The Advent of Christmas

Ryu continued through the street keeping one eye on Taco as he ran, he was unsure of what had piqued his interest. As Ryu listened to Kira history, he felt a familiarity with it. When he mentioned his parent's death an image flash through Ryu's mind, he saw his master staggering towards him, as his body burned and turned to ash, drifting off into the night sky. "I too have been raised without parents, I do not know who they are, whether they live or not" Ryuzaki continued towards Taco "I was discovered on the steps of a temple as a child. I don't know my real birthday or my actual age. I currently use the day I was discovered as my birthday, and of course due to the fact infancy only lasts so long we can approximate my age, but it's not definite" Ryuzaki approached another stall where Taco has pressed up again a pool, it was a goldfish pond, where you scoped goldfish with a pastry ladle. Taco was peering in and had his paw dipped into the top of the water and attempted to catch fish, but they were too quick for him, the owner of the stall was watching and laughing.

WC: 205
TWC: 1260

Kira dipped another piece of crab into the sauce and popped it in his mouth as Ryu told his own story. It was similar to his own, but there was still something which Ryu hadn't mentioned that was still puzzling him. He wanted to ask, but then they finally found Taco in front of the goldfish pool making vain attempts to try and get one for himself. At first he thought they were going to get in trouble, but to his relief he saw that the owner was laughing at the dog.

"Oh Taco" Kira said with amused admonishment. Just then he pelt a tiny prick of cold on his cheek. He touched his cheek, and then looked up slightly to see a small amount of snow starting to fall from the sky. The flakes were incredibly small and it didn't seem like they would stick, but Kira could still hear other people realizing what he had and start reacting to it. "Where was the temple you were found at? And who found you?"

Ryu brought his hand up to his mouth and put his thumb and index finger into his mouth and a short, sharp whistle came out. Taco instantly turned and came back to Ryu's side "They're not for you boy" He said with a firm tone and as he patted the top of the dogs head lightly. Ryu turned back to Kira as he finished his question "The temple was located in the land of Fire, I do not know to what denomination the temple was dedicated, or if it had any relevance, or if It was just the closest and most convenient place to drop me." Ryu looked up as the snow began to fall, what unusual weather for this country, even at this time of year. The snow brought a smile to Ryus face, he looked back at Kira "I hope to visit the temple and my country of birth one day, maybe I could find out some more information. As you can imagine I have so many questions." The smile no Ryu's face widened as the image of his one-armed master swam into his head "I was found by a high-ranking Kumo ninja, hence why I am here". Ryu thought on how lucky he was to of been found by someone at all.

Ryu then approached the stall and forked over a few ryo to the stall owner, and he was a scooper for the game. The scoop itself was made of a metal handle and a light brown substance at the end that was made of some thin material, Ryu understood that the game was not supposed to be easy but taking the consistency of the scoop he thought it might be more impossible. The pond was only about a foot off the ground and three-foot by one foot in diameter, it was populated by at least triple digits of goldfish.

WC: 315
TWC:1575

"Wow, the Fire Country..." Kira said a bit distantly as his mind tried it's best to picture somewhere that wasn't here. He'd heard from his sister that the Fire Country was full of forests and even warmer than Lightning Country, which sounded exciting. He couldn't wait until he got the chance to go out and see the world more for sure. "Well, maybe we both might get the chance to go together someday" said Kira. "I mean, who knows? We just might get a mission together there." He grinned at Ryu showing his excitement at the thought.

Being such a natural clutz, Kira was never good at this game so he just waited patiently to the side as he watched Ryu take a shot at it. He wanted to ask him more about the shinobi that found him, but he noticed by now that Ryu seemed to be guarded with that information and he didn't want to push him on it anymore.

Ryuzaki attempted a few more times and eventually caught a goldfish, it was bright orange with yellow spots, the owner of the stall properly packaged the goldfish in acclimated water and a see-through bag. Ryu turned to Kira and held up the goldfish "What do you think I should name him? Taco is already taken" he said as he motioned to the dog, as he did he turned his attention to Taco "Not food" he said in a suddenly firm tone. He then began to walk down the street again, he thought for a second on how long he had wanted to visit the land of Fire, but that was not such a simple task, given their location and his occupation. "I would very much like that," he said as his mind continued to wander slightly "Have your missions ever taken you to another country? or well have you ever visited another country in general?" He said out loud as he stared up into the sky and watched as the snowflakes fell, instantly turning to water on any surface they contacted. Ryu then brought his attention fully back to the conversation, not wanting to be rude to his present company.

WC: 200
TWC: 1775

Kira watched intently and cheered for Ryu when he succeeded, giving a light but enthusiastic clap along with it. He took a closer look at it in the bag and could see the layer of scales running from its head down to the tail as it swam passively while opening and closing its mouth. When Ryu asked about the name, Kira's mind went blank for a second and his mouth hung a bit stupidly. Then he held his chin with his right hand while his eyes and lips narrowed showing he was thinking about the answer. After about seven seconds, he lit up as a name came to him. "How about, Maki?" Kira said with a curious tone. As they strolled, Kira looked back and forth at all the shops and their keepers/vendors as well as the people who were visiting them. He saw plenty of families out and seeing the kids and their parents out having fun together made him feel happy and warm inside. He wanted to see everyone in the village like this every day if he could, and thoughts like that drove him to want to be Raikage.

Kira heard Ryu's question and shook his head. "I've only ever been at most a kilometer outside of the village. My sister works all the time and we don't have any other family so I've never really had the chance. Sometimes I would hear stories from my sister which had been told to her by our parents when they would get assigned a mission outside of the village, and other times she would tell me what she heard from travelers who'd visited the teahouse. To be honest though, I really don't remember a lot of the details." He put his hand out and watched as the tiny wet flakes landed and dissolved on his hand briefly before he dipped and ate the last piece of crab and then threw the container in a nearby waste bin to his right.

"Maki? that would make your precious," he said with a smile "I like it," Ryu said as he listened to Kira talk about his experience in the village. "You should come and visit my home to train or something one day, it would mean your radius from the village would be increased by about 10 times" Ryu began to calculate how far away it was, as he only judged it by how long it took him to walk every time he made the journey. "We have lots of open space and environments to train in, although they are quite sparse, we also have a dojo, although it does not really help with the training of a ninja, its too... destructible," Ryu said after a pause to find the right word. "Where is this teahouse your sister works at by the way? Maybe I have stopped there, I like to take the time to sit and people watch when I am not on missions or training". Ryu thought back to the last time he was able to do such an activity, it had been a rush of working and training pretty much non stop for the past month, tonight was the first time he had been able to fully relax in some time, not that training was anything but enjoyable for him.

WC: 221
TWC: 1996

Kira got a big grin when Ryu liked his suggestion. He also chuckled to himself a little bit because he had been thinking sushi rolls when he had suggested that name and not precious, but he would leave that detail out. Either way, he was just happy that Ryu had liked the name and went with it. Kira had hoping that he had been making a good impression, and it seemed he had since Ryu invited him to come to his place. It made him so happy to make a friend who was not just around his age but also a fellow Kumo genin. "That would be awesome!" Kira replied excitedly. "It would be great getting to do some training somewhere else other than the training grounds, and even better having a training partner!"

"As for the teahouse..." Kira took a second think of how to describe where it was in the city. "Just a couple of blocks west from the hospital. It's called The White Lotus Teahouse. I'd love to show you but pets aren't allowed inside and I'm not sure how you would feel about leaving Taco outside."

Ryu smiled at the thought that he had perhaps stumbled over the hurdle of making friends for the first time, his lack of social awareness not getting in the way this time. Ryu thought about how long it had been since he had an effective training partner "Yes it would be mutually beneficial, I have never really had anyone of a similar age and ability to train with" Ryu pictures his master standing in front of him with one arm and admonishing his ability to hit him. "I have only ever trained with a man whose ability I could only hope to come close to".

Ryu put his hands behind his back and clasped them together, he was enjoying having no real purpose and strolling through the village, it was a new experience "Oh, Taco is very well trained, but he is barely a pet, he is probably more capable of looking after himself than either of us are", Ryu said with a smile, hoping that it would come off that he meant no offense by that statement. "Is the food good there? perhaps we could have the evening meal there? Is your sister currently working?" Ryu said as he strolled on, thinking about how wild Taco was in his master's stories.

WC: 212
TWC: 2208

Kira laughed and smiled when Ryu agreed with him about the benefit of each other being training parters, but a giggly laugh that showed excitement. Just the thought of it got his mind racing on all sorts of different things that he could do with his training - learning and practicing new jutsu, improving his close quarter combat skills, and acquiring new battle tactics! I mean, having a teacher to help as well would be even better but this was definitely a good start!

"Well, that's good!" Kira said with a chuckle at Ryu joking how Taco was more responsible than they were - he certainly wasn't going to argue with that. "The food is definitely good there and Nabiki is working tonight so that could definitely work. Will you and Taco be ok making it home in the dark though considering the time of year and how soon the sun is setting?" Kira hoped he didn't offend Ryu implying he was weak, it was just a long ways from the village and didn't want them to accidentally get lost in the dead of night. Looking up at the sky, he could still tell they had plenty of daytime left, which made Kira happy because he was enjoying getting to share the festival with someone and he was also a bit shy thinking about introducing Ryu since he was the first classmate that he would get Nabiki to meet.