[Narutoitp] Episode 11: Of Stripes and Swords

[Silverraptor]

A faint reddish glow peaks out over the horizon. The beams of sunlight reach out to touch the new ground for conquest. The darkness is being forced out, as the light claims its new domain.

What lay in this domain was a house secluded in the woods. The trees were full of green leaves and flowers, just beginning to bloom. A gopher pokes its head out of the ground and looks around briefly, before burying its head back under the earth. A butterfly floats over and rests onto the side of the house, its wings opening and closing in metronome. The hous itself was specially made so secluded to allow the occupants privacy and restful enjoyment.

...Atleast in theory...

************

"OY! KANAYE! Get up!"
The fiery tempered swordsman was standing over one of his sleeping partners. A foot was planted right into the young swordsman's chest.
"I've had enough of this!! Between your bats squeaking and your loud snoring in the middle of the night, how can anyone around here get any sleep?!"

[Maximum Zersk]

Kanaye just stared at the ceiling. "Sorry, Motah..." he said quietly.

He got up and sat on his bed for a second, looking around at his room. He saw his sword sitting under his pillow. He got up and picked it up.

He weighed it in his hand. Doryuken, the Sword of the Earth Dragon. The mixture of metal and earth shone in the new dawn. He's had this sword for how long now? Four years?

He looked out the window at the distant mountains guarding the horizon. It's been four years. Four years since his friend and teacher died, four years since he first killed, four years since he became a criminal... So much that has happened, and yet in so little time, it felt.

He put his scabbard onto his belt and got off the bed. "So where do we go now?" he asked quietly.

[Silverraptor]

Motah glares at Kanaye for a moment.
"We're all going to the kitchen for breakfast first. Then we'll be collecting a huge bounty. How could you forget this from yesterday?"

[Maximum Zersk]

"Right, I must've forgotten. I apologize," he said.

[Silverraptor]

Motah just gives Kanaye a look, before walking out the door. He makes his way over to the kitchen and begins to make breakfast.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Hoshiko

The racket from the kitchen and the room shared by Motah and Kanaye woke up someone else too. As the dual-blade user goes to start making breakfast, the door to Hoshiko's room swings open and the dull-headed, chest Hoshiko stumbles out in her night clothes. A simple t-shirt and a pair of boxers, with Daisukiken dragging along the floor with one hand while holding unto a cartoonish looking ninja-stuffed animal with the other.

Her sword arm raises to rub sleepily at one eye as she stumbles over to the table and plops down heavily, all but laying out across the table and go back to sleep as bleary eyes look at Motah.

"Do you two have to be so noisy in the morning? It's hard to go to sleep...whatcha making?" she mumbles softly, giving an exaggerated yawn.

[Kasanip]

Momo

From Hoshiko's room a few minutes later is Momo appearing, rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"Is it morning already?" She yawns.

[Silverraptor]

Motah finishes his dish and sits down. He leans really far back, balancing precariously on the back feet of the chair.
"Well, I don't know what you're going to have Hoshiko, but this bowl of egg and rice is for me."
He then grabs a big chuck with his chopsticks and takes his first bite.

[Frozen_Feet]

Shiro enter the room, fully clothed, in full battle-readiness with several equipment scrolls hanging from his belt. "Impatient as always, Motah?", he quips, despite not really knowing what's going on. His face is completely inscrutable. "Morning, Kanaye. Morning, ladies. I readied coffee and porridge for you." He points at the table, where sure enough, there's a lidded kettle and a thermos bottle.

He sounds somewhat weary. Maybe he's not slept well?

Ryoma is still absent.

[Silverraptor]

Motah waits for his mouth to empty, before taking another big bite and then speaks to Shiro with his mouth full.
"Of courthe I'm impatienth. We're goingth after a highth paying bounty."
He swallows.
"Anyways, where is the old man?"

[Callos_DeTerran]

Hoshiko

Hoshiko blinks as Shiro comes out, still slumped over the table when the other makes mention of porridge and coffee, something that prompts her to make a face and stick out her tongue

"Ew. Not going to eat that...I want cereal! And milk!" she grumpily demands, but once it's apparent that no one is going to get it for her, she slouches over to the kitchen and fetches a large bowel of sugary cereal for herself...though she thoughtfully leaves it out in case Momo wants some of it as well.

"Hmph. Hope he stays gone..." comes another grumble as she begins to noisily devour her breakfast. It's almost savage to watch and it's hard not to feel a bit bad sorry for the cereal. "Who we going after again Shiro-tan?"

[Frozen_Feet]

"You should eat your porridge. It's filling and nutritious", Shiro says as he observes Hoshiko's shenanigans. "And you shouldn't eat so many sweets. Processed sugar causes teeth to rot, especially filed ones like yours. You don't want them to fall off, do you? Besides, you'll grow fat." He doesn't join the table, having finished his own breakfast a while ago. Instead, he just casually leans to the kitchen doorframe.

"As for your other question, we're going after Kouhei, a wandering criminal tagged S-rank. Supposedly, he slaughtered a collection of village elders before making a run for it. Rumours even abound he's a jinchuuriki, but we should be able to handle him regardless."

He pointedly ignores Motah's query about Ryoma.

[Silverraptor]

Motah finishes another big mouthful before continuing.
"Anyways, where was the last place this 'Kouhei' has been seen?

[Frozen_Feet]

"Few scattered sightings here and there. Guy seems to be avoiding large settlements", Shiro replies monotonously. "Based on latest info, our best bet is to go through Rivers, past Takumi, and then start following Earth's border counter-clockwise. I'm counting on getting a better lead along the way. We might be able to pick up some minor bounties to cover running costs."

[Silverraptor]

Motah nods.

"Sounds good to me. Any objections?"

[Frozen_Feet]

Shiro listens to the resounding silence following Motah's question, a wolfish grin spreading on his face. "Gather your equipment, then. We should be leaving soon."

[Silverraptor]

In three minutes, Motah has finished his breakfast and is waiting completely ready at the front door.

"Come on! What's taking everyone so long?!"

[Callos_DeTerran]

Hoshiko

"Nyyyaa~! Porridge is also completely nasty, while sweets crunch when I bite into them...and watermelon isn't bad for my teeth and is a sweet!" Hoshiko argues half-heartedly, gloomily stirring her cereal about with her spoon as the other two talk about the bounty or some such they were supposed to go after. Wasn't that Yoshi guy supposed to have been an S-rank? If so then there didn't seem to be much to be worried about, he hadn't been so tough...from what she remembered of that whole fiasco anyway.

"Hehe..I don't get fat! You should know that by now!" she sleepily snickers, which was the truth. No matter how many sweets she ate, the daft woman never got fatter. Either a bizarre metabolism at work or, Hoshiko's own theory, it all went to her boobs. As she always teased Momo about.

Finally, dragging her feet in eating, she's approaching the door with Daisuikijen strapped at the base of her back and a bored look in her eyes. Bounty-hunting didn't exactly strike that spark of excitement in her like sharks, sweets, or simple murder did.

[Kasanip]

Momo
Momo appears in a blur of wind to sit on Motah's shoulder.

"Let's gooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" She complains. to give a sugar breakfast to Momo may be a bad idea. She has her sword and seems to be uncaring about other preparation. Of course to wear hear clips always.

[Maximum Zersk]

Kanaye quietly stood at the side.

"Yes, let's."

[Frozen_Feet]

Some time later...

The first hour of walking was uneventful. At Shiro's suggestion, the group had taken a "shortcut" that followed an ancient, partially overgrown road in the wild. Supposedly, it's straighter than following more used roads that would curve near Fire's border before heading towards Takumi.

However, just before stumbling through a thick forest barrier to get back to a more civilized pathway, they are greeted with an odd sight. The ground before them is covered in strange, yellow pollen for as far as the eye can see (not that it's much in the shade of the ancient oaks), and the plants under it have wilted. "What in the world...?"

[Silverraptor]

"What? Who cares about some...plant...stuff? We have more pressing issues to deal with, like our bounty. Now lets keep moving!"

Motah will make his way onward for a few paces before stopping and sighing, given that it is presummed no one is following him.

[Silverraptor]

The sound of footsteps is heard as Motah is approaching the group that is still looking at the destruction.

"Oh come on guys! What possibly could be here that would be of any importance to us?!"

Whoever should look in Motah's direction might see a scrap of cloth caught in some twigs right behind him. The cloth would look awfully familiar.

[Kasanip]

Momo
Momo looks annoyed at the pollen, and she hops through it carefully, and then holds onto Hoshiko's back to avoid it. As they walk, she sees the scrap of cloth.

"What's that?" She asks. "It looks like you tore something Motah!"

[Frozen_Feet]

Shiro furrows his brow. "Stay put for a moment, hothead" he says, walking past Motah to take a look at the strip. It's a shred of cotton bandage, painted venomous yellow by the same dust that caused the grass to wilt. Shiro reaches forward to grab it, but stops at the last second - he's not sure if it'd really be safe.

"Cover your mouths and noses", he says, "don't let that stuff touch your bare skin. Lets keep moving, folks."

[Silverraptor]

Motah raises an eyebrow.

"Why? What is that stuff?"

[Frozen_Feet]

Shiro draws Kusanagi and lifts the shred of cloth from the branch with its tip. "I think it's poison. Look around you", he says deadpanly. Clearly, something disastrous had occurred on their chosen path only recently - but what?

[Callos_DeTerran]

Hoshiko

Hoshiko gazes about with her oft-assumed look of dimmed indifference to the situation, even as Shiro moves to lift the bandage and declares all of the stuff poison. Then again he had said that candy was basically a poison before and everyone knew that wasn't true at all!

Much like that warning, she wasn't exactly taking heed to this one, scuffing the dust with her open-toed shoes and wrinkling her nose in distaste. "This stuff stinks..think the mark made this stuff? If he did then I'm going to enjoy hosing him down and collecting the reward...

[Silverraptor]

The tip of Hoshiko's toe will quite quickly turn black and go numb.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Hoshiko

The daft Swordswoman looks down curiously at her blackened toe, even though there's no discomfort it's a bit of an odd thing to see happen after all. She even goes so far as to lift her leg up, hopping awkwardly on one foot, to examine the blackened digit before giving a sigh.

"Heeeyyyy~! Senga is right! It is poison!" she calls to the other Swordsmen, waving her arm around before glancing around as her interest in the dust quickly fades, "Shouldn't we keep moving now though?"

[Frozen_Feet]

Shiro is not pleased when Hoshiko goes and sticks her toes into the pollen. "Hoshiko, please be more careful", he sighs, rubbing his eyes with one hand. "I swear, one of these days that thoughtlesness will get you killed..." He then turns to Kanaye.

"Hey! Any chance you could make those bats scout ahead for us?", he asks. "I guess they don't see that well, but still - I' like to know how big an area this covers. It might bring something interesting up."

Shiro pulls out a simple gasmask from his pockets and puts it on his face, checking at the same time that his outfit has no gaps for the dust to get in. Then he leads the Swordsmen further down the age-old road...

[Callos_DeTerran]

Hoshiko

Shiro doesn't see how Hoshiko sticks her tongue out at him when he continues to lead them down the road. Or how she bundles up a handful of poison dust and launches the 'snowball' at the back of his head to explode in a cloud of the stuff before laughing uproariously.

"Hehe...Alright, yeah...we probably should find the target, ne?"

[Frozen_Feet]

Shiro halts for a moment as the toxic pollen falls down his shoulders - pondering for a moment what possible consequences the act might have had if he hadn't pulled a hood over his head. He shoots a deeply disapproving glare at Hoshiko, before starting to walk again. "That's it - no more sweets for you."

[Silverraptor]

Motah is trailing in the back of the group, obvious signs that he doesn't want to take this slight detour. After the breif spat between Shiro and Hoshiko, he con't help but groan.

"Come on, guys! The longer we apend here, the further our target will get away from us! Why do we need to satisfy this bleeding curiosity of yours Shir-OOOOOOO!!!"

Something hard and metallic catches his foot as he is taking a step, causing him to trip. Breif flashes of recent memory caused his adrenaline to skyrocket as he approached the impending poison pollen. Before anyone knew what happened, Motah had managed to un-sheath both his sword and plant them right in front. Anyone who looks now will see him balancing precariously over the pollen filled ground, gripping his swords for dear life to prevent touching the pollen an inch below.

[Frozen_Feet]

Shiro gives Motah a decidedly non-plussed look as he walks. "The shortest route goes right through. Doesn't mean I like walking around in toxic dust. Going around would be wisest." He turns to look ahead again. "Pick yourself up. You look like a fool."

[Silverraptor]

Motah yells angrily up at Shiro.
"Ya, sure! Walking through a field of poison isn't foolish at all!
After a few attempts, Motah managed to stand up. He then turns around to locate the source of what tripped him.
"Damnit! What kind of person would leave a..."

To anyone around, Motah suddenly becoming silent was certainly out of the ordinary.