The Otokage's Travelling Party [Private]

[The Creator]

[Enter]

Shouta truly did despise the sound of laughing. Too often did he believe that he himself the target of laughter, even on occasions when such a deduction was a ridiculous one. And now he knew, for a fact, that he was the butt of this particular joke (or, whatever this little girl found funny). Becoming angry, at this point, was not going to solve the matter. Instead Shouta felt a sense of helplessness come onto him. For the moment, he was truly powerless. To try and usurp any sort of control over the situation would have long-term consequences much greater than the ones of the current moment. Shouta knew the only other option was to run away, perhaps in the night, and escape the life of a ninja. But even that, too, had implications that Shouta did not wish to consider. He enjoyed the perks of being an Otogakure genin, although it did come with its costs.

The most simple response that Shouta could consider was simply attempting to ignore the Otokage. So far she had been nothing but disaster. Shouta had spent the small time with her trying to poke at her defenses but that too only led to disaster. In theory his approach was sound but Shouta had problems executing his approach. What Shouta did not account for was his being flustered by social interactions. Such emotions tied up his thoughts and led him away from his plans and more into rather ridiculous snap-decisions.  The Otokage would speak some more but Shouta had already wrapped himself up in his thoughts.

Travelling this way was not ideal; it led him wide open. But he considered that and still found this route to be an easier one for him.

[Vara]

Shouta was playing a mute. That bored Bree, but she wasn't one to nudge a person when they had their dream worlds to mind. Instead, she strolled along with the bundle of dark clothes. A mellow hum played through her lips. She picked a few leaves out of the thickets along the path. Just in case they were poisoned, she made sure to cleanse each one with a rush of her chakra.

There wasn't much reason to it. Her mind wandered when she was bored, as people expected from youth. To act without reason was a path to its own discoveries.

"I do hope your shade won't have a problem catching up to us," said Bree. "Away from the gate, without trackers or tracers. Like a lost puppy."

Bree slipped the leaves into her sleeve. She twirled on every forth step while she walked, like a dance to accompany her tune. A subdued glow swirled at the surface of her skin to ease the coming of fatigue. She could walk for a long while.

[The Creator]

At heart, Shouta loved the thrill of a puzzle. Truly all minds made puzzles out of whatever they saw; all things could become puzzles through the pair of eyes which looked upon them, the machinations of such an obscure world were often puzzles in the mind of such an ignorant mortal. Yet, as he considered it, even the Immortal saw the world in puzzles. He could not imagine a Perfect Mind.

Shouta was afraid of many things, but puzzles were not one of them. Some people saw them as a challenge, which could be considered to be a frightening affair. Not so much the challenge itself but the implications of failure. You see, even the word "failure" held such a negative connotation in the public eye that the possibility of being capable of such a thing could be greeted with fear. That was perhaps a defining trait of Shouta, to not be afraid of the implications of failure, and when one sat before him he was wont to pick and prod at it until he began to discover the patterns that lay within. As he walked, he turned and saw the powerful Otokage, a dangerous puzzle, but a puzzle nonetheless. He began to turn over in his mind the way that he had approached it before, the failings that he had encountered. He had been too challenging, as he often was with puzzles. A defiance of the air of authority that they held was at the root of it; a contest against their compelling existence.

A pattern revealed in a puzzle either presented a new challenge or it provided an insight. As the Otokage walked along in her rhythmic fashion (they are tendencies, rituals bound in blood, engraved in the mind, seared in the soul. They tell us nothing about the motives of the mind but give glimpses to the past. Humans seek protection from the challenges of the world and redemption from their failures, and thus these tendencies are born.), she picked at leaves and discarded them. Perhaps she held a reverence for nature, perhaps she held the opposite.

When she spoke, Shouta thought that she spoke idly. She was playing with her own puzzle, he knew, a puzzle that was him. She poked and prodded at it in her own way, revealing, perhaps unconsciously, the nature in which she approached them. He saw her hand slip into her sleeve and a leaf disappear within it. She was saving them, for whatever reason.

Yes, his clone could perhaps become lost, but he didn't think so. The path they traveled wasn't one that was hidden within the forest nor one hardly tread upon. Shouta had not seen many forks in the road, and the ones he did led to less-known paths, ones that would not lead to any places of importance. But, perhaps, simply as a formality, he would response to address her concern. Whether she meant it as a concern or not it did not matter, to address it as such was an implication in and of itself.

"I will not become lost. Do not worry, Lady Otokage."

Formality was a ritual in itself. Let her play in those waters, it was not the sea upon which Shouta was sailing.  As he spoke he turned to speak at her, and saw that she was not deviating from her original behavior.  Her eyes were not fixed upon him so Shouta did not believe her mind to be actively fixed on him.  But in the back of her mind, he knew, she was laying out all the pieces, seeing what fit where, sliding the tiles hither and about.  Nobody could resist a good puzzle, and Shouta knew that he could boast that he was a great puzzle indeed.

[The Creator]

OOC

Gonna go ahead and put this on hold.

[Exit]

[Vara]

<Exit>