Tonight was it, he had hoped for this day to come later, but he just couldn’t take it anymore. Shibirin was bailing, running away, going ‘solo’, in other words he was leaving his old life to find another. He wasn’t sure this was the best idea, but at the moment it sounded right. He quickly got out of bed. He was still in his Pyjamas, though later he was going to change. He glared towards the small alarm clock on the small table beside his bed: it was 3:00 am in the morning. The clock was set to wake him up at 5:00 o’clock, but he took hold of it and switched the alarm off. He got out of bed and made his way towards his closet. He opened the closet doors, but didn’t grab his usual set of clothes just yet: instead he reached to the bottom of the closet and took hold of his travelling bag. He had never really used it. It was completely black, small and light weight, so he’d planned to use it for small diplomatic missions, though from what he had experienced so far, it’d take him years to even take his first diplomatic mission. He unzipped the 3 zippers the bag had and packed two pairs of his usual outfit: long, plain white polo shirt and long black pants. He then packed 4 pairs of underwear and socks, though he hardly ever wore in-closed shoes. He then picked up a third pair of his usual outfit at exchanged it for his Pyjamas. He then changed his mind and took off his white, long-sleeved polo shirt and wore instead, his black, long-sleeved polo shirt. He wanted to wear fewer colours in order to properly sneak out of Suna undetected. He then wore his usual pair of glasses and made his way down stairs.

He snuck past his mother’s bedroom and made his way past the kitchen and went down the basement. He looked up to the usual rack he kept his katana at and quickly took all three of them off the rack. He tied them around his left hip and made his way back up the stairs and into the kitchen. Now opening the fridge, he took a 10 pack, packet of instant noodles, two 2L bottles of cold water and a packet of fish cakes. He then went over to the front door, before turning back and stared at his mother’s bedroom. He couldn’t believe it: this was the day he was going to defect. He thought about why he was leaving, but then thought about what he was leaving. He was leaving his best friend behind, his mother and his home village. After thinking about it, he finally decided that he’d leave. True, it would break the heart of those close to him, but he had to leave. He turned back to the front door and slowly opened it, before closing it slowly behind him. He then made his way through the empty streets of Sunagakure as if he were just walking around the village, but made his way towards the village gates after taking in the view of the city. He was going to miss the Sandy night club: that was the first place he went to when he had been promoted to Genin. He was going to miss the Sand’s reservoir: he won his first battle there, but mostly he was going to miss the Sandbox: there he met his best friend, Trilby. Shibirin decided to clear his mind about all the things he was leaving behind, and concentrated on what he was doing at the moment. Soon enough, he arrived at the hidden Sand village’s village gates: the guards were both asleep. Still, Shibirin couldn’t risk waking them up: he’d have a whole team of Sand Nin after him in a split second. That was another reason Shibirin didn’t want to leave Sunagakure: it was home to some of the greatest ninja yet, in his opinion at least. As much as he hated her: Gin was a powerful Kage and often earned the respect of other powerful ninja around the world. Though he had never met him, Ezra was the only ninja in Sunagakure, in Shibirin’s generation, to complete the chunnin exams. Then there’s Trilby: nothing more could be said about him. Under Gin, he was the most powerful ninja in Sunagakure and Shibirin was glad to have lived in his presents.

It seemed that Shibirin was having second thoughts about leaving Suna, but his mind was set no matter what his heart said. He decided to avoid going through Suna’s village gates and instead, use his new jutsu: 4th dimension. He threaded the required hand signs, whispered the jutsu’s name to himself and then placed both of his palms on the walls surrounding Sunagakure. He then walked through the walls as if he was walking through a hologram and within seconds, he was on the other side of the walls. He crouched down and snuck around the wall, towards the village gates to see if the guards were still asleep. He peered around the corner and saw two watch guards, fast asleep and snoring, loudly. He decided to run whilst he still could and that was exactly what he did. He was headed towards the hidden rock village; there he’d ask to be taken in as one of them. He had no plans on betraying them, though that was probably the first impression he’d give to them by coming in as a run-away sand Nin. He kept on running through the desert and not once did he come across a single tree or patch of grass. The sun had slowly risen: a sign that Shibirin had travelled for some time now. A couple of hours had gone past and Shibirin was certain he was almost there. He had taken occasional stops along the way, slowed down and then sped up again. Now, he was walking towards a few mountains, there he saw the village gates of Iwagakure. He stopped in front of them, looked back, and then looked back at the village gates again. He had made it, but travelling here wasn’t even half of his troubles. He now needed to persuade the Tsuchikage to take him in as one of them, but if he said no, Shibirin would have no choice but to survive out in the wild. If that was to happen, no doubt Gin’s men would’ve tracked him down quick enough to find him somewhere in the desert. For now, Shibirin had to think positive, for if the Tsuchikage did say no, he’d more than likely die before having a chance to apologise to his mother.

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