Coming back from the Chuunin exams (Flash Back)

Lokian didn't remember a cloudless day for a long time in his home village. His wounds were still tender hell the deeper ones were still healing and after all that work all that pain that he went through in spite of the fight that he went through he still wasn't promoted to Chuunin. It just wasn't his time apparently. With all that out of the way it was still a great feeling to be home.

Lokian had bandages that had red streaks of blood were oozing through from the deeper wounds. His shoulder and upper arm both were deep and two on his lower back were too but the lower back was covered by a fresh shirt and vest. The Crow glided at the same pace as what Lokian was walking and kept a weather out cawing every once in a while as the pair passed through the gates.

Yuan just fresh out of another round of special medical training, decides to take a break and hang out at the cafe near the gates. With all of this time spent training and practicing lately, Yuan feels full content without guilt some nice free time to lounge around and relax. As Yuan steps up to the counter he orders some ramen and looks outwards to the village gates. He tries hard to remember why they wanted him to be put into the medical training this fast and without any sort of pacing. Are the village elders anticipating some sort of large influx of injured people? Yuan would get his answer moments later as he notices a large amount of cloud ninja arriving through the gates. Every single one of them is injured in some sort of way. Most of the ninja head to the medical spire right away, but on of them takes a seat to Yuan and orders some meat. This man has kumo insignia but he doesnt look like a single kumo ninja that hes ever seen, as hes inspecting the man his eyes are drawn to all of the scars and wounds that this man has right now. "caw" A noise snaps Yuan out of his inspection as a black crow hovers infront of his face. Yuan leans back and says to the man "What the reason behind all of the injured ninja entering the village right now?"

Taking a seat with a large bowl of barbiqued meat in front of him Lokian began to eat. Mongolian beef with teriyaki and red chilli was the flavor and the entire experience made Lokian smile. The Crow circled and began to descend cawing and squawking scaring off the pidgins Lokian chuckled at the noisy creature. Looking up he saw a young man sitting near to him at another table.

"Good afternoon." Rather it was after noon or not didn't really come into the equation for Lokian it was just a nice day. The crow finally landed on Lokians shoulder making him wince; smiling and looking at The Crow he instructed "Not there not for a while." The crow cawed and flapped on the table hopped toward Yuan gave a kind of an open winged bow and gave a cawing mimicking "aahhh lo"

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"What the reason behind all of the injured ninja entering the village right now?"

Leaning closer to the young man Lokian explained what he knew "Well some of us are just coming back from the Chuunin exams and I gotta say there was a lot of talent there" Lokian rubbed one of the bandaged wounds on his arm before continuing "Others are coming back from protecting caravans and other long term and long range missions. Mostly C ranked duties but you never know what will come up three hundred yards past the gates."

The cook puts the ramen infront of Yuan as he snaps out of his trance of wound examination. He immediately starts taking big mouthfuls. Yuan stops and places his chopsticks on the table. "So, my assumption was correct, the elders expected a large influx of injured from the returning caravans and the chunnin exams. I notice though that you didn't head straight for the medical spire, even though these wounds that you have are pretty severe, but hey your crow looks fine" as Yuan pets the crow's head. While motioning towards the village spire "After we finish up here if you want we can head to my personal medical office and we can get you patched up, so you wont have to fill out any of that god awful paperwork, and it will be on the house." Yuan pushes his bowl aside, jumps out his seat and places his hands back into his pocket. "ready whenever you are."

Lokian smiled and shook his head and dismissed the offer "They sewed me up back in Kona, I'll takk you up on some fresh bandages over the stitches though." The Crow obvously enjoying the petting hopped forward and cawed at Yuan "treat" Lokian chuckled and told The Crow "behave" the crow hopped back nearer to Lokian and stole a piece of meat from the beef bowl he was eating. "Than after the fresh bandages maybe you know a good weapons dealer or we can check out the caravan coming in."

He was healing up that wasn't a problem but the fact was until the wounds healed some more some blood would escape through the stitches and besides he had his fill of doctors offices recently. "My weapon got destroyed during the exams." He explained as he ate some more of the barbeque beef. He took his time that was defiantly one trait that he had was patience.

Yuan breathes a sigh of relief as he just came from the medical spire and did not really want to go directly back to working. He lowers his shoulders and takes a deep breath "I can still change those bandages if you want," Yuan says while pulling out his first aid kit from his backpack. He removes a roll of fresh bandages and sets it in his pockets for later."But if you really want to replace your weapon right now we can. I dont buy weapons often but I am pretty sure i can get a good hook up on something for you. My mom is a well known and respected diplomat in the village, I really dont like relying on her position but it really comes in handy at times when i really need something or someone needs a favor." Yuan takes a seat again and turns back towards the gates. "Since we are not in a rush, feel free to take your time."

Lokain turned to where the young doctor could change out the bandages on his shoulder and arm. "You ever meet one of those people that you know is a bad idea to leave standing but you do any way?" While the young doctor worked on his shoulder Lokian continued eating his teiyaki beef. The Crow growing bored with watching Yuan work decided to take a flight around the block chasing off sparrows and pidgins and having him self a good time.

When the doctor was don Lokian had finally finished the food and stood up. At exactly two meters (6'6) he towered over most of the rest of the village. A caravan was coming in and was setting up their bazaars and shops to sell their goods. Acrobats and entertainers were trying to get people attention as well as the shop keepers.

Yuan starts to unwrap the bandages and now has a good look at the stitches. They are done by the book and cleanly. This is a good thing since Yuan didnt have any time to see how Konoha medics treat people. Yuan turns back to his kit and pulls out some gauss and wipes the blood coming from the stitches and places both the bandages and gauss in a zip lock bag to be disposed of properly later. Yuan pulls from his bandage roll and he starts taping the man up.

Lokian wrote:

"You ever meet one of those people that you know is a bad idea to leave standing but you do any way?"

Yuan takes a second to think about this. "Actually yes i have, it happened on the way back to Kumo with my mother. Its something that you just do, its not instinct to kill another man its a learned trait, if you mean it that way. If you mean if its a bad idea to leave a man standing out in the cold or abandoning them, at that point it could be of the lack of your resources to help them." Yuan explains this as he watches the crow circle around the area. He finishes wrapping the bandages and puts his kit back in his pack. When Yuan turns back around he sees that the man has stood up and has taken an interest in the caravan thats setting up in the market. "Alright thats our next stop," yuan says as his hands kind their way back into his pocket.

Stopping at a near by open tented shop Lokian began to look over polished rocks and other nicknacks as he haggled with the shop keeper after a few moments of haggling Lokian just laughed and shook his head before moving on to another booth.

"Yeah I met that mistake in my last fight at the Chuunin exams." Lokian was relaxed and made another haggle, he wasn't buying any thing he was just having some fun with the shop keepers keeping them sharp. Here and there he watched a pair of kunai jugglers do their thing than a few fire eaters.

Finally they reached the area that Lokian was actually interested in the weapon sellers. Every where there were implements of death and destruction swords, knives, kunai, spears, shurkens, for every where around the five nations and beyond. Lokian began examining the equipment here and there testing the balance of a kunai and looking at the swords testing their weight.

Yuan Yawning as he followed the man around the shops set up by the caravan and its various organizations. They stop at many non weapon shops while he chats up the owner of each booth. Yuan likes this man's style. There is always a time to have fun when not on a mission and it looked like he knows how to joke around in his spare time too. Yuan looks back at the sky and sees that little crow floating about. That crow is just something else and it seems to be fully trained, it must a pretty good companion for his travels. Yuan is snapped back to whats going on when Lokian asks

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"Yeah I met that mistake in my last fight at the Chuunin exams."

"How so" Yuan asks as they starting getting to the weapon booths. Yuan wasn't really interested in weapons. He had always used his fists when it came to a fight cause it always seemed fair.

Lokian looked up at Yuan and replied, "oh a couple years ago i beat a guy half to death before leaving him in a pile of flesh." Pausing a moment "in all honesty the guy deserved to take a beating like that but he wound up spending the rest of his life getting to where he could try and kill me. " Lokian shrugged it was part of the life every one in the Shinobi world lived. You do something of principle and you are going to make enemies it was as plane as that.

Picking up a spear head Lokian hefted it in his hand and than looked at the shop keeper and asked "Do you have a mirror?" The shop keeper looked at him kind of funny, smiled and held up a mirror. Rubbing his chin a moment Lokian began to dry shave his raven black beard into more of a goatee. "This is how you can tell if a blade is truly sharp or not." Handing the spear head Lokian began to haggle of the price for the spear head.

Yuan sighs again and shrugs his shoulders. "This world is still a mystery to me. You can show a man mercy and let him live another day but what will he spend those days you have given him doing? He will sit back, buy his time and train. Train till he is strong enough to come back and try and kill you. Is that how a man should spend his days that were given to him? That is why i don't like this ninja world but it is what it is. Thats why when they pulled me aside for medical training I started to get right to work on it. I want to prevent all of these useless, unnecessary deaths" Yuan finally snaps out of his rant and looks back to the man as he has picked out a spear and checks its sharpness by cutting his beard with it. Yuan whistles approvingly as that spear cleanly cuts through. The man starts haggling for the spear as he can tell its a good weapon. "looks like you dont need my help after all."

Lokian shook his head "never said I needed your help. Just don't like wandering alone it's boring." He smiled as he he paid for the spear head and than looked at the different stave's which would fit into the spear head.One staff was made of a strange smelling wood and when he gripped it the staff crackled with lightning.

Feeling almost giddy Lokian handed it to Yuan "Hey check this out. It almost feels like the staff is pulling on my chakra."

The staff was over seven feet long and tapered at one end to fit the spear head. The staff was heavier than a rattan bo but balanced out well though at the moment it felt heavier toward the back end than it did at the front. Lokian asked about the price of the staff and was almost taken aback at the arm and the leg it would cost. Looking over to Yuan "though a word or two in my favor wouldn't hurt either." Lokian smiled it was true Lokian never did ask for financial help but if he could get a great deal on a good piece of equipment he would.

"Ah" Yuan says as he gazes off to the street performers on the side of the street, "I'm also a guy who enjoys a great conversation and a companion" Yuan has deviated from his usual speech since he feels that he will not get he proper respect from the man if he speaks in his rhymes. Yuan turns back when he sees the staff start crackling with electricity. "This staff must be made with senju wood. Its a wood that can conduct your chakra element through it. The man tries to barter with the salesman but he wont budge. The man then asks

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"though a word or two in my favor wouldn't hurt either."

"It wouldnt would it? Yuan says with a smirk on his face. Yuan steps up to the salesman and pulls out a diplomat id card and says "do you think you could lower the price on this staff a bit for my friend here and ill see if i can get your caravan an easier time at the gates?" The man give Yuan a slight nod and comes 30% off of the staffs price. "is this good enough for you? Yuan turns to the man and says

Lokian nodded "I think I should be able to swing that. It'd still use up most of my savings but hey you only live once right." He smiled and handed over the cash and the spear shaft to the shop keeper.

The shop keeper happy with the transaction threw the spear head into a forge and began to run a bellows heating it up to beyond hot. Going from hot enough to burn skin to hot enough to make refined steel glow to way past the melting point of steel to the point where the spear head was white hot and glowing. The spear head he had bought was not made of steel but something much much stronger.

As soon as the spear head was sufficiently hot enough the shop keeper pulled it out of the forge and fitted it to the spear shaft and quenched the spear head. The entire weapon hissed and howled as it cooled and shrank tight to the spear shaft. As soon as the spear was cool the spear was finished by some rivets made by the same material as the spear head.


Looking over to Yuan Lokain said "Thank you, I appreciate the help. By the way I am Lokian Grod." He offered his hand in greeting.

"That you do," Yuan says as he lets out a nice laugh. "But hey, you can always make that money back through doing some missions." The store owner then takes the staff and start attaching the spear head onto it. The owner then starts going to work. The air around the shop starts crackling with the fire of a forge and the pounding of metal on metal. Yuan and the main turn away back towards the street and make small talk as the shop owner pounds away at his task at hand. Yuan's eyes and attention are being constantly switched between the sky and looking for the crow and the street performers and magicians that are preforming on the street. Small talking aside, the shop owner finishes his task at hand and lets Yuan and the man know.

The man turns towards Yuan and stretches out his hand and says

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"Thank you, I appreciate the help. By the way I am Lokian Grod."

Yuan shakes his hand, "I'm Yuan Mibu-Hyuuga, and no problem i wasnt doing anything anway."

Lokians grip was a firm one and perhaps a hand shake Yuan never had before. Rather than the general hand grip Lokian gripped Yuans fore arm. "You know I just had an idea. Because my particular skill set leads me to be injured quite frequently. To be really effective I could use some back up with your skill set." He cantered his head from side to side "if nothing else it's worth thinking about. With your help we can take on more challenging missions and reap the higher rewards."

As Lokian let Yuan mull over the proposition he began to browse through the various defensive armors and shields and choose one it was probably the largest and heaviest shield on the table. It was big enough to protect Lokians large torso and upper part of his legs. Lokian laughed and asked and more or less stated "Not very ninja-ish huh?" he chuckled as he hefted the weight wincing a bit from some pain in his shield arm.

Yuan surprised by the forearm shake, changes arm position and adjusts to it. then Lokian says

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"You know I just had an idea. Because my particular skill set leads me to be injured quite frequently. To be really effective I could use some back up with your skill set.if nothing else it's worth thinking about. With your help we can take on more challenging missions and reap the higher rewards."

"I dont really have a problem with that at all. If you ever need some medical assistance find me and i will heal you if need be. I dont have a squad right now so if you want to team up, i'm down for it. The greeting gestures out the way Lokian turns back to looking at defensive gear while yuan decides to take off his headband and reveal his pure white eyes and takes a good look back out at the street. Yuan rarely likes to do this but since it was a nice day raises the headband to his forehead. Yuan turns back to what Lokian is doing as he hears a loud metal clunk. Lokian had picked out a shield and said

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"Not very ninja-ish huh?"

They both chuckle as lokian's arm drops a bit from the pain. "Do you need me to heal that arm?" Yuan ask as Lokian lowers the shield

Lokian shook his head to the negative "Naa, it's not like my arm is going to fall off. In fact if I work it right now by the time I am all healed my shield arm would get used to the weight and I'll be able to swing the shield that much faster."

Chuckling Lokian continued "But if my arm does fall off you'll be the first person I'll see." It was a mild joke but should any thing actually go wrong in his training Lokian would find his new friend.

The spear had finally finished cooling and the hardened titanium tip shined a burnished almost blackened color. Paying for the shield and calling his Crow Lokian turned back to Yuan and said "well if you ever need some extra fighting power you can probably find me here in the bazaar or near the mission board near the Raikage spire. Thank you for the company and I hate to rush off like this but you know how it goes some times." Lokian smiled he genuinely didn't want to give Yuan the bums rush but he needed to get going and report in to those above him. He gave another forearm gripping hand shake said "You have fine day."

With that Lokian made his way out of the Bazaar.

[exit]

Yuan is a bit surprised from the humor that Lokian possesses, for a man of his size and looks, but hey you dont judge a book by its cover and thats what Yuan learned here today from such a great experience on a nice day. Yuan readjsusts his attention back to whats at hand and tells Lokian "im not worried about your arm falling off, im worried about some one taking it off." Yuan says with a sly grin on his face. "But yeah if you ever need anything you can probably find me around main street, the training field, or the medical spire ,But make sure to drop by before it gets that bad, okay? Oh and before you go." Yuan throws some bird seed at Lokian who catches it. "Its beef flavored, for your crow." Yuan waves goodbye to Lokian as he walks off. "well back to what i do, relaxing and taking a snooze." Yuan readjusts his headband back over his eyes and starts walking in the direction of his house, Yawning with hands in pocket.

[Exit]