Okay, that wasn't entirely honest. Kiku had been pressured into this whole thing. He had just been trying to get a nice meal after getting his mission pay, and had struck up a conversation with the restaurant owner about his mission. Before he knew it, Kiku had been volunteered to train with the man's daughter the next day, with the implication that they might become an item. Kiku hadn't managed to get enough words in edgewise to tell the man that he was involved with a girl in Donzokogakure.

So here he was, searching the gardens for his new training partner. All he had to go on was a picture he'd been given and a rant about how she needed to get serious about her training. Kiku could work with that, he'd done finding missions before, but it still wasn't much. He had the feeling he'd be searching a while.

Izumi lounged under a tree, in kimono as per usual. She was sitting at the base of the tree, leaning against it, hands behind her head, eyes closed, relaxing and enjoying the day. She hadn't made any plans for the day, other than to do nothing. She'd considered taking a nap, but for the time being she was still awake, though she figured she'd succumb to the desire to nap eventually.

Earlier in the day she'd been helping out at her parents' restaurant, and though she didn't really help out all that much, or do much at all, her laziness kicked in and she had decided to visit the gardens. Her father had said something or other about her needing to take her training more seriously, but she hadn't given his words much thought. They simply drifted to the back of her mind; relaxing was more important.

It took a bit, but Kiku found her all right. An older girl, probably in her late teens. She was wearing the same kimono as in the picture, or one damn close to it. He pocketed the photo, taking a few steps closer. She looked pretty chill, maybe this was going to go better than he had thought.

Then he noticed that she was sleeping. This was a bit of a problem for Kiku. It was rude to wake someone up in the middle of a nap, and it was downright dangerous to wake a sleeping ninja. She was a rank above him, so there was a good chance she could totally whoop his ass if set off. He weighed his options for a moment before just deciding to call out to her. "Miss Izumi? Your father wanted me to meet you, he said we were going to train?" He was standing a little bit back, hopefully out of the danger zone. Kiku really didn't want to end up on her bad side.