An 'Unwelcomed' Arrival

[Siu]

Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch,

The winds of familiar weather long unfelt touched upon the uncovered areas of her skin as the female youth made her way through the unnatural, gigantuous crevice between one of the many rock formations protecting the entrance to Kumogakure. Eyeing through the now unastonishing shapes and mountains in comparison to the ones she'd recently departed from, the youth took a large inhale of the chilly, homeland air; Her breath visible as it departed from her lungs.

Her feet would come to an abrupt pause, her dark eyes dilating as the sun touched upon her countenance. "Home..." Muttered a fatigued voice.

From the ancient entrance between the mountains two guards looked up from their doings, eyeing the new arrival her entire way to their proximity. She'd come to a solid stop a few feet away from one of the guards, audibly stomping the ground with her final step and putting her hands to her side in what appeared to be a overly slack, almost mocking, militant fashion which intensified the attention to her arrival.

"Hello!" The girl happily greeted with a pleased smile and bright eyes, displaying obvious enthusiasm.

"Home residence?" The male guard routinely asked in his militant tone.

"Kumogakure!" The teen proudly stated with a slight accent.

The guard arched an eyebrow at the claim, displaying his obviously inward doubt. Her outlandish attire likely didn't help, either.

"Passport, evidence of identification?" Routinely continued the next request.

"Right! Oh...um...wait a moment.." The youth responded, before rather carelessly dropping the sack upon her back onto the dirt and couching down in order to rummage through her belongings. The clanking and rattling of pots, pans, spoons, and other various possessions could be heard as she ran her hand through the unorganized collection. This search took place for a few minutes, the guard displaying a deadpan expression in response to her messy antics.

"Ahh! Ahaaa!" The girl would eventually exhale, signaling her requested find. "Here you are!" She happily continued as she stood up proudly, handing something that looked akin to an identification card; Its sealing around the card heavily scratched, the card itself terribly wrinkled, and the entire object in general littered with dirt stains from the inside out. Parts of the card were so uncared for, that entire words were too obscure to even read.
The guard displayed obvious struggle, squinting and leaning forward as he reached out a hand in order to steady and better investigate the held out object. There was about a full minute or longer of silence during this investigation, the card's possessor enthusiastically smiling throughout the entire process. The guard's eyes suddenly settled upon a certain part of the ID, as if to be in heavy consideration of something. He looked at the card, then back at the teen, then back at the card, and back at the teen again. The youth's once enthusiastic expression suddenly shifted into confusion, while the guard's expression became more stern as he took possession of the card.

"This." He solemnly stated, turning the worn out and hardly readable object in front of the female for her to observe herself, "Is not you." He concluded, pointing to the worn picture upon the ID with his free hand.

"Thirteen years old?" He rhetorically questioned, straightening his back upright and eyeing the tall teen up and down in a blatantly doubtful fashion.

"Dallah." He eventually called out without looking away from the teen. As if able to read the other guard's mind without any further words, the other female guard exited from her booth and stood on the side of the young teen attempting to enter the village gates.

Having obviously reached their conclusion that the ID was not of its possessor, gate security's next suspicions would make themselves apparent. "Considering this is obviously not you. The question is where did you get this from--And where is the citizen you obviously stole this from?"

The young teen's confused countenance displayed great surprise upon the statement. "It's me!" She reassured in front of the village gates. The guard's facial expressions, despite the girl's great emotion, displayed they obviously weren't convinced. From this, one could assumed things were in the midst of becoming problematic.

 

[Funai Ikko]

Ikko's ears perked up as if he were an especially excitable dog. It was subdued at first, Ikko had been enjoying a routine high impact meditation session(read: nap) and the voice he heard didn't sound quite right. It was familiar, but in a sort of vague...almost distorted fashion. At first, Ikko thought he was imagining it, outside of Suika he hadn't had much of an interaction with anyone from the "old days" and it had been something he might have been pining for. So hearing a voice from the past had to be his brain playing tricks on him, no? Then he became progressively more and more awake and it was becoming more and more difficult to completely write off that creeping sensation that he knew that voice.

"No..."

Ikko hopped to his feet and made for the wall. Security had been ramped up lately, but thankfully most of the attention was directed to the area outside the walls and Ikko doing things that looked weird or unusual was...neither weird nor unusual for him so for the most part his scaling of the wall wasn't impeded in any meaningful way and his eyes popped stealthily over the ramparts to look down at the scene below, a small gleam in his eye as another gate guard was called over to inspect the passport. He couldn't make out what was on the booklet from this distance, Siu herself was rather difficult to make out at this distance, but from their distant voices Ikko could piece together why they were struggling. She was barely recognizable, she had really grown. If Ikko was just passing her on the street he wasn't sure if he'd have drawn the connection, but that look of utter confusion was one Ikko'd be able to spot anywhere. It was one he frequently got from her when he kicked Eishi into a broom cupboard or when he threw a toddler across the room or when he...well...when he basically did anything. He couldn't remember a time when Siu wasn't perplexed by him. At the thought a small smile crept across his face. He might as well help, no?

As the pair of guards readied, presumably, another barrage of identity theft allegations, a small ball of white, stark against the darkened clouds and mountain peaks around them, sailed through the air and smacked into the back of the male gate guard. The snowball melting against the back of his head and leaving a small, soaked note stuck against his head, the note reading:

'Check the date on the passport, she hasn't been here in quite some time.'

A second snowball fired from the other side of the wall and crashed at Dallah's feet, another message hastily scrawled in messy hand writing read another message.

'That actually is Siu, I, Funai Ikko, grand maestro of all things cookie consumption and ursine fisticuffs, will vouch for her.'

Ikko, latched to the wall by his chakra lined feet, tapped his pen to his lips as his eyes thoughtfully looked up to the sky for a few moments before that "eureka" moment dawned on him with comical over-exaggeration as he scrawled one more note and placed it in to one of the final two pockets of snow and, with a small twist of his fingers, condensed the snow around it and flung it once more over the wall, straight for what he imagined was an even more irate guardsman's face, reading once more:

'She's really grown, let her know she's looking great and see if she'd want to grab dinner with me.'

A fourth and final snowball flew over the wall, aimed at Dallah's abdomen with a final note embedded within:

'Just kidding Dallah, my love, you're the only plain clothed, perpetually dour, sourpuss babe for me. All those other bitter women mean nothing to me, I swear!'

On second thought, this might not have been the most...effective tactic of getting her through the gate and out of this misunderstanding...

 

[Siu]

"Really!" The youth continued to plea. "Look at the eyes, the hair color; Its me! I am not a thief! I'm a Kumogakure shinobi, born and raised!"

"Not just a Kumogakure citizen, but a Kumogakure shinobi, huh?" Mocked the male guard. "Alright kid--Which village you runnin from?" The two guards undoubtedly disbelieved the claim, both displaying uninhibited amusement; That was, until an audible, wet 'smack' could be heard resounding from behind the male guard's head.

"What the hell?!" Exclaimed the surprised male, his previously amused face immediately shifting to confusion and anger, as he and Dallah both darted their heads towards the direction of the unexpected projectile. Siu's eyes also somewhat widened in response to the sudden 'attack', obviously caught off guard herself.

"Did you see where that came from?!" Inquired the baffled guard.

"Sir." Mumbled Siu.

"No, sir!" Replied Dallah in her militant tone.

"Sir..." Continued Siu.

"Son of a bitch; It came from somewhere! Snowballs don't just come flying out of nowhere--Especially when it's not even snowing!"

"Sir." Siu attempted, yet again.

"What?!" The obviously irritated man exclaimed, looking upon her with agitated eyes.

Without words, Siu turned her head and made a pointing gesture behind it, before then pointing the same finger towards the man himself.
The two guards observed the younger teen, as if they required a few additional moments to actually register the meaning behind her silent gesture. The older man eventually responded by slowly raising a hand in order to peel the latched object from upon his head. Dallah also edged closer, in order to get a good read of the note herself as the man held the drenched paper in front of him.
The two examined it for a time, both seeming to read the letter in almost mental unison before eventually looking back up at the also baffled Siu, her expression more confused and curious than their own. Even that moment wouldn't last too long, however, for before anyone reached any sort of consensus a second snowball crashed right on top of Dannah's feet, causing her to flinch and jump back in caution

"Who goes there?!" She demanded, shouting towards the ramparts. In the midst of this, the younger teen had kneeled over to pick up the second drenching note from upon the ground.

"Ma'm..." The youth innocently called as she held up the dripping object in front of the startled woman. Dannah's now also agitated eyes settled upon the scribbled paper, her fellow male guard also leaning over to read its contents.

"...Who the fuck." Dallah began

"...Is Funai Ikko?" The second guard finished.

"Ik..ko?" Lowly mused aloud the shinobi, taking a few moments to register the long unheard name from the crevices of her mind.

"...Ahhh! Ikkooo!" She eventually re-announced, both guards giving their attention back to her as if she had just solved a large-scale crime.

"Son of a..!" Exclaimed the man as the third barrage suddenly smacked him right in the face this time. Peeling yet the 'third' note from his face, he grimaced.

"Check the date on the ID." He solemnly ordered through gritted teeth. "I've got this jokester." And with that, he made his way for the ramparts towards the supposed direction of the projectile, leaving Dallah to handle Kumogakure's entering guest.

Watching the male leave his post, Dallah eventually turned her solemn expression towards Siu, before holding up the ID once more in order to re-examine it. Furrowing her brows in deep concentration, she also struggled to read the obscure text. Upon lowering the ID just enough for her to examine Siu's face while comparing the ID card below, Siu could be observed displaying a noticeably strained smile in an attempt to make the mood less awkward.

"The date is gone.." Dallah pithily stated.

"Oh, c'MON; Now you're just being unreasonable!" The now noticeably agitated teen exclaimed.

"Unmatching picture, unreadable date, flying snowballs." The woman nonchalantly reasoned, "You've got not much to go on, kid. What do ya want?" She concluded with shrugged shoulders and raised hands.

As if to nonverbally answer her question, a fourth flying snowball arrived to hit its target right in the abdomen, causing the woman to exhale an audible "Oof!" as she stumbled back a bit, a strike which caused even Siu to cringe in response. Holding her own personal dripping message upward, her face displayed obvious, yet still desperately composed irritation. The further she read down the note, the more red with irritation she appeared to grow, into what eventually seemed to manifest into boiling anger

"...Sour..puss?"

Closing her eyes in another effort to recompose herself, Dallah opened them up again with a resolved expression upon her countenance, squeezing the held note and forcefully trashing it on the ground.

"Stay. Here." The female guard bluntly ordered before angrily marching her way towards the direction of her own received projectile, opposite way of the male guard's.

Watching the woman storm off, Siu nonchalantly walking forward and kneeled down in order to recover the balled up, wet paper from upon on the ground.

"What's a..sourpuss?" The shinobi curiously called aloud with a risen eyebrow, still eyeing the note. She had departed from Kumogakure and not commonly communicated in the language for so long, that much mature slang was wholly unfamiliar to her.

"Stay. There!" Repeated the woman sternly, without bothering to educate the shinobi.

"Rude." Grimaced the shinobi, before casually picking up her backpack, and eyeing about the area in an effort to find a possible solution in; Whether through the guard's approvals or not.

 

[Funai Ikko]

"Uh oh."

The words were muttered under Ikko's breath as he detached from the wall and landed on the ground beneath with a muted thud as soon as he heard the hitherto unnamed male guard, Ikko had decided to call him Lee, because there were a billion Lees and he just had one of those forgettable faces that you almost didn't want to bother ascribing a name to. As soon as Ikko's feet hit the ground and he heard that, unfortunately, Siu had taken no small pains to make sure she didn't take care of her passport at all whatsoever if the date of birth and issue date were completely illegible. He would have to get more creative to make sure she didn't wind up in a dungeon somewhere. Ikko dropped down behind a nearby tree and began pulling things out of his pack as the air around him chilled rapidly, water vapor condensing rapidly into a spot before him, forming into a replica of little Ikko comprised completely of ice. It wouldn't fool the guard long if he got a solid look at it, but it would at least be seen as movement and hopefully buy Ikko a little time as the replicant tore off down the street, hopefully catching Lee's attention.

As the chase was on, Ikko affixed the seal on the piece of paper that had a considerable amount of legalese upon it. It was his mission debrief, but it would work for this...hopefully...probably. At least the seal itself was authentic and hopefully it was all he would need. Hopefully. With Lee chasing after a clone that, when caught, would poof into a lovable snowman equipped with goofy smile and a remarkably carrot looking nose, Ikko stepped through the gate and cut off Dallah, a look of supreme irritation now plastered on his face. Before Dallah could angrily accuse him of what was, at best, borderline harassment, Ikko blew past her, waving the text heavy piece of paper above his head fast enough that really only Yuii's seal of approval and signature could be really made out. It didn't stop Ikko from screaming at her though.

"NO, YOU STAY THERE! DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'RE DOING!? NO, YOU WOULDN'T OR YOU WOULDN'T BE DOING IT!"

Ikko's hands were waving wildly in a half furious half panicky hysteria as he passed a likely dumbfounded Dallah, using only the slightest of motions with his flailing arms to, for but a moment and with his back to the woman, place his finger upon his lips. Indicating Siu to be quiet for but a moment, Ikko turned around sharply to the guard and resumed his shouting.

"THIS IS SIU, MISTRESS YUII'S OFFICIAL BLUEBERRY SURVEYOR! SHE HAS AN URGENT REPORT FOR YUII REGARDING THE CRUCIAL INGREDIENT IN HER DOUBLE BLUEBERRY SURPRISE ICE CREAM! LAST TIME SOMEONE WAS HELD UP AT THE GATE AND BROUGHT ATTONBITUS BLUEBERRIES INSTEAD OF ASPHODELUS BLUEBERRIES. DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAP..."

Ikko caught himself, mid-rant and turned away, taking a deep breath, the seal that had been waved in front of Dallah's face the whole time he was ranting was now nestled. Exhaling deeply, Ikko turned back to Dallah, his face a mask of despair and exhaustion.

"No, no it's better if you don't know. It's how I ended up with a stutter and a wooden pinky toe. Now p-p-please, let us in there so I can save all of us!"

Ikko grabbed ahold of Siu's hand behind him and pulled her forward, moving past Dallah and leading his old friend into the village proper, hopefully before Dallah could gather her wits and realize just how stupid everything Ikko just said was. It was a shame he had to use the one get out of jail free card he had, but he could always try faking the next one...probably. When they were, hopefully, out of earshot, Ikko turned to Siu and smiled.

"We should probably actually go see Yuii sometime soon here though...there's no way she's not going to hear about that little stunt. Where have you been?"

 

[Siu]

As Siu continued searching about the area, even considering whether to simply chakra-walk up the rampart and deal with the possible consequences along the way, she'd turn her head at the suddenly abrupt stop of the female guard's footsteps and the sound of the another's unexpected arrival.

The youth's look, indeed, matched the dumbfoundedness of Dallah herself. The female guard's face of once boiling anger shifted into stunned perplexion; Not only concerning the far younger male's confusing antics, but also his great audacity to simply sweep right by her as if he'd committed no crime whatsoever and held a great authority of some kind. While her eyes, indeed, could not get clear view of the actual text written upon the rapidly waving document, the woman had granted far enough approvals (and disapprovals) to recognize the shape of the Main Branch Sennin's official seal, leading to an expression of shocked submission.

Had she been told that one of her previous peers would be arriving to greet her, never would Siu have even faintly imagined the blue-haired wonder whom had violently kicked one of her closest friends into a storage room many years ago to be the first one at the gates to not only greet her, but also the very one to come to her aid. Noting the hushed finger with wide eyes, she simply observed in awe as the young shinobi went about his antics; Antics which while previously deemed as solely senseless, destructive, and detrimental to the well-being of teammates and success of missions, bizarrely now displaying themselves as the perfect tool for such a serious predicament. Ikko would receive a look of suspense from both of the females in the midst of his pregnant pause, Dallah now noticeably displaying guilt and embarrassment. Before Siu could wholly comprehend just what in the world was actually happening, she'd find herself literally 'walking' right through the city gates.
Continually remaining silent throughout the whole charade, it would be at the younger male's first direct words to her that the youth's previously composed face shifted into a large smile.

"After all these years." The teen began with brightening eyes, before leaning over to grasp the younger male for an emotionally filled hug, "Who would've guessed you of all people!" She finished, her embrace communicating her joy of just seeing the boy and her thankfulness towards him.

"I've just returned from the Marshland!" She began to inform as she let the youth go, both hands resting upon his shoulders as she gave him his distance back.

"Shizuka." The teen continued on, a look of faintly noticeable concern upon her face. "..Is she okey? And have you seen Instructor Shieo? And what about Eishi? And Suika?--Are they also okey?" She bombarded her savior with.

It would be around then, another voice would be heard echoing throughout the city from the ramparts.

"Are you fucking kidding me??!!"

It appears Mr. 'Lee' had finally caught his target, and he didn't appear too happy concerning what he found.

---

Meanwhile, at the gates..

"Are you alright?" Dallah inquired concernedly, upon recognizing 'Lee's' arrival.
"It was a shinobi alright, a real prankster." He irratatedly informed. "Where is the girl?"
"She went through."
"So the date matched up?"
"I wasn't able to see it, sir."
"Then...'why' is she in the city?"
"She turned out to be someone of great importance, sir; Yuii's very own personal Blueberry Surveyor."
"Yuii's...'what'?"
"Personal Blueberry Surveyor, sir; For the crucial ingredient to her double blueberry surprise ice cream."
"Dallah."
"Yes sir."
"Are you an idiot?"

 

[Funai Ikko]

"And we should really probably go see Yuii sooner rather than later, if she finds out about that from them before she finds out from me I don't kn..."<i></i>

It's difficult to describe how many emotions and thoughts rifled through Ikko's head over the course of the next two seconds. At first, it was panic. There was always the lingering concern that this wasn't actually Siu, just someone impersonating her with a Henge or something similar and while he, logically, pieced together before that such concerns were implausible as the impersonator would somehow need to formulate an accurate approximation of how Siu would look multiple years removed from the time when anyone in her village had seen her while simultaneously getting her mannerisms down as well. However the sudden movement did throw that in to question. Was he being attacked? Open, empty hands though, no weapons, he couldn't sense any chakra, so what was she...oh. Then the other thoughts went through his head as her arms wrapped around him in a tight hug. These kinds of emotions were never Ikko's strong suit and he didn't really know how to react. He was even less familiar with physical displays of affection, having grown up in a world where they basically did not exist. He was supposed to hug her back right? But he had been given a long talk about where he can and can't touch people which seemed to vary wildly based on height, weight...something called a cup size, , so where were his hands supposed to go? As a result, Ikko's hands were flailing slightly behind Siu as she bore down on him, trying desperately to find the least offensive place for his hands to land before he decided on mirroring where she had touched him. That gave him just enough time to wonder what the hell "Of all people" was supposed to mean, but the hug was surprisingly pleasant, he could get used to that.

"I don't know much about Shizuka, they keep her excessively busy to the point where I barely get to see her, much less talk to her. Last I heard she was healthy at the very least. I never really knew Shieo, but if reputation indicates anything he's too much of a douchemuffin to be anything but infuriatingly healthy, and Eishi is the same as he's always been. Trying very hard to do nothing at all. And Suika...Suika is..."<i></i>

Before he could finish, the dulcet tones of one Lee S. Vulgar, Esquire punched through the touching scene they had been formulating for themselves and gave the now very red faced Ikko an excuse to look away, back toward the ramparts. Ikko,brought one of his hands up to his shoulder to loop into one of Siu's hands on his shoulder, his face quickly slipping back to that happy, excited, goofy smirk.

"Come on, you could probably use a warm meal. You can tell me more about the Marshlands and it's probably a good idea to get off the street before they pool their deductive skills together and realize Blueberry Surveyor might not be an actual title. We'll try to track down Yuii after."<i></i>

Ikko gently moved to pull her along down the street for a few paces before letting go and letting her carry herself on her own accord. There was a nicer ramen shop they could probably make it to before Lee and Dallah could collect themselves and genuinely start searching for the pair of them and if Siu had been on her own in the Marshlands...warm and rich in carbohydrates were probably the two most important things.

Ikko, presumably with Siu following in behind him, pushed past the cloth curtains obscuring the entrance and held up a pair of fingers in the direction of the staff. Thankfully, the place was packed to the point where they weren't going to stand out too much. Useful if they needed to hide.

"Two please."<i></i>

 

[Keigo Oen]

'A shinobi must see the hidden meanings within the hidden meanings.' Eiji would twist the cap of his water bottle with a free hand as it reached down and lifted the empty container to reveal to Eiji that there was no liquid to be drunk. 'Shit... I'm thirsty as fu-...' his thoughts cut from the sight of a shop close by. Flowers and such. He was thinking of getting some for Shizuka... or Aya... but Aya wouldnt want Flowers and Shizuka may trap him in a tree... or she might be able to make her own with her abilities. It was a weird thing to be in. He was unsure of his feelings, especially with the ANBU Rank hovering over him and with his studies in one hand and hormones in the other, the young Endo Clansman would find himself between ideas. 'Oh well...' he'd close the book of Honor and Shinobi Proverbs he'd checked out from the library before huffing.

"Maybe I'll get a bite to eat... then I'll think some more on it... Might just be a bit hungry and thirsty.", nodding he didnt want to get locked into Gate duty especially if they saw his face, and that blasted paperwork would be too much of a hassle to get into right now, so stopping at a local noodle shop, not far from the gates but close enough to be able to respond to a call, Eiji would find himself looking through the colorful establishments before picking the one that he'd yet to go to, or rather one he'd not visited this year.

Stepping through the threshold of the restaurant, the dark skinned boy known as Endo Eiji, would be seen to place the book into a back pouch, before raising a hand for service, and being sat near two others, Blue hair and another female. He didnt look too deeply at their appearances just yet, but he did hear something that piqued his interest from there he would gather everything from his glance at them to surmise what was going on. Something about Shizuka, someone he'd gone on a mission with some time back. The gal that he'd grown quite fond of... but he wasnt sure if those were real feelings or something coming from elsewhere.

Though as he sat and listened, Eiji would actually Order as well, "Gyoza and Dipping Noddles and Water Please.", nodding he'd be sitting not far from the duo talking but he definitely would begin trying to figure out the situation, and trying to see if Shizuka was in any trouble, but from what he'd gathered in the short moments, was that they knew as much about her as he did. 'Hmph...Maybe I should stop ease dropping...' but he would wait. For now...

 

[Siu]

A greatly relieved expression appeared upon the youth's face as her blue-haired savior informed her of the status of her long unseen friends and companions. "They're alive..." She inwardly rejoiced. Her strongly curious eyes would continue to glisten with great interest as Ikko further went on to explain Suika's situation, before the girl suddenly jerked her head towards the ramparts in response to the vulgar exclamation from the male guard.

It would not be long afterwards before the young duo was out of the streets and into the very heart of the city. The teenage girl had no quarrels against actually decent, seasoned food. Having survived off unseasoned foreign animals, plants, and fruits which had caused her rather memorable food poisoning and sickness quite a number of times before she'd actually begun to understand and adapt to her unfamiliar surroundings, or dealing with the frequent alternative of simply eating nothing at all for days on end, made one greatly appreciative towards such simple luxuries. While the youth had learned a handful of recipes in the wilds, she considered that most of that knowledge would become rather useless now that she had arrived back to her homeland, as those recipes relied heavily upon the ingredients of foreign species and vegetation--and far more tolerative stomachs.
Following the boy into the crowded establishment, Siu's eyes widened somewhat with surprise as she flipped the curtains back in order to witness the large amount of Kumogakure guests; Those whom were referred to as her 'kinsmen.' Inside rang an orchestra of uninhibited noodle slurping and utensil clattering. The older teen felt somewhat overwhelmed by it all, for it had been quite a long while since she'd been in such crowded company.

"Two please." The younger shinobi would inform the staff. Looking over at another customer just finishing their meal, Siu observed as the pocket change spun and chattered atop the wooden table out of clasped hands as the guest left the establishment.

"...Oh." The youth lowly noised as if a sudden realization had dawned upon her, before turning her gaze towards the blue haired shinobi, staring at him for a few moments as if carefully considering her next choice of words.

"I..." She began with a somewhat nervous smile.

"Lack doun--hyun--" The teenage girl fumbled about, pausing once again. "Funds." She'd eventually solemnly finish, finding the correct word.

"Yes." Siu continued, as if she'd just answered a silent inquiry. "I'd like to reimburse you." Came the conclusion with a resolved nod; A nod that seemed more of an re-assurance for herself, than for the actual blue-haired shinobi in front of her.

 

[Funai Ikko]

Ikko, despite his rather goofy demeanor, was a genuinely perceptive person. He noticed things people wouldn't expect him to and his wooden pinky toe would typically make people doubt his capacity for empathy and awareness. For instance, not many would expect Ikko to notice how uncomfortable Siu seemed to be as soon as she was surrounded by other people. It wasn't that she was especially overt or anything, she wasn't having some traumatic flashback upon seeing a crowd nor was she staring boggle eyed at the amount of people, but it was pretty noticeable that there was trepidation. That seemed to continue as they sat down. Ikko took the moment to look around the room, make sure there were exits if they needed them, make sure they were properly hidden from the door...and to notice the newcomer. He was, coincidentally, set down possibly dangerously close to them, close enough to overhear things. Ikko doubted it was going to necessarily be an issue, he just needed to avoid announcing that he just smuggled someone past the gate.

The boy turned his attention back to Siu as she, thankfully, ordered the food for the pair of them easily enough. It seemed like things were coming back to her well enough, but then the concept of currency seemed to dawn on her out of the blue and the struggles reared their ugly head once again. What exactly did she go through out there...and why would Cloud send her there? A small frown formed on Ikko's lips as she stumbled over the words, or more specifically the word. When she finished forcing it out, it was less of a request than it was a sort of...promise. It wasn't undue, Ikko had no qualms covering her, if she had spent that long living effectively in the wild he didn't see much reason for her to have any currency at all, much less one that this shop would accept. So he was sort of expecting to have to going into it...but now that she raised the specter of the conversation, Ikko had a better idea of how she could reimburse him as a mischievous smile formed on his face.

"I have a better idea, you can pay for desert."

Ikko reached back into his back pocket and pulled out a long, rolled up piece of paper and setting it on the table, unfurling it across the wooden table. Etched into the paper was a remarkably and suspicious detailed looking floor plan of the administrative building with one room highlighted in neon green coloring. Ikko pointed his finger triumphantly at the green spot and grinning at Siu.

"So here's the plan. This is Yuii's office here. Somewhere in this office is the holy grail of all pastries. Yuii's super secret salacious snickerdoodle stash. This is the great cookie caper of the century! We're going to need to enter here. This is a service entrance, I'm not sure why they need one so big but during my surveillance I know a lot of meat packing trucks go in there, I assume the Raikage eats a lot of cows, I'm not sure, it's not that important. What is important is this is the easiest place to try to get in to the building. As long as we don't use too too much chakra and tip the guards we should be able to get in. Then, once inside, there's a couple hallways we're going to need to go down before there's a conveniently large enough ventilation shaft that we'll need to go through, but this'll get us to the room adjacent to Yuii's office. I'm not sure how we're going to get into the office out of that, but what's a heist without a bit of last minute dramatic improvising?"

Ikko backed away from his blueprint, clearly excessively proud of himself despite the idiocy of everything he just said. He was not remotely joking about this plan and he fully intended to infiltrate the Main Branch Sennin's office and plunder all of her cookies. Grinning down at Siu, he proudly announced:

"Siu, are you ready to accomplish this quintuple S-rank mission? The greatest in the history of The Hidden Cloud? Also I think Shizuka has been working closely with Yuii, we might get to see her."

 

[Keigo Oen]

Shaking his head at the blue haired male, but sitting up in his seat he'd take the Water from his waitress before huffing about again. Listening in to their conversation Eiji didnt feel at all bad about snooping. Hell it could stop a national disaster from happening. And with that he'd surmise that it was nothing after noting that Yuii was the Main Branch Sennin from documents he'd seen, or rather she was someone of high regard in the Main Branch at the very least. Top Priority protection she was. Or so he'd seen... and now this boy was talking about getting into her office for pastries? This had to be a joke... right? The More he listened in it seemed like more of something that had been deliberately planned... but completely innocuous to Yuii herself but Eiji thought he'd oblige in outrage.

"Ahem... I dont think that would be a good Idea Lad.", talking from his seated position with his gaze faced directly out the near window, "Never know who is listening and might want the pastries for themselves...", smirking a bit he was absolutely riddled with laughter internally but his general demeanor was one of serious disdain for what he seemed to be planning. his dark eyes would slowly make their way over to the direction of the two, not sure if he could see them properly he'd stand to his feet taking a step or two to speak to them properly.

"...So whats it gonna be?" Eiji stood there dressed in his general gear, but nothing completely over compensating for his lack of weaponry. He was a living weapon of course, being a shinobi made you one. Though, it did seem like they were genuinely not causing trouble... but Eiji was a bit on the serious side of things... rather when it came to things outside of Aya and Ryu. Shaking his head at the two he'd await the response like some disappointed father, or authority figure.

 

[Siu]

The next series of unexpected events unraveled rather quickly.

"I have a better idea, you can pay for desert." Siu raised an inquisitive eyebrow, she had not expected to fulfill her promise immediately after lunch. How could she possibly pay for dessert if---

--Oh.

Observing as the enthusiastic, young troublemaker unrolled his covert-operation plans across the ramen-restaurant table, the older shinobi's eyes examined the replicated attempt of the Main Branch's Headquarter Facility layout, her eyes thoroughly scanning about the large paper with an expression obviously attempting to comprehend the sudden burst of wholly unexpected mission details, making it difficult for one to read whether she deemed the idea as utterly ridiculous as any average individual would surely have, or actually took the whole scheme as seriously as the blue-haired shinobi himself.
At the end of her received briefing, Siu gazed back up at the younger teen, her somewhat wide-eyed expression meeting the boy's obviously proud one. The female shinobi's eyes sparked somewhat upon hearing the re-mention of a familiar name. She was surprised to hear that Shizuka had now actually even been working closely with the Main Branch Sennin herself; A change that reminded the returning shinobi that time had really passed during her time in the wilds.

"I.." The female would begin to answer after some contemplation, before an unfamiliar voice would suddenly disrupt her response. Curiously gazing to her side, the shinobi's brows furrowed in concentration as she examinined the now approaching figure. Looking upwards towareds his countenance, she had a somewhat difficult time identifying his age; For he was a tall one indeed, even taller than herself, yet he still lacked the complete features of the aged male; Youth still resonated from his skin, and he lacked the adequate facial hair of most aged men. He was a unique figure, tan skinned and curly haired, contrast to the usual natives of Kumogakure; His skin tone reminded her of Suika, whom herself was a non-native of Kumogakure.

As her gaze continued to study the newly arrived male, Siu found herself unsure of how exactly to interpret his approach; Was he simply dissuading them to stop the idea, or was he too also attempting to retrieve the pastries for himself. Furthermore, from his words and tone, Siu pondered whether he was actually attempting to start a quarrel. The older teen's previously observant expression would shift into a puffed out bottom lip and arched eyebrow, revealing a disappointed pout. There was a bit too much going on all at once and far too quickly for her first arrival back in Cloud.

"Sir." The female shinobi solemnly began, folding her arms.

"Shall you really quarrel against us over cookies?"

She paused after the statement, allowing her words to settle for a few moments for the male to more deeply contemplate upon. The tone of the question itself had even sounded similar to the way one would ask something rhetorically.

"Furthermore," Continued on the older teen. "This was Ikko's idea to begin with. You will steal his hard-worked plan, and use it for your own benefit at his expense?" Her disapproving expression grew more apparent. "Have some morals." She finished in a rebuke, an expression similar to a disapproving mother, against the opposite shinobi's disappointed-father like demeanor.

 

[Funai Ikko]

Ikko's eyes turned up to the unfamiliar intrusion, his polite grin belying the hint of bemusement creeping up to his features. He was not used to people taking his antics remotely seriously, so talk of a secret cookie heist would normally simply be disregarding as the frantic ramblings of a child. Perhaps Ikko was simply getting too old to get away with such things now. People saw him and expected things he said to actually be intentional acts. Of course, they had always been intentional acts, but now they were actually being taken seriously by someone other than Ikko. That was a supremely amusing thought. The boy's head tilted slightly to the side as the figure stepped up to their table, a fairly self-righteous, scolding tone to his expression. It was a tone Ikko was familiar with, but not necessarily from strangers. It was also somewhat confusing. He proposed to others might want to absorb the Great Cookie Caper for themselves, which made Ikko think the man sought to steal his hard earned thievery, but the expression on his face was far more akin to someone wanting to put a stop to their grand plan. Asking him what it was going to be did not shed much more light on the situation either. Bemusing.

Siu rose up before he could though, seemingly challenging the man on his intention to steal their escapade for his own. Maybe she was right and that was the angle he was going for. It didn't match his body language, but it did sound that way from what he said. It also took quite a bit of effort on Ikko's part to keep from laughing at a prospective thief lecturing someone else on morality, but things needed to be done to defuse the situation...or not, probably the opposite, didn't really matter either way.

"Now now Siu, it's not right to be selfish. Those cookies should be shared. And you sir, don't be such a Silly Billy. Can I call you Billy?"

Ikko, naturally, didn't wait even a modicum of a moment before launching right back into his narrative, hopping to his feet and moving to put his arm around the encroaching party's shoulder, a wide grin on his face and not bothering to wait for a reply to the recent naming conventions.

"See here, Billy. We all keep secrets, you never know what other layers there are to such devious plans involving the liberation of such deliciousness, so while the casual eavesdropper might, indeed, learn about my plans. They would not know the layers of layers that compound such masterstroke planning. Even still, only someone from a sinister, maniacal organization would oppose something so wholesome as confection liberation...only someone from something horrible, monstrous, sadistic could ever even begin to stand opposed to us. There must be members of the Cupcake Conglomerate out there tracking our very movements at this very moment. Thank you for the warning, Billy. Oooo, Noodles."

Ikko, whether the man had allowed Ikko to embrace him in friend shoulder hugging or not, would detach himself from his standing position and plop back down on his seat as the ramen arrived for them. The blue tressed boy eagerly grabbing a pair of chop sticks and moving to dig in, sliding the blueprint off the table and rolling it up one handed before moving to slide it back into the pack he wrenched it from, his attention very clearly on his noodles and not on Eiji, apparently completely disregarding the whole conversation. He hadn't, of course, he was still, cautiously even, keeping track of the man. But, noodles WERE present.

 

[Siu]

Though the older teen's head slightly turned in order to give attention back to the blue-haired boy as he spoke, her demeanor remained. Her disapproving expression would reveal moments of obvious contemplation and eyebrow raising, as she appeared to somewhat struggle with comprehending and processing the younger male's vocabulary. Upon the arrival of noodles, however, she'd also find herself quickly breaking a pair of chopsticks in preparation for her meal. It would be then that...

"Strange dressed tall gal and blue-haired fella? Yep, I dun seen 'em go right that'a way." Siu's eyes immediately darted towards the ramen restaurant entrance---which was also their only exit.

Standing up without another moment's hesitation, the older girl began a backwards start for the door with her ramen bowl in hand, facing the two males.

"Let's make it takeout..." She'd plainly state to her fellow peer with a wide smirk apparent as she began to make her getaway.

[Thread Exited]

 

[Funai Ikko]

Ikko had already managed to stuff roughly...all of the noodles in to his mouth when Siu decided it was time to leave. The boy blinked a few times as his friend got up and made her way to the door. It was understandable he supposed, the sudden appearance of the Silliest of Billies certainly could have put something of a damper on Siu's spirit. With an audible and not especially polite slurp, Ikko devoured the remainder of his noodles and made a quick little jaunt up to the counter to pay the nice proprietor for his hospitality, and for the bowl that Siu was absconding with...and for what might be about to happen on their doorstep. He had heard the voices as well, voices that told him they didn't get as much separation as he had hoped. Hopefully, they managed to get away from the Ramen shop without much in the way of incident, but Ikko was not especially convinced that they would be able to.

"See ya, Silly Billy!"

With a small wave farewell, Ikko would turn on his heel and move toward the door to catch up to Siu. He doubted this was going to go even remotely well, but that was the fun of it after all.

[Exito Topico]

 

[Keigo Oen]

"Silly Boy dont you know that berating anyone isnt your style? Arent you an ANBU? Supposed to be covert? Pfft, You're silly. Silly and weak, and you'll never amount to the things you set out to do. You'll always be second place and Aya will never love you the way you truly love her. Naive child." The voices ringing in his head would surmise that Eiji was nothing at his current state. He was nothing but a sad boy forever tethered to the family that he would never be the leader of. To a village that needed him in the shadows in order [Wip]