music in the woods

Hideyoshi was very unamused by the stealing of his furry cannonball and still not impressed with the stick, but after Shikamoa gave a teasing reply, and then seeing his smile Hideyoshi felt more comfortable that he was at least a nice guy. "well, I mean it still looks like a stick? Soooo yea, still kinda lame; anyone could have picked up a branch and done that?" Hideyoshi straighten up and shrugged his shoulders looking aside. "but I mean if it can evolve I suppose that’s pretty cool, now why are you so nonchalant?" Hideyoshi walked over and put his arm around Shikamoa's shoulder and leaned on him. "I know I'm not as cute as a raccoon but come on, I wanna be looked at sweetly tooooo." Hideyoshi whined jokingly smilling up at him. "p.s. I only let very special people call me Yoshi, Moa-chan"

Serasana made a very good point and it intrigued Hideyoshi "yea could you break it? What would happen if it did break?" Hideyoshi inquired still leaning on him, but less playfully and more simply lazily now.

Hideyoshi saw the piece on wood but didn’t really pay it any attention, he saw Miku go after it so he assumed right away that it was just another small animal however he continued to stare in the direction it came from, watching for any movement.

word count: 226
total: 3050

"You know Rose, there are days when I just cannot understand you at all," Kitty comments from her perch atop a tree, her seat swaying in the gentle breeze to be found high above the rest of the forest, where the hallucinatory kitsune is lounging on the twigs and leaves as if they're a solid surface.
"What do you mean?" Rosie asks, sitting on the highest solid branch she was able to climb to, resting her back against the trunk. She'd gone out in the early morning to the forest--the gate guards had become so used to her trips that they didn't even seem to notice her anymore--to train with the ever-helpful assistance of her kitsune "big sister." Not that she had much choice, seeing as how Kitty was literally a figment of her imagination and so fundamental a part of her mind that she wasn't sure that she could rid herself of the delusion.
"I mean, there's a bunch of the girls from your class having fun, with Sera pulling out all the stops on being utterly saccharine disgustingly adorable cute, and you're just sitting in a tree watching them instead of getting in on the action."
"For one thing, the one without a chest is a boy."
"How do you know?"
Rosie gives her an odd look. "He told me, of course. You were there, you heard him."
"I vote that we give him the ultimate two-component test to prove that he is, indeed, a male human."
Rosie upgraded the odd look to bewilderment. "What 'ultimate two-component test' are you on about?"
"Easy." Kitty shows off all her teeth. "Steal his shirt to check for breasts, and pants him to check for danglies."
Rosie couldn't help but stare at the kitsune for several moments. "How did you come into being without the slightest notion of proper civil behavior?"
"Because unlike all you real people, I've become used to flaunting all the great things about my beautiful and curvy vixen self with absolutely no shame."Kitty made sure that she leaned in such a way as to let a breast peek out from where it's been very loosely confined inside her kimono. "On a much more serious note, I know everything you know and still don't really understand this entire nudity taboo. If you've got it, flaunt it. Being born really beautiful isn't something to waste with modesty, it's something to advertise to everyone so they know you're prime material for coupling."
Rosie could think of nothing to say to that, in part because she had to admit that her "sister" had a point. In quieter moments, when she wasn't fixating on one particular goal or the other, she found herself idly contemplating the fact that Kitty was so distinctive and independent that she seemed less and less like a defect in Rosie's mental health, and more and more like a real person that only Rosie could see and talk to. Conversation with her was never monotone, like talking to herself, but had real flow like she was talking to someone that was emphatically not herself and had their own opinions and distinctive personality. Kitty had often claimed that she was merely Rosie projecting what she thought she herself would be like in a few years, but Rosemarius couldn't imagine ever being so casual about her body and having such a careless confidence in her own superiority that she could engage in idle and silly talk, and feel wholly at ease.
"Thinking about how your favorite hallucination is disturbingly alive?" And then there was the fact that although Rosie never had the slightest idea what her mental counterpart was thinking, Kitty always knew exactly what she was thinking, or at least knew her so well that she always guessed right.
"I'm a few steps beyond losing it over the fact that my schizophrenia has bloomed into manifesting a parasitic being who's my only friend and treats me exactly like family," Rosie says.
Kitty looked down at her with a glare. "I am not a parasite."
"You're too alive to be just a split-off of me, Kit, and there's only one logical explanation for that: you've become something like a clone jutsu that never goes away and has no physical presence, drawing chakra in very small amounts to remain," she says. "There have even been occasions where you've unconsciously grabbed a big hearty bite of it so I can hear you with my physical ears or be physically affected by your touch." She smirks up at the kitusne. "You've been working on the glare. It's become really good."
Kitty's glare dissolves into a grin. "I know, right? I've been working from that sour expression you wear around everyone and adding a little bit of loathing and anger--tightening around the eyes and the corners of the mouth works wonders--and I think a little extra touch of venom would really sell it."
"I think the key is to keep your expression fairly calm and ordinary, but to project body language that clearly tells someone else that you're quite able to do violence and would be happy to demonstrate if they invite a demonstration," Rosie says. "I believe I saw a description of someone who had really gotten a glare down pat having a shadow of death in his eyes."
"Sounds like a skill you need to master," Kitty said, getting up and brushing stray woody debris off her tails. "We're getting really excellent at this 'attacking the body' practice, but the way to really do the job, I think, is figuring out ways to attack the mind that can't be defended against. Meddling with the psyche, by glaring in such a way as to suggest that you're far more dangerous and violent than you actually are, isn't something that can be canceled. A deadly glare isn't genjutsu."
"Well, a literally deadly one could be a jutsu," Rosie pointed out. "Although certainly a forbidden one."
"Forbidden jutsu." Kitty snorted. "What a silly thing to do, forbidding jutsu. Shinobi who'll use it right would use it right if they learned it as a student. Shinobi who'll use it badly or evilly would do that if they never learned the jutsu at all, as we both know very vividly. It's like jutsu is being treated as magic that will change you if you use it, rather than as a tool that bends to the moral character of whoever has their hands on it."
"However inexplicable and silly, Kitty, those are the rules and common enough that I suspect  that far greater minds than ours concluded that forbidding jutsu was a wise and effective way to manage what kinds of shinobi ended up with those particular tools."
"Perhaps," Kitty allowed. "Although this leads us to only one reasonable concusion. If we cannot learn a forbidden jutsu..."
"...we should use our knowledge to make one." Rosie smiles. "Quite the idea, a mere student of modest accomplishment inventing a lethal weapon out of thin air. Something for later in my training, perhaps."
"Legality is not the only purpose of jutsu."
"But it's the primary reason that certain jutsu are forbidden to unskilled hands."
"But not the only one." Kitty looked at where Hideyoshi and Sersena and others are interacting. "There's cute going on, Rose, and I need it."
"In a few minutes," Rosie grins. "I'm enjoying being here, not the least of which because you don't want to be."
Kitty give her another glare. "How's this?"
Rosie examines her more dispassionate face. "Better."

{Word Count: 1255}

"Ah, well it changes as we will it until it reaches its truest form. Until we have forged what we wanted, we can only change it, I believe, four times in total and that's not including the jutsu's they can gain as buffs... don't ask I'll show you one day instead. That would indeed hurt, but we don't physically hammer it into something new, no," Shikamoa answered the onslaught of answers as they came along, "we meditate for hours on end and that is how we receive the soul shapes that we do, it takes a lot of concentrating. Oh, that? Well you either go unconscious and succeed in fixing the soul shape, or you die." He stated bluntly as if that was just a basic, harmless fact.
As Hideyoshi moved onto him Shikamoa had a beautiful moment of something people call 'Stupidity'. Matching the words in Hideyoshi's text in the wrong order he heard something along the lines of, 'I know I'm not be a cute raccoon, but come on I want to be your sweet too.' Turning he had a bit off-tilt look at the girl/boy leaning on his shoulder. Thinking about it he figured the proper response was possibly that? He had seen his Father do it to his Mom when she had said something similar. Shifting a bit he lifted up Hideyoshi's face a bit and gave him a quick peck on the lips, "Is that a proper respo-" Crack! As if completely attuned to the breaking branch he slowly and silently snuck through the forest floor after the raccoon and slide around the tree seeing the new person he smiled, "Hello there."

Word Count: 1367

Dust glanced down at the racoon, shying away from it for a bit. Her doing so seemed to have done the trick, although that was not the case in actuality. It might have helped the racoon not stick around, though. She could not exactly be sure, as she was not the racoon, was never the racoon, and probably will never be the racoon. As a consequence of her unfortunate fate of not being a racoon, she may never understand the inner machinations of their little racoon minds.

Unfortunately for Shikamoa, he had slid around the tree in the direction Dust was facing. As soon as he could get those words off, if not sooner, Dust's arm shot out to punch him right in the face. As it was travelling through the air, Dust had no doubts in her mind that this was indeed an assassin, and a cocky one at that. The racoon was likely some sort of scout attuned to this assassin or the will of his allies. A little after she threw the punch, she moved her leg to try to sweep him off of his feet, hoping to have the punch connect first so he would be disoriented enough for her to pin him.

Total count: 426

Seresana was barely able to keep track of all the answers she'd suddenly heard coming from Shikamao, but that was nothing compared to the shock of what came after as she witnessed something that she'd never really thought about before. One boy kissed another, on the lips. In a way, it was kind of amazing how such a minuscule amount of physical activity was able to render the little girl utterly slack-jaw stunned, complete with saucer wide eyes and an incomplete word. She was so stunned that she didn't even completely register that Shikamao had left, at least not at first. Miku's pawing at her leg though was enough to finally finish breaking the almost trance like state she'd been thrown into.

Word Count: 123
Total: 2,474

Up further in the tree, quite nearly in sight of Dust but for the leafy crown concealing them, Rosie and Kitty blink at the same time as Hideyoshi and Shokamao's lips touch.
"...did I just see what I think I saw?" Rosie wonders.
"Pretty sure you did, because I saw it too." Kitty grins toothily. "It would have been so much nicer if they were both pretty like the alleged boy, but beggers can't be choosers."
Rosie looks up at her gleeful hallucination. "What in the universe are you going on about?"
"The boys!"
"I... see them."
"The boys kissing!"
"Yes, and?"
"The boys are kissing Rose! Kissing! And one of them is pretty! This is by far one of the most fantastic sights in my entire existence! If they were both really, really pretty like the alleged boy is, I could die happy, right now!"
Rosie can't help but turn completely around on the branch and stare at Kitty, utterly at a loss for words or even thoughts. "I know you're a component of my schizophrenia, Kit, so this question may sound redundant, but I need to know: have you gone completely insane?"
Kitty's grin widens into something predatory. "Ryou, Rose, we need ryou now. We must throw it at the kissing boys in appreciation. This is a thing that must happen immediately, before the chance escapes us."
"You want to throw money at them."
"Yes!"
"Because... one kissed the other."
"Yes!"
"...and you are not, in fact, completely out of my mind and whatever mind you happen to have?"
"No! I mean yes! I mean, both of the things at once! But we must throw ryou in their direction before the moment is lost!"
Rosie takes a breath and sighs. "I think I'm missing something here."
"Why are you thinking? Thinking is not for now, only doing. And the thing to do is to throw ryou to encourage more such decisions in the future."
She grins up at the kitsune. "I left the ryou pouch locked up securely."
Kitty stares at her for a moment, panting, her eyes wide and a little insane, before she drops to her knees on the thin network of branches atop the canopy of the trees, raises her hands to the heavens and stares up at the sky. "Amaratsu, why have you forsaken me in my hour of greatest need?"
"I am now officially very worried about you." Rosie pauses, considering. "And just a little worried about myself, because you're part of my mind."
"It was bishi! So very, very bishi! And I had no money to encourage further bishi, for my own joys and pleasure!"
"...bishi?"
"Bishonen." Kitty says, slumping down. "Pretty, pretty boys and alleged boys, that kiss each other and are so delicious."
"Yes, I guess the boy that looks like a girl is bishonen," Rosie sighs. "Just stop being theatrical and explain what has got you in such a state."
"Because, Rose, when pretty boys kiss, it creates a nascent sexual magnetism centering around their persons and the act itself, that compels the salivary glands to overproduce, the breath to quicken, the pulse to rest, and the nipples to harden," Kitty tells her, her tone abruptly deadly serious although her eyes are still wide and mad. "In all female persons within a ten-kilometer radius, there is produced an instant longing to touch that delicious boy beauty, entwined in platonic embrace with lips connected, and to touch the self, to cause physical pleasure to match the pleasure of knowing that somewhere, there is yaoi happening and that all the secret wishes of all femalekind are fulfilled."
Rosie's eyebrows table. "Um, no."
Kitty comes forward and thrusts her face up to Rosie's, practically nose-to-nose. "NO?"
"No." Rosie calmly accompanies it with a shake of her head. "I refuse to go down the rabbit hole of your deviance to try to figure out what all of that was meant to mean."
"BUT IT SPARKLES."
"...what sparkles?"
"THE POWER OF YAOI."
"OK, I'm not talking to you until you become sane again." Rosie resolutely turns away from Kitty and watches the aftermath of one of the participants in the kiss that has caused her delusion to go completely out of her mind with utter batshit insanity, being socked in the face for no apparent cause by a girl that Rosie dimly remembers to be named 'Dust'. "Well, at least there's a show going on that's my cup of tea," she remarks brightly as she digs few cheap nuts out of a pouch on her hip and nibbles them, awaiting developments.

{Word Count: 767 | 2022}

Hideyoshi froze, his mind going blank and his face remaining still as his eyes stared blankly ahead. Slowly his brain started scrambling to piece together what the hell just happened to him. Hideyoshi's eyes widened as it sunk in, all he could mumble at first was "I-I-I've been…Violated!!"

Hideyoshi fell to his knees and covered his face, "violated, tainted, desecrated, tarnished, my manhood….oh NO!!! MY MANHOOD!! STOLEN!!" Hideyoshi's eyes widened as his hands fell to his sides "maybe he is actually gay…or" Hideyoshies eyes growing even more "oh no!! I turned somebody gay after just smiling at them!! And now they are trying to make me gay!!!"

The girl dark haired girl then caught his attention, and the only thing his scrambled brain could come up with at this point was "I MUST FIX MY MANHOOD!!" Hideyoshi stood up and stumbled over to her and laid a hand on both her shoulders before leaning over and giving the girl a small simple kiss on the lips.

Hideyoshi pulled back sparkling as if he was rejuvenated, "thanks! I feel a lot better now!" Hideyoshi smiled down at her sweetly still sparkling, "sorry, I uhh…you can just forget about ALL of that okay?" Hideyoshi reached down and picked up Miku and held him.

Hideyoshi looked back at Seresana who hadn't even moved yet, "hey umm, are you alright girly?"

word count: 229
total: 3279

Seresana was just coming back to reality thanks to Miku who was trying to climb her at the time. The clearing was coming back into focus, her mind was once more returning to the surroundings and she was about to start actually processing that Shikamao had actually left the little clearing when suddenly Hideyoshi was blocking almost all of her vision. Seresana had missed the seconds prior outburst and so had absolutely no idea why the blonde boy was suddenly so close and even had his hands on her shoulders as she found out when she was finally able to actually notice them there. Seresana wasn't even sure how long he'd been holding onto her, but then her started pulling her close to him which confused her very much. "Hey, what do you-" Seresana started but was cut off unexpectedly.

The alien presence on her lips confused her at first, it was such a shock that she'd actually forgotten the little sequence of events that had lead up to it and she had to spend a quarter of a second reviewing it all in her head. When that was done and Seresana was able to actually realize what had just happened, her eyes shot open while her pupils shrunk and a deep crimson blush couple practically be watched as it crept up her form until the usually pale-ish girl practically looked pink. One could even probably claim they saw her hair frizz and a visible line of goosebumps travel down her form in the opposite direction of the blush.

When it ended, Seresana didn't respond to Hideyoshi, in fact she didn't really move at all while he talked or bent down to pick up Miku who quickly took to trying to squirm out of his grasp, obviously wanting to get higher rather than be held. Seresana didn't even respond when Hideyoshi asked if she was alright, or at least not verbally. Rather Seresana fell straight back, stiff and flat as a board, onto the ground and just laid there where if one were to really squint, they could probably swear that thin little lines of steam could be seen coming off her body form the blush. Mina who'd been thrown from her comfortable perch only to land right back on her chest. The little raccoon soon started pawing at Seresana's unflinching form.

Word Count: 393
Total: 2,867

Sylvan ran along the ground, desperately staying ahead of the unkindness nipping at her heels. They had apparently decided to take the direct approach to convincing her to sign; attack her until she caved. It had started when she was walking home after acquiring groceries. she hadn't been expecting any unpleasantness form them beyond the usual "cover everything you love in feathers" that she had been putting up with for the last month or so.
Today had been very different.
For starters, when she had arrived ta her house, there were no ravens. Plenty of feathers, but no ravens. This had immediately set her on edge, for she found it hard to believe that after all that trouble, they would simply let her go. It was about the moment that she thought to look up that they dived.
Fortunately, Sylvan had good reflexes, and was able to dodge the initial assault. Even more fortuitously, she was next to the forest, which meant she could actually move fast enough to stay ahead of a bird.
It was pure chance she happened upon the group right as Sena was kissed "How dare he! Burn him!" and subsequently zoned out "Is she okay?! Sena!"
For the others, Sylvan would seem to simply appear between the prone Sena and Hideyoshi. An angry "what are-?!" would be all she could get out before the pursuing unkindness barreled into her at top speed, sending both her and Hideyoshi (if he couldn't get out of the way fast enough) flying.
{250 Words}

First came the fist, of course, Shikamoa had no expected to be punched and wasn't preparing to dodge, however, as contact was made with what was his forehead he began to bend backwards with the punch until Dust had fully extended her fist. As Shikamoa leaned back he saw Dust go to sweep him off his feet, reacting now that he knew they were aiming for him he hopped backwards out of range and quickly leaned forward from where he had been. Standing up he swiveled on his heel and stood up, still smiling as kindly and cheerily as he was before the punch when he greeted Dust, he continued to speak as if he hadn't been punched and the small trickle of blood from his nose wasn't there, "I'm Sourufoji Shikamoa, its nice to meet you, although I don't know why your hiding." He said about as dully as he physically could have, his eyes looked a bit spacey, but had the signature dead look he was well known for in his clan and around the spots in town he normally went to.
  Second came the flying girl and the storm of crows, watching her barrel towards Dust and himself extremely fast. Seeing that he wasn't going to be able to catch the girl he moved a bit to the side so that she would have a clear flight right into the brush behind him, which, luckily for her, was not a thorn bush. As this all transpired he looked over the clearing, his attention span seemingly short as was possible, looking up he noticed a few birds had flown off and for a moment he thought he saw someone in a tree, as he adjusted a girl who seemed to have been saying something came into vision. Letting off a short sharp whistle to draw her attention he waved her down, scanning again this situation was slowly starting to come into order of events. It was growing chaotic and made and he had a feeling that the ravens would be here until they took care of them. There wasn't any true way to tell.

Word Count: 1723

She saw it all in... slow motion, kind of. Whenever anything exciting happened, this also happened. She tended to judge herself with it, and now she is disappointed she did not go for the neck instead. Hitting someone in the neck causes so much pain they might collapse, run, or outright faint. In addition, if she had gone for the neck and they tried to bend backwards, it would essentially become an uppercut as she hit the underside of their jaw. That would also be nasty, to say the least. Well, hindsight is twenty twenty, so they say... The sweep was also too short. She should have tried to curl her leg around one of the opponent's and pull it towards her, taking them down that way. Of course, that could backfire if they were heavier than they looked or they were braced against being knocked down. They could not have jumped away like they did, the cowards, as it would trip them. Plus, if she fell, they would be going with her, which is always better than just her being down.

Dust took a step forward, likely coming into the view of the others as well. This fucker might be evasive, but he certainly was cocky. She looked down at her hands for a moment, and they were still bloodied, with some cuts and some patches where skin was missing altogether. She let out a low laugh, looking up at Shikamoa's face again. It now had blood smeared across it. Still smiling, was he? What a fucking psycho. "You think you are clever," she said in an accusatory tone, taking another step towards him. "What the fuck do you want from me?" she hissed, although she followed his line of sight for one key moment. She extended both her arms, trying to grab the flying girl, letting out a string of curses, including the phrase "what kind of shitty ass people would" before it was lost in the commotion. She steeled herself, placing one foot behind her for bracing and using all the strength she had learned in her time in the forest. Some of it seemed like a haze... perhaps she would remember later. She remembered bits and pieces, like the first time she cut her hand. She was so worried it would get infected... leaves tied together made fine bandages if washed and were from some tree, not that suspicious looking bush. Another one was her first night... she could not sleep. You can never sleep the first night when sleeping in a new location. Of course, she was never really good at the whole sleeping thing in the first place. Perhaps it was the noise. She could never sleep with noise. Perhaps it was fear... there is no telling who could be roaming the woods at night, which is part of why she was so paranoid now, actually. She did not know that, though. She thought she was completely justified in what she was doing. Was she, in reality? Maybe, actually. Hard to tell. Anyway, reminiscing about a shitty day of training. She went to the creek, but there was a bear looking for fish there. She went thirsty for a while, and only drank a little bit later, not wanting to stick around the area with a possible bear. When she came back, she found that there were ants on her berries. She threw the lot of them away. She was planning to get more berries later today, but it seems that the earliest plan of departure had happened. If these were townsfolk, she would be arrested in all likelihood. If these were hostile people, she would be dead in all likelihood. There are numbers against her, and potentially skill. Probably skill, really, seeing how they had evaded her. What they did not have, not until she puts up a solid resistance, anyway, is desperation. And adrenaline was a hell of a drug. Perhaps that would let her catch the girl currently flying at her. Perhaps. Probably not, really. Then again, morale is an important part of adrenaline, so perhaps she should cut off this train of thought.

Who were these people? She had only seen Shikamoa and whoever the flying girl was. Were they at the festival? Maybe. She couldn't remember. It had been so long ago and so recent that she forgot it while also not having time to process everything that had happened. Were these foes? Maybe. They were just in the forest, and snuck up on her. Luckily, they must have thought she was facing the opposite direction, and got off their witty one liner as though she hadn't seen them already. She ignored the ravens for now, largely due to the fact that she was busy catching someone going at a rather quick velocity. She angled her hands into claws in case the girl was slipping, hoping to get them through a loop or into a pocket for some sort of hold. Here's hoping they weren't wearing flimsy or loose clothing, huh? She saw figures past them. One was short. She had no time to process if it was Sena or not, although the state of half consciousness she was thinking these thoughts in had a sneaking suspicion that it was. She would not remember these thoughts a moment later, perhaps the general idea if they were important. They were sort of the... noise you are always thinking in.

Word count: 1334

"This just in." Rosie sighs as she "feels" Kitty sit on her head, her multitude of plush tails laying across Rosie's back like a cloak. "The world has officially gone completely, utterly, inexplicably, fully, wholly, and many other random words I could throw in but have chosen not to, insane."
"Get off my head, Kitty."
"You can only tell I'm on your head because you're chosen to be able feel me sitting on your head, you know." Kitty climbed to her feet and was now standing stop Rosie's head; rolling her eyes upwards, Rosie could see that Kitty had her arms cross and was looking down at her, grinning. "Which is definitely a complication in your existing mental illness, being tactile hallucination, so let's take a moment to applaud the fact that only you, me, and the three Sylvans know about it."
"Don't be rude. There's only one Sylvan, just like there is only one of me. As I do, she's given her aspects unique names, just like I call you 'Kit' or 'Kitty' and you call me 'Rose'."
"And like you, she's crazy." Kitty dismounted and seated herself on the network of thin branches next to Rosie. "Although admittedly, her crazy is better than yours."
Rosie looks at her. "What does that mean?"
"Or she's very unlucky." It was approximately at this moment that the flock of ravens impacted with the temporarily stationary Sylvan and sent her flying, Rosie whipping her head around at the sound just in time to catch sight of Sylvan still in flight, and a prone and thoroughly stunned Serasena sprawled out senseless on the ground.
"Did what just happened actually happen?"
"Yep."
Rosie frowns, crouches, and just as Shikamoa gives his sharp whistle, steps off the branch she's on. A moment late, before she's fallen fast enough for it to hurt, she's caught the branch, her body weight causing it to dip slightly, before she lets it go and a brief second later, catches another one with enough force to cause it to dip in turn, bringing her close enough to the next branch down to let go and catch it without hurting herself. She descends in this manner, from branch to branch to branch, until she's closer to the ground and among the limbs far too thick and robust to bend. Here, she balances on the thick branch and hops to another that's lower down, but not overly so, and then turns and hops down to the next. Taking in a breath and narrowing her eyes, she steps off the branch with a tiny thrust of her leg and drops at a diagonal until her foot makes contact with the side of the next branch down, on a side and thus not suitable for actually trying to stand on it or catch it--but this is not her plan, as she uses the branch to stop her side momentum and uses another little thrust of a foot to bounce off and down to the next one. To someone watching, it appears as if she's bouncing back and forth between lower and lower branches as she goes down until she turns herself sideways to one of the branches and falls straight down, leaning in, and spreading the impact of her fall by rolling once and coming out of the roll onto her feet.
"And the winner of this year's competition of 'Most Needlessly Complicated and Show Off Way to Descend a Tree' is Rosemarius Blytraviin," Kitty says in an exaggerated basso. "Thank you, thank you, you've been a wonderful crowd."
"Integrating training and practice into the smallest things is how I get stronger and better," Rosie informs her airily as she walks towards the prone Serasena and Sylvan alike at a fast pace, very nearly a jog.
"Are you alright, Sera?" She asks, stooping to check that her friend was at least breathing and didn't appear to be hurt. What she discovers is a stiff, wide-eyed, profusely blushing girl with a... something pawing at her.
"Is that a tanuki?"
"I think it's a rat," Kitty says as she stoops beside Rosie. "Or maybe a baby tanuki that hasn't grown its ball knapsack. Either way, I think it'd be a really good idea to see if you can punt it for distance."
"I'm not punting it for distance." Rosie looked over the animal. "Besides, you're sort of cute, small furry fuzzy thing. Your master is sort of small and cute too, although she's advanced in rank to genin long before me and I suspect is working at a much higher level than I do. So, maybe I shouldn't be crouching here talking to you about her while she's still conscious, breathing, and blushing." She leans over so Sera can see her small smile and a little wink before she gets up.
"I'm going to check on Sylvan and the unkindness of gorgeous corvids that is trying to murder her. Or get her to join a murder, I'm not sure which and would be tickled to find out." She paused a moment. "Although I think it would be amazing if ravens were recruiting for a murder or even their unkindness."
"Gorgeous corvids?" Kitty gets out ahead of Rosie and faces her, walking backwards and grinning. "Oh me, oh my, does someone have a crush on little black birdies?"
"I think black is elegant and beautiful in its simplicity and plainness," Rosie informs her as she now jogs towards Sylvan. "And my own experience and book-learning indicates that they're extraordinary for intelligence and innovation. You know that I have a great appreciation for intelligence and inventiveness."
Kitty's mocking grin becomes a smile as she takes her place beside Rosie. "Intelligence more than the rest, of course. Mind, all-conquering mind."
Rosie smiles broadly and outwardly at that, the pleased expression lingering for a moment before she squelched it upon coming in view of Sylvan. "I wouldn't mind if it was possible to make a pet of one. I doubt it, though, which is more the pity."
Rosie stops as she gets within Sylvan's sight, looking concerned for the girl. "Sylvan, are you alright?"

{Word Count: 1024 | 3066}

Hideyoshi was caught off guard as another girl appeared before him, however this one seemed rather rash and well, mean to him. She started to say something but the two were hit by a wall of black sending them flying. Without much time to really process what was happening Hideyoshi quickly let go of the raccoon so it wouldn’t get hurt and grabbed the green haired girl around the back and held onto her tightly in efforts to protect her from hitting the ground as they fell.

The wind knocked out of him Hideyoshi gasps for any breath he can get, he has never in all his life been hit so hard, and he has had more than his share of angry slaps and jealous beat downs from scorn girls and angry boyfriends, but nothing compared to this. He would have sworn his whole body was broken as he hit the ground.

As soon as they quit moving Hideyoshi released whatever little grip he still had on the other girl as his arms fell to his sides like dead weight.

His head was spinning but he looked around desperate to see what had hit them, everything was just a blur to him though and nothing seemed to make any sense. "what the fuck was that?" was all he could manage to ask as he tried to rub his head.

He slowly opened his eyes to see yet another girl, this one looking very familiar with her long red hair and the marking on her face, she spoke to the girl "Sylvan, are you alright?"

'huh? So this green haired girl is called Sylvan…pretty name for a crazy girl…' Hideyoshi thought as he started to try and get up but quickly decided he was going to just stay sitting down for a bit longer as the world was still spinning.

He could now see everything but none of it registered in his mind. He could see the other red haired girl and Shikamoa behind a tree not far away, he could see seresana laying on the ground with her raccoon still on top of her. And he could see the crazed birds still flying around. "seriously what the fuck?" Hideyoshi sigh out painfully.

word count: 371
total: 3650

Sylvan did not have very much time to think as she was grabbed in mid flight by the equally air-borne Hideyoshi. However, in that short time, two things did register.
Firstly, she was still angry at (him? Her? Not important) for kissing Sena… for some reason? Not important. She was angry at… them.
Secondly, she was in the perfect position to elbow them in the stomach several times before the hit the ground.
She did so. With gusto. At least until they collided with Dust, who had apparently decided to try and catch them by standing in their flight path.

Unfortunately for all three of them, the ravens had not actually dispersed, so much has kept pushing. Meaning that dust would soon find herself added to the tangle of airborne bodies. Fortunately for all three of them, Shikamoa had moved out of the way, and there was a push to break their fall.

All three of them would (barring fifth party intervention) land in the bush. Sylvan, having had her fall cushioned by two other people and a bush, was in the bets position to get up.

She did so. That was bout the only good thing to be said about her at the moment.

---

Inside Sylvan’s mind, Euphoria stood proudly over the bruised and battered bodies of her fellow head-mates. Being the strongest of the three, she had recovered the fastest after the three of them had been knocked senseless by the impact. She had then proceeded to kick both of them several time,s just to ensure she got some time as the portion in charge for awhile. Stretching her ‘arms’, she grins.

---

Sylvan stood up. Immediately, Sena and Rosie could tell something was very, very wrong. As long as they had known her, Sylvan always moved… carefully. As little wasted movement as possible, doing her best to keep out of notice. Likewise, her face tended to be a mask apart form the occasional reserved smile.

There was not a trace of that as she stood up. The movement was lazily flamboyant, like a drunken puppeteer’s doll. She practically sways as she climbs out of the bush, but she never falls over. Every movement looks relaxed and wobbly, but could be converted into an attack as needed.
More worrying is the fact that she is grinning. Not the quiet smile that they knew. This one was wild. “Feral” and “Savage” could also be applied to it.

Everyone in the clearing would suddenly feel a very loud, very gleeful voice in their mind. ’IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII’s Euphy!’
Rosie, meanwhile, would recognize the voice. She would also realize that Euphoria/Sylvan had at some point kicked Hideyoshi in the stomach while he was down. And at some point moved next to her, and was leaning on her with an arm around her shoulders like in the shared mind experience. ”Hi Rosie! Guess who is out of commission at the moment?”
{477 Words}

Seresana might have liked a few moments to just lay their on the ground and let her brain reset. She might have liked a few moments to let the blush on her face become something less than near molten. And she would have loved to know who exactly it was who'd just appeared and then disappeared in a flash of black in the span of a couple seconds. But for the immediate time, Seresana would get none of these requests, nor any of the other unspoken ones requited as a single image caught her still dazed and fuzzy eyes, and that was a flailing and falling little raccoon. It's panicked squeaks were enough to finish snapping her out of her daze, and before Miku could hit the ground Seresana had already sprung up and caught him mid fall. Within her grasp, Miku shook a little but when he realized that she had caught him, he snuggled into her grasp.

Then Seresana stood up while still petting the rapidly calming Miku and looked over in the direction that the mystery person, the mass of black, and Hideyoshi had disappeared to on to be greeted with a sight that made her eyes go wide. She could see and hear Hideyoshi groaning from the bush, she could see Dust there as well and had to wonder when the hyuga girl had arrived, but there was also suddenly a Sylvan present who'd decided that it was a good time to just up and kick Hideyoshi while he was down. There was also some slightly off sounding voice in her head that made some weird kind of announcement, but Seresana didn't concern herself with that immediately. Instead she seemed more concerned with the possibly injured Dust and Hideyoshi and took off at a run over to them.

She ran past Sylvan, though passed a concerned and soft smile her way as well as Rosie's, but kept running none-the-less. She'd have to remember to ask how long Rosie had been there as well as say high, but that could wait for a moment Seresana decided as she knelt down beside the bush that housed Hideyoshi and Dust. Seresana also lifted Miku up and deposited him on top of her head where she knew he'd be comfortable and happy while freeing up both her hands to potentially work. Quickly she began looking Hideyoshi and Dust over to see if there were any obvious injuries present and whether or not she spotted any, Seresana would still be undoing the cloth ties around her pant's legs to serve as potential bandages for any bleeding spots. "Dust, Hideyoshi, can you two both hear me? How bad does anything hurt? Can you tell if you're bleeding anywhere?" Seresana fired off the questions as she got ready to treat any of the more serious wounds.

"What about you Sylvan, anything hurt badly?" Seresana asked while casting a look back over her shoulder towards her green haired friend who'd appeared so suddenly. "And what was it that slammed into you?"

Word Count: 508
Total: 3,375

Rosie stops rather abruptly as Sylvan gets to her feet--or more properly, Sylvan's body gets to its feet.
"Rose..." Kitty says in a worried tone.
"I know," Rosie replies in her head, watching warily as Sylvan manifests drunken movements, looking all the world like she's being moved by the strings of a puppeteer rather than under her own power. "Could the ravens have been a summoned cover for someone sneaking chakra strings onto Sylvan so they could control her?"
"It's possible." Kitty takes a deep breath as Sylvan's manic grin becomes evident. "But I don't think this particular puppeteer uses strings or is even a shinobi hiding nearby."
"What do you mean by...?"

And then Euphoria announces herself.

Rosie's visible reaction to this is visible relief and much of the tension leaves her body. "Oh. Well, shit."
"My thoughts exactly. The full loony bin with the queen inmate in charge. This needs to be handled delicately."
"No kidding. How do you think we should approach this?"
"By letting me drive, of course."
Euphoria would see Rosie's head twitch away from her, although it looks more like she's resisting staring at someone unseen in astonishment rather than being particularly afraid of Euphoria herself.
"You're not serious."
"I am, though." Kitty gives her a serious look.
"That would most certainly make this situation worse! Your personality, bouucing off of hers?"
"It's the best solution." Kitty smiles a little. "Besides, you haven't thought this all the way through."
Rosie looks visibly momentarily pensive before her features clear. "Right then." And then she looks directly at Euphoria with a touch of a grin of her own, something more smug and self-assured than Rosie's normal expressions of happiness.
"Kinda thought it was you, Euphy," she replies sotto voce. "You jerk the body around like you have no idea how to use one. Which is totally understandable, don't think I don't get it, but you're going to make the deceptively strong, criminally adorable-looking genin we both know and love worry that there's something seriously screwy about the gears in your head. Probably not the best idea, all told, what with the kind of hard to miss one hundred per cent positive proof that totally psycho S+ rank criminals exist, can wander right into the village without trouble, and puree people Sena cares about. Don't wanna give the cute one the idea what one of those fuckers got strings into you and plan to puree someone else, dig?"
The grin changes tone very subtly, losing some of the edge and the smug. "We both know that you're not like that, Euphoria, however much you worry Innocence and Pragmatism. So may I suggest that you 'play it cool', as Kit would put it? Play like letting you out of the cage was a good idea in the end and makes everyone involved better off? I'd prefer to think that everyone is, even your two friends in Sylvan's head despite the fact that they didn't seem to appreciate that fact last time we had a pow-wow on the matter."

{Word Count: 510 | 3576}

Dust was impacted all right, and did fly back. She hardly panicked or anything silly like that. It was odd. She was more thinking about how it was odd that there was so much force behind them. She then countered that thought by realising there was probably chakra involved, which always made shit a little bit fucky. Physics really didn't matter to it, probably because it was extradimensional or transdimensional or cisdimensional or something like that. Anyway, she mostly focused on arching her neck and back forward so her butt or ass or whatever would hit whatever was behind her first. It was designed for being cushiony, actually. She knew that because of reasons. Yes. Reasons. Do not question it. Anyway, she was flying back now. Fun times.

Oh, they landed in a bush. That could be worse, but now the gods were probably making a joke about having a stick in her ass, as that is what hit the bush first. Luckily for her, there were actually no sticks in her ass. What was not lucky, though, is that she landed first. This resulted in clothes being torn as well as some small cuts and scratches in the torn areas. The partially healed wounds on her hands also reopened from the jolt, getting blood all over whoever was in front of her. That was not gonna go over well... but hey, the cosmic forces of the transdimensional chakra or whatever laws of nature (or lack of such laws) it obeyed were not up to her. Why should she be concerned with whether people blamed her for something that she had no control over? Then again, people tend to project onto others. Hell, she could be totally blaming herself subconsciously right now and be angry at the whole damn universe or whatever universe chakra is from as a result.

So, due to the whole slamming into a bush thing, she was kinda stunned. However, she had actually not really paid attention to the pain nerves firing all over her body due to the series of collisions. As she regained the mental fortitude to speak, however, the nerves got their asses in gear too. This caused a further delay in her speaking, of course. Also... was that a raccoon on Sena's head? When did Sena get here, anyway? Had she noticed Sena and just forgot about it? Shit, was she concussed. Hopefully not. That would suck. Two more and she could no longer play dodgeball. Heh. She tried to push the others off her, further getting blood on them. Maybe it would look like one of those creepy bloody handprints you see in all the horror media.

"Er... I'm fine, why do you ask?" she said, not really sort of... realising, she supposed, that she was in pain yet. It was odd. She knew she should be in pain, but she just was not. Maybe the bush had some painkiller in its sap or something. Unlikely but weirder things have certainly happened, especially recently.

Word count: 1884

Hideyoshi sat up slowly rubbing his head, "I just wanted to play my song for fucks sake. 'lets go to this town kiddo, I hear they got lots of pretty girls!!' " he mummbled under his breath mocking his dads words when moving here "yep lots of pretty fucking crazy girls". He moved off of the body under him carefully while he was being pushed. Suddenly Seresana was over top of him loading him down with questions; "Dust, Hideyoshi, can you two both hear me? How bad does anything hurt? Can you tell if you're bleeding anywhere?"

While he appreciated the care, all the questions were simply making his head hurt more. Plus being worried about didn’t feel right to him for some reason; most likely just because his man pride had already taken enough damage for awhile, he didn’t like anymore thinking he couldn’t take a hit.

"thanks tiny, I'm alright" Hideyoshi smiled painfully. His body ached horribly but nothing seemed broken, and he didn’t think he was bleeding, besides even if he was they would just be scratches and he could tend those on his own; he didn’t want to worry the girl anymore.

He adjusted so he was sitting more comfortably, and to get out of the other girls way. "sorry for landing on you…uhh…whoever you are….?" he said to Dust.

Hideyoshi then looked back to Seresana and smiled again, hoping that him and this other girl seeming to be alright would calm her down.

He then turned his attention to the green haired girl who was talking to yet again another girl, but he couldn’t follow the conversation at all, and quite frankly didn’t give a rats ass- the green haired girl was on his shit list at the moment for-whatever the hell just happened; plus adding to his pain with the elbows and kicks.

Hideyoshi looked away and started to get to his feet but his legs protested; he then looked back at the girl before him holding out his hand to Seresana. "can you help me up? Seems my legs are still a bit shaken up" Hideyoshi awkwardly laughed out in efforts to hide his shame for being so weak. "then you might want to check on the crazy bird lady, I mean she took the real hit…"

word count : 383
total: 4033

Sylvan stiffens as Sena runs by her to check on the other two, fists clenched and shaking slightly. She quickly turns back to 'Rosie' in surprise as she detects the shift. "You can also...?" she mutters, faintly shocked Rosie could do it as well. Given Sylvan's intelligence under ordinary circumstances, Pragmatism evidently played a larger part than Euphoria expected. Either that, or Euphoria was still getting used to unhindered control. the drunken stumbling from before was almost certainly intentional though, in light of her current composed stance. It would fit with the general flair for the dramatic Rosie/Kitty had noticed before.

Said bravado and glee from her initial entrance fades as Kitty lectures, her, sliding into cold rage and embarrassment. She straight up ignores Sena's inquiries, storming past Rosie/Kitty to head deeper into the forest. As she bumps into them, she murmurs to them them "You can go nag Pragmatism if you want some sort of admission of guilt. I'm going to go maim a tree." Unlike her entrance, she does not bolt through the forest.
{175 Words}

Kitty seems to take the wheel again as the smile shifts to the slightly smug and overly easy smirk and she jogs to keep up with the storming girl. "Guilt?" she repeats with a tiny suppress snort of laughter, keeping up the slightly suppressed sotto voce. "Come on Euphy, don't be like that. You ain't done anything to be guilty of and ain't done anything that you should feel guilty about. I don't want you to own up to whatcha didn't do, just want to see your first bow on the big stage make you look good. Last they said anything to us, your sisters had it in their heads that letting you take your moment wouldn't turn out so good. Hogwash, I say. I think you're gonna be awesome, so right now is the time to strut your stuff and prove whatcha said a while back: the small cute one we adore is gonna accept you for you, just like she's gonna accept Pragmatism for Pragmatism, and Innocence for Innocence. It ain't gonna matter to her, says you, and I say the same. So after I and Rose here help you maim that tree, maybe we go and be friendly with Sena and prove you right."
"And if she needs assurances that you are just as much Sylvan as the other two are, we provide those assurances," Rosie says. "Leave some tree unmaimed, if you would. I wish to be sure that everyone is OK and that Sera has everything in hand." She pauses. "It is... good to see with my own two eyes what you will make of control. In only a few seconds, and concerns I may have harbored have vanished; I am certain that all will be well given time and work." She gives Euphoria a shy but truly pleased smile before she turns from the girl to approach Serasena.
"I... did not expect that."
"Didn't expect what, that she'd react like that?"
"Well, yes, that was not what I had expected or hoped for. Serves the two of us right for pushing the Sera button when we know she's sensitive to it." She takes a mental 'breath' before plunging on. "I had not expected that you'd slip so naturally into control. It was like slipping on a fitted glove, fully natural in every way."
Kitty frowns and floats on ahead of Rosie so she can look her square in the eye. "Why would it be any different? I'm you, Rose. The body we share is as natural to me as it is to you. I do things my own way with what we share but we are both Rosemarius Blytraviin, precisely equal in every aspect. Why would you be surprised that when you permitted it, I'd speak naturally in our voice and move naturally in our flesh?"
"I half expected you to pull off my... our top," Rosie admits with a light color on her cheeks.
Kitty alights on the ground and reaches out a hand to catch Rosie on the forehead, and Rosie actually stops at the very strong physical sensation of Kitty's hand on her head. "Rose, dear, let me be blunt: what exactly is there to show off right now?"
That causes Rosie to blush more deeply. "I never said it was a rational expectation. You're just... well, lewd so... um..." She swallows and smiles weakly. "Sorry."
Kitty gives her a very level look and then grabs the edges of her kimono and pulls it open. "That's because I look like this, Rose. I'm stacked, I'm fit, and I look really good. I have a lot to flaunt now, because your projection of me is that I'm very nearly a woman and you're still a girl. When you get older, you'll have a lot to flaunt too, and maybe then I'll pull the top off and make you want to hide from the world out of sheer embarrassment. But so long as I'm stacked and you're flat, I'm not going to take advantage of you." She covers up, ignoring how Rosie is now turning red. "Are we done?"
Rosie sighs. "We're done Kit, and I'm sorry." She starts forward again towards where Sera is. "You didn't need to... um... do that."
Kitty gives her a wicked grin. "You can't hide the fact that you didn't mind at all."
"Let's put a pin in that until we're alone, Kit." Rosie tells her delusion. "I don't want to think it at you if we're going to discuss this, I want to talk. If my delusion is so strong that I can talk out loud and hear you reply out loud, I am sure as heck going to take full advantage of it when I want to do some really serious discussion."
"This isn't that big of a..."
"It is for me. Please, pin in it, take it down later."
"Yes boss, pinning boss."
"That's not funny."
"It's hilarious to me."
Rosie arrives beside Serasena a moment later and leans over to look at the recovering Hideyoshi and then looks over to Dust. "Are things OK here, Sera?" she asks. "I think that crash addled Sylvan a little and I want to make sure she didn't break anything when she hit but if you need me here for now to help, I'm glad to do it." She smiles warmly and shyly at her short friend.

{Word Count: 900 | 4476}

Seresana let out a breath she didn't realize she'd been holding when Dust and Hideyoshi conveyed their lack of serious injuries, and even furrowed her brow a little at the tiny comment. She had half a mind to kick him herself when he then asked to be helped up, but Seresana was still a little too nice for that just yet. So with a muffled little grumble about not being short, Seresana extended out a hand to help Hideyoshi up.

When Rosie appeared, Seresana looked over and up.... "Dangit, why do I have to be so short!", that thought aside though, Seresana still looked up at Rosie and gave her smile through her annoyance. "Yeah, seems things are alright over here. Please do go check on Syl, I don't think I've seen her act like that before and I'm worried she might have hit her head," Seresana added with a hint of concern added to her voice. Whether Rosie left then or not, Seresana then turned her head towards Dust. "Hey Dust, are you sure you're okay there? It looks like you've got a lot of cuts," Seresana inquired further now that she was noticing all the bits of blood along the hyuga girl.

Word Count: 205
Total: 3,580