It was around noon when Tsuneko could be seen walking near the river. She had been under a lot of stress recently with the destruction of Kirigakure and her escape to Konoha and needed some time to get her thoughts back together. She shaded her pale, lilac eyes from the sun as she looked up at the cloudless sky. It was warmer and much sunnier here than in Kiri, and she knew that the sunshine, as nice as it felt, wouldn’t be kind to her fair skin for long. The Genin made her way over to a tree next to the water and had a seat in the shaded grass, leaning back against the trunk.

She watched people enjoying the nice weather, picnicking and playing in the water and couldn’t help thinking of her own village. It would never be the same there. Often foggy, Kiri might seem like a dreary place to outsiders, but it was home. Suddenly a thought occurred to her, ‘The bad have been burned away just like the good… Everyone who looked down on mom and me for being Kaguya; they’re all dead.’ Although she felt a little guilty for thinking it, the idea was a pleasant one. Her whole life she had felt unwelcome because of her clan and, particularly, their bloody reputation within the village. It had defined her and how she interacted with others; her white hair was cut with long bangs to keep the brand of her clan from immediately drawing the eye, and she learned how to lie convincingly from childhood to hide the fact that she had actually inherited her clan’s rare bloodline trait.

But now… None of the other villages had the same history of persecuting those with Kekkei Genkai. She had always hidden her abilities out of fear, but did she really have to anymore? Could she afford to not begin seriously honing Shikotsumyaku, instead of sneaking bits of training in when no one could watch her? Seeing Amaterasu destroy everything and everyone she had ever known had woken her up from her illusion that she could survive while denying her biggest strength. Tsuneko bit her lip. So much was changing; could she keep her footing in this unstable world or would she be burned away, without even a smudge of ash to mark her place on the pages of history?

Otto Approached the girl slowly he had seen her before the first chunin exam in the kages office. She was interesting, but she was also hiding something could she have been involved in the destruction of Kiri. He looked at her again... it wasn't Likely. She was a small shaped weakling there was no way she was involved then again he should never underestimate people. He finally approached her completely then said in a soft tone meant to express his sadness over the village, "Hi... tough week huh?" Otto himself had never shed a tear over the village honestly he didn't feel anything right now... nothing but those blasted head aches.

Hira walked through the leaf village with one sword drawn from its sheathe and resting on his shoulder as he carried it clenched tightly in his right hand. The mist villages destrctuin had hit him hard at first but he now realizes that, what happened, was the life of a shinobi and there was no avoiding it or running from it no matter how much one may want to. He soon got to the village gate and as he passed it he wondered if he would someday call this village "home".

As he got to the river he didnt notice anyone at first so he walked up to the water cupping his hands and lifting it up to his mouth drinking a small bit of the river itself. He then notcied there were others here, one he knew and one he sort of recognized but had npo personal knowledge of. He walked up to the two and returned his sword to its sheathe loudly intentionally trying to alert them of his presnce he spoke in reverenceing tone. "So the life of a shionobi is hard huh? Yea its one worth living though in the end... at least , for us who have dreams anyway."

Kei roamed the forests on her own. Truth be told, she was a little disoriented. This happened often nowadays, though. She didn't even mind it all that much anymore. Nor did she really care about the nightmares and the lack of sleep. Visions of her father nailed to the ceiling haunted her every night. And every night, the nightmares became more vivid than they had been before. Signs of the fact that she hadn't slept began to show on her face, more so when her Yin personality was active and her soft smile wasn't present on her face. As if that weren't enough to tell which of her both personalities was active, a small black koi fish was etched onto the skin beneath her left eye. She roamed aimlessly through the forest, minding her own business and killing. Frankly, she didn't know what to do. The man she had come with - Hao - had dismissed her and had yet to call her back again, except for the brief meeting she'd had with him and Sero a few days before. And that hadn't quite been her, but rather her other half.

In any case, she had nothing to do and cared little for exploring Konoha. Her eyes were blank, losing focus until the image of her mother came into her mind. The sole thought of her made Kei's blood boil with rage. It was one of the few things that kept her in focus. The woman had just recently destroyed Kei's life, killing half of her clan, including her father. The thought of revenge kept Kei going. She approached the river and sat near the shore, simply staring at the water as it flowed through; calm and uninterrupted. She stuck her fingers in the water briefly and stared at the ripples it created, distorting her reflection. She smirked, recognizing the fact that she looked like crap. She was soon snapped out of her thoughts as she heard voices near the area.

The young girl recognized one of them - Otto. She couldn't quite tell who the other one belonged to. Her instincts told her to hide herself from them and that was exactly what she did. Being as quiet as she could be, she ran behind a nearby tree. She leaned against it and looked at the small group from the corner of her eye. She saw little of them, but she did notice one thing: They all bore the headband of Kirigakure. She sighed heavily. As a missing nin from that same village, the wouldn't likely take well to her presence there.

Tsuneko had become so absorbed in her own thoughts that she didn’t notice Otto until he had almost reached her. She had taken note of all of the ninja whom had gathered in the Hokage’s office, as all but the Kage himself were from Kirigakure and may be all that remained of her village, and recognized the ginger-haired boy from there. At his soft question, she nodded, replying with a slight smile, “You could say that.”

Her eyes caught the flash of the sun off of Hiragana’s sword as he moved to sheath it. ‘The Kisame boy… Do these two spend all their time together?’ she wondered as she looked up at both of them from her seated position. She was surprised at his reverential tone as he spoke; he spoke as an idealistic young student with the lecture-like words of a veteran. Perhaps that was what he was: a boy who’s experienced the troubles of adulthood, just as she has begun to and all shinobi were destined to. After a pause, she observed, “When I ran into you two in the Hokage’s office, things were a bit…” She trailed off, unable to find a word to describe the bizarre situation. She had been dead on her feet from the trip there, and somehow the Kages had gone off on a discussion about swords; she still didn’t really understand it. Picking her own conversation back up, she commented, “I don’t believe I caught your names. I’m Tsuneko of the Kaguya clan.” Her attention focused on the two shinobi in from of her, she didn't notice Kei's presence.

Otto chuckled at Hira, "between you and Sero i'm never lone am I? jeez." He looks back to the girl still smiling kindly, Otto was trying to find out more information without the girl knowing or the girl exploding in tears of the two the latter would be worse for Otto. as he is abot to speak he sees movement out of the corner of his eye and he looks over his shoulder but the figure was gone he decides to leave it alone for now dismissing it as a figment of his currently over active mind he hadn't slept in days, and his head ache was getting no better. He looked at the girl again then says, "So you're a kaguya huh... I've met one of your clansmen tough guy. Are you deceptively tough?"

Hira was standing there very still and very calm, he heard footsteps behind them and at first he just dismissed it as a small animal or what not but after awhile he began to think otherwise. He out of the corner of his eye saw the figure move behind a tree. He decided to attempt to scare it in case it was a small animal so he threw a kunai at a tree about a meter from the tree he saw the slight figure hide behind. He then returned to his conversation with his village members. "The names hiragana kisame, but please Hira will suffice. A kaguya huh? Iv met a few of your clan before for it being known as a bloddlust clan some of you are acually quite docile and peacful.

Not for the first time today, Kei wished that she had a lighter so that she could smoke one of the cigarettes that she kept with her. She remembered her mother telling her once how unbecoming it was that she had picked up the vice. She scoffed at the thought, wondering if the woman had ever had any genuine concern for Kei. Regardless, the young girl was feeling anxious. She listened to the conversation closely. "So the girl's a Kaguya..." She thought, making a mental note of that in case things escalated into a fight. She stared at her surroundings, trying to figure out a way to escape the place without being caught by the other three shinobi. She narrowed her eyes, trying to concentrate. However, her concentration was broken as she heard Sero's name being mentioned. Her head automatically tilted towards the source of the voice. She cursed herself, knowing that that little instinct likely came from her other half, the other person that shared the same body with her.

The young Chuunin knew that she was greatly distracted, which made her even angrier at herself. She briefly considered switching personalities. Her Yang side was better at evoking sympathy from others. She decided against it, though, considering that she had lost her ability to speak. Kei rubbed her face with one hand for a short moment. She was snapped back into reality by the sound of a kunai hitting the leaves next to her. Without really thinking, she jumped away from behind the tree, creating a loud ruffling noise and effectively revealing her position. "Damn it all," She muttered under her breath, now staring at the three shinobi face to face. The two that she didn't know weren't likely to assume that she was a threat. Otto, however, knew quite well who she was. Whichever way this small meeting went, depended on his reaction. The tension in the air was thick as Kei waited with an expressionless look on her face.

Drawn in by his smile and easy manner, Tsuneko found herself wanting to open up to Otto and begin her post-Amaterasu life with honesty. She only hesitated when she realized that he had neglected to offer his name in return and instead focused on her clan’s name. Having deferred questions the same way, she assumed that he had his own secrets, just as she did. Falling into her old state of distrust, she, nevertheless, smiled at him as she joked, “If I was, wouldn’t telling you ruin the trick?” She made no mention of his lack of introduction. If he was like her, which she convinced herself that he was, he wouldn’t appreciate the prying, and she wasn’t certain, yet, whether or not his kindness was a ruse itself.

She hadn’t formed much of an opinion about Hiragana yet, except thinking that he was a bit strange with his first remarks and, seemingly, randomly throwing a kunai at a tree. Those thoughts were immediately changed as she heard loud rustling noises from where he’d thrown it. ‘Looks like he’s the smart one,’ she thought as she saw a kunoichi emerge from behind the tree. She didn’t look much older than Tsuneko, herself, but the lack of expression on the girl’s face made her nervous; she would have expected guilt, or embarrassment at being caught, or something. As Hiragana, or Hira, introduced himself and mentioned the Kaguya’s bloodthirsty reputation and, pleasantly, that they weren’t all like that; she got to her feet, nodding in acknowledgement of his introduction. The earlier friendly expression faded as she looked from Hira to Otto before back at the girl. She didn’t consider herself someone worth taking the time to spy on and wondered what the other two might have done to make themselves that interesting to this girl.

He looked at the girl with a smooth smile,"yes it would." He chuckled. He extended hi hand, "well my name is Otto if you didn't already know..." Otto was unable to continue his phrase as Hira throws a kunai. He looks at Hira with a disapproving glare. "Hira, Hira, Hira... you almost hurt Kei... shame on you." He approaches Kei, his smile was still there but it was colder, he knew that kei had joined with the rouge. There was no way the opportunist Kei would miss that chance. However, for the sake of his naive fried he was protecting this girl from anyone else finding out. whether she knew it or not. "Hello, nice to see you again." He wondered if Kei could feel the emotions he was sending out mistrust, respect, and slight anger. This girl would not get his friend killed if he had anything to say about it.

Hira smiled with his hands in his pockets looking extremly cool. He just stood there as everything unfolded. He looked at Tsuneko and back to otto as he spoke to him. He looked over at Kei, this girl he had startled. He had no reason to be on guard around her but something about her gave him the chills. He walked over plucking his kunai from the tree and returning it to his leg pouch. "Sorry kei.... i just hate being followed by shadowy figures."

He looked around at all of them unsure of what was going on. He reached into his pocket pulling out a purple and blue flower one of the most beautiful and rare ones ever. One grown bu his clan and only his clan. He handed it to kei as an apology present but made sure to keep his guard up. "Here its a water-wisp grown only by my clan... or i guess just by me considering im the only one left."

After Otto spoke, Kei's expression shifted back to the way it usually was - a sly smirk and a confident gaze. She could clearly see the skepticism in Otto's face. He didn't trust her and she didn't blame him. The tension in his expression spelled out hostility, but Kei pretended not to notice. "Otto," She began, her tone seemingly light and playful. "I'm glad to see that you're alright," She said. Kei looked at Otto straight in the eye, as if telling him that she knew what he thought of her. She knew that he considered her a traitor, someone unworthy of Kirigakure. She cared little for that, however. The young Chuunin's attention quickly shifted towards Hiragana. She had only heard of him by name. She knew that he was on the same team with Otto and Sero and that he was a Kisame. That was about it. She looked at him slyly, and accepted the flower without hesitation. "Thank you for being so considerate," She said, smelling the flower briefly. "And you didn't manage to hurt me, so I suppose the apology isn't really needed, is it?"

Tsuneko felt that she had, perhaps, jumped to conclusions too quickly as Otto gave his name. She contented herself that it was better to err on the side of paranoia than to fall victim to laxity. He also gave her another gift: the name of the kunoichi. ‘Kei….’ Cautious, she observed the pink haired girl and the boys’ reactions to her. Otto said nice words and smiled at her, but his expression seemed different somehow. Maybe he had been putting on a front for her, or perhaps he was not as happy to see Kei as he said he was. Hira, on the other hand, struck a pose and began flirting with the girl. This didn’t really surprise Tsuneko; Kei was pretty, after all, and had grown into her feminity as Tsuneko had yet to. She eyed the unique flower, jotting down another curiosity about Hiragana down in her mind. A water-wisp, its name implying that it needed to be near water to survive, seemed like a difficult flower to carry around with you and keep healthy when traveling. Does he carry around a stock of them just to flatter the ladies with?

His words about the loss of his clan brought to mind what was never far from her thoughts: Kirigakure. Spying the black koi fish under Kei’s left eye, she wondered if it wasn’t just a tattoo but a mark of her clan. Tsuneko had taken an interest in other clans’ Kekkei Genkai because of the rarity of the bloodline trait in her own clan and, after a moment, recognized the symbol of the Niidashi clan and remembered that their personalities were marked by the appearance of that symbol. “Kei….Niidashi?” she inquired, her mind already making assumptions. She had only heard of Team One having journeyed to Konoha, not that she was privy to all of the comings-and-goings of the Kiri ninja, being only a Genin. She had met the new Mizukage in the Hokage’s office in what seemed to end up being an impromptu meeting of the remnants of her village, which Kei had not been present at. Part hopeful that someone she knew may have survived as well and part, guiltily, worried that a number of the prejudiced villagers may have made it out, if Kei (or one of the others) answers her question in the affirmative, Tsuneko will follow by asking, “Were you in Kirigakure when it happened?” The ‘it’ was hard to mistake as anything but a reference to the fire. “I spent the rest of the day waiting for survivors but didn’t find any.” Her mixed feelings are mostly covered by the curiosity to know how someone else made it out of the same almost impossible situation.

Otto expression changes to an expression of true happiness as if to silently say to kei that he was glad they understood each other. Of all of the ninjas Otto had met he truely liked kei he understood at least that half of her person. "Well, I truely am glad that you are okay Kei who knows what your maniacal 'friend', Sero would have done if you weren't" The last part was partially for the flirty genin known as Hiragana. As if to deflect Tsuneko's question he changed the subject the last thing he needed was for the girl or Hira to suspect Kei of rougeness. Hira had a hate of rouges that had stemmed from his teacher and grown with the destruction of Kiri. Otto on the other hand knew that rouges had their uses and due to the fact that no one knew that she had gone rouge she could potential come back. He smiles and says aloud, " This was probably a bad time for the exams... in fact if the exams had not taken place it is unlikely that the rouge would have attacked." He figured that this was close enough to the fire topic to not seem forced.

Hira just stood there with a cold look on his fave for a few moments not sure what to make of the situation. He raised one finger at kei's remark. "Acually kei, i had no intention of hurting you just wanted to startle you and make you give away your possition so mission accomplished but im still sorry for startling you." It would appear that otto knew this girl but Hira did not, could she have been one of the ninja who went rogue after Kiri's destruction. If this was true hira's expression would not change as she most likely didnt have a choice. He turned towards kei herself at this point and said this to her "So what did you do after kiri's destruction? I figured everyone had either came here to the leaf or gone rogue?"

Kei turned towards the other girl as she spoke. "Yes, Niidashi," She said, somewhat warily. She could feel that Tsuneko was watching her carefully, analyzing her every move. It made Kei feel somewhat uncomfortable. She kept her guard up, just in case anything happened. It was in her nature to be distrusting of most people. She kept her narrowed gaze locked on Tsuneko for a moment. "Yes, I was there. I ran after everything started burning," She stated, deciding not to go into detail. She chuckled at Otto's comment about Sero and finally let her gaze drift off of the silver haired girl. "Sero would probably get a kick out of having an excuse to fight either of you, should you actually hurt me," She shrugged. Kei took the flower that Hiragana had given her and tucked it away in her item's pouch before answering his question. "I came here to the Leaf, that's all," Kei said simply. Her statement was vague, but the tone of her voice was final, as if demanding that they not press the issue. She wasn't an idiot. She wouldn't blatantly state that she had joined the very person that had burned Kirigakure to the ground.

Tsuneko didn’t look away despite the suspicious, narrowed gaze that Kei studied her with as she answered. The reaction caused her to become more curious about Kei, herself, than about the fate of other villagers, which she’d originally been concerned with; why would such a simple question raise this kunoichi’s guard? Was there more to the story? Her expression remained polite, and she nodded in acceptance of her response, recognizing pushing the topic further would probably not give her more answers at this point. As Kei shifted her attention to the boys, Tsuneko noticed that as Otto became more welcoming, Hira became colder. Was it really just the idea that this “Sero” guy was fond of Kei that caused this change in the Kisame? Weird. Until Hira mentioned it, the idea of the surviving Kiri ninja going rouge hadn’t occurred to her. She assumed that those lucky few who made it out would have followed a similar course of action to her own. At Kei’s “…that’s all.”, Tsuneko became suspicious that Kei was a rogue. There were laws about going AWOL, even if the ninja didn’t commit any wrong-doings, but the genin didn’t consider that to be any of her concern. It was the job of higher-ups to deal with rogues, not her’s. Besides, when your home and compatriots are wiped out along with your Kage, going solo didn’t seem to be the terrible of a choice to be made. She didn’t make the connection that the rogue Uchiha and this girl might be together.

tto looked at his wrist which ironically held no actual watch just a tatoo of one, and said aloud. "well it looks like I have to go; there are a couple things that I want to do before I leave konoha. Kei and Tsuneko I would be honored if the two of you would grace us with your company once we finally travel to what's left of home." He smiles at the two of them and tilts his head goodbye before turning around to leave. Assuming that Hira would either follow him or continue on with the girls; as he knew most of his time was spent with either Hira or Sero he didn't bother with a goodbye.

Tsuneko nodded in response to Otto’s invitation. She didn’t know when they would be heading home or what was really left of her home now, but she would much rather make the journey in the company of Otto and Hira than by herself. Finding herself left with Kei as Hiragana followed Otto away, she no longer felt that she had a reason to stay. She wasn’t very fond of the other girl’s company and no longer found the river quite so peaceful after being spied upon by the same girl. With a polite smile, she said, ”I think I’ll be going as well. It was nice to meet you, Kei.” She wasn’t sure if she could call their meeting ‘nice’ but knowing a few people who were around did make her feel less alone in this strange country. Giving a little half-wave, she set off back towards her room in the village, taking the longer route by the riverbank.