[Suzuki Taru]

Tucked between the training grounds and the Waruichi clan compound was an area of the city dubbed the Garment District, a selection of high-end marketplaces dedicated specifically to clothing shopping. This was an area of the city that Taru had, perhaps obviously, never been to. Clothing had never been a high priority for her. She preferred something practical and comfortable, the kind of thing that wouldn't disrupt the nature spirits she so often wished to find. She was also supporting herself on a small income, so extravagant clothing purchases weren't exactly on her priority list as someone with neither the funds nor fashion sense. 

Still, Enyo had asked to meet here today! Taru saw no reason to say no, and was always eager to venture into new experiences. She knew little about the production of clothing (beyond what she vaguely knew about the Waruichi), so perhaps there would be something fascinating to find hiding between all the colorful fabrics. 

She arrived in a timely manner. It seemed that she had, at least, taken it upon herself to brush her hair and pluck out the twigs, though her mane was still a relative mess. She didn't care much about her appearance, but Enyo did, so going through the effort didn't bother her any. Her clothing did not demonstrate this same effort. To fight the cold she wore a loose "cloak" that was really more like a sheet of fabric she had cut a hole in and thrown over her shoulders. 

"Good afternoon," she greeted cheerily when she spotted Enyo, waving and jogging over to meet up with him. 

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

This was among Enyo's favorite parts of the entire village, and a place he visited often when he was not entertaining himself in the Kuronmeru compound, entertaining being an optimal word here as he very rarely left the compound outside of when he was bid to do so. Most often, he was trying to catch his brothers messing up or cause them to mess up so he could try and take their 'superior' mantle. It had not yet happened, but he could smell it in the air. Soon.

The much less spiritual youth had invited Taru out, not because she was his teammate, or that this meeting was needed for bonding reasons. Not at all. This was not a priority. It was moreso, that he hated looking at her. She was a sight for sore eyes, not a shred of style upon her shoulders and yet she carried herself with a confidence that really was ill-founded. She should be hiding her face in a bag somewhere in the young genin's opinion.

He was just at the entrance, not quite in the district yet waiting for Taru when she had arrived. He almost puked at the fabric she was wearing. It was truly a sin. Enyo, who was not equipped with any of his usual weaponry regretted the decision immediately as he very much wanted to stab his own eyes out. Or maybe, he could kill Taru then he wouldn't have to look at anything but her dead body. THAT was optimal.

Unlike Taru, Enyo was dressed in the finest. It was his going-out clothes, not quite what she had seen in him before. But very obviously tailored to him and his slim body. With flowing sleeves and beautiful thick thread, the fabric itself was silken and red to signify his almost noble status in society. His hair was tied up neatly in an intricate bun with a few decorations pinned throughout. It was all quite effeminate in some manner of speaking.

"They'll think I'm with a lunatic. Did you even look at yourself before walking outside? Do you OWN a mirror, or are you one of those slummy people?"

Suzuki Taru

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[Suzuki Taru]

The outfit the young boy was wearing was very fancy. It seemed like he was ready for some truly special event, but this was just a shopping trip. It seemed a little impractical to her, for him to be wearing such a complicated outfit like that when they were going to be walking around. At least it made more sense than if he wore it on a mission - that would be really restrictive. Seeing it made it all the more evident how much he cared about fashion. It confused her greatly. 

"I own a mirror," Taru answered, waving her hand dismissively. "Connecting with the reflection of yourself is important to connecting with your spirit. But I don't really care about how I look," she said. She looked down at the fabric she was wearing, tugging it straight as if she could somehow figure out what was so wrong with it by staring at it harder. It looked fine to her. It was warm and easy to wear and even had a fairly neutral pattern, good for camouflage. This kind of perspective really confused her. 

"Does it matter if they think I'm a lunatic?" It didn't matter to her one bit. She was pretty used to it, in fact. 

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

The statement made no sense, and whilst Enyo was more prone to manipulation tactics, this made him raise an eyebrow at the girl, breaking his facade for just a moment.

"Is your spirit not part of how you present yourself physically? Surely it is how people perceive your spirit." Which was important, but perhaps they had entirely two different definitions of what 'spirit' meant. To Enyo, a spirit was not just some metaphysical thing, but rather the energy with which one carried themselves, and it translated wholly into one's looks. In this case, it seemed he had at least somewhat won the argument because Taru had argued to a shopping trip. His treat, of course, he couldn't expect someone of her clearly inferior stature to have the money to shop in the garment district to any significant extent.

"Well, sure." He would begin to walk, stepping over the threshold into the actual shops of the district.

"If they think you're a lunatic, they may not sell to you." The people, especially the merchants, well they knew what they were selling, and the value. Taru perhaps did not think it was necessary, but it all translated as well to real life. What you wore made you stand out, or not. One day she would go on a mission that would require the knowledge of being more sophisticated with much nicer clothing. What would she do then?

"Fortunately you're with me and most everyone knows my family." He noted. His family. NOT his clan. Though his clan was great as well, his family was different and unique.

Suzuki Taru

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[Suzuki Taru]

"My spirit is my ethereal energy bound to this physical form," she said. "Your appearance sometimes reflects it, because it is an echo of the self, but that doesn't necessarily mean they have to match perfectly, or that you have to dress up to satisfy it. I'm not a materialistic person," she explained to him. She had never cared that much about objects or owning them. She cared more about experiences, going out and facing things, learning, developing. Looking a certain way didn't matter for that. "What satisfies me is being one with nature." 

She followed him into the market, looking around with grand curiosity. At least the things here were interesting to look at. There were many vibrate fabrics, a feast for the eyes. There was probably a story to every stitch and that part of it did interest her extremely. 

"Anyways, if they don't sell to lunatics, then where do rich lunatics get clothes?" Taru asked him, apparently genuinely curious. She started to look around. "I'm lucky enough to have an escort, but not everyone will."

"What would you have me wear anyways? An outfit like yours? It's nice for you, but I'd be too uncomfortable. It looks hard to move in," she said, looking over the outfit.

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

That mumbo-jumbo about the spirit and 'ethereal'-ness, well none of that made sense to Enyo and he didn't really acknowledge it. In fact, he deliberately chose not to acknowledge it because he thought it was kind of stupid. He could not imagine being materialistic. The entire world was made up of materials, and to not use them was just silly. She most likely did use materials without realizing it, but of course, one could always take it a few notches. To a certain degree... Enyo believed that if he had it all at his disposal, then he might as well indulge in it all. Gluttony was in some manner one of his worst sins.

Her statement about being one with nature had Enyo smiling, not in a friendly way - though it could easily be mistaken as such - but in a different way.

"Well, then why are you here, go run around in nature." Why be part of a village if one wanted to be a hermit? Such an ironic concept.

"Rich lunatics, look as if they are not in fact lunatics, so they sell to them." The wealthy had a privilege, a very unique privilege of looking 'normal' and sounding 'normal'. This was also the case in Enyo's family, even though Enyo himself would deny his own alleged lunacy.

But finally to the topic at hand the boy shook his head and twirled once as they walked. Showing off the loose but fitted flow of the expensive fabrics.

"It's not uncomfortable at all."

And then his eye caught something, a merchant that focused on the creation of hakama. "Oh! Here we are!"

Suzuki Taru

aeron at thq

[Suzuki Taru]

It seemed that the two of them really couldn't have a meeting of the minds. Taru could go run around in nature if she wanted to, but that really wasn't just the point. She wanted to not only connect with it, but understand it. That was why she had come here. To understand the nature of chakra and to learn to develop it as well as gain the ability to protect the natural world around her. Maybe she could try again explaining it some other time, though. Right now they were focused on the much sillier task of clothes shopping, a hobby apparently exclusively accessible to the rich and not-loony. 

Enyo gave a twirl, then had his sights caught on a clothing shop and went in that direction. It seemed like maybe it wasn't as hard to move in as Taru had initially thought from the first look. 

As they approached the merchant shop, Taru began looking at the clothing on display. It primarily seemed like the stock was made of long, flowy pants. She tended to prefer shorts and skirts, but these didn't seem half bad on first look. 

"Is this a place you like shopping?" She asked, sticking close to his back and, for his benefit, doing her best not to look too out of place, even if her outfit garnered an occasional stare. 

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

Whilst normally, hakama were almost exclusively for men. They had a practical use to them, and shinobi needed practical movement. So, he had the idea to put Taru into something flowy, but nonetheless easy to move in. He didn't want her in some restrictive kimono. Those were more traditional for tea ceremonies and the like, or even festivals to honor ancestors. In those, you were barely able to shuffle along. But, it was not as if fast movement was valued in such situations. But, not the point, he was being considerate - something Enyo had a very difficult time doing, but aesthetically speaking he felt Taru would look good in a boyish outfit anyway with her wild hair and mannerisms.

"I sometimes get hakama tailored here, yes." There were many shops he liked to visit, all of them specialized in one thing or another. Rarely were they mass-produced, usually almost always hand stitched. Beautiful craftsmanship most certainly.

"Uh, excuse me!" He would call out to the merchant, who was a middle-aged woman with a stern face. She knew Enyo though, so it seemed her expression softened with his presence.

"My friend here needs to be fitted into some hakama, could you maybe put her into some of these?" He pointed towards a black set with a truly ivory belt.

The woman nodded and picked them up before roughly whisking Taru off into another room to put her into the pants and making sure to pin them to her form.

Suzuki Taru

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[Suzuki Taru]

Just hakama? It seemed so strange to get just one type of clothing from somewhere. Taru had never really been to a store like that. Back in her home village, her family had made all their own clothes. There weren't really any merchants there to sell. Sometimes they would come by to sell clothing, but usually they had unaltered fabric, and the family would have to sew things for themselves. She learned the skill when she was pretty young, though had never become an expert in it because it had hardly mattered if the fabric looked rough so long as it worked. Here in the village, the places she shopped were mostly similar. Small market merchants who sold many pieces of clothing pre-tailored. Or she bought fabric and hastily put things together herself. 

She did not have time to communicate that, though, because Enyo was dealing with the merchant. The merchant who quickly whisked her away. There was a bit of back and forth, some questions about sizing and comfort about which Taru was mostly unhelpful. She didn't know a lot about this kind of thing and cared even less than she knew, though she gave her best effort. 

When the pinning was done, the woman brought Taru back for Enyo's judgement, rightfully assuming that Taru wasn't meant to have final say on this. The woman gave Enyo a raised-brow look, as if asking 'where did you find this one?' The silent judgement of the upper class. 

"These aren't so bad," Taru informed Enyo, mildly surprised by it. "Are all the fabrics you wear this slippery?"

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

"They are not slippery, they are just not irritating to the skin," Enyo responded quickly, with a bite when Taru was brought back out. He rolled his eyes a little bit mostly towards the woman who had been pinning Taru up to this point and had clearly been a bit displeased by Taru and her lack of... Being able to answer questions properly. It was about personal comfort, so to think that Taru was all over the place was likely very annoying.

Either way, the black hakama looked like they fit right and with a nod, Enyo would reach into a pocket where a purse was sewn into he would rummage around briefly before placing an appropriate amount of ryo for the hakama and the tailoring service. Taru would have her previous garments shoved against her and the two of them would be out of the shop and now Enyo was looking for a totally another shop, and of course, if anything would catch his eye he would take pause to inspect it. If he liked it, they would enter. If not, they would continue on.

Shopping could be quite annoying, but in this case well it wasn't so bad. If one had the patience and was fully engaged in the art of fashion.

Suzuki Taru

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[Suzuki Taru]

Enyo was so easy to work up. She wondered if it was bad for his health? Maybe being that irritable was important for a Kuronmeru or something. Like the black blood needed to stay boiling in order to be at its most effective and deadly. She'd never spent any specific extended time with a Kuronmeru before now, so she didn't know if that was really the case at all, but if she was looking for possible explanations, that one at least provided a little possibility. Taru carried the old fabric of her previous outfit in her arms, looking around with Enyo. She would stop to inspect things when he did, but did her very best not to stray. 

"...Thank you for paying," Taru offered him after a moment. It was probably considerate to say that at this point. She really didn't have the kind of money for this. She didn't expect it to be so expensive. "If these get damaged on a mission, do I have to bring them back here for repairs?" She could fix them up herself, but she wasn't exactly sure what the rich etiquette with regard to that would be. Her stitch work would almost certainly be sloppier than a "professional." 

Finally, some outfit seemed to actually catch Taru's attention. She took a few steps away from Enyo to look at it. 

It was a hakamashita kimono that came in deep blue and came with a matching obi, kagome pattern. It was a very traditional pattern, but also one associated with driving off evil spirits. 

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

Enyo shrugged, he had the money. He had a lot of money. Regardless of what he made on his mission trips - which were enough to cover random things, like his fashion hobby - he had a lot of money from his family. The Kuronmeru's were notoriously wealthy, but also quite secretive. Enyo's family was particularly wealthy it seemed, and he was raised with not silver but rather a golden spoon in his mouth to use valuable metals as measurements.

Her second question was at least something of Enyo's interest and he looked at her with one of those strange smiles that he had. Like a fox, or a coy doll. Ephemeral in a way, pretty, but something was always off. It was hard to pinpoint what, but for now, at least it seemed somewhat genuine with the words he spoke in pairing to his smile.

"Yes, but it's included with the price you pay... So you could patch it up at home, but why do that when the nice seamstress can fix it up as nothing had ever happened before, hm?" He would nod a few times and then would make a specific turn towards a yukata shop. There were a few winter-colored ones this time of year, and they sold Hanten which would be perfect.

"Hmm hmm... Do you see any design you like?"

Suzuki Taru

aeron at thq

[Suzuki Taru]

Included in the price! That was interesting. Maybe that was why it was so expensive, then. There was basically an eternal guarantee that someone would help fix it up if it was ruined. That kind of service was a completely alien concept to her, though she adjusted to the idea very quickly. She would still do a decent job to make sure the pants didn't get ripped or anything, but it was almost comforting knowing it could get handled easily if something happened. She tended not to be very cautious, so it would be a shame if they were ruined on their next mission after this or anything. 

At the shop of Enyo's choosing, Taru picked up the top that sparked her interest most. It seemed like she mostly favored neutrals and blues. Lucky that she didn't tend towards purple, since that would have been all the more costly. After some contemplation, she showed Enyo a black hanten and a deep greyish-blue top to go with the hakama. Though there were a few more eclectic styles she could have selected, even she was wise enough to know how to match clothing when that was the specific quest. 

"What do you think?" She asked him. 

[Kuronmeru Enyo]

blood as black as the ocean

Enyo waited for a response, for once he was patient. It seemed that he had a lot of patience when it came to this sort of thing. Dressing up, and looking very nice. It was something he took great pleasure in, he also took great pleasure in making others look nice, just so that he didn't have his eyes bleed when he was looking at them. To him, those that dressed nicely spoke a different language than the rest of the world and he could tell who did and who did not. Even more, Enyo took great pride in manipulating people with his looks. Even for one so young, he understood the strengths of being able to look upon someone with youthful features and an innocent smile to convince them of anything he wanted.

The girl picked. It was not a bad choice. The winter colors also suited her hair rather well. He would ponder it, tapping his lower lip as he looked at her and then the clothes.

"Yes. That'll do." He would nod very slightly, it was clear she had his approval on the topic but he appeared restrained in his show of the approval. Much like his family did, showing restraint for exciting things. It always felt like they put down the interests of others... And in truth, well, they were. Dampening excitement to allow for a feeling of superiority to filter in. Yet for Enyo, he didn't fully understand this, quite yet. This was only a mimicry on his behalf.

So he would motion the store owner over, and once again Taru would be whisked away for a fitting.

Suzuki Taru

aeron at thq

[Suzuki Taru]

He liked that decision. That was good! Maybe it meant she was learning something here after all, even if she wasn't exactly sure what it was she was learning. All things had a purpose. This, too, would be useful. This, too, was meant to be. Maybe thinking of it that way would allow her to pay better attention to all this and not dismiss internally as unnecessary and silly. 

With that idea equipped, she followed the owner into the back of the store and actually paid some mind during the fitting, answering the questions slightly better (though her lack of experience and knowledge was still somewhat evident). This time, when the owner brought her back out to the front with the top and jacket properly affixed, it wasn't with any frustration or disappointment. Maybe mild confusion at worst. 

She still presented Taru for Enyo's approval, though. It was rather evident Taru didn't have the money for this maybe. 

Taru did a little twirl for Enyo's benefit. She quite liked this. It was warmer than what she had previously been wearing and almost as comfortable, the expensive fabric doing a good job of flowing. 

"Thank you for your help," Taru told the shop owner, giving a little bow like she had seen others do (but rarely bothered to do herself).