"Whoa, where are we?" Rose said, looking around. The others looked around, too. None of them could tell where in the Narutoverse they were. Then it hit Rose. Literally. A small rock landed on her head and she looked up and saw a cliff. She gasped.
"What?" Hanna asked, very worried. "What's wrong?" The others had started to get up.
"Everyone, hide your animal parts, we're in the Cloud." They stared at her, confused, then they remembered the last ten or so episodes they watched. The Cloud. Home of the Raikage. Uh oh.
"Should we... Leave?" Kathy asked.
"No." Was the reply. "We don't know when this is. It's possible they'll welcome us."
"Just be careful of the Raikage." Kathy put in. The others nodded. They all hid their animal parts best they could and headed up the cliff.
When they got to the top they looked down unto more rocks of all shapes and sizes. Rose looked around.
"Sandy..." She didn't even have to finish. Sandy nodded and spread her wings, then flew up into the air. Rose turned to the others. They took this time to get ready. Rose pulled out the scroll and summoned their weapons. She gave Kathy her scrolls containing all sorts of kunai and shuriken, she attached her Wolf Blade to herself, she gave Hanna her scroll filled with potions and poisons, she gave Cat her Twin Blades which she attached onto herself, she gave Jessie her scroll holding her explosive kunai chain, and she left Sandy's Katana in the scroll to give to her.
Cat and Rose practiced concealing their blades in their chakra, Cat causing her blades to radiate lightning, and Rose causing hers to flare with fire. The others practiced their Taijutsu. Rose quickly put her blade away and walked over to Kathy. They hadn't been able to hone their Genjutsu skills while away. Hanna volunteered herself to be the one to be practiced on.
Sandy got back quite a bit later. She informed everyone where the village was and they started towards it. They took every step with caution, and when nearing, Rose told them that they should hide their weapons in their scrolls. Upon getting there, they encountered a couple people with cloud headbands. They were stopped and questioned.
"Who are you? Where are you from?" One of the ninja asked.
"We're wanderers." Rose said, being the group leader once again. "We've been wandering around from place to place for a while now, and since we were tired, and this village was nearby, we decided to try our luck to stay here and rest. If it was possible." The cloud ninja looked at each other warily, then the one from before spoke again.
"Well, normally we would bring you to the Raikage, but he's in the-" one of the others jabbed him in the shoulder, apparently trying to tell him to shut up. They were hiding that the Raikage was not there. That was an easy read for the NPS.
"The..." Sandy said, motioning for him to continue. Rose stepped on her foot.
"If they don't want to tell us, that's fine. We've been not let into villages before." She said.
"No. It's fine." The ninja said, looking at his partners for complaint. "If you just tell us where you girls are from, I bet we can let you in, with someone to make sure you stick to the rules. Now-" 'Someone to make sure you stick to the rules' literally translated to: 'You will be watched 24/7 by some of our ninja to make sure you aren't doing anything we should be concerned about, like, say, killing people or stealing.' "you and your friends come with us, while you tell us your names and the villages you are from." They looked at Rose for this one. She had these things covered.
"Well, my name is Reiki. And this is Chi, Tsuke, Ame, Sen, and Ichi." She waved her hands over the others as she said their names. "I am from no village. I grew up a wanderer, my family and I travelled around a lot. One night I was out getting firewood to restart the fire because I couldn't get any sleep. Everyone else was asleep, but not me. When I got back, everyone was dead. Killed by rouge ninja. They would've killed me too if I hadn't been out getting firewood.
"Chi I found in a wagon wreckage years ago. She had lost her memory of everything, so I took her in with me. Ichi was also there, but she was too young to remember anything. If not for her crying and Je-I mean Chi's sister bond's, I wouldn't have found her. I found out they were sisters after Ichi called Chi 'sis' a couple times.
"Tsuke is another wanderer. I had joined up with her and her family for the moment, we had a nice chat, then I left. Minutes later I found Tsuke following me. She said they abused her and hated her, but I wasn't sure. I still let her join me.
"Ame is from the Hidden Rain. She was working in a store to provide food for the orphanage she and some others lived in. I got families for all but three of the kids and her. I let her come with me after she saved my life as I was leaving. Long story. Don't ask, please.
"Sen we found half dead in an abandoned village. She claimed to have killed everyone herself out of rage. I doubt it." Rose got jabbed by Sandy. "Then again, she does have a nasty sense of 'I'm gonna kill you' radiating off of her like sweat. If you get to know her. But that personality has saved us several times."
"Hmm..." The man was pondering what Rose said. "Well, I can't say I believe all that until proven, but here." He opened a door to a small, but not too small, house. That entire time Rose had been talking, they were walking through the village. And Rose was too busy finding out some back- stories for them while walking to notice, least of all look around. The house was small, empty, but nice. But they definitely didn't have enough money to buy it. They did return home from last time with two times the amount of money than they brought, but they only brought the extra sixty dollars, ten per person in their group, this time. And that definitely wasn't enough to buy this place. Let alone the furniture. They'd need triple the amount to buy the place, than even more to get the stuff to live there. Rose explained this to the Cloud nin.
"Well, if you're just staying here for a bit, I bet all you really need is a couple beds and jobs to get food." The others nodded in agreement. "We can help with the jobs."