Blending into the scenery was never easy here; but most people had enough respect for the sanctity of the monument to call him out for being there. He had no reason; the would say. His father was still widely known a a drunken bastard; and his mother was a murdering traitor. Really; he didn't blame them, he thought the same of them; preferring it to the truths. He couldn't take the pity he'd seen in his old teacher's eyes once they'd realized the truth; that on top of everything else wrong, his parents where abusive monsters and that he was some little victim to be pitied and 'helped'.

It was a quiet place, and good for reading. He could sit all day in the warm sun; then light a small fire that, so long as he tossed incense into it, he could pass off as an offering to the fallen heroes. Plenty of light for him to read by into the wee hours of the night. He could sit there quietly for days, if allowed; just taking short, small sips from his water bottle when his mouth became too dry; maybe taking a bit of a few dry berried he carried. He was already a twig; no reason to deny it.

Ashi had been out for a walk. No particular direction to it, simply the fact that she couldn't sit still or she'd lose it again. She'd gotten over her previous mind-fuck she had had going on, but from time to time the urge to just 'escape' got too big to ignore. She never needed to venture that far to appease it, enough exercise to tire herself out seemed to do the trick quite nicely.

Her walking today had led her to the monument, a place she'd visited before. She pulled her multicolored long hair up, tossing it in a lose bun as she approached. Her darkened gaze darted this way and that, taking in and noticing those who were present.

Akai, who had arrived with her began sniffing at the ground. Obviously something pleasant had caught her attention. With an obvious disregard to anyone honestly caring about a giant overly large white dog approaching them, mouth open, tongue hanging out, Akai sniffed herself right up and over to the one with the berries.

"If that's not a sure fire way to announce our arrival I don't know what is...", Ashi mumbled to herself softly, shaking her head with a light smirk.

The wall of white triggered his peripheral vision haaaard; causing him to swiftly dog ear the page he was reading with the experienced smoothness of a lifelong scholar. Head snapping up, he was met with the slobber and smile of the large dog; sending him flying backwards with a startled yelp. This caused the small, open bag of dried berries tumbling over, spilling what to him was nearly a months worth of food spilling over the ground. Hisoka hit a tree root and stopped, panting heavily and staring wide eyed for the few moments it took for him to realize that it was really a dog and not a ghost or some albino bear; which allowed him to instantly calm down. He loved dogs, loved most animals; but he was also weary of them. Any overenthusiastic playing could cause him extreme harm; he was almost frail in a way, with no real padding on his body and slightly weak bones due to a life of malnutrition. "Oh wow... that is... one giant dog..."

He watched as Akai began lapping up his berries from the dirt; almost whimpering some as he watched. He rarely bought food; and that was all he'd purchased for the month, really. A single back of dried berries. It was one of the few things that didn't taste like dirt and ash to him; so he gravitated towards them. Dried fruit in general; it gave him a tiny spark of pleasure to each because it had actual taste, and could sustain him for a long time without much problem. "Please... don't eat all of those... It's all I have..."

"Oh dear. Akai, stop." Akai halted on command and simply sat her rather large rump down on the ground, tail still wagging happily away, causing a continuous soft thumping sound on the ground beneath her. "I apologize, sometimes Akai forgets her manners." She gave a warning look to the ninken who just simply barked happily back in reply and wandered back over to Ashi. A hop up, and yup.. face licked. Ashi laughed softly and shoved Akai lightly off herself. "Oh quit it, you're forgiven... just not everyone's food is your food, got it?" She scratched the top of Akai's head for a moment. "Overgrown puppy, I swear.."

She turned her gaze from Akai to the male, eyebrow raising. She reached into one of her many pockets, glad she'd worn her longer shorts for this exact purpose. 'Where is it... I know I put it in one of these pockets...', she mumbled to herself as she dug around. "Ah, found it..." She pulled out a bag of dried fruit, something Amaya had given her in their most recent encounter. "Would this do to make up for what Akai ate? She won't eat it, she just tends to gravitate towards berries for some reason." Almost as if she'd momentarily forgotten her manners she tacked on, "I'm Ashi Inuzuka, by the way, and if you haven't guess that's Akai."

Akai laid herself down at Ashi's feet, covering her blue eyes with her paws with a whine. Obviously her own way of apologizing.

The young male stared at the pair; recognizing the instant before she gave her name that they where a pair of Inuzuka. Awesome, the dogs where usually pretty friendly, from what he'd ever seen. His attention was pulled to the bag of fruit that the woman produced; head tilting and the ghost of a an annoyed expression appearing before he tamped it down. There was no reason to jump to conclusions here; she was just trying to replace what her dog had eaten; not taking pity. Focus, Hisoka.

"It's alright. They where likely extremely sweet; I'm fairly sure they where partially candied." He shifted until he was on his knees, hand extended with his palm up; clicking his tongue softly like someone would when trying to call an unfamiliar dog over. "Here girl... I'm not mad. May I pet you?" He really did like dogs; so it would be a bit of a treat to get to pet her. "Come on... I won't hurt you." His attention was split between them, keeping a calm demeanor towards Akai, and a slightly wary one towards Ashi. He trusted animals, not people. "I am Hisoka. Hisoka Sarutobi."

Giving a shrug she pocketed the dried fruit, figuring she'd either toss it out eventually or find someone else to pawn it off on. She was still slightly amused that Amaya had thought to give it to her at all, but those wanderings were for a different day; or at least a different time. "Pity, I've been trying to get rid of them all day. A friend of mine gave them to me, apparently she doesn't appreciate my mostly meat diet... a shame, I'd hate to see them thrown out."

Akai uncovered her eyes and stood back up, tail already wagging happily away. She approached Hisoka slowly enough, refraining from jumping on him. She sniffed at him and then plopped her butt back down on the ground, giving him plenty of time to pet her. She was by no means going to complain over the petting.

Ashi just shook her head with a slight smile as she watched Akai closely before turning her attention to Hisoka. She noticed the difference in the looks, but couldn't blame him. She folded her arms lightly across her chest, her stance widening slightly as she positioned more of her weight on one specific leg than the other; giving her the illusion of sorts that she was leaning on air, or a wall, or whatever. Despite her look of comfort though she was still being vigilant. While Akai might be lax around strangers Ashi was anything but, especially given her almost insane distrust of anyone not related to her, or closely regarded as a friend.

"Sorry. I mean no offense, but I'm not the type to accept food from others... I have had... bad experience that way." His focus was tuned for Akai for a few long moments, shifting to scratch at her ears and the scruff of her neck; a small smile appearing for the time he was doing so. Pure doggy bliss was something he enjoyed in a way; he had long buried urges to be the type of person that made everyone around him feel better; but long years of abuse and torture left him unable to truly sympathize with anyone. Empathy was a skill he had; it may well have been the very ability that scared his... parents (the word felt like shit on his tongue, and he flinched for the instant it flashed across his conscious mind); to the point that they treated him as a sub-human punching bag. Awareness, knowledge he shouldn't have... all tied to his emphatic skills.

"Your companion is beautiful. So soft..."

Ashi chuckled and nodded. "Eh, wise choice... I don't blame you. I probably wouldn't take food offered to me by a stranger either." She shrugged and then stretched skyward for the moment, going so far as to stand on the tips of bare toes. Seeing that Akai was rather enjoying herself, and figuring that meant they were going to be here for a while, she plopped herself down nearby, and picked at a few blades of grass by her feet.

Akai meanwhile was in complete bliss and heaven. Once satisfied with her head being scratched she rolled over without warning; just plopped right down on her belly and rolled over, obviously not caring about grass or dirt marring her beautiful white coat.

At the compliment Ashi looked her head up from the grass, smiling slightly. "Isn't she?" Ashi still couldn't believe her luck sometimes with Akai; loyal, friendly, beautiful, and fun... she couldn't have got any luckier when it came to Akai choosing her.

The tiniest of giggles left the small male; amused by the antics of the large canine. He was more then happy to oblige her, scratching at her chest and belly with both hands now. So... soft... "I envy you... your entire clan, really. Never was allowed to have animals. Still can't; my neighbors... are not tolerant. Better to just go without then deal with them..."

A slightly embarrassed flinch flashed across his face; he never spoke that much, and he felt like a fool for saying anything. Old habits, old fears. Talking was trouble; talking got you hurt; that's what his world was for most of the his short life. Better to be silent. He curled into himself some, focusing on petting Akai over trying to save the situation.

Ashi tilted her head, staring at him in what might be considered an 'odd' way. "Hnn.. I don't tend to get along very well with people who don't like animals." She shifted herself into a more comfortable seating position, now certain they were going to be there for a while longer.

Her gaze then traveled over to Akai once more and she shrugged almost lightly, not bothering for the moment to comment on the flinch she'd caught out of the corner of her eye. "Eh, I couldn't live somewhere that had people around that didn't like animals. Akai's helped me through a lot recently, it's rather relaxing to pet her, let alone just have her company around all the time." She chuckled at that point. "As you can see, she's more then willing to put up with it."

Akai, meanwhile, was barely paying any sort of attention to the conversation at hand. She was simply in heaven while laying there on her back and being petted. Her tail was flying from side to side quickly, and her mouth was once more slightly opened in a dog-like grin.

Nodding softly; he began chewing on his lip as he debated answering or remaining silent. Silent was his normal answer; but he could tell she wasn't hostile towards him, and it was easier to relax with Akai to keep him distracted. Uuugh... stupid social fears. Stupid phobias. Damn it life, why you suck?

"I own the apartment I live in you see... they just rent from the building owner. They'll be gone before me... and patience is something I have in droves... so I can wait..." He shifted so that he was sitting on his heels, a more comfortable position he could remain in for longer. He'd keep petting Akai until he was told to stop, or she moved away; honestly. It was soothing and fun; a rare bright spot in his world. "Thank you... for letting me pet her."

Akai rolled herself back over onto her front, but otherwise didn't move away. She'd just simply become bored with the current spot being petted. She remained laying down, playing her head on her front paws and closing her eyes.

'She's more still then usual... even given that rabbit not too far away. I know she knows that it's there. I wonder if she's getting sick...', were the thoughts running through Ashi's mind as she took a more closer look at her ninken. She then glanced over to the rabbit; nothing wrong with it, no weird foaming at the mouth, just a normal rabbit. Yet, Akai hadn't moved to chase it, or otherwise seemed to have given it a second thought.

Shaking herself from her thoughts with a mental note to keep a closer eye on Akai she focused herself back to Hisoka. "Yeah, patience is a great thing to have. That's where most tend to fail in life as most have too little." She leaned back on her arms behind her. "Not a problem, she's enjoying it and it's making her happy, therefore I'm happy. You're welcome to pet her any time you see her, I'm sure you'll be one of her new best friends now." She grinned, giving her an even more feral appearance. "She might even take to randomly following you places if she's bored enough and I'm busy. She does that from time to time to Amaya, and my cousin I'm sure."

"..." That was mildly scary. He tended to be the type to tune the world out; so a sudden blur of solid white in his peripheral would scare him shitless. Yay. "Oh... okay." He didn't mind so much as worried; as there where places he frequented (Library, etc) that didn't take kindly to non Inuzuka with animals in the buildings. He finally had to stop with the petting; his arm was burning terribly and he was pretty sure his fingernails where melting from the friction heat that had been formed over the petting. "Good girl... Pretty girl... sorry... I might burn my fingers if I keep at it much longer."

He retracted his arm slowly; other hand shifting to rub at his aching muscles some. "It's a good think the ground is so well packed... she's not getting dirty from rolling around... or as badly as she could..."

Ashi nodded a bit. "Yeah... she's due for a bath anyway, so it'd be no biggy."

Akai turned, mouth still open in that grin and gave a great big lick to Hisoka's hand in thanks before standing her overly large self up. One big dog-like stretch later and she walked herself over to Ashi, who's lap she promptly attempted to sit on.

"Get off! You're too big, you'll squash me with your big behind!", Ashi spoke, tone nothing but playful as she gently pushed at Akai.

Akai simply used her large mass to push Ashi down till she was laying on the ground with a "Oomph". Akai then proceeded to sit herself, rather comfortably, on Ashi; right before licking her face.

"GAH! Get off me you overgrown puppy!" Ashi reached up, gently pushing Akai's face to the side so she could look over at Hisoka. "Sure you can't have dogs?", she asked.