There is absolutely no way in hell that you are serious, Seto. Chiyome said with accusation in her voice just after hastily pushing through the doors of the business owner's chamber.

"You cannot possibly be so incompetent that you'd make a mistake of this. So by what fucking nerve do you think you can sell me to the failing military force of a village that can't even repel an invasion? I work here because I was never meant to get my hands dirty. There's no need. That's for peasants.

Seto, the best friend of Chiyome's father and the inheritor of the business her father created and built up, seemed not a bit bothered by Chiyome's angry verbal assault. He sat in his chair, buried in documents as he counted out copious amounts of ryo. He had every bit of nerve to do such a thing, and the way things had been written up between him and the conscriptors in Kumogakure, Chiyome could take not an ounce of action against him for what he did.

"Oh Chiyome. You overpriviledged little brat of a woman. You've never had to work hard a day in your life, have you? You're having a tough time accepting this, I know. But be aware. There is absolutely no way out of this contract. If you walk out of the village, you're marked down as a missing ninja and will be hunted by the anbu forces. You have no choice now. And I've been paid handsomely for each and every one of you. "

He smiled horribly at Chiyome. His was the face of a snake. A double crossing, slanderous baboon. He had won. Chiyome legitamatly had no course of action here. She had spent her entire life snaking and kaniving others. It was as though karma were some giant pendulum she had been pushing back all her life, and now she stepped back and it came down with more momentum than ever.

She laughed with a mixture of pain and amusement. Something of a manic outburst really. As she laughed she would remark snidely "Each and every day, for the rest of time, Seto, I want you to remember one thing. Upon the path you have forced me down, I will be trained to track, hunt, and slaughter the scum of the Earth. And you, dear, will end up dead some day. I don't want to spoil the ending, so just always know when you feel that chill creeping up your spine. There's always a chance, the smallest chance, that I'm behind you. There will be no happy ending to your story."

She turned and walked away, smiling as to reveal nothing of her dismay at the situation. She was a resourceful person, and with a little poetic play of the concepts of village pride, and using her wits to become an adept ninja, she could still elude the grasp of death and become well known in these 700 or so years. Her life plan was not derailed too badly. But today she would be in a huff. Today, her mood was foul.

She picked up her wallet, which was filled with ryo. There were some benefits to being the daughter of a very wealthy man. She would have no issue obtaining the things she needed as she embarked on the path of becoming a renknowned shinobi.

Chiyome looked around the streets. Kumogakure didn't appear to be at war really, it was all mostly political subterfuge anyhow. The higher up folks were handling most of the gritty things. There was a small chance at best that she would end up in any combat at all.

She kept these thoughts circling in her head like a washing machine. Anything to distract her from the fact that she had been played. She had been sold. With clenched fists, she walked herself to a nearby small bar. The place was quite sleek, not like some of the roadside bars she had encountered when she was wandering with her parents for awhile. She was was awfully observant, taking into account very specific details as she climbed up gracefully into a bar stool that was the same height as her. A mouse skittered out of the door she had opened. The floor was slightly wet in front of that same door. The bartender didn't bother washing his hands before waltzing up in his audacious display and stating "We can't serve minors here, little girl. I'm terribly sorry."

Chiyome felt her nerves rattle inside. A roaring pang of her pride as his words fell upon her. She then leaned forward slowly, up to his ear and whispered as clearly as she could with a direct tone "Your bar is in violation of several health based orders set by this village's business council. You could be shut down five times over and you and your family could be sitting on the street corner sucking water out of puddles and begging for food scraps for the rest of your lives. I am twenty seven years old and I want a mojito. Do I need to repeat any of that or will you do your god damned job?"

As if an animal about to be impacted by a high-speed transport, the man's eyes widened and he nervously nodded and moved to mix her mojito. Mojitos were lovely drinks, containing real sugarcane, mint, soda water, lime juice, and white rum. It was a relaxing cocktail and much needed to take the edge off of this horrid day. She swirled the drink around with the toothpick that was sat in it and gently took a smooth sip, paying no mind to the whispers of the men seated around the bar at her back. The smooth liquor cooled her insides and the flavor was lovely. It warranted a pretty hefty tip to the bartender, but not until she was ready to leave.

WC: 1004

Ken'ichi had spent the better part of the last few weeks living in the forests of Kumogakure, he had little money, but it was enough for a few pints of ale, and a few meals, it wasn’t exactly enough for more materials or weapons. He has everything he needs at his camp, preserved meat, fruit from a strange nearby grove that he guessed was not natural, and water from a nearby waterfall. He had been living there, staying in his tent, he'd been using it each day as he slowly travelled to Kumogakure. Ken'ichi wasn't much for sleeping, he spent the majority of his time training with his axes and designing new weapons that he had dreamed of making, such as a huge scythe, or a great sword that burned with his fury. There were several concepts for both jutsu and weapons that he could only dream of making, that was unless he spent more time training then drawing.

The past few years were tough for him, although it didn't affect him that much, he lost the majority of his family, of his clan, and instead of looking for them, he left, taking his younger sister to Iwagakure and leaving her there, after all, she was the only thing he ever really cared about. He couldn't have her get in his way, and he doesn't want her to see him become who he wants to be, he wants to be a monster, a daemon, someone who slaughters who he wants dead. Over the past few weeks he had been travelling from each one of the lands, starting in Iwagakure, it was only now that he found his way to Kumogakure, spending the past few days crossing the border and making his way to the village, hoping that he might find something to keep his interest, perhaps a teacher or a rival to face off against whenever he had the chance. His travels had given him enough time to work on a new set of axes, and to train with them, using them to collect wood for a fire, and even practicing the use of them in ranged combat.

He was brought up on the ideals of only looking after himself, of only doing thing that would help himself or his comrades, to ignore his family and friends if he had to and use it strengthen himself. It was his ideal place to put himself at the top of the world, to reach ultimate power, and to do anything possible to reach that state. He would help any of his comrades if he could just so that he has someone to talk to and so that he has someone to face off against.

The night before he spent his time sharpening his axes after implanting them into trees, almost as if he had hatred for almost anything wooden. He had laid out for himself fresh clothes for when he wakes up and he went to sleep in his tent, preparing for the next day where he knew he would make it to the village for the first time, he couldn't decide what to do first, but he had decided that he needed a few drinks, some ale would do nicely. He intended to actually do some work here, he planned on doing a few jobs so that he could make some ryo and use it to get more materials for his forging.

When he awoke in the morning he had woken from what he thought was a good dream, it was of him going on a rampage, and although he doesn't like the idea of it, the thought of the thrill, the thought of the fight, it excited him, gave him something to eventually look forward to. He got up and out of tent and took a swig from his water bottle. He undressed himself and washed himself in the waterfall before drying himself off and getting into his clothes for today, a simple blue jeans and black short-sleeved t-shirt with his black combat boots that has had for the past few years.

Ken'ichi straightened his hair and put it in a pony-tail before putting his red bandana on and stretching his arms and legs. He put his belt on, it had metal rings built into it that would hold his axes so that if he were to get attacked, he could just reach for them. His axes were covered in runes, similar to that of the tattoos that covered the majority of his upper body. He started making his way to the village, eating a small piece of salted pork as he slowly walked with his tent and gear packed up in his backpack, keeping the sleeping bag and tent rolled up on top of his bag.

After an hour of walking he could see the gates to the village, Ken'ichi dusted off his hands from the pork and walked through the gates, looking up into the sky and looking around at the buildings, admiring the designs, it was always good for him to see different designs of house for when he eventually builds his own house or if he decides to settle in a village. He quite liked the look of Kiri's housing but it was a militarised nation, he would find it harder to prepare for the future there. Whereas here, it was almost quiet, he could train and practice without having to deal with anyone trying to kill him off. His eyes darted from building to building, looking at the signs to see if there was anything that he would like, but after a few moments, it landed on a pub that was near the opening.

Ken'ichi walked through the doors, ignoring pretty much everything in the building until he arrived at the counter, where he dropped a pouch of Ryo and sat down, putting his bag down on the ground. "I'll have plate of bread and salted pork, and keep the pints of ale coming." He looked to his side and saw someone much shorter then himself who sat there, he could only guess that she was a female but he wasn't too sure, she looked young. He gave the person a somewhat cold stare as he could almost sense the tension in the air. When the bar tender had returned with a pint of ale and a plate food, he looked scared of the shorter person. Ken'ichi picked up the pint and looked to her, "Skol" He spoke, holding up his drink before he downed it in a few seconds. Despite what he could tell of the person being somewhat ticked off, he still said cheers, it was a tradition that he would continue whenever he could.

The bartender remained nervous and suffered that fearful tension for arguably the rest of Chiyome’s stay at the small bar. Understandable given the circumstances and the rather horrid things she had said to him. Even as she sat sipping that minty cocktail, he seemed to be cleaning up the place, putting down traps for the rats behind the counter, and tidying the bottles of liquor on the shelves behind him. Her message had clearly struck a nerve. She, however, was growing slightly more content by the moment. Whether it was due to the alcohol content in her blood rising quickly, as it would in such a small body, or just the relaxing atmosphere and tasty drink.

Nevertheless, the quiet comfort wouldn't last long. Through those doors at the entrance to her right would come a man larger than any Chiyome had ever seen before in all of the years she'd been alive. He was covered in some form of tribal tattoos, perhaps runic designs. He must have been somewhere around seven feet in height, and his weight was distributed well. His body was a biological machine. It seemed that perhaps he even enjoyed showing that off… As his black t-shirt clung closely to his body. He wore jeans, at least. And a belt which had rings upon which two axes were hanging. Combat boots finished off the clothing. His hair was crimson, tied back tightly.

She looked at herself after realizing she hadn't thought much about her own appearances today. She wore a very formal looking grey button up top with matching grey pants which rounded off with a pair of dress shoes. She was a plain Jane, really. In fact, she looked like some sort of officer in a military company. Her hair was frilly as usual. Those platinum blonde locks tied back in a ponytail, bounced when she moved. She at least liked to be a little bit cute.

The tall man made his entrance and ordered himself food, of all things, from a dinky little bar. Perhaps it was with snobbish opinion, but Chiyome wouldn't have dreamed of actually eating food at a place like this. Bread and salted pork. Would food like that be what she had to eat now that she was a member of the Kumogakure military force? Was that a field ration? And ale. A large mug of ale found itself sitting before the tall man as he raised it and said something directly to Chiyome, which surprised her a bit. It must have been some sort of foreign form of “cheers.” Chiyome glanced over at him and raised her cocktail lazily, tipping it toward him before pounding down quite a gulp of it and laying the glass upside down on the counter to signal it was empty.

She slid way more ryo than what the drink would've necessitated across to the bartender, and asked with a moderated tone “Give me pints of what he is drinking until I can no longer raise my glass.”

She was being a bit petty, she realized. But she wanted to really shock tall man by showing she was capable of holding her alcohol just as well, despite being in such a small compacted frame. Her Hinode blood gave her only a small buffer against the intoxicating effects of alcohol. She would be able to last longer than someone of her size who wasn't a Hinode, but hardly much longer than that. Regardless, the ale was placed in front of her and she raised it toward the tall man and repeated back at him the same phrase he had used toward her, which was quite cheeky. “Skol.”

WC: 618
TWC: 1622

After downing the pint of ale, Ken'ichi quickly slammed the mug on the counter and wiped his mouth clean of any remaining. He then looked down to the strange little person who he finally started to realised might be from the military here in Kumogakure. He took note of everything, her grey top and pants, combined with everything else she seemed to be a bit too formal to be in the pub, especially at this time in the morning. But his mind wouldn't stop but think of his younger sister, she was about her height, or would be by now. His sister had bright ginger hair, unlike him whose hair was more like his father's or so his mother told him.

He gave a fake smile to her with a light laugh as she seemed to pay for her drink but placed a bit too much ryo down for anything, however once she had spoken about ale, ordering it, Ken'ichi's face had lit up. Already, a drinking challenge, he had only been in the village for half an hour and already he had someone challenging him in his second favourite event. Even though this somewhat small person was similar to his sister, the hair was almost the same in how he remembered her styling it, however he got a different feeling about this one.

Ken'ichi had lifted his hand up to the barkeep, showing only three fingers as to ask for three pints at once. Judging by the size of her body, he guessed that she wouldn't last long, despite this, he decided to set some rules, once he heard the rather cheeky Skol, he couldn't deny this, it would be happening. "Hmmmm... I am Ken'ichi. Remember, no spilling, no sipping and no regurgitation." As he had said that, the barkeep returned with three mugs of ale for him and he picked one up, ready to drink it. "May the best Ninja win. Skol!" He held out his mug expecting her to clink the mugs against each other.

People who had just come in for some breakfast got wind of the impending challenge and started to gather around, forming an audience around the two. It had reminded him a lot of his first drinking game when he was only thirteen, his stepfather Floki had given the same rules and back then he was a lot shorter than he is now. The first mug was always the best, the feeling of cold strong ale going down your throat, hitting every taste bud on the way. It was heavenly, especially for Ken'ichi, at birthdays they would empty entire kegs per person during the day, drinking games were almost something everyone had to do. It was the best way to pass time, and the best way to make friends.

To her amusement, the hulking man acknowledged the challenge quickly after her cheeky “Skol”. The ground rules were simple, and the massive man seemed a bit excited and pleased with it as he signaled the bartender to bring to him three mugs, in addition to the one he had already cleared. As they say, all drinks contain the same alcohol content, so her mojito and his pint set them at right about the same level. She requested two more with her free hand as she turned to face the challenge stating “And my name is Chiyome. Kanpai.” kanpai, meaning “Dry the glass” was presumably another way of saying what “skol” meant, but Chiyome had no definite way of knowing that, it was a guess. Both terms seemed a way of initiating a drink, the details mattered little as she clanged her glass against his and gulped down the copious amounts of foamy ale.

It was a particularly nice tasting ale, meaning that despite how this little shanty bar in the middle of the village looked on the surface level, it was really high quality. Thoughts washed through her mind behind the alcohol content, that perhaps someday she would purchase this place and make it a success, the way her father had done with his enterprises. That would have to wait however, as the slammed down her first glass, having virtually inhaled the amber liquid. Her small stomach wouldn't hold much, but she was going to go until she couldn't stand. She belched quietly off to the side in modesty and grabbed the second pint, repeating the same ritual. Again, keeping her eyes occasionally darting to the side to see her opponent's progress. The peasants had gathered around to bear witness. Chiyome couldn't exactly blame them, as seeing one of the largest men they'd likely ever laid eyes on having a drinking contest with what would have appeared to be a mere child.

The comedy of it all rested in the fact that Chiyome had only ever done similar things in very upscale bars, and with shots, not pints of ale. She was here, doing this as what she would consider her rough and tumble introduction into the life of a warrior. She wasn't sitting comfy in her office anymore, and wouldn't be doing so for a long, long time. She managed the three down, ensuring to belch to keep her stomach as roomy as she could. She was trying to stay ahead of the intoxicating effect. The crowd of people were placing bets, roaring, cheering, singing pub songs and carrying on in general. Four, five, and six slid in front of Chiyome and she grabbed the first of the series and took it down, the effects of the beer now catching up to her.

WC: 477
TWC: 2099