A Meeting of Chance [rohim]

My friend and I had been in this small town for nearly a week trying to gain information on this supposed Raksaka but so far no one knew anything other than whispers from the hidden village and traveling there would be a task I dreaded as once again I would be surrounded by tricky shinobi. I had taken to myself this evening, leaving Kuruk in our rented room while I ordered some sake from a local restaurant and was enjoying myself in a buzzed but not yet drunken state. Little did I know that soon I would meet yet another shinobi that despite my better judgement I would come to like.

Early today, I had been pestering about near the lumber mill when something caught my eye. A small, shiny something was stuck in the mud in the ground beside the mill's foundation. I knelt down and picked it up before rushing over to the river and washing it off. It was a small, gold ring. It was subtly beautiful, having no elegant designs other than the small inscription that wrapped around it in calligraphy. It read, "Roads go Ever on, Over rock and Under tree." "I bet this belonged to someone awesome! Maybe it's magic?" I thought to myself as I twiddled it around in my palm and slipped it onto my ring finger. "That's odd," I said aloud to myself, "It fits perfectly." I stood up and shoved my hands into my pockets as I walked down the road. It wasn't long before I heard the yelling. "That's the one! He stole my best gourd and threw it at my wife!" It was the local farmer whom I had had trouble with the day prior, and next to him were the town guards. "Shit.." I groaned. The chase was on. I took off down the road towards the western gate leading out to the forest, and the guards followed yelling "Stop him!" My heart was racing as I reached the gate. There were two more guards blocking my path, pikes drawn. I planted my right foot down mid-run and launched myself in the opposite direction, darting down an alleyway towards the smithy. "Shit shit shit shit shit!" I was panting as I weaved in between cottages. I turned behind me and there was no sign of the guards. I thought I had lost them, so I dove into the doors of the local inn to lay low for awhile. I walked casually over to the bar and sat down at a stool and slouched, gasping for breath.

I took a moment to look at the kid that had very cautiously snuck into the room and then made his way to the bar, he seemed to have an awful lot of sweat running down his back for the current weather conditions which meant he had been doing some sort of exerting physical task recently and was either a hard worker or a little runt that was being chased down. In either case he didn't strike me as very remarkable so when I went to the bar myself to get a refill on my bottle I didn't pay much attention to him and instead simply closed my eyes and calmly breathed while waiting.

I didn't want to order anything, I would just need a place to stay for the night, as I'm sure they would be searching around my small house for me throughout the night. I took a minute to rest on the bar stool, taking deep breaths of relaxation after my previous misadventure. I noticed the man next to me had his eyes closed and seemed to be entering some peaceful state. "Say, mister," I started, "I don't think this is the place to get some shut-eye. Where are you from anyway?" I asked him a pretty simple question, for his attire seemed very foreign, and the way he held himself up was a very rare thing to find. "Oh I've heard about guys like you! Yeah.. you're one of those samurai dudes! That's awesome! I've never been good with a sword myself, I'm really only good at punching stuff and then sealing it. Sealing's pretty cool though. Yeah, I guess you could say I'm a natural at it. What about you, Sammy?" I began to brag a little bit, as I did very frequently to friends and strangers alike.

I opened one of my eyes and looked at the kid who had apparently thought I went to sleep due to my closed eyes, then he put two and two together to figure out I was a samurai and gave away traits that marked him as a shinobi but at least a young one that was less annoying than the adults to the old man. I simply nodded and replied in a thick accent, "I am indeed a samurai young one, and quite the adept at your shinobi art of fuuinjutsu as well though where I come from it is referred to as maho blood magic to seal away the demons of the world." The barkeep came by with a fresh sake bottle and I took it before just sitting down at the bar next to the kid, he was the first one in the village to approach me directly and for this he was interesting.

Excitement welled up inside me as I listened to my new friend tell me about himself. Someone else that was good at sealing! "Maybe you could teach me some seals? I'm pretty good for my age, but I still just graduated from the academy.. I can pay you some of my mission money if you want, but I don't really have a sensei at the moment.." I asked the samurai. This was the opportunity of a lifetime to get stronger, and I wasn't about to pass it up!