The somewhat gloomy girl (as opposed to the mostly-silent girl named Akitsu) looked around at her group before hesitatingly speaking. "Teriyaki burger, Superstar Burger, Guacamole Six Dollar Burger..."
"Garden Salad," mumbled Akitsu when everyone in her group turned to her. "Four drinks, medium."
"Here or to go?" asked the counter help.
"Here," said Jiraiya, having already chosen a corner booth.
The total was rung up, Jiraiya pulled out a wad of local currency.
"Isn't that even bigger now?" asked Naruto.
"That guy who challenged us to a fight donated to our worthy cause," answered Jiraiya, smiling at the counter help as he got his change back.
"Uhm, okay," said Naruto as Jiraiya took a little plastic triangle with a number on it and led them to a corner booth.
"To the victor goes the spoils," said Jiraiya as he took his seat, placing his back to a wall. "Now then. Akitsu or Katsuragi, I need to know everything you can tell me about 'Sekirei' to begin with."
"Master?" asked Katsuragi, glancing towards Naruto.
"Me? Why are you calling me that?" asked Naruto.
"Because you are my Ashikabi," said Katsuragi.
"You can assume we don't know what an 'Ashikabi' is or what a 'Sekirei' is," said Jiraiya, going through a quick set of hand seals.
"What was that?" asked Naruto.
"Privacy jutsu," said Jiraiya. "It mutes our voices, distorting them a bit. Minor genjutsu effect, similar to a Veil. Didn't you learn this in the Academy?"
"Well, no," said Naruto.
"It's a minor thing, just meant to keep people from accidently overhearing things that could get them killed," said Jiraiya with a tiny shrug of his shoulders. "Like I was saying, now I need an explanation of the basics at least while we wait for the food."
Katsuragi hesitated, seeing that Akitsu wasn't going to speak, and finally just looked at Naruto. "Master?"
"Just call me Naruto," grumbled Naruto, not liking the term.
"She's asking you for permission to speak to me," guessed Jiraiya. "So an 'Ashikabi' is like a higher ranked ninja."
"Eh? Well, go ahead, answer his questions," indicated Naruto, who was still somewhat irritated they hadn't found a ramen bar and had instead gone with this place.
"I see..." said Katsuragi softly.
"Start with how you're not human," suggested Jiraiya.
"Eh? Not human? Whatta ya mean, Pervy Sage?" Naruto blinked and stared at his sensei for a moment.
"No, we're Sekirei," said Katsuragi.
"Don't mind him," said Jiraiya. "He's a bit slow. Sometimes you have to explain things three or four times to him before he'll remember it."
"I'm not that bad," grumbled Naruto.
"Konmei," said Jiraiya. "Chunin Exams. Oh, and I've read the mission report from when you went to Wave Country. Hmmm. Remind me to check your seal and make sure there isn't a chakra imbalance. Maybe it's leaking the wrong kind of chakra into your brain."
"Name one thing I did wrong on the Wave mission!" challenged Naruto.
"When one of your team was caught in an imprisoning jutsu, did you actually leap INTO the prison?" asked Jiraiya.
"Well, it worked out in the end," grumped Naruto.
"Anyone else, there would be two unmarked graves in Wave and some additional lines on a memorial stone," said Jiraiya. "Now, Katsuragi or Akitsu. Tell me about the Sekirei."
"Number 86 has been winged, but we have no information about the Ashikabi."
Takami Sahashi frowned at the screen as it cycled between several images. "What's with these pictures?"
"Unknown, we're going over the images but so far they appear to not be the result of any hardware or image tampering."
"What the hell are we dealing with here?" asked Takami. "Do we have a location on this Ashikabi?"
"Yes, they are currently at the 'Carl's Junior' on Mifune Avenue."
"Send someone to investigate," said Takami. "They might be some competitor trying to gather intel."
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(Posted Tue, 18 Dec 2012 16:07)
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