It was a beautiful day out, so it was a perfect opportunity for Rinkei to get out of the house once again. She never missed a chance to get away from all of the noise and interruptions. Running low on paint supplies, she decided to go without them and just enjoy the scenery, she was going to go to her favorite spot today and relax for once. After dealing with her C-Rank mission yesterday and receiving a brand new wound in her arm, she felt she deserved the break. Ignoring her adoptive family, she left the house swiftly and without a word.

~~

Outside of village, Rinkei ducked off to the forest surrounding the walls. She had been on this path many times, as she often looked for peace and quiet. It's not that she didn't like people, she disliked the motives behind what they did, so she had much rather isolated herself than be subjected to the possible heartache and suffering.
She found her favorite spot with relative ease, it was as beautiful as ever. A small trickling waterfall fell from some well placed rocks on top of a quaint little hill. under the waterfall was a tiny pond that was big enough to maybe bathe in if she felt like doing so. Surrounding the pond was a huge plain of assorted flowers, brilliant hues of pinks and blues, all in full bloom despite the recent crappy weather.
Rinkei couldn't help but smirk at this. It wasn't a big emotional change, only a small spark. It didn't last very long though. It never had. She sat down and reflected on the past, losing herself in her own thoughts.

Shortly after falling into her trace, she began to hear voices, they were not good voices in the least, they were leading her into the darkness, and were succeeding. Negative thoughts and feelings clouded her mind, driving her into a mental rage. Rinkei just wanted to kill, the only thing on her mind was the beauty of death, not the beauty of nature that was around her. The world is pathetic, and everyone in it is too dumb and naive to realize they have no purpose. The only way to enlightenment is through death...And I shall be the one to bring it to them The voices said. But it wasn't just the voices, her own mind was saying those things as well. She continued to let the voices engulf her in darkness and hate until she was almost completely void of any happiness.

WC:433
TWC:433

Saisei was tired, and he deserved what he was getting.

He had had a long and busy day today, even though it was only mid afternoon, doing a couple of missions and helping his mother with the shopping. It was his least favourite day of the the week, as his mother always made him go to the local shops and buy all the random crap she required, and he was always only given the exact amount of money necessary, leaving none for himself with which to use for his own personal belongings. All money Saisei owned was earned by him, he had never been allowed any pocket money or charity of any kind from his mother, it had always annoyed him.

Luckily for Saisei, at this point in his life he had ventured to the shops enough times that they all knew him by face, and so knew how much he had and what he wanted, but it had not always been like that. They used to see him as a target, and had always tried to con him into spending more money than his mother had actually given him, back before she knew the prices but, despite being deaf, Saisei had always seen through the ruses and had avoided paying ridiculous amount of money for his food. these days it was almost funny to see some of the new shop assistants trying to con him in the same ways the older ones used to do, but the young Hyuga just stood there, staring with a blank expression on his face until the assistants broke and conceeded, as they always did.

However, after buying all the food and delivering it back home, Saisei discovered he had more free time than he usually did, so he decided to have some relaxation time in the forests, as there was a nice spot he had found that always helped him, both in terms of training and in terms of meditation and relaxation. As so, he left his home and, within a few minutes of leaving the main village, had found his spot, empty and peaceful as it always was. Due to the heat of the sun, the fuschia haired man knew exactly what to do to relax, stripping off his clothes and sitting them atop a low hanging tree branch to collect afterwards, before diving into the water, which was both refreshingly warm due to sun's rays, and relaxingly cool, due to the forest breeze that was ever present. It took his body some time to adjust to the change in temperature, a process Saisei sped up by seeing how long he could spend sitting at the bottom of the small pond, but once it was he laid back and let the waterfall's falling ripples carry him all around the small body of water, the waves flowing and separating all his tension from his body. He then stretched his muscles, hearing satisfying 'clicks' in various places as the stiff muscles began to relax, and he rested for what felt like years, but what must have only been about an hour, before he was interrupted.

Despite his disability with being deaf, Saisei still had an acute feeling for the world around him. Sure he couldn't hear it when someone walked up behind him or spoke to him, but when the breeze shifted, or the animals began to all look the same way, he could usually tell if something was happening, which caused him to activate his Byakugan temporarily, just to notice the presence and chakra of a young girl, quite a lot smaller than Saisei himself, but size rarely meant anything these days, where the strongest shinobi could look like children, and the weakest be massive. Instead of staying where he was however, and potentially trying to get away as quickly as possible, he decided to make his prescence known, by standing up tall in the water and facing the girl, waving with a friendly, yet unsettling smile on his face.

145/150:

Rinkei was almost lost to the world, it wouldn't have been much longer before she had slipped passed the point of return. Had it not been for the disturbance in the area around her, she would have been gone.
Snapping out of her trance, she glanced around, curious about the intruding presence. She could tell it was human - Shinobi to be more specific - due to her now activated Byakugan. She was proud of the Kekkei Genkai that she had adopted from the clan, it allowed her strength and power that could not be achievable normally. She enjoyed the ability, often making use of it to watch herself at all times; She hated the thought of someone watching her. However, the one time she let her guard down and thinks that she was safe, Rinkei was being watched.

She spotted a man standing in the pond before her, about middle twenties in age, dark red hair that fell to about his neck line. The first major thing she noticed though was his Byakugan, Another Hyuga? She thought. Rinkei had never seen him around before, as the Hyuga family usually congregated amongst themselves in the village. Then again she didn't really associate herself with others, nor did she really want to.
The next thing she noticed was the fact that the man was completely naked. This didn't bother her in the least, she was attracted to both sexes, (though she never really thought about being in a relationship with anyone) but this was only natural, they were born this way. Besides, clothing was more of a public excursion, not necessary in private. The man was built well; for a Shinobi that wasn't surprising, as most ninja tend to keep themselves in shape. Rinkei didn't even bother to glance down at his private area, it wouldn't phase her, but she also knew that gauging a man on his package was irrelevant. Instead she kept a steady gaze on his eyes, watching for any hint of hostility.

She decided she wasn't worried about the man, and decided to speak up, she rarely spoke to people, so she usually sounded rude and uninterested when she did. "What are you doing here?" She asked, and then thought of a better question, "Who are you?". Of course, she know he was a Hyuga, but that meant nothing. There were multiple lines in the family, all of which had different skills and attributes, it wasn't just the Byakugan that made the Hyuga clan great, it was also the immense fighting potential they held in their Taijutsu. They had basically revolutionized it.

Rinkei didn't know if she was going to stay around very long after his answer. She had left the village to get away from people, and here she was, stuck again with an interruption to her thoughts.
A small part of her wanted some sort of companionship though. It was a constant itch in the back of her heart that annoyed her. Even if the man was naked and giving her a stupid grin as he waved, she could tell there was something about the Shinobi that made him different from everyone else. Something that spoke "Friendly" about him.

She shifted in the grass she was sitting in as she grew uncomfortable with all the feelings and emotion that fluttered through her head at once. Rinkei hated feeling in general, it held her back from being strong; but something was telling her that being strong wasn't all there was to life in that moment. She decided to go with the flow on this one.

WC: 607
TWC: 1040

Jutsu used:

Chakra:

The moment Saisei walked over to the young girl and waved at her, he noticed her eyes, and the Byakugan active within them. Another Hyuga, just like her deaf cousin, who was now standing completely naked in front of her. He didn't mind anyway, Saisei doubted that anyone was going to have a massive issue with what was happening, and the girl didn't seem like the kind to get worked up over someone being naked, she never even glanced down when she looked at him, keeping her stark white eyes focussed on his own, trying to detect if he had any evil intent, which was a fair assumption to make. With his pale skin and white eyes, in contrast to his dark pink hair, Saisei didn't look like the friendliest of people upon first glance. Even upon second glance you'd assume he wasn't much of a conversationalist, not that that was his fault, or anything he could do much about, but regardless he doubted there would be any major adverse effects from this interaction. Upon further inspection, it seemed like the woman had a wound on her arm, which implied she had been in a fight recently, which could in turn imply that she was dangerous, not that she seemed any stronger than Saisei. The young Hyuga was confident that, if they did fight, he would easily defeat her, even if she didn't have the wound in her arm, something which would no doubt slow her punches and make her slower, especially if the wound were to open from a kunai slash or something or the like, that would cause her to bleed out and lose consciousness within a few minutes, but that would end be if a fight broke out between the two, something Saisei imagined the girl wasn't in the mood for today.

Then came the annoying question that he was always asked if he didn't speak first. The name. The last time Saisei had been asked this question, he had been coated in blood so it had been simple enough to write down the symbols for his name on his body, but he had just been for a wash and soaked in the pond for a few hours. All the dirt, grime, and more importantly blood, had been wiped from him, both on his shoulder where it was written and on his hand. Out of ink, as it were, but he always had planned for things like these to happen, so he walked over to where his clothes were, still hanging from the tree branch, spared from the dirt of the forest floor, and first of all got dressed, pulling a white shirt over his body, only buttoning up the first few buttons at the bottom, leaving most of the shirt open at his torso, and pulling on his black trousers, and shoes, yawning as he did so but feeling the comfort and warmth of his clothes, a great feeling he never took for granted. Then, reaching into one of his pockets, the young Hyuga produced one of his kunai, span the hoop around one of his fingers as he walked back over to the girl, and the tree she was at. Grasping the kunai in his right hand, Saisei traced out the symbols for his name onto the bark, indicated it to the girl, before gesturing for her to reply in kind. Surnames weren't necessary for them, they knew who they each were, but it'd be nice to get to know someone else from the clan. Allies were always better to have than enemies.

140/150

The amount of time they stared at each other was intangible, and Rinkei could cut the tension with a dull kunai. the fact that she could not sense any sort of hostility in the man was not enough to cure her curiosity. But still, she remained calm and unmoved. Hyuga or not, she didn't know what the man was capable of, and that was a danger within itself.

Rinkei almost saw the look of annoyance on the mans face when she asked the questions, and she was borderline confused as he turned around and went towards his clothes. Getting dress, she could tell the man was a lot more handsome than he first seemed to be, he obviously had a nice taste in fashion. Rinkei somewhat appreciated that as she attributed it to art, which she was avid in. As the Hyuga slowly became fully dressed, he walked over in Rinkei's direction toward a tree next to her. Still confused, she shifted her body in defense in case there was any tricky business. It was obvious that the man underestimated her in some way, whether he planned to do anything with that notion or not. So she started to exert a little more confidence out toward him.

As he stepped up to the tree, he produced a kunai from one of his pockets, and Rinkei tensed up more at this action. However the man just began to carve into the bark of the tree. It was needless to say that Rinkei was even more confused than ever, the Hyuga's actions were strange, and not many things were strange to her. What irritated her the most was the fact that he had not yet answered her question, it was almost as if he just blew her off. She wasn't about to have that. Right as she was about to ask her questions again, she took a second glance at the carvings and it all began to make sense to her now. She deactivated her Byakugan as she decided she no longer needed it

"Saisei..." She said slowly, putting pieces of a puzzle together in her head. "That's your name I'm assuming then." The frustration with the questions she asked. The way he watched her lips as she spoke. He was deaf. Which meant he was most likely mute as well. Her whole demeanor changed, she wasn't doubting his skill in the slightest, but she also had a sense of respect for the man even if she had just met him. "You...can't hear me..can you?.." She asked, choosing her words carefully. Rinkei was pretty sure that she was correct on her assumption, but she wanted to make sure.

"Rinkei" She introduced herself, bowing ever so slightly to Sasei. She felt at ease now for some reason. Part of her didn't mind it at all, but part of her was also still very weary.

WC: 492
TWC: 1532

It seemed to take the small girl a few minutes to clock on as to what Saisei was doing and why, as the entire time he moved he kept glancing at her, only to see, every single time he looked, growing frustration and irritation. She must have thought that he was ignoring her question and doing his own thing, so he could understand why she had grown angrier with each passing second, but it was hardly a big deal anyway. The young Hyuga was used to it by now, it always took him a little longer to answer the question's of others, normally just because he had to find his own way to answer them, and sometimes it got to the point where a question was simply too complex to answer without writing it down, at least Saisei was only a few characters to actually write down, so he didn't spend that long at the tree itself as he wrote, and it only took the girl a few seconds to understand, her face made that very evident as she pieced it all together before speaking, firstly by reading aloud the characters and forming the word itself, before checking with the man that it was, in fact, his name, to which she got a smile and a nod before she continued.

Her face had changed a lot during the past few seconds, from frustration at Saisei's lack of giving an answer, to curiosity as he had started writing on the tree bark. Realisation came next as she understood what she was being told, and then there was the face she held at that moment before speaking, one which Saisei hadn't seen all that much honestly, especially not after introducing himself. Some of the time he was met with a little bit of annoyance, as people realised how 'pathetic' the deaf ninja was, a lot of the time though it ended up being pity, as people looked at him as a disabled person, not able to much for himself and thus being a poor excuse for a shinobi. But those were neither of the two expressions on the girl's face at that moment, it was something almost akin to respect, as though she realised how difficult Saisei's life must be, and he couldn't help but smile as she spoke, trying to confirm her beliefs by asking. He just shrugged, keeping the smile on his face as he admitted that he was, in fact, deaf.

The smile though. That was the true deception, for the deaf boy was not smiling at the kindness of the girl, nor for the subtle way she tried to phrase her question, although the smile was a friendly one that implied that. It was a sadistic smile in truth, the kind of friendly smile you'd give someone before ripping them apart and feasting on their entrails. That smile had formed when the girl had tried to understand and empathise with Saisei, gave him a look of kindness as she felt his pain, but she was so wrong. Saisei was in no way hurt by his 'disability', it had made him who he was, and he was proud of the man he had become, and it had always caused people to see him and underestimate him, figuring someone who couldn't hear couldn't fight. That respectful look, it was almost worse than pity. This girl had no way to understand Saisei's life, and yet here she was, trying to imply she knew how tough his life had been. On the outside he embodied kindness and friendliness, but inside their was a burning passion to punch this girl, as though she had insulted him. All it would take would be one more word, one more act of sympathy or underestimation, and that'd be him, gone in a frenzy. Part of him hoped she wouldn't say anything stupid, but another part of him really did, so much it itched.

After Saisei had shook his head, he seemed to get a menacing smile. She assumed he was attempting to cover it up as if he was genuinely happy that someone respected him for going through life the way he was, but Rinkei knew better. She had spent way too long analyzing different personalities and avoiding the bad ones (Not that she didn't avoid everyone to begin with). She once again prepared herself for any hostile acts. Her opinion on the Hyuga had slightly changed once more. She felt this was going to be an ongoing thing with the two. Assuming this encounter turned into any sort of friendship. Rinkei doubted it though, she just simply didn't get close to anyone long enough for things like that to happen.

Rinkei stood from her spot on the ground and stepped back slightly from Saisei, seeing how he was relatively close to her due to being at the tree next to her. She eyed him up and down, trying to calculate if she could take him in the event of an attack. She believed she could, it wouldn't be all that hard she believed, he hardly looked like he was a high rank shinobi. Rinkei herself wasn't much to look at either. Next to her recently appointed genin status, and her wounded arm, she probably seemed like a runt. But she wasn't about to let anyone underestimate her the way she believed Saisei was right now.

But, she ultimately decided on not against any hostility.

Rinkei curtly bowed again to Saisei before giving her leave. "Take care of yourself" She said. She meant it in a way, but she almost didn't care. She just wanted to leave before the Shinobi did anything to heinous. Again, she believed she could take out Saisei, but it wasn't something she wanted to really deal with at the moment. Rinkei would wait until she got stronger.

She turned around and started to walk out of the open area, and in the general direction of the Village gates. She wondered if Saisei had the guts to attack her from behind, she currently had her Byakugan active, just in case he happened to change his mind. Part of her wanted to turn around and entice the Hyuga boy to attack her. She would enjoy the fight. But again with her arm and general strength, it was just a waste of time. And there wasn't much she hated more than wasted time. She could be doing something more productive, like painting. Though he wouldn't be in the peace and quiet that she preferred, it was much better than being watched by a naked boy in the forest. The thought actually made her cringe finally.

~~

Walking up the the Village gates, Rinkei wondered if she'd even see Saisei again. Not that she wanted to or had any desire to. She was just curious, as she does not often see people in the same places she is. Rinkei ignored the thoughts and headed back home for the day and decided she would go back to her spot another time.

~Exit~

WC: 527
TWC: 2059

A wave of relief swept over Sasei as the girl, Rinkei as she had introduced herself, didn't say anything stupid to make Saisei wasn't to kill her. Rather, it seemed her already thin patience had all but run out for the fuschia haired man, as she changed her mood entirely, bowing and telling her companion to take care of himself. It was another one of those moments where, if Saisei had the verbal capability of laughter, he had no doubt he would have chuckled, as it was very clear there was no meaning behind the words. They were being said as a farewell just because it'd be strange just to leave without saying anything. And so, the little girl left, leaving her deaf cousin alone in the forest, a big grin on his face, one which would later disappear as he remembered that he was going to have to face his mother shortly. Sighing, and now clean and refreshed, Saisei began trudging back to his house, eager to take as much time as he could to get there.

-Exit-



Stats Trained
Strength: E Rank ~ E-3 (450)
Speed: E Rank ~ E-3 (450)
Reaction Time: E Rank ~ E-3 (450)
Perception: E Rank ~ E-3 (450)
Endurance: E Rank ~ E-2 (225)

WC Remaining: 104