"Wandering around Kumo~ Wonderin' what we're gonna do so~♪"

The green haired Senju casually hummed a tuneless melody about exactly what she was doing. She was walking around the Village of Kumogakure, with no particular goal or set objective in mind. The singing had become a habit of hers since being a small child, and well, she was still a rather small child. Though already thirteen, it didn't seem that she had matured much in any way since she began being a shinobi. She did have to give herself some credit though, she did make it to the chunin exams! And how things would turn out only made her more excited, she had come here with the dream of becoming as strong as her father and with each step she was getting closer to him.

When she had left Konoha in what seemed like a long time ago, her father had been the only one missing from the range of good byes and good lucks. He had still been away on a mission, it had been at least a month, though not surprising. She wondered how her little brother was doing and her aunt and uncle and grandparents, they all must be thinking of her too. She had to think it was becuase they were sending their thoughts to her that she made it this far, and her father too... Even though they didn't see each other, he had to be thinking of her.

She smiled to herself absentmindedly as she walked with a spring in each of her steps. Her arms swung side to side as her long green braids trailed behind her. She was walking through a relatively busy Kumo street, filled with few vendors and colorful stalls of goods. Today she had decided to simply just wander Kumo, a new place she had never been to before. The mountainous scenery and bright blue skies were a nice backdrop to a semi busy marketplace. A few passerby caught sight of a small lead shinobi, identified by the forehead protector she wore around her neck. Before she did wear it like a proper headband, but later decided to wear it like a scarf in homage to her father. It reminded her of him and it reminded her that she wanted to be like him.

As she walked her green eyes caught sight of a colorful array of flowers. A vendor had bouquets lines up on a small cart. The aroma of freshly cute flora filled the air, causing the girl to smile even brighter. "Hehe! They smell really good Mister!" She exclaimed out loud, to which the street vendor nodded with a smile. Many of the flowers were plants native to Kumo and thus the girl had never seen before. They were mainly pastel, white and light yellow, mixed with periwinkle and pink. Mountain flowers... And very beautiful. Tsu ended up being very distracted by such beautiful things and for the next few moments simply smelled and took in the site of the flowers. "Oh, they're just so pretty!"

~514~

"They're plants. What's so special about them?"

"Hm?" At the sudden comment Tsu turned her head up, only to find she was looking to a small boy of brown hair and oddly white eyes. He was frowning, seemingly unimpressed with the girl of green hair and her admiration of the flowers at the stall. On his forehead he wore a Konoha for head protector, the Emblem immediately recognisable. The girl blinked in surprise, pondering what to say, but then just decided to go with a simple greeting.

"Ah, hello!" She smiled with a wave of her hand back and forth. Her forehead protector was worn around her neck, like that of a necklace or scarf. When she had first graduated from the academy she had worn in traditionally on her forehead, but as she got older she switched to wearing around her neck because it was the way in which her father wore his. The girl's father of course, being her best role model and idol in the world. She still had the leaf brooch above her heart, the engagement gift from her father to her mother. It reminded her of her late mother, and with it right above her heart, it was like she was always there. Just these few little things reminded Tsu that her parents were always supporting her and by her side. It also reminded her of who she was, a Senju and a shinobi of the Leaf. Oddly fitting since she did have green hair.

It would be rude to ignore the question asked by the boy in front of her. But the girl had to think of an answer. Her finger went to her chin in a thinking position, her brow slightly furrowed as the slow gears in her head began to spin. She wasn't always a slow thinker, but she did like to think things through. And a question like that deserved a worthwhile answer.

"Well, I really like flowers and all sorts of plants to begin with so I like to look at them and admire how they look. 'Specially when they've been taken care of and raised really well, 'cause then the colors of the petals are really bright and the plants are healthy and happy! These plants are just like that, so I think they're pretty not just 'cause they look good, but becuase someone put alotta care and time into raising them. I've got a garden and greenhouse at home so I know it takes alotta work in order to make healthy plants." With smile the girl ended her explanation with a clap of her hands together. Her word caught the ear of the vendor who smiled and gave a thumbs up with a nod to Tsu, appreciating the praise. "Hehe, I'm also of the Senju Clan of Konohagakure no Sato, so I even use plants and trees for Jutsu." She added to her reasons for liking all things green. The young boy couldn't have been a shinobi for long, he was younger than her, though she wasn't that old either and she herself hadn't been a shinobi for too long as well. But they both wore their forehead protectors proudly, so they shared the common background of being shinobi of the Leaf.

"I'm Shokubutsusou Tsuru! What's your name?" She asked with a curious grin. Since they were obviously form the same village, it would be nice to get to know each other. One day perhaps they would even serve on a mission together. It would be nice to know other shinobi of the Village. Her green eyes looked to his white. White eyes...  The girl was sure she had heard of such a thing before, perhaps a doujutsu? So his bloodline had a doujutsu with white eyes. It sounded very familiar but the girl couldn't seem to place it. She was sure he would reveal it to her though, if he wished and if he decided to answer her back with his own name.

~680/1194~

“They do look healthy. I don't see how a plant can be happy."

The boy responded to Tsu’s explanation with little emotion. At his words, the girl couldn’t help but smile. She knew full well that plants literally couldn’t feel emotion, but it was a simple personification often used to describe the states of plants. Looking healthy was often associated to being healthy by people, so it only made sense to call healthy plants “happy” as well. Perhaps the boy was too young to understand something like that, though she thought it very cute that something like that seemed to fly over his head.

At the inquiry of this name, the boy gave a sigh. Was he… tired? It wasn’t that late in the day was it? Did he prefer to take naps? Tsu never really take naps too often, she just had trouble sleeping when it was light outside.

”Satsuji.” He gave a single name without much elaboration. Eh? Satusuji… And so now she had a name she could match with the face of white eyes and dark hair. Simple enough though… he did not mention anything about a family name or clan name, so the girl was left to wondering what clan’s bloodline did have that white eyes doujutsu. She didn’t wish to inquire however, she was perfectly content with one name. It made things easier to remember after all.

”Alright, Satsuji-kun it is then!” She smiled as she repeated his name, confirming what he had just said with a nod of her head to him. It was a simple enough name, nothing too hard to pronounce. The girl’s first name had a convenience of being short and easy to pronounce, however her last name had always been a different story in introductions or even when she said it herself. Maybe he had a long last name that was difficult to pronounce so that could be why he not reveal it.

There was another question the boy had. One that made the girl tilt her head in curiosity. It was honestly not a “happy” sort of inquiry, but it made sense that he would ask something like. The boy didn’t seem to be the happy sort from the earlier comment of plants being so. Only so young and already being a stick in the mud… maybe some people were just born that way. However, the girl just smiled and laughed once more.

”Satsuji-kun, the headband is made so that it protects you from an enemy shinobi, not helping an enemy hurt you.” She explained her reasons carefully, trying to make sense of her reasons to the boy and to herself. ”I wear it around my neck ‘cause y'know, obviously the neck is a place that needs protecting. It may not be a super armor, it’s still very much better than nothing. As for someone choking me to death, I surely wouldn’t be a very good shinobi if I allowed someone to get close enough to me to do that. If anything, I would consider it a test of strength to any enemy that could. And well, the obvious result of myself failing that test would be my own death.”

At this point the girl was trying to provide reasons besides the sentimental ones. Sure, it was nice to imitate her father, but she couldn’t really count that as something that would be logical to someone else. If he asked for something with emotional depth, then perhaps she would reveal it. However it was unlikely he would. Besides that however, his line of questioning seemed to be very pessimistic in nature. A trait the girl never understood why people had, so she simply decided to ask him about it. ”And uh… It would be very not very nice of any shinobi to choke someone else with the symbol of their village. Don’t you think that it’s true that most shinobi have a sense of honor that kind of… binds us all together in a shinobi life?”

~683/1877~

"That's a bad reason,"

The young boy had said it so bluntly, but the girl was thinking that she didn’t explain her ideas properly. She wasn’t very good at explaining things, Tsu knew that to be very true already. He went on to say the obvious of the forehead protector simply being a symbol of one’s village. Of course the headband provided little armor, and of course there would always be people stronger than her or better than her. But didn’t she just say that was what she wanted to challenge herself? She wasn’t very strong, that’s why she wanted to be stronger. It was her own vulnerability that had led to the death of her mother, and she wished to change herself so that others wouldn’t have to protect her anymore. It was sound logic in Tsu’s mind, yet she wondered why someone else wouldn’t think that as well.

The girl blinked in puzzlement before smiling again. ”Satsuji-kun! Of course there’s always gonna be people stronger than me,” While she kept her smile on her face the girl had the faintest notion that she was simply repeating what she had said before. ”That’s why I gotta get stronger too, so I can protect myself and so other people don’t have to worry about me. I think that’s why a lot of shinobi want power, so others don’t worry about them being weak , ‘cause if you’re strong then nothing can hurt you and you can do whatever you want.” It a simply view of how “gaining power” worked, childish at best, ignorant at worst. Which always seemed to be the views of Tsuru, idealistic but also blunt and rather naïve. She seemed rather proud of the explanation she had come up with, however little or no sense it made to the boy. Of course, she wasn’t the type to easily read people and often came to things at face value. The boy before her didn’t seem like a happy, easygoing type person, but the fact that their personalities and ideals differed so much only made the girl more excited to meet someone so unlike her.

”…Do you really think there is honour in the way the shinobi world operates?" The boy had outrightly said no to her question. Another surprise to the girl, and made her baffled at his pessimistic view upon their life. It made her brow furrow, wasn’t he a shinobi too? He did have a headband, so… why would he seem to question so many things about his own lifestyle? There had to have been some sort of honor in being a shinobi, protecting one’s village, fighting for one’s comrades, helping the civilians, there were plenty of things that shinobi did that were good. What did shinobi do bad…? Well, there was always killing, shinobi were assassins, agents of death. Yet, didn’t they always get rid of people that needed to be gotten rid of? People who liked killing others or stole or hurt people, people that were mean and unfair to everyone, they were just mean people and they deserved what happened to them. It was sound logic, easy morals for a simple girl.

Though it really wasn’t the entire moral dilemma that had gotten the girl flustered in the first place. The boy before her had said that the world didn’t have “flowers and rainbows.”

And just well… that wasn’t true at all. They were standing next to a flower cart.  

”Satsuji-kun, there’s flowers everywhere! We’re standing right next to some right now.” The girl of green hair motioned to the colorful arrangements of the vendors goods next to them both, practically frantic by thinking that the boy thought the world wasn’t filled with flowers. ”And on the mountainsides of Kaminari no Kuni there’s Lady Tresses and Mountain Orchids. Lots of different fruits and vegetables all have flowers, there’s even flowers in the desert on cactuses, and flowers just plainly all over woods in Hi no Kuni. And I grow a bunch crossbreeds in my family’s greenhouse and I take care of the public gardens my family runs, there’s a whole bunch of flowers there, like Water Lilies and Hydrangeas, roses and wisteria. Well, there’s a whole lotta flowers in the world, all over the world, so I dunno what world you’re talking about ‘cause there’s lots of flowers in this world.” Honesty the idea of a world without flowers made the girl distressed, for how could one live in a world with colorful petals and natural beauties? Besides, what would the hummingbirds, bumble bees, and butterflies eat if there wasn’t any flowers as a food source?! It would be a terrible world without all of the above, that world likely wouldn’t even have fruits or vegetables or… honey! How awful!

"Who do you think is going to win the Exams this year? Or to at least put on the greatest... Spectacle?"   The boy had given another inquiry. He sure does like to ask questions. Tsu welcomed a change of topic, something that was simpler to talk about, though also something she didn’t quite have an answer to give him. Her head tilted from left to right as she shifted her weight from foot to foot.

”Ah, I really dunno. I just got past the first round and I met only one competitor. I don’t know many others in the exams except a few.” She spoke with a curious tone to herself, wondering just what other competitors had in store for the later battles she would likely face.

~965/2842~

To Tsu’s explanation of her belief in strength, the boy only responded with a quiet ”Yes, I know.” Oh, if he knew that’s how strength worked, then why did she explain it to him? In fact the girl was more surprised that he understood, if anything, of what she had just said when she only about half understood it herself. Tsu had a tendency to overthink things and then word her thoughts in such an odd manner that she had trouble understanding her thoughts. At least he said he knew what she was talking about, he seemed to be an honest person.

He did little to appreciate the flowers the girl spoke of besides look at them again. Tsu bviously was much more childish in mannerism than the young Hyuga she didn’t seem to notice much though. She simply. He seemed to listen intently enough when she explained that she didn’t know many people in the exams despite already passing the first round. Again he responded with a few quiet words, ”I see.” For a moment the girl wondered what he saw before realizing he was simply saying that he understood what she saying. She never quite understood why people responded with those words when someone explained something to them, “I see.” What was it exactly what they were seeing? Especially when someone was telling you something, it’s wasn’t as if they had been there themselves or had actually witnessed whatever event was people explained. She did understand however, that it was just one of those conversational phrases that people always said

She had gotten to wondering about the young Hyuga’s words a little too long before he asked another question. ”How long have you been a Genin then?”

Tsu smiled in response with a childlike nod, this time it was easy question she could provide an actually simple answer to! She had to count off the months on her hands.  ”I’ve been a genin for about 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 months now! I was twelve when I graduated but now I’m thirteen.” She thought it important to add in her age. Truthfully she might be one of the youngest competitors in the exams, and most like one of the least experienced. It had been a miracle she had even made it this far. But she also knew that she had rely on herself if she needed to get any further, it would be rather scary, but at the same time she was very excited to get a chance to advance to chuunin via the exams. The exams didn’t happen every day after all and this time they were held in a place she had never been to before! Even if she did end up losing, the girl didn’t mind at all. It had been a fun experience and something she would always remember. She was glad to share it with someone from her own village, so that way when they returned home they would be able to see each other and talk again!

”Satsuji-kun, how long have you been a genin?” Tsu returned the question with a happy grin. In fact the girl never really seemed to be unhappy. She had a general happy go lucky mood that was never easily changed except in dire circumstances. She tilted her head in curiosity as she waited for the young shinobi to answer.

~576/3418~

"Isn't it a little early to be participating in the Chunin Selection Exams? Only six months?" The boy asked her after she provided an answer.

The girl blinked a few times, thinking about how she should respond. Six months really didn’t seem like a long time when said out loud, yet the time she had spent in the six months had felt like… a really long time. She had had a birthday, done quite a few missions, met the new member of her team, trained her specialties and learned new jutsus, even worked on developing her own medical mokuton jutsu. It certainly didn’t feel like it had ‘only been six months’ because a quite a lot had happened in those six months. It occurred to her that she had only seen her father once or twice in those six months, and she hadn’t even seen him before she had left for Kumo. She always knew that he was gone and she saw him very little in that time, but the weight of him being absent suddenly seemed to come down. She couldn’t let such trivial matters trouble the young boy before her, he had asked a question after all.  ”Chuunin exams don’t happen everyday, so I think that I should try ‘em out since I can. I may not be the strongest right now, but if I do well then it means that I’m a lot better than I actually was. If I do badly, well, it just means that I gotta try again ‘cause I’m not strong enough. And then I gotta keep working hard and training hard to become stronger so I can eventually do good!” Yet another simplistically naïve view of power and strength. She couldn’t really provide any other answer than that, it was what she honestly thought.

When she returned the question of experience, Tsu was surprised to hear that he had been a shinobi for two years already. He was younger than her, and already had more than a year and half’s worth of experience. It was impressive, he must have been a prodigy of some sort. Tsu never really considered herself extraordinary in any way, she wasn’t really anything special and she realized that much. So when she did see someone with exemplary skills she couldn’t help but feel excited at the fact that they were so good at whatever they did. ”Wow Satsuji-kun! You’ve been a shinobi a lot longer than I have!” She complimented him with a smile.

He asked another question, yet another delightful change of topic, "...What does the Shokubutsusou Clan do?"

The girl giggled aloud once more, thinking it funny that he would think that the Shokubutsusou were a clan of their own. ”Haha, Satsuji-kun, I’m part of the Senju clan! Shokubutsusou is just my family name. My family runs a botanical garden in Konoha, we’re around the edge of the village so you probably haven’t heard of it before.” She pointed her finger around in the air for emphasis of her point, and then she put it on her chin in a thinking position. ”Eh…? I feel like I said that before, but I don’t think I had, sorry!” She added with a few more giggles, this time directed at herself for being a little forgetful or just a little unclear with her words if she had mentioned that she was part of the Senju clan.

~589/4008~

"It makes sense," The girl was about to say, ‘It does?’ when she realized that she was the one who had explained her idea. She did believe her own words, but once again she was slightly surprised to find that someone else seemed to understand them. She never really explained her ways of thinking to many others, so she was glad that someone thought like she did. Or at least, understood what she was talking about. She couldn’t quite say if the boy thought like she did, for he didn’t say anything about it. However once she had complemented on how long he had been a shinobi, he provided a little insight, saying that the length of one’s time as a shinobi was nothing in comparison to what one had experienced during that time.

It was true… the girl guessed. He explained further that she would gain far more experience from participating, for future reference for fellow genin or perhaps when she was a sensei herself to her own genin. The thought of the future made the girl even more puzzled. Well not puzzled as in confused, but with those words she began to puzzle about events to come. Would she win at her first one and one match? Would she actually share her experiences with fellow genin? Would she become a sensei of other students herself? Events like that seemed like a long time from now, then again six months had passed with a lot of happenings. Perhaps the time would go by just as fast for things that. ”Yeah, Satsuji-kun! I guess that’s another reason why I’m going the exams too, I don’t really think about the future future too often, so what you said is really a good way of looking at it.” Her ever-present smile never left, she truly was glad that he provided another reason of participating in the exams. She only meant to compliment his way of thinking, which could have or could have not been like her own.

After the question of her clan, which Tsu responded proudly with the answer of Senju, the boy mentioned not being a very good listener. It didn’t seem to make sense to the girl considering he had been listening to her the entire conversation. It was how all conversations went wasn’t it? Listening to one another and then responded to each other’s statements. He had been the first to hear her own words about how good the flowers had smelled. Tsu probably wouldn’t have noticed the boy say anything if he had been the first to say something not directly toward anyone in particular. He didn’t really seem like the type to say things out loud to no one in particular. ”It’s okay, I don’t really think I’m all that good of a listener either.” She said the truth, though again it wasn’t something she thought about often. She never really asked anyone if she was a good listener, but she just assumed that she wasn’t perfect at it because nobody was perfect at everything.

The mentioning of the Senju clan prompted another question, one the girl could definitely answer for certainty. "That means you have the Wood Release? Are you able to create wooden structures?"

”Yep, yep! That is the Kekkei Genkai of the Senju clan, so of course I would have it. I can also do plants and vines and flowers too~” Once again she waved her finger in the air to add emphasis on what member of the Senju clan could so. Adding in the last part was especially important considering what the boy had said about flowers earlier.

~624/4632~

"Anticipating things in the future is a good way to stay alive, or better yet, to survive in this dangerous world of shinobi."  The girl nodded at the young boy’s words. For a rather small boy, he did seem to think with some serious topics. Tsu was never one to think too hard about such things, for many such concerns often just flew over her head. Her personality was happy and easygoing, but she should be serious when she needed, or at least try as hard as she could, so that she could survive in this world. In a fleeting moment, the small boy had delivered a small smile. Yet it was gone as soon as It appeared. "Remember that in your fight, if you want to win," he added, keeping up with her serious tone.

The girl nodded back furiously, even adding something that seemed like a salute to the smaller boy. Even he wasn’t exactly always the nicest person to speak with, he did have some very good points as they had started speaking together.  She did want to win, didn’t everyone? So, she had not to only think about what she was doing, but about what she was going to do and what her opponents were going to do. She was never one for strategy, but there was always time to learn and always a chance to improve.  By talking with this young boy, she started to think more about the future that could happen. And the future that the girl hoped one day would happen.

Afterwards he only shrugged at her response of being a not too good listener. She tilted her head back, was that a bad thing to say? Perhaps it just wasn’t that important, she supposed that both she and he just weren’t all too sure anyway.

He nodded at when she confirmed her clan’s abilities. She wondered what clan he was from, he hadn’t mentioned a clan name and he likely wasn’t going to just say it out loud on his own. Since he had asked her, she supposed that it was okay for her to ask him. ”So, Satsuji-kun, what clan are you from?” The girl once again faintly recalled there being a certain clan in Konoha that had some special doujutsu that had to do with white eyes, very similar in appearance to the young boy’s eyes in front of her. However, she couldn’t be quite sure since she also remembered something about another clan with red eyes, or eyes that turned red, or something like that.  Maybe she was getting the two confused? She was genuinely curious, so she just had to ask.

"So you have a team? If so, are they also taking part in the Exams?" The young boy asked another leading question. He… really does like asking those. Tsu thought once more. But she just smiled and answered as best she could.

”Yep! Well, I did anyway. Both of them entered the exams, but both of them kinda lost out on the first round.” She scratched the back of her neck as she thought about her response. It was rather surprising in the end, that she had been the only one of the team to pass the first round.

~554/5186~

"What?" The young boy said with an incredulous tone when Tsu had asked her question about what Clan he had come from. The girl didn't quite understand that the word had meant to be rhetoric and was about to repeat her question again, thinking that she had misspoken or something of the like. The boy had mentioned that he wasn't a very good listener, it was of no consequence that Tsu should have spoken with clear words. However she did not have a chance to say anything back as the younger boy already said something else.

"You are serious." She blinked a few times in confusion.  Hadn't she been serious all along? Well, she did take in everything he said to the best of her ability and tried to form responses with the same type of logic, even if hers wasn't exactly logical. "Eh...?" It wasn't really a word, but more a questioning sound that escaped her mouth as she voiced her own puzzlement.  He seemed to be upset, was it something that she had said? Then again, he wasn't exactly the type to be easily pleased as she had seen from their conversation together. She just decided to shrug it off as just part of his personality to not be as easy going as herself.  He did eventually say his clan, the Hyūga Clan. Along with a motion of putting his hand on his face, and once again making Tsu blink in puzzlement. Was there... Something on his face? Whatever the case he had answered her question and it was indeed true that the girl recognized the name, slightly.

"Ah the Clan with the White Eyes Doujutsu! That's so cool, Satsuji-kun." Indeed she liked the way that the Clan members of the Hyūga Clan's eyes appeared, there were indeed very light in color and unique to the Clan. Perhaps she should have put two and two together that the young boy had White Eyes, but she just couldn't be sure nor could she really make such a connection unless it was laid out in front of her with a little more obviousness.

After telling him that she was the only one of her squad to make it to the second round, he oddly gave her a complement. "I suppose that makes you the best in your Squad," he said it rather bluntly, much like the rest of his words throughout their interaction. The girl smiled at the sudden positive critic, even laughing a little at what seemed like an odd coincidence. "I guess I could be, but I dunno." She didn't personally think that she was better than the other two, she felt like she wasn't all that strong in comparison. But that was why she tried so hard, so one day she could be stronger.

The young Hyūga soon looked upward, to what the girl didn't really know. But perhaps it was just the time for their conversation to end, although she didn't really quite know how long they had been talking. He lowered body in a bow, saying a few words that weren't really farewell but Tsu figured they seemed close enough to one. "You should really learn more about the Hidden Leaf Village," And with that the young boy turned away and walked off, leaving Tsu in a once more confused state.

Were those words meant to be so cryptic? What exactly was she supposed to learn about? She knew a lot about her Clan and... Well, that was about it really. She also knew that the Hokage was a Senju! Which also related to knowing about her Clan, but there wasn't anything of uber importance that she could think about knowing more of Konohagakure no Sato. She shrugged once more, accepting that she couldn't very well understand what the young boy was trying to tell her. She ended up waving goodbye as he walked away. "See ya, Satsuji-kun! "

~674/5860 Total Words~

Training:

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