Private [Ayane] Private Time

Yuu gasped as he took a few breaths and sat down behind a tree. Due to his Sennin duties, he didn't have any time to train his own body for a while now. Thankfully, he managed to get a few days off to catch up with his Taijutsu and while he was still wary of his strange ability that Yuri mentioned, he did try to invoke it in an attempt to call out the strange shadow, but to no avail. Eventually, he decided to rest as he stared at the leaves above him, which the wind blew them through the sky before they fell on his lap. He then sighed as his eyes grew heavy.

"Man, I wish Yuri and Kei were here with me right now. I know they're going to be free tomorrow, but it's still lonely without them." He sighed again as recalled that Kei was busy helping out on a medical emergency while Yuri was busy at the library. "Still, it has been a while since I stepped foot into this forest. It's practically my home away from home. I just wish I have more time to have more free time."

As soon as he said this, he sighed once more as he fell on the ground in a lying position.

"But a job is a job. I know it's good for the village, but I just need some rest. Maybe... If I close my eyes a bit... I..."

With that, he closed his eyes as he slowly fell into slumber.

[MFT/WC: 251]

Ayana had found herself in the Ancient Forest. The last time she was in here was when Creep was teaching her how to stand up for herself. Why was she here? Well... She has read that a way to gain back her memories is to meditate. Crazy to think that it would work, yeah, but she didn't have a whole lot to go off of. And she very much wanted to know what she was missing, what was important to her that she can't ever think of.

As the girl walked, she tried to find a good place where she wouldn't really be caught off guard if something were to try to catch her unawares. There! A big boulder that would be hard for non chakra users to reach, and it would give here advantage of seeing things if she thinks something is around. Climbing up by walking up the boulder, the girl sat down, cross legged and brought out her weapon, Angel Windmill Shuriken, basically demon windmill shuriken but with light and four extra blades made of light, and set it down in front of her. And now... To relax the mind and meditate.

Nothingness. The girl closed her eyes and focused on breathing and listening to the wildlife around her. Still nothing. She had to drone out the noise of the outside world. Now only aware of her own breathing, she saw faint images.

She was in her house, not the one where she lives with her Aunt and Uncle, but with her Mom and Dad. Everything seemed normal at first, that is, until the sky grew dark. But this time, it was dark enough to blot out all other light that the village had, man made, chakra inducing light, all gone. She heard her father yell. Saw them kill her father right before her eyes. And then one of the shadows turned to her. It was wearing a hat, most likely a fedora, and was the first of the horde to approach her, soundless, but menacing.

Ayana let out a scream and grabbed her wrap and threw it at the nearest sound she heard, off to her left. The blade of the weapon embedded itself in a tree with a very scared looking bunny right underneath it. The girl rubbed her eyes, wondering what that was all about... Wait a minute... Darn it! She forgot what it was that she saw and forgot to write it down as it was happening.

With a small sigh, the girl jumped off her boulder and walked up to the tree with a weapon in it. "Sorry Mr. Bunny... Didn't mean to scare you." As she neared, the bunny frantically hopped away. Ayana grabbed her weapon and put it back into its summoning scroll as she watched the little bunny disappear into the thick of the Ancient Forest.

As his mind wandered off to slumber, images of his family and friend flashed into his mind. From his memories of his Academy Student days to his time as a Genin and Chunnin, his mind was at peace for a while. But as he pictured Yuri, shadows began to cover the image and...

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!"

Yuu's eyes snapped open as he heard a scream from far away. He already heard enough screams to know what it meant. Without any second thoughts, he got up and headed off to the source with his sword in hand. Once he arrived, he reached his hand to the hilt. But he stopped to see a young girl facing a bunny. Normally, he would try to stop her. But there were two reasons that he didn't.

One: He couldn't hurt a girl without a justified reason. Two: He witnessed her putting it back inside her scroll. He guessed that she was just startled all because of the bunny, but he was unsure if it was. Regardless, he removed his hand from the hilt and calmly walked up to her as he said, "Excuse me... Can I help you?"

She didn't hear anyone around. That is, until she heard someone's voice from behind. Her body jumped, but she had to remind herself, if it was something or someone who wanted to do her harm in the Forest, they wouldn't come up and casually talk to her.

After calming herself down, Ayana turned around to see a boy. He was probably a few years older than her, from the looks of it. What was it that he had said? 'Can I help you?' Ayana brushed the hair out of her face and then said, "Um... Sorry, you probably heard me scream? I'm fine. I just have stuff going on." Stuff going on. Yeah, that explains a lot. The only two people that has a clue of her life is a demonic homicidal fox and a girl her age that seems to need anger management. And of course, she herself doesn't really grasp what kind of situation she herself is in with her own life. She only knows that because of her mental disorder, she has a hole in her memory and certain phrases seem to trigger memory episodes that quickly disappear from her before she can even remember what it was.

"So what brings you out here?" Ayana ask, trying to sound casual.

In his first impression, she looked like any normal young girl he often saw in the village, not to mention she seemed to have the same eye shape as his younger sister. And judging from her summoning scroll, he could tell she was either an Academy Student or a Genin. Yet she possessed no signs of hostility to him, which was confirmed when she realized he heard her scream. Other than that, he sighed in relief as he approached her.

"It's okay. I'm just here to train my jutsu as usual here. It's practically like a small training ground for me and my friend while I'm not busy. Though right now, I was supposed to rest for a while before I heard you scream." He smiled at the young girl before he realized something. "But I'm hoping to ask you the same thing. I would guess you're here for training or something like me. Are you currently studying at Aurora Eruditio?"

The boy seemed nice enough. Said he was training and all that. How this place was basically his training grounds with his friend. But it seems that he was resting before she screamed.

He then asked her why she was here. Training, yes, as he would have guessed. "Yeah, I've been training. Well at least trying to. I started with meditating to see if it can clear my mind." That would be about as much as she would want to say, at least for right now at least. The boy may seem nice, but Ayana doe really know him that much. Better not to give a whole lot of information so that people don't pry. Especially if Ayana herself will most likely not know the answer to what might be asked.

He had followed up with asking her if she was studying at Aurora Eruditio. The little girl thought about it. sure she was there, but never really there. given the past couple weeks events that made her question more and more about her own past and the thoughts and memories that are locked away to where she can't even get to them. It really almost made going there more of a pain for her own little investigation she is doing on herself.

So far she could only guess that she has potential of becoming a ninja due to the fact that she can do some things normal people can't do. Having holy chakra, that she uses to harness on her own all the while trying to look for information.

So is she really studying there? "I do study there. However I find myself thinking of other personal matters that keeps me from actually learning there. So I usually train on my own, especially since nobody that I have met seems to have holy chakra."

From what he learned from the girl so far, she was just meditating as part of her training in the forest, which he saw no signs of lies in her statement so far. He was resting from training before he heard a commotion over here, so there was nothing wrong with her meditating in the middle of the forest.

However, he became a bit concerned once she answered his question regarding her studies in Aurora Eruditio. He didn't want to pry on her private life, but he wondered what happened that caused her to limit her attendance at the academy. But there was one more thing he was curious about her statement.

"Hmmm... I heard of Lightning, Fire, Water, and Ice chakra before. But never holy chakra. I don't think my textbooks and the books in the library have any information about it." Just hearing that reminded him too much of his mission in the ill-fated bloomery investigation. "But still, you do need to focus on your studies if you want to become a Genin. Unless there's something that interferes with your focus on it."

He knew he has no time to mentor some students even in his downtime, he did want to help out young students with their troubles, even without delving too much into their private lives. This was no exception to this young girl and he would try in his power to help her out in his limited time.

"By the way, I forgot to introduce myself. The name's Kashino Yuu, but everyone calls me Yuu. What's yours?"

[MFT/WC: 257]

Ayana didn't know what else to do after the boy told her that he has never heard of holy chakra. Well... He doesn't seem like the kind of guy that would be mean and try to exploit her powers. She brought out her summoning scroll and summoned the demon windmill shuriken. "Please. Don't be alarmed." She let her holy chakra flow through the weapon. Four extra blades made of pure light materialized around the weapon, just like the three real blades.

"I have been studying in some of my free time. I kind of forced a fox guy to teach me how to stand up to jerks, after he had taken my glasses and I almost fell down from a very high place. He also doesn't like holy chakra, so I now just shine a little bit and then he usually stops doing weird things for a bit."

And then the boy introduced himself. Ayana had to refrain herself from making a lame name joke. How are Yuu? She bit the inside of her mouth to make sure that she won't laugh at the lame joke she made. "I'm Ayana. And I've been called space case, nerd, and a number of things. But Ayana is my real name and one that I would rather be called."

She focused and made a ball purely out of light. She was tossing it around in her hands, trying to keep herself busy, thinking of the now, rather than anything that could make her have a memory episode. "So what do you do in your free time?"

Yuu's eyes widened as he watched the young girl enveloped her windmill shuriken with strange pure light, which formed four extra blades around it. He knew it wasn't like one of his Lightning Ninjutsu, so just seeing this made his jaw dropped. Thankfully, he managed to shake off his shock as he hummed in thought.

"Well, that's good to know." Though he was a bit confused at who this "fox guy" was and concerned at what she demanded of him. Although, he smiled that even she called herself a nerd. "Even if it's just studying, it's enough to help you on your journey to becoming a shinobi."

Upon seeing her playing around with a ball made of light, he couldn't help if he could join along with his ball of lightning someday.

"Oh... Other than training, I spent a lot of time doing chores for my parents and hang out with my siblings, especially with my younger brother. Don't ask, but he tends to get in trouble especially since he became an Academy Student."

He sighed at the thought of those many memories involving his brother, Yasu.

"Although, I do try to do some board games with my friend, Yuu lately. I'm still trying to learn how to master chess and I can't seem to beat him."

While he was a bit salty about that memory, it might humor Ayane for a bit and lighten the mood. He didn't have any free time for long, so he might as well made the most out of it.

[MFT/WC: 250]

Ayana did seem to surprise the older boy, though he seems to be the type that composes themselves differently as he quickly wiped the shock from his face. Something that he had never even seen, is now happening right before his eyes. She didn't mention it, because if there is one thing about boys, it's that they have a lot of pride, even in small things like not showing surprise.

She listened as he spoke, the studying part was more or less opportune training she forced Maru into giving her once he indirectly and unknowingly almost killed her. The forced tutor, along with her recent investigation into her own past as to why she is having memory problems was the extent of her studies. That and some training on the side to get better with her holy powers.

He went on to talk about other things he does other than train, like doing chores for his parents and hanging out with his sib-... Wait a minute... Ayana had a small headache just appear out of nowhere. The boy. He said a triggering word. These headaches have been more and more frequent, but the girl has grown to have a small resistance to them, at least to not tell out in pain if one were to occur. But still, the facial expressions would tell Yuu enough. That she was in pain.

It soon ended, but if left Ayana wondering what it was that the boy had said that would triggered her memory episode, though this time, she didn't freak out. She has this feeling of missing something, like the past few seconds or minutes if it was a memory episode, so does that mean that she is getting better dealing with whatever it is?

Her mind shifted to the now as she didn't hear what else the boy had said, but will most likely be concerned for her. "I'm fine. I just get frequent headaches from time to time." She reassured him before he can try to help her.

Usually, when he talked about his daily life, he felt that he might bore them a bit. However, when he saw her pained expression, he stopped talking and rushed to her aid. Did he say something that caused her like this? Or was it something else? Yet, Ayane assured him that she got these headaches from time to time. Still, this made him a bit concerned about this.

"Are you sure? If you feel unwell, maybe you should try to go home and rest."

Even if he said this, he was worried that she might disregard his warning. Besides, he didn't want to be insensitive to whatever condition she had right now. Regardless, he offered his hand, hoping she can use it to help her get back to her feet.

[MFT/WC: 128]

Well at least the boy was a clear gentleman. Even through her headaches she could sense him come to her side. He sked if she felt unwell and if so, she should go home and rest. Ayana shook her head, "I'm fine."

She did accept his offer of helping her up. She grabbed his hand and pulled herself up with the boy's help. "I'm good. Really." She pushed her glasses back up to the top part of her nose, before looking around. Nothing to really see here except trees and some small animals.

"So this is going to sound stupid, but how did this place get its infamy? Like I heard that there's some sort of creatures here, but I've only saw Mr. Rabbit and you here."

While he was still concerned about her health, he didn't want to force this young girl for the sake of her mental health. So he just helped her get back up without any protest. Once that was done, he was caught off guard at the student's question about the forest.

"Infamy? I don't think this forest has some dark secrets I know. I do know that many teachers and tutors bring them here for their classes and training with the students and some like me use the forest as a meditation and training area." He hummed in thought until he realized something. "Unless you're talking about the Ancient Forest, that might fit your description. I haven't been there, but I don't recommend going there unless you have a mission there and you graduated and aware of the dangers there."

He even stared at the path where the said the forest was supposed to be.

[MC/WC: 152]