Location: Kouin Square and Swamp
Isamu walks out of Tricky Suu's Shop with bag of masks. As he looks at one of the masks, he notices someone walk up. "Good afternoon!" Isamu says with a smile.
Keiko quietly maneuvers her way through the crowds, careful to not bump into anyone as she makes her way to Suu's Costume Shop. Pausing for a moment, she turns her head enough to catch Isamu greeting someone else and blinks, "Isa-kun?"
"Good seeing you!" Isamu says as he walks away from the group of carpenters. "Ah! Keiko-chan! Fancy meeting you here. On your way to buy a few things from Tricky Suu?" Isamu asks the young lady.
Keiko gives a soft bob of her head as she shifts uncomfortably on her feet. It wasn't everyday she'd be caught dead in public actually dressed like a girl. "Mmm... I'm not sure what though. I thought I'd come by and see what's in stock this year." She glances down at the bag in his hand, a small smile lighting up her features. "What'd you get?"
"A couple of ANBU style masks. I'm gonna paint them up for some of the local children. Everybody should have a costume to wear!" Isamu replies with a smile. He lifts a Hawk shaped mask out of his bag and shows it to Keiko.
Keiko smiles a bit more timidly as she steps closer to Isamu to get a better look at the mask, admiring it's detail. "Almost as good as the real thing." She pauses, glancing towards the shop, then back to Isamu. "How've you been, by the way? It's been awhile..."
"I've been alright, my job with the carpenters has been on hold, repairs have been small things lately, so I've been training here and there. I think I'm almost ready to go past that endless blizzard on the way to Yamayuki. How's life been for you?" Isamu asks and he puts the mask back into the bag.
Keiko tilts her head to the left, then to the right. She gives a small shrug of her shoulders and smiles a bit more warmly towards Isamu. "It sounds like you've had your hands full for awhile. I tried to get past the blizzard, but the cold was too annoying." She sucks on her lower lip, her cheeks heating up for some reason.
Isamu pats Keiko on the shoulder and says, "Ah, you just need to get used to the cold! It's really too nice down here. I had gotten so used to seeing my own breath up there, it felt odd coming back down."
Keiko gives a soft nod, her face heating up a bit more as Isamu touches her shoulder. "Mhm... Isn't it pretty high up there? The change in the air pressure, maybe." She rocks lightly on the heels of her high-heeled boots. "What're you dressing up as?"
"I hadn't really thought up anything in particular, but I think I'll go as one of the 7 Swordsmen of the Mist. All I have to do is get a fancy sword, and dress like one of them..." Isamu trails off as he thinks about his costume. "How about you? What are your costume plans?" He asks.
Keiko gently brushes a stray curl from her cheek, tucking it behind her ear as she creates a thoughtful noise. "I was going to dress up like Shiro-sama, but then I decided I'd dress up in one of those kimonos my mom used to try and make me wear." She blushes, touching a finger to her lips. "And.. and.. put my hair up and wear make up.."
"That would probably look good on you!" Isamu says with a smile. "I'll have to remember to find you on Halloween, so we can see each others costumes." Isamu puts the bag from Tricky Suu's into one of his smaller packs, and grabs a small bottle.
Keiko peers curiously at the other bags after she gives a small nod of agreement. "Did you need help carrying some of those bags?"
Isamu chuckles a bit. "No, these packs are all filled with heavy items, it's part of my training." Isamu takes a sip from the water bottle. "I need to train faster, so I can join Ichi-nii up at Yamayuki village sometime."
Keiko snickers softly, nodding. "Well, maybe we should train together some time! I just started learning new ninjutsus and I wanted someone about as powerful as me to practice with!" She bounces lightly on her feet, getting excited all over again. "Are you busy now? Maybe we can go and practice?"
"Sure, I wouldn't mind a quick one." Isamu replies to his eager compatriot. "Where shall we go though?"
Keiko's tongue juts out a bit as she tilts her head to the side in thought, shrugging a little. "The swamps aren't that far. I really love training there. Plenty of hiding spots and stuff!"
"Okay, I'm fine with that. Let's go!" Isamu shouts as he heads off to the Swamps.
Keiko follows Isamu to the Swamps.
After Isamu arrives and walks around the area a bit, he drops his packs off at the base of a nearby tree. "You ready?" Isamu asks Keiko.
Keiko gives a soft dip of her head as she follows suit and quickly disappears behind a tree. "Just a second! I can't fight in these clothes!" After what seemed like an eternity of rustling and such, Keiko reappears wearing her usual training gear, fuuma shuriken included. "Are we going all out? If not, maybe I shouldn't use my fuuma shuriken..."
"It wouldn't be practice if we didn't go all out. Use whatever you'd like." Isamu mentions with a smirk. Isamu slides into a defensive position.
Keiko quietly rubs her chin in thought and suddenly beams brightly, "How about we make it more interesting and, uhm, play hide and go seek? You're the seeker." She waggles her eyebrows, hoping he'd take her up on the offer.
"Hrmmm...I don't know..." Isamu scratches his head. "I think we should just go ahead and spar, I'd like to see this new Ninjutsu of yours."
Keiko purses her lips faintly. "Isa-kun. We're still sparring. Only, we're spicing it up with hide and seeking." She takes a small step back, the water sloshing around her legs as she lifts one to place her foot on it's tree trunk.
"I guess we could do that, if you really want to." Isamu says, agreeing reluctantly.
Keiko nods firmly and turns her back to Isamu, already starting up the tree. "Get to counting, Isa-kun!"
Isamu closes his eyes and counts down from 20.
Keiko darts from tree to tree as quickly as she can, trying to distance herself from him.
"3...2...1... Here goes nothing!" Isamu shouts as he opens his eyes and looks around.
Keiko continues to go deeper into the swamp, careful about where she stands.
Isamu quickly dashes up into the trees, vanishing from sight as he leaps.
"Now where might Keiko be hiding?" Isamu thinks to himself as he scans the murky swamps below.
Keiko climbs higher up into the dense canopy of the swamp, taking her perch on a branch surrounded by moist moss. She takes in a deep breath, holding it as she keeps a keen eye on her surroundings, her hands raising to slowly go through handseals.
Isamu moves silently through the shadows, and finally picks up Keiko's trail. Following these slight indentations on mossy branches, Isamu quickly covers lost ground.
Keiko was quick to retrieve a small spool of wiring and a small, oval-shaped mirror from her thigh holsters. Glancing to her left, she inched forward, setting up the mirror to reflect a minuscule stream of light flooding in from a hole in the thick canopy. With the spool of near transparent wiring, she darted from her hiding spot and into another much farther away, watching out for Isamu still.
Seeing a slight glimmer of light high in the branches, Isamu decides to check it out.
Isamu lands on the branch with the mirror and looks around for Keiko, or her footsteps.
Standing up swiftly on the tree branch, Keiko takes the initiative to go through a series of handseals after taking in a deep breath. She hesitated, then unleashed several fireballs from her mouth in Isamu's direction, her hand dipping into her pocket to retrieve a kunai and three shuriken.
Isamu swings around to the opposite side of the tree from the fireballs, and quickly pulls out a kunai.
Keiko mirrored Isamu's actions and pulled sharply and set down a new mirror and hid a couple of exploding tags beneath the moss on the underside of a few branches before she moved even further away from Isamu. Securing herself in a higher spot, she tugs again at the wiring, flashing more light to attract Isamu's attention.
"Well that was a surprise, I think I should return the favor." Isamu muses as he attaches an exploding tag to his kunai. Peeking out from behind the tree, he sees another glimmer, and throws his exploding kunai at the mirror.
Releasing the remaining bit of wire, Keiko couldn't help but snap her fingers in disappointment as the small explosion from the kunai triggered an even larger one from the other exploding tags. "At least he doesn't fall for the same trick twice.." Sucking on her lower lip, she hopped up onto a higher branch, attaching two more tags to her shuriken before she hurled them in Isamu's location. "Come out, Isamu!"
Isamu runs up the tree, and leaps over the shuriken. He grabs a normal kunai from his pocket and throws it at Keiko.
The kunai caught her mildly unawares. Sucking in a deep breath, she tries to tilt away from the kunai as it whizzed past, slicing her freckled cheek in the process. Wincing, Keiko stands and leans forward, plummeting into the murky waters below with a loud splash.
Seeing Keiko fall, Isamu catches the bottom of a branch and launches himself down to the swamp below. He lands on top of the swamp shortly after Keiko does. "Found you." Isamu says as he holds out his hand to help her up.
Keiko grins as she accepts Isamu's gloved hand and stands up on her feet. "Well, it was getting a little close to me having singed hair. I just dived down so you could find me." Leaning forward, she smooched Isamu's cheek sloppily. "Thank you for playing with me."
"It's always nice to practice with a friend. Better with you than some random Riyoku." Isamu says, blushing slightly. "Well, I've got a meeting coming up, so I'll see you around!" With that, Isamu grabs his backpacks and vanishes.
Keiko flashes her palm and waves cheerily as she moves to get her own things, heading for the village deep with in the swamps.
