Is that a monkey? [Invite Only]

"It's what you don't say, that is the most telling." He was entirely unfazed by their reactions; he'd pretty much expected as much over his words. Few would take them laying down, unless they where the type that only needed the slightest reality check to realize just shitty they where being. Meh, whatever.

So she was going to take it that far? Ballsy, and he liked that. She was brave enough to take the steps she needed to make sure her life was what she wanted it to be, and not be stalled by the people that should be supporting her, but refuse to for whatever reasons. He offered an arm to Fa Mulan, allowing her the chance to climb up on him if she wanted; she'd likely be more comfortable that way, until Artemis came back. When she did, he spoke again, "Come stay with me, for now. I've got a spare room, and Coen will enjoy the company. My place is set up for taking care of animals anyway, so you won't have to worry about having problems bringing her."

Whether she took the offer or not was up to her, and he'd support her decision either way. If she wanted to go to hotel or something, he'd point her in the right direction to make sure she wasn't stuck wondering around for hours trying to find one that allowed 'pets', since Fa Mulan wasn't fully registered yet, and wouldn't be protected by the laws that gave ninja pets and partners special protections.

WC: 272

272 + 421 = 693

Fa Mulan climbed up Karukaya and hung from him in much the same method that she had been doing from Artemis; her favorite way to perch on someone. The monkey watched over Karukaya's shoulder, but made little sound; her eyes were trained on the doorway that Artemis had disappeared into as she waited as patiently as possible for “her human” to return.

Artemis meanwhile made quick work in filling her duffle bag; clothing, a few books, toothbrush, comb, those sorts of things. Weapons and the like were gathered up too. She ensured that everything she absolutely had to have was in the bag: the rest could after all be replaced. And then she was back outside, pausing in the doorway to look at her parents.

She heard Karukaya sensei say that she could stay with him; he had a spare room and Coen would enjoy the company, plus his house was already set up to deal with animals so there'd be no issues with Fa Mulan. She nodded to him in agreement with the idea and went to step off the porch when her father reached out and grabbed her arm, tightly. She stopped, looked at his hand, and slowly her gaze traveled up his arm and to his face.

”You're not leaving this house, young lady!”

Before she could react, before she could tell him to release her before she forced him to, she heard an unhappy screech of a sound. Fa Mulan had released her hold on Karukaya and was 'running' over to them. The monkey launched herself at her father and bit him on the arm. He hollered, released her, and stumbled back. Before either her parents could get it in their heads to attempt to strike the monkey she scooped up Fa Mulan and jumped off the porch, crossing the distance between herself and Karukaya sensei quickly.

Word Count: 8,888

He didn't even make a move to restrain Fa Mulan, he knew exactly what she was about to do when she raced down his body. That was expected, really; primates where predictable, and acted similar to children of the same general age; at least if the children weren't socialized and reacted on instinct. She was going to get a treat later for that; and thank god they had all the paperwork to prove that she was vaccinated and clean; no problems from the authorities over this. Once they'd returned to him, he shifted so that his body was between both parties, allowing himself a bored yawn and a light stretch. "Well, I think that's your proof that she's dead set on this. Even if you wanted to stop her, you have no legal discourse in the matter; once a ninja graduates the academy and receives their official rank, they're legally adults, and therefore are no longer bound to their parents by the same laws and such as normal teenagers would be. For all intents and purposes, she's been legally an adult since the moment she finished school. So really, she has every right to make this decision, and you can't stop her."

This was information he had to have, since he'd moved out of his own parents home years before; and while he was very obviously a ninja, and well known now due to his recent explosion of work, being the only kangaroo trainer in the village, the Rakuenkage's student, and other less professional rumors and such, there had been a time when he was just another baby faced kid getting stopped at random by truancy cops and the like asking why he wasn't in school; because he looked too young to have graduated and didn't wear his ninja gear when off duty.

Given the way they'd been reacting, he decided to take a moment to make sure that they didn't end up being rushed by a ragetastical father that didn't like having his authority challenged; Karukaya was BARELY older than his daughter, so a fairly highly ranked, and somewhat important member of the military or not, he wasn't about to respect Karu's own authority here.

"Soooo... since it's late as hell, she needs to rest so that she can heal, and I'd love to get some sleep so that I can go to work tonight..." He had a whole gaggle of hidden tricks and jutsu up his sleeve, and he was about to cue Artemis up one. He charged his fire chakra to his hand and lifted it to his mouth, palm flat and facing up, base of his palm pressed lightly against the space under his bottom lip and between said lip and his chin. He inhaled deeply, releasing the air in a strong stream across his palm and causing what appeared to be innumerable fireflies to fly from his palm and spread into the air between himself and her parents. They hovered in the air, glittering beautifully with their own inner light, and releasing a gentle heat that raised the ambient temperature pleasantly; at least for Karukaya.

"So, we're gunna go ahead and take off now. Fair warning, don't touch the pretty little sparkle flies. They make a nice big boom when they touch things. They'll disappear in a few minutes, so just head inside and go to bed, or whatever. Artemis will be fine, she can take care of herself. She's proven that plenty of times over."

WC: 613

693 + 613 = 1306

1306/1500 Fire Release: Ten Thousand Fireflies

It was very hard for Artemis to hide how very proud she was of Fa Mulan at the moment: the fact that the monkey had acted like that was not only amusing, but it was also a huge leap forward. Fa Mulan was willing to protect Artemis the same as Artemis was willing to protect her – it was a lot farther then most people got when first getting a pet, ninja pet or otherwise. She was definitely going to have to find a way to show her how pleased she was by that reaction, but for now apparently it was time to watch a pretty show.~

Fa Mulan shifted more to the left side of Artemis' hip; she couldn't go on her back due to the duffle bag being there, but this was as close to her what was quickly being her usual perch as she could get so she was happy. Both of them watched and listened to Karukaya sensei as he moved himself between them and Artemis' parents. The jutsu caused the monkey to make rather excited noises and caused Artemis to grin.

Her parents wouldn't dare try and stop them now, and sure enough they headed inside; her father almost pushing her mother through the door way. The door was slammed shut behind them. Artemis attempted to suppress her grin but couldn't. “That was an awesome jutsu.” She then focused her attention onto Fa Mulan. ”You did an awesome job, Fa Mulan.”

The monkey simply let out a happy series of chirping type noises. ”My hooman!”

Word Count: 262 + 8,888 = 9,150
Taijutsu C – B: 9,150 – 3,000
Raiton C – B: 6,150 – 1,500
Remaining: 4,650

"It would have looked better if they'd tried to call a bluff and touched one. The medics would hate me; more than they do; but yeah. It's a good thing they didn't try to call a bluff. That would have been bad. I don't have many flashy jutsu that aren't... super powerful. Most of my 'easy' skills are Taijutsu, so the wrong kind of flashy for what I wanted. Anyway, now that the bull is over; let's head home. Coen's gunna be wondering where I am, and we all need some sleep." He waved his hand upward, causing the sparkling fireflies to fly upward into the open sky where they faded from existence as the chakra that made them burned out.

He shifted around, orienting himself using the taller buildings, and made a mental note of where this house was in relation to the rest of the places in the village he needed to know about. "Alright, this way.~" Down the road and toward home he lead them, comfortable silence on his end. If she wanted to talk, he'd be happy to converse, but otherwise he was silent.

WC: 202

202 + 1306 = 1506/1500 Fire Release: Ten Thousand Fireflies

”Honestly, I think my dad probably would have, but he's terrified of jutsu. He was on the bad end of one a few years ago when he pissed off the wrong person in a bar. He got hit with a nasty raiton attack that left him twitching for weeks afterward until his nerve system stopped acting haywire.” Artemis said, thoughtfully. While she was indeed glad that her parents hadn't attempted to call Karukaya's bluff the idea still amused her that they had tried to stop her from leaving in the first place. They knew the rules; it wasn't like they were uninformed. But, something had made them think that if they could bully Artemis enough she would stay.

It hadn't happened of course... Artemis was too strong willed of an individual. But, had she been anyone else it likely would have.

She pondered over these thoughts as she followed after Karukaya sensei. She had no idea where he lived exactly, or how long it would take to get there, but it was an enjoyable kind of quiet that allowed her to mentally come to terms with what she had just done. She no longer would have her parents to fall back onto when times got tough: she knew that after this 'bad break' there was no going back for her. She was on her own in a manner of speaking. She also knew she was going to have to prove herself from here on out: Karukaya sensei was sticking his neck out for her by providing her a place to stay – something that most sensei wouldn't have offered. She knew she wouldn't be able to slack off anymore, and that was fine: it was about time she kicked her own ass into gear anyway.

Word Count: 300 + 4,650 = 4,950

Ah, that was glorious. Things like that where why he was thinking about trying his hand at learning Raiton when he had some time; he knew he had some Raiton affinity, even if it was pretty weak. He'd  always been heavy on the fire, and lightning wasn't that different, in theory and practice. Ah well.

They reached his block and smirked a bit; he could see Coen through one of his kitchen windows, the 'roo was standing over the sink by the look of it; he'd likely treated himself to some of the fruit sherbet in the freezer and was trying to clean up the evidence. Or else he'd made a sandwich or something.

"We're here." he pointed out his apartment and dug into his pocket to fish his keys out, flipping a few of the keys away until he had the right one. Right up to the door, and the key was inserted; he knew the door would be locked, Coen was good about not leaving it unlocked when he was home alone, even more so at night. The door was opened and he stepped aside to let them in, "Come on in, make yourselves at home."

He waited for them to enter, then walked in and locked the door behind them; his front door opened into a little hallway with a coat closet on the right wall that lead right into the kitchen area. It was an open style apartment; the kitchen was only separate from the small dining area he had and the living room by the bar, and the living room had taken on a decidedly comfortable feel since he moved his training gear into the shed/training room on the far side of the back yard. A hallway branched off on the right wall, leading toward the bedrooms and bathroom. "You're welcome to anything floating around; I need to do a market run tomorrow, but there's plenty to eat anyway. Towels are in the bathroom, extra blankets and such are in the closet in the hallway. There's plenty in the guest bedroom, but if you like to make a mountain of them, have fun.~ Your room is on the left, the door on the right is the bathroom, and the far end is my room. The hammock up on the wall is Coen's, but I best he'd share if asked."

"Sleepover? I like sleepovers.~ Who's the little one?" It turned out he'd been making tea; he did that sometimes when he was having trouble sleeping, and they had all kinds of it. He hopped over with the kettle and a few cups on a tray, "I have tea, if anyone wants some.~"

Karukaya took a second to move toward the kitchen, and to the edge of the bar where a strange looking egg was sitting in a little nest and wrapped in a heating pad and blanket. He unwrapped the blankets and such from it, and checked over the shell, running his finger over the barely visible spiderweb of cracks that had started forming over it over the last few days. "I think he's going to hatch soon. I have no idea what he is, but... well, you know me. I take care of everything. Something about him though... call it instinct. Or whatever. I found him out on the plains; or Coen did, and brought me too him. I don't even know how I know it's a he, but I just do. With any luck, we'll wake up to him hatching fully, and I can finally see what he is..."