This was surreal. The mountainous maw had sharp teeth made of rock, it's misty breath lingering around and shrouding the extensions protruding its mouth. She couldn't really see a tongue, but the mouth was certainly riddles with poxes that had the odd shape of houses. It seemed she had reached... the underworld.

As Nariko eyed the swirling mist-breath, she heard the barking of a dog and soon saw its figure being formed by the mist. It real colour seemingly remained hidden under a shroud of white, its gleaming red eyes glaring at her for what seemed an eternity before suddenly vanishing as if it had never been there. Nariko smiled wryly as she realised this wasn't Konoha, nor reality. Whatever she had eaten to fill her stomach with was playing tricks on her, and she was liking it.

As if accepting this realisation was what the mist was expecting from her, it seemingly opened up to allow her entrance. Nariko realised only later that her feet hadn't stopped marching in all that time, but that thought was cloaked together with her body as the swirling mist closed behind her. The quietude with which the entrance to the otherworld had announced itself, had now made room for the daily bustle of the city itself. Kumogakure. What an odd place.

Nariko still didn't have the slightest of ideas where she was, but the sight of shops which seemingly danced with the auras of street life folks, made her feel a little at ease. Shops meant she could get new clothes. Finally. After that, she'd go take a bath and find herself a proper inn to sleep in. And something acceptable to eat, since the forest didn't exactly provide anything decent compared to the refined culinary tastes she had developed due to her lineage.

A full fifteen minutes passed by as Nariko just stood there in the middle of the road, torn clothes attracting frowns of passing people or swears from those who somehow expected her to move out of the way. To Nariko, however, it felt like only a few seconds had passed, in which she had plotted a most devious master plan on how to achieve ultimate luxury for the rest of the day.

That said, her plan had to be set into motion. Sluggishly moving into action, Nariko walked towards a clothing shop that had quite a good looking window displaying various outfits. Since she had used most of her clothes to swap from persona to persona, she would have to get a bunch of new clothes. To think she'd have to spend what seemed the be a whole afternoon in the shop. Trying out clothes. Enjoying a day like a simple girl in front of a window. It sounded to unrealistic to be true, but here she was, having no servants to take her body measures, no father to command the shopkeeper what textiles to get, which colours to pick, how she had to be dressed up... The only good thing was that her father didn't dress up like a 10 year old girl because he thought she was too cute and precious to be walking around like a full grown woman.

Nariko entered the shop, taking in the swirling and swaying of coloured textile, mixed with the moving pastel pink that seemingly formed a few people. She frowned slightly, blinked and focused her mind as good as possible. The shop keeper already walked up to her, seeing the torn clothes, a worried face upon the puffy woman's face. She was the sort that could easily be labelled a 'mother hen' - well-fed, strong and with one heart full of care, and another half filled with a mystical strength to brow down anyone foolish enough to defy her authority within the household, including high ranked shinobi who couldn't behave.

Showering Nariko with empathic words, motherly care and some honeyed words of the saleswoman she actually was, she urged Nariko straight to the dressing room. The girl could barely place a word, one one hand her tongue partially numbed by the mushroom, and on the other hand the woman barely leaving the 'child' she was a single moment to protest. Nariko felt her body being shoved inside an empty dressing room with a bubbly, "stay there, I'll be right back" and stared at the miserable image that formed her reflection.

She did look horrible.

Hair astray, not having been combed in days, face dirtied by mud, her clothes torn here and there from thorns or eager branches... Nariko rubbed her free arm in slight discomfort. Even if she liked the sensation of fear, the thrill of being lost, the discomfort of feeling actual hunger and the disgust of having to force herself to eat whatever gross meat just to survive, she did have some pride in her. A pride which disapproved of her current shoddy looks.

Nariko snapped somewhat out of her surrealistic world, urged by her pride to do something about the beggar she become. She peeked outside the dressing room, and saw the sales-mother already come back with an armful of clothes. The woman pressed it into her arms, comforting her 'this would fit her just right since she had an eye for sizes like hers. The bundle in her hands seemed to hold a quality hairbrush, a simple black thin sweater, a dark blue leather skirt with fitting belt, stockings and a jeans jacket with long sleeves and a pair of intimates. Since she was recommended to take her time dressing up, Nariko did just that. Somehow, seeing the sorry state she found herself in had been enough to sober her up at least a little bit.

Nariko slipped into the new clothes, the smell of 'new' briefly overwhelming her senses. They sat surprisingly comfortable. The woman did know how to measure people on sight. Sitting down on the stool in the dress room, another quarter passed as she brushed her hair to silken smoothness. Dirt and smell aside, she looked a little more humane now.  [x]

Leaving the dressing room with a bundle of old clothes, the mother hen cooed happily when she saw Nariko wearing the clothes she had picked, hair brushed and not looking like a street dog anymore. Of course, all kindness came with a cost and despite mother hen's kindness, there was not a single ryo that would be removed from the price of her clothes - the hair brush was free, mind you. Still, Nariko paid the woman in proper and left the shop.

It was a matter of finding a bath and an inn now.

wc 1119

Rakurai laid on his bed staring up at the ceiling. It was hard for him to believe that after three long years he had done it, he finally graduated from the academy. Looking over at the clock on his bedside table he realize it was two in the morning. "Great" he said to himself, realizing he had been up all night. The excitement of becoming a Genin was too much and he could not get to sleep. "Well I guess if I can't sleep I might as well go for a walk," he said to himself as he sat up on the bed and walked to his bathroom. The one thing he liked about the orphanage was that he got his own bathroom, after a quick shower he walked back into his bedroom and grabbed his clothes. After getting dressed and tying his shoes he grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair and threw it on before grabbing his Hitai-Ate. Pausing for a moment to stare down at it in his hand, everything he had been working towards for the past three years lead him to this, his first milestone in his career as a Shinobi he was now a Genin of the Hidden Cloud Village and now he would be allowed to venture out beyond the walls on missions. This was a double benefit for Rakurai as while he is out there he would be able to launch his own investigation into himself and find out who he really was, where he came from and what happened to his family.

According to the Hidden Cloud there was an investigation launched three years ago when they found him washed up on the river side nearly dead. Nothing was discovered and he was forced to become a ward of the village growing up in this orphanage, of course Rakurai was not completely convinced that the report was true. They could be hiding something from him or maybe they did not look hard enough either way it did not really matter now that he made it to the Genin rank as nothing could stop him from going outside the village wall and investigating it himself. Rakurai tied his Hitai-Ate around his head he wanted more than anything to discover the truth about his past but at the same time he made a commitment to the Hidden Cloud when he graduated from the academy that he would serve them and give his life in its protection if he had to. It was a promise that he did not take lightly but at the same time he had his own agenda as well. He would just have to buy his time and hope that one day the two agendas would overlap. Rakurai looked over at the clock on his bed side table one more time to see it was now three in the morning. He knew he could not just walk out the front door of the orphanage as Madam Selene would simply not allow one of her wards to go out in the middle of the night. He crept over to his bedroom window and slowly pushed it open trying his best not to make any noise and wake anyone else up. He made it out the window and onto the roof from there he jumped down from the second story landing on his feet in the alleyway dusting himself off before heading out to the street. He had tried to see the village at night before, however he was usually caught and taken back to the orphanage, but not tonight. Tonight it was so peaceful, nobody rushing around to get to shops or people yelling at each other as all the shops were closed at this time of night and most of the respectable citizens were asleep in their own bed something that Rakurai should be doing himself but the excitement of finally making it to Genin would not allow that. As he walked Rakurai passed by some of the higher ranking Shinobi of the village however none of them stopped him or tried to tell him he should not be out this late or any of the stuff they had done in the past when he would sneak out. Rakurai assumed it was due to the fact that he was now a member of the village's Shinobi force and was granted certain privileges such as being allowed out at night and not having to hear all the crap he had to listen to before. The cool summer night breeze swept through the village as Rakurai walked along the road, the sound of crickets chirping was the only thing he heard other than the sounds of his own foot steps against the road, he had been walking around for hours not heading for anywhere in particular, however he soon found himself in front of the academy. The past three years seemed like a dream to him now, it was hard for him to imagine that the first step in his journey was completed, in fact it was on this very spot three years ago today that he made the promise to himself that he would no long be the weak push over. That one day he would be the greatest Shinobi the world had ever seen and that he would discover the truth about his past.

The haze of the night soon lifted as the sky began growing lighter as the sun began to rise in the distance he knew that the streets would soon be filled with people rushing this way and that heading off to work and that the peacefulness of the night was about to end. With a huge sigh Rakurai turned away from the academy "Might as well get some food" he said aloud to himself as he intertwined his fingers behind his head and began strolling towards the marketplace to grab him some food. By the time he reached the market place all the shops were open and customers were bustling from one store to the other buying what they needed for the day, he had been so occupied by watching the villagers he forgot to watch where he was walking and walked straight into someone. Taking a couple of steps back he quickly bowed to the person, "Terribly sorry, that was completely my fault I was not watching where I was going," he said before lifting up to actually look at the person he had walked into.

---

WC: 1087

The pestilence of the Maw that were the houses rose high, somewhat bending under the pressure of their own egos as they tried to surpass the sharp teeth of the mountains that surrounded Kumogakure. To make matters worse, juice made of sunrays washed in from over the teeth and straight into the gullet. In a matter of moments, the streets were flooded by hues of yellows and reds. The people seemingly panicked about, all running away as they searched for hospitable grounds within the houses. "Such idiots", Nariko thought, "Can't they see its genjutsu?". However, the fleeing ants had little time to reply to the question locked in her mind, and neither did they prove to be helpful. In fact, there was actually one of them rude enough to barge into her as he scampered away from the juice-rays of the sun.

He mumbled something about not watching where he was going, even though his eyes were clearly there, looking at her just now. What a curious ant. If he didn't use his eyes to see where he walked, then what did he do with them exactly? Nariko wondered if he'd be able to run around without his eyes, but somehow she didn't really feel like trying it out today. She felt a bit squeamish, in fact, as the pain of him running into her was only now being picked up by her senses.

Opening her mouth to say something, her mind immediately refused cooperation, whisking away the very words she was about to say, and instead her stomach complaint plaintively. Hunger or pain, she wasn't quite sure what it was, but after the speech of her stomach, which she rubbed in discomfort somewhat, the words returned to her.

"Some eyes are overrated~", the words flowed out rather difficultly, her voice sounding like a whispering hiss. She frowned, forcing it to put some more effort into it, and spoke with a clear, sibilant voice this time,"I see you scampering away from the...", she waved her arm at the direction of the sun, missing the equivalent word in reality speech for the ray-juice that looked like a washed out painter's palette to her. "colours in the... sky. Before you run off...", speaking and thinking surely seemed hard to combine today. "Show me the good baths. The ones with warm water. For washing." She wasn't sure she had to give this much detail, but neither was she sure her mind knew exactly what it was saying. At least, it made sense to her as the words drifted into her mind and rolled out of her mouth. The question was, had the eyeless brat understood what she meant?

Nariko linked her hands behind her back, eyes unfocused to the splatter of sunray colours washing in the colourful browns and grey of Kumo's buildings. A lovely sight she was, were it not for her feverish eyes, the smears of dirt she got from her wanderings through the forest or the lingering scent of sweat and natural decay.


wc 515 + 1119
= 1634

((Nariko's current looks:  [x] with violet eyes, of course))

Rakurai was shocked by the girls appearance despite what looked like new clothing the girls face and hands were covered in dirt as if she had been living in the gutter or out in the woods. He wonder for a moment about how her clothes looked so nice and new but the girl under the clothes looked to be a complete wreck before he realized that they were in front of one of the many clothing shops that were spread across Kumo. He nearly slapped himself when he realized his mind was wandering off, but then he realized that the girl looked as if she was  in a daze herself, it was as if her body was there but her mind was somewhere else. When the girl opened her mouth and grabbed her stomach he thought for such that she was going to hurl. After rubbing her stomach the girl spoke, her words seemed forced but light with a slight hiss to them and they didn't make much sense. It was obvious to Rakurai, when the girl started waving her arms around in the air, that she needed some kind of help. He was not sure how much help he would be but he knew the person he should take her to see.

If there was anyone could help this girl it was madam Selene, Rakurai smiled trying his best to put on a friendly face something madam Selene often told him that he needed to work on as well as his attitude. "Um yes I think I know where you need to go" he said as friendly as he could trying his best not to sound like the jerk everyone was always telling him he sounded like. "My name is Raku," he said with a smile, "I stay down the road at the orphanage." Rakurai pointed in the direction in which he was talking about, he knew it did not sound like a place that anyone would want to go to in her condition so he quickly tried to explain himself. "Madam Selene runs the orphanage, if you come with me she will feed you and let you take a shower if you like," he said continuing to sound polite and not perverted in anyway that would scare the girl off. "Madam Selene is super nice and is also a medic so if your sick or anything she should be able to help you, or if you need a place to stay she doesn't charge," he continued.

Rakurai tried his best to not seem as if he was trying to force the girl to follow him, as he would never try to do that he simply wanted to help her and show her the same kindness he was shown so long ago when he had first arrived in Kumo. Rakurai gestured in the direction of the orphanage ask he spoke, "I am actually headed there now to get some food in before I head out to train, your welcome to come with me if you like." As he stood there waiting for a reply he looked into the girls eyes as if trying to show the girl that he was only wanting to help her and nothing else, the truth was even though the orphanage was less than a mile away from where they were he could use the company. Most of the villagers rarely talked to him, even after living there for three year he did not have any friends and he hardly knew anyone aside from a handful of people he talked to on a regular basis. But before he tried to get to know the girl he would rather her get some kind of attention, and definitely a shower.

---

WC: 625 + 1087 = 1712

{Rakurai's appearance {x} the trim of the coat is black eyes are bluish-silver}

Hues of red and yellow turned to sky blue... blue? as the sun-juice passed by and left nothing more but a cloudless sky. It was so unusual to Nariko, who came from Kirigakure, to see a cloudless sky. Now instead, a rippleless lake loomed overhead waiting for the gods to allow it do drop in one go and flood the world in blue. She wondered if the gods would ever have such sort of fun. Probably not.

The guy in front of her then started to speak. it sounded bubbly. Like a fish that was making bubbles. Under a sky-blue lake. Nariko blinked, as the words he spoke sounded unintelligible, but the more she focused on her ears to understand him, the blurrier he became, until all she could see was a black and white blur on a grey and brown background. Much like someone had just flattened an insect and rubbed it open. At least she could hear clearly now, and for the first time, much to her surprise, the noise of the people running in the streets was loud and clear. Perhaps too loud and clear, even, as her ears suddenly picked up every step, every word, every cough, the wind whispering gently, a baby crying and a booming voice right in front of her.

'Raku', orphanage and Madame Selene. Food, shower and a medic. The whole package sounded interesting, at the cost of having to follow a complete stranger that had looked younger than her. Until he became a blur. She approved of the blur's words and nodded, "I approve of your suggestion." That said, she'd urge her body to follow him to wherever this Madame Selene's orphanage was, making sure she could actually identify him properly. Certainly, whatever she had eaten was messing with her senses like no genjutsu ever had, but her mind was still there. Most of the time.

As she focused on her eyes again, the blur became once more the 'Raku' that it had to be, and the booming noise around her seemingly toned down to a distant mumbling. It was a curious back and forth that made her wonder if it would work similarly with her other senses. While Nariko was inclined to try it out, it was rather hard thinking of the how and what she'd do. With a sigh that was probably louder than intended, she followed Raku to the orphanage.

[Exit]
wc 408 + 1634
= 2042

((Do you wish to do the orphanage part here, or would you prefer a second social for it?))

Spoiler:

The people walking by seemed to have the girl distracted, the woman with the crying baby even drew his attention as she walked by them but he quickly turned back to the girl as he wanted to make sure she was alright. Despite the girls disorientation what he had said to the girl must of gotten through to her, or at least he hoped it did considering the fact that she said she approved of his suggestion. For a brief second the girl looked as though she was straining herself to focus her eyes, before sighing loudly and moving to follow him. It was clear to Raku that the girl needed to get some medical attention as soon as possible, the fact that she was even standing and some what able to talk to him was shocking to him. However he had time to concern himself about that later he needed to get her to Madam Selene and fast, so he wasted little time turning and finding an open path to where they would not be hindered as they walk and would not have to push themselves through the crowded streets. As they walked down the street towards the orphanage Rakurai was constantly looking to the side of him to ensure that the girl did not trip or pass out. He did not walk too close to her as he did not want her to be uncomfortable, but he was close enough that if she fell he would be able to catch her before she hit the ground. Raku did not try to carry on a conversation with her as he was more focused on getting her to their destination and making sure she did not puke, as they got closer towards the orphanage the smell of the sweet mountain flowers from Madam Selene's flower bed filled the air and Rakurai looked back to the girl. "Its just around the corner now" he said in a low voice, he could not tell what was going on in the girls head but he hoped that it was nothing to serious and that Madam Selene would be able to help her. As he rounded the corner he saw Madam Selene standing outside watering her flowers, waving to her to come help him, as he waited for the girl to catch up.

{Exit Thread}

---

WC: 390 + 1712 = 2102

{A new thread sounds good to me i can start one later tonight when I get back from work or you can start one its up to you. If you start it feel free to rp Madam Selene however you need}

Stats trained:
Strength from E-2 to D-Rank -525
Speed from E-3 to D-Rank -300
Endurance from E-2 to E-3 -225
Perception from E-2 to D-Rank -525
Reaction from E-2 to D-Rank -525
Total words used for training = 2100