Daydreams. [Open]

[Shiri]

'One... two... three... four... five...'

Rina counted each person entering and leaving from the hidden village, today seemed to be a bit more lively than usual. The little girl had made a bit of a habit of sitting by the great lift which served as the village's sole point of entry. She was curious, she had never been assigned to any missions outside of the village before, and as such had lived her entire life within the underground village where she was born. Thanks to her parents Rina knew a lot more about the outside world that some other children her age, but it wasn't enough for her; she wanted to be able to go outside, to see the sky for herself, and perhaps even to go visit her family.

"I wonder how long I'd have to walk to visit Uncle Kiyoshi-san?" Rina mused aloud as she continued to keep her mental tally of every person who entered or left the village. She wanted nothing more than to walk up to the lift and ask- no, demand she be let out! But no, she wouldn't do that, it just seemed like a bad idea to her. There were rules to follow, rules which usually did not allow for a young kunoichi to leave the village on a mere whim... not that Rina had any ill will towards her job, her access to the academy library gave her access to areas of study that she had only dreamed about before. She just wished that she was somewhere else right now.

'I wonder what it's like out there... I wish I could go look.' Rina thought as she slowly slumped onto the ground and curled up, her eyes still fixed on the flow of people moving in, out, and around the village gates...

'Maybe I could ask someone about their trip? No, no, some random girl heckling them at the gates... I'd just creep them out...'

WC: 320

 

[Kazehi Ryu]

On a normal day, Ashura was about as subtle as an exploding bug zapper that had been overloaded with a couple thousand amps and squirts of phosphorus; it was sort of that kind of day. Having escaped the ghastly, wicked clutches of his older sister who was an evil slave driver that made him SIT and STUDY instead of allowing him the freedom he so desperately longed for! Oh woe is he who actually has to do something!

Ah, anyway, the energetic young genin danced his way about and had made it to the entrance of the city giving an impressed whistle as he stood close to it; granted the lift system was large enough to see from afar but being close to it gave a perspective of just how grand it was. Looking about at all the bustle, the young genin actually managed to spot someone who wasn't moving she had just stopped and stared. Right at the lifts. Biting his lip and trying to keep from snickering, he attempted to creep up on her; in all honesty it was the stupidest looking way to do it, his arms were arched over his head, his neck was shrunk down and hidden between his shoulders, and some how he was up on the tips of his toes as he did high steps over to her; unfortunately, this attracted a lot of attention and by the time he got over to her there were several people just staring at him like he was the stupidest thing on the planet. Which, that could be possible the world may never know.

Also, by this time he forgot just what he was going to do like that and wound up standing next to her looking up at the lift, his dark eyes watching the lifts that were ascending more than the ones coming down. "How fun would it be to jump off one of those, I wonder." A wide smile spread across his face at the thought, and he turned his head to look at the other gawker, a merry twinkle in his dark irises. "Hey, hey~! How many flips do you think I could do before I landed? Take a guess!" He fidgeted and twitched, he wanted to go base jumping now, he was a ninja! He could handle it without some kind of stopping force! Well, possibly, one never knows considering how pathetic looking Ashura was physically.

Maybe it was a bad idea for him to do this, but then again the results could wind up hilarious....

 

[Shiri]

Yes, Rina noticed that Ashura was there. Yes, that was the most amusing thing she had seen all day.

Yes, she managed to not look directly at him, and let him think that he was evading her vision. It was more fun that way, he'd keep doing it that way.

Rina sat there and waited for the young man to speak up, but it was taking a lot longer for it to happen than she was expecting. Maybe he was just as nervous about talking as she was? That thought amused her, so she held onto it. Rina was about to speak up when Ashura finally decided on what he was going to say. Rina looked to him, then up at the lifts, then back to him, then back to the lifts.... this went on for a few seconds, followed by a few more seconds of focused thought.

"Three, if you went all the way up." she replied, her voice was somewhat of a midway point between her usual bubbly voice and her calm, killer persona voice. The end effect was most likely somewhat creepy. "Of course, you'd probably break a couple bones. I guess I'd have to go find a med-nin if that happened..." she continued, her voice still somewhat chill. She waited a few seconds to gauge Ashura's response.

"Of course, don't let that stop you. I'm fairly sure you won't die, and I'm sure fixing anything that breaks wouldn't be that hard!" she added, somewhat playfully, it was almost as if she was challenging Ashura to act on his zany idea if only because it would amuse her.

Not that she was trying to be cruel in any way; after all, she could always cushion his fall with a well-placed wind jutsu, and she knew enough about restoration to give first aid if things really didn't go well.

 

[Kazehi Ryu]

Narrowing his eyes at the lifts, Ashura debated for a minute or so before coming to a decision. "Bet you lunch that I can do five from half. Dinner if I stick the landing." The brightly dressed genin wasn't disturbed by her half-happy creeper voice, if anything he was more wondering how she managed to accomplish that. "The name's Ashura, get ready to buy some food!" He had tricks up his sleeve, following along behind someone for a moment with his hands flickering through seals, the overly obnoxious colored youth blended with a person's shadow; grinning happily as he went along for the ride onto one of the slower moving lifts.

It was going to take a while, but he could be patient if not a touch eager and antsy. He practically buzzed with excitement as the lift slowly ascended. The trip took maybe about five to eight minutes at the slow rate of ascension but really it was up to him to judge 'half'. When everything was getting pretty close to dots, he snuck to the edge of the lift and made one hell of an astounding leap off the edge.

What followed him was a bunch of screaming and sounds of panic, naturally since a fifteen year old just jumped off a lift that was several dozen feet in the air. Behind him, he felt something swipe at his shirt, but he had already cleared about twenty feet between him and the lift before he started the flips on the descent.

One!

Two!

Three!

Fou- Oh hell that ground was close!

He was about half way through the fourth flip when the ground was starting to get uncomfortably close. Instead of finishing the flip, his hands spazzed through a random set of hand seals and from the slight shadow he cast on the ground rose up. Himself.

Holding his hands out wide as though he were delighted to see an old friend that he was flying towards, a dear friend that brought tears to his eyes to see!

Problem was, apparently his shadow hadn't settled their dispute from the last time. It decked him in the forehead hard enough that Ashura finished his fourth flip before landing face first and doing a spin on the ground. Nothing broke except his momentum...and his pride...and he was going to be shelling out for lunch and probably dinner.

So totally worth it though except for the several people who were now swarming him to either jump on his case for hopping off the lift, or to check to see if he was alright. Most everyone seemed to ignore the shadow that was standing there like it had just won a boxing match, fist in the air pumping to an imaginary DING! DING! DING!

If his sister had seen this he'd probably be sent flying all the way to the hospital to get his head checked not only for injuries but mental problems. The only mental illness that he seemed to have contracted was stupidity though, and I doubt that there was a cure for it.

 

[Yamauchi Mei]

"There you are! What're you up to?" Mei blissfully shouted as she ran up behind her sister, it didn't take her long to notice that Rina's attention was focused... somewhere. The lift? Yeah, there, now what was so big about the lift? "Hmm..." Mei looked up at the lift for a good few minutes before anything happened to indicate what Rina was trying to observe.

"No way, he's gonna try jumping from up there? That's totally awesome! Why haven't I thought of that yet?! What a rush!" Mei exclaimed, no doubt inspiring some sigh of exasperation from her sister. She couldn't help it, to her a risk was potential for thrills. And Mei loved her thrills.

Of course... deep down Mei knew that Rina would probably do something equally stupid just for kicks, she knew her well enough.

Mei watched as the boy make his leap and flipped through the air, hell yeah that looked fun! Mei kept cheering the boy on right up to his fateful (and uncomfortable) meeting with the ground. Even that didn't dull Mei's excitement, she quickly ran up to the boy and started dancing around him in sheer joy and adrenaline by proxy (yes, that was a thing with her).

"Oh my GOD! That was totally awesome! And the look on everyone's faces! And the flipping! And... kyaaa!!! That was so cool! Amazing! Fantastic!" Mei's gushing wasn't exactly appropriate, given that the group was no doubt being given quite a few suspicious stares at this point. But Mei didn't care, if they had a problem with it they could keep it to themselves! Nobody got hurt, right? What was their problem?

 

[Shiri]

Rina didn't seem too fazed by Mei's sudden presence; odds were that she would only make the situation worse, but hey, that might make it more interesting! After all, the boy wasn't likely to get too roughed up by his little stunt. He'd be just fine (she hoped).

Rina was actually quite humored by Mei's cheering, normally she'd be somewhat worried, but she did the math and the odds of anything going horrifically wrong were low enough that she could just take this all as good fun (and her math was usually spot on, seeing as her role in combat basically boiled down to 'weaponizing math to shoot things' this was the sort of thing she might be expected to be good at). Rina watched calmly as Ashura made his jump, he did better than expected- but didn't quite hit his own mark. So, technically Rina just won the bet? Well, she didn't care, she could pay for dinner anyway.

Mei's reaction to the whole ordeal was nothing short of hilarious to Rina, she could almost see Ashura and Mei getting along quite nicely- they both seemed just a little bit crazy on the surface (hopefully that meant Ashura, like Mei, was a lot smarter then he let on- but if he wasn't hopefully that would rub off on him eventually).

"Whelp- you beat my prediction, so that still wasn't half bad!" Rina said as she walked over to where Ashura and Mei were, Rina's voice had molded entirely to her warm, 'dere-dere' persona. "You also got the attention of pretty much everyone here, so it may not have been that good of an idea. You okay?" she added, chuckling a bit at the end.

Oh yes, that was fun.

 

[Kazehi Ryu]

Well the crowd went wild! Except there was one cheerleader in the midst of a whole bunch of other people running towards him shouting. Hell yeah! He'd gotten all of the attention ever! Now if only he'd maybe done a couple helixes, added in some flashy lights on the way down he'd have certainly out shined all of the lights today! "Thank you! Thank you! That was the most fantastic stunt today, thus far!" Hey, this girl wasn't too bad, she had one hell of a sense of fun that he could fully appreciate! Hopping up, rather ignoring the skid marks on his face from the spiral movement on the ground, he could get that looked at later; besides, what was a little bump or bruise or terrible road rash when there was amusement to be had? "Totally worth losing a bet, so I suppose lunch and dinner would be on me. Gyahahaha!" He grinned widely at Rina while dusting himself off, as the oncoming swarm of people got a little uncomfortably close; if they actually GOT there and surrounded the three of them, odds were that the three of them would be going nowhere but home; or in Ashura's, case probably the mental ward.

"So, ah, what do you two ladies say we bug out?" Hah. Bug out. While he talked his hands fidgeted and flipped through another set of hand signs, all three of their shadows blending together as one and rising up from the ground in an immense, nightmarish beetle-dragon-thing issued out a roar while the three youths stood upon its back. That stopped people, and they scattered when the thing started skittering forward as though it were a demon unleashed from the gates of hell! "Gyahahahahahahahaa!" This was the second time he pulled a stunt like this, using his chakra to keep glued nice and securely to the scaled shell, a hand on a shoulder of his two companions to help them keep stable while their mount rushed around as though struck by a bout of confusion; randomly going in circles to chase throngs of people before going in a random direction. It was a beetle demon on Power Thirst that had ADHD, eventually they managed to get out of sight of the lifts and power down a side alley before the thing vanished from beneath them; turning into harmless and inert shadow once more.

Doing a powerslide down the walk way, completely okay and content with the fact that they were, well no, he was in so much trouble. Cause and effect; and he caused a lot of effect just now with both stunts. "Woo! Okay, so where do we want to go eat lunch? 'Cause man do I need a recharge after that." Base jumping, public harassment, civil disruption, and an overall abuse of power; and he wanted to go out to lunch; this kid either needed someone to stop his stupid stunts before they started or at least get a hobby.

 

[Yamauchi Mei]

"Bwahahaha!!! Challenge us if you dare, commoners! I KNOW HOUSECATS WHO CAN TAKE YOU ON!!!!" Mei shouted from the back of the demon bug. Oh yeah, she would get a lecture and a half just for being involved in this- but she didn't care one bit. The only person who had really gotten hurt was the guy who did it to himself, and he was mostly okay (aside from having a mentality insane enough for Mei to find sympathetic) right? So really, no harm done!

After what was most certainly one of the most interesting rides that Mei had ever taken, the entire group found themselves some distance away from the exit to the village. "Whew! What a rush!" Mei exclaimed, giddy as ever. The boy brought up the prospect of food, which actually sounded like a pretty good idea right now; Mei could go for a decent meal right now. First thing's first, however...

"Hey, I should check in with mom- just so she knows where we are." Mei said to Rina; for all of her crazy streaks, Mei was actually a fairly responsible person. The little knight reached into her pockets and pulled out a small plastic device with some knobs and buttons on it "Check it out, pocket radio! Better for everyday stuff, doesn't block up an ear like a normal headset." she gloated as she tuned the radio to the proper frequency and started broadcasting: "Hey! Mom? Hi!... Yeah, I found her. Yeah- Yup- Yeah. Hey, we're gonna be out for a little while, so just call if you need anything. 'kay? 'kay-thanks-loveyou-bye."

*Click*

"Okay, so, I know a place- shouldn't be that far from here. Let's go! Oh, right! I'm Mei, by the way. Rina over here is my sis! We're twins, believe it or not! Nice to meet you!" if left uninhibited Mei would grab the boy by the wrist and run off with him, taking them both deeper into the village.


[Moving with Ashura if allowed]

 

[Kazehi Ryu]

Aw yeah, he liked this girl! What a sense of adventure and fun! Their laughs had blended together in madness while bugging out (Hah!). Dusting himself off once or twice while the sisters talked at one another, feeling a bit outta place he simply started dancing in place; his forward and backwards movement always contrasting the direction that he seemed to be walking, even spinning about and moving in the opposite direction that he really should have. Ashura always found a way to amuse himself, even during conversations that he wasn't really included in!

His attention was brought back to the sisters, Mei catching him mid-stride looking like some kinda weird cactus thing that could walk; not that it existed but it's what he looked like while grinning at the twins. "Nice to meet cha! I'm Asuraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa~h!" She simply grabbed hold of him and ran while he introduced himself. Bug eyed and flapping in the breeze while Mei ran off with him; he felt like there should be a plume of smoke behind her and fumbled some hand seals so there was a bright streamer of prismatic color trailing behind him flaring and flapping with the momentum.

This could be the most fun he'd had for a while!

[Moved by Mei!]

 

[Shiri]

After an.... interesting ride the group was left quite a ways from the lift.

Once everyone was safely touching ground, Rina's attention turned to her sister, who proceeded to call home to explain that they'd be out a while longer (Rina really needed to keep her headset on more often, it would make her life a lot easier).

Once the call was over, Mei.... well... acted like Mei. After a somewhat hurried introduction she proceeded to grab Ashura and practically lift the poor boy off his feet and pull him into the open streets. Rina couldn't help but sigh, but she quickly collected herself and gave pursuit- trying her best not to lose track of the two.

[Following Mei and Ashura]