The Superest of super serious threads

[GuestGuest]

Shinoskay was making way through his most revered place of practice, peace, training.... He practically slept here while working to cram in every bit of training he clould before the chuunin exams just to barely make it outside the gate before losing. it was just unfathomable, he couldn't reconcile with it, everything was before him and it was so clear. He had in his mind a clear path to go, he had the fire in sight, it was slower then he was just as his foe was, all of that preparation for nothing. They didnt even show up for their follow up fight, like, they werent even serious...the shame.

Here he was in the training grounds,

[Asami MiyamotoCitizen]

Konohagakure did not agree with Asami or rather the teen did not agree with Konohagakure. There were too many people, too many buildings, and not nearly enough sea air. Oh, and how could she forget about the oppressive heat that seemed to press in from all sides and make getting a good nights sleep impossible? Admittedly, the latter point probably had more to do with the ongoing chuunin exams than the heat; her dreams were still haunted by the image of a blood-soaked Uchiha and a booing crowd.

And yet, the village had a certain charm to it…No, it wasn’t a charm, but rather an energy, something in the air. A tension maybe? Asami, couldn’t be too sure, but the village definitely wasn’t all bad. It had good food, friendly people (so long as she didn’t mention her village of origin), and a pleasant color scheme of soft browns and vibrant greens. On second thought, perhaps it was a charmed energy?

Regardless, the young girl often found herself walking the streets of Konohagakure alone and this particular evening was no exception. Wearing khaki shorts and a sky-blue T-shirt, nothing stood out to mark the girl as a shinobi save for the faded emblem of Kirigakure emblazoned on the back of her shirt. Sure, it earned her more than a few dirty looks and snide remarks, but she took it all in stride. The people of Konohagakure simply didn’t understand that they had lost and Kirigakure had won. This was the nature of the world, the weak yielding to the strong.  Or rather it was what the academy had taught her, it never crossed her mind that there might be a more nuanced view on the subjugation of the Leaf village.

Winding her way through the streets, Asami finally came upon what could only be the village training grounds. Pausing her aimless wandering she looked out at a scene one could find throughout the shinobi world. Riddled with spent shuriken and bent kunai, targets stood proudly on the edge of a water-starved field. In the distance, a pair of shinobi, a bit older than herself, appeared to be locked in pitched combat. And to her left, she could just barely make out the arches of the academy building she had passed by earlier on her stroll. Yes, this place felt familiar even to her foreign sensibilities—martial spirit transcended borders and permeated the shinobi culture of every hidden village.

For the briefest of moments, Konohagakure felt like home.

---
TWC: 416

[GuestGuest]

Shinoskay had been staring, intently, at nothing as his mind mused over failure to direct his body flicker jutsu. His thoughts finally drifting from the defeat into the slow realization of how to improve, the energy of the training grounds was that of improvement, perseverance, growth of both one's outer self and ones inner self. The psychological tendency of the area encapsulating all things to drown out all but the necessary task before one's self of perfecting whatever it is they came to practice into.

But even such focus, such unyielding currents and streams can find themselves disturbed. As the flow of training occurred in these battered grounds and their marred implements, like someone had opened a water bottle and poured it down hokage rock... a Kirigakure shinobi stepped into the grounds and it was as if someone dropped a boulder in the river. Now where once there was a slow and steady flow instead there was a rapidly struggling current trying to contend with that it now has an obstruction daring to present itself in the path of this ever active flow.

The energy in the area would draw Shinoskay from his thoughts, it did not take him long to spot the Foreigner, aside from their emblem they also wore a different attire and showed obvious discomfort in the face of the local weather and climate conditions. The puppeteer had been doing some investigations around konoha, and due to his many encounters with Kiri Shinobi and their secret places, he felt a certain draw to this Kiri nin that bid him to engage while everyone else was trying there best to continue with what they were doing while being unable to completely withdraw their attention from this... intruder?....

Shinoskay stood, held a gaze upon the Island ninja for a brief moment, before then deciding to make his way over to them. "hi" It was a lame greeting at best, but for all his poking around and investigating in their things he had not actually spoken to one and so he wasn't sure what else to say. It probably wouldn't matter, he already looked weird as it was with his white smile face mask mained with his silver highlights black hair, his white shinobi attire, and the overabundant weapon pouches about his midsection as if he was going for some bad trope of batman's utility belt. the hood of his reinforced hoody was laying back against his back at the moment, he only really wore it up during missions and combat but other then that he had his full default attire.

[Asami MiyamotoCitizen]

And just like the moment evaporated into the evening heat. The strange tension one felt when being watched broke the fleeting spell of familiarity. Cocking her head to the side ever so slightly the black-haired girl caught a glimpse of a boy who was—much to the diminutive kunoichi's surpise—quite a bit shorter than herself. Naturally, her surprise remained hidden behind the impassive facade of indifference she'd learned to assume while in the foreign village. Despite her normally friendly nature, the young genin found it beneficial to wait and see what a person wanted in Konohagakure before she wasted kind words and a smile on someone who might very well, and quite literally, spit in her face.

"Hello?"

Her tone raised the word into a question and she gave the shorter boy a shallow bow out of habit.

"Can I help you?"

Self-control had never been Asami's forte and even now her better nature slipped out. What should have been a simple exchange of pleasantries and perhaps a gentle smile had now turned into something else. Though, perhaps it wasn't her better nature, but rather her curiosity? She couldn't be sure one way or the other, but there was no turning back now. Hopefully, there would be no spit or less-than-friendly language involved like her last encounter with an inhabitant of the Leaf village.

---
TWC: 643

[GuestGuest]

Despite the ever tumultuous vitriol that is the boys thoughts, or perhaps because of this and it was really an over compensation, his over bearing sense of propriety was immediately triggered in this foreigners action to engage with a polite, though impassive, greeting. Shinoskay had nothing against Kirigakure, they were who they were and while he had a certain sense of disdain for bloodlust and war due to how much it took from him... he had not come to associate this to Kiri, persay, even though they had invaded. He saw the after math in terms of material destruction but was not there when the village was struck... he was more so a foreigner than the Kiri people, and in fact his only reservations against the Island village is its rumored reputations of the blood games. He didnt want to have to kill, or try not to die, in order to become a chuunin... and the recent chuunin exams did not go that way despite it been conquered by the bloody mist village and he had not been touched by any of the negativity of the village. He would tread lightly, naturally, however that was probably the extent of the negativity in his demeanor.

after a slight hesitation, Shinoskay too bowed, in equal measure, to this fellow foreigner before responding by scratching the back of his head "well, none of the Kirigakure Shinobi have journeyed out here, it is strange to see one, are you here to train?" While generally true, he wasn't actually interested in small talk and was more looking to try to read the Kunoichi. The Kiri shinobi had done some strange things in the village, or at least things that were strange to the boy, and while he had started taking to investigating on his own accord he had also been sent on a few investigation mission around the village and so this led him to suspect there was something about these shinobi that was hidden... regardless, overall, he was generally curious. Granted, there was still a sense that these shinobi had invaded and taken over the village about a year ago... but as previously detailed it has had little to no impact on the village in the long run and so all the puppeteer could do at this time was to gather intel and try and figure out what was happening where.

His white mask hid his facial expressions, of course, but through the eye slits used to allow vision one could see that his eyes did not close even when he nervously scratched his head... While he had a strong, likely conditioned, sense of manners/propriety he was still very much on guard.

[Asami MiyamotoCitizen]

Shattering her own facade with a gentle smile, Asami suppressed a light airy laugh. It was a pleasant surprise not having to repel verbal barbs right from the get-go. Of course, a more experienced shinobi would call her too quick to trust and they would probably be right. However, the young genin wore naivety rather well and, for the time being, she would continue to wear it even despite all she had seen and done.

"No," uncertainty filled her voice as she furrowed her brow slightly. "I was just walking and happened upon this place."

She gave a half nod to the field in front of the pair.

"My name's Asami," once more her mouth moved faster than her mind. "What's yours?"

It was probably for the best that the loose-lipped genin had not been given classified information just yet. Otherwise, the whole world would already know Kirigakure's deepest darkest secrets and then some. Yes, despite her official rank, she still had a lot of growing up to do before she could truly be called a shinobi. Funny how that works, right?

On the bright side, she had thus far refrained from commenting on the strange mask. That, for the nosy genin, was a small victory worth celebrating. Why would someone wear a mask in their own village anyway?

---
TWC: 865

[GuestGuest]

Shinoskay dutifully listened, as was the role of one who presented a quesiton meant to be answered, as this was what was proper in any conversation. 'They were not here to train, yet they were in the training grounds? They should already have a working understanding of the village layout and if they wanted to survey for changes then it would make more sense to do so during the fights or even upon arrival.... they could have waited to avoid suspicion, perhaps the more tact maneuver would be to do so discreetly so as to catch anything that people were trying to hide but would just walking in like this accomplish that?'

The boy would simultaneously try to process the possibilities of the situation, however, for the girl he would only hesitate for a moment after she introduced herself before he replied as was dictated by proper manners. "I am Shinoskay" While he felt it may not be the best action to present his actual name, he felt thankful that he had chosen to maintain wearing his mask while the Kiri shinobi maintained their active presence in the village. It was a little vain, but he felt that it was, at the very least, good practice as a shinobi to actively try to conceal ones presence... just like if they had the ability to sense chakra they would not sense any from the boy due to his active chakra suppression.

"How does it compare?" he realized that, just after he spoke this, he probably was a little to eager to ask questions that would draw out information but upon quick self criticism he reassured himself that this question somewhat followed the naturally, albeit short, flow of the conversation.

his rampant mind managed to find an appropriate mending to his question in order to make it more appropriate, his own sense of propriety demanding he speak this in order to be more polite, but there was still a slight pause between this and when he said compare "To home?"

[Asami MiyamotoCitizen]

“It’s…” she wrinkled her nose. “Different.”

Yeah, that’s reeeeal descriptive Asami, the teen thought to herself. Self-deprecation aside, ‘different’ definitely was the word for it. Sure, both Kirigakure and Konohagakure had restaurants, government buildings, and bustling hordes of merchants, but there was a different energy in the air. Kirigakure felt vibrant and forward facing while Konohagakure felt just as vibrant, but also stunk of stagnation, like a has-been power.

“I will admit Konoha has better barbeque than Kirigakure,” she smiled. “But, I don’t know how you survive without the scent of the sea and the chill of the morning mist on your face.”

She paused here and cast a wayward glance at the rows of trees that lined the training grounds.

“Though, I do like the trees you have here,” she nodded as if affirming her own statement. “We don’t have many like them in my village. A lot of smaller ones, but nothing so large as to block out the sun when you walk beneath them.”

We also don’t have people walking around in masks, she added mentally. The more she thought about it the stranger the concept became. Perhaps the boy, for his voice indicated that Shinoskay was a boy, had some deformation that he hoped to hide from the world? Maybe he was afraid of the world’s judging eyes? Or there was the chance that Shinoskay was just a weird guy.

Whatever the reason, for the first time in a while, Asami’s common sense won out; she avoided asking about it and again changed the subject to something that she hoped would be less contentious.

“Have you been watching the chuunin exams?”

It never occurred to her that she might be talking to a former contestant in the tournament.

---
TWC: 1157

[GuestGuest]

Quick to follow up, Shinoskay responded to the Kiri female with "how so?".

If she still proceeded with the rest of her thoughts and statements then he would nod at the barbeque but then raise an eyebrow to her talk of chill and the scent of the sea. Granted, the mask made it impossible to see this, but a mask covers facial expressions, it doesnt stop them, and so it still happened even if it wasn't seen.

"I participated."

He gave a quick reply to the chuunin exam question to get it over with and out of the way before immediately then going into talking about the village. "I imagine the Ocean would smell like salt and fish. I also imagine while our barbeque is better, kiri probably has a food they are better at."

He came to reflect on the chuunin exam fight but he wasnt interested in talking to a kiri shinobi about his, misfire... it never happened before, he never had a performance issue prior to that and he didnt understands it. It was too embaressing for him to talk to her about.

[Asami MiyamotoCitizen]

Asami continued despite, the boy's brief interjection. She felt her discussion of barbeque and trees answered the boy's question well enough. After all, what else was there to judge two places on other than food and scenery?

"Oh."

It seemed that Shinoskay was not the sharing type. However, his response about the exams told her all she needed to know—she would not be seeing him later in the tournament. How interesting that Konoha shinobi seemed to be dropping from the exams like flies and yet both Mist shinobi plowed ever onwards towards an inevitable date in the finals.

"Definitely," she nodded once more, agreeing with the masked man. "Konoha can't seem to get seafood right. I tried some fish the other day and it tasted days old."

She stuck out her tongue in mock disgust.

"So," her tone shifted sharply into one of genuine curiosity, she couldn't contain it any longer. "Why do you wear a mask in your own village?"

---
TWC: 1324