Festival of Blood [Ended!]

"Hey look... tossed salad with scrambled eggs!"
"Tossed...?" Rosie looks passed the girlish-looking boy and passed Sersena and sees the object of their quest stepping back into the alley at approximately the same time that Kisayuri screamed at the 'freaks' to stay away from her. "Oh. Tossed salad with scrambled eggs. Clever."
"I have my moments." Kitty grins and strolls along the edge of the roof with her tails flowing behind her, putting out her arms to either side as if she had to make an effort to balance on the thin edge without falling off. "Seriously, though... she's frightened of the two of you? Enough to call you 'freaks'?"
"You've made the same argument in the past," Rosie notes as she looks down at Sera and across at the effeminate young man. "Something tells me that she's feeling a little hysterical," she says lowly to Sera. "And I don't mean any offense or insult by this, Serasena, but you're the most ..."
"Small and cute."
"...harmless-looking of the three of us." She looks across to Hideyoshi. "Not that you're threatening-looking, sir, but you might distress her by confusing her as to what she's seeing."
"Is he male? Is she female? Check in next week for our next Ambiguous Gender Bulletin." Kitty proclaims in a mildly grandiose and deep voice. "Brought to you by pottery, kunai, and the letter 'f'. Because feminine boy."
Rosie can't help but look up at the roof where a  grinning Kitty has seated herself. "Is there some law of the universe stating that my personal hallucination should be an endless stream of odd commentary on every situation?"
"Avert your eyes or you might look insane," Kitty reminds her merrily. "And although the situation is very serious, we're still at a festival and I'm doing everything in my power to have fun at random moments. I'm also trying to make things fun for you with odd commentary that has a random chance of getting a helpless smile."
Rosie eyes her and then with a tiny inaudible sigh, averts her eyes although there's a touch of a smile on her face as she does so. She wipes it away quickly and focuses her gaze on Kisayuri, watching to see what the plant-girl does next.

{Word Count: 376 | 8341}

Jirou was about to step past Yusuri in order to guide the newcomer personally out of the hazard area when he felt something push him away forcefully. He didn't see anything from his front and Yusuri was not doing any motions so he assumed it was someone using a jutsu to mold chakra into pushing force that forced him backwards. He could have even lifted his feet up and still he would have kept going.

That is, until, he felt something soft on his back as he came to a sudden stop. Giving a noise of confusion, he turned his head around slightly and saw the face of a woman - one who he'd caught a glimpse of when he was arriving at the festival.
"Hokage-sama!?" He let out in amazement and disbelief. While her face was steeled in determination and focus, she still had a sense of feminine grace about her, topped off by the clearly massive amount of experience she had as a ninja.
That, and she was quite a looker.
When he was told to get out of here, he went a short distance away from the Hokage and then stopped as he remembered Yusuri's presence, turning a bit only to freeze in place as he saw his new friend being held in one hand. By the same man who he was trying to redirect away.
The man's voice sent chills down his spine. The baritone, deep voice was something one could think a bad guy in a children's story would have.
The comment the man gave about his head made his face lose color. Then the revelation about this virus thing. This man was behind it all along!?
In the next three seconds Jirou's eyes saw things that would be forever ingrained into his brain. Yusuri was thrown up in the air like a ragdoll. Quick slices that he couldn't even see and his pupils shrunk to pinpricks as he saw the bodyparts separating, resulting in a pile of meat falling onto the ground. While he did not see it, he had some blood sprayed onto his clothes. He was stunned, unable to say anything, unable to even mutter.

---

The crowd was left far behind. Several ANBU had responded to a distress call coming from somewhere. Believing it was worth his attention, Hideo Kyuuzaki had abandoned his meal, along with a few fellow ninjas, and gone after the ANBU members.
Upon getting to the scene, Hideo's eyes caught his son in the arms of the Hokage. Then he saw Dai Mao and Jirou getting to an open area.
Moments passed and Yusuri was cut into pieces, making Hideo's heartbeat increase. He'd seen enough.

---

Jirou felt like he was going to throw up at the sight. He couldn't say anything, he couldn't even breathe. His body had come to a complete stop.
He then felt something land next to him, grab onto him and take off into the sky, past the ANBU who paid the duo no mind, while his focus was on the S+ rank criminal who had just murdered a teen in cold blood.
As he looked up, he saw the face of his father.
It was all too much. He fainted in his dad's arms, the shock of it all finally overwhelming him.
The fact that his son would eventually deal with things like this didn't give Hideo any comfort.
But one thing was clear to him. For the Kyuuzaki, the Festival of Beginnings was over tonight.

Word Count: 568 | 2609

Hideyoshi already slightly miffed by the situation instantly become even more annoyed by the little dark haired girl who has obviously mistaken him as….female. "not again" echoed in his head.

Hideyoshie glared down in aggravation at the young girl, this whole festival was a complete fail, so far this village sucked to Hideyoshi, he was already mistaken once, and then this whole panic thing that had him utterly confused, and now this pint sized twerp was rubbing salt in his wound. Seemingly towering over her as an dark and cold aura began to flow out of him. He brushed her small hand off his festival outfit without averting his gaze. While in his head he looked completely badass….in all actuality, he looked horribly embarrassed and funny as he tried to make the girl shrink in fear.

"look squirt! not only am I NOT a girl, I'm the manliest MAN ever!" Hideyoshi practically tried to growl.

Then sending his focus to the taller red haired girl that came in after them, he nodded.

"If your referring to the pink thing, yea she ran-" Hideyoshi was cut off by the referred to pink thing yelling at them.

Then the red haired girl spoke up again with a suggestion aimed at the midget before aiming yet another slight at Hideyoshi's masculinity.

"what the fuck do you mean confused as to what she's seeing?" Hideyoshi almost yelled as his blush reddened across his face. "there's nothing confusing about me! I am one hundred percent guy!" Hideyoshi yelled pulling down on his kimono enough to expose the flat hardness of his chest. "See! Guy! No I mean MAN!" he continued panting, steam puffing from him and his red colored face, horribly embarrassed by his previous action.

turning back to the dark haired girl now, his chest still fully exposed "are you confused still tiny? Do you still think I'm a miss?"

Then before even acknowledging the little ones response Hideyoshi dramatically points down the alley at the pink trembling girl. "and look here flower tits! I am NOT a FREAK! I'm just really damn pretty!!!"

Hideyoshi held his dramatic pose in an awkward silence after his rather implosive out burst "FUCK! WHAT THE HELL HAVE I DONE!?" he screamed in his head. Frozen in embarrassment, his face reaching a level of red that would seem nearly impossible he just stood there, pointing down the alley.

word count: 396

Seresana looked around with a happy cringe as Kisayuri yelled at all of them to keep away. She was glad to have found Kisayuri even if she was still terrified and panicking. Then this new person started talking to her and Seresana looked up only to nearly match Hideyoshi's blush with one of her own as her hands shot up to cover her mouth. She didn't believe what he'd said quite at first, but now that she was looking directly into his face, she could see the feint distinctions that painted Hideyoshi as a guy.

When Rosie made her suggestion for Seresana to close the gap between them and Kisayuri, Seresana looked back with the still blatant blush on her cheeks. She started to shake her head from side to side, but then Hideyoshi started yelling. Seresana looked back over ready to try and calm him down only to be left with a front seat view of Hideyoshi's bare chest. While he turned the focus of his rant towards the shorter girl, Seresana was finally overwhelmed by the situation and she just fell flat onto her back. As the new bright red pigment of her skin spread from her face to the rest of the small girl's body, her mouth continued moving and making incomprehensible sounds that might have been mistaken for words.

Hideyoshi's address towards Kisayuri was enough though to force Seresana's mind back onto a proper track and she slowly picked herself back up. Blush still flooding her face, Seresana stepped up alongside Hideyoshi and gently pulled down the pointing arm while hesitantly and embarrassing  shyly shaking her head from side to side to silently tell him 'no'. Then Seresana looked towards Kisayuri, or at least down that direction of the alleyway. "W-we won't get any closer, I ju-just wanted to make sure you were safe from the panicking people, and here you should be," Seresana said right before another part of the memory of their first encounter surfaced. "He-hey, I remember. There was a woman who showed up that time by the pond, you called her mom, didn't you? If I see her, I can tell her that you're hiding here if you don't want to come along," Seresana said then with a bit of a hopeful smile, until she suddenly realized that she was still holding onto Hideyoshi's arm. As the blush that had managed to recede to just her cheeks returned in full, Seresana let go and pulled her arms back almost as fast and far as she could before looking up apologetically to Hideyoshi.

Word Count: 431
Total: 7,266

Having cleared out most of the crowd in that area, she decided to head back to the area that was a bit like a plaza where the shit initially went down. Hopefully the virus hadn't spread... Well, when she got to the edge of the plaza, she saw that it certainly hadn't and instead there was a bunch of vaguely human looking body parts on the ground. "That's odd..." she muttered to herself. She did not really pay any mind to the people who were standing and gaping, that was pretty natural given what had just happened. It was nothing compared to what had happened earlier, however... Maybe someone got infected and they managed to kill them before the virus completed its transformation... or something. She should ask somebody about it later. She slowly glanced around the plaza to see if there was anyone she actually recognized, but she did not. Wasn't that much of a surprise, considering that Dust knew literally one small family in the entire town. She had not been getting out much at all, truth be told... Well, she'd been mostly working on honing her eyes, even though she really didn't like the clan. Their abilities were still incredibly useful, especially with the three hundred and sixty degree vision. Nobody could sneak up on her then... Oh gods above, she was doing it again... Forget it.

She should probably go find Sena, she was the only one who she actually knew worth shit in this festival. Cutting a small chord across the area, she started to patrol the streets, looking for the incredibly short girl. Made her easy and hard to pick out in a crowd...

Words: 279, total 2014

OOC: Forgot to mention before, but in the alleyway, Kisayuri's nails were visibly glowing green.
---
Word count: 194 | 3,141
This girl...wait no this guy? This feminine looking boy just erupted and Kisayuri flinched as she was taken a bit by surprised by her, i mean his reaction. Either way after his explosive reaction, Kisayuri would merely suck her teeth. "You humans are disgusting." She frowned and then her eyes shifted to Serasena who mentioned about her mom and her eyes widened. "Don't you dare go near my mom!" she quickly looked around looking for something to help her, but there wasn't anything.

"Just leave me alone." she would turn around facing the fence and lift her arm up, suddenly it grew in size, and tree bark grew out of it and she took a step foreword throwing her body into the punch and she broke the fence. The latches easily gave way to the force she put into the punch, right afterwards her hand returned back to it's dainty size, the tree bark receding back into the skin of her arm and returned back too it's unnaturally smooth original state. She took off running again through the other side of the alleyway that led into another street, though she took an immediate right.

GM POST

Word count: 422 | 5,281

Ooc: Everyone get your last's post in for the festival, this is the ending post for the festival. Thank you all for participating in this little event, Sorry it took so long. But everyone gets 1 post after this one and the festival is over, make your exit a good one!

----IC-----

The Hokage stared mortified at what Dai Mao did before her. Not just her, but many others in the area were just as surprised that a person would dare do that in the presence of the Hokage.

Dai Mao would chuckle in his low raspy voice. "Heh heh heh...the look on your face is just beautiful, Lady Hokage. I'll be sure to get another look at it another day. I shall bid you good bye for now."

The Hokage did utter a word, but she disappeared from where she stood and was already standing right before Dai Mao, Her sword impaled through him. She spoke calmly. "Dai Mao, You will never get another chance at this again."

Dai Mao was even surprised at the speed the Hokage moved at, but he only chuckled. "Did you think I would come here myself? I said it earlier...I am sending a message."

Shura appeared down on the ground behind the Hokage. "Lady Hokage, move now!"

The Hokage's eyes widened as the body she just stabbed morphed before her, and it began to bloat up like a balloon, a fleshy balloon. The Hokage released her sword and she jumped back and just as she did a bubble formed around Dai Mao and then the body within exploded. It filled the bubble with what looked to be nothing but gas. Shura made a 'tsk' noise as he concentrated on keeping the bubble formed. "T-that bastard..."

The Hokage stood there angry. "Shura, once we are done here, update Dai Mao's records. He is to be killed on sight."

Shura merely nodded her head. "As you wish, Lady Hokage."

The Hokage looked around and she spoke aloud to her other shinobis. "I want medical squads out here pronto. Kazuki!"

A younger woman appeared beside her out of no where. "Yes, Lady Hokage?"

The hokage pointed to the chopped up body. "Find out who she was, and who her family was. I have apologies to make." With that the Hokage and turned walking towards the Hokage's tower. Her fists clenched tightly.




[Festival Ended!]

Yuki Vales ♂ ►Status: Academy Student [Konoha] ►Stamina: 100 ►Chakra: 100 ►S.Chakra: 50 ►Attributes: Att:3 | Str:1 | Tou:1 | Agi:1 | Spd:4 ►Word: 433

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Seresana raised her own hand to the departing Kisayuri. "Wait, please sto-" she started but the plant girl was already turning down the other street and out of sight. Seresana let her head fall forward with defeat as she let out a sigh. "Well, with that kind of power, I guess we don't have to worry too much about her," Seresana added as she looked back up and over at Rosie to make sure the statement was carried over.

Then Seresana looked towards the new gi- boy, definitely boy, that was standing next to her. She took another step back and away from him before bowing her head down. "I'm sorry for mistaking you for a girl, and I'm sorry for having to leave so soon, but we've got duties to ensure all the citizens are away from the... danger," Seresana said to Hideyoshi, a bit unsure of how and certainly not wanting to try and describe the bug-like abominations or the wolf abominations. She then started walking towards the street again. "You should probably go home now if you want to make sure you don't get hurt, there's some really dangerous... things that were attacking earlier," she added over her shoulder before nodding to Rosie again. "C'mon, we should get back to the square and see how things are going, but if you don't want to come, I'd understand," she added the last bit with some remorse and hesitance.

With that said though, Seresana then took off out of the alley and turned back onto the street towards the spot where the bug monsters had originally appeared. With the crowd more dispersed, it didn't take the small girl much time at all to get back to the square, though when she got there it was a bit surprising to find the focus of the action seemed to have shifted. Following the attention, Seresana hesitantly walked over, growing more uneasy with every step as she finally started to notice the blood on the ground. It didn't take her long after that to see the first of the chunks, a sight that made her eyes go wide for quite possibly the third time this festival. "Wah, who..." The questions she had were numerous, but they all sought to be answered at once and none seemed to be coming out comprehensibly.

Seresana continued looking about in horror until her eyes fell on a strangely untouched garment, a curious sight given that with how close it was to the rest of the gore yet it remained intact. Her pupils shrank and her form froze in mid stride as the cold realization that she recognized that coat sunk in. "Yu- Yusu," Seresana quietly to herself as she took a couple steps closer, tenderly reaching out and picking up the unscathed coat as tears began to form along the bottoms of her eyes. "It can't be. She, she must have just lost it or something, she's got to be around here somewhere. Yeah, that's it! She might even smile if I return her co-" Seresana had been looking around at the crowd while thinking this to herself, but when her eyes fell on a particular chunk of gore, her thought process was cut clean off.

There staring back at Seresana's quivering eyes was one of Yusuri's, along with a rough third of her head and face. The fearful quivering didn't stay in her eyes for long as her mind tried to deny what she was looking at. Her hands, still clutching the coat, slowly and shakily rose to her face. Her knees started to wobble until they failed to support her and she fell onto them not even seeming to notice the edge of the blood puddle that was now staining her yukata. The first cry was but one of many that were just slightly muffled at all by the coat that was directly in front of her mouth as the tears streamed down her face. The world around her and those still in it faded away from her senses as Seresana continued to cry into the coat and shudder uncontrollably.

Word Count: 684
Total: 7,950

Above the departing Kisayuri, Kitty crosses her arms and watches as the plant-girl extends her arm, growing it in fact, and vaults the wall on her way out of sight. "I'm in a bit of a bind here, Rose," she remarks with blatantly false thoughtfulness.
"This ought to be good."
Kitty pointedly ignores her. "I could go with 'salad on the run' but it just doesn't have the right cadence. Ditto with 'leafing in a hurry' and 'to the trees'." She grins and looks down at Rosie. "I have it!"
"Be still, my wildly beating heart," Rosemarius deadpans.
"Aw, I didn't know you cared." Kitty gives her a smirk. "But I'm thinking... chef salad, with extra scrambling."
Rosie sighs. "It worries me that you actually had to think to come up with that. You're losing your edge, Kit."
Kitty looks at her with interest. "Kit, huh?" She taps her chin thoughtfully. "Well, what do you know, you can casual like a real girl." She smiles broadly. "Kit... I like it. Further shortening of 'kitsune' but it feels more... affectionate than Kitty."
"Consider it a gift for the special occasion." It was at this point in the back-and-forth between herself and Kitty that Serasena makes her comment, and Rosie nods along with it. "It's certainly good for escape, if nothing else," she agrees. "I'm sure there's ample offensive ability as well. If she didn't have such an unstable personality, at least based on how she acted in response to the disturbance, I think I might be impressed by her."
"That's a lie, and you know it."
"Oh, hush. Hallucinations are meant to be invisible and silent as the grave."
"Unless they're talking to you because you're completely coconuts. Then they're really chatty and fawn over you like a kid sister."
"...a what?" Rosie's lips tighten minutely. "No, don't answer that, have to attend to the girlish boy who I've offended with your enthusiastic assistance."
"Not my fault he's so pretty."
Rosie struggles not to sigh noticeably as she turns to Hideyoshi, giving Serasena a brief nod as the diminutive girl explains matters and then announces her intention to go to the square and see the state of things. "I have no doubt that things have been sorted out properly by shinobi of much superior experience, but you're right. I'll be along in a moment."

She looks down to Hideyoshi and gives him a brief bow of courtesy. "I do apologize for being..."
"Gauche."
"...gauche about your appearance," she says with apparent sincerity.
"Liar, liar, kimono on fire."
"I'm sure you're well aware of your... effeminate features and prettiness without a complete stranger making a matter of it." She bows her head to him a fraction more deeply. "I meant no harm by it, I simply meant that your unusual features may lend to some confusion about whether you're male or female. When matters in the square are settled, I'll happily return and try to set matters at ease between us but for now, I have a duty to perform. Besides, Serasena outranks me and I'm practicing being attentive to instruction from those higher-ranked."
"And I'm practicing visualizing the good-looking ones naked, just to make you flustered."
"You will not, especially if it's someone I know and am fond of."
"You're such a stick in the mud."
"I'm sure my imagination could put that stick in more unpleasant places than mud."
"...point taken."

With that gesture of courtesy to Hideyoshi, Rosie takes off after Sera, slipping through the crowds with Kitty dancing ahead of her as the hallucination usually does. "Alright, so back to the matter before. In what way am I your kid sister?"
Kitty lands gracefully on the head of an elderly man nearby and commences to deftly step between various heads as she drops back to walk alongside Rosie, although she remains some distance above her. "I'm sure you've noticed that I have a more impressive chest than you do."
"So?
"So it makes me elder than you are." Kitty give her a playful grin. "Yes, I'm well aware that you've been alive longer than you've had schizophrenia so I'm technically your kid sister but it was entirely your choice to imagine me as a young adult, fully developed, and built like your unconscious ideal of how you'd prefer to look with the equipment you imagine that you'll have when you're a full shinobi. So because you've mentally decided that I'm older, I'm older than you are and so, you're like my kid sister."
"I suppose I must really want a big sister, without knowing that I want it." Rosie shrugs. "Alright, I guess I'm your little sister now. So make with the older, wiser, and more mature things that big sisters are supposed to do."
"Oooh, sorry, all out of mature." Kitty giggles and starts walking on her hands, allowing gravity to work on her loose clothing and make it slide up and passed her hips. "I almost wish people could see me doing this, just for the shock value."
"I doubt a naked fox girl with fur concealing all the details better than most clothing is going to provoke that much of a panic," Rosie says as the crowd starts to thin around the site of Dai Mao's atrocity. "After all, your nudity barely even registers when..."

It was about this moment that they break the line that the crowd has made around Yusari's remains and the entire slate of details is immediately opened to Rosie's view. Having long prided herself on intelligence in addition to hard work and talent, her conscious mind races, processing the details as fast as she can consider them individually. With all the speed of her thinking, however, she finds herself suddenly staring at the back of her hallucination, more solid and real-looking than she can ever remember seeing what is strictly a figment of her imagination.
"Stay back, Rose." More shocking than Kitty's unusual visibility in Rosie's mind's eye is her low, calmly authoritative voice.
"Stay back from what?"
"Nothing, just... just, don't approach." Kitty's voice quavers, making Rosie openly and overtly stare at someone that exists only for her, unconscious of the fact that it looks like she's staring in shock at the abattoir before her. "There's nothing you can do."
"Nothing I can do about what?"
"About... about any of this, any... any piece of it." Kitty looks over her shoulder at Rosie, her expression remote and tightly controlled. "Listen to me, Rose. I'm part of your mind, and I'm telling you that you can't do anything and need to step away."
"I see no reason to take counsel of my fears and emotions," Rosie retorts. "Tell me why."
"Rose..."
"Tell me!"
"I won't!"
"TELL ME WHY YOU'RE BARRING MY WAY!"
And just like that, she knows, and she takes a shocked step back. "It's..."
"Yes."
"But... how? The threat was entirely transformative, not..."
"You're the half of us that reasons, that thinks, that logics, that concludes from information. You know the answer as well as I do." Kitty steps to a side and looks down at Serasena, clutching a discarded cloak and sobbing into it. "But that answer doesn't matter now. Right now, the only answer that matters is this: what kind of shinobi do we want to be?"

Though the haze of devastation, Serasena might be able to subtly sense the presence of someone standing behind her before she feels two knees brush against the bottoms of her sandals and a spindly but strong arm wrap around her stomach while a hand lays very softly atop her head, running gently over her hair. She next feels Rosemarius' chin rest on her shoulder and her cheek against her ear, but the tall and normally emotionally remote girl says nothing, just cradling her with a hand softly running over her head and hair in as soothing a gesture as Rosie knows how to do.
"I'm not even sure I know who it is that she weeps over."
"Does it really matter?"
"No, I suppose it doesn't. All that matters now is..."
"...your friend is sobbing with pain that you cannot heal or soothe, and the right thing to do is be here, and help her cry." Kitty kneels beside Rosie and pats her shoulder, the sensation intensely real and vivid. "This is the final lesson, I think, which is why emotional me had a knee-jerk protective reaction towards my kid sister."
"What lesson?"
"Some are evil." Kitty takes in a breath. "And sometimes we can do nothing about it, but help innocent people cry until their pain in numb."
"No."
"No?"
"No, we can do more." Rosie gives Sera a little squeeze. "There will come a day, Kit, when I will be very strong, and very dangerous. I can work hard and make that day come sooner rather than later, and I will do so, with your help. And when I am strong and dangerous, I will hurt this one for this. A day will come when this one thinks it is safe, and is happy in that safety, but then its joy will turn to poison and the debt will be paid. Even if I do not revenge Sera on the one that has murdered her friend and wounded her heart, I will revenge myself on others who have done the same thing to others."
"Revenge cannot bring back the dead."
"No, but it can ensure that the dead are numbered on a hand, rather than the stars. To slay the slayer, to take blood from those that take blood, to steal from the thief and poison the poisoner... that is what I can do, when I am strong."
"And become what you hunt."
"No." Rosie smiles, just for a moment and just a tiny bit. "So long as there is Serasena and you, Kit, I will never be what I hunt, what I loathe, what I would destroy."
Kitty smiles a little back. "If she will be that to you, perhaps you should do more than you presently are."
"And what might that be?"
"I'm your emotional side, Rose, but you know the answer."
After a minute or so of holding her, stroking her hair, silently helping her mourn, Rosie turns her head slightly and whispers gently into her ear "I am so very sorry, Sera."

{Word Count: 1729 | 10070}

Before leaving the plaza, she watched the altercation between the hokage and the man she had no clue of what his name was till the hokage said it quite loudly. Dai Mao. She had no idea who that was, but she would hazard a guess and say he was not a particularly nice person at all. Sending a message, huh? She had no idea what this was supposed to convey at all… That he was to be feared? This whole thing seemed very elaborate for such a simple message. Her eyes widened as she saw the body begin to inflate, and started to back towards a street just in case the madness began once again. Dust winced as the body then exploded into what seemed to be a gas or a very, very fine mist. She took off after that, not knowing how high pressure the gas was and therefore how far it would spread. She doubted it was a particularly nice gas to find yourself inhaling, regardless. She decided to wander about for a bit, trying to find Sena so the gas could either neutralize or disperse, whichever came first, in case it took a while. She really preferred not to take chances with what was clearly a force to be reckoned with.

Dust had wandered the streets for quite a while, not having seen Sena. It was very surreal when she had wandered them, there were a few bystanders still around, some watching her with concern and others with distrust. Some were watching with amusement. How sick for some to view this as just interesting and not horrible for everybody. She supposed that was fair, as that was not what had puzzled her anyway. She was more surprised at the absolute lack of anybody else there at this point save for a few people that still seemed to be in shock. Word certainly spread quickly when it was bad news. How interesting, huh? She avoided the gazes of the bystanders, she had nothing to say to them and they should have nothing to say to her. She had nothing to do with any of this, why distrust her? She soon realized that she was being hypocritical herself. She had thought that every single person, their mother, the kitchen sink, and their mother’s kitchen sink, and the kitchen sink’s mother was trying to kill her. Well, she had resolved to stop that many times in the past and she had failed each time. There was not much she could do about it, especially since she had witnessed the…. Rather disturbing events that had taken place here. She might be in shock herself! She was sure acting like it, what with her silent wandering around. Maybe it would hit her the next second… nope, not the next second. Maybe in a few hours, maybe in a day, in a nightmare, or in a week, in a tangentially related event. Who knew? Not her, that was for damn sure.

Eventually, she gave up on searching this portion of the bare festival grounds and returned to the plaza… oh dear. Was that Sena over there? She had never seemed sensitive, why on earth was she crying over the death of some random person she had probably never met before in her life… oh, Dust understood now. This was her friend… was it one of the people in the shop? She had no clue, she did not really focus on any one person enough to recognize them if she saw them later… wow, that was a bit of a silly thought. Of course she would have no chance of recognizing them now… oh, gallows humor. One of the few things the redheaded girl specialized in when it came to social interaction. What a joy! Oh gods above, she was doing it again… definitely in shock. Naturally, as soon as she thought of it, the reality of the situation hit her. This was the only person in the town who cared two shits about her, and she was crying… crying quite profusely. Dust so desperately wanted to return the favor by trying to comfort the crying Sena, but she knew it would be fake. She had nothing to say that would be genuine. She never knew the girl, she never even really knew Sena other than the fact that her parents had good food… fucking hell, really, Dust? Well, she should at least stay with her, even if she said absolutely nothing.

Dust slowly approached the sobbing Sena, bending down to give her a hug. Before that, though, she glanced at the short girl’s eyes to see just how deep the sorrow was… and that was when the true impact hit her. This was not grief someone could just get over in a little while. This would stay with someone for the rest of their lives. It was like a stain that you could get to fade if you really worked at it, but there would still be that ever so slightly discolored spot on the cloth. Or, it was like a wound that no matter how carefully you treated it, it would still leave a very, very faint scar on your flesh. She planned on holding it for a few seconds, but grew scared that she would just make it worse like she always somehow managed to do and released her after a second, if even that. Backing off, she noticed that she was still being watched by those damned bystanders. Was life just a show for those people or something? Maybe. She knew that at some points she did not give a single damn in the world… and she supposed she had done that for the person who she did not know who was now largely unidentifiable. She was a hell of a hypocrite, huh? Yeah, she needed to get out of here. The roofs were the fastest instead of the ever-confusing streets. She could see the festival limits from there. Dashing to an alley, she scaled a few crates before getting her fingers onto the roof and hauling herself up. Glancing around, her eyes quickly locked onto a ninja wearing a white and blue hawk mask that certainly was not there before. Fuck. He grabbed her arms, looking down at her sternly. “Stay off the rooves,” he said in a neutral yet authoritative voice, taking them down to the street before she could even think about it. And like that, the ninja that just got stranger and stranger was gone. “Really?” she muttered to herself. Well, it made sense that there would just be people in shock, the weirdos, and the crazy security forces left. Then again, they might fall under weirdos too. Sighing, she made her way down a street, turning whenever she sighted a street that was larger. Following that method, she eventually made it to one of the now deserted gates, although she knew that at least one of those ninjas was watching her still. She hoped that they would not give her a ticket or something silly like that. You would think that jaywalking on the tops of buildings would be the least of someone’s concern at the moment, but maybe it was to prevent building damage or escapes by hostile people or something. Heh, maybe the one in the hawk mask was still watching her… like a hawk. FUCK! She was at it with the humor again. Of all the damn times…

Dust made her way to Sena’s house, trying to alert the traumatized girl’s parents before she managed to get home herself. It was the least she could do after not helping the girl… However, the journey was quite long, even if the girl did know the way there, unlike most other places in the area. This gave her a lot of time to think… She had been selfish for trying to focus on just mastering her inherited eyes instead of learning things to defend people like taijutsu… she liked taijutsu. You were always ready, and could not be disarmed… well, you could be disarmed… Wow, this gallows humor is all over the place today. What had gotten into her? Anyway, you could not drop your weapon, unsurprisingly, and you could not be held accountable for possessing weapons. Of course, range was an issue, but that does not matter if you are fast. Fastness is something Dust needed to work on as well as strength. She was not a very strong girl, what with her small stature. She should have protected people, damnit! All she could do was be a nice little leader and tell people to exit the terrorism attack in a calm and orderly fashion when she should have been evacuating people properly! She needed to learn. She would not just hide behind the eyes of the clan she hated to protect herself. She would use them in conjunction with her skills to protect others, that much she knew. She might even try to learn techniques that the main house had kept to themselves. They could not stop her from knowing things. But that was a long way into the future. She needed to learn basic things. One of the most basic things to learn in taijutsu is breaking wood with a simple punch. They did not mean a little plywood board, a ten year old on enough sugar and caffeine could do that easily. They meant wooden walls that would otherwise hurt someone’s hand quite a bit. She did not want to return the village just yet, though, to learn the easy way. She was going to… Oh, shit, she nearly missed a turn in the road. Correcting her course, she continued, her thought process interrupted. Where was she… wanting to help people? Maybe. She did not know what to do besides be strong. She did not know how the proper moral practices or societal norms or even the troubles that were plaguing society. She had been a bit of a recluse, whether she liked it or not, thanks to her parents. All she knew is that she was going to be better than them. She was going to make sure nobody had their fate predestined for them and that they were free to choose what they wanted to do in life. Her parents had always wanted her to be a warrior for the main house, like what everybody else did all so often. She refused to do such a thing. She hated the main house and she hated the curse mark they imposed on her… This was most certainly the anger stage of grief, Dust thought in a moment of clarity. However, a moment later, she did not care at all about the grieving process, instead focusing on the Hyugas once again. They were the antithesis of her ideals. The main house was born to govern the branch house and the branch house were essentially slaves. She needed to stop this. Nobody else seemed to even think of it, just accepting their positions in the clan no matter how much they seemed to resent them. If they resented their positions so much, why did they just sit on their asses and do nothing? It made no sense at all to Dust. Maybe people were too weak, or they thought they were too weak. Maybe they were too brainwashed and her parents did her a favor by sending her away instead of trying to train her themselves… it was always nice when you can use an enemy’s attacks against them… an enemy? Had she just thought of her own parents as an enemy? If they knew that, they would practically skin her alive… But did they deserve the title if they reacted that way to a worry that they might react in such a way. Ironic, huh?

Dust finally reached the house. Wow, time flies when you have hateful and irrational thoughts, huh? Wow, she was using huh quite often. She needed to stop taking everything so strangely. She could get distracted during a fight and suffer greatly for it. Ugh… she was not going to Sena’s parents’ house so she could dilly dally at their doorstep waiting. She sat down on the aforementioned doorstep, taking out a piece of scrap paper and pen. She wrote a quick yet clear message:

“Sena suffered a loss of a friend at a festival. She may come home very late and be reclusive at best if she does come home and does not need to be found. Please be prepared. It was… not a clean death, to say the least. The nature is very traumatizing, even by the standards of normal death.

Lin Sakamoto”

She rapped on the door a few times, waiting. There was no response… oh gods above, had they already found Sena? Were they some of the people in shock at the festival? They were not at the house… Dust shook her head. She had no time to guess, and she probably would not be right anyway. She folded the paper in half and slid it under the doorway. Hopefully they went in that way… Well, no reason they would take one of the side doors unless they came from the forest, which was unlikely. If they did, they had probably found Sena and her note would be worthless anyway. The forest…. That is where she could train. Of course. Sena had mentioned it, and she knew levitation. Maybe that was a good place to train. She had no food… Was she good at hunting? She would be once she was fast. How strong you were really did not matter when chasing prey. You just needed to be fast, lest they escape and you go hungry. Hopefully, she would not run into a boar like Sena had encountered… She should not stay here, she thought, looking around at her surroundings. Unsurprisingly, it was still the doorstep of Sena’s parents’ house, parents still nowhere to be found. Well, time to get moving lest she was still being watched by those masked weirdos… They might think she was an assassin or something! Hah! The irony…

Dust picked a random direction, right, in this case. Because right is always the right way to go… Dashing that way, she made a bit of noise, mostly gravel and the like crunching under her feet. Hopefully it would not matter… although if anyone was tracking her they could certainly see her anyway. Fuck, she was being paranoid yet again. Why? Well, she already knew the answer to that one. Dashing into the forest, she went for quite a ways, but in a straight line. She did not want to get lost, unsurprisingly. Another thing that was unsurprising was that there were quite a few sticks. Picking one up, she certainly had no hopes of actually breaking a tree, but she wanted to see how much damage to the bark she could do with a charge. It was a large stick, for her, anyway. It had one splintered end, with one side of exposed wood much longer than the other. The other end seemed to have once been adjoined to much smaller twigs, a lot of circles of broken and splintered wood. Par for the course, she supposed. Much easier to wield when it was relatively straight anyway. She supposed that the branch must have been cracked off with a largish force impacting it. Maybe an animal like the boar Sena told her about… Well, hopefully it was gone. In all likelihood, however, it was a storm or something benign like that. She had certainly seen larger branches come down during a storm, and she was probably overanalyzing a stick. Oh well, overanalysis seemed to be what she did best. Charging the tree, she let out a cry. She really had no clue at all why she did such a thing, but it probably increased the adrenaline flow or something. She leapt into the air, bringing the stick down just below a knot in the tree…

And the stick broke. Dust had no clue why she did not see that coming beforehand. In this moment of twenty twenty hindsight, she came down on the tree too, managing to crane her neck back so the hard impact only left a large scrape along her left shoulder, tearing her kimono there. No wonder she was thinking that taijutsu was a good idea earlier. Your weapons did not fucking break if you tried to use them… Well, they could, but it’s much more difficult from a leverage standpoint and it is much easier to protect your hands with chakra than an extraneous item. Sighing and hoping that it would not get infected, she continued along the path she originally had, throwing the stick that was now splintered even more aside. It made a dull thud on the leaves and general foliage behind her. She briefly considered that she should have set it down quietly, but then she remembered that she had cried like a banshee when trying to hit a tree with a stick. It was a good thing she went to train in private indeed…

Eventually, she came across a downed tree that had left shards of wood among some rocks. That would be good. They weren’t weak planks, and they were moveable so she could train on them… but she needed more than just three. She picked up one of the smaller rocks. It was flat but broad. It would work as a makeshift axe… She started to chip away at the tree. Small wooden splinters started to fly, mostly made of bark at this point. Good thing she had the axe, she didn’t want to get splinters trying to just pry the bark off to get to the inner wood, and then just try to pull broken parts off of it. That would most certainly screw up her hands… but then again, trying to punch the wood apart would probably do that too… Oh, well. She thought no pain, no gain was silly but she understood it now, especially since taijutsu was all about that kind of stuff. Gathering up the wood, she placed the medium chunks in one pile and started to carve out some larger chunks from the tree. She would probably not be using them as much as the medium chunks, but they were good for strength practice while the small chunks were good for speed and accuracy. Speaking of accuracy, after carving out four or five large chunks and setting them in their own small pile, she started to get about twenty of them as they were easy to lose. Unsurprisingly, she did not want to have to do this all over again, as this was actually taking quite some time. The rock was not exactly sharp, but it was not like she was on a time crunch. She did need to get stores of food, though…

She placed the shards of wood in yet another pile. The pile was parallel to the now gutted log, on the side of the log where she came to it from. That way, she could remember which direction she came from as long as she did not use literally every piece of wood. She would find a more permanent way to clear the foliage enough later. She started simple, picking up a medium piece of wood and tossing it into the air. She drew her arm back to punch it and did so as it started to fall. However, it was a glancing blow and the wood shard flew only a few feet to the right. Dust let out a small curse, picking it up and trying again. The same thing happened. This time, however, it just flew to the left instead. She decided to leave it, picking up another wood piece. However, at this time, she noticed that her knuckles were scraped up. Oh well, again, no pain and no gain and so on and so forth. This wood piece was a bit flatter. As she threw it, she punched it again on the downward arc. This time, it went about five feet in a relatively straight fashion, which Dust grinned at. Progress could be made, after all, no matter how grueling and dull… Well, time to do it again. This piece was a bit rougher, but it was still relatively flat. When she punched it, however, it left a pretty big splinter in between the joints in her index finger. She let out a multitude of curses. It hurt like the devil! Luckily, it was a big splinter, so she could pull it out easily. It started to bleed, however… Perhaps she should take a break for now and try to find some food. She took another stick, this one also like the one she encountered earlier, with her in order to drag behind her. It would leave a path through the leaves and the dirt that she could easily follow back when she needed to. Luckily, the general area seemed to have lots of wild blackberries, raspberries, and the like, she quickly found upon setting out from the other side of the log. She quickly gathered a few, minding any thorns that would be on vines or less than friendly bushes. She really did not want another splinter that might be even harder to remove. Burrs were getting on her kimono, though… she picked up a leaf and pulled them off with that so she would not run the risk of pricking her finger. She needed to find a way to make some sort of container, however… all she could carry were handfuls at this point. She had a plan for that, it was not particularly fancy, but it would work.

Heading back to her base of operations after retracing the groove in the dirt, she transferred the berries to one hand, although she did drop a few. She retained most of them, though, and started to take waxy leaves off of a nearby tree. Bending down and spilling another berry, she started to make a sort of mat out of leaves on the ground. It would certainly do nothing against any sort of animal who ate them overnight, but it was better than just leaving them in the dirt and leaves that had been there for quite some time. She was all for having a good immune system, but that was not exactly the way she wanted to accomplish such a thing. Placing down the berries, she decided based on her previous logic that it would be rather unwise to pick the fallen berries up. She was a bit hungry, as she had not had anything at the festival… Ah, the festival, right. She wondered if her parents had heard… Probably not. They never asked anyone for news or read bulletins. They thought it was a waste of time and as long as it did not affect them they had no reason at all to care about it. Probably why they never really cared about her. They knew from relatively early on that she would have nothing to do with them if they continued to act that way. Instead of trying to repair the bridge, so to speak, they just decided to burn it and treat her like she was just a tool, and a pretty worthless one at that. Her brow furrowed a bit at the thought of it, and she tossed a small piece into the air to see if being angry improved her chances or decreased them. She hit it dead-on, sending it sailing a few yards due to a combination of the anger fueled adrenaline and the fact that the piece of wood was, understandably, much lighter due to being smaller. She grinned. Perhaps the old channel your emotions shtick was not such a bad idea after all. She tried it with another, but missed this time. Maybe it was just beginner’s luck, maybe it was because she did not try too hard. She didn’t know, but she tried again and missed just like before. Well, things always seemed to be better when they were spurs of the moment, for some odd reason. Shaking her head, she checked her hands yet again. They were not much worse off than before, and the bleeding from the splinter seemed to have stopped a little bit ago. She idly scratched the dried blood off of that finger, letting it fall to the forest floor three or four feet below it. She had to remember not to pick the scab. She really did not want to risk an infection… For some reason, this brought up another worry.

What if people were worried that she was missing? She had no idea who would be worried, as Sena seemed to have… err… other issues going on at the moment, but she supposed that her other friends might, and that is a big might, be concerned for her. It was unlikely, as they almost certainly cared for Sena far more than they ever would for her… Disappearing for gods know how long is not going to help that in the slightest… Well, she hoped they did not come looking for her. She had no idea what would happen if they found her. With how her hands were starting to look, they might stop her, and that could not happen if she wanted to not be useless. The academy’s teachings were bogged down by people horsing around in class and the class tended to proceed as slow as the slowest person. She was by no means a prodigy, of course, but she was not the slowest in the class. As pretentious as it may sound at first glance, Dust knew that in order for her to get anywhere, she had to go off the beaten path—that was a completely unintentional pun. Wow, maybe she was more traumatized than she thought as she is having a hard time taking many things seriously at this point. How very strange, you would think that it would dull whatever sense of comedy, humor, or whatever you want to call it that she may have. Well, everyone responded differently, she supposed. Or maybe it was just as simple as being a placebo effect, her thinking she was going crazy even though she probably was not.

Anyway, back on topic. She had to go off the beaten path, both literally and metaphorically in this case, if she wanted to progress. Of course, she still had to go through the official channels eventually like taking a graduation exam, but she would prefer to be more than ready for the sudden change in duties, abilities, and responsibilities when she eventually did graduate from the academy. She had heard far too many horror stories of people graduating than either getting maimed or killed because they got cocky, thinking they were invincible for passing the final exam. It was…. Not a good thing to hear about. It scared her, that even if they thought you were ready, you could still get killed. She was not angry at the academy for that, but she was concerned that it did not make explicitly clear how real the dangers are. They simply say that it is dangerous most of the time and never really cite examples. Examples make it real to a person, as scary as they may be at first. Fear was a good thing, though, if not debilitating. Something that keeps you reminded of the reality of danger is essential for staying safe. Sena had encountered such an example today, but Dust hoped that it would not be too traumatizing. Wait… was she really being so analytical about this? She should have stayed and consoled Sena, not run off to train. Was she using it as an excuse to further her own goals? She had been thinking of her family and the Hyugas even when they had nothing to do with this event… in all likelihood, anyway. In all likelihood?! The hell was she on about? Of course they had nothing to do with it. She was being absolutely ridiculous. She really was trying to pin everything on someone else in order to get power… Was she, though, if she was aware of it? She had no clue. Was she a sociopath…? Did sociopaths know they were? They usually thought that they were the normal ones and everyone else was off, right? She had no clue, she was not a psychologist… She really did not have the time to figure it out, and it would be a waste to leave now. She figured that it would be inefficient to work on throwing things and punching them, that would not help with her strength at all, only her speed and accuracy, as well as to gauge her strength. She did not exactly have a punching bag, though. She had an idea, however, if she could just find some moss. Luckily for her, moss was not exactly in the shortest supply in a giant forest. She did the same old trick with the trail formed by a stick, rhyming in her thoughts unintentional, before coming across a moss-covered tree. This would do nicely indeed, she thought to herself. Drawing back her hand, she hauled off with a right hook, her hand sinking into the moss with a small “whumf.” Well, it didn’t hurt, and the moss was not slimy or anything, both of which were good things. She did it again, this time with a left hook. Of course, her weaker left hand did not make as much noise, but it still felt oddly satisfying to beat the crap out of a patch of moss. She just hoped she did not flatten it to the point where the bark would break through and she would cut her hand open. That would be… well, it would certainly put a damper on things. She might even have to return, and she really did not want to come back… well, empty handed would not be the correct term, but without anything to show for it would probably be better. She had no idea how to bandage herself in the forest, however, and she was not even sure there were plants with medicinal qualities in this region of the forest. This forest was fairly temperate as far as things go, and the interesting plants seemed to be in the hotter forests. Of course, there were not many cold forests. Those who did manage to cling to life in cold climates, however, also tended to be fairly homogeneous in terms of there being no plants with special qualities besides looking pretty. The moss would be good for soaking up blood, though, although she did not have any adhesive to keep it on a wound and would have to hold it there. That would be a massive waste of time, although she supposed she could put it on wounds that needed to heal when she went to sleep. She never really tossed and turned, which was a good thing… which made her wonder how long she would be out here, exactly.

She had a few realistic options. She could stay out here for just a few days, which would be the most conservative option. Alternatively, she could stay for a week to two weeks, which would be good enough to really train her survival skills as well as get in training. She had to stay in the forest to train her strength to the degree that she felt was necessary. Otherwise, people would try to stop her because they thought she was overexerting herself… That, again, was a product of not enough people realizing how dangerous the world at large can be at times. Hopefully, the festival would alert people to the new danger. However, people seemed to forget all too quickly about the actual cause of things and instead squabbled over safety rules instead of actually trying to prevent it again by educating the populace on how to handle these things in an efficient and calm manner… Holy shit, was she doing it again? She could not keep acting just like the people she hated to hear about, ignoring the actual horror of the issue to pass judgement on others. She drove her right fist into the tree trunk out of frustration, making a loud “whumf” and flattening the moss there, although it eventually did decompress to its original state. She was a bad person, was she not? She really wanted to actually feel sympathy for others, but she feared that she just did not have it in her a lot of the time. She had no idea why she did not, perhaps it was just her personality. On the other hand, it might be that she was so desensitized to caring about others due to her parents never really caring about her in the slightest. There she was, doing it again! She was bringing her damned parents into something where they did not need to be brought up… like themselves—FUCK! Why did she keep doing that?! She did the same as before with her left fist this time, making an about equal in depth dent in the moss. She needed to cool off, and what better way to do that then punch a mossy tree, huh? Her punches numbered about fifteen in total, each about the same. They started at the top of her comfortable arm length and moved down the trunk, again not wanting to break through the moss before it went back to its original sponginess. Dust sighed, panting a little before she managed another punch, this one weak and barely making a dent at all. Wow… so… stamina was something she needed to work on too, apparently, or at least learn to channel chakra to make her attacks more potent. She was running off of her own abilities, and that flurry tired her out. She slowly made her way back to camp, taking her marking stick with her and following the trail she left using it earlier. She should eat some more… although berries was not going to sustain her for too long. It looked like she had to go with one of the more conservative options she had planned for her return lest she become too weak to find her way back. That would be… less than preferable, even if someone did find her. She also needed to figure out the time, and that was hard to gauge in a forest. She would have to go back after she ate. Luckily, nothing had disturbed her berries, and she ate about 5 of both raspberries and blackberries. She would also need water, but she did hear a stream to the right of her current position…

Picking up her trusty not getting lost stick, she made her way to that direction, once again leaving a trail. She really hoped that nobody was following her, or else she would have… well, they would find that their jobs got significantly easier. Although, she supposed that the multiple trails she has been leaving may confuse them at least somewhat, but it did mean they could find her base camp exceptionally easy… that is, assuming there actually was someone following her, which there probably was not. If it was one of those masked weirdos, they seemed far too good at whatever the hell they did to not be able to find her in this place. Anyway, when she approached the stream, she found it a lot shallower than her expectations, only a few inches of water over a whole bunch of stones. Hey, at least it was relatively clean. She had a handkerchief on her, but she did not have a jar or anything to contain water, unfortunately. She knew that one could filter large pollutants out of water by just putting a cloth over the opening of some sort of container. It really did not do her any good, however, considering she had no container. She dipped her hands in the water, washing off the blood she still had from earlier. Taking them out, she put them once again into the (luckily clear) water, this time cupped. She scooped up the water from the stream, sipping from her hands. She did spill a bit, but that did not really matter. The water was not exactly ice cold, but it was certainly cool enough to be refreshing, shielded from the heat of the sun by the forest canopy. After a few more goes at drinking, her thirst was quenched and she made her way to the camp. She nearly forgot her stick, but just as she was going to leave she froze, remembering that she was supposed to bring it with her. She pivoted one hundred and eighty degrees on her heel, going back to the riverbank and picking up the stick. Back at the camp, she was still a bit fatigued. She figured she would just rest a while, sitting down on the non-decimated portion of the log. She would get back to training later, but she did not want to burn herself out.

Word count: 6198, total 8212

Several hours later after Hideo had brought his passed out son home, Jirou woke up on a bed which he had come to know as something he had used quite a fair bit.
"This is... my room? When did I get here? Was it all a dream?" He said out loud to himself, wondering if what he had seen was indeed nothing but a nightmare induced by heavens know what.
He looked around his room, wondering if there was anything out of place and sure enough, he saw the weapon he had run off with after overpaying for it. It was still sheathed and unused, though it had a splash of dried blood on it.
He froze as he realized what he had seen was not indeed a dream. It all happened. The monsters, the Inuzuka, his new friends, the Hokage.
Dai Mao. The one who murdered Yusuri.
That name sent a chill down Jirou's spine, but it was replaced quickly with a sense of warmth as he felt his pulse quickening. He didn't notice it, but he'd clenched his fist as he repeated that name in his head.
He didn't even know why. He hardly knew the girl. He had no idea what she was like, what kind of ability she possessed as a ninja and definitely didn't know her well enough to be attracted to her. It was just that... She was one of the first few friends he'd made. His sensei Akemi was friendly to him, sure, but she was his teacher.
But Yusuri... Even if it was a brief friendship, she was still his friend. Avenging her was the foremost thought on her mind.
Getting off from his bed, he found himself a bit wobbly at first for rising out of bed too fast as he ignored the feeling and went to find his father, whom he found at the garden in his house's backyard.
"Toosan. Who is Dai Mao?"
His father stopped what he was doing - watering flowers and looked at his son, realizing quickly what Jirou was planning.
"A dangerous criminal far beyond your skills. Even the ANBU haven't found him yet. What you saw there at the festival... That was just a glimpse of what he could do. You are not ready to face such a foe. I'm rather certain even I cannot face him." He said, which was met with a smile, to his surprise.
"I know. That's why I must train in order to get to that point. But if you have an opportunity of informing the Hokage, tell her that if I attain the rank of Jounin, I will be on the lookout for any missions involving that man." Jirou said before he went to find his mother and brothers, to ease their worries.

---

A few days later, in the evening.
Konoha Cemetery

---

Night was approaching steadily. Mother would want him to be back soon.
He knew he wouldn't stay here for long.
He was staring at the gates, emblazoned with the symbol of the village - The Will of Fire, which the village's denizens have inherited. What made the village stand out from the others.
And he was here by his own will. He wasn't here because of some sense of honor or guilt about what happened. He was here to say goodbye to a friend.
Walking through the gates, he passed by what seemed to be a countless amount of graves, names becoming nothing more than a mass of letters as he strode through the grounds. How many of these graves were filled thanks to Dai Mao's work? Tens? Hundreds? Jirou had no idea.
His eyes then found the one grave he was looking for. Yusuri's name was sculpted into the stone, fresh flowers were on the grave - remnants of the burial which he and his father had attended. He cried that day. Even his father's normally stoic features had softened.
Even as he remembered those things, he felt a stray tear going down his face.
"I know I never got to know you properly, Yusuri-chan. We only knew eachother for a few hours at best. But for whatever it's worth, I want to say that I'm sorry. It should have been me that was slain by him." He clenched his fist as he said that last sentence. If he squeezed it any harder, he probably would have drawn blood via his fingernails alone.
"I would have loved to train with you, become Chuunin with you, maybe even Jounin. But that is no longer possible. Your family misses you. I do not know this from experience, but the funeral told me more than enough to come to this conclusion.
They had their daughter taken away from them. But Dai Mao's crime is three-fold. It was a crime against your family, my family and the entire village of Konoha." He said as he took the weapon he had bought during the festival and placed it beside the flowers.
"I know I'm not strong enough to fight Dai Mao. Not even close. But one day I will be. Then I will look for him, I will find him... And I will kill him." He said the descending sun obscured his eyes.
"Goodbye, Yusuri Clypeus. It was nice to meet you." He said as he turned and walked away from the grave, tears flowing down his face but his features were cold as steel.
His first experience of loss was his worst. Time would tell if it would be the last.
Only thing that was certain at this point in time is that Jirou would double his efforts. He was going to become a ninja. He was going to succeed. He was carrying the pride of two different clans with him. His own and that of a friend.

Word Count: 941 | 3550 Total

OOC:

Festival of Blood had officially ended, thread will be locked. Look forward to Mini-event rewards that will be posted up within the coming week.

Thank you all for participating you all are lovely and awesome. Look forward to the next event.