The preparations for this Dragon Festival hadn’t taken nearly as long as she had thought they would; in fact, they had taken such a short period of time that the festival had been able to start a full week ahead of time. Amara had more than enough hotels set up throughout the village to house the influx of shinobi she was expecting from Yokuchigakure and Niwaurushigakure. She was also expecting Gemma and Aella, both of whom had decided to stay behind with Hiroyuki when she had traveled home, to be showing up at any time now to go partake in all of the festivities. They would likely love all of the colorful costumes, decorations, and the various games as well as the numerous rare and shiny objects available to be purchased which meant that they would have more than enough to keep themselves entertained for a long while.

Now all she needed to do was to find her father in preparations of the event she had in mind to end the festivities a little over a month down the road. The idea in itself was making her cackle inwardly: it would hardly be fair, but if people thought carefully over the rules they would realize the biggest loophole of all. Still, time would tell of course if that happened or not.

Amara began to whistle to herself as she moved through the streets and towards the temple, hoping she would either spot her father along the way or else find him in the temple somewhere. She hadn’t bothered changing out of her Raikage robes, which more than made her stand out. However, the hat was off, tipped upside down, and being spun on the top of her right pointer finger at the tip of it in her boredom as she strolled along – much to the delight of several children who were giggling and running around her happily enough. Amara didn’t mind at all of course: happy children were a good thing for any village, and she would rather see them happy and playing and enjoying themselves then being quiet and reserved. Children could only be children for so long after all; especially those destined to become shinobi. Better they enjoy things while they had the chance than to never know true happiness.

Suddenly a grin spread across her face at the idea that suddenly popped into her head and she looked to the children in front of her. “First one of you who find my father for me gets the bag of candy in my pocket.” With that said she reached into her right pocket and pulled the bag of candy in question out: it was rather large and more than enough motivation to send the children darting off in different directions in search of Raijin.

He wasn't even hiding, nor really doing anything. He was in one of the larger common areas that the clan members shared; sprawled on one of the large beanbag chairs that littered the floor. A couple of his younger cousins where phantom-miming out some large battle from the clan's history; if he was right it was from one of the regional wars from right before Iwa was nuked; given the loosing party was wearing an old Iwa headband. Delightful entertainment; even if he was staring at a sparking crystals embedded in the ceiling.

Suddenly, dog pile on the thunder dragon. Woooooo.~

"Heeeeey. Offa meeeeee.~"

"Neh, candeh! Come come, candeh!"

"Daughter, eh?"

"Yaaaaa!"

"Maaaaah. Offa me. I go, yeah.~" Not that they weighed anything really; he was used to swinging swords that weighed more than the smaller ones. Shoving a bunch of kids off was nothing to him. He rolled to his feet with several clinging to his neck and back, a few hanging from his arms; and headed off. He could feel her now that she was in the temple, so it took next to nothing to find her.

"You summoned me, dear?"

Amara kept up her slow and casual pace while she watched the children disappear around the corner: the hunt was definitely on. Chuckling to herself she came to a stop now that she was in the temple and tilted her head, listening. Soon enough the sound of happy children reached her ears and a grin spread across her face as she watched her father come into view with several children hanging off of him. Laughing softly she held up the bag of candy and gave it a wiggle. “Alright, come on, your reward’s waiting.”

The words were enough to have the children releasing Raijin and running over to her. She handed the bag over to the group of children and gave them a pat on their heads. “Share that, they’ll be more later on, I promise.” With that the children disappeared, leaving them alone. Still chuckling she turned her focus on her father.

“Come take a walk with me? I want to run an idea past you, and I want to keep it quiet until later on.”, she said as a mischievous smile crept across her face: she was definitely up to something. “I was watching some of the children earlier try and round up some of the smaller dragons and it got me thinking about an event for the end of the festival… one that involved Gemma. But, there’s certain precautions I want to take…”

Arms where raised above his head as soon as he was released; back and shoulders cracking and resetting into proper alignment with a satisfied groan. "What's up? We gunna let her take center stage, eh?" He'd been avoiding the planning for the festival partially to keep the event from being to dangerous for anyone to actually attend. He would have turned it into a giant show of lightning and blah blah blah.

"Spill this idea. I'm curious, eh.~" Anything that would make Gemma happy; while being safe for her; was a perfect idea in his mind. He wanted her to be happy; and given she loved to be the center of attention, he was all over whatever Amara had in mind before he even knew what it was.

Amara couldn’t help but grin as she began to walk, figuring her father would follow her. She had no set destination in mind, she was simply brimming with so much happiness that she couldn’t stay still for long or else she felt like she might explode.

“Well, capturing the smaller dragons is all well and good, but I was thinking bigger scale. Gemma’s well trained by now, and would be enough of a challenge to cause people to have to work together if they wanted to say… catch her. I already know she’ll love the idea; she and Aella play tag all of the time and this’ll turn it into something even better. Plus, it’d be good training for her too, and those participating, and fun to boot. However… I worry about someone perhaps over-doing it. Gemma’s strong, and can take a lot, but she’s not invincible… I need something that’ll protect her; something that would turn any sort of harmful jutsu against her useless…. Or at least bounce it back to its originator. I was thinking perhaps even something that could be put on the contestants: the moment they go to use harmful jutsu against her it would remove them from the arena area and stop them from using it to boot.”

“So, I was hoping you might have some ideas on how to make this possible.” She continued with spinning her hat on the tip of the pointer finger of her right hand while waiting to hear if her father had any sort of suggestions to help out. She wasn’t going to be willing to put her daughter in that sort of a position if she couldn’t protect her: no matter how much fun Gemma would think it was or not.

"I need something that’ll protect her; something that would turn any sort of harmful jutsu against her useless…. Or at least bounce it back to its originator. I was thinking perhaps even something that could be put on the contestants: the moment they go to use harmful jutsu against her it would remove them from the arena area and stop them from using it to boot.”


"Pfffft. Tha'd be simple as cake, eh. Moderately strong repulsion seal, modified slightly to reflect all incoming chakra outside of specific types we can specify on her; and a warp trigger on them. Nothing hard. Put tha' warp 'n a badge 'er somethin' tha' ya give out to tha' participants; done. Won't take bu' a couple of hours to whip them up; an' I ken customize a seal fer Gemma in a day. Make a nice little necklace fer her ta' wear, she'll love it. Sound good?"

This… would definitely work. Yes, this would work wonders. It would keep Gemma safe and allow the fun to go on while ensuring that if anyone had an oops moment – either by accident or on purpose because they felt they could get away with it – not only would it not harm Gemma but they would be removed at once. It would certainly ensure that the rules were followed – though, Amara was going to ensure that the participants were kept under careful watch regardless just to ensure who won properly anyway.

Amara nodded with a grin. “That’ll work… I figure perhaps we should add the repulsion to the badges too, just on the off chance any sort of rivals end up in there together. Last thing I want is blood being spilt during this event. There’s been enough drama and chaos as is, I want this to be a peaceful time.” And she’d be damned if she didn’t get her way.

“Gemma will be excited. I’m expecting her to show up sooner or later with Aella in tow… Aella will probably want to join in too somehow…”

"Course, a course. That'd be the easier part; juss use tha' standard repulsion shield seal. Stops any outside chakra from reachin' through tha' barrier; juss add tha' modification tha' allows for collaborative chakra sharin' an' tha' like. Nothin' we can't do, eh."

He was following her without really watching where they where going; a bit of scrap paper and a pen in hand and already in motion; he was doodling the basics of the seals, scribbling the basic form and leaving the focii blank while listing possible bases beside the seal. He'd play with it for a day or two before actually making them; then test them on some older cousins that wouldn't break easily. Better then get hurt than risk the village ninja, or his granddaughter. "Anythin' else, dear?"

"Ahh the Dragon Festival is about this time of year, It's good to have some festivity in this village for once, its usally crowded with boring old merchants and the ocasional bum." Koshi said as he was steadily strolling down the street to see the new dragons migrate in. Koshi was always happy around this time of year, he didn't know why, he just was. He thought of it as a more spiritual thing. As Koshi continued walking down the street he saw the Raikage and a strange looking man ..

‘Rocks, mountains, giant drops into nothingness. Yup, this was definitely Kumogakure.’, she thought to herself as she came to a stop and looked around. Pink feline ears swiveled on the top of her head while her mismatched eyes – one neon pink and the other a neon green – took in the sights around her. She hadn’t seen this place in quite a long time and likely wouldn’t have seen it again if it wasn’t for the fact that she had escaped Makkura before it had disappeared: or whatever it was that the village had done – she was still quite confused about all of that.

All she knew was that the giant sword she was dragging behind her had somehow called her to it and saved her life: and that it held the Sakebi clan symbol on it. The power within the sword was sealed from her; the sentient weapon realizing she was not powerful enough yet to properly wield it even though it had chosen her.

Her tail swayed from side to side as she pressed onward and into the village; her tattered and torn clothing and travel-worn appearance causing her to be given a great deal of glances from the villagers. However, she ignored all questions presented to her: she had one focus in mind and that was getting to her friend Gemma. Where there was Gemma there was likely Amara or Raijin: two people she trusted enough. She was sure by now that everyone thought she was dead and gone, and she didn’t blame them if they had stopped looking: it had been well known she had been snatched up by Alec Kane a long time ago. But still… she needed to find someone she knew; she was starving and tired and was in dire need of some proper rest and a warm meal.

And so, just as Amara was beginning to walk out of the temple entrance she was talking towards it; still dragging the sword that was far too powerful for her. She came to a stop about fifteen feet from the entrance, too tired at the moment to press on.

“I’m… home…”

Amara had just reached the mouth of the temple, and had been about to respond to her father when when a strange sight caused her to pause. There were not a lot of feline-oriented people: at least not ones that didn’t fully and completely hide it from everyone. But this… pink ears, pink hair, pink tail… the outfit. This was Sicarius. Oh god. This was Gemma’s friend who had been kidnapped by Alec Kane, who all had thought disappeared when Alec Kane’s village had. She had sent out people to search for her but no one had found a single scrap of evidence that the child survived. And yet… somehow… here she was, with an overly large sword that she could see was somehow binding itself to her. It looked to be a powerful sentient weapon that the child likely wouldn’t be able to wield for a long time to go and definitely not without the proper training.

“Oh god… Sicarius…. “ How has she survived? How was she not dead? Amara was momentarily speechless as she took in the child’s lean frame: she looked like she was starving and looked exhausted. Before she could move or approach her however a blur of color darted past her with a squeal of “SICARIUS!”.

Gemma had been attempting to ‘stalk’ her mother and grandfather when she had spotted her friends appearance and gone barreling right out of the temple faster than she had ever run before. She crossed the distance to her friend and scooped her up, ignoring the sword that for some reason she felt… weary off – odd, that never had happened before. With her friend scooped up in her arms she carried her over to her mother and grandfather and stared at them: Sicarius had no where else to go, and she had no family, and Gemma wasn’t about to let her just sleep on the streets…. Gemma was after all always trying to bring home stray kittens~

"...Ohshit. Sicarius?!" Suddenly, flying Gemma in his peripheral vision. That was less unexpected than the little kitten girl appearing out of nowhere. Shit, she was alive? She made it out of the clusterfuck that was the remains of the former Shadow Country? The hell was with the giant weapon that was giving him the creeps and making his brain wanna go stu-... genjutsu sword. Great. Oh well, he wasn't going to start bitching; she was a good enough kid, and he could handle being around the sword since it was well sealed. Something to look into later. "Well hell kid, glad ta see ya in one piece, mostly. The moment Gemma and Sicarius where in front of them, he was picking the both of them up and turning back toward the inside of the temple; screw 'protocol', she was safest in the temple. He'd keep her away from the majority of the clan, so that the sword wouldn't cause too many issues; he could stand it for the moment, so it was alright. Soon as they where sure she was okay enough to be moved, they'd get her set up somewhere where they wouldn't have to worry about things. "Grab a medic kit, eh? She can rest in ma' old room; 's far enough away from e'eryone fer tha' sword ta' not be 'n issue. How ya feel, Sicarus? Anythin' broken? Hurt more than normal? Ya know tha' drill." He was no medic, but he knew enough to take care of people decently enough; at least until they could send for a medic they could trust; likely Gemma flashing to Niwa to get Amaya or something like that.

Sicarius was scooped up before she really realized what was going on and before she had a chance to register her friend darting out of the temple, crossing the distance between them, and picking her up. The sword remained in her hand as Gemma carried her up to the temple and even still as Raijin picked her and Gemma up.

She thought over Raijin’s question; having not really focused on herself all too well up until that point – she had been more focused in getting home than worrying about the state she was in. She knew that parts of her clothing had been covered in blood but she hadn’t bothered to check and see if it had been hers or not, but now that she was actually focused and thinking about it she could feel a distinct throbbing coming from her left arm – the arm that had been nearest to the village when it had… well, when it had done whatever it had done to disappear like that.

“My left arm hurts, and I think one of my toes is broken from when I slipped and fell walking. And my belly hurts ‘cause it’s empty… And my head hurts…” The headache was caused by dehydration, thankfully, and not an actual head injury, but at this point she was lost to figure it out herself: all she could focus on was that she was somewhere safe and not lost out in the wilderness somewhere.

Gemma listened intently to what her friend was saying about her various injuries: and while she couldn’t see exactly what was wrong with her friend’s arm the smell coming from it combined with the blood was enough to tell her that something was seriously wrong with it. It angered Gemma to think that someone would have tried to hurt her feline friend, but she forced her anger under control – while her grandfather wouldn’t be bothered by the shock that would start to come off of her her friend certainly would have been and that was the last thing she wanted to do to Sicarius right now.

She watched as her mother darted off, disappearing faster than she had known she could, obviously off to grab a medical kit that her grandfather had mentioned and to bring it back to them.

Amara, moving like lightning at this point as she too had noticed the severity of the wound on Sic’s arm, and also thinking they would likely have to get a proper medic, got the kit and headed back to where her father had mentioned, arriving just as lightning fast as she had departed.

"Hnnn, brokin' toe is quick 'nough. Set tha' bone if I can an' move on." He was setting her down gently the moment he could; with how automated the temple was with the seals and such he didn't need to worry about little obstacles like doors or walls really. The room was a little dusty, but it was full of old, but usable, medical supplies; the stuff was still sealed in it's packaging and whatnot, so it was perfectly safe to work with; at least the gauze and such. He would touch anything outside of the basics, mostly because he didn't feel comfortable risking Sicarius' safety on his faulty memory. What he remembered as an antibiotic could well actually be toxic to normal humans, and with her feline nature added into the mix... yeah. Stick to simple field medicine until a proper medic was found.

Left arm and head... "Neck, any pain there? Back? 'Er juss yer head?" He hadn't felt anything out of place, but there was always the possibility that he missed things. He was gently feeling across her scalp and skull, making sure there where no cracks and whatnot, or any that where obvious to the touch. Finding nothing he could see or feel outright, he moved to her arm; taking a handful of gauze and pouring water from the canteen he always wore on it so he could clean away some of the dirt and grime; check for flesh wounds and such to start. "Anyone gotta juice box 'er something she can sip at? Little sugar an' some liquid 'id do her wonders right now."