#wofopen

The flower shop hasn't been in business for a long time but that didn't matter because the stream of customers was steady but increasing by the day. Living here wasn't all that bad once she got used to the random greetings of strangers on the street, and the lack of one of her favourite coffee shops. It was something she would have to get used to and she knew it would take a while.

 Looking at her reflection in her mirror of the hallway, Ino gave herself a nod of approval before grabbing her shoulder bag from the floor and making her way downstairs. She waltzed into the kitchen, mumbling a soft 'good morning' to her mother before grabbing a granola bar from the cupboard and making her way out of the kitchen as fast as she could. She could hear her mother's shouts of breakfast being the most important meal of the day but paid no mind to it as the door of the house closed behind her.

 She sighed softly as she walked down the street, and turned into an alleyway. Her mind wandering as she made her way down to campus the way she did for the last week. A shortcut to get to campus she's learned through one of her many adventures. She's been on too many of those adventures recently, trying to figure out every nook and cranny in this town. It's all she could do to pass the time since she had no friends to hang out with. Not that she would ever admit it aloud. The customers that came into the shop more than a couple of times could be friends right? She chuckled. Who was she kidding? Some of them couldn't even get her name right, even though she was wearing a nametag and her name was only three letters long. THREE.

 Deciding not to continue that train of thought, she ripped open the wrapper of the granola bar and took a huge bite out of exaggerated anger. Finishing that granola bar rather quickly, she threw the wrapper in a trash can she walked by and waited by the curb until it was safe for her to cross. She watched the gates of the campus to pass the time, and looked at the withering flowers. Lost in thought, she only noticed it was safe to cross when people varying in age crossed the small street and headed towards the university.  She took a deep breath and crossed the street, momentarily looking at the wilting flowers at the gates and thinking of how it would be another long day without her beloved Starbucks… She didn't even know how she managed to survive a week without it. The dirt water they labelled coffee in the cafeteria was no more than just that. Dirt water. And if she had to deal with another person in her relatively small class ask the professor what photosynthesis was, she might just dump hot dirt water on them. They were in University for crying out loud. If you don't even know basic grade 10 biology you have no place in this program. Ino knew she was creating problems out of nothing but she's been in a pretty bad mood all week, if she didn't have real coffee in her system any time soon, she didn't think she could try and keep her excessive anger under control any longer. 

 Sighing happily as she walked into the warm building, Ino made her way to the overpriced cafeteria and bought tea before she headed to class. She took her phone out of her bag, looked at the time, and groaned 8:55AM. The professor in the class, the one teaching the class before hers, was running overtime again. Was it so hard for him to understand that there was a class after his? And that he was supposed to end his class five minutes ago? Now because they were running late, it would take a longer time for her professor to set up for class, and would make her class end later than it was supposed to. Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath and tried to calm down. she leaned her back against the wall next to her class and willed herself to wait patiently. Oh how I would love to walk into that class and tell him to wrap it up and shove it where the sun don't shine she thought before she was interrupted by someone clearing their throat. She wouldn't have much of it, because it was November, and it was quite chilly out. The thought of someone coming down with a cold might have crossed her mind. But, the person clearing their throat was standing right in front of her. Opening her eyes, and raising a delicate blonde eyebrow, she eyed the person standing in front of her curiously.

Ino was walking down the surprisingly busy streets of this town that she now had to call home. Even if she always kept up with the new trends that seemed to come out of nowhere, she wasn’t a fan of change. She was forced to move from the city life to this town she’s never heard of before, and to be honest, she didn’t like it one bit. She wanted to study botany and the University in Tokyo dropped the program the same year she was going to finally apply for it. A very close friend of hers helped her find universities in the area that might offer the program and Kazoku University seemed to be the only one offering it. 

To be frank, she never heard of Kazoku, and she wasn’t pleased to see that it was a small town. Growing up in one of the most populated cities in Japan, she loved the life a big city had. At least she didn’t have to move alone; even though her family had a flower shop that was doing really well in Tokyo, her parents said it was time for a change in scenery and decided to move their business to this town.

Wrapping her scarf around herself, a little tighter, she shoved her hands into her pockets to protect herself from the crisp autumn wind. At least winter should be a sight she thought as she hurried and crossed the street before the flashing orange palm stopped. She slowed down to a stop and took a look around groaning, she would have “facepalmed” herself if it wasn’t cold.

There isn’t even a Starbucks! 

With a cathartic heavy clunk of a turning lock Orochimaru strolled back into what had become his library with a graceful gait. He'd adapted with impressive speed as if acquiring a cane was an extension of his fluidity and not because he had damaged his knee. He had been largely confined to his small cloying apartment for a (passive-agressively) suggested grace period. While he enjoyed the charm of practically drowning in his collections he grinned when he swung wide the heavy oak doors.

Being away for a while he supposed he always had his nose too close to his project to really appreciate how much progress he'd made. The building was prieviously some murky down trodden space crowded with forgotten knowledge. Currently it was beginning to look like an actual library. It didn't matter to him that it was a public library. Certainly he qualified for more glamorous career options. But he loved the space, the shelves, the parchment and he liked people best when they were actively suspending their ignorance.

The large ladder had been leaned back against the far wall. He'd called someone in to at least move it, the last thing he wanted to see was that giant ladder lying in the middle of the marble floor like a dying antique steel baleen whale. Whomsoever he'd remotely hired to do so was probably not so brave as to feed the library's new mascot. The heavy set viper was glad to see its master but not so excited as to bother to lift its head.

It must've been a sight to see the fidgety young man, staring up into the tree branches as if he had lost his mind...but then again, if that was anybody's guess, they were closer to the truth than they knew. Akira knew two things right then, in spite of his mild confusion, a confusion that the medicines he took just a few minutes prior already started to vanquish: one, he could easily climb this large tree and get back his baseball cap that had been blown off his head with the wind; or two, he would be arrested for acting suspicious and being dressed completely in black from head to toe while doing it. 

...Worth a risk.

It was only a few moments later that the grey cap, adorned with nothing but neat black stitching, was sitting back on his mess of navy hair again, tilted to the left in his usual fashion, so that his face was completely visible. ...As if all the dark clothing and a cap to match in this sunny weather was doing anything at all for his stark pale complexion anyway.

Passersby glanced up and looked on past the thickly-leaved branches in a mixture of awe and panicked concern that this odd kid-- who was known for wandering around in confusion like a derelict all the time-- was sitting up in a tree with hollow eyes, dressed in an alarming amount of dark colors (black jeans, dark Converses, a dark grey dress shirt under a black sweater vest) as if he might be in a cult, and was shooting them all creepily wide smiles, almost as if his mind was churning like a psychopath. On that note, not a single person in their right mind stopped to help or inquire as to just why he's sitting up in a tree in the middle of a packed sidewalk. 

Oh so slowly-- remember, I broke my ankle last time-- the male slides down from the branch, calculating just how to land without breaking his face instead this time on the concrete below, or land on the head of a pedestrian who's walking too close to the edge of the street. Granted the tree wasn't that high off the ground (probably a little over two and a half meters tall to the first branch, and stacked with other branches higher up, worn from climbing by other people as well), it was still quite a shock to whomever happened to be near the base of the tree in passing as he fell quite quickly, suddenly, to his feet with a focused grunt. Knees bent for a moment, his hands slid into his pockets once he absorbed the impact, and as the slender Akira straightens up, he finds himself staring exactly face-to-face with another person. 

The reason eluded her but every time it rained, it somehow affected Arisa. She loved the rain but at the same time, she was some what filled with sorrow and an ache in her heart that turned the rain into something bittersweet. The young woman looked upwards to a whole in the church's deteriorated ceiling where the rain poured down but the sun was still out too. Her green orbs glistened as they reflected the light, though the glow was clouded by the sadness in them. 

"Infinite in mystery is the gift of the Goddess.

We seek it thus, and take to the sky.

Ripples form on the water's surface;

the wandering soul knows no rest."

Arisa whispers as she holds her hands together, remembering that poem from long ago.

Pale fingers fidgeted compulsively with the edges of his dark navy hair. Of course, Akira himself didn't even realize what he was doing, and merely kept walking along past the odd and mildly concerned stares of those around on the busy streets. It was another uneventful meeting, and even now as the young man kept on walking down the block shaded by large buildings and glaring signs, Akira felt himself slowly losing memory of what he and that doctor had talked about in the first place. It wasn't anything important anyway, he knew. Because the voices are right. He's all wrong, they're all wrong...they don't really care about me; they all would just rather see me dead. They poison my thoughts, and they want my brain next... Well, they can't have it. I'm not so stupid.

Humming a soft mindless tune past his closed lips, the navy-haired dipped down into the cover of the nearest train station. He had to get back home to Kazoku Town from this capital of Tokyo, and though he looked more like a homeless wanderer, Akira surpringly produced a ride pass from the pocket of his dark jeans with ease, and slid it past the entrance gates, allowing himself access into the main rails of the underground train station. Kazoku, right. Kazoku...That's where I live, right. That's where I have to go back... As his hollow icy blue eyes looked up at the large electronic board of arrival times, he found himself quite suddenly overwhelmed. Look around you, don't look away from the people. They want to hurt you, Akira. Voices rang in his ears like alarm bells, and he quickly snapped his gaze back to the bustling crowd of people, not a single of which had any time to stop and stare at him now. Unable to help his fidgeting, Akira pulls a bit harder at strands at the side of his head, breathing heavily, and rocking a bit back and forth on his heels with a mildly twitchy blink and fluttering gaze. 

"W-Which--?," he stammers out in a panicked question to a passing woman. ...A woman who ignored him and kept right on strutting along with the steady clack of her heels. Turning his head back and shifting shakily on his feet, he tried to get anybody's attention to ask them a quick question, but it really wasn't going as planned. "I-I need help--" Another one ignores him in the rush to catch an incoming train on the second track. 

Where...why can't I remember--... which line is Kazoku again...? Swallowing roughly now, it's quite clear to even him that he's fighting back a panic attack right then and there, helpless and literally lost. Once more, he turned his gaze up to the board above, which scrolled lines and track names, to various places of urban Japan surrounding them. Suddenly, none of the characters before him looked familiar, and he blinked slowly, trying to pull himself together. 

Green eyes took a look over the pretty crowded establishment with a tired gaze before looking back over to the kitchen area. The chefs were going as fast as they could but the problem with italian food is that it's not done so fast as other foods and it was all worse if people asked for separate plate instead of a pizza for the whole table.

"Order's up!" One of the men working in the kitchen said, placing a plate over the counter for a waitress to take but all the employees were already occupied. "I got it", Arisa called out and took the plate in her hands, reading the small note beside it that read the number of the table where the plate had been ordered. This was one of the reasons why the workers here adored the brown haired manager because unlike others, she actually helped them out. With a sigh, her face settled for a sweet yet soft smile, and she started walking over to table number three.