❧ || Serec Fields

[Panthers7]

Noel blinked a little when she outstretched her hand and touched his stomach. But once the odd light emitted from her hand, Noel felt his strength returning. It wasn't full, but it was enough that those amber eyes held that fierce spark within them. Noel blushed at this act of sincere kindness; it was something he hadn't received but only a couple times while within Konoha. The child gave Masumi a soft smile and protectively yet gently held the arm that link around his,"Merci... Masumi." Noel said softly as he reached down and stashed his books in the make-shift backpack he had with his free hand and looked back to Masumi,"Vell if zou vant zomething quick, ve can go to Ichiraku's." Noel said softly, waiting for her approval before heading towards the location. Then something appeared in his head in which, it sort of made him blush as he added," Or... If zou vant a more... homely cuisine. I can cook zome of moi 'ometown foods."

 

[Panthers7]

Noel smiled as he heard her stomach growl. It would make him want to do even better upon cooking the meal as he held linked arm in a more protective man,"Oui... Zhen follow moi." He said as he lead her towards the apartment complex of Konoha. The child knew how to cook not from his mother but honestly from his father. Everyone in his family learned how to cook. Noel asked him 'Why' as usually he noticed in other places the females were the ones to cook; and not that he was truly being sexiest as the child was far too young to make sure thoughts about the other gender but he noticed a majority of the families doing that. What his father responded was rather humorous as he remembered it like it was yesterday.

Noel's father squatted down to match eyes with his son's mirror imaged eyes as that purple hair and lengthy bangs fell over the man's war-fought face."Vhy zou ask Noel? Vhy? Vecause a St.Pierre zhould ve damned if 'ee 'as to vait around for a voman to cook for 'im. In all 'onesty, zit is rather pitiful if a man can't enter 'is own kitchen and not vlow zit to kingdom come.

Plus, ladies rather like a man zhat can whip up a meal, no?"

Zin giggled and shook his head to his father's memory as he gave a softened look to Masumi as they passed through the lightly vacant yet highly luminous streets of Konoha as the view of the apartment complex would slowly to seeing range.

 

[kahn oyama]

Next was the field. Jurei walked about peacefully recalling his memories here with Akira when he was young. Her beauty still seemed to radiate a bit here or maybe it was just his memory? Nothing seemed out of the ordinary here either so he continued on.  

[Panthers7]

Noel continued to follow the two all the way outside of the village. They were deadly silent all the way to the fields before one of them stopped suddenly and looked around." It's clear?" The male Lock ninja asked as the female Lock Ninja nodded." Good... So what do you think about Konoha. Seems like they've bumped up the security since the last time we were here. Two Gates? It took forever to break into those guard's minds!" The male commented as Noel continued to remain hidden through the 'Zetsu Sensory Technique.' Perfectly hiding his chakra and his presence completely from these nin's senses and enabling him to listen in onto their conversation with ease. Though he was starting to take the fatigue of the jutsu, he kept his mind clear so he could concentrate more on what they were speaking about and less on the stamina-prone technique.
2/6
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The woman spoke next after they had a small conversation about the Lock Village. "But I have noticed they have quite a reduction in the ninja in this village. There used to be an abundant of Nin's walking about. Heck, I don't even see that many Genin about the place. Think their on a mission or is Konoha just getting weak?" She said crossing her arms and leaning against the tree as the man shrugged,"I dunno. It seemed to be a bit easier to get into the village but... I know they have eyes on us. Yet I don't feel that many on us right now, but I'm sure there is a bug or two out here listening on. So watch what you say."He said as he looked about the 'vacant' fields before softening his voice but Noel was still able to catch what he said as clear as day.
3/6
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Why not we return to the village... tell the Kage what we know and then wipe this pitiful... Wait a second."He said as he turned around and looked in Noel's general direction. Unfortunately, Noel was reaching his limit. Though this technique was the perfect jutsu for Noel's style of fighting, the child only had so much chakra to utilize. And unfortunately the boy utilized quite a bit of his chakra just to up-hold the technique... and now the jutsu was starting to fail as it was becoming too much of a strain to hold it. Moving behind a tree, Noel slowly merged out from the bark as he panted heavily. I've gotta get stronger than this... This strength is.... not enough for what I need to do. I barely can hold this simple jutsu up! Noel thought to himself even though the technique he indeed was utilizing was quite a high leveled jutsu. In fact it was quite a Jounin level technique and for the boy to even master it the way he did, was quite an accomplishment. But just as Noel was about to turn around he felt cold steel pressing against his neck and a fierce gust of wind whipping against his side before the female appeared in front of him."Looks like you were right. There is a bug." She said as she firmly gripped the nerve endings of Noel's jaw and forced the child to look her in the eyes.
4/6
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Noel winced to the pain of those bony fingers pressing against his nerve as the he felt what Ichiraku was speaking of. Once the girl locked eyes with him, the technique was initiated. He felt something piercing into his mind yet it was so subtle that he couldn't tell if it was a technique or simply him reacting to the pain against his nerve. But from the way she locked eyes on him, he knew something was occurring; even more so when he couldn't blink. Noel didn't know what to do at first but then he noticed he was in perfect position to reverse this jutsu. Focusing chakra into his eyes and body, Noel began to reverse the jutsu that was placed upon him. Clasping his hands together and burning through hand-seals, Noel felt his neck getting cut by the man's kunai; warning him but by the time he noticed what the boy was doing he had already finished the final seal. With a burst of chakra, the child busted into a shower of flowers that surrounded both of his opponents. They looked frantically about the area before the man saw Noel performing a single hand-seal."Hitei Mushou!!" The child exclaimed after previously inhaling a bit of air before he exhaled and aimed directly at the bewildered woman. From his mouth sprung out a shower of nails, in which since she was thrown off by the boy only utilizing one hand-seal and further confused by the flowers that surround herself and her partner, the woman's back was showered with nails that ripped up her back. Ripping apart her flesh and muscle as the metal impaled her, as well as, impaling some of the organs as some nails collided with the already pierced nails to push them further in; and with the force that the nails that shot from Noel's mouth, some of them were knocked right through her body. As the woman dropped immediately from shock of this sneak attack, as Noel landed he looked up from under his long bangs to see a mass of earth coming back his way. The boy wasn't nearly fast enough to dodge the jutsu as he felt a clod of mud hit his chest like a giant fist. Noel knew it was more to this technique as he was flung off his feet from this mud and slammed hard into the tree a good couple of yards away. Noel coughed up some blood a bit and looked weakly up to his opponent that walked slowly to him. Unlike his partner, the man survived his nail barrage but his right leg seemed to be be ripped a little apart.
5/6
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Noel was far too weak to utilize his 'Flower Escape' technique again. He had only a little bit of chakra left, and there was no way he'd be able to fire another technique; not to mention the mud that clung to his chest and pinned him up against the tree; it felt like it weighted a ton of force was pressing up against him. It was extremely painful to breath but he knew he had to keep conscious if he wanted to survive." Do you want to live boy? It seems like we underestimated you a bit. Well..." He lifted Noel's face a bit before throwing a vengeful sucker punch to his face. Blurring Noel's vision and recollection of where he was severely until he felt a slap that 'woke' him back up."But since your here you might as well help us. You don't seem much like a high leveled Shinobi... but it seems like you've been here long enough to know a enough about the place."The man said remembering how conversational he was to the cook at the ramen shop,"Your village seems to have an abundant amount of vegetation. Now... we know that this isn't just for the beauty of the village and we know about one of your major bloodlines that seemed to have 'created' Konoha. I'm sure you know the story about these things. What is the significance of this?"He asked as Noel acted bewildered and drained. He knew he shouldn't simply spout out the information. If he pretended to hold the information... even for a little while, it would make the information that he was to give be even more important and less likely for the man to question it.

The man snarled and Noel gritted his teeth as he felt a sharp pain on his quad. Looking down, Noel saw a kunai impaled into his left as his amber eyes looked at him with a burning intent to rip apart, even with his face showing the physical weakness that his body truly felt." Tch... Don't make me make it worse for you."He said as he twisted the kunai further inside Noel's leg as he gritted his teeth until they began to bleed a bit."Fine... I'll speak." Noel said as he panted softly. Being a bit worn from his battle against this irritable opponent. The man moved back as he spoke,"Speak then..." Noel looked up angrily at the man, but was mentally smirking despite this unfortunate predicament. "Konoha's trees... zignify a Genjutsu in case zhe village gets attacked. Vithin zhe Mountain of the Kage, zhere 're 4 ninja 'hose sole job is to 'old a large zeal around zhe entire village. In the case that ve get attacked, zhe tree's vill in turn, attack."Noel said tiredly as he did his part. Now he just had to wait and see if the man would buy it. After he debated it for a moment, he nodded," I see.. You have been quite beneficial boy and for this... I will let you live." He said as he limped back over to his downed partner; having a sense of accomplishment and something he could give to his village. Noel just watched the man like he was nothing more than an idiot. Though he was in no position to taunt the man after being surely beaten by this higher leveled Shinobi, Noel couldn't help but to hate the man for defeating him. But at least, he'd gotten some information that would... 'truly' help him. When the man disappeared with his partner, Noel released a barrage of glass from his body to slice through the earth that bound him and landed roughly on the ground. Wincing as he pulled the kunai from his leg and quickly wrapped it up with a piece of his torn sleeve. Damn that man... But at least... He will get what is coming to him. Noel thought to himself as the child laid there for a moment. Rather wanting to rest a moment before moving his wounded body as he moved himself to lay lightly against the tree that he was once bound against. Sighing tiredly and looking up at the gleaming sun, It is complete...

6/6 Mission Complete  

[Panthers7]

Noel woke up with a startle as he felt a raging pain from his leg. Grasping his aching head, the child looked around the area with his hazy eyes as he started to recollect what had just occurred. Slowly pulling himself up, the child limped himself towards his house. He wouldn't dare let those Konoha medical nin touch his body. After this mission, he knew things needed to start changing... quickly. Picking up his broken pride, the child headed towards his apartment. Thinking about re-planning his goals for the future and broaden his sights.

[Exit to Apartments]  

[chrissy b e a n]

◤X『 私にダイヤモンドの原石の十分があった。 』x» 私の背骨は非常に薄い
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxこの洞窟か病気の洞窟から私を出しなさい。 ✿ !! X◢
xxxxxx━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━x━━━━━━━━━━━━━
XXXXXXif the bombs go off the sun will still be shining
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxbecause you've heard it said that every mushroom cloud has a silver lining.

Jae walked at a brisk pace, distancing herself as much as she could from the Hokage's office. Her new headband was held tightly in her grip as she blew past many sections of the village, sections she knew she should be taking the time to explore and familiarize herself with. Jae couldn't slow down. Her throat was already starting to tighten and her eyes were watery. After swearing to herself upon her departure from Yuki she had sworn that she would not cry, not until she had found a safe place to do so. The relief mixed in with the grief had overwhelmed her and she needed to escape to somewhere private and without audience. In her haste, she had wandered a great deal away from the main village, ending up in a location that seemed secluded enough for her purpose. The field was vast and empty. Two things she was looking for. Traveling to the furthest edge of the field she stood there, out of breath from her speed of travel. Her thin shoulders trembled first, Jae's eyes watering and spilling over before she could even register that she had begun to cry. Feelings that she had been keeping suppressed for awhile resurfaced, causing her to cry even harder, her frame shaking. "Waaahhhhh!"She sobbed, her hands immediately moving to shield her eyes from the sunlight that streamed in and reflected on the tears that pooled in her tear ducts. She had loved Yuki with all of her heart. The first snow of the season, powdering the ice that never seemed to melt in her village, was always the most beautiful. The canals had water that was so clear you could see straight down forever until the darkness of the depths obscured the bottom. Her friends and teachers had always been there, Jae taking them for granted. Shigeru popped into her head then. "I'll be back for you" That was exactly what he had told her before he had left, his obvious anger about her decision had been made perfectly clear as he had stormed off. Jae sank to her knees, her continued sobs racking her body. Folding in on herself she clutched the headband closer to her, willing herself not to toss it aside. Leaf had kindly accepted her in, she had to let go as the Hokage had said. One could not give loyalty to another village if you couldn't do so. This realization caused her to grieve even more and she continued to cry.

Eventually her sobbing calmed, Jae having exhausted herself completely. Her throat felt raw and her eyes were surely red by now. She laid out on her side, curling in on herself and assuming a fetal position. Her pink locks spilled out around her as she stared at a spot before her. Leaf's headband remained in her grip, Jae not having to voluntarily control herself to refrain from hurling it far away from herself. Her consciousness drifted, Jae closing her eyes in order to let the warmth from the sun warm her up. It was soothing, this place. She was glad that by mistake she had found her way here.

 

[chrissy b e a n]

◤X『 私にダイヤモンドの原石の十分があった。 』x» 私の背骨は非常に薄い
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxこの洞窟か病気の洞窟から私を出しなさい。 ✿ !! X◢
xxxxxx━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━x━━━━━━━━━━━━━
XXXXXXif the bombs go off the sun will still be shining
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxbecause you've heard it said that every mushroom cloud has a silver lining.

After dozing off repeatedly on and off, she stood up. Feeling stiff, she stretched, rubbing her eyes at the same time. They were a little itchy and her face felt sticky from where her tears had traveled down. Things would work themselves out, for now she had to give her best efforts in order to adjust to her new home. Training was always a good start. Loosening her muscles, she made sure she was fully stretched enough before she even thought about what she would work on. After warming up, she looked down at her hands, staring at the headband that was laid out across both her open palms. Slowly, she moved then, fastening the headband securely on her right shoulder. It was opposite to where she had placed her headband from Yuki, Jae still not able to completely just toss out all of her feelings for her old home. Shaking off the depression she thought of her next move. "I think, i'll practice my old jutsu..." She said to herself, stretching out once more before readying herself.

[1] Jae moved through a fairly basic and easy series of hang signals, channeling her chakra easily to the location she need to pull it from. In a single burst, she activated the jutsu with her last hand sign, the energy pulsating around her as she gave birth to her technique. She held out on hand, calling forth her element of Fuuton. The wind began to circle around the chakra that was streaming from her palm, gathering it and collecting it until it had began to take a spherical shape.
[2] Find this to be a lot easier than the first time she had practiced it, she poured a little more chakra into this technique than she had been instructed to the first time. The wind began to churn more violently to the added energy and this caused Jae to flinch. Immediately she pitched the small vortex of chakra and wind before her.
[3] Both the chakra and wind reacted to each other immediately, the sphere not having moved far enough away to leave Jae with enough safe distance. It imploded on itself, creating a focused explosion and pushing out an incredible force at the same time. Jae was knocked backwards onto her backside in the result, the girl wincing as she tenderly rubbed her backside. I am not doing that again, that's for sure!

[ Basic Chakra Training: Performance / Chakra Pool [+10] / completed]  

[chrissy b e a n]

◤X『 私にダイヤモンドの原石の十分があった。 』x» 私の背骨は非常に薄い
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxこの洞窟か病気の洞窟から私を出しなさい。 ✿ !! X◢
xxxxxx━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━x━━━━━━━━━━━━━
XXXXXXif the bombs go off the sun will still be shining
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxbecause you've heard it said that every mushroom cloud has a silver lining.

[1] This was a technique she had studied, having wanted to learn it, back home in Yuki. She stood still, trying to recall what the procedure entailed. Slowly it came back to her, Jae breathing out in a controlled manner. It sounded almost like the winds itself that she called upon. For this technique, Jae was required to shoot out chakra all around her, something she had never attempted before. Once she had done so it would then activate with the wind around her, creating a sort of shield. Getting her chakra to do what she wanted was the tricky part. Painfully slowly, she started moving chakra around her entire body, making sure to keep it in even proportions. Once she felt safe with her work she proceed to the next step.

[2] Cautiously, she sent out the high burst of chakra, "Bouseki Tate no Kaze!"She said aloud for effect. The Wind immediately activated, kicking up violently around her. To her dismay, the area she had placed before herself was too small and the wind closed in on her, Jae cutting off the chakra flow before she could harm herself. Breathing hard, she placed her hands on her knees, the little scare having shaken her up a bit. That was too close for comfort.

[3] Jae was not gonna quit, wiping her brow, she repeated her steps, this time closing her eyes tightly and pushing her chakra as far away from her as she possibly could. The wind reacted to her energy, kicking up again around her. This time she had successfully pushed it far enough away from herself. Feeling elated, she dancing in place, her ceremonial spazzy dance having not been lost in the transition from villages.

[(Spinning Shield of Winds) // D // Learned]  

[TDG Super Kami]

A pair of eyes fell on Jae. He didn't want to seem like a stalker, but humans showed their true colors when they believe themselves to be alone. He knew that one from experience, alright. But what he observed, he wished he hadn't. He hated being witness to people at their weakest. He had no idea why she came to Konoha, but whatever happened must have been major, and none of his business. Instead, he appeared as though he was just getting there. "Yo." He gave a small wave and a small grin. He wanted to make sure she was team material. He saw she had potential, but potential was worthless if it couldn't be utilized. "Jae, right? I donno what brought you to this part of the world, but you're here now. No changing that. If you want help..." His ears were a light red, as they always were when Jae was around. He took a deep breath and calmed himself. "If you want help, don't hesitate to ask the Hokage or a sensei." He looked down and muttered something that sounded like 'Or me.' Then he looked back up. He was analyzing here fully now. "No one is without their troubles or sorrows. Keeping it bottled up only makes it worse. Talk from experience.. At the very least I could be a decent target."  

[chrissy b e a n]

◤X『 私にダイヤモンドの原石の十分があった。 』x» 私の背骨は非常に薄い
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxこの洞窟か病気の洞窟から私を出しなさい。 ✿ !! X◢
xxxxxx━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━x━━━━━━━━━━━━━
XXXXXXif the bombs go off the sun will still be shining
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxbecause you've heard it said that every mushroom cloud has a silver lining.

Finally having decided to dive into trying her clans techniques, she was interrupted when a voice called out to her out of seemingly nowhere. Turning, her sharp gaze fixed on Keiji, the boy who had been in the Hokages office earlier. Is he following me? She asked herself mutely, a little amused at that thought. "Yeah, it's Keiji right?" She asked, knowing full well that, that was indeed his name. She was only playing along for right now. She smiled at him, trying to seem as friendly as she could. Immediately he began to go on a sort of rant, one that alarmed the pink haired girl. Her smile fell a little bit, realizing that from the topic he had chosen to address he had seen her crying earlier. She let him finish first and let the silence settle between them. Normally, she would have snapped at this point. First and foremost, he had seen her crying. No one, not even her parents saw her crying. Second, he had barely made his presence known, meaning he was watching her for awhile. What kept her from snapping at him was she recognized his words as a gesture of 'comforting'. There would be no point in trying to deny that she knew what he was going on about, it was evident he had seen her in that state. Instead she laughed lightly. "You seem like a nice person but don't dive too deeply into other peoples problems. You could end up drowning along with the other person if something bad happened." Jae warned him. She smirked coyly, a teasing air forming about her. Jae was desperately trying to mask the depression she felt about the topic and was tying to move the conversation in a different direction. "Do all of the people from Leaf get into the habit of stalking outsiders?" She asked him, trying to throw him off. Just as he watched her carefully, she too payed close attention to how he receipted her advances and taunting. Crossing her arms behind her back she coaxed her head to one side, seemingly totally innocent.  

[TDG Super Kami]

♪ Keiji Maede ♪
Kei

♪ [Gennin] ♪ [Genjutsu] ♪ [Lil' Phantom King] ♪
"The Mind Conquers All"

"... I just figured from the fact that the Hokage wanted to speak to you privately and the Yuki band... Never mind. If that's the case, then it's a good thing I can breathe underwater." His head shook. In all honestly, the clone had just gotten there, sent by the original to keep track of her movements and nothing more. And no one ever left their home village without some sort of big story behind it. "A chessboard becomes a deathtrap if one doesn't know what the pieces can do..." His eyes shot wide for a moment, then placed his hand to his chin. "That... came out wrong... Gotta work on that. Anyway, like I said before, I can be a decent target. The only reason one usually comes out here is to either get away from it all, get lai--, or train, and seeing as how you've most likely already done the first..." He almost said 'get laid'... he shivered for a moment. He was surprised that that much paleness didn't blind him for life.

His arms crossed. "I have a feeling that the kage will team me and you up with either the other one with him right now or the ponytail guy." He silently prayed for the first. Again, silent honesty time. One: it was he that wanted to be teamed up with her for reasons previously pondered. Two: Using her as a team member meant there was less chance of being teamed up with that arrogant boy. Third, and the real mystery: Why the hell did he act so differently around her? It was a puzzle that he had to solve. True, he knew what hardships were like, though probably not as bad as whatever she went through, so sincerity wasn't the cause. He'd done nothing wrong, yet, so it wasn't guilt either. In fact, if it had been anyone else, he probably would have blown it off as nothing and this entire scene would have never happened. To add on to everything, he usually never talked unless asked to by a superior, and now he was ranting or worse, giving speeches. On the outside, he had a somewhat emotionless stare, but inside he was on the verge of a mental meltdown, banging his head against the wall.  

[chrissy b e a n]

◤X『 私にダイヤモンドの原石の十分があった。 』x» 私の背骨は非常に薄い
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxこの洞窟か病気の洞窟から私を出しなさい。 ✿ !! X◢
xxxxxx━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━x━━━━━━━━━━━━━
XXXXXXif the bombs go off the sun will still be shining
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxbecause you've heard it said that every mushroom cloud has a silver lining.

Jae looked at him curiously, feigning shock. She couldn't reprimand him for being curious. He knew she was from Yuki because of the headband she had left on the desk. Silently she kicked herself. How could she have made such a stupid mistake. "Does everyone know I am an outsider then?" She asked him, wondering if she had been found out by someone else as well. She would like to keep her private matters to herself and to those who needed to know her circumstances. He was humorous, which made it a little easier to go go along with a light mood. Perhaps she wouldn't hate the locals after all. "Breath under water!" She laughed a little bit, her hand moving up and covering her mouth as she sniffled a her giggles. Her eyes twinkled as she tried to decipher the meaning behind the chess board comment. I am not an ordinary piece... She thought to herself, looking past him as if she was distracted by something. She returned her gaze to his own when he went on about about the significance of coming to this place. He stopped in mid sentence and continued as if nothing, leaving her a little baffled by the meaning of it. Lai- She played with the wording in her head to draw some meaning to it but nothing clicked. She dismissed it altogether, choosing to focus on his offering himself as a target. "You want me to target you, for what, training?" Jae asked, playing dumb. She wasn't really sure if she wanted the company at the moment.

Keiji mentioned something about the Hokage teaming them up. Already she was at the stage of being put on a squad. That wouldn't definitely prove tiring. "Ponytail guy.." Something about that caught her attention. She flinched. "Wait, the jerk from before!" She barked, slipping in her false persona she had created so far. Realizing her mistake she sighed, looking away. "That was rude of me, sorry." He could have been Keiji's acquaintance or something and she had badmouthed him quite vehemently. Gabbing a piece of her long hair, she played with it, mulling over the chances she would be put on the same squad with the jerk from before. Her fortune was bad so it was highly possible. "What are the rules for this village when it comes to forming a squad? Can you suggest what members you want on your team?" She asked. If there was a way to prevent being on that guys squad she would do anything.  

[TDG Super Kami]

♪ Keiji Maede ♪
Kei

♪ [Gennin] ♪ [Genjutsu] ♪ [Lil' Phantom King] ♪
"The Mind Conquers All"

Keiji shook his head. "I think it's just me and the Hokage that know. The other guy, not the Iron Sand guy, may or may not know. As far as I'm concerned though," He shrugged lightly, "It's none of my business to know what caused you to switch. My curiosity only stretches as far as knowing what is shown and said, not to what isn't." He had to have at least some initial respect for a new person. This was how he respected her.

He grinned at her second statement. "Water Manipulation's amazing when there's imagination behind it." If there was something he was blessed with that he didn't earn himself, it was his elements. Suiton was as versatile as his imagination would let it, and acted as a natural conductor for raiton.

"Moving targets make for better targets for jutsu. Or I could just be using that as an excuse to keep watch over you." Take that as she would, he didn't know the answer either. He'd pretty much given up on trying to figure what his deal was at the moment and was just going with the flow his brain was giving him. Then he shook his head when she gave her outburst. "No, I don't like him either. Donno what, but first impressions say he'll only cause me grief later on." His head sunk, then he gave off a look like he was having a light bulb moment. That's what it was. His entire time in Konoha, minus the Hokage, he'd put up with genuine idiots. Teachers, fellow classmates, neighborhood hooligans. Everyone he had the misfortune of having regular contact with had the IQ of a garden hose. But Jae immediately gave off an aura that she was higher than that. He grinned, shaking his head. It took someone like Ponytail to make him see something so simple. He was starting to slip, not that he would admit it.

He'd already thought about what the ideal team would be. "Well, I'm a genjutsu specialist. Everything I do is calculated Smoke and Mirrors. At first glance, you seem to be either a ninjutsu user or medic. Something of the sort. Teams are groups of three gennin plus a Jounin, and depending on what that jounin specializes in we'd be better off with either a melee combatant or which ever of the previous two you aren't. Basically, we want balance, having a combination of a little of everything to adapt to any situation." He shrugged again. "Won't know anything until I observe others as well."