Atsuki was pleased to see that his teammates were acceding to his superior tactical genius. The fact that his initial assessment of his allies had so-far been proved beneficially incorrect was a pleasant surprise for the admittedly pessimistic young man. As long as things kept up like this, it would be smooth sailing...as long as their sensei proved as competent as the hype suggested. His impression of the man wasn't a very good one, but he hadn't yet lost faith. Whether this glorified errand was to be a true challenge that would demonstrate their sensei's true colors as a hypercompetent shinobi, or another farce that would cement his incompetence in Atsuki's eyes remained to be seen. For him, the others, and their sensei, he hoped it would be the former.
"Hmph. I make my own luck," Atsuki commented confidently, hands thrust into his pockets as he made his way away from his group and towards the hotsprings,
"This'll be over in a cinch." He waved a hand into the air.
"I'll see you all on the other side."
o–< > | < >–o
Konoha Hotsprings
After leaving his comrades to their own objectives and beginning his movement towards his own, it didn't take too long for Atsuki to arrive at the hotsprings. It wasn't really packed full of people, since most were out and about, doing more important things this time of day during this part of the week. Things that Atsuki and his squad ought to be doing instead of something as menial as a fetch quest under the pretense of a challenge. The hotsprings were, as the name suggests, a very hot and very humid place. Warm steam rose from warmer pools of water, and droplets of sweat had already begun forming beneath his mane of dark hair. Perhaps this would be a place he would've liked to spend time to reward himself for a job well done, but right now, he found little pleasure standing in such conditions. His objective was to find a letter hidden somewhere around here, but there wasn't any kind of obvious clue as to the location as he made his way closer to the entrance. If anything, Atsuki supposed that setting up these challenges would be what he would an acceptable reason as to why their sensei's initial letter lacked a decorum suitable for the situation. Still, it would've been nice if he had at least put the effort in. A prepared letter from the night before would be better than that piece of crap he passed on this morning.
Atsuki looked around nonchalantly, head turning every which way as he surveyed the area. At first glance, nothing seemed amiss, but on his second, he noticed how the steam obscured his surroundings but was just clear enough to provide a vague image of what was behind it. He stopped in place. The entrance was only a few steps away, and past that threshold he'd have to enter the hotsprings proper. Leaving and entering repeatedly would be inconvenient
and a waste of his time if the hidden letter had been out here all along. Even with that aside, Atsuki had a feeling that Kohaku Mitsunari was not the type of person who'd spend money to enter a hotspring and not take the time to use it himself. And even if the letter wasn't there, the act of searching the front first would eliminate options in a more efficient manner than going in and coming back for it later. He walked back to the start and observed the steam clouds from there. If his sensei wanted to conceal the letter here as well as possible, he would use a cloud that covers an area from as many angles as possible, starting from the starting point. Slowly, he began retracing his steps, inching closer and closer to the hotsprings proper and the 'correct' choice.
He stopped about three-quarters of the way through.
'It's that one,' he thought, eyes glued to the ebb and flow of a particularly suspicious haze. It was far from the entrance, particularly thick, and covered its angles well. If Atsuki was a jonin, that was where he would conceal something out here. He made his way towards the area in a completely mundane fashion, crossing the bridge, rounding the main building, and then crossing another bridge. There was no need for an alternative method of navigation, like free running or body flicker; they would've just been a waste of chakra and stamina. After passing through the veil of condensation, Atsuki resumed his search, starting with his visual survey. His eyes darted around before noticing a fluttering white thing above. Attached high up on a wall was a letter, its unsecured edges being blown up and down by the rising steam. Now that he knew its location, all he had to do was grab it. The problem was that condensation had clung to the walls, moistening the surface. That meant that traditional climbing would be difficult, as would climbing via jumping to and from the corners of two buildings.
Fortunately for Atsuki, he was no ordinary Academy graduate. He turned around and sprinted at the nearest wall. Just as he was about to slam face-first into a building, he planted a foot on the side and brought his hands together. As chakra coursed through and began vitalizing his body, he kicked off the wall. As he neared the peak of his body flicker-enhanced jump, he thrust his hand out and snatched the letter tagged to the top of another wall. Then he braced himself for impact with the ground as he began to drop.
"Oof!" he grunted, landing in a crouch with the railing
just barely behind him. If he hadn't done his initial take-off as decently as he did, he might have landed in the water. If he did that, the note would surely have been sullied. Speaking of which, Atsuki brought up the letter and took a look at its contents.
"Huh?" Atsuki was stunned. This wasn't the letter. It was definitely a letter from Kohaku Mitsunari, but it wasn't
the letter, the one he was looking for. It was just another set of commands instructing him to, quote-unquote, 'look inside the hotsprings for the information you need'. Unfortunate as this development may have been, at least his venture over here wasn't a complete waste. He thrust the other letter into his pocket and made his way to the main building to gain entrance into the hotspring's facilities. After pushing through the facility entrance, he walked towards the person behind the counter.
"Hi, my sensei left something here earlier that he told me to get for him, do you know where he was?" he asked nicely, "His name is Kohaku Mitsunari." The woman manning admission put her hand to her chin in thought before answering him, "That's strange, I don't ever recall seeing your sensei here today. Or yesterday, too." A realization dawned on the young Uchiha.
'...I see,' he thought,
'I shouldn't have expected it to be that easy. Looks like this was intended to be an infiltration mission.' He walked away from the counter and waved back at the lady,
"It's fine! I'll just go back and ask him if he's sure this is the place."
After not even a second after leaving that building, Atsuki rounded the corner and went to quietly getting up on the rooftop. There was significantly less moisture here, so he could get a decent grip on the less distinct handholds. He had to be quick about this or bystanders would think he was a pervert or something. In the same vein, he had to be quiet about it too or people would notice, and that would regress to the first point. Finally pulling himself up on to the roof with a terse grunt, Atsuki crouched down low so as to make himself smaller and reduce his detectability. Crossing the relatively short, flat rooftop with as much silence and stealth as a trained 13-year old could muster in broad daylight, he finally came to the partition separating the male bathing from the female.
"...I'll try the guys' first," Atsuki resolved, dropping down into that area with little ceremony. Wasting no time, he made sure to dart behind a rock. The steam here was thick and, unsurprisingly, water took up most of the space. Visually, he should be fine. His silhouette wouldn't seem to amiss once he ditched his clothes.
And ditch his clothes he did. If he was going to investigate the area for a period of time, it would be prudent to blend in. Obstructive steam or otherwise, if he looked out of place, he looked out of place. Peeking out from behind the stone, he checked both ways before leaving cover to quickly swipe a vacant towel and tie it around his waist. He began walking around the area, looking into every little crack and crevice, overturning every possible stone, and going through the place with a fine-toothed comb. This was a public place, so he shouldn't expect traps or anything since even his sensei wasn't stupid enough to deny the potential for collateral damage. On the other hand, it a public place, so hiding the letter from any unintended eyes would be essential. After a few minutes, Atsuki completed his search to no avail.
'There's a two-in-three chance that the seeker would be male,' he sighed frustratedly,
'Of course he wouldn't put it in the guys'. Adjusting the difficulty is a matter of simple probability.' He grabbed his clothes hidden behind a rock close to his landing zone and body flickered back up to the rooftop to store them there safely. He then removed his towel from his waist, wrapped it around his torso, and ran his hands through his hair, spreading his bangs over his forehead and straightening out his hair.
"...Alright," he muttered, checking his surroundings before dropping stealthily into the steam below.
A cursory glance to the environment before him revealed absolutely nothing out of the ordinary, so Atsuki made his way deeper into 'enemy territory' as it were. If he had to take a guess based on the 'theme' of the mission, the letter would be hidden in the backmost area...
"Hm?" Snatched from behind a stone was another note in sloppy handwriting. It was hard to read, almost downright illegible. He could've sworn he could make out letters though. Atsuki brought it closer to his face. On closer examination, the writing looked to be less like letters and more like an-
"...!"
Belly-first into the steaming-hot water Atsuki went, hands over his ears and body braced for a inevitable blast. When he resurfaced, he was surprised to see that the hotsprings were still intact. He was less surprised to see the present women staring at him confusedly. He blinked twice, his expression blank and his gaze leveled right at the ladies staring at him oddly until they were either intimidated away or lost interest. It seemed even with his well-adjusted appearance, Atsuki's countenance and demeanor made him stick out like a sore thumb. He felt something light land on his head. It was the explosive tag, but there was something off about it that he just couldn't let be. He made a hand seal,
"Release!" Like magic, the explosive tag formula disappeared, replaced by the handwriting he was sure he saw earlier. In the span of a single second, the salt content of the womans' side of the hotsprings increased exponentially. He wasn't peeved because it wasn't the letter he was looking for. He wasn't even peeved because it was just another set of instructions. No, the contents of the letter was just a simple one-line statement of fact:
'The information you're looking for can be found by releasing the genjutsu instructing you to look in the hotsprings contained in a letter along a wall outside of the hotsprings.'
And so, with an expression of utter irritation marring his youthful face, Atsuki crumpled the paper in his hand and sunk deeper into the waters to wallow in his own despair.
o–< > | < >–o
Redressed, dried up and ready for action, Atsuki began to make his way to the meeting area specified by artlessly written words and a much more useful map on his real note: a little tree in the middle of the park. Also contained within his hard-earned letter was a codeword - 'rabbit' - meant to be uttered in tandem with the other two code words, and a sarcastic line or two regarding the inconvenience of genjutsu and sneaking into an opposite gender bathhouse. If there was anything to be gathered from this experience, Atsuki's concerns regarding this sensei's competence were at least allayed, if not nonexistent.
'If our sensei's the kind of person to do something like that, I have to wonder what everyone else had to deal with...' he thought as he neared the designated gathering space,
'...and if any of them also want to, I don't know, wring out our sensei's neck or something.'