Beach Antics [Team Hokage]

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

Mana closed her eyes to listen for the noises of nature all around her. The girl’s back signaled that it was stretched too hard by the stuffed backpack that was on Mana’s back. The cold early morning air felt as fresh as it could ever get as Mana prepared to leave Shukuba. The journey home had to be started as early as possible so that Mana returned to Konoha in time to rest and get herself together for the vacation at the beach with Kiyomi and Meiko. The month that Mana promised the girls to spend in Shukuba hunting down the remaining ninja of a recently brought down Diamond Hand syndicate passed so quickly Mana couldn’t even believe it. There were still several names in the Shukuba Security force’s list of rogues at large, still they were runt from the litter compared to what Mana helped the Security force to subdue and even less dangerous than the Diamond Hand himself who would be spending the rest of his days in Konohagakure prison in an isolated cell because of his tendencies of manipulation. Mana approached the town’s gate and looked over the black void of the forest road that separated Konoha from Shukuba, a trip of about five hours in length awaited the girl. One she made many times these last months but one she wouldn’t be making for quite some time.

“Leaving already, Mana-san?” a voice reached Mana’s ears. “Yeah, I’ve got promises for someone back home to fulfil.” Mana replied as she turned back to have her eyes greet a young officer of the Shukuba Security she herself recommended when the force was reorganized after the corruption scandal. Despite the girl being at least five years younger than the young man, he viewed her as a mentor and as a superior, it’s a feeling Mana was still getting used to. “You know there are still some rogues at large, we may need your help like that time with Moosehorn…” the young man reminded the instance where Mana saved his life capturing an old acquaintance of Mana’s who found new master to work for. “What’s left now are disorganized cubs, crying for a mother to take them in, just listen for the cries and you’ll find them, you’ve got an exceptional team of people sitting on their hands as I do their job for them. It’s time they show those skills that I and the reorganization committee saw in them… Let them do the job, they’ll be doing it until retirement.” Mana told the officer, it was true that she wanted to stay, to catch every single one of the thugs hiding in the town’s streets but if she does that the Security wouldn’t have learned anything, they’d be recruits without actual experience when Mana eventually would leave them. “You could at least stay until morning, let us give you a proper farewell…” the man said with a dull tone, it was obvious he didn’t want the girl to leave, yet he was trying to hide it so the reason was personal and not professional. “That’s the thing, Kouta-san, I hate farewells, they give me teary eyes…” Mana laughed as she started moving slowly towards the darkness of the forest road.

“Ease up on the promises, Mana-san, stop tearing yourself in half trying to do everything!!!” the man shouted with a slightly toned down shouting voice, “That’s exactly what I’m doing now, Kouta-san, I’m leaving it to you guys!” Mana replied as her figure disappeared into the shadows of the forest.

The trip went on for quite some time, Mana got really bored with the constant travelling between the two locations. “You’d think a month would feel longer than five hours… Somehow this trip feels many times longer than the time in Shukuba.” Mana thought to herself with only the rising Sun to inform the girl that her journey was more than halfway done. Just an hour later after the rays of light illuminated the shade that Mana was travelling in the familiar and beloved sight of the village gate came into sight. Right before the girl entered she saw a colorful poster on the gate, the magician went up to it to check it out. “Finally! After long leave of absence the famous Konoha Sorceress is back with a show! Tickets sold at Hiro-Hall until 9th of July, Hurry Up!!!” Mana read it silently, “I’m glad Hiro-san took the news of my return rather literally… Even set up a date for me, sometimes I wonder who’s more of a show-person me or him…” Mana thought as she entered her home village. Mana’s tired mind skipped through a lot of village guards congratulating Mana on her recent promotion and greeting her and turned into the autopilot mode for all the cheerful villagers who approached to welcome her with her return to show-business. It wasn’t that the girl didn’t care, much more that she wanted to cash-in on the several sleep hours that she had until she planned to visit Kiyomi and ask her friend how are the things with the vacation they planned.

Several hours later Mana woke up in her bed, “Strange, I don’t remember getting here…” Mana thought, she must’ve been really tired after the trip to just sneak into her own bed and shut down. Mana’s father heard the improvised alarm mechanism that he made for Mana from scrap metal, it worked kind of like a string connected to a watch, when a predetermined amount of time passed the scrap started rubbing with itself making the most horrible screeching noise imaginable. “Hey, you got a letter several days ago, you were so tired when you came back that I didn’t want to trouble you with it…” the man entered her room and put the unopened envelope on her table. Mana got out of the bed and tried to work out how to shut the damned thing off, it was a while since the last time she’s done it successfully, turning the alarm mechanism off without having it collapse into parts of scrap metal felt like defusing an explosive… After giving up on “disarming” the alarm blades Mana just tossed it into the wall, she’d re-assemble the damned thing later. Mana took the letter off the table and opened it to read it. Her sleepy eyes made a lot of letters seem quite swimmy so she just skimmed it. “So the vacation’s ready, huh?” Mana thought to herself as she smelled the collar of her shirt before deciding to dump it into the laundry bag and having a shower. Mana heard the bathroom doors slightly open as she was showering, her mother’s voice revealed the person behind them. “Hey, dear, I’ve bought you something for your beach vacation just like you asked in the letter, you can check it after you’re done with the bathing, I hope it’s your size… Otherwise I hope that beach is REALLY private…” mother giggled to herself. “That’s Mom alright… I bet she bought me a wrong sized bathing suit on purpose just to punk me…” Mana thought. Her mother always had an affinity for pranks and joking around.

It was a great coincidence for Mana to return exactly the day that the girls arranged the vacation, of course that was the way that the three settled it during Meiko’s hospital visit. “Kiyomi must’ve not known my Shukuba hotel address so she sent it home, figuring that my parents knew it and would’ve delivered the message in time…” Mana thought as she was measuring the swimsuit in her room and packing it into a small handbag. “There’s really no time to find the girls at their homes, I should probably go to the village gate and try to sense them out by their chakras and play it as a coincidence that I bumped into them, they probably left already…” Mana kept thinking as she spent quite a lot of time figuring out how the meeting was supposed to go as the letter wasn’t really detailed. Quickly Mana put on a white sleeveless top and threw on a black zip hoodie in case evenings would get cold. After all the trip to the beach would take some time as it was said in the letter. Mana did take her ninja tools with her this time, after the bloody man’s attack she was getting a little more worried about her casual activities, one couldn’t have been too careful…

Quickly Mana ran to the village gate, replying to any happy villagers that wanted to ask her when was the next show, to congratulate her back or just to greet her. She even promised some of them to let them in for free and gave them a signature so that she wouldn’t forget it. As Mana reached the gate she couldn’t see any of her friends so she closed her eyes trying to sense their chakra, she’s taken a note of how it felt the last time they met so she’d be able to tell them from other people. If they were anywhere nearby Mana should’ve picked something up. “I’m only late about ten minutes… They should either still be waiting or if they left couldn’t have went off too far…” the girl thought.

Posts : 811

Meiko's eyes shot wide open for what must have been the tenth time that night. The last few days she had been having more and more difficulty focusing on her tasks. The thought of the beach vacation becoming more prominent in her mind with each passing day. This being the final night before they left, her anxiety was at an all time high. A proper night's sleep had long been sacrificed in favour of waking up every hour or so, checking the clock, groaning, then rolling over and trying to sleep before repeating the process. Right now the clock read 5:47 am. "Close enough!" Meiko said as she kicked the sheets off herself, sending them flying off the edge of the bed and covering the nightstand she kept at the foot of her bed. Leaping to her feet, she immediately made her way to her closet and pulled out the outfit she had reserved for today. It was the same one she wore during their last outing, despite the bad memories attached to that day, they were still perfect summer clothes and of everything she owned, were probably her favourite. Being worn in just enough to fit perfectly. Once she was dressed, the next thing she did was to put on her armour. Once they reached the beach, she'd change out of it of course, but for the long trip, it was best to be fully equipped.

Now fully dressed, she moved across her room to a large cabinet. Opening the doors revealed her large arsenal on display and ready for combat. Equipping the many weapons and scrolls, she closed up the cabinet and turned once more to face the door to her room. Beside it was a large brown backpack stuffed to capacity. Lifting it off the floor she tossed it on her bed so she could check the contents one last time before leaving. Opening the top, the bag nearly exploded it's contents across the bed. Meiko had to immediately remove the top set of clothes to make sure they remained properly folded. "Right, let's see here. Week's worth of clothes... check. Bathing suit... check. Towels... check. Toothpaste, tooth brush, hair brush, deodorant, sunscreen... And everything else... Yup! Everything's here" She said cheerfully as she repacked everything. Having to squish down the clothes a bit so she could seal the bag, she then threw it over her shoulders and made her way downstairs.

Reaching the bottom, Meiko was assaulted by the wondrous scent of bacon. Her feet taking on a life of their own glided her towards the kitchen where her parents were waiting. Her mother was hard at work making a big breakfast while her father was enjoying a morning coffee. "You guys are up early" She said, although it was obvious her real focus was on the frying strips of meat. "Well you've been going on about this trip of your's for days now. We figured the least we could do is send you off with a good meal". Running across the room, she hugged her mother from behind. "Thanks Mom. I love you" She then released her mother and moved towards her father, hugging him as well. The gesture was partially returned by him lifting his free hand to hug her the best he could from a sitting position. Taking her seat at the table, the food was finished only minutes later. "That was great" She said after finishing her third plate.

While she wanted to get going, it was still quite early and her Mom had gone out of her way to make this breakfast so she stayed a bit longer to help out with the dishes. "Thanks dear. So, how long will you be gone again?" Her mother asked as Meiko finished drying the last of the plates. "About a week. Not counting travel time so... I'd say about ten days total". Nodding to herself, her mother began draining the sink. "Well, just be careful. We all remember what happened last time and I don't want to see you in the hospital again". Hugging her mom again, Meiko looked her in the eyes with a soft, reassuring smile on her face. "Don't worry. Mana and Kiyomi will be with me. We'll be fine. I promise". With that, Meiko dried herself off and said her final goodbyes before making her way out the door.

Stepping out into the early morning sun, Meiko took a moment to stretch and take in the fresh air. It was still quite cool and damp as the sun had yet to fully rise over the distant mountain tops. Meiko loved this time of day, not too hot, not too cold, it was the perfect time to start training. But today was not a training day, she had places to go and people to meet. So once she had stretched out her joints she took off running. At this time of day there were few people out on the streets so Meiko need not worry about taking her usual route through the back streets. Instead she sprinted directly towards the gates where they had promised to meet up. Hopefully Mana had gotten their letter, when they originally tried to deliver it, both Meiko and Kiyomi realized that neither of them knew exactly where in Shukuba that Mana was staying. Not wanting to risk it being lost in transit, they did the next best thing and delivered it directly to her parents.

Reaching the gate plaza, Meiko slowed her pace and finally came to a stop near the middle of the area. Panting heavily she took a quick look around. For the most part only the morning guards arriving to relieve their coworkers for the day were around. Hell it was still a good hour before the meeting time. Even with the small delay Meiko was still crazy early. "...Maybe I should have slept in a bit.." She muttered to herself as she spotted a tree near the gates themselves. Making her way over to it, she quickly climbed up and took a seat on one of the low, large branches. Kicking her heels up she placed her arms behind her head and looked back down on the plaza. From here she had a good vantage point of the area and could easily spot her friends when they arrived. After a few short minutes passed however, she began to yawn and her eyelids became heavy. "I guess I could rest my eyes a bit. What could it hurt?". Closing her eyes, Meiko quickly drifted off to sleep. A sleep deeper than she had intended for in moments of closing her eyes, she was completely gone into the land of dreams. Not even stirring when Mana arrived on the scene a little over an hour later.

Age : 32 Posts : 544

A month was certainly a long time to wait for something you really wanted to come around. Unless of course one was very busy. Since she had requested a good bit of time off the higher ups believed it was necessary to work her as much as possible in that amount of time. In a months time she had completed three short escort missions, two robbery investigations/captures, one pest control mission, and had down guard duty when she wasn't on the other missions. The bright side was she really did have the money to go on vacation now. The downside was she may simply sleep the first few days to make up for lost time without glorious sleep.

More likely than not that wouldn't be true. Whenever the time came for bed Kiyomi often just laid there staring at a wall or ceiling lost in thought. So many things were plaguing her mind. First and foremost were the memories of the mad man slowly leaking through the seal set in her mind like toxic waste. Perhaps since it was a slow leak she wasn't telling anyone about it. She had woken up with a scream every now and again, but she got just enough sleep to function, but not enough to feel rested.

The nightmares were vivid, but fear of what others would say and the possibility of being placed back into a hospital kept her from saying anything. The second thing on her mind was a rather pressing matter. Kiyomi was getting closer and closer to marriage age, so she had to start looking at suitors. The clan couldn't force her to marry anyone she didn't want to, but it was still her duty to at the very least meet with all the suitors and consider what marrying them would mean for the clan.She had already met two. A handsome Inuzuka who seemed a bit wild, but fun loving. The second was a serious Hyuuga that while nice, seemed rather dull.

With a heavy sigh Kiyomi closed her traveling bag. She had some of her cloths in scrolls to keep them light, but it was still a nice sized back pack. She had two bikini's packed in there that had taken her hours to chose along with, a map, towels, clothes, some traveling food, a lot of ryo, and other supplies. The beach house was last used a little while ago so it was likely restocked with some basic supplies. They could simply stop by in town to grab some more, so she wasn't worried.

With one more double check she looked over the blue and black swimsuits and wondered. I wonder if Meiko will like them. The thought of receiving a compliment from Meiko brought a slight blush to her face along with a grin. Then she shook her head coming out of the daydream and made sure everything was in its proper place before heading towards the door. First she stopped to say goodby to her parents and her dog. She hugged all of them. Her father spoke first. "Don't talk to any boys while you're at the beach okay. Just play with your friends." He was teasing, but he was also fairly serious. He was really opposed to the idea of the suitor meetings, but he couldn't really stop them.

"Just have fun sweet heart and rest. You deserve a break. Just be careful alright?" Her mother kissed her forehead before shooing her out the door. She didn't want her to be late for meeting her friends. Kiyomi arrived in between the two girls. She found Meiko sleeping and simply grinned. The poor girl must have been so excited she couldn't sleep. Kiyomi would let her rest. Mana arrived a little late, but Kiyomi didn't mind. She had to travel from another town to get home, only to travel again. Kiyomi raised her hand in greeting. "It's good to see you. Are you ready to set out after you help me wake our sleeping friend here?" She motioned to Meiko with a grin. She was wearing her normal outfit, but her headband was tucked away for now.

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

Mana’s open mind was browsing through a large amount of people that were coming in and out of the village. It was still an early morning and people left the village to tend to their gardens or gather mushrooms or berries that only grew outside the village, the magician also could sense a large amount of small bright sparks of chakra, most likely those of genin leaving in teams for their missions or predetermined training areas outside the village. Mana extended her reach as wide as she could and she couldn’t pick up a trace of Kiyomi or Meiko. It felt so strange, there was no way that the girls could’ve left sensory range already, that would imply they left before the meeting time even came which was simply illogical. “Maybe I’m searching too far…” Mana thought and tried to pick up something closer nearby, strangely enough Mana managed to sense Meiko just several meters farther away from her current location which didn’t make sense. Mana quickly opened her eyes and looked to the side where Meiko was supposed to be, besides a red bench and bunch of trees there was nothing there. Mana tried to sense Kiyomi’s chakra, the black mass seemed to be a little farther away but also in the vicinity helping Mana understand that the girls haven’t left without her. “Kiyomi probably hasn’t spotted me yet because I’m standing in the center of the road with all these people around…” Mana thought as she moved in on Kiyomi’s location, it was likely that the blonde knew just where Meiko actually was hiding.

Right as Mana appeared out of the crowd of villagers and young genin that were moving out of the village Kiyomi spotted her. The young Yamanaka greeted her and revealed that Meiko was actually sleeping above in a tree. “So Meiko was above me, I should train sensing things above or below me better…” Mana thought to herself, seeing how she was concealing her sensory abilities she didn’t have that much luxury of honing it, she had all the skills but she didn’t understand how some things worked, sensing things above or below her still felt rather new. “Hey, Kiyomi, sorry I'm late, I’ve only returned about four hours ago… I’m good to go.” Mana replied, she looked at Meiko sleeping peacefully on the tree, “I’ve been doing some accuracy practice in Shukuba, I want to try something out…” Mana chuckled as she picked up a small rock and threw it just a couple inches right to Meiko’s location, it was supposed to hit a branch near the place where Meiko’s head was resting and cause a thudding sound which was supposed to wake the girl up. It was true that Mana was practicing her accuracy just by her sensory abilities, using sensing chakra instead of sight seeing how horrible Mana was with her accuracy previously. At least using sensory instead of her eyes the girl managed to catch up somewhat to the accuracy of her peers and was much more confident in it now.

After Meiko would’ve woken up, whether it was due to Mana’s rude actions or some other reason, Mana would’ve greeted the red-head, “Hey, sorry for that but we needed to wake you up and I suck at climbing trees… So are we good to go now?” When the girls would’ve finally decided to leave Mana would’ve turned for the gate and started moving in a steady pace, obviously letting Kiyomi to take the lead seeing how she was the one who knew the location of the beach. From what Mana remembered from the letter the journey was supposed to be a long one, maybe even several days long, surely it wouldn’t be as boring as walking several hours alone with only the wind in the trees and the birds to kill the monotony of the forest which looked the same no matter how far one went. Sometimes when Mana was travelling between Shukuba and Konoha she almost begged some bandits to attack her just to kill the monotony. What would’ve been even more annoying was the belief of Shukuba people that once she arrived Mana wished to rest, after several hours of boredom more monotony was the thing Mana wished the least. Nothing makes you more willing to dive into the cyclone of work than the boredom of travelling which lasted several hours.

“So how have you guys been?” Mana asked as the girls moved beyond the village gate, having friends to engage in small talk with has never felt more liberating and exciting. “Anything interesting happening around the village?” the magician added since she hasn’t been around for about a month and the last couple of months before she has been between the two places the whole time so she didn’t really have any time to hear what exactly was going on, sometimes it started to feel like she was more a member of Shukuba community than Konoha’s, a feeling that Mana wanted to wipe away as quickly as possible as she loved her village and it’s villagers more than anything. “I mean it’s going to be a long journey so don’t hold any details if you please…” Mana smiled, she had never seen that side of herself before – hating monotony and boredom. The first time that Mana started feeling depressed after a trip to Shukuba it felt really strange, for a person who enjoys meditation to despise boredom and monotony was a pretty weird thing. Also it wasn’t like she wasn’t curious what happened to her friends during the time she spent in Shukuba hunting down scum of various calibers. Sometimes her father said that once you start getting deep into ninja-work you become cold and indifferent, caring about her friends made Mana feel happy that the state was still far away from her, she didn’t really mind if that day when Mana realizes that she doesn’t care about simple life stories never came.

Posts : 811

Meiko was still sound asleep in the tree as her two friends met up below. Unbeknownst to her, she just continued snoozing until Mana decided to try and wake her by throwing a stone into the tree. Thankfully her aim was true and the stone hit the tree just above Meiko's head rather than the girl herself. However, the small thud wasn't enough to wake the red head, but it was enough to get her to stir a bit. Grumbling unintelligibly, she shifted around the branch, flailing her arms as if she was trying to grasp something. When she couldn't find it, she shifted a bit more and slipped right off the branch. Plummeting a good two meters to the ground below, landing with a painful thump on the grass. The impact waking her immediately, she lay dumbfounded for a moment, blinking rapidly as her eyes adjusted to the sunlight streaming on her face from between the leaves. Then the pain hit. Shooting through her body like a massive charlie horse punch, Meiko groaned extremely loudly. "Oooowwwwww".

After a few more moments on the grass to let the pain subside a bit, she pulled herself up to a sitting position, rubbing the back of her head and looking up to the branch. "Damn... That hurt... At least no one was around to see.... that..." Her sentence trailed off as she caught sight of Mana and Kiyomi both staring at her. "...F@#&". Getting to her feet, she brushed herself off while trying to avoid making eye contact with her friends for the moment. It wasn't long until Mana approached her, apologizing for the rude awakening. "Good?" She repeated before a wicked grin crossed her face. "Sure. We're good... For now". They had more than a week together, plenty of time for Meiko to come up with some kind of revenge for the poor magician.

Clearing the evil look from her face, she gave the two girls her usual soft smile. "Well anyway, good to see you two. It's been quite a while so let's not waste any time and get moving shall we?". Once they were done catching up for the moment, the girls took off down the road. Kiyomi in the lead for obvious reasons with Meiko keeping pace with Mana behind the blonde. Mana was the first to initiate conversation. Asking how the two had fared over the last month while she was away, and how the village was doing. "Eh, same old same old for me. Few odd jobs here and there, training, not much else". Turning to Kiyomi, she let the blonde give her answer before returning the question to Mana. "So how was Shukuba? All business or did you manage to sneak a night off or two?". While Mana desired more details from Meiko's time, there really wasn't much to say. Beyond a few uneventful jobs there really wasn't anything of note that happened in the last month. She had just spent the time mostly training to regain the lost time from her hospital stay.

For a moment, Meiko thought of updating them on the status of Yosuke, the boy who had her hospitalized in the first place. To her knowledge he had continued to evade the chunins to the point where they had basically given up chasing him. He was still small time and they appearantly had to focus more on the bigger crimes occurring in the village. The news was disappointing to say the least, but before she said anything, she purged it from her mind. There was no point in ruining their first day of vacation by bringing up old wounds.

They would continue down the path for quite some time, resting really only for a quick meal before continuing. When nightfall finally came the girls would set up their camp. Meiko hadn't brought much, just a sleeping bag and small pillow. These nights wouldn't be the most comfortable, but at least she'd be warm. Their campsite was just a short ways off the road with a small fire burning brightly in the moonlight. "Whew, long day huh? Can't wait to reach that beach though... And sleep on a real bed" She finished by pulling a jagged rock from under her back. "Well, goodnight. Sleep well cause we're leaving at the crack of dawn!". And with that, Meiko drifted off into a less than easy sleep.

Age : 32 Posts : 544

Mana's slightly late arrival was forgiven before Mana had even apologized. Unexpected things happened and ten minutes wasn't going to kill them. In fact it gave their red headed friend more time to rest so she wouldn't be tired on the road. "That's no problem. I'm surprised you are up for traveling after having to race here only to set out a little while later. Ten minutes is no big deal though and we can easily make that up if we want to." A bit of a forced race there would likely leave them too tired to do anything the first day of their vacation.

The blonde voiced no objections to Mana's attempt to wake Meiko up. A pebble wasn't going to hurt the weapon specialist unless Mana nailed her right in the eye. She didn't hit Meiko, but neither did she wake up the snoozing weapons user. Instead it caused her to shift slightly then fall out of the tree much to Kiyomi's alarm and amusement. Once she realized Meiko was alright from that nasty tumble Kiyomi had to bite her knuckle to keep from laughing out loud. It was clear she was amused though since her shoulders were shaking from laughter. It took a few seconds, but she regained her composure.

"G-good morning Meiko. Let's head on out then, we'll have plenty of time for naps in the sun later." Kiyomi took the lead so her teammates could fall in behind her. They likely hadn't been to the town where the beach house was located. As they left the gate Mana chose then to start up some small talk. Kiyomi allowed Meiko to to go first while she mulled over what to say. Should she bring up the betrothal meetings to them while on the road? Should she even mention it at all? It was a rather involved topic that would likely be better discussed later tonight or at the house.

Kiyomi felt she had to talk to someone not related to her about it. Just not right now. "Oh, nothing much just the same old thing sadly. Lot's of crooks to catch and missions to complete. I've been really busy and so has Kimiko, we haven't spoken in a while due to our duties." It made her sad that she rarely got to see her sensei anymore, but that's just how things went as you progressed in your shinobi career.

Kiyomi added a few bits of gossip she had managed to hear about the village about academy friends they might know. Some of the funny stories of missions she had heard. Some were truly fantastic and involved giant creatures and large carts of food. She'd continue to trade small talk with them as the day went on, but soon enough darkness was approaching. Once they found a place to make camp Kiyomi set up a few basic traps to protect them during the night. She wasn't worried about being attacked, but it never hurt to be careful. "At the pace we've been setting we'll reach it by noon tomorrow. I'll take first watch you two so get some rest."

Not having a watch would be foolish especially after all they had been through together. Plus, she wasn't tired just yet, so first watch wouldn't hurt her. "Good night you two. I'll wake one of you before I pass out."

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

Mana felt quite bad after seeing how her little pebble wake-up plan misfired and caused Meiko to tumble down the tree. Then again, knowing Meiko it probably didn‘t cause more than a small discomfort, close-range ninja do tend to have a tougher skin after all. Still it was hard justifying results that would‘ve probably killed any normal person. Mana was a little surprised that Meiko took the fall so well, that she had no problem just setting out as if she was gently poked with a stick to be woken up instead accidentally falling out of a tree. „Sometimes I wonder why do you even need armor at all...“ Mana joked to herself. For someone as close to the definition of a „glass cannon“ as Mana was it was always remarkable to see someone just brush off falls and injuries that would ruin a day to a normal person so easily. Meiko did reply to Mana‘s apology with a strange thought left hanging, the girl wondered if Meiko considered some sort of return prank, to be honest, Mana almost felt like she deserved it. Finally with all three members of Team Hokage gathered and ready to leave the girls could set off to their destination.

Mana did feel a little saddened initially to hear that nothing new happened to the two during these days, sad not because she secretly wished harm upon her friends but rather because that made small-talk rather short. Then again, life in Konoha is often quite the same. It wasn‘t too surprising that her friends only had the chance to train and do some missions in the short time that Mana was away. Meiko returned the question after letting Kiyomi tell about her experience, Mana closed her eyes and breathed in heavily – she loved the forest air quite a lot. „Your question only makes sense if my business is not my primary concern. Catching those rogues was what I got my kicks out of in Shukuba, I didn‘t need to sneak out at any point, my mission gave me enough excitement. I did meet an old friend there, we go way back since the day that I started my ninja days...“ Mana did not specify that this person was in fact a leader of a mercenary gang who tried to kill all members concerned with catching the rogue ninja, that was not the important detail. There was a lot more interest for Mana to see that guy again and send him behind bars once more than there was for bragging about taking him down.

Kiyomi mentioned being quite busy, it felt really great for Mana to know that her teammates kept training and pushing their limits. It made Mana admire them even more and try to push her own barriers after meeting them. It was always good to know that one‘s rivals were working their butts off, even if Mana would‘ve never described her relationship with Kiyomi and Meiko as „rivalry“, it was much more like „mutual admiration“ – each one of the three admired the other two and strived to live up to them, which in terms made the team grow stronger and better. Mana was sad to hear that not much was heard of Kimiko, it of course only made sense knowing the woman‘s position in the village. Still Mana knew how much the current Hokage despised the paperwork, she even once went as far as to satisfy the woman with a spar, something Mana almost never did, just to make her more happy and willing to go back to her paperwork. „Kiyomi and Meiko keep telling me to let up on my work, and yet somehow I wonder which one should really chill out sometimes...“ Mana thought to herself. Being a Hokage looked like a lot of work, Mana never could‘ve imagined doing something as boring as that...

After a long time spent walking the sky turned dark and it made little sense to travel around in pitch black, the three decided to take a stop and set their camp there. Meiko expressed how tired she was and how great it felt to know that soon they‘d reach the beach and have the luxury to sleep in an actual bed. Mana was too tired to reply anything at all, she‘s been on her feet the whole day. It was actually quite kind of Kiyomi to take the first night watch. Mana prepared her sleeping bag and dug inside of it putting her hood on just to protect her face from bugs or mosquitoes. „I‘m going to have the worst case of bed hair tomorrow...“ Mana thought to herself as her mind simply turned off just as it did earlier that day.

Mana looked around, it seemed like she was in a casino of some sort with fancy looking game machines and card tables all around. The building was empty which seemed odd to the magician. The girl could‘ve sworn that the whole place smelled like mixture of almonds and dead flesh, a smell quite familiar to the trickster. Mana looked behind her, the exit to the streets was covered in some mystical dark purple flame with heat pulsing away from it. Suddenly the girl heard a loud shout, it sounded more like a roar and it was loud enough to shatter all of the glass inside the gambling house, Mana turned at the direction of the sound only to see a giant abomination stitched together from parts of other people – a figure Mana was quite familiar with, suddenly Mana felt a hand touching her shin, she looked down only to see a little girl covered in blood and tears „Why didn‘t you kill it... You doomed us all...“ she cried out as she was consumed by the purple flames. The monster yelled out „I‘M GOING TO TEAR YOUR WINGS OFF!!!!“ as he smashed the ground where Mana was standing.

The girl shot up out of her sleeping bag and started breathing heavily. It took well over a minute to get her breathing together and her muscles still kept twitching in fear. It wasn‘t the first time Mana has had a nightmare, won‘t be the last as well. With that thought in mind Mana went up to Kiyomi. „You can go to sleep now, I‘ll take your place...“ she said silently so that she wouldn‘t wake Meiko up. „I don‘t think I‘ll go to sleep ever again...“ the magician thought to herself...

Posts : 811

For Meiko, the night was rather peaceful. Sleeping soundly until Mana awoke her several hours from dawn to take on the final watch. Yawning, she took a seat on a small log beside the fire and slowly tried to wake herself up. Normally the red head was an early riser, but the uneven ground plus her lack of sleep the night prior was making this day a bit harder to start up. Looking over her sleeping companions, Meiko smiled softly. Their destination was just another day or so out and they all needed this vacation. The last few months had been stressful on them all, moreso her companions than herself. But every once and a while a person needed to blow off some steam and just get away from the daily grind. She had to admit, a week off from constant training did sound fantastic, especially since they'd be staying at a private beach house. The thought of the ocean waves and bright summer sun was enough to start bringing Meiko more towards consciousness. Prodding the small fire with a stick to allow some oxygen to get underneath the cinders, it flared with it's final sparks of light. Likely the fire would die out just before sunrise.

As the hours passed and the last of the flames died out, Meiko was beginning to wonder why the sun hadn't risen yet. It should be dawn by now but it was still as dark as it was when they went to bed. Looking up to the sky, all she saw was blackness. No stars, no moon, no sun. "That's not good" She muttered to herself. It looked like some clouds had rolled in overnight, it was too dark to determine if they were storm clouds or not, but the air around them did feel a bit humid. If that humidity went up at all, the chance of rain would skyrocket. Getting to her feet, she began shaking her friends awake. "Hurry up guys, we need to get moving. Looks like it might rain". The last thing she wanted was to get caught out in the rain and be suck bedridden from sickness for their entire vacation. If they hurried, they might be able to find a rest stop or something and pick up some umbrellas or coats or anything.

The girls were up and moving within the hour, the sunlight finally beginning to illuminate the world despite the cloud cover. Albeit with a depressing gray filter. The humidity. as Meiko feared, had begun to rise over this time. Thankfully there was a good wind coming through to alleviate some of the heat. As their journey continued for another couple hours, the weather continued to slowly turn against them. As the day approached noon the clouds had not cleared, but instead began to drop their contents onto the world. Rain had begun to fall, nothing serious yet, but a prelude of what was to come. Sadly this did cause the humidity to skyrocket, even worse was the fact the breeze had died down over time. Panting, Meiko wiped a thick puddle of sweat from her brow. "Let's pick up the pace... There's got to be a rest stop nearby.".

It seemed like their luck was just tanking today. Within the next hour the rain went from spitting to a full on downpour. Initiated by a single crack of thunder as a lightning bolt pierced the sky. In a full sprint now, Meiko had pulled her backpack over her head in a futile attempt to keep herself as dry as possible. Thankfully, their luck hadn't completely bottomed out. Only after about ten minutes in the rain they finally came across a rest stop. Not a very big place, basically a shack but right now anything would do. Running inside, they were hit by a cool breeze of air and a startled clerk. The interior of the place was split into two sections, the first half was a convienence store/pseudo gift shop and the other was dedicated to a sitting area and various advertisements for nearby towns. One that caught Meiko's eye was a large poster of a beach. Most likely their destination, the poster was also labelled with the distance they had remaining. Just another ten kilometers, they could make that within half a day easy if they kept the pace up. The only thing delaying them now was the rain.

"Well, let's rest and dry off a bit" Meiko suggested as she flopped into one of the chairs. Hopefully the storm wouldn't last too long and they could again be on their way. If not however, she did spy some rain cloaks when they entered. If need be they could purchase a few and just brave the storm.

Age : 32 Posts : 544

The night was fairly quite. A few times she had heard something large wandering outside of her sight, but the shuffling sound it made identified it as a raccoon or a possum. If she wasn't serious about keeping watch she'd have pulled out a book or wrote a bit in her small poem note pad. Paranoia had long sunk into her mind though, so she was going to keep watch with no distractions, no matter how boring it may be. Besides she could still ponder some things to keep her entertained.

Stuff like what they may end up doing together. Kiyomi for one had always wanted to try surfing and body boarding. Fishing ,with actual fishing poles and not kunai with wire attached, seemed relaxing as well. Plus there was the simple act of lounging out there in the sun to consider. It was a rare moment when Kiyomi could simply enjoy the sunshine. At least not without being bothered by someone about clan issues or mission details for some gods forsaken assignment doing anything from guard duty to escorting some puffed up merchant or noble.

Thinking of the fun could only stave off thoughts of possible marriages for so long. Ugggh, I'm too young to be married uggggh. The curse of being an heir is a heavy one to bear. Kiyomi was reluctant to admit it out loud, but she envied her teammates sometimes. They at least seemed to have less responsibility than she did. Yes, they shared in her duty as a shinobi of the leaf and Mana was a performer who did damn near suicidal things. Something she'd been wanting to convince her to stop doing before she got hurt. Neither of them had to worry about the future of a clan, the politics that came along with it, nor the other duties that went along with it. The stress from it was likely going to make her age faster.

Kiyomi simply kept whining in her mind with a kunai in her hand until Mana shot up from her bed, obviously having suffered from a nightmare. While a concerned look was on her face Kiyomi didn't pry. If the black haired magician wanted to share she'd share in her own time. "All right then. Good night." She patted Mana's shoulder and got into as comfortable a position as possible. Perhaps it was due to traveling all day that Kiyomi fell asleep after only a matter of moments. Or maybe she had finally mastered her body enoug to command it to sleep when she wanted to. Either way she was out like a light until Meiko grabbed her to shake her awake.

If not for quick thinking Kiyomi would have shanked Meiko. An enemy wouldn't shake you awake after all. So Meiko remained free of kunai stab wounds as Kiyomi groggily sat up and got ready to head out once more. Even in her groggy state Kiyomi could feel the difference in the air. Seemed like it would rain on their second day off. Not that big a deal since they had so much time, but it was a little disappointing.

"A little rain never hurt anybody, but lighting and strong winds have." Kiyomi had never caught a cold from being caught in the rain. Nor did she really think any of them would, especially Meiko since the girl ate like a horse and worked out more than any of them. She must have a pretty balling immune system. She dug into her pack and brought out a rain slicker. She had come prepared since during this time of years showers and thunder storms did suddenly appear out of nowhere.

Once the down pour started even the rain slicker didn't manage to keep her completely dry. "Well, this still beats doing a mission in my book!" Even if they did get paid at least running about in a thunder storm was less dangerous than some of the missions they were often assigned. Although, the rain slicker did make it rather hot when you were pounding down a trail in the humid weather.

"If I recall correctly there is one nearby, we just gotta spot it." Luckily enough Meiko had found it and they rushed inside without any incident. For now Kiyomi ignored the gifts, she was going to save her money for the actual town. Instead she moved over to a fire to dry off for a moment. "We're almost there girls. Just gotta weather the storm and hope there isn't a hurricane rolling in on the little town." There shouldn't be from the reports she had gotten, but if there was, they'd simply either have to weather it or head to the cabin in the woods instead.

The blonde sat near Meiko to dry off a bit. "I think we could go through this storm and get to the house if we really wanted to. We're all healthy enough to not catch a cold. I'd be very disappointed if any of us played the stereotypical book character and got sick from a little water. Perhaps we should stock up on some medicine while we're here just in case. I can totally see Meiko eating too much of the spicy food here and getting a stomach ache." With a grin she nudged the red head to show she was teasing.

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

With Kiyomi not having any objections in Mana changing her in the guard duty, the young magician had all the time in the world to reflect on her thoughts. There was no better time to consider where one’s life was going than the long hours of night just passing by, the possibility of being attacked by anything so late was really small as Mana’s experience suggested that very few bandits attack hours after midnight, if someone wished to rob them they’d have done that long ago. The only things that worried Mana’s sense of safety was possibility of hostile wildlife but keeping the fire alive would’ve solved even that. While the girl did feel quite sleepy and exhausted the strange instinctual fear of what she might see in her dreams kept her awake, rustling the fireplace to keep it alive and watching the darkness of the surrounding forest helped the girl not to doze off.

Mana’s sight slipped onto a small rodent passing by the fire, it was very unusual for the little critter to be tip-tapping around so close to a human camp. “Maybe it’s a bandit scout?” Mana wondered even if she knew very well about that particular species being nocturnal. Several moments later the critter seemed to have simply vanished from Mana’s sight. “Have I dozed off while I was unaware?” Mana immediately recognized something that used to happen to her a long time ago when she was obsessed with her little hunt, sometimes for days without sleep. It used to happen to the magician so often – falling asleep but being unaware of it and she may have been off for hours and it seemed like not a single second passed. Still the cracking fire suggested it may have only been a couple of moments that Mana’s consciousness faded, still it was dangerous.

“What if I had fallen asleep and someone attacked? I’ll have to wake Meiko up to change me, I’ll have to risk going to sleep again…” Mana thought, being so intimidated by her nightmares was a new thing for the girl, to some it may have sounded very childish to be afraid of monsters in one’s nightmares but the thing was that the monster in Mana’s dream was very much real. Maybe these nightmares were just a way that her body dealt with the horror… “That’s why we’re taking this vacation, to rest. I’m waking Meiko…” Mana crept up to the red haired girl and gently woke her up without saying a word, “Kiyomi skipped some hours of sleep already, don’t want to wake her up…” the magician thought to herself. After Meiko woke up Mana silently walked up to her own messed up sleeping bag.

Following her friend with her eyes Mana dug into the mess that was her sleeping bag, “Why am I afraid of Honda anyway, he’s just a pile of body parts… I’m officially the only girl in the world afraid of a talking head…” Mana tried to calm herself and her shaking body down to get some sleep. Surprisingly enough it worked and the girl dozed off for the second time that night. The sleep that followed was dreamless – Mana really never thought she’d appreciated the kind of sleep enough. It really needed to have an ode or two to be devoted to it. She just turned off and was only woken up by Meiko’s warning of incoming rain. “Awww thanks for waking me! I love rain!” Mana shouted out enthusiastically as Meiko woke her up, only then did the magician realize what her friend actually meant – the girl wanted to move and find a rest stop to protect from the rain not to observe it.

Mana quickly got out of her sleeping bag and packed it back into the large roll that it was before being unpacked. She looked into the sky, the night’s sky wasn’t really the best indicator for the magician for the weather, all she knew that it was cloudy. While Mana saw her friends walking in a rather quick pace and be kind of desperate to avoid the rain Mana really hoped she’d get to see it. Ever since Mana was a little kid she loved rain, loved seeing the small raindrops dance in the puddles, loved hearing the soft pounding of the drops into the windows or to feel the cold freshness behind her neck making her quiver in shake in cold refreshing pleasure. There were few things that Mana loved more than rain. Every two or three steps the girl looked up into the sky with childishly hopeful eyes that rain starts.

This childish hope to see rain washed away Mana’s boredom of walking for hours straight and gave her something to look forward to, in a way this possible rain relaxed her more than any amount of rest she’s had these past months. Finally as the day reached noon small drops of water started falling down from the dark clouds, Mana somehow managed to contain her burst of happiness but only in order to not make her friends freak out. By now Mana knew that she was a unique kind of person in relation to rain and that most people hated it. Meiko suggested that the girls pick up the pace even more and guessed that there should’ve been a rest stop somewhere near, Mana felt for some chakra signatures and indeed there was a combination of small and average chakra some distance forward only about ten minutes further.

“I really hope the rest stop has windows… I love the sound of rain pounding at glass windows…” Mana wondered out loud, some of the rest stops to older roads were pretty ancient themselves, it may not have even been a surprise if the stops were just simple wooden cabins. Despite her immense desire to see the rain pouring down and to feel the freshening drops Mana weaved some handsigns and pulled out a kunai forming a round shield-like barrier which she used as an improvised umbrella. Since she knew that there would be a rest stop nearby Mana knew that the duration of the barrier jutsu would be enough to protect her from something as simple as rain. It probably barely even counted as blocking anything. Even if the girl had to protect herself from the rain she still overjoyed seeing rain form puddles and interact with the forest. It was the simple joy of life…

Mana took her time to dry off her hoodie which was soaked from Mana’s previous refusal to shield from rain when it was still a drizzle when the girls reached the rest stop. She didn’t care too much about the umbrellas that were sold there, if needed she could still use the lightning barrier jutsu to shield herself for as long as it’s pouring. Right after hanging her hoodie near the fire Mana bolted off near the windows to look at the rain, there would’ve been no chance in hell she’d skip a perfectly fine dance of raindrops when she had the time to admire it properly. At times like that Mana probably reminded other people of a child, she still was in many ways but not because she lacked experience, rather because she chose to be childish instead of being affected by her experiences.

“Awww… I think the rain’s easing up, I really hoped it’d be raining whole day…” Mana yelled out without pulling her eyes away from the calming rain, there were still suspicious clouds in the distance but they didn’t look like they’d pose much of a threat for the three, even if they did Mana would’ve pretended they didn’t just to drool at rain again like a baby. “I think the beach isn’t too far away, my top is dry, I say we move out!” Mana said with a rather begging voice, if the rain was to hit again it wouldn’t do that in several hours and even if it would have Mana preferred being outside when it did. If the girls agreed to move out the rest stop Mana would’ve picked her things up and left towards the destination of the beach, with it being just ten kilometers away the girls would’ve reached it within several hours.

Regardless of when the girls would’ve decided to leave the beach was not that far away and within just a couple of hours of steady pace walking the same poster that was hanging in the rest stop would’ve greeted the eyes of the girls signaling the arrival to the destination. Mana looked at Kiyomi questioningly to lead them and show them around seeing how the beach house must’ve been familiar for the girl. Despite the sky showing some rainclouds previously by the time the girls would’ve reached the beach house the sky would’ve been calmer and given reason to expect a nice calm evening at the beach if the girls felt like it.

A-Rank Umbrella no Jutsu!:

Posts : 811

After taking a moment to shake off some of the water drenching her, Meiko crossed the store and took a seat in a lounge chair. There were three other chairs like it circling a small round coffee table. The rest of the sitting area was set up similarly with two other sets arranged in a triangular formation and a long couch set against the far wall. Thankfully she didn't have to worry about staining the couch or anything as all the furniture was made from a sealed leather and unless there was a cut in it somewhere, it was basically waterproof. As she flopped down into the seat, the redhead let out a sigh of relief to be off her feet for a moment and out of the rain. It took a few moments but once she was starting to relax the chill set in. Feeling it going down her spine she visibly shook in her seat. "Glad we got out of that when we did. I'm freezing". She said as she began rubbing up and down her arms, trying to warm them up. Kiyomi took one of the vacant seats to her right, stating her desire to continue on to the beach house despite the storm. Rounding out with a quick jab at Meiko's hearty appetite.

After being nudged, Meiko laughed a bit. "Alright alright, seems neither of you were bothered too much by the rain" She said as her gaze wandered over to Mana who seemed completely occupied by the window simply watching the rain fall. "We'll head out again once we've dried off and maybe grabbed something to eat". For the moment though, all Meiko desired was a towel to expedite the drying time. "Oh duh" She said to herself, lightly tapping the palm of her hand off her forehead. Then, sliding her backpack in front of her, she opened the top and reached inside. "Aha" She exclaimed as she pulled out a large beach towel. She had kept the towel near the top of her bag as she had assumed the first thing they would have done upon arrival would be hitting the beach. Sadly, unless the current weather broke, that would be unlikely to happen. Even as hearty as Kiyomi and Mana were, she doubted either of them would enjoy being in their swimsuits during the rain. And even if they did, the beach would be utterly deserted. Not exactly the best way to start out their long awaited vacation.

Once she had finished drying herself off, she neatly folded her towel up again and placed it back in her pack. Looking towards the windows where Mana was standing, the rain was still pouring down hard. "I'm going to grab something to eat. Anyone else hungry?" She asked as she got to her feet and crossed over to the store half of the building. There near the cashier was a small cooler containing several sandwiches. She was never a fan of these convience store meals, but the other choice was to fill up on snacks. Right now she wanted something that at least resembled real food. Picking up three sandwiches, she then returned to her seat and began unwrapping them. "Oh sorry, I forgot to ask if you wanted anything" She said while bowing her head slightly and tentatively offering Kiyomi one of the sandwiches.

Once the girls had finished eating, assuming the other two were hungry at all, Meiko would get up and head towards the door. The rain was still coming down, but had relaxed a bit over their rest. "Well, let's get going then. Sorry for holding everyone up". Purchasing an umbrella, she popped it open and stepped outside. As both Mana and Kiyomi attested, the beach house shouldn't be too far away now. Meiko followed behind the two at a light jogging pace. They had to make up the time they lost at the rest stop.

As they had predicted, after only two hours, the scent of salt was beginning to fill the air and the trees were quickly thinning. Thankfully the rain had all but stopped by this point too and the clouds were starting to break. "Maybe we'll luck out and sun will be out over the beach" Meiko said cheerfully as they began ascending a large hill. The hill itself marked the edge of the forests and her general knowledge of the area told her that over this were likely to be some plains just before they hit the beach itself. Once they reached the top of the hill, the girls were presented with a rather breathtaking sight. From here they could see for miles, all the way to the ocean itself, sparking in the distance as the sun slowly broke through the sea of clouds. Sure it wasn't the bright blue sky Meiko had hoped for, but the clouds were clearing quite quickly. Stretching before them were rolling plains and hills, not as tall as the one they stood on now however. Finally, they could easily see the town Kiyomi had mentioned stretching along the beachfront to the right. From their current location they couldn't be more than an hour's march out.

"Alright! Last one to town is paying for dinner!" Meiko cried out as she jumped past both girls and began bolting downhill. Whether the girls took on her challenge or not, they would make it to the beach in about half an hour. The sun still had some clouds to break through, but despite the recent rain there were already a few people arriving to the shores. From here it would be up to Kiyomi to lead them to her beach house so they could drop off their things.

Age : 32 Posts : 544

Her teammates antics made the blonde simply grin. There hadn't been a moment to relax in a while. It was rather sad when traveling in a rain shower was more relaxing than your job, but such was life. "I'd prefer no rain while we try to have fun at the beach. It tends to make the seas a bit rough and rather dangerous to swim in. Plus, some attractions won't be open during a downpour. So none of your magic tricks to try and make it rain. I'll take your hat away if you do." A cruel punishment for what was a magician without their hat?

Kiyomi wanted to be off soon since the warmth of the fire and the sound of rain was going to make her want to lie down and sleep. Kiyomi had to suppress a yawn so she didn't get a chance to respond to Meiko before the red head went over to grab some food. Not that it mattered she wasn't hungry anyways. Once Meiko returned and offered her a sandwich she politely declined. There would be plenty of time to eat when they got there.

Once Meiko was done eating and everyone had their rain gear on the set out once more. "There is no problem. We've got plenty of time to get there. Honestly we're getting there much faster than I did back with my family. Not as many bathroom breaks or sight seeing on the way." Her family often went off the main path to go look at natural wonders for a brief time, so even with the rain shower they were still ahead of schedule.

Kiyomi invited herself under Meiko's umbrella as they traveled. Rain slickers were alright, but umbrellas kept the rain from hitting her face. After a bit more traveling they were within sight of the town. After so many years away the lovely sight of the landscape blossoming up before them almost brought Kiyomi to tears. How often had her and her brother gone exploring throughout the town or the area's around it when they had visited? Finding deer, caves, and other natural wonders and laughing about it.

Thankfully before she could turn into a blubbering baby Meiko took off exclaiming that the last person there would have to pay for everyone's meal. The fear of going bankrupt trying to feed the red head got her moving. "Wait you don't even know what house we're going to Meiko...And there is no way in hell I'm paying for all of us no deal!" She had after all secured them a place to stay without them having to pay a dime. That right there had saved them likely a thousand ryo or more.

Chasing after Meiko Kiyomi motioned for Mana to follow. After they reached town Kiyomi called after her teammates to follow her. Not many people were out since it had just rained, but there were a few stands open. "Let's head to the house first, secure it, and drop off our stuff. You've got plenty of seals I assume Meiko." They shouldn't be careless even on vacation and a few seals around the house would make her feel more comfortable.

Leading the way via rooftops Kiyomi lead them to a smaller trail that led past other summer houses. All were at least two stories tall, but she'd lead them to a large one that was three stories. It had a weathered picket fence around it with the seal of her clan on the gate. There was a large garden full of wildflowers just running rampant in it, the house itself was painted blue with green shutters. There was also an old, but still working fresh water well on the property.

"Wow it hasn't changed a bit." She opened the gate and lead them inside. Inside there was some furniture with white sheets on them to keep the dust off. It was still clean from the last visit though, so they wouldn't have to do much. It was clear this house was made to house a large portion of the clan though and it felt rather empty with just the three of them. "Let's stick together in the same room guys. Not really any need to use the other rooms with just the three of us. The living room has plenty of space for us to lay down and just chill out. So what you think of the place? Oh if you need to use the bathroom it's down the hall and on the left."

Kiyomi set her bag down onto a coffee table then removed the sheet off of the couch to rest her feet for just a moment. It was barely noon so they'd have plenty of time to run amok throughout the town or house.

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

Mana did not even bother to get an umbrella or to try and fit under Meiko’s. She just took off her hoodie and went off into the rain in her T-shirt alone since she really wanted for her most fitting for cold weather piece of clothing to remain dry. Despite the slight drizzle that was still going on the weather was pretty warm, it was one of those warm rains of the summer season that happened ever so often. Those were the magician’s favorite kind, the girl just kept following her friends and looking around at the drops of rain falling down and accumulating into small puddles that made the rays of light that seldom broke through to reflect with indescribable grace and beauty. The kunoichi observed the rain fall on the leaves and the water running down to the dirt, coloring the leaves their natural emerald green and wiping all dirt off.

“I wonder how can people dislike rain and try to hide from it…” the girl thought to herself as she kept observing the graceful dance of the rain drops with the same amount of childish joy that she had ever since the rain had started. The magician enjoyed greatly that her friends didn’t call her out or mock her loving the rain nor did they try to warn her about getting sick or something most people Mana hung out with did. It wasn’t that often that a rain so harmless and beautiful graced the place and the girl had a chance to properly admire and enjoy it just like the old days. It may have been the truth that one part of Mana’s joy and admiration for rain came from nostalgia, nostalgia of the days when she had all the time in the world to admire anything she deemed worth admiration.

For only several moments Mana’s sight slipped from the rain that surrounded the group to Kiyomi and Meiko squeezing under an umbrella. “I hope Kiyomi doesn’t remember her creepy stuff. She can be really weird and obsessive sometimes…” the trickster thought to herself with a smile remembering some strange occasions when her friend gave up to her creepy urges like that time Kiyomi was obsessed in Meiko trying on a dress for some reason. It was a good thing that rain didn’t bother Mana very much, she’d feel a little awkward trying to squeeze in with the two, had the magician liked the rain any less she’d most likely bought her own umbrella from the small rest stop. After briefly letting her mind wander, girl’s eyes returned to the torrents of rain running down into puddles through the leaves like miniature waterfalls. “I wish I’d have Suiton… Then I’d be able to make my own rain whenever I’d want…” the goofball started imagining things.

The actual beach, surrounded by a small town which was most likely made to service those who stopped there to rest, was not that far away. It was really unavoidable that something as wondrous and attention grabbing and beloved as a beach would have a whole small town built around it with people making money off of it where they could. Honestly, even for someone as uneducated in all matters related with money even Mana could see how that worked. There were probably no natural attractions that wouldn’t have countless people trying to get their fair share out of it. Even if the girl found something like that completely distasteful but it fit the nature of her species very well. It took her friends to start talking to snap the magician out of her thoughts back into reality.

“Wait what do you mean… Goddamn it! Wait up, I’ll pay for the stupid dinner just don’t run off!” Mana shouted as her constant dreaming caused her to fall behind. While the girl knew very well just how much of an abyss Meiko’s stomach was (the girl probably was hungry right after she ate in the rest stop), money was never a problem for the magician. There were many reasons for that: the fact that the girl had two professions, both of which paid relatively well, the fact that Mana barely ever spent any money as she despised anything related to economy making money hoard in her wallet before it had to be spent forcefully. “Maybe it was a good idea to take most of my personal money, if I’m always as slow as I was now I’ll be paying for everything…” the kunoichi thought to herself as she kept chasing after Kiyomi and Meiko.

It wasn’t even only the fact that Mana was always dreaming about something that made her fall back a little but also because her physical shape was not the best around. While the girl definitely was no slouch compared to ninja of her rank she was definitely not as good of a runner as Meiko was apparently as she was easily the last one the whole run, “Great, they’re going on the rooftops now…” Mana slapped her forehead as she noticed that Kiyomi went on the roofs to lead the girls to the supposed resting place to put down their heavy stuff. “I don’t even know if it’s the lack of sleep, the heavy bag or do I really suck at running…” the girl thought to herself angrily as she finally noticed her friends stopping a small distance ahead.

Mana only managed to catch up to her friends when Kiyomi was already opening the gates, “Sorry guys, I just didn’t expect this vacation to involve running…” she threw a random apology for slightly falling behind. The vacation house was rather large and looked really old, a real treat for anyone who fancied the classical style of architecture which the magician just found out that she did. “Wow, your clan owns this?” Mana asked Kiyomi in astonishment as she was putting down her things in the room that Kiyomi lead them to. She had no problem staying in one room, to be honest she actually preferred it because being in such an old house alone would’ve made the girl skip another day of sleep because of her fear of spirits and ghosts. Knowing her fascination with magic it wouldn’t have been hard to figure that fear out but seeing how Mana has never spent her nights in anywhere remotely as ancient and amazing as that house she wanted to keep that a secret.

“Those two would probably think I’m childish…” the girl thought to herself after looking over her friends. She tossed her things down and sat down on the bed that wasn’t taken, Mana had no problems sleeping anywhere. “So, how about we hit the beach now and then I can pay you guys for that dinner I owe you…” Mana suggested, having their stomach filled with food would likely make her friends fall asleep early and not notice her shaking in her bed covering her head from ghosts… Mana had all her beach equipment ready in a smaller backpack within the backpack so she de-attached it from the whole thing and prepared for the trip no matter what her friends decided to do first. Honestly, the girl was not the biggest fan of the scorching days at the beach, spending time in the warm summer sun dimmed down by some still present rain clouds and breathing fresh after-rain air would’ve been the best relaxation for the magician.

Posts : 811

Meiko was the first to reach the town, though not for a lack of trying. Hot on her heels was Kiyomi who landed on the street just seconds behind the redhead. Mana unfortunately, was lagging behind quite a bit. Stopping to let her catch up, Kiyomi wasted no time taking the lead again. Leaping up the nearest building, the blonde began speeding across the rooftops to their destination. With a small laugh, Meiko called back to Mana "Better pick up the pace if you don't want to be left behind" and with that, she took off sprinting after Kiyomi. Hopping from rooftop to rooftop, Meiko couldn't help but close her eyes and inhale deeply. The scent of the ocean was everywhere here, the taste of salt on her tongue as a breeze blew past, ruffling her hair. After a short time, Kiyomi called back to her, asking if she had seals prepared for the beach house. Now having been broken from her short moment Meiko sighed. "Yeah" She called back with some reluctance in her voice. "Although they'll only be of any use while we're there. All I have are a few alarm seals. Unless that is, you want to risk blowing out a wall if a squirrel gets too close".

It wasn't much longer until they reached their destination. Kiyomi coming to a stop at a small gate, she turned and waited for Meiko and Mana to arrive. Meiko whistled, impressed at the sight. The lawn was in some need of care, but other than that they had an entire three story cottage to themselves. "Yeah, this is quite impressive" She said after Mana had spoken. Following the blonde inside, Kiyomi immediately flopped her things down in the living room, stating that they didn't need to use any other rooms while they were here. Meiko gave her a sly smile as she spied the staircase. "Well you can sleep on the couches if you want, I call the master bedroom!". Dashing up the stairs, she began her search for the aforementioned room. After spending several days on the road sleeping on hard ground with nothing but a thin sleeping bag beneath her, there was no way Meiko was spending a week sleeping on a couch. What she wanted was a nice comfortable bed.

And she wasn't disappointed.

On the third floor she found her prize, a massive room with a polished hardwood floor and unpainted wood plank walls. In the center of the far wall was a massive king sized bead, deep violet sheets lay perfectly flat atop the mattress, shining in the light streaming in from the decorative circular window above it. Inviting her seductively into it's embrace. To the left was an entire private bathroom, the door was mostly closed so she couldn't quite see inside and to her right a giant walk-in closet. "This is perfect!" she cried out as she closed the door behind her and began to strip off her armour. The hardened leather clacking off the floor as she removed piece after piece until she was standing in her underclothes. A small light red tank top and black shorts. At this point she knew she should head back downstairs to meet the other two, but that bed was too inviting.

Leaping across the room, she bounced off the mattress and face planted into the pillows. Immediately a sense of relief and relaxation washed over her as the mattress slowly gave way to her weight and contorted to her body's curves. Rubbing her face into the pillow, she felt herself closing her eyes. "Maybe just for a minute" she muttered to herself as she gave in to the temptation of sleep. In seconds the red head was unconscious, cradling the pillow in her arms.

Age : 32 Posts : 544

"Let's not blow out a wall please. A few alarms will work just fine." Even if the house was insured she didn't want a hole blown into it. The entire clan's animosity that the summer retreat had been messed up was something Kiyomi would rather avoid. Her friends impressed attitudes made her swell a little with pride. "Yea it really does pay to pool resources together. Makes saving up for expensive things like this far easier." The mention of the beach was met with a shake of the head.

"Let's wait for tomorrow. The seas will still be a bit rough out there. Being trounced about by the ocean isn't fun. A safer bet would be dinner, maybe a show, and some oh the many board games they have stashed in the game room. We've also got a tv and a bunch of kid movies, action, and horror. Tonight's a good night for a horror movie. Especially if the storm comes back. It would really set the atmosphere."Then Kiyomi could use her genjutsu to scare them if she felt like it. It was a lot of fun to scare her little cousins whenever they snuck into the small projector room to watch scary movies back at home. Served them right for breaking the rules.

Meiko's need for a room made Kiyomi a little sad. She wanted to have a slumber party like experience here. Hell, they could go up to the master bedroom and all sleep in that giant bed if they wanted. The only problem with that was Kiyomi knew something the others didn't. That bed was where a large percentage of Yamanaka's had been conceived. Sure it was cleaned, but knowing that a lot of her relatives had been kinda created there killed any drive she had to sleep in it. Hell she may have been conceived in that bed for all she knew. Her parents had come her a fair deal before she was born.

She'd tell Meiko when she came back down from changing though. The red head just seemed really amped up to explore and lay claim to rooms. Kiyomi began to grab stuff for later in the night. Pillows, sheets, fuuton, and some games while she spoke with Mana. "So are you going to spread your fame here too by performing more acts of amazing tricks here or are you really on a break from both jobs." As much as Kiyomi liked Mana's tricks she did want the girl to relax on the vacation.

After some more chit chat Kiyomi sighed. "Did she get lost or something? Hold on I'll go check on her, unless of course you wish to go with me?" Regardless of the answer she'd go up the stairs to the master bedroom. Kiyomi gave a light knock on the door. "Meiko you alright in there? If you don't answer I'm going to come in."

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

It was always a little depressing to see one’s peers easily leave you in the dust as Kiyomi and Meiko did. Sure it may have been because Mana’s baggage was pretty heavy, may have been because they had a head-start or maybe because they weren’t lost in their mind for most of the trip thinking about rain. Still it always hurt when your peers, especially those that you outrank just completely beat you in a footrace, even one you never wanted to be a part of. Meiko even had time to look back and taunt Mana. “Just how much am I behind these two? Maybe it’s just all those missions leaving me tired. All those things happening recently.” The girl wondered to herself as she just looked over her teammates dashing forward in speed that made Mana try her best to keep up with. “Meiko I can understand, but lose to Kiyomi this badly… I really do need a vacation.” Mana thought.

All three of the girls were really impressed by the cottage, it looked like even Kiyomi has been taking this place for granted and never really took the time to just admire how amazing this place actually was. Having a rich clan line to pool resources with and treating it like a business apparently had its own perks… Even with Mana’s greatly rising fame, penny pinching lifestyle and double profession it’d take her many years of saving until she could manage to even dream about something like this. There was a small dialogue between Kiyomi and Meiko about the protective seals, Mana didn’t really think it was necessary but then she remembered how many people would want her dead alone. She had earned quite the spite in criminal underworld both in Konoha and beyond over her operations in Shukuba and her work with Yoroi. Who knew how many secret enemies the girls had, one couldn’t have been too careful.

Picking up her hyper active persona Meiko once again dashed to pick herself a room to sleep in. Mana didn’t know if she liked this active and jumpy, trigger-happy Meiko. It was certainly an improvement over the old Meiko that had confidence problems that hindered her work as a ninja but as far as personal preferences went, Mana still had a lot of getting used to do. Meiko’s running off did not upset only Mana it seemed as Kiyomi looked pretty sad about it too, without a doubt because of her weird creepy vibes… Just like that time with Meiko and the dress, “You never change, Kiyomi…” the magician thought to herself, the idea of her friends staying mostly as she remembered them was strangely comforting. This way Mana knew that no matter in how deep of a mess she’ll get into she can always just look at her friends and remember the fun past times.

Kiyomi argued against utilizing things that beaches had to offer that day, her argument about the seas being rough and the sun being less than satisfactory were well based, there was little of the sun that could’ve still been milked out and the sea was acting up. Perhaps staying inside and resting indoors was the way to go especially if Kiyomi confirmed about there being some indoor activities to occupy them. One thing Kiyomi mentioned, however, did worry the magician a little bit. “Horror movies? You mean like those about spirits and ghosts? I don’t really like those movies…” the girl said in a worried tone. Suddenly Mana evaluated Kiyomi’s character and realized that would make the girl want to see them even more, “I mean they’re boring… Ghosts… I mean… Come on…” Mana tried to fix the situation by some sluggish attempts to seem indifferent.

The girl removed the white sheets that have been laying on the couch she’s chosen and laid down, memories came to her as she was wondering about ghosts, “I can’t still be afraid of them, right? I mean I’ve fought Honda…Right?” Mana kept asking the same question returning to her childhood. The magician kept convincing herself that ghosts were only a childhood thing but then again Mana was very much still a child. Once when Mana was little and had some childhood friends come over and sleep at her house the kids listened to Mana’s father telling ghost stories and then one kid wanted to scare her and dressed as a ghost. The poor magician was so scared that she wet the bed… “That won’t happen now… Will it? I mean come on, I’ve seen zombified people, fought genetically engineered monster, I can’t still be afraid of GODDAMN GHOSTS!” Mana thought to herself as she somehow managed to cheer up.

Kiyomi expressed her wish to know if Mana would be performing in here. While there would’ve really been nothing wrong with it and Mana certainly needed to get some performances done there was only one answer to the question. “No. I’d really love to do it here at some point but not now. I’ve left all of my magic tools at home and I wanted you guys to have a break here, wanted myself to have a break as well.” Mana answered as she was engaged in a mental pickle. She really needed to get her shows going, there was just a little bit longer gap than she may have wanted between them with all the jobs in Shukuba and all the missions she’s been taking up. This place definitely looked quite good for a small tour around the Fire country. Then again she’d have to find time in this messed up schedule to just relax and travel around performing… That just wasn’t possible.

Kiyomi went out to look for Meiko, it was actually quite weird how the girl just disappeared without a sign, she definitely took a lot longer than it made any sense for her to take, maybe she found something amazing that occupied her mind, something like an amazing set of ancient armor or some old rusty decorative weapon or something. Mana just relaxed on the sofa letting her sandals slip off, it wasn’t that hard to fall asleep with all the sleepless nights that Mana had recently. Yet for some reason there were enough things to occupy the magician’s mind to prevent that from happening.

Posts : 811

((In my current position, there's nothing I can do. Meiko hasn't been asleep long enough to have a dream sequence so I'm going to have to skip this turn))

Age : 32 Posts : 544

Kiyomi instantly knew Mana was trying to bluff her. Even without having to read her mind or use her clan's training to discern lies. A child could have likely seen through her poor attempt to hide the fact she was scared. Kiyomi however decided to play innocent for now. "I guess the movies are kinda predictable most of the time. I'd need to check and see what else we've got in the video cabinet." With that said she hurried upstairs.

With no answer from her teammate Kiyomi quietly peeked in. What she found made her want to sigh and giggle at the same time. I should have known this would happen. She stealthily entered and considered scaring Meiko by jumping her. The thought was brushed away as she got closer and gazed down at Meiko her grin broadening. Meiko looked so blissful just laying there snuggling the pillow that Kiyomi didn't have the heart to wake her.

Instead she approached the closet and got out a blanket for Meiko. She unfurled it and gently draped it over Meiko's sleeping form. "Enjoy your nap." Kiyomi whispered as she tucked the sleeping red headed wrecking ball in like a child. Asleep Meiko looked vulnerable and adorable. Kinda like a puppy. A puppy that used swords, kunai, arrows, and other sharp objects to hurt people. Kiyomi left the room and closed the door behind her making no noise as she left.

The Yamanaka came back down into the living room shaking her head. "Not even here five minutes and Meiko's already taking a nap. I left her up there. Let's let her sleep and go grab some dinner form a nearby take out place and bring it back here. I'm sure the smell of food will rouse her from her slumber." Hopefully after a quick twenty minute or so nap Meiko would be energized enough to at least play a game or watch a movie with them.

"So what are you in the mood for? I'm fairly certain there is a take out place for most every style of cooking here, so name it and we'll go. You're paying after all." The last bit was said with a broad grin. Mana didn't know what she was in for when she'd be buying all that grub for all three of them.

SC's used:

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

Mana was glad that her friend seemed to back down from ghost movies, at least for now. She just despised all ghosts or spirits for some reason, perhaps such was because of her strange fascination with magic and mysticism, as someone who believed that life and existence is magical Mana found something very disturbing in wandering spirits and ghosts, something frightening beyond description and there was no valid reason for it. It could’ve been because it symbolized a dead person who was so very distressed during their moment of death that their pain bypassed the laws of reality itself which the magician found scary. Maybe it was just because she treated ghosts and spirits as spirits without any magic to their existence, they just hung around without any other purpose than to do harm to others, to scare people like Mana which couldn’t have been good. Ghosts… Mana just didn’t trust them or any medium about them.

It may have been a little weird to hear that seeing how Mana spent so much time reading about history and legends and famous artifacts of the past, so many hours were spent in the library researching past battles, the lore of the ninja countries and all the blades and artifacts of legendary heroes. Mana even sometimes went out to look into the archives in the forest of death. One may have thought that with all of her snooping around in ancient history surely Mana would’ve encountered her own fair share of ghosts and spirits but in reality it wasn’t so. The magician was yet to encounter one weird phenomenon where it was an actual haunting and not a wild animal or her peer playing a prank on her. Perhaps it was part of the reason those things scared Mana so much – because she hasn’t yet even seen one anywhere but stories, plays and movies.

Kiyomi went off to check up on Meiko while Mana was left to relax on the couch. She wasn’t too much against sleeping on the couch as she didn’t really need much comfort to sleep. To be honest, at this point all Mana needed was a soft surface to straighten her legs out and relax to sleep, it was only due to powerful self control that the girl wasn’t catching a z at this very moment. She hasn’t slept properly for several days: Shukuba was anything but peaceful sleep, her time after Shukuba was only several hours of sleep and the last night was pretty much a joke with all the nightmares and rain interrupting her every step of the way. “I swear if I miss out on any more sleep I’ll get really cranky…” Mana thought to herself.

She did appreciate the slight moment of solitude though. She hasn’t noticed how much she started loving being alone with her thoughts, initially she hated it. After so many times being left alone and having only herself to trust to save her own life Mana began to like these small moments of loneliness. The magician was never the one to be bothered by loneliness, she never cried for company or friends and only accompanied them if they needed it. It was not something that was common to her from the get go, it was a thing that came with many frightful experiences. “Damn, Mom was right, I grew up too goddamn fast…” the girl thought to herself, she knew that she started looking more and more like Yoroi and while she adored that man becoming him was one of the last things she wanted happening. “I really need to stop hanging out with myself… Then again, that’s what this whole trip is all about, isn’t it?” the girl thought to herself.

Mana took some time to reflect on her past in Shukuba for just a while just because Kiyomi was taking her sweet time with finding Meiko. The magician remembered that brave security officer woman that gave up her life for her jumping in front of a blade meant for Mana’s heart. Things like that don’t leave one’s mind easily, at least not for the young kunoichi. Knowing that someone with a young and beautiful family died so that you could live placed a curse on you, a curse to be happy and live up to their memory. You had to give more to the outside world than the person that sacrificed themselves ever could but Mana’s wall was impossible to overcome. How can Mana be more positive force to the world than a young mother… No, it was supposed to be Mana who died that day, any way she looked at it the answer was the same.

Kiyomi finally returned, Mana lifted her head from the cushion to look at her friend. The blonde informed her that Meiko somehow managed to slip asleep after only putting her head on the pillow for several moments. Not that it was very surprising, all three of the girls had to be tired, they’ve been traveling for quite a long time and Meiko was also running like the wind, it was of no surprise she crashed the first chance she got. The Yamanaka suggested that the girls get some food and bring it to the manor so that the redhead would wake up from the smell of food. It didn’t really sound like that bad of an idea knowing how much Meiko loved food, to hell with it, even Mana was hungry at this point.

“Fine, let’s go get some barbecue, I’m sure that Meiko will jump up halfway back to the mansion…” Mana sighed as she stood up from the couch, she felt really comfortably on the couch and would’ve really loved to just relax and kick back and get some sleep just like Meiko. Just after ten or twenty minutes the first take out barbecue house was in sight, the girl ran in and bought whatever her eye caught on the menu. “This trip is going to be really expensive, I hope Meiko won’t wish seconds, this is pretty much as much as we can carry…” Mana sighed as the lady was working the meat stand and putting everything in neat little boxes. “I haven’t carried this much since the last time we went out shopping for clothes…” Mana thought to herself as the girls turned back to the mansion. She wondered how long would it take before the food would be smelled by their slumbering friend…

Age : 32 Posts : 544

Note :

Happy that Mana had agreed to barbeque Kiyomi led the way. It was surprising how much she remembered about this place despite not being here in so long. Perhaps it was simply because this was were she had some of her happiest memories growing up. The memories that were the clearest were either the best or the worst. At the stand Kiyomi handled ordering. They basically got jumbo plates of the most popular meats and then second helpings. Even if Meiko didn't devour it all this night she'd have a snack for the next day...Or a midnight snack.

Once the order was done Kiyomi didn't envy Mana at all. That bill was pricey. The bags were also heavy. Heavy enough for her to consider making a clone to carry it. She decided against it. They were on vacation and using ninjutsu in front of civilians tended to make them nervous. "So I take it you don't wanna keep buying all the meals? I'm sure you'll only be neck deep in debt afterwards." Thank goodness shinobi missions paid well or this trip wouldn't have been possible for any of them. Well, maybe Kiyomi due to clan ties.

The mention of the last time they went shopping caused Kiyomi to grunt. "Let's not talk about that. Instead let's focus on what we should do tomorrow." That was still a touchy subject. She may be a bit hazy on some areas, but that didn't mean it needed to be brought up. "I really wanna try surfing with you guys. I think we'd get it pretty quick since we can stick to the board using our chakra so we won't fall off as often." It wasn't the best of subject changes, but it would have to do.

Provided Mana didn't bring up the subject again Kiyomi would inform her of all the fun activities that should still be around the town. That could easily cover the time it took to walk back to the house. Once inside Kiyomi went to the kitchen and set down the food on the dining room table. She opened one of the plates to let the heavenly smell of the cooked meat waft through the house. "I wonder if the smell alone will wake her.
Shaking her head she cupped her hands over her mouth to call up the stairs.

"Hey Meiko if you don't wake up we're gonna eat all the food!" A boldface lie. The two of them together couldn't eat all of this in two days. After calling up the stairs Kiyomi would go back to setting the table so the meal could begin as soon as their teammate joined them.

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

Kiyomi had those strange dreamy eyes and looked really happy to be around this place. Mana was glad that her friend was enjoying herself, after what happened with that bloody man and the difficult time recovering from that injury the blonde definitely deserved it. It seemed like every other building and every other street invited some memories to the young Yamanaka’s mind, it was truly a bit amusing to see her daydreaming a bit, helped Mana keeping her mind off the pricey bill slashing off a big part of her budget. It was really hard imagining Meiko’s parents keeping up with these bills, shopping food for a week must’ve been a feat all by itself, or rather managing to pay up for it. “Maybe they only shop short-term…” Mana wondered to herself, it would certainly have made more sense since carrying one or two eating sessions of food was a chore already.

“I’ll manage it…” Mana replied, she wasn’t too much of an eater and with a little bit of clever finance management on her own entertainment she could easily keep feeding her friends for a couple of days. Then again seeing the bill kind of made her wish she wasn’t so easy on Shukuba town’s payment for assisting them in reformation, her missions paid her well but doing good deeds for free definitely didn’t help her financial situation. Luckily Mana always had her magic shows to turn back to when finances were collapsing on her, she always made a lot of money from it, even if the tickets were dirt cheap, her soaring popularity more than made up for the small ticket price. Still, even if the girl has never had to tighten her belts on anything, her finances weren’t infinite. She would check up on just how limited they were by keeping up her part of the bet and feeding her friends on her own check…

Mana felt really shitty after she realized how much of an idiot she was bringing up the time they went shopping for clothes for Kiyomi, that was when the blonde got messed up by the bloody man and they all had to fight for their lives only barely making out alive. She should’ve known better, that was unacceptable for her to remind the Yamanaka prodigy about the time her brain was attacked by a psycho killer and was treated like his playground, even more it brought up the pain of Mana ordering everyone to stand back and not help Kiyomi while it happened out of fear of it spreading. That was a poor reminder of their friendship, the two weren’t the same after that day, that much was apparent every time they met.

“Hm… Yeah, surfing sounds fun, I’ve never tried it but I guess now that you brought it up it does sound pretty awesome.” Mana replied with her excitement a little bit dulled from her recent muck up and the reminder of that painful day for Kiyomi. Sometimes the magician could be a real idiot, she should’ve really thought better about her words. While the two were walking back to the mansion from the town the blonde informed Mana of all the fun activities and all the awesome things they could do in here, feeling really bad after what was said by her Mana just kept her head down and agreed with everything. To her defense, everything Kiyomi suggested sounded genuinely awesome and the girl hasn’t done most of those things in her life due to her little shaky childhood. “It’d sure beat reading documents and chasing monsters and psychopaths…” Mana thought to herself bringing up her own nightmares to herself.

Mana tried to bring up her own nightmares and torture her own mind so that she would somehow be squared to the karma about what she brought up to Kiyomi. The magician thought that she deserved to be reminded of things that chased her in her nightmares for doing the same to the poor Yamanaka. “Hm… I wonder if Kiyomi is OK after that… She looks like she’s already forgotten it or she’s just hiding it really well…” Mana thought to herself as she followed the blonde back into the mansion, she followed Kiyomi to the dining room table and saw as she opened the food letting the smell of barbecue and grilled meat fill the air, combining with the smell of various exotic sauces to make a perfect harmony. “Yeah, it should wake her up.” Mana shared her opinion after Kiyomi wondered if smell alone could do the trick, “It smells really great.”

Kiyomi yelled out to Meiko just in case the armored kunoichi was still asleep after the delicious scent covered the whole mansion, someone with Meiko’s appetite would’ve sprung up and gotten down without a moment’s delay. Then again, maybe the redhead had a very interesting dream and was pretty deep in the realm of sleep, perhaps then a more direct approach would be needed but Mana didn’t feel like conning Meiko too much, she’s already hurt the poor kunoichi with that stone tossing thing. After remembering how nasty she felt after that the magician decided to leave the pranks to Kiyomi if she felt like it and if Meiko decided to stay sleeping. Mana looked outside the dining room window and noticed that slowly the sky was starting to dim, it would probably start getting dark in an hour or two and the magician started wondering if she slipped through the scary ghost movies with all of this paying for dinner thing, after all eating all of this would take a lot of time and while Mana was not much of an eater, Meiko sure was.

“Not that my dreams aren’t a horror movie all by themselves lately.” Mana thought to herself as she rubbed her eyes with her knuckles feeling a little bit sleepy. Who could’ve known that even after being defeated her enemies would still haunt her, some of them even more than they did when they were active…

Posts : 811

((I've been so braindead for this thread ><))

The darkness had long engulfed Meiko. Exhaustion had made the transition a simple task, the red head practically passing out the moment her head touched the pillow. However, a restful and uneventful sleep was not in her future. Once she had slipped completely into a deep sleep, visions began to appear before her mind's eye. Disjointed images of places she knew, people she'd met. Gone in the instant she could recognize them. There would be moments between the flashes that would return her to darkness, her memories of them vanishing as well. Then, it was as if she was awake again, and she knew where she was. The smell of Sakura was in the air, petals falling from the trees, carried off by the wind. Around her, in the shade of countless trees stood several shrines. No one came to pray this day, she knew exactly who would be there. To her sides were her friends, Kiyomi and Mana... wait no, not friends. They were not friends yet. This was their first encounter. Kiyomi's hair was long again, her face bright and cheerful. Before the incident. Before she had killed. Mana was the same as ever, but had more energy, more youth. Not exhausted from countless hours of work.

Before them was their Sensei. Her face morphing back and forth constantly between its true form and that of a cat. She spoke silence, but Meiko heard every word. Knew every word. In a blink, she was gone. The trees swaying to and fro down the path she had taken. Immediately, Kiyomi and Mana kicked off the ground in pursuit. Their speed turning them into blurs. Meiko tried to run too, but each step felt heavy and slow. Her chest became tight, breathing a chore. She stumbled, once, twice, then fell flat on her face. The world around her melted away until only darkness remained. Her weapons were heavy, pinning her down. She didn't have the strength to remove them. Before her, her friends and teacher stood. Eyes filled with disappointment. "Wait... please... Help me...". They were silent, statues of judgement. Shrinking into the distance, they continued to stare. "Wait please... don't... don't leave me behind... I'll work harder... Don't... don't leave me alone...". The darkness surrounded her, engulfing her. Falling she flailed for something, anything to grab.

She screamed.

And then Meiko was awake. On the floor of an unfamiliar room, cold sweat on her brow. Breathing heavily, the memories came back to her. She had traveled from the village with her friends for a well deserved vacation. She had claimed the master bedroom on arrival and must have fallen asleep. "A... A dream..." She stammered, still shaken. The nightmare repeating itself in her mind, parts however already lost from her memory. Sitting herself up, pain coursed through her body. Her muscles were stiff and it was no wonder why. She had fallen asleep completely clad in her armour. "Ugh..." Moaning she managed to pull herself to her feet and began to unbuckle the hard leather. Dropping the plates unceremoniously to the floor. Under normal circumstances Meiko would have taken far greater care of her equipment, but sleep still tugged at her and the pain of stiff muscles diluted common sense. In the end, she stood wearing a light tanktop and short jeans. The clothing underneath was small and light so as not to chaff under the strain of movement. While still perfectly useable as clothing, they felt like undergarments to her considering how much she wore the armour.

Meiko was stuck on whether she should change her clothes now, or simply fall back to sleep when a sweet, tantalizing scent came wafting into her room. A scent she knew and one that caused her stomach to cry out with desire. "Mm, barbecue..." Her feet moved as though they were possessed. Sliding almost silently across the soft carpeted floor and to the stairs. Slowly, she limped her way down, sleepiness and muscle cramps made her need to take them carefully. Each step bringing her closer to the sweet meats. "Hey guys... sorry I fell asleep there..." Her voice was slightly slurry as she fought to keep her eyes open. Hopefully her friends would not hold it against her as she snaked her way over to the couch.

Age : 32 Posts : 544

Meiko's scream went unnoticed since it was on the third floor with the bedroom door closed. She was also talking to Mana so that drowned out a bit of sound as well. "Best to grab what you want before the terror arrives down here and devours it all." As she spoke she pulled a glass from a cabinet and filled it with ice. She then made herself a glass of water and grabbed a plate. She piled on the barbeque and side dishes. Enough that this would be her only plate and then took her seat at the table just as Meiko arrived.

Looking like a zombie Kiyomi had to smile. "If you were tired it's fine, but come over here and eat. Barbeque is messy and I'd rather not have a sleepy ninja dribble barbeque sauce all over the couch." She wasn't being mean, this wasn't just her house. Plus she'd get an earful from the elders if there was noticeable stains on the couches. They'd likely charge her for it.

"I hope you're able to wake up a bit so we can do something after dinner. I was hoping to watch a movie or play some board games with ya'll instead of falling asleep right after dinner...Or at dinner for Meiko." If Meiko fell face first into her food Kiyomi would have to take pictures for the photo album. And black mail material. "You're not feeling sleepy like Meiko are you Mana? If so I might have to do something to wake you both up." Her gaze went to the freezer and back at the two of them.

Kiyomi was not above putting ice down someone's back. Her father had been awoken many times before by his young daughter doing that. It was really his fault for sleeping in when they had things to do. Besides it was her mother who had taught her to do that. "Works every time." Was what she said after she and her daughter laughed as the patriarch flailed about like a fish out of water trying to get the cube out of his shirt.

Kiyomi finished a bit of her food before speaking again. "We were talking about going surfing tomorrow Meiko, or at the very least visiting the beach. Would that be something you'd like to try and do?" Hopefully without the armor. The image of Meiko falling off the board and sinking like a rock was a rather sobering one.

Age : 31 Posts : 1495

Meiko was taking her sweet time to wake up, even with the smell of rather greasy and filling meat in the air it appeared like the barbecue wake-up call was not as effective as the two may have predicted. Kiyomi looked really excited to dig up into the endless piles of barbecued meat, Mana however got depressed just by looking at it. She was a bit hungry but it didn’t took her more than a several bites to get satisfied by her meal and she spent a very large amount of money at it. “Well, at least my friends will be happy. Even if it’s for a brief moment something I’ve done made my friends happy… That’s good.” the magician tried to cheer herself up in her mind to try and compensate the depressing thoughts of losing so much of her money on a single dinner. The magician put in a couple of pieces of meat and sat down at the table to eat.

“It’s OK, I don’t eat that much, all this meat was paid for having “the terror” in mind…” Mana smiled as she looked over the pile of barbecue that Meiko still had to eat. It was very tough to believe that a person was capable of devouring such large quantities of food. It was just before the magician looked at the pile that she sensed Meiko close, the sense was so active and strong now that the kunoichi had no doubt that Meiko was awake and coming for the dinner. Mana chose not to reveal that to Kiyomi, she still thought of her sensory as kind of a freaky thing to talk about and didn’t want to freak her friends out, plus having it as kind of a hidden ace may have turned out for the better in the future.

Meiko didn’t look good at all, she looked just like how she was – woken up by something rough from her deep and peaceful sleep. Just looking at Meiko so sleepy and slow made Mana remember her own lack of sleep several couple of nights. There was the mission in Shukuba when nights sometimes had to be sacrificed for the better of the people, then there was Mana’s trip back home done in the early morning with almost no sleep after that. Also she dreamed of monsters and death every time she closed her eyes in between those times so it didn’t help her case. Mana was used to sleepless nights, maybe used to them so much that she was close to crashing and didn’t know it herself. Mana put another meatball in her mouth and slowly chewed it. She wasn’t a fan of very filling and fatty meals but not because she was afraid to gain weight – on the contrary she could use gaining some. It was just a preference.

Kiyomi suggested board games or ghost movies to the two, Mana shook her head instinctively. There would be no ghost movies with her around, her friends couldn’t know of her fear of ghosts, they’d laugh at her. “I’m really tired. I mean I haven’t slept several nights in a row in Shukuba and never had a consistent sleeping session after that, I’d really like to just hit the bed after that… I mean… Beats those silly ghost movies… Who is even scared by that… Right?” the girl stood up and left a half filled plate figuring that Meiko would’ve had no trouble finishing it for her. Mana stumbled on to the couch and sat down, she had nothing to eat so it wouldn’t really mess it up for Kiyomi as the Yamanaka feared.

Mana’s head slowly slipped down to the side of the couch and the girl started feeling how her conscience drifts away. This sense of going away was so welcome and waited for, Mana couldn’t remember when exactly did her slippers slip off and her whole body stretched out on the couch. She no longer cared the couch wasn’t good for sleeping, all she cared about was to slowly slip away and not dream of the night she spent chasing a genetically engineered monster built out of flesh of hundreds of people. That was something that didn’t really keep Mana asleep for long. “Wait… Was Kiyomi looking at the freezer… Why? She wouldn’t… Of course she would… And Meiko… She wants to pay me back… Shit… Got to wake up…” Mana jumped up the couch and straightened up “I’m not sleeping! I’m just… Off… To the bathroom, I’ll be back… To continue not be sleeping…” Mana stood up and left the room heading for where she saw a bathroom.

At this point having realized how long she hasn’t slept Mana suddenly started wanting to fall down on the floor and just start snoring, it no longer mattered where or how it would look like to her friends. Everywhere Mana looked and everywhere she went everything looked like a potential pillow or sleeping platform making the girl want to stop there and sleep. “S’not fair… Meiko got some sleep…” her mind kept talking to itself just to keep Mana awake. The girl opened the door and looked over the bathroom, it was probably one of the many but this one looked very modern and rather recently renovated. It had a toilet, a sink, even a mirror and a bath… Mana’s eyes widened in horror as she looked at the bath.

Inside the bath was a naked humanoid creature, it looked like a bald man without a nose, its eyes were wide and bloodshot and angry and its mouth was filled with sharp shark-like teeth, it looked like that thing was taking a bath in an empty bath. Mana just stood staring at the gruesome sight, the creature noticed her and hissed like a snake showing its teeth. A loud scream echoed throughout the Yamanaka estate as Mana ran back to where her friends were. Who was that thing? Was it… A ghost? “No! No such thing as ghosts! No such thing as ghosts! It didn’t look like no ghosts! But what do ghosts look like?! It wasn’t a ghost!!!” Mana’s mind was racing with itself as she shot inside the room where Kiyomi and Meiko were last seen by her and closed the door.

Mana looked at her arm – it was shaking. Was it a ghost? Was it something she saw because she’s tired? That never happened to Mana before but then again she had never stayed awake so long before… Slowly Mana walked up to the same couch and sat down still staring at her own shaking hands. “But what if it wasn’t a hallucination, what if it was a ghost? Can you trust a hallucination to be a ghost? How can you trust a ghost? What’s a ghost? Nope, can’t trust ghosts? THAT WASN’T A GHOST!” Mana’s mind kept shooting new thoughts down as they came up, the girl tried to calm down. She’d have to tell her friends something, obviously her stupid outburst of fear would’ve been noticed…