Introduction to Exchange

[Golnax]

Shiun Kinoko stood, waiting, fiddling with the gold ring on her right hand middle finger. She pulled the piece of jewelry up and down the length of her digit while she waited somewhat anxiously for this meeting, whatever it was, to begin. She was nervous, despite what her appearance might portray. Her expression was stern, focused, looking at nothing in particular but seemingly holding an intensity to it like she couldn't wait for some action! Really, though, she was just wondering what this gathering of Akibushi samurai, like herself, was all about. Their instructor, a Harubushi samurai who went by Sekiro-senpai, had told her and a select few other outstanding students to gather here at this time. Not everyone was there yet in that open courtyard.

Wondering if there were any familiar faces in the crowd, Shiun lifted her cap-crowned head and looked around. As far as she could tell there were Akibushi from several different classes here, most of which she didn't recognize even in passing. The courtyard itself was surrounded by the inner awning of the academy building in which they had gathered, roofless, the open blue sky above their heads with just enough cloud cover to shelter them from the sun. Aside from the large cobblestone square in the center of the yard and the four stone paths that lead to different entrances of the awning at the cardinal directions, the ground was left natural and untamed. Some stood on the grass, a few were sat beneath a sakura tree. One bold Akibushi had even removed their shoes and was dipping their feet into the small pond that was off in one corner of the courtyard.

Shiun herself was stood beside the eastern entrance to the courtyard, flipping her ring from one finger to the other now as she looked around and waited. Had everyone arrived yet? Sekiro-senpai wasn't there yet, so she felt it safe to assume no. She hadn't exactly shown up early to this thing, whatever it was. She hadn't been told at the very least, just that she needed to be here on time. Well, she'd managed to do that much at least. So who else was going to arrive, and what was the purpose of this thing to begin with...?

[Nick]

Suzuko, distinctly, was not present. It wasn't fair to call her late by any means, because she didn't know she was supposed to be there until just about ten seconds ago. Goro had been especially annoying lately, and so Suzuko didn't think much of it when he'd asked her to stay behind on their class for a bit so they could talk. She wasn't the only student he did this with, and usually it was to ask a few questions that made her hate him more like 'don't you think you could have done better?' or maybe 'Do you really think that was the best move?' and it never got better. His questions always made her angry, and so she would immediately react by trying to get better at whatever he was annoyingly commented on, so that he'd never do it again!

"The school needs your help." He opened up this time. Suzuko's face immediately adopted a smug look. "Of course you'd come to the great and mighty Suzuko for help!" She said, folding her arms over her chest, closing her eyes, and waiting for a response that never came. Her puffed out chest deflated eventually and a disappointed look across her face opened her to be the first to speak up. "What does the school need this time?" She asked, and Goro took a cigarette out of his chest pocket and stuck it in his mouth, unlit, just lazily hanging there. "They're calling it the pilot program. Good for the whole country apparently. There's a meeting for it in the courtyard right now."

She stared blankly at him for a few moments, and he held a lighter up to his face, inches from lighting his cigarette, not actually lighting it, before taking a fake puff on the cigarette and stashing the lighter once more. She continued to stare as Goro turned his head to look at a clock on the wall, taking another fake puff. "You're late." He said, and before he could finish the sentence, she was out the door. Goro looked after her and chuckled quietly to himself. All according to plan, so far.

Moments later, a sweaty Suzuko full sprinted into the courtyard, practically drenched as if a bucket of water had been thrown on her, running directly over to where a handful of students had gathered, and stopping right next to a particular purple pal that she recognized from her classes, doubling over to put hands on knees, catching her breath. "Did I... Miss... The Meeting...?"

[Golnax]

The sudden appearance of Suzuko was heralded by the sound of thumping footsteps coming down the awning hall. The sound had just reached Shiun's ear and she was just beginning to turn to see whose steps they came from when her classmate, Suzuko Fukazawa, came bursting out of the eastern entrance that the Kinoko had been standing by, making her flinch and back up a step as she came to a sudden stop! Her suddenly being there and the sight of a familiar face broke Shiun out of her inward trance, the overly serious expression erased by an open mouthed look of surprise that quickly turned into a smile upon seeing the sweaty brown haired girl.

"Hey Suzuko!" she greeted cheerfully, straightening up and running her hands down over the bottom front of her dress. She'd managed to make it wrinkle in her sudden surprise. "Nah, you haven't missed it yet. Sekiro-senpai hasn't shown up yet. I think you're one of the last students to get here, though," she idly commented, taking another look at all of the Akibushi present in the courtyard. One of the things that Sekiro-senpai, as well as the other instructors there at the academy, had drilled into their heads over and over again was the virtue of observation - seeing what an opponent was about to do when facing them off in a duel, or dealing with ninja who were full of tricks and could not be trusted (she paid especial attention on lectures about ninja, but this one on observing had managed to find a place in her brain, too) was an invaluable skillset for surviving as samurai.

And looking around, Shiun saw only one thing that was particularly in common with them all. They were from different classes, different genders, she didn't recognize all of the faces but some she did, and then there was the occasional name she could recall here or there. At this particular academy, Shiun was one of, if not the only, Kinoko who had been enrolled in recent memory, which made sense to her, at least, as the Kinoko were typically slow to adapt to new things because of their... unusual appearances. Consequently, Shiun had not been an overly popular girl, but popularity didn't mean much when compared to good marks and having at least one good friend like Suzuko! Which is what brought her back to the one thing that everyone here, she assumed, had in common; they were all either at the top or close to the top of their class as far as performance was concerned.

"So what do you think this is about, hm?" she asked Suzuko, crossing her arms over her chest and giving Suzuko a nudge with her elbow. "Think we're gonna be getting promoted early? I'll have to switch up my whole wardrobe for being a winter samurai!" she joked, mock shivering on the spot as if holding the title somehow came with an actual change in temperature.

[Nick]

Suzuko took a moment to catch her breath as Shiun babbled away. Her mushroom headed friend was an odd one to say the least, and while not all were accepting of her eccentricities both mentally and physically, she gave the young heiress a warm fuzzy feeling to be around, as if they'd been friends in a past life. While the creation of Heart would have led to more respect going to the Kinoko, especially with their aide in setting up defenses for the empire, older traditionalists would still find it difficult to get along with 'monsters' like them. The sweat continued to roll, less because of the workout, and more because of the nervous reaction she was having to the questions the Kinoko girl was raising.

She was late if she was one of the last ones there, and given that no other students were shuffling in, she was the most late she could be. Even if no other teachers were present aside from those adults shuffling along to different parts of the academy, the very thought that she was underperforming in some way gave her a feeling in her stomach like she wanted to vomit. She didn't though, because that would be very unbecoming of a young member of nobility and would bring shame to her family, both biological and foster.

Just as importantly, she really hoped the pilot program didn't involve promoting them earlier than intended, she still wasn't sure if she wanted to be promoted to Fuyubushi. More so than any other promotion, becoming a Fuyubushi meant a lot to a young samurai, because it meant you were done with your schooling, and were actively choosing to become a full time member of the military. If there was one thing that wasn't necessarily expected of her it was that, though if she thought about it realistically, what else did she even have going for her? She was nobility in blood, but her lands that she might preside over were long since taken over by Iwagakure, meaning she really had nowhere else to turn... But she still wanted the choice!

Suzuko laughed nervously as she finished catching her breath, standing up straight. "Not just your wardrobe, you may have to grow more 'shrooms to cover the cold!" She teased back, rolling her eyes and trying to maintain some kind of composure despite the butterflies in her stomach. "Besides, don't mushrooms just hide under the ground for the winter, I don't think they'd be including you if that was the case!" The girl jabbed playfully, sticking out her tongue, another thing that was unbecoming of young nobility, but she didn't seem to mind this time.

"Apologies, Children..." Came the voice of a younger adult who rushed into the courtyard, flanked on either side by two of their teachers, Sekiro-sensei and another, while Goro slinked in behind them, unlit cigarette still dangling from his lips. They didn't like him smoking on academy grounds. Suzuko glared at him for a moment, before straightening her uniform a bit to look good. The man who spoke looked somewhat familiar to Suzuko, but he wasn't a teacher, so she couldn't quite place where he was from.

"ATTENTION." Called the voice of the other teacher, Goda-Sensei, who had just come back from the war with Water Country, a woman who was as stiff as she was strict, always dressed in full battle regalia, helmet tucked under her armpit proudly. "FORM A LINE!" She called out, causing several students to immediately snap to and rush to the front of the line, a smaller portion to slowly lag to life, like Suzuko, to form a line behind them, and a small group lastly to wander over with slumped shoulders. While the highest performers may have been here, that didn't mean they were all enthusiastic about it.

Standing at attention, Suzuko nervously looked around still, unsure of where this all was going. Goda-sensei seemed even more stern than usual, and she gently elbowed her gilled friend and spoke from the corner of her mouth. "Are you sure this isn't some kind of punishment...?"

[Golnax]

"I find that to be incredibly racist!" Shiun said, voice hauty, in response to the comment about mushrooms retreating underground for winter. She turned her head away from Suzuko and upturned her nose in an exaggerated manner, really playing it up like she'd actually been offended by holding the look for a moment before she opened a single eye, smiled, and gave her friend another playful nudge with her elbow. "Eyuck, you're so sweaty! What'd you do, run a mile to get her-" she started to tease but got no further before the adults showed up. Raised voices rang out to get the children's attention, followed by the powerful command of Goda-senpai who commanded they all form a line.

Shiun, always seemingly one to please her superiors, was one of the ones who rushed to form into a line as she was commanded to do. Her promptness to follow instructions was one of the things that had earned her a spot in this courtyard that day as one of the higher performing Akibushi. In truth such promptness was usually because she feared, in the moment, that she was not doing as she was meant to be doing in the eyes of her peers. Never the less, it looked good to superior samurai. As Suzuko fell in line and gave her a return nudge, the purple-clad Kinoko spoke out of the side of her mouth as well; "What would we be punished for?"

Once everyone had fallen in line, Sekiro-senpai would step forward. Unlike Goda-senpai who was dressed head to toe like she was about to step onto the battlefield, Sekiro-senpai was dressed in orange garments primarily, very much in a traditional 'casual' samurai style, if such a thing even existed. His hair was pulled up into a high pony tail and for some reason that no one could quite explain his entire being looked like it possessed the smoke that Goro's cigarette should have been producing. It was as if there was a thin grey filter covering him from head to toe. It made him look like he came from an older time even though he couldn't have been any older than forty.

"LISTEN UP! KEEP THOSE EARS PRICKED!" Goda-senpai roared before closing her frown and waiting for Sekiro-senpai to take over.

"Some of you are wondering why it is you've been called here today," came the calmer, quieter voice of Sekiro-senpai. "What do I always try and tell you though, hm? It is not for a samurai to question the commands of his Lord, only to obey them. To be samurai is to serve - always remember that..." He paused and cleared his throat. "Now, as to why you're here. You may have noticed that you are in the company of the best and brightest this academy has to offer from every class. This is no accident. You have, all of you, been selected to participate in a special program that is being initiated this year and every year going forward for the foreseeable future. They're calling it the 'Pilot Program', and your job in it will be to..."

Sekiro-senpai trailed off into silence. He turned his eyes away from the line of young samurai and seemed to look up into the open courtyard sky. The silence grew heavier with each passing second. Shiun was growing more nervous - not that it was easy to tell, her expression just as hardline as Goda-senpai's in her attempt to listen as closely as possible. Finally Sekiro-senpai took a step back, closed his eyes, and gestured to his right towards Goda-senpai. "Goda-senpai will take it from here," he said simply.

"wwwWHAT!?" Goda-senpai raged, head snapping over to look at Sekiro-senpai who was looking in the exact opposite direction from her as possible. "YOU CAN'T JUST PAWN OFF YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES ONTO ME! EXPLAIN WHAT THE PILOT PROGRAM IS ALREADY!!" she demanded.

"It's just a lot of information to convey..." Sekiro-senpai defended sheepishly. As a teacher, he'd always been the type to say as little as possible, to summarize what he could in as concise a manner as possible. Evidently he didn't do well on subjects where he had to elaborate in detail. Turning to look behind them at Goro, he gave a shrug of his shoulders and gestured to the students. "You wanna explain it...?" he asked, once again trying to pawn off the responsibility.

[Nick]

Some of the children sniggered at the exchange between their teachers, but Suzuko just started to sweat even more. She had run to get here, but she was more prone to sweating when she was under pressure, and the pressure sure was piling on. The confident face she'd shown Goro earlier was entirely gone, and she was a deer in the headlights, ear's pricked upon request, prepared to let her body go limp so that the puppet strings could carry her on in the grand play that was being set before her. Moments like these were the most terrifying, when things weren't quite clear, when she might have those dreadful things known as 'choices' to deal with.

The gaunt man that the two teachers flanked cleared his throat and put a hand on their shoulders placatingly. "Now, now, I can take it from here..." He looked at each of them with a gentle smile, before returning his hands down to his sides and clearing his throat again. "I am Aide of the Empire, Sen Matsumatsu." Suzuko's ears perked up further, the name was also familiar, and she was starting to place where she'd seen the man before. He was rarely far from the Grand Shogun when he'd still been alive, and he seemed to sometimes give speeches in the man's place.

"As Sekiro-sensei so kindly explained, to be a samurai is to serve, and none of have exemplified that as much as you top performers present here... The Grand Shogun would have been proud." He said with a kind of conviction that only a handful of people could have had about such a statement. "Before his passing, he negotiated with leaders of all six of the other great nations on the premise of peace, and came up with this, the pilot program..." He looked down momentarily, a sad look crossing his face for the barest of seconds before he looked back up, scanning the crowd as if to make eye contact with as many people as possible.

"We are seeking volunteers..." He started, which immediately made Suzuko's heart skip a beat. Volunteers? A choice made this worse! Why couldn't they just order it? It was so much easier to just follow orders than make her own decisions on these kinds of things. "To visit each of the other six great nations, and likely some of the smaller nations as well, to get to know each of their people." There was a sudden large amount of chatter in the crowd. Some of the children thought this must be some kind of joke. Some mentioned that their parents had told them that ninja were demons, others whispered about their parents being killed by Water Country samurai... Other's still were expressing excitement about the ability to travel.

Suzuko was, perhaps as expected, terrified. Goro looked at her from his position in the corner and chuckled quietly. He roughly knew what was going through her mind, and relished in the torture she was providing herself as if it was some kind of joke. "QUIET." Botan Goda called out after a short while of letting the children express themselves, earning most of them snapping to attention immediately. Sen put his hands up and lowered them down in a calming gesture, starting to look nervous himself. "We will of course be consulting your guardians as well, but the program will begin shortly, and your studies will continue alongside the program without pause."

He looked to the sky as if in prayer for a moment, before returning his gaze to the crowd, looking much older and as if a stiff breeze could knock him over. "The Grand Shogun... No, the empire... Asks this of you as a gesture of peace, so that war may never taint our doorstep again. We want you yo go in with open minds, and open hearts. Get to know these people that were once considered enemies. The Grand Shogun wanted you to all know... They are merely human, as we are." Silence reigned over the field for a moment. "I would be... Honored... to answer any questions you children may have."

[Golnax]

As Sen Matsumatsu spoke, Shiun felt her chest swelling with misplaced pride. She has learned about the Grand Shogun over the course of her education there at the academy, of course she had, but I'm her mind the late, great Fuhen wasn't all that and a bowl of ramen. Not that she would ever express such thoughts out loud, she wasn't stupid after all, but any time the Grand Shogun was brought up she instead imagined the Great Unifier, so, naturally, hearing that the figure she idolized would be proud of her made her feel excellent! Such a shame that she didn't know just how close the late Shogun and Daimyo we're to each other in more ways than one...

As chatter broke out among the Akibushi over the revelation of what the Pilot Program really was, Shiun beamed! In a rare show of her truest self, the Kinoko didn't have to fein any sort of emotion or think up an appropriate response for this! She was genuinely excited for the prospect of going to other lands and meeting new people - possibly even ninja! It was literally a cultural thing for her too, so she had to, instead, focus her efforts in remaining a good little samurai and not totally break up the assembly by screaming and jumping in excitement! She took a deeeeep breath in, let it out slow and only vibrated on the spot s little bit.

The more time that passed beyond this initial explanation the more vibrations Shiun put off and the more she had to almost physically shut down to keep herself in check, her expression once again growing seemingly dower and serious, hyper focused even, as the Aide to the Empire finished his explanation. Once his humble request was out forth, though, the young samurai could contain herself no longer!

Her hand shot up into the air like a sudden explosion, the wind from her fast movement bristling both her own hair and Suzuko's beside her. There was practically a concussive sound that accompanied the tall young girl's hand as it reached it's apex. "I VOLUNTEER!" she enthusiastically declared, loud and spoken with utter surety. She was, in fact, the very first to volunteer out of the bunch and her expression, though holding all of the hardened demeanor of any veteran samurai, could not contain the sparkling light of excitement that radiates from her pale eyes! With her declaration of wanting to join others started raising their hands as well, following her lead.

Shiun looked over to her sweaty friend out of the corner of her eye, giving her yet another nudge of the elbow as a way to encourage/bully/peer pressure her into raising her hand as well.

[Nick]

Suzuko could FEEL the energy coming off of Shiun next to her. Her empathetic chakra was leeching off of her in spades like her sweat, invisibly latching onto the girl and returning, and while the energy might have been reassuring to some, Suzuko's foot started to tap to the vibrations coming off of her, the electric personality giving her some kind of jitters that only made her even more uncomfortable, churning her stomach to bits. If all else was equal, and Suzuko's empathetic chakra wasn't feasting lavishly on the loud emotions of her compatriot, Suzuko may have kept her face turned down, and her arm down as well, but unfortunately for her...

Shiun's arm shot up, and as if mirrored, Suzuko's opposite arm went up right behind hers, her face looking forward with Shiun's same look of energy and determination. This lasted for all of a couple of moments before her face fell again and she looked over at her raised hand with wide eyes. She hadn't done that of her own accord, she thought, and now that her hand was up, she looked over towards her teachers who noticed her and Shiun almost immediately, and then her eyes moved to Goro, hanging out in the corner with that usual shit-eating grin on his face, and her own face turned red in a mixture of embarrassment and anger. She felt backed into a corner about this whole pilot program thing, and now that her hand had gone up...

"Kinoko, Shiun! Fukazawa, Suzuko! Ichinose, Ken! Ichinose, Ben! Kare, Kuzo! Iyashii, Kira!" Goda-Sensei started rattling off names of those that raised their hands, or some that raised their voices, and Suzuko's head turned to find each of them in turn, the panicked look on her face rising, rising, and slowly starting to fall off... Almost everyone here was volunteering, and that turned it less into a choice and more of a group activity, and internally her heart slowed down, and her sweat started to slow down, even if her chakra was whipping about wildly still, as everyone's emotions were on the rise from this exciting news.

She finally turned her head to look at Shiun and pouted. "I wasn't ready for a trip." She said plainly, before turning her head away in a dramatic fashion, her hair whipping around, seeming like she was upset at her friend... Before turning back with a giddy look on her face, grabbing Shiun's hands in a friendly gesture. "I heard Kumo has really good street food, though!"

[Golnax]

Shiun was happy to see Suzuko had already raised her hand, giving her friend a wide, toothy grin! The Kinoko girl had gotten an explanation on Suzuko's empathetic chakra before, when they'd had some one on one girl time together and all that, but she still didn't really comprehend it and how it sometimes caused Suzuko to do things she normally wouldn't do. Thus she didn't put two and two together as to why she had raised her hand, believing only that she was as excited to go as Shiun was.

As Goda-senpai rattled off names Shiun turned to Suzuko and squeezed her hands in her own, jumping up and down on the spot in a rare moment of her breaking discipline. "Oh I can't wait, I can't wait! I wonder if we'll be able to go to Ōnamazu and do some excavation!" she wondered aloud. Despite getting the same general education about the world and important places there in as Suzuko, it was abundantly clear in this one statement that Shiun's perspective of the world was still quite small.

"SETTLE DOWN!" Goda-senpai roared once all the names had been called, chatter evidently rising to unacceptable levels. Shiun let go of Suzuko's hands and snapped to attention, standing up straight, arms to her sides, back straight, serious expression back and looking straight ahead. The rest were not quite as quick to follow but all fell back in line in short order regardless. Sekiro-senpai cleared his throat again and stepped forward.

"Remember, you'll be representing the Heart Empire as pilots. This isn't a vacation, it's an envoy mission of peace. Therefore you all need to brush up on your geography, politics, local traditions, etiquette, that sort of thing," he said, much to the groan and grumble of some who had volunteered while those that hadn't felt a sense of superiority wash over them, most thinking they got out of doing extra homework. Shiun kept her composure, of course, but was jittery on the inside. She... Wasn't the best at memorizing things like customs. Or reading maps.

"Also remember that your training is to be maintained while you're gone. Of course you will be escorted by senior samurai, but I will not be among you -"

"I WILL BE!" Goda-senpai interrupted, grinning for the first time that assembly.

"... Never the less, you are still expected to keep up on your training while you are about. You are only Akibushi samurai, but all the same, we must always be improving. You depart in a fortnight. Dismissed, and enjoy your journey," Sekiro-senpai concluded before letting out a sigh and turning his back on the students as some of them began to walk off. Goda-senpai stomped over towards some of the other volunteers, likely to give them some sort of stern talking to. Sen stayed where he was for the moment.

Shiun relaxed, letting out a breath herself and closing her eyes. "Oh, man... Two weeks to prepare..." she said, trying to let the reality sink in. She turned and smiled to Suzuko, resting a hand on her shoulder. "Think we'll run into any ninja? Ah, man, wouldn't that be sweet!?" she asked excitedly!

[Nick]

Her anxiety may have been pushed to the side for now, but it was still gnawing away at the back of her mind even as Shiun expressed her excitement. She bit it back to roll her eyes and smirk. "You could have visited Ōnamazu on a holiday or something, we're gonna get to see Fire Country, maybe even Konohagakure!" She laughed, but snapped back to attention at the request of the teachers.

Realistically the world was a lot smaller these days, with Kumogakure's train systems running through much of the continent, and the Heart Empire's airships available to ferry, travelling to places when you only had a couple of days available to you was fairly realistic, where previously it might have taken a week or more just to visit the next largest city. Some of the most staunch traditionalists said that such things were a degradation of society that the Grand Shogun had worked so hard to build, but benefitted from the increased travel and trade speed all the same. Still, many of them tried to discourage the public being able to use such things, and as a result riding on airships especially was mostly a military act, not something used for trading or civilian transport, at least not yet.

As Akibushi, they belonged in the military structure, but they weren't contracted with the military just yet, making them effectively civilians. This offered them many protections, such as not being made to participate in the recent war with Water Country, but also meant they didn't have full access to most military benefits, such as airship transport, making the advent of this adventure all the more exciting!

As they were finally allowed to relax officially this time, Suzuko turned back to Shiun and laughed nervously. She didn't hold a hatred for ninja as many of the traditionalists did, but the concept of them alone was still scary, and the stories she'd heard from the traditionalists... Well, she didn't know enough to know if they were exaggerations, sweeping generalizations, old fool's bantering, or the real truth. Probably a mix of all of the above. "We might never know, there could be..." She looked around suspiciously, eyes shifting back and forth, before she brought her hand up making a chop motion at 1 strength towards Shiun's forehead "A ninja right here!"

Laughing at her own joke and putting her hands on her hips, Suzuko tilted her head. "You can't really wanna meet 'em that bad! Ninja are scary types, for sure." She swung her hand for emphasis as she spoke. "The Mizutane say that ninja are the reason for all these wars, that doesn't sound super cool to me!" She rolled her eyes and flipped her hair out of her face, a few locks having come loose from her tie. "...I bet we'll get to see some cool ninja clothes for sale, though."

[Golnax]

Shiun stood stark still as Suzuko went to make her chop at her forehead, her friend having to make the chop horizontally so that she could get underneath the cap on top of her head. The Kinoko took the blow like a champ and, moreover, had that super serious look on her face again. She looked Suzuko right in the eye and stated, "No. If there were, I'd know about it." That was all that there was to say on the matter, really.

The expression dropped from her face as Suzuko laughed and went on to explain the general view of what a ninja was. Yeah, yeah, they were scary, they caused wars, OoOoOoOoOo! Big deal! Shiun knew the truth; long before there were any ninjas in this part of the world, people were waging war and doing awful things like how the natives of Gold used to bully her people into submission. It wasn't like ninjas invented the concept of war or anything. "No way! They're not all bad, there's gotta be just as many good ninjas as there are bad ones!" A logical statement, but not really one backed up by experience or empirical evidence. At the prospect of being able to get ninja clothes, particularly in Konohagakure, Shiun's eyes sparkled!

"Oooooooooh, do you really think we'll be able to get some?" she asked with renewed, excited vigor. She stood there imagining herself in all sorts of different outfits in various styles of what she imagined a ninja would wear based on images that they'd been shown by their teachers. Of course she imagined them in colors she enjoyed and added various different styles and accessories to the actual ninja clothing to make it her own, her imaginative mind flashing through them like shutter images. She stopped when her mind intrusively made her think of an outfit like that of her idol, or rather lack there of, making her blink, blush, and shake her head vigorously to get the thought away from her mind!

"I've got to get some money to take with me for souvenirs, oh, I've just GOTTA! Come on, Suzuko," she said, reaching out and grabbing the young princess-in-disguise's hand, "Let's go get something to eat and talk all about the stuff we're going to be doing!" With that Shiun started pulling Suzuko away from the courtyard, chattering on about this, that and the other thing, all the things they were going to do. Like ride a train! Shiun had never ridden a train before, so she was very excited about that as well. As the warm wind blew down into the open courtyard, the mood was very positive. Optimistic even. The purple-clad Akibushi had nothing but good expectations for the coming trip a fortnight from now.

[Nick]

Suzuko laughed at the face her friend made, even if she was totally serious about it, the girl couldn't take it seriously, especially at her claims that she'd know. Ninja, inexplicably, weren't renowned for being all that stealthy, but having met a couple of Konoha ninja just last month when they'd come to visit the Heart Empire, she wasn't sure she'd have been able to pick them out from a crowd if it weren't for one of their eyes being a milky gray color, and being handsome... But that was neither here nor there really, and Suzuko was definitely too embarrassed to talk about it with Shiun, even though she would definitely be all over her in questions.

"Oh yeah? And how would you even tell a good ninja from a bad one? It could all be some kind of spooky ninja trick!" She said, making lots of wavy motions with her fingers as if she was casting a spell on her friend, before dropping her hands and laughing obnoxiously again. "Well duh, you can't just expect me to buy everything for you." She said with a rather smug look on her face, folding her arms across her chest and looking away. "But maybe you can earn a few Ryo here and there, braiding my hair, washing my clothes on the road..." One eye peaked open and she giggled, dropping the act of nobility for the time being.

"You're gonna make me pay for lunch too, aint'cha?" She asked with feigned dread, dragging herself along as the pair scampered off into the distance, laughing together. "Your plans better not all just be staring at ninja!"