The rubbish is really gone? [Open]

Things around Kurayamigakure had been different; and this was by no means a bad thing. The headband gang that had been in charge of the village had been defeated and now a new group of people were in control. Namie at first had expected things to be just the same as before if not worse but that wasn't the case; these new people were turning the village around for the better. Trade was opening up, the port was running again, and there was even a hospital now.

The brothel she was stuck living in was busier than usual now that everyone seemed to have pockets full of money, and Namie found herself wanting to stay there less and less. She had never been one of the working girls, and had never been interested in becoming one, she had simply been allowed to live there and paid for her room by preforming guard duty services for the girls to keep them safe. However, things were far safer now then they had ever been, so she was needed less and less.

As it was she was out of the brothel now and currently up on the roof of a nearby building. This one story building was right up against another building that was two stories tall. The connecting walls had no windows which provided a perfectly good gray colored brick canvas for her to work on. At the moment she was surrounded by a liter of empty spray paint cans - she had been at this particular piece of graffiti artwork for a while now. What had started out as blobs and shapes that likely would make little sense to anyone who didn't draw had become what was clearly one of the headband gang on his back dead with a shadowy figure standing above him whose face she hadn't yet finished. In the background of this fallen individual were several others in various states of death and with various injuries - some injuries she saw and others she had simply invented herself.

In Namie's hand was a can of purple colored spray paint and she was using it to write "Good riddance to some ugly rubbish"; her hand skillfully making out bubble letters that looked as if they were popping right off of the wall. Halfway through the sentence Namie stopped, adjusted the pink and black gas mask on her face more comfortable and wiping sweat off of her brow before it could drip into her skillfully crafted makeup. She even went so far as to pull off her hood so that her pale blond hair with black and pink streaks in it was free to blow around in the wind. Comfortable, she continued on with her sentence...

The sentence was finished and drying as she gave another shake to the can to mix up the contents inside; she needed to use the same color for shadowing on the face she had yet to complete. Once the can was good and shaken she got back to work, spraying carefully the color onto the face. Once the shadows were complete she dropped the can - now empty - and reached into the messenger bag slung across her shoulder. She pulled out another can, this one containing black paint, and got to working on the face.

Details were added in rapid succession; eyes, nose, mouth. Just as she was adding the finishing touches she heard a door slam below her followed seconds later by a "Hey you! Get the hell down from there! This is the second time this week! I'll have your ass arrested! HELP! SOMEONE HELP!"

Namie looked down, took one look at the angry store owner, and grinned beneath her mask. She glanced to the wall of mostly dry paint, took several steps back, and then ran straight towards it. Upon reaching it she kicked her foot off of it and launched herself upward. She grabbed the ledge of the next roof as soon as she could reach it and hoisted herself up. From there she was across the roof, clearly attempting to flee from getting into trouble.

"SOMEONE STOP THAT BRAT! I'M TIRED OF HER DEFACING MY PROPERTY!", the old man shouted after her, shaking his fist in the air in her general direction.

The man's shouting stopped but Namie didn't bother looking behind herself to see why. She just kept attempting to put as much distance between herself and the shop owner as she possibly could: she had no idea what sort of consequences she might face for defacing property with the new people in power. The headband people had been easy enough to deal with - they tended to be a bit lazy so long as she didn't piss off one of the bosses which meant out running them and keeping a low profile for a few days was more than enough to have them forgetting about her. But, these new people? She had no clue.

It took her several moments before she realized she was being followed. The first sign of course was the monkey who was easily keeping up with her; jumping and moving even better than she was. It was enough to cause her to turn her head, becoming distracted, which was when she noticed the individual flying above her. Namie skidded to a complete stop, turning so that she was facing the male above her: she recognized him as being one of the people whom had taken over the village.

His words caused her brows to furrow in confusion: wasn't she in trouble for spray painting on a building? He said that if he had wanted to catch her he could have, and for some reason she knew better than to doubt that. "....." Slowly Namie lifted her hand and pulled down the gas mask that was on her face, allowing it to hang from around her neck. "You mean I'm not in trouble for painting on the walls?", she asked in a voice filled with curiosity. "People who used to run this place hated it; then again they didn't like the fact that all of the pictures were meant to mock them.", she added with a bit of an eye roll: clearly she hadn't liked the headband gang anymore than anyone else in the village had.

"Kind of made it a bit fun to mess with them."

Word Count: 1,058

"Eh, honestly I don't think those headband idiots would have cared so much if it wasn't for the fact that I was painting them in a bad light; or dead.", she said with a shrug of her shoulders. She didn't really care because it had been fun to piss them off and see their reaction. She then listened as the floating male went on to explain that he wasn't in charge, Alec was, but that Alec wasn't there because he had gone to make nice with the other villages. However, the male surmised that Alec likely wouldn't mind her drawing on the sides of buildings either. It was all very confusing; but then again she was so used to getting into trouble that the idea of not being in trouble was strange.

At the male's next question she raised her right hand and scratched at the back of her head. "Well uh... my name's Namie Kurayami.", she fell silent for a second after a sigh. This was an uncomfortable subject, mainly because it dealt with her family - her ex-family that was. "There's a few others like me floating around. My uh.. my father was a retired shinobi who moved here while my mom was pregnant with me; he trained me and my little brother and little sister how to fight. Well, the basics at least. But uh.. I can't show you where they live because I'm not allowed to go there anymore."

"There's a few other people wandering around; mostly people who tried to rebel against the headband gang from the shadows. Never really did enough to get rid of them, though. Mostly just tried to keep everyone as safe as possible from them."

Word Count: 300 + 1,058 = 1,358

Namie listened as Kurai explained who he was, and who the monkey was. She listened as he went on to explain that he was a member of an organization that used to be known as The Dark. Alec was the leader of this organization; he was the guy with the long white hair and the blind fold whom she had seen while they were busy taking over the village. He said that they once had been considered villians, but Alec had seen what was going on in the village and had decided to put a stop to it. Kurai said that Alec was a cool guy and that he knew things no one else did, and was unlike anyone she had ever met. Considering how strong all of them seemed to be she figured they all were different then anyone she had met before.

Kurai then went on to explain that his sister, Hikari, was a awesome medic and that if she got hurt she could go to the hospital to be healed. When Kurai mentioned her being fast on her feet she shrugged lightly. "I guess that'd be cool. I know my father didn't teach me everything he was going to - and I'm sure he's taught my brother and sister more - but I've just been kind of stuck going off of what I know since I got booted out the house."

"It'd be awesome to get to learn some more stuff instead of having to rely on the same old tricks over and over again." As Namie started to think about it more it definitely did sound like more and more of a good idea; she loved learning new things - she only came across as a trouble maker most of the time simply because no one really bothered to talk to her and get a chance to know her. Kurai was treating her like an actual person, which was why she wasn't acting like a raging ass at the moment.

Word Count: 333 + 1,358 = 1,691

"....", Namie's jaw actually dropped open at Kurai's suggestion about speaking with his landlord. It had been a long while since she had been seen first hand the kindness of another. He didn't know her, he had no reason to trust her or stick his neck out for her, and yet here he was willing to do something like that for her. It left her momentarily struck speechless while her mind attempted to process it. All she had known recently was trouble: being ignored and disregarded until she gave someone a reason to take notice. Oh, the madame of the brothel she lived in noticed her, but only long enough to order her to escort one girl or another while they worked. Otherwise... she was practically invisible.

As she attempted to find her words she watched Kurai reach into his robes and pull out what looked like a balloon. He handed this to Little Kong who left for a moment.

"I... wow. You'd do that for me?", she asked, her voice clearly one of shock. "I mean.. that'd be awesome. Much better than where I'm living now...", she paused, figuring she might as well be honest with Kurai if he was going to be willing to help her like he said he would. "I uh.. live at that brothel over there. The madame took me in when she saw I knew the basics of how to fight; she allowed me a small room in exchange for escorting her girls and keeping them safe. The headband idiots liked to try and take advantage of them, so I was supposed to keep them safe and make sure that didn't happen. 'Course, they don't have to worry about that anymore." Which of course meant she risked being thrown out sooner or later when her usefulness ran out; not that she bothered mentioning that since it pretty much spoke for itself.

With Little Kong back, and Kurai handing the balloon to her she took it and looked it over curiously. She thought about Kurai's instructions and then shifted her focus onto the balloon. "I've never tried to do something like that before... let's see." She knew how to manipulate her chakra, of course, because she knew how to cast jutsu. However, she had never attempted something quite like this. She concentrated on the balloon, falling silent for the time being, and began to attempt to use her chakra to burst the balloon.

At first the water within it only moved a little bit. Then, slowly, it began to move faster; moving in a cicular motion. The balloon itself stretched and shifted as the water was moved, but not nearly enough to actually break it. With brows furrowing Namie concentrated on it harder, putting more focus into her task: she was determined to break the balloon, as she figured there was likely a point behind such a not so simple exercise.

Word Count: 494 + 1,691 = 2,185

Namie's brows furrowed further: this task was a good bit harder than she originally had thought. It seemed like no matter how fast she caused the water to spin within the balloon via using her chakra she couldn't get it to pop. The balloon would simply stretch, its shape manipulating but not breaking. However, Namie was one very determined individual, so she wasn't going to give up anytime soon.

Out of the corner of her eye she watched Kurai go sit nearby, clearly keeping an eye on her while she tried to break the balloon. Little Kong began to do a variety of poses, though she didn't watch enough to figure out precisely what he was doing. Even a dark mass moved over top with what looked to be glowing red eyes; it was surrounded by crows, some of which landed near Kurai. Given Kurai's lack of response to the crows she figured it had to be one of the people who had helped take over the village.

Namie's focus remained on the balloon and an idea came into mind. She had been up to that point moving the water in a single motion at any given time. Figuring she migth as well try making the water within the balloon chaotic that's exactly what she did. Focusing further she began to cause the water within the balloon to swivel and shift in different directions. The balloon buldged and rippled on the surface; stretching in several different directions at once. This only drove Namie on further, focusing more and more and refusing to give up. After just a bit more time the balloon suddenly popped; exploding as the water splashed everywhere. The sudden pop caused Namie to jump, startled, and then grin from ear to ear: not even bothered by the bit of water that had gotten on her.

"Excellent. What's next?", she asked curiously, turning her gaze from the pieces of balloon laying on her hand and onto Kurai.

Word Count: 335 + 2,185 = 2,520

Kurai told her nice work which was one of the first compliments she had been paid in quite a long time, causing her to grin from ear to ear. "Thanks.", she responded. She watched him pull from his robes a red rubber ball; a lot thicker looking than the balloon she had just popped. She caught the rubber ball and glanced it over curiously, taking note of how thick it was, and how it was filled with air. It had been easy to burst the balloon once she figured out how to control the water within it using her chakra and because the balloons skin was so thin, but she had a feeling the ball filled with air was going to be a lot harder. Still, she wasn't going to give up just because the task ahead of her was hard.

"I'll pop it no matter how long it takes.", she responded to Kurai after his question. She then fell silent as she put her focus on the ball. She tuned out everything around her and simply focused on the ball. She began to swirl and move her chakra within the ball just as she had done before with the balloon. However, this time around, there was no water to move, nothing to force the ball to pop and expend that was an actual substance.

Her brows furrowed as she concentrated on moving the air in the same chaotic fashion that she had done with the water. As she concentrated so hard a single drop of sweat rolled from her hairline, down her cheek, and dripped off of her chin, but she didn't pay it any attention. Eventually her tongue slipped between her lips as she just kept focusing on the task at hand.

It took a while, but soon enough the rubber ball began to behave in the same method that the balloon had. She continued to push her chakra around in multiple directions at once, causing the ball to forcefully change its shape in ways it wasn't meant to be. After pushing it harder and harder the ball, just like the balloon filled with water, popped. The pop was louder than the balloon's had been, and it caused her to jump in a startled fashion before grinning ear to ear once more. "Wow... that was harder than I thought would be.", she said as she turned her pink colored gaze onto Kurai. "What's next?" She was definitely determined not to give up after coming this far, and she was sure that whatever she was going to eventually going to learn was definitely going to be pretty powerful if she had to go through all of this to learn it.

Word Count: 460 + 2,520 = 2,980

Namie watched Little Kong return with three balloons filled with water, and then turned her attention back onto Kurai as she awaited her next set of instructions. She listened as he explained that the first test was to test her control and the second was to test her power. Now, it was time for her to combine both of those. Her new task was to manipulate her chakra in such a way that the balloon would become a perfect sphere. There were two extra balloons in case the first one happened to pop.

Namie looked down at the new target within her hand and thought about the way manipulating her chakra both times had felt; both in the control test and in the power test. She took a moment to think about how to combine both in such a way that the balloon wouldn't pop. After some thought she put what she already had learned into practice. She started out slowly, building up her chakra from very little and slowly adding to it. Just like before her chakra began to move the water within the balloon and shape it. Portions of the balloon buldged and changed shape at first, becoming irregular.

But, after a short bit of time the buldges became less and less as the water continued to churn and move inside due to the chakra she was continuing to manipulate within it. Eventually the balloon began to change into the shape of a perfect sphere, with a great deal of power within the balloon itself, yet enough control to keep it from popping as the water swirled and twisted within it. When she was satisfied that the balloon resembled a perfect sphere she glanced over in Kurai's direction while contining to keep the majority of her focus on her task. "I think I got it...", she said softly.

Namie was beginning to feel the drain that manipulating so much chakra was causing, and knew that whatever she was learning was definitely going to be chakra taxing. But, she also knew it was going to be powerful, and she was determined to finish learning it. If anything it would be her trump card in case she ended up getting herself into trouble she couldn't otherwise get out of.

Word Count: 380 + 2,980 = 3,360

When Kurai said that she must be wondering what all of this training was for she nodded her head in agreement. She watched then as he produced a blue colored swirling ball of chakra; just by looking at it she could tell that it was powerful just as she thought it would be. Sure enough this would be something she would only use for emergencies as it would be rather chakra draining. She listened as Kurai called it Rasengan, and explained that it's an advanced jutsu most people didn't learn until they were a Jounin.

Namie nodded her head, figuring she wanted to try and make it at least once even if it wasn't nessecary. So, with quite a bit of ease she held her palm out and formed a blue ball of spiraling chakra within it; effectively using the Rasengan technique. She held it for a moment and then allowed the chakra to disperse with a grin. Sure enough she could feel the drain that the jutsu had on her, but it was awesome that she had learned it just the same.

"That's awesome. Thanks a bunch. I think I'll save that as my trump card in case I get into trouble. I can definitely feel it uses a lot of chakra when I do it.", Namie would respond, thoughtfully.

Word Count: 225 + 3,360 = 3,585