Sunset. It had grown late, and it showed as the androgynous figure of Chiaki found themselves walking around the outskirts of Iwagakure. A small, isolated section of Iwagakure, where very few shops or guards were out-posted. The perfect place for a missing-nin to lay low, at least for an evening. Their bo-staff clanked lightly against the rain sodden stones of the street, boots of the wayward ninja dirty and dusted. They had to find a place to rest, a tavern or inn of which could provide relief for the evening. The deep blue of their eyes scanned the area, desperately searching for the shelter before a storm would inevitably hit, the sky already darkening with both the coming of night, and the arrival of a tempest. Coming from the land of wind, a desert expanse of which such weather was practically unheard of, it would be a very rough night. So here they were, scanning the nearby vicinity in the hopes of even a glance of shelter. They had the ryo, they just needed to find something to give them hope…

Time passed.

The storm hit, rain pouring down harsh on the streets, the silver hair of Chiaki sodden and heavy from the sudden onslaught of water. The greys and beiges of their jacket and other attire darkened into deeper hues as the search for shelter grew hastened. Finally, after a while of searching where time itself was untraceable, they found shelter. It wasn’t in the form of a tavern, but of a large structure of rather vague design. It was likely a shop of some description, however, it was either out of business, or shut on long term reasons. Exposed from above the side of the building was a gazebo-like structure, a separate roof that was supported by a couple wooden beams and lending itself as an outdoor room. Not the perfect shelter, and the Fukitsuna rogue would have much preferred a chance of… Proper respite, but, beggars can’t be choosers, and it was better to get some form of shelter than risk not finding any. With a sigh, the shinobi strode to beneath the shelter, the streets pretty much empty from the combination of the time and the weather.

Collapsing onto the dusty, much dryer dirt, Chiaki sighed, curling up into a ball. They were cold. Tired. It’d be a long, long road to being safe. They simply crossed their fingers, shuffling and adjusting position before sitting up against the wall of the building, tucking their head between their legs and wrapping their arms around like a makeshift blanket. Slowly, Chiaki closed their eyes, huddling themselves for warmth. It would be a long night. It would be a long journey to strength. To respect. Continuing to exist in their world of silence, the non-binary ninja drifted off to sleep in the foreign land.

The next morning.

With a stretch, the sodden shinobi woke up, clothes still damp from the evening prior. The sun was only just rising, the storm from before having passed. Everything ached. But their staff wasn’t stolen from them in the night, nor was anything. Fortunate. Standing to their feet, Chiaki stepped out into the street, deciding to make a move before the crowd arrived. Staff still on the ground, the first did some basic stretches, getting their body more awake and less stiff, before arming themselves with what could easily be mistaken for a simple walking aid. It was a rough sleep, and the Fukitsuna could only wish they had slept better. Heavy eyes scanned around, as the secret rogue that was running away walked off to find a small crowd among this distant part of the village. A place to blend in. Perhaps the nearest park would work.

As they walked down the stretch of dirt road, the once Sunagakure ninja maintained a rather average pace – not too slow, not too brisk. From there, they took the most direct route they could, following the paths further away from the centre of Iwagakure, and keeping their eyes peeled for a park, or something of the sorts. To Chiaki’s delight, there was a small, somewhat barren square, people only just beginning to arrive and exit their homes to the outside world. A perfect opportunity to seem… Natural. Calmly, or perhaps, lazily, the missing nin walked to the nearest bench, one that faced the sunrise, before placing themselves down with a yawn, moving a hand through their hair and purposefully messing it up further. The deep blue of their eyes stared intently ahead of them, watching the rising of the sun. The sun. The warmth of the orange glow tingling against the damp fabric that sheltered Chiaki from the winter cold. It was almost unfair how comforting the light felt. How much it was like an embrace.

So here, at the rising of the sun, the run-away watched and waited. Bo-staff leant against them and the bench, and the body of Chiaki slumped lazily backwards. Slowly, their head drifted skywards, watching the white masses of cloud shift idly around, loitering the air with their existence. A quiet sigh escaped the pale lips of the Fukitsuna. This would be a long day- no, this would be a long few years…

Why couldn’t things be easy, or at the very least, effortless? What about less time consuming?

”Get a move on, we only have one hour until the restaurant opens!”, shouted Kaya as Yusuke began running again. It wasn’t even bright yet but the restaurant was lively. The usual delivery of groceries and necessities to the restaurant had been cancelled for today. So Kaya had asked Yusuke to help her with them. Which meant staying at the restaurant at night and then waking up early in the morning to purchase a huge list of things that Kaya needed. Even though it was a broken down restaurant, it was still frequently visited by a lot of people. Kaya’s cooking wasn’t so bad and the old lady, Kaya’s grandmother was a gentle lady who was loved by all. He had been running around for a while now, he was sweating but Kaya wouldn’t let him breathe. The moment he delivered one thing, he was ordered to run and purchase another. Meanwhile, the old lady was sleeping comfortably in her room at the restaurant. Waving her pan around, Kaya multitasked and Yusuke did as he was told.

One way or the other, Kaya managed to acquire all of the accessories by making Yusuke run here and there. By the time the restaurant opened, everything was in place except for Yusuke who was no longer in place. He had been running back and forth so much that after he delivered something to Kaya, the last final necessary thing he ran back to get something else. However, nothing was needed; he just ran without thinking that part. By the time he stopped, he realized that his task was already finished and he was running for no reason. Tired, breathless and sweaty, he fell on the floor and coincidentally rolled under a bench; because that place seemed more comfy. All of this happened before the arrival of the person who later came to rest on the bench.

When this person did come and lay on the bench, Yusuke was already sleeping underneath it. The sun had now begun to rise and light escape through the cracks of the bench. As soon as the light hit Yusuke’s eyes, he attempted to sit up. Obviously since the bench was on top of him, that resulted in a loud thump like noise followed by: ”Ow ow ow, who put that there”; he would say out loud rubbing his forehead as he would lay down again. With his eyes closed, he would continue rubbing his head since he had just awoken from deep slumber. Doing all that work for the restaurant was almost like speed training. He wondered how Kaya usually did it on a normal day?

Thinking about Kaya and her daily routine, once again immersed in perverted thoughts, he attempted to sit up again and again the same routine followed. ”Owww!”, he would shout once more as he would lay down again with a rather red forehead.

Word Count: 488.
Total Word Count: 488.

Bump.

Chiaki looked around, confused by the sudden vibration on the bench they were sat at. Was someone trying to get their attention? Lazily, the androgynous figure looked around, rolling their neck around in a rather lacklustre way of scanning the surroundings. It was still quiet, and not only in the literal sense of being deaf, but, in the sense that people were still only just arriving. Roughly a dozen villagers, but, in such an open park like area, this was quite small. Morning was still kicking in, and it was likely more would arrive shortly. With a stretch, staff still at their side, they shut their eyes, beginning to go back to resting and lazing.

Bump.

Once again, a vibration. With a sigh, the silent stranger stood up, stretching out and holding their bo-staff in their hands once more. They took a step away from the bench, before turning around, and facing it with a somewhat confused expression. Quite quickly it became apparent why there was a vibration beneath them; there was also a person beneath them. The forehead of this individual was quite red, and looked as if it had been hit in some method or another. Furthermore, the person, who appeared male, had clearly shown signs of perspiration or exercise. Crouching, Chiaki inspected this person from a distance. They seemed alive if nothing else, breathing heavily from exhaustion no doubt. Still, they watched quietly, unsure of the person knew that Chiaki was above them a moment ago. They looked around once more; nobody seemed interested in the occurrences by the bench. Was this a common thing in Iwagakure?

Chiaki had expected the land of stone to be far more… Serious than they had so far noted. The colder, harsher weather met with their expectations, but the locals, not at all. They seemed… Average. Or at least, there wasn’t anything that stood out as rock like until now. The shinobi and villagers of the land of sand were mostly uncaring, loose like the sand. But here, it was so new that it was almost like an alien world. All these thoughts coming from a simple person, lying beneath a bench. So, deciding that nobody was paying attention and it was best to check the person was at least conscious, Chiaki spun their staff in their hand once, before moving it forwards and jabbing the person lightly in the side, as if prodding them for signs of life. This was a strange first day in Iwagakure.

Yusuke rubbed his forehead as he stared at the lower part of the bench realizing where he was. It was then that he recalled what had actually happened. He had fallen asleep, randomly and then rolled under the bench because it felt cozier. He had never done that before but he had Kaya to blame for that. While he rubbed his forehead, something suddenly hit his arm and he turned to look at the staff; then his gaze turned toward the unfamiliar face holding the staff. ”Uhhh.. hello there”, said the average shinobi with an embarrassed smile. Sleeping in the park or under the bench, wasn’t exactly an accepted behavior. He was a genin of Iwagakure, such behavior was probably frowned upon by his sensei too. He was glad that his sensei hadn’t seen him doing it.

He crawled from under the bench with a slightly swollen forehead and stood in front of the individual who had just poked him with the large staff. ”Sorry, I dozed off. I haven’t seen you around before; are you a traveler?”, inquired Yusuke looking at this individual. It was true, he had never seen this individual before. At that moment, Yusuke’s stomach would growl quite loudly. Reminding him that since morning, he had been working but he hadn’t eaten. Kaya owed him a free breakfast for helping too. She was probably slightly worried and quite angry at him for disappearing too. The thought of Kaya being angry at him made a drop of sweat crawl down his forehead as the feeling of eminent danger crawled through his spine. Even though she wasn’t a shinobi, she still was pretty frightening when angry.

”Jeez.. I haven’t eaten since morning”, he said to himself. Ignoring the individual right in front of him for a moment. Then he blushed a little as he noticed he had just said that out loud and the growl from his stomach was pretty audible too. ”Oh I’m sorry, where are my manners? I’m Yanagi Yusuke and you are?”, he introduced himself bowing gently. ”Have you had breakfast yet? Wanna join me?”, said Yusuke being polite. It was only polite to ask since he intended to go eat some delicious breakfast at the restaurant. That also meant getting scolded by Kaya but she made up for it with her amazing cooking.

Word Count: 398.
Total Word Count: 886.

As the person in front of them stood up from beneath the bench, the strange person simply watched curiously. This stranger seemed harmless, and like Chiaki, somewhat carefree. A nice change of pace to what they had expected to be faced with in this new land. The stranger seemed friendly enough, and while they didn’t catch exactly what was said, out of the corner of their eye Chiaki watched the strangers lips move. By the time they paid attention to what the person was saying, they noted the words “dozed off”, and beyond that, focused their attention entirely on the strangers lips. Of course, it was shortly after this point the stranger would pause, before speaking up again and introducing themselves, announcing that their name was Yanagi Yusuke, and that they were hungry from a lack of breakfast. While not to the degree that this person obviously was, Chiaki could understand being hungry; they’d been surviving off rations since fleeing Sunagakure.

Voice barely audible above a whisper, Chiaki began replying. “It is nice to meet you Yanag Yooskay. I’m Chiaki Fu…” they began their introductions, cutting themselves off midsentence before correcting it by simply saying “I’m Chiaki.” It was weird to them. The need to hide who they were, the idea of being illegal and, while maybe not hunted, potentially hunted. The name Fukitsuna was one they would be happy to be rid of associating with, but, it wasn’t one they were used to not being yet. Still, Chiaki would return the bow, albeit keeping their eyes transfixed on the face of the person. The stranger’s lips moved more, and Chiaki noted that they were now asking more questions. Specifically, they were asking about breakfast of all things. A blank expression was across the silent ninja’s face as they stared blankly at the person they had literally just met.

After a brief pause, followed by a somewhat impolite yawn, they replied quietly, voice even quieter than before. “I haven’t had breakfast. But, I mean, sure. You guessed right. I’m not from Ewegakora, I arrived last night. I can pay for the food if you would like. Just, well, lead the way I guess.” They said with a shrug, not quite sure how to respond to the offer for food. After all, this person that was sleeping under the bench was woken up by getting hit with a stick, and responded by offering the person that did it to join them for breakfast. If this was what the locals of the land of stone were like, how did the nation survive? Is everyone this weird?

He raised an eye brow as Chiaki pronounced his name in a weird way. Guess he hadn’t said it clear enough, he was probably more hungrier than he had originally thought he was. ”Don’t worry, Kaya won’t ask for payment. She owes me a breakfast” he would reply as Chiaki offered for the payment of the food. As Chiaki had asked, Yusuke would comply. He would begin leading the way to the restaurant hoping that Chiaki would follow behind. Just as soon as Yusuke would come near to the restaurant he would be greeted by a flying pan heading straight in his direction. As Yusuke was preoccupied with the stranger, he didn’t see it coming and only felt it when it collided with his cheek sending him crashing to the ground.

”You imbecile! Where have you been whole morning? You had m… grandmother worried sick!”, shouted Kaya from the door of the restaurant; waving yet another pan. One may even think that she could magically summon an infinite number of pans. Yusuke would rise from the dead as he would embarrassingly smile and shout back, ”Sorry about that..”. Apparently Kaya may give off the hostile aura but Yusuke knew that wasn’t remotely the case. He knew that she was the one being worried. So he would lead Chiaki into the restaurant where they would be greeted by the kind smiling old owner: ”Thank you for helping out Kaya with the groceries and preparation Yanagi-chan; she couldn’t have managed it on her own”; said the old lady patting Yusuke’s head like one would pat a kitten. Yusuke gladly took the kind hand and accepted the generous patting like an obedient pet. ”Oh and we have a guest too? Kaya, Yanagi-chan has a guest. Make breakfast for them”, she would shout to Kaya as she welcomed Chiaki. Kaya would reply from the kitchen, ”On it”.

Yusuke would then escort Chiaki to the table and sit across from them, with a swollen half face. He was pretty much used to it. And he knew that Kaya was going to make up for it with the taste of the breakfast anyways. So he didn’t mind. Plus the old lady was too kind. He wondered what Chiaki would have thought about the whole thing. ”Don’t worry about a thing Chiaki, Kaya isn’t as cold as scary as she might look like. She’s actually a pretty nice girl and an awesome cook”, he would whisper to Chiaki. Kaya had pretty sensitive ears too; if she had heard Yusuke calling her scary and cold, Yusuke would probably be dead by now.

Word Count: 447.
Total Word Count: 1333.

As expected, Chiaki waddled behind, following Yusuke as he led the way, yawning every now and again. It was a rather average walk, if a walk can even be described as such, and the two arrived in front of what Chiaki assumed was the place. There were many things Chiaki expected from an Iwagakure restaurant, one of which being that they literally ate rocks. However, even with such ludicrous thoughts in mind, Chiaki would never have imagined what actually ended up happening. Before they even noticed, a frying pan flew out of seemingly nowhere, colliding with Yusuke’s face and sending him careening to the ground. Ouch.

Unaware of the existence of the shouting person, Chiaki simply kept watching the injured Yusuke, only looking and noticing the shouting angry lady when Yusuke stood up, and apologised while facing her. Then, the rather odd person and the angry lady with the pan no jutsu would walk into the restaurant, Chiaki following along once more. It seemed a quaint little place, something Chiaki had noted a lot of Iwagakure was like. Chiaki found their eyes scanning everything, taking note of a small old lady who seemed quite gentle and happy. Three people. Chiaki kept looking back and forth, trying desperately to keep up with the conversation to no avail. Eventually, it seemed Yusuke was leading on once more, Chiaki just clueless in following along, unable to hear what anyone was saying, their staff making clicks on the ground as they walked, something they were unaware of.

The duo found themselves at a table, and now that they were seated, Chiaki found themselves paying near full attention to Yusuke. His face was swollen from the prior pan attack, although regardless, Chiaki continued staring almost awkwardly, still as silent as ever. As Yusuke spoke, his words less pronounced and harder to read, Chiaki paused, trying to translate it into something they understood. A couple minutes of silence, before they decided to shrug it away, whispering quietly. “Anything you recommend?” they asked rather blankly, tilting their head and continuing to hold the empty expression, silver hair as much of a mess as always, and bo-staff resting against them.

Their heart raced. What was this sudden feeling? Like madness, gripping at their chest, causing their breath to leave their lips and break at their mind, scratching beyond the surface. Chiaki gripped at their head, leaning their elbows on the table as their mind grew terrified of seemingly everything. They no longer cared for who was around them, who was watching, as the silent world they lived in grew dark as well, all sight seemingly narrowed on one idea; escape.

Leaving their staff behind, Chiaki got up, taking off in a sprint and running out of the door, clutching their ears in an effort to block out the lack of sound. It was maddening. To live in a world where they don’t exist, to live in a world where they’re illegal. It freaked them out to a point they couldn’t cope with, and so, without aim, they fled to who knows where.

[EXIT]

(OOC: Exiting due to inactivity, sorry Yusuke. I made sure there was a plot reason though, so as to not make the thread unusable for when you get back, and also, the staff is left here, so, consider it yours. It's the C rank bo-staff from the weapon catalogue.)