Me and My Shadow

(OOC: This was a bit of an experiment I story telling, conveying Satomi's continuing training with a silly "filler" style post. It was quite amusing to write, but I'll understand if it's not approved. Anyway, on with the show.)

Everything was dark as a sense of quiet attempted to ensnare the room, only whispered murmurs and the pitter-patter of rain kept the veil of silence from fully taking hold. The sound of thunder rumbled through the darkness to the startled gasps of the huddling masses, the murmurs growing more prevalent as the soft glow of fixed lighting washed over the room. A lone figure emerged from the dark, stepping into the beam of single stationary spotlight. As eyes became acclimated to the new lighting they would find a young girl standing at the center of the illuminated circle provided by the light. Lifting a hand flat over her her eyes, the hem of her knee-length dress flared and twirled out away from her as she snapped dramatically from left to right and back again. It appeared as if she were looking for something or someone, but whatever the case may be she must have found it as her hand dropped to join its pair behind her back as she held her herself poised as she looked straight out over the room.

“It was a dark and stormy night--” She began, her voice carrying impressively across the room before she paused. “But isn't that always how it is?” A few chuckles from the room to accompany her own as she rocked back and forth with a bright bemused hum, each movement she made seemed to be played up and exaggerated. A fact made even more evident as she displayed her cowardice when the thunder again filled the room as if on cue. There was also something familiar about the brightness of her tone and the melodic way her words flowed as she waved out a the room. “My name is Satomi Furukawa, I am almost eight years old, a Hoshigakure-nin, and one day I'm going to be the greatest ninja of all the land!”

Another murmur over came the room, this one of bubbling curiosity. The young girl smiled kindly as she waited for the noise to settle, he form fading into the dark as the spotlight rose from the floor to focus on the wall behind her. A shadow very reminiscent of the girl's own slowly rose to fill the circle of light before offering a wave of its own. “And this is my shadow! We are the best of pa--” Satomi was abruptly cut off by a loud thud and the crash of thunder, a very real squeal squeaking through her hands as she tried to muffle herself. “Naoto, this isn't practice, you idiot!” For a moment the girl's voice was more crass and mature as she failed to keep her whisper below the volume of the idle murmur of the room. Realizing her mistake she quickly cleared her voice and recomposed herself, dismissing the incident with a cheerful giggle.

“R-Right! So... this is my shadow. And we're best of pals!” She beamed, the shadow nodding in agreement while flashing a thumbs up. “I didn't know how or why, but I recently found out that I have the unique ability to control my shadow. It all started on a rainy night like this at home...” All the lights faded out leaving the room fully immersed in darkness before more lights took their place to reveal a theater stage and right in the middle an intricate set mock up of a typical young girl's bedroom. On the bed the young actress sat down, brushing out her maroon dress and fixing her headband. “I've always had a certain fondness with my shadow.” She chirped proudly as she raised her hands, a smaller spotlight helping to cast their shadows on the back of the set wall as she shifted her hands to form the shape two little bunnies. “There was a time when I could spend all night playing with shadow puppets.”

Admittedly the introduction ran a little long and could have been less contrived, but the production continued on. And the actress that would be Satomi was now standing among several flimsy-looking cardboard tress, the lighting mimicking a sunny day as she stood before what appeared to be a large wall of dirt and stone with a small archway through it. “I hope that Miyamoto is here soon, I can't wait to see the look on his face when he falls for my trap!” She'd break the forth wall with a knowing wink before she began the hum happily as she once again began to make shadow puppets again while she looked out over the room. “Waiting sucked and I had to amuse myself somehow, so I resorted to the one thing that always got me by in a pinch. This time something was different, whether it due to my chakra stirring in excitement as I waited to train with Miyamoto or something more, something extraordinary happened!” Her hands moved to form the shadow of a deer as she dumped exposition onto the room, the extraordinary part happening with the help of some shaky amateur, but impressive lighting work the as the shadow seemed to stretch and rocket out across the room to the chorus of more startled gasps.

“Hey you, Sato” An outlandish voice called out, a soft spotlight focusing in on a strangely dressed individual in happi of bright colors and patterns, the white chef's apron tied around his waist was the only normal aspect of him. Just a tad taller than the young actress, he looked more like a clown than a caricature, his wild hair clearly a wig as he attempted to subtly adjust it from time to time as it tried to escape his head. “What ch'you doin'-- Here. It's-a nice da?” Clearly Takatoshi's unique accent wasn't exactly easy to master, even for a thespian of the prestigious Hoshigakure village theatre.

“Oh father, dearest!” Satomi quickly hopped and threw her arms around the boy, lifting her leg dramatically behind her at the knee. “I discovered something amazing! I think-- I think I can manipulate my shadow!”

“Wha-What did you say?" The boy's expression seemed quite worried as he listened to his daughter.

“Well... I haven't been able to replicate it, but I was out in the forest and it was boring--” She explained the the events to her father, the actor not doing a very good job at pretending to be interested as he nodding and awaited his cue.

“Oh yeah.” Of course he'd still miss his cue. “I, uh... I dink it's-a all in yer head.” He totally nailed that one. Satomi seemed less than impressed with her father's answered and set off, determined to prove that a childish construct of his young imagination. She'd heard that tone before (or would have if it were anywhere close to what they practiced), it was the same tone he used whenever he would avoid the taboo topics about Satomi's mother's death.

A cleverly produced montage of quick scenes would play, fortunately most ninja never seemed to wear more than one set of clothing on any regular day so time could be saved with the lack of costume changes. The first scene showed Satomi again in her favor place in the forest on a bright and sunny day standing and staring at her shadow as she moved various parts of her body, of course her shadow would move the corresponding part of itself. However, no amount of moment or shadow puppets seemed to produce the same result as that one day.

A latter scene showed Satomi in her bedroom at night, only the dim glow of a small table lamp lit her room. Most of the light would however be used to project her shadow on her room wall, she seemed even more focused this time as the spotlight shifted from it's natural white gaze to a tinted blue one. “I remembered how my chakra was bubbling and surging that day as I waited to train so I tried to replicate it again.” The actresses disappeared into the darkness as all the lights faded before a large, a larger spotlight would take over for them just in time to catch a stagehand clad in black skitter across the stage. “At first it was just the same old story, just me and my shadow. But as I continued to concentrate something felt different, like I could physically feel the presence of my shadow as my chakra seeped into it.” The large spot took on a faint blue glow again to visualize the flow of chakra, as the shadows of Satomi's arms and hands began to grow noodly and  began to shift and change shape. “I couldn't believe what I saw, but even so it seemed impossible to control!”

“The next day I returned to the forest, again shunning the training grounds for practicing, to try and wrangle some control over my new found ability.” The cardboard trees were starting to look a little worse for wear as the actress did her best to not actually touch them as she paced on stage, doing her best to convey the young ninja's attempts to practice her shadowy jutsu. “At first it was no different than the night before, but as the day progressed and I studied what little progress I seemed to make and adjust my methods accordingly it almost seemed like second nature.” Satomi cheered, the actress doing her best to replicate the child's trademark gap-toothed smile. “I could expand my shadow; I could shrink it. As I continued to practice I even realize I could use my shadow to interact and control other shadows!”

It was at this moment the stagehand that drew the short straw back stage moseyed out onto the stage, crawling across it with an old bear rug draped across his back. Satomi stopped in her tracks as a poor audio recording of a bear was placed over the sound system complete with crackles and pops. It was effective nonetheless in getting the room murmuring again in suspense as the girl slowly backed away as the bear approached her.

“Many forget how dangerous the forest can be, I know I did until a bear suddenly emerged. Maybe it was the salted-salmon rice balls I had, but that big furry oaf decided that I was going to be lunch!” Suddenly her back was against a large half-painted paper mache rock, the fear seemed very real from the actress's stellar performance as the silly floppy ragged creature approached her. The lighting shifted to put emphasis on her shadow as it intercepted the shadow of her would be attacker, the bear suddenly stopping in its tracks. “What was this? The bear suddenly stopped. 'But why?' I asked myself. It was when I went to dab the sweat off my brow did I reveal the answer to that question as the bear's opposite front paw attempted to follow suit, which admittedly was quite humorous. But of course it could have merely been a coincidence so I conducted a few more tests.”

Together the actress did their best to mirror each others movements on stage, though the motions were slow and clearly telegraphed it still made for a believable scene regardless. Things became more amusing as the young girl and poor crawling stagehand began to pace circles around one another to a cheery tune provided by the actress's own humming.

“What a revelation it was, not only did it seem as though I could control my shadow, but I could stop and control others with it as well! Though I would later find out it was only true so long as I could capture their shadow with my own, but that's a story for another time.” The lights changed again to effectively shrink the actress's shadow before the bear would disappear off into the darkness on the far side of the stage. “Startled by my amazing new technique the bear retreated further into the forest. Both safe and with a joyful sense of accomplishment I felt more than ready to tackle my next adventure. Me and my shadow.”

And with that the young girl took her bow before the lights all faded once more before the entire room lit up to reveal everything around them as the tiny two person cast and the stagehands all stood front and center to bowed again to a modest applause the audience. All five of them and one of them was a very crossed young boy and his father who seemed a tad more amused by what he saw than his child.

“What the heck was that!?” Satomi, the real Satomi shouted as he pointed up at the stage from the front row. “Why am I played by a girl!?”

“Because you look like one.” The mini Takatoshi pulled off the wig to reveal his raven hair as she spoke up.

“We also had to change the cat from your story to a bear, it tested better with the rest of the class.” One of the stagehands pulled down her hood before adjusting her glasses. “The rest of it is just as you described how you discovered your new jutsu though."

“Well I thought I made a better you than you do.” Satomi scoffed at himself, or rather the actress scoffed at Satomi as the pair shared deadly glares. “Besides, this is lame, I think we'll just go back to the founding of Hoshi again this year.”

Satomi sighed, defeated again by The Bento Club. “One day theaters will be doing plays about how great I am all the time! I don't know why I agreed to direct the play this year, Ichita owes me big.”