Kai roamed the slums with some slight trepidation. He didn’t like the area,not at all. Yet he seemed to be spending increasingly large amounts of time there. It was disconcerting and somewhat irritating to him. Perhaps the biggest part was simply that that it all reminded him too much of what his own family was like. And that wasn’t quite surprising. Oh well. There was no point going on with that line of thinking. Anyway he had stuff to do today.  Exactly what,he wasn’t entirely sure. Definitely hang with his boyfriend for sure. But what else indeed Kai rarely spent any day wholly without Li in it. But again. They were a couple right? A confusing couple to most people probably. As much due to Kai as anything else. Kaiya was a confusing person, and today seemed to be showing that more than normal he was wearing a sandy-brown sleeveless shirt, with more beige jacket over it, the material light and not at all meant to keep him warm, but rather to keep the sun off. But that was reasonably typical.

What made him confusing today was that, addition of shorts no one could see, he was wearing a kind of long flowing skirt. Well,some would call it that. It was not some girly dress bottom, but a sandy brown thing, traces in a sandy beige pattern. Kai jokingly called such things his battle skirt. They kept the sun off his skin, but didn't retain much heat. Not that the sun was a huge priority at the moment. Kai was wearing some strong sunscreen anyway. He had some cloth graders in his exposed arm. Nothing that would give any protection, merely giving the appearance of it. Despite the lack of feminine colors and patterns, and a sort of more rugged look to it, the “skirt” would throw some people off considering he was being fairly masculine in other respects. He wasn’t a macho guy though. Not at all. Kai prefered the feminine. But… he liked a more masculine look sometimes. Today he wasn’t particularly sure where he fell on the gender spectrum either. Somewhere closer to agender than male… but make pronouns felt closer. So Kaiya would be Kai today. Because… it sounded good. Was more reason needed?

A slight breeze blew, picking up a little sand and making his “battle skirt” sway a bit. He wore his twin tonfa on his back, which were sandy beige, with darker brown straps. At was his color pallet today. Sandy beige and medium brown. Earthy colors. Kai was feeling practical. Despite this, his jacket of sorts was only half on, and was held to him by a sashlike belt on his waste. One arm was free and the other hung out in his jacket, which was only on one shoulder. His arm was half in the sleeve,his elbow down it, and his arm sitting as if it was in asking. Why he was dressed so, Kai wasn't entire sure. He liked the look though. Kai’s longish hair flowed slightly in the breeze, black but flinging blue when light reflected off it, the same as his lips. His startlingly blue irises contrasting his solid black sclera and pupil as he surveyed the area. There wasn’t going on just yet. He heard some disturbance, but wrote it off.  Who knew what trouble there would be in this part of the village?

Perhaps that was part of why he had the air of being prepared for battle in his off clothing chooses. He liked to appear… well… like he was prepared. People in the slums were sometimes desperate. People got mugged. But… If you looked like you were prepared for trouble, you were a bit safer. The same way no one messes with some big intimidating guy in the bar. Looked prepared and ready for trouble was half of staying out of it in the slums. Kaiya half wished he had a katana like Li. A sword was more intimidating than tonfa. Tonfa people were likely to miss as they were half hidden by his jacket and strapped to his back anyway. That said… Kai's weapons were not as non-threatening as they looked. If one looked closely they would see caps on the end. Of one took those off, they would see the ends of the tonfa were filed to sharp spikes. A punch with those could leave a nasty wound instead of just bruising. Again, Kai was prepared for trouble. Lord knows he didn't enjoy it though.

Word Count: 757

The sky was clear, devoid of any clouds. People were about the slums. Not a lot mind you. People simply sitting on their lawns, near their homes. That sort of hussle and bussle. No one was bothering another and everyone was keeping to their own business. That being said, it wasn't uncommon for people to mind their business upon hearing menial conflicts, as they were common within the Slums. Yelling, fighting, and the such. This even applies to Shinobi, as no one was doing anything or even paying mind to the two ninja walking down a street, bickering. One of them so happened to be Zaiaku. The other was a dark skinned man, wearing a jersey and loose pants. His handband was around his forehead. Zaiaku was only in shorts, exposing his very muscular form. His headband was around his right arm. "You gone and finally fucking lost yo damn mind." The tall, grey man would say, clawed hands in his pocket.

"Man, lost what?" The other ninja would say, his arms swinging back and forth as he walked. "Your fucking mind! It was a simple-ass mission but you just had to frick it up!" Zaiaku would yell as he stopped walking, turning to the other ninja. The other ninja would stop walking to, now facing Zaiaku. "Man, you know that's that shinobi blood in me. Be happy I didn't do some wierd blood jutsu type shit." "....We were sent to repossess a fucking sword he loaned from some shop. The man didn't want to give it back and lunged at us. Instead of just holding him back you fuckin' killed him." "And?" "WE CAN'T REPOSSESS THE ASSETS OF A DEAD MAN, BIG BAD BLOOD USIN' ASSHOLE!" With that, Zaiaku simply walked off from the man, who still tried to continue to argue with him as he walked away. "Man we're ninja! He came at us and we defended ourselves! We're in the good." He would yelled. "We failed the mission you fuckin' moron!" Zaiaku would respond as he turned back again. "Man, whatever. I'm going to the town." "frick you." With that, they parted ways. Zaiaku still stood where he was, however, rubbing his head in agitation.

wc: 376

Kai smiled softly to himself as he walked along the road. People were paying him No mind, aside from perhaps the occasional odd look. But he was recognized. He'd been here before enough for people to not be perturbed at all by his presence. Despite his dislike for the slums he had spent some time here while growing up. He wasn’t particularly a stranger, though he's hardly be considered a neighbor either. Another soft breeze blew, causing his clothes to ripple outward for a moment, a few grains of sand on the wind scraping softly against his exposed skin. Kaiya could hear talking as he walks.d talking that was growing steadily louder as he walked down the road. It sounded like some kind of argument. But Kai couldn't hear well enough to catch what they were actually saying.

As Kai rounded the corner he saw 2 people walking in the opposite direction. It was quite the unusual sight to be sure. One of the people was huge. Gigantic really. He had to easily be 3 feet taller than Kai, But that wasn’t the weirdest partout to say the least. His skin was an odd dark grey color, with various red markings. His mouth showed some rather beastly looking fangs. In short if ever any person could be said to be intimidating based entirely on their appearance, it had to be this man. Even as a full grown adult, Kai looked more like a child than anything, seeming to barely come up to his belly button. Were it not for the distance between them, Kai would have had to bend her neck up oddly to properly see his face. And it was an intimidating sight as said. But there was a familiar trait. His eyes were like Kais! Excepting while Kai's irises were a bright blue that looked downright luminescent due to the contrast between blue iris and black scores and pupil, his irises were white. The contrast of black and white made them dtand out as much as Kai's.

Not that Kai was particularly perturbed by his eyes. How could he be considering they were similar to his own. The main reason Kai’s might gather more attention was because his black scores didn't contrast against his dark grey skin as much as Kai's black sclera against his white skin. That and his height and skin color no doubt took most of the attention from anyone who looked at him.

As they drew closer and closer Kai could catch more of their conversation, not that he was intentionally trying to snoop. But… Well… What they were talking about drew nearly as much attention as the giants intimidating appearance. So… the smaller person had killed someone. A mission no doubt considering the forehead protector on the giant's arm. And apparently said giant wasn’t exactly please about that. Kaiya tried not to look as though he was trying to intentionally overhear them. But it sounded somewhat heated. Kai fidgeted slightly, adjusting the forehead protector that was instead tied around his neck where it was mostly visible, the Sunagakure symbol displayed forward.

But Kai needn’t have bothered trying to appear to not be listening, because the giant took that time to burst out, telling about not being able to repossess something from a dead man. The giants partner seemed entirely unperturbed by this. So… someone had attacked with a sword and the smaller of the two had killed him. Joy… Kai imagined that he’d be angry at the guy too in the giants position. But… Who knew. Kai most certainly hadn’t been there. Perhaps the target had been someone who was actually threatening… Kai doubted it, owing mostly to his cautious and distrustful nature… But… best not to judge a situation you know nothing about after all.

The giant stormed off looking understandably angry. Kai sighed softly to himself again and continued walking forward. He wasn't going to interfere or question it. Best just leave it alone. Let the jounin and the like sort out the failed mission. As Kai walked, the giant drew nearer, walking in the opposite direction, and Kai, trying to be courteous, waves slightly as they got nearer. ”Hello” It wasn't much. But Kai didn’t know him. So it felt best to default to a typical friendly greeting you might give to someone you didn’t know as you walked along. It was made slightly awkward considering Kai had to tilt his head back to even properly see him, which exposed the rest of his forehead protector on the process. Kai kept it fairly short casual but respectful. This person was a fellow Sunagakure ninja after all. You showed respect to another ninja of your village after all. Though Kaiya was generally respectful to everyone… Well.. Almost everyone.

Word Count: 801
Total Word Count: 801+757=1,558

-1,500 wc for training secondary element to C Rank.

New Word Count: 58

[Zaiaku left, so the topics over.]