Ayumi meets a friend (Nk, invite only, Minato)

It was cold out and the landscape was covered with snow the only disruption in the perfect white being other human and animal footprints. The streets were quiet and almost nobody was coming by. It seemed like everyone decided to stay in their houses where it was nice and warm, and they didn't want to go outside. None of the farmers were outside working, and there were lights up around a few buildings. Ayumi stood on the side of the road, anybody who came by she handed a pamphlet for the local Jashin church as she would on any free day of the week that she had. She was wearing her normal attire of grey pants and a grey shirt with the symbol of her clan on the back, a lion, and all the other accessories to her attire. She didn't have many pamphlets left and knew once she was out she would have to wait until tomorrow to get more, so for the moment she kept handing them out as more people kept coming.

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Why of all days was today Minato's turn to patrol the streets? The Uchiha had a rule to take turns watching the streets since people were tend to be partaking in criminal activities during the winter times.
It was cold and with every step he took he could hear the sound of snow being crushed under his feet while he was walking around. He decided to dress up well so he was prepared to battle the cold and brutal wind outside.
After Minato successfully handled his last mission, the members of his clan thought the time had arrived for him to be allowed to participate in their duties such as patrolling. He felt honored by being granted these privileges as he now felt himself to be an important part of his clan.

"But it would have been nice if they had picked another day for me to secure the streets", Minato mumbled as he was trying to keep himself warm. Even though he was freezing, he wouldn't complain. It was all part of becoming a respectful and responsible shinobi, for his clan and for his village.
A couple of hours had passed since he had been patrolling the streets. "Seems like I'm the only idiot who is walking outside in these temperatures", he was thinking. A couple of people had passed Minato and greeted him, but most of them were smart enough to stay inside, where it's nice and warm.
He noticed that most of the people he saw were all coming from the same direction and most of them were carrying some sort of pamphlet. "Maybe I should check it out", he was thinking. 
Heading in the direction they were coming from, he could see a young girl of who he thought looked slightly younger than himself. Handing out pamphlets while being affected by the cold herself. 
Minato decided to head over and check things out.

(WC: 317)

As Ayumi stood on the side of the road she saw a shinobi that looked only a few years older than her, although it was hard to tell from this distance. Once the other genin was close enough, Ayumi would hand him a pamphlet "please visit the church of Jashin" she would smile at the boy and notice his muscular build. 

Ayumi would hear the snow make a satisfying crunch under her feat as she walked with each step. Ayumi, although dressed in light clothing, felt little cold. She was use to the cold due to her staying outside every day while handing out pamphlets, it was hard to stay out for long at first, but she quickly became more and more use to the cold. It didn't matter if the other genin did or didn't take the pamphlet. Most of the time the people who he handed the pamphlets to were nice, although every once in a while she noticed that a person would just throw the pamphlet on the ground and walk away.

Ayumi noticed that there weren't many people in the village that wore a muscular build, at least nobody who wasn't a shinobi. Based off this she guessed that he must have also been a new genin, or maybe someone that she could learn from. Ayumi decided that she wanted to investigate "so are you a shinobi?" Ayumi was genuinely curious of what the boys answer would be. 

Ayumi would anxiously wait for a answer, she didn't know what the other boy would answer, but hoped that it would be something along the lines of yes. She also hoped for something interesting that could start a good conversation, or even a test of each others strengths. Ayumi would note anything he said as he would be the first other genin she met. 

As she waited for her answer Ayumi crossed her arms and would notice that she had gotten rid of all the pamphlets. since she didn't have anything left to do out here that she would try to become friends with the other genin. Ayumi noticed by this point that it had started snowing outside and it had started to recover the landscape, getting rid of all traces of footprints eventually.

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Not wanting to hurt her feelings, Minato accepted the pamphlet with a smile and thanked her. He knew how some people could be rude when someone was handing out stuff so he wanted to be nice to her, since she had to do this while standing in the cold.
"Please visit the church of Jashin", he could hear the young girl say.
That name did ring a bell, he had heard about a Jashinist who was part of a criminal organization called the Akatsuki. But that was over a hundred years ago. Minato knew that it didn't mean that the church of Jashin was full of bad people so he decided not to ask if the girl had knowledge of that man.
"Jashin huh? I heard about it but I'm afraid my knowledge doesn't reach any further than that", Minato said. He himself wasn't that much of a believer anyway. He knew there had to be something bigger, but then again what kind of God would allow his people to get hurt like this.
Minato knew how important religion was to a lot of people so he would treat it with respect if she decided to open up about it.

"Are you a shinobi?"
Suddenly the young girl had spoken up, asking if Minato was a shinobi. Considering he had been walking around with his katana on his back he could see why she would think such thing. Since it would be something to make conversation about he thought he should be honest about who he is.
"You guessed correct, I'm a Genin from Konoha. I graduated not too long ago and have been going on missions and training a lot since then."

Minato noticed that she was out of pamphlets, just in time since it started snowing again. He had no idea how far from home she was so he proposed to walk with her as his round was almost over as well.
"Now that I'm almost done patrolling, what do you say if I walk you home? We can talk about something you like or we could even go for some hot ramen if you're hungry."
"I'm Uchiha Minato by the way, what about you?".


(WC: 367, TWC: 684)

Ayumi listened carefully for the other genin's response to her question, but when one came it thoroughly surprised Ayumi that this man knew little about Jashin."Jashin huh? I heard about it but I'm afraid my knowledge doesn't reach any further than that" While Ayumi wanted to tell him more she decided that she would continue with the conversation as she planned before. She would continue with her next inquiry as planned before. To little or no surprise Ayumi found that she was correct when the other genin answered "You guessed correct, I'm a Genin from Konoha. I graduated not too long ago and have been going on missions and training a lot since then.". 

Ayumi wouldn't add any other questions before Minato had a chance to speak. She mostly did this because at this moment she noticed that she had been stopping the other genin from talking throughout the whole conversation. Soon after she realized this the other genin started his own question "Now that I'm almost done patrolling, what do you say if I walk you home? We can talk about something you like or we could even go for some hot ramen if you're hungry." 

Ayumi thought about the sudden question, she didn't trust Minato yet, and didn't know how to respond right away. After all this could just be a setup to kill her, but she couldn't find a reason for anyone to do that as of right now. Ayumi decided that she didn't want to go home, and now that she thought of it she was hungry after staying outside all day, she had been out there since about 6 A.M. and now it was about 4 P.M. Usually she could get rid of the pamphlets in two to three hours, but it must have been the cold that made more people stay at home and effectively made the pamphlets take longer to go away. "I could go for a bite" Ayumi stated with confidence. She felt like she could eat a cow but ramen could do good enough.

Before Ayumi had time to think after her answer Minato asked another question "I'm Uchiha Minato by the way, what about you?". This made Ayumi notice that she should have introduced herself sooner, but it better to do it now than never. "I'm Ayumi Fujito" she quickly stated ready to dig into the food that was soon to come after. Ayumi would let Minato lead the way as she hadn't been to the ramen shop in all the time she had lived in this town. As she said that a crow flew past the two of them, the sun bouncing off of it's black wings making it have a beautiful blue on it's wings shine as it flew past.

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The young girl agreed to join Minato for some hot ramen. He could notice that she had some doubt, understandable considering the two just had met. Given the times Konoha was in, it was only normal to be suspicious of someone you don't know.
She spend little time to think about it but she finally decided to take Minato up on his offer to grab a bite together. 
"I'm Ayumi Fujito"
Soon after the pair took off and were headed to the ramen shop, the young girl introduced herself as Ayumi Fujito. 
"Nice to meet you, Ayumi Fujito" Minato said as he was leading the way. 

Arriving at the ramen shop and grabbing a seat, Minato ordered his usual. He showed Ayumi the card since he had a feeling it was her first time at a ramen shop. 
"Have a look, everything is delicious here so you can't really go wrong", he said with a gentle smile.
Allowing her some time to pick, Minato was wondering how a young girl like her would get involved in something like the Church of Jashin. His knowledge about them was very poor, but he did know that some of them were quite the extremists. Performing blood rituals, making sacrifices to their so called God. Quite the dangerous cult if you asked him.

"So, how did you become a part of this church? Passed on from family to family?" 
Since she was a Genin it meant that she had been to the Academy as well, learning stuff, learning techniques. Minato wondered what she had been doing after graduating. If all of her days consisted of handing out pamphlets she wouldn't have the time to go on missions or to train with other people.
A bit worried about his younger Genin he thought he should at least ask.
"I know it's none of my business, but are you okay with handing out pamphlets the whole day? Wouldn't you rather go on a mission or something like that? I just don't want you to miss out on anything."
He felt that it was his duty to look out for his fellow Genin.

"Have you thought about what kind of shinobi you want to be?" he suddenly asked. Minato himself already decided what kind of shinobi he wanted to become. But he was curious as to what Ayumi would say, maybe then he would better understand why she was doing this.

(WC: 404, TWC: 1088)

Ayumi followed just to the right of Minato as the two made their way to the ramen shop. As they walked Ayumi had introduced herself as explained before. Once the two arrived at the ramen shop Ayumi took a seat next to Minato before accepting the card. "Have a look, everything is delicious here so you can't really go wrong" Ayumi started looked over the card and she quickly noticed many different things to get ranging from a simple bread bun to a soup containing up to 20 ingredients in the name, although most of the options included noodles. Ayumi kept looking but soon enough settled on a pretty simple one just labeled as "Ramen with chicken flavor". 

To Ayumi's surprise the ramen arrived only 1-2 minutes after she put in her order. Ayumi thought that this meant that the ramen was made with great haste and that they wouldn't be the best possible version of this dish. Ayumi grabbed her chop sticks and broke them apart making sure not to break one or the other as she broke them apart. Ayumi used the chop sticks to grab her noodles and after one bite she noticed that the ramen was one of the best things she had tasted in a while. This could be due to her eating plain bread most of the time due to money shortage, or it could be from her just genuinely liking the food thoroughly. Quickly after she noticed she had eaten the whole bowl of ramen without noticing it. She planned to savor every bite but she subconsciously ate the food quickly.

"So, how did you become a part of this church? Passed on from family to family?" Ayumi didn't mind talking about her parents death the only way she knew them was a letter she got explaining how they died. She didn't have anything to mourn from after all she didn't actually ever know her parents. The most she knew about them were the Jashin books they left behind. Ayumi would be very blunt in her response not wanting to waste too much time on her answer. Ayumi started to explain hoping it wasn't too much to take in all at once ."Well my father died before I was born and my mother died during child birth, all that they left behind other than some money and the house was books about the Jashin religion, I quickly became attacked to it as it was all I had left to know them more" Ayumi stated "I hope that's not too much to take in at once" Ayumi left it at that simple story and decided not to tell Minato about the incident she had with one of the priests since this might drive him away from the religion.

Of course there was more questions for Ayumi to answer, she couldn't stop them from coming so she just kept going and answering them as they came, and the next one was already here as quickly as the last. "I know it's none of my business, but are you okay with handing out pamphlets the whole day? Wouldn't you rather go on a mission or something like that? I just don't want you to miss out on anything." Ayumi already knew her answer as soon as this question was said but took a second to make it look like she had to think it over a bit more than she actually did. "Well I have to hand out pamphlets, it's the best way to get more people to come to the church, I would like to do some training and missions but I won't be able to until we find someone else to bring people into the church of Jashin." Ayumi thought that would be the final question but she was wrong there was one more ready to come her way.


"Have you thought about what kind of shinobi you want to be?" Ayumi didn't quite know her answer to this question and hadn't thought about it much, she was kinda just going where ever the wind brought her. Ayumi didn't have much time for many ninja things as she was usually occupied keeping the church running. She would finally give her answer "I never had any proficiency for anything but taijutsu and weaponry, this is mostly because I don't have almost any chakra at all. Although I do like close combat more than ranged I just find it more thrilling. So basically what I'm trying to say is that I would be a close combat shinobi if that answers your question well enough." Ayumi was happy with her long but somewhat thorough explanation of the simple question. Then she realized he could have meant something else with the question altogether and added to her answer "But if you mean by something like a assassin or just a normal village ninja, then I would probably just want to live a nice calm life in the village and spread the religion of Jashin" Ayumi liked this answer just as much as the first although if she knew which one he was looking for she would only give the one needed. But it was already done and she couldn't ask what he meant by that now.

Ayumi wanted to become friends with this ninja, from what she could tell he wanted to help her become stronger, or at least get her into actual training. She could be wrong in making this assumption, but it didn't matter too much to her she would keep going on as she had planned just now. She would start off with a simple question, but expand after finding out the other genin's response. "So what do you say we head over to the training grounds and maybe you can show me a few things about being a ninja" She wanted to learn as much as she could with this opportunity. Ayumi would wait patiently for a response as she payed for the one bowl of ramen she had.

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(Sorry for the word wall)

Enjoying their meal next to each other Minato was waiting for Ayumi to explain her situation.
"Well my father died before I was born and my mother died during child birth, all that they left behind other than some money and the house was books about the Jashin religion, I quickly became attached to it as it was all I had left to remember them by"
Minato didn't really know how to react after she explained everything to him, how she never had the chance to get to know her parents and how the books about Jashin was all she had left of them.
"I am sorry to hear this Ayumi, you must have had a hard time growing up without your parents" Minato tried to comfort her.
"But I am glad that you at least had those books to remember them by"

"I have to hand out pamphlets, it's the best way to get more people to come to the church, I would like to do some training and missions but I won't be able to until we find someone else to bring people into the church of Jashin."
So it seemed that she actually wanted to go on missions and train to become stronger but she wasn't able to since she was responsible for trying to get people to join the church of Jashin. It almost sounded like they were recruiting. But for what?
The fact that they were looking for more people could also mean that the Church wasn't as known or popular as it once was. 
"Well, enough about that", Minato thought since he wanted to avoid uncomfortable subjects as he didn't want to upset the young Genin.

All that was left now was his last question about what kind of shinobi Ayumi wanted to be.
"I never had any proficiency for anything but taijutsu and weaponry, this is mostly because I don't have almost any chakra at all. Although I do like close combat more than ranged I just find it more thrilling. So basically what I'm trying to say is that I would be a close combat shinobi. But if you mean by something like a assassin or just a normal village ninja, then I would probably just want to live a nice calm life in the village and spread the religion of Jashin"
Minato noticed that the girl her chakra levels were rather on the lower side so her explanation made sense. She preferred close combat to ranged combat as it was more thrilling. Easy to combine with Kenjutsu it was also one of the reasons Minato decided to practice fighting with his katana. Ninjutsu was his specialty but that didn't stop him from training in Kenjutsu and Genjutsu, as expected of an Uchiha.

Thinking about looking out for the younger Genin, Minato wouldn't mind helping her to get stronger. It was important for Konoha to have multiple strong shinobi if they wanted to get back to how they used to be. Suddenly Ayumi spoke up.
"So what do you say we head over to the training grounds and maybe you can show me a few things about being a ninja?"
"Sounds like a plan", Minato said as he was getting up and paid for his meal.

And so the two of them took off and were headed to the Training Grounds.

(WC: 559, TWC: 1647)

Ayumi had finished her story and heard a response from the other genin "I am sorry to hear this Ayumi, you must have had a hard time growing up without your parents", Ayumi liked the comforting words, and heard another one follow quick after. "But I am glad that you at least had those books to remember them by". "Well, enough about that" she heard soon after her answer about handing out pamphlets and training. Ayumi would still answer the last question either way. Ayumi had asked about going to the training grounds "Sounds like a plan", it made Ayumi happy to hear the quick acceptance to her comment.

Ayumi would lead the way to the training grounds by starting with a small comment, "well why don't we get going then?", the question was soon followed by Ayumi getting up and making a gesture for minato to follow her before she started walking towards the training grounds. She appeared to be in no rush to get there at all, but she didn't want to waste time either. Ayumi saw that the streets were just as deserted as before, nobody was there but the two genin as they made their way to the training grounds. 

As the two passed Ayumi noticed that the road looked about the same as before they had left, including a patch of ice covering about half of the path way that they walked on. It seemed like the sky was not only covered with clouds, but there were many flocks of birds flying through the air, quite unusual around here. Ayumi kept walking, she wanted to make conversation but couldn't think of anything interesting to say. They kept walking and soon they would make it to the training grounds.

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Minato could see that the young girl appreciated the comforting words he just shared with her. He couldn't ever imagine how it must feel to have to grow up without your parents since he himself was fortunate enough to be surrounded by his loving parents and the rest of his family and clan. Experiencing an event like that at such a young age must have left her with a lot of emotional scars. It would give Minato some think to reflect on how lucky he was, taking into consideration that there are people like Ayumi who have lost something important. But even if it only made the slightest difference, he would be happy if he could cheer her up just a little bit. As she had mentioned before, she would like it if the two of them would continue their conversation on the way to the Training Grounds. Ayumi was the first to stand up before making a gesture towards Minato as they started their walk to their destination.

As the two young Genin were walking Minato could notice that Ayumi was paying attention to the birds high up in the sky. Must be a nice change of pace for once since she was used to handing out pamphlets most of the time. If one wouldn't know better, he would get the impression that Konohagakure no Sato was a peaceful village after all. Not a lot of words were spoken during their walk to the Training Grounds but that didn't matter, they would still have enough time to do so. Soon after, they would finally reach their destination.

Arriving at the Training Grounds, Minato would notice that they wouldn't have any spectators as they were the only ones at the field. He remembered Ayumi telling him she prefers taijutsu and kenjutsu over anything else since her chakra pool was rather on the lower side. Minato was aiming to become a versatile fighter himself, trying to become proficient in both ninjutsu, genjutsu and kenjutsu. He was used to walking around carrying his katana on his back, not only because he thought it looked cool but admittedly it was one of the reasons as to why he did it. He figured thay Ayumi would like to practice her swordplay, so he decided to unsheathe his katana, followed by the next words.

"Let's start, shall we?"
He was getting ready for her first move.

(WC: 401, TWC: 2048)