How did we get here?

After purchasing a few ninja tools, Ryal was finally free to get the hell out of this shady place and continue on his journey to. Pulling out his trusty hand made map once more Ryal looked over the famous places in the area. He noted that he wasn't very far from Konoha's "Valley of The End" as dangerous as it would be to sneak into their country he wanted to check it out. Although he wasn't very fast he figured if he stayed close to the border he could just tiptoe into Moon Country, since like Ame and the Rain Country it had been abandoned. He was also interested in seeing their skyscrapers if any of them still stood. The blue haired male paused to think if he should buy any fake papers or ninja attire before leaving but ultimately decided against it. With his new jutsu and low level of chakra, he thought that it made more sense to creep around in his normal clothes. If he was captured sporting the headband of a possible enemy village that could be disastrous for the young man. So with his plan in mind, Ryal folded his map and headed west of his current location.

As he walked the golden eyed god whistled a gentle tune, his bird friends in the area joined in. Their song filled the quiet air on this, yet again, lovely day. As he walked along the county borders like a balance beam, Ryal ran into a young woman. She was rather beautiful but women were the last thing on this kid's mind. He smiled at her briefly as not to miss a beat in his song, blushing the young woman reached into her basket and pulled out a green apple. If she wasn't blushing so much she might have walked it over to him but instead, she tossed the fruit at him and continued on her way. Ryal was appreciative of the gift especially because it was his favorite kind of apple, green. Was it possible that that woman was psychic? He didn't know but if he ever ran into her again he'd be sure to have a conversation with her.

Using the heat from his breath to "clean" the treat Ryalt rubbed the item he held against his shirt before taking a bite. The ripe fruit gushed with juice and crisp sound as he sunk his teeth into it. The sweet taste of the sour flavored fruit filled his mouth causing him to inadvertently smile. The male was now feeling happy and wondering if there was something sprinkled in this apple. Perhaps the woman he had passed was a witch or something. Ryal looked over his shoulder to get another glance at her. He felt the urge to go back and talk to her, to ask her if she had grown the apple on her own. However, he would fight the feeling and continue on with his task. If they were fated to meet again then they would, no need to force things.

Not that a slight detour would be a bad thing Ryal just preferred to do things in order, just then he had a thought. Turning around again to look for the beauty in order to ask her to visit the valley with him Ryal was at a loss when she was nowhere in sight. Sighing a bit he made a mental note to be quicker about things like that. As nice as it would've been to have a stash of apples to eat on his way to the statues he'd have to savor this one. Taking another bite and being filled with the sour, yet sweet to him, nectar Ryal's slight sadness was instantly cured. His little friends looked at him with hungry eyes unfortunately for them he wouldn't be sharing. But being that he had just gotten paid he would be sure to share some bread with them whenever he stopped to eat. Which normally wouldn't be for a while but after eating this apple he might want more food. The blue haired male's mind would drift off thinking of what meals could be made using apples.

Becoming a chef was slowly starting to seem like a really good idea to him. However, he still had yet to decide if he would ever settle down. If he continued his training being a traveling chef wouldn't be a problem and he could revisit his list of places to see over and over again. The male took another bite of his snack, mindlessly chomping on it as he marched forward. Before long he had devoured the thing and was savoring the sour flavor it left on his lips. Now merely feet away from his destination Ryal could hear the sound of rushing water. Waterfall Country is close to here. He thought to himself concluding that one must spill over into Fire Country, adding to the beauty of the Valley. Continuing on the paved path the golden eyed god ran into another traveler, this one was a salesman.

Being stopped by the man Ryal thumbed over the invitory, it had a little bit of everything. The tall male helped himself to a book titled "Jutsu Encylopedia", an interesting find. Luckily the man wasn't pressed to keep it, he even sold it to Ryal for a fairly cheap price. He must have already studied it. Ryal thought to himself while waving goodbye to the man. Once the man and his cart started rolling in the opposite direction Ryal cracked open the book. Amazing! It had jutsu from each specialty listed with great detail though it was obvious that not every known jutsu was mentioned. Ryal made another mental note, this one was to check the black market for more volumes of this book.

The wannabe shinobi browsed through the low level jutsu looking for easy things that he could learn while traveling. When he got to the fuuinjutsu section he was unimpressed with the short list. Although he had added a few of them to the list of jutsu he wanted to learn along with some taijutsu, ninjutsu, and space-time jutsu. However, while making said list Ryalt had completely lost sight of his surrounding and without noticing began walking across the river flowing at the bottom of the Valley. Smelling water in the air Ryal looked up from the encyclopedia to see where he was. The young male was instantly captivated by the two ginormous statues of ancient legends. He couldn't recognize their faces but they surely had to be important and extremely powerful. Whether it had been because of his lack of skill, relaxed nature, or both he did not know but he had allowed village ninja to sneak up on him. Shit. He thought with a sigh.

Tucking the encyclopedia, which actually fit, into his weapon pouch Ryal tried to come up with a good reason for him being here. It would be rather hard to convince them that he wasn't an enemy spy since he was currently standing on water. "Who are you? State your business here!" One voice called out to him. This was really a pain, he had planned to stay on the border and be at the top of the waterfall looking out at the city and lush forest that surrounded it. Ryalt stretched on hand to the back of his head to rub it in his slight embarrassment. The blue haired male pictured his map in his mind planning an escape route in case they wanted to take him in for questioning. His silence must have been making them nervous because the three ninja that he could tell were there began to close in on him. "I know you won't believe it but I was just passing by. I'm just a harmless traveler who wanted to take a look at this monument on his journey around the world." He told them with a faint smile. Ryal took a deep breath before telling them, "I'll just be on my way now."

Placing one foot before the other, taking a step, Ryal attempted to leave. "Don't move!" Another voice shouted out. Ryalt noticed that this voice didn't seem sure about what it's owner was going to do. A rookie? If it was this would be his only chance to find out. Pushing off his front foot going forward Ryal began to jog across the water. If these were experienced ninja they'd likely cast an assortment of jutsu to keep him stationary. However, his pursuers did just that. Ryal was able to continue moving and broke into a full sprint across the river. He hand reached the other bank in no time, the three after him must not have been good at the water walking jutsu because only one tried to follow him on water.

While on land the three had him surrounded but they were spread out and the second ninja had to catch up to the one that was right on his tail. Dammit! If he knew more jutsu he could just trap them or something. Ryal thought to the items held in his two weapon pouches. The smoke bombs he had would be perfect for trying to get away but he decided not to use them because he didn't have many and didn't want to return to the black market so soon. The only other thing he could think to do was create a clone of himself to confuse the ninja hopefully none of them had any dojutsu that could see through his trick. Forming the Ram, Snake, and Tiger hand seals there would suddenly be another "person" running along side of Ryal. From there the male would zig-zag back and forth with the illusion to confuse the ninja. Glancing back at them Ryal would wait for an opening then hightail it out of there.

The tall male had been running so frantically he wasn't even sure what he ended up in. From the end of the Fire Country, he had run diagonally until the forests of that land were far behind him. Oddly it had been a fairly clean escape, he had heard one of the ninja laugh which caused him to kick up his speed so quickly. Though the more he thought about the sound he heard the more childish it seemed to him. It was likely that the people chasing him had simply mistaken him for their sensei. He had completely lost them when he began running through residential neighborhoods. If they truly were students or genin they had likely been stopped by an adult for rushing and causing a crash or something along those lines. The golden eyed god suddenly felt like a huge idiot, it was a good thing there was no around to see it, he'd probably never be able to live that down. But now that he was in another new place he'd take his time exploring since the Leaf didn't have any allies this close.

TWC: 1834 [Exit; Instant travel to Iron Country.]

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