There were many, excessively, important things that Ikko needed to address upon returning to The Hidden Cloud. He needed to give his report on the Northern movements, he needed to visit the dormitory and see what meager lodgings he could manage to afford given that he'd made next to know advancement over the course of his Shinobi career coupled with not actually performing active missions for most of it, he needed to get back to the training grindstone because regardless of how talented he was, years doing little but farming and failing to suppress emotional outbursts had done little to keep his skills sharp...but most important of all in this obnoxiously long sprinting sentence, Ikko needed to remind someone just who his bestest friend was.
That and to an extent, Ikko could use this to double as an actual training venture. Life on a farm did not involve too many adventures that called for stealthily galloping across rooftops and it was a skill that Ikko had fallen dangerously out of practice with. Thankfully, his head was still considerably thick so the first cascading failure involving the small boy smacking his head off of two windowsills, a fire escape, and then eventually the ground, thankfully, didn't damage anything he used especially often. Still, once he had shaken off the concussion, the embarrassment, and the literal street full of judging eyes, Ikko got back in to the grove of it quickly enough. He was darting across rooftops, down alleyways through open windows and apartments long enough to comically commit grand theft toast, the whole nine yards...all until he found his target.
Eishi, unlike Ikko, HAD actually made some progress in...well...life and managed to afford his own place well enough away from the dormitory lodgings that Ikko was inevitably going to have to scrape by with. Suika hadn't mentioned him too much, so Ikko had little to no idea what he had been up to.
"One...two"
Ikko leaped from the nearby roof with more force than he'd had to before now and landed on top of Eishi's roof with more force than he probably wanted to, air involuntarily escaping his lungs in an audible "oof." Stealth wasn't exactly a strength of his it seemed. Ikko, catching his breath, crawled down the side of the building to the first window he saw. The first red flag was the heavy layer of condensation that obstructed any attempt to see through the window, but the next closest window was like...three feet away and that was three feet Ikko wasn't going to crawl to. The second red flag came from what was likely causing the steam. The boy formed a thin sheen of ice around his finger and pressed it against the window. Normally, this worked fairly well, but the heat in the room was fairly intense and he'd need to use a lot more chakra to keep his ice finger hard enough to cut glass. The boy let out a small groan of frustration before concentrating on the chakra around the finger, forcing it into a hard enough edge and repelling the heat coming from the room. The smart thing to do would have been to go to another window...but Ikko was committed.
The finger cut through the glass and his free hand used his chakra to stick the glass to his palm, pulling it away from the window and setting it down on the sill, balancing it precariously against the building before he gripped an unoccupied sill, pulled his small frame up, kicked off the side of the building, and flung himself through the opening with agility and grace that he honestly had not enjoyed in a long, long time. Then the feeling was gone with a resounding splash as Ikko landed in what felt like a very hot, very pool, heat that immediately soaked through his thin layer of clothing. Did...he just land in a bath?
That and to an extent, Ikko could use this to double as an actual training venture. Life on a farm did not involve too many adventures that called for stealthily galloping across rooftops and it was a skill that Ikko had fallen dangerously out of practice with. Thankfully, his head was still considerably thick so the first cascading failure involving the small boy smacking his head off of two windowsills, a fire escape, and then eventually the ground, thankfully, didn't damage anything he used especially often. Still, once he had shaken off the concussion, the embarrassment, and the literal street full of judging eyes, Ikko got back in to the grove of it quickly enough. He was darting across rooftops, down alleyways through open windows and apartments long enough to comically commit grand theft toast, the whole nine yards...all until he found his target.
Eishi, unlike Ikko, HAD actually made some progress in...well...life and managed to afford his own place well enough away from the dormitory lodgings that Ikko was inevitably going to have to scrape by with. Suika hadn't mentioned him too much, so Ikko had little to no idea what he had been up to.
"One...two"
Ikko leaped from the nearby roof with more force than he'd had to before now and landed on top of Eishi's roof with more force than he probably wanted to, air involuntarily escaping his lungs in an audible "oof." Stealth wasn't exactly a strength of his it seemed. Ikko, catching his breath, crawled down the side of the building to the first window he saw. The first red flag was the heavy layer of condensation that obstructed any attempt to see through the window, but the next closest window was like...three feet away and that was three feet Ikko wasn't going to crawl to. The second red flag came from what was likely causing the steam. The boy formed a thin sheen of ice around his finger and pressed it against the window. Normally, this worked fairly well, but the heat in the room was fairly intense and he'd need to use a lot more chakra to keep his ice finger hard enough to cut glass. The boy let out a small groan of frustration before concentrating on the chakra around the finger, forcing it into a hard enough edge and repelling the heat coming from the room. The smart thing to do would have been to go to another window...but Ikko was committed.
The finger cut through the glass and his free hand used his chakra to stick the glass to his palm, pulling it away from the window and setting it down on the sill, balancing it precariously against the building before he gripped an unoccupied sill, pulled his small frame up, kicked off the side of the building, and flung himself through the opening with agility and grace that he honestly had not enjoyed in a long, long time. Then the feeling was gone with a resounding splash as Ikko landed in what felt like a very hot, very pool, heat that immediately soaked through his thin layer of clothing. Did...he just land in a bath?
