Chapter 3: The Second Wind

Mukade would succeed in building his contraption, making a good signpost for any that would follow them. He however would find no cacti in his surroundings. Just loads of sanddunes.

Amaya would find some grasses but not a lot. When chewed it would release moisture, how save it is, she does not quite know for sure, but she suspects to remember that is ok.

Kazuo would indeed pass out.

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Amaya and Mukade would walk on towards their goal and would reach it after a day's march. Their biggest problem would be their water supply, which would have dwindled to half a liter of water for them both combined. Mukade would feel better, the poison largely had its course through his body, but the sickness had made it so the pair would only just made it within the time limit. Morning had clearly broken as they reached the little oasis. As they enter it from the north, a man could be just seen grabbing something large and walking off to the east.

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Kazuo would wake, the sun's heat on his head quite some time later, not sure how much time.
He would find he was part of some strange up and down bobbing motion. Strange as it was, he would have dificulty moving his arms and legs. Most likely because he was tied down on top of a camel.

After a moment's wiggling, Kazuo would immediately stiffen, and relax suddenly. Tied up. Children aren't usually figured as threats, even prodigies. I've either been retrieved safely, or I've been retrieved and I'm now a hostage.

Very, very carefully, Kazuo would test his bonds, and crack open an eye. Should his immediate field of view be clear, he would then open the other, and begin examining his surroundings.

Kazuo would find the bright lights making him dizzy for a moment. Mostly because the rocking of the Camel he was tied on did not help.

The bonds would test to be too much to escape from using his bare strength. (It being 1, weak for even a regular boy) But he could find out something about his captors by sneaking a peak. They were obviously sure he would not go anywhere even if he was awake.
Around him he would see vast stretches of desert in every direction, a couple of people surrounding him, dressed as nomads with both face, head and body covered, all either riding or guiding a camel or two.

They talk among themselves, but they speak a strange language. What might be most disturbing for kazuo though, it that they are heading towards the sun... And it was not at it's highest point. So either it was morning and they are heading East... Or it was evening and they are heading west.

Keeping as close a hold on his breathing as he could in order to appear asleep, Kazuo began thinking over his situation. It was difficult at first, he was used to at least being able to tap his foot or drum his fingers, and without the familiar experience his brain was sluggish in doing it's work. First, he tried to recall any information about the other natives of Suna. Hopefully they were friendly, and he could at least negotiate his way out of this and get back on track... if that was possible.

Politics untrained (Edit: Brutal Failure)
Edit: For all Kazuo could figure out, unfortunately, they were some type of nomad. He'd heard ridiculous stories about cannibals, but those could hardly be true, they were said to kill on sight, after all.

If he couldn't at least figure out who they were, he wasn't going to let the opportunity to escape pass him by. Kazuo would take stock of what was still on his person, the sealing tags in particular. He could use his own blood in a pinch to create a makeshift defense seal, and hopefully bluff his way out of fighting or use it as a trading piece. He would begin to gather chakra as well, to strengthen his limbs and boost his speed so he could make a quick getaway.

Stealth A (Edit: Partial Failure)
Edit: As you try to hide you get noticed by a guard, but he does not seem too alarmed, even when you are gathering chakra. Instead, the man lets the camel walk without leading it and he falls back to walk at your side.

"No no no... This will not do... We save you and this is the thanks we get. Non..." He looks you up and down and checks out your binds and your muscles, pinching you like a side of meat.
"The binds are good and your muscles are weak, you must taste very tender." Indeed Kazuo's binds were good, they were out of his sight and looped around the camel's belly. tying him like a sack of potatoes.

The nomad smiled at him. At least Kazuo knew something. He did not have the pointy teeth of legend.

A roll against Empathy was performed: Kazuo believes everything the man says.

A ridiculous, almost comical, pause swept over Kazuo's being. He didn't just say... He gave up entirely on feigning sleep, settling for what he hopes is a rather pointed look at the man beside him, and likely failing spectacularly because of his awkward position.

He doesn't seem to realize I'm gathering chakra. This either means he cannot feel it, or he is so confident in these ropes that he is sure I cannot escape. Desperation giving him hope it was the former, Kazuo turned to simple distraction as he continued to build his reserves, pushing them as high as he dared thanks to his fears about the strength of the ropes. Hopefully they didn't feel it necessary to knock him out again. "Where are you taking me?"

When enough time had passed, he would also track the shadows once again, in hopes of picking up the general time based on them getting shorter or longer.

The man shook his head again "Non no non, Again you do this, This will not do, we safe you and you prepare to fight us." Suddenly his face came all close to Kazuo's. "I am tempted to take a bite! But that would drop your price on the market..."

Was the man making fun of Kazuo? Or was he speaking the truth?!
Kazuo simply could not tell, he seemed straight to the point and he seemed to know what Kazuo was doing...

Kazuo made a mental note about the shadows, but he would have to wait for time to pass (more than half an hour) to really Judge their heading. Given he can keep up with all the little changes of direction the group made around the dunes.

Leveling one more glare at the man, Kazuo settled himself, finally. Think. Drop my price on the market... this implies I am to be sold off. Apparently not everything I heard was true. While they may be cannibals, they are also, clearly, human traffickers. He didn't bother thinking about more cliche methods of escape, such as going to the bathroom, eating, or his bonds being too tight. He had no trust for this man at all, and he doubted he had gotten any for himself in return.

He'd need a far better method of escape than that, and that kind of planning would take time. Fortunately, he'd need a fair deal of time to figure out his current heading, and where he was...

Survival D: Try to figure out where he is on a mental map of Suna.

Upon seeing the oasis in the distance Mukade's long since tired muscles where given new resolve. He ran faster along with Amaya to catch the mysterious man. "Wait. wait. we. are. here!" Koe's voice spoke out, slightly louder then usual, given the extra air Mukade worked through its vocal cords in an attempt to raise its volume, though it was still not much of a shout.

He'd lower his head attempting to make what was only himself trying to catch his breath look somewhat like a bow. As he looked up he remembered they had been given a very vague description of the man they needed to meet up with. He tried to think back to what it was... dressed in black with a hat, straw hat, right? Best to make sure he fit at least that small description before saying anything more. He also glanced over to see what the large object he held was.

Amaya would scream with Mukade, trying to grab the attention of the man that was walking off in the distance. The man was indeed wearing black and a straw head. That much could be seen now. The man slowed down, apparently waiting for them.

He put down his burden, which was gleaming in the sunlight. Mukade would not immediately spot what it was, but Amaya would quickly fill in the blanks for him. "That's rather big for a sword..." It indeed was a blade, but not one like Mukade had ever seen before. It looked like it would decapitate its opponent even before the wielder thought of doing so.

Speaking of the wielder, as the duo would get closer, they would start to feel hesitant, an aura of power emanating from the man. They would see he was wearing a mask, but though his eyes were not visible, the black holes in his mask betrayed a hunger for blood.

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Kazuo would find himself clueless of his exact position at the moment. Best estimate was that he was still north of Suna, either moving south-east or south-west. Without landmarks, he would have difficulty pinpointing it.

Mukade's eyes widened somewhat as he heard Amaya speak... indeed, the burden looked almost like a dead weight at first, impractical to try and use, but all possible thoughts like that were ended as he noticed the inexplicable sense of blood lust emanating from the masked man.

Mukade gulped, hoping his collar and glasses hid his fear as he slowly retrieved the red marked scroll he and Amaya had. He slowly held it in his hand outstretched to the man and tip toed towed towards him, his eyes watching him though attempting not to meet gaze of the dark holes in his mask, "This... is. for. you... right?" Koe said from Mukade's back, its voice slightly more contorted then usual.

The man turned towards the boy slowly, he could now clearly see the giant blade the man was wielding. A circle was cut out of it near the tip, a half circle was near the hilt. As zabuza notices the scroll he cocks his head slightly, stabbing the sword blade first into the ground before pacing towards the kid. Bending forwards he extends a hand towards the scroll, sizing the boy up as he moved.

His fingers closed around the scroll slowly, while Zabuza's face was still inches from Mukade's. "Gouzuu must be worried to be implicated, sending you two. Funny voice boy and thief girl.." The voice sounded gravely, but not menacingly until the very end.

Only then would Mukade realize that unlike him, Amaya would not have walked towards Zabuza, but had moved towards the sword instead. She held it in her hand, studying the weapon. "I'd advice you to step away, sharp objects are dangerous for little girls." where before the voice of Zabuza sounded like it was picked up, thrown into gravel, danced upon and then left outside to be subject to a year worth of bad weather, it now sounded like coming from the depths of the world. An animal like growl bit his words.

Amaya quickly assumed a posture as she did with Souran, ready to speak back to Zabuza, Mukade would see this and would know that she had Souran in mind when she would start to speak. But unlike Souran, which had Gouzuu holding onto his leash, Zabuza was not thus restrained. "Ohhh here we go again!" Amaya would start to speak...



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Meanwhile, bouncing somewhere north of there, a camel was still walking.
It had been an hour since the man dropped back and Kazuo would have had little interaction till then. The shadows on the ground had changed enough to know they were heading west, but no big landmarks were in sight yet. The group of merchants arrived at a Oasis, where they would take a rest. Kazuo could clearly hear what was planned. They would stay there for 15 minutes before getting back on their way.

As the group started to gather around the water, the same man would move towards Kazuo.
"So... we were just discussing what to have for lunch.... And seeing the sun has had a good chance to cook you before we found you, the boys thought you were a good appetizer."
He grinned as he took out a knife from his belt. But before he could act, another merchant came by.

"Are you teasing him again Yoraf?! Cut that kid loose will ya, it is much easier on the camel if the burden did not struggle as much and you have had your laugh!" The second merchant squeezed Kazuo's shoulder in comfort. then proceeded to walk away, leaving KAzuo alone with his tormentor. "Aahhwww Shucks!" the man growled, "Typical Arutha! Always taking away all the fun!" And with a slice the man deftly brought down the knife towards kazuo, cutting him loose.

(Ride test) (Failed bad)

Kazuo would immediately slip from the horse, tumbling forward, landing on his face.
"Geez!" the big merchant exclaimed "Are you alright?!"
Upon seeing that Kazuo was not harmed, the man grinned "Well... The ropes did what they meant to do, keep you on that camel... At least I did do that right!" He barked a laugh upon seeing Kazuo, before extending a hand to help him up.

(PS, try to react to the world instead of just in thoughts. You had some good ideas about these fellows, but you only thought them, instead of uttering them out loud and that limits me in the information I can give you.)

As Kazuo observed the exchange between the two merchants, he couldn't help but visibly relax against his bonds. He'd well and truly believed that damnable man, Yoraf, and here he was just some screwball joker. Unfortunately, relaxing proved to be a poor reaction that quickly earned him a face plant when he was cut free. He grumbled out an affirmative when the man asked if he was fine, though it was likely not heard very well.

Now freed, he settled for glaring at the big man for a moment, before sitting with a pout on his face. He lasted all of a minute before he decided that spiting the man any words at all was also spiting himself very necessary information, such as how far off course he was, how much time he'd lost, and where his things were. "Where are my things?" Without pause, he pushed further with his questions, trying to be as puffed up and important sounding as possible. "What day is it, and what is our position relative to Sunagakure?" Why do even adults like you find it necessary to tease me so much? Declining to explain why he wanted to know these things was probably not a good idea, but Kazuo still wanted to spite the man of something, and whys seemed like the only thing he had left.

Mukade gasped as he felt his body grabbed, followed by his eyes going wide as the face of the masked sword wielder came right inches away from him. He looked into the holes of the mask to what he could only hope were eyes, and attempted to hide his fear, simply nodding in acknowledgement at his words.

(Subterfuge C to hide fear)

Despite the contact Mukade realised his finger was still attached to Koe. With his hand remaining at his side he was about to let his puppet speak before Zabuza spoke out to Amaya. Mukade gulped as he suddenly realised what the girl was doing. "Amaya!" Spat the puppet from Mukade's back. He looked over to her and slowly shook his head back and forth at her before looking back to the older Ninja, "Please. We. were. just. sent. to. exchange. this. scroll. for. one. from. you... She. means. no. disrespect."

(Persuasion D)
(Empathy D, to try and figure out how likely he is to become violent.)

NOTE: Hiding fear is Impersonation and Mukade failed terribly; the other things are explained in the text.

Zabuza's anger was rising with two academy students being send, instead of the one he was supposed to have contact with. And now one of them was waving his weapon around.

The most vicious of students that Kiri had ever had was standing here trying to keep his cool, to not insult his potential allies. Amaya on the other hand, took an insulted tone towards, Mukade.
"Oh hell naw!" she started, now using the same tone she had used against his father "Don't you start, this asshole is treating us as scum, just like your scumbag father did, does no one no respect."

Things happened fairly fast after that. It took just a second for the pair of students, but before she knew it, Amaya had lost the sword from her hands. Her neck was now surrounded by sword as she would find her head in the center of the circle opening.
"Who should learn some manners here, lass? Give me one good reason not to slice that pretty head of hers of right now..." He looked at Mukade expectantly "Or run you through with it afterwards?!"

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The man shook his head as Kazuo shot a handful of questions at him. "Still no word of thanks for us saving your life from cooking in the desert. Ondankbaar wicht dat je er bent!" The last words were in the foreign language that Kazuo heard them speak among themselves before. The man looked dissatisfied but quickly proceeded to free kazuo from his remaining bonds.

"We found you dying and cooking in the sun a little over a day ago. You were close to death and we took some time to try and nurse you back to health after we found a weak heartbeat. But we needed to move on to our goal, leaving you behind would have meant certain death for you, so we tied you on top of Daisy here. Your stuff is still on your belt, it was not much, you can fill your bottles in the water over there." He pointed to the small Oasis they stopped by. After pointing out the oasis, the man proceeded to lead the camel away to his fellows, calling out to them in that strange foreign language. "Oi! Jullie hadden het goed, stoomhoofdje hier is zo ondankbaar als maar kan." Most men started to laugh and one of the men called back "Zal vast niet zijn omdat je hem zo aan het plagen was toen hij wakker werd."

Now all men seemed to laugh as they started to prepare some food for their rest stop.

After absorbing what he'd been told, Kazuo furrowed his brow and tch'ed as he began to fill his water. He... hadn't realized how close he'd gotten to dead. How bothersome, that he couldn't even handle that much. He'd likely be the cause for failure of his team at this rate. The thought brought with it a sense of dejection, and he mechanically turned to thank the man who revealed Yoraf's teasing. "Thank you for assisting me. I need to return to Sunagakure. Could you point me in the proper direction so that I can go home?"

Yes, he realized, there would be no way he could return to the village in good time to meet the test deadline. He, and by proxy the remainder of his team, would fail, because the minimum requirement wasn't good enough.

Mukade's eyes quickly became saucers and his mouth (though hidden) was held agape. The shinobi's movement was so rapid he couldn't see it. He knew that he should have expected such things from a Jonin (of which he was now sure this man was), but it was still shocking to not only see it first hand, but for it to come from a Jonin that quite clearly did not have his well being at heart, little though Amaya's.

He stood there for a short while, his finger doing the equivalent of stuttering as he tried to think of what to say. "u...You." came the voice, "... You. do. not. want. to. kill. us. because..." Mukade thought for a moment, trying to pick his words very carefully, "You. mentioned. Gouzuu... you. know. very. well. that. he. sent. us. personally. and. trusted. us. with. what. is. clearly. a. rather. shady. transaction... You. are. clearly. not. a. shinobi. of. Suna. and. this. meeting. has. been. kept. primarily. secret... which. means. we. must. mean. something. to. Gouzuu... At. the. very. least. he. would. not. want. us. rendered. unusable."

He then looked over to Amaya, hoping she'd notice the subtle urgency in his eyes, "And. Amaya... Please. settle. yourself. down... This. man. may. not. be. as. tolerant. of. you. as. my. father... He. can. and. very. possibly. may. kill. you."

The man smiled at Kazuo and started to laugh. Though Kazuo would not instantly know what was so funny, it would soon become more clear for the boy as the men calmed down. "We thought you might want to get back. That's why we altered our course a bit, we are about 2 hours north of Sunagakure, this is as close as we could have taken you, unfortunately our folk isn't welcome in the Suna. A ban our clan leader earned us. So you'll have to continue all alone." The man spoke matter of factly, but why was he willing to help anyway? If they were not even welcome in Suna, getting close was a risk as well.

The man handed Kazuo some food and a scarf to wrap around his head. "Ya know, despite Yoraf's ol' teasing ya butt, D'ya mind talking the good word for us. We not all be as bad as our clanleader ya know." He shrugged and looks at Kazuo expectantly.

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It happened as if it was in slow motion. It was almost casual how the masked man moved his blade to his side, slowly slicing through Amaya's neck as the blade moved. The man did not seem to care for Amaya's life, nor for Mukade's pleas. No, there was little the man cared for. Amaya's eyes widened as the blade cut sliced into her. She was shocked, seeing how she had always gotten away with her mischieves and big mouth, but the first one to really not take a crap from her, would be the last one as well. Even before Amaya's body hit the ground, her head, still with the widened eyes in shock on top of the blade, was swung towards mukade. But it was not intended to hit Mukade, but it stopped just a couple of centimeters before hitting him. Amaya's eyes lined up perfectly with mukade's. In her mouth now was a scroll, sealed with a blue seal.

"Run little boy" Zabuza spoke roughly "And don't stop running until you give my message to Gouzuu." He shook his blade, to let Amaya's head drop in Mukade's hands, simply stating the head was the message as much as the small scroll between her lips. "Tell him that if he is ready to be serious, he can send a serious messenger."

Greatly relieved that the party seemed to have redirected themselves to Suna, and considerably raised his odds of success on the test, Kazuo's mood lifted as he accepted the gifts Arutha gave to him. A little sheepishly, he bowed out an apology. "I am sorry, but I'm afraid I wouldn't know who to tell, or the circumstances to frame your assistance in. I cannot be much help to you as I am. I... am just a child." He grimaced a bit at the admission. How grating to even speak the truth.

It wasn't happening... it couldn't be happening...

Indeed, like in slow motion Mukade saw the girl's head cleft from her body. Several of his muscles spasmed uselessly in response, only causing him to fall back onto the sand butt first. His widened eyes never left the sight of Amaya's staring back at him. His half hidden mouth was open in a silent scream, still processing the reality of the situation. He'd been told many times that death was part of the life of a shinobi, he'd heard such lessons even more then most academy students, as Souran would do everything in his power to prepare Mukade but... They were just words, they meant absolutely nothing in comparison to actually witnessing it, and from someone so cold and heartless, so casual. He'd always imagined the first comrade he'd see die wouldn't be for years, and they'd go down as some kind of hero, dying for something, not from something.

A wheezing breath escaped his throat, that might have been a scream from anyone else, when her head was dropped into his lap now with the blue and slightly blood stained scroll in her mouth. He didn't know if it was true that the head remained alive for a short while after decapitation, he wasn't a medical nin... But as the disembodied head's almost motionless eyes stared up at him those were what he thought.

He dropped the head and scrambled away slightly, the blood would poor out into the sand which clung to the sweaty face and curly hair, and any motion that might or might not have been in her eyes would finally fall still.

He was panting and quickly glanced up to the casual killer again, his eyes filled with fear he could not hope to hide. If Souran were there he would have scolded him for being so cowardly, that he was not acting like a shinobi and doing his job professionally... this knowledge made him even worse.

Every fibre of his being compelled him to run, though a moments hesitation stopped in just in time to remember the blue scroll. His hand reached forward and quickly snatched the scroll up and came to his feet with a stagger. His eyes met Zabuza's for just a moment before he span around and began to run... not in any specific direction apart from directly away from the man. His fist held the scroll so tight that the paper crinkled and bent, he only panted an ran.

When finally Mukade from the oasis would only appear as a vaguely humanoid shape, he toppled foward onto his hands and knees, dropping the scroll and heaving forward with a lurch, managing to pull down his collar just in time for his stomach to empty a portion of its contents, which mostly consisted of water, followed by a dry sob.

Mukade would notice that Zabuza would not follow him as he ran away. In fact, no attention was payed to the mute boy from that moment. IF Mukade looked back, he would barely see the masked figure walk away in the distance with his blade firmly held on his shoulder. Mukade was alone, nothing but vast desert around him and his belongings on his person.

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For Kazuo the man just shrugged, he simply looked at Kazuo with a shy smile. "Even if you are just a small fry, many small voices will combine to a shout eventually. Even if it is just a rumor, it is still a positive buzz going around. Don't sell yourself short, you made it this far..."
The man shifted a bit to give Kazuo a reassuring pad on the shoulder, giving him a small package while doing so.

"You are never to small to make a change, but sometimes brute force or straight out saying it is not an option, your strengths lie in another place, I am sure your voice will be heard someday. Take this, I am sure you will enjoy it."

The man would then turn towards his fellows, to continue his conversation. In the little pack, Kazuo would find some meat rations, like beef jerky and some dried vegetables, enough to keep him going. The surprise was that there was also a lollipop included. The sugary treat was obviously added due to his young age. The odd thing was, that a scorpion was clearly visible inside the lollipop.

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I am rounding this event off, if you'd both be so kind as to write your final post, I will than conclude the event by telling you what would happen to the both of you the rest of the way to Suna.

Cheers,

Blue

Kazuo would peek into the packet, and immediately be drawn to the candy. Swiftly, before he'd even left the sight of the group behind him, he shoved it into his mouth. He caught a glance at the scorpion, but assumed it was a logo or a clan symbol imprinted within, and felt no nervousness for having eaten it.

And then he was on his way, a mere two hours from Sunagakure, with directional instructions to boot. Almost like a pendulum, his sour mood, held almost entirely for the duration of this test, flipped to optimism. After all, there weren't any rules for getting outside help. Behind the lollipop, Kazuo grinned.

((Sorry for this wait. I'm skipping this. I don't have the energy to write something for this any time soon. my apologies. Having a LOT of IRL issues, including family issues and health issues (both mine and other). If the admin want he can NPC Mukade for the ending of this. he'd probably just try to find Kazuo and go home.))