Village Gate (Fake)

Two large earth pillars that once marked the entrance of the Hidden Earth Village. After the village's destruction the two pillars continued to stand, allowing any onlookers to believe that the village is still just as strong as it once was. Two earth shinobi constantly watch the entrance, ready to alert the surviving members of the village should any force come to their door.

POOF! Shhhhhh.....

A small puff of earthy dust and dirt barely adequate to screen the usage of a Body Flicker Technique (Shunshin no Jutsu). A lanky figure wobbled its way out of the cloud, revealing a girl with cute and almost beautiful features. A pair of large brown eyes almost peeped from the thin, pale face, complimenting the innocent, sweet smile that spread across the tiny face when those eyes registered the gargantuan, earthen gates.

"Watashi wa.....I'm.....home! Waki-sensei, Hitomi-chan is home and has many stories from the other towns to tell! Being a ninja has been so cool! EEEEEEEK, WAKI-SENSEI!"

Arms spread wide open in an almost embrace, the little, cheerful and sweet girl named Hitomi attempted to run clean through the gates, her arms beating furiously as they allowed her fairly great speed with her legs. It was home, for her, an endless rover.

Little did she know what would await her on the other side....

Before Hitomi got very far though, she'd find that a shinobi in the brown Iwa uniform would rise from the earth in front of her to block her path. He eyes her warily. Surely she wasn't some sort of enemy? He knew it could be a disguise, but why would they choose one like this? Still, had to be one the safe side. "Name and reason for being here", he ordered as he stared at the girl.

Hitomi attempted a gleeful dance around the shinobi guard.

"Silly soldier, can't you see that Hitomi's home? You can go ask Waki-sensei to tell you that Hitomi just graduated from Iwa Academy a fort-night ago and that Hitomi has been out gathering stories and is back to tell them to him! Would you like to hear a story or do you have a story to tell, sir?

The girl practically shimmered and sparked with energy. Her enthusiastic and angelic face was wreathed in the smile of smiles, displaying avid eagerness to be back "home", to Iwagakure, where her father had brought her to learn the arts of the ninja. He did not anticipate that before he died, his daughter would fail the Academy not one but five times in seven years, as the first two years Hitomi did not take an exam. Still, after she graduated, she was immediately off, like her father was, in the Earth Country-side, where she would ask townspeople for stories and legends of their town or of themselves.

Humming to herself and generally working herself into her typical hyper tizz-wozz, Hitomi made another turn around the slightly frowning Iwa guard and spotted with her keen eyes a dust cloud. A dust cloud? Yes! Yes! A walking and MOVING dust cloud, with an umbrella for a head!

"Ooooo!! Wait one moment, Silly-Soldier-san, there's a dust cloud with an umbrella head coming! Maybe IT has a story! And it's sure to be really, really interesting!"

With her athletic legs, she again ran, this time towards the area of movement.

"Hokori-Kasa-San! (Dust-Umbrella-sir!) Could we talk??"

The dust cloud came closer...and closer...

And finally, it stopped dead in its tracks.

Hitomi nearly fell over when she stopped herself from going with her forward momentum. She almost ran clean into the now fading dust cloud.

"HOKORI-KASA-SAN! Who and what are you? Do you have a story to tell, sir?"

"Hokori-Kasa-San died...yeah...that's right. There was dust...but it's gone now. He was the cloud of dust. And he's gone. So maybe you should go, too. Yeah. I think that's a good idea."

Hitomi stopped and then attempted to look under the parasol, which was pretty difficult because of her height.

"Wait...you aren't a dust cloud. You're a girl! Right. A girl. With a really sad face."

Hitomi might not have been the brightest light-bulb in the box, but she did have a modicum of what Amazora might have called "brains".

"Well..you might not be a Hokori-Kasa-san, but who are you? You look really familiar. Have I met you before? Do you have a story? Are you from Iwagakure?"

Hitomi took one look at Amazora, grinned, and stuck out her tongue.

"You're weird, but you're cool. I like you. Let's get into the village, now."

The girl made a grab for her ghost-like companion's hand and ran towards the fake gates, her buoyant and hyperactive energy spiking back to its original and prodigious levels once more.

"SILLY-SOLDIER-SAN!!! I'VE GOT A NEW FRIEND AND SHE'S TRYING TO GET IN, TOO! I THINK WE'RE BOTH FROM IWA!!! SILLY-SOLDIER-SAN!!!"

Whether Amazora liked it or not.....Hitomi was determined to drag her, all the way to the gates.

((You ladies mind if we show up here? It's, y'know, sense-making and whatnot.))

((I'm cool with it!))

((Oh, wait, you're my target anyway. Enjoy. Maybe I should add 'airhead' to Hitomi's personality traits.))

Hitomi Kyuuen	Hitomi walked up to the gate slowly, a scarlet hood obscuring her face, iron sand swirling around her left hand. Looking from the two guards to the strange girls, she placed a hand on her elaborate, twisted scythe, letting go before she came into seeing range. "You, green, follow me. Kage's orders. It would be really appreciated if you didn't ask questions. Top-secret, I hope you understand." Walking slowly up to Amazora and looking down at her, just a deep red eye, she extended her hand, waiting. Causing a scene would probably be bad, and Hitomi was fine talking it out for however long it took.
Mood: Complacent Condition: Okay	Stamina: 2 • Speed: 2 • Strength: 4 • Intelligence: 3 • Chakra Control: 2 Ninjutsu: 5 • Taijutsu: 4 • Genjutsu: 3	AP: 0/100 TP: 0

Oh yeah. Wow, there are two Hitomis on this thread. Coolness factor x 2

Amazora	"Speaking of weird," Amazora muttered. Based on the get-up, she inferred that the figure -- a woman, if her voice was indication -- was a jounin, probably because of the inherent coolness factor. There wasn't particularly any reason for Amazora to find duplicity in the statement. She could easily rationalize that the Kage wanted to see her because of her peculiar predicament, namely, her foreign origins. Coupled with her father's demise, it was probably some kind of loyalty test in light of becoming a genin. The messenger was merely being polite by using the words "top secret." The only thing that was a little funny was that she came from beyond the gate. Even then, the way Amazora figured it, she probably couldn't find the genin in the village and figured that she'd gone to one of the training grounds; in fact, Amazora had been in the hunting grounds. Tilting her head, she shrugged and said, "I guess that sounds legit!" Glancing towards the younger girl, she figured, "Well, I guess you'll be goin' on without me. Darn." The last word was steeped with sarcasm. Just as eager to escape further conversation, the genin planted her hand in the woman's, not suspecting a damn thing.
Mood: Calm Condition: Healthy	Stamina: 2 • Speed: 1 • Strength: 1 • Intelligence: 4 • Chakra Control: 2 Ninjutsu: 2 • Taijutsu: 0 • Genjutsu: 1	AP: 0 TP: 0

(Oh like that's not like a problem. Is it like okay if I like bug in with this like shenanigans of a like plot? Knowing like Hitomi's case- she'd like totally be like, "HEY!"))

((Of course, I mean, it's not like you're dead.))

Hitomi was about to retort in a rather joking manner and ask Amazora her actual name when something strange happened. A woman came up- and given Hitomi's highly sensitive sense of curiosity, she immediately noticed, above everything else, the iron sand swirling around the woman's hand. The scythe also put the other Hitomi's reputation within the little Hitomi's good graces. She smiled brightly, glad to have someone else who was so interesting around her, but before she could express those well-meanings, she heard a rather distasteful sentence (to her, at least, it was quite distasteful) wriggle smoothly from the ninja's mouth.

"You, green, follow me. Kage's orders. It would be really appreciated if you didn't ask questions. Top-secret, I hope you understand."

This completely reversed the formerly positive impression Hitomi had of the woman. Her face wrinkled in a seldom-seen frown. The frown only could have meant one thing: that Hitomi was going to make a verbal stand, no matter how stupid it sounded.

Extreme bluntness was also one of Hitomi's trademarks, although she did try to, at times, be nice about it. And, without knowing exactly who she was talking to and what was going on, she stated, in a rather forthright manner (to say the very, very least),

"You're not very polite, lady-san. You can't just call my friend here "green". How would you like it if I called you "red"? And you're supposed to know her name, right? I didn't know her name, which is why I was about to ask her! And why do you have that stuff flying all around your hand? And where is your headband? I don't have one because I wasn't made a real Iwa genin. I would love to have that sort of headband. You should be different right? You are Kage-sama's ninja- why shouldn't you be proud of that? Sorry, I probably sound rude but don't I have a point?"

All of this was said in an innocent, light soprano voice. She also reached into her backpack and took out a sandwich. She handed it to Amazora and replied,

"If you are going to see Kage-sama you might as well take this. You don't look like as though you've eaten in a week. You must be starving. Please take it."

Her manner of request was almost impossible to resist. Hitomi had a knack for being that way.

Hitomi, quite by accident, completely ignored Amazora's rant about her name. She was too distracted by the enigmatic "Red" who spoke in such....scarlet terms. She cocked her head to one side, argument forgotten for a moment as she muttered,

"Then who is indigo?"

Then, disregarding her quiet inquiry, Hitomi surveyed the older ninja with some hesitation.

"May I follow you guys, Red-san? I'd need to pay Kage-sama a visit, too. Silly-soldier-san takes too long to inspect people. Kage-sama would like to know about that- and maybe even listen to a story or two. Yes! Plus, I wanna know what ANBU ninja are like. I've heard of them, but never really thought I'd see one!"

With sudden resolve and a little suspicion remaining for "Red", Hitomi leapt by Amazora, trying not to fidget in excitement.

Hitomi sighed, her cute face in shambles as she merely sat down at the ground, trying to smile as she faced "silly-soldier-san".

"Okay, Kage-sama doesn't want me to be around...Silly-Soldier-San is ignoring me...and....what is your name?"

Sadness completely forgotten, Hitomi faced Amazora, her curiosity once again aroused.

"If you don't want me to call you Hokori-Kasa-San, then you might as well tell me what you DO want me to call you. Don't I have a point? And don't tell me to call you 'Green'; I don't want to be that rude. What is your name?"

((Skip me this time, Hitomi's just like waiting around the forest, she's patient enough))