It was a fascinating thing to see two places that were entirely different who respected one another so much. Kirigakure no Sato was a gloomy place where it rained the majority of the time and in order to avoid the depressing monotony of everyday life people would escape to one of the many bars in the village, getting in a drink or several and trying to forget that at times life can be a real pile of shit. Their village had been destroyed twice in the past, once in Hakara Guanyin’s lifetime, and the people were almost always on edge. There was a strong military presence and the Mizukage was seen by many as a tyrant. The greatest heroes in the village were two groups of murders. The first was The Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, who throughout the history of the village could be found soaking the mist in blood, earning it its appropriate nickname the Bloody Mist Village. The second, and one that was more curious still, was the Aoi Bara, who were a group of individuals who had recently been known for the corruption of Iwa, the murder of the Raikage Reika Misora, and many other crimes that had to do with defection, murder, theft, arson, destruction of property, and many others.

In contrast, Konohagakure no Kato was a village that had a history of heroes to be proud of. They laid claim to the group who had been known as the Sannin over three hundred years ago, as well as many of the greatest shinobi who had ever lived. In recent times their history had been a little bit darker, with defectors such as the Senju Queen Ukiyo Senju, the Hell Drake Mitsuo Sarutobi, the Great Manipulator Tsuyo Hyuga, and the God of Destructive Flames himself, Hao Uchiha. These individuals had become terrors, but their darkness could never put out the flame that lived at the heart of the village. Konoha was a village of hope and new beginnings. It was a place where people loved their lives and where you were more likely to find an eatery than a bar, and maybe it was that fact that made Hakara a little uncomfortable in this place. Hakara himself had a positive outlook on life at all times, having grown up with nothing and been taught to value what little you have by his parents. He was used to trying to cheer people up in Kiri, but everyone here seemed to be happy enough. It wasn’t a bad thing, it was just odd to him.

He walked into the only pub he could find, a place known as the Shushaya Pub, and moved his reddish brown fingerless-gloved hands to pull back the fur-trimmed green hood that covered his pair of brown leather goggles and shoulder-length green hair. His emerald eyes scanned the establishment, a slight smile on his soft featured face as he took in the place that still felt so different to home. As he placed his delicate hands into the green coat and onto his slender hips he took a moment to take in the true differences. He noticed a few people who looked to see the Guanyin clan symbol on the back of his cloak, or the Kirigakure Headband that was tied to his left arm. He noticed that even in here the people were laughing and happy. It didn’t smell like fish like the bars that sold food in Kiri did, but rather different kinds of meat. He made his way to the bar and took a seat, looking towards the barkeep, a young woman with sky blue eyes and white hair.

“Hello there traveller!” Her voice was kind and welcoming, as though she truly enjoyed what she did. It was a nice thing to hear. “Can I interest you in a drink or maybe something to eat?” Hakara scanned the menu, ordering himself a hot toddy and a plate of beef and rice. He also ordered a second drink, placing it beside him as though expecting someone to come sit in the empty seat. He always did this, hoping someone would take the invitation to drink and share stories with him, and as the woman walked away he looked towards the door once more in the busy establishment, curious to see who might walk in...

(729)

After a relatively uneventful life so far living in the Hidden Mist, Hanza had taken his chances with the Kiri-Konoha exchange program. His parents each had their own worries and apprehensions as to what sort of shenanigans their unpredictable and unconvenional son might get up to in a foreign land, where they have no influence or ability to get him out of trouble. Even so, they wrote this off as helicopter parenting, being that Hanza had graduated the academy and was a fully fledged shinobi of the Hidden Mist. At seventeen years old, it was time for them to let go. And so they granted him a full blessing and sent him off the best wishes.

It took many moons to make it to the Hidden Leaf, and Hanza’s extraordinarily low body temperature was immediately a bother to those who traveled with him, and to himself who felt the further they traveled from Kirigakure, the more uncomfortably warm he became. During the boat ride, the camp outs, and even the walking, everyone took to clumping together away from Hanza, because the young man simply sapped their heat unnecessarily.

Fortunately, Hanza was not much effected by this, outside of minor curiosity about why a person would rather be warm than cold in the first place.

Beautiful forests, large glistening lakes of still water, areas of rock and mountain. Konohagakure seemed to be quite a diverse landscape, and Hanza was absolutely thrilled to be their. A man of science and medicine could still have a great appreciation for the beauty in life. They reached the massive, beautiful green gates and passed through with friendly greetings and smiles. This was a haven of happy people, almost nothing like Kirigakure no Sato.

The Kirigakure exchangers were bid farewell by their assigned escorts and sent off with instructions to find their new flats. It was up to them to navigate and make their new surroundings an actual home. With his coat now draped just over his shoulder rather than covering his body, Hanza took to walking right into the thick of this wonderland of new discoveries. It was so sunny outside, there were dogs and cats trying to sneak scraps from brightly colored vendor stalls. The green and red aesthetic was quite uplifting.

As he stared around in amazement, hardly able to make confident steps, Hanza felt an uncomfortable tug in his throat. It was very dry. He had not remembered to keep much hydrated during his journey to Konoha. He took this as an opportunity to begin familiarizing himself with the area, and headed straight toward the closest thing to a Kirigakure pub he could find. It was called Shushaya Pub, and though it was the closest thing he could find, this pub was nothing like those on the low streets of Kirigakure.

As he entered, he took a moment to glaze over his surroundings. The bartender was a white haired woman with blue eyes, fair and pretty. A warning presence. People sat aside all around, laughing, carrying on with each other in a joyous rumble of chatter. At the bar sat an indidivual with wonderfully green hair, reaching their shoulders easily. They wore a coat slightly heavier than the one Hanza held over his shoulder, it being a shade of green different even from that of their hair and emerald eyes. They sat at the bar with food and drink, and yet beside them - an empty bar stool with a drink. With a smile on his face, Hanza walked right up to the bar with confidence in his actions, and took a swig of the beverage.

Humorously, it was in fact a hot toddy. Hot beverages such as this felt even more hot going down Hanza’s throat, and as such it shocked him desperately. With a look of anguish and eyes watering, he looked over to the green haired person and choked forth “This beverage is very hot...

As he fumbled to regain his composure, he would pull from his pocket his Kirigakure forehead protector and clench it in his hands. It was likely that anyone nearby would’ve been able to at least lightly feel the air chill with Hanza being near, as the young Kōri clansmen would quickly request a cold water from the bartender.

WC: 718

As per usual, the leave a drink method worked. It was nice to see that sometimes people still trusted strangers, and even though Hakara knew all too well the dangers of such a thing, having been referred to as a plague doctor by some of the people who knew him back home for the experiments he tended to conduct, but he didn’t allow this to skew his view of reality. If you were kind to people they would react in kind. The boy who walked up to him looked to be around the same age as he was, white hair along the same length, green eyes, though more pale than his vibrant emeralds. The coat was something that put him out of place from the rest of the people in here, as only the two of them seemed to have them. If that wasn’t enough to tell Hakara where he was from, the obvious Kirigakure colours were. This was a boy from his own home village, someone whom Hakara may have even seen in passing at some point, though not to his knowledge. He saw the boy take a seat and go to drink the warm drink in front of him, and then seeing the recoil as he took a sip and exclaimed nervously about the temperature of the beverage.

It took Hakara no time at all to realize he was a part of the village’s ice clan the Aisu, or Yuki or Kori or whatever they were calling themselves these days. Hakara took another sip of his drink and chuckled softly, speaking up; “It’s called a Hot Toddy, essentially Irish tea. It’s great for clearing your head after quickly acclimating to new areas, like the difference between, say, Kiri and here. To go from the rainy cool climate to this much warmer one is something that will quickly mess with your sinuses and could potentially make you sick. I observed three of the people who were on the ship here with me who became sick within days of our landing.” His voice was soft and kind, but also quite matter of fact as though he was very knowledgeable in the field he spoke on, which was fairly true. He had spent his life studying diseases and sicknesses and he had learned much in his short lifetime on the subject.

“You know, you should really get checked out. You look like you could be sick, and you certainly feel like you are. I can feel the temperature off of you from here.” Hakara took another sip of the Hot Toddy and continued to work at his dinner, curious as to what the individual would say in response to his statement. He was used to disarming people with his demeanor but that didn’t always work, some people still apprehensive about being checked out. It would be fair to assume that this individual might tell him that he is naturally cold or something along those lines, and Hakara knew that well. In his experience the ice users of Kiri were an interesting bunch and had all sorts of fascinating resistances to his viruses, resistances that he tried to test whenever he found a chance to do so.


“You also look a little uncomfortable here, grasping at your headband like that. Did you just arrive in Konoha? It can certainly be a bit of an adjustment if you’re new but it is not a place to be scared or nervous in. Konoha is a generally safe and friendly village. And they’ve only been attacked once in recent history, and if I’ve heard correctly it was the Hokage at the time who did the majority of the damage. You can still see damaged areas of stone and wood if you look around. It’s interesting to be able to see the history of a village, do you not agree?” He was being friendly and charming, not necessarily trying to disarm the person who sat beside him, but keeping in mind that it was a thing he naturally seemed to do to people. “I’m Hakara by the way...Hakara Guanyin.”


1424

“Hot...Toddy? Wow. Traditionally it is thought that warm beverages have health benefits to them, along with keeping oneself warm and out of the cold. I often wonder who publicized such presumptuous data. I’ve yet to be exposed to warmth that felt nice. Simply makes me feel like a Petri dish.”

What Hanza was saying may or may not have sounded like the barking of a mad dog to someone with Medical expertise, but the tone with which he said so gave off nothing but absolute certainty. He was confident in his statement.

Hanza took the hot toddy, as it were called, and finished it quickly. He did not want to seem wasteful or rude despite how he found the warmth of the liquid displeasing. The taste was certainly not bad and his throat was relieved from it. As he finished it he was met with concern about his health to which he returned a very hearty laugh.

“Truth be told, I am more likely the healthiest person in the room. My own personal methodology, as I’m sure you’ve already begun to surmise.”

Hanza continued conversing with his new acquaintance, finding the personable company of one with a firm grasp on medicine and the human body to be delightful. This was one of few things that bring about the socially competent side of Hanza, allowing him to flourish like some sort of icey social butterfly.

Taking but a short moment away to fill his stomach, he kindly addressed the lovely bartender and asked for a very specific sort of fish from Kirigakure, to which he was chuckled at and reminded that he was far from home. The exchange ended with him being served a plate of steamed vegetables, which was not a negative thing at all, as he loved the flavor and health factor of such meals.

Hanza sighed deeply, glancing over at the person who was now as close to being a confirmed Kiri exchange participant as they could possibly be.

“I won’t fall ill from the adjustments but I can tell you with certainty that I’m going to be very uncomfortable for at least a month. Maintaining this body temperature is a chore of its own either way. I suppose I should be thankful I’m not in Sunagakure or Iwagakure. Thankful not just because I cannot imagine them being even half this beautiful, but also because well...perhaps I’d just outright melt.”

He chuckled a bit to himself as he pushed a small carrot into his mouth with his chopsticks. His chuckling came at the thought of how often the Kage caused massive damage to their own peoples in defense efforts.

“Isn’t it just something? These leaders with unimaginable power, having the ability to wipe out everything at once. Even in defense of their own lands they end up destroying their own infrastructure.”

He paused for a brief moment, smiling. “It’s great to meet you, Hakara. The guanyin are medical experts aren’t they? How thrilling! Would you like to know how to live forever?”

This last question was extraordinarily deep for what the conversation had been prior, and that was just a reflection of how ill-suited for socialization the young Kōri actually was.

WC: 547
TWC: 1265

This gentleman was an interesting sort, that much was for sure. Hakara wasn’t entirely sure if he knew what he was talking about or if he was simply trying to blow smoke up his ass from his first remark, but as he listened to the man’s words he figured there was a fairly good chance that he was a medical ninja, or at least knew a thing or two about it. He wondered if the ice users would make good medics, assuming that they would be at least good at preserving bodies if nothing else to insure that they could be looked at later. It was certainly a curiosity for him. He essentially confirmed to him that he was a member of the ice clan while speaking about the temperature, which didn’t surprise Hakara in the least. He also seemed to enjoy Konoha, which was a good thing to hear. It truly was one of the most beautiful places in their continent, the beauty only being second to Kumo, which was truly impossible to best. Hakara had been there once, however briefly, before the former Raikage Sanosuke Flint had gone insane and began attacking Kiri ninja. He was lucky to escape before that happened…

“We are indeed medical experts, though I’d hardly consider myself to be an expert. I am too young to have achieved such a status, but I certainly do know my way around fixing up a body. As for your question I have been working towards an answer to it for many years. I don’t expect to physically live forever, but I am constantly on the lookout for new things in the field of medicine, be they viruses that have never been seen before or the cures for diseases that plague the people. I will be known for eternity as the man who solved x epidemic or found y sickness and how to avoid it.” He finished his drink, putting the glass back down on the bar and chuckling, waiting to hear the man’s answer to the question he had asked before putting his fingers together and biting his lower lip. “I’m glad you decided to sit near me friend. It’s always nice to share a conversation with someone who seems to share something in common with yourself, besides of course where we are from. I’m hoping one day my name will be remembered with the greatest medics of the village, like Strafe Aisu.”

With that he stood from the stool he was sitting on and put a hand on the other boy’s shoulder, which was quite cold entertainingly enough. “I’m planning on exploring the village a little bit more, as I haven’t been here long myself. I’ve heard that there are a lot of good sites, and figure it would be nice to take those in with someone else who hasn’t known the village for very long, if you wish to join me.” He would smile a reassuring smile and pull his gloves back on, one after the other, before moving a hand to a pouch on his belt. He felt the familiar feel of the senbon that he had on him at all times, in the event that something happened and he had to defend himself. While the Guanyin clan were known for their medical prowess, they were also known for their impressive ability to wield Senbon, something that Hakara had taken quite a shining too. “Come friend, off to adventure!”

{Exit Thread}

2014 words
-Guanyin Control Technique -> 500 wc
-Medical D-C -> 1500 wc
14 words discarded

By this point, it would remain without a shadow of a doubt that Hanza was fanaticising the village hidden in the leaves. Beyond that, his new friend Hakara and himself had so much in common, nothing else was even remotely a concern to the enraptured Hanza. It would seem that his social capabilities had been dramatically improved by a simple hop and skip away from his homeland, which did not make sense in the slightest, but Hanza did not care.

“Ohohoho my friend, I know without any doubts that you will become someone responsible for much greatness. Anything you so set your mind to will come to you, as do all things with the power and determination to study medicine. We are the first line of defense against an unseen enemy that does not choose sides. Not just the bacteria, viruses, and disorders that plague the human body either. The greatest unseen enemy there ever has been. Death itself.

Hakara spoke of a man by the name of Strafe Aisu, who must have been of the older generation of Ice Release users. Hanza was rather aloof when it came to historical knowledge, or even knowledge of current events, and he always had been that way. Based on that, he was almost always more likely than not going to be completely unaware of who a great figure was, save for the biggest ones like Ayakashi, the pride of Hyōton users everywhere and Mitsuo, who Hanza had heard was essentially a raging inferno of destruction itself if the man so chose to be. While some really used these figures and news stories as motivators, high points to reach for even, Hanza always looked away from them in favor of personal discovery and advancement of his own fascinations.

The only people he had ever been in regular, repetitive contact with outside of the necessary ones were his parents who were always supportive of him and never even truly disciplined him the way other parents seemed to with their children. His teachers seemed to think him odd or believed his special niche was not going to work out or be beneficial to Kirigakure, so they were not all that concerned with spending personal time on Hanza.
For a great majority of his life, he was quietly abandoned by others and was all too naive or...unique to understand what they were doing when they did so.

Cryogenics had taken over the spaces in Hanza’s mind that might have been left over to be occupied by malignant thoughts. In this way, from an outside perspective the small obsession had saved him. Hanza was born with a strange mind. One which hardly conformed with the traditional ideas of this world. Being a shinobi for the sake of it was not interesting to Hanza. Being a shinobi in order to further study the effects of preservation via freezing was interesting however. That alone pushed him properly onto a more solid path than one of an intelligent mind with no aims or goals. Some of the greatest evils to ever exist were simply because of someone with too much potential having nothing to drive them. It spirals out of control and leads to unimaginable destruction and cruelty.

“It is my intention to take what I’ve been able to accomplish with my own body and utilize that to show others that our species is capable of living far beyond what is currently believed to be the average. The power of the cold to keep a body strong and free of disease is impossible to ignore. And I will be the harbinger of this power.”

Hanza smiled as a hand found its way to his shoulder, each of them having shared their aspirations, now he was being invited to explore this amazing village. Could this day have been any better? Hanza did not believe so. He was absolutely thrilled. On top of that, the speed at which he had downed that Hot Toddy on an empty stomach may have caused a bit of tipsyness.

After ordering a final round of drinks, this time the beverage being an alcoholic iced lemonade rather than a warm drink, he offered the second glass to his friend with joy and accepted his offer with a toast.
“To a fantastic friendship and reaching for the stars!”

Out into the thick of the Hidden Leaf Village they would go, two likeminded Kiri ninja.

[Exit Thread]

WC: 740
TWC: 2005

Fūton D -> C | 1500 WC
Reaction Time E ->E-3 | 450 WC

55 WC Discarded