Up on the Rooftop...

[Susumu Naien]

Chaos. Shouting and fighting. Huddling and crying. Intimidation and fear. Ever shifting pockets of safety and danger. A lot was happening within Sunagakure. More than what Susumu Naien could understand. He could see and feel it, though.

Naien sat on the roof of his home taking in his surroundings. Sunagakure was a strange place to him. Looking up, a ceiling above him filled with a false sky. Below, all manner of people doing whatever they could. Some tried to continue on as if nothing was wrong, others tried to adapt or even take advantage of recent events. Someone had taken over the village and they were letting chaos reign. It was all beyond what Naien could understand with what little life experience he has.

Until recently, most of his life was about how to survive day to day in the desert. Being nine years old at this point, he obviously couldn't do everything but he could survive for a few days alone at least. Long enough for someone to find him, if necessary. The closest he ever got to politics was the delegation of duties among the nomads to ensure safety and survival. Even the idea of settlements were still a relatively unknown idea to him. It's not that he thought the idea was silly or unworkable, he just didn't know how one lived in such an environment.

Born into wanderlust, he saw little point in staying in one place for long. The family made a decision, though. And now there was no choice. They were all trapped in here now. At least until someone fixes the problem. Naien had hoped to travel more by joining the local ninja academy, too. Now it looks like he and all the other students may be trained to deal with the problem here.

Naien reached up from under his desert cloak and idly played with the bone whistle hanging around his neck. Typically used to signal help (by way of three blasts), he ponders on the fact that it'll still be used as such within this village.

Susumu Naien sits on the roof taking in the view...

[MFT]

 

[Yumiko]

Yumiko takes a last leap, scrambling on to the roof Naien was on as best she could while still remaining inconspicuous. Drawing attention to herself was probably the worst thing she could do at the moment, "Well, looks like you're not hurt." she said in a voice that was a bit more hushed than usual. Better safe than sorry. "But what are you doing on the roof? It's still pretty dangerous to be that visible... is your ninja training going that well?" her thought train somehow managed to make the full leap from friendly concern to fueling her own feelings of inadequacy and frustration- in less than twenty seconds to boot. That had to be some kind of record. She kept her position down slightly, at least hidden from one side of the street and constantly checking just to be sure. Maybe it made her look paranoid, but if she was going to keep going outside, the very least she could do is keep her guard up until things calmed down. It went against her usual, slightly reckless nature, but there really was no telling what some of these people were capable of, or who was malicious and who wasn't, unless you knew them of course.

She did her best to get at least a little comfortable despite the position she had chosen to take, and awaited some kind of response.

 

[Susumu Naien]

Naien looked over to Yumiko as she arrived on the roof and sat next to him. Yumiko was one of the few people that tried to befriend him since his arrival to the village. She didn't seem to mind how little he talked, nor all the staring off into space or at people he did. Not like the other children who seemed to be weirded out by it. Yumiko seemed to speak plenty enough for two people anyway. Naien didn't mind much. She reminded him of his father that way. In fact, it was almost comforting for him to have someone talk to him at all.

Naien nodded at her questions before speaking.

"Safe here. For now. Not used to villages. Danger is familiar, though."

 

[Kazuo Takumi]

"STOP!" Takumi yelled.

The gang had already begun their assault. They punched, kicked, and tore at a man whose screams were muffled by the laughter of his attackers. They were in an alley, not that they had to be in the midst of this anarchy, and Takumi was still a ways away from them. He quickly dug into his pouch and threw forth a flurry of shuriken.

"Guys, the kid!" they all looked just in time. Three of them were struck by the shuriken and fell backward in a heap. Another one of them ran forward with a crowbar. Takumi ducked the first attack and jabbed the man in the rib with an elbow. The crowbar dropped and clanked loudly against the wet cement. The others started to run. Takumi swept his attacker to the ground with one last kick and dashed to catch the other two.

"Not so fast!" He yelled. He had been working non-stop for what seemed to be hours. The anarchy in this part of the village was relentless. He worked to prevent all of the muggings, beatings, theft, and pointless murders that seemed to be happening in spades. One of the men he chased after now appeared to be a seasoned shinobi. Maybe an escapee from the recently open prison? He had dodged Takumi's shuriken, something that didn't happen often, and he had taken to the rooftops to leave his partner behind.

Before the second man could look behind, Takumi pounced on him feet first. Not a second had passed before he was on the ground with his hands and feet bound. Takumi leapt against the sides of the surrounding buildings until he was on the rooftops. Before him seemed to be a jungle made of concrete and steel. Many houses were at risk here, and they towered above and lingered below with untapped riches just waiting to be plundered. Takumi had a full night ahead of him. For now, it appeared as though the last man had escaped him.

He jumped across a few more buildings and dipped between a couple of ridges before he heard more voices. Children?

"Safe here. For now." A voice mumbled. "Not used to villages. Danger is familiar, though."
Takumi dropped onto the rooftop in front of two kids with a loud clack. He looked at both of them, but he was still attempting to catch his breath from the chase.

"Danger should be familiar, especially out here! Haven't you two heard? You should be inside somewhere..."

Takumi looked around for a moment. It seemed relatively peaceful on the rooftops. Most of the muggings were happening on the streets. Though, there was probably a burglary happening in one of the houses not ten feet from them.

"This is one of the most dangerous areas right now. A lot of the students have taken refuge in the academy..."

 

[Yumiko]

Yumiko sighed. It had been a hectic... how many hours? Not as many as it felt like, that was for sure. Maybe it was familiar to Naien, but for her this was all new. Especially the part where people kept showing up out of nowhere to say things. This one was a bit different though; he was a much younger (by comparison, not to herself but to the others) male with white hair and amber eyes. He was also very clearly a ninja.

She didn't really figure Naien would be keen on being the respond, so she decided to take the initiative, crossing her arms, "I'm... not afraid." she clearly lied. Her personality hadn't quite caught up to her efforts to be courageous yet, but she knew she couldn't just drop her training, or leave Naien and people like him alone to fend for themselves. She wasn't quite out of the Academy yet... in fact she had never technically had a class either; they'd been interrupted by, well, all this. But she was still a Ninja of some kind and had a responsibility... As for what she planned to do with that responsibility, she still had no ideas yet. Most of the ways she could help tended towards her getting hurt or killed very quickly, and she hadn't quite thought of anything that would compensate. Yet. She wished she could get rid of the fear and nervousness outright so she could at the very least think clearly, but sadly that was a bit out of the realm of possibility for the discipline of an 8 year old.

Knowing that that little sentence probably wasn't enough, she steeled herself and said, "This... this is my home..." she didn't quite know what she meant by that. She'd intended to make some kind of brave speech about how she had grown up here and even if she couldn't do anything to help she didn't want to just abandon it, and a million other things, but it had all caught in her throat and barely come out. She mentally chastised herself for it, but it was too late to take the words back and try again, sadly.

 

[Susumu Naien]

Naien stared at the older boy as he arrived and Yumiko tried to talk to him, then moved back to staring out into space. Everyone was in such a fuss. No need to get caught up in that. Neither Naien nor Yumiko were even trained to fight properly yet. Not to the same level as everyone running around, anyway. Better to keep a level head and do what he could do--

A change in the air. A shift in the surrounding danger.

"Now's good."

Naien jumps up and slides down a roof gutter pipe with general ease. He wasn't too sure about fighting anything more than a desert rat, but he was confident in his versitility in movement and sensing his surroundings. Moving on to the academy didn't sound like too bad an idea and if it turned out to be otherwise, he could always circle back and come home.

Naien makes a dash for the corner of the street looking to keep low and quiet.

 

[Kazuo Takumi]

There were two of them, a girl and a boy. Takumi noticed that the girl decided to speak up first. The boy seemed relatively relaxed, even in the face of the dangers surrounding them. They were both courageous at least, a great quality in aspiring shinobi. However, in times such as these, courage was a dangerous weapon to wield.

"I'm... not afraid." The girl said.

Takumi gave her a look that a brother might give his little sister. Although he did admire her candor, physiologically at least. Her body betrayed her through her verbal resilience, and she did seem put off by the idea of danger. The boy was still quiet, and returned to looking out into the night sky. Takumi looked in the same direction. It was a shame that such a beautiful night played host to such destruction and chaos. Even now, Takumi could hear the screams and feel the flames fanning the city. The Anarchy had breached this area with full force, and there was no telling what could happen at any second. He couldn't stand by while students risked their lives in an ocean of burning oil.

"This... this is my home..." The girl spoke again.

Takumi gave her a softer look this time. He was immediately reminded about his home, the one he was forced to leave. The images were reborn in his head. The lives being lost, the civil war, the hatred, the hunger... He was forced to leave his home behind, watching it burn as it faded over the horizon of his shameful trail. He was just a child after all, and for once there was nothing he could do to save his former village. How could he ask another person to commit the same sin? How could he ask her to leave her home to the fire that had overtaken the city? Well... Maybe he didn't want to do it, but he had to make the same decision that his parents made--a decision that he ultimately respected.

"I get that..." he said softly. "I was forced to leave my home behind as well. I had to leave it to the burning hatred that eventually overtook the entire village."

He was silent for a moment. Suddenly, he took a step forward and took the kid by her arms.

"But I was able to recover from that. I eventually found a new home, here in Sunagakure! And unlike back in my old village, here I can actually do some good! You have to protect yourself too, so that someday you can protect your home as well. Right now, you would only burn down with it. It's not safe here."

"Now's good." The other kid suddenly said.

He let himself fall from the roof and made his way down into the streets. Hopefully he had decided that the Academy was the safest place to be. But Takumi would have to follow him just in case... He took a few steps forward and prepared to jump, before he paused and turned around. He offered his hand toward the girl with a pleasant smile.

"You coming? My name is Kazuo Takumi."

 

[Yumiko]

Yumiko stood by as Kazuo gave her his mini-speech. It sounded like a pretty hard decision to make. Even worse though was that he was probably right about basically everything. But what should she be doing? There were people who she knew she could and maybe should seek out by name, things for her to do, and things to think about... could she afford to go to the Academy with the other students? Especially not knowing what was waiting when they got there or on the way? If only she were older... then she might know what to do.

"I'm... Aihara, Yumiko." she told Kazuo, "And..." she thought a moment, biting her lip, "Let's just make sure Susumu-kun is okay." she decided, hopping off the roof and following the path that Naien had set. Despite the delay, it was relatively easy for her to catch up. Yumiko didn't know it, but there were very few Academy Students that were as fast as her.

 

[Susumu Naien]

Naien moved several blocks before halting. The shifting in the air stopped. Uneasyness above, so best to stick low this time. He began to look around for some cover. A nearby alleyway seemed to hold what he was looking for. Quickly ducking in, he began sifting through the junk tossed within. There wasn't much to work with, but all he needed right now was an overhang for them to huddle under for a bit. Wouldn't be too hard or long to fashion one.

Although... hiding in the dumpsters would be easier. If he had the height or strength to lift the lid, anyway. Maybe the older boy can help.

Naien moved over to the entrance of the alleyway, silently beckoning the two following him into it with a handwave.