Enter Tezuka

[Tezuka, Natsuki]

Natsuki had hiked her way this far with scarcely any directions. She had only needed a bit of help a few times as she traversed the mountainous hills and started to make her way towards Iwagakure. But finally, she had gotten there. The woman stood before the opened gateway to the village, feeling a bit strange without a single guard around. It was perfect, she smiled to herself, nobody to ask her her name, her origin, or none of that silly intrusive nonsense. Her red hair was gathered into a low pony tail at the base of her neck, and it and her long grey scarf were lifted by the wind.

She inhaled deeply and then exhaled, adjusting the pack upon her back before stepping with gusto into the village itself. It was beautiful, wonderful, and high up. Natsuki enjoyed the height, even feeling a sense of nostalgia for the village she had left five years ago. She wore plain black attire: black boots, black pants, and a black sleeveless neck high shirt. A plain looking brown over coat buttoned only around her waist, allowing the edges of the coat to flap as she moved about. Natsuki looked around curiously, taking the knowledge of the village in through all of her senses. She smelled the vendors' foods, heard the soft mumbles of the people as they went about their business. She thought of herself as sorely out of place, and she pulled up her scarf over her mouth as she explored, feeling a bit awkward. Natsuki had never gotten used to being the 'new kid in town', hating the attention that was drawn to her. It was no surprise, by her history she hated almost everything that necessitated her explaining her business or her appearance. A single slip of the tongue could link her to Kumogakure and then her years of fake death would be over.

Natsuki reached with a hand to rest her fingers upon the shinobi pouch she still carried about her waist. Her old protector was still wrapped up inside of it, along with regular shinobi supplies, and her money pouch. Her brown eyes sought out a sign for cheap food, and she was fortunate enough to find it with relative ease. She noted that despite her fears and paranoia, most of the people in this village didn't look at her once, never mind twice. Natsuki sat down at one of the open booths at a ramen place with a sigh of relief, and called out to the chef for a bowl of plain ramen. She couldn't afford more then that at the moment. It felt good to rest her legs, but hot food would feel even better since she hadn't eaten a thing in over a day.

[Deleted]

A deep, exasperated sigh left the lips of Asouka. She was beginning to hate her idea of buying her own clothes. Not only that, but she had grown lax in keeping up with her routine and training, all thanks to getting sick a few weeks ago. Her body had still not recovered from the first week of bed rest she was forced to take, and it was evident to her as her body grew less fit than what she preferred. Hell, even her feet hurt terribly. Yet, here she was, walking the streets of Iwagakure looking to buy some gear to make her look less out of place than she really was.

So far on her shopping trip, the short Kaguya woman had found a few items to replace the oversized yukata; this time finding clothes that fitted her body. It was a new life she was given, and with that new life came change in uniform. She just hoped she could find a new mask to replace the one that bore the mark of Kirigakure.

She hadn't had much luck. Store after store, she had not found a mask that reminded her of her vulpine moniker, her mood getting lower and lower with each new store she entered and hunger rising with each passing minute of shopping and searching.

The grumbling of her stomach began to be unbearable, her apprehension of possibly losing her lunch later in the day just a small thought pushed to the back of her mind. Her pale colored gaze finally found the ramen shop her nose had picked out among the rest of the smells and entered the quaint little shop.

Passing by the red-head with barely a glance, Asouka sat herself at a table across from the woman, ordering chicken ramen, an extra filet of chicken on the side, and a cup of tea with milk. As she waited for her meal, the small ferret the ivory-haired woman kept on her person slipped out from under the scarf about her neck and perched on her shoulder, nose moving and sniffing in the scents of the restaurant.

[Tezuka, Natsuki]

The red haired twenty year old removed her grey scarf from over her nose, pausing though, with it inbetween two of her fingers, just beside her small mouth. Her periphery caught sight of the woman who had taken a seat not far from her. She stared at the woman, curious and distrusting, taking special note of the fact that she also bore a scarf. She scoffed lightly, tsk'ing certainly loud enough to be heard. When a man moved before her to give her the plain ramen she had ordered, Natsuki dropped her scarf to below her chin.

"Thanks," She said abruptly, pulling out her money pouch. She placed the few coins she had upon the table, noting that she had exactly the amount she needed for one night at a cheap inn, predicting of course that she could haggle the man down to her level. When the ferret came weaseling out from under the woman's scarf, Natsuki frowned. She had been able to hear what the woman ordered, and noted that she must have been far better financed. Natsuki's eyes glowered in her direction, obviously now, as she broke her chopsticks apart. She looked elegant, that white-haired woman, feasting at this shop, even letting her animals eat with her.. Even if the woman was here to eat like anyone else, it annoyed the red haired traveler. Natsuki's lips pursed together.

"Creepy little rodent," She brazenly muttered. She couldn't help her arrogant attitude at all times, though she was far better off keeping her mouth closed. Her journey here had been taxing, both her body and her wallet suffering from a jump by some road bandits. With her chakra and her patience low, the amount of secrecy and solitude which usually kept her bad manners in check, now ran rampant.

[Deleted]

Just as her own meal had arrived Asouka's eyes flickered to the fiery-haired woman, her scoffing and muttering clearly touching a nerve. Her small, delicate hands pulled apart the chicken she had ordered for her dobutsu and held out a piece for the ferret to chew upon as his owner finally gave the woman a look over.

"I'm sorry. But I could help but hear you call Hibi a rodent. Ferrets are not rodents." Her tattooed brow was lax, eyes hardened, as she tried to right this misconception. "Rodents are classified under the muridae genus, while ferrets are in the mustelinae genus. If anything. Ferrets are related closer to felines than rodents." Each time she had said the word 'rodent', it was forced through her pale lips like poison.

Asouka returned to her meal, taking a sip of her tea before breaking apart her chopsticks. Cooling the noodles, she quietly ate her meal as Hibi continued to indulge upon his. The Kaguya woman was no doubt preparing herself for another snide remark from the woman sitting at the table across from her.

After finishing her meal, the short statured woman wrapped her fingers about her teacup, warming them as she stared into the milky liquid.

[Tezuka, Natsuki]

The woman let out a snarky laugh, her own voice teaming with repulsion and nonchalance, "Oh to Shinigami with all that. As if I care." Natsuki plundered her bowl with the chopsticks, eating quickly but gracefully. Not a single drop was spilled or slurped up. After a few bites, her lips twitched, as if trying to prevent her from continuing the conversation. What did it matter to her anyway? Perhaps it was that the woman was clearly lovely, had found a place to call home, and plenty of food to enjoy, where Tezuka had never had so much in her life, fighting for every breath and every morsel of food. Or perhaps it was the fact that the stark skinned woman even replied to her, speaking so condescendingly, as if she knew more. Her voice and her attitude seemed to enforce this "I'm better than you" mentality which Natsuki had tacitly assigned the Kaguya.

It meant now that the red haired newcomer needed to reply, for her own dignity's sake. "Looks like a long furry rat to me," She said, her own voice lifting into an airy superior tone. She gave a smile to the woman, one that looked kind and genuine and even sweet, but obviously was not. She looked to the chef behind the counter, who had a lull in his work and was watching them speak with an over curious ear. She lifted her bowl to drink half of the broth away before setting it down again.

"I think you should be careful of those you allow to eat here," She told the man behind the counter, loudly enough for any passersby to hear. "Where I come from, sir, animals eat and sleep outside. People might get the wrong idea if they think you are feeding the beasts instead of the people." She shrugged, giving another sweet smile, before lifting up the bowl again, giving a wink to the woman, despite having not only insulted her dear ferret but her as well by implying that she too was an animal. "Just some advice is all, delicious meal though," She said approvingly to the man. Afterwards, she finished drinking up the broth, feeling most high and mighty for verbally winning the argument against the uppity chalk-haired woman. It didn't matter to her if she was being rude, or insensitive, or mean.

[Deleted]

The fingers she kept about the cup full of tea twitched ever so slightly as this child continued to throw insults. It felt like her bones itched to grow out from her skin, to be used as a weapon and show this girl some respect. Instead, Asouka glanced up at the shop keeper, eyes glowering as if to wait for a response.

"And to think the locals of this town knew some respect. I almost miss the hostility back home." Her hands moved from the teacup, shaking with anger and a slight imbalance of hormones as she clenched them in her lap. Her knuckles began to turn a stark white as she fought with the aggression her people were well known for.

"And if taking care of my tracker animal makes me an animal, then so be it. At least they're more hospitable than you. Your sparkling personality must be why you're sulking here alone."

Almost hoping a fight would start, Asouka would begin to fuse a protective layer of bone under her skin, slowly creeping to a close to protect her vital organs while her joints were still free for easy movement. This pampered life of being with the Tsuchikage was quite dull in her opinion. She missed being able to use her bones as the weapons her kekkei genkai designed them for.

Asouka wouldn't be the one to make the first move, however. It was better to be safe than sorry. More so with how ill the woman had been for the past weeks.

[Tezuka, Natsuki]

The twenty year old sighed a bit, pulling her scarf up a bit over her mouth to hide her very large grin. Her brown eyes glimmered brightly, the bones of the other woman unknown to Natsuki as secret weapons. The poor man behind the counter coughed and turned his back, looking quite embarrassed with his left hand up slightly, muttering about not wanting to be involved in anything other running his ramen shop. She wet her lips and closed her eyes as she exhaled. Natsuki got what she had wanted: proof that she could rile this self righteous and seemingly affluent woman. Simply viewing the lovely woman's feathers get all ruffled was enough for her, and she didn't really want to engage in any kind of fight.

Until the woman made the mistake of pointing out that she was alone. She was alone because she had to be, not really because she wanted to be. Her stunning personality made it hard to get close to people and since Natsuki was still living on the run from her past, she had to be careful to not to be close to people. She had had friends in Kumogakure, a few who had kept her focused and calm. She wasn't evil, just unsociable, and worse now than she had ever been as a child. It was a soft spot for her, the same way that a bully's weakness getting pointed out in public is an open invitation for a fight. She stood up, facing the woman, her hands on the table.

"I'm not a local," Natsuki confronted in a sharp tone, her eyes lowered as she tried to not lose her cool. This was silly, stupid even. Her first day in the village and she was already getting into fights? It must have been her sour mood, lack of food and need of rest that had made her so impatient and hot-tempered; Natsuki didn't want to back down here, but she didn't want to make this her first impression here either. She lifted her brown optics to meet the woman's own gaze, her chin lifting up with confidence.

"So don't mess with me, or power you can't comprehend," Natsuki finished. She had already killed a person, her own sensei in fact. What made anyone else safe? She could feel tingling in her fingertips, the electricity in the air responding to her flux in chakra, increasing the static to a point where it was likely small sparks could be detected on her clothing and in her soft grey scarf. The static in the air should have also made hairs stand on end, the fur of the ferret, the woman's white hair, and even the shop keeper pretending to be cooking off behind the counter might all be encountering a sudden bad hair day.

[Deleted]

Asouka felt the crackling of energy just as Hibi began to growl, his ears plastered back against his skull as his fur ruffled uncomfortably. The Kaguya ran her fingers over his fur, the snapping of electricity sounding in her ear as she cooed to the mammal. After calming the ferret, the woman ran her fingers over her hair, gathering the long locks and twisting them before tossing them over her shoulder, acting as if the woman was just a pesky fly.

Funnily enough, Asouka had been living her life just like this woman not too long ago. She lived alone within Kirigakure, the only time she interacted with others being when she hired herself out for mundane tasks just to keep herself and Hibi fed. She was alone by the time she became a genin, her mother dying from loneliness because Asouka couldn't fill the void her father left after his death. It was just a blessing that Asouka wasn't forced into the war that her clan foolishly perished in.

Leaning back in her seat, the pale woman hunched her shoulders as she mumbled into her scarf, eyes distantly staring off into nothingness, "Seems like we have two things in common then.." Asouka tilted her head slightly, gazing at the woman from the corner of her eye. The next words she spoke, she made sure to enunciate them clearly, "I would suggest that you take your own advice. Not everyone appears how you think they do."

Within the sleeve of her old, tattered, over-sized yukata, Asouka had the tip of her ulna and radius sticking out from the middle of her palm, the two bones fusing together, just in case this whole situation turned even worse than it already was. At least her stomach wasn't turning sour from her meal this time. It would make it that much easier to focus on a possible fight.

[Tezuka, Natsuki]

The shop keeper obviously didn't like where this was going. The pudgy man came from behind his counter with both hands raised, and his brows knitted together. He looked between the two females and then pointed to the exit.

"There won't be any fighting in here, if you plan to make trouble you might as well just leave!" He demanded and then coyly added, "Please." Natsuki tsk'd rolling her eyes before using her fingers to curl her red hair behind her ears. She crossed her arms and put her weight on one hip, standing saucily but quietly. Her brown eyes assessed the situation, and she turned around heading for the way out into the alley exit where she had entered instead of back into the well-traveled street. She thought to herself, having not heard the woman's mutter about their commonalities, and thinking only of how great it must be for that woman to be herself, to have a home, to have friends, family and a pet. She never felt more alone or out of place, having it publicly pointed out to her. Natsuki's hands went through a couple of kata, out of view, her arms scarcely moving to be undetectable. What did that woman know about anything, anyway? As she reached the door she uncrossed her arms and looked over her shoulder at the woman, meeting her eyes one last time before calling back to her.

"Any time you want to test if I need your advice in the first place, go on and and try it," Natsuki countered, her tone sharp as her hands brushed along her sleeves, as if wiping dust away from her coat. The static she collected made it easy when she flicked her hand at the woman's direction shooting a small and nearly invisible spark of lightning her way. It would likely hit the table before her, burning it slightly because though the speed of a near invisible strike made it hard to deal with, Natsuki didn't really want to hit her and the casual flick of her hand was not a direct way to shoot a bolt of her jutsu anyway. As soon as she finished flicking her hand, she tossed her hair and exited the ramen shop, making sure her money bag was secure in her nin pouch around her waist and taking to the back alley with an smooth quick gait.