The old Academy was a nice place to settle into: The furniture was in disarray, with old desks and whatnot in every other classroom, the holes in the rooftop letting the rain pour in and the old faculty lounge (who ever knew the Bloody Mist bothered with such things?) in a decent enough state for the young Marumaru Miki to sleep in. Wait... why was this a nice place to settle into again? Well, probably because it had the bare essentials, enough to satisfy the young girl while she stayed in Kirigakure. She was a homeless nomad, used to sleeping in trees, among forests and the wild animals who inhabited them. She never slept on the ground, despite how comfortable it might be compared to the hard branches. After all, if she were ever found while she slept, she would be in a horrible disadvantage. You see, Miki was a sniper. She kept her distance and shot her targets from afar without ever being noticed. Close range combat meant trouble for the young girl.

So the abandoned school, far away from the main sectors of Kirigakure and with its several towers offered a nice vantage point for Miki to both scout and hunt with minimal effort. At this current point in time, surrounded by mist and standing atop one of the old watch towers, Miki positioned her arrow gun over her shoulder. She had no need to load it constantly, after all, since the magazines already carried about ten projectiles each. Of course, being low on money, that meant that Miki constantly had to go in search for her lost arrows, senbon and kunai every time she fired one. But she had a purpose for shooting arrows at the ground below, bare of all living things except for the eventual bug.

Marumaru Miki had recently overheard while she was in the Kirigakure market that projectiles often made noise. It was always either a "boom," a "thwak," or a "thud" or even a "zoom" while the arrow was cruising through the air. But Miki's projectiles never made such noises. Heck, they didn't even make noise at all! This made the young girl wonder whether or not she was doing something wrong. She was now concentrated on the task at hand because of that, firing arrows and senbon and kunai at random so that she could maybe produce something of a sound from them. But alas all her attempts resulted in nothing more than failure. "Gah! Stupid... stupid little... Ugh! Why can't I get this right?!" She spoke to herself, mumbling under her breath. Her brow was creased in frustration.

Having run out of projectiles again, Miki leaped from the tower. Again, not even her landing made a single sound. Her footsteps didn't either. And even though the ground was wet and there was mud everywhere, she left no footprints behind. Miki had never thought much of it. She made it out to be something simple, like maybe she walked wrong or something. The same applied to her lack of presence, her inability to be sensed at all. It was just something common to her, something that likely happened to everyone else. To her, it wasn't a special trait or gift. Swinging the large rifle over her shoulder, Miki started gathering the projectiles she had launched: conveniently, they spelled out her name on the ground. She cleaned the mud from them as she picked them up, cursing under her breath as she did so and occasionally letting out the frustrated yell.

“This is some bull.” Kazuya muttered under his breath as he walked along the path that would eventually lead to the Bloody Academy. This was supposed to be his day off and instead he was headed to do some work. Kazuya hated sitting around but he also didn’t like being forced into doing a job he didn’t want to do. This was all his father’s fault. His father who was a jounin of the village decided to give his son the task of going to the Bloody Academy and cleaning up a little bit inside and out. Kazuya couldn’t really say no so it was kind of forced upon him. “I should have took the scythe when I had the chance old man.” He said under his breathe like his father could hear him. He sighed figuring there was nothing to do now. He could only turn what seemed like a negative situation into a positive situation for himself.

For example on the bright side, he got to go to the location where the bloody ninja trials were held in the past. It was a location that had read up on but never actually went to visit and see for himself until today. Was it bad that Kazuya was kind of excited about that fact? That he was going to go to a location where many potential shinobi dead by the hands of their fellow village mates? He didn’t know why, but that thought caused him to grow smirk on his face. It all came down to survival of the fittest during those times he guessed. He wondered if he’d be able to survive the trials back in the day. There really was no way of telling but he liked to believe that he could have. The Bloody Academy was now in his sights. He wondered how much “maintenance” his father wanted him to perform on this old abandoned building. Then, Kazuya heard a yell coming from the distance. His left eyebrow raised in surprise and confusion. He didn’t expect anyone else to be at this location.

Kazuya took off in a dart for the remaining distance between him and the old academy in hopes that he would reach whoever it was before they left the area. Another yell was heard. Interesting. The young genin wondered what could be going on that this person would yell so. He skidded to a stop when he saw the source of the yell in the distance. Kazuya’s hopes and thoughts were right. Another person was here. A smile formed on the boys face at the sight. He was happy that he wouldn’t be all alone here or at least for the moment he wouldn’t be. He began to walk towards the person and as he walked he examined them. As he got closer and closer he realized that it was a girl. She seemed to be picking things from the ground. He took a mental picture of her and stored it in his head. That was how he remembered people. He may not remember your name, but he will for sure remember your face. “Why hello there,” Kazuya said when at a close enough distance from the person but not too close. He continued, “Is everything alright? Would you like some help since I’m supposed to pick up around here anyway?” with a friendly smile. “Oh I’m sorry where are my manners? Kazuya Adechi at your service.” the genin added and bowed, but not like the traditional bow. He bowed like he was addressing royalty. He lowered himself to one knee and everything.

He smirked before looking back up at the girl and standing up. Of course he really didn’t think the girl was royalty, although the possibility was there. Not likely, but still there. She couldn’t be that much older than he was if she was older at all. Before his bow he had noticed that surprisingly, he was taller than her. This made him smile on the inside. Normally he was shorter than the people he encountered. The genin decided to await a response from her before he would rise to his feet again.

Miki was now pulling at her hair, ten kunai, ten bolts and ten senbon now gathered around her as she sat on the ground, grumbling and trying to come up with some explanation as to why this wasn't working at all. Maybe she needed to revisit that old exorcist... There was a funny story behind that. Well, it was funny to Miki. Mostly everyone else would think of it as sad. The young girl had come across a small village while travelling.

Because of her natural characteristics, because of the scars on her body and because of the eerie way in which she could not be heard, sensed, smelled or even seen on some occasions, she was called a demon. They threw stones at her to drive her away. The fact that she didn't even flinch at the pain served only to build even more fear in the villagers. But Miki interpreted it as concern. She thought they were trying to expel an evil spirit from her body. So she left to find someone who called himself an exorcist that did nothing more than take her money and recite false chants. And even so, that was one of the first times that Miki had felt loved.

The young girl was absorbed in her own thoughts. She didn't notice someone else approaching her. So she let out a loud yelp in surprise and sprang to her feet, leaping back automatically. Then she looked at the young boy in front of her and relaxed. He introduced himself in what was commonly considered a very polite way and even offered to help. Miki understood the latter, but why had he bowed like that? Hell, Miki didn't even know what a bow was. Such things were lost on her. She shok her head as if to physically vanish the feeling of confusion. "What was that just now? Did you drop something?" She asked, innocence evident in both her tone and expression. "In any case, I'm Marumaru Miki!" She introduced herself rather excitedly. She rarely got to talk to people like this. She smiled widely, adjusting the oversized gun over her shoulder.

The green haired kunoichi picked up the projectiles she left behind and proceeded to momentarily put them in her weapon's pouch. She would load them into the gun later. There was little need for that now, after all. "I'm done picking up! Back to the tower! Yosh!" She said, turning around and running back towards the Academy. She stopped dead in her tracks when she remembered what the boy had said before. She walked back to him quickly. "Why would you want to clean? It's fine as it is!" She protested. The young girl was satisfied with the place. The dirt and disarray made it feel more... home-y, so to speak. She really did like staying here.

Kazuya watched the girl shake her head, so he took that as a no she didn’t need any help, not that she was confused. He rose from his bowed position. She then asked him if he had dropped something in a confused and innocent type of tone. On the inside this made him kind of confused himself but before he could open his mouth and address it, she continued. She gave him her name and in an exciting tone. ”Well it’s nice to meet you Miki Marumaru,” the genin said in hopes that repeating her full name would aid his brain in remembering it. He watched as she picked up the remaining projectiles that she had dropped, announced that she was done and then took off. As she turned and began to run away Kazuya raised a hand and opened his mouth to let out a sound of protest but nothing came out. I guess his mind deemed that it wasn’t worth it because by the time he made a sound she would already be gone.

But his mind was wrong. The girl stopped suddenly and walked rather quickly back towards the genin. She asked why he wanted to clean and protested that the place was fine the way it was now. She sounded rather concerned about him coming to tidy up the area a bit. ”Trust me, I’m not coming to clean this place up by choice. My da- father is making me for some reason.” he said rolled his eyes. He laughed on the inside at him almost calling the man his dad. He was definitely not a dad. ”But, you say the place is fine the way it eh?” he said with a raised eyebrow. He believed that he just found a way to get out of his work. He turned his head to look around the area that they stood for a moment before turning back to her. ”Well, this is my first time here and since you say the area is fine, I’ll assume you know more than I do about this place.” he said with a smile. A smile that would say thank you for getting me out of this tedious task I was assigned.

Now he was faced with a new dilemma. He had come out all this way for nothing? Well not necessarily for nothing. He had met somebody. But he would hate to just say a few words to this person and leave the place. He thought about the two options he could do now. He could a) go back to the village and see if there was something for him to do there, or b) stay here and explore. The latter sounded like the more fun option. ”Hey Miki. Since I don’t have to clean up, would you mind walking with me around the place? Like I said, this is my first time here. Maybe you could even give me a little tour?” he said and shrugged. If she complied that’d be fun, but if she didn’t he would just explore himself. Either of those two results would be ok to the genin.

[Exit]

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