Since Shizune's apartment was close to the Hokage's tower, Arina hoped that if she became lost in the village, that it would prove to be a useful landmark.
She walked down the street, not being able to contain the smile that overcame her features.
It was hard for her to explain.
She felt a strange sense of freedom in this place.
She decided to take a left.
Most of the streets led through blocks of apartments although she suspected others may open up onto shops and diners.
She glanced up then froze, her jaw falling open, for various people either fought or hung clothes up on thin lines. She watched the way their bodies twisted and jerked towards each other.
It reminded her of a violent dance.
Well, bar the grunts and ungraceful sounds of effort they expelled.
One person walked past her, slowing glanced, laughing gently at her amazement.
Soon she realised that most people wore their headbands on their...well heads.
So, Arina decided to go with the flow and change hers too for now.
It bounced about a lot on her neck too anyway.
Soon she walked further down the path, noticing how beautiful the streets were.
They were surprisingly clean and there were pretty signs that suck out from building sides and lanterns stung over the paths.
She stopped in her tracks suddenly. An amazing smell evaded her nose.
She snapped her head to the right to see a man in similar shoes and trousers to her but wearing a strange green jacket walking the opposite way. In his hand he held a long thick paper tray that held strange looking food on wooden skewers. She quickly turned to watch him leave before running after him.
Running infront of him she came to a stop, holding her hands out in front of herself.
"That!" She pointed at the food.
"It smells amazing! I have to know what it is."
The man chuckled awkwardly.
"It's dango from the shop just down the corner." He turned to face where he had come from.
"Go down there, take a left, you will come to a street that goes right, it's right on that corner."
As soon as he had finished she had taken off in that direction.
Thinking again she stopped and turned to wave.
"Thank you!" Her voice was raised loud enough to carry to him.
The man awkwardly raised a hand and turned back to the way he was walking. He turned his head to see she was gone already.
Shaking his head, he once again chuckled.
She burst into the shop, startling some of the customers.
She wasted no time making her way to the till.
The man behind the counter approached her, a kind smile on his face.
"How much is it?"
"40 ryō for three skewers"
As quick as she could, she pulled the money of out the purse (Shizune had been extremely generous but Arina understood this was a one time thing) and almost threw it at the man.
he walked back to collect the food and handed it over to her.
She collected it and hurried over to a table, taking a seat and staring down at the snack.
Anko watched the other woman with amusement as she stuffed dango into her mouth, groaning with happiness. When The girl caught view of Anko's amused look, she swallowed, embarrassed and reddened.
Anko liked games and she decided to start a new one.
She wondered how uncomfortable she could make the other.
She intently studied her face.
The girl had intense green eyes, a thin and slightly turned up nose and thin lips.
The girl didn't have any freckles or spots (her skin seemed...kind of new) and although she had tried to tie her hair back, parts had fallen out and messily sat around her face and neck.
She seemed skinny.
'Well, not if she keeps eating dango like that' Anko though with a mean grin.
Surprisingly the girl just stared back, quirking an eyebrow.
Since Arina had been in the house for so long, she had spend most her time reading and had shown interest in the actions and thoughts of many characters. One she was trying to learn was to drop the feeling of embarrassment. She hated the way it felt and as the character had said:
"Who cares what others think, my life isn't their story."
Also she had met some really quirky, mysterious and daring characters who had sparked her interest.
Anko rose from her seat and took one next to the girl.
Her hand reached for one of her dango sticks but the other girl quickly defended her food with a pointy skewer. The two cackled loudly at their antics, causing a few other diners to look round but neither cared much for their opinion.
"So," Anko began, "just who might you be?"
"Hmm. Let me see." Arina gave her a look.
"I am either Arina the A: the highly acclaimed jōnin B: the far away princess of great lands or C: the nobody from another village"
Anko gave her a comically thoughtful face before starting.
"Well..." She picked up the girl's hand in her own, "your hands are far too soft and well kept to be a jōnin"
The thought had not even crossed her mind.
"And sorry to break the news 'princess' but I'm sure a real princess wouldn't be shoving dango into her mouth like that in a little store like this."
She let go of the girl's hand to raised her own to wipe crumbs from under the other's lips.
"Here's my problem, Arina. I can tell that you are definitely not a nobody. Not to me, anyway. So, my Warrior Princess, I guess we'll have to have a further talk about this some other time. For I am Anko, the real highly acclaimed jōnin who has shit to do!" She stood up , arm raised in the air and the other on her hip.
After that, she made her exit.
'Shit,' she thought, 'this girl was impossible to make uncomfortable.'
She smirked, she always had liked a challenge. I mean hey, she was kinda cute after all.
After the dango had been devoured, she set off again, walking through the streets until she came to a stretch of path through the woods.
Curiosity got the better of her and she started down the grassy path, occasionally having to pull herself over fallen trees or duck under broken branches until she came into a large grass clearing.
Feeling the heat beat down on her, she took a hair tie off of her wrist and tied her top higher, letter her pale stomach see the sun. It looked like it never had before.
Seeing three large shapes, she made her way towards them.
Suddenly she was sure she saw something move to her left.
She whipped around to be met with...nothing.
Eerie.
She changed her course to the line of trees to the left instead. Slowly she did her best to creep through the thick trees, hoping to catch a glimpse of the animal responsible.
The sound of something cutting thought the air caused her to turn in time to see a kunai implant itself into the trunk of a tree and before she knew it she had been tackled to the ground by an orange blob.
As they fell through the air the last words she heard were
"I got you now, Sai bastard!"
Before they both connected with the ground
A/N: just wanted to say that if anyone is interested, when I pictured Arina, I saw her looking a bit like Effy from skins (without the makeup since she had yet to discover her style) I saw her as being naturally skinny and being pretty not not all the guys stopping to stare. Some would think she was pretty, some wouldn't. Just like any other normal person.
Jónsi - sticks & stones