As ANBU, one of the things that life revolved around was missions. When missions weren't assigned, then they had to be applied for, if one wanted a paycheck and action. Which was why Kotetsu was dripping his way to the bulletin boards to check out the latest missions, towel slung around his shoulders as warm shower dampness started to cool his clothing. At least the hallways were heated.

Someone was always at the bulletin boards, day or night, and Kotetsu didn't quite pay attention to them - long hair, about his height, possibly female - and focused on the mission outlines. Hmm. There were a bunch of escorts, but not many that seemed to indicate risk other than common thieves. ANBU requests were probably just to bolster pride. Kotetsu didn't feel like doing such low-energy missions - he wanted ... Adventure, maybe. Something with a lot of exploring and running and just enough danger to be actually real (but something he could do and not get killed at, thanks).

It took a while for Kotetsu to realise that the person at the bulletin board smelled like flowers. And was very familiar. A side-long glance made him startle.

"Shit!" it slipped out before he could stop himself. It was that... lady from Intel! The really really horrible one. What was she doing here? "I thought Intel didn't take missions?"

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Sumire turned her head and looked down her nose at him, which wasn't as hard as she thought it would be, considering the newcomer would need a bar stool to reach her waist. Oh, it was that idiot from the stairs Ren seemed to have taken a shine to. This would be fun. One might chalk it up to Shibata not being as accessible as he once was. "What do you mean? Intel has field ops too," she rolled her eyes and went back to looking at the missions available.

"My sister was right about the men in this branch," she muttered under her breath and waited to see if the little rookie would fall for her bait. "How else do you think people get the specs for these?" She tapped a mission with a pretty blue-violet nail.

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Sister? Kotetsu blinked at her for a moment. "What sister?" Sisters always struck a warm fuzzy chord in him but the idea that Sumire had a sister made him blink. One would have thought she'd eaten her at birth or something. "What did you sister say about Hunters?" he demanded.

He thought Sumire was in internal ops for Intel! Was she implying that she was in external ops?

A glance to the board showed that the woman was reading off the very much external missions, and Kotetsu was seized with a sharp grip of almost-fear. He might end up on a mission with her!

He gripped his towel grimly. That was not going to happen.

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"Yes," Sumire said a bit earnestly. "My sister works down in Cryptolog--" she flushed expertly. "I'm probably not supposed to tell you. You can keep a secret, can't you?" She held a finger before her lips as if begging Kotetsu to keep her 'secret' and even looked over her shoulder down the hall behind her. Just in case someone came by to blow her fun someone heard, not that it was like her voice carried very far anyway. He seemed like he was taking the bait (she couldn't believe that this rookie was so gullible! It was wonderful!), so she continued.

"You see, no one knows that my sister and I both live here in ANBU. We've kept it very hush-hush. Oooh, you aren't going to tell anyone are you?" Sumire pouted and made herself pull distressingly on her long side bang. "Please don't, Sumire-oneesama would murder me!"

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Cryptology...? Kotetsu frowned at her for a moment, and the thoughts worked their way slowly through his mind. So Sumire - the jade - was in cryptology, which was definitely internal ops. So the one standing here in front of him wasn't Sumire.

"... Twins?" he tried. But they looked so much alike they could be the same person! Only Sumire wasn't so friendly.

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She nodded emphatically. "We're identical! I'm Sumire too, I just use a different way to write it. It makes it much easier to pass off if they think I'm my sister, then they just think that she decided to write it in a cuter manner!" She was practically feeding him this on a bit of buttered and honeyed bread! He was eating it up! If she hadn't been concentrating so hard on her act, Sumire would've thrown her head back and laughed and laughed until she expired from asphyxiation. Hellfire, she might do it anyway once she was back upstairs and out of sight.

This was more fun than she gave herself credit for. "But, please, promise you won't say anything?" If she had any kind of sense of the ANBU Rumor Milll, this would be all over in a matter of days, even if no one believed him. There was only one Murakami Sumire on file after all. She felt herself get all warm and fuzzy somewhere around the chilly area in her chest.

This was so much fun!

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Identical twins. That made just a bit more sense... only why are they both named Sumire? "Did your parents run out of inspiration?" He asked, a little warily. But the... Sumire in front of him was earnest and large-eyed, the very picture of bubbly innocence.

Sometimes, things were just so absurd they couldn't not be true. "Of course not," he said, blinking at her.

"... Really Sumire too? Are you in External ops then? Or hunters?"

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"External Ops, of course," Sumire replied readily. "It would be too suspicious if we were in Intel and Hunters, wouldn't it?" She curled her hair around her finger, and gave Kotetsu a relieved smile. She congratulated herself on what had to be her most brilliant performance in the history of her career. "It's something like that, I guess. We both just really like 'Sumire', though, so we didn't see a reason to change. It's much easier to answer to the same name."
She added to try and confuse him more less.

"Hmm, I should probably go. It wouldn't be very good if we're both caught in the halls at the same time." Sumire turned to leave and then turned around again. "What was your name, again? You didn't say it." Sumire frowned slightly, as though disappointed.

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"Oh." Then again, ANBU was full of crazed people, according to rumour, and apparently Intel had the freakier people. Which made complete sense, because they worked with the mind and manipulated mental faculties of other people. It was logical that they went around the bend a little further than Hunters did.

"Hagane Kotetsu," he said, feeling like he was re-introducing himself. That's what happened around twins, he supposed.

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"I'll remember it!" she promised truthfully. Where was the fun in forgetting your target's name? She wanted to keep her ear to the ground for rumors of his soon-to-come embarrassment! Sumire shot him another beatific smile and hurried away from him. "Goodbye, Hagane-kun!" I'll be laughing myself sick over your stupidity~!!

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