Winds of Change [Open, Konoha]

Despite her best preparations, an unconscious shiver washed over Ashi as the sharp winter wind gusted at her back. Swaddled in an earthen green sweater and wearing what amounted to black sweatpants she found herself regretting the decision to forgo a hat with her messy ponytail blowing about like tattered sail. 

By her side walked the reason she even bothered braving the wind in the first place, Chairomaru. The hound seemed unperturbed by the wind and would sometimes run out ahead of his companion only to come back sporting a toothy grin and wagging tail. The pair had spent much of the last three days cooped up making their walk a much-needed escape as neither sat still well. 

Times were slow in Konohagakure even for the ANBU. Patrols had become a practice in monotony with the last credible threat encountered over three months ago and even that had been a false alarm. Village life had stagnated and though there was something to be said for routine it lacked variety. In Ashi's case, the routine grated on her as she felt her life wasting away. Yet, every day she woke up and soldiered through as was expected of her, as was expected of everyone.

After a few more minutes of walking, the pair arrived at the training grounds. Hidden behind the academy the training grounds were entirely empty. The Inuzuka woman figured any sensible person had decided to stay inside for the day and wait out the wind. Of course, the question was then what did that make her? 

Sensible?

Surely not. 

"Well," She looked down at Chai with a wry smile. "Go on!"

Tilting his head to the side Chai stood still for a second as if waiting for Ashi to lead the way. However, when she did not move he took off in a brown blur. 

Silly dog, she thought crossing her arms and watching her friend galavant around the field in energetic fits of speed.

As much as Love hated the cold she still had to look cute when walking around like a living marshmallow. Once she had gotten her new eared hat she squealed and put it on as she walked home. It was so cute and matched her outfit, she just had to show it off. So Love went by the academy to see if anyone was there. When she saw no one she continued on to the training grounds behind it; There she saw a huge brown dog running around really fast. "Woah." Love said as she noticed its owner? not far behind it.

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(sorry it's short I suck at intos)

She cursed mentally upon hearing a sound that could have easily been mistaken for the wind had it not been for the breathy humanity behind it. Her attention had been so focused on her frolicking friend that she hadn't noticed the approach of someone else. Luckily she was no longer in training or she'd have been chewed out and would probably be sleeping outside. In this case, however, she had to face something much harsher than any ANBU captain, her inner critic.

Despite her internal alarm, she turned to the source of the disturbance with narrowed eyes and hardened features. Of course, such animosity melted from her face and formed a kind smile upon seeing the marshmallow-esque kid. There was once a time when the anbu operative was poor with kids but that time had long since passed.

"Oh, hello there," she gave a half-hearted wave before her hand retreated back to the shelter of her pocket. "What brings you here on such a fine day?"

As if to accent the irony of her words the wind gusted once more bending trees and bushes alike to its will. Yes, it was truly a dismal day. Yet still, the Inuzuka felt perfectly at home; she felt more comfortable uncomfortable. Such was the paradox each ANBU lived in.

"God damn it." Cursed Kisuke as he stepped outside and slammed the door to his apartment behind him. "You picked the best day to forget your work at the academy didnt you. Fucker." Cursing under his breath, the Uchiha pulled on the collar of his leather jacket while taking in the scenery with squinted eyes due to the thrashing wind. He should make his little brother go pick up his own work, but he was already busy with other academy work so Kisuke had to do this for him. Therefore with his shoulders hunched forward and his hands buried deep in his jacket pocket, Kisuke set out head long into the brutal winds continuously slapping him in his face. 

With his face half covered by his fully zipped jacket the cold was now starting to bit into his flesh, freezing him down to the bone. Despite the fact that the main roads were cleared of snow his toes were so cold he could not feel them anymore. In an attempt to both get some heat back into his extremities and to reach his destination faster the Uchiha began to lightly jog. Getting to the academy, Kisuke would reluctantly come to a halt when he noticed two individuals along with a massive dog standing out in the yard. "Crazy people." He muttered under his breath.

Just as he was about to continue making his way towards the academy doors he came to a sudden halt. Focusing his attention on one of the two females, Kisuke thought he recognised one of them, the one with her pony tail fluttering in the wind. She looked oddly familiar but Kisuke couldnt rack his memory. Slowly, Kisuke began to trudge through the snow in an attempt to get a closer look and maybe remember who she was.

Kotsuzui found himself waking up under a large tree with a bottle of Sake resting against his side. The first thing he noticed was that he had a pounding headache due to having drank the previous night. The second thing he noticed was that his body was covered in a light shower of snow as well as the ground around him. Next, he noticed it was insanely cold and he was extremely under dressed. All he had was his traditional kimono outlined in white and a scarf that provided some warmth for him. Per usual, the Kaguya has nothing on his feet. He liked to feel the earth and grass in between his toes whenever he walked. But today was a horrible day to be bare foot outside. He wondered why he had even come here if it had been so cold? Maybe it snowed while he passed out? Whatever the reason, he messed up. Slowly pushing himself up using the tree to help balance him, at quick glance he noticed a couple of dents in the tree with bark missing. He got his explanation right there for why he was in the training grounds. When he was drunk he must have come here to train and passed out.

Finally getting to his feet, before he stood up right the picked up the bottle of sake laying beside him. To his delight, it wasn't empty yet. Drinking more alcohol while being hung over was probably not the best solution, however it was the best option for him to stay warm in this freezing weather. As he took a sip from his bottle, he noticed two female figures in the training grounds with him accompanied by a dog...or what looked like a large wolf. It seem to be the companion of one of them. He could not make out what they were saying due to the wind being too strong. "What madness brought them out here in such weather" Kotsuzui thought to himself. They didn't seem hungover as he had been. The Kaguya went to take another sip but stopped himself when he spotted his Uchiha teammate walking towards the three in the training grounds. "What in the hell is Kisuke doing here?" Kotsuzui thought to himself, almost laughing as he did. This was probably the last place Kisuke expected to see Kotsuzui. Just like Kisuke, Kotsuzui slowly began approaching the gathering of people and pet. However he did so slowly. One, because he did not want to alarm the massive animal and have it attack him. And two, he was hungover and slow movements were easier on his head.
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Huh? Love directed her attention to the voice she heard. "Hi." She replied to the woman who's hair matched the large animal's and then nuzzled into her fluffy jacket when the wind blew. "I just came to see if anyone was here." Just as she said that Love noticed a red haired male walking towards them. Either the cold didn't bother him or he was crazy, the confused look on his face made Love think it was the latter. It was possible that the guy was making the face because he thought he might know one of them but it definitely wasn't Love. There's no way she would forget someone with such red hair, And would you look at that. Love thought to herself as behind this new person was yet another male with red hair. "What is going on here..?" She asked aloud although she didn't expect an answer, especially since they would probably think she was talking about all of them just showing up and not their hair. She watched the second male slowly walk which she thought was weird but maybe he hated the cold more than she did.

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An understandable reason to be sure, Ashi gave the younger girl a knowing nod. Maybe she wasn't the only one who abhorred being locked up inside? Of course, such a question would have to wait for later, because her gaze followed that of the younger girls and came to rest on two ill-attired individuals.  

One she vaguely remembered, was Stein his name? Or had he been looking for Stein? She couldn't really remember the exact details of his face as they were, more or less, a blur. As it turned out drinking too much led to memory loss, who'd have thought? That said, she never forgot a scent and she had encountered his before...somewhere.

The other man's scent, however, was familiar for a different reason. Sake, she had been around and consumed enough of it to know its unique smell. In fact, the smell was unmistakable for anything else. Perhaps someone without an Inuzuka's sense of smell might confuse it for another alcohol, but for Ashi identifying it had become trivial. It also helped that the man's gait was anything but steady.

"Oh, you poor things," She commented mostly to herself before her voice raised to a more commanding tone. "Get inside this instant!"

Perhaps it was her long repressed maternal instinct shining through or maybe it was pity, but she couldn't let the two boys simply freeze outside—it just wasn't done, not in Konoha anyway.

Nodding her head once towards the academy she began walking at a brisk pace to the door. Hopefully, the trio understood she was not asking but rather telling. Hell, she had even done it relatively politely; score one for the normally grouchy ANBU.

If no one moved to stop her she would hold open the door until everyone was inside.

Chai, on the other hand, did not let the commotion bother him and if he did, well, he didn't show it as he continued to play in the snow.

The two kunoichi's were now aware of Kisuke's presence, the older one sympathetic to the freezing Uchiha. But what caught him off guard was that she was also referring to someone behind him. Kisuke was so cold that he failed to notice there was even someone there. Moving as little as possible almost as if moving to much would his body to shatter, the Uchiha would slightly turn his head while keeping half of his face under the cover of his jacket collar. 

"What the fuck, you following me?" Asked the Uchiha, squinting his eyes in confusion while watching his teammate walk up to him. Quickly glancing down at the object held in his hand, Kisuke though to himself "Of course the idiot is drunk."

Turning back to Ahsie, he watched the older woman demand that they head inside. That was fine by Kisuke, he intended on going inside anyways. Turning towards Kotsuzui, Kisuke would say before starting towards the open door "You know alcohol doesnt actually warm you up.", having noticed that he wasnt wearing anything remotely warm. 

Shaking his head, Kisuke trotted through the snow not really caring if Kotsuzui followed him or not and finally made it to the school. Stomping his boots against the floor to shake the snow off, Kisuke would unzip his jacket now that the harsh winds could no longer thrash at his face. "Now before I go get my brothers things..." Turning towards Ashie, Kisuke would first and foremost say "Thanks." for holding open the door. 

Once everyone made it inside and shivered the cold out of their bones, Kisuke would proceed to asking Ashie "Have we met before, you look familiar?" It was really bugging Kisuke that he couldnt remember her despite the fact that he was sure he had seen her before. But where and when?

"Good to see you too" Kotsuzui replied to his Uchiha partner with a sly grin. "Ayumi-sensei ordered me to keep an eye on you" he said, obviously lying. "She says she's worried you'll commit suicide. I don't know why she would think that though? Probably due to the lack of emotion you show...actually it's the fact you never show any signs of emotion." Now he was just trying to get on his teammates nerves. But the Uchiha never showed any emotions, so the Kaguya would have no idea whether it was working or not. "Don't worry though, we can get help if you need it" he added in one last time.

Kotsuzui's attention quickly snapped to one of the female shinobi ahead of Kisuke when she raised her voice telling everyone to get inside the academy. From the tone in her voice, Kotsuzui could tell she was giving an order rather than asking them. He had the urge to suddenly listen to her, maybe because at that moment she reminded him of his mother. With that she turned and quickly made her way to the academy. His eyes shifted back to his teammate as he added a remark in. "Who cares what it does, so long as I don't feel the cold I'm ok" Kotsuzui said as he finished the contents of the bottle before following Kisuke inside.

Kotsuzui was tempted to go see the wolf, but he was worried what the female would do if he didn't get out of the cold. First was a demand, next may be a beating. He gave a friendly nod thanking her for holding the door as he entered. Tossing his bottle into the nearest garbage bin, Kotsuzui went over to a wall away from the cold wind rushing in through the door to lean on. Placing both his hands behind his head, he simply watched as the second female entered. "She's kinda cute" Kotsuzui thought to himself as Love entered. But his attention quickly shifted to Kisuke when he asked if he and Ashi met because she looked familiar. Maybe that's how Kisuke broke the ice, and in fact he was trying to make a move on her. But Kotsuzui chuckled a bit at the thought of that. Kisuke showing some form of emotion, that was rich. While the two would talk it over, Kotsuzui turned his head over to Love. "What now?" he would ask her. Surely Ashi would not let them leave until the winds settled down.

Standing by the young Hyuuga listened to the two males talk. When Love heard the order to get inside she automatically got a sense of being yelled at by a parent, even though it wasn't in an angry tone. She didn't know if that command included her as well but she entered the school with the others just in case, thanking the older woman in the process. Once inside Love shuddered the cold off and ripped down her jacket a bit, revealing a light colored scarf that matched her jacket and hat. Just like the second male, Love moved from in front of the door. The taller of the two males began a conversation with the other female, it didn't interest Love so she began looking around to see if she could notice any changes to the building. She'd come to the training grounds often but it had been awhile since she'd been inside of the academy.

Her aimless eye wandering was short lived as the male with longer hair chuckled and asked her a question. "Hmm?" She looked at him. "I'm not sure. I came here looking for my friends but I've run into you all." She replied taking in his appearance, he didn't look that much older than her but she still felt he looked a little too young to be drinking.

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