Amazing, Comrade [IO, NK, Suzume]

Kozachi decided to start off her day with some training. To be precise, she was going to go observe some animals, and try to see if she could gain any extra information for the jutsu that she was studying. They weren't hiden or anything, though she expected that they were at one point. She headed out of the Uchiha district in a blue summer dress to a rather interesting little grove in the middle of the village. The area was noisy with cicadas and other arthropods, which made it less than ideal for those who made it a point to meditate as part of their training. Good! She didn't want any assholes with some weird non-dualistic attitude to come sauntering around here. 

Of course, if she trained her other jutsu, she could risk burning this place down, so she calmed her chakra, and activated her sharingan, the red and black pattern of the three tomoe blazing to life in her eyes. Through this new point of view, she could see the little chakra flames of the bugs around her. Insects were strange. They certainly weren't conscious, but they moved in concerted rhythms, which was interesting enough.

Arachnids were even weirder. They had  this sort of bizarre hunting method where they stood still for a long time, then moved in complex... almost mammalian patterns before leaping onto their prey. Huh. Well, she could probably use this. Some of them had elaborate web traps, too, created from body fluids. And if one of those could create a net from their body fluids, why couldn't she make one from her chakra? It wasn't out of the question.

[WC 274]

Suzume had been out most of the day and being the typical loon she was. It was one of those days where she would let the wind blow her in a direction and see what happens. Except if she ran into trouble...then she would ignore the wind and do what it took to survive. That hadn't happened yet, so what would the fuss be for? It was way better than staying indoors all the time as she once had done. Eventually, she ended up being surrounded by the trees and bramble that made up Konoha's forests. A certain twig lay in her pathway, with a peculiar leaf attached to it. She picked it up and observed its structure. It wasn't like the ones around her. Its vein curved in an odd way, and the edges were jagged. Carrying it with her so that she could compare to other leaves, Suzume accidentally found herself standing right beneath a nest of wasps. A few were intimidatingly buzzing around their home, guarding it from intruders. Freezing a moment to recognize the dilemma she was in, she'd swiftly move away, dropping the strange leaf. Instead of going back for it, she walked in a different direction - a bit freighted after coming across that wasp nest. At least she didn't bump into it. Though if Suzume was a bit taller, that might have happened...and then a ton of painful stings. 

The sounds of birds chirping and cicadas buzzing made for a nice atmosphere to her. It somewhat eased her nerves after coming across the nest. One bird was perched not too far, and she watched it tweeting and hopping around. Another tiny feather beast would land beside it, and it took off. Suzume followed the bird, wondering where it was headed. It lead her to an alluring section of the forest somewhere in Konoha's center. The bird landed on a branch in a nearby tree, where a spider was crawling. It tilted its head at the creature before gobbling it down its throat. "Oh," Suzume reacted.

[WC:341]

The spider she had been observing for but a few seconds was suddenly devoured by a bird. Well, such was the way of the world. Nature, in its indifference, made no distinction between good or evil. It was impossible for the sane to derive any kind of moral law from a human-less environment. Her eyes flickered downwards, before she gave a little gasp and deactivated her sharingan before the intruder had taken note of her in the slightest. It looked like someone else had entered the grove. Before the red light faded from her eyes, she did notice that the other person's chakra was significantly weaker than her own. Well, unlike some of the other members of her clan, Kozachi didn't look down on other people for irrelevant things like that. 

Now that she observed the girl through a layman's eyes, she could see that it was a girl about her own age, with- hey, wait a second.

"You!" She exclaimed, pointing at the other girl. "You look kinda like me..."

Indeed, this was true. The same dark hair, similar eye colors... to be fair, there were marked differences, such as height (which she now felt a little insecure about), but there was no doubting that there was a resemblance. Also, she was kinda cute. Maybe they could train together; learn something new. Kozachi was out here training from insects, though she didn't specialize in them, to try and avoid training the shadow clone technique. It was annoying and stressful, after all, and she'd rather be training something easier like this, or maybe the fire element, which came naturally to her.

[TWC 545]

It was unexpected to Suzume to come across another person out here at this time. Upon the other person saying "You!", she flinched from being unaware of where it came from at first. She thought she'd been by herself...and now wondered is she had done anything weird in the last few minutes that could've caused the stranger to judge her. The stranger pointed out how they look similar, and indeed they did. They were even wearing rather similar clothing. The stranger's blue dress was about the same length as Suzume's purple tunic. 

"Yeah...we do!" she would agree with her. 

Not having much of an idea of what to say now, she looked off to the side, going through a few options of what to speak. After being silent for a gawky moment, she would say, "What are you doing here today? I was just walking around, and then that bird flew over here, and so I followed it." she explained. 

[WC:160]

So, the girl was surprised to meet Kozachi here. Good, not someone sent to kill her. This probably also meant that the cucks from the Senju clan hadn't figured out who exactly she was yet. As one of the rising stars of the clan (a role she'd been thrust into quite suddenly, somehow), she thought that she would have been a bigger target by now. However, it seemed like her clan had a pretty tight control of the information going in and out of the complex, especially after the torture fiasco in the academy basement. The burns on her now missing brother's face still haunted her dreams to this day. Should she have apologized? It was too late now...

At the very least, she wasn't arguing or disagreeing with her. As an operative, this should have made Kozachi more suspicious, but she was starved for company nowadays, especially with Kenjiro... not being around. Why not spend some time with a girl who seemed interested in her for once (wishful thinking, maybe)? 

"I'm training." Oh, crap. Was she being too blunt? She blushed slightly, then tried again. "I thought this might be a good place for it. What about you?" Naturally, she'd reciprocate the question. It seemed like the right thing to do.

[TWC 757]

The girl seemed normal enough. Nothing too out the ordinary. If anything, she seemed more interesting than your average normal passerby. She had been out here simply observing that spider before it as devoured. That meant she must have a curiosity for nature, one way or another. It was nice to Suzume to finally meet another girl at least somewhat similar to herself. Sure she made some friends at the academy, but Allegro was the only one who stood by at this point. Maybe this girl could be a new friend? Wouldn't that be lovely. 

"Uh, well, kinda just wandering around...to see where the day goes I guess?" was all she could come up with. She was bored doing the typical training routine alone, so she decided to switch it up today. Although, this wasn't something Suzume would admit. Not keeping up with training was looked down upon, and she didn't want to be a pitiful person. Besides, this wasn't something she did all the time. "So, what is your name?" Suzume figured to ask. How else would she make a potential friend without having a name to call them by?

[WC:191]

So it seemed that the girl didn't have a particular reason for being here. Normally, if it was someone from her own clan, Kozachi might have been suspicious. Members of the Uchiha clan were known for being ambitious, goal oriented, and driven. Thus, to find one listless and wandering was suspicious as hell. This girl, however, was not a member of her clan. In fact, Kozachi had never seen her in her life. Had they been in different tracks at the academy? That was the simplest explanation, though it was unlikely in this case to be the correct one. Then again, Kozachi didn't go outside of the compound frequently.

"I'm Kozachi." Informally, of course. She didn't want to reveal her clan quite yet. She knew that there was still some hard feelings among the four great clans of the village, and didn't want to start this off on the wrong foot. Still, she hoped that the girl wouldn't pry too much. There were some things that she wanted to keep to herself. Could they still get along if Kozachi withheld... certain things? Well, wasn't that how normal friends got along? Private lives were secrets, although Kozachi's was rather unusual. Well, better to try and steer this encounter her way.

"Hey, you wanna spar or something?"

[TWC 972]

"Well, nice to meet you, Kozachi! I'm Suzume," she responded in a chirpy voice. She didn't think anything of the girl not saying her clan name, for Suzume didn't typically judge others by their clan but by their own person. She didn't yet have a full comprehension of the clans, being that she wasn't apart of any of them. And so, even if the girl had disclosed that information, it wouldn't have meant a whole lot to Suzume. So far, Kozachi seemed alright. Upon being offered to spar, Suzume said, "Yeah, I'm up for some sparring..." with a tiny smile. It would be a simple friendly match, perhaps just to get to know this other girl who she had never come across before. The village wasn't so small as Suzume previously perceived. 

[WC:132]

Great! She agreed. I mean, not so great. Well, it was definitely good, but it wasn't like she was rejoicing inwardly or anything... idiot. Well, this forest should probably be left standing for a good while longer, so she decided to be proactive.

"Let's relocate to a training ground. I don't really want to damage this place..." and she was sure that Suzume didn't want to either. Should the other girl follow her, Kozachi would emerge from the grove, shaking the leaves from her hair and walking to the training grounds across the road. Here, she'd await the other girl, and hopefully they'd start off with something a little easy. She didn't want to start showing off her katon quite yet, that could get dangerous.
[TWC 1097]

And with that, they sauntered off to do more training. The cicadas continued to chirp, and the spiders spun their webs as the forest was left behind them, undisturbed. What would lie in the future for these innocents? Only time would tell. Still, at the very least, their intentions remained untainted by the world around them.

[TWC 1153
EXIT; sorry, since chunin exams are starting soon and we're both in them
5 stats
1000/1000 towards Spider Web Sticking Spit]