16autumnroad | [Voice / Action : Forest, 3/17] Arrival

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[Voice / Action : Forest, 3/17] Arrival

Kai! [Sudden absence from the battlefield prompts Chouji's immediate attempt to dispel an illusion.]

Why won't the genjutsu break? It must be too strong. [Not to mention that genjutsu and fine chakra control are not his strongest skills. Pain should also work. It's hardly the preferred method for breaking illusions, but it's more reliable for anyone whose chakra control isn't near perfect. He reaches for a kunai, but none is available. Unarmed and unarmored in a genjutsu that could be used to do pretty much anything to him; somehow that isn't surprising. Chouji is starting to worry though. He crouches down, snatches a jagged rock, and slices open his left palm. Still nothing.

Unwilling to simply sit and wait, he pushes off lightly, leaping into the trees. Chouji conceals himself as well as he can among the branches, only now noticing the journal lying open on the ground below. Shivering from the cold, a twinge of pain between his shoulder blades makes Chouji twitch, wondering if the attack he's been braced for is finally coming. His eyes widen as he looks over his shoulder to see a pair of feathered wings. A little desperate now, Chouji makes one final attempt at breaking free. He stabs his thigh with the rock. Still trapped, he resigns himself to staying here until someone manages to free him, letting the stone fall back to the ground. Chouji keeps watch for any further signs of danger on the off chance the genjutsu's caster slips and gives something away.]

[Chouji can heard over the journal; he will pick it up as soon as he receives an answer. He can also be found in the forest or anywhere in the common areas of town after he eventually makes it there.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I promise, I'm fine! This was such a minor injury I wouldn't have asked anyone to heal it if she hadn't insisted." Chouji immediately decided against telling Aang exactly how he got the injury. It was his own fault, after all, and he'd had no intention of complaining even before Ino applied medical jutsus. Chouji looked down again at the mention of the pants. "I would like to go get clothes, though."

Assurances given, Chouji continued, "There's a fair number of people here from my world, so you probably know some of them. Shikamaru and Ino are my teammates, and a few other friends are here too."

"It got healed? That's good. I can walk you to the clothing store if that's okay!" It's really cold, after all. Although knowing that Chouji got healing treatment, he's not so worried about the leg anmore. Aang does start to move in the clothing store's direction with a motion for Chouji to follow, and he's been smiling since Shikamaru's name came up.

"Oh, you're Shikamaru's teammate! I know him. He's a good friend of mine." It helped that Katara had become a close friend of Shikamaru before Aang arrived. Through her, they both were able to become good friends and trust each other very quickly. And Aang has been left determined to beat Shikamaru in a game one of these days. "So you're a ninja too, huh?"

"Thanks, I'd appreciate that. Ino gave me directions, but I wouldn't mind company." He falls into step with Aang, headed toward the clothing store. "Will I be able to get my armor there, or just regular clothes?"

Chouji grinned, unsurprised by the fact that Shikamaru had made friends here. "Shikamaru is a good friend to have," he agreed. "Yes, I'm a ninja too."

"It never hurts to have an extra pair of eyes!" He says with a slight laugh as they walk along. "And um... I don't know. Sokka would probably know that, because he's my only friend who really has armor. I think it could count as clothes, but if it's not there it might be at the smithy instead."

And he nodded along gladly with Chouji's assessment. "He definitely is." With all the ups and downs they've had during nearly a year of their friendship, ultimately Aang was inclined to agree with that. "That's neat! So you have a bunch of secret abilities?"

He nodded. "If they don't have armor at the clothing shop, I'd really appreciate you pointing the way toward the smithy, then." Chouji would probably be happy to pick up a few basic weapons as well, even if he wasn't as weapon-dependent as many of his fellow shinobi.

Chouji laughed softly at Aang's question. "Some of mine aren't quite as big a secret." After all, every Akimichi wore the kanji for food, in tribute to the tool that allowed them to use their jutsu. When you wore the key to your techniques on your chest on your way into battle, it became less important to avoid telling people about it. The pills were a clan secret, and the execution of certain techniques, but avoiding those didn't impede general discussion. "My clan can convert calories to chakra. We have to eat well and make sure our body weight doesn't get too low, because that energy is what we use for our techniques."

"I'd be glad to! My best friend runs the smithy so I'm sure he'd be happy to help you."

And he listens to Chouji's abilities with an impressed whistle. "That sounds really cool! I wish I could get stronger by eating too much all the time, but for me? It usually can just make my stomach hurt more."

"Really? He's a weapons smith?" The village doesn't seem to have many businesses, but Chouji is glad to hear that it appears he'll be able to acquire at least the basics in terms of weapons and armor. "Thanks, Aang."

He looks a little sheepish at Aang's statement, but Chouji can't contain a small smile. After all the negative comments he's heard about his weight or his eating habits over the years, a response like that from a near stranger is very gratifying, even if he doesn't like to call what he eats 'too much.'

"Well, I have sometimes eaten enough to get a stomachache," Chouji admits, "but it's been a long time since that happened. I learned my limits eventually."

"He is! Back home? He made a sword out of a meteor! And here, he's only gotten better, 'cuz of - well, how long he's been here." It's always weird to think of how much longer his friends have been here in Luceti. But he smiles at Chouji's gratitude. "Anytime, Chouji. Anything for a new friend."

Aang definitely tried to sound as complimentary as possible, because he genuinely thought it sounded amazing. "That's good! Knowing your limits is really important, especially when you're doing dangerous things."

Chouji is suitably impressed by the meteor sword. "What exactly are meteors made of?" he wonders. "Do they make stronger weapons than ordinary metal?" After the initial distraction of unfamiliar weapons, he reads into Aang's statement because of the parallel to his own situation. "You arrived more recently than him?" Chouji asks sympathetically.

Aang's claim of Chouji as a friend inspires a big grin. Genuine offers of friendship are rarely made so quickly, but Chouji knows that Aang means it.

Maybe at some point he'll show Aang exactly what he does with that chakra. For now, though, there are clothes to find. As they enter the clothing store, Chouji looks around for anything familiar. "What about you? You're not a ninja, but is there anything similar where you come from?" Aang is the first person Chouji has met here from another world, and he is curious.

"I guess they're made of space earth?" he said with a raised eyebrow. "It probably is stronger. I just don't know enough about swords to know for sure." He doesn't really concern himself with weapons so much. But he frowns a little more at Chouji's next question. "I did. It's already been a long time since I arrived, but when I first got here? He and Katara... they'd already been here for a really long time. They were older than I remembered." And he remembered always being around them, as long as he had known them.

But of course, making friends was like second nature for Aang. "I don't think we have ninjas at home, although Mai kind of reminds me of one. She's sneaky and uses blades that you throw. But people in my world don't have special ninja powers, just bending."

"I'd like to see his sword sometime, if he has it here." Chouji is curious. "I wonder if he could make anything that will respond to chakra in a certain way." Chouji still hasn't acquired a primary weapon that will grow when he does, although his armor will do that just fine. After seeing his father during recent battles, Chouji has been thinking about the ways his own fighting style should mirror or differ from his father's. If he is going to be stuck here, he ought to use the time as well as he can.

He nods, still sympathetic, at Aang's very honest answer. "Yeah. I was four months older than my teammates when I woke up today, now I'm a year, or two years, younger."

Chouji smiles. "She does sound like a ninja. What's bending, though?"

"He does! I'm sure he'll be glad to show it to you. And I'm not sure if he could, but you could always ask him! He can be really good at things."

"I see," he said with his own sympathetic nod. "I had a lot of worries when I first came here, because of that. Because I hadn't been able to be there for my friends. But I've been doing what I can to try to make up for it. And... and they made sure I knew that I was missed."

"And bending? That's the special ability we have in our world!" he goes on, perking up a bit. "In that world, there are people who can manipulate one of the four elements in any way with physical movements. That's bending!"

"Maybe I will. Ah, here!" Rummaging through clothes as they talk, Chouji sees something he recognizes. He pulls a heavy green vest out of the pile, followed by a long red shirt and a plain pair of pants. He still needs shoes, though.

Then Aang describes exactly how Chouji feels right now, and the look he shoots his new friend in return is full of unspoken gratitude. Aang understood.

"Movements alone? Is anything else necessary, like chakra is for my jutsus?" Then he gets to the more relevant question. "Can you bend any of the elements?"

Aang watches as Chouji picks out the clothes with contentment as he goes on.

"Kind of. I think chakras are different for us than they are for you guys. But it does have to do with the energy within us. And... yeah. I can kind of bend all of them!"

Chouji nods at the part about chakras, still searching for his sandals, but he looks up when Aang finishes. "All of them? Really?"

Elemental manipulation isn't quite as limited to one element for shinobi, but no one has every elemental affinity. He flashes back for a second to the battles with Kakuzu, but that doesn't count. The Akatsuki member was just stealing other other people's power.

Aang initially said one of the four elements. "What are the four elements you can bend? We have five."

"Yep!" An eager nod. "All of them! But it's only because I'm the Avatar."

"But that's right... Shikamaru told me a little about your elements once. They're a little different than ours! We have air, water, earth and fire. I can show you how some work!"

"What's the Avatar?" Genuine curiosity here.

"Air is probably close enough to wind, and then we just have lightning on top of that. I'd like to see how they work! I could show you a little bit of what I do in exchange." Ninja secrecy only goes so far. Chouji's never been a subtle sort of fighter anyway, and people rarely fail to notice an Akimichi fighting or training. Besides, if Aang is friends with Shikamaru and now with Chouji, that's justification enough.

"Well in my world, the Avatar's someone who can use all four of the elements and has to use them to keep peace in the world and solve problems."

And he listens curiously as Chouji describes that. "Really? That'd be neat! I - I can't do anything with lightning, but I'd be glad to show you some of any other kind of bending!"

"That sounds like a very important job." Aang is even younger than he is, and Chouji knows he wouldn't want that much expectation to rest on his shoulders. Aang's cheerful nature impresses him even more now.

Finally, he pulls his second sandal out of a giant pile of shoes.

Chouji nods. "You can show me whatever you want. I'll show you too, but we have to be outside. Let me just change into these clothes first."

"It is pretty important," he says, a little quietly. He doesn't want to brag - at least not about that. Now when he has airbending tricks.

"Okay, sure! How about I show you one really cool trick first?"

Chouji is just as happy to let the subject shift back to lighter things like airbending tricks.

"Alright! Go ahead." He's curious about how bending works in comparison to elemental ninjutsu, and Aang is enthusiastic enough about the demonstration that Chouji mirrors the emotion, grinning.

"Okay, then! Watch carefully!"

Aang grins in anticipation as he reaches into his shirt and pulls out something concealed between his hands. He slowly opens them, and...

He laughs. The small, harmless trick is a nice surprise for a shinobi, trained in jutsu for the purpose of combat. He's sure Aang has more destructive abilities, and just as sure that Aang doesn't enjoy using them for that purpose. This fits his personality better.

"Very nice," he praises Aang sincerely, an amused smile still on his face. "Let me change and we can do some more!"

And he beams at the praise as he slows the marbles to a stop.

"Sure! Go ahead, Chouji."

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