The Beginnings to a New Adventure [Travel | Group]

There weren't many things that could enrage Kenji, he could stub his toe, spill his golden flower tea and have a girl reject him via laughter all at the same time and he'd only laugh along with the universe's joke on him. But what he couldn't stand was the fact that he had to walk right by the mission point to meet up with another shinobi across the world JUST SO HE CAN WALK BACK TO THE MISSION POINT. It didn't help he hated the sand and absolute heat of the desert so that just added onto his already boiling anger and if it wasn't for the sun boiling his blood, he was sure his blood would be boiling by pure anger over this stupid set up. Who was the idiot who decided the mission meet up should be at the other end of the world?!

Still, he had a job to do and last thing he'd want to do is give a bad first impression to whoever his partner may be on this one. Instead Kenji ran through his items as usual, his hand going toward his flak jacket's upper right pocket and feeling the 5 kunai within, before moving to the opposite side and ensuring his medical supplies were there as well. Of course the strap of cloth for his Shamisen was wrapped over the cloth for his bag so at least he still had that going for him. Moving down to his pants pockets, in his right was the paper containing Lingchi and in his left was his candy sticks. Seemed he was all set for the trip to the mountain, he only hoped this sun shinobi knew to pack for the cold mountains, last time Sojiro went kill a bear to keep himself warm.

Before he could get lost in memories and thoughts, he spotted his partner and was a bit surprised to see a rather skinny girl waiting for him and seemingly bored. Gee, it's almost like all she had to do was walk less than a mile to sit outside while he traversed the world to get here. If Kenji ever becomes Kage, he's executing the person who approved this meeting point. "I take it you're my partner for this one?" Kenji questioned the girl with a small grin on his face as he looked at her, but his eye quickly went to the girl's weapons laid about. "Ah, a fellow sword user, huh?" Kenji furthered questioned before suddenly shaking his head and laughing a bit. "Sorry, getting ahead of myself. Kenji Haruka, at your service." Kenji introduced himself with a small bow before the black haired girl.

---

Active Gear:

"Ah, see you noticed my eye patch? It's quite eye catching or so I've been told." Kenji simply poked fun at the girl's apparent distraction of his appearance, especially the eye patch. Had to admit, this was the first time someone had taken note of his lack of an eye so specifically and that was even counting the time he met his older copy on that bridge. Although it seemed both of them noticed the rather large height difference and Kenji couldn't help but grin as he looked down at the little one but what he wasn't expecting was for the girl to bow back. Eh, suppose it was bound to happen eventually and he wasn't going to complain about it.

Either way, Kenji simply looked around at all the sand before them while the girl packed up her gear for the mission and let out a small sigh to himself. At least in moon he could look at all the flowers, tress and sometimes even animals. Here, there was sand, sand and even more sand. At least it seemed he wasn't the only one to hate sand as his partner questioned if he hated sand too, which Kenji couldn't help but let out some laughter at. "I like you already Saki." The taller man told the black haired girl with a pat on the head, deciding to give her the nickname Saki for now. "Now let's get this show on the road, shall we?" Kenji rhetorically asked his partner as he begun walking ahead, taking the time to take his shamisen off of his back as he walked forward.

"Say, you got any requests for a song? Picked this up a while ago and I like to think I'm pretty good at it." Kenji questioned his companion with a grin on his face as he begun to tune the shamisen and ensure the notes were sounding right. "No guarantees I'll know it though, like I said, I only picked this up awhile ago." Kenji clarified with a simple shrug as he finished tuning the instrument and seemed ready to play it at the girl's word.

"Soft songs, eh? I think I got something that might be up your alley." Kenji commented as he immediately thought of a recent song he picked up that should fit the shorter girl's preference, taking care to play some test notes to ensure it was sounding good and he was properly warmed up. "I forgot who wrote this... Think it was a fox or something? But it's called Memory." Kenji announced the song name and tried to explain who had wrote the piece but the name escaped him. He was certain it was a fox though. Regardless, the one eyed man simply shrugged before he begun to play the song.

Gently strumming away the proper notes, Kenji would simply walk and play the song in silence, focusing on the getting the notes right from the top of his head and not messing up, which granted did happen from time to time but walking and playing wasn't exactly the easiest thing to do. He could only hope his companion would enjoy the music as they made their way toward the mountains. It was going to be a long walk and hopefully this music would put her in a good mood and by extension, himself as well.

Another day, another mission done and while Kenji would've preferred to head on home and finally take a while earned rest but alas, he had some more business in the sun to deal with. A dreadful place but alas, he couldn't refuse it and thus he was on his way back with his partner for the mission Saki, the shorter girl having kept oddly quiet even after Sets went on her way.... Somewhere. He assumed back to the moon but the details seemed to have slipped his mind almost completely, which he chalked it up to simple sleepiness.

Despite his own tiredness however, he'd do the one thing he knew that would keep him awake and hopefully lift the shorter girl's mood after the stuff on the mountains. Seems she probably had some bad blood with Sets and her family or something if Kenji had to guess but it wasn't his problem or concern. They got the mission done and that's what mattered. So here he was, playing a more upbeat yet peaceful song for the girl, hoping to make her more at ease.

As he played his final chords, he paused for a moment and looked at the girl for a reaction and despite his performance, he found that she still seemed a bit upset. Sighing, Kenji put the shamisen on his back once more as he turned his attention to the girl. "Hey, is something up? You've been giving me the stink eye for quite some time now... Just because I lost one eye doesn't mean I lost all sight you know." Kenji would question the girl while keeping everything a bit more lighter in atmosphere by joking about the lost of his eye, giving a soft and gentle smile to the girl as he looked slightly concerned.

Kenji was surprised she had chosen to brush off his attempt to understand the girl but then again, he wasn't the one for opening up either so he could at least understand that much. Still doesn't mean he wouldn't at least try to understand more, last thing he'd need is to upset her again for the next time they meet. "I know I'm not the smartest guy, especially when it comes to girl stuff but try me. Maybe I'll understand some parts of it." Kenji would apply some small pressure on the girl to see if she'd open up about what could possibly be bugging her and frankly, he had absolutely no clue what it could be. He didn't really do anything out of the ordinary except his usual joking... Maybe she just found his joking annoying?

"And don't worry if you're worried about hurting my feelings or anything, I get I can be... Annoying so if you want me to just shut up, say so." Kenji would add on to try and ease her concerns about possibly hurting his feelings because so far that was the only thing he could really think of that would sour her mood so quickly. She'd probably be the first to get so outwardly annoyed at his jokes now that he thought about it, but much like someone returning a bow to him, it was bound to happen eventually.

As Saki suddenly came to a stop, Kenji followed her lead and watched with interest and slight concern over the now rather red faced girl who was currently looking nervous and uncertain of herself. That's when he started to piece it together, her redness, her bow back, her anger... He was making her jealous because she seemed to have taken a liking to the Haruka. So when she confirmed, his heart sank a bit, it wasn't that he didn't dislike the girl nor could he say he didn't enjoy her company but considering this was the first time meeting and that she appeared on the younger side, he couldn't say with certainty if he even felt anything for the girl besides the usual companionship he had with most people he went on missions with.

"Uh... Well that's... Something." Kenji begun awkwardly with some nervous chuckles escaping him as his eye fell to the ground and he let out a deep sigh. "Suppose I should ask the big thing first, just how old are you? Because no offense but I'm not even sure you're 18..." Kenji would question as he awkwardly scratched at his cheek, unsure how to talk about this, he knew he was a flirty bastard but this had to be the first time he actually got another shinobi to fall for him. Something he legitimately never considered given how comedic most of his pick up lines were and how silly he acted most of the time.

Kenji couldn't help but flinch ever so slightly when the girl revealed her age, he had suspected she was on the younger side and was he glad he decided to play it safe and not flirt with her so obvious as he had done with others before. Which really only left him with one option once the girl revealed her age, it may have been only two years but she wasn't fully developed yet, it would be wrong for him to ignore that fact and enter a relationship that he honestly had no real interest in having. So Kenji only sighed as he noticed the girl looking downtrodden, seemingly she too knew it wouldn't be possible, yet he still didn't want to see her look so upset.

Putting his hand on the girl's cheek, Kenji would make her look into his steel eye, a look of sorrow on his face. "I'm sorry Saki, I never really meant for this to happen. I hope you understand you're still developing mentally and it'd be wrong for me to date you at this time." Kenji begun to explain to the girl as he looked into her blue eyes, blue eyes did seem to have a certain charm to the man it would seem. Yet he didn't like seeing them look so sad, but there really wasn't anything he could do about that... Could he?

"Tell ya what, if you still have these feelings for me when you're 18, we can talk this out." Kenji told the girl with a soft smile, all while cursing himself on the inside for such a stupid decision. Sure, it was likely that this was just a teenage crush that will fade in time but now he probably just encouraged her not to let go of this feeling. "Uh, just don't think that means I'm telling you to wait for me or anything... If you like another guy around your age, go for it." Kenji awkwardly added as he retracted his hand and scratched the back of his head with some nervous laughter. He probably just did the stupidest thing he could've done.

Kenji absolutely hated to see such blue beautiful eyes be filled with tears but there wasn't anything he could do about the facts of life and instead he simply stood and waited for her reaction, uncertain what she'd say or do but he only hoped she wouldn't be too hurt. Truth be told he couldn't understand what she was going through but he imagined it would hurt quite a bit to know someone you think of as a future life partner just denied you that future, even if it was only for a time being.

What he wasn't expecting however was for the girl to move closer to him and for a second, Kenji thought about stepping back but as her hand grabbed his cheek and moved her head slightly to his right, giving him a small kiss on the cheek and he could only stand in silence as he felt her the warmth of her body and the softness of his lips on his face. It was strange to him, this was the closest he had been to anyone physically, he couldn't even recall the last time he got a hug let alone if anyone had even kissed him in any form besides his parents.

So when she moved away, he placed his hand where she had kissed and could only watch in sadness as Saki turned away from him and begun running away from him, the one eyed man only standing and watching her disappear from sight, her choked cries fading away too as he simply stood. He wasn't even aware how long he stood, watching where the girl had disappeared to before he chose to simply sit and rest for a second. Taking a moment to retrieve his candy sticks and placing one in his mouth, Kenji let out a sigh as he focused on the cherry flavor. It was the right thing to do, he didn't even think of her that way nor would he but he still felt awful and the feeling of loneliness was creeping up on him as he sat and stared at the sand covered ground.

Kenji simply sat and stared at the ground for a bit, thinking about what had just happened, he knew his flirting could actually get to this point but he didn't really count on it, he figured he'd realized if someone was actually falling for it and just let them down easy. Instead he was blindsided by someone he wasn't even flirting with, even if he did some kind things for the younger girl but that was because she appeared so young. He didn't consider the stuff he did romantic but it could be seen that way, playing her music, lending her his coat, keeping her close and protected... Those were all supposed to be just someone trying to keep an eye out for her, something akin to an older brother or a mentor, not some attempt to seduce the girl.

Kenji was so lost in thoughts that he didn't even hear anyone approaching the only hint someone was here was the familiar voice of Setsuka calling out to the man and he simply let out a small quiet sigh to himself as he lifted his head with a weak grin on his face to see the woman. "Can't say I expected to see you either..." Kenji would admit as he let his head lower once more back to the ground, unable to maintain his grin any longer. "What brings ya this way? Don't really strike me as the fun and sun type, you know." Kenji would try to joke a bit as he stared at the ground, a weak smile on his face as he tried to just focus on the cherry flavor in his mouth but it was clear he couldn't put his heart in his words as much as he used to. He was a bit loss and just felt absolutely terrible about what he did, even if it was the only right option.