Thanks to my one reviewer i've decided to update sooner. So thank you, sorry if its short as well or if any errors are found. I am still on vacation many miles away from home.
Once again thanks for reading and taking the time to review.
I own no one but Red and some random made up villages (Utaku).
R&R
Chapter 2: Konan and Pain of the Rain Village
Red had travelled outside the village before with her father, she never got the chance to go on missions as a ninja because of the destruction the village had went under. So instead, she had helped the community, with physically labor, and because of that she had grown tone. Her muscles were lean, and defined, and her sleeveless black top didn't make it hard to tell. Her black tights snuggled on all the right muscle curves on her legs, from her thick strong thighs, to her thin ankle bone. She didn't have much fat on her, and though she didn't mind her body before, she was naturally strong before because of genetics, but this little labor she had to do, had set her body up nicely. She liked that, she didn't need to look in the mirror to know that she had a well built body, and she rather enjoyed the labor, she liked how her muscles burned when she worked them out, and she loved it more when she was sore the next day. It meant she worked hard, it meant she will be stronger. No pain, no gain, that was how the saying meant, and she fully approved of it.
The pass week she'd been traveling further and further away from her village, she had found little villages along the way to sleep a night in and wash up and eat, and sometimes, she didn't sleep. Right now she was in a small village of Utaku. It probably only housed about fifteen families, each having had perhaps 6 children each, they had a leader in charge, and he had kindly let her stay a night. After attempting to scare her with old haunted villages stories and failed disappointing. Red wasn't someone who feared many things, she'd seen and felt the rough edges of war, she's see people die, and she'd experienced the loss of people and how people really were, she had seen a lot in her young life. Ghosts and haunted things weren't going to scare her away so easily.
It seems this little village didn't train to fight or protect, she'd wondered how it was still standing, without being taken over by now by a bigger larger village, for more land. She was glad she didn't wear her ninja headband, they probably wouldn't have been so easy to let her in had she worn it. Nevertheless she had hoped not to grab so much attention on this journey but she learnt too soon that was inevitable. She was different; she looked, dressed and is very different. She had bright hazel eyes, like honey that glowed, and extremely long, silky brown hair, that grazed by her forehead and reached low on her back, against a pale face that seemed to shine and give off light. She was different than these men and women and children, she was different than most she'd seen.
They had taken her in for questioning before allowing her in, they didn't bother to think she would lie, perhaps because they knew no one would care for a village like theirs. They all bought the story how her parents had died in the war of the Rain village and how they were commoners with nothing but our family, and how now, she is an orphan and alone and the Village couldn't provide for her. They had gotten teary eyes at such a story, then again, it wasn't complete lies. She had never thought she had a mother, she never accepted her to be one. For all she cared and knew, she only had a father, and the war had taken him away from her.
After hearing her out they had prepared everything for her, a place to stay, food and water.
"Hey girl, you're not from here, are you?" Red glanced up at the man who had spoken, she was reading off of a booklet of wanted criminals all over the nation, with a map sitting beside her on the bench outside of the little motel she crashed into a few hours ago. He wasn't the first to speak with her in these few hours, and certainly not the last, though she could hope.
The day was a glorious one, certainly not one to be kept inside, the kind of weather you would expect to be lucky and full of joy. The sun was bright and warm, the breeze cool, not hot, nor cold, the smell of Ramen and Dango was in the air, with many stores along the streets and the villagers scurrying around getting to where they needed or wanted to be. However, this man was large, large enough to block the sun and create a shade on Red, for not only was he large in height, but rather both in height and width, not that she was short, his cheeks hung low and was round, his eyes hidden with how big and wide his face was. One glance was all it took for her to return to reading off the wanted list. She was reading about a man named Pain, he had gotten her interest because he too was from the Rain village.
"No" Red replied, short, quietly, and quick, before he could talk again, she uncrossed her legs and stood up, closing the wanted list booklet, and grabbed the map. She glanced at him once more, reaching to his chest only. "Excuse me" She turned and walked back inside the motel her hair slightly flying back as she walked. The stranger didn't seem to call her back, he only stared with his mouth parted, as if waiting for a spider to make a home there.
Her father had told her about being polite to everyone, he had told her no matter how much you hate someone to show that you are calmer and kinder, even when they are so crude and cruel. To some degree she had somewhat failed him, for it was hard to be purely kind when her heart had felt so much, but she tried even if it's not pure. He had also told her that you don't judge a person by what others say of them but what you see them as. Simply because we are all humans and on this earth together, and that this is how we should be to one another, but sadly there weren't much of those people around anymore. There wasn't much of her Father.
Tea was poured and little sandwiches were given on silver trays in her room. She lied down on the bed, arms behind her head. She wasn't sure where she was going, from what she'd seen in the world map, the Country of Fire was to the right of the Rain village, the Country of Wind to the south-west of the Rain village, and the Country of Earth, to the north-west. She was sure she had left at the direction of the Country of Earth, and she confirmed it with how the land and buildings were here. Yet again another knock at her door and she had no doubt that it was the man at the counter, who couldn't stop stuttering when he had first saw her sign in. She sighed and took a deep breath before getting up and opening the door. For the first time she as disappointed that she had been right, it was the man from the counter at the front desk. He was wearing his uniform a plain white shirt with black pants, and his name tag attached onto him. Tanoki Ken, that was his name.
"Was the t-tea and s-s-andwiches to your taste m-milady?" He seemed to pant a bit as well, his hair was plain black and short, with a plain haircut upon a plainer face, he was even slightly shorter than her.
"Quite" Once again, short, quick, and quietly was her reply, and boy can listen to her voice all day. Red had a soft, and smooth voice that didn't bother the ear to listen to. He seemed to shiver when she spoke, his smile widening.
"Is t-there I can d-do for you?" He offered, he looked like he was about to jump into action as soon as she gave him a request, and Red wouldn't doubt that he would do just that if she had asked for something, but to his disappointment she rejected and excused herself for the twentieth time that day and closed the door.
She took a shower and prepared to leave that night, wearing a sleeveless black turtleneck that reached her belly button, with a part of comfy loose black bottoms that tightened around her knees. She stuffed food and her washed clothes into her shoulder bag, grabbed her black cloak and stalked out of the motel that night. With the hood down she signed out, glad that it was another person in charge of the counter that night, a woman. While she too couldn't help but stare at Red, she was thankful at least she wasn't drooling.
The moon was full that night; along many stars above her, and the breeze with chilly. She thanked the leader of the village for the stay, and left heading closer to the Country of Earth, with the wanted list held in her hand down on her side, bookmarked at Konan from the Rain Village, a blue haired woman. She had seemed similar to Red before, as if she had seen her before somewhere in the Rain village, the memory had been warm and comforting but she wasn't sure if it really was her or someone else, because the warmth from seeing her in the wanted criminal list, certainly was not a vibe of a criminal. She didn't know much people, and she hoped Konan wasn't the crazy criminals that killed for no benefit but for pleasure, what she had hoped more was that Konan was misunderstood. Like her Father had told her, not to judge so quickly. It was a risk she was going to take, she was confident in her skills to at least get away, after all, Father was watching over her. But she felt, somehow, that she knew this woman, she just couldn't put her fingers on it. She'll just have to find out eventually, and hopefully not too late.
She flipped her hood up to hide half her face as she took the first steps out of Utaku into her next journey. To find Konan of the Rain Village.