Northbound (Travel Topic)

As Ganki returns to his office, he is met with a pile of paperwork on his old wooden desk. He slowly walks towards the desk, he thinks he should simply ignore it, however, most likely the contents of the paperwork pertain to that of lucrative offers. He now simply stands over them, now armed with a hand full of papers. One by one he runs his fingers through them, skimming them. One by one, he reads about how there has been much reports of people up north interested in his wares and such. Although this would normally please Ganki Sakura, the destination he had to go to, did not please him. The north, it had been too long since that day.

He couldn't kid himself; he knew this day would come. It was inevitable really. All that was left was for him to make a choice. He is now seen tilting his head forward, his eyes now shut as he pondered what to do next.

'It’s not like I’m going back to the cloud. I'm just going up north...', he opens one of his eyes and looks back at the paper that requested his destination.

'Right, it’s not the cloud, so calm down man, I'm just gonna head up north, and head west. That's all. Maybe I should hire someone to go with me, just in case. Yeah, that's what I'll do'

He flashes back to a time, when he first left the cloud. He was just a little boy, simply twelve years of age. He was accompanying his father on a business trip, shortly after Ganki himself graduating from the kumo academy he was forced to go to, by the very same man, Gozaboro Sakura.  The two had a little argument about the Sakura Family Estate.

“No, Son, the Main Sakura Estate does not reside in the Cloud Village”

“Are you sure? I mean, the main Sakura Corp building is in the cloud vill-“

“No, once again you are wrong. The biggest Sakura Corp building is in the Cloud village, that doesn't mean it is the main one. I told you this countless times, Ganki”
The little boy is now seen looking out the window, with widen eyes as he looks towards the many women who returned their eyes at the carriage. The Carriage was currently passing through a small town in the moon country.

“You see? This is why I sent you to the academy. You have no self-restrain what so ever; you can’t even focus on a single subject without getting distracted.

“Nu nooo, I wasn’t…, I mean I was paying attention. No wait! I am paying attention",he said as he took his final glimpse at the passing girls.

“Dealing with you is as difficult as this God damn war we are going through right now. The Fire Nation is taking over countries one by one, at an astonishing rate.  

“I mean, aren’t we with the fire nation too?”

Gozaboro now looks towards his son with a stern look, even with all the shinobi training in the academy; he still didn’t develop into the son he truly hopes for. Nevertheless, as the father he is he still hopes for the best of Ganki. He hopes he would mature into a fine young man that would one day take the family business onto an even higher pedestal. He wraps his arms around Ganki’s back, making sure he would not wonder off in thought.

“Listen to me, carefully. Our family has been in the North for centuries. And…, I’ve done things to preserve that. I need you to grow up, and be a man. Sometimes, being a man means you have to do things you don’t want to, dont feel like doing, whatever. The point is, at the end of the day, the North is our home, and it will always be. Down below, you will never find happiness. You can’t replace it with nothing else.

Ganki, in a long time finally looks up to his father, with his full attention. He could feel the concern and attention he was being given from his father.  He had no choice, but to accept his father’s wisdom.

“Uh, yeah, father, for sure. Oh by the way, you never actually told me who we are gonna meet? I know we are giving away these weapons and such, but who?"

“We are going to meet with a few daimyo, who follow Zachariah. You understand, right?”

“But…”, Ganki held his tongue, upon now realizing what his father was doing. Normally, as a shinobi, he was obligated to do certain things. However, as Sakura, his priorities pertaining to his family came first. At last, Ganki finally took the first steps, of becoming a man in his father’s eyes.

“Yes, father. I understand.”

“… Well done, son”

Ganki leaves his office, and makes his way towards one of his personal rooms. He retrieves a few empty duffel bags and stuffs them with clothes. That day, he relived within his mind, that memory of his day. Ganki just couldn’t believe how right he was. The stress, all of it was never going to go away. He was simply homesick.

Moments later, reassuring himself, Ganki is seen exiting with bags packed in his luxurious black and purple carriage, which was pulled by four strong horses. Once Ganki entered the wagon, He taps the carriage two times to signal the driver to proceed on ahead."Lets go, Mokuba." He freely uses his cloud village accent, for reasons unknown to Ganki. He simply couldn't explain the feeling quite yet. The driver was brief earlier on where to go.

‘I guess you were right this whole time’, he feels the carriage take off. The slight rocking of the carriage, the uneasy feeling in his stomach, butterflies. It was all too much. It reminded him of his first time, with a foreign maid. Is this what you call getting old? Thinking back to moments like that, moments that made you think what the hell where you thinking; it all was actually pretty funny.

At last, Ganki finally returns to the north. At last, Ganki is seen with a half arc smile, expecting to see the northern sky once again.

[Exit, 1002 words. Insta traveling  to Hoshigakure, with all the word count discounts.]

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