Life's a Drag...on [IO/Alice]

No one in their right might should have been out in the sun on such a day, especially not in the extra dry climate north along the border just on the other side of the Tachibana forest. Except there was at least one, a lone child slumped against a large worn boulder that had somehow found its way to the land below from the mountains just to the east into the Land of Earth. No surprise that it was a certain young genin with a penchant for pushing himself in the blistering heat to hone his earth arts, but for the moment Satomi appeared to be lifeless and covered in mud. Trace amounts of the muck remained to litter the immediate area around the boy as well, Satomi sitting in once such puddle as he managed to lift an arm to pour out some water over his face and despite his drinking problem he was fortunate enough to find his mouth as well.

“Oh man, coming out here today was a bad idea.” The young boy let out a strained grunt as he pushed himself up to his feet with the help of his new favorite rock, the genin then proceeded to shuffle his way over to a pile of stone rubble. The circle he had made had since warn away, but the land was still scarred with evidence with his ability as he climbed atop the rubble to look over the shattered and broken earthen walls he had raised and used as target practice for perhaps his proudest accomplishment.

Satomi's arms remained relaxed (or exhausted) at his side as his chakra bubbled up for the source to seep out through his body as he stared out over the rocky terrain. Picking his spot he gracefully lifted his left arm as he extended it outward with his palm upward, the child's chakra surging as the ground trembled and shook violently around him with the increased height of his hand.

“Arise, Earth Dragon!” Satomi may have been a fan of theatrics and drama, especially when there was no one around to judge him as the surface exploded as a beast of fused stone and earth was given birth from the earth by the child. He had practiced long hard to be able to bring the beast of rock hard fangs and stone scales without the use of hand seals, today he hoped to find a way to give the dragon more bite. It was part of the reason he even dared to drag himself out to such a region of Haven, there weren't a whole log of others willing to endure the unforgiving arid weather to interrupt him.

Aside from the enormous library, another sight to be seen in Hoshigakure was the Tachibana Wildlife Preserve. Sure, Alice hadn't really come here to sight see, but she didn't exactly have anything else to do at the moment either. So she found herself asking for directions to the preserve. It took her an hour or so to walk all the way out there. It was located near the borders. 

Soon enough she found herself in the midst of it, her shoes and legs covered in mud. Probably a bad idea to wear this outfit out here. She'd have to.....acquire...some new clothes when she got back to the village later. Her train of thought was cut off when she heard a loud crash and a sound like the earth was opening up from nearby. When she got there, she saw a young girl completely covered in mud and grime sitting beside a large boulder. An enormous dragon made of earth was nearby.

"Uhhh. Hi there little girl. What, um, what exactly are you doing out here?"

Tamed by the child, the Earth Dragon was bound to his will as it roamed the skies overhead. Despite its monstrous bulk and thirty meter length the beast moved with incredible agility enhanced by the boy's own chakra that gave it life and flowed throughout its body. The genin's concentrated chakra into his own hands as he brought them up in front of him again for, well, he'd lost how many times he had made the attempt to learn this jutsu today. Regardless his hands would form the Ram seal as his chakra spiked, but the dragon would suddenly crash headlong into the earth as an unexpected and unfamiliar voice gave the child a startled jump.

The dragon crumbled into large lifeless chunks of earth and stone as the chakra holding it together dissipated, the shadow of the boy's feminine figure jumped to life as he his Ram seal quickly morphed into a Rat seal, the shadow shooting across the ground towards the young girl before the boy even turned around to face her. His technique with the Shadow Imitation jutsu was unrefined and frankly seemed neglected as it raced out at only a moderate pace at best before the boy's eyes would fall on the girl for the first time as he spun away, his shadow stopping half way between the pair before flailing wildly and retracting to its idle form.

“Ah-- Wha-- Li-Litle girl!?” Satomi stammered and stumbled over his words as he held his chest and waited for his heart rate to slow a bit, and of course he'd be mistaken for a girl... by another girl? The young boy sighed as he brushed his golden locks out of his face to let his crystalline-blue gaze inspect the sudden visitor. He wasn't positive, but it didn't feel like the girl was from Hoshi like him. At the very least he didn't recognize her. He attire didn't exactly scream ninja either, guessing she might have been a traveling student perhaps. As for his own appearance, Satomi had gradually grown use to the common mistake and had made some attempts to adopt it to his own needs as a ninja. “I-I'm just training, I'm going to be the greatest ninja. And I'm going to protect the whole world! The child boasted in quite a matter of fact tone, his voice a sweet thrill and melodic as he addressed the girl. “But what are you doing out here?” Satomi's voice hid his suspicious nature, he was naive and trusting soul, but even he could afford to be a little cautious out in the middle of nowhere alone.

Alice's sudden appearance had startled the girl, immediately breaking her concentration which caused the enormous earth dragon to crash into the ground below. The earth shook as it did, Alice's ears ringing from the sudden noise. She was definitely a ninja. Probably from Hoshigakure considering where they were right now. That wouldn't have actually interested the Nara at all if it weren't for what happened next. The young ninja girl's hands came together quickly to form the Rat hand seal, her shadow extending along the ground in the direction of the missing-nin. Alice knew that technique all too well. It was one of her own most used jutsu. The Nara clan's shadow imitation technique. Luckily the shadow had stopped midway between the two girls, it would have been very bad if Alice had to give herself away as a ninja like this.

Alice's words finally seemed to register, the shadow imitation pulling back into nothingness. The girl was indeed a ninja, a jumpy one, but a ninja nonetheless. Apparently she was out here training. That would explain why Alice hadn't seen much wildlife out here in the wildlife preserve yet today. Man, this kid was ruining her day off already. How annoying. Alice figured she might as well try to get some information out of her at least.

"Me? Well, I came to Hoshigakure to see the sights, you see. I heard this wildlife preserve was the largest one around with an enormous variety of creatures. I didn't have anything else planned today and wanted to check it out." she replied innocently. She let herself look like she was thinking for a brief second before continuing. "Come to think of it, I haven't really seen much wildlife out here today. I thought it was strange, but maybe it's because you're here doing uhhh ninja training?"

She allowed a curious look to cross her face, her arms behind her back now with her right hand gripping her left wrist and her head cocked slightly to the side. Her left foot was tucked behind her right. The whole thing was more to give a look of cute innocence then anything else. Though Alice had to admit it was quite comfortable standing like that.

The genin beamed proudly as a cloud of dust and debris rushed around him from behind in the wake of the dragon's impact with the ground. The boy would then just happily rock back and forth on his feet as he too gave off an aura, though he didn't particularly have to try all that hard to express it. He did briefly note the crumbled remains of the Earth dragon as he gave it a passing glance with a broad gap-toothed smile.

“You've stumbled onto my own little place I like to come out to when I need to train, it's much less crowded than the other places available.” Satomi chirped and aflutter with giggles as he hid his own hands behind his back, merely folding them away innocently. The child didn't reveal much more than what was evident by what the girl could have witnessed with her own eyes, not because he was some clever ninja, but merely he didn't think about much more than answering the porposed question. His small figure definitely wouldn't help determine much about his status or skill either on top of it having made it difficult to convince anyone that he wasn't a little kunoichi in training. However if anyone was aware of earth jutsu they might be able to surmise that he was at least mildly competent, Earth Dragon was after all an A Rank technique. As for his own Shadow Imitation, Satomi personally had little knowledge of its origin or the history of the clan from which was famous for its utilization. Some curious research revealed little and her father refused to discuss it outright with him. “And sorrrry about the animals, they tend to frighten easy at loud noises and terrible tremors! I don't suppose you're a ninja too, yeah? Maybe from another village?” The young child seemed excited at the prospect, of course his immediate thoughts were that the girl had come with the recent arrival from Kumo, but he'd certainly like to meet a ninja any village! The things he could learn for his research would be almost invaluable to him. “If not, no worry. But if you aaaarrrre then maybe you could share a jutsu or two?” Satomi giggled, a history and jutsu lesson would be even better!

This little girl sure was...trusting? Maybe that wasn't the right word, but Alice didn't honestly care. She really didn't want to expose herself as a ninja here, but if this kid was as gullible as he seemed then it shouldn't really be an issue. 

"Well, I do-"

Her response was cut short by a telepathic message sent to her by...Kazuo? Apparently Ren, their leader, was either missing or dead and now Kaz thought he could just take over. What an arrogant prick. She had half the mind to call him a princess and tell him to shove his 'summons' right up his ass. But, this could give her a great opportunity. 

"Actually, Satomi, I do have a nice trick to show you. Here, check this out."

Just then, Alice's skin turned grey and she brought her hands together to form the clone seal, creating a single shadow clone of herself. Immediately after being summoned, the clone formed the Rat hand seal, activating the same shadow technique Alice had watched Satomi use earlier. 

"This is a curse seal I picked up on my travels," she said, smiling at the young girl in front of her. "And this is a shadow clone," she continued. The the shadow clone walked forward, just enough so that it's shadow and Satomi's shadow were intertwined. 

"This is the same technique I saw you use earlier when I startled you. It's a secret technique of the Nara clan. It's called the 'Shadow Imitation Technique'," said the clone. 

Of course the girl probably didn't realize that Alice was just setting her up at this point. She could do one last thing before she left Haven Country. Satomi was already caught in Alice's trap, so, it was time for the next phase. 

"I'm sorry about this." the original said as she calmly walked around Satomi and chopped her in the back of the neck with enough strength to knock her out, but not kill her. When she was out cold, lying on the ground, Alice let the clone dissipate and then searched the girl's body for anything useful, mostly any ryo or weapons. There was quite a lot to take. Once she gathered everything useful, she formed the Ram hand seal and took off as fast as she could towards the country borders.

[exit]

-30 for shadow clone
-30 for kidomaru seal
-40 for shadow imitation
-10 for body flicker
190ap remaining,

Claiming 6,100 ryo off of Satomi
5 shuriken
10 kunai
3 military rations pills
2 smoke bombs
3 explosive tags

claiming B rank MN for stealing 6k+ ryo

It's been 48 hours. Claiming the claims I claimed above. Hook me up bro

Approved