A Phenomenal Evening [IO, NK]

The open courtyard quickly became packed as the sun sank below the horizon and the lanterns around the space began to light up. Kozue, being impolitely early, had already sat down at a table in formal, traditional dress as tacitly mandated by the occasion. Perhaps "sat" wasn't the correct word here, though. *Why do city people kneel on pillows when they eat? And why are the tables do goddamn low?!* Indeed, Kozue found herself keeling over now and then as she struggled to keep her balance on the pillow upon which she was now perched, letting out a small "eep!" or "augh!" noise whenever she started to tilt. Each time, she managed to save herself by gripping onto the table with both hands, but how was she supposed to eat whenever this kind of shit happened every couple of minutes?

She quickly selected a piece of tofu, seized it with her fingers, and popped it into her mouth. Extra spicy, just like the Good Lord intended. Chewing furiously, she growled quietly as she seized the edge of the table to prevent herself from toppling over to the right. Fan-fucking-tastic. Swallowing the morsel, she took a glance around her. It seemed that she was sitting at one of the more vacant tables. The combination of her utter lack of decorum with the shinobi armband she wore tied awkwardly around her left sleeve seemed to be something of a deterrent for them. *Ya'll too proud to sit with me? So much for "urban hospitality".*

As it turned out, the dinner party was for some big village mutli-clan get together. There was some pretext or another, but Kozue hadn't really paid attention to it. To be honest, she really had only come here for the free food. Why skip a meal that you don't have to pay for?

"Whoop!" she exclaimed tersely as the tilted to the left, stopping herself by grabbing at the edge of the table once again. Making sure she was steady, she seized a piece of shredded chicken, and ate that too.

[WC 343]

The days blurred together since his arrival into his formal home. His foster father had been placed in his old home in the mountain, seeing as someone had been staying there and keeping it tidy he figured he would once again return to it and stay. He had a strong hunch as to who would have been the person to do so, but he had been avoiding seeing his student for some time on the reason of the meeting being too...awkward. Since his return to the mountain he began to slowly sift through the documents he took from the former Tower of Heaven in more detail, studying each of the notes with a fine eye. Nothing would have prepared him for what he would have been learning, but after more than a nights time of staying up he felt he needed some interaction. The former Kage was always known to take up one than one appearance and even on one occasion became a child once more after using something he shouldn't have.

Thinking back on that moment he used a jutsu he had once made himself to return to a child-like status so that he could walk around and see much of the village without any of those who had knew him from his reign seeing him. As his body transformed, his hair stayed the same albeit its color changed lightly. His hair and eyes were now light blue hair with his eyes being blue. The guise itself fit his current mood. Throwing on a black hoodie and some tan shorts with black sandals he made his way out into the misty outdoors. Putting his hood onto his head the trek into the village of Kumo would commence. As he arrived in the village his eyes began swift work of looking around, interested in what was going on at the moment. Some food festival or something. Sounded like fun. A good way to interact with the village without them knowing who he was and he could get free food.

With an affirmative nod he began his trek toward the area with a small amount of haste, who wanted to be the last person to a free eating? As the hungering wolf moved to his destination, he couldn't remember a time where he was like this. It seemed like the far distant past, but the feeling of that time began to slip further the more he thought about it. As he arrived he slowly pushed the hood down so that his blue eyes could see each person, moving toward the seemingly vacant seating area and plopping down on the cushion. For a moment he sat with his legs out in front of him before curling them up Indian style and grabbing some food and looking at the woman eating chicken.

While an experienced shinobi, Kozue didn't even notice the boy before he sat down across from her. That alone should probably have been a huge warning sign, but the woman wasn't being the most attentive at the moment. She grumbled as she righted herself yet again, then looked up to discover that the lad had joined her at the table. Giving him a brief nod in greeting she swallowed and grinned brightly. The kid was *oddly* without his parents at a public event, which was something else that should've sent off massive alarm bells in the head of literally any other Kumogakure shinobi. However, being a rural girl, she was used to kids running around on their own.

"What's shakin', young'un?" Kozue offered the child a bright greeting, adjusting her knees slightly to attempt to stabilize herself without falling off of where she was seated. Her night had been somewhat awkward already, and she didn't want it to get any worse. Kozue did sense that there was something off about the child, though it wasn't any of the more obvious signs. He seemed like kind of a contemplative kid, the sort who had had many friends once, but no longer. Maybe he'd moved here from somewhere else?

It was then that Kozue realized what was wrong. The boy had an enormous chakra signature, even greater than her own. The abruptness of her realization caused her to lose her balance entirely, falling over to the left without catching the table on time. Making a hasty recovery, she peered over the table at the kid again. While there weren't any important dignitaries at this meeting, a public occasion would be the perfect event for a foreign operative to gain information on the village. Since Kozue was wearing her armband, there wasn't really any occasion to suppress her own signature; everyone knew what her line of work was.

[TWC 658]

The young boy continued on his conquest of the food, eating quite a bit at once and didn't notice the girl was speaking to him until the words had sunken in fully. The blue orbs slowly wandered over to her for a moment, a look of both confusion and wounded as she called him "young'un". Of course that couldn't be expected with the current guise he had at the moment, but pride can be hurt in other ways as well. Swallowing some of the food that he had currently in his mouth before raising a brow," You alright there miss? Seems like you are having some balance issues on your part. As for what is "shakin" nothing much I suppose. I am just here for the food and people. The village here seems....a little interesting despite its recent hardships. I can see you are a Shinobi, what do you think about the state of Kumogakure at the moment?," he wasn't going to comment on the fact that he was being inquisitive about things he already knew. But this was one whom he had not seen in his reign of Kumogakure.

Maybe she had been a Kunoichi that had came after his sudden fall, someone who simply began their journey as a ninja for some personal reason. Pointing to her headband with his chopsticks," You keep that thing pretty pristine for your line of work. What do you as far as shinobi activity mm? Medical ninja? Subterfuge? Assault," he was proving more and more that he was anything but a child, but even a child bred in war and strife would know these things. For now he could continue to prob the woman until they raised an inquiry of their own, or a more entertaining route was taken.

He seemed awfully articulate for a child, but in a world where prodigies abounded in every generation, this wasn't unusual. The generation seemed to be swarming with genii about to make their debut into stellar success or crushing failure. Still, there's no doubt that it was a lil' unsettling, a kid talking to her like that. Kids were never this smart back in the country. It was also odd that he was trying to guess at what she did while on duty, and this in particular was more concerning than anything else. Obviously, he was too blatant about it to be a foreign operative (pff, like any competent spymaster would send a kid like this to retrieve such specific information) but he wasn't enthusiastic enough to be some kind of shinobi enthusiast, or at least so it seemed to her.

"Damn, chil', I dunno about any of that", she began, speaking a half-truth. "I'm just a medic." Pa had always told her that she was never to lie, but also that there weren't no problem in hiding the facts, especially from strangers. She might not have even told the child that she was a medic, but, well.... she liked kids. Kozue supposed Ma had rubbed off on her more than she would've liked after all.

The woman chewed again, swallowed again, and piped up. "What'chu doin' here alone, anyhow?" The kid's parents were nowhere in sight, and seeing him just wandering into a crowded place like this was concerning to her.

[TWC 909]

A few blinks accompanied the stuffing of his mouth as he listened to this girl speak, reminding of him of someone form the country each time she said something. Now the age gab between the two of them might of been a few years if not more at best, but for the sake of his facade he acted like a knowledgeable child. A curious look came about his face as he sat down his plate and put more food on it," Luckily I managed to sift through what you said to understand it. Medic...I didn't think people liked that sort of thing. You have to cut into people and deal with a lot of blood don't you miss?," the conversation would become more of him asking questions at this point since he was still curious about the ninja of this new generation. For the moment though she was providing him with some form of entertainment. Maybe the guise of a child would have been better back in his days when it came down to gathering information.

When she asked him where his parents were the eating utensils were sat down slowly and he sighed softly," Dad's been dead for God knows how long. Good riddance cause he was a real piece of work and not a good person. Mom fled the village during some invasion a while back so that just leaves me here alone doesn't it? Not like I need either of them to do anything, fully self sufficient in every way. Where are your parents? You don't seem old enough to be wandering around on your own as well," a small chuckle slowly escaped his lips as he picked up his chopsticks and began to eat again. If only this woman knew that he had already fathered a child and was quite older than he was leading on.

The boy's questions were a little off-putting, but the kids back home were always asking bizarre shit anyways, so Kozue didn't pay it any mind, at least not any more than normal.

"Sure I do." Where she came from, anyway, the sight of viscera was commonplace. Even before becoming a shinobi, Kozue had long since become used to such things. "As for my parents, rest their souls", she continued, choosing her words carefully, "they done gone to their rest years ago." Technically true, as per the Word of the Judge and one other text, but the Word of the Prophet required her to speak more.

"Luckily for us, they died real healthy. Bad things can happen when mountain folk die sick, you know what I'm sayin'?" Yes, that would do it. She firmly believed that the Prophet kept their people in good health most of the time, and while good hygiene was certainly also part of it, her folk always made sure to pay their proper respects to the gods. Indeed, it hadn't been a plague that had been their downfall in the end. In Kozue's admittedly faulty opinion, it had been that they'd ignored one of the other gods' advice and gone astray, but she was no elder.

It seemed that talking about her people had put Kozue in a contemplative mood; she'd seemed to have finally found a good balancing position on her seat. She wondered how city folk did this every time they sat down to eat at a jamboree like this one.

[TWC 1165]

People still believed in something like that. A small, feral smile played upon his lips which would have given the smaller girl a glimpse at his unusual wolf like teeth," I'm surprised people still believe in a thing like that. Good or bad people only end up in the endless white. Waiting for their loved ones to join them. Maybe in that time those that have succumbed to evil or suicide find penance but...no one ever just gets a happy ending out of the blue. With that being said whatever happened to your parents may their bodies rest easy, but as for the spirit? Nah. Rather not ruin that surprise for anyone." oddly enough he allowed the idea to trail off as he sipped from his tea and looked over the woman who had been keeping him company. He wasn't trying to besmirch her religion and yet as someone who has seen the beyond and came back he wasn't too reluctant to admit whether or not religion had it right or not. He kept his eyes on her for a few more moments before eating some more of the food and listening out for if she had said something.