The Nature of Clouds

[FluffyGinja]

'I think I officially hate stairs.' This was the only thing that ran through Ibuku's head as he finally got up the final step into Kumogakure. Although he had sent a letter to Aki ahead of time and had made sure to go through the proper channels of entry into the hidden village, he was severely regretting his choices now. His legs were on fire and his body was pissed at him. On top of all this, he could feel the odd shudder from Shizen as he got to the top of these stairs. Kumogakure wasn't anything like he expected. Industrial was the feeling that Ibuku gathered from it and it made his skin crawl. Metal structures, angular and unnatural feeling. As Ibuku rested there, hands on his knees and breathing a little heavier than expected, he let himself connect with Shizen. A connection that came with a certain amount of risk as Ibuku still has the frustrating penchant to lose himself to this... small primal part of the nature spirit. The part that he had yet to fully understand after all these years.

'I feel it too, it's... creepy. It feels like... I can't... feel the stone.' His internal voice was met with a more youthful sounding Shizen, but not an excited one. 'It is uncomfortable here. I can't believe my brothers would allow this... Is what I want to say. However, Konegu and Ryeunso both seem the type to want this sort of... perversion of all that is natural.' The voice that boomed from inside of Ibuku's soul always made him have to focus on it. Konegu and Ryeunso... The two spirits that were related to Shizen. One of them was Aki's, he wasn't sure which but the other... He would have to meet while he was here.

Right now though, he was taking a deep breath inwards and standing up straight. He didn't even know where to start. The more he looked, the more he realized how much of a maze Kumo actually felt like to him. While he looked, he could feel that far too familiar feeling of being watched. He stood out, after all. Twin antlers that rained down a local Kumo mountain flower. He was normally used to being stared at but being somewhere he wasn't used to... It changed the intensity of that sensation of being out of place.

[Kabu]

Yukana Hisako had been tense and on edge all morning as she followed and observed the boy, remaining just out of view. Eiko had had to take care of some errands at the Academy and so had left it to her to watch over their guest. She knew on some level that stalking wasn't what had been meant but... She wasn't sure of how to actually approach. She had a hard time dealing with members of her own village and now she was being expected to play host to a foreigner? She knew that Eiko wanted her to get better at socializing, and this was certainly one method of forcing human interaction on her, but still it felt a bit like being thrown into the deep end...

With that said... The boy himself didn't seem particularly comfortable either. Perhaps it was the stress of being in a new place or perhaps it was simply exhaustion, she could not quite tell.

What she could tell was that he appeared to be rather lost... Alright Hisako, I know you're scared but you can do this! she mentally pumped herself up. While she was doing that she slapped her cheeks, perhaps a bit harder than intended in her nervousness... as indicated by the loud sound it made and sudden pain she felt. "Ouch..." she muttered, rubbing her stinging cheeks as she jumped down from her hiding spot, landing right in front of Ibuku.

"H...hello, I'm Yukana Hi..His... Owwwww...." she attempted to introduce herself only to end up stuttering and even biting her tongue in the process. "I'm Yukana Hisako. Nakajima Eiko, whom should be joining us shortly, and I were assigned to watch over you during your time here." she finally got it out, her eyes tearing up in a rare show of emotion... but mostly pain.

As she awaited a response she inwardly she wanted nothing more than to run away and hide. This had surely made for the worst first impression ever... She had been overly nervous and she had even hurt herself. It would have been fine if Eiko was here... Hopefully she got here sooner rather than later otherwise who knew what else she would screw up...

[FluffyGinja]

If Ibuku wasn't nervous as is, he was the moment someone dropped down in front of him without warning. Before his mind could process any of who it was, reflex was catching up to him. He knew Kumo were allies but combined with the anxiety that he felt deep in his core from this strange new place and that he was having Shizen's own disgust... He acted just before he thought.

Hisako would see the eyes of Ibuku narrow rapidly, a sudden swirling of chakra that looked like a summer's breeze before it burst with crackling lightning around him. A simple jutsu, made at blinding speed with an intense power that went away almost as suddenly as it appeared as he held his hands up, his brain catching up to instincts that had been getting honed more and more.

'Hold, boy! They are friendly!' Shizen's voice bellowed in his soul, rattling his mind around and forcing him pause even more so, awkwardly standing for a few seconds before he was able to speak again.

"Sorry! Sorry, sorry... I didn't... expect to have someone suddenly in my face, uh..." His voice, a little deep with a slightly heightened pitch to try to appear more apologetic.

"Right... Uhm... Gotcha." He cleared his throat as he rubbed the back of his head. Awkwardness wasn't even the tip of the iceberg when it came what had just happened but he was trying to play it off as he looked anywhere but the person he nearly blasted with his full power. So much so that he forgot to even introduce himself as he was embarrassed by his attitude.

Almost imperceptible to himself but evident to others, there was this slight... full body shiver. He wasn't cold, but it was Shizen's doing. At least on first impressions... Kumo was not for him.

[Kabu]

As Ibuku narrowed his eyes and raised his hand at her Hisako didn't move. She knew a threat when she saw it but still she held perfectly still, albeit ready to dodge at a moment's notice. Had it been any other circumstance she may have gone on the offensive, and frankly even now was having to fight her instincts, but they were in the middle of the village. Besides... it was at least in some ways her own fault for scaring the boy by jumping down in front of him out of nowhere.

In the end her patience won out, the young woman letting out an exhausted sigh of relief. That could have been dangerous had it escalated to any degree. "No no, I share some blame for startling you." she awkwardly apologized, frowning all the while. This meeting was getting off to all kinds of bad starts and wrong foots... Honestly she wanted nothing more right now than to just run away and hide in a hole somewhere. That sensation was only amplified further by just how uncomfortable the boy still seemed to be as he even shivered... She didn't know if it was something that she did or if he was just cold or what... and that only made things all the worse.

And yet she knew that she had to hold strong until Eiko arrived. "So ummm.... Is there anything you would like to do? Someplace you'd like to see?" she asked, taking a seat on a nearby bench. As she awaited an answer she pulled out her flute, playing a few notes just as a means to calm her nerves. Even when she wasn't actually playing a song, just the act of letting out a few random notes really did work as a wonderful source of stress relief.