[h3]   [/h3][hr][h3][color=lightsteelblue]Kazuhiko Taketori[/color][/h3][hr][sup][i]Midday ||  Land of Lightning[/i][/sup][indent] [/indent]
Escorting Hachiro home was a rather dull affair, if Kazuhiko was honest. It entailed a lot of slow walking, unnecessary pit stops, and just overall free time that he was running out of ideas on how to fill by the time they were nearing the Daimyo’s estate. At first the trio had kept up their training in the mornings and evenings, with Minoru joining them intermittently, or whenever he could wake up early enough. These training sessions were the same as usual, sometimes productive and sometimes not, but because of time constraints and the varying landscape. Though the group was making progress, becoming more familiar with the jutsu they had at their disposal, the training sessions still tended towards the unproductive side, usually with Natsuko becoming distracted and leading the session to a slow but eventual end.

Inefficiency aside, though, the journey was fine: mundane, boring at times, but okay. A few more skirmishes were dealt with, each of them similar to the last, as if some unknown enemy thought they’d matched the group’s level with weak, hired thugs. Otherwise, the road was calm and almost relaxing, if a mission could be termed as such. For the first time in a while, he felt himself truly relax, have a second of space to stop worrying about his priorities. Back in Konoha, he saw constant reminders that he needed to keep pushing, keep achieving. From the ranked shinobi running the genin school to his fellow genin peers, there were constantly people to keep ahead of, to match and exceed so his family could continue being proud of him. 

This was a pressure he saw partially mirrored in Koharu, and it was perhaps seeing her relax a bit that he too was able to let go of what might usually keep him on his feet at home. Where Natsuko was in a constant state of relaxation, driven by whim both on the road and at home, Koharu was similar in that she was also the heir of her family. Natsuko had her siblings and cousins to fall back on, but Koharu and Kazuhiko had nothing of the sort. They were the pride and future of their households, and their failure would translate over directly. 

That all said, Kazuhiko supposed there was one more individual to thank on the part of promoting a carefree environment: Hachiro. Whether it was his natural penchant for innocent yet brutal honesty or a byproduct of his young age and childish antics, he helped lighten the mood whenever he was around, and that became quite often as the journey progressed. Though he’d first taken interest in Kazuhiko, something that Kazuhiko was pretty neutral to as long as it didn’t devolve into a meaningless stream of questions like it usually did after giving the boy too much time to pester him, Hachiro had quickly realized that Koharu was a better target. Well, perhaps Kazuhiko wasn’t giving him enough credit; he meant well, and Koharu liked having him around, slipping into the role of an older sister like she would a second skin. 

Still, Kazuhiko couldn’t help but remain a little cynical and attentive of Natsuko’s opinions about the boy, which often accused Hachiro of being manipulative, acting like he couldn’t open this bottle or hadn’t noticed that rock he’d tripped overnight . It didn’t help his case that Kazuhiko caught the dirty looks he shot at Natsuko once in a while. They’d been mutual, yes, but they also spoke of some intelligence if Hachiro had been smart enough to peg Natsuko as trouble and Koharu, the least assertive of the group, as his favorite.

When they finally reached the Daimyo’s residence, however, where Hachiro readily ran away from the genin to his father, Kazuhiko realized that perhaps he hadn’t relaxed enough. Even outside of Konoha, he couldn’t avoid thinking about shady dealings and ulterior motives, couldn’t help but see the worst of a situation and try and keep himself above that. It was how he was raised, he supposed, and even if he went digging, he couldn’t find any reason why he should change. 

A slight cold near his feet brought Koharu’s frost growth to Kazuhiko’s attention, and he wondered whether he should say something. Personally, he would prefer to mull over his own emotions alone, but he’d learned that not everyone was the same as him. Natsuko was a prime example, in this case, and she didn’t hesitate to wrap Koharu into a hug after Koharu made her unnecessary apology. 

[color=indianred]“Aw, did someone hurt my poor Haru baby? Point them out—I’ll see that they face the wrath of Natsuko!”[/color]

She pumped an arm, clenching the fist dramatically as she kept her other arm around Koharu’s shoulders, and Kazuhiko cracked a grin. Meeting Koharu’s eyes, he mouthed his question: ‘Haru baby?’

Of course, this would probably embarrass the quieter girl further—that much he knew. But, all things aside, Natsuko had the right idea here, distracting Koharu. The ice nin was too hesitant for her own good mostly, and a little too easy to needle. He’d lay off later, but hey, they weren’t back in Konoha yet, were they?
[indent] [/indent][hr][hider=Jutsu]
[hider=Ninjutsu][indent] [/indent][list]
[*]Lightning Release:
[list][*]Thunder: creates arcs of lightning that the user can direct towards a target.
[*]Thunderbolt [Needs Practice]: creates arcs of lightning that can hit multiple targets at once.
[*]Lightning Strike [Needs Practice]: creates a strong arc of lightning that can hit multiple close targets or be extended to hit a faraway one. 
[/list][/list][indent][/indent][/hider]
[indent] [/indent][/hider]
[h3]   [/h3][hr][h3][color=indianred]Natsuko Rinha[/color][/h3][hr][sup][i]Midday ||  Land of Lightning Outskirts[/i][/sup][indent] [/indent]
Minoru interrupted Natsuko’s cooing just when she was getting on a roll, and Natsuko would have been annoyed if it weren’t for the news he’d delivered. 

[color=indianred]“We’re staying here? Then, as the saviours of the Daimyo’s kid, we get VIP treatment, right?”[/color]

She grinned, rubbing her hands together as she took another gander at the Daimyo’s residence. 

[color=indianred]“Feasts and expensive sheets, come to momma. After she gets some training in.”[/color]

[hr][sup][i]Afternoon ||  Land of Lightning[/i][/sup][indent] [/indent]
[color=indianred]“This is [i]not[/i] what I signed up for!”[/color] Natsuko yelled for not the first time that day, pressing into the rock face for dear life as some more loose rocks fell into the abyss below her. 

For reasons that escaped her, Minoru had thought it a good idea to take them cliff climbing, and when Natsuko said ‘cliff,’ she meant ‘sheer face of rock with too few footholds and too many crumbly cracks to be human-friendly.’ She was keenly aware of the open sky above her which offered no relief from the dead drop below her, which disappeared into clouds when she looked down. Okay, so maybe it was fog, or mist, or whatever people wanted to call it, but if it looked like there were literal clouds under her feet, Natsuko called that a bad situation. 

While Kazuhiko was perhaps a little more focused than normal, he still moved along the cliff after Minoru at a steady pace, easily staying ahead of Natsuko and Koharu. To her credit, Natsuko had managed, for once, to outpace Koharu, but it was hardly a victory when she looked behind her to see a nervous, wide-eyed mess. 

When they finally reached solid ground—a stone hallway of sorts, carved out of the weathered rock face—Natsuko took a moment to breathe, hands on her knees as she glared at her sensei, who was patting a flustered Koharu on her head. 

[color=indianred]“How much longer?”[/color] she asked, rushing to Koharu’s side to loop her arm around her teammate’s. [color=indianred]“Another cliff face and Koharu and I are heading back.”[/color]

But, as it turns out, she needn’t have worried; the rest of the trek was through the cliff structure itself. Consisting of a lot of narrow stairwells and shaded hallways, the structure was surprisingly expansive on the inside, and its architecture allowed natural light to seep into the rooms through a constant stream of balconies and windows. When they finally reached their destination, the largest room in the structure, which Natsuko was now able to identify as a temple, judging by the carvings in the ceiling and the scrolls adorning the walls, they’d also reached the biggest balcony in the building. 

Jutting out of the cliff and into the air, the balcony offered a beautiful vantage point of the natural wonders of the Land of Lightning from high above the low forests and crags below. In every direction were cliff formations similar to the one they’d climbed up earlier, some taller and some shorter, but mostly of a uniform size. 

A fresh breeze ruffled through Natsuko’s hair as she peered over the balcony fence, and she exhaled loudly, sighing. 

[color=indianred]“This is amazing.”[/color]

Then, remembering why she’d come on this excursion in the first place, she frowned, looking to Minoru. 

[color=indianred]“Wait, Sensei, are we training [i]here[/i]?”[/color]
[h3] [/h3][hr][hider=Jutsu]
[hider=Ninjutsu][indent] [/indent][list]
[*]Wind Release:
[list][*]Gale Palm: technique where the user increases the velocity or density of wind to form a powerful gale capable of knocking over a person.[/list]
[*]Dark Release:
[list][*]Kusunemasu [Needs Practice]: A basic technique that allows a Rinha to absorb chakra from others and use it as their own. They can do this through direct physical contact or from a distance 
(Limits: distance-restrained, more concentration required without direct contact)
[/list][/list][indent][/indent][/hider]
[indent] [/indent][/hider]
[hr][sup][@Sunflower][/sup]