After School

She frowns. A boar? And she just shrugged it off? "So... you survived a boar attack... and think nothing of it?" Dust asked, mirroring her inner thoughts. Shrugging and moving on, Dust thought for a bit about Sena's options. "I probably can only learn the basics. My stamina isn't very good and I don't think I would retain the knowledge that well... and I'm not too sure about the clone one. That one seems pretty complex... Can we try the levitation one?" She paused, glancing around too. "Obviously not inside, but you know what I mean." She giggled softly albeit nervously. She had probably made the smartest choices available to her in this situation. She had gotten out of possibly burning herself out or screwing up a jutsu and hurting herself. She also avoided damage to the house in case Sena did a jutsu wrong. She wouldn't, but you never know...

Word count: 151, total 8010

Seresana grinned a little sheepishly at the comment about the boar. She'd certainly thought something of it at the time, it'd nearly gotten her more than once and she'd only really managed to escape by hiding in a tree, but as Seresana had said, that was quite a story and Dusk hadn't asked to be bored by the long recap of the ordeal. Luckily, Dust moved on to the training proposition and as such Seresana was happy to just let the topic change, though the notion of trying to teach the levitation jutsu made her grin become a little strained. "Uhm, sure? We can try it, but the levitation jutsu isn't exactly less complicated. It was a bit more advanced of a technique that Ranzaki Sensei had to show and teach me how to do, not something that's taught at the academy. Though if you learn how to do a more advanced jutsu now, you could really impress the academy teachers when it comes time for the graduation exams," Seresana went on as she turned towards the sliding door that made up one of the living room walls.

She slid it open and motioned for Dust to follow her outside. "You are right about us needing some space to practice that jutsu though, it kicks up a pretty good breeze and then when you're in the air, it can be a little difficult to keep upright," Seresana added as she stepped out into the yard, a little ways away from the house and waited for Dust to join her. When the other ninja in training had, Seresana made sure she was facing her and then began to make a few handsigns in slow motion so she'd be able to easily and clearly see them. "So first off, like any jutsu you'll need to gather your chakra and make these handsigns. Then you'll be trying to send the chakra out into the wind and air around you, trying to make it move to lift you up. Sorry if I'm not making a ton of sense, this stuff is easier to read than explain," she added while waiting and watching Dust to see how she would do on her first attempt.

Word count: 369
Total: 8,919

Dust frowned. It certainly didn't look hard when she did it. Was Sena lying just to give herself a competitive advantage? It was always the ones that looked the nicest that turned out to be the.... ugh, she was doing it again, wasn't she? Great. She had missed the latter part of what Sena had said in her own thoughts. She couldn't ask Sena. That would probably annoy the other girl further. She had been horrible enough as it is. How long would it be till she was asked to leave? Not too long now. Maybe she should just leave on her own. After all, it would save a lot of pain for everyone. She had failed to do so in the past and look at where she was now?

Dust did follow, glancing around as she did so. "I like the wind," Dust mumbled. She generally liked most weather except for just being sunny. That was boring. It was good for crops and all that. Snow was her favourite. Dust disregarded the warning about keeping upright. She had good balance. She studied the handsigns carefully. Was that it? She had seen them, but always thought there was something more to them. Looking up and around her for any obstacles (as she intended to try until she was damn good at it), she focused on the chakra. She sort of... envisioned a force, almost like an invisible, high pressure gas, propelling her upwards and then keeping her there until she dissipated the gas. Making the handsigns at a decent pace, she shot up into the air about a yard, but was unable to keep her balance. She didn't seem too fazed about falling three feet. Speaking of feet, she landed on them, just crouching to transfer the momentum through her legs and to the ground.

Was that it? It really didn't seem to difficult. It was just difficult to keep focused on. Of course, Dust could not really tell if that was the nature of the chakra or if that was just her reacting to the novelty of it. Not saying another word, she jumped into the air again, this time managing to float in place for about half a second. It was a good thing she had eaten, after all. It was kinda draining, but she ignored fatigue's gentle tug for now. She had been far more tired.

Word count: 397, total 8207

"That looks about right, you seem to be getting it," Seresana said as she watched Dust's early attempts at the jutsu. "Keep practicing like that and you'll have it in no time."

Around that moment though, Seresana's mom Sophia slid open the side door and looked out into the yard at the two girls. "Seresana, it's getting late, time to get ready for bed and your friend to go home," Sophia said from her perch.

"Mom, can Dust stay over tonight?" Seresana asked back while throwing a grin towards Dust.

"Fine but only if she really wants to and it's alright with her parents," Sophia responded before sliding the door shut.

"See, now you can stay the night if you want to Dust. We can practice a little longer or if you're tired, we can head to bed now," Seresana said while looking back over her shoulder. "If you want to spend the night that is.

Word Count: 156
Total: 9,075

Dust couldn't help but feel pleased with herself. Encouragement was a very nice feeling... Gods know she never got any from her parents. Just hostility. Looking at Sena's eyes, the emotions seemed genuine enough.

Dust tensed a bit when she was told to go home, having turned her head towards Sophia when she slid the door open. Looking into the sky, it was pretty late. Had it really been that long? Surely not. But, she had never actually checked the time... Perhaps she ate dinner much later than usual.

Dust was a bit taken aback at the grin, managing a weak smile in return. She was also taken aback by her ability to do so. She hadn't expected to show any positive emotion... not that it was a bad thing, she supposed. However, her expression quickly darkened, her smile turning to a barely (and not very well hidden) suppressed frown. "My parents aren't h--" she managed to get out before the door closed.

"I think this will be enough for now," Dust mumbled. "Are you sure you want me to stay? I have been a very poor guest, so it seems..." she said quieter still. "I don't have a sleeping bag or anything..."

Word count: 201, total 8408

"Of course, I always like it when my friends stay over for the night," Seresana replied simply enough. "And don't worry, we've got plenty of spare blankets and such. I'll sleep on the spare, and you can have my bed tonight. We're pretty close to the same height too, so if you really want, you can borrow some of my sleeping clothes for the night," Seresana added before turning about and proceeding back to the porch. She paused when one foot was up on the rise, only to look back over her shoulder and then offer her hand out to Dust to help her up. The expression on her face was inviting and blatantly wearing that hopeful smile that never seemed to leave her face.

Word Count: 125
Total: 9,200

Dust cocked a brow. For as out of the way as this place is, why would people make the trip here? Seems like a hassle if they had to walk all the way here even with their own home... Then again, perhaps Dust was not the first technically homeless Sena person invited to stay... But that was a bit creepy to think about. Dust really hated being treated like a number, for lack of a better term. She had had enough of that with the Hyugas. Unless every family was like that... how horrible if that was so. Then again, she should be reasonable. Dust was not that different, surely, and most people might think like she does. Well, hopefully.

The redheaded girl's brow rose higher when Sena mentioned the blankets. That kind of generosity is a really bad idea. It will eventually wind up with Sena getting hurt, that much Dust knew. Eventually, that girl is gonna get her hopes up about someone, and that someone is going to hurt her badly. It always happens. She sighed audibly before responding. "You know what... we can share it, because I know you won't let me use the spare blankets." Dust frowned slightly at the mention of the sharing of the clothes. "Here's the thing, Seresana. A taller person would have some difficulties wearing a shorter person's clothes, just due to the fact that it's easy to fit in something larger than you but much harder for something smaller."

Dust took a last look around her, surveying the forest. She wanted to be prepared, even if Sena was serious about being friendly towards her. The Hyugas had eyes everywhere, and Sena mentioned her father once working for them or something. Hell, Sena's family could be informants and the child herself might not even know it. She would never put it past the Hyugas to do such a thing. If they did what essentially amounted to slavery under the guise of keeping the eyes safe (which didn't make any sense if only half the damn family had the "safety measure"),  they could easily resort to underhanded espionage by exploiting other families and not think twice of it... damnit, why was she thinking of this now? She would never be able to sleep if she kept making up ridiculous conspiracy theories about things that have less than one percent's chance to happen.

Back to surveying despite herself, she took note of how dense the vegetation was. It would be easy to hide in, but extremely hard to escape through... which was an issue, since a lot of the Hyugas can see through most materials. However, if it wasn't a Hyuga after her, she could survive pretty easily. Sena seemed to do so, and apparently she could even handle a boar... maybe the wildlife around here is docile due to the humans probably being here for quite some time now. Plus, she could easily make her way to the village. It seemed pretty big, and had enough shops to keep herself okay for a while... things were so cheap. It was odd... things were expensive where she used to live. Well, she wasn't complaining. She only had 500 ryo. Trusting people willing to do odd jobs might... She was doing it again. Of course she was. She needed to stop... Why did she continue to be so paranoid? It would definitely drive people away eventually. Sena, maybe not, but someone can't rely on just one person to support them. It would burn both people out and hurt them both... She had to find other people if she wanted to not go insane in this village. Hopefully she could start being more outgoing in class.

Shaking her head slightly, she took Sena's hand and stepped inside. The two would wind up sleeping in the same bed... platonically, of course. Anything else at this point would be weird. Sena fell asleep a few minutes before Dust, but eventually the redheaded girl managed to will herself to sleep too. Dust did not dream, she rarely did.

The next day, Dust woke up a bit early. She tended to do that in unfamiliar beds... looking around, she remembered where she was and ever so carefully crawled out of the bed. While she didn't want to stay, she didn't want to wake the other, still sleeping, girl. After getting her shoes, she quietly made her way to the living room, sliding the door open and closed with care. She found the path leading back to the village quickly enough, and started on that path. While Dust kinda felt bad for leaving without telling anyone, she did not want to trouble the family with her antics further. Well... she would probably see Sena at school again. Dust hoped she wasn't angry.

Word count: 797, total 9205

---END, words kept as words---