Island of Storms [Sakura]

Chapter 49 | Mail

Sakura stared at the pile of mail on her desk as she stood in the doorway of her office. Shikamaru bit his unlit cigarette as he looked in behind her, shadow covering his eyes.

"Oh my... It seems we have a lot to get through today," Iro murmured, her tone a bit extinguished. Sakura gave a sigh, pinching the bridge of her nose as she rounded her desk, sitting down in her chair. The three began to sort the mail into piles, Sakura being pleased to find that there were quite a few mission requests.

The young Kage's interest piqued when she recognized a red wax seal on one of the scrolls that Iro had sorted out of the envelopes. She pulled it from the neat stack, being sure to not bring the whole construction down. Upon seeing it closer, she was able to confirm it was what she had thought it had been.

"This is from the World Shinobi Organization," she murmured, breaking the wax and unrolling the paper before she began to read through the message. Shikamaru grumbled to himself as he flipped through a few envelopes with wax seals. He recognized a few of them being from large companies that had outlets in the most populated cities across most nations, though he choked slightly as he saw the seal of the Daimyo of the Land of Fire.

"Sakura—"

"Hold on," she grit out. Her eyes narrowed in irritation as she continued to read through the announcement. Iro looked over to the man in question, as she had little idea of what could be in the scroll. Sakura let out a growl as she slammed the scroll down on the desk, pushing back her chair. She made her way to the window that overlooked the city and stared out over the streets. "Bastards."

"Sakura?" Iro asked softly.

"They've acknowledged us as an official village.... They're mocking us."

"How so?"

"After the Third Shinobi War, the organization set a standard for villages," Shikamaru explained. "The reasoning was so stupid I decided it wasn't worth remembering."

"We have to have at least one team get to the finals of the next Chunin Exams.... I'm not sure that we have anyone ready for that. They know that we just got our Academy finished. We don't have any gennin to take the exam," she bit out, biting her thumbnail.

"Is it just about the exams?" Iro asked.

"There has to be a certain amount of missions completed each month and a population minimum," the man informed as he took the scroll she had been looking at. "The fact that we've grown so much in just a few months is probably the reason we're being recognized, but they don't see us as something to respect at the moment for a few different reasons, probably."

Giving a sigh, he took in the number of letters that were on the table and recognized that they received fewer mission requests due to their size.

"The known island is roughly the size of Kiri, so that's saying something in itself. They could probably easily stomp us out if they tried. Or I guess they think they could. We do have the three brothers and Sakura," he murmured. "And then they don't recognize any of our shinobi or think they don't, anyway. Those of us that came from Konoha and Suna are all chunin at the least, excluding Kosai."

He lifted the scroll she had been reading and glanced over it. "This has an announcement about teams of two being accepted for exams this year... The exams are taking place in Kumo, start on August thirteenth... And there's the acceptance for our genin to participate with the recommendation of their teachers."

"Three months away..." Iro muttered.

"To be honest, I would bet Kosai could pass," Shikamaru sighed, leaning back in his chair as he continued to read through the message, admitting to himself that the tone of the announcement was rather mocking toward them.