Suna Hotel.

It was the grandest of hotels in the village of Sunagakure, and it was also the only few that were run by the local government. Most of the other tourist hotspots were run by private owners whose exceptional services allowed them to inflate their prices to the hundreds of thousands of ryo per night’s stay, making it almost impossible for anyone who wasn’t a businessman or a Kage to enjoy their services, and even the latter only managed to get such treatment due to their political importance and widespread influence, as well as the small notion that a little ninja dabbling could cause the entire company to collapse in on itself. Suna Hotel, however, was different, in that its prices were all normally well below the minimum, before ranging all the way to well above the maximum, a testament to the large demographic it catered to.

She walked into the reception area, which in itself already looked far too expensive for Asuna, who preferred to stay in little motels. For one thing, they were still leaps and bounds cheaper than heavily subsidised places like Suna hotel, and Asuna herself didn’t feel like paying through her nose to have a shelter over her head. For another thing, though, those motel-like residences normally were more low-key than places such as Suna Hotel, and if life had taught her anything while on the run from her father, it was that remaining on the low was essential, not just to the life of a shinobi, but for survival itself.

Asuna hesitantly walked up to the reception area. The man in charge gave her a friendly smile. It seemed practiced to the point of perfection, refined in every way so as to disarm guests and siphon as much money out of their pockets as possible. As public as this place was, it was still good business mentality to try and get as much out of your customers as you could, especially when you didn’t expect to see them again, and Asuna was fairly confident that, dressed in what she decided were rags compared to these people’s riches, she was not someone they expected to visit again. Considering the looks that these people were giving her, and how awkward and small she felt in such a big place, she was sure she didn’t want to return either.

“Um, miss? Excuse me?”

Asuna looked at the receptionist, who was looking intently at her, whatever paperwork now forgotten.

“I was asking if I could help you. We here at Suna Hotel pride ourselves on customer relations, but we can’t help you if you don’t let us,” he said with a twinkle in his eye and a small upwards tug on his lips.

Ooh, practiced to perfection alright.

“Umm, hi. I’m looking for a Lyralei from Room 417?” Asuna asked.

“Please hold on a moment, ma’am,” he said. He picked up the phone next to him and began dialling a number, and Asuna waited awkwardly at in front of him, unsure where to place her hands, her feet, or her body. Was she supposed to lean on the desk? Was she supposed to rest her hands on the desk? Was she supposed to stand there? How far away was appropriate?

Asuna didn’t know at all. Just like she didn’t know what she was actually doing here.

573

Lyralei was lounging on the balcony, specifically on a white plastic deck chair and enjoying the Sunagakure sun. She was currently dressed only in her underwear, and her orange hair flowed down her neck in curls, let out from her usual ponytail. Her elaborate clothing was folded up in her own room, placed gently on one corner of her bed so she could easily reach for it instead of digging it up from her luggage or the temporary closet the hotel had given her, after she showered of course. This much Vitamin D may have been good, but it also worked up a sweat.

It was then that the phone rang.

She turned to look at the phone and opened her eyes grumpily. Bad enough that Sunagakure didn’t actually have a beach unlike the Land of Tea or the Land of Noodles that she had to improvise a makeshift sunbath on the balcony of her hotel room, now she was going to be interrupted as well? She would have to have a word with the manager about this. Not that he’d care anyway. He was one of those people who were more likely than not to take your complaint at face value, give you back some wonderful feedback that they’d get to it right away, and then never do jack about it.

Oh well, that was what she got from a public hotel. At least this one was high class in terms of its other services and commodities.

She picked up the phone and threw herself on her bed, feeling the cool sheets against her hot, bare skin. “Hello?” she asked.

“Hello, ma’am? Confirming that this is room 417?” came the distinct sound of the receptionist. She liked that guy. It eased her mood.

“Yes, this is indeed room 417. What can I help you with?”

“There’s a woman down here who’s looking to see you. Should we send her up?”

“Hmm,” Lyralei thought out loud. She was expecting a girl by the name of Asuna Kuroka, but she couldn’t be sure if this was her. Of course, she’d love to have Asuna over. Even if the two of them had just met, Lyralei was already interested in Asuna (the girl was most definitely one of the cuter ones she had seen on her travels, and she had seen a lot). “Tell me, does this girl have pink, flowy hair that goes down to her back, with jade green eyes?”

“I do believe that is the one, ma’am.”

“Then do send her up, dear,” Lyralei ended. “And thank you,” was mentioned before she put the phone down.

So it seemed that Asuna would be considering her proposal to travel together to Iwagakure after all. It would be nice. The two of them would be good company to protect each other from the elements, and from whatever bandit thought it was a good idea to sneak up on two young nubile girls who ‘forgot’ to get some bodyguards on their journey between countries and villages. She would also be good company for other things, Lyralei thought as a grin unwittingly spread onto her face, which she had to fight down.

Lyralei went back to her sunbathing, hoping to get some in before she had to welcome Asuna. Maintaining the body was hard work, after all.

WC: 563
Total WC: 563

Asuna stood awkwardly at the desk as she heard the man talk into the phone, and an almost audible female voice - slightly resembling Lyralei’s even as muffled as it was, so it had to be the correct hotel and room - answered in response. Despite this, though, it was too muffled and soft for Asuna to actually catch whatever the voice was saying, only enough of it that she could make out it was Lyralei’s. The receptionist’s voice sounded awfully positive, though, so she supposed she had that running for her.

“Hello, ma’am? Confirming that this is room 417?” A pause. “There’s a woman down here who’s looking to see you. Should we send her up? I do believe that is the one, ma’am. Yes ma’am.”

The receptionist then turned to look at Asuna, shooting her his all so unnaturally natural smile, and Asuna tried to return with her own, though she could tell she failed horribly at it. Social skills were never her best trait. While she wasn’t antisocial or socially awkward, she didn’t know how to behave outside of being herself, and herself would never come to a place like this, so she had absolutely zero clue how to act in a place like this. To put it bluntly, in places like this where people could actually afford stuff and afford not to run away every three weeks, she was probably considered socially akward.

Yeah, not a great start.

Nevertheless, she thanked the receptionist, who waved her off with another smile and told her to please return, before she went for the elevators. There were six in total, but she only needed one, and she was grateful it was the one closest to her. She was also very grateful that it was empty. This place was already making her feel uncomfortable enough. She didn’t want to be any more uncomfortable having to stand awkwardly next to some rich man and his wife who were trying to get out for a late breakfast, or maybe brunch. Standing in elevators always did seem to have an awkward mood, since you couldn’t talk or avoid looking at other people unless you looked at the walls or deliberately in front of you, which was, let’s be honest, really, really awkward.

She stopped at the fourth floor and was greeted by a view similar to that of the reception area. The walls were cushioned in dark gray, and the floor was laid out with a red, velvet carpet. She followed the numbers on the door until she got to a room labelled #417, and knocked a few times, before trying the bell. Although confident no one would hear her, she tried to calling out anyway.

“Hello? Lyralei? This is Asuna,” she started lamely. “Are you in there?”

1049

Lyralei had sunbathed for a good five minutes on her deck chair. Many people would call what she was doing tantamount to insanity, but she wasn’t one to listen to the ravings of people who didn’t understand how to mess with forces beyond their control. Lyralei had been playing with fire, in some cases literal fire, ever since she was sixteen and she was very sure if she could handle herself alone, she could handle a little sunlight. There was nothing really much like soaking up vitamin D on a weekday, and if the hotel didn’t want her taking advantage of the desert sun, well maybe they shouldn’t have given her a room with a balcony complete with a deck chair.

She timed herself for five minutes, both mentally and with the alarm clock that the hotel had so thoughtfully given her. She herself didn’t own a watch, but she did get quite good at telling the time of the day based on the location of the sun in the sky, since she had been travelling ever so often. Even then, the time of the day was not something she herself was much worried about. She had no deadline to fulfill, and frankly she just wanted to spend the rest of her life travelling and adventuring, seeing the sights of the world and soaking in the different cultures, as well as enjoying the great outdoors.

That was the life she loved, and nothing would tear her away from it, especially not to serve a village for the rest of her life before being either cast aside by the one village she had been hell bent on protecting, or dying in the process.

Yeah, being a ninja for a village really, really sucked. Such villages also never seemed to pay much attention to the welfare of their ninja. Genin weren’t allowed to travel beyond the borders of most villages without strict supervision from their superiors, and it was quite counterintuitive if one really thought about it. Yeah, sure, one could argue that such measures were put in place to stop Genin from defecting, and they were only allowed to travel beyond the borders of their country once they had proven their loyalty. In other words, surveillance over that part of their lives would be lifted and placed somewhere else. Then again, if one really thought about it… who the frick cares if Genin left? They’re Genin. The best village secret they could probably divulge was probably how painful the lessons in the Academy were. Holding them back was definitely not a good way to build a good relationship between the puppeteer and his puppets.

Lyralei was interrupted in her musings by the ringing of her alarm clock, set for five extra minutes, just beside her. She slammed it quiet and moved inside, bringing the clock with her and setting it down on the bedside table where it was supposed to be. She closed the door to the balcony - a nice, dark and translucent sliding door framed by curtains - before grabbing the outfit on the corner of her bed. Her hand only glanced past the fabric before she decided to force a shower between, hopping merrily into the bath.

It was while she was bathing and contemplating how lucky she was that she wasn’t bound to any one village that she heard someone knocking on her door. The knocking continued for awhile, and Lyralei could only assume that it was Asuna, considering she wasn’t expecting anyone else. She quickly wrapped a towel around her frame, not bothering even to dry her hair, and stepped out of the bathroom. The water wouldn’t cause much slipperiness, since her hotel floor was basically carpets anyway, which would soak up whatever slipped past her towel and dripped off her frame.

Looking through the door viewer, she noted that it was in fact, Asuna, and she opened the door without really finishing drying off or changing first.

“Hey,” she greeted. “I almost thought you weren’t going to show. Come on in.”

With that, Lyralei would invite her in, before motioning to a small wooden chair, part of a small wooden table set with some chinaware placed on top of it, while she herself dropped onto the bed, first lying completely on it and ignoring some of the water being absorbed into the sheets, since she could just call room service after. She would then straighten herself up at the edge of the bed, before taking a second towel and drying her hair and the rest of her body off, before beginning to put on her clothes.

As she was doing this, she would cheekily continue, “So, do you want business or pleasure first?”

WC: 797
TWC: 1360

Asuna stood at the door, wondering if Lyralei had indeed heard her from within her room. She admitted that maybe her knock had been slightly soft, and it would be difficult to hear someone from the other side of the door if the door itself was relatively soundproof, since the soft interior walls that adorned this hallway would more likely absorb and disperse any noise rather than transmit it, however audibly, to the other side.

Asuna had been about to knock again when suddenly, the door opened.

What greeted Asuna would likely stay with her for a good while to come.

Standing in the doorway, with only a single towel wrapped around her frame to cover what little modesty it could, was Lyralei herself. And she was wet. She was dripping from head to toe, her orange hair wet and clinging to her face and shoulder, with one strand that fell between her eyes looking oddly in place. Asuna had to admit that Lyralei seemed to make any look work, whether it was the calm and composed one from when they had first met, to the slightly messier look that she now sported. The towel itself, white in colour, barely covered anything, only managing to hide from the general view the sight of her breasts all the way to a quarter down her thigh, leaving her a rather provocative sight for anyone who happened to pass by.

If Asuna hadn’t been straight, she’d probably have collapsed at the sight.

… Hell even if she was straight she was probably going to collapse at the sight.

“Hey”, the girl greeted, standing at the doorway. “I almost thought you weren’t going to show. Come on in.”

With that, the orange-haired girl motioned for her to enter, stepping back to let her walk in on her own accord before turning around and entering the room itself. Asuna took her welcome, still half unsure of what she herself was doing here. It was a place that she was sure she would not visit on occasion, especially with the rich cotton blankets and the carpeted indoor walls, and the balcony where the shaded slider still remained open, allowing some of the desert sun into the hotel.

Lyralei motioned for her to sit in one of the chairs in one corner of the room, while Lyralei herself plopped herself onto the bed and beginning to dry her hair with a second towel.

“So, do you want business or pleasure first?” she asked.

Asuna felt heat rush to her cheeks at the question. She had been brought up in a rather conservative background, and to hear the girl in front of her say something so blatantly, even more so while she was now completely naked and putting on her complex attire, immediately shot Asuna’s mind down to the gutter.

“Um, I’m… not interested in women,” Asuna replied hesitantly. She had never had to deal with an issue like this before. It had always been ‘run, run, run’ with her and her father, with no time to even interact with others much less deal with something so implicative of certain actions or desires. “Can we just… um… discuss our travel to Iwa?”

1588

“Umm, I’m not interested in women,” Asuna had replied.

Lyralei nearly floundered at that declaration. She had only been mostly joking when she had thrown that out into the open, trying to defuse the situation and break the ice for a woman who seemed somewhat awkward with her surroundings, and uncomfortable with the idea of being in the same room as her. Whether it was the state of the room that Asuna was unused to, or if it was the presence of a semi-naked woman standing no more than three feet away from her, was anyone’s guess, but Lyralei decided not to push the situation further, especially when Asuna continued.

“Can we just, um, discuss our travel to Iwa?”

Lyralei audibly sighed as she plopped down onto her bed, her outfit almost complete, only missing her green boots and matching cape. “Sheesh, I was just joking about that. You don’t have to act so flustered.”

Lyralei dropped back onto the bed and let her left hand dig around the side of the bed, looking for something either beside her bed or underneath it before her hand met with a piece of paper, which she then promptly yanked from outside the bed, revealing it to be a white scroll, fairly new considering the lack of yellowing present on its surface, and began looking through it in earnest, spread alongside her map as she was now sitting upright.

It was a map of the elemental continents, but what made it different from all those that you could purchase from any store were the many small notes that Lyralei had personally added throughout her travels. While she had only been to the Land of Fire, Land of Tea, and Land of Noodles, merchants and tourists in these areas had been more than happy to share their knowledge, eager to talk to someone about travel plans that didn’t extend to their uninterested friends or family. Lyralei had been that someone and had managed to glean a lot of useful information from them, jotting them down on her piece of parchment as she went along, now building up quite a network of information that remained safely tucked within this scroll.

She traced her hand from Sunagakure to Iwagakure, first going in a straight line, before she let her eyes wander around the imaginary line that she had just drawn, small pitholes, boulders, and generally anything that could impede smooth travel automatically registering and being checked off in her mind.

While Lyralei would never admit this aloud to anyone, this was most probably her favourite part about travelling. The planning itself was often underestimated in its importance by individuals who were in it for the sights to be seen. Where the journey was more important than the destination in many cases, this was one exception where the precedent to the journey, the preparation, was even more crucial to live out in fullest.

“I think…” she said, eyes still focused on the piece of paper. “I think we should leave in a week’s time. The air currents around the Land of Wind will be mostly focused around the southern portions of the country so we shouldn’t be buffeted by too many sandstorms, if any, as we travel to the northern border of Suna with Claw, and then rest a night there, before moving straight into the Land of Earth the next day. Up till now we’ll be travelling at ninja speed, and as soon as we cross over into the Land of Earth, where security is higher, we can move on foot. From there, to Iwagakure, it should be roughly three and a half day’s walk if we travel at civilian speed, while still allowing us enough time to take in the scenery and get to know one another. Any problems?”

WC: 643
TWC: 2003

“Sheesh, I was just joking about that,” was Lyralei’s response that got Asuna even more flustered than she already was, as unfamiliar a place as she found herself in. “You don’t have to act so flustered.”

‘Well, I can’t exactly help it, can I?’ was the snide remark that Asuna managed to keep under wraps within her own head as she had the decency to look abashed.

Lyralei then plopped down onto her bed and began digging for something on the side of it with her left hand, and Asuna was left wondering as to what it was. She herself wasn’t familiar with the luxury that came with being normal. She had never had a house to call her own, much less a safe haven like this hotel room that had all the space one needed to the point where something could get lost or misplaced that you just dug around so carelessly in search of it. She had also never had the luxury of relaxing and slowly taking one’s time to look for something. When she had to find something, it was normally urgent, and it normally had her leaving the premises almost immediately. There was almost no time for luxury or peace.

Lyralei eventually turned up the thing she had been searching for, and rolled it out in on her lap, revealing to Asuna that it was a map of the elemental continents, with various notes littered around the place. Most of it was concentrated around the central portion of the map, but there were many marks on the corners as well, leading her to believe that this was Lyralei’s own custom map that she had counted on and would continue to count on if her tracing an imaginary path on the map was any indication.

As Lyralei was lost in her own thoughts, with a subtle, “I think…” Asuna tried to keep herself occupied by focusing on the rest of the room. Try as she might, though, she couldn’t seem to make up an opinion of this room. She had never been to a hotel lobby before, much less a hotel room, since she never had the means to get one, nor a reason to. Motels were always easier to get into and out of on short notice, which was everything on her agenda when it came to getting away from her father.

“I think…” This time Lyralei’s words came out louder, as if she had already come up with a finalised plan. Attentive, Asuna listened carefully.”We should leave in a week’s time. The air currents around the Land of Wind will be mostly focused around the southern portions of the country so we shouldn’t be buffeted by too many sandstorms, if any, as we travel to the northern border of Suna with Claw, and then rest a night there, before moving straight into the Land of Earth the next day. Up till now we’ll be travelling at ninja speed, and as soon as we cross over into the Land of Earth, where security is higher, we can move on foot. From there, to Iwagakure, it should be roughly three and a half day’s walk if we travel at civilian speed, while still allowing us enough time to take in the scenery and get to know one another. Any problems?”

Asuna merely listened quietly to all of this, taking in the information slowly but storing it for future reference. Sandstorms? Wind currents? She hadn’t known to think that far ahead. All her life, she had only been running, going to the next place she thought she could, with minimalistic planning involved. To hear someone so easily map out a path and factor in the wind currents, what they would bring about, when they would be down or away, struck her with little less than wonder.

Travel speed was also something that had never crossed her mind. To her, she only travelled, never calculating how long it would take for her to reach the next town. She had always just taken as much as she could, since it was never enough to completely overload her bag, and ran. To hear someone else being able to plan something so concise out filled Asuna with a sense of surety that they would be able to make it to the Land of Earth without too many incidents. Or, at least, incidents like her father. Everything else seemed to have already been taken into account within Lyralei’s acute calculations of their travel plans.

She didn’t know how she felt about taking their time to walk through the Land of Earth, however. On one hand, she did have to agree that being able to for once take in one’s surroundings as they travelled to the next destination was something that appealed to her. However, she didn’t want to be so lax as to let her father catch up. She had had no trace of him in Suna yet, but he could have been hiding. He was an amazing ninja, and one whose career was only ruined by her mother. Reason to be in Suna or not, there was no telling that she would know even if he was. Then again, she was already asking quite a bit of Lyralei, not that she minded or realised, and to insist that they travel quicker might incite some form of suspicion in her future travel partner. As such, Asuna decided to keep it to herself and simply go with the plan, keeping an eye out just in case.

“That sounds like a wonderful plan,” Asuna answered. “You mentioned us leaving in a week, right? I’ll go pack and make sure all my belongings are in order.”

That was a lie. Asuna barely had any belongings, but she did feel uncomfortable in this environment, what with the posh furniture all around her. So, she was willing to take any escape she could get.

“I’ll meet you at the northern gates in a week then, around nine, yes?” Asuna asked.

After receiving her answer, she would leave.

(Exit thread)

2617

Strength from E-1 to E-3: 375
Endurance from E-1 to E-2: 150
Perception from D-0 to D-3: 1175
Reaction Time from D-1 to D-3: 850

TWC: 2003

Training Strength from D-0 to D-3: 1175
Training Speed from D-0 to D-D-2: 725