Hanami [Open]

[Kei]

Today is...alright...

A smiled graced the boy's lips as he watched the cherry blossoms swirl around, tugged this way and that by the soft breeze that was blowing. The small sakura grove was only about five minutes walking distance from the main area of the festival, and was completely deserted, as there was another one like it that was closer to the temple and the festival grounds.

His dark blue eyes were cast skyward toward the soft pink leaves tossing and turning in the wind as he paced along the rows of trees. He'd reach out and run his hand along a trunk here and there, or catch a leaf and examine it for a moment. It was odd, but he felt so at peace here that he couldn't help but smile, something completely out of the ordinary for him, but somehow, at least for now, it didn't bother him. Happy was alright, happy was acceptable.

Stopping at a particularly beautiful looking tree, he sat down in the tall grass around the trunk and leaned himself back against the wood. The wind rustled his hair, tossing his bangs about in front of his face, but in such a way that it wasn't bothersome. He began to hum softly, an old tune about the sakura his mother would sing to him when he was a child. He really should go see her sometime, but for now he'd relax.

[sazu]

Sazu, had trained for several hours the previous night. Finally waking up from his slumber feeling fully rested, he remembered something. "Isn't there a festival today? Hmm..." After several moments pass, Sazu could be soon leaving his home in the Leaf village. His windmill shuriken strapped to his back and wakizashi sheathed behind his waist. "I guess i'll make my way to the festival." The festival was located a short distance away from the Leaf village. He began walking towards the village gate, soon passing it. It was a beautiful day outside, clear blue sky, nice warm breeze. "Just perfect." A slight smirk escaped from Sazu's face.

Upon reaching the festival, he found it to be too noisy from all the different people conversing. This annoyed him, especially since he was slightly cranky from waking up. "Hmm I wonder where my new teammates are..." Sazu was recently placed in a team with two other genin. He was pretty sure they would be at this festival so he began to walk about searching for them. A trail of cherry blossoms was formed near the edge of the festival. There must have been a garden of sakura nearby he thought. That would be a peaceful place for him to relax.

Sazu followed the trail looking for the garden nearby. His feet stepping on the several cherry blossoms on the ground. After a brief moment he had reached the garden of cherry blossoms. He could see no one here but several trees and cherry blossoms. Letting out a sigh, he sat down on the grass and looked up at the sky. Sazu was mistaken, there was one other person there in which he wasn't aware of; behind the tree.

[Rukaji]

The gentle, yet hurried sounds of light footsteps was drowned out by the commotion of the Festival. As she ran around, Rukaji scanned the crowd, looking for anyone she was familiar with. Minutes flew by, one by one, and the girl sighed, about ready to give up; she couldn't find anyone. Wasn't this stupid thing supposed to be mandatory?

Deciding that maybe, since her teammates were both rather antisocial, they were off on the sidelines instead of part of the crowd, Rukaji started to migrate away from the main event. A few times she got sidetracked and stopped to look at a few games, but caught herself each time instead of participating. After all, games weren't as fun when played alone.

Which was funny, since she would probably act too good for said games had people she knew been there to witness her play.

Eventually, after several more failed attempts at locating her 'friends', Rukaji found herself wandering toward the sakura grove. She looked up with a sigh, though almost immediately wrinked her nose in frustration as a petal landed on it. She blew it away with a huff, before spotting someone she recognized off in the distance.

It was Keisuke; she didn't notice Sazu behind the tree.

She walked over rather casually, fidgetting with the fresh bandages visible on her left arm, since she had no pockets to put her hands in today. Her aunt had insisted she dressed nice for the event, and she reluctantly did. Instead of her normal, tomboy-ish training outfit, she wore a short, sleeveless kimono; dark red in color, with silver flowers embroidered into the fabric along the left side. It was secured with a black obi, to match her sandals; the thin rope in the middle of the thick sash silver to compliment the embroidery. Lastly, her headband was uncharacteristly secured on her forehead rather than around her neck, and her still seemingly damp hair from bathing was brushed rather nicely for once, and held up with a silver hair clip with small bells dangling from it.

Rukaji hated it, and that much was apparent by her frown.

"Hey." She said, somewhat quietly as she walked up, looking at the trees once more before back at the festival. "Too crowded for you there?"

[Kei]

Whether he noticed him or not, Kei didn't say anything to Sazu yet, more than likely just lost in his own world. However, his eyes were immediately drawn open and turned to Rukaji when she spoke. He smiled at her - something that happened no more in the years they had known each other than one could count on both hands - and shrugged. However, his smile quickly faded to a look of slight concern as he eyed her bandaged hand, standing and taking a step toward her.

"What happened?" he asked, motioning to the hand in question.

[sazu]

Sazu quickly stood to attention upon hearing voices behind the tree. He became very cautious, was someone trying to sneak up on him? Slowly getting up, he placed his hand behind his back to grab the handle of his wakizashi that rested around his waist. He slowly, quietly approached the tree making sure he made no noise. The cherry blossoms dampened his footsteps, but if he stepped on a twig he'd be screwed.

Upon reaching the tree, he put his back on the tree to listen in on the conversation they were having. He wasn't sure who's voices these were but it interested him. With his hand securely fastened around the handle of the wakizashi blade behind his back, he crouched to avoid being seen.

[Rukaji]

Rukaji found herself tilting her head as Keisuke smiled at her, since it was a rather rare occurance. After blinking once or twice, she half-smiled back; though probably only because he didn't mention anything about her outfit. She was worried for awhile that he would make fun of her and never let her live it down.

She would have had to beat him up if that was the case.

Fortunately, it wasn't. However, when he made mention of her arm, Rukaji immediately frowned, looking at the bandages. She was silent a moment, before sighing. "Nothing much." She mumbled, with a shrug. She wasn't about to cry to him about a mistake she made; after all, he'd probably laugh at her anyway. Someone Ninjutsu master... burning herself like a moron.

"....I'm kind of hungry." Rukaji muttered quietly, mostly to herself, looking back toward the event.

[sazu]

As the couple continued to converse, Sazu recognized their voices. The people he's been looking for, Kei and Rukaji. Softly chuckling to himself, he quickly stood up and lowered his guard. Removing his hand from the handle of his blade, he turned the corner of the tree to face the couple. He revealed himself to them, wearing black shirt under his black training vest. His hands remained covered with black fingerless gloves. While his legs were covered by the standard black shinobi leggings.

A slight smile escaped his face to them so he would come off friendly to them. His attention quickly turned to Rukaji who wore the dark red kimono. She looked completely different than the last time he saw her. "Does she always dress like this?" He thought to himself. There had to be a good reason for it...Ah yes, the festival. He dare not compliment her on her kimono. It would come off too awkward. Instead, he gave a slight wave with his hand and spoke in a clear, calm manner. "Oh, it's you guys..." This was him trying to be friendly. Any normal person could tell you he didn't know how to communicate with people. It was that obvious.

[Kei]

Kei's eyes brightened at Rukaji's smile, even if it wasn't a very enthusiastic one. He hardly saw her smile, so it was certainly a treat when it happened. Odd, though, this feeling he got when he saw it. Blinking, he pushed the thoughts away and frowned at her reply before shaking his head.

"...training another fire element jutsu then, I see," he said calmly, fairly certain his assumption was correct, as, now that he thought about it, similar exchanges regarding injuries such as this had happened before. Pausing, he seemed to be contemplating something for a moment before he reached out, about to put his hand on Rukaji's head, as he often did, before hesitating, not wanting to ruffle her hair after she had put so much effort into fixing it, and instead letting his hand fall to her shoulder, "It's nice to see that you're actually taking your training seriously..."

He smiled at her again, not really sure why, other than it just felt like the right thing to do at the time. Sighing, he spoke again.

"Hungry, hm?" he smirked at her, "Trying t-..." he paused, cutting himself off.

Eh, girl's already probably not happy about being all dressed up...I better not push her any further...

"...That is," he picked up, "You're trying to ditch me already, hm? Fair enough, go eat. Though, if you waited up, I might be willing to pay for both of us..." he trailed off, offering her a smirk.

And that was about when Sazu stepped out, Kei glancing at him once before nodding at him, offering a little wave of his hand.

"Indeed. Funny we should all end up out here at the same time, huh?" he asked, tilting his head up and offering a smile to them.

[Rukaji]

A frown was given once more as mention of training with fire was brought up. It was almost irritating that he knew off the bat that she had burned herself, and she mentally cursed. What an idiot she must look like, bandaged at a Festival because of self-inflicted injuries. She crossed her arms as his hand fell on her shoulder, looking irritably to the side. She'd make a point to show off her jutsu once she mastered it... even though it seemed sort of a ways off. It was hard!

As he continued on to mention food, one of her eyebrows instantly raised as she trailed off. Was he about to pick a fight and stopped because she was dressed up? Rukaji huffed; that was infuriating. She opened her mouth to say something, but was cut off as he continued. Pay for her, huh? She tilted her head, before grinning. Of course she wouldn't mind not paying.

It was then that Sazu approached and Rukaji blinked at him, before raising a hand up in a lazy wave. "Yo." She said, simply, not being a great conversationalist in the first place on top of the fact that she didn't know him very well yet. Shifting, though, she decided she might as well say something, glancing up to the trees. "So it's... nice here, I guess."

[Kei]

((I'll be AFK for a few hours. So I'd like to pause the RP for a bit after Sazu's turn, if that isn't too much trouble.))

[sazu]

[[ I was hoping to spar someone. >.> Wanted to try some stuff out. Looks like it's not going to happen =/ ]]

[Rukaji]

(( We can all get some sparring done when he comes back~ ))

[sazu]

"Yo."

Sazu had noticed Rukaji's hair was different than the first time he met him. It was neatly done and looked good on her. At this point he had no interest in Rukaji, she was stranger to him. But there was something odd about this girl, he couldn't quite put his finger on. His mind began to wander before being interrupted by Rukaji.

"So it's... nice here, I guess."

Sakura petals fell on his head while Rukaji spoke. Brushing them off with his gloved hand he nodded. "...Yea, I guess it is." Giving a shrug after speaking. Rukaji's clothes...was something Kei would not comment on. He realized this, a smirk sliding across his face.

"...So Rukaji, about those clothes...Do you usually dress like this?" He inquired in a cold tone. He was looking at her eagerly waiting for a negative reaction. From the first impression given to him yesterday of her, he knew she wasn't that kind of girl.

[Rukaji]

Instantly the girl snapped her head around to face Sazu with a cold glare, the bells dangling from the clip in her hair jingling in a gentle tune, though her amber eyes narrowed and almost glowed with dangerous intent. The question, the smirk, the tone of voice; it was obvious Sazu was trying to get under her skin... or he was just stupid. Willing to bet it was the first assumption she made, she coldly smirked back; though her gaze did not change in the least.

"No, I don't, so enjoy it while you can." Her voice was cold, daring. Her first instinct was to attack her teammate... but this was supposed to be a happy event, free of violence. Plus, well... she wasn't exactly dressed for combat. So for now, Rukaji resorted on words to do her damage... though she might be inclined to ask to borrow Keisuke's pouch and kunai holster should Sazu harass her more. Her cold glare remained on Sazu for several more moments, before she turned back to Keisuke.

Again, she smiled, this time more enthusiastic than before, but obviously fake; a cover-up for her irritation. "So what're you gonna treat me to, hm?" She asked, sounding cheerful as she attempted to calm down.

Wasn't working very well.

[Kei]

Kei sighs, hanging his head a moment as he listens to the two bicker. This wasn't good, she looked like she was going to flip out, and he just didn't feel like dealing with that. Why did things always have to turn out this way? No matter, he'd just have to eat sooner than planned. A shame, he had hoped for a few minutes to enjoy the cherry blossoms.

Stepping forward quickly toward Rukaji he grabbed her about her waist and picked her up, resting her over his shoulder, his back to Sazu. He didn't turn around, somewhat conscious of how short Rukaji's kimono was. Instead, he merely offered Sazu a quick wave of his left hand.

"We'll be going now. Seems Rukaji just can't wait to eat, huh?"

He took a few steps forward, ready to vanish with the body flicker technique.

[sazu]

Sazu eyed Rukaji down slightly smirking as he did. She seemed infuriated by what he said. He cared not, it was fun to see her expression change so suddenly he thought. Sazu could see the fire in her eyes while she glared at him. It was obvious that she had disliked him after commenting on her dress. "Oh well." As his eyes shifted to Keisuke, she spoke.

"No, I don't, so enjoy it while you can."

He could feel her attitude and murderous intent in her voice. This excited Sazu as he let a sly grin cross his face. Sazu had no respect for his teammates...yet. Most they could do is get him killed. His mind would change on them if he saw them in combat. Very unlikely though.

"So what're you gonna treat me to, hm?"

Rukaji spoke as her expression completely changed in the presence of Keisuke. This slightly enraged him knowing that his first impressions of the group had already been a bad one. His expression slowly changed into anger.

"We'll be going now. Seems Rukaji just can't wait to eat, huh?"

This boiled him inside. As they walked away, leaving him behind, to himself. At first he tried to nod it off, they had things to do sure. But their teammate was kept out of it? His right fist began to clench, the black leather gloves being stretched as he clenched it harder. "Tch, useless fools." He muttered to himself while Keisuke had his back turned to him. Eyes glowing with envy and hatred. He wanted to hurt someone.

[Rukaji]

Rukaji was completely and utterly caught off-guard as she was hoisted over Keisuke's shoulder. She yelped as she was lifted, hanging over his shoulder with wide eyes, completely dumbfounded. She stayed there quietly a moment, completely stunned. However, his voice seemed to snap her out of her shock; causing her to look immediately infuriated.

Gritting her teeth, she began to throw a fit, swinging angrily at Kei's back and kicking her legs around. "Put me down, I know how to walk!" She made sure to squirm heavily, purposely trying to make it as difficult as possible to carry her. Finally, though, Rukaji gave in. She sighed, propping her arm against the boy's back and resting her cheek in her hand.

It was then that she noticed how angry Sazu looked. Her eyes narrowed and a sadistic smirk spread across her face. She brought up her other hand to wave casually before speaking, her voice sounding... provokingly pleasant, aiming to rub it in his face.

"Byyyyyye~! Have fun with your trees!"

[Exit w/Kei]

[Kei]

Kei let out one final sigh at Rukaji's comment. He had almost forgotten how she was around others. After all, it had been a while since they even spoke to someone besides each other and her aunt and uncle on occasion.

However, there was just no helping it at this point, and Sazu certainly had done his part in instigating the bickering to begin with.

Ugh...and I was in a good mood, too...

"Tch..."

How bothersome...

With that, Kei disappeared, taking Rukaji with him.

[sazu]

Sazu watched as Rukaji was being hoisted on Keisuke's shoulder. His eyes remained full of rage, any slight threat would tip him over the edge at this point. Sazu was the kind of guy who became annoyed very easily. With every yelp Rukaji threw, he pictured himself stabbing her several times with his wakizashi. "Hah, blood everywhere..." Yea, this is how he looked at people who annoyed him. Is this what he was going to have to deal everyday? Someone will surely die if was.

In an effort to control his emotions, he closed his eyes. Trying to block out the extremely annoying yelps of Rukaji. The ones that made him wince every time she yelped. After taking several breaths, he opened his eyes. Only to see a smirking Rukaji. "Hm? What are you looking at?"

"Byyyyyye~! Have fun with your trees!"

Hah, she mocked him... the wrong thing to do when Sazu is pissed. He knew that she was aware of his anger, and she exploited it. Several images of murder ran through his mind as he began to clench his fist. He darted his eyes full of hate at Rukaji. His first instinct was to kill her on the spot. "GAh! Just take out my blade, run up behind you, and chop your pretty little neck off." He carefully thought his choice of words when suddenly he remembered something. Rukaji is not that much different from Sazu. Things piss her off too. A grin overcame his face as he slyly spoke to provoke Rukaji.

"You sure talk alot for a princess wanna-be in that kimono. Aww and look at your hair. Hah, like a doll. How unlike yourself."

Sazu knew that Rukaji didn't normally dress that way. Since she told him that herself and from the first day they met. He smiled knowing that he had done some damage. "Who knows, maybe i'll get into a fight if i'm lucky."

[sazu]

[[ Bah... I was posting when you posted that >.> Does it still stand? ]]