Killing time

A tranquil sense filled the air. The scent of spring on the atmosphere, a mix of growing grass and budding flowers. A young woman laid upon the strength of a large tree branch. Her white hair falling in a sort of braid, flopping over her chest. Her small body covered in a pair of black shorts and a black tank. Her dark blue eyes flicking form area to area, watching the maneuverings of a small brown and fluffy critter beneath her.

Syrene scoffed to herself, the memory rolling through her head with a sort of torturous echo.
'What the hell is wrong with you?'
'You broke his arm!'
'You're a psychopath!'
'You're a monster!'
'They should ban you from this village!'

Rolling onto her side, she stared at the swing beneath the tree limb. Her dark eyes showing a dark glow of frustration. 'It's not my fault he started it! He's the weakling who couldn't stop me!' In her mind she was completely normal. In fact if she hadn't broken then she'd be a weirdo. It was a training match after all. He egged her on anyways, calling her names and such.


With a heavy sigh, she tossed a kunai towards a small squirrel that skittered beneath the tree. Missing by an inch, it jumped up and practically flew over the meadow to the next tree and into a hollow hole. Her eyes rolled. Even these animals were cowardly. Yet somehow she did feel bad. She didn't like that feeling. Passing it off as an upset stomach, she tossed another throwing knife, landing far from the previous. Her nose scrunched. It was awful, her aim. Unless of course she was on an adrenaline high.. then everything made sense and then she could fight. However outside of battle she was uncoordinated and clumsy: a true embarrassment.

Her eyes closed as she thought over the memory, the snap of bones, the sound of a scream. Shouts had come from the nearby citizens and the way her teacher had glared at her. According to him she needed self-control and badly. Being alone in an area without people was apparently training, but she didn't feel any different. She enjoyed the rush of adrenaline; the high of the moment and in a way it was what got her to where she was. Unfortunately it made her 'rash' and 'hard-headed' unable to work well in a team. So here she was, being isolated as if she were grounded. For that, she hated the kid. It was his fault.. he started it.. but she knew she had to disregard the thought if she wanted to get anywhere. "Stupid people.."

Aiko rather... wandered himself here. It was odd of him for sure... but how was he to know where he was going. It was his day off. It was quiet... too quiet. Suddenly he noted a kunai flying into the hollow hole of the tree next to him. He boredly looked at it. Another kunai flew at him. He looked at it boredly, not bothering to lift his hands, a shadow tendril shot up and caught it.

He took both of the kunai and held them loosely on his finger. He was rather intent on find the source of these throws. He looked in the general direction and saw a rather... distracted looking girl. Aiko wasn't sure why but he felt like she was a violent type of person, perhaps he would see what was up seeing how if anything went wrong he had her kunai.

He strode over to the girl with silvery hair. He smiled a bit with some attempt at understanding. Why was he here again? Maybe he just let his feet walk him. His mind felt like he just woke up. Maybe he sleepwalked here. "Hey," he said calmly, like anyone would talk to a stranger.

Syrene continued her lazy tossing, almost as if she were throwing away her kunai. Softly she cursed at the squirrel once more and rolled over onto her other side. Her eyes flit over the boy as if analyzing while a tendril caught her badly thrown kunai with ease. Her eyes gave a glazed look of interest as she allowed herself onto her stomach, palms cupping her cheeks.

The silver tresses of her hair glinted whiter as the shades of the tree leaves danced in the lazy wind. The darks of her irises showing an almost devil-scary look. One brow arched she refused a smile and nodded. "Hey. You don't look like your native to here."

Her lips twitched slightly as she held out her hand. "While you're down there. can you hand me my kunai please?" The curve of her black tank top sat over her chest framing her still developing body and the black shorts on her waist rippling slightly in the breeze. Her appearance was that of a tomboy except for the hair. It curved over falling gently on the tree limb. Boredly she licked her lip and eyed him, waiting for a response. Her feet up in the air and swaying slightly like the bored child she was.

Aiko looked up at her a bit lazily. She looked somewhat interested, but not really. She seemed like the easily agitate-able type. Aiko noted she knew he was an outsider. Probably his headband of course. She wanted he kunai pack. He looked at the tendril still holding the kunai. With some boredom... he made the shadow tendril raise up to hand-off both of the kunai that almost killed him.

Odd how he would do that...

He looked up a bit more to examine her. She seemed very immature... maybe. "I'm from the Cloud... just wandering about..." he said. He figured he could take a nap. "Aiko Nara... who're you?" he spoke, as if he was asked.

Syrene still didn't hold a smile as he returned her kunai. Her hands grabbed them and stabbed both into the bark of the tree as she gave a look as close to grateful as her pride would allow. "Thanks. Saved me the trouble of getting it." Had she intentionally almost killed the boy? No of course not, she had incredibly bad aim. However that didn't give her any reason to apologize. In her mind it was his fault for being in the way of her flying kunai.

Yawning she grabbed the tree limb and slipped down the tree. Her braid seemed to float behind her until she landed nimbly on her feet. Her arms crossed as she gave the boy a one over. Though not really intending to 'check him out', she was more looking for something to scrutinize. Quickly losing interest in insulting someone who looked about as bored as she felt, she shrugged to herself and listened as he introduced himself.

Her body relaxed and seemed unhostile for once, not sure if her teacher was nearby watching her every move. "I'm Syrene Azai." She said bluntly and almost with no emotion. She wasn't in an emotional fury, no she had her teacher for that.

Aiko looked around... he needed to kill more time. Maybe he could run another combat simulation. Nah... there was nobody around that he would just fight or anything. He looked back at the girl who simply hopped down. His shadow lazily drooped back down to its normal position as a flat surface.

He shrugged a bit as she seemed to check him over a moment to look for something. He could tell overlooks from eachother. Probably to insult but she seemed like she wouldn't bother. He smirked a little... he figured something was up around here. He sat down against the tree and looked into the distance.

"So what's to do around this place?" he asked boredly.

Syrene shrugged and walked past the man brushing him on the shoulder in a sort of annoyed way. Syrene didn't like people. Her whole life people were mean to her, so in response, she was mean back. With a scoff she stared off "What do I look like? A tour guide? Ask someone else." Her cold words almost slicing like lightning.

Her eyes were distant and it was obvious she had a sort of barrier up to protect her from pain, emotional pain. Sighing softly, she spoke again. "I'm stuck here so go play somewhere else. That's what my teacher'll say if he sees you. He's already mad enough at me so shoo!" Her manner of speaking was like a person talking to an animal rather than a human. Of course Syrene was never a person you could expect a warm greeting from. She didn't seem to regret it at all either.

Her posture however spoke differently. She was sad and restrained, almost like a neglected infant. In a way that described her best. Her claws only defending her,

It wasn't like Aiko really cared. Of course the words stung, but it only supported his hypothesis that this Syrene was childish. His eye looked like they were closed, but they were lightly cracked and his ears were still on. "Hmm... so nothing huh?" he said with some boredom. "You seem aggravated, maybe you could maybe.... relax a little?" he added with something of a sigh breaking his words.

His cold eyes opened up with a minor glare... the kind that said 'I hate children'. Despite his age he was quite mature. He yawned a bit though and that rather broke the glance. "Otherwise, you'll just stress your way through life..."

Back turned, Syrene seemed to ignore hi obvious displeasure of her demeanor. It wasn't her fault that people hated her. At least in her mind it wasn't. She had a problem anyways, far too dangerous for people to get to know her. Once adrenaline kicked in she was nothing but a cold blooded animal. It usually took more than just her teacher to snap her back. Could it be she was protecting everyone else? No, Syrene hated people, didn't she?

Her mind wandered and she seemed for a brief second vulnerable; not on earth. Her eyes were dipped softly as she pondered why she was even being isolated in the first place. She broke someone's arm, yes but why did she have to be isolated.

Though rude, she paused and looked up, a faint blush on her face as she realized that she had completely ignored the man. Bipolar? Possibly, however she seemed to manipulate the humiliation to anger albeit fake, fairly well. "Sorry I didn't hear you, what was that?" She didn't know why she had become angry in the first place and looked away with a sort of scoff. "Relax? Why so I can be kicked out of the village sooner? No thanks."

Aiko was quite displeasured with her attitude. "What? You injure someone in a training session or something?" he asked, almost sarcastically, but it was more of a hypothetical tone. "If so, you aren't getting kicked out... if you chill a little more, maybe you can earn some respect by just not doing anything. A workaholic and a fight-addict is troublesome, ya know?" he added.

He didn't feel he was deserving of any less respect than he gave this girl. Despite her rudeness he was only trying to get her to relax so that they could converse casually. He still had this bored look to him. Very sleepy-looking. He yawned a bit more, it was loud and prominent. He glared slightly at the sun. "If it weren't for that sun up there... I could simply nap my whole life away..."

Syrene shook her head and scoffed again. Her tough girl act keeping her head high and her eyes narrowed. "It's not my fault I'm stuck here... well maybe it is a little.. but my teacher says I can't leave until I learn my lesson!" She softened her look as she glared away. "I'm not a fight addict, everyone starts it with me." She huffed looking like a child for a minute as she pouted.

Turning to the man, she tilted her head. "You'd sleep all day? Honestly? That's boring. How old are you? 50?" Unintentionally she began her insulting. "Only old people sleep all the time. I'm not letting life slip by. As soon as I'm released from this I'm going back to training with or without my teammates." Thrusting her arms to her sides she clenched her fists and turned away from him again. In a way she was once again shelling up. Her head hurt. Thinking always made her angry when she was fighting she didn't have to think, only act and the job got done, albeit sloppily usually. However it was done nonetheless.

Aiko laughed a little at her words. Only old people slept? He figured it was true enough, did that make him old? But wait... was that an insult? She was so keen on training. Maybe Aiko wasn't serious enough... she was quite contagious... "So, you think life is too short to nap?" he asked. Too short? They had up to a hundred years. What was wrong with spending his youth playing? He stood up. "I suppose you think it's fun to insult those you don't understand?"

He waited for a predicted turn around of fury, then with a handseal, a bright flash of light erupted behind him, expanding his shadow extremely wide. With another handseal he activated Kage Mane no jutsu. In an instant without warning at all. He glared at her. "If you are so much better, how come I can do that?" he placed his hand right hand in his pocket, and reached the other into his pouch, placed on the opposite side that Syrene had hers on. He pulled out a kunai and pointed it at her.

This would force her into the same motions, "Unlike you... I have good aim."

Syrene blinked and thought about his words. Was life too short was that what she worried about? Her brows furrowed and she shook her head. No there wasn't anything wrong with wanting to live life to the fullest. Her eyes blanked again and her mind became once more clouded. Was he trying to confuse her? She wouldn't let that happen! How dare he even think of such a thing! He was most likely younger than her, most genin were.

Syrene snapped back and spun to him with a look that would make the devil ashamed, the fury almost poisonous in her eyes. Before she could catch herself though, she felt her body almost frozen. A sudden wave of ice rolled over her as a bit of panic flicked in her eyes. She couldn't move well she could and now she was. Her movements were almost identical to his, as he reached and pulled out a kunai. She squirmed and the only that was obvious was by her shaking movements. her muscles tried to free herself, but she couldn't move.

His words struck her like a knife. How embarrassing! It was this kind of stuff that made Syrene hate someone the most; herself. Her face was red with a humiliated hue. Her eyes dipped and though she could move her eyes into an angry glare, she simply made a look of struggling. "What.. did you do to me?!"

Aiko smirked when she seemed confused. "Oh you haven't figured it out?" he started. "I didn't like your attitude, so I decided to freeze you until you cooled down a bit," he added on. "If our shadows touch in even the slightest, you won't be able to move," he explained, "And you will follow my every motion. Want to or not. Of course... I'm not really plotting to do anything much... maybe I could embarrass you more," he made contemplative motions.

With a snicker he spoke again, "But, I don't think I will. Keep up your insults, and I think I'll cut you up a bit." He smirked some more... and said, "You still feel superior? Feel like you could continue questioning my ways when I so simply have you defeated? You feel like you can talk to someone the way you do? You know NOTHING about me!"

A few failed feeble attempts of freeing herself were obvious on Syrene. Her eyes began to turn to panic and her face reddened more. "You wouldn't dare touch me!" She said in a more threatening voice than anything. It was true, she didn't believe him despite the fact she couldn't move on her own. Her eyes narrowed at him suspiciously. Her muscles tensed once more futiley before she let herself slump and watched for some sort of weakness. Well more of for him to grow tired, then she'd attack back. However her ears burnt from being in this situation in the first place.

Chewing on her lips, she had to bite back her words. However she growled under her throat as her eyes seemed to glare into his being. "A coward's move.." Unintentionally aloud? It was uncertain. However her rage was obviously still not dying down. In fact the fact she was being so easily suppressed made a fire glow ablaze in those deadly eyes. He was one to talk. She didn't know anything about him? Well at least she hadn't attacked him! ...intentionally anyways.... Her muscles tensed again, flexing slightly on her sinewy body as she struggled once more to free herself from her captive position. She may be a bully, but a pushover, no. Sy would never back down until she was down on the ground practically stapled to the very earth. "Try something and I'll rip your bloody arm off." Her voice growled.

Aiko laughed a bit. "Oho? Rip my arm off... that doesn't sound like you're calming down," he said. "I tell you what, I could kill you where you stand. And a coward is someone who runs from a fight," he added. "I didn't run away from your challenge. You may not know it, but that language is a little something I call 'smack-talk'. Smack talk is what starts a fight, and I figured being bored as I was, a little fight was all I needed."

He laughed some more, "But, you lost so easily... I mean... if you actually win fights, I feel sorry for your village." He looked her in the eye, dead in the eye, his gaze ice cold. "But maybe I just didn't give you the chance you needed. In the ninja world, you have little thing like... chance. You only have premonition, and skill."

Syrene felt another wave of rage rush over her as he scolded her and basically gloated. Her face turned, red faced, the hue sitting brightly on her skin beneath the white locks of her hair. Her eyes glared at the ground. Okay so she was childish.. but was it right for him to be so harsh? She bit her lip and chewed softly, deliberating. She sniffed and tried to swallow her pride; to accept defeat, however her mouth could only manage a whatever as her head hung low, keeping her pupils from meeting his. Her brow furrowed, she bit hard on her lip, allowing blood to seep slightly.

She wanted to punch something. Why was it she was always a bully? Why did she have to mean to people who tried to help her and those she didn't know? Her mind reeled. She loved to fight, the adrenaline got her mind off of the pain of living her brother's shadow. It got the pain of being hated off of her mind and soothed her emotionally. It blinded her from the problems before her.

Then there was the physical pain that she experienced in fighting. When she got someone who fought back, the exhilarating rush. She enjoyed that feel, it gave her a sort of high. Her tongue flicked over the blood of her lip. Her eyes closed as she tried to shake of this humiliation. There was no joy in this. The fact she hadn't even got a chance. She had failed on many levels. "You enjoy lecturing your elders?" she said in an almost soul-less tone. Why she had asked that she wasn't even sure fully. The aggressive wave however returned to simple hatred directed to noone but herself.

Aiko smiled confidently. He felt like he defeated her. It was simple enough if all that needed to happen was to restrain her completely. She still had the smack talk in her, but it was without passion. Could she even help it? "Can you even help yourself when faced with opposition? Must you constantly talk your shit?" he asked.

He sighed, "You know what... I don't enjoy anything. I hate anything that goes against my way of life. I don't like my line of work at all." He growled a little, "Biting your lip won't help you, it only makes you more delicious to the wolves. You may as well let it out. Holding in emotion is a drag."

Syrene looked like she was slapped in the face and her body shirked, embarrassed farther. Why was talking to this... this kid making her feel like he was her father. He was worse than her teacher. Usually he just told her her punishment. Apparently that hadn't worked and yet here was this boy from a different village and he so easily made Sy feel insecure. Her heart sunk and she let the bangs of her hair fall over her face. Almost like she was a completely different person as she accepted the defeat with a heavy heart. She was awful her brother would disown her should he find out, not to mention her parents. Her body kind of slumped and her tough girl exterior shattered if only briefly. "I-I'm sorry I can't.. I don't know why... I..." She shook her head and fought back tears.

Her tongue ran over the cut again as he yelled about her basically being Wolf food. Her body shirked more and she tried not to bite her lip harder and failed. It infuriated her that she was so emotional. Her jutsu rested purely on the rage of emotions, her brain didn't function well when outside of fighting. It simply was the fact she couldn't cope with the rage of emotions. She needed something to focus her emotions on and anger was the easiest. Her mind continued twisting but her body was still stuck in the shadow lock. Her head shook as her face faded to a soft pink, trying to make the tears go away. She wasn't going to cry. Not in front of a stranger. It only made her weaker, it only made her feel more pathetic. "I won't.. I refuse to." Her throat betrayed how much her body wanted to break down.

Aiko looked at Syrene with some disappointment. "You let your emotion swell up and take you over... you are just... a hopeless case. Perhaps some pain may help you overcome your emotions," he said. His eyes worked emotionlessly around her. He sighed... "I wish I could bring myself to do it... but I don't wanna be the cause of your crying. Let you be the cause." He sat down, forcing Syrene to do so as well, he stared at her without emotion. "I won't tell, don't worry," he kinda sounded for a moment like a kid, "You won't be any weaker to me if you cry."

Syrene shook her head rapidly. Her face lowered as the bangs of her hair fell as a veil. "I-I won't.. I can't.." She refused softly. Did he know what it was like in her situation? Probably not. Made he'd be less cruel had he known. Syrene clenched her fists into her lap and swallowed softly the prideful lump in her throat. Her eyes closed as the burning sadness and frustration teased as a welling wave of torture. Shivering she closed her eyes and sucked in a deep breath. It wasn't fair, she felt like such a failure. On top of it she couldn't stop lamenting on that fact.

With a shaky breath she shook her head again. She probably looked insane and that gave her a soft chuckle, but it didn't cure the bitter feeling on her tongue. Licking her lip she continued averting her eyes, not wanting anyone to see how pathetic she felt. She did cry once in a while, but only when no one was around. Confiding in someone was something she had never tried and in fact never expected to try. Not even her family knew her pain. The thing that made her shell up and be bitter towards the world. Why she didn't respect anyone. The world was cruel, and people betrayed you. She found it much easier to not even try and win people over; only to simply win.

Aiko sighed a bit with an agonizingly simple method. He was going to run out of chakra at this rate... he looked at Syrene with a sullen gaze.... as if mimicking what he knew she felt she should. It was almost as if he was mocking her. "You know what... fine. I think you've learned a little bit," he said with some boredom in his voice. He disconnected his shadow and put the kunai in his pouch. He got himself up leaned up against the tree.

He stared forward, as if looking away from Syrene. "What a person... just... what a person," he muttered to himself just loud enough to be heard. He turned his gaze towards her for a moment, saying, "Try to gain your bearings..."

Syrene sighed as she was released and her body movements went back to normal. Her eyes however were deep in thought and lost as if she weren't even a person at the second. She didn't move at first but slowly caught herself and shook her head as if it were the problem. Her eyes flicked around, analyzing her areas before she rose to her feet and dusted off her outfit. Rubbing her face with her palms, she attempted to wring out the red from the straining tears. However this was less than successful and she simply only made her face a tad more red.

Her hands worked at her braid, undoing it with a simple stroke of her hand. Shaking her head once more, she attempted untangling her hair. It was an awkward silence and she didn't want to acknowledge it. So instead she worked on fixing her messy white strands into a more presentable mess. The locks fell to her waist once untangled. With a smooth motion she took a deep breath and ran her dainty fingers through the locks. For once she didn't have her fangy, aggressive appearance, but a more solemn and well not happy more apathetic look.

As she crossed her arms and looked around, she seemed to have recovered quickly. Her mind immediately pushing the loss to the back of her mind. She gave a soft and sly smile, though a slight lack of confidence, "Get them? I never lost them." Her voice replied quickly and stubbornly. Her body stood proudly. Sure she was still cocky, but at least she wasn't insulting the boy... for now.

Aiko just continued to lean against the tree, looking awesome and carefree. He smiled a bit. "Alright then," he said with something of a lack of care. As if nothing happened, he continued to be nonchalant about it. "If you at least respect the lesson there, could you try to keep out of trouble." He laughed. "Hate to tell ya, but I'm worried about your well being. Harboring your emotions like that... you know what? Nevermind," he said, catching himself before he found himself flirting (in his own way). He yawned a bit, "Yeah so chill why don'tcha?"

Syrene arched a brow and shook her head. "Ha! Learn a lesson that's a good one." Of course just because she wasn't being mean anymore didn't mean she wasn't going to be stubborn to look her toughest. She may have lost.. embarrassingly so, but she felt in a way it wasn't a loss. At the time she had been angry, but there was no shame in losing to someone better than you. Besides she knew she had problems controlling her psyche anyways. They seemed to be opposites the two, however sometimes you needed to face your opposite to learn something about yourself.

At his last part she laughed. For once a laugh that wasn't dark or evil, just a simple chuckle. "Worry about me? You're the first I've come across to beat me so easily. I might not look it, but I'm quite the fighter." A sincere smile slipped on her lips as close to a thank you as Sy ever came to. "Don't worry about me I'm a tough girl." As if dismissing the subject, she flicked her hand in the wind and shrugged. Her eyes glinted in a teasing way, a playful manner. Her aggressive side oppressed for the time being. Almost like the rage had just been a temporary wave. "And uhmm I'm sorry for saying mean things to you." she admitted in a soft whisper, looking away. Her hand ruffling the back of her head.