The Ultimate 101 [Open]

[Honnou]

These few days had been full of surprises and secrets. So much, in fact, that the Hyuuga felt like dozing off on the desk some random day in the beginning of fall at his home, marking the completion of the decoration of his gauntlet. With stacked blueprints on his left side, he had used approximately 2 hours to redo the blade’s structure, the spring lock, and the appearance of his gauntlet to make it subtler. Now, he simply slept peacefully… in the middle of noon.

Despite having grown these few weeks, he was still a child in many ways. He wouldn’t admit it himself though, which was but one way of saying that he was childish. As sunlight shone onto his eyelids, he slowly woke up and rose from the chair, stretching out a little before grabbing his newly finished gauntlet and putting it on. “… *inhale, exhale* Please don’t break my neck today,” he gently prayed as he walked out. The gauntlet felt very light and easy to the touch, discreetly blending with his white t-shirt and black trousers. He’d call it a success if it was just for show, but it had more to offer than just wrist defense.

And he would show that through his swinging around the Hidden Cloud; the village’s several layers and heights made it ideal for three-dimensional movement. Although, it woke a little tension between the villagers who began moving to the sides for the mad boy as he swung by…

At a point, he found himself in front of Kumo's Fried Chicken, hanging upside down like a spy and eyeing the worker in an attempt to order a box. This gauntlet proved functioning...

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Kaori walked through the streets confidently with the blonde-bombshell known as Mina sticking out of her back. She looked around with a worried expression as she looked around, seeing all of the strange looks from the people around town. The non-shinobi gawking at the strange duo as they walked through the village. The judging eyes and hearing the whispered words of 'creep', 'weirdo', 'monster', rang through her ears quite clearly; nothing she hadn't experienced before. She got these same looks from an even tougher crown in Konohagakure when she used to have horns. None of their words stung Kaori, stinging Mina more than it did to the still-living blind-girl. Mina leaned over and whispered into Kaori's ear, "Is. Is this what it felt like with your horns?" Mina asked, looking around, almost feeling the glares penetrate her to the soul.

"This is nothing. If anything, these people are a lot nicer than the people in Leaf. Nobody's thrown rocks at me yet," she said as she turned to look towards some of the people. She couldn't see their exact location, but she followed her ears to stare at where she realized the sounds were coming from. All she did was smile at them. Sneers and silent jeers came from those she returned the glance at before they went about their business. Mina reached her arms around Kaori's body and hugged her, rubbing her cheek upon Kaori's. "It must have been awful growing up with that," Mina said, trying to console her.

Kaori moved an arm across her body and pat Mina upon the head. "Wouldn't have mattered. If it wasn't for you, I'd have probably been sacrificed to a false dragon god. This is nothing, Mina. Besides, If they throw rocks at me, I can just throw it back 10 times faster now," she said with a little giggle. Her nose picked up the beautiful smell of fried fowl and the sound of crackling of boiling oil could be heard. Her mouth salivated as she started to drift off towards a local favorite junk-food restaurant. All she does is go to restaurants. She went to a restaurant in Tea, she went to a couple restaurants here. She goes to bars there. She's actually getting fed up with going to restaurants and just save a bit of money.

This would be easily solved if she was able to cook, but to cook successfully would require proper vision and that's not something Kaori had the luxury of, hence why she has to constantly eat at restaurants. Mina couldn't cook as she doesn't want to entertain the idea of paying out insurance. As she approached the door of the establishment, Kaori banged straight into the wall next to the door. Mina tried to warn her about her colliding into the wall, but it was too late. One of the ruder patrons laughed at Kaori and shouted, "What are you, blind?" he asked in a taunting manner before Kaori turned to look towards him, pausing as she just glanced at him. The man realized what he said and with a single look into Kaori's eyes, he hushed up. "Fucking weirdo," she said as he looked at Mina for a moment before shuffling off.

Mina's expression turned sour. This was the usual day for Kaori. People didn't care to learn who Kaori was. They only saw her as something that could be brushed aside, a tool that had grown well-out-of-use. It didn't matter if they got to know Kaori though. Those who do get to know Kaori either disappears, dies, or inevitably betrays her anyway. It's not like it really mattered much to her having been alone for several years to perform her duty dealing with the Dragon Statues, but a little bit of attention (positive attention) was always nice for Kaori. That's the reason why she even wept when the news of Maru's death had struck her. As annoying as he was, he paid attention to her. Made her feel wanted.

She hadn't felt that, even once, since entering Kumogakure​

[lb2][/lb2]

Yomi had a family here to care about which left her by herself with no guidance. It was the blind guiding herself through this unknown landscape. Even leading her to this Kumo Fried Chicken restaurant for yet another mundane day at a mundane restaurant.

[Topic Entered]

 

[Honnou]

”… Wait, Hon, is that you?” the worker spoke up in recognition of the next customer, “Man, it’s been a while! I never got to thank you for your help back when we started up…!” The boy began to blush in amaze at his work - he remembered being recruited, as one of his first missions as a Genin, to start up as a worker for KFC here. It brought back a spicy memory of his early shinobi days. “I’d want to say that you’ve grown up, but… well, uh… oh, yeah, your hair is softer,” the worker tried to comment, hiding the fact that Hon’s height was taking its time increasing. A pout came out of the Hyuuga’s face in annoyance as he simply ordered his meal, trying to forget that he was by far one of, if not the smallest shinobi among any and every group that he’d hung around with - Kiri’s class, his ninjamates, Aoi’s class… what the hell… the only one who was smaller than him was Shizuka!

Hon had seen her long ago when he entered the line. His blue eyes wouldn’t let him not see anything within 360 degrees most of the time - except when he forced himself to focus at one thing only. Then again, he could turn it off; by burning away all his chakra, which would ultimately kill him… however, it also erased many ways of jumpscares since seeing things coming was easier. She had a legit person stick out of her back, somehow… it was so strange, and he didn’t know what the reason or function of this bonding was. Could you even call it bonding? It appeared more like a ghostly figure than a body made of flesh and blood. Spinning around on his wire, Hon laid his eyes directly towards hers from like an inch away. Meanwhile, the worker eyed the scene as well, having munched chicken drool out of his almost dislocated jaw.

“…” The boy turning upside down would begin waving a hand in front of Kaori’s face, seemingly intrigued by something about her… meanwhile, people behind her wouldn’t wait to begin complaining about the gimmick and demand the line to start moving.

"... P-Please, enjoy your food here. I'm kind of responsible for the infamous taste of Cloud chickens, hehe..."

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

As she found herself in line, she heard random chit-chat between one of the workers and someone else that might be in-line to order. The conversation didn't last very long, thankfully, as the smell made her even hungrier. Her desire to consume food grew evermore as the sound of the oil bubbling and the fowl frying teamed up with the smell of the chicken boiling in the oil just whet her appetite. Kaori heard the twang of a wire before hearing the breath of someone directly in front of her. Mina eyeballed the guy who decided to encroach in on Kaori's space. The urge to punch the person away grew as much as Kaori's appetite. "How about you back yourself up and give her a bit of space?" said the woman that was sticking out of Kaori's back.

Kaori didn't see the hand being waved in front of her face, but she was able to hear the wind caused by the hand movement. This made Mina increasingly annoyed as the boy seemed to ignore her presence and the fact that he didn't understand a little something called 'personal space'. [lb2][/lb2]

"Yes, I'm blind"
"You have three seconds to back up"​

[lb2][/lb2]

The two said simultaneously. Kaori's mind only drifted towards getting food while Mina didn't like having someone so close to them and was going to knock Honno's block off. If anything, at least the boy received a warning before Mina had any plans of knocking the boy away.

 

[Honnou]

Things got very tight very quickly very not good. Apparently, the girl in front of him - more precisely in front and upside down - stated to be blind. Damn… Hon felt like a huge douchebag now. It was even heavier by the spirit’s warning, in which he reflexively backed off. He didn’t think that he was that close in the beginning… did he invade her personal space? It must’ve been so… what an idiot that he was.

“W-W-Well, uhm, uh…” he stuttered, deciding to release the wire and land on his feet now finally standing on the right surface, “Uhm… s-sorry, about the space thing- I didn’t mean to-“ His voice got cut by the announcement from the worker about his meal being ready, in which Hon turned around. “Oh! Thanks…!” he said, grabbed his meal, paid and excused the lady with a bow. He would then find a seat at the nearby tables, obviously eyeing the blind girl and her spirit friend with upmost curious eyes that she could likely notice even without eyesight. Despite being slightly intimidated by the spirit, they woke curiosity in him…

… Was he being too much right now?

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Mina's tension and annoyance eased up the moment the boy backed off. It didn't bother Kaori much as she wasn't able to see how dangerously close he was. It was then Kaori's turn to order. Mina looked over the menu for a moment and ordered for her. As a way to get back at the child for annoying Mina, Kaori turned her body back towards the boy that took off, "You're going to pay for my food right?" she asked before responding, after skillfully changing her voice using a jutsu she developed 'Voice Mimicry' to copy the boy's voice, doing her best to make herself sound distant (using Honno's voice) -- "Yeah, put it on my tab!" she said mimicking the boy's voice. She raised a brow and the turned to look back at the register.

Mina tried her best to hold in her laughter, burying her face into Kaori's shoulder. A slip of paper was handed to Kaori with her order number. Removing her face from Kaori's shoulder, Mina looked at the ticket and whispered "You're number 83," to Kaori before clicking Kaori's bell to give her a good look at the place. After clumsily navigating herself around a barrier between the waiting in line and where the seating was, Kaori navigated to where she believed the boy that got so close to her sat and took a seat at a table adjacent to him.

After getting comfortable, she turned her head in the complete opposite direction of the boy. Mina placed both of her hands upon Kaori's face and guided it to face Honno. "Thanks for putting my meal on your tab, you're such a sweet-heart. Anyway, I noticed you were looking at either me or Mina here," she said hooking a thumb behind her to the busty 'magical girl' that came from her back. With a little bit of magic, the girl named Mina separated from Kaori and took the seat next to her. Mina just gazed at the boy, a piercing gaze of annoyance and even disgust.

Kaori waved her off and turned to look back towards Honno. "Don't mind her, she just doesn't like it when people stare since people have a bad habit of staring at a couple particular places. It's not something she's used to yet, especially with budding boys who have started to grow an interest in that kind of stuff," she chuckled. She could almost feel Mina trying to burn a hole into Honno's forehead. From, seemingly out of nowhere, Kaori pulled out a plushy of a robot and handed it to Mina. Having grown distracted from the doll, she clutched it to her breast and started to leave Honno alone.

 

[Honnou]

Did he… did he just hear himself? Was that his thoughts? But he didn’t think anything- or technically, he was thinking about the two ladies, but the word ‘tab’ was nowhere what he thought about. She had just been rather… how did you say it, offended? He felt that she had been offended by that - mainly due to her ghost friend’s response - and that it was pretty much his fault. It built guilt in his heart like being accused of having eaten the cookies that mum had hid away for so long, whilst even knowing that it wasn’t you. Yet, watching your mama so saddened just… it just makes you as guilty as ever.

But uh, how did she even do it? He could see her lips moving in sync with the voice that was supposed to be his. Question marks popped out from his ears as she took a seat with a table between the two of them. At this point, he didn’t know what would happen… and oh boy, was he right. The turning of her head caught him off-guard as he tilted his head a little. Did he buy her meal? “Uh, w-w-wait, wha-“ That identity thief, this was a knife to the chest for him.

“Oh, uhh, nah, that's not... no, not, uh, no-" He quickly wanted to change subject, since he knew that he sucked at these kinds of topics. Just bringing it up was enough to fluster him, and he knew for a fact that he didn't attempt on any of that on her, "-You seemed annoyed by earlier… I-I didn’t offend you or anything, did I?” His voice was mixed with utter worry about her and himself, oblivious to what she must’ve thought back then, “It just… uh, I don’t know, I’ve never felt so mute before… I want to say I’m sorry. I must’ve acted like a fool back there.” He was referring to the whole oblivious knowledge of her blindness, which the lady and the spirit had to strictly inform him about. Apparently, the ghostly magical girl still had a grudge against him through her interactions with his gaze. Her eyes kinda cut his own eyes painfully… it was scary.

“Well, I guess… it’s not something you see every day,” he commented, “If I had a spiritual girl sticking out from my back… huh… I wonder how my life would’ve been.” Next, he’d reach a hand towards Kaori, a more confident smile growing up in him. “… Oh, yeah, there’s a black-haired, blue-eyed dude with a single, red strand on his bangs wanting to introduce himself through a handshake. I’m Honnou.” Since Mina had a plush to hug, he didn’t feel as threatened as before, so he managed to gain courage enough to just greet properly.

He just hoped, for the love of god, that she wasn’t going to accuse him of offending her blindness again…

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Kaori let out a snicker in the boy's direction. The fact that he looked so flustered was charming and his clumsiness over his own words was simply adorable to her. She held out a hand and summoned a single fork; one with quite the ornate design bearing a red jewel at the butt of the fork. "Guess you learned the price of giving people personal space, hm? Thanks for the meal by the way," she said before giving a little wink in his general direction. She had no remorse using his voice to give her a free meal. On the contrary, it's something she should be doing more often. While she had no intention of abusing this poor child's voice, she does fully intend on using this (through the use of other people's voices) to get more free things in the future. The joys of music and vocal manipulation.

It was then that the boy made a bold move. Mina finally split from Kaori, taking a seat next to her while still burning a hole into Honno's forehead with a death-glare. Kaori was still clutching the little plushy next to her breasts with her right arm before the boy made his introduction. While Mina still stared at the boy, turning redder and redder from childish frustration, Kaori tilted her head for a moment, hearing him out. "Honnou, huh? That's kind of a strange name, but the narration is quite handy," she said placing her hand gently into his, applying very little pressure. While she was more than capable of giving him a 'manly' handshake, she didn't feel the need to at this moment. She wanted to feel the kind of handshake this boy would give.

"Kaori. The angry one is named Mina. Charmed," she said, introducing both her and the bust blonde wearing magical-girl apparel. The brunette moved her hand away after the handshake and pointed to to side of her head. "She's a little innocent up there, so you gotta forgive her," she commented. It wasn't a sleight at her friend's intelligence; not in the slightest. But it happens when a child dies at the age of 9 and then has her soul transferred from one medium to the next for the next 12 years.

"Skunk!" Mina said before crossing her arms over her chest, sticking her tongue out at the boy and looked away from him with a sour expression upon her face.

WC: 402
MFT

 

[Honnou]

… It was rather painful to get your forehead burnt. Somehow, Hon couldn’t understand why Mina had such a wrathful distaste of him - he wouldn’t want to call it hatred, they literally just met. Maybe it was out of personal, struggling feelings, or maybe he was rather blind for a damn Hyuuga. Either way, Kaori felt much safer and more initiating to talk with for the moment… the most that Hon could exchange to Mina would be a curious gaze with a small sweat pearl on his temple for decoration.

“Y-Ya… perhaps I act more than I think about it,” he would comment on Kaori’s impression on his name. Honnou did mean ‘instinct’, but the young shinobi hadn’t confirmed yet whether if it was because of stubbornness or an art of adaptation that inspired his namesake. Maybe his parents expected him to become a brute who darted head-on like an arrow; personally, he’d much more prefer to be a shinobi who was used to the heat of battle and could execute any action like walking up stairs - or maybe it was irony?! Maybe he was thinking too much!? That could just as much be the reason…

He couldn’t but chuckle at the ‘Charmed’ being mentioned. So it was about pent-up frustration, in the end… that did remove some fear from his heart and make Hon more fund of the magical spirit girl’s presence. As a matter of fact, he found it pretty cute… of course she had to stomp him down again with the nickname ‘skunk’. “S-Skunk? … hey now,” he protested dryly whilst slurping down some hot chicken, “… I guess that one encounter with me hanging upside down gave you a hasty judgement of my character… Kaori was right. You’re pretty charmed.”

“…” Turning his head around in an instant, Hon would eye at what appeared to be a group of young dudes quickly turning their heads back to their meals. He had been annoyed at their gazes for a while now… but why, though?

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Kaori rolled her eyes as Mina proceeded to call Honnou a skunk. She waved her off and turned to look back towards the boy. "Oh, don't worry about her. She's a little over-protective. She'll get over it," she said before Honnou completely took Kaori's 'charmed' comment the wrong way. It seems that introductions and pleasantries here in Kumogakure were far too different than they were from Konoha. Cultural difference or ignorance of language? Who knows and it wasn't good to dwell on something so minor.

"Number 83!"​

shouted out the voice from behind the counter. Mina continued to eye-ball Honnou for a moment before scooting herself out of the table and over towards the front counter, receipt in hand, and went to go pick-up the food that Honnou so pleasantly paid for. She placed the tray of food down in front of Kaori with the smell of the food just wafting into her mouth. Kaori's mouth watered upon smelling the delicious smelling tray of chicken. Mina retook her position next to Kaori and just watched the woman dig-in to the greasy, deep-fried food.

"Seriously, Kaori. Can't you just hear that food going through your veins. Ugh! So gross!" she said as she continued to watch Kaori pig-out on the fried chicken. She didn't get a response from Kaori. She let out a little grumble before turning to look towards Honnou. "Just be sure to keep your space. Kaori has a bad habit of people trying to court her; especially morons who fancy themselves worthy enough to be with her," Mina explained. "And your disregard for personal space didn't help either," Mina continued, speaking in a badgering voice.

Kaori turned her eyes towards Mina's voice and paused, licking her fingertips. "Gee, thanks mom," she said in a bratty-tone. This was actually the first time Kaori had ever eaten deep-fried chicken, which is why she is eating it like a ravenous animal. After finishing off a chicken-breast, she tossed the near cleaned bone onto the tray and turned to look towards Honnou; her face covered in oil. "This fried-chicken stuff is actually really good," she said before wiping her mouth with a paper-towel -- finally.

WC: 362
MFT

 

[Honnou]

She seemed hungry, that Kaori chick. He could relate, he was hungry as well; quickly engulfing the hot chickens like tic tacs, he looked only a little less savage than Kaori at eating. Hey, he was a boy - they were allowed to eat like this, right? Right?

“Overprotective, that’s even cuter,” he expressed after having wiped his mouth with a tissue, “So she’s one of those who aren’t on ease with new people due to some horrific backstory that she might have had with you or without you that made her treasure her beloved friend to the point where she wouldn’t let anyone hurt her in any way, even if that meant that she had to prevent another person’s first impressions on said person… I-I mean, argh my head, all the thinking!” He quickly changed subject by scratching his hair in panic like some little boy, because all those words earlier were too elite to his taste. He couldn’t talk like that to others, they’d just think that he was a smartass.

“Oh, you like the chicken? I helped inventing the recipe for it…!” he proudly proclaimed, “With such a crusty surface, it first hits your mouth with a harsh, spicy taste that distracts you from the next, softer, more delicious meat beneath. At this perfect temperature, it is perfectly composed to satisfy all your taste areas…!” His eyes shone like a little child again, dearly proud and happy to see people enjoy the spicy chickens.

She must have it rough coming across town… but she made it this far. I’m astonished… the Hyuuga thought. As a child of the Hyuuga clan, eyes and eyesight were key to their ninja style. And there was still so much that he didn’t know about this lady. And yet, he didn’t want to think of her as a victim - she seemed too tomboyish to ever forgive him for such assumptions. It actually terrified him a bit… revealing a sweat pearl drop off his forehead.

Which reminded him… Mina still had a grudge. Perhaps if he looked deep into her eyes… yep, all the way into her pupil with his Hakumei Byakugan, almost as if he was looking deep into her very soul and essence, then maybe she’d be more self-conscious. No problem with worrying over her friend - she did have much more right to be worried than the new figure named Hon here - but nonetheless did Hon find it entertaining to see her reactions…

 

[Kanagawa Nozomi]

Kaori opened her mouth as the temperature and spiciness of the chicken started to escape her lips. "Oh! Oh gods! It's hotter than I thought!" she said as she scrambled for her drink and took a sip. She still felt the burning, tingling sensation glide across her lips and tongue. She looked around with the crumbs from the chicken plastered across her face as well as a thin film of the grease used to fry around her mouth. She drank more of her drink and just closed her mouth for a moment, tightening her lips together.

Mina turned her eyes towards the boy for a moment, resting her elbow upon the table with her palm up against her cheek. She didn't look very thrilled to be around. "You'd be overprotective too if you knew what Kaori went through," she said, rolling her eyes in disgust of the boy. She then turned her gaze back to Honnou and cleared her throat. "No, no tragic backstory. Only just died of cancer is all," she said rolling her eyes once again. That's not a lie either. Due to Kaori's stubborness and lack of her desire to be alone in this world, she kept forcing Mina's soul into things until she was placed into a thought; a memory that Kaori had, which lead to her materialization into the girl Honnou sees before him. This wasn't her natural form, sadly enough. She probably would've been a beautiful woman by this time.

Kaori calmed down and spoke to Honnou. "Oh! I'm loving the chicken, yah! But I'm actually about to go on a journey for a little while so I need to fill my belly with something delicious. Glad I came here then," she said, smiling in Honnou's general direction. Her angle was a little off, not looking at him directly -- still having issues with her audial directional finding.

Mina's eyes met up with Honnou's for a moment and she started to get a bit creeped out with his deep stare. She elbowed Kaori. "This guy is being kinda creepy. Can I make him see the devil?" she said as Mina started to form together handseals. Kaori placed a greasy hand upon Mina's, causing Mina to recoil, stopping the seals and reach for something to wipe her hands off on. With that, Kaori finished her chicken and wiped her hands with a cloth.

"Your recipe is great! You'll make a great chef one-day!" she said before standing up. She bowed a bit to Honnou, placing a hand upon her cleavage to cover herself up while she bowed. "Anyway, thanks for the food. But for now, me and Mina have a quest to go on. It was a pleasure," she said as she turned around and walked towards the door. Mina eyeballed the kid and turned her nose up into the air. Before she was able to recover from her snobbish reaction, she tried to warn Kaori of the wall. Splat! Kaori walked face-first into the wall next to the door. Clearing her throat and recovering her pride, she moved to the side, opened up the door and walked out.

[RETIREMENT!]
[TOPIC LEFT]

 

[Honnou]

… Ouch. There went his politeness. To be fair, though, sarcastically undermining cancer was kind of provocative on itself, but… did he have any say in that? Also, what was with him and this ghostly girl? They just couldn’t find any common wavelength today. He felt as if the longer he talked with her, the bloodier their affiliation became. In the end, he decided to keep his mouth shut.

Until Kaori complimented the chicken…

“Oh, that’s nice to hear…!” he joyously thanked her. Mina was already on about wanting to make him see the devil or something like that - jeez, she was on edge. Maybe they were both victims of circumstances. “Hehehe… oh, going already?” he spoke up as Kaori appeared to be on the move, “Well, so it was for me. Feel free to pass by once in a while…!”

[Topic Left, Fosho]