Nascency ~P~

"You know, your brother never asked me to push him up hills to his meal."

As the boy followed Aryll's direction through Kirigakure to the marketplace, he started wondering at how strange of a scene this must be to look on. A highly trained and elite ninja of the Bloody Mist, escorting a young genin, the Hyuuga clan head no less, around town. Three paired eyes, the boy's jade and scarlet eye the only stand out from the trio of Byakugan. Perhaps later he'd crack a joke about being a second cousin. Though noting how formal Aryll could be, she probably wouldn't take the joke well.

"Hmm. Sounds nice enough, but i'd rather not share a table with a pooch. No table manners, y'know? Besides, sounds like the kind of place you'd catch a tramp dining, not a highly regarded lady." the boy would jab, thinking of where he would like to go in specific, if anywhere.

Once the girl had finished her short ramble about the various food peddlers on the street, as well as seafood and ramen, an asked if anything jumped out, the boy would halt his forward movement, thinking about what sounded best. Of course, he had barely halted a second when he found himself compelled to move again, though not exactly of his own will. The boy would turn the wheelchair to go down a less crowded side street, where food peddlers lined the sides almost to completion.

"Fooooooooooooooood!"

The beast hungered.

The boy would stop at nearly every stand, grabbing handfuls of whatever they were selling, reaching into his pocket and throwing fistfuls of ryo back to the shoptenders. Of course, the boy would leave time for Aryll to buy whatever she liked as well from the myriad of stops he made. At each successive stop, the boy would arrive with hands empty, and leave with them full. Though the boy showed no inclination towards one stop or the other, he bought more earthy foods than anything else. Though this detail was small, it would amaze some people that knew him well. Altar was well known to enjoy seafood and sweets over most things, well in line with what the street sellers usually hocked. This new overhaul of tastes would leave a surprised expression with some walking through the street.

Grills cleaned of product, bowls empty. More bamboo splinters in his gums than he cared to admit. The boy's sudden capability to put food away was astonishing, even to him, as lost in the hunger as he was.

As the two left the street, the boy would be just finishing an unorthodox skewer of takoyaki, tossing the bamboo skewer in the air before it seemingly popped out of existence, entering his pocket dimension. Void could store more, but he liked to at least try to keep it clean.


"Anywhere else you'd like to go, Aryll?"
"I can still eat more..."
"I can still eat more."

The boy's eyes would widen ever so slightly. Had... had he meant to say that? It wasn't a lie, but... perhaps the Tralativa seal wasn't as strong as the boy had thought. It wasn't originally intended to hold living creatures, let alone a bijuu, but it served the purpose well enough. Hopefully the beast's influence over him only went as far as sating hunger.

"I'm honestly a little surprised. You don't strike me as a foodie, Aryll. You seem so... prim and proper. Above eating street food, almost."

Altar’s words actually made Aryll finch as if they pained her. Her scowl likely wouldn’t be noticed, due to Altar being behind her, but that was probably for the best. He had made the grave mistake of comparing her to her older brother, and while a younger Aryll might have loved such a sentiment, the girl in the chair could not stand the words. She knew Altar meant no harm, so she would not erupt in a burst of anger as she so dearly wanted to. Still, the comment needed an answer, and so Aryll drew upon what her brother had told her of Altar, and, well…
”Maybe not, but he made you drag yourself up a skyscraper, didn’t he?” She teased, the malice in her words too subtle for all but the very most tactful to detect. ”I’m sure I’m far lighter. I suggest you count your blessings.” She said sagely.

While perhaps the hilarity of the scene wasn’t lost on Altar, Aryll was all but oblivious to it. She was in her element, ordering Altar around to each stand and retrieving food, neatly doling out payments with generous tips to each vendor. While Altar ravenously devoured handfuls of food from each place they came across like some sort of anime protagonist, Aryll seemed to be pacing herself. She purchased one thing at a time and chewed her food thoughtfully, savoring each bite. She was in no rush to eat her fill, and instead chose to enjoy the experience. She made sure to run Altar in circles a few times to make sure she had time to finish her food before they arrived, since Altar was eating far faster than her even in spite of pushing her in the chair.

As they left the street, Aryll gnawed at a glorious portion of Ikayaki, completely unfazed by the tentacles of the fried treat she was snacking on. She love seafood. Her brother had never cared for any of this kind of food, living on a rather strict diet most of the time. He was a pretty strict martial artist, but Aryll was definitely capable of having more fun. Her metabolism was such that she was hardly fazed by the garbage she was eating. In her lap were a few cobs of corn, glazed in soy sauce and butter, and neatly wrapped and bagged for her to eat later. She figured she needed something green, or green adjacent. As Altar tossed the skewer aside, Aryll was just about to scold him for littering, when the thing vanished into thin air. Aryll blinked.
”...Well okay then. Mind taking care of my garbage?” She asked, handing him a few skewers, still taking bites from the Ikayaki that she was savoring.   

When Altar questioned Aryll’s love of street food, she shrugged.
”Everyone has two faces.” She said, shrugging. ”Am I the prim and proper Hyuuga heiress who attends formal dinners and only speaks when spoken to? Or am I the crippled gearhead who eats garbage and bums free rides out of family friends?” She questioned, the message obviously rhetorical. ”Grandpa always used to say “If a person shows you their second face and still tells you the truth, then you have found yourself a true ally” She said, her voice shifting to the gruff, highborn voice of her grandfather with astounding accuracy. In fact, it was rather creepy how accurate her voice was. Almost like she was a ventriloquist. ”He liked to speak in metaphors. Talking to him was like talking to a fortune cookie.” She said, smirking as she took another bite of squid.

”Hmm… There’s a place over there that does Yaki Imo and crepes. My brother always liked that one…” She sighed, her voice trailing off for a moment as she quickly changed the subject. ”There’s Watame over there, but I’m not really big on sweets. There’s a curry place I like down to our left… Ooh, ooh, there’s a Shioyaki stall right here! Stop here!” She said, pointing and shifting the entire wheelchair in place as she moved from side to side giving direction. She’d guide Altar to the stand and, holding the squid in her mouth, fish through her wallet for payment, finishing the last bite of the squid and tossing the stick haphazardly at Altar as she traded her ryo for a stick of baked mackerel. As she took a bite of the fish, she squinted a bit, pushing on the brakes of the chair to stop Altar, should he try to run off again. She’d quickly trade a small handful of ryo for a drink, sipping on it as she settled herself back into her chair.

”Sorry, this shit is salty.” She would explain. ”Anyways, aren’t you too busy to be out here like this? You’re a jounin, right? I thought they had you guys on missions all the time.” She said, looking at her watch. It had been quite a while, and still Aryll felt content to gorge herself on street food.


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The boy would take the skewers from the Hyuuga's hand, absent mindedly flitting them through his fingers and spinning them around before tossing each subsequent stick into the air, each disappearing as it reached it's max height from the throw. He didn't go into an explanation, figuring it would be far too complicated and unnecessary for the moment. They were enjoying themselves. No need to belittle that with long winded explanations of complicated space time mechanics.

The young ANBU would let out a laugh at the girl's mention of her grandpa, her voice mimicking that of a staunch old man surprisingly well for a young girl. "How you put up with that, I have no idea. I would've lost it if I was talked to in riddles like that." the boy would say, his voice sobering slightly with his next words, an air of seriousness carried within. "There's no point in disguising your words. It only makes simple matters complex. Hiding intentions can be useful. Hiding words, emotions, is cowardice."

"Perhaps you should practice what you preach, child."
"I agree with the bug."
"Shut it, you over sized fly."

Shrugging the inner monologue, the boy would return to the real world, surprised to be dealing with a squirming child in a wheelchair. Well that was unexpected. She appeared excited over something. Altar would push the wheelchair over to where she had pointed, crossing his arms and tapping his foot as she reached for her money. Of course, once she had paid for her own food the boy would take a few portions, scarfing them down at a pace that left the shoptender wide eyed. Of course, as the boy went to take off once more, the brakes were applied and the boy stopped his push forward at the last moment, thankfully coming short of sending the girl and/or the chair flying forwards.

After the girl paid for her beverage and commented on how Altar should be busy, the boy would simply shrug. "I was just out recently investigating some of the disturbances with out tides. Turns out, they were correlated with the buzzing noises people had been hearing from far off. Giant insects must have been making some sort of hive out past the storm. I took one out while I was out there and they seem to have dispersed."

"So, i'm on leave for a while, unless Xyxer calls on me for something or the disturbances reappear." the boy would say, cracking his knuckles, passing the wheelchair off between hands while doing so.

Altar’s agreement to Aryll’s comment about her grandfather would be followed by a sudden and somewhat jarring tonal shift as the boy suddenly started lecturing her on the act of changing her voice. Aryll giggled despite the boy’s attempt at a serious tone. Taking a bite of her fish, she chewed it thoughtfully, speaking with her mouth partially full, on purpose no less, in order cement the idea that she didn’t have to be the graceful, elegant Hyuuga heiress all of the time.

”If you’re trying to do an impression of my grandpa, your voice isn’t quite deep enough.” She jested, her voice resuming the gruff, sagelike tone of her grandfather for another instant. ”A person’s voice does not come from without. It comes from within” She said in the voice of the other Haru Hyuuga.

Then came the voice of Altar, masterfully mimicked.
”Yours isn’t quite sincere enough. You speak the words, but you don’t feel them. An orator's words must come from their heart, or else it is all in vain.” came the male’s voice, which was very clearly not a simple impression. It was too perfect. No, what Aryll was employing was a puppeteer’s technique, another one she’d read with her handy dandy Grand Kirigakure Academy books. Geez those were useful.

Altar explained his business as an elite ninja, explaining how he’d just been away on a mission fighting a giant bug of some sort. The thought reminded her of the great tailed beasts she had heard stories about as a child. Her recent encounter with what she thought was one of them, something taking the shape of an octopus, er… oxtopus? Whatever it was, it dwelled within Xyxer, and she believed it to be a great tailed beast. She was sure there was also a giant bug one, but she couldn’t be sure…

Regardless, Altar’s mention of being on leave made Aryll think of something.
”Well then… The Blood Games are coming up, I hear. It’d be great to have an elite ninja teach me a few tricks.” She said, chomping another bite out of her fish. She threw the now empty skewer at Altar without a thought, digging through her bag and retrieving a piece of glazed corn, which she chomped on merrily. ”Mehbe a schnazzy fuinjhutsu sheal, or shomting” She said, speaking deliberately with her mouth full again. She was happy as a clam for the moment. It was great, not having to push herself everywhere.

The boy would cock an eyebrow at the girl's impression, imitating Altar's voice to near perfection. "Didn't anyone ever tell you to not talk with your mouth full, youngling?", the boy would say, deciding it would be better to move the conversation forward than to dwell on the topic of imitating voices. She had to be using some form of trick of imitation, but it mattered little to the young ANBU.

After a spat of silence, the girl spoke again, indicating heavily that she wanted Altar to train her. A simple fuinjutsu seal? The boy would catch the skewer that was tossed haphazardly his way, twiddling it between the fingers of his right hand as he thought on what the girl said. Nothing he knew was overtly simple, especially if you weren't familiar with it fuinjutsu, but... well, there was... yeah, that could work.

"Well, there is one relatively simple seal I know. It's basically a shortcut seal, though. It shapes chakra for the user and forcefully expels it as a projectile." the boy would say, rolling up the sleeve on his right arm and passing the skewer to his left hand. There was no one directly in front of them for a while, seeing as they had passed most of the street food vendors. The street wasn't totally clear, but hey, surely nobody would mind.

Releasing the wheelchair for his next actions, the boy would toss the skewer in his left hand forward, making a finger gun with his right hand and placing it at his right side. The skewer would make it about ten meters vertically and horizontally before the boy 'drew' the finger gun, the Dark River Breaking Seal forming on his arm. The skewer would be shattered, splintered and scattered in mid-air by a blast of chakra from the seal. The bamboo shards would come close to some people, but no one would actually be struck by one. That'd just be cruel.

"The challenge, demand satisfaction..."

Of course, after the display, the young ANBU would grab the wheelchair again, putting his right arm over the back of the wheelchair for Aryll to see.

"It's a surprisingly simple seal, actually. It's called the Dark River Breaking Seal, if you've ever seen that in any of the books scattered around your abode." the boy would say, the seal disappearing after disuse. He had somewhat bluffed about her home, but it was something that was relatively easy to infer. If there was one stack of books, there were many. There was no in between.

"Come to think of it, I don't actually know what your main method of offense IS, Aryll. Care to enlighten me?" Altar would say, resuming pushing the wheelchair along the street, keeping an eye out for any more food stands. They were getting increasingly closer to the sea, and the closer they got the fresher the catches would be. Perhaps there'd be somewhere offering to cook a personal catch. Now THAT would be fun.

The boy would come out of this thought with a glance down at the girl in front of him, seated in her wheelchair. Well, it would be fun for HIM...

As Aryll spoke in Altar’s voice, still chewing on her food, Altar did that thing again where he said words that just didn’t sound like something he’d actually say. Laughing at Altar again, she would nod to his question.
”Oh yes, many, many times. You’re hardly the one to lecture me on table manners.” She retorted. ”Also, youngling? There’s gotta be, what, three years between us? That’s hardly enough of a gap for you to get up on your high horses and pull age on me.” She teased.

As Altar searched his mental repertoire for a seal to teach her, Aryll chomped happily on her corn, oblivious to the man’s deep thoughts. As he began to demonstrate the seal, explaining that it was a shortcut, Aryll would raise her hand like a child in a classroom. If called upon, she would answer.
”What do you mean by ’Shortcut?’” She would ask, watching as he revealed the seal on her arm. She watched him shatter the bamboo skewer, sending splinters flying everywhere, thankfully not hitting anyone. Aryll clapped her hands. ”Dark River Breaking Seal… Yeah, I think I’ve heard of it. I flipped through a few fuinjutsu books recently. It’s a fascinating art, I’m just a little devoted to… Well, something else. I’ll likely find more time for it once I’m done with the Blood Games.” She explained.

When Altar asked about what her specialization was, Aryll grinned mischievously.
”I usually just run people over with my chair. It gets the job done.” She said mysteriously, chomping on the corn and finishing her first cob, tossing it lazily in Altar’s direction for him to dispose of. ”So, you’ve shown me what this seal does, but how do I do it?” She inquired, rolling up her own sleeve as if she were focusing upon it and trying to figure out how to do it without even being told. That was just Aryll’s way. She was a notoriously quick learner, something she’d taken great advantage of in adopting puppetry as a replacement for Taijutsu.


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The boy would chuckle at Aryll's reply, giving a somewhat grave response in a surprisingly lighthearted tone. "Yes, but I have no legacy to uphold. I'm not the heir to anything, nor am I a head of my clan. In fact, i've had very little to do with my clan since my visit, and i'm happy with that. I like being the outsider, the one raised in a major village. I've never had need for formalities, so I never bothered to learn them. You, on the other hand, have quite the legacy to uphold. You've got a formal name to live up to, Aryll." the boy would say, waiting a few seconds before continuing.

"And be glad, there are worse things I could call you. If your brother could call me kid, then I think i'm free to call you youngling." the boy would say, fighting the urge to ruffle the young girl's hair.

When the girl raised her hand, the boy would chuckle and reply with her name, hearing her question and doing his best to formulate an answer. "Well, typically with jutsu, you perform handseals and mold chakra yourself, then it's released in a jutsu. With Dark River Breaking, the fuinjutsu script molds the chakra for you. Really, it just makes the process faster and eliminates the need for handseals."

After the girl seemingly dodged the boy's question, he would come to a halt, stopping the wheelchair along with him. "I highly doubt running someone over in a wheelchair would be enough to bring them down, let alone bring down a trained nin, little miss sarcastic. If you don't wanna tell me, that's fine, but at least try to come up with something I might buy." the boy would say, perhaps a little too smugly.

Altar’s words struck Aryll as insolent and hypocritical. The idea that she somehow was expected to work harder to maintain this fake persona, this mask. It wasn’t her, not really.
”If only we all were so lucky.” She said coldly to the boy’s reminiscence of his abandonment of his clan. It was as if he took pride in turning his back on his family, on giving up on those who gave him life, who raised him, who made him human. It was alien to Aryll, and now that she’d lost exactly that, she felt rather disgusted.

If his remark about her family hadn’t irritated her, his remark about Haru definitely had. ”I am not my brother.” She hissed, thoroughly annoyed at this line of conversation ”It would serve you well to remember that.” She continued, her voice icy and poisonous. Aryll’s anger came in two varieties, benign, and lethal. This anger was lethal, and pursuing this conversation any further would not bode well.

That part of the conversation over, Aryll switched faces again as he explained the Dark River Breaking technique. She was rather annoyed that he seemed adamant in not exactly explaining how the technique worked, but rather, what it did. As a fuinjutsu novice, Aryll quickly gave up this line of questioning, switching modes.
”Do you know any suiton jutsu you could teach me? Those come very easily for me.” She said, not entirely trying to brag.

Altar was very literal, she was learning, and while he dished out quite a bit of sarcasm, it seemed he didn’t quite know how to handle it himself. No matter, Aryll could tease a bit longer.
”Alright, so maybe I don’t run them over with my chair.” She would say, shrugging. ”Go watch the blood games and you’ll see if I’m lying.” She bluffed. It was nothing but a white lie of course, but she enjoyed the banter.

”Anyways, what do you do? You were trained by Haru, but you don’t look all that punchy to me. You slouch too much and your stance is weak, oh, uh, no offense. It just doesn’t look like he taught you much of what he was good at. Still, you’re a Jounin, so I’m sure you’ve made a name for yourself somehow.” She said, sizing him up. It was true, he didn’t stand anything like Haru, who acted as if he were about to get into a fight at all times, although Aryll suspected it was merely his attempt at looking taller, as Haru was quite a short man.


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The boy would, rather simply, cock an eyebrow at the girl's seething voice and overtly apparent anger. If it was anyone else, he most likely would've dumped them from the wheelchair and thrown it to the horizon for being an insolent brat, but considering what the girl had gone through rather recently, he could understand a show of outwards aggression. A privilege he had never had.

The young ANBU would tap his feet for a few seconds, thinking through his arsenal of suiton jutsu. "I know of a few, but none that are particularly... none that are widely useful, save the higher ranking jutsu, and i'm not sure you'd be apt to learn them. You certainly don't strike me as a ninjutsu type of person." the boy would say, shrugging slightly.

"I mostly utilize ninjutsu, though I... dabble, I suppose, in fuinjutsu and space time jutsu. I tried to pick up taijutsu but I lacked the physical strength and resilience for it, and I attempted to learn medical jutsu but... let's just say I don't have the mind nor the will for it. Haru wasn't my mentor because I could learn everything from him. In fact, I was probably the farthest thing from an ideal pupil he could have. I'd actually say Haru and I were more friends than teacher and student. We're... we were very similar in a lot of ways." the boy would say, scowling at himself for his near slip of the tongue.

"It's getting late to be out and about like this. We should get you back home, Aryll." the boy would say, wheeling the girl back towards her home.

Altar’s response, ironically, would go unnoticed by the Hyuuga girl, whose all seeing eye was currently taking a break, deactivated and effectively useless. As such, her three hundred and sixty degree field of vision was of no use to her currently, and as a result, Altar was spared the scorn of the Hyuuga Heiress, who would have been absolutely outraged at such an offense. As a trained politician, spotting small displays of hostile emotions such as those was all too easy, the bread and butter of the Hyuuga’s schmoozing ways, but alas, they would prove useless to Aryll, and likely for the better of both the girl and the ANBU that was pushing her chair.


Aryll resisted a giggle as Altar tapped his feet as he walked, apparently trying to signify that he was deep in thought, yet forgetting that the chair was moving, subsequently causing him to do something that sort of looked like a half hearted tap dancing routine, though of course Aryll couldn’t see this, she merely saw what appeared to be Altar hopping on one foot. He affirmed to her that he did indeed know a few suiton techniques, though he evidently did not think very highly of that field of techniques, for his words on the matter were quite short, with him stating that he believed most of them to be less than useful, and only the higher ranking techniques being of any real use. Aryll shrugged at this.


”Surely my brother taught you something.” She said with a frown. She knew for a fact that Haru possessed the water nature of chakra, for she remembered helping dry his clothes when he returned home, sopping wet, having just dived into a lake and then proceeded to get in to a sword fight with a nearby genin. The details of that particular story were rather vague, she would admit, and he had never fully explained what exactly had went down, merely asked her for help in cleaning up his soaking clothes and scraping the rust from his armor. Aryll didn’t ask too many questions when it came to training. The results were often quite strange. ”How about the hidden mist technique? That’s such a simple and textbook suiton technique it would be embarrassing if you did not know how to perform it. Especially here, in Kirigakure of all places.” She pressed, trying to get some sort of cooperation out of him.


Still, it was clear that Altar knew something, for he was definitely holding back from teaching her. Aryll nearly sighed in annoyance as he mentioned that she did not appear the type to use ninjutsu, before giggling a bit at the realization of the irony. ”How did you guess? Like I said, I prefer to run people over with my chair. Still, I do find it useful to know a few techniques from every area, hence why I am showing an interest in fuinjutsu despite knowing, well, very little about it.” She said, shrugging. ”It pays to know a little bit of everything.” She said sagely, once again in the sagely, grizzled voice of her late grandpa Haru.


Aryll listened to Altar explain what his specializations as a Shinobi were. Ninjutsu was to be expected, it was incredibly uncommon to find someone who did not make heavy use of ninjutsu, and even Aryll, who vastly preferred more up close and personal means of combat, made heavy use of ninjutsu as a backbone with which to support her unusual combat style.

”I personally enjoy the concept of fuinjutsu, but haven’t been formally taught. In fact, I’m largely self-taught, beyond the typical academy jutsu. I did know the gentle fist style, of course, but when push came to shove and I was swept off of my feet, I had to learn how to improvise.” She responded, wanting to give her own input into the conversation. ”Space and time ninjutsu, though? That is some fancy shit. Even I haven’t touched that school of ninjutsu. Is that what you were using for our wormhole garbage can earlier?” She asked, clearly interested in the current topic of their conversation.


When Altar referred to his status as Haru’s student, Aryll was surprised to learn that Haru had actually taught him very little, serving more as a friend then as a teacher, at least at the end of their friendship. His saying that the two were similar, however, sent a chill down Aryll’s spine. Just how similar were they? Perhaps Altar too would betray her, send her sprawling into a wall, broken and bloodied. Perhaps this time Xyxer would not save her. Aryll shuddered at the thought, shaking it from her mind. She said nothing about this. There was nothing left for her to say.


When he mentioned that the two of them should head home, as it was beginning to grow dark, Aryll nodded affirmatively. ”Sure...” She agreed, raising her hand to show that there was a catch. ”But I want you to at least teach me some Suiton stuff before you go. I am a quick learner, I will catch on fast, believe me. I just want to make sure this outing was productive, you know? I haven’t had many teachers, at least, not in a long time. It would help to get a different perspective. Books can only show me so much.” She said, appealing to his better nature and hopefully convincing him to teach her more. While the seal he had showed her was nifty, she doubted that she would be able to learn it by the time they returned, while ninjutsu came remarkably easy to her, especially suiton techniques. Just show her the hand seals, tell her how to direct her chakra, and she could learn a ninjutsu technique in a matter of moments.

”Like I said before, show me the hidden mist technique. I betcha 500 ryo I can figure it out before we get back. You know the way, right?” She challenged, before double checking that the boy knew where they were going. It would do her no good for her ego if she learned it while Altar walked in circles.

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