The early morning sun was beginning to rise over the forest as a lone, cloaked figure walked among the trees, every so often glancing around when he heard any sounds that seemed even remotely worrying. Honestly, Oshiki was nowhere near as happy as he had been a while ago about being in a forest like this, it used to feel a little bit unnerving but over all it would have been fine. Now... now, he felt like he was going to be stumbled upon any second by a lunatic. A few days ago, he had been walking peacefully trying to track down a pack of stray dogs when he had stumbled into a maniac's "territory" and that half an hour had been the weirdest half an hour of his life. He'd come out of it feeling a bit shit about himself and having to hobble on one leg from a broken ankle. That was probably a fortunate outcome since she hadn't realized that he'd had his sharingan awakened. He was smart enough not to correct her thank god or she would have probably ripped his eyes out of his sockets. What was it with people and always pursuing him simply because he had spinny dots in his eyes anyway, he thought bitterly, the specialist release clans didn't have to put up with this sort of harassment. He'd even changed his clothing style to allow him to go unnoticed when he wanted to be subtle rather than always going around bold as brass. He wasn't so worried about it that he'd stopped getting drunk or flirting with people or being promiscuous, but he cared enough to change his outfits so that was something. Now people would just see a guy hidden underneath a hood walking around town rather than an Uchiha. Well, they'd probably assume him to be an Aburame, what with their obsession with not showing their faces, so he was probably safe.

The forest could hardly be called a forest at all, it was more like an area of dirt with a few trees in it. Well, that was sort of what all forests were when you thought about it, but there weren't quite a dense enough population of trees in the area for it to feel properly like a forest. Although, whilst he mentioned that, there was bark everywhere on the forest floor, it was ridiculous how there could possibly be this much bark everywhere, he wondered idly how many trees had given their life to shed all this bark. Did trees die when all their bark was removed or did they just become highly sensitive to things like woodpeckers and passing dogs? He was a little bit curious about how that worked, but... anyway, the area seemed pretty dry, there hadn't been any major rainfall over the last few days, and when there was even the slightest drizzle almost all of it was caught by the trees. The blank areas where trees didn't grow any more had a few damp, muddy patches but other than that it was pretty good. It was even nicer for the slightly cold wind that was blowing over the area, blasting through the limbs of the trees. Summer was truly over at last, and whilst it wasn't really happening at a rapid pace a few of the leaves on the tree were beginning to turn their autumn hues, reds and oranges gently interspaced among the great hordes of green that hung up in the limbs of the mighty trees.

But, as he was saying, he didn't feel nearly as safe as he once had being around areas like this. Every time that he heard footsteps nearby, he stopped and listened to it for a few seconds. When it turned out not to be anyone he continued walking. There were a lot of animals in this area of the forest so it was only natural that he'd hear foot... no, pawsteps every so often. But, it was always good to be careful, after all they could be humans, and whilst he wasn't the sort of person to mind having company, he was beginning to understand that a lot of people cared more about him as a potential tool (either his actual powers or simply his eyes) than they cared about him as a human being. He didn't like thinking about things like that, but it was the way it was. He guessed that must be how it was with all the other dojutsu clans. The Hyuga were also in this situation, but a little less intensely. The Hyuga clan were mostly respected for their deeds and their sheer power, whilst the Uchiha were feared or seen as monsters. If you were to go try and attack a clan member for their eyes, who would you rather attack? Someone your people are scared of so you can get extra recognition or someone your people respect so you can be hated and shunned by them. The answer was blatantly clear, but there were a lot of people who would do it anyway just for the sheer amount of power they'd be able to get.

Although, now that he thought about it, why did eye transplants work like that. He understood how to get eternal mangekyou sharingan and after being assaulted by Ukiyo he also understood that people were all but desperate to get his eyes, but how did they actually work? He was no medical nin, but he knew how vision worked. It wasn't like a bomb where you could just adjust wires and have it work anyway because it gave a spark. No, the eye was much more sensitive than that, so how were people able to transplant theirs so easily? He wondered exactly who would be able to do that stuff, and how would you explain what you do for a living? "I pull eyes out of people's faces and give them to other people." That was going to be a fun conversation over dinner.

1002/2000

Kazuya was taking a stroll on the outskirts of the village just to pass by the time until he had to take on a mission. He was recently promoted to chuunin and was excited to take on tougher missions so he could really show his skills as a hyuga. Kazuya was thinking about all the past missions he had took on as a genin and all the people he became friends with during the process. "It's been awhile since I had a good fight." Kazuya sighed as he thought how he hasn't fought in a fight for a good while now. He looked around to see the natural colors of the small forest and saw some wild life in there natural habitat enjoying life. Kazuya looked at the wild life envying their natural freedom. "You guys are lucky you have no worries no sorrow and no sense of hate, you just have your instincts to live on. Kazuya always found it interesting the way animals lived their lives. Kazuya looked in the air at the sun, saying the days not ending anytime soon I see. Kazuya began to walk deeper in the forest to see if he could find more wild life to watch. "Not easy passing by the time" Kazuya sighed again as he continued to walk. "I wonder when father will start training me again I need it."

In high contrast to the other person within the forest, Oshiki had not had to wait to go on any missions so far. In fact, it was rather the opposite. Since he'd become a chuunin he'd been sent on a lot of dangerous missions to take out troublesome individuals like Date and that poor girl who he'd had to trick like that. He had felt a little bit bad about that, but it was his choice to do what he had to and he had valued the village above her, even if she had seemed like a nice enough person. He could remember everything that the clone had dealt with whilst they were talking, and that made him feel a little bad about tricking her like that, especially having to knock her unconscious so violently. He promised himself that he would go out of his way and visit her in the prison one of these days, but he hadn't gotten anywhere close to doing it yet, and he had never really considered it after making that promise. Besides, she could have just been lying to try and seduce him. It was weird, ever since he'd met that strange Ukiyo girl he'd become a lot less trusting of other people, or maybe it was that people were starting to actively search after his eyes now... oh well, either way, he was becoming a little bit less trusting, but that didn't change the personality that he showed the world. In fact, if it had, he knew for a fact that someone would have commented on it. The amount of people that he spent time with almost every day it would have been hard not to notice someone noticing him changing massively so far, unless everyone was just finding it awkward to talk about. He didn't know why people were being restricted by what was awkward or not, but whatever.

It was whilst thinking about that that he heard footsteps once again. The pattern of them was not the same as the others that he'd heard tonight. It was a plodding rhythm, definitely not one that was going quickly but it was definitely keeping a two beat rhythm, meaning that it was most likely a biped of some sort. Now he was curious again, althoguh to be fair he had been curious since he had stepped into this thicket. When he looked over his shoulder, he could see someone who was a little bit away from him. The hood, although it obscured his face from the vision of other people, didn't obscure his own vision at all (Seriously, whoever said the old myth of 'If I can't see you, you can't see me' was either an idiot or a mental patient, or quite possibly both) and he could see this guy for what he was. What he was, it turned out, was another man from the village.

By the headband worn on his head, Oshi could clearly tell that the man was another Konohagakure ninja, which was probably something to be thankful for since with the interference of Hao recently, many missing nin and other worrying individuals had begun to spring up around the countryside around the village, meaning that if he hadn't seen the headband he might have very well suspected the man to be another one of those threats. He was also a rather young one, if he had to estimate the age he would say early adolescents.... somewhere between 12 and 15 at a guess. Beyond that, he noticed that he had a strange purple hue to his hair. Most people who had that style of hair were Hyuga, he didn't know what gene it was in the human body that could possibly trigger purple hair since purple surely needed a mixture of blue and red, but he also didn't know what it was in the Uchiha lineage that caused almost all of them to have black hair and black eyes, so he really shouldn't be making a comment about other people just because he couldn't understand something about them. That was hypocrisy in the extreme.

Turning around and moving so that they were on a collision course. He wanted to find out who this boy was, he had just been thinking about Hyuga and now it was possible that he had bumped into one. Not only was he interested in them normally simply because they were a fellow doujutsu clan, but now this timing simply had to be perfect. He'd not noticed the boy around, so he didn't know what rank of ninja he was - Guessing from his age, he would make a stab at the boy being a genin, probably fresh out of the academy. That being said, Hyuga were rather infamous for having their children be geniuses so this kid could have graduated early and... well, he knew a few young jounin, so for all he knew this kid could be any rank at all. Time to play the nice card then, he thought with an air of sarcasm, continuing to walk towards him.

When they got close enough to hear each other without shouting, he stopped and looked at the boy. He wasn't sure if he'd noticed him yet but it would have been hard for him not to. As it was, he would have looked like a strange cloaked figure, his face completely masked in shadow and his hands hidden underneath skin-tight white gloves. His cloak was rather a dark, flowing long coat that moved down to below his knees. There was no way to know who he was, the only two things that were clear were a) he was another member of Konoha, although his headband was worn loosely around his neck to avoid getting choked and b) he was a man, his voice made that obvious.
"Well hey there kid!" he said, his voice kind and one that only someone who had experience in being an older brother could truly have. Others could try and imitate it but they couldn't ever quite get it perfectly.
"What are you doing out here?"

2000/2000
21/3000 (+1019)