It was a surprise, as it should. When Shihai came back home later that night, going along her own routine, she checked her family's mailbox. (Since apparently everyone else is away for the time being, that left her alone to take care of the house and be a responsible Shinobi that she is and keep up with the maintainance! >-< Yard work is the worst, but she's getting there.) Anyway, usually there would some kind of junk mail or flyers, but today she noticed a white envelope inside the mail and flipping it over, it has no return address and it doesn't say who was supposed to be the recipient of the letter, it was completely blank on the cover save from Shihai's family address, there wasn't even a postage or anything.

Couriser and curiosity, Shihai carelessly opened the letter and took a look, and immediately start frowning at the content. It was a letter, sure, but it was written either in a foreign langauge or it was written in code. Shihai mentally winced at that, she was never good with breaking code at school and now that she graduated from the Academy for a bit while now, basically she doesn't remember nearly as much about coding as she should have.

Rubbing her forehead, she can start to feel a headache coming in, so she walks into the house and causally throw the letter onto the table. It was probably a prank, and if not, her brother can deal with it when he gets back, didn't he read code like all the time? I'm sure he doesn't need any help not that I will offer. lol.

Forgetting about the letter entirely, she cleaned up and went to bed early that night, but could not fall asleep no matter how hard she tries. Sighing, she considers reading a book or something, that was when she noticed a sound of foot step just outside. Throwing open the window and leaning outside, she could see someone was walking around in the yard, when they noticed her they immediately took off,

"Hey!!! Wait a minute! What is the big idea?!" Shihai yells at the retreating back, but it was close to midnight then so she has refrain from even more yelling, didn't really want to wake the neighbor up for something that could have been a prankster. Still, she frowns and was going to find this person and give them a piece of her mind.

It was really dark and the street light were not helping as much as they should, but from the brief glance, Shihai thinks that she saw the Hyuga clan symbol on the cloth at the person's back. (or she could be mistaken)

Narrowing her eyes, Shihai went to sleep, but mentally making a note for herself to check the Hyuga compound tomorrow.

------the next day------

Rearranging the schedule so that she has the whole day off, at around morning Shihai stopped at in front of the Hyugan clan branch family compound. Securities are surprisingly lacking at the moment, so she shrugs and wait until no one is nearby, and silently entered into the compound. She tries to remember what the person that she saw before looks like...and she think that it was someone with short black hair, and wearing a standard white Ninja jacket and matching color pants. The description might be so vague to be anything but helpful, but she thinks that if she were to see that person again up close, she has about a thirty-five percent chance of recognizing them, whoever they are.

Parties… if there was anything Atsuya hated it was a party. It wasn’t so much as he hated large gathering, but instead he hated the fact that he was forced to spend time interacting with people he would’ve other wised not even breathed the same air as. A Hyuga from the main family was celebrating her 18th name day. As his family was somewhat well known within the Hyuga Atsuya was forced to attend; doing otherwise would’ve been considered rude or offensive, and if there was anything Atsuya knew about Hyuga it was they did not like their pride being trampled… of course he knew this because he was the exact same way. The party itself wasn’t quite akin to a celebration a traditional Hyuga would have, instead it was more western styled. The guests had arrived by the dozen. Everyone, including him, wore a new dress or suit which would be discarded after the night was past. In the sky the moon provided a natural disco ball and lighting into the house which held the main event. A sweet melody was drifting through the busy atmosphere, and it seemed to be coming from a ball room. After greeting the birthday girl and ‘socializing’, Atsuya weaved his way through the crowds of champagne-baring waiters. Eventually he reached the exit… it felt like he had been stuck wandering in the deserts of Sungakaure for days, dehydrated and the exit was a beautiful oasis. Finally out of the drab ‘party’.

Not.

Just before exiting through the doorway the Hyuga felt a tight grip on his wrist… a tight grip which pulled him back in. “Atsuya come! Let’s dance.” From a rare hint of joy his facial expression turned to that of agony. He didn’t even have slightest clue of who had pulled him into the hell that was the ballroom. Minutes? Hours? Days? Maybe even years? Every second inside the party felt like a century to him when in truth only a few hours had passed. Ever since the first dance only more asked him. It seemed he was being passed around from person to person. The night grew on and eventually the celebrations slowed down allowing Atsuya to find an exit. The moon was abnormally large and it bathed the village with its luminous glow. Midnight walks weren’t really something he had done before, but with a comforting breeze and the beautiful sight which was the moon and stars he couldn’t resist the temptation. Soon Atsuya found himself walking through the dark night, naught a sound other than his footsteps could be heard. The village seemed to be dead silent at night. While others would’ve been depressed walking alone in the night, he quite welcomed the action. Silence was golden to him.

Closing his eyes Atsuya quite literally let the wind take him wherever… he soon found himself walking around what seemed to be a yard. The wind sure took him to strange places.

SLAM!

The sound of a window being forced open echoed throughout the dead silent night. "Hey!!! Wait a minute! What is the big idea?!” It seemed as if the yelling woman didn’t understand the concept of sleep and night. Without a need to explain himself the young Hyuga walked away from the now noisy scene. The sky was getting darker and it was certainly getting later. He could only loaf around for so long, after all he did have quite a stressful day ahead of him. With that in mind Atsuya made his way back to his house and slept soundly. The day morning after he was up and about. He had quite a day ahead of him… it was extremely rare to find him in the branch compound. Atsuya had a strong dislike for the branch family for his own reasons, yet today he was teaching children from the branch family. His aunt, Hanako, signed him up for such a mundane task hoping he would renounce his hate for the branch family. How one could renounce the family which murdered his own he did not know. With that said there was not much choice in this matter, despite his dislike for the branch family he was teaching children… innocent children. Atsuya wasn’t to teach them much, this was the first Juken lesson of the children, complete basics sufficed for the day. Even after waking up late he was still an hour early, however he was someone who prided himself with being punctual. Turning a corner Atsuya found someone who seemed to be out of place. A woman who with one glance didn’t appear to be a Hyuga; or perhaps a Hyuga who wore contact lenses. Whatever she was doing here was no business of his and after the short interaction of one glance he walked right past the woman.

816

Shihai actually doesn't know a lot about the Hyuga clan, just know that they were here in the village for a long long time, part of the first few generations of the clans in Konoha. There weren't any Hyugan's in her class so she never really find out more about them, but she would have thought that having both a main branch family and a side branch (at least according to the story book) would mean that there should be a lot of them walking around the place, but such was not the case. Walking around carefully in the compound, and getting ready to dash aside and hide at any given notice if anyone were to approach, she was only here to find the guy who she saw yesterday, and ask to see if that was the same person who left the prank letter and maybe asking what the letter was about, she was not here for anything potentially confrontational.

However, as minutes turns ten then twenty, and that she didn't even so much as getting a glance at another human being, she begins to question whether she was at the wrong place altogether. The occasional clan symbols at the side of the buildings are the only thing that assure her that she was in fact, in the right place. At first she was busy trying to avoid being spotted, but now she just want to see another person already, this "secret and unauthorized investigation" is going nowhere fast. Shifting her weight from toe to toe she begins to suspect that there might be a group meeting or something that probably draw everyone away to somewhere else and that was why this place was so empty.

Well, she was here to find someone, and if she couldn't find anyone, then short of actually breaking in to find the record of all registered Hyugas which no one sane will do without a very very good reason to back it up, then there was no much else that she could do. Beside lying in wait and see if she could find the person over time, which, consequently is another bad idea since the Hyuga is the default go to clan for surveillance and anti surveillance alike. It would be so much faster and safer if she were to go ask around the neighbor.

Well...that was that today, guess it is time to go home and prepare for the upcoming mission. That mission isn't going to complete it itself.

Nodding to herself, Shihai turns around to head back to her house when she spotted someone, that someone also looked surprisingly familiar, as if she saw this person somewhere before. Shihai narrowed her eyes.

"Excuse me?" Shihai calls out, waiting to get his attention before speaking again. "Sorry. My name is Shihai, and unfortunately it seems that I'm completely lost. I was chasing my cat and accidentally got in here, but now I can't find the way back. Do you mind terribly to show me to the entrance of the compound?" Shihai gives him a bit embarrassed smile.

"Gosh, I been wandering around here forever trying to find the gate but I couldn't, and I can't even ask for direction since there was no one nearby. Where was everyone anyway?" She asked conversationally.

If he agrees to show her to the entrance, she would walk beside him.

"Excuse me?"

Just after walking past her, the lady seemed to call him out, or at least he assumed. Seeing as they were the only two people around there wasn’t really anyone else to talk to. The young Hyuga turned his head sideways. With his back still turned to her Atsuya observed the girl from the corners of his white eyes as she began to speak.

"Sorry. My name is Shihai, and unfortunately it seems that I'm completely lost. I was chasing my cat and accidentally got in here, but now I can't find the way back. Do you mind terribly to show me to the entrance of the compound? Gosh, I been wandering around here forever trying to find the gate but I couldn't, and I can't even ask for direction since there was no one nearby. Where was everyone anyway?"

Her last question made him ask the same thing, yet unlike her a simple event explained the lack of Hyuga roaming around. Aside from the fact that it was still somewhat early the celebrations they had the night prior were somewhat of an explanation, if he remembered correctly a good amount of branch family members served as bodyguards and workers for the night. Hearing and analyzing her story Atsuya got the impression of someone ditzy, for lack of a better word. Her story seemed somewhat inconsistent. Someone who would enter the Hyuga compound without permission just for a cat was now asking him to help guide her out of the compound. If the cat she chased wasn’t a genius who could find its way home by its lonesome then she was most likely lying… and if she was then she wasn’t doing a great job at it. His back still turned to her the Hyuga took a glance at the sky, specifically the sun. The warm heat that the sun gave off wasn’t quite akin to the rays one would feel at late morning. The fact remained it was still early… he was still early. Originally he planned on training himself as he waited for the children to arrive at the dojo, but this situation had piqued his interest. Usually he would’ve been one to refuse such a request, to him if someone was idiotic enough to get lost then they deserved it. It wasn’t so much as he wanted to help her, but instead he wanted to find out her true intentions for visiting the area… doing so seemed far more interesting than simply spending the morning training. “Follow me.” With that line the young Hyuga turned around, pivoting with his foot in a militaristic manner, and began walking the opposite direction of the dojo. Soon she had caught up beside him and walked on an even pace.

Seeing as she had already introduced herself it was only right that he did the same. “I am Atsuya Hyuga it is nice to meet you, Shihai; introductions aside I find it quite strange that you would choose to leave the area without the success of finding your cat. Tell me, have you given up on your cat or were you simply lying about having a cat in the first place?” He was blunt… straight to the point and cold as he had always been. Clearly he saw through the lie she had put up and he wanted to know why.

.1390

Lucky he's a good guy~

Shihai smiled to herself and caught up to him, walking along the road towards the entrance of the compound just as the sun was raising up high into the sky. Even the previously emptied looking branch house started to look more lively, as more Hyugans coming around to start their day. It was...a well timed save, because once there start to have people around, then she might need to actually sneak her way out of the compound. Ninjas traditionally sneak around all the time, but not into each other's clan area, although she was somewhat confident in her own stealth, there was no need to bring animosity in between clans. Now that she was walking beside a Hyugan, people more or less doesn't question the fact that an outsider was in their territory, guess they assumed that she was a guest, perhaps a classmate or something.

"Atsuya is it? Nice to meet you too. Never seen you around before, did we graduated around the same year?" Shihai answered causally. Not bothered by the fact that her little lie has been seen through, but she did consider if she wants to be blunt and ask what she wants to ask. Is it socially acceptable to accused a Hyuga for trespassing in front of another Hyuga, will that piss him off? Shihai smiled. There's really only one way to find out.

"Well...sort of." She motioned with her left hand in a waving motion. "My cat did run off to kami knows where, but I'm not really looking to find him, he's smart enough, he can look after himself. He's cute though, I will show you the pictures some other time."

Shihai paused for a bit before continuing. "The real reason that I'm here today is that I'm looking to find someone. Last night around midnight time, there's this short hair Hyuga guy who trespassed in front of my yard towards the north west quarter of the Kimura compound. Nothing serious really, normally I won't even bother, but...." Shihai reached around her pocket and pulls out a folded letter, and show it to Atsuya.

"Since it was the same day that I received this letter, I wonder if that was the same guy who send this letter. It was written entirely in code, or a foreign language, either or. "  They have roughly arrived near the entrance by that time. "I know, I know, I should be better at codes, since I wanted to have my own Anbu squad eventually, but I just never got around to study coding more. Well, I would have to find some way to get the one who dropped this letter, that or wait for someone to actually break the code, it's probably just a little prank by some bored individual, probably nothing serious and I missed sleep for nothing."

Stopping in front of the gate of the Hyugan clan entrance, Shihai bows slight towards Atsuya to convey her thanks. "Well, thanks for showing me to the entrance. If it is not too much to ask, if you know anyone who's been acting suspiciously lately, please let me know." That's a really vague question and Shihai doesn't expect an answer.

OOC:

Atsuya couldn’t help but think if he had been too blunt. While he wasn’t the type to feel guilty about his words accusing someone, a stranger no less, of such a thing with just one interaction might’ve been a little over the top for him. Still the fact remained, he was curious about her actions; the words she spoke were somewhat in contrast and he had simply brought it up. There was no crime in bringing up another’s mistake. The woman walking beside him didn’t seem to be bothered by his actions however, in fact she was even smiling… or at least that’s what his peripheral vision suggested.

"Atsuya is it? Nice to meet you too. Never seen you around before, did we graduated around the same year?"

Strange this lady was; anyone else would’ve most certainly been offended by his accusations. No one would’ve ever liked to be called a liar, much less caught in the act of lying.  Already the young Hyuga began to form an opinion on Shihai. Above all else she seemed to be a nice person, if a little strange. Of course she could’ve been secretly harboring ill emotions towards his actions, but her terrible lying skills would be a testament against that. After her words Atsuya began to observe her with his peripheral vision. She did seem to be around his age… a little short, but around his age no less. “I believe so, I’ve certainly never seen you around either.” Thoughts of teams began to surface on the young Hyuga’s mind. He couldn’t say it was the first time such thoughts filled his mind, but like always he would shut them out rather quickly. While teams did provide a sense of comradery he required no such things. Atsuya was confident in his abilities as a shinobi, yet he did know the limits he had working alone.

Soon after his reply the lady before him began to speak yet again, this time explaining the real reason she was here. Seeing through her lie was somewhat a victory for him. Shinobi were meant to be masters of deceit; exposing a fellow shinobi’s attempts at such brightened his day somewhat. Of course aside from that little ‘victory’ his curiosity would now be quenched by her answer. Atsuya observed and listened carefully to everything she had to say. He couldn’t help but think she was being overfamiliar with him; offering someone to show cat pictures was extremely overfamiliar considering they had been strangers to each other just a few minutes ago. Her explanation satisfied him, yet something was strange. Atsuya began to think of his actions the night prior… sure enough the young man remembered taking a walk in the middle of the night only to be caught ‘trespassing’ in someone else’s yard; if he remembered the events correctly then Shihai must’ve been the loud lady who was yelling in the middle of the night. Now here he was, helping her out the gates of the Hyuga compound; Atsuya couldn’t help but think how such coincidences would only be found in shows or from books he would often read. The Hyuga remained wordlessly observing Shihai, taking note of everything she said including the letter until the two arrived at the entrance.

“If you wouldn’t mind I would like to take a look at that letter, perhaps I could be of some assistance?” After saying that the Hyuga offered his hand waiting if she would give him the letter; had she done so Atsuya you would’ve opened the letter carefully as to not rip it apart. Seeing the coded letter the young man realized he had no such knowledge of the language nor anything related to it. He did however had what one might call an ace the sleeve when it came to messages such as this. Atsuya began to focus his chakra in his eyes… soon enough veins began to surround and show themselves around his eyes. His byakugan had been activated, of course only for but a brief duration. The fact remained still, even with his byakugan he was unable to read the coded message. Having tried all he could the young Hyuga’s eyes returned to normal just as he handed her back the letter. “Shame, it appears my eyes need a little more work when it comes to decoding such things.” After his failed attempt he didn’t have anything left up his sleeves. Of course a new found curiosity had buried itself inside of him. A letter that even a byakugan was unable to read must’ve had some secrets stored… of course it could’ve just been meaningless scribbles, but he had a feeling it was otherwise. Now that the letter was out of the way he decided he would at least help her with her other problem.

“As for the ‘short haired Hyuga’ you were looking for, I believe I can help with that. If you were the person who yelled outside the window in the middle of the night then the short haired Hyuga was undoubtedly me. Careless as it may seem I was simply taking a midnight walk.”  

2268

So he really was around the same year as she was. But that means...it is likely that he doesn't have a squad either, considering that no one has saw the previous Hokage for a while now, and admin issues such as squad assignments were put on hold indefinitely, if someone wanted a squad it would be best if they go out and find one for themselves than to wait around, it could take a while either way though so in the end it makes little to no difference to anyone. But I wonder if he has anything in mind in terms of a team.

Shihai nods as Atsuya tries to use his GKK to look at the code, which resulted in nothing. It wouldn't have work of course, unless the letter was somehow made with chakra mixed into the letter, like it contains a Jutsu or something. But nevertheless, Shihai was thankful that he tries to help, which is already more than she could have asked from a stranger.  "Thanks." She conveys her gratitude politely.

“As for the ‘short haired Hyuga’ you were looking for, I believe I can help with that. If you were the person who yelled outside the window in the middle of the night then the short haired Hyuga was undoubtedly me. Careless as it may seem I was simply taking a midnight walk.”  

!!!

"Ah...so it was you!" Shihai says out loud. "I thought there was something familiar about you, but I just couldn't bring myself to ask out right, you know? But I am glad that you tell me, since you just helped me out with the letter, I guess that's one suspect cross out from the list of the potential people who could have dropped the letter." Shihai sighs at that. "But it would also means that I'm just about fresh out of leads, I wonder who else have experience with breaking codes...ah...this is frustrating. At this point, I am about to turn this letter in to the official building as suspicious materials, but I can't, because it could have been a dumb prank. But, that's my headache." Shihai rubs the back of her neck, eyes closed and taking in a sigh. She decided to change to a lighter topic instead.

"So anyway, sorry for assuming, but if you are without a squad. You should check the Konoha Admin building, I'm not sure if you saw the announcement on the newspaper or not, but we had a new Hokage now, one from the Inuzuka clan, that's the one with the Ninja dogs. If you send in a request for squad I'm sure you will find one, you could also check around, I heard that there are a few Jounin holding admission tests for squad all throughout Konoha currently. There's one around the market place, and I just left the one around the training ground, they are still accepting people the last I heard." Shihai finishes. "Well, thanks again for helping me, hope that I didn't take too much of your time, and it was nice meeting another fellow leaf Genin. I guess I will see you around in the future then. lol." With that Shihai waves at Atsuya a little before turning around and heading back towards the Kimura clan area, she would have to ask the neighbor on whether they heard anything.

[Shihai Exit]

Total WC: 2254

"Ah...so it was you!"

With that sentence he knew she was the loud woman from the night prior. How he hadn’t noticed earlier was now a great mystery. With how much she loved to talk he should’ve at least assumed once that the two were the same person, yet the incident hadn’t had much effect on him, in fact he almost forgot about the entire thing, so it was forgivable. Talkative was definitely the first word that came to mind if he was asked how to describe Shihai. Talkative wasn’t exactly a bad thing, in fact it gave the sense of energy, but he wasn’t much good in dealing with such kinds of people. Something had him curious though. The letter. What was written on it he wondered... no doubt it was something interesting if it was kept so tightly shut in secrecy. “If you ever need help with your code I suppose you could always break in the branch compound again and wait for me to find you.” His tone was more of sarcastic rather than joking, but it was a fact that he wanted to help with the letter; not so much for her but instead to quench his curious nature.

Talks of suspects and leads made it seem as if she was to do a full on investigation on the letter alone. Her best bet was to find a cryptographer to decode the message instead of looking for suspects; no doubt the letter contained the most information in regards to who the culprit was. Aside from that knowing what was in the letter also helped to know what it actually was; going on a full scale investigation over something she didn’t know would’ve been foolish… after all it was best to assume it’s nothing more but a prank until the contents of the letter are spoiled. The thoughts he had were hopefully something she had already taken to mind.  

"So anyway, sorry for assuming, but if you are without a squad. You should check the Konoha Admin building, I'm not sure if you saw the announcement on the newspaper or not, but we had a new Hokage now, one from the Inuzuka clan, that's the one with the Ninja dogs. If you send in a request for squad I'm sure you will find one, you could also check around, I heard that there are a few Jounin holding admission tests for squad all throughout Konoha currently. There's one around the market place, and I just left the one around the training ground, they are still accepting people the last I heard."

Last he remembered he hadn’t really asked for anything regarding teams, so it was quite a surprise when she went so in depth about the topic. “Right… Thank you.” Loud, talkative, strange, and helpful were traits that he thought of when describing her.

"Well, thanks again for helping me, hope that I didn't take too much of your time, and it was nice meeting another fellow leaf Genin. I guess I will see you around in the future then. lol."

“Likewise, I shall be seeing you around.” With those final words he saw her off with a wave and made sure she left completely, he didn’t want her wandering around somewhere. Now that she was gone it was time to get back to the dojo; even with all that had happened he still had a job do to… his morning had only begun. With that in mind he walked back to the dojo this time taking a few glances at the sky. No doubt that whole incident had taken time from what was supposed to be his personal training… in fact he may have not been able to train anymore. By the time he made his return the dojo would’ve been likely filled with children, if not then he would’ve been awarded just enough time to warm up. A day of teaching awaited the Hyuga... a fact which he wasn’t quite looking forward to. In a few minutes he reached the dojo. Soon after walking and entering the dojo the sight of children awaited him… he was late just a few seconds but still late nonetheless, something which he truly cursed. Punctuality was important to him. Slowly Atsuya made his way to the center of the dojo and addressed the his students for today… with that the lesson began.

|Exit Thread|

Total WC: 3020

Strength E-0 > D-0 750/750
Speed E-0 > D-0 750/750
Endurance E-0 > D-0 750/750
Reaction Time E-0 > D-0 750/750

Unused WC: 20