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

[16autumnroad]

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.]

Comments

[16autumnroad]

"Nice to meet you too." Chouji held out his hand for Naga to sniff, assuming that Korra would warn him if this were a bad idea.

"What kind of dog is Naga? Does she have any special abilities?" Because in his own world, the only way Naga's size wouldn't come as a surprise would be if she were a summon or partnered with a shinobi. Maybe things were different where Korra came from, of course.

[precipitous]

Naga sniffed his hand curiously - Korra seemed at ease, so the polar bear dog was as well.

"She's a South Pole polar bear dog! Her abilities include kicking butt, eating and being my best friend." But it was more than just that, even. All Avatars had an animal companion, and Naga was Korra's. They shared a special kind of bond.

[16autumnroad]

"A polar bear dog? That would explain how she got so big." Chouji had never heard of a dog crossed with a bear, but he still wasn't questioning much. He chuckled at the list of skills on Naga's resume.

"She sounds like a good best friend." Korra and Naga definitely reminded him of the Inuzuka clan, a comparison that made him even more readily inclined to like them.

[precipitous]

Korra patted Naga on the neck, nodding. "Definitely." Then she added after surveying Chouji for a moment, "So, are you knew? We just got here about a week ago, too."

[16autumnroad]

"Yes. I just arrived today." Chouji hoped that Korra had gotten as reassuring a welcome as he had. Things would be much more intimidating without familiar faces around, and he was grateful that his teammates and friends were here to greet him. "Are you settling in alright?"

[precipitous]

She'd gotten a reassuring welcome, sure - though it had been a strange one. It wasn't every day you met your past life and all of his friends.

"Yeah, I guess so. This place isn't too bad so far - but I hear it's not always this way. You've heard about the experiments and everything?"

[16autumnroad]

He nodded. "And the fighting. A friend says that part isn't much different from home, except we don't have a choice." Granted, even in Konoha there wasn't a choice when it comes obeying orders. Still, those fights were for the sake of his home and the people in it; here in Luceti, the fights weren't his.

Temari had actually been rather dismissive of the experiments, more focused on the war outside the enclosure.

"Are there any good things to help balance out the bad?" Chouji asked, seeking cause for optimism.

[precipitous]

"Uhh...the people seem nice?" She grinned, somewhat uncertain. Mostly everyone she'd met so far had been nice, but that wasn't cause to believe everyone would be.

[16autumnroad]

He laughed, reaching out to pet Naga on the head. "The polar bear dogs do too," he added.

"Most of the people I've talked to, I knew already. I've only met a couple of people from other places so far. You're the second!" And Korra was proving her own statement about the people being nice fairly well.

[precipitous]

"Most of the time." She smirked. "Trust me, you don't want to get on her bad side." But, it was true. Naga was about as dangerous as a puppy when she was around people she liked.

"Really? You must have a lot of friends from home here, then." It hadn't been too different for Korra, really - except in her case, most of the 'friends' she had met knew her, even though she didn't know them.

[16autumnroad]

Chouji grinned, nodding. "Of course. A friend has a dog about Naga's size. Very friendly, deadly in a fight. I've known Akamaru since he was a puppy, though, small enough to ride around on Kiba's head." Familiarity with Akamaru made Naga less intimidating than she could be to the average person.

He nodded again, knowing how lucky he was. "My teammates Ino and Shikamaru are here, along with several friends from my village and one from an allied village." One of the people from Konoha was his mentor, whose death Chouji had witnessed, but he wasn't going into that right now. He could still barely believe it himself.

[precipitous]

"Really? That's great!" It's not everyday she meets a person who knows someone with a creature like Naga, after all. Korra wouldn't mind meeting someone like that herself. They could exchange giant monster friend stories.

"There's a few people from my world here, too. But only a couple of them are actually from my time." She might not have been around long, but even she can already tell that's a bit of an anomaly.

[16autumnroad]

"I think he's here, but I haven't talked to him yet. I bet he'd like to meet you and Naga." An enormous polar bear dog would be of interest to Kiba, he was pretty sure. Plus Korra seemed like good company so far.

"Not from your time, as in there's a few months or a year or two difference, or a lot longer?" Chouji wondered aloud, hoping Korra didn't mind the question.

[precipitous]

"I think we'd like to meet him, too. Right, Naga?" She glanced at the polar bear dog, who barked in agreement.

She shifted her stance, a little more uncertain in her posture. "...Longer than that. Try seventy years or so."

[16autumnroad]

"I'll let him know when I find him, then," he assured them, Naga's answer to the question drawing a grin.

The smile faded at what Korra shared next. He'd had enough trouble coping with the relatively minor confusion over timelines. Korra had to deal with it on an entirely different level; it can't have been an easy adjustment. "That must be strange. Are they from the future or the past?"

[precipitous]

"The past." And it was strange. She wasn't sure she was entirely convinced it was true. She'd met her past life, and two Avatars were never meant to exist at the same time. It was baffling. "They're all great heroes from history, so I know all about them already."

[16autumnroad]

"Well, at least you already knew a little about them." He tried, but it was hard to come up with a bright side. Unless she'd always wanted to meet these heroes, of course. "Are they like you expected, or did the stories not quite match reality?"

[precipitous]

"Well...when they saved the world, they were all kids. Even though I knew that, I always pictured them as adults, so seeing them my age and younger kinda threw me for a loop."

Aang especially. It was hard for her to conceptualize Avatar Aang as a fourteen-year-old at first, but luckily she'd grown accustomed to it pretty fast.

[16autumnroad]

"I guess in some ways it might've been easier if you didn't know anything about them beforehand." Chouji assumes that it must be something like meeting one of the Hokages before they finished growing up. He's been hearing stories and seeing their faces carved in stone for his entire life, but he can't even imagine them as children.

"You said that's most of the people from your world. There are a couple from your time too, right?"

[precipitous]

Her smile returned at that. "Yeah! One of the kids of my teacher - her name is Ikki. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll meet her soon. And then there's Bolin. He's one of my friends and teammates."

[16autumnroad]

He grins back at Korra. "I have teammates here too. That makes everything a little better, I think." Pausing for a moment first, Chouji adds, "Not that I want Shikamaru or Ino stuck here, but I wouldn't have liked arriving without them."

Naga has been friendly enough since that Chouji reaches out to pet her on the head as he assures Korra, "I'll look forward to meeting Ikki, then." She must be friendly if Korra's sure that he'll meet Ikki soon.

[precipitous]

She blinked, recognizing at least one of those names. “Wait - Shikamaru is one of your teammates?” She had to keep herself from adding in something along the lines of ‘that obnoxious guy’.

[16autumnroad]

"And my best friend," Chouji informs her firmly.

That look on her Korra's face makes it abundantly clear that she isn't fond of Shikamaru. "I take it he didn't make a good impression, then?" That, he can believe. Shikamaru's attitude occasionally infuriates people. Chouji knows his teammate wouldn't have done anything to actually harm Korra.

[precipitous]

“....Oh.” Well. She’ll try to not to rag on the guy - he wasn’t so bad in the end, just a little annoying. She couldn’t help but wonder why Aang was such good friends with him, though. “Let’s just say he wasn’t the most helpful when I first arrived.”

[16autumnroad]

Chouji takes note of Korra's restraint, and his smile of thanks makes that clear.

"If you've given the same speech over and over again for two and a half years, repeating yourself must get frustrating." Shikamaru was certainly more helpful to Chouji, but then, best friends are automatically 'worth the trouble.' "I get the impression that everyone from our world uses him as a walking information source when they arrive. A few people told me I should just ask Shikamaru."

The sheepish grin says it all. Chouji is well aware of Shikamaru's faults, but they pale in comparison to the respect he has for his friend.