A Rigorous Rock's Attempt (Requesting Akio, Kiriyomi, Yasei, Ieyasu, Hideyoshi)

[Kimari Bōmu]

Keniwa had had several small encounters with several classmates, Yasei and Akio he would consider friends yet he didn't know whether they would as well. He had been gaining quite a bit of confidence towards others yet today he was going to take one great step. In the academy Keniwa's class had just finished being taught transformation jutsu and it was time for lunch, the whole lesson Keniwa had not spent his time listening and taking notes. In regards to learning book smarts Keniwa was not the most studious compared to other students. His father never cared about that sort of thing so it was never important for Keniwa that much. The one thing he had on his mind was having lunch with some friends, for the majority of his time at the academy ended up eating by himself. Which was a shame since he spent one lunch time sitting near Yasei just being near him made him enjoy his food so much more. For some reason when he ate with other people he liked the food would just taste all the more better and it would be far less boring.

As class ended and the bell rung Keniwa stood up from his desk and pounded one of his fists on said desk. "Excuse me! Uh-uhm would anyone like to eat lunch with me?" 'I worded that so poorly! Now no one is going to want to eat with me... I should have just asked Yasio in private... how embarrassing.' Keniwa watched as most students in his class walked out of the class past him ignoring his question. Keniwa defeated by this began to lean down and grab his bag his face covered in gloom and his arms droopily moving to get his bag. Another day eating alone Keniwa thought. And just as things were being to get better.


[Note: Could we wait for everyone to post before you post again for the first round of posts just so everyone gets a chance to join in!]

 

[Senju Akio]

It took a second for the cheerful child to finish the last notes he was taking in class, but as Akio saw his Kyoujouran peer walking out the door with a somewhat dejefcted expression, he was the first to pop up in response to the boy's request to eat lunch together. "Sure!" The young Senju said with his characteristic bright-eyed smile. "What'd you bring Keniwa? I've got some steamed rice and edamame and Grandpa even made three-color dango for me today!" Akio said with excited geniality.

He proceeded to pop open the bamboo container that he usually came to school with for lunch to show off the assortment of veggies, starches, and sweets that were neatly packed into wooden-slotted sections. It wasn't tough to notice that the young Senju never brought any meat or egg products with him to school. In fact, when he first found out that meat and his animal friends were the same thing, he swore the foods off altogether. That said, Akio's grandfather, Senju Itsuki, always told him, 'Don't worry about what others do. The moment that your happiness depends on the actions of someone else is the moment that you have a real problem.' Akio took that advice to heart.

 

[Kiriyomi]

Kiri stands up from the back of the classroom, and is startled when Keniwa pounds a fist onto his desk and asks who wants to have lunch with him. Normally, he would run away screaming at the prospect of eating lunch with someone as outgoing and loud as this other boy, but Akio readily agreed. If his friend was willing to sit with this boy and share a meal, perhaps there was something about him that Kiri couldn't see yet. Kohara flies out of his mop of hair, coming down to eye level. "Hey Kiri! What's for lunch today, I'm starving. Let's ditch these losers and go find a tree to eat under, it's nice outside. Akio seems like he's made a new friend and has forgotten about you. But don't worry, I'll make sure he pays for that later."

Kiri shakes his head, still unused to this new development with Kohara. It seems that because of the time spent together, they have created a bond that allows the ant to speak mentally to his host. Ignoring the flying ant and leaving him hovering in the middle of the room, Kiriyomi takes a steadying breath and approaches the other two boys. He had noticed Keniwa at the stealth class, and thought that he seemed shy. Perhaps he is just awkward about meeting new people as well. Suffused with a newfound confidence, born of this thought and his friendship with Akio, he sets his bento down and smiles shyly. "Hi... can I join you both?"

 

[Akimichi Hideyoshi]

As it was Hideyoshi's first day, he was a little nervous, but he still kept a smile on his face as he greeted his new classmates. He was used to spending too much time with his family, and now that they were not around, he felt homesick and wondered if he would make friends and new people to call family someday. As the classes ended and lunchtime came, Hideyoshi took out several containers filled with food from his backpack, his eyes sparkling at the sight of the food. He said, 'Wow, this looks great! I can't wait to eat!' as his stomach rumbled. He stacked the containers and was about to leave when he heard Keniwa asking if anyone would like to eat with him. Hideyoshi watched as several students looked at Keniwa disapprovingly and left the classroom without responding. He felt empathy for Keniwa and saw this as an opportunity to make new friends. For this reason, he approached Keniwa, who was already leaving the classroom with a sad expression, when two of the students, Akio and Kiriyomi, approached Keniwa and accepted to eat with him. Hideyoshi saw that and smiled, thinking, 'It looks like I've found good people worth trying to be friends with' and ran towards them, who were further ahead, and said, ''I'd like to have lunch with you guys too'' and smiled again, trying to comfort Keniwa.

As they left the classroom towards the cafeteria, Hideyoshi heard Akio talking about the food he had brought, and upon hearing him, he said while his eyes sparkled, ''Wow, your grandfather made all this for you, what a kind grandfather. I wish my grandfather was like that.'' He then remembers his grandfather saying, 'You're only big, you don't do anything useful, you're very weak. You should have released your powers a long time ago, what a great... Another failure for our family.' He momentarily loses his smile, but then continues, "But I never needed my grandfather, I only need people who care about me by my side... And food too!" After saying this, his smile returns and he says, ''Speaking of which, I brought plenty of food, I brought ramen, shimeji, teppan, and harumaki'' as he looks at all the large containers he's carrying. They walk through the school corridors and soon arrive at the cafeteria where they find an empty table and sit down. The first thing Hideyoshi says is, ''It's time to eat'' as he opens the containers and starts eating without wasting any time.

 

[Inuzuka Keiyaku]

Not long now. That was the main thing that put a smile of the Inuzuka boy's face; only a few days until he was fully free of the academy. Though he had been taken under the wing of a rather formidable mentor who had recruited him as an ANBU initiate, he still needed to make up for a somewhat poor academic performance. A few more days and he could scoop up the last of the credits he needed; no more Kiiromaru yapping in his ear that he hadn't made a good enough effort or done the thing properly. The old dog could be a real buzzkill. With class done for the day, Keiyaku swung his feet off the desk in front of him, poked the sleepy Shiba puppy curled up beside him awake and marched off out of the classroom, yawning and happy to get the blood pumping again. As he walked down the hall, a sudden thud made him start; another kid of about his age loudly invited the room at-large to lunch.

"Tsk, yeah, tell me about it," he snickered down at the Shiba puppy who'd given a little grumble. He had to humour Morotobu, but he knew the little guy was just hungry - it always put him in a kind of holier-than-thou mood. Kids, eh?

For a time, the two of them circled the cafeteria, looking for somewhere to sit, preferably out of the sun. It was just-

"Moru, NO!"

The little Shiba puppy, driven made by the aroma of steamed veggies, took leave of all restraint. He made for a table of four boys, one of them unmistakeably the boy who had loudly invited the room to lunch in his classroom. The Shiba's aimed for the light-haired Snju boy, hopping onto the table and swiping a mouthful of veggies from the neatly packed bamboo box with the speed of an acrobat. Keiyaku, wasting no time, dove and grabbed the puppy, pulling him away from his victim's lunch, holding him tight until he calmed down.

"Ah, man, I..." The Inuzuka boy looked around, his face flushing with colour, unable to meet anyone's eyes, "s-sorry for my little brother; he's a bit of an ass sometimes..."

Sitting himself at the table, if only to take the time to calm Moru down, he reached into his bag and pulled out a rather roughly-packed, slightly tattered paper bag. He slid a metal container across the table towards the boy whose lunch Moru had just attempted to thieve. The box contained an assortment of highly colourful and juicy-looking berries, freshly picked.

"Eh, take this, okay? Moru's definitely gonna be on sleepin' outside for this tonight," he offered, with an awkward chuckle.

 

[Yume Izanami]

Mitsuha had gotten an earful from both her parents and her butler. Apparently being a ninja means that she also has to be social. Just the thought sent shivers down her spine. She was thinking about scoping out who would be the most chill and quiet, just like her so there would be very little human interaction when, as soon as the bell rang, a kid stood up and loudly asked for anyone to sit down and have lunch with him. The kid must have some similar type of anxiety or whatnot of having to deal with people too. She thought that this would be a great opportunity, especially since no other kids seem very interested. Great! The less people, the better!

She was about to get up when some of the other kids started to crowd around the other kid. Yeah, in her words, three's a crowd. She could feel her ears go red and her face hot. Ugh, why does she have to do this? It's not like her parents or butler's making sure that she's making friends. She looked over to see the teacher staring at her in her eyes. "EEP!" In a flash, she grabbed her lunch and a manga and ran down the hall, quickly catching up to the group, who had also ran into Keiyaku. She would do her best to bury her face into her manga as she walked side by side with the group, hoping that no one will pay any sort of attention to her. She just hope that Keiyaku doesn't recognize her from Hokage Rock.

Her butler had packaged her food, five different types of sushi, all exotic and hard to come by, along with rice and some ramen. She does have to admit, this is kind of a lot of food for her. She wondered if this was part of their plan to make her make friends with other kids.

 

[Kimari Bōmu]

Keniwa had watched as several people had one by one taken his offer whilst not all directly declaring a group of 6 had formed around the table, Akio and Hideyoshi were his friends who he had gotten a bit close with in his first few days at the academy so he was happy to know that they were there. However Kiri was practically a friendly acquaintance as of right now he'd had a few small and brief conversations with him but he knew that him and Akio were best friends. 'I wish I had a best friend like them but Im happy to have any friends as of right now.... Wait! Perhaps the rest of them could all be candidates for my best friend maybe even including Akio and Kiriyomi, we could be a trio of sorts? But how would I figure out who's the right one...'

Keniwa glances around the table as he sees Hideyoshi scoffing down several containers with mountains of food inside of them, most likely to maintain his huge size, Keiyaku's mutt had already caused a stir with Akio eating his lunch... yet perhaps in dire situations they would make for a good emergency supply. However Keiyaku himself seemed a decent amount bigger and ironed out than the others alongside his casual personality. Akio was nice enough but perhaps too nice to the point where in some situations he might not understand the severity but his kindness definitely would outweigh this. Whilst Kiriyomi was an air of mystery for Keniwa he seemed to be quite similar in terms of kindness to Akio yet he definitely was not as extroverted. However their was one girl who Keniwa knew absolutely nothing about and remained almost silent whilst the others would eat and chat, it hadn't been long but still not a word came out of her mouth. However she matched Hideyoshi in container amount perhaps she was more well off than most or she could grow in size? Keniwa didn't have a clue.

'I could test them with asking some questions and see their answers, I'll score each one out of ten. But what should the first one be...' Keniwa got up from his seat and firmly places both of his hands on the table in front of him not quite slamming it but making a noise enough to catch attention. "So everyone I thought we could answer some questions to get to know each other. So I have one what would you guys do if you had to pick between catching a high profile criminal or tending to your ally's deep wounds." He sits back down as he clasps his hands in front of his mouth resting his elbows on the table, covering a small smirk which quickly disperses as he waits for everyone's answers.

 

[Senju Akio]

Akio smiled towards Kiri, who had been his first and best friend upon joining the academy, and replied to his request to join he and Keni for lunch. "Of course! I was hopin' you'd join us!" The young Senju replied cheerfully. In short order the group was joined by several more students: an upbeat Akimichi student who had complimented Grandpa Itsuki's meal prep for the day, a young green-haired girl who Akio hadn't met but who seemed like she had the most lavish lunch of them all, as well as Inuzuka Keiyaku and his faithful Shiba companion Moru. "Great to meet you all! I'm Akio!" He said in a jubilant greeting to the three students he hand't had a chance to meet yet. "And yeah, Grandpa Itsuki is the best! But... sorry to hear about your grandpa not being as close." The sunny child replied to Hideyoshi, before his mouth started to water at the enormous array of food he'd brought with him.

While he was distracted, Akio's box of vegetarian goodies he'd brought was assaulted by a blur of blonde and white fur, with Moru snagging a mouthful of veggies from the formerly neat and tidy lunchbox. One might've expected a child to react with shock or distaste at someone's pet stealing his food, but Akio was not your average child, especially when it came to animals. Instead, the young boy smiled a bright and toothy smile. "Wow! Your doggo's quick!" He said towards Keiyaku before looking at Moru. "I'm happy to share! Ya should've just asked!" He added with a grin towards the hungry pup. Turning his gaze across Keiyaku, Hideyoshi, and Mitsuha, the extroverted and upbeat Senju asked, "So what are all of your names? We haven't gotten a chance to meet yet!" His tone was positive and inviting, and Akio had a knack for coming across as very kind-hearted and approachable.

Meanwhile, Keni seemed to be almost studying the other children. This caused Akio's sandy blonde eyebrow to quirk in a slightly perplexed expression, but as Keni asked his question that look quickly faded. To Akio, the inquiry couldn't have been easier to answer. As he shoveled a snap pea into his mouth, he replied, "That's eashy! Ya gotta take care of yer friends!" He said, his expression proud and his tone filled with certainty. Swallowing the bite he continued, "You can always find the bad guy later, but ya can't bring a friend back from the dead. Priorities!" He finished with a bright smile that befit his answer, then looked curiously across the rest of the group that had gathered at the lunch table.

 

[Kiriyomi]

Kiriyomi quickly takes a seat beside his only friend at the table, Akio. The others seem really intimidating except for maybe the girl who wandered up, keeping her nose buried in her manga. Perhaps she was just as shy as he was, and wasn't quite sure how to make friends? Kiri sets his bento down on the table and thinks of how best to approach her when a sudden flurry of fur and food flies up in his face and he reels back in shock. A dog had jumped on the table and started to eat Akio's lunch! He quickly snatches his lunch back towards his chest and cowers slightly, unaccustomed to animals such as this and their behavior. What was he supposed to do? Pet it or hope it went away?

Akio laughs at the dogs antics, and Kiri relaxes a little bit. Perhaps this is normal behavior for dogs, and he just hasn't had the exposure to them that his friend has had. Living a solitary life has left him with a lot to learn about society and the "appropriate" responses to things. As he starts to dig in to his rice, Keniwa poses a question and it has him thinking for a moment. What would be the correct course of action for a shinobi in a situation such as that? "Well, I suppose it depends on the team dynamics? If you have someone else on the team that could tend to the wounds, then obviously the mission comes first and you would need to apprehend the criminal while your friend is being tended to. Otherwise, you would tend to their wounds and call for backup to catch the criminal."

 

[Inuzuka Keiyaku]

Keiyaku still looked rather guilty for the dog's actions, but he seemed to brighten back up considerably at Akio's willingness to waive away the indiscretion. He looked down at Moru, still licking bits of vegetable from his teeth, with a face that clearly said 'I have no regrets and I'll happily do it again!'

"Yeah, I gotta keep a tighter hold on him sometimes," the boy chuckled, pulling out a sandwich from the ragged paper bag. It looked rather hastily made with no real care. As he ate, he took a moment to look around the table; there was Keniwa, Akio now digging into his food, a girl with her face buried in a familiar-looking manga, and a boy who seemed to be missing a limb. He was wondering if he'd seen the Akimichi boy anywhere before... perhaps not.

"Oh yeah, sorry, I'm Keiyaku; this is my little brother, Morutobu. We're from the Inuzuka clan," he explained with another slightly sheepish glance at Akio. It was good to be able to put names to faces he'd seen around a fair bit. He was never one to go out of his way to meet new people, but it was nice to have friends fall into your life from time to time.

The Inuzuka boy couldn't help but snicker to himself as Keni stood up; the appearance of him dramatically holding court at the head of the table just tickled him. He posed a very thought-provoking question though.

"Well, it depends, right? If there's no immediate danger, you need to tend to your comrade. Best thing to do is take care of them, but regroup and call up some backup."

Moru chimed in with a few barks and growls. Keiyaku translated.

"Oh yeah, Moru's right. It depends on who you're chasing; some things are worth dying for, right?"

 

[Senju Akio]

Times like these were ones to cherish. Eating with friends, meeting new people, smiling and laughing in the simplicity of the normal day-to-day life of a child... They were the kinds of things that could only last for so long in the life of a Shinobi. Whether the kids liked it or not, they'd grow up fast in this unforgiving and dangerous world, so it was important to take the time to enjoy these little blessings while they lasted. A chime rang out denoting the end of academy lunch and with a big toothy smile, Akio stood up from the table and regarded his newfound friends. "It's been awesome to meet ya Hideyoshi, Keiyaku... Uh, whatever your name is!" The sunny Senju said to the three students he hadn't known before today. "It was fun sharin' lunch with all of ya!" The boy added as he shoved his now-empty box into his pack and waved with a cheerful expression as he headed off for the day's remaining classes.

[Topic Left Unless Stopped]

 

[Kimari Bōmu]

[Topic Left]

 

[Yume Izanami]

Mitsuha was trying her best to drone out and hoping that nobody would take notice of her. Even though she would stuff her mouth with her sushi and bury her face in her manga, she still felt as if there were eyes on her. They had went on talking. It was about what would they do in a situation where their best friend was injured and dying and a bad guy was on the loose. In her own case, she didn't really have any friends, much less a best friend, so she guessed that she would go after the criminal.

Most of which were like-minded in terms of tending to their friends. Welp, there she goes and being different from everyone else. She had literally let out a sigh of relief when the bell rang. She packed her lunch, thankful that Keiyaku and Moru hadn't recognized her, and made her way out of the cafeteria.

But there was one thing that stuck to her. That question. Shouldering her bag and heading back to class, along with avoiding people, that question kept bugging at her. How would her world, her perspective be if she had made a friend? Or even more importantly, what if she wasn't so dang shy.

Shaking her head at her own thought, she decided that if she were to become a real ninja, she would need to overcome this hurdle of shyness and being an introvert. She had even told Asuka, that older woman that she would try and be better. Sooner or later, she would have to step up, control and master her bloodline along with dealing with people.

(TLUS)

 

[Inuzuka Keiyaku]

~Topic Left~

 

[Kiriyomi]

[Topic Left]