Chieko's Quest for the Tiger's Contract.

Chieko woke achy again the next morning. It seems she always has been lately ever since they arrived in the Sand village.
"Hey... Koku-sensei...Are you going to train me today now?" She rubbed the fog out from her eyes softly and blinked across the room, looking at the usual spot Koku was always in when she woke up. He wasn't there this time.
'Wha-... Where is he?' She quirked an eyebrow finding it unusual for him to not be there unless he left her a note. From a jolt from her blood, she jumped out from the bed only to be caught by a blanket on her foot sending her head to the floor first. After a loud groan and a cold wash, she ran out of the Inn onto the Sand village's streets in search of her sensei again.

((Ooc- This is during when Koku was out searching for the Panda Contract))

She tried to remember his usual spots.
'The ramen shop...Ack! Is that the only one I know?!' She gripped her hair in panic almost pulling it out. As she walked along the market with side eyes, an older man at a shop called for her as she passed by.

"Hey you! In the black and orange!" He called out with a smile but also a very business-like sparkle in his eyes. Chieko looked around then pointed at herself instead of answering back in case it wasn't her. The man only nodded and waved his hand as if a cat was pawing for a toy to come closer. She stood and stared at him knowing that no one has ever called her out before. She approached quietly and look up at the man confused, waiting for him to explain his disturbance.
"Ah... That look you give me. You have good eyes! It's the real look of a smart buyer!" He made a generic pose looking as if he was absolutely shocked.
"Um..." Chieko wasn't sure what to say but she did find the man amusing somehow. Before she could continue, the man broke her off. She looked up at the top of the stall, reading the kanji painted at the top.
'Hideki's Paint shop...'
"No no! Not another word, Miss! I must say, someone with a brilliant mind and a deep wallet must have have taste in lovely arts such as these!" Her presented his stall before her, even though there wasn't much to see.
'Kids are so easy to get these days.' He snickered inside his head.
Chieko, only being a child after all, did enjoy looking at pretty pictures. She always imagined great stories after sitting and staring at one for awhile. She shrugged off her doubt about this man and decided to give his stall a shot.
'Koku-sensei can wait for now.'
She started at the first table, looking over each one carefully till she shook her head and moved on deeper into the store. Eventually, her hand found it's way up to her chin as she looked at the drawings and paintings more carefully, taking in all the details. Hideki, the shopkeeper, just stood and watched.
'Hurry up already,kid' He mumbled.
Chieko made her way slowly from table to table until she found something that caught her eye immediately. It was a very colorful painting, mostly of the colors in the sunset. Red, orange, and yellow then the occasional brown for the ground. She saw sunset colors, but no sun. She also saw the edge of a cliff.
'It must be somewhere up high. Like a mountain.' She thought. What really caught here eyes was the orange and black stripped animals in the front. The images of the animals themselves where quite fuzzy looking so she was not able to determine for sure.
'A streak of tigers?' She observed. After a closer look she found a wounded man lain on his side, near them, with a few of the cubs licking at his wounds over his ribs.
'A-Are they attacking and eating him?' She thought almost in horror but looked back again. The tigers didn't seem to show any hostility in their faces. The man, too, didn't seem to be in pain at all either. Her thoughts flashed back onto an old memory of hers.

One of her last visits of the Old man at the tea shop she use to visit before they left for the Sand. It was another day and Chieko was helping the old man as best she could. He was cleaning out the back of the shop and was possibly looking for old paintings to put up and decorate the place up a little more. Chieko came out of the shop carrying a dusty box as the old stout man waiting for her after putting his last one away. Her face was all puffed and red, feeling this box more heavier than usual. She dropped it on the table in a huge poof of dust and coughed it off while the old man opened the box carefully.
"Ahh. We found it, Chieko." He laughed relieved. They began to dig around in the dusty paintings until Chieko's eyes set on a plain picture. It had the image of a tiger sitting there, but it looked very elegant to her.
"How pretty, Ojiisan, what is it?" Being in the village her whole young life, she never really seen a tiger before yet. He laughed once more looking over the painting himself.
"That is a tiger, Chieko. Tigers are respecting all across the shinobi nations, even the small countries." Chieko's eyes widened and sparkled in curiosity. The old man was use to this and went on.
"Long ago, before shinobi's began to rule, a great clan of people who couldn't use ninjutsu did. They were called the Samurai, and only few are still carrying that heritage today. The tiger is their symbol for great aristocratic warriors. The samurai looked upon the Tiger as a symbol of courage, change and improvement."
Chieko started to really like the sound of tigers, not only that they were black and orange much like her clothes, she thought childishly. The old man went on and came to talking about their characteristics.
"What I like about tigers too, is that their saliva is a great antiseptic. It is good for cleaning wounds." Chieko noted that down, knowing that it was another small fact for her being closer to a medical ninja.

Hideki strode his way towards Chieko, professional-like and cleared his throat. Chieko snapped and shook her head clear and regained her thoughts.
"Ah. It seems your eyes have met with one of my more unpopular paintings."
"What's happening to that man in the painting, Mister?"
"I must say, young lady, that man you see is me." He answered simply.
"That's you? What happened?"
"On the day that this painting depicts, I ended up lost on my way to another village. I was going to leave to suna for sure to get away from an arranged marriage to this woman I didn't like. This was very long ago. I never left the village before and got lost as I left. I came up to the mountain you see here, and figured if I climbed it, I found the next town. That wasn't the case and I ended up falling and hurting my ribs. All I remember were these big orange fuzz balls with black stripes licking my wounds. The next morning I found myself back in Suna and got married to that woman. It turns out, shes not as bad as I thought. My life went through a lot of improvement."
Chieko's eyes widened at his last word.
"When I told people of my story, they all told me I wounded up at the legendary Summon Mountain, and that the spirits of the mountain saved me. They say if you climb the mountain and meet with the spirits, you can form a pact for their companionship on your travels." Chieko nodded her head and began to run out of the door.
"Thanks, Mister! Have a good day!" She called out through the corner of the door.
"Hey! Wait! Didn't you want to buy this painting!?" He yelled back. He sighed and dropped his shoulders instead. "What a waste..."

Chieko ran back to the Inn, bumping through people inside and stuffed her bags with her clothes and some water.
"If I'm able to form a pact with the tiger spirits, maybe my life will improve too..."
She nodded with a determined sparkle in her eyes. After strapping her pack tight to her shoulders and around her waist, and her clothes were fixed, she slid open the Inn's 2nd floor window and jumped out onto the roof running towards the end of town. She reached the desert and began to travel through, wondering how a mountain was suppose to appear out of thin air in a flatland like this. Hours began to past, and Chieko could only feel the sun get hotter as it reached high noon. By now, she removed her scarf and her head band to allow more insulation. It just didn't seem to help enough. More of the day passed, and she felt her water pouch become lighter.
'Oh no... maybe I'm just not going fast enough...I should have reached the forest by now...' She looked up at the sun to see if she could tell the time of day. And sure enough, she's been walking long enough to reach the forest.
'Am I lost...?'

The sun sunk into the sand dunes behind her as she continued on. By now her water ran out, and she was wanting to go back. But her thoughts about the tiger kept making her turn back around.
"Have ..to be... strong..." She said reassuring to herself, and also to make sure she was awake, but her body could only take so much without rest and felt herself collapse onto the sand.

She lifted her head lightly seeing a lush green in front of her. She was unable to take a good look before her mind sent her back into a deep sleep once more.
'Did I.. make it?" Her voice echoed in her mind. 'Or... is this paradise in the next world?'

((Accepted. You find the tiger summons.))

A small body jumps on your stomach. Several times. Two weights push on your face as something scratchy rubs against your cheek.

In the back of her mind she begins to feel short of breath. Her inner-self grips at her stomach feeling a sudden rush of oxygen leave her lungs.
'Wh-What's going on?' Several more rushes of air leave her lips and her eyes snap into a deep gasp for air. She pants lightly then gasps again seeing a small furry orange animal on her stomach then a large paw over her head.
'OH no! The wild animals found me! I'm gonna get eaten!' Her eyes stay wide open feeling her body tense under the paw of large...
'T-Tiger?' She looked at it, noticing patches of fur and black stripes. She dared not to move her body until she was for sure.

"Hi!" "Hi!" "Hi!" "Hi!" A small voice chants excitedly. The voice comes from whatever is on your stomach. The little furry animal removes it paws from your face, bouncing slightly.

"Hi!" It peers at you through golden eyes alight with curiosity. Two furry ears twitching.

OOC - I'd imagine that a tiger cub would actually weigh a fair bit.

'Is.. there someone here with me?'
Chieko anchored her body up slightly, feeling an eccentric radiance coming from the small animal. She takes a closer look realizing it was the Tiger on her stomach.
'But..no way.. animals don't talk...' She opened her mouth to answer then bit her lip back up in doubt. Then opened back up a bit hesitantly.
"H-Hello there... Are you a uh... Tiger..spirit by..any chance?" She began to feel a cold sweat down her cheek. "I-If you're not, then sorry for asking!" She added in quickly.
'Ojiisan never told me they could talk!!' Chieko's inner thoughts screamed.

The tiger cub jumped again, loosing his balance and tumbling to the ground. He got up quickly.

"I'm not a spirit! I'm a summon creature!" He said this proudly. He stalked forward towards you, before noticing a butterfly nearby. His tail thrashed gently from side to side and suddenly he pounced. The butterfly easily avoided his grasp and he ended up with his limbs splayed out on the ground.

"Yeah! You better run!" he told the butterfly in a standoffish tone.

Chieko tried hard not to laugh but the moment just made it seem to adorable. She kept a rather confused look for a moment then fumbled onto her knees and bowed her head to the small cub.
"I'm sorry if that might have offended you! But I came very far off to find you to ask for your... companionship!" She couldn't really place it any better than that. From other points of view it seemed rather... silly... to be bowing before something much small than her, but she was willing to take any costs to gain his trust.
"Please, if you'll let me, I would like to form a pact with you and sign your summoning contract." She tried not to let her voice squeak when she usually became nervous. By now know, her cold sweat turned hot, waiting for his answer.

The cub got to his feet. "You're not very confidant are you?" He tilted his head to the side.

"Can you even roar? I can! See!" He roared. Loudly. With a show of sharp fangs and everything. When he was done he smiled proudly.

"A-A roar...?" Her eyes widened a bit. 'He wants me to roar?? How am I suppose to -'
Her thoughts were broken by a large roar, coming from the small cub, feeling her hair stand up as he did so. She just stared down at him for a moment and felt a sweat run down her cheek once more as she stared into his grin.
'I-I must be going crazy... Talking tigers- ... No its the heat... It's got to be the heat...' Her eyes shifted around lightly to the surroundings. She couldn't find any tan or sand. Except for the tan she spotted on the mountain. She even gripped at the ground under through her finger tips, just feeling blades of grass poke at her skin. She swallowed softly and looked back down at the cub.
'I-It's real...'
She nodded to herself.
"Alright... I'll roar for you." She tried to smile a little and thought how she was going to roar like that, exactly.
'Maybe it was like being back at the academy... when I had to transform into the Hokage. I have to act like him and talk like him...'
Chieko began to look over the mental picture she had taken as she watched the cub roar earlier. A strong stance, his mouth wide open with no hesitation in his voice. She shifted her legs around so she was positioned a little like him and looked at herself. After taking a deep breath she squeezed her eyes shut in a loud and long roar type yell. Her nails and fingers began to dig into the ground as she did while he body tensed up.

"RRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHRRRRRRR!!!" She ended with a deep breath intake, and grinned at the cub, just like he did to her.
"How was I?" She smiled again, starting to take in the cubs personality a bit.

((OOc- ))

The cub stared with wide eyes. "I thought you were a mouse! I guess I was wrong. That was good," he said admiringly, "not as good as mine of course," he hastened to add, "'Cause I'm the best roarer around." He nodded decisively.

"If you can roar like that I guess you're brave enough to be my companion. Just remember, I'm better." He pulled a summoning contract out from somewhere and nudged it towards you with his nose.

Chieko's eyes widened and looked at the contract for a moment.
'This must be it!' She thought excitedly, and began to unstrap her back pack from around her waist. She opened a small pocket that contained the end of a brush sticking out and slid her fingers in deeper pulling out ink. She carefully unrolled the scroll contract and looked over an empty spot for her name. She dipped the brush lightly and began to write the kanji of her name as neat as she could.
"Chi...e..ko...Ta...kai..." She nodded looking over it again, and slipped the brush back into her pack.
"Thank you so much! You won't regret this...uh..." She sat dumbfound.
'I forgot to ask his name!'

"Ririshiinaru. I'm Ririshiinaru! Okay?" He pounced on your stomach again.

Chieko fell back as Ririshinaru pounced her and let out a small laugh.
"It's so great to meet you, Ririshinaru! I'm Chieko! I'm sure we'll have lots of fun on our travels!"
She smiled ruffling up the top of his head softly.

"Of course we will! Since I'll be there. How could we not have fun?"

((You receive the tiger summons scroll))