Waterfall, Ahoy! {Closed; Travel}

[Aito]

((I was told to just do a little NPC thing to get permission to leave, so...))

"Damnit!" Aito slammed his hand against the wooden desk, "I need to go to Waterfall!"

"I'm sorry, but it's much to dangerous to go alo-"

"Dangerous? I'm a shinobi, my life is dangerous!"

"I'm sorry bu-"

Aito stalked outside, angry. It wasn't visible, however, he seemed calm and quite tranquil. He sighed, Can't go alone? He cursed, "Chikuso..."

Calloused fingers ran through thin, black hair in frustration. He stalked towards home, now letting his calm demeanor diminish. Kuroitsuki clanked noisily at his side as he somewhat recklessly stomped along the rocky path.

He needed to find someone to go with him to Waterfall...

[Gunzou Masahiro]

Technically it was a bad thing. A thief had broken into the Gunzou clan vault and stole a very important scroll containing "Top Secret" experimental Jutsu the Gunzou had just developed. The good news was that Masa wasn't going to be punished because his mother was busy dealing with the situation.

The bad news was that he was the one assigned to go and catch the criminal and retrieve the scroll...which was a pain...All he knew was the culprit fled to the west somewhere. He asked the council...people if he could get permission to leave earlier, but they said that he needed someone to go with him because he was a Genin...which was a pain.

Then he noticed the swordsman from the day before sulking around the council...place. Masa waved him down and said, "Hey, what you hanging around here for? Lose your cat or something?"

[Aito]

"Tch..." Aito responded, turning towards the voice, "The bastards. Won't let me go to train in Waterfall unless someone is with me..." He sighed, 'cooling' himself down a little. He gazed fondly down at Kuroitsuki, before reverting his vision back up to Masa.

"So...What brings you here?" He wasn't about to ask someone to go to Waterfall so that he could train. Who knew how long he'd be there...He didn't need a chaperon, damnit!

[Gunzou Masahiro]

"Similar to you...I guess...some moron raided the family vault last night and made out with one of our experimental scrolls..." Masa scratched his head. He was feeling itchier than usual. He continued with his rant, "And I was assigned to go get it back. Apparently the culprit fled to the west."

"I came earlier to get permission to leave...but apparenlty I need someone to go with too..."

[Aito]

"To the West...?" Aito gawked, "Then..." Aito grinned, though didn't finish his statement. Masa would understand, and he wanted to make sure Masa would travel with him. It didn't seem like he very much wanted to go...

I'll finally be able to train in the Heaven Style...He thought, I do wonder what he is like, though...He only hoped 'he', the master he was to visit, wasn't an old asshole, like these people that wouldn't let him leave...

[Gunzou Masahiro]

"Well Waterfall is a pretty unruly place..." Masa caught on to what Aito was insinuating very quickly. He wasn't sure if he was i the zone, or he was just hungry...probably a bit of both would be the most likely. He began crack his knuckles as he tried to come up with an intelligent response that would be sort of funny.

He didn't come up with anything...at all. Regardless, he looked right back at Aito and responded, "Though this may put either one of us out of the way somewhat, this could be our only way out to the west...so, let's saddle up and smack a few council members around in the meantime eh?"

[Aito]

Aito nodded towards Masa, giving an internal sigh of relief. He would finally be able to set out to train...

He immediately turned around, and barged inside the office from which he emerged only minutes before. Slamming his hand down upon the desk, he grinned smugly, "There's two of us. Now give us permission!"

She raised an inquisitive eyebrow, "And this second person is...Where...?"

[Gunzou Masahiro]

"Right here madame!" Masa attempted to say that as sarcastically as possible. Though, unfortunately, it did not come out as he hoped. This person was the same person who rejected him before. She must have been a professional wench.

"I'm going to head off to the west with this guy right here...unless that's a problem ma'am?" Masa gave were a arrogant look as his grinned widened rapidly. He tried to hold back his ego, but it just pushed on out into the open.

[Aito]

The 'wench''s lip pursed out a bit, and she pushed her head forward on her shoulders, tilting it a bit while raising an eyebrow at Masa, "Mmhm...." She grunted, before standing straight, "Welp, I know bof yoah reasons..."

She looked down, filing through papers, before apparently finding what she was looking for, "Ah-huh...Mmhm...Ah...Oh, yeah, yeah...Mmh..." Aito looked at the woman awkwardly as she made several odd, grunt-like noises as she filled out a piece of paper.

"Heah, take this to the guawd's out front right deah." She said, handing Aito the paper, "Travel safeleh, naw, yaheah?"

"Ugh...Yeah..." Aito nodded, gladly taking the piece of paper and making his way outside.

[Gunzou Masahiro]

Masa followed Aito outside the building. He would have said something, but his ears were still damaged by improper grammar. After cleaning the blood out of his ear canals, Masa pulled out a magazine from his jacket and said, "I'm already packed up, so I'm ready when you are."

The magazine was some sort of home making magazine. Masa was getting some weird looks as he walked down the road next to Aito. He was ready to get this catch the thief game over with, he couldn't go back home until he was done anyway...

[Aito]

"Yeah...Let's go." Aito continued walking forward, never turning to view his company. It was only a short walk before the village gates were in full view, and even less from that point on until they met with the guards.

"Here." He stated simply, handing the guard the slip of paper. He nodded towards the two, and they were permitted to pass. With a single glance back to assure himself that Masa was following, he leapt into the trees, dodging in and out of branches on his way to the west- and to Waterfall.

[Gunzou Masahiro]

Masa didn't see the point of bounding around through the trees, but he followed anyway assuming he would lose Aito's trail if he didn't keep up the same pace. As he followed the swordsman away from the village, he paused for a moment as he felt a presence behind him. Without wasting any unnecessary movements, Masa quickly spun around and surveyed the area. He didn't see a thing.

Masa scratched his head and mumbled to himself, "Oh, that's wonderful...I think I'm starting to go nuts already..."

Without pausing to check again, he continued to follow Aito to the west.

[Aito]

They were a considerable distance from the village, now, before one of the two finally spoke. Aito reared his head backwards to gaze at Masa for a moment, before turning back towards his front, speaking,

"Nuts, eh? Why's tha-" Suddenly, Aito came to a quiet stop as a rattling in the leaves to his right aroused his attention. Turning back towards Masa, he nodded, hoping that Masa would understand that he understood what he meant...

As complicated as that sounded, Aito figured he would get the message. He slowly stalked towards the rustling, staying in a low, crouching position. His right hand instinctively went to Kuroitsuki at his side, ready to draw on a moment's call.

[Gunzou Masahiro]

Before Aito could continue, Masa lightly struck him on the back of his head. He sighed and said, "You moron, there's no one behind us, it was probably just a squirrel or something. Cool your jets and let's get moving. I want to get to the next town by nightfall."

Masa sprung off in the direction they were traveling. Even though he said there was no one following them, he wasn't quite convinced. He just figured whoever it was would never reveal themselves if they were noticed so easily. Playing a fool was most likely the best bet at this point.

[Aito]

Kuroitsuki was already a fourth of the way out of its sheath before Masa became the voice of 'reason'. Aito sighed, sheathing his blade fully, and turned to follow Masa.

Cool my jets...He thought, Yeah...Guess I'm just paranoid. With that, he caught up with Masa, not looking back to the spot, though his instincts told him to do otherwise...

[Gunzou Masahiro]

-----------------------------------------
Lo and behold, they didn't make it to the next village. Luckily they found a nice spot to camp out for the night. Masa was still pretty irritated though. He was planning on having a nice warm meal and sleeping in a cozy bed. Instead, his meal consisted of two squirrels they picked up and he was sleeping on the ground.

The only good news was that they had a blazing fire to keep them warm through the night. He made sure to booby trap the area around their campsite; Masa didn't want to even let an ant in. He turned to Aito and said, "Well this is wonderful...I guess we'll make it to the next town tomorrow..."

[Aito]

Aito sat quietly, his 'dinner' already devoured. His eyes darted about the area, watching his surroundings. He supposed he was still a bit paranoid...

Masa's voice jarred him from this state, and he looked at him without great deliberation, "Eh..." He grunted, " 'S not so bad..." He turned, patting the ground behind him, and fell backwards with his hands folded behind his head. Eyes open, he stared fondly through a small fracture in the canopy at the stars and sighed, "We'll be there soon..."

[Gunzou Masahiro]

"I suppose..." Masa scratched his head and continued, "I was hoping to pick up some supplies tomorrow. Besides some food and other basic stuff, what do you think we should get?"

Masa was just attempting to make conversation at this point, he was so bored. He had already finished all of the magazines in his coat running to this spot due to his skill to read and run at the same time without any problems. It was something that made him proud, though at this point it also gave him nothing to do at the time being.

[Aito]

Aito had closed his eyes as Masa was in mid-sentence. He cracked his right eye open to gaze down at Masa as he finished, "Eh? Supplies? Well...What do you need?"

At this point, a leaf had fallen from a tree above. It landed directly on Aito's nose, causing him to sneeze violently, jerking the leaf from its place against his face. He sat up, smacking at his nose in instinct, in order to rid himself of the annoying sensation it caused.

[Gunzou Masahiro]

Masa wondered for a moment. What did he need to get? Well, besides the basic necessities, it would probably be good for him to trade in his old magazines for new ones at this one shop he knew about. He didn't really care what he got, as long as it kept him occupied. Also, he should find some other survival materials...

He waited a bit before he responded, "Probably a bit more reading material...maybe some binoculars... or something like that...Anything you need or think we need?"