A Less Hazy Meeting [P, NK, Anri]

With the events of this morning still lingering in her mind far into the afternoon, Risako began to wonder if she would ever be able to gain her concentration. “Natural energy,” Yu had called it, and from the way he explained it, whoever was capable of wielding it would be granted several boons. That said, it came with the ominous warning of, “Take too much, and you’ll rest in stone.” On the other side, take too little and the effects would be negligent. And, our little heroine was not one to practice much in the way of moderation or balance. She sat with her legs crossed, hands resting on her knees as the sun began to drift into the afternoon sky. The gentle breeze caused her short locks of raven hair to lift ever so slightly. From behind her eyelids she saw nothing but blackness, and for a brief few seconds she thought she was finally beginning to wrap her head around the new form of energy.

That was before she had heard the laughter of some academy students using the training grounds for… whatever. Like a twig beneath a bear, her concentration was once again broken. Had Risako been smart, she would have gone somewhere a bit more quiet, and calm, like the valley. Unfortunately, she was told to go somewhere else to begin the training. The valley had too much nature energy, they said. “It’d be too easy to learn if you started here,” they said. So instead, they booted her out to Konoha, with no fox to guide her. She was too pick this up on her own time, with no help. If and when she successfully learned how, she would be allowed to seek further guidance from Yu.

Peeling back her eyelids, she shot silvery glares at the students. Unfortunately for her, they paid her no attention as they continued to be loud and obnoxious. Her stare lingered for a moment, before her stomach had began to produce noises far louder than the kids. With a groan, she made her way to the ramen stall.

Which at this point in the day, was fairly vacant, only one of the stools being taken. Taking a seat, Risako placed her chin on her palm, and held up two of her fingers. The balding man with a beer belly behind the counter knew her well enough that her fingers meant, “Bring me two bowls.” Twas a simple enough gesture really. The only other person at the counter had just finished up their bowl, before plopping down a handful of ryo and going about their business. Eating lunch alone prolly wouldn’t hurt.

The splendid thing about being a frequent at a busy food joint was that they usually had something that was prepared and ready to go, so the wait for her food wasn't a long one. As the man had brought her the chipped white bowl filled to the brim with noodles and broth, Risako began feeling the closest thing to true love and affection for another being that she had ever felt in the tiny blip that was her existence. Closing her eyes for a brief moment, she thought of a small prayer to no one as she prepared to eat. Finally, as the man brought her the utensils, she opened her eyes, ready to begin. 

Splitting apart the two thin wooden sticks, placed them in her hands in the correct way, as the ramen stand guy had taught her when she first ate here as a child. Picking up the noodles, she lifted the steaming wheat strings to her mouth just as she had heard, "Ri... sako?"

Damn. She could almost taste it... Gently allowing the noodles to rest in the broth once more, she turned to the voi-

For fucks sake, first the sanctity of her bed, and now the ramen stall? Producing the same tone as the... We'll just say Uchiha at this point, as the Uchiha, Risako said "Ye...ah?"

For now, her stare just lingered at the Uchiha, scanning her as she seemingly rambled on before briefly recollecting herself. At this point, she was more disturbed with the lack of security on window rather than this stranger's acti- Was she really a stranger? Hmm. She'd have to give that some thought. In all fairness, she had already decided that it was better to be some innocent drunken Uchiha rather than an actual predator. Besides, now she knew she had to make her window less penetrable. 

"Ah.. sorry about... that.. know what, nevermind."

"Okay then." She would attempt to avert her attention back to her bowl, which was still steaming with a lingering fragrance of pulled pork. This wasn't the usual, but she knew the man behind the counter was good with food. This mistake would be forgiven, this time. Just as Risako was beginning to lift the noodles again, she felt an uneasy presence, as if someone were... still trying to talk.

"Do you need help with anything? I still haven't paid you back for... you know." 

Yep. Would she ever eat on this fine day? She produced a forced chuckle as her head turned slightly to allow her silvery eyes to meet with the onyx orbs of the (I'm already tired of saying Uchiha,) Uchiha. "I guess it's not big deal. Buy my lunch and I'd probably be willing to forget about it," she said nonchalantly, hoping that it came off as a joke. Bygones are bygones yanno?

Her somewhat genuine smile would remain as Risako turned her head back to her food finally. The heat had dissipated from the bowl enough that the steam was no longer blessing the air around her with it's aroma, (the food that was being cooked was still wafting around, but it's not the same dammit.) Her noodles were far from cold, however, which was evident the moment she managed to lift some to her mouth with the thin wooden sticks. Noisily slurping the dripping wheat colored noodles, her palate was graced with a salty greasy pork taste, followed by a slight grainy after taste of the noodles that just barely hinted at their own presence.

The food noises coming from her would slowly come to a stop as she realized just how quiet her lunch was, noises she produced aside. She would suck down the last half inch of noodle that was hanging from her lips, before beginning to chew. After she swallowed the first round, she wiped a finger from the bottom left side of her mouth, to the bottom right, doing away with the moisture on her chin. Without turning to her acquaintance, she kept her eyes on her food, only glancing up for a second to show the Uchiha that she was speaking to her. "So..."

The black dark headed female came to the conclusion that, any conversation was better than silence. She would wait for a response before continuing with her meal.

Enumerating the few foods that Risako could consider her favorite was rather easy. The list wasn't too long, and not because she was picky. After a brief two second period of silence and thought, she answered Anri's inquiry with "No, if I could survive off of green popsicles then I would." Not wanting to seem rude, she would quickly stammer out as her cheeks turned the slightest shade of red, rather audibly while slightly craning her neck over the counter in the direction of the man who owned the stall, "But! I-it's definitely one of my favorites!" Unbeknownst to her, he cared not whether it was one of her favorites or not, as money was his favorite, and she was a regular.

Speaking of familiarity, Konoha's manliest chuunin was rather unfamiliar with her Uchiha acquaintance. Aside from the whole bed intruder thing, and the knowing that she had a Sharingan, and was most likely a part of the Uchiha clan. Other than that tho, the two were pretty unfamiliar with one another. Risako had yet to learn her name, what she did for a living, etc. Although... given that this not-so-stranger could shrug off fuinjutsu like it was nothing, well. Maybe she didn't need that last bit of info to be answered directly. But, formalities would come later. 

Before the conversation could go stale, she would ask, still giving her noodles plenty of attention so that they wouldn't get jealous of Anri or feel neglected by Ris, "What's your favorite food then?" I dunno about you, but by now it should be easy to tell that she's not very skilled in the art of keeping a conversation moving.