So We Meet Again (NK, Kozachi)

A cloudy day had brought some drizzle and then occasional moments of thicker splats of water droplets among the village training ground. Suzume wanted to up her game in the shinobi arts, tired of being frustrated in lagging behind. She didn't care about being drenched by the rain, in fact she'd rather it be rain like this than that one scorching hot day. Though low in spirit, she pushed herself to put it aside for once and do something about it. 

It had been a while since Suzume did target practice. That is was she started with. Her aim was a bit off at first, but she quickly regained the skill she formed during her times at the academy. In fact, it seemed to her that she did better somehow. Not having practiced using depth perception held her back a little, was all. In the slightest of ways, she was pleased. It gave her enough of a boost to put in more effort. She moved on to some human figured targets. 

Placing herself in front of a dummy a bit more short than her, Suzume warmed herself up with some basic combat techniques of the hands. A few ridge hands strikes, a string of punches, then a couple of palm strikes. She moved it down to elbow strikes, before over dramatically wrapping her arm around the dummy's neck for a choke hold. It was more so to humor herself more than anything. She was still a child after all, and nobody said she couldn't have fun with what was expected of her. 

The shorter dummy was easily fallen to the ground. Too easy. If someone had breathed on it, it might have fallen over. Suzume went to a bigger human figured target, this one much bigger than herself. It towered above her, if the sun had been out its shadow would have consumed hers. Since she didn't have the reach to place any feasible hand techniques, she changed to kick techniques. Her first attempt to kicking the thing in the face didn't go so well. Suzume fell right onto her bum. "Ouch. That didn't work." 

Getting up, she restarted with more simpler exercises. Front kicks, side kicks, roundhouse kicks... the bare basics of the drills she had once practiced with a mentor of sorts within the academy. Now, she had to be her own mentor. Shinobi life was tougher when you had to lead yourself, especially without the knowledge or experience of whats to await out there, but doing nothing wouldn't do any good. The anxiety of not being prepared ushered her further into her training session. 

Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a shadow that moved. Suzume performed some combinations of the skills she just practiced, adding in jumping to try to reach the tall dummy's head. Though she didn't know for how long the shadow had been there, so she paused. Then turned to reveal who it was. "Well, well, well... so we meet again?" 


[WC: 500]

Kozachi didn't like this kind of rain. It was like most guys she had met: non-commital, and ultimately weak and insignificant. She'd rather hang with the hokage or Suzume or a few other girls she'd met any day. Even her opponent in the chunin exams, that Shinoskay fellow, wasn't worthy of her attention. He'd made a grand show of preparing for some kind of frontal assault, but in the end had kind of fucked himself over. Maybe he'd forgotten about the arena wall? Who knew with boys. Disgusted, she kicked up a pebble or two on her way down the road.

Yes, indeed, this rain was gross. She knew some people who called it "the weeping", but to her, it was more like "the pitiful sniffling". Maybe this was the result of someone's jutsu. She'd heard of such things, but never gave much mind to it. Neither the rain nor the sky nor the clouds were tinged with anyone's chakra, however, so she soon gave up on trying to look for that kind of thing. She thought that maybe she might try to visit Anri today, but her clan compound was locked tight, so she decided to head over to a training grounds instead.

In the meantime, of course, the rain kept coming. Kozachi stayed under the overhangs, but her mood didn't get any better. In movies, this kind of weather was always linked to bad events. Naturally, it didn't work that way in real life, but it was still a dampener. Oh well, she'd get over it in time. Inevitably, the rain would go away and the sun would come out, and all would be right with the world. She'd heard rumors about some kind of fire somewhere in the village, that it might have been foul play or something. Might it have something to do with Ken? If he'd resorted to arson for his own cheap brand of justice, she'd knock him a good one.

Still, being stronger than her brother didn't mean much. There was always a bigger fish to catch, always another step in the staircase. True failure was when a person sat down on that staircase and gave up, or when they stopped catching fish and walked away. Strength through willpower, strength through industry. Kozachi resolved to keep getting stronger. Of course, she couldn't do it moping around, which was why this trip to the training grounds was necessary.

She arrived to see Suzume confronting what appeared to be a most sinister villain, lurking in the darkness... is what she would have liked to say, but it seemed to be just a squirrel.

"I'm right here." Kozachi spoke, standing a few meters behind where Suzume was perching. It was good to see her again, though. She was relieved that she had FINALLY found someone she had actually liked on first sight. Nevertheless, this situation was... less than great. Standing in the training grounds that were rapidly becoming muddy... it's a good thing Kozachi wasn't the kind of girl who liked getting her nails done.
[509]

In response to Kozachi's sudden presence, Suzume whipped her head around towards the direction of her voice. Her drenched hair flicked some rain away. "It's you!" she exclaimed, pointing at her as if to affirm acknowledgment of the other genin's unexpected appearance. A female voice stood out easier then any other person's, since Suzume was typically around guys. Not on purpose, it just happened like that. Though, Kozachi had been the only other girl shinobi that she could connect with. Hearing the girl's voice from behind her was something almost out of a dream. Not to get all weird about it of course, but sometimes it sucked not having any kind of female influence around. Shinoskay, Tadashi, and maybe not even Kenjiro if Suzume ever came across him again probably wouldn't understand girl stuff. She did have to admit, the guy sure did know how to treat a girl at the restaurant they had accidentally met at. 

Just like her, the rain had poured on Kozachi too. Except, Kozachi remained a bit cleaner than her. Suzume had mud smudged all over her pants. It almost looked as if her pants were made out of mud. She was unashamed of this appearance, even with how ridiculous it was. Perhaps she would come up with some spur of the moment excuse that it would make for good camouflage if it were to be addressed. Training sessions like this didn't require to be so pristine. Suzume did prefer to be as fresh as possible, but didn't make a big deal of it when it came to these things. If the precipitation chose to come down worse than it already was, it might end up washing all the saturated dirt away anyhow. 

Suzume composed into a fighter's stance. "What brings you here today?" she playfully interrogated Kozachi, side stepping around her like a vulture would circle around a day old corpse. It didn't seem as though she came for a match, but this was only their second time crossing paths. Suzume had yet to discover what the other female genin was capable of. She could tell there was something beneath the plain expression on her face - though nothing that would be her business to delve into. This interpretation of Kozachi's inner self put her on edge, but Suzume didn't bother to take note on it for judgment's sake. After all, she had yet to get to know her, and what better way to learn about someone than to spar them at the training grounds?

[WC: 420]

"I could ask you the same thing." Kozachi's tone was not unkind, however. The training ground was a public area, at least for shinobi like them, so they could both be there for training, though. However, the rain was getting worse, and Kozachi didn't think that would be great for what she wanted to try out. Oh well. Fire jutsu, obviously, didn't do well in the water. She'd heard whisperings of one that could bypass this weakness in the clan, but the conversations always died when she took an overt interest. Naturally, she never managed to find any of this information on its own. Must be something the clan was actively trying to suppress or control.

"As for me, I was supposed to come around here to train, but with this rain, I'm having second thoughts." Kozachi would become more serious now, getting right to the point. The longer they stood out here, the more soaked she'd get. Obviously, this wasn't the best outcome, unless Suzume wanted to spar or train badly enough. Rain, while annoying, was something Kozachi could deal with under certain circumstances. However, it wasn't her first choice, so she decided to try and steer Suzume toward the "correct option".

"Wanna get something to eat? Walking all over the damn village has sharpened my appetite." Giving the other girl a wry grin, she added, "my treat." She hoped she didn't sound too weird, it's not like she was asking the other girl on a date or anything, although she'd considered it before. No, better not to think about that right now. Of course, if she wanted to train first, that was fine too, though the rain sucked and Kozachi was hungry. Now that she thought about it, they were kinda close to the trendy area of town with those new age-y eateries. Trying one of those shouldn't prove too bad.

Even if it was just like... that weird ice cream that they used liquid nitrogen to flash-freeze in front of your eyes, it'd be alright, right? (Yes, it's a real thing.)

[TWC 853]

More and more rain eventually did rid her clothing of the mud that cloaked it. She had been training in these conditions so hard that she didn't realize how much heavier it grew. With Kozachi pointing this out, she looked up at the sky and observed how much thicker and darker the clouds were. Even the most prosperous shinobi would take cover when it came to disgruntled weather like this, at least to what Suzume imagined. Maybe there was a ninja out there that managed to not have a care in the world to what conditions they operated in, but they must have been crazy. Or extremely passionate about their dedication to their village. Both could also be a possibility... but that drove Suzume into agreement with the girl, since it was getting quite ridiculous. 

"Well, in that case, I guess getting a snack would be something to do while hoping the sky ever cries itself out to a stop, and then maybe spar each other afterwards?" she agreed and suggested. "Nothing like a whole 3 course meal though...that'd just be too much!" Suzume added, growing somewhat awkward as she wasn't used to people paying for stuff like this. "Uhh, you got any places in mind?" Suzume didn't go out very often, so she had no idea of what was out there. The last time she went to any establishment of the sorts was when the whole restaurant situation happened, which made it a bit off putting for her to do something like that again. Although, this time it would be intentional and she would be going somewhere with someone she already knew, which was better than having to meet someone new in Suzume's opinion. The chances of ending up in a similar scenario of when she met Kenjiro (or in her mind "Fukushu" as he introduced himself) was unlikely. Even if it did, she and Kozachi could always just run back to the training grounds. 

[WC: 326]

Was Suzume weight conscious or something? That wasn't a bad thing, but like... just work it off, right? Kozachi had a sudden realization that this might not be the healthiest way to live. Asking the snakes for alternatives seemed bad as well, as she knew that they mostly fed off of mice and the like. Gross! Well, better nutrition and fitness habits was definitely something to look into. These thoughts, however, passed through Kozachi's mind in an instant (obviously, she didn't just stand in the rain, thinking silently like a goddamned idiot). Without missing a beat, she nodded enthusiastically in response to the other girl's query.

"Sure. There's this nifty ice cream place like right over there." It was a small place with red furnishings, advertising itself as being "space-age" and all. Yeah, this was the nitro place that Kozachi had been thinking about before. How convenient that it just happened to be right there, right? It was a little unfortunate that it might sound like a cop-out to Suzume, but who gave a shit, right? Ice cream was delicious, and this place was pretty popular among young people like them. The advantages of having ice cream made in this fashion were displayed publicly as well.

Should Suzume follow her, Kozachi would enter in, drying herself off a bit. Tracking wet footprints all over the floor of a public area was pretty shameful, all in all. Kind of like crossing the street without a crosswalk, or turning into the farthest lane when taking a right or left at an intersection. Only the true scum of the earth did things like that... Still, Kozachi pressed on. Walking up to the college student who worked the counter, she ordered something deeply chocolate. Yeah, this would do nicely. While Suzume was (assumably?) making her order, Kozachi watched as the attendants took the milk, mixed it with the chocolate, and placed it in a crispy waffle cone. Adding whatever other ingredients to the mix, they took it over to the sink-like area.

"One, two, three." And just like that, the vaporous nitrogen poured forth from the tap, freezing the milky mixture into ice cream almost instantly. Way to save on freezing costs, which was something that early fast food restaurants suffered from more than fourty years ago.
[TWC 1236]

"Ice cream? I could go for ice cream any day of the week!" Sure the delicious treat wasn't the best choice, but when was the last time she had some anyways? Besides, it wasn't on her to pay for her own. May as well take up the offer, right? The business was far more modern compared to any place Suzume had been to. What did space-age even mean? Not only did she follow Kozachi to the place, but she also copied her in drying herself off as well as ordering the same thing. This was not something Suzume did on a daily basis, so talking to a cashier for a simple order was more stressful than it should have been. Though, she did manage to keep her cool on the surface. 

"Yeah, I'll just have the same as she's having." She explained to the worker, as Kozachi's ice cream was nearly instantly done being prepared. Suzume had no idea what just happened, and naturally became perplexed at the whole process. She too watched as hers was made, the staff doing a duplicate of the previous order. "Phew, glad that's over with.." she thought to herself once it was all done. That of which, only took hardly a few seconds...if she had blinked even once, Suzume wouldn't have gotten to see how they make their ice cream. 

"How do you even know about places like this, Kozachi?" she asked her new gal pal. As she picked up her dessert, she walked over to a booth closest to the door, sitting on the side facing the entrance. It was in Suzume's preference to be located where she could observe who enters and exits. Once she began to consume her ice cream, it was far different from anything she had. Anything Kozachi said to her at this moment would go in one ear and out the other. 

[WC:314]

While it would have been snarky and fun to reply "Because I'm rich", that would probably have been a rude thing to do. So instead, she opted with something else.

"I used to hang around here a lot." It was true, no doubt. This had been one of her favorite eating areas about two years ago. This place had just opened back then, and she'd managed to get ahold of some pretty nice gift cards (also based on a true story). Once she'd decided to buckle down on her training and studies, though, leisure time had more or less been cast aside in favor of more productive uses of her time. Made sense, right?

It looked now, though, as if Suzume was enjoying herself quite a bit. Haha, Kozachi liked chocolate too. The darker the better, though this place didn't keep bars of 90% dark chocolate anywhere. Those, now, were divine. Still, it was kind of a guilty pleasure for her, since most people tended to give her weird looks. Like the kind of look that said "blegh, you like eating that crap?" kinda thing. She never expected people to like the same things she did, but she just sorta kept her cravings to herself for now. Speaking of cravings, dark chocolate didn't have nearly as much sugar or fat in it, did it? Haha! That's why she could eat so much of it without gaining any weight at all. Well, to be fair, she did keep a rather fit lifestyle, being a shinobi and all...

... and there she was, sitting lost in thought. Rather, both of them were, one overwhelmed by the taste of a remarkable treat, and the other dreaming of one not so remarkable.  Kozachi snapped out of her reverie as she finished.

"Hey, that was great. I dunno if *you* had any plans for the evening, did you?"

[TWC 1548]

As Kozachi asked about what she was doing later, Suzume leaned over the table and with a spoon took the very last bit of ice cream from the girl. And ate it. With a smile. Right in her face, but only to be goofy. If she meant to be mean, she would have took the whole cone before Kozachi got to have even a taste and then smashed it on the top of her head. But Suzume had no reason to do that to her. They got along, and so she fooled around, just for kicks. 

"Well, I did have plans, but they weren't all that important to me, so I can cancel 'em. Why? You wanna do some more stuff?" Now she had an intentionally cheesy smile at Kozachi. The girl did know how to have fun. And while doing stuff with someone was different to Suzume, it was also more enjoyable. Maybe that's just because training alone was getting overly tedious, and it was kind of lonely horsing around on her own. Wether or not Suzume would get to partake in more antics with Kozachi, she savored the moment for what it currently was. Two girls, just having fun. No boys allowed. 

"Unless you had plans..." she sighed looking out a window. It nearly looked as though she was thoroughly disappointed in the scenario that Kozachi did have to attend to something else. But then she caught on to why the other genin girl asked in the first place, and then had to chuckle at herself for asking that. It was like asking "How many moons does our planet have?" Of course, as the night sky implies, one.  If someone said otherwise, well they might need to have their vision checked! Now that it had been awhile, the pouring rain turned into a much lighter drizzle. Much more bareable then when they had entered this ice cream place.

[WC: 320]

Oh my god! That was sooooo cute! Kozachi was a little surprised at first, but then gave her a cheeky grin. She'd pay for that, she thought in a friendly and jovial manner.

"Well, NOW I do." Her parents had often warned her of the dangers of performing certain activities alone, drinking in particular. Haha!, they had said, drinking with a buddy is always great. She wondered if that was how they had met. Alcohol had that weird property of tearing families apart but also bringing them together. Well, whatever. Thinking too deeply into the semantics of things was never her style, anyway. She knew where she was going now, and what she wanted to suggest, but she didn't know how Suzume would react. Hopefully, she didn't recoil away from this opportunity for true bonding.

"Let's go to a bar." She posited the suggestion with an excited tone, thought not without a bit of apprehension. "I know a really good one near my district; the tram should still be running, so we can get there fast right as it opens." Right, be assertive about it. There was no way Suzume would see her as desirabl- err, rather, strong and steadfast if she didn't show willpower.

Man, going to a bar would be great. She'd show Suzume not to mess with her ice cream, hehe! Surely, Kozachi would last longer under the influence of alcohol than Suzume did. After all, she'd had plenty of practice, or so she thought. 

[TWC 1796 Sorry about the short/late post]