[Open] Well he did make his point...

[silverterror]

Where: Konoha
When: May 25th
Notes: After he leaves Adela's section of the auction.

Sephiroth knew people were following him after he left. After all, he'd made quite the spectacle of himself. So he slowed his steps, and wove his way throught he allowed parts of the village for visitors... and waited to see who caught up to him first.

Comments

[not_thedragon]

Sasuke had nearly lost sight of the man for a few turns, the crowd out for the festival far too jubilant and -- crowded for his liking, but at least that silver hair and sword stood out. Only a few minutes after Sephiroth slowed his own pace, Sasuke drew level with him, frown in full force.

"You're the one they call the Silver Terror," he said, without bothering with introductions. "Why were you bidding on that girl?"

[silverterror]

He turned his head, coming to a halt as he regarded the teen, looking him over in a careful evaluation. "And who is it that asks?"

[not_thedragon]

"A friend," he snapped without hesitation, hands held loosely at his sides -- ready to attack or defend at a moment's notice. It was tempting to seek the Sharingan's clarity of vision, too, but within the village there was no point inviting combat by issuing so obvious a challenge as activating the Sharingan.

[silverterror]

He hummed lowly, feline eyes staring at the boy for a long moment. "Not a good enough reason for me to actually answer. You won, why quibble?"

[not_thedragon]

"I asked you a question first," Sasuke returned, eyes narrowing. Even standing in the open, there was palpable danger in those eyes. No one would attempt something so bold and stupid as attacking in the middle of a crowded shinobi village, but still ... "Why were you bidding on that girl?"

[abileunaspada]

It had been a few hours since the auction had ended, and... She couldn't stop thinking about it. It had been dizzying, trying to work her way through explanations over the whole occurrence before she managed to get away. That was when, in town, she saw him again.

Instinctively her feet carried her swiftly towards him, expecting him to turn to her as she came closer. Even if he hadn't, she'd slow to a leisurely pace beside him, clearing her throat pointedly in order to try and get his attention, "... Hey."

It wasn't much, but it was a start. She... She couldn't just let things sit. She had to know, and she had to say something to him as well - something she hadn't known that needed to be said until almost a year ago.

[silverterror]

He slowed, then finally came to a halt, not looking at her, and instead deliberately making a point to act as though he didn't see her at all. Still, he'd paused, and that meant he was listening, for the moment.

[abileunaspada]

A faint part of her knew better than to think he was ignoring her - if he was, he would have continued instead of stopping. That was before she moved to try and force him to meet her eye, softening just a little and almost shy as she spoke quietly, "I wanna take you out to dinner. We... We need to talk, Sephiroth."

It was probably the hardest thing she'd ever done in her life, even harder than trying to survive snake poison or trying to free Ami from that human trafficking ring. Talking to her cousin had always been intimidating, but even more than what had happened on border patrol she felt even more pressured then. What would he even say?

[silverterror]

He was all for ignoring her, not looking at her as he waited for her to state her business and go away. However, what she actually said was really not what he expected, and it snapped his gaze to her. "And you believe that would be at all useful do you?"

[abileunaspada]

"... Depends on if you're gonna listen or not."

[incubi_abel]

Abel waited until Sephiroth was alone, having seen the other silver haired man in conversations with the other two.

Making no attempts to hide his actions, Abel calmly walked over to Sephiroth, stopping just out of sword range and bowed. "As we are both in neutral territory here, may I request a bit of your time to perhaps clarify past actions?"

[silverterror]

He stared at him, eyes dispassionate. His posture said more, still and poised, waiting. "There is little to clarify Nightroad."

[incubi_abel]

"Then perhaps I might wish to speak in the gulf I created when I left," Abel remarked, folding his hands behind his back. "After all, I abandoned you as well as Kiri."

His voice was calm and he was leaving himself open to an attack should Sephiroth wish to draw a blade.

[silverterror]

"To what end mm? You left, you didn't return. I think that says quite enough all on its own." He lifted his chin, voice clipped.

[incubi_abel]

"In a way, I did it to save you as much as myself," Abel remarked. "After all, how long would you have lasted trying to protect both of us on missions? And if I had left a note for you, explaining my actions back then, it would have been much more difficult for you to protest your ignorance of my actions."

[thelittleprincess]

The one Ami was tailing hadn't been Sephiroth; it was a boy about her own age but noticeably bigger. Despite his normal size the boy seemed to be fleeing as if death itself were on his tail, almost reaching Sephiroth before Ami barreled past and snared his ankle with a wire, forcing the boy to faceplant onto the hard road.

And then Ami was upon him.

The beating she gave him was composed of precise, brutal blows that left no room for jutsu. She finished off by popping open the holster on her hip and bringing one wickedly long blade to the wheezing, beaten boy's neck. "Now," she said in soft, conversational tones. "You're never, ever, ever going to do something that monumentally stupid ever again...are you, Takeshi-san?" There was a weak nod, and she released the textbook-perfect bind she had put him in, standing to regard him with disdain.

Then she slammed the heel of her foot right between his legs, and sniffed haughtily. "Good." She continued walking, leaving the boy in a whimpering pile on the roadside behind her, and tried not to freeze up when she realized that she had a witness.

"...............good afternoon," she greeted awkwardly, shuffling a little to the side as if to hide the evidence of her vengeance for being put up for auction.

[silverterror]

He had stopped and blatantly watched the child work. She was effective, and might turn into a formidable enemy, this one, if she held onto that viciousness. He approved of such measures and hadn't believed Konoha had it in their collective whole to produce someone so refreshingly vicious.

"Yes, isn't it?"

[thelittleprincess]

"Well, better now," Ami admitted with the soul-deep satisfaction of having broken somebody who had wronged her like an unfortunate, unruly horse coloring her tone, before she remembered that she was supposed to seem repentant around adults and she immediately blanked her expression.

She had a very innocent face, and the lace and bows usually helped mitigate any hint of just how threatening she was. It might have worked this time too, if stupid Takeshi hadn't started to crawl away, still hiccuping in pain from her last low blow. She strove for innocence all the same; he was a foreigner, he might buy it just long enough not to tell anybody. "But...yes, very nice. Very...peaceful!"

Conversation, she could do it. Probably.

[silverterror]

He actually laughed, a low, pleased sound as he looked to the boy attempting to save himself. "Your quarry doesn't quite seem... finished. You might wish to deal with that."

He glanced back to the girl, examining her with thoughtful interest.

[thelittleprincess]

"No, he's going to serve as a warning to the other two fools on his team so I don't have to waste the rest of my day tracking them down." She snapped her mouth shut, chagrin flashing across her face before she really registered the surprisingly positive response. A pair of large, deep green eyes narrowed up at him suspiciously.

"You...aren't going to say I shouldn't attack my own 'allies' or that I should have tried to talk it out?" she wanted to know. That was how the teachers at the Academy had reacted.

[gentledheart]

Hinata hadn't actually been looking for Sephiroth. Sure she'd seen the byplay at the auction and been curious, but she wasn't going to hunt down the silver-haired man that bid on Adela. The way the bidding had gone to keep him from winning, she figured it would be better to give him a wide-berth.

As irony would have it though, she wouldn't entirely escape the post-auction crowds or the mystery man. Several people converged at once and knocked her into him before she could adjust her path out of crossing with other people and causing a major bottleneck in the street.

When she found her balance again she pulled away and tilted her head back to offer him an apologetic smile. "Sorry about that, usually that doesn't happen."

[silverterror]

His hand had darted out without hesitation to keep her from holding contact overly long, curling gloved fingers over her shoulder as he turned his head, staring down at her with sharp, feline shaped green eyes. "No?"

[gentledheart]

"No." She steps back shrugging off his hand, no need to let the contact linger now that she was steady. "At least in the sense that I don't make it a habit to get knocked into people on the regular basis." She flips a swath of her hair back over her shoulder but otherwise outwardly unperturbed.

[silverterror]

He ran his gaze over her, then scoffed softly, letting his hand drop to his side. "It would not be the first time in my life someone had used such a tactic in my presence. Genuine clumsiness is rarely the reason."

[gentledheart]

She made a face. This time really was the result of genuine clumsiness. She didn't have much of a reason to get personal and honestly she'd be more stealthy if she did. "If that was really the goal do you think I'd be so obvious about it?"