Lets save his muse! (Matteo, private, nk)

Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.

Logs hobbled through the streets, wincing as he went. Yesterday had been pretty painful, emotionally and physically. At least he made it out in one piece, if only because they probably didn't want to bury him on their property. The Uchiha would rather he crawl off to die elsewhere. He probably would, just not when they expected. He had a long life planned yet.

Last night had been uneventful, aside from slipping when trying to get into the shower and bruising around his ribcage. Good thing he wasn't one of the really heavy dudes. Sleep itself had been quite welcoming. He had no commitments coming up so he had slept in, letting his body and mind heal (yes, this is a thing). When he woke up, he felt a bit refreshed mentally. He had read somewhere that sleeping after stressful events helped weaken their emotional hold and toll on the body, and he was always down for a good nap anyways. Never mind that sleepy time was when the brain cleaned out toxins from itself, and the muscles were slowly repaired.

Ultimately, he had woken up with aches and sores all over, but some of the smaller ones were already fading in spite of the viciousness with which they had been applied. He didn't have a lot of money or food at home, he would have to do some missions soon. But until then. Breakfast.

Oof. Very little in the refridgerator. He would have to head out. At least he had cleaned up fairly well last night....

******

He found himself walking down the street in the market place as himself, not his brother. His eyes roved the nearby square as he attempted to size up the vendors, searching for a good deal. At least, as good a deal as they would give. The vendors had to make some dough themselves too.

His hands twitched. They had felt funny all morning.

A hot dog vendor yelled particularly loud, attracting his attention. The meat was portioned unusually large, making Logs wonder what went into it. If he was lucky, bread crumbs. If not... he was a bit squeamish, but he was well aware of some corners businesses might cut. Still, it couldn't be too bad, it was probably just cheap meat. Word spread really fast in Hoshigakure if you did bad business, and there were plenty of thugs looking for reasons to fight. So it was most likely that the hot dogs were ok.

Logs shrugged to himself and lined up. He got a few strange looks - he had clearly been in a fight yesterday. It would appear that he was in a protracted, nasty, vicious fight. Or, he got curb stomped. He didn't care but others might, so he needed to be careful.

The vendor raised an eyebrow. "I think you need a bit more protein, young man. Here, I'll give you a discount. Rest up alright?"

Logs thanked the vendor and paid up, stepping out of line afterwards as he sank his teeth into a juicy hotdog.


(you can skip the first bit before the asterisks if you want)

Matteo happened to be walking around too. He had a relatively easy day, as he had little to do. Hoping to finally do something, he would walk out to the city square, walking by the hot dog vendors. He did not ever like to go to these ones because of the poor quality of the hot dogs. The actually good ones were like 3 or 4 blocks away, and he was actually walking towards them. Until he would see a dude who looked like he either was in a fight, or lost a fight rather quickly. He knew he had to let this dude know about the better hotdogs.

As the other guy would start taking a bite of the hot dog, Matteo would look at him, tap him on the shoulder, and say, "Dude, don't get those hot dogs, look at the meat grinder there."

He would point at the meat grinder and explain that the legal amount of meat required to do this stuff was actually pretty bad. It was only 40% meat to be legally called a sausage. The rest could be all kinds of bad stuff such as grissle, sinew, skin, or other kinds of meat that is normally thrown out.

Matteo would explain to the dude, "Do you know what they make those sausages out of? Look at that tray of raw meat they have. Look, only about 2 fifths of the stuff there is supposedly meat. The rest of that is all offcuts that people throw out. That stuff is so cheap because actual butchers do not use it, and need to pay to throw that stuff out. The only reason that your hot dog is juicy is because about one fifth of that is fat. Good hot dogs would use at least three quarters beef, with a little bit of fat. There will not be any of that other crap that these people are putting in those. I can show you where to get actual good hot dogs, they are not really far from here."

The dude manning the sausage stand would be pretty upset to hear what Matteo would say and complain, "You don't know what you are talking about."

Matteo would then run as fast as he could, and get behind the hotdog stand, and grab the tray of ingredients and ask, "Well, what do you think most of this stuff is? I hope you are not stupid enough to call this meat!"

The hotdog vendor would reply, "What do you know about this?"

"This is quite obviously the garbage that the real butchers throw out. You are using this stuff to make your hotdogs cheap! I can't believe that you are so greedy and unethical as to sell this and call it a hot dog. You are a disgrace to hot dog sellers everywhere!"

Anybody else in line would not be happy with what was happening, Matteo was pretty much holding the whole line up with his bickering, and the customers were getting slightly more irritated, although a few of them left the line.

Matteo would eventually walk back to where Logos was and say, "Ok, lets get some actual hot dogs."

(532 words)

His hands felt even more funny as he held the hotdog and bit, for some strange reason. It was like they had an excess of chakra or something and he needed to release it. He had time to ponder the Storage Displacement technique very briefly - a jutsu in which the user was able to open a small portal to a pocket dimension and throw all kinds of crap in there. Little crap, presumably, but this would need some testing, especially with his money.

Hot dogs were love, hot dogs were life, hot dogs were bli-

Ok. Who wanted his attention while he ate? Everyone knows you don't interrupt a hungy young guy while he was eating. Unless you were a kid who didn't care and probably got interrupted by the other kids or adults all the time. Guess that was par for the course.

"Hmmm?"

Logs turned to see a slightly unkempt brown haired kid. This other fellow apparently didn't like the quality of the hot dogs here and knew more than expected about the food industry. While Logs had not directly worked in the food business - it was shit money - he had reason to be interested in this kid's explanations. Maybe he could run a side business in food later.

His hand holding most of the hot dog twitched, chakra pulsing around it. Logs suspected that he needed to use a jutsu to get rid of the excess energy. Perhaps if he concentrated his energy, he could tear open a spot in space. But to do so mid conversation might be a little unseemly without an apparent reason.

He ended up watching as this other guy (Matteo) started scrambling around, arguing a little with the hot dog vendor and explaining how the hot dogs were made of the unwanted pieces of meat butchers couldn't otherwise sell.

He did think Matteo (though Logs didn't know his name yet) was surprisingly informed, though a little bit unfair. If what this kid said was true, the same could be said for many hot dog vendors, not just this fellow. And this fellow, even if he was selling crap, had still given Logs a discount.

He began walking, hot dog in hand, and winced as he accidentally shifted one of the sore spots on his body.


"Hey dude, thanks." He looked at the hot dog vendor and took a large bite that he could still chew and swallow quickly. "Saved me a fair bit of cash, I might get a snack for later."

This young fellow looked like he wanted to show some higher quality food, so Logs would nod his assent.


"I could go for that too, though not too often, I'm a bit poor."

If Matteo led the way, Logs would follow and wait until they were out of earshot of the other customers and the hot dog vendor. His back to them, he would speak again.


"You sound pretty knowledgeable, but where did a kid like you learn this kind of stuff? No offense meant, its just a bit unusual to say the least. I wanted to let that vendor save face cause he needs that for his livelihood, but I'm down to try a better bit of food. Let me try something."

He focused his chakra on the hand with the hot dog, attempting to grab the air and tear it open. Instead, he managed to tear something else entirely, as a small void began to open in front of him.


"Now I know where to keep this bad boy."

The hot dog went into his draft of the Storage Displacement tech. Time would tell if, well, time affected items left alone in that pocket dimension. Did the hot dog have an expiration date still? Even if it did, would the germs be able to grow without surrounding air? How the hell did this dimension work anyway. It couldn't be too nasty given it was a low rank jutsu. Investigation was in order, but hopefully not on a decaying hot dog.

Well, Matteo had managed to make a pretty decent scene, considering how he managed to litereally just tear that hot dog vendor, a new one. It was clear that he was still kind of ok with that hot dog despite what Matteo had literally just told him, regardless, it was time to go and find some much better hot dogs.

They were 3 blocks over mentioned previously, as Matteo would walk with Logos, he would hear, something about how he does not have a lot of money. They would continue walking, and then would get a comment about how he seemed to know about his knowledge of food.

He would reply, "I actually have had worked at a lot of places including places that have made sausage. I have seen a lot of things about this kind of stuff, definitely not something a normal person would want to see. You have no idea what kind of horrible things they do there. You would have been lucky if the only extra stuff they put into that piece of crap, was breadcrumbs. There is a good reason cheap sausages have a reputation for being called, "Lips and a****les."

As they would walk, Matteo and Logos would walk past a place called "Subway." During Matteo's jobs, he learned that this place actually did quite a lot of this stuff too. He learned that the brown bread is white bread, with a "Brown Bread" seasoning. The chicken had huge amounts of soy and other kinds of stuff that was definitely not even coming from a chicken. Apparently employees would need to open a bag of chicken and then stand away for at least half an hour for the horrible smell to go away.

"You should not go there either" Matteo would point to the subway. "You have no idea what kind of stuff they put into their food. There is so much wrong with that business, any employees that complain about their unethical behaviour get canned. I hope you don't go there either."

Fortunately, in a couple more minutes, Matteo would eventually get to the right place, he would point to this place called, "Actual Hot Dogs." "Lets go in there, you will enjoy the actual good hot dogs they have there."

If all stuff would go as expected, Matteo and Logos would get in line.

(392 words, also what I said about subway is actually true)

Wow, so cynical for a kid.


"How old are you, kid? You sound like you've seen a lot already."

Indeed, the kid seemed capable of nitpicking plenty in the food business.


"Well, I'm glad you informed me of the state of my food. I might visit that shop in the future just because the guy seemed alright, but I have to worry about my health since I'm training as a ninja now."

He hadn't meant to let that factoid slip. This kid might notice since he seemed reasonably aware of things. Of course, Logs had no idea that this kid was already a heavy drinker and failed his exams the first time as a result. No matter.

Of course, Matteo had to shoot down another of Logs' favorite places to eat out. At least, it was before he started learning cooking so he could save money that is. It wasn't as if Logs never ate out anymore, just that it had to be worth the time expenditure. He needed the money for other stuff too. Now he would eat out if he was too busy to cook, which was depressingly often.


"Subway is off limits, huh? Would it be remiss of me to inquire why? I don't mean in terms of patronage. I'm more curious what they do that I should be wary of. Or do I even want to know?" He turned briefly to face the boy as he spoke, an eye brow raising in query.

He paused for a second, then added. "What's your name kid? Call me Logs."

They walked towards a destination that Matteo had in mind. As they did, he began concentrating the chakra in his hand again, focusing on a point in the air. He tried to tear it open again and succeeded. His hand probed the area within and felt a slightly mushy object. He scrabbled as he tried to grasp it, then succeeded. A slightly bedraggled hot dog emerged, looking roughly the same as before but with a finger print embedded in the "meat" on the outside. Looks like this was working well. He fished in his pocket for a single ryo coin.

Perhaps he could also feed the little pocket dimension some money to safeguard it. It would work the best of course, if nobody saw it. He grabbed the coin, palming it, quickly formed the handseals as subtly as one can with their hands held together. Apparently this was needed to time the activation of his chakra or something like this. He didn't really understand the system. He created a space within the air with his chakra without shifting much more, his hand reaching into the hole and dropping the coin.

He could have sworn he had heard the sound of a coin landing and then spinning on something, but he honestly was not sure. Either way, he would be passing this off as a magic trick to anyone who some how did not know about ninjas in the village. Someone like Matteo would probably be fine since he was apparently aware of things, or woke as the kids said these days.

Eventually they would come to a new shop and get in line.

"This the place?"

It was more statement than question. A rhetorical question, to be exact. Obviously Matteo meant this place if he was stopping here.


"What do you suggest I try?"

He was still hungry, and the hot dog in his hands looked less appetizing now that he knew he couldn't see coherent meat that was not obviously pre-formed. Why did it take a tweenage booper to tell him this?

(ttl wc: 1787)

Matteo knew his social skills sucked, when the other dude, named Logs, asked Matteo what Matteo's name was. If only he remembered what people tell kids how to introduce themselves to strangers.

Ok, back to the real world, "My name is Matteo, Moldu. Forgot to introduce myself earlier."

Then the discussion about subway came back. "You need to avoid the chicken, the brown bread is ok to eat if you like the flavor of brown bread, and are not concerned with the health part of brown bread. Most people do order brown bread because it is more healthy though. I think most of the other stuff is kind of ok, although I personally do not like any of the ham, salami, or any other kind of cold cut, mostly because that stuff is way too salty. I think the tuna has too much mayonnaise, but that is just my opinion. I think the food is not too bad, just avoid the chicken."

Matteo would notice Logs was doing some kind of thing. He wondered what that was because it looked like some kind of potential ninja art, maybe a ninjutsu, fuinjutsu, or space time technique that he was working. It was also kind of weird to hear what sounded like a coin dropping on the floor. Matteo would suddenly say,

"Did you drop a coin?"

Matteo would look around and see no coins on the ground, unless Logs did something that would stop Matteo from doing so.

"No, I guess not."

Eventually, Matteo and Logs would get into line. Matteo's favorite food there was actually the jalapeno cheddar one, with a kind really delicious mayonnaise with light chili oil, and a side of sweet potato fries. For those who had not been there before, Matteo normally suggested getting a more generic hot dog.

The line would take a few minutes. While waiting in line, Matteo would say to Logs after asking for recommendations, "I suggest the classic hot dog with a side of mustard, probably honey mustard, and probably a side of fries. I will order a jalapeno cheddar hot dog with spicy mayo and sweet potato fries."

Hopefully, the line would not take that long, although he really needed to find time to learn how to do this wind rejuvination technique that he has been working on.

(388 words, 1312 total)

Matteo evidently heard the coin drop since he inquired as to the source of the noise.

"Oh, that's just a little trick I'm working on. Don't mind it too much. It might come in handy later."

Logs listened. This kid talked in super long sentences, almost like a docent at a museum with not enough visitors, seeing a tour group for the very first time. Minus the enthusiasm. Could be worse though.

He pondered the kid's words as they waited in line. Logs took the opportunity to tear the air open again but within the confines of his pocket. He wanted this to be subtle, instead of a travelling freak show. Matteo might notice something was odd since Logs was using the arm closer to his companion to reach into an almost imaginary bag whose entrance started at his pocket. Nobody not paying attention would notice though, at least. Logs would eventually grab the coin, securing it between two outstretched fingers, pulling it from the opening in the dimension and letting the hole seal. He casually flipped the coin over itself, spinning it into the air.

"Classic hot dog? Alright. I can't handle spicy food unfortunately. I might try the sweet potato fries if you are going for that yourself, though. Is this place good value though, or are we here for the quality?"

He couldn't help sounding slightly sarcastic at times. One of the staff seemed to notice his comment and turned a little redder under the heat of the kitchen. Hopefully the fellow didn't slip up and hurt himself.

"Honestly, now I'm curious from a morbid perspective. What is wrong with the chicken?"

His eyes wandered, settling down on a black haired kid ahead of them. Something felt off.

His eyes narrowed.

Surely that wasn't who he thought it was. That cranium looked a little too familiar.

If it was who he thought it was....

Despite his earlier injuries, Logs wanted to run up and smack the guy as hard as possible. Even though last time they had encountered each other, Logs had been curb stomped bad. Resentment was visible in his eyes, enough for Matteo to notice if he was paying attention.

They moved up in line without incident. At first.

Until Nyusen turned around, order in hand, and saw his elder brother. He burst out laughing, looking at Logs' appearance and darkened expression. Then his face returned to a sneer as he casually began walking out of the shop, an elbow digging its way into Logs' torso and a slight tip of the drink sending some dark sticky liquid at Logs' face as he began to fall.

Well this day just went to shit.

"Yeah, you can try some of the sweet potato fries. The place has decent prices, with very good quality."

That staff that Logs mentioned would lighten up the mood a bit when Matteo would talk.

"The problem with the chicken at subway, is that it is injected with many kinds of hormones, mixed with many kinds of soy and plant based stuff, and other bad things."

Oh dear, what would happen next was not going to be fun. It all started with what happened when Logs got a rather rude treatment from the dude in front of him in line.

The man in front of Logs would turn around, start laughing at Logs, sneering, and then on the way out, elbowing him and then spilling his coca cola drink on Logs. He kind of deserved what would come next. Before this Nyusen would start walking out of the shop, Matteo would look the dude in the eye, use the temporary paralysis technique, at a nice 26 power. It would definitely be able to prevent Nyusen from trying to stop Matteo from kicking him in the male only parts at an earth shattering 14 strength. The dude would fall over from the blunt force of the kick. Matteo would then say, "What an a****le."

Then more bad stuff happened.

A bratty little kid nearby seemed to have the same idea.

He would then walk over to this nyusen dude, and now stomp him where Matteo kicked him, and then say, "Yeah, you a******" The little kid's parents would quickly run over, pick the kid up, apologize to everyone, and then run back to their table telling the kid, "No, no, don't do that. We have to go."

Matteo would laugh seeing that, the kid really should not have done that, but at least it was good fun. Matteo would receive a few dirty looks from other customers. They were obviously not happy that Matteo had literally just attacked some other guy in the middle of a hot dog joint.

After the two made their order, it all seemed kind of weird, when Matteo and Logs would get their order, it seemed as if Matteo's hot dog was not right. First of all, instead of the spicy mayo, he got ketchup. The sweet potato fries were right, but the hot dog was not jalapeno cheddar, whatever this was. Matteo would send the food back, waiting for the staff to correct the mistake. While waiting, another dude decided to order a hot dog, but would be super picky about the order, followed by a loud explosion. He was not happy with the frustration that was obvious on the faces of the staff members who had to take this person's order. He made a huge complicated mess of an order, and started yelling, when they had some trouble with the order.

Matteo would quietly tell Logs, "What a huge jerk." What came next was even worse. The man would grab a bag of chips that was for sale at the cash register, and throw it at Matteo. Matteo would reply by picking up a can of soda from the open fridge that was next to Matteo. He would return the favor, hitting the person in the head. The man now very angry, would grab a root beer, throw it at Matteo, with Matteo managing to barely dodge the root beer. The root beer would continue going, and hit a big dude who was probably just trying to enjoy a meal. This would result in another can of soda to go flying. Soon, this food fight would result in 6 or so people throwing things at each other, with Matteo also throwing, and dodging objects.

Soon, the manager had enough, he could see that about 40 ryo worth of merchandise was lost to this fight. He would soon yell out, "STOP FIGHTING!! ALL OF YOU GET OUT!!" Matteo would see his food that he ordered was ready, made properly this time. He would grab his food and would quickly run out the door, probably with Logs, and would quickly get about 30 meters away from the place. Everyone else in the fight, would stumble out of the place, knowing that they would probably be seeing the police if they did not leave. Matteo would see that the staff were furiously cleaning up the mess of soda, condiments, broken glass, and other stuff that was thrown. Matteo would feel a little bit bad for those people, they really were not paid enough to have to deal with stuff like this.

The fight would abruptly end, and Matteo would turn to Logs asking, "What do you think we should do now?" He would then take a bite out of his hot dog.

Hopefully, Matteo would not get into yet another fight. This last one was a bit tiring.

(795 words, 2107 total)

Logos listened as the kid explained his views on the restaurant. It could be called a restaurant since there were places to sit and it served decent quality food. At a reasonable price too, if Matteo was to be believed. Logs wanted to give the guy the benefit of the doubt. The cynicism seemed to come from a presumably decent heart, one hopefully untainted by alcohol, with factoids coming up independently. 

It was mildly distressing to hear what Matteo knew about the chicken at the Subway restaurant. Logs was no biology major, he wasn't sure he even knew what a hormone really was, but it sounded artificial. Being in a setting of an eastern descent, he knew what soy was, but he didn't know that they (they being the big food companies) were able to or even allowed to add soy to the chicken. God, he would never look at that oven roasted chicken again. It wasn't roasted, and now he was learning it wasn't even properly chicken. Soy! Plant based things! What the hell, he had bought into their ads way too much.

He fought the other side of him. The side that thought these business practices were merely clever and legal, as opposed to immoral practices amounting to false advertising. Because like it or not, he'd seen the same kind of thing on a common basis. You had to work in the industry to know just how often steel kunai were diluted with something else. 

Of course, his brother rudely attacked Logs while sneering and laughing. That should have been the end of it, Logs expected this to be over as soon as his brother made contact. Any prolonged consciousness would be a bonus. He instinctively began to raise his arms in a futile defense against what was sure to be a public humiliation. Behind black contacts, his first tomoe flared into life. Nobody would notice unless they were actively using chakra vision and looking at his eyes, not that it mattered. All the other people, which probably comprised the entirety of the restaurant, would notice his quickened breathing but not the activated Sharingan because of said contacts.

The next events shocked Logs despite happening in very, very rapid succession. Most noticeable was that he could suddenly see glowing masses within people.

*Oh* he thought.

Well, now he knew what chakra vision looked like. Glowing masses of liquid like putty within people's body masses. Speaking of which....

Matteo did not appear to be the type of kid to pull stunts, even if he was cynical, slightly cantankerous, and sullen in appearance. As Nyusen was making his way past Logs, his literally fallen brother, Matteo did something odd. More like multiple odd things.

Matteo's chakra suddenly surged as he glanced at Nyusen. At first, Logs thought Matteo might be an Uchiha, but he dismissed the thought pretty quickly. He grew up in the compound. Unless Matteo was put up for adoption, there was no way that he was an Uchiha from around these parts. He also probably didn't have any contacts on him the way Logs did. Besides, his eyes only briefly seemed to flash with chakra, rather than sustaining themselves in any way.

He would have to ask for the details, but he thought he understood how it worked.

His brief moment of quiet contemplation next to his frozen brother was shortlived. 

His enhanced eyes let him see Matteo wind up for a clearly above average kick to the groin. A literal low blow, given that Matteo was not very tall due to his age, and he was hitting someone below the belt. Logs was unsettled, being a nonviolent person him self. Nyusen was also unsettled, as the paralysis wore off and his eyes bugged out.

Logs found himself sitting on the ground with his legs bent vertically in front of him. He had caught himself with his hands, while his younger brother Nyusen had no such luck. Nyusen was groaning in pain, slumped on the ground, ignoring the minor cut he had on his head from dropping so quickly.

Logs took a deep breath. Everything would be ok, Nyusen no longer had it out for him.

Then the little kid ran up and kicked Nyusen as well. With pin point accuracy as a matter of fact, if Nyusen's hands weren't in the way. That still had to hurt a fuck ton. Logs winced internally, before reminding himself that Nyusen probably deserved it.

A pair of very sheepish adults sprinted up to grab their errant offspring as he uttered vulgarities gleefully. Evidently this kid would not be allowed in sanctioned boxing fights for kicking a man while he was down.

The kid was hauled away with his legs still trying to reach Nyusen. He (the little kid) was laughing his head off. 

As this was all happening, Logs couldn't help but notice that Matteo seemed unusually strong. Moreso for one of his stature and age. He must have had physical training like that of a warrior to behave that way. Perhaps his companion would have a talking to later from a martial instructor. Not that that would have much effect. The broadcast styled voice in his head shut up as their order was called.

Logs thought his order looked ok. It didn't look like what he ordered, but he wanted to try out food at the joint so that didn't really matter. He put the hot dog back down into the storage dimension, now practiced in the motion. The staff saw though and started muttering among themselves.

Oh. Right. It was pretty rude to bring food into another establishment.

"Sorry..."

They didn't see Logs dropping the hot dog into the dimension so they probably assumed it was on the floor. No wonder. Matteo did not seem entirely pleased with his order though. Logs had not been paying attention, but Matteo seemed to be missing the jalepeno part of his hot dog. Sadly, that might have been the entire point of that order.

Logs briefly considered asking them to fix his, but he honestly didn't care that much. Any worries Logs had about the staff evaporated while they stood holding their hot dogs. The guy who ordered after the staff handed over the goods to the two man-boys was really picky. Really picky. And his voice could probably be used as a sonic concussive weapon. He was not happy at all, and the staff to a large extent reflected the grumpy customer's disposition.

"What a jerk."

Logs did't realize it was Matteo who had spoken. Partly because it was so quiet that Logs thought someone whispered directly in his ear. Partly because it sounded like Matteo actually empathized with the staff. This seemed a bit odd given his earlier devil-may-care attitude. Or maybe he just wanted the loud customer to bin it and leave. Sadly, the staff had no recourse and were stuck trying to frantically fill orders with a loudmouth chewing them out from five meters away at the front.

Unfortunately, the loud customer heard Matteo for his words came during a brief pause in the man's speech about hiring practices and fast food companies.

Next thing they knew, a sack of chips and then a root beer were headed their way. A can to the noggin served as a return volley courtesy of Matteo.

What followed was nothing short of horrifying for Logs. The wasted food alone hurt his soul, and the businessman in him cried out for vengeance.

It started with two testosterone individuals duelling with restaurant supplies. One of them - Logs wasn't even sure which - managed to hit another customer who had been staring at them very disapprovingly. Perhaps he was a Northener. Said Northener was pretty damn hefty and he flung another food oriented object back their way. This rapidly escalated with more and more people getting caught in the crossfire. Solid objects were quickly confiscated by the staff who were abjectly trying and failing to control the chaos. It devolved further when people found that the only thing left to fend off their neighbors was splotches of ketchup or other such condiments.

Of course, Logs wanted no part of this. He had backed out almost as soon as the first items began their ascents through the air, and he spent the rest of the time watching wide-eyed from the entrance as the food themed brawl commenced. In fact, he had been in such a hurry that he tripped over his sibling as he was also trying to escape the madness.

Nyusen went back down hard. Logs wouldn't have to worry about him for a while longer, even if it was an accident. One of the customers saw Logs, and instantly associated Logs with the food fight. He was about to fling some potatoes at Logs when he reacted instinctively. For some strange reason, the technique Matteo had used earlier came to him naturally and he saw the attacker freeze. A moment later a blob of mayonnaise had hit the fellow in the face and he turned to confront his new assailant. Logs breathed a sigh of relief.

The manager of the food shop eventually managed to quell a large portion of the battling customers. They were ejected to some very, very angry words, and Logs didn't blame them. Chaos like that could ruin an entire day for a restaurant without factoring in more permanent damage to the base establishment. The lost supplies alone were pretty significant.

Logs was almost flattened by the stampede of fleeing customers. He spotted Matteo in the chaos and tried to wade through people to him. Somehow he managed to avoid the messiest people through a combination of luck and plot armor, which come to think of it, were about the same thing.

He expected Matteo to be shocked.

"What do you think we should do now?" Matteo calmly took a bite of his hot dog. Apparently he was not fazed in the least by the sounds of the approaching police.

Logs was though. He tried to grab Matteo partway through his bite.

"Dude, that was a total mess in there. And I think I lost my hot dog in that mess. Let's scram, the cops are gonna show up and we are being left behind. Maybe we should try cooking something ourselves instead. There's a good fishing place just past a training ground."

They didn't have time. Yelling erupted from a few blocks away as the police encountered one of the swarms of condiment covered customers.

Logs began sprinting for the training ground which was barely visible in the distance.

Somehow he expected Matteo's hot dog to be gone by the time they arrived. The chap seemed nonplussed about pretty much everything except rude customers.

Of course, it would be a simple story if they found fish and ate and called it a day. So they didn't.

The training ground was an absolute wreck. Someone had been going all out, and they hadn't finished yet. A loud explosion startled him for the third time that day.


"Sento you prick! We hadn't started yet!" An aggrieved voice shouted out nearby. Logs jumped a little, he had thought the place was deserted.


"Yoji you idiot, we were supposed to start when the sun finished rising in the sky!" A second irritated voice yelled out farther down the way.

The first voice returned fire. "Yes, and it is clearly still rising you ninny-hammer. Not my fault you can't see. It shows in your kunai throwing. You missed my spot entirely and killed a rabbit instead."

The second voice did not reply. A large tornado began to form between the approximate locations of the two voices. Evidently Sento felt that a large wind attack could be the better way to decide matters.

"Oh shit." Logs finally realized that two ninjas were about to start trying to murder each other, or something more than close enough for a weak genin.

"Dude, we gotta get out of here, these guys might attract the police for fighting all out so close to the village. Assuming they don't accidentally kill us."

Hopefully Matteo was on the same page or several books ahead.

Logs would start sneaking off quickly through the underbrush, pushing branches aside and clambering over large tree roots and the sounds of a beginning battle unfolded. Above, the sky began to darken as if anticipating another massive attack.

rolling claim list:

Jeez, crazy stuff continues to happen. Logs told Matteo that he thought that the two of them should get away, at least before police would come and make the situation worse. They were loud, and the two could easily hear them from many blocks way. From a mess of a hot dog place, now to a place called a huge mess, where 2 ninjas started fighting. It all started when they seemed to have an agreement to start fighting after the sun begins to set. Sadly, it sounded like that would not be what happened.

A loud argument would break out, with people insulting each other with rather strange things such as ninny-hammer. The two would reach some kind of training ground. Rubble was scattered everywhere, as people seemed to be almost trying to kill each other, if not actually managing to do so. It seemed as if they were rather upset about how one dude had started the fight early, perhaps trying to win already. Apparently, one of them was really bad at throwing, and managed to accidentally kill a rabbit instead. Fortunately, Matteo was not there, or perhaps, he might have been killed. Regardless, the two ninja were now firing off jutsu at each other. Matteo would agree with Logs, that they really did not want to be there.

The sky would darken, Matteo would assume it was just getting near the end of the day. It would be weird because of how short the day would already be. The two were pretty ok at pushing branches, clambering large roots, many more things. It seemed like there might be animals there, maybe they could try cooking something at least. Hopefully someone had fire element, because Matteo only had wind, and he was sure that they would need to make a fire at some point.

Well, eventually, Matteo would spot some kind of animal. He thought, perhaps, they could try hunting. "Hey, do you know what I am thinking?" Matteo would then point at the animal. "I think we could eat it maybe." Matteo would continue eating his hot dog and sweet potato fries while doing this. He was a little annoyed, that the hot dog and fries were not hot anymore, and were only warm.

If they decided to try to hunt this thing, it would be clear that the two were probably not very good at this hunting thing. They were ok with getting through all the dense brush, branches, and other stuff in the forest, but would not be much good at trying to run after the animal. Clearly the animal would be much better at this running away thing, as it seemed to know what it was doing.

A loud explosion would suddenly happen, in the direction of the training grounds, someone had some kind of powerful attack, and despite the explosion not being really big, the explosion did kick a large amount of dust up. Matteo would duck, as a lot of dust, with a strong gust of wind, would pass over the two. Matteo would turn around when he would get the chance, and look, and see a new large crater. Pretty obvious what happened.

Well, back to chasing the animal. That was not making any sound now, so it seemed like it was not moving. Unfortunately, Matteo would not be able to see the animal, so he would decide to try something to clear the forest out. He would perform the dragon, ram, tiger, and then dragon hand seals, followed by 6 large tornados flying around. He would be careful to not spawn any that were right next to Logs or Matteo, but they would be easily able to lift pretty much everything off of the ground. The ground would get leveled kind of easily, and the animal that the two of them were trying to find, turned out to be some kind of rabbit.

Unfortunately, Matteo's wind gust technique had managed to eventually level a 40 meter wide circle of land, causing, an unnatural clearing. The trees and other stuff from the forest would be cleanly depositied in the rest of the forest. One could see large numbers of surprised animals, looking at the clearing, wondering what just happened.

"What now?" At this point, Matteo would finally finish his hot dog and fries. "I hope there are some more animals we can go for, I think I might have scared them off."

The large number of animals would run away. It did seem like he really needed to learn that wind rejuvination technique, and would think, "how was I supposed to increase oxygen levels again?" He would consider how he would try safely compressing air, but not to the point that he would kill himself with too much oxygen. He would practice doing this, but it would not be hard for Logs to notice Matteo's skin turning slightly red.

"Also, I am curious, what happened to the crappy hot dog I mentioned earlier?"

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