Even here, in the mud and rain [Request Exit / Exiting Anyway]

[Eishi]

Tenuous firelight was all that lit my camp as I made the final check on my belongings nearby the entrance, or rather in my case exit, to Kumo. It was nearly two hours after sundown and the shadows had already engulfed everything outside of the ring out light surrounding me. The rain was only a light drizzle, but it still caused the dying fire to sizzle on impact. I'm sure the rain would put my fire out for me, but I'd still did my due diligence by putting it out with some dirt when I was ready. Regardless, from what I could tell, everything I wanted to take was there, but I always felt like I was forgetting something when I prepared for long trips and this time was no different. My spear was on my back, my supplies were packed, and I brought plenty of money. I was just being paranoid, it seems.

If nothing was changed as planned, this would end up being my longest trip yet. I'd be gone for at least a year, if not two, and I wouldn't be coming back until then. It was strange feeling the separation pain I never knew I had for the place, but that just made me sigh internally as I took out a flask and a couple swigs of liquid confidence, all before beginning my brisk pace out of the village.

Beyond any misgivings, I was well overdue to get going on this trip and the passport was going to expire at some point if I didn't use it. As far as I could tell, however, there wasn't anyone here to stop me from leaving. I suspect that was a false assumption, but I'd go on doing what I want and deal with any consequences when they occur. Made my life easy that way and I always was the type to prescribe to the notion that it's just easier to ask for forgiveness rather than asking for permission whenever I did something. More often than not my instincts lead me out of danger, anyway. I was becoming less and less sure someone was going to stop me the closer I got to the outside world, but who knows, I guess we'll see.

 

[Byakko Yukiin]

"Didn't know you could see in the dark, going to disappoint Kahako to tell her we're short another hand..."

Yukiin dropped from the guard tower with the grace of a raindrop, touching the earth with a soft landing on his feet as he surveyed the situation closer than he'd been able to from a distance. Though identifying the individual in question wasn't difficult, he was rather familiar at this point. The Medic was also keenly aware that unless Eishi had been making illegal adjustments or those beyond his ability to know he didn't have a Doujutsu or ocular implants, guiding by star light only worked so far too, looking up required you to divide your attention and open yourself up to potential attack...it was certainly an odd time for travel. He made that assessment plain on his face as his lip turned down and he held his 'hand' out.

His eyes were dulled and dead of any animating heat, but it wasn't exactly news, especially among his own branch, that he'd crossed the threshold of mortality into his own form of Revenancy. Thus he felt no need to conceal his nature, a few stray tendrils dancing silvery in the waning artificial lights, one of which was waiting to be presented with his passport. The Byakko needed his actual hands to stay close to his body and weapons if he needed them, while handseals were fine with one arm he might need the other to fend off an attacker or arm himself. The remaining tendrils not in use danced lazily behind him, prepared to catch any stray projectiles or assailants.

It wasn't that he didn't trust him...or at that was the rehearsed speech. No no, he just didn't trust odd travel times in the dead of night like someone was trying to leave with less than a handful of people knowing about it. Besides, he was still human and they were prone to some irrational decision making.

Although he wasn't all chilled barbs, one of his appendages was manipulating a coffee thermos into dumping its contents into a cup that was handed off along with his open 'hand'. It wasn't going to get any warmer past the gates and past the technology they had access to, a bit to keep the cold at bay considering he could still feel it was the least he could do.

"Coffee, if you'll have it. It won't get any warmer than this. You know the drill though...passport, assignment papers to accompany your temporary passport or just your permanent will suffice. Any other information is extraneous but appreciated, I'll need to know what to tell the bludgeoning patients when they ask where you went." Yukiin said wryly, wondering a lot of things but most importantly what he was going to do with the suddenly increased workload for however long he was absent. It was going to be a fucking pain.

 

[Eishi]

"Damn, can't fault a guy for trying for the clean getaway. I gotta make sure securities doing their jobs, after all," I offered as I shrugged and started patting around my pockets for the paperwork.

"Hell, even then in the worst-case scenario, ya'll just get some verbal punishment and I get another notch in my band for succeeding," I jested as I finished fishing out my pocket and tossed the passport over in a smooth flicking motion. I had to wonder if he was going to flinch or not at the sudden motion. It was pretty obvious Yukiin was looking real wound up, waiting for an attack and it probably didn't help that I wasn't much better with his sudden appearance, but I'd like to believe I was good at hiding it behind a facade.

"Probably a year or two," I answered the unasked question for his report, "Apparently, the Raikage is real lenient and I got a free pass a few years ago to go traveling to the other villages for an extended 'medical stays'. Already cleared most of my patients, the rest I rounded out, funnily enough, to you and two others. I was gonna leave that as a big stinky surprise on your desk for you tomorrow, but now does seem better," I teased with my best Chesire grin.

"Anyway, I'll definitely take some of that," I sighed as I collected a small tin cup from my backpack while Yukiin looked over the papers. I had my reasons for leaving at this time of night that had little to do with testing my boundaries, but Yukiin wasn't going to get that out of me easily as I took some of the offered coffee thermos. The upper would probably balance out the strong wine I had a few moments earlier.

"Why are you out on the wall anyway? I could never stand this busybody work," I asked absently as I waited and watched Yukiin work. It was a strange occurrence getting accosted by someone I had once taught, but I guess that's the way of things when prodigies were a dime a dozen in these parts.

OOC: Passport

 

[Byakko Yukiin]

He caught the book with a lash of his appendage, pulling it up to his face and flipping its contents in front of his eyes.

"I'm always doing my job, that would be why you don't see me. There are too many tasks to juggle...speaking of, don't die out there because I'll have to come out and retrieve your corpse, kill whoever has it, kill whoever knew they had it...its just a big mess. Plus at that point you'll be joining me in here after someone else takes your physical bits and you probably don't want that." Yukiin spoke, tapping his head with a finger when he mentioned the 'here' in question. It wasn't a lie, these types of choice were rare and when a shinobi of any real caliber died they were worth fighting for scraps over. In his case though he could feed on things that nobody else could so he didn't need to compete, he got his pick of anyone...at least until another Collector was created.

Passport seemed fine, strange to have one that permitted such an extended absence but it wasn't any of his business to pry into the decision making of the Raikage. If it was worthwhile to let him go and have the rest of them pick up the slack then it had to make some sort of sense.

Yukiin flicked the passport back and set the thermos down so that he could retire those two limbs, letting them slink away back inside his clothing like faint spider webbing in the light. A couple of years of having a third more patients pushed onto him, maybe he wouldn't even have time to be on gate duty...unlikely, but he could dream.

"I don't sleep so I pick up shifts when someone else can't be here or needs to sleep. Plus I have the pleasure of seeing everyone in and out so I can socialize with non-corpses or soon-to-be corpses. The Kinjutsu candidates are chatty enough but they also tend to be...well, you know what I mean. Often they're unsuitable hosts or mentally unsound enough that I'm not putting my name on their paperwork so they can go on a rampage three weeks later. Thats how you lose Good Medic stars..." He spoke as he pulled out a planner from his pocket and flipped it open to a page full of golden star stickers, examining them to take proper count.

"Almost up to a pizza party, you're gonna miss it. I do hope whatever family matters you're attending to by calling it work are better than seeing me try to redeem stickers I give myself."

 

[Eishi]

"You and your damn hobbies," I chuckled lightly to myself as I listened to Yukiin prattle on about subjects most would find rather morbid. I was pretty immune to him at this point, seeing as I saw him every few days somewhere or the next inside the hospital acting like a weirdo wherever he went, and always being a creepy fuck while he did it. But, I have to think to myself, what kind of sociopath would I be if I didn't know at least one psychotic friend or acquaintance? I don't know Who knows, but all I'll say is I wouldn't want to be alone in a dark room with Yukiin and anything remotely sharp. Don't get me wrong, I trust him enough to not abandon me in a fight, but I guess if I had to put a name to it, I respected him enough to know to keep a healthy distance between us.

I didn't have to wait long before got my passport back, which I assumed meant everything was on the up and up like I had hoped. It didn't seem Yukiin was much more interested in gating me anymore beyond that. I was ready to get on out of here, anyway, so I was fine with that. I had left late so I wouldn't be caught up in some farewell pity party or some such nonsense and had been lucky enough so far that Akane had seemed content with staying dormant, keenly aware of what was going on and patiently waiting.

It seemed however that wasn't going to last long as Akane was already bugging me to be free now that we were pretty much outside the walls. I mentally kicked her to be still before she kicked me back twice as hard and made me nearly wince. I had been insistent at keeping her out of the way until we were on the road. One less question to answer about who or rather what she was and all that jazz. Though, I guess it wouldn't have mattered with Yukiin already aware of her previously and it seemed she was of the same mind as she battled a bit more fiercely to leave the confines of her metalic form.

"Fine, whatever," I muttered to myself in defeat as Akane rapidly reformed and took the spear right off of my back with her. As she stretched out from the surrounding thick mist she had summoned along from whatever dimension she hung out in when she wasn't here, I was finishing off the last of the lukewarm coffee I still had with me before stringing it back up to my backpack as I began to make my way out once again.

"Yukiin, I say this because I care," you could swear I spoke in almost genuinely concerned voice if It wasn’t for me not being able to hold all of my sarcasm in check, "If you refer to others in terms of corpses and not corpses, you're never going to make any friends outside of the morgue. Just an FYI," .

OOC leaving in five days if no one else joins.

 

[Eishi]

With no other stoppages I was off to leaf village. I Would take my time to get there for sure, but I suspected it wouldn’t be that long of a journey tell I was there between the modern transportation system of our day within the countries and the money I had to burn. Regardless, I suspect it was going to pass by like the breeze as I was having fun

[EXIT LIGHTNING COUNTRY]​

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