"I have tacos in the microwave right now":

Within a room dedicated to being shared by both families, a man in a black robe slammed his tanned hands against the wooden table’s surface. “I’ve told you twice, and maybe more! The property line of your family begins at the wooden fence!”

A woman with a yellow robe stood, swatting towards the man with her oversized golden fan. “On the contrary, it is your family’s property line that starts at the wooden fence! Ours spans towards the trees!”

“That is absolute nonsense!” the black robed man shouted. “Why would we buy property that has such a small territory?!”

“Well, I have questioned the sanity of the Uchakas once before,” spoke the yellow robed woman. She hid her mouth behind her fan, keeping her half open eyes on the man. “It’d be no surprise that your impulsiveness led you to such a…unfortunate living condition.”

“Of course we wouldn’t pick-…! Wait, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying the Uchakas are indeed reckless-”

A large man suddenly stepped closer to the wooden table, also dressed in a black robe. “You wanna talk reckless?!”

Another male, this one with a yellow robe, stepped closer to the table. “You stay back!”

The large man looked over to the man in yellow.

“We’ve agreed that the leaders of the family clans were to be the only ones who may chat at the table-”

“I do not care for such formalities anymore!” the large man shouted, stomping his foot as he did. “We’ve been over this multiple times, and again, we’re being led into a circle!”

The supposed leader of the Uchakas turned to the large man. “Ryat-”

“Time and time again, they pull this!” The large man, Ryat, pointed at the woman. “They lead us into a circle, avoid the question because they know we’ve agreed on an hour of debating! Beyond the hour, we are allowed to leave. So to avoid acknowledging the fact that they were wrong, they waist our-”

“Ryat!” the Uchaka leader called, watching the large man jump slightly. The man simply nodded to Ryat, a stern look on his face.

Ryat was silent, backing away toward his original position.

“Well,” the woman spoke, fanning herself, “it would seem that I am correct, proven by your own…” she paused, looking at the now sweating man that was Ryat, “…talking circus hog.”

Hearing this, Ryat’s eyes widened. The Uchaka head turned back to Ryat, sweat running down the side of his face.

“Ryat...don’t-”


Alistein walked down the dirt road during an afternoon rain shower, looking at his surroundings as he did. With a pink umbrella in hand, he looked from side to side, looking for something. He found it kind of odd that a family of Iwagakure would be so…far away from the usual residential area. As a matter of fact, he found it weird that the radius of the property which defined the residential area was so large, especially when most of the people he had seen living in Iwa didn’t live anywhere near the area he was in.

On the horizon, he expected to see more houses that he failed to notice. However, there was just…grass and dirt patches, along with little puddles of water. Then, it hit him.

“Is this a prank?” he asked himself, twisting the pink umbrella. “If it is, I’m going to be so-…”

With a sigh, he looked up while twisting the pink umbrella’s handle. Tiny white cat heads spun with the umbrella. This was at least a little bit of a worthy trip. The mission he volunteered to do was to deliver a blueprint to a family somewhere around here. Then, it started to rain, which gave him an excuse to buy an umbrella. The thing that worries him though is if he missed the family or not. Perhaps if he wasn’t too busy deciding between either a blue umbrella with brown dog heads or a pink umbrella with white cat heads, maybe they’d still be here. He lowered his head, now surveying the area again. After moments of thinking, he decided to continue traveling down the dirt path, heading for a forest.

710

Walking through the forest, Alistein noticed a few things. One, a hike in the rain is oddly relaxing. Two, the umbrella he was carrying may very well be an umbrella targeted for little girls. And three, he has no clue what was contained in the blueprint. For all he knew, it could be plans to demolish Iwagakure, and expand their family territory even further. If that were the case though, surely the mission outpost wouldn’t allow such a task to be requested. And even then, the ANBU or whatever they’re called would intercept the plans, right? Alistein shrugged, and then stopped.

“A safety hazard,” he said, looking down at his shoes.

The laces had come untied, and he didn’t want to trip and cause the blueprint to become ruined. But, if he tried to fix it, it would mean putting the umbrella down, and getting the plans wet also. Then, a squeak came from above, Alistein moving the umbrella a bit for him to see while keeping the plans dry. It was a squirrel, using the branch of a birch tree to shield itself from the rain. Alistein smiled, looking for a branch large enough for him to do the same.
After wandering the forest for a bit, he found a branch thick enough to substitute as a umbrella. Standing under it, he stabbed the tip of the umbrella into the ground, and placed the blueprint onto the dry side of the anti-rain tool. Then, he begun tying his shoes.

Just after kneeling down to do so, he heard something whizz by his ear.

“Huh?” He looked around. Alistein eventually figured it was some sort of bug that flew by, trying to get out of the rain also. He didn’t mind this, continuing his shoe tying. “So it goes.”

Had Alistein remained standing for a bit longer, he’d have noticed a shuriken being thrown at him. And had he turned, he would have also noticed a kid with a yellow t-shirt and black shorts, who possibly threw said shuriken. With shoes tied, he began walking towards his destination. The kid in the yellow shirt stared from where they were, fists clenched. He watched as Alistein kept walking, eventually being met by a woman and man in yellow robes. From where the kid was, he couldn’t hear what they were saying, but saw that the blueprint was handed over. One of them waved the hands around frantically, as if describing a conflict they had just escaped from. The child remained where they were, their eyes closed and a tear rolling down his face.

“…or something like that. Seemed like nice people to me- …Oh, hi there,” Alistein said, walking by the child. “Maybe a smoothie will be good for lunch. Or maybe a…”

The child…did nothing as the young man’s voice trailed off.

1192

[exit]