Stories of other Walls [P, NK]

Another day another bay, as they say, in a way. Well, Naoki actually was in a bay or by the bay. He was on one of the islands housing living sections of the village. And he was on the side of the isle that faced the inner bay of the village. Here, on the beach, he was pretty much alone. He chose this place for a reason and that reason was that he could be here pretty much alone. Well, around this time that was roughly the midday, anyway. The beach would be lit by multiple parties here and there after the dark he was sure, Shimagakure was a village that liked to party. But right now, it was very tranquil and calm.
The Jounin was wearing a black shirt with silver floral ornaments and white shorts. Some little distance from him were his sandals, his ninja pouch and a book. There was enough shade if one sought it, but currently the man was out in the sun, on the beach. Before him was a monolith of black stone, something he was working on, sculpting actually. At the same time he was doing something else, he was waiting for somebody. This somebody was a fellow Jounin to him, although she was fairly new to the village, somebody who only recently arrived and was accepted. Being probably the strongest Jounin in the village, one repeatedly tasked with looking over the village in Kaede's absence (actually tasked with it now as well), Naoki was fairly interested in this newcomer who possibly was of same caliber as himself, if not stronger. So, he had arranged a meeting which would take place here, at midday, which was pretty much any second now. The invitation to this small event would be sent to Rakka yesterday afternoon, so hopefully she had enough time to prepare.

Rakka received an invitation from the man she had seen when she entered the village. She had rented out a small house to stay in until she found somewhere a little more permanent to reside in. Her current quarters weren’t particularly amazing, but it was comfortable enough for her. Still, she sorely missed her ice cave, the giant structure that she had made her home. Perhaps she would make another, if she could find a way to get the ice to stay without melting for an extended period of time… or maybe she could find a real cave? Nah, too cliché. At that point, she might as well claim she was raised by wolves and slowly devolved into one of them. Now that was simply stupid.
 
She slowly rose from her bed, the covers sliding off of her body, as she thought of all she had left. First, in Sunagakure, she had commited murder on her father and was forced to leave. In Yukigakure, she let her leader die in front of her after dishonoring the village, and then left for good, not wanting to live in a place with the legacy of “The one who let her leader die then took his spot.” Death seemed to follow her everywhere she went. She should have left that god awful place as soon as her mother passed away. She should have moved on. At least she was enjoying the people and atmosphere of Shimagakure.
 
She pulled a set of moccasins on to her feet, then a pair of shorts and a green tank top, leaving her black jacket at home, it was too nice out to be wearing so many layers. She collected her few tools and exited the house, making her way to the place Naoki had asked her to meet. It would be nice to see the kind of ninja she would be working with.
 
She would spot him on the beach, a simple nod signifying her greetings.

”Naoki was your name, right?” She would ask, straight faced, holding out her hand to shake. ”I am Rakka.”

Naoki continued to work on the stone of obsidian black. It wasn't actually obsidian, but it was created from a very special mixture. In fact, it was the same mixture he retrieved the day he first met Rakka. From that, with the help of some other compounds, he raised this black rock and now was in the process of shaping it. He wouldn't use any specific sculpting tools, but rather his own earth nature chakra, to do the work. Well, would infuse a kunai for more detailed parts, but overall he'd do it by expelling earth chakra from his hand, making a certain part shrink or crumble, or expand, whatever he needed. Shoulders and some part of arms were already observable, but it was still a lot of work to finish. Sculpting the left elbow Naoki would notice the familiar chakra signature enter the area, but he was too into the work he wouldn't pay any attention until a greeting was heard for the female. Raising his head from the work-in-progress statue the Uchiha would look a bit confused for a moment, until he got his act. "...Yes. Yes, high time we met!" He would say shaking her hand. The Jounin would then stand back a bit and look at his work so far, which beginning their talk with a fairly casual inquiry. "So, how you like our fair village? I trust it nobody's giving you any trouble?"

Rakka stared at the sculpture for a moment as the man spoke, a hint of curiosity replacing the serious, businesslike look that had previously filled her eyes, but only for a moment. Her eyes then shifted back to Naoki, hearing his question about how the village was treating her.


”The warm weather is a nice change, and the people seem nice enough.” She told him simply, looking out past the shoreline, into the ocean. ”Although I do miss the peace and quiet of my old home. Living inside the village is too claustrophobic for my taste.” She added. She was never much of a people person, it was why she had left the village to make her ice cave in the first place. ”What exactly did you call me out here for?” She asked in a tone that suggested she had better things to do then stand here idly talking, although there wasn’t much of anything to do in this village if you weren’t fond of beaches.

If Naoki knew the village was called claustrophobic compared to a cave, well it would definitely get his attention. But he didn't know and there wasn't enough information to deduce anything really, for all he knew the girl could have been living in a single house on a plain field with not a single mountain around. Then, yeah, moving into a village with houses... honestly it was fishy even then. It's not like the Islands had tall buildings. He could however deduce from the reply that the girl was of quite short temper, she only after so long of speaking she already indicated it being boring. Not one for idle chat at all, it seemed. Pity, he hoped he could get to know her a bit better, but now he pretty much had no choice to get straight to the point and wrap this up quick.

Moving his hand to shape the statue's forearm he would begin. "Well, you are our newest Jounin, allowed in and given the rank, but clearly trained elsewhere. I'm sure if it was of high importance Kaede would have shared it with me, but as has become quite usual lately, he is unavailable and in such times he leaves the village in my care. And I like to know the people around me and their story, especially when it's promising to be a colorful story like yours - a clearly skilled kunoichi, appearing at the gates of another village seeking refuge, known and trusted by the village leader so allowed in and given rank. Would you share?"

Rakka listened to the man, whom she figured was quite long winded, from the little speech he just gave. He wanted an explanation of why she knew Kaede and was allowed to enter the village and become one of the village ninja. To be honest… she didn’t know why Kaede approved of her staying there, but she figured he wasn’t totally clueless… She had been put in charge of the village at their time of meeting, after all.
 
Naoki made a decent point, at the least, as Kaede seemed to be somewhat like Demetri, in that he left the village often… well, she hoped that was where the similarities ended. Eye contact wasn’t exactly her thing, so she just stared out at the sea as she began to speak.
 
”Fine, I’ll give you the short version. I was born in Sunagakure. My father was abusive, and tried to kill me, so I speared him through the head and left the village. I went to live with my mother in Yukigakure, but she passed away shortly after I arrived. I became a ninja, just as she once was, hoping to make enough money to live on my own, but that didn’t work out. Not long ago, I was left in charge of the village, while Demetri Kori was out supposedly on a diplomacy mission, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was simply laying drunk in the woods, for all the good he did us. The village was attacked, and just as I started to negotiate some good terms, Demetri came and ruined everything.” She said, malice clear in her voice at the mention of the former leader’s name. ”Not only did he dishonor me, he dishonored the whole village, and I had no reason to stay there. Kaede had shown up to negotiate the alliance just as the battle -if you could call it that- began. He saw the whole thing, and met me briefly. I guess I figured this was my best bet for a new start, and he apparently trusted me.” She said, finishing her story, vastly shortened.
 
She then turned to face him, the irritation was gone from her face, for the most part. Venting like this had actually helped improve her mood about the whole thing.

”So is there anything important I need to know about this village? I like it here, and it would be a shame if Kaede led a cannibal cult I was expected to join or something else like that that I missed in the fine print.” She asked Naoki with a touch of sarcasm.

Naoki listened while appearing rather busy on his creation, but that assumption would be deceptive as he was actually listening to every word said by Rakka quite carefully. Or at least that's how it would phase from his question to her speaking, but in a few seconds he would slowly stop his work and start to openly show her his attention as the story was rather colorful, as expected (that and the part he worked on was finished). So, the girl was a deserter then, in one sense or another, but she also based her actions and put value in honor. This kind of people Naoki respected, the Ninja world was in short supply of their kind.

As she finished, the Uchiha put out a smile and returned the joke. "Nah, the cannibal cult is on the bordering isle, Kaede leads the necrophile club..." He would give it a casual tone and a second for her to sort it out, then after a light laugh continue. "Well, while this is a quite liberal and tolerant village, these are also very decent people. They love to dance and sing, drink and laugh, wallow by the many beaches of the village. Being isolated by the waters and distance, war rarely comes to us. Although these are troubling times and the community will gladly take in a strong Jounin like yourself..."

He would make a short pause and add "If you run into any trouble, just let me know and I will help you however I can. What you might want to know is that Shimagakure is allied with Takigakure, a neighbor to your former Yukigakure home, as I recall. So, if you were in any conflicts between those villages, you might find your former enemies now be your allies. I hope that would not be an issue, were such a situation appear."

Rakka cracked a grin at Naoki’s joke.
So that’s why he was so eager to take Demetri’s corpse… she thought to herself. She was glad to hear it was a tolerant village, because she remembered very clearly getting cursed at in Sunagakure for her sexuality. Yuki hadn’t given her too much of a problem with that kind of thing, but it was nice to hear people wouldn’t get nasty about that kind of thing.
 
She noticed Naoki mention ‘Troubling times…’ That caught her attention.
Oh, great. Did I walk into another war? She wondered.
”What do you mean, ‘troubling times?’” She asked him, curious as to what exactly he meant by that. Perhaps he simply meant that Iwa was expanding again, which was something natural to worry about.
”I doubt I’ll run into any trouble, I keep to myself, in most cases.” She would tell him. She liked her privacy.
 
…Interesting. They were allied with Takigakure? Fair weathered nations sticked together, she supposed.

”No, that won’t be an issue. I’ve never been to Takigakure, though I’m not sure if I can say the same for Demetri. He might have been stirring up more trouble when he was away from the village.” She would say, rolling her eyes.

Naoki did not know these details about Yukigakure's takeover that Rakka did, so his reply would be more general. "Well... Kirigakure disappearing into the sea overnight, the Sky Nation uniting with Fire Nation in one day after being sworn enemies and then suddenly disbanding. Funkagakure rising to Major power, the borders humming with rogues and now this situation that forced you to leave your village... The peace looks very fragile to me, only a matter of time until one village or the other decides to make a move and claim some more land and power."
The Uchiha was rather relieved to hear that Rakka wasn't thinking of running into any trouble and didn't have any grudges against Takigakure. He was rather concerned with Shimagakure's situation and was eager to see her abilities. Extending his right hand at her he would say "Here, this reminds me, give me your hand. I will mark you so I could summon you in case of emergency. No worries, the seal does not do anything else." If allowed he would put the mark on her.

Rakka would shrug.
”At least it keeps you on your toes. I’d be out of a job if this world were a peaceful one.” She would say, listening to the man request to mark her for summoning.
”Uh, sure…” She would respond to him, holding out her hand and watching him mark her with the seal. Fuinjutsu, and apparently this allowed her to be summoned by him? That interested Rakka greatly. She decided she should inquire about learning some tricks from him, it couldn’t hurt to pick up some more knowledge, and the show of ambition might just put her on Naoki’s good side.
 

”I’m guessing you’re a fuinjutsu specialist? Not many people simply dabble in the art…” She would inquire. Indeed, she had yet to meet someone who simply knew one or two seals, without forging further and learning more. ”Would you mind teaching me a few seals? It’d be nice to get a better understanding of them, and it would round off my jutsu library quite nicely.” She would say. Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, and Fuinjutsu were quite a versatile combination.