Home sweet home? [OPEN, NK]

Somewhere near Kumo, Laz  was drifting in the lake still from when he knocked himself unconscious. From a distance he would appear to be dead but he was breathing and all bodily functions are working fine. The current of the river dragged him along till his jacket got caught on a fallen branch from a tree keeping him from floating away with the current. It didn't take long before he started to come out of his jacket and be submerged under the water for a few seconds, quickly waking up Laz  would swim up gasping for air as he swam towards the side of the river. Dragging himself on land gagging and coughing he would lay still on his back. Breathing in the air he would sit up and look around to see where he was at. Since Lazuru didn't see nothing noticeable he decided to explore as he grabbed his jacket of the branch. Walking around for hours he would finally stumble upon a familiar looking path which he followed. "Alright my clothes have dried off and I'm starving....I can't believe I lost my bag. This place doesn't look like the forest from before I went unconscious yet...it seems familiar." He said as he would continue walking and looking at the mountains around him. It didn't take long till he saw a few merchants and travelers. There seemed to be more appearing as he continued his path which meant that there was a village, town or camp up ahead. Laz  started to believe there was a village up ahead as the memories of walking on this path from a long time ago started to return to his mind.

Finally reaching the gates Laz  would sigh in relief and would stare at the village for awhile as he adjusted his scarf lowering from his mouth. "This place...I wonder if my old house is still here." He said as he would walk closer to the gates. "Well what's the worst that can happen? Just gonna walk in...no big deal right?"

The long stone path, built by the great architects of the cloud village, arched over the bottomless mountain setting. Only the white misty clouds below the bridge could be seen, they move slightly with the cool current brushing against the bridge. This was type of style is basically what Kumogakure was made up off, buildings, platforms, you name it, all either hanging above mountains, or build into mountains, which all were connect by bridges and such. The large brown stone gate which lead into the spacious village area, stood tall, with two large blue glass windows on both flanks of the large wrought iron panels. The large movable panels were slightly open, letting those pass by who met the requirements.

Those, who met the requirements were allows into the haven. The many guards stood watch above the gates, observing through the blue colored windows, had eyes of a hawk. Nothing could get pass them, especially our blue eyed would-be hero, Ganki.

He stands in front of the gates, his attire consisting of his usual Anbu gear. He wore his plain white porcelain mask, seeing through the two eye wholes that were lined with red color. His plain grey Flak jacket was fastened tight to his body, as well as his arm guards which were attached to his long black sleeved gloves. His three ninja pouched were attached to his waist, his katana, held within the sheathe, attached to the back of his torso. Finally, his long black pants reached mid shin, the ends wrapped in white tape following all the way down to the ankles, his black shoes revealed only his well kept toes.

After the dealing of the few fellow merchants, he sees yet another traveler. The Anbu's brown hair slides slightly, when he adjusts his vision towards him. Once the travel gets within distance, preferably 10 meters, he clears his throat and speaks, "Hold it, welcome to the cloud village. Name, and reason for visiting, please?" He waits for a reply.

He wonders if he might have a repeat of the time a certain traveling priest decided to visit kumogakure. Hope he wasn't a missionary, Ganki sharpens his eyes towards the visitor at the thought. No more could he take, no more religious talk. Good think he decided to skip on the tour he was supposed to have given him. Ganki might have been indoctrinated , or worse... forced to donate to a cause, or "collect plate".

Charity..., what a joke it was to Ganki.

Continuing walking towards the gates of the village, Laz  would begin to dry himself off with his scarf. It didn't do much since he was still soaking wet and so was the scarf. Once he was about ten meters away from the gates he would hear a man asking him a question which he couldn't quiet answer the last part correctly.

"I'm Lazuru Farunata of Yukigare no sato, reason for visiting....uh well its a long story but I kinda got separated from a group and somehow ended up here after falling into a river." He said as he would squeeze the water out of his scarf. "And since this is the only place I knew how to get to from where I was at pretty much explains why I'm here."

Looking at the guy mask he couldn't help but want one. Thinking of all the uses he could use for it he would grin and begin to hum the star spangled banner

The Anbu tilts his head, eyes the water being squeezed from Lazuru's scarf. "Sounds like you've had quite an adventure, it sounds like you've been here before, from what i'm hearing" He corrects his head, now up straight. He seemed like a nice person, but no one was getting in without proper paperwork, Ganki was sure of that. He left a pause in between, in case he wanted to indulge the Anbu with the full story. "But to be honest, I cant let you in, unless you have paper work. Not to be crude..., but its just not good business." Ganki said, listening to the odd humming that Lazuru was making, it did have a nice tune to him.

Stopping his humming when the man mentioned paperwork he would sigh. He didn't have any and even if he did it was probably ruined by the water. "Think Laz  think" he mumbled to himself as he thought of was to get the man to let him into the village. Paperwork, is what he needed just some paper and words. Laz  could pull out exactly that and play it off as the paperwork, the paper wouldn't be readable either way. That idea was out the bag the man could probably know it wasn't the real one and this would probably cause him to get in trouble. The only thing he can think of is some form that he been here before. Finally thinking what he could use as "paperwork" he would slowly grin. "Would hospital records or some form of lease would do? I lived like half my life here that has to be something I could use right?"

That was all Laz  could think of other than taking the guy out and running for which would be a last resort. He also thought to pretend to be a traveling inventor from Yuki but still, he would need proof of that. Waiting for a response he would begin to formulate a plan of what to do.

The Anbu takes his right hand, and places it on his right bare shoulder, touching the battery. The Anbu sends mental messages, to the other anbu within the area. He wants to see if this is true. While waiting for his Anbu to return with a message. Time passed by, till he got a sudden surge within his head. Ganki nodded his head. "Your story checks out, please, enjoy your time in Kumogakure. Also, check out the Sakura Corporation, should you need anything."

Alice hummed as she walked through the village hidden in the clouds. It was a beautiful day in the village, as the white puffy clouds drifted lazily on by in the sky. Alice was slightly board as she had not bee able to locate any of her small amount of friends or her sensei kuro in a couple of days. She wondered where on earth she would go as she could not go home and deal with her aunt nagging at her some more how dirty the house was, and asking her when she was going to get rid of the corpses that Alice was storing in her basement. Alice let out a sigh, she really needed to find her own place soon and get away from her aunt, so she could do her own thing. Alice thought about going up into the mountains, but she had just returned from training there a day ago and wanted a fresh location. Remembering her training from the other days made the threads inside Alice slightly shudder, remembering all the animals she and her heart beasts had maimed and killed always sent a slight buzz through her. The way the blood from the forest animals had ran down her body as she disemboweled and gutted them just made her want to sing. Alice decided to journey to the gates and maybe take a walk outside the village, a new scenery felt like just what she needed.

Alice walked along the village until she came to the gate. She was surprised to see other people here, as the guards were usually shitty and goofing off somewhere. It appeared to be a small boy, and her former sensei, the sannin of the village, Ganki. Alice had not seen her former sensei since she became chunin and had gotten a new sensei in Kuro, and she wondered if he would even reconize her as it had been some time and Alice had matured and changed greatly. Alice looked at the boy talking to her former sensei, for some reason that boy reminded her of the little tenga ninja who she had killed some time ago, well killed isn't the correct term as that boy's heart now beat inside of her so he technically wasn't dead, but either way the boy's face brought back the memory of how her heart beasts had ripped the tenga ninja's anus to shreds before utterly devouring and defecating his body. The sweetness of the memory caused Alice's five hearts to starting beating faster and the threads inside her started to quiver, she was getting excited, perhaps Alice would get to play with this boy a little. Alice must have looked strange as she walked up to the two, as she was wearing her ankle length orange tattered dress bottom, that had rips through it revealing her left leg that was cloaked in her black ripped fish net stockings. The stocking looked like they had been stitched multiple times, but if one looked closer they would realize that the stitches were on Alice's leg itself. The stockings ended mid thigh, and Alice was revealing a few inches of her upper thigh after the stocking ended. Her shadow boots masked the sound of her feet so she was ominously silent as she walked. Her kumo head band was tied around her waist loosely as a belt, thought it only clung to her right hip. She wore a sleeveless black top that stopped at her belly button, as well as arm warmers that also had tears and holes in them that began at her gold bracelet decorated wrists and stopped just below her shoulders. Her hair was jet black and styled in two ponytails on each side of her head while the rest fell naturally. The strangest thing Alice had on though was a dark black veil to cover her strange mouth that was stitched in the corners. She stared at the younger boy like a lion stares at a gazelle that has walked into its den. "Hello sirs would you like to donate to the local Kumo ninja orphanage today? We are collecting money in order to buy them beds so they don't have to sleep on the dirt floors anymore. My name is Alice, and you two are?" She would lie, her smile hidden by her black veil. It was time to see if Ganki remembered her, and also time to see if this young boy would be fun to play with or not.

Laz  grinned when the man said he could enter the village which meant he still had some form of record of him there. The man had mentioned a place called Sakura Corporation which Laz  had never heard before. His interest in this "Sakura Corporation" had increased when the man said if he needed anything. As he was about to ask if they sold any of the mask like his but was cut off by the sight of the creepy looking woman walking towards them. She had replaced his interest in the Sakura Corporation as he was now trying to figure out if she was ok, crazy, creepy or mourning for a loved one or something.

She said something about donating to the orphanage for new beds for the orphans. Laz  would donate some but what he had on him was all he had and he would probably need it to get a place to stay and food. Now that he was thinking about, he wondered how he didn't end up in a orphanage since he have been alone for some time.Shaking away the thought he would speak to the creepy lady. "Hello uh Alice? My name is Lazuru or just Laz  for short. I would like to donate money but...I need my ryo until I can catch back up or find my group." Saying it aloud put him in a short guilt trip but as much as he would like to donate he couldn't. Ok, his curiosity was getting the better of him now as he would then stare at the black veil she was wearing. "If its ok to ask, why are you wearing that? Not that its bothering me....well its bothering me and I'm just curious and all." He would then remembered what he wanted to ask the man as he would turn and face him. "Also masked guy, do this Sakura place sell masks like those?" Getting that out he would wait for both of their responses.

((How old does Alice look anyway?))

The Anbu stared off towards Lazuru, after he spoke. Normal, this was the moment where he would jet off to another location, using his seals. However, his Anbu tattoo went off. The message received from hsi fellow Anbu behind the glass windows, alerting him of another shinobi approaching his 6. The Captain look off towards the right, shifting his body towards that direction, while not completely turning his back towards Lazuru, as this was not a healthy habit. The chakra source coming from the gothic like visitor was strong. The headband around the girl's waist eased the tension. At least somebody knew how to follow the rules, Ganki thought. This might be the first time Ganki met another cloud shinobi that actually wore their headband. He observed her from behind the mask, standing 10 meters away from her.

The more closer the mysterious women approached, the more, "familiar" she seemed to get. The way she wore her head band, the skirt, and the way she tied her black hair, was so strangely familiar, but how. Upon focusing on the black veil, then her pale eyes, it was made clear. The black veil was such a give away, even her sense of "style remained the same sense the first day Ganki met this once small girl. She had indeed matured, and not quite bad at all. Not a million dollar figure, but she did have some appeal.

"Alice? It is you, I can tell by your sense of style. Where have you've been? ever since team Zero disbanded, you kinda went off the grid."he questioned with his australian accent. Ganki didn't pay much mention attention towards Lazuru's question, as he was more focused on Alice, but was still aware of Lazuru. As for the donation, which Ganki, tried to deflect from with his question, that something that could be handled later. He really didn't like donating to charities, OR religious group and/or movements. The thought brought up of the priest, Youka, who he met here actually, in front of the gates.  

He was sure of it now, Alice Hyuuga, ex member of team Zero. Ganki didn't know much of why the team disbanded. In fact, he rarely kept track of his old students after the break up. Back then, he was still a jounin, so the work of the Anbu wasn't his to bare. Back then, if he wasn't drinking, he was off sleeping, or messing around in his estate doing whatever to pass the time. Now he was just an Anbu, working and working. He even tried to make another team of Anbu candidates, but that didn't turn out so great either.

(Late teens early twenties)
Alice looked at the two in front of her and smirked under her veil, it would seem that her former sensei did remember her. She was not surprised at this, as her personality, and appearance were incredibly unique and she doubted there was any1 even remotely similar to herself in the village in terms of style. Seeing her old sensei brought back memories of her time in team 0 and of her squad mates, Tee and Inijo and the fun they had while they were in the team. It reminded her of Tee's death and Inijo's disappearance, causing her to feel something close to sadness in her heart of hearts. Alice into Ganki with her pure white hyuuga eyes and said, " Yes it is me Ganki, ever since the team disbanded and Tee and Inijo went missing I've been busy training and growing. I found a new sensei, a powerful man on level of that of the Raikage, who taught and showed me a great deal, I'm no longer the same as I was while in Team Zero, I've become a jounin and learned a lot."  As she finished she would turn her gaze towards the boy who was right next to her on her left, he said he wouldn't donate which angered Alice as she had spent an incredible five minutes of coming up with the orphan lie to make money, and even worse he made fun of her style, which was a big no no in Alice's book. Alice wold silently and without any notice, active her minds eye in case any retaliation came from what she was about to do. Alice then, at her maximum speed, reached out with her left hand in order to touch Laz's  right shoulder, which was less than one meter away from her, if she was successful in touching him, she would activate her blessing of the gorgon technique the moment she made contact, activating at the speed of her chakra state (135) and turning the poor boy to stone temporarily. If she was successful in this, she would turn back to Ganki and smile under her veil, "This is one of the things I've learned, now I can finally loot this boy for some ryo." She would say no nonchalantly and begin inspecting the new statue. Of course if any of these actions were interrupted, or changed Alice's reactions and movements would change accordingly. 

minds eye- 40
Blessing-100