[h3][color=aba000]Suzu Watanabe[/color][/h3]

A year out and Uzushiogakure was still a corpse rotting in the afternoon sun. Kirigakure, Konohagakure and Iwagakure, Mist, Leaf and Stone they swept through the village like a fierce tempest and left only blood and chaos in their wake. They didn't completely destroy the village but they might as well have Officially they promised to help fund a rebuilding effort, to atone for the bloodshed and the violence and for the first few months work was even done but in the end they didn't care about the village they just cared about their own interests in the bigger picture. Most of the repairs that had been done weren't sponsored by their former aggressors but rather by the sweat and blood of the inhabitants. The real enforces of peace as they were left practically as soon as they arrived, off to deal with bigger and better things leaving only a token defense force in their wake to oversee the ‘rebuilding’ process. It was a joke really leaving a bunch of kids to police an entire village. No wonder it all went to shit.

Suzu was one of those children caught in the middle of things when it all went down. A girl continually haunted by the ghosts of her past trying to claw their way back into the forefront of her mind. She had arrived to the Village only a few minutes before having been delayed in her travels do to unforeseen circumstances. A farmer’s kid had fallen off of his plow while tending the fields unlucky for him the oxen pulling the thing hadn't noticed and the plow ran right over his leg. It was a nasty compound fracture in normal circumstances the kid would've lost the leg or worse died from the onset of infection. Though it seemed something in the sky was looking out for the kid that day as Suzu was passing by their farm when the whole thing went down. She spent several painstaking hours resetting the bone and doing her best to provide what little healing through Chakra that she could. It wasn't part of her task and the kid’s parents could only pay her in a hot meal but she didn't care, she only did what she knew was right.

She had no hero’s welcome when she entered through the gates of the village, a matter of fact she had no welcome whatsoever. The entrance to Uzushiogakure was dead it was far flung from the usual hustle and bustle that Suzu had been accustomed to back home. The houses their at the front had been some of the most affected during the initial stages of the attack having been blasted to smithereens by ninja tools and jutsu. The afternoon sun that clung high in the sky casting forth strange shadows from these ruins producing creeping apparitions along the road of dirt. Idly she noticed the familiar sight of dried blood scattered across the ground and reflexively a hand went to one of the kunai that hung on her belt. She wondered how long the blood had been there, and what events transpired to create it. Whatever it was, she figured the stories she had heard before she set out where right, Uzushiogakure was in bad shape. 

Lucky she had found the dwelling that they had been assigned to rather easily as it sat right off of the main road that snaked through the village. Hands quickly worked on the lock with the keys provided as she occasionally checked over her shoulder to make sure no brigands or would be idiots decided to jump her then and there. No so diversions of excitement occurred and Suzu soon pushed the door to the building open slowly the old wooden door heaving like a drunken sailor as she put some force behind it. She quickly found her appointed room and quickly removed the bag that hung at her shoulder dropping it to the floor with a thumb not really paying much attention where she put it. It appeared as if her two companions had already arrived, of course she was the late one it only made sense. 

[i]Now where was that ramen shop that they had agreed to meet at?[/i] Suzu thought to herself as she left the building and was back on the street once more. In atypical fashion she was busy doing a million other things when Sano had gone over the precise directions on how to get to their determined meeting place and she didn't really feel like wandering about the village searching for her teammates. So she made up her mind to go and find a local to talk to. If they were to be the police and guardians of the village then she might as well get used to the idea of talking to the populace. She tried to remind herself that this was not home, people didn't know her and hadn't already made up ideas of her in their heads, in a couple of ways it was a chance at starting over.

Much to the girl’s overall annoyance and frustration the populace were not the most helpful sort of people it seemed. Most upon seeing her headband give her dirty looks and slinked back into the shadows shutting their doors and closing their shades and those that remained outside refused outright to talk to her as if she was some sort of disease carrying vermin. Eventually though she did find a promising target, he was an older man leaning against a stack of crates filled with building supplies and he was smoking from a long and gnarled pipe seemingly unaware of the world around him. Suzu figured if he hadn't ran away at the sight of her she might be of some use to her just yet. She took a breath to find her resolve and then stomped over to him, her small frame being dwarfed by the large muscular physique of the man hands chiseled by years of hard labor.

[color=aba000]“Pardon my interruption sir, but I’m looking for some directions and you look like you know the place.”[/color] Suzu asked the man her tone less questioning and more direct almost like an interrogation. The man took another puff from his pipe before he peered down at the small kunoichi in front of him and he laughed dismissively.

“Yeah? And where are you trying to get to leaf?” He explained pressing a thumb against Suzu’s handbend with enough force to push her back just a little bit. “Your type destroyed most of the village, so there ain’t much left to see.”

[color=aba000]“I’m looking for a small ramen shop not too far from here.”[/color] She spoke sternly swatting the man’s hand away. She would've given him the name but the fact of the matter was that she had forgotten it all she remembered was Sano’s saying that it was close to where they were sleeping.

“I might know the place. It depends on how much it is worth to you.” The man explained with a grin as he held out an outstretched hand towards Suzu. Part of the girl wanted to hit the man not hard enough to kill him or anything but enough to knock the smug grin off of his face. Luckily though - for him-  the girl’s cooler persuasion managed to hold her over from an outburst. Making enemies with the populace on the first day would be counterproductive to their whole reason for being in the village in the first place. For now it would be best if she played along with their games. Sometimes a deal could get you as far along as a fist. So playing along Suzu reached into the small pouch at her waist and produced a few ryō and smashed it much harder into the man’s hand then was needed. The man did not seemed too phased by the show of force as he brought the money up close to his face to examine it more closely seemingly pleased by the transaction that had occurred he looked up at Suzu with a new sense of friendliness.  

“You ain’t as bad as I thought leaf. Good to know some of you still know how to have an honest business transaction. Well the place you're probably looking for is Yuudai’s place, continue up the road a little bit and take two lefts and a right. It’s the small building with the red roof, lucky bastard’s shop somehow got through the worst of the fighting untouched.” The man explained as he pointed down the street.  Suzu nodded her thanks  and proceed along her way to the meeting point a few ryō lesser but with a new contact if she needed one down the line. A fair enough trade.

As she got closer to the ramen shop a large muscular man passed by her walking quickly away muttering under his breath about some punkass kid who could control shadows. [i]Well it seemed Sano was already up to his old tricks again.[/i] Suzu though with something halfway between a chuckle and a sigh as she rounded the corner. 

Just as the man had told her the ramen shop was there a relatively small affair the roof old and worn but still a noticeable red in color. On the street out front her two teammates stood together Sano and Hiyoko. They had all been together for what had quickly accumulated to a year. Suzu figured they weren't the worst people in the world to have as teammates or friends for that matter. They tolerated her presence which was something compared to most. Suzu closed the distance with a quick jog as she waved over to the two of them. She caught the tail end of their conversation as she came in and characteristically jumped right into it.

[color=aba000]“Don’t you know Hiyoko? We are on a mission right now, Kahona's Brightest over here has to follow the rules and be a ‘good example’. Meaning he is going to be about exciting as a stick in some mud. No parties from him.” [/color]She explained teasingly as she playfully jabbed an elbow into Sano’s side.