Up on the cliffside

[smallstepstopower]

Rolling out of his bedding hadn't brought him to an unanticipated level of comfort. He'd been on his way back to the village and had been in camp with his teammates after all. No, the jarring part was the mad scramble needed to avoid taking a headlong dive over a cliff that hadn't been there when he'd gone to sleep, and it was more than enough to immediately put him on the defensive, back straight as he slowly scanned his surroundings.

No teammates, no -forest-. Where the hell was he?

Comments

[orange_dattebayo]

If someone told him before that he will get an advice from Orochimaru, he would have laughed like a hyena. He broke his chopsticks, smiling as the bowl is placed in front of him. "I hate when you're right, dattebayo..." he muttered, slurping up the first of the noodles.

[smallstepstopower]

"I'm always right." He reached over and took the egg off the top of his noodles with his sticks before focusing on his own food. Tempura, as desired.

[orange_dattebayo]

"No, you're not." He watched the egg disappear, then returned back to the task of devouring noddles in matter of few minutes.

[smallstepstopower]

"And how would you know that when all evidence points to the contrary?" He looked over at him as he nibbled, sniping the egg off the second bowl too.

[orange_dattebayo]

"Well you did something wrong if in the future you took wrong turn, dattebayo..." he didn't mind the egg. He can have them. He had his noodles.

[smallstepstopower]

"And who is to say that I took a wrong turn? Bad results don't make someone -wrong-." He gave him an arch look and nibbled on a bit of meat.

[orange_dattebayo]

"You did things that you knew they were bad. You were perfectly aware of it," he muttered, not wanting to argue about topic they already argued about. Besides- they will end up thrown out.

[smallstepstopower]

"Maybe, maybe not. You'd have to ask someone who lived it, but it still didn't make him wrong."

[orange_dattebayo]

"Yeah, yeah..." is a low mumble. But he still doesn't agrees with Orochimaru at all.

[smallstepstopower]

He reached over and rapped him with his chopsticks. "Act your age. Saying something like that is for surly twelve year olds."

[orange_dattebayo]

He did a double-take:"Oi! I just don't want to be kicked out from her because I argued. I still didn't finish my food," he grabs the bowl and drinks down broth.

[smallstepstopower]

"No manners at all." He looked skyward for a moment before turning back to his food. "Unless your version of discussion involves shouting, we would have been fine."

[orange_dattebayo]

Well he can't eat broth with hands or chopsticks. "I tend to discuss... loudly, 'tebbayo."

[smallstepstopower]

"Learn not to."

[orange_dattebayo]

"I think it's a bit late for that, dattebayo..."

[smallstepstopower]

He blinked, looking at him directly. "No, it's not. It's never too late to learn to be diplomatic. Even just tone of voice will go far in how well you can influence people."

[orange_dattebayo]

He's nibbling chopsticks distractedly:"I am loud, okay? And I don't think diplomacy and me goes hand in hand, 'tebbayo." Diplomacy means scheming for him.

[smallstepstopower]

"It's not that hard. Even Jiraiya learned to be diplomatic." He promptly shot -that- down. "And all he had to do was learn when to bite his tongue."

[orange_dattebayo]

"Bite my tongue down? Like this?" and he goes and bites his tongue. Pretty hard at it actually.

[smallstepstopower]

He reached out and grabbed his jaw, pressing with his fingertips to make him release his tongue. "If you need to physically do it you'll just bleed all over the place and that definitely won't help. It means to keep yourself from talking."

[orange_dattebayo]

He swats away his fingers:"I know what that meant!" he huffed, pouting. He did that on purpose.

[smallstepstopower]

"It's hard to tell and kami knows my experience with your mother paints her as painfully literal minded at times. How am I to know when you make a jest of it mm?"

[orange_dattebayo]

He pauses and looks at him for a second and then glances away:"So um... what else did my mom do? Except from being so openly and loudly honest?"

[smallstepstopower]

"More like save for being a bit dense about what sayings meant." He sighed softly and shook his head. "She has a temper. Please keep in mind she's younger than you."

[orange_dattebayo]

There's a secret smile on his face now. "She was huh? I wish I could have met her," he mumbled quietly.