Re: We Do What We Must [Missions]

Tue Oct 11, 2022 11:19 pm

Z Ne

Z Ne continued working on the balcony, and would eventually get back to painting the columns. It was hard work, but work they were happy to get done before moving on to the columns, and then eventually lunch, where Fenn showed his inquisitive side. He called Kumogakure home, but that he had been gone for a long time. Wanderer? Defector? That was Fenn's personal history, and Z had no reason to pry. Fenn had seemed proud to help the village, and that was likely enough.

"I may not be the best person to ask," said Z Ne. "I spent most of my life outside the village, in a small town in the Land of Lightning. After that, I spent several years around the town of Ne."

Those are hard years for Z. The illness was horrible, and the sanitarium was the only real chance of improvement. Any risk of the disease spreading would have been met with quick, and likely lethal, force.

"Only after all that, when I was already eighteen, did I come to Kumogakure and apply to be a ninja."

Z took a moment to breath. "I had a friend that died to disease, and was ridiculed for how weak it made him. I-"

The words got caught in their mouth, tears threatening to come to their eyes. "I-".

Z Ne swallowed.

And exhaled.

"I wanted to show those here that... That he could have been something. That they were wrong to abandon him, even if their fear was well placed." There was a pause, as memories came flooding back to Z. "Heh."

"When I got here, I was glad to know that some people, some people get it. I remember, learning in the academy, I talked perhaps too much with one of the instructors. Mostly out of class, but sometimes my questions would bring the entire class to a digression.

"I still am not certain that we agree on what 'power' or 'strength' is, but I think we could both agree on one thing."

Z Ne took a spoonful of the curry before them, but looked up to the sky.

"There is no true power without understanding. There is no one type of 'strength'."

Z Ne smiled, and looked back to Fenn.

"I mean, just look at me. Physically, I can easily destroy anyone that isn't a ninja, and in a battle of fisticuffs? I'd stand a good chance against plenty of ninja, too."

Z's smile faded. "But they needed to give me special allotments in the Academy. Strength? Speed? I was miles above most other academy students."

The looked off to the left, not ay anything in particular, simply off into the distance, overlooking the children. "But jutsu? I can't even use a basic Clone technique without fainting. Do I know it? Technically, I fainted enough that I figured it out.

"But I do not recommend it. Did you know that if you go unconscious, the clone disappears? Half the instructors didn't put two and two together about that. They knew I was fainting to even try it. They knew a clone technique disappears after casting. And they kept chalking it up to failures. 'Close, but not quite'." Z Ne stopped for a moment.

"Some people even tried to bully me." Again, a pause.

"...yes, it was kind of absurd. I was nineteen, and they were, like, maybe fifteen, probably younger. But I knew that fighting them would be dumb. Not because I couldn't take them. I technically don't know, but being faster and stronger versus people that don't really know any useful jutsu yet? It can be a pretty strong advantage. It is a really strong advantage. But no. I just ran. I talked to a professor about it. We spent well over an hour talking about it. Well, mostly about other stuff. Filling in details of my history the staff had not yet known. Related, though."

Z Ne sighed, and stared into the plate of curry and rice before taking another bite.

"Sorry I ended up rambling there. I don't think I really answered your questions, did I?"

WC 684
TWC 2159

Fri Oct 28, 2022 10:55 am

"Its okay Z, you answered enough " Fenn would say as he would stand back up and look around. They had chatted for a minute, but it was not yet long enough for him to call lunch over yet, so he would walk off for just a moment before he returned with a water, and offered one to Z as well. Fenn would drink his water slowly as he thought on things. "I was once abandoned like your friend. By my Captain and my Kage of this very village, many kage's ago it would seem however. I was younger and thought only of myself. I fled with my life, vowing to get stronger and return to end the man who took over the village. I failed at that, I heard rumors he disappeared and likely died, than a man matchin his description popped up recently around Konoha and met his end at the hands of the Hokage, I feel like Ultimately I failed my village, and Now Im just trying to find ways to pay it back. Even if in a lot of ways, they had failed me first."

Fenn would run silent again after sharing that bit of information. Fenn took a look around and noticing people getting up, it would seem that lunch was over at this point. Fenn would drink the last of his water and toss the bottle away in the trashcan before he would head back off to finish off the work he had been working on before the lunch break happened.

Thu Nov 03, 2022 7:30 pm

That was...

Deep.

Z Ne honestly just was not sure how to respond to that. They had shared a lot, probably too much, honestly, and Fenn had sat, and listened, like, actually listened, not zoned out, but seemed to actually pay attention.

Z wondered if Fenn had walked off to digest everything they had said. It was a lot. And then Fenn responded with something far shorter, but somehow felt... more. Perhaps that was because it was someone else's story. Z Ne had held their history in memory, well, forever. It was their history. But this was new, a trauma similar, yet altogether different.

So they sat there, silently ruminating, trying to figure out what a good was to respond to Fenn was.

And such was how the shinobi looked around, stood, and returned to work, Z Ne having missed the chance, head down.

Z Ne returned back to the job they had stopped for lunch.

WC 156
TWC 2315