Recent content by Pine

The moment Mizu aimed her cell phone's flashlight, the light bounced back at her, reflecting off of a pair of dark, beady eyes. The figure froze in its place, seemingly transfixed by the cone of light. Not only did her flashlight succeed in having this paralytic effect on the creaturer, but it...

Tetsuo flinched sharply. The sound of Mizu's gasp raked against his senses, registering as louder and higher in pitch than it should have. After sitting for hours with only white noise for company, her gasp and the swish of her sleeping roll's fabric skittered across his sinuses in the form of...

Tetsuo looked over his shoulder to give Katsuro an annoyed glance. There was no point in the two of them staying up. Why was the old goat being stubborn about this? Was he trying to punish him for, what—assuming his duties sooner than he'd been told to? He didn't want to stay up with Katsuro...

Tetsuo gave a short nod of acknowledgment. He doubted that there was really any need to keep watch. A rainforest didn't seem like the kind of place he would expect bandits to stay in, and he assumed that the rain would keep any wild animals from straying too far from their own shelter. However...

Haruki had taken to sitting, his knees drawn up with the rest of his sleeping bag, and he wrapped his arms around to hug his legs. Now, as Mizu asked carefully formulated the words she wanted to say, he idly rocked himself back and forth. When she did ask about his family moving, Haruki...

The delighted, mischievous grin on Haruki's face settled as he did not get the reaction to the end of the story that he had been wanting. He did see Tetsuo jump a little, but while Katsuro and Mizu had seemed attentive, neither of them seemed too freaked out by anything that he had said. Maybe...

Haruki broke out in a grin. “Mine’s a true story too that none of you have probably ever heard.” Any time he had told it to any of his classmates back at the academy, anyway, none of them ever heard it. It made sense, too, because it was one that was very specific to the Land of Lightning. The...

The answer Katsuro gave, the identity of the man at the restaurant, brought a sharp, breathy laugh out of Tetsuo. Without even knowing the state of diplomacy between their villages during whatever time it was Katsuro would've been promoted, he knew it was the kind of fight you did not want to...

It had not been Tetsuo’s intention pay any attention to Haruki’s gossip, especially when it pertained to someone as obnoxious as that Uchiha woman, but just like the alleged ghost story before this, he found himself once again propping himself up on his elbows to hear the story, drawn in by...

The shift in demeanor had gone over the boys' heads. For Tetsuo's part, after he was sure that Haruki wouldn't say anything else to get on his nerves, he allowed himself to space out from the present, let memories of the past take over his thoughts. He was barely tuned into the fireside...

It had been a simple question, one that Tetsuo had expected he would get a simple answer to. He didn't once take his eyes off of Katsuro. He saw the shift in his jounin-sensei's gaze, what had just before been engaged becoming unfocused. It made a greater worry build on top of an already anxious...

Haruki drew in a shallow, excited breath at the news. How many times would he have the chance to meet someone from an actual ghost story that he had heard? And Katsuro had given him a lead on where exactly he could find this man, no less. He wondered at how Teshima wasn't taking on missions...

As Katsuro began his story, Tetsuo thought it now may have rung a dull bell of familiarity. Matsumoto Ridge, at least, he recalled hearing about in his geography lessons. He snorted a little when Katsuro brought up its use for survival training, and the convenient parallel between their squad...

Before Haruki had the chance to be disappointed that Mizu didn't know any ghost stories, Katsuro surprised him by offering his own. He had meant to just have the conversation between him and Mizu, but now when he thought about it, a man as tough as Katsuro was the perfect orator for a ghost...

Haruki perked up when Katsuro agreed not to a break, but for them to stop for the night and set up camp. Other than the moment he returned to Jun with armfuls of the flowers that she wanted, this was the thing he'd been looking forward to the most on this mission. Immediately, a spring returned...