Team Himiko: First Journey (Pt 2)

With morning Himiko was the first and last to take watch whilst everyone else rested, more so that she was a little worked up at Raion's attempt to make the group believe that she was in fact the girl who was the source of horror stories. She was thankful she at least seemed to shift their minds away from that joke at least. On the final watch, with the day light beginning, she took the chance to act as team mum, something she'd done so much during her own genin days, and cleared up any messes, along with making sure the fires were put out. With everyone's pack at their sleeping sides she made sure everything was set before going about waking them up one by one, finishing with their escortee.

Kenichi seemed unusually quiet yesterday, and it reflected to his dream. His mother stood before him with several packed suitcase "are we..." the sudden pause was due to him already knowing the answer to his question, his eyes lift up to meet hers only to see tears falling out of her eyes. The truth was as plain as day, she was leaving, and there was nothing he could do about it. If she had given him another month or two, the two ninjas could've made up enough money to support them for the next six to seven months; they only need time. He felt the movement of his body, which caused him to jump out of his sleep. upon rising he would see that sensei had begun to woke up the other two of his teammates, if one looked in his eyes, they would see the burning sensation of waking up on the wrong side if the bed. Kenichi collected his stuff from beside the spot he laid in, then gripped the cursed mace in his left hand. Nothing, would stop him from speaking to her once he arrived in eplison not even his sensei.

After waking up, Enzo would yawn and look around. Though he would then notice that Kenichi was there, almost jumping out as if the poor guy was a ghost. “Oh shit!” Enzo would say as he rolled up and took a fighting stance. Though, even with the quiet exterior of Kenichi and whatnot, Enzo could still recognize the guy. “Hey Kenichi, when did you get here. Or better yet, was you always here?” Enzo then scratched his head with a look of confusion. “Wow, can you teach me what jutsu that is? I mean, I couldn’t feel your presence at all, or even see you, that’s amazing.

Feng woke up a while ago and was meditating until the others got up, thus when they all did he would stretch and get up before looking towards Himiko before she would attempt to wake him. "So it is time to go again, wonderful we are almost to where we need to be. I can not wait, let's hurry." he said before heading towards his destination at a brisk pace though he knew if they wanted to the shinobi could easily move far faster than what he was capable of, and would probably do so just to make sure he was protected at all sides. The weather was cloudy but it didn't seem like there was a chance of rain merely an overcast preceding a downpour in the next day or so, but such weather was common within Epsilon especially in the land of souls who had a pretty stable set of seasons unlike most of the continent.

He had been stirring awake for the last hour now, refusing to actually get up. So being awoken by his former classmate wasn't all too irritating, and besides, there are worse things to see when opening your eyes for the day. Taking his time, Raion would eventually managed to get up and onto his feet, stretching out with a powerful yawn to mimic the movement. His long hair was tangled into various mixed strands, but easily undid themselves as his fingers ran through them, finishing the morning grooming with a hairclip and tying his bandanna. Next came the bandannas around the wrists and the fingerless gloves. With that it was all good to go! Rai's eyes would scan around at his party, looking at the various morning faces, before suddenly backtracking to Haio. "Where the fuck...?" Has this guy been here the whole time?! He'd blink a few times before deciding to just ignore it and move on with the day.

Himiko clicked her fingers at the group, including their escortee even, to keep them all focused and not at Kenichi. "He's right, we're getting pretty close. Closer than I even thought, so I'd like to continue onwards." She had a more sudden sense of urgency, having in the night during her shift given and sent a letter from her old team mates, wanting to reach the village before getting her response dealt with. "So breakfast is skipped, but I'll buy us all a large lunch once we get there." She pointed a finger then at Feng, still clearly a little irrate about the ambush having almost happened without some warning of what they could be up again. "We're getting you to the temple, then the contract is finished. Should we be keeping our eyes out for some more pissed off people?"

Kenichi had been in his own zone since yesterday, he finally decided to stand to his feet. He began to pack his sheet which he used to lay on, from yesterday til now there were still some Blanks in his memory, thus he chose to not focus on it. He gripped he mace, and without a moment to spare"you idiot, pay attention to things that happen. The team was attacked while you were zon6ed out, I understand we are almost to our destination but what's the point if no one survives." the harsh words were spoken to kenichi from his mace "what I would've done to taste some blood" this had happened right around the time rai had been startled by kenichi, leaVing only a matter of second before he spoke "you disgust me, you feign" in rai's eyes the words were directed to him, but in actually he was speaking to his mace. It was about now which himiko had rushed the group to get a move on, kenichi charged  towards the client only giving stare which were caused by uncertainty.

"Hey, be easy now. We are all friends here, let's not fight.." Of course, it's noticeable that Enzo didn't necessarily know who Kenichi was talking to, but he still wanted to play the peacemaker for the time being. On top of that, he continued on the path in order to follow Himiko, shaking his head about the ambush. "I can at least say it for anything above ground, I would have noticed to by now if we were expecting company. Plus, you promised us lunch, can't miss that now, can we?

"Your getting me to the temple, no worries I do believe that those were the last of my enemies." Feng said deciding to continue walking towards their eventual destination, especially considering the end was quite obviously in sight. The massive walls which surrounded the Epsilon Republic were in sight, along with the gates which served as the entrance for this land. "I do not think I will be venturing out of here, rumor has it that for a civilian Epsilon is paradise, so much that only those who seek to enter new levels of bliss still do business with the shinobi world." he said with a hint of wonder in his voice, maybe his pilgrimage wasn't only because he was devoted to Susano'o after all. Eventually when they would reach the gates they would see that part of said gates was currently open with guards waiting on the inside. Along the entrance there were various rules, and warnings most prominent being that the use of chakra was repressed within Epsilon borders. In fact upon crossing this threshold all of the shinobi accompanying him would feel a noticeable block on their chakra which affected their ability to even channel chakra within their body. One of the most dangerous things about Epsilon was due to whatever had been erected within it's walls served as a stop gap towards the supremacy that shinobi felt over their civilan counterparts by taking away the very thing that made them Shinobi, chakra.

Spoiler:

"Guess this is it then? Well, it's been a real pleasure, keep me in your prayers or something, it's a dangerous job, so i can use all of the luck I can get. " Enzo would say this as he waved the guy off, hoping that maybe he could live his in peace now. But for enzo, his adventure was just starting. In the meantime, it would be good to wait around for himiko to make good on her promise and feed them

-Exit

Himiko retained the professional attitude right up until their escortee had left they service once they had passed the gates. As soon as he was in the village, she let out a long sigh, "Oh my goddess that was something," She wiped her brow and looked to the three of her genin, "Alright, great job boys. I'm not sure what you'd all like to do but I'm going to spend a day or two here, check out the temple," With that she fished through her bag and took out the hardly worn Priestess robe, simply as she normally used her chakra water to make the robe, and pulled it on to herself. Thanks to her speciality she never carried weapons, so with the robe she was sure she could easily pass as a civilian. "But c'mon, I owe you all breakfast," She would smile and continue to lead the group in to make good on her promise.

[exit]