Under the Cover of Clouds (P, IO)

Ukita trudged over the mountainous terrain with a rather sullen look on his face. He was coming back from the Chuunin exams in the Leaf village, which had been a lot less than interesting. Honestly there had been little action and the final fight had been a dull one. Although that was not what made Ukita rather sad. It was the fact that he had to go back to the Cloud village. In the Leaf people were happy and seemed a lot more easy going. Plus the sun always seemed to shine there-how odd? This contrasted sharply with the Cloud village that Ukita was slowly approaching. Overhead there was a dark overcast sky and below his feet lay jagged rocks. Ahead of him there were a few trees, but not many. The only tree that really stood out was one that had been smited by a single bolt of lightning-it had grown too tall and was struck down. It truly looked like a wasteland of the damned. Yet still Ukita walked onward. His brown and beaten duster blowing listlessly in the wind while his armor clasped comfortably around his form under the duster. And to top it all off a sword hung at his left hip. Were anyone to see him they may think him a wandering samurai, but that was not the case as the Kumogakure headband around his neck proclaimed. He was bound for home. Overhead a slight drizzle opened up, but Ukita moved onward through the dismal atmosphere at a slow meandering pace.

Ahead came a figure, a jounin ninja named Ganki. He too had walked the strange terrain of the Kumogakure Mountains, but not for the scenery. Today, Ganki was out looking for his bright orange baseball cap, his lucky cap. He seemed to have lost it when he was taking a mid-day jog; the wind seemed to have lifted it right off the boy's head, carrying it towards the mountains. He cursed his way up to the mountains, due to the extra work he had to do. Unknowingly he met another person, a fully armored individual.

The jounin stumbled upon a swordsman, but he was from the cloud village, just as he was. Ganki was no more than a few feet, 13 by the looks of it. While looking at the kumogakure symbol that was around the neck of the swordsman, Ganki stood there with his standard cloud jounin attire that was freshly washed, a headband that sparkled a bit even with the current weather, and a incased katana that was also hung on his left hip.

Seeing how Ganki was desperate for anything, he would resort to asking the man the hat. "Yo have you seen a bright orange hat, about this big this wide?", he said while making the needed hand gestures.

Ukita had been walking with his eyes cast on the rough terrain. On top of that his mind kept drifting back to the open wastes of the borders and how inviting they seemed. Alas his train of thought was abruptly derailed and promptly crashed when a man spoke up, which also caused him to stop in his tracks. Looking up from the ground Ukita listened to the man who was from Kumogakure judging by his headband. Ukita's face remained sullen as he listened-he had not seen a hat. Then again it could have very well blown by him and he might not have noticed. With a slight shrug Ukita replied to the man in a rather distant voice: "I'm sorry to say I have not seen such a hat....You know it could probably be anywhere right now. I would suggest just getting a new one. Or you should at least look for it in less dismal weather." Ukita was not one for formalities-they bored him and seemed unneeded. So, instead he preferred to state his thoughts outright, which led to him coming off as rather blunt at times. Also, almost as if to accent his comment on the weather, a gust blew by and the drizzle turned into a light rain-what a nice day Ukita thought as he waited for a response from the man who had asked about an orange hat.

It would seem that the swordsman himself didn’t know the whereabouts of the hate either, an unfortunate day it was for Ganki. Ganki sucked his teeth a little upon hearing the answer; right now he would do anything for his lucky hat. Looking up at the sky, he begun to see what he meant, the weather was indeed, dismal. "Dismal weather huh...", this was the normal weather of the cloud village, cloudy as always. This was something Ganki himself has still never gotten over; he wished that the weather here could have been a bit more... well more.

He then took a few steps over to his right, a couple more feet away from the swordsman. As he still continued to look for the forever gone hat, through the broken tree logs and rocks, he decided to ask the ninja his name. Why not, might as well get to know the few cloud ninja that he rarely gets to see? "So, what’s your name anyway?" He said this as he scratch his finger, getting a splinter in the process, "Damn it!"

Ukita nodded slowly at the man's agreeing about the weather. The weather, especially in the mountains, was fickle. One moment it could be pouring and the next it could be sunny. Alas, today it seemed that it was going to be stormy-at least that is what the distant roll of thunder portended. Regardless Ukita did not let this ominous weather get in the way of meeting someone new. Kumogakure seemed to be rather low on skilled ninja, so Ukita took every chance he could to meet other shinobi of the Cloud.

Luckily it seemed that Ukita would get that chance as the man stepped over and started rummaging around in some sticks and logs. Ukita assumed he was still looking for his hat. Better yet the man asked his name, which was the question Ukita was going to ask of the man, but it seemed that he had been beaten to the punch. As such he rpelied in a rather friendly tone that was laced with a bit of glumness to match the weather: "The name is Ukita. Ukita Hideyasu and I am a shinobi of the Cloud village...a Chuunin to be exact. And you?" At this point Ukita glanced up at the lightning charred tree that stood about ten meter to the left of where he stood. Maybe it was his wild imagination, but he could have sworn that he saw something snagged up on the very top of the tree. Maybe it was the hat this man was looking for-Ukita decided to mention it after he learned the man's name.

While ripping through the vines, he would hear the man's name, plus discovering that he was a chuunin as well. Many ninja of this village seem to die young or never make it past genin, hearing this made him raise he eyebrow slightly. He would then stand up straight, only turning his head to the point where he could see him; Ganki was interested in this guy. "Ukita huh...", a simile also formed.

While turning around to face him, he would introduce himself to the chuunin. "Well my name is... WHAT DA HELL IS THAT!?!" Ganki's eyes had focused on something orange that seemed peeked out behind a rather larger boulder. In a flash he quickly zipped towards the area, passing Ukita. Nevertheless, Ganki would soon be disappointed, only to find a bright orange flower bed behind it. In rage, he smacked the ground with both his fist, only to realize that his hate was gone forever, lost in the endless mountains. He could have sworn that he saw his hat, felt depressed.

Accepting his loss, he would return his face towards Ukita, only a few feet far from him. He attempted to walk towards him, stretching out his hand in a friendly gesture, "Im Ganki, just Ganki." Ganki was that type of person, because of his ADD, his actions could be a bit off. However, now that his hat was gone, he gave his full attention to Ukita, interested in him once again.

Ukita returned the man's smile with a half smile of his own-rarely did he fully smile. It had become an unfortunate habit of his that he learned while living with his drunk parents. For some reason they seemed to be meaner to him when he smiled, so Ukita had trained himself not to smile too much. And if he did smile it was a half that was bittersweet. Waiting for the man to introduce himself Ukita was rather puzzled when the man seemed to be on the verge of saying his name, but then ran off with a huge exclamation. Ukita gave himself an internal shrug and waited for the man to return from whatever he had gone off to do. While waiting a lightning bolt streaked across the sky-the storm was getting closer.

Luckily the man was not gone long and he came back in fairly short order. he then introduced himself as Ganki-Ukita had never heard of him, but then again he had been away for a while. Unfortunately it was at this time that Ukita noticed that the thin he saw blowing at the top of the lightning struck tree was just some loose brush that blew away in the wind: not hat. Although Ukita quickly dismissed this and responded to Ganki in a rather jovial tone: " It is not often that I have the pleasure of meeting another Kumogakure shinobi. It seems there are less and less of us as time goes on...kinda sad really." At this point the rain started to pick up and it turned into a downpour. Thinking quickly Ukita talked as fast as he could: "Uh, we should probably get out of the rain-this storm seems like it will not be stopping anytime soon." Unfortunately the village was still rather far away, so Ukita opted to make for an inn that was not too far away. Hopefully Ganki would follow or he was bound to get drenched.

The inn itself was a quaint place run as a family business. Thankfully it also had an open area-a bar if you will. It was here that Ukita ran to. Pushing open the door he would make his way a bar stool. Taking a seat he would wait for Ganki assuming he followed. Ukita wanted to learn more about the man who was clearly rather strong considering his jounin flak jacket, but Ukita's curiosity would all be for naught if Ganki did not follow him into the bar.

Ganki raised his eyes brows upon hearing Ukita, he nodded in agreement. Very true indeed, the village had become more and more vacant. He was not sure what the reason was, was it the Raikage, a disease? Ganki knew it couldn't be the raikage fault; in fact this village had become quite secure, hardly under attack. "Yeah, but then again, who wants to become a ninja now a days, it’s a short lived job. Haha, ahh im a mess." Ganki would chuckle a bit at his own sense of humor.

Seconds later, the unwanted weather turned into a rain shower. Agreeing to what Ukita said, Ganki agreed by following him. While following him, he wondered where they were headed; there weren’t any buildings out here that were known to Ganki. However, he would come to a surprise as he was led towards an inn, he thanked Ukita mentally.

While to two walked into the inn and made their way towards the bar, Ganki shaked his head in a wild matter, almost mimicking a dog when drenched in water. The water went everywhere, "Never been here before, but I got to hand it to you, Thanks for the save." If it weren't for him, Ganki would have still been caught in the rain, soaked to the bone. When he sat down, Ganki looked around at all the bottles of alcohol, admiring the different colors.

Sitting at the bar Ukita eyed the burly bartender and listened quietly to Ganki, but did not respond right away. Instead Ukita looked at the odd colors and shapes of bottles that arrayed the ledge behind the bar. Absentmindedily Ukita called out to the bartender: "Get each of us the house special." Ukita had no clue what the house special was, but judging by the array of alcohol around the room it was some concoction the aforementioned liquids. Giving an internal shrug Ukita turned to Ganki and started talking in a rather jovial tone: "So, judging by your flak jacket you are a jounin, yes?..." Not wanting to drop the conversation there Ukita thought fast and continued: "You been in any cool fights or know any cool jutsu? The only real fight I have been in was during the chuunin exams and I hardly got to fight in it-real shame actually." Waiting for a response Ukita glanced over to the bartender who was bringing two glasses of some amber colored liquid-he would probably arrive by the time Ganki started speaking. The nice thing about Kumogakure was the seemingly lax drinking laws or rather guidelines as it were.