j8cob

Naruto: Years of Winter - an Alternate Universe

@Masaki Haruna Shin practically lost the one fight he got in. lol Don't think he'll make a comeback ever.

Naruto: Years of Winter - an Alternate Universe

@Masaki Haruna What?

Naruto: Years of Winter - an Alternate Universe

@Buddha Jokes on you, it's not a secret that we're assholes.

Naruto: Years of Winter - an Alternate Universe

>tfw no Dewa post

Naruto: Years of Winter - an Alternate Universe

@Weird Tales@Raijinslayer

When I was younger and less responsible, me and my gf (at the time, tfw no gf no more) nuked our own popcorn at my house and brought our own candy and bottled soda into our local theater once. We both wore big jackets and kept the popcorn in plastic tupperware. Totally got away with it but we only brought popcorn like that once just to see if we could. Usually we brought our own drinks and candy though.

Was a good time ripping off our one movie theater in town that only had the funds to play movies once a day only on the weekends.

Naruto: Years of Winter - an Alternate Universe

@j8cobWell. . . not sure how to respond to that for a multitude of reasons. I've got a job though, so. . . there's that.

Watch any good movies lately?

@Raijinslayer

T'was a joke. I'm balling fam.

Also no. I don't wanna pirate and I'm too cheap to buy tickets.

Naruto: Years of Winter - an Alternate Universe

@j8cobHey man, long time no see. How are things going in your neck of the woods?

@Raijinslayer

I have crippling depression, work oppressive hours, and my body is slowly failing.

Naruto: Years of Winter - an Alternate Universe

How many New Gen alumni is there, anyway? You guys are like ants.

@Gowi

Too many.

Naruto: Years of Winter - an Alternate Universe

Chikage

The first indicator that something wasn't right was that the explosion sounded too small. Chikage finally turned around, already reaching into her bomb pouch from a crouching position before she got a good grasp of the situation. This was not an assassin but instead was an ally judging by his calm tone and lack of further action. An ally that Chikage just mutilated. She was quick to see that Kishimoto was missing too limbs though she was a bit slower to notice the lack of blood and his use of a crutch. "Kyaaa!!" She let out a horrified scream, bringing her hands up to her face to cover her mouth. "I'm so sorry Lord Hokage! We need t-..." Kishimoto would easily be able to identify the exact moment in time that Chikage realized her misconception about his injuries.

"Wha-... How did..." How could he have escaped the blast in that case with only some damage to his clothes? What happened to the other two bombs? Where did he even come from to sneak up on her like that? Why was he so calm after almost dying to friendly fire? Then Chikage realized that he had reprimanded her for her hasty reaction. Her face grew flush with embarassment as she got down on her hands and knees with her head bowed low to the ground. "Forgive me, sir! I didn't mean to try to kill you! I just thought you were an assassin from another country invading our village..." Her voice began to trail off as she realized that perhaps it was better to not explain her reasoning for attacking him. She didn't remain in her begging pose for long, getting back up to her feet as soon as she finished her apology. And once she was standing upright she finally had a good moment to size up Kishimoto, the Second Hokage.

And he seemed unimpressive. He was missing and an arm and a leg, for starters. He was moving around with a crutch. His clothes were dirty now. He was unshaven. His hair was messy. Overall he looked more like a bum than a shinobi, let alone a former Hokage. Chikage hadn't seen him in person in years and he looked way different than he did in her memories. She remembered him being taller, more handsome, having an authoritative aura about him. In his present state he looked like he could trip on a rock and take five minutes getting back up. "Uh..." Now Chikage was stuck alone with a washed-up Hokage that she just previously tried to kill. It was already awkward and she wasn't making the situation any better by staring at him. Thankfully she was saved by the arrival of her other two teammates. She had never met these two boys before, or at least she had no memory of them. They seemed about her age so perhaps they had classes together. Wait, of course we haven't met. I graduated years ago. Duh.

At Kishimoto's offer to sit, Chikage followed the team over to the little tea party he had set up. She couldn't recall ever having tea but it would seem rude to decline the kindness of a man she almost blew into tiny pieces. To that end she took a seat and one of the cups of tea, holding it in both hands. Since Kishi wanted to have everyone introduce themselves Chikage felt pressured into going first. She wasn't nervous about introducing herself or anything but still felt guilty for bombing a crippled man. "Well I'll start then," she began. "You can call me Yoshitaka, Chikage. I've been a genin for almost four years and I specialize in blowing things up. _{I guess I'm not that great at it considering Lord Hokage survived...} but that isn't important." After her mouthful she took a quick sip of the hot tea, immediately scalding her tongue and making her regret her decision. After spitting a few times to ease her pain, or at least trick herself into thinking it was eased, she finished up her introduction. "I guess it's also a fair warning that I keep enough bombs on me to wipe out a city block, so don't set me on fire or anything like that."

Naruto: Years of Winter - an Alternate Universe

Chikage

Today was one of the "boring" days. The kind of day where Chikage had been asked kindly by her grandfather to clean his store. Of course she always had the option to turn him down, such as when she had more important things to do. But it was to her misfortune that there were no excuses today. She had just trained yesterday and she restocked her bombs the day before. She knew she was being assigned to a new team soon but couldn't bring herself to lie to her grandfather about that day being today. So instead the kunoichi found herself doing menial labor in maintaining an old toy shop. With a white rag in one hand and a bottle of liquid soap in the other, Chikage was presently washing the storefront windows and the glass entrance.

"The windows out front are dirty he says..." she grumbled to herself as she continued to scrub the glass storefront. "There weren't any spots on them... but sure, they're dirty. So I clean them... to make them even more clean than they already were..." The young girl continued mumbling to herself as she continued, keeping her voice low enough to prevent any passerby from hearing her complaints and thinking less of her for being so weird. Not that her intention was to avoid looking weird, as she would just stop talking to herself if that was the case. She just mumbled quietly by nature. "What if the village was suddenly under attack and I was sitting out here without my bombs? I bet Grandpa would wish he didn't have me cleaning the store..."

That was when Chikage heard the sound of somebody landing right behind her. Obviously a shinobi, as normal people don't fall out of the sky. In an excited reflex she spun around, throwing the wet rag towards the face of her assassin and moving her hand to her bomb pouch in the same motion. Only now that she was fully facing the intruder it was apparent that it was another Konoha shinobi, now mildly annoyed by her overreaction. The rag clearly hit him in the face but he didn't bother to catch it before it fell to the ground. "Oh, my bad. I thought you were a foreigner attacking the village..." Chikage explained herself quickly, hoping that he wouldn't inquire why she would think that and really hoping she wouldn't be punished for it. "What? Never mind that. Lord Kishimoto wants you to meet him at the lake on Training Field 4."

Chikage removed her hand from her bomb pouch and brought it up to her chin. "Kishimoto? What does the Second want with me?" Her immediate thought was that she was going to be in trouble but that made no sense. She hadn't done anything. Yet. "It's a team meeting. You've been assigned to his squad." With that the chunin departed, jumping away as most ninja do and leaving Chikage to interpret the message as she would. "Well, I guess I should go grab my bombs. Oh wait! Duh! Of course I already had them. Stupid Chikage." After smacking herself in the forehead she grabbed the dirty rag on the ground and ran back into the store. Her grandfather wasn't behind the counter like she expected, likely due to there being no customers, so the young girl just left the cleaning materials next to the register and then bolted back outside.

The trip across town to the proper training field was expedient for it lacked sufficient distractions. The prospect of being put on a team with the goddamn Hokage seemed exciting in and of itself. Her previous sensei was far more boring and didn't seem to like Chikage's style. At least he always complained about the bombs. Having someone like Kishimoto as a teacher must be incredibly lucky. Surely he was still quite powerful and wise. Maybe he could even teach some forbidden techniques! The blue-haired kunoichi was the first to arrive at the lakeside, immediately disappointed that Kishimoto wasn't there before her. Now she had to sit by herself and wait. Did that guy mention a specific time? I think he did... she thought to herself as she sat on the ground with her back against a tree. She withdrew three bombs from her pouch and began juggling them, occupying herself in this manner until somebody could arrive to free her from the new boredom.