Fujibayashi Nagato slammed her hands down on the planning table, a map of Wakigami castle rolled out before her. "Didn't we have any better maps of this place?" she asked, looking up past her bangs at the man standing opposite her, "This is barely half-complete." "The Hashinara Clan has some secrets," Tsukuda Katsuo answered. He stared into the distance, idly running his fingers across a scar on his arm, "Otherwise they wouldn't need people like us." "Yes, obviously. We'll work with what we have. You remember the mission, right? Sanosuke-sama wants us to deal with the Oda Tea Master, Sen no Rikyu. She's been overstepping her bounds here recently. He must want it done secretly, or else-" "Else he wouldn't have asked us. Right, I've got it Fujibayashi-sama," Nagato frowned. She was usually able to keep her cool in all situations, even when wounded, or during a stressful mission, but something about her subordinate always managed to get under her skin. "I don't pay you to finish my sentences, Katsuo. Anyway, didn't I ask you to call me Nagato?" "Of course not, Nagato-sama. You pay me for my good looks," the other responded, his face and tone completely deadpan. Furrowing her brow at the odd comment, Nagato decided to let this one pass and turned back to the map, placing a finger down on one of the guest rooms that made up the majority of the castle's second floor. "Sen no Rikyu's quarters are here. We don't know much about her except that she's a magician, probably a powerful one," she paused, looking up again to make sure the other ninja was still paying attention. "She's also pretty good at making tea. We know that," he stated, still staring somewhere into the middle distance. Nagato sighed, "Yes, Katsuo, we also know that. That probably won't be relevant on this mission." She could feel her annoyance starting to slip away, the thrill of planning a strike like this washing through her and setting her heart to beating faster. "We'll use a simple decoy tactic. You'll come in through the window, make as if to strike her, then use your substitution technique to avoid whatever counterattack she throws your way," Nagato illustrated her instructions with short, swift motions of her finger on the paper. To her satisfaction, Katsuo seemed to be paying attention now, his eyes focused on the map and her gestures, "Meanwhile, I'll be outside the door. We'll make sure it's unlocked beforehand of course. I'll sneak in behind her and incapacitate her. Then, we'll put her into the sack and meet up with Fujino-san here ," she jabbed at a junction just outside the room to punctuate the sentence, "and have her teleport us to the Date Clan Headquarters." "She knows where that is?" "She will. I've asked her to study up on it," Nagato waited a moment, but Katsuo didn't seem forthcoming with any other comments, "Right. We'll strike just after sundown, once it's gotten dark." "It's not likely to be that easy. It's hard to tell what spellcasters will do when you put them in a corner," Katsuo cautioned Nagato merely grinned, already relishing the prospect of the mission. This was far better than listening to the whining of the ninja clan heads back in Iga Province. She cracked her knuckles. "We'll adapt. That's the fun part."