The weather was chilly as a lone girl walked down the nearly empty streets. It was late at night, and almost all the lights were already off, leaving her out in the darkness as she made her way slowly through the cold streets back home.

The girl had dark hair going down to her shoulders, with a midnight blue dress, wearing a pair of stockings ending in knee-high boots. The most prominent feature of this girl, however, were the pair of fox ears that she had on her head, in place of regular human ears, which twitched every now and then as she walked silently down the street.

Kitsuchi Aizou was returning from a long day out of Kirigakure, something that was rare, especially for her. She didn’t do missions for the village because she was short on money - she probably had enough cash to let her live for one or two more decades, even with her superfluous spending. Unfortunately, Shoji, from Kirigakure’s administration section, had asked her for a personal favour to help him take care of a mission near the shores of the Land of Water, and she had accepted it thinking it was a simple mission.

A simple mission it was not, and Aizou only wanted to leave it at that, her migraine coming back at the thought of having been tricked into something like that. Then again, Shoji was always out to get her, as if his constant eyeing of her and snide comments didn’t already make it bad enough. Even so, the two of them were very close, and Aizou was aware that his torment of her was only one in a never-ending cycle of them tormenting each other in public, of them as friends and enemies and friends again.

She heard thunder rumble in the sky and her fox ears drooped slightly as the first drop of rain hit her. She let out a sigh when it began pouring, and withdrew her hands from her pockets to hug herself, providing some extra warmth until she could reach her home. She was severely out of it today, otherwise Aizou would have done something more in-character and cursed at Mother Nature for having ruined her walk home, or maybe even stampeded her way to the administration building just to give Shoji hell while she waited for the rain to abate.

The way she was now, though, Aizou was too exhausted to do anything. Heck, she was too exhausted to deal with this rain. And so, she walked alone in the rain, trying to make her way back home.

WC: 438

Hyouga was walking home alone, having come back from the marketplace. He was currently topless, with only his jeans and shoes, with the Kiri symbol tattooed on his left chest, and a few bruises visible on his upper body as a result of a recent fight he had accidentally gotten into with some drunks at the marketplace before he managed to break it up (and by that he really meant win).

As usual, he had spent some of his nights loitering about the areas where he was most likely to gain information. Tonight had been the marketplace, and it had also been the night that some of the local thugs were visiting the marketplace as well, trying to cause a little chaos and push people around as a foolish show of power before he beat them all up. Those people were a pest, especially since their presence actually ruined his little attempt to get information on a girl, Jade Yamada, whose parents were now his foster parents and still missed her a great deal. She had all been presumed dead, by the village and her relatives, ever since she got kidnapped by slavers a good nine or ten years ago, with only her parents holding out hope that she was still living.

Hyouga himself had no love for Jade. No actual love, at least, because he had never met her. But, he had witnessed firsthand how much her parents loved her, even bringing a picture of the three of them with them from Iwagakure, and that was enough to earn her his respect for a while, while also spurring him onto a journey to look for her, for her parents’ sake. Unfortunately, the world was a large place, and finding a generic girl like Jade with no outstanding features or hair colour was even worse than finding a needle in a haystack, since no one even knew if she was alive.

But he had to believe. Jade’s father (and now also his father) had placed his unwavering trust into the fact that Jade was still alive, and Hyouga didn’t want to be the first one to break that trust out of the circle of people who he cared about.

He was currently trying to get back home, his mood a little spoiled after his recent failure. He hadn’t heard any news about Jade, and people were careful to be around him at the marketplace tonight, since he had shown that he could beat up a gang of four people without much trouble. This search was beginning to grate on his nerves. It wasn’t the search itself, though. No, he would continue searching until he found her, even if she was far beyond the borders of Kirigakure or the Land of Water, so that she could be reunited with her family. He didn’t know where he would fit in the picture after she returned to her parents, but he would cross that bridge when he came to it. No, he was full prepared to dedicate the rest of his ninja career to searching for Jade if he had to. What he was sick of, though, was trying to get information out of the same people, at the same place that he always failed to do so, even if it was the most likely place to get information about happenings outside of Kirigakure. It was a tiresome venture.

As he continued on his way home, however, he saw a young girl walking down the opposite street. She was dressed in a very high fashioned way, with curly hair that reached down to her shoulders and a complicated black dress that hugged her figure very closely. She had both hands in her pockets, but she seemed to be deep in thought, the sound of her boots clicking against the street the only indication that she was paying attention to where she walked. She had a pair of fox ears on her head though, which Hyouga thought were a pair of decorations. He never did understood girls.

The sky thundered and it began to rain, and the girl covered her body with her hands in an attempt to keep warm. Worried that she would catch a cold, Hyouga ran up to her, since he knew he was resistant to the cold, being a member of the Kouri clan.

“Hey, excuse me, are you okay?” he asked, even as he used his Ice Release to create a makeshift umbrella in his hands, before placing it over the two of them, mainly her though such that some of the rain that fell fell onto the back of his head and down his back. “What’s your name? Where’re you from?”

WC: 790

Aizou was walking alone in the cold rain, hearing the pitter patter of the rain on the ground on every side of her even as her feet splashed in the noticeable puddles that had begun to form on the ground. She almost didn’t notice the man who walked right up to her.

Almost.

“Hey, excuse me, are you okay” he had asked. Then, he had formed ice in his hands. Aizou’s eyes lit up slightly - just slightly - in recognition at the show of the Kouri clan’s powers, forming an ice umbrella that seemed to radiate some cold. He placed the umbrella over her head, and while it did feel slightly chilly, Aizou preferred it over the rain beating down on her soaked body. Even so, he had made the umbrella only big enough for her, and kept his distance from her, even as he remained shirtless and prone to the rain. Or, maybe it was because he was shirtless that he decided to stay away from her, to avoid giving her the wrong idea. “What’s your name? Where’re you from?”

“I’m fine,” she replied, her voice firm even though a small part of her felt like shivering against the cold wind that blew against her wet form. However, even if she lacked the training of a ninja, she was still able to hold her composure and keep from visibly shivering, despite standing in what was basically wet rags underneath a freezing umbrella.

Instead, she narrowed her eyes at the newcomer.

It wasn’t too unthinkable that he had just happened to come out from supposedly nowhere and spotted her, before running up to give a good greeting and to help a fellow villager out. However, it wasn’t enough to convince her that he wasn’t just some perverted guy who was trying to get the one-up on her and take advantage of her weakened form. Even his act of making the umbrella for her could be interpreted in either way. On one hand, he could really be the kind, generous gentleman who had been trying to help her stay away from the rain, or, on the other hand, he could have just been trying to show off his skill with the Ice Release, a notable skill that defined the Kouri clan’s very existence, and that could’ve been the opening line he had been trying to go for.

“Yes, I am from the Kouri clan.”

Tch, as if she would fall for that.

Also, why was he remaining under the rain? Couldn’t he just make the umbrella bigger? Was he trying to get on her good side by giving her the illusion of a chivalrous gentleman? Or was there some limit to this technique, or a limit to the creations he could make because of a lack of experience? That alone rouse her suspicion. If there was, why show her if he was trying to get in her pants? It would be counterproductive if she knew how uncool he actually was, unless he was trying to get her thinking that he was being a gentleman by producing a frozen construct specifically for her, ignoring his own well-being. Or, maybe he just didn’t expect her to think this through this much, and was hoping that she’d just take his skill at first glance.

Also, why wasn’t he wearing a shirt? What kind of uncivilised man would walk around late at night in nothing but a pair of pants? Was he trying to elicit a response from her? Because if he thought it was anything ardent he was hell in the wrong. Any other day and she’d probably be ready to run a finger up that chest, but right now, she was just pissed that he let his chest out for the world to see.

… Not that she found his chest in any way lacking.

Either way, she accepted his kind gesture and remained on the alert for any sort of suspicious activity that he might be trying to pull over her eyes. She was used to seeing the sight of a bare-chested man from her previous occupation. Hell, as a stripper and by proxy a prostitute she was even used to the sight of seeing a completely naked man up close, sometimes even beneath her fingers or above her, but right now, she didn’t have the mood to play around. She just wanted to get home as quick as she could so she could get a change of clothes, and lounge in her massive bed. Today had been absolutely atrocious, and - oh god, even thinking about it was giving her another migraine.

She reached a hand up to her head to massage her temples, closing her eyes in the process and trying to get the pain and annoying headache out of her head. It only took a few seconds to recover. Hopefully, she didn’t miss anything about the guy in those precious few seconds. Nonetheless, she decided that she would have to get home ASAP, or she’d really lose it. And, as nice as he may have been trying to be, Aizou was far past the point in her life where she would blindly trust people. Given her history, she might’ve never had that point in her life. Even then, she was already far past the tolerance level of today where she would be giving anyone more than the slight benefit of doubt, and her silent and mental criticisms of him had already accounted for that.

Right now, she just wanted to go home.

“Haven’t you heard it’s rude to ask a lady her name before you give yours?” she snapped. “And obviously I’m from Kirigakure, or I wouldn’t be walking around in this goddamn rain. Now are you going to walk me home, or not? And no funny ideas!”

WC: 993/1431

“I’m fine,” she had replied, though something about the way she had done so so forcefully told Hyouga that she wasn’t welcoming of his help.

He decided to treat more carefully from here on out. The last thing he wanted was to be accused of sexual harassment. It would certainly not be the first time that happened, given his preference for a lack of a shirt. She wouldn’t be the first girl to bring him to the authorities and accuse him of attempting to sexually harass her in public, even if her accusations would be completely justified given that he had sported a lack of a shirt at that moment. It had taken one of his superiors, who was fairly familiar with his predisposition to remove his shirt, to avoid the authorities pressing charges against him, and instead leaving him with a warning not to do it again.

Of course, it was a warning that he didn’t heed, but it still made him afraid of being dragged to the local police station.

The girl then reached up to massage her forehead, and Hyouga thought for a moment that she was wondering if following a half naked man in the dead of the night in a storm was a good idea. If she did, he would probably hit her, because being him, he knew that it was a very bad idea to walk around in the storm with no witnesses with a half naked man, even if the half naked man in question was him, and no one else. Then again, maybe he should lay back on the judging and criticising - after all, who was he to talk when he was the entire reason that she had that headache in the first place? Or, at least, Hyouga thought so, because he truly couldn’t be sure what the girl was thinking.

“What’s your name? Where’re you from?” he had asked in worry, trying to be as polite as he could, but apparently his gesture had been poorly received by the woman in front of him.

“Haven’t you heard it’s rude to ask a lady her name before you give yours?” the girl had snapped. “And obviously I’m from Kirigakure, or I wouldn’t be walking around in this goddamn rain. Now, are you going to walk me home, or not? And no funny ideas!”

Hyouga almost reeled from her accusation, and the umbrella moved for a bit before he regained his stability, realising that if he were the shrink back, he would take the umbrella with him, and she would once again be left in the violent downpour. While he could tell that maybe a little more distance between him, the half naked guy, and her, the fully dressed and arguably very classy woman, was preferable for the person he was talking to, he wasn’t really sure that leaving her out in the rain, even on accident, was a good way to help her calm her nerves or get on her good side.

“Uhh, sorry, sorry,” Hyouga moved to apologise immediately. He had never been one to question a lady, though it wasn’t due to meekness, but more of a fear for the opposite sex. They were scary when they wanted to be, and he was sure that he was about to watch this woman in full scary mode if he didn’t ease the tension. “My name is Hyouga. I’m from the Kouri clan. And sorry, I thought that maybe you were a traveller or something, since you were coming in so late. And yeah, point the way and I’ll escort you home. And don’t worry, I got it. No funny ideas.”

He would walk with her in silence unless she herself asked questions, always staying one step behind her and to her side, so that he could hold the umbrella up for her. He could easily make it bigger, but then it would probably be too heavy for him to actually hold upright, and it was simpler to leave him out in the rain like this than to try and balance a gigantic umbrella just to keep the two of them dry.

Well, drier, since he was quite sure they were both very wet from the rain already.

The two walked in silence, with Hyouga always trailing one step behind her and just slightly to her side. Aizou wouldn’t admit it, but it was a slightly gentlemanly maneuver, standing slightly behind her so she could lead the way back to her apartment, while also standing slightly to her side because… well, what woman would be fine with a complete stranger standing right behind her? Aizou was not in the mood to entertain the thought any further, and instead decided to be contented with how the man was currently treating her, as unusual as the situation seemed to her.

The two of them travelled in silence, passing empty, wet streets with their feet sloshing through the puddles the only sound that kept them company apart from the heavy rainfall. The sound was surprisingly satisfying to Aizou’s ears. In some way, their feet had fallen into rhythm with the rain around them, and the occasional splosh of walking through a puddle fell in nicely with the rain around them, and it calmed Aizou down somewhat. She felt her irritation slowly, but surely ebb away, and as it did, she reflected on her somewhat nasty attitude towards the guy who was now following her carefully, cautious not to disturb her further, but unwilling to let her travel home all alone.

That was… nice.

She had to admit that it was a very nice thing to do. It was the rain, and while she knew that the Kouri had an increased resistance to the cold, it must’ve still been uncomfortable for the man even despite it. However, as ‘nice’ as such a thing seemed, it also planted doubt into her mind if he had any other reasons for taking her home. She had definitely not met anyone like him before, so either he was prone to helping out every woman he saw on the street, or he was trying to catch her off guard, and if it was the latter, she had to give him some respect because she almost did fall for it.

Of course, the fact that she didn’t fall for something like that told her that she was still irritated at the day’s events. Pity, she could’ve used a friend like him in her life.

The two of them continued walking until finally they arrived at a large apartment building. Aizou lived way up, in the penthouse apartment, and she opened the door to the common corridor of the apartment building, before walking inside. She would gesture the man to come in, if only to shield them from the rain, while she thanked him. As she strode inside, she took note of the few wet stains on the floor, courtesy of the other residents who, like her, must have been caught in the rain, though the only clear evidence were the pairs of shoes outside the first floor apartments that stained the carpets a wetter shade, as well as housing small drying pools of water within them.

She felt at her dress. It wasn’t as soaked as before, but it was definitely still wet, and it clung to her figure more so than she would have liked. Normally, she would play around with others, flaunting her body and indulging in their response. Whether they were embarrassed by her shameless nature, or rolled with it and teased her back, she always did revel in interactions like those. However, they did take some effort on her part. While she was naturally alluring and sultry, it took more effort than usual to just ooze it, drawing people in and shutting off all their cognitive functions. Some could even say that her jutsu were tailored for that particular effect. Of course, she wasn’t in the mood for effort tonight, not when her headache had yet to subside, and so she just turned to Hyouga, who she expected to stand at the door, and thanked him.

“Thank you for walking me back. And I’m sorry for the way I treated you just now,” Aizou said. She let her eyes wander to the side, looking at nothing, bu deep in thought trying to decide if she should reward him or something, before deciding against it. “It was a… pleasant meeting.”

And with that, Aizou turned and walked up the stairs, heading back to her room.

[EXIT]

Word count: 729/2160

Strength from E-0 to D-1 (2150 words, 25 ryo)

Their trip was mostly spent in silence. Hyouga remained one step behind Aizou at all times, standing just slightly to her side, hoping not to irritate her any further. He had his fair share of experience with insensible women who could fly into a raging temper over even the slightest of faults, which to most men might have seemed like little issues. While he didn’t feel like Aizou was anything like such women, he also knew that she was just one step away from blowing a fuse, and he would prefer not to have her lash out at him if at all possible.

The only sound that accompanied them were the falling rain all around them. Rain tapped against the top of his umbrella, streaming down the sides until it dropped all around Aizou, but never really touching her. He, on the other hand, was a completely different question. With the umbrella as small as he had made it, and with him not standing directly beside Aizou herself, he was exposed to the cold, frigid water as it trickled onto his hair and down his exposed chest, drenching his jeans and shoes. Being a Kouri, he was fairly used to the cold, so it didn’t get to him as much as it would have any other ninja, though the discomfort was still present.

It took them almost half an hour of walking in awkward silence before they arrived at a large apartment building. Hyouga noticed it was one of the more established estates in the entire village, where only the richest of the rich preferred to live. He idly wondered if he had accidentally pissed someone powerful off. It wouldn’t surprise him that he didn’t know all the influential politicians who ran the village from behind the scenes. Some of them just preferred operating from the shadows, away from media attention, while those that were prominently listed in magazines and polls he would also likely not recognise; ninja were not known to be overly political. Rather, they preferred to solve things with might.

Aizou opened the door to the common corridor of the apartment building, and it swung open easily without the need for a lock. Hyouga guessed that there was a camera somewhere recording who went in and who went out, and the actual apartments themselves were locked up for the safety of the guests. Aizou walked in first, before gesturing for him to come in. He accepted the kind move, realising that it was the first hint of kindess that Aizou had shown him all night - a stark difference from the abusive woman he had shaped her out to be in his head. As he did so, he received a thanks from Aizou, and he in turn shrugged it off, unsure what to do about such gratitude from someone who could probably have him axed as a ninja with a simple wave of her hand.

He stood awkwardly at the door while Aizou felt at her dress. She seemed to be testing how wet it actually was, and as he inspected her, Hyouga couldn’t help but let his eyes wander over her small, slender frame. He couldn’t help his eyes roaming past the curves, now so clearly depicted and accentuated by the dress that clung so tightly to her skin, no longer obscured by the wild and relentless downpour. He noticed the three whiskers on her cheeks, so defined against the pale complexion that adorned her face-

Hyouga blinked once, heavily, to get such thoughts out of his head. Like most men, he was perverted, but also like most, he was normally able to keep it down. Something about this woman, however, simply screamed sex at him, and with the way she acted, consciously or not, she seemed to revel in it. Regardless, Hyouga tried to act stoic and kept looking around the rest of the apartment, not seeing much of interest but hoping to avoid meeting Aizou’s gaze or looking at her directly, until she spoke.

“Thank you for walking me back. And I’m sorry for the way I treated you just now,” Aizou apologised. Her eyes drifted to the side, before she continued, “It was a… pleasant meeting.”

Hyouga only managed a small, “You’re welcome,” this time opting to accept her gratitude rather than shrug it off as he watched her walk up the stairs, before he too left the building and closed the door behind him. No doubt his parents would be concerned where he had been, but he was sure they would be proud of what he had done.