Lin rushed over the rooftops of Kumogakure, she was deft at it, after years of training. Gora had stayed behind to guard her office of paperwork that had stacked up in her absence taking care of some business for the village. Seriously, there was more to do than she ever thought would be done in the village at once.

Skating down the stone tiles of a roof, one of a prominent dress maker and seamstress in Kumogakure, she launched herself onto a rail, kicking off of it and sailing down, down, down into the clouds. The wind whipping her hair back, she was glad that she had put at least most of it into two adjoining braids this morning. Her blue eyes flashed in the fog of the dense cloud cover, and then it appeared, the waystation. Her right foot colliding with the roof, she used the momentum to roll three times before pushing off and landing on the ground near the gate. She really needed to make a jutsu for travel, as this was ridiculous. She couldn't get anywhere fast in the village except by looking like a bat out of hell. Her guards would be a few hundred meters behind her by now. Dusting off her clothes, she approached the guards to the gate.

"So... what needed my attention?" The guards stood a good two feet above what she did, but they still bowed their heads. It was unnerving how much respect she got. She still wasn't used to it.

"We found this one on the ground, he had run all this way and we wanted to know what to do with him." The bigger of the two, wielding some sort of a great axe with a... spear... looking... thing. A weapon she hadn't seen before, she chalked it up as.

She patted down her azure shirt and navy palazzo, getting rid of any dust, thinking about what to say. The first instinct was to yell at them for not taking him to the hospital right away. But that wouldn't do any good. So she sighed, lifted her head, and glowered at him. "I will treat him here, since you called me.
I haven't seen him before, if you're asking me to identify him,
he's not in our ninja scroll. At least not since I last checked." She had checked about three months back, "Stand aside."

She pushed past the guard, she might as well go for the more instantaneous of the jutsu that she knew. Forming a set of 8 hand seals, she focused chakra into her hyoid bone before opening her mouth and expelling an enormous amount of chakra, encapsulating the boy and a 1 meter radius around him in teal light. A roar shook the windows of the nearby buildings as she released the chakra and waited for him to come to. She stood about a meter back, her arms folded, considering the boy.

WC: 508

"It's okay son, don't cry.. remember, I will always love you.. no matter what happens.. just remember that...."

Okami cried and panted as he ran. Branches and trees blocking his way, sunlight barely touching his obscured face and with little strength as he had to walk, they tore his clothes and his body as he passed them.. but that didn't matter. He didn't even realize that he was walking for hours to no end.. His vision was blurry from the tears that ran across his face, as he moved.. With each step he would feel her touch.. her grip around him in her last moments.. With each step, the pain would get stronger and stronger until he would crash down, emotionally and physically.. Punching the ground, until his fists bleed.. Cursing and yelling at the sky.. everything was on repeat. Like a endless nightmare that, well just kept going on and on. Those moments would last a while, but than he would stand back up and continue.

The fear that drove him was also strong.. the same fear that moved him to abandon his mother and run for his life.. yes the same fear that killed his mother. He was a mess, nothing made sense and everything felt a strange to him. He couldn't even remember how he made his way here. He stood straight, as sunlight illuminated his whole body, he was facing a giant door. Step by step, he made it through the gate, looking around but not really looking for anything. Two shadowy figures approached him, he couldn't see them clearly but in the state that he was he pictured them as the two that attacked him and his mother just days ago. Getting angry, his face would emit a certain vibe, that of a baby cup trying to defend his dead mother from predators.. You knew it was harmless and that you could get to it, but still for some reason you didn't.. He jumped towards one of the two, attempting to form a fist but all he really did was slip and trip down. Once he was there he laid down, looking towards the sky.. his eyes began to close as a girl appeared in front of him. He could even barely recognize the shape of the figure in front as his eyes closed..

Seconds later he opened them energetically, as he picked his torso up, breathing heavily. His vision ran across everything in his sight, his body felt extremely numb and his thoughts were.. yes, he just remembered the tragic accident from few days ago. It didn't help that his head began pulsing like crazy as well. He couldn't even stand, as he placed himself in a seated position, crossing his legs as his long white hair fell over his face. To anybody looking at him, they would see a kid holding his head with both his arms, squeezing it like he wanted to kill the pain he was in as tears would rain down, creating a puddle beneath his legs...

WC = 516

Lin sighed, knowing that there was panic in the boy. She wanted to help, but she also had to put on a strong front for the people of the village. Some bystanders started to appear, all looking at the scene. She wished that she could rush him to a private spot to ask him, but she couldn't... She swallowed a lump in her throat and asked, "What made you faint? You're not hurt, so... so why are you crying?" She knew that he had suffered some sort of mental pain, but she didn't know if it was genjutsu, or real.

Lin really didn't know a thing about this boy, and she was in an awkward situation, so she might as well ask all of the questions going through her head, "What is your name? Where did you come from? Why did it seem like you had run for miles to get here?" She sat back on her heels and placed her chin in her hands, her elbows resting on her knees. She wanted to know more. She needed to know more, there was too much chaos.

"I'm sorry.. I'm sorry.." he would repeat constantly for a while.. "Mom.. I'm sorry" he'd say finally before looking up to the sky. Tears would rain down his face, as birds tweeted and sun shined, gracefully corresponding his face. For a second he felt like his mother was there, telling him that everything would be okay and that he needs to be strong.. but somebody else was speaking as well. He tilted his head, with a blank expression to face the... "Mom.." he whispered.

It was for a second, but for that brief moment his heart forgot about the sorrow he was in.. but finally he realized that he was wrong. He only saw a girl, sitting next to him. Okami mistook the girl for his mother, because of her white hair. She asked him questions, but he didn't answer. Instead, he looked around, he wanted to remember what he was doing here. People were gathering, whispering, looking down on him. He got confused, attempted to stand up, but his leg failed him. He fell down onto his knees, as if his legs couldn't take another step. "Where.. am I?" he'd whisper softly. His voice been shattered from the constant yelling.

WC = 724 (516 + 208)

Lin thought, 'mother? whose mother? I'm whose mother?' She gave him a glare as he looked up at the sky, and then realized, no... it wasn't her that he was referring to, it was his actual mother. Well, that made her feel better, and then it made her feel worse. If he was looking up and talking to his mother, this boy's mom was dead. She didn't really know how to handle that, both her parents had died a little over a year ago and this... well this didn't bode well for Lin's psyche, not to mention the boy's.

"I erm... there there?" She tried to pat the boy on the shoulder when he awoke, startling her and looked around his voice barely above a whisper when he asked where he was... well that wasn't good either. She sighed and stood up, brushing off her knees and bending back a bit to alleviate the tension that was building in her lower back. "You are in Kumogakure no sato." She looked at the guards who went off to give her some space while talking to him, "What happened?" It was a fair question, and one she hoped he would be forthcoming with.

WC: 918

He didn't have enough strength to speak, let alone try to figure out where he was. Everything seemed like it was spinning for the moment, as he garbed his head to calm himself. He could feel the pressure in his chest as well, as it was getting harder to breathe. Okami never experience panic like this, and he was not sure why was it here again? As he calmed a bit he threw a quick glance to recognize his situation as mass of people surrounded him, them probably curious by the strange sight of him there. He figured as much, as he doesn't look like your average person, and he surely doesn't act the part as well. The girl that was near him seemed even more confused than the rest. She tried to pat his head, to which he would contest.. if he had enough strength. The explanation that followed was of his place of residence. He chuckled and continues "I figured as much.." and he would look in the distance as he would continue "At least one of us made it here, right?".

It was a rhetorical question, not aimed at anybody present.. well not present anymore. He would manage to stand up after that, and continue to brush of the dirt from his clothes. He was still shaken up by the accident, but he managed to collect his mind enough to construct simple sentences. As he got up, she asked him what happened, to which he just glared over at her. "Nothing you should trouble yourself with". He might have sound polite, but underneath that smile was pure rage and resentment that was hard to control, even when talking to innocent bystanders. He would turn to the people to ask "I'm looking for the Kage of the village. I have some matters to discuss with him" he would say before starting to walk in the general direction of which he thought was the Kazekage residence.

WC = 1055 (724 + 331)

The young shinobi ducked out of the way of her hand, and she let it fall to her side. She patted herself off from the dust that had accumulated, as it was windy and dusty everywhere in Kumogakure No Sato due to the mountainous terrain.

"One of you?" She tilted her head, then looked to the guards who shrugged. Sighing, she placed a finger and thumb to the bridge of her nose and massaged the irritation away. No need to get angry at the people who were just trying to help.

Then the boy had the gall to glare at her, say that it was none of her business and then proceeded to walk toward the center of town. "I am the Raikage if you are looking for her. As for the Kazekage, probably somewhere in Suna? She blinked and straightened her hair, trying to not look annoyed. One of the guards was still standing there, staring dumbly at the whole scenario. Most of the other bystanders had started to mill about, since there wasn't a flashy light show going on anymore, and Lin, being the person she was, really didn't like to show off more than once in a blue moon.

As he began to walk off, the eyes of people around him pierced his mind, like sharp knives. Immediately he had some thoughts pop up, of similar situations in other villages and residences, where people would throw him and his mother out because they looked like "trouble".. He always wondered why, but guess he was now finally old enough to process those thoughts. But even so, he knew this would happen, as just his appearance is strange enough, let alone the scene he was causing. But it would be an understatement to say that he cared.. He was used to being shunned away and living as an outsider, so why trouble yourself to change people's minds when you can just act out the part you were given?

A faint voice would be heard behind him, as the girl spoke. To his surprise, she was the Raikage of the village, and that statement suddenly changed his course, from going somewhere to going back where he was. He would approach her, looking at her strangely as he wondered how strong is she as she didn't look the part, but would continue to say "I would like to talk to you regarding my current situation. I need temporary stay here, and I am willing to do as many jobs as necessary to earn my stay, and a little extra of course. Would you hire me?" he asked, not really expecting her to accept right away, but he was more than ready to prove his worth if needed be.

WC = 1302 (1055 + 257)