Saisei Hyuga walked down the streets of Konoha, looking for something to do. It wasn't a rare thing for him to get bored, as such he often found himself wandering his village, seeing if there was anything interesting to remove his boredom. For a lot of people, boredom could be easily sated by simply sitting on a bench somewhere and listening to the sounds of the world, and Saisei had no doubt that he would have enjoyed the exact same leisures if not for the small issue of his deafness. He had never experienced the sound of a bustling crowd, never heard a curse uttered by someone who snuck up behind him, and never known the kind of song that a bird could sing. And to be honest, it had never really bothered him, he could still understand what people said, even if he himself didn't have a clear way to respond all the time, and he had always found ways to manage and survive. Most people didn't know he was deaf though, which he preferred, as it meant they didn't treat him any differently to another, which usually wasn't an issue, but it seemed today was to be slightly different.

As someone who had never bothered with paying attention to crowds, Saisei much preferred to look at the sky as he walked, and today was no different, as he felt the sun in his eyes and the warmth on his face, something that he had always enjoyed feeling. As someone who had been without hearing from birth, Saisei had always looked to his other senses for comfort, and so simple things like the warmth of the sun, things that wouldn't make much of a difference to anyone else, really resonated with the young Hyuga. if nothing else, it was the easiest way for him to ignore what everyone said about him, and it made him feel normal, instead of a worthless creature that had no hope in the ninja world. For all that being able to hear was certainly a boon when it came to being a ninja, it was by no means a be all and end all. If it was, Saisei would not have made it to Genin rank, and he did, and planned to go further still, even without his ears.

It was a nice, sunny day with next to no clouds in the sky, the kind of weather one had come to expect of Konoha, and Saisei was just paying nothing else any heed and completely ignoring anyone else. Everything was going perfectly fine, he was almost enjoying his stroll, until he bumped into someone who clearly hadn't been having a good day. A man who stopped where he had been going, and walked over to where Saisei was, probably uttering curses as he did by the way the crowds had moved away to give him room. It was only at this time that the young Hyuga actually noticed the man, who came up shouting abuse, basically saying how angry he was at Saisei's clumsiness, and the man, it seemed like he wanted to start a fight. He must've been pretty loud too, for a large crowd was beginning to gather, all circling around this stranger and the deaf ninja. Saisei could only imagine what everyone around him was saying, some were no doubt placing bets on the fight that was no doubt about to come, whereas others were maybe hoping for it all to end without conflict. As for the man himself, his intentions were very clear, and he had finally clocked on to the fact that the man he was shouting at could not hear any of the words he was saying, although he could most certainly understand them.

“Well look who’s up,” Sujin’s mother noted as the sleepy son walked into the kitchen that morning. “ready for some breakfast with your mom and dad?”

”I guess,” he said groggily. There was still sand at the corners of his eyes from his drowsy slumber.

He sat down at the little, four-seated kitchen table and planted his head on his hands so he could rub his eyes awake. The Nara’s kitchen was fairly simple, extending out about ten meters and being only six meters wide. From the small table he sat at along the back wall, the kitchen would reach out before him. The counters spanned the walls and a small island counter stretched for two meters at the kitchen’s end parallel with the room’s length. His mother was cooking at the stove which was positioned at the center of the far wall, the island counter directly in between her and Sujin. Every now and then she’d move to the right wall where the sink was set in the granite countertop. He could see eggs in her hands as she began to peel off the shells.

”Hard boiled eggs today, huh?”

“Yes,” she said without turning. “I figured we’d have something we haven’t eaten in awhile.”

“Smells delicious, honey!” Sujin’s father burst through the open doorway to the left of Sujin. His father was completely focused on the smell of breakfast and his mom’s visage he never noticed Sujin sitting at the table. He strolled up behind his wife and gave her a close hug as she continued working on the food.

“Sujin’s up early today, isn’t that great?” His mother said. He could tell she was trying to make his father not do anything rash in front of their son.

His father turned around and saw Sujin at the table. Sujin gave a small wave with a still half-asleep smiling face. “Well, I’ll be…”

Yes, yes… I actually wanted to go out early today. Sue me.”

Both his parents laughed but decided to let their child alone. It wasn’t often Sujin woke up early or that he wanted to go out. They took this as a sign he was improving his himself and felt it best not to cause any deterrence on the matter. His mother served the meal of hard boiled eggs, steamed collard greens, bacon and biscuits to which everyone eagerly chowed down. As soon as Sujin’s plate was clean, he returned it to the sink, heading out for an early start to his day. Both of his parents were so proud they couldn’t help but have stupid, happy parent grins on their faces as he waved goodbye.

What his parents didn’t know was why he had decided to get up earlier that day, and what was so necessary for him to do in the morning when all he ever did was sleep ‘til noon. The real reason for his change in morning routines was the fact that an old friend of his was hatching a plan to mess with a few villager’s in a harmless genjutsu to see what crazy trouble might erupt of it. They wanted to do this in the morning as their afternoons had become more busy with missions and other shinobi duties. The two deviants still had to release their rebellious and troublemaker sides of themselves somehow.

He made his way to the meeting point, on the roof of the Hachi Family Inn located on the outskirts of the Market District. His friend, Toshimoto, was already there waiting for him. The amber haired boy of just one year Sujin’s junior smiled mischievously as he approached. He was dressed in his normal green, high circle-collared green shirt with his brown, left-sided strap-on shuriken and kunai holster. The holster looked like a one-sided vest with many pokets and open rings for various shinobi tools to be placed. Honestly, Sujin had been dying to get himself a pair but Toshimoto kept teasing him for being a copycat ninja. Either way, it looked cool on him and was quite the handy accessory.

“Good, you got here just in time,” Toshimoto said with a grin. “I was a little impatient but I already placed the genjutsu on that dude in the grey shirt and white pants.”

”Not cool, you said you’d show me your genjutsu!” A little more than a bit upset and disappointed in his friend’s lack of patience, he followed Toshimoto’s hand to see the man he had placed the genjutsu on.

From what Toshimoto had bragged about the genjutsu beforehand, the illusion created would make the target slowly build up anger in the person, and whoever they made direct contact with would create the illusion of their most hated rival to really spark the fire. While before, Sujin thought this was a bit far-fetched and quite possibly another exaggeration from his exuberant mouth, now he could see first-hand the genjutsu really worked just as his friend had said. They watched the man bump into another guy with strange reddish purple looking hair. Immediately profanities were being flung at the fuchsia haired man, a circle of onlookers spacing up for the two in the street.

Toshimoto was already giggling like an idiot at what was happening down below. Sujin, however, had an even better idea. He dropped down from the roof’s second-story ledge and landed a bit roughly on his feet. The crowd was too busy watching the enraged man encircling the fuchsia haired man. Sujin made his approach into the group from behind the fuchsia haired man. Once he was layered into the surrounding populace, he gave a quick shout with one hand up to his mouth to aim his voice off to the right. ”FIght! Fight! Fight!”

Almost immediately the crowd erupted into the chant. Just as soon as it started, the illusioned man made a sweeping left hook aiming directly at the fuchsia-haired man’s right cheek. From above, Sujin could hear Toshimoto chanting along with the crowd in terrifying glee. What an interesting day this is.



Post: 1038

The day had been going so well originally. Saisei had just been wandering around Konoha, trying to find something to do. If he had been left to it and not interrupted, he probably would have headed round to the mission board, found a nice, easygoing mission to do, and he would have completed it, maybe made some money off of it too. Or it's possible the Hyuga could have found himself outside of Konoha in his travels, either in the nearvy forests where he could have trained some jutsu or simply get stronger, or even the, albeit rare, possibility of him making his way to another village entirely, although as a genin he remembered someone once telling him that he wasn't allowed to leave the village without an accompanying chunin or higher, something he personally didn't agree with but he wasn't the one in charge, so all he could do was grin and bear it as it were.

But Saisei's day was not going well, not anymore, not after he bumped, pretty lightly he had to say, into one random guy in the streets, a guy that was now getting ready to fight him. Looking around, Saisei could only see the people, so many people, saying so many things. A crowd had formed in response to the man's shouts of rage, but at the moment it seemed like they were only discussing possible outcomes, and they all seemed pretty calm.

But within an instant that all changed.

Being deaf meant that Saisei could not hear sounds coming from the mouth of people, but he still felt small vibrations and murmurs in the earth from all the chatting. And when all that stopped, even he felt the silence, but it was gone within mere seconds of its coming, and the volume returned. However, it was different this time. Before, there had been too many different voices saying too many different things for Saisei to easily grasp all of it, but now, as he looked all around him, he saw everyone's mouths moving in unison, all repeating the same word over and over again: Fight!

Saisei didn't need to be a genius to understand exactly what was happening. Even if the crowd themselves didn't understand it, they were egging on the man in the grey shirt, forcing his hand through peer pressure. As soon as he read the lips and knew what was happening, the Hyuga looked back at his would-be opponent, and saw the man coming towards him, his left hand clenched into a fist as he aimed at Saisei's cheek.

Saisei had only moments to think of what to do, and there were many different avenues open to him at this time. The most obvious one that anyone would see would be that he would have to defeat his opponent, by either subduing him, knocking him unconscious or by killing him outright, an outcome the Hyuga was going to avoid as much as he could. So the only options were to subdue him or knock him out, both things that the boy could do. It was probably one of the most useful aspects of his affinity for Raiton techniques, the ability to temporarily stun or at the very least daze his opponent, as well as delivering rather minor burns, which would hurt the man too much. He looked pretty tough overall, for a civilian at least.

As such, Saisei felt the easiest thing to do would be to absorb the blow, and so he felt the punch connect with his right cheek, and heard a click that sounded like something had either fractured or been dislocated, probably his jaw considering the placement. It probably didn't matter that much to him as it would to another, it was like he needed his jaw to speak or anything like that. But the moment the punch connected, Saisei decided to let loose one of his Raiton jutsu on the man, sending a pulse of electricity through Saisei and up the man's arm, giving the man a little shock, which was enough to stop his assault with that punch, as he stepped back, gathering his thoughts on what had just happened. It seemed like he was just getting started however, but this time he decided to shout abuse at his foe, hoping to egg Saisei into attacking instead of the man doing all the work.

"What's wrong kid? Too scared to attack for yourself? Too worried you're going to get beat? You think that last attack was funny don't you, you think it's hilarious that you're little parlor trick was enough to stop me, but you're very much mistaken."

It was then the man had a momentary thought to himself, and he started laughing uncontrollably before continuing.


"Wait a second, what's the point of me even saying any of this, you're completely deaf aren't you, kid? Well that explains why you're so oblivious to the world and so obnoxious to just barge past someone without so much as a second thought. Oh I'm going to enjoy breaking a few of your bones, you deaf little coward."

For the first time since the fight began, there was silence, not even the crowd were daring to say anything, no one wanting to break the tension in the air as they all looked at the deaf boy, wondering what he would do next. In his head, the rational side of Saisei sighed, really wishing that the rest of him hadn't heard and seen everything he had, but he had, and now it was his turn to act. Saisei had the small issue of a short temper towards anyone that mocked his deafness, or indeed tried to make him out as weak to any others. It was one of his major flaws, and this man had just released the beast as it were.

Saisei took a deep breath, released it, and began walking towards the man who couldn't have been any further than a few metres from him. Luckily for all of them, the crowd was mostly outside of the radius of what was to come, but it was very likely a few of them were going to get hit by the blast. He focussed some chakra in his right middle finger, and then held it up for the man, angering him to the point of a animalistic rage, but it still had no bearing on the maelstrom of emotion being let loose within Saisei. From that middle finger, a small stream of sparks left, their destination obvious and only a few metres away, as they gave the man another shock similar to the one he had received previously, but that was not all, by no means. And from the look on his face, the man was starting to see it, as the smell of noxious gas entered his nostrils, and his face changed from rage to fear. The moment that the sparks left the Hyuga's finger, a large fireball engulfed both him and his opponent, giving them, along with any other civilians unlucky enough to be caught in the blast, burns a little stronger than those from before. The fireball dissipated almost as soon as it had formed, leaving only a thin layer of smoke, which in turn parted to reveal the outcome of the two fighters. The crowd were left in shock as they saw it. A young, pale skinned, fuchsia haired boy sitting on top of a large man in a dark grey shirt and white pants dotted with red, the young boys right fist and face coated in blood, blood that had escaped from the man's jaw and face.

The young Hyuga simply dismounted his unconscious opponent and stood there, watching the crowd, to see if anyone else was going to step forward, his fist dripping blood onto the street, creating a red path from one fighter to another.

120/150:

The crowd was really roaring now. Chanting for the fight to get started and it did with the genjutsu entrapped man swinging for the darkly red headed man. Yet the shocking thing literally was the impact, or lack thereof. The man’s punch almost seemed to land, yet instead of the sound of skin slapping against skin, there was an electrical snap resounding through the crowd. Instead of a punch landing, the man’s fist repelled backwards. At first, Sujin didn’t spot what had happened, but soon the man spoke clearly of what was happening.

Whoever this fuchsia haired guy was, he could use nature manipulation and had caused a spark of electricity to stop the grey shirted man’s attack. It was actually quite impressive. Sujin looked back up to the roof to see Toshimoto’s reaction, but he wasn’t there anymore. A few glances around and he saw him standing in the crowd just a few people right from Sujin. He moved over to where his friend was as the angered man continued to spout off at the darkly redheaded guy. ”This sure has gotten interesting. This dude must be a ninja or something to pull off nature manipulation.”

Toshimoto nodded and grinned. “Did you see his eyes?”

Sujin shook his head.

“They’re stark white. He’s a Hyuuga.”

Sujin turned to look again. His friend was right. The redheaded man had pupil-less white eyes that were focused intently on the yelling man. By now, the words started to come back into focus. The man laughed for a moment, and then the real earth shattering news came along. The gray shirted man announced a discovery he’d made that the redheaded man was deaf. Toshimoto and Sujin looked at each other for a moment and then back at the Hyuga. ”How’d he figure that out, isn’t he supposed to be seeing his rival in this dude?”

“I think he broke out of the genjutsu with that electrical shock,” guessed Toshimoto. “That or his rival is deaf. I’m not even sure what’s going on anymore.”

After that little revelation, things turned very sour. The Hyuga seemed to get offended by the man’s words now, pointing against him being deaf, and began weaving handsigns. In a matter of just half a minute or so, the battle was clearly over. The Hyuga had breathed out a dense cloud of smoke that surrounded the man, and then the Hyuga stepped up closer to the man and thus had entered the cloud surrounding the man. A spark could be seen from within the cloud and then the entire cloud turned into a ball of flames. Sujin could feel the heat coming from the fire and other people closer to the fight screamed ran away, clutching at their exposed skin. The flames quickly dispersed as fast as they had ignited, leaving the sight of the Hyuga on top of a burned and bloody man. Both men looked gross with all the burns they had both suffered.

“Shit, this is bad.” Toshimoto cursed. “I’m getting outta here.”

Sujin turned to stop his friend but it was too late. Toshimoto had fled with the rest of the crowd. His little genjutsu had started this, but now Sujin felt he should fix something about this. These people got burned and even harmed a few bystanders all because of the little trick he and his friend had played. He even felt some guilt from egging things on. The fight might not have happened this way had he not done anything. Or at least, that’s what his conscience was berating him with.

”Hey, I think that’s enough,” Sujin would say as he stepped up to the standing Hyuga. ”We need to get the both of you to the hospital to treat these burns… and his face.”

Sujin would first go to the laid out man, as the Hyuga seemed to be in better condition. Picking the guy up and resting him on his shoulders, Sujin would look back and motion with his head for the Hyuga to follow him. ”Come on, I know y’all don’t like each other but let’s not kill anyone.”

Things were really bad as they were. An incident like this would get a lot of attention. A shinobi of the Leaf attacking one of its own villagers? I mean, it was provoked, but still the guy had used some hefty jutsu to knock him down a peg. The Hokage was going to have some trouble sorting this one out if it got to be a big protest. Hopefully Sujin’s guilt could strive for some reparations to what had been done.

He would push up with his legs to stand and then start walking as fast as he could with the unconscious man on his back. The guy weighed a lot more than anything Sujin had lifted in a long while. Getting to the hospital would be a pain as it wasn’t just right next door but quite a few blocks away. ”Gosh, you really did it now, didn’t you? What’s your name anyways?”



Post: 887
Total WC: 1925

Out of the two men surrounded by a now much smaller crowd of people compared to a few minutes prior, it was evident which one had come out on top of their altercation, considering one was unconscious while the other stood straight, his clothes singed by the flames that were now a distant memory, and his skin patched yellow and red from the burning damage he had sustained. He had, without a doubt, won this fight, although the victor had been evident from the start, as one was a shinobi of the leaf, while the other was an enraged civilian, just a random bystander that had picked the wrong guy to fight with, and had lost horribly due to his actions and words. And now Saisei stood, starting to feel the effects of his skin and his knuckles, which the blood had started to dry into. Washing it out was certainly going to be a pain, but it was nothing comapred to the shower the young Hyuga would need to have the moment he got home, otherwise his mother would demand to know what had happened, and Saisei just wasn't in the mood to have that conversation today, or ever really. It was a lot more fun to hide things from his mother rather than actually tell her anything, especially when it was something like this. The big concern was the crowd. After such a big event as this happening in the village, word was gonna spread, especially considering some of the crowd themselves got burned by the fire, not bad enough to require medical attention, but bad enough for it to be annoying, and definitely more than enough to get people talking. If a Chunin, Jounin or even the Kage didn't appear at Saisei's door within the next couple of days, he'd certainly be surprised, not to mention extremely relieved, for he had no doubt that people had been banished and branded traitors to the village for worse actions. But at least the guy wasn't dead.

Much of the crowd had departed in every direction the moment the fire had started, with only a select few staying to watch the end of the interaction, hoping to see whether Saisei left his foe, killed him, or took him to the hospital to make sure he was healed. Honestly, the initial plan had simply been to leave the man in the hopes that somebody would pick him up and care for him. He had attacked Saisei, and initiated the conflict, after all, why should it be the winner's duty to care for the loser? But as Saisei was standing, he noticed someone walking towards him, his mouth moving as he spoke his intentions. It seemed not everyone had realised Saisei was deaf, although he though it had become very evident after what had just happened. Either that or the man just assumed that, if Saisei was deaf, he could at least understand people when they spoke, a fair assumption to make considering the Hyuga's action had directly resulted from the words his foe had spoken only a few seconds before. The man was basically trying to calm Saisei down from his rage, as well as deciding that the best course of action would be for them both to get to hospital and have their wounds treated. The second part of his setence made sense, and seemed like a good idea, but the first part was unnecessary. If Saisei had still been in his fury, the man would've still been conscious, and no amount of talking would have calmed him down. But now that he was unconscious, the young Hyuga had no reason to be angry anymore, and so he had calmed down of his own accord, as simple as that. The final bit of the man's sentence was interesting, and it was only then that Saisei actually thought of the state of the man's face. Looking down at it, it really wasn't pretty, with some of the skin yellow from burns, some of it red from burns, and then the rest covered in his own blood. There was very little white you could see, and his hair was a complete mess of blood and black, and stank of ammonia, it was probably a good idea to get him to the hospital as fast as possible, if for no other reason than to get him a wash.

Of course, if he could actually speak, Saisei would have told the random stranger that he had never planned on killing his opponent. To do so would be completely uncalled for and ridiculous, and was a definite way to get him kicked out of the village, even though the man had started it and provoked him. But it mattered very little, as the stranger picked up the man in the now darkened grey and red, half burned trousers, slinging his unconscious form over his shoulder, and Saisei could see from his expression that the man was heavy, but he powered through it and began to walk towards the hospital, before turning back to speak to his newly met deaf companion, asking two questions, one of which was rhetorical so Saisei wasn't too bothered, but he was just asked his name. What did the man expect? It wasn't like he could easily just introduce himself, but luckily the blood on his hand as a very nice, ominous paint, and so, using his right hand, the Hyuga traced the symbols for his first name on his left shoulder, before indicating it towards the man. However, it was only fair to give information if you were receiving some, so Saisei also gestured to the man, asking for his own name. His companion had probably already guessed that Saisei was a Hyuga, so he was kind of hoping that the man would give his full name unlike Saisei, but he would be happy with a first name. If nothing else, it was something to work with, instead of just referring to him as 'the stranger' in his head all the time. Conversation wasn't the easiest thing for a deaf person, but Saisei was going to try and keep it up until they reached the hospital. After all, not many people would walk into the middle of a fight, albeit a finished one, and chastise the winner while hoping to help the loser. There was definitely a story to this man, Saisei was just curious as to what it would be.

The Hyūga was eerily calm. That flame of anger really got put out fast. Sujin noted this as a cautionary behavior. If a man was that easily calmed, he would be just as easily ignited. Such a fiery temper was more than he had ever seen, and his parents had often labeled him with a short temper. Had they seen this guy, they would call him timid in comparison.

Looking at the man again, he noticed he was being rather quiet with his responses. Upon being asked his name, the man simply rubbed his finger on his bloodied hand, as if writing something. The fist turned and suddenly it all made much more sense. Written with the blood on the fist was the man's name, Saisei. He really was deaf, his eyes widened at realizing the truth behind the now unconscious man's words.

"Saisei, huh?" he read aloud before pointing a free thumb at himself. "Just call me Sujin then."

He hopped the man's body further up onto his shoulders and resumed walking down the street. Assuming Saisei was walking with him, he continued to talk. "Gotta say, you're really good at those jutsu. Maybe not the best time to have used it, but it was impressive nonetheless."

It was just about then that he stopped and realized that Saisei was deaf. For some reason, even though he'd come to realize it earlier, it hadn't sunk in fully and here he was blabbering on again as if nothing was wrong. He would turn his head to Saisei. "Uhh... sorry, I keep forgetting you really are deaf." He hunched his shoulders, the man's weight shifting even more on his back as he did so. "Great, and you probably don't even know what I just said, or am saying... right?"

This was going to be a hard thing to work through, Sujin figured, to try and explain to the man what he needed to do to best help the both of them. As they were stopped in the street, the sight of them were sure to attract stares. Saisei was burned pretty badly from entering his own jutsu and the guy Sujin was carrying was in an even worse and sorrier state. People out and about would stop for a moment, step aside, and follow with their eyes as they made their way down to the hospital. And once they were to reach the hospital, what would the people there say to what Saisei had done?

Toshimoto really screwed me over with this one, Sujin thought even though he didn't have to help out either Saisei or the unconscious man. It was his friend that had caused the ruckus with the pesky genjutsu. Even the bystanders in the crowd had gotten a bit synged from the fight because of their meddling. Somehow, Sujin was getting the feeling that he had gone too far, or rather that he was getting tired of doing such silly pranks. There were more consequences to these 'little practical jokes' he and his friend make. The guy that was laid out on his back would probably wake up with a new philosophy to completely hate the Leaf shinobi. While probable, it wasn't certain, but the fact remains the man would have been more trusting of shinobi had they never done the prank.

"Okay, just one more block and we're there," he said to Saisei, or really just no one in particular. Another twinge of his eyes as he realized he just spoke again to a deaf man.



Post: 601
Total WC: 2526

Of course, the moment Saisei had been asked his name he had known exactly how things were going to play out. Too many people had asked his name and been curious at his quietness that it had become a bore to play out the entire scenario every single time. If it hadn't been so ridiculous a prospect, he would have started carrying around a sign with his name written on it, just for those he hadn't yet had the pleasure of introducing himself too. It wasn't his own fault he was deaf, but it was never fun to have to find various ways to tell someone what his name was, especially considering some of the situations he had been in when he had been asked his name. From being in a bath house and having to use the condensation; to tracing out the characters into the muck left on the ground by a passing animal -that had been his least favourite without question- to today's situation, requiring Saisei to use the drying blood of someone else on his hand to etch them onto his skin, as he was too busy walking to bother stopping to find a building.

And then, almost on cue, he saw it. The man, this stranger that had appeared without any explanation as to who he was or his intentions, his eyebrows began to rise as his eyes widened, the realisation becoming increasingly more evident on his face as he realised he was talking to a deaf man, something he probably hadn't come into contact with before. Saisei had been surprised by the lack of people in his situation in the world, he hadn't met another deaf ninja in Konoha, and was beginning to doubt there was another one anywhere. Lucky for the rest of the world, and lucky for Saisei too in a way. It was hard enough trying to converse with people who could speak, being with another deaf person would just make things extremely awkward.

He introduced himself as Sujin at that moment, not offering a surname which the young Hyuga had to admit he was a bit disappointed about. One of the biggest problems with being a Hyuga were the eyes. Of course, all of their power, ignoring the Juken abilities, came from their eyes, from the Byakugan that only Hyuga eyes could tap into, but it made it exceedingly more difficult to hide who you were. Normally getting a first name out of someone was easy, but discovering their surname -their clan name- was the hard part of a meeting, as Sujin had clearly showed. For Saisei, it was the opposite: anyone could tell from one glance what his surname was, as there were no known birth defects of clans that possessed anything even remotely similar to the white eyes of the Hyuga Clan, making it extremely obvious what Saisei's surname was, but if someone asked his first name, it would always take longer. It was another unique aspect that no one else could understand, and it was incredibly irritating.

While he had been in thought, he had been watching Sujin, who had began walking once more, his lips moving as if to make conversation, or perhaps to mock Saisei, as the man knew his words wouldn't be heard, but then he turned around, turning his head to face his deaf companion and apologising for talking without realising, saying that he had forgotten that Saisei was deaf, something the young Hyuga was also used to. Despite being told, or coming to the realisation themselves, it still took people a few minutes to actually understand what being deaf meant, and what limits it placed on normal social interactions. Sujin continued by almost berating himself for continuing to speak, as there was a high chance that Saisei wouldn't be able to understand what he was saying then, or even now, but at that moment he shook his head, smiling as he did so to make sure Sujin was looking at him as he made four gestures. The first was a replica of what Sujin himself had just recently done, a thumb gesturing to Saisei himself, with the next going to his eyes, then a finger outstretched towards the young man in front of Saisei, with the final gesture being to Saisei's lips. The plan of the message was to say, in the most basic way, 'No, I can understand you. I can see your lips.' and hopefully Sujin would understand from that what he meant. It wasn't foolproof, it had failed many a time, but it was worth a shot if nothing else.

At that moment, once Sujin began to walk once more, Saisei made sure he was walking right next to him, just in case his mouth opened anymore, and to try and keep the conversation going. However, Saisei didn't want to seem strange, so he didn't keep his eyes fixated on Sujin's mouth, waiting for movement, instead he just occasionally glanced when he saw a twinge, and so he understood that the hospital wasn't far, which was very good news. Saisei knew that, the moment he entered that hospital, there would be questions, and his plan was simple: get in, get clean, write down everything the hospital need to know about the unconscious man's burns, and then leave and go home, unless Sujin had any more plans for the deaf boy.

Saisei had mouthed words in response to Sujin’s last question. Hand gestures pointing from himself to his eyes to Sujin and finally to his mouth. It was rudimentary as far as communication could go, but it was something. At least that meant the Hyuga understood him when he mentioned they were coming up to the hospital.

The hospital wasn’t the main village one, as the village had grown beyond its original size of centuries past. Instead, the hospital was one of two smaller clinics to help provide aid to the further reaches of the village. The clinic was three stories tall, built in sturdy white limestone. Being in a more cramped part of the village, the hospital fit in between a pharmacy and a woodworker’s workshop. The two shops were only one story and thus the hospital poked out above its neighbors as a handy identifier. Of course, the helpful symbol and sign that was stamped wide upon the building’s front also helped people know exactly where the clinic was.

Upon entering, Sujin and Saisei would be greeted by a wide waiting room with several counters along the back wall of the room where various nurses were having people sign in. One nurse saw the state of the man Sujin was carrying and immediately made a loud gasp.  After a bit of quick words to others behind the registry counter windows, two nurses came in through the doors to meet Sujin and Saisei.

“Oh goodness,” exclaimed a brown-haired nurse as she stepped forward, her darker haired colleague already moving to Sujin’s side so as to help with the transference of the burned and bloodied man. “We’ll take him and your friend right away.”

Sujin blinked at her last words. My friend? He turned to look at Saisei after the two nurses pulled the other man together. The brunette waved for Saisei to follow them as they headed for the door into the clinic. “We’ll take them both to the E.R. It’s amazing he was able to walk like that.”

Taking a better look at Saisei, it was apparent the man must have been feeling some kind of pain. Besides the blood of the other man on the guy’s fists, his exposed skin was red with first degree burns from the fight. Thinking back, Sujin remembered the guy had walked into the smoke just as it exploded into a ball of fire. In his eagerness to settle the terrible mess of the other guy he had not realized the health of the other guy involved in the fight besides finding out that Saisei was deaf. Even Saisei’s clothes were singed at the edges and other burn marks on various parts of the fabric. He looked right distressed just as much as the other guy they had brought with them.

”Oh wow,” Sujin finally spoke. ”Totally didn’t even realize how bad off you were, too.”

A light bulb turned on in his head and he looked back at the nurses. ”He’s deaf, just so you know.”

Not knowing what else he could do, Sujin would wait to see them off through the door and out of the waiting room where they would next be off to the E.R. center. As Saisei would leave, Sujin would simply wave goodbye, not thinking his saying goodbye would really be necessary at this point.  After which, he would turn and slump off to find where Toshimoto had run off to. The boy had caused quite the mess, and put people in danger as a direct cause of his actions. Not that Sujin was completely free from guilt of being an accomplice in the matter, but he figured his helping the two men get to the hospital paid for some kind of balancing of deeds.

I can’t keep playing around like this, he angrily thought as he walked off into the street. The sun lit up his face as he stepped outside, the noise of the village rabble exploding upon his ears. ”Now where did that little punk friend of mine hide?”

OOC:

Post: 691
Total WC: 3217

It didn't take much longer after their last interaction for the two men, Saisei and Sujin, to reach the medical clinic, an albeit large building that paled in comparison to the main Konoha hospital, a place the young Hyuga had never actually been in, but a masterpiece of architecture that certainly inspired any who looked upon it. It was a building that screamed to the world 'If you need healing, we can do it', something that both amused and annoyed Saisei simultaneously, both because of how ridiculous the building was and because of how stuck up and arrogant it made the Medical Corps seem, not that he had actually met any of them. His mother was constantly telling him how much in debt she was to the Medical Ninja and Staff for so many things, from medicines to defenses, but Saisei had never cared much for Medical Ninjutsu, he had never really possessed any aptitude for it, and so had never chosen to pursue it as a career path, but he at the very least held some respect for the people able to save lives, maybe just not as much as they actually desired to up their fame. He cared about what they did, he couldn't care less about who they were.

Once they had both walked, or in Saisei's case limped, into the hospital, everything exploded into a frenzy. A nurse walking by stopped whatever she was doing to examine both the man and Saisei, and it seemed, but the simple fact that he turned around looking rather confused, that Sujin hadn't really noticed how bad the Hyuga's injuries were in relation to the earlier fight. Other than a possibly broken or at the very least bloody jaw, both Saisei and the man he had fought had sustained the same amount of damage, the burning had hit both of them at point blank, it was just that Saisei had been conscious enough to actually maintain a walk until he got to the hospital, but now that it had been mentioned everything was starting to ache. His legs were starting to feel like jelly, his entire body felt warm and cold and stang like one thousand bee stings all over. And if that wasn't worse, the young Hyuga felt his eyesight blurring a little, not from any permanent damage, simply from the fact that he was running extremely low on energy and was very close to crashing, but it was still getting harder to stay upright, and the nurses were noticing this, as was Sujin now, as he admitted he hadn't actually noticed how bad the injuries sustained on his apparent friend had been. At that point Sujin turned around and spoke very briefly to the nurses before sitting to the side to see Saisei off, but after he had spoken the nurses looked at Saisei differently, which made it completely evident what had just been explained, but at this point the young Hyuga was in no position to complain, as he limped, and eventually was aided by the nurses to the intensive care unit, glancing back to see Sujin's final wave before he also left.

The next few hours were a blur. Saisei was helped into a hospital bed, had his clothes removed and his body washed down to clear himself from any possible infections. The nurses were lucky he couldn't speak and that his opponent was unconscious, because that shower was very cold, and on the burnt skin it hurt like hell. if any of the two men were able to voice their thoughts, the poor nurses would have simply heard a string of curses from the fuschia haired man in their care. His knuckles were white once he had emerged victorious from the shower ordeal from the amount of tensing to try and ignore the sensation. After that, Saisei collapsed onto his hospital bed, and slept until the morning, waking up to the terrible sight of his mother, her face almost as red as her son's hair with fury.

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!? YOU ATTACKED A RANDOM CIVILIAN IN THE STREETS AND, WORST OF ALL, YOU BEAT HIM TO A PULP AND KNOCKED HIM UNCONSCIOUS, WHILE YOU YOURSELF GOT HORRIBLY BURNED ALL OVER! DO YOU EVER THINK YOU STUPID BOY! YOU ARE SO GROUNDED FOR THE NEXT MONTH, I'M ONLY LETTING OUT THE HOUSE TO GO AND COLLECT THE SHOPPING BUT, BEYOND THAT, CONSIDER YOURSELF A USELESS GENIN UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE. I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD DO SOMETHING SO STUPID!"

Saisei couldn't help himself but smile. After almost two and a half decades of living in that house, this is what it had taken to get her to leave, and venture out into the world. If she wasn't burning with rage, he was almost tempted to askhow she felt, but he just went back to sleep, then went home, not looking forward to the next month, if it even ended up being only that long. Usually he was lucky and his mother put a ban on his movements, but later that week would release it and allow her son to be himself again, but Saisei felt like that was going to not be the case this time. This time was most certainly a special occasion, as his mother had physically left the house to come and shout at her son, her shouts being so loud that literally the entire clinic could probably hear her clearly as if she were talking right next to them. She had always had a power with her words.

-Exit-


4750 Words
Byakugan Trained to Level 2 (3000) 1750
Strength: E-3 ~ D Rank
Speed: E-3 ~ D Rank
Reaction Time: E-3 ~ D Rank
Perception: E-3 ~ D Rank
Endurance: E-2 ~ D Rank

WC Used: 1725
WC Remaining: 25