Friends meet again! (salzem)

Salzem had been wandering around the market, taking a look at the wares the local merchants had brought in. He was especially attracted to the new, heavier armors that one merchant had presented to him. A pair of "Gauntlets" I believe is what the man had called them. Hm.... such a strange word for gloves. He had to look into these when he had the time. He kept a tab of the spot the merchant had set up shot and continued his walk. To pass time, Salzem snapped his fingers to a certain song he had long forgotten the name of. No matter how hard he browsed his memory, no matter how deeply he looked through the recesses of his mind, he just couldn't find a name. He was about to head back home, when he saw Kouse, that uchiha genin he had trained, was sitting upon a brown wooden bench by the ice-cream stall. Upon closer inspection, the uchiha seemed to have a look of.... pain? What had happened? Deciding not to make a flashy entrance, he walked up to Kouse, flopping down on the other side of the bench, next to him. He would look at Kouse, noting the ice-cream he was eating was chocolate.

"You know, you shouldn't eat chocolate with such an expression. You may make it melt." Salzem joked lightly. He didn't know the source of Kouse's pain, but he would do whatever he could to alleviate it.

Kouse stopped eating his ice-cream for a second as someone sat down with him on his bench. Kouse shrugged his shoulders and was going to go on eating if the person hadn't spoken 'You know, you shouldn't eat chocolate with such an expression. You may make it melt'. 
Kouse frowned when he heard this, he decided to look at the intruder who didn't know enough to mind his own business. 
Kouse took a look at the person that had just spoken to him and his eyes widened in surprise.. It was the chunin that had thought him a couple of jutsu when he had just become a genin.. Salzem!  Yeah he remembered his name clearly. 
The frown on kouse's face was quickly replaced with a smile. 
"well not if you eat it fast enough" kouse replied. "it's been sometime sal, how have things been going for you?". 
Kouse turned back to his ice-cream he hoped salzem hadn't noticed his brooding face, he didn't much want to be asked questions about it.

Salzem smiled back at Kouse's response. At his inquiry, Salzem shrugged a little.

"Oh, you know, watching the village, training, all that good stuff." He could tell Kouse didn't wish to talk about what was bothering him. Salzem himself knew the feeling and would not probe him for answers if he didn't want to tell him. He stretched, relaxed, and looked over at Kouse.

"The better question is, how have things been going with you? Has training been going well? Has life been treating you well?" Salzem would watch Kouse, looking for anything that would explain his issues without him needing to say a thing. He had his suspicions, but he would not make any assumptions until he had all he needed to do so.

Kouse smiled "I've met a lot of different people since we last met, an uchiha genin, just like me... A chunin and also a certain hyuuga female"  kouse added "we'll be meeting again soon, I even chanced upon a c Rank mission with two other ninjas, a male genin and a female chunin" 
Kouse's smile vanished as he thought about how life in general was, losing his father was something that he knew would never completely stop hurting.. Time would only dull the pain but it would still be there. 
"we'll life has had its surprises, some more significant than some but I'm pulling through them, like I must" kouse said, and took another bite out of his chocolate ice cream. 
"I've got free time on my hands, I've been training alone all week and was getting sick of doing that, so I had decided to take today off" kouse explained.

Salzem noted Kouse's frown. Hm... There was something he wasn't telling him, that much was obvious. He seemed to be trying to push it down, make it seem it wasn't as bad as it was. He knew this well. However, when he said he met a "hyuuga female", something clicked in his mind. Hikari? huh... he didn't know the two of them had met. He also said they would be seeing each other soon. He knew where this was going. He to also liked Hikari, but if Kouse was implying what he thought he was, perhaps not in that particular way. He listened as Kouse explained what he did and when he said he had been training alone all week, Salzem smiled sympathetically. This week hadn't been all sunshine and rainbows for him either. He would pat Kouse on the back as he dug into his ice cream.


"Well, I got a few things to show you. It's nothing that requires a whole ton of effort, just a few things that will aid you in the future."

Kouse was in another world of his own, his thoughts were pretty much running away with him, he took another spoon of ice cream, he just wanted to take a breather today.. Nothing could stop me from eating this ice-cream he thought.. this ice-cream tastes better than he could remember..yeah absolutely nothing could stop him. 
'I got a few things to show you. It's nothing that requires a whole ton of effort, just a few things that will aid you in the future'
Well nothing could stop him except a chunin ranked ninja offering to teach him a thing or two. 
Kouse took a look at salzem, then at his ice-cream..and trew the whole half eaten plate into a nearby trash can. 
"that would be great" kouse said as he stood up "but i think here is too crowded, maybe we could move to the training grounds?“.

Salzem nodded and they began to make their way to the training grounds. Kouse seemed to be more than a little distracted, staring off into space, delayed responses. This disturbed him a little. It was still a little ways before they got to the grounds so he patted Kouse on the shoulder and looked at him.

"You know, I probably don't have a place in you issues, but if you and Hikari are having problems, there is no shame to talk about it." Salzem had guessed that Kouse and Hikari were going out, seeing as Hikari was the only Hyuuga 'female' he knew. If this was not the source of his sorrow, Salzem could always make a joke of it. If this was, well, he would counsel Kouse in anyway he could. He looked at his friend, slightly concerned. Would he tell Salzem what ailed him so?

Kouse was again lost in his own thoughts as he and salzem started towards the training grounds.. He usually tried occupying his mind with different things to stop him from remembering his father's death.. he was presently thinking of hikari, that surely took his mind off things.
The words that kouse took notice of the most from what salzem had said were 'if you and Hikari are having problems'. 
Kouse turned to look at salzem with a smile "no way bro, we haven't even gone on our first date yet" kouse added" but how did you even know about hikari" he asked. 
Kouse was surprised that salzem had known the girl he was talking about, could he read minds or something? Kouse thought. 
He knew salzem knew that he had somethings on his mind but he didn't want to spoil the mood with a sad story..best he saves the bad news until they were through with the training of the day.
They both arrived at the training grounds. 
"So what we're you planning on teaching me sal"?  Kouse asked.

"I am a ninja, Kouse, it's my business to know things. And I know everything about the two of you..." Salzem said, smiling devilishly in response to Kouse's inquiry about Hikari. He would then burst out laughing, patting his friend on the back.

"I jest, I jest. When you referred to a hyuuga girl, I assumed it was Hikari. I know no others." at that point they had arrived at the training grounds. Salzem would sit down, right there, and motion for Kouse to do the same.

"Today, I want to teach you two things." Salzem said becoming serious and holding up his pointer finger. "Genjutsu Release," he held up his middle finger so now there were two held up. "And the Generic sealing technique." Salzem would then reach around and dig around in his bag until he pulled out two scrolls. One black, one green. Salzem would then look up at Kouse as he place the scrolls down side by side in front of him.

"Which one do you want to learn first?"