The Naruto RPG

Akaya was flopped down on the futon. The evening was going to be a long one. Already she could hear her relatives in the apartment above walking around. The smells of delicious traditional cooking were wafting down through the vents, bringing doom and hunger to the young teen. Akaya and her twin, Maia, had graduated a week ago and it was their birthdays. So the Kusagakure Uzumaki had assembled for a Happy Graduation/Birthday. Akaya head turned so she could peek at the kimonos spread out on her twin's futon. They would have to get dressed and head up soon.

"Maia-chan I don't want to wear a kimono~" Akaya whined, rolling over to give a her sister the most pathetic expression she could muster. The only thing worse that wearing a kimono was wearing a kimono to a fancy restaurant.

Maia was observing herself in the mirror, envisioning how she was going to look in her brand new kimono that she'd been gifted for her thirteenth birthday party. It was a huge day for both of them, celebrating two incredibly important milestones in life: graduation and entering the teen years. While Maia's twin sulked on the nearby futon, Maia herself was overwhelmed with giddy excitement and girlish nervousness. There were going to be a ton of people at the party, and that meant a ton of interacting, probably mostly with family members. But who knows who else? Besides, perhaps her parents would be there. Her dad had been on a run for quite a while, but surely he'd be back now, right?

Maia turned to Akaya as she heard her whine, and gave her a smile before going and flopping over on the futon next to her. She rolled on her back and looked at the ceiling, kicking her legs. She had laid in this position a million times, but today it felt different. "C'mon Akaya-chan, it'll be fun! It's a big day for us!" Maia knew her sister did not look forward to this kind of fancy party as much as she did, but she couldn't help but be overexcited anyway. "We're really really shinobi now!" She almost squealed from excitement as she said the words.

She jumped up and moved over to her kimono, smoothing it out. "Besides, I'm sure lots of people will be there, and someone there can keep us entertained. Maybe we can play a prank on Ojii-san." She let out a giggle. "Or maybe Chichi will be there too." She said it trying not to sound too hopeful; she had more faith in her parents still than she imagined her sister did, or at least how Akaya acted toward them.

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Akaya looked over her sister. She was on her side of the very clearly divided room, divided not by tape but by the very different way the girls decorated. Akaya's room was strewn with art supplies, arrows she had started to fletch before getting distracted, a few cacti (the only thing Akaya could keep alive), and various knickknacks Akaya had impulse bought. It was in a word, disorganized and cluttered.

Her sister flopping down beside her before rejecting Akaya's plea for mercy. As Maia's voice bordered on squeeing, Akaya dove her head under the pillow.

Restless her sister was moving again, smoothing her kimonoout. Despite Maia's insistence. The party would be nothing but a bother. The only hope was that the food outweighed the conversing (and that Maia hoged all the attention as the
'good' twin).

Her sister's far too hopeful mention of thier father brought a frown to Akaya's face. She rolled out from under her pillow and shot Maia a worried, dubious look. Maia didn't deserve to get let down on her big day. "Maia-chan..." Akaya's doubt was heavy on her tongue. It hadn't even crossed Akaya's mind that their parents might show. But clearly it was something that her sister had been thinking about more than once to bring it up to Akaya. She considered saying as much, but she had little desire to fight with her sister.

Akaya filled her cheeks with air, before letting them out in a huff. "Fine, fine. I won't kick up a fuss anymore. How do I get into one of these again?" She assented, hoping to distract Maia with the promise of playing a dutiful dressup doll for her.

Maia could hear the reservation in her sister's voice when talking about their parents. Maia wasn't going to engage in that conversation at the moment; they had differing opinions about their parents and their frequent absences. Maia didn't want to have to face the reality that her sister saw and feel that sort of disappointment on this day that she was excited for. Akaya didn't seem to want to go into it either, as she stood up and basically offered Maia to play dress up with her. Maia's eyes lit up and she clapped her hand together. "Oh, I'm going to make you look so cute!" She immediately went over to her sister's kimono and picked it up gently. She went over to her sister and held it up so that Akaya could step inside. When she had done so, Maia adjusted the height, and then grabbed the tie belts necessary. "Remember? You have to tie it just like so, and then tie the other one over it like this." She demonstrated the moves slowly as she tied it, her tongue sticking out in concentration. She then picked up the obi and tied it on in a similar fashion, giving it a little flourish at the end. She stood back and admired her handiwork. "Perfect!"

Maia would then move to her kimono and begin the same process, slipping the light pink dress with white flowers over her shoulders and preparin to tie it.

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Akaya tried not to complain as her sister got her ready, playing the dutiful doll as she was tucked into the rigid white kimono. The pink of the flowers that patterned to
kimono Akaya was sure was supposed to bring out the softer shades of red in her hair. Akaya found the effect a little garish on herself and the white washed out her already pale reflection.

I looked like a strawberry... Akaya mused staring at her reflection in bemusement as her sister readed her own outfit.

Of course the pink looked better on Maia, the white flowers lifted the effect. She looked delicate and cute. It was hard to believe either of them where now shinobi. Maia was too cute, and Akaya was too clumsy.

Akaya plopped down on the futon as soon as her sister released her. Almost certainly wrinkling her dress. Her hand palmed against something underneath her pillow. Her lips pulled trying to smile, but Akaya schooled her expression less she give away her surprise.

Popping to her feet to admire her sister's reflection."Hmm I dunno..." She hummed, leaning over her sister's shoulder, draping herself with little dignity over her sister. Before Maia could get too annoyed with her, Akaya added, "I think this would help." She opened her fist to show her sister a flower hair comb. A re-purposed hair comb, pink fabric, and actually paying attention to one unit of their kunoichi classes and Akaya and managed to fashion a hair comb that she didn't feel terrible about presenting.

"Happy birthday-" Akaya grinned impishly at her sister's reflection, "-dork." She added in, unable to be too cutesy without feeling embarrassed.

When Maia finished getting herself ready, she turned to admire her handiwork in the mirror. She made a couple of minor adjustments to her obi, some to her hair, twisting this way and that before finally giving herself a twirl in the mirror. When she was done, she saw her sister's reflection come up behind her and she gave a large smile. Akaya draped over her, almost wrinkling her kimono, to which Maia frowned and was just about to shove her off playfully. Akaya then revealed the flower hair comb and put it into her sister's hair. Maia had never seen the comb before. "Where'd you get this?" She said, putting her hand up to it and delicately feeling the fabric. "It's so pretty! Thank you Akaya!"

Maia giggled at her sister, turning to her and smoothing out her twin's hair so it was just so. "Happy birthday. I'm happy that you're the person I get to have a birthday with." Her voice was soft and sincere. Though, of course, she knew her sister probably wouldn't be one for staying in the mushy moment for too long, so she moved on quickly. She gave her a big, almost tackling hug, shoving her over a little bit. "And this night is gonna be so much fun! My present to you is that I'll come save you from all the annoying relatives and let you escape if you want." She gave her a little wink when she pulled back.

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Akaya's grin turned proud as she watched her sister admire her handiwork. "Made it." Akaya said, boasting a little.

Akaya's grin faltered as Maia turned to her, fussing over her hair, Akaya's pony tail was a little messy though Maia set it to rights. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment at Maia's declaration of sisterly affection. Before Akaya could deflect or make an escape, Maia flung herself onto her. Akaya barely managed to
stay on her feet. Catching her sister, Akaya turned quickly spinning her sister to dispel the force so they didn't go flying onto the futon.

She set her sister back down letting her escape with a far too pleased expression on her face. She promised to keep Akaya out of any unpleasant conversations as her own gift. "You better." Akaya complained but there was no heat in her words.

"Are you ready to go up or did you want to preen?" Akaya teased. "The food might get cold if you check your hair again."

Maia's eyes widened at her sister's admission that she made the hair comb. She felt briefly overwhelmed with love and gratitude for how wonderful her sister was. Of course, she knew such emotion might make her sister uncomfortable. So she moved on quickly into the hug. Akaya then asked if Maia was ready to go, teasing her about fixing her hair. Maia stuck out her tongue at her sister, making a 'nyah' noise. "No, I'm ready. We should get downstairs and see if the party is getting started!" Maia would grab a few last-minute things, just stuff for her clutch that she might use to freshen up later. With one last look in the mirror, she would head out of the door and down the hallway, taking a left to head down some stairs to the main living area in their apartment.

Their aunt Mariko was in the living room, humming to herself as she stacked something in a box on top of another box. She smiled and stood straighter when she saw the twins and the fact that they had gotten ready. "You two look so perfect! Oh my, I can't believe the day is finally here." She went to pull them into a hug, which Maia accepted and grinned. She then continued speaking. "So the party is going to be outside in the main courtyard, and I think they're close to being ready for you two."

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Maia despite insisting that she was ready she took several long seconds to check herself over and grab things around their room. While she waited, Akaya stood in the door way between their shared bedroom and the living room. Across the hall was their parent's room though it was more the room where the girls practiced and learned fuuinjutsu then the room where their parents slept. The door was firmly shut. The main room of the house was cleaner than usual, in preparation for cousins and aunts shoving their way into the girls' apartment early. It hadn't happened, but you never knew.

A sense of an aching desire to stop time or to turn in back filled Akaya. She felt like this was one of the last times she would be in this apartment, a silly thought. And it wasn't as if Akaya didn't welcome change and adventure. She did. She was excited to be done with her boring lessons and finally doing something. But still.

Before the melancholy that was swirling around Akaya could permeate her, her sister was rushing them out of the apartment.

The landing was nosy. Cousins running back and forth, the festive atmosphere driving them to playing in the hallways or flitting back and forth trying to find which apartment they left their things in. Akaya felt no small amount of pity for the residents who were not Uzumaki and were forced to endure this.

Up a creaky pair of metal stairs that wound up the corner of the apartment like a vine, dodge a few younger cousins who were playing with a soccer ball (Akaya caught a ball that had been about to beam her in the head and tossed it back with a huff at their hurried apologies), and they pushed open their aunt's door.

Akaya always had a hard time keeping track of how she was related to each and every Uzumaki. They were a collection of different bands of Uzumaki who had chosen Kusagakure to settle in, and there were a handful of Konohagakure refugees to boot. Aunt Mariko wasn't nearly sad enough to be a Konohagakure refugee but Akaya was unclear if they came from the same band of nomadic Uzumaki.

The twins were yanked into a hug that Akaya was a little slow trying to avoid. Sentimental words were shared and Akaya let Maia do the charming, while Akaya squirmed in discomfort.

Akaya ducked out of the hug as soon as she was able. "Eh, what's in the box, oba-san?" Akaya asked, leaning over the boxes to peer inside.

After being released from the hug and some kind words were said, Maia smiled warmly at her aunt. She wasn't sure if she was her aunt by blood or not, but she was one of the ever-present figures in the twins' lives in lieu of their parents being there regularly. Thus, she'd received the 'oba-chan' moniker less because she was an actual aunt and more because she was a caretaker. "Yes, we're both so excited. I can't wait for the party later!" Maia said, slipping her sister a small wink in an indication that she would take care of the talking. "Are all the preparations ready?" The two would go back and forth on talking about the party for a moment, all its preparations and who was coming, so on and so forth. At one point during their small exchange, Akaya would speak up, looking toward the box that their aunt had brought down.

"Oh! Well, I'm not supposed to show you until later but..." their aunt winked at them and walked over to the box. She opened it ever so slightly to reveal each of the girls' favorite desserts in the box: for Akaya, there was an assorted collection of manju including her favorite flavors, and for Maia there was a healthy stack of dango. Maia gaped for a second, and then squeeled slightly. It wasn't often that they got luxurious desserts, but she supposed that this was a rather special day. "Oh oba-chan, thank you!! Can we have one now?"

Mariko chuckled a second, and the opened the box wider, giving each girl a wink. "Only a small bit, your cousin Tachi prepared these and was going to give them as a gift later. But I suppose a small bite now couldn't hurt." Maia dove hungrily into the box and grabbed a dango, sliding the first small ball into her mouth. As she chewed the decadent sweet treat, she let out a small groan of pleasure. "Mmmm, soooo good."

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With an impish grin, Akaya popped one of her manju out and sunk her teeth in. She relished the sweet taste of chestnut jam. She had acquired two victories. One, getting desert before dinner, and the second, was that now she knew what Tachi's gift to them was and wouldn't he be surprised when she guessed correctly?

As little as Akaya wanted to do all this socializing, now that she had agreed to it. She would rather get it all over with. Her younger cousins would be playing ball in the courtyard and Akaya was pretty sure with some interference from Maia that
she might be able to play with them, kimono or not. With their ninja training about to get serious their wouldn't be much time for goofing around, so Akaya intended to enjoy it as much as they could. As graduates from the academy they were 'adults' now after all - though Akaya wasn't completely sure what that all meant.

"Are we allowed to head down yet, oba-san? Maia-chan wants to show off her dress."

Their aunt chuckled at Akaya's teasing as Maia stuck out her tongue at her sister. Mariko closed the box and picked it back up, biting her lip in an indication that she was thinking for a moment. "I think they're mostly ready. I'm sure everyone would be happy to see you! Dinner's starting in about an hour, and that's really when everyone is showing up." Mariko moved toward the door, sliding it open with her leg. She turned back to the girls and gave them a wink. "I'll see you down there." With that she sashayed through the door and was gone out to the courtyard area where the party was going to be held. Maia turned to her sister and smiled, sucking in a deep breath. "Well, let's get this party started. Or get it over with, whichever you prefer," she said, sticking out her tongue again in a playful manner.

With that Maia would follow their aunt out into the courtyard. Already several cousins, aunts, uncles, and other relatives had gathered, beginning to put the final touches on the great dinner that would be served. The younger family members and other children of the neighborhood who just happened to wander in were already off to the side, playing tag or showing off who has the best chakra control. Most of the tables were already set up and already several different groups had formed for talking. Many of the elder family members or community volunteers or family friends were still setting out food in a banquet style.

As soon as the twins entered, they were flooded quickly with a gaggle of greeters and well wishers. People both very familiar and complete strangers rushed to greet the girls and wish them happy birthday and congratulate them on their graduation from the academy. Some just wanted to shake hands, others had more prying questions about their parents or future plans. Maia tried her best to field the questions for both she and Akaya, though inevitably her sister got swept away by one relative or another. Eventually, though, their entrance fizzled away and the party became just another party.

Maia took a deep breath when people had stopped gathering around them, finding Akaya and giving her a crooked smile. "Well, that was even exhausting for me. I didn't even realize we had so many cousins!" Maia turned back to the crowd, smiling still and searching, craning her neck. Her smile began to fade into a slight pout as she realized that her parents weren't there. She didn't know what she had expected. Well, she did. She had expected them to show up for at least *this*.

Letting out a heavy sigh, she turned back to Akaya. "Well, at least I hope we get a bunch of gifts from this." Her voice was heavy with irritability, though perhaps her sister would be able to tell that the irritability wasn't directed at her.

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Walking back home from where he had previously been running errands for his family, Sarutobi Minoru was dumbfounded by the amount of people and props that filled the courtyard of the apartment complex that he lived in with his parents. True, he had left at sunrise to run errands, and it was much later in the afternoon that he was returning (he stifled a yawn at the thought), he was caught entirely off-guard by what looked to be a party being prepared outside. His eyes glanced around nervously - he didn't know most of these people, spotting only the occasional face of one who was a fellow resident of the complex (and even then, it wasn't as if he knew most, or even many, of the other residents).

Slowly, Minoru tried to weave his way through the sea of people, narrowly avoiding a charging group of children playing tag, only to just miss stumbling backwards into a tall man eating from a small plate of hors d’oeuvres. He was uneasy. These weren't people that he really knew, and he hadn't been invited to whatever this festivity was, after all. He didn't want to ruin something for the party-throwers when clearly so much time and energy had been invested into setting up whatever this was. From what he could father, it seemed like it might have been a birthday party, though perhaps it was to celebrate an accomplishment of some sort. It didn't seem like a marriage ceremony. Carefully, the red-headed boy, fitting in quite well with the rest of the crowd, tried to make his way to the doors of the apartment complex.

_________________
Strength: Average
Constitution: Average (25 Durability)
Stamina: Proficient (100 SP)
Reflex: Average
Awareness: Average
Combat Skill: Proficient Bojutsu, Average Taijutsu
Ranged Skill: Average Ninjutsu
Finesse Skill: Average Hand Seals
TCG Skill: Heroic Chaos & Carnage™

Proficiency Bonus is +3

The party was every bit of horrible as Akaya thought it would be. At least at first, Maia at least was running interference and by now the family was well aware how distant Akaya was.

Still Akaya was relieved when they were finally left alone. She let out a long sigh of relief, not noticing how her twin kept scanning the crowd. Akaya watched their younger cousins play tag and the slightly older ones goofing around with a ball. Her eyes narrowed. "Is that the one who almost hit me-"

Her thoughts were disrupted by her sister's uncharitable sentiment. Akaya's eyebrows raised. Childish and rude, not normal behavior for Maia. Akaya rolled her shoulders and looked up at the sky. Despite her sister's words, Akaya relaxed stance didn't change.

"Ninja gifts probably. Maybe a cute new outfit if you're lucky. Inks for practice. Maybe a technique scroll, for you, maybe." Akaya knew full well that she hadn't done well enough in school to get access to their Uzumaki techniques yet.

The ball went wide, stopping at Akaya's foot. Akaya kicked off her sandals ignoring any looks her sister might be giving her and bounced the ball from foot to foot. Her cousins watched on whining at her to kick the ball.

Akaya kept her gaze on Maia. "Look if this is about our parents-" Akaya kicked the ball without really aiming. Before she could finish her thought her cousins let out a surprised gasp, Akaya whipped her head around.

The ball was heading straight towards a strawberry blonde Akaya didn't recognize. Whoops...

Though Maia had made comments and asked a question of her sister, she was only mildly paying attention to the response. They were both likely going to get all kinds of gifts of those sorts, and candies and sweets and anything else that they wanted. Maia wasn't sure it was what she really wanted, though. She wasn't going to express that outwardly or even admit it to herself, but she was subconsciously hoping for things that were never going to happen. As Akaya was kicking the ball around, she brought up what Maia had been hoping to avoid really talking about. It was supposed to be a happy day and that was inevitably going to be a sad conversation.

A good distraction came in the form of some stranger wandering into their party, and Akaya kicking a really solid ball straight at the boy's face. Maia clapped her hand to her mouth before quickly cupping it and shouting out to the boy: "Hey you! Look out!" Of course, there were a lot of potential 'hey you's so Maia wasn't sure it was going to actually work.

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In the course of a person's life, there is an instinctual reflex ingrained into every person such that, when someone screams 'look out!' that one automatically would turn to examine the source of the noise. Minoru had that instinct, not knowing exactly who was meant with the 'hey you', but on auto-pilot his body turned to look at the girl who yelled, as if it might have been to him whom the comment was addressed. As it so happened, it was, and as was common with that instinct, it was his initial reaction to turn and look at the person who yelled out, rather than to immediately attempt to suddenly prepare himself against something - unknown what - that he might supposedly need to look out for.

The end result was a soccer ball making solid contact with his face. There was a solid smack accompanied by a sudden yelp as Minoru stumbled backwards. The ball made solid contact with his swollen nose, his face pink with the sudden force of the impact. He stumbled backwards, hands falling limply at his sides, though he avoided falling over. He hissed softly in pain, moving to rub his nose before he suddenly looked up and glanced around, panicked. Suddenly acutely aware of the fact he was the center of attention, he blushed with embarrassment, face turning even pinker than it had been left by the impact of the ball.

Wanting to shrink into himself and die, Minoru let out an awkward laugh as if to reassure that he was okay.

_________________
Strength: Average
Constitution: Average (25 Durability)
Stamina: Proficient (100 SP)
Reflex: Average
Awareness: Average
Combat Skill: Proficient Bojutsu, Average Taijutsu
Ranged Skill: Average Ninjutsu
Finesse Skill: Average Hand Seals
TCG Skill: Heroic Chaos & Carnage™

Proficiency Bonus is +3

Akaya watched the ball sail through the air with a detachment that usually accompanied the moment when you realized you had made an error but it was too late to correct that error. Something like horror and acceptance.

Her lips quirked up into a resigned half smile that twitched at the corners of her lips with disbelief. Boy that was a really good kick wasn't it? Was the absurdly unhelpful thought that popped into her head. As Akaya watched the ball crack into the strawberry blonde's face, only hitting him square in the face because of her sister's helpful intervention.

The ball stopped all its momentum popping off his face limply to fall to his feet. There was a beat of silence that was suddenly broken by the boy's own laughter, clearly meant to indicate he was unhurt and not angry. The laugh broke through to Akaya and suddenly she found herself laughing. "I'm so sorry." She said between fits of giggles, which did little to sell her apology, even if she did more or less mean it.

Well Maia had had good intentions in calling out to the boy, but apparently sometimes good intentions weren't enough. Her getting his attention resulted in him getting nailed in the face with the ball instead of dodging it. Maia slapped her hand to her mouth, her eyes wide in shock. She could feel her pulse race and guilt forming in her stomach. Of course, after a quiet moment of everyone looking, the boy laughed in a reassuring way as if to show that he was alright. Maia still felt bad, and immediately moved over to the boy. She laughed a little awkwardly in her own way, though when she got over to him was more serious. She grabbed his face and tilted it this way and that. "Are you okay? Oh my, I'm sorry for distracting you." She glanced back at Akaya, who was stifling laughs and letting out what sounded like half-hearted apologies. Instead of getting upset about it, her twin always taught her to lighten up a little. Maia stood back and cracked a smile and even a small giggle. "At least nothing is broken, I don't think. What's your name?"

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Rubbing his face, Minoru was confronted with the fact that the perpetrator of the act seemed to be laughing at him. He grumbled softly, feeling a little bit the fool, with the joke having been made at his expense. Finishing wiping his face, though a tingling pain still remaining, he accepted that his pink-tinted nose would have to remain for the time being, as he lowered his hands to his side. Another girl, the one who had given the previous warning, apologized in a manner that seemed all-together more sincere than the one that came from the actual perpetrator of the crime, though Minoru assigned no real blame to the situation. He didn't think that the attack was an intentional one, so he was more than willing to forgive and forget - at least, when the pain from his face faded, anyway.

"My name is here, I live Minoru," he answered in a daze.

_________________
Strength: Average
Constitution: Average (25 Durability)
Stamina: Proficient (100 SP)
Reflex: Average
Awareness: Average
Combat Skill: Proficient Bojutsu, Average Taijutsu
Ranged Skill: Average Ninjutsu
Finesse Skill: Average Hand Seals
TCG Skill: Heroic Chaos & Carnage™

Proficiency Bonus is +3

For a moment Akaya was confused. She was pretty sure that she and Maia were the only ones in their age group, every other cousin being much older or much younger. Then her brain kicked in and she remembered that there were other people who lived in their apartment complex who weren't Uzumaki.

"Ah, that's rough buddy." Akaya said in response, responding more to the concept of staying in an apartment complex were a good chunk of the residents all knew each other and were... loud. Her hands folded behind her head, she strolled over to where her sister was trying not to fuss over the Minoru."You should come have a bite, to make up for the whole face thing." An impish grin twitched at the corners of what was an otherwise friendly smile. "I'm told there's homemade dango." She said, deviously offering up her twin's favorite desert instead of her own to make amends.

Maia clucked her tongue and shook her head in pity when the boy said his information... really backward. He must've gotten hit in the head pretty bad, and she began to worry that something was really wrong with him. She took his face again and turned his head this way and that, not really bothering to check if he was okay with any of this. Overall it didn't seem like he had a concussion, and he was probably speaking strangely out of the shock of being, well, hit in the face with a soccer ball. Akaya walked over nonchalantly and seeming at ease about the whole situation, which put Maia more at ease. Then her sister did something quite dastardly. She offered up Maia's dessert to the boy as penance. Maia turned and shot a quick look of annoyance at her sister before turning back to the boy. A sudden thought popped into her head and she smiled sweetly.

"Yeah, we have some really good dango here. It's our birthday party - this is my twin - and we have all kinds of desserts. Of course, my cousin makes the best manju I've ever had too if that's your preference." If Akaya could be sneaky and devious, Maia could back. At least it was in the name of being nice to a stranger who they had just injured.

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Finding himself suddenly grabbed and examined, Minoru felt like some kind of animal, or perhaps a small child. Dazed, eventually the more apologetic twin seemed satisfied with her inspection, and she released him. Minoru rubbed the sides of his face as each girl in turn offered a dessert for him to try. "I'm glad you're twins. I thought I was seeing double for a second..." Shaking his head to remove any remaining traces of dizziness, Minoru finished stabilizing himself, then looked around again at the party that was unfolding. "Ah, um... Some manju might be nice, thanks for offering," he said, minding his manners to thank each girl in turn for offering something to eat, though he still did feel awkward for just kind of showing up to the party without being invited. He didn't even have gifts!

_________________
Strength: Average
Constitution: Average (25 Durability)
Stamina: Proficient (100 SP)
Reflex: Average
Awareness: Average
Combat Skill: Proficient Bojutsu, Average Taijutsu
Ranged Skill: Average Ninjutsu
Finesse Skill: Average Hand Seals
TCG Skill: Heroic Chaos & Carnage™

Proficiency Bonus is +3

"Of course." Akaya agreed easily. Her sister's return was good, but unfortunately, she had an ace of her sleeve. "Whichever you prefer." She turned to begin leading him into the party proper rather than the outskirts where they had been lingering. "We have sweet potato and chestnut jam manju and then traditional dango." Akaya turned on her heel, hands behind her head as she walked backwards facing them. She gave her sister a devious wink. Most kids liked sweet treats. Either Akaya had won and saved her precious deserts from someone who couldn't appreciate them, or she had found someone who didn't want to fry their taste-buds on sugary nonsense. Either way, Akaya had won.

Maia rolled her eyes in a good-natured way at her sister's interference. Whatever the boy would choose, one of the sisters (Akaya mostly) would win and gain some sort of satisfaction. It was like this with most of their daily interactions; small games played and bets made with one another, inside joke piled upon inside joke. Maia would help the boy up and would guide him on over to where the very large selection of food was. Relatives moved about them, talking excitedly and wishing them congratulations as they passed. When they reached the dessert table, Maia would wait for their guest to make his choice, and then pick up a dango herself, munching on one of the sweet bits. She would turn to the boy and observe him curiously for a second. "I've never seen you around her before. Are you an Uzumaki?" Some might think it embarrassing that one didn't know if someone else was part of their own family, but given how large the Uzumaki family in this area was, it wasn't really an odd question.

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Lead over to the sweets table, Minoru avoided going too quickly for any of the sweets displayed. His desire for the manju had been curbed by the sudden reveal of the odd flavors, leaving the genin cautiously eyeing the dango, instead. When Maia asked whether or not he was an Uzumaki, the boy shook his head negatively. "I'm a Sarutobi, though my dad's part of the family is from Konoha," he explained, highlighting that, while he was not an Uzumaki like they were, his clan did come from the same village that many Uzumaki also came from. After a moment, Minoru suddenly realized something, and he quickly turned and bowed to each of the girls in turn. "Happy birthday!" He congratulated, realizing he had not said it previously, after they had revealed that this was their party.

_________________
Strength: Average
Constitution: Average (25 Durability)
Stamina: Proficient (100 SP)
Reflex: Average
Awareness: Average
Combat Skill: Proficient Bojutsu, Average Taijutsu
Ranged Skill: Average Ninjutsu
Finesse Skill: Average Hand Seals
TCG Skill: Heroic Chaos & Carnage™

Proficiency Bonus is +3