kissing the devil

[chiatsuki]

---

s h i z u k a

[/i]

A slight moan perturbed my lungs with a forceful strain as I pushed even harder to lift myself this time. Within my right hand my katana… wait! I remember my katana’s name. Danzo… I repeated off my lips as it stuck into the ground aiding me to my knees. It was a start, at least, to be here kneeling down before the great fire that now showed its frightening picture to my face. Tears rolled down my face, though my emotion was nonchalant, for a reason that I could not capture. My nostrils flared up and down as my throat felt as if it were being choked… I was crying for sure but to be honest I just really don’t know why.

A concussive feeling throbbed at the back of my head as my right hand let go of danzo in order to feel what it was giving me this migraine. There was no bump…but more of a moisten feel as I touched my hair. With my thumb and index I’d rub the substance slowly before bringing it to my front to see that it was in fact blood. With a few extra pulls of oxygen I’d rise fully to my feet and begin walking towards the desecrated ruins which served as a basis for my home, that is, if I even had one. My feet transported me slowly, very slowly, to the town. I could see the wooden structures piling up over the horizon just as the smoke created a cloud of darkness around its entirety.

The item I’d held within my left hand still clutched within my fists because I’d almost forgotten that it were there. My grip loosened as I halted my actions to see what it was that I’d been holding. It were a cloth and in the center a metallic slate with kusa’s insignia on it. The odd thing about this was… it had a slit through the forehead. My eyes widened as I caught on quickly to a flashback… the white walls permeated quickly through my vision as I’d halted. The visions came to me in quick motions as if they were on a speedy conveyer belt. I watched in amazement as my life flashed before my eyes.


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[❥;; bexx]

Flashback

The air was moist and light and the breeze was soft as the boat to which she and Ren were traveling drifted onto an unknown island. It seemed that the unknown island was once familiar, perhaps a luttle too familiar. And that was the main reason she asked him to stop the boat there. For some unknown reasons she had wanted to stop there at that particular point. Technically she was already far away from Hi no Kuni border and she was safe. She now had a lot of time to just explore. As the boat sailed through the waters, she saw that there were islands big and small which seemed so familiar but yet so foreign at the same time. She saw that the boat was slowly approaching the coast of the island. She was going to bs an explorer, as though on a mission to find the world's treasures. 

Ren thought it was best that he stayed by the boat. There was no real dock here that could tie the boat and so he was going to have stand guard. She readily agreed and hopped off the boat onto a patch of grassy terrain. It seemed that the island was uninhabited. She wasn't sure exactly where she was going or what she was doing. But there was one thing she did know; it was that it seemed she had been here before. Even though this place seemed uninhabited, she was certain that she was not far from the truth. She wanted to know when she had been here and what business she had to be. But first, she needed to search her mind to acknowledge where this place had been once upon a time. She started to walk on the terrain, in no particular direction; though leaning more towards north. She felt like she had been drawn to this island for a reason.

As she was thinking of these thoughts, she would continue to walk. The terrain would eventually end and she would come to a clearing. It seemed as though the place really did have inhabitants once upon a time from the looks of what was left of the structure. Was it a village? Could it really be one of the smaller hidden villages that had been demolished as a result of the war? If that was true, the reason why this place was uninhabited would make much more sense. The grass was quite green even if it was left unintended. She guessed that out of everything this island used to be, the grass was the only thing that made it out unscathed and continued to thrive. She kept walking on the terrain towards the clearing that would be what used to be a village. Of course, she didn't know that much. 

Past the patch of grass, she now realized she was standing in front of rubble, literally. Every direction she looked screamed rubble. Pieces of what she guessed to be houses or at least buildings were now far from what it used to be. The ruins scattered over the ground, as though a tornado had come over the house and preyed on everything in it's path. Through admiring the rubble, she was able to see how much damage the place had incurred. It was definitely not a beautiful sight. Her eyes scanned the scenery briefly, resting on nothing for too long until she noticed a figure; someone standing there but looking lost. So there were inhabitants?! Unsure what to do next, she flared her chakra so as to alert the other person of her presence. It was also as to give the person a reassurance that she wasn't out to kill. That was assuming that he was a shinobi.

She would then walk up closer to the man. She noticed that he had fiery red hair and because he was standing there facing the town, she could not get any other distinguishing feature. Upon reaching the stranger, she would stop a couple feet away from him. She was a very conscious person of distance. Close distance made her rather uncomfortable. She could see that there was something that he was holding in his hand. As he unclenched his hold on the object, she noticed that it gleamed in the sunlight. It was metal, that was far. Being unusually nice, she would stay where she was and question softly. "Ano--are you alright?"

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[chiatsuki]

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s h i z u k a

[/i] kept being repeated over and over within the voice of a fragile female. It was as if she were crying for help. The images had gone by so quickly that I couldn’t quite capture any of it. None of it made any sense to me. I could remember seeing the sword hilt within my hand though no blade impending from its figure. The next image I’d seen were my own face with my name being shouted. The last image I saw were a great fire canvassing over the village of kusa. My head had begun to throb again to such extent I had to kneel on one knee just to stop my body from malfunctioning right there. My tongue was dry and my stomach kept gurgling.

From behind me… a voice disturbed the conscious of my ears, they quirked back and forth as I turned around immediately to face her. If I were a warrior I had forgotten my talents… and it were not good to be me right now. My voice stopped and I could not even mumble up a word as I leaned on danzo for support. She asked me of my health. It made me chuckle a bit as to why anyone would really ask how I was doing knowing that they saw me as a bruised and beaten pulp with nowhere to truly go. I couldn’t really handle it, honestly. With a dry tongue and growling hunger I fell to the dirt once more unable to rise myself. At least I fell backwards.

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I lifted a finger as I’d talked to her after the thud of my body hitting mother gaia. Though it hurt that spot on my head I didn’t really give a damn. I was sweating from the heat coming from the fire along the ruined city but a smirk crept across my face once noticing I liked that immense heat. It kept me company unlike a dying cold weather. Hypothermia put people to sleep but you could always be burned alive. My spirit tugged at me to sit up straight but I just could not come to face that much pain. Hopefully the lady that’d spoken to me heard of my desires, food and water, but if she hadn’t I hoped she would have just killed me right here. I was no one… a person without even the faintest memory of himself.

The dark clouds hummed overhead without a melody though my heart sung to its height. I wanted to be a bird so maybe that the physical weights of earth would fall off of my shoulder like dust to an eagle. I chuckled a bit after hearing my own thoughts. My head fell to the ground as I passed out from all that I’d been through, whatever that was at least. No movement, just silence, as I walked into a world of dreams not knowing what it was that would happen to my body. I searched long and hard for any memory I had. It was only me within a dark room running down a large hallway with doors numbered with kanji. I didn’t want to stop. There was no use in pouring out every memory in my mind…was there?

I stopped at a door with no mark, a busted handle, and some scratches upon the surface of its texture. It was already creaked a bit open so it must have had little importance. My finger nudged at it softly as I proceeded through. I would be captured by a bright white light that suddenly took place of everything.

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[❥;; bexx]

[[OOC: Ren is my NPC boatman. He supposedly has chestnut brown hair and eyes and is about five foot nine]]

Once she got a little closer to the redhead, she could see that he was very much injured. He leaned on his sword for support as he turned to face her, answering her question with the request for water and food. From the looks of his face, it seemed as though he had just been through a war--or worse. She was taken aback by the request and almost wasn't sure what to say. She didn't quite have water or food on her at the moment but she guessed that Ren did back at the boat. She told him to hang on a second while she turned back to the direction she came from and quickly made her way back to the boat. Her steps were quick and she thought that she may not even act quick enough with just her legs powering the movement. She was almost certain that she should use shunshin.

She went ahead and ran across the grassy terrain, tracing back her steps so that she could get back to where the boat was parked, near the coastline of what had been the dock. Sayuri was quick in her movements, breaking into a run as she saw the boat in sight. She was quite worried about the man she had seen. He looked so beaten that it seemed as though he was just hanging onto his life with effort. And she was determined that he would live. At what point she became so concerned over a complete stranger perplexed her but she was not going to let such thoughts get in her way of trying to get him the help he needed. And Ren had seen her coming to the boat in a run, thinking something had happened to her with the expression of anxiety on her face.

He asked her quickly what was wrong and she relayed the events that had just happened. She told him of the man in red hair that she had seen and he looked injured. The man nodded his head and went to his boat to retrieve some rice cakes and water. Not sure if she would be safe with being there alone with that man, he offered to go with her. She complied, taking him back to the grassy terrain and to the ruins of a town where she had last seen the stranger. She broke into a run again as she neared the spot with Ren trailing behind.

And what she saw next was worrisome. The redhead had fallen to the ground, passed out from his injury and overexertion of his energy. She took the water and the rice cakes and ran ahead to the fallen man. Once she neared him, she would kneel to his right side, checking his pulse and other vital signs ensuring his life had not been taken. Satisfied that he was still alive and had just fallen unconscious, she would look about her. Aside from the body of water that they had been traversing on which landed them here at this island, there seemed to me no other water source. She would turn around and go ahead to try and get some water.

But Ren was one step ahead of her. Having noticed the man fall, he had run to the ocean and dampened a cloth. By the time she had realized he had gone, he would already be coming back with the half-damp cloth. She thanked him for his efficiency and hard work as she applied the cool cloth onto the stranger's forehead. She would then open a bottle of water and attempt to at least let him drink a bit before he became totally dehydrated. Once he woke up, she would give him the rice cakes

[chiatsuki]

OOC: I tried looking for some sort of hair-color or eye-color in your bio but I could not find any. So I am just describing it as just silver until you say otherwise .

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s h i z u k a

[/i] only moments ago. She had come back for me. I wasn’t the type of person to smile or get crazy feelings after someone had done something for me… but today I couldn’t help it. She was insanely nice and I hadn’t even done anything for her.

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Truth be told I knew nothing of myself and even less of those around me. Her hair were silver and her eyes were even more beautiful than the fire that tormented kusa in front of me. Fire seemed to talk to me… beckon to my emotions and spirit as a whole but I could not respond to it. I was weak and ill-minded and knew not what I even knew. This meant nothing in this world though. I needed money for food and supplies. I needed to find myself again and maybe this certain individual would be able to help me do so because in this world I did not believe in coincidence, only fate could have brought me and her here together.

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[❥;; bexx]

She was thankful that after a few drops of water to his lips, the red haired boy would arouse from his unconscious state. She had begun to worry that if water didn't help to wake him up then she would have no other way of trying to wake him up. As his eyelids fluttered open, she would let out a sigh of relief. It seemed as though she had poured too much water into his mouth that it caused him to choke a little. Tilting the gourd slightly on angle, she would eaae the amount of water flow. His hand grasped the gourd weakly as he silently asked for more water.

In a few moments, he would release his hold on the gourd and she would take it gently from him. She saw that he was trying to clean his face and hair with drops of water. She searched in her pockets for a cloth of some sort but found none. She noticed that his injury wasn't light to his head which needed to be taken care of right away. She wanted to use a cloth of some sort to wrap around his head. But she would need some ice. Looking around and seeing no particular water source, she decided that it would be best that she create ice from the water in the air particles around her. That would be easy enough.

She tore a somewhat perfect looking piece of cloth from her skirt that was enough to wrap around his head. She didn't mind that her skirt was now slightly shorter than it was before since she needed a cloth and since there was none available for her to use, she had to improvise. Being a member of the Yukina Clan, her chakra was Hyouton based which meant a release of it would automatically take the water particles and harden them into a large chunk of ice. After a block of ice was formed, she would wrap the block of ice with the cloth. 

She would hand him the rice cakes that she had placed on the floor beside her before, realizing that he was hungry. She smiled a little at him as he said his name. Shizuka? It sounded oddly feminine but she didn't comment on it. Instead she nodded her head and watched him take the cake. She decided to return the favor. But she hesitated for a moment. Should she introduce herself using her real name or the name her guardian had given her a year ago? She no longer had an excuse of not having memory of her past but she wasn't sure if she could trust him that much to give him her real name. 

After a second of thought, she would decide to use her real name. Another surprising thing she had done since she had never called herself that. Even in Hi no Kuni she had deliberately used the name Ayase Sayaka. But that was before her memory had been returned. "My name is Yukina Sayuri. May I ask what happened?" She had been curious why an injured man would be found in the middle of an uninhabited island and she only had the chance to ask him now. She looked at him carefully, her eyes resting on his face. He was quite a fighter, she guessed.

[/blockquote]       

[chiatsuki]

---

s h i z u k a

[/color] It sung life into my ears as Id finished my supper. I wiped my mouth with my hand where my arm guards resiliently rested.

I saw the crumbs slide off my own maw but I dared not respond to its disgusting look. I couldn’t handle the smell or look of food once I’d been fed. It was an intolerance move that the shinobi war had taught me. I looked towards Sayuri a bit whilst cleaning out my teeth with my tongue. I put a confused look on my face and had begun to stand a bit. “Pleasure to make an acquaintance, Sayuri.” I paused a bit before pursuing her next question. I closed my eyes to ponder hard but nothing would come to me as to why it was I was actually here. It was evident that I had been within a battle, struggle, or some sort of conflict with some other person and they’d gotten the better of me. I crouched over my knees a bit and rested my chin upon the center piece of my knees.

My eyes reluctantly positioned upon her silhouette once more after figuring out what I would say to her. I couldn’t tell her a lie because it’d sound shitty, I’m very bad at lying. “I do not know why I am here or why this village is being burned… but I do know that I must have been apart of something here… and we must have lost terribly…” My response spewed forth like the boiling lava within a volcano. I was so amazed at my words – cooing forth like a melody being sung in front of an audience. My voice was deep and melancholy and I couldn’t help but figure I was not a child. I was definitely not a child. I looked upon the scars upon my arms as I talked – I was definitely a warrior… but whatever kind of warrior I was baffled me to no end. It was a gift from the gods above that I were alive because I were surely left here for dead.

A loud thundering crackle from overhead would alert me that the darkened smoke upon the atmosphere was not created from the smoking of the village. It was from an actual cloud and it were probably going to rain. I grabbed danzo and latched him to my waist before propping myself up to see the boat man. He wasn’t a warrior or even a body-guard at that but he served useful purpose to Sayuri surely. I had to repay her for being nice to me but I had no way in doing that. No money… no nothing. I stroked my chin as I peered towards their boat. “There is an island of iron. It is called tetsu no kuni. I hear it is a save haven for nuke ninja like myself…” I said as I peered down towards my head band, gripping it once more within my right hand.

“would you care to go? I will offer you protection if that is a concern of yours. I think I have some answers to be found there about who I am and where I’ve truly come from. It’d be an honor to pay you back by asking you to go along. Once you feel I have given you enough you may just leave. But if in any case you do not wish to tag along with me, I would like to just ask for a ride there. It is only but a few hours up the basin.”

My eyes transcended towards the horizon as I spoke. This were not the place we needed to be. It were in ruins and if anyone were to investigate such troubles within this village I would surely be the one to point a finger at… and since I knew nothing that would make me the ultimate culprit. I needed this female, an angel sent to me from the heavens, but would she need me..?

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[❥;; bexx]

There was a certain thing about Shizuka that made her feel a little uneasy but she tried to mask it as she applied to cloth wrapped ice cube to his head. She told him that it was best if he pressed the ice against his head. Hopefully he was not going to ask where the ice came from. If he did, she'd literally have no choice but to disclose that she was a Genin from Yukigakure and a member of the Yukina Clan. Not that she expected him to know either of those things. But there was one thing that she was certain about the redhead now sitting in beside her; he was a shinobi, or had been once upon a time. She became quite intrigued by his best but knew it was best not to pry. People had their privacy after all.

She would bow to him as a sign that she too was pleased to meet him. Although on the inside she was certain whether it was pleasure that fueled the string of nice things that she was doing for him. But whether it was centered at that or whether she had had other intentions it all didn't matter at that particular point. He was injured and his injuries were not those quick fix things that only required a bandage. As she listened to him spill out his life story, which was only a few short sentences, her silver lobes would widen. This sort of scenario was so familiar--too familiar. But she waited until he had finished speaking, digesting everything he had just told her. He didn't remember anything about his past, only that he still live in this village and a war had ensued here and now had made this place the rubble that now graced their presence now.

So she was right, this place had once been a hidden village. She searched her limited memory for any particular as to which of the smaller villages which had been demolished by the war was under their feet. After a few seconds, it hit her. W-Was this Kusagakure no Sato? Then were they technically standing on its country, Kusa no Kuni? How did such a big country become this little island like structure? It was too surprising for even mere words to describe but apparently that was the case. She had only been able to link the country with the place because of the unusual abundance of grass terrain. There was no mistake in it, she was certain.

"I think--I think this is Kusa no Kuni and that you were a shinobi of its hidden village, Kusagakure no Sato." Her assumption was further certified as she looked at the metal plate that was still in his hand. The metal that had gleamed in the sunlight was indeed a headband and on it was the symbol for Grass Village. But why was there as a strike through the symbol? Another couple of moments of thought would finally dawn upon her that this man was a neukenin, which meant that he had voluntarily given up his village shinobi status without having committed a crime or that he had indeed committed some criminal act while he was still part of the village. Whichever it was, he didn't seem to have much memory of it all.

Thunder crackled up above, alerting both shinobi that a storm was about to hit the island. It was best if they headed out of the country for now. It was then that he stood up with a bit of difficulty and told him that he wanted to go to Tetsu no Kuni. She had never heard of this place; but from his simple description it was a safe haven for neukenin. Although she was not a neukenin, she was definitely not going to be going anywhere anytime soon. And so, she nodded when he asked her if she wanted to join him. "I'll gladly join you--I want you to find your memories" and lowering her voice she muttered underneath her breath "And maybe find my own at the same time--"

It was then that Ren finally stepped forward, introducing himself as the boatman which had brought Sayuri here to Kusa no Kuni. Being a boatman, his directions around the ocean waters was much better than the shinobi in front of him. He grinned and told Shizuka that the boat that they had come from was tied just past the grassy terrain that was behind them. If they hurried they could get there before the storm hit. It would have to wait before he could guarantee whether he knew where Tetsu no Kuni was.

[chiatsuki]

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s h i z u k a

[❥;; bexx]

She followed Ren on the grassy terrain and ventured to where she knew the boat had been parked. The trio would walk down the patches of grass, quickening their steps as the thunder roared. They would have to try to get to Tetsu no Kuni fast. It wasn't quite safe to be traveling on the waters when a thunderstorm was fast approaching. So it was basically beating the clock. Wherever Tetsu no Kuni was. She had never heard of the place, much less seen it on a map. But she had faith in Ren; had faith that he would be able to take them there. He seemed to know the waters like it was his second home and had been to every place at least ten times if not more. She counted on his expertise.

As the three of them rushed to the boat, Ren would run ahead of them. He quickly untied the boat from one of the wooden poles that he guessed had been the remnants of what had been a dock that led people out of the country. His hands worked fast, untying the knot that he had made to secure the boat while he had followed Sayuri to tend to the stranger. And he would push the craft a little out to the waters so that it would start to drift. Motioning for the other two to get on before the craft left them behind, he helped first Sayuri and then Shizuka onto the wooden boat. It was small in terms of size but it made up for that with its comforts. There was an inside part of the boat, one which was clothed in cloth into a dome shape that allowed his passengers to sit quite comfortably within. If they didn't feel like sitting, they could always sit on the bench that was a little in front of the dome, the one Sayuri had been sitting on the many times she traveled with him.

Once the three of them were safely on board and that he had regained his paddle, he would officially start to paddle, his arms working vigorously as the paddle attacked the water's surface. He had never paddled so fast before, not unless it was a desperate situation. He wanted to ensure that they at least could get their way to Tetsu no Kuni. They would start traveling north. For someone that was only using one paddle, he was certainly one to paddle fast. He would only stop for a fraction of a second to which he took his map and would begin to search for the location of Tetsu no Kuni. He had never been there before, or rather had not known that the place was called Tetsu no Kuni. He had merely seen a large land of snow that was so cold that after dropping off his passengers he would not linger. But he had made a point on his map, marked with a red X. Seeing as he knew the names of the other places that were on the map, the red X must mark where they wanted to go.

All the while, Sayuri would sit with her new companion at the inside quarters of the boat. She noticed that the thunder clouds had started to part a little as they reached farther out to sea. That was a good thing since she questioned the likeliness of this little craft being able to survive should a huge thunderstorm strike up the waves of the ocean. She watched as Shizuka put his headband back on his forehead. Apparently he saw no need to hide the fact that he was a neukenin. Was that proud she saw on his face? She guessed that he should be proud. He had survived the war and though his country and village were destroyed, he had survived. Survival of the fittest after all. She would retrieve from the inner compartments of her cape her own headband and strap it on her forehead, the symbol of Yukigakure glistening. She was kind of proud of herself too for her village had met the same fate and she too had survived.

As the boat sailed forward, she would notice the awkward silence that ensued. She tried to make conversation, a rare thing for her to do. But he was so similar to her that it wasn't just creepy; it felt surprisingly calming. She would turn to Shizuka and began to speak to him, half speaking to herself though. "I came from Yukigakure no Sato and apparently was a Genin there before the war. But I lost a lot of my memory and ended up in a small town in the middle of nowhere for a year. Only recently did I get decide to travel around to find my own memories; any clues to my past." Had she said too much? Probably. But she couldn't mask her happiness at meeting someone so similar to her even though linked together only by the unfortunate similarity of amnesia. She decided it would be alright to stick around him since he seemed nice. Seemed.

Ren would take sudden turns in different directions while he paddled. Apparently Kusa no Kuni and all the other countries which had dissolved miraculously into islands of some sort were quite close to Tetsu no Kuni. There was no hard feat at trying to find the place since his navigation skills on water was superb. After a couple of twists and turns and some hours on the calm chilling waters, the boat would find itself nearing dangerously cold territory. The land was covered in snow, and a biting chill. Indeed, they had reached Tetsu no Kuni.

[chiatsuki]

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s h i z u k a

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My eyebrows perked to her words. So she was also suffering from an attack of amnesia? Surely fate was the decider in our lives to have brought us together with little to no time. Maybe time would let us both know what we had to learn about our own selves. Though I can say… I was much more interested in her story than mine own. I must have done some pretty fucked up shit to have a strike on the bare end of my head band. I just couldn’t truly believe it, to be honest. I didn’t want to be a missing ninja… but at the same time with a burning village what else other option was there? none. I watched the fire from afar being put out by the alms of the water bearing overhead the island. We drifted very far from its boundary line from the time we had stepped in this boat. I couldn’t help but miss that warm sensation from the flames as I entered yet a new territory.

Smoke, seemingly, spewed forth from my lungs as I talked… but that were only due to the cold nature of this place. “I am sad to hear that you are struck with amnesia as well…. Maybe we will both find our true meanings in life with a new journey ahead? First things first… we need to find you a coat. I can’t have you shivering up here without anything on..” I said to her. There was no way anyone could be used to a cold weather, even whilst staying there your whole life. I quickly and hastily removed my own cloak top to give to her. It would give her neck much warmth but it would do little for her stomach and arms. I’d figured she’d only need her mouth to be warm to essentially be happy. With the extra coating she wouldn’t be so cold herself either.

Without a shirt I looked onwards to the new place I’d arrived. I stood to meet with it’s shore without a shirt or shoes. My pants were the only thing I truly needed in this world… that and danzo my weapon. I placed him upon my back shortly after giving Sayuri my jacket. The leather strap wrapped across my chest where several scars could be seen. My back was full of them, I knew that much. I could even still feel some of the flesh wounds I’d received before being plummeted to the ground… however that happened was still a mystery but maybe ensuing in a battle would help me remember what it did that trekked my skin so deliberately. I grabbed at the rope ahead of the boat and thrust danzo into the ground, wrapping the rope around it swiftly. I don’t think I’ll need my sword here… only my wits end and my fists. I rested a hand forth to help Ren and Sayuri off the boat.

[ exit to Tetsu. Moving to another thread.]


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[❥;; bexx]

The scenery of pure whiteness graced her eyes as she saw that the boat was drifting closer and closer to the country marked as the New World. She was rather shocked at the striking resemblance between Tetsu and whatever memory she still had left of Yuki no Kuni. It was true, the bone chilling coldness that came with the sudden drop of temperature and the snow that covered the country's grounds made it almost look like she was back home. But she wasn't that naive knowing that Yuki had been demolished long ago. But seeing the sight of thick snow--She was more inclined to explore this place now; and best of all she had a friend.

She would turn to him and hear the first part of his remark. There was nothing to be pitied about fir losing memory and it was only a matter of whether she gained it back that was the most important thing. And besides, apparently she wasn't alone on this journey after all. She had agreed to go with him not only because she thought it beneficial that she would be able to find something out about her past. She was also looking out for him; knowing the exasperations firsthand of what it felt like to wake up one morning and not have any recollection of anything. She had been there and done it. "There's no need for apologies. We're in the same boat now so let's try and help each other!" She was being unusually cheerful which scared and shocked her. Though she had no problem with being nice, it just wasn't in her veins to be.

It was after that she caught him mentioning about her being cold on Tetsu no Kuni. She was born and raised in Yuki no Kuni, accustomed supposedly to the harshness of cold climate. She was rather concerned about him as he was not from Yuki and may not be as used to the cold as she was. He would take off his coat and out it over her, dismissing her futile refusals. "Need I remind ya why ya should take the coat, lass? Ren winked at her while flashing her a bright smile. God she hated when other people were right. She shuddered as she remembered her first boat trip. Being born in Yuki no Kuni didn't mean a thing. The only thing it could mean was that she'd had the companion of snow all through her childhood. 

They would near the shores of this new foreign land within moments, Ren paddling the boat to the docks. Sayuri now had protection from the coat that was wrapped around her. She saw that Shizuka would not have a shirt and again be worried for his stamina against the chills of the country. He strapped his sword to his back and there was something about his figure that made her think him manly. An interesting thought from a mere teenager. She observed the scars on his body which were quite visible now that he was shirtless. He must have fought hard every battle and suffered a lot, she would think as her eyes did not leave the scars. Was this the true way of a warrior? If it was, then she must not be a real warrior having sustained little to no injuries. 

As they stopped, Shizuka would jump off first and would lend a hand to help her off the boat. Ren stayed on the boat however, bidding the two shinobi farewell. His transport mission now complete, he had to head back to the five great shinobi nations to transport other passengers. But he vowed that he would come back for them; would be there naturally if they needed his services again. With one last big smile, she would watch as he pulled out of the country's dock and move slowly away from the country itself. He had helped her a lot and she had not had a chance to show proper appreciation for all that he had done. She would stand very still, watching the boat's frame become smaller and smaller until it disappeared entirely beyond the horizon.

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[EXIT TO TETSU && EXIT THREAD]

[Sayomi]

sohyo exp: 55

Bex exp: 60