Cattails

Finally arriving at her destination, Ikomiki would let her eyes wander. It was the nearest country past the Land of Water and separated onto an entirely different continent - Or was this part of the same continent? She didn’t know, although it was situated on an island with a variety of other nations like the Land of Demons. The abundance of moisture in the air gave the nation a foggy, mist-like quality not too different from the Land of Water, although here everything had a much heavier, muskier, and warmer atmosphere as opposed to the cold moisture of the Land of Water. A chartered ship had been taken here, an out of the way land with little resources and generally removed from shinobi life. After so long of being forced to travel on ships she was beginning to get used to it. Or perhaps it was better to say that she was forcing herself to get used to it. Any weakness needed to be stomped out, whether it be as mundane as a fear of water or a serious flaw in her combat methodology.

She pressed a few ryo bills into the old man’s hand. Ikomiki wasn’t exactly aware of his name, even though he had surely told her several times. He had been some random man with a ship who happened to be traveling in the same direction on some fishing journey - A decrepit old man who looked ready to expire at any moment. It was especially convenient as he was sailing on his own, leaving the amount of witnesses that could be used to trace her to his land at a minimum. The ship, a simple and small sailing vessel, left little room for the two of them to have any privacy, and perhaps out of loneliness this old man had taken the opportunity to tell her story after story of his past. While she spent very little time actually listening, both due to her struggle to keep from getting motion sick from the movements of the boat and her own lack of interest, just having someone with her the entire time while she was afraid was comforting in its own strange way. Usually that person who comforted her was Akihiro, but now he wasn’t here.

“Oh, no. There’s no need for payment. I was already traveling in the same direction, and I wouldn’t want a little lass such as yourself to travel on her own. Especially one who hasn't any sea legs.” The kindly old man would attempt to refuse the payment that Ikomiki was offering, waving his hands at her with a soft smile. Truthfully he had never asked for one from her, or anything in return other than her company for the ride here. She would only stare up at him as he refused, her expression as blank as it had been throughout the day journey. Even as he refused it, the cash she had prepared for him would be placed down at his feet, left in front of him on his boat. Without any further words Ikomiki would turn and leave, essentially forcing him to take what she was attempting to give her. Hopping off his boat just as it made dock, she would speed into the port they had landed at, and not too long after she would be out into the swamps.

The soil was moist and dark the moment she got out of the confines of that little port town. This land was already living up to its name. This forest she had rushed off into had become nothing less than dank, and already she was feeling the buzzing of mosquitoes and other pesky insects. It would be moments until she would step into a full blown swamp, with all the frustrations that would come along. She gave a small sigh. It would take her weeks, or even months to find her target on her own. Numagakure, the Village Hidden in the Swamps, would be utterly frustrating to search for, and she would likely have malaria or worse by the time she actually did find it.

She had wanted to do this alone, but it seemed she didn’t have much of a choice. Ikomiki closed her eyes. Once she opened them the Rinnegan would be there. A summoning would be performed, and if he would accept it then she would have an easy time with this all. All she wanted was the directions. The rest she could do on her own. If he came, so would both of her paths- Masked men who appeared standing behind her, clad in cloaks that obscured their identities.

“There’s a village here.” She would immediately say, assuming Akihiro answered the call. “Please find it for me.”

[Summoning Akihiro: 12 CP]

Akihiro had barely had time to get his cloak and put it on, before Ikomiki's calling became too strong to ignore. The Animal Path had the ability to summon anyone anywhere in the world, but it demanded an answer. This wasn't the first time he was called and the second time very much resembled the first. It started with a tiny whisper in his ear, something he couldn't quite explain right. The first time Akihiro had been rather cautious, but today he rushed to get his stuff ready before he finally agreed to the summoning. Because it demanded an answer. While the whisper was initially polite, it would grow stronger and stronger in one's mind, becoming an extreme nuisance if the summoned ninja didn't promptly answer.

The expression on his face as he showed up wasn't one of joy, however. His gaze was sharp upon Ikomiki. Of course he was glad to see she was okay, but he'd been looking for her for days now. The last time the two of them had talked Akihiro said he'd be right back and not only did he return to find an empty Mockingbird base but a village empty of Ikomiki as well. Pesky mosquitoes aside he felt it was perhaps the most strange and annoying factor in this whole thing was that the first question Ikomiki asked him was for the location of a village. "Where have you been?" He started by asking. He could get to the details and whatnots of what she was doing here and what she wanted him to do or why she wanted him to do it, but first the two of them would need to have a conversation. "You can't go running off for days without at least a heads up..." he then remembered this was Ikomiki he was talking to. Perhaps he'd need to be a little more specific. "...well, you can, but you shouldn't. I was worried."

Seeing Akihiro as he finally came (took him long enough) was enough to put a small smile on the girl’s otherwise stoic face. It was nice to see him again. Although she wouldn’t say something so mushy like that. The smile would only last a moment though, a short flicker of emotion that was snuffed out mere seconds later. The buzzing of the mosquitoes brought her attention away, and she was struck by perhaps finding a mosquito summon in her Animal Path. Perhaps a swarm of them? The idea was similarly fleeting as her attention returned to the matter at hand.

“We’re in the Land of Swamps.” She would state it clearly, not exactly addressing his questions at first. “I decided to come here after stopping by Kirigakure. I wanted to…” Her words trailed off, dropping into nothingness as she began to notice the strange way that Akihiro was behaving. He was worried about her? Ikomiki’s eyes darted from side to side.

“I wanted to come here so I could… I wanted to try doing something on my own.” It was a difficult thing to express, and she wasn’t exactly sure how. “I knew there was a Hidden Shinobi Village somewhere in this country, so I wanted to try and take it over on my own. But. I realized if I had to look for it that it would take me months…” Wanting to do it ‘on her own’, but then having to ask for help from Akihiro actually sounded a lot dumber now that she was saying it aloud than it sounded in her head. Now she felt like a bit of a fool.

“If you wanted to check up on me you could have. You did put one of your teleportation tags on me. Didn’t you?” She avoided eye contact now. While her face was still emotionless, her voice had adopted a bit of a pouty tone.

Knowing their location was a start. Akihiro wasn't quite sure why Ikomiki would want him to come out of all places, but it was a start. Based on the amount of time she was gone, she must've have come here by foot. Which was surprising considering that one had to take a ship in order to reach the Land of Swamps and Akihiro didn't think Ikomiki would willingly want to board one after her experience aboard Hana's corvette. fortunately the trio had taken revenge upon the ship by quietly sinking it.

He stood quietly, listening to her explanation as as the words left her lips Akihiro's own gaze softened. Very much like he'd done with Satomi, Ikomiki was looking for a new way to test her abilities. And considering what he'd seen at Moonspire, this was surely a good test for her. No less than an entire village of average shinobi would prove to be any sort of challenge to the cat girl. Her final phrase was a bit of a shock to him as well: It was true he'd placed a mark upon Ikomiki but Akihiro hadn't considered using it for anything else other than helping her in combat. He had definitely learned his lesson after being suckerpunched by Kimiko after one of his careless teleports. With ikomiki being a girl (even if a cat as well), he had simply assumed she'd want him to follow the simple basic rules of teleportation etiquette.

Akihiro would pat her head. "Iko, look at me." And he'd wait for her to do so. "You and I," he'd point at her and them himself. "are friends. That means we're eternally responsible for each other. I look after you, and you look after me. Of course I'll worry if you run away like that...and you should worry too if I do the same without telling you." Truth to be told, he had sort of done this before. But in Akihiro's defense he'd been stuck either at Kirigakure's hospital or the Land of Earth's war.

"You're right, I could have checked on you but it's not that simple. Sometimes people want to be alone, and that's normal. Imagine if I'd shown up while you were bathing. That would be awkward, wouldn't it?" Akihiro could only hope Ikomiki could relate to this sort of scenario. And that if she couldn't, she could at least still get the message. "Plus, as you were gone from my sight, I was gone from yours. It's never good when something happens to our friends while we're gone." He'd scratch her head a little, a smile now forming on face. Akihiro had to admit he had a soft spot for the girl.

"Now, what's this about wanting to take over a shinobi village? Are you looking to test your abilities?"

She hadn’t seen him coming due to having her eyes pointed down, and so the head pat would catch her by surprise. As he told her to look up at him she would, turning her Rinnegan back to make eye contact with Akihiro as he requested. Her eyes would inevitably follow his finger as he pointed to her and then to himself, and she would listen to him speak. Talking about friendship, being responsible for each other, and looking after each other. It reminded her of the moment they met, back at the Chunin Exams after she had killed Shinsui. The strong subcurrents of nostalgia, and the emotionally charged way that Akihiro was talking to her made it difficult to keep that stoicness she was used to. The expression on her face cracked for a moment. As he scratched her head a little bit she would lean into his touches, tilting her head a bit to angle his fingers behind her ear. Her behavior was utterly similar to a real cat in this regard, almost uncannily so.

The example of bathing fell flat. Ikomiki didn’t exactly bathe in the same sense that humans did. She had other ways of keeping clean, but even then she didn’t exactly share the same shame in being naked that humanity did. After all, animals didn’t wear clothing, did they? But the point came across well either way. There were times she wanted to be alone.

“If you ran away I would summon you back. Or find you. Somehow.” It was a childish sentiment. If Akihiro wanted to ditch her, he obviously could very easily through a number of ways. She just didn’t want to believe it was possible for him to disappear like that from her life. Other than perhaps Kureji, Akihiro was really her only friend. It wasn’t like she could afford to lose him, or let him go.

“I wanted to collect some bodies to test my new abilities. I need shinobi, instead of just normal civilian ones that have no chakra.” She was referring to the Six Paths of Pain, which she had just recently performed with Damien’s body. Of course, those two corpses were standing behind her, clear as day, and Akihiro had been present for the display. “Also… Since you’re not the leader of Konoha, I thought that maybe if I took over a village for you that you’d be able to be the leader of that one instead, so you wouldn’t have to worry about not being the Hokage.”

She didn’t really understand the politics behind it, or why Akihiro wasn’t Hokage- The fact that she mentioned it all was bizarre considering they had never spoken of it before. But Ikomiki had formed her own conclusions on the matter. Akihiro was the strongest in the village, maybe the whole world. He was obviously as strong as Hana Kaguya, who was a fancy leader of a village. Why wasn’t Akihiro then? She couldn’t think of any reasons other than Konoha already having one, so this was her strange attempt at correcting that wrong. If Akihiro couldn’t be the leader of Konoha, she would just find him another village.

Akihiro would stop scratching her for a moment and touch his own chin, thinking for a moment. He eyed the two bodies Ikomiki already had with her. While they didn't look like much, he knew the Six Paths of Pain could be incredibly useful tools, especially in the hands of someone with enough of a chakra pool to strengthen them. Ikomiki had the right idea.

But he'd been caught completely of guard by the leadership comment. The Sparrow blinked twice. "What makes you think I'd want to be leader of a villa-Well." He interrupted himself yet again. Akihiro didn't have the slightest bit of interest in being Hokage or leader of any village but he knew a day would come when he likely would have no other option. He just hoped that day was still far, far in the future. He very much enjoyed his freedom, and as Hokage it'd likely be much harder to find time for adventures such as the one he found himself in right now. "If I had to choose, I'd choose taking over Konoha. I very much like your offer, but I don't think either of us would be happy here. Too many insects, don't you think?"

Akihiro would close his eyes for a moment and hold a hand-seal with one hand. With that, the location of the village became absolutely clear: the sheer amount of chakra signatures in that specific location was far greater than any other place in the Land of Swamps. "Found it." he'd say as he opened his eyes.

"I suppose I can see why you're doing this. And I'll help you, but." Akihiro would hold a finger in front of Ikomiki's eyes. He wouldn't move it, so hopefully she wouldn't try to bite it. "We'll take this opportunity to measure your strength, alright? Not your raw strength, we've seen plenty of that. But the other aspects of a shinobi that make them strong.

First, I'll tell you where the village is but I won't help you with anything else." This as a given. It wasn't like Akihiro didn't want to help Ikomiki, he in fact really did. But after achieving power Ikomiki seemed to be striving for a sort of independence and he couldn't bring himself to deny her that. It made him feel a little sad, to see how the little scared kitten he'd found at a forest had grown enough to venture out in the world without him. Perhaps this was why he'd been angry in the first place.

"Second, no senseless killing. Remember, you're here with an objective: Getting shinobi corpses. Focus on that, so you won't lose sight of your goal." Truth to be told Ikomiki had been far too trigger happy with the murder of civilians. Akihiro hadn't said anything because he realized what she did was above all necessary, but the way she so easily claimed hundreds if not thousands of lives was a little disturbing. He did give her the benefit of the doubt, after all Ikomiki didn't think the same way regular humans did. He knew her, and he could tell she was doing it out of instinct than anything else. But others didn't, and others might judge her differently. That was trouble she should learn to avoid.

"And third, no witnesses. I'm sure you know that stealth is just as important as raw power for a hunt. We've seen what you can do when going loud...so today instead let's see what you can do quietly.

Does it sound good?"

She couldn’t really conceive why someone like Akihiro wouldn’t want to be a leader. Once you got strong enough you then went to take control of some place so other people could recognize your strength, right? Then they would bow down to you, love you, worship you as a god… Maybe Ikomiki’s ideas of what leadership entailed were a little flawed. She couldn’t conceive of having power over a village limiting your freedom- After all, power was the greatest freedom of all. That was why she was searching for power, and doing all of this in the first place. So she could be free from her own fears and others who might want to harm or kill her.

“The bugs are annoying.” She would admit. This was the closest village to Kirigakure though other than the Land of Noodles, and that… Well, she had chosen the Land of Swamps instead for obvious reasons. “Konoha is a much nicer place to live, but I figured if you weren’t already the Hokage there must be a good reason for it.” She didn’t really understand so all she had to go on were the assumptions she could make about the current situation, which seemed obviously faulty. Or perhaps they weren’t? Ikomiki could only guess.

Already, just a few moments later, Akihiro had found the village. Her eyes widened. She hadn’t expected it to be so fast. Quickly she would nod her head in response to his requests for how this situation was handled. He wouldn’t help her with anything else, like she had requested, which was good, but his requirements here were a bit strange otherwise. She wouldn’t question it though, even if it ran contrary to her instincts. Clearly he knew something she didn’t. No senseless killing, for some reason. She could do that. Only kill the shinobi. No witnesses, which made sense… It meant that she would have to put her stealth capabilities to use.

“It sounds good. I can do it. I should be able to use the techniques you taught me to sneak in. Silent Killing, from Kirigakure no Sato, and the Hiding With Camouflage Technique, from Iwagakure no Sato. They combine well together… I should be able to kill all the shinobi in there quietly with nobody noticing, but what will we do with the village afterwards then? Just leave it alone?”

"Aye, we should definitely leave the village alone once the deed is done. In order to occupy a village we'd either need to be there ourselves to make sure there's no opposition, or find someone else who could do it for us. As you see, other than me and you there's no one else here. And I'd rather not spend any more time here than we have to, with all these mosquitoes buzzing around." Akihiro would gesture with his right hand, hopelessly shoving away the little annoying creatures which dared to try to make a meal out of him.

Then, he'd point towards a specific direction and with a head nod he'd gesture Ikomiki to follow it. "Through there, 20 miles out. Remember our deal, okay? I'll be close by just in case. Summon me once you're done." And with those words he'd vanish in a stylish poof of smoke, through the use of the Body Flicker technique. He could only hope Ikomiki would be able to accomplish the feat she set herself to, but he also believed in her and her abilities.

[Exit]

She nodded her head. Apparently she wouldn’t be able to give this village to Akihiro like she wanted, which only meant she would have to find another gift for him. Something really, really worth it. Instead this turned into another opportunity to test her own power and skills, this time as quietly as possible. No killing innocent civilians, no senseless slaughter, stay out of sight and don’t let there be any witnesses- She could do this. If that was what Akihiro required of her, she could do it.

“Twenty miles out…” She would whisper it to herself as Akihiro flickered out, leaving in a poof of smoke. Ikomiki would begin to head out not too long after. There was tons of ground for her to cover, and she didn’t want to stand in the mosquito infested swamps any longer than she had to.

[Exit]