A Key to What?

Kratos leaned back with a yawn. He was sitting in the fork of a large oak tree, relaxing for a moment. He smiled as he realized once again that he could comfortably relax, with his new income. Making a quick, single handseal, he made a ball of light appear in front of him, then vanish again. 'This used to be challenging for me...' He thought to himself with a grin. Taking his hands out of the handseal, he made the light appear once more. 'Now I can do it without the seals to focus my chakra.' He continued to relax, though he was careful not to fall asleep. He did have things to do today. He glanced at the road. 'I oughta go back...' He thought, but he didn't yet.

Yuri was on a mission. The mission was rather simple, yet she took it like it was a great task that had to be completed or the whole of the village would be doomed. The mission was nothing more then the delivery of a letter to the post office. Wearing her normal outfit with no pants she did get a few stares even if her sweater covered her panties. She was doing something different, skipping. After she had watched some kids playing around and after she joined in she figured out how to skip. It was a very odd site cause of the awkwardness of her clothing yet she skipped with such a grace that it seemed as if at moment halfway though a skip she would spread her wings and fly. Of course she had no wings. Finally Yuri made it to the post office and handed off the letter. Realizing that she had nothing to do she thought for a moment, then acting on impulse skipped back to the family grill thinking of eating something as she was hungry.

A last, with a slight sigh, he stood up and dropped back onto the forest floor. He stretched as he landed, then started to head towards the Konoha. Then he paused, hearing someone approach from up the path behind him, moving quickly. Instinctively, he took a step into the treeline, but stopped. 'There is no reason, probably just a traveler.' He reasoned with himself. His eyebrows rose as the 'traveler' came around the corner. 'Wow.'
An incredibly cute girl was heading down the path at a good clip towards Konoha. Being himself, he reacted as he usually did. He said nothing and turned to walk down the path to Konoha himself without drawing any attention to himself.

Keiko couldn't help but go off into her own little world not even seeing the person or hearing them walking on the path. She had her hands up to her mouth with the lollipop of a weird flavor in her mouth. Now Keiko was almost taken back in aw at the size of Konoha as the Keiko had only ever seen small little villages of maybe 50 people. Of course Keiko stopped to look at the city with much interest. Dropping her left hand a little as the thought of her accidentally making rain appear over such a pretty place or her freezing all the water hit her. Instantly Keiko began having second thoughts on entering the city. To begin with she has no ID or file on her. Unknown to Keiko but if the high ups found out that she was a creation of the mad doctor they would become worried.

"Emiko? Emiko where are you?" These were the calls of Emiko's 'mother' as the very gentle lady was both wondering where Emiko had gone and also if she took some of the grilled fish. It was her that had taken the fish cause to be fair she was hungry. Now she was running of course the reason why was unknown to her and everyone else. Yet just like when she had skipped her running was extremely graceful if not incredibly fast. Holding her arms out to the sides as if they were wings made her feel happy for reasons she did not know. Emiko was running at this incredible speed with her eyes closed now, luckily the road was empty although a few people in houses were amazed at her grace and speed. Jumping when she had reached a dead end she easily cleared the building yet on her way up she opened her eyes as a smile came to her. Landing ever so gently Emiko looked around and saw she was at the front gate then tilted her head while looking at the guard who had his mouth open. He was confused on how the young girl had jumped such a building yet landed and suddenly stopped as if the inertia had not affected her at all. Wondering no more why the mans mouth was open simply cause she got bored with the idea Emiko walked over to the entry sign to read it.

Kratos had continued at his measured pace back to Konoha, noticing that the girl remained the same distance behind him, not noticing or not caring that he was there. He smiled to himself, a partially mocking, partially proud smile. While he loved the girls that were among his friend group, actually, that made up ninety percent of his friend group, he always felt awkward around girls he didn't know. So he quickly developed a way to be not noticed. Basically, be ordinary as possible. However, once he walked through the gate, she stopped altogether. And then he was distracted by the fact that their seemed to be a girl calmly standing around in nothing but a large shirt and undergarments. 'Ok... what did they slip into my food.' Kratos thought in disbelief. At last, able to come up with nothing else to do, he decided to address the issue head on.

"Um... do you know that your not wearing any pants?" He said haltingly in the direction of the girl seemingly reading a signpost.

Keiko finally started to get ahold of her sense. Then Keiko decided that she just had to see the village even with the obvious dangers. Continuing on the path down to Konoha it was about 10 feet from the front gate that Keiko saw the guards along with the two people. This was due to her having been focusing on the ground. Looking closer at the two people Keiko couldn't help but make a rather cute yet very quiet gasp. The girl was very cute yet she had no pants on while the boy was very cute also. It took Keiko a moment to realize what the relationship of the two could be. Turning red Keiko moved both her hands up to her mouth trying not to think of the boy sleeping with the girl in places other the bed. Yet somehow the thoughts still came to her. Realizing that she would have to go past them Keiko built up courage while walking up to say, "Um you two look like a very cute couple." Normally Keiko would have said nothing but a trader on the route had said to her that she should say what was on her mind more often.

Emiko knew that someone was coming down the main she just hadn't bothered to look cause many people lived in Konoha. She was going to be done reading the sign and move on when the person spoke. Listening closely yet not turning around she had it narrowed down that the person was a he. Spinning around to see the him with her eyes Emiko was amazed at how hot he was yet still only felt a very tiny spark of interest. Knowing it was protocol to respond to someones question she shrugged the pulled on her sweater to make it stretch more. Then she heard and saw the girl with purple hair talk. Smiling at not the comment she had made but how shy the girl was and how cute, Emiko had some thoughts. Once again knowing it was protocol to respond Emiko shook her head as if saying 'No I am not with this male at all' yet knew that the highly cute shy girl probably wouldn't get it so she would have to wait until the guy said something. Even if Emiko already partly knew what he would say in response. At least she had a girl in front of that could be fun sometime soon.

Kratos shook his head at the pantless girls reply, but didn't comment. About to walk away, he heard the other girls question. He couldn't help blushing at the thought, and realized what it looked like to her. He shook his head again, probably looking a bit frantic this time.

"Uh no, no." He mumbled, then realized he was mumbling and added again much louder, "We are not a couple. I was just commenting on her clothing." He glanced at the pantless girl. 'Or lack their of.' He thought wryly to himself.

Keiko couldn't help but giggle a little at the boys reaction to her statement. Then Keiko began to wonder why the girl with no pants didn't say anything. In response to the boy Keiko commented, "Oh I am sorry for my misunderstanding." Still hiding her behind the oversized sweaters sleeves Keiko looked at the boy top to bottom. Although she did so rather quickly cause Keiko didn't want to be caught looking him over. Keiko was already blushing slightly just by talking. The girl caught her attention again then Keiko looked at her although her blush got a little redder thanks to the no pants. 'She is rather cute, almost like a little girl that forgot her pants so wore a large sweater to cover up instead.' Keiko had no problems with nudity.

Emiko tilted her head slightly as she listened to both of them talk. Then she finally decided that the girl with purple was cute enough to kiss. She didn't go in for the kill right away so she just watched both of them wondering if like most people they would converse then go to eat lunch. Note that she had seen mostly this cause she was around a fish grill that was known to be a couple spot. It was at this moment that she began to wonder why so many people had a problem with pants. To Emiko it was illogical cause the day was warm so what was the point of something so uncomfortable? Even though she was wearing a hat and a sweater in the sun.

Feeling awkward, as usual, Kratos tried to shrug casually and managed a something that resembled a casual shrug but could no means be called one. He smiled sheepishly at her. He was even more uncomfortable than usual because the other girl was still there, but not saying anything. He glanced at her for a moment, taking in her seemingly blank expression. Then he turned back to the other.

"Its understandable, I suppose, considering..." His words slowly died off, before he decided to change tact, "Hi, I'm Kratos. And you are...?" He looked at the fully clothed girl when he asked, but glanced at the other as well, including her in the question.

Keiko smiled at the boy then said in response, "My name is Keiko! It's nice to meet you Kratos." Upon saying his name Keiko couldn't help but blush more. Looking at the girl Keiko waited for her to say her name although had a feeling that the girl wouldn't say her name as she had yet to speak. Knowing better then to offer a hand to shake thanks to the fear of freezing the person Keiko looked at the ground hoping he would just not think about shaking hands along with the pantless girl.

Emiko felt at a serious loss thanks to the simple yet major fact she could not speak. This didn't stop her from humming, laughing, moaning, or even copying animal noises. For some reason words escaped her so she learned how to get what she wanted in different ways. Putting her hand out to shake Kratos's hand, Emiko smiled and began to think of ways she could tell her name. Usually on of the family members of the fish grill would speak for her. But since one of them were not around that wasn't gonna work out to well. In the cases where she was alone and had to tell someone whom she was she would show them her official ID that the family had gotten for her. Today of course she had left it at the grill. Putting her other hand out to Keiko when she said her name, Emiko stood with both hands out as she had a plan to tell them who she was. Bring them to the grill. A simple plan and all she had to do was take there hands then drag them there. She was much more interested in holding Keiko's hand then Kratos's hand but knew it would be rude if she didn't.

"Nice to meet you too," He said, a smile coming a bit more naturally to his face. 'This isn't so bad...' He thought to himself as he looked to the other girl for her name. However, the girl just held out a hand to both of them. He looked at it, a little confused. 'I've never been asked to shake hands with a girl before.' He thought, surprised, 'It always seemed to be a guy thing.' He reached out and took her hand. A thought struck him at the same moment.

"You can't speak, can you?"

Keiko was a little surprised when the girl held out her hand yet Keiko felt obligated to take her hand. Making sure to focus all the cold out of her hand Keiko took the girls hand glad that she did not freeze the girl. Smiling Keiko really began to wonder if she couldn't speak. Then Kratos said what was on her mind. Keiko didn't really wanna say anything as she was far to curious in how the girl would respond. So Keiko just glanced at both Kratos along with the girl just waiting.

Emiko nodded when finally someone got the fact she was speechless. As she nodded she even made the "Mhm!" sound to go along with the nodd. Now Emiko had a choice, she could take them to the grill or just let it be that they wouldn't know her name. Quickly making up her mind on which of the following she wanted to do she grabbed both Keiko's and Kratos's hand then turned around. Heading off in the direction of the grill she held Keiko's hand very gently while she had a strong hold on Kratos. Knowing that the grill was not very far Emiko just continued on till finally she had brought both of them to the fish grill. With a sigh of releif and a sense of acomplishment Emiko looked at both with a very soft yet cute smile.

Kratos was startled when the girl suddenly took an iron hard grip on his hand and suddenly started pulling him and Keiko towards some unknown destination. His first instinct was to pull away, but he figured it would be embarrassing if he tried and failed. So instead he followed quietly. When the pulled up to a grill, he looked up at it, then back down at the girl who was smiling.

"Um... Your work?" He asked tentatively, "Or your home?"

Keiko couldn't help but smile while the girl dragged her to the grill. In Keiko's mind the girl was very cute yet at the same time Keiko thought that the boy was also very cute. Although it was weird Keiko held her hand up to her mouth even while being dragged along. When they arrived at the grill Keiko remained silent still letting Kratos do the talking as she herself was becoming very embarassed. Two cute people were around her so Keiko had a few rather perverted thoughts.

"Oh Emiko did you make some friends?" said the middle age housewife. She was Emiko's 'mother' and the one who really seemed to be caring for Emiko the most. The women was actually rather pretty she just had a few wrinkles on her face that showed she had seen many storms. Emiko looked at her 'mother' then shook her head while giving a slight shrug meaning 'I don't know.' At least her mother knew what it more or less meant so the lady quickly said, "Well its nice to meet you two, you look like a cute couple so please take care of Emiko cause I have to go back to the kitchen." With that she left quickly and almost as if maybe at one time she had been a ninja. Emiko tilted her head then giggled that her 'mother' thought that Keiko and Kratos were a couple. Still holding Keiko's hand she really didn't want to let go but barely held on so that the girl could just pull her hand away.

Kratos extracted his hand from Emiko's grip when it slackened. He wasn't uncomfortable with it friends, but he still felt more than a little cautious around her. 'For some reason she gives me an odd feeling...' He thought to himself, for once giving her a serious look over. It didn't really give him any more information than he had gotten at first glance. A seemingly harmless girl wearing a large t-shirt.

"Well, nice to meet you, Emiko." He said, smiling, "And you too Keiko." He started to back away. 'I have to go do some shopping, maybe I will run into you both another time." He turned at this and headed towards the market place, leaving Keiko and Emiko.

Keiko kept silent for a moment as Kratos began to walk away. Having no knowledge of where she was in this village Keiko got that feeling. The feeling was of being lost. Pulling away from the girl who had the name of Emiko, Keiko smiled then said, "I need to do some shopping and have no clue where anything is in this village so I am going to go and ask Kratos for directions!" Keiko was doing her best to speak with confidence but her words came out silently as her hand that had been held by Emiko went back to cover her mouth. Then Keiko then turned to walk quickly in Krato's direction hoping to find him before an official noted her.

Kratos heard someone behind him, hurrying in the direction he was going. He instinctively turned to look, and saw Keiko. 'I wonder what she wants...' he thought to himself, as he finished turning to face her. He smiled despite himself.

"Hey, do you need something?" He asked as she approached him.

Keiko stopped a good twenty feet away from Kratos. After building up enough courage to speak Keiko walked up to Kratos. Smiling with her hands over her mouth making it impossible to even see the smile Keiko spoke. "I was wondering if you could um. I was umm. Wondering if you could give me directions or even show me around." As Keiko's words drifted off so did where she was looking. Keiko was now looking to her left while her hands dropped slightly as her facial expression showed nervousness with embarrassment.