Kumogakure was a tad bit hotter than Kirigakure was.

It took Toshiko around another 30 minutes to make the distance from the very outskirts of kirigakure, to the woods in front of kumogakure while running, and once he'd made it into the wilderness, he was extremely exhausted. The strain that had been put onto his body that day alone was unbelievably painful, but he knew he'd have to keep pushing through to make it back home. That being said, he couldn't keep trucking through forever. His legs were on the verge of giving out on him almost as soon as he'd hit the forest, and His body had forced him to change up his pace. He kept himself at a steady pace as he trotted through the forest, attempting to build up his energy for him to run once more as he usually did, but things weren't working that way today. His lack of intake  on air was probably due to the wound he'd taken on his chest that day which was still healing, and the extra strain he was putting on his body wasn't really helping much. He was happy he was simply sore, and that the burn wound had healed up. He brought his focus back towards the path that he was on, and increased his pace. For whatever reason, he was extremely set upon reaching the village.

It took a few minutes for him to make it near the end of the long road towards the village's gate, and upon his way, he saw something different. There was a series of shops set up, with several other people just outside the village. Toshiko inferred this was for other travelers who planned on entering the village to take a break and relax themselves. Toshiko hadn't ever seen anything like it before. At least those from kumogakure were considerate enough to think of the good health of the travelers. He headed towards one of the booth, sitting down on a stool bar next to an older guy with long black hair. He looked towards the menu, and saw something for 12 ryo and decided to order it.

"One Fire bowl Please."

within a few minutes, the chef came to Toshiko, placing a bowl of ramen in front of him with a seemingly distorted color. he was exhausted and extremely hungry, so without much thought, he started to Devour the bowl of ramen, barely paying any attention to the heat being admitted from the sauce. He didn't stop eating, and managed to devour the bowl entirely within a few dozen seconds. After doing so, he put the bowl down, and sat there, resting himself.

It wasn't until his meal reached his stomach that he felt it's true effect.

The abundance of spices built within Toshiko's stomach, causing his stomach to begin grumbling rapidly. He nearly shot up out of his seat, holding his stomach and grumbling out in pain. It was only comparable to a constant burn being applied to him, but only one that he couldn't really put out. All he could do was wait for the burning pain in his body to pass through. It seemed as though it would take forever, mainly due to how much spice was used to season each individual noodle within the ramen bowl. After a few more moments of him laying down on the shop's large bar table, head down and erupting in groans, the pain subsided.

He sat up, sighing loudly in an attempt to relax himself and his body. His eyes were closed, as he was attempting to remove his attention from the environment around him. When he'd finally opened his eyes, he noticed that he'd caught someone's attention. They were of about the same height and body build, as from Toshiko's perspectives their bodies equaled one another in length. His hair and eyes were black, His lips were bright red, and Toshiko had to admit that he didn't look half bad. He had a tanto within it's sheathe upon his left shoulder, which reminded Toshiko of his own Tanto, of which he had in sheathe on his right hip.

Toshiko simply made brief eye contact with the man, almost forgetting to speak to him due to his brief analyzation of his physical appearance. Not knowing what to say, he gave off an awkward, yet also playful short smile, and a few seconds after doing so, turned his head back towards the chef's direction, laying his head down into his folded arms. His body was beginning to feel rested again, and he knew that he was going to have to get back on the move once more. These days he hadn't found himself to have much time available to be spend laundering around and resting himself. Every second since he left konoha on the trip he'd found himself on the move, whether it was fighting, training, or just moving to the next destination. He enjoyed the moment he'd been given to rest himself. It was a much needed break that he wouldn't be able to continue on without having.

"How did you get that eye patch?"

The awkward silence between the two was abruptly broken once the words left the man's lips and were picked up by Toshiko's ears. He removed his forehead from his forearms as he sat up, and then turned to face the direction the voice had come from. It was a rather strange and also somewhat rude question to ask, but Toshiko understood. Maybe the man shared his common trait of not being capable of starting conversation as other individuals "normally" would. Toshiko certainly understood having to deal with said disadvantage, and decided to answer him because of it.

"I um....... I lost it in a fight. Got my eye slit open straight through the center. Damn near lost my life. I keep the eye patch there to spare other people's eyes the trouble of having to look at it."

He decided to answer, but that didn't mean he'd have to answer honestly. Of course, he wanted to tell the truth. Always. But he knew that he simply couldn't. he couldn't risk having to deal with the repercussions of someone knowing the truth about the eye behind the patch. His sharingan was a dangerous gift, that could put his life in danger if revealed to the wrong individuals. He'd already revealed this feat to a few people, but knew to keep the list of people who knew about his sharingan short, and only filled with people he could trust. Was this man one of these people? Only time would tell.

The boy responded to Toshiko's answer with a raised eyebrow, showing his skepticism and distrust towards Toshiko's response. At least he wasn't the common naive Shinobi, (A trait that Toshiko couldn't honestly say he shared), though his distrust in his answer could prove to be troublesome for The young boy in the near future. He certainly hoped no hardship would come from that. After silently responding to Toshiko's answer, the man went back towards his bowl, drinking the broth all in one gulp, and upon finishing looked up towards Toshiko's currently unfinished bowl.

"You want another one?"

The chopsticks within his hand gestured towards the bowl, to reinstate that he was referring to another bowl of ramen.

"My treat."

The words almost caught Toshiko's attention. He was running low on money at the moment, and a stranger was offering to pay off a meal for him? He certainly was never one to turn down free meals, especially a bowl of ramen, but putting a dent in the pockets of strangers wasn't of his interest.

"Thanks, that's very kind of you. But, i'll pass. I think one bowl was more than enough for my stomach to withstand."

"They call me Hattori Seito. Genin of Kirigakure."

Seito spoke the words after glancing towards Toshiko once more. Seito Hattori, Genin of Kirigakure. He'd only met two other genin from kirigakure before. The first was a rather terrifying child named Sero who he'd fought with in the chuunin exams, and the second being a simple yet kind hearted pirate boy named Dovy, who'd taught him fuuton in a training session. Seito had done him the kindness of a greeting, So toshiko decided to reply. There was no legitimate reason for him to hide his identity from the genin, so he planned to answer honestly.

"Uzumaki, Toshiko. Special Jounin Of Konohagakure. A pleasure to meet you, Seito."

As he gave the genin his name, the chef behind the counter replaced Seito's empty bowl of ramen with a new full one, and Toshiko watched as Seito grabbed his chopsticks, and started away at the vegetables within the broth. Tosihko smiled at him, and then stared towards the genin looking at him and awaiting a response

“Well, Toshiko, I can assure you the pleasure is all mine.”

A smile erupted upon Toshiko's face, in response to the kind words Seito had shared with him. After speaking the words, Seito's attention left his empty bowl and went towards Toshiko. He seemed to be eyeing him down for an extended period of time. It was getting a bit awkward, but Toshiko didn't want to make it appear that way, keeping his same greeting facial expression to show Seito. Seito's eyes seemed to particularly focus on his eye patch. His curiosity was proving to not only begin to be an annoyance, but could've meant danger for Toshiko's safety in the future. He didn't like making statements about people he didn't know, but Toshiko knew that Seito wasn't stupid. he certainly wasn't buying the story that he'd given up about his eye, and that would be a problem. if he couldn't take the man's focus away from the eye, he may start to wonder off what was behind it. It wasn't like that would make a legitimate difference, even so. He was only a genin, and while Toshiko didn't want to underestimate him or anyone for that matter, He could keep him from getting at his eye patch as long as he wasn't caught by surprise. He sighed upon the realization. The sharingan he'd been given was causing way more harm than good. That being said, he knew it wasn't a bad choice. It would save his life one day. He just knew it somehow.

“Now, being a special jonin and all, I wonder if there are a few tricks you can teach an old dog like myself.”

Tricks? Toshiko wasn't entirely understanding of what he meant, but he assumed he could try. He'd taught multiple genin before, and it wasn't like he was new to teaching. Aside from that, he wasn't sure how to go about doing so. He thought that it was nothing that couldn't be done, and because of that decided to speak. He was glad though. This was another reason for him to change subject of the eye patch he wore. It was nice to have the chance of being a teacher once more. It had been a long while since he had been given the chance to take someone underneath his tutelage. The last time he'd gotten to do such a thing was with Dovy, another kirigakure ninja who he'd trained in the village's training grounds. Dovy had taught him the wind release, and Toshiko had fought with him for a bit. He was good, even for a beginning Genin. His skill surpassed that of many of the other genin that he'd seen. Hopefully Seito would be able to hold his head up against the last impression Toshiko had received of a genin. Toshiko couldn't initially tell what his jutsu specialties were, but he hoped it would be something worth his time.


"I dunno. I can teach you, but only if you can keep up. I'll try. You'll have to follow me from here though, and we'll have to find an area where we can train properly!"

Toshiko felt nourished enough, and his energy had replenished Nearly in full. He could stretch himself out a bit by taking someone underneath his tutelage, at least for the time being. He stared towards the chef once more with a smile upon his face, reaching in his pocket to pull out the last 20 ryo that he had on him at the moment.

"Thank you for the meal sir."

He placed the ryo in the chef's hand, and then hopped off of his stool, facing towards the direction he came from.

"Alright Seito, Follow me."

Toshiko started down the road at a jogging pace, moving down the straight pathway back into the deep forest around kumogakure in which he'd come from. It was nearly identical to that of konoha's and would have been were it not for the extreme difference in overall climate. The sky was always cloudy, and somewhat damp as Kirigakure was. He still didn't mind it, as he'd gotten used to it during his time in kirigakure. It was nostalgic, actually. He almost felt as if he was back in the outskirts of konoha, going towards the rolling hills for his first squad one meeting. It had been such a long time since then, it almost felt like it was decades ago. Hideki, Kaneda, Sousetsu sensei. All of them were enjoying the day in one simple spot, but they had never gotten another. Even so, it seemed to simple, so bittersweet for him to be able to experience that for even just a moment. Like people always said, sometimes forever only lasts a second. He missed those days dearly, but was always looking forward to where his future would take him. The fun part about it was that he never really knew, and thus the amount of possible outcomes was inevitable. After a few minutes down the path, he stopped, finding a large open space, free of trees. He turned around, waiting for Seito to show up so he could continue on with the teaching of the tricks he oh so desired. What would he choose to teach Seito? he wasn't even sure. He'd have to see a showcase of what the young shinobi was capable of first, and only then would he know what he could teach him. He'd test him in a spar, see his abilities, and then, he would start the teaching. he'd have to start off with something simple and sweet though. Maybe a shadow clone or two to test out what seito was capable of. he was sure that the old genin would at least be capable of handling that. Only time would tell.