Returning {Nk.}

Inijo began to approach the village gates, it had been a while since he had set foot in the village. His lack of returning to Kumogakure up to this point wasn't due to his choosing, however. The only reason he hadn't returned sooner had some rather dumb reasoning in it, especially for a ninja, now Chuunin. His reasoning was he merely got lost, on the way back from Konohagakure to Kumogakure. He was in Konohagakure for the Chuunin exams, and had, apparently, made it far enough to obtain his rank of Chuunin despite having forfeited.


He approached the village gates, wondering what had changed. On him, however, his appearance had only slightly changed. His hair had grown longer, though pretty much the same. It hung loosely in his face, some covering over his headband, though the symbol on the metal plating is still visible. For clothing he was wearing a Chuunin flak jacket, and whatever else had come with the prize of becoming Chuunin. 


The day was fairly nice, though cloudy. He didn't mind it, though, he was merely happy to be home and not having to live off of the food he could find. Being lost wasn't a very fun thing. As he traveled through the gates, he looked around, wondering as to head home first or to just wander and see if anyone noticed his absence.

When Yuriko began one of her typical walks around the village, she had a few things on her mind. First of which was that she was actually quite bored, despite all the adventure and such that she had planned out in her mind for the coming days, in reality all she had done was take an unsupervised visit to buy some Ramen - Something that not many would find too adventurous, but for some reason she did - and tried to find someone to give her a job for Ryo, as she was already out of the scarce amount that her parents had given her. 

The second thing on her mind was that in reality, she had very little people to talk to. Other than her parents or students from her old classes, she was truthfully friendless. That thought lingered for a while, she was not friendless because of her attitude or because others involuntarily hated her. She simply did not talk to others much and as such never got to know many others more than acquaintances or such. Yuriko made a mental note to herself that she would attempt to make friends some day, or at least talk to someone.

Sighing, she eventually neared the gates and stopped. She patted down her dress and sleeves, then gazed up and forward to notice the man in the flak jacket, Chuunin were the ones with flak jackets, were they? She pondered that for a moment before slowly attempting to approach him. After all, she had thought only moments ago of making friends, and what better friends to make than those in high places? Or at least someone else to talk to beside the other children in the village. Absently, she adjusted her headband on her head so that the metal shone brightly in the sunlight, much like a proud medal displaying her village. To her, it was a symbol of how far she had come and how far she was willing to go.

Finally, Yuriko waved enthusiastically toward the man and said "Hello!", Today was the day she made a friend, or at least she hoped.

Inijo would continue to look around for a few seconds before he would hear a voice, feminine sounding, greet him. He looked over to where he had heard it from, and who he had seen was someone he wasn't sure he knew. He saw a girl waving to him, so he had figured either that it was someone he had known or she was mistaking him for someone else. He merely walked a bit closer, so he could be heard clearly when he would say; "Oi, do I know you?" He would say to her, being rather honest with her in the fact that he didn't remember he, in case he had once been friends with her. Perhaps the time it took him to return to Kumogakure had left his memory a little dusty, but he figured he had remembered everyone he had once known.


He had noticed the girl wearing a headband, so it was rather clear, unless she were to be an impostor, a shinobi of Kumogakure. "Shinobi, are you?" He would ask, then a thought coming into his head, perhaps she needed aid with something. "Did you need something, or?" He would ask, just to be sure.

She smiled, sincerely and warmly as he spoke, even though he was not saying anything particularly of that type to her, she felt a certain warmth in just hearing a stranger acknowledge her words and return them even with only mild politeness. Yuriko blinked a few times as well as her mind ran through the possibilities of what to say to this man, but before she could formulate a plan she heard herself blurt out and begin speaking without much thought.
"I saw you and I was hoping . . . " She began quickly, then slowing as she processed the next few words to find something to complete the phrase, of course she knew what she wanted, but was not sure if she should simply say it or put it in other terms.
"Hoping that we could be friends, Sir." She finished, adding the "Sir" in for an extra touch of polite with her words.  "My name is Yuriko, Yuriko Nori!" Her smile beamed even brighter as she spoke her own name, her dress blowing slightly in the wind and her eyes shining bright with childish optimism and hopefulness. 

Then she waited, hopeful.

The other shinobi responded, apparently she had merely wanted to be friends. She seemed weird, in Inijo's opinion, he hadn't once met a shinobi like her in terms of personality. She seemed annoying, too. "Pffff.. nah." He responded, and went back to taking note to the environment. There wasn't that many people taking notice to Inijo's return, besides this girl, who probably didn't even notice that he was away from the village. He sighed. "meh, fine I suppose." He would finish. Even though he hadn't expected anyone to notice, he figured he would have seen someone at least vaguely familiar, rather than meeting someone completely new. Though he supposed he could run into someone later, after all it wasn't even noon and people were usually busy working or sleeping in during these hours.

"My name's Inijo, Inijo Senju, by the way. As I see you are a shinobi, what rank are you?" He would ask, having been pondering that over the past few seconds. It would give him a little hint on what to assume the girl's abilities would be, he didn't think it would be anything higher than a genin judging by what he assumed her age would be, from appearance alone. She looked to be around the age of Inijo, and considering he had only just achieved the rank of Chuunin, at a rather early stage of a shinobi's life he had assumed, it would have been likely that she would be a genin. That, and the fact that he didn't see her at the Chuunin Exams gave a helpful hint towards her rank.

Yuriko let her bright smile fall to simply a small smirk as she heard his reply to her request. He had said yes, he would be her friend and she would no longer be . . . Alone, was the word for it. She was no longer alone. She had parents, and they meant well, but they were always gone and even when they were home and tried to make things up for being gone so long, it all came off as being hollow. She had no friends, as she recalled earlier, no true ones anyway. But now she had someone who possibly could be her first true friend, and even if he did seem a bit rude judging by the way he spoke, he was probably not too bad on the inside. 

She noticed that he was looking around a lot, expecting something? She would ask him about that in a moment, but first she had to tell Inijo her rank, which she recited without a hint of doubt. 
"I am a Genin, Mister Inijo. Are you a Chuunin? . . . " Then her thoughts return to how he constantly was looking around, maybe waiting for someone or something. Expectant. "Are you waiting for someone? You keep looking around." Her tone became less childish and more matter-of-fact when she spoke the last sentence, revealing that at least not all of her mannerisms were childish, but merely hidden underneath the surface. Yuriko then waited for Inijo to respond, slowly moving one hand through her own hair as she gazed at him with her shining red eyes.

The girl replied, stating that she was a genin shinobi. She then proceeded to ask Inijo his rank, and had asked if he was the exact rank he was. "Yea, Chuunin." He replied. He figured the Chuunin jacket had given it away, it was rather apparent.  The girl then had asked if he were waiting for someone, due to looking around so much. Though he was just looking around for a familiar face, he wouldn't necessarily say he were looking for someone. "Nah," he replied, "Just looking around." He finished, and then began to proceed as to what he would do first. He wasn't looking, or paying any attention to Yuriko, he believed she said her name was, instead he was gazing around the visible parts of the village.


He was considering going home, and taking it easy for a few hours before wandering again, though he had other options of what to do as well. He could get right back into training, preparing for whatever the hell shinobi usually do, or he could go and get some breakfast, which sounded the most appealing at the moment. Though he couldn't decide on what he mainly wanted to so, he perhaps he would just sit here and chat to the genin bothering him randomly. "Oi," he began. "how long've you been genin for?" He asked. It was something to ponder, he supposed, not the best question to ask but he figured it perfect for a bit of small talk.

Yuriko watched Inijo for a few moments as he looked, then as he began thinking to himself she supposed, judging by his silence. She wondered to herself if this man had his very own home in the village, or if maybe he lived with his parents still given he only looked a bit older than her. For a faint moment she wondered also if he had a girl-friend, all the popular boys did, right? She wondered what this mystery person would be like, and then if they would be friends too. Then she slowly moved her mind back to the present as he began to speak, asking her how long she had been a Genin. Truthfully, she never really paid attention to the time that had passed, but she could make a rough guess.

"A few days, I think." She stated, rather unsure. Yuriko then frowned, "That doesn't mean I'm not a good ninja, though." She continued, then adjusting her headband again. She was a bit upset that she could not say she had been for a long time, but it was the truth and while Yuriko was many things, a liar to her friends was not one of them. She then had a thought pass through her mind and quickly followed it up with her next sentence. "You Chuunin are the ones that train Genin like me, right?" She had remembered it only vaguely, but if it was true then she had an idea, hopefully it was a good one.  

After she spoke, Yuriko's thoughts wandered to the future, like they often did when she had nothing to do. She day-dreamed for a few moments of being a great ninja, possibly even a village leader! With everyone looking to her for guidance and help, and with so many new friends. But, deep down, Yuriko knew that the likelihood of being that high up was very low, if at all possible. But nonetheless she hoped and dreamed while waiting for the man named Inijo to respond.

The girl replied, she had been genin for a mere few days. The level he figured she was on in skill had dropped, though, to be expected. Then again, he had seen other genin capable of a lot, so perhaps he was underestimating her, while comparing her to his own rank. She had then proceeded to ask as to whether Chuunin was the rank that trained the genin, "I'm fairly sure that's the Jounin," he would say, "though I could be wrong." He finished. Talking now began to bore him, as he had run out of questions that he was interested in, he figured he might as well have left by now, though he was waiting to see if the genin had anything to talk about before he left.

Yuriko's mouth formed a thin line as she heard the reply, it was disheartening to hear that she had been wrong in what she thought in how the Genin were trained, but hearing also that he could be wrong gave her a bit of hope in the sense that it was still possible that her idea may work, but other than that she pressed forward, noticing he was beginning to tire of talking. 
"Can I come with you?" She asked, half-casually, half-hopefully. "I have nothing else to do or anyone to really talk to, so I was hoping that since you looked like you didn't either . . . " She paused for a moment, letting her words sink in, "That maybe we could get to know each-other a bit, since we're friends now, right? I won't get in your way, I promise. I'm usually a lot more quiet than this, but you just looked . . . Easy to talk to, I guess. But if you want, I will leave you alone." She finished and gazed into Inijos eyes in order to make her words seem more serious, as she kept the thin line expression with her lips, shifting her body a bit as an nervous tic.

Then she waited, patiently.