Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Well, I rarely call characters cute...but I couldn't help it! And you should really give yourself some more credit. Your characters are fun to RP with...at least, Kojiro is.... whee ))

Kaida nodded. "Exactly. You'd be surprised how many times it come around, the chance to take a risk or make a change. Risks come often, but change? You may find yourself waiting a while, saying 'When it comes, I'll change. When it comes, I'll take that risk. When it comes....' And then you find that, looking back, while waiting, you've made small, subtle changes in yourself. Looking at others, you realise you've changed them, if not always for the better. It's a wierd thing, when you look at change. It comes and goes, and you rarely notice it when it's there."

She looked at his headband, lying where she had set it next to her left hand. She picked it up and stared at it, as if seeing it for the first time. "It's amazing what can happen without warning. In an instant, you can fall in love or lose all hope. In one moment, you can have everything, or lose it all. It all depends on changes that occur in the pattern of life."

She held out the headband to Kojiro. "My opinion for you is to leave your headband off. You look better with your face clear."

Despite the scars streaking his face? Many people were uncomfortable because of those, maybe because it looked bad and maybe because it made them uncomfortable to see such a blatant reminder of another's disability...

Perhaps he was reading into it too much... those two statements couldn't have been connected, but even convincing himself so he still flushed crimson, taking the headband delicately, and turning it over in his hands. A small, giddy but slightly afraid- shy in otherwords- smile crossed his face and he nodded. "Tha... eh... thank... you..." he raised the headband, putting the strings behind his neck, and tied it there, resting atop his colar bones. For a long moment he sat silently casting his face downward despite his inability to see, and then lifted it up, taking a big swig of one container suddenly, flushing deeper and choking when he recognized the wine, forcing himself to swallow, and then making more choking noises over small laughter before he calmed himself again. "...thank you... Kaida."

-after a while he slows down and picks up the duffle bag slinging it over his shoulder leaving the village running off towards the training grounds to meet his new teacher-

after going though the town right as he is heading out he spots another Academy student

"hello, see you in class"

after waving he starts to bead back to the classrom

Kaida smiled. "See? You look much better now. And don't chok on that, it's good wine from the best vineyards in all of fire country." She smiled, snatching the skin from Kojiro's hand.

"Not to mention, think specific skin has been fermenting for a while, making it not only expensive and delicious, but perfectly perfect in every way imagionable!" She put the opening to her lips, threw her head back, and drank a good half of what was left.

"And to congradulate your new-found common sense, you can have the rest. Besides, I don't want to wake up with a hangover two mornings in a row." She capped the leather canteen and tossed it to Kojiro. "You look like you need it." She picked up the water one and began to drink from that one, watching Kojiro's blush out of the corner of her eye.

Kojiro gave one last cough, blushing a little again when she told him he looked better, and took the turned the skin over uncomfortably in his hand before taking a small swig of it. "I... had been expecting the water cantene..." which also raised a small blush, but he kept a bit of humor about his own mishap. "I guess you really know your wine, huh?" he said, settling back down to recline further back where he had been sitting up near enough straight to not be entirely comfortable, sipping the skin's content's a little bit at a time.

Kaida smiled. "I ought to if I'm a drunken boxer. If you don't know how potent something is, you don't know how much to drink to get the full effect of the jutsu. If you don't get the full effect, you could lose your life."

She watched him drink for a moment, then smiled. Humor laced throughout her voice. "Plus, it's fun to learn the different customs, techniques and skills that go into wine making. I take it you've never drank before? Or if you did, it was the cheap stuff that ought to be buried in a deep dark cavern and you didn't have more than one glass or so?" she asked.