The Siren's Den was a place of less than noble repute, but Gin wouldn't have had it any other way. A lot off the people that frequented her bar/(strip) club were mostly always drunkards, low-lives and hooligans in general. Sure, shinobi also used the place to cool down and forget about their worries for a while, but Gin didn't purposely cater to them. Like with most things, she did what she felt like doing with it at the time. Girls night? Sure. Casino night? Bring it it. Luau? Why the hell not. More than once she'd had the girls dancing in skimpy hula skirts. Today, though, she watched over the young women as they practiced more general routines. While the club's main purpose wasn't the strippers, their sideshows at the stages set up along the walls and scattered throughout were quite popular. Occasionally, cages, hoops or even trapezes would hang from the ceiling to switch things up.

It was a quiet afternoon, though, with Reiko - her oldest daughter - tending the bar for her. Judging by the time, Misao was likely still teaching at the academy. Shinji and Chie were off on some mission or other and weren't due back until the end of the week. As for Jun? Likely getting scolded by Gin's own mother. All in all, it was peaceful, almost akin to retirement. However, the much desired free time that came with it was put on hold. "One more squad! Please, teach one more squad!" One of Ayakashi's assistants had practically begged. Gin had finally relented, but resolved to put the minimum amount of effort into it. She had taught enough people in her lifetime and it had a tendency of not ending well.

Hence, the first squad meeting was meant to be here - at the least professional and child friendly place in the village aside from Sero's mansion. Moreover, Gin made sure that she was at least buzzed while she waited for the children to arrive. She had looked over their files the night before, barely bothering to skim the names. She got a Hozuki, Sero's spider child and the girl from Yukigakure.

The older woman - curiously looking like a small child of no more than 8 years old - motioned to her daughter for another drink. "Gimme another one. Imma need it," she said, her voice an uncomfortably child-like when combined with a soft slur.
With a sigh, Reiko obliged. She didn't have to voice her disapproval for Gin to know it was there. The older woman rolled her eyes, but gladly took the drink. For good measure, Reiko had put it in a sippy cup - her own brand of dry humor.

Gin shrugged, resolving to wait for the students as she watched the girls work it on the poles.

The Siren's Den. Of all the places in Kirigakure, this one was generally the only one where she had always been kept outside. 'Not old enough', the bouncer had said. Not that the spider-nin cared that much, but she had heard about people 'dancing' there, and doing all kinds of humane things such as drinking, getting drunk and showing all sorts of humane affection. Of all the places, it would have taught Haka a large chunk of what humanity consisted of, even if it was the most decadent and poorest side of the humane spectrum. To the spider, it was a lesson as any other, requested by her Creator, Sero Osada.

Of course, she was still 'too young' to enter this place and so the bouncer did not hesitate to halt her once more from entering, looking at her as if he recognised her somehow. He certainly would not recognise her as a shinobi, since a forehead protector was not something the girl had in her possession. The predatory dominance inherited by the Spider Clan, on the other hand, that she had plenty of it. Molding chakra into her mouth and spitting it out as she stood right before him, the man found himself a second later quite stuck against the wall right next to the entrance, and so Haka walked inside no longer stopped.

Stepping inside, it would not be hard to identify her as the daughter of Sero. The same long, white hair, the same apathy reflected in her red amber eyes and the same monstrous aura oppressing the people within her vicinity as it invisibly breathed down their neck to make the presence of the natural predator she was unmistakably well known. As a couple of people looked in confusion around, Haka stood still to take in the scenery of the Siren's Den, her rigid mind trying to figure out what the use was of such a large place or why one would even bother to gather this many humans if it didn't mean a large scale elimination.

Finding no answers in her own mind, Haka moved forward to the bar where an eight year old was being served by an older woman. Not knowing who they were as the spider had barely any connection with rumours, reputation or humans in general outside those of Spider Island, she would approach the older woman behind the bar, deducting that from her position she would be seeing quite a lot of movement within the building.

"I'm looking for Gin. Do you know who that is?"

---

431

Verdandi stepped past the door into the bar. Luckily for her. Someone had gracefully webbed the bouncer to the wall. Making it rather easy for her to get in. She yet did saw him chewing on the web before she entered. Using some mild calculations, she'd guess he'd bite himself free in roughly four to five hours. That being said, or thought, she moved in further. Seeing Haka at the bar, giving each other a glare of acknowledgment. Since her friend was obviously in waiting-mode and Gin was nowhere to be seen. Dandi would step forward further inside. Dressed in garments of higher quality. The princess was showing a class that was rarely seen in a place like this. Unless one of the pretty girls would dress up on purpose to.... satisfy certain visual fantasies.

Unsure to how the policy with more explicit actions would be in Kiri, she was yet familiar with similar establishments. Strippers weren't all too common in Yuki, but they did have skimpy clad dancers as well. Going by the colour scheme, Verd would guess that the kinkier shows were happening in the back. Her eyes would glance upon the scum, the casuals and the few drunk or passed out napping shinobi within the various little table groups. Most of the girls were very pretty, she had to admit. They seemed to behave frivolously but still showed some class. Yet their dancing seemed to relate mostly to the emphasis towards their naturally gifted curves. After a little walk around the place, she figured it didn't necessarily catch her fancy just yet.

By the time Verd made her way to the bar, sitting down and giving the universal tapping sign for a glass of water would eventually be rewarded by a glass of beer instead. Verd wasn't sure if the rules concerning the common drink were different in here but she would not question their customs. The kid didn't bother her, it seemed awfully shaky for a youngster her age though. Wondering if in that children’s bottle she was holding was the same kind of 'water' Verd had been offered. The kid acted like they weren't present. So Dandi would turn around. Share some glares with Haka and eventually use her hyouton to slowly freeze her drink a little bit up. Just enough to get it to that level of cold that she enjoyed.

While they were waiting for Gin and Chi, a dancer would make her way to the main stage, a beautiful lady whose garments seemed to be very oriental. A girl from suna in this place? She was gorgeous and her show was not a curve emphased motion. She was actually dancing. Her motions like a wave. One that would move in fluid succession, step by step, clean and without flaw. Wonderful. Like the blade dances from Yuki.... Verd would continue to gaze at her and take it easy on the sips of beer. She wouldn’t wish to be scolded by Gin. Having met her briefly, she certainly was an…. Unusual character. Brash. Probably not one to go easy on her student. But Verd was used to training with Ayakashi. Who could turn very…. Interesting if triggered. A little pain would return to her limbs out of muscle memory as she thought of training with her aunt. But for now. She was enjoying the dance that happened right before her eyes. Gotta appreciate the little moments in life.


580

Chigetsu had prepared himself mentally and physically. A last second batch of training had been done. He ate an actual breakfast, instead of the scraps that he usually consisted on. His outfit for the day wasn't full of holes and actually fit him. A white collared shirt that fit perfectly on him, instead of being too big or too small. It was a recent purchase of his, and one he felt satisfied with. Making a good first impression was important, after all. To go forth in the image of worn down poverty wouldn't have likely led to anything good happening for him.

Of course, he probably should have prepared himself mentally a little bit more. For some reason the fact that they were meeting in the Susanno damned Siren's Den wasn't something that clicked for him until he actually walked up to the building. Sure, it was something that he remembered being told as the location of the first squad meeting, but for some reason his mind hadn't truly processed it then. Seeing the glowing neon made his eyes go wide. He hadn't ever stepped inside this building before. While he knew it was open to all shinobi, something about it felt... taboo. It was somehow made worse by the state that the bouncer was in. Chigetsu couldn't help but look at him with pity, webbed to the wall. Still, at the very least that meant one potential obstacle out of the way. Bringing forth what little confidence he had, Chigetsu would step inside.  

He immediately regretted everything. Scantily clad girls. The scent of alcohol. Dancers. Thrown away refuge. It flustered him like nothing else. He had to avert his eyes away from the girls on the poles for his own sake, to prevent getting caught in some kind hypnotism. Truly this was the danger of a woman. It felt as if there were danger in every direction. Keeping his eyes stuck down to the floor like this might have normally made it hard for him to maneuver and find who he was supposed to meet with but judging from the webbed bouncer he would have an easy way out of that problem. Haka was already here. He could almost feel her unmistakable presence out from the crowd. While it didn't give him all too much more direction than just wandering around blindly, it was something to focus on. Perhaps this was part of an initial test from their squad leader? Learn how to explore an urban area without use of your eyes...

Yeah. Right. That must be it.

He was able to move around with just enough clarity to not bump into people. His wandering would come to an end when he reached the bar, colliding like a klutz with one of the stools. It was his own fault for trying to get around here like he was. After a moment of picking himself up off the ground he would climb onto the stool, taking it as a seat. With a deep breath he would look up, scanning at his surroundings in full. There was no way he would be able to find anyone if all he did was stare at the groun- Oh. He had just passed right by Haka and Verdandi when he tripped into the stool. They must have seen everything.  

Chigetsu sighed.

---

[565]

Gin waited for the students to arrive, occasionally drinking some of whatever Reiko had fixed for her and drumming her fingers on the bar in a nonsense rhythm. First one to come by was the spider, Sero's... Offspring? Creation? There was no good word for it, but she was leaning towards the latter. Much like her father, her expression was blank, calculating. She took after him alright. The girl approached the bar and addressed Reiko, much to Gin's amusement. Her eldest daughter titled her head, motioning ad the child sitting at the bar as she wiped down a glass.

As she did so, Gin spun on the bar stool and giggled in her childish voice. The next to enter was the Princess. She had met the girl before in passing during her visit to Yukigakure's remains. Her expression mimicked the spider's, but added a hint of boredom and innate superiority. Curiously, she stopped to stare at one of the dancers practicing on stage. At this point, the older woman stopped spinning, her head a bit woozy. "Like what ya see?" She teased. her senses weren't as sharp as usual in this form, but the teenager's amazement was hard to overlook.

Soon enough, the last member of their little group entered the Siren's Den, eyes closed and fumbling around only to crash against a bar stool. From what she remembered reading, this boy was a bit... odd. Having skimmed most of the file, she didn't know his full story, but his demeanor alone was enough for now. Oh this was going to be interesting. She had definitely been given an strange group.

Standing on the stool, she reached over the bar and handed the newest addition a pen and note pad. "Aight, you, take notes. Be detailed. Have fun," she said to the boy with white hair. For a brief moment, she wondered if he was an orphan before shaking the thought off. Albeit, there was room to spare in the house... Things to consider for later. Now, she needed to get this over with and move on to the fun part. After having begged her to take on a squad, the assistant at the Administrative Building changed her tone almost instantly. Apparently, she considered Gin's spoken word her bond and listed a set of instructions and protocol that should be followed in order to guarantee a "non-hostile training environment." Funny that these new rules had very little to say about how she could conduct the training itself. Mostly, it seemed like they were worried about appearances rather than anything else. it made Gin wonder if there had been complaints or lawsuits recently. Either way, she would follow the silly rules and go through introductions and whatnot.

In her small form, she cracked her tiny knuckles and gripped the sippy cup once again, chugging down its contents. She let out a loud sigh of satisfaction and wiped her mouth with her sleeve. She pulled out the scripted print out of how this conversation was supposed to go and skimmed over it before tossing it at Reiko, who begrudgingly took it and sighed. "State your name, talents, abilities, aspirations and general likes and dislikes. Boring, I know. Trust me, I would skip this whole ordeal if I didn't have HR up my ass about everything," she said. At her crass words, Reiko cleared her throat and glared. "Oh live a little, it's not like you don't cuss like a sailor when you let that stupid guard of yours down." Again, Reiko said nothing and continued to clean the bar. They were opening in a few hours, after all.

Gin pushed her little cup to Reiko again, motioning for another drink. Her daughter complied, visibly filling it with a mix of different alcohols that would surely knock most people out. This child was a seasoned drinker.

The woman at the bar motioned to the child on the chair, so Haka's eyes moved to stare at the Gin-kid who grinned and decided to spin on her stool. For what Haka knew about humans it would not be possible for a kid to have achieved a power great enough to be considered a teacher, so Gin was either not a human or there was more about this than she currently could understand. Nonetheless, the spider wouldn't judge. If the girl before her looked like an eight year old but would actually be much older, Haka herself was three despite her looks as a fifteen year old teenager. Age was just a number, as some would say.

The kid stopped spinning, seemingly a little dizzy, as Verdandi entered. The ice queen would be given a glass of something frothy that obviously wasn't fruit wine and therefore unknown to the spider-nin, but it did remind her of the dirty water with froth she had seen the servants use as they cleaned the dishes at the manor. She guessed it was Verdandi's right to choose her drinks, but if that was what she had been served Haka certainly wouldn't have bothered drinking it.

Eventually, Chi would enter the building as well, completely out of his element as he ventured the bar and eyed what he could see. Scantily clad dancers, mostly, and the group of people at the bar. For one reason or another he closed his eyes as if afraid of the women and continued stumbling about with his gaze focused on the ground until he walked into a bar stool. The spider-nin blinked, wondering what exactly he was trying to proof, and remarked on that with her soft toneless voice, "Humans don't eat people, Chi. You may look."

Gin promptly gave him a set of utensils to take notes like she was punishing him for being the last of the group, or maybe for running into her bar stools. The kid cracked its fingers and then requested a bunch of information about them. Haka found most of them to be strange questions to ask her and so for a moment she would have to think about the answers.

"Haka Osada, talent for hunting, I use ninjutsu, fuinjutsu, suiton and katon, evolution is the eternal aspiration. I like Sero, the Spider Clan, hunting, pudding, piano, pony and quietude, approve sufficiently of a few people to have decided I will kill them last, and dislike everything else that's a waste of time.", answering them all in order and in one go, she ultimately finished with a small smile a few seconds after she had answered everything.

Human interests included? Check. Human bonds? Also check. Emotional expressions? Done. If this wasn't a human approach to things, then what was?

---

478
Total: 909

Haka seemed to be in her usual element. Chi seemed to be uncomfortable as always. The barkeeper seemed disinterested, same as she had met her before. The kid seemed odd. How rude of that brat to tease Verdandi about the show. Verd ignored the lil girl and guessed it was Reiko’s Kid. For it to be the other way around took longer. Despite having seen Gin before. The fact that she did look like her if you subtract a few years became pretty clear. Still Verd was taken off guard and felt slightly uneasy, especially considering her attitude towards the tease.

Watching Haka go ahead and even go as far as to actually answer the questions and pin pointing them down on the paper… that was new. It wasn’t a secret that the monster girl was working on her people skills but that was… impressive of sorts compared to her previous success chances for situations alike these. Verd saw her… she saw her smile. What was that? A smiling Haka. Verd felt a shudder going down her spine. What comes next, a Chi that is right in his comfort zone?

Verd sighed. She took the paper from Chi's palms and shortly fiddled with the pen to write her answers down while also reading them out loud.
- Verdandi Yuki
- Ninjutsu, Kenjutsu, Ice Element
- Wants to Make Yuki great again, thinks the seven swordsmen are cool
- Likes to sleep, a lot and shiny things and cute things and pretty things and strong things.
- Dislikes putting more effort forth than necessary. Ugly places. Dirty places. Stinky places.

Being done with her presentation she put her paper back into Chi's care. Chi would be next up anyway. Verd couldn’t help but hope he’d loosen up a bit and take it easy. Despite Gin’s tease, Verd would occasionally blink backwards to get a glimpse of the dancer while sipping her small beer. She would eventually stop, too strong intoxication before training was unhealthy.

While the group seemed busy to enjoy themselves around Gin, the heavily annoyed tiny mini-version of Gin couldn’t really pin point if she was having fun or not. Reika was doing her best to not give a damn and mind her own business. Slowly trottling back and forth, more often away from the bar to avoid further teasings. Verdandi was obviously still a bit sleepy despite having napped up to ten hours. But for the sake of not getting violently beaten by Gin from the get-go she would keep her eyes wide open and make sure to stay attentive… at least for now.

Thinking back to her last meeting, Verd’s conversations with Gin were very limited and she could remember that her mom was pretty hammered pretty much all the time while Gin was on visit. An interesting side effects. Verd started to doubt that drinking this beer had been a good idea. But at least she didn’t seem to mind. Knowing well that she had basically injured her own grandkid for being a noisy little brat…. Verd would remain cautious and was hoping none of her friends would come to the idea of actually trying to offend the kid-transformed legend sitting there. Verd was slowly inhaling some deep breaths and wanted to be ready to cast her own ice armor in case their new boss decided to randomly smack the crap out of them.

She was pretty sure Gin wouldn’t do it that way and Chi still had to take his turn on the introduction row. But one couldn’t be careful enough around Gin…. She was far from ordinary.

After some time Verd and the others realized that Gin had dozed off. Reiko would hand them their radio and advise them to return another day!


620 / 1200


[EXIT]

WC discarded.

Chigetsu would groan as he opened his eyes, rubbing up at his face after that impact with the barstool. Everyone had apparently seen and shrugged off that embarrassing display. First impressions meant a lot, and now that he had already made his Chigetsu would be sure he was doomed. Looking around now he would realize that his surroundings were just as bad and simultaneously not nearly as bad as he had thought. He had expected the Siren's Den to be full of patrons, but it was nearly empty with the exception of the small group that had gathered beside the bar. Well, and the girls. Chigetsu tried not to look at or think about them. He only had to glance in that direction to confirm they were there and then everything else was fine. Didn't have to look over there again. Haka, the strange girl that he had met at the estate of Lord Sero Osada, seemed to be trying to offer him some sort of comfort. "Humans don't eat people, Chi. You may look." Complete innocence. "They do, Haka." The Hozuki would shake his head. Shame remained on him, even as the circumstance passed. If she didn't understand he didn't want to have to explain it to her. "This is the k-" "Tell her." He paused. "...This is the kind of place where people get eaten all the time."  

Before he could go on in his nonsense the notepad and pen would be shoved into his hands. He would be wide eyed like a deer for a moment before adjusting to the role he had been assigned. Immediately he felt at ease, and the notepad would be glanced over. The pen would be clicked open, and without a word he would prepare to take notes on whatever was said. Take notes. Be detailed. Have fun. Whoever this girl was he accepted her authority immediately, not questioning it for a moment. When given a task to focus on, Chigetsu was very much in his comfort zone. What Haka said would be written down exactly as she had said it. That she had mentioned her name as Osada, same as Lord Osada, elicited a bit of a surprise from the boy as he was writing, but nothing that he couldn't contain. It wasn't that unbelievable. She sounded very much like what Chigetsu would imagine a child of Lord Osada to, based on that short little description of her personality. That she had smiled would get a small notice in Chigetsu's note taking.  

The notepad would then be snatched from his hands. He would be left blinking in confusion as she took it. He almost was going to contest Verdandi on that, actually a little bit miffed, until she began writing down her own little section. Deciding it wouldn't be best to fight her over the note-taking role while she was in the middle of writing he would let it go, although he would give her a bit of the stink eye. Once the papers were returned to him everything would be right again though, and he would sift over the notepad to look over what she had written.  

"And me. I'm..." He would introduce himself with a salute to his squad-mates. "Chigetsu Hozuki!" Returning to taking notes again, he would whisper his name under his breath as he wrote it down. "Chigetsu Hozuki... Uhh, I know suiton ninjutsu. I can liquefy my body and turn into water. I'm pretty good with knives and swords too. I think the seven swordsmen are cool... Even if it's just for a little bit, I'd like to be able to talk to one of their swords." He would admit without thinking, perhaps being a bit too truthful with what he was saying. "I like swords, going to the beach, and watching rainstorms. I don't like … I don't like it when it's too quiet. I don't like orange juice. I don't like … strip bars." He had already written down much of that before he finished talking, letting him look up from the notepad. Hopefully that would be enough. Afterwards he would wait patiently, preparing to take down more notes on what he assumed their teacher would say.

---

[721/1286]