Welcome to Gaia! ::

"Nyah-nyah! You can't catch me!" The blonde girl ran a few more steps before finally coming to a halt, her long blonde hair continuing to swing in a wide arc around her shoulders, as she turned to face her pursuers. They were a scattered group of five, each close to her own age, and all gathered for the same purpose. For the moment, that purpose was simply playing a game of Tag. They had plenty of room to run, so the game had rapidly become an impromptu amalgam of Tag and Hide and Seek. After all, to tag someone, first you had to find them! The blonde had thought she had a good hiding spot. But her blonde hair and red and white dress just stood out too much against their surroundings, and she had been spotted in short order. The others all wore various shades of earth tones, making it that much easier for any of them to blend in with the dappled light and scattered shadows of the forest. Surrounded by ash and poplar, oak and yew, her colorful dress was easy to spot at even a distance. It was a disadvantage, to be sure, but not one that would mar the fun she was having. This was really the first time that she had been able to play with children her own age.

Back home in Kamakura, there just weren't that many people. And the number of children was disproportionately small. It seemed that most families simply didn't have children when they moved to Kamakura, or if they did, that an accident would occur. She seemed the exception to the rule. And while a good deal of the adults were nice to her, there was still always that air of depression and mounting dread that seemed to suffuse the very village. If she hadn't known better, she could have sworn that she had been the only person in the village who knew how to be happy! Even her parents seemed to suffer from passing dark moods. Nothing too severe, her presence usually seemed to cheer them up.

But she wasn't there. She had gotten a chance to attend a summer camp, and when they saw how earnestly she had wanted to go, they just didn't have the heart to refuse her. This was her first time leaving the village; it was also her first time that she would spend the night away from her parents. It was exciting, but she couldn't help but worry if her parents would be okay without her. Those black moods were a concern, if she wasn't around to brighten their day, they might get really depressed. They had told her that they would be fine, so she tried not to worry about it. If anyone was capable of resisting the grey of Kamakura, it was her parents!

She snapped back to the present when she realized one of the other children had spotted her, and was about to tag her. The chase was on! Over the next hour she was tagged a bunch of times, but she managed to tag the others just as often. When they finally came to a stop, Koromo felt pleasantly exhausted, like she wanted to do nothing more than just crawl into bed and go to sleep. But supper was waiting, and when she realized that, her stomach growled to inform her that she was hungry, too. On the way back to the camp's center, she wondered more about just what kind of summer camp this actually was. Most summer camps had instructors to keep an eye on their charges, and to keep them entertained with a wide variety of activities. Just being able to run free and do what they wanted was fun, but it seemed unusual when compared to that.

The mystery was revealed when they entered the camp's cafeteria. Mess hall might have been a more appropriate name, though. Several rows of benches sat before long tables, all composed of local lumber, and worn smooth from what was likely years of long use. The cafeteria itself held that odd smell of food of dubious origin, no clue toward what they would actually be eating. Before they could get their meals, one of the camp's instructors stepped forward to get everyone's attention. They were a young man, likely only a handful of years older than anyone else in the room. He had short red hair, and a deep tan. He was wearing the ubiquitous jersey with 'Camp Counselor' stenciled on the back, and the camp's symbol on the breast.

"Hello, everyone. I'd like to welcome you all to Camp Foroyle. We hope you enjoy your stay here, over these next few weeks. I'd like to take this time to give you all a quick rundown of some of the activities you'll be able to take part in. Scheduled activities begin tomorrow, today was a free day so you all would have a chance to see what the camp is like before we get started." He went on to explain the actual activities the camp offered, even though most of them had already read them on the brochure. Nature walks, crafts, tracking, swimming, sports, and so on. There was a wide variety of things, some of which seemed a bit out of the ordinary. It had to be unusual for a summer camp to offer a course on self-defense, or one on tabletop games, didn't it? They sounded fun, but different enough to be a bit daunting. That only made them more tempting to try out. After all, this was her chance to really cut loose and have some fun. So trying new things was definitely on the agenda!

The counselor finished up their brief speech with a few introductions, pointing out some of the other counselors who had entered the cafeteria, giving their names and the activities they would be leading. Once that was done, he released everyone to their meal. Koromo found a place in line and soon had her food. Finding a place to sit at was a little more daunting, however. She couldn't just sit next to someone she didn't know, but she couldn't see the kids she had been playing with, either. Frowning, she wavered, looking from one long table to the next. Until she heard a voice call out to her. Brightening up, she moved toward the voice, and the table it was coming from. Not the table itself, of course, but somebody sitting at it. As she got closer, she saw someone she hadn't seen before. A girl no older than herself, but with slightly darker blonde hair, cut short.

"Come on, sit down already! You don't want to give your food a chance to crawl off the plate and get away now!" As if to prove her claim, the girl stabbed at her own meal with fork, leaving the utensil standing upright in the midst of her meal.

"Wah?! It's not really going to crawl off my plate, is it?!" Koromo couldn't stop herself from imagining the food glorping and shlorping, growing larger and bubbling angrily. Was it alive?! She couldn't eat something that was alive!

Her worrying was broken a moment later at the other girl's amused chuckling. "Haha! You should see the look on your face!"

Worry turned to anger in an instant. "Hey! You were making fun of me, weren't you? That isn't very nice!"

The girl's laughter finally subsided after another moment. To her credit, she did look a little sorry now. "I know, I know... I'm sorry, but I just couldn't resist. You're new here, aren't you?"

"Well... As long as you said you're sorry... But yeah, I just got here this morning. My name's Koromo, pleased to meet you."

The other girl waved away the formalities. "I'm Hikari. And I could tell, nobody who had been here before would worry about where to sit. We're all friends here, more or less, so it doesn't matter where you sit. And the food isn't really going to crawl off your plate, it's just not particularly tasty. Looks like today is 'Meat Surprise'."

"Eh? Why's it called 'Meat Surprise'? Koromo hadn't lived a completely sheltered life, members of the village had gone hunting, so she knew all about how people ate deer, bears, boars, even... rabbits. She'd even had to eat some herself, once or twice. This didn't look like any of those, though.

"That's because there's no meat in it, that's the surprise!" Hikari grinned, making it difficult to tell if this was another joke or not. Looking at the food, it was hard to tell just what it was. So it might be true, after all. With that, Hikari dug into her own meal, pulling out her fork with an almost audible shlorp. Koromo was a little more hesitant, but she nonetheless at least tried it. To her surprise, it wasn't too bad. Oh, it definitely wasn't very tasty. But it wasn't outright bad, and it was fully edible.

When they were finishing off their meals, Hikari struck up conversation once more, asking Koromo what activities she might be planning on trying the next day. Koromo thought it over, before finally making a decision. While she was here, she eventually wanted to try everything at least once. But at the least, she wanted to try the tabletop gaming activity. She'd put together jigsaw puzzles with her family, and every so often, they had played other games with cards or tokens. And she had taken a liking to mahjong, learning to match the symbols at an early age.

"Mahjong, eh? Then I guess you're in luck, that's one of the games that we actually have to choose from." Hikari gave Koromo an intense stare then, but only for an instant. As if she were evaluating her for something. Koromo was oblivious to it, merely wondering if Hikari was trying to read something on the wall behind her. Instead, she was just thinking through the rules for mahjong, refreshing herself on how the game was played. It had been a while, after all, and she wouldn't want to embarass herself by playing the wrong way or something.

"I can't wait, that should be fun! Can you tell me anything about the other activities?"

"Eh? Well..." Hikari gave a brief run-through of what the various activities really meant. How swimming was the class to take when you juust wanted to relax, and crafts were usually just an excuse to make props to use for free time games. The only one she felt the need to warn Koromo about was the self defence class. It could get pretty rough, the instructor took it fully seriously. More than one camper had wound up seeing stars after having some 'sense knocked into them'. So it was only fair to warn all new campers to avoid the class until they were already familiar with sparring or even actual fighting.

Koromo swallowed past a brief lump in her throat at that, she was no fighter! She'd have to be careful to not take part in that class after all. She had no desire to get smacked around! "Ah, alright. I'll just stick to tabletop games and swimming, then..." By now, they had already gotten rid of their trays and were leaving the cafeteria. The sun was already setting, and the surrounding area was noticeably darker than it had been. There were only a few lights to rely upon, that meant it was time to head to their bunks. Koromo had already been shown to hers, the communal barracks that were outfited for a full half-dozen campers. It had been coined 'Bunny Dorm' several years before, and the name had stuck ever since. She was surprised to find out Hikari was a part of the same dorm, out of the four different ones to choose from. Well, really there were only two choices, two dorms for boys and two for girls. The girls had Bunny and Kitty, the boys had Puppy and Monkey.

When they entered Bunny Dorm, it looked much the same as the last time Koromo had seen it, except that there were already other campers there, lounging on their beds or chatting with each other. This group would be a bit like her family while she was here, so she introduced herself to them all, before being bombarded with a flurry of introductions in return. She did her best to keep track of all the names she had just learned, but was worried that she would eventually mix them up at least once.

"So everyone knows what to do, right?" Hikari led into something that everyone seemed to know except Koromo, judging by the chorus of affirmatives. Thankfully she then turned to explain to Koromo a moment later. "It's the first night of the camp season, we have a tradition of staying up late and telling scary stories. Are you in?"

"Scary stories? Sure, count me in!" Koromo felt proud of herself for not being scared easily. She'd never worried about monsters under the bed, or things that go bump in the night. And she'd heard a scary story or two herself, so she could even tell one herself. And if Hikari had been hoping to spook the new kid, she'd be sorely disappointed!

"Alright, that's the spirit! But first, we all need to get ready for bed, and pretend to be asleep when the counselor comes to check on us. If they catch us in the act, we'll get in trouble, so let's be convincing, everyone!" With that, everyone began to get ready, changing into pajamas or waiting to use the bathroom to brush their teeth or wash up. It didn't take too long, and then Koromo found herself laying in an unfamiliar bed, the only bit of it familiar being her penguin pillow she had brought with her from home. At least she wouldn't have to worry about falling asleep early! She just had to make it look like she was.

And then she heard the door open, while resolutely keeping her eyes closed and her breathing even. She could hear someone walk into the room, someone larger than any of them, so obviously a teenager or even an adult. It had to be the counselor, come to check on them. "Oh come on, knock it off. I know that you're all awake, so quit it with the pretend sleeping." Koromo almost did just that, but instead just barely managed to keep her breathing even and her face blank. She didn't hear anyone else give up, and she wasn't going to be the first!

Several moments passed, during which she could hear the counselor's steps head back to the door. Then the door opened again, and closed, and then nothing more. She almost risked opening an eye then, but she got the feeling that the counselor was trying to trick them, so she kept waiting. And waiting. Finally, she heard a muffled curse, before the door opened again, and the counselor left for real. Pnly then did she finally risk opening one eye a slit. She couldn't see anyone, and took a bit more of a look.

"The coast is clear!" A whispered voice broke out, startling Koromo into closing her eyes again for an instant. She recognized the voice as Hikari's, however, and opened her eyes again, before sitting up in bed. Everyone else was already getting up, even as Hikari pulled out a small light. It would be just enough to illuminate a small circle once it got darker out, plenty for them to see when they were actually telling the stories. Though they might not even need it, they could still see clearly. Looking at the window, Koromo could see it was very nearly a full moon, and it was giving off plenty of light to see. But a scary story telling just wasn't complete without the light in the middle of the group, so they might use it anyways.

The group moved to the middle of the room, before arranging themselves in a rough circle, the six campers facing the small light at the center of their group. Koromo felt a rush of excitement, she'd never had a chance to do something like this before. Not simply telling scary stories, but flouting the rules in the process. She'd always done as she was told, being part of something like this was new and exciting.

She wasn't the first to tell a story, that honor went to Hikari, who seemed to be the de facto leader of their group. As someone who had been here as often as she had, that seemed natural enough. Seniority had its perks. So she started her story, a rather chilling twist on the classic being home alone fear. By the time she was done, the very air around them felt cooler. Goosebumps dotted Koromo's arms as she shivered, that had been masterfully done. The part where the main character had checked the attic, only to be surprised by the sliding shadow that crept under the door? That had sent a stark bolt of fear down her back.

The next few girls took their turns, but they couldn't compare with Hikari's tale. Still suitably spooky, but they hadn't held that visceral quality of fear, that knotted up your tummy and made you huddle down and wish you had your safety blanket again. And then it was Koromo's turn. She felt nervous, she didn't really know any actual scary stories. But then it hit her. Her home was scary enough at certain times, she could just tell about one of those occurrences. That would surely be good enough.

So she began, earning a slight nod of respect when she took the tact of telling the story from her own viewpoint. How she had been walking home from school, and a storm was fast on the way, dense steel-gray clouds skudding overhead, the scent of approaching rain filling the air. She wouldn't make it home in time, not without getting soaked, and she had forgotten her umbrella. The faint peals of thunder in the distance promised it would be a spectacular thunderstorm, and she tried to hurry, breaking into a jog.

But as those first few fat raindrops fell, she knew she'd never make it. Instead, she looked for anyplace with covering, to wait out the storm. If it lightened up, she could hopefully make it the rest of the way. That was when she found the house. It was all by itself, even though she wasn't far from the rest of town. Several lights were on in the windows, somebody had to be home. Surely they wouldn't begrudge her a spot inside, when it was raining like this? So she ran up to the door and knocked, waiting.

Only a few moments later, she could hear rustling behind the door, before a lock was slid back. A girl only slightly younger than her was on the other side, her hair sleekly black. She asked if something was wrong, and Koromo remembered why she had come to the door in the first place. Trying to stay polite, she asked if it would be possible for her to come in out of the rain. The girl wasted no time at all before opening the door the rest of the way, and inviting Koromo in. She walked through a short hallway that gave every indication of a warm and cozy home, lots of pictures of the girl's family, along with what looked to be heirlooms and antiques.

Soon Koromo found herself seated in a comfortably overstuffed armchair near a crackling fire, and making conversation with the girl, whose name was Michi. She seemed nice, if rather noticeably lonely. Koromo asked her if she didn't have any brothers or sisters, but she only shook her head. And her parents had stepped out for a bit, they wouldn't be back until morning. Koromo offered to stay the night, but without checking with her parents, that meant she might get in trouble. She was still willing to, but Michi told her not to worry about it.

They continued to chat for a while longer, until the storm seemed to die down for a little while. When they noticed that, Koromo realized she should get going, she didn't want to worry her parents. But she promised to come back and visit soon.

Soon turned out to be the next day. The weather was cooperating, as much as it ever did in Kamakura. That is to say, reasonably sunny, though with ever-present clouds lurking on the horizon. She set off toward Michi's house, hoping she would be surprised by the visit being so soon. But when she got there, the house looked different from how it had before. Several of the windows were broken, and the yard was overgrown. The entire building gave off a heavy air of neglect, like nobody had been there for years. But that had to be some kind of mistake!

She slipped past the gate and made her way to the front door, where she knocked loudly. There was no answer, even after waiting and knocking again. Finally, she tried to open the door, but it was locked. She tried harder, tugging at the knob. Suddenly a voice called out, ordering her to stop. She looked up, startled, seeing an older man, grumbling about 'no-good vandals'. She felt a little unsure, but nonetheless, he was the only person who was around. Who else could she ask?

"Um, excuse me, sir? Could you tell me where Michi is?"

"Michi? Where did you hear that name, girl? Tell me!" He seemed angry all of a sudden, what happened? So she told him, how she had just been there last night, and met a girl named Michi while she waited for the storm to pass. The old man glared at her for a long moment, before finally speaking again. "This girl Michi, did she have long black hair, tied back?"

"Yeah! How'd you know, do you know where she is?"

But instead of answering, the old man remained quiet as he sighed, shoulders slumping. "I know where she is, but I fear you're in for a rude awakening..." He paused for a moment, gathering his strength. "You see, Michi was my childhood friend, she used to live in this house. But... But she was killed, murdered..."

"You're lying, she's alive!" That wasn't true, it couldn't be true! She was alive, she had just talked to her the night before! There had to be some kind of mistake!

"Would you like to visit her?" The old man asked, still saddened by what he had heard. Koromo agreed, sure that this was all some big prank, that he'd take her to where Michi was hiding, and they'd all share a big laugh. But her surety began to evaporate as he led her to the nearby cemetery. That surety was destroyed when he stopped in front of a weathered tombstone. Carved into it was simply 'Michi Tenrou, 273-281' and a small symbol she recognized as seeing in a barrette in her hair.

Koromo stopped the story there, holding back a chill as the memory came over her. For a long moment, the room was quiet as the impact from her story hit home. After a long moment, however, a sudden exclamation of muted voices, as the other girls remarked on how scary the story had been. One or two asked if it had really happened, or if she had made it up. It had been true, and it had happened only a month before she came here.

Then one girl, who hadn't yet commented on the story, finally spoke up. She asked if it had really been necessary to run her finger down her back right at the scary point. Koromo only looked in confusion, she hadn't done anything like that. She'd been sitting there the entire time, she simply couldn't have reached the other girl's back without somebody noticing. But once that girl had admitted to it happening, the other girls remarked that the same thing had happened to each of them. A renewed chill passed through them all, had they had a ghostly visitor in the middle of the story? What if it was Michi?

After that, the group felt that they had had quite enough scary stories for the night, so they returned to bed. Koromo felt a bit put out, she felt like she had accidentally maybe gone too far, telling that story. But it wasn't her fault, that had been the only scary story she really knew! And she had no idea how or why everyone else had felt a finger run up their backs, that was just weird! Troubled, she nonetheless managed to fall asleep, to try to prepare herself for her first full day of camp.
[4164 + 0 = 4164 out of 2300 ]

Edward frowned at the teacher's reaction, and grew ticked off at Rhythm's response. Before Rhythm would leave, the teacher would strike at Rhythm in the back of the head with a backhand, yelling at them both, "CUT THE STUPID CRAP." Edward would suddenly more forward and turn towards the class. He concentrated, as he acted to use the clone jutsu himself. He formed those hand seals, but more as well. With that, a huge cloud of smoke enveloped the room. Edward had formed, not five, but 6 clones. As with Rhythm, these were clones of his enemy. They were all even more feminine in appearance then the original Rhythm, and even more so then the first transformation. These versions of Rhythem were dressed, only in women's undergarments, bras, panties, bloomers, g-strings and thongs... and worse. The six clones were all wrapping arms around one another, as they began to do the can-can. They would sing loudly, in high pitched voices, more appropriate for women. This all continued for several minutes and they did so merrily, to the laughter of the students and disbelief of the teacher, before turning to one another and making-out. This sent the class into a riot. Even the teacher was shocked, and had to cover his mouth to prevent anything coming out that he would regret. Even the girl with Rhythm was giggling madly. Edward took the moment to calmly flip everyone off, including the teacher before going "double guns" on Rhythm. Then, the clones all disappeared in a large puff of smoke, which enveloped Edward. He would disappear, leaving the academy for good now. (2x)
2339 cp
reserved cp: 139
Henge no Jutsu: 300/300
Bushin no Jutsu: 300/300
Art of Substitution: 400/400
Tree Climbing: 600/600
Water Walking: 600/600

The blonde had been walking back to the classroom with a couple of his classmates , they joked around and punched each other, laughed and just had fun in each other's company. It wasn't unusual, but Rhythm loved making friends. Actually, it's what he treasured most. The temptations of friendship was very tempting, and it hurt a lot when those ties were severed. Yes, Rhythm was a very sensitive, emotional guy. Though it may not seem like it all the time. But ether way, he was just being him. The orange eyed boy entered the classroom, and noticed that they had a new student. Just like their last student, she seemed to be very young. He blinked and looked at her, wondering if he should go over there and welcome her to the class. But just as he was about to make up his mind, the teacher walked in and told his students to sit down. Upon hear that, the blonde and his redhead friend walked to their seats. The teacher stood in front of them, giving a glare to the trouble making blonde, then told them they were going to learn how to walk on water.

"Like Jesus?!" Rhythm burst out. As he did, the teacher just ignored him, while other students snickered. As the teacher went on, Rhythm wondered how they would walk on water. Soon enough, the class was off to the pool.

----------------------------------------
The class was in the pool area, all up in their swim suits and stuff, the teacher was demonstrating. He paid attention to the first time, then walked over to the pink haired girl. Giving a smile, the boy nodded. He waved and approached slowly, just in case she was a bit timid. As he approached, he gave a welcoming smile.

"Hi there! My name is Rhythm, and I was just going to welcome you to the class. I hope you enjoy it here, everyone is so friendly and nice." He said. But upon looking closer to her, he took in her appearance. His orange eyes surveyed her, then he laughed.

"You remind me of a woman I once saw. She had long pink hair like you. But her eyes were a neon shade of purple. I saw her somewhere in the Void before, but I never got her name. You remind me of her. But there's one thing that's different. You're much cuter." He said with a wink. But little did he know, that he was going to die for commenting her.

Rhythm was liking Suki, she was cuter than a button. And he was just being his usual friendly self. He was having fun with the class, and he didn't really want to leave the Academy yet. He just wanted to play around, be an idiot, and just enjoy life to it's fullest. He wasn't ready to that responsible adult, and he just didn't want to head out into a world where even the young were targets. Even the youngest killed and suffered. The world was a dark place, and he didn't want to be a part of that. He just wanted to be regular. But, because of his past, he had to carry on and become a ninja.

As Suki gave him a look, he raised an eyebrow. Did he do something wrong|? Nah, nothing bad can come from complimenting a girl on her cuteness. He just nodded, then went back over his his batch of friends. He began to joke as usual, and then it was his turn to try.

He didn't even get one step onto the surface, and fell right into the pool with a splash.

Ryoutta entered the class room wandering if this was his class, he really was not prepared to study in the academy at all, but at the same time he had this grin on his face that he would conquer and beat anybody and any challenge that posed right in front of him.As so, he looked around the classroom and saw a couple of students,he looked for a spot to sit in, and he sat a part from his classmates, he wasn't really the social type. Though being cocky was his specialty for him to feel confident and overcome anything he was all open ears to what the teacher was saying and wrote down everything. He looked around once more. Wondering when his jutsu training was about to start.
"This is so boring... can't believe i have to go through this to be a strong shinobi"
Ryoutta sighed and kept on writing.



(not sure how this point system works but if i just write stuff like this does that mean that amount of words add up to my chakra total bank? even if im not training for a jutsu?)

Ryoutta grew easily unsteady with the way the teacher was giving out his class, he wrote down everything about the henge no jutsu he felt like h had to give it a practice round.He normally raised his hand to ask for permission to even interrupt the class and give it a practice round, as so he raised his hand interrupting the teacher yelling with high hopes
" C'mon Teach even i can pull off a simple jutsu like that!"
He stood up doing the hand sign really slowly, concentrating his inner chakra, but all that came out was a smelly fart his eyes opened widely at the teacher, his face changing red quickly, he could feel the heat of his blood boiling in his face.
From the embarrassment he went to the outside of the academy hiding from everybody.


CP: 500 +151 + 138 = 289CP
soo is this how it works - OC

Ryoutta felt so powerful already able to use at least one jutsu, even if it wasn't really that powerful but it was a healthy start, Ryoutta changed class rooms for the copy jutsu technique "bushin no jutsu". he said to one of his classmates walking through the school hall.
"Bushin no jutsu, i hope this one is easier than the henge no jutsu technique."
Ryoutta arrived into the classroom, as everybody was in an uproar, the teacher wasn't really that responsible as for his students well being, he was just reading a random book and left the instructions in the black board, though the description wasn't really that difficult, lots of students couldn't pull it off. He nearly lost his concentration, but grabbed a hold of himself. Ryoutta walked towards a good corner to practice the jutsu, he did the hand sign, Ryoutta focused his chakra into another copy, dividing his chakra into two copies, inner his mind soul and chakra he had this difficult battle, the chakra was not the problem, it was his concentration he was easily distracted by almost anything but he kept on focusing hard enough, blue chakra was coming out of his body, he was slightly loosing control and spreading his chakra all over the classroom. He started to sweat heavily but was really concentrated into accomplishing this jutsu, the classroom stopped as to see if he could pull it off or no, he was really close to doing it. As so he yelled.
"C'mon!! C'mon i cant give up now!"

Ryoutta was loosing his chakra heavily he was putting too much effort into this jutsu which was so difficult for him. Ryoutta managed to pull off one copy as one poofed loudly, he was still concentrating in the other copy; with what small chakra he had it was getting more difficult by the second, sweat coming out of his forehead,veins pumping through, is it really possible for Ryoutta in his first day to pull off two jutsus? Ryoutta managed to control his inner chakra and poofed the second shadow clone, the whole class applaud him for his accomplishment, this was the second step for Ryoutta to become the ultimate shinobi.


Chakra P: 499 +366 = 865
Jutsu accomplished-
Henge no jutsu 300/300
Bushin no jutsu 300/300