Garbed in a white shirt and pants, Yasutake slipped on his standard shinobi sandals and got off of his bed while he looked around his room. Scratching his head as he got up to his feet, he crossed the length of his room and with a flick of his wrists launched his black journey cloak over his shoulders and tied it at his throat. To the Land of Lightning I go. A single pale hand was pushed through his messy hair with the faint hints of a grin. I wonder what it's like. He thought as he finished tying his ninja pouch to around his thigh.

Glancing around his room, he spotted his bag on his bed and slung it over his shoulders. Pairs of clothes, food, more ninja tools, just the necessities on a trip, and he walked over to his full length body mirror and tied his red rope obi around his waist. Walking out his room, he closed the door delicately behind him and as he reached his household's front entrance grasped the hilt of his Odachi and slipped the blade into the small of his back.

Once he was done, he spun on his heels and looked around to his home. This place... Is so boring, were his final thoughts as he completed the turn and exited his home. Although he had still been in hsi house while he had said that, he meant the entirety of the Village. It was all so... Boring. It was all familiar to him, a place that he had lived for quite a long time, and he couldn't understand as to how people could handle staying in one place for so long.

My parents must be envious. He thought, but he soon pushed the thoughts of them out of his mind as he started his relatively short journey to the front gates.

He knew that when he got there the competition was most likely going to be intense. He had no idea what his own squad mates were capable of, he had never met them, and then there was the fact that he didn't even know that many other Genin from Kirigakure going to Kumogakure. His knowledge of genin abilities only went as far as Maigo, but that was only because they had done battle near the Port.

He's good. It was a mistake to have accepted that. But his blank face was wiped away with a smirking one.

I made sure to change myself a lot since then. His hand raised up to the cut hat Maigo had placed on his chest, and although it had long sense healed he still remembered how it had penetrated his skin and flesh. He reached backwards to his own Odachi as if he were comparing blades to an invisible Maigo. We'll see each other again in the Chunnin Exams, Maigo. If not, I'll be challenging you the next time we meet. He pictured the face of the obnoxious Uchiha, and pulled his hands out of his pockets to bounce off of his sides as he walked slowly with a lazy gait, as if he had nowhere to be.

He had made sure to leave his home early so that he wouldn't have to normally be rushing through the city, similar to how he did when he was on the way to accept and turn in the missions he was assigned.

Around the time that the rest of the team was meant to arrive at the front gates, they'd find that Yasutake was already there, sitting upon a bench with his Odachi in his hand since he wouldn't really be able to sit on it... Well, he could, but that wouldn't be comfortable.

Now all he had to do was wait.

WC: 653

Nozomi checked through her checklist one more time. She needed to make sure that she had everything prepared for the journey to Kumogakure. It was kind of coincidental, but her requesting to leave had coincided with a large transit of Chuunin Exam participants to Kumo, so she'd been lucky enough to get her squad assignment at the same time. However, in the interest of getting there quicker, Nozomi had opted to leave with her own squad, so they could spend a few days in Kumo before the rest of Kiri arrived. She'd heard rumors that Sero was the one leading most of the genin there, so she was a bit upset she wouldn't see him or the others off, but that was neither here nor there.

Nozomi patted the flak jacket she wore, and smiled to herself. It was a higher quality one, the type reserved for Special Jounin and Jounin to wear, so it was the best she'd be able to get. It was marginally better than her last one, which had been passed down as a gift by Gin-sensei upon her own graduation to Chuunin. She'd actually packed the other Flak Jacket as well, because if one of her students were to rank up, then she'd present that as a gift to them. Riss made the most sense. After all, it was made to fit and conform to Nozomi's body, and she had a feminine build, no offense to any of the others. Riss was perhaps the only one it might fit.

Her flak jacket and kunai holsters were full of what she deemed necessary, in case she was going to need it. She doubted it, but on the open road, sometimes people would think they'd be able to take on a group of kids. After all, Nozomi was rather young herself, even to the point of having students older than she was. Chakra conservation was a must for her as well, hence her reliance on items at this point. Her tantos, of course, were strapped to the small of her back, but now she had three, and the third was on a shoulder holster behind her left shoulder blade, so that she could perfectly remember where her good and best blades were. Everything else, as in her other items, and clothes and food were in a bag next to her.

Strapping on her forehead protector, Nozomi turned off the lights in her house and made sure it was all locked up. She picked up the bag, closed the door, and headed out on her way to meet up with the rest of her squad. She stopped for a moment and ran back into the house, packing a smaller bag that wasn't completely necessary, and put in her plushie toy collection. It reminded her of last year's chuunin exams, and maybe she'd be able to grow to it. Then she left, and locked her door, officially heading out.

It didn't take her very long to make her way to the front entrance of the city. She found that someone was already sitting and waiting for something. He matched the description given to her of one of her genin charges. Hitching her bags up on her shoulders, Nozomi headed towards him and put on a small smile. "Hello. Yasutake? I'm Nozomi, your sensei. I'm sorry if you didn't realize I was so young, but I'll do my best and all. I haven't met Ryota either, but I know your other teammate Riss decently well. I used to tutor her." she said, smiling. She was young after all, close to 17, whether over it or under it. However, most would look at her as younger, due to her smaller frame, build, and size.

WC: 624/600 Travel complete
OOC: I want to get to Kumo. We'll speed this along. Once everyone's arrived, just exit thread after getting 600 wc. Travel complete, see you guys there. We'll have a proper squad thread, and we can do some flashbacks of the actual journey whenever you want :3
-Exit thread-

Riss groggily sat up in her bed, her hair covering her eyes. She wasn’t too sure what time it was, and her mind was having a rather hard time of working through the morning. Stretching slightly, she laid her head back down on her pillow, thinking that she had simply woken up in the middle of the night. After a minute or two passed, Riss’ head flew off her pillow and she almost seemed to yell. The day and time finally caught up with her. In an absolute panic, she threw her covers to her side and leapt out of bed. Rapidly searching through her clothing and equipment, she started to list off the things she would need to bring. There wasn’t even time for her to second guess herself on certain items, so the bag she was packing was an unorganized mess. All of her miscellaneous items seemed to struggle to fit into the bag, and it looked as though it was about to burst. Riss didn’t even seem to mind as she shoved everything down and latched it shut.

After packing her bags, Riss quickly moved on to her wardrobe. Knowing that the Chuunin exams were unpredictable, she grabbed her typical clothes and put them on. She had meant to purchase some armor or something that might help block attacks a bit better, but unfortunately didn’t have the time. Dressing herself in a blue robe, strapping the belts across her hips, and holstering her favorite kunai, she looked herself once over in the mirror before taking a step to the center of her room. Spinning around slowly and pointing to different sections of her room, she added up everything she brought and everything she was leaving in her head. Although she missed a few things, what she packed would have to do.

Putting the strap of her bag over her shoulder, Riss hurried down the stairs and out towards the front door. Placing a hand on the handle, she paused for a moment before rushing back into the house. Glancing around corners and checking rooms, she eventually found her mother in the kitchen. Even though she believed she was late, her mother still deserved a hug and kiss before leaving. Rushing over to her mother, she wrapped her arms around her waist and squeezed slightly. With the goodbyes and good lucks said, Riss left her house and began to head into the depths of Kiri’s streets.

Her footsteps were loud and could easily be heard as Riss was sprinting to the front gate of the village. Skidding along the walkway and into the sight of Nozomi and Yasutake, she ran forward with her backpack in tow. The equipment and supplies was making clinking and brushing noises as she sprinted. Putting a hand up and slowing her pace, she nervously grinned. “Sorry I’m late, I overslept. Out of all the days I had to do that, it had to be today…” Her expression clearly showed she was irritated with herself, even though she was panicking over practically nothing. She nodded her head at the others as she walked up. They seemed rather calm and this made Riss a bit curious. Looking back behind her, then back to the two, she started to think. When she left her home, she never thought to check what time it was, and therefore, didn’t know if she was late or early. Her assumption of being late was ridiculous to begin with, but now that she thought about it, she began to turn red with embarrassment. Without another word, she slowly took a place a few feet from the others and simply waited to travel.

The wait didn’t last long of course, and soon enough, they were all well on their way to Kumo.

[630/600 words to travel]

Waking up as the sun shone through like so many tiny knives piercing his eyes, the sound of curtain hooks rattling along the rail as they were drawn back by his mother yielded nothing more than an abhorrent groan from the teenaged boy. A mess of hormones betrothed to surgical strains made this one a dreadfully heavy sleeper, his sky-eyed mother staring down wistfully with hands upon her hips as all mothers must when chastising lazy children.

"Get up!" She cried, offering a tug on stark white bedsheets to unveil a veritable mass of beyond messy hair as if some wayward hedgehog had mated with a toilet brush. With those white sheets screaming pale pain into his creaking eyes, Ryota grimaced with scrunched approximation of a face. "You're going to be late again, Ryo!" Abated his mother against his reluctance. Forcing one eye open, a grip of panic yielded a twitch and gasp from his body. Was this really the case!? So soon and he was getting to become so complacent after academy days, far too used to the easy life offered in the gentle prior two years. Leaping from his bed to his wardrobe, Ryota flung open pine doors only to unveil his equipment, his clothes, vanished!

"Wh-where on earth?!" Exclaimed the startled youth, uncharacteristically vivid for an early morning, a bedraggled sight of messy pajamas and uncouth shadows clinging to his eyes. turning to his mother with stuttering, stammering lips he quivered to indulge in the idea she would take kindly to the misplacement of practically every item needed. Hazy eye attempted to focus as sleep weighed anchor onto his brain, chain tugging his mind wayward to dreaming shores. Laughing, instead the blonde-haired adopter paced from the rooom, waving off her child's complacency to unveil a neatly packed black suitcase, white and blue wave patterned handkerchief affixed to the handle. Breathing a sigh of relief the Suzuki boy felt the calm wave wash over him as second eye pried itself open as the adrenaline finished it's job for the most part.

Taking ample opportunity, Ryota opted for a swift shower in an effort to demolish some of the grime adorning his body after all the late training. Dismissing any time to contemplate life, the universe and the pixies as his mother had always termed it instead the assassin-to-be tread new horizons. Kissing his mother daintily upon the cheek before skittering from their front door, he crammed a serving of French toast down his neck with a disposable carton of juice in the other hand as mother's love to instill some form of vigour for the morning into him before he met with his team. Close would not define. Having held them up for a ludicrous passage of time, Ryota felt wracked with guilt if not fatigue for this latest passing of events. Barging through crowds as the suitcase hung from one arm with the other fastening his father's lengthy coat about him the rudeness of his actions barely phased him as a vertiable tango was weaved through the bustling streets. It seemed like everyone and their mother was trying to get in his way this morning. Composure had utterly failed in the face of nerves, the only lengthy travels in his life ever being that of enslavement to surgery and to be carried safely away, both times his eyes locked behind foul blindfold and surgical equipment.

Snarling as he careened through the streets in full mission gear as he was wanton to make the correct impression, Ryota soon arrived at what felt like an almost pre-ordained meeting spot. Of course, it was simply a casual rendezvous to depart but the boy's nerves would always will out with travel.

Alas, no matter how hard he wished to be home, safe in the arms of his father and mother and no matter how hard hid heart pounded a tempo like a thunderstorm, wreaking havoc on his stomach the teen-ninja would always just be that for all of his dreams. A boy leaving for the first time of his own will for a journey across the land, a journey to decide the rest of his life. Taking in one last glance, the heaving shinobi wished he could find a smile as the dread swept over him and the world beyond swallowed him whole.

[735/600 to travel]

[Ryota Exit]