An Invasion... of Privacy?

[Golnax]

Shiun was the first to step into Limbo out of the three of them. Although she didn't understand what was happening around her, and did not yet comprehend that Akihiko was responsible for it, the moment she turned the corner and effectively disappeared from the world she knew she understood that something was immediately, quite literally, spiritually wrong. The sudden lack of color in the world around here was simply the visual dead give away that stopped her momentum and made her stand still while the other two caught up but the instinctual shock she experienced from merely being there was palpable. It was as if every fiber of her being understood fundamentally that something was deeply, deeply wrong with her surroundings, but she couldn't place it. Her skin broke out in goosebumps.

Akihiko followed behind her and shouted so loud that she flinched on the spot, shocking her with the revelation that this, whatever it was, was his doing. She might have found it incredibly impressive if she weren't so shaken fundamentally to her core. The young Kinoko didn't even understand why, how could she? Not only was this entirely new to her but she lacked the foundational knowledge to know what this feeling even was; too young, too inexperienced. There was only one thing she was certain of, something that she understood better than Suzuko who, in classic tsundere fashion, declared it to be a, quote, "stupid genjutsu", immediately:

This wasn't a genjutsu.

Akihiko and Suzuko both walked past the frozen Shiun and continued on down the hall, but the mushroom capped samurai remained rooted to the spot. Very quickly she was being overcome by an emotion that she normally kept entirely to herself, letting it out only when no one was looking: anxiety. Now, however, standing in a world she didn't understand and felt fundamentally against in her very core she found her breath quickening, her skin growing clammy and all mask or presentation of bravado slipping from her. For the first time in her life she felt on her shoulders the weight of ages and she slowly drew her arms up and close to her chest as though to push this world back away from her. She took a step back the way she came but was still lost in this mostly white landscape. Panic began to set in.

"Hey, Aki... this isn't funny," Shiun spoke up, trying to raise her voice and finding that it sounded strange in the air, as if there was nothing for the sounds she was making to bounce off of. The words left her mouth and immediately died in the air. Could they hear her? She didn't know and that only made her more scared. "Whatever this is, can you undo it please? You're right, you're an amazing genin, now please, take us back? Make things the way they were?" she asked, her voice slowly raising in volume as she grew more and more uneasy.

Her chest was rising and falling, pupils dilating. Her legs started to shake as she hyperventilated. "This isn't a genjutsu... this isn't a genjutsu!" she shouted, falling to her knees and wrapping her arms around her. Shiun was very apt with genjutsu, she understood the mental mechanics that went behind it, how the construction of illusions can shape and change the perception of those caught in them. She understood that, fundamentally, all genjutsu were not real. But this wasn't a genjutsu. She didn't understand this. She had no grasp of what Limbo was, because Akihiko, in his bid to impress the two of them with his abilities, had never explained what they were in the first place. She was afraid, as she always was, and had no reason to pretend otherwise.

"I want to go back! Akihiko you take us back right NOW!"

[Texas]

Akihiko and Suzuko had made it to the Kage's office, yes it was locked, and the boy showed it by wiggling the door with it not being able to open. However, earlier Akihiko had sent his Silhouette, which the two samurai thought was nothing to the inside of the office. When wiggling with the door, it activated the silhouette to unlock the door and open it for them. Aki could hear Shiun stating that it wasn't a Genjutsu and heard her almost lose it. Thankfully no one could hear her but them, so their cover was blown. Something triggered the pink haired boy however. In his wildest fantasies he had never imagined that his technique would scare an ally, that was never his intent. The giggling, smirking, and painfully annoying child's behavior shifted as if he had matured 20 years in 20 seconds.

Before they entered the door, Aki weaved a few hand signs at the door entrance. The silhouette and Aki walked over to Shiun with a brisk walk towards the mushroom capped friend. They both put their arms around Shiun and directed her to the room. "Shiun, I'm sorry! You are right this is just a safe space I have access to for us. This place is extremely safe, no one can touch us or hear us. I created an exit at the Raikage's office. Lets slowly walk there and go through it to get out of here. Me and my Silhouette will help you just in case. Please take deep breaths as we go there. I can't stress this enough, although it might not feel it at the moment, you are safe. I would never put you in harms way, I hope you can trust me." Aki had been taking medical training, more or less for combat, but part of the training had been understanding the human brain. The boy knew what was going on and it was important for Shiun to know that although Akihiko is goofing around and being loose with his ability, it was a safe place for his friend to be. Hopefully she would listen and follow as the two would lead her to the Raikage's office.

If everything went according to plan when Suzuko, Shiun, and Aki went through the Raikage's opened door, they would step out of the limbo realm and back into the present realm. Everything would grab color again, along with arriving inside the Raikage's office. At the same time, open them exiting, the silhouette would close the door behind them and stand outside.

[Nick]

Suzuko argued with Akihiko briefly before the door opened, once again not noticing that Shiun had fallen behind and gotten distracted by their change of realm. "Distracted" was far too kind of a word for it, as Suzuko heard Shiun muttering behind her, the princess turned to see the panic on her friend's face, and panic entered her own features as well. The princess' empathetic chakra made her understand situations like this all the better, even if she wasn't experiencing the same feeling as her friend, that wretched anxiety that took over was something she'd experienced dozens of times before. Her vision narrowed as adrenaline flooded her system like a well-honed combatant entering danger mode, and she rushed to her friend, wrapping an arm over her shoulder to squeeze a bit, giving her something to ground herself to for the moment.

When Akihiko reacted, Suzuko turned her head to glare at him, and barely held herself back from throttling him verbally. This was his fault after all, and while she certainly didn't want to trust him, he was also the only person that knew the way into and around this 'stupid genjutsu', and yelling at him was bound to only make Shiun's anxiety attack worse. "Hey, Mushroom Head, we got this." She promised, turning her head back to her, squeezing again to give her something to focus on other than the anxiety. Gently, she tugged her friend along, walking with her to where Akihiko was indicating, channeling chakra in an attempt to help her friend that she wasn't even sure would work.

She took her own deep breath to steady her own nerves before finishing the jutsu, calming down just in time for their emotions to be shared, Suzuko's own, while worried, were relatively calm compared to the panic attack, which would hopefully level the two of them out to something a bit more tolerable as the empathetic strings pulled taught between them. Suzuko's own heart raced a bit as she felt her friend's anxiety race into her, and she continued to take deep breaths to steady them. Whenever they came out of this, she hoped the pair of them would both be somewhat presentable, not quite able to pay attention to whether anyone would be around to think they were being weird or not (which would definitely make Suzuko's anxiety rocket up much harder).

Passing through the threshold back into the real world, she squeezed her friend again and kept a hand on her to steady her, sighing in relief that it was hopefully over soon. Her glare returned to Akihiko though, and with the initial shock and concern out of the way, she cocked one fist back, and took a swing at him with her one free arm to try and punch him square in the jaw.

JutsuShow

Kizuna Jutsu ∞ I Can Empathize
D-Rank Ninjutsu
Focusing her empathetic chakra into one of the many threads that connect her with people surrounding her, Suzuko will pull the thread tight, properly linking herself to up to three people within 15m. This link allows everyone connected to experience eachother's emotions as if they were their own. This entry level technique doesn't necessarily help them to understand the emotions, but aids in the natural human empathy. This thread lasts for up to 4 posts before dissipating.

[Golnax]

How lucky was Shiun to have such considerate and empathetic friends. It didn't take the duo long to notice that the Kinoko had fallen down to the floor and was quickly succumbing to a panic attack. Suzuko was the first to come back over to her, placing a hand around the near-sobbing Shiun's shoulder and impart her empathetic chakra into her friend. She said little but did much, taking on Shiun's anxiety and panic and attempting to replace it with calm. Poor girl. There was a reason that the two of them seldom hung out alone together, aside from Gojo's constant monitoring of the brunette like a hawk; if Shiun were ever around Suzuko when her imposter syndrome was tearing her down it may well eat Suzuko alive.

Akihiko came next and had much to say, as usual, trying his best to apologize and explain that they were safe. He sounded like he believed it and so probably felt it was true. Maybe it even was! But Shiun couldn't ignore the feeling, deep in her gut, even as Suzuko was using her unique ability to help calm her down, that this place was fundamentally wrong; evil. There was some kind of presence about this place that radiated malignancy that she sensed but didn't know why. She didn't know it but she was experiencing the power of a Genma spirit for the first time and it was the spirit's presence she sensed. She didn't even know what a Genma was! But she felt and understood that this place, this power, this presence was not to be trusted. Akihiko might have long since gotten used to the feeling of living alongside evil, but Shiun had not.

Together the two of them helped her to her feet and slowly walked her over towards the door through that white void where their footsteps made no sounds beyond the step itself. Shiun was quiet, getting a hold of her breathing with the help of Suzuko and trying to center herself. It wasn't until they were in the office and our of the realm that Shiun was able to stumble forward, practically leaping as she ran to the safety of the familiar colorful world without overt malignance in the air, and start to breath normally again, her hand up to her chest. Her back was turned when Suzuko made to punch at Aki, and whether or not it landed, Shiun would turn towards the pink haired genin herself.

She was only a couple of steps away from the boy so there was no need for much flare or preparation. The dark skinned akibushi merely lifted her arm up, channeled a bit of chakra into her ring and transformed it into her spear, Musu, right then and there on the spot, instantly pointing a blade at the young boy's throat, her grip on it just below the crimson flag that waved on her golden weapon. Poor Suzuko, who was still tethered to her friend emotionally, would feel the whiplash coming off of Shiun as she had gone from anxiety and panic to a tumultuous cocktail of relief, anger, indignation but most of all fear as she looked at the genin who really, really should learn how to stay out of trouble (not that she was much of a teacher, considering she had just pulled her weapon out at one of the most valuable ninja in all of Kumogakure in the Raikage's office no less!) - and there were tears in her pale, dead looking eyes.

She sniffled and her hand quivered. It became clear, even without the use of empathetic chakra, that her spear was not meant as a threat but as a tool of emphasis. Tears rolled down her cheeks but her face remained steady as she looked Aki right in the eyes. "Don't ever do that without telling me again," she said softly, letting out a soft sob. She pulled her spear back and planted the pommel on the floor, making it disappear into the form of a ring once more as she turned her back on the pair of them and wiped her eyes on her puffy purple sleeves. Another sniffled breath through her nose and a sigh and she regained her composure.

"So! This is the Raikage's office, huh?" she asked, her voice still a bit shaky but much more in line with how it normally was. She looked around the office and tried to take in as many details as she could about the space they were in, trying to distract herself from her own trauma by immersing herself in more cool ninja things! A coping mechanism for sure, but one that would be quite effective. Suzuko could feel already how her emotions were mellowing out and being replaced by a sort of wonder, but there was a deep emotional desire beneath that as well; to not speak about what had just happened. She wasn't ready to deal with that, and Suzuko knew it.

[Texas]

Women... am I right?

Akihiko couldn't help but think about how emotional the girls got. It was just another realm that resembled what they have known for their whole lives... but shattered the fabric of their reality in a sense of knowledge and understanding. Aki had spent a little over a year practicing and mastering not only the genma within him... but the ability that came with it. So to the child this was normal. However, to a regular person... this would destroy what was believed in the world. Proof of this was with Shiun, her panic attack... but also with Suzuko trying to diffuse it with a Kai. Aki should probably work on introducing people to the ability in the future... rather than just throwing them in it. Especially when it isn't necessary. However, easier said than done.

As they stepped out of the Limbo realm and the door closed behind them thanks to the little silhouette, Aki turned around only to witness a fist rushing towards his face. To Aki's surprise, he realized he didn't have enough time to dodge it. Due to him being lost in thought, he didn't have enough time to let it phase through him either. It was deserved so Aki simply braced. The punch landed well and his pink hair flopped as he took a couple steps back, only to fall to the ground. The boy used that falling motion to try to roll in order to eliminate any noise, a feat that might have been unavoidable. He would hold the side of his face and give a verbal jab at Suzuko "Suzu your hands are so big..."

Before the young brat could finish his sentence a noise of a spear appearing coined as the blade aimed directly at Aki. Shiun now too? "Listen, I already apologized" he noted while jumping up in the air back on his feet. They had already made enough noise as is, so they had to hurry. "Welcome to the Raikage's office! He really isn't here that often... but check it out. I am going to go grab my bag." Aki made sure to be a little quiet when talking in the office. The boy walked over behind a large desk and hid his body a little bit. The child dissipated a jutsu and his belt appeared around his waist. In truth, he didn't have the heart to tell them that he just wanted an excuse to take some things from the Raikage's office.

While the pink haired boy was behind the desk, he had decided to open one of the drawers. When he opened it, there was... a .... surprise inside?

[Nick]

Suzuko wasn't wholly mad at Akihiko, at least not for the action itself, it was more that he'd emotionally hurt probably the only girl that she could really call a friend in this crazy world that had felt so cruel and alone to her since birth. The punch wasn't for her own sake, it was really to help her friend cope with her emotions, especially with her jutsu active and making her feel what her friend felt. As their emotions evened out together, she broke the jutsu, the thread between them going slack. "My hands aren't big..." She grumbled quietly in a way he might not even be able to hear, though she self-conciously looked down at her palms as Aki turned away.

The young empath cleared her throat. "Yeah yeah, go get your stupid bag." She said with an eye roll, starting to wander around a bit, looking at the wall decorations while Akihiko went over to look at the desk where he'd supposedly left his pouch. It wasn't exactly the most drab place in existence, with little bits of fuuinjutsu on the wall, art pieces on shelves, a few scroll racks that Suzuko didn't dare to touch for fear of setting off an alarm, and of course, the big window overlooking the village behind the desk.

She wandered over to the window to take a look outside, and her jaw practically dropped from her face as she looked at the view. No wonder the Raikage had a tower! Certainly, she thought, the palace that the Shogun resided in must've had a similar view, especially overlooking the ocean as it did, but she'd never been up there to look. Here, looking down at the entirety of Kumogakure, she felt suddenly very small.

In the moment of weakness brought upon by this, her empathetic chakra flew a little wild, latching onto the nearest person to her, Akihiko, rifling around in the desk drawers for the Raikage. She turned and saw him, looking over his shoulder to see what he was looking at, and at first made a disgusted face. "Ew, is that...? Why is it in his desk...?" She asked, not quite grasping the INVASION OF PRIVACY that they were engaging in, as her face suddenly twisted into a mischievous smile, little horns sprouting from her head. "You should take 'em."

[Golnax]

Shiun, like Suzuko, just wandered around the office while she waited for Akihiko to get his bag, as he claimed, so that they could leave. Like her fellow samurai she looked at much but touched nothing, in particular her fixation went to the fuuinjutsu on the walls. She stared at the writing and tried to decipher what it said. Alas, fuuinjutsu hadn't particularly been her strong suit at the academy. She understood the fundamentals, sure, and she could even see that characters for raiton were written here and there, making her believe that it might have been fuuinjutsu for the electricity in the room (probably a trap, honestly). In truth though she didn't really know what she was looking at. What she DID know was that fixating on the writing on the walls was easier than thinking about what had just happened, so she did and she didn't.

She was still looking at the inscribed fuuinjutsu when Suzuko spoke up, drawing her attention back over to the other two. "Hm? What's up, guys?" she asked. She wasn't tethered to Suzuko anymore (not that she'd noticed the severed connection) so she didn't get any of the mischievousness that her friend began radiating as she took a look, but her curiosity was piqued! The purple capped Kinoko turned around and walked over towards the desk where Suzuko and Akihiko were standing. "Take what?" she asked, sniffling again.

She stopped in her tracks though as she noticed the devil horns sprouting out of Suzuko's head! She gasped, pointing dramatically at her friend! Crying out! "What's with those horns!? Where'd they come from!?" She turned her head back and forth between the two of them. Uh uh, this was bad. Suzuko had been harping on Akihiko all day for this, that and the other thing and now suddenly she looked and felt like her interests were aligning with the pink haired mischief maker!? Mm, mm. Something was amiss!

"What's in the drawer - what's in the drawer!?" she demanded to know, throwing her hands into little fists by her side!

[Texas]

Have you ever entered the stated of Euphoria? What felt like a golden light emanated from the open drawer. A sound of gospel music with high pitched C notes echoed throughout Aki's head with acapella singing as if he had found the lord in a drawer. Could it be possible. The pink haired boy's eyes were as wide as they could be, along with his mouth borderline drooling with it also being wide open. It was! It is! It can't be! Aki reached down with his tiny child hands and pulled out what would appear to be a backup set of Raikage Clothing. It was the Raikage Hat and Cloak. He pulled them out of the drawer in excitement and showed the two samurai. "Guys guys, this is the Raikage's backup robes and hat... only the Raikage can wear these... There are only 5 of these for the main villages... this is wild!" The child quietly, but excitedly spoke out about it.

To think one moment ago Aki was punched to the ground and threatened with his life by a girl with a mushroom head. Now he was holding the Raikage's Clothing. The boy had a smile on his face larger than he had ever had. Due to his size, he was far and away too small for the robe. So the child whipped the robe over his shoulder. With the same motion, he moved the hat over to the two samurai standing near him. He wanted them to possibly share the same feeling. If they knew what the clothing was, they would be impressed. Although, it was very possible it did not mean as much to them as it did to him.

However, what the boy didn't account for was what exactly he grabbed from the drawer. It was not just a spare pair of robes. There was a complete set of clothes as well. When Aki whipped the robe over his shoulders, an undershirt fell from the bottom. This caused Aki to look down as he was holding the hat in the air. The robe pooped out what would appear to be a t-shirt. Due to his attention being on the ground, he also notice something else dangling. Within seconds after, another article of clothing fell as well. A white pair of underwear?!?!

As if it was in slow motion, the underwear slipped out of the robes and lightly dropped to the ground on top of the shirt that was laying there. A white pair of what would appear to be boxer briefs. The child couldn't help but stare at it with open eyes and a shocked expression on his face. "What on god's green earth... is that?" A phrase that came out of Aki's mouth naturally and louder than intended.

[Nick]

Suzuko wasn't an especially materialistic girl. Certainly, she appreciated good jewelry and pretty clothes, and had an eye for fashion, raised amongst nobility such things were expected regardless of gender, but she also felt a certain disconnect from such things. The sight of the Raikage's official clothing, however, had triggered something in her more than pretty clothes in the marketplace or beautiful jewelry at a store. The set of clothing wasn't especially pretty, or even all that 'cool', but the symbolism behind it meant more than the stitching and design ever could.

She was unable to contain her interest as Aki draped the clothing over her shoulder, and she put one hand to her chin, crossing her feet like a professional gauging the value. "Hmm, responsibility could be a fit..." She said in a mock haughty voice, before giggling, fully enjoying herself for probably the first time today. "I think the world would be doomed if you were in charge of anything, though!" Before grabbing the hat with its dangly cloth and trying it on over her own head once, before shaking her head, and turning to put it on Shiun, where it would fit perfectly over her mushroom head, holding a fairly similar shape.

Suzuko giggled again. "Much better look on you! What do you say, gonna be the first Shogukage?" She teased, forgetting that this whole thing was highly against any rules and regulations, and especially as outsiders her and Shiun REALLY shouldn't be here. This was one of the few times in her life when she'd been able to leave her anxieties away for now, her mind occupied by having fun with her friend Shiun, and... Whatever you'd consider Akihiko. "Kinoko, Shiun, Samurai ninja extraordinaire, fighting back the barbarian hordes..." She teased, before turning to look at Aki at his rather loud exclamation.

Her eyes traced down to where hers were, and her face scrunched up. "Ew!" She said copying his overloud volume, hopping back on one foot as if it was a snake that might bite her. "I hope those are clean..." Taking a half step back again. "You better put those back in there, I'm not touching them!"

[Golnax]

Well all of the hullabaloo came to a head as Aki pulled the clothes out of the drawer and... Shiun gave no reaction. Not at first, anyways. Funnily enough, the ninja enthusiast was actually unaware of the significance of the robe and the hat! She'd done her best to gather as much information as she could about shinobi and their world, yet, somehow, knowledge of the special robes and hat that each of the five Kage wore had escaped her! As such she stared dumbly at the garments, not understand what the two of them had gotten so hyped about... right up until Akihito said what they were!

Shiun gasped! The Raikage's personal hat and robe!? Well their backup anyway!? That had to be some of the coolest pieces of ninja gear she'd ever seen... At least... At least she thought so? This was all a bit much for her to take in, frankly. Having only just learned of the significance of these articles of clothing, insomuch as the raikage was the only one allowed to wear it, the impact was kind of muted on her. Suzuko and Aki seemed excited about it, though, as they both started playing around with the clothing like children! Nevermind the fact they were children, this was kiddy stuff! Shiun wasn't a kid!

Not that that stopped her from getting pulled into the fun when Suzuko plopped the hat on top of her mushroom cap! Contrary to what her friend said, the hat was not a perfect fit! The Raikage's hate was more diamond shaped and conical, whereas her mushroom was closer to being a dome and was actually wider than the hat was, leaving the yellow-fronted cap of the highest ninja order to be lopsided atop her purple brow.

"Shogukage?" Shiun asked dumbly, a thought bubble appearing over her head as she imagined herself in a kage hat much like this one but purple, paraded around by an entourage of her fellow Kinoko, held aloft on a pagoda, waving to crowds of cheering people as she passed by. Needless to say, the imaginative bubble quickly had her cheeks burning with a blush and she pulled her hands up to cover her face, turning her head on the spot. "Suzuko stoooooooooooop!" she whined, unable to take the embarrassment!

Hearing the two of them freak out over something else, Shiun lowered her hands, looked at the two of them, followed their eyes and spotted the underwear on the floor! If she was burning before she was downright feverish now, dark brown skin going pink as her thought bubble turned into some poorly drawn imaginary DeviantArt drawing of the Raikage, who she had no idea what they looked like, wearing nothing but those white boxers, the hat on her head and the white robe that Aki still had a hold of! "Oh, gods, putitbackputitbackputitbackputitback!" Shiun pleaded to Akihito. She could feel the situation unravelling rapidly but had no idea how to deal with this! Ironically, she was the only one to keep her voice down in all of this!

[Texas]

The underwear was white... Whitey Tighties? Was Hayate not fashionable with his undergarments? He was the Raikage... surly he would wear some kind of athletic wear designed for such a ninja. What if his underwear bunches up? Was his great weakness a calculated wedgie?!?! A thousand thoughts got through his head, but the main thought of Hayate getting wedgied by his enemies made Aki Laugh. He giggled while putting both hands over his mouth to try to muffle the noise.

The boy stopped when Shiun demanded it be put back. "Fine fine Suzu I'll put it back. You guys don't have to have your panties in a bunch" Akihiko spoke out the terrible joke as he giggled while prepping his right hand to pick up the Raikage's underwear. The child would use his pointer finger and his thumb on his right hand to reach down and pick up the underwear. The pink haired brat made sure to lift up the other fingers so he wouldn't get his whole hand tainted by the adult looking diaper. In that moment as Akihiko lifted it up, he could have sworn he saw something and freaked out a little bit. This jump scare caused the boy to fling the underwear in the air as he jumped backwards. Unfortunately, Aki's aim was coincidentally incredible as the underwear flew in the air, it would descend in the direction of Shiun's head. At that moment time almost stopped. Slowly the underwear fell down and due to shock, Aki couldn't react fast enough. The child could only watch in horror as the underwear hit the peak height in the air... and descended down. He would barely be able to mutter "Shiun! Look out!"

[Nick]

Teasing Shiun about her ninja fascination was a pastime for most of the school that had met her, but especially for Suzuko who was on the receiving end of her obsessive talks, and it being somewhat of a common occurrence didn't make it any less pleasurable for the immature girl. Her turning around and Suzuko letting go of the hat to look at what Aki was messing with meant that the hat rested awkwardly atop the mushroom-capped girl's head, backwards and at a bit of a skew. Briefly, the author wondered if there were nerves inside of the mushroom cap that would allow one to feel such things or not.

Suzuko rolled her eyes at Akihiko's awful joke, and put a hand on her hip, and was about to say something extra sassy when the underwear began to fly through the sky. Her eyes followed it and she began to mutter "What are you doing...?" Before realizing too late what horrors might be about to unfold. Time slowed as the magical spacetime enchantments on the underoos activated, forcing them to watch in slow motion, and Suzuko could only scream at the top of her lungs as if her friend was about to step on a landmine that would end her life. "Shhhhhiiiiiiiiiuuuuuuunnnnnn, nooooooooo."

[Golnax]

Out of the three of them, Shiun was definitely the most embarrassed by this whole situation, and there were a number of reasons for that. For starters, she was a Kinoko. A young Kinoko, granted, but when not around people like them they tended to lead slightly more solitary existences since their bodies were so strange compared to most, so she genuinely lacked the fine tuning of social skills that the other two had (who had pretty quickly gotten over the fact that there was a pair of the Raikage's underwear lying about while she was still red in the face!) The second was because of everything that underwear implied about this office being an impromptu changing room for a boy! The poor samurai had enough trouble with her own body dysmorphia thanks to her precocious puberty, let alone thinking about anyone else's body in a state of undress!

Because of this, this whole situation had lead her to be flustered, practically radiating steam from under her mushroom cap as she wobbled on the spot and tried to cover her eyes and pretend that they were definitely not doing what they were doing right now. What a rollercoaster of emotions the past 5 minutes had been! Suzuko was so lucky she'd severed her chakra connection when she had. And, of course, what came next was even more absurd and worthy of a blush than all that had come before! Aki and Suzuko both cried out, drawing Shiun's attention with a resounding, "Huh?"

Time seemed to slow down as the underwear came flying right at her through the air. Indeed, everything seemed to move in slow motion! Shiun's eyes went wide. Her mouth fell open. The underwear steadily got closer and closer! Suzuko and Aki's words both slowed down to a crawl and both of them became fuzzy background imagines as the undergarments seemed to get more and more focused, 4k pixels instead of the 360p that her fellow miscreants had faded into. Was this it? Was she about to get a pair of grown man's underwear right to the face while wearing said man's special hat....?

In a flash that would surprise no one greater than Shiun, Musu would be called forth from it's ring form, the Kinoko would windmill the golden spear around, catch the underwear with the pole of it, bring the whole thing slamming down atop the Raikage's desk with the deafening roar of the crimson flag accompanying the extremely loud SLAM of metal on wood as she deflected, caught, and pinned the drawers out of the air in front of her before she even knew what she was doing. Her ears rang from the THUNDEROUS CRACK of her spear colliding with the desk, sending papers and all manner of other things falling off of the desk as the Kinoko stood there, staring blankly with that same expression as had been on her face when the offending underwear came flying at her to begin with. She only realized that she'd done anything when the hate fell off the back of her head and onto the floor.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU TWO DOING THROWING ALL OF THE RAIKAGE'S CLOTHES AT ME!?" Shiun demanded, forgetting all training in decorum and manners and just losing herself in being a kid for a moment as she yelled at her friends at the top of her voice which, accompanied by the deafening fall of her gavel-like weapon, had definitely alerted some people outside of the office. Who were on their way there now. All three of them could hear them coming as voices rose up and foot steps approached.

"_{Oh, crap}," Shiun whispered, realizing what she'd accidentally done.

[Texas]

Shrieks, Yells, and a Slam. These combined noises broke any infiltration that the group had created. The Raikage's building was heavily watched over, it was even highly possible that the group had been made a long time ago. Especially since Akihiko is known for only causing problems when he entered the building... or even was sighted near it. The pink haired jinch looked in horror, the fun laugh turned to somewhat fear. He gazed upon the other two, before sitting down criss cross applesauce.

It was no surprise what they did was against the rules. The boy had a slight look of disappointment, their fun was most certainly over. "Well Ladies, we were made, I'll take the blame though. Don't worry they expect this of me. It was fun though wasn't it!" With the finish of those words Akihiko looked at both of them with a smile. The boy had hoped that he had made some real friends. Usually his antics were looked at as childish and most of his comrades considered him a nuisance. So it was incredibly refreshing to actually hang out and laugh with warriors his age. With a reassuring smile, Akihiko sat there and waited for whatever would happen next. Most likely a higher up shinobi was going to come in the door and bust them. The boy dissipated his silhouette that was waiting outside sitting as a guard.

With his smile he wanted to let them know one more thing. "No matter what they say, they will ask you and lie. For all the know, I pressured you guys into coming in here. Got it?"

[Nick]

phpBB [video] Suzuko's life flashed before her eyes. She felt her vision go blurry and her chest stung as her lungs and heart both went to attack each other, which meant attacking themselves, or rather, her. The world collapsed in on her and she grabbed at her stomach as it churned and threatened to retch up whatever meager breakfast she'd quickly put away before coming out on a perfectly normal shopping trip with her good friend Shiun where nothing was supposed to have gone wrong. She didn't often feel like this, but probably much too often for an eleven year old, and probably in more situations than an eleven year old should be experiencing these feelings in. It was in that moment that she received some context in that being eleven years old meant that she wasn't actually that old. Maybe she should get out and live a little. But that was just the problem, wasn't it?

She so often felt like the weight of the world was on her shoulders that of course it was going to collapse in on her. She was eleven. What were other eleven year olds doing while she was spending so much time training and worrying about the political ramifications of every word and thought and feeling she said and thought and felt while in a foreign country? Playing on the swings? Playing with their siblings? Getting to know their parents? The thought of that one stung a little, actually, but she didn't really have the mental acuity in this moment to parse the emotions that came with, as they were flooded ever further by the swirling demons crashing in on her from all sides while her breath became uneasy and suddenly rapid.

Then, Shiun's spear cracked on the floor and her breath hitched in a deep, gut-sucking wheeze, snapping her out of her anxiety spiral long enough for her to parse what was going on. Her friend had avoided the horrors of what was probably the world's most tainted pair of clean underwear in existence, and she'd said something that had only reached Suzuko as a roar as the blood that had gone to her head, and subsequently caused her to begin sweating profusely as she often did while emotional, flooded past her ears. When at the moment her blood seemed ready to boil over, and perhaps something particular was about to happen, as clear as day, Akihiko's voice rang true.

The way he said it may have left something to be desired, the intention behind them was probably the sweetest and most thoughtful thing that anyone had ever done for Suzuko in her entire, short, sad, eleven years. She wiped her eyes with the back of a fist for no reason in particular, as the door was slammed open by a jounin that the three of them would recognize as being one of the two that had met them outside of the tower earlier on in their adventure. His eyes immediately fell on Suzuko and Shiun, and Suzuko's heart skipped a beat. She almost spoke up, when the jounin's moved to Akihiko, and turned from a look of surprise to one of tired disappointment.

In moments, the two girls were ushered out of the door, and Akihiko was picked up like a body-shaped package under the arm of the jounin to be carried away for some kind of disciplinary action or another, while the male jounin they'd met at the same time began to grill the two girls. Suzuko peered around their interrogator as their finger wagging got going, and Suzuko mouthed to the young boy...

"Thank you Aki"