Wanderer.

Senju, Hideaki says: ...
Uchiha, Taihei says: ...
(*Senju, Hideaki turns to Taihei; this is an outcome he's expected, since the first moment he'd stepped foot out of the village. Atop his forehead is a headband, crossed out, yet the same passion, the same blazing will, burns in his bright blue eyes. He grits his teeth, hand sliding over to the hilt of his sword..

Taihei would kill him in instants, but he'd go down fighting if that was what it took.

"...Came to kill me?"*)
(*Uchiha, Taihei looks towards Hideaki, onyx eyes scanning him from head to toe. After inspecting the boy, the Uchiha continues to stare off into the distance; didn't even buldge an inch. Silent as ever, he doesn't speak for a little while, before finally mumbling a question,

 "Why?"*)
(*Senju, Hideaki almost, for a second, played at not knowing what 'why' meant.

He almost responded with some smart-mouthed rhetoric, or asked what Taihei meant with 'why', but...Hideaki was, more than anything, admittedly tired. He'd been running as far as his legs could carry him, put a sizeable distance between himself and Konoha, but he couldn't escape thoughts of what'd happened and, he was ashamed to admit, more pressing thoughts of -what the fuck could he do-. He'd travelled to some barren tundra, stumbled upon what seemed a quaint village, and been hiding out, but..

How was he going to gain the strength to kill a Kage like this?
How was he going to survive more than a few weeks at best?

"I live for the Will of Fire."

His stance does not slacken, the hand on his katana does not move; he is just as to square off with the Uchiha as he was dead in Konoha's square, just as ready as he was outside a mine with no back-up outside of another fledgling Genin. To say he wasn't afraid would be a lie, but courage was not absence of fear.

It is mastery of it.

"In that village, no one gives a damn. Jiro, Harumi, Kariya, Hajime, Tomoya, Seigi, Kazuhiko..we've lost so many and they haven't given a moment of silence before it's back to the same mundane, honorless bullshit. When you're fighting to protect them, they run on the battlefield and take the weapons you use, but don't raise an arm to help. They loot the corpses of the defeated, when they played no part in the battle. They sit and joke while around us, the world's -burning down-."

He's growing more and more outraged, more and more indignant, with every syllable that leaves his lips. A stark contrast to the icy wastes, his summer garb and bright, burning persona stuck out like a sore thumb.

"The Hokage would see people killed for the same crap he does, sold one of us off like it wasn't -nothin'-, doesn't give a damn, he'll lie right to your face. He talks about the Jinchuuriki like they're not even people and, worse, every sheep in the village's happy doin' anything he asks, long as they get paid, long as they get to sit in that square with their eyes closed doin' absolutely -nothin'-."

He shook his head; he was indignant, he was sickened, he could no longer abide by the law, the rule of those Jonin, those conflicted higher-ups who could no sooner agree on anything with one another than they could obtain any semblance of workable bond with other village.

"Village claims the Will of Fire when ain't no spirit, no soul, when the only thing keeping that village together is money an' fear. Nothing wrong with that, not to them; but that's because they don't believe. They don't understand what Konoha can be, they don't get what could be an' all they want's to lay down and take the harshness of the world. The Will of Fire is bright, it's beautiful, and it's real, embodied by anybody who stands up and stops bein' rocked by the world, and rocks -it- instead."

As he's said to Nenshou, so he'll say again.

"...To make Konoha better. So the Will of Fire can burn again. The corrupt leaders of Konoha have to be cast away or even killed. They're old, jaded, think they're infallible 'cause they're older and more experienced, when they're the reason we don't have peace. They're so set in their ways you can't teach 'em."

And then his heart bled.

"I know the Will of Fire, I believe in it like gravity and running water and time itself, a flame that couldn't be changed by any force or being. I can't describe it to those corrupt officials any more than I can sing colors to a man born blind and deaf; there's no other option."

With the fullest extent of his resolve, a task thought insurmountable, for the novice to overcome the master, for a boy to climb the summit and etch his own fate in these stars.

"I have to change the village, and I'll do -whatever- it takes."*)
(*Innocent Kitten burns brightly as a silhouette in the sky, faded out but nurtured in the horizon behind the Senju. Is it his spirit animal? Is it his will of fire taken form? Regardless, it rears it's head forwards and lets out a mighty, "Miaow!"*)
(*Uchiha, Taihei continues to listen to the Senju's speech, amazed by how much can being a shinobi change a teenager; just like himself, after all. He wasn't that old. Heck, he was a teenager himself.
 "The Will of Fire.. It doesn't exist."

 Spoke Taihei, fiercely pulling out the Katana from it's sheath. He brought two hands to the hilt, then pushed the tip inbetween the duo of rock tiles, letting go as it just.. stays there.

 "Do you know this place?" Taihei asks, onyx optics scanning the surrounding briefly. There was no eye contact made with the Senju as of yet, but if Hideaki dared to look at the Uchiha, he'd see disgust, hatred. Anger. "It was where the Samurai once resided. They also believed. Believed in a lot of things. In things greater than something like.. The Will of Fire."

 "Where are they now?" The Uchiha asks, a grin plastered upon his features. Nasty, evil grin. "Dead." He says, anwsering his own question instantly. There is a short pause, where the Senju is expected to speak; but he probably won't.

 "The Will of Fire.. It's gone. That's what I believe, after all. I don't expect you to. You haven't lost everything. Yet. You still have people you look out for, people that will look out for you. People that are going to attempt to find you. People that will be saddened by your desertion. Even people that are happy you left." The vent continues, and the stern look of Taihei is gone. Instead, he looks.. saddened.

 "I have no one." A turn of the heel, and a look at Hideaki, "All because of shinobi. Because of chakra."*)
Senju, Hideaki says: ...
Uchiha, Taihei OOCs: [[ur the 1st person i rewarded on this game
(*Senju, Hideaki moves abit when Taihei's hand reaches for the sword, but upon it being embedded in the ground, he abandons his readiness entirely. Hideaki lowers his guard; there's no need for it now, no cause for it here. There'd never been, not when Taihei so vastly outclassed him, but he wouldn't relent to death without a struggle, in this or any other lifetime.

His eyes fixate on the sword, as they do any he stumbles upon; he's enraptured by blades, of all shapes and makes, and this is no different, even granted the situation he's found himself in.

When Taihei speaks, asking him if he knows where he's managed to stumble upon, he listens. Hearing of Samurai is...odd, for him, odd that he'd came across this, of all places.

Stranger still is hearing their fate.

It gives him a sense of dread.

"You say the Will of Fire's dead, but you want to burn down the tree, whatever it is you think's in the way of everyone gettin' along. You talk all about how it's gone now, but I think you're just like me."

His eyes snap to Taihei's, bold, defiant.

"I think that what you said's the only difference; I still got people. I still got belief. I'm still young."

Hideaki stood, wide-eyed, snot-nosed, a kid. A kid who'd seen some shit, been through some shit, who was wise beyond his years, but nonetheless, just a boy. Physically, mentally, he'd had the living hell kicked out of him, but he was still standing with his head held high, nose bloodied, ready to carry on with the fight until he could no longer draw breath. He looked no less proud, even having left Konoha, than his ancestors before him, sure the path he treaded was no less righteous, and that these feet...

Would guide him back home someday.

"I can do it. I can make peace. So the question is; are you going to help me?"*)
(*Uchiha, Taihei | "Just.. Just like you?"



 Taihei snaps, looking towards the Senju with a suprised expression. A frown.
You're just like me.

 Just like me.

 "I.." The Uchiha's expression returns to an angry one, teeth gritting against one another. His hands start running down his own waist in search of something, soon pulling out.. bread. This wasn't the best meal, but might as well prove worthy when the time comes. He throws it at Hideaki, and pulls out the blade stuck between the tiles, it lands back into his sheath.

 "Eat." The Uchiha commands, but no other words have been spoken. It seems as if Hideaki hit a soft spot. Something that could easily be utilized as a weakness. But at this point, the Uchiha didn't care. He turns on his heel gazing off into the distance, silent. Various thoughts were reacing through his head, and it would be easily recognizable. Assuming Hideaki would not speak at all, which is probable if he was suprised by the Uchiha's gesture, Taihei once again took the steer,


 "You can help me."*)
(*Senju, Hideaki could settle for that.

He was actually half-expecting to, for his insolence, be cut in half or something of the like. He'd spoken rather boldly of someone he'd only had limited interactions with, someone dangerous, rogue, a wanderer with exceptional powers. The idea had an allure to it, of being free and strong, and in another life, one where he hadn't chosen to be the embodiment of the Will of Fire, hadn't treaded a path that'd gotten many aside from him killed...

He'd probably live the lifestyle forever.

The boy takes the bread, sits, and eats, silently, while the Uchiha gazes into the distance. He tears into it ravenously, having gone several days barely scraping by, savagely biting into his food and chewing it audibly. He savors every moment of it.

And for now, for once, he shuts the fuck up and enjoys the silence, given a moment of reprieve. He had a partner, now.

Things were looking that much less dim.*)