Calm [Travel]

Murata looks out over the water, watching the Storm Barrier rage. The clouds roil in cyclical, controlled fury, peals of thunder shaking the air with clockwork crashes of noise. Each roll of the waves gently bobs the ship, and her mind wanders to stories of hostile waters. The thought of the roiling violent ahead of them concerns her more than the possibility of actually meeting the Leviathan.

Snow Squall, the pale schooner Murata and her team are currently aboard, is on the frailer end of seaworthiness. The pleasant, quiet captain assigned to this mission has assured the crew that he has sailed these waters a million times, and the only area of true concern is pirates once they venture to the haunted fog of Water Country. Currently, the ship has dropped anchor alongside a small handful of others, all awaiting passage through the barrier once the pre-arranged time comes.

Murata is prepared with her mission papers, the crew of the ship are busy making sure all last-minute preparations are done with, and her team is busy with their own devices. When she had been with the office with the Mizukage, it had all seemed so simple to cut through the bureaucracy, but in the weeks since tight mission schedules have de-prioritized their investigation and resulted in Ban and Gonk both being pulled to other assignments.

[225]

Kita sits cross legged with Bobo near the bow of the ship, finalizing some last minute details on a latest shipment purchase for his shop. While Bobo seemed to be satisfied and snoring peacefully off to the side, Kita can't help but scowl furiously at the various expense reports and village forms. "Damn. I hate taxes."

Kita set the papers aside for the time being. With a rather bored expression, Kita watched the crew go about their various tasks to get the ship that they had boarded ready to pass through Kirigakure's storm wall. Despite the irritations that he suffered at the hands of business forms and purchase requests, he couldn't deny that he some unmistakable sense of excitement that he was finally leaving the village after all this time. Kita breathed deeply from the salty sea air and stood up with some difficulty.

With a grin, Kita brought his hands together to perform the necessary hand signs to summon a shadow clone. It immediately got to work on the paperwork that its master had left behind, and Kita was free to roam. He slowly made his way to the starboard side of the ship to gaze upon the number of various other vessels that existed to their side. As they slowly rocked on the waves of the roiling sea, Kita turned back to the one other companion that had managed to make the journey. "I hope you're as excited as I am! This'll be my first time going to old Kirigakure."

Word Count - 252 Words

Resting in his booth, Romp was currently vigilante and looking out for things out of the ordinary. It was a rare occurrence for him to be attentive like this but he had gotten word, several people have been authorized to explore outside of the village for something of utmost importance. He decided he'd set out from his booth in order to prevent himself from falling asleep like he normally does. With his arms folded, he assumed a stance as if he was a bouncer overseeing who goes in or out but instead of some sort of shifty looking club, it was the village gates of Kirigakure. Now, two particular individuals had stood out to him as they appeared to be shinobi, from Kirigakure no less. A job was a job and even if the people in question were fellow village shinobi. Approaching them, it seems they already had the appropriate papers needed for village exit. He was already informed of this by the Mizukage and after making sure their paperwork checks out, he allowed them to go on their way before returning to his post. From the sounds of the information he was given, he assumed it was going to be a larger party than that. Maybe there were others that were going to leave at a later date. 

[Exit.]

W.C: 219

Ability Claims (25% Max Stat Discount)
Using 200 words into B-Rank Copycat

Murata turns to offer Kita a grin from where she leans over the edge of the ship. The breeze runs through the thick fur lining of her new armour as it passes.

"I am curious if many have been there," she says. "It seems that this has become one of the few hidden villages to deserve the moniker." It had taken a fair bit of detective work to chart them a course. If the former Mizukage they seek had one good quality, it was that he understood the importance of preserving paperwork. "You could say I am excited, yes. Nervous."

Murata ruminates over this anxiety. What does she fear? The Leviathan? No, she doesn't think so. In her heart, she is certain that she is chasing a ghost. In what she has read, what she has observed, her conclusion thus far is that his pride simply would not allow what has transpired. It is difficult to be sure that a set of ruins on the bottom of the ocean will hold anything for them - she is uncertain even if the technique she has planned will function as intended. It would be embarrassing to have to sail in circles above a sunken city and come home empty-handed, if that ends up being the case. Perhaps they should have gone to sniff around Funkagakure first - allowing her ghost to dive into an active volcano would be a suitable stress test.

Like a ghost, their ANBU chaperone past the gates nears them. Murata flashes through the Seal of Confrontation out of sheer curiosity, testing her sensory abilities against the armor... and winning. She goes over their papers with Romp and then bids him a cordial farewell. Once he has finished with the waiting gaggle of ships, the strange muffled roar of the storm barrier parting greets her ears.

"That new armour suits him well," Murata says after he has departed, voice tinged with the humour of some inside joke Kita isn't allowed in on. He may be afforded a hint - both Murata and Romp are absent to Kita's chakra sensory in an eerily similar way, each sibling set of armour muffling its wearer's signature. It is a questionable act for Murata to cloak herself in such a way, as somebody meant to walk the path of radical vulnerability, but she has accepted over the past months that it will not serve her ideals to walk the Temple's winding path without being wary of what lurks in the trees.

The ships ahead of them begin to pull anchor, and Murata steps from the edge of the ship as the crew of this mission follow in turn, heading to speak with the captain. It's time to get going.

The passageway through the barrier is just as eerie as it had been the first time. The storm rages unnaturally on either side, walls of clouds and rain. It has the same sensation of stepping through the haze at the base of a waterfall - cool and clear, always in awe of the roaring force of nature so dangerously close. The crew is quiet, when it can be - the occasional barks of command punctuate the eerie calm. Murata stretches the limits of Mind's Eye of the Kagura against the tunnel, allowing it to meet the storm, feeling the structure of it against her senses. It ticks in her mind like an enormous grandfather clock, and she has to take a moment to appreciate the craftsmanship.

Then they are through. Sunlight breaks across the deck, and birds cry in the distance. Emerald tropical waves stretch as far as the eye can see, putting the artificial bubble of the past they had just departed in stark relief. Island Country greets them like a distant friend - you live here, don't you, why do you never visit? Murata wonders how similar their destination will be to the village they have just departed, whether the chill mist above the waves will feel the same as those within the barrier they have left behind.

-50 AP Mind's Eye of the Kagura
758 - 45AP = 713


670
TWC: 895

895 words into https://www.narutoroleplaygame.com/t47232-sensory-art-distant-reflection at max stats discount

Approved

Whatever the case, it wasn't something that Kita would attempt to pry into. Yet the idea that she may have perfected another jutsu made Kita think more on what he had been considering for a while. He himself may need to create more jutsu for himself. As it stood now, his skills with the weapon and his skills with Ninjutsu didn't particularly compliment one another. His old style was outdated, stagnant even. Meanwhile his peers were constantly advancing and honing their skills. Even Murata's equipment had changed, judging by the state of her new armor. Maybe some ideas would come to him in Old Kirigakure.

Murata handled their paperwork with the Anbu agent who was to see them out, and Kita gave him a small wave. He wondered if the man knew the client whose armor he had augmented. Better yet, Kita wondered if he would be willing to purchase such armor. Yet those were thoughts for another time. For now, all that mattered was the mission that was to occur. Shortly after that moment, the storm barrier that surrounded their village expanded to allow their vessel out. Kita's heart beat harder in his tightening chest.

Outside of this village lay the world that Kita's father told him stories of. The glory, the fame. Now he could finally experience that world for himself, to make his own adventures to tell his own children. He just couldn't wait for that moment to come. As they passed through the veil and away from the village that Kita had lived in all his life, he closed his eyes.

"Clone. Do me a favor and wake Bobo. I'd imagine that he would want to see this."

And so it did. For the first time in their lives, Kita and Bobo left the village behind to witness the rest of the world. They looked upon the clear skies and their island country with wide and curious eyes, the endless possibilities before them laid bare.

"It's beautiful!"

Kita nodded. "Yeah, it is."

But first, their mission.

Approved