Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sora started from her work, nearly hitting her finger with the hammer but managing to miss thanks to pure luck, and looked over at the newcomer. She had been so focused on her work that she hadn't noticed the strange boy walk over and, from the looks of it, offer his help. "Um, sure!" the girl replied cheerily and nailed the last of the base boards of the side she was working on into place before walking up to the new boy with the hammer and nails. After nailing in the bottom, the girl attempted to the do the top. Key word: attempted. After several failed tries at reaching up high enough to get in a nail, Sora finally had to admit defeat and, with a bit of embarrassment, asked, "Erm, maybe I should hold the board while you nail in the top? By the way, I'm Sora Hikari, who're you?".

Nagisa returned from the dump site to see the ramen shop making some good progress. She smiled, and shouted a reassuring "Looking good!" to everyone.

Carpenter John was not so impressed. Perhaps the ninjas could become carpenters one day, but not today. "Let me be the judge of that." he muttered, and turned to his team. "Alright listen, we have the basic framing done, I patched up a few problem spots and we should be good to go." He brought out summoning scroll #2 and called the rest of the stuff they would need. "Now we have these panels, They come preassembled so all you need to do is screw them into the frame. I'll take care of the outside, you guys work on the inside." At that he pulled one of the panels and started screwing it onto the rear wall.

Sora nodded as she heard Kaiden's reply. "Really?" the girl kept up the conversation as she took up a board herself and began screwing it in. After the experience with the hammer, she was careful to know exactly where her hands were in relation to the tools around her. She continued, "Where did you come from? One of the neighboring villages?". After she finished with the first board, the girl then went over to get a second and started screwing it in. Compared to the start, she was working a lot faster thanks in part to getting used to the work and in part to being able to keep her mind off of the very scary carpenter by conversing with someone else.

Sora was somewhat shocked to hear that Kaiden had been abandoned and so remained quiet as she screwed in her current board. After she had finished, she went over and grabbed another panel of wood and began screwing it in before she finally replied in a quiet voice, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know that you were abandoned." To the girl, who had both of her parents and was naive even for a genin, she didn't know how anyone could survive without their parents. Of course, she knew that some of her classmates were orphans with both parents killed while doing their job, but at least they were taken care of by relatives and that they hadn't been abandoned. To know that you had been left alone, thrown away, that knowledge seemed impossible to bear for Sora.

Seeing the boy's dazed look and taking it to mean that it was probably best not to interrupt him, Sora continued to work silently. If he started talking again, even if it was about something completely different, then she'd be more than glad to continue the conversation. However, she would let him decide whether or not he wanted to talk some more. In the silence, Sora focused solely on finishing the mission as quickly, efficiently, and safely as possible. Soon, it became a short of pattern for the girl: grab, set, screw, grab, set, screw....

Kaiden went to grab a few more tiles and started to work on placing them. He finished up with the set he was on when he got an answer from Sora. He headed back to get a few more, "Oh, cool." He continued to work on the ramen shop quietly. The thought still plagued him, the true reson why he was left behind. No, it wasn't. He could barely afford to survive, let alone take care of him.