Keeping eyes peeled [Open]

He returned from the latest mission. The shinobi at the mission board saw him come back, as he usually did, letting them know it was another job well done. More ryo to line the pockets, and another chance to use his skills he'd developed on several arrogant hard heads.

There were a bunch of new face around the village of his former residence as of late, but Kuro thought of moving on. Possibly to explore a village he'd never been to before. Kuro didn't go to his parent's house, for he knew they'd start bugging him with their dreams of him settling down with some blushing female. Kuro couldn't even remember the last time he'd been back home since officially becoming a wanderer.

He decided he worked the best alone. But for now he was undecided on what exactly to do next, so for the moment he sat perched upon a rooftop edge that gave him a perfect view of the marketplace, where he'd foiled robberies, extortion, and even a bandit attack. He didn't think anything like that would happen today, but one couldn't be too sure. For now, he and several large black crows just watched. The birds occasionally made Caw sounds and fluttered large wings to scatter black feathers.

If nothing too interesting happened then Kuro would consider moving along...

A sense of calm flowed through the marketplace. There wasn't really any reason for Idaten to be there that day, but he felt like getting out a bit more.

"Caw!"

The ninja walked along casually with his hands in his pockets. Nothing could ruin the peace of-

"Caw!"

This time of year, Kumo alwa-

"Caw!"

"Damnit!" Idaten shouted, slightly frustrated. It wasn't something that would bug other people, but the chuunin couldn't stand the birds that were fluttering overhead. It was hard for him to even think straight without one of the stupid crows interrupting his train of thought! But he tried his best to ignore them for now. The lightning ninja glanced back at the crows and noticed a guy in black cloathes contrasting against the bright sky. Whatever, if he couldn't be alone with his thoughts, he might as well see what that ninja's up to. Maybe he was looking for someone or going through a difficult time? Why else would he be alone sitting on a building like that?

Without thinking of the potential dangers, Idaten climbed up to the slightly shorter building next to the mysterious ninja, flailing his arm to shoo a crow away as he moved forward. "Hey, how's the weather up there?" He called to the man, trying to start a conversation.

Kuro was in a squat, his forearms resting upon his thighs, his chin resting on the back of his palm. His gang of crows hung around him on this ledge, doing crow things, cawing, flapping their wings, the usual. Kuro's green eyes move around the calm marketplace. Nothing out of the ordinary was going on. He spotted two of his sisters and his mother buying groceries, but they hadn't seen him. Kuro didn't figure they would look up here.

"Dammit!" someone shouted. Kuro looked below to see another shinobi. Sensory was able to let Kuro gauge that he was pretty strong, but not as strong as he potentially could be. He looked to be someone he hadn't seen around the village before, but then again, he could have been thinking the same thing.

Then the guy was climbing up onto the building with him, shooing away a crow. The animal cawed angrily and lifted off to land on Kuro's left shoulder. He asked how the weather was. Should have been obvious, right?... Besides slowly moving green eyes to give the guy a once over, Kuro said nothing.

"..."

The crows that were around also look upon the guy with their beady red eyes. Kuro looked back at the marketplace, tracking his mother and sisters. Mother Nara was reminding the girls not to be asocial like their big brother, anger prevalent in her voice. Perhaps it was because Kuro left home without a word and decided to follow his own path instead of going along with family tradition, but also within that anger was a hint of depression. Kuro felt somewhat sorry that he'd put her in such a mood, but found the whole "get hitched to some girl and have a bunch of kids while living happily ever after" thing irritating. One day she'd get over it...

"................."

The man's non-reaction had Idaten slightly intrested. There was definatly more going on than just a guy trying to get a good view or something. He crossed his arms and took a few steps to the side, unsure really where to go from here. The birds seemed to be the guy's pets or something since they were so eger to use him as a perch. They seemed to flock around him a lot, too. Eventually, the ninja noticed he was focusing on someone down there. It seemed like a group of girls?

"My name's Idaten." He introduced himself, confidently. "Why are you alone up here? Are those people down there after you or something?"

"..."

The guy didn't leave like Kuro figured he would when he didn't answer. There was a long story behind him not wanting to interact with the females below, but Kuro wasn't about to get into that with someone he didn't know. He still didn't answer, but quickly produced a picture from his back pocket, as to not make it seem like he was a stalker or anything of the sort. Without looking at the guy, who introduced himself as Idaten, he showed him the picture. It was of the woman and the 2 girls below, 2 boys, an older looking man, and himself. Everyone in the picture looked normal; happy and smiling, whereas Kuro seemed to be the oddest one. He looked goth, much like he did right then, with a pale complexion and black clothes. Kuro wasn't even looking in the direction of the camera, nor was he smiling.

If Idaten put 2 and 2 together, he'd be able to figure out that Kuro was related to the females below, and was up here possibly because he didn't want to be seen. He wasn't going to really get into any details, and he didn't really plan on being here for very long. When he was sure Idaten got a good look at the picture, he shoved it back into his back pocket and continued to stare in silence, minus the occasional caw from his crow gang...

Idaten hopped over to the roof the man was on to get a look at the picture before chuckling slightly at the image. A full, traditional, smiling family photo with the crow-ninja standing off to the side of the image almost looking like a vampire of some form. He could only assume the man was probably the one kid in the family who never got any attention or something and started to rebel against his parents. Maybe that's why he had the crows around him? It was easy to imagine the crow-ninja getting annoyed by normal people and seeking company with birds instead or something along those lines.

The lightning ninja took a seat next to the crow-covered individual. "Sorry, you have to admit that is a pretty wierd image." Idaten mentioned with a slight smile on his face as he put his hands behind his head. "Don't worry about them, families are always just trying to do what they think is best. You can... you know, talk, right?"

Idaten jumped over onto the building that he was on, causing some of the crows to fly off, and the crow on his shoulder to furiously flap it's wings, cawing several more times. Kuro sniffed the air around him. His enhanced nose picked up on the scent of ozone, which told him that Idaten much have been a user of Raiton. It was one of his and the crow's weaknesses; perhaps it was why they were acting the way they were and cawing at him so. Kuro's expression didn't change, nor did his demeanor; he didn't want to let on to this little secret. he didn't respond much to Idaten's comment of how weird the image looked, but when he asked if Kuro could talk, Kuro simply responded with one word.

"Maybe."

Since he'd jumped over onto the same building that Kuro was on, Idaten would probably be able to see the large Nara Clan symbol on the back of his black shirt. His mother below was dressed normally and his sisters were both in ninja gear, also donning the Nara Clan symbol upon their backs. He could feel that his sisters had grown strong, even from here, but they still had a ways to go. They often asked when Kuro was coming back so that they might train with him, but mother always said she didn't know. Kuro decided to just keep his distance for now, for everything always came back to when he was going to settle up with some girl...

While Idaten did notice the symbol, he really didn't pay much attention. It really didn't matter who this guy's family was or what village he was from, the lightning ninja understood the feeling of rejection. For him, it was more about being rejected by women, but it was similar enough. "Personally, I don't remember my parents. I actually don't remember a lot of my past, really." He admitted, almost at random. "But I know you seem to have found your own thing if you're keeping the whole 'dark silent type' thing going this long."

Idaten turned to face him, putting his arms on the roof he was sitting on. "I'd go down and confront them. I mean, sure, you can keep looking at them from a distance and I can't blame you if you do, but then nothing's ever going to happen. You should go down there, crows and all, and let them know that this is who you are and you're not changing to meet their expectations!"

Green eyes move to look at Idaten again, with an expression that more or less said "you can't be serious." There was no getting through to them; no waking them up from the dreamworld that seemed stuck in. It was too bad that Idaten couldn't remember some of his past. Honestly, Kuro wished he could trade places with him, to erase what he'd heard; the loby-doby stories of folk fighting over girls, rescuing them and falling in love... it made him want to puke.

"Been there... done that. They live in a fairy tale... expecting me to be some white night who slays the dragon and rescues the princess... Happily ever after and blah blah blah. 'Do this, Kuro... Do that, Kuro... Find a girl, Kuro... Get married, Kuro...' That's not me. I am a weapon."

Another one of his rare moments speaking. He hadn't talked so much in a long while, even though he hadn't even said much... No, they'd never understand the concept of being a weapon, a tool. He'd keep his distance and watch, only confronting them when he truly had to. One of his brothers or his sisters could keep up the family fairy tale. He'd always been the odd one out, and he was fine with that...

It was pretty hard for him to understand what exactly the crow-ninja was saying, but, after a brief moment of silence, he finally deciphered enough of what he was trying to say to get a general idea. The man seemed to refer to himself a Kuro. He seemed to mention something about a princess and something about them forcing a fantasy on him, then something about them putting it on another child and about him being a tool? Or needing a tool? The last bit was a little unclear.

So they tried to set him up with someone of royalty, an arranged marrage maybe, and he didn't want to go through with it because he was a tool or maybe had a tool he had to keep secret. In the ninja world, it wasn't exactly unheard of for rare items to exist that had to be protected at all costs.

"If I understand your situation right, I really don't know what to say. Usually, I'm on the other side of the fence as far as romance goes... although I guess if I was in an arranged thing, I might have to think about things an-" Idaten stopped for a moment, trying to keep himself focused on the topic at hand. "What I mean is, if they're going for the next child anyways, then you probably have nothing to lose by sending them a message or something, right? Even if it's not in person they'll at least know you're alive."

He shrugged his shoulders as the lightning ninja glanced back at Kuro. "But it's your call. It's not like you're gaining anything just watching them, though. If you'd like it, I could try and lure them away or something. Maybe I could help them understand or something?"

Idaten looked or seem somewhat confused. Kuro wasn't expecting him to understand. Being set up with some blushing romantic chick looked to be right up his alley from the way he sounded, making Kuro snort air through his nose. However, Kuro wasn't so Asocial that he didn't at the very least send them messages that let his people know that he was still breathing, and when Idaten offered to become personally involved, Kuro just raised a left hand, as if to say there was no need.

He was already ahead of him when he said that Kuro had nothing to lose by sending them a message. It was right around the time that he raised his hand to halt Idaten from going and involving himself that the crow landed nearby Mother Nara and the sisters, startling them at first, but all seemed to calm down once they recognized the animal to be one of Kuro's crows. Mother Nara took the message that was tied to the bird's leg and read it with the sisters. It wasn't the longest of messages; it was short and sweet, directly to the point.


Family,

Still alive, still breathing. No need to be worried about me.

Kuro


Mother and the sisters all looked around with satisfied yet depressed looks. Obviously they missed him, yet Kuro didn't understand why. Mother always badgered him for his goth looks and off personality, always tried to set him up with some girl, and the sisters always made fun of him. When they looked in his and Idaten's direction, Kuro seemed to just vanish into thin air. When they continued on with their daily shopping, again Kuro would appear.

Camouflage:

So... which village was next? Kumo had always been sort of chilly being up in the mountains. Maybe it was time for some heat. The desert... he'd never been there before. It started to sound like an idea...

Chakra: 775/800

After Kuro seemed to dissapear, Idaten just crossed his arms. This had been a pretty wierd day, hanging out with a goth-ish crow ninja that seemed like he might have had a speech impediment as his family wondered around worried about him not that far away. He wished he could do something to help, but, at the end of the day, it wasn't his place to mess in other people's personal affairs. If the guy didn't want to do much more than watch on the sidelines, then nothing the lightning ninja would say could probably change his mind.

At the end of it all, Idaten just sighed, slightly jelous of the ninjutsu. "I need to learn how to do that one day...."

Having re-appeared, Kuro stood up straight. He didn't want to risk being spotted by someone he knew, then would come the long speeches and lectures, and he wouldn't hear the end of it. It was time to move on, and immerse himself in a new surrounding. The more he thought about the desert, the better the idea sounded.

Emerald green eyes move to the form of Idaten again. He wasn't a bad guy, Kuro knew this, and was exactly the kind of person Kuro would probably be pals with if Kuro wasn't so... off, for lack of a better word. It sounded like he was interested in the camouflage technique he just displayed.

"...I'll be back sooner or later... If you're still around, maybe i'll show you how to do it."

With that said, the crows, all cawing loudly, lifted off and began flying in random directions. Kuro himself jumped upwards and again seemed to just vanish from sight.

\Exit\

"What a wierd guy...." The ninja muttered after Kuro was out of sight. He glanced down at the crow-ninja's family still walking around the marketplace. If he wanted to, he could go down there and visit them to try and see if he could help.... But it wouldn't really do any good. Instead, he just laid on his back enjoying the silence now that the crows were finally gone.
 
He'd have to train and be ready whenever he met Kuro again so he could learn that cool invisibillity jutsu. Maybe even try to make something that would be effective against flying enemies? Idaten never really thought about it before, but it would be difficult to take out someone who could control birds to attack from the air.

/LeaveThread