Kino, alongside his friend, Aya, was traveling towards a well known mountain. Mount Ikkyu, the two were headed up to. This mountain was the home of a rather well known resort, apparently, and home to one of the largest waterfalls known, if not the largest. Kino was wearing a green shirt, with white sleeves folded up to his shoulders. It was originally long sleeved, however due to how cool it was outside he decided to fold them up, so that he could enjoy the cool air. As the two traveled, Kino would begin to be able to hear the roar of this waterfall. He thought he could a while back, but now he confirmed the fact that the two had reached Mount Ikkyu. He figured the water fall was nearby, however he continued on the path rather than straying, figuring that Aya would mention if she wanted the two to start heading for the legendary waterfall.

Aya was a friend that he met the day his mother died; though Kino had never told her. After discovering his dead mother, Kino decided to journey with Aya, deciding that his family was too dangerous to be trusted. He tightened his headband, remembering his family, how they scolded and despised what was hidden underneath this headband of his. He sighed, and began to look up. It was indeed a nice day, a lot of clouds in the sky sure, but that kept the temperatures cool. The breeze helped with that. The air felt a little moist, that being it was right next to a waterfall. It felt nice, in his opinion.

"Do you want to go to the top, or stay near the base of the mountain?" He would ask, having his hands rest onto the straps of his backpack he was holding onto, as he turned to face his friend, Aya. He was waiting for her decision before moving on, while they were still close to the bottom of the mountain, he figured if she wanted to stay close to the bottom that he should ask now. This way, he could find out if she wanted to move up towards that fancy resort, or visit the base of the waterfall. As he began to finish up the sentence, he began to take off the straps of the backpack. Lowering it down with the handle, he would begin to lean onto a nearby tree, slowly moving to sit down, as he would wait for Aya's reply.

[414]

Aya had been traveling alongside her good friend Kino towards Mount Ikkyu for what felt like forever, her cloak wrapped around her neck and stopping just at her mouth like a scarf of sorts as the rest fell down her back, blowing in the breeze as she settled her brown hues upon her traveling partner who had asked her whether or not they should travel towards the top as he himself relaxed against a tree.

She smiled, rubbing the back of her own head inquisitively as she gave a curious look towards her friend, sitting down nearby him - though not close enough to seem as if she were invading his personal space, as she knew that some people were very picky about their space. "Well.." She began, leaning her head back as if looking to the sky for answers. "Maybe we could just rest here for like, an hour or so - then go on towards the top! I mean, what good is going this far if we don't explore all there is to offer?" She said, her smile beaming towards the man with childish excitement as her eyes even seemed to sparkle with the anticipation of exploring further up the mountain, her twin-tailed hair blowing lightly in the breeze as she did this.

Aya fell silent then after saying this, not out of being upset or anything of the like but merely because she was eager to hear what Kino had to say on the idea and if he had any suggestions of his own on how they should approach things, as she would listen to him no matter what since she trusted him as being a sort of leader for their journey, seeing as he was the older of the two and seemed to be a little bit more grounded in reality than she herself admittedly was at times. That was why she was waiting for his answer before moving on, eager regardless of the answer as she kept her gaze focused upon him with the same sparkling eyes and beaming smile as before.

[345]

He would listen to Aya's reply, her suggesting that the two should rest here. He didn't mind this suggestion, he could do for a break infact, considering how much travel the two had recently done just to get here. He would continue to sit down, despite his habit of pacing around when staying in one place. His legs were sore, he was doing this to give them a good rest. "You mean rest by exploring the area then moving on, or did you mean rest, explore, then head to the top?" He asked, somewhat confused by the way she said that. "I'm down for either" He said with a grin, as long as he didn't have to continuously head uphill, he would be fine he figured. He would grab the backpack and pulling it the few inches from the distance it was, leaning it against himself. He would pull from one of the side pouches a small bottle of water. "Want one?" He said, exactly after he would say that he was down for either decision. He would await Aya's reply, if she had accepted the offer then he would toss her the bottle of water, and proceed to take out another one. Either way, he would begin to stand up, leaning the backpack up against the tree and begin to pace around, looking at the surrounding area, still waiting on Aya's reply. Kino wanted to get some training done too, at some point, once the two had reached the top he figured. He didn't yet know for as to what he was going to do, however he figured he'd come up with something. Some physical training would have to do if he didn't come up with anything. "What are you going to do when we get to the top, Aya?" He would ask, somewhat curious as to what her plans were once the two reached the top of the mountain, which is where Kino had assumed the resort advertised would be. Not sure why he figured the top, he just did, figured that if nothing else had been easy in life, why should this be?

[779 total WC]

Aya gave an enthusiastic smile as Kino had asked what she meant by what she had said before, replying with equal enthusiasm quickly: "I mean we should rest up then look around about before heading up - Who knows what kind of cool stuff could be around here, right?" She said light-heartedly before then accepting his offer of a bottle of water, catching it in her hands before opening the container and taking a drink of the clear and refreshing liquid before letting out a soft sigh of content.

She then blinked as Kino further asked what she planned on doing once they reached the top of the mountain, causing her to think about her own reply for a moment before speaking: "I think I'll find the nicest bed they have and pass out!" She said, giggling to herself before sprawling out on her back for emphasis on her point. "I'm worn out, after-all..." She said, giving a bit of a pouting expression towards her traveling partner before slowly getting up and stretching her arms out above her head and beginning to wander around a bit in the area so that she could get more of a feel for it as she began to hum to herself cheerily, waiting for Kino to make the decision as to when they would move onward to the top of the mountain and until then, Aya would continue to see all that there was to see in the area around them.

Every now and then she would turn her gaze curiously to look at Kino, seeing as to what he was doing and if he seemed to be preparing to move on yet or if he too was exploring about the place as she was, though she doubted someone who seemed so mature would be interested in just wandering about aimlessly like she was - though, looks could be deceiving she supposed to herself.

[663 Total]

Aya would begin to explain what she meant. She had decided that both Kino and her would explore while resting here, is what he interpreted it as, and had no real objection to it. "Alright then." He would say, before opening his waterbottle once more and taking a sip. "Think we'll make it to the top before the end of the day?" he would ask, turning to face Aya once more. Depending on her reply or not didn't really matter. He continued to walk around in the general area, even straying from the path a bit, which didn't really matter. He had Shinobi training, and he assumed Aya did to. If not, that was somewhat troubling, but it didn't really matter, against most wild animals he figured he could handle. He'd recently begun doing research into Medical Ninjutsu, as insurance to heal up anything that might happen to the two during a fight. The two still had to make sure to keep cautious about random passerbys, the possibility of them being capable of kicking ass as a shinobi does is likely as well. Strangers who aren't trained being unescorted would be suicidal as well, what with wild animals and Nuke Nin wandering about. People moving who would be untrained would also only be limited to merchants moving between villages to trade their merchandise.

Aya would begin to reply to the question that he had previously asked, it looked like she'd given it some thought. Probably had a few options. Kino didn't know much about the place, and assumed that Aya knew more about it than he did, as he'd just heard about the place and figured it'd be fun enough to visit. She said she would sleep when the two arrived, which wasn't a bad idea. He looked up at the sky, which was mostly blocked due to clouds, but he figured the sun may be setting soon. "Sounds like a good idea." He replied, though still he has still dedicated himself to the training session that he'd assigned himself for when the two had arrived.

[1130 Words]

Aya had continued to wander about as Kino appeared to be thinking to himself about things, having heard him ask if she thought the two would make it to the top before the end of the day, to which she would smile brightly and answer with the same enthusiastic if not somewhat childish voice as before: "Of course, We're master ninjas! - We can do anything we set our mind to!" She exclaimed rather cheerfully, before beginning to walk off of the path and explore a little bit further around the area which the two had designated as their resting stop, picking up a stick off of the ground and examining it thoughtfully for a moment before putting it back down and shrugging to herself.

She had then heard Kino reply to her previous idea, turning around to brightly speak to him in the same tone as she had used previously, something about the day seeming to have made her rather cheerful of all things despite the cloudy weather or long trip the two were destined to make - or perhaps that was part of the reason why: "Maybe we should hurry up there, then! It'll be way more fun up at the top anyways, i'm sure!" She said, almost shouting in her excitement before beginning to sprint off towards the path again as she ushered for Kino to follow while she charged off up the path which led to the top of the mountain and hopefully, to much more excitement for the two travelers!

[916 total]

Kino would listen to Aya's responses. She had mentioned that she believed that the two would reach the top of the mountain by the end of the day. Which he really didn't doubt, as long as the two had tried hard enough, considering it was almost the end of the day already. He would continue to listen, however, as she would respond to his next question, she stated that she figured the two should hurry up. He figured that, since the way she spoke, that she had some Shinobi training, referring to herself as a Ninja anyways, so he figured her speed must at least be faster than the typical person. "Want to race then?" He would say, "It's good exercise, at least, plus when we get there we can at least relax in the end." He would begin to say, then turning over towards Aya, "Loser pays?" He said, with a slight grin on his face. He was cocky, he assumed he was faster than Aya. Sure, she might be able to keep up with him, he figured, but he was sure that he'd win either way.

{1322}

Aya had nodded to Kino's words as he had begun to run beside her, asking if she wanted to race and that the loser would pay. He seemed quite sure of himself if not arrogant by the looks of it, but she knew that he meant no harm by it and that he was just naturally more on the competitive side than others she had met along her travels: "Sure!" She exclaimed in the same cheerful tone she had been using, her brown-black hair flowing behind her as she continued to run as a smile grew on her face. "I'll kick your butt, just you watch!" She had further boasted, before continuing on in her sprinting as her long white scarf-cloak flowed in the air current created by her running before her brown eyes settled upon a figure in the distance who seemed to be taking an interest in the two.

She then had heard the figure in the distance speak up as they drew close enough to see her more clearly. She was a woman that was a bit taller than Aya herself and with long black hair, her eyes appearing to be a deep shade of emerald green that reminded the young shinobi personally of the ocean. The mysterious woman had asked them what the rush was and furthermore said that they were not missing anything by not doing so, she had even introduced herself personally as Yin to the two as they neared.


Skidding, Aya came to a stop and waved her arms a bit before regaining balance and looking over the form of the woman now known as Yin before looking towards Kino and motioning for him to wait up as well - although if he decided to yield or not to her signal was a totally different story. She would then offer a bright smile towards the emerald-eyed Yin and step closer so that she could offer a hand for the woman to shake: "Aya! Aya Wakahisa, at your service." She introduced herself, her eyes seeming to shimmer hopefully at the prospect of having met a new friend as she gazed to Kino if he had stopped alongside her before then glancing back at Yin. "Are you here for the Resort, too?" She asked curiously, tilting her head a bit as she asked her question while awaiting a respond from Yin, placing one finger to her own chin thoughtfully as the other hand adjusted her scarf-cloak and brushed idle strands of hair from the way of her view as to not block her own vision with the bangs of her brown-black locks.

She would then, if given a response or not, look to her friend - assuming he had stopped and kept the smile on her lips as she spoke again happily: "Isn't it crazy? Another person all the way up here? It has to be a sign or something!" She exclaimed excitedly, giving the rather silly proposition that it was some sort of supernatural sign that the three had met in this place together or that this was meant to show the three some sort of cosmic sign otherwise - when in reality, it was likely just simple coincidence and their meeting had little if any meaning to the gigantic universe that they all lived in - after-all, what was special about these shinobi more-so than anyone else? She supposed to herself that the world would find out just that, one day.

But for now, Aya was focused on their meeting this possible new ally and making things go as smoothly as possible on her end - although being friendly seemed to come natural to her most of the time, as she had an intense desire to make friends with those she came across so long as they were not outwardly evil or someone that hurt people to just hurt them.

Blinking, the brown-eyed shinobi looked between the two people and waited quietly from a response from either, not really wanting to talk excessively, less they get annoyed and berate her for such. So she simply smiled and shifted idly back and forth on her feet complacently.

[1,604 total]

Kino was sprinting alongside Aya, who'd already began to sprint. Kino would begin to feel what was once a slight breeze turn into a stronger wind, due to him running against the current. His hair would be pushed back, revealing the red headband he normally had covered up with his hair. Aya was pretty fast, he realized as he looked over towards her, keeping up with his pace, though just ahead of him due to her head start. Kino didn't start sprinting, or suggest the race, until after Aya had set off. Frantically, he checked his bag, making sure he had everything of importance. His water was in the backpack, luckily, as he didnt have another container for it, and wouldn't receive one until the two reach the top of the mountain, which, by itself, is quite the feat, even for a trained shinobi, he would assume. Considering Kino was self-taught for the most part, and not exactly pushed beyond physical limits during his training, he probably couldn't even be considered up to par with a real shinobi, even one of equal ranking as him. He could assume the same for Aya, but assumptions are a dangerous thing to deal with. He already underestimated her once, he decided it's better not to do so again.

After running a great distance up the mountain he would hear a voice, though it wasn't of much concern to him. It was a girl, asking what the rush was, proceeding with, what Kino figured was a joke, a bad one at that. If it were up to him, he would've continued up the mountain, leaving whoever wanted to meet him in his dust. He continued to move, only realizing that Aya had stopped a second ago. Sighing, he looked back to see her waving, and introducing herself. He stopped, pivoting around and facing towards the random stranger on the side of the mountain. He was cautious about danger, and threatened this stranger by placing his hand in his pocket, acting as if he had a weapon. Whether or not she recognized this as a threat of any kind was up to her, as he wasn't directly challenging her, which Kino hoped she would notice. He was just bluffing, stating that he had a weapon and can fight with it. "Oiyo, I'm Kino." He would say, greeting the person that had identified herself as Yin as well as introducing himself by his first name, deciding not to reveal his surname to her, not even his 'fake' one. He would let Aya continue to question the stranger, asking if she, too, like Kino and Aya, was working her way up to the resort further up the mountain. Kino, for the most part remained silent, having nothing much he wanted to say. For now, he took his hand from his pocket, listening, figuring Yin would have attacked should she have had that intent, rather than stopping the two, and introducing herself.

Aya would continued to speak, saying something which Kino interpreted as her speaking about fate, how both Aya and Kino met this lady, out in the middle of a mountain, where hardly anyone would appear. Kino would normally argue, seeing as this was a path to a fairly popular resort, from what he figured anyways. However, he didn't want to rain on anyone's parade, so he just let it go. "Aye," he agreed turning towards Aya with a slight grin. He turned towards Yin, "Are you a Shinobi? Or do you have any training?" He would ask. "I'm a Ronin - Wandering Ninja." He stated, letting her know that the two didn't belong to any particular village, hoping to avoid any unnecessary conflict that would normally arise between two rival shinobi villages. He kept his grin up while talking to Yin, attempting to look at least decently friendly. He turned towards the path, pointing his thumb towards where both Aya and Kino were racing to, "You want to join us, Yin? We were racing, but, if you'd like to, we could walk. Ya'kno, so you can keep up." He asked her if she would like to accompany the two to the top.

{2033}

Aya tilted her head to the side somewhat as she listened to Yin's words, inwardly noting that it was kind of strange how she mentioned 'doing her own thing' as well as being a Wanderer, as the two things - in the young shinobi's mind - were pretty much the same in everything except for name. But, she did not want to be rude and so instead remained silent as the woman spoke further about the two allowing her to travel with them, to which Aya was not opposed in the slightest due to the fact she saw Yin as a friend within her eyes already, even if she was a little bit weird.

Slowly, she reached for one of the black-haired wanderer's hands and took it lightly in two of her own, shaking enthusiastically before exclaiming: "This is going to be great!" She cheered, looking over to Kino as if for approval from the man as she said further, "It'll be like a sleepover with our new friend - or something like that.." She said, the last part added with a tone of confusion in her voice as if she was unsure if what she had just said would be proper terminology or not. More than anything, however, the look she gave Kino was one that held the utmost respect within her eyes as if the man were much stronger than her when in reality they had not sparred once as of yet and the two were relatively close in age from what she recalled. Perhaps he just had that affect on people somehow, who knew.

Blinking, Aya broke out of her confusion to look off at the path ahead of them and gesture toward it grandly: "Our adventure awaits!" She further exclaimed in that same, excited tone as she often used before beginning to walk while turning her head to look back at the other two every so often to see if they were following and stopping if they were not to wait for them to do so. Suddenly, she rose a single hand and finger in a 'eureka' position as she declared further: "The Three Musketeers! That's what we are!" She said, as if having discovered some sort of great secret when in reality it was just the young girl being a bit overly excited from the whole prospect of both going to the resort and having met a new friend along the way.

Aya's pace was more of a skip than a walk, at this point, as she seemed to have given up on the racing proposition out of respect for her new friend, at least doing so for the moment unless Kino had decided to run off ahead in which case she would follow and, if not, she would continue to gleefully skip along the path of the mountain, musing aloud and somewhat rambling about all of the things she hoped that they had: "Really nice beds, Maybe a Sauna ... Sweets!" She said within some of her rambling before turning back to the two and giving them a hopeful gaze. "Do you think they'll have any of that..?" She asked, wondering just what her friends thought on the subject and if they had anything they wanted to share or desired from the resort itself as she wanted to at least make some small-talk with the two before they reached their destination less she go crazy from all of the excitement.

With that, Aya waited, her eyes seeming to shine in the sunlight as she looked between her two friends and allowed them the opportunity to speak as she stopped walking - or rather skipping - for the moment in order to do so.

[2,217 total]

Kino would watch Yin stick out her hand, one for Kino and one for Aya. Aya took her hand, it seemed, however, Kino would merely show her his palm, giving her a silent 'no thanks', as he would then begin to walk on the path once more. He would hear Aya mention how the three's adventure awaited them, to which he agreed. If this new stranger the two just encountered was friendly, then Kino had seen no harm in traveling with her even further into the future. He would also enjoy sparring her, finding out the strength difference between the two would be interesting. However, he wouldn't offer up the sparring match just yet. He needed to prepare a little bit at first, perhaps do some training just to attempt and measure Yin's abilities. Assuming Aya wasn't holding back, in terms of speed at least both Kino and her seemed to be equal with each other, though for all Kino knew Yin could be on a whole other level. Besides, he needed some sleep with all the traveling both him and Aya had been doing just to get here, and, some nice comfortable beds would beat tents and sleeping bags on the ground any time. He would hear Aya once more, in what sounded like a somewhat excited tone, which, to him, was what she normally sounded like. He turned around as she mentioned the three were like the Three Musketeers. He would look towards Yin, before turning around and continuing to walk. "So, what do you use, jutsu-wise?" He would ask, wondering if she would tell. He wasn't expecting to hear much, because, for one, if she was on both Aya's and Kino's level, she probably couldn't handle performing many jutsu of different categories, and for two, he figured that she might want to keep that a secret, especially after Kino did just threaten her acting as if he had a weapon in order to prevent any fight from escalating. If she would tell, however, Kino would inform her of his abilities, for courtesy.

Not sure if Aya knew that Kino was being cautious of Yin, he would pace himself to keep up with the two, slowing and speeding up the pace when necessary as he walks in order to keep up with the two, breathing slightly heavy as if he were tired, which, wasn't entirely an act, in order to stay nearby in case Yin actually did try to attack. Though, he wasn't entirely worried about it, still, better to be safer than sorry. He would hear Aya talking, mentioning a list of things, supposedly what the resort might have or what she might expect, as the list started off with nice beds. He would look over, Aya looking at both Yin and Kino, asking if they think they'd have that. "Yeah, they'd better. Not climbing up a mountain for anything short of five star quality." He said, with a grin. "Besides, the place wouldn't be as popular as it is if they didn't offer those nice things." He assured.

{2560}