This was it, he finally had made it to the village. He looked up at the enormous entrance doors, the impossibly high walls preventing him from seeing his new home until he was already inside. It sucked that they weren't open. He raised a hand to his mouth, the other adjusting the heavy travel pack on his back as he yelled, but not too loudly,

"Hey! Is anyone there!?"

No answer. He sighed and set his bag down on the side of the vast dirt road. Sitting next to it, he opened the top flap, digging through it for the last of his food, surprised that he had made the journey with plenty to spare. He grabbed a half squished loaf of bread, some fruit that was just starting to age, and his last cranberry juice box. He favored the juice first to the dry meal, against his better judgment, not noticing the figure sneaking up behind him until they yelled quite suddenly.

The voice wasn't menacing, but still very loud. The sudden disturbance caused the young boy to jump backward from his sitting position into a rough handstand, his feet went over his head, aligned perfectly for a double kick, though it wouldn't cause too much force trauma from lack of strength. He looked below his fast traveling feet to get just a glimpse of what the other, older sounding man was wearing, it was a lot of green, the boy's feet were arcing directly for the point that would easily drop most male opponents, so maybe his lack of strength wouldn't be an issue with his accuracy.

These were all of the thoughts that went through his head as he prepared to finish the strike, until his mind finally started to process what the man had been yelling.

"Hey kid! What are you doing outside the vill- Gah!"

He connected perfectly, landed in a crouch facing away from the man, ready to run as he heard the other hit the ground. He immediately took off, running shoes digging into the soft earth to propel him forward at immense speed for a twelve year old. He ran just two steps before hearing a loud pop-whistling noise and took a quick glance back, white smoke and a log being the only thing near his backpack that was left behind. He didn't question it, this was the land of ninja after all. He turned to look forward to where he was running, ramming right into the same green that he had took note of just a moment before, though the guy in the body suit was a LOT more solid this time.

The boy bounced right off the ninja and hit the ground, nose bleeding before he could register the pain. He covered his now red face, trying unsuccessfully to stop the blood flow. He looked up to the tall man standing in front of him, barely making out a disapproving look through his tearing eyes. The man spoke again,

"Are you some kind of trouble maker or somethin'. I haven't seen you around before, but we don't need any more scoundrels kid ninja running around here. Where are your parents?"

The younger tried to say something, but it couldn't be made out through the mixture of blood and hands, so the adult just lifted him by the arm, standing him up.

"Alright, lets get you cleaned up first. By the way, the name's Guy. Might Guy, but you can just call me Guy or Guy sensei, though I still don't recall seeing you in town or at the academy, so maybe just Guy."

The kid muttered something to the rambling adult, though he didn't seem to hear. Instead, the elder just made a real corny joke, laughing at it like it was the best thing ever, not noticing the boy had walked off with an unamused face. The boy moved back to his pack, still left on the side of the road. He pulled a handkerchief from one of the pockets to wipe up the blood, his nose had already stopped running by the time Guy had noticed he was left standing on the other side of the road. The adult walked back over to the boy, a miniscule amount calmer than before.

"So, I told you my name, I'm sure you haven't forgotten it, but I don't yet know yours."

It was a statement, but the boy answered the coming question anyway.

"I'm-. I'm Kanso Amsel. I'm not from around here."

Guy gave a slight nod as he thought. Kanso was an odd name, but at least sounded like it was from the local area, Amsel was another matter though.

"Where ARE you from then?"

The boy looked like he was about to answer, but quickly changed his mind, mirroring the same question.

"Where are you from?"

Guy smirked,

"Why, I'm the strongest ninja ever to live in the Hidden Leaf Village!"

The tacky dressed adult struck a pose, pointing to himself with his thumb, his teeth were so white they nearly flashed the sunlight back at Kanso, who shaded his eyes anyway. The boy said in a calm, cool tone,

"I highly doubt that, but I believe you when you say you're from the Village Hidden in the Leaves. This is it, right?"

He motioned to the enormous gate that still struck awe inside the boy, he only let his interest show in an expression of determination.

"Anyway, Mr. Guy, I come from all the way past this land's borders, across the sea, from the center of an entirely different continent."

He looked back at the adult who was surprisingly unsurprised. Kanso raised an eyebrow, usually the locals couldn't believe a kid had traveled so far. Guy's face hardened again, he asked a question in all seriousness,

"You aren't a spy are you?"

Kanso blinked as his thoughts flooded through shock, confusion, anger, amusement, then back to shock. He asked with honest curiosity,

"Why would you think I was a spy? I'm like... twelve."

Guy threw his head back and laughed loudly, Kanso jumped back, alarmed again. The adult looked back at him with true amusement,

"Of course you're no spy! I could tell right away."

Kanso's eyes slitted,

"Then why did you ask me?"

Guy choked, knowing he had been caught in a lie by a kid, though he still tried to play it off.

"I, uh, you can never be too sure!"

Guy muttered something to himself that sounded to Kanso like 'no, you fool, say something cooler!' Kanso sighed and turned away. Guy took notice this time, looking over the boy's shoulder as he dug through his bag. Kanso pulled out a cloth roll and started to take his shirt off. Guy, suddenly alarmed, looked around quickly to see if anyone was nearby, hissing at the boy,

"What are you trying to do, make me look like a perve?! stop!"

But Kanso's shirt was off, Guy sighing when he realized the boy's black sleeves were actually a long sleeved shirt under a short sleeved one. Kanso held the blue shirt he had been wearing in front of him to look at the damage. The collar had stained a purple-brown and would likely get worse as the blood dried. He stuffed the soiled garment into the bag and unrolled the cloth he had just pulled out. It was another short sleeve shirt, this one was dark red.

"I wish I was wearing this one instead, then my favorite shirt wouldn't be ruined."

Kanso glared back at Guy, anger finally rising in him, though his face only showed slight annoyance, his eyes held his real emotion. Guy flinched slightly at the sea of venom that shined, or rather, shaded from the boy's eyes. Guy tried to divert the conversation to something else,

"So, uh, your trying to get into the village, huh? I can tell the gate keepers to open it early for ya, hehe."

Kanso took a deep breath, shuddering slightly as his lungs filled completely, he held it for a moment, then let it all out in a quiet sigh. He turned away from Guy again, focusing once more on finding something specific in his bag. He talked over his shoulder in a cool, but not too cold, tone.

"I don't need your help, and I don't want to bother anyone else. If the gate is going to open anyway, I'll just wait. It's my fault for being early anyway."

He grabbed a book and simple pencil from the bag, sitting down to face the gate entrance. The pencil touched paper and was off, making lazy, slow strokes in the book. Guy looked closer at Kanso, thinking he wasn't writing so he must be...

"What are you drawing?"

Kanso didn't look up at Guy, but occasionally studied the gate with quick, but intense stares.

"The entrance to the village, what else?"

"Well... there are lots of things you could be drawing. Trees, birds, flowers, the most awesome ninja around-"

Guy took the same pose as before, pointing back at himself like he was, in fact, the $hit. Kanso shook his head slightly.

"Don't you have a job to do? If your a ninja, which you undoubtably are with that smoke and log trick from earlier, shouldn't you be doing certain things?"

Guy blinked at the boy before answering.

"Well actually I was training, I'm in between missions right now, fifty laps around the town is my warm up!"

Snap

Kanso looked down at his hand, holding the two halves of his pencil lightly. He coughed and asked Guy to confirm what he just heard,

"Fif-Fifty?"

Guy was a little surprised at the kid's reaction to his routine training exercise.

"Er. Yes?"

Kanso neatly placed the two halves of the pencil in his bag, Guy got a quick glance at the drawing before it too was put away, everything seemed well proportional for just an outline, and the top corner of the wall had just started to have detail added in, it was spot on. Kanso then faced back to Guy, his face stayed lowered and his voice was monotonous if a little sarcastic.

"Is that standard training?"

Guy chuckled,

"No, just a personal choice. There are a lot of ways to train, but this is probably one of the most effective methods."

"Running until you're dead?"

"Just 'till I need a break, pushing the body to it's limits is how you make those limits less... limiting."

Kanso looked up with a blank face, eyes again being the only way to tell his emotions as they glared into the adult's face, the elder could practically feel the flames of the boy's determination, which in turn, lit a fire inside himself. It made him feel excited, but nervous.

"How long until the gates open?"

"A-about an hour or so."

"Fine."