In the Sands [P]

Early morning. The sounds of sand and small lizards sliding across the ground of the village where a certain berserker had been allowed passage into. It was something to behold as this since it was built in such a seemingly uninhabitable area made him appreciate just how determined life could be. As he slowly stuck a hand into the sand that was beneath his feet, Gennosuke could still feel the heat and warmth that it provided despite the sun not being up yet. The reason he had been up was simply because he couldn't sleep because of the nightmares. The smelling of flesh and bone being torched because of him. His "mother" being hung and abused because she refused to give up the one she called son. All of those constantly played within his brain as he slept and because of that he had an extreme lack of it. So the early morning of the day he began to stretch his body slowly to limber up. When he couldn't sleep he pushed his body to extreme measures to either pass out or...excite the beast. The movements the green haired male took to stretch were extreme. He took over a small block of houses near the edge of the village just in case he had a random case of the rage roids.


"Alright... Five sets of pull ups on this rebar then a few laps around the houses should warm me up rather well," the male thought to himself as he finished his stretching and grabbed the piece of metal and began pulling up with some degree of force. Not too much to strain himself, but just enough to put sufficient strain on his body. As he continued to pull up and down he could feel his muscles tensing and contracting which meant this was working, but the more he did it the more his body wanted it. Within minutes he had increased the speed in which he pulled. With each increase his body began to feel more and more tense before he stopped at his goal. While many would think that someone of his caliber could not pull off the activity of doing fifty pull-ups within 2 minutes, he did it with a smile on his face. The sweat had already begun to flow as the sun peaked upon the horizon, spilling its light slowly into the world beneath it. Dropping down from the rebar he rolled his shoulders and grabbed a towel that he had brought with, wiping his face of the salty substance before looking onto the horizon. The sun had been saying hello and he...was thrilled. The start of a new day that could bring new things or destroy what he was trying to build. Whatever it brought he would face it with the same tenacity

After all this time Levi still wasn't used to getting all of this sand in his shoes. If being surrounded by monsters like Kenshin and Alice wasn't enough he also had to endure the annoying nuisance called sand. Luckily for the Nara the sun was out which more than compensated for the less fortunate circumstances he was in. It was still early in the morning when he decided to leave the place he was staying, it's not like he was feeling secure being around these people. Surrounded by monsters and dead people, it almost sounded like a horror story but not for Levi. For him it was the awful reality. Not something he saw coming when he decided to leave his village all these years ago. But he had a price on his head. A price he happily paid after what had happened to him and his friends. And now? Now he came upon people like him, the so called missing ninja. Each with their own story to tell.

In the near distance he could see small blocks of houses and before he even realised it he had found himself near the edge of the village. Having nothing to do he decided it wouldn't hurt to go and check it out. With every step he took the sun started to shine ever so brightly, making the Nara almost forget the type of situation he was in. But not the sand, he still remembered the annoying sand. Having walked around the houses for some time he spotted a certain individual, and if he wasn't mistaken it looked like it was someone working up a sweat. Don't get him wrong, Levi loved a good workout like everyone else, but the energy this person was bringing forth was nothing more than impressive. Which could also be said about his physique. Tall and muscular, which could be said about almost everyone else if you would put them next to Levi who was standing at about 5'2". Despite being short the Nara himself possessed quite the muscular build so he could respect the workout the man was putting in. Keeping his distance he would wait until the other person had noticed his presence as he didn't want to interrupt his training. 

(WC: 376)

Gennosuke stood there for a moment as he finished wiping his sweat off, the towel was dropped as he looked up for a moment. The boy wasn't talented in sensing others but the feeling of being watched was prevalent even if he couldn't fully see them. Shrugging it off as something else he began to turn in the other direction and began to run at his full speed in the opposite direction. The sprint was good enough to see the sand cloud kicked up as he moved, left in front of right until he was out of view of whoever had been watching him. Occasionally he would propel himself from the ground into the air with the momentum he had gained from running, hitting the ground with a subsequent thud that would rattle a little sand from the ground. The run itself had caused the male to laugh quite a bit as he felt free, no longer burdened by the weight of his berserker state. In fact, the feeling of welling anger hadn't manifested since he started working out. It was as if keeping his mind clear kept the debilitating and crippling thoughts away from him.


After thirty or so minutes he could be seen coming back into the area that he had dubbed his home, a serious sweat and a smile falling on his face. Whatever he had done while out running had significantly improved his mood though thanks to the sun finally being at an apex that the light would reach most of the area, he would now see the silhouette of a person in the distance. A part of him wanted to go away and not really bother with the person, the good side of him. The other side wanted nothing more than to get a hold of this person and rip them piece from piece. What a luxury that would be to fill the blood rushing from their body, touching the wet sands as he feasted on their corpses. He pondered on it for a moment or two before walking slowly toward the person allowing whoever it had been to think whether or not they wanted to stay. Whether or not they would leave would be up to them entirely.

374 wc

Standing still letting the sun shine brightly on his face and the rest of his body Levi was visibly enjoying today’s weather. Yet again it almost made him forget about his surroundings once more. It was only a couple of minutes when he had found himself near the edge of the village. There he was witnessing a beast of a man busy with what seemed to be a workout. An impressive sight this early a day. At the moment the short Nara decided not to interrupt any of the man’s training and to simply wait before he would speak. If the man would answer, great. If not, fine.
 
After around thirty minutes or so it seemed as though the man was finally done with his training as he started to slowly walk towards the direction Levi was standing. Uncertain if the man wanted to be left alone after such an exhausting workout or feeling rather elated after putting in such a fulfilling training Levi decided it wouldn’t hurt just to say hello. A smile never hurt anyone, right?
 
With every step the impressive figure was taking towards him the Nara started to think about what would be the best approach. Levi was never good at first impressions as he never knew what exactly it is they are supposed to say. The first time he met Alice he almost lost his head while Kenshin just didn’t seem to care. Prepared to strike a conversation he had almost figured out how to deal with this situation. So far the only people he had actually talked to were the ones he arrived with at Suna, Taishi being the only one he truly was getting along with.
 
Suddenly he remembered the words of Kenshin, how they should find his companions he already had with him at Suna. If he wasn’t mistaken there were three people he spoke of, two young women named Amaterasu and Toshizou, and a man going by the name of Kutari. Obviously the first two could be scratched out since this person wasn’t female in the slightest. Did that mean this person was the one called Kutari? Or were there still other people Kenshin hadn’t mentioned to them? Not that a name mattered that much but to avoid any unnecessary awkward moments he decided not to call out a name for it could be the wrong one.
 
When the man was finally at almost the same position he was Levi decided to go for it hoping he wasn’t bothering. “Yo, losing a bit of energy?”

(WC: 424, TWC: 800)

They stayed. The male slowly began his ascent until he was finally within seeing range of the person, now designated as a male. How curious the young zerker was of the person who had so brazenly came into his self-proclaimed territory without a care it would seem. The rather large male came into full view looking down on the stranger with those green eyes that for a moment held a morbid curiosity. What he had forgotten was his shirt, but he had doubts he would need that for anything. As the male spoke there was a small tilt of the head as Gennosuke began to speak plainly," If you think a small run like that combined with a few sets of pull ups would tire me out then you're either blind or naive...Who are you?," he didn't....well that would be a redundant statement. He had only met a few people since he had been allowed sanctuary here. The conquer and the candle. These other people that had been under the man zombie were unknown to him and thus rendered irrelevant to his cause or that of his benefactor.

He would wait for a moment for the male to reply to his question before either shrugging or tilting his head once more. Whomever they were at least had a head on their shoulders and were built a bit so they must have been suited for some form of combat. Nothing else of note stood out for him or about him in the eyes of Gennosuke, though one thing for sure was that he was looking for any indication that he was a threat. Within moments, Gennosuke's posture relaxed and for a moment it seemed like his height had diminished a bit as if the giant were truly a dwarf. In his presence stood a child maybe no taller than 5'3, but in every sense still intimidating. Looking up to the eyes of the male, a small child would give a sheepish grin revealing some rather sharp teeth as he spoke," So...you, why are you out here nearly outside of the village."

The impressive figure with his muscular physique had made his way to Levi as he made a small remark on how such little actions wouldn't have been able to tire him out. True, for a man of his posture it would take more than a couple of runs and pull ups to be fatigued. Nonetheless the conversation had finally started. It didn't take too long for this person to ask the short Nara who he was, a sign he didn't necessarily mind continuing their talk. "The name's Levi. How about yours?" Normally he would have said something about giving your own name first before asking the other's but the Nara did start the conversation first so he would let it slide. 

"I could ask you the same thing but it is pretty obvious why you're out here." After all, Levi did witness how the muscular man had been working up a sweat. It was either part of his routine or he needed a distraction so he decided to lose a bit of overflowing energy. For why the short Nara was out there near the end of the village he could be pretty clear as well. "Just recently I have been added to the group of misfits Kenshin is bringing along with him, let's just say I'm still getting used to being around some of these people." In all of his travels Levi had come upon some strange creatures but never ones like Kenshin or as maniacal like Alice. 

He wasn't planning on boring the man with everything that had happened since meeting the Ragdoll so he kept it as short as possible. "If you're out here I take it you are part of this group as well?" If all went well the man would just confirm Levi's thought about him being one of the people following the S-rank Missing Ninja. Of course he was free to ignore his question and keep it to himself, but given that it was just the two of them it wouldn't hurt sharing some information. 

(WC: 340, TWC: 1140)

So he was smart enough to give his name before asking another question. This would be a lot easier if he didn't have to fight himself while having this conversation, but the green haired male wouldn't shy away from an opportunity to the male actually have some form of interaction with people. When he was asked for his name he pondered on answering for a moment before actually going through with it for simplicities sake," My name is Gennosuke." He kept the introduction as brief as he could to not give away so much information about himself, but what exactly did Kenshin see in a person like this. Their physical stature wasn't much to look. Facial features were to smooth to have seen any good combat and their body as far as he could tell was a little too lean. Maybe he was simply over analyzing the male when it came to this, but he knew battle hardened people in some sense. Maybe this one would shatter his expectation.

He could tell at least this one had some sense as he just avoided a seemingly redundant question, but Gennosuke simply tilted his head in surprise before shrugging," I'm out here because I live here of course. This small stretch of land isn't owned by anyone anymore so I claimed it for my own. It keeps me away from others and keeps others away from me. Simple and to the point really. Me exercising out here is honestly just a bonus that I appreciate when no one comes out here," it was more to the point that he didn't honestly like too many people. Too many bad memories of those that came before this group that did him wrong or...just plain fucked him over. Showing a little precaution went a long way when interacting with people so he made it a point to actually keep that in effect at all times.

It would seem his earlier assumption was correct when it came to this Levi character. Just recently added into the group much like he was though it would seem he came probably a day or two before him, so still fresh. What bothered him was that there was no indication of exactly what he was in this group for nor was he going to simply ask that as well. When it came time for Kenshin's plan to come into fruition he would certainly see for himself, but for now he would play innocent and not act as if he was going to scrutinize those that he met. When the younger male asked this question however a small chuckle escaped his lips as he shook his head," I don't think i'd be in this village if I were not apart of this little band of misfits. If I heard correctly he slaughtered the rest of the Suna forces when they held their last stand against him, and I am not a Suna shinobi. It would stand to reason that I am apart of these misfits as you so eloquently put them, but I am nothing like them," there was a small pause in his micro speech that caused him to sigh and shake his head," Looks like meeting time is over. Until we meet again in battle Levi. Do take care as to not let Kenshin...or my expectations down," and with that the green haired male took off into the depths of the cluster of buildings.

[Exit]

Wordcount: 1,768

Claims:

8 stats
Learning:
Sage Transformation C rank for 1000 Words
Sage Transformation B Rank for 500 words
Sage Transformation putting 268/500 for A rank

Gennosuke, giving his name while keeping the introduction as brief as possible the muscular man finally shared his identity with Levi. The name itself didn’t ring any bells so the short Nara figured he wasn’t one of the three people who were mentioned by Kenshin earlier on and the man in front of him probably joined around the same time as Levi. The man’s answer to why he was out there and his reason for being out there was a bit more expansive than his introduction but still strict and to the point. Just as he did with his movements and exercise he wasted no unnecessary words.
 
“I see, I can understand that” he would tell Gennosuke after he explained how he claimed the small piece of land for his own. It seemed the land came as a welcome opportunity to keep him away from other people and others away from him as well, vice versa. Levi wondered if the man standing in front of him needed protection, or rather the other people needed to be protected from him. Was this man truly this dangerous? The Nara decided not to pry any further into the man’s business as he didn’t want to ask the wrong questions. They had only recently met after all so it was for the best not to ask too much of personal information.  
 
It was just as he thought and it looked like he had assumed correct since Gennosuke confirmed the fact that he was part of Kenshin’s group as well. Just like Levi he himself had caught word about what had happened to the people of Sunagakure and the part that Kenshin had played in all of it. It was indeed the Ragdoll’s doing as he had slaughtered the remaining of the Suna forces, not to mention he did it all by himself, no assistance needed. It would only strengthen Levi’s question about whether or not he was truly needed since it was clear these monsters were doing fine by themselves. After his little speech it looked like their conversation was coming to an end as Gennosuke decided to take his leave into the cluster of buildings and with that it was time for Levi and the man to part ways. “Until next time Gennosuke.”

(Exit)
(TWC: 1520)
Claims:
- 500 to learn Shadow Imitation Jutsu from C --> B
- 1000 to learn Shadow Imitation Jutsu from B --> A
- 7 stats

Approved of claims

Bad Jaye. You can’t approve anything in a topic you took part in, even if it isn’t your claims

Levi approves of claims still

Jaye approves of claims but it’s 268/1,000 for A rank. Your math is off