The Singer's Tale

1 | Find Me, Ninja Boy

1 | Find Me, Ninja Boy

The sound of a waterfall's loud breathes life a ways off, nothing more than background noise to Atsu's bath in the lake. The young girl drifts along the lake's surface, eyes closed and mask abandoned, revealing her gentle, but, with age, slowly chiseling features.

"Atsu! Don't you think it's time to get out? I wanna play!" Giri whined from the lake's edge, her head resting on her thick paws.

Atsu sighed, eyes still closed as she listened to sounds under the water, the way the water moved against the fish below her, how the waterfall pounded the water's surface. Each thing had its own song, and each song played into the other. An ecosytem at peace. It was beautiful. She smiled softly, thumping her fingers gently through the water's surface, wanting to add her own song to the mix.

"ATSU!!"

"What, Giri?!" Atsu shouted as she began treading water, instead of floating on it. "What? What is so important you need to disturb my relaxation!" She glared harshly at the black wolf, who was facing away from Atsu towards the treeline.

"A boy! There's a boy nearby!" Giri exclaimed, looking towards Atsu who was already swimming towards the wolf.

"Where's Ratengo?" Atsu asked, walking out of the lake and waving her hand as a gust of wind blew against her harshly and dried her thoroughly. Although, her hair was still pretty wet. She began putting on her clothes.

"Following him. The boy is rather young, your age probably."

Atsu slipped on her oversized shirt, wrapped her scarf around her neck, wrapped her bandages around her arms, slipped on her mask and said, "Show the way."

"Where is she? I swear I saw her go this way..." Shikamaru said, scratching his scalp in confusion, "Ugh... It's so hot..." He looked up at the sun that peaked through the canopy of leaves, narrowing his eyes and sighing, "Troublesome woman."

He continued walking down the forest path, hoping he wasn't too crazy for going looking for the Sairen. There were a couple rumors about her kidnapping kids and eating their souls in order to keep up her youthful appearance... But rumors are just that. Rumors. Shikamaru knew better than to believe in something so farfetched.... Right?

"Hello! Shiroi Sairen lady! Are you out here?" He called out, looking around him for any sign of another person in his vacinity, "Wait... Should I really be calling out to her? What if she really does steal the souls of kids and..." Shikamaru gulped, glancing around less in curiousity and more in fear. No wonder she was so pretty. No one really looks like that.

"What's this about kids' souls?" Atsu swung down in front of Shikamaru, her legs hooked around the low-hanging branch of a tree.

Shikamaru screamed, jumped back and onto his butt. Atsu watched him, raising an eyebrow at his skittishness.

"S-Shiroi Sairen?" He asked, his eyes wide and cheeks bright red.

Atsu remained silent, contemplating the name for a second. "Shiroi Sairen? Who's that?"

Shikamaru quickly stood up, despite the weak feeling in his knees, and gulped. "You're the girl who sings every new moon, right? T-That's what we call you. Shiroi Sairen. Since... Since we don't know your real name."

Atsu stared at the boy through her mask, her crimson eyes scrutenizing his features for a moment that seemed an eternity to Shikamaru. That was suddenly broken when Atsu pulled herself up onto the tree branch, making Shikamaru jump again.

What an antsy creature... Atsu thought, watching him and she jumped down from her perch, landing in a low crouch before Shikamaru. The boy flinched, taking a step back.