Stone hard Dango (Private)

[Ranzu]

(Enter)

It was a warm and sunny day in the hidden village of stone, which was one of the few things that Zeki enjoyed. He was at one of his usual sunning spots: a dango shop on the outskirts of town. It was one of the only two story buildings around and was fairly uncrowded except in the evening so the Sadojin would usually hang out on the roof on sunny days, like today was.

Zeki was dressed in his usual attire which was a tan colored hoodie and slacks, a pair of boots, and his headband on his forehead. Of course most of his clothing was simply a henge that he held over his body with the headband being the only thing actually real. Alongside his attire he carried on his side a small gourd filled with sand, though it too was actually just part of his body under a henge to look like a gourd. He was told to keep appearances up or else he might freak out the local populace which he was told was a bad thing.

And so there Zeki was, on top of a dango shop sunning himself in the harsh rays that beat down on the village today. Hopefully nothing too bothersome would show up and disturb his sunning time...

solbadguy99

[solbadguy99]

Takeshi stood in front of the dango shop window. 

He had one hand on his hip, and the other outstretched, with his fingers in the shape of a "V" for victory. His face was dead serious.

"Gimme free Dango, old man."

"Get out you little squirt!! Who the hell do you think you are!?

The Genin clenched at the air, a vein popping on his forehead. Come on!! I just got done running, and I left my wallet at home! You're gonna make me walk all the way back there for some freakin' Dango!? I shop here all the time!"

The shop owner was swiping at him with a cane from the window, and Takeshi slipped and ducked under it repeatedly. "You only come here to ask my daughter to marry you, you little hoodlum!! She already has a husband, and even if she didn't, it wouldn't be you!"

Takeshi popped his head up between swings. "Come on!! I'm gonna be famous one day, don'tcha know?! You're making a big mist-"

He'd been caught across the temple by a cane swing, and spun backwards before falling onto the dirt. He pushed himself up and groaned. The old man laughed heartily. From in the back of the shop, a female voice called out. "Dad!! He's harmless, just let him have one. If he doesn't pay you can just tell his grandpa anyways."

The old man wipes a tear from his eye, still chuckling. "I know, I know. It's just fun to mess with him."

Takeshi holds out his hand, a comical bump forming on the top of his head. He tried to look as serious as ever, which only made it funnier. "Dango. Also, could I have some ice please."

The owner handed him a skewer with three doughy balls on it, and then a washcloth full of ice cubes.

The Stone Genin took a few steps away, and sighed. Usually he only came here to get something on the way home, but he wanted to put some ice on his head before it got too swollen.

He looked up at the two story building. With a bit of a running start, he launched himself up to the roof, washcloth of ice and dango in hand. He stuck the landing on the edge of the building, and was surprised to see another Stone shinobi up here.

Takeshi blinked at him, taking a bite of his dango and pressing the ice against the bump on his head.

"Oh, hey. Don't think I've seen you around before. My name's Takeshi."

[Ranzu]

Zeki heard the noise below him grow louder all of a sudden which caused the Sadojin to grumble a bit and sit up from his sunning position. He was a bit sluggish thanks to just getting up so all he really did was sit there for a bit, rotating his sand around his body to readjust the heated sand closer to his core. It was in this little fugue that the noise suddenly reached a heated pitch below him which caused Zeki to fully awaken, so he slowly stood up and examined the surroundings of the dango shop.

However by the time he managed to stand up and start looking around at the source of the commotion, the source had seemingly found him. A young boy jumped onto the roof of the dango shop and started to question him, which usually wouldn't have bothered Zeki too much except that he had been sunning himself on top of the shop.

"Oh, another one? More fodder for our glorious leader's cause? Fine, I'll humor you. I am called Zeki. If you haven't saw me around before then that means you are newly trained. Which means you are young, yet as tall as you are is it doesn't seem possible. Did you get held back a grade or did the growth hormones put into the academy's food start working?" Zeki replies to the new kid with a straight face, shuffling a bit to get his back turned to the sun.

[solbadguy99]

Takeshi took small bites of his snack while he watched the older man speak. Apparently he was pretty well known around here, judging by his response. This made Takeshi pretty curious, he'd never met anyone that was stronger than a Chunin at the Academy.

Droplets of water ran down the side of his face as the heat of the sun, and his swelling, began to melt the ice in the washcloth.

The shinobi commented on Takeshi's height, and asked if they were putting growth hormones in the Academy's food. Takeshi grinned, biting the wooden skewer of the dango to give himself a free hand.

He slapped the bicep of the arm that was holding the ice pack to his head. "I eat a LOT!! It's the best way to get better once you're really sore. I spend pretty much all of my allowance on food. Except for the time I saved up for my Gauntlets and Greaves."

Takeshi took the Dango skewer out of his mouth, and quickly devoured the rest of the treat.

He looked over Zeki. As far as he could looked, he seemed fairly normal. He noticed the small gourd that he was carrying, and wondered if it was full of water. It was pretty hot out today, after all.

Truthfully, he hadn't even considered that he might be impeding on the man's sunbathing time. This is why Takeshi's grandpa was usually around to reign him in.

Takeshi didn't feela powerful aura coming from this man, nor should he have any reason to expect such a thing. It was more that his inability to gauge his strength was bothering him. He was an adult shinobi though, so he must have been competent enough to survive.

"So are you a Chunin? Or maybe a Jounin??"

He smiled, his curious eyes sparkling.

[Ranzu]

Zeki paused a bit at the last question, a frown coming on his face. "Sadly I was denied my last chunin's promotion because of disagreements with the kage of the time. He is no longer here so I am attempting another exam to become chunins, with a kage who is at least not so obviously hostile toward me. So to answer your question I am merely another genin like yourself. I have just been around for a very, very long time." He answered the question with a bit more information than the young one in front of him was probably expecting.

Walking forward a bit to examine the genin in a closer position caused Zeki to just give a sigh of disappointment at him, mostly from the information about saving up for his weapons of choice. "I take it that you are another meathead too? Useful in fights I guess..." He would mutter to himself before moving toward the edge of the roof to look over the roof of the village before him.

"Tell me, young one, what would happen if the neighbor that you grew up with suddenly turned on the village? Rose up against it with weapons in hand? What would you do then?" Zeki suddenly asks the young boy that would be beside him now if he hadn't moved.

[solbadguy99]

Takeshi nodded rapidly, indicating he understood. He might not have known what the word nepotism meant specifically, but he was aware that the concept of it was a powerful force in life.

When Zeki came closer to examine Takeshi, the younger Genin was in turn doing the same to him. He hadn't done anything particularly out of the ordinary, but there was still this sensation that he wasn't quite like anyone Takeshi had met before. He pushed the feeling aside, instead focusing on the conversation.

He scratched his cheek, chuckling slightly at being called a meathead. It was something that had been said to him before, and not something he could particularly deny.

The other Genin asked Takeshi what he might do if it came down to fighting a previous ally. More than that, a neighbor that he grew up with.

Takeshi inhaled deeply, and sighed. He guessed that it was his own apparent inexperience that caused the older shinobi to ask him this question, so he figured he should give his best answer. "That's a tough one. A lot of the people I grew up with around here were people that I went to the Academy with. We used to fight, but usually we could always work out some kinda compromise or figure out what's going on."

He looked up at the blue sky. "I guess if someone was ready to forsake all of that for somethin' that they believed in, I'd hafta do worse than just knock 'em silly."

Part of himself wanted to say that they should just imprison them if they hadn't actually hurt anyone yet.

But Takeshi gulped, remembering the feelings of dissatisfaction he still had in himself when they sent his father to prison for the abuse he faced. The truth was, those feelings were still burning inside of him. It wasn't enough to know that he was just sitting quietly in a room somewhere. He set the washcloth down, and rubbed the metal studs on his Caestus. It was designed to cave someone's skull in, if need be. It was a distasteful thought, but he had to confront the reality of it.

"The only thing I would hate more than killing a former ally, is having to live knowing that they got off easy."

He took a deep breath, and smiled. "I sure hope that doesn't happen! I know rebels are kind of a problem, but I like to think my friends wouldn't do that."