The blaring Sun violently pieced the skies beneath it as it crawled it's way to the peak of its arc. Its blazing heat cascaded down onto the immaculate stone city beneath it like it did nowhere else in the entire country of Kaminari no Kuni. The pulsing waves of heat could be seen rising off of the very buildings. Mercilessly the sun watched today's events its intense and searing gaze falling throughout the capitol city as it too didn't want to miss today's events. At 30 degrees Celsius this day was almost assuredly going to be one of this year's hottest. Not abnormal for founder's day. This celebration of the first Raikage working with the Daimyo to create the Hidden Cloud was almost always on a scorching hot day.

The intense heat filling Chiharu didn't dissuade the tourists or citizens from the festival happening downtown even with the intense heat radiating off of the dense crowds of people and the walls around them. Thousands of tourists littered the city effectively tripling the amount of people that were normally in the capitol on a normal day. The city had been building up to this for quite some time now vendors littered the streets, storefronts were filled with memorabilia, and Anbu invisibly patrolled the area as crime was almost certain to increase during the festivities. Of the thousands of people here most were not ninja and untrained in the ninja arts, so the various goods that were being sold relating to ninja sold like hot cakes.

There were Fuuinjutsu manipulated toys that could for a small amount of time be animated, small pyrotechnic spheres that created loud pops and an array of mutli-colored sparks when struck against a hard surface, large wigs with attached bandanas reminiscent of the first Raikage's trademark style, and many more niche collectible goods were displayed all throughout the city. The food created by the vendors was abound in the air sweets, spicies, and savories filled all of the downtown area with their delicious aromatic scents. The festival favorite was easily discernible by its pervasiveness. It was almost impossible to miss it since within eyesight there was almost always a stand with an iron cast, heated, lustrous slab that had a dozens and dozens of hemisphere shaped indentations in it.

The chefs at these stands poured a variety of doughs into these holes. it was a simple mix of baking powder, egg, flour, milk, butter, salt, sugar. These were sold as fluffy doughy treats, and were decorated with a small amount of powdered sugar on top. There were a variety of different kinds, and Kanamora was currently trying out quite a few. She had a total of six skewers resting between knuckles, and each of the skewers had a different filling inside. You see some of the chefs offered specialized versions of the recipes to set themselves apart while still upholding tradition by serving this keystone dish. The chefs would slowly rotate the dough inside of the holes so that it would slowly form into the orb shaped ball of deliciousness that Kanamora was slowly savoring.

She bit into one of the jam filled ones. As the dough balls were forming the chefs would insert a small amount of berry preserves into the balls so the finished product would be a sweet orb with a tangy core. though the combinations didn't end there an array of spices, meats, and veggies could be found paired with specific dough types fine tuned to pair with them. One by one Kanamora made her way to sample all of them. She had a stall she had been running, but, as it was about noon, she was on her scheduled break for lunch and the stand where she sold simple fuuin seals was locked down and closed at the moment.

Kanamora navigated the crowd with relative ease being a bit taller than most of the crowd around her, she could see openings in the sea of people and stick to them. She wore a kimono that was white with green accents that were the same tone as the dye in her hair, the coordination implying she'd died her hair specifically for this festival. That or she bought clothes to match her hair. Just beneath the green sash at her waist was a sheathed sword that even the keenest observer might believe was real. In reality it was a conglomeration of particles manipulated to look like her treasured blade Sekigahara. Draped around her neck was her forehead protector, which right now was more ornamental than anything.

The next of the skewers she tried had a subtly different consistency as her teeth bared into its springy exterior. It had a mature, almost earthy flavor to it as she bit through the first layer and her palette received a delightful assault of spices. It lacked the sweetness that the typical cloud skewer had, and as she sunk into the next layer she realized why. small amounts of steam and meaty juices poured out as she bit into tender, soft beef steak cubes suspended in the dough, they were slowly savored before they seemed to almost dissolve. Kanamora closed her eyes and exhaled gleefully as a massive smile made its way across her face.

She wasn't far from where she had set up shop. The ninja to civilian ratio was higher in this area, and most of the ninja here were here to make a profit off of founders whether as guides, performers, or craftsmen. Kanamora wasn't only spending her lunch break indulging though that was her current focus. This was one of the few times of the year she could see what other ninja had to offer as they displayed their goods as vendors or some of their flashier jutsu in areas where they held mock fights meant to entertain the locals and tourists. Mostly Kanamora was just enjoying her festival food right now though.

[WC= 1002]

The sun that was so high in the sky didn’t really bother Ryo. He was used to living in the desert and as hot as the land of lightning got it was nothing compared to the land of wind. Still, he took the precautions of keeping cool by only wearing the white Knetegawa clan lab coat over his traditional get up. He also decided to forgo the long-sleeved shirt that was his usual want, but the scroll harness was still indeed right in place even if slightly hidden. However, it was mostly empty due to the fact that his children were not completed. His oldest children were undergoing a huge upgrade, and his daughter Midori was still not born, and her twin brother was not ready to be born yet.

Today he was here in town due to the festival. His family was putting on a few performances using their masterful puppets. It would be quite the show. Ryo however, was not going to participate. In this arena and on this day, it was his little twin siblings who were to be the stars of the show. They would put on a performance as part of the festival they would reveal to not only the people but the clan their chosen animal puppets. In the meantime, however, he was free to go about and enjoy the festivities without any kind of hindrance to his desires. He walked around enjoying the sights, sounds, smells, and even the tastes of the festival.

He watched the Fuuinjutsu manipulated toys and scoffed softly to himself as he rather enjoyed his clan who put on dozens of little puppet shows. The food that some of his clan created wasn’t bad, but cooking wasn’t any of their specialties. So, he himself walked around and sampled as much of the food as he could. He was a growing boy to be sure and the appetite he had was no less so. A smile spread across his face as he vaguely recalled a clan of shinobi that could manipulate their body and weight all the members also seemed to be munching away on something. The Akamichi clan if he could remember correctly, but he wasn’t entirely sure. Yet, he would be just like them in this certain situation.

Ryo walked around through the village sampling more and more delicious food. He walked along without much of a care in the world enjoying these tasty delicacies. As he was chewing on one he walked through to stop at another shop which he would purchase. While he walked, however, he couldn’t help but think about his children. He knew that Shiro and Kuro would be back up in action soon enough so there really wasn’t anything to worry about nor anything to do regarding them. The biggest trouble with them was Kuro’s Senbon shooter. He had upgraded it, and he could make adjustments to it, but the Senbon were not without their limitations. He would have to make special Senbon that would be compatible with the shooter and would be much stronger in the way they attacked. The penetration in the typical Senbon was not enough for him, he wanted the new shooter and the Senbon with it to be capable of punching into metal, and stone. The swordtail for Kuro was not a problem the weapon itself was not hard to get, nor hard to make at all. He knew a blacksmith who made very fine quality swords and he already was working on it for him.

As he chewed and a particularly delicious dumpling he recalled the scythes that he had ordered from a blacksmith that the family always liked to use. They were stronger and would cut much deeper and with much better power. The trash that he had been using was good enough for him to birth Shiro, but it wasn’t going to be good enough. Yet, the hardest part of Shiro’s construction and the upgrades was his tail. The tail was organic in nature and he had retrieved it from a giant scorpion that he had killed so long ago. He had to be very careful, if he wasn’t careful then he would seriously damage the organic components despite how little there actually was left of the creature. Its bones and hard carapace were about the entirety of what was left, yet the bones were coated in steel, and the carapace was reinforced from within by thick wood and metal as well. Still, he had to make the tail longer which meant that he had to obtain more carapace, and he would have to find another giant Scorpion in order to do this. With a sigh, he finished his dumplings and put the skewer behind his right ear to match the two that were on his left while the near dozen others were in his pockets.

As he thought about this he accidentally bumped into someone else. It wasn’t hard, but it was enough to cause him to whip around to face the person in question a look of fright on his face. He had been rude, that was not in his nature, and he cleared his throat “Oh please excuse me! I am so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. I hope I didn’t hurt you or make you drop anything.” He said hurriedly as he looked at the girl who was in a white Kimono with a forehead protector around her neck. Now that he was facing her she could see that he wore the forehead protector of their village around his upper left arm tied over his coat. This wasn’t the only one he had, but the one that he had from Sunagakure was sealed away inside one of his scrolls to keep it out of sight, so he didn’t break any rules or bring up any questions about his loyalty. Looking at her Ryo’s cheeks colored ever so slightly “I am sorry I bumped into you miss. I am Ryo Knetegawa, may I know your name?” he asked with a slightly hopeful tone in his voice.

WC:1037

There was a slight disturbance as Kana was jarred from bumping into someone much smaller than her. Kanamora spent a lot of her time bumping into others due to her height. It simply wasn't an unusual thing, thus there had easily been dozens of people that she'd ended up bumping into today. She'd been a little too into her weird cake balls filled with soft delicate apples that had cooked enough where they'd simply melt in you mouth. This was maybe her sixth stand in the last half hour. Delightfully coated in cinnamon and sugar the flavors had her spacing out again. She had a small basket of aebleskivers that she'd been rifling through with an adorably small, wooden fork. As she bumped into the shorter boy she'd end up missing her mouth scraping with the confectionery delight leaving behind a trail of powdered sugar on her cheek.

“Oh please excuse me! I am so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. I hope I didn’t hurt you or make you drop anything.” another person lost in there heads, what a pleasant occurrence.

"Nonono. Don't worry about it. It was my fault I was day dreaming. I'm completely fine see." Kanamora would raise both hands innocently. "How about you are you okay. Sorry about that." She finished her sentence with a light bow that caused her dyed green hair to fall in front of her face. Kanamora glanced briefly at his headband, wondering if he was a higher rank than her- probably. She probably should have referred to him as sir.

“I am sorry I bumped into you miss. I am Ryo Knetegawa, may I know your name?” His inflection changed, so Kanamora assumed that everything was probably peachy now. With no harm done she could probably lower her guard again. His tone implied something else to her, it had a genuine and hopeful quality. There weren't many people who introduced themselves, in Kana's experience, where they made it sound like they were already invested in the person they were about to meet unless there was something in it for them. Her luck must be awfully good for her to run into someone like him today.

"Hello Ryo." Kanamora plopped the aebleskiver in her mouth before she held her hand out for a light handshake. The joy in her voice was nearly tangible as she said, "My name is Kanamora Suru, heir to the Kansen-Suru clan, it is quite a pleasure to meet you." It was apparent that eating and talking was not an unusual policy for  Kana, though she swallowed shortly after she finished her sentence. Holding out the small basket of confections to Ryo in case he wanted one.

"I'm out here to celebrate my recent departure from the hospital, as well make a little money to pay for said trip. What brings you to this pleasant Founder's Day Festival. Are you here to spar?" It was a little presumptuous, but that is what brought many of the ninja who came to this festival here. There were really only three reasons Kanamora could think of for wearing a headband to this festival: to invite challengers, increase revenue for your business, or to make it look like you had village pride. Regardless of which of the three he was Kanamora was glad to have bumped into him. He seemed pleasant.

[WC= 579/1581]

Ryo finally had a chance to really look at the person that he had run into. He looked up to see that the woman was so much taller than him that he did indeed have to look up at her. She was very, very tall, and he was a bit astounded that she was so much taller than he was. Ryo did not think of himself as small, or short, but he was very short compared to her. As he looked up at her he couldn’t help but giving her a very detailed once over. He couldn’t deny that she was very pretty, and she looked to be very interesting. However, he noticed that she had a trail of powered sugar on her cheek, so his worry that he knocked something out of her hand was sky rocketing.

He smiled in relief as he saw that she held up her hands to show that she wasn’t hurt by anything that he did. When she asked if he was okay he blushed ever so slightly putting one hand to the back of his head and rubbing his snow-white hair “Oh yes, I am just fine. I only am embarrassed that I bumped into you.” he pulled out a napkin that he was given by a previous stand handing it to her “Here is a napkin. You have a bit of sugar on your cheek.” He said with a warm friendly smile on his face.

Ryo blinked as she popped her snack into her mouth as she spoke to him. He found that it was slightly rude, but he didn’t say anything. He shook her hand smiling at her despite the fact that when she said she was the heir to her clan a flash of pain passed over his eyes “It is a pleasure to meet you Kanamora.” When she held out the confections to him his anger at her for the ‘rudeness’ she displayed earlier completely vanished. He took one of the treats carefully “Thank you very much Kanamora.” He put it in his mouth tasting it. He smiled and nodded his head “It’s delicious.” He said after he swallowed his mouthful.

He nodded his head with that winning smile and a bit of blush to his face “Oh no, I don’t plan to spar, but I won’t turn down a challenge really. I am here with my family. My clan are putting on various puppet shows and displays of our ability with the puppet master jutsu. We don’t have any talent for cooking or food and what have you. However, we love to put on shows for the village during the Founder’s Day festival. Yet, my children are in the process of a rebirth, so I was unable to perform for the shows. So, I decided that I would walk through the festival look at it and eat as much as I can.” He looked around quickly as if to make sure that no one was around before he said “My mother is not the greatest cook, so when I can eat food that is not made by my mother I take the chance. My aunt is on a long mission but when she is home she is the main cook of the family.” He said finishing the conspiratorial tone “How is business going? Have you earned enough money for your trip? Also, congrats on getting out of the hospital. I hope you don’t have to go back ever.”


WC: 591/1628