Salzem's First Guest

Salzem took one of the rice balls with one hand while lowering his mask away from his face with the other. He took a bite of the rice ball, face lighting up as the delicious flavor filled his mouth. He ate a little at a time, savoring the flavor. He looked up from his food when Reddo inquired about the genin he mentioned.
"Well," Salzem began. "There is Risako Akara. She is WAY faster than I am. She can seemingly disappear right in front of your eyes. Then Isshin Uchiha. He is seemingly very lazy but possesses an awakened Sharingan and holds the chidori." Salzem thought a moment, remembering other genin. "Yensung Aburame. He is a genjutsu specialist, combined with his insects. A deadly combination." Salzem raised an arm to either side.
"Then there's me. Salzem Alagahara. Taijutsu specialist. I prefer to use clones to trip up my opponents."

"Ah, so you're like me," Reddo says. "My father always mainly trained me in Taijutsu, and it is what I am best at, but he never trained me in any techniques for some reason, just the basics, punches, kicks, dodges," Reddo says. "But, I am interested in learning some Ninjustu as well, but when it comes to Genjutsu, I have absolutely no interest," Reddo says. "Guess I'm just too Gung ho to do that kind of stuff."

Salzem nodded. He had to learn most of his techniques himself as well.
"I kinda chose Taijutsu as a form of defiance. You see..." Salzem tapped his breathing mask. "I was poisoned as a child, making my life dependent on this mask. Parents said It would be too dangerous. That the risk was too much. Turns out, it wasn't. Now here I am. An active genin, aspiring to be chunin." Salzem leaned in close, as if to tell Reddo a secret.
"Between you and me, I'm thinking going on a... "trip" sooner or later. Away from the village."

"Are you thinking of becoming a missing ninja!?" Reddo asks surprisingly. "What would be the reason for that? Konoha is a nice place, at least I think so, not sure about some other people," Reddo says. Reddo decides to steer away from talking about him being poisoned, he feels like it is too much of a serious topic. "There must be people who like you as friend here, including me." Reddo says

Salzem held up his hands defensively.
"Nothing so extreme, Reddo." Salzem said, trying to calm him down. "And not for the reasons you might think." Salzem lowered his hands slowly, raising his mask over his mouth again, sanguine eyes locked onto Reddo.
"I am not out for vengeance. I am not out for money, power or prestige. The main reason I want to become a... "Missing Ninja", is... well, to look at the world differently. You see..." Salzem said, trailing off into a story. "From the day I was poisoned and confined to this mask, I felt like a prisoner in a world of normal, unrestricted people. This feeling grew as I was attacked by three other kids, bullies, forcing me to fight back... hard." Salzem's eyes showed pain as he recounted the story. "I hurt them, Reddo. I hurt them bad. I thought that it was justified at the time, me defending myself against bullies, but I went to far. I beat them into unconsciousness. I let my inner demons drive my every action and thought." Salzem's head hung low, a shadow of guilt seemed to creep over his body. He continued regardless. "I blamed it on this." Salzem said pointing to his mask. "The start of my troubles. Inside konoha, there is no medical professional that I know of who can fix my lungs. I have to go looking, unrestrained, untethered." Salzem looked back up at Reddo.
"It has nothing to do with you, the hokage, or the village." Salzem lays a hand on his chest. "It has to do with me."

"Well, Salzem, I'm not going to stop you, I don't know how bad you beat those bullies, but it must have been really bad for you to feel like this," Reddo says. "Also, maybe on your quest of being a missing ninja, you'll find someone who can fix your lungs up for you!" Reddo said, trying to lighten the mood. "If you do end up making this decision, leave a letter for me every now and then," Reddo says, then cracks a smile.

Salzem smiled at Reddo's enthusiasm. He shook of his melancholy and stood up from his seat, stretched, then spoke.

"Will do... my friend. Now, let me show you the upper floor of the house." Salzem said, grinning, gesturing towards the stairs.

"Alright then, let's go," Reddo says. Reddo starts to walk up the stairs to the second floor. "This is a big house you've got here," Reddo says. Reddo had not been in any two-story house before, because Reddo had quite a small house, but it was enough room for everyone in his family.

Salzem never really looked at it that way. Now that he thought about it, yeah, it was pretty big.
"Well, my father was a successful ninja." Salzem responded,leading  Reddo to his room first. With in it, his bed was in the far right corner, in front of a shaded window. Salzem had just cleaned up so little was covering the floor. The room was a bit larger than average. A small mirror hung on the wall, perpendicular to the bed.
"This is my room." Salzem said, nodding at it's contents.

"This is a nice room you have here," Reddo says. "Oh wait!" Reddo says, he runs downstairs to check what time it was, it was already nine! Reddo rushed back upstairs to let Salzem know how long they had been talking. "It's already nine, we spent A LOT of time talking, I'm thinking we should sleep, so we can be energized for tomorrow." Reddo says to Salzem. "Do you have anywhere I can sleep?" Reddo asks Salzem.