[Action Thread]

[shade_mod]

Who: Everyone and anyone
What: The afternoon and night time carnival
When: All day
Where: Konoha square
Warnings: TBA

Comments

[silkcranes]

She had shown up at his house so abruptly that Neji hadn't been able to find an excuse to say no. His mind worked quickly, but not that quickly, and Tenten had been oddly adamant about getting a new experience and wearing this, thank you and can I do something with your hair?

He'd drawn the line at that. His hair was fine.

He was wearing the garment she'd brought along with her, though. She'd called it a yukata and it was comfortable enough, and at least he looked like he fit in. The fabric was a blue print with golden cranes, oddly suited to his tastes and something Neji couldn't have said no to even if he had felt like being stubborn. Actually, he was kind of curious.

Seeing all these people though, kind of made him want to go back home. Crowds, he decided, were not something he enjoyed.

It was interesting, though. The weather was nice and it was mid-afternoon, children were running around like they belonged to no one, and the atmosphere was decidedly free. There were people doing many things that Neji couldn't begin to

[dropofmetal]

Well, that really couldn't be any easier. At first, Tenten was a bit hesitant to really go to this thing at all, seeing that each and every year it passed by with out a thought across her mind. It had been easy though, quickly hopping on a subway back to her Grandfather's place and rummaging through their attic. Her Grandfather was amused enough, as Tenten pulled out the two yukata (they were obviously a pair, after all, it did belong to them) and asked if she was going this year.

Of course, Tenten answered, hastily brushing dust from her hair and giving him a quick kiss goodbye. I'm showing a friend around.

Most of it was true anyway. But in reality, Tenten always dreamed of wearing the yukata her Grandmother owned, but was too embarrassed to even try it on. It always came out to 'I'm not going to fit it' or 'I'm going to ruin it', so it simply never happened

[silkcranes]

He frowned slightly, looking more deeply into the water and realizing that there were fish swimming contentedly inside the pool. None of them seemed in real danger of being caught, mostly because it looked like a rather difficult "game."

"I see." He didn't.

Tenten seemed a bit preoccupied, but Neji was more than content just to stand here and watch the stalls. It really was a sad way to learn anything, but he could likely figure most of the games out rather quickly after one play. His eyes kept drawing back to the goldfish game, though. He watched the children scoop carefully around the water and the faces they made when a fish got away were sorely exaggerated. Whenever someone did manage to get a fish, it flopped around so much that it either broke the soggy paper or flopped back into the pool.

"Do you want to try." He asked Tenten a moment later, unsure of why.

[dropofmetal]

Was this yukata too short? Tenten thought so (when had she gotten so tall anyway?), but it was shot down soon enough when Neji had asked her to try the game. With a smile, Tenten nodded and decided to really just...let go. There was really no use worrying about things that did not concern her anymore. Her power was being checked (again, the biggest concern of hers was that a bus would run through the crowd of people), though it could turn in a second.

Tenten let out a breath.

"Okay!" She said, knowing that Neji was probably curious about how the game worked and what exactly was the point of it. To Neji, everything had to have a reason. Most things didn't, not on Earth anyway. So she politely asked a girl to make room for her and paid for the paper net and a cup.

The pool of water shimmered under the afternoon sky and Tenten was almost content on watching the fish swim. A white one, which oddly reminded her of the pale moon, caught her eye and she followed it, hoping that she remembered exactly how this worked. Sure, Tenten

LAWL ZAKU SUCKS

[holy_inferior]

Sai stood back from the scene the Metatron and Zaku were making with the human girl. What an odd trio, indeed. He smirked to himself as he pulled out a small wooden box that he had tucked between his black yukata and pale, cream-coloured obi. Opening it with a sharp clack, he extracted a brush from the traditional collection he'd gotten from China so many years ago.

What a perfect, flat edge, still after all this time, he mused to himself, and continued to work on the idle piece he was constructing of the blossoming trees Konoha had to offer. His dark, pin-straight hair fell into his eyes, but at this point he could paint the trees from memory. Women lingered, attracted to the artist at work, and he let loose a small, almost private smile at the attention. Let Zaku play with the Metatron, and keep the angel away from himself.

[on_aphrodisiac]

Rin originally wasn't sure whether she would go to the Hanami Festival. Some say she would probably be out of her mind. Usually she would rather be in bed, sleeping. Yes, she can be anti-social and that was one of the reasons why she had little friends in the first place.

But Tobi has asked her to join him and she had ended up saying yes. Tobi was a fun guy, a little childish, but certainly friendly.

Though she wished he wasn't so forgetful that he would forget to tell her where and when they would meet...

On an unrelated thought, the energy tonight was certainly interesting.

[on_aphrodisiac]

Meanwhile, Rin was one of the booths, playing all sorts of games despite Tobi not being with her. It certainly brought her old memories of her short childhood.

The older man gave her a small stuff animal for her sucess. She nodded in thanks before she moved on.

Rin suddenly paused momentarily when she felt a familiar something...and at the same time, she spotted a familiar dark, spikey haired young man who was clearly lost and confused.

"Tobi?" she called out, "Is that you?"

[dropofmetal]

As the day continued to progress, Tenten grew weary of the thoughts running through her mind. Neji had wander off not long ago, muttering an unsure 'goodbye' and left, leaving her to the unexplored carnival and the happy faces that swarmed around her. Now night blanketed upon the carnival, lanterns brightly lighting up the streets as the the noises of happiness voiced around her, indicating that the night festivities had begun

[silkcranes]

Neji's excursion on his own had proven to be nothing short of fruitless. He'd eyed some of the games, pausing only to watch the affects of the atmosphere on the children. Most of the time he'd spent on the roof of one of the nearby buildings, eyes cast toward the sky instead of the carnival. He had somewhere he wanted to be, but he couldn't figure out where that was. Maybe it was a presence he wanted--not the dull ache he felt for missing that which had long since departed, but something sharper

[winggate]

Even reporters are human need a little downtime.

Well no, that wasn't entirely right. A reporter's job was never done! If you triedhard enough, you could find a story in any situation, even at a Hanami festival. But it was nice to take the night off (once in a while) and relax.

Lee tapped his foot, more or less in time to the music of the night -- Could hardly believe it was that time of year again. Oh, spring. How'd he'd missed it; the sound of popcorn popping, the energetic shrieks of children as they ran past his legs. The ice cream --

"Sir."

"Oh thank you!" Lee said, and claimed his ice cream cone from the vendor. He turned, and spotted -- no, it couldn't be!

"Tenten is that you?"

[dropofmetal]

Tenten was broken out of her train of thought as Neji had appeared in front of her (did he go check out the fireworks?), a small smile in greeting as he said 'hello'. She faintly remembered him anxious about the fireworks being set off into the sky, including the little sparklers that people were playing with. He was curious and Tenten had let him go, even though she did want to get a better view of the fireworks.

Nonetheless, dango was calling and Tenten heeded its call.

"Hello," Tenten greeted back, swallowing the last dango on the skewer and twirling it inbetween her fingers. She eyed Neji, curiously scanning his face for signs of his mood before continuing, "Didn't you go see the--"

Tenten is that you?Well. That was a voice she hadn't heard in awhile. Of course, Tenten would never forget those time in highschool, where flashes of green spandex and yellings of 'YOSH!!!!!' violently entered her mind. Wow. Did she come all this way to escape that