Riding the Coast

After the clues I had uncovered, as well as the mayhem I had caused in Tsundoragakure, it was time to move on in my journey. I dawned my usual lightweight travel attire that I had been in since I left my homeland. Each blade rested lazily at either side of my hip, and my mask was tied tightly in place to hide my face from prying eyes. The Mangekyou Sharingan glowed bright crimson underneath my mask through the one hole in my mask, distincting me proudly among the more powerful shinobi of my clan.

The local dockworker in the land of Southern Frost told me of a man that matched descriptions from earlier stealing a fishing boat and sailing towards the Hurricane, and so that is where I would go next. I was off to the village of Hariken. The village hidden in the hurricane. On my journey, I would pass through the forest and a small village called Elkwood, if my map was accurate. That means I would have approximately three before reaching it, giving me that long to conserve rations. While there, I would stock up on supplies and even buy myself some new gear for the adventure ahead.

The trek started off as weary, but sooner or later the snow and blizzards began to fade, and leaves and trees began to take their place, with the bright sun and blue sky following close behind. This area, in my opinion, was the perfect home to a shinobi. Thousands of trees provided many chances for cover, and the bright sun cast many shadows off of them. Too happy for me though, I more enjoyed the angry volcano from the north.

The travel went smoothly up until I reached Elkwood, where I would run into an unexpected interruption.

Tapp had returned to the island to get Shizen, he was going to have the two of them take a trip into the forbidden city to learn of the old and forgotten martial arts. They had reached shore and traveled a bit more until they came to a small village called Elkwood. There were no shops on the island and he hadn't managed to loot anything good from the hidden volcano after his battle there so the pair needed some supplies and a small village such as this with no established shinobi system would be perfect. It was a nice place, a bit to urbanized for his taste though meaning he had no plans to stay here after they had lunch later. At one of the shops where Tapp and his student were purchasing new packs to hold their things they ran across a strange looking man wearing a mask tightly bound to his face. Being a well traveled shinobi though this didnt seem especially odd to him so he let it go and went about his business of picking out what to buy, little did he know that this would be more than just a simple meeting in a shop.

I was with my sensei in some small backwater village near the forest. Our training had been going pretty well I thought, I had learned two new techniques thus far and we were apparently going somewhere amazing to continue working. The village was nice, and the scenery nicer, I was with Tappaja at a store and I was going through what they had in stock and I came along a pair of armored gauntlets and a thought passed my mind, I could use something like these. I simply put them back and went over to Tappaja and as I returned to him I saw something that made me get chills, a man in a mask. Something about him didn't feel right, I would stay close to my sensei and whisper to him "Something is bothering me about that guy with the mask..I think we should get away from him as soon as we can."

As I caroused the general store, I noticed two men looking at me. Normally, attention was expected due to my eccentric mask and behavior, but this was different. There were two of them, and they were obviously affiliated with eachother as they kept talking. I felt their stares on the back of my head, and without turning around said, "Can I.. help you gentlemen?"

I continued looking through the store. A whetstone, definitely. I needed to keep my Keys sharp. After picking up several supplies, I made my way to the counter. "Yeah, I'll take this.. this.. this.. Ah, Come on, what do you want?" I would be interrupted from cashing out as I noticed being stared at again. I also began to eavesdrop. The short one was afraid of me. Why, I wondered? The mask wasn't that scary. Perhaps the kid had seen my eye? That was the only thing I could think of. Why was he afraid of the Sharingan?

Tapp was still looking around the store for things, apparently Shizen was suspicious of this masked figure which caused the giant man to take a second look but once again he wasnt all that impressed by what he saw, either this person was your average shinobi or even a more powerful one hiding his face to move around undetected which was something he understood all to well with the reputation he had in several shinobi nations. He just looked back to his student and shrugged, "If you want to leave then shop faster. Quicker we get these supplies the quicker we can get on the road." He was just looking for supplies, leaving the masked man to his own business until he called out to someone about needing something and for now at least it was just the three ninja and the shop keeper in the room so he must have been referring to them. He thought of some things to say before hand to work out loose ends in their travel story and replied. "I'm sorry sir, you just seem to have given my nephew a bit of a fright but Im not sure why. In any case we will be on our way soon so no harm done." He turned around again and once more started picking out food and placing it into a bag from the store until it was full and started making his way to the counter to pay.

What was that I smelled? Was that.. monkey? Why did this man smell like a monkey? He was very polite to me in making excuses for his.. friend, however. I let the staring go. My attention was diverted to this gorilla of a man. There was a certain aura about him that specifically intrigued me. Perhaps this was a sign? I was indeed out to recruit more members. This was the entire reason for leaving my safehaven in the Volcano. This man was obviously older than me, but with my self-upbringing, I had learned to look at even my elders to be of equal footing. I stowed my new belongings in my bag, which I would not be paying for, and silently left the store, following this man after he bought his things. Waiting several minutes after leaving the store, I decided to approach him. I activated the third tomoe of my Sharingan as well, I did not know how this would play out, and wanted to stay safe. I tapped him on the shoulder, "What is your name?" I asked curiously. Under my mask, my expression matched. I was genuinely intrigued, and that doesn't happen regularly with me.