A string of Fate and Bows

Kenji continued his way throughout the village of Konoha in relative peace in comparison to how his... "entry" had gone. Though in truth his entering of the village was not entirely as he had expected it to be. Regardless, after putting some distance between himself and the larger crowds of the village, his mind began to wander once more. Of all things, oddly enough, his mind strayed towards the little bit of family he had left he could even potentially contact. They lived here in Konoha, as a matter of fact, and Kenji could only bite the inside of his lip in an odd sense of hesitance at meeting them. Primarily due to the fact that he did not know why, on both accounts, he did and did not wish to meet them.

For the reasons why he felt nearly revolted by the idea of meeting them, they were rather simple truth be told and surprisingly more selfless than someone with Kenji's demeanor would imply them to be. The foremost, was that he did not wish to implicate them having any sort of involvement, no matter how detached, from his actions in Kumogakure. The second, while a bit of an attachment to the first, is that he didn't want them to have to see him potentially hunted down for his actions. Kenji paused, lacing his hands behind his head before turning his soft sea-foam green eyes skyward as he quietly thought over the last, and hardest to confront, reason. He did not want to risk losing someone close to him again.....

Closing his eyes for a moment, Kenji opened them again only to note some birds fly by overhead. Likely startled from a nearby rooftop by some adventurous cat or other avian-hunting animal. Kenji then focused once more, briefly shaking his head as he cost the random stray thought aside. As for why he DID wish to see his family again... well, the reasons were so obvious and basic they made the internal struggle dividing his attention only even more pronounced as they came to mind. A home, some semblance of safety, people to greet him and be happy to see him safe, fresh food, companionship, fami-.... he stopped himself. Briefly gritting his teeth before heaving a sigh, Kenji decided to stop the list... he wasn't sure what continuing it would accomplish anyways.

Tensely gripping the back of his head, Kenji began to turn his gaze back down to street level. Noticing briefly he had once more began to wander into slightly more populated sections of Konohagakure, complete with a nearby Ramen shop, another one that sold an assortment of colorful kabuki masks with a proprietor that seemed equally as colorful to put it lightly. On down the street before him Kenji noted animals running to and fro, with children giggling and laughing as they chased them without a care in the world. Kenji sighed, before turning his gaze skyward once more. It almost felt like the hum-drum of everyday life around him was chipping away at the importance of the decision that weighed down on him.

Word Count: 515

Bonus Exp: 500

Seresana's own morning had been it's own mix of chaotic and orderly, for it was this morning that she'd begun work on the latest series of upgrades to her bow. She'd been working on sketches, drawings, and plans for a couple weeks now and then she'd spent a few days making sure she'd have all the parts and that they'd hold hope like she was going to need them to for this new experimental bow to work. Then came today, the day of actual construction and it'd started out well enough but that wasn't to last. Getting up and breakfast as no trouble at all, leaving her plenty of time to work on the bow, but the moment she got all the plating and extra bits from her prior series of upgrades taken off, a bit of doubt managed to creep into what she was doing. It was all a very experimental process and she wasn't even one hundred percent sure that everything was going to hold up under the stress of actual combat. That was enough to convince the young shinobi to set her bow down and re-examine her design and drawing to make sure she hadn't missed something, but none of the lines had moved nor had any of her numbers been off. Hesitantly, Seresana put the papers back down and picked back up her weapon, but it was merely an hour later that she set it back down again, worried about potentially damaging the weapon while it was in this fragile state. This process of setting down and picking up the bow and alternating between the plans continued for nearly another hour before a certain small furry creature plopped on top of her head, surprising Seresana so much she jumped with an "eap".

Taking the hint that Miku wanted to get out some, Seresana decided it was time for a break from her little project and scooped up both him and Mina before saying her goodbyes and departing into the town. Seresana took to wandering about the streets somewhat in a daze as her mind kept going back to the still disassembled bow back in the workshop until Miku started to move about excitedly on her head. Before Seresana could stop him, the littlle raccoon had managed to scamper down Seresana and took off at a run. "Ah!, come back here Miku!" Seresana called out as she reached out with her one open hand since the other one was still holding the little fuzz ball that was Mina. Around a couple corners and down a street Seresana chased after the little raccoon until she finally came around a final corner and found the little raccoon running over to join the children and animals that Kenji had seen in their game. Confusion briefly lit Seresana's face until she caught the smells on the air and assumed that was what had initially drew the raccoon's attention. "Hehehe, oh Miku, whatever are we going to do with him, eh Mina?" Seresana asked the second raccoon rhetorically.

"Well, either way I think I see Hal and Xune over there, so he should be fine, though why don't you go on over there as well Mina. A bit of playing and exercise would do you some good," Seresana said as she sat the second raccoon down on the ground, only to watch it look back up towards Seresana pitifully. "Oh now don't give me that look, go on and play with your brother," Seresana replied with a point towards the group that Miku had already joined. Upon his arrival, two of the boys in the group of children looked up and over towards Seresana, one a thin kid with large glasses and another with silvery grey hair. Both of them gave Seresana a smile and wave that she happily returned before calling out, "hey Hal, Xune, you two don't mind if Miku and Mina join in, do ya?" When the nods came through, Seresana once again motioned for the more reluctant but finally moving Mina to go on over and join in the festivities before looking on with a smile on her face.

As her raccoons began to play, Seresana's vibrant emerald eyes finally settled on the unfamiliar form of Kenji, and she gave him a curious, wide-eyed look. "Hi," she said a moment later as the curious expression broke into a slightly sheepish, but still happy smile. "What's your name?" Seresana asked with her expression relaxing back to a simple grin while stepping forward a couple steps towards Kenji.

Word Count: 757

Kenji's attention stayed firmly on the road ahead of him as Seresana approached the playing animals from the other direction. Kenji didn't spare the tiny girl much attention, and in fact paid more attention to the two raccoon that scampered away from her.. eventually anyways... to go and play with the other two kids and their own pets. After lazily watching two small, furry animals cross his path a few feet in front of him, Kenji almost missed the small greeting from nearly a full foot below him. Pausing mid-step, he blinked before turning on his heel and turned his attention the small girl who had brought the raccoon with her. Noting the smile the small girl beamed at him, he was further confused as she simply asked for his name, and smiled. Even advancing towards him to further close the gap, Kenji noted that the girl seemed to become more relaxed after speaking.

At first, Kenji's honest first reaction was to simply ignore the girl and continue walking. However, after a brief millisecond of thought, he decided against it. Instead, he did what would amount to almost the entirely opposite. Straightening his posture a bit, Kenji dropped his arms to his side before giving the girl a slight bow in greeting. Answering her in a curt, yet honest manner "I am Kenji. It's a pleasure to meet you." Straightening himself, Kenji briefly hoped he did the memory of his mother proud, as she had always impressed upon him the importance of treating girls like they were, well, girls. As Kenji's own softer green eyes met Serasana's however, he couldn't quite bring himself to smile back despite this. Even still, despite not having much a plan in mind of what on Earth he was going to do with himself, he was not particularly fond of wasting time chatting up strangers when he had so much weighing on his mind. Turning his attention past Serasana to the two small raccoon Kenji remarked in a rather dry 'trying not be rude' manner "It seems the pets share a lot in common with their owner."

Turning his eyes back to the girl he nodded slightly, taking in her features in detail form her own emerald colored eyes to her own small stature, which was her most striking feature despite how oddly pale she was to have such dark hair. Finally, he returned his own question of "May I ask your own name?". As Kenji waited for Serasana's answer he had to admit.... this was extremely odd. A small, nagging sensation in the back of his mind making him question why this girl had stopped him to speak with her when he had simply been walking by when she approached. Though he did suppose he had watched her pets for a moment, and the prospect of having someone to speak to while your own pets occupied themselves surely didn't sound suspicious.....

Kenji tensed ever so slightly as that thought hit him, though he did his best to hide the sudden striking thought as he pretended to clear his throat, loud enough for her to notice even. The thought and resolution striking him almost in unison to the other and he didn't like either one of them, truth be told. The first of the two, the troubling thought, was that perhaps this small, seemingly innocent girl was in fact meant to keep tabs on him while he was here. His uncle had once remarked that the Kage made it their business, as history showed plainly, to know who entered and left their village at any point in time. After another brief millisecond of thought, the prospect that sent the cold chill down his spine was that they knew who he was, what he had done, and sought to either eliminate him or capture him. However, with the girl being so.... overt, he had swiftly come to the conclusion that was the case. At least, for his sake, he hoped so.

In order to no doubt fill the silence his awkward social cue had created, Kenji half pretended to search for his words. In truth, he knew what he wished to say, however, it was the rapid thinking of what he would do if indeed this girl was a threat to him that ACTUALLY occupied his mind. Diverting his eyes over to the raccoon, pets, kids, mask and ramen shop, Kenji finally looked back down at Serasana and slowly asked in a rather awkward tone "Would you... like to sit down?" The words were not just slow, but also internally half-incredulous towards himself as Kenji vaguely motioned in the direction of the ramen shop to his right. Try as he might, he couldn't help but feel the awkward weight of the situation bearing down on him, and that only made the details he felt he had gained from the situation all the more.... ridiculous. "With your umm.. pets being so busy, you'll likely need something to do in the mean-time."

In his mind's eye, Kenji could feel his frustration and slowly-building anger being weighed down by the incredibly awkward implications of his words, and that only served to heighten his anger at himself, which in turn only made him even more frustrated and subsequently, more suspicious of the entire conversation with Serasana. Despite all of this, however, other than his briefly-roaming eyes and slow, slightly fumbling words, Kenji's composure was relatively maintained throughout the entire ordeal. In fact, he still held the same, stoic facial expression he had at the beginning of the conversation plastered on, though now not without a relatively noticeable effort compared to before. After all, he had in essence just asked a complete stranger to eat with him, never mind that she was a complete stranger that had the distinct possibility of wishing him dead. Though with a quiet reassurance to himself that were that the case he could find some measure of escape, he finally managed to suppress MOST of the heavy, awkward haze that had settled over his thoughts.

Word Count: 1,004
Bonus XP: 1,000
Total Word Count:1,519
Total Bonus XP: 1,500

The straightening of posture and the much more respectful bow managed to catch Seresana off guard as her eyes widened a little in surprise at the action. Though this surprise was fairly minor and only lasted for a second or two before Seresana relaxed only to shift right into a small chuckle as one hand raised to cover her mouth to try and be a little less offensive about it. "Hehehe, there's no need to be so formal with me, hehehe" she aid between her chuckles. As Kenji shifted his gaze over towards the raccoons and the children playing with them, Seresana followed his gaze curiously and found herself smiling brightly at what she saw.

Of course Miku had taken to playing actively right away, chasing after and tackling the little red ball, though the any of the children tried to get it from him, they were up for a little fight as the small creature tried to hold onto the ball with his tiny clawed paws. However, the children still easily overpowered him so easily that they didn't even seem to notice and then the ball was thrown and Miku was instantly chasing after it to repeat the procedure once again. Mina on the other hand had stuck to her true colors as well. At first she tried playing with the ball a couple of times, doing a similar kind of chase and tackle as Miku had, but she only managed this a couple of times for Miku was still the faster of the two and easily beat her to the ball just about every time. With her access to the ball limited to practically eliminated, Mina lost interest in it and wandered closer to the edge of the street and away from some of the chaos. One of the children noticed Mina's departure and wandered over towards her, gently picking up the little raccoon while sitting down. Mina scrambled a little bit at first, making her little protests but as soon as the child's fingers began to scratch behind Mina's ears and pet her, the little raccoon's squirming was replaced by curling up and getting comfortable. When Kenji made his comment, Seresana arched an eyebrow while casting her glance towards him, wondering what the new person meant by that comment. Given the politeness and formality of the introduction, she doubted it was anything negative but it was still something that she was left thinking about given the vague and unspecific nature of the comment.

"Oh, my name's Seresana Hatasuko," Seresana replied when she realized that she'd still have yet to give her name to the strange new boy. "Though most just call me Sera or Sena," she added with a new grin as her own eyes were brought back to the boy by his question. She took this time to actually look at this new arrival and really see if she could recognize him, yet there were just too many things that countered her attempts to place Kenji among the regular village crowd. While the white hair wasn't too uncommon, it was more so when it came to one so young and that facial tattoo was certainly something that stood out from the common person and she couldn't place it on any student she'd seen at the academy before. Then there was the boy's age to consider and while Seresana always seemed to have a bit of trouble with gauging people's ages, she assumed that the boy couldn't be all that much older or younger than she was herself, and that meant that he'd more than likely would have gone to the academy. Yet try as she might, Seresana couldn't recall any boy with a facial tattoo like that and white hair in her class, the prior class that had come before her or the newer students who were just coming into the academy as she was leaving.

Before her thoughts could progress further on the matter, she heard Kenji addressing her some more and brought her attention back to the present. "Sit down?" Seresana repeated the end of the question to reassure herself that was what he'd actually asked her about and then she followed his pointing finger to the ramen stand. It wasn't one of her favorite places, but one that she had eaten at before and wasn't opposed to eating at again. When Kenji started speaking some more, Seresana whipped her eyes back over towards him and listened curiously as he added in the extra bit of persuasive argument to convincing her to take the seat. "Uhm sure, why not. I could actually go for a bite to eat now that you mention it. Would you like an order as well?" Seresana asked while already starting to head towards the little ramen stand. As she walked, Seresana's thoughts once more drifted back to trying to place the strange boy despite the continued refutes her mind managed to generate to the thought that she could have possibly known him. There was a brief interruption in her thoughts though when it came to the actual stool at the stand, something that she had to step up and climb onto much to her chagrin, and to make matters worse, she finally bothered to notice that Kenji was taller than her too! "Life can be so unfair sometimes. I finallymeet someone new who I'm positive I haven't seen around the village before, and even he's taller than me. Actually yeah, I'm sure I haven't seen him before and I've been all over this village from one time or another and there's only the one academy. I mean I guess it's possible that he never enrolled in the ninja academy," Seresana thought to herself before looking over at Kenji once again.

Before the cook got around to asking for their orders though, a new line of thought entered Seresana's mind and caused her eyes to widen with realization. "What if he is from another village entirely, that's possible I suppose and it would explain why I never saw him at the academy," Seresana continued to think to herself while looking over at the boy. Then without even really thinking about it, Seresana opened her mouth to simply try and search for the answers she didn't yet have. "So Kenji, I don't think I've seen you around the village before, and certainly not at the academy when I was there. So does that mean you're not from Konoha?" Seresana asked ordinarily, not intending or even remotely suspecting that such a question could spark anything more than some idle conversation.

Word Count: 1,098
Total: 1,855