Strolling down the road with two heavily laden bags full of herbs, Airi made her way to the tea shop. She was there to replenish a few ingredients running low, and that were readily available in Konoha's forest. Since she had been out in the forest a lot lately, her room was brimming with various plants, herbs, roots, leaves and petals, all of them hung to dry somewhere or stashed away for later use. She had yet a lot of work to do when it came to making balms, oils and lotions but as her grandfather said so many times, "All in good times". For now, she could work on doing little errands that didn't require mixtures and concoctions.

As she neared the shop, there seemed to be some hassle with two guys and a girl, a bag of tea and then the salesman meddling to take care of things and to preserve the peace within the shop. Airi wondered why someone would make a fuzz about some tea when there was plenty of 'tea' to be found in the wilds, but she guessed this was just how shopkeeping went. Partially luring people to buy things, partially being a diplomat to prevent damage of any sort - physical or client-wise. She was happy not to need to bother with such things herself. She'd probably do a horrible job keeping the ledgers right anyway.

As she neared the door, the dispute seemed to have come to an uneasy peace. Airi passed them, flashing them a 'good day' and a smile, and walked over to the counter, expecting the boss of the shop to meet her to accept the ingredients he used for his tea. While Airi only knew a handful of tea mixtures mostly aimed at bolstering the natural immunity of the body or tackling the beginnings of a cold, this shop had much more to offer on matters of tea flavours and combinations - her ingredients were just a small amount of the complete collection. While the various flavours weren't exactly her cup of tea (pun intended), the girl was curious about where he got all the other ingredients. She had guessed a lot of them weren't native to Konoha, even, and exactly that was why she wanted to know. Airi would have loved to compare them with her grandfather's library and find their medicinal purposes.

Dropping the two laden bags on the floor, Airi leaned her arms on the counter, shifting her weight on top of them as she lifted one of her feet lazily. Once in a while she glanced at the trouble makers and the girl, then again she eyed the area behind the counter as she waited for the owner to appear.

wc 461

Souji had bid the lady farewell as he made sure she was alright. The young man had returned to the shop as he bowed before the owner a polite bow "Haha sorry for the trouble Granpa!" He scratched the back of his head as the old man chuckled at how nice he is despite believing what he did to be naive "I won't cut yer salary kid, but ye better work harder for the tea bags ye given the two punks." Souji was happy at how the old man was kind to him and thanked him cheerfully as another customer a beautiful young girl close to his age with a long beautiful green hair, amber jewels for eyes, with a frail frame. Her eyes though spoke volumes of her willpower but that was all simply Souji thinking of what he saw. Souji would wait at the side as he tended to the shop. The owner would greet the young lady and welcome her to the shop. 


Hearing his wife call onto him the man grumbled slightly and smiled at the customer as he spoke "Just a moment young lady. Souji, stay with the customer and help her with whatever she needs." Souji smiled as he nodded at the old man as he got upstairs to his wife. Souji would stand awkwardly in front of the girl. He was usually judged a lot for his scars and as such he was thought of as one of those troublemakers. Souji bowed a small bow before the girl as he spoke "Welcome to the dancing leaf tea shop. How can I help you.... Oh have this, it's our newest blend of leaves tea." He spoke so politely as he kept a bright smile on his face.


"You're quite the beauty miss. Aha-ha, sorry if that was out of line... I just... Figured... I'd tell you.... My thoughts.... For.. No....  Reason" Nervousness covered his smile as he tried to socialize and not be the most awkward creature alive. Thinking how big an idiot he was for saying that even though he was just expressing what he thought of her. The white haired boy immediately regretted what he said. He tried to clear up the conversation and break the ice by saying "I will help you to the best of my abilities miss!" He was such a fool that if she took his words literally outside of their relationship as customer and seller he would actually be driven and pushed around to help people and he wouldn't even mind it. He was simply that type of person.


The type of person that would help people regardless of who they were or what they did. Heck, he still visits the killer of his family and brings him good food. The boy talks with the killer and without hostility. Souji didn't forgive him. But still, he would work his hardest to forgive him. He would never let a pitiful emotion such as hatred take over him. He made a promise to his parents to never stop fighting through the hardships of this life and he could never do so while letting a mere emotion control him. The only thing that would guide this boy's actions would be one simple thing: Hope.

[So sorry for being late I ran into something, promise it won't happen again. Also, that is a clever pun x))]

Airi greeted the owner as he showed up, but he was barely settled behind the bar when a woman called him away for other business. She pursed her lips for a moment, but was given assistance by a young salesman instead. In true business fashion, he bowed and presented himself, already giving her a gift even before she had bought anything. A new tea mixture, huh? She could appreciate that. Airi thanked Souji and gently sniffed the content of the tea mix in an attempt to catch a few familiar herbs. She could smell apple, clove and... ginger? She wasn't sure, but it smelled like a good tea to have on a rainy day or in the evening while watching some tv.

Finished her analysis, the salesman suddenly blurted out a compliment about her beauty, trailing off at the end as he suddenly became aware of himself and seemingly lost confidence in doing so. With a sparkle of amusement, she giggled at his bravery and looked down for a second. This guy was too nice. She flashed him a warm smile, not the slightest blush to be seen by the compliment or her smile.

"Thank you. You must be doing the shop a lot of good with your kindness.", she said as she twirled her hair, growing a navy blue larkspur flower in it and proceeding to pick it. While men generally weren't keen on flowers, the navy blue colour offered an air of solid devotion and mystery, while the larkspur generally had the shape of a torch or baton. Combined with the white of his hair and his shop uniform, it would make him even more of a gentleman while adding a nice touch fitting perfectly with the context of the tea shop. She reached forward to tuck the flower in one of the uniform's chest pockets. "Herbs for the tea seller.", she stated simply.

With that done, she looked at the two bags of herbs she had gathered for the tea shop. She passed by here once in a while to offer the shop some of the ingredients she had gathered, and today was one of those days. "I just passed by to deliver these bags with ingredients. I know the shop owner uses those, so I'm hoping he'd be willing to take the bags this time as well. Perhaps you'd know?"

wc: 400 + 461
= 861

((No worries. It happens with the best of us :] ))

Seemingly smitten at first with her, Airi chuckled at his compliments about her beauty. It was endearing, but she wasn't sure he'd consider her this marvellous if he knew her points of view in life were quite different than his. Sure, they both seemed to seek a desire for peace and a certain heavenly utopia, but unlike him, Airi wasn't one to let go those that did wrong. Even if she knew everyone had his reasons for actions taken, she believed in an equal need to take responsibility for said actions - even if a person killed with a reason, it didn't change anything to the fact they had killed. And as such, a new vengeance for that death, being hunted by ANBU or being killed in turn were consequences they'd have to accept. Sadly, humanity generally didn't see it like that, preferring to rely on a self-serving sort of justice and that was why Airi mostly stuck to the laws of mother Gaia - prey or predator, the only justified kill is for survival.

Then again, Airi didn't wish to tear down the boy's own dream. Every person had his own dreams, after all, and every one of them hoped to achieve it. Her only expectation was that they all left nature undisturbed while pursuing their dreams.  "That is a noble goal in life.", she nodded. "You must have plenty of friends with that goal in life. I'm sure even our kage might appreciate that kind of philosophy." Not that she really knew the kage that well, but she assumed the Hokage had his own version of caring for Konohagakure. The Will of Fire, even if it burned differently within all of the shinobi, bound each and every one of them to a certain duty and desire to protect the Village. It was a most curious thing to see how different that desire had often been, though, going as far as to oppose their own allies for the sake of the Village.

Souji seemingly whispered something, blushing in the process, and suddenly enlivened to offer help with the bags. She gladly accepted. "I'm not sure where the shop owner usually places them since he generally requests me to leave them here. I guess he checks the content first, then proceed to sort out the ingredients to his needs?"

398 + 861
= 1256

As the owner of the shop returned, the boy was called away, leaving him little opportunity to reply to Airi's question. Luckily, the man took it over from there rather than to leave her standing with the bags. He picked up a bag and beckoned her to follow him, apologising for his absence in the process and telling her that it was possible he'd have to leave again. So for once, she would be allowed to see the workplace of the shop.

Together with the bags full of herbs, the two of them walked behind the counter and into a small, clear place where a few tables stood. The scent of herbs lingered around, telling Airi that this was the place where a lot of the house's tea mixtures were prepared. The boss poured out his bag of herbs over one of the tables and urged Airi to do the same on another table, upon which she emptied the bag she was holding on another empty table. Boss-man ran through the content, swiftly, yet delicately so as not to destroy its content and nodded here and there as he approved of the herbs' quality, brightening up for a minute even when he realised there were a few rare ingredients among them or when he discovered a large abundance of herbs his reserves were rather short of. Naturally, since the lower herbs had been somewhat smothered by the others in the bags, a few herbs didn't quite make the quality control the boss was performing and were denied with a frown.

After about a quarter of an hour, the boss rubbed his hands and flashed Airi a smile. The whole work done, only a small portion of the gathered herbs had been refused. Leading Airi back to the shop, he thanked her and paid her for the royal amount of herbs she had brought in. Even though she refused the money as she cared little for the monetary value in the world, in the end she accepted the coin as the shop owner insisted. He didn't want anyone to work for free, as that would make him feel bad. Airi pocketed the ryo, waved the owner and Souji goodbye, and left.

[Exit]

wc: 376 + 1256
= 1632

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Dead Thread. Not enough wc to count as a social.

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