For Want Of Crumbs

[Tsedas]

Within the western District of Iwagakure a shop's light went out before the front door opened and a tall woman stepped out, her red hair flowing behind her as she emerged from the shadows and spun on her heel to slid the door shut. Slipping a key into the door, she twisted it with a satisifying kachunk as the latch locked into place and she was officially done being a peddler for the day. While she was able to peddle the weapons and such on her father's side of the shop, she much preferred the mundane and useful everyday things she crafted sold. Nails, pots, pants, cooking implements and beyond. She was no stranger to forging weapons, but making a thing that would see more daily use and often got used more widely than the shinobi tools was something she took a little pride in.

Stepping down along the street, she twirled her key ring on her finger as she walked only for her stomach to let loose a terrible noise and she stopped dead in her tracks. Clearly she was hungry and clearly she was being compelled to find food now. Looking around however, she almost started to sweat as she realized most shops were closed or closing up! She needed to hurry and find a place that was open and could handle a hunger woman's request! Walking more briskly she moved up and down the street in a panic before watching the last shop close it's door and lock.

Staring in disbelief down the street, she was doomed to starve. No open food stalls, shops, or other such avenues of eatery would be left open elsewhere in Iwagakure by the time she arrived and she knew her coffers were empty since she hadn't gone to the store yet. She lamented not closing earlier, but damn did she make a killing in sales today. Heaving a sigh before her stomach did the same, Enkouten Hisone started to trudge her way back towards the clan compound, hoping that maybe one of her fellow clansman would be kind enough to lend her a bowl of rice or some kind of skewered meat.

"Starting to regret not asking someone at the compound to run some errands for me. Gonna be a long night if no one has any food left over from dinner or has enough to lend me something." She moaned while raising a hand and placing it over her stomach as it once again echoed the cry for sustenance and fullness. "I could always ask that guy who came in for pots and pans to cook for me.... but he might set his house on fire. How the hell does someone melt a pot anyway?!"

[Kanade]

Kanade sat atop the western District of Iwagakure’s shopping district, looking up at the stars. She had come here to get away from the bustle of the streets below and being a kunoichi meant that walls and rooftops were less obstacles and more extra walking space for her. She sighed as the last of the lights on the street went out, only leaving the streetlights below. The stars were muted here, and she missed every single one she couldn’t see because of the light pollution around her. She had taken trips to far off lands, Kirigakure, Waterfall, hells, she didn’t even know some of the countries’ names she had been to. She was a wanderer, but the lack of starlight, the creeping white light that made its way across the vast navy blue to black canvas that stretched on from horizon to horizon, only dimmed by the light of the moon and a campfire about a half mile off where her bedroll was. She couldn’t ask for more than that.

“So much of the night is made up of the stars, and yet, the village doesn’t turn out the lights in all parts.” She glared at the place where her restaurant was, the glaring red lights of the establishment across from it already starting to seep into the other parts of the city’s network of streets, like so much blood over the streets, windows, rooftops of Kumogakure.

She shook her head as her own scream echoed, unheard but remembered at full volume, in her ears. That was a long time ago, she wasn’t even the same woman anymore. Looking down, she saw the woman that had just turned out the last light of her shop and started talking to herself. Evidently this building, the one she was sitting on the roof of, was the shop of this Enkouten woman. Auspicious, perhaps, that the last of the food stalls and shops had closed up, leaving Kanade above the woman who was lamenting not having a bite to eat.

How to approach this situation? Jump down, say ‘Hi, my name’s Kanade?’ She was likely to get a knife in the belly. Rolling her eyes she sped across the rooftops, jumping down into an alley that was on the route to the Enkouten compound and rounded the corner. She feigned keeping her head down, opening a scroll that contained the schematics for a set of medical supplies she was thinking of making for herself and bumped, on purpose, into the woman.

“Oh! I am so sorry.” She heard the woman’s stomach growl and gave a smile, “You hungry? I was just going back home, and I live above a restaurant. My apartment burned down about a month ago.” She pointed back to the Enkouten compound. “If you don’t mind the scenery, I can get you a hot meal for bumping so rudely into you.” She put her hands together, bowing her head and closing her burning orange eyes. Her hair fell in front of her face, bringing its own heat between the two women. She would only look up once acknowledged.

[518/???? Nanowrimo]

[Tsedas]

The person that bumped into her sent that jolt up Hisone's spin as she almost went for the weapon tucked away on her person only to stop as she concluded that a threat wouldn't just pop up out of nowhere, let alone in the middle of the village. This wasn't Kirigakure after all. Looking them over, they held the tell tale signs of her clan and when her gaze met them, her stomach growled. The rather on guard look that was visible upon Hisone's features remained serious as she jolted her own hands forward to grab up Kanade's. "Cousin, I graciously accept the offer for food."

I'll take someone possibly burning their house down as long as I get food in me. And why is it I keep meeting the people that have accidents involving fires?! She thought to herself as she released the other woman's hands and motion for them to lead on. "Clearly you're an Enkouten, what might your name be? I'm Hisone." She stated, getting the formality of learning the name of yet another member of the clan out of the way. Impossible to know every Enkouten, at least when you were someone like herself. She left it to people who liked that kind of thing to do in her stead.

"I don't suppose you have an idea of what you plan to cook?" She asked, poorly hiding the fact she was practically salivating at the idea of consuming something, anything really, at this point in time. Hisone had reached the point where hunger was driving her brain and she'd walk willfully into a pitfall trap if someone stashed a cooking chicken in it.

[Kanade]

Kanade opened her mouth as the other Enkouten called her cousin, wanting to correct her and about to say that she wasn't an Enkouten, but stopped herself as the girl shook her hand and motioned for Kanade to lead on, "I'm Kanade." She hadn't technically lied, therefore, about being an Enkouten. She couldn't help that she was inhabiting the body of one, after all, and she wanted to do the clan proud.

"I was thinking that we could do sushi cups, I have a fun little recipe for them, they're super cute and so delicious." She considered, "That plus some cold sushi would be quite the meal." She reached up a fingertip and tapped her lips, her incandescent orange eyes narrowing, dimming them a bit as she held out a finger, "Go and start up the ovens for me." She told the butterfly, and then the pearl morphos that usually were surrounding her fluttered off in a quick rush of silent butterfly wings.

"They're quite handy in situations like this. They'll at least get it going by the time we get there." She rounded a corner, the red lights of the brothel across from the restaurant spilling their light into the street, stretching the two girls' shadows behind them. The sounds of shamisen and sultry giggling by the girls across the street from her restaurant which had only been murmurs before could now clearly be heard.

"There it is, The Herbal Remedy." She pointed to the building right across the street, the sign that had a mortar and pestle, overflowing with foodstuffs overhung the wood and steel door. "I can also cook other things, if you're not into fish." She smiled as a couple of butterflies brought back a menu. She handed it over to the girl, "Anything on the menu or off it. I am in need of some company tonight, it's a bad night for me to be alone with my thoughts." She alluded to the fact that today was the anniversary of the day that she had been imprisoned by the Raikage, questioned for Maido's actions.

[Tsedas]

Hisone motioned for Kanade to lead on and she followed after her, the pearl morphos doing little to deter the Enkouten woman from the promise of a meal as she pondered a few things in regards to the butterflies. Never the less, she sallied forth and cast a glance to the brothel as she followed after Kanade into the restaurant. " The name says 'tea shop' more than restaurant in my mind... or some kind of apothecary place. Why settle for that name?"

As a menu was carried by butterflies, she furrowed her brow in trying to figure out how something so lightweight could even carry the menu, logistically it made little sense in her mind. But she quickly threw out the sparrows carrying a coconut line of thinking as her eyes wandered over the menu. " Sushi cups seem nice, but I've been yearning for a nice noodle dish. Cold soba with a dipping sauce or fried rice and curry. Whatever I you make, just promise you have wasabi or chili oil to go with it."

At the mentioning of a bad night to be alone, Hisone lowered the menu and looked to the other woman with a raised eyebrow. "Is that a red flag and I should run now or were you hoping for a distraction of some kind? I'm not terribly good at reading subtly so if you desire companionship then I can provide but I'm not the best therapist."

[Kanade]

“I was told that too, when I had settled on a name and people had started to come in. I do sell teas, and some of them are medicinal, but the regular patrons all know that I make more than just tea.” She placed her overcoat on the coat rack near the entrance and ran her fingers through her hair a couple of times, “I actually sell food to customers sometimes that help with ailments, they have Iijutsu infused into them, and the people that come to me for treatments usually have one thing or another wrong with them. Before I opened this place I was only a medical kunoichil, and all my free time went to the hospital. I figured that people could afford food more than a hospital bed, and after I tried my healing food at the last festival in pebble-.” She shrugged leaving the rest up to interpretation.

“I’ll make both, and we can share them.” Kanade cracked her knuckles and put on an apron, “The chili oil is on the tables, the wasabi I’ll get when we get to eating.” She moved to open the cupboards, grabbing spices and nodding to herself more than her customer, “My mother actually passed this very day about six years ago. I get rather pensive on my own, so having someone to keep me company is a good distraction.” Kanade looked over her shoulder and grinned at Hisone, her right hand instinctively and subconsciously going to her own stomach, just below her belly button, “No need for therapy, just for company.”

Kanade hummed as she made the dishes, the spices of the curry filled the restaurant while she made the dipping sauce, turning the sugar and dashi in the mixture of mirin and soy sauce. Scooping out the soba, she added it to a couple of cold plates before bringing out two bowls for the curry, a red chicken curry, and poured the curry into the bowl beside the rice so that the rice was on one hemisphere and the curry on the other, “The curry is a bit spicy, so careful.” Kanade warned before setting out the plate with wasabi, pickled ginger, and freshly chopped green onions all arranged beside a bed of soba noodles in front of Hisone. The next thing to come was the curry bowl, and finally the sake, warmed to just the right temperature and some oolong tea.

“There,” Kanade smiled with a deep satisfaction looking at her own dishes which mirrored Hisone’s and waved a hand at her guest, “Dig in!”

[Tsedas]

Listening to Kanade speak, Hisone could only give a simple nod with a silent 'o face' of acknowledgement. As they mentioned mixing iijutsu into some of the cooking, Hisone had to stare off into space for a moment as she tried to wrap her mind around that concept. There was a lot of theoretical contemplation before she remembered she didn't know much of anything about iijutsu and crumbled that mental sheet of paper into a ball, chucking it into her mind's trash can and replacing the long string of words with 'FOOD MAGIC' and nodded her head again. As the other woman stated they would make both, Hisone's stomach shouted 'Hurray!' by audibly growling and making the Enkouten look down at her offending biological self. "Hush you, food will be soon."

Kanade's explanation of the events that transpired on this day in the past made Hisone fold her fingers together as she took a seat of her choosing. "Company it is then." Hisone tossed out at the clarification that Kanade merely wished for someone to be there in the moment. Looking around the shop, Hisone leaned back in the chair and craned her neck, looking about the place thoroughly before setting the front legs of the chair back on the ground. She could smell was was being concocted in the kitchen and it wasn't helping her angry stomach as it twisted and turned, throwing a tantrum for not having delicious food inside of it.

When things started to come to the table, Hisone salivated at the meal before her and when given the go ahead to dig in, she clapped her hands together, "I humbly accept!" She almost blurted out before snatching up chopsticks and getting a big heaping of soba, dipping it, and slurping it down. After swallowing the first mouthful, she plucked up a lump of wasabi and popped it directly into her mouth, humming happily as she grabbed more noodles. As she finished a second healthy grab of noodles, she used her chopsticks to pluck up a piece of chicken and popped it into her mouth. the familiar tingle of spicy curry mingled with the soba and wasabi, and she practically melted from the flavor. "Sho gud." She said with a mouthful of food.

[Kanade]

Kanade dug into the food with a ravenous hunger, she missed being hungry when she was an elemental body. She had also missed sleep. There were times when she yearned so much for sleepiness, and for actual hunger when she had inhabited a body made of silicone. She had simulated these, but now that she had regained them, she thanked Thabisa profusely for the sensations that she had been feeling before.

She smiled at the compliment of 'so good' through a mouthful of Soba, "I am glad you like it," Kanade managed after swallowing her own bite, looking around the mostly dark and large sitting room of the restaurant, "So what do you do for fun, Enkouten-chan?" She was using the honorific and the girl's last name, as it was respectful, and she had just met her. Not being on a first-name basis she didn't want to be rude, "Or I suppose what is your role in the clan?" Her glowing orange eyes looked up from the bite she was holding to Hisone before placing the large bit of food into her waiting mouth, munching on it rather loudly even though her mouth was closed.

She sometimes forgot to eat, like today, and sometimes she staved off the feeling of needing to eat just to experience the full sensation of ravenous hunger. Everything always tasted better right before getting the sick shaky feeling of being 'truly hungry'. It was a mere coincidence that this girl had happened along when she was starting to feel the sharp edges of hunger encroaching on her stomach.

[Tsedas]

Plucking up more Soba, Hisone set them on the edge of her plate, twirling them in the curry sauce before taking up the nest of noodles and popped it into her mouth. A glob of curry nonchalantly marring the edge of her lips that she was quick to lick away. With the question exiting Kanade's mouth and flying through the air like a hunger seeking missile, it missed the chewing maw of Hisone and instead hit her in the ears. Looking up from the food before her, the Enkouten woman brushed some of her hair away from her face, tucking it neatly behind her ear.

With a definitive gulp, the curry soba went into the cavernous maw of her stomach and she raised the back of her hand to her mouth as she cleared her throat before speaking. "Fun is in high demand but little supply for me lately. I don't have a boyfriend or girlfriend, most of the friends I made are either clan members who are on missions or people I met in the academy... who are on missions. And with the whole invasion of Wind Country on the verge of picking up, they're snatching up the chance to try and get some of that good old fashioned glory. Really wishing I had a pet or something so I could say I spend time cuddling with a small adorable creature, but alas it's not to be." As she finished that long winded way of saying 'kind of not much' she took a big heaping of rice with some chicken and shoved that into her waiting mouth. Chewing for a bit, she motioned with the chopsticks at the door they'd entered from. Swallowing before she continued speaking, "I'm often forging stuff like other clanmates do, I suck at making weapons so I branched out to other things. Tools, nails, cookware, that kind of thing. As for the shinobi role, I know some lava and some weapon stuff so I go do patrols and missions from time to time. Need to honestly get back to training so I can get better."

Taking another bite, she mumbled out some words that sounded like 'what about you?' or something close to that while gesturing to Kanade. With her own question asked, she continued to eat, popping another bite of rice with chicken and sauce into her mouth. As she chewed she thought before motioning a thumb to her own back, swallowing as she spoke again, "Although I suppose you could say I like getting tattoos. Only have two at the moment, but the one on my back is pretty big and took a while."