Noise [Closed]

[Samejima]

Uwah! She sounds worried? ...I probably didn't tell her after all then... Naoki leaned back, held her hands up palms forward in front of her chest and shook them in a 'don't worry' sort of way, explaining, "No no, not like that! I mean, I've finally learned how to better control the chakra I have so it lets me see from my eyes too sometimes..." She paused there and took a step back, letting the information sink in a bit and gauging Yumi's reaction as well as she could. "So when meeting people, I still wouldn't be able to see the colors of their hair or anything... Ah, but I can read! Whiiiiich brings me to what I wanted to talk to you about!" Well... Not really I guess, but it can wait. Yumi's got more important stuff to think about right now anyway.

Catching herself before she went completely off-track however, she asked, "Ooh, but first did you have any more questions about seals? I dunno much about em myself, mind you, but I'll tell ya anything I can!"

 

[Kazumi]

Yumi's worry faded almost instantly, switching to a pleased look of surprised. "Oh, you can? I didn't even think... how is that possible? But like... it is in black and white or something?" Naoki sure was an enigma to Yumi, in more ways that one. Her apparent ability to see without sight was chief among those. Thinking off a whim she added, "is it because of the seal thing?" THough once it left her mouth, it seemed like a silly thing to suggest. Why would something like that give a person the ability to see? Utter nonsense...

As Naoki tried to nudge any final questions out of Yumi the latter hesitated in thought before she did ask, "does it hurt? I've heard tatoos hurt, or getting them at least... and umm..." Her cheeks began to warm and she averted her eyes away from Naoki's un-gaze, "n... never mind. Not a very appropriate question."

 

[Samejima]

Naoki nodded somewhat tentatively, still unsure of how she was taking the news, but her tone was still light. "Something about the way Hashigaki hearing works- ah, that's my bloodline if I haven't told you yet- apparently the chakra that normally goes to the eyes is rerouted to the ears all the time... So extra chakra is needed if I wanna see for real. The seal actually helped to trigger the gate, which is the thing I use to get the extra chakra from, so technically it was the seal... Though it took a looong time for me to learn how to keep the gate just the right amount of open..." She thought back to the time she spent holed up in her room, trying to read some of that book she still had with her... Her head started drooping just thinking about it from the stress.

"Tattoo?" She's heard of tattoos of course, just wasn't sure what that had to do with this. "I dunno, haven't gotten one... But I hear they look pretty cool! Were you... thinking of getting one?"

 

[Kazumi]

Hashigaki... it sounded familiar to Yumi, but she couldn't recall if it was somthing Naoki had told her before or not. That was about the only thing that made any vague amount of sense; well, that and she knew what chakra was... more or less. "Trigger the gate? Right amount of open? Sorry... I.. I don't follow." If it was one thing that Yumi had a talent for, it was getting confused by shinobi talk. She could tell you bits and pieces about the history of the vilalge, the basics of ninjutsu and genjutsu and the practical arts of hand to hand combar, but anything beyond that was a mystery.

"Tattoos?" Yumi repeated in a similar manner to Naoki after the latter finished speaking? "Oh... is it not like that? I heard seals were soemthing you wrote on things, like explosive tags. Are cursed seals different then?" She was beginning to think cursed seals was a terrible name for the concept. They weren't actually cursed, as far as Naoki had explained, unwieldy perhaps but the same could be said for a giant sword. Now, apparently, they might not even be seals at all!

 

[Samejima]

Hmm... She doesn't really need to know the ins and outs of the chakra gates does she? Yumi hadn't exactly struck Naoki as the athletic type, though she had witnessed Yumi's willingness to keep training no matter how tired or injured she was... "The gates... will take a long time to explain, but basically they're spots on your body you can trigger if you train long and hard enough, giving you like, tons and tons of chakra. But if you use 'em for too long, they drain your um... life force. So..." She trailed off, keeping her head down and kicking a little at the ground. Then she continued, raising her head again, "Anyway, it's a thing I can use to see sometimes, it's cool!"

Now addressing Yumi's question, she said, "At least, I know I didn't get a tattoo... Always thought seals only affected the internal chakra system, and I didn't hear much about it otherwise..." That's weird... Is there supposed to be a tattoo? I don't think I have one, and if I do... It didn't hurt all that much. Are there just different types of seals then? "If you've heard they do come with tattoos though, they probably do... But maybe they don't hurt too much? I sure haven't been hurting much anywhere," she finished, shrugging as she just had no idea what else to say on the matter.

 

[Kazumi]

Again, Naoki's explanation of gates went over Yumi's head. Regardless, she smiled and nodded as if she perfectly understood what the girl meant. "You should show me then... if it isn't dangerous." Surely Naoki wouldn't have brought it up if it was actually dangerous... then again... "now that I think about it, what do you do that isn't dangerous? And I don't mean just like.. actual dangerous mission stuff. Seals. Gate things... is there anything else?" Sure, going on secret missions, fighting enemy shinobi and things was dangerous, but was there anything Naoki didn't do or have that did not hurt her in some way?

As for the bit about the tattoo, she simply shrugged. If Naoki didn't know, Yumi surely did not have any particular insight that would suddenly make her know anymore than the current 'expert.' "Oh... and what was it you said earlier? You sounded like you had something you wanted to bring up, before I mentioned the whole seal... well, it was after that I guess, but before we talked about it further..."

 

[Samejima]

"Anything else... Hmmm..." She thought back over the things she could do, and there really wasn't much that came to mind. "Besides missions? I don't think there is anything really... Except maybe trying to practice the kokyuu in an open area like this, danger to many people's ears..." Naoki's head tilted awkwardly to the side as she motioned at the instrument she tried to play. I really should start trying a bit harder to learn it... Okay, next chance I get upstairs alone, I'm going to learn how to play it! For sure!

"Oh! Um... Well, I... just wanted to ask if you've got any books you might wanna tell me about!" I can't exactly just ask her for life advice now... She has her own problems to worry about! You can ask others about this can't you Naoki? "The thing I missed most when I... couldn't really see, that was reading. Used to read a lot way back then! Now that I can, I feel like I wanna read enough for 4 years' worth!" Grinning an excited grin, she reiterated the question. "So, do you have any you wanna recommend?"

 

[Kazumi]

Naoki's self-deprecating remark about her musical 'talents' elicited an amused giggle from Yumi as she watched the girl look off to the side in a small measure of embarrassment. "I bet that is as bad on you as it is on anyone else, since you can like... hear so well." Yumi offered her a reassuring smile, telling that she was laughing with her and not at.

"Mmm?" Yumi paused a moment as the topic suddenly changed to books. This certainly wasn't a topic that she had ever expected Naoki, of all people, to bring up. "I... I used to have quite a few, back home. We had to sell them or give them away when we moved here though. Too much stuff to bring across such a large distance." She didn't remember the journey to WInd Country all that well, but it had taken a the greater part of a few months just to arrive. Thankfully it was an uneventful trip in most regards.

"I could go to the library with you sometime, see if any of the ones I remember are here. As for lately... I haven't really been reading much in the past year, well, outside of academy work. Never have the drive to do any for fun reading after going to the academy... you know?" Even as she dismissed her ability to recommend recent things, she still took a moment to glance off to the side to ponder anything she might enjoy. "What sort of stuff do you like?"

 

[Samejima]

Naoki laughed at the mention of her hearing, "It's really bad! Maybe that's why I haven't wanted to practice at all for a long while, it just super hurts."

"Too bad about the books though, huh? Did you keep a list of the ones you liked at least, so you can track 'em all down?" She was a big fan of keeping things, that's for sure. Even some seashells she'd found she kept in she and her aunt's joint room, which her aunt then summarily threw out. It was never a big bother, but it was rather unpleasant whenever she found the table she dubbed her seashell table to have been cleared out. "And sure! The Scroll Locker right? Going there isn't something I can do too often, since training and all, but we can just set a time and meet there!" If she remembered right though, that area didn't have much to read aside from the village's lore, and she'd already gone through a little of the collection.

"Mostly just stuff about adventures and comedy, ooh, and mysteries are good too but... I don't have the focus to read through much of it before I get too tired..." Kinda miss those things... But it's not like I have a lot of em anyways, and it's kinda awkward to be walking into a bookstore without being able to see for long. Plus i just get distracted so easily! Naoki put her left hand on her hip, facing upwards to try and remember any other preferences, but soon gave up and asked Yumi what hers were. "What kinds did you read back there?"

 

[Kazumi]

"Scroll Locker?" she quickly asked in confusion. It took her a few moments to realise why that place was brought up. "Oh no no no, an actual library! There is one I know of a few blocks from Kurisu's apartment building. If you want I can take you there sometime. Oh, and you should take a break from training more. I mean... you already are a Genin, you don't have any super stressful exams to take..." The thought of her own caused a small tinge of a shiver to trickle down her spine.

"Oh, yes right! Books! Erm... No, I didn't. Never occured to me at the time, but that's fine. I don't like to reread things. Takes all the fun out of it if you know how it is going to end. You know?" The girl soflty smiled and chuckled just as faintly. "I like comedic mysteries myself. All the unknowns of a crime and lighthearted at the same time. Keeps it from getting to depressing... I mean, sure the guy got a knife in his back, but there is humor atleast!... Not the knife, of course." She added the last bit in as if it was a defensive afterthought, quickly tacked on to save face.

"Why do you wanna be a shi... well, I mean you already are one so like... why do you... oh! Why are you a Shinobi anyway? I mean, you're good at it and stuff, but is that the only reason?" The question was sudden, but her expression belied her actual interest. She, after all, had chosen this life too, or rather her parents did and she had to follow their last wishes. At least that was what she continued to tell herself...

 

[Samejima]

"Ooh, another? Hmm..." There weren't many opportunities Naoki had to enter each and every structure in Sunagakure, even in the time span of several years. Especially given her tendency to just hang around the old shopkeepers and listen to stories about the past. "Would be cool to finally read something that isn't all lore," she said, giggling.

She nodded after Yumi told her what sort of books she liked for the most part, "Ahh yeah, it just feels less whoa the second time 'round..." Would be worse with mysteries too, since the knowing is way more than half the fun. Smiling somewhat awkwardly at what she thought was Yumi's attempt at a joke, "Ahaha, mysteries huh? U-um..." And said nothing more until Yumi's very thought-provoking question. Whoa! How'd she know I was... Was it... Was it that obvious?

"I... I wanna help people. That's it, I think." Audibly far more somber than she was a few seconds ago, pitch of her voice lower and words coming out slower, Naoki debated internally whether or not to further burden Yumi with her existential problems. Why was she here? What does she want to do? How is she moving forward at all from here? Just more training? Getting stronger? There was no answer, or at least nothing that came to her when she thought about it.

 

[Kazumi]

For whatever reason, Yumi didn't seem entirely satisfied by Naoki's answer as she stared over towards the other girl, looking as if she expected more. She had thought about this same very question almost every nnight since she was released from this hospital. She had always somehow managed to give herself the slip and sidetrack herself, or to give herself the answer she expected: She was a good daughter who was furfilling her parent's last wishes.

This, of course, wasn't the truth of the matter. Her parents had been very hesitatnt about setting their only daughter up for a life of danger, but they didn't have enough money to leave the village and their financial situation was getting nearly ready to burst.

"You can help people in a lot of ways though, right? Why does it have to involve fighting, violence and stuff? Isn't a lot of the stuff shinobi do hurting people? Stealing things, assass..sassinating people?" She had to fight to get the word out of her mouth as it fought to stick to the roof of her mouth, "Back where I am from we had a man who oversaw the village I was born in. He kept everyone in line and happy. Settled disputes and helped a whole bunch of people, but he never had to kill anyone I don't think..."

 

[Samejima]

The older girl obviously needed to give more thought than she had. Other ways of helping huh... "Being one of the shinobi just seems like the coolest way to do stuff!" she proclaimed, hands on her hips and chest puffed out as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, affirming the lack of any actual thought having been given to her life purpose. It's something she can just change at will anyway, so there wasn't a point in overthinking it right? Right. "I mean, I wanna help sure, but I can't be all smart like those scholar people and I don't have any money or power so I can't help that way either. And um... I'm pretty bad at talking to people really," she admitted, clasping her hands behind her back. "And... I guess I just didn't think of other ways? There's a perfectly good one right there after all!" Sure it's dangerous, but it's helping... and it's cool, and there's a lot of people you can meet while doing it... And weirdly I'm good at it, so why not right? Why not... She knew exactly why not of course, but in her stubbornness is still refusing to admit anything of the sort.

 

[Kazumi]

Even through Naoki's explanation Yumi did not look convinced. Regardless, she nodded and gave Naoki a small amused smirk as she tilted her head a small bit to one side. "I suppose you're right. I just hope that doing good stuff outweighs the bad stuff, you know?" She paused a second and leaned forward as if she was going to say something she didn't want others to overhear. "I heard that if you are given a mission, you have to do whatever it takes to complete it. Stealing, killing, torturing and all that, even. Is that true?"

She looked around for a second before adding, "I overheard some of that from one of Kurisu's neighbors. Some farmers or somethng hadn't been giving their full share to a lord or something and one of the shinobi was instructed to kill some poeple to encourage them to follow the rules." The mention of that event sent a shiver down her spine. She didn't believe it at first, at least she did not want to believe it, however the guy didn't seem like he was lying either.

 

[Samejima]

Naoki let out a small "hmm" and lowered her head at the mention of the less savory things one needed to do as a part of her line of work. She'd miraculously avoided those sorts of missions, but she'd have to get used to it at some point. Of course, with the way she thought now, there was no doubting orders since there's always some explanation to it. "Well, I guess the people've been really late anyway... There was no need to kill someone over it of course, but it's those cases that really need a shinobi to think!"

She thought of a less bleak rationalization and offered that up. "If you read that mission normally, it says that you need to kill someone to scare 'em, but really you don't have to. All you need to do is get them to pay up, and as long as that's taken care of the mission's basically complete! ...Basically." There were always cases where just that wasn't enough of course, but it's only in those extreme cases that Naoki could ever bring herself to kill. "I mean, I know it's not always like that... But when I do missions, I wanna help as many people as I can, so I'd give that one up if the killing was something that had to happen..."

 

[Kazumi]

As before, Yumi still did not look entirely sure of Naoki's optimism. She did, however, nod along in agreement with the girl's outlook on the matter. Surely she wouldn't have to do something like that... Would she? The last bit seemed to catch her off guard, "give it up? I didn't know you could give up a mission that was assigned to you... and even if you can, doesn't that just mean someone else will have to go do it?" That brought her to think about Sousuke, the Steward, for a moment. Surely he would not approve of such missions... right?

It was times like these that her ignorance of shinobi customs reared its ugly head. It was true she was an academy student, but she still figured that any other child her age would have been smart enough to know these simple things. Well, atleast Naoki would, and she could learn from Naoki's experience! "I've heard stuff like that was why some people just left their villages. Just went missing and stuff." The concept was not as shocking to her as it might have been to Naoki or perhaps a native born villager. She had only been here just over three years, and the concept of leaving if your values and goals didn't align with the village just made sense.

 

[Samejima]

Naoki's head perked up a little at Yumi's question. "Ahh yep, basically like forfeiting a match really. Never feels good... But if it's not something you think you can handle, rule of thumb is to just not take it in the first place," she explained, nodding. "Someone else huh... That'd be bad too, if the person who requested it made another one, but maybe that someone else'll be able to think of some way to do it right? All I know is... The villagers' blood won't be on my hands... And I did try to help, so..." Series of moral questions just popped up. It was best not to think of them, but naturally she'd go and think of them, sometime while she lay awake at night. If that ever happened of course, she almost always slept soundly. For now though, those questions were shoved to the back of her mind before she tried to change the subject.

"A-anyway! People just leaving the village like that really don't have a sense of responsibility. I mean, they didn't even think of their teammates, or the people they've talked to in the village, the people they've lived with for so long, their friends? A mission can't be so bad it'd force them to leave when they can't do it. They know their job was to just solve the problems they're given, and if they can't solve it they can pass it on, or even ask for help from others... There's things to do besides just throwing it all away and running, just gotta figure out the right way to go," and she didn't stop for more than a couple breaths during that spiel. It was what she firmly believed in, albeit not something she dwelt on in the least.

 

[Kazumi]

While Yumi seemed to accept Naoki's first answer, the second visibly irritated the girl. She tried to cross her arms, but the gesture just felt awkward without the right forearm and hand to make it all work smoothly together. So, she relegated herself to simply placing her left hand on her hip as she stared over towards Naoki disapprovingly. "You know, my parents and uncle moved away from our home to come live here." She didn't entirely know why, she figured it had something to do with business stuff that she didn't need to know about at the time. "Are you saying that they were bad people for doing that? That they didn't have any sense of responsibility?" Yum's irritation tinged each of her words as she continued to stare up and over towards the older girl, her red irises staring a hole in the girl's face, even if the gesture was lost on her.

 

[Samejima]

Taken aback, she replied with another question. "Ah sorry! I was actually only talking about people who leave because of missions like that... Did they leave because they failed a mission or something? I didn't know your parents were shinobi too!" Kids usually get their abilities from their parents... But maybe Yumi's one of those who didn't? There's always exceptions is what mom said I think... Then, waving her hands close to her chest in a defensive gesture, she continued, "Anyway it's not like everyone who's irresponsible is bad... I mean, kids are irresponsible right? But they're not bad, at least I don't think so... Adults can be like that too sometimes of course!" She paused then, and added something she thought of just there. "Maybe their responsibility was more for their family or just... something more important than the village," she finished, head tilted from the thought she'd just put into thinking of a thoughtful thought for the thinking portion of the day.

 

[Kazumi]

Yumi's irritation didn't seem to fully leave her expression, but parts of it were replaced by confusion as Naoki attempted to defend herself against Yumi's stare. "My mom and dad were merchants. We weren't from a Hidden village. We lived in a small village outside of this big city," the name of the city escaped her for the moment and so she quickly continued. Yumi's stare couldn't lat much longer, and with an exasperated sigh she broke it off and shook her head at the older girl.

"I guess because you were born here and lived here like... forever you look at it weirdly." She shrugged, assuming that must be all there was to it. Though perhaps it was part of shinobi training that Yumi had yet to go through? Mental rehabilitation and conditioning to try and ensure that village assets didn't decide they wanted to live elsewhere? Her thoughts only passively skimmed across the top of her mind, but it did give her something to think about.