The sand grounds were nearly empty this early in the morning. There were a few testing the limits of their abilities on the training dummies or sprinting laps, but only the truly determined and the mad had arrived before sunrise. Perhaps some were both.

In one corner of the training grounds Akarui slowly rose and fell, doing pull ups from a rickety old bar of the same name. In a sleeveless white hooded shirt and khaki capris, it was obvious his arms were tired and as red as his hair. Even his face was beginning to turn red as he began to grit his teeth.

Usually Akarui abhorred this kind of visible representation of emotion. It went against his training in the Kōga clan. When he felt he had sufficient privacy like today however, it was not at all rare for Akarui to allow himself these moments to express his frustration through body language.

The shinobi began to feel his form slipping as he continued this, and his bodily self control even began to slip as he started grunting at the burning sensation in his arms. Akarui knew  he needed to stop, but there was something in him that gave him a certain desire to keep going until he collapsed. It was only when he heard the shuddering moan of the metal itself that Akarui realized his mistake.

Not one moment later he was laying on his back, the rusty bar of metal held between his hands. Now a new soreness joined that in his arms emanating from his back and backside both. Akarui closed his eyes for a moment and took a long breath outwards in an attempt to calm himself, but frustration quickly overcame his shell of concentration. The man took the bar in one hand and hurled it violently at the remains of the structure from which it came. Once again, however,  Akarui met the consequences of his mistake as a sharp pain ripped through his already overtired right bicep, and he winced in pain, left hand leaping to helplessly hold the sore muscle.


Akarui groaned as he lay back down, staring upwards as the sky slowly became ever lighter. It seemed to him that the day's training was already over even as the day itself was just beginning. With yet another uncharacteristic groan, he closed his eyes and prepared to nap until the pain from Sunagakure's innevitable sunburns woke him up later in the day.

416

Today was what he could call....yes, normal. This was the new normal.

Taede was on his way to the place that he loved to hate: the Tsumi Sand Grounds. It was a rather dreadful place....the oasis nearby did nothing to help one's training in the only area of packed sand that was nearby. Rather, it made it unbearable to even walk on one's hands; Taede was doing so, and it was getting to be the same for him, and he had only passed the halfway point from his house to there.

Hand-stand walking: Yes, this was the new normal. Rather, alternating hand-stand-walking.


Sometimes, Taede wondered if he should have just stayed with his old version of "normal". He thought on this as he hopped from one hand to the other, his rather loose, untucked shirt draping down near his chin and then bouncing as he switched hands. Just before his recall: I forgot my sandals....I can't get myself too scuffed up, eh.

Just that morning, the young adult had gotten up long before his parents. Odd for a Genin to do that, one might say. But, being ten years older than most academy students, one had to give him a bit of credit. He had spent his time fairly wisely, he would say. Foremost, he set water to boil; his routine had him getting done just in time to have his tea and breakfast. He had to be nigh on silent in order to not wake his parental units, a true padfoot; thus, his trip to their rooftop was often filled with wiles that most would deem unnecessary.

But his garden needed watering. It was one of the few hobbies that the still-young ninja could cling to that would even relatively make him look civilian. For having such a small terrace on top of the Koizumi home, Taede made good use of the space. He even went so far as to make trellaces for some of the more photo-philic plants to grow onto, letting the house be relatively cool compared to the other residences. His part-shade plants, the fruit-and-vegetable bearers, were his most preferred, for good reason; a juicy bite of nearly anything would do one wonders in the desert, dying or not. It just so happened that one of his larger fruit-producing shrubs was in-season; the Wasteland Pomme was a delicacy to him, so he took one for eating with breakfast and two for later.

The late Genin sat and ate in silence except for a single, unheard "Itadakimasu."

Upon finishing his tea, he stood with another seemingly unnecessary "Gochisosama." In a matter of seconds, he had already set out, hands on the ground and Pommes in his side-pockets. He sometimes didn't have much foresight, but was well aware of what being upside-down did to the contents of one's pockets.

The Genin, of course having just started his career as a ninja, was rather exhausted already once he had arrived at his destination. However, being a "civilian" turned combatant, he could hardly afford to slack in his efforts. It'd taken him years to finish in the Academy, and he would not let himself slip now that he'd come so far. The Sand Grounds, at this time, were all but deserted for three or four others. Taede looked at himself, and did a half-hop, half-flip back up onto his feet. Looking again, Taede could see very well that he was not as equipped for training as the others. At the very least, his clothes were not....how does one say, workout-intensive. A loose, tan-white shirt with his normal ribbon-tie, and some comfortable green-brown linen pants, rolled up to just below his knees. Even if it wasn't as resilient, at least it was nice to wear and even nice to train in. To fear laundry or even mending was something for weaklings.

The only thing Taede could do at this point was train. None of those present looked anything close to wanting to do so in any sort of "together" way; he had only asked one, but the other two seemed quite engrossed. Thus, the adult amongst children had to make his own way. Mainly, some of the dummies that had managed to endure both previous sessions of training and the harsh environment that was the Land of Wind: an exception to his normal routine, the punches and kicks didn't faze him due to it being an inanimate object. Even so, he had to hone his offensive skills, for the sake of being able to end a fight if need be.

Since the others paid little mind to him, Taede did the same in kind to them. However, a specific sound and utterance managed to draw the curious one's attention. He never could resist knowing the "why?" behind everything that happened. It was one of his faults, he thought.

"Damnable piece of junk!"

He only heard this after a metallic, straining groaaaan and a squeek! followed by something like a ker-chunk-chaaang. Sometimes Taede was glad he kept these descriptions inside his own head. Somehow, he thought that people would belittle him for it.

At any rate, the one who spoke was on the ground. Delightful....the training equipment had gone and broken itself. This is what they got for living in Sand-Storm Central. "Hey! What just happened!?" was all Taede could manage before immediately stuttering into silence. This should patch it up.... It was a wonder that he had managed to be here at the right place at the right time; his eyes displayed his sense of urgency along with a hint of calm stemming from his own relief. With a sigh, he set one hand touching the arm he was clutching - only with the lightest and slightest of contact - and the other hand in a fist above it, forming the Reverse Dog seal, the fame-less ninja toiled silently at his humble profession. He whispered what he was doing, almost as if to himself, placid in action; he trailed into silence saying it a few times, softer, softer. "Kesu no Jutsu..."

---

It did not take more than a few minutes for his fellow Suna-nin's arm to be back to its normal. Yes, fixing up his comrades and peers was....the new normal. "Tell me, did you eat today? He said this as the very first thing after he was done. Regardless of the answer, he pulled out both of his Wasteland Pommes, one from each of his side pockets. They thankfully didn't bruise from any of his kicks....

At any rate, he tossed one to the one he spake, and took a bite out of his own. They were sweet and bitter, with a slight acidic tang to them, and an almost gingery spice as the faintest aftertaste. He was in love with these jewels. "Itadakimasu." did he say again, under his breath only because it was half to himself, half to nobody in particular. It was notably muffled at the end two syllables, his mouth having been filled with delicious fruit. Delightful, this is....

Taede was a man with nothing to hide.

140/150:

[1220]

[68 words to train one stat up to E-1. 68*5=340. 340/340 words: All stats to E-1 complete.]
[135 words to train up one stat from E-1 to E-2. 135*5=675. 675/675 words: All stats to E-2 complete.]

[340+675=1015. 1220-1015=205 words left over.]

Akarui grumbled to himself in pain until he heard someone calling to him. "Hey! What just happened!?" The other shinobi seemed to approach quickly from Akarui's point of view, though the other shinobi's initial confidence quickly descended into stammering. Still, Akarui's pride was easily wounded, and his attempt to conceal his flushed face and embarrassment at failing to hold to the traditional, stoic Kōga persona was painfully obvious. Stifling a grunt, the young shinobi sat up as the stranger approached him. With an almost overly serious tone, he attempted to express what had happened in the most vague way he could imagine. "Nothing, nothing. The bar just broke. I should be alright."

Before Akarui knew it, however, the strange shinobi was already hard at work attempting to heal the wounds he had been trying so hard to ignore. Usually Akarui found medical ninjutsu tedious; it never seemed to work as well on him as it did for others so he was often locked into awkwardly long waits with medi nin who became ever more frustrated at the ineffectiveness of their jutsu on their patient. There seemed to be something odd about this shinobi though. There was something that was just a little bit odd. Perhaps it was the way he mumbled everything he was doing to himself under his breath, or the way he went from overconfidence to stammering in record time. No matter what it was, it certainly put Akarui off of his social game, and throughout the procedure his face was constantly in a three way tug of war between proud Kōga stoicism, threatened glares, and questioning raised eyebrows.

Within seconds after the other shinobi was finished, he had already tossed some odd fruit into Akarui's hands. For a moment Akarui's mouth hung open almost in shock, blown away by the odd way with which his new acquaintance carried himself. This was especially difficult for Akarui to overcome due to the training of his clan in reading the body language of other shinobi; Taede seemed to break every rule and move on with what he was doing without a second thought. Truly perplexing. "Tell me, did you eat today?" Before Akarui could give a proper answer, Taede had already taken a bite of his fruit, and Akarui could do naut but offer a smirk, taking a bite of his own fruit. "Now I have." He sat up a little straighter now, hugging his knees with one arm.

For a little while Akarui acted as though this were an entirely normal situation, but over the course of about a minute a sense of weirdness clouded over his thoughts like a fog. "Say uhm... what's your name." He said it more like a statement than a question, as though what's-your-name was who he was speaking to. "Why'd you rush over here so fast anyhow? It seems almost too nice a thing a to do to interrupt your training, expend your energy healing a minor injury, and share your lunch all in the course of a single morning." Akarui smirked awkwardly now. "I'm Kōga by the way. Kōga Akarui. I should have started with that first. Either that or thank you. One or the other." He gave into the awkwardness at this point, chuckling in a nervousness that he had not expressed visually in quite some time, and partaking in the fruit once more. Avoiding eye contact by this point, he stared over at his sword, which rested pretentiously on the support of the once pull up bar.

602 + 416 = 1018

The Suna-nin was not thoroughly sure of what to think of this meeting. People like this....were they the new normal? He didn't know much of this ninja, for sure, but he certainly seemed quite....disinclined, or at least not-eager, to continue interactions. Not that Taede minded, of course....it was a rather silly thing, to be awkward. As he ate, the Genin smiled a bit, knowing full well that he did at least a tiny bit of good today. Helping, helping....at least that normal stayed even after he had chosen to change venues.

Taede sometimes wondered how things would have been if he had stayed working at those mines. It was at least a steady source of income, with minimal chance of death....well, except for that one time.

It beat down, as usual. Unrelenting, unbowing, almost unbearable at times, dare he think "painful".

But Taede was lucky enough to be paid to do this, not be under a whip, or anything else, for that matter. Heh. I should stop complaining, at least I'm getting decent wage for work. The young man knew all too well of what was happening not even five kilometers away, yet he was powerless to do anything about it. He'd be silenced, probably fired.

So he toiled under the sun, trying to empty his mind. That always made him at ease. But a rumbling....who was causing it? Where was it? He was at the edge of the mine, so....who could it----

Boom. Bam. Kapow. The teen from the Koizumi family couldn't say what it sounded like. He would never remember it. He knew he heard it, but he never recognized what he heard. He was on the ground before he could do that.

It was little embarrassing, remembering that his onomato--whatever it's called, words for sound descriptions....that his habit of doing so ran back so far was a little disheartening. And after all the work he'd done studying language, too...

Yet suddenly he felt at a loss for words. It was almost even more embarrassing than his current situation....what does one even say to someone who puts out so few words, themselves?

A sudden reprieve.

"Say uhm... what's your name."

A small pause, and the young man eagerly filled what he could. "Taede...Koizumi Taede." He said this in no rehearsed fashion, as if making sure it was still familiar to him. Perhaps even re-affirming that it indeed belonged to him. In particular, the full speaking of his given and family names seemed to be especially slow and pensive. A small part of the young man hoped that he didn't come off as an impostor.

"Why'd you rush over here so fast anyhow? It seems almost too nice a thing a to do to interrupt your training, expend your energy healing a minor injury, and share your lunch all in the course of a single morning."

The genin had to search himself for an answer, here. He visibly was delving himself for what might have possessed him to do so. He just came upon some semblance of an answer when his yet-unnamed acquaintance had spoken once more.

"I'm Kōga by the way. Kōga Akarui. I should have started with that first. Either that or thank you. One or the other."

The silence that followed yielded a chuckle from Akarui, and something entirely different from Taede. "Ehehemhmhm....Ahahahaha! Ahhh, you know, you don't have to refer to yourself by your family name, eh? You're among peers. Your lessers, even. At any rate...I suppose I act without thinking on some situations. A comrade in need of any amount of assistance just happens to be one of them."

Taede sat for a small while, allowing the silence and whatever other conversation accompanying it to permeate him. "Ah, apologies for this....but, erm....I'm a bit, ah, - he tapped his ear - hard of hearing. I didn't quite catch your given name." He whispered this for unnecessary emphasis. Taede had submitted, by this point, to the awkwardness that he knew was present between them. After a short pause for whatever his acquaintance might say, a hearty laugh arose from the ninja as he looked skyward, while he still could. The sun would rise fully in short order, no doubt.

The newly-begun shinobi sighed to himself a little. If only a little, he wished something he did could bring him closer to others. This sprung only because of his insecurity (or perhaps just being unsure) towards whether his act just now had any effect at all. He would have to do something about this, later. Yes, something to bring the entirety of Suna together was a splendid idea. He was still clueless on what, exactly, would execute this vague thing that was still in his head. But that....that was for later.

[830]

203 words to train 1 stat to E-3. 203*5=1015.

830 this post + 205 leftover from last post =1035.

1015-1035= 20 words remaining. Hell yes, all stats trained to E-3.

The name echoed in Akarui's head as it broke the long, awkward silence. He did not recognize the name, but the strange way in which Taede said it made it stick within the young shinobi's head. Akarui became somewhat more encouraged by this and was spurred on to ask the stranger's motives, but unwilling to risk another awkward silence, he went on to offer his own name. At Taede's response Akarui became somewhat flushed. It was a rare occasion that he was outright laughed at for his mannerisms, but he was sure it was not meant to mock or to step on his reputation.

"I uhm. I wouldn't say lessers at all." Regret hit Akarui almost immediately as he said this, sending his face and his hand on a collision course. "I mean, of course not! We're just fellow shinobi right? Complete equals, unless you're my superior." The young shinobi sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he continued to  rant. He usually was not this socially inept, but the situation almost demanded that he learn how to act from scratch. When Taede mentioned that he was hard of hearing, Akarui only felt worse for it. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I mean... not for the being hard of hearing. Er... maybe for that too. Not that you can't do everything on your own I mean! I just meant sorry for mumbling!" Akarui sighed with a groan, going to stand and get his blood flowing. This was simply too much for him to handle while sitting still. "You can call my Akarui, Taede. It's good to meet you." The young shinobi mustered all that he could of a smile at this point, shaking his head in a positive motion towards the ground near Taede at this point.

He needed something to clear his head. All this social maneuvering was truly taking its toll on Akarui's reflexes. With a swift movement, the young man drew the rusty katana he had recieved from the Tsuchikage from its sheath on his lower back, channeling chakra in two directions along its shaft until a vibrant blue chakra blade appeared. Moving fluidly into a stance as he approached the remains of the the pull of bar supports. Gracefully, with a circular motion more akin to the use of a jian than a katana, Akarui sliced cleanly through the dry wooden support, and it came falling lightly into the sand with a pat. The swordsman smiled at the cut, glad to have at least started clearing his head. There was little that helped his mood than practicing form, and nothing that cleared his head better than being in a good mood.

Just then, however, the most absurd thing happened. In the summer, in Sunagakure of all places, it began to rain. Not just a light sprinkle, no; it was a  legitimate downpour. Akarui looked up almost in shock for a few seconds, heavy droplets of water blasting into his thick red hair like artillery fire into a hillside. "Shit!" was all he could say to himself as he swung his katana wildly to get it back into its sheath, almost in direct contrast to the grace with which he had handled it earlier. In his haste, the blade slid horizontally across his stomach, leaving a half inch cut into his sleeveless hooded shirt and flesh. Even as he winced in pain, he reached out to grasp for Taede's hand, attempting to drag him with him out of the sand grounds. Either way, as the sand began to saturate, Akarui's shoes began to suck into the muck more and more with every step, the effort causing him to bleed all the more prolifically from his body wound. Soon enough, the suction of the newly formed mud caused his shoes to be forced violently off of his bare feet. Akarui did not give them a second though at this time as he made for higher ground, possibly still dragging Taede behind him. Soon enough, the unceasing drum of water on the tin roof of the dugout-style shelter was heard from the top of the hill. Akarui's breathing was fast and ragged as he entered under the flimsy, leaking shelter of the dugout, which was obviously meant to protect from the sun rather than the rain. As he sat down on the bench in the shelter, Akarui grimaced at his new wound which bleed even as his completely soaked body and clothes dripped water with the blood. Only then would Akarui have taken back his hand in an attempt to staunch the wound. "Great luck I have today, huh?" Akarui smirked as he looked downwards into his water saturated lap.

798 + 1018 = 1816

Chakra:

"I uhm. I wouldn't say lessers at all. I mean, of course not! We're just fellow shinobi right? Complete equals, unless you're my superior.....Oh, I'm so sorry! I mean... not for the being hard of hearing. Er... maybe for that too. Not that you can't do everything on your own I mean! I just meant sorry for mumbling!"

A bit bemusing, it should be said.

Perhaps 'interesting' alone would do?

If it was anyone, it was Kōga Akarui. All turned around, flustered, even, by a simple thing a stranger said. He had heard of this clan...always teaching its disciples not to show emotion. It was a bit of knowledge one picked up on the street, with the Kazekage being from the clan and whatnot.

A pit formed in Taede's chest at the thought that these people did not partake in some of the joys that he felt every day. His boistrous laughs, even the happiness (or at least the relief) one feels at letting out tears and wails, purging sadness from the human form. It was a bit saddening, he supposed. Another one of the constructs that people formed seemingly without a cause. It was not part of Taede's normal, at any rate....but he could live with it. He knew the absurdity of trying to change things that would not budge. After all, his training taught him to be the immovable object, not the unstoppable force.

By no means, then, did the Koizumi lad have any reason to feel pity or frustration toward his peer-ninja, nor the clan that he belonged to. It was, as Taede presumed, quite nice having a clan either way to belong to, especially under such a reputable name. He still didn't know who he was, not truly. A bunch of scrolls ultimately taught him only what lay in battle. Nothing detailed his family history. His parents doddered a bit too much to be of use in his quest to find whatever larger tree he fell from. As he thought of his parents, especially in this way, he closed his eyes for a moment and sent his thoughts out to him. May you be happy.

As the shinobi beside him stood and gave him a friendly means of address, Taede shook his head as he looked upwards in the direction of the face of his new acquaintance, noting what he had on him, and where his hand was going....

And then it happened. He put his hand on his katana. Taede, very truth-fully, and did not quite know what to expect. Having been sitting on his bottom, he positioned his arms and hands as a support, quickly moving from a kneel to a stand. In the process of rising to a fully-standing state, the ninja made sure to use his momentum from said movement to step-off a bit, landing a tad uneasily on one foot. He quickly adjusted his stance to have his legs a bit less than shoulder-width apart, and his arms slightly bent, ready to dart at anything oncoming.

All this he did on pure impulse. It was impressive even to Taede how much one's training can pay off. His relentless practice the past few days had given him impeccable muscle-memory when it came to the basics. Of course, he had enough time while reacting to the gripping of the katana his (psuedo-?)friend had strapped to his back to notice that the attack was not meant for him. What seemed to be a chakra-imbued slash had decapitated one of the poor dummies. He does know people pay for those, right? And that we have to install the new ones...? A pall of dark irony clouded over the young man's form for only an instant, his chakra muddled enough to, comically enough, take physical form in the way that he only couldn't make it do consciously. At any rate....

The Koizumi's only son was standing here, braced for attack, against someone he thought was an ally and friendly unit. Whether he could be sure of that now....was something that most people would take as uncertain. Swinging a sword randomly to decapitate something on a whim was not ordinarily an act that one could consider trustworthy, with the lack of a background check considered.

Taede, however, was not that person. In fact, he proceeded to what happened next as if the faux-gory, cotton-filled execution had never even taken place. At this point, the late-to-graduate Genin had only in the back of his mind noticed that it had started to rain. RAIN. In the middle of this terrible desert area, of all places, and practically with a cloudless sky. He wasn't sure how he managed to miss that.

However, it hit him as clearly as the cup-full raindrop that assailed him square on the top of his noggin. He got it quite quickly, then. Yet his attention was torn away, yet again, from the thing he had just decided to focus on. Yes, Akarui was flailing at the rain. "It was sudden and all, but...." was the only thing he could manage, half to himself, and half to the rain that most likely drowned him out - no pun intended.

Another thing happened right before Taede's eyes.

"SHIT!"

For some reason, that resounded in his ear much, much louder than some of the earlier half-talkings that they had shared before. It was almost enough to make Taede want to cover his ears in slight pain....but he could deal with it. What could not be dealt with, though, was the slash that Akarui had managed to effect on himself. He had been whipping his head around in confusion, and at the time, was looking away from Akarui.

However, the young man did not even get enough time to think, as the Kōga clans-man had dragged him off without a second musing as to the matter. He hadn't an inkling to where he was being taken, but it was certainly not here. By his collar was he pulled, Akarui the proverbial horse, he supposed. It mattered little, at any rate; Taede's clothes were already dirty from having trained. A bit of un-adulterated muck would do little further harm to these. He had to wash them all anyhow....A sigh came from the Koizumi's mouth, mostly at a level only he could hear. But then again, his hearing didn't always serve him right, so he couldn't be quite sure if he was accurate in sighing softly enough. Some thicker mud had arrived, and it had seemed that Akarui's shoes had come off. Taede managed to hook his fingers in the shoes, and hung onto them as he was dragged on his bottom to who-knows where.

They had seemingly arrived at the place called Who-Knows-Where, a small, vacant place. It was, at first glance, a residence; a note on the table said otherwise. Rather, it was a place where those training at the Tsumi Sand Grounds could stay for the night if need be. They did ask that those who used it cleaned up after themselves, though.... a pain.

"Great luck I have today, huh?

A rhetorical question? or.....?


Once more did Taede initiate his minute craft, though at this time he was much calmer than the first. No more was he whispering his jutsu to himself. Rather, a stern - or was it simply focused? - expression beset his face as he mended the wound that was so unfortunately inflicted.

It took not more than a few minutes of concentrated, silent (awkward?) effort to knit the laceration closed. Taede looked out the window as he finished, and spoke.

His expression immediately became some un-jovial form of "deadpan". It was a very stark contrast compared to his normal social fare of laughter and expression. This was, of course, because---

Akarui winced at first as Taede tended to his embarrassing self inflicted wound. Haste and recklessness had once again put the young shinobi in a compromising situation and once again Taede had stepped in to help. It was a frustrating thought for Akarui that he was so consistently making a fool of himself in his early days as a shinobi. On a simple day of training he had injured himself not only once, but twice. And yet here was Taede cleaning up his mistakes for a second time. For the majority of the healing Akarui looked to Taede with a curious expression, still trying to figure out why he was doing what he did and whether or not it annoyed him that he had to expend all his energy fixing another's stupid mistakes. He did not know whether to draw comfort or anxiety from the fact that Taede was much calmer with his healing this time around. Was he more comfortable with the situation now, or had the clumsiness the first time around merely been an act of politeness, and now he was regretting his decision?

Just as the medical ninja was finishing up, however, something else caught Akarui's eyes: his own shoes of all things. If he were not so surprised, he was sure his jaw would have dropped. Had Taede really expended the effort to save his shoes? For a moment, all of Akarui's thoughts came rushing back through his head.  Furrowing his brow, he turned back to Taede with a bit lip. There were definitely things he needed to figure out, but at this point he was certain he would not figure them out just by looking. If he had expended that effort just for shoes, surely Taede was not upset, right? Surely this meant he pitied Akarui in some way, or was just trying to be friendly. For the moment Akarui decided to try being content with the current situation. he let out a noticeable sigh as smiled genuinely at the healer beside him.

Soon however, the moment of content was replaced by a pang of annoyance.


What a bittersweet feeling it was as the rain stopped. Akarui moaned as he leaned forward in his seat, placing his face in hands as his soaked red hair dripped onto his knees as well as the floor. Not only had he become grimy on his rush to escape the rain. Not only had he almost lost his shoes in the thick wet sand. Not only was he now soaked to the bone as a reward for his efforts to escape that very situation. Not only had he cut himself on his own blade in a reckless attempt to escape the inescapable. No, he had also dragged Taede through all this. Akarui looked up through the cracks in his fingers at the dirty clothes of his unpaid personal doctor for the day. He truly almost felt sick for the embarrassing situation he had put himself through. It was practically the nail in the coffin for his self esteem that Taede was still here, still trying to make the best of the situation. With a higher than normal pitched sigh, Akarui practically jumped to his feet, doing his best to stifle his reaction to the residual pain in his stomach from the sword wound. He turned then to Taede, offering an obviously manufactured grin to soften the outward expression of his inner maelstrom of anxiety.

"Thank you, Taede. I really can't express how much I appreciate all you've done to help today." Even as Akarui seemed to speak with an unnatural level of confidence, his tone was as fake as his smile. Soon however, that same smile turned into a frown as he looked to Taede's shoes, again recognizing that he himself was barefoot. "I uhm... I'm sorry for dragging you through all this. I was just trying to get us out of the rain. Lot of good that did us hmn?" A slight, embarrassed smirk presented itself as he finished this sentence as Akarui tried to cope with his emotions. Soon enough, an itch presented itself on Akarui's back and spread across his body; the punishment for wearing wet clothing, he presumed. With a quick turn, Akarui moved away from Taede over towards some promising drawers and a closet. He raised his voice at this point to compensate for his distance from Taede. "I'm going to see if I can find some towels in this place! Wouldn't want moldy clothes or a fungal infection, would we? I'm sure the heat would ruin us, soaked as he are!"

Akarui squatted as he neared one of the drawers. Pulling it open he found only pencils and paper pads, but he saw instead his thoughts. Why was he so uncomfortable in this situation? Why was he making such an effort? Akarui meaninglessly flipped through the writing supplies until he was sure ten times over that there were no portals to a towel dimension hidden beneath them. Even as he sought towels to clean himself off, he instead sought answers.

873 + 1816 = 2689

Thank you, Taede....I really can't express how much I appreciate all you've done to help today. I, uhm....I'm sorry for dragging you through all this. I was just trying to get us out of the mud."

Taede understood, and gave a simple nod. He sat in seiza at the short table in the center of the room, arms crossed. He was thinking on the problem of what to do about their clothes, when...

"I'm going to see if I can find some towels in this place! Wouldn't want moldy clothes or a fungal infection, would we? I'm sure the heat would ruin us, soaked as we are!"

He stroked his chin, thinking on this. He was right; this place had enough moisture that fungi could survive so long as the sand wasn't disturbed. With the rain like this and both of them probably kicking up more than enough sand....well, the hypothesis held.


The genin thought a bit more as he heard the rustling of drawers and cabinets, and he popped up another idea.

Akarui grumbled to himself, disgruntled as the drawers continued to offer him nothing. Even as it was quite plain to see that there were neither towels nor soap within the cabinets, there was something about the red head's pride that simply refused to accept another defeat today. Everything else had gone wrong for him, had they not? It simply seemed unfair to him that fate would set yet another simple task against him, making Akarui seem the fool in a wide range of situations. Even as he recognized his ineptitude in most things, he continued to huff, running a hand through his hair.

Meanwhile, Taede's polite suggestions entered one of Akarui's ears and exited another. Their content and associated character embedded themselves in his memory but were not analyzed at the moment he heard them, self engrossed as Akarui was. It was when Taede knocked on the table that the young shinobi was pulled back into reality, and he immediately ceased his grumbling and useless shuffling through objects unrelated to towels or personal hygiene. Slowly now, a smirk began to cross Akarui's face, and a genuine one at that. Nothing like the forced ones he often used in vain and arrogant attempts to charm people. As if to prove this to himself as much as Taede, he remained facing the drawers away from Taede for a few moments just to enjoy the prospect of being happy.

"Back to the village? Yeah, that could work." Akarui rose to his feet as he turned to face Taede, offering a smug grin and crossed arms. It had been quite some time since he had been to the hot springs and it seemed like the perfect opportunity. "Honestly, I don't care too much whether they wash my clothes. I'm willing to stay up late cleaning them if it means I can relax and unwind for an evening." I know I need it. He thought to himself, already back to criticizing himself even as he half-walked half-bounced over to Taede, who held open the door politely. He sniggered to himself as Taede gestured for him to move through, an Akarui offered him an exaggerated bow of the head in response as he walked through the doorway.

Akarui stretched his arms upward as he walked into the hot sun, humming out a single note as he soaked in the heat. For a few moments he continued walking slowly towards the village, but it soon became obvious that he walked alone. Turning in confusion, hands resting behind his head, he found Taede kneeling. This, of course, only caused Akarui to become more confused. Was he praying? Was he cleaning the doorway? Soon enough, the red head's curiosity was sated, and to Akarui's delight Taede blasted past him down the path towards the village. Chuckling in confusion and joy, Akarui chased after Taede, yelling and waving as he sprinted across the sand.



503 + 2689 = 3192
Training Katon B-rank -> A-rank (3000/3000) Complete!
192 words for the trash