Come With Me (P, IO, NK, Mugen)

Matsuri gazed out numbly at the terrain stretching before her. As her eyes travled slowly from her toes and outward, she noted the subtle changes. Sand gradually morphed earth, dunes becoming stone outcroppings and cactuses into shrubbery and tumbleweeds. The air was cooler than that of the scorching desert and slightly more humid, but to Matsuri, the weather was still hell on earth. Perhaps the only comforts she had from the scorching sun and blazing atmosphere were the slight breeze that rustled her hair and the rare cloud overhead. Behind her was a vast expanse of nothing; before her, a valley of stone and canyons.

She was at the border of Wind and Stone.

Or, rather, she was nearing it. At the moment, the girl was but a half mile away from those borders, still in the Wind Country's deserts but nearing the end of their stretch.

Matsuri let a small sigh escape her lips, her stare hardened and cold to more than just a first glance. The warmth normally found in her eyes, in her expression, was absent here. Instead, she wore the face of a girl who had been through too much and was tired of her continued problems. She appeared to be done with the world and its complications, yet also blissfully emotionless and without feeling. Gone was her warm, cheeky smile, a tight-lipped line of perseverance in its place. A thick air of desperate,contemplative detachment hung about her like a heavy veil, and the girl closer her eyes for a moment, letting out a soft breath as she opened them once more.

This was the Matsuri that showed itself when not a soul was watching, the girl that lived only when no one else was alive around her. She was the face that existed only when she was free of the influence of others. This was the default Yukishima Matsuri.

It was time to depart from this place, lest her pursuers detect her presence within the desert. Tengakure, in the land of Moon, was her destination, and her route of passage was simple. The girl would stick to the string of free, Shinobi-less countries until her arrival in Waterfall Coutry. Moving swiftly, she would then pass through the country and avoid the village, hoping that their small Shinobi count would let her pass by unscathed. By then, it would be a clear shot into Moon Country, and thus her journey would be over.

A sick feeling pooled in Matsuri's gut, as she ran her plan over in her mind. What if Ahiko wasn't there? If he never arrived? If he was...dead? It was a thought that the Academy Student refused to come to terms with, yet knew she must eventually. All odds were stacked against her, like a mountain pressed between her shoulder blades, and all she could do was to keep moving, keep traveling, keep hoping to find her conquest's goal in their place of mutual rendezvous.

It was an agonizing thought, to know that the man was, in all probability, gone without a hope of retrieval. It truly filled her with dread.

However, mixed in with her denial and emptyness was more than a shred of guilt. Matsuri was leaving unannounced to a recent made friend, and most likely was never to see him again... Though, it wasn't for lack of trying to find him. The girl ha searched high and low for the white haired boy she had dubbed Muu-kun, but she hadn't seen him once since that first day. It left a nauseous feeling in her stomach and a weight on her chest, knowing that she would be disappearing. There wasn't a thing she could do to help, though... Matsuri needed not only to travel to Tenga quickly, should Ahiko arrive there, but she couldn't stay in Sunagakure any longer either.

There were Shinobi on her trail as it was, searching for their little Jashin-worshipping success. Punishments would be as grave as they could be for an immortal, and there wasn't a way in the world that Matsuri would stick around to see just how perilous those consequences would be.

Tengakure would be a save haven, though, for a time. The village was all the way across the map from the old facility, found  on the most distant corner of the border between Wind and Shadow countries. Sunagakure had been a detour of grand proportions, but it had been a necessity in throwing the hound-like nin off her trail...

...She hoped, with every fiber of her being, that they still were thrown off.

Matsuri took a deep, finalizing breath, her nimble fingers brushing against the 'Pokeball' strapped to her waist. Hikage would be fine within it for the journey; perhaps he could even catch the sleep e had been chasing for so long. Then, she began to walk forward, every step bringing her closer and closer to the true border between Wind and Stone.

Matsuri wondered once more if, by some stroke of luck... Perhaps Jashin-sama would allow her to see Mugen, if only one more time.

The wind was roughly blowing in the desert, sand being kicked up and thrown at whatever happened to be in its path. Unfortunately, Mugen was the sand's barrier at the moment, similar to when he first passed through the arid region. His hair was whipping back and forth, his bangs slapping against his forehead, causing his skin to slightly sting. Never again shall he travel to or from from Sunagakure, the desert was simply too much for him to bear. It was beyond him to understand how anyone was capable of living in such an environment, and that same thought ran across the hallways of his mind the first time he was on his way to the hidden sand. The only time the thought was not present...

Was when he first met Matsuri.

As if a spell was suddenly cast, the boy's head began to pound, and his eyelids shut tight for a handful of moments. Only a few moments. Once they did, flashes of his time in Sunagakure appeared before him, and the highlight of it all was his friend. He didn't expect them to part so soon, and it disappointed him, and slightly scared him. Was it truly possible for people to drift away from one another so...easily? She merely assisted him in finding a place to stay, then the next day, he could not find her. It was as if everything was a dream. The whole day, the whole 24-hour time span in which he met her did not exist. It was a figment of his imagination...or was it?

More sand was picked up and tossed at the young male's face, bringing him back to reality. That's right, he was traveling. He couldn't get distracted like that again. Who knows what could happen out here in the open, but he doubted any enemy jumping out to strike him down soon. There was also keeping on the path created in the depths of his memory, for it was his only ticket out of this desert. Where his next destination was...well, it certainly was not home. Not yet. He still had more of the world to see, more to discover. And he'd get stronger along way, so he could return to his friends and remaining family in Yukigakure, more powerful than ever before. He wondered what was taking them so long to search for him, considering he was missing for quite some time.

Maybe they believed he was dead? It brought an amused smile to his pale lips. Imagining their surprise to see him coming home, safe and unharmed, was enough to push him onward, so he could quickly arrive at his next destination. Apparently, because he was so lost in his musings, he almost missed the silhouette that passed into his line of sight. The boy hesitated in taking another step forward upon spotting it, the sapphire gems he called eyes narrowing and any muscles he possessed tensing. What was this...? Perhaps he should investigate?

His mind barely had time to come to a final decision; the youth was already moving forward once more. However, there was a noticeable difference. Previously, he was walking, but now he slowly settled into a fast paced jog, not exactly going into a run. With every second he grew closer to the figure, and with each second he couldn't push back the nagging voice in the back of his head, this time it wasn't Kyokai. The voice said: This stranger was someone he knew. It was someone familiar.
In time, he was forced to pause, and he stopped only a few steps away from the stranger. They kept moving while he stayed in one spot, and their back was facing him, so he could not see their face. But, he knew the person before him was no stranger.

"Ma..." it came out as a whisper, and then slowly grew in volume, "Matsuri...?!"

[Short post be short, is this short??]

Matsuri was oblivious to the footsteps behind her, the girl's mind set solely on her search and escape. So, when a voice called out her name, mere steps away, it startled the girl immensely. She was set on the fine line between fight and flight before, her body tense and ready for action; it was the way one must stay when being pursued. However, the scare pushed her over the edge, and her only instinct was, 'Attack!'

Matsuri whirled around to face her pursuer, the girl's blue eyes filled with cold, bitter fire. As she moved, her left hand brought a kunai into the light, while her right contained twin shuriken. The weapons had been brought from the twin pouches now found at her side; her Pokeball was situated just in front of the pack on her left hip. They were at the ready by the time she stopped, as was Mats... ready to fight again, to kill again. If this was a worker, a pursuer sent after her, she would fight to the death... The girl would never go back to that place. Never.

Matsuri stopped her hands a mere fraction of a second after releasing the shuriken. Bumping her halted fingertips, the cool metal disks fell to the sand in front of her, though she made no move to retrieve them yet. Instead, her chilled blue eyes gained a spark of warmth within them as she regarded the stranger before her...except, he wasn't really a stranger, was he? "Muu-kun...?" she asked bewilderedly. Sure enough, the boy standing before her was Mugen, bushy white hair and all. The girl looked from her friend, to her kunai, and back to her friend again.

Matsuri eeped.

Her hands constantly fumbled as she hurriedly tried to shove her kunai into her pouch. Key word, tried. Matsuri could count once, maybe twice even, that she flat out dropped the blade... but at least she caught it before it hit the sand! Finally, after several full seconds of scuffling with her own clothing, she managed to find the opening she left in the pouch and slide the knife into it.

It was with a sheepish expression that she looked to the face of her friend, smiling and scratching the back of her head. "Aha... Didn't see you there!" Matsuri visibly deflated from there, her shoulders dropping as she walked forward to pick up her dropped weapons. The girl scooped these into her opposite pouch, luckily without fault, and stood back up. She was now somewhere between one and two feet from Mugen. "Uhm... Heeey... Sorry for uh leaving. Without saying anything..." she began, her teeth pulled into a cautious, too-wide smile. A little emphasis entered her voice as he added, "I looked for you, I did! I just... couldn't find you."

'But that's no excuse for just leaving, is it? Should... Should I tell him?' she thought, though a bit of her inner turmoil and conflict showed on her face. Of course, Matsuri wasn't about to spill her life story, or even explain the curse and blessing of Jashinism. She felt she owed an explanation as to why she had to leave so soon, though... "...I still should have waited though, huh? But... I can't stay in Suna any longer, haha! See, I'm on the run, and if my pursuers aren't already in Suna...they'll be there soon..." and she trailed off there, scuffing her feet. Perhaps she shouldn't be too guilt-ridden, as it seemed Mugen was leaving without a goodbye as well, but... Still, her excuse was hardly a good one.

[Rights and lefts are from Matsuri's POV]

Once she had begun to bring out her weapons, the boy's instincts kicked in, and he was already equipping himself with two kunai, one located in each of his hands. He looked on as she then moved to release the shuriken in her grasp, causing his body to tense, ready to deflect the weapons with his own. It perplexed him as to why she would move to strike him; weren't they allies? Weren't they...friends? However, he was fortunately able to relax, for the weapons fell down into the hot sand below before they could reach him. In fact, they barely managed to go passed a foot. He could only assume she stopped the projectiles before they could be fully released.

A nickname he was somewhat familiar with reached his ears, and the boy could only stare at the girl in front of him, a faint smile forming on his pink lips.

"Yeah...?" he said while putting away his kunai, not expecting to get any reply. Now what he really did not expect was the small "eep" that escaped Matsuri's mouth, and for her to become so flustered that she ended up dropping the weapons that were in her hands. Once she got everything, hopefully, under control, she smiled at him, causing him to send one of his own in return. His faint smile had transformed into the bright and warm one he happened to give her back in the cave.

"Yeah, you really didn't..." he stated with mirth hidden in his voice. It was pretty obvious she didn't notice it was him, with the way she was more than prepared to attack with shuriken. Then, she began her apology, and after she finished Mugen tilted his head in slight confusion. So she had searched for him as well? It was strange how they didn't end up finding the other then, but perhaps this was meant to happen. After all, life made many questionable twists and turns, even if you're not able to question those very turns.

"It's alright, Mats," he replied, practically brushing it off, "I was planing on leaving anyway, so it's no big deal. And I looked for you, too, but I couldn't find you either."

However, he didn't miss the expression on her face during her apology. He could only wonder what it was for. It annoyed him somewhat, not being able to figure out what was wrong with his friend currently, but he decided against saying anything. What truly caught his attention, though, was her next comment on not being able to stay in Sunagakure. Pursuers...he did not like the sound of that. For a moment, his sapphire orbs hardened. He wasn't about to let anything harm Matsuri, not while he was around, it didn't matter who they were.

"Sounds serious if you had to leave so soon," he stated, "If you don't mind me asking, what are you being...chased down for?" Mugen's head was still tilted, his face filled with curiosity, his eyebrows risen high. It gave the boy an innocent look, one certainly not common when it came to him.

He looked concerned once she didn't respond to him, rather, she just stood there, as if she was frozen for some strange reason. The sun was beating down onto his back, making him hot and somewhat sweaty. He couldn't stay here long, but what of his friend? What of Matsuri? Surely she could make it out of here, he knew the girl was more than capable. After all, she was the one to lead them to Sunagakure. And she managed to arrive so far into the desert without seemingly a single scratch on her. Yes, he could trust her. Yes, she would be fine. He just had to believe in her abilities, although he hasn't seen much of them. However, the boy was also curious as to where her giant lion went. Oh well, he could certainly trust in Hikage as well. Nothing would try to mess with such a large animal...right? Right.

"Masturi..." Mugen began, his eyebrows slightly furrowing, "It was nice seeing you, and even nicer speaking with you, but...I have to go. Try to keep in touch with me, alright? We can write letters to each other." he grinned at the last part, trying to keep the atmosphere light. He was hesitant, but eventually sent one last wave, before walking away from the girl. The same girl who helped him when he was "dying" of thirst. The same girl who became his friend in such a short amount of time. He'd make sure to see each other once more. However, it was about time he decided where his next destination would be...

Perhaps he would figure that out as he went on with his journey.
[Exit.]