ooc:

The land of wind was calm and quiet, as if a ghost had washed over the lands, ushering in a tense calm. The fires of the village were still burning, a testament to the sins washed away in the flames. Screaming locals could be heard, even out here, as they fled the village that was still burning, abandoning their homes and their hopes, heading for the outposts that would set up their temporary shelters until something could be done. There was nothing yet on whether or not the people of the sand would be able to return to their homes or if they would be forced to take into the many outlying smaller villages in the land of wind. Everything was metaphorically up in the air for them, and not one person had an inkling of an idea what to do.

It was a devastation, to have an ANBU side with invaders, to bring so much bloodshed upon them. The administration building was destroyed, the leaders of the village wiped out, nothing was left of the people who were supposed to keep them safe.  Those who survived blamed the invaders, the ANBU, some even blamed those who had left the village in the hands of the ones who would destroy it. Where was their Kazekage in this time of need? Where was their council? Was no one left who could have defended them against the onslaught? It seemed that they'd truly been abandoned by everyone they thought would keep them safe, even the Daimyo of the land of wind was nowhere to be found in this destruction. Not his army, not his funds, nothing. He truly cared little for the village he abandoned.

In the darkening night of the sand, there was a figure of a man, with armor and mask next to him in a neat pile. He was a bit away from the outpost, laying against a dune with a campfire a few feet in front of him, waiting for something. He'd sent a letter to two young women, to be delivered to a certain bar. They were to meet him out in the sands, the wilderness of the kaze no kuni, so they could begin their training. The man laid with eyes closed, his beard waving in the wind. His body had a few cuts and bruises, blood being on his mask and armor. The blood on his clothin was mostly dried out and non-existent given his black attire when he wore his ANBU articles. He laid there, a symbol of murder, without a care in the world. Beside him he had a bag of provisions that could last weeks, but in his hand he held a bottle of amber liquid, seeming to burn in the light. He raised the bottle to his mouth and bit into the cork, ripping it out and spitting it away. He drank deeply from the bottle, his eyes opening to show two different blue hues. Sadness danced in them, tangoing with regret. He'd seen horrors he thought he never would, done things he knew he had to, but wished he didn't. The screams of the child before her death still rang in his ears and he smoothed his hair back from his face, shaking his head before he took another drink.

The campfire illuminated his face, but cast parts of his body in shadows. With  the slight chill on the air, the campfire was a welcome remedy. One would see his short sleeve black shirt, the ANBU tattoo on his left shoulder, as well as the Uchiha symbol on his right were visible. If one looked close enough they could see the peach coloured scar that marked him permanently with the visage of the sand gourd and a bar over it, under the Uchiha tattoo. The man had arm hair in black tufts that weren't well pronounced to make him appear 'hairy' but rather to give his body more of a story, in a sense. The sand he sat in would stick to his black shinobi tights, covering the blood itself as though it were, in a sense, hiding his deeds. Syekren sighed to himself, looking into his bottle, trying to find answers to unspoken questions.

711

Izumi, exhausted from her her work in saving the villagers from the hell behind her, she continued on through the desert matching to the place she was to find Syekren and meet up with Chou again. Chou couldn’t be much behind her, however Izumi hadn’t seen Chou since clearing the academy and making a safe evacuation path for the civilians. While not currently crying, her puffy red eyes had all the evidence needed. It was quite cold now that her body wasn’t being warmed by the heat of the holocaust raging all around the village. Izumi could feel the goose prickles on her skin, their familiar tickle a constant reminder of the cold. Izumi was still feeling quite shaken from her nightmare vision at the academy. Izumi hadn’t really had time to come to terms with the bloody and burnt body of the young boy she’d found in the closet at the academy. Izumi could see a campfire in the distance, Syekren, ever the awesome communicator didn’t give great directions. Izumi headed for the glow of fire, at worst it was a place she could warm up and at best it was where she would find Syekren. Izumi felt stupid having not brought a coat with her while also neglecting to properly prepare for the cold. She focused on the distant flow trying to ignore the dread and grief closing in around her in her loneliness. Izumi knew that people would die during the turmoil, however she never imagined that it would affect so many people. So many innocent people.

On one hand, Izumi believed the council needed to be removed on the other, she saw no justice in the Battle for the Sand. Sure, those who dared defend the council deserved to be slain for their betrayal of their people. Izumi couldn’t help but feel that Syekren’s goal could have been achieved without razing the whole village. The scene in the Sand has devolved quickly, the lack of proper village administration left the village almost completely unprepared for a situation requiring an evacuation. The gangs began looting and robbing almost immediately after it became clear what was happening. The fires spread quickly thanks to the wind, the dry air, and the general lack of people with the ability to help. Izumi did her best to save people that she could, but she was just one Genin, hardly someone to rally behind. One good thing however, Izumi had come out of the night with a much greater respect for Chou, the girl had helped her without question in the rescues of academy students. The conflict raged on in her as she walked. The glow in the distance continued to steadily approach, growing larger with each crunching step. The sand that was swirling in the desert battered her face continually, only worsening the redness in her eyes, yet another thing she had failed to prepare for.

Izumi was coming to the end of the journey to the campfire. The turmoil that had been raging inside her mind having finally come to break, the young Karisuma began to cry, warm tears again streaming down her face leaving small marks in the sand at her feet. The tears were not only those of grief, but those of anger. He knew. Every step Izumi took she cried harder, and got angrier. By the time she came around the dune where her destination lie, her cheeks soaked with tears and a look on her face that could melt steel. As the campfire came into view she saw him, Syekren was laying by the fire nursing a bottle of that alcohol he drank during their first meeting. Izumi stormed towards Syekren, she could feel the heat rising in her, the rage filling her mind. As she got closer she saw the blood on his clothes and the mask beside him, he looked handsome as always on this occasion however that just made Izumi angrier for some reason. As she was finally prepared to unleash her fury on the Uchiha in front of her, she noticed something she did not expect at all. When she looked into his beautiful blue eyes instead of triumph, she saw sadness and pain. Izumi paused, she wanted to scream at him, to hit him, she also wanted to comfort him and make sure he wasn’t hurt. She sat next to him and stared with her teary eyes, she was still deciding whether or not to be angry with him. Finally  breaking the staring match, Izumi slapped the Uchiha, before bursting into slobs and collapsing next to him. Overcome by emotion for the second time this night, she let herself just cry.

[789]

The letter was still in her pocket that had been sent: she couldn’t get rid of it. She had found herself holding on to it perhaps out of fear, fear that she would never see Syekren again and an urge to have something to remember him by: the one person since her parents had perished that had actually cared about her. She had remained at the outpost up until it was time to meet up after having helped to rescue several Academy students as well as a group of civilians, spending her time trying to make a young boy who had lost all of his family feel better – not that you could make someone feel better from something like that. No, there was definitely no repairing that kind of damage, no numbing that kind of pain. You learned to live with it, learned to deal with it, but it never fully went away. Now though she had decided it was time to travel to the meet up spot, the directions already memorized – Chou having read the letter more times than she would want to admit. Of course, she had left her friend behind for now: she needed clarification before she dragged him into anything else – she feared he wouldn’t handle it with how broken he was already.


The thought had occurred time and time again as she traveled, making her way from the outpost and through the dark. She was armed to the teeth in a manner of speaking, all of her weapons well within reach, a single kunai in her right hand already. She wasn’t being paranoid – many thugs and bandits had decided to add to the chaos and conflict by choosing to loot and attack the village of Sunagakure while it was on its knees – and she didn’t want to be caught slipping and unprepared should anyone or anything come venturing out of the darkness as she traveled. It didn’t take her long to spot someone else, a female from the outline she could see, and while she assumed it to be Izumi she didn’t dare draw attention to herself in case she was wrong. Instead she just continued on her way.


As they drew nearer to the fire in the distance, the body in front of her cast into the light, she realized that her assumption had been correct: it was Izumi in the flesh – both her and Syekren were alive and well, or at least alive. She didn’t quite know if they were without injury or not yet. However, instead of rushing forward she found herself hanging back and taking her time. Her emotions were a whirlwind: confusion, anger, sadness, shock, all battling for control. Yet, it seemed like nothing compared to Izumi as she made her way to Syekren. She watched, cloaked in the darkness that was beyond the camp fire, as Izumi sat next to Syekren, staring at him before suddenly slapping him.


It was strange the way her emotions changed: the whirlwind completely gone and instead replaced by pure and burning anger. This was different than what had happened back in the bar when she had subconsciously reached for her weapons pouch when Syekren was being given all of those hostile stares: different because it was a conscious move that caused her to grip the kunai in her hand tightly enough for it to bite into her flesh. It felt almost natural to shift the blade in her hand, give a flick of her wrist, and to send the blade flying straight towards the older females form – yet she didn’t. Instead she watched as Izumi collapsed onto the ground sobbing. It struck her how this had to affect her – more than it affected Chou for sure – to see her home burned to the ground and perhaps even having suffered loses during this violence: an assumption and nothing more since Chou was grasping at straws when it came to the woman.

Sighing to herself, not bothering to cover the audible sound though she doubted it would be heard over Izumi’s sobs, she finally stepped forward and into the light, looking between Izumi and Syekren with her golden yellow gaze – the kunai still in her hand, held more loosely than before, as if it were nothing more than an afterthought now that she had decided she didn’t need it.


As her eyes adjusted to the light it did not escape her notice the articles near Syekren that were stained with blood. Concern and worry filled her gaze, the kunai slipped into the pouch on her thigh as she made her way over to him. Unlike Izumi’s reaction Chou instead opened her arms, hugging him tightly should he not move. ”Are you okay?!”

Word Count: 825

Syekren solemnly let his eyes come up to notice the form of Izumi. Her puffy eyes spoke of the tears she'd been letting free, the ones that still fell even at that moment. She had stormed up to him moments before but seemed to be taken aback now, given the situation. She stood for a moment before sitting next to him , where her eyes met his own for a time. After a while of staring into each other's eyes, he felt the sting of a slap from the girl's hand, before she collapsed to the ground, allowing herself to sob into the sands. It was true that this sort of life wasn't for everyone. Syekren looked over at her, turning his head as he heard a small sigh from the edge of the light the campfire gave off. It was Chou, she'd come too and she held a kunai loosely in her hand. It wasn't long before she shoved the kunai into her weapons' pouch and ran over to sit on his other side, hugging him tightly and questioning if he was okay. Where she hugged were a few bruises and scrapes but he didn't let it show he was in pain, he only wrapped his arm around her softly, hushing her.

"I'm fine, little one. I'm alive in any case. I.." He sighed and looked back at Izumi, raising his bottle to take a swig before planting it in the sand.There were tears playing on the edge of his eyelids, his free arm coming to wrap around Izumi, drawing her close as well. His hand moved to softly rub on her back, his lips parting to give a soft 'hushing' sound to her, trying to calm her sobbing.  Syekren looked up at the sky, the stars nearly blotted out from the black smoke coming from the burning village of the sand. The moon however, was full in itself, shining as though a diamond amongst the darkness. It illuminated the outlying area of Kaze no Kuni, in a very minimal amount. The fire that was near the group crackled, with the Uchiha holding both of the young ladies to him, trying to calm their nerves. He didn't expect anyone to be fine with what had just happened in the village, least of all them. They weren't trained to deal with it as he was, his entire life was dedicated to being a shinobi, he saw death on this scale so often he was partially numb to it. What he wasn't prepared for was the deaths of the innocents and especially the children, there were so many dead now that he'd lost count. His mind flashed to the acts he'd committed upon letting loose, having beaten someone to death with their own puppet arm.

Syekren thought back to how Chou looked when he'd noticed her presence. She looked almost angry enough to kill, which was understandable. For as far as she knew, Izumi had smacked Syekren for no good reason. As Izumi seemed to know, as he did, there were many reasons for such and he wasn't mad that she'd taken that course of action. It was as much as he expected, and less than he deserved to feel after the atrocities committed. Still, they'd lay there for a time, Syekren allowing Izumi to cry, trying to comfort the both of them. He'd sustained quite a few injuries during the siege on the village and and at one point he had to sit up and cough, blood dotting the sand as he did so. He spit out what was left in his mouth, drinking from his whiskey bottle once more. He was doing his best to remain strong but he had nearly lost his life in the battle to secure the village and kill the council.  How many others would be able to pull off what he and two others had done? How many could come out of it without any new injuries? The Uchiha didn't know. He could only lay back once more, replacing his bottle in the sand. The few tears that had played on his eyes earlier did fall, but otherwise he was stoically silent throughout the encounter. Soon they would continue whatever they needed to do, but for now, he was going to comfort the two girls.

741|1,452

Izumi laid in the sand crying, convulsing with her sobs. She was glad that she was finally somewhere warm, the campfire’s hug extending to her. Izumi could hear footsteps followed by a voice that sounded like Chou, ”Are you okay?!” the girl was at Syekren’s side based on the proximity of the voice. "I'm fine, little one. I'm alive in any case. I..” Syekren’s sentence was cut off by a sigh and his bottle being planted in the sand, Izumi jumped slightly in surprise as his strong arm pulled her in close. Syekren was warm, his body finishing the job of warming her that the campfire had made steady progress towards since her arrival. Rubbing her back, the Uchiha man made an attempt to soothe her with the soft hush saved for those in need of comfort. Izumi heard Syekren cough, it even sounded like he may have been coughing blood. Izumi’s sobbing began to subside, Syekren’s comfort having its intended effect on her. Izumi shifted to to sit up and looked back over to Syekren. As she had noticed before, his expression was not one of a triumphant soldier but of one who had seen hell. Beyond him was Chou, holding the Man in the embrace of a loving child. Getting a closer look now, Izumi noticed that Syekren appeared injured. In fact he was probably in a lot of pain, not just physically either. Izumi gazed at him for a while, wishing she hadn’t hit him, her temper once again getting the better of her in regards to this man. Izumi looked around for a moment, taking a moment to appreciate the beauty of her surroundings. The stars were so bright and abundant they were visible through the smoke. The village flowed in the background the sounds of screams and terror still ringing from its walls. Then Izumi noticed the blood on the sand and looked back at Syekren,  ”I’m sorry I hit you Syekren. You look hurt, what me to take a look to see what I can fix? I’m not very good at it, but I was trained as a medic in the academy. You really don’t look too good.”

Neglecting to wait for the mans reply, she started gathering the chakra necessary in his hands. The green light of medical ninjutsu adding to the orange glow of the campfire. Izumi looked at Chou blushing, ”Chou, I need you to get off your father, I need to take his shirt off to find the injuries.” Regardless of her feelings about what happened that night, she wouldn’t let Syekren suffer. After all the man had agreed to take her under his wing. To protect her and to train her. Regardless of what the man had done, his humanity was apparent in his comforting of the two girls in his company. Izumi hadn’t been hugged in many years. Her mother loved her and saved her life, however she wasn’t exactly affectionate. Izumi loves her mother but in order to live her own life this journey would be necessary. The ghost of tears still played their song in the red and swollen cornflower blue eyes of the Karisuma. She looked at the man in the eyes, her previous fury having been discarded in exchange with focus and compassion. She looked to Syekren once more making sure to make eye contact. ”I really am sorry I hit you… thank you for waiting for me.” she majored her gaze waiting for the response to her offers for healing, the green glow of her hands reflecting in his eyes.

[611]

Chou was elated to find out that her father, that Syekren, was okay. She had been so concerned, so worried, she had barely been able to think or focus on anything else when she wasn’t busy trying to help out or trying to calm her new friend down – speaking of her new friend, she was going to have to address that situation at some point, too. Yet, now wasn’t the time, especially as both her and Izumi were pulled into hugs. Chou found herself clinging to Syekren, no interest in letting go. The night had been horrible, and yet in a way it wasn’t the worst she had ever faced: yes, many people had lost their lives and it was hard to get the images of so many burned and broken bodies out of her mind, yet they were utter complete strangers. Sure, they had stories to tell, people who loved them and cared about them, but they were unknown entities to her. Not that that made them matter any less – any life lost was a life wasted. But, they weren’t her parents. That tragedy had hit her stronger than the deaths she had witnessed tonight. There was something about the personal aspect to it that caused it to hit her harder. In fact, this was probably the only reason she wasn’t a crying mess like Izumi was – not that she blamed her or saw her as weak for it. No, she wasn’t going to judge her.


Chou was absolutely shocked upon noticing the blood – she hadn’t thought much about the coughing, even with having covered her nose and mouth with her scarf while she was helping to save people and get them out of the village she had ended up coughing quite a bit, but it wasn’t until she noticed the blood that had hit the sand did her worry set in once more. Thankfully though, it was once more apparent that Izumi was a medic – if Syekren was willing to let her heal him, that was. Chou kept quiet as Izumi apologized for slapping him and offered her help, having already forgiven her considering what all had been seen while they were in the village. ”Okay.”, she’d respond softly. Gingerly she let go of him, scooting a bit to the side to give them room and instantly feeling the bite from the cold she hadn’t realized was there earlier. She tucked her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them and interlocking her fingers as she turned her golden yellow gaze onto the fire; staring at it and listening to it crackle.


Chou kept her gaze on the fire even as she allowed her mind to be swallowed by the thoughts in her head, thoughts that felt as if they were overflowing. She couldn’t beat back the guilty feeling that had swamped her, which seemed to reside in her gut. She felt conflicted and confused, scared even over some of the thoughts in her head – so much so she decided to voice them, seeking the advice from others – those she trusted. ”Am I bad a person? … I feel.. not nothing, there is something there, but… it’s like this doesn’t bother me as it should. I don’t know why. When I found my parents… “ She had to pause for a moment, her minds eye assaulted by the image of the death and bloodshed she had encountered that day. ”When I came home from graduation – after they never showed up – I walked into the house and I found them, you know? They were… broken. This wasn’t just dead. There was blood on the walls, they had been tied to chairs, it looked like someone had taken turns torturing each of them while the other watched. It was horrible. I threw up – I couldn’t keep anything down for days after. I couldn’t stop crying and shaking. I was sad and angry, I hated everyone. The smallest things made me lash out. I screamed at any god that would listen, demanding that they bring them back… Yet I don’t feel that right now. I… does that make evil?”


She couldn’t bring herself to look over to them after her admittance: she feared their condemnation. Some of the people who had died were likely their friends, people they had spent time with. While she had helped – evident by her charred scarf and the fact that she was covered in soot and her face dirty – she just didn’t feel the level of pure grief she had felt when it had been her own parents. Hundreds of lives had been lost, and yet she didn’t have a tear to shed.

Word Count: 1,645

Syekren grunted a bit and sat up, watching the green glow from the hands of the young Karisuma. She seemed worried about his well-being and it wasn't something he was completely used to anymore. Izumi had offered to heal his injuries, or what little of them were in her abilities as a medic to treat, chou moving off of him to allow he the space to do so. His eyes moved between either of the young ladies before a sigh escaped his lips, his hands moving down to the hem of his shirt. His second grunt came in response to her apology, as if he didn't hold what she'd done against her. It was well within the boundaries of reality that he deserved the slap she'd given him and so much more than that. The discussion on this case would be something for another time, however. The Uchiha moved his shirt from the bottom of his torso and pulled it up over his head to remove it completely. He silently went about turning the shirt the right way out and folding it neatly, to set beside him in the sand. The hair on his chest and arms would be more visible now, as well as the tattoos he had on either shoulder. The man's chest had a large pair of scars that connected in an 'x' between his pectoral muscles, with the center of it seemed to have been widened as though drilled into by a large spike.

Syekren looked over to Chou, listening as she spoke, his eyes staying to their misty appearance. The young akimichi had been through a lot on his behalf and she wanted to know if she was a bad person for feeling, well nothing. Not necessarily nothing, actually, but not something that prompted her to feel badly for those who died. She wanted to know if feeling in such a way made her evil. Syekren looked her up and down before he spoke, weighing her words heavily and considering the best approach to such a situation. As she seemed to feel a chill in the air, the Uchiha reached into his provision bag before answering, procuring his black cloak to wrap around her. When he was finished he placed his hand under her chin and pulled her head up to place a soft kiss upon her forehead, before releasing her and speaking to her softly. "Little one, not feeling such a way would not make you evil. Delighting in the deaths of those around you and wishing for more would make you evil. Simply feeling nothing is the first part of accepting not everything is controllable by your actions. As ninja we can not mourn every death, every loss, we have to know which ones are lost in favor of the greater good, and which are senseless. Some shinobi give their lives for their country, their family, their loved ones, even their friends. Their sacrifice may be respected, but mourning the deaths of such people won't help up move forward in our own lives, or our own quests. I guess what I'm saying is this: All lives have meaning and while sometimes we may hate who dies, we can't allow our feelings to cloud what their deaths mean in the long run. Sometimes people will die, and that's just all there is to it. I don't hold your feelings against you though, dear, shinobi are human too, after all."

With that, the Uchiha smiled to the young girl and rubbed her head softly, sitting back against the dune, waiting for Izumi to heal what wounds she could. As he laid back, the campfire would illuminate his body better, showing the muscles, the hair, the scars, and most importantly, the fresh wounds. There were a few bruises upon his ribs around where his lungs were, his stomach had a small gash and scrapes, the under part of his right arm had a senbon sticking out of it from the battle that he hadn't even noticed. Should he have pulled Izumi any closer or squeezed tighter, the senbon would have likely become irretrievable. He laid there silently, grabbing his bottle once more from the sand, taking a swig of it. He looked up at the stars, gazing at their beauty as he wait on the Karisuma. His eyes came down to meet her own puffy cornflower blue hues and he smiled softly, in a reassuring manner. He held the bottle out for her if she wanted to ease her nerves after she finished. It had been a long night for all of them, and he would be training them soon enough, so he may as well give her something good before he tore her down and rebuilt her.

804|2,256

Much to Izumi's relief Chou did not take Izumi's request as girlish flirting, with a soft affirmation the young one moved out of the way. Chou looked cold, the young girl pulled her knees in close and tucked in a little ball nearby Syekren, the girl was clearly not used to the cold desert nights of winter in the land of wind. The girl stared at the fire, apparently deep in thought while Syekren sat up and grunted. Taking his shirt off the man grunted again, evidently as a crude acceptance to her pleas for forgiveness. Izumi felt she needed to discuss the night's events with him in greater detail however given the sensitive nature of the emotions involved in such a discussion, had hoped to keep it to private chat between the two of them. Izumi also needed to address his … interesting choice of guardianship for the pair of girls chosen by Syekren. Izumi was still angry, furious even however she had to stay the path she'd chosen. No one had forced her to follow this man who was nearly a stranger, it was a choice she had made. Izumi wasn't the only one who had suffered losses that night, she was sure of that she was even certain in her doubt that she faced the greatest losses that hellish night.  



Chou speaking snapped Izumi back to the present, only then did Izumi notice the large scar in the shape of an ex on the Uchiha man's chest, evidently an old wound from a battle far past. The young red-haired girl expressed her fears that her lack of pain for the losses of the night made her an evil person. Not just bad, but evil the young one evidently hadn't stopped contemplating as she gazed into the flames, her fears finally vocalized. This was longest uninterrupted spell of speaking Chou had displayed up to this point. Izumi figured the girl must be getting more comfortable around her, Chou having seen Izumi's caring side must have enough of an effect for the girl to get past Izumi's flirtations with the girl's father. Syekren must have just now noticed how cold Chou looked as he procured a large, Syekren sized, black cloak and wrapped it around the girl kissing her softly on the forehead. Izumi couldn't help but feel a moment of jealousy for Chou, Izumi didn't have a father figure growing up and had always found it difficult to have a healthy relationship of any kind with men. Even her first meeting with Syekren had started off awkwardly, Izumi unable to contain her girlish infatuation for the handsome man. The man used a kind tone of voice with his daughter, "Little one, not feeling such a way would not make you evil. Delighting in the deaths of those around you and wishing for more would make you evil. Simply feeling nothing is the first part of accepting not everything is controllable by your actions. As ninja we can not mourn every death, every loss, we have to know which ones are lost in favor of the greater good, and which are senseless. Some shinobi give their lives for their country, their family, their loved ones, even their friends. Their sacrifice may be respected, but mourning the deaths of such people won't help up move forward in our own lives, or our own quests. I guess what I'm saying is this: All lives have meaning and while sometimes we may hate who dies, we can't allow our feelings to cloud what their deaths mean in the long run. Sometimes people will die, and that's just all there is to it. I don't hold your feelings against you though, dear, shinobi are human too, after all."



During the man's speech about the morality of numbness in world punctuated with violence, Izumi scanned his bare chest and arms searching for injuries she would be able to treat. Normally the sight of the powerful, handsome, man's half naked body would have Izumi red in the face, with attraction and embarrassment. However, Izumi had a focused manner about her now, she would not survive long on her own in the wilderness fleeing the destruction of the sand. While Syekren did not have any life-threatening injuries, he was certainly worse for the wear. Izumi's eyes had adjusted to the light level of her surroundings quite well by now, and could make out some his injuries already. He was bleeding from his stomach and had a senbon sticking out the right upper side of his torso near where he had pulled Izumi in. By now Syekren had finished easing the fears of his daughter and was leaning back, his injuries now in full view of the young Karisuma lady. He was looking Izumi in her eyes with a smile on his face, proffering his bottle of unknown alcohol to her. Izumi took the bottle from him and took a deep sip from it, the warm cinnamon flavor running down her throat. Returning her gaze to Syekren, she spoke in a matter of fact voice, the ghosts of intoxication running in her mind. "I'm going to use some of this to clean your wounds. It won't feel nice. I'm sorry." Izumi poured some of the alcohol on the gash on his stomach as well as the senbon wound on his right side. She firmly planted the bottle back in the sand next to the man and got to healing his injuries. Prioritizing the mans injuries, Izumi first pulled the senbon out syekren's side. Then, hovering her hands over the gash on his stomach, their green glow now brighter began to close up and heal the bleeding wound along with the nearby scrapes. It might be some time before his injuries were fully healed by her poor healing abilities however, she was determined to do everything she could to help him.

[1014]

145/150:

Chou couldn’t bring herself to look over at either Syekren or Izumi as she waited for a response, so she jumped slightly as she felt the cloak being wrapped around her. She smiled regardless, pulling it tightly closed around herself and enjoying how easily it blocked the coldness of the air and the wind. When she felt his finger beneath her chin she turned her head, looking up at Syekren and even giggled softly at the kiss placed on her forehead before smiling as happily as she had that very afternoon. She listened carefully to his words, hanging on them as he spoke. Feeling the way she felt didn’t make her evil, had she delighted in the deaths that would have been a different story – but she didn’t. To her each life lost was one wasted, even if there was a just and needed cause behind it. All lives had meaning, and while sometimes they would hate who had to die they couldn’t move on with their own lives while mourning them. What was more was that he didn’t hold her feelings against her, which brightened her outlook quite a bit.

She wanted to hug him for his understanding and his words, and yet she knew he needed healed first so she simply watched as he settled back and Izumi went to work. She could see his scars and the fresh wounds, especially as they were illuminated by the fire, and she found herself wondering if one day her own flesh would be marred in such a way from battles and fights – not that she was scar-less now. She carried the marks of someone abused and tormented – though it came at the hands of her peers from the orphanage, hidden well beneath her clothing, her silently kept secret.


Chou flinched when she saw the alcohol poured on his wounds, figuring that that had to sting though it was a sensation she had luckily never felt before. She watched then as Izumi got to work on healing him, the green glow the only indication of medical chakra she knew of. She tilted her head in fascination as she watched, ever curious. After a moment she would move closer, keeping the cloak wrapped around her as she got into a position to have a better look, her head cocked to the side in a type of child-like innocent curiosity. ”I’ve never watched anyone being healed before...”

Word Count: 2,070

Syekren was pleasantly surprised when the young Karisuma girl took a healthy drink from the bottle of amber liquid, and then even more so by her matter of fact tone on what she'd be doing. He barely had time to prepare himself when she poured the liquor over his stomach gash and the senbon in his side. His fists clenched and his eyes flickered to their sharingan state for a moment, while she yanked out the senbon in his side, causing more pain to him. He growled through his teeth at her, his words coming with a mixture of pain, shock, and anger. "Oi, you sadistic li'l spitfire! If  I had half a mind to, I'd flay you and string you up by yer.." He trailed off, forgetting himself for a moment as he looked over to the impressionable girl he thought of as his daughter. He sighed and relaxed his body, yanking the bottle from the sand once more and taking a few more healthy drinks from it before setting it back into the sand, albeit crookedly. He was beginning to feel the inebriating effects of his liquor and hardly noticed when Chou scooted closer with wonder in her eyes.

She'd never seen someone being healed before which was a bit strange to the older Uchiha. He'd seen it many times in his line of work as a ninja, not just seen it, but had it. Due to his nature, he was often getting injured to the point that he needed someone to heal him. He hoped that in her young life that Chou wouldn't have had the same experiences, but one can never be too certain, of course. "Yea, I s'pose it's not common 'round yer age ter see somethin' like this. Izumi seems to be a bit o' a novice in the arts, but she's doing well enough. I appreciate what yer doin' ya red headed lass. I'm sure ye both kin see that I've had ter be healed quite a bit in m'tenure as a ninja." The older Uchiha's words would begin to slur a bit, as he had been drinking quite a load of the liquor since the destruction had ended. He had much on his mind that he wanted to mull over, but didn't want to do it sober. It wasn't something he was used to, having feelings of regret, he used to be an ANBU after all. They were trained to rid themselves of attachments or feelings and here he was, feeling broken and defeated after having killed not only his friend in the corps, but many of the villagers as well.

His mind flickered back to the clan he'd massacred single-handedly, the Ningyou. Syekren stared up at the stars as the green light of medical chakra illuminated the faces of the two young girls that sat on either of his sides. He thought of the ways the constellations looked from the ground and how the Uchiha used to find his way in the wilderness judging the position of the stars. A sigh escaped his lips as he stared, his mind flashing back to happier times when he had less to worry about, less he'd done, simply less deaths on his conscience.


The Uchiha sighed and reached for his bottle, failing to find it blindly. His eyes closed as he heaved a breath, before letting it out slowly. He'd recanted something he heard after becoming a ninja and joinin the ANBU. He was something else now, a different man completely from who he used to be. He had more deaths that need to come under his belt, and he felt almost as though it was leading him to ruin. Not just him, any who he associated with. Now he had these two girls to lead, and where would he lead them? He just didn't know. There was nothing he knew anymore, it was shrouded in mystery. It was unclear to him.

Nothing is clear in my eyes. Eyes meant to see all, see nothing now.

759|3,015

As Izumi got to work, Chou scooted closer to watch, evidently interested in the process. As Izumi poured the amber coloured alcohol on Syekren a fire appeared in his eyes as he yelled at her, cursing her for cleaning his wound. ""Oi, you sadistic li'l spitfire! If  I had half a mind to, I'd flay you and string you up by yer.." Izumi rolled her eyes at the man's protests, "You're even more of a baby than I thought. Stop moving around." Chou would soon confess that she hadn't ever seen medical ninjutsu being used and asked to watch. Izumi, having seen so much death and pain already in her life couldn't help but be slightly resentful of the girl's innocence. While Izumi made no reply to the girl's request to watch, she also made no attempt to obscure the young girl’s view, assuming it was rhetorical as the girl had already begun her observation. The wound had started to close up by now, and Izumi was starting to feel the buzz of the drink she’d taken when Syekren spoke up to comfort the younger of the two of women, his accent coming through thick and his words slurred "Yea, I s'pose it's not common 'round yer age ter see somethin' like this. Izumi seems to be a bit o' a novice in the arts, but she's doing well enough. I appreciate what yer doin' ya red headed lass. I'm sure ye both kin see that I've had ter be healed quite a bit in m'tenure as a ninja." Izumi had no response, electing instead to continue working on the handsome, muscular, man’s wounds. Her healing abilities not having improved that much since the Academy. However she was grateful for the man’s thanks, choosing to give him a warm smile instead of words.

Syekren’s wound was starting to close up now, the man sighed, his eyes reflecting the green glow emanating from Izumi’s hands. He was very drunk and had a strange glassed over look in his eyes. The man must have been lost in thought, something Izumi was familiar with herself commonly losing her sense of the present and getting lost in thought. In fact Izumi was starting to feel the effects of the drink she had herself had taken. Her mind dancing with the clouds of intoxication, she heard Syekren once again begin to speak. His tone was that of someone whose mind was not where their body was. He was apparently reciting some sort of poem, or song. Izumi had no idea what the words meant. Syekren reached for the bottle of spiced alcohol once more. However, he was too delirious to find it. The Uchiha had clearly drank his fill at this point, it was also clear now to Izumi that Syekren was probably as shaken up as she was about what he did on this night. Lightly, Izumi grabbed the man’s arm and guided it away from the bottle, quickly returning to the wound that was now nearly sealed.

Tears began to softly and silently fall down the cheeks of the young Karisuma woman again. Izumi was not crying for her home this time however, she was crying for the man before her, betrayed by life and it’s trials. Syekren’s stomach wound had finally healed. Izumi wanted to say something to him, something to ease the pain that she understood so well in this moment. Instead she just looked at the man for a few more moments and went back to work on cleaning up the various scrapes and bruises that would take only moments to recover, even for someone so inexperienced in the healing arts such as herself. Izumi sat down next to the man, having done everything she could. Izumi looked to the bottle once more, its glassy vessel reflecting the flames of the campfire they were all huddled around together. Izumi grabbed and drank deeply once more, it will never help her forget what happened tonight permanently. It could however, numb the pain while it was still so fresh. ”Well don’t make me finish this alone you big baby. Sit up and drink with me.”, the Karisuma said to the man finally able to find words to speak again, she also noticed that at some point during her train of thought, she had stopped crying. She held the bottle towards the man, assuming her offer would be taken up.

[761]

Her father hadn’t responded well to the alcohol being poured on his wounds, though she couldn’t blame him – the growl alone told her it had likely stung and then some. It certainly wasn’t a pleasant feeling, that much she knew. Of course, he caught himself before he got too far with what he was saying, and she couldn’t help but wonder at this point if that was likely because of her: was he watching what he said since she was around? She wouldn’t ask of course, but she certainly was curious about it.

Either way she paid close attention to what Izumi was doing, at least until Syekren’s comment caused her attention to shift back to his face before looking away again; a flicker of pain briefly showing in her golden yellow eyes before she simply returned to staring at what was being done; not even reacting to the poem like words that followed. ”It’s… it’s not that.”, she blurted suddenly before she stopped herself right then and there, remembering for a brief moment what had happened the last time she had tried telling someone what was going on in the orphanage. Absolutely nothing good had come of it, she hadn’t been believed and that had made it even worse than had she never said anything at all.


”The lady who runs the orphanage wouldn’t let me be healed or go anywhere near the hospital at all when I got hurt – she didn’t want anyone to know who was doing it. She didn’t want people to know that the kids, and sometimes the orphanages staff were bullying me. Even when the older boys beat me up so badly I lost consciousness she wouldn’t let me go see anyone. The one time I tried I came home and after she was questioned about it she beat me herself for causing her problems and locked me in the basement without food for a while….” Chou went quiet then, shifting once more, wrapping the cloak tighter around herself as she turned her gaze towards the fire. She didn’t want to make the night any worse, so much death had happened, so much pain and suffering, it didn’t feel right adding her own to the pile.

The usual spark of happiness that she normally held within her golden yellow eyes went out like a flame being blown out from the wind: her gaze becoming distant. Her attention focused back on the fire once more, yet instead of warming her gaze it only made it grow colder – as if the fire itself was sucking all of that warmth from her. Absently she tucked the cloak around her in closer, bending her knees once more so that she could wrap her arms around her legs and rest her chin on them. Already she felt her heart racing, that fear of what would happen should the orphanage woman be confronted racing through her veins again: she shouldn’t have said anything, but it was too late now.

Word Count: 2,590

Syekren ignored the girl's comments of him being a 'big baby' and merely grunted. Syekren sat up, reaching for the bottle, stopping as he heard Chou speaking up again, mentioning something he'd said and saying what he'd guessed wasn't the case. His head turned to allow his different coloured blue hues focus on her, as she pulled the cloak about her tiny form a bit tighter. She began to speak of the lady at the orphanage, and what really used to happen to her in that awful place. She was abused and beaten by not only the other children, the older kids.. but also sometimes by the staff of the establishment. Instead of being caring and understanding to her plight, the woman who ran the orphanage would instead berate her, and forbid her from seeking the medical attention she required. Sometimes it seemed the older woman would even beat Chou herself for deigning to want any sort of human compassion from those in the orphanage. Then there was the matter of being beaten and locked in a basement, deprived of food or drink for a while. The Uchiha's face burned with anger, his fists clenching from his seated position.

He didn't know when, but somehow his eyes had shifted from their normal blue to the crimson of his clan's kekkei genkai dojutsu. His eyes were aflame with rage, the three tomoe spinning wildly as he tried to stand, not truly being able to. He didn't know what he was doing, or was he was going to try, but he needed to do something. His sharingan stopped spinning, splitting apart momentarily as though changing, before going back to their normal state of crimson with a trio of black, comma shaped tomoe. His fists pushed into the sand, an aura of heat radiating from his form. His hands went from sparking to being engulfed in flames, his feet following to be much the same. The sand beneath his hands and feet became glass from the intense heat his appendages were giving off, the Uchiha pushing himself into a standing position.  His form tried to stand straight but wobbled a bit, the inebriation clearing getting to him. He looked down to notice Izumi herself was crying silent tears, though he couldn't tell for how long she'd been doing such a thing. Chou was resigned to keeping her chin on her knees and the rage inside just kept boiling inside Syekren, threatening to spill over at any moment.

She will burn, they will die.

He was letting his rage get the better of him, he made to begin walking, towards the sands that lead to the border on the land of wind. At that moment he felt if anything else, he would walk all the way back to Konohagakure no Sato, if only to watched that damned place burn to the ground. Each of his steps turned the terrain below him from sand to pristine glass with his footprint in it. His mind was numb save for the rage he felt inside. He made it only a few more steps past Chou before he started realizing that no matter how angry he felt, how much he wanted to bring justice to those at the orphanage: he couldn't go anywhere. Not in the state he was in, drunken and defeated. The dark was closing around him as he stopped, the only light that illuminated his body as he made it past the area the campfire lit up coming from his fists and feet. He stood there silently for a while, his anger slowly subsiding. His mind raced as he thought of everything that must have happened to his poor daughter. He couldn't handle it. The flames went out, his hand coming up to open, with the palm towards the sky. His free hand made a half tiger handseal as he did so, a flame orb the size of a baseball forming within the palm of his hand. It wasn't a moment before it became as large as a basket ball, his rage at the very highest point it could be.

'Why can't I do anything to help?!'

The man let out a defeated roar and reared his arm back, glaring out into the darkness. His face was lit up in the flames that he held in his hand, pain and anguish in his eyes, a few tears falling. His arm came forward, launching the flaming orb from his hand at a large sand dune some eighty meters away, barely discernible in the moonlight. It was only two seconds, if even that, before there as explosion that distance away. The sand dune was no more, obliterated in the dome-like explosion that ended in a mushroom cloud of black smoke. The sand was decimated to become a crater of glass and glass shards, sharper than a twice cured razor's edge. Shards of glass fell at the explosion point, the Uchiha's anger slowly subsiding from the satisfaction of having released some of his 'steam.' The Uchiha stood there with his arms at his side, quietly for only a few minutes before he turned back and sauntered to the campfire, plopping down in his original spot once more. He ignored any looks he might have gotten at this point, staring into the flames to collect himself and think of what to say next after that emotional spectacle.

He turned to Chou, reaching out to grab her in his arms, pulling her back towards him. He placed a soft kiss upon her forehead, hugging her tightly for a few minutes. "Ah made a promise, Chou. Ah'll stick by it. Ye won' be alone. And ye won' be hurt by them anymore. Ah'm here now." After trying to reassure her, the Uchiha remembered himself, coughing again and spitting up blood. Less blood than before, but still a bit for his injuries. With a reach over to his shirt, he quietly wiped his mouth on the fabric, to clean the blood away. Syekren then grabbed his bottle and took a swig, swishing it around in his mouth before swallowing it, to clean the blood away. It took him a moment to plant it back in the sand, his eyes turning back to Izumi. His hand came up to her cheek, cradling it and caressing it while he made to wipe her tears away. He planted a kiss to her forehead as well, leaning his own forehead against hers. His free arm came back around Chou, holding her tightly to his form. They would be like this for a few minutes.


That is, until he tried to lessen the tense situation with a joke. "Izumi, lass. If ye train hard enough, ye kin do that too!" He chuckled at his own joke, pulling his hand down to slap his knee as though it were the funniest thing he'd heard in a while. When he was finished laughing he smiled to his daughter and then to Izumi, his hand finding its way to the young Karisuma's his eyes meeting her own. He'd forgotten how it felt to be with others, to have people around he cared about. It couldn't just be the drink in him, he felt a connection to these two young ladies. They were something precious to him now, something that he cared too much about to allow anyone else to hurt them. While he'd lost the plot of what he needed at this point, the Uchiha was focused too much on being there with them. His senbon wound bled a bit more, due to the anger he'd displayed and he must have over-stressed the wound, causing more blood to seep out of it. Syekren quietly stared into the Karisuma's eyes, miles away in his own thoughts.

1,322|4,337

240/300:

As it turns out, Izumi was wrong to be so quick to resent Chou, the young red- haired girl had spoken up in response to Syekren's comforts, first dismissing Syekren's notion that it was because healing was not something that was needed in the girl's life. The girl spoke up again, explaining why she'd never seen healing before, ”The lady who runs the orphanage wouldn’t let me be healed or go anywhere near the hospital at all when I got hurt – she didn’t want anyone to know who was doing it. She didn’t want people to know that the kids, and sometimes the orphanages staff were bullying me. Even when the older boys beat me up so badly I lost consciousness she wouldn’t let me go see anyone. The one time I tried I came home and after she was questioned about it she beat me herself for causing her problems and locked me in the basement without food for a while….” The girl looked very sad, her usual bright eyes looking sad, and distant. She almost looked like she regretted speaking at all. These words caught Izumi off guard, she even felt a bit bad about jumping so quickly to resentment of a girl she barely knew. She had assumed that because she was young and happy, she had experienced nothing, a ridiculous assumption given Izumi's own background.  The next implication of the words was fully realized as well, the girl was not of Syekren's seed.  The man in all his compassion had adopted the poor child, so why would a man so compassionate and caring for someone he had no obligation to destroy his own home? Izumi's desire for a private inquiry into the night's events were raised to greater heights. However, the final implication of the words was finally settling in Izumi's mind, causing her mind to fill with hatred and anger. Izumi's poor temper and poorer attitude was thanks to a single betrayal by a protective figure, but Chou was tasked with facing betrayals of guardianship on a regular basis in her short life. At least Izumi had someone who did care for her and protect her, but this poor child had grown up alone, abused, and afraid.

It would appear this new revelation of Chou's past was also new to Syekren, his reaction far more violent and excited. His sharingan eyes were active, while great and terrible, Izumi found them quite beautiful now that the anger in them wasn't directed at her. While still quite fearsome, Izumi found herself more awestruck at the man than afraid. His hands crackled with sparks then were engulfed in flame, Izumi backed away slightly as the man's appendages turned the sand beneath them to glass. Syekren began walking away from the girls, the sand beneath him becoming glass while a fireball grew in one of his hands, at the peak of his rage sending the ball of flame careening through the darkness and completely obliterating a dune some ways off. This was the full wrath of the man that Izumi once presumed to chastise. He had taken a hill of sand and reduced it to scorch marks and glass, Izumi couldn't help but feel lucky that she had the sense to apologize that day. The Uchiha cried out into the night, enraged by the futility of his position. Returning to the pair, he first came to Chou, giving the young girl a soft kiss on her head and a bit of kind words. When Syekren coughed, it became clear that Izumi had failed to heal the man completely, the cough had once again produced blood albeit less. As he reached for the alcohol again Izumi opened her mouth to tell him not to, worried that drinking will only make the bleeding worse given that alcohol is a blood thinner. However the words couldn’t be found, the woman still shaken from the awesome display of power she had just witnessed.

Syekren's eyes turned to Izumi, the fearsome beauty of the sharingan still shown in them. The man placed a very warm under her chin, cupping her cheek and wiping her tears away. Izumi couldn't help but be thankful for the red hues of fire hiding the colour of her cheeks the moment the man placed a soft kiss on her forehead as well, following the affectionate gesture by rubbing his forehead against hers. Izumi had stopped crying without realizing it, her mind instead racing with a thousand thoughts, while unable to focus on just one. Her own cornflower blue eyes met his brilliant crimson ones, her own eyes briefly sparkling with the power of her clan. The magic of the moment would be broken when Syekren made what he thought was the funniest joke in the world. Slapping his knee and laughing bawdily, at least he was smiling again looking from Chou then back to Izumi. The man would manage to get her heart to flutter yet again, when his hand came to grasp hers, his eyes coming to hers and staying locked with them, looking lost. Izumi’s eyes would once again sparkle for a moment, keeping his gaze. The young Karisuma woman would give the man a soft kiss on his cheek. The young Karisuma desired more from the man, however she remembered Chou and her promise to the young girl. The anger of what the young girl had endured returning to her, Izumi said in soft voice meant to only be heard by Syekren, ”I want to help you kill her.”

[945]

In hindsight she really hadn’t known why she had brought up what happened at the orphanage, outside of wanting to be able to tell someone after holding in such a horrible secret for so long. Whatever reaction she had been expecting her words to cause though, it hadn’t been this. It had taken her a moment to realize what was going on, to catch Syekren’s movement out of the corner of her eye and once more turn her golden yellow gaze away from the flames of the fire dancing before her and onto him. Anger showed plainly on his face, his fists were clenched, and his eyes had once again changed. His anger manifested itself further in flames and sparks that danced along his hands, his feet doing much the same, causing the sand beneath both to become glass from the intense heat. She watched him attempt to stand, wondering where it was he was going though she remained exactly where she had been, the cloak of his clutched tightly around her.

She had no words to offer up, nothing to say that would cause comfort, and she found herself worried that should she say anything more on the subject, or try to lessen it in some way, it would only further fuel his rage. So, she opted for staying silent and watchful, her gaze a mixture between curiosity and worry – curious due to the sheer power she was seeing, and worry that he might end up doing something he might later on regret: such as stumbling his way back to Konoha and burning it to the ground also.


She watched in fascination as, after a roar, he unleashed an attack on something she couldn’t quite see in the distance. It wouldn’t take her long to realize what it was, a sand dune a decent ways away, which for all of a few seconds she could see get turned to glass before the only light remaining was the moon once more.

It was strange really, such a powerful display of power would have likely frightened someone, but for Chou she simply was thoughtful. It was eye opening in a way as to how far she had to go – not that she was delusional into thinking she was very strong now anyway.


When Syekren plopped back down Chou didn’t resist being pulled close. She returned the hug gently – not wanting to risk causing him pain from any of the wounds that couldn’t be fully healed, glad to see that it seemed like his anger had been appeased – at least for now. She smiled as her forehead was kissed, giggling happily despite the not-so-happy recent topic she had brought up. At his words she nodded her head, with a smile on her face that faltered only when he ended up spitting more blood. She watched then as he took another drink, her head cocking to the side. She almost wanted to say something about it – drinking, or so she had heard since she had never had a drop of alcohol herself, wouldn’t make him feel better in the long run – but she held her tongue and kept her opinion to herself: if that was how he was going to handle everything that had happened in such a few short hours than that was his business.

At Syekren’s attempted to lessen the situation with a joke Chou couldn’t help but giggle a bit. She rather preferred him joking and laughing instead of angry and blowing things up – even though that anger had a reason to. She glanced over to Izumi, curious as to what the females response would be to such a comment. She was also expecting to see her face lit up with another blush from Syekren’s kiss, yet she couldn’t quite tell thanks to the colors the fire was throwing around. It was to the fire she turned her attention, finding herself contemplating if Izumi would be able to pull off what Syekren had, her brows furrowing in thought as she missed the comment made by the other female to her father.


Despite the tension Chou found herself reaching into her pouch and pulling out a small bag of chips which she ripped open as quietly as possible – so of course it made an uncomfortable amount of noise. She popped her hand into the bag and pulled out a chip, popping it into her mouth and chewing on it slowly, her stomach grumbling. ”So where are we going from here?”, she found herself asking suddenly, more out of the concern that she only had one bag of chips and knew she’d be hungry again soon than anything else – Akimichi priorities!

Word Count: 3,410

"So where are we going from here?”, said the young red haired girl sitting in a ball to her right, staring at the fire. Izumi herself had no clue where Syekren had planned to go from there so she ignored the young girl’s words and waited for the man before her to answer it. Izumi was beginning to feel quite drunk, the amount of the amber liquid she had drank was not exceedingly large or anything, it simply had a strong effect on the young Karisuma causing her to sway a bit. The young woman was overwhelmed with emotions, sadness, fear, hatred, anger, even lust. It was quite the predicament for the young woman. Izumi was unable to contain herself any longer, the emotions had started to get the better of her and the alcohol was making her drowsy. Still gazing deep in Syekren’s eyes, the young woman would lean forward and kiss the Uchiha man on his lips, overtaken by a moment of passion and inebriated courage. Unable to maintain her consciousness for much longer, exhausted by all she had done that night. Izumi held the man by his cheeks for a few moments before release the embrace and laying back, falling asleep almost instantly.

[Exit]

[208 | Total Wordcount: 4328]

---

Training:

ooc: If you want chou, just do an exit post. I said to skip me because stuff came up but I need to close out threads.


He was a world away when he heard Chou speak. She wanted to know what would happen for them next, where they would go. He couldn't think much other than to mumble the words "Lightning or Leaf." His body was beginning to lay back, he'd felt the kiss from the young girl, surprised and shocked. She didn't seem like the type to do such a thing and here she'd made the first move. The two were drunk, so not much could be attributed to just how she was, or it could but he was too drunk to see it. It wasn't long after Izumi had fallen asleep that the older man had fallen with his back into the sand, eyes closed. He motioned for Chou to come lay with him so that they could sleep through the night. "Li'l one, s'time ter sleep. We'll set out in the mornin', let's go." With that, he was out of it, his mind soaring off to planets and galaxies yet undiscovered. His body lay dormant while his mind was alight with visions of the past and impossibilities, dancing over the repeating loop of the dream world. Soon they would move out, and soon things would change.

[EXIT]

212|4,549

Trained Genjutsu B-Rank > A-Rank: 4,400|4,400 (10% increase from Misfortune)

Chou laid down cuddled up next to her father, eyes closing as a yawn escaped her lips. She didn’t bother fighting the sleep threatening to claim her, and instead embraced it like an old friend. It took less than two minutes before sleep fully claimed her, taking her mind away from the here and now and to a place of relative peace, a place where her imagination could run wild and she could be a child once more.


Word Count: 82 | 3,492

 Silhouette Technique (影法師の術 ~ Kagebōshi no Jutsu): 3,492 – 1,000 = 2,492 (-150 Ryo)

Endurance D0 to D3: 2,492 – 1,175 = 1,317 (-150 Ryo)

Strength D0 to D3: 1,317 – 1,175 = 142 (-150 Ryo)

Total Ryo Deduction: -450