[Mikami Kouki]

The Wind Calls I'll follow till I know.

Breath In

The rays of the sun bathed his sitting form, warming his skin and bringing a pleasant tingle. The blades of grass pressed into his crossed legs, as they bent under his weight, crushed for now but resilient enough to recover.

Breath Out

His ears twitched at the sound of birds chirping around the training field, the jingle of feathers as they took flight. It mixed with the rhythm of the flowing water from a nearby stream, never ceasing and ever going.

Breath In

The earthen scent, of were soil and water intertwined, met with the lingering one of burnt bark, where someone had practiced lighting jutsu. His nose took it in and knew this was a place where the cycle of renew and destruction was constant.

Breath Out

The breeze rustled his hair and Kouki could feel the wind, as it carried the song of nature. It’s rhythm echoing for all to hear, if you listened. He was centered, still like a rock, making the song reverb through him. Kouki’s heart slowed and then matched it…One Beat...Two Beats…Three Beats… Four beats…. And then it skipped one, throwing the whole thing out of sync.

Kouki could feel nature but he could not feel nature. A sigh escaped him, shoulders dropping, as he rose from his meditative stance.

His hand ran through his messy mop of hair. "Right, enough practice. Time to go.”

Setting off Kouki, made his way through Kumo and absorbed the way his village had changed and grown during his absence, He had already made few treks but it was still exciting to see it, it felt so alive. That of course didn’t fix the fact that he was unsure what his place was in it, or what place he wanted to have in it. It would always be home but he was just so uncertain about everything else.

Humming, he nodded at the security and made his way into the Raikage’s tower. Passing through a couple of checks and after confirming with the secretary, Kouki finally made his way into the Raikage’s office.

It spoke about how out of touch he was that Kouki hadn’t actually met his village leader, at least this one. Sure, his grandfather had mentioned, so he technically knew there had been a changing of the hat but he had missed it, too absorbed in his training.

Admittedly, it was going to be a weird first meeting, considering Kouki had requested a consultation about where he stood in system and what was going to happen going forward. He had expected someone from the Academy to respond to his message though, or someone form the administration, not, well, the village leader.

As the door closed, Kouki made a shallow but respectfully bow in greeting. "Greetings and thank you for having me.”

You would think his time with the Northern Pack would have made him more wild but Boss Lady had beaten etiquette into him. So, Kouki kinda of dropped into it instinctively, seeing as he was facing a leader and it was a formal meeting.

Of course his image was slightly ruined, when after coming up from the bow he shuffled and scratched at his neck. "I kinda expected something more.. uhh.. entry level, meeting wise. What with this not being that important and with the, I think, the chuunin exams going on?”

---

hirana kizumi

OWL

[hirana kizumi]

Kaede and his apprentices were a weird kind of subsection of Kumogakure’s forces—shinobi, yes, but they had their own goals and priorities, the protection of nature chief among them. The wolves were allied to Kumogakure’s cause but not truly part of Kumogakure, and there was a certain extent to which Kizumi had to make concessions on a shinobi’s training or time if there were Sagely Arts that needed to be done. Kouki had been training with the wolves for many years, to Kizumi’s knowledge, but it was only recently that he returned home with his tail tucked—no senjutsu, no shinobi headband, seemingly nothing at all to show for all his time and effort and passion. It just about broke Kizumi’s heart when she heard the news. Yes, the exams were going on, and yes, she was stressed out of her mind—but if she couldn’t make time for one wayward boy, then what kind of a fucking leader was she? "Hi, darling,” she said as the boy came into her office. "Sit down, make yourself comfy.” She set about making tea, a good strong black tea blend flavored with oil of bergamot. She did not reach for her liquor because her liquor was all in Akazaya. Travesty. "Yeah, the exams start in Akazaya in a few days,” she said as she set her water up to boil and spooned out the tea leaves. "But this is important, Kouki.” As the hot plate beneath her kettle slowly began to heat up, Kizumi turned to face the young teenager, leaning back against her liquor cabinet. "I wanted to touch base with you, see how you’re feeling now that you’re back in Kumo. Get a sense of where your training is at and what you want to do. Does that sound okay to you?”

Mikami Kouki -- 304

LAIKA OF THQ