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Sorain scoffed at Sarus question as to how they were going to get out of the cave. By now he had already figured out that their best bet was just simply blow their way out of here and make a prompt exit before the village shinobi arrived to check on the damage done to the estate, in fact they had better be going sooner rather than later. By now he was sure that the Anbu were aware that the estate had fallen, even if it was old and weak someone would at least want to know what the extent of the damage had been, he wouldn't be surprised if they were already surrounded. "Yes yes, lets all get nicely acquainted so that the interrogation squad can have more information to turn in when we are captured." Sorain leaned his head over to the side where his brother was standing, "Or at least when they are captured" he said half jokingly with a light chuckle that echoed off the walls of the cave.

Throwing himself from his leaning position Sorain turned around and placed his fist against the against the wall to try and measure approximately how much force would be needed to crack its exterior. He then turned his attention upwards before placing both hands on his hips and coming to his final conclusion. "I thinkin' we might as well just plow through the way we came. It would be very unfortunate if the village Anbu were to stumble upon us trapped in this cave. I mean, id be fine. Im sure Sai would get out alright. But as far as the rest of you I aint too sure." he said bluntly, holding back no signs of worry or fear for their safety. As far as Sorain was concerned Saru was only his responsibility as long as it was convinient to do so. He had already explained to her that he was a wanted fugitive and if put in the position he would abandon her before being captured. One didn't manage to elude the forces of multiple countries by traveling with a lot of extra baggage. Anything that couldn't be ditched had to be properly protected and since, at least up to this point, Sorain felt no inclination to go out of his way to protect her, his only solution would be to leave her behind if ever faced with the scenario.

“Flirting?” Arina raised her hands up defensively. “I think you are misunderstanding the situation!” The young girl averted her gaze while her cheeks turned a light shade of red. ‘This is becoming more troublesome by the moment,’ the young girl looked back towards the small crowd before her. She wasn’t for sure how to react in this situation where she wasn’t on a familiar basis with anyone in the deteriorating room.

When the other girl whom had identified herself as Saru outstretched her hand, Arina was not for sure whether to accept her aide or not. The young girl felt that if she accepted Saru’s help that it was like accepting her playful banter directed towards Arina’s relationship with the wandering ninja whom the other male had referred to as Sai. However, it said a lot about Arina only now figuring out the name of the shinobi whom was going to be her mentor.

After a few moments of silent contemplation, Arina took a firm hold onto Saru’s hand. She pulled herself up from the ice cold, shifting waters. “My name is Arina,” the young girl stated firmly before wrapping her arms around her body attempting to keep warm. While turning a deep shade of blue, the young girl’s lip began to tremble from the sting of the cold.

Arina attempted to concentrate on the others as they began speaking about the need to escape. Of course, the two men of the group were talking about being perfectly capable of escaping; however, they had no need to go out of their way to protect the women of the group. The young girl rolled her eyes still having a hard time concentrating. “Shall we go then?” She bit her lip looking towards the others not able to cope with the bitter cold that her body was overcome with.

Sorain cocked a grin and scoffed at Saru as he listened to her attempt at inserting her logic over his, "Do you have any idea what happened to this place? They said that it just blew up out of no where, left damn near the whole block burning. They still haven't managed to clean up the wreckage. There is surely at least a couple teams out here trying to put the fires out around this place. If they realize that a section of the main compound just sunk they would surely come out here to check how bad it is. " Sorain stepped forward with his arm extended as he waved them all to the side, "Clear the way, I'm gonna blow straight through the roof then head up first. Ill find some rope or something back down for the rest of you." Sorain reached over his shoulder with both hands, gripping the ends of a double bladed sword that had been wrapped in bandages all the way to its tip. He then tilted it down to his side, holding it close to the ground. Sorain then swing his shoulder upwards, releasing his own chakra into the blade, feeding it power until it eventually became coated in an aura like skin of blue charka that took the shape of a hammer that eventually collided with the roof of the cave. Blowing a hole directly through the top and straight up through the house above. His strike sent wooden planks and boulders hurling to the air. Taking a step forward, and titling his body over to see the clear gaping hole in the cave ceiling that went all the way up to the sky Sorain was honestly surprised at the effects of the blade that he had collected. Returning it to its position over his shoulder, the bandages quickly re wrapped themselves before completing camouflaging it beyond the point of detection, as if a layer of chakra prevented it from being seen. He then took a few steps before leaping directly up, slamming his feet into the wall then continuing his stride until he was running directly up towards the surface. Occasionally he would be forced to leap to another side of the hole, or jump across a gap until he eventually reached the top. From there, he could see that the fires where in deed still raging but much further away from their area, at least for now they were safe.

Arina was taken by surprise as Saru grabbed her waist nuzzling into her neck. The young girl turned an even brighter shade of red; however, she welcomed the warmth that Saru’s body would provide for her. Saru seemed to be comfortable with the entirety of the situation continuing to discuss the probability that village shinobi would come to investigate the area further. It seemed that Sai and Sorain were rogue ninja; however, Arina somehow assumed that had been the case before she had even set out to accompany him. He couldn’t have been all that bad considering the circumstances. ‘I wonder what happened,’ Arina turned her gaze to watch Sai wade through the water.

As Arina turned her attention back to the conversation at hand, she caught a portion of the conversation. Saru stated in a rather melodramatic tone, “And if we got caught down here we could always play the role of the maidens kidnapped in from their villages for some sort of perverted purposes.” The young girl smiled, chuckling lightly. “I agree!” Arina firmly gripped Saru’s arms which her still wrapped around her waist, as well as nuzzled her head into Saru’s chest. The young girl pouted her lips doing her best to imitate the frightened little girl look.

After awhile, Sorain seemed disenchanted by the dramatic play of the two girls. He scaled the wall using chakra emitted from the soles of his feet to reach the top. He had stated something earlier about finding rope or something to assist in the others’ escape provided he did not run into trouble along the way. ‘Had he not also mentioned that Sai would have no issues escaping?’ Arina turned her gaze to the young man whom was making his way from the bitter cold water. ‘I wonder why he decided to remain here,’ she continued to remain in a state of concentration until Sai found himself at her side.

Arina saw his mouth move as if speaking but the words that escaped were barely audible. Giving herself a few moments to register the situation, she realized she had actually heard what he had said. ‘Why did I decide to follow? So, he does remember?’ Arina looked at him with a blank expression on her face. ‘Hmm,’ the young girl even questioned her own actions. It felt like it had been so long ago when in reality not much time had passed at all. What were her thoughts? What were her actions? What was the ultimate deciding factor for deciding to abandon her village to continually chase after a man who may or may not have actually decided to train her? No, she knew what had changed for her that day. There was the possibility for accomplishing something beyond those of the village would be able to procure in this lifetime.

Arina stared intently at Sai with a serious and determined look. “I did not want to play in the happy village. I had decided to become a shinobi for a reason. In this time of peace, I am only being held back by the ideals and trite customs that are associated with the ties and bonds of my village. If disaster suddenly did strike, what kind of useless shinobi would I be with such low quality of dedicated training from my group leader?”



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A frown stretched across Sai's expression at Arina's explanation, "So you became a shinobi not for the purpose of peace? Why did you become a shinobi then?" He replied, his hand twirling the pebble until it rested on his knuckles. From her reply he still didn't know why she had followed him, but instead learned that peace was not what she wanted.

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Arina let out a sigh slightly disappointed with Sai’s interpretation of her words. The young girl hesitated but broke free of Saru’s grasp walking to a separate area of the underground chambers where their conversation wouldn’t have to be so barely audible to the human ears. She waited patiently for him to follow placing her hands behind her back. Her left hand grasped her right tightly while she searched for the words to better explain her feelings.

Once Sai had found his way to her side, she concentrated her gaze onto the ground below as she began to speak. “I would not say that I do not want peace, so much as I do not want this peace to hinder my progress in becoming a talented shinobi. The villages are too lax; they are unprepared when disaster could strike at any moment. I want to be able to protect those whom are important to me when faced with the situation.” Arina had a distant look on her face as she continued, “You had to protect me against just one shinobi. I could not even face a simple robber in a one-to-one fight.” The young girl grimaced biting her lip in frustration.


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Rolling the pebble back into the palm of his hand, he dutifully followed Arina to the other part of the cavern. "Do not hate me for playing Devil's Advocate but..." Sai began, his voice a little louder but still kept low for only the two of them to hear. ".. to protect your village, you are going to abandon it? Lets say you become stronger for it, do you believe you will be allowed back in with open arms? I don't know if you are fully thinking this through. Plus, I never promised training or strength, merely an experience unlike any other."

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Arina grinned widely, “I merely said I wanted to protect those who are important to me.” She would leave that open to interpretation because honestly, she didn’t have many attachments to that village outside of her family. ‘I suppose Kaito did not seem like a bad person either,’ the thought was a passing one however. “As far as not promising to train me, am I merely for your amusement then? It does not take much thought to realize that at some point you will either abandon me or decide to train me. The experience of leaving my village will be enlightening just as well,” The young girl bowed slightly.

“I will take my chances,” Arina said in a confident tone.

Sorain pulled the rope around one of the near by support beams, making sure to give it a few solid tugs to check how strong its hold would be. Once confident that it was safe he then leaned over the top of the hole and signaled for everyone to start scaling upwards. "Come on, we don't have all day. Lets get out of here." he said as he waved his arm upward, urging them on. Up above he couldn't hear any signs of shinobi coming to check the commotion but he was sure that eventually they would be bound to stumble upon the debris that landed around the area. Their visit to the fire country had been a nice one, now it was time for yet another speedy exit and off to find refugee somewhere else. At this point, Sorain started to figure that he might be best suited just smuggling himself back into the kirigakure ranks. It wouldn't be the easiest of task, especially considering that the bounty that was currently placed on his head was most well known in his home land, but still it was what he was good at. Since birth he and his brother had always some how managed to live and strive outside of the boundaries of common law. They did what they wanted, and went where the pleased, even at such a young age they had become some what of experts on living life outside the walls of a village. Sneaking back into Kirigakure would be easy for him, he already knew the landscape and already had the resources he needed to setup at least some basic living conditions. The only matter of difficulty would be getting his name back into the records without drawing suspicion. Once again he would need to provide a false name, and have his documents manufactured. He knew a guy who could do the job, but finding him was a separate matter entirely. Then there was the matter of the fee, as it seemed as though his little companion would be sticking around for awhile he would need to ensure her safe travel across the boarders and reinstatement into the kirigakure forces. Sorain rubbed his forehead in frustration, only hoping that his brother had some means to this issue or at least the coin to ease them along the way.

Arina was not surprised by Sai’s answer as much as she was by how forward he came off. After his reply, the young girl turned her head in a quick manner as something fell quickly from up above. She chuckled slightly when she realized how paranoid her mannerisms must have come off to others. Low and behold, the object hurled from above was merely a rope that Sorain had obtained to aide in their escape from the deteriorating, diminutive underground chamber. The rope landed callously on the top of Saru’s head.

Arina watched as Saru began to climb up the rope in an unnatural, almost beast-like manner. The young girl tilted her head to the side only now noticing the small tail which mimicked that of a monkey or other small prime ape. Afterwards, Sai retreated making his way from the cavern as well. The young girl sighed as Sai had finally reached the peak. ‘I suppose that it is now my turn,’ the young girl was very unenthusiastic; however, she did not wish to stay in this underground cavern for any amount of prolonged time.

Arina walked over to the rope pulling on the coarse material to ensure that it was safe. After she was confident, the young girl stepped onto the wall horizontally, so she was able to walk up. She attempted to control chakra from the soles of her feet to ensure her safety. Upon reaching the top, she pulled herself over the edge of the cliff huffing. “I am here now. What are we doing next?” Arina questioned looking around the environment.

“Wait,” the young girl stopped upon a small female form which was unfamiliar to her, “Who are you?” She pointed to the younger version of Saru unaware that she had more than one form.

Sorain completely ignored Arina's question as to their next course of action, deciding instead to save his explanations for his brother rather than waste it on someone whose first thought in a crisis was to play the doe eyed women kid napped by the big bad shinobi. Taking a moment to pull the rope up out of the hole and wrap it around his arm for safe keeping he brought himself to completely answer Sai's question, hoping that it was the answer that he wanted to hear. "We'll, obviously we are gonna need make our exit from this countries boarders. Normally id say just clear the village walls, but given the scene done in Kumogakure I am not sure that will suffice. The best thing for us to do is just leave this country and either heard north." Sorain turned and held his finger up, pointing off towards the normal end of the village, "We could sneak across to Iwagakure through rain." he explained while turning to face another direction, "Or.. we can head east, make our way across to the whirlpool country. If we get there and find some shelter we can leave the girls and cross into Kirigakure to secure new records. Once everything is in order, we can easily send for them" Sorain raised his arm above his head, "The only matter is of coin. It cost money to get false documents made, especially for four people...er.. maybe five depending on how you count it."

Arina was wide-eyed, mouth gaping as Saru’s younger form wrapped arms around the young girl and nuzzled close; however, it was only momentary until Saru retreated back to Sorain’s side. She stared intently towards the ground as she began to blush heavily. The young woman wasn’t accustomed to so much attention outside of empty praise from instructors back in Konoha.

Gripping her right triceps loosely with her left hand, Arina followed Saru’s example shuffling closer to Sai. The young girl had decided to travel by his side as a companion; even though, she sometimes questioned her choice. The realization was that Arina had already made her choice and there was no going back, she refused.

Arina listened intently to Sai and Sorain’s conversation about their plans for the future. She didn’t particularly care for either of their plans; however, they obviously did not wish for the women’s opinions. The young girl chuckled at Sai’s expressive, dramatic behavior. That was not a personality trait that you came across very often. Though, she could have said the same about Saru whom looked to be part prime ape. Either way, it seemed that Kirigakure was the final destination during this particular portion of the adventure.

“I am ready and willing to go wherever you do,” Arina blushed even heavier with a scowl across her face. It was quite apparent that her comment was directed towards Sai. She would be his dedicated traveling companion, despite how he sometimes irritated her. She was determined.