A Stroll through the Clouds [Free/Open RP]

[Kuro]

After finishing up asking around about ore pricing in the market stalls of the Dawnbringer's Plaza, Iwakajiya Kurogane decided to take a relaxing stroll around the district, admiring the architecture of the village in general. Ever since he moved here from the Fire Country he's been finding the ambiance of the village interesting. It was the perfect place for a Kyoujouran, with mountains as the main theme of the village, the earth and sky the gods, in a way.

Though from his endeavors at the marketplace he realized his luck was worse as it has ever been. The one thing he was good at trading happened to be the most commonly traded resource in this country. Perhaps it really was a good thing he signed up to become a shinobi of the village. This way he had something to keep him occupied again aside from just living alone in the forest. Well, he wasn't alone the entire time...

Where was Senka, anyway? She seemed to have already integrated herself in the village, perhaps a lot faster than he did himself, but that was to be expected. She was much younger than he was, and although he was not exactly decrepit, he was still getting used to the fact that he was a regular Jounin again. It brought back memories to wear a village sigil on his head, though this new symbol was a strange one. The leaf of Konoha was no masterpiece, but it seemed to be more interesting than a few blotches pretending to be clouds, but perhaps that was just his own opinion. He tightened his headgear all the same, and wore it with pride.

The Kyoujouran's pale blue eyes scanned aimlessly around the area while his feet told him where the people around him were walking. Sometimes he missed being able to see without having to exert himself, but he was glad his worst days were over, when he used to find walking around without his sensei's eyes very difficult and graceless. Now he probably convinced people that he could see like any other, until they take a closer look at his eyes and realize he was never looking at anything in particular.

He felt a chill in the air, which was generally the case in the Lightning Country, at least in his opinion, but he learned quickly that this particular chill meant it was getting dark. Maybe he should go looking for Senka before going to their new home, though he felt she could take care of herself by now, after all the training conferred to her.

[Marked for Training, 431 words]

 

[Senka]

Apparently the sun was going to rise from the west the next morning, as Senka walked through the streets of the village and happened to come upon Kurogane. It was certainly not a scripted encounter, and neither had it been planned beforehand by the two involved, but a certain level of inevitability was present.

"Just say that you're happy he finally posted."

Senka was in her usual habit of talking in the direction of some unseen entity, as she quickly approached her foster-father and mentor, knowing that he would be able to sense her even before she was within earshot. Even then, she jumped up at his back and attached herself to it like a monkey.

"Now, I've been all alone for a whole month. Finally you came, too."

With these words, she let go and slid down from Kurogane's tall back.

"I thought we agreed on your character setting to have your eyes always closed. You really should be available more often, he-"

Pointing in the direction of an invisible entity again.

"-has something to show you. Or rather..."

She pointed at thin air somewhere above Kurogane, as if she could discern an invisible puppeteer.

"... for you."

With this, she stopped her random actions and proceeded to act according to the laws of the world they lived in.

"And, have you thought of what we are going to do now? Don't tell me we'll be going home after this."

Or not.

 

[Kuro]

Kurogane felt footsteps he recognized quickly. As usual, Senka began speaking to her imaginary friends. "Oi, there's no one there, Senka-chan."

The topic quickly changed to his eyes. "I don't know what you're talking about. My eyes are just fine the way they are..."

Then came a topic of her imaginary friends having something for him. He was already immune to her strange ways, and knew to simply ignore the girl when she started acting like the gods were speaking to her. Though, thankfully, she came up with a topic that made some more sense. What was their plan, now that they were in Cloud?

"Well, actually, my only plan was to settle down here and get myself set up, though they don't seem to have any need for my typical services... Maybe you should tell your invisible friends to bestow me with luck, so I can make a living on the side." His thoughts spiraled for a bit in his head as he came up with the next conversational path.

"You seem to have gotten integrated here, in the branch you chose. I can't seem to get used to this cloudy atmosphere... I guess at some point I should begin doing typical Main Branch things in the village..."

 

[Senka]

"I know I know, for everybody else they are invisible... well, for me, too, but I know they are there. It's just certainty. And only yours can bestow you with luck, mine has no power over that."

Senka once again rambled on about those invisible puppeteers that controlled every individual in the world, with some controlling more than one at a time.

"Well... I wouldn't call myself integrated just yet. For some reason everybody was fine with the things I did the way I did them, so they allowed me to continue with it. Thus, I don't need to wear a full mask and those uniform black robes for work, as long as I don't expose myself too much."

Then, as if the puppeteer behind Senka suddenly remembered something, she put her fist in her palm in a realization-like move.

"This makes me wonder... in a world where people can see ghosts and spirits, why is it that people treat me as if I was abnormal? For all you know, I could be actually conversing with a spirit of your ancestors..."

Senka pouted while looking up at Kurogane's near three more feet of height. She was, in a sense, touching a subject that needed addressing just as much as the fact that people could have animal features, such as ears and tails, without having to give a proper explanation as to whether they had two sets of ears or why at least their lower bodies were not completely covered in fur, if the tail was not just a naked, rat-like tail. However, she did not want to bring up that subject at the moment, there were other matters to attend to.

"You know, the only reason I'm here is because you are here. But never forget that there is something I need to do..."

Suddenly, her expression became more somber and her voice carried a solemnity, both rarely witnessed in her usually random but mostly upbeat demeanor. She looked around to see whether some curious ears were directed at the pair, and continued.

"... and maybe you will finally be rid of me after that."

Senka looked up with a heart-breaking smile, before she turned away. When she looked back up, she had returned to her usual self.

"For now, let's do our best to fit in, I guess?"


[Marked for Training]

 

[Kuro]

Sometimes Kurogane just believed something happened to her head when she had that accident all those years ago, when they first met. She began explaining that the 'entities' owned them and decided their fate for them. He was glad when she began talking about her branch and their freedoms, but the delight faded quickly when she then started talking about spirits.

"Well, I never believed in them. I believe in my own abilities, and that which I can see- erm, sense myself... Anything else is simply a magic trick, or a type of fancy jutsu."

Suddenly, however, the light-hearted Senka darkened the mood by implying Kurogane would ever drop her at a moment's notice. He studied her face in his mind, trying to decipher what she might have been hiding in her words.

"Revenge usually only ends in sadness or madness. Rarely has it ever brought comfort or anything positive to anyone's life. Though I will not stop you from living your life the way you want to live it, and choosing the paths you decide are the best for you, but I will advise against it." The Kyoujouran's voice paused for a moment, then added, "I don't consider our relationship to be something to dispose of when certain things occur, and I don't plan on letting you go through the experience you went through before... At least not until you are too old for this world..."

She became her usual self after that, and Kurogane simply shrugged and began thinking of ways he could fit in.

"Well, just try not to talk to your imaginary friends too much in front of others. That should help in getting you to fit in with the normal shinobi around you." He smiled, wondering if she would ever change.

 

[Senka]

Kurogane's partially funny wording detracted from the seriousness of his advice, and even though Senka had heard them repeatedly over the past seven years, they touched something deep within her. As if she could almost see the light, her soul would strive to leave behind the bottomless abyss of revenge and try to grab onto the almost visible ledge that was salvation. However, every single time a fearsome beast would, overshadowing all of her existence with its sheer presence, bite onto her and drag her back down, whispering pernicious words of hatred and despair.

Yet, the little girl embraced the beast's cruel caress, for it was the one force holding her back from leaving this world; if she were to give in to reason rather than the lust for revenge, her soul would move on and finally pass into the afterlife, as it had been intended for her on that dreadful night. She had sworn to persist until her tormentors met a fate worse than what they had bestowed upon her little body.

"You know that... I won't change my mind."

Oh, how often had she repeated that response to Kurogane's preaching?

"It's the only way for me to die in peace... it's the only reason I'm alive right now... literally."

With these words, she turned away and decided to change the topic for good.

"And those are neither imaginary nor my friends... it's just that only I can see them."

A pout played over her simulated mouth above the mask, an expression much more bearable to witness than what was underneath the special order Chakra-infused surgical mask she had created with the help of some craftsmen from the ANBU branch.

"Now that I think about it... that is kinda the definition of imaginary friends."

Bringing her index finger up to her lower lip, Senka made a philosophical gesture, before giving up trying to explain how it worked.

"No, explaining it would take up too much time for the readers. And it's boring. But the execution of this literary device is interesting at worst and hilarious at best, so it's all good."

Those words were, once again, directed at nobody in particular, but Senka was clearly looking past the same letters as they were displayed on every screen, her attention directed at what lay beyond. Then she turned back to Kurogane.

"And what do you mean... normal Shinobi? Shinobi being normal already means that they failed at their job."

 

[Kuro]

Senka wasn't swayed by his words, but he was used to that. He could understand that that was the main reason she was alive, but he still believed she could still let go and move on, even if it meant she would actually move on. But he would not try to convince her anymore. It was her business. His parents forced themselves into his business throughout his lifetime, and he definitely did not enjoy it, so he understood Senka needed her space.

The topic of 'normal shinobi' seemed to interest the girl. "What do you mean by shinobi fail at their job? Their job is just as much to preserve the economy of the village as it is to go on missions and attack other villages and nations. In fact, the more 'normal' a shinobi acts, the better they can blend in with their surroundings, making it easier to do espionage missions and stealth in general. You should keep that in mind in case we need to sneak around at any moment..."

 

[Senka]

"Really, you're not one to speak of sneaking... your finesse is matched only by mine when I have to... descend a slope."

Senka, due to her previous experience with an unsuccessful and involuntary flight program, could not, put mildly, control her footing properly whenever she had to walk down anything that was steeper than an average tilted roof. In fact, she would flail like a dying fish and roll down the slope rather than walk down, as if completely forgetting her training and Chakra control.

"You know how I meant it... those Shinobi that are "normal" here are anything but. They are neither stealthy nor do their appearances allow them to properly blend in. So far I haven't seen any of your stereotypical Ninja... you know, hiding in the shadows and being generally invisible to the untrained eyes. And surely you won't argue against the fact that I have trained eyes."

The little girl looked up into Kurogane's eyes, but knew that he would not see her expression; nonetheless, she made a skeptical face. Not only was she an ANBU, the supposedly most elite troops of the whole village, but also a master at disappearing, both from one's field of view and from important situations in which her presence is required.

"Well, as long as we're in this village, there won't be much need to sneak around. It's as peaceful as a big family on drugs."

A certain undertone could be heard in Senka's voice suggesting that the status quo was not entirely to her liking, but she preferred days of peace over her home being raided. Then again, she would not be as helpless as she had been on that day seven years ago.

 

[Kuro]

Senka joked about his own abilities in stealth, to which he could only grimace, not quite agreeing with the statement. He felt he could sneak if the situation called for it, he was just never sent on such missions to try it out.

Then the girl said something about her eyes, and Kurogane felt the skepticism glaring at him as he peered back in emptiness.

"Yes, this is definitely a place we can relax in for a while. At least until we begin being sent on missions for the village and such. It's too bad we're in different groups, so I can't wat-" -ch over you, he wanted to say, but he stopped himself. He didn't want to sound like a smothering parent. "Ahem, we can't watch each others' backs on missions."

He scratched his head and moved his eyes to the sky, imagining the stars that would be above them right about now. Though, for all he knew, the sky was cloudy in Cloud, and one could never see the stars. In his mind they were beautiful. Maybe one of these days he'll take a look at them with his sensei's eyes.

"It's getting late. Maybe we should head home?" He slowly made his way towards their Cloud residence, expecting Senka to follow.

[Topic Left unless stopped]

 

[Senka]

Senka noticed the words Kurogane had wanted to use, but as he corrected himself, she felt no need to comment on it. Indeed, they were in different sections, only born of a selfish desire of the stitched-up girl to be able to create a unique mask of her own, and her love for information. She had specifically asked the upper brass to not assign her any missions outside the village so that she could remain close to her foster-father, in case either of them required help due to some unforeseen situations.

"It might be time for us to do something along the lines of a mission... there has never been any danger ever since..."

Trailing off, the stitched-up girl decided not to bring the topic up again.

"Yes, let's go home."

She followed Kurogane, as they walked through the night, leaving her to wonder about the time of the topic; had it been set at shortly after sunset at the very beginning?


[Topic Left]