Chance Encounters [Kotone, Butterfly]

~~~140 years ago~~~

FIRST ENCOUNTER

In the middle of the great war that seemed to have shaken the very world to it's core, the once known as Allied Shinobi Nation, aptly named the ASN was in a long struggling continuous battle with the western shogunate military and the pandoran empire. Many have died in combat at this point with each Nation fighting for dominance, villages brought to the point of near total destruction, former allies fighting to the death and all that jazz. It was during this time that the ASN had decided to hold its regular chunin exams, so as to boost its own power during the war. Many up and coming Genin were competing for the chance to become Genin, fighting tooth and nail for the opportunity to prove themselves worthy of a promotion. However this is not a story of conflict, but a story for a young romance's first encounter. It was during the one on one fights that the fight announcer had entered the center of the ring. "For our next fight, we call upon Kotone Zakiyoshi, and Mariposa to enter the ring"

Nazogakure's first ever chuunin exam, and the overseeing Kage could not be more nervous. Thus far the tests had gone off without a hitch, but there was always so much pressure on the young woman. She had achieved so much in so little time. The whole stadium, everybody within it, and the Zakiyoshi's clan compound and Temple to Kikuri looming over the back was proof of that. As was the large red serpent coiled around the chair his partner was sat in. Either side of her were her wife, and her two children. One of which was shaking just a little with the nerves of her name being called. "Hey, Koto, you're gonna do great, ok?" Her mother Cecelia ruffled the girl's hair and brought a smile to her. Her other mother Himiko had to remain neutral. But it was clear just how much pride she had in her daughter. The girl nodded and stood from her seat besides her mother as the crowd cheered. Sitting above one of the entrances, the young Zakiyoshi's team called and cheered for her. A young Toketsu archer and a member of the Zerin clan, both were looking off to where the announced girl truly was instead of the entrance the others usually took to enter the ring.

"I know. Be good for mommas Ezra," She pecked the head of her little brother who scowled and flailed his arms feebly at her. The two siblings exchanged poked out tongues, and Kotone jumped off from the rafters to land in the ring. She looked first to her team mates and flashed them a thumbs up, then waved her hands to where her clan were gathered cheering for their heir. But Himiko couldn't remain neutral for too long.

"Yeah! That's my baby!" She screamed, standing tall with pride and waving down at her daughter. "I love you sweetie! You're gonna be great and I love you!" Megis, the large serpent just shook his head, his tail wrapping around Himiko's torso and tried to pull her back to her seat. But the woman simply slipped in to water so he could do nothing. "You'll always be my little girl but I know you're gonna ace this exam!" Due to her daughter being in the trial she had had to recuse herself from the judgement, but it didn't hurt at least.

"Mum! Stop embarassing me!" The blue haired pixie girl shouted back up, face flushed from her mother's enthusiastic shouting. But she turned towards the opponent's entrance. Mariposa wasn't a name she really knew, so this would be full of surprises.

"You know your mission here Butterfly, you are simply to gauge the abilities of these children to see if they are ready for the harshness of battle ahead of them" A man in a mask would say to the quivering child who would be known as Mariposa during the duration of these matches, though the child was very reluctant to do what was needed to be done in these fights. "Can I please just go home? I'm scared, I don't want to be here anymore. I promise I will do better in my other missions, please?" Was all the child was able to say before being ushered out towards the entrance of the fighting ring. The slender feminine figure would slowly inch their way towards the center of the ring, clearly distressed about the whole situation as a couple of their butterfly looking insects flew around their head. You see it wasn't just the people that they had to test that frightened them, but those hungry little bugs that fluttered around their head that scared them the most. "We must feed, FEED US!!!" The butterflies would say to the one designated as Mariposa in a way only they could hear. The child was looking like they were on the verge of tears as they got to the center of the ring, clearly not wanting to be here, but they didn't want to disappoint their handlers during these exams as they would make her do terrible things if they didn't perform adequately during the exams. "Can I please go home, I promise I will be good, please?" They would say to the announcer as they shook like a leaf.

Kotone just couldn't let that stand. She didn't understand why such a scared boy... girl? She couldn't tell, but she couldn't understand why someone so scared would be involved in the exams. There was something unusual about them though, and her Bakufuko gave her strange results. A lot of build up around the eyes. Blinking her eyes off, she smiled and stepped in towards them and the announcer with a smile. "Hello, I'm Kotone," She said in her usually overly friendly tone, offering a hand forwards. "I'm gonna be sparring with you today and I really look forwards to it," She purposely chose to say 'spar' than 'fight' in hopes it might ease them. "Mariposa. It's a really pretty name by the way. It suits you," Undisernable gender or not, Kotone didn't care, they were still cute to her. "... But you're really strong aren't you? I've been trained to judge people on their strengths, so I can tell you're strong. Maybe even stronger than me. But you know... that gets me excited. I wanna get to know you, if that's ok," She didn't understand it, but she could feel, and even see, the fear in her opponent and she just wanted to get rid of that fear. To be there for them. But she was too young to properly know about the way Zakiyoshi process romantic feelings.

Butterfly would cringe when their opponent would take a step towards them and announce that they were going to be sparring, which the very thought of that put the child in a near catatonic state in their own mind. Why would this random girl just come up and suddenly announce that they were going to throw hands, it was almost like she wanted to completely brutalize them. However as the girl stepped closer to Butterfly, their tease demons could smell the fresh flesh getting ever closer. "FEED!!!!" they would say to Butterfly as they swarmed together and tried to go after Kotone. This made the scared child quickly pull out a scroll, and summon up a thick cardboard box in order to capture the bugs. THen they would jump into the box and start sobbing. "I COn't Do This, Can I Go Home Please?" They said starting to cry uncontrollably inside the box.

Kotone had no clue what was going on, and it seemed much of the crowd was unsure too. With a pout she thought through just what to do, and as the crowds were all murmering to themselves she slowly approached the box. She had no clue why Mariposa had a cardboard box sealed away in a scroll, but she figured it was for... this. She crouched down besides it, trying to find some way to peek inside without pressing herself up against the box, giving it's current occupant some space. "... Are you ok in there? It's ok, I'm not a meanie. We'll have fun,"