Open!

[lostmarauder]

Where: Inside the borders of the Land of Fire
When: April 10th-20th
Notes: So, Peter ended up getting hits on some obscure research shortly after the festival, and he's been traveling from town to town trying to find the source of the rumor so he can reverse engineer the jutsu. Any and everyone is welcome to find him... and anyone he wsa in the fight with would be deliciously awkwardly welcome.

He'd been busy. In fact, he'd been running his backside off since the... misadventure that had gotten their civilian injured, and he'd wisely kept well away from home ever since. He knew Orochimaru needed time to settle from having his plans ruffled, and until he was sure all was well on his end, it was better to be out of sight and out of mind.

Though, it definitely was helping that he very much liked travel, and the research, when it was getting anywhere was really his... thing.

Comments

April 12th

[fireire]

As he's traveling from his latest town, he may see a very familiar short figure trotting towards him. More a coincidence, really. Ava doesn't really need to be this far out, especially considering her end destination is actually rather close as far as transport seals go. In fact, she could be accomplishing her mission in record time.

But, well... Blood had been splattered on her laundry on the rare time when the weather had been kind enough to stay dry, and it hadn't been hers. The air in Kiri was always thick with tension and bloodlust, hyenas at one anothers throats, but it was worse, lately. That was saying something.

So here she is, short little legs working as best they can while she just takes a moment to breathe in the air of the countryside. She slows a little bit when she sees another person on the path, but once she recognizes the figure... Tentatively, she raises up a hand in greeting.

[lostmarauder]

Peter slowed his steps, then stared for a moment before a shy, lopsided smile crossed his face and he lifted his hand in turn. She was far more distinctive than he was after all, and he ambled closer. After all, his mission had no real set destination, so he was in no real hurry. He could detour easily.

"Hey! How are you?"

[fireire]

"Not dead or maimed!" Considering the events that were happening in Kirigakure right now, that was really a pretty good thing to be even if they honestly weren't the worst threats that could be used against her. Just ones she didn't want to get mixed up in. Besides, so long as she stayed out of her homeland, maybe she could make it.

"Um, you look the same, so I guess you've been doing okay?" It wasn't the smoothest small talk, but it was true.

[lostmarauder]

He flashed her a rather sheepish smile and ducked his head. "You know. Dodging home. I was... kind of already doing that at the festival so more of the same." He gave a sheepish laugh and tilted his head. "I figured maybe by the end of this month it might be safe to stop grabbing all out of country missions I can."

[fireire]

Avoiding home... She could understand how that felt. Ava supposed they were both in the same boat, then. Or, at least, boats that were sort of floating side by side in the same general direction. She didn't press what the deal was. He'd likely lie to her anyway if it was anything serious. "Hope it works out okay for you. Unless you don't like being home, and then I sort of change it to 'hope you don't have to go back anytime soon'."

[lostmarauder]

He laughed and gave a sheepish smile. "You know how these things are. Home is home, no matter what your opinion on the matter, right?"

And if home happened to be a den of snakes... he'd just have to be careful.

[fireire]

"I guess..." The look on her face was of someone who wasn't entirely convinced. Home in her case was just a place to rest a little while and get more missions. She hadn't spent more time out of Kiri than in it, but she was pretty sure she was getting close to that line.

Two faces flickered in her mind, and she raised a hand to her chin. "What about missing nin, then? Since they run away from their homes."

[lostmarauder]

He was quiet, his attention sharpening on her then, his focus for a moment evaluating and intense before vanishing again. He was back to his easy smile in an instant. "You know how it is. They either find a new home, or someone catches up to them."

[fireire]

That look made her go a bit tense, and it showed in her tone as much as her body language. "I guess it depends on every village's hunters." Then, because she couldn't let it not be said, not with everything that was going on back in her home- "I didn't bring it up because I'm thinking of deserting, you know."

[lostmarauder]

He blinked, then actually laughed, a soft, almost amused sound. "I didn't care one way or another if you were Ava-san. I know better than to assume that's now anyone should judge a person."

[fireire]

"If you say so." There was still that edge of paranoia and uncertainty. You could never be too careful. That's what she had learned. While Ava knew she herself couldn't do it, she knew other people could fake smiling. Quickly and with little finesse, she tried to change the subject. "So what kind of mission are you doing, if you can talk about it?"

[lostmarauder]

Ohhh, he hadn't played that as casually as he should have. No matter, he just gave her an encouraging grin and shrugged. "Well, I can! I'm a research nin, basically."

[fireire]

"Oh, so I guess that's why you can be mediocre?" If that's insulting- well, Ava doesn't seem to care too much. Peter hasn't given her the impression of someone who would let that get to him much. "What sort of research?"

[lostmarauder]

"You could say that." He felt his expression turn sheepish and slightly averted his eyes. "But as for what kind... All kinds really."

[fireire]

"...Won't that just make you MORE mediocre if you're spread out like that?"

[lostmarauder]

"Well, yeah, but how will I ever find my best skill if I don't look?"

[fireire]

"I guess a lot of others just figure out their best skill really early on..." Well, there was that, and something else too. Ava crossed her arms a little bit and frowned. "Or they have family or something tell them it."

[lostmarauder]

"My family didn't want a shinobi." He gave a casual shrug, shaking his head with a put upon sigh. "Civilians."

[fireire]

"Oh." Ava's eyes flickered to the side as she thought about the civilians in her own homeland. "I guess that makes sense. How come you decided to become one then?"

[lostmarauder]

"Because..." He paused, giving a laugh and turning slightly away from her, all embarrassment. "You know how it is. Who travels the world when they're trapped in a storefront all day?"

[fireire]

"I guess certain merchant groups... But I guess you have a point." Ava started to fiddle with her fingers while shifting weight from one foot to the other. "I guess I'm sort of the same, then, although my family definitely sort of encouraged me." To put it lightly.

[lostmarauder]

"The traveling the world part I'm guessing, since them encouraging you means the rebellion is right out." He gave her a wry smile.

[fireire]

The response was a shrug and a nod. "It's nice to get out of Kiri sometimes. I don't usually get to loiter too much..." With her current mission being one of those exceptions, of course. "Still, it's nice."

[lostmarauder]

He looked sideways at her for a moment, then grinned. "Course. I mean, if it wasn't, you would have rushed home right?"

[fireire]

"Right." She gave a tentative smile back. "Same for you?"

[lostmarauder]

"Haa... I got into a bit of a mess in front of my village leader a couple months ago so I've been you know, dodging? I'm hoping this next time I head home it'll all be settled down enough to be safe."

[fireire]

"Well, it doesn't sound like anyone's been sent to assassinate you or something, so things should turn out fine, right?" Look at that optimism.

[lostmarauder]

"Haaa...." He laughed, sheepish and shook his head. If only assassination was the legitimate worry of his home village. "...Course. Makes sense..."

[fireire]

...And now things were awkward. At the very least, they were for her. She fiddled with the strap of her bag for a moment, trying to think of how else to continue the conversation. "Um... We could eat at a place in the next town... if you wanted..." Things couldn't go wrong with food, right?

[lostmarauder]

He blinked, staring at her for a moment in shock before a furious blush crossed his face. "Yeah... yeah okay. I'd like that."

[fireire]

What a weird reaction... Regardless, she gave a hesitant smile and pointed the way he had been going. "So... This way? Unless the other town you came from is closer..." She wasn't entirely certain. While Ava paid attention to a lot of things when she was traveling, sometimes distance wasn't one of them.

[lostmarauder]

He gave a sheepish laugh and looked back behind them. "Let's go this way." He kept going the way he'd been going since he sort of stole some important scrolls from there and didn't want them found out. No sir.

[fireire]

...Did he do something? Nevermind, nope, she wasn't going to get involved, not with her own mission looming somewhere over the horizon. So Ava just gave a nod of agreement and started off as well. There was another moment of silence as she tried to think of what to say, before deciding that the previous train of thought had been good enough. "So what kind of food do you eat back home? We usually have a lot of fish in Kirigakure for... pretty obvious reasons."

[lostmarauder]

"Grain and rice is in pretty much every dish where I'm from. It's kind of a theme I'm afraid. Farming country." He laughed and was kind of relieved she didn't argue his destination.

[fireire]

"Farming, really?" She rubbed her chin a bit. "It sort of suits you." More in that he was a bit plain, honestly, although she wasn't sure what that said for herself and all the fish. "How did the storm treat everything there, anyway? Since there was one right after the festival."

[lostmarauder]

"Ah! We're actually doing a lot better than the countries further East actually. They got slammed pretty bad I'm sorry to say. Probably the hills on that side of us saved us, you know?"

[fireire]

"Good point." Now that she thought about it... "It's probably good that it's a farming country. I overheard at the last town I stopped in that even some of the other countries that didn't get directly hit are still having trouble because they did trade with the ones that did. I guess a farming country sounds sort of boring... but in times like this, it really helps, huh?"

[lostmarauder]

"The country had to do something before they got our village. Not everywhere is as hooked up as the land of Water, but it's good too. We're not isolated."

[fireire]

"So I guess it works out the best for both your village and the country." It was hard to imagine something like that with how big Kiri was...

[lostmarauder]

He laughed and nodded, giving a little shrug. "It works for us, being like we are."

[fireire]

"True. I guess all ninja have learned how to make their homes work for them, right?" Even those who dwelled in the desert were known for certain skills, last Ava had heard. "It's neat how the villages are all spread out in different places."

[lostmarauder]

"You have to admit it would be kind of a total disaster if everyone was in one place. Can you imagine how much wide scale destruction that would be?" He shook his head to show his opinion of that.