Open Dissolution of The Past

[Ayeka]

A pallor seemed to hang over the leaf village as grey clouds obscured the bright blue sky while silver sheets of mists gently kissed the top of the roofs leaving the village in a strange gloom as a gentle sprinkle of rain lightly fell across the village. However despite the weather the village remained active as lamps filled the streets and soon the illumination beat back the gloom as sellers shouted on the streets about their wares and offers while ninja and civilians alike busied themselves while all being watched over by the gargantuan heads of the previous Hokage. Sitting atop the head of a great ninja she did not know was a figure clad in a red jacket with a hood pulled up obscuring the persons features except for a few strands of white hair. The person sat silently and alone with her legs crossed in front of her and her back ram rod straight as if she was meditating but in actuality she was carefully observing the village below and her posture was just an old bad habit that had been trained into her. It had been a month since the dark skinned girl had come to the village or more like since she had been rescued by a family member she had never knew and the changes since then the changes had been almost overwhelming as she suddenly found herself with more food than she could ever eat by herself, her own bed that didn't need her chained to the wall and a Brother that for some reason cared for her to an extreme degree.

It was a lot to process and so when the opportunity came for her to sneak out from her brothers hawk like gaze Ayeka seized the chance to go explore and possible find a place to think. Which had lead her to the top of the Hokage mountain away from the crowds so she could gaze down and just think about what she wanted and what she needed to do to achieve her wants.

[WC: 341]
MFT

 

[Basuta]

Now, from time to time your boy gets around town. Not every day is spent getting money or women. Some days you gotta get the gains in order to assist in getting those other two. Sometimes I do my gym thing at,… drum roll,… the gym, you guessed it. But sometimes it gets crowded there and a bunch of people are in the way, raaaacks are being hoooged, peeeeople wanna act like they don’t have sense taking up more that one piece of equipmennnt, then they wanna be louuuud for no d@#* reeeeason with unnecessary gruntinnng and stuff. Yeah sometimes I gotta skip that stuff and head out side to seclusion.

So I keep it simple in my fitness gear due to the light drizzle right? Shades, red hoody no sleeves, black jogging pants with red stripes you know, the type. The ones I like to wear for the night life. Not THAT night life, the other thing. Anywho, I decided to keep it simple on the foot gear and support a new sneaker brand trying to dig its way out of the obscurity, Cloak and Dashers. I calls them CDs for short. On those, red base with black designs and grey trims.

So I stop at Mount Dead Head and find a cliff to my liking, set up to get some calisthenics in and,… What? I swear man ya’ll be sleeping on the calisthenics man, but trust me, it gets you right and cut in soooo many ways. So I peeps someone not to far, feminine-like figure from the looks but, I gotta stay focused. Besides, hoodies hide and they hide for a reason. Could be the weather, or she could be ugly. Idontknow. I mean I’ll give a nod if she looks my way but, yeah. I mind my biz keeping a fair distance and get situated on a cliff that will support me. Then I dip myself over the ledge and go vertical and curl myself up with one hand on the ledge and the other bracing the wrist. No chakra, that cheating. After a set of ten, I switch hands.

 

[Shion]

Typical rainy season weather. You couldn’t really make heads or toes out of it and this was no other. Nova knew like no other that you could quickly get soaked in this weather. This was why he was holding an umbrella while wearing casual streetwear with a hoodie on top. The hoodie wasn’t pulled up ’ yet’ and while he wasn’t a Hawkeye, he could clearly see people sitting on top of the stone heads.

after the walk going up, he noticed it was a female and a male… off the ledge. It seemed like he was doing some sort of training, and the last time he disturbed one he got books and stuff yeeted at him.’ Not sure if I should go to him… Maybe in a moment, he seems busy.’ He would get closer and simply say hello, before moving to the motionless female, at least in his eyes.

He would hold the umbrella on top of her so she wouldn’t be slowly soaking further. “You know… Most people don’t pick Asuka’s head to sit down on… I am Nova by the way” He mentioned and would look to the busy life below at the village and then the guy again. “If you do keep training like that much longer you eventually catch a cold you know!” He called out to the man on the ledge and took a casual stance so he wouldn’t be a dominant person straight off the bat when he tried to get to know others. All this time, he kept the umbrella over the female while his shoulder was slowly getting damp of the drizzle.

[mft]

 

[Ōtakemaru]

Rain… fitting.

Take had given up on a lot of things throughout his life. It was always a coping mechanism, to avoid breaking his own expectations… in order to avoid hurting his own ideals. Why try so hard in hopes of a better tomorrow when you could just give up? It wasn’t as if things would ever work out, anyways.

Why did he delude himself so? He really thought… he really thought that they’d be together. He really thought that they would stick together. He and Aria… but why did he ever believe such a thing? Didn’t he know himself? Nothing would ever work out for him. What an idiot…

She wanted to challenge everyone. Certainly, her passion was stronger than her reason… did that mean that he… but why? Why? WHY?! WHY?! WHYYYYY?! She couldn’t just leave him as the ‘favorite’ person – what did that mean?! What if she were to get herself killed?! HE LOVED HER!!! And he wanted to love her for the rest of his life… and she didn’t even… she didn’t even had it in her to face him. Not one last time, not even.

Yet the idiot hadn’t taken the next step off the cliff. Clad in his purple haori, in his characteristic gear, the mist and the rain fed him with such unbearably toxic thoughts and he screeched deep inside, begging himself to stop it… nay, to end it. But he couldn’t, for despite the pain she’d caused him, he just… kept imagining her. Right in front of him… embracing him like she did back at the hospital. That one memory tormented him, forbade him from going too far.

… He heard Nova’s voice from Asuka’s head, while Take himself stood upon Takeshi’s head on the cliff. It sort of snapped him back to reality, but someone else was stationed atop Asuka’s stone hair. A person he did not recognize… but what did it matter? Take didn’t know everyone in the Leaf, did he? Probably just a friend of Nova’s, and who was he to butt into their business?

… The pessimism in that thought was brought to light in front of his eyes. Why was he being rude? Why was he thinking of being rude? The realization brought him to tears, prompting the samurai to sit down and hug his knees to hide his sobbing. He just couldn’t find any peace inside of him…

WC: 402 [MFT]

 

[Ayeka]

Ayeka seemed to stiffen for a moment at the sound of voice behind her before she slowly titled her head to the side in order to peekk over her shoulder making sure to keep all but her jawline hidden within the shadows of her hood. A blonde boy with blue eyes and delicate features was what greeted Ayeka's sight causing the girl to suddenly jump to her feet and spin around. As the girl stood it would become apparent that she was nearly six foot tall and built with a lot of muscle making her seem like she was nineteen instead of her true age which was thirteen. The girl jolted with surprise as the top of her head lightly impacted the umbrella that had been held over her to shield her from the rain causing a blush to slowly creep up the girls neck as she hunched down to stay under the umbrella. "Um yes....er um I..I..I came h.here because it ju..just felt right.....Um like a..a..another life I lived long ago." The girls voice was soft and gentle even while she stumbled over her words and as she talked her hands came up to steeple her fingers while she looked down at them. " I um got g..given the name Ayeka andthankyouforthecover" Rushing out her introduction only caused the girls blush to deepen as she fidgeted in embarrassment while at the same time felt elation to talk to someone new for the first time since coming to the village.

After her introduction Nova seemed to call out to another individual exercising in the rain but what caught Ayeka's attention was the boy hunched over in the rain on another of the stone heads. Feeling concern for the boy but too shy to act Ayeka instead pointed over to him while speaking to Nova in a quite tone. "Um is that boy over there ok Nova-san."

 

[Basuta]

After two sets on either hand, I slowly and carefully switch my grip with both hands and invert my body positioning to transition into a core exercise. Something called a dragon flag I believe but of course a modified version. Typically a park bench is used though, not a cliff so I can't call it proper na mean? Anyhow I start on those and modify it by adding in alternating hip rotations during the double leg extension to target muscle groups rarely acknowledged by common body builders.

While I'm into those, some kid seems to call out to me. Not a fan of them typically. Most don't know how to talk to grown folks. So he says something about me catching a cold. HAHA! A common virus being a concern of mine?!... Well, it can be inconvenient to try to get reps in while your sneezing your brains out but, meh. I've worked through and pushed through worst. My real concerns are using protection to keep from catching some,... other kind of illness, or something like a bounty contract the morning after, or... being caught by an over protective sibling...*blank stare*...

Anyway BACK to what is important. Courtesy and decency from the teens these days are rare and I don't want aid in that ending prematurely if I can help it. Not going to stop what I'm doing though. *Grunting and breathing between reps* "AIN'T TO WORRIED,...*slow exhale*... ABOUT THE COLD!" But after another four more reps, my grips slips a little bit and, yeah yeah, I used a wee bit of charka to catch myself on the reflex. Oh well, better that than losing and extended round to gravity if you know what I mean. *mumured to self*"Nope nope, I'm good. That's it." Slip-ups happen right?! Especially in the rain, should have known though. Oh well, I curl myself back up on the ledge and face away to fling some water off my shades.

I decides that's enough embarrassment on that end and start to jog on by, but... a snot-nose was curled up or something. *annoyed drone* "A medic is always on duty"... Ridiculousness. It might reflect "poorly" on me if I at least don't ask. Like my rep hasn't taken hits before right? Ahhh, the delicate balance of fame and infamy... *annoyed* "*sigh* What's eating him? An injury?" I remained jogging in place to wait of an answer. The best response would be "I'm fine," or "He's fine," if someone is answering for him, and I can get on with my jog from there.

 

[Shion]

' S-she... is... huge...!' Was all that he could think of right now as he saw her standing up, she was so much bigger than that he was! Imaginary he shook his head a lot, trying to get every other thought out of his head right at this moment. There had to be a reason a person was this big, but then the speech came. ' H-hiuh... This doesn't fit with an adult woman. Is she still a child? Maybe a teen... I don't know anymore, this is such a tricky predicament...' He would then nod a time. "Nice to meet you Ayeka. Please don't mention it... It would be bad for anyone to catch a cold in this weather." He spoke a few words a bit louder so that a stubborn someone at the ridge could hear them.

It was then that she mentioned another guy and he followed her gaze and pointed towards another head. "Eh..." He would comment and look at the guy moving to a little. He heard him ask in a rather annoyed tune(?). A sigh was given by himself as he handed the umbrella to Ayeka herself before he moved over to the samurai. He would stand a bit awkward at first. "uhm.." He raised his hand to pat the others head a bit awkward. "There... there..?" he asked with it along and looked at the both of them before back to Otakamaru.

"What's up buddy..." He asked, the same thing as the person jogging in place, but then directly at the person. ' It's the same... You want to know how a granny is doing in a wheelchair, but you ask the handler behind instead of the lady... I wonder if that guy just sin't that good in communicating.' He would try to get them both over in case there was something, after all... It could be a long fall down if someone decided to do something stupid, shinobi or not. "Uhm, we are here for you."

 

[Ōtakemaru]

Take wasn’t paying much attention at first. That was, until he felt someone pat his head, which… felt oddly comforting, even if just for a moment. He recognized the voice, so he could do the least that he could muster from himself and lift his face up to look at Nova, a familiar face from the funny, little ‘capture the flag’ game that they held with Keniwa and… and her, too…

“…” He was also bothering them now, wasn’t he? Making them all worried about him… it was understandable. They were all strong. Strong enough to move on from traumatizing events, strong enough to grow from those experiences… but all Take could do was cower and shrivel to nothing in the face of grief. Despite having come this far - he wish he could move on. Jog, do push-ups, grow stronger and stronger by the day like the powerful shinobi minding his own business further away. One who oozed with the most important quality as a professional – self-confidence. Oh, how Take would wish that he could borrow some for himself, but that wasn’t how life worked.

“What if… what if you leave too…?” he asked back to Nova, suddenly losing trust in his words. People, apparently, could change over fucking night – what good would Nova’s words be if he were to abandon them all tomorrow? Why hang onto another’s hopeful words again? It’d be asking for history to repeat itself…

“I never got to tell her anything… not that I’d ever get anything in return. No, I… I don’t think I would,” he ruminated over the confusing relationship between him and Aria, a person he’d grown to love but who… didn’t seem to respond in kind. He was always afraid that his love wouldn’t be reciprocated, as sad as his life had been, but he stood by her side. Supported her. Adored her. And it was repaid with a dagger through his chest.

“I don’t know what to do anymore… maybe work out a little. Like senpai over there.”

WC: 282 [MFT]

 

[Ayeka]

Ayeka squeaked in surprise as the umbrella was suddenly placed into her grip by gentle hands before Nova walked over to speak with the boy hunched over she had pointed out leaving the girl standing behind for a moment, unsure on what to do as she didn't want to intrude on the pair if they were friends but at the same time she didn't want the nice boy to catch a cold either. After a moment of shuffling back and forth Ayeka hurried over to Nova just in time for the buff man who had been training to shout over to Nova and check if the boy was ok although he didn't really seem interested as he was jogging on the spot while waiting for an answer.

Ayeka grit her teeth in anxiety at the thought of shouting out to someone but with some effort she managed to shout to Basuta. "He...He will b...b..b...be ok!" Feeling like she was going to die from embarrassment at raising her voice Ayeka finished the short walk over to Nova and positioned herself so both boy were covered from the rain even if she wasn't as she was hidden from the rain under her hood. Ayeka didn't know this boy with the sword but Nova seemed to and she was basically a stranger here so she remained quite and allowed Take to talk. Take spoke of another person but Ayeka had no indication of who and all she could collect from the boys words was that his love had left or possibly died leaving the boy alone with his confidence shattered.

Ayeka herself had very little experience with love with most of what she knew coming from the familial love her new family was giving her. Her brother Keni was already smothering her and her mother seemed to want to get to know her as quickly as possible making Ayeka feel warm inside which was how she imagined Take felt about the mysterious person he had lost and when Ayeka thought about losing the people she cared about even a little a massive chasm of bad feelings would open up in her stomach and that was just Ayeka pretending so she couldn't imagine how the samurai felt after actually losing someone.

Unfortunately for Take this train of thought lead to Ayeka feeling more and more empathic for him until finally she felt her own eyes beginning to feel with tears before she exploded suddenly into outright bawling the umbrella dropping from her grip as the surge of emotion made the usually shy girl forget herself as her arms swung out to scroop Take off the ground and up into a hug. The motion caused Ayeka's hood to fall down exposing a soft featured face that distantly resembled Keniwa as Take would find his head tucked under her chin while powerful muscular arms held the boy to her and by extension off the ground while the girl sobbed loudly with her face tilted towards the sky as tears dripped down her face. "That's so sad! I'm so sorry!!!" As the girl bawled her eyes out she continued to hug Take tightly hoping the physical contact would make him feel better like it did when Keni had cuddled her for the first time.

 

[Basuta]

Soooo, seems that the kid with the umbrella was in fact the middle man and the mouth piece of the collection. He passed off his umbrella,... don't know why he'd do that though. I mean he brought it and the huge chick had a perfectly good hood like I did, but okay. Anyway, that kid moved to the cryin' child to tend to sad boy a bit so I came in comfortable talking range and continued to jog in place. So the sad boy point starts talking but,... it was like he refused to finish at sentence or state a point clear n' clean. MAN! Sometimes I hate kids you know? I mean, was I like this when I was a kid, 'cause if I was I would hate me too. But on the real, I was and I did, which is why I'm not a fan of thinking back to those days.

Anyhow, now the other two seem to be sad for him on some 'there there' kind of sh$# right? But somewhere all in that, someone was going to need to give it to him straight up. "So look, I don't know if this person, left or died. If she died little homie,... sorry for your loss. Your doin' the right thing by being with your peers. But..." That was the kinder profession doctor side speaking, now I had to give him the other side just in case the situation is what I think it might be. I stop jogging because, talkin' and jogging, that just ain't it. Too uncomfortable to keep up. "...And maybe I'm wrong here but,... if she just left,... cool. Wish her well, and throw the bi^%h deuces. She's got the right to and so do you. If she left you, I'll BET you she ain't cryin' about it, so you ought not to either, ya feel me? Boy don't waste yo time cryin' cause you didn't get what you wanted. That's the sh&^ spoiled folk do. Image yourself standing here with the three of us,... lookin' at you like you are now,... you know what,... add that girl to the mix too while yer at it. Just looking at you. Is THIS the 'you' you want them to see? If you had to pick, would you want the, what "five of us", to pour out pity,... or present you some f#$king respect? Again, don't know what the case is but I'll tell you, respect especially self-respect feels a lot better than pity, and it's far more attractive too so... gon' head and do yo'self a little workout, na mean?"

After that lecture, I start up jogging again. I figured he or they would need time to seat on what I said, love it or hate it. I then tell'em, "Alright, catch ya later." I'm just thankful that this kid ain't a shinobi, or at least I don't think he is. I would have been WAAAAAAAY harder on him for cryin' in public. Could you image how embarrassing that would be to this city? To have yo enemies come in a catch you cryin' over a chick? Never me!

[Marked for training]
[Topic left unless stopped]

 

[Shion]

“What if… what if you leave too…?” Nova blinked a couple of times... What did Otakmeru mean with that exactly? "Then... I just see you tomorrow? Sorry... I don't exactly what you mean with that. But.. aren't we friends..? Friends stick up for each other no matter what. If you want me to leave, at least let me check in with you tomorrow.." He asked and offered the same time, not sure what hte guy was ailing at this current moment. “I never got to tell her anything… not that I’d ever get anything in return. No, I… I don’t think I would,” Nova would sit down beside Otakamaru. "Sorry I cannot do much for you for the past... but I can help you forwards into the future..? if you let me... If you want you can always come to me to vent, spar, talk or just hang out... I don't mind. Soon I will have my own place to live, so you can come as often as you want... beware... i will charge you yen in case you come every single day food nabbing!" he tried to cheer the other up a little and that was when he heard Ayeka come closer again, then the rain stopped. Nova looked up and smiled to her.

When Otamakru got lifted into the air, Nova would giggle and moments later the trainee had been standing there started to talk. ' Maybe he aint that bad after all... that was some decent advice... I could learn from that too.' When Nova saw he was ready to leave, he would wave. "Take a warm shoulder to not get sick!" He called out, he didn't know if that man was a shinobi or not... imagine, a shinobi getting the cold in a day like this.

"Cheer up buddy, we are here for you to go forwards. If you wanna sob it out now, just do so. Don't hide true feelings."

mft; 325

 

[Ōtakemaru]

Take didn’t know if he’d be okay, for real. But that big dude… he made some things very clear. Take didn’t feel any better sitting here, sobbing and all – he felt absolutely terrible! It didn’t feel good at all! And by that logic, why was he continuing to establish this terrible feeling upon himself? Did he want to feel pain? Was that really all he ever wanted to…?

No… the reason he felt sad to begin with was because he wanted to be happy. He couldn’t manifest happiness out of thin air, though, and there were many problems in his daily life that kept reminding him of how miserable he was, but… if it really was all up to him, he’d want to look like a shining star. Or perhaps like a clear moon that people gazed upon a glistening night.

Maybe the reason Aria never developed feelings for him was because of that sadness which overwhelmed him. Would things had been different if he’d been more… self-confident?

Take gazed up towards the tall guy who had gone his own way, pondering deeply over his words. He didn’t sound like his degrading mother or his dismissive father… and it didn’t sound like being scolded at all, even with the cuss words involved. A strange lad, but… thank you.

Nova and Ayeka was here with him now. Blinking in confusion at, well, Nova’s own confusion of his words, Take felt bad for complicating things and wanted to apologize, but… Nova called him a friend. A friend he could rely on-

And Take wanted to be relied on, too. Thinking about that, he couldn’t help but crack up a small smile…

“…!!!” Being lifted up like an infant was new, especially by a kunoichi around his own age. She was hooded before, and Take was panicking over her loud crying – literally the last thing he wanted – but her facial features reminded him of someone. Being lifted up like this… did make his eyes water, but the soft rain camouflaged it pretty well. Aria… I don’t know where you are, but… if this is what you want, then… who am I to stop you?

“Guys… I’ll be fine. I promise,” he spoke up to Nova and Ayeka, “I’ve come to love you people as well, so… I don’t want to make you worried about me. After all…” Remembering back when he was caught and reprimanded by Asuka for the implications of accepting a Cursed Seal, he also remembered the promise he made. And today, that promise had led him to become the shinobi you saw before you today… he kept convincing himself that nothing had changed, but maybe he’d been lying to himself. Maybe he was too accustomed to failure and was afraid of changing things.

And so, with bawling eyes and an unbreaking smile, he let out: “I-I’m stronger than you think, y’know…”

WC: 481 [MFT]

 

[Ayeka]

It seemed the support brought forth from Nova and Ayeka's support helped Take realise a few things or at least handle the loss of others as Ayeka's own tears dried up and she looked down at the boy encased in her arms whose tears was camouflaged by the rain. As Ayeka's own emotions settled and she got control of her impulses again the young Oni ended up just staring into Take's face that was currently wedged within Ayeka's bust and for a moment silence seemed to fill the air as very slowly a crimson blush began to rise from the girl's neck and quickly overtake her face as her eyes seemed to swirl as she realised that she was currently cuddling a boy she barely know.

Before anyone could react as an embarrassed squeal filled the air as Ayeka threw her arms up blindly into the air relinquishing the swords man as she took a step away. "Um ah I...I'm sorry." Tears once again dripped down Ayeka's as she bowed rapidly in apology before spinning around and quickly dashing away leaving behind the pair of boys who were probably bewildered at the sudden action.

[Topic Left unless Stopped]