Construction of the village was slow to progress, and while many of Kiri's ninja's were skilled, few actually participated in the construction due to other business. Just outside the main of the reconstruction zone was a man taking a break from his own business, which comprised of mostly just training. He was easily one of the oldest Genin in the village, not from trying or from failure. The man simply made a mistake and chose to prevent the same mistake from occurring again, so he trained often. Today however he was simply relaxing and just thinking.

Kaguza wondered amongst the outskirts of the village. The ninja wore a pair of loose fitting brown pants, a simple pair of black shoes, sleeveless black shirt with a grey coat, a pair of black gloves covered his hands while a large weapon harness hung on his back. Usually a pair of large hammers sit comfortably in the harness, however feeling slightly whimsical today, Kaguza juggles the weapons as he walks around. The trees in the area gave him a path to walk, weaving between as he repeatedly tossed the light sledgehammer in the air.

It had been a rather long time since Kei had stepped foot in Kirigakure. Ever since th evillage had burned down and she had defected - only to come back because of Sero after they'd met in the graveyard in Konoha. But being back in her homeland felt... foreign, to say the least. Well, it was only natural, wasn't it? The village itself had been reduced to ashes. Of course she wouldn't recognize anything. Her subconcious mind had carried her to the outskirts of the village, some parts of which were still covered with a thin layer of ashes. Kei let her feet carry her to wherever she would end up. She didn't mind exploring a little. She found that it was usually distracting, which was something that she greatly enjoyed. To the young girl, simplicity was just one of the world's biggest wonders. She found great happiness in it.

Kei had wandered off to one of the furthest parts of the village, where the Niidashi compound used to be before the fire. But of course, Kei didn't know this. Her other side would have likely taken notice of the surroundings. She would have likely recognized that this was her former home. She would have gotten out of there as quickly as her feet let her. But this side of Kei was blissfully ignorant. She had repressed the memories tied to that place in the deepest corners of her mind. They only came out when she had nightmares, which would only happen if she fell asleep anywhere away from Sero. She found that odd, but she didn't question it. It wasn't like her to dwell on why things were the way they were. She was happy and that was all that mattered.

The young girl skipped around, almost as if dancing over the ashes of what used to be her home. Her clothes were getting covered in soot, but Kei hardly paid any attention to that. She was absorbed, playing around childishly. She was only snapped out of her thoughts when she heard someone approaching. Kei's first instinct was to hide from whoever this person was. She was mosly shy and scared of people that she had never met before. But she was sure that she had seen this particular person, while they were meeting up to sort the groups that would retake Kirigakure. Having seen him before made her stay where she was. However, she wouldn't speak or call out to him - not that she could. It had been a while since Kei had been able to speak. She stood there, looking at the boy with an unreadable expression on her face.

Continuing to juggle the hammers as he wondered he didn't pay much attention to his surrounding aside from rather something was in his way or not. Falling into a state of being content the world became of little concern in his mind, though there was little around that he wanted to take it. Catching one of his hammers and tossing the other into the air, something finally caught his attention, a girl standing in amongst the charred ruins of what was a house. She was familiar. Taking a moment to try and remember her name, it hit him. Not the name like he had hoped for, his second hammer he had been juggling. Though he hadn't been throwing them high, the head of the weapon still hit hard enough to knock him over leaving him sprawled on the ground for a moment. Quickly he regained himself and sat up wincing in pain with his hand holding the spot, a small amount of blood trickled down his face. "Okay, not doing that again."

After wiping away the blood with his coat, he remembered what had taken his attention. "Hi Kei." Kaguza sat on the ground waving with the only hand he had not covered in blood. Standing up, he dusted himself off and quickly put his weapons away. The charred ruins that stood in front of him seemed familiar, though this wasn't an area he frequently visited before the fire. A partially burned sign board read out a name, it was easy enough see that this was her home. With an expressionless stare from Kei that had caught his attention, it didn't seem like she was happy to see him or angry at least. "What are you up to?"

Kei almost flinched as she heard Kaguza's voice. She was a frightful girl, at least when thins personality was active. Her other side was the complete opposit, really. In these moments, she was prone to be scared of people, particularly strangers. Her fears were rather childish. She was afraid of small things like loud thunder and overwhelming darkness. She didn't quite know why, nor had she ever cared much to reflect and wonder. Things just were the way they were. There was no real need to question who she was, was there? Or at least that was Kei's simplistic view on life. Nevertheless, close encounters like this often made her want to switch from one personality to the other. Her other half handled first impressions much better than she could. Neverthless, she was slightly worse at keeping relationships in check unless there was something in it for her. This was something that Kei - this side of her, at least - didn't approve of at all. Hence, she decided it was best to take a deep breath and approach Kaguza.

The young girl took a shaky step towards the boy. Her hesitation was clear. It was as if she were a small animal, fightened by the presence of a human being that she was still curoius to get to know. As she approached him, she waved her hand in order to greet him. She went through some motions with her hands. They were somewhat clumsy. She was still trying to grasp the notion of sign language - something that she had recently learned, after having lost her ability to speak. "Do you understand what I am saying?" She asked. She might as well practice. If all else failed, she could just use that little note pad that Sero had given her some time ago in order to communicate.

His head throbbed, though the bleeding quickly stopped. Kaguza saw Kei waving at him, but not speaking, it took a moment before he realized it was sign language. He knew a fair amount of it, what he didn't know of the language didn't hinder his ability. He was curious however as to why she wasn't talking, he heard her speak very clearly back in Konoha. Regardless he wasn't going to pry. Kaguza nodded his head, "Yes I do." Offering a smile, he got the feeling she was nervous or scared. Kaguza learned the language back in the academy, gaining a strong grip on it. Her signing was rough, "You start learning to sign recently?" Kaguza signed the words as he spoke. Performing two languages at once proved to be a bit difficult, but not impossible. Hearing and seeing the language might even improve her ability.

Kei was surprised that Kaguza had understood what she had said. But more so, she was taken aback by the fact that she had managed to actually form a structured and coherent sentence. She mentally congratulated herself. She would go for ice cream later as a reward. Kei nodded in response to Kaguza's question. She ran what she wanted to say in her head a couple of times, trying to remember how to say it. Sure, it was slow, but it beat having to write everything she said. That was definitely a pain. "Yes! I learned a little while ago," She moved her hands to say, not going into detail about why and how she lost her ability to speak. That was a subject that she had practically erased from her mind. Her other half, on the other hand, found it hard to let go of such things. Kei still remained rather shaky and nervous. She was like this whenever she was with someone that she could consider a stranger. She was used to being harrassed and bullied by almost everyone she met. Reacting in such a way had become nothing short of a habit. She fiddled with her hands, rubbing them together while keeping her gaze fixed on the ground. She would briefly lift it to look at Kaguza, but would instantly look at the ground again. She didn't exactly know what to say at this point.

The girl seemed nervous, looking down and playing with her hands. Based on her height, Kaguza guessed she would only be a few years younger then himself. Though he was often way off target when guessing age. Catching her looking at the ground again, he snapped his fingers in her view. "Kei you should look at people, or they might think your weird." Kaguza whispered the second half of the sentence, though he was being sarcastic. "You might miss something funny too." Kaguza screwed his face up hoping to get a laugh from her with her next glance. His curiousity was growing as he continued the conversation, "Kei, how old are you?"

Kei was very much absorbed in her own thoughts. She had a sort of childich curiosity towards Kaguza, or rather, towards strangers in general, though the predominant eomtion was fear, above all else. She let out a loud yelp when Kaguza snapped his fingers in front of her face. She flinched and began blushing once she realized how she had reacted. Kei listened to what he said and looked at the ground once again, this time though, it was in shame rather then fear. She was quite used to people thinking that she was strange. The fact that she was a Niidashi was enough to brand her as a freak for most people. A genetic split personality disorder often led to problems after all. But she supposed that she had to try to be polite. She looked at Kaguza, though she avoided eye contact for the moment. At his exxpression, Kei giggled. It wasn't difficult to make the young girl laugh. She had the sense of humor - and not to mention the disposition - of a six year old girl. That was nough for her to decide that she liked Kaguze. Her expression of fear turned into a bright smile. "I'm fourteen years old!" She answered his question. "I'm turning fifteen soon," She added with a smile. She thought she might as well be polite and ask him something about himself in return. What to ask, though... Repeating the same question was unoriginal, so that was out of the question. She thought for a moment. "What clan are you from?" She asked. Her other side knew the answer to that question, but memories and knowledge sometimes didn't seep in from one of them to the other.

A sense of triumph popped into his head when she laughed, though was replaced by something similar to getting hit in the head by a ball at hearing her age. Yet another person he couldn't put an accurate age to, though this wasn't the first time nor would be the last. He felt old, there was almost a seven year gap in their ages, as well as she was a Chunnin while he was still ranked at Genin. By now it really shouldn't be a surprise to him when coming across those younger then him and at higher rank. He could see Kei in thought, probably figuring out how to sign something. "My clan? Nothing impressive, we're a bunch of drunks. However instead of getting drunk from alcohol we become drunk from our own chakra. Were mostly known for being stupid, laughing, singing, and hitting things." Kaguza continued to sign as he spoke. Though he didn't get drunk off of alcohol he did drink occasionally, family get together were always fun. "Not too many of us become successful shinobi."