OOO~

[Artemis]

"AAARGGHH."

Even though Kei, Ryou, and Toya had ended up beaten by a group of bandits and transported halfway around the world, Kei had somehow managed to remain optimistic about the situation.

When all their clothes, food, weapons and, most importantly, their cake, had turned up stolen, she'd been briefly upset about the whole ordeal, but still did her best to help get past that. She'd aided her teammates in finding and capturing the boat the bandits used to transport themselves, and had soon set off in search of home. And she wasn't about to let anything get in their way. Even after her map had been blown away, she'd still done her best to work through it, claiming that she still remembered the directions (even if this was only partially true), and offering to help steer the ship towards Yuki.

Now, though, Kei's seemingly endless supply of optimism and determination was at it's limit.

"Ughh, why does it have to be so HOT here?" Kei complained, a little too loudly, earning herself more than a few odd looks from the Suna natives passing by as she did so. Not that she cared what they thought; there was no way any person who willingly chose to live in this horrible desert could possibly be human, let alone sane. Sand stretched out for miles and miles, dominating the land for as far as the eye could see. There was no escape from the scorching light of the sun, which seemed to follow the three genin wherever they went, mocking them with its blinding rays. And she'd thought Haha Island was bad...

Kei grimaced. She'd been so sure they had finally made it to Yuki... But nooo, when Kei finally caught sight of white hills looming up just ahead of her and had gleefully jumped out of the boat, instead of the cool, smooth snow she loved so much and had been expecting, she'd ended up with a faceful of red-hot sand.

It had certainly taken a while for Kei to get over that shock.

It could be worse, she supposed. They could still be wandering around all alone and lost in that desert right about now. Luckily, they'd stumbled upon a merchant caravan heading towards Suna, the nearest major village, that had been willing to take them in for the remainder of the trip. So the three genin now had civilization, at least... if you could call it that.

For Suna was nothing like Yuki, and Kei was not taking it well at all.

"I can't take this stupid heat anymoreee...~" Kei whined, flopping uselessly in the sand. Along with her optimism, her energy was just about used up as well. "Need... cake..." Her last meal had been back on Haha Island, in that bakery, Kei realized slowly. She really did need cake. But she would need money for that... and the bandits had taken all theirs. How would they ever survive now? Though it was just as well, Kei thought finally. Somehow she doubted that these alien desert shinobi even knew what cake was.

They probably just ate sand.

ooc: I hate starting topics, sorry ;__;

[Artemis]

"Ughh, why does it have to be so HOT here?"

Slowly but surely it seemed that Kei was getting more and more intelligent; she was actually talking sense for once. Ryou couldn't agree more; for a place that was called the Land of Wind, it sure was bloody hot around here in Sunagakure. He'd been here once before, a couple of years ago his parents had taken him to a five star resort in Suna for a holiday, but there had been a nice cold swimming pool and a refreshing ceiling fan in the room, it had also been near the beach, and despite being very different from the freezing climate of the Snow Village, holiday beaches were at least normal. The inner workings of the city were a completely different story however - ugly brown buildings in all shapes and sizes poked out of the endless planes of shifting sands as the sun played it's evil glare onto the city. The people who actually lived here seemed to have no issues with all of this, but it wasn't long before Ryou was back to complaining about it, by means of taking it out on Kei.

"...Yeah well whose fault is it that we're out here? You were the one who couldn't even read the blooming map and had us end up in the middle of this scorching trainwreck of a village!"

Kei didn't seem to take any notice of the complaints, but even Ryou didn't have the energy required to pursue the argument. He was hot, sweaty and tired from the weather and the walking. Even with some poorly old merchant giving them a free ride to the accursed city, it didn't bring up his spirits one bit, as the three genin were eventually set to make their own way around after that. Walking miles through burning sand was one thing on it's own; but without shoes it was total hell. And speaking of shoes, clothes! Ryou had been wearing the same thing since the day they had left Yuki, and he didn't even know how long that was. The amount of sweat, dirt and god knows what else that had built up in his lone shirt and shorts was enough to make anyone sick, let alone Ryou the neat freak.

"I can't take this stupid heat anymoreee...~"

It looked like even Kei the brave was reaching her limits as the exhausted girl sank into the sand, her seemingly unlimited store of energy finally coming to an end. "Need... cake..."

Right on cue, Ryou felt his own tummy rumble as he realized that he too needed cake. Well, not specifically cake, but food. He had been too busy being angry at everyone to actually eat anything substantial while they had been at the bakery, and the bandits had taken his own supply of food along with everything else...

...he couldn't take it anymore. Ryou didn't know how he had managed to live so far, but if he didn't acquire at least his own worth in material possessions in the next hour, then he seriously was just going to drop dead.

"Guys, as lame as this town is, there has to be a shop here somewhere, it's still a village after all... I need food, clothes and alot of other things or I am going to die. Can we stop and go buy thi-"

Ryou stopped suddenly and followed Kei by sinking into the sand himself; something had just hit him. They couldn't go shopping, because in order to do that, they needed a little unimportant insignificant thing that Ryou had spent his entire life taking for granted.

"Aaaaaaah! I have no money! No no no no no!" he preceeded to punch the ground with his fist "This isn't happening! I refuse to believe it!"

[Artemis]

"Ughh, why does it have to be so HOT here?"

Hot? Hot?!! It was freaking BOILING in this stupid excuse for a shinobi village. It was bad enough that the sun was beating down on the entire landscape all day long and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky, but Toya also had the misfortune of wearing a completely black wardrobe. All he could think about was his desire to jump into a nice icy lake, but instead it felt like his skin was burning alive. The only good thing about his outfit was the pair of dark sunglasses covering his eyes. Luckily, the merchant caravan seemed to be supplying items necessary to exist in a desert environment. How convenient for the Shiki clan member.

"...Yeah well whose fault is it that we're out here? You were the one who couldn't even read the blooming map and had us end up in the middle of this scorching trainwreck of a village!"

“Yeah, well… you know what, Ryou… you can just go… ughhh, so damn hot…”

Toya’s energy was draining away along with his body’s internal fluids. Even the sand itself could not possibly be any drier than he felt right at this moment. The worst part about this whole thing was that even now that they had made it to a major village, they didn’t even have the funds to get some food or water. How pathetic would it look if three Yukigakure genin ended up dying in the middle of a major shinobi village?

"I can't take this stupid heat anymoreee...~ Need... cake..."

“As long as it’s water cake, I’d be fine with it… a nice frozen snowball right down the back of my shirt would be the best right now. How the hell do the people here live like this…?”

Wow, now even Toya was starting to sound delusional. Seriously, how did the Suna shinobi work and perform normally in this climate? When the team had climbed out of the boat, the hot sand had certainly been an unpleasant surprise. Why would anyone build houses in the middle of this stupid material that always became super hot, stuck to absolutely everything, and made it incredibly hard to walk and move around in? It was much less useful than snow, which could be melted to use as water or preserve meat and other perishable food.

"Guys, as lame as this town is, there has to be a shop here somewhere, it's still a village after all... I need food, clothes and alot of other things or I am going to die. Can we stop and go buy thi-"

“Yeah, of course YOU would need lots of things to survive, you’re really such a…”

Toya had to stop and take a few quick, panting breaths of air. The scorching heat was simply too much for him to handle, and the fact that his wonderful clothing was absorbing heat like a solar panel did not help much. Before he could continue his mini-rant, Ryou had begun another tantrum.

"Aaaaaaah! I have no money! No no no no no! This isn't happening! I refuse to believe it!"

This time around, Toya didn’t even start yelling anything at Ryou. He had to converse his energy and think about their next move. The situation looked pretty bleak at the moment. His two teammates were both burying themselves in the sand, either sulking, whining, or tantruming, for lack of a more real verb. Even he, the normally logical and sort of unspoken leader for the moment, was at a loss both physically and mentally. Well at the very least, they needed water and shelter quickly. And for that they needed money, which Ryou had helpfully told them a minute ago.

Toya slowly stepped forward in between his two fallen allies and reached down to grab the backs of their shirt collars, one in each hand, and slowly started to pull them both up. If they were smart they would begin to stand up by themselves to avoid being choked, which would most definitely occur if they allowed Toya to pull them up with just his own strength. It was time to get going, and they needed to act swiftly before they lost all of their strength and willpower completely.

“Alright, you two. We obviously don’t have time to get a job or earn any money in a normal way. So it looks like our only option is a less honorable method. We need to look out for any wealthy-looking individuals on these streets. Then while two of us distract them, the third can try to pick their pockets, purses, or whatever in order to get something we can sell, or preferably just money. Then we can worry about water, food, and whatever else our poor Ryou needs to ‘survive’ here. You guys up for this or not? I can’t do this on my own.”

[Artemis]

"Move it move it move it! We don't have time to dawdle! Everyone keep moving!"

The beautiful, talented, powerful and not-at-all looking her age Hana Saihoushi was sticking her tongue out to the side of her mouth slightly. It was an old habit of concentration she had developed years ago, and it seemed to appear every now and again. A total tell for anyone that knew her intimately.

She was perfectly clothed, of course. A pair of khaki pants sashayed across the surface of the dusty road, tapering into her slender waist. She was wearing a strikingly rich maroon shirt, split down the center with gold embroidery and patterned subtly with twisting vines in a slightly deeper red embroidery. Her hair was coiled into such a tight bun that removing the chopsticks that held it in place would be like pulling the pin to a hair grenade. She had a clipboard in one hand, glaring at as bright gold bangs clattered and clinked around her slender wrists. The other hand was holding a giant bag that bounced off of her back as she walked down the street.

She was attended by several stressed-out people, each with their own clipboards, hastily scribbling things down as Hana called them out. Suddenly, the Kyuudaime stopped, turning on her heels.

"The most important thing right now is to find the Three Prodigies! If they don't show up, then this whole thing will be for nothing! You hear me people, nothing! Spread out and see if you can find them. While attending to your check lists of course! Not one thing can go wrong, I won't let it! Go go go!"

Most people were used to obeying Hana at every beckon call, though most people were not used to having to do so with such intensity. Normally Hana was fair and kind and generous...right now though, she was a woman on a mission, a mission no one was going to stop. At her final "go"s, the team of clipboard-toters scattered like roaches in the light. Hana took a deliberate turn down the next street, thinking.

This had to be good. Had to! She had spent too many years dreaming of this day, if she failed now...it would be the worst! Worse than failing Suna, worse than losing her children!

...okay, maybe not that bad. But it'd be disappointing, no one could argue that! Maybe she could ask ANBU to-

"Great goodness!" Hana dropped her clipboard and sack, putting her hands to her cheeks as she turned to the wide picture window of a clothing store. An intricately designed dress was displayed on a mannequin, it's flowing sensuality rich with all the colors of the most passionate sunset one might ever see. Hana immediately pushed her face to the glass, peering into it...it was so beautiful...

The sack on the ground behind her opened, and stacks upon stacks of money spread onto the dusty road.

[Artemis]

Nearby, Kei's teammates were attempting to cope with the heat in their own way (which, in Ryou's case, apparently consisted of throwing himself against the ground and wailing about money; no surprises there. Where did he even find the energy...?), but Kei was barely listening.

At the moment, she was preoccupied with staring blankly up at the unnervingly empty sky and wondering whether or not this 'Land of Wind' place was really just an entirely different planet.

Because seriously, what kind of country didn't even have clouds? And this dusty, gritty, scratchy stuff stuff all over the place that gave the Sand Village its name... well. It wasn't quite dirt ..And all those cheerful people on the street, going about their daily life while somehow remaining blissfully oblivious of this flaming hell-hole of a sandbox they lived in? Clearly they were aliens. It would explain so much...

But Toya, apparently, was having none of it.

"Ow--Hey, let go!"

Before she knew it, he had stepped forward and all but dragged Kei and Ryou to their feet. Indignant, Kei broke free before he choked her to death, that jerk, and tried in vain to brush the sand off her clothes, but for once she was too tired to do much more protesting than that.

“Alright, you two. We obviously don’t have time to get a job or earn any money in a normal way. So it looks like our only option is a less honorable method. We need to look out for any wealthy-looking individuals on these streets. Then while two of us distract them, the third can try to pick their pockets, purses, or whatever in order to get something we can sell, or preferably just money. Then we can worry about water, food, and whatever else our poor Ryou needs to ‘survive’ here. You guys up for this or not? I can’t do this on my own.”

"Okay." Kei sighed dejectedly. "If we can even find any rich people he--"

"Move it move it move it! We don't have time to dawdle! Everyone keep moving!"

Kei blinked, her eyes moving down the street as she followed the small crowd that was beginning to form nearby. At the center of the group stood a woman, clipboard in hand. She was pretty, Kei had decided, though it was a shame her clothes were so boring-looking. Maybe Kei could give her some advice on that later. But... by the looks of things, she was the leader, the one member of the group directing all the other clipboard people in all their clipboard duties. Did that mean she was someone important...?

"The most important thing right now is to find the Three Prodigies! If they don't show up, then this whole thing will be for nothing! You hear me people, nothing! Spread out and see if you can find them. While attending to your check lists of course! Not one thing can go wrong, I won't let it! Go go go!"

The clipboard people scattered. Kei wasn't sure exactly what it was they were here for, but she knew all she needed to know; the woman in charge was obviously some important Suna person... which probably meant she was loaded.

Kei moved to approach her, ready to initiate a distraction, but clearly the woman didn't need much help from Kei in being distracted; something in a shop window seemed to have caught her eye. She let out a cry of "Great goodness!" and promptly dropped her possessions into the road, where they lay, forgotten.

And soon the heat was forgotten as well; for what happened next made Kei's former energy suddenly flood back into her. Her eyes widened.

Money.

Everywhere.

And money everywhere meant cake everywhere.

There was no way she was letting this opportunity go.

No longer thinking of anything else but the future possibility of cake and a chance to return to Yuki, Kei all but dove into the pile of money, making sure to grab as much as she could; after all, the woman seemed preoccupied enough with whatever it was she was looking at... there was no way she'd notice if Kei just grabbed some of this money and ran. After all, there was so much of it...

It looked like their luck was finally changing for the better.

[Artemis]

"Ow--Hey, let go!"

Ryou was so caught up in letting the entire world know about his problems that had come about as a result of his temporary lack of wealth, barely heard Kei's sudden scream of warning. So naturally, it came as a large shock to him too as Toya suddenly bent down and grabbed him and Kei rather forcefully by the back of the collars and proceeded to drag them up to a stand.

"Ouch... hey man, the hell are you doing?" Ryou spat repulsively, knocking Toya's hand off in an attempt to get free from his teammate's vicegrip. "Do you know anything about making contact with other people without hurting them? No wonder everyone's scared shitless of your clan,"

The last part of this statement was spoken under Ryou's breath. Too soft for Toya to hear, anyway. As annoyed as he was, Ryou wasn't stupid enough to set Toya off into one of his rages again, especially when he didn't have the energy to fight back. Not even bothering to clean his clothes, he turned back to face Toya, who had once again taken up the chance to show off his "leader-ish" qualities and formulate yet another plan.

“Alright, you two. We obviously don’t have time to get a job or earn any money in a normal way. So it looks like our only option is a less honorable method. We need to look out for any wealthy-looking individuals on these streets. Then while two of us distract them, the third can try to pick their pockets, purses, or whatever in order to get something we can sell, or preferably just money. Then we can worry about water, food, and whatever else our poor Ryou needs to ‘survive’ here. You guys up for this or not? I can’t do this on my own.”

...Yet another plan that was destined to fail.

For starters, the chances of wealthy people actually living here looked like it was sub-zero. And then there was the fact that most wealthy people actually liked to hold onto their cash, and were often quite good at guarding it - and who better to know about the workings of wealthy people and their money than Ryou himself.

"You do realize that isn't going to work, right?" Ryou asked matter-of-factly, rolling his eyes "Kei is too stupid to actually carry out distraction properly, and she'll attract way too much attention to successfully steal something either, and you can't do both, and I'm not doing zilch, because I'm not dumb enough to get chucked into prison over this. Wealthy people aren't stupid, you know!"

Come to think of it, there really was no other way to actually make money around here other than working, however Ryou wasn't one to throw away his dignity just like that. And if Kei and Toya actually did ahead with everything and miraculously did manage to succeed, then it wasn't like they could actually just leave him behind to die - it was win-win.

"Okay." interjected Kei, who naturally failed to see all the flaws in Toya's plan, "If we can even find any rich people he--"

"Move it move it move it! We don't have time to dawdle! Everyone keep moving!"

Sudden loud shouting kept Ryou from berating Kei as he turned around to look for the source of the commotion. A small crowd had formed a little way ahead, the ringleader a young woman carrying a clipboard. From a distance, Ryou could tell that she indeed was rather well off. Her clothes weren't like those of the people who followed her. They were simple in color and quite practical for her environment, but anybody mildly educated in fashion would know that those clothes were made carefully from valuable fabrics and the like. Her hair and face too looked pretty maintained, something pretty hard to achieve in the weather that this place yielded. Hmm... well, there was a rich person. Ryou watched her, slightly curious.

"The most important thing right now is to find the Three Prodigies! If they don't show up, then this whole thing will be for nothing! You hear me people, nothing! Spread out and see if you can find them. While attending to your check lists of course! Not one thing can go wrong, I won't let it! Go go go!"

A problem had already emerged. This woman, as wealthy as she may have appeared, she also looked mildly intelligent, what with all the authority she seemed to have. Ryou heaved a sigh and looked around to Toya and Kei, who looked as though they had found themselves a potential target.

"Hate to break it to you two, but she looks like she has enough to brain cells to sink your ship before it leaves the sho-"

"Great goodness!"

It wasn't this shout, but instead the unmistakable sound of coins hitting the floor with their soft clanging noises that had Ryou look back at the woman. The people that had been hanging around her had all dissapeared, and the lady was on her own, nose pressed up against the window of some shop. Her bag lay on the floor, her wealth scattered all around on her, coins glinting in the sunlight.

Kei didn't even wait for instruction. Before Ryou could even compute how a woman who looked so important could be so daft as to pretty much give her money away like that, his teammate had lunged and the scattered coins and begun digging it all up like a desperate beggar. Even more surprising was that the woman didn't even seem to notice Kei; her face was still stuck on that window. And if colorful noisy clumsy Kei didn't attract this woman's attnetion then...

Forgetting everything he had said earlier, Ryou found himself following in Kei's footsteps, unable to resist the urge of thousands of golden coins left out for the taking. Trying to be a little more subtle than Kei, but still attempting to gather as much cash as possible, Ryou reached out, picking up every single coin he could reach. It appeared the woman still hadn't noticed...

...It appeared that rich people really could be this stupid after all.

[Artemis]

"You do realize that isn't going to work, right?"

And just like clockwork, Ryou was already at work attempting to tear Toya’s plan apart. Honestly, Toya did not mind being corrected or criticized, but only when the person actually had a way to make the plan different and better. And as usual, Ryou never had anything beneficial to say at all, only something judgmental.

"Kei is too stupid to actually carry out distraction properly, and she'll attract way too much attention to successfully steal something either, and you can't do both, and I'm not doing zilch, because I'm not dumb enough to get chucked into prison over this. Wealthy people aren't stupid, you know!"

Toya was just dying to retort with something about how contradictory Ryou’s last statement was, but luckily for everyone, Kei interrupted with her usual acceptant responses to Toya’s plans.

"Okay. If we can even find any rich people he--"

"Move it move it move it! We don't have time to dawdle! Everyone keep moving!"

Startled by the loud voice cutting off Kei’s thought, Toya quickly turned his head towards the origin of the noise. A woman leading a group of seemingly overwhelmed and overworked subordinates were making their way down the road towards the three genin. The female head of the group had the same style and manner held by many of the businessmen and women that Toya came into contact with as head of his family company. They were the well-dressed and, for the most part, well-spoken type of people who knew full well how to get their underlings to work efficiently and loyally.

"The most important thing right now is to find the Three Prodigies! If they don't show up, then this whole thing will be for nothing! You hear me people, nothing! Spread out and see if you can find them. While attending to your check lists of course! Not one thing can go wrong, I won't let it! Go go go!"

Apparently this woman was quite a slave driver, forcing her group to multi-task, juggling their usual work along with the search for these supposed “prodigies”. Toya had never heard a group of people labeled with such a peculiar title, but they must be very important people to get the woman so agitated about locating them. Now the real question was whether she would be a good target or not. She seemed organized and intelligent for the most part, and that could end up being a problem for their little robbery plan.

"Hate to break it to you two, but she looks like she has enough to brain cells to sink your ship before it leaves the sho-"

"Great goodness!"

Only seconds ago the woman had been dedicated to her work, yet now she had lost focus of everything around her as she leaned in to stare at some article of clothing inside a nearby shop. He and his teammates all watched as her bag fell to the floor, scattering an immeasurable amount of currency across the sandy street. Before Toya could even attempt to stop his teammates, they had both recklessly moved forward to desperately grab the money like a group of beggars fighting for their survival… actually that was exactly what they were doing.

Since shouting out to them definitely was not an option at this point, the dark clad genin rushed forward and planned to pull them both back when he suddenly stumbled forward and then froze. It felt like his legs had turned to mush, and his entire body was aching. The sun beating upon his black wardrobe had finally taken a more permanent toll, and even Toya’s exceptional willpower could not pull him through this time. Standing up straight in the sand and attempting to look as dignified as possible, he cleared his throat and spoke with a loud, authoritative tone filling his voice.

“Excuse me, milady, you seem to have misplaced a large sum of money when your bag dropped to the ground. It would have been terrible to see it be blown away by the wind or looted by common thieves, so I hope you don’t mind if my companions and I lend you a hand returning it to its proper place.”

Slowly kneeling down into the layer of sand burying the street, Toya reached out a hand and carefully began to stack some of the money in his hands. He was starting to doubt that this woman would fall for such an impromptu speech, especially since the three Yuki genin were practically dressed in rags and clearly suffering from dehydration and heat exhaustion. Maybe at the least, they could earn even a small bit of pity from the rich female.

[Artemis]

No. No no no no.
It would never work. She was just too thin. Instead of the intended sensual flow that the designer of the dress was trying to go for, it would look more like a circus tent being strung up a beanpole. Blast her figure. For all the perfect slenderness she had fought to maintain despite having born three children, she wished some of the weight had stayed on in some of the places...she was cursed. Cursed forever to-

"Excuse me, milady, you seem to have misplaced a large sum of money when your bag dropped to the ground. It would have been terrible to see it be blown away by the wind or looted by common thieves, so I hope you don’t mind if my companions and I lend you a hand returning it to its proper place."

Hana turned around slowly, looking. Oh, so she had. She hadn't even noticed. "Ah, silly me. I'm sorry, you three are awfully sweet for wanting to help. Here, let me get it."

She sighed as she lowered herself to a crouch, scooping up wads of bills and stacks of coins. This was no time be daydreaming, and it certainly wasn't any time to be dropping important deposits of money anywhere. Especially when she had three very important people to find. She began to speed up her retrieval, her reflexes as a Kage-level ninja dazzling with nimble efficiency as the sum vanished back into the bag. She smiled and looked up at her three do-gooders. A boy with sunglasses. Prudent. An irritated young man in silver hair. Pretty. And a girl, a slight, slim girl who was wearing...

Hana stared at the girl. Just stared and stared and stared, long and hard with her mind working in overdrive as she took in the colors. So...many...colors...so...oddly arranged...why would she...and then...

"OH MY GOODNESS YOU'RE THEM!"

Hana exploded. She pulled out a whistle and began blowing it in a repeating pattern until all of the clipboard-toting adults stampeded back around her. She immediately grasped the young teens and pulled them to their feet, Chakra Threads zipping onto their clothes and using her Stiffening technique, shook the dust from their garments entirely.

"Oh my goodness I'm so sorry about this I told that team of Genin that this was a high class super priority mission despite it only being a D-ranked mission but I guess it just goes to show you you can't trust Genin to do anything can you well I'm glad you're here and safe nonethelss I'm sorry you were so lost and so dusty I know that the desert can be quite the adjustment for people like you if you need new clothing later then you can get some from my people no questions asked whatever you need you can have it do you need some water of course you might Akemi get them some water immediately come along now we have a lot to do and I'm so thrilled that you're all here I've been a huge fan of all of your works since the 756th Saihoushi Festival which was a total masterpiece in party planning-"

She went on like this for quite a while, shuffling the three with her gentle touch through the streets of Sunagakure. The clipboard-toters were rushing all around, scribbling and muttering as they tried to keep up with the Kyuudaime's blistering pace. As they turned the corner, Suna transformed. Everything was decorated with magnificently colored streamers and banners, the drab dull brown of the building's walls painted over with vibrant designs. The entire city was bustling with activity; clad Suna soldiers were hustling about with faux flowers and handfuls of balloons, others hastily constructing the many many many booths that would be needed.

"It's okay everyone! Crisis averted! The Three Prodigies of Festivals are here!"

Applause erupted. Apparently everyone had been made aware of their crisis situation.

"I'm so very nervous about this. It's the first Saihoushi Festival I've ever tried to throw in Suna and it hasn't been easy. I used to think back when I was active Kazekage that I should do it while I still had all the power, but I'm glad I waited until I retired. The time involved is monumental! But with you three, it should be a snap! Oh, by the way the bag you were helping me is your agreed payment: 60,000 ryou."

The landscape just seemed to rush by. They stopped in a massive clearing of the city, a flat piece of boring, dusty ground. Stacked to the side was a gigantic pile of lumber, buckets and buckets of nails and paint, and a set of hammers. There were a few shinobi lingering around, with one older one seemed to take a nap atop of the lumber.

Hana grabbed the silver haired one and shoved him forward.

"Everyone! This is Daiku Kanezashi, the Charismatic Carpenter! He will be building and designing the performance stage for the festival! His works are truly art in the world of stage construction, a prodigy of design and function!" Hana turned to the boy with a gigantic beaming smile. "Now I know you said you wanted to do all the work yourself by hand, but I called up a few carpenters just in case. Oh, and that man over there is Tetsu Onoda, one of our shinobi. If you need anything at all or just need to get ahold of me, let him know and he'll take care of it. I'll be back to check on you later!"

With the whirlwind magnitude of the vibrant Kyuudaime, Hana and entourage left the silver-haired boy behind, taking the sunglassed boy and girl along. They hustled and bustled and skittered and scattered until they entered a great hall.

The hall smelled delicious.

Hana burst through the first set of double doors, then the second, revealing a massive bakery. A long table stretched down the length of the hallway where thirty women were hard at work on cake in various states of completion while blenders, mixers, sifters, ovens, and sinks were alive and brimming all around them.

"Everyone! Throw away these practice cakes, I found him! Dokumi Hakurikiko, the Blind Baker!"

Again, applause, along with gasps of admiration and murmurs of intimidation from the baking women as they all simultaneously threw the cakes they were working on into garbage cans placed around the hall.
"Dokumi-sama will be blessing us with one of us rare, one-of-a-kind secret recipes! Do exactly what he says! But no writing anything down, that's a condition of this! And Izanami is going to be watching, so no cheating!" Hana gestured towards a beautiful young woman in a white hanfu, smiling pleasantly with her arms crossed and eyes watchful. Perhaps setting a Jinchuuriki to protect a cake recipe was over the top, but she had promised Dokumi that there would be assurances. Hana turned to him again. "Also, Dokumi-sama, if you need anything just ask Izanami. She'll be able to contact me."

"A pleasure." Izanami called cheerily, establishing a voice marker for the blind baker. With the same rush of activity, she vanished leaving him behind, taking the girl with them.

They headed directly back to Hana's house. "Of all of the three, I am most excited to have you join us, Hayari-sama. Your designs from last years Saihoushi Festival were truly breathtaking, and I can see you still have your avant garde edge. Perhaps if we have time you can go over some of my designs, to see if there's anything you can think needs improvement.

Hana almost dreaded bringing that up. Of course her designs would be awful in comparison to one of the greatest fashion designers of the new generation. She was still nervous the facilities were going to be inadequate...but it was all she could do. They entered her house and sped quickly up the stairs into her sewing room: a giant space filled with reams upon reams of fabric, every button, texture, sequin, lace, zipper and thread one could imagine and sensibly store. There were also several vats of dye that her mother had carefully and especially made to match Hana's overall theme. There were a few seamstresses waiting as well as her own daughter, Moxie, who was wearing a lovely yellow dress with white laced details. Her eye was covered up tastefully with a lopsided hairband with daisy patterns on it.

"Everyone, this is Hayari Esemono, avant garde designer...just look at what she wears, isn't it breathtaking!"

Moxie raised an eyebrow, giving her mom a "are you kidding me?" look. Hana frowned, glaring with a razor edge only a mother possessed and her daughter snapped back to quiet obedience. "The dyes for the costumes are over here, use as much or as little as you like. Feel free to take anything out of here, use whatever you need. I'm sure your sewing skill is top notch but if you need someone to prep anything, these ladies are here to help, as is my daughter Moxie. Feel free to ask them to purchase whatever you need. I'll be back to check on you later. And again, thank you so so much to agreeing to this, you have no idea how honored I am!"

"Kyuudaime-sama! We have a problem with the wine!" A new clipboard-toter stumbled in. Hana let out a graceful sigh and waved to the girl, vanishing like a pleasant vapor from the room.

[Artemis]

Kei was deep in thought as she darted around, scooping up armfuls of coins. She was in the middle of planning the awesome cake she would buy with all this new loot, right down to the rainbow-colored frosting and endless supply of sprinkles, when suddenly Toya felt the need to interrupt and ruin everything.

“Excuse me, milady, you seem to have misplaced a large sum of money when your bag dropped to the ground. It would have been terrible to see it be blown away by the wind or looted by common thieves, so I hope you don’t mind if my companions and I lend you a hand returning it to its proper place.”

"Ah, silly me. I'm sorry, you three are awfully sweet for wanting to help. Here, let me get it."

Kei stared.

What? Was he serious...? Here was all this money, all this potential cake, and clothes, and a map, and a free trip back to Yuki and Toya was just giving it back? She hadn't even seen them taking it! And he's suggested this whole stealing thing himself, so what was his problem...? Normally Kei wasn't really one for stealing; she'd much rather earn money in an honorable way. But this woman was clearly rolling in the stuff if she could afford to carry giant sacks of it around like this. Surely she could part with at least some of it... Kei pouted, trying desperately to think of a way to win it back, when suddenly...

"OH MY GOODNESS YOU'RE THEM!"

Kei's world suddenly exploded with movement and sound. The clipboard people were surrounding her as the clipboard woman blew on a whistle quite enthusiastically; and all of a sudden Kei was being pulled to her feet, the sand somehow shaken from her clothes as the woman launched into a rapid explanation, words flying so fast that she may have been speaking an entirely different language for all Kei understood. She blinked, trying to make sense of it all.

"Oh my goodness I'm so sorry about this I told that team of Genin that this was a high class super priority mission despite it only being a D-ranked mission but I guess it just goes to show you you can't trust Genin to do anything can you well I'm glad you're here and safe nonethelss I'm sorry you were so lost and so dusty I know that the desert can be quite the adjustment for people like you if you need new clothing later then you can get some from my people no questions asked whatever you need you can have it do you need some water of course you might Akemi get them some water immediately come along now we have a lot to do and I'm so thrilled that you're all here I've been a huge fan of all of your works since the 756th Saihoushi Festival which was a total masterpiece in party planning-"

...Party?

Kei liked parties, so this was fine with her, she decided absently as the woman led herself and her teammates along through the streets of Suna. She hadn't quite managed to catch the rest of the speech, but Kei supposed that was okay. Kei's prior complaints about Suna were already long forgotten. Maybe it wasn't so bad after all, she mused. After all, for aliens, these people seemed like they were actually pretty nice; someone had handed Kei a glass of cold water just now, and-- ooh, were those balloons she was seeing over there!?

Suna, Kei decided, as she rounded the corner and watched the empty, monochrome landscape transform into a vibrant and colorful center of festive activity before her very eyes-- was awesome.

"It's okay everyone! Crisis averted! The Three Prodigies of Festivals are here!"

Applause erupted from the crowd before them. Wondering if she should be appluading as well, Kei glanced around, eager to catch a glimpse of these three 'prodigies' for herself. There didn't seem to be anyone else around, though... Suddenly she took note of the way Clipboard Woman was watching them, the way all eyes in the crowd seemed to be on herself and her teammates... Kei gulped, nervously.

The Three Prodigies of Festivals were supposed to be... them?

Everything was sort of a blur after that. Clipboard Woman whisked them along through the city, while Kei's brain struggled to process her situation. Well... there was going to be a party, that much was certain. And... Kei was invited? She wasn't quite sure what this 'prodigy' thing was, but if it meant Kei got to go to the party, it was probably a good thing. After all, there was usually cake at parties. But best of all, they were getting paid to go to a party. That never happened back home in Yuki. Kei took back all the bad things she'd said about Suna before; this place was downright magical. Kei had already concluded that she was never going to leave.

"Everyone! This is Daiku Kanezashi, the Charismatic Carpenter!" Clipboard Woman called suddenly, and Kei looked up. She was gesturing towards...Ryou? "But-- he's not..." Kei began uncertainly, only to be immediately drowned out by Clipboard Woman.

"He will be building and designing the performance stage for the festival! His works are truly art in the world of stage construction, a prodigy of design and function!"

Kei stared blankly for a moment, utterly confused. After a few moments of that, however, something finally clicked. This wasn't just any party-- it was like a costume party! One of those events where people would dress up and pretend to be someone else, someone more exciting. Kei beamed. It was a great idea! This party was shaping up to be lots of fun already, Kei realized, waving brightly to Ryou as he was left far behind, looking rather lost. "Later Daiku!"

"Everyone! Throw away these practice cakes, I found him! Dokumi Hakurikiko, the Blind Baker!"

Before she knew it, Kei was in what had to be the biggest and most wonderful bakery of all time. She'd thought that little place on Haha Island had been good; this place was amazing. It was huge; filled with countless ovens and sinks and lots of other important baking stuff, like the bakers themselves. But more importantly, the room was filled with cake. And it smelled so good...

But to Kei's horror, the women discarded the unfinished cakes as soon as they caught sight of Toya.

They just... threw them away? Kei's eye twitched slightly in disbelief. Were wonderful, delicious cakes such a common occurance in Suna that people just threw them away without a second thought...? Still, Kei thought, pouting slightly. They could have at least given her some... Worst of all, it seemed like the lucky one getting to stay in the kitchen and bake cakes wouldn't be Kei, but Toya of all people.

"Dokumi-sama will be blessing us with one of us rare, one-of-a-kind secret recipes! Do exactly what he says!"

Since when did Toya have a secret recipe? If he did, he hadn't told Kei... She glanced over at her teammate as Clipboard Woman turned to leave, taking Kei with her.

"Bye Toy--um, Dokumi! And don't you dare screw up the cake," she added as a threat under her breath.

Then suddenly they were gone from the massive bakery, and Kei was following Clipboard Woman up a set of stairs in what seemed to be her own house, so fast that Kei didn't even have time to mourn the loss of her teammates, or more importantly, the cake.

"Of all of the three, I am most excited to have you join us, Hayari-sama. Your designs from last years Saihoushi Festival were truly breathtaking, and I can see you still have your avant garde edge. Perhaps if we have time you can go over some of my designs, to see if there's anything you can think needs improvement."

"Sure!" Kei answered, rather agreeably. "Your designs are nowhere near my level, of course, but I'm sure you're getting there!"

...

Designs for what, exactly?

Kei was about to find out. Clipboard Woman opened the door before them to reveal...

"Whoa! So many colors!" Kei exclaimed in amazement, before realizing that she was supposed to act the part of an experienced master designer and then promptly shut her mouth. But it was true; the whole room was filled with fabric of all shapes and sizes. Best of all, there were these giant jars filled with what seemed to be pure color over there... Suddenly Clipboard Woman spoke, snapping Kei back to reality.

"Everyone, this is Hayari Esemono, avant garde designer...just look at what she wears, isn't it breathtaking!" Kei crossed her arms at this and surveyed the group of assembled seamstresses, feeling rather important. "The dyes for the costumes are over here, use as much or as little as you like. Feel free to take anything out of here, use whatever you need. I'm sure your sewing skill is top notch but if you need someone to prep anything, these ladies are here to help, as is my daughter Moxie. Feel free to ask them to purchase whatever you need. I'll be back to check on you later. And again, thank you so so much to agreeing to this, you have no idea how honored I am!"

With that, Clipboard Woman was gone, leaving Kei--no, Hayari, the master designer, alone with the seamstresses. And... Moxie, was it? Right, Moxie! She had such a cool name, Kei mused absently. If only Kei had been born with an awesome name like 'Moxie'... Kei probably would have told Moxie this herself, but she was suddenly aware of the awkward silence that was slowly flooding the room, and how all eyes were currently on her, reminding Kei of her duty as a super-awesome advent-guard designer.

She didn't even need to ask where to begin, however. Even if the super-awesome designer thing was mostly just a game, everyone knew how you were supposed to put clothes together. First you needed thread, and then one of those pointy senbon-looking things, and--"Ow!" Kei winced in pain.

"...It's sharp," Kei announced, glancing back at the seamstresses and Moxie. "Be careful with these things," she advised wisely, tossing the offending needle over her shoulder. Maybe that hadn't been such a good idea after all, she decided, eyeing the assembled vats of dye. It was probably a safer bet to go with the pretty colors for now; she'd figure out what to do about sewing later, Kei decided as she gathered up as much white fabric as she could and headed over to the dye. She dropped the wad of fabric unceremoniously into the nearest vat of dye, watching with fascination as a bright, vibrant shade of purple began to soak through the cloth. One color wasn't nearly enough, however; Kei would only be satisfied once this cloth was soaked with all the colors of the rainbow. And so, as soon as she was convinced that the fabric was sufficiently purple, she reached in and pulled it out (trying her best to avoid the spray of purple liquid that ensued as she did so), and dropped it into the next vat.

Yellow.

"...It turned brown," Kei declared, dismayed. Instead of the beautiful, bright, sunny yellow she'd been expecting to meld with the vibrant purple from before, a muddy brownish color had somehow formed, and was clouding over her beloved colors instead.

Kei frowned.

"I think your yellow's broken," she announced loudly, frustrated.

...Hopefully her teammates were having better luck with their tasks...

[Artemis]

Out of all the possible responses they could have received from the woman, thish ad to be the best. She had been so removed from reality while looking at the dress in the shop that she actually believed Toya when he claimed that they were merely helping her pick up her money, when it was incredibly apparent that they had planned to steal the cash. Maybe their team’s luck was starting to turn around…

"Ah, silly me. I'm sorry, you three are awfully sweet for wanting to help. Here, let me get it."

Toya let out a deep breath as a wave of relief washed over him. He continued picking up the money as the woman crouched down and began retrieving it as well. It was unfortunate that their chance at scoring this huge amount of money had been lost, but it was way better than getting caught and possibly imprisoned or worse in a foreign land. All they had to do was try again later. As he grabbed another stray stack of bills, he suddenly noticed that the woman had been staring at them for a while. What could she…

"OH MY GOODNESS YOU'RE THEM!"

Toya came far too close to experiencing a hear attack when the woman suddenly shouted at the top of her lungs and began blowing a whistle repeatedly. The street had gone from silence and emptiness to a state of loud chaos. He suddenly found himself being pulled to his feet, and his clothing was suddenly shaken free of all traces of sand as the mob of clipboard-wielding people surrounded them and started a sort of caravan-like movement down the street. Luckily, the woman made sure to guide them safely with her hands, keeping the young genin from being trampled in the crowd.

"Oh my goodness I'm so sorry about this I told that team of Genin that this was a high class super priority mission despite it only being a D-ranked mission but I guess it just goes to show you you can't trust Genin to do anything can you well I'm glad you're here and safe nonethelss I'm sorry you were so lost and so dusty I know that the desert can be quite the adjustment for people like you if you need new clothing later then you can get some from my people no questions asked whatever you need you can have it do you need some water of course you might Akemi get them some water immediately come along now we have a lot to do and I'm so thrilled that you're all here I've been a huge fan of all of your works since the 756th Saihoushi Festival which was a total masterpiece in party planning-"

…Huh? Who exactly did this woman think that they were? She was a fan of their works? For some weird festival? Party planning? These and a thousand other questions raced through Toya’s minds as the team continued to be pushed along towards their destination. So far the only good thing that resulted from this entire process came in the form of a cool glass of water that one of the woman’s assistances handed to the three genin. Everything suddenly felt a lot better after he swallowed down the ice-cold liquid and had a few moments to comprehend what the hell was going on around here.

Sadly for him, things were only going to continually get more chaotic from this point on. Their group suddenly turned a corner and came face to face with what could only be the foundation for this Saihoushi Festival that the woman had mentioned earlier, and apparently they had mistaken the three genin for people who had some relation to planning this event. Now if only they could find some way to talk their way out of this mess…

"It's okay everyone! Crisis averted! The Three Prodigies of Festivals are here!"

Toya’s uneasiness only increased as the group of onlookers began applauding for them. As far as he knew, neither of his teammates had any skills that could be considered useful for creating a festival. Toya knew plenty about finances and business, but somehow he doubted that their tasks would involve that type of thing. He knew this could turn into something very bad very quickly.

"I'm so very nervous about this. It's the first Saihoushi Festival I've ever tried to throw in Suna and it hasn't been easy. I used to think back when I was active Kazekage that I should do it while I still had all the power, but I'm glad I waited until I retired. The time involved is monumental! But with you three, it should be a snap! Oh, by the way the bag you were helping me is your agreed payment: 60,000 ryou."

This woman was the former Kazekage?! Toya had to think back for a moment through all his knowledge of foreign villages and their leaders, trying to recall the name of the last active female Kazekage of Suna. His studies in history should have at least covered important foreign figures in the last few decades. The name Hana rung through his head a few seconds later, and he felt like an idiot for not realizing it sooner when she mentioned the Saihoushi festival. Of course such a prominent figure in the Saihoushi clan would be trying to hold such a big event in her home village.

"Everyone! This is Daiku Kanezashi, the Charismatic Carpenter!"

"But-- he's not..."

Toya blinked and remained silent for the time being. The thought of Ryou as a ‘charismatic’ person almost made him laugh out loud, but he restrained himself.

"He will be building and designing the performance stage for the festival! His works are truly art in the world of stage construction, a prodigy of design and function!"

Well Ryou certainly had a lot on his hands. Toya honestly did not know if he had the skill required to design or build something like that, but luckily it wasn’t his problem anymore. Without a moment wasted, Kei and Toya were already being moved along by the excitable Hana.

"Later Daiku!"

And before anyone could say anything else, the two remaining ‘prodigies’ had been whisked away and brought hurriedly into a large kitchen that seemed to be serving as a bakery for the upcoming festival. Boy did it smell good in here. Toya had nearly forgotten just how hungry he had become.

"Everyone! Throw away these practice cakes, I found him! Dokumi Hakurikiko, the Blind Baker!"

Oh boy, it looked like Toya had just discovered what he was supposed to be the ‘prodigy’ of. And apparently it was baking, something that he had probably never done in his entire life. He would not be considered a sheltered boy who never had to work, but he had always done more masculine chores like… moving heavy things, building stuff, and fighting… not making dessert. Kohaku had always been his personal chef, and he had no idea how to cook much of anything at all.

"Dokumi-sama will be blessing us with one of us rare, one-of-a-kind secret recipes! Do exactly what he says! But no writing anything down, that's a condition of this! And Izanami is going to be watching, so no cheating!"

Oh if only Toya was dreaming right now. It would take a miracle for him to create a decent normal cake, much less some sort of super secret ultra cake. And now there was some other young woman there to watch over them and make sure everything went well, which pretty much ruined his chances of somehow talking his way out of this after Hana left.

“Also, Dokumi-sama, if you need anything just ask Izanami. She'll be able to contact me."

"A pleasure."

Though he had already seen the young woman, Toya played along with the blind kid routine and turned his head towards the source of the voice and nodded politely as Hana

“Thank you for being here to assist me, I will be sure to ask if I need something.”

It was just then that Kei spoke up before Hana managed to pull her away to the next location.

"Bye Toy--um, Dokumi! And don't you dare screw up the cake,"

Her whispered threat actually sounded funny rather than frightening to Toya, since the very fact that Kei became so serious when it came to cake always amused him. But now that he had been left alone with Izanami, the baking women, and the large kitchen, he certainly felt intimidated by his situation.

Toya cleared his throat and glanced around the room nervously at the numerous pairs of female eyes starting at him eagerly. The worst part of this was not the fact that he would probably fail and humiliate himself, but that he would let down all of these people, especially the former Kazekage Hana who seemed to be putting so much effort into this event. Time to get to work and get the job done… or fail horribly trying. He cleared his throat again before speaking.

“H-Hello everyone. Forgive me if I stutter a little, I don’t usually do this in front of large crowds. I hope we can all work well together.”

He gave a short bow to the group and let out a deep breath to release some of his tension. From the quiet murmurs and chattering amongst the group of females, Toya could conclude that his ‘innocent and nervous’ act had probably gained him at least a bit of sympathy and admiration from them. Now the problem was actually pulling off a recipe that would bake a cake without any disastrous results…

“Alright, let’s begin by pouring two cups of flour into a mixing bowl. Th-Then we add a cup of water a-and…”

He paused to take another breath and think about what he was doing. His stuttering was certainly no longer part of his act, he just honestly felt uneasy about giving impromptu instructions to these women who expected him to be some sort of genius cake baker. Oh why couldn’t he have gotten Ryou’s job? Building would be so much more suited for him than this. And at that moment, a sort of epiphany hit Toya. Maybe his jittery, nervous self could actually get him out of this jam. The women continued to watch in anticipation, awaiting his next words.

"Umm, next we’re just going to add a bit of… a bit of…”

Toya intentionally trailed off after putting an excessive amount of wavering emotion in his voice. With his eyes shut tightly, he lifted his sunglasses and pretended to rub a tear from his eyes, hiding the fact that his eyes were not even slightly tearing up.

“I-I’m so sorry girls. It’s just that this recipe really reminds me of my late mo-mother, and she… she… p-passed away when I was only…only…”

He stopped once again and made a few eerily realistic sobbing noises as he continued to rub at his eyes, which had actually begun to water up. Maybe he was getting a little too integrated into his acting at this point, but at least it helped sell his role to the group. Many of the young women were starting to get teary-eyed, and a few sympathetic ‘aww’s could be heard from them. The only one who seemed to not be buying into his story and act was Izanami, who only stared directly at him, almost as if she somehow knew what he was planning…

“U-Umm, Izanami-san? Do you think you c-could get me a change of clo-clothes, please? I’ve been wearing this ta-tattered outfit since my long journey here, and I could use something f-fresher.”

Now once the intuitive Izanami left the area, it would only be a matter of time before Toya could somehow manipulate the baking women into assisting him with the cake recipe or even getting them to do the entire thing on their own. Sure it was a little underhanded to deceive them like this, but at least most of his story was actually true, right? In fact, Toya honestly regretted speaking about his mother at all. The terrible memories of his past needed to be left alone, and hopefully this entire thing would be over before he was forced to think about the past for too much longer.

…Man, Toya really had sunk to a new level with all this. He could definitely say goodbye to his dignity at this point...

[Artemis]

Coins, coins and coins! In the days of accounts and cheques, it was actually very rare that anybody - even His Royal Highness Prince Ryou I - ever saw this many coins in one place. Feeling content for the first time since the team had first left Yukigakure, Ryou crouched over, gathering as many coins as he possibly could all while deciding exactly where to stuff all of these coins. This really was pretty awesome - Toya had actually come up with an intelligent plan for once.

“Excuse me, milady, you seem to have misplaced a large sum of money when your bag dropped to the ground. It would have been terrible to see it be blown away by the wind or looted by common thieves, so I hope you don’t mind if my companions and I lend you a hand returning it to its proper place.”

...Or not.

"Ah, silly me. I'm sorry, you three are awfully sweet for wanting to help. Here, let me get it."

Ryou's short lived happiness evaporated on the spot as the woman bent down to gather her loose change, leaving Ryou with no real choice but hand her the money he was yet to place in his pockets. Shoving it all off to her, he stood up and glared at Toya. He would have said something, but he wasn't stupid enough to get them busted. Honestly though, the nerve of Toya. The entire thing was his stupid idea, and he had been the one who was so convinced that it would actually work, and then he was the one that would go on to ruin it. What a change of heart. But then again, what could Ryou expect? Sudden changes were just typical of Toya after all.

"OH MY GOODNESS YOU'RE THEM!"

Ryou had been too busy death glaring Toya to notice what the woman was up to, and before he knew it the woman was shouting and whistling and the people who had previously been surrounding her had all suddenly appeared again out of thin air, shuffling around and making large amounts of noise like reporters at a press conference. Strangely enough, the subject of this particular press conference appeared to be Ryou and his teammates. The people with the clipboards were gazing at the three of them and then scribbling things down and checking their notes, eyeing the three of them like they were movie stars or something. But nobody was going more crazy than the woman herself - her hands were moving quickly, one second they were holding the whistle in her mouth, and the next they were doing something to the genins' clothes, long threads erupting from her fingers and completely removing all the dust from the fabric - but nothing was moving faster than her mouth.

"Oh my goodness I'm so sorry about this I told that team of Genin that this was a high class super priority mission despite it only being a D-ranked mission but I guess it just goes to show you you can't trust Genin to do anything can you well I'm glad you're here and safe nonethelss I'm sorry you were so lost and so dusty I know that the desert can be quite the adjustment for people like you if you need new clothing later then you can get some from my people no questions asked whatever you need you can have it do you need some water of course you might Akemi get them some water immediately come along now we have a lot to do and I'm so thrilled that you're all here I've been a huge fan of all of your works since the 756th Saihoushi Festival which was a total masterpiece in party planning-"

Ryou hardly caught any of her fast paced rambling. The reality of what was going on was finally beginning to sink in beyond the weird sensation of getting so much attention (Something he had never recieved, not even in Yuki). Some sort of festival or party was coming up, an the three of them were required to make the thing work or something. That was the basic gist of it, but still, there were so many bits that didn't fit. Why on earth did these people want them? Ryou wasn't going to do any work whatosever, so if that was they were after, it was totally out of the question. Maybe they wanted him to be a VIP Party Guest or something? Well, that would have been okay, but he didn't understand why Toya or Kei would fit that bill. Hmmm...

Amongst all the hubhub of crazy clipboard people, Ryou felt a soft hand being placed on his back, and he was suddenly being pushed through the crowd alongside Kei and Toya out of the small alleyway and into the midst of the city. There was alot more color and comotion here - in fact, it was pretty hard to tell that this was the same boring brown ugly Suna they had been standing in just minutes ago. The walls had all been painted bright colors, and the whole area was adorned with balloons and streamers and ribbons and the works. It really did look like there was going to be a party here; a really big party.

"It's okay everyone! Crisis averted!" the woman suddenly declared, instantly silencing all others, "The Three Prodigies of Festivals are here!"

People started clapping and applauding everywhere, all eyes set on the three confused genin. P-Prodigies? What was this woman on about? Wasn't a prodigy somebody who was really smart or talented or just naturally gifted? As awesome as he knew he was, Ryou didn't exactly label himself a "prodigy", and as for Kei and Toya, well that was like crowning a lowly penguin king of the world.

"...I think you might have the wro-"

Ryou's voice was drowned out by the volume of the crowd, so he fell silent. Oh well, this might actually be a good thing. "Prodigies" deserved good clothes, cash and food, didn't they? Maybe if they maintained this, then they would get the things that they were after. Not to mention that they had been called festival prodigies; obviously super important party guests.

"I'm so very nervous about this. It's the first Saihoushi Festival I've ever tried to throw in Suna and it hasn't been easy. I used to think back when I was active Kazekage that I should do it while I still had all the power, but I'm glad I waited until I retired. The time involved is monumental! But with you three, it should be a snap! Oh, by the way the bag you were helping me is your agreed payment: 60,000 ryou."

Indeed, he he had been right. They really wanted them at this party for whatever reason; in fact, they wanted them so much that they were going to pay them! 60,000 ryou, too! That would be enough to replace everything that he had lost plus have tons of loose change left over, and all of this just for attending a party? Ryou was grinning more than he had ever done before at this point.

The colors of the city became a blur as entire crowd moved so quickly through the vibrant scenery. After a while, Ryou was pretty sure that the colors were beginning to fade. They were... leaving the party scene? Sure enough, it wasn't long before they were standing in the middle of what looked like a construction site. A wide, dull plain with absolutely none of the village's former color, empty except for a handful of construction worker-ish people and a stack of wooden planks and a bunch of building tools. Ryou raised his eyebrows; what on earth were they doing here when they clearly had a party to attend to? The leader woman opened her mouth, it looked like she was going to explain...

"Everyone! This is Daiku Kanezashi, the Charismatic Carpenter!"

All of a sudden everybody, including the woman, were staring at Ryou like he was a superhero. Each and every one of them had their eyes on him as he tried to make sense of the words the woman had just said. Charismatic Carpenter?! They honestly couldn't mean... him? Could they?! Did he look like a carpenter? Heck, he had never touched a hammer in his entire life. Where on earth did they get that idea that he was a carpenter, and what did parties have to do with Carpenters anyway!?! Ryou looked around, begging for some kind of answer to all of his questions, but all he got was an objection from Kei and even more admiring looks.

"She's right! I'm not-"

Usually, Ryou was good at making sure his voice was so loud and clear that there never was a point where people just didn't hear him, but not today. For the second time, he was completely drowned out by the woman.

"He will be building and designing the performance stage for the festival! His works are truly art in the world of stage construction, a prodigy of design and function!"

...

"I'll be WHAT!?!" Ryou yelled, desperate to make himself heard this time. It worked... sort of.

"Now I know you said you wanted to do all the work yourself by hand, but I called up a few carpenters just in case. Oh, and that man over there is Tetsu Onoda, one of our shinobi. If you need anything at all or just need to get ahold of me, let him know and he'll take care of it. I'll be back to check on you later!"

These weren't the answers he was looking for. In fact, none of this was what he had been after. Building a stage? Heck, he didn't even know what a stage was supposed to look like, and there was no way in hell he was going to touch any of that building equipment. People like him didn't build things. That was what lowly carpenters were for. Real carpenter. But before Ryou could even open his mouth to protest, the woman who had gotten him into this mess had vanished, leaving Ryou with a bored looking old-ish man and a bunch of eager carpenters...

...Hmmm. Eager Carpenters, eh?

An idea popped into Ryou's head. He knew that he wasn't going to be building anything, and he had thought that his only alternative would have been to run away, but then there was the money. If he was in any other situation, then he would have just ditched the money too, but he was basically living in utter poverty right now and desperate times called for desperate measures. If he really was as famous and renowned as everybody thought he was, then perhaps he would be able to have a little influence over all these people. And he knew quite well that he could achieve alot with a little influence. He raised his head, pushing his untamed and overgrown hair out of his face, and smiled, looking around at all of the people still waiting for instruction with slightly anxious looks on their faces.

"Erm, sorry about the slow start," he said loudly, trying to grab their attention and admiration once more, "I was just thinking about how exactly to design this stage to the best of my ability, and all good things take time. But don't worry, I've got it. We are going to make this stage a complete work of art!"

He tried to put on a similar voice to all of the political candidates and people at those election speeches his father was always a part of. It was sort of working; some of the carpenters looked amazed, but some of the others had apprehensive looks on their faces.

"Now, as you all know, my name is uh Daichi Kazenashi!" - some of the carpenters exchanged awkward glances. Ryou bit his lip. If he was actually going to make this work, then he would have to have them trust him, and perhaps the best way to do that was to stop talking and start doing - "...and I am the Charismatic Carpenter! But to be perfectly honest, I don't know where they got the charismatic part from, because I'm a really practical person. I like to complete my constructions as quickly and as efficiently as I can. So lets get right to it! I'm going to need your help of course; if you just obey my every command as accurately and quickly as possible, we can all get out of here faster! Got that!? Alright, everybody go and get a plank of wood between two and bring it to the center here! Oh right, you, old man, bring me another plank to sit on! Sorry, Charismatic Carpenter isn't so fond of dirt..."

Ryou didn't exactly know if he had won them over yet, but hey, they were following all his orders, and that was something. The men moved quickly, displaying more stregnth in lifting wood then Ryou could even imagine. The old guy too had obeyed, bringing Ryou the plank pretty quickly and setting it down for him to sit on. It was impossible to tell if he suspected him or not from the carefree face. Regardless, Ryou sat himself down and turned towards the waiting carpenters.

"So..." one of the men said, looking at him, "What do you want us to do with these? What type of base do you have in mind?"

...Uh oh.

Ryou didn't know enough physics to know how to make any sort of functional stage, let alone an artistic and beautiful one. He had kind of expected the men to just construct it by themselves, even if he had told them otherwise...

"Uh. Well, lets see. You guys know how to make the basic base, don't you?"

There was some murmuring amongst the crowd.

"...Well we do, but last time you came up with something alot better than that. We were kinda expecting..."

Damn these people and their expectations. How dare they question him. Ryou raised an eyebrow.

"...Well how about this then. Saw up some of those planks and then create four legs. We can use those as the base and put the floor of the stage on top of that! It'll be like a table stage thing...!"

"...Uh dude, I don't know what you're thinking, but... you can't support all that weight on a stage like that. For starters, there's going to be so many performances and then there'll be a big heavy awards podium, or so I heard,"

D'oh! Ryou had to try very hard to avoid losing his temper with these people. How dare they question him, the great Daichi Kazenashi!

"Oh. I didn't know about that. Very well then, all that's left to do is the basic base then. Sorry guys, you're going to have to construct that for me now. And make it snappy. We have loads to do; all the fancy stuff all has to go on top, so lets get this base over and done with!"

There was a large pause, an awkward silence hanging over the air.

"Go!"

The once enthusiastic men were beginning to look incredibly relunctant, but nevertheless, they proceeded to saw and shape the wood, preparing to create the base of the stage. Ryou watched them, trying to think of a way in which he could make the stage look decent and like the work of a "Charismatic Carpenter", all without failing. Actually coming up with that was hard enough, and then there was the talk that Ryou began to hear between the men merely half an hour after they had started work.

"...Didn't Hana-Sama say that guy actually asked to do all the work hands on or something? Why is he just sitting there ordering us around!?! Some prodigy!"

"You got that right, remind me to never volunteer for this again!"

Ryou tried best to ignore them and their nerve. It wasn't like they could actually ditch him or anything, and it wasn't like "Hana-Sama" wouldn't pay him simply because he didn't actually do any of the work himself. Ryou closed his eyes, continuing to try and come up with a design. But even half an hour or so later, no luck.

"Dude, are you awake? We've finished your base!"

"Yes, of course I'm awake. What do you take me for? Lets see it, then..."

They had done a pretty good job, Ryou noted as he looked up. The base looked pretty amazing, completely rectangular without even a splinter out of place. But then again, this was what they all went to school for. To build things.

"Alright, good work guys. Now we're going to move onto the next stage, the floor. And then we'll work on the awnings and all tha-"

"Um, excuse me?"

Ryou blinked. They dared interrupt him?

"Yes?"

"We're exhausted! We've been working nonstop, we usually get a small break at this point. Could we have a short stop to say, use the bathroom or something?"

Ryou considered it. He knew he didn't have long to get this thing finished, but then again, if he let them go for a bit, then he would have more time to come up with a design.

"Very well. I'll give you guys ten minutes. Make sure you're back before then, alright?"

They didn't need to be told twice. They were gone before Ryou could bat an eyelid. Only the old guy remained, but he didn't even appear to be awake as he sat against the pile of remaining wood. Heaving a sigh, Ryou closed his eyes again, using his precious ten minutes to try and visualize the stage of a genius. And even ten minutes later he hadn't done it. But it didn't matter.

Even twenty minutes later still, Ryou's men hadn't returned.

Knowing now that it wasn't just his sense of time which was off, he stood up. Where on earth had those guys gone off to? It wasn't like they would ditch him; he was a prodigy! But still, not a single one of them had returned from their toilet break. Ryou's only company was still just the lazy old man.

"Oi!" Ryou yelled rounding on the man, not even bothering for courtesy, "Do you have any clue where those guys went! It's been half an hour already. I can't finish this construction by myself!"

[Artemis]

"I...uh..er...but...and...if...that...you..."

Moxie knew she didn't have the same loquacious ability her mother did, but she had never considered herself bad with words. Still, the whole scene had her completely dumbstruck. First, the famous designer didn't look anything like Moxie had expected her too. Sure her clothing was...peculiar, but it certainly wasn't fashionable. Avant garde or not, Moxie couldn't shake the feeling that her outfit had been created from randomly yanking garments off of a merchant cart.

Secondly, she was filthy. Maybe Moxie might ignore that. The desert was dusty, after all. But it looked like the girl had been trudging through the desert for days upon days. Wouldn't a famous designer travel more...cleanly? Then again, maybe not. Maybe there was something about...becoming one with the earth spirit or some crap that Moxie didn't understand.

But the final piece of confusion was Hayari's seemingly complete lack of knowledge. Obviously needles were sharp! And who dyes purple then yellow and expect it to do anything but become brown!? Any child that had ever dyed an Easter egg would know that you can't dye things like that. How could such a brilliant designer not know such rudimentary techniques!?

There was something off here. And Moxie didn't like it.

"Say, ladies." Moxie turned to the team of seamstresses. "Maybe you could get Hayari-sama something to eat or drink? It might be effecting her uh...mental acuity." Actually that wasn't entirely something to rule out; maybe she was just dehydrated. Moxie knew the dangers of that firsthand...

As the seamstresses filed out to tend to a job they were not used to doing, Moxie took a long hard look at Hayari with her single hazel eye. "Um. If you want to dye it two colors, you have to keep part of it white. Like...like this."

Chakra threads danced out of her fingers and latched onto one of the other sheets of white fabric she had brought over to the vats. She raised the fabric through the air and stiffened the sheet solid. Carefully, Moxie dipped one corner into the purple, causing it to turn a deep royal. Stiffening it again to wring out the extra dye, Moxie then hovered it over the yellow - which was now completely ruined thanks to the purple contamination - and over to a robin's egg blue, dipping the other corner. The sheet of fabric now had two colors; blue and purple.

"See? If you want more colors or different patterns you can just use those brushes." Moxie smiled then inclined her head over to a nearby table. She waited for Hayari's response, still curious as to what the true nature of this girl was.

--

Izanami watched the boy intently.
Despite the fawning of the baker women, their floury hugs leaving starbursts of white across his dingy clothing, Izanami was not fooled. She knew tears when she saw them, and these were not true tears. Tears of loss were deep and moving, tears she had seen dozens upon dozens of times living in the harsh Westlands. These were not sincere. At least, they were not timely. It seemed the pain was real but it was dull; scarred over with time. He may have lost his mother, but not recently.

Knowing that, however, did her no good. Even if he was lying about this, what purpose was there to doing it? Getting the women to touch him? A crude reason, but not an illogical one. Still, it would seem that he could get them all to do the same thing by simply impressing them with his skill. A curious conundrum indeed. Perhaps the boy was just eccentric.

"U-Umm, Izanami-san? Do you think you c-could get me a change of clo-clothes, please? I’ve been wearing this ta-tattered outfit since my long journey here, and I could use something f-fresher."

She raised an eyebrow, staring at him for a long moment inquisitively as the other girls drilled holes into her head with angry glares, wanting to take care of their new puppy-dog of a baker boy. Izanami nodded.

"Of course, Dokumi-san. I shall return momentarily."

She took several strides, her white clothing flowing around her ethereally. She shoved open the door to the street and began walking, searching for the Kyuudaime. But as she exited, a small orb of sand lifted from the ground and passed into the bakery. It floated high to the ceiling, slipping surreptitiously to the corner and slowly became a third eye. One of the Shukaku's techniques. She would not be able to hear what was going on in the bakery, but at least she could see it. Probably nothing important would happen, but she was technically in charge of his safety.

Last thing she needed was to find the boy dead because of some sort of baking blunder.

--

Tetsu Onoda was amused.
He didn't offer to help any, just watched as the skilled carpenters did their work and the boy continually yelled at them. The carpenters seemed incredulous. Not that Tetsu could blame them. The team had been hard at work for days and they had been anxious to not only see the famed carpenter, but had been looking forward to a break. No such luck though. Not only were they doing all the work, the design was hardly inspired.

A rectangle.

The boy's tirades were amusing though. He acted as if he had every right in the world to be bossing them around, and apparently the carpenters didn't feel like enduring it anymore. After half an hour, they seemed to be gone. And now the boy was turning his attention on him.

"Oi! Do you have any clue where those guys went! It's been half an hour already. I can't finish this construction by myself!"

He didn't answer right away, just watched as his left eye chilled into his Chouzetsugan, revealing his skeletal and muscular structure to him. Yep, it was as he suspected. Fading out his doujutsu, he hopped down from his pile of planks.

"Not sure how else to put this to you kid, but...you've been ditched." Tetsu chuckled, folding his arms. "But, after all, that shouldn't be a problem for you, right? You did brag to the Kyuudaime that you were going to do it all by hand. By yourself. Now you have no one to stop you."

Tetsu grinned again, picking up a toolox from nearby. He walked over the boy who had gotten his own name wrong, and set it beside him, then turned to look at him expectantly.

Yes, this boy was no carpenter. His hands were to soft and his bones too perfect and his muscles too weak. Still, he had no proof. Not yet. If the boy refused to do the work, then maybe he could do something about it. But Tetsu had a strong feeling this boy wasn't who he said he was.

Which meant that he could be a security risk.

[Artemis]

Toya hadn’t even realized just how effective his little makeshift plan would turn out. Sure he had expected some sympathy and maybe a couple tears, but now almost the entire group of baking women had flocked around him, latching onto him as if he was their only long lost son who had finally returned from a foreign land. And he had to admit that in the deepest reaches of his subconscious, he was actually kind of enjoying all of the physical contact and attention. This wasn’t exactly an everyday situation for a young, parentless boy.

"Of course, Dokumi-san. I shall return momentarily."

He could practically see fire erupting from some of the stares that poor Izanami received when Toya requested for her to go get him a change of clothes. He still felt a little guilty about taking advantage of everybody like this, but it’s not like he caused all of this craziness to begin with. He simply needed to get out of this entire situation intact and hope that his two teammates were doing the same. Ryou had probably fit right into his new prodigy job and would be happily ordering around his minions by now, and Kei… he honestly had no idea what Kei would be doing right now. As long as Hana didn’t do anything completely insane like giving the girl a job involving anything related to colors or clothing, then it wouldn’t turn into anything too horrible…

“A-Alright girls, we should get some work done before she returns. I-I know it’s probably a big disappointment that I won’t be able to let you guys use my secret recipe today, but… maybe we can still make something special for the festival.”

Toya’s mind raced as he tried to process his next move as most of the young women reluctantly began to release him and move back towards their station. He had been doing fine so far, but he still did not have the confidence to even create an average cake, much less anything worthy of such a grand event. Maybe he could continue to use these females somehow… he could apologize some other day… when he was miles and miles away from Sunagakure.

”Okay, I have just the thing to fix this mess. How about you each use your own favorite recipe and just bake that instead? Then we can have a variety of different cakes, and you will each leave your mark on making this the best Saihoushi Festival that the clan has ever seen.”

Assuming that there would be no objections to this idea, there were still several ways things could still go wrong. First of all, he would still be in charge of putting the frosting and other decorations onto the desserts when they were finished. Then there was the whole issue of Izanami actually returning with his clothes and continuing to watch over everything with her perceptive, suspicious eyes. Toya certainly would not mind getting out of these dirty, sun-baked, and now flour-stained rags though.

Seeing how much trouble he was already encountering, Toya could only imagine how his less levelheaded teammates would get through this. As long as no one ended up dead or in prison, then maybe they had a chance of leaving this sandy village and finally getting back to the snow where they belonged.

[Artemis]

"I...uh..er...but...and...if...that...you..."

Being the center of attention wasn't exactly a new experience for Kei. Back home in Yuki, just about everyone from her year at the academy had known her name, or had at least heard of her unique taste in clothes. As a result of this, Kei was used to people staring at her, and so it was no surprise when Moxie gave her a look that Kei knew very well. It was the same one she received from the other girls in Yuki every time Kei decided to show off a new outfit, a look that spelled out utter confusion and probably some jealousy in there too. It was a look of awe that Kei had learned to accept as a compliment to her fashion sense, even if after one or two instances of this, the other girls started to avoid Kei at all costs... intimidated, probably. It was just one of the many sacrifices she, the great Hayari-sama, would have to make on her road to becoming a master designer! Really, the role Clipboard Woman had picked out was perfect for Kei, she thought with a slight smile. Moxie had seemed fairly nice so far, though... even if this was really all just supposed to be an act, it would be a shame if Kei's fashion sense ended up scaring her away too.

She'd have to make sure to keep that from happening somehow...

"Say, ladies," Moxie said suddenly, turning to the seamstresses. "Maybe you could get Hayari-sama something to eat or drink? It might be effecting her uh...mental acuity."

Kei couldn't help it; she perked up immediately at the mention of food. She had been traveling in the desert for ages, after all. She vaguely remembered saying something about hating Suna and giving up all hope of ever returning to Yuki only moments ago, but it seemed more like forever. At this point, all her earlier complaints had been completely forgotten. After all, how could she hate the people of Suna after they'd been nice enough to invite her to their party?

These Suna people had an interesting idea of 'parties', however.

"Um. If you want to dye it two colors, you have to keep part of it white. Like...like this."

Like magic, a clean sheet of white fabric raised itself into the air, following Moxie's command. She dipped it into the purple, followed by blue, and Kei watched in awe as two patches of perfect color bloomed within the fabric. Moxie was even better at this than she was! Either that or the other girl was simply trying to steal the spotlight. Either way, Kei wasn't having any of it. She knew she was supposed to try not to intimidate Moxie, but... Clipboard Woman had chosen Kei to play the part of the master designer for a reason, and Kei was about to show the other girl exactly why that was.

"Exactly!" Kei beamed, snatching up another sheet of white fabric and dipping one end carefully into a shade of vivid pink. "You catch on quickly, Moxie. Maybe one day you'll be a master designer too!" A dark green was next, followed by orange. This time, Kei was extra-careful not to let the colors mix. She didn't want another repeat of the poor yellow from last time, especially not with Moxie watching her.

By the time she was done, Kei had a single sheet of fabric crammed with as much color as possible. Somehow, she'd managed to do it without spilling or ruining anything, although there were a few white spots she hadn't managed to cover... oh well, that was what the brushes were for. Kei moved over to the table Moxie had indicated, but then stopped, suddenly remembering something. That's right--Moxie!

"You should make some of these things too," Kei offered, glancing over her shoulder. "It's better to learn things by practicing them yourself. And if you're good, I might even make you my apprentice~"

There, Kei thought to herself, feeling pleased. Now that she was satisfied she wasn't going to scare Moxie away with her skills or hurt her feelings or anything, Kei plopped down on the floor before to her colorful fabric, brush in hand. She barely even waited for a response. Now it was time for the best part of this whole process... the actual designing! She still wasn't quite sure what kind of pattern she wanted, though...

Kei stared at the fabric for a few moments, thinking. Then finally, after quickly dipping the brush into the purple dye, Kei drew a a few quick strokes and then leaned back to survey her work.

"It's a penguin!"

And indeed it was. Well, the little penguin had turned out a little rounder and wider than she'd intended, it was a little smudged, and it definitely didn't match the picture she'd had in her mind, but... it was a penguin nonetheless. Kei grinned, drawing several more penguins in various places along the length of the fabric, until the penguins had dominated it entirely. Satisfied with her brand new penguin-print fabric, Kei stood and reached for another sheet of white cloth.

"The next one will have cake," she declared proudly. It was perfect; Kei hadn't been quite sure how to design the fabric before, but she'd settled for patterns of things she liked. The Suna-nin would just love it, she was sure.

After all, who didn't like penguins and cake?

[Artemis]

Ryou hadn't expected the man to answer at all, he was so slow in responding. The guy kinda just stared at him, and in the split second when Ryou's floating attention actually caught on, he could have sworn that the man's eye was as bright a blue as the skies above. But before he knew it, the neon color had receeded. Passing it off as a mere hallucination, Ryou instead watched as the man stood up, an annoyingly smart look on his aged face.

"Not sure how else to put this to you kid, but...you've been ditched."

Ryou winced. Ditched? Him, the great Daichi Kazenashi, ditched?! Did they know anything about respect for the rich and famous? How could they just run away like that? And besides, those guys were actual carpenters, they were paid to build things and they probably spent their entire life doing just that. It wasn't like Ryou had pressured them into doing anything that wasn't written in their contract. And if Ryou recalled correctly, they had actually volunteered for this. They had no right to just run away like that.

Unfortunately the old man didn't appear to be fussed. He simply picked up a toolbox and dropped it at Ryou's feet, still smiling. Ryou looked at the box and then back at the man in utter disbelief.


"How am I supposed to do it on my ow-?!"

"But, after all, that shouldn't be a problem for you, right? You did brag to the Kyuudaime that you were going to do it all by hand. By yourself. Now you have no one to stop you."

...

Well, this wasn't good. And this time, there was no way Ryou could protest.

"Alright, fine."

There really was no way around it. If the real Daichi Kanezashi had indeed said that, then he couldn't just claim that he was not physically capable of doing it. Well, he could pass off as having an injury of some sort, but then he wasn't going to get paid. He couldn't tell the guy he was merely a designer either, because he was pretty sure he had been labelled the charismatic carpenter by the woman earlier. And it looked like those good for nothing real carpenters weren't going to show, and that meant that the only option left was for Ryou himself to get building...

...This "work" thing couldn't be all that hard, could it?

More so to get the old man's suspicious (Damn, he was onto him?!) glance off him, Ryou picked up the toolbox and walked back towards the perfect rectangle of a stage. No sooner had he arrived that he dropped the box again, cursing himself, with absolutely no idea of what to do next.

The whole hammering nails thing was fine and dandy, but the problem was that he not only had to actually build something, but he also had to come up with some inspiring design. He could tell that the old coote was already suspicious from the way he was staring at Ryou, and just leaving the stage as a plain old rectangle wasn't going to do anything but hurt his chances. But then the issue remained that he already had a rectangle, and he had to turn that into something creative. And he couldn't think of anything creative that resembled a rectangle.

Ryou glanced into the toolbox, hoping that it would aid him in some way. He spotted a hammer and nails; both of which he couldn't use. The other carpenters had made the stage fairly sturdy already, it wasn't like he needed to place any more nails. He also wasn't strong enough to lift any large the planks of wood either, so nailing extra bits on was also out of the question. He'd have to get rid of bits. Ryou noted that there was also a saw in the box, but sawing anything off was also impossible. The base was fairly tall, and he didn't have enough time to saw through tons of was. He couldn't think of anything inspiring that it would produce anyway. A final tool caught his eye; a drill. He had seen them used on TV before, and standing there while it put holes in things looked pretty effortless, but what use was a rectangle with holes in it...?

...Cheese!

The thought hit him like the smell of cheese past it's use-by-date. And it was a winner, alright! That big wooden rectangle of a stage was already yellow enough, so all Ryou had to do was get that drill out and drill holes in it and he'd have the most inspiring design ever, all without actually doing anything, except starting up a drill... however that worked.

He pulled the drill out; it was alot heavier than it looked, but then again, that probably meant it was powerful. And he needed to have a powerful drill to actually get the big holes he was looking for. Excellent.

"Now, how do you turn this thing on?" he said, too caught up in his brilliant idea to remember that the old man was watching him. He fiddled around with the drill, avoiding the point end and trying to find the switch. After a few suspicious seconds of searching he found it, and promptly switched it on, completely forgetting about all the safety risks...

"Holy shit!"

He had expected only the metal part to start moving, not the entire thing. The heavy drill suddenly starting vibrating, Ryou fumbling to try and grab it with his other hand in an attempt to control the powertool. He kinda failed though, dropping the drill onto the floor where it did nothing but send loose sand flying into the air.

Ryou took a few deep breaths to try and ease the shock. Woah. That thing sure was powerful. He'd have to be more careful next time, he thought to himself as he bent down to pick the drill up again, this time in both hands.

Not risking a glance back to the old man following the ruckus he had just started, Ryou took a couple of steps towards the stage, pushing the drill against the wood while trying to maintain a firm grip on it all the while.

"...Lets get this cheese rolling!"

It was harder than he thought, trying to keep the drill still while dodging all the saw dust that came hurtling at him, but if he just kept at it, he'd surely get there at some point...

...That money was going to have his name on it, and not just literally.

[Artemis]

Toya's plan was destined for success.

Each of the girls skittered off to their stations, their eyes overflowing with tears and their hearts overflowing with sympathy. They set to work with dogged determination, flour, sugar, eggs, milk and pounds upon pounds of chocolate and fruit being mixed, whisked, and pulverized in their goal of becoming cake. Each of the girls had their own secret recipes, and they set to work using them; they would share their family secrets with all of Suna so that the great Blind Baker's name might be saved in his most difficult times.

"Dokuuuuuumi-chaaaan!"

The doors flew open to the bakery, slamming into the wall with a thunder-clap like impact. The girl standing in the doorway was an absolute vision. She had a heart-shaped face and eyes so blue they were nearly luminescent with their intensity. Her hair was a flame; brilliant striking red melted together with bright golden blonde in perfect highlights that ran throughout the tumbling curls that gathered at her shoulders. She wore a simple turquoise dress; sleeveless and strapless, an elegant garment that clung perfectly along the slopes of her sculpted body. Her heels clacked against the floor, echoing into the bakery as she ran to turn Toya around, then throw her arms around him.

"I can't believe after a full year we finally get to meet! However, I'm very very cross with you!" The soft, enveloping pressure of curvaceous bosom vanished as she stepped back, glaring sternly at him. "After all what kind of fiance visits the village of his beloved and doesn't tell her! It's bad enough you wouldn't send me a picture, but to come here and totally ignore me!-...oh my, you are delicious. Such ragged clothes though, maybe we should get you out of them..."

The girl snuggled up against him again, purring. Then shoved him.

"Wait, I'm still quite cross! I wouldn't have even known you were here if your mother hadn't sent me a letter letting me know!"

The entire bakery became instantly silent.

"Did...she just say mother?" One of the baking girls whispered. No one responded.

They were too busy glaring daggers at Toya.

--

Moxie mostly remained quiet.

She wasn't really sure how to deal with all of the chaos that Hayari-sama was creating, but it was certainly amusing. After her demonstration, she seemed to become a master dyeist, melding the colors perfectly onto the white sheet of fabric. She seemed to bounce along, declaring that Moxie should try as well.

"Um, that's all right, Hayari-sama. Unlike my mother, I don't have secret dreams of becoming a fashion designer. I don't really have the eye for it. But thank you for your advice and kind offer." It was the truth. She had better fashion sense than most people, but being creative in that department was a bit of a struggle for her. Kohana had always excelled at it with far more ease, her being more like their mother in that department. Moxie wondered if maybe her penchant for combat somehow overrode that.

She wished it were the other way around.

"It's a penguin!"

It certainly was. Sort of. It was kinda round for a penguin, wasn't it? Well, it was still very cute. In fact, after the show, maybe Moxie could make a penguin eyepatch. It'd be in style, especially after Hayari-sama's name was attached to the design. And Moxie had always had a soft spot for penguins.

"The next one will have cake!"

As Hayari went to begin dying a new piece of fabric, Moxie extended her Chakra Threads into the penguin piece. She rose it into the air and stretched it tightly then set it onto one of the wide work tables. Moxie took a brush and several bowls of the dye, and went to work making adjustments; she would draw up the threads where the penguin had been smudged slightly and then re-dye them the correct color, slipping them back together with her nunojutsu. After a few minutes, the cute round penguin had crisp, clean lines. Moxie smiled, immensely satisfied with her work.

"Um, say, Hayari-sama..." Moxie's head tipped quizically, strawberry-blonde bouncing around her shoulders. "How are we supposed to wear this?"

Even though the multi-colored penguin sheet was a bit childish, it was very cute. But it was still just that; a multi-colored penguin sheet. A simple rectangle of painted fabric. It might make a nice flag, but you couldn't really wear it. It would seem to Moxie that it would've been easier to design the cuts of the fabric first, to lay out the skirts or pants and tops, then dye it afterwards. To try and cut it now to design it into a garment might be risky...

Then again, Hayari was the genius. Maybe she should just keep her mouth shut.

The seamstresses appeared and set several plates of sandwiches on one of the empty tables. Two pitchers were also set down, one filled with water, the other lemonade.

"Please, Hayari-sama, help yourself." One seamstress said with a bow.

"Um, Moxie-san, about the designs." Another seamstress whispered.

"What about them?"

"Well, the theme is supposed to be "Desert Sunset" correct? I'm not entirely sure what a rainbow penguin has to do with it...or a slice of cake, for that matter."

Moxie frowned. She had forgotten all about the theme. Everything in the festival was supposed to follow that theme; the stage, the cake, the designs...did Hayari forget? Or was there some hidden genius to this madness?

Or was she just mad?

He felt bad about staring at Hayari, but there were many questions that still had to be answered. The seamstresses all waited, wondering.

--

Tetsu just laughed as the boy seemed to nearly shake his bones out of his skin with that drill. Too much power for such a young kid, he surmised. Still, he was sort of curious as to what he was up to. Making gaping holes in his own stage seemed to make not a whole lot of sense.

Cheese rolling...
Ah. He was making a block of cheese.
...a block of cheese?

Tetsu fished into his pocket and withdrew a tiny scroll. Unrolling it, he read through the summary of the Festival again. The theme was supposed to be "Desert Sunset." What the heck did cheese have to do with that?

Oh well. It didn't matter in the slightest to Tetsu. This would be amusing either way.

Three bursts of earth erupted, and before Tetsu could even blink, the drill was kicked forcefully away from the boy's hand. There was the shriek of steel against leather and the dangerous sharpened lengths gleamed in the bright sun. Tetsu was on his feet, his Chouzetsugan active and ready in his left eye, analyzing the enemy.

"Daiku, isn't it?"

"Ichiro sends his regards."

"And he's beginning to wonder where his money is..."

The three aimed their swords towards the boy, menacingly. "Time to pay up the debt, Daiku. No more stalling."

"Say now gents, you know drawing a sword against a civilian in Suna is a crime." Tetsu began to stride casually. One man turned away, aiming his weapon at Tetsu.

"Stay out of this old man, you're dealing with dangerous people."

"Well, you can tell me to stay out of whatever you want, but the fact of the matter is, this isn't Daiku Kanezashi. Are you?" Tetsu inclined his head to the boy. Would he keep up his facade now and risk getting skewered, or would he value his life at the risk of being discovered as a fraud.

A peculiar choice indeed.

--

"Truly sorry to disturb you, Kyuudaime-sama, I wouldn't have if I could hep it."

Hana waved it away. Standing half a dozen feet away were three young teens surrounded by several Chuunin. They weren't under arrest or bound, but the situation was clear; they were being "escorted." A safety precaution. Though Hana wasn't sure against what, their chakra signatures were below Genin.

"So they're claiming to be the Three Prodigies?"

"Yes, Kyuudaime-sama. They had identification and everything. Quite the elaborate set up. Should we have them imprisoned?"

"No, no. They're not criminals, I can see it in their faces. They're probably just some desperate travelers, lost from home from somewhere like Yuki, and they're trying to take advantage of the situation. They probably just want the money. Go send them to the youth center and give them some supplies to work with, keep them busy. Once the festival plans are over I'll sort it out."

"Are you sure, Kyuudaime?"

"Yes, quite sure. And don't pester Noriko with this, I'll take care of it all." Hana felt on the verge of tears as the Jounin saluted and began walking with the Chuunin guards to take the three vagrants away. The world was far too cruel. If it were just a little kinder, people like that wouldn't have to lie about their identities.

Hana spun around, clipboard in hand. It should be time to check in on the real prodigies now...

[Artemis]

Things simply could not have gone more smoothly for Toya and his brilliant last-minute plan. He had been on the verge of freezing up and ruining his last chance at redemption, but his sudden idea to pull the dead mother guilt-trip card was the perfect way to spur his lovely little baking subordinates to action. And they certainly were active. The kitchen was buzzing as they moved about, eagerly preparing and mixing ingredients to prepare the perfect cakes for the festival. These desserts would be perfect or his name wasn’t Dokumi Hakurikiko! …He decided not to think too deeply into that mental statement. Toya would have bigger things to worry about in about one second.

The poor genin almost jumped out of his skin as the heavy double-door collided with the wall, filling the kitchen with a thunderous roar of noise. This noise was soon followed by an equally loud shout of a female voice.

"Dokuuuuuumi-chaaaan!"

Toya slowly turned his head over his shoulder to catch a glimpse of whoever had just barged into his domain. He was supposed to be blind, but even the most sightless man in the world would turn his head when confronted with such a racket. It’s not like he was pretending to be deaf too, right?

His sight was suddenly filled with the image of an undeniably stunning girl. From the fiery-gold hair to the icy blue eyes to her dress that did nothing to hide her perfect physical features, everything fit together flawlessly to form one beauty. And as if just looking at her was not enough to get the teenaged boy flustered, the girl ran forward and practically jumped at him as her arms wrapped around him, giving him a very generous feeling of her developed body. Toya had received hugs and other physical contact from Hisui and Kohaku in the past, but they were practically family members. This was something completely different, and he simply remained motionless and silent, unable to react to the situation quickly enough.

"I can't believe after a full year we finally get to meet! However, I'm very very cross with you!"

A year? Their first meeting? Well that would certainly explain why she was still mistaking him as Dokumi, but who exactly was this girl and what was the reason for her sudden fit of anger?

“After all what kind of fiance visits the village of his beloved and doesn't tell her! It's bad enough you wouldn't send me a picture, but to come here and totally ignore me!-...oh my, you are delicious. Such ragged clothes though, maybe we should get you out of them..."

Fi-Fiance?! The real Dokumi was one lucky guy to be engaged to such an attractive young woman. Though if Toya had been in his proper state of level-headed thoughtfulness, he would have realized that it must be a politically arranged marriage for some sort of social reason. But still, who could complain with getting paired up with her? And she even complimented on his physical appearance, even though his wardrobe made him look like a poor beggar pulled of the street. His sporadic thoughts were interrupted when he found himself being pushed away from the pleasurable feeling of his “fiance’s” embrace.

"Wait, I'm still quite cross! I wouldn't have even known you were here if your mother hadn't sent me a letter letting me know!"

…

"Did...she just say mother?"

…Uh oh

Toya’s normally quick thinking had no chance of saving him this time. His mind lay in a cloudy state after being in such close proximity with the girl, and now nothing stood between him and an army of angry women. How could he possibly talk his way out of this one? He could claim that the girl had meant to say his step-mother, but that would probably seem shallow and weak. After using such a heart-wrenching story to win over the baking girls, he would need something drastic in order to keep them convinced of his sincerity.

After mulling over countless ideas and plans of action, only one remained plausible. And as painful as it would be to implement, it was his only shot at getting out of this in one piece. And with money. Taking a few steps backwards, Toya raised an accusing index finger at the girl and spoke in a loud voice.

“Just who the hell do you think you are?! Barging into my bakery with your ludicrous claims! I am not engaged to anyone, least of all you! And I find it even worse that you would claim to have received information of my whereabouts from my mother, who was… who was killed years ago!”

Turning around quickly, Toya placed both of his palms on the counter behind him and stared downward, pretending to once again go into his somber state of remembering his painful past.

“Please just go… whoever you are. The ladies and I still have a lot of work to do for Hana-sama’s festival, and we can’t let trivial matters like this ruin everyone’s efforts. I also ask that you do not make a scene as you exit.”

Would this work or simply blow up in his face? Either way, there was nothing more he could do. He would simply have to accept the consequences and deal with whatever happened from this point on. Toya continued to silently hope that his teammates were having much better luck than he seemed to be getting…

[Artemis]

"Um, say, Hayari-sama... How are we supposed to wear this?"

Kei blinked, looking up from her work. She'd been so involved in the task of dyeing and coloring the fabric that she had almost forgotten; there was more to this process than just the pretty colors. Kei was supposed to be a designer, after all...

"Hmmm..."

Kei stared at her growing pile of colored fabric, lost in thought. Moxie had raised a good point, how was anyone supposed to wear that? Kei's first instinct was to sew them all together in order to create one superlong scarf of epic proportions, but... then she remembered how much it had hurt to get pricked by that needle, and changed her mind right away. Not that she would ever admit to being scared of needles, of course. She'd just have to think of something else...

Well, if she wasn't going to put the fabric together to make an outfit, then the only other option to cut it apart. But... how was she going to bring herself to chop up penguins and cake? And the multitude of dyed colors was what made the fabric beautiful, there was no way Kei was going to cut into any of those. No, she definitely wasn't going to cut the fabric any more than she had to.

So she couldn't sew, and she didn't really want to cut anything... What else was there? Kei was suddenly left right back where she'd started, sitting next to a pile of colorful, but useless, sheets of fabric.

...Sheets.

Somewhere deep within the dark and empty space that was Kei's brain, a light switched on.

And suddenly, everything made sense with the world.

Sheets! It was perfect, why hadn't she thought of this before? Kei grabbed a pair of scissors that had been lying rather conveniently on a nearby table, snatched up the nearest cake-print sheet, and got right to work. After only a few seconds of intense, furious cutting, leftover fabric flying everywhere, Kei leapt to her feet, triumphantly holding her up her new design for the world to see.

"It's done!"

Actually, the fabric didn't look like it had changed all that much since before Kei had mercilessly attacked it with the scissors. The difference lay in the very center of the cloth, in the form of two large but rather ordinary-looking round holes placed side by side, miraculously neatly. To the average person, it may not have looked like much, but to Kei, the design was genius.

Kei herself had never taken part in such adventures, but as a child her older brothers had often told her stories of faraway villages where the children would dress up as ghosts and monsters other scary creatures one night out of every year. She didn't really remember the details, but Kei was pretty sure there was candy involved. Anyways, ever since then, she'd always wanted to try experiencing something like that for herself. But Kei had never had the materials to make any sort of scary costume, so her dream had unfortunately been left to be forgotten. But now that she was literally surrounded with resources... there was no better time!

Without waiting for Moxie's response, Kei tossed the sheet over her head, eager to try it out for herself. Peering out of the matching cut-out eyeholes, Kei turned to admire her design in the mirror. It had been just as she'd imagined! With her whole body covered by the sheet like this, she looked exactly like a scary ghost.

A rather colorful, cake-loving, scary ghost.

That was the other reason behind the design; with only two holes cut in the fabric, nearly all of the colorful cake design was still visible. Because there was only minimal cutting involved, Kei's epic design wouldn't be harmed in the slightest.

"Please, Hayari-sama, help yourself."

Kei turned, caught by surprise by the sudden sight of the seamstresses returning... with food. She flailed around for a moment, struggling to pull the fabric off herself, and then darted over to the table. Kei had almost forgotten it with all the commotion about parties and designing stuff, but... she was actually pretty hungry.

Apparently going for days in the desert without food could do that to a person, Kei mused, munching contentedly on a sandwich.

...Suddenly, the room seemed to get veeeery quiet.

Kei blinked, only now realizing that the seamstresses had been whispering amongst themselves for some time now.

"...theme is supposed to be "Desert Sunset" correct? I'm not entirely sure what a rainbow penguin has to do with it...or a slice of cake, for that matter."

...Desert Sunset?

Why hadn't anyone mentioned this to her before? Was this something she was supposed to know about? Or was it some sort of test of Kei's designing skills...? Either way, all the seamstresses seemed to be looking at her now, awaiting an answer. There was no time to think of something coherent, but she wasn't about to lose now.

Luckily, Kei and 'coherent' never seemed to get along well together anyways.

"...Well, you see," Kei began confidently, "Penguins live in the snow, which is sorta like the desert; kinda flat but sometimes not. It's just a little bit colder there. Anyways, all penguins like cake. Who doesn't? So around sunset, every night, all the little penguin families gather together and... eat lots and lots of cake." It was almost as if she'd rehearsed it; Kei seemed to have no problem with linking the two themes together right away. "Also, the sunset is colorful, which is why there are so many colors on the designs. More colors is always better! And... ghosts. Ghosts are cool, I like ghosts. They come out at night too, and sunset is almost night!"

Kei finished and leaned back, satisfied with her explanation. Somehow, there was no doubt in her mind that the seamstresses would be too.

"...Any questions?"

[Artemis]

Drilling became really tiring after the first couple of holes, and as with everything that required a small amount of effort, Ryou was on the verge of quitting within a matter of minutes. How on earth did the guys on TV manage to make it look so easy? As if the drill wasn't heavy enough, actually controlling it was quite a feat indeed. Unfortunately, in this case Ryou couldn't just quit. The money depended on him getting this thing completed.

Luckily for Ryou, there was lots of cheese out there that didn't have a tons of holes in it, so there wasn't really much drilling left. Just a couple of holes up the top, nothing too big because that was probably a safety hazard (...not that he particularly cared for the wellbeing of the people who inhabited this hell hole), and then his masterpiece was complete. Now that he thought about it, even the real Daichi Kazenashi probably couldn't come up with something as genius as cheese. It was perfect. Even if the old man had held his suspicions before, the fact that Ryou had managed to make something so artistic with such little resources and inspiration would erase any doubts that he had left.

Ryou was almost done, with only a couple of holes left to drill, when his artistic streak was suddenly halted by the sudden flurry of sand flying into the air around him as figures rose from the ground, disarming him with a combination of fast weaponry skills and the shock of such sudden movement. The drill landed at Ryou's feet, sending more and more sand hurtling into the air, but Ryou paid no notice. His heart was racing as his eyes fell on the three figures being revealed as the dust and smog cleared. Three men, all looking rather big, bulky and strong, all of them pointing their swords at him.

Ryou's first instinct was obviously panic. Ignoring the humming drill, he looked around from one murderous face to the next, trying to keep a striaght face. Who on earth were these guys and why were they here, so obviously angry at him over something? They couldn't have already guessed his true identity, could they? And even if the people from Sunagakure had worked out that he wasn't the real carpenter, then surely they wouldn't act without some sort of confirmation? Even if he had acted suspiciously, he was pretty sure there wasn't any proof. And what was more, these guys didn't look like they were from Sunagakure either. old Tetsu Onoda standing up suddenly, poised to fight, only confirmed this fact.

They weren't Sunagakure shinobi, so then, who were they?

"Daiku, isn't it?"The first man spoke. Hmm, so he was calling him Daiku, eh? Well either he was just being smart or he really didn't know who Ryou really was.

"Ichiro sends his regards."

He blinked. Ichiro? Ryou had never heard of such a person. Maybe he was somebody connected to the real Daiku. Uh oh, that could mean trouble.

"And he's beginning to wonder where his money is..."

Ryou gulped as the voices became more and more threatening. Money? Well, that could only mean one thing. Double Trouble.

"Time to pay up the debt, Daiku. No more stalling."

Debt. It was something Ryou had never ever known, and would probably never even come to know. Up until this mission, he had always had what appeared to be an endless supply of money; he had never had any need to borrow it from anyone, and he had far too much pride to actually try it even if he did run out for some reason. Unfortunately, it seemed that Daiku was in a completely different situation, and indeed that was a bit of a problem. These guys wanted their money, and they wanted it now. Ryou was pretty sure that the money he would earn from completeing the stage would cover the costs of the debt, but it looked like these guys weren't going to wait. And besides, Ryou wasn't going to hand his precious cash over anyway.

It was a very rare occurance, but for once in his life, Ryou Yutaka didn't have anything to say. But for once he'd have to say something, because these guys showed no prospect of going away without their money. But every way Ryou looked at it, he was still going to end up either broke or dead. And those were the two things in the entire world he feared the most.

"Say now gents, you know drawing a sword against a civilian in Suna is a crime."

Thanks to the sudden appearance and threats coming from these people, Ryou had forgotten completely about Tetsu's existence. That was odd; he was referring to him as a civilian of Suna. He was pretty sure that even the real Daiku was not from Suna... so why was the guy saying that? Maybe he was covering for him? That was the only possible explanation...

"Stay out of this old man, you're dealing with dangerous people."

One of the men redirected his sword towards Tetsu, who didn't even flinch. Maybe this guy was alot more talented than he let off; perhaps he could hold these guys off? If that was the case then...

"Well, you can tell me to stay out of whatever you want, but the fact of the matter is, this isn't Daiku Kanezashi. Are you?"

Tetsu's speech was calm and nonplussed, even as he arrived on those final words. Ryou bit his lip. So the guy had worked it out. Ryou wasn't sure if he had any proof or not, but he wasn't sure if denying it was the right thing to do. If he said he was Daiku, he would have to pay up or die, and if he said that he wasn't, he would probably either get arrested or killed. Although, getting arrested looked a little better than having to give away his precious money though... and Tetsu appeared strong... and fairly confident about what he was stating. If that was the case, then there was perhaps one way out of it...

"Of course not," Ryou said, almost automatically. He didn't know where he had gotten the idea to say something as far-fetched as this, nor wasn't fully aware of where it would lead, but if Tetsu played along the maybe...

He cleared his throat, turning back to look at the people who still had their swords pointed right at him. He'd have to send Tetsu a message somehow; od course this would lead him into another spot of bother afterwards, but he could always deal with that later...

"I'm not the one that oughta be arresting this unfair, overcharging group of corrupt money-lenders who just go to the legnths of stalking, blackmailing and threatening their clients in order to send their clients bankrupt. Nope. I'm not Daiku Kanezashi; this old guy is!"

He gazed at Tetsu out of the corner of his eye, hoping and praying that he had bet all of his money on the right guy.

[Artemis]

[Sorry it took so long. Long post is long @_@]

The bakery was silent. Like a tomb.
Only the hot gasping of the ovens filled the air. Every eye that had been angled at Dokumi was now transfixed on the fire-haired girl, watching her perfect beauty. At first she remained motionless, but like an eggshell, a single crack in her appearance appeared. Then another, and another, until her entire demeanor had shattered into a swirl of rage and despair.

"What are you saying! Are you saying it was all a string of lies! That I've denied myself the affection and attention from men for a year for nothing! How could you do this to me!? I have sighed over you, Dokumi-kun! Sighed, and cried, and longed and pined over you! I used to write our names together, I with your surname like when we would become husband and wife! I picked out our house! I dreamed of our children, two girls and a boy! I gave them names, I planned their futures! I was upset to find out that you were blind, but I grew to love it, to accept it! And now you would do this to me? You would ruin our golden future!?"

The girl descended on Toya like a bird of pray, her hands snapping like talons onto his shoulders and with one abrupt twist, turned him around. Her hands slipped down to his wrists, grasping them with an incredible strength. "Do you even have any idea how beautiful I am!? Do you know what kind of pleasure you're denying yourself! Let me show you."

She pulled on his wrists, aiming his palms for her breasts.

Paff!

"Eeeee!" The girl flailed backward, swiping at her eyes. Her face now bore a white slash of flour across her face, drifting into her eyes. As she moved back, another girl leapt up from the baking room, standing between her and Dokumi, spreading her arms apart protectively, facing the girl.

"I won't let you torture Dokumi-sama any longer!"

A gasp rose from the bakery. This new girl was the opposite of the first. She was thin, lanky, and narrow, whatever physical femininity she bore was hidden under her baker's uniform and apron. She had short black hair that was tied back in a blue bandana, a compact face with scowling brows and dark, serious eyes that beguiled power; a power only earned from years and years of hard work and suffering. If her face weren't so stern, she might be cute.

"Uggh! What're you doing!? Stay out of my love life!"

"How dare you speak of love! What could a woman like you know of love!"

The flame-haired girl wiped all of the flour from her face. "Who are you! What are you doing?"

"My name is Kona Naresome. When I was a young girl, I saw a picture in a magazine of Dokumi-sama's very first cake. I marveled at it. We were both six at the time, and I couldn't even make a clay cake, and here he had made something so beautiful and delicious. I didn't know anything about him, I didn't know his name, I didn't now he was blind, I didn't know what he looked like, but I fell in love with him from the purity of his cake. From that day on I have worked hard every day, becoming a baker and toiling hard. I'm not a genius. I'll never catch up to Dokumi-sama's skill, but I work to improve myself each and every day hoping that someday I will gain the skill to show him my love through a cake of my own."

"Stop it! You're saying nonsense!"

"No! You are the one speaking nonsense! You don't understand his heart at all. A baker doesn't care about a golden future with houses and weddings and children with bright futures. Someone like you who only uses her body to earn love will never understand. A baker only understands cake. If you can't show your love through cake, then you're worthless!"

"I'll show you worthless!"

The fire-haired girl whirled around and grasped a wayward rolling pin, hefting it in both hands like a baseball bat, her heels clattering as she charged. Kona's quick hands flashed, and a kitchen knife appeared, glinting in the bakery light like a pure silver fang, her stance low as she prepared to strike.

Deep within Suna, Izanami was running as fast as she could. No one seemed to know where these clothes were, and she had drifted too far in search of them. Now these crazy women were about to kill each other, and perhaps Dokumi. She had to get back, now.

--

Moxie was befuddled.
Ghosts? Penguins? Sunsets? Night?
Was she...serious?

The seamstresses were buying it, hook, line, and sinker. They laughed and delighted, looking at the ghost costumes with admiration and awe. They took turns trying them on, making "woooo~" sounds and trying to scare each other through peals of laughter.

Moxie just shrugged. Well, if her mom wanted to have a parade of technicolor ghosts, what was she going to argue? Besides, this actually made some of the work easier; she and Kohana had dressed up as sheet-ghosts for Halloween the year before, and she was pretty sure she still had that one.

"Hey, Hayari-chan, I have one just like this! Let's see if we can find it."

She took Hayari by the hand and pulled her into her bedroom.
Bad idea.
She had forgotten that it was once again a complete mess, like someone had unleashed a tornado jutsu inside while opening up all of her drawers. Clothes raised in piles like small mountains, the room of her floor a colorful topography map of fabric. Moxie laughed sheepishly.

"I pulled it out the other day. Should be in one of these piles...sorry, it'll only take me a second to find." Moxie plunged her hands into the first pile, shuffling it all around.

For the first few minutes, she found nothing. And more nothing. And some more nothing. By the time she got near the bottom of the first pile, she was beginning to think that maybe it would be faster to just start over with a new sheet. Throwing countless dresses, shirts, pants, shorts, and scarves into the air was just a waste of time. She moved a sock out of the way, revealing a magazine cover.

Fashion-hime!November Issue
Secrets Revealed!: Exclusive interview with Hayari!

"Huh, that's weird." Moxie picked up the magazine, flipping through to the page with the interview. "It's-"

Moxie froze. Spread across the magazine was the interview in delicate black text, floating above a picture of Hayari.

No. No no no. Not again.
This was a plot. They were trying to get her again, they wouldn't leave her alone, leave her family alone, leave Suna alone...they weren't going to stop, were they? They were going to keep sneaking their way past their defenses and try and pluck her away again and again and again. They wouldn't stop until they had her, or until she was dead.

She wasn't about to die.
Moxie pushed up the headband over her left eye.

With one spin of her hands, the disaster zone of her room had become her weapon. Chakra Threads lanced out and gathered up garments, springing them to life and swiping towards the fake-Hayari, attempting to compress her. Moxie didn't want to hurt her, just hold her. For now.

"Who are you!" Moxie demanded. Her golden left eye darkened and bled, transforming horrifically into the Sasayaki state Kyoumougan; a black eye with a red pupil, demonic and hungry. The future opened up to Moxie as she memorized this fake Hayari's chakra signature, ways to kill her, herself, and both of them flooding her mind.

"And don't even think of lying!"

--

"Ah, crap."
The kid had more wits than he gave him credit for.

The first attacker moved immediately, snapping his hands through seals. He'd used earth again, undoubtedly. Tetsu decided to run, test his range. As he moved, the first spear-like slice of earth erupted from the ground, trailing just behind him. Another followed, and another, a continuing trail of slicing shards of earth barely missing him at each step. Tetsu couldn't really be hurt by them, of course, but he might as well use this to his advantage. The key would be surprising them, and to do that he had to look like he lost.

He aimed himself at the stage, bounding onto it. The earth continued to stab up at him, now splintering the stage into oblivion as he ran across it. He just needed to get out of sight...as Tetsu reached the end of the stage, he dropped low behind it.

Now.

He cloaked himself with Phasing chakra and ran the other way, through the earth ridge that was forming. In the blink of an eye he had passed through to the other end, right next to the attacker. His eyes widened with surprise and confusion as Tetsu leapt at him, hand extended. The old man passed through him as well, swiping at his heart, solidifying his fingertips just long enough to create two neat holes in his body, where blood poured through. He collapsed, clutching at his chest, still confused, still surprised.

Two left. Number two would get to live. Always good to keep one alive for questioning. If you keep two alive then kill three in front of him, he'll be too scared to resist anymore. Always worked.

Dirty business, killing was.

Two went down with another swipe of his hand, severing his kneecap and forcing him to the ground. Tetsu didn't watch, he just kept running, charging at number three. His eye began to shift, cooling into a Chouzetsugan, then becoming darker, angular.

Hanbusshitsu Chouzetsugan.

With a flutter of handseals, Tetsu waved his chakra over at number three, configuring it for the opposing phase boundary. In a flash, number three was gone. Literally gone as his atoms lost cohesion, splitting apart into dust.

Number two was whimpering, as planned. But Tetsu was tired. The Hanbusshitsu needed a lot of chakra, and he was simply getting too old for this...

"Oh no, what happened! Is everyone all right!? Oh goodness, your stage! This is horrible!"

The next moments were frantic. With a stomp of her foot and the slip of her hands, Hana equalized the earth, shoving the spikes back into the ground. The stage collapsed without the stone intrusions to hold up the shambled wood, falling to pieces. ANBU leapt in, swarming on the injured attacker and dragging him away before Hana could even spare a moment to look at him. The Kyuudaime was too busy hugging the carpenter tightly, as if he were a small child who had just seen something horrible.

"I'm so sorry sweetie, after all your hard work...well, looks like we need to protect you better. No more work for you. We'll have the carpenters finish this up while you rest. You must be frightened. Come on, come on, let's get you settled."

Across from where the stage once stood was the VIP bleachers; long rows of tables and chairs faced the stage area, rising like a stadium. The tables were draped in rich red tableclothes with golden napkins and delicate crystal glassware. Each place was marked with a card with golden script, displaying the name. Daiku's glinted gently. The chair was was luxuriously comfortable, and the seat was cool and sheltered from the beating sun.

It was also surrounded by three ANBU. Hana spoke sternly to one of them.

"He's not to move an inch from this chair until I get back. You do everything for him, including go to the bathroom. Understood?"

The ANBU nodded. Hana turned to Daiku. "Okay sweetie, you just rest here okay? If you need anything, just ask Miko."

She motioned to Miko. She was a cute girl in a sky-blue maid outfit, chocolate hair flowing in gentle curls around her shoulders and eyes like champagne; light and sparkly. Hana began walking away when one of her assistants caught her.

"Hana-san, we still need a decision on the seating arrangements for the daimyo of Yukigakure."

Hana groaned. "I know...I've been putting it off. He's a nice enough man but that wife of his is a piece of work that I'd rather not have to endure. Did they say they were coming themselves or sending an envoy?"

"Their response didn't say."

"Rats. Well, put them in the far back corner, just in case. I'd rather be safe than sorry."

[Artemis]

Toya could feel the pounding of his heartbeat reverberating in his chest as he waited to see how the girl would react to his little performance. In the best-case scenario, she would storm out either crying or in a rage, leaving him and his helpers alone to finish these stupid cakes in time for the festival. Unfortunately for him, nothing seemed to be going his way today. Apparently this young woman’s stubborn pride had a few things to say about all of this.

"What are you saying! Are you saying it was all a string of lies! That I've denied myself the affection and attention from men for a year for nothing! How could you do this to me!? I have sighed over you, Dokumi-kun! Sighed, and cried, and longed and pined over you! I used to write our names together, I with your surname like when we would become husband and wife! I picked out our house! I dreamed of our children, two girls and a boy! I gave them names, I planned their futures! I was upset to find out that you were blind, but I grew to love it, to accept it! And now you would do this to me? You would ruin our golden future!?"

He wasn’t sure whether he thought this girl and her plans for her future were sweet and sentimental or simply… well, psychopathic. I mean how the hell could anyone possibly respond to something like that? Toya didn’t think that a simple ‘Yeah sorry, this is all a big understanding’ would make everything better, but no proper responses were formulating in his mind. Before he could decide on a game plan, the girl had practically charged him, spinning him around and gripping his wrists in a surprising feat of strength.

"Do you even have any idea how beautiful I am!? Do you know what kind of pleasure you're denying yourself! Let me show you."

Ironically, he knew exactly just how beautiful she was. And if she hadn’t revealed herself to be so obsessive and crazy, he might actually be regretting the fact that he wasn’t the real Dokumi. And now, before he even realized what was going on, his hands were being forcefully pulled directly towards the girl’s well-developed chest. What the hell?!

The sound of a soft object impacting against the girl’s face and the sight of a white powdery substance filling the air around them flooded Toya’s senses. He quickly took a step back, pulling his arms backward as the girl began rubbing the flour out of her eyes.

"Eeeee!"

Huh? Who had just…?

"I won't let you torture Dokumi-sama any longer!"

Standing before him as his apparent savior was one of the several young women who had been assisting Toya in the bakery. While she was lacking much in the field of raw feminine beauty compared to the other girl, she was certainly not unattractive. Plus, she at least had the common sense not to inundate her wardrobe with a variety of mismatched colors like a certain female shinobi he knew…

"Uggh! What're you doing!? Stay out of my love life!"

Exactly where did something like love fit into all of this madness?

"How dare you speak of love! What could a woman like you know of love!”

Finally someone was starting to talk some sense around here…

"Who are you! What are you doing?”

"My name is Kona Naresome. When I was a young girl, I saw a picture in a magazine of Dokumi-sama's very first cake. I marveled at it. We were both six at the time, and I couldn't even make a clay cake, and here he had made something so beautiful and delicious. I didn't know anything about him, I didn't know his name, I didn't now he was blind, I didn't know what he looked like, but I fell in love with him from the purity of his cake. From that day on I have worked hard every day, becoming a baker and toiling hard. I'm not a genius. I'll never catch up to Dokumi-sama's skill, but I work to improve myself each and every day hoping that someday I will gain the skill to show him my love through a cake of my own."

Okay, so much for the whole talking sense thing. Apparently this second girl was just as much of a nut job as the fiancée girl. Why the hell did this Dokumi kid have such insane women chasing him all over the place?!

"Stop it! You're saying nonsense!"

Damn right. But then again, they had both been speaking an equal amount of craziness.

"No! You are the one speaking nonsense! You don't understand his heart at all. A baker doesn't care about a golden future with houses and weddings and children with bright futures. Someone like you who only uses her body to earn love will never understand. A baker only understands cake. If you can't show your love through cake, then you're worthless!"

"I'll show you worthless!"

Okay, now things were starting to get out of hand. His ‘fiancee’ had picked up a rolling pin and looked like she was ready to bludgeon the poor baker girl to death. But now Kona was wielding a dangerous-looking cooking knife and had lowered herself into a battle-ready position. Well fake identity or no fake identity, Toya couldn’t just stand around and watch these two girls kill each other. He would be risking the 60,000 ryou to help them get out of this village and possibly get himself into massive trouble with Hana and the Suna authorities, but that was no excuse to ignore this situation.

Taking two quick steps forward, Toya instantly positioned himself directly between the two charging females. In the same motion, he had lifted both of his arms in order to disarm them. With his right hand, he simply grabbed onto the rolling pin as it slammed into his palm, easily pulling it away from the redhead’s weak grip. He barely felt the impact, due to a combination of the girl’s lack of power and his own physical prowess. With his left hand, he had to perform a more complicated maneuver. His index and middle fingers wrapped agilely around the knife’s small handle as his other fingers pressed against Kona’s to loosen her grip, transferring the knife into his own well-trained hand. Small bladed weapons were his forte after all, and this was his first time holding one since the bandits confiscated all of their equipment back on the ship.

“Alright, all of you calm down and listen for a minute. I think I can settle all of these problems, though I doubt any of you will be happy about what I am about to say…”

Toya let out a sigh as he tossed aside the rolling pin, though he decided to keep the knife gripped tightly in his left hand… just in case. If anything went wrong, it would be nice to finally have a weapon at his side. Fists and wind techniques could only get him so far if he needed to fight any Suna shinobi at some point.

”The truth is, I’m no baking prodigy. This Dokumi guy is still probably somewhere in Suna wondering why Hana-san has not picked up him and his companions yet. She accidentally pulled me here by mistake, and I never had the chance to explain myself. I had hoped to simply get through this job without causing any problems and then simply leave afterwards with no harm done. Obviously, things spiraled out of control…

Making up intricate lies had already backfired on him several times, so maybe this time the simple truth could actually work. He made sure to start speaking again before anyone in the room could interrupt.

”I’m actually a genin from Yukigakure, Toya Nanaya. My teammates and I were captured by a group of roaming bandits and taken to a foreign island. We managed to escape and acquire a ship, but we somehow ended up in these lands. Some kind merchants managed to save us before we died in the desert, but even in this village we had no access to any food, water, or money. So I apologize for deceiving you all, even if I was only trying to save my team and return to our homeland. Even that is not an adequate reason to do this to honest people like Hana-san, Izanami-san, and all of you. I understand if you cannot forgive me, but there was no point in hiding this any longer. Again, I am sorry for all of this trouble and confusion.”

Toya’s fate was now thrown at the mercy of these women, with nothing left to defend him. If worse came to worse, he would simply have to flee and fight his way out of the village. One genin trying to escape from an entire shinobi village… this would not end well for him if he was forced down that path. Hopefully Kei and Ryou would still be safely concealed under their false identities and manage to get out without this much trouble.

[Artemis]

"Ah, crap."

That wasn't the reaction Ryou initially expected. He had figured that the guy would either deny Ryou's claim or happily admit it and launch an attack. But then again, he had forgotten all about the rogue ninja, so he hadn't forseen their strike on Tetsu. Ah well, if they were willing to make the first move, then the old man had no choice but to fight back. It made Ryou's job alot easier.

...well, it would have, provided old Tetsu didn't die in the process.

Unfortunately, the old man's pathetic oldness became apparent as the first man moved forward to make his attack. Ryou was already having second thoughts about the whole plan - of all the people in the world, he just had to go and leave his life in the hands of a useless old man - but still, Tetsu's response stunned even him;

...The guy just made a break for it.

Watching a middle aged man ran for his life from three madmen and a whole line of swift needles of sand would have been amusing, had the situation been different. But in this case, if Tetsu were to kick the bucket, then Ryou would probably have some explaining/dying to do, and he wasn't too keen on doing just that. He bit his lip as he watched each spear narrowly miss Tetsu, wondering how much longer it would be until Tetsu got caught, and debating over whether to clear off himself.

Thok!

The old man had leapt onto the forgotten stage, a move which Ryou could tell from the get-go was not a good thing. Sure enough, the spears of sand didn't just stop there, following Tetsu through the stage, shredding at the carefully crafted wood until all that remained in Tetsu's tracks was a pile of splinters. Tetsu seemed to take no notice however, and kept running and running and running and... then he fell.

...

For a second there, it looked like Tetsu was actually pretty talented, managing to run away so effortlessly for such a long time. But as the aging hunk of junk reached the end of the platform, his rusty balance evidently gave way, as the man vanished to the side of the stage. Precious seconds passed where nobody stirred; Tetsu's perpertrators obviously in the same mindset as Ryou. It appeared that Tetsu had indeed fallen to his downfall, and now it seemed that Ryou had no way out except to run.

Turning on his heel, Ryou bolted. If Tetsu wasn't already somehow dead from the fall, then those guys were certainly going to finish him off. And after that, there was a chance that they'd come for him. And even if they didn't, Ryou didn't exactly want to be caught at the scene of the crime. And also, if he managed to get far enough away from the place, then there was a chance he could escape with his identity still in tact...

"Arrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

Before Ryou could even make it a couple of feet, A shrill scream pierced the air, ringing loud above the howling winds. It wasn't that he hadn't expected such a sound - but surprisingly, the voice wasn't Tetsu's. Ryou felt his feet root to the spot as the debtseeker's voice filled his ears, unsure of whether or not to turn around. Curiosity got the better of him, and so he turned his head around.

And then wished he hadn't.

The first of the three men was on the floor, his eyes staring into oblivion. It was clear that he was dead, but it perplexed Ryou as to how the man didn't seem to have a single injury on his body. He looked around; the second man was on the floor, whimpering like a frightened child. And as for the third, he was gone. There was no trace of him anywhere. But Ryou could have sworn that he was the one who had screamed... and nobody could possible clear the scene that fast... H-How...? ...And who?!

Tetsu was the only person still standing. Could it be that....?!

"Oh no, what happened! Is everyone all right!? Oh goodness, your stage! This is horrible!"

Before Ryou even had a moment to react to the power of the scene in front of him, the woman who had gotten him into this mess in the first place had reappeared, accompanied by a large group of people who appeared to be ANBU. Ryou didn't even get a chance to speak, or even just react at all before the woman had thrown her arms around him, pulling him into a very tight hug.

"I'm so sorry sweetie, after all your hard work...well, looks like we need to protect you better. No more work for you. We'll have the carpenters finish this up while you rest. You must be frightened. Come on, come on, let's get you settled."

None of these words really sank in. Ryou's mind was a complete blur. He had no idea what was going on; what had just happened, and what was going on now? Wasn't anybody going to do anything about Tetsu, or even Ryou for his own eyewitness account? Wasn't this woman supposed to be some kind of village leader? Why on earth was she acting like she was his mother? Still holding him awkwardly close, she led him away from the wreakage of the stage and towards the place where the festival was evidently going to take place. The area had a nice set-up - reminiscent of all those political functions that Ryou had attended with his father in his childhood. The woman beckoned Ryou towards a chair, making sure that he sat down before she released him.

"W-wait... what's going on?!" Ryou asked her, looking from her to the large men - more ANBU Ops - who surrounded the chair.

"He's not to move an inch from this chair until I get back. You do everything for him, including go to the bathroom. Understood?"

What peculiar instructions, Ryou thought to himself. He wasn't sure of whether to feel like a prisoner or a celebrity at that point, but wasn't particularly fussed. He noted the golden plate that sat in front of him; the name of Carpenter was embedded on it. Hmm, that meant that they still hadn't worked out his identity. And with the pathetic stage now in ruins, then the truth about Ryou looked like it wasn't going to come out, provided Tetsu (...Wherever he had gone) didn't talk. Ryou breathed a sigh of relief; maybe things weren't so bad after all. He forced a smile and looked back at the woman; if he could somehow get through this festival without blowing it, then maybe he would be able to walk out both alive and with the money.

"...Alright, I'll stay put. Thanks, by the way..."

"Okay sweetie, you just rest here okay? If you need anything, just ask Miko."

And with that, the woman walked away, leaving Ryou with the small group of tough looking ANBU members and Miko, who it turned out was a very pretty looking young maid with beautiful ringlets in hair hair. Ryou wasn't much of a flirt or anything, but woah, she was kinda cute. Well, he had nothing better to do other than wait here, so...

"Heya... what's u-"

"Hana-san, we still need a decision on the seating arrangements for the Daimyo of Yukigakure."

Ryou had been too preoccupied with Miko to catch the most of what was being said to the Leader Woman a couple of feet away, but there was no way that even the lures of a cute maid could distract him from the final few words uttered...

Daimyo of Yukigakure

"F-Fathe-!"

Ryou had to actually clap his hands over his mouth to shut himself up. His father?! Coming all the way over here for this festival? Th-that was... excellent! If his father came here, then he could just beg to get taken back home and he wouldn't have to be stuck out here with Kei and Toya anymore (...He'd remember not to mention that the two of them were stranded out here too), and he could go back to his normal life. Of course, that would involve admitting who he really was, but nobody in their right mind would want to put him - The Daimyo's Son - in jail. All he had to do was stick around here until his father arrived!

"I know...I've been putting it off. He's a nice enough man but that wife of his is a piece of work that I'd rather not have to endure."

Ryou sniggered. Heh, that woman did have a point.

"Did they say they were coming themselves or sending an envoy?"

"Their response didn't say."

"Rats. Well, put them in the far back corner, just in case. I'd rather be safe than sorry."

Looking away from the woman and her assistant, he turned back to Miko. Well, there was a small chance they weren't coming, but when did his stepmother ever pass up a chance to show off to the heads of foreign countries? It was how she met his father, after her relationship with some other Daimyo had ended. Heh.

"So..." he said to Miko, trying his best to hold in a laugh "This Daimyo of Yukigakure? Do you know why he's coming? I think I worked with him doing a job once... I thought people who lived up in the snow didn't like coming to places like this much.."

[Artemis]

Everything was going perfectly.

Granted, Kei still wasn't all too sure why she was even here in the first place, but trying the decipher the meaning behind the odd Suna customs and the preparations for the upcoming awesome party was the last thing on her mind at the moment. She was having fun. Actual fun. And while by now Kei was sort of known for being able to enjoy herself and being able to squeeze even a tiny bit of 'fun' out of the bleakest and most serious situations, the last few days had been anything but fun for Kei. Getting attacked by bandits, escaping from said bandits, beating up said bandits... Well okay, beating up the bandits had been pretty fun, she had to admit.

But still.

The seamstresses hung on her every word. They were talking and laughing, and admiring her designs; here in the sewing room, Kei was the center of attention.

And she was loving every minute of it.

It wasn't that she was never the center of attention in Yuki, quite the opposite in fact. But the way the people there, even her own teammates, observed her antics had felt... different, somehow. Colder. They'd certainly been quieter than the people here; as if they were separate from her, just observers. Here though, Kei was part of the group.

"Hey, Hayari-chan, I have one just like this! Let's see if we can find it."

Before she knew it, Kei was standing in what seemed to be Moxie's bedroom (though most of it seemed to be buried under rainbow mountains of fabric, not at all unlike Kei's own room, she realized suddenly), waiting patiently while the other girl dug through her belongings, searching. Kei glanced around the room, taking in her new surroundings absently. For a few moments it was quiet; then suddenly there was a blur of color and movement.

In an instant, everything changed.

Before Kei had time to process what was happening she was trapped, a thick layer of fabric now restricting her movements. Moxie, Moxie who had been so harmless earlier, friendly even, if not a little boring, had suddenly transformed.

"Who are you!"

The headband that had previously covered her left eye was gone now, revealing instead... a black eye, with a single red pupil in the center. Kei blinked.

"And don't even think of lying!"

Moxie's voice was demanding; angry. Anyone else in the same situation might have been frightened of her right now, but not Kei. She was startled, yes. But not scared. After all, this wasn't the first time Kei had seen eyes like that...

Mostly, though, Kei was confused. And hurt. Where were these questions coming from? What had she done to offend Moxie so badly that she felt the need to threaten Kei? Hadn't everything been going just fine between them a moment ago? More importantly, how was she supposed to answer this? Was it all just some sort of test...? Kei's confusion gave way to anger as she struggled against the confines of her fabric prison.

"Is this a trick question?" she demanded instantly, returning Moxie's glare fiercely. "Because I could ask the same thing of you. What's wrong with you--all of you!? At first I was fine with getting dragged into your whole designer party thing, I even played along with it like everyone seemed to want me to, but this is going too far. You can't just tie people up and threaten them--" Kei flailed against the fabric again to make a point, "--without at least explaining why first! You people are the ones who started calling me Hayari out of the blue, don't blame me for it if you've suddenly changed your mind." She paused, thinking for a moment. "...Actually, you can't change your mind. Guess what? I quit being Hayari. I'm just Kei now, so let go already."

[Artemis]

"I’m actually a genin from Yukigakure, Toya Nanaya. My teammates and I were captured by a group of roaming bandits and taken to a foreign island. We managed to escape and acquire a ship, but we somehow ended up in these lands. Some kind merchants managed to save us before we died in the desert, but even in this village we had no access to any food, water, or money. So I apologize for deceiving you all, even if I was only trying to save my team and return to our homeland. Even that is not an adequate reason to do this to honest people like Hana-san, Izanami-san, and all of you. I understand if you cannot forgive me, but there was no point in hiding this any longer. Again, I am sorry for all of this trouble and confusion."

Silence. Dead silence.

Both girls seemed flabbergasted. Confused. The admiration that twinkled in their eyes immediately dimmed, and they now observed Toya as if he were some sort of rare snake or a new kind of sand they hadn't seen before. Not repulsed or afraid, just curious.

"...yanno, I was kinda wondering when you lost all that weight."

"Weight!?"

Kona nodded. "Mmhmm. I said I hadn't seen a picture of him when I first fell in love with him but I've seen one since then. The guy is huuuuuge. I mean, he sits around and works on cake all day, he has to be right?"

"But you're so trim and cute! Not all bakers are fat."

"Aw, thanks. Well I try to watch my intake. Just a sliver every day is enough to keep me from going cake-crazy you know what I mean?"

"Totally! I wish I had your self-control, I'm a total pig."

"Now that's insane; you're gorgeous! Look at you, all curvy and vibrant. Your hair is so amazing, I could never pull it off."

"Oh, well, thank you but my butt is too big. And my hips are like the size of a pull-cart."

"Stop, they are not! Mine are worse; you could slide me through prison bars I'm so narrow."

"You can't bemoan the body you have, you just have to work it better. Kona, did you say? I'm Yumi!"

"Oh, nice to meet you Miko-chan. Do you...think you could help me?"

"Of course! Only if you let me have some cake though."

"Deal!"

The girls walked around Toya, almost as if he were just an inanimate obstacle like a coat rack or a barrel of flour, and strode hand in hand down to the bakery floor. The rest of the bakers were already boring into their work; if the blind baker wasn't there to save them, then they would have to work twice as hard, just in case. Hana-sama was not someone you disappointed, and it was certainly not their job to find the real blind baker. All they knew was cake, and it would be cake they would make.

Toya, it seemed, was free.
The doors exploded off their hinges as an avalanche of sand erupted through them. It surrounded Toya in half-a-heartbeat and enshrouded him in a shifting, floating tomb, rising steadily above the ground, completely bound.

"What a fascinating story, Toya Nanaya. I'm sure the Kazekage will find it fascinating as well."

--

Moxie knew all.
Every possibility was crisp in her mind, ready to be drawn out from a million others. What Hayari said didn't surprise her. It couldn't surprise her, it was one of the options her Kyoumougan had given her, one of the ways it could happen. She was totally ready for this.

Really, she was.

Really.

...what the crap!

"You...but...and...I...didn't...and....then you...but if...I can't..."

The clothes fell away from Kei, the eye swirled from demonic to gentle gold as Moxie's arms just draped at her side. Her brain was broken. Logic was upside down. This girl was either crazy or a genius or possibly both. Maybe she was the greatest genjutsu user, manipulating her mind without a single bolt of chakra. Or maybe she was just completely clueless.

Moxie had no way to know.
What she did know was that her chakra was only Genin level, and therefore she couldn't be that much of a threat. She let out a sigh.

"Okay. So you're not Hayari. You're...Kei? Good grief, mom's going to be pissed." Moxie considered her options a moment. Part of her wanted to let Kei send the first rainbow penguin ghost sheets into the Saihoushi Festival. It'd certainly be memorable, and it'd teach her mom to drag her into doing these things again. But on the other hand, this was mega-important to mom, and she didn't really want to crush her.

Plus, if it were ruined, she'd probably never stop complaining.

"Come on, Kei-chan. We should probably go get this sorted out with my mom."

--

The lovely Miko purred, leaning in. She legitimately found this rugged boy to be overwhelmingly attractive.
"Well, cutie, I don't know much about Yuki, but-"

Thwack!

Ryou had no recourse when the two ANBU pounced on him, slamming his face into the table roughly before dragging him away.

--

The three were taken up to an observation office.

It was a lovely office with lovely furniture and lovely cool air. Air conditioning was pricey in Suna, but the Kyuudaime could afford it. One of the few extravagancies she indulged herself in.

Through the windows of the lovely office, they could see down to where the wrecked stage was. A single man stood in front of the debris, studying it's shape and size, shaking his head to himself. His hands suddenly began to cycle through brisk handseals.

"Mokuton!"

A new stage began to grow out of the ground, this one extravagant and beautiful. Legendary, even.

"Oh, so that's how he does it...seems like cheating a bit, don't you think?" Hana held two slender fingers to her lips, watching the real Daiku work on the stage. It seemed that the second set of Prodigies had been the real ones; they had worked quietly on their projects from within the Academy. Hayari had sketches, as did Daiku.

Dokumi had made a cake out of play-dough. Hana didn't want to know if he had eaten any of it. A boy that large probably didn't think twice about it, and really, she didn't want or need to know.

"Sort of like, say, accepting the identities of some convenient people when a ditzy ex-Kazekage flies by, right? Well, fortunate for us, two of you cracked. My festival is safe, and, so is Suna." Hana turned to face them, her arms crossed. The four of them were alone; no ANBU, no guards, no Izanami, Tetsu, or Moxie. It wasn't like the three of them, Yuki Genin or not, could begin to touch her combative prowess. Besides, Hana was never one to start unpleasantries when there were other ways around it.

She looked at each of them more carefully this time. They all had the faint hint of sunburn, their bodies ragged and tired. Medically speaking, they seemed a bit underweight; as if they had been going a long time without daily food or water. Their hands were callused, their hair dry and cracked.

Their eyes were strong. Strong as if they had endured too much.

"So, I have to ask. Yuki? Seems a bit of a ways from here, don't you think? Are you on an official mission, or just sight-seeing?" Hana kept her face bent at an angle, sharpening her features. It was a trick she had picked up raising the triplets; if she moved her head just so they seemed to cringe in total fear. She spoke with a firm tone, trying to convey as much authority as she could, trying to make the message clear:

You're in Suna and you've been caught.
Screw with me, and you'll be in pain.

[Artemis]

"Well, cutie..."

Ryou Yutaka owned alot of things that most kids his age couldn't even dream of affording, but in all of his fifteen years, he had never once been in love. But that was about to change there and then; and boy, did love feel pretty damn good. Miko's painfully adorable face was dangerously close to his own as she spoke in a seductive yet cute tone. He looked her in the eye; completely forgetting about his father and the fact that he was pretending to be someone else whilst being stranded in the middle of a freaking desert. None of that mattered anymore; he was about to score himself a girl! And woah - her lips were pretty close...

"I don't know much about Yuki, but-"

Thwack!

-----

"W-Where am I?"

Where there had just been a refreshing breeze, there was now the stale air of a high up room, occasionally faltered by the gust of an air-conditioner far inferior to the one he had at home. Ryou opened his eyes slowly. He certainly wasn't still at the festival grounds, indeed he was in some room. It looked like a trendy office, belonging to somebody both fashionable and important, certainly not a place he knew...

No... that couldn't be right! Ryou rubbed his eyes; just a second ago he was talking to the girl of his dreams and now he was in some place he didn't even recognize. It had all happened in a blink of an eye, almost like a...

"No! She was about to kiss me! It couldn't have been a drea- OW!"

His hand shot to the back of his head as a throbbing pain came searing in, bringing him the truth of the matter with it. Now he remembered... He had been in the midst of an intimate conversation when one of the ANBU Guards who had been standing next to him had suddenly clobbered him in the head, knocking him unconcious. Of course, it wasn't like the entire thing made sense now though, because Ryou still failed to understand why somebody would just randomly beat him like that without reason. He hadn't done anything wrong - except maybe faking his identity and all, but still, there was no way they could have worked that out. Not unless...

"Kei! Toya!"

Ryou looked around, taking into full view the other inhabitants of the room. Damn, and for a while there, he had blissfully forgotten of their existance. Not that that had him forgive them or anything. He folded his arms, glaring at his two so-called "teammates".

"...You guys didn't, did y-!?!" he hissed, only to be cut off by a different voice, scarily more threatening than his own.

"Sort of like, say, accepting the identities of some convenient people when a ditzy ex-Kazekage flies by, right?"

The voice was famililar; "Hana-Sama" the kindly woman who had taken them in as the three prodigies, but the tone wasn't. Her voice was stern, authorative, like a mother that actually knew how to do her job (Not that Ryou would actually know about that). She turned her around, her arms coming to a cross that had Ryou unfold his own. Ex-Kazekage? That wasn't good. For a second there, he had thought that the three of them could perhaps overpower her, but that didn't sound likely now. So, she was the one that was going to give them their punishment, eh? Not good.

"Well, fortunate for us, two of you cracked. My festival is safe, and, so is Suna."

Ha! So he was right. Ryou shot a repulsive glance in Kei and Toya's direction, "See! Now look at what you guys have done. We could've gotten away with it if you two morons hadn't made a mess of yourselves. Argh, what kinda teammates are you?! And I nearly got a chick to-!"

"So,"

The woman - who Ryou had forgotten in his anger - spoke again, this time her voice even more deadly than before. He looked back at her; instantly shut up by her sharp face. It was such a change from the way she had been back at the festival grounds; This woman was scary! Ryou gulped; why did Kei and Toya have to get him into this?

"I have to ask. Yuki? Seems a bit of a ways from here, don't you think? Are you on an official mission, or just sight-seeing?"

"Hmph" Ryou grunted, taking up the oppurtunity to talk in his usual spiteful tone, "Well if we were just sight seeing then why on earth would we need to disguise ourselves? We're more like freaking stranded because someone -" he glared at Kei "-Couldn't read a bloody map properly!"

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