The morning was already late, almost 11, and Zastin was standing, talking to a gigantic bird who had apparently come of his own free will. However, it seemed more like they were arguing over something. Both seemed pretty heated, and neither one looked like someone you wanted to mess with.
"Listen here Old man, I had no idea that Minamekaze was one of your people, so I'm sorry for patronizing him. More importantly, why were you spying on me in the bath-house you gigantic feathery pervert? Can't a boy bathe in peace without you beaky buggers trying to sneak a look at him?" The elder bird, a gigantic grey peregrine falcon around twice his size was starting to laugh, something that was both impossibly arrogant and beautiful at the same time. It filled Zastin with such indescribable anger and glee at the same time that he didn't know whether to storm off or to continue looking up at this guy
"Young Master Zastin, you clearly don't understand what you're doing. We're allowing you to summon us, so we're putting our lives in your hands. Thus we need to know we can trust you. Even if your uncle is the tsuchi-" Zastin cut him off with an angry tone
"Whether or not Dengen is my uncle, I am your partner. What does he matter?!"

For a few seconds, there was an almost intolerably awkward silence as the great bird looked at him with something between puzzlement, bemusement, and pride.
"That.... was what I was going to say needed to happen. You don't like people talking about your relatives?" Zastin, for the first time in a little while, cracked a small cheeky smile
"Hey, I'm Zastin Sanroku, the man who will one day surpass the Tsuchikage. I have to be able to talk about myself with dignity or else I'll never reach the peak, even with your wings to fly on." The falcon chuckled, and if there was a way for it to smile Zastin had the strange feeling it would
"good boy, maybe you've got some potential after all"

The past few days had been more then hectic. It was hard enough being a clan head when you were older, or at least had more experience. But with the death of Marquetta's parents and the fact that no one else could fill those shoes at the present time, that meant Marquetta had been shoved into the unwanted position of leader of the Yanagi clan; her clan now. But, that was life for you, she gave you no choices. It wasn't past Marquetta, though, to disappear for a day or two for some R and R.

So, she'd snuck away earlier in the morning, slipped right out the window and had taken off in nothing more than her usual white tank with the clan logo (an upside down, double peeked mountain) on it the same marking that she bore proudly on her face right along her left cheekbone, and a pair of matching white Capri pants complete with 3 pockets per leg. She hadn't even bother to do anything with her messy, spiked, short hair.

She'd spent most of the morning roaming freely around the village, having nothing better to do today of all days. After a while though the elders of the clan had spotted her, and had attempted to drag her into another of those pointless meetings. She wasn't going for it. So, she'd slipped back off as soon as she could and had instead headed off to the training grounds, not with the purpose to train, but with the purpose of knowing this was the last place anyone in her clan would come looking for her.

Upon arrival she paused a moment to look around, taking a moment to take note of anyone and everyone that might also be there already, a slender white eyebrow raised in curiosity. "Hmm..."

There was something wrong, Zastin could sense it. He felt like he could hear a small murmur, and turned around. There was nobody there.... what was going on? He looked at the falcon and bowed his head slightly
"My apologies Master, I'll be right back" the falcon nodded and he turned off towards the entrance to the training grounds. As he got to the entrance he peeped out and saw a young girl, probably around his age, with bright blue eyes and white hair. There was something indescribably cute about her... not that it mattered much. Whether she was cute or not was immaterial, she would still be a nuisance to have around if he was planning on staying. He wondered, not for the first time that morning, why the master had flown him up here in the first place. They could have talked in the nest, or on the peak as they normally did, but instead it had been here. Somewhere busy, somewhere that people would likely come to. Why would that happen? Zastin thought he wanted privacy.

Walking out, he headed towards her, walking more as if it was a march. He wanted to see what she was doing here. If she was here to train, he'd have to take his conversation elsewhere. He didn't feel entirely comfortable having a conversation with the master whilst someone else was watching. Finally he got close enough and called over to her.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, his tone not harsh nor was it cold... it was more monotone than anything. Like he didn't really care one way or another.
"Are you here to train or what?"

'Greeaaat,' she thought. 'Another person.. 'least it's not another Yanagi.' She sighed softly, stopping in her tracks, and then proceeding to fold her arms across her chest. She then allowed another eyebrow to raise as she paused a moment to take in the other's appearance before answering. "Avoiding people." She surely wasn't one to beat around the bush, so to speak, and she certainly wasn't here to train after all.

Bare toes wiggled momentarily as she remained standing where she was, her feet just as shoeless as ever. "Don't worry, I won't bother you any if you're here to train. I'm just simply here because this is the last place the people I'm avoiding will look for me." A grim smirk formed over her face following those words.

Zastin's eyebrow raised slightly as he saw the young girl had some serious attitude. Did he do something wrong or was she just pissed off at the world right now? Either could be the answer right now, he had literally no idea. Finally, when she said that she was avoiding people, he let out a sigh on the inside but his position didn't change at all on the outside. So, she was trying to avoid people... maybe it was because the master wanted to avoid people that he took him here, still...

"You came here, to a public training ground, because nobody would look here? Surely this would be the first place they would look, it's common sense." A large flapping of wings burst up from behind him, as the master took to the skies, flying over head and gliding softly to a position where he was sitting looking at the pair of them. It would have been a strange sight, a gigantic three foot tall falcon looking down curiously at them, towering over them vastly

"Master... I said I could handle it!" The bird nodded and then looked at the other girl
"So you did, and so you've done. She's trying to avoid people, and so are you. You two could be avoiding people buddies." he joked, but it was clear by the look on Zastin's face that he didn't appreciate the humour of the situation.

Her attention had turned momentarily to the sky, spotting the large bird. Her grim smirk slowly stretched into a slight smile. Less attitude looking at least. Had her eyebrow not already been raised however, it would have raised again as the two conversed.

"No, see. It makes complete sense. My clan is very secretive as most people know, therefore we have our own training grounds. So, a public training place such as this would be the last place they'd look for me because they'd believe I would never come here." She shrugged lightly as she finished her explanation. The Yanagi were indeed known for being a secretive bunch, but it hadn't been made a secret that she'd been made their new leader. So, she didn't bother with any more of a detailed explanation, she simply looked between him and the bird and back again.

That.... strangely made a lot of sense. The one place you didn't expect to see an assassin was walking down the high street dancing to the macarena, so it stood to reason that you wouldn't expect for a secretive person to be in the same place as a normal person, wouldn't seem right. Zastin nodded and proffered his hand towards her for a handshake.
"I'm Zastin, and this is grand master Tatsumaki of the Chōrui clan." the bird bobbed it's head, as if saying hello as to proffer it's clawed talon would likely result in her getting cut to shreds. then it turned back to him and said gently

"Don't you think you should tell her your whole name, Young Master Sanroku?" Zastin sighed irritably, hating it when he had to admit that he was related to the tsuchikage.
"As long as you don't mention my uncle, fine." he turned back and bowed slightly
"I'm Zastin Sanroku, nephew of the Tsuchikage and acolyte of the Chōrui clan."
"That's more like it." his master teased, to which he glared back up at the bird, his anger clear in his eyes, and strong enough to even make tatsumaki stop screwing around.

She unfolded her arms, offering her own hand to shake his. Unlike a normal female, however, her hands were slightly rougher, with small cuts and the like from training surrounding them. The hands of someone who worked hard and trained even harder. Her smile grew slightly more friendly than it had been moments before.

She listened to his introduction, not bothering to comment on who he was related to. "I'm Marquetta Yanagi, newly appointed clan head of the Yanagi clan," the remainder of her sentence was almost a grumble, the dislike clear in her voice to the fact she was now in that position of power. Obviously she didn't care for her new appointment of power, and didn't bother trying to hide it.

Zastin was.... legitimately a little bit stunned. Everyone always assumed that being someone with power was great, but he had never liked it. He could influence his uncle's decisions, and thus people tended to nag him to ask for things for the village's clans. It got so annoying, yet everyone still thought about how lucky he must be to get the chance to be so influential, but here was this girl, this girl who he'd only just met, who was actually managing to prove that she understood exactly what was going on with issues like this. It was surprisingly refreshing for once to not have to deal with someone commenting about how nice it must be and showing contempt for their own position.

"Well, I'm very sorry for you." he said slightly teasingly, the first bit of emotion other than annoyance entering his voice for the first time since they'd met. It was playfulness, maybe not cheerful but certainly not annoyed or rude.

She laughed softly and nodded. "Yeah well, they haven't tried killing me yet so it can't be all bad, eh?", her voice was a mixture of teasing and serious. She gave a light shrug following her words before taking a moment to look around. "So where you here training or something? Really didn't mean to interrupt you if you were." She folded her arms back across her chest, toes wiggling again against the solid ground beneath her feet, giving the briefest of a glimpse to the other clan mark she bore, swirl like patterns that covered the bottoms of both of her feet.

Zastin nodded to her point, as if treating it completely seriously, trying to hold back a small chuckle. Either way, it was nice talking to the lass, and she was truly rather a kindred spirit, but then she asked about what he was doing here. He shrugged, before looking up at his master, who seemed to be warning about what he was about to say. Still, Zastin didn't care, and spoke anyway
"No, we were just here to talk. Apparently I patronized my pet bird so he got annoyed at me.... but then I realized that I met my bird in the baths of the hotsprings, and it allows for vision control, which means that this pervert..." he beckoned his hand in a pointing gesture with his thumb, pointing towards his master
"...was perving on me again. I don't even know why you look at me in the bath, I'm a human! I don't think human and bird biology even works together!" The master had turned away, not looking down at the two humans in what Zastin was sure was embarrassment.