Naomi smiled, "That's right. We should stick together, shouldn't we? -as ninja of the hidden leaf." She said, brushing an errant strand of hair out of her face, "But then... that wouldn't be fair, would it? Only the best teams should make it to the final round, and may the best man... or woman win."<br/><br/>"Aside from my team and you guys, there's one other group from Konoha here so far." She said, "I've seen a group from Kumogakure and Sunagakure too." Nara Naomi had been busy... apparently since they had gotten there the night prior, she'd already begun to work on collecting information about their rivals, "And of course... all the Kirigakure ninja already here."<br/><br/>When he mentioned the hot springs, she smiled and thought out loud to herself, "You know... it should start to see some customers right about now, huh?" The Nara girl closed her eyes and smiled, "And I guess it<em>would</em>be nice to relax for awhile."<br/><br/>Setsuko glared at her hard, scrunching her lips together. Mirai and Tēru only vaguely paid any attention to Tashi as he admonished him, and soon enough they left the two in the hotel lobby.<br/><br/>The trio walked through the streets, Naomi constantly keeping an alert and watchful gaze. She was particularly interesting in the Kirigakure shinobi she saw, but ignored anyone wearing a vest or looking much older than twenty. She was trying to figure out which genin would be participating and which were not. Setsuko, on the other hand, was trying to convince Yoshi the entire time to find a way to ditch Naomi and go on without her.<br/><br/>The Misty Grotto was built into the side of a cliff face, though it was elaborately furnished. They entered through the main entrance and were immediately helped by a woman at the front desk. A small expense and then they were shown to the changing rooms. That, at least, was still separated for males and females. They got in line after a dark skinned man wearing white. After he had paid for himself, he waited around... When they had all started for the changing rooms, he spoke up, "Just got here too, huh?"<br/><br/>He was a genin from Kumogakure, wearing its trademark white and red gloves and sandals. He had very short white hair, from what they could tell of his sideburns. He wore a bandana with his forehead protector over his head, a unzipped jacket and fishnet beneath. His pants were baggy and around his torso he had slung a large straight sword.<br/><br/>"To think I came here to get<em>away</em>from the girls on my team." He said, smiling and laughing, "I was going to tell you about... Uh- I better not. Looks like you're already popular enough with the ladies..."<br/><br/>"Eh?" Naomi said, leaning in closely and smiling as she narrowed her eyes, "You can't start off like that and not tell us."<br/><br/>"Oh, I really shouldn't." The Cloud Nin said, waving his hands defensively.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The whole time, Ichimaru seemed to return Shiori's affections... though as always, something seemed to keep him from picking up on her cues and advances. Now that she thought about it, she never knew much of his past before he had come to the village, shortly before their team was assembled. He was already blind then, but he was not born that way. He may or may not have figured out that she was hiding the dark secret that she was... but he had to have some secrets of his own.<br/><br/>Maybe he was simply too modest and respectful to ever approach her? He did seem to be a little too concerned with propriety for his own good. There was the possibility that he didn't want to appear like he was taking advantage of her kindness or he didn't want to complicate the dynamic of their three-man team, but there was also the possibility he didn't like her at all.<br/><br/>He did seem to like the free sample of shrimp, at least.<br/><br/>So there was that. They were approached by the Kunoichi from Kirigakure and he was about to speak when Shiori chimed in first.<br/><br/>"Oh... well!" The girl replied, at first sounding disappointed but then suddenly finding something cheerful about the situation. She began advancing rather brazenly towards them, "This place is a tourist trap, to be honest. One stall, overpriced and always crowded..."<br/><br/>The kunoichi began to stroke her chin, "Now, if you really want a good<em> local </em>place, then... there's a splendid sushi bar right over..." She pointed seemingly at nothing, right in the side of a wall which had some graffiti plastered on it, "-there!"<br/><br/>"Though..." She turned back towards the 'couple', "If you followed a map, you'd need to go all the way down the street, turn left, then cross over the bridge, turn another left, go down the stairs- you'll end up facing a boutique. Turn immediately around and take a right, and then you'll be right there!"<br/><br/>Ichimaru tried to suppress his laughter, chuckling a little bit under his breath, "Or we could just... follow the tunnel beneath us." He said.<br/><br/>"Or you could just follow the tunnel beneath you!" The girl replied, seemingly thrilled that he had caught on. In truth, Ichimaru's laughter was nervous- an act to play it off. Though he had little problem with walking on it... actually being submerged in it was debilitating for someone who relied upon his hearing for everything. He could passably swim, but he didn't know up from down and the one time she had seen him underwater, he panicked and went straight to the bottom. She began to walk towards the edge of the road, which had a railing and a drop to the water below. Turning around, the kunoichi brushed her hair and smiled, "What do you say?"<br/><br/>Shiori already knew how her companion would respond. He wouldn't balk at any challenge, and certainly not when it might reveal any weakness on his part. This girl was a genin, a little older than them both but still potentially one of their rivals. It was hard to tell if she was genuinely being friendly or had more sinister motives... Even so, she was easy on the eyes, and seemed to have no problem with being stared at, "The name's Sayuri, by the way."