You know nothing, Kyousuke.

Cliche as it was, Shina was rather fond of night time in Hoshigakure. The story about the stars and how they watched over the city in the forms of the many gods the local citizens worshiped had made her dark chocolate eyes roll when she'd first heard it. Shina had grown up in a far off village lost to destruction and chaos and had lost faith in a higher power very early on. Coming to Hoshi and swearing allegiance to Lord Denkiteki had not changed that. Watching hundreds of thousands of people each day make offerings to invisible Gods had put her even more off of the idea of faith, believing religion was nothing but a tool through which the people were manipulated daily by the oligarchs.

She had even personally thought that Denkiteki's associate, the blonde who everyone called a Queen despite her lack of any royal blood or legitimacy, was one of those controlling oligarchs. That was until she'd met Lady Akihana in person and realized that regardless of whether the blonde kunoichi's image was a facade for the common folk or not, it was doing a lot of good. Who cared if food came from a benevolent God, from the ground or the hand of a murderer, it was good food and good food saved people.

She knew people couldn't go on for long when hungry.

Shina was a simple girl at heart though she had been a ninja longer than a girl. There were few opportunities to make friends when you were one of the first response members of an already thinning ninja squad entasked with guarding such a large population with the added bonus that the majority of said population was under the impression it didn't need saving.

But all that went away at night when the stars came out. When not on guard duty, the brunette often found herself making her way to the Gazebo in the Water Gardens. While she had no notions of the Gods watching over her, the kunoichi did think that the stars would make a stellar surveillance tool, if someone could imbue them with the power to watch, to defend the city. the idea had been forming in her head for a few weeks now but she hadn't told anyone yet.

Shina didn't have friends.

She just had the one.

As she landed softly on the roof of the Gazebo, making no sound discernible by someone who wasn't already expecting her, a soft smile of acknowledgement curled on her untainted lips. Luckily, he always knew how to find her.

"Evening," she greeted the fellow jounin she couldn't yet see in the dark.

Prior to meeting…

The large man sat looking down at his bible, while speaking to another. “We are all equal in the eyes of our lord, no man is better than another.” He explained calmly to those who had attended the mass that evening. When it was the ninja’s time to give a sermon he always found it difficult. As how could he tell others of sin when he himself had killed, breaking god’s laws in doing so. Kyousuke tended to avoid the subject of sin when talking to a group. Not because he didn’t want people to know, they had an idea already of what he had to do in service of the village. He avoided the subject because god was a forgiving being and in turn he should want to forgive himself, he however did not. There was always something lost when he killed a person, like a piece of him was shredded and needed to be repaired. Over time religion brought the pieces closer together, but he wouldn’t know if they were truly mended until he stood before his final judgement. Finishing off with a prayer for those with ill family members or money troubles the ninja exited the church and was about to head home before feeling a familiar chakra signature in the distance.

Moving along in the shadows Kyousuke moved closer hoping to scare the girl, that wasn’t going to happen though. She was just as good at sensing his energy as he was with hers. Getting closer he watched the girl jump to the roof and the ninja sat about one roof over peering over the edge for the ninja’s next move.

“Evening.” It seemed she had noticed his presence so without delay Kyousuke smacked the metal of his gloves together and lit his cigarette taking in a drag that lit up the lower portion of his face and parts of his neck. “It is indeed.” The monk said as he stepped out of the shadows, so that they could see each other more clearly in the night sky. “How are you today Shina?” The ninja asked his friend after they hadn’t seen one another for what felt like weeks. The ninja took another puff of his cancer stick, blowing the smoke away from her face and looked up at the stars.

"The same as I was yesterday?" the brunette replied, the same ghost of a smile touching her features as her friend took a sea bedside her on the Gazebo roof and lit up his familiar cigarette. The kunoichi herself didn't smoke but unthinkable, she had grown used to the smell of his cigarettes, even finding them comforting on cold nights like these. Not that Shina would ever tell him that. Sentiments didn't belong in a shinobi world, let alone on the lips of a Kunoichi already trying to prove herself in a male dominated shinobi force.

In their business, every day they were still alive was a good day. She had been alive yesterday, and she was alive today. So she was the same as she was yesterday.

"How was evening mass?" she asked in turn, being more polite than interested. Despite several invitation to several different masses, Shina had found religious congregations to not be her thing. Still they were important to her companion so they warranted a courtesy asking. "No sermons on shinobi being evil I would hope. That would be highly unoriginal."

^ Viper knows the glory that is GoT.

“Same as you were yesterday?” He asked letting the cylinder hand from his lip before taking another hit. Kyousuke shrugged and thought nothing of it, if there was something bothering her he was sure she would have said so. Moving the cigarette from his mouth to his hands he answered the question presented to him. “Mass was pretty good.” Blowing out the smoke in the form of a ring away from the girl’s face he continued. “Nothing on ninja bad guys today, but if I ever wanted to tell them about the most mischievous ninja I know, I’ll drag you in sometime.”

“So, do you have guard duty tonight?” He asked leaning in to better hear the answer. Kyousuke was aware that her duty had likely just ended and that she had come to see the gazebo, he asked anyway though as assuming too much was something he didn’t like to do often. “Hoshi, has really changed from a year ago.” He remarked pointing the lit cigarette at a few moving shadows on the roof tops, ninja likely going on or returning from missions. “Queen Akihana and Lord Den, have really changed this place for the better.” 

"No thanks," the dark haired kunoichi interjected quickly at the offer of being asked to go to mass. She wasn't afraid he would push her, probably because he knew she would go if he did push her to. Kyouseuke though never really pushed his beliefs on her like some other people Shina could mention, one of the reasons they had become friends over a year ago. Whether he judged her quietly for her heathen ways she didn't know, but if he did, he never made it obvious and that the fuinjutsu user could appreciate.

The young female shook her head, chocolate brown locks falling in dark smooth strands against her standard issue jounin jacket. "Not tonight, I just got done and... the stars look better from here than my window anyway." She shrugged, there was no other reason she was here. Everyone else used stargazing as an excuse, why not her?

"Do you think they really watch us?" she asked, a note of curiosity in her voice as dark eyes turned to the sky. "Like not the way people say about Gods protecting and whatnot. Do you think stars can see us? Because that would be very frightening I imagine, someone being able to see you from so far away."

His observation on their city changing in the last year was met with silence on her part. Kyousuke was what she secretly called a royalist, someone who was leal to the royal family on all counts. Shina not being of Hoshigakure needed more convincing to have her loyalty earned. "I don't know.." she admitted hesitantly. "Some things have changed but others... I don't see the difference," she finished, speaking honestly as she always did with him. Though she hoped the words didn't sound as bitter out of her mouth as they did in her head.

"I believe there are many things watching us." Kyousuke said while leaning back and further explaining his answer. "The civilians, the genin, the chuunin, those who outrank us, and those who would wish to do us harm. We are always being watched, so I wouldn't mind if the stars were watching. I would just hope that when they are they are watching the me that I want to be and the you that is you." He said while keeping his expression stiff. "I guess what I'm saying is there is always someone or something watching lets look our best, even if the best is lying bleeding in the dirt striving for what you believe in." 


"Its okay to not see the change, it is there though. I had a different Hoshi experience when I was young. One full of fanatics much like the ones you described earlier." He left his history at that as Shina knew of what most of his past involved. Brutal murder and killing sprees when the nature energy began to overflow. It at least was a different time now, with a more in control Kyousuke.

"So, anything happening in your life lately?" He asked while laying down on the roof to look up at the stars. If they were watching him it was fair to watch them back and maybe he could catch one falling and get a wish.    

Shina liked the ideas of the stars watching a struggle rather than looking down on them in benevolent pompousness. It made her like he astral bodies more somehow to think they appreciated a great struggle like Kyousuke suggested. She could appreciate something that understood the world on the same level she understood it - as a state of constant struggle.

"I don't see it because it doesn't exist," the dark haired kunoichi stated flatly. She could understand her companion's point but the good thing about him was that he also always let her state hers. "Do you know Princess Tehniyat just appointed some ill equipped chunin as her personal guard? The boy is so green he pisses grass but he will soon ascend to the rank of Queensguard whereas I've been working for Denkiteki-sama for a year now and will never be considered for that position." That definitely came out bitter but Kyousuke was the one person who would not judge her for her feelings.

"It's because I'm a woman. And as we've been told time and time again, women are not admitted into the sacred brotherhood of the Queensguard regardless of how well equipped we are to guard the damn Queen." The reminder stung more than a bit, and keeping it inside had stung worse. But now tha it was out, Shina felt ehr breath come out easier.

"Was that treason?" she asked, a soft chuckling escaping her lips as she looked at Kyousuke briefly, he surprised amusement clear in her chocolate orbs. "Am i not supposed to use swear words when referring to Her Grace?"

Kyousuke knew his friend would eventually see what he had been seeing, so he didn’t dismiss her opinion on the subject. She was correct on some points anyway, while there was much that had changed there was also much that had not. The man wasn’t one to argue about his own view point by dismissing the views of others. He looked over to her once she mentioned the Queen’s new guard. Kyousuke had looked over his file once or twice. Being placed by his grace’s side still puzzled him.

“I am aware of the placement; I don’t quite understand it myself. There is nothing remarkable about the fellow and he is new to the life of a shinobi.” He took another drag and blew the smoke out in a ring followed by a few others. “Maybe they see something within him, that can be used to help the village later. As a younger ninja he should be easier for the Queensguard to mold.” Getting through the training of the queensguard would be no easy task and once the training was done, the chuunin would be changed. From a physical and emotional standpoint.

The large Jugo laughed as his ally began to state her reasoning behind why she wasn’t selected to guard the Queen along with asking if using a curse word to describe royalty was treason. “I won’t tell anyone if it is.” Kyousuke stated still letting out a laugh. “Maybe you could be the one who changes the queensguard, change them from a force of Hoshi’s strongest men to Hoshi’s strongest people.” It had seemed odd to Kyousuke that only men were selected if it were for the Queen’s benefit. Woman could be just as powerful as men.

"Speaking of queens I haven’t seen Queen Akihana around recently, she usually comes out of the palace every now and then.” Kyousuke also could not feel her chakra signature which was also strange. “The queen must be really sick, to be locked up in her chambers with Queen Akihana that long.”

It was, in a way, good to hear Kyouseuke echo her own suspicions on the new boy, Atem. Despite her less than pleased tone at the appointment, it wasn't really the young chunin she was angry at or trying to discredit. Kyousuke's assurance also meant she wasn't going completely crazy and making up weaknesses where there weren't any to begin with. The kunoichi let out a sign, breathing in the smell of warm cigarette smoke.

"I don't know, maybe the princess took a fancy to the boy. He isn't not good looking, even if a bit young." she suggested, carrying on his playful tone. In a history as long and rich as that of the Haven royalty, Shina highly doubted there had never been a case of fraternization between a princess and her guard despite the solemn oaths. On her part, the female Jounin never judged anyone on their discretion. It did make for something interesting to talk about.

Her chocolate eyes turned serious as the Juugo mentioned Akihana. Unknowingly, he had tapped into the very thing that had been plunging her but the entire city in a state of unrest. Akihana was one of the most extraordinary shinobi Shina knew in that her being around calmed everyone, including herself. And the recent disappearance from public eye was starting to fray the nerves of both the ninja forces and civilians alike.

"I think something's wrong..." she finally admitted, her voice lowered to a whisper so that Kyousuke would have to lean in to listen. Though the whisper was not to make his hearing difficult, it was simply admitting the problem that was hard for Shina. The Kunoichi had done her best to help ensure the city and its ninja ran as smoothly as possible, and confessing that this might not be the case anymore felt like a failure on her part.

"I understand that she has to look after the Queen but... she hasn't been seen anywhere in the palace, she doesn't even see her sons and that doesn't sound like the Akihana I know. I saw her little one the other day trying to break into the royal armory to get his hands on some jousting equipment and I did the whole thing, read him the riot act, asked him how his mother would feel if she knew and Prince Arata simply said "she wouldn't care, she's never coming back.". I don't mind admitting that worried me a fair bit."

Shina had considered confronting Prince Arashi with this information but the young ninja had been busy training for his own Jounin exam so she had let the matter drop, until now.