Birds of a Feather [Kanye]

Rays of sunshine protruding from an oddly nice day lingered through the residencies of the Kumo suburbs. Amika might have been found to be out somewhere typically, but rarely would it be that she would be simply outside, taking in the moment.

A serene garden planted for the whole community particularly caught her attention. With blooming flowers infecting the area with their vibrant shades of yellow, orange, red, and occasionally blue, how could someone not stop by and appreciate them? Some of them would only ever get to show themselves for one season, before withering away to decompose into the soil. Such saturnine images commonly crossed Amika's mind, it was her odd way to admire such precious things.

If there were to be anything to distract her in this moment, it would be the shadow of her twin brother. Amika was too conditioned to his presence to think it was any one else, and had it been then maybe she would have been unnerved by then sudden approach of gray. Being the more boisterous out of the two, she almost immediately greeted him with a "Hey!"

"Hey," he said, stopping on the right hand side of Amika. He turned his gaze to the neatly, coloured flower bed, gazing at the few blue flowers, he liked them, blue had always been his favourite colour, he wanted to pick one to give to his mother, but he couldn't knowing full well that it was illegal. Kanye held up the bag containing the two drinks. "Got these from a mission I just finished awhile ago, ice tea's." Kanye would turn his head to the flowers again,"should get some for mother a some point during this week... What are you doing standing here anyway? It's not like you to stand idly, thought you would of gone through 3 missions by now with the way you work.

Kanye had always found it amusing teasing what he occasionally called, his sisters "thirsty work ethic", yet it may have been funny to tease her about it, however  the boy could never forget the amount of times his red headed sisters thirsty work ethic had helped him evade difficult situations, the question still remained in his head, would he have graduated if not for his sisters, the answer in his head was maybe.
The older Genin opened the bag taking out two cans, reading the flavours." Ginger or grape?"

"Yeah, those blue ones stand out among the warmer ones, don't they?" Amika said. Maybe it wasn't her favorite color, but she knew it was his. At least there was someone else in the entirety of the residential area that bothered to stop and appreciate. Kanye proceeded to pull out a couple of ice tea's for an offer. Ginger or grape? Without a second thought, Amika made her choice, "Gimme the ginger." Her twin was pointing out how odd it was for her to be staring at a flower bed.

"Ever head of 'stop to smell the roses?'" she giggled at him. The phrase wasn't meant to be taken literally, there weren't any roses in this display anyway. However, saying so made her point. Many shinobi were rushed in everything. Rushed in training, rushed in working, rushed in getting home, and rushed to get up in the morning to rush through it all over again. Amika might have been considerably a more upbeat and fast paced individual, yet that didn't mean she doesn't know how to take a breather every once in a while. "I couldn't resist such a perfectly grown garden anyhow.They would be the best for mother, we should try to find something similar."

Kanye scrunched the can before finishing the last drop of the purple coloured tea, the Genin tossed it in the bin along with the bag, then folded his arms. "We should, when we earn enough money that is." The young boy didn't want to deny his mother a gift, however he needed a weapon, more specifically a sword, preferably light. He smirked, "Yeah, I smell em everyday," meaning he loved to take his time. Kanye observed the passing shinobi, their gear looked clean, one shinobi stood out from the rest, he was carrying a shinobigatana on his side. Kanye marvelled at it. "Would take me 10 missions to get a blade like that, maybe more", he pulled out from his pocket the previous mission scroll he had completed earlier. "Only 500", he mumbled, sighing as a gentle breeze blew past them.


"The drink is good right?" He said, turning to Amika, "Ginger is the better one, got a harshness to it that I like". Kanye would take his time, admiring more of the garden, thinking about the time and effort it must of took to maintain, he wished his previous mission had been  weeding that garden, at least then he would of likely got the flowers to give to his mother. His gaze turned towards the architecture of the house, it was wide, well finished, and sturdy. Rich people must of lived here, wealthy in money and time. "One day, when we do enough missions, we will get a house like this, with a nice garden, and a lot of room. We'll expand it, and add the shop for father, so he doesn't walk so far".

Amika listened to the sound of tin being crushed like of a paper being crumbled by her brother. Easy peasy. It was promptly tossed into a waste basket as any proper person would do, with a satisfying clang while it settled itself into the collection. Flowers like those were always expensive, the ones that lasted long with care anyhow. That was something their mother had plenty of - caring. It'd be worth every ryo to get her a good one as a gift of appreciation. What more could they do for her anyhow as children?

"Yeah, ginger is the best," she answered. Kanye started to day dream about what they could do in their futures. "If we managed to ring in enough to afford something like that," Amika stunted the idea. She hated getting carried away with thoughts. It was how unrealistic expectations formed. As fun as it may have been to think about it, Amika didn't want to be disappointed if things didn't go as planned. She too crossed her arms, almost as to mirror her twin brother.

One harsh moment took Amika out of the present, into what seemed like a parallel universe much more grotesque and cursed than the one the genin girl was actually in. She gasped out of fear and exasperation. A world without her brother, where they didn't have each other's back? It felt pretty bleak and purposeless, so she didn't want to wander the thought of such an existence for long. Amika didn't even want to accept it was possible for them to be separated. So instead, she laughed with a grandiose obnoxiousness that was sarcastically just a tad bit over the top - even for her, when Kanye pleaded for her to catch him up on rudimentary skills. It did the trick in chasing the hypothetical nightmares away.

"Sure," was her short and to the point response. "But how is it that you're admitting to it now? You mean to say you've made it for this long without being able to perform such basic techniques?" the younger twin mockingly asked him, starting to head in the direction of a remote training field where she could run through them without risking a passerby witnessing the scene that was about to unfold.

"Well then you better know how to use that sword well enough to make up for it," she mocked. Amika knew her twin brother was only trying to hide the fact that he realized how not paying attention during the academy days would cause trouble now. At least she was their to cover for it, so he wouldn't run into the issue any further.

She appreciated Kanye taking the lead as they headed towards the training grounds, smiling back at him when he glanced to her. Although, she wondered if he knew where he was going. Worse case scenario at this moment, she would simply direct him the right way.

[Exit to Training Grounds]