A tutelage- [Private]

[Hayate Fuku]

Well... I bet you're real fun at parties.

It had been a couple of minutes since the two had parted from the training field that Fuku had been both entertained, intruiged and annoyed by. Where a girl by the name of Yasui Iku had been stringing two guys. Naturally, the more cocky of the two began to take advantage of this... and revealed a little more of the personal feelings that Kuro had for the girl. It was unfortunate, too.

The streets of Kirigakure had settled down, it had just gone past peak time and people were returning to their work stations- Artisans carrying their raw produce, or hide, or whatever art it was that they pursued- you could hear the cries of merchants proclaiming their merchandise was the best- or the most top quality... there were beggars, children, Academy Students, ninja and all of these massive things combined into one. This were all in the streets of Kirigakure no Sato.

The boy didn't seem much for talking, and so it seemed it would be Fuku to be the one to begin talking. "I had the same problem when I was your age. She's my wife now. Women are a pain in the ass, I tell you." he gave a little chuckle, knowingly saying that in the hope that his woman wouldn't have all hearing ears and bring it up later when Fuku came in for dinner. Well, that actually wasn't happening either because Fuku was the one who was cooking tonight.

Shit. What do we have? His mind wandered for a moment, but returned with the snap of a sign in his vision- where he was going. "There it is, a little snack-bar. Best Fruit alcohol and food you can get. Well... you know what I mean."

He could remember when he stopped in here as a Genin- it was run by different people and man. Was he denied his alcohol- but Fuku just reasoned thati f he was old enough to kill- which he had by the ripe age of fourteen, then he was old enough to drink. "How are you feeling?"

The entire time he had only looked at Kuro once.

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[atrb=vAlign,top] Though the streets may have been bustling with multitudes of people it was all a silent murmur to Kuro. His mind was elsewhere, replaying the events that had transpired moments ago. For a girl he wasn't in a real relationship with he had certainly gotten pretty frustrated, to put it lightly, even going so far as to launch a kunai at a fellow clan member. Granted, he had never liked Izugetsu to begin with, but the fact that he could do that because of some girl meant that there was something more going on. What that was exactly the boy had no idea, and he probably would never figure it out. The man spoke, but his words meant little. Oddly because his ending was the last thing Kuro wanted. He didn't want to marry Iku, hell he didn't want to ever think about her again. But he was right that women were a pain in the ass, at least that part rang true. Kuro had no response, though he was mulling over the words internally. At least he was not the only one to have women troubles in his life time, though that only helped so much. His eyes shifted when Fuku spoke again, speaking of a snack shop. Food would definitely help take his mind off of things. The place looked just as it was described, small and with a singular purpose: to fill the stomachs of patrons with food and drink. Nothing fancy, and it didn't need to be. "I... I guess it can't get worse, right?" Kuro wasn't positive of that, but needed to start assuring himself that things would get better, lest he struggle with the memory of Iku for far longer than he wanted to. It was the first time he had spoken in quite some time and the more he could speak on other topics the better he would feel, at least that was the plan.

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[Hayate Fuku]

Fuku wanted to say it could get worse. A lot worse.

But he didn't . These streets were bustling and Fuku was getting hungry as shit. Fuku stepped through the Japanese welcome curtains, plonked himself down on one of the seats, and seeing if the boy joined him- looking over at the other customers before settling his eyes on their menu right above their heads, like a fish bar.

"Konnichiwa, Kozo-San." Fuku warmly greeted the man for the morning that came to the front- a man with a natural smile that could warm most people up. "aha, Fuku-san! Konnichiwa, how are things? And whom is this young master you have brought with you?" Fuku grinned. "This is Kuro-san, Kozo-san."

"Fantastic, welcome- Kuro-san! What may I get you two gentlemen?" Fuku loved coming here more than anything. The service was out of this world. Sure, it was a small place but the service guaranteed regular customers. It was a nice business- a nice little niché of Kirigakure no Sato that Fuku would remember and long for on a long mission.

"The usual please, Kozo-san." and Kozo beamed back at them. Fuku turned to the boy. "Shit happens, Kuro-san. I'm not going to tell you off, nor will I help you. Just take your mind off things. Besides, you better because I'm paying."

Fuku felt an area on his back to scratch, and panicked for a second- Samehada wasn't on his back. Before he forgot, and shook his head at his own antics. He had gotten so grown to the sword, he didn't want to lose it. The only time Fuku would pass with it would be two things..

And well, one of them was out of the question for a while.

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[atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,435,true][atrb=vAlign,top] ❝ YOU'RE SOMETHING DEADLY THAT I JUST CAN'T PUT MY FINGER ON. ❞ WORDS 349 TAGS characters NOTES write anything you want here!

[atrb=vAlign,top] Indeed this must have been a favorite eatery of the older gentlemen as he and the what Kuro assumed was the owner knew each other on a first name basis. Just how often did he come here to eat? Either the food was amazing or amazingly cheap, either way Kuro was going to have eat it. He wasn't particularly hungry at the moment, he actually wasn't much of anything; he was just kind of... there. A shell would be the best way to describe it. Something had been ripped from inside him, perhaps his heart, but the boy wasn't sure why. It wasn't like he and Iku were actually in a relationship, they just spent quite a bit of time together was all. Sure they had fun, but rarely shared anything deep. Rather, Iku may have shared some things but Kuro had barely paid attention and he certainly wasn't one to share intimate details of his life to what he considered an unusually long fling. Or was it more? Whatever it was it had ended in spectacular fashion much like a plane spiraling into the ground. The Hozuki nodded to the owner, he wasn't in the mood for speaking. Fuku had kept it simple and been rather blunt about the situation and exactly what role he was playing in all of this. To an emotional teenager the words could be seen as harsh and for a moment Kuro actually felt a bit worse but he knew the man had good intentions. After all, what good was a person who let their emotions control them so easily? No good, that was the answer, no matter if they were a shinobi or civilian. "Why does it hurt? I mean, we weren't dating or anything so why does it hurt?" That was the main question Kuro wanted answered. He needed to make sense of things and this was the first step in doing so. He needed to know why a non-relationship tugged so much on his heart strings, then he would go from there.

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[Hayate Fuku]

There was a little bit of a silence...

With Kuro's question came silence. Fuku knew the answer, but sometimes it was the harsh truth that hurt the most. Fuku knew the answer- but that would probably do more damage to Kuro. But it needed to be said. Fuku turned his chair towards him, his right hand resting his chin.

"Kuro." Fuku hadn't intentionally dropped the suffix, but heck- he did. "You like her. You like the fallouts, the arguments, the conversations, the smiles, her and as bad as it might seem, it's also jealousy because of that other Genin. You want her." Fuku looked away to see what Kozo was doing, "You might be wondering where Samehada is today. In truth, it's with my wife. I pumped Samehada with chakra- enough to satisfy it to allow my Kyoko-chan to wield it. She's still going to be weighted down, but Samehada will listen."

He could see in his expression that his thoughts were plagued by the image of the girl- internally, Fuku sighed. On the outside, his expression was firm, but soft. He could remember himself when he was coming to his friends with the same problems. He couldn't trust his parents, and not many people even knew that Kyoko-chan was supposed to have an arranged marriage with Fuku. They later got married on their own terms and feelings. That, felt a lot more natural and overall; better.

Fuku fastened the Katana on his hip to become more comfortable. It appeared that Kozo was whipping away in the kitchen in front of him, working on all manners of foods at once- a true multitasker. "You know, Kozo-san, I sometimes wonder your gender, with the amount of things you're doing at once." Kozo gave a big hearty laugh.

"Correct, Fuku-san! I am indeed a male. Well done, but you get a point for trying." Fuku chuckled back. Kozo truly was a nice man.

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[atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,435,true][atrb=vAlign,top] ❝ YOU'RE SOMETHING DEADLY THAT I JUST CAN'T PUT MY FINGER ON. ❞ WORDS 312 TAGS characters NOTES write anything you want here!

[atrb=vAlign,top] This wasn't what Kuro wanted to hear at all, especially considering his reputation. He was the king of the flings and always made sure to never catch feelings when it came to dealing with women. He'd always been able to have his fun and then cut himself from said girl when their allure ended. Though why couldn't he do that with Iku? She was slightly more interesting, but had little more than what the boy had seen in the past, and now this man was trying to tell him that Kuro had actually developed feelings? That couldn't be it... even though his words made complete sense. Then Fuku had the audacity to call the Hozuki jealous of Izu. That dwarf had nothing on Kuro, except Iku... It was almost as if Fuku had read Kuro's mind about the whereabouts of Samehada which was usually attached to his back. He wasn't quite sure how the dynamics of transferring chakra into the sword worked and then leaving it with his wife worked. Maybe it would serve as a buffer to fool the sword into thinking that his wife was him. If that was thec ase then that was clever, but if not then it was just an odd rumination of Kuro's fragile mind. "Ah, I was wondering where that thing was." For a brief moment his mind was taken off of the topic at hand, but that was short lived. "Can't be. I've been catching and letting girls go for a while now, and no one has had this impact. Ik-- She was a bit different, yeah, but nothing that should have had done something like this." He replied, still unsure of what exactly he wanted to say and more so just spilling words out of his mouth. Meh, this whole thing was messed up.

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[Hayate Fuku]

The feeling was the same.

However Kuro tried to deny it, the clear feeling was there and a man of Fuku's age could see it. His thoughts were interrupted when Fuku's food arrived, along with Kuro's. As he wondered about Samehada- and he could see it Fuku laughed a bit. "I give ir about half my chakra which satisfies ir and keeps it docile, but since it's a greedy bastard I give him to my wife, and it eats her chakra for a little while. Since it's quite buffered so to speak, it doesn't really notice."

The boy spoke and Fuku began digging into his food, arrrrrgh, I needed this so bad. it was a rarity to see Fuku in one of his natural and un-professional moods, and this was the place to go to see it. One place where Fuku learned to relax. "Arigato, Kozo-san." he nodded back his thanks, and went to serve some other customers. He quickly swallowed the brunt of his food, burning his mouth for a second and coughing- trying to wave the heat from his mouth. He looked over at the boy.

"I can't say I was the same, I've had my fair share of 'pun-tang' is that what you kids call it? Anyway. it gets boring after a while. The flirting is exciting, but then you find someone; someone who you do all of that with but then you find yourself attached. You can't see anyone being with them without you hurting inside." Fuku shrugged, and continued with his food.


"Truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just need to find someone you'll suffer for."

And in this case, it was Iku.

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[atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,435,true][atrb=vAlign,top] ❝ YOU'RE SOMETHING DEADLY THAT I JUST CAN'T PUT MY FINGER ON. ❞ WORDS 455 TAGS characters NOTES write anything you want here!

[atrb=vAlign,top] Seeing the food arrive was a welcome distraction from the topic at hand, as the boy had had just about enough of Fuku trying to tell him that he wanted Iku. Granted, this was more than likely the case but after all that had taken place today that girl was the last thing the Hozuki wanted to think about. The Genin nodded to the owner before taking a bite out of his food, it wasn't half bad. A sudden appetite had reared itself from the deep recesses of Kuro's stomach that had not been there moments ago. Amazing how heart break could screw with a persons other senses like that, and pretty damn scary too; one could only imagine what all would have happened to the boy if Fuku had not intervened. A glance over to the older man revealed that he was, too, enjoying the food. Kuro thought back to their first encounter... with Iku... and how calm and collected he was. This, to say the least, was the complete opposite. Then again, after hearing him speak about giving more than half his chakra to the sword it was clear that Fuku was eating to regain stamina in addition to filling his stomach. Having to do all that just to part with the sword for a day seemed pretty excessive, though for a being that ate chakra perhaps it wasn't after all. "Explains the ravenous appetite..." He replied with a joke, though his mind raced back to the meal he and Iku had shared at her favorite restaurant and the sheer amount of food she had ordered. His wallet had still not forgiven him for that. A quick shake of the head and another couple bites of food broke the boy from his day dream. A single eye twitched at the lame terminology used by Fuku, were all adults that disconnected with the youth or was this man just an exception? His words rang true, however, as Kuro did enjoy the carousel-like game he played with girls though had grown to specifically enjoy his time with Iku. Yes, he did flirt with her sister right in front of her but that was the only time, everything else just didn't seem to matter. "... Maybe if I would have opened up she wouldn't have chosen the imp. Tch, whatever, her loss." Depression had begun to give way to anger, after all it wasn't his fault that Izugetsu couldn't keep his small paws off of Iku so why should Kuro have cared that a girl fell for such weak charms? Going for someone like that surely meant that the girl wasn't up to the Hozuki's standards anyway.

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[Hayate Fuku]

It was starting to get a little annoying.

That was the incredibly wrong way to look at things. Fuku sighed and stopped eating his food. He watched Kuro eat his food. "Perhaps if you'd pay more attention to her, she would've have lost her nerve and moved on. Would you have opened up otherwise if she hadn't? and Continued like everything was normal?" Fuku had never had such problems with Kyoko. Well... ignoring the fact that he was originally supposed to have an arranged marriage with the girl. They only came together on their own terms. Years after abandoning his family and apparently bringing dishonor he and Kyoko finally got together. It was kind of weird, where before she didn't even have such a interest in him.

Speaking of which, he could see Kyoko coming towards the stand. Fuku gave a small sigh, any other time would have been alright for the woman to come- but not right now. Not when a boy needed a man-to-man talk.

"Hello, Fuku-kun."

A hand draped over his shoulder, Fuku nodded back. "Kyoko-chan." His head gave a very subtle nod to where the boy was sitting down, revealing that he was in the presence of another boy. She nodded too.

"I've just come to bring Samehada to you, Fuku-kun. He's being... irritable. I knew you'd be here around this time." she said, replacing Samehada's holder from herself to Fuku. She sat down next to the boy.

"Hello. And you are?" Fuku turned and went to interrupt before being shot a look that shut him up. He gave a huff an went back to his food. He looked up to see Kozo giving him a sly smile. "Go back to your cooking, Jiji^{[old man]."}

When Kuro had replied, Kyoko would smile back. "Either way, I'm Kyoko. That guy's wife, nothing important." this kid is cute... although a little tall for his age.

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-319 words
-Alternate Dialogue - 4DFFFF

[katas]

[atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,435,true][atrb=vAlign,top] ❝ YOU'RE SOMETHING DEADLY THAT I JUST CAN'T PUT MY FINGER ON. ❞ WORDS 394 TAGS characters NOTES write anything you want here!

[atrb=vAlign,top] Kuro was silent as the man spoke, his words a bit confusing but making sense in the end. There was no guarantee that even if the boy would have opened up Iku would have chosen him over Izugetsu, granted it wasn't like he wanted anything serious to begin with. Yeah, she was just a passing fling who may or may not have been a bit more interesting than most... all of the other girls that he had been with. Amazing how one so young had to deal with not only shinobi duties but also the throes of the heart. "... I suppose you may be right." He replied before digging into his food once more. The sound of a females voice calling to the older man caused Kuro to break from his consumption. Before she had even said another word the boy had figured out that this was the wife Fuku had spoken about moments earlier. Granted, it was always possible that he knew quite a few women in the village but seeing the familiar wrapped state of Samehada was a dead give away. Had the circumstances not been what they were the Hozuki would have laughed at her statement for the fact that the sword was sentient, albeit probably to a certain degree, was still a bit of a shock to the boy. "Kuro." The Genin attempted to sound somewhat normal in his reply and not give away the fact that he was in the middle of a pseudo-break up. Hopefully the woman would not inquire about his surname as one of the "lessons" Fuku had given in their first encounter about wearing his pendant and giving away his heritage had stuck. Though the necklace was still around his neck Kuro had tucked the charm into his shirt and would be sure to take it off once he got home. Kyoko was her name, interesting. She was definitely attractive though how she got matched up with Fuku seemed a mystery, and how she didn't get creeped out about being alone with a chakra eating sentient sword was an almost bigger mystery; love is tricky. "Nice to meet you as well, Kyoko-san." He added, wanting to ask a few questions about their relationship but fearing that it would involve too many mushy details that would only serve to upset him further.

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[Hayate Fuku]

Hey!

The woman looked quite astounded that Fuku was actually being neutral, let alone comforting of another Shinobi- albeit a child. She gave a quizzical stare to Fuku, and Fuku shrugged. He was too busy enjoying his food. Kyoko turned to Kuro.

"What seems to be the problem, dear?" Fuku himself gave a raised eyebrow. She knew what was bloody wrong! She was a woman. Fuku stopped for a moment. "Kyoko-chan. Please." Fuku stood up, having finished his food.

He wasn't quite sure what to say. Kyoko sighed a little bit. "Fuku, go for a walk." Fuku shook his head, picked up Samehada and left; leaving the two alone. "Konnichiwa, Kozo-san. Could I get some Miso Ramen, please?" Kyoko rung out to the older man. He smiled "Hai, Kyoko-chan."

Changing PC to Kyoko

"He's always been a little like that. Though, I can't blame him. He's still a barbaric man, even to me. I can't take that away from him, being a swordsman of the Mist. I've known him for a while, don't take what he says so personally, darling." Kyoko fastened up her coat, and leaned herself up against the counter staring at the boy.

"Is this about a girl, by any chance Kuro-kun?" She very well knew the answer, but still put a hand over to her hair and flicked it back over her face, before bringing the hand down so she could lean on it.

"Girls can be a little cruel. Trust me on that Kuro-kun. But you won't get anywhere with us if you don't try."

[Fuku - Exited and going back to 'Black and Blue']

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Note: Sorry for taking so long, I completely forgot about this thread. Also, I switched Fuku to Kyoko because I feel it's not to his character to stay there when it's being took care of.

[katas]

[atrb=cellpadding,0,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=width,435,true][atrb=vAlign,top] ❝ YOU'RE SOMETHING DEADLY THAT I JUST CAN'T PUT MY FINGER ON. ❞ WORDS 547 TAGS characters NOTES write anything you want here!

[atrb=vAlign,top] Kuro wasn't quite sure what to make of all of what was taking place at the moment. He was attempting to forget everything about one girl while simultaneously figuring out how such a woman ended up with the brute of a swordsman that Fuku was. Life didn't make sense right now, though had it not been for that brute the Hozuki may have gone and done something irrational. Regardless, he wasn't sure if he wanted to divulge any information to this new woman. Sure, she seemed to have a connection to the man but that only went so far. While Kuro had only met the man once before that was still one more time than Kyoko, and bearing heart and soul to strangers didn't seem like all that great of an idea. "It's... nothing." He replied, an obvious lie. Hell, the boy couldn't even make a half-decent face to accompany the fib. Though he wanted to speak when Kyoko asked, or rather, instructed Fuku to go take a walk nothing came from Kuro's mouth. Had they decided this before hand to switch off and instill words of wisdom from both sides of the gender tree? No, it couldn't have been something so complex. Perhaps just a coincidence. Well, if he didn't have any choice in the matter but to be accompanied by Kyoko then the least the Genin could do was try and figure out why Iku had done what she did, chosen who she chose. There was no better source to figure out a woman then from another woman, right? He listened to Kyoko speak about her interactions with Fuku, and from what little he knew about the man it all seemed true, though that once again begged the question of how... or why they were together? It just didn't make any sense. While what the swordsman may have said was a bit harsh, it did hold some truth. Maybe. Having a pity party would have done neither of them any good so at the very least the boy would come out this with some self-respect. "It wasn't all that bad... but, how did you two get together? You two seem like the complete opposite." The question of the hour, or one of them at least. While he was indeed interested in the reasoning Kuro asked partly because it would shift the conversation away from his own problems... ...Or at least that was the plan, but then came the million dollar question if the boy was having girl problems, which he was, and he wondered how Kyoko had picked up on it so quickly. "I don't really think it's a problem any more, at least not my problem. She seemed to have made her choice." Perhaps a bit of spite in his words but still fairly accurate to the situation. "I thought I did enough. We spent a lot of time together and it wasn't like she didn't enjoy spending my money. Then to just turn around and pick him... makes me not even want to try anymore." There were a flurry of emotions running about, but none strong enough to change his facial expression from that defeated stare.

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[Hayate Fuku]

Kyoko knew what he was doing, but it was only right that she would ignore it.

"Well.. it's a long story. First off, I'm a couple of years older than him. Secondly, we actually had an arranged marriage that went array and kind of got together on our own terms. Thirdly, he never used to be how he is now." Seeing a plate of steaming Miso Ramen in the corner of her eye, she gave her quick thanks to Kozo and took a quick bite from the ramen, her eyes lighting up at the taste. "Hate to break it to you Kuro-kun, but maybe she got tired of being the silver in your eyes. the words that slipped past her mind and onto her tongue and out her mouth were actually a little more rude than she had actually intended to say, bringing about a small awkward silence.

"It's been a while. ANYWAYS, how we got together."

"Fuku was a completely different person, you know? He was really, really sweet. It was only when he was starting to become more of a swordsman that he changed. He became colder for every person he killed. He used to come home from missions, upset and I would comfort him. Nowadays I struggle to placate him without throwing a Kunai at his head. It really kicked in about a year ago when he became the wielder of Samehada. He really liked that woman." Kyoko shrugged. "I love the man, but he gets on my tits sometimes. I know the feeling is mutual, he's just become a lot harder at showing it."

In truth, Kyoko thought the reason for his coldness was sometimes was simple- her. What would he be like if he was his softer self and Kyoko passed away? That was a thought that she shuddered at. Maybe even he was distancing himself so that when and if Kyoko passed- the pain would hurt much less. Little did she know, it very well wouldn't.