To Be A Ninja

[Aogima Sato]

Sato sat on the balcony of a smaller building, legs dangling off the side. He laid back and looked at the sun sky with a frown, still not used to the new way of life, exposure constantly to the outside. He rather liked the coolness that the caverns brought. With the light, with the sun, ninjas technology such as the lights strewn about were rendered useless, and a waste, to be used only at night. The complex set up, the kind a kid like him couldn’t imagine, rendered inefficient with the inclusion of the sun itself. The sun was stupid, and hot. It reminded him of one of his Academy teachers, which is probably why he disliked it so much. Things would be better if they stayed the same and didn’t change. He was used to the cool light of the subterranean life, not this hot one of the surface.

Life brought a lot of strange circumstances to the youth, as he considered the sun and the blue sky. He guessed that it wasn’t all bad. He did like the clouds after all, spending time after class cloud gazing instead of studying or messing around with friends, like normal kids. He wasn’t a normal kid. At least he didn’t feel normal. He turned on his side and frowned, taking a casual glance down, observing the masses going about their business in the market. Adults went about their errands, and kids made games for themselves. A group of kids, about Sato’s age, ran past, darting through the alleyways with shrill laughs and mischief on their face. He wondered what they were up to.

The red head turned his attention from the fun below, and put a hand through his messy hair, if only he were better at ninja stuff, like his dad! Moving from his lethargy, he stood up and eyed the next building over. Ninjas needed to be swift, agile, and courageous. Sato stood at the edge, not trying to think of the fall, as he still was somewhat scared of heights. He subjected himself to this to get better, to prove to himself that he could do it, and that he would do it.

He sized up the gap, and took a couple steps back. Realizing he is going to need more room he took a couple more, and a couple more, and a couple more. There was no reason not to be ‘safe’ when trying to jump the gap! Confident that he had enough room to get to full speed, he took a moment to collect himself, swallowing hard, his stomach already churning. He lowered himself getting into a small running stance, before he took off, running as fast as his legs would take him. Seeing the edge fast approach he closed his eyes, swallowed his fears, and jumped!

 

[Kazumi]

There were a great many reasons Ren did not care to be on the surface. None were the usual suspects, however. The heat did not bother him. Sunburns were of no significant concern to him, although he was curious what effects constant exposure might have on the skin-like material that coated his frame. No, it was the sand that annoyed him the most, but it was not for himself that he disliked the surface, it was for his puppets. The tiny coerce particles got absolutely everywhere: in joints, between gears, and even spots that one might swear were impossible. Thankfully, his design made sand less of an irritation, with the seams at his various joints nearly invisible even on close inspection with the help of chakra seals and the fleshy skin coating.

Regardless of his mild distaste for the surface of Wind Country, he often found himself there, either traveling to and from the public workshop, or the Kage tower. These treks were made even worse by the constant swarm of people that infused the streets like ants in a mound. Even that did not distress the 'boy' overly so, few things did, but the constant stream of chatter, laughter and arguments dulled any lingering desire for conversation whenever it did present itself. So, he did as anyone might do when attempting to ignore irritable stimuli, he observed his surroundings: the architecture of buildings, patterns of human behavior and mannerisms, and especially shadowy silhouettes that stood atop the building tops high over head.

Ren abruptly stopped in the middle of the street, looking upwards towards where he knew he saw a a dark humanoid figure. The details were impossible to discern at this angle and the position of the sun, but he knew he saw something. It was not there anymore, of course, that would make things far too simple. He continued to motionlessly stare up towards that spot, his mind switching between all possibilities. Was there an individual spying upon him? An unknown assailant on the city? A random shinobi making their way through the city? Not all of these options were equally likely, but he weighed the possibilities of each just the same. It wasn't until the small figure leapt off the side of the building that he narrowed down the dozen possibilities to one or two.

Gauging from the speed the figure appeared to be traveling, the distance from one edge of the building to the other and the estimated trajectory of the jump, Ren was unsure that the individual was even going to make it to the other side. If they were a shinobi, they could easily catch themselves on the wall, using chakra to slow their descent before skittering up its side, but that was but one of the two possibilities. The other was that this was an individual whom simply wished to emulate the trained professionals of the village, or was perhaps an aspiring one who was ill-equipped to be risking such stunts.

In either case, Ren felt some strange pull to investigate the matter. He reached his hand up, aiming his palm towards the edge of the building that the figure had leaped towards, and with a tiny burst of evaporated chakra, a metallic cable shot from a sudden quarter sized opening in his palm. On the end were three clamping claws that impacted with the building's edge, gripping onto it before the tension suddenly spiked, reeling the oddly garbed boy up to the roof at a rapid pace. Should the figure have made it to the other side, he wold simply release the claw once he was near the edge, letting his momentum fling him up over the edge to adeptly land him on the edge of the building, with the cable quickly retracting into his palm as he looked onward towards the daredevil. The other possibility that was he did not, in which case he would expel a small burst of chakra from his feet in mid air to adjust the angle that he flew up, catching onto the falling boy at around the building's midway point. He would land similarly as before, although with a small bit less elegance, given that he was carrying a body roughly his own size as he landed. He would proceed to kneel over, setting him on his feet before retracting the cable.

"What is your name." He would say with a flat and cold tone. The words were spoken perfectly, but they lacked any significant emotion or inflection, but that was not to say it was monotone, but that it was simply lifeless. His expression was as muted as his speech was, looking off towards his 'peer' with an unblinking and unamused expression that was difficult to read.

 

[Aogima Sato]

Sato felt the air rush past him as he jumped, having pushed off as hard as he could, the boy dared to open his eyes just a little bit. He was going to make it. He was going to make the jump! He smiled, but that quickly faded as he realized he made a slight mistake, counting his eggs before they hatched. His heart sank and stomach turned, legs kicking feebly in the air as if trying to propel him closer to the wall. He wasn’t going to make it, and was in a free fall.

The red head let out a little yell, of both surprise and fear, as he descended. His yell interrupted by a slight ‘oof’ as he hit the wall of the building instead of landing on the ledge. Knocked senseless he fell, his body clenching up, predicting that the fall was going to hurt. He closed his eyes waiting for his body to contact with sandy ground, but that didn’t happen either. Instead he felt a rough grabbing around him, as he was caught, plucked from the fall rather unceremoniously, and they landed awkwardly still.

By the time they reached the ground Sato still had his eyes closed; arms bracing himself for the impact. It took him a minute to realize that he was safe from harm. Being set down, he opened his eyes, and felt himself making sure that nothing hurt anywhere. Hurt being a relative term because he still hit the wall of the building. For the most part he was uninjured, most likely only going to have a bruise where his torso was tender from hitting the wall.

The question drew his attention outward once more, to the person who was nice enough to catch him. He looked at the other boys face and smiled, pointing to himself, “Im Aogima Sato,” he introduced himself, happy that his fall wasn’t worse. There was something different about this boy, but Sato couldn’t put his finger on it. He took a moment to really study the other, looking him up and down quizzically, before dismissing his suspicions. It was just his imagination!

“Uh,” he looked behind him to where the other building was, surprised that they both made the jump, “Thank you…” he trailed off turning again to look at the other boy, “Thanks for catching me.” He laughed nervously, turning sort of red, embarrassed that a kid his age saved him from a jump that he couldn’t make himself.

“Anyways…” he kicked at the dust on the buildings top, “Whats your name?” he asked, “Are you training to be a ninja too?” Sato inquired. The other kid must be at the top of his class! He wondered which classroom he studies in. Maybe… Maybe they could be friends.

 

[Kazumi]

The small hole where the cable and claw had emerged from quickly sealed itself shut, the skin of his palm becoming flush and smooth once more. As he stood atop the roof, looking over at the boy whose neck he had just saved, it occurred to him that revealing the unnatural occurrence of propelling a cable from inside one's forearm was perhaps ill advised. It didn't appear that the youth had noticed, perhaps unsurprising given the circumstance, and he had no desire to open that box if he could help it. He was not ashamed of it, but if he could avoid the discussion with strangers, it was all the better.

"Your thanks are not necessary Sato." His tone continued to lack emphasis or emotion, starkly contrasting with the embarrassed tone of the other boy. "You may refer to me as Ren. As for training? I would say so, yes. Individuals in the shinobi line of work must always be improving and preparing for unfamiliar situations." He glanced back towards the edge of the building before he added. "Did I interrupt your free fall training? My apologies if that is the case, it had appeared to me that you were intending to leap to this building, but I had not considered the possibility that you were potentially simulating being thrown from a building top into the side of another building." His lack of a sarcastic tone made it difficult to tell if the comments were made in jest, if he was making fun of Sato, or if he seriously considered this to be a possibility.

He turned back towards Sato, inspecting the boy from head to toe as he stood motionlessly in front of him, with only his head and eyes adjusting as he observed. Apart from his mannerisms, the savior's clothing was equally strange, if not more so. Black, gold and purple dominated the outfit, with a single long striped sleeve down his right arm and a choker around his neck. The outfit looked like nothing fit for survival in the desert, nor fit for camouflage or even every day use. Even his hair was peculiar, boyish in length, albeit untrimmed, with thick patches of blackish purple inter seeded in his otherwise white hair. Once he finished looking Sato over, he simply stared straight ahead at the lad with his deep purple eyes. Sato may have not even noticed at first, but as he continued to stare, he might take note that the other boy didn't even appear to be blinking, even in the windy hot air.

 

[Aogima Sato]

The kid was sill blissfully ignorant of Ren’s true state, what he was. He indeed did not catch the line snapping back into place, as he was, at that time, too caught up in his own wellbeing. Sato did his best to smile even has he took in what was spoken to him. For a boy, Sato took it in stride holding himself in check. The lack of emotional ques made it hard to determine what the other boy really meant. It… made it hard to react with anything but frustration.

“I…” He started, unable to think why the kid had to make fun of him for failing so hard. He wasn’t about to blast his savoir but he wasn’t going to made fun of either, “I… You!” He pointed at the figure before he realized just how strange this person really was. His emerald eyes taking in the weird garb and the hair. It must be two types of dye! Sato crossed his arms, unable to really express himself, he huffed, “Why do you talk so funny?” he asked Ren, in a last ditch effort to snipe him like he felt he had been sniped at.

He turned around looking over the streets below, “I wasn’t trying to fall…” He told him, “You will see! One day Ill be a great ninja just like my dad.” He told him, shouting it over the edge trying to find a place to direct this anger at which wasn’t the person who just saved him. Though he couldn’t help from feeling a little small. He had been saved from a stupid decision that he had made. He couldn’t even make that jump yet alone have a good understanding of his own chakra and how it flowed through his body.

He crossed his arms, and turned back to Ren, “Did you want to see me try again?” He asked, “This time I will make it for sure!” He told him with the confidence only an idiot could muster. He felt like he had something to prove, and god damn it, he will hurt himself to prove it! “Or maybe,” he pulled out a kunai, “you want to see how good I am with these,” He had a smug smile on his face, even though his stance and the very way he held the blade gave direct indication of his lack of discipline. He couldn’t even hold it properly! He wanted to do anything to remove that creepy almost doll-like stare from him.

 

[Kazumi]

"Why do you talk so funny?" Was one of the oddest things he had heard that day. Of course he knew that his manner of speaking was different than others, and it had been an aspect of himself that he had been attempting to change, but doing so had proved more difficult than he had presumed. It was not enough to hurt his feelings, if he had such to even hurt. "Perhaps you mean differently. I do not believe my manner of speaking elicits humor or levity in its natural patterns." far from hurt, if anything he sounded mildly perplexed by the accusation.

His eyes remained fixed on the lad, as the child stumbled and stammered his way to try and save face. It was amusing to him somehow, how this student was acting. As far as Ren was concerned, he held no place of authority, position or significance. Why was this child making such an effort to impress him? "I do not know you, nor your father. It would be impossible for me to ascertain your father's level of capability without a report of firsthand experience. I will say that if your neck snaps from a fall before you reach the next day, your odds of equaling or surpassing him or any other of your superiors is negligible, at best." His words continued to roll flatly, and it was entirely possible that he was either joking around or making fun of the kid, though neither interpretation was his intention.

Seeing him put himself in the offensive stance, holding the kunai with an uneven grip, his legs poorly positioned and his weight horribly of balance almost caused the shinobi to wince in pain. "If your intentions are to impress me, as it appears they are, then you are performing poorly. Your grip is off, your stance is narrow, your weight distribution is uneven and too high. A firm strike to the blade or your wrist would dislodge the kunai with ease." He paused, another distinct possibility coming to him, and one he apparently weighed with equal possibility to the last. "Or was that a threat or challenge you issued? My sincerest apologies, if that should be the case, I misinterpreted the abhorrent form as ill-experience rather than a feint. Clever tactics, to fool your opponent into making presumptions about your capabilities with such an obviously inferior stance. You did indeed have me quite fooled. The academies must teach more that I had anticipated and may warrant a closer inspection than I originally assumed."

Perhaps thankfully for the boy, his gaze broke from him and he looked behind him towards the distant opening to the underground half of the village. He had no pressing plans for the day, perhaps would take a detour and visit the building, ascertain if it would have any value for him and reevaluate the benefits versus the cost of attendance. In his mind, he did not require training in that low of a level, such teachings were innate to him after his conditioning, but if they were teaching students of his age more advanced tactics, perhaps there would be value in the monetary cost.