Having lived in Iwa for so long before returning to Kiri, he felt right at home when he woke up in the hotel room with a view overlooking the Bazaar. His friend, Masa, was going to be busy at work for a good portion of the day, meaning that Issei was free to do whatever he wanted until late that night. Though there was nothing in particular that he wanted to do, he couldn't stop thinking about his ex-wife, and he decided he would drop by his old house to say hi to her. Isamu remained fast asleep in the adjacent bed as Issei got up, put on sandals, faded gray jeans, a flannel shirt and a black coat. He opted not to wear his Kirigakure headband around his head like he usually did and instead tied it around his left arm. He shoved some ryo into his pockets and headed off toward the living quarters.

The village was bustling and Issei felt more and more uncomfortable. His eyes darted back and forth, searching through the crowd around him, making sure to avoid eye contact or bumping into anyone. Once he'd made it through to the residential district, he went back down the familiar streets that led back to his former home, and what was now Haruyo's home. He approached the stairs outside her door and reached out to knock, but found himself frozen with fear. What was he doing? They'd been divorced for a while now and she had probably moved on. It wasn't like she wanted to see him, anyway, and everytime he saw her, he only ended up worse off than before. He was using her as a crutch now, because he didn't want to speak to anyone but he also didn't want to be alone. It was a catch-22. Finally, he turned away and left the house, resisting the urge to at least look into the window on the off-chance that he would see her sitting there, in the living room, reading like she used to. She was one of the few people who actually enjoyed the books he wrote in his younger years, and she always encouraged him to continue pursuing his career as an author...

Emotions started to burn out as Issei moved further away from the house, taking the path that led up to Waterfall Point. There were still people around, but he didn't pay any attention to them, too focused on his past to care. He cracked the knuckles on his right hand repeatedly, a nervous habit, and kept his head down. Once he reached the peak of the waterfall, he sat down at the edge, planted his elbow on his leg, and rested his chin in his palm. A gentle breeze blew the hair out of his eyes and he felt like crying, but the tears never came. He just stared out over Iwagakure like it was a corpse, and it sort of was; it was the remains of a phase of his life, a time when he called that place home. Now, Kirigakure was Issei's home again, and he wasn't a freelance writer with a wife and an easy life, but instead a shinobi with a devotion to his village. Really, was his life so happy back when he was married to Haruyo to begin with? There was a reason they had gotten divorced, but he blocked out so many of the painful memories that it was almost like nothing had ever happened. He remembered the bruises on his back, scratches on his face, black eyes and a broken heart. He remembered feeling weak and helpless. But that was all over now, and he was technically doing better for himself than he ever had been before.

So if that was the case, why did he feel so lost?

In the midst of Issei's hushed turmoil, someone came over and sat down, just far enough to keep him from being uncomfortable but still close enough to raise interest. Naturally, this person opened their mouth and Issei almost flinched as the words came out. "S'this seat taken?" the man asked, in a casual tone that Issei knew was meant to be friendly, but he couldn't help but start to feel the discomfort moving from his toes up to his face in a tremble like a rising pool of water ready to drown him. He was outright horrible at managing his emotions at times, especially concerning his ex. This man looked young, certainly not Issei's age. His hair was dark and he had silvery eyes that reminded Issei of his own. He wore plain clothes and gloves on his hands, and Issei wasn't sure why he'd come to the waterfall, but it's not like Issei had planned to be there, either. The musing became introspective, again...Issei thought of how he always defended himself relentlessly in every aspect of life; physically, emotionally, romantically...he put up walls and never let anyone in. His wife had been the one exception to that, and she made it a habit to take advantage of his vulnerability, to hurt him, to remind him that although she meant the world to him, he didn't mean shit to her. The pain lingered on regardless of time or space between them, and he couldn't forget her because he still loved her. She had changed him and her effect on him turned him into a pitiful crybaby. How was he to move on when she was the only one he had ever let in, and she abused him?

Issei reminded himself that other people existed and impressions and perceptions were everything in the world. He couldn't show that same vulnerability. He refused to. Changing his demeanor accordingly, he put his walls back up and masked his depression behind an unwelcoming look. Issei turned to this man who had sat next to him with a leer, not with the intention to be unkind, but rather to put on the appearance that Issei was a stoic and threatening figure and not some helpless 30-year-old having his mid-life crisis a little too soon. Maybe it wasn't so obvious which was the truth on the outside, but Issei knew that the latter was probably the more honest of the two possibilities. "Sit wherever you'd like," he said in his usual, gruff voice. He left it simply at that, diverting his gaze as to avoid eye contact. Generally unwilling to converse with people he didn't know unless he was forced to, he moved his arms to his sides and kept his head up, looking at the waterfall and the village. The sun was intense just out of range of his peripheral vision, but the rays brightened his eyes still, causing them to seem more verdant and colorful than the usual pale green that bordered on gray. His face was widely expressionless, his eyebrows lowered and his mouth turned into a slight frown. He pushed thoughts of Haruyo out of his mind and replaced them with happier thoughts of the view he was taking in and other beautiful things and places he'd been in his lifetime.

Issei wondered why he'd never written a biography, considering how much he enjoyed nonfiction and how eventful his life had been thus far.

The dark-haired man's previously casual sense of speech was replaced with a more awkward one, suggesting that Issei's defensiveness was probably off-putting. Did Issei really want to be rude and make the guy leave? Did he want to be alone, just then? His eyes were still practically glowing and the waterfall beneath them was raging, as if trying to tell Issei something that he refused to hear. "So...let me guess...girl problems?" Welp, there it was, undeniably obvious even after Issei had put up his barriers. What was he to do if he couldn't let himself be open but he wasn't as good at hiding his emotions as he'd originally thought? And then, he just had that moment where he figured, none of it mattered anyway. He thought of Masa and all of his other friends in Iwa, and how they'd all always been there for him no matter what happened. This stranger was just as capable of becoming a friend like that; it was up to how Issei handled the situation and how much he was willing to compromise his comfort zone in order to work towards healthy social interaction. He took a deep breath and let it out with a lengthy sigh. His expression was the same, largely ambiguous and lacking any set emotion. His voice came out like a groan. "Yeah."

There was a pause, a pause where Issei mulled over everything in his head and tried to find the best way to condense the situation and explain it. He started to fiddle with the zipper on his jacket and crack the bones in his fingers. "I used to live here. But now, I don't. I moved to Kirigakure after my wife and I got a divorce." The headband was still tied around his arm, so he looked down at it and figured he didn't need to mention that he was a shinobi, since his company likely already realized that. Next was the issue of why they had divorced, what the real problem was behind everything and why it had fucked Issei up so badly. He tiptoed around it for a bit, in a desire to avoiding leaving the impression that he was weak or incapable of defending himself. Even his parents had reacted badly when he told them about the way Haruyo treated him, but they blamed him for a good part of it because he never fought back in any way. He was supposed to be a man...and that masculine role had so many social implications along with it, that he never really cared for but regardless was affected by. He let go of his jacket and clasped his hands back together. "She abused me, in different ways, but often. So I left. And now I'm here. I don't really know what I'm doing, these days."

Now that he'd spilled everything he was willing to up until that point, Issei finally turned to face the man he was talking to and he made intentional eye contact. "My name is Issei Momochi." He would've offered a handshake to boot, but he didn't like being touched, and he hoped that his new acquaintance would find that acceptable.

Following that initial barrier breaking down, Issei felt a bit lighter then, having gotten what was bothering him off of his chest. His younger companion listened quietly, and after Issei introduced himself, he replied accordingly. "Nice to meet you, Issei-san. I'm Takao." Takao. Issei felt it was an oddly familiar name to him, but he brushed it off as coincidence. Takao went on to ask if Issei was just "brooding" up at the waterfall, and insisted that although the two didn't know each other all too well, Issei was welcome to talk to him if he needed to. Issei half-nodded, looking at his new friend with the same frown he always seemed to have. It was his resting face, at that point, and a good deal of the emotional turmoil had subsided. "I think I'll be alright. No sense crying over spilled milk or whatever. Brooding never got anyone anywhere so I'll just take some time to evaluate everything when I'm calm so it won't affect me so much." The water near them was rushing and roaring over the cliffside down to the reservoir below and yet the atmosphere was rather serene compared to the remainder of Iwagakure no Sato. A fragrance akin to that of an ocean breeze, long estranged from a sandy beach. Watching the sunlight refract against the waterfall's turbulent surface, resulting in flashes and glimmers in the corner of Issei's vision. Blue skies, carefree times, easy days.

Takao began to tap on the stone surface they were sitting on, not too loudly as to become a nuisance but just enough for Issei to notice the hand moving. His attitude was still placid, but Issei had noticed that Takao had closed his eyes for a short while before offering Issei a shoulder to cry on, so to speak. Issei wondered if Takao was uncomfortable or didn't really want to talk about it, but regardless, he didn't like droning on about his past anyway so it wasn't going to be a problem. He shifted the conversation as he saw fit. "And what about you, Takao? Have you just come to the waterfall to enjoy the view or is there something on your mind you'd like to talk about?" The way he saw it, it was only common courtesy to extend the same offer back to his new friend. Even for someone who didn't regularly keep up with social expectations, Issei understood that much. Plus, it wasn't like he didn't want to listen; in fact, he would've been happy to, especially considering it would have helped him take his mind off of his own problems. He was by no means a miracle worker and hardly knew how to help people find solutions to the issues in their lives, but having someone there to listen to the issues was oftentimes enough to help people see things from a different perspective and grow a step closer to finding a resolution themselves. Using his left hand, he brushed the hair from the side of his face behind his ear so that he could both see and hear Takao a little better, then waited for a reply.

Takao drew a conclusion from Issei based on his attitude, suggesting that he had a "good handle" on things if he was willing to approach it with a clear mind. Issei half-smiled, but didn't say anything because he disagreed with Takao on that. That's how I try to seem, at least. he thought to himself. Takao went on to explain his current situation, although it was much less eventful than Issei expected. He said that he was in the country for medical reasons, and he was wandering since he didn't have anything else going on. So, apparently Issei wasn't the only one foreign to Tsuchi no Kuni. His ears perked up and, being the passionate traveler he was, he inquired about Takao's homeland. "I imagine you're not from Kirigakure, otherwise I would have probably recognized you. For such a large village, I feel like I see the same people there all the time; I rarely introduce myself to put names to faces, but you just kind of see everyone around, and you without really knowing them, you know them." He thought of the red haired girl who was on his squad when he was defending the village gates for a mission, remembering her attitude and skill in sensory jutsu. "So, where are you from, then?"

After a pause, Issei offered a nod, and couldn't help but ask another question about his friend out of curiosity. "Medical reasons? Are you alright?" It brought him back to his own memories of a hospital around him, after he had first awakened his kekkei genkai and escaped his tormentor's hideout. He'd arrived in Kirigakure covered with stitches and cuts and the bones in his arms, legs, and chest were all disorganized and malformed. The doctors had told him that they couldn't do much, as Kaguya clansmen often had different skeletal structures and healing processes than other people did. They healed the injuries that they could and removed his stitches, but he ended up having to stay in the hospital for weeks in order to regain all of his chakra, and then rearrange and heal the bones himself. Furthermore, they told him that using his kekkei genkai too often would lead to degenerative tissue disease, which could be extremely detrimental to his health, so he had to be careful. Now, he hadn't noticed anything about Takao that made him seem handicapped, in particular, but not all illnesses were outwardly visible, he supposed, and they had only been sitting there for a short while. Nonetheless, he hoped Takao would be ok, and he would get whatever treatment he needed.

Takao corrected Issei and said that he was actually from Konoha. He agreed with Issei in the sense that they both could recognize people from their respective villages even without knowing the names. In response to Issei's question concerning his health, his attitude changed a bit and he spoke with a bit of hesitation. Issei's eyebrow raised slightly but he didn't say anything, waiting for Takao to conclude his explanation before posing another reply. "Just got somethin' I want sorted out." he said, claiming that the medics in Konoha just weren't the same. Now, Issei was an attentive and perceptive individual; every mannerism or physical someone had, he took note of. This was partly because he always made split second decisions on whether or not he would react positively or negatively to interactions based on his personal impression of the people before him. It could've been easily attributed to his cautious personality, as well, but regardless he could tell by how vague Takao was describing his circumstances that either it was something he didn't want to tell Issei the specifics of or something that he was having trouble dealing with. Issei found it best to stay out of other peoples' business unless it concerned him, so he let his eyebrow down and bent his lip into a half-grin for a moment.

The subject was changed promptly. "So uh...You're from here, then, yeah? Know of anything fun to do?" A good question, but Issei wasn't really sure if he had a good answer to fit it. "Well, I'm not actually from here, origin-wise. I was born in Kirigakure, but," he immediately stopped himself and decided to omit the portion of his past that he would've rather neglected to mention, instead smoothly skipping to the part where he moved, "I moved to Iwagakure when I was around 23. I have a passion for travelling, seeing the world. This village was simply a chapter in my life, but I have since returned to Kirigakure and dedicated myself to being a shinobi." Realizing he had brought himself off on a tangent after Takao had thought he was from Iwa, he corrected the flow of the conversation and brought it back to the question that was asked concerning entertainment. He thought about it, looking down at the village below for inspiration. A few specific buildings here and there brought back memories and ideas. He noted them each in his mind before turning his attention back to his acquaintance.

"There's plenty to do in Iwagakure, at least for my tastes. I tend to be the more hushed and isolated type, so I'm sure there's places I haven't heard of, but I'll give you a list of what I know...there's the Diamond Heights University, where my best friend graduated from. They have a wonderful library, if you care for literature or research or reading in general. That big thing over there" he pointed toward the large, seemingly natural rock structure below, "is the Coliseum. It doesn't look like much but rumors claim it's actually masked by a genjutsu; if you go inside, they hold battles where ninja can train and practice in combat. I've never actually been, but I'd love to try it sometime. I hear it's exciting, whether you're in the battles yourself or if you're in the audience watching. Hmm, and there's a lot of shops in the bazaar to the southeast, and some restaurants and tea shops on the outskirts of the living quarters. To our west is the highest cliff in the village where tourists come to see the view, and right under the waterfall are the hot springs, if you care for those. I find them relaxing, but I'm fairly awkward and I don't like being naked around other people." With that, Issei rested his hands at his sides again. He noticed that the sun was beginning to set over the horizon, and waited for the orange blaze to overtake the sky.

OOC:

The sky's blue seamlessly transitioned into vibrant orange which deepened with every passing second until it was an ominous red, like the color of blood. The sun was in the center, falling over the horizon, taking its light with it. Issei thought of the other side of the world and the other nations, wondering if it was as beautiful watching the sunrise as it was watching the sunset. For someone as well traveled and experienced as he was, he was a bit disappointed in himself for not having memorized specific timezones in terms of location down to a T, but it was on his list of things to do, certainly. Takao remained quiet, having clearly heard and acknowledged Issei but letting the conversation fade away with the dying light of the sun, too. And then, the sky was dark, it was silent, and the moon's silvery shimmer peeked at them from the east. Issei looked up to the stars, which were significantly brighter there, so high, away from the light pollution in the city streets of Iwagakure. The waterfall lost its translucent gleam without any light to reflect, and so its color started to blend with the color of the cliffside.

"Well, Takao, it's dark so I think I should head back to the inn." Issei started, making an effort to get to his feet and stretch a little bit. His back was tense; the flat rock wasn't exactly the most supportive or comfortable surface to sit on for a long  time, but he'd be alright. When he finished stretching, he continued his farewell: "Hey, I know we don't know each other well, but I want to sincerely thank you for your help today. I don't usually have moments of intense negative emotions like that, but when they do come along, it's nice to have someone around who's willing to listen." He had a faint smile lingering on his face as the thought of his ex-wife returned to him; he saw her face contorted, disheveled and misshapen now, with tears in her eyes and a scowl across her lips. He thought of how he let her break him down with every blow and every insult and realized that he had no place feeling any type of sadness, but rather he should have been feeling anger and resentment toward her for what she had done to him. There was no excuse for it, and she wasn't the victim just because he had left her. He needed to keep the right perspective on the situation.

"Anyway. Maybe we'll meet again someday. If we do, I'll treat you to a meal. Goodbye, Takao," Issei finished as he looked back over the waterfall one last time before turning towards the path down and heading that way. It was a perilous and steep road, especially in the dark, but he wasn't particularly worried. The air temperature was just warm enough still to be habitable despite the darkness, and he admired the view of the village changing as the altitude lowered and he reached the base of the waterfall. Then, he made the turn towards the living quarters and disappeared into the sea of buildings and intersections.

[ Exit Thread ]

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