An Invasion... of Privacy?

[Nick]

The pilot program had been going quite well with Kumogakure as its first stop, on average the students were getting along quite well, and while some of them had butted heads, it was moreso childish spats rather than any kind of worrying problems. The teachers had mostly resolved to be as hands off with the student's interactions as possible while still keeping a close eye in case things got out of control, but keeping the children busy with training as they had been was quite successful, however...

Now was their first day off after the opening week of the program. The children were permitted per the Raikage to wander the village as they pleased with minimal supervision, as long as their badges marking them as members of the Heart Empire were visibly displayed. Suzuko's was stitched directly into some of her outfits, but today she was dressed much more casually than her school uniforms, having opted for something more akin to her travelling outfits, though the cold mountains of Kumogakure necessitated a scarf, one she'd bought locally in village colors, a little memento to remember her trip by. And also, damn it, it was cold.

Suzuko hadn't made plans per-se, but it would have been awfully strange to NOT spend time with Shiun, one of her closest friends, and so as bright and early as ever Suzuko had woken up and gotten ready to go out and properly explore the village. Of course, she'd seen some of it already thanks to the chase that Akihiko had put her in, but a lack of free time up till now had prevented her from seeing the village for more of what it really was.

"Shiuuuuun~" Suzuko called out. "The markets are opening soooooon~" She said, trying to entice her friend to leave the comforts of their little dorms provided by the Lightning Empire to go out and explore with her. "And you might get to see some more expert ninjaaaaaa~"

[Golnax]

Shiun opened the door to her room slowly, peaking her head out from behind the crack in the sliding door as she looked to her excited friend. She was excited too, of course she was, but, well... The thing was, it was a lot colder in Kumogakure - really the entirety of the Lightning Empire - than she had expected. She was from a much more tropical part of the world, and though the winters in Tea were a bit harsher than they were in Gold, the higher altitude was simply something entirely different from what she was used to.

Which was why, as she pushed the door open all the way, Shiun stepped out wearing a thick, fluffy pair of wool pants, a huge, marshmallow-esque jacket that covered her up to her chin, mittens and ear muffs that she had to wear with the band wrapped around the back of her head because of her purple cap. Thankfully she'd been able to find all those clothes in purple, but still. She was aware of how ridiculous she looked, but she'd rather look ridiculous than face the cold! She'd spent all night shivering!

"I'm ready when you are," came the somewhat muffled reply from the Kinoko, closing the door behind her and bouncing on the balls of her feet. Regardless of how ridiculous she looked, she was excited to wander around the village, see the sights, absorb herself in the culture! And yes, of course, meet some ninja. Stepping up beside Suzuko Shiun hooked her arm in her much-less heavily clad friend and started to walk towards the entrance with her. "I wonder if we'll get to meet Aki while we're here. I told you about him, remember? I saved his life at the Iron Festival, when you and the rest of the group left me behind!" she teased, jamming her elbow playfully into Suzuko's side. She was still miffed about getting separated from her in Iron it seemed!

[Texas]

"Well Well Well Well Well Well Well Well Well Well Well...." Akihiko was standing in his bathroom practicing different tones and styles of saying Well Well, in great anticipation of sneaking up on a couple of the Heart Empire visitors. The pink haired child was warned to be on his best behavior, however the young delinquent simply couldn't help himself. The excitement started weeks ago when he was informed about an exchange program coming from the Heart Empire. It was going to be a variety of people, but specifically some of the youths from their form of an Academy. This meant that it was possible both Suzuko and Shiun could be coming to the Heart Empire! Aki grew up with the Genin and the Academy students within the village. Although the boy was.... an acquired taste, he had seemed to be making better friends outside of the village than actually in it.

With eagerness and great anticipation, Akihiko left his family home and Clan Compound. However, he didn't just walk out, the child was skipping. His hood was draped over his dyed pink hair due to it being a little bit colder out than normal, but he figured if he skipped hard enough, the blood flow would warm him up a little bit. After several minutes of travel, the boy realized that he had no clue where the Heart students would visit first... he probably should have tried to steal an itinerary... When this realization occurred a slightly softer voice than normal echoed in his head from Ryeunso "Two steps forward one step back with you". At this point Aki didn't give him attention, instead he adjusted his trajectory. He remembered that he showed Suzuko the Market District and although he explained what it was, they really didn't spend much time there since it was a juvenile tour. Regardless! Aki, shifted his weight and sprinted to the market in hopes that the Heart Exchange students would try to go there first.

With eagerness, the boy scaled a building near the edge of the market and made his way up on top of a structure. From there, Aki roof hopped until he got a good view of the center of the market. Although the pre-teen was gleaming with anticipation, he took a seat on the roof and continued to visually assess the area until he saw some familiar faces.

[Nick]

Suzuko raised a brow at the muffled noises behind the door, and as it slowly opened, she looked genuinely shocked for a moment, before she let out a very un-ladylike laugh that involved a solid snort as she gasped for air. The image of her mushroom headed friend, whose body already looked a bit bulkier than it really was because of her mushroom cap, to be bulged out in layers of coverage that would leave an average person sweating unless they were in the most dire of cold weather storms like those of Blizzard or Iron country. She didn't comment further on what ridiculousness made her laugh at her friend, grabbing her by the hand and leading her off to the markets, somewhere she knew for sure where it was in this otherwise strange land. "The chances of meeting one ninja in an entire village are even more slim than you not getting left behind because you can't keep up with all those layers on!"

---

The journey to the markets wasn't too far, their housing was set up in the outskirts of the village, but with Kumogakure being significantly more open than the other ninja villages, all roads led to capitalism. It was early enough in the morning that the stalls wouldn't be incredibly busy just yet, with some still setting up their stalls and opening shutters. In many ways the Lightning Empire was more advanced that the Heart Empire, and in some ways it felt less so. The steam-powered tractors and false horses that pulled carts around didn't exist here, and yet there was more access to other pieces of ninja technology powered by chakra just the same. As much as things were different, it seemed just as many were the same, but then again, the Lightning Empire was likely the most similar to home, and likely why it was chosen to be the first stop in this pilot program.

Their first stop in today's adventure would be a small jewelry stall, where Suzuko would be eyeing sparkly pieces of nonsense, and held something up for Shiun to see when behind her she would slowly notice... A tiny lock of unkempt pink hair in the distance. Immediately she turned around and hunched her shoulders as if trying to remain unseen. She hadn't yet put two and two together that Shiun's Aki was Suzuko's Akihiko, and she did not wish to see Akihiko again, especially not with one of her friends that he would embarrass her in front of. Shiun was friendly and got along with everyone, but briefly she imagined the village imploding on itself if the two met and their energies collided... "Heyyyy, that's probably enough shopping for now, why don't we go take a break at a park or something?"

[Golnax]

Shiun simply stood there and glowered as Suzuko got her laughs in. Yeah, yeah, funny cold girl in her big coat, haha. She understood what a sight she was but she still didn't care. They were far and away and much higher up from the tropic weather she was used to and damn it all she was not going to tolerate the cold! As they walked on towards the market Shiun would smile pleasantly and give Suzuko a jabbing elbow to the ribs for her joke. Hmph! Served her right for victim blaming!

---

As they made their way to the market Shiun was quick to remove her mittens and ear muffs at least, stuffing the forget into her pockets and wrapping the latter around the raised collar of her coat. She unzipped the puffy garment as well. Turned out once you got moving around these parts the cold wasn't the worst thing in the world, although she was still glad to have the covering on her legs and torso! Being that this was the first time that the young Akibushi had been in a ninja village, she was, well, to put it lightly, ecstatic! It wasn't just the amenities like fuuinjutsu powered lights and other forms of technology fueled by jutsu and chakra that caught her eye, but the architecture! The air! The amount of people! In her portion of Gold Country, many of these things were simply nonexistent or were just beginning to be built. Southern Gold had only one major city that she had never been to and while the cities and town in Tea were quaint, there was something about the crowded buildings and the hustle and bustle of early morning life in a village this old, this guarded, that enchanted Shiun. She found herself turning her head back and forth, back and forth, at every little thing! If it wasn't for Suzuko dragging her along by the hand and arm she might have stopped at every possible corner and window to observe what was, to the locals, ordinary life. Life that, as a young samurai trained in Tea, she herself was somewhat used to but still marveled at all the same.

At the jewelry stall Shiun gawked at the gems and creations just as much as Suzuko did, her pale eyes alight with the shining gleam of multicolored cut stones. As Suzuko held up a particularly ornate piece of emerald wrapped in gold trimming she stared at it, wondering, imagining to herself, really, if the gold that was a part of this piece of art had come from home or not. Her imaginative daydreaming was interrupted, however, by Suzuko saying they should take a break already, which made the dark skinned samurai frown. "What? No way! We just got here, I'm not going to sit down yet!" she protested, turning back towards the cart full of gems and placing a hand on her chin, eyes squinted as she inspected them. "Hey, how much ryo do you have on you? We should totally buy a matching souvenir!" she said, making what she believed to be a much more sensible suggestion. Who wanted to go to a park when you had a labyrinthine city to explore?

[Texas]

Sitting and waiting wasn't Aki's strong suit. His urge to move around and be active kicked in minutes after he sat down. By moving his knee fast while sitting on a chimney and scouting the area with wide eyes, he was able to pass at least some of the time. However, to his surprise a giant purple figure with a familiar girl walked into the area. The mushroom cap was a giveaway... but it seemed to look like a full on actual mushroom with the color matching throughout her entire person. The pink haired boy couldn't help but giggle. Aki got up from his seat and took a couple steps forward. With one knee down, he tried to look cool as he kept an eye on the two girls.

To Aki's surprise Suzuko saw him standing there, which resulted in her hiding in a way. Although they didn't make eye contact, the child formed a devilish grin and made the executive decision to follow them only for a little bit. It seemed like Suzuko wanted to go while Shiun was adamant about shopping. The boy laid down flat against the roof so he potentially couldn't be seen anymore and rolled backwards from the edge of the roof. Hopefully it looked like he swiftly disappeared, if Aki was wrong about the angle he would only look ridiculous. Regardless of if he was seen rolling backwards from the roof or not, the child would fall into the alley way between two of the residential/commercial structures. Once he started dropping, the child did a quick survey to make sure no one could see him. As he fell down, Aki didn't calculate the drop properly. He would slam his back on a dumpster and create a large bang noise. Usually it would be muffled by the hustle and bustle of the market, but at this time it might have been heard.

Aki laid there and simply groaned due to having the wind knocked out of him. It took a couple minutes for him to regain his breath. When he was good to go, the child would jump up and run around the alley way. Aki would lean against the wall so his back was against it and inch his way around the corner. By the time he inched around the belligerent boy would poke his head around to keep an eye on the two.

[Nick]

Suzuko was actively fully leaned up against Shiun, both hands on her as if trying to push the world's heaviest boulder, but her mushroom-headed friend wasn't budging. She huffed and puffed and groaned, but made about as much progress as if she'd been trying to push... well, the world's heaviest boulder. "I'll buy... Whatever... You want..." She said, finally giving up on the prospect of moving her Kinoko ally away from their current position, still leaning on her, but for a break this time as she panted for breath, looking around her once again to see Akio... awkwardly shuffle his body along the rooftops? The angle was good, but not perfect, meaning he DID disappear quite quickly, but not before she saw what he was doing right before...

BANG! And she could put two and two together about what that sound might have been, even after he disappeared around the curvature of the roofing. Suzuko ran through several calculations in her head. That would have been quite a long fall, it could have hurt quite badly and resulted in a serious injury. The darkest parts of her seriously considered just leaving the boy there for getting her in trouble on her first day here, but... Most of her couldn't help but worry. She finally caught her breath using Shiun as a resting point, and much more gently tugged on her arm. "We should... Check that out..." She said hesitantly, rolling her eyes and sighing.

Guiding Shiun around the corner where they'd both inevitably have heard the crash, they would both be standing there when Akihiko peeked his head around the corner, the two would be standing there. Suzuko, seeing him alive and standing mostly upright (aside from that awful posture), she would fold her arms and turn her head to the side. "Not dead, I see." She said. What she hadn't said was "shame", but her tone definitely implied it.

[Golnax]

BANG!

Shiun's attention was finally pulled away from the glittering baubles at the sudden loud sound of a crash not far away. She turned her head in the direction of the noise, an air of confusion about her. Suzuko suggested they go check it out and without any initial hesitation she nodded in agreement, taking a step to go only to them hesitate as she recalled her friends' offer to buy whatever she wanted. The purple-headed Kinoko glanced back at the jewelry, pouted a moment, and then turned to follow along behind Suzuko. They'd still be there later. Probably...

The pair didn't go very far, basically just crossing the street really, coming to a corner and stopping as someone poked their head out. Suzuko sounded... grumpy, for some reason. Shiun had no idea why, but as she leaned over from behind her friend she saw the pink haired boy from the Iron Festival! "Oh! Hey, it's Aki!" she said excitedly, stepping out from behind Suzuko fully and into the alleyway to stand beside the hooded boy. "Suzuko, this is who I was telling you about! I saved his life!" she beamed, all smiles. What a happy coincidence this was for her, really! Suzuko looked none too pleased, though. Shiun frowned. She was missing something, obviously. "Hey, what's with that look, huh?" she asked, not really sure she wanted the answer but, well, the question was in the air now.

[Texas]

When Akihiko popped his head out, he was nothing but surprised that the girls had made it to him so fast. He heavily miscalculated how loud he was. Although he had been training to be stealthier... he still was borderline at ground zero when it came to clumsiness. The child jumped up awkwardly when the two appeared in front of him and he turned towards the wall. The child lifted his right hand and made it into a fist while facing the wall. Akihiko would slam that fist against the wall a couple of times before speaking "Yep, this wall is still sturdy. I've just been testing the integrity of the buildings. And... this one.... is..... good." He would then turn around to the girls, in an attempt to show off. With a poor attempt at lying Aki would put on a big smile. This little pre-teen delinquent was genuinely excited to see some of his friends!

Akihiko didn't know that the two of them were friends, let alone that he knew both of them! Shiun saved his life and Suzuko well she actually.... Aki didn't fully know if she hated or tolerated him, only time will tell. Regardless, it was more interaction than what other Kumo shinobi had given him so plainly to say, this was a very exciting moment for pink haired wonder.

"Wow two of my favorite heart samurai are here!" When he said the word samurai Aki would hold an invisible sword and pretend to cut a couple of invisible items. He would continue to talk after. "Shiun I can't thank you again for saving me! The popcorn though was too delicious. You might be wondering why Suzuko doesn't look so happy.." he would swiftly try to move around Suzuko and whisper in her ear. However, when he put his hand up to block the noise, he purposely would do the wrong side so that Suzuko could hear. "I think after she visited last time she fell in love with me.:" Akihiko would snicker a little bit as he took a couple steps back. "So what are you guys doing in Kumo? What have you got planned?"

[Nick]

Suzuko stared at her purple-clad friend for a long, uncomfortable moment, then looked at Akihiko, then back to Shiun as the puzzle pieces clicked together. She waved her hands in front of her, forming an "X" over and over again as she shook her head and repeated "No, no, no, no, no..." Over and over again for what was probably far too long for the comedy of the situation to stick around for all that long. As the two talked around her, she was still physically present, but mentally checked out from the situation as she realized that Shiun's relationship with "Aki" meant that she was going to have to spend more time around him, too.

Finally, her face cracked in what might have been seen as a smile, though any animals likely would have seen the twisted facial expression as some kind of threat, and she threw her arms up, one wrapping around her mushroom-capped friends neck, and the other around Akihiko's. From a distance, it would probably look like the three were the best of buds, and maybe to Shiun too, however her bicep curled around the back and sides of Akihiko's neck a little harder than necessary, intentionally uncomfortable for the rascal. "Oh, Akihiko, such a joker you are!" She said through clenched teeth, trying to sound as pleasant as possible.

After making sure to make that position uncomfortable for awhile, she let go of both of them and returned to a mostly normal facial expression and tone of voice. "We were just out enjoying our first day off since we got here, doing some shopping..." She said, trailing off, and hoping in the deepest parts of her heart that perhaps Shiun being present meant that Akihiko would be cancelled out by her a bit... She was probably wrong to even hope that, however. If anything, he seemed liable to try and show off EVEN HARDER for two girls his age.

[Golnax]

"Love!?" she asked loudly, surprised by the very notion! Suzuko was always so serious, trying to keep her emotions in check or whatever. How did she have time for love? And how did she have time to develop such feelings from what was, presumably, a brief meeting with the boy like hers had been? Maybe it was fate? Looking to Suzuko as her fellow samurai stepped over towards them, Shiun began to say, "Man, I didn't think you'd have it in you to - BUH!" That was as far as she got before Suzuko wrapped her arm around the Kinoko's cushioned neck as well as Akihiko's. The more joyous of the two Akibushi looked to the other, saw her clenched teeth, heard her tone of voice and put two and two together. Ooooooooooooh, Aki was full of shit, wasn't he?

As Suzuko released them, Shiun picked up what she was putting down and looked to the pink haired ninja. "Yeah, we were actually looking at some jewelry over there to get as souvenirs," she said, pointing off in the direction of the other side of the street where the pair had just been. "We were maybe thinking about going to a park... but I mean... now that you're here, Aki..."

She trailed off for a second before skipping and placing herself between Akihiko and Suzuko, the telltale glint of excitement in her pale eyes as she grinned, stepped up into Aki's face and held her hands up in little fists in front of her. "You've gotta show me some ninja stuff! Show me some jutsu! Or secret ninja hide outs! Tell me about some famous Kumo ninja! Do you know who Aimi Kaguya is?" she asked innocently, stream of consciousness firing off her questions and suggestions one after the other, not really thinking of the consequences or repercussions of any of her inquiries. Especially the last one. One of her own private goals for this Pilot Program was to get a better idea of who her idol was as a person, and what better way to do that than to ask some other ninjas? Surely they knew of a man as great as him, right?

[Texas]

Akihiko had a barreling shit eating grin, that emotion was fleeting though. The moment Suzuko put her arms around them all he could feel was the crushing of his neck. He tried to make it seem like it didn't bother him, but appearance wise the boy had a similar face to holding in a BM. When released the sweet release and capabilities of inhaling oxygen never felt so great. He rubbed the back of his neck a little bit and released a very slight giggle. "That's me... always umm joking ha"

A short moment passed before Shiun spoke up. A trip to the park was perfect for Aki, he left his ninja pouch in the Raikage's building so the park would be a great place to stop on the way. Although, his better judgement dictated that he probably shouldn't release that info... at least... not yet. The child took his little hands and rubbed his chin as if he was acting sophisticated and deep in thought. He nodded in agreement before speaking out "I think the park is a good idea, I have to go that way anyw---."

Before the pink haired problem child could finish, Shiun stepped up in what would appear as a combination of eagerness and excitement. Although Aki was known for rapid questions and excitable behaviors, he had actually never experienced being on the receiving end of it. When asked these questions Aki moved his arms so that hey were folded and slightly adjusted his legs so they were shoulder width apart. He even flexed his biceps a little while he simultaneously straightened his back. The thought process was to come across strong and cool. "Hmmmm I guess I could show you a couple of things when we get to the park. But first... who is Hami Ka-gooya?" A moment of butchering a name wasn't uncommon.

The boy was ready though to head to the park, so after their conversation, he would simply follow their lead. What would happen after they arrive.... is something the young child had to start thinking of.

[Nick]

Suzuko smiled gently. Shiun's positivity WAS infectious, and moreso when she was getting excited about something, and rarely did she get excited about anything as much as she did in her one true passion in life: Ninja. The two were practically the same height, but Suzuko managed to look down on her like a doting mother very proud of her very excitable, very dumb child all the same. It took some level of effort to avoid reaching out and patting her on the head in a somewhat condescending fashion, but touching her mushroom cap repeatedly seemed rude regardless of the level of condescension behind it.

At the mention of Aimi Kaguya, again, Suzuko couldn't help but roll her eyes a bit. She'd been obsessed with the legend of some man for as long as the two had known each other and probably much longer on top of that. She didn't understand it really, even if she herself was somewhat obsessed over pleasing everyone in her life in a way that if she could manage to connect the dots might make the empathy significantly easier, but until that day, she would maintain the stance that it was ridiculous to have such hero worship of some ninja who invaded her lands when she was young. If there was one thing she did understand, it was how her friend was going to react, and waiting for the perfect moment to speak at roughly the same time as her friend, she started "It's Aiiii-meeee Kah-goo-yawwww" She would say in her best impression of Shiun's voice, which wasn't all that bad. She'd been practicing in the mirror.

Once their inevitable dispute was settled, the young girl looked past Akihiko for a minute, made a face, and then looked back to him. "Alright, where's the best park then, tour guide?" She said with a bit of disbelief in her voice that this was happening to her still, before moving in the direction of the one she already knew was fairly nearby. "I'm sure you have sooooo many cool ninja techniques to show off, right, tour guide?" Suzuko mocked, doing a series of fake handseals that made her look ridiculous. "C'mon then, impress us."

[Golnax]

Shiun went from crestfallen to disgruntled in record time as first Aki told her that, in essence, he had no idea who her idol was, followed by Suzuko chiming in with a pronunciation that was less offensive to the Kinoko than was Aki's attempt but just wrong enough that it got under her skin regardless. She grimaced, lips turning downwards into a deep frown, brow wrinkled inwards and eyes narrowing as she looked from one to the other with borderline disgust. Suzuko especially got an eyeful of her ire - by now she knew as much about the Great Unifier as Shiun did, but yes, the two of them had had some minor arguments on the subject in the past and it had been silently agreed that the two of them wouldn't really speak about the figure until Shiun herself knew more. Akihiko just got disappointment for not knowing his recent world history.

Turning her back on the both of them, Shiun let out a sigh and relaxed her face. Well, they were still in a ninja village, and hey, sarcastic or not, Suzuko was right! Akihiko was now officially going to be their guide! (He had no choice in the matter.) So he could take them to the park, and all over the village, all while showing her some sick ninja tricks! That got her perking up again at the thought of watching a real shinobi do his thing! The Samurai of Heart knew how to utilize some basic jutsu, yes, but she'd always gotten the distinct feeling that how they used it was fundamentally different from how real ninja did somehow. This was a golden opportunity to see the real thing in action!

Stepping away with Suzuko, Shiun would puff her cheeks and nudge her friend as she was doing her fake handseals. Dumb Suzuko! She knew how to do it right! "Yeah, c'mon, run along the building wall or something! Take us to the park and shoot a fireball!!" Shin encouraged, still very much on board for whatever show Aki wanted to put on for them.

[Texas]

A chance to be in the spotlight?? This was a grand stage for Akihiko! He couldn't have been happier.... and he couldn't have hidden it even worse. With a large shit eating grin, Akihiko walked passed the two ladies and started marching onward. He would lead them to the outdoor training area. As they were walking though, he would address the female samurai's. "Umm Jutsu?? I don't really know any elemental Ninjutsu... Fireballs, Lightning Bolts, and all that flashy stuff Is more of the Raikage's deal." Without realizing what he was saying, he accidentally opened a good transition for trying to get them to break into the the Raikage's building. It was in Aki's best interest that he was leading the two samurai behind him. This way they hopefully couldn't see the devilish looks he was giving to himself as if he was practicing in a mirror. Some emotions just couldn't be helped when it came to tricking as many people as possible.

It only took a few minutes for them to get the training ground. It was a rather large field with wooden training dummies there. It looked as though the grass fields where the training wooden dummies were placed, was a cut a little shorter than the grass surrounding it. The grass as a whole was impossible to truly upkeep. There was slashes in some sections, burn marks in others, and even a kunai/shuriken or two hanging out of the wooden training dummies. Whoever's job it was to keep it together was given an impossible task.

As Aki was showing them the training area he would explain why it was so open. "This is one of the many training areas here in Kumo. People come here to practice simpler techniques that most shinobi should know. Think of us throwing kunai like how you guys swing your little blades around. It is a normal area" Aki held in his laughter. The goal was to get a rise out of them, but knowing Suzuko, she would probably clap back. Knowing Shiun, it might even go over his head. What does he have to do to get them all riled up??? After hearing them either ignore him or bug him back, the boy would stop at the top of the training grounds.

"I would show you some cool kunai tricks..." As he was talking, Aki would slightly lift the back of his shirt up with his left hand and point to his butt with his right hand. "but... I kind of left my ninja pouch in the Raikage's study room. Want to come and get it with me?"

What oh what will they do..

[Nick]

Suzuko rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest as she often did, a guarded position that did nothing to stop the emotions of others from pushing into her and worming their way into her brain, but generally helped keep emotions consistent around her which helped a little. It didn't help with main characters like this, though, that did things their own way, the jerks. Who did they think they were, having their own goals, feelings, thoughts, wants, and needs in the world? The heiress could hardly believe the nerve of them. Her head turned to the side and she made a "Hmph" noise before following them as Aki took them to the little training ground.

She looked around at the mess that had been made and thought to herself that the Mizutane private training grounds would never be this messy, and almost spoke up... Before remembering that the academy training grounds almost always looked like this. The only exception would be the weapons left stuck in targets, that would have gotten someone disciplinary action in a heartbeat from even the more gentile of teachers. In fact, if anything, the training grounds at the academy often looked worse, as ninjutsu was something that was still a developing skill within the samurai empire, and only a few of the teachers had mastered it, making it more difficult to teach, practice, and learn.

As Akihiko admitted he didn't really know any of the elements, Suzuko couldn't help but scoff. Even SHE knew one of the elements, even if fuuton wasn't the flashiest available, Suzuko wasn't exactly the flashiest girl either, and really she likely wouldn't have learned it if she hadn't have met a Konoha ninja who had been very helpful during the Iron Banner festival. "You can't throw fireballs, you can't run on walls, and you can't even throw a weird shaped knife?" She mocked for a moment, before his invitation struck her all at once. "Wait what." She stated, rather than asked.

"The... The Raikage?" She said in disbelief, her mouth open dumbly in a way that if she had frog genes her jaw might have actually sunk to the floor. Of course, she had somehow managed to meet the Hokage already, but Fanho was like, a totally chill guy that she definitely didn't have a little crush on or anything, and was way different than the Lightning Emperor. "What the heck were you doing in the Raikage's study room? Do you just get to visit the Raikage's place whenever? Are you related to him or something?" She asked in rapidfire, realizing after she said it that if he WAS related to the Raikage that would make him something of royalty (not realizing that he was a clan member, and a kind of royalty in his own right because of it, either) that she had been highly disrespectful.

She really hoped that wasn't the case, because she didn't want to start treating Akihiko with respect.

[Golnax]

Shiun's disappointment in Akihiko's revealation that he couldn't perform any cool jutsu was only matched by her awe of their surroundings as they made their way to the training ground. The warmly dressed samurai was right behind her shinobi escort, constantly letting out little "oooh"s and "aaaah"s as she took in the little cultural things of the village around here. A few times she managed to spot another ninja, given away by their headbands, and was, of course, tempted to go over and bug them. She managed to resist temptation, though, until they made it to the rather ordinary training ground. Perhaps a bit worse for ware, but, nothing special about it really. She shared Suzuko's sentiment that the weapons left out was just plain sloppy, very much a sign of lack of discipline on the part of the ninja who practiced there.

Aki's assessment was completely right about Shiun as far as his remark went. It flew entirely over her head - not because she didn't catch the joking comparison, but because she didn't use swords to begin with. More surprisingly, though, was her reaction to the information that he lacked his equipment on him and the suggestion that he'd left in in the Raikage's personal study. For once in a blue moon, Shiun and Suzuko's reactions were inverted. Where Suzuko was firing off questions and had been caught off guard by the revelation, Shiun seemed... apathetic. Stone faced, she was quiet as Suzuko experienced her rare moment of excitement, letting her friend ask her questions while she remained still. Turned out, Shiun just flat out didn't believe Aki in this instance. What were they going to do, just casually walk into whichever building housed the Raikage to pick up some shinobi's weapons that he just happened to leave there? Mhm. Real plausible.

No, rather to give in to such delusions, instead the purple clad samurai would simply mirror's Aki's moves, lifting up the back of her jacket and reaching into her butt bag which she had reflexively put on before leaving her room as her samurai training dictated she be prepared at all times. She rummaged around for a moment before pulling her hand back out, index finger hooked with a set of three kunai and her middle finger dangling the remaining two. Casually, she tossed the throwing knives down onto the ground between Akihiko and Shiun, then pointed at them. "There you go, you can borrow mine. Now come on! Show us some taijutsu!" Shiun encouraged, the excitement back on now that the possibility of getting to see a genuine ninja in action was back on the table. Sneak into the Raikage's personal study... PFFT! What a fantasy!

[Texas]

The child didn't understand Suzuko's confusion at first. Of course he could throw a knife and walk on walls... the statement of sarcasm and mockery went really over his head. The pink hair on Aki's head fluffed up as his head whipped back during Suzuko's questions. He had never seen her quite animated and talkative. Normally she physically or verbally abused Aki to keep him in line, so this side of her really took the young child back. He couldn't allow this! Annoying her had become a concentration of taijutsu for the boy and he didn't plan on losing his fast ball. He couldn't help but make a fake gag noise before addressing her... questions. "First off Suzuko, Ew. I would never be related to that guy. And if you have to know, he is my bitter rival." A fist formed in what could be perceived as frustration or determination, but it was not for the reason that the two girls would think. Bluntly, the Raikage was not Aki's rival... in fact, the only reason Akihiko had an obsession with the Raikage is sadly very very simple. He was the only one that actually could ignore his behavior. How can someone ignore the pink haired loud mouth??? "I will get him eventually.... But I do go over there to train sometimes. Which is why we probably should go, everyone there loves me." Everyone there did not love him... When Aki would head over there for Genma training, he would torment them verbally because he knew they really couldn't do much about it.

To his surprise, Shiun tried to hand him her ninja tool bag. It was similar to his... however, Aki really wanted to show off in the worst kind of way, so he had to think of something. "Whoa Shiun, I don't want to use your butt pouch." He would put his right hand out and wave it slightly to the left and right to indicate he wasn't going to use her pouch. "Come on guys lets go, I'll give you a.." his brain short circuited for a second to come up with the word "Tour! It will be fun I promise." Aki ended the statement with a semi forced smile. As far as the trust department, he really wasn't doing the greatest job.

Since he did get the attention of Suzuko, he had to get the attention of Shiun as well. "Shiun, how about I promise to show you a cool jutsu before we get to the office. I can show you on the way!" This was his last attempt to get them over there, otherwise he had to try with plan B.

[Nick]

Suzuko would not be called simple-minded by most, and yet as the gerbil that powered Akihiko's brain broke its speed limit and busted out of his skull and into Suzuko's, her thought process was among the most simple and nonsensical things that one could imagine.

Akihiko's a wimp. Everyone at the Raikage's office loves him. He's the Raikage's Raival. Butt pouch. Shiun. Shiun's butt. Cool jutsu. Cool Raikage. Become Raikage? Strong. Become Strong.

What?

"Buhhhhhh..." Suzuko started, brain fried from Akihiko's gerbil nibbling on her thought processes. "Tour of the... Raikage's tower...?" She continued, blinking dumbly at Aki before slowly turning to Shiun with wide eyes. "We're gonna go tour the Raikage's tower!" She said with a tone of definiteness in her voice, reaching over to grab at her friend's scarf to tug her along and start stomping over to Akihiko to follow after him. "I bet you don't even know any cool jutsu!" She exclaimed, seemingly starting to return to her normal self as she shook her head, making the thread that connected her and Akihiko go much more slack and attempting to kick his gerbil out of her brain.

"But I bet someone in the tower does!" Well, the gerbil couldn't be removed entirely. "C'mon Shiun, I bet we're gonna see some like, real ninja stuff! Or... NOT see it! Because ninja!"

[Golnax]

Shiun furrowed her brow. Was Suzuko right? Did Aki really know no jutsu worth mentioning? Why was he dodging the chance to show off for her!? Shiun knew an excuse when she was presented one! "That's dumb, just use my kunai and - "

She got no further before Suzuko excitedly, and forcefully, made the choice for her, her unusually excited friend grabbing onto her scarf and tugging her along - by means of choking the life out of her! Shiun let out an ugly sound as the scarf tightened around her throat and she followed where Suzuko lead, head first, stumbling and scratching at her throat as they went!

It didn't take long for Shiun to unravel the scarf from her neck and free herself from Suzuko's grasp, taking a large breath as she did! She didn't need her scarf now, anyways. It was starting to warm up. Huffing, the purple Kinoko went and picked up her kunai and stuffed them back into her bag before crossing her arms over her chest and puffing up her left cheek in annoyance. "Ugh, fine! Let's get going, then," she relented, still believing entirely that this was going to be a futile effort and that they'd be stopped long before they got anywhere close to the Raikage, but hey, maybe they'd get to see a Chunin in action by doing this! Getting restrained or redirected by a Chunin could be pretty cool she guessed...

[Texas]

Hold on hold on... was Akihiko losing the attention of Shiun?? How could the pink haired madness named Akihiko Ishiguro perform on a grand stage with bright lights and not be able to entertain everyone?! It was evident, that Aki had to do something, maybe say something. The distracted flip in personalities broke the single brain cell that helped motivate and properly function his whole mind. How could Suzuko be this excited and Shiun be this disappointed? What could the smooth brained shinobi do to fix this. Would she be impressed by a jutsu? Maybe he could kill 1 bird with 2 stones! The child smiled and spoke out to both of them before they began to head over there. "How about this Shiun, I'll show you a jutsu when we get a little closer the the Raikage's building... is that fair?" The cocky child giggled and turned towards the direction of the Raikage's office before skipping. His child like energy kicked in and excitement flooded through his body, to the Raikage's Office they go!

After a couple minutes of traveling, they got to a spot where there was a minor hill. The grassy hill, would have a visual on the Raikage's building. However, before climbing it, Akihiko stopped and turned towards the girls that he had assumed were following him. Whether they walked or did a fast speed walk to keep up with him, the boy would start by making his feet shoulder width apart and arms crossed before talking. As he spoke, his chakra would flow throughout his entire body and leak out slightly. If either of them had a slight sense of chakra capabilities, they might feel a comforting and reassuring feeling resonating from his chakra. "Now what I am going to show you is top secret. You can't tell anyone. I am only showing you guys because we are besties." After the statement, Aki would weave a combination of hand signs.

To Akihiko, a silhouette of himself would be formed in the 1st Layer of the Limbo Realm. A being that had the same frame as him, but was pure Limbo Chakra. The formation would be in a circular motion until it completely turned into him, but fully white with slight outlines and no details.

However, to the girls unless they had a sensory technique, literally nothing would appear to happen.

Aki would jump up out of his position and lean slightly away from where the silhouette would be with both arms jumping out to aim at the direction of the silhouette. His hands would be open and with his jazz hands shaking, the boy would say "Ta Da!!!!" In that moment the boy had forgotten that they, probably couldn't see it.

Jutsu UsedShow

1st Layer • Akihiko Silhouette
C-Rank Ninjutsu
Create a Limbo Realm being, not to be mistaken as a clone, although it does share size and features. This is a silhouette that attacks and defends based on commands given mentally upon creation. The silhouette's speed and strength stats are dictated by the [Control] stat.

[Nick]

Suzuko hadn't meant to choke her friend like that, and she also thought that Shiun was joking around with all the choking and struggling she was doing, which only served to make her pull harder until the scarf came free, leaving Suzuko holding... A big fluffy purple scarf. For the briefest of moments, she stared down at it, then over at Shiun, and threw it over her shoulders... Before taking it off. Purple wasn't really her color, and more importantly didn't really mesh with the outfit she was wearing today anyway.

The heiress had to admit (only to herself) that she was somewhat excited to see what Akihiko might be showing the two girls. She had some experience with ninjutsu and genjutsu, with Takeshi from Konoha having showed her how to do some basic fuuton jutsu, and having developed some of her own techniques as well during the long training excursion into the iron banner festival (her first original techniques, even!), she was really starting to get a grasp on this whole 'ninja arts' thing that the empire was starting to teach its students more prevalently. Maybe she'd even get some new ideas from Akihiko, though that seemed unlikely given that his brain probably only contained a single wrinkle.

Regardless, she stood by in anticipation... Only for Akihiko to gesture to nothing as if they both should be impressed by it. Suzuko stared. She DID have chakra sensory, thanks to her connection with Shiun, but it wasn't always on, and as such she had no idea that it SHOULD be on, and made no motion to activate it. Unwittingly, she walked right past where he was gesturing, only inches from his limbo facsimile unbeknownst to her, unable to touch what was in the limbo realm, ignored entirely as she took a good look at the Raikage's building. She'd seen it from the distance a couple of times, but seeing it up close was something else entirely. Most of Tea Country's large buildings were very new and of a specific design that looked nothing like the older buildings in the older countries.

"Yeah, cool, Akihiko." Suzuko said, clearly not impressed, or even paying attention really. "So that's the Raikage's building, huh?" She asked, not really expecting an answer. She looked around the base of the tower and everything else that was leading up to it, and it seemed... Almost mundane. The Shogun's palace in Xincha had been fairly grand, and while this building wasn't unimpressive, it just felt like it was lacking a little... artistry to it, by comparison. She made a face. "Does the Raikage live there too...?" The girl thought for a moment, she wasn't actually sure if the Shogun of tea lived in the palace or not. "You just... Walk in the front door?"

[Golnax]

"Hmph!" Shiun replied, pouting a bit now that she was being forced along with this silliness. She was normally the silly one, but she kept her silliness to a reasonable level! This wasn't reasonable I'm her mind! To Shiun, who compared every ninja in the entire world to Aimi Kaguya, who himself had united several nations, given common folk the gift of chakra and almost singlehandedly shaped and revolutionized the future of countless individuals who, as she understood it, had been literally living in caves and huts before he came along, the idea that they could just walk up into a Kage's abode, two foreign samurai there by the good graces of said Kage and likely the Daimyo they served, was not only laughable, it was impossible! ESPECIALLY if the Raikage was even one TENTH of amazing of a person as her idol was!

And yet. Look at them! They were going, all three of them, to the Raikage's tower, Akihito leading the way with a jump and a skip, Suzuko following behind and Shiun bringing up the rear, at this point only sticking along because of the promise of seeing some new jutsu. Speaking of which, as they came to the small hill that put the Raikage's tower into sight, Shiun's demeanor shifted slightly as Akihito began to perform his jutsu, becoming less sullen and more curious and, dare she admit, excited!

Now Shiun did in fact have the ability to sense chakra, though she scarcely had an idea how to use it just yet. It was one of those aptitudes that the samurai of Xincha tested each student for these days and Shiun had shown promise, thus, she was able to sense... Something. A sort of faint, warm tingle? Hard to say, really, as it could have just been excitement building up. Then Akihito just had to go and... Ruin the ride, by showing off nothing.

Shiun, like Suzuko, was unimpressed, and she moved to the other side of the pink haired Shinobi to go stand by Suzuko on the hill. "Honestly, if you just didn't want to show off your secret jutsu, Aki, I would have understood," she said, trying to give him the benefit of the doubt while still dismissing his 'display'. She looked away and out to the tower which, while more plain in design than the palace of Xincha, still held the promise of mysterious happenings and charms to the Kinoko. She could practically feel her enthusiasm return as she imagined the building filled with traps and hidden guards in the walls! Akihito was, once again, given the deadpan cold shoulder for his efforts. Man, today just wasn't his day, huh?

[Texas]

In a cartoon like sense Aki's skin turned pale and a bubble felt like it was immerging from his brain. Did he do some thing wrong? How dare they not appreciate his secret genma jutsu!! Before Akihiko's mind turned from confusion to anger, a revelation of sorts happened. Ohhhhh They can't see it like Aki could. The child placed his head own as both of his friends not only dismissed his incredible feat, but walked right by him to look at the Raikage's building. Why couldn't his secret technique be rainbows and flashing fireworks. Then everyone could see them. The boy turned and was now behind both of them since... they walked .... right by him and his silhouette.

"Shiun.. Suzuko, there is something there I didn't just do nothing!" It was after that sentence where he realized he had lost the room. Both of them. Akihiko however, went from being a deflated balloon on the side of the road to an overly energetic and delusional wild child. "You know what if you don't believe me, then I guess we will have to just walk right walk to the guards and they can tell you how great I am." He would brush past both of them trying to ignore their look of distain for him and equally their looks at the building. Akihiko's competition for attention was a building? Whose idea was it to even go here?

The pink haired brat motioned for them to follow. His silhouette was actually walking in front of him at this point, it wouldn't be a moment without Akihiko attempting to show off. His hands flailed in the air as if he was of royalty while he spoke about the structure of the building. As they got closer Aki started to explain further about his position. "You see I am a respected and well liked shinobi. We even have a fun inside joke me and the guards." Unfortunately for Akihiko and the gang they would be stopped 20m before arriving to the building. One woman and one man dressed in traditional Jounin gear gazed upon the three of them. Like they were linked mentally, the two first looked at the girl with a giant mushroom for a head, Shiun. Their attention went to Suzuko who was rather young too. They didn't understand why children would be walking about this area until their eyes laid on Akihiko.

Akihiko had been training there to make sure his control over Ryeunso (his genma) was in check. However, he did take advantage of not being reprimanded for showing up and borderline torturing them. At the same time the two shinobi looked at Akihiko, then at each other, then they simply groaned. The female shinobi placed her hands on the top of her nose near her eye brows and shut her eyes. The male shinobi spoke after groaning. "What.. are you guys doing here?"

[Nick]

Suzuko definitely didn't believe anything Aki was saying, but it felt less dignified to even try to tell him that at this point. Silently, Suzuko was glad that their time in Kumo was short - She definitely enjoyed her time here and it was nice to see a totally different locale from her home, but spending this much time around Akihiko made her skin crawl, and she worried that his weird boy smell would rub off on her. Just the thought of it nearly made her gag.

As they were approached by two jounin, however, Suzuko's eyes lit up a bit, and she nudged her Kinoko friend with her elbow gently as if to give a much more muted presentation than Akihiko had of his 'impressive jutsu'. The young empath wasn't much of a troublemaker, but as a member of the nobility, she generally understood how to talk her way out of situations, and one of the many, very dangerous tools in her arsenal...

She made an over-excited face. "Oh gosh!" She started, really turning up her Tea Country accent to the max and stepping up alongside Akihiko. "Aki-Chan was just showing us around!" Suzuko said, smiling at the boy next to her. "He said he knew the strong, mysterious Shinobi here and that they wouldn't mind us being here! That's not wrong, is it...?" She said, making some kind of cute pout, a look of disappointment shot Akihiko's way.

She'd never called him Aki before, and in fact made a display of only calling him by his full name most of the time, but this served a special purpose. Either they'd be let inside to look at the tower like she wanted to do, or she'd properly embarrass the young genin in front of his superiors, which she also wanted to do. It was a win-win situation, and certainly couldn't have any negative consequences.

[Golnax]

Shiun thought she was starting to understand why Suzuko was so lukewarm towards Akihiko. He acted real big, but honestly he must have been just your average genin, really, with no special talents or stand out abilities yet. It was the only explanation that the purple headed Kinoko had for why his "display" had been so lame! Never the less she remained optimistic as they were lead towards the tower. She did like to assume the best of people, after all.

As they got within 20 meters of the building Shiun was simultaneously thrilled and vindicated by the sudden appearance of other ninja in their path! Ha! She knew they wouldn't be allowed near the building! And these weren't genin like Aki, either. They had to be Chunin at least, maybe Special Jounin even! They were immediately cooler than Akihiko was by virtue of their ability to appear out of nowhere faster than Shiun could see! She honestly couldn't tell from their outfits alone. As she understood it, ninja has quite a bit of freedom with what they were allowed to wear with only some of the more patriotic adhering to a uniform code. Her idol certainly hadn't worn anything like that... at least, she didn't think so. Suzuko's nudge was entirely unnecessary; Shiun's eyes were all asparkle at the prospect of seeing two real ninja up close and personal!

More than being impressive, though, these ninja were scary! Why'd they have to look at her first!? Shiun tensed up under their gaze, only relaxing a bit when she heard them groan after looking at Aki. She was really, really beginning to suspect that he was just a liar, really. When the two ninja asked them why there were there Shiun reflexively and wordlessly raised her arm and pointed at the pink haired boy, silently placing the blame squarely on him as she was too spooked to speak! Suzuko, ever the more light headed of the two, tried to put in the charm but Shiun was truly awestruck. She didn't know what to do with herself! So she just stood there, lightly sweating now that the day was getting on and the sun was up higher in the sky.

[Texas]

The dense ball of clay that resembled an empty pot, or people would call Akihiko's brain, couldn't process the negative tension that was circling the room like a cat chasing a light. Instead, Akihiko thought that the girls might have been thinking he was cool, of course he didn't turn around to confirm this 100% accurate depiction of the situation. To the pink haired boy's surprise... Suzuko spoke up for him, not only that... She called him Aki! No one outside of his family or honestly himself has called him that. It was truly a great moment and definite progress in their friendship. He did wonder in the back of his head how Shiun was doing. She did want to see some cool stuff and so far... Aki has not delivered.

One shinobi holding the top of her nose near her eyebrows and the other having a semi-frustrated look. Those looks changed drastically when Suzuko spoke. They were shocked that people of normal demeanor and proper manners were even around Aki. Would they help him mature? Or in their own way... were they just as immature as him? The female shinobi opened her eyes and moved her hand to her side. The other shinobi relaxed his face as he listened to Suzuko. They both nodded and gave a skeptical look towards the pre-teen boy. The female shinobi gave the male one a slight little nod. The male shinobi folded his arms before speaking. "Akihiko, you're lucky these respectable young ladies are accompanying you. You can show them around as long as you follow a couple rules. You cannot bring them to the training room you're familiar with. You cannot go into every room, if a door is locked you definitely don't try to open it. We will allow you to show them around but you will be followed by a couple guards. Understood?"

The authority in his voice demanded respect. Akihiko nodded; "Yes Sir!" followed by an ill-placed salute. It was more of an instinct than a proper bow for some reason... Aki watched as the female shinobi spoke up to both Shiun and Suzuko. "Welcome to the village you two, please don't get into too much trouble. Let us know if he is bothering you." Both the shinobi chuckled and looked at the two for a potential response. After a few moments they would poof from a cloud of smoke to nothing. Aki would grin ear to ear and turn to the girls. "Ready?!"

[Nick]

The empathetic girl smiled politely and folded her hands in front of her as Akihiko got a light scolding, nodding along with it to show her agreement with the sentiment that he was a lucky bastard. She tilted her head a bit at some of the restrictions that were being listed: Some of them made sense, like not going into locked doors, but not being able to visit the training room he usually visited sounded quite odd. She rolled over the idea in her head for a moment, trying to piece together why that would be, but maybe Akihiko was some kind of experimental test subject for Kumo in the same way she was for Heart. Akihiko seemed like the worst choice for that kind of thing, but then again, she didn't think as highly of ninja as her Kinoko companion.

Speaking of her Kinoko companion, she got another gentle elbowing as they were officially allowed in, as if to say "Check it out! And you didn't think we'd get inside." In as smug of a manner as possible. "Thank you sir, ma'am!" Suzuko said, putting her palms flat against her thighs and bowing low before the two jounin. "We'll do our best to keep him out of trouble, promise!" She said in her honey-sweetest tone, though visible only to Shiun a pair of devil horns and a little spade tail seemed to grow out of her out of nowhere. Weird.

As the two puffed away, she suddenly turned and grabbed Akihiko by the ear, pulling him to her so she could loud-whisper into his face. "You're lucky we were here to bail you out." She said, a big frown on her face and venom on her tongue, giving his ear one last twist, before immediately letting go and returning to the honey sweetness. "Ahah! Sorry about that Aki-Chan! Time to get going!" She said in her much more girly voice, worried that the two jounin or others might be observing them from a distance.

[Golnax]

Shiun could feel the smugness in that elbow coming from her suddenly impish friend and it made her cringe! Ugh! Whatever! So Aki had been right and they were allowed into the tower! Big deal! SUCH a big deal that two foreign Akibushi samurai girls were being allowed to be escorted by one of their genin in one of what must have been the most secure facilities that Kumogakure had to offer, meaning they wouldn't see much anyway and, hey, what do you know, they weren't allowed to go to the training room he was supposedly going to show them because he conveniently left his ninja tools there and he refused to use Shiun's!

Honestly if this web of lies smelled anymore like horseshit Shiun was going to start looking around for a farm! Never the less... It did occur to her that she'd be stepping into the central location of power of all ninja within Kumogakure, by some miracle, even if in a very limit capacity! And the more she thought about it, the more her seeming obsession with all things ninja drive her negative thoughts out of her mind. Yeah. Yeah! She was going to see how a main facility ninja operated out of was like! That was plenty of reason to get excited, even if the reason they were going was fabricated!

"You'd better show me some jutsu or something cool that's ninja related once we're inside or else I'm gonna find a popcorn kernel and make you swallow it!" Shiun promised with a point of her finger in Alihiko's direction. Threats sufficiently made, the Kinoko walked past Suzuko and Aki both to head for the main event; the Raikage's tower. If she managed to get there ahead of the other two she'd wait by the door so that Akihiko could lead them around properly.

[Texas]

OW OW OW OWW! Akihiko felt as though his ear would have been ripped out of his head. Could he fight as a one eared shinobi? Shirly he has seen people fight with one eye, would he wear an eye patch on his ear? An EAR PATCH?!

The dramatics ended with the light gripping of his ear, however he couldn't help but place his hand up to rub where his lobe was almost mutilated by the brutish female samurai. Her poor future husband Aki thought, which caused a little bit of a giggle. Although, in reality his innocent brain thought that she would be bad at back rubs.

Akihiko nodded and agreed with Suzuko and as he started walking towards the Raikage's building Shiun spoke words of affirmation to him. Which would come out as threats, but Aki knew it was out of love... right? The child had a chill go down his spine due to the reference of choking on popcorn. If he could die by consuming too much kettle corn like what happened in pebble country than he would accept it happily. It was a new treat to Akihiko that he didn't know he needed until he tried it. Although it was a sweet and savory treat, the child craved it like humans craved air or water. He believed it was a necessity. Akihiko didn't have the heart to tell them that part of the reason why he needed his ninja bag so badly was because there was a small paper bag that had Kettle Corn in it which he so desperately craved.

It was important to Akihiko to agree with Shiun, he wanted to impress her after all. "Well since you weren't impressed by my jutsu," he said this literally as the invisible silhouette was leading the charge, "then I guess I will have to show you the most ninja stuff of all time. How does that sound Miss Shiun?" Without trying there was a rather antagonizing tone to it, what other kids would call a teasing tone.

As the children marched in there were 3 guards just at the front door. One was smoking while the other two were simply standing there. A couple of groans were heard as the door opened and they all walked into the building. Upon entering the large structure it was an explosion of busy and loud people. Shinobi, Desk associates, and all walks of important life were rushing around. It was a place that seemed quiet on the outside, but busy on the inside. The child smiled and turned towards them.

"Welcome! This is the building of the Raikage, lets walk down this hall and go upstairs!" Akihiko would motion for them to come along. While they were slowly walking so they could take in the atmosphere of what would be described as the hustle and bustle, Akihiko's silhouette had already started running up the stairs.

The silhouette made its way up the stairs and avoided contact with all of the people. It ran to the Raikage's office where it was shut and locked. The silhouette banged on the door several times until a few guards walked up to the door. It waited for them to open the door and as the guards walked inside, so did the silhouette. They waited a couple minutes and chalked it up to weird behavior, but they inevitably decided to just keep walking the halls like normal. After that decision, the couple of guards exited the room and locked the door from the outside. Luckily the silhouette was sitting and waiting until Akihiko gave it a command.

During their walk to the stairs, Akihiko would answer any questions they had.

[Nick]

Just as Suzuko had been working on making Akihiko deaf (because that's how ears worked, right?), her apparent personality had flipped like a switch as she worked to avoid being in any kind of trouble in this diplomatic position she'd found herself in. She rolled her eyes as he spoke to Shiun about showing off the most ninja stuff of all time, and while she doubted Shiun had any faith in the pink-haired boy left, 'ninja stuff' was probably the one thing that might pique her interest enough so that she wouldn't refuse to ever talk to him again.

As the doors to the building opened, Suzuko was surprised to see how busy it was inside, and briefly wondered if the palace in Tea Country was the same on the inside. Workers buzzed about like busy bees, barely blundering their way through their days as people with fulltime jobs often did, and didn't pay the two girls with Akihiko all that much attention, though it was hard for Akihiko to not draw a little attention with his bright pink hair, and in fact if he was being honest about anything, it was that the people here seemed to know him.

The groaning of the guards at the door almost had Suzuko feeling sorry for the young boy leading the way. Briefly, she thought about what it had been like for her at the Mizutane household. She had been welcome, and in general she was treated with respect, but it was more like living in a high class hotel than it was like having a home. She was a stranger in their household, and while at least she wasn't greeted with groans, she was often just overlooked, and when attention was paid to her, the pressure she felt on every inch of her body strained her to a near breaking point because of it.

But, it was only almost, and Suzuko had airs to put on as she followed the boy to the stairs. "What actually happens here?" She asked curiously, her eyes wandering all over the place, head on a swivel and neck attached by a rubber band as she took in every inch. "This would be a lot of people to just be dispatching missions..." She wondered aloud, tilting her head to the side curiously. "Hmm, but if they're all handed out here that might be different... In Heart, the teachers give out all the low-ranking assignments to students a couple times a month. Do you guys go on missions here that early in Kumo? Someone at the festival told me that some ninja don't go on missions outside their village ever!"

[Golnax]

Shiun was used to getting stares. All Kinoko were, and stares was exactly what she was getting from the three guards at the door as she stood there, obstinately, and waited for Suzuko and Aihiko to catch up to her. She didn't look at the guards and they didn't say anything to her as they gazed at, mostly, her mushroom cap, probably wondering if it was just some kind of fancy hat she wore.

When the others caught up and they were ushered inside Shiun was blown away! ... By how boring it looked. Sure, there were a lot of people buzzing around, quite a lot of them ninja even! And sure, intellectually, Shiun understood on some level that part of the actual job of being a ninja was organization and coordination, but looking around all she saw was bureaucracy! Where were the people walking in the ceiling!? Where was the jutsu designed to make paper work less tedious!? Why weren't people proofing in and out of existence in puffs of smoke to get to places!? Where was the totally not weird in any way at all shirtless Shinobi of her fantasies doing important worldly work from a central hub like this!?

This was the first of what would undoubtedly be many, many signs that something was wrong with her world view to Shiun. Here she was in an actual ninja village at the (presumedly) central hive of what must have been ninja activity, and it was nothing like what she imagined. She could have found red tape like this back at home! Not Tea home, but Gold! Southern Gold, where less than a decade ago people were living in huts made out of grass and mud bricks!! Where was... All of the advancement that she had been told that Aimi Kaguya had promised?

Never the least she was observant. Quiet. Watchful. Suzuko didn't notice, and Akihiko DEFINITELY wouldn't have, but the trio were in fact accruing a lot of stares, namely from the one following behind them, Shiun. There wasn't a single person in that office that had ever seen a Kinoko before in much the same way that the Akibushi had never seen how an organized operation of ninjas worked on the surface - the curiosity was undeniable and the looks were unavoidable. Shiun ignored them as best as she could, looking away when she met someone else's eye. Thankfully there was plenty of interesting things for her to look at. Suzuko was certainly right about her obsession with all things ninja keeping her engaged despite the disappointments of the day thus far.

Never the less, as the trio made their way upstairs, Shiun was uncharacteristically quiet. It really would take seeing some cool, flashy, exactly-the-kind-of-fancy-jutsu-that-samurai-liked-to-progagandize-about to break her out of the small funk she had found herself in without realizing it. This confusion was new to her and in her introspection, she was quiet.

[Texas]

Although the trio was near the Raikage's office he could feel the energy in the trio shifting. What could Akihiko do to spice things up before disappointing them more...

Instead of a light, a popcorn kernel popped and an idea exploded in his mind. As they got to the hallway, it was clear that his Silhouette had caused some.. speculation. The coincidence of something happening out of the ordinary and then Akihiko entering the area... was as simple as putting the circle block in the triangle hole. With that being said the boy could see that the three shinobi that were simply doing their rounds had their eye right on him. This was a perfect opportunity for a detour. Maybe they could tackle more than one thing at a time with this fun and potentially disappointing detour. But then again, the setup to every plot was never as good as the climax.

The pink haired child nodded to the guards who were all men. He remarked "Gentle-Ladies" as he nodded with... respect? When they got through the hallway and took a left around the corner Akihiko finally spoke up. "Since we have a little time to kill, Suzuko, this is the hub for everything." Akihiko used all single digit brain cells he had to use his memories of explanations that his teacher gave him when he was on a tour in his academy days. "Academy Student's main missions are to learn, grow, and figure out what they are good at. When they specialize in it, they then can try to get stronger in that field. So Genin, such as yours truly," he would arch his hand and place his fingers on his chest like he was royalty, "mainly go on minor missions, but they do help with adapting our skills before we go out into the world as higher ranking ninja." As they walked down the last part of the turn, they would enter into a giant hub like space. Well giant to Akihiko. It was the mission central area.

The boy would continue this part of the tour by speaking up, trying to entertain Shiun as well. However, if he could just keep them there for a few more minutes, then he can try to toss them into the limbo realm and bring them to the Raikage's office.

"So as you can see this is one of the many places that people can get missions. Not only that, they turn them in here too." The child would move his right hand and dramatically raise it out to make sure they saw all of this. At this point in the day, it was rather busy. Different walks of life, shinobi in different garbs, gowns, and sizes were around. Some taller, some shorter, some fully masked up and mysterious, some in full traditional uniforms, it was a smorgasbord of characters. The boy would use that moment to attempt to step backward, like a pivot, and be in-between his new found friends. Using both arms, he would swing them back and gently land his hands on the back of both girls. If he was successful in contact, then the preparation was good, ready to go. "What do you guys think? Shiun? Kind of cool right?"

Jutsu UsedShow

oocShow

Side Note: I put the wrong version of this on my app it will be fixed to just Passive touch. Full bodies can go through

1st Layer • Passive Touch
E-Rank Ninjutsu
Due to extreme exposure within the Limbo Realm, Akihiko as a slight bit of chakra located on his hands and feet. When touching an inanimate object (or inorganic), Akihiko leaves a slight signature on it. This allows throwables, weapons, and other items to pass through the Limbo realm 1st Layer.

[Nick]

Leave it to Suzuko to be more interested in the bureaucracy of a ninja village than anything interesting that the ninja might have actually been doing. Sure, she probably shouldn't have been allowed here, and she might have caught a glimpse or two at a document that maybe she shouldn't have, but all that didn't really matter near as much as she got to see the process of things! Her eyes sparkled in wonder and amazement at the prospect of the controlled chaos before her that seemed so much more personal, direct, and clear than anything she'd experienced in her own life.

She didn't get to make many decisions in her life, and while she didn't inherently mind that, the decisions that were made for her seemed somewhat random with no real structure to them. Internally, Suzuko resolved that once she was no longer under anyone's guardianship she would find ways to make things make more sense and be more planned and structured. That probably meant murdering Akihiko at some point. Nobody needed to worry about that, for now, as a world of order and peace was nowhere near available for any of them, given the war torn landscape the three were born into.

All this distraction to say that Suzuko couldn't pull herself away fast enough to avoid being patted on the back by Akihiko, and felt a shiver run up her spine as he did so. She shuddered visibly, and turned her whole body awkwardly to try and look at her back unsuccessfully, halfway convinced that the boy might have stuck a 'kick me' sign on her back or something equally silly. "Euch." She euch'd, making a face and stepping away to turn and face Akihiko. "I kinda like it here, I feel like... Everyone kinda knows what they're doing." She said, fully unaware of the fact that nearly nobody in their entire lives ever figured out what they were doing. "Where's this stupid ninja pouch of yours, anyway?"

[Golnax]

Now this was a bit more like it! Sure, there wasn't a whole lot of flashy stuff going on, but man, just look at the number of ninja in there! Big ones, little ones, young ones like her, old and grizzled ones! There were some in masks which meant they were a part of the village ANBU (she didn't know that ANBU was an organization specific to Konoha, or if she did she had forgotten in the moment), super cool, and others were just as flamboyantly dressed as she was! Most impressive of all, though, were the numbers.

Frankly the amount of ninja that were there was shocking! Were there really so many jobs to be done by ninja in and around Kumogakure that this was the normal amount to be here? Were the ninja so helpful to them and theirs that they were constantly being requested for aid for various things all the time!? That... Was... So... Coooool!

Shiun's demeanor seemed to sparkle slightly as she imagined ninjas of various shapes and sizes doing all sorts of things from walking dogs while walking along the side of a building to protecting the Daimyo of Lightning, stopping espionage efforts from the likes of Kirigakure (a future stop in the Program) or fighting off bandits with ration style ninjutsu! Somewhere in all of this fantasizing was a comparison to her idol. She wondered if these ninja, if they ever became powerful enough, would go on to shape nations and lead the world into a better future...

All this imagining let Akihiko touch her without resistance. She didn't even notice, frankly, lost as she was in her own thoughts and daydreams. She really was just kind of glowing as she let her imagination run wild at all of the possibilities! She wondered what kind of jobs were posted! In Heart the standard procedure was to receive instructions via scroll from higher up the chain of command the instant you were found by whoever was delivering them, then you had to go do it and fulfill your contract. If you were really special or the contract was extra important you might receive a summons instead to show up at a specific time and place to receive your orders in person where it was less likely that the information could be spied upon because of extra security. Samurai didn't have the freedom to pick and choose jobs as they pleased; they simply did as they were ordered, with honor and valor, no matter what, on pain of disgrace at best, death at worst.

Shiun started to wander over to the job board. She wanted to see what ninja could do in service to their village herself!

[Texas]

Lets call it how it is.. Shiun stuck out like a purple mushroom in a busy room. Akihiko saw some people start to notice, this was doing the opposite of what he wanted. In truth, the boy was trying to get them out of the eye of the guards in the hallway. Since both of the girls were tagged, the boy knew that he could set the ground work for making them disappear.

Akihiko smiled super awkwardly. So awkward he couldn't hide his ill intent. It was nothing like putting a hay in a needle stack to pin point his direction. With poorly worded and ill working phrases aside, Akihiko spoke to Suzuko while looking at Shiun wondering off. "Well I mean, we passed the room, I wanted to show you guys here first ha ha ha." The child would turn towards the hallway and attempt to weave a few hand signs as fast as possible. Once again, nothing would happen to Suzuko or anyone who witnessed what he was doing.

What emerged was a portal crack that allowed entrance to Akihiko and those tagged into the second layer of the limbo realm. It took up the corner around the hallway, so when they would walk in eventually, they would stealthy enter a realm. But first... they had to get Shiun. He spoke to Suzuko to help him with their purple headed friend. "Lets go get Shiun first, don't want to get in trouble for wondering out here." Would Suzuko believe Aki? Probably not... but would she at least follow along... honestly who knows.

What Akihiko did know was that maybe he would be able to impress Shiun and maybe he would pull off the greatest prank of all time with his new best friends for life.

Jutsu UsedShow

2nd Layer • Full Entrance
C-Rank Ninjutsu
By channeling chakra or weaving the proper hand signs, Akihiko focused on creating a crack in the Present Realm a few feet larger than himself. This entrance allows Aki's full body to enter into the 2nd Layer of the Limbo Realm. Aki can stay within the Limbo Realm for [Control/2]. To leave the limbo realm the user must move himself through the same place the jutsu was cast, run out of chakra forcing himself out, or using the [1st Layer • Exit] technique.

[Nick]

Suzuko was so lost in her own exploration of the place, that she hadn't quite noticed that Shiun had wandered off without them to go look at something else, until Akihiko said something. She felt a little grossed out that Akihiko would notice something that she didn't as if she was losing her touch or something like that. She made a little "Tsk." noise with her mouth rather than grace him with a real answer. For a moment, she considered leaving Shiun to her devices where she'd find interest in the mundane, and probably have as much fun without the other two as with... But then she realized she wanted to hang out with her friend, and she would never let Suzuko hear the end of it if she got herself lost again like at the festival.

The young girl from Heart turned around to get eyes on the mushroom-headed doofus, gently bumping into a senior ninja who had been trying to walk past her. Her face immediately got red, and sweat started to form the instant she realized what had happened, and the man's age likely indicated a rank much higher than her own. "Sorry!" She said, refusing to meet the gaze of the ninja, bowing her head, and looking humble for probably the first time that Akihiko had seen. The man laughed it off and continued on his path, and the breath that she'd been holding finally came out in a sigh as she wiped the sweat from her forehead. "Shiun!" She called, not too far from her friend. "Stop trying to get lost!"

The mission board she was looking at would likely be mostly full of D rank missions for mentors to take to their students, little things of community service, similar to things the school assigned to the students of Heart. The similarities between the two wouldn't be lost on Suzuko, but she wondered if Shiun would see them as suddenly much cooler and more interesting when it was put on the veil of ninja doing it. Ninja weed picking technique! Ninja Dog-walker extraordinaire! Shinobi deluxe construction effort! The thought of it made Suzuko blanch, imagining her companion in a headband doing all the same normal day-to-day tasks they did already.

[Golnax]

Shiun walked up to the notice board and wasn't stopped by anyone. She didn't notice the looks she was gettin, and boy, was she getting looks! Everyone in this room that didn't know Shiun had never seen a Kinoko before so they were all picking up on, observant as they were from their training, the many peculiarities about the young girl. Her height, the color of her skin, the mushroom on her head, the smell the mushroom was giving off, the color (or lack there of) of her eyes. It all added up to paint quite a unique and foreign picture. There was no question that she wasn't from there, but the trouble was none of them knew where she was at! Heart samurai weren't required to wear identifying equipment like a headband after all. The closest they got were the wooden dog tags they were assigned once they got to the rank above Akibushi, but even those weren't openly displayed. To them, she was just an odd girl walking up to the job postings.

Once she was there and she looked over the details of each piece of hanging paper she was struck with a sudden... disillusionment. Suzuko was correct in her assessment, the jobs posted were all listings for things that were every day activities. Day to day chores that could be completed in any number of mundane ways. There were some higher ranked missions, B rank to be exact, but their details were vague and non descript. Generalizations to hide the sensitive information that the mission itself initialed no doubt. This wasn't what she was disillusioned by, however. What she was disillusioned by was trying to imagine Aimi Kaguya doing work like this. She... she couldn't picture it. Finding a lost necklace? Babysitting for a couple of days? Refereeing for a game for children...? Could such a legendary, fearsome shinobi have really gotten his start doing odd jobs like this? Weren't Kirigakure shinobi supposed to be all blood thirsty killers? Did they have to start off their careers as ninja doing stuff like this too...?

She just couldn't imagine it for the life of her!

Thankfully her imagination was interrupted by Suzuko calling out to her, making Shiun jump on the spot, startled as she was, and whip around with her braided hair fanning out to glare at Suzuko, immediately picking up on the insinuation that she had purposefully gotten lost during the festival! Ohoho, she'd heard that tone alright! "I am NOT trying to get lost!" Shiun responded in a shrill tone, teeth grit together as she practically spat the words out at Suzuko. She marched back over towards her friend and Akihiko, her thoughts on the job board successfully banished from her mind.

"Well? Come on, you two! Don't you be lingering!" turning it back on the two of them as the reason why they were still in there as she marched out of the room and into the hall. Of course she was just embarrassed that she'd spaced out like that and almost gotten lost again, but her gut reaction was to be a bit aggressive towards them rather than admit that to herself. She already felt silly enough at having to shed some of her layers of clothing, and now she was really feeling hot under the collar and the temptation to take off her puffy jacket was rising!

[Texas]

Pink hair bobbing, Akihiko couldn't help but laugh at the two Neanderthal girls. It was almost like it was their first time seeing shinobi! Ummm hello they knew a pretty incredible Genin right here?!?!? Regardless of ego, Aki couldn't help but laugh and snicker at the two trying to refocus and go back the way they came. Between Suzuko blushing at a taller shinobi and Shiun acting like it was her idea to leave, it brought joy to see these girls flustered. After the laughing had settled, Aki re-adjusted and straightened his posture. What the two didn't know was that there was a surprise waiting for them around the corner.

The boy had took the steps to ensure that they would sneakily be able to enter the Raikage's office. Not only were they both "tagged" which was just a very small trace of his chakra on them, but there was an invisible portal to the 2nd layer of the Limbo Realm. Aki would follow behind them and simply mention "yeah we are going to walk back to the hall, you guys are going the right way." The boy tried to be somewhat serious to not arouse suspicion but did it actually cause suspicion due to him not making a jab or saying anything weird? The inner rat maze within Aki's head couldn't fatham what to do, so he just went along with his natural instincts and trailed the 2 girls.

When they turned the corner and would look down the hall there would be a couple of shinobi walking away from them, so their backs were turned. Unbeknownst to them, there was a portal right as they would start walking into the hallway. When the girls would eventually step forward, leading with Aki trailing, the entire space they knew would change completely. Upon entering, the color of everything would turn white along with it being outlined. Within Limbo it had looked like they lived in a black and white cartoon that had yet to be colored in.

What they didn't realize either is that because they were in the 2nd Realm, no one else could hear them within the space. The child host shouted after they entered "SURPRISE! See you guys thought I couldn't do anything, but now I bet you are probably impressed. I told you I am the greatest ninja this village has ever seen! Now lets head to the Raikage's office!" He never said that to them. Although he always thinks it, the boy didn't verbalize that to these girls and the peanut brain that made his body function didn't realize it either.

The goal was to get to the Raikage's office, but there were guards. If the girls tried to be sneaky it would be successful because they couldn't hear them. However, if for any reason any of them got clumsy and fell into the guards, they would fall right through and just land on the ground. In the 2nd layer they couldn't touch or harm anyone but the people within it. If they did make it to the Raikage's office, the door would be locked.

[Nick]

Suzuko rolled her eyes at Shiun, but couldn't hold back a giggle as she chided them as if they were the ones that had gotten separated and lost... again. She walked backwards to chat at Shiun while following Akihiko, which meant she had no indication she was walking into anything at all when suddenly the world turned black and white. She closed her eyes for a moment and let out a sigh, bringing both hands up to her temples to rub them gently as Akihiko's prank came to its midpoint, the finale still unclear.

"Akihiko, it's great that you can do genjutsu, but this really isn't the place for it." She said, turning back around to face him, clearly not fully understanding the situation, bringing her hands down from her temples to a single handseal to attempt to kai out of the suspected genjutsu. She felt the expulsion of chakra that indicated the kai went through her body, but nothing changed as she looked around, still unclear as one hand landed on her hip.

She briefly considered that he'd managed to cast a genjutsu she wasn't strong enough to break out of, but then realized first that Akihiko doing anything that impressive was unlikely, and secondly that nobody else besides her and Shiun seemed to be affected. With how genjutsu worked, Akihiko would have needed to hit them with some kind of trigger that would have only affected them. His offensive existence seemed unlikely to affect only them out of all the variety of people here, and he hadn't touched either of them just now which would have been the easiest way to trigger a genjutsu against only them.

She didn't correct herself about it not being a genjutsu, because that would have been embarrassing, and instead waited for Akihiko to spill the beans about it, because he probably couldn't help himself from spilling secrets, knowing him. Even if he did hold back, she didn't want to give away her confusion on the strange ability he was showing off, still managing to avoid people in the hall for now, even if it seemed like they'd suddenly gotten a lot ruder and tried to walk right into her, making her get out of the way instead of meeting her half way!

As they reached the door to the Raikage's office, she would fold her arms over her chest in a pouty, sassy fashion. Fukuro-Kun had [deft hands] AND a set of lockpicks that would probably make short work of most doors, assuming it wasn't magically sealed with fuuin, but she wasn't going to bring that up, even if the mischievous side of her was starting to get a little interested in being in there. "Your pouch better be behind that door, and that door better not be locked." She said, tapping her foot expectently, not understanding it was the Kage's personal office either. "I'm starting to think you did all of this just to show off your stupid genjutsu!"