Kakesu gave her a thumbs up, mustering just enough energy to walk onto the surface of the pool in a wobbled stance for a few seconds before he too started to sink.
“It really is pretty hard!” Kakesu said. “It took me a good number of days to get it to where it is now, more’n I could keep count of really. Just have to keep practicing.”
He leaned down into a crouch looking at their reflections in the water and stirred it with his hands. Letting the ripples ruin the mirror as he let the cool liquid flow between his fingertips as he churned it counter-clockwise.
“Sometimes I think it is kind of silly to mess around with it, using it too much makes my head hurt and I can just splash it. My grandpa told me there is a secret kinda magic I could learn if I understood the earth and water better.”
He let the water settle again and then quietly splashed the surface. He kept checking over his shoulder for the dogs, or worse a lady looking for her purse. He’d pocketed enough money from it that he might be able to finally visit the big city in the west.
Last Edit: Oct 7, 2021 22:59:05 GMT by Kakesu Aoki
Kakesu is a little bit older and an outsider. He isn't neccisarily more experienced in shinobi related things, but he is someone who has experienced a lot of the world roaming around. In my mind he hasn't visited the big city yet, he is a traveling merchant and its on his to do list.
Maybe Tooru could show him around to hit the wicket on exploring the culture of the city, and Kakesu could tell him a little bit about the outside world and his travels to help plant the seeds on what life is like when you are free to do as you please-
Last Edit: Oct 7, 2021 22:32:35 GMT by Kakesu Aoki
“Oh, it’s… sad?” Kakesu asked as he let his grip on his makeshift stone weapon loosen a degree. A frown crossed his face as he watched the tears, trying to hold back and failing not to silently wretch. He gasped to keep down the warmth that was rising and burning his throat. He got himself together and was quiet for several more moments, drawing out the stillness that sat in the air once again.
“Or… in pain?”
Unable to understand the response if there was one, the boy shuttered and looked and found the staircase, unlit and with several broken steps as splintered as the ceiling the abomination was wedged into? Still even the unknown of the shadowed stairs seemed more comfortable than continuing to gaze into the horror and the smell of rot that it offended his nostrils.
He started slowly moving towards the staircase, looking back over his shoulder one more time at Benkei. He put his hand against the wall as he put his foot on the first step, feeling the wood bend downwards to his weight. He clenched his jaw and stepped to the side, finding better footing.
“Inya Zuwha?” Kakesu muttered as he looked down at the purse that had been left at his feet by the dogs. He glanced over, noticing that Makoto was preoccupied with the pool of water, he bent down and reached into the purse. He fished around in the contents until he felt the familiar clink of coin against his palm, clutched it quickly and stuffed what he had retrieved into his pocket.
He stook a step back, looked up into the canopy above them and whistled a bit. He then glanced back towards the woman.
“Wow! You’re doing so good Makoto!” he said, giving her a thumbs up. He bent down and picked up the stick again. With a cartoonish windup he tossed the stick as hard as he could, watching with anticipated delight of seeing them dart away again… perhaps hoping for more treasures to be returned.
He forgot what he had asked that went unanswered. He trotted towards her, he probably had one more demonstration left in him for the day. He stood next to her and performed sloppy hand seals one more time. The water began to dance upwards in a little spout that curved around.
“This one is like a noodle!” he said.
Last Edit: Oct 1, 2021 21:12:45 GMT by Kakesu Aoki
Kakesu’s heart was beating fast, slinking back as Benkei’s hand pressed back against his shoulder to stop his clinging. His eyes came to the ceiling just as the mist shinobi’s did, and he shuttered helplessly without being able to muster even a whimper. His first instinct was to do what he had always done: run away. The only thing that was stopping him was that the door that he knew would put him running past the creepy mass.
He looked down at a place where the floorboards were broken in the corner. He shuffled over and looked down a few times, only briefly as he looked back up to make sure that the being hadn’t moved.
Forming a string of pseudo hand seals, close enough imitations but not quite what shinobi knew to be the most efficient, the wanderer then reached down into the dirt. He pulled from it a hardened spike of earth and held it up in front of him with both hands, though in a way that spoke of his complete inexperience in handling weapons. It was about the size of a ruler, and pointed at the tip.
“Hmmmmmm, I never named nothing before,” Kakesu said rubbing a finger under his chin in thought. He had pulled the water from his clothing, which was something that happened when he hung his clothes up to dry usually. His train of thought led him to kyoho, a sort of grape, that he let dry out to preserve them longer on the road.
“Water Style: Instant Raisen,” Kakesu said with a smile, seemingly thinking that the name was clever enough- for him anyways. He giggled after a moment. “I should name some of my earth magic some time.”
“You said you are used to the sea?” he asked. “I met a feller from the sea not too long ago. I don’t know why so many folks are travelin’ around these parts but it’s been pretty good for buis- busidn- for work.”
While he spoke he picked up a stick shaped like a ‘t” from off the ground and tossed it towards the road, watching in anticipation of the dogs going after it. He had seen some boy in a town do it with a dog once, so he wondered if these dogs also liked fetching sticks.
Kakesu trailed close behind the shinobi, pulling his dull green cloak up over his head to protect him from any cobwebs.
Among the moss and bones, nature had taken much of the room. Kakesu recognized several species of mushroom growing in the dank mildew. The small movements of occasional mites and other pests caught his eyes. He pushed his vision forward, focusing on a partially ajar shogi door on the opposite side of the room across from the remnants of the rug.
He further pulled his collar up over his nose and with his other hand he held it in front of himself to create space between himself and the environment. His teeth were shivering, and goosebumps were crawling up the back of his neck. He was hyper aware of his senses, making the slightest itch make him imagine that insects were crawling on his body.
“I-I don’t know, maybe this isn- AH!“
When the floorboard creaked, Kakesu jumped forward and tried to cling to the back of Benkei’s clothing with each hand in fear and desperation.
Last Edit: Sept 25, 2021 20:54:01 GMT by Kakesu Aoki
Kakesu closed his eyes and smiled when Makoto gave him both praise and her name. He watched as she began making the secret gestures needed for the spell, but alas she wasn’t successful. There was never a look of doubt or worry on his face for her, it wasn’t something that he thought she’d be able to learn on the first try.
He brought his hands up and tried to show her how he was doing it again. The shapes he made with his hands were often a little bit off. He didn’t actually manipulate the water again; he knew overdoing it was something that was forbidden.
“It might take a while yet, Makoto, but you can do it!” he assured. “I had esperience with working with dirt before I did water, but it was a challenge for me even.”
He paused for a moment and scratched the back of his head, watching the woman idly while he tried to remember something he might have forgotten.
“Oh, my name is Kakesu,” he said. He tilted his head back over to the animals still enjoying the little break by the pond. “How’d you get your family to let you have so many dogs? My ma would never allow it.”
“I was jus’ practicing some new magic thing I learned,” Kakesu said, grinning ear to ear at the compliment. “Don’t worry, I ain’t up to any nonsense.”
He breathed a sigh of relief that she didn’t seem to be some sort of authority. People always seemed to have their own ideas about travelers like himself and what they could and couldn’t get up to. A seagull landed not far from where they were standing, looking at them awkwardly in hopes that they were the type of people that might feed it a little snack.
“I like your hair!” he commented, grabbing his own hair and scrunching at it the way he wasn’t brave enough to try to do to the strangers. “You wanna see more water spells- uhh what was your name?” he asked. “I’m Kakesu the lesser.”
“Yea well follow me then,” he said waving his hand up as he began trekking to the northwest. He didn’t really remember exactly where it was, so the journey took a bit longer than it would have if he was a better navigator.
The only thing of interest during the short trip was that he began walking up the surface of a tree rather than climbing it to get a good vantage of the land.
He saw it. An old cottage with a thatch rooftop that had become a habitat of Erynnis butterfly. The shadow of the building was elongated by the afternoon sun cast over it. He pointed at it from his position up in the tree.
“It’s that way,” he said. He pulled his arm back and allowed himself to slide down the trunk back to the ground. His landing wasn’t graceful, there was a thud as his ass hit the bottom, but he didn’t seem to be hurt by it as he stumbled back onto his feet. “That way,” he repeated now that he was on the ground again, pointing forward.
His pace had slowed a bit. He was a little nervous about approaching the house, even with a shinobi to back him up. There was no telling what could lurk within.
Last Edit: Sept 21, 2021 4:13:13 GMT by Kakesu Aoki
The scrawny boy was quick to stumble forward when one of the ninken pulled his sleeve. His knees lowered into the water as he was nudged and he fought with the dogs for his sleeve back, but he let out a hearty bit of laughter. He kind of forgot what he was doing, more enthralled with playing with the dogs than his economic goals. “Ahwh he licked me,” he said after getting a large slurp in the face and pulling himself free. He got up out of the water, dripping now and a bit exasperated from the excitement. A toothy grin on his face as he took a few deep breaths.
Finally, he would address her question.
“You just have to do a few fings with your hands,” he explained. “Like this!” He started making more hand seals that weren’t proper form. He grit his teeth as he tried to pull the water from his clothes, but this time he didn’t get a response.
“Err wait, no it went like…”
A few more botched attempts, and he finally managed to mould his chakra haphazardly enough to get the water to start moving off his clothes.
“There we go! Pretty cool, huh lady?”
Last Edit: Sept 21, 2021 3:39:17 GMT by Kakesu Aoki
“Ah is that what that says?” Kakesu said scratching his head looking at the sign. He decided to go ahead and take advantage of the free water and started sipping it down, then wiped his lips with his sleeve before capping it back off. “Lady, my parents are a country away from here. I’m grown enough to take care of myself you know.”
He took more time to clean himself off from the mess, then looked back at the Inuzuka and then at her hounds. Other passerby ninja started to keep their distance away from the scene, undoubtably trying to avoid the messy dogs themselves.
“The sign was supposed to say that I’m teachin’ how to do that water magic stuff,” Kakesu said making a few more clumsy seals and getting a little tendril of water to raise up out of the lake and wobble around for a moment. “But thank you for being nice enough to help someone you thought was in need. I’ll tell you what, I’ll give you a discount on yer first lesson.”
He started walking towards the ninken near the water. Even though he was a bit grumpy at first that they got him messy, they were adorable, and he decided to get brave and reach out to try to pat one on the head.
“True, but I always heard shinobi don’t like each other pokin’ ‘round in each other’s land too much,” he said candidly. “I’m jus’ being nosey though, sorry about it.”
He thought for a moment about the forest and what might be something fun to do. Part of him wanted to beg to see some ninja tricks, or to see what he could do with that sword, but that didn’t seem like it would be very fun for Benkei.
He thought back to what he was doing in the past few hours, the thing he’d seen and imagined. It finally came to him. A house overgrown with moss and vine, two stories high with a broken roof and unsettling creaking sounds around it. A terrible thought crossed his mind.
“There’s a creepy old house in the middle of the woods a ways away, I was thinkin’ about taking a look since it looked abandoned,” he replied.
“I could show you the way to it, there might be something neat left behind in there. I was too chicken to go in by myself, not gonna lie.”
Last Edit: Sept 18, 2021 17:35:30 GMT by Kakesu Aoki
Kakesu was taken in bit by bit, leaning forward slightly with the hook, line, and sinker. His face was indeed stupid and gullible, in a way that was quite genuine with his mouth slightly ajar. When Benkei revealed he was being impish, his mouth snapped shut for a moment, but then a grin formed on his lips.
“Ah yea, I get it,” he said looking down and letting the foot that was on the back of the tree slide down to scuff against the grass. “I was jus' pretending too, you know.”
That was an absolute lie, and he was a terrible liar. Couldn’t keep eye contact when he said it.
“I’m from the woods pretty far towards the setting sun, where the hills start rollin'," he explained. "Hard to say if it is Land a Earth or Fire, we don't pay that much mind."
"What are you doing this far from home? Did you get lost, Benkei?"
Last Edit: Sept 13, 2021 5:35:43 GMT by Kakesu Aoki
“Wha-ffff!” Kakesu yelped as unexpected muddy water touched his face, interrupting him from a pleasant daydream. He looked over at the pack of dogs and then back to the stranger, reaching up to catch the object she threw at him with confusion. He clasped his hands together too slow, and the canteen pressed into his chest with a light sting.
The boy stood up and began forming a few hand seals, in what was probably the sloppiest looking form the jounin would have ever seen. Somehow though, he managed to pull the water from his face and clothes to dry himself.
“Ahhh!” he yelped again as the dogs did a second round of shaking, undoing something he had used his precious chakra on. He gave up and rubbed the spot on his chest that had been hit with the canteen, and then his eyes met with the dark-haired woman who had thrown it. His eyes bugged out a bit for a moment before he averted his gaze and stumbled back a few steps.
“W-What’ddya do that faer!?” he whined, still clutching his chest. His usual attempts at hiding his rustic accent falling flat. He picked the canteen up off the ground and stared at it for a good long moment.
What did it mean?
Last Edit: Sept 13, 2021 5:10:59 GMT by Kakesu Aoki
