Hiding in the Rain Country [Travel]

Age : 49 Posts : 1036

For most people the concept of getting up before the sun is something that happens either by choice or on rare occasions. To one genin of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, being up before the sun was an all too common, if not particularly pleasant, experience. This time though Hinamori Toshiro was willingly awake before dawn, if not particularly happy about it. He had gotten back to Konoha from a courier mission late the night before intending to catch a few hours sleep before collecting pre-packed supplies and leaving on a one to three month training trip to Ame no Kuni. Instead he had been up all night helping his grandfather put his study back in order after someone had ransacked it.

Now a normal burglary in a village full of ninja wasn't a big deal - there was always that criminal element who thought they could get away with robbing ninjas. Usually they were caught (if they were lucky by ANBU, if not by the person they intended to rob) and the victim's property returned. This was not a normal burglary though. Someone had rifled Hinamori Hikaru's study for a particular item and ignored a number of valuable books and trophies of war. Instead they had pilfered a single scroll that, to anyone without very detailed knowledge, was an utterly mundane inventory from nearly a hundred years ago. To someone with the right knowledge however, it was probably one of the most valuable items in the entire house. In that scroll under a seal had been half a dozen of the Hinamori's kinjutsu.

Putting the last storage scroll into his pack before securing it shut, Toshiro wished he could say he had no idea who was behind the theft but he couldn't lie to himself. He had three very likely suspects, each of whom could have learned what was contained in the scroll with ease. It was the identity of those suspects that had compelled the genin to forgo sleep in favor of haste once he and his grandfather figured out what had gone missing. Assured that his supplies were safe and wouldn't fall out, he gripped the shoulder straps in his hand and slung the pack onto his back. Toshiro was sure, at a level where no amount of logical could say otherwise, that one or more of his three eldest sisters were behind the theft. Ever since his relationship with Katsumi Kimiko had come to light they had gotten increasingly hostile and angry towards their brother and the clan in general. If his suspicions were right, he was now in a race with them - the first to master their kinjutsu would be able to launch a preemptive strike and have the greatest chance of winning. Toshiro intended to be the winner of that race at any cost - to lose would be to put the people he cared for the most at risk.

Having forgone his normal grey pants and shirt, today he was dressed in camouflage-pattern pants and jacket along, replacing footwear for bare feet wrapped from the ankle down with bandages. Sealed away in the scrolls securely stowed in his pack was everything (he hoped) that couldn't be foraged or improvised that he might need during that his training trip. Giving his abode one final glance, Toshiro closed and locked the door before heading out of the building. From there it was a matter of an hours walk through the nearly deserted streets of Konoha in the wee hours before the sun rose to the village gates. Then a quick and hopefully quite check-out with the guards and finally three days travel to his intended training area in Rain Countries western border.