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"Eh, I've smelt worse, bro. Much worse." Kyu replied, on the smell of the bar, "Try being in that atmosphere when the house consists of fish people smoking incredible amounts of high-quality tobacco and god knows what else. Pepper the table with a rancid delicacy, and you've got a replica of my dining room twice a week. That rank is the one of the many reasons I don't go home, bro." Hibiki and Kuro took off, with Kyu not far behind. Kyu increased in speed and caught up, neck-and-neck with Hibiki as the vulpine ninja made a quick comment about their supposed adversaries. Kyu nodded, and picked up his speed, keeping up with Hibiki.

Suddenly, Hibiki got really serious. The look on his face hadn't changed much, but he seemed more cautious. He spoke through the microphone, and after a quick insult towards Kyu's smell, he announced that they were being followed from behind. "Lets lose them." Kyu said firmly, scanning the area for a new direction to go. They were entering a forested zone, but off the road was swampy, and the trees sickly. Branches could be weak from moisture damage, so it probably wasn't a good idea to take that route.

Kyu got off the path, and leaped up onto a higher path; the electrical lines on the side of the road were perfect. Up ahead, he could see where they turned away from the road, towards a step-down transformer station. He planned that from there, they could judge their distance from the boarder, and continue from there. Kyu talked into his mouthpiece, "Get on the electrical lines, and watch out for the transformers and other equipment. The last thing we need is fried pooch."

The fish ran over the wires effortlessly, never loosing his balance. Kyuzaku stopped momentarily on the top of a pole to look back for his friends and for any sign of their follower. There was no sign of a tracker tailing them, not as far as he could see or tell, so he dashed ahead to the next pole, and the next after that. After two or three more, the path veered off the road, and into the swamp. "Do you have any idea where the tracker is Hibiki?"

Finishing a routine using his new skating technique and out of breath, Isuko realized just how long he’d been absent from Rain country and his home village. ”I think it’s time for me to return to my homeland. While I can sit and train here all day, the village may need me. Not that I’m a critical member. And if not, it’ll at least be good to be home. I’ve been away for far too long.” With that thought, Isuko quickly dismantled his training dummy, scattering the component pieces around. He collected his pack and belongings and left the training area, heading for the road back to Rain country. Upon reaching the road, Isuko again activated his skating Jutsu. This should let me move faster until I reach the forests of Rain Country. This flat ground and hills should get eaten up by the skating movement rather quickly. With that thought in mind, Isuko began his journey back to Rain country.

However, before too long, simply skating down the road became too boring and tedious. Isuko decided that this was as good a time as any to begin experimenting with new techniques and jutsu. Wanting to get a better feel for attacking while using his skating Jutsu, Isuko again formed a Bone Sword and began taking swings at various stone formations and insects as he passed them. Fortunately for Isuko, he was making enough noise that he could detect the stone formations and other obstacles before blundering into them. ”Hmm... I need to find a way to compensate for that. My hearing and other senses have compensated for my lack of sight at my normal speeds, but this technique speeds me up by a significant margin. I need to make sure I don’t end up speeding past what my senses can keep up with. I wonder if I could some create a better echolocation technique for me to use that would help here.

Isuko reabsorbed his bone sword to regain a little bit of the lost stamina. He then began experimenting with echolocation through chakra. He formed some hand seals and molded his chakra into waves that he could project out around himself. He could then feel the reflections of those chakra waves by objects in his surroundings, much like the way sonar and radar work. ”Hmm... While this works, it very much gives my position away to anyone who can sense chakra well. I need to find something else. Ok, so sound and chakra waves are out. Hmm... The problem is that my sensory waves need to be nigh undetectable to anyone but me. Hmm... sound could actually work if I could manipulate my ears to be able to hear higher or lower frequencies. That’s theoretically possible since I can reshape the bones in my ears at will. The other big option is seismic waves, but I’m not super good with earth style techniques.”

Isuko formed a couple of hand seals and began molding his chakra to create bursts of sound below human hearing. Once this was accomplished, he began using his bloodline to subtly change the shape and structure of the bones in his ear until he could just hear the sound pulses being emitted by his jutsu. He ‘reset’ the bones in his ear and began the process again. Isuko continued this cycle until he could rapidly and accurately adjust his hearing range to hear the low sound pulses without affecting the upper end of the range.

Adjusting his hearing range and leaving it there, Isuko began attempting to locate objects he passed by using only the reflections of the sound waves being emitted by his jutsu. This was surprisingly similar to the way he normally navigated his world, without the additional stimulus from normal tactile sensations. However, the lower pitched sound waves were slightly slower moving than the normal ambient sound Isuko was used to interpreting. As such, objects appeared a little farther away than they actually were. He found this out the hard way when he didn’t move to avoid a rock formation in his path in time. ”Ouch... That hurts. I’m glad I’m trying this now and not in real battle.” Isuko continued this experimentation until he reached the border with Rain country.

Once he reached the forest, he deactivated his skating jutsu, but continued trying to make his way using this new echolocation jutsu. He occasionally still ended up running flat into branches and tree trunks as he made his way through the forest, however these became fewer and with longer periods between them.

Deciding that he had perfected this jutsu about as much as was possible without actually trying it in a combat or more real situation, Isuko shut off the pulses of low pitch sound and returned his range of hearing to normal. About the time he did this, he knew that he should be approaching the country. He quickly made sure his Hidden Rain headband was visible so that he would at least not be killed on sight as a rogue shinobi trying to enter the village.

Suddenly, a guard shinobi dropped out of the trees in front of Isuko. ”Halt. State your identity and purpose in Rain country.

”Isuko Riwomu, member shinobi of Hidden Rain Village. Returning from a year’s journey to Earth Country.”

The guard replied, ”Very well. Continue on. Ensure you report to the assignment office and notify them of your return. They will give you a time and place for your debrief.” The man then disappeared back into the foliage.