Ink and Tea Leaves

Hanta pulled his wide brim hat down a bit over his head, causing the long white draping fabric hung from it to shift and obscuring him a touch better. Most days, his fat served a wonderful secondary role as an umbrella... today it did little but block some of the various city smells thanks to the hung cloth it supported. Nothing Hanta smelled was too terrible mind, but he was used to a much more dreary environment and scents tended to travel less in the rain. Here in a floating city, an wonder in itself to be sure, the smells of everything seemed to nearly assault the young mist nin. Maybe that was why he found himself in the tea district.

The many scents of a busy city gave way to more reasonable and pleasant fragrances in these streets. His eyes touched on shop sign after shop sign from the dark recess of shadows his attire provided him. He looked odd but hardly as odd as some. A city with such a wealth if supply drew in all kinds and Hanta was thankful for the sense of disregard most people seemed to have toward him. He was happy to be ignored, a rare feeling for him most days.

He was still trying to decide what to do when a small shop caught his attention. They didn't sell tea. Sure they sold herbs that might be made into tea, but that seemed secondary judging by the more exotic roots hanging from the shelves. What really drew Hanta's eye though was a small pot with a tag next to it. Sealing ink. Hanta ran his hands over a small jar inside his sleeve to feel the annoyingly empty jar he currently owned. Then his fingertips touched the ragged and frayed edge of his brush. Neither were in particularly good condition.

He nodded to himself once and then stepped inside the shop. Upon entering his eyes scanned around marking other possible exits. A back room that likely lead to a back exit. He listened as well for the sound of others moving around. Standard practice when finding yourself in a new location. Moving through the shelves he saw a wide range of interesting substances... he could use a great many of them but in the end he would rather be a bit more frugal with his ever dwindling funds.

"Excuse me. I'd like to make a purchase." Hanta said as he approached the clerk's counter. He motioned to a jar of ink, some scroll paper, and a pair of nice brushes.

Everything he would need to continue his study of Fuuinjutsu. He had a tendency to make his sealing skills a bit more complicated than needed and that had a nasty side effect of making him go through ink and paper far faster than he was comfortable with. When the items were lined up before him he stretched out a hand from the darkness of his cloaked hat, a small flash of silver showing a ring marked with the wave lines of the Hidden Mist village visible on the ring's surface.

"Thank you very much." Hanta said politely as he placed down a few ryo for it all.

Purchase:

“You’re joking. You’re in the middle a festival that includes most of the world. You can literally see and do practically anything you can think of, and you want to look at more SEALING SUPPLIES!”

The peace of the quiet street was abruptly shattered by a loud voice in utter disbelief. Many of the townsfolk peered outside, annoyed or worried about the disturbance, only two see a pair of practically dressed figures arguing in the middle of the street. The male sighed, dragging his hand over his face. “I’m not going to be here all that long Kubota, I promise. I just want to look around a little bit that’s all: if I find something useful it could really assist me with the tasks Sero-sama puts me up to.” The man spoke in a clear, concise voice, even as he subtly flicked his hood up, concealing his face from the onlookers.

The woman huffed loudly, throwing up one of her arms in disgust. “Fine, whatever, do what you want. After you drag your nose out of some musty sealing shop however I’m taking you to have some fun. You know, the kind people our age are supposed to have when not working. Frickin workaholic.” Still muttering under her breath, Kubota stalked off down the street.

Takano would slowly push open the door to the shop Hanta was in, his amber eyes unknowingly replicating much the same threat assessment his fellow Kiri nin had done minutes previously. In the best of times, the Uzumaki was through when it came to his personal safety, but the multicultural nature of the festival had kicked his natural instincts into overdrive. Aside from his standard attire of a thick leather jacket and dark pants, Takano was also sporting the forehead protector of the Hidden Mist around his neck, and well-crafted steel arm guards buckled onto his forearms. What was most noticeable about his appearance, however, was the two medium-sized sealing scrolls strapped to his back on either side of a large backpack, already prepared with sealing formulas of decent complexity.

Warily eyeing the other patron of the shop, Takano would not quite palm the kunai hidden up his sleeve, keeping one careful eye on the man while the other browsed the shelf, noting the different kinds of sealing ink on display. While his own personal supply of sealing ink was far from running out, it always paid to check in with the local supply shop and see what they had available. The Mist Ninja was eagerly awaiting the day when he finally cracked the secrets of creating chakra ink, freeing him from the annoying process of actually drawing out the arrays he wished to create. With a little more research and development of his chakra coils, who knew what was possible?