"Hmmm." Kurai said through the mist, seemingly genuinely stumped "...something that she can only tell once she's slept with them, huh?"<br/><br/>When Yoshi mentioned waiting for the girls, the cloud ninja couldn't help but laugh, "I thought you were like me... trying to get<em>away</em>from them."<br/><br/>"I thought I heard that laugh of yours." Naomi said as her signature came closer and closer. She was just a vague figure in the mist, but Yoshi could hear her slip into the water with a gentle splash. Another soon followed, clearly Setsuko. "Well, we're all back together." Kurai said, "And naked."<br/><br/>One didn't need to see him to know he was grinning ear to ear.<br/><br/>"I just want to relax with Yoshi..." Setsuko complained. Naomi chuckled, "We should find this girl of yours. Now I'm quite curious about her, myself."<br/><br/>"Lead the way, Yoshi." Kurai said, "But we all need to keep talking in order to stay together... Nara, was it?"<br/><br/>"Hm?"<br/><br/>"Your name... Nara. Isn't that a clan?"<br/><br/>"Yes... Nara is my surname. My given name is Naomi."<br/><br/>As Kurai's small talk kept them together, Yoshi began to lead the group out into the open waters of the grotto. They passed by the weak signature he detected earlier, someone who seemed to move out of their way. There was another dense cluster of chakra, possibly belonging to someone powerful. But when he got closer, Yoshi could only then seperate them into a group of weaker signatures. A family or a group of civilians, judging by their voices. "So what about you, Setsuko?" Kurai asked, "What's your clan name?"<br/><br/>"No one special..." She begrudgingly added. The Cloud nin laughed and then hummed for a second, "Say, Yoshi... I don't believe I ever got<em>your</em>family name."<br/><br/>Before he could reply, Yoshi felt a signature on the edge of his periphery... but only briefly. It was as powerful as any of theirs, but it was gone. Then it had returned, appearing from the edge of his senses and then disappearing just as quickly at the opposite end. Yet there was no sound of splashing water, of someone running across the top of the surface... Yet it'd be difficult to wade through waist-high water so quickly so silently.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The blind ninja sheepishly smiled and laughed nervously, turning to face her after she tugged on his clothes to get his attention, "Thank you, but... we can't show her any weakness." He whispered, his voice somehow both serious and playful all at once, "If we're going to be facing mist ninja on their home turf, we can't make ourselves a target for the second round... And besides dolphins use their hearing underwater. I just have to practice that as well."<br/><br/>He took hold of her hand before she could draw it away from his tank top and kept it there, "Just keep me on the right track, Shiori-chan." He smiled, trying to comfort her and then crouched down and slowly slipped into the water, forcing her to join him lest she immediately abandon him.<br/><br/>Meanwhile, Sayuri was swimming underwater like a fish. 'Six... Seven... Eight' She thought... Her hands were close to her thighs and she waved her feet back and forth like a set of fins. 'Twelve... thirteen... fourteen...' Once her momentum began to slow, she brought her arms forward and bent her legs... and then kicked off again, darting forward. It took her three pushes like this before she began to slow down and reach the end of the passageway. 'Sixteen... Seventeen...' The Kirigakure ninja surfaced and said to herself, "Eighteen seconds!"<br/><br/>She took off her swim goggles and let them rest one more in her hair, hoisting herself out of the water and taking a seat on the pier-like platform. "Twenty... Twenty-one." She continued to count, resting her chin in her palm.<br/><br/>Meanwhile, Shiori and Ichimaru swam together. It was hard, mostly due to the fact that they had to do it together. Separately, they could go at their own pace and make it to the end of the passageway on their terms. It should have been simple enough... but Ichimaru tended to veer in the wrong direction. Eventually, he would hit a wall and wouldn't be able to tell if it was the side or the bottom. They went up for air from time to time, but didn't speak much. He seemed eager to get through this, and the blind ninja quickly ducked back down as soon as he got a good breath.<br/><br/>Unfortunately, the space they had available up above the surface was rapidly dwindling... until it disappeared completely, and the roof of the tunnel was submerged. Ichimaru felt the ceiling with his hand when they went up for air, and then turned to Shiori, gently rubbing her shoulder to get her attention. She saw him making hand seals, the ones she had tried to teach him earlier. Mugen Ibuki no Jutsu... It seems like he had found the time to put her scroll to good use, though who took the time to read it to him was a mystery.<br/><br/>Ichimaru was trying hard, she could tell... He was using up too much chakra. She could<em>feel</em>it when she was close to him- how he was using brute strength to try and compensate for his lack of experience in the water. Then again, she didn't have much experience actually swimming either. Being able to float and walk on water tended to make things... simpler.<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">The passageway is 165 feet long in calm water. Since neither Shiori nor Ichimaru have ranks in athletics, they can't take 10. I took the liberty of doing the rolls myself. I am also assuming they will move together, so that Shiori can maintain physical contact with him and make sure he's not disoriented. As such both parties need to make the check. The DC is 10. If one party succeeds, the other gets a +2 circumstance bonus.<br/><br/>Round 1; Shiori: 17, Ichimaru: 12... 150 feet from goal. Ichimaru spends 3 chakra on Strength Rank 3.<br/>Round 2: Shiori; 14, Ichimaru: 9... No progress.<br/>Round 3: Shiori; 4, Ichimaru: 13... No progress.<br/>Round 4: Shiori; 8, Ichimaru: 22... No progress.<br/>Round 5; Shiori; 21, Ichimaru: 25... 135 feet to goal. Ichimaru spends 3 chakra.<br/>Round 6: Shiori; 12, Ichimaru; 22. 120 feet from goal. The ceiling begins to meet the water, meaning no more breathable air to surface for.<br/>Round 7: Full-round action for both to use Mugen Ibuki no Jutsu (Air Supply Technique), -3 chakra for both.<br/>Round 8: Shiori; 7, Ichimaru; 22 again?<br/>Round 9: Shiori: 19, Ichimaru: 15. 105 feet from goal.<br/>Round 10: Shiori: 14, Ichimaru: 25 90 feet from goal. Ichimaru -3 chakra.<br/>Round 11: Shiori: 7, Ichimaru: 19.<br/>Round 12: Shiori: 3, Ichimaru: 20.<br/>Round 13: Shiori: 2, Ichimaru: 9. Recharge Mugen Ibuki no Jutsu. -3 chakra for both.<br/>Round 14: Shiori: 10, Ichimaru: 14. 75 feet from goal.<br/>Round 15: Shiori: 8, Ichimaru: 22 again!? -3 chakra for Ichimaru.<br/>Round 16: Shiori; 4, Ichimaru; 13.<br/>Round 17: Shiori; 18, Ichimaru; 12. 60 feet from goal.<br/>Round 18; Shiori; 12, Ichimaru; 22 again... 45 feet from goal.<br/>Round 19; Shiori; 2, Ichimaru; 7. Recharge Mugen Ibuki no Jutsu (Air Supply Technique), -3 chakra for both.<br/>Round 20; Shiori; 11, Ichimaru; 18. 30 feet from goal. -3 chakra for Ichimaru. He deactivates his strength rank.<br/>Round 21; Shiori; 9, Ichimaru: 14.<br/>Round 22; Shiori; 14, Ichimaru; 12. 15 feet from goal.<br/>Round 23; Shiori; 22, Ichimaru; 22 again! Success!<br/><br/>Shiori Chakra: 6/34<br/>Ichimaru Chakra: 3/39 (8/15 Reserve)<br/>Sayuri: -2 Chakra<br/><br/>All that dice rolling had a demonstrative point, you'll see... ;) But it also forced the expenditure of some chakra. In any event, I'll let you write the second half of their little journey and what they'll do, if anything, upon surfacing.<br/><br/>As an aside, it is roughly a 50 meter swim, which Shiori and Ichimaru completed in about 2 and a half minutes. Someone with a single rank would average about a minute. While the Olympic record is about 21 seconds. Sayuri did it in 3 rounds... or 18 seconds.</div></div>