Festival Hidden in the Mist [Open]

The soft light of the evening’s first lanterns lit up Kirigakure as if coordinated by some unseen conductor, turning the cobbled streets into a canvas for a jumble of mismatched shadows. Asami Miyamoto, only child of Ai and Kenchi, stepped onto this canvas with beads of sweat still visible on her brow. She had spent the day training by the seaside and only stopped due to the fast waning daylight, which thanks in part to the omnipresent mist seemed to wrap around the village all at once like some twilight shroud. And though she had walked these streets many times before, this time felt different; the air felt charged with an energy it lacked not a week or two ago.

The tranquility that had once blessed Kirigakure in the absence of its kage and his war party evaporated upon their return. The streets hummed with the sound of conversation and banter as the conquering heroes spent their time whiling away their time. This evening, however, was a bit different, special even. After all, this evening marked the beginning of the king tide festival when the tides that cradled the island nation reached their highest point for the year. The celebration itself lived on from a time when Kirigakure once held the name Shimagakure, but this year held a unique significance because it coincided well with the return of the triumphant war party.

Lining the streets which Asami now darted through were stalls which spanned the spectrum from childish games all the way to sugary confections and adult drinks. Brought to life by the odd laugh and warm glow of the lanterns, the beginning of the king tide Festival gave Kirigakure a new lease on life. For so long the tension about the occupation of Konohagakure had weighed on people’s minds, but it was all over for the time being. Yes, for the first time in a long while the citizens of Kirigakure could enjoy themselves.

All that said, Asami felt more than a bit out of place. She still wore her white tank top emblazoned with Kirigakure emblem, a pair of black tights reaching midway down her calves, and her still shiny headband around her neck. Oh, and she smelled like a day's worth of sweat. Everyone else around her, however, wore more formal clothing befitting a festival or a night on the town and they, of course, smelled infinitely better than the diminutive genin.

Step one take a shower and then get some better clothes on, she thought to herself as she wove through the swelling crowds as best she could.

Though, perhaps she should have been thinking about not bumping into others first…

[TWC: 445]

The crowd kept growing thicker, and between that and the waning light, Hayate's parents were soon obscured from view as they headed farther up the street, arm in arm, talking and smiling.  After spending some time together as a family at the festival, they had left Hayate to do what boys do best, be boys, while they got to finally spend some time together after several long weeks.

Hayate watched them go for a moment, hands stuffed into the front pockets of his navy blue jinbei with white seams, and smiled.  Life was pretty good right now.  The village war party returned triumphant, and his progress after re-enrolling in the academy was going well.  It seemed like the old saying that King Tide festival bought prosperity and luck to Kiri was absolutely true after all.  He'd have to toss a coin into the makeshift shrine in thanks.

It did feel a little odd to be in such light clothing and shorts, to be so exposed, but the cool air was offset by the warm environment of Kirigakure in a festival mood.  Besides, his left hand shared the pocket with some festival money he had been left with, a portion of which was already earmarked for a hot red bean paste Taiyaki.  He even knew his favorite stall.    But that was for later, best enjoyed while watching the fireworks.  Where to go for now?  I bet I can find some of my younger classmates playing those carnival games.  Or some of my old ones down by the fountain. Also, maybe one of the stalls stocked up on new music cassettes just for the festival.  he mused.

[WC 275]

Maybe a bath instead of a shower...

Lost in her own head, Asami's gaze fell to the cobbled street and though she knew her route by heart the crowds made it difficult to navigate with anything even resembling efficiency. She much preferred the empty streets she often walked in the wee hours of the morning and late hours of the evening. Alas, it was not meant to be so she did her best to muddle her way through the crowds making sure to pick openings in the tall walls of humanity with care.

Slipping past two rather large men arguing about something the young genin couldn't quite make out, she turned the corner sharply onto Kirigakure's main boulevard and right into an even larger flow of humanity. This time, however, she found neither a direct path nor an opportune opening through the crowd; the only option was to push through best she could as she moved against the grain. With not much in the way of choices, she walked forward with confidence and the sincere hope those in front of her would yield.

Indeed, she was on a crash course with a blonde-haired boy a few inches taller than her who, unbeknownst to her, went by the name Hayate. If he did not move out of the way or notice the young genin's attempts to make it through the crowd then the two would surely end up running into each other. Time would tell what the boy chose to do. All Asami knew was that she would be getting through the crowd one way or another...

[TWC: 709]

First, the shrine.  He decided.  Take care of what needed to be done first was how one was *supposed* to go about things, so Hayate would honor that.  Besides, it wasn't that far, and that way he'd make sure he wouldn't spend all his ryo first.   His left hand picked out a single coin in his pocket as he turned to head back down the street.

As he did so, he came face to face with... a fast moving blob of black hair, inches from his face.  As he tried to get out of the way he barely had time to register that it was not, in fact, just the hair, but indeed a whole girl just a bit shorter than him.  She was definitely faster than him, however, and her smaller frame caught his arm instead, pulling it from his pocket.  The single ryo he had gripped floated up into the air for a moment, seeming to hang there, then clanged down onto the cobbled street, wobbling until it came to rest between two dark grey stones.

Hayate himself staggered backwards a few steps but caught himself, and looked to see if the girl was OK, or if her speed had carried her straight past.

WC 206   TWC 481

A tug on her shoulder, it felt like a small tug as if she had simply brushed past the boy in question. Normally, she would not have spared the interaction even a glance over her shoulder, but the distinctive clink of metal on stone drew her attention and halted her advance through the ever-swelling crowd. A few people voiced their discontent with the pair of youngsters who now impeded the steady procession of humanity, but they soon passed and the crowds flowed around the black-haired girl and blonde-haired boy like water about a rock.

"I-I'm sorry," the young genin's face flushed red as she stumbled over her words. "I should have been looking where I was going, sorry."

Accenting her words with a deep bow, the dull glint of a coin caught her eye—the source of sound that had caught her attention initially, no doubt. Transitioning smoothly from her bow, she stooped over and pinched the still-warm metal between her index finger and thumb before allowing it to rest in the palm of her hand. She then rose to her less-than-imposing full height and cast a nervous glance at the boy.

"Did you drop this?" She asked, tilting her head ever so slightly to the side.

Cradling the coin in the palm of her hand she held it out for the boy to see.

I should have just kept walking...


TWC: 941

The boy took the few short steps needed to close the gap between himself and the bowing girl caused by his stumble, helping the crowd more easily flow around them.  As she scooped down to pick something of the ground then straightened back up, Hayate noticed that though she was just shorter a bit than him, she looked a bit more mature.  It was the more defined features of her face that made him think so, he decided, and definitely not female figure that was slightly more than hinted at by the tights and tank top.  

Two things caught his eyes for more than a second: The coin in her hands and the Kiri headband worn around her neck.  So she was a shinobi as well...  Hayates mind skipped over the fact he was not just yet a shinobi himself as an unimportant technicality.

He reached out to take the coin back.  "Yes, thank you.  I was just headed to the shrine with it". His loose hair shook as he briefly cocked his head toward the area where they had put up the temporary King Tide shrine.  Assuming she let him take the coin back, Hayate would put it back in his pocket.

As they made eye contact for the first time, he noticed her flushed face, though whether it was because of her quick pace or the encounter he couldn't tell.  "And please dont worry about it, I turned without looking."  Hayatemade a shallow bow himself as a token gesture of apology.  "Besides, you looked like you were intent on something important.   ?"  The sentence ended with the partially upward inflection of a half question/half statement without him meaning for it to do so.  He didn't want to pry or keep her from what was clearly important, but his immediate thoughts were of the possible missions a real ninja, even a genin, could be returning.  With his days at the academy drawing close to a close, he was anxious to start on real work himself, to actually be an asset to the village.

He quickly caught himself.  She was obviously rushing somewhere before they met, and he was keeping her.   "Ah... not that it's any of my business.  Sorry."  His eyes dipped to the cobblestone road, where his coin had briefly rested.

WC 383   TWC 864

The blush that had begun to ebb from the young genin's face sprung back into it with new vigor as she allowed the boy to reclaim his coin and as their hands ever so briefly touched. Nonetheless, she quickly withdrew her hand to her side and, with a blank face, listened to what the boy had to say. Indeed, a slim smile only first slipped across the genin's face at the boy's attempt to claim part of the blame. It was quite clear—at least to Asami anyway—that none of the blame lay with the boy. She appreciated the sentiment though and who was she to correct the mistakes of others, especially when they played in her favor?

"Oh, don't worry it wasn't anything that important," she nodded as if convincing herself of the unimportance of rinsing off the dried sweat from her brow and body. "I passed by the shrine on the way here...there's a long line. You'll probably be waiting a while...if you want I could show you the way to Shou's shrine; there'll be less of a wait."

She paused here before hurriedly sputtering out a caveat.

"O-of course, if you don't want to that's fine too."

Shou Namikaze, one of the island's legendary fisherman, had gone missing fifty or so years prior to the conversion of Shimagakure to Kirigakure. He had cast off from the village's main harbor on a starless King Tide's night in hopes of beating out his competitors but never returned. Some say he abandoned the village, others say he fell overboard, and the more superstitious say that the spirit of the sea swallowed him whole for his disrespect of the sacred night. Despite lack of a definitive explanation for his disappearance, Shou's family erected a shrine by the sea in memory of the fisherman and, perhaps more importantly, to honor the King Tide.

Since its creation, however, visiting the shrine had fallen out of fashion in favor of the temporary ones erected in the main village—conveince is king, after all. In fact, the only reason Asami knew the exact location Shou's shrine in the first place was because her father, also a fisherman, had shown it to her a few times on the seaside walks they often took. Without such firsthand knowledge, she would have had only myths and legends to go by.

As for the reason she had offered to show it to the boy?

Even she couldn't be sure, it just made sense.

TWC: 1356

"Shou's shrine...." Hayate's left hand moved up to his chin as he thought about it, and his brow furrowed a bit, trying to remember.  His grandfather had told him of Shou's story and the consequences of not paying proper respect once several years ago.  Hayate's mother always playfully chided her father for taking such stories seriously and trying to fill Hayate's head with them.  He smiled as he remembered the occasion, a year the whole extended family went to the festival together.

"I guess that would work just as well."  He admitted.  The other reason Shou's shrine was less traveled was the idea that any gift to the shrine would be at least partially tainted by the memory of Shou's disrespect, but Hayate didn't really believe in any of this anyway, so one was as good as another.  And besides, long lines were for couples and families, not for someone to stand in alone.

He did, however, hold one finger up in front of him, signifying a condition. "As long as we're back by the time they set off fireworks.  I've got a really good spot to watch from, and they're pretty much my favorite part."  

He looked into the girls eyes directly.  Her dark grey irises reminded him of a night of particularly thick mist, and the fading blush only highlighted the contrast even more.  


If Asami assented, or at least said she thought they would be back in time:
"Alright then.  I'm Hayate Seiteki, pleased to meet you.  Lead the way, and dont worry, I can keep up." He grinned with boyish enthusiasm, checking to make sure the knot in his  dark blue jinebi was tight.  He had seen how fast she could run.



If Asami expressed serious doubt or said they wouldn't make it back, they'd have to watch from the shrine:
"Alright, fine, but I get to make a quick stop first." He grinned with boyish enthusiasm.  "It's nearby, and I'll even treat you for waiting."  He was in a good mood from the festival, and from meeting a genin like this right before he was about to become one.  Goods signs were all around.  "Trust me, you'll like it.  What do you say?" He asked, and began to lead the way


WC 376    TWC 1240

The island village’s streets were filled with chatter, laughter, and joyous cheers, quite the striking contrast to its previously dull, quiet, and cold atmosphere when they first arrived a few days ago from Konohagakure. It was hard to imagine such a murderous people being able to express happiness and comradery, but perhaps winning a war can make even the most hostile of shinobi shout with glee. The snowy haired kunoichi wouldn’t know what that was like, after all her village was the conquered trophy of Kirigakure, her people slaves to the mist. Just the thought of the war sent a flurry of emotions coursing through her veins, each one fighting to break her composed expression.

She couldn’t allow a single muscle on her face to move, for the moment her emotions broke through her facade, she would most likely be killed where she stood. The shinobi of Kirigakure held no regards for weakness, and having any kind of visible emotion shown was most definitely a weakness worthy of her death in their eyes. Hikari couldn’t, and wouldn’t, allow herself to fall at their hands, at least not until she made the one eyed man back home beg for her mercy. Her resolve for vengeance was the only thing holding her together, the glue mending her fragile composure together.

Hearty chuckles and high pitched, bellowing laughs brought her back to reality, her lilac tinted eyes scanning the crowd for the culprits behind the noises. A group of four were walking past her, two men and two women, dressed in elaborate, vibrant cloths for the festival. Their expensive looking attire subconsciously drew her pupilless eyes at the fabric she adorned; a simple mid-thigh length, red kimono with cherry blossoms accenting the silk like material. She had bought the kimono from one of the many stalls the festival had to offer, for she had not brought any of her formal garments when she had prepared to travel to Kirigakure on The Silence. One cannot blame her for not thinking that the village Hidden in the Mist would partake in festivals or any kind of celebration.

It was strange to be wandering the streets of the village, weaving through throngs of happy people enjoying themselves, surrounded by beautiful decorations and intricately crafted items for sell at the stalls when she felt so empty inside. Previously she would have been incredibly excited to have gotten the opportunity to travel to another village, to learn about their culture firsthand, and to experience such a lovely festival; but now, the crowds of people having the time of their lives sickened her. She couldn’t ignore the gnawing pain at her heart, or the questions fogging her mind, all of which lead back to Salzem; why was everyone able to have fun and celebrate Kirigakure victory when Salzem had to pay the ultimate price? why did he have to die when there were plenty of other people more worthy of death than he? why was his life taken away from him before he had truly been able to live?

It wasn’t fair, and even though life was never supposed to be fair, it wasn’t supposed to be this cruel either.

She sighed into the cool night air and decided her best course of action would be to escape the ever growing cluster of people gathering for the main events of the festival, such as the coming fireworks show and going to the many shrines set up to honor whoever this King Tide was (she had noted the name several times throughout the festival, but nothing alluded to the story of why the festival was for them). Hikari made her away across the cobblestoned path, her black high heels clacking loudly on the stone with each step. She was aimlessly walking through the streets of a village she was unfamiliar with, yet she knew she had to get away from the mass of people before she did something she might regret.

Her snowy hair, usually tied up into a high ponytail was let loose to cascade freely down her back for the festival, danced with the breeze as she took fast paced strides to a more secluded, quiet area. When she was confident she was a safe distance away she slowed her pace and took in the area around her. There were fisherman docks jetting out into the black sea, some with boats securely tied to their posts, and the waves could softly be heard crashing against the nearby shoreline and the wooden legs of the docks. The silvery, whole moon’s light reflected across the darkened water, illuminating the ground near the sea with an iridescent glow.

The glimmer of moonlight drew her in near with its inviting aura, her feet moving of their own accord to the shoreline. Her softened eyes glistened as they fell upon the serenity of sight before her; the beauty of the full moon lighting up the clear sky, the stars twinkling above and dotting their deep blue canvas with a lucent hue, and the gentle rise and fall of the waves lulling her into a daze like peace. It was her first time encountering the sea and her first time falling in love with a piece of kirigakure. How a place full of bloodshed, violence, and hate could be surrounded by such a masterpiece of nature was truly a mystery to the young Hyuuga.

After a few moments of her gazing longingly at the magnificence of the ocean her ears perked up at the sound of footsteps drawing near, although how many pairs of steps she was unable to determine. Saddeningly she cast her eyes off the night to glance at the newcomers with an expressionless visage, making sure they wouldn’t be a threat to her despite the celebratory occasion. Whoever had appeared would most likely think she was a child at first glance due to her incredibly small stature, only four feet and nine inches tall with a hefty ninety five pounds, yet upon closer inspection one would be able to note her womanly figure, slender with curves in all the right places.

(WC: 1,022)
(OOC: btw Hik isn’t wearing her konoha headband)

If he was being honest with himself, Kether had to admit he didn’t really know what he was doing here at the King Tide festival. He had always avoided attending large festivals like this, but this time was admittedly different. The war party that had been involved in the war against the Hidden Leaf village was returning as well. As a future shinobi of the New Hidden Mist village, Kether had felt obligated to attend the festivities even though he hated crowds.

The silver-haired boy sat on a rooftop near Shou’s shrine, a relatively quiet place compared to the rest of the village during the celebration. From that vantage point, he could still observe the festivities without being really drawn into any unwanted social interactions. He felt a twinge of regret that he hadn’t simply decided to practice his jutsu more instead of coming out here, but he knew there were still things to be learned from an experience like this. Operating in a crowd or trying to avoid notice by a crowd were two important skills for a shinobi to have. Still, he didn’t really have to like it.
 
Avoiding the crowd had been pretty easy so far. With a festival going on, there weren’t many people who were actually spending time examining their surroundings with more than a passing glance. The hard part was going to be trying to interact with at least one or two people during the evening. That was something he wasn’t any good at doing. He glanced around the entire area to try and find anyone who looked as though they might be somewhat secluded themselves. Unfortunately, most of the people at the festival were either with family or friends, so Kether simply stared out at the water instead.
 
Perhaps I should just forget about it, he thought to himself as he stared at the reflection of the moon in the water. The silver light gave him a sense of peace and serenity as he looked out over the water. Across that sea was the mainland, where he would most likely be sent one day to perform missions in the service of the Mizukage. He wondered what it would be like the first time he set foot on foreign soil. His thoughts moved on to Hayate, the only other student he’d had any sort of interaction with as an individual. Maybe that first journey would see the two of them working together again.
 
His daydreaming was cut short as he noticed another presence out of the corner of his eye. A loner? he thought with a twinge of nervousness seeping through. He had thought he wouldn’t have to interact with anyone after all, but this had just been set up too perfect for him to ignore. Whoever it was looked fairly young from his vantage point, so maybe they were another Academy Student like himself. Whoever it was, Kether didn’t recognize them and he had at least seen most of the students in the academy by this point.
 
The stranger stood staring out across the water as well for a few moments. With a slight sigh of resignation, Kether stood up and dropped to the street below. He took a few steps towards the newcomer before they spun around, catching him slightly off guard. She was a girl, although now that Kether had gotten closer and had a look at her face, she actually looked older than him. She was quite short though in comparison to him, which made for somewhat of a strange dynamic as he looked down at her.
 
”Greetings,” Kether began, trying to cover up his nervousness. ”It is certainly a lovely evening tonight.” Realizing he hadn’t actually introduced himself, he extended a hand. ”My name is Kether, what’s yours?” His long silver hair was blown about slightly by the breeze coming off the water, but he ignored it. He had to be focused on being social or else he’d probably do or say something wrong and lose his opportunity to practice his social skills.
 
”I hope you do not mind me asking, but what brings you away from the rest of the festivities? Not many people come to visit Shou’s shrine. Apparently there’s some measure of bad luck that surrounds this shrine compared to most of the others.” There was something that seemed… different about this girl. He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but there was definitely something that seemed off. Was she a shinobi? Was that a rude question to ask? Social interaction really was not his strong suit.

WC: 762