Starring:
Date: October 27, 2016
Summary:
Rise tries to take advantage of the bathhouse being empty at her favorite hour, but finds herself having to teach one of Konoha's youth a lesson in privacy.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Alt Meeting – The Berserker and The Clown"
Konohagakure Bathhouse Area
From the moment her naked skin met the onslaught of heat wafting from screen door she just open, Rise knew all would be well. Call it a gut feeling, or simply her growing affection for all things bathhouse thanks to her friend Miyo. Regardless of which, nothing stood in her way of a nice relaxing afternoon bath. She took one last deep inhale of the steam enshrouded heaven, then readjusted the towel wrapped around her before moving on in. Something kept bugging her with every step towards the pool.
She couldn't say for certain but… the attendant on duty seemed to have been trying to warn her of something…
“Don't go down that route Rise, Your just being paranoid… again.” Rise said aloud. A few more steps carries her right to the water's edge. She pays one last mind to her surroundings /just/ to make sure she was alone before letting the towel fall to the wayside behind her. Her skin would be flawless, unending shade of fairness if not for the spattering of scars crisscrossing her form. The worst of which she bore on her back as turned up flesh from a whip, and that of those she bore along the majority of her right arm, torso, face, and leg. She has been burned to the point her skin was warped and waxy by appearances. So too was what looked like a branding along her back exposed to the heated air. Yet, she moved with the alacrity of one unhindered by such as she stepped into the pool.
A shiver passes up her spine; familiar, yet detached from her current activities somehow. With greater haste than what perhaps might be best for someone normally entering a hot springs, Rise slipped into the pool of water up to her nose and immediately began to search the area with her eyes for any signs of a people again. She would have had more luck looking for a needle in a haystack. The rising steam obscured her vision and the stinging sensation of the scalding water left her distracted. Still, she persevered like any good shinobi until she felt secure again.
Or in this case, until the heat and lack of oxygen got to the point that the raven-haired girl is forced to stand-up in the pool, gasping for air.
“Honkit!!”
In an ill-thought out attempt at taking her frustrations out on the water, the splash sprays even more water at her face. Luckily, none of it gets in her eye, but she still frustrated for a good five minutes before finally calming down enough to notice someone or some/thing/ laughing nearby. Faster than lightning, her hand moves and a blade seems materializes from out of nowhere. Seconds later, it is embedded to hilt within the bamboo fence, edge bloodied.
“Heh… Heheh… You ha-have qu-qui-quite the edge on m-m-me, huh?” Zankuro jokes nervously with his hands held high, dropping the bamboo patterned sheet while his whole body trembles, and a small trickle of blood leaking from a wound to his cheek.
She knew not how a boy as rotund managed to get the 'jump' on her, especially with an button-up shirt as loud as his, but Rise /did/ know exactly what she wanted to do with him. Her advance towards Zankuro is slow and methodical through the water, every step bringing her that much closer to teaching the peeping tom a lesson. Despite her tiny little battle scarred frame radiating the utmost anger, and the death glared leveled solely upon him, the teen doesn't flee. Which is just as well. Between the freight paralyzing his legs and Rise's potential speed, the boy stood no chance of escaping alive at present.
“WHY DID THE FOX CROSS THE ROAD!?!” Zankuro cries out, and then tensed up as if still expecting another blade or some other form of physical abuse. When a few moments pass without anything happening, the boy cracks open an eye to see if he would go unharmed this evening. Then, the other soon joins it once it becomes clear that he had her truly stupefied by the question.
The question should not have affected her nearly as much as it did. She knew it on some level. HE knew it on some level. And yet, there Rise stood, dead in the water, eyes closed, and brows furrowed in consternation, and tapping her chin. She becomes so focused, and frustrated with herself over the question that she doesn't even notice Zankuro taking that as his cue to slowly creep towards one of his emergency exits.
“Wh-why did the fox cross the road?”
Zankuro instantly freezes up at those words. But after a brief moment or two of silence on his part, the Sarutobi dares to crane his neck back in Rise's direction. “Uhm… heheh… You really wa-wanna know?” He asks barely above a whisper. When after a few moments the girl didn’t respond - still stunned no doubt by the question - Zankuro took that as his cue to continue. That is after taking a moment more to clear his throat, and cobble together his tattered spine!
“Because-…” He glances past her shoulder, then with eyes wide as saucers, jabs a finger behind the girl. “Oh look, there it is.” He added in a tone so surprisingly calm, Rise glanced back without thinking. To her genuine surprise, there was a creature there… just not a fox. The monkey takes one accidental look in Rise’s direction, and falls off its precarious purchase, fainting from share freight of the killing intent growing and radiating from the woman’s eyes. She whips back around for the true target of her ire, only to briefly lose the fire upon seeing a wooden dummy of the young man seated in his place. Just as her body began to tremble from rekindling rage, the squeak of creaking wood attracts her gaze to the source.
With one leg already thrown over a jury-rigged platform atop the bamboo fence, Zankuro had been glaring down at the contraption when a deep, unsettling chill crept up his spine. He doesn’t dare look back at Rise fully at first for fear of being paralyzed again. Instead, he chuckles nervously and says, “Okay, so maybe I was wrong about it being a fox crossing the roa- - what are you doing with dummy-sannn-Oh pie!”
Seconds after Zankuro manages to scramble over the rest of the way, the top portion of the bamboo fence the Sarutobi was sitting on is sheared by a great impact. Bits of the remaining bamboo and dummy parts rain from overhead, but the few knicks he gets from there are far from mind as he runs. While not the fastest shinobi in konohagakure, Zankuro certainly would’ve given said person a run for their money after one last shout from past the fence spurs him on.
“GET BACK HERE YOU SPRITZER!!”
