A drunken arrival

Age : 35 Posts : 27

"Gahhhhhhh!" Saru yelled out as he came rushing out of a cave going full speed all the while flailing his arms madly as he was accosted by a large group of bats that had taken up residence in the narrow cave he had decided to traverse due to his natural curiosity. At this moment the young rouge was now thinking that his choice to navigate the narrow mountain side opening had been ill conceived as he now fond his self jiggling about on the ground slapping his body erratically trying to remove any bats that had managed to latch themselves to his person. Seeing as how he didn't feel the presence of any small winged animals on his body he decided it was safe to now pry his face from the ground and open his eyes before quickly bolting upright to survey the area around him that he had been to busy to do moments earlier. To his surprise, in his frightened confusion he had failed to notice the enormous village gates that now laid before him. It had been a couple of days since he had left Kusa no Kuni after picking a random direction in which to travel and god knows how many countries he had crossed on his way here but at last he had found one of the hidden villages of the ninja world although it had not been his intention to do so. If he had to guess as to which village he had happened upon it was a safe bet that it was Kumogakure based on the pain in the ass mountain ranges he had been hopping and running through like a goat of some kind.

"Hello there!" He shouted out while waving both his arms like a doofus at the Kumo sentries stationed along the walls as he made his sloppy approach to the gates all the while tripping over his own feet and struggling to keep his loose pants attached to his waist. Let's be honest for a moment shall we? Saru was in no shape or form a traditional shinobi. He neither dressed nor acted the part of a true ninja. The guy was an absolute mess of a young man in both looks and personality so suffice to say he was often dismissed as nothing more than some staggering drunk and people for the most part assumed very little of him allowing him to have to participate in as little conflict as possible unless of course he happens to get riled up and start acting like a goober which often causes tempers to flare due to the level of irritation he can cause when simply trying to be playful. With all this in mind he quickly flopped to the ground Indian style about 10 yards away the the Kumogakure gate deciding not to push his luck with coming any closer as even the nicest villages wouldn't hesitate to attack even a bum such as himself given the proper motivation. "I'll just wait down here then ok?!" Saru yelled out with a wide gleeful grin waiting for somebody to come and greet him. Best case scenario they invited him into their village and treated him to some food a thought which caused his smile to widen further as he began to drool slightly at the thought of gorging himself with yummy food. Worst case was that they placed him into custody for intruding within the village boundaries however he had a contingency plan in case of such an occasion. At this point all he could do at this particular moment was wait for some company.

Posts : 115

This certainly wasn't the happiest time of Zahhak's life. The man was never particularly fond of guard duty and he was even less fond of guard duty at the front gate. He was a much more active person, despite his skill set being very well equipped for defending a stationary position. He enjoyed being on the move a lot more than sitting in this miserable little tower while his charges for the day played cards. They had tried a few times to get Zahhak involved, but he was far too busy not caring to be enticed by it. Instead, the man, the eldest in the room, stood leaning against the wall and looking out the small little slit in the opposite wall that offered a view of the area ahead of the aforementioned gate. For a brief moment, his eyes shifted over to the other three who had been assigned to guard the gate, each of them glaring in anticipation at the small rectangles of cardboard resting in their hands. How the kids these days could be so fascinated with such things baffled Zahhak. He didn't care much for this arbitrary guard duty, but the general lack of regard for that duty that they exhibited was so pathetic. An audible sigh escaped Zahhak and was quickly drowned out by the roars of both ecstasy and depression that came from the particularly toothy guard's winning hand. Sufficed to say, Zahhak wasn't overly optimistic about the future of Kumogakure here.

Movement then caught his eye, a blur of black through the tiny slit that barely constituted a tower window raced across his view. Pressing his hips against the wall and pushing himself forward, Zahhak strolled over to the slit in the wall, drawing a few curious looks from the card players in the process. As his eyes narrowed along the opening, he watched the group of winged rats flap out of their cave in fright, a surefire sign of a disturbance. A few moments later, the cause of the disturbance stumbled out of the cave in a rather, well, intoxicated manner. Zahhak had seen beaten dogs carry themselves with more elegance than the sputtering mess of a man that made his way toward the village gates. Appearances could be deceiving however. A normal man wouldn’t have been able to make the trek here by himself; it required too much physical conditioning and dexterity for just anyone to make the trek, much less just anyone who had spent too much time with a bottle. A few childish jeers rang out behind him, the other guards laughing at the sputtering man meandering toward the gates. Their rather derisive condescension was not unmerited, the incoming newcomer was rather unimposing and rather pathetic looking, but ninja of all people should know better than to judge solely off of appearances. Zahhak shot them one more scornful look before turning and stalking down the stairs to the bottom of the tower and out in front of the front gate.

Zahhak heard the man’s drunken shouts from the inside of the spiral staircase as he strolled out to greet him, further reinforcing his caution. Even the largest drunken idiot had enough sense to notice when he was standing in front of a shinobi village. Not being awestruck at the sight was indicative enough that he wasn’t dealing with the run of the mill drunken idiot. Zahhak pushed through the door to the tower before stopping in front of the main gate, his gaze slowly turning up to the idiots in the tower, his eyes signaling to open the door. The large doors creaked open after the man decidedly told them that he would wait. Zahhak slowly made his way out past the creaking doors, stopping six meters away from the squatting mess, his rather clean cut, almost pretty demeanor serving as an odd contrast between the two. Zahhak did not look happy to see the man at the front gate; in fact he didn’t look like he was happy at all. The man spoke softly yet firmly, the severity of his glare being almost palpable. His question being more of a command than a request.

“Name and why you’re here, please?”

Age : 35 Posts : 27

The creaking of the village gate had startled Saru just as he had begun to doze off causing him to try and quickly scramble to his feet but to no avail which was obvious when he simply fell harshly onto back. Without hesitation however he quickly sprang upwards getting into a rather sloppy fighting position as he teetered back and forth barely holding his own in a fight with gravity. Now this sudden hostile and random action may have been misconstrued as a threat by the Kumo ninja that had come out to meet him, however that would be quite a stretch as Saru was facing the opposite direction of his greet and didn't seem to have a clue as made apparent by his half closed eyes and look of relaxation plastered upon his face. Needless to say it seemed as though a fight was the last thing this man was prepared for. After a few more moments of stupid staggering his stomach began to growl aggressively and as he turned groaning from hunger he finally caught sight of the man who had been nice enough to come down and say hi.

“Name and why you’re here, please?” was a question he remembered he had heard moments ago more than likely from the man before him. Saru had a rather bad habit of processing spoken words at times due to his inconsistent attention span. Oh oh oh the scraggly brown haired youth said in a happy tone as he approached the Kumo ninja slowly with his hands up as to not incite any aggression knowing full well just by this man's demeanor he didn't seem to be in the mood for any of Saru's usual shenanigans and while this man didn't seem like much of a threat on his own he didn't much fancy fighting an entire village of trained ninja so for the time being he would try hold back the urge to be as big of a doofus as usual. Try being the key word in that sentence seeing as how if Saru had any self control in the first place he wouldn't act the way he did.

"My name my good sir is Saru Diji," he announced to the man while trying to give a small bow tipping over rather far in the process almost falling over in the process before jolting upwards. "As to my reason for coming here." He paused for a moment a to actually ponder his reason for being here at this particular moment all the while scratching his head while he did so. "I haven't the foggiest to be perfectly honest with you!" He said with a goofy grin before plopping down once more obviously still pretty exhausted from the trek up to his current location. Not more than 3 second later however Saru jolted up once more remembering that he was currently starving as once more his stomach felt the need to give yet another loud growl . "Sooooo." The young rouge said sheepishly as he faced the man before him. "Is there any chance you could provide any food for a weary traveler? I'd be much obliged."

Posts : 115

Zahhak was a serious person and as a serious person, even he struggled to consider his opponent’s response to the gate opening as a serious threat as the drunken idiot sprung to his feet and squared off in a rather ridiculous fighting stance…toward the cave he had just exited from. During the man’s rather ornate performance was when Zahhak prepared for potential conflict. With a deft movement, Zahhak quickly brought his hands to his abdomen and pressed his fingers together, forming a rudimentary seal. Almost as soon as he had pressed them together, he had pulled them apart, long before the drunken idiot had managed to turn around and have his stomach growl in a rather disturbing manner. Zahhak was unaware if the man was sober enough to notice the effects of the technique that the Samatage had initiated, but the air around the man would quickly become substantially denser, almost as if he could feel the air particles around him even if the wind wasn’t blowing. Chances were, he was too drunk to notice that small subtlety but Zahhak wasn’t taking any chances and assuming his new acquaintance was as dumb as he acted. The look on Zahhak’s face betrayed that sentiment however, as the man turned himself, half-lidded, around to see a rather perturbed look on the Kumogakure shinobi’s face.

After a suitably long delay, the man finally realized he was spoken to and began chittering excitedly; apparently he wasn’t used to being addressed. As he threw his hands and started walking toward Zahhak, the man’s hand slowly shifted down to the hilt of his weapon, not really believing hostility from the man’s actions but making it very clear that he should stop approaching until he was told to. The squirrely little drunk was probably just that, but ninjas were bred, trained, and raised to be paranoid creatures and Zahhak was absolutely no different. Whenever something looked harmless, it probably wasn’t. Better safe than sorry as the saying goes; Zahhak certainly enjoyed safety over regret. As the man introduced himself, using two names Zahhak did not recognize and consequently making his question rather pointless, and bowed so far forward and with such a lack of coordination that he almost ingrained his face in to the earth beneath him; Zahhak’s grip on his katana eased slightly. It wasn’t a lack of preparedness, Zahhak was still ready to draw it at a moment’s notice, but the man was so…out of it that it was now too difficult to really consider him a threat. He was aware that complacency was the easiest way to get himself killed, but this was too ridiculous.

As the man admitted to having no idea why he was there, which was something that wasn’t going to do him any favors, Zahhak’s eyes narrowed slightly. The question mark that was this man was enlarging by the moment. He seemed a fool, but as he had mentioned earlier, he had managed to successfully navigate himself to their village, something that a normal human would not be physically capable of, which meant he was a capable idiot at the very least. The safe thing to do would be to have him killed now, but he doubted the Raikage would approve of that. In fact, that seemed to be the most logical way to play this. He’d give her the responsibility of dealing with the boy; she seemed to prefer to horde all the responsibility herself anyway.

The drunk’s rising start caused the grip on Zahhak’s katana to tighten again, paranoid again being a very real part of the job description, but was quickly replaced by a look of confusion, almost amusement. The interloper’s stomach rumbled again and Zahhak of all people had to stifle his laugh. The man reached in to his pouch and withdrew a small bag filled with saltine crackers and a small piece of sealed cheese, emergency rations in case something unfortunate happened. With a practiced quickness, Zahhak, withdrew them fully from his side pouch and tossed them to the man, being sure to put them at a bit of a lob so he had a slight chance of tracking it in his delirious state. His words, as cold and business-like as before, soon followed.

“That should be sufficient for the time being. You are to be escorted inside and given to someone who will process your arrival. Keep in mind, unless you’re particularly fond of becoming a pincushion, I recommend you behave yourself. Eyes and weapons will be trained on you at all times. Follow me, if it goes well, we’ll talk about further dietary adventures.”

Zahhak turned on his heel once finished and began back toward the village gates. Of course, he wasn’t actually optimistic in his gate guarding cohort’s capacity to riddle him with projectiles if he started something, they were probably too busy with their cards, but it sounded like a good enough threat. Zahhak was capable of defending himself from attacks regardless so it wasn’t of that much consequence. The sooner he got this lout to the Raikage, the sooner he could do something more interesting, like stare at a wall.

Spoiler:

Age : 35 Posts : 27

"Thank you kindly!" Saru said joyously as his hand reached out to grab the goodie bags in which his newly appointed tour guide had been gracious enough to part with. Despite his currently state of mind he seemed to have no problem snagging both of the small bags from the air using a single hand which could have could have been either a show of skill or a testament to his current hunger. Either way he made rather sort work of the snacks he had been supplied, all the while covering his face with one of his over-sized sleeves as to not to cause unease with his ravenous eating habits. Within seconds the food had been wiped from existence and Saru sprang to attention once more before haphazardly attempting followed his escort more or less ignoring his threats about pincushions or whatever it was he was going on about.

In all honesty the only thing keeping Saru here at this particular moment in time was the off chance that he would be fed in greater quantity, however if Kumogakure was like any of the other villages he had been to in the last few months then it would certainly be worth his while to stick around and have a good time. This being said he would have to wait until he met the person in charge and gained any kind of bearings on his current situation before he made any attempt as his unique brand of fun which more often than not got him into trouble and this hardly seemed like a good place to carry on with his antics while being a complete stranger. So for the time being he would be on his best behavior and try his hardest to at the very least not give the village of Kumogakure a reason to hunt him down which if anybody actually knew the young rogue would tell you this would be quite the undertaking for the young man and if followed through with deserved hi praise. Finally snapping out of his rare concentrated thought he managed to stumble over once more without any reason besides his deplorable movement. As Saru laid on the ground beneath him he finally managed to take notice of the grand village of Kumogakure which seemed to put him into an awestruck daze of sorts as he viewed it as the largest playground he had ever seen. As he took it all in he bounced up giddily, quickly scurrying towards the older gentleman who had let him into Kumo eager to meet with the Raikage and see where this accidental trip to one of the two great villages would lead him.