Pet Shop Soiree [Private]

[Okibi]

He read the package of the chew bone on the shelf in front of him, and scoffed. It said it was chicken flavored, but didnt smell chicken-like in the least. Were there canines out there that actually enjoyed chewing on such a thing? The things that humans could come up with, sometimes it boggled his mind. Seven turned away from the assortment of bones and rose his head above the shelves in the 'pet shop' that he and his human stopped in. It was interesting, because the store owner didnt actually mind him entering in his natural form... if you could call him natural at all. A canine the size of a horse was hardly natural, but he did feel more comfortable than in his human form.

Nonetheless, it was strange to find a human that let him into their establishment. They were still wary obviously - their scent couldnt hide that much - but the sentiment was still appreciated.

He spotted Okibi over by the caged birds, poking at their metal cases and making them chirp and flutter around in a tizzy. He sighed and went to stand beside her. "Stop scaring the poor things." He admonished gently. Okibi didnt spare him a glance, although she did do as he said. She stood back and placed her hands behind her, considering the caged creatures.

"Why humans put birds in cage?" She asked, loud, but no enough for the store owners to hear. Seven shrugged and looked at the birds, which had calmed down now that his human wasnt terrorizing them.

"I'm not certain. Humans crave companionship, I suppose, and some prefer the ease of buying it." He speculated, also looking at the birds. They didnt look like they hated their predicament, but still, a part of him wondered. Would they have preferred to be flying free above ground?

The two lapsed into a comfortable silence as they watched the birds.

 

[Honma Kotone]

The Sennin felt an awkward ocean of smells brush upon her as she entered the pet store, a tediously smelly place, where owners of all animals could come and buy their daily needs for their pets. But what, you may ask, would the Sennin be doing in a pet shop? Well, after the recent incident at the Tower, involving one of her own staff members getting into a brawl with their own companion - something about bonding issues, Kinnaku wasn't really aware of the real reason for their fight - but regardless, she was advised by the mother of that Inuzuka to purchase some 'soothing' items. Some may question the purpose behind doing this, because really, why go to so much effort to make one of your own staff and their rudely companion more at ease... Answer: because she cared, and also because the canine companion was ridiculously gorgeous.

Kinnaku's heels clanked against the tiled floor, her body would gesture a wave over to the customer service boy; a teenager behind the till with a smile on his face. "I have no idea what I'm looking for..." She would reiterate that sentence out loud, and into her own mind, before she entered one of many isles. It honestly wasn't long before the woman was so, astronomically, distracted by all the cute animals within the shops protection. She couldn't believe the amount of species this shop had: reptiles, aquatic, mammals, amphibians and so forth. Honestly, you wouldn't think this woman had any authority as she plumped herself onto her naked knees, winching slightly at the sting of cold from her flesh touching the cold marble floor.

Soon, the woman had worked her way round to the birds; their unsteady chirping to one another gave Kinnaku an unsettling feeling. However, unbelievably, that awkward, almost sad, feeling would be wiped from her brow at the sight of a magnificent, stallion creation of a canine. Kinnaku would be standing, eyes obviously drawn to her right as subtly as possible, but ultimately it seemed quite obvious that her black hues were eyeing up the large canine and young girl - oh dear, this didn't look right at all.

She had a special affiliation towards canines, oh how she loved those furry creations; even looking at Seven made her want to cuddle him. Kinnaku would edge herself innocently over to the two, coming closer and closer until she was but a good meter away with a large bag of dog feed grasped between her forearms, held close to her chest. "Hehehe!"

If ever there was a facepalm moment, this would be it.

[Sorry if the post is rubbish, feeling all bleh e.e]

 

[Okibi]

(Dont be silly! Your posts are never rubbish. Still, you shouldnt force yourself to post if youre feeling sick, so next time, dont! )

Okibi's nose flared as the scent of a female wafted in her and Seven's direction. She turned her head just slightly to see a tall woman clutching a sack to her chest, staring. More specifically, she was staring at Seven. Okibi jumped just slightly when the woman uttered a cheery giggle. What was the word she'd learned to describe this kind of behavior? Oh, that's right, creepy. This woman was being creepy.

Raising one eyebrow, Okibi turned her sights back to the birds, trying to ignore the strange woman. However, a part of her brain couldnt help wondering about her scent. It was very vaguely familiar, but she couldnt recall where she'd smelled it before... In an attempt to delve into her memory, Okibi closed her eyes and took a deeper breath. Smell was very key when dealing with memories.

She saw... stairs... kunai... water... frogs...

Friends.

That's it!

Her eyes flew open as she gasped and turned on the woman with a boldly pointed finger. "You is buggy woman from exam!" She yelled, startling everyone else in the store, Seven included. The large dog hadnt even noticed the woman's approached, so engrossed was he by the birds. He jumped nearly three feet into the air at his humans exclamation, and ended up bumping into a display of pet shampoos. The shelves teetered precariously for a moment, and because he had no human hands to grab it, Seven watched with dismay as the shelving unit fell over completely. It crashed into another shelf that housed numerous animal sanctuaries, and caused a few of them to burst open. Various creatures took this valuable opportunity by the horns and fled for freedom, quickly causing mass chaos within the store.

Things were quickly becoming a mess in the pet shop; Seven and Okibi were at the heart of it too, like usual. Okibi looked around the store as village ran from snakes, or tried to get lizards out of their hair, or the owners tried to wrangle up the hamsters that were running from the snakes. She looked at Seven with a deadpanned expression, her pointed finger now drooping slightly. "That your fault, not Okibi's."

 

[Honma Kotone]

Kinnaku became startled, yes she became startled, at the sudden exclamation from the young girl. She would step back and tighten her embrace of the large bag of dry dog mix, which would be mixed in with the wet food of course. It was at that point that everything started to dissolve into something a nation far, far, far away would depict as: 'Going tits up'. Shampoo bottles became unsteady and fell from their perched stands, knocking over some other merchandise and further startling more customers. Oba would cuddle the bag awkwardly, scrunching up her face as she watched tiny animals scurry away from their habitats. "Oh dear!" She would say quietly, widening her eyes but comically attempting to catch some of the furry fiends from running too far, but to no avail.

Kinnaku would remain holding onto the bag, mostly for security now rather than for purchase. She would proceed to awkwardly smile at the young girl and the mountain of a canine, blushing patchily. "I'll pay for that, it's okay." Kinnaku would deepen her embarrassed smile, after all, it really was her fault for startling the young girl, who startled the canine... Who then startled the bottles of shampoo, which then caused a domino effect of accidents. Wait, was this really her fault?!

Oh well, accidents were always going to happen and today was no exception. "Hey," Kinnaku would lift her head from being buried against the thickly lined bag, "Aren't you someone I know?" She would tilt her head, slotting her black hues and focusing on the girl rather than her adorably furred companion. The Sennin would think on it and after a few moments it would become apparent that she really did recognize this girl from somewhere. However, she would've recognize the canine but for some reason maybe he wasn't with her companion during that exam. "Didn't you take part in a Genin Exam? Actually, I'm curious do you know where Ikkadan is?" She quickly shifted from question to question, the latter being more important to her than anything else.

Ikkadan was a troubled boy who had missed his appointments with the Sennin, then Chief, and had given her no indication that he wasn't going to reschedule. In fact, the last day that he was seen was when he had left in search of someone. What a troubled child, you see, he had recently been injured by his uncle in their residence: Yamazaki Iori, her Medical Chief. Apparently there was some deeper issue at root but something still didn't feel right with him...

[I almost died reading your post. Love, so much love.]

 

[Okibi]

Something slithered against her leg and Okibi looked down to see a boa getting friendly with her ankle. She stooped down and picked up the serpent, cradling it to her chest. One of the shop attendants was running by her, chasing a crew of scurrying mice, and she caught him by the back of his apron. The young man came to a throttled halt, gagging slightly. With a quick smile, Okibi handed the snake to the associate and pushed him back along his way.

"Why dont you change me so I can help?" Seven said after he finally regained his footing after that embarrassing display. He stood beside Okibi, tensed up with shame, as he watched the workers run around like chickens with their heads cut off. Okibi looked up at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Guess so. Is least you could do." She said, grinning coyly so Seven knew she was joking at least a little. She was the one who startled him, so a little of the fault was on her too. She flipped through some quick handseals before smacking him on his thick shoulder, causing him to go up in smoke. When it cleared, he stood in an altered human form, which looked younger than the one Oba had seen at the genin exam.

As Seven went about using his human hands to gather up as many critters as he could, Okibi turned to the tall woman that caused her to cause the entire fiasco. Apparently the woman had recognized her too. She smiled and nodded amicably to the sennin's questions, up until she asked about Okibi's wayward friend. The girls smile slowly slipped from her face as her nodding stopped and she looked away from the female giant. A deep crease formed between her eyebrows, only a slight testament to the feelings that were starting to war within her chest. Ironically, she had a feeling that if Oba had mentioned it, she probably would have come around to asking the woman if she knew anything of Ikkadan's whereabouts.

Okibi closed her eyes with a deep breath and slowly shook her head, her violet hair fanning slightly. "Okibi not see Ikki in long time." She murmured as one of her hands came up to clutch at her bare bicep. There was a small scar there, smooth and barely noticeable because the wound hadnt been very deep, but the emotional attachment to that small blemish was greater than any physical pain that could have been inflicted. The girl grimaced. "Last time Okibi see him... he attack her. No see him since." And even then, after all the time that had passed, Okibi still wasnt over it. She'd been trying to help her friend, and what did he do? Throw shuriken at her! Sure, he hadnt seemed completely like himself at the time... but Okibi wouldnt take that as an excuse. You dont attack friends when theyre trying to help you; you just dont!

Seven stood up with a number of furry friends in his arms, and an amphibian or two on his head. He sensed a cloud of depression coming over his human, and could only guess at what was going on.

[MFT]

 

[Honma Kotone]

The Sennin still remained stationary, afraid to do anything to upset the balance of complete disorder within the shop. She still cuddled into the bag, its body providing little to no comfort with each tight squeeze; brought on by the high-pitched screeching of a squad of mice. They frantically ran, followed by a flustered shop worker, but to be only throttled to a halt by the, surprisingly strong, Okibi. Afterwards things got a little more, well, weird for the tame woman as she watched the adorably cute canine become engulfed by a spawn of white, fluffy smoke - which went transparent after a few moments - and then, as the smoke faded, it revealed a human standing where the canine once stood.

The Sennin gave the now man figure an odd expression before turning to face Okibi. It took Kinnaku a few moments to piece together that the human figure was indeed her creature companion, whom had previously transformed into a human during the Genin Exam. "Oh right..." She loosened her destructive, but instinctive, grip of the bag and eased up her body after every sound caused tension to massage her muscles and tissue. However, things, from that point onward, returned to a relatively normal standing. Kinnaku had mentioned Ikkadan to which the girl revealed some information that would cause her to be shocked, in a state of disbelief even.

"I'm sorry that happened... He was a very troubled boy, and I believe that he valued your friendship much more than you might believe." She gave the girl a smile, a sympathetic one, but a smile non-the-less. She really hoped that Ikkadan was okay, but felt saddened that his demons had really taken over and caused him to lash out against this girl. "I'm sorry, I didn't even catch your name?" Kinnaku extended her hand to the young girl, hoping to distract her from an obvious gloomy cloud that dawned over her head, "I'm Oba Kinnaku, Sennin."

 

[Okibi]

Gloomy clouds were indeed well on their way the more Okibi contemplated her missing friend. The last parting had been less than ideal, and it only tore her up the more she thought about it. A distraction was definitely needed.

The first fold came in the form of the tall woman officially introducing herself. Okibi turned her downcast countenance on the woman, and then her outstretched hand. Obviously she had less of a memory than Okibi, because the girl was almost certain they had been introduced at the exam... Didnt matter! Okibi couldnt remember her name before either. Forcing a smile, Okibi took the womans hand and pumped it once before letting it go. "Okibi is Okibi." She said listlessly, lacking the enthusiasm her introductions normally overflowed with.

Seven watched the interaction from where he stood. A shop keeper stopped next to him and asked for the animals he had collected and he gave them up gladly. He worried about the nosedive that his humans mood was taking; if nothing else he was going to have to work on cheering her up later, and that was never a pleasant chore. Something had to be done.

"My name is Number Seven, but you may call me Seven for short." He said as he made his way back to Okibi's side. By then, the shop had mostly calmed down. Most of the would-be pets were back in their terrariums and the shelves he knocked over had been re-erected. All that was left to do now was to lift Okibi's spirits. But how to do that?

As he thought about it, he let the jutsu that Okibi cast on him disperse, returning him to his charming canine form. He sat his thick rump down on the cold floor as he eyed the human girl.

 

[Honma Kotone]

It was quite obvious that this young pup was distracted by something, or rather someone, and that person may have been Ikkadan. The Sennin would nod her head and smile gently as the girl properly introduced herself as Okibi, even with her deliciously cute form of speech. And once again, the man named Seven would memorize her at the de-transformation as he reverted back into a canine. Even as some may call his look vicious, or intimidating, Kinnaku really loved the creature and thought that he could only look adorable. That's because she was partially insane for animals...

"I'm sorry, I think it was my fault that this mess happened." Kinnaku dropped to her buttocks, well, after placing the bag of dog feed underneath herself. She really didn't want to end up with piles. Man, piles were unpleasant.

"I've always wanted a friend like that." The Sennin would nudge her black hues over to the black hound as she implied that she had always wanted a companion such as the Inuzuka were bonded with. "Instead, I've got these little guys~" She would hold out her hand and offer up a few spores of tiny insects that would buzz over to the tiny girl; acrobatically zooming around, pulling off high-speed maneuvers and impressing interested eyes. "I'm sure we can make you fly, Seven, with them." Kinnaku would chuckle, trying to lighten the mood as her little companions buzzed back into her palm until they scurried underneath her sleeve.