Guiding Iron: The Ignition of a Soul

“Son, you are traveling today get ready quickly.” Shikamoa’s father called up the houses stairwell to his now conscious child. The boy groaned, but did as he was told, slipping into his clothing and heading downstairs to meet his father’s early morning call for him. Why he was travelling he did not know, but he wasn’t questioning his father. He knew better from his sister doing it back during her twin’s wedding arrangement meeting. As he turned the corner he saw a bowl of rice and a bowl of miso soup both looked like they were from last nights meal, he was fine with that. 
   “Shikamoa, eat quickly. Ill explain what is needed.” Oku said with no more words seeming to come anytime soon.
   “Yes father.” Shikamoa said, sitting down and quickly saying a mental thank you to his sleeping mother upstairs, before he chowed down on the food before him. The rice didn’t have the best texture and the soup was lukewarm, but he cared not for that. 
   “I have been requested to act as an escorting party for a travelling emissary from the Land of Iron, they have to speak about the festival incident. I want you to act as their guide for their stay here. I will be trailing from a distance, but this I feel is something you need.” Oku spoke killing the silence with more explanation than Shikamoa was used to hearing from his father, verbally, in a month.
   “Is that allowed father?” Shikamoa asked obviously befuddled by his father’s job for him.
   “This is training Shikamoa, your only to act as a guide and company.” His father replied bluntly.
   Nodding he finished the last of his rice and soup and turned the bowls over to signify he was finished. Setting his chopsticks down Shikamoa watched his father walk towards the entrance. As he got up to follow he found himself struggling to keep up with his father’s almost me mechanical movements, there was no thought to it just a continuous stride of movement. Their destination was fairly obvious to the public eye, of those who were out and about, as they approached the entrance to the leaf village.

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"How much longer do I have to wait?" a voice that sounded impatient and annoyed, of course it was a much older voice. An elderly woman's voice could be heard the closer to the village entrance you've gotten. She didn't exactly seem pleased and patted her own back. "ow, my back is killing me, hey you! Boy!" she yelled at one of the chunin's waiting there for the escort team to arrive and pick up the Iron country Emissary.

He weakly smiled and side. "I do apologize for the wait, madam, but they party should be arriving here very shortly. You are free to sit down here and await for them."

she scowled. "Bah, I don't need a escort party, I am right as rain." she stretched out her arms and lifted her cane above her head and stretched. "See boy! See-" her sentence cut short as a 'snap' could have been herd and she grimaced in place and the Chunin shinobi stared at her in surprised.

"A-are you okay, Madam?" he asked her

She lowered her arms and rested on her cane and then turned around and looked away. "Yes! I'm fine, don't you worry about me boy." She was a little short for her age, at 5'4'', and given she was leaning over on her cane it made her appear to look smaller than she actually was. she took in big deep breaths and kept leaned over on her cane.

The Chunin spoke again. "Madam, you are more then welcome to sit madam, no need for you to stand."

The old lady scowled. "Boy, I am fine, quit your concerns with me. I've been sitting a good portion of the way over, I can afford to stand for a bit."

The Chunin guy only sighed and nodded his head as he looked to the village entrance, his eyes eventually spotting the coming escorting party.

"Bees are singing, trees are buzzing, and birds are swaying!" Rosie exhales in a long sigh as she hears the sing-song voice of her slightly more than a hallucination sister somewhere in the general direction of the small high window that adorned the sleeping quarters of the shinobi school. "Or bees are swaying, trees are singing, and birds are buzzing. I'm not really sure what the proper order is meant to be. In fact, can a bird sway or buzz? Can a bee sway for that matter? I'm pretty sure a tree can sing if you know the right jutsu, although I'm sure it's quite an exotic one attached to one of the major clan bloodlines."
"I'm not going to acknowledge you, Kit," Rosie thought at her. "And I refuse to open my eyes just because you're in a cheerful mood and are planning to harass me until I get out and walk in the unseasonably good weather."
"Bees are buzzing, birds are singing, trees are swaying." Kitty sounded proud of herself. "I knew I'd eventually work it out by process of elimination."
Rosie sighed audibly. "Do you have a point?"
"I always have a point, and that is that your head sometimes comes to one." Rosie's breath rushed out of her lungs involuntarily as she felt a weight consistent with that of a person with Kitty's height and build settle onto her stomach. She was well aware that the weight simply did not exist, and that her mind had created the illusion of it, and that she was responding to that illusion and not an actual person sitting on her stomach, but it appeared that her mind was set on insisting that her 'sister' was sitting on her and wouldn't let her treat the weight as the imagined phenomenon that it was. Bowing to the inevitable, she sighed and opened her eyes to see a kimono-clad kitsune sitting cross-legged atop her and smiling down brightly.
"My point was also that we have a fine day ahead of us, and any day spent not becoming better off is a day we've wasted." Kitty rolled off her belly and onto her feet beside the bed. "So get your compulsive obsession thing out of the way, get pumped, get washed, get dressed, and lets get out the door."
"It's not a compulsive obsession," Rosie said as she rolls out of the bed in the other direction, landing and coming to her feet in a single fluid motion. "It's the proper beginning to a well-disciplined day. I can hardly get any better if I neglect the progress I've already made."
She dropped to her knees beside the bed and began to shift and pull and stretch the sheets into a rigid tightness that makes it seem as if the bed hasn't been slept in at all since it was last made, starting with the covering for the thin mattress and progressing up the layers to the covering on top.
"Rose, it's pretty clear that active interaction with a hallucination to the point of willfully feeding that hallucination isn't the only defect you're dealing with," Kitty remarked with a touch of concern. "It's clearly not harming you but I can't help but think a obsessive-compulsive disorder of your mind will do you no favors."
Rosie fluffed and pounded the pillow into the near-perfect shape of a decorative showpiece rather than something in active and daily use. "I've been dealing with it for a while, Kit," she says as she slips the tucked edge of the covering under the pillow and then folds the excess over it, once again pulling the ensemble to compulsively neat precision. "Of my two disorders, you're the one most likely to do me harm, although that's only because I lack the experience to have an instinctive grasp on my own chakra flow. Obsessive of the tidiness of my bed when I wake up may eventually do me no favors, but I don't see how it could possibly do me harm."
"Compulsions can grow and become pretty nasty."
"And how do you imagine a compulsive fixation on making my bed each morning to very exacting standards is going to get worse and become harmful?"
Kitty shrugs, watching as Rosie gets to her feet and starts out towards the yard. "My concerns aren't quite that specific, Rose, and I have no idea what form the disorder could take if it got worse. I just prefer that the hallucination that helps and encourages you be the only thing wrong with your head, you know?"
"I know." Rosie turns her head, making sure there's no one visible to see her, before she looks at Kitty and smiles a little. "And I appreciate the concern but calling it a disorder, a fixation, a compulsion, or an obsession are all just opinions. I prefer to think of it as a good habit, an excellent way to start my day on a note of high standards and discipline. Especially now, when I want to do something that could be quite... uncomfortable to practice, discipline is important."
Kitty sighs as they enter the yard, a different one from her normal haunts but containing a nice smooth wooden post in the middle instead of a tree. "Did you at least check with a medical-nin before attempting this?"
Rosie ignored the question; they'd gone over the perils of deliberately toughening the tips of her fingers while straining the forearms, hands, and wrists with repeated blows against the wood with fingertips with a medical-nin. After enough references, he'd been forced to concede that the idea was feasible and would probably not cause lasting damage, but he'd still been responsible and insisted that she not make the attempt. Fortunately, her habits as a student of studying scrolls on philosophy and techniques that she had no intention of actually attempting had shielded her against the medical-nin approaching a teacher with the issue, at least for the moment. The price was that when her fingers were sore and her arms ached, she couldn't say anything or someone might work out that she fully intended to learn the powerful and lethal taijutsu technique, and do the responsible thing and make her swear not to attempt it.
"I still doubt you're really ready to do this," Kitty continued as Rosie began doing her hand-thrusts, striking the pillar with her fingers firmly although not as hard as she could (that mistake had been one of the more painful ones to learn). "Training hasn't reached a point where we have the right pain threshold and strength to really do it."
"Of course," Rosie agreed as she kept methodically striking. "It's why I'm building up the strength and pain threshold and then attempting to learn the technique itself. The references were unanimous in this conclusion: considerable preparation is needed or even the hardiest shinobi could cripple herself with the attempt. You need to do the homework before you take the test, both in the classroom and out."
"Just remember our agreed-upon limit." Rosie nodded idly at the reminder, counting out one hundred thrusts under her breath as she did them, and then heard Kitty's voice in her mind's ear repeating the count more loudly and with an emphasis that somehow sounded disapproving. That too she ignored; she could tell that the preparation was working as it was becoming easier and easier to do the repetitions as long as she was judicious and let her limbs rest as much as possible afterwards. Which meant that when Kitty said "One hundred, stop" in her ear, she did so immediately and started directly on jogging and working up to a full run, as always straining to see how fast she could push herself and for how long. At least, she reflected with a smile, she had company as she did the running: constrained by no physical boundaries, Kitty could keep up with her effortlessly and liked to bark out nonsense chants as they ran.
"Running till her feet are sore;
running till she keels over!
Training to make strength her fore
but Rosie dear is quite a bore!
Doesn't like to show it off;
sexy Kit just makes her scoff!"
"I... am... not... scoffing..." Rosie panted, forgetting to think it at her hallucination, slowing down to a more manageable cardiac-building pace. "Just... think you are... gauche."
Kitty grinned. "Careful Rose... don't want to be talking to your delusion now. People might wonder."
"Oh, go away."
"No."

Thirty minutes later, Rosie had her sweat-soiled kimono off and was resting in the bathwater, making sure to keep her arms in the nice warm environment to ease the fatigue pains. Even as she was becoming accustomed to it, it still made her a little sore afterwards and the bathwater made it much easier to bear.
"I love a good bathing," Kitty purrs as she slumps low in the water, just as naked as Rosie and looking happy about it. For reasons that she didn't think all that hard about, mostly because they were obvious, Kitty took great pleasure in shedding her kimono and bathing, her response to it so natural that it was one of the increasingly numerous occasions where Rosie had to remind herself that what she was seeing and feeling and hearing in relation to the kitsune was her imagination at work and wasn't at all real. "It feels so natural to be in the bath and without any cumbersome coverings."
"It's not as if you make all that serious of an attempt to cover up outside of the bath."
"Yeah, well, you do enough for the both of us so your subconscious enjoyment of being unclothed, an enjoyment you will stubbornly never even admit to yourself, is particularly intense." Kitty stuck her tongue out at her and stretched out under the water. "Damn shame we can't stay longer."
"Best to get on with the day." Rosie rose out of the bath and took her towel, vigorously drying herself off before turning to see that as per her usual, Kitty was doing a few extra stretches to show off before donning her kimono and ordinary plethora of ninja gear. The fact that the hallucination never had to dry off was always a relief, since it gave Rosie a natural sanity check that her companion really was unreal. Even though it reminded her that Kitty wasn't real, though, she always had trouble suppressing a vague feeling of longing when seeing what the delusion maintained was Rosie's own idealized body; it always was a stark reminder that she was still barely a teen and had a very long ways to go as a shinobi and a young woman.
When she returned to her room, she opened up the small face paint kit she kept in her personal things and sat down to start painting on her preferred facial design. Practices was increasingly making perfect, and she found herself able to put on the designs quicker, easier, and with better symmetry and sharp edges to her design.
"Perfecto," Kitty comments cheerfully, leaning down so her face, with white markings that are are a nearly perfect mirror of Rosie's own black ones, sit side-by-side in the reflective surface. "Let's go."
"Any particular destination in mind?" Rosie asks as they leave the room and go out of the school into the town proper.
"Perhaps walk the village perimeter?" Kitty suggests. "It's always relaxing to go out and survey the place we're meant to watch over."
Rosie smiles at the idea and nods briefly, turning towards one of the gates where she'd decided to start off her morning walk, soon to come into view of a certain young male shinobi and an elderly visitor.

{Word Count: 1955}

"Shikamoa I am taking my leave, behave." Oku called from ahead of him before Shikamoa's father disappeared from sight, he was used to this sort of escapade by now. His family seemed to love blurring out of sight suddenly, must of been one of those habits that people pick up from their parents. Continuing to walk, he clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth, these shoes were always going to be uncomfortable, but he shrugged and kept moving forward. Approaching his destination he spotted an older lady and a young ninja at the gate, and despite expecting a tall strong samurai to have been the emissary, he could tell from her location and her seemingly grouchy and bold nature she wasn't anyone's grandma from Konoha.
When he got to where the two were standing, he bowed in greeting of the elder lady, "Greeting honorable elder, I apologize for making you wait so long. I am Sourufoji Shikamoa, I was given the task to be your guide around town by my father who will be acting as your bodyguard for the duration of your stay, he is currently out of sight, but I promise he is very close." Shikamoa said this with a respectful tone, but he for the life of him could not remove the calm, nonchalant tone of his voice. After all this was a job, and he could never find himself opening up much out loud when it required any kind of work. In the distance Oku, his father, was rubbing his temples as he listened on his son's speech. It was very polite and respectful towards his elder, no doubt as mannered as always with Shikamoa when he spoke to those older than him outside of his family. That disinterest of his, however, wasn't always his best quality, even if he was happily doing what he was told.

Word Count: 677

Word count: 262 | 575

The elderly woman looked at the young man that had approached them and she was rubbing her back gently as she looked at the book. "Hmm...that's nice. Young men should be like this to the elderly, I would like it. Though it sound's rehearsed and dull, eh, whatever. I'll take it." she shrugged her shoulders as she walked closer to the young man and looked him up and down rather carefully. "The nerve of your father already hiding, did he think this old woman would bite him or something? Hmph...whatever not like I care whether a shinobi is around or not." she uttered as she glanced about. "Not like anyone would gain much from attacking a little old lady, though this company does seem a little incomplete. I do have some free time before I have to head to meet with the Hokage, so I asked to be able to look around. Maybe you will be able to help me find my Grandchildren. They should be somewhere in the village, they were here during the festival, so I'd like to go check up on them and make sure they are alright, but hmm..." she looked around and saw a girl in the distance. "Oh missy?" she called out to the call. "Do be a dear and come here." She then pointed her cane at the boy. "Come now boy, let's not dilly dally, I don't want to become a skeleton by the time the sun falls." She smiled and looked back toward's the girl as she started to walk in her direction.

At the call of the elderly woman, Rosie stops and looks genuinely taken-aback. "Did someone actually... call out to me?"
"That is very strange," Kitty says, clambering on top of Rosie's head so she can get a better look. "Well, she's looking at the two of us..."
"You mean, me, because she can't see you."
"...yeah, you, and her eyes appear focused in our..."
"My."
"...yes, your direction so chances are good that she actually noticed us..."
"Me."
"...you, right, and thus actually called out to you." Kitty sits on her head and leans over, peering into Rosie's eyes upside-down. "So you're now on the verge of looking stunned into inaction by an old woman calling you 'missy' and asking you to go over to her. Rear in gear time."
"I was thinking the same thing." After appearing to be surprised into stopping dead in her tracks and looking momentarily distracted by a thought, Rosie expression blooms into a smile that's still on the demure side of shy and she jogs over to the old woman, stopping and giving her a brief bow in a gesture of respectful greeting. "Ohayo, obasan-shi," she says. "How may I help you?"
"Feeling a bit formal and fawning today, are we?"
"Shush, I'm trying to be pleasant to a complete stranger whom I have no reason to care about or be polite to. I have to concentrate."
"I cannot express just how sad that sounds, Rose."
"Hush."
As Rosie straightens from her bow and oddly formal greeting, Shikamoa would be able to see her eyes shift to look in his direction momentarily as if she's just noticing his existence. "Good morning, Sourufoji Shikamoa. I hope I'm not interrupting anything."
"Not that either of us would care if we were," Kitty points out, emphasizing her point by neatly stepping across the gap to sit atop Shikamoa's head. "Still, I can't help but think I've seen this one before. There's just something about the contours of his face, and how dreadfully earnest he seems, and something about that face, and I'm not sure if I've heard his voice but there's just something about this boy that makes me think i should care."
"You went out of your mind and wanted to throw money at him for reasons that appear to consist of the words 'bishi' and 'yaoi' repeated often and in increasingly shrill tones until I ignored you."
Kitty blinks and steps off of Shikamoa to peer at him more closely. "I thought I recognized those lips, seeing as how they touched the lips of alleged boy. I still think we should give the possible boy the ultimate two-point proof of male identity, just to be safe."
"I'm sure that if I concentrate really hard and want it really badly, I could hallucinate a club following you around and beating you over the head until you stop."
"Better make it a kanabo and have it wielded by a comely nogitsune."
"Alright first, you are pretty nogitsune already. Second, kanabo are for oni. Third... why comely?"
"I should think that would be obvious, Rose." Kitty leers at her. "Canoodling, little sis, lots and lots of canoodling."
"I really shouldn't ask, and I know that asking is a horrible idea, but what the hell is 'canoodling'?"
"Hallucinate a bad kitsune girl with a giant club for me, and I'll show you." Kitty's leer becomes more toothy. "Something in... black, if you can manage it."
"Seeing as how I can feel the lewd radiating from you, I think I'll pass."
"Drat, foiled again."
All the while this is happening, Rosie's face remains patiently placid, although an observant person would be able to see tiny twitches of emotional reaction at the corners of her eyes and mouth, and the focus of her eyes appears to be on something that's in the general direction of the elderly woman, but not the woman herself.

{Word Count: 652 | 2607}

At the prospect of his father being scared of an old women Shikamoa couldn't contain a slightly contagious fit of chuckling, " N- no Ma'a- m, h- he was told to." Shikamoa said in between his short burst of laughter. His eyes seemed to be glowing for a split second before they went back to normal and he stopped laughing. Listening earnestly to the elderly women he focused in on following her and making sure that she didn't get lost too much. As she spoke of grandchildren Shikamoa raised his eyebrow, "You have family living here in Konoha Elder?" As she called out to someone else and told him to hurry he stayed right behind her. Squinting he looked to who had been spoken to and recognized tree girl immediately, and it seemed likewise, "Nice to see you again Rose-chan." Shikamoa said in response to her greeting, it was just as dull as it had been when he was speaking to the elderly woman earlier. Watching her eyes move he felt a cold shiver run down his spine as the invisible non-existent force known as Kit jumped off of him.

Word Count: 863

Word count: 311 | 886

The old lady smiled lightly. "Oh, I wouldn't per-say state that they live here. They tend to move around a lot visiting all sorts of places. They were just here recently for the festivities that had taken place, so I want to check up on them." she stated without glancing back at the boy, who had for the moment sounded as if he was bursting into laughing, but very quickly reverted back to his dull demeanor.

The girl she had called over seemed to be an acquaintance of the young man with her, she glanced back and opened her eyes a little bit, well enough to say that she seemed to have noticed the connection between the two at least. "Ooo, so you know this young lady, well that's wonderful this'll make things a little bit easier then." she stated as she glanced back toward's Rosie. "Oh sweetie..." she stated to her. "I am here visiting though I don't feel at all confident in the capabilities of this young one here, so I want to get two different perspectives of this place you call over. So come join us for a little while."

Of course the old lady peered at Rosie and took notice of the facial reaction of the girl, and she kinda followed her line of sight back to where Rosie had been glancing at, in fact, for the moment the old woman casually turned her head to 'look' at kit. Of course she wasn't actually staring at her, but it did appear as though the old woman was staring directly at Kit for a moment, before she looked back toward's Rosie and then she rubbed her own chin. "Hmm....yes, yes, come now, both of you. I do think this'll be entertaining, I am indeed curious about you young leaf born and how you view your own home."

"Um Rose? There's an old woman staring directly at me. She's making me feel a crippling case of the oogily boogilies and jeeper creepers."
Rosie sighs within, being careful to restrain the reaction from reaching the surface, although a careful eye would be able to pick a couple facial tics. "She's not staring at you, Kit, she's following my eyes. I was careless and looked directly at you, physically, so she's reading my face and determining where the thing I'm looking at is."
"Oh." Kitty thinks about this. "I hope you weren't trying to reassure me, Rose, because that's about ten times more scary. She can figure out where the invisible thing is by reading someone who's looking at it. That's way more creepy than being able to see the invisible thing herself."
"I don't think she's reading quite that deeply, Kit." Outwardly, Rosie gives the old woman a little polite smile and nods vaguely in the direction of Shikamoa. "Yes, I know Sourufoji Shikamoa casually. We're in the same business after all, the business of attending to our training and lessons and becoming proper shinobi through the instruction of our teachers."
"And if that wasn't the most goody-two-shoes brown-nosing pabulum ever, I'm a harmless bunny rabbit."
"You'd probably try to confuse her with overly loose language and then make some kind of awkward pass at Shikamoa."
"Hey, I wouldn't confuse her and if I was going to make a pass at Shikamoa, it wouldn't be awkward." She crosses her arms under her breasts and uses the crossed arms to hoist them slightly. "Then again, I would be working without two of my most effective tools."
"If you're really that skilled, you don't need to flaunt your sexual looseness to attract someone."
While all this is going on, Rosie's face remains locked into the small and pleasant smile for the old woman and her classmate. "I would be pleased to accompany you, obasan-shi, if that's what you prefer. Is there any specific perspective you're looking for about Konoho?"

{Word Count: 338 | 3945}

Shikamoa was completely unbothered by the elders comment about his abilities being sub par. He was after all a boy taught by his older sisters and his father whom all held Chunin or Jounin rank. They were good teachers, or he thought. As Rose spoke about them being of the same business of trade he nodded in agreement, "That is rather true." He said shortly, not wanting to bother with saying to much for the time being. Watching Rose he felt a shiver in his spin something was different about her, he couldn't quite put his finger down on how or what, but there was something there. Then again, when was there something not wrong with a person, seemingly dazed he stared up at the passing clouds letting out a long drawn in breath he listened to Rosie speak up about any location that the older lady would like to go see, "If you can give a land marker or a name of a location I'm sure that Rose-chan and I can lead you there. The Hokage's building, a place to eat, the weapon shops in town, an inn, just tell us and we will lead you." He said his dull voice, oddly resounded in confidence in his own abilities and his allies abilities as well.

Word Count: 1080

Word count: 112 | 998

"Well now, I can't say I'm all to familiar enough with this place to know the names of places here. I only know a small few bits, but that's from the letter's my granddaughter sends me." she gave a 'hmm' sound before she looked toward's the two kids. "Well actually yes I do have a wonderful idea, I'd like to visit the shops, I hear there was a wonderful little flower shop here....ah what was it's name again...Yaminiku? Yashamori? Yamomi?" she was naming different things, but the flower shop in question is quite well known to the people of Konoha as it's own by the Yamanaka clan; The Yamanaka Flower Shop.

"Yamomi? Yaminku? Yashamori?"
"I think she's asking about the flower shop owned by the Yamanaka Clan. You know the one, where Father likes to get cherry blossom arrangements for Mother...?"
"Oh, of course." "I think you must mean the Yamanaka Flower Shop, obisan-shi," Rosie says. "It's a very well-known one in Konoha. My own father likes to get cherry blossom arrangements for my mother  from there from time to time, because their work is of very good quality. We also have a girl from their clan in our class, a Sylvan Yamanaka."
"You know, I can't quite remember whether she's ever actually identified her clans."
"She didn't need to. That mindscape trick takes very specific training with the support of a bloodline that inclines you towards it," Rosie tells her hallucination, keeping her face locked in its pleasant mask more effectively than she had before. "And I'm sure that if the Yamanaka clan learned of someone using their secret techniques without being of their clan or getting extraordinary permission, they'd retaliate."
Kitty visibly shudders. "Which I think would go badly. Euphoria can be reasoned with, at least somewhat, but under no circumstances would I ever want to see what happens if you corner Sylvan and make her desperate. Euphoria, desperate, lashing out, her vision turning red, seeing only enemies that need to bleed? It would cost Yamanaka more to harm her than to leave her be, assuming they ever had a reason to move against her."
"Cornering a strong shinobi and making them resort to whatever power they have to save themselves is never wise," Rosie agrees.
"I find her odd myself, but no one's entirely ordinary, and she is also endlessly interesting," Rosie concludes. "I think all the clans are, in their own way, and I think it makes a very good environment to train in because you're never quite sure of what could come of it, or what techniques unknown to the general student may be laying in wait for you. It forces a flexibility of mind, and an order as well, and I think it all makes the village better for it."
"Um, Rosie?"
"Yes?"
"You do remember the point, right?"
"Hmm?"
"She wants to visit...?"
"...oh, right." Rosie colors very, very slightly. "I'm sorry for rambling, obasan-shi. The flower shop is just this way." And with that, she would lead the elderly woman in the direction of the shop, presumably with Shikamoa in tow and adjusting her gait to match that of the old woman.

{Word Count: 419 | 4364}

Shikamoa was quick to recognize that Rosie had almost entirely taken over his job as a guide, but this he was kind of okay with. He was a lazy young man after all; calm and collected. Presuming his role would be as a rear guard for the time being Shikamoa moved in almost perfect circulation with Rosie as she curved her way in front of the old lady, he curved himself mirroring her to the back directly behind the Ambassador of The Land of Iron. As He remembered this small detail that hadn't pondering it dawned that that country had no ninja village, remembering that his brief study of the lands had brought him across this country's name before; he decided to ask on this exact subject.
"Honorable Elder, is the Land of Iron truly a country of samurai and blades? I remember reading that much, but your land seems to be a very reserved one. I found little information past a highly regarded remark to the samurai's handy work." He said, his tone was flat, but the bored seeming emotion behind it was replaced by a strong curiosity towards learning about a country with no Ninjas a country that honed only the blade, one that had many of its various people live and day by the way of the sword.

---

Word Count: 221
Total Word Count: 1301
Total EXP Gain So Far: 1300

Word count: 141 | 1,139

Rosie had given her the correct name and she nodded her head. "Ah! Yes, Yamanaka, that was it. Oh you children are so smart." she gave a typical old lady laugh as she nodded her head to Rosie. She eyed her a moment as she noted there was a short amount of time that rosie seemed adrift, in thought perhaps. Though rosie offered to lead and the old lady accepted, it though, what she didn't accept was letting the boy walk behind her. To which she was quite verbal about after he had asked his question. "There isn't much in the books about us, and that's how we prefer to keep it, now don't walk behind me. come up next to me or walk ahead, I don't like having to turn my head if I need to speak to you."

"My apologies Honorable Elder. I assumed I was to take position as the rear guard." Shikamoa said bluntly, he saw no reason to lie about what he had thought, it was an obvious truth. Moving in strides he shifted to the right of the elderly women whom he was supposed to escort alongside Rosie (He still didn't understand how she had gotten drug in, but she was here now and he figured that he might as well get to know her as they ended up adventuring through the town with the sagely women in their hands.) Trying again he spoke, "I've read that the Land of Iron specializes in blade work and blade work alone, it sounds like an amazing place. Don't you think so too Rose-Chan?" Shikamoa attempted to drag the other assistant escort into the conversation, knowing full well he might be pushing past what he should have out of simplistic curiosity. He couldn't quell after he started to ask the questions about the whole ordeal, his very own specialty from his clan's inherent kekkai genkai was that of a weapon and he was so far forging his into a sword, a sword that was much akin to that of a old samurai sword.
  Armed with his no-dachi at almost all times he wanted to know where he could learn more on a traditional blade technique that he could find. That whole ordeal had led him to trying to get information on the Land of Iron's swordplay. Or at least what he could from it, but that had been a pipe dream coming out of the books. So he turned his attention to the old lady know, seeing if he could talk to her for anything information wise, or possibly gain her good side. Though he felt that he not getting off on the right foot for that one. He would work on that later, for now his job was to try and get the old lady to the Yamanaka flower shop so that she could scour the shop for anything she might like. If he was lucky Rose would help him, and herself, to information of this land of blades and powerful soldiers.

---

Word Count: 367
Total Word Count: 1668
Total EXP Gain So Far: 1650

Rosie stops dead in her tracks at being called "Rose-chan" and looks hard at Shikamoa. "Rosemarius to acquaintances and strangers," she says coldly. "Rosie to friends and to those with whom I'm well-acquainted. Rose to family. Please keep it in mind, Shikamoa, and kindly do not call me any diminutive of my name until we are far better acquainted."
"Rose!"
"Don't start, Kit. I'm happy to be spoken to casually by Serasena and Sylvan, and an elderly woman may call me whatever she likes, but I won't abide a near-stranger speaking to me like my family does."
Kitty pauses at that and looks steadily at Rosie before she smiles broadly. "Well, as your big sister, I'm telling you to play nice and don't snap because a classmate spoke too casually to you."
"I'll keep that in mind, Kit." Rosie resumes walking after the momentary pause for internal conversation. "The issue of being too casual with me aside, I agree entirely Shikamoa." She looks to the elderly woman. "I too have heard of the Land of Iron, obasan-shi, and how a deep connection between sword and warrior is taught there. Stories I've read and heard speak of warriors who can beckon their swords back to their hands, and cleave someone in two before the eye can see them draw their sword. It all seems more like myth and legend and guesswork than anything real, but maybe that's because I'm still just a student and have only scratched the surface of what's possible."
"You are fibbing, Rose-chan," Kitty says in a sing-song voice.
"I'm not fibbing." A mental pause. "What's fibbing?"
"Telling little lies." Kitty grins. "You know perfectly well the extent of what jutsu can do. You've read the scrolls hinting at techniques so powerful that they're forbidden to learn. And being faster than the eye can perceive isn't exactly unusual for a masterful enough shinobi, which you also know."
"Understating my knowledge isn't fibbing." Rosie mentally huffed. "I'm trying to encourage her to speak of her home and the warriors there. I can't exactly do that if I sound like a know-it-all who thinks she knows everything because she's read some scrolls implying things."
"Alright, alright, fine." Kitty tail-baps her with a single tail. "You're still fibbing."
"I suppose sword techniques are very interesting to me because I hope to learn how to use a blade myself," Rosie continues after letting there be silence for a few seconds. "Amazing things can be done with just the bare hands and jutsu, but I find the feel of a weapon in my hands to be... comforting, somehow. Something I can rely on when there's a need."

{Word Count: 444 | 4808}

Word count: 269 | 1,408

She took mental note of Rosie's reaction to how the young man called her. So they weren't exactly close friends, acquaintances at best. Though they both did hold a common interest and that was in her own homeland. She wondered how should she respond, some of these answers were obvious baiting questions, but should she purposely answer incorrectly, or should she bring them down a notch for attempting to bait an answer from her. She coughed as she covered her mouth a moment buying sometime as she pondered on how she should respond.

But thinking too much on it, these were still children none the less. She smiled sweetly and responded in kind. "Ah, the land of Iron, it's not exactly a secret that we are a samurai homeland. It is also not a secret that we are also of neutral territory choosing to not take part in what you ninja territories do. We also serve as a meeting ground for all the Hokage's to meet up yearly and hold their meetings." She eyed Rosie a moment. "If I were less informed of the lifestyles you children hold, I'd say you were quite the dumb foolish girl to pose your sentence like that. I'm not sure exactly what is taught in your classes, but ninjastry derived from Samurai teachings. We have many similarities and you all are capable of such feats, if not more. The only difference between us really is our culture, and what we consider to be honorable. I'm certain there are many sword-bearing shinobi's around that still uptake the old samurai ways within this village."

Rosie blinks, genuinely and visibly taken aback by being called 'dumb' and 'foolish'.
"Told you so." Kitty gives her a smug look. "You were fibbing so hard, even an old lady could tell."
"You realize that being old means she's probably one of the most experienced, and thus sharp-eyed, people we've met, right?"
Kitty pauses. "Oh. Yeah, you're probably right. Most people couldn't tell you were fibbing, but I totally can and she totally can. I think I like her."
"I can respect a sharp tongue, certainly."
Outwardly, the look of being taken aback by the rebuke smooths into slight chagrin, but then a touch of mild annoyance. "I do apologize, obasan-shi, for the pretense of being uninformed. I was meaning to be polite and not presume to know of a land I've not been to, or of a people I've never met, or of techniques and a culture I've not encountered." She takes a long breath and the slight tone and expression of annoyance smooths back into the polite and respectful expression she'd been maintaining. "But the pretense aside, I am in earnest about learning more of this Land of Iron and the samurai. Whatever you're willing to speak of, of course, and I don't mean to pry if you prefer to talk about other things, or about nothing at all."
"Amazing! I can see your nose turning brown from here."
"I am not brown-nosing!"
"Oh yes you are," Kitty grins. "You are brown-nosing so hard, I'm surprised you're not giving her the sad puppy eyes."
"I've never had a puppy. How am I supposed to know what they look like when they're sad?"
"It's a figurative expression," Kitty huffs. "But you're totally brown-nosing at this lady hard."
"I'm not! I'm trying to be polite and nice and hope she's willing to talk about her home. I'm interested, very interested in fact. Can you imagine what it would be like if those rumors and stories I hear about samurai sword techniques are true?"
"Um, Rose? I'm pretty much a figment of your imagination.
"I'm aware. So?"
"You're asking if your imagination can imagine something." Kitty grins.
"It's a figurative expression, alright?" Rosie mentally sighs. "Stop bothering me, I can tell she thinks I'm a little bit..."
"Coo-coo? Mad? Crazy? Insane? Out to lunch? Am I getting warmer?"
Rosie's outward expression assumes a touch of thoughtfulness as she inwardly considers whether to throw her hallucination a bone or not. She gives a mental shrug. "I'm not sure you could get any hotter than you are, Kitty."
Kitty blushes vividly. "Oh, cut that out."
"Couldn't help it. You served up the straight line on a silver platter. But yes, I think she's getting the idea that I'm a little bit dotty."
"Dotty as a barrel of dice."
"Gee, thanks."
"What am I for, if not to be good for your ego, little sister?"

{Word Count: 483 | 5291}

If the young Sourufoji had any reason to react to Rose's outburst towards him, he didn't. Trying to talk to women was a pain when they were this serious... as he found out as of right then. He quickly turned to listening to the ambassador. Shikamoa, while he had recognized that he was trying to coerce information from the old woman, whom he was in charge of escorting, he did not try to hide his lack of knowledge. He was curious and lacking information on something that was of much interest to him. With a way to fix this lack on information he wanted to ask a lot, but kept his shut on that matter. As he listened he noticed a bit of an odd detail that had come to mind earlier on and decided to ask about it, "Sekirou? Did you ever study the sword yourself? I mean no disrespect when I ask, but it seems odd at first glance that they would send a honored Elder here as an ambassador. At least, not without knowing that they could defend themselves to a degree. I ask only from my curiosity." Finishing what he needed to say Shikamoa went back to silence, the boy speaking only slightly more than was necessity, his voice almost a complete monotone.

---

Word Count: 218
Total Word Count: 1886
Total Exp. Gain So Far: 1850

Word count: 147 | 1,555

She couldn't be too mean, they were still children of course, but at the same time she couldn't just let them try to make a fool of her. She listened patiently for what they had to say before she formulated her response. Though her attention turns to the young man. "You really know nothing of the world, young shinobi. There is nothing odd about this." she stated simply. "In this day and age, it matters nothing whether you could defend yourself or not." and then her attention shifted back to Rosie. "MY homeland is a wonderful place, albeit it a bit cold for my old bones, but still a lovely place none the less. The Samurai are held in the highest place on honor in the Land of Iron there might be a little distaste for shinobi's there, but that's a given due to the differing lifestyles."

The end of her statement to Shikamoa and the mention of there being a slight distaste for shinobi in the Land of Iron visibly brings Rosie up short and she seems surprised to hear these things from the old woman.
"It matters little whether you could defend yourself or not?"
"And the prize for one of the most skin-tingling ominous statements either of us have heard recently goes to... sharp-eyed sharp-tongued old samurai woman." Kitty visibly shudders. "Being able to defend yourself or not doesn't matter? How can that be, that there's no difference between being prepared and being helpless?"
"Should I ask?"
"I'm sure the very dull boy will ask for you so you don't have to seem silly."
"I doubt he's dull, just... no apparent personality."
"What's the difference?"
"Unless I missed you meaning, there's a difference between being fo limited intellect and being boring."
"I meant that he's dull, as in boring."
"Oh. OK, then he's dull. So I suppose I'll make a fool of myself by asking about the cultural differences."
"You mean, why the samurai don't care for shinobi?"
"Yes."
"I'd think the answer would be kind of obvious, Rose. If their craft centers around a weapon that's really not suitable for being subtle and using all kinds of poison and illusion and other techniques like that. I'm sure that to straight-up warriors, such subtle craft seems two-faced and cowardly."
"I suppose we'll see. It could be a completely different cultural reason."
There was a momentary pause in the exchange of mental words until Kitty clears her throat. "Don't worry, I'm not buying it either."
"At the risk of being obtuse, obasan-shi, what difference in lifestyle makes shinobi distasteful to the Samurai?" Rosie asks.

{Word Count: 289 | 5590}