Leaving the Rain Country [Travel]

Age : 48 Posts : 1036

Giving the ANBU who had delivered the message to him one last blank stare that was made the hardened killer wince when glares had failed, Toshiro put the last of his supplies into his pack. On a rational level the newly promoted chuunin knew he should return to Konoha. The odds of him alone getting into Kumogakure after the Raikage had rebuffed every request he made to enter the village no matter what conditions he offered to be placed under were practically zero. Once he was back in Konoha he would have allies in his family and clan as well as other shinobi - people who might be able to find some crack in that wall of paranoia that would let Toshiro into the village. Even if that proved impossible he needed to do something and soon. So that side understood that it was in his best interests to return to Konoha. It was convincing the part that wanted to walk up and that path and through those gates, along the way carving anyone who tried to stop him into vulture food, that was hard. That was the part that wanted more than anything to be at his Kimiko's side as she lay in a coma or possibly dying. In the end it had been Tonbi who had convinced Toshiro to go back with his ANBU "escort". The pheasant had pointed out that even if Toshiro could fight his way through one of the most militarized villages to reach to reach wherever Kimiko was, there would no doubt that the paranoid fool of a Raikage would go after Kimiko's family in Kumo as well as Kimiko herself.

In the end that argument had convinced, barely, Toshiro's rebellious thoughts to temporarily reposition themselves for a new assault. It was for that reason that after nearly four months of being in Rain Country (albeit now on the border with Grass instead of Wind since it was close to Lightning Country) Toshiro had packed up his now worn and rather empty-looking pack. The final item packed, the emotionally-numb chuunin shoulder his pack and signed that he was ready to go. With that the four ninja began their trek back to Konoha. It would be a much shorter trek that what Toshiro had made since the ANBU knew ways to avoid the Hidden Rains border patrols and it would take a monumentally stupid Rain-nin to pick a fight with three ANBU and one chuunin that was penning up a great deal of murderous frustration.

If Toshiro had known the thoughts of the ANBU traveling alongside him, he might have drawn at least a measure of solace. While the ANBU were among the best Konoha had and were fiercely loyal to their Hokage and above all the village, they were human. That humanity made it very easy for them to want to tell their orders to take a long hike into a volcano and get lost then join the new chuunin in giving the Hidden Cloud a lesson in just why coming between a Konoha shinobi and someone they cared for in any way was a monumentally bad idea. If the situation had been reversed they had no doubt that they would feel the same way. It was that willingness to face any odds no matter how grim to protect those close to you from anything, even the politics of another village, that was the heart of the "Will of Fire".