Shizuka stopped her movements. Pausing to tuck a hair out of place. She looked around, taking in the mountain range. Narrowed eyes looked for the secret landmarks known to the sun village. There, the snail trail. A series of strangely circular rocks that pointed roughly South West. She moved in a different direction, sliding down a crevice slowly. She had a small package with her, a series of scrolls. Inside them were preserved foods, weapons, and equipment needed for the patrols. While most patrols rarely lasted longer than a day, there were those who ventured out further and stayed as long as 2 weeks.
Patrols needed to be mobile and didn't always carry everything they needed. People like Shizuka would deliver them additional supplies and also serve as a liaison. Shizuka would stop by and deliver any new intel they have to the Village. There were also extremely rare cases entire patrols went missing. This meant one thing, they were being attacked and Shizuka would quickly need to signal the rest of the village. Hopefully this wasn't the case today.
She would move between crevices in the mountain trying her best to avoid the detection of prying eyes as well as the scorn of the sun above. It took her quarter of the day to reach her destination. A small plateau in the mountain range where a single stunted tree grew twisted in spirals. She smiled to herself. The Spire Tree was a sort of tradition in the village. Genin would often have to hike up to the tree and punch it once before returning to the village. No one knew how but the leafless tree seemed to be alive, never growing but never falling either. It just seemed to infinitely twist and turn on itself.
She sat down next to it and waited for a while. From the vantage point, she spotted out mountain goats, a single eagle, and a hundred wild hares scuffling about. The sound of rolling pebbles startled her, she quickly whipped around searching for the source but saw nothing. Then a voice would call out to her. "Poppy." The tension in her shoulders resided and she in turn called back. "Cucumber." Two Shinobi appeared one from the ground beneath and the other from the shadow of a boulder.
"You were alert good but you missed a few things. Don't reveal yourself if you don't have to when you wait. One of us could have been ambushed the meet location might have been revealed." She nodded in understanding, taking in the teachings of her older Shinobi. Her ancestor could have taught her that lesson but not everything in the world was known to her ghosts.
Shizuka passed to them three scrolls. They carefully checked the contents making sure the correct stuff was delivered. Then Shizuka took a scroll from them and put it away. There was another part of the patrol that was on the other side of the mountain, Shizuka would need to deliver a supply scroll to them as well before her mission was finished.