[Graded][Plotboard] More than a Merchant

[Willoria]

[Plotboard] Lets see who you are Runar walked through the village, fully armed as usual today. He kept a short-sleeved shirt on, if only because it made others uncomfortable if he just walked around shirtless all day, even if it was how he preferred things. His shield was on his back along with his sword, his axes on either hip. He noticed more than a few looks he got from others, but ignored them entirely as he made his way to the market. He ignored the people he passed, the children that were out playing, just about anyone.

Before long he carried himself to a small general store, bringing a light smile to his lips as he pushed the door open and stepped inside. The sound of the little bell made him chuckle as he glanced around at the various items for sale, pausing at a counter that listed 'high end goods' and smirked as he noticed the jewelry in the locked case. They were the same pieces he had sold Sakiko on behalf of her mother not so long ago, and when he looked up he was surprised to see who he assumed was the mother at the sales counter.

He brought a hand up, touching it flat against his chest over his heart briefly as he inclined his head. It wasn't quite a bow but it was the closest he would give. "I was hoping your daughter Sakiko might be in." he remarked with a smile. "Is she around?"

[Kabu]

Fumitsu Shizuka, the owner of the store and Sakiko's mother had taken it upon herself to mind the store this day and even done a bit of maintenance, feeling that her daughter had deserved some free time as a reward for her hard work recently. She knew that it was hard on Sakiko to take care of her business for her so often but some part of her hoped that it would help to cure the girl of her everlasting shyness. That said.. she had noticed that Sakiko had seemed unusually upbeat upon returning home the other day.

As if on cue, the door then opened and a large man decked out in weaponry came in, her brow raising. This was the man whom she had sent Sakiko to meet with just the other day, at least she assumed as such based on the various descriptions she had heard of the man. It was odd that this man had appeared. Perhaps he wanted to do business again? She would have been perfectly pleased had that been the case. The jewels he had provided had been of top quality and some part of her was eager to get her paws on more.

It seemed not to be the case however as he approached the counter and asked about.. Sakiko. He was certainly polite but what could he want with her daughter? "Why yes she is. Why do you ask?" the woman stated, her almost catlike eyes staring at runar, an almost mischievous glint to them.

[Willoria]

Runar couldn't help a chuckle at the question Shizuka asked. It wasn't the question of course, it was the tone. He could already see this woman was very protective of her daughter, and given how shy Sakiko had seemed the first time he met her he wasn't entirely surprised. He let out a breath and nodded as the question was asked, chewing on the inside of his lip a moment before answering. "We had a talk when she came to me the other day, we talked about a lot of things, including combat." he said, looking at Shizuka a moment. "She's only a couple years younger than my own little sister really... I thought I could help her train."

Of course he didn't mention that he was interested in helping the girl get stronger so that she could hopefully come on his summer raids one day. He wasn't sure how the merchant woman before him would react to the idea of her daughter going on such a task. It wasn't the same as most missions the village sent people out on, she might have thought it was too much.

[Kabu]

"She.. willingly opened up? I was wondering why she had taken so long. So that was it.." Shizuka spoke, clearly perplexed and more than a little surprised at the revelation. She had been trying for years to get Sakiko to come out of her shell.. but she did it on her own. Her expression soon however changed, making way for a smile and a light laugh. "Normally I would find this hard to believe, but in this instance it's clear that I have no choice. Sakiko herself is all the proof that I need. I've never seen her so happy, so energetic after returning home from a meeting." she said, a thoughtful expression on her face for a moment before the smile returned, that mischievous twinkle in her eye returning as she heard a side door open and steps come down the hall. "Seems like the girl of the hour is about to make her appearance." she said, clearly resisting an urge to tease her quickly approaching daughter.

It was soon that Sakiko arrived, seeming to freeze in place as she saw Runar standing there. "R.. Ru.. Runar, what are you doing here?" she stuttered, looking towards her mother who simply shrugged, and then back towards Runar. "G.. good day." she said as an afterthought, bowing her head. She had very clearly gone back to being nervous, though it was in part out of sheer surprise. What was he doing here though? And why did her mother have that knowing look. She could practically feel her face going red out of nervousness and.. something else that she couldn't quite place. Luckily though since they were inside, she stopped herself from running off and instead took a few deep breaths to calm herself. There was no need to panic.. but really.. What was Runar doing here? And why was she so nervous around someone that she already knew? It was all so strange..

[Willoria]

Runar didn't say much in response to Shizuka, only chuckled at what the woman said and mentally chiding himself. He couldn't help thinking perhaps he had been too kind to the girl before. He wasn't normally overly nice to anyone really and had only been as such to Sakiko because the way her shy nature reminded himself of his little sister. He had to keep from sighing heavily as he realized this, but managed to stifle it as Sakiko came into the room. 'Here's hoping this doesn't turn into something I have to actually do something about later.' he though to himself.

Runar's concern was more evident to him as he saw what was going on. His hands went in his pockets as he shrugged at Sakiko's question. "I told you I wanted to see how good you were with your bow, figured it was a good day for training." he replied. "So what do you say?" Of course, half the reason he was curious was to see if he could help her get better, maybe strong enough to one day invite her on one of his raids. Though it wasn't really something he was comfortable bringing up in front of the girl's mother.

'If she has a crush on me already she might be a bad idea to bring along... though perhaps she'll grow out of it too.'

[Kabu]

Sakiko blinked and tilted her head, evidently confused by Runar's response to her wondering about his sudden appearance. Did something like that happen..? It was just a very brief moment however before her face lit up in realization, fully recalling the conversation that they had had the other day. She certainly hadn't expected this so soon, but she was more than willing to go along, especially as he had gone out of his way to retrieve her for training. "Ah, hat sounds great. Just give me a moment to grab my bow and quiver and we can go." she said with a small smile, bowing her head before turning around and heading back into the house.

Once Sakiko was out of earshot, Shizuka let out a sigh, her playful mood seeming to be gone for the moment. "That went about as well as I had expected, maybe just a little better. She seems to have been keeping her breathing exercises in mind and her recovery time was pretty good as well. There's a long ways to go still but maybe one day she'll finally be able to get past this. I hope that it happens soon though, for her own sake." the woman quietly spoke to no one in particular, very obviously concerned for her daughter, whom entered the room again just a few moments later.

Upon her return, her hood up and bow and quiver secured in their respective spots, Sakiko was a bit confused by the mood in the air but she paid it no mind, instead turning towards Runar. "Alright, I'm ready to go at any moment."

[Willoria]

Runar chuckled a bit as Sakiko seemed to suddenly realize why he was there and took off to get her things. But his chuckle ended as her mother spoke, and Runar tilted his head slightly, giving her an odd look. "Something I should know?" he asked carefully. He wasn't entirely sure what to make of Shizuka's words. He wasn't exactly a man who knew what in the world would cause a young shinobi to require breathing exercises or really what kind of recovery entailed anything other than a good fight or hitting something repeatedly.

But moments later, Sakiko was back and the man turned his eyes back to her with a grin. "Good." he replied, turning for the door. "Let's get going, see what you can do with that weapon, kid." he added, glancing towards Shizuka. "Assuming it is alright with you of course?" He didn't normally ask someone for permission, but already he had a feeling that training with Sakiko was going to be different somehow.

[Kabu]

It seemed that Runar had apparently overheard her muttering but aside from a simple raise of her brow, she paid it no mind. It didn't seem that he had quite grasped the meaning of her words, though he would likely understand in time. "That's completely fine with me. It'll be good for her to spend some time with someone else besides me. Even better if she's getting some practice out of it. " the woman said, her tone level and serious, yet her lips turned up into a small, understanding yet amused smile. It wasn't every day that you got to hear someone asking for permission for something like this, though some part of her very well understood why he had. Training with Sakiko would surely prove to be a much different beast than anything that he was currently used to.

Sakiko meanwhile was watching the exchange with her head tilted, clearly confused at what was going on. It seemed that Runar had asked her mom for permission but why? It seemed that her mom understood the intent but she herself was completely lost. Oh well, there more than likely wouldn't be any problems, though she had to admit to being a bit nervous about showing her skills in front of another person, even with how readily she had agreed to this arrangement. "Alright, we should probably get going. We'll see you later mama." she said, turning for the exit herself only to be stopped at the door by her mom calling out to her.

"Just be careful!"

"We will!"

[Willoria]

Runar waved to the woman as he led the way out of the shop and started walking down towards the training grounds. He was still mulling over the strange interaction with the girl's mother in the store, trying to figure out just what he didn't know about the girl beside him. Did she have some kind of issue? He wasn't sure whether he was supposed to be expecting some over sensitive girl, or something else. He had no opinion on the something else, but he certainly hoped this wasn't about to be some encounter with an over sensitive child. 'Hardly worth Kiri's time... much less mine.' he thought to himself, finally turning to look at Sakiko himself.

"Your mother seems protective." He said as they walked along. He ignored the smells of the market and the foods for sale, despite the way his stomach growled at the smells. His mind was focused on training, or at least on evaluating this girl.

"I asked you last time if you had ever spilled blood." he mentioned. "Why don't you tell me about how you fight? Are you adverse to blood or looking forward to your first real fight?"

[Kabu]

"She can be a bit too protective. I may be a bundle of nerves but I'm not a child anymore." Sakiko said in response to Runar's remark about her mother. "That said, I really can't figure her out. Sometimes she's as you saw her but at other times she can be a real tease. I'm sure that she means well but still... I can't entirely get a read on her." she added, resisting an urge to sigh as she thought about the enigma that was her own mother, luckily being broken out of that train of thought by Runar speaking once more, asking about her approach to combat and how she felt about seeing action for the first time. It had certainly been an unexpected question, but it wasn't one that she needed to think all too hard about. She already knew her answer, it was one that she had had for a long time now.

"It's a little bit nerve wracking to think about but I would say that I'm looking forward to seeing some real action. As I said before, I typically fight at a range through use of my bow and I also make use of sound and touch based Genjutsu, though I'm thinking on ways that I could more easily get involved in direct close range combat. I don't know why, but despite any nerves or fear that I may feel, a large part of me actually finds the prospect of spilling blood to be.. exciting to say the least. What I really want though is to get over my current condition and really prove myself capable of acting as a full fledged shinobi." she said, realizing herself that this was really her first time telling anyone even this much. She of course had greater aspirations but she had already said a lot and as of right now she didn't feel ready to sahre those goals.. not until she had accomplished enough that she knew that she was ready to start moving farther along.

[Willoria]

'Bundle of nerves?' Runar couldn't help wondering what exactly Sakiko meant by that, the words sticking out in his mind and causing the man concern. She was a shinobi, how could a shinobi be a 'bundle of nerves'? He fell quiet, continuing on the way to the training grounds where he planned to test Sakiko's capabilities. Before long they were standing in an empty area and Runar took the bag off his back he'd had slung some time ago. At first the man motioned for Sakiko to stay put, while he walked across the training area and set up a target on the other side. After a moment he returned to where he had left Sakiko and motioned to the target.

"That's about a twenty meter distance... show me what you can do." he mentioned, waiting for Sakiko to prepare herself and take aim at the target before speaking again. "While you focus on the target, I want you to tell me what issues you have. What has your mother so worried about you?"

[Kabu]

Sakiko remained relatively silent as they walked, taking the time to mentally prepare herself, hoping that she wouldn't look like too much of a fool. Luckily, they soon arrived at their destination, Runar moving to set things up and she herself drawing her bow, giving it a once over to make sure that it was still in prime condition and didn't need to be tuned up or fixed at all. Of course it was in peak shape as she tried to take really good care of it but all the same she had been told that checking over her weapons before engaging in combat was equally important, though on actual missions it was to be taken care of before arrival.

Anyways, it was just a moment until Runar walked back over to her and she looked over towards the target he had set up. It seemed simple enough to hit, so long as she didn't lose her nerves and kept focus, which luckily Runar was, knowingly or not, actually helping with. A conversation would be a good help.. though she wasn't entirely comfortable with the topic at hand. Oh well, it was bound to come up with sooner or later and it was probably for the best that she explained everything sooner rather than later. She just hoped that it would go over well.. The last thing she wanted was to be thought of as weak and dismissed.

"Well.. the short of it is that I'm simply shy and lacking in confidence. It's gotten a lot better but when I was younger it was nearly crippling. I couldn't stand being around anyone aside from mama. That was why I became a shinobi. I wanted to overcome my weakness, I stll do, but It's been a slow process and mama has been worried that I may always be like this." she said, planting her feet and drawing an arrow, her sights on the target all the while. She could feel herself momentarily shaking in fear from being watched but she willed herself to calm down, her movements steadying as she finally released her first arrow of the day, a satisfying thud signaling a success in hitting the target. "I believe otherwise. I just need to start working a lot harder."

JutsuShow

*[Flawless Aim Style • Sentinel Stance]
D-Rank Taijutsu Stance
A stable and steady stance practiced by nearly all wishing to use projectiles. At this stage they are planted and focusing on their arms and shoulders, moving in smooth motions to mitigate unnecessary movements that may ruin their aim.