A Reflective Moment [Contract Search]

[Hanabi Aiko]

She was starting the academy soon, and she honestly didn't want to with every fiber of her being. She was in it because she got caught stealing from someone who, on his bad days, could catch a thief before they thought about stealing. It was either join the Konoha military, or face juvenile detention until she was an adult. So, she signed up, but she was a prisoner either way and her childhood had been essentially destroyed, not that she had much of a chance to begin with. As she stepped up to the foot of one of the statues, she thought about how her orphanage had burnt down. How they were trying to rebuild, and her crimes where in the right so she could send money back to them to help them build again to keep kids safe as she had been kept safe. She dug her heels into the rock that comprised the statue before her, and hoisted herself up to her best strength and began to climb to the top of the statue. She was a decent climber, molded by years of nothing to do but climb and jump around on stuff as a poor orphan girl, the thrill of escaping a target who had felt her deftly steal a wallet or a vendor who lost a cabbage because it was her target of survival in the form of food.

Grunts of effort filled the, at the time, empty valley. She was struggling about half way up, to make it the rest of the way. Her grip slipped and she dangled freely for a moment before reclaiming her grip on the statue and finishing her climb to the top. She had sweat profusely, and her hands where raw from bare skin on stone, but she felt good. She had accomplished a tough physical task, and was rewarded by an amazing view of the forest and she could see a few of the rooftops that made up Konoha. She sat on the statues head, and dangled her feet off onto it's forehead. She looked down at the water, and felt the breeze on her. It was intensely comforting, to be in such a serene place that was once such a place of contention. These statues stood tall because of a battle that took place here that defined the ages. While the stone had been withered away and the ninja's visage lost to time, the sentiment was still there. She though about this, and thought about their motivations. Did they hate each other? Did one of them have the peoples best interest in mind? Did that person win? She was filled with questions about the place. It was a bit off putting to her, that this place could effect her this way. She had come here to think, to get away from the village filled with people ready to die for one another in a vain attempt to find purpose, but what she found was a sense of belonging. For just a moment, she thought to herself that maybe she would belong in the Leaf, and that she could use this opportunity to help those that needed it, more than being a thief ever could.

She leaned back and closed her eyes, listening to the waterfall and as she began to fall asleep she thought to herself...

"Maybe being a ninja won't be so bad..."

 

[Tomomi]

YOU HAVE FOUND THE MONKEY CONTRACT! DO YOU ACCEPT OR DECLINE THIS CHALLENGE?​

 

[Hanabi Aiko]

It is with awesome esteem that I accept!

 

[Tomomi]

Aside from the crashing of the waves on the rocks at the bottom the falls, it was quite quiet in the place that Fire Country called the Valley of the End. This peaceful, quiet environment was homed to a variety of creatures and vegetation that were only native to this part of the world and it was an excellent location for young up-incoming shinobi to hone their skills away from the hustling and bustling of their village. One of these shinobi had decided to climb one of the mighty structures of the location and plop herself on top of it to slowly drift off to sleep, but little did she know that a figure was sitting on the other statue simply looking over at her with a perplexed look on his face as he scratched his chin. If she had not ventured all the way to the top of the statue, he likely never would have noticed her, but her ascent had caught his eye when she had been halfway up and he had been curious ever since.

Sadly, she would fall asleep from the looks of it on the other statue and leave him to ponder what his next move would be since his excitement for the day had gone to the land of Dreams and likely would not wake up anytime soon especially with the white noise of the waterfall pounding so closely to her. However with this slumber girl, this primate had an idea and he would begin this idea by navigating off of his statue and run into the wooded area in the Valley. Within an hour or so, he would return to a statue, but elect to stand on top of hers eating some berries while throwing some of them at her to wake her up. Occasionally, he would stop this to scratch himself in some peculiar areas before grabbing another handful of berries and proceeding to munch down on them before throwing some of the less than ideal ones at her to try to wake her up. Why exactly was he trying to wake her up was anyone's guess, but it was quite possible that he was merely bored or just wanted someone to bother since many animals likely had trouble getting this far up on the statues in this Valley of the End.

Fortunately for him, he was not like the humans of this world in that he had obligations so he could continue to throw stuff at her for however long he wanted. Hopefully for her sake though, he continued to only throw red or black berries at her and would not decide to go for something that was more of the brownish type that reeked. It would all depend on how she reacted to his annoying berry throwing when she eventually woke up if that was ever. In the eyes of this monkey, she did not appear like she was going to be waking up anytime soon but again, he was merely an animal and likely did not notice that he had only been throwing these little squishy, tasty fruits for five or so minutes. It was likely an eternity for him.

 

[Hanabi Aiko]

She was having the sweetest dream of sweets, they were raining down on her in droves for quite some time, and she grabbed them from the air and was munching them up particularly good. There were so many kinds, ice cream and cookies and fruit snacks galore. It wasn't until she started stirring around on the rock, did she begin to realize she needed to get up and as she awoke, a taste over took her mouth. She sat up sharply, and looked down at berries in her hand, she had been eating the berries this monkey had blessed her with, in her sleep. Half out of it, she would just shove what was in her hand in her mouth. They didn't taste particularly amazing, but the idea of sweets in her head carried the idea to fruition. She took a deep stretch as she started to stand up, spinning around to see a monkey hurl a berry at her. It hit her right in the forehead, and made a stain mark. She blinked for a moment, trying to focus her eyes.

"Monkey? Cute..." she yawned big, a berry finding its way into her mouth from the air, almost choking her as she swallowed it whole.

"Why are you feeding me? Or are you trying to shoo me away from your napping spot? Or maybe your my spirit guide, and I'm dead oh no!" she talked at the monkey, not to it. She didn't expect it to answer, but she'd try to catch each berry in her mouth as it tossed them, like a game. She just figured if she was being shoo'd away, it'd probably get angry and attack her, and if not then maybe she'd play a fun game as she tried to awaken herself a bit quicker, the natural sugars in the food helping. She would just hope they wouldn't throw any gross berries in there.

 

[Tomomi]

After roughly those five minutes or so, the young lass of the Hidden Leaf began to stir from her slumber and would awake to this primate's delinquent antics. When she awoke, the animal would stop momentarily as he saw her consume more of the berries that he had been throwing at her and he would ponder what exactly she would do if he continued to do so. However due to being the creature that he was and his curiosity getting the better of him, it would only be a few moments of staring at her before he threw more berries and watched her promptly catch them with her mouth almost like she thought it was a game of some sort. He would only continue to do this for a few moments more before cautiously approaching her from his position and offering the berries that he held in his arms to her since she seemed to have taken a liking to them even if they were not the most ideal ones that he could have obtained. True, some of them were absolutely delicious and filled with much sugar, but others were more like a prune and had a bitter taste to them. Nevertheless, she could take this offering to her as she may.

Regardless of accepting or denying his offer, the monkey would look at her glaring into her pupils with his own red eyes as he merely nodded at her before turning his back to her and walking back over to where he had been eating and throwing his berry-licious delights to nibble on a few more berries that he had left behind. Unfortunately for the poor animal, he would try to eat too many berries in one mouthful and begin to choke on his treat pounding his chest to try to help the berries get down, but reverting to grabbing his throat and looking back at her with tears beginning to formulate from his eyes. It would seem karma had quickly came up to bite him on his bottom as he was choking and there was only one person that could possibly save him from suffocating which was this young lass who was likely very much confused on what exactly was going on and how this little monkey had managed to get up to a place so quiet, peaceful but also dangerous if one was to fall from it.

What exactly would this young lady from the Hidden Leaf Village do? She had many options that she could choose from and also quite a lot of berries that could eat when her decision making had been complete. It was such an odd, little situation that she found herself in and it had all come ever so quickly which possibly was overwhelming at first and was simply quite confusing now. Many questions likely would have to be answered down the line, but she had quite the choice right now with her little monkey "friend" kicking the statue with his feet and clenching his throat.