[lonely] It Perched For Vespers Nine...

[Oak]

A kind wind blew across the face of a younger ninja, Ishiguro, Ren, causeing his hair to sway in the wind. He smiled politely in the direction of the wind, glad to know that the air was moving, hoping to bring in a weather change. He stepped though the doorway of the notable tea house, expecting it to be bustling with customers, but it was not. It was slightly vacant compared to what it normally was. Ren realized then, that it was mid morning, and most early tea drinkers already had their fill for the day. He adjusted his pants as they were sagging, and a waitress came over to speak to him.

"Hello sir, care for a seat?"

"Oh yeah, sorry. Got kinda distracted." He scratched the back of his head. He probably looked pretty interesting standing there, looking around randomly. Ren was embarassed.

He sat down by a nearby booth, which in then, the waitress gave him a decent sized menu, and some chopsticks. Ren smiled back to the waitress was he slightly opened the menu.

"I'll give you a few minutes to decide your order, sir." She smiled at him with the beaming smile all waitresses give you, trying to make you feel more special to them then you actually are. In all reality, this smile they believe gives them an extra tip, but no matter what, Ren tends to tip more than the average fellow. He couldn't imagine working in the food industry, he loved being a ninja too much. She walked away after the smile, and Ren opened his menu. Looking at the menu, he noted the prices of the food he had a taste for, and went to go check his wallet of Ryo to see what he wanted to spend on food. Upon looking down he noticed a small book sitting next to him, a notebook of sorts. It was smaller, black and was spirally bound. He, being curious, picked it up, and set it on the table, on top of the opened menu.

BG musicShow

http://joelpuckett.com/vespersMSU_files ... ce.mp3.mp3

He opened the thin, but hard, cover of the spiral. Inside was someones journal, or a diary of some sort. He quickly flipped through the pages, not really for information, but to see how much someone had written. To his great surprise, every page had been filled all the way up until the last page. on the last page there was writing, but it was only in the center of the paper. Just as he began reading, he was interrupted by a poke on the shoulder.

"Are we almost ready sir?" The waitress stood there hovering over his shoulder. She was beaming, of course, because of the hopefulness of a big tip. If not for that, she probably would be a lot madder that he could not detect her presence for a good minute or two. Awkward...

"I'll take the Yakisoba Special, with Chamomile Tea" he didn't even lift his eyes from the text. Attempting to read again:

"Sir--, Sir I need the menu!" The waitress was giggling. Ren looked up from the book and at the waitress, again embarrassed.

"Oh, I'm sorry..." Ren lifted the notebook and picked up the menu. He neatly folded the menu back up for the woman and handed it to her. She smiled and left back for the kitchens with his order, to in return, Ren re-opened the notebook to the page. The words were a simple poem, or a part of one at least. he mumbled them slightly aloud to himself.
"In Mist or Cloud,
On mast or shroud,
It Perched for Vespers Nine;
Whiles all the night, through fog smoke white,
Glimmered the white moon-shine." What could this possibly have ment? Ren read it over a few more times in his mind perplexed. He digested the stanza in a few minutes and started to get what it said. He pressed his fingers to the letters asking himself who could have written this work. Such odd, but powerful words.

"Here you go!" The waitress came from behind him and set his yakisoba special, and tea, off to the side of the notebook. Ren smiled at her as a silent thank you.

"We hope you enjoy!~" She had that dumb smile on her face.

Ren ignored the food for a few minutes. He copied the stanza into his own notebook on it's last page in the center just like the one he had found had. Once he had finished copying it, he shut the other notebook and set it to the side.He then turned back to his own book. He blew the ink dry, and took a mental shot of his penmanship. Very neat and exquisite. Ren shut his own notebook, set it on t of the found one and started eating his actual food. It was delicious! He took some sips of his calming tea and attacked at the large portion again. From behind Ren heard a deep voice:
"In Mist or Cloud,
On mast or shroud,
It Perched for Vespers Nine;
Whiles all the night, through fog smoke white,
Glimmered the white moon-shine." He quickly turned around to realize it was a higher level ninja of Kumogakure. He smiled and nodded, taking the seat across the table from Ren. Ren, however, still didn't seem to know what was going on. How did he know the poem in that book...unless!--

"The name's Arata, I'm a jounin. You're wondering how I recited that piece of poetry?" Ren inquisitively nodded his head, taking a sip of his tea.

"Well for starters that's...my...notebook you're spilling all your noodles over. But it's no big deal. I'll tell you a story:

That notebook as you can tell, was a man's journal. This man was in love with a woman of another country, the fire country to be exact. And they both were madly in love. One day, however, the man went to visit his girl. The camped out by the border of the Lightning Country...

They recited a poem together, one that she had told him of many times, it went as follows:
And a good south wind sprung up behind;
The Albatross did follow,
And every day, for food or play,
Came to the mariner’s hollo!

In mist or cloud, on mast or shroud,
It perched for vespers nine;
Whiles all the night, through fog-smoke white,
Glimmered the white moon-shine."

Well that poem, she never finished, telling him she would tell him the ending when the time came for it. That happened to be that night.

In the middle of the night, he awoke to her muttering by their fire. He went over to comfort her, but she screamed for him to back away. She was crying. She turned to him, and he could tell she was not the same girl. There was much evil in her eyes.

"NOWS THE TIME FOR THE LAST STANZA! READY?!" The man was so confused. Just what was going on? Was it a genjutsu? No, it wasnt. She spoke again in a concerning tone:
“GOD, SAVE THEE MARINER!
FROM THE FIENDS, THAT PLAUGE THEE THUS!—
WHY LOOK'ST THOU SO?—WITH MY CROSSBOW!"

She body flickered right in front of the man, kunai in hand.

"I SHOT THE ALBATROSS!"

She jabbed the kunai in as hard as she could, in a semi-vital area too. The man fell to the ground, starting to black out. As he was blacking out, he could hear her maniacal laughter in the distance.

The next morning, a return group of kumogakure ninja found him and quickly healed him with medical ninjutsu, saving his life with seconds to spare. He spent the next few weeks in the hospital, recovering from his wound. He vowed to track down his ex lover and kill her...I'm assuming you realize who that man is?" He stood up a little bit and lifted his flack jacket. A large scar was on his right side.