Making Water Less Boring [Samejima]

[Koizumi Mao]

Naoki did well at playing it off nice, but Mao could tell that the other girl had reveled in her victory. Either way, she didn't seem to mind; she would've done the same, after all. Perhaps it was the similarities that allowed her to get along with the genin more easily than others. The student, too, took the opportunity to dry herself off, though didn't bother so much in wringing out her clothes, as they would dry out on their own eventually. She would shake her head to force some water out of her shorter hair, causing it to look more disheveled than usual as her bangs rested down over her eyes. A hand would reach up to brush them out of her vision as Naoki thought to ask her first question, which caused her to awkwardly glance aside, as if she were wondering just how exactly she could answer something like that. "Well...ehm..." She began, rubbing the back of her neck, "I was just practicing a few kicks and punches. The earthquakes are normal." Normal? Was she trying to brush off shaking the ground with her body as normal? Mao was quick to change the subject before giving the opportunity of silence to Naoki for so long. "I tried fishing a few times before growing up. I uh...I didn't do so well with patience." She chuckled.

When the other girl decided to bound closer with a brightly colored can, she eyed the little container of sweets. The excited smile that spread across her lips was a quick indicator that she indeed enjoyed sugary treats, though probably not one the blind girl could pick up on her own. Instead, she'd probably get the message when she felt Mao's hand briefly rifle inside the offered container to steal a random piece. The wrapping was haphazardly unfurled, and the candy tossed into her mouth. After a moment of tasting the product, another grin of approval revealed itself. "Mmm, awesome!" Her legs carelessly gave out, plopping down onto her rear in the beach next to the sharing shinobi. The hard candy rolled around her tongue, playfully poking at the inside of her cheek as her gaze drifted back to Naoki. "Hey, how can you talk with my sister anyway?" A pretty blunt question, but a curious one nonetheless. "There's not much she can do for someone that can't see, and I'm usually the one that talks for her."

 

[Samejima]

Head tilting a bit at the mention of earthquakes being normal, in the underground section of Suna, considering said information got Naoki worried about how little she actually managed to observe changes in geological movement and how she's been able to miss that in the years that she's been patrolling. I have always just been passing the Undersea by, but I didn't think they were that normal... Should I ask about it later? It's possible that it was a recent development too, in which case the tremors might've been indicative of some sort of conspiracy even further below, but this didn't occur to Naoki until afterwards, when she laid in bed that night thinking of things that transpired that day.

Candy shared, she stuffed the can back into her bag with a quick, "lemme know if you want any more!" and plopped down as well in front of Mao after she began trying to melt the candy in the right side of her mouth. A question she was used to answering, in a way, she knew how to phrase it so it made some sense, at least to her, since no one seemed to question things too much when she described it that way, "Oh, um... I can sort of sense things by hearing sounds in the background. It's like seeing, but with sounds and stuff... So shapes, like how I can tell you've got short hair and are juuuust about as tall as I am I think? But I can't sense colors or written words, so you could have purple hair for all I know..." She paused here, thinking of another purple-haired person she hasn't spoken to for a while. He's surely too busy in any case, and Naoki wasn't a genin who took speaking to the Steward for granted. After a couple of seconds, she continued, "Oh, and your sister's taught me enough about sign language to be able to talk to her well enough." Naoki slowly rolled the piece of candy around, contemplating its flavor and how much sweeter it's gotten since the first time she remembered having one of these. "This brand's gotten like, really sweet... It's kinda starting to put me off somehow, but for some reason I keep buying it. Ever had that kind of feeling, like, you know something's bad for you but you keep getting it anyway?"

 

[Koizumi Mao]

At least for the moment, it seems that Mao's efforts to change the subject were successful. Who knows how long that will last, though. Little did she know the potential nightmare fuel the other girl received upon her misunderstanding. There were a few moments of silence while the student twirled around the hard candy in her mouth - just another kid enjoying sweets without a care in the world. "So you can, like...see things with your ears?" She couldn't say she completely understood, but it sounded pretty incredible and somewhat unbelievable. That second part was quickly dashed when the blindfolded genin successfully estimated a rough description of her, which was taken with some surprise. "It's brownish black. I keep it short so I don't have to worry about it being ripped out or anything." She wasn't exactly sure why she gave further elaboration, or why she thought Naoki would care so much about her hair. "But that's awesome. You got some kinda sonar thing going, right? I bet that really comes in handy as a ninja." It was easy to trick the eyes, after all. Mao understood the usefulness of knowing your surroundings without relying on sight.

At the mention of the candy being sweet, Mao focused once more on the morsel she enjoyed before she responded. "Isn't it supposed to be sweet?" The mint in particular was a little difficult for her to detect, as she's always had problems with spicy and cool flavors given her congenital condition. She wasn't familiar with this sort of candy, likely due to her not living here long and it's limited availability. "I know what you mean, though. Kinda like a routine. Sometimes you just do stuff without really thinking about it, or it seems like a good thing to do at the time." She's had more trouble in that area than she'd care to admit, though it usually resulted in situations a little more serious than buying a bunch of candy. "If you like eating candy, I don't think it's bad for you. I mean, you train and stuff so it's fine, it's not like it holds you back."

 

[Samejima]

Naoki grinned widely, sniffing with a hint of pride as she rubbed at her nose with a flourish. "Hehe~ It really does, but there's problems sometimes when I have to tell between different signs... Public bathrooms in particular, I try not to use them when given the option." The blind girl's head bobbed from side to side as she said this, thinking about what might've happened if she'd entered the wrong bathroom by accident. At first glance, people probably wouldn't have noticed that she was in the wrong one, but a single squeak from her at discovering her error would likely have given her away. Plus, hormones were kicking in and she was gaining a little weight around the chest area. They weren't exactly pecs either. Her aunt called them 'weapons of mass destruction... if they grow in right'.

"Mm... right! It's like a reward system, but I get to control it!" The response was enthusiastic, and sounded as if she'd just now thought of that comparison. In truth though she was testing it to see if it held water with someone other than herself. She sat there for a few minutes, unsure of what exactly to talk about, when she recognized a soft beep beep coming from her bag and remembered she had to go see a mednin about an injury she sustained. "Sand rash" they called it, but it was just really itchy and kinda raw when touched. "Oh! I spaced on that thing I had to do!" Hoping she didn't have to do it after all, she rolled up one of the legs of her pants and poked the area that hurt when she went in to see the mednin in the first place, wincing when she confirmed that it did indeed still hurt. "Ow ow... Ahh, sorry about just leaving- oh but I guess I did kinda just jump in for no reason earlier huh? Hahaha..." Naoki rubbed her head, and just about as quickly as she came by, she dashed off, waving as she ran backwards without bumping into anything, "We should compare training menus sometime! Seeya around!" Of course, if she had been stopped for any reason it was likely that she would at least hear the younger Koizumi out, but otherwise she didn't want to be late for the appointment - she remembered how hard it was to get another after missing one.

A few seconds after she made that last comment, she smacked her uncovered forehead in frustration at her choice of phrasing. I can't even see most of the time, why do I still have that phrase in my word bank?!

[Topic Left, Unless Stopped]