Tsuneko walked out of the village library with a medical book held to her chest with one arm. She had been left to her own devices since arriving in Konoha and her desire to improve herself would not allow her to sit idly by while she waited to hear about what would happen to her and the other survivors of Kirigakure. As she walked through the streets trying to find a good place to sit and study, the genin happened upon Ichiraku Ramen. Looking up at the sun, Tsuneko realized that it was past mid-day, probably around two o’clock. She had spent longer in the library than she had planned.

Shaking her head, Tsuneko reflected on how lazy she had gotten since coming here. Back at home, she would have spent most of the day at the academy before running over to volunteer at the hospital until they forced her to go home. She never would have allowed herself to lose track of time like she did here. However, that was before she became a Genin and before the fire… She did not let herself dwell on those thoughts. The situation was not quite as terrible as she had originally thought; she had already met another ninja who had escaped, which meant that there may be others as well, and it would do no one any good for her to allow grief to whittle away at her time, her life.

She decided to have a late lunch here; Konoha was renowned for its ramen and she had yet to try it. Her forehead protector in its proper place today, she had yet to find where she preferred to wear it, the server greeted her friendly enough as she took a seat at the counter, “Ah, another one of those Kiri ninja. What’ll it be?” ”Chicken ramen, please,” she replied. While she waited for her meal, she opened the book and began flipping through the pages, trying to decide where to start.

Fang had just got done training and decided to have lunch he had been hungry and the only thing he eats is ramen so he wandered to ichiraku. When he arrived he saw another person sitting and reading a book. He looked and said as he was sitting down "Hello im Fang nice to meet you are you new to konoha". He then sat down and said "The usual please". Fang yawned as he waited for the ramen to be cooked.

Enter Kenta! Kenny had been walking through the markets, looking for some more apples for his cooking...he had guests coming up to his house for dinner...the first time in like, what, 4 years? Jeeze, with a sigh of frustration and wafting his hat in his face to ease some of the heat from his body, Kenny wandered around the streets some more, the aroma of chicken ramen being cooked bore heavy in Kenny's senses...oh dear lord of chickens, how it smelled good!

Having following the smell of the chicken, Kenny came alongside a hut? The actual hell? Hearing a voice reside within the image of...Fang? Popped into his head...oh dear god...it's Fang...the first time he encountered that Uzumaki was when Kaim had challenged Kenny to that duel...the idiot. Kenny let out yet, another frustrated sigh and entered the hut...yep, it was Fang..oh joy...but wait, there was yet another person? A girl of pale skin and hair as white as snow? Somewhat pretty mind you but now wasn't the time...
"I'll have uh...a special?" He said to himself as he looked upon the price...300 ryo!? The hell! Kenny's face shrunk as his shaking arms handed over the ryo...oh dear god the emotional pain and feels!

Sitting down between the two, Kenny plopped his hat on the table before him and sighed. Looking at both Fang and then the girl, Kenny turned his gaze once more to the Uzumaki.
"Fang, are you bothering people again?" He asked jokingly before turning to the girl, bowing his head apologetically before scratching the back of his neck. The girl had a medical book? So a medic genin then? How interesting.
"I'm sorry for him, he can be a pain in the ass at points. name's Kenta." He said calmly, stretching his hand out to the girl as to shake it...He wasn't this forward at times due to the fact that he hated social contact but...until recently, just after the exams to be exact, Kenny had been shunning everyone but now he'd loosened up a bit...Suppose it was for the best otherwise he would've thrown them both out for some privacy.

Apparently she wasn’t the only one who was eating late today. Tsuneko glanced up as Fang greeted her, introduced himself, said that it was nice to meet her, and asked if she was new, all in one breath. ‘Are all Konoha ninja hyper like this?’ she wondered. Although she had been in Konoha for a little while, she had managed to spend time with the villagers and her compatriots more than her counterparts in this village. She nodded in answer to his question about her newness in Konoha before he turned to order. As she politely set her book aside, her violet eyes looked Fang over curiously while he ordered ‘the usual’.

She did not question what his usual was or the origin of his uncommon name; she would have expected an Inuzuka to be named Fang, perhaps, but this genin didn’t look like he was one, missing the customary markings and the obvious presence of a dog. Tsuneko was distracted by the entrance of another boy who took the seat between them. She smiled as the newcomer teased Fang before addressing her. “Tsuneko,” she introduced herself in turn. She shook his offered hand with a hand that sported lightly callused knuckles and leaned forward to offer a friendly smile to Fang.

A moment later, the server placed a steaming bowl of ramen in front of her with a glass of water. She thanked him and her hand moved to pick up the chopsticks placed beside it, but she caught herself and reached for the glass instead, taking a sip of water. She supposed that with the introductions and the three of them sitting together that they were now, sort of, a group, and she had been raised not to eat until everyone had their food. As a way to ignore the appetizing smell of the meal in front of her, as well as to satisfy her curiosity, Tsuneko asked conversationally, “How do you two know each other?”

While she was in Konoha, she decided that she might as well get to know some of the ninja here. There was no telling how long it would be before the new Mizukage decided to take the Kiri ninja back to the Water Country; she hadn't seen or heard from him since their run-in in the Hokage's office. Keeping her focus on the present despite her quick wonderings about the future, Tsuneko noticed that both of the Konoha ninja had scars on their faces. Were they all clumsy here or was the Hokage in the habit of sending Genin out on higher ranked missions than was customary? After all, the missions were ranked so that the low-ranked ninja, like everyone present, would not be put in overly dangerous situations. He didn't seem like the kind of Kage to put his shinobi in undue risk like that, but perhaps she read him wrong during the brief time that she was in his office.

OOC: Skipping Fang since he's being a poo

BIC: Kenny had smiled back at her as she shook his hand, at least the girl had some manners whereas the majority of other Kiri ninja and a Fang had none whatsoever. He turned back round on his seat, ignoring Fang completely as his order was placed down in front of him, chopsticks out and cracked; ready to go!

His golden eyes wandered back round to the girls big eyes as she asked the question...to be honest, it was a rather long story at which was a pointless one at that. He hardly found it suiting to tell such a boring story so was probably best to give her the main gist of it. He sighed, placing the raised ramen back into the bowl as he thought how to word this correctly...
"Basically...he's a giant pain in Konoha's ass. A lingering smell that just wont vanish. one of those people." He joked, letting out a brief chuckle as he raised the ramen back up once more before gesturing to the girl, best to eat her food before it gets cold. We don't want that now do we?

Hmm...Kenny didn't eat out much but Ichiraku never ceased to amaze him anyway. Probably one of Konoha's best and number one hot spot to visit while in the village. Hopefully the girl wasn't displeased...
[colo=white]"On an unrelated note; sorry to hear about Kiri and all that. How you holding up?"[/color] He said as he sneakily took a swig of sake...Ichiraku had caught Kenny once or twice trying to snatch some swigs and he should know better than to carelessly leave it out...granted he was under age but meh, no one official was kicking about so why not try and enjoy life for the moment?

There wasn’t much to say after Kenta’s description of Fang. Tsuneko could neither defend the genin nor agree with what was said, as she barely knew him. At his gesture, she turned her attention back to the bowl in front of her. Splitting the chopsticks, she used them to stir up the noodles, allowing the broth to warm up the cooling noodles while she moved the hot ones to the top of the bowl. After the first bite, she paused for a minute to absorb the flavor. Their fame was well-deserved; the ramen here was delicious. With a pleased expression, she helped herself to more of her lunch.

She paused, violet eyes looking over at Kenta before returning to her meal, as he brought up Kiri. She took a drink of her water to take up time as she decided how to answer. Consciously, she was coping just fine. She had convinced herself that spending her days mourning the lost was wasteful; it would be a disrespect to those that had died to squander the time that she was lucky to still have, and so she tried to keep herself occupied and avoided dwelling on all that she had been through. However, she could not control her subconscious mind. Every night saw her suffering from terrible nightmares filled with smoke and fire and the screams of everyone she had grown up with, all begging her to help them as she fled from the black flames… but Kenta didn’t want to hear about that. She believed that he only asked out of politeness, and besides an instant where her face became less animated and a flicker of her many restless nights and stress about the future showed through, she looked back over with only a slightly sorrowed expression as she gave him the socially-acceptable version, ”I’m alright... I try not to think about it.”

She continued eating and allowed the silence to remain for a few minutes, unless Kenta breaks it. She took no notice of his drinking; the girl was a bit too preoccupied with her own thoughts to notice something that he was trying to hide, anyways. After those few minutes, to do just what she said she was doing, trying not to think about Kiri, Tsuneko set down her chopsticks to free her hands, turned to Kenta, and asked, ”Where did you get that scar?” As she spoke, she used a finger to lightly indicate the path that it takes on her own face. (Like pointing to your own bare wrist when you ask where someone else got their watch)

Kenny returned his gaze back to his bowl of ramen, the contents swimming around as he stirred them with his chopsticks. To be honest he felt bad for those of Kiri though he could care less about most of them. Those that came here from Kiri tended to be rather arrogant and...somewhat snobbish. As if to say that they're better than most; well, that's the vibe he got from them most the time but this girl seemed...alright. He smiled and drew in yet another mouthful of ramen, the noodles lashing about, hitting off his chin as the juices ran down his chin and neck. Oh god. How embarrassing. He wiped it away quickly before having a question thrown his way about his scar that was planted on his face.

His eyes scrolled up and came to across-eyed point, memories coming back to him about his childhood. His horrific childhood. His eyes came back down and his face turned grim as he shuffled on his seat, trying to maintain the comfort which he had before. Sighing h placed the chopsticks down and turned his golden eyes to the girl.

"I had a rather unfortunate experience as a child...friends aren't to be trusted much anymore."

He said, pain deep within his voice as his once flat hands were now curled into fists, quaking as the flashback played through. That kunai coming down to his face as he begged for mercy...such a memory was once forgotten and now it found it's way back to the surface...

She politely refrained from laughing as her companion spilled the broth down himself, but the amusement could be seen easily in her eyes, lightening her face as she pushed back the stress of the recent times. Kenta's embarrassed expression made his reaction to her question even more pronounced. His manner became tense as his expression darkened and fists clenched asher query brought up unpleasant memories.

Tsuneko felt bad. In this cold, ninja world that she had been thrust into when Amaterasu visited her life, she felt that she had to put herself first if she wanted to survive. Jumping into the flames to save a stranger would only have gotten them both killed. However, she didn't go out of her way to hurt people as she had carelessly hurt this boy that she had just met. She had thrown out another question to get her mind off of her own sorrow and it seemed that she had unintentionally brought up an old, buried one for Kenta.

What did one say to something like that? That a childhood friend would do something like that to him, and a personal attack that nearly missed his eyes... The medical ninja in her knew how difficult and risky eye surgery was, there was a high failure rate and a very real chance of death, while her taijutsu training reminded her of blindspots and problems with depth perception that would result from the loss of a single eye. "That's terrible," she commented unnecessarily. Of course it was a horrible betrayal. Feeling responsible for taking away his easygoing expression, she placed a hand comfortinglying on his fist. "But you survived and will grow stronger because of what you went through," she offered supportively. Thinking of growth reminded her of the Chuunin Exams. She had been too preoccupied with Kiri to attend any of the matches, but it had been hard to miss all of the posters around Konoha, and he looked vaguely familiar. "Did you participate in the exams?" Even if she was wrong, it would hopefully draw him out of the dark place he was dwelling in. Guys liked training right? Maybe thinking about it and the competition would be a positive distraction for him. She knew that thinking about medicine helped her block out the negative, anyways.

Kenny's golden eyes would dart from one side to the other as he remembered running away from him, down an alley way but to a dead end. The air was heavy and filled with a putrid smell of sulfurous gasses and vomit fro those who drank too much. The smell clung t his lungs like a leech, sucking away the air as he remembered turning back for a brief moment as the boy stood there...the friend...so called...brought down the kunai, edging closer and closer until...!

"Did you participate in the exams?" A gentle voice said.

Blinking, he came back to reality, having not heard her previous words he turned and gazed at her, confusion and a slight hint of panic in his face as a bead of sweat strolled down his forehead. Hmm...He did but it was unsuccessful.

"I did indeed but I failed to qualify for them so I ranked up through missions. Only joined for a battle experience." He said calmly, wiping away the bead of sweat before unbuttoning the jacket down and lifting his top for a moment. He revealed two scabs, healing as such. One in a line from the cut he received and the other from in the middle of his chest, a stab wound. He showed his hands, he shirt falling back down now, and showed the cuts on both.

"I gripped the blade to counter his jutsu. It worked and I sent him home with broken bones. Short match but...it was entertaining to say the least." He smiled, returning back to his bowl of ramen before coughing slightly, covering his mouth as he did.

"I don't like training or fighting anyway. Too much effort you see. Take it you're not a fighter?" He asked, clearly a stereotype remark which he had not clicked on to. He didn't realize he had said something like this so hopefully the girl didn't take it to heart. Had he seen her clan mark on her then his views would have changed along with his words.

Tsuneko removed her hand from his as Kenny seemed to come out of his dark memories, relieved that her question had worked to distract him. However, she was a bit surprised at herself, it wasn't like her to reach out that way. She had learned to express support and sympathy to the injured in a hospital setting but normally would not be so forward with someone she’d just met. Perhaps it was her feeling of responsibility from his pain that had caused it.

Speaking of pain, the wounds on his abdomen seemed to be healing fine; doubtless, the Konohagakure medical staff had taken care of him. It was a shame about his hands. Ninja had to do what they must in combat, and if grabbing a blade was what it took to avoid a jutsu, then she likely would have done the same. However, she could see that using his hands caused the cuts to reopen. It had to be painful, and she couldn't help but worry about him getting them infected. Surely the one who looked at his wounds had warned him to keep them clean, but it was a shame that a medical ninja hadn't been able to heal them for him. She wished that she could make them disappear on her own; unfortunately, she had not yet learned how to do so and could only do a temporary healing for him, which would essentially serve the same purpose as the scabs which had already formed.

As he returned to his lunch, she did the same. “I don’t like training or fighting anyway. Too much effort you see.” 'Lazy.' The word jumped unbidden to her mind and, perhaps, unwarranted; earning a promotion through missions had to be hard work. However, she viewed training was a way of improving oneself as well as pursuing their chosen career as a ninja. To dislike both training and fighting… Perhaps Kenta was in the wrong profession. Suggesting that he change over to a job that required neither, like shop keeping or carpentry, would likely be ill received. “Take it you’re not a fighter?” ”I do what I must,” she replied simply. She did not take offense at the assumption, no matter how stereotypical. As a daughter of a clan renowned for its bloodthirstiness, Tsuneko had learned as a youth that it made people uncomfortable when she let show how much she enjoyed testing herself physically against her peers; she didn't necessarily see it as fighting, because it was rarely caused by anything negative, so much as she considered it to be just another form of training. And she enjoyed that training very much. ”If training’s so unpleasant, maybe you should take up a different specialty, one that interests you more,” she suggested. She knew that her passion for medicine played a part into why she could spend hours reading medical books, like the one she had with her today, without getting bored.

She finished up her meal and fished out some ryo to place next to her empty bowl. Looking over to Kenny, she gave him a friendly smile as she said, "I have to get going. It was nice meeting you, Kenny. Maybe we'll run into eachother again." Picking up her book, she slipped off the stool and, with a nod to the server, headed out of the business and into the afternoon sun.