Upchucks and Little Ducks (IO/NK)

Salzem, who had been wandering through the seemingly busy streets of Suna, had just bore witness to a girl about his age vomit all over the ground in an ally. His first instinct was to just walk on by, to just ignore this entire incident and just keep walking. On second thought however... Salzem rolled his eyes and approached. She didn't seem too incredibly sick. Apparently whatever had made her so violently ill was in the contents which now splattered the ground. Upon a closer inspection (but not that close) the girl had red hair. Not that salt-n-pepper-orange hair, but deep, sanguine red, like his eyes. He thought about giving her a welcoming smile, but that would've been too strained. Instead, Salzem patted her on the back of her shoulder to get her attention, his gloves coated in the rune-ed steel of his gauntlets.

"Miss." Salzem would say. Who said chivalry was dead? "Are you alright? Are you sick or something of that nature..,?" Perhaps she was delirious with fever or something when she started screaming some gibberish then something about training.

Salzem held up his hands quickly in defense as she grilled him for calling her "miss." His eyes widened as she went on a tangent about how he had "added years to her" and that she was "an independent woman" Or something like that. Then she did an entire 180 and said he could, in fact, call her miss or even my lady. Alright. She might not have a fever, but clearly she wasn't acting normally. Or perhaps she was just playing with him. A memory flashed behind his eyes as he remembered himself about 5 years ago pulling the same kind of joke with his father. He flinched back as if she had just struck him, trying to avoid the memory. It hurt him to remember back then. It hurt too much to remember that far back. Salzem tuned back into reality as she fired off her excuse about how she had gotten "sea-sick." On the desert? Yeah, okay. No. The temptation to pry further was extraordinary, but one look from the Uzumaki girl and the question died in his throat. Apparently, she didn't want to talk about it, so why should he pry? He, instead, answered the question she had proposed to him.

"Uh..." Salzem began, oh, so intelligently. "My name is Salzem and I'm a traveler and I've only recently came to the Sand. Its very.... sandy.... my lady...." The expert stand up comedian that was Salzem was at it again. Internally though, he hadn't forgotten the expression on HER face as she saw his. Was he really that hideous...? He found himself suddenly very self-conscious about his appearance.

This day.... This day... couldn't possibly get more strange. One moment he was attempting to help a girl who had gotten sick in an alley, and the next, he was being dragged through Suna's streets, left to speculate on where they were actually going. Salzem watched her as she tugged him along behind her. The girl seemed to be the opposite of him in just about every way. Her hair was red and her eyes were blue. Salzem's hair was black and his eyes red. She was a bit on the small side, Salzem was a bit tall for his age. He must have looked like an idiot, being tugged around Suna by a small Uzumaki girl, and throughout this entire misadventure, never once did it  occur to Salzem to just tug his arm free and bodyflicker out of there. The thought just never fully formed in his mind.

With all the constant tugging, Salzem's mask had come loose (It didn't have the integrity it used to have), and finally it had fallen from his face. Salzem caught the mask with his free hand and hooked it onto his belt. The lower half of his face really didn't look that different from his upper half. He had lips (Though they were pale was well) his nose was normal, and he had the natural amount of human teeth in his jaws. He had come to the conclusion that this girl was very much like the people in Konoha, afraid of him because he wore a mask. Her expression earlier that day confirmed it for him. At one point, Salzem realized he hadn't even asked her name. Salzem cleared his throat to get her attention and if that didn't work, he'd tug her arm gently, like a little kid might do.

"Uh... excuse me.... my lady...." Salzem said just loud enough to hear. "I don't think I caught your name..."

Salzem stared at her when she called herself an "Akudachi." He was sure she was an Uzumaki, what with her red hair and blue eyes (It was only now did he see that one of her eyes was actually green). He had an uzumaki friend back in Konoha and he looked a lot like Kira did. Either she wasn't telling him the truth or her mother or father was "Akudachi." He supposed it was the former but he didn't pry. Why would she tell a stranger the truth about her last name? Salzem kept his mouth shut and followed along behind her, but he soon wished he hadn't.

They had arrived at a beauty Salon, the last place on earth Salzem would ever go. Perhaps she was going in for her own make over and this "huge favor" comes after this. This is what he hoped, but his hopes were dashed when she told the flamboyant stylist that HE was the one getting the make over. Salzem's mind went white and his body shivered in horror. Salzem clearly had enough strength and speed to tear himself out of the man's grip and disappear, and he REALLY didn't want this man to "work with him." For all Salzem was concerned, that man was doctor Frankenstein. He stayed however, not wanting to hurt the stylist in his attempted escape. He'd just use Transformation to appear like his old self until he can get to a secluded space and restyle. It looked like Kira had everything figured out already, basically tossing out everything Salzem was, except his gender and personality, and replacing it with something new. Assuming Salzem's only options were the a, b, and c the man provided, perhaps Salzem could retain some of what he was.

"Uh...." Salzem mumbled, very hesitant about the whole endeavor. "The third one...." He glared at Kira as she smiled. She thought this was a good thing! He huffed angrily before closing his eyes and just letting the stylist do his work. He didn't even want to KNOW what he was doing to his body.

Salzem didn't know what was going on when Kira spoke. Eyes still closed, Salzem was once again dragged out of the chair and back out into Sunagakure's streets. Salzem opened his eyes when she started to pick up speed until she was running. Salzem kept pace easily, wondering why she would drag him into a beauty salon just to drag him out a few seconds later. Perhaps she understood from his glare that he REALLY didn't want to be there. They'd been running for a good 5 minutes and all that time, Salzem was checking his person for any changes the stylist might have made. None on his body or face... Barely anything done with his hair. Salzem sighed in relief and that's when they stopped. Kira turned to Salzem, exclaiming what a run that was. This brought his attention to his surroundings. He hadn't been to this area before... When Kira commented on his hair, Salzem unconsciously brought a hand up onto his head and a small grin danced on the edges of his mouth. Very rarely did he allow himself to indulge in such things. When she asked about what brought him here, Salzem didn't exactly now how to respond or feel to such a question. One the one hand, Salzem was looking for that man who set him on this path of misery. On the other, being in the sand, he'd have the opportunity to reunite with his mother.

"I'm looking for my mother." Salzem said, smile growing ever so slightly as he built his fantasy of how they're reunion would be. "She is a Sand Ninja who got called away, or so I assume, when I was 13. I want find her." This was the half-truth, but he felt it would suffice for now. He gazed at Kira and decided it was his turn to take a stab at small talk.

"So... Sea sick in the desert, huh?" Salzem asked, referring to when he saw her vomiting in the alley.