River to Fire [Travel]

Age : 48 Posts : 1036

After nearly a week spent taking the sea-coast road between the nations of River and Fire, Toshiro and his temporary companions had finally reached the official border crossing between the two nations. Already past noon, the unusually mild weather had managed to hold for the most part. A change that the white-maned jounin appreciated since the one exception had proven that, while it beat walking, an open-topped cart was just as miserable when it was raining.

Perched on the cart's seat with the reigns loosely held in his hands, the jounin shifted his weight again on the mercifully padded bench seat while waiting his turn to go through the formalities. Another time he might have actually been irritated at the delay getting back home, but right then a delay of several hours or several days was very much to his liking. The longer Toshiro could put off turning in the headache-inducing mission report and having to deliver the "tokens of respect" to the Hokage, the longer he had before another migraine-grade bout of headaches was due. In fact just thinking about that inevitable situation was enough to start a pounding behind the jounin's eyes that sent his hand in search of the bottle of aspirin that had joined his kit several towns back. A silent prayer of thanks to whichever genius had created the stuff, Toshiro shook out several of the answer to headaches before swallowing and chasing them down with water from a noticeably lighter canteen.

"You know Toshiro-san that much aspirin can't be good for you stomach. What if it gives you an ulcer?" Without turning around to locate the speaker (who was sprawled out in the back of the cart), the jounin shrugged as if to convey his choice. "I would rather deal with the ulcer than the headache." That said Toshiro went back to daydreaming while waiting for the line of vehicles and people to eventually shrink enough that it was their turn.

----[Later]----
One of the universal "virtues" of the shinobi taught in academies is patience in all things. After three hours of waiting Toshiro was wondering if "all things" excluded the situation he found himself in. What could be so trying about a border crossing as to erode a ninja's patience? Try spending the past half hour waiting while a noble with a larger than usual ego who thought he was above border checks harangued four border guards with versions of "I am so and so, I am above you peons, now let me pass". Patience fraying with each breath the so-called aristocrat breathed, Toshiro had for the past ten minutes been juggling two kunai with his free hand while trying to not think about how easy it would be bury those same kunai in the empty space that occupied the nobles skull. At some point the under-officer in charge of this particular crossing must have noticed the agitated state of the most immediately dangerous person in line and reached his the limits of his own patience with the presumption of this "noble". ""Look sir. You can go to the back of the line to like everyone else and I'll forget this ever happened. Otherwise I'll leave you to the nonexistent mercy of that Leaf-nin in the cart waiting his turn who looks ready disembowel someone." At those words the noble's head almost mimicked an owls by spinning around until he was practically looking directly backwards. Paling even more than he already was at the obvious urge to commit mayhem on Toshiro's face, the blueblood abruptly signaled for his carriage driver to comply with the guards "request" that they go to the back of the line. "Wise choice." Judging by the poorly-concealed laughs direct at the fast-retreating noble, this group of border guards were less than impressed with the so-called "upper class."

Needing no prompt from his own driver, the horse pulling the holding the two ninja ambled up to fill the spot vacated by the previous team. With the same lack of pretense Toshiro handed the travel pass stamped with the seal of the River Lord. Maybe half a minute later the guard officer handed the pass back to the jounin and with a nod to the guard manning the actual gate (really just a bar on a pivot that blocked the road) gestured for the shinobi to cross the border. Home and home-to-be respectively were now just a few days of travel away hopefully.