Toto on a Stroll

[Aimi Kaguya]

They say the number one killer of retired people is boredom. Toto wonders at times if it is possible for someone of his age and state, having an occupation, to die of this disease known as boredom. It seems like it at times. This was one of those times. He was sitting along the river bank of Kirigakure with his legs crossed and his hands folded in front of his chest under his white cloak. The smile that was normally present under his brow was absent, as he had no one to smile to or nothing to smile about. His puppet and friend sat beside him, mimicking his expression and position by sitting cross legged and folding his arms in front of his wooden chest. Of course, being that his arms were much longer than average, his arms fell behind him and almost touched the ground, giving him a bit of a comical look to go along with his normally jester like face. Toto looked out over the water with his steely green eyes. Thorn looked out over the water with his wooden eyes.

Toto turned his head slowly to Thorn. Thorn slowly turned his head to Toto. As Thorn moved his head, Toto moved his left thumb around in a circle, allowing for Thorn's head movement. For a minute or so, the two looked at each other. Just looked. Finally, after a minute or two of just looking at each other, Toto said aloud to Thorn, "This mist is dreadfully thick today."

Thorn tiled his head to the right, at the movement of Toto's thumb to the left, and the two continued to look at each other. There was a few seconds silence between the two. "I know it's thick everyday," Toto said, responding to what Thorn had "said" just a moment ago, "but today seems to be especially thick, that's all I'm saying." Toto turned back out to the water. Thorn, at the movement of Toto's thumb, did the same. For another full minute or more there was silence between the two.

Suddenly, Toto turned to Thorn, a look of alarm on his face. "Thorn! How could you say such a thing? They've done nothing to us." Thorn turned his head, at the gesture of Toto's thumb once more, and his mouth fell open, a sort of grin appearing on his jester-like lips. "I never said it wouldn't be fun," Toto said. "In fact I think it would be just the thing we need to cure this damned boredom. But still, there's not a reason in the world for us to pick on the brand new Gennin, let alone try to maim them!" Thorn, at the whim of Toto's index and pinkie fingers, lifted his shoulders in a sort of awkward shrug. Toto sighed and turned back out towards the water. Thorn's mouth closed with a snap and he did the same.

For another couple of minutes they sat in silence, watching the water flow past quietly. Next to the river, the mist was the thickest. Thinking back, Toto assumed the river was to blame for all of the mist. He wondered if it was possible to move the river somewhere else so that he could see things clearly for once... or maybe that was meant to be metaphorical without him realizing it. He was bored, bored out of his skull, and yet he had nothing to do. At least he had nothing of any especial urge to do. He supposed he could go train his taijutsu, but that seemed like such a tireless thing to do on a day as nice as this. Toto turned his head to Thorn once more, Thorn, in turn, at the command of Toto's thumb, turned his head towards Toto. "You still don't have a voice do you?" Toto asked Thorn. Thorn shook his head, Toto waving his thumb back and forth to simulate this gesture. "Perhaps it's time that you got a voice? Maybe then we'll make am ore effective two man choir." As if this really excited Thorn, his jaw dropped. Toto smiled down at his puppet and his friend and stood up. Thorn did not stand up but his head leaned back, following Toto's movements.

"How would you like to go into town? We can take a walk and pester the young-lings," Toto offered. Thorn, in response, at the command of Toto's Hand moving to orchestrate his movements, stood up next to Toto and seemed to dust himself off before his jaw closed. Toto smiled at his puppet and turned away from the river. Thorn did the same. "Come Thorn, we're in need of a walk. This continually changing scene of a river is too hard to keep up with anyways," Toto said to Thorn as he walked away from the river, heading for town. Thorn followed a couple of steps behind Toto, commanded by Toto's middle and ring fingers of his left hand. Together, the two headed into town to try and find something a bit more interesting to gaze at than the river... If nothing could be found, Toto had resigned to giving Thorn a voice at last.

[Aimi Kaguya]

Toto and Thorn walked through the streets of the village as they had done several hundreds of times in the past. Toto's hands were in his pockets, his left still controlling Thorn, and Thorn was swaying his arms back and forth with each step. They were walking in the middle of the street, side stepping anyone or anything that got in their way. At one point, a cart had fallen over in the street and its contents were scattered everywhere. Toto, seeing this, saw a golden opportunity. Taking a few steps a head of Thorn, Toto stepped onto some of the contents of the cart. Looking around, he didn't see the owner of the fallen cart, so he continue don his way, stepping on whatever got in his way. Thorn, meanwhile, followed after him, jumping over the things that he couldn't simply step over, such as the cart it self.

"Thorn, do you feel like we're bastards?" Toto asked Thorn, looking down at his puppet and friend as the owner of the cart appeared and shouted out insults at Toto and Thorn. Thorn looked up at Toto and leaned his head to the side. "Well, it's just that, we walked over that poor person's cart without any remorse! don't you think we should have stopped and helped him? It wouldn't have taken more than a few minutes to do, I'm sure..." Toto looked down at Thorn, waiting for his "answer" as they walked through the street. For a few seconds, the two were silent. Toto's grin grew and the gleam in his eyes thickened. "You're right, we are bastards!"

Just then, as Toto was conversing with Thorn, someone came a long and bumped into Toto's left side, causing him to lose his concentration and therefore make Thorn stumble. The uttered a quick apology and made to move on.
"Where exactly do you think you're going?" Toto asked the person. The smile was still on his face, but the cheerful gleam that was in his eyes had now all but vanished. "You just made my friend stumble and you didn't even apologize about it. You apologized to me but not to him. That is extremely, extremely, rude."

Toto turned around on the spot and lunged forward, his hands outstretched and the smile still barely there upon his lips. Toto tackled the person who had bumped into him to the ground and pinned them there. They were younger than he was, though by how much he couldn't say. Toto moved their arms behind their back and held them down with one of his knees, while using his left hand to hold their neck down to the ground. He lifted his right hand into the air and brought his fist smashing down onto the ground next to their head. They were squirming and crying out to not hurt them, it was rather annoying and giving Toto a headache. Had he any real intentions to hurt this child, he would have already done it.

"Shut up! Do what I tell you and I'll leave here with little more than dirt on your clothes!" Toto leaned his head forward so that he could whisper into the child's ear, to make sure they could hear him. The smile was completely gone from his lips now. "You bumped into me and my friend. You apologized to me but not to him, why is that?" They offered up some excuse about not seeing that they had bumped into them. "Well you sure as hell see it now! Tell Thorn that you're sorry, and mean it." Whimpering, the child apologized to Thorn several times. When Toto was satisfied, he uttered a curt word of stop and said, "Never forget this, because others might not be as forgiving as I'm feeling today. Always apologize for the mistakes you've made," he said, pushing their head into the ground and getting up off of them. "Always."

The child ran off, Toto no longer cared about them. What he cared about now was Thorn, who had fallen and slumped over in the commotion. Toto walked over to him, bent over him, and lifted his head up so that he was looking at his wooden face. "I hope you're okay friend..." Toto smiled down at Thorn, stood up and said, "Come on, I know you're not hurt or anything, so let's continue our walk." Without another word, Toto began walking forward. Thorn, a few steps later, picked himself up and rushed to catch up with Toto. Once he was there, Toto said, "You know, if you had a voice you could have told that person off on your own, you wouldn't have needed me." Toto looked at Thorn and Thorn looked at Toto. Sighing, Toto said, "It's about time you had a voice of your own, isn't it? Come on, I'll take you somewhere we can work on it..."

[temporary exit]