When Their Definition of Fun Differs [ SAKANA ]

”Yeah, I’ll definitely ask him next time I see him. And sure,” Saya agreed. She was absolutely looking forward to discussing with her sensei about the telepathy seal and its intricacies. Perhaps it’ll be something new for her to learn or get into. Another set of skills to add to her repertoire. Perhaps, after she hung out with Sakana, she could visit the library and get more in depth information on fuuinjutsu and the like. Unfortunately for the young girl, she would never be able to get that chance.

She then nodded at his persistence to return her shoes. ”Alright,” Saya said then with a grin, continued. ”You can go ahead and leave it by the door if I’m not there.” Again, dress shoes weren’t all too important to her. He could drop off the shoes in the trash bin and she’d be grateful to him, but obviously, her friend thought it could come in handy in the future. At the thought of such lengths her friend was going for her, Saya certainly wished she was a boy in her next life. By then she wouldn’t have to feel guilty about letting him take care of her shoes after months and months of being away because there wouldn’t be any shoes to speak of.

His upcoming response made her pause midstep. ”You haven’t...” Saya shook her head at him. ”Nevermind.” She supposed it was natural for him to gravitate towards his usual stomping grounds, but how could he not realize that they couldn’t swim in frozen water? That was a question she would keep to herself as some things she said or have done did not make sense to other people either. ”Played in snow?” She repeated his question with snort.

Of course she had played… Saya tried to remember of any instances where she romped in the piles of soft white ice. Unfortunately, all she could recall were days spent reading scrolls, snacking at some food stalls, or training. Maybe when she was really, really, really small she had played in the snow. ”Not that I can recall, no.” Saya wondered if that would be their activity for the day. It probably was, considering his question.

WORD COUNT: 374
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 1723 + 374 = 2097

“Sounds like a plan then.” Sakana would nod at the girl. The telepathy seal would be super useless if he couldn’t use it, literally it’s whole point is to be able to communicate with people. But that didn’t matter much, at the minimum he was connected to Senshi and would be able to call upon his help if need be.
 
Finally, it seemed as if he was getting through to her, after his depiction of marching her shoes to her house the girl would grin, but then told him that he could just leave the shoes by the door. “Hmm I could do that, there is little fun in it though. I could meet your parents, I’m sure they would just love me.” With the smile never leaving his face, he would pause to gauge her reaction.
 
It was after Sakana trailed off about his lake that Saya started to talk, but paused. She would shake her head at him, he thought she looked a little bit confused so he decided to expand on the comment. “To clarify, I have this weird gene in my blood that lets me not feel the freezing sensation on my skin. I kind of just feel… room temperature all the time if that makes any sense.”
 
Saya made this noise out of her nose that threw Sakana for a loop as he couldn’t tell the connotation behind it. He would think for a second to try and determine the meaning of her sound as the girl answered that she had never recalled playing in the snow. He would stop dead in his tracks, and exclaim, “That is a travesty!” He would shoot her a look like he was ready to show her a whole new world. “There is just so much stuff you can do in the snow. You can, build snowmen, construct a fort, toss around some snowballs, ice sake if the lake is solid enough, and a bunch more. Fair warning, I plan to introduce to you all of these things, but since it is your day to learn and have fun I’ll let you pick which magical thing you’d like to try first.” The Meijin would seem very excited as he ushered out all these words.
 
He hoped the girl was ready for a long day ahead of her, she may not be training, but she’ll still be exhausted by the time they were done.
 
WC: 2,265

Though Sakana was joking around, Saya found herself exasperated at how far he was taking it. It was not his fault, of course. He was simply happy that she was there, a friend that had been gone for so long. However, at the mention of her family, the girl cleared her throat. Should she laugh it off and allow the boy to continue as he wished, or tell him the truth? If the girl had been looking at herself in the mirror, she would have rolled her eyes at the stupid question. She was Saya Kirihara - Blunt Girl Extraordinaire. ”I would prefer it if you just left them at the door,” she told him, glancing to the side to see his own reaction. ”I have no father, and my mother is currently on a long mission. No one would be there to receive you.”

And she left it at that, hoping that he would drop the subject matter now. It had always been her and her mother, no one else. Even then it was simply just her and her books while her mother was busy tending to the hospital or going on missions just to keep them afloat. Now that she had graduated and was able to take up some requests on her own, she didn’t have to rely on her mother for some of the more trivial things. Either way, she shook those thoughts off and focused on the change of subject regarding Sakana’s bloodline effects.

Humming in response to his explanation, Saya thought that it made sense now. His sudden exclamation at her lack of snow activities, she blinked. Was it that bad if the girl hadn’t played in the snow like the other kids? She didn’t think so. Snow games were fun for other children, but that didn’t mean that Saya hadn’t had her own version of fun. A hesitant smile came on her face. There seemed to be a lot of things to do on a snowy day.

”Uh, why don’t we start with something that you like the most,” Saya told him. Some of the things sounded alright, but also kind of boring. Building snowmen and a fort? She didn’t see how those activities would be fun, though the fort thing sounded challenging if he would allow her to put her own spin on it. Maybe create something that would exercise their imagination and critical thinking at the same time. Their objective - how should one build a fort against enemy shinobi? That would be something she would enjoy greatly.


WORD COUNT: 427
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 2097 + 427 = 2524

Sakana never seemed to know the limits of others. Usually this caused him to be calm and reserved around strangers but energetic and open around his friends.  Well today he just learned some of Saya’s limits, do not talk about her family. She didn’t have a father and her mother was on a mission. It seemed to the Mejin, like the girl didn’t want the boy coming into those aspects of her life. His demeanor changed from joking to slightly more serious. “Noted. I’ve never met either of my parents. They just left me here in the village when I was just a baby. I actually know nothing about where I’ve came from.” He would give a small laugh at that last part, it was sad but a little but funny. “It’s all good though, I live above a restaurant now with the owner.” He wasn’t going to try and invade on her personal life anymore.
 
That’s when Sakana started to talk about his weird bloodline and how it affects him in this climate. This seemed to take the girl’s mind off the previous topic as she seemed to be interested in what he was saying.  After talking about the snow Saya decided they were going to do whatever Sakana’s favorite thing was. Now the Meijin had to think, ice skating was fun but usually not the thing to lead off with, forts took a while, same with snowmen. That left making snowballs. As the two walked up where the lake area, he turned towards the girl, “Do you know how to make a snowball? So first you have to grab a snow, and then pack it into your hand like this.” He showed her how to pack the snow correctly into a ball. “And once you think it’s good enough, you can just throw it like this.” Pulling his arm back he would hurl the ball at the tree and watched it as it exploded on impact. “See now you try.” He would smile at her, hoping she liked what they were doing.
 
WC: 2619

Before the young girl could even perceive any changes to her friend the guilt of being too forward and cold at Sakana’s joking around gnawed at her. Friendship was definitely a difficult thing. She would not apologize for straightening out the line between them; she did nothing wrong by doing so. Saya mentally heaved a heavy sigh. And there it was - the shift. His joking tone had dwindled and was replaced by a more sober one. At least he was sensible enough to stop when she indirectly requested it, and even gave up a bit of his own story to her. A small exchange of each other’s lives, she supposed.

Either way, Saya was glad to have had the subject dropped. They soon arrived at their destination. It was different from when she had first encountered the place. The lake’s surface was frozen over and seemed sturdy for the two cautiously walk on top of, but there were some iffy looking spots as well. Best to avoid those. It was then that Sakana immediately went on to showing her one of the activities he had mentioned earlier.

”Looks easy enough,” Saya said as she watched her friend pick up a pile of snow and began forming it into a sphere. While Sakana was midway finished in putting shape to his snowball, Saya had crouched down and started to pull together a mound. Once she had a decent amount gathered, the genin began to pat and mold it into something similar to a ball. She looked up just in time to see the pale boy throw his creation at a tree.

Grinning, Saya stood from her squatted position and launched her somewhat cruddy ball at the boy. Unfortunately, she was not used to throwing anything other than the slim holdings of a kunai or a shuriken. The force and speed behind it was solid, but her aim was a few feet off.

WORD COUNT: 322
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 2524 + 322 = 2846

The thought of what the girl in front of him was thinking when she was silent still fascinated him. Was she silently hating being around him? That probably wasn’t it as he thought she was the type of person just to not go if she didn’t want to. It was most likely something about the exchange of family tales, both of them don’t have complete homes. Was that something that further divided them, brought them together or merely an insignificant detail in each of their stories? That one would take longer to decipher.
 
Once they arrived at the lake everything went as planned for the most part. He was showing her how to make a snowball and she was watching him, along with trying to make her own. After he release his he looked back just in time to see the girl smile and release hers. She was too far away from a tree for that to be her target, so she must have been aiming for the boy himself. Sakana was honestly surprised that she would do something like that considering her almost always serious nature, but he was glad that she did it. The only issue was that it was going to be a few feet off. Not wanting her to get discouraged, Sakana moved a few feet in the direction of the snowball so that it would nail him in the chest. The movement was small and unnoticeable to the civilian eye. Last time they were at the lake an act like that would certainly be too fast for Saya to perceive but now that she had advanced her skills he wasn’t so sure.
 
If she was to notice, would she call attention to it? Would she be angry? Or would she realize that it was done with good intentions and not be mad? He had hoped for the latter but it could go either way. After the snow ball exploded on his hoodie he would smile at her and say, “Ohhh you’re in for it now.” Dropping his hand into the ground and scooping up some snow he would pack it together and quickly throw it at her. Hopefully the suddenness of the situation would stop her from catching on to his earlier movement and instead she would focus on defending from the ball. They were at pretty much the same speed now. Even if the ball was to hit her it wouldn’t even hurt, he didn’t throw it with enough force behind it for that.  
 
During this time he would hear his turtle buddy the three tails start to speak internally. “Why did you let the girl hit you when you could have easily moved out of the way?” Sakana was beginning to realize that the bijuu didn’t understand humans, and if he was to ever get on the same page as this thing he was going to have to try. “I moved into the way because she’s my friend and that’s what friends do, make each other look better.”
 
To the outside world the boy would still be throwing his snowball at Saya but his face would seem a bit “not with it.” In the back of his mind he wondered if the girl would notice it or if she would be fully caught up into their game.
 
WC: 560
TWC: 3179

She watched with both a slight fascination and displeasure as her creation wobbled its way through the air. Saya, being well versed with the physics of throwing weapons, already knew that her snowball would not hit her target. Absolutely disappointing, yes, but she was still proud that it even traveled a few feet from her figure instead of dropping in the first foot or so. Accepting her shortcomings and determined to make a better and well-rounded ball of soft snow, Saya returned to her crouched position to begin crafting her new projectile. Unfortunately, the following events would undoubtedly turn sour.

Her sensitive hearing caught the soft crunch of her snowball colliding with something. That was quickly followed by Sakana’s declaration of “war.” Saya paused in the middle of her gathering, thoughts running quickly as she tried to come to terms with what her friend just did - he had stepped in front of her snowball. Anger flared up within her. It didn’t matter if Saya had not seen the pale boy move to take the shot; the girl was more than a hundred percent positive that he should not have been hit. As such, her only and possible conclusion was that he stepped in.

Letting the information sink in allowed Sakana to gather and launch his snowball at her. Saya slowly stood, letting the small mounds of snow slip through her gloved fingers. She did not move from her spot, her previous expression morphing into a blank look. Harderened eyes narrowed at Sakana’s form, ignoring the impact of something hitting her upper shoulder. ”Don’t do that again.” Her voice held zero nuances of the fury bubbling at her core. It wasn’t even loud or forceful. Just bland and monotonous.

Saya was clamping down on her temper hard. This was supposed to be a fun day. A time to hang out with a friend who had missed her presence and company. She closed her eyes for a brief moment and inhaled the icy air deeply, reigning in and trying to reboot her mood. Shaking her head and shaking off her displeasure, Saya pointed a finger at Sakana, ”I don’t know why you did that but that was an insult. To my pride and as your friend. This is a game, no?”

She tried to lighten things up with a small smile, but knew that the damage was done. ”I’m learning, Sakana. As you said last time, it’s okay if I don’t get it the first time ‘round. You don’t have to do stuff like that.” It was at this point that Saya was more than aware that she and Sakana were very different. Both in opinion and how to handle friendships. Sakana was undoubtedly a good friend, but they clashed a lot. It would seem as if both Kumo ninjas would be going back and forth between good and bad times.

WORD COUNT: 484
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 2846 + 484 = 3330

What was meant to be a kind gesture seemingly backfired as Saya gave him the look of death as his snowball hit her shoulder. She didn’t seem like the type to get upset over being hit so he was puzzled as to why she seemed so… he couldn’t really describe her tone when she said, “Don’t do that again.” It wasn’t angry, or sad, it just was. So, he didn’t say anything for a moment, figuring she would follow up explaining her pervious statement.
 
The air around them seemed to get colder, snow started to fall from the trees behind them due to a cold gust of wind. At this time the tiny girl would look down and shake her head. Once she had collected her thoughts she looked up pointing a finger at Sakana, for a split second he thought about performing an exaggeration reaction pretending that her finger was a gun firing directly at him but he quickly decided against it because he didn’t think she would find it that funny. Plus, she looked serious, you only do something funny when it’s appropriate. The purpled hair genin would go onto explain that her pride and their friendship was hurt by his actions, he still thought that was a gross overreaction for him hitting her with a snowball but before he could open his mouth she would smile and say that she was still learning and that he didn’t have to do stuff like that. Finally it clicked inside his head that she was referring to him getting hit with her snowball and not what he assumed.
 
Sakana would let out an obviously overexaggerated, loud {color=aqua] “Ohhhhhhhhh .” [/color] While yelling this he would allow his body to fall back straight into the white blanket that seemed to be calling to him. A white puff came into the air as he made impact. He wasn’t hurt because the damage was negated by the snow. From the ground he would wipe the snow off his face as he started to speak, “This is supposed to be funnnnn. I wasn’t trying to hurt your pride and it definitely wasn’t something I tried to do to hurt our relationship.” His breath would skip for a second as he chuckled, “C’mon you know me better than that. This is supposed to be a game, but a casual noncompetitive one.  It would be an insult to your skills if I had purposely thrown a spar or something of that nature, but I just wanted you to land that first shot, to seeeeeeee what the impact of a snowball colliding with another person looked like.” He almost ended it right there but fearing that what he said wasn’t enough. So, to finish, he would just his most appeasing voice to say. “Don’t be mad. I promise I did it with only the best intentions.”
 
The chuunin would stay laying in the snow, staring at the pale blue sky above. If the girl was going to talk to him face to face she would have to walk up to him. Hopefully their next conversation wouldn’t be a very bitter one. He could do with a change of pace for a little.
 
WC: 3708

Perhaps she should have let her rage take over. Sakana was brushing aside her slighted reaction, making it seem like she was seriousness was too much for a small action such as taking a hit. But him taking a hit from her clumsy snowball wasn’t an insignificant thing to her. Though Sakana coated his words with an apology and a reminder that it was supposed to be fun, she couldn’t help but feel her ire climb before she stomped on it.

Saya pressed her lips tightly as her friend flopped onto his back. She shook her head. This was not something she should be pushing an argument on. An inhale and exhale later, the girl cleared her head and quickly formed another snowball. The Kirihara didn’t bother to reply to the blue haired boy. Instead, she threw her new ammo towards his prone form. It was slow, arcing beautifully in the air, before dropping almost exactly where Sakana was.

Just like before Saya knew that it wouldn’t hit. Not unless the chunin was completely caught by surprise, or he was humoring her again. Whether her shot at him managed to be a success or not, Saya taunted him, ”Let’s go, Sakana. You’re the one that wanted to play today. So, let’s play.”

WORD COUNT: 213
TOTAL WORD COUNT: 3330 + 213 = 3543

The air chilled around him as Sakana stared at the sky, waiting for a response from the girl just a few meters away from him.  A short amount of time passed, the boy feared that his words furthered the divide that they two of them were trying to mend. They were friends, but you wouldn’t really get that from looking at them. The two spoke different languages, Saya was often distant with her words, and Sakana somehow managed to say all the wrong things with his. 

He didn’t know if the previous gamble in his was words was too much, the Meijin wanted to rise from the ground to apologize if he had gone too far. But before he could try and prop himself up on his elbows, another white ball soared through the sky at him. The chuunin wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice and let himself be hit again,
 
She was obviously still upset with him; her silence spoke volumes about the situation. At this point he really just wanted to diffuse the situation. The way he saw it there were two possible choices, he could attempt to catch the snowball in the air but ran the risk of angering the girl more along with the ball exploding in his hands. Or he could quickly dodge, even though the genin girl might not be happy with the ball not making contact, but hopefully she would respect that he wasn’t giving in again.
 
It all would happen in one fluid motion; his right elbow would prop itself up on the snow as he threw his weight into his shoulders to turn over. He would land on his knees just as the snowball collided into the ground. The Kirihara girl started to mock him. Sakana would wonder if the girl was being playful or malicious, he wanted it to be the former. “Hey that’s no fair, I was trying to make a snow angel,” it was an attempt to match her tone.

 The Meijin started to stand as his right arm slide across the snow, taking a handful. Truth be told this was the first snowball battle he had ever engaged in, he had played in the snow but it was always in isolation while going from delivery to delivery. He would pull his right hand back, winding up his strike. Upon release the perfect sphere would start heading towards her chest, while it wasn’t full power (he wasn’t trying to kill her after all) it was still enough to show that he was now invested in the game, no more tricks.
 
WC: 4,143