1 Noisy Silence [Mikasa | Invite Only | No Kill] Sat Jun 18, 2016 1:47 am
Aqua
D-rank
Aqua strode, uncannily alone, down the streets as she searched for a place to have her dinner. It was a weekend, and so normally, she would have gone out with both Keishi and Matsu, her Hyuga and Kimura teammates respectively to celebrate yet another successful week of missions and training. It had become a regular thing for the three of them, and sometimes for their sensei Sumimoto as well, to hang out during the weekends with minimal missions and training sessions bogging down the two days that marked the start and end of each working week, ever since Sumimoto-sensei had suggested they take their team bonding exercises outside of training sessions, in an attempt to first get Aqua to meet other people and get out of her shell as well as break the ice between the male and female members of his team, and had quickly evolved into a tradition that her team almost religiously worshipped, aiming to go out every weekend so they could catch up on life outside of being a ninja, even if they already met one another every other day of the week for at least half the day.
Unfortunately, it seemed as if this week was going to go differently for them. According to Sumimoto-sensei, Keishi and Matsu’s recent stumble during their two-on-one fight against Hirotsugu Senju of her sister’s team in their recent Capture The Flag game had led him to believe that they weren’t taking their training and careers as ninja as seriously as they should have. Granted, she could detect a hint of mischief in his voice as he suggested the two of them follow him on this day for an extended training session when they were supposed to head to dinner, so she believed he wasn’t so much tutoring or lecturing them as much as he was trying to share with them some ideals that would be useful to their tenure as ninja in the future. Either that, or they were just sneaking off for one of their rare but definite ‘guy times’ that they kept her out of. While she was grateful they didn’t consider her ‘one of the guys’ just yet, she was curious as to what they did during their so-called ‘guy time’, which she had busted them for going on on more than one occasion. Well, not exactly busted, but she caught them when they denied it, so she lumped it in the same category.
She wondered if in the future she would ever be brought into their ‘sessions’. Sumimoto-sensei often only hung out with them for the sole purpose of interacting with the male members of her team, though she couldn’t blame him as she was most often in his spotlight during training sessions. It seemed that most of his advice related to her during their training sessions, as Keishi and Matsu often forgot or disregarded any advice that they were given, due to their tendency to be hot-headed. She funnily noted how normally the members of a squad followed the typical cool-headed and hot-headed male as well as the girl who was supposed to keep the peace, just like how it occurred in her sister’s squad, only for her squad to display a slight discrepancy from the norm; she was more or less the only cool-headed member of her team, while her two teammates seemed to border on the more brash side of nature. Curiously enough, though, it was likely because they didn’t fit the usual team composition of pairing up someone with greater grades than those with poorer ones, as they had all performed adequately throughout their time in the Academy.
The sign of the shop ‘Matsushima Dumplings’ screamed out at her from her left, black kanji written on a wooden board that held some sort of allure to it as opposed to the more modern and classy signs that other places hung up nowadays. Black paint on unsmooth wood held a certain sort of… atmosphere to it that the man-made counterparts hung up above the doors of its neighbours to attract tourists failed to clinch. Walking in, she noticed that, as usual, the famous dumpling place was nearly filled to the brim, and it was with a quick wave of a nearby waiter that she was able to ascertain that there was only one free space, indicating that she would likely have to share with someone else should the table permit the number, if anyone were to come after her, and she was sure that they would, considering the fame that this place had garnered with their recent new dish.
Ordering some dumplings from the menu that she’d gotten accustomed to over the years, she sat in silence, wondering not only of what the rest of her team was currently up to, but also of the words that Sumimoto-sensei had dropped on them several days ago, specifically those regarding their Chunin promotion. Despite the constant teasings that they would be put up for Chunin promotion some time in the next few months (or at least for consideration of a promotion to that rank, which she still wasn’t too sure of) she wondered if Sumimoto-sensei had anything planned for them with this sudden act. It was a well known fact that their sensei didn’t simply do things for no reason – no, he liked to add some sort of hidden meaning to everything that he did – but Aqua couldn’t help but wonder if this was simply a sort of ‘reward’ for having stuck with him as a coherent team for the past eight years of their lives, or if Sumimoto was preparing yet another test for them, something to test their mental and physical endurance.
Only time would tell.
WC: 979
Unfortunately, it seemed as if this week was going to go differently for them. According to Sumimoto-sensei, Keishi and Matsu’s recent stumble during their two-on-one fight against Hirotsugu Senju of her sister’s team in their recent Capture The Flag game had led him to believe that they weren’t taking their training and careers as ninja as seriously as they should have. Granted, she could detect a hint of mischief in his voice as he suggested the two of them follow him on this day for an extended training session when they were supposed to head to dinner, so she believed he wasn’t so much tutoring or lecturing them as much as he was trying to share with them some ideals that would be useful to their tenure as ninja in the future. Either that, or they were just sneaking off for one of their rare but definite ‘guy times’ that they kept her out of. While she was grateful they didn’t consider her ‘one of the guys’ just yet, she was curious as to what they did during their so-called ‘guy time’, which she had busted them for going on on more than one occasion. Well, not exactly busted, but she caught them when they denied it, so she lumped it in the same category.
She wondered if in the future she would ever be brought into their ‘sessions’. Sumimoto-sensei often only hung out with them for the sole purpose of interacting with the male members of her team, though she couldn’t blame him as she was most often in his spotlight during training sessions. It seemed that most of his advice related to her during their training sessions, as Keishi and Matsu often forgot or disregarded any advice that they were given, due to their tendency to be hot-headed. She funnily noted how normally the members of a squad followed the typical cool-headed and hot-headed male as well as the girl who was supposed to keep the peace, just like how it occurred in her sister’s squad, only for her squad to display a slight discrepancy from the norm; she was more or less the only cool-headed member of her team, while her two teammates seemed to border on the more brash side of nature. Curiously enough, though, it was likely because they didn’t fit the usual team composition of pairing up someone with greater grades than those with poorer ones, as they had all performed adequately throughout their time in the Academy.
The sign of the shop ‘Matsushima Dumplings’ screamed out at her from her left, black kanji written on a wooden board that held some sort of allure to it as opposed to the more modern and classy signs that other places hung up nowadays. Black paint on unsmooth wood held a certain sort of… atmosphere to it that the man-made counterparts hung up above the doors of its neighbours to attract tourists failed to clinch. Walking in, she noticed that, as usual, the famous dumpling place was nearly filled to the brim, and it was with a quick wave of a nearby waiter that she was able to ascertain that there was only one free space, indicating that she would likely have to share with someone else should the table permit the number, if anyone were to come after her, and she was sure that they would, considering the fame that this place had garnered with their recent new dish.
Ordering some dumplings from the menu that she’d gotten accustomed to over the years, she sat in silence, wondering not only of what the rest of her team was currently up to, but also of the words that Sumimoto-sensei had dropped on them several days ago, specifically those regarding their Chunin promotion. Despite the constant teasings that they would be put up for Chunin promotion some time in the next few months (or at least for consideration of a promotion to that rank, which she still wasn’t too sure of) she wondered if Sumimoto-sensei had anything planned for them with this sudden act. It was a well known fact that their sensei didn’t simply do things for no reason – no, he liked to add some sort of hidden meaning to everything that he did – but Aqua couldn’t help but wonder if this was simply a sort of ‘reward’ for having stuck with him as a coherent team for the past eight years of their lives, or if Sumimoto was preparing yet another test for them, something to test their mental and physical endurance.
Only time would tell.
WC: 979