A very gentle warmth had managed to creep up on Masao through his cold and unforgiving dreams. The warmth itself stirred the boy as he grunted slightly with an ache in his head that began at his temple and seemed to trickle throughout his mind. A hazy, foggy memory of being carried quickly through the rain after his painful ride down the angry Naka river. It was a steam that filled the room, bringing with it the light warming sensation which brought Masao into the waking world. His eyes scanned around the cabin, which was in great condition and felt very homey. The decently sized hound which often accompanied Masao’s huntress friend lay curled up near the fireplace for warmth and likely to dry his somewhat damp looking fur. The only real mess within the small wooden living area was the tracked mud and water upon the floor near the entryway, leading almost directly to Masao as if to identify its own cause.

There was no other assumption to be made of the current situation other than that the woman he had seen just before falling into the river had managed to save him from peril. It still irked him that he didn’t have a name to associate with her. He could hear the shower of the place running and assumed that was her, cleaning up after the muddy and taxing adventure. As he looked around, he noticed that his shirt was rather battered and torn. He would capitalize on this by ripping it through the rest of the way and folding it into a small cloth. Through the aching and bruises, Masao would get to work wiping up the mud and soaking up the water from the wooden floor. He was not a fan of being an inconvenience. Conscious or not, Masao would not leave a mess for someone else to clean up.

The hound would only look up at Masao for a moment as he strained himself using his shirt as s makeshift cloth for scrubbing. It wasn’t hard to tell what the dog had prioritized in his mind. So long as Masao meant no harm to his owner, the dog didn’t rightly care what the strange boy did or did not do. The young Uchiha would eventually find his shirt too soiled to be used for cleaning anymore and would drop it into the nearest trash bin before searching around for a mop. He made his way down the hallway toward what he thought might be a closet for towels and cleaning supplies. He was correct. As he stood at the closet, right next to the firmly shut bathroom door he would ponder whether to grab a mop or a towel.

Whenever it would be that the young woman finished her shower and found her way to the living area, she’d find it rather nicely dusted, no sign of the mud that had been tracked, and Masao sitting in front of a metal basin of hot soapy water, cleaning one of her towels “Hello! I hope you don’t mind that I took helped myself to your supplies. Do not worry, everything is back just the way it was after use...”

---

539

Koharu stepped out of the shower feeling drained and sore. It seemed the adrenaline had protected her far more than she thought from the pain of being slammed into that rocked or buffeted by the unforgiving waves. That river was far more of a threat than she had given it credit for. Koharu dried her short hair and slipped on a large t-shirt. She figured her guest would be awake soon but she was a bit nervous to go out to meet him. For the longest time, it had only been her and Tsukiya in this cabin. It felt weird to know someone else was in here. Someone she'd invited no less.

She also couldn't help but feel guilty. After all, this was all her fault. She freaked out and kicked him right into the river. Koharu wondered if he was aware that she did it. Should she apologize? The young woman sat on her bed and mulled it over for a few minutes. She knew the answer was yes but she was procrastinating. She didn't want to go out there. A small part of her hoped he would just get up and leave. That also seemed unlikely though as he could be highly delusional and that could potentially dangerous. She wouldn't truly know the extent of his head injury until he was up to tell her.

Koharu got her confirmation that the young Uchiha was awake when she heard the water running, probably in her kitchen. She stood up from her bed and walked down the short hallway. Tsukiya was still asleep on the chair next to the couch where Masao once was. It seemed as though the night had never happened though. There was no trace of the mud on the floor. The house seemed clean, as though he hadn't been unconscious on her couch. Koharu turned to the kitchen the source of the sound she had heard earlier and there he was washing up one of her towels, shirtless.

Koharu felt blood rush to her cheeks and kept strict eye contact when he spoke. She firmly nodded at him after he spoke before speaking herself.

"I apologize for getting you into all of this. Is your head feeling alright? That log seemed to have hit you pretty hard." She looked at the sleeve of her hoodie that was still wrapped around his head. A bit of blood seemed to have seeped through and stained the white sleeve. It wasn't like she had intended to keep it though. In fact, Koharu already threw the whole jacket away.

Hostessing was a skill that was new to the young huntress but she knew well enough she should invite the shirtless boy to sit back on the couch at least, so she did. She planted herself on one end of the couch and beckoned the Uchiha to come to sit as well.

"Thank you for cleaning you really didn't have to," she would almost whisper looking all around the room. This was awkward. She was awkward. She shared a glance with Tsukiya but the hound seemed to find her discomfort humorous. "Um, do you want anything to drink?" Koharu would ask tentatively.

---

WC: 539

There was always a very gentle demeanor with Masao and his movements. As he stood up from the washing basin, leaving the muddied towel to soak, he would walk over to the couch and nearly sit down before realizing his pants were still not even nearly dry. She would not have wanted her couch dampened, even if she was trying to be kind to Masao by offering him a seat and a drink. He would chuckle at her as he pinched the front of his pants to show how damp they still were. “You’d think between my saturated clothes and the amount of river water I just had forced down my throat that I might not be thirsty at all. Surprisingly enough I’m parched..” Masao would chuckle at his own remark, just the acceptable amount before asking “Are you sure you want me sitting in your nice couch? I smell like a freshly caught trout and my shorts are as wet as one.”

As Masao finished up his chatter he would glance briefly over toward the dog, reminded of the fact that it had damp fur. This would pique his curiosity regarding two things that had gone yet unanswered up to this point. “I don’t believe I ever got your name during our first meeting. I’m Masao, in case you didn’t remember. Thank you so much for saving me. Did your dog come as well? It seems to be a loyal creature.” Masao would direct his gaze over toward the wolf-like hound and say as though he could understand perfectly “Thank you, too.”

There were brief instances of uncomfortable silence that Masao would presume to be some sort of anxiety or discomfort from his hostess in the warm cabin. This was certainly not something Masao was unfamiliar with, only overcoming his anxieties early in life through his father’s intense and rather forceful socialization of the young Uchiha boy. There was nothing here to indicate that anyone had done the same for the young huntress. Masao recalled her snarling over the corpse of the deer, a brief and vivid flashback which triggered an activation of his sharingan.

To her, it would appear that as he stood next to the couch and turned back to her, his single tomoe would complete a full circle around his eye in a pinwheel fashion before coming a stop in it’s appropriate place. Due to this being an accidental activation, Masao wouldn’t have any idea of it straight away. Only the weird ability to see the cloudy aura of chakra within his hostess and her dog suddenly would shock him a bit. He had knowledge of the sharingan and what it was capable of, but he still had yet to truly utilize it or understand it. No book stood a chance of explaining the oddity of power that was one of the Three Legendary Dojutsu.

“Do not allow yourself to feel uncomfortable in your own home, friend. This is your domain and you could have me leave at any time. You’re the one in power here. Do not forget that while you worry within your own mind.”

---

531 | 1070

Upon hearing a yes Koharu stood from the couch anxious to busy herself with anything that didn't require sitting in the awkwardness of that moment. She scurried to the kitchen and grabbed a glass from her cabinets. While she heard what he said about his shorts and their wetness she didn't much care. Tsukiya rarely gave a damn about how dry his fur was when he sat on the furniture so Koharu had become quite proficient in cleaning it. From the kitchen, she gestured back at Masao to sit down anyways. The young woman turned the faucet to spout cold water and caught some in the clear glass before returning back to her living room and setting it on the table.

She blushed for the second time today when the raven haired man next to her asked her name. How rude of her not to tell him. Although they didn't exactly start out on the best terms. She thought him a diseased creep in the woods after her kill.

"My name is Koharu and that's Tsukiya. He's more than loyal, he was the one to pull us both out of the river," Koharu explained to him. She cleared her throat at the dog so that he might look and or do something to declare his competence. The beast only grumbled in annoyance and curled more tightly into himself. Koharu shot a dirty look over in his direction.  

There was a pause in conversation as Koharu looked down at her fingers. She feigned interest in the shape of them to avoid eye contact or any contact with the stranger in her home. Eventually, she'd give up and look up at him ready to initiate a conversation once more only to find him staring off into the distance with those red eyes again. This was the first time she had seen them up close. They were definitely not pink eye. The red was confined to his iris and inside a small black speck, shaped like a coma, circled around. It made one full rotation before it stopped. Immediately questions swarmed Koharu's mind as to why he had done that. Did he even have control of it? What is its purpose?

The questions stayed halted in her throat as she stared openly at him. That is until he spoke again. The heat found its way to her cheeks once more coloring her embarrassed. Koharu was more than aware of the awkward air in the room but she didn't expect to be called out on it so blatantly. She then averted her eyes to the floor and tried to find interest in the pattern of the wood.

A sudden boldness found its way to Koharu's lips though. As if her true personality screamed at her to stop looking so weak and unsure.

"If I didn't want to let you into my home I would have left you where I found you." Koharu felt the urge to cover her mouth after speaking but didn't. It may have come off a little mean but she certainly didn't mean it that way. She more meant that she had cared enough to bring him back so maybe he should just stomach all of this awkwardness with it. Nope, that also sounded mean. Her meeker persona took the forefront once more to try and seek an option to smooth that over.

"I don't usually interact with others from Konoha much less invite them into my home. I truthfully don't really know what to do or talk about. This is," She paused to think of a word that could truly sum up her emotions "Difficult."

---

WC: 574
TWC: 1,113

Masao reluctantly planted himself down on the couch as his friend, so named Koharu, retrieved a glass of cold water for him from her kitchen. It felt wrong to do so, but Masao figured his standing around shirtless was probably uncomfortable enough for Koharu. He would sit down and take a long deep draw of water from the glass, his body actively thanking him for the hydration. He looked up to Koharu, slightly winded from his frantic drinking of the water and let out a simple “Thank you, so much.” in a calm tone after a quick clearing of his no-longer dry throat.

That sentiment of gratitude extended to much more than just the water. Masao very well could have been laying dead on the banks of the Naka, or even worse he could be floating down it still to be discovered much later in a different land. These sorts of thoughts were not something Masao wished to dwell upon as he quietly shook them away and continued to pay full attention to his gracious host. She had introduced her dog, Tsukiya, as having played a most instrumental part in the rescue of both young Leaf villagers. Masao would go to his knees from the couch and extend his hand as an offering respectfully, requesting permission to pet him. If seemingly granted, Masao would advance and give the dog some dignified strokes from his collar down between his shoulder blades.

“Talking with others isn’t the hard part, from what I can tell you. It’s really just difficult to figure out which people are worth talking to. Some people are naturally very rude. Others can be a joy to talk with.” He would climb back onto the couch and sit next to Koharu, looking at her with a friendly smile. “How have you managed out here all this time without interacting? Konoha isn’t known to be one of the more unfriendly places out there.”

Masao was no expert in the means of socialization but he wasn’t bad at it by any stretch of the imagination. Working a farm as a young boy meant following around his father to the connections and merchants to buy supplies and seed. He became a social little creature very early on. It was a necessary quality for someone of the Uchiha Clan, as his parents would always emphasize to him. There was an equilibrium between the practical skills Masao inherited from his father and the etiquette based skills he would gain from his mother, whom wanted Masao to aspire to a political figure. That seemed far fetched at this point, Masao thought.

“What is the most populated area you tend to visit? Maybe I can show you some places around Konoha that you’ll really enjoy.”

465 | 1535