Been Here... Before [Entering Country/Open]

[Kiri]

Taking another step, he looks up at the horizon. The large expanse of green canopies before him seemed almost like an ocean of leaves. And it made him wonder if he was on the right track. He didn’t remember the Wind Country having an endless expanse of forests, but he was certain it was the right path. Or was it?

Perching on the cliffside, he crouches for a moment and smoked a few times. The wind picks up on the smoke of his herbal cig and wafts it across the air before a gust blows against his face. At least he was glad that the chill breeze was somehow like home. He had been expecting the dry air of the canyons, as was written in those geography books he’d read before, but little did he know that his brother’s instincts of Leaf Country was at play.

He finished the smoke before standing up once more. Reaching his hand to give the side of his head a quick scratch as he was still not used to the rather short cut he did on his hair. He supposed he should refrain from doing it at night, not to mention he couldn’t really find a good angle to cut the hair on his back during their journey, and he didn’t want to ask Junko such a trivial thing as to cut his hair for him, that he ended up growing it longer. But perhaps, what was really the biggest change for him was when he had to stop by a town before leaving Lightning Country and getting a pair of specs. He lifts the frame of the glasses before settling it back down. Perhaps the nights of reading those medical books had gotten to him and strained his eyes for good.

He puts on the backpack once more, not bothering that it would leave creases along his light vest. He unrolls the dark sleeves of his shirt and locks them along the hem before tidying up the long red tie that dangles along his collar. He didn’t think he’d actually get into this sort of fashion but perhaps that bit of Junko’s personality had rubbed in on him.

Another sigh, thinking he may have gone to the wrong country by mistake and he was off to walking down the cliff. All the while, trusting the judgment of his brother’s memories of where they were going.

“Don’t be shy. I know you recognise the forest too,” said the beast inside his head.

“I do?” he wondered as he finally entered the shadows of the forest, looking up to the towering canopies. Smelling the scent of dew and lichen around him, Kiri would felt a little nostalgic. “Maybe. I don’t know. We’ll see.” Thus, he took another step into the unknown place.

[Entering Country]

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

The sound of a gunshot burst through the trees with the waves of sound bouncing off of the trees until the sound had dissipated. Practice makes perfect. Coffee-sensei sent here out into the woods to practice her rifle, the S20A Gallian. As much as Kaori didn't want to, her targets were small woodland creatures like squirrels and pheasants or other small critters running around the wood. She wasn't a sure-shot when it came to using this rifle that was nearly as tall as she was, however, with the proper grip upon the weapon, she made sure neither she, nor the rifle, would fall out of the tree. Each shot had a lot of recoil, pushing her back slightly.

The tree she was perched in offered plenty of places to sit and even rest the gun for an extra layer of stability when it came to aiming. Her current problem is actually pulling on the trigger, causing the weapon's muzzle to jerk upwards -- anticipating the bang of the weapon. She waited for a couple of hours for something else to come around, nearly falling asleep while waiting. She was much too young for coffee, so she had to use willpower to remain awake. After a moment, she saw a 12 point buck in the distance. The buck had a bright white tail. Lowering her profile, Kaori brought the weapon out and aimed down it's sights and loaded a round into the chamber via the bolt-action. Once a round was chambered, she started to monitor her breathing.

She breathed calmly and rhythmatically; deeply to slow her heart rate. The lower her heart-rate, the higher her shot accuracy was. It alleviated the tilted figure-eight motion kept her calm. As the buck reached down to take a bite out of the grass. With a quick hold of her breath, Kaori aimed down the sights and placed the cross-hairs upon the deer's throat and pulled the trigger, shooting a hot projectile straight into the animal's throat, instantly downing it with a single shot. A little frown came over her face as she looked over the kill for a moment with her naked eyes before looking back into the scope. She didn't want to kill this creature, but bringing something like this back would feed her family something different for a change.

She held the rifle in her recessive right-hand and started to climb (the old fashioned way) down the tree and made her way over to the downed buck. She looked at the pathetic creature as it choked on it's own blood. Pulling out a hunting knife, she quickly dispatched it -- ending it's misery. She said a few words for the creature. She was dressed in a shrine-maiden's outfit with detatched sleeves. She cleaned off her knife and started to look around. She knew how to kill the creature, but she was never taught how to clean the creature. Thanks Coffee-Sensei.

"Hello! Can anyone hear me? I need your help!" she shouted out, hoping her voice is heard. She wore a pair of red ribbons on the side of her head to cover up her black horns. If she did run into someone here, she didn't want them calling her a freak or attacking her, mistaking her for a demon of sorts.

[Topic Entered]

 

[Kiri]

Walking further into the forest, Kiri would suddenly come to a halt when an unearthly sound echoes along the canopy of trees. Some of the woodland creatures scattered at the sound, a few flew away. By experience, Kiri could tell that it was a sign that some kind of predatory presence was within the area. It could mean trouble. But if whatever it was was capable of producing that unknown sound that seemed like a sudden high-strung thunderous boom, he was certain it was far from being natural. Thus, he was on guard.

With his sword at a ready on his side, Kiri was very much confident, at the very least, to be able to fend for himself. So he approached with caution though he walked as normally as he would. And after a while, he would feel the presence of another in the area. At that point, the beast in him warned him, and he took it to hear. He strapped the backpack properly, freeing his hands for any need of action. And as he further neared the direction of the presence, he stopped midway, hiding under the shadows of the trees. He would observe the girl for a moment, not wanting to do anything to aggravate the situation.

And in that moment, he would have a brief discussion with his beast. Seeing how he was not in the familiar forest of Kumogakure, he had to take into consideration the laws of the land. Nodding in agreement, Kiri decided not to approach with an aggressive nature. Thus, he had to be mindful not to place his hand on his sword, nor to glare as he would come out from hiding and making his presence known to the girl with the dead deer, all the while taking note of the strange weapon-like thing.

"Are you", asked Kiri.

WC: 309
[MFT]

 

[Yume]

This sight was different. Yume was not surrounded by make up artists, producers, photographers, or even her manager. In fact, one would question why she was outside of village walls in a place like this if they knew her. She reached up and pulled her sun hat down a little further, shielding her eyes from the sun.

Yume wasn't here alone. Even when she was out at an unusual place, it was not so to always be accompanied by at least somebody. So, replacing her manager for today was her friend, a medic by the name of Wakahisa Yuri, who also happened to once save her life.

"I like your haircut, Eonni," the idol said, while the aforementioned rolled her eyes with a chortle and continued examining the shrubbery for certain flowers and herbs.

"Thanks," she replied anyway, straightening up. Yuri returned back to Yume's side, having found nothing she wanted. They continued their aimless wander through the forest, stopping at a seemingly random spot of grass. The pair sat down side by side, with Yume sighing and falling back further on the grass. Her hat tumbled off her head, caught by the medic before it rolled away any further. Yuri plopped it right back on her face, soon occupying herself with pulling the blades of grass.

"Is there a reason why you pulled me away from work to just come here and sit in the forest? Don't you have whatever idol work to do too?"

"... Girl's day out? I just want a change of scenery with my bestie?"

It's funny how who she considered her closest friends were all linked to the Yamaguchi somehow--the family that she wanted to originally distance herself from. Jun, her manager, worked for her father at some point. Yuri was the second generation of the family doctor, though that fact had mysteriously been stricken from the records. Not that Yume knew the details, she just knew these two used to (or maybe still currently) work for the family.

"Jun said you're skipping out on your job a lot more lately," Yuri sighed. "What are you, getting bored?"

Before Yume could banter back, the sudden bang of Kaori's rifle in the distance alerted the two girls. Yume shot up from her lay down in a snap. Her hat fell off her face and caught between her hands before she slapped it back on her head and repetitively smacked Yuri on the arm.

"Eonni, that's the sound when I got shot! Go! Go! Get him! I'll follow you!"

"Ow, ow, stop that! You can't tell if it's the same gun from just the sound! Someone is probably just hunting out here." Sometimes Yuri couldn't even tell if Yume was being traumatised or not either.

Sure enough, the call for help faintly echoed from the distance by a voice that did not sound like it would belong to a trained assassin. Nevertheless, a medic's oath called for nonmaleficence and benevolence, even when she was 'off-duty'. So Yuri got up first and glanced down at the idol who was intently staring at the general direction. She sighed, giving a last check of her syringes hidden against her leg before she walked off.

"I'll go first. You stay put."

Yume did... for about a minute. Hidden more in the spirit plane in ethereal form, she hung from a tree branch from above the scene. When Yuri found Kaori and Kiri with a dead deer, she wanted to facepalm in exasperation. Her initial guess seemed correct, but she asked anyway.

"Is everything alright here? I heard a call for help."

Topic entered with NPC. Marked for training.
Hope you don't mind, just most likely passing through :3

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

A very shrill scream came from Kaori as she was started by a mere two words. She quickly hid behind the carcass of the deer and aimed the weapon at the source of the noise. She didn't know how else to react. "Am I what?" she asked as she went towards the bolt of the gun, only to see it completely blown off. Piece of junk blew up only after a couple of uses, perhaps that was a sign from the Great Dragon to fight with valor and not with bullets. She threw the weapon to the side and stood up, holding her hands in laughter, as if to surrender. She didn't laugh because she thought it was funny, but to make her initial reaction sound like a joke.

"Oh, that thing?" she asked as she turned to look towards the rifle, which laid upon the ground next to the dead deer. "Don't worry about that thing," she said before lowering her arms to her side. "Sorry about that noise that sounded like thunder, that thing made it and it killed the deer." Why she felt compelled to explain herself was a strange question, maybe just in case this person in front of her was a super-strong ninja, her words would hopefully explain to the man that she meant no harm and to not outright cut her to ribbons.

Another scream yelped from her as Yuri spoke without Kaori realizing it, causing her to hide behind the deer once again. She noticed the blondes gathering, peering just above the body of the deer towards the first blond, Kiri, for a moment. "Friend of yours, Blondie?" she said towards Kiri. Only the top half of her head was visible from where the two blonds were positioned. The smell of the dying deer was starting to become noxious, causing Kaori to grow light-headed.

Kaori turned her head towards Yuri and nodded her head, still remaining behind the deer. "I'd be much better if one of you could help me bring the deer home. It's heavy."

 

[Kiri]

At first, confusion fell into his face the girl’s sudden reaction and question. Then, his beast somehow reminded him that he may have forgotten to actually his message properly. To that, Kiri made a slight nod as if in recognition of what he lacked. Eyes darting quickly to the side as he felt the presence of another had joined them in this unknown area. If only he knew where he had gotten himself into it would definitely be a big help. But for now, he had no idea how was before a girl who claimed to use a strange weapon to hunt a deer, and another who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

But this situation needed to be remedied, and the way the girl spoke to him felt rather uncomfortable. Not that he didn’t think being called the color of his hair was bad, but he was just not used to it, that it felt a little alienating. So he merely shook his head to answer her question before glancing back to the new presence. Eyes observing the person’s visage reminded him of those in the hospital back then, oh but it could just be a coincident, right?

Just then, he realised that the girl from earlier was seemingly retreating far too close to the corpse that Kiri could observe her voice lacking that bit fo energy from her earlier surprised pitch. Though he regularly hunts for training, Kiri had never been aversed to the scent of blood, and would not really understand the sudden illness that stricken the girl, but he could tell from observation that she was not exactly fine. Call it a medic’s hunch, or simply because he had been spending far too many hours in the hospital working that he somehow could tell simple signs like this.

“You don’t look too well. Here, I’ll help you,” he then said as he approached the corpse, leaning down to take hold of it, not seemingly bothered by its rather indecent visage. “And in return, perhaps you can help me. I need to reach a town where I can get hold of a messenger.”

 

[Yume]

Ah, it's little Kaori! Yume recognised the purple hair and priestess robes anywhere. But what is that she had in her hands? The Yamaguchi princess stared, feeling her heart beat just a little faster and a little more painfully. Of course, it was a ridiculous notion to think that someone like Kaori would be remotely associated with the mystery assassin. Yume just didn't seem to like looking at that... thing.

The hairs on the back of Yuri's neck prickled, as she looked at the deer with the bullet hole in its neck and then the broken weapon that most likely made it. Her face didn't give any of her thoughts away, but god, was she glad that she was the one that scouted first. She wasn't sure how Yume would react to this, even if it was entirely unrelated to her incident.

"Well, guess it's a good thing that there wasn't much of a problem," Yuri sighed, placing a hand on her hip. Like Kiri, the paling priestess didn't escape her medical radar either. She smiled politely, speaking in a mirthful tone that was very much like when she's on the job. "Do you need some water, darl?"

From up in the tree branch, Yume covered her mouth to hold back the giggle that threatened to escape her lips as Yuri offered a bottle of water if Kaori accepted. In a moment of distraction, she was just amused at her friend's sudden change in demeanour to what the latter called "medic mode". Yuri's true self was absolutely unsociable, a vast difference in her professional manner.

The moment was cut short though, with a sound of a quiet crack. Leaves rustled, jolting Yuri in alertness as she turned to the source just in time to see the branch Yume was hanging off from completely break.

CRACK!

"Eep!"

"Yun!"

Yume crashed onto the grass, cushioned by Yuri's catch after a split second of action. A groan came from one of the girls, whoever it was. The pair took a moment to gather themselves. Yuri stood there, glowering at her scraped arm, while Yume dusted her blue dress down and readjusted her hat.

"Oh, hi Kaori-chan!" Yume waved enthusiastically with a pleasant smile. It was like the trauma never happened. "Hello, stranger!"

"This idiotic princess...!" the medic hissed under her breath, with her truer personality slipping through the cracks. Manager would have killed her if there was another mark on Yume's skin. Yuri reached for a syringe that was stashed on her leg in the strap, disconnecting the needle and irrigating the wound silently while Yume approached the pair.

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Like clockwork, the big-strong man took the carcass away from her and she felt instantly better. She wasn't used to the festering stench of death, that being the first large thing she had killed. She had to kill little critters before and medium sized creatures like boar and other varmints, but this was the first time she ever fell something this large. She didn't hunt for sport. Everything she killed served a purpose; to feed those in the Shrine. The Shrine never really received a lot of money due to people not believing in the hocus-pocus superstition of the Great Dragon, so she had to learn how to hunt and kill things. Normally she would lay traps, but Coffee-Sensei had taught her the ways of the rifle, so she put those skills to good use.

The man hefted the deer away from her, allowing her to breathe once again. This astonished Kaori, standing up to bear witness to the man's herculean strength. Her mouth gaped open and she pointed at Kiri with an excited gasp. "Holy cow! You're strong, mister!" she exclaimed. Without even asking, she already knew this man was a shinobi.
If the blade didn't give away his position as a shinobi, then his unnatural strength did. Kaori ran around Kiri for a moment, plugging her nose and speaking with a nasally voice towards him.
"How much training did it take to get that strong, huh?" she said before appearing behind him.

"Huh?" before appearing to his side.
"Huh?" before appearing in front of him.
"Huh?" before appearing to his other side.
"Huh?" before appearing behind him once again.
She continued these revolutions a few times before the medic spoke to her and asked for water. She replied with a nasally voice. "Sure! Water is nice," she responded, still trying to deny the stench of the corpse from entering her nostrils. Yuri handed her a bottle of water and she fought with the bottle to open it for a moment before being successful. She took a quick sip, not being able to taste the water without tasting the stench of the dead body Kiri was holding. She heard a little sound that seemed a bit out of place and looked around. She blinked for a moment and took another sip before capping the bottle. A big and bright smile came across Kaori's face with a very animated nod. "MUUUUUCH better!"

Right as she spoke, a loud crack could be heard. It was as if a flash of lightning passed by her. She turned around and saw Yuri having caught Yume in her arms. With a slight look of confusion, she turned to see Yume being held in a princess-carry and instantly, Kaori squealed in delight. "You look so cute being held like a bride, Yume-Sensei!" she said with another girly squeal of delight. "What were you doing in the tree?" she asked, turning her head to the side for a moment.

Something clicked in her head. Her part of the bargain now. She turned back towards Kiri. "Well, my name is Kaori!" she introduced herself, now being put into a very pleasant mood with the presence of her favorite person in this village. She held a hand towards Yume, directing Kiri's attention towards her. "This beautiful goddess here is Yume-Sensei! She's probably the most beautiful woman in the village," Kaori said before turning back to Kiri. "Consider yourself fortunate for being able to lay eyes upon her," she said before turning to Yume and winking at her. She turned and looked back towards Kiri.

"Well, the village of Konoha is near here, I can take you there if Yume-Sensei says it's okay. But I can't allow you to enter, I don't have the autority for that," she said with a little giggle. "But since it's a message, um. Maybe, um. I don't know." She didn't know what to do with messages as that kind of information is a bit beyond her scope.​

 

[Kiri]

As he pulled the corpse of the deer away from the girl, the latter seemed to feel much better– cheery, in fact. And much to his surprise, she would give away her name, as with the names of the newcomer, who had unceremoniously fell off a tree branch. He would give the other woman some credit for moving fast to catch the redhead and seem unscathed from it. At that, though, he could tell that he was indeed in a different country– having to meet these new individuals, each carrying something rather curious about them, whether they be weapons or simply their character.

It was only natural that he, too, would have to introduce his name. “I’m Kiri,” he said quite briefly before dropping the dear aside. He didn’t want to have to deal with getting all bloodstained at the moment. He was busy trying to make sense of where he was, after all. However, as the girl mentioned that he was probably close by to Konoha, he suddenly felt a strange chill down his spine.

Should he accept the offer to be brought to the gates, it could potentially invite some trouble, seeing how his documents were with Junko. He’d rather not cause any problems for his Raikage at this juncture, especially when he was supposed to be on probation. But there must be a way to send the message.

“Hmm… well, I was just hoping if you know of any nearby villages, like an outskirt town. Anything small should suffice. Doesn’t have to be all the way to Konoha, as I don’t really have much business there. I’m sure the couriers in the other towns would be enough.”

WC: 280
[MFT]

 

[Yume]

Yume laughed at Kaori's squeal and nudged her medic friend with her elbow playfully. The blonde stared back in a deadpan, as if she knew something dumb was about to leave her voicebox. "Hey, maybe we should get married, Yuri!"

There it was. "You do not want to know what I think."

"Oh, I know plenty how you think! You'll totally love it!"

Yuri sighed, giving that as her only last response and returned to tending her arm. The idol saw that the scrape on her arm was quite large, with tree bark debris and dirt on the wound, most likely from skidding into the tree in order to catch her. Most of it was washed out by the medic though. While Kiri and Kaori were mildly distracted, Yume reached out, taking the arm in her hands and examined it briefly.

"Thanks for catching me, Yuri," she said, letting go and putting her palms together. Briefly pressing the edge of her hands against her nose as if in prayer, Yume exhaled and then took Yuri's injured arm back into her hold. The green chakra, normally indicative of healing, barely emitted from her hands, but it was enough to close up the superficial wound. Yuri took back her arm once it was done, rubbing it to soothe the lingering pain. It wasn't a full heal--she didn't expect that from someone like Yume, but it at least close up the wound and she had one less gateway to infection.

It was when Kaori introduced Yume to the stranger, did she perk back into the conversation. "Huh???" she sounded, utterly confused and pointing to herself. "Me, a wha--? Kaori-chan!"

She blushed, embarrassed of the words and shook her head vigourously. While Yume had no problem with doing or saying embarrassing things herself (to be fair, whatever she does she'd believe is completely normal), hearing words like that from another person made her feel shy and awkward. What do with that compliment?

Yuri, meanwhile, scoffed a laugh into her hand. The tone was slightly sarcastic. "Ha. Goddess."

The double meaning behind the remark might have flown over the head of the other two, but Yume glared half-heartedly at the blonde, wary.

"Well, Konoha is the closest village from where we are," Yuri said, changing the subject. "You should be able to send a message at the aviary."

That wasn't exactly "Yume-sensei" giving the okay, but that was close enough.

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Kaori tilted her head towards Kiri introducing himself. Curiosity struck when she heard the name, wondering why anyone would name their male child a feminine sounding name. Perhaps their parents wanted a daughter? But then again, Kasumi would be a much better name than Kiri would. The nuances of their language still annoys her as she didn't quite understand subtleties much due to her lack of experience out in a world beyond the Shrine. She would say something in response to the name, but that wasn't important right now. What was important was getting this man to bring the dead animal back to the Shrine.

Kaori smiled towards Yume, noticing her stumbling upon her words. It's a shame that Kiri didn't even make any mention on Yume's beauty. He must not favor girls. Her smile turned into quite the foxy grin. Yume, however, answered the question for the man and it was information she needed. Messengers via aviary; whatever that is.

And just like that, the man dropped the deer. "Heeeeeeey!" she said out of slight annoyance. There was no way she was going to heft something THAT big by herself. She was originally planning on splattering small game, cleaning them, and then returning with the small loot. But the opportunity to get big game was too good to pass up. "There are other villages outside? I don't know about that," she said, ignorant of the country she lived in. Being in this forest was, after all, the furthest she had been away from the Shrine. The outside world, she knew, existed but she didn't know what all was on the outside. As far as she knew, it was a world filled with savages and mongrels. Needless to say, with how prim and proper Kiri looked, that wasn't the case.

"I mean, you're like, a quarter mile (0.402 km), away from Konoha. Why not just go there? That's where I'm headed anyway," she said as she eyeballed the animal. Perhaps cleaning it would probably be a better idea. With a little groan, she pulled out a knife and got to work cleaning the animal while it laid on the ground. After opening up the animal, Kaori made a strange noise sounding like a mixture of a groan and dry-heaving as the smell of the insides of the creature wafted into her nose.

"By the Great Dragon, what did this thing eat?" she said, moving an arm over her nose while cutting away at the creature.
She quickly held her breath and pulled out the innards before cleaning out the rest. She pulled out the heart and liver, saving those for another time.
Removing this thing's head is going to be a nightmare. She had cleaned quite a few animals back in the day, but nothing to this scale.

"Well, if you aren't going to help me carry this, at least help me skin it," she said towards the man. There was blood EVERYWHERE where the innards lay. It wasn't a pretty site at all, but Kaori needed to eat. The Shrine has made buying food out at restaurants absolutely taboo.
Regardless of how many times Kaori broke the taboo, eating out still gets pretty expensive so her only other alternative is to kill for food. It's a sad way to do things, but that's the culture of her family.​

-
WC: 555
[MFT]

 

[Kiri]

It was just now, when Kiri noticed how the redhead blushed that he understood the words of Kaori from earlier. Oh, he thought, and he ended up staring at her for a while longer while nodding in acknowledgment. He did notice that there was a faint trace of chakra in the air, so he thought that this people were indeed shinobi to some degree.

But then, Kiri was surprised by the young girl’s adamant behaviour towards the dear. He wondered why it was so, but he would keep silent for now. Instead, he would answer to her other question. “Yes, there are. You’d be surprised at how big the world could be. I mean, in my case, I’m quite lost right now just to show you how large the world is out there.” And of course, the conversation went back to the idea of heading off to Konoha. It was really a tempting offer, but at that moment, Kiri did not want to have any unwanted problems. “Uh… I really would rather not.”

It was at that moment when the girl, Kaori, would go towards the dead dear and just as Kiri first thought, she was indeed going to harvest the animal. He sighed at the thought. He had done animal dissection before, and it wasn’t reserved to small creatures, either, mostly for his studies on anatomy and such. And seeing how the girl was really persistent in this, Kiri knew he had to at least be kind enough to these strangers.

As such, Kiri would walk towards Yume and Yuri first, placing down his backpack next to them, then taking off his vest and dress-shirt, before folding them and placing them on top of his things. “If you find the smell of a corpse displeasing, you can wait for a bit over there. Can you please watch over my things while I help her?” he said, without really waiting for an answer as he took off his katana and wakizashi, placing them next to the bag as well, before he turned on his heels and began to walk back to Kaori.

Now barechest, he would seemingly pull out a strangely thin kunai, almost like a scalpel but far larger than the one used in hospitals from his side holster on his leg. He would then crouch near the dear, not showing any signs of feeling offended by the order at all, before he began and grabbed onto the carcass and skilfully moved the thin kunai, slicing into the skin yet delicately separating it from muscle tissue, and muscles from certain bones.

 

[Yume]

"Well, we--" Yuri exhaled from her nose and stared down at the backpack and clothes dropped in front of her. She grimaced. "... should be going..."

"If you need to go back to the hospital, you can Yuri," Yume said, crouching down as her seat. "Kaori-chan, come sit with me! What are you doing, hunting for such big game? Is a party happening soon?"

The smell of blood and innards didn't bother Yume too much, though it was an interesting point to note the foul odour. If Kaori had killed it just recently, decomposition shouldn't be that fast acting yet. The redhead fixated her sights on Kiri as he cleaned out the animal, Her wrist pressed close to her nose, masking over the smell with her perfume. She slid her eyes to left, then looked to the right. Either this deer was already sick by the time she killed it, or it was caused by something otherworldly. She didn't see anything yet, but that didn't completely cut the possibility.

Turning to Kaori and opening her arms for a hug, Yume squeezed her close to her bosom once Kaori came close. "Thank goodness it was just you," she said cryptically.

Meanwhile, Yuri shrugged at Yume's suggestion to return. She was already out--luckily at an unremarkable time of day. The others should be able handle it. If not, that's what radio if for. Instead, she approached Kiri with a pair of examination gloves already pulled over her hands. With a quick glance at his deskinning work, she said nothing, but instead ended up looking at the large scalpel-like weapon.

"Do you mind if I take a look at that?" she asked, gesturing to it. Yuri was curious to know where she could get one. For what? Who knows.

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Kaori looked up to see the man getting undressed. Her arms were covered in blood as she finished pulling out the innards and the rest of the gore from within the animal. Since he said he got it, she wiped the blood from her hunting knife on her pant leg and put it away. Upon Yume's request, she took a seat next to her, watching the man carve the skin off of the creature. "Well, my mother said it's a taboo to go eat food at a restaurant and said that the only food we are allowed to eat was food that we brought home ourselves. Normally, I'd come back with a small rabbit or a couple squirrels," she said, but the way she hunted them was an absolute pain and was extremely time consuming. It was considered one of her Shrine duties; to feed everyone. She had been doing this for about a year now.

She had broken this 'so-called taboo' on a couple occasions, eating food that was already prepared or food that was made at a restaurant. She doesn't completely agree with this taboo, thus the reason she committed it on several occasions, but to avoid her mother's wrath she had no choice but to submit to the rules. "A party, huh? That would be nice. Sadly, mother thinks that the Shrine is a place for worship and not a place for fun," she said before the words 'or electrical things' was said in a much quieter tone. The boombox given to her by Yume is well-hidden; away from her mother's ears and eyes and away from anyone who would let her mother know. A boombox isn't necessarily worth the lashings she'd get, but listening to music at her convenience was something she treasured.

Suddenly, Kaori's face went into Yume's chest. The cryptic words spoken from the woman caused Kaori to question what she just heard. Due to respecting Yume, she doesn't wrap her arms around her. Getting blood all over an idol would make rumors fly and for someone as important as she was to her, that isn't something she wanted to happen. But, it was at this moment that Kaori just closed her eyes and just enjoyed being in the embrace of another human being. Due to her mother's obsession with the Great Dragon, and the fact that her mother doesn't see her as a human being, she lacked things like affection or love. So for now, she'll just stay like this for a little while (or until she lets her go, that is)​

 

[Kiri]

Given the time for this, Kiri proceeded to skin the deer without delay. Soon enough, he would be approached by Yuri, as she leaned forward. He was a bit worried that he would get her uniform stained by the blood of the animal, but seeing how the other was unperturbed by the scent of death, he decided to think of the latter in a different light. Besides, if what her appearance told him right, she was someone who worked in the hospital and perhaps something like this would seem ordinary.

Ah, but to his surprise her curiosity went towards his kunai. For a second, Kiri would look at her with a blank expression before he looked at the long thin kunai that he used like a scalpel. Then, he would drop the carcass he held on one hand before placing the face of the blade on his palm. A smooth movement, careful enough not to press down on his flesh, and he would wipe the blood on the edge before he reached it out for the other.

“Not exactly as clean as it should be, but why are you interested?” asked Kiri, eyes expectant of a curious answer from the other.

 

[Yume]

"Oh, I just haven't seen something like that before," Yuri replied, taking the scalpel shaped kunai gratefully. She examined it, checking its weight in her hold and then returned it. There was no need to test it out--it'd be rude to do so anyway. She smiled.

"I was wondering where I could get one myself." Glancing back at the once was deer, Yuri bowed her head towards Kiri. "Seems like you're doing a fine job. I'm heading back to the village, but you can follow any one of us to Leaf. Nice to meet you, Kiri-san."

She made her way back towards Yume and Kaori. The medic peered at the two, the princess was hugging the priestess tight, petting her hair and staring off intently into the air. Yuri paused for a second, watching the scene a little longer until she stepped into Yume's field of view. She crouched down to Yume's face level, overlapping her head with the invisible beastly ghoul that was staring challengingly down at little Kaori.

"You alright, Princess?" Yuri called boredly, waving her hand in front of Yume's face. Yume didn't move at first, but then she loosened her grip on Kaori, not quite releasing her yet. She smiled, despite the annoyance in her eyes for being called that.

"Of course! What makes you ask that?"

"You look uncharacteristically focused," Yuri remarked, looking over her shoulder in attempt to see what Yume was seeing. There was nothing. "What were you looking at?"

"Oh, you know this and that. It's gone now, you scared it off."

Yume gave Kaori one last pat on her head before letting go of the hug. She looked down at her and smiled. "Poor Kaori-chan, you have so many responsibilities. Maybe you should run away with me," she joked.

"Don't even start about that," Yuri sighed, straightening up. "The hospital's calling me back. They're a little short on surgeons now."

"Oh, sure. I'll go back too." Yume hopped to her feet, dusting off her dress. She paused upon seeing a small spot of blood on the side of her dress, but brushed it off as quickly as she noticed it. Yuri saw too and crouched again to Kaori's level, pulling out her bottle of water and pouring it over her hands.

"Here, wash your hands."

Yume turned to Kiri and cupped her hands to call to him. "Hey! Do you need a hand? I can get someone out here with a box to carry all that!"

Acceptance or decline, it didn't quite matter. Yume made a radio call to ask for an assistant to come out anyway. They could use them as they see fit. After that, the two women bade their goodbyes. "Nice meeting you, Kiri-san! Kaori-chan, I'll see you around okay?" Yume chirped, while Yuri merely bowed her head with a simple goodbye.

Topic left unless stopped

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Again, someone called Yume 'princess'. Perhaps it was Kaori's affinity towards the pop idol, but just hearing that made her a little annoyed as well. She puffed out her cheeks a bit before Yume slowly loosened her grip upon her. Something beckoned at her as if Yume had to go. She gave Yume puppy-dog eyes for a moment once she released the hug and sighed outwardly at the mention of running away. She would love to run away with Yume, but her responsibilities remained here in Konoha and with fulfilling Mina's dream to becoming a ninja (and a damn good one at that). All Kaori did was just give Yume a smile as an answer to the running away portion.

Her idol had to go to the hospital. Busy life, she had. She had to balance being a pop-star and possibly a medic? Kaori didn't really know much about Yume other than what she would tell her.
She wanted to know more about her, but due to life being a busy mistress, that may take some time; quite some time, indeed. A bottle of water was presented and she rinsed her hand under the flowing water, cleansing the blood off of it. "Thanks~" she said as she shook her hands as dry as she could before drying the rest off on her haori. A quick wave was given to Yume and Yuri as they left. A long sigh was made as the two exited the stage.

The purple haired Shrine Maiden turned to look towards Kiri and smiled at him. He cut up quite a big portion of the meat. "You can take some of it with you. There's a lot of meat here, most of which I can't carry myself," she said. She pulled out her hunting knife that she used to tear into it initially and started to hack at the deer, making amateur-esque cuts into the deer, carving the meat off of the bones and thick hide. There was still plenty of meat upon the deer's hide, not being precise enough with the cuts to make every little bit count. The pieces she cut apart were set to the side before she started to cut into the deer's hide, creating a make-shift bag for her to carry the meat.

Sweat dripped down her forehead and into her eyes as she finished cutting the hide into a pouch-of-sorts to carry the meat. She piled the majority of the meat onto the skin and started to pack it up. Quite a bit of meat was left out for Kiri to take, himself. She turned and looked towards the man, dripping with sweat. "Thanks for the help! I don't know if there are any villages around here for you to deliver the message to, but I can take the message and have it sent by the birds to whoever it needs to go to," she said. One good turn deserved another right? She was willing to deliver his message while she was on her way in towards the village. She took the make-shift bag and set it off to the side and grabbed the remains of the animal and started to drag it off of the main road. Normally, she would bury this creature's remains, but she doesn't quite have the proper tools to do that. After dragging the remains off of the main path,
she wiped her brow and looked up towards Kiri. "So, how about it?"​

 

[Kiri]

Yuri would give him a brief explanation about her interest in the kunai. Kiri would have mentioned that he got it as a gift from his mentor, which would not be helpful should she inquire him where it could be made, but he would not have the time to do so. Yuri went back to the redhead and as Kiri observed they seemed to be of the mind to move on to a different location. Kiri stood up from there and gave the thin kunai a wipe once more before hearing Yume’s suggestion to help them by having some folks come down to help with the carrying. And before he knew it, they were off to leave.

It seemed like today’s encounter was coming to an end. Kaori was also of the mind to finish the deer’s preparation, putting things together into the makeshift pouch from the deer’s own skin. And when given a portion of the ration, Kiri didn’t mind. “I suppose even a little would be good enough,” he replied as he would come back to his backpack and took out a hard cloth he could use to wrap the deer meat in for traveling. As he was packing it, he would remind Kaori, “That redhead, Yume, she said that she’ll have some people to come to help you carry the meat. So I suppose you can wait for them. There’s still a lot, after all. And judging from the way you’ve hunted this deer, you might need more of the meat more than I do.”

Kiri made a brief handseal before gathering his chakra to produce a sprits of water to flow and rinse off the blood from his hands. He then gathered his things once more and was prepared to leave. Just then, he would glance back to the girl and say, “Thanks for the offer but I wouldn’t want to burden you on this message. If fate has it, we’ll meet again. Hopefully, you won’t be hunting me.”

And with that, Kiri would start walking the opposite path of hers.

[Topic Left]

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

The little bit of water that the man spirited forth was amazing. Her eyes fixated on the bit of water in sheer awe. So that is the power of ninjutsu! Being able to create something out of nothing, without any kind of equivalent exchange amazed her. Perhaps someone could form fire out of nowhere or even conjure lightning bolts from the sky. She caught herself staring for a moment before she gave off a small laugh. "Well,
let's hope it doesn't come down to that. You seem nice," she said. The manner that the man said that was rather cryptic and there was something hidden behind the veil of his words. A reason for her to hunt him, potentially, in the future isn't something she wanted to think about. Which, being a future shinobi, may be a possibility depending on the path she chose for herself. Whether to become a hunter or a savior. That path is still undetermined.

There would be people coming to help with the scraps of meat. She did, indeed, leave more than enough meat on the creature's bones due to being in a rush and not salvaging every last morsel. With a sigh, she simply waved to the man as he took off. Gathering up the hide bag, she dragged it towards the dead deer and sat in waiting. Yume was going to send word for someone to come and help so all she could do, at this point, was wait. While she was waiting, she started to hum a melody of a song that was passed down her family.

​

[Topic Left]​