Kanna dropped her hand to the pouch at her side, deft fingers slipping beneath the catch to open the flap and slip inside. The cool feel of tempered metal and the scent of polish met her questing hand, and the young Kunoichi’s fingers glided down the metal weaponry absentmindedly. Careful not to prick herself on unseen edges, Kanna leaned back against the railing. Sturdy planks pressed into her back, supporting her weight and keeping her from toppling over backwards off the rooftop while she reclined.

Her head tilted back languidly, eyelashes fluttering as she blinked away the sunlight. The sky was one of those rare shades of turquoise, deep and dark it stretched on for infinity. Handfuls of clouds, millions of tiny water droplets held together in their own gravity, crossed the sky. Their white a pristine impossible for humans to emulate. Perfection too far away to grasp. Today the clouds were small, scattered across the wide expanse like little brush strokes as they slowly winded their way along whatever path they followed.

The air was still, each breath and exhalation stirring the stagnation before her. Yet it was not so hot so as to be oppressive, simply still. A muted tranquil feeling had settled over the Village, allowing people to pause in their busy lives just once and look about themselves in wonder. Life felt so vibrant today, even accompanied by the lack of motion. It was a bursting awareness on the edges of one's senses, that even the most morose could not ignore. Things simply felt alive. Movement was fluid, motions easy, as if the air parted before giving any resistance and the body could bound forward limitlessly. Oxygen filled her up, and Kanna was pretty sure her cheeks were flushed with color as her heart beat a swift tempo against her ribs, urging her to get up and do something or simply remain there and stare up at the sky.

Lost in thoughts she couldn’t quite put into words, Kanna jerked as one finger poked a particularly sharp kunai point, drawing a flash of bright hot pain and sudden awareness. Withdrawing her hand gingerly, Kanna looked down at the beading blood on her fingertip with something akin to admonishment. Ruby-crimson it formed the smallest perfectly round droplet before growing too heavy and rolling off her skin. The pain faded quickly unlike the reproach, but Mai still popped her finger in her mouth to stop the bleeding.

Shifting, she gracefully got to her feet, seemingly shrugging off the railing and moving forward effortlessly. The coppery tang of blood on her tongue pushed her forward, and it took Kanna a moment or so to scale the wall and drop down along the sidewalk. Moving again the second she came to a stop, the older girl skirted around a few empty shops and made her way away from the inner city.

The air parted softly before her, gossamer breezes cosseting sun-kissed flesh as Kanna ghosted down the lonely street. Eyes tilted upwards, she could not help but stare into the deep blue sky like the face of a loved one, wide-eyed and awed by the color itself and the amazing beauty of that single moment. It had been storming for the past week, and this was a lucky break in the weather. Knowledgeable on such topics, Kanna knew that this was simply the eye before the storm, the pressures building back up such that another thunderstorm was inevitable, and probably today.

She could feel it against her skin, that liquid heat, a mixture of condensation and humidity. Building and building, it pressed up against her like the weight of a tree, leaning and leaning until she felt almost heavy with the extra weight. Still, she moved quietly, eyes wide and blank as she took in her surroundings. The weather was an interesting phenomenon, but not enough to take her attention off of what was the more diverting of the pair. It was hard to watch society out here where there were so few people, but at the same time that often provided Kanna with a better, unguarded, look into personalities and creatures.

It was the open air, she knew. The solidarity it inspired, and the close quarters that only doubled the feeling. Narrow streets of cobblestone and leaning buildings interspersed with wide open gardens gave off a freeing presence, one no one could deny. Even Kanna, her usual dull self, seemed to float like a feather from place to place, an easy heat following her along as she wafted on the breezes towards a far off destination.

She came across few people, nodding politely when they made eye contact but otherwise remaining unobtrusive. It was only the voice of another that drew her soft contemplation, the liquid words so smooth and soft that she could not help but stare in outright fascination. "Ooh..." she murmured to herself, an outpouring of surprise wrapped in a nice satin bow.

Floating nearer, she observed the boy who had voiced such poetry to the empty air, white eyes soul-searching and deep. "You are. Even if you are so far away," Kanna offered up in response, her lilting voice a companion to his last mused stanza. "It would sound better that way, in my opinion. Contractions are not for poetry," she added with a wrinkled nose and then a faint ghostly smile, eager and polite.

Kanna gave an elaborate bow, all the more amusing because of the additional gestures and overplayed frills. Straightening, she smiled brightly, a ray of sunshine piercing the clouds to enshroud her form for a single moment, casting her hair aglow and her skin to shine like a freshly polished diamond. Feeling the heat against her back, Kanna shifted slightly as she shook her head, opening her mouth to reveal perfect white teeth while she responded to the boy's question.

"Sadly, I must admit that I am but an amateur poet connoisseur. There are no great turns of phrase inside here," she tapped the side of her head with one finger, smile still wide and pretty, "I have an ear for it though, if you'll give me that much credence."

Truthfully, Kanna was more at ease with an ink brush in hand and a clean expanse of paper than she was with the delicacy of words and their strains. Music, whether it be spoken or sung, was a beautiful thing to observe but that marked the limits of her involvement. Not that she had put much effort into the art, after a rather inauspicious start. She could vaguely recollect that first elusive poem, something about worlds and dreams...


She frowned at that thought, her eyes crinkling at the corners in disdain. Rubbish it was, which was rather depression. One would like to imagine themselves as artistic, but reality had to be given weight, and it looked like she had better keep her day job than muse about writing poetry. Or anything for that matter, mission reports were much easier to get right. No room for a turn of the phrase or creativity there.

She took that momentary pause between comments to drink in the boy's appearance, actually looking at him for the first time. And what an odd boy he turned out to be. Definitely young, she'd peg him at eleven or twelve at the most. His features were round and childish, but perhaps the most surprising thing other than his age was that white white hair that appeared to defy gravity itself. Whiter than her eyes even, which Kanna appreciated as a true feat in and of itself.

So young~ Youth was something she missed most of the time. That boundless energy and sense of entitlement, confidence. Aaaah, to be young again. It didn't matter that all things considered she was still relatively youthful. The life expectancy for a Shinobi was less than the life expectancy for a civilian and she was rather close to the border. Still, twelve was considered an adult last she checked the social norms and she refrained from making a cooing noise upon realizing the boy's age. No point in being rude, ne?

Clasping her hands before her demurely, Kanna smiled softly, "Aaah, but look at my manners. I never introduced myself. I am Kanna, though you should call me O-Hime-Sama," she managed to keep a straight face after that proclamation, giggling internally instead of externally. "And you?"

Kanna smiled beatifically, thoroughly enjoying the little boy's apparent awkwardness. He didn't even call her on her joke - that was something to note. Either he was too serious to realize it was indeed a joke or he was so flustered it wouldn't have mattered what she'd told him to call her. Still... It wasn't like Kanna really minded, being called a princess was rather gratifying no matter if she had instigated the name to begin with. She decided then and there that somehow she would convince everyone to refer to herself in such a manner, it would be great!

Smile widening, she withheld another giggle at the picture that came to her - elegant kimono brocaded in gold and silver and her hair flowing in the wind - It was fantastic. Kanna did hold ambition, even if filial duty preceded it, and someday she wanted her name to be known. There wasn't much rancor between herself and the Hyuuga Clan, she realized that her Otou-san had been disowned and that she was really only a half-child. Still, the sneers or glancing eyes got to her at times. It wasn't so much now, when she was so involved with her family, but when she was younger and hadn't understood the looks.

It would be nice to rub in their faces her success. Her widely spread success - if she was lucky, that was. Those thoughts led her to a more contemplative state of mind, less amused now and somewhat morose, Kanna whispered a quiet prayer to the kami-sama for good health, both for herself and for this child who had taken upon himself the same dangers and risks as she had. How sad, that youth would be wasted before life had even settled in. The taste and cusp of life itself would be hardly realized.

Sighing, she glanced back up at the blue, blue, sky, watching a soft lavender color bleed into that aqua and intermingle like streamers of soft ribbon, twirling with the twitch of a kami's hand. "Gaeul... That is an odd name," she spoke slowly, trying to pronounce it properly as she looked back down at the boy. It was spoken so ponderously that it couldn't be perceived as an insult, simply an interesting inquiry.

Making an effort to smile again, she glanced around herself comically, over-exaggerated movements meant to put him at ease, "Oh! Here? Well, the same as you I'd suppose," sing-song dulcet tones filtered through the air, birds chirping in tune somewhere off to the side.

"Hyuuga?" she queried softly, gaze going soft, "I suppose so, I carry their blood in my veins," lifting up pale arms, she held them out in front of her demonstratively. It was a question she never got used to fielding correctly. Sure, she had their surname, but no one would like it if she started going around announcing that fact.

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