As he hammered away, a voice rang familiar in the white-haired man's ear. It was that of the one who could be called his ward, who, judging by her actions upon arrival, had come to craft something. "Konbanwa. I meant to be finished, but I got caught up on my own end of the events earlier. Oh, and then Mariketa came back. She tried to have at me. Go figure, all I wanted was to fix Okuyasu-jii's scythe. So, that's my day. What's life been like for you?"
Aiko smiled as she was greeted and by the time she'd started warming up small pieces of metal the man known has Youko had given her a run down of his day, which included an apparent run in with the Kazekage's younger sister, among the other things which were happening in the village. "Oh? Mari-nee? That's different, you don't sound too happy though. Your day sounds a bit too busy considering what you wanted to do." She commented while turning a small piece of metal over in the fires. After a few more seconds eyes keenly watching she decided how to phrase what happened with her day. "Eh, I was playing with Haku-chan earlier when everything started. We noticed the start of the craziness when several people surrounded us, so I decided to get captured so he could get some experience fighting in a good situation. That went well, Onee-chan appeared, so we got to play targets. Haku-chan used the water dragon jutsu, but it took him a while to make it... too many hand seals. And I killed a guy who had a kusarigama, and it looks like you made it. I kept that by the way." the young woman said as she took out the piece of metal and began hammering it into the triangular shape she was going for. "Also that guy I killed mentioned strawberries in reference to our clan. He apparently thought I'd be weak without a guy with me and I got no idea what the hell that means, so... yeah... fill me in on that, in a second." she said turning the small piece of metal. This looked to be a Kunai about 25 percent smaller than ones meant for adult hands. "Oh, and then we went with Onee-chan to the Elder Council and I beheaded the coward Toda, Haku-chan technically beheaded Yagi, and Onee-chan went a bit dark and killed Usui. I then took Haku-chan out for ice cream, he left without me." she summarized her day while finishing up the shape for this small kunai then she began more finely tuning the shape. This had been the young girl's day for the most part, and even given the events it was mostly normal.
"I heard you had an encounter with the person that got that one. I was saying earlier that I wish I had made that kusarigama a bit better. I would have, had I known you would end up with it on a trophy wall." While hammering his scythe to shape, Youko glanced in the direction of Aiko's work. "A bit small, isn't it?" he asked. When the girl mentioned Strawberries, a reference made by one who apparently encountered some of their clansmen in the past, Youko took pause. This was a strange thing to note, and something Youko hadn't seen in full form for quite some years. "Strawberry Moon. It's a rare form of Oborozuki that requires a link between two people for its power to show. For someone to think that's the root of our Kekkei Genkai, the country must be ruled by them now... or it was recently."
"Iie, it's fine. It's actually been quite a while since I've seen one~ It's nice. I picked out a really good spot for it." The young girl said of the most recent trophy she'd taken. She had nothing bad to say about it's craft, and at present she didn't think she would have done a better job of it. Beside that, it was simply a memory for her, something to help her remember in the future this day she'd won. Moving right along there was a comment on the size of her work, there was a deep bit of concentration in the girl, and as such she didn't immediately respond to that bit. Instead she perfected the size she intended before quenching the piece and moving on to make another of identical size. As she punched out this one as well, she heard about the Strawberry Moon which was apparently rare and likely belonged to whoever was in charge of their clan presently. "Sou ka, that makes a great deal of sense." she said then she remember. "Oh and they are small, but I am doing it on purpose. Haku-chan wants to be a ninja, I remember being small, and finding weapons to be clumsy until they were made for me. I figured I'd cut him a bit of slack, it'll make him a good present... and a couple of other things to help him out. He's way smaller than I was when I was his age..." she said. The girl was uncommonly kind, and often found herself looking out for the child of Youko and Benihime. She'd in fact been a major caretaker of the lad when she was younger and it'd helped her get over her own trauma a bit. She was in all actuality just as invested in his developments as his parents.
"Well, as long as you're satisfied with it. I guess it'd be pointless to try and sneak in a better version while you're not looking, huh?" he asked, mostly in rhetoric. Apparently, the smaller size of the kunai Aiko crafted was something she'd done on purpose, intending them to be given to the young male of their clan. This was understandable, and let him continue to believe in the girl's craftsmanship. "That's a relief. Here I thought you were losing your touch. That's very thoughtful of you, though... but I guess you've always been that way. Must be nice to be so empathetic." As he shared these words with the lass, Youko quenched his own iron, and moved toward where he'd placed the original scythe of Okuyasu to retrieve its handle. As he had no other wood of such size to spare at the moment, he figured the old man would simply have to deal with it. After all, the original intention was only to make repairs.
The white haired girl would scoff just a little, even rhetorically the question was completely unnecessary. "Nope, would drive me crazy. It isn't a decoration piece someone actually tried to kill me with that one. I actually clashed against that one. I actually won against that one, not that I ever doubted that would happen in the first place." She said, giving reason to why she collected these trophies off people she killed, aside from being a smith's apprentice and simply having always enjoyed bladed weapons.
Moving right along, it seemed that Youko had thought she'd initially lost her touch, making such small weapons, but when she cleared up her reasoning seemed to find it to be solid enough. Even going on to comment about how thoughtful the idea was and a commentary on the amount of empathy shown in it. While she finished up the second of some dozen or so kunai she intended to make at this reduced size for Hakudoshi she laughed at his words, and chided him. "Right? I thought it was pretty good, I've been thinking about it all afternoon, and thinking about other things to hide it from him. I shall see if it works later..." she responded first to the commentary about her work, the last bit though, she found odd so she responded to it as well. "Empathy is learned Onii-sama, and it is something I learned from you." She stated as she continued her work making another of these having found her groove. Her statements about this true, Youko was by far the nicest adult she'd met in her life. And since she'd known him, he'd shown her nothing but kindness and empathy, it had to rub off somewhere. "So, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself, everyone has bad days after all." She mentioned, making an assumption given what he'd said about his rather chaotic day.
"Calm down; I'm not plotting to swap it with another or anything. I mean... I thought about it, but I wouldn't actually do it. I'm just saying, it would be nice if these mercenaries stated that they were going to fight you when they had weapon orders made at my forge. It's almost rude otherwise." All jokes aside, Youko thought Aiko's trophy collection was a solid idea, and one befitting of one who followed the way of the sword. It was apparently thought by Aiko that this empathy of hers was inherited from him. This was something he couldn't quite agree with in his present state, but to each their own, he figured. "Try bad year so far. I haven't been very good at seeing things from other people's perspectives lately. Maybe I'll have to relearn that from you."
A smile was on the girl's face as Youko joked, and clarified about his intentions with her trophy collection. "Oh yes, because it's totally a thing for people to tell the smith who they plan to attack with the weapons they have made~" she mentioned sarcastically. A bit of a snicker would come from the lass as she reached the half way mark in her dozen, and took to addressing her calmness in this situation. "Hai hai~ I'm just making sure you don't ever have the idea again." she said in her final jest. As she worked it seemed that Youko didn't necessarily think that he was seeing things from other people's perspectives lately. And he even went so far as to class himself as having a bad year so far, as such, she couldn't help but chuckle at him again. A mock bit of excitement coming to her face as he stated he might need to relearn his empathy from her. "Oh? I don't get many teaching moments! I'll be a stellar example, make sure you take notes!" she joked as she got down to work, she wanted to finish this set before she went to bed, would devote a great deal of her attention to it, even while chatting with the man who'd taken her in as a young teen.
"I'll be sure to do that. All I ask is for short lectures. I can't be bothered to sit in class for any more than half an hour," he said to continue the apparent joke going between the two. These two had always seemed to have a very casual/relaxed relationship with one another, sometimes akin to parent and child, but most times akin to close siblings. A situation such as this one was certainly the latter among their interaction. Since Aiko was halfway done with a standard set of kunai, Youko figured he'd step aside and leave her access to tools he would otherwise make use of.
"Grindstone's yours. If one of us should get any sleep tonight, it should be you, so use all the equipment you need first," he said, choosing to post up against the forge with crossed arms. "Besides..." he trailed off, yawning between his words. "It's always fun to watch you work. You seem so focused."
Aiko kept working and joking with Youko, soon enough finishing the actual creation of a dozen small kunai, while Youko joked that he wanted short lectures only. A laugh would escape the girl but her concentration would be rather high. She couldn't help but notice by the time she was finished that the older male of her sort of sibling sort of parent relationship, seemed to have stepped aside to give her free range of the tools she would need to clean up the set of weapons she was creating. His commentary about her potential sleeping made her laugh all the more. "Oh? Really? Me sleeping? We aren't going to go into why that isn't really a thing and ya' know it. You're yawning, you should be the one sleeping..." she mentioned as she moved the set of a dozen over to the grind stone and began work on the first one. The wheel spinning at maximum speed as she began grinding the first down bit by bit and making it perfect and sharp to boot. "You'll end up sleep where you stand. But somehow I feel like arguing with you about this isn't gonna work out." She stated plainly. Her eyes were focused and her fingers perfectly placed to avoid accidental injury. "Also if I looks like I am focusing it's because I am, not all of us have decades of practice in you know~"
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