Leaf festival(3)
After that our food arrived and we ate quickly before paying and heading out to find a jewel smith to socket this emerald into a proper necklace. With most of the village also celebrating the festival there weren't many shops of any kind still working that didn't want to take advantage of the festival to make a profit like Ichiraku. Even with the festival being a great oppurtunity for making money Teuchi still planned to spend the last day enjoying the festival so the ramen shop will be closed then.-
Either way it took some serious searching for us but we eventually found a jewel smith that was still open for business. It was run by a man who originally hailed from the land of iron so he didn't celebrate the festival. He also admitted that it didn't matter if closed or not as he didn't get much business anyways since he literally made jewelry and that wasn't in hot demand most of the time. When I showed him the emerald and told him what i wanted him to do with it he grinned excitedly.
"A fine gem needs a fine setting indeed! You're in luck too as I happen to have a silver necklace that I have been pulling my hair out about finding a stone to set in for but this is perfect." the guy said excitedly and took the emerald to a workbench in the back.
There were a few light "TINK!" sounds as he worked the stone into the necklace in question and soon he returned. He presented the necklace and I saw that it was a beautifully woven silver thread with a flat coin like attachment with a ripple pattern. In the center of the "coin" was the emerald held in place to look like the source of the ripples on the necklace.-
I paid the man the large amount of money he wanted before promptly handing the necklace to Karin.
"What?" She just gaped at the gift in confusion.
"What do you mean "what"? Did you think I was going to wear the thing? It was always going to be yours from the moment i bought it originally." I said honestly.
"THANKYOUSOMUCH!" she squealed happily as she wrapped me in a tight hug that made me uncomfortable.
'Why is she always getting so worked up about something so little? It's just a necklace.' i thought aggrieved.
The day pretty much ended there though as we weren't really interested in seeing any more plays or anything. We got dinner and relaxed back at the house after that both relieved in our own ways to be out of those outfits and appearances. For me being in such a detailed transformation for so long was annoying and for her she had scalp ache from the discomfort of putting her hair up when she wasn't used to doing so. The kimono was also not very comfortable for her either since her normal clothes were much more relaxed.-
The next day of the festival any ninja with any renown in the village was out and about to receive leaves. I had a clone on that job while I casually stealthed to various shows about the current famous shinobi and their exploits. Jiraiya was a popular target for story telling due to being so well known while my sensei also got her fair share of recognition though as a medic there weren't many tales worth telling of her. I got a casual mention in a few places but not much else since I was rather new to the scene.-
Karin wasn't really all that impressed with the shows this time which was fair since compared to the warring clans period or Konoha's founding the modern shinobi didn't have as many super interesting tales. I ended up only getting three leaves in total which was perfectly fair while Kakashi won the title this year with a total of two thousand five hundred and three leaves. My sensei had apparently thought she would win by a landslide since she was Hokage but her vices had sort of killed a good deal of her "look up to" ness. -
She did take a close second though so that was a bit of a consolation if nothing else for her. The third day of the festival I started the day by collecting flowers from my property and going to the Uchiha memorial. It was a simple stone slab that had the entire list of names for each and every Uchiha that had died during the massacre. The memorial was dirty and ill kept so I spent some time cleaning it up before I put the flowers in front of it and clasping my hands together to offer a prayer. -
"I hadn't thought I'd see anyone else here." Kakashi said as he joined me and put down his own flowers.
"I believe that even if the rest of the village likes to act as though they were better forgotten that they were loyal to it in their own way and deserve at least this much respect." I said honestly.
"Loyal in their own way huh? A good way to remember them." he said with a sigh.
"Now then I believe the memorial you are truly here for is over there, best not to keep them waiting." I said patting him on the shoulder as I left.
The rest of the day was a bunch of loud games and celebration for the upcoming year. Karin dragged me into playing a bunch of those games even if they were pretty useless for shinobi like us. I even ended up winning her a giant teddy bear bigger than she was in the rubber shuriken throwing booth. Even though the game was rigged with lopsided rubber shuriken I just adjusted my throwing method to compensate and easily aced the whole thing. The final part of the festival however was the fireworks which i had something special planned for.-
"Are you sure we are supposed to be up here?" Karin asked as we arrived on top of the Hokage mountain.
"Relax, it's not illegal to be up here just not common. Besides this is the best spot for what I need to do." I said calmly.
"You never did say what that was exactly you know?" she pointed out curiously.
"And ruin the surprise? I'd never do such a thing." I said with a smirk.
We waited until the fireworks started and she watched with wide eyes as they exploded above the village. I meanwhile was molding my chakra nice and slowly for the big finale. The final bright red firework went off about an hour later and I finished the last of the frankly insanely complex chakra molding and breathed out to the air above the village. Immediately a massive set of several dragons made of pure fire roared across the sky and high above the village formed the insignia of the village out of fire that lingered for a moment before dispersing into thousands of embers that fell gently and harmlessly to each person currently outside to witness the scene.
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