[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

[silverterror]

"When I was a new Jounin I had similar difficulties. I promise you they will only fade when you begin to carry an aura that implies that you can kill them without trying." He shook his head slightly. "And even then some wn't grasp the point."

[thelittleprincess]

"I don't think we're supposed to do that until we start taking assassination missions," Ami said thoughtfully. "Because people think of us as the nice ninja village, or something." Her teachers hadn't technically realized she was listening, but they had said something along those lines. "But that goes back to the 'inescapable idiots' thing, doesn't it?"

[silverterror]

"Konoha has a reputation for catering to the more subtly destructive madnesses among its shinobi when compared to the other villages. They're not nicer unless one means to clientele." He made a noise of dismissal at that concept.

[thelittleprincess]

"...are there any other ways for shinobi to be nice professionally?" She had meant towards the clients, originally. Ninja were fundamentally men and women who stole, lied, spied, seduced and killed as the situation called for it, after all.

[silverterror]

He considered that for a moment. "Be subtle. If you're threatening enough while seeming obliviously innocent they'll usually be wary and do as told."

[thelittleprincess]

Ami turned the advice over in her mind for a moment, before nodding firmly. "If I modify some of the stuff they taught us during kunoichi course, I can probably work something like that out." People were always so reluctant to believe a tiny toll of a girl was actually a real shinobi to begin with.

[silverterror]

"Yes... I found out quickly that playing into the expectation of being guileless worked in my favor before I filled out." He gave a scoff. "Though you won't have the misfortune of having to rework everything come puberty. Clients are always biased against women."

[thelittleprincess]

"...I won't grow," Ami said, spreading the fingers of one hand and studying them with a critical frown. "Or at least, not as much as my classmates will. I was born prematurely." And she couldn't bulk up or scar herself to look older without looking grotesque and voiding the innocent facade he had just advised her to capitalize on.

[silverterror]

"I fail to see what that has to do with anything." It was a simple, blunt statement.

[thelittleprincess]

"My reach is shorter. I'm quick, but being nimble isn't always enough." She hid a scowl behind her collar, reminiscing. "...against people not too much taller than me, I can hold my own, but an adult is...very different."

[silverterror]

"I meant what you being premature has to do with anything." The look he gave her was rather displeased that she failed to grasp his statement.

[thelittleprincess]

"You made 'filling out' sound like a bad thing," she explained to him, giving him a similarly cross look for similar reasons. "And it has more tactical advantages than keeping a baby face."

[silverterror]

"I went from something with your general status and problems to this." He indicated himself, looking irritated. "It was a problem at the time."

[thelittleprincess]

"Transitionally, that had to be very frustrating." Ami agreed, because that seemed rather obvious. "But the current you versus the previous you has more physical advantages, yes?"

[silverterror]

"Quite. It's also very removed from any birth circumstances." He gave her a pointed look at that.

[thelittleprincess]

"Really?" There was no hiding the interest and eagerness that entered her eyes, before it was swiftly and resolutely stamped out. "...ah, but that sort of thing is the type that villages keep to themselves, isn't it?"

[silverterror]

"Hmph. It's just puberty, hardly a personal thing." He shook his head slightly. "Thus hardly a secret."

[thelittleprincess]

"Oh." she had thought, if for a brief moment, that he had been offhandedly referring to some sort of super soldier serum instead, which would have been much more interesting. "Not much to look forward to."

[silverterror]

"More than you probably assume." No, he was just the result of mixing bloodlines that had no business in the same person, that's all.

[thelittleprincess]

"I have yet to see one good example of hormones not being a terrible and tragic affliction." Even Adela's case, moderate as it was, still made her wary.

[silverterror]

"Nor will you, but without them you get no benefits." He shook his head slightly.

[thelittleprincess]

She wrinkled her nose in distaste, but refrained from whining about the unfairness of it all. "...can I ask an unrelated question?" she wanted to know, after a brief bout of hesitation.

[silverterror]

"I might choose not to answer." He was looking at her though.

[thelittleprincess]

That seemed fair. "How...do you keep your hair out of the way when you fight?" She fingered her own lengthy locks in thought. Long hair could be used as a trap to lure an opponent into close quarters, but his was long even for that.

[silverterror]

"Speed." It was a simple point, and he tilted his head, easily shrugging his hair back from his light lean. "Practice."