It was a warm summer day in Gobigakure. A light breeze blew in from the ocean, bringing with it relief from the midday heat. The sun stood high on the sky, baking down on the poor, helpless souls that wandered the streets and alleys of the village. The sea-side town was mostly quiet at this time of the day as it only really came to life when the sun had set. The sailors by the harbor was loading their ships, getting them ready for their next travel. The cooks and chefs of the Savory Lane were lighting up their grills, getting ready for business. The youngsters of the Ninja Academy were studying and training, honing their skills to become the best of their trade. This was a normal day in Gobi and yet, for a small group of the members of the village, everything was about to change.
For weeks, months even, a group of young men and women who were all shinobi of Gobigakure had been planning their so-called escape. No-one was keeping them from leaving, but it felt like an escape to them. Gobi was like a prison, with it's tall stone walls and the valleys that dropped so deep that it would be certain death to fall in.

Sawaru sat in complete silence on the futon that made up the majority of her furniture in her quite small, one-room apartment on the bad side of the village. The only sound to be heard was the light sound of her deep breaths as she allowed the calming effect of her flowers to optimize her meditation. She was searching her core, following the trails of chakra that danced around in her veins and enjoying the feeling of energy and life within herself. It was moments like this, when she could really feel the potential she had of being something great, that she knew she made the right choice when she left the people that had made her travels feel like home.
She opened her eyes briefly, to take a glance at the clock hanging on the wall. When she found both arms to be pointing upwards, she drew in a deep sigh and flexed the utterly relaxed muscles in her arms before she pushed herself to a stand. She was late.

Kai was already waiting when Sawaru decided to make her appearance. He had been casually seated at a town bench, reading a book that was hardly exciting, but better than staring off into space. When he saw the pink-haired puritan strolling casually towards him, waving one of her arms in greeting, he rose to return the gesture. Sawaru was grinning like a fool by the time he fell into step next to her.

“Yo,” she greeted warmly with a glint in her golden eyes, “Ready for a spar you'll never forget?”

Kai cast a sideway glance her way, “Why? Did you learn something actually useful?”

Sawaru chuckled and casually took in their surroundings. It seemed they were alone, having walked away from the actual streets of the village and headed towards the less crowded outskirts of the town, which were commonly used for young ninja to practice their trade.

“So...” she began, but trailed off a bit. She never was one for planning. That was why she had Kai and Masakazu; they were more of the planning type.

Kai nodded, accepting the distance they had gone from the village itself, “We're leaving tomorrow. Late morning would be best, since this village is only alive when the sun sleeps.”

Sawaru nodded in agreement; everyone knew that Gobigakure was filled with night owls who shied away from the light of the sun, “All right,” she offered her verbal agreement, as well. “I tried getting Guard Duty, but they clearly don't find me suited to protect the gates, without any ninjutsu,” she added, “One of the other guys'll have to do it. I'm sure Aro could get Guard Duty without even asking for it.” Ichiro probably could have gotten it, too, were it not for his young age, but Sawaru could not be bothered to repeat this thought to her companion.

What Sawaru was saying was true. There was very little chance of neither Sawaru, Kai or Masakazu getting Guard Duty as none of them had any real ninjutsu they could use to keep the village safe and the narrow-minded leaders of the town could not see the potential any of them had in other fields. Even Tatsuya, who at leas had some proper ninjutsu, despite his focus being on his swords; both in forging and in fighting, could not get the seat as Guard without major preparation.

Kai sighed his agreement to his friend and took a few seconds to give it some thought. Would it even be smart for them to leave while one of them were on duty? It was certainly the easiest, but it was also risky. What if the village really was attacked and it was at that moment, when no-one was standing guard? They could likely be the cause of a war if that were to happen.
Maybe Masakazu could make some parchment to make it appear they had a mission so that they could leave the village without raising suspicion. They would simply need to show the mission request to the Guard and they'd be allowed passage. Piece of cake.

“I have an idea,” Kai told his sister in arms with a proud smile on his lips, “Tell the others to meet at your place. We can talk freely there. I'll talk to Masa,” he told the pinkette, who grinned from ear to ear at the request.

Ichiro was getting dressed inside his two bedroom apartment. It was left to him by his father, Eiji, after their bet. Ichiro put on his white pants and his one of his green and black ninja robes. Ichiro grabbed some of his things like one of his scrolls and his hand wraps just in case the bandages around his right hand would unravel. It would reveal all the cuts and wounds on his right hand, and many people said that it was disturbing. Ichiro wiped some sweat that was forming on his forehead. His apartment was hot, so hot that someone or anyone was deemed to begin sweating when they entered. Ichiro looked at the old picture of his mother. A smile formed on the boys face while tears began to pile up in his eyes. He always smiled when seeing his mother’s picture it made him happier and determined to live become the Shinobi he dreamed of.
When leaving his apartment Ichiro went to what he thought was the best restaurant to get sushi from. He sat at a table by himself and looked around at the other people who were there. Stopped when he saw a couple who weren't eating dinner and then found himself listening in on their conversation. The argument was about how the guy was looking at a waitress. Ichiro turned his attention back to outside, looking at the birds who flew past the restaurant. They were the village’s only constant visitors. Ichiro began to fall into a daydream before being approached by a waiter.

“Excuse me, Sir.” the waiter said not getting an answer from Ichiro. After a couple more minutes of saying excuse me the waiter began to grow impatient. “Sir!” the waiter said sternly which cause Ichiro to snap back into reality.

“Oh yes sorry,” he picked up a menu and began skimming across the menu with his finger before stopping at a sushi special they had. “Can I have Bulgogi Bento and Sashimi Lunch, from the sushi bar of course.” He said giving the man a smile and sat the menu down and began to think about what he would do for the rest of the day.
Was he supposed to be meeting with someone or some people? He remembered requesting to get guard duty for their escape, but he was denied because of his age. Just thinking about it made him annoyed. He was only 14 but he IS still a Chuunin, it’s not like he’s a twenty year old Genin. Ichiro’s attitude quickly changed when his food arrived. His eyes darted straight to the sushi, which is his favorite food, he picked up his chopsticks and bit into the nice hot roll making delightful noises. The noises were simple “mmm(s).” Ichiro finished his sushi quickly and then proceeded to the rest of his meal.

The loud clash of metal bearing down on metal could be heard throughout the innards of the forge that lay just a small ways away from the store that showed all of the wares that had been mad by the young man currently working a way at a bar of hot iron. Tatsuya was working in an attempt to finish out an order put out by one of his best customers, and while he was done with most of it, he already knew that he wouldn't be able to finish the last few blades in time.

I hate leaving a job unfinished like this, but it's not like I'm going to stay behind just to finish it out. I don't think I'll be able to spend much longer in this town without going a bit stir crazy. Though I'm not to stoke about having to tell my mom about this. . . but who knows how she'll react if I just leave without saying a thing. Tatsuya halted in his work, taking the iron bar and tossing it into a vat, cooling it off in a burt of steam. He considered pulling it back out and continuing the job, but considering how he wasn't going to be able to finish it anyway, he decided it was a wasted effort to continue the order.

"Well, I'm sure that Sato can manage with just fifteen swords instead of the full twenty, though I should be sure to leave 1/4th of what he gave me with it, so he doesn't feel cheated out of his cash." Tatsuya wiped his forehead, a great amount of sweat resting familiarly on his brow as he felt the heat of the forge start to get to him. Stretching out a bit, he turned around and walked out of the forge, taking off the gloves and goggles he'd been wearing to protect his hands and eyes from stray sparks, curling and uncurling the digits on his hands to work out the stiffness from holding the hammer for so long, as well as get the blood circulating through it again. "Wonder when those guys are going to tell me how exactly we're getting out of here, though. I know Kai probably has a plan, but knowing what that plan is would be a lot more reassuring."

Tatsuya muttered to himself as he continued on his way to his house, laying the goggles and gloves on the hutch set up near the doorway as he collected his bokken from it's place in the umbrella stand. Before he left, however, he made sure to call out in a loud fashion, wanting to alert his mother to his arrival and forthcoming departure.

"Hey Mom! I'm back, but I'm going out to practice for a bit. You need anything from town or whatever?"

_{". . . . . I'm fine."} Was the quite reply from the woman from her room upstairs, barely audible from where he was. Tasuya sighed, once again having second thoughts about leaving his mother alone like this. As he closed the door and heads off, he looks around the village, considering how this might be some of his final moments in the place he'd basically grown up in. One his way to one of the training grounds, he took the longer scenic route, waving to those he passed by, knowing every person he bumped into by name almost, or at least knowing them through someone else. It's going to be strange, going out to meet actually new people for a change. I wonder if everyone we meet we'll be as nice and welcoming as the people here seem to be. Hmmmmm . . . wonder where we'll go first . . . maybe Konoha, but then again, Mom's from Kiri and that were the Seven Ninja swordsman are supposed to be. If I could get a chance to look at even one of those blades, that would be so cool.

Tatsuya gained a little more pep in his step as this thought floated through his head, and when the training yard came in sight, with training dummies waiting to get the stuffing beat out of them. Holding his wooden sword in hand, he quickly took the stance, breathing in deep before letting out a light breath. For a moment, there was no movement at all as he stayed completely stock still. Then, as if somebody had suddenly flipped a switched, the young red-head bolted across the feel, lashing out with his traning weapon as he acted as if he was drawing it from it's sheath and striking at the dummy as if he'd been aiming a slash at it's under arm. he'd then follow this up by jumping back a bit in the mock evasion of an attack, before bolting back in, locking blades with a foe only he could see. He'd continue this as a warm up and then, if nobody came around, he'd settle into his routine, going off to practice a few katas that the old man had taught him, working on trying to increase his draw speed. He'd heard the old man talk about how some samurai were able to strike down a foe before they had even known they were dead with this technique, and he was eager to learn that same skill. He didn't care of he wasn't a samurai, he'd learn to be the best swordsman smith that ever lived, a legend on the same level as Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju. This was his dream, and he'd give it his all and then some in order to achieve it.

Masakazu was surrounded by food. It was not exciting food, by any means. It was all grown domestically, in terraced farms and pastures: rice, radishes, goat cheese, potatoes. These had the advantages of being both cheap and less noticeable purchases than imports, and with their nutritional prowess, Masa was grateful for the foresight of traders in acquiring potatoes from distant lands, in generations past.

These foods were set carefully on large swaths of paper, which themselves occupied a creaky, wooden floor. The teahouse was not a place which could afford more comfortable straw mats to top the wood.

"Seems like a lot of food for one trip." It was a woman's voice, and Masakazu resisted some not-yet-vanquished part of him that wanted to start in surprise. He'd forgotten she was there, despite this being her establishment.

He very carefully applied a sheaf of incredibly fine, mildly translucent, gray metal to a pewter scale. Combined with others of various thicknesses, this caused the scale's arm to dip a bit, but ultimately return to the topmost position. It took another leaf of lead for the scales to balance. Masa noted the weight on a nearby scroll, using the same arcane script written on its counterparts, and then removed a clay bottle from the scale, placing it within the ring of text.

Swiping the lead leaf off the scale and organizing the thicknesses into a box, then removing small weights from the same side of the scale, it struck Masakazu that he did not really need to be this precise. This had occurred to him before, but the extra work helped him manage the anxiety of what was planned for tomorrow.

Sparing a look to double-check that all was in order, he placed a hand on that nearest scroll and bled some chakra into it. His inkwork on the paper glowed, and the various foodstuffs disappeared. In their place, new patterns had sprung from his chakra-fed algorithms.

"The water was one of the harder parts, despite being inorganic," he said. He'd remembered (on seeing her) that the proprietor had spoken to him, and he deemed this conversation better than lying in response to what she had said.

"Cause it can spill on the ink," she suggested.

"No." Masa didn't hide his disappointment. After a moment of awkward silence, he clarified "Rather than the complexity of organics, liquids are always moving very quickly in macro, on top of micro movement. Makes it exponentially more difficult to seal them. Air is worse. Doing it algorithmically takes some of the burden off the sealer, reducing chakra consumption, but moving things are hard to quantify."

Looking to the proprietor, Masa observed her nodding, but even with minimal skill in reading people, it was clear she didn't follow. He attempted to back away from the subject.

"It doesn't matter much. The only consequence of corruption in sealing water is having less of it, due to... separation...." He paused a moment, lost in thought, then retrieved a pad of paper and a stick of charcoal from a napsack, scribling shorthand. 'wtr to brthble air mech? Poss via intent crrpt' He considered putting the phrase through a cipher on the fly, strictly for entertainment.

"Look, I really appreciate you helping with my problem."

Masa suddenly remembered the woman's presence, and turned to her. "Protection racket?" he queried.

"...Yeah." She had an expression he couldn't quite decipher. Embarrassed? Annoyed? It was difficult, and it faded when she continued. "But are these papers really gonna keep people out of my kitchen? My house?"

"Yes." It took a few beats of silence for Masa to realize she wanted more. "Anyone who steps through the doorway without registering themselves with a copy of that key I gave you will get burned." He thought about it. "Should probably put a sign up."

"And 'registering' is just....".

"Placing the hand of someone already registered and the hand of the person to be registered on the key. It will draw a little chakra and add it to the registry. That can only hold about a eight identities."

Satisfied with even adding the extra reminder, Masa turned away and began repeating his sealing technique on five more scrolls.

While she watched, the woman asked "What if I need to have more than eight people, or take people off the list?"

"If you try to put more data in than the registry can hold, it's designed to reset to only your identity. Won't even keep mine."

When he finished sealing and subsequently rolling, Masakazu looked over the scrolls on the floor. They were not dissimilar to six large eel, though white-yellow.

"Ah", he rememered: "Each door has eight flames."

"Oh, it won't just... keep doing it?" Disappointment? Relief?

"No. That's absurd."

The silence that followed was long enough to pack the remainders of Masakazu's belongings, but before he left, he explained "Even if it was designed to siphon chakra from the target, this wouldn't be the necessary nature of someone who was talented and trained to use fire. Your best resource is the library, if you need further assistance."

She did not ask him to come again, Masa noted. He wondered if this was a less common courtesy in the lower parts of Gobi. This teahouse was a sufficient distance from the more ideal Savory Lane that Gobi genin had not been entirely eager to retrieve the extortionists Masa had subdued two weeks ago.

Masakazu watched his surroundings marginally improve in quality as he made his way to the library, and considered what this transition would look like in other hidden villages. When younger, he had no interest in travel, aside from Whirlpool, and that had been destroyed painstakingly. He wondered if it had been his trip to a nearby town that had seeded his wanderlust, or if it was older. Whatever the reason, it had caused him to agree to what he was informed was a rather risky venture.

The Gobi Library had not started as such; nor indeed as a single place. As Masa understood it, an old woman had left a house-full of books and some secreted money to the ninja of Gobi, for that promising young Hyuuga to improve the village. Even with the minimal staff and attention possible, the place had eventually become important enough to consume neighboring homes, and even have legitimate security, once Gobi gained some documents and manuscripts worth guarding.

The core building was where Masakazu saw one of his new associates. Masa had specified the library was the ideal place to contact him, as his presence there would not be noteworthy. Unfortunately, as was frequently the case, he did not remember the man's name. In fact, he'd only learned Tatsuya's name, as he understood there was a shared interest in fuuinjutsu.

In his late twenties, this was the oldest of their co-conspirators he'd met, and Masa had mentally termed him 'the genjutsu one', but decided against speaking this placeholder name.

"I know a more remote table for quiet studies," he offered, when finally within speaking distance of Kai. "Unless we need to go find some colleagues."

Kai had left Sawaru behind to deal with gathering the majority of their group. Only the one nicknamed Masa would he seek out himself, and for good reason. The sealing ninja was key to their successful escape. Of course, so were many others, not least the poor bugger that was assigned to guard the tunnel.
He didn’t have a full plan, only fragments, pieces of what could become one. He tried to put them together, like pieces of a jigsaw-puzzle. He turned them, twisted them, dropped or exchanged them if they didn’t fit. He walked while he was almost entirely lost in thought. His legs moved by themselves, his eyes seemed to register people, holes, streets and other hazards which allowed Kai to move around them, but no data entered his mind, for it was occupied. He wasn’t the brightest guy in the village, he wasn’t ever sure that he was the smartest one in their group, but somehow he’d been assigned the role of “the man with the plan” almost since day one. He didn’t really know how this had happened, but he kind of liked it. That was his second reason for going after Masa. They were of the same kind of mind, they harbored knowledge in their minds that were unseen in many whole families. Any holes in his plan should be fillable by Masa.

Kai’s feet marched steadily toward the library, or the library complex to be more precise. The thing had so far outgrown its original state that it was almost hard to see it as one thing anymore. It had spread out as a drunk man on a bench too small for his head, now the trash can had to serve as a pillow. He snapped back to reality as his hand touched the main door, the cold metal sent the first tangible incoming data to his mind in almost an hour and with only a slight hesitation and confusion on how he’d gotten there he pulled the door open.
The inside of the library smelled, not surprisingly, like books. Old paper, dry air, ink and cardboard… Something more, that special type of glue that kept the pages from falling out. Of course, there were many scrolls in the library as well, books were considered a new ‘fad’ that might die away any day despite the fact that they’d been around for a good while and many people found them easier to use in everyday life that the bulky scrolls that had to be unrolled all the way to where you wanted to read. With a book you only needed to remember the page number and open the right page.
Kai hung around near the entrance for a while. The library had very limited room, and if you weren’t careful you could be pushed all the way into the darkest and most primitive parts of it by some would-be reader and you couldn’t pass each other because the lanes were too narrow. Even though that shouldn’t be a problem for a ninja such as Kai, he (and every other ninja in the world) was explicitly forbidden to “do any of that jumping around and knocking things about” inside the library. Something inside him had always wanted to see what would happen if he did, but his gut told him that it would probably be a bad idea.

The red-headed ninja known as Masa suddenly appeared from the crowd and suggested a more private meeting location in the back without even stopping. Like fish in a school Kai stepped into place slightly behind and to the left of Masa and moved as his shadow as they made their way to the more secluded tables. They were almost alone, save for one or two book-worms that seemed to be as engrossed in their chosen literature as Kai had been in his plan earlier, a bomb could go off in there and they’d complain that the shockwave had turned the page.
Kai sat down with his back toward the way they’d come and picked up a book that was left there by an earlier visitor, he opened it and held it in front of him while he rested the majority of the weight on the table and motioned his co-conspirator to do the same.

“This is a genjutsu” Kai said in a very matter-of-factly voice, as if it needed to be pointed out. Technically it was, but it was not perfected, it wasn’t even practiced. It shared almost nothing with the techniques that he would trust his life with in a fight. It was lite comparing a raw potato to one that had been baked, cut open and filled with butter, cream, meat and vegetables. It was still a potato…
Anyone with even the simplest grasp of genjutsu would be able to spot at least a dozen holes in the technique, the dancing letters in the book, the sound of footsteps even though no one was around, the sun that was racing impossible fast across the window. All marks of an incomplete technique that was made up on the go, had they been enemies Masa would’ve been able to break free and overpower Kai while the artist was still trapped in his own technique.
“I feel that I must… We are too close to be stopped now. We can speak freely here, my technique intercepts the signals from your brain before they can reach your body. Anything you say will be for my ears only, anyone watching us will only see us reading our books.”

Kai sat silent for a short while to allow Masa to process this, he was unsure if the sealing ninja had even been under an illusion before, the experience could be… Strange.
“We’re leaving tomorrow. There are two guards, one in the basement of the admin building, one by the exit. If either of them notice us they will sound the alarm and the old man (Hyuuga Hiroshi) will send everyone he can spare to get us back.” The white-eyed leader of the village was almost uncharacteristically strict about people leaving the village, compared to his laid back “Train what you think is best”-teaching at the school.
“We want at least a few hours head-start, that way we can be far way once they realize we’re gone, and might abandon their search before they get too far away from the village.
Of course, we don’t want to hurt the guards, that wouldn’t be good for us, them or the village…”

“What do you think? I can trap the guard in the basement with an illusion and hold his attention for a while as the rest of you sneak past… But I don’t know how we’ll deal with the one outside.”

After Kai had left Sawaru to her own devices, she went ahead to do his bidding of collecting the rest of their little group of soon to be runaways. After setting off to her quest, however, she realized that she had no clue where to find them. Kai had chosen the easy task of locating Msakazu, who had declared early on in their planning that he was likely to be found at the library if they ever were in need of his assistance. The others had not, to Sawaru's knowledge, given any such information.
Luckily, Sawaru knew that Tatsuya was more than likely working. He almost always were.
As she set out towards the forge in search of her new friend, she went through her mental check list of stuff she would need to bring with her. She would need some clothes, obviously, and as many spare weapons as she would carry. She wondered if she would need to bring her futon; it was easy to roll the thing up and carry, after all. Maybe she would just buy some scrolls and have Masakazu help her seal her stuff in there, if that was even possible.
She would definitely need to bring some of her herbs with her, since she had no clue how to get the ones she had brought with her from when she left her family. She would need to bring some of her flowers, too.

When she reached her destination, the forgery, she was rather surprised as well as disappointed to find that Tatsuya was not there. She asked around a bit, eventually finding that he had left just a little while ago. Sawaru thanked them for their assistance and put her mind to work. She had no clue where Tatsuya even lived, so she could not very well go to his house to check. Her only option was to search the village for him.
She wandered around for a bit, asking people at random if they knew him and where he might have gone. No one really had an answer for her, but a few people told her that if he was not at the forge, he was likely training. Even a small village like Gobigakure had several training areas for ninja to use for their training and sparring matches and Sawaru knew of at least five different places that he could have gone.

The third place she reached was the charm. It really was the most obvious place for the young swordsman to go, with his sword-fighting fascination and the need for actual targets to hit. As she watched him dash and slash at the helpless dummies with his training sword, she made a mental note of the fact that she had never seen him look quite as content as he did right in this moment.

Putting on her best and widest smile, Sawaru raised both arms into the air, flailing them around her head to gain the red-head's attention as well as to function as a very enthusiastic greeting, “Hey! Tatsuya-san!” she called out.

From the right, then the left . . . follow it up with a feint . . . then go in for the kill . . . NOW!

Tatsuya, after blocking the blade of an imaginary foe, went in for a finishing blow against the straw dummy in front of him, striking a line from it's side all the way to its shoulder in one fell swoop. He'd then take a short hop away, slicing his sword at either side of himself as if he were flicking the blood of it before placing it back in it's imaginary sheath. Taking a stance again, his grip would tighten as he prepared to throw himself at the target.

Breathe in. . . hold it . . . ready yourself and then, when you see an opening . . .STR-



Huh?

"Huh, Sawa-aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!!"

The pinkette's greeting certainly grabbed Tatsuya's attention, unfortunately, it was while he was in mid-stride, and as a result of the distraction, Tatsuya tripped over his own foot and took something akin to a flying roll towards the dummy smacking against it with a rather solid sound. Looking up, Tatsuya discovered, after the world had stopped spinning, that he ended up in a rather uncomfortable position of having himself leaning against the wooden figure upside down, with his legs hanging on either side of him.

"Ow-wowwowwowowwwowwo!" Tatsuya moaned as he set to righting himself, getting up a bit slowly as he checked himself over for anything worse than a developing bruise or a scrape. When he found nothing of the sort, he'd look up at his visitor, giving a somewhat sheepish grin as he walked over, picking up his training sword as he did so. "Hey Sawaru-san, sorry you had to see me fumble like that, though I'm sure it must've looked rather humorous from your end."

He spoke with a chuckle as he stretched himself out, setting his bokken on his shoulder as he continued to speak, curious as to why Gomi's resident pinkette had come to see him, though he had a faint inkling why.

"So, has Kai finally set a date for this 'Grand Escape' of ours or what? I'm getting antsy just waiting around with nothing to do put fantasize and daydream about what we're going to see out there. It's just so exciting!" As the tall red-head spoke, his face would break out into a simile as he began to hop in lace a little bit, hardly able to contain himself as he thought excitedly about what they were going to do.

@The Mad Hatter

The idea of text moving of its own accord was tempting enough to almost make Masakazu suspend disbelief in favor of the genjutsu. But he had never been a fan of genjutsu; the art of making one's senses lie. He decided the obviousness of the false perception made it tolerable.

Masa considered the problem posed to him, not responding to what his senior conspirator was saying for a while.

"The girl knows poisons, doesn't she?" Masakazu asked, eventually. He had forgotten her name. "Have her make something non-lethal; something to distract or incapacitate for long enough they don't notice us leave. Find a way to make the tower guard or both consume it. Laced dart or arrow? Henge? Or we could try convincing them they fell asleep and their shift is ending. That would be more a trick for you though. Hard to genjutsu both."

Masa didn't bother pointing out he wasn't much use with this sort of subterfuge. Or most sorts. It was a large part of why he'd taken up cryptography. But he suspected one-time pads wouldn't be much use to their party any time soon, and this genjutsu nin and the girl would be their strongest in stealth for a while.

Absently, he wondered whether the gender ratio would upset their group's coordination. Masakazu had never been a follower of the teen romantic dramas that developed in school, but he did not hold out much hope that adults were any more mature about it.

The annoyance of the genjutsu kept Masa from losing track of the conversation, despite his mental wandering.

“I'm not sure about that” Kai said after thinking about Masa's proposal. “The guy on the inside. No problem, I can deal with whoever it is. The one outside...” He paused for a few seconds, thinking.
No matter how well they planned this part they'd have to rely on blind, stupid luck at least on that part. If the outer guard was one of the more vigilant ones they would have trouble on their hands. If it was one of the slackers they might have a chance to simply sneak out of the tunnel and leave without drawing attention to themselves.
Masa did have a point, Sawaru did have knowledge in poisons and was by far the stealthiest of the lot. If someone could get the guy knocked out before getting spotted it was probably her.

He drew a deep breath and reinforced the illusion. Keeping up an impromptu technique took its toll. He’d be fine after a bit of resting, but he couldn’t afford to drop the technique now that they were talking about their escape so openly. If someone overheard them they’d have a hard t9me explaining what they were talking about.

“Perhaps you’re right. We should talk to Sawaru about it. Maybe she has a good recipe for a sleeping potion or something.” Kai was breathing heavily and small pearls of sweat were finding their way down his forehead. “We’re having a meeting, in one hour, Sawaru’s place, just like last time.”

Kai dropped his book and it made a silent thud as it hit the table, a few heads turned, but no one said anything and before long they turned back to what they were reading. “That’s it for me” half whispered the genjutsu artist and wiped his sweaty brow on his sleeve. “See you later”. Then he stood up, turned around and left the library.

Out in the street he was immediately hit by the fresh sea air. He drew in a deep breath through his nose and simply enjoyed himself for a split second. He was a bit tired, but could feel his energy return as the sun slowly warmed his skin and the air cleaned the smell of old books from his nose. He turned his steps toward the savoury lane. He needed some food and knew exactly where to go to get his hands on something truly mouthwatering.

In the cellar of a small, inconspicuous house the team of traitors had gathered. They had taken every precaution. The last few months they’d made sure to be seen together in various group constellations. They’d mimicked the way old friends behaved, laughed and slapped each others backs. No one walking by or anyone living close enough to see the house would think twice about the people that had arrived during the last hour. After all, they were all friends, the fact that some of them were still unsure about the name of their co-conspirators was unknown to the world. They’d gathered around a light and spoke calmly, every once in a while looking at the small slits along the ceiling that posed as windows. The paranoia was so tangible that a kunai thrown across the room would slow to a crawl as it passed the center of the group.

“So we agree” said one. A man, not the leader of the house, but one of its most frequent guests. “We leave tomorrow morning, at 10 o’clock we gather behind the admin building. We take out the guards and we’re out of here. Hopefully someone will find the guards before the 12 o’clock shift, but not too soon.” He paused and looked around at the people gathered. He knew then by name and had some clue about their abilities, but like ninjas in any part of the world even Gobi-ninjas guarded their real trump cards well.

“If you need to do anything before we leave, I suggest you get to it. As soon as we take out the inner guard there won’t be any turning back. We’ll be branded as traitors and if we’re captured we must count ourselves lucky if we’re not killed for attacking a fellow Gobi-nin… Anything else? What kind of preparations have you done already? Is the food and water-stash prepared? Maps?”

A roomful of people trained to murder, and he was one of them. This was not novel for Masakazu, and rarely occurred to him as noteworthy. Gathered in a basement about to commit treason though, he was struck by the potential damage a double-agent of their sort could commit.

Still, a traitor now would be preferable to failure in their escape. The consequences of their plotting wouldn't prevent Masakazu from thinking - from theorizing. Indeed, Gobi might allow him to continue designing seals for them, though not likely testing them. Being captured after betraying a Hidden Village though.... Well, it would probably be best not to let that happen.

Masa realized the conversation had moved to his sphere.

"Food and water have been sealed into scrolls that aren't too cumbersome. Almost a week, assuming one scroll per person. The food lasts longer when sealed. I will carry them to the gate, unless someone objects. I am seen carrying similar scrolls semi-regularly."

Masakazu scanned the room while awaiting responses. It wouldn't provide him much information, given his lack of people-reading skills, but the attempt felt useful, which staved back-stabbing paranoia.

"I have many maps", he added, with less interest.

Sawaru was listening to what the others were saying, but just barely. Her head was spinning. She was nauseous and dizzy and felt like her heart was going to leap out of her chest.
She knew this day was coming. She was no fool. But it had all happened so fast. Despite the long time they had spent planning, it always seemed like this day would never actually arrive; that it would always just be a plan and never an actuality that they would all leave their home behind to venture out into the world. And the thought of doing so terrified her.
She could not even imagine what the others might be feeling. She had been out there before and yet she was so scared that she was feeling physically unwell. Then again, maybe that was exactly why she was feeling sick; because she actually knew what the world was like out there.

When the conversation turned to what had and would need to be packed, Sawaru turned to Masakazu after he had spoken.
“I was actually hoping to get some help with my packing. I don't really do seals, but it's the only way I can think of to bring my flowers with me. Could you seal them for me? They're very important to me,” she asked softly, trying her best not get let her own discomfort show in neither her face, nor her voice, but failing to completely conceal it.

She realized she should have said something earlier, since the boy might not even have the stuff needed for sealing plants. Could plants even be sealed? Would they survive, if they were sealed? Would she still need to water them?
She should have said something about taking out the guard, too. She knew she could, quite easily, make sure he would not stop them from leaving, but not be hurt either. She had plenty of toxins and poisons that would do the trick. After all, plants were her life.

“And, uh”, she said awkwardly, which was a bit too out of character for her to be comfortable with it; she was never awkward, “I'll take out the guard, if you don't mind,” she added with a glance in Kai's direction for his approval.

Tatsuya was a bit quieter than he usually was, seemingly out of it as he thought back to him talking to his mother about him leaving. He knew it had been a risk, but he couldn't have her think he was leaving her like his father did. Luckily, she had promised not to tell anyone about what had happened, but after a long argument with harsh words said by both sides that were better left unsaid, it was clear that he was no longer welcome. He could see the hurt and betrayal in her eyes, and no matter what he had tried to say, she only seemed to get sadder and sadder, until they had left each other on rather bad terms.

This . . . this wasn't how I wanted it to end.

This thought came with a light sigh, before he looked back up at the others, catching the last bits of the meeting and a final run through of the plan. He himself had brought with him all of the maintence tools they'd need to keep their equipment in good condition, as well as holding lots of extra shuriken, kunai, and other tools that they might need on their journey, enough to last them about a month, maybe more if used smartly. He had most of them stored in seals he'd made himself, but he also had a good amount on his person in packs, as well as his own equipment as well. Looking around, he felt himself having some second thoughts about this, but he quickly shook his head. He had made his bed with this plan, and now he would lie in it, and hope for the best. This plan was going to work. It had to.

"I think we're all as ready as we're going to be, Kai. We know the plan inside and out, and have all made our peace with our actions and what they may entail. If you guy's are ready to go, then so am I."

Ichiro looked around at the people he spent his last few days with. They began to grow on him and he thought of them as family. The family of traitors had a nice ring to it, and that was fine with him. His white hair in a pony tail behind his head, it was a little frizzy and needed to be brushed or combed out. He did not mind that and continued to play in it every now and then. Ichiro Ishi, The Ninja with a Big Mouth. That was the title his father gave him and the reason was obvious. Ichiro was excited about leaving the village. He did not have much experience about outside the village unless you count the time he followed his father out, and secretly helped on perimeter guard duty. Even so, Ichiro's lack of the outside is what excited him.

"I AM READY!" Ichiro said a little too loud. He couldn't even hold it in anymore he just had to have his out burst. He wanted to say more, but figured it will just show another reason for why a ninja his age shouldn't be going along with them. "I apologize for my.... infelicitous out burst. I will also like to say I volunteer to take out a guard, I mean it's the least I could do. "Ichiro turned a little red after thinking about what he just did. Was he like this regularly? He needed some major self evaluation and work on his approach. His mind raced with different thoughts on how they could be judging him. Naturally he didn't care what people think, but he needed acceptance from this group of people if he planned on traveling with them across these countries. His main question was where they were heading first. Did they have a plan on what land they were going to go to? Or a specific formation they were going to use while traveling? He didn't pay attention much when fantasizing about where they were going, and what they were going to encounter.

Kai sat silently, listened attentively and gave a slight nod every now and then as everyone took their time to speak. It seemed like everyone was ready, perhaps not entirely comfortable with the thought of leaving the village, but still ready. When Ichiro failed to contain himself and almost screamed one would have to be blind not to notice the panic in Kai's eyes. His hand instantly shot up toward his mouth with a silencing gesture, but he was anything but calm. As his friend seemed to realize his mistake Kai went over to one of the tiny slits and peeked out. People were moving outside, they were in a residential area after all, you could look outside almost any time, day or night, and there would be someone out walking. No one looked like they had heard or reacted to the shout. They had been lucky. If they had been living in one of the great villages the ANBU probably would've been knocking on their door right about now, demanding answers with blades half drawn and faces hidden behind masks. On the other hand, if they really had been in one of the great villages they probably wouldn't have had to escape to get some proper training and missions to earn their living.

Satisfied with the way people kept moving outside Kai returned to the small circle of ninjas. His eyes were locked on Ichiro and in his mind he was weighing the arguments for and against a proper scolding. He settled for silence. Ichiro was a companion, an adult and a ninja of the same rank. Neither of them had any kind of authority over the other, anyone was entirely free to get up and leave at any time if they wanted to. The work they'd put in to find this small group of like-minded was staggering. Hours of stalking, watching. Then talking, generally, earning trust, slowly hinting about things that could be. So many had to be abandoned because they couldn't be trusted with keeping the escape secret.

Kai relaxed and sat down on his knees, one deep breath and his shoulders dropped, there would be a lot to worry about later.
“Looks like we're as ready as we're going to get.” He said and almost jumped when he heard the distinct sound of someone knocking on the door upstairs. ANBU was his first thought, the second being if the small slits were large enough for him to escape through. In the next instant his thoughts had gathered somewhat. It was pretty ridiculous to think about ANBU in that moment. Gobi didn't have an ANBU force… Right?

Right?

Masakazu looked at the kunoichi when adressed by her, and considered the sealing request, completely failing to note her uncertainty. It struck him that this would have been much easier if she'd asked him really any time before now. Then again, Masa couldn't remember her name, so he couldn't fault her for such a lapse.

It wasn't until after creating a mental list of books, scrolls, and notes he could consult, that Masakazu realized he was going to attempt this job for his compatriot. He wondered if the fact he was a hormonal teen and a young woman was asking for a favor mattered, and decided it probably did. Regardless, the problem-solving ritual of sealing flowers would help keep his mind off their upcoming treason, and the fact he was about to leave his home for a potentially indefinite period.

When the kunoichi finished speaking, Masa considered answering her, but he wanted to hear what Kajiya had to say, being the only person around with any fuuinjutsu knowledge. After that, the youngest conspirator shouted rather more loudly than the room they were in allowed for. Masa looked dubiously at him, openly letting his expression question the proposition of this person employing subtlety in a take-down.

Finally, Masa had the opportunity to politely speak to the young woman. "I can try. But I can't make any promises about the quality of the seals, or of the amount we have time to-"

A knock upstairs interrupted them, and Masa's arms instinctually crossed, hands entering opposite sleeves and contacting scrolls there. While the genjutsu ninja - Masa really would have to learn these people's names, he supposed - made his way upstairs, Masa addressed the group.

"I'm a terrible liar." he said, bluntly, trying to pitch his voice low to keep quiet.

"Same here, so let's do the best thing for now and keep quiet, yeah?" Tatsuya whispered to his fellow fuinjutsu practicioner, looking over at kai with apprehension as he tried to figure out what would happen, and better yet, what they should do. Fighting was stupid, exceedingly so, but what they were planning was highly treasonous, and they could very well be killed for it. He didn't break ties with the only family he had left just to get executed like a criminal. His hand began to move towards his blade, but he instead balled it into a fist, forcing himself into a more casual stance and motioning with his eyes and fingers for the others to do the same. If they looked guilty, then they would only draw more suspicion, They had to play the fool and act like they had done nothing for as long as they could, or else they were likely going to be in a world of trouble.