Festival of Blood [Ended!]

Seresana completely missed Iku's presence in the festival and when Yusuri made her departure, Seresana was just as clueless as Sylvan was as to the reasoning behind it. Though she didn't protest it either and just watched as one of the much taller girls departed from their little group and disappeared into the crowd of people. When Jirou showed up and inquired about Sylvan, Seresana was quick to flash him a thankful smile for the concern he was expressing towards Sylvan, but she didn't have a whole lot else to contribute to the explanation with him catching at least some of what Rosie said and suggested. Rosie's suggestions and notions were also what got Seresana to actually stop trying to shuttle everyone towards some of the games as well. She couldn't believe that she hadn't taken into consideration Sylvan's actual fear towards crowds and when she glanced over towards the game itself, while that particular booth wasn't quite full of people, there were plenty of people around in general. Seresana went so far as to even wince then, but it was quick to disappear when Rosie added in the other suggestion of a group hug. That had been something she wasn't expecting Rosie to actually say, but she was more than happy to oblige the suggestion and she quickly joined the brief hug, releasing herself almost as quickly.

Still, she was really glad to see Sylvan actually stand up and voice her thanks to the others, though her expression turned curious when the ANBU were mentioned again. "Why would they care if anyone was on the roof?" Seresana silently wondered to herself but she didn't have long to contemplate it before the suggestion of finding an activity in a less crowded section of the festival became her new goal. "Ah, that sounds fine by me," Seresana replied with a nod before looking over towards Jirou. "I'd say you're welcome to come along too if you want," Seresana said with a sweet smile. "My name's Seresana Hatasuko," she added in quickly before once again looking out to the festival and it's crowd. Luckily she'd had such a hand in helping build and set up the event that she had a couple guesses where crowd might not have been so bad and she slowly began trying to steer the group towards one such area.

Word Count: 393
Total: 2,702

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Word count: 152 | 1407
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Kisayuri stayed near the music area, edging around the crowd in her safe spot so she wouldn't be bumped into by those that were dancing. It was an amusing thing to listen to. Human's at time did things that gave her such fascination. The music they created were of the things that fascinated her. She listened carefully and lightly a smile crept upon her face as she listened to the melodic sounds that swam through her ears. She would spend her time here listening to the music at least for another two songs before she would manage to pull herself free. "Hmm that was wonderful. I wonder if there is anything else around here that would be just as wonderful as that..." she whispered to herself as she would look to the left and then to the right before heading off to find something else in the area to watch or do.

GM POST

Word count: 134 | 2019

The festival itself when looked at from high above would look as though it were shaped like a open hand fan, with the street in front of the hokage's office being the main avenue for a number of people and attractions. as they spread further out there would be less and less people, along with less and less attractions. Currently the festival was still quite at peace and nothing happened that caused any shinobi to act weird or strange.

Shinobi's posted up in various areas of the festival would be going about their business occasionally helping people that asked for help. From things like lost children, to treating sprained ankles to breaking up drunken fights that occasionally would break out.

The robed and bandaged man roaming about the festival, mostly keeping to the larger crowds.

Jirou smiled as it was made clear that the crying girl was alright. He let out a small sigh of relief. He then heard Seresana give him the offer to tag along with the group for the duration of the festival, which made him do mental hand pumps as he finally found a group he could hang out with, even if they were girls.
"My name is Jirou Kyuuzaki. Pleasure to meet you." He nodded respectfully as he fell in with his newfound friends.
"I wonder what the ANBU would be up to... Is the Hokage expecting something to happen?" Jirou thought as he kept pace with Seresana and the others.

Word Count: 109 | 646

Rosie hugs her back with an equally awkward gesture, clearly unused to hugging at all despite getting a great deal of training in the skill by being around Serasena. "I was somewhat obligated to come Sylvan," Rosie says with a perfectly straight face. "We normal people have to stick together, after all, or we'd be wholly overrun with crazy people. Nor that I have any objection to crazy--I know a very sweet-natured jonin who really enjoys hugs, smiling, and shows a real gift with a bow--but everything in moderation. I'm pleased that you appear to be feeling better, or at least less frightened."
When Sera joins the hug with Sylvan, Rosie blinks but quickly extends the hug to include the shorter girl. "I too think that we might want to occupy ourselves with the fun to be found where there is an abundance of people but also clear lines of movement away from where we happen to be. ANBU clearly wants sole control over every elevated position in the village, offering inherant advantages against any danger."
"Although they'd probably do it if there was no danger."
"Although I'll add that ANBU exists to see danger long before it actually exists, and to act as if there is always danger even when there is not. One has as much preparation as one has foresight, and I'm given to understand that they have a truly awesome amount of foresight." She takes in a breath. "Which is why fun is best had with lots of people around and plenty of spaces to move into if necessary. It's an unpleasant truth that having lots of other people between yourself and danger make you more safe even if it makes them less safe. It's also an unpleasant truth that to remain able to help others, a shinobi has to remain alive and relatively unhurt. Pragmatism dictates that thw crowd must be a shield and then must be abandoned if danger appears and we expect to fight it."
"I believe that the correct sentiment at this moment is 'screw that noise'." Kitty alights on the ground within easy sight of Rosie and crosses her arms. "We are not shinobi to flee initially and fail to protect. It's my job to be emotional, yes, but this isn't emotion... this is duty."
"Will you let me finish?"
"Only if you're going to say the right things. Not that I could stop you anyway, but I can annoy and harass you."
You'll see." Rosie lets the two other girls go and steps back, looking at them and then Jirou. "But forget that. If there's danger, well, there's a reason we beat ourselves up every day in training and that's so that when there's danger around, we can..."
"Chastise."
"...chastise it." She blinks as if surprised that she used that particular word. She then shrugs it off and looks to Jirou again. "I'm Rosemarius Blytraviin, but you may call me Rosie. As to whether I'm pleased to meet you, that's not something I know at the moment. I may know later but for the time being, I have no antipathy towards you nor reason to regret the meeting."

{Word Count: 528 | 3088}

Seresana grinned as the introductions were exchanged and that the groups new member Jirou had decided to accompany them, after all generally the saying went the more the merrier. Though as that thought entered her mind, Seresana actually took a double take and realized that it could actually be the opposite in this exact situation. After all her friend Sylvan was just rescued from a situation where there was too much of the 'more' and it ended up overpowering the 'merry' to the point where the poor girl had been practically reduced to a panic attack. Seresana decided that she'd have to really commit that to memory to help in the future especially if Sylvan planned to join her on a mission or two.

Working on that notion of the 'rescue' of Sylvan from the crowded spots of the festival, Seresana wasn't having too much trouble steering the group in her desired direction, and soon enough she was able to look around and see a noticeable lesser amount of people about. However unfortunately, there was also a noticeably lower number of stalls and booths around this more outer edge as well. Still, Seresana looked about them to try and decide on something that would be fun and that the whole group could participate in. Closest to her and the rest of the group was just a sales booth featuring a bunch of party and festival masks, many of which were brightly colored with interesting patterns and designs. Next to it was some kind of luck game where one threw a kunai knife at a board that was sporadically covered in face down cards and then you won a prize depending on if you hit a card and what one it was. On the other side of the mask booth was a food stand selling various grilled foods and sizzled away on the scalding hot surface. Seresana then looked to the other side of the street only to see a single kind of weird looking tent like booth who's inner contents would remain a mystery so long as they stood outside.

With the immediate options before her, Seresana turned about to look to the rest of the group. "So, what does everyone want to do?" She asked them all at once before continuing with, "we could get something to eat, or try our luck at that kunai game over there. Or we could go see what's in that strange tent over there." The last suggestion was accompanied by a point to the strange tent. "Or we could press on and see if something else appears that might be more fun," Seresana added in quickly with a glance towards further down the street where a few more booths and an even thinner crowd still mingled to and fro.

Word Count: 467
Total: 3,169

Sylvan, for her part, was quite content to let Sena and the others lead her around. Now that they had been made aware of the issue, they would be able to apply it to their superior knowledge of the festival and its workings. From that, they would then find an attraction that wouldn't cause another panic attack. That was Sylvan's hope, anyways. Sena and Rosie both seemed to have a general idea of where they were going, and the new person, Jirou, was tagging along as well.
rosie, however, most caught her attention. The girl was making attempts at social interaction. They were quite awkward, but so were many of Sylvan's. It occurred to her she knew very little about the girl. The crowded, noisy festival wasn't a place she could effectively ask questions, but observing rosie reactions to the mixed bag of success and failure of rigged carnival games would be enough for now.
As the four of them walked, Sylvan would do her best to remain in the center, keeping each of the three between her and the crowd.
Sylvan looked down at Sena, wondering why she stopped. The girl's quick glance around revealed her purpose though; it appeared Sena had found some options. After listing out the options, Sylvan pointed towards the strange tent. "We might as well go there, and at least take a look at what's inside. If it's nothing interesting, we can simply move to a different tent."
In truth, she as intensely curious about the unknown tent. while intellectual she knew such tents would likely be common at the festival, she had never before been to one.The fact that one was easily accessible was all the better. she wasn't quite sure what she expected to be inside. A fortune teller seemed likely, but based on her previous spying in festivals past, they typically advertised much more extravagantly. Mother had once told her that unmarked tents were those who only wished to be bothered by a select few people. Sylvan could only assume that "select few" meant "those bored and curious enough to wander over", given that that's what she was proposing.
{355 Words}

"Yusuri," Iku spoke up in a small, hushed tone. Her voice was low for no particular reason, but the oppressive nature of the festival all around possibly had something to do with it. Blinking, the Uchiha girl stared at the one who had insured herself to her. Oddly enough, for some sort of master-partnership that they had, the two really hadn't seen much of each other lately. Though it was primarily because Iku hadn't really found much of a need to command Yusuri to do anything.

Music nearby seemed to pick up, or maybe Iku's focus was broadening again, after having been immediately centered upon Yusuri, as the girl stepped before her. Her eyes glanced around. She spotted a booth with some interesting looking masks, that oddly drew her attention. A couple in particular drew her gaze. One had weird eye patterns that reminded her of the Uchiha's Sharingan, but weren't exactly the same, instead appearing as red swirls. Regardless, that mask interested her on a deeper level. Then there was another mask, one that was more simplistic in design. It looked like some sort of fox mask. A mask Iku on numerous occasions had witnessed ANBU wearing. The girl wanted both of these masks, but didn't really have the money for them. Which was annoying to deal with inside.

Then she spotted a booth with some sizzling meats and veggies, that wafted a enticing aroma through the air, and Iku found herself looking at it hungrily. Perhaps she and Yusuri could get a bite to eat. "Yusuri, want to get something to eat?" she offered, speaking to the girl in front of her.

As she was making the offer, Iku's eyes dwindled on an unusually placed tent at the back. One that seemed cast in a shadow. The vision of this mysterious tent brought on a unusual case of solemnity, and would make any onlooker suspicious and unnerved. Feelings that Iku found more intriguing than what they should invoke: being worried. Perhaps they could skip the small meal if Yusuri was not hungry, and instead observe that curious tent back there.

Her eyes found their way back to Yusuri, but it had been obvious where she had been looking. "It may seem weird I am attending this festival, but my curiosity always pulls me places that I wasn't expecting to be found at. Similar to how my curiosity is piquing regarding that mysterious tent over there. Perhaps we could go check it out."

{410 words}

Jirou let himself be dragged along by his new company, watching happily at the festivities going on around them. A kunai throwing game was going on in one place, a ramen shop was announcing it's discounts in honor of the festival. In fact, one ramen shop that he and his group had passed by, was the same that his mother had told him about. Ichiraku's Ramen Shop. Unfortunately he didn't see his father there, so he decided to not depart from the company of Seresana and the others he hadn't gotten to know yet.
Rosemarius had proven a bit of an enigma, but he wasn't going to judge her based on first impressions. He had chuckled when she said that she would see if he was a good person to be around. "I hope we can be friends. Maybe time will show." He had said.

Word Count: 144 | 790

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Word count: 299 | 1706
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From the music area Kisayuri moved around the crowd. Her steps light and slow, as her eyes wandered more and more, the longer she was within the festival more she began to notice the various intricacies of the festivals and the various work that was placed into it. From the designs of the stands, to the set up of the festival itself to even the decoration work. She began to notice them little by little and while most of it she didn't care for there were a couple things here and there that she did. Primarily her focus was attracted to the colorful things, outside of the musical entertainment laid the booths of games and attractions it was quite the color area. They were obviously targeting the younger crowd, but there were still quite a few adults in the area that still played those games. Those timeless games that never seem to get old and still provide challenges to many. Of course as she moved through the area she did take notice of a sign at each of the game stands that stated "NO NINJUTSU ALLOWED" mainly for the sake of keeping it fair to all customers given that while there are a lot of people at the festival there are still a good number of shinobi that still do attend the festival itself and it just wouldn't be fair to everyone if the shinobi's, who were a smaller population compared to the many, were permitted to use their ninjutsu just to win games.

Kisayuri was attracted at first to a Mini-bonsai booth where a merchant sold a variety of bonsai from some already pre-cut and others rather bushy and ready to be cut and shaped out. She wandered amongst the booth looking at the variety of bonsai.

GM POST

Word count: 168 | 2187

There would be extremely rare moments, if people looked up in time that is, where they could just barely see blurs shooting across the rooftops. Occasionally a squad of ANBU would stop at a high building, where they couldn't be seen by those below, and glanced down at the crowd. They took a moment looking down at the crowd, their eyes scanning, searching. this lasted for about a few seconds before they ANBU would disappear again out of sight.

The bandaged man continued his route, moving through the crowds, occasionally stopping at a booth or two, particularly the bar type booths and sat down having himself about a drink or two. Barely anyone batted an eyelash at the guy, some even chatted him up at the booths, of course most of these were drunks that seemed to have little to no care in the world given their level of intoxication. Of course this only provided the robed man a cover as if he were here with friends.

When the odd tent was suggested, Seresana nodded all the same with the ever present smile on her face before turning and leading the way towards the strangely colored temporary structure. It was square in shape and quite lengthy too, with it's brightly colored cloth walls supported by a sparse few beams that made up a skeletal frame. The cloth itself was primarily a deep blue color, with thin red and green alternating stripes along it and numerous strange symbols that might as well have meant nothing at all for all that Seresana knew.

After Seresana pushed aside the loosely dangling fabric that marked the entrance to the tent, her eyes looked towards the several articles that rested upon simple tables and hung from strings tied to the supports with renewed wonder. The tables held all manner of curiosities from simple and cheap paper fans with commonly recognized patterns, symbols, and prints to ornately hand carved decorations. Stacks of cards, paintings, dolls, and even some highly decorative weapons rested on the table, though the majority of the weapons were likely cheap replicas and wouldn't hold up to the less bedazzled counterparts. A few more masks, tags, charms, and wind chimes hung from the support structure, swaying ever so slightly from the air displacement from Seresana pulling back the cloth door. Behind it all though was the proprietor of the tent, a tall man even when sitting with a wrap of cloth about his head that seemed extremely foreign to Seresana. He sported a small pair of glasses that rested on the end of sharp nose and for the festival, was wearing a rather plain light brown kimono with a darker brown hakama. And despite the abundance of wares before him, there were still several boxes behind him.

"Ah, welcome welcome, come in and please browse to your hearts content," he said to the entire group with a surprisingly lighter tone than one would have expected him to have. Seresana nodded simply, though not in the man's direction as she was already scanning the stranger and more unusual wares that she'd never seen before. She started to reach for a clear glass ball resting upon an ornate brass stand when the booth owner spoke up again. "Do be careful though. Several of my wares are old and fragile so please dont' touch the breakables unless you intend to buy," he added with a slightly more strained smile. Seresana however didn't seem to mind as she retracted her hand and resigned to simply lean closer to get her better look at the orb.

Word Count: 428
total: 3,597

Dust was a bit late to the festival, as you can tell. Sena had convinced Dust to go, but Dust had found excuses not to for as long as she could. However, she eventually couldn’t wander around the outskirts of the town anymore and started making her way towards the festival, which wasn’t difficult to find for obvious reasons.

She tried to avoid the games, as she knew two things: that they were probably scams, and she most certainly did not want to stress herself out any further. She tended to get stressed when she played games, no matter how insignificant their outcomes or impacts were…

She hadn’t eaten breakfast. However, she stayed away from the food stands as well both due to their ridiculously high prices and the fact that whatever they had probably wasn’t that good for you anyway. Frankly, Dust had no idea why she was even there and was more or less just going so Sena didn’t yell at her. Speaking of Sena, Dust was trying to find her, because at least she was a somewhat familiar face…

Her heart rate slowly began to rise as thoughts of getting lost resurfaced. She couldn’t find Sena, and the crowds were so large… Anyone could be following her, and nobody would n—

Stop it, Dust, she told herself. That’s really gonna get you nowhere. If they are going to kill you, they would have done so already. They don’t even need to be sneaky about it. Nobody knows you and nobody would miss you. Calm yourself.

Dust’s internal thoughts hurt, but she knew they were true. There was nothing she could do, so why worry about it? Even if she was to die, it’s not like she would be missed…

Word count: 287

Nathan didn't look behind him until after turning a corner and sighed as he didn't see any sign of Iku. He glanced around at the vast majority of stalls and simply let his mind wander for a minute or two before. His mind pondered if he actually had enough time and more importantly, enough money go to each stall. That was the only real problem about this place, too many good options! Everything was interesting, fun, and new with a little less with new because of there being a good number of booths from years prior. Unsurprisingly, it was easy to miss the ANBU watching with his attention focusing on the Festival going on below them. He barely noticed the gaze while in the crowds, but Athena had noticed.

She had been looking around to see what had been bothering her brother so much and didn't see anyone outside of the one girl that came to the house to train with her brother. Was she the reason why he wanted to get away? Did he like her? The questions were saved for later when she spotted a small amount of movement on the rooftops. She quickly snapped her head back to look at the now vacant space and simply starred at it for few moments.

"'Thena, you alright?" Nathan asked, glancing taking a brief glance at the empty area. "Y-yeah." She said before continuing alongside her brother.

With him being oblivious to the ANBU, but not to his sister, Nathan felt that h had to get her out of her grumpy mood. Unfortunately for his sister, this meant him bugging her. He let go of her hand and gently poked her forehead. She glared at him before he went to poke her again. The third attempt had her try to hit his finger, forcing him to quickly pull back. He giggled to himself as his sister glared at him. Pallas tugged sleeve and pouted at him. "Hurry up! I want to get to the fun booths!"

"Alright, we will pick up the pace." He said while finally coming into eyeshot of the weapons display that was finally starting up. "It's starting." The young Uchiha put his younger sibling back onto his shoulders. Athena had gotten the hint that they had showed up late and was ready to jog as her brother tried to run with Pallas on his shoulders, the small girl giggling like crazy as he did so.
((410))

"Time will tell," Rosie agrees amiably, trying for a smile and actually sort of succeeding.
Kitty steps around someone in the crowd as she turns to face Rosie, and somehow now has a pocket watch, which she begins to wind with an overly serious expression. The winding mechanism is poorly-oiled and so produces a squeak every time she turns it. "Time will tell," squeak squeak she says. Squeak squeak. "Sooner or later..." squeak squeak "...time will tell."
Rosie has to try very hard to restrain an expression of incredulity. "What... are you doing?"
"Winding a chronometer." Kitty replies casually. "I thought it'd be fun to do it in a really overblown way for my amusement and the amusement of a hallucinating young shinobi of whom I'm fond."
"You take far too much advantage of the fact that you can't be seen by anyone else," Rosie sighs a little. "Although the handstand on Sera was fun to watch. I think she'd enjoy it too, if she could see it."
"Likely would." Kitty nods in the direction that Serasena is taking them. "Speaking of such, there goes the miniature bundle of smiles and cute now. Into a spooky, mysterious tent where anything could happen." She raises both of her hands and wiggles her fingers. "Wooooo. Spoooooky!"
"You're definately getting worse."
"You're definitely sinking deeper into the mud, my favorite stick." Kitty vaults up and stands on one leg on top of Sylvan, balancing easily. "This is a fun place, Rose! Just let it go, emulate me, be a human. Have fun; it'll only hurt a little."
"I doubt it'll hurt at all."
"Now you're trying to be as deadpan and not-fun as possible."
Rosie grins in the direction of the imaginary kitsune. "Why yes, yes I am. Turnabout is fair play, my plush-keistered hallucination."
"Good, good, young grasshopper! You are taking your first steps into a much larger and greater world than the one you've left. It is a world of daring sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise, and all kinds of imaginative adventures!"
"...why would a prince be in disguise? And what's 'magic'?"
"Think of magic like the various effects that you can do with chakra." Kitty says, dismounting from Sylvan and standing upside-down with her hands on Jirou's shoulders. "Limited energy, requires discipline to move and shape it, can take whatever form you want it to, but is most efficient when gestures and symbols are used to give it a predictable direction and form. As to why a prince would be in disguise?" She shrugs. "Search me. Princes are supposed to be silly and fickle creatures with strange inclinations who always get themselves into trouble because only the youngest prince in the room has any sense and the ability to read."
"So princes are illiterate clowns?"
"More or less. You could play with their heads some for amusement, but they're so frightfully predictable that you'd run out of entertainment fairly quickly."
"Huh." Rosie notices Sera ducking into the tent that Kitty has designated mysterious and spooky, and she shakes her head, smiles a little as she sees Kitty handspring off of Jirou and stand at the flap with an exaggerated bow and a gesture of invitation, and then she steps inside.
"Oh, look at that!" Kitty points at the man in the cloth head wrapping. "It's an ahab!"
"A... what's an 'ahab'?"
"I'm not really sure, but I think he is one. They're supposed to be really interesting folks  who ride things called 'bacteria' across vast oceans of sand."
"I was going to guess more sheek or something." Rosie smiles and gives the owner a quick bow of respectful greeting before she joins Sera looking over the various exotic wares for sale. "These things look very interesting," she comments to the smaller girl. "Exotic, very much so. Perhaps exotic enough that he's selling thumb rings or something of equally exotic but practical nature." She looks to the proprietor and nods in the direction of the fragile orb on the ornate stand of brass. "Is there anything special about it, outside of its fragility and artistic look?"

{Word Count: 688 | 3776}

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Word count: 153 | 1859
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She stayed at the booth for a while looking through the different bonsai wondering if she should get one or not. There were a few that whispered things to her as she moved passed, and then there were some that just didn't speak at all, were the bonsai afraid? Or was it fake? She couldn't exactly tell without touching it, but at the same time she didn't want to reach out and touch things, she recalled from her mother telling her not to touch things in merchant booths, some had different rules about touching and it was just better in the long run to keep her hands to herself.

She spent quite sometime there before she decided to leave the booth as finally deciding not to make a purchase. She would return back to wandering the festival again looking at the different booths, watching others play at a few of the game booths.

GM POST

Word count: 149 | 2336

The man had left from the bar booth and moved on to a new area. Though the couple of men that were with him weren't as active as before, two of them sat on their stools with their head down against the counter. While a third one was leaning against the counter complaining about stomach pain. Of course this could easily have been mistaken as the repercussions of people drinking just a bit too much. The man continued to make his way through the festival and headed for the larger crowds.

Coming from the far eastern side of the festival the Inuzuka clan members could be seen sauntering through the festival, not in a huge group, this particular group was a small group of two members with their canine companion. Their canine companions were sniffing the ground and making their way through the crowd as their partners followed after them.

Jirou was about to step into the tent when he noticed someone out of the corner of his eye, a girl dressed in a flowery outfit and a rose on her head. She looked very pretty and stood out from the other festival-goers around town. "She looks nice. I don't think I've seen her before..." He mused to himself. "Maybe she's from another village?" He asked himself before he stepped inside the tent to look at the wares of the man who owned said tent.

Word Count: 85 | 875

"Well if you are one for legends, and attuned to matters of the spirits, the crystal orb is said to show glimpses of the future," the salesman replied to Rosemarius from where he sat with his wide sellers grin. "Alas, I hold no such connection to the unseen and cannot show you a demonstration," he went on.

Seresana had looked over to listen to the explanation of the crystal ball, and when it was finished she turned back to look at it with wide curious eyes. "Well it really sounds interesting, but I think I'll keep looking around," she said before twisting her view to some of the other objects within the tent. She got a bit distracted when it came to looking at the weapons. The first one that caught her attention was a strange looking ax that had a large portion missing out of the body of the blade, and a few ornately beaded strings attached to both ends. It certainly looked neat to her, but Seresana couldn't imagine the weapon holding up that well given that there was so little metal that would be taking such a beating. The next one was an overly long, curve bladed sword with too short a handle to allow for proper handling. Seresana took a long look at the weapon, but the metal didn't look quite right and she couldn't help but think that it was another display piece and wouldn't hold up long under actual combat. Finally, Seresana looked towards a long staff like weapon, but the end looked like it had a straight split roughly one foot down the upper end that was only being held together by a small tie of string. "Umm mister, is this staff supposed to be damaged?"

"Oh? Oooh, no no, you misunderstand young miss. That is not a damaged staff, remove the tie and see for yourself," he said with a gesture.

"You mean like this?" Seresana replied as she picked up the weapon and then leaned it over so she could actually reach the tied off end. The string was a little tougher to remove than she thought it would be, but came away fairly quickly once she figured it out. The minute the string was gone the end of the staff separated down the middle revealing a just barely shorter blade, the two pieces connected to the rest of the staff on spring loaded hinges making a kind of cross guard for a only slightly shorter, slightly curved blade. "Oh wow, it's like a naginata," Seresana commented as she brought the weapon closer for a more detailed inspection.

"Yes little ninja, a hidden weapon for those in the need for such deception," the owner went on as Seresana continued to inspect the weapon, but she ultimately closed the end back up, tied it shut again and leaned the weapon back where it was. "Not to your liking?"

"Not really, I like using my bow for the moment. I even made it myself," Seresana proclaimed happily.

"Ah, I see, well if anything else catches your eye, be sure to let me know," the seller went on as he returned his attention to the others in the tent.

Word count: 531
total: 4,128

As Dust thought, an image she had previously not processed popped into her head. She had seen a familiar face. Sena's, in fact, since Sena was still the only person Dust actually... knew, so it was pretty easy to remember who it was even if she had just remembered that she saw someone familiar. She had been going into a tent... It looked like other people were going with her, but it was difficult to tell if they were just walking in at the same time as her or if they were walking in with her. Regardless, she needed at least one face she recognised in order to not panic, so Dust went off after her.

When Dust, holding up the tent flap with one arm, stepped inside, she was momentarily stunned as she took in all the... things on display. Most of it seemed to be junk, but Dust didn't really know. Perhaps a lot of the items were just things she had never been exposed to in a while, which was definitely possible. Some was neat, but she didn't really want to spend money on things she didn't need yet. Sena was there with a... staff with a hidden blade in it? Why did Sena need a hidden blade? Dust subconsciously took a step halfway out of the tent, but quickly stepped back inside, letting the tent flap fall behind her. Who was that tall girl she was next to? She was with Sena when they went inside, so they must be friends... It'd odd that there were two redheads in the same place. They were supposed to be rare, but Dust knew it was just confirmation bias or something. Was that a tatoo on her face...? And a green-haired girl? That can't be natural. The weirdest natural colour that she knew of were purple eyes. It was hard to tell if it was dyed, however... She was never good at judging. Dust glanced at the salesman, but glanced away.

Dust took a few steps forward, but didn't say anything just yet. She didn't want to draw attention to herself... Usually a fourth person in a group who shows up later is ignored.

Word count: 363, total 650

"And I suspect that it's just a pretty bauble with a pretty story so that it'll sell to the two sorts of people who that appeals to: people who're naive enough to believe that a glass ball can show them the future, and wealthy people that know it's just a pretty glass ball, but know that everyone likes a nice story and nice stories will make an ordinary piece of glass extra special for rich friends." Rosie grins a little at the shopowner. "I have no issue with anyone parting the naive or the idle rich from their money, so I approve sir."
"I approve too," Kitty says as she picks up a hallucinated copy of the sphere and tosses it up and down, catching it on the tip of a finger and spinning it in complete defiance of reality, and then holds it up to her eye to look through it, causing the eye to balloon to freakish proportions through the concave and convex lenses. "But it indeed tells me the future, Rose."
Oh? And what does it say? Rosie doesn't restrain the amused look from her face since it fits perfectly with what she'd just said to the shopkeeper.
"It shows me an older teenager, tall and willowy, carrying an elegant blade on her back and staring ahead with intense focus. Her eyes are flat with predatory instinct and she's poised to move in for the kill," Kitty reports in a voice of utmost seriousness. "She is all deadly grace and speed, and at her right hand is a tall and beautiful kitsune about her own age, carrying a naginata in her hands." She nods in the direction of the 'damaged staff' which Serasena has just revealed to actually be a pole with a long sharp blade on the end. "Much like that one, in fact. The ninja and the kitsune are partners, allies, although the ninja is the only one who can see her--until it's too late, of course."
Rosie has to work hard not to give Kitty a look of astonishment admixed generously with one that indicates that she's deeply touched by the words from the manifestation of her schizophrenia, although she's starting to wonder just how much Kitty was a delusion and how much she was as real as Rosie herself.
Instead of replying to Kitty or showing that she's touched by her words, Rosie starts to turn towards Serasena to comment favorably on the workmanship of the unusual blade when her eye caught another student standing shyly at the door, trying not to be noticed, and Rosie turns more completely to look at Dust. A redhead like me! How unusual.
"Red as a kitsune's tails," Kitty says. "I think it's fetching."
You would.
"I am who I am, Rose." Kitty smiles and nods towards Dust. "Smile, and then go say hello. She seems to be someone who's not sure about being here and could really use someone talking to her."
OK. Rosie pushes a small, shy smile onto her face and steps closer to Dust. "I am Rosemarius Blytraviin," she says, offering Dust her hand in an almost tentative way. "May I ask who you are? I don't remember seeing you before in any of the classes, or in training, so I assume you must tend to train on your own."

{Word Count: 557 | 4333}

Sylvan stands off to the side, staying as near Sena as she could manage. Instead of browsing the wares, she looks around outside. It was quite odd for the ANBU to have responded with killing intent so quickly, at least her in opinion. It was triggering her paranoia, both for her safety and that of her friends.
As such, her attention is immediately caught when Dust enters the tent. 'We've seen her, haven't we?' 'Out and about, perhaps. I don't believe we've ever truly met.' 'Why is she looking at us like that? Particularly at Sena.' 'We need to keep an eye for her elsewhere in the festival. I don't trust her at all.'
Once Dust leaves, Sylvan turns her attention back to Sena, awkwardly hugging the shorter girl's arm. "Sena, may I see the naginata for a moment?" she asks, her voice quiet and ever so slightly timid. Sena had shown no interest in it, but... Sylvan's paranoia had not yet died down.
{162 Words}

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Word count: 109 | 1968
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She had momentarily taken notice of a large group of people who had gone into a out of the way tent. Kisayuri merely gazed at it for a moment before deciding against heading in that direction. The amount of people in a small cramped area. Not entirely her thing, at least outside in the festival, while there is a lot of people. She can escape to an open area if she needed too. She continued to saunter past the tent over to the other outside attrations, watching some of the walking entertainment doing things like juggling balls or performing some rather impressive acrobatics in a contained area.

GM POST

Word count: 157 | 2493

"Alright sirs, you three have been sleeping here long enough. I'm going to need you guys to get up and leave." said the owner of the food booth to the three men that were sleeping. None of which responded at the current moment. The owner got a little louder with them and got closer to them getting close to them and he would reach out and shook one of them and the man didn't react at first. After a moment a groan came from him as he lifted his head and stared at the owner. The mans eyes were empty, like they were eaten from the inside. the man opened his mouth and what appeared to be long sharp spider like legs stuck out.

There was a short silence before a scream from that booth grabbed a lot of the attention of those around it. It even garnered the attention of the shinobi in the area.

Jirou heard his name being mentioned, turned his head towards the entrance to the tent and bowed to Dust. "Ohayo." He said in greeting before turning his head towards the merchandise once again.
Jirou snapped his eyes towards the entrance to the tent when he heard the scream, then made a snap-second decision. He had been looking at the naginata that Sena and Sylvan had been holding and talking about with the peddler and it looked like one of the weapons his father had at home. Even though he had no training in such specialized weaponry yet, he figured he might buy it so he could learn later.

That time would seem to arrive sooner rather than later, however.
"Gomenasai, ladies, but I need that blade." He said before taking his pouch of ryou and dropping it in the peddlers hands. He was most likely overpaying for it, but right now he needed to be quick if he was going to make it. He promptly snatched the blade from Sena's hands and sprinting out towards the direction the scream came from, his new weapon quickly tied to his waist. Other than his jutsus, this blade was now the only weapon he had at the moment, since he didn't think he'd need his kunai at a festival, since the game booths would provide them when required.

Word Count: 222 | 1097