Into the Labyrinth [Madoka]

[Ren Homma "Nazo"]

"Come on, hurry up or we'll be late," he called back over the sandy dunes to his partner as he scaled the next large sand mound. The wind was blowing decently harsh today and it constantly ruffled his clothing and forced him to keep a hand up on the edge of his hood to prevent it from flying off and allowing his to become sun burnt. He didn't want to stay out here in this desert any longer than he had to with this weather, however, the wind was making it difficult for them to progress at all.

Homma Ren, commonly referred to in his own home village as Nazo and elsewhere as Shinigami, had recently been paired together with one Inoue Madoka for an escort mission. The mission itself hadn't been too exciting. There wasn't really any fun to be had. The bandits that had tried to take the life of their client were all sub par and quite frankly rather easy to kill. The only thing that may have made their little trip difficult was that their client had constantly insisted on taking the long route so they could avoid as many bandits as possible. On more than one occasion he made them cross areas where the sand was known to give way under people's feet and form a sort of sand trap, or sand whirlpool without the whirl if you will. Honestly sometimes Nazo swore the man was trying to get them killed, but there really was nothing he could do about it. Killing the client, after all, was strictly against village policy. Unfortunately.

"Madoka-chan if you don't hurry up we might get caught in another squall." He called back to his partner before sliding on down the other side of the sand mound. Looking on ahead in the direction towards their home village he let a sigh escape from his lips. At this rate they would never make it home before nightfall. A shame really, because Nazo wanted to get back to his research as soon as possible. Honestly he despised the higher ups when they forced him to go out like this. There was usually never anything in it for him unless he were to run into someone interesting, and this time, there was no interesting someone. Just a shit ton of annoying sand.

While, if asked, Nazo would never admit it, he really did hate Sunagakure. Hell he hated all of Kaze no Kuni, simply for the fact that there was nothing but sand as far as the eye could see. It was annoying to wake up in the morning and find a bunch of sand stuck between your toes or even in unmentionable places. Extremely annoying. That was why Nazo wanted to over throw Suna. Well part of the reason. The other reason was more for plain research sake. He needed more test subjects and knew the people of suna would definitely do nicely. Only he wouldn't be able to pull off a coup'de tat on his own. He needed followers to help him. He needed more puppets, and further more, he needed to enhance his own skill long before he even began to breathe a word to anyone about his plans. That's right. He was alone in this endeavor. For now at least.

He pulled his hood further over his face as the wind kicked up again and stirred up the surrounding sand. Soon enough he found himself covering his mouth and nose with the other sleeve while he waited for a small squall to pass. Damn squalls, they could come out of no where and reap havoc with someone's immune system. After several long moments the squall pass and he lowered his shielding arms while opening his golden emerald and pearl orbs once again. It took him a few moments more to finally turn and call back, "You alright back there?"

MADE BY MINNIE OF BACK TO NEVERLAND

Chakra: 100%
Words: 650/650
Notes: none