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1The Decision [Sunagakure -> Kumogakure] Empty The Decision [Sunagakure -> Kumogakure] Sun May 19, 2019 3:09 pm

Chou

Chou


D-rank
How long had it been since she had ended up in Sunagakure? She had helped out during the evacuation, and while she had thought she had made a friend in a little puppet user he had gone missing sometime afterwards. Of course, he wasn’t the only one whom had disappeared as she had, too. She had gone out to use the bathroom while they were camped out away from the destroyed village and had ended up getting lost. She had wandered the desert for hours in hopes that someone would find her, and then had ended up staying in the same place for some three days while thinking that would be best. Unfortunately, those who found her were a group of bandits. While Chou was a Genin and somewhat capable of handling herself to a degree, she knew that against such vast numbers she was nothing more than a sitting duck. She had no idea the intentions of the men and women who had stumbled across her, but she had known that to survive she would have to make herself useful and so that’s exactly what she did. Their cooking skills were horrible, and it seemed that they were at a loss on how to plan a meal accordingly so that everyone had a proper portion. This was where Chou came in handy: she knew very well how to cook, and could turn food into something edible and delicious from the bare minimum scraps - which tended to be what she was working with, at least at first. Her skills got the approval of the bandits, and kept harm from coming to her.

Thus, this was her life for the next nine years: cooking for a group that she honestly wanted nothing to do with, but which she was stuck with if she wanted to survive. Of course she could have killed them off easily enough, especially since it only took roughly six months of being watched while she cooked before she gained their trust enough to be left alone. Yet, where would that lead her? She didn’t have any place to go. Konoha had never sent anyone to come find her or so she assumed, and considering they had allowed her to walk out of the village in the first place with a criminal she figured that assumption was as close to correct as possible. So she had simply bided her time, slowly getting stronger piece by piece. While they went about robbing and killing and doing only the gods knew what she kept to the camp area that changed places every few weeks or so, using the fact that she was busy cooking for such vast numbers as a reason to keep her own self from becoming tainted by such actions.

“Don’t piss off the cook”, became a motto quickly enough for the group of bandits, and thus no one protested too hard if Chou wanted to remain behind and prepare their next meal instead of helping to rob, hurt, or kill people. It also gave her free reign to wander a bit, though out of fear of getting lost again in the vast desert she tended to stick close to camp at first. However, she did begin to go on little scouting missions with the bandits, if for no other reason than to begin learning the layout of the land as well as how to track: skills she hoped would come in handy the moment she decided to take off and leave them behind - because honestly, she had no intentions of staying longer than she had to, and she already felt like she had stayed too long as it was. It wasn’t that she made enemies, as most of the bandits were friendly enough, and there was even one she was close to, but she knew this wasn’t the life she wanted: she didn’t want to just scrap by while taking advantage of the hard work of others. She wanted to be out there doing something, even if she didn’t know what that something was.

Through the years Chou had begun to age of course, going from an adorable little ten year old girl fresh from the Academy in Konoha, into a beautiful eighteen year old woman. While her face still held some of that child-like innocence, the rest of her had evolved and changed. While still a ‘big girl’ by normal standards, she had proportioned nicely into a beautiful woman with a fairly large bust, and exceptionally long hair that had become so bleached by the sun that it had lost its red hue, allowing her to change it to purple which faded to a light blue towards the end. Unfortunately for her she had to spur the advances of many bandits, but they had taken it well enough, knowing not to piss her off unless they happen to find something in their food that their diet could really go without.

Today was like many days before it: looking to be nothing more than the usual routine. She was up before the sun, preferring to do much of her preparations for cooking for the day before the heat of the day got to be too strong and ended up combining with the heat of the fire to make it nearly unbearable to be around for long. Unlike the bandits around her that were covered in various forms of armor and desert garb, Chou had chosen what was comfortable for her: a cotton, black in color, short sleeve crop top, with a pair of cotton black pants that were baggy enough to allow for air circulation through them. While the darkness of the color would have likely done her in in the early years of being in Suna, the heat nor sun didn’t bother her much anymore: she didn’t even sunburn as she used to, her skin having gone from fair and light, to a darkish brownish peach color. She was mostly alone in the camp, save for a few bandits who had stayed back to remain guard over the place. The rest were out scouting for some threat, as someone or something had been hitting their numbers fairly hard as of lately. Bandits were disappearing, groups being severely diminished upon return from raids if they returned at all. The bandit leader was up in arms about it to the point to where he had left as well, thinking that the bandits were either beginning to turn on their own in secrecy, or that there was a larger and far more deadlier threat out there than simple civilians right for the pickings. As per usual Chou had kept her distance, remaining behind to cook instead of partaking in this search. It wasn’t really her business if bandits were disappearing, and at this point she honestly didn’t care. She felt like she knew enough to survive on her own if she had to, and if the threat happened to show up? Well, she had no intentions of putting her own ass on the line to save anyone’s skin but her own. She was not beyond fleeing if it came to it, and she was more than aware of a few nicely hidden underground caves ripe with water supplies still fresh and untainted that she could duck into for a few days if need be.

“What’s for dinner tonight?”, called over one of the female guards, causing Chou to look up from the fish she was currently gutting.

“Some kind of fish, probably with a salad. Got to get rid of those greens before they go bad.”, Choul would respond while turning her attention back to the table and the knife in her hand. Her cuts had once been unsteady, a knife feeling wrong in her hands, and yet over the years this had changed as many things about her had: the knife glinted and flashed in the sun as she went from fish to fish, gutting and deboning them with ease.

“You’ve got some skill with that knife, why don’t you ever go out on raids, too? I heard you used to be a shinobi, Chou…”, another bandit called over, the partner of the one who had spoken to her first, though this time a male.

Chou didn’t bother responding: it was none of their business why she didn’t go out on the raids, and really there was no point in speaking about it. It would only incite a fight, or an argument. Plus, she didn’t want to deal with the questions as to why she had stuck around for so long if she didn’t like being here: because really, who would want to admit they thought they had nowhere else to go?




1,455

Chou

Chou


D-rank
No further questions were asked by the nearby bandits on watch, which in Chou’s opinion was very smart of them. While she had done wonders in reigning in the rock hard temper of hers she certainly did have moments in which she lost it. She could be downright mean and hurtful during those moments, and well… the last thing she wanted was to be using the knife she was currently filleting a fish with to gut a bandit with. Then again, she’d be lying if that idea wasn’t appealing. She was frankly tired of her situation, tired of living off of the hard work of others that was stolen by low lives and bandits alike. It just wasn’t her, it wasn’t the person her loving and honor bound parents taught her to be. She had done it in the beginning for survival purposes, but now? What was her excuse?

It was time to leave. She knew it in her heart, her mind, her body, and her soul. This was not the place for her and remaining would only bring trouble to her doorstep - not that she had one. She would rather find her way to one of the villages and live on the streets, struggling to scrape by on whatever meager salary she managed to make for herself as a wash out of a shinobi than to continue living like this. Sure, she was taken care of, and for the most part safe in the loosest sense of the word, but still. It wasn’t the life she wanted for herself, and it wasn’t the life her parents had wanted for her.

The question was, though, how was she going to do it? She could just as easily walk away at that very moment, say she was going to head out to the cave where they had the majority of their supplies stored, and simply never return, but that meant going light into the desert and she knew that her chances of survival - while better than they once had been - were slim if she ran into trouble. Slipping out in the dead of night also was not a possibility, especially with how tight the bandit leader was locking the village down at night. There were plenty of guards who did their diligence duty if for no other reason than to keep the wrath of their leader at bay. That would make escaping, especially when she was as large as she was, impossible without being noticed. No, what she needed was a damn miracle.

No sooner had the thought crossed her mind did her knife still, her head cocking to the side as she heard a noise that was faint but nonetheless noticeable. A shout of alarm from the guards spoke of the intruders, but before Chou waited to see who they were she ducked backwards into her tent, behind the table. As she listened to a gruff voice bark orders from the central courtyard of their little tented city bandit camp, Chou worked quickly on grabbing her supplies: her cloak, waterskin filled with fresh water, a satchel of food she always kept back for herself in case they came upon tough times again, and a few other essentials. Knowing that the tent flap was a bad way to go about leaving Chou instead headed to the back, pulling up one of the spikes that held it down within the wind and ducking underneath it. Wrapping her light tan colored cloak around herself and making sure that her colorful hair was tucked in tightly as to not give herself away, she made her escape into the desert, not even bothering to look back or spare a passing glance as she heard a chorus blood curdling screams fill the hot day.

She didn’t know how long she traveled for, and she couldn’t say really what direction she was even going in, but she kept putting one foot in front of the other in hopes that she would eventually end up somewhere: though she really didn’t care where that somewhere was. She just knew she had to keep going onward, and that there was nothing left for her in the place she had spent the past eight years of her life. She knew eventually she would have some explaining to do, that people would likely have some questions for her depending on who it was she eventually ran into, but she planned on answering those as honestly as possible. The response she would give, based on the individual, was something that they probably wouldn’t like, but it was what it was.

Eventually the seemingly endless desert sand gave away to a lot of rain and rivers, something which Chou immensely enjoyed after spending so much time constantly hot and sweating. This too eventually changed to forests and grass, and she found herself knowing the direction she was going in: skirting past Konoha, and giving the country as wide a birth as she could manage as she continued onward. As much as she was homesick, she also knew there was nothing for her there, and no point in returning. She had been gone some eight years and no one had ever come looking for her, and no one likely ever would, so there really was no point in going back, right? Eventually the landscape would once again change, the temperature dropping fiercely as she noted snow on top of the mountains. Knowing that she was heading in the general direction of Kumogakure she didn’t pause beyond refilling her waterskin with fresh snow that would eventually melt into crisp and cold water. She passed many minor villages as she went, some which were likely nothing more than a small spec upon the map of the world, but it wasn’t there that she was destined to be. No, if she was going to start her life anew in Kumogakure then she would have to head to the village. She wanted to be a shinobi again, even if she were nothing more than a Genin: it was a lifestyle that suited her plenty, and which would fill her pockets with enough ryo to live comfortably once more. There was nothing more that she craved than a permanent residence over her head again. Of course, it likely wasn’t going to be as easy as walking in and talking to the Raikage of all people - if he’d see an insignificant former Konoha nin like herself at all.

Finally, Kumogakure would come into view, and she found herself stopping as she stared up at it. She was more than aware of her current appearance - her cloak bottom in tatters and stained with mud and gods know what else, the fact that she hadn’t had a proper bath in some days minus washing off as best she could in rivers as she passed them. She had the eyes of a hungry animal, but then again she hadn’t eaten in some four days either, and the dark circles under her eyes spoke of it being likely just as long since she had slept. Yet, despite her current condition she couldn’t help but to smile: she had made it at last, and hopefully things would now fall into place.
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