Just a Bunch of Bookworms [NK]

Sun Sep 23, 2018 7:00 am

Kumogakure was home to several establishments, one of them being the nondescript bookstore that Natsume currently perused. It didn't look like much from the outside. In fact, were it not for the sign clearly stating 'Bookstore', one would never know it was a store of any kind. On the inside, however, the selection of books seemed endless.

Natsume walked along the aisles of bookshelves, occasionally pausing to flip through a book when a title caught her eye. She didn't know when she started coming to the store, but she'd long since found out how calming it was for her to just wander about, looking but not searching for anything in particular. She traced the spine of a book. "50 Shades of Gray?" She cocked her head to one side, like a confused pup. "Must be a color guide. Or, no, a book about inks!" She smiled as she pulled out the book and began to flip through it, not even thinking to read the summary on the back.

It was not a book about ink, nor was it a color guide. But 10 minutes later, Natsume flipped to yet another page, her eyes wide and face flushed. For some reason, she couldn't quite put it down.

[ WC: 210 | TWC: 210 ]

Sun Sep 23, 2018 8:25 am

Unfinished.

“I’m in over my head. Way in over my head. Ugh... What should I even do? Go to a bar again? Am I even allowed to go to bars? I'm 18… Probably. That’s how old they tell me I look. Is there no reason even to worry about it as long as they let me in? Ugh...”. Ryūka smashed his head into his desk. It was night out, and Ryūka’s room was only lit by a single candle in front of him, so it was pretty dark still. He lied like that for a few minutes before getting his head back up again. His notebook was lying open before him. The pages were full of random scrambled words, whole paragraphs that were hidden by a layer of ink, little drawings, numbers (most of them perhaps even Ryūka didn’t know the meaning of. Not still, at least), and half-ripped off pages. He wasn’t in a good place. He wasn’t sure if he ever was. Kumo was either a lonely village, or he was the lonely one, and was projecting that onto the city he lived in, passing the blame. Deep down he knew he wasn’t at fault. Neither was Kumo. There was nobody he could blame. Maybe that was what made everything worse. He raised his head from the table. “One more wasted morning…”.

He looked at his notebook. Unfinished.

Flipping through the pages, he came across one that read "Superior Beast Imitating Technique - SOME RESEARCH WOULD BE NICE. I'm stuck - Don't know where to go to next. Maybe a library or a bookstore might be a good choice.". "Maybe a library or a bookstore might be a good choice..." Ryūka repeated in his head. He took everything he usually carried, dressed up and left the house from his window like he usually did.

His notebook was the last thing he put into his jacket, after landing on the street ground. "Unfinished." he thought, "I won't let it stay that way. Time to take some steps.". He headed to a book store. He didn't have a choice in which one, as he was a regular customer of all of them, being a huge book nerd. He went to the one he was closest to, and entered it. "Hey Zorua! You here?". The shopkeeper was nowhere to be seen. Ryūka walked around, and saw the single person in the store. Someone she hadn't seen before. Maybe she was a new employee of Zorua's? Maybe it was a new customer? Either way, it was a new face to Ryūka, someone who didn't carry a headband, so someone Ryūka obviously assumed was a civilian. "Hi!" Ryūka said, approaching the person, "Do you work here? Where's Zorua?". He noticed the book she was reading. "50 shades of grey". "Oh!" Ryūka thought, "Must be a color guide. Oh no! A book about inks. Yeah that must be it.". "Oh.", he said, "Are you an artist by any chance?".

[WC: 495]

Sun Sep 23, 2018 11:16 am

She didn't hear the soft tinkle of the shopkeeps' doorbell, signalling the arrival of a new customer. She didn't hear as said newcomer called out to the shopkeep (who she knew for a fact was somewhere in the depot, organizing some books for a pickup tomorrow) or even called out to her. What she did hear, however, was the word 'artist'. Natsume's head shot up and her book shot down and behind her back, eyes darting to the voice. It was a... man? No. An official ninja, by the Kumo plate he sported. He'd just said something, hadn't he? She'd been so... preoccupied... with her reading, that she hadn't really heard all of it. Or any of it. Aside from 'artist'.

"Ah, artist? What?" She blinked a couple times to clear out the steam that book had generated in her head. What could he be asking? She licked her lips as she thought it through, trying various options and eliminating them just as quick before arriving to a reasonable conclusion. "Am I an artist?" she tried aloud. 'Yeah, that sounds most likely.' She looked closer at him. "I... suppose I am, yes. What gave it away?" Maybe she had some paint on her cheek? She scratched her cheek at that thought and inspected her fingernail. No pigment. No paint there, then.

As casually as she could, she tried to return the '50 Shades of Gray' to its spot in the shelf. "Why, was there something you needed, senpai?" Considering that she would end up missing the slot a solid two times, it wasn't very casual, but eventually the book was put away with only the spine left behind to hint at its devious contents.

[ WC: 292 | TWC: 502 ]

Sun Sep 23, 2018 12:23 pm

"Senpai?" Ryūka repeated, smiling. He reached into the the shelf, putting his finger on a random book, "Nobody calls me senpai. Call me Ryūka.". His finger moved slowly, going from one book to the next, from left to right, "What gave it away...", his finger landed on the book Natsume put back, "was the book you were reading. Color theory right?". He smiled and picked out the book from the shelf, "I'm... An enthusiast myself, if I may call myself that." He opened the book. There seemed to be no visual indication of artistry, and just pages and pages of words. It was weird to make a book about color theory and use no pictures at all in Ryūka's mind, but he thought it was fair for a writer to teach in their own terms.

The next thing that Ryūka realized about the book was that it seemed to have been shaped as a story and not like just a theory book. Ryūka thought it was interesting at least. A unique concept to weave a book of art theory as a story. He kept flipping through the pages as he talked to the girl. "In fact I'm here today to work on art... You could say... To both explain that, and answer your question...". Ryūka happened onto a page where the story took, and 'explicit' turn, to put it tamely. Ryūka blushed, coughed, and put the book back into its spot on the shelf. "I... What was I saying? Oh right. I'm researching the Super Beast Intimidating Drawing technique. If you have seen a book on it before, or something I would sure appreciate the help. It's... Supposedly a technique that allows you to turn ink into... Reality? As I said, I'm researching it. If you as an artist, are interested, you can join me in that research.".

[WC:803]

Sun Sep 23, 2018 1:42 pm

She frowned as he told her to call him Ryuka. "Ryuka-senpai, then. You are a ninja, right? I am a ninja-in-training, so you are my senpai." It made logical sense, so she would follow that logic until he gave her a better reason not to. She watched as he started to read the titles of the books. Was he looking for a specific one? "Ah, the... the book I was reading?" she sputtered, her face flushing a deep crimson as she recalled some of the sections she had read. At least she wasn't the only one who had assumed the book was on color theory, which was relieving, but how would she explain that it really wasn't what he thought it was? As she stewed over plausible explanations, he reached for and grabbed the book. She noticed too late to stop him, sputtering even more and flailing to try and grab the book out of his hands.

With each page flipped, Natsume grew more and more flustered, soon incapable of any sounds beyond an embarrassed moan. She covered her face with her hands but peeked through her fingers to watch his reaction, waiting for the moment when he would realize just how... special the book was. 'Ah, there it is.' She awaited the lecture or the teasing, but it never came, much to her relief.

Thankfully, the distraction he offered was the kind that really did work well to distract her. "A technique?" she parroted after him, nodding along as he explained what it was about. "Super Beast Intimidating Drawing technique... I'm not sure I've seen any titles with those words specifically." Her brows furrowed as she went over her memories of any and every book she had ever laid eyes on. Though many of those memories were fogged over with time, she was fairly certain she spoke the truth. "It's not exactly the same, perhaps, but I recall seeing a book about inks and chakra, earlier. It was catalogued near some of the books studying seals and some sort of painting genjutsu." As she spoke, she absent-mindedly lead the way to the book she had in mind. She stopped at the end of one of the aisles and furrowed her brows. "I think it was somewhere along here, but I can't remember where exactly. If you take this side," she gestured to the bookshelves on the left for him to look at, "and I take this side, we can both look for it!"

Without waiting for his reaction to the plan, Natsume took the bookshelves on the right side, closely inspecting every spine to look for the mention of 'ink' in the title. Sometimes, she would find one, but upon flipping it open, it would be a book about the production of chakra conductive inks or DIY ink mixing for dummies. She sighed but continued on dutifully.

[ WC: 488 | TWC: 990 ]

[ You can either find the book in your post, let me find it in my next one, or assume that I don't find it and suggest that we ask the shopkeep. I leave that decision to you. ]

Sun Sep 23, 2018 2:16 pm

[How about both?]

"Ink and chakra? Yeah, that does sound like it could be related. Let me check that area real quick.". Ryūka started searching the part of the bookshelves Natsume suggested him to. Ryūka had looked at this specific bookshelf many times before, again, being a regular customer there. However, he had not been searching for this specific book, which meant that there was a chance the book was there, and had always managed to escape his attention for now, somehow, even though any book named, or based on ink and chakra would be something that would have picked his interest more than anything else. Thinking about it, Ryūka realized that there could be a reason he had not seen the book before. For instance, (Ryūka crouched), the book being on the lowest shelves. After looking for a few seconds, a book quickly picked his interest, titled "Where Artistry Meets Jutsu: A Study on the Relations of Chakra and Art".

"Huh..." Ryūka verbally exclaimed, "I haven't found that specific one, but I found something that might be relevant. Did you find the one you mentioned there?". Ryūka couldn't help it. There was no way he was going to wait until the other book was found to open this one. On the cover, there was a picture of a paintbrush, that was drenched in what seemed to be glowing blue paint. The image immediately grabbed Ryūka and encouraged him more into reading it. He flipped the cover. On the front page, there was the same drawing, but the paint scattered across the whole page this time instead. He flipped the page over. "A Study on the Relations of Chakra and Art; an Epilogue". An epilogue? The choice of words confused Ryūka but there was no way he was skipping any part of this book. He was not the kind of person to do such a thing. Books were written to be read, after all.

"Oh by the way..." he said, "What was your name again? Sorry if I forgot to ask, I get distracted easily. By art, by jutsu, you can guess how easily I get distracted by the potential of a mix of both. Also, as an aspiring ninja and an artist yourself, are you interested in learning this technique as well perhaps?".

[WC: 1184]

Sun Sep 23, 2018 3:34 pm

She looked over as he exclaimed, her finger still lingering on the spine of a book that had caught her attention. "Nice find!" Not to be outdone, Natsume pulled out the book she had been looking at and quickly scanned the cover. She smiled. "This is the one! 'Ink and Chakra.'" Not a very creative name, she had to admit, but the cover held a beautiful illustration of a mythical dragon caricature, more than making up for the lacklustre naming decision. She traced the bold, decisive strokes that made up the drawing, then flipped it over to read the summary. 'A study on the difference between attuning ink to your chakra, and chakra-conductive inks.'

She hummed and looked back over to Ryuka as he asked for her name, tucking the book close to her chest as she did so. "Ah, how rude of me." She folded her hands over her lap and bowed a full 45 degrees, showing full respect. When she came back up, she properly introduced herself. "My name is Natsume Koutaishi. Academy Student at Kumo's Ninja Academy."

Her eyes seemed to glow with joy when he asked if she was interested in learning too. Of course she was! She forcefully composed herself and nodded with a smile. "I've never thought of using my art as a tool for fighting." She thought of her mother, sweet and peaceful behind the canvas. Her heart ached. Was it wrong to take this beautiful hobby and use it to fight? Would her mother be disappointed? She hesitated. But her mother's body, face unrecognizable, and the charred remains of a painting that would never be finished flashed in her mind, and she steeled her resolve. "If it wouldn't bother you, I'd like to learn it too." She had always carried her mother's lessons in her heart, but her life with her mother felt distant from the impending life as a ninja that quickly approached. Perhaps with this... she could hold on a little longer to warm sunny afternoons and fresh paints.

She cleared her throat. "Are there any other books you're looking for? I think we have a little more time before we have to go..."

As she said that, Zorua, the shopkeeper, poked his head through the cloth dividers of the doorway. "Ah, my loyal customers! Natsume, Ryuka-san," he nodded to them both, "It is late. I'm sorry to say, but I am closing shop now. If you want to come back tomorrow and read, I can hold on to the books you've found behind the counter."

"Is it that late? I hadn't even realized..." Natsume looked over at Ryuka. "Or we could buy them now? I pay for one book, you pay for the other?" Now that she'd found something, she wanted to consume every drop of knowledge immediately. The idea of waiting until the morning repulsed her. In the end, however, the decision was in Ryuka's hands.

[ WC: 504 | TWC: 1494 ]

Mon Sep 24, 2018 3:54 am

Ryūka smiled. "Oh you found that one too? Nice.". He made his way to the counter, and put his book on it. He turned around to answer Natsume again, "Oh. Also... Nice to meet you Natsume. And, good luck with the academy.". Ryūka chuckled, thinking back to his academy days. He never really fit in, partly because of his age, and partly because of his mind always being preoccupied with other things, mainly music, poetry and art in general. Either way, those days were behind him and Ryūka didn't miss much of it. That part of his life had gone by with nothing interesting, as far as Ryūka was concerned. But in the end, his days at the academy were what allowed him to become a ninja, and live the life he lived now, one that he really enjoyed. A life that Ryūka wouldn't have given up a minute of.

"Fighting?" Ryūka chuckled, "I'm... Surprised that you're interested in it. I can't promise you this will be a very useful skill in battle, but I hope you get what your heart desires. I believe I may be able to help you a little bit with that as well. For the purposes of this, however, we're both students... Of the books...?". He then noticed Zorua, his friend, was in the store after all. "Oh hey Zorua." he said, "Yeah it's fine, I'll buy both of these.". Zorua looked at the book Ryūka had put on the counter, than looked over to Natsume and squinted, trying to see from afar what that book was. "Ink and chakra." he mumbled. For someone his age, he had great eyesight. Ryūka then paid Zorua accordingly. Zorua waved them both goodbye as he walked them out of the shop, and closed its doors. "It was not necessary for you to pay, this is mainly on me, after all. Also, you're a student. Ninja are supposed look after students." Ryūka said, as he flipped through the pages of the book. "Do you wanna sit somewhere and read these immediately or wait until tomorrow to do so?".

It was obvious what Ryūka himself wanted to do. But he didn't want to force Natsume to study something she just heard about, with someone she just met, suggested out of nowhere at the last minute, not even taking into account she could have easily had other plans. "It's fair if we continue tomorrow. We could even read the books we have on us, and then share information we learned when we meet tomorrow. Either plan is fine with me, so I'm leaving it up to you. If you want to study now, I know a public library nearby that should be open 24 hours a day, 7 days per week. They also allow people to be loud beyond what you would think they'd allow, for a library. Nice place to study, by the way. Keep that in mind if you need some place like that another time.".

"Ink and chakra..." Ryūka thought, "So... It is possible to merge my two passions after all. A way that I can be... Doing both at the same time. It's a beautiful thing to imagine... Maybe... I wonder if there's a way I could somehow merge... Music... With chakra. Huh. I'll need to look into that later. For now I need to focus on the research I'm doing currently. I don't want to postpone this any longer.".

[WC:1757]

Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:23 am

She looked up at him with a long blink. How was it surprising that she would think of using a technique in a fight, when she was training to be a ninja? Of course she would find herself in battles. While she wouldn't seek them out, fights and deceit were the foundation of shinobihood, and to think otherwise was plain ignorance. "Interested is perhaps not the right word," was all she said. Her mind flashed once more to what she had lost, and what she could still lose. It was not about the fight, but about the ability to protect, after all.

Natsume frowned as he paid for both books, but held her tongue while she was still in front of Zorua. After he had escorted them out and she had waved farewell to the kindly shopkeep, Natsume readied herself to argue her case. Unfortunately for her, Ryuka beat her to the chase with a quick and efficient explanation. She begrudgingly accepted the logical reason he gave. "Then, when I become a ninja," because it was not a if but when, "I will pay you back."

Right after he finished saying 'read these immediately', Natsume piped up. "Yes. Let's get started on these books." She followed after him as he lead the way to the aforementioned public library, constantly glancing down to the book in her hands. The bookworm inside of her couldn't resist flipping it open and trying to read as they walked, though she had to frequently pause and look around her to make sure she didn't walk into anything. It was just too hard to focus on reading like this, though, so eventually she would close the book and try conversing with Ryuka. "So, Ryuka-senpai, where did you hear about this technique from?" She looked up to realize that she'd fallen slightly behind him due to her shorter legs (and thus, slower pace), and started to half-jog to catch up to him.

[ WC: 325 | TWC: 1819 ]

Mon Sep 24, 2018 10:41 am

"When you're a ninja, you can buy me a new book as a gift instead." Ryūka said, smiling. As they approached the public library, Ryūka answered her question, "I heard about it from a travelling artist selling his paintings. One of them he actually sold to the Kumogakure art gallery. The one named um... Faeria Expo Center & Art Gallery. You should check it out sometime if you're interested in art. Anyway... Let's get to studying then.". Ryūka opened the door of the library, going in himself first, then holding the door long enough for Natsume to enter as well.

He walked to a nearby round table, with 4 empty chairs around it. The interior was wooden, with lots of orange carpets and furniture. "Let's sit here." Ryūka said, and did so. He then opened his book and started reading. He wanted to pay as close attention to his reading as possible, so even if it might have made things awkward, he would not talk and just focus on his reading.

[WC: 1928]

Just a Bunch of Bookworms [NK]

Just a Bunch of Bookworms [NK]

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Re: Just a Bunch of Bookworms [NK]