First left, then right. Then up, then down. Back to the left. Right again. ’It’s here somewhere! I know it is!’ Kazu was growing more worried, more nervous, by the moment. ’HOW HARD CAN IT BE TO FIND A REGULAR OLD SEWING KIT?!’ Kazu was well beyond flummoxed. The panic had set in, until he was gritting his teeth in frustration and balling his hands into white-knuckled fists. He was about to bring it down, hard, on one of the shelves in frustration, when he heard the sounds of approaching footsteps and the not-so-subtle sound of a throat being cleared. Kazu refrained himself from causing a scene, but just barely.
”Hey kid, you just gonna stand around here all day? Huh?!” The shopkeeper, a middle-aged woman wearing a frown that said she did not tolerate lollygaggers or sticky fingered rapscallions, stood with hands on hips and eyeing Kazu up and down like she would a too-cheap Sandrunner from a “has been” Merchant. Needless to say, she thought the out-of-place youth was trying to pull the wool over her eyes without her knowing. ”This isn’t a museum. Either buy something, or….hey, what’s the matter?” She had noticed the tightness around Kazu’s jaw, the way his fists shook in frustration, and the strained look in his eyes.
”This is so embarrassing…but I just can’t find a sewing kit anywhere! First I thought it would be in that aisle over there, but when I didn’t find it I thought maybe I’d find it here, but that hasn’t done anything either! I’ve searched all over, again, and again, and-“
”Kid, they’re up in the front. They’re usually not the only thing people pick up, so I keep them by the counter so folks can pick them up on their way out. Why didn’t you just come ask me for help sooner?” Kazu blinked. Once, then twice. ’That was an option?’ Kazu’s stubbornness, and his pride, sometimes blinded him to obvious answers. He opened his mouth, then closed it, tried once more, and failed again. The woman merely chuckled to herself and shook her head, incredulously, while gesturing for the silly child to follow her towards the front of the store. Kazu’s cheeks and ears felt hot. Fire Jutsu didn’t even compare.
After a few more well-placed digs and backhanded comments about how silly he had been for not coming to her sooner, Kazu had paid for the sewing kit, thanked the shopkeeper, and was on his way out of the store and back towards the non-living (but still injured) puppet, Usagi. It still baffled him how many different things there had been in that store to buy.
Not quite running, but moving faster than a quick jog, Kazu hurried towards the spot he’d left the man named Tas and the girl Ren at. Just as he was getting closer, though, he saw something very strange: the man, all of a sudden, disappeared into the ground after, seemingly, being swallowed alive by a renegade sandworm. The young boy panics slightly at the sight of this, and begins running towards Ren and Usagi faster.
”Hey!” Kazu calls out to alert the girl and her puppet of his approach, but also his concern over what had just transpired. ”Did…did that guy just get eaten alive? By a….sandworm?!” The horror on Kazu’s face was genuine – he’d heard that sandworms sometimes plagued the lands around Sunagakure, and had even heard rumors of the more recent(ish) sandworm attacks on the village, but the idea of people randomly being eaten, out of nowhere, unsettled the boy. Eyeing the ground nervously, Kazu held out the sewing kit to show that he hadn’t just been messing around all this time. ”I…I got the sewing kit, like I said, but…shouldn’t we search after that guy, or something? Raise some sort of alarm? Let someone know that sandworms are just…you know…eating people around here?!”
”Hey kid, you just gonna stand around here all day? Huh?!” The shopkeeper, a middle-aged woman wearing a frown that said she did not tolerate lollygaggers or sticky fingered rapscallions, stood with hands on hips and eyeing Kazu up and down like she would a too-cheap Sandrunner from a “has been” Merchant. Needless to say, she thought the out-of-place youth was trying to pull the wool over her eyes without her knowing. ”This isn’t a museum. Either buy something, or….hey, what’s the matter?” She had noticed the tightness around Kazu’s jaw, the way his fists shook in frustration, and the strained look in his eyes.
”This is so embarrassing…but I just can’t find a sewing kit anywhere! First I thought it would be in that aisle over there, but when I didn’t find it I thought maybe I’d find it here, but that hasn’t done anything either! I’ve searched all over, again, and again, and-“
”Kid, they’re up in the front. They’re usually not the only thing people pick up, so I keep them by the counter so folks can pick them up on their way out. Why didn’t you just come ask me for help sooner?” Kazu blinked. Once, then twice. ’That was an option?’ Kazu’s stubbornness, and his pride, sometimes blinded him to obvious answers. He opened his mouth, then closed it, tried once more, and failed again. The woman merely chuckled to herself and shook her head, incredulously, while gesturing for the silly child to follow her towards the front of the store. Kazu’s cheeks and ears felt hot. Fire Jutsu didn’t even compare.
After a few more well-placed digs and backhanded comments about how silly he had been for not coming to her sooner, Kazu had paid for the sewing kit, thanked the shopkeeper, and was on his way out of the store and back towards the non-living (but still injured) puppet, Usagi. It still baffled him how many different things there had been in that store to buy.
Not quite running, but moving faster than a quick jog, Kazu hurried towards the spot he’d left the man named Tas and the girl Ren at. Just as he was getting closer, though, he saw something very strange: the man, all of a sudden, disappeared into the ground after, seemingly, being swallowed alive by a renegade sandworm. The young boy panics slightly at the sight of this, and begins running towards Ren and Usagi faster.
”Hey!” Kazu calls out to alert the girl and her puppet of his approach, but also his concern over what had just transpired. ”Did…did that guy just get eaten alive? By a….sandworm?!” The horror on Kazu’s face was genuine – he’d heard that sandworms sometimes plagued the lands around Sunagakure, and had even heard rumors of the more recent(ish) sandworm attacks on the village, but the idea of people randomly being eaten, out of nowhere, unsettled the boy. Eyeing the ground nervously, Kazu held out the sewing kit to show that he hadn’t just been messing around all this time. ”I…I got the sewing kit, like I said, but…shouldn’t we search after that guy, or something? Raise some sort of alarm? Let someone know that sandworms are just…you know…eating people around here?!”
