[Sunagakure] Amakajiba

"It didn't have much to do with my age. I just didn't have much of a Kekkei Genkai to work with, so it was more difficult to produce a way of fighting against my target. Either way, you've earned your marks. Give me just a moment," he said. He was nearly done with the sword he worked on, and once he was finished, he would rise. This was accompanied by the man answering Aiko's query about the very tool he worked on. "This is for Akira, one of Beni's younger siblings. He's a swordsman, and his sister Teruko seems to be a Taijutsu specialist. I have something for each of them. The reason it's weird is the type of material used; it's a chakra demodulator. These two were recently attacked by someone from our clan, and they deserve something for making it out alive. I'm sure you've heard of the Yokujin of our clan."

"I could have used my Kekkei Genkai?!" Aiko was stunned, that would have made the entire ordeal much easier than it had been, but she hadn't been able to figure out if it was cheap so she'd foregone it altogether. Choosing to hunt with only the skills she had a weapon which was all but useless and her use of Yin Chakra. Still there was no real pouting from the young woman, instead she simply crossed her arms over her chest. "Take your time. Not like I am in a rush or anything," the young girl mentioned before changing her focus.

It seemed the Sunagakure was currently hosting a couple of the Kazekage's siblings. A twin pairing who bore the names Akira and Teruko. The former of which was a swordsman which seemed to cause something of a happy gleam in the eyes of the white haired young woman. Before she could properly say anything though, it was mentioned that the pair had apparently come in contact with Yokujin and this of course, made the young woman's eyes widen. "WHAT?! That guy is real?! My dad used to tell me he'd come and gobble me up if I ran off or was unwary. I was scared as hell of that guy, gave me nightmares." she stated, obviously it was a story from her childhood and it was obviously something other clan children were told, even her, though she'd never been part of the island which this clan called home. "The hell I got older and I didn't think he was actually real. Good on them... surviving something like that." she said with a curt nod. Then her eyes got narrow, "So, this Akira person is he good with a sword?" she asked, seemingly innocently.

"You could have tried. It would have only made things ten times harder for you, but that's exactly what I meant. By being fully developed with something, you rely on it less, right? By then, you know your limits, and you know how much effort it will take to do what you need." As he spoke, Youko moved to a workbench where he had the other pieces needed to complete this sword. Beside these items, one would see a pair of gloves with half-length fingers edged in the same material used for the sword. With that out of the way, he approached Aiko once more. "Alright. Give me your hands," he said en route to the lass. "The Yokujin is every bit as real as the Kinshuzen, and seemingly much more frightening than the stories we knew as children." Assuming Aiko adhered to his request, Youko would immediately hold out his own arms, claws growing from his nails as a series of one-handed hand seals were formed on the outer sides of Aiko's wrists. This would cause the marks on his own wrists to glow as he continued speaking, now about the lad named Akira. "He looks a bit... unrefined, but he seems to have the same natural edge I saw in you years ago."

"Hm, I suppose that is pretty true," the young girl said as she found herself agreeing that already knowing the limits of her abilities made it much easier not to rely on any one skill too much. Soon enough he was moving the new blade towards the place which held a pair of gloves he'd also been working on and asking for the girl's hands, which she supplied without question only to have the man begin forming hand seals around her wrists and having the markings on his arms begin to glow. As this happened they discussed this apparent sibling of the Kazekage's and an ability he seemed to have in common with the white haired lass. "Oh, you mean the reflexes thing? Really? Might have to chat with him then. I mean... I was going to anyways, but now it seems like it might be fun~" she said as she watched what the man was doing and wondered what was going on, still she was content just to wait and see, as she'd already kind of put together what this would end up doing for her.

"I figured you would. I considered doing the same, but those two had me confused with the Yokujin at first, so I thought it best not to go that route," Youko said as molded chakra encased his claws. Once preparations were complete, the claws on his forefingers were swept horizontally along Aiko's wrists, as if meant to nearly remove her hands. One would find in this moment that the scroll given to the girl earlier this week had been unsealed during the formation of Youko's hand seals. As for his cutting motions, they would indeed pierce the girl's skin, but instead of proper lacerations, glowing markings such as the ones on his own wrists would form. "It's about time you got a haircut," he said nonchalantly, just before using his claws to slice off a large amount of her hair, though not quite enough to leave it as short as it previously was.

Aiko's severed hair would not fall to the ground. Instead, it would be absorbed into the scroll which contained the Kouga clansman's pelt. "Now, let's see. You're not one for the showy ones, huh..." Youko seemed to be doing nothing more than thinking aloud with these words. Moments later, though, he called forth a massive white fur from the scroll, having it all collect into a single palm-sized ball over Aiko's outstretched hands. "That should do. You can change it, if you like."

"Onii-sama, being confused for a raging murderer~ Yep, totally a normal thing~" she said jokingly. She'd herself made a similar assumption about the man when she'd been much younger. She felt like it was some sort of joke the universe decided to play on the kindhearted man, to constantly be mistaken for someone evil. "It's okay, I'll have a peek in a bit and tell ya' all about it," the young girl mentioned, knowing that if she was curious about the new swordsman her elder brother figure would be as well. Soon enough he would seem to be about to cut the young girl's hands off, but she had no fear of this and the man's motions towards her didn't end with the amputation of any limbs and instead left her with a set of glowing slash looking markings on her wrists similar to his own.

"Sou ka, these are kinda weird." she said about the markings but with the fur collected around her, she had an idea about how they worked so she wasn't really concerned. On the commentary about needing a haircut the girl could only smile. "Yeah, yeah... " and though she didn't have to handle it herself, she was quite confused for the reasoning behind this, until of course her own hair was absorbed into the previous seal to create the tuft of white fur which was similar to the one the man could normally be seen carrying. She looked at the small hairball and chuckled. "Sugoi!~ I get one of my own." she seemed abnormally pleased by this, for whatever reason, though she noted she didn't seem to like her own as much as she liked Youko's both as a child and right now. At the idea that she wouldn't wear it as large as he wore his, he was quite correct, though she did immediately try and make it a bit bigger, succeeding in growing it about as large as his was only it seemed to be double tailed this way. "Hehe," a single devious giggle escaped the girl before she returned it to a small little fluff ball, which she attached to the front of her kimono to look a bit like a fastener for the collar at the neck. Apparently happy with this the girl shrugged, "Arigatou gozaimasu, though you could have gone a bit shorter on the hair~" she mentioned as she tossed it around a bit, leaving it quite messy but framing her face in its usual manner.

With this ritual out of the way, Youko returned his nails to their normal state. As he figured, Aiko seemed to prefer her fur in its smaller form. She also seemed to prefer the idea of him cutting her hair shorter than he did, which was a notion that caused the man to laugh. "Well, I figured if you were coming with us to the festival, you might want to do something special with it. I left a bit extra, just in case," he said. With that, he returned to his workbench to apply the guard and hilt to the sword he'd been working on, knowing the next day would be the day they left. Now that he thought about it, he'd yet to mention this to Aiko. "Oh... I don't think I said, but we're going to that festival tomorrow."

"That is awfully considerate of you, Onii-sama~" she said, whether the girl would actually put that sort of effort into her own appearance would be left for the day of the festival. As she prepared to leave she went over to one of prepared katana which seemed to find itself laying around the area, and took it, opting not to go for her own sword just yet, she'd tuck this one into her obi along with the short shirasaya she'd been carrying for the duration of her trip. As she did this, she'd respond to the news that this supposed festival would be taking place the next day, "Tomorrow, huh? I got back just in time then... hai hai, I'll be ready, now I'm going to go say hello, taking this. Ja, Onii-sama," the girl said as she turned to exit.

Not long after a visit to Uzushiogakure's Fire Lily Festival, as well as a stop by Kirigakure, Youko returned to his forge via the Hiraishin technique. He rather quickly went about fueling the flames to begin yet another new project. Whatever this new item was to be, it seemed Youko was reaching for numerous different materials for its creation. "And a bit of this, a bit of that, and... oh yes! Definitely that!"

Shortly after his departure from his wife's presence a crimson flash of light would make the woman appear atop her favored workbench in his forge. Why she was here, would be a bit of a mystery, considering that she'd so recently said she was going back to the Uzushiogakure to sit for the rest of the festival and visit with her family. At the same time she seemed very interested in whatever Youko planned to do, and thus she settled into position and sat rather quietly enjoying watching the man work the way she always did. Her legs were soon drawn up and she sat with them crossed at the ankles in front of her, her right arm resting on her right knee and her face resting in her upturned palm. There was a smile on this little redhead's face as she watched this man work, as he spoke to himself she giggled just a tad and moved her hand to stifle it.