"If I may shift topics for a moment, I'd like to discuss why I called you here." His eye shifted to the senior ninja across from him. "Kagome, Leaf needs your talents on a mission. Hazō, you are here in your capacity as Kagome's teammate in order to advise us on what support he will need."
Kagome-sensei glared at the absolute dictator of his nation. "You're sending me on a suicide mission, aren't you, you stinker? You just want to get me killed, I can tell!"
Asuma ignored the comment with munificent grace and pulled out a
map of the Elemental Nations. He turned it around and slid it across the desk so that Hazō and Kagome could see it clearly.
"I'm not sure how familiar you are with the Land of Grass," he said, tapping on one of the minor nations that formed a buffer between Fire and Earth. "There's a major ravine that runs from here in Rain"—he set his finger down just above and to the right of the final 'N' in the nation's name—"through Grass and into Fire, ending here." He slid his finger over and tapped it on the final 'S' in 'Hidden Grass Village', the words being long enough to stretch outside of the map's image of the territory that the eponymous village actually ruled. "The width and depth vary from place to place, but at every point it's an impassable barrier to civilian trade. Hence why there are three bridges, here, here, and here." He tapped three points, then moved his finger back to the westernmost bridge. "Kagome, your skill with explosives is well known. I need this particular bridge to cease existing and not resume existing for a good long time. You're the man for the job."
