the Mist? Recently the only news that have been coming out has been either particularly exciting or non-existent, nothing in-between" Between the coup and a particularly bloody cleansing of the Kaguya clan a few years prior, she hoped things were starting to calm down. It would be interesting to see what an insider might think of things.