The dense forest, home to many dangerous plant and wildlife species that pose a threat to any who may enter, or so they say. This ominous warning served mainly to deter outsiders and non-shinobi folk. Those within the village knew both that the actual danger presented by the wildlife in the forest was greatly exaggerated and the paths through the forest to take which would allow one to avoid danger altogether. The path which Sayomi chose was one less frequented, even by members of Konohagakure. It was a small trail through the forest just northeast of the Hyuga complex, off of their property and into the forest. The trail led to a hidden clearing within the forest. The clearing was covered by the canopy of the trees, letting in only beams of sunlight through the robust greenery that gleamed down as rays of light. Off to the back of the clearing was a small pond, filled by a small waterfall (barely 10 feet high) that was run off from the main river upstream.

Sayomi valued the solitude of this place. It was here she did a good deal of her training, especially her meditation. It was not uncommon for her to camp out here for days at a time when off of assignment and wanting a break from the village life. This was exactly one of those situations. It was the third day that Sayomi had been training in this grove. Remnants of a campfire, shinobi equipment littered on the ground, and a small bed spread laid out in the branches overhead were the clues any passerby would have seen to mark human presence in the area. Not that she was particularly concerned about people walking by. In her several years of coming to this clearing not once had she ever encountered anyone else. As far as she concerned it was her own little oasis.

Having risen early that morning to train, Sayomi had already finished her morning routine by the time the sun had risen even halfway to its peak in the sky. It was probably time for her to pack up and head back to her apartment in the village, but she wasn’t in a particular rush. She wanted to enjoy her sanctuary for just a bit longer. She would disrobe and head into the pond, leaving her clothes at the edge of the water and making her way to the small waterfall which she used as a shower. The water was deep enough to cover most of her body up to just below her collarbone. As a result, only her shoulders and up were visible as she began to wash her black hair beneath the waterfall.

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451~

The forest near the Hyuuga compound had been one of the greatest sanctuaries for Naomi during her tumultuous early childhood. It had come to pass on her birth that she was the sickliest of the new generation, and as such it had put her training on hold for quite some time, until her body could better handle the duress or such activities. She had chosen the nearby forest out of necessity, a Sun allergy had prevented her from living more openly and in the open, and the shade of the mighty trees and undergrowth provided her the escape from the harmful ultraviolet rays she needed when time at home had proven too difficult. She wished she could be as strong as her siblings, or even her cousins, but nothing about her frail form would improve with bulk, forcing her to rely strictly on speed and grace.

She had traveled into the darkened environment which she had used as sort of a second home away from the compound, enjoying the serenity of the natural world. Naomi had grown to appreciate the world's beauty for all it possessed, from the towering trees all the way down to the earthworm that served as the inner workings of the soil in which they grew. This place was a sanctuary to her; though it seemed someone had disturbed the area of late.

Not knowing the nature of the visitor in the forest near her home she opted to return to the compound upon initial discovery, retrieving charcoal and paper, hoping to catch the face of the intruder. Without understanding their motivation, she set out up a large tree, relying on her Supernatural Walking Practice to carry her where her strength would fail her in the climb up, and went into observation mode. On the second day she saw her guest, and began to sketch when the subject offered little to no movement for her to study the angles and features of the woman's form. Whether or not she remained hidden, she had no idea, she had turned herself from Kunoichi to artist with the first quiet strokes of the very first drawing.

Her observation continued all the way up to and during the entry into the small pond, sketching what she saw without regard to the subject's feelings on the matter. Naomi was proud of this one aspect of her life, the practice and skill she put into her artistic practices may not have been fully practical but she was content with the pieces, seven in total. Several were passive, the woman sitting quietly in contemplation much like Naomi would have done at home during a meditative focus, and the rest were action shots which she had done her best to capture as a snapshot in her mind and transfer to the paper. One of them was a slightly unflattering image of the stranger eating, and the rest had weaponry, save for the final image in which she captured the woman's backside just as she dipped into the pond. It was an indulgent piece but nothing she was ashamed of drawing. Now that the woman was effectively disarmed though, it was the perfect time for her to enter the small camp and introduce herself to an otherwise seemingly unaware guest.

"I come to this place often." she announced in a serene tone, holding her sketch pad at her side as she seated herself on the edge of the pond and began on one final drawing, the woman below the waterfall washing her hair, whether or not she took kindly to being an artistic subject was of no concern to her as it had never really come up on the Hyuuga compound. Her family made no fuss of her drawing them, even posing sometimes for the little artist. Her smile was not a veiled attempt to mask hostility, it was genuine and she was genuinely curious about the woman that had found the small pond, who was she and what did she like about the forest that drew her to this place?

"What is it about the forest that draws you in, I find peace in the quiet and safety in the shade, personally." Naomi said, still happy to be in the wooded area, her naturally shy nature all but absorbed by the artistic focus she had found in the past few days of passive observation. Remembering her manners this time she offered her name, "Well, my name is Naomi, by the way."

750

“The reason I came here was for the solitude and not to be gawked at by creeps hiding in the bushes,” Sayomi replied, making no qualms about the rather aggressive and irritated tone in her voice as she snapped back at the small girl interrupting her during her bath, “But obviously that is no longer something I can rely on, is it?” She glanced over at her clothing sitting at the edge of the water, pondering whether she should just get dressed, pack up, and leave now that her solitude had been disturbed. Since the intruder was just a small girl however, she didn’t feel the need to move or take more… violent measures.

The girl hardly seemed like a threat, even with those large, pale eyes clearly denoting her Hyuga lineage. Sayomi knew more than well enough that a doujutsu alone was not enough to make someone strong, and this girl seemed to be the poster child for that truth. Her body was small and frail looking. Her skin was almost as pale as her eyes and, at the very least, she didn’t have a particularly threatening demeanor. Either that or she was a very good actress, in which case Sayomi would deal with her when the time came. Sayomi’s glance would fall briefly to the pad that the girl held tucked under her arm, wondering why she had brought that all the way out here. Blackened smudges and stains around her hand more or less told the story, indicating that she was working on some manner of drawing. Sayomi eyed her suspiciously, wondering if she had been drawing Sayomi as she stood around hiding in the distance. Sayomi raised an eyebrow inquisitively, before turning back to face the waterfall and continue her bath.

“Do you always make it a point to stare at people from afar like a stalker before disturbing them while they bathe, little Hyuga?” Sayomi inquired in a snarky and callous tone, peering over her shoulder at her uninvited guest as she rung out her long black hair, “Surely you didn’t confront me to talk about the shade. What do you want?” Sayomi had no intention of sitting and making idle small talk with this stranger. This girl had not only interrupted Sayomi’s solitude, but had also been spying on the Uchiha woman from afar. She even had the audacity to approach her while she bathed. For someone who came from a clan that was so obsessed with propriety and tradition as the Hyuga clan, this girl sure didn’t seem to observe any social norms of courtesy.

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889~

Naomi had shown no tact in her approach, but in her mind there was no better way to trap someone in a conversation they had not asked for than this opportune moment. Social activity with strangers had been a rare thing up until the recent time in which she had become a Genin of the Hidden Leaf, it was time to try to break out of her shell. Perhaps it was not the best way to do so, but she never considered that the bathing woman would not want to have been observed. Almost every ounce of socialization the young Hyuuga had had in her short life was on her home compound with Main and Branch house members, and it seemed they had taken more kindly to her awkward behavior. Maybe though, her awkward behavior, was because she was simply accepted as the smallest and weakest of the clan, and not likely to be more than their little embarrassment. It was a stinging diminutive her older brother had applied, but she felt as if the rest of her siblings felt the same way even if they failed to speak their mind on the matter.

Her quiet nature had caught up with her, "Forgive me, but this has been a perfect chance for a study on the human form in all of its facets. Movement, rest, all of it has been fascinating from the perspective of an artist. I apologize if you were not aware of my presence, I made no real effort in keeping hidden so I figured you had just simply allowed me to continue. Sometimes sacrifices have to be made, and for this I had to behave in a less than proper way to get the chance to sketch a new subject. If you want I can destroy the drawings, but it would be a shame if you never got to see what it was I've managed to do just from the passive observation. Though I do understand it may have felt like stalking, my family has not really seen the threat in this type of behavior though. Honestly all I truly do is find a secluded spot and sketch, but so far you are the only non-Hyuuga I have managed to capture on paper. I hope you like them, I do practice quite hard to catch the minute details in each of my works, if you want you can have them to keep." she said placing her pad next to the woman's clothing. Naomi crossed her legs and sat patiently awaiting the stranger's judgment of her artwork, though she would likely have understood if she was told to leave, she was behaving rather inappropriately and could figure it had left a sour feeling in the bathing lady's heart.

1212

Sayomi listened to the Hyuga girl’s explanation, raising an eyebrow skeptically as she placed her drawing pad beside Sayomi’s clothing at the edge of the water. The girl seemed harmless enough, but was she really supposed to just buy that story and take what this girl was saying at face value? No one was that socially inept or ignorant to the norms of propriety to simply behave like that. Hell, she didn’t even apologize or acknowledge her wrongdoings of her own volition. Sayomi had to pull the acknowledgement of her stalking ways out of her and even then it was a rather half-hearted display.

Still, Sayomi was curious as to how the pictures came out. Sayomi was never one to shy away from her vanity, taking meticulous care of her appearance with very strict grooming regiments and of course splurging on clothing for herself. If the drawings came out well enough, there was a pretty good chance that she would take the girl up on her offer of keeping them, but if they ended up being unattractive or at least not attractive in the same meaning that Sayomi gave to the word, she wouldn’t ask for the Hyuga to destroy the works, she’d burn them herself.

“And how do you expect me to view your works from inside a pond, little Hyuga?” Sayomi inquired, a rather snarky tone in her voice, “Surely the water will ruin the pieces before I even get a chance to inspect them. Or did you expect me to everything that I was doing to indulge your habits?” It wasn’t as if it was getting out of the pond naked that was the problem for Sayomi. She was more than comfortable with her body, and besides the girl had already seen her naked anyway if she had been stalking her this whole time. Furthermore, the girl was a Hyuga. Anything she wanted to see she would already have had the chance to do so by virtue of the byakugan if she so chose. The water wasn’t going to serve as a particularly effective veil against the visual prowess of those eyes. This girl was just a child as well, there was very little reason for Sayomi to be shy.

This Hyuga’s childish behavior however, was beginning to work Sayomi’s nerves. Not only had her sanctuary been disturbed, but she was also stalked, used as a model for this strange child’s self-indulgent artwork without her consent, been blatantly disturbed while the bath, and now this child wanted to sit around and make small talk, trying to trap someone into critiquing her work? The fact that this girl said that this was the first non-family member she had captured on paper didn’t surprise Sayomi at all. Not with this behavior. Hell, Sayomi hated people, but at least she knew how to play along.

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1378~

"Well, I am perfectly content to await the completion of your bath, though you likely anticipated I would say that because I have yet to make a move to leave. That being said, I do not intend to leave until you have seen my work. Do forgive me though, when a subject knows they are being captured through any artistic medium they tend to behave...unnaturally. For what it was worth I feel I managed to pin down more minute details and mannerisms that you tend to use when you feel you are alone. Naomi said crossing her arms now, her gentle smile carrying with it a stern resolution to remain precisely where she pleased. It was noted that the woman had not particularly enjoyed her company thus far though, and should things turn sour she would be prepared to make her escape should the need arise. The Hyuuga hoped though, that the stranger would not resort to undue violence in the face of a rather friendly if not impromptu exchange.

For a moment Naomi pondered her own reaction should she have been in the very same situation her rather forced host had been in. She would have been decidedly annoyed, perhaps as much as the woman she had intruded upon in a rather rude manner. All the politeness in the world would not make up for that though, and so she simply went with the moment as it had played out. All she could tell was the biting tone of voice had come from the intrusion, but what seemed to have bothered the subject of her artistic habit the most was being watched. Certainly she could have found Naomi, the young girl had not made much of an active effort to remain hidden despite the small nest she had created for herself in the trees nearby, what had kept the bathing woman from noticing her? Was she too focused or did she truly not see the Hyuuga sketching only meters away?

An amusing concept truly, perhaps the sickly young girl had what it took to be a Kunoichi. When asked you about the forest I was genuinely curious as to what drew you to this single spot. I've been through this Forest time and again because it is the only safe place for me to travel during the day because of the shade these massive trees give. Things are quite difficult when one is allergic to the light of the Sun, but, I make due. That is why I train here in the woods, away from the open air of the compound or the village, because if I did train there I would blister and likely die from Sun poisoning. Trust me, when I say the forest is a sanctuary it really is, because even the small rays of sunlight that pierce the canopy near the edges can damage my skin and put me off for at least a day depending on how severely I had been exposed. she paused and looked up at the forest, and spoke as she stared at the green leaves that rustled in the gentle breezes, "If you did not notice me though, I suppose I would make a pretty good Kunoichi after all.

1759

Sayomi sat in the water and listened to the Hyuga girl speak, unamused by her visitors persistence and lack of propriety. To make matters worse, the little girl had her own sob story about her illness, or her sun allergies, or whatever. Her eyebrows would furrow angrily for a moment before finally the Uchiha woman would let out a long, defeated sigh. “Alright, alright, enough,” she groaned as she tilted her head back in frustration, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath as her face pointed skyward, “Fine, you win. I’ll look at you drawings if that’s what it will take to shut you up.” Sayomi would scowl a bit, eyes empty and uninspired, darting back and forth between the girl and the drawing pad with her work that she had set beside Sayomi’s own clothing.

Sayomi would expel air from her nostrils defiantly as she winced at the small Hyuga that still had her eyes glued to her. “You’re a stubborn little brat, aren’t you?” she growled, “For all of this persistence your work better be good.” Without a moment’s hesitation the Uchiha woman would begin stepping towards the edge of the water where the pad was left, raising herself out of the water and exposing her naked body with no shame. What did she have to be embarrassed about? There was no one here except for this little girl who had likely already seen her naked and could have easily done so at any time had she chosen to utilize her byakugan. Besides, Sayomi was proud of her body, so what would it matter to her if she were to show it off in all of its bare glory. The glistening and water dripping off of her curves was probably a bit much, but once again it was just a little girl.

After drying her hands off a bit on her towel that was located with her clothing, Sayomi picked up the pad, opening it up to begin perusing its contents. Not taking particular interest in the images that didn’t involve her, Sayomi decided just to skip through them as quickly as possible. After skimming through the first few pages and not finding her image, she simply flipped through the pad with her thumb until she reached the furthest back pages that were used. She scanned the images, seven in total, up and down as she judged their work, primarily on their perceived accuracy as to how Sayomi felt she should be presented. To her own surprise, the Uchiha was pleasantly surprised with the work that her little stalker had done, but maintaining a stern and emotionless expression as she viewed, being careful to not give anything away to the girl who was most likely still looking on. Her brows would furrow a bit as she came across the picture of her eating, cheeks full as she chewed on the fruit of her apple. An image that came out to be less than ideal by Sayomi’s standards. The second change in her facial expression would come at the site of an image of her naked backside as she plunged herself into the pond. She couldn’t help but smirk at the site of herself, even if it was a bit vain.

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1930~