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Stormfront
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Kyko Pass, central Steppe Country, late afternoon…
"Alright, keep moving…"
Not for the first time, Heren regretted taking the main road back to Konoha. At the time, it had seemed like the only reasonable route. She was, after all, a lone wet-behind-the-ears Gennin in a foreign and somewhat exotic land. She was not adept at cutting across country, least of all through mountains. Besides, there had seemed no reason to leave the main road. She could let it guide her as she leapt through the forests beside it, and at night or during poor weather she could easily disguise herself as a peasant traveler and take shelter at the roadside inns.
The problem was that the road was being watched.
Heren caught wind of the situation while dining at one of the inns. As she stepped out afterwards, she caught a glimpse of another ninja leaping through the trees. The sighting had spooked Heren, and she had been walking along the road like a normal traveler ever since.
Still on the road, the Leaf ninja blew into her hands to relieve her tension. The situation had only gotten worse since then. A rainstorm had come up, dropping the temperature significantly and soaking the road. But more importantly, a checkpoint had been set up at the end of the pass. The gates, which had been open and unguarded when she had come through the pass a few days earlier, were now guarded by a pair of ninjas who were personally inspecting each traveler that passed by.
"Okay," called out one of the ninjas. "Next party. Move it along…"
When Heren arrived at the gate there was already a line of people waiting to pass through. She had yet to get a clear view of the ninjas doing the searching, but the other travelers informed her that they were from the Village of the Hidden Rain. Though there were only two ninjas visible, Heren knew there was a good chance that others were nearby, patrolling the road, or watching to see if anyone tried to slip past the posted sentries.
Heren anxiously rubbed her hands together. There were only a few people left in front of her.
"That took forever," complained the traveler being searched. "I hope you're not planning on doing this for long. I take this road three times a week, and I can't afford to waste a two hours each time!"
"Well, you're going to have to," suggested one of the ninjas, a male. "This was ordered by Chief Kazaki, personally. So until he tells us otherwise, we're staying here, and you're just going to have to wait in line."
"What a waste," the traveler repeated. "Why's he doing this to us…"
"For your own safety," the second ninja, a kunoichi, replied as she directed the traveler through the gate. "There is danger in the air. You wouldn't want any threats wandering around with no one to counter them, would you?"
The traveler grumbled as he disappeared into the rain beyond.
"You with the kids," said the male, addressing the next in line. "Come on up."
A woman with two children and a donkey pulling a cart walked up to the gate.
"Very dangerous," Heren heard the kunoichi mutter. "I'm glad we got assigned all the way out here. Could you imagine if—"
"Just check out the cart," cut off the boy.
Now first in line, Heren got a clear look at the two ninjas manning the checkpoint. Both were dressed in dark grey, held umbrellas over their shoulders, and almost blended into the rain. The male was the larger of the two, wore a straw hat with his forehead protector woven through it, and was asking the woman a series of questions. The kunoichi was grudgingly looking over the donkey and cart, wore a plain straw hat, and had strips of brown cloth sewn into her tunic, resembling misconstrued animal stripes.
The male ninja glanced at his teammate then nonchalantly shook his head. "Ah, you're fine," he told the woman, waving her past. "Next!"
Rubbing her hands together nervously, Heren stepped forward. She was still disguised as a peasant, and her forehead protector and weapons were safely tucked away in her pack, but they wouldn't escape a thorough search. Despite herself, Heren began to sweat.
"Name and reason for being on the road," the lead ninja casually prompted.
"A—Ara Ketell," Heren lied. "My grandparents live in Tarull and I—" Heren abruptly broke off, noticing the kunoichi was looking at her from the side. Glancing up, she caught her first look at the ninja's face. The woman's eyes were yellow, with a narrow black slit for an iris. Heren inadvertently gasped.
"She doesn't look right," the kunoichi muttered to her teammate. "She's—"
A more experienced ninja could still have bluffed their way out of such a situation, but Heren was inexperienced, and on edge. Before the kunoichi finished her observation, Heren attacked. Letting chakra flow to her hands, she activated the ninjitsu technique she had subtly started when she first got in line. The leaf ninja thrust her arms into the kunoichi's face and released a spray of weak acids and foul smelling liquid.
The Rain kunoichi fell back in surprise and agony.
"Hey!" Yelled the second Rain ninja as he drew out a kunai.
Heren whirled around before he could attack and sprayed him as well. The ninja's umbrella was out of position, but he managed to raise his weapon arm into position to keep the spray from his eyes. However, the spray spattered around the arm and the ninja caught a mouthful of the spray instead. The male dropped to the ground in a fit of coughing.
Ignoring the startled cries from the line behind her, Heren turned her attention back to the kunoichi, who was doubled over and all but clawing away at her face. Just for good measure, Heren hastily repeated the necessary seals and gave the kunoichi a second dose of the spray. With the last bit of noxious liquid still dripping from her wrists, Heren kicked open the gate and ran.
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The same time, near thenorthern boarder of Steppe Country…
"Ow! Ah, what the…"
After a day and a half grueling days of traveling, Temari, Kankurou, and Shikamaru were almost to Kyokoa. Since leaving the Taruji Valley, they had been traveling through an almost endless expanse of hills, covered mostly with scrub oak. The vegetation had made moving difficult, since the trees were too bush-like to do the branch jumping that worked so well in Fire Country, and too dense to move effectively through on the ground. Instead, the ninjas had been forced to skip along the tops of the trees, almost constantly applying the chakra-enhanced balancing technique to keep from falling.
The weather had cooperated for the first day, remaining warm and sunny. However, since that morning, a cold wind had been blowing from the north, and now the ninjas were in the midst of another thunderstorm.
Awkwardly balancing himself on a flimsy branch, Kankurou raised his arm to shield his face from the storm. "Ice! Screw that!"
"I think I agree with you," said Temari as she wiped some water from her face. "There's a pretty thick grove down there," the kunoichi indicated. "It should shield us from the worst of it. Come on." Having said her piece, Temari hurriedly leapt towards the grove.
Kankurou turned to face the direction he had come from, taking a moment to rebalance himself. "Hear that, slowpoke?" He yelled out. "We're calling it a day!"
Clad in his cloak and with his hood drawn over his head, Shikamaru briefly appeared beside the Sand ninja. "I heard," he said, startling Kankurou. Before the boy could give his angry retort, Shikamaru had leapt away.
Kankurou scowled, synched up his grip on Karasu and his travel pack, and followed.
A short time later, all three ninjas were sitting in a nearby depression. They were all within a few meters of each other, each sitting with their backs to tree trunk.
"Rain, I can take," began Temari, arms wrapped tightly across her shoulders. "And wind is no problem. But wind and rain…" Shivering visibly, Temari pulled her legs up to her chest and hugged them tight. Even with her fan opened and propped up to shield her from the driving rain, her teeth were chattering.
"And hail," muttered a winded Shikamaru, who had drawn back completely into his cloak.
Kankurou rubbed his arms together to increase circulation. "Hell? This sucks, but I'd hardly call it hell…"
Shikamaru straightened up and cast a withering glance at Kankurou. "Hail," he wearily repeated. "When ice falls during a storm it's called hail."
"I thought that was snow," commented Kankurou.
"Snow is different," Shikamaru patiently explained. "Snow is fluffy and white and only falls when the temperature is below freezing."
"Heh. And we've got to be a good two degrees too warm for that," weakly joked Temari.
"Yeah," muttered Shikamaru, glancing over at Temari. After a moment's hesitation, the Chuunin sighed and unclasped his cloak. "Here," he said as he reluctantly tossed the garment to Temari. "Take it."
Temari snatched the cloak and raised an eyebrow at Shikamaru.
"Hey," Kankurou called out indignantly. "How come you just give it her? I'm miserable here too, y'know."
Settling back against his tree, Shikamaru began rummaging through his travel pack for his spare jacket, not even glancing at Kankurou. "Because you're a guy. You can take it."
"So what's that supposed to mean?" Prompted Temari in an annoyed voice. "You gave this to me because I'm a girl, and I can't take it?"
"Pretty much," agreed Shikamaru, not finding what he was looking for.
A balled up wet cloak smacked Shikamaru on the side of his face.
"Well, if you don't want it…" Began the Chuunin as he casually pried the cloth off of himself.
"I never said that!" Quickly interjected Temari as she snatched the cloak back. "It was just the only thing I had at hand to throw at you." Settling back against her fan, Temari rather embarrassedly wrapped the cloak around her shoulders.
Shikamaru closed his eyes and leaned back against his chosen tree trunk. "Pft. Women…"
The three ninjas lapsed into silence, shielding themselves from the storm as best they could.
"Thanks, though," said Temari a few moments later. "I mean that."
"Eh, you needed it the most of anyone here anyway," dismissed Shikamaru. "I've already got a shirt, a jacket, and a vest, your brother has a full body suit and hood, all you're wearing is a dress with a low neck."
Temari grinned weakly.
"Ah, you just did that to for your own sake," joked Kankurou. "You knew that if she were just sitting there in a wet dress she'd catch you staring at her sooner or later. If you didn't do something to cover her up you would have been headed for a beat-down."
Shikamaru spared Kankurou another withering glance. "Grow up."
Kankurou scoffed. "Says the little kid."
"Who's a Chuunin," Temari reminded with a wink.
Kankurou rolled his eyes. "Oh, so just because he gives you his cloak, you're going to take his side."
"I'm not taking sides," the kunoichi replied, "just pointing out the obvious."
"Beh…" Kankurou grunted and went quiet.
"So why do you wear that?" Asked Shikamaru after a slight pause. "Almost anything else would make more sense in a fight."
"It doesn't slow me down," Temari argued.
Shikamaru glared at Temari.
Glancing down at Shikamaru's cloak, Temari weakly shrugged. "Well, until now…"
"She does it for the same reason Ino goes around in that half-skirt and leg wrap," answered Kankurou. "To show some leg and troll for boys."
"I am not trolling for boys," denied Temari.
"Oooooooh…"
"The only one headed for a beat-down is you, little brother!"
Kankurou couldn't quiet get the smile off his face, but he did hold up his hands in submission. "Kidding, kidding…"
Temari muttered under her breath before looking back over to Shikamaru. "Look," she said, "our village has several standard outfits that most ninjas follow with a few personalized variations. For kunoichis, this was one of them, and I liked it."
"Of course, all the other girls use that outfit to show off," Kankurou muttered to himself.
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow before closing both eyes. "Still doesn't seem practical. But whatever…"
"It doesn't get in my way," Temari persisted. "Even with this I've been outpacing you these past few days."
"Yeah," agreed Kankurou. "We've both been outpacing you. You've lagged behind almost since we left. How do they let a weakling like you call himself a Chuunin?"
"Because I use my head," Shikamaru quietly replied. Looking up, he continued with a note of curiosity in his voice. "How do they let two ninjas like you call yourselves Gennin? I haven't seen either of you do anything that stupid. And physically, you've dominated every fight I've seen you in." Shikamaru glanced Temari's way. "Including ours. So what's been keeping you back?"
The Sand siblings glanced at each other.
"No insult," persisted Shikamaru, holding up one hand. "I may have humiliated you before giving up, but with one more minute you could have had me unconscious. You both took out your share of drones a few days ago. Why are you still Gennin?"
"Because," hesitantly began Temari. "There isn't much room for new Chuunins in Wind Country."
Shikamaru cocked an eyebrow.
"The Wind Lords are tired of having a ninja village in their midst," explained Kankurou. "They've been subtly discouraging people from hiring local ninjas ever since the current chief lord got his position. There hasn't been much money going around to sustain a large ninja corps."
Temari shrugged. "No money, no promotions."
"And your village is just sitting back and taking it?"
Kankurou glanced at his sister. "They don't tell us much about the politics behind these things, but I don't think our village has much of a choice. There are some tensions in Wind Country, and lots of it is against the Village of the Hidden Sand. If we tried to oust the chief lord and install one of ours…" Kankurou momentarily trailed off. "Well, we'd have a civil war on our hands. We've got some inactive clans that would love to rise up against the Sand, and it would be an open invitation for any other villages to interfere and take us down a peg."
"Mn," observed Shikamaru. "That would be troublesome. But in the meantime, your village withers away…"
"And that Leaf exile's meddling didn't help any," muttered Kankurou.
"We're not withering away yet," Temari countered. "Dad… The last Kazekage took steps to insure our survival. He's changed the focus of our village to make each ninja an elite, even among ninjas."
"Well, that's worked on you," Shikamaru acknowledged. "But not so much on the rest of your village. When you attacked, our side gave as good as we got."
Kankurou scoffed. "Yeah, well, Dad's plans weren't the greatest to begin with. He also thought creating Gaara was a good idea. Sticking a demon in a kid… You apparently know how that turned out."
"Yeah," agreed Shikamaru.
"And now," continued Kankurou. "They send us out here to die. Just because… All things considered, I'm sure I'd care if our village withered away right now…"
Shikamaru glanced at Temari to see her reaction to Kankurou's statement, but all she did was stare listlessly at the ground. Letting the subject drop, Shikamaru rubbed his arms together and settled in for the remainder of the storm.
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Central Steppe Country…
Breathing heavily, Heren closed her eyes and looked up into the rain. She was standing on a rock in the center of creek, a full two klicks off the main road. After running the checkpoint, she had wanted to leave the road as soon as she could to avoid being noticed by other travelers as she passed by. Unfortunately, by that point she had a good deal of mud caked in the treads of her sandals, which would have given away her trail even in the trees. In her rush to get away, she started by ricocheting from trunk to trunk form one side of the road to the other, trying to jar loose as much mud as she could with each impact.
Then she had come to a switchback, where the road turned sharply to go down the mountain at a reasonable slope. Inexperienced as she was, she leapt out past the road before thinking through the consequences. Fortunately, the six seconds of freefall she went through gave her more than enough time to plan her landing. As it was, she survived the incident with only a few bruises and a tear on her palm from when she tried to catch and swing around a branch.
The end result of her leap was that it put a big hole in her trail. Heren capitalized on the break by running down the nearest stream she found. After following it for another ten minutes, she finally decided it was safe to stop and catch her breath. And to wash away the lingering effects of her Algonquain technique.
"Shikamaru was right," Heren muttered to herself, still letting the rain wash over her face. "There is something out there. Something big enough to scare that… Kazaki guy."
Heren wiped her face and looked down. "She said 'all the way out here.' So I should be safe here. From whatever scared them, at least…" Heren glanced at the satchel she had put Shikamaru's scroll in. "The Youma. That's gotta be it. The Rain ninjas know about the Youma Shikamaru is tracking." Heren broke off, abruptly realizing the implications of her statement. "The Rain ninjas may be tracking the same thing he is. He could run into the whole company of Rain ninjas…"
Absently, Heren pulled out a vial of pine-scented oil and rubbed a handful into her wrists. Automatically slipping the vial back in its pocket, she tightened her grip on her satchel. "Well, I guess I'll have a story to for Uncle Kenin sooner than I thought." With that, Heren leapt into the trees and continued her way to the Fire Country border.
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