Loafin' Around (OPEN)

[Hosokawa Seika]

"One miso-chashu, please!"

Seika leaned on the counter with an eager grin plastered on her face as she awaited her first meal of the day. She had woken up an hour or two ago and saw that it was already noon. Not wanting to miss out on the weekday lunch special at Ichiraku, she had scrambled around to get herself looking decent enough to go out.

She had brushed back her hair and pulled on a gray sweater and a pair of black shorts. On her feet were black sandals, her legs covered with small scratches and bruises from having to endure the other day's training session with her team.

Well, it was more like having to endure the barrage of hits and punches from her more talented teammates, but she had ran and broken a sweat, so it was still training!

A bowl of miso pork ramen was set in front of her by Ayame-neesan, a cheerful looking young woman who looked to be in her early twenties, and Seika flashed her a grin. "Thanks!" she said, grabbing a pair of chopsticks from the counter. She raised the wooden chopsticks in both hands and broke them apart as she eased into the stool. "Itadakimaaaasu!" she cried joyfully, lifting noodles and directing them into her open mouth without so much as a pause to breathe.

[Yanagi Fuyu]

Yanagi rolled her shoulders tiredly as she left home, wincing at the movement. Though healed, her muscles were still stiff after being slashed open then knitted back together again by a medic nin. She’d been on a few day long B-ranked mission in the northernmost town of Fire Country, an assassination. She’d reached her target without detection, but when your charge suddenly dropped dead, a knife twisted in his throat, with a teenager on the other end of the knife, bodyguards tended to try and kill their boss’ killer. And since there was about ten guards around the target, Yanagi thought she’d done quite well to kill them all and get away with one – admittedly deep and quite painful – wound. She’d been surprised to hear that the sword strike to her shoulder had cut to the bone, but by then she was more concerned with getting the damn thing fixed. Afterwards, she’d made a quick detour home to wash the blood off and get it out of her hip-length hair. Sure, her hair was so dark that people might not have noticed the blood in it whilst it was wet, but since it was dripping, and it would clump together when dried, Yanagi figured she should spare the panic and just clean it before obeying her snarling stomach and going out to find something quick and easy to eat.

Ichiraku’s fit the bill, plus it was close. Decision made, Yanagi headed to the ramen bar, yawning. Once she’d ate, she’d go back home to sleep for a few hours.
Oh, wait. She had training with Isamu and Masaru in an hour and a half.
Biting back a groan, Yanagi stepped into Ichiraku’s and resigned herself to a long afternoon. No doubt the boys would fuss, Isamu would ask if she’d told their parents (she had – her adoptive mother had nearly fainted at all the blood on her daughter’s clothes, shouted for her husband, then finally let Yanagi get a word in edge-wise to explain she was healed. She’d then been promptly sent into the shower, with the customary ‘You’ll get blood on the floor! Go clean up.’ Mothers.) Masaru would pretend not to worry, the rib her for the entire two hour training session.
Snapping out of her grumpy daze at the friendly welcome of ‘Irasshai!’ Yanagi smiled as she sank onto a bar stool, her exhaustion showing in every slumped line of her body.

“One miso pork ramen, please,” She ordered, returning the perpetually happy smiles of Teuchi and his daughter Ayame before giving the same small gift to the genin sat next to her, eagerly wolfing down her ramen. Kid must have been hungry.

While she waited, Yanagi clawed the wet strands of her hair off her back, pulling them around to trail along her front to braid the water-blackened mane into submission.
A few strands evaded her, the stretch too far for her newly healed muscles and making her wince again. Grumbling under her breath about idiots with swords, she twisted to use her other arm, flicking the damp whips into the centre of her back where she could reach them.
She could braid quickly if pressed, for example that time when she’d needed an impromptu weapon and her hair and a hair tie with a heavy stone were the only things she had immediately available, she’d retreated for the few seconds needed to bind her hair into a strong rope before letting her opponent get close then spinning sharply, her aim perfect as the stone on the end of her hair slammed into her attacker’s nose, breaking it and distracting him long enough for Yanagi to disarm and incapacitate him. Now, however, she braided slowly, killing the time it took for her lunch to arrive.

She abandoned the effort, two thirds completed, when her food arrived, thanking her hosts as she grabbed her chopsticks and uttered a quiet, sincere ‘itadakimasu’ before attacking her poor meal with fervour. After a few days of travel food, an injury, and a healing, Yanagi was bloody starving.

She heard Teuchi laughing and glanced up, still feeding noodles into her mouth without looking.
At her silent, enquiring look, he smiled.
“You must be hungry. It’s just funny to see two young girls eating so quickly, with such energy.”
Yanagi finished her mouthful and smiled her answer.
“Hey, I’ve just had a mission. I’ve only just gotten out of the shower after the hospital; I’ve a right to be starving, especially for such good food,” She explained, slipping in a polite compliment. It never hurt to keep your suppliers happy, after all.
Teuchi accepted the compliment with a smile, even as Ayame asked the obvious.

“You were in hospital again? What happened this time?” Though some people may have made the question sound condescending, Ayame sounded purely curious and slightly concerned.
Yanagi waved her hand dismissively, but answered her all the same.
“Assassination on the northern border, guy had about ten guards. I got him, but when I was taking care of the pet Rottweilers one of their hits went wild and smacked me in the shoulder.”
Ayame’s kind eyes were just a little wide. She was used to hearing similar stories, especially from the slightly reckless chuunin, but when it was someone you knew you always worried just that little bit more, even if they were right in front of you.
“Were you okay?” She asked, relaxing when Yanagi nodded, looking as blasé as usual.
“Yeah, it was just a cut.” The dark haired chuunin lied. No need to concern the young waitress unduly, after all.
Story told, Ayame nodded and went back to work, leaving Yanagi to her still hot meal. God, Ichiraku’s was good when you needed a quick fix of food.

[OOC: not much interaction there, but plenty for Seika to listen to. Feel free to join in the conversation ]

[Hosokawa Seika]

She enjoyed the salty miso broth and the taste of chewy noodles in her mouth. The slices of pork in her dish were soft and tender, cooked just right, and the corn and scallions floated around, but not forgotten, the pink and white slices of naruto swimming alongside them. She was so immersed in her food that she barely noticed when someone joined her at the stand, ordering the same thing she had.

“One miso pork ramen, please.”

It was a woman; someone older than she. Seika spared a quick glance before turning her attention to her food. The woman was pretty, and had long, dark hair. She was definitely a more experienced ninja, the way she carried herself was different than the genin she knew.

But what did she know? The only “real” ninja she got to see was her team's instructor, who was sent away on a mission just yesterday afternoon and the Hokage (who really didn't seem to do much at all, in Seika's opinion).

“You must be hungry,” she heard Teuchi say, a hint of a smile in his words. “It’s just funny to see two young girls eating so quickly, with such energy.”

Seika rolled her eyes at the old man, but smiled around the noodles in her mouth. That old man Teuchi could strike up a conversation with anyone. He had a pleasant charm to him that you just wanted to see.

The woman next to her was the one who replied. “Hey, I’ve just had a mission,” she said. “I’ve only just gotten out of the shower after the hospital; I’ve a right to be starving, especially for such good food.”

Speaking of showers... Seika busied herself with finishing her food. She hadn't taken one yet, in her hurry to come down in time for the lunch special, and the first thing she'd do when she got home was do just that. Well, that and grocery shopping, she supposed. Or she could just go back to sleep.

“You were in hospital again?” Seika heard Ayame asked worriedly. Again? Seika eyed the woman next to her. She must not be a very skilled if she gets injured often, she thought absently, thinking about herself and the injuries she often sustained from a mere sparring session with her teammates. She picked up her bowl and tilted the broth into her mouth. Ayame continued speaking, and Seika continued listening; “What happened this time?”

Seika saw the woman wave her hand from the corner of her eye. What the woman said next made her eyes widen a fraction of an inch. “Assassination on the northern border, guy had about ten guards,” she spoke in what Seika thought was a nonchalant manner. “I got him, but when I was taking care of the pet Rottweilers one of their hits went wild and smacked me in the shoulder.”

Seika set the half-empty bowl back on the counter, looking thoughtfully into the miso broth. Assassination? She peeked a look at the woman again, curiously this time.

“Were you okay?”

“Yeah, it was just a cut.”

Seika watched the woman as she ate her meal, not realizing that she was openly staring at her. An assassination mission, she thought to herself, looking at the beautiful woman sitting at the counter with her. A real mission. This woman was a real shinobi. Seika opened her mouth but quickly shut it and fumbled with what to say in her head, brow furrowing.

[Yanagi Fuyu]

That strange awareness was there; the one you get when you know someone’s looking at you. It doesn’t quite raise the hairs on the back of your neck, but it making it feel more exposed, as if a layer of clothing had been lying against it and was smoothly lifted away.
Glancing covertly around the ramen bar, Yanagi checked each of the three possible sources before starting to worry about anyone outside.
The two staff had their backs to her, working on the next batch of ramen, chatting to each other as they did so.

Ah. Found the culprit.
The girl sat next to her was blatantly staring, though from her slightly vacant, deep-in-thought expression, Yanagi guessed the girl herself wasn’t aware of what she was doing. As she watched, the girl opened her mouth as if to say something, then closed it again, silent.
Swallowing her current bite of ramen, Yanagi turned her head slightly to look at the girl properly, the movement clear but unobtrusive. By her headband, she was a ninja, but her age – maybe three or four years Yanagi’s junior – and lack of a chuunin vest suggested the girl was still a genin.
Deciding that if the girl was going to stare out into space, she could do it in another direction, Yanagi nodded to her and murmured quietly.

“You okay?”
She kept her voice low to avoid startling the girl, and to avoid drawing unnecessary attention from their hosts as they bustled about their small business, but tried turned her head fully to show she was open to conversation. The movement tugged at her right shoulder, reminding her that the nurses had said it would be a bit sore for a while – they’d healed it, but the muscle would still be aching and tight from all the abuse it had taken.
Training was going to be hell later.
Settling for twisting slightly in her seat to make up for the lack of degrees she could turn her head comfortably, Yanagi refocused on her fellow Ramen patron, her dark green eyes shot with marble and hazel steady and calm, throwing an opaque veil of questioning over her discomfort.

[Woops, I forgot to put the colour in my speech in my last post XD would you mind doing that from now on too? Just the vanished admins say it's easier to read and pick out key ares of the post and whathaveyou.]

[Hosokawa Seika]

When the woman turned around to face her, Seika's eyes widened a fraction of an inch and she stiffened up visibly. Suddenly, the hitai-ate tied around her neck felt like it was too tight, though it always flopped all over the place whenever she ran, and her mind reeled.

The woman, with long, dark hair and forest green eyes, was intimidating to her. She seemed powerful, mysterious, and intelligent. She was nothing like this woman, she thought. This woman was a real kunoichi.

Her mouth suddenly went dry; those green eyes, however nonthreatening, were still intimidating her. This woman was a real kunoichi, a real shinobi, she repeated over again in her head. She had killed someone for this country, had gone to a real mission, and yet she looked just like everyone else.

“You okay?”

“Uh...” Seika heard herself say. She stopped quickly and clamped her mouth shut, leaning back with widening eyes, her shoulders tense. She watched the woman twist in her seat and she involuntarily leaned back just a little more. “Um...” She blinked dumbly. “You're a real shinobi,” she blurted out, saying the only thing she could muster up the courage to say.

[Yanagi Fuyu]

Yanagi’s eyes narrowed a sliver in concern. The genin was displaying all the standard fear symptoms; tense muscles, wide eyes, dilated pupils to take in all available light to see whatever threat she perceived as clearly as possible, leaning away from the source of fear.
What on earth could be scaring her in a ramen bar, of all places?
Yanagi widened her senses, searching for anything the genin might find threatening.
Absolutely nothing. The most dangerous thing within fifty yards was Teuchi’s chopping knives and Yanagi herself...

Wait. Was the girl scared of her?
The genin finally made a noise, though unfortunately it was only an incoherent, monosyllabic mumble.
Running through her knowledge of body language, and her own instincts, Yanagi moved subtly to show more open, less threatening body language. Sitting open, not hunched over her meal although it pulled at her shoulder, muscles loose, eyes wide and honest, shifting every now and then so that she wasn’t holding the genin’s gaze for too long. She dropped her posture slightly, so that she was lower down – slumped but not hunched. In wolf society, a body closer to the ground signified submissiveness and unthreatening behaviour, and avoiding prolonged eye contact was common with the cat species.

Another mumble later, and finally the genin found her tongue.
“You’re a real shinobi.”
Well. That wasn’t exactly expected.
Yanagi raised a dark eyebrow, lips twitching in amusement.
“I am. This is a shinobi village, isn’t it? And you, I would assume from the hitai-ate, are a genin – a ninja yourself. Is it such a surprise to run into other shinobi?” She asked, her tone wry and warm but not mocking. No need to insult the girl as well as scare her, though if or how she’d managed the latter Yanagi had no idea.

Deliberately taking her eyes off the genin, Yanagi went on with her ramen for a few bites while she waited for the girl’s response. If it took as long as the last one, Yanagi might have enough time to eat half of what she had left, if she ate fast.

[Hosokawa Seika]

The woman eased her posture and raised an eyebrow at her before she responded; "I am. This is a shinobi village, isn’t it? And you, I would assume from the hitai-ate, are a genin – a ninja yourself. Is it such a surprise to run into other shinobi?"

Seika blinked, her mouth hanging open dumbly as she nodded her head stupidly in return. "Y-Yeah," she said and watched the woman turn back to her food.

The woman before her had a strong aura, and her dark hair and eyes and lithe form had a vague feline appearance, Seika thought momentarily. She blinked again, slowly, and continued to watch the stranger as she ate.

It took a few minutes for Seika to realize how openly she was staring at the older kunoichi before her, and her eyes widened slightly as she clamped her mouth shut and straightened up in her seat at the counter. Feeling an embarrassed blush heating her face, Seika fidgeted in her seat and glanced to the side of the streets in an attempt to distract herself and gather up whatever dignity she had left.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, she silently berated herself mentally, suddenly finding her sandals excruciatingly interesting. What was she thinking blurting that out? Of course she was a kunoichi -- what was the use in saying that outloud?? The urge to bang her head on the counter was hard to fight off and she eyed it warily with pursed lips, as if it were somehow going to do it for her if she didn't.

[Yanagi Fuyu]

By the time the girl turned away, Yanagi was draining the bowl, feeling a lot better than she had when she’d first shuffled into the village, tired, grumpy, in pain and ready to deck the first person to make a smart comment or look at her funny. Knowing that she would actually hit someone in that mind frame, Yanagi had chosen to travel to the mission tower via the rooves, where there were less people to deal with and a reduced chance of worrying civilians. From there she’d grabbed her money then headed to the hospital after Hokage-sama had threatened to flick her there from the room she was standing in. Yanagi had never left that room so fast in her life.

Flicking a glance across to the younger shinobi and her half-empty bowl; left untouched since Yanagi had discussed the nature of her mission, the older kunoichi searched her pocket for a small, simple black leather wallet, and drew it out, counting through her money. She’d left most of her pay check at home, but had brought excess for just one bowl of ramen. Shrugging, she called the ramen bar owner’s name to get his attention.

“That’s for the two miso pork ramens. To say sorry for scaring you, kid.” The latter sentence she directed at the genin, with an apologetic, warm, slightly mischievous grin as she handed over the money.
“What’s your name, anyway? Can’t keep calling you kid, after all. Mine’s Fuyu Yanagi.” She offered, withdrawing her arm as Teuchi briefly checked her money and put it away.

[Hosokawa Seika]

Upon seeing the woman pull out a few notes and pay for both of their meals, Seika's thoughts of the woman immediately changed. This person, she thought with a wide grin, was a <i>nice</i> person.

She didn't have the best income, still being a genin and all, and though Ichiraku was cheap, it was nice to have extra money just in case. So having someone offer to pay for her meal was the highlight of her day, so far. She turned and looked up at the kind woman eagerly when she was asked for her name, turning in her stool and widening her legs so she could balance herself by settling her hands on top of the exposed part of her seat. Her grin brightened and she pointed to herself with a thumb as she introduced herself. "Hosokawa Seika! It's -- It's nice to meet you, Yanagi-san!" she said with a short, quick bow of the head in respect. Without thinking, Seika pointed at the woman suddenly, curiosity gleaming in her eyes as she continued to grin at the older kunoichi. "Say, can you tell me how that happened?" she asked excitedly, pointing to where the woman was injured. "It -- It happened at your mission, right? The... The assassination mission? Can you tell me about that?"

[Fukuda Kagami]

She took small, dainty steps through the streets of Konoha, walking in her geta and kimono. She and her sisters had a dance recital to perform that afternoon, for her mother's birthday, but she slipped out because she began to feel claustrophobic from being in the congested halls and rooms in the manor where the celebration was to take place.

She had let down her hair so it hung freely down her back, the jet-black strands of hair framing her pale, pale face, and she struggled with every breath from the tight glden obi tight around her waist and over her kimono. Cranes flew over the red silk of her kimono in white and black, with waves crashing below and clouds passing overhead. She could feel a bead of sweat trickle down her neck and into the folds of silk to inch down her back. Carefully, she withdrew a white folding fan, one she was supposed to use in the dance she and her sisters would be performing right about now had she not disappeared, and waved it back and forth before her to cool herself.

She felt ridiculously over-dressed; she was wandering the market square in a brilliantly designed, expensive kimono and a pair of geta she had not broken-in yet.

"Hosokawa Seika! It's -- It's nice to meet you, Yanagi-san!"

The childishly innocent and loud voice of a brunette genin two years her senior she knew all too well grated against her eardrums and she knit her brow as she cringed openly. She held the white fan close, over her mouth, and looked on in disdain at the smiling face of the naive girl at Ichiraku. There was a woman with dark hair and a slender build sitting beside Seika, one who possessed a strong aura, and wondered briefly who she was.

"Seika,"Kagami suddenly called out in a deadpanned voice, eyes narrowed in further disdain. "You're too loud."

[Yanagi Fuyu]

Yanagi grinned at the sudden, exuberant change in demeanour.
“Nice to meet you too, Seika-san.” She replied, with a slight nod back.
At her eager, if slightly rushed question, Yanagi glanced over her own shoulder at the injury, rolling the joint slightly. “Thi-”
“Seika. You’re too loud.”
She was cut off by an apathetic voice from outside the bar. Turning in her seat and stooping slightly in order to look under the half flags across the front of the establishment, Yanagi spotted a slight, kimono-clad figure standing outside Ichiraku’s, a white fan raised in front of a pale face framed by a sheet of inky hair. Though her voice had been perfectly toneless, the girl’s eyes were narrowed, scorning, as she looked at the genin next to Yanagi.

Due to the lack of an honorific, Yanagi guessed the girl either knew Seika well, or was very rude. Judging from her look, Yanagi thought it might be a little bit of both.
Keeping her expression perfectly neutral, despite her misgivings about the girl, Yanagi swung fully in her seat to face her, and raised her voice to address the girl standing in the street, out of place in her extravagant clothes.
“Actually, that was the first time I’ve heard Seika-san speak above a mumble. It’s good to be able to hear her clearly.” Yanagi called, before waving the girl over. “Come over here, so we don’t have to shout to each other.”

Without waiting to see if the new girl followed orders or not, Yanagi turned back to Seika and, after checking Ayame and Teuchi were out of earshot, continued in a low voice.
“To answer your question, yes, it did happen on the mission. I took out my target first, but he was in a knot of bodyguards – paranoid, if you ask me – and so had to then get out of there in one piece. Unfortunately, they weren’t too fond of me taking out their boss, as you can imagine." Yanagi paused to share a would-be innocent grin, before continuing, tone more businesslike as she told the story. "Long story short, their reflexes to attack anything fast-moving in a ten metre radius kicked in a quarter second too late, but they decided to attack me anyway, dead boss or none. A bit of rough-housing later, most of them were dead, I was facing two of them, a third was behind me, they realised they actually had to co-ordinate their attacks with each other, the three of them attacked me at once; I blocked and killed the two in front and half dodged the one behind me but still got a sword across the shoulder blade to the bone for my trouble. Swore a bit, killed him, came home mission accomplished.” Yanagi shrugged. It was fairly common to get injuries; she tended to favour the quickest ways to complete objectives than the safest, after all. When she was with others, and was responsible for them, she reversed these priorities, but when it was just her, she did what she liked. Still, if she could avoid injury, she would.

“If I’d had the choice, I would have waited til nightfall, when his guards were scattered around the perimeter, but I had to take him out before a certain checkpoint that his party were reaching that afternoon. So I went for the quick option. The medics patched me up when I got home anyway, so it was only a problem for a few hours.”

Question successfully answered, unless Seika had more, Yanagi turned to the other girl, following the same theory she’d had before that she couldn’t keep thinking of her as ‘the girl’, or ‘rude little brat’ as she’d come across to Yanagi.
“What’s your name, anyway? I think you heard mine from Seika-san, but if not it’s Fuyu Yanagi. Do you mind if I ask how you and Seika know each other?”