Starring:
Mizuru, Yabun
Date: January 7, 2012
Summary:
No summary given.
"Nature of Fire"
Bamboo Way, Konoha
On his way back from the fishing pond with a sullen look in his eyes Mizuru trots the lonely path line with bamboo. Everyone seems to be either inside or out on some personal business in the village. It was fortunate for Mizuru though. The young medic was on his way to the training ground and had a lot to think about. His talk with Ryoji had confounded and conflicted. There was a melancholy look on his face as well.
His movement reflected his attitude. His feet almost dragged and his head was aimed down along with his eyes. Vision was restricted and inhibited by his thoughts. -Will of Fire? What exactly is it? How are we all born with it? - He wonders in his head. Mizuru sighs in frustration. -Maybe I don't have what it takes. Too late to pull out of the chuunin exams now though. Naoki and the others will be disappointed. - Mizuru's hands are tucked away in his pockets yet his fingers ball up into fists. He stops momentarily for some reason. A heavy sigh escapes him "Then what's the point of heading to the training area then?"
He was new here, to the Land of Fire, but he was glad to find himself someplace new. Far away from memories and the bones of past mistakes. Bones he'd picked clean, in devouring the corpses of failures until his stomach felt like bursting and his subconscious threatened to regurgitate everything he'd learned into a taunting puddle at his feet.
He managed to keep it down, and digest the information to use as something useful…but he was reminiscing again, wasn't he? He leaned comfortably against an organic wall as someone passed, with black hair and young eyes in thought, he was interesting to study, for the white-eyed, black clad 'youth', but as some grew wiser, Yabun merely grew older, and his mind twisted a little more, locked away in that black head of his. He decided to…make small talk, for he was still human, and humans attempted to reach another…but sometimes, that attempt was questionable, by sane standards.
"A rather stupid idea, is it not?"
As if Mizuru would instantly know what he was talking about, the Ninja moved his hand out across the village, gesturing toward it. Though his eyes had no irises or even pupils, they were not emotionless…it's just, it was almost impossible to figure out what emotion it was.
Mizuru's head snaps in surprise. He wasn't aware of another. His eyes set upon the darkly cloaked individual. His presence stood out like a grotesque scar and lingered like a bad memory. The genin feels a sweatdrop run down the side of his face and swallows once. "Uh excuse me?" he says. He didn't catch completely what the person had said but he knew that he said something. All previous thoughts seem to have left him at the moment. All that remained was a somewhat foreboding curiosity as to the identity and perhaps nature of whomever he was speaking to now.
Without even realizing it Mizuru's guard is up. Subconsciously his body was prepared for attack. He wasn't one to always expect the worse in people though. He extended this stranger the benefit of the doubt and tried his best not to become anymore unnerved about their sudden appearance. "You must be new…I haven't seen you around the village recently."
The man casually walked away from the wall, walking toward the boy…and then past him, blurring the line between intentional disrespect, and harmless disinterest. He waved his hand idly, as if giving his name as an after-thought. His focus seemed to be on the village itself.
"Nasshingu Yabun…it's remarkable, how much faith people put in these constructs. Living their whole lives hidden away beneath bamboo huts, praying to the 'gods' up above that a stray ember or spark doesn't come along, undoing everything they'd made for themselves."
He finally brought his attention over to the lad, regarding him specifically for the first time.
"It's been said that fire destroys. It's also been said that fire cleanses. Which do you believe, boy?"
His voice was raspy, dry, and tinged with…something hard to define. But, it was unpleasant.
Mizuru watches the man now only becoming more baffled with each passing moment. He quirks an eyebrow and tries to keep from voicing his current discontent. He turns around watching the man taking a deep breath. He groans trying to keep it together. Miraculously he'd been low on patience but still he strained to keep his manners about him. "Yabun?" he says guessing that is the man's name.
Mizuru is taken aback by Yabun's words and is left speechless by his question. "Uh….I…." he blinks and tries to dig up an answer. -What kind of question is that? - Mizuru clears his throat and tires to start from square one. "Um…I'm Nagi Mizuru nice to….meet you." he says shifting his eyes. "Um I never really gave fire that much thought. If I had to say though I be leaning towards the 'Fire purifies' idea. It is a force of nature after all."
The man clad in black stalked around the youth, walking back and forth past him in a mad pattern, seemingly random, but if seen from a bird's eye, they might see the beginnings of a five point star, with Mizuru in the middle-if he stayed there, that is. Yabun spoke as he paced, casually adjusting his gloves, and tightening his robes, as if he had zero interest in the boy he was speaking to.
"It is a force of…nature, after all. You are quite the scholar, are you not, boy?"
Suddenly, Yabun standing with his side facing Mizuru, the black-clad ninja spun his upper torso immediately toward the lad, those purely white eyes could have been glaring at him, right in the face. They could have been staring past him, looking at his hands or feet…it was unknown, really. His right arm swung out, two wild swings that made an 'X' in the air, and they were such fast chopping motions, with his arm, hand and fingers perfectly rigid, that the whooshing of said air was quite audible. However, if the lad was scared of an attack, those swipes were too far by about twelve inches. Was it an attack, or simply a movement? In any case, he held out his hand, palm outstretched, fingers still rigid. What did it mean?
"Nagi-san, do you believe nature judges? Were a fire to rage through this very village, which of us would perish? Which would it choose? You are ever the scholar, I trust you have an answer at the ready."
With that…he waited, patiently, not moving from that strange stance.
Mizuru remains still as the strange man circles him. He felt like he was being scouted by a buzzard or some other scavenger bird of prey. The young medic blinks trying to make sense of this seemingly senseless person. When he's called a scholar by the man he dons a confused look. "Ah….uh…I….*sigh* thank you." is all he can say. He doesn't really have ability to contest that at the moment. He folds his arms and waits for the odd man to speak again.
"Nature judges? What's that suppose to mean. Nature is nature. It doesn't do such a thing." he claims. Mizuru didn't understand the purpose of these questions and as a result didn't give them too much thought, at first. The thought did cross his mind though. - How is something like who dies and who lives decided? - He shakes his head though denying such thought to take root within his head. - It doesn't matter. I know no human has the right to decide something like that - he confirms. He looks back to Yabun "You say some….different…things."
Continued pacing, as Nagi spoke. Back and forth, in front and behind, until finally, Yabun would be gone, if Mizuru bothered to look behind him after the black-clad terror didn't pop up immediately.
He had walked quietly away, hiding behind a hut before slipping away quietly. He'd gleamed all he wanted from little Nagi-san, and that distraction done with, Yabun wandered once again. His own will was a fire, that hadn't burned out yet.
But it did nothing to purify him.
