maneki and swift.

the sun glinted of of swifts black hair. she was crouching above a road waiting for her first victim. she was low on cash and was hungry. the first travler on the road would have to deal with her. she hoped for a rich fat man. she refocused her eyes on the road waiting for the next traveler.

( sorry its short. im bad at beginnings.)

Maneki was walking down the street and his stomach was bloated from water.As he was walking he saw a kid on the side of the street and said high and when he did so his wallet fell on the ground and was bursting with money.

wow. swift thought. this is unbelievable. a fat rich kid walking along the path. she grabbed her bow which was rapped tight in cloth. with a couple of tugs to the cloth the rap cam of easily reveling a bow made of total metal.front edges of the bow were sharpened. swift took her time and slowly notched an arrow to the string. if this fat guy was as weak as he looked he wouldn't be able to doge the arrow even if he saw her string her bow. the victim was a hundred yards from her now. there was no way she could miss. she pulled the bow back as far as it would go. letting the string got it hardly made a sound. the black arrow that swift had lauched speed towards its target. it would pierce the right side of his chest not an instant kill but close enough. there arrow was going four times as fast as a very hard thrown kunai. it would be hard to see let alone block

ki had been walking a few feetbehind maneki, they were going to the market to get some ingredients for his shop. he saw the girl with the bow a little ways off. he then quickend his step and quietly caught the arrow and tossed it into some bushes. " maneki, you should really be careful with your wallet." ki then leaned on his white staff that he had brought along and looked slowly at the girl as if he had just realized she was there. " hello my dear, i tought it was a bit too late for hunting."

Swift stared at the guy who had just caught her arrow. Wow she thought. He must have gotten a lot of splinters doing that. Then he tossed it away. “ HEY!!! DON’T THROW AWAY STUFF THAT DOESN’T BELONG TO YOU. Do you Have Any Idea how Much that Cost.” Swift yelled. She hopped off of the limb she had been standing on, and walked furiously toward the two. She veered off to the side and went into the bushes looking for her arrow. I hope you can pay for that thing she said shooting the old man a venomous glare.

Maneki was puzzled at what this girl was saying.He turned to ki and said "what is she talking about?"Then he waited fora response.

Ki " oh, shes just mad." ki kept on walking forward, his 8 foot tall figure slowly moving away from the girl. " why dont you come to the market with us as we can pay you in food, eh? then probrably we can pay for the rest of the damages with giving you a bath and bed." ki kept on moving forward, but took the arrow. he slipped it up his sleeve. after a few clicks, he pulled it out. it looked brand new but the feathers were gold instead of animal. he gave it back to her and smiled. "on second thought, i dont like seeing hungry children try to steal from my students so dinner and boarding is on me until your life is more...stable."

Swift examined the gold on the arrow. Her first impulse was to rip it off and pocket it . But she decided that the might seem rude. She looked up at the old guy. Wow. He’s a giant, and he’s creepy. she thought. But if theres a free lunch included I guess its worth it.
“ well I guess I could use lunch.” She said smiling. “ weres this at.”

Maneki said to everyone "well now that that is settled lets go and get some ramen."One of manekis favorite food is ramen.

KI smiled and laughed. " Now dont get ahead of yourself, we have to buy food first and i dont think ramen is nuitritous enough for your bodies now that the chunnin exams are here. maybe something else." ki walked torward the market and sighed. " you two can also pick something out for yourselves." ki began sifting through the fresh fruits and vegetables.z

Swift looked at the vegetables with disgust. She preferred meat over any thing. Lately she had only been able to catch mice and squirrels. “Hey what’re your guys names any way.” Swift said. Looking at the giant, and his disciple. “ and how’d you get so tall.” she said looking at the giant this time. She Waited for an answer rapping her bow in some cloth so that she could carry it on her back with out cutting her self.

" My Name is Ki Willow, and this little money maker is Maneki Neko." ki knew that every gennin now knew that the willows were great warriors with no chakra and the ability to punch through metal and their favorite meal were humans. ki also knew that they marked in the history books that he used to be the mizukage twice, rebuilt the rock vilage twice, had several major battles, became an akatsuki 3 times and had to kill his own sister and his daughter who tried to destroy the world.
ki pointed to the vegetable stand. " i ate a bunch of these and went to bed on time. " he giggled as if he was keeping a secret and bought a few of them. he then moved to the spice stand and bought some that he was running out on. " did you know that paprika is a natural squrrel repellant? it keeps my roofs clean in the summer and my bird feed for the birds."

Maneki said to ki "i know exacly what to get."Maneki went over to the meat stand and bought some chicken,He then went over to the vegetable stand and bought some cauliflower and corn.He then went to the fruit stand and brought 3 apples he then handed a apple to ki and swift and then began to eat his apple.Then before he forgot he went over and brought a bottle of soy sauce.

Hito quietly walked down the street and noticed the high pitched voice of the crazy doctors brother. hito walked next to ki and stared at the other two people that were over a head taller than him. "..........."

ki laughed and introduced the little boy to swift and neko. " this child is around the same age as you. his name is hitogoroshi. Hito, please say hi to swift and maneki." ki took advantage of the distraction and pocketed his apple.

swift was to busy picking someone pocket to notice what ki had said. she looked for another target and spotted hito. although he was standing quite close to ki. and she was not sure ki would approve of her actions. i can always get some money after i get my free lunch. she thought and went to the the nearest meat seller stand

ki sighed and walked over, picking swift up by the scruff of the neck. he pulled his sleeve back. he hung her by the collar on his staff and took out the exact money that she stole. he then gave the money to an old beggar and smiled at her. " swift, i said i would treat you to food. i'm not going to do that if you steal from the people you're suposed to protect." ki placed a clasp over the cap of his staff to keep her there.
ki then bought a packet of grisle and fat that he would use to slick the pans at his shop. " we have enough meat at my shop and our fish are better than what they sell here. hito, neko. please carry these groceries, my back is getting a bit sore." ki then walked with his staff and swift hanging from it, out of the market.

Maneki walked over to ki and said "sure thing."He then took a bag from ki and started to carry it.He then said "so which way to we go?"He then waited for his answer.

"oh, the usual place. the luxury shop. by the way, since we have lots of rooms upstairs: how about we make it a 5 star hotel? we already have the salt baths, hotsprings, sweat lodges, tea tables, food...all we need is to open up my acupunture and massaging skills and to get extra rooms. how about we humiliate kam into being the bus boy?" ki giggled at the thought of the unruly short skinny man in a red and yellow bus boy out fit.

“What the heck. put me down you behemoth I can walk on my own.” swift yelled at ki. She tried to glare at ki but she kept swinging from side to side and this made it difficult. He grabbed a kunai from her side and cut the back of her shirt. Then turned around and glared at ki.

hito stared at the unruly girl. why didnt she like ki? did she know something bad about him? or was she just acting like a brat because she was garanteed food and boarding? hito hopped onto the op of the staff, his left foot keeping balance while his right one was gripping for the cloth. he bent his knees until both of his hands reached below the cap. his left foot gripped it and he fell forward still holding onto those objects tightly. there was a small popping noise as the cap came off and hito slid down the stafftossing the cloth and cap in the air. he then caught it and handed the girl the cloth and ki the cap. "......" after that, he picked up the groceries he had set down and headed off torwards the large building that had steam coming from it. the luxury shop.

Maneki was the the luxury shop. He went inside and set the bags down. He took a look aound the shop and it was looking good.He turned to ki and said to him "so can we start cooking."He then waited for ki to reply.

ki smiled and walked in. the dozens of tables were scrubbed, the new double kitchen was bigger and ki knew that the hotspring that hetunneled to this place was full of nuitrious salts. " not just yet, we have to heat up the ovens, get dressed and feed you guys first. besides hito of course. he doesnt have to eat. " ki smiled and placed his staff in the closet and pulled out an apron and a white bandana to keep his waist-long hair back. " neko, you get swift and yourself into serving outfits that kam layed out for you two."
the clothes were of soft fabric. the female one was a simple kimono with violet snakes in a dark blue background along with a side apron with a peice of paper and a pencil.
the male clothing was light blue with silver cranes. both of them had hairpeices and special shoes that the toes are specially protected. "hito, since you can't talk often you can escort people to the hotsprings and bring food out there. okay?" ki layed out a very long black kimono with shin high dress area. there were yellow koi fish on it. with a bag of bath salt wooden cards, paper and a pencil.

darn it. swift thought. i knew there was a catch. it would have been easier to pick off some fat merchant. but it was to late to escape from ki. she had just remembered she had seen him in some of her dead masters old bingo books. so he was probably more than a match for her and would know exactly what she was going to do if she started to leave. she picked up the out fit and studied it critically. then looked at ki. she sighed and the looked at the out fit again. "were's the changing room. " she asked ki.

hito picked up his clothes and looked at them for a bit. He then walked down the hall where it said clearly "employees only" and turned to the right side where it said "boys locker room" the left side would most likely be the girls.
hito then took off and folded his clothes; putting them away in a random locker. after that he took the comb that was stashed in the kimono and combed his hair under the sink to get last month's dirt, animal hair, grass, and other unknown things out of it. he took some of the hair products near the mirror and combed with that until his hair was glossy. hito took the under yukata and wrapped it around himself. in every kimono there is an under one so the outer one wouldnt get dirty with bodily sweat.
hito then wrapped the koi fish kimono around him, put on the clogs that he would be wearing and wrapped his elaborate obi around his waist. he then took the apron and tied it sideways so the tablets wouldnt knock too hard on his skinny legs.
he walked out of the lockerroom and stationed himself near the back door zen garden in the seiza position to await customers.