The first adventure! (Group Mission)

The desert wasn't an area Kenji had much familiarity with and after spending a few days here, he was certain this was simply not his best terrain. The sun was burning his back or getting in his eye while the rough and coarse sand was irritating and it got everywhere, something especially bad for his poor companion Lingchi. He only took out the puppet once and Kenji was certain if he released him right now, sand would still somehow fall from the puppet.

On the bright side, he was homeward bound and didn't need to worry about walking through the horrid desert once more as the merchants he was hired to protect had their own carts and were hopefully willing to give their guards a place to rest and maybe sleep. If he was lucky, the sun shinobi was something like Sojiro and wouldn't mind too much if Kenji decided to sleep away the ride back to Gekkousato but honestly as long as his new partner wasn't like Yami and Kiida, he'd be at least somewhat happy. He wasn't sure if he could take another hit to his poor body.

Speaking of his body, more of it was on display than usual as Kenji had chosen to forgo his usual black jacket at this time and instead the lazy shinobi wore only his flak jacket. Granted if he didn't have to carry his kunai and medical supplies within the pockets of the flak jacket, he'd probably have chosen to remove the flak jacket too, the heat was getting to the lazy shinobi who was missing all the shade readily available back in Gekkousato. He'd probably also chose to wear shorts if he had any, but alas he only had his usual black pants, which was currently hosting both Lingchi and his packet of candy sticks, his two most important items in the right and left pocket respectively.

Letting out a yawn, the lazy shinobi approached the cart of the lead merchant but he noticed someone had already taken a seat on the back of said cart. One look at the man's forehead protector told Kenji that this was his sun village partner and he let out a breath that he wasn't even aware he was holding. It wasn't that he didn't dislike Sojiro after what happened but Kenji had no interest in learning about the sun shinobi's past at all and frankly, he'd rather keep it that way. Besides, Sojiro had Hikari, those two seemed quite happy to be spending time with one another to the point that one could even argue they enjoyed each other's company a bit too much given their public display of whatever they were doing when the two first met.

"Hurry along now sonny! Don't have all day you know! Bwahaha!" Kenji didn't even realize he was trapped in his thoughts until the voice of the old man called out to him and the one eyed shinobi simply shook his head. "Right, sorry about that boss." Kenji simply replied back as he took a seat right besides the sun shinobi, not saying a word as he let his mind wander back to the mission in the mountain once more.

---

Active Gear:

Before his mind could wander too far, he was brought back by his sun companion greeting him, introducing himself as Genkumaru Iwamura and offering a handshake to the skinnier and smaller shinobi. "Sorry about that big guy, mind was elsewhere. Name's Kenji Haruka, pleasure to meet you as well." Kenji apologized with a small grin on his face as he introduced himself to the sun shinobi, shaking the man's hand in his usual laid back manner.

"I take it that you're some sort of taijutsu specialist? Or those guns just for show?" Kenji jokingly asked the well built shinobi as he decided to keep his mind grounded here while he could. No matter how much one thought about the past, nothing could ever change it after all. "I'm not much for hand to hand in case my lack of real muscle didn't give it away." Kenji added with a small laugh, he was always aware he wasn't the strongest person around and he was content with it.

"I'm more of a puppet guy before you ask, just easier to sit back and wiggling my fingers while it does the hard work."  The one eyed shinobi answered a question that was bound to come up eventually, considering the two could possibly have to fight side by side. Last thing he'd want is to toss his poor puppet into an oncoming friendly fireball. He could take friendly fire but Lingchi couldn't, especially when it was literal friendly fire.

Kenji listened as the man explained the reasoning for his build and was surprised to learn an bakuton user could actually face recoil that could shatter bones from simply using his ability. Although Kenji didn't exactly have a lot of experience in dealing with advanced elements or any elements for that matter, he couldn't even remember what his own element was truthfully. Still as the man showed his bakuton as a orange hue surrounding his hand, Kenji raised his eye brow as he examined the energetic chakra that seemed to be crackling with power and he was quite impressed at the sight.

"Huh. Don't see that every day." Kenji would idly comment as he scratched at his cheek, his gaze turning to the carts behind them and by extension the sun village growing smaller and smaller as the cart kept moving forward. When he made his comment about his puppetry, he didn't really expect any praise, especially from someone as big and strong looking at the man before him, if anything he would've expected to be scolded or simply written off as being lazy. Suppose that was on him for stereotyping someone right off the bat. Kenji however chose to gloss over it and instead focus on potential teamwork the two could pull off with puppets and explosion. A combo that usually doesn't end well if mixed.

"Yeah, I suppose it could work. Just make sure to not blow up my poor old puppet, rebuilding it isn't exactly easy. Especially for the wallet." Kenji would request with some light humor as a small smirk grew on his face and the moon shinobi sat back against the back of his seat, getting more comfortable for the ride to come. "Say, any idea how long it will take for a cart ride to get us back to the moon village? Didn't exactly get the privilege of riding this way on a cart." Kenji decided to ask, wondering just how long this little mission of theirs would last. Not that he disliked his company, he was just really missing his golden flower tea and the nice, cool, peaceful jungle.

"Well that's comforting to hear, not too big of a fan of long rides or walks. Gets pretty tiring doing nothing, you know." Kenji joked a bit as he begun to yawn and prepared himself for the decently long journey ahead, which hopefully would only consist of sitting around and waiting, maybe chatting a bit more with the big guy.
Almost on cue the big guy told Kenji about something called chakra flaring and it sounded a bit strange to him but the alternative was sitting in awkward silence and getting trapped in his thoughts once more.

"Eh, can't say I ever heard of it but I'll give it a shot." Kenji answered with a small shrug as he copied the sun shinobi's sitting position and posture, a bit uncertain of what to do. "So.... Create a layer of chakra and just let it flow?" Kenji questioned as he begun to let his chakra build up around himself, the aura appearing jagged and rough with small whips of energy spilling out. "Man, it's easier getting it to just take the form of strings..." Kenji commented as he begun to focus his chakra into a more smoother and consistent output, the one shinobi closing his eye and taking a deep breath.

"Am I doing it right?" Kenji questioned as his chakra settled into a fine outline, flowing ever so gently from left to right. "Going to assume you do this often so hoping for some tips here..." Kenji said as he felt a bit out of his element. He wasn't really much to experiment with his chakra, all he ever really needed it for was the basics and of course his puppet strings. Besides that, Kenji really felt like he had no reason to use it, his swordsmanship wasn't skilled enough to incorporate any fancy use of his chakra as far as he could tell and his puppet was relatively easy to use that he felt no need to create any jutsu for it.

Kenji simply gave a nod of acknowledgement as the big guy told him what he should do next, which Kenji had to admit was a bit harder than he would've thought because how was he supposed to visualize the earth? Everything else a easy way to visual how an element would interact with chakra, the hardest being air and water and even then, one could be a whirlwind and the other could be a stream. So how would earth look? How should it even look? A bit lost, Kenji looked at the big guy for an example and to Kenji's surprise the man had quickly cloaked himself in chakra.

Then he spoke about Kenji being fine ifhe didn't mess up. Kenji immediately begun to think of a nice, little rock barrier around himself, just a series of rocks coming together and perfectly forming a little protective bubble from the man's very possible explosion about to occur right in front of the one eyed shinobi. With the mental image, Kenji's chakra begun to change it's colour and even shape, going from a simple flowing blue colour to a rough rigid brown. Which was quickly becoming a bit too much as the earth beneath the cart shook ever so slightly and Kenji immediately let all of his chakra disperse harmlessly into the air. Kenji could only let out a sheepish laugh as he rubbed the back of his head, he had to admit he was probably getting a bit more worried that he should've but given all the friendly fire he had endured with his own fellow shinobi, getting blown up by an ally was bound to happen eventually.

"You know, when trying to do something that require peace and focus, maybe not tell your buddy you might blow them up?" Kenji slightly joked as he let out a yawn, feeling a bit tired from the strange new exercise, it felt weird to be training his chakra. Maybe he'd try it again some other time but for now he felt more than fine with just leaving it be. He might've not gotten blown up but he wasn't about to try and tempt faith.

"Think I'm done with this for now but gotta admit, it did feel a bit relaxing..." Kenji gave his opinion on the activity as he moved his legs back into their old position and once more got comfortable for long ride back home. "Anyways, besides mediating and working out, what else you do for fun? You strike me as the type of guy to have hobbies. Maybe even interests too." Kenji decided to ask and make some jokes with as a change of topic, deciding now would probably be the best time to get to know his companion.

Kenji was surprised to learn the big guy was an orphan, he had half expected him to come from a big family but then again, maybe he bonded with his fellow orphans enough to consider them part of his family? Eh, questions Kenji wasn't going to pry into any time soon and instead he took more interest in the fact he was also aware of Sojiro and Kenji wondered how these two got along? Either way, he chose to bite his tongue about talking about the dog shinobi for now, he was still at odds with the man, last they spoke was... Well, it wasn't that they spoke but a lot of things were aired. Things that Kenji had no care to remember and the quicker it was forgotten, the better. Thankfully, Genkumaru caught himself from talking further and instead asked what Kenji does.

"Me? Well there's really not much to me, I relax, work on puppet ideas and sleep on usual days." Kenji explained with a simple shrug as he thought about it, between missions he would probably be relaxing among trees, flowers or other spots of nature out of boredom or to get some sleep, or some times both. It is pretty tiring doing nothing all day after all. Unlike Genkumaru, he couldn't really recall spending time with anyone either, he couldn't even tell him where anyone he went on a mission with lived at so even if he wanted to meet up with any of them, he wouldn't be able to.

"Although I gotta tell ya, building puppets suck. So much ryo for ideas that might not even pan out." Kenji admitted, deciding to instead keep the conversation about the only real interest Kenji could claim to have. "Been toying with this one idea of a suit puppet but the springs on the thing keeps acting up and I dunno about you, but I like not having springs impaling me." Kenji further explained as he recalled a spring being launched straight for his forehead, right above his right eye socket and giving him a nasty cut.