Good weather often facilitated people going outside more to enjoy the world around them. Fortune was smiling on the young genin known as Minx today. "I'm going to be out until ten tonight." For priestess would be leaving an entire day on some task that the pale girl knew nothing of. "You shall remain locked in this room until I return." Ha! The old bat thought as much, for it really did not appear as if there was anyway out of the bedroom bars installed on the inside of the windows seemingly sturdy and the door reinforced. "Understood, Minx?" Oh yeah, this was supposed to be interactive. "Yes Priestess." Now if the older woman could hurry up and leave so she could escape!

It was a while later when Minx became certain that Priestess was long departed for whatever destination. 'Remember, be cautious if she catches you out she'll certainly fix the flaw.' The flaw her feline friend spoke of was the fact Minx had used her bones to pry one of the window bar sets lose and spent time carving them to make a latch behind the metal to make it appear still fastened. Truth was long as wits were used the genin could come and go as she pleased.

Today it so pleased the scholarly dressed girl to race with a bulge in her front pocket down towards the courtyard of the nearby park. Nestled quaintly near the flower gardens was the smallest little outdoor restaurant one smaller than one would normally expect to find Minx a frequent visitor of. However, it wasn't food that drew the now nervous looking girl here. 'Do you just like that boy you met here or does this somehow related to your obsession?' So Matatabi had indeed been listening even when she hadn't been speaking that was comforting. 'I need to see fire reflected in the shine of that armor!' blushing slightly she squirmed the teeniest amount looking down at the ground as she approached the order counter. 'Tsk.' Easily the conversation dropped because the two of them refused to have this argument again.

"Three fish sandwiches, two cake slices, a bag of chips, one salad and a bowl of fruit, please." Forking over the money easily the female was smiling softly as she sat down. There she waited, looking around every few minutes as if waiting for someone alongside her foot.

Celestia was so excited. She'd been living with Haru for a little bit now and indeed her stuff no longer vanished from her room when she was away. She could leave something on her bed in the morning and return in the evening and it'd still be there. On top of that her money no long got sucked away by her parents. Everything she earned was all hers to do with as she pleased. By now she had a decent sized savings since she wasn't accustom to using much money. Today was the day to indulge herself.

Celestia browsed a local clothing store. The first thing on her list was a larger wardrobe. Notably the first thing Celestia wanted to do was get a swim suit. She enjoyed the water a lot but her previous living situation didn't allow her to every really enjoy it. Even the showers were cold and short. Celestia browsed the available swimwear. She was having a hard time deciding what to get. She was looking at the two pieces but she didn't really like to show off that much. She of course enjoyed the attention though so most her outfits were moderate, so maybe a one piece. Then again once you got older bikinis were no longer an option. Going swimming was a special occasion and she might as well enjoy herself. Now the question was what style and color.

"If someone throws sharks in the water, I'll save you first."

"What?" Celestia exclaimed turning her head to face a tall blond haired guy. A look of utter confusion was on her face.

"Sorry, I saw you looking at swimsuits and tried to think of a water related pick up line." The man apologized."

"If someone throws sharks in the water?" Celestia repeated trying to come to grips herself with how dumb that sounded and why anyone would say it out loud.

"Yea I don't know what I was thinking." The guy said putting a hand on the back of his neck in embarrassment. "Let's try again." He said before taking a step forward. "My name is Andrew. Whats...."

He didn't have a chance to finish as a flash of her being tied up as a man approached her with a hungry smile, he undid his pants as he approached. The image vanished with Andrew taking it's place. Celestia stumbled backwards. "No, get away!" She ended up wrinkling the floor mat below her and tripping over it falling on her ass. "Hey are you ok?" The man asked concerned extending an arm forward to try and help her up. She didn't even give any warning this time quickly completing a series of hand signs and thrusting an open palm into his chest causing electricity to course threw his body. He screamed in pain doubling over losing his concentration to even stand. Celestia quickly got up and noticed everyone around starring at her, making her feel even more uncomfortable. She quickly made her escape out of the building and started sprinting to the safety of home. She was suddenly hyper aware of every male in the street who was looking at her. They all looked hungry and wanting in her eyes even if they weren't. Somewhere in the back of her mind she registered that this wasn't normal something wasn't right probably with herself but her own emotional turmoil threatened to completely overrule that. She managed to have the presence of mind to slow down and walk normally significantly reducing the number of eyes on her. She noticed she was hyper ventilating and tried to focus on bringing her breathing back to a normal pace.

It was quicker to get home to go through a nearby park. She never really paid attention to the outdoor restaurant till she walked right past it and then had to do a double take on a certain white haired women that was there. Was that Minx? Hmm there weren't any men. Celestia finally got her breathing under control and walked up to the teammate. "Hey Minx! How you been?"

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Her food was brought out and set in front of her as time slowly slipped by the teenager, after a few times of this whoever owned the place knew her attention was not enough to hear her name called for food. Normally eating was one of the few things on her mind and it wasn't hard for anyone to know she had a ravenous appetite. However, every time she came to this place Minx ate far slower occasionally actually requesting a box to transport things home out of sheer disappointment.

Luck was subtly better on this morning as the white haired girl did spot someone she knew, Celestia, but it would be a lie if one claimed she didn't frown for the briefest second. While it was fantastic to see one of the few friends she had, her desperate hope had been to see Jack again so she could light one of these matches in front of that armor! Minx quickly had her normal gentle and happy smile donned, getting up to properly half bow in greeting.

"Hello and good morning, Celestia." Slender fingers brushed aside white hair that had fallen over her shoulders from her prior motion. "I've been well." Health wise indeed she was fine and her life necessities were covered, but sometimes it was difficult to say things were great when in fact she wasn't supposed to be out right now. "If you wanted to do something I should be free, it appears the one I was waiting for isn't going to show today either. Maybe we can pick up a mission or something." She'd been waiting for a good two hours by now if Jack wasn't coming wasting her whole day here would do no good. "He's the only one and this is the only place, but it's so frustrating to get nothing day after day." Minx really wasn't thinking about how that could sound especially with a slight red across her face and her teeth in her thumb nail. All that was on her mind was seeing flames sparkling on that metallic surface, how gorgeous would it be, she just had to know.

Celestia considered Minx carefully. She was difficult to read sometimes. Which made sense. She doubted there was anyone who could relate to the position she was in. The kitsune couldn't help but wonder what was going on in that head of hers. She wasn't getting much progress fumbling over it in her head. "Yea sure, lets get a mission done. I might use the money to give makeup a shot." Celestia reach forward to grab Minx's hand and start dragging her through the village. She was eager to lift her spirits and if not Minx's than at least her own.

At first the office said there weren't any missions available but Celestia supposed someone with authority decided to authorize them since they were members of Haru's team. He pulled them aside to give them a classified mission. Apparently the village had been infiltrated. Well infiltrated might be a stretch there were four people in the village who did not get in through official means. They weren't causing any trouble but they needed to be removed quietly. Celestia was extremely uncomfortable with him the whole time. It helped a lot she already knew him and was the only reason she wasn't running out of there screaming profanities. It bothered her more she was bothered so much. She knew it was irrational but that didn't help her cope with it any.

Celestia was very glad to be out of there and away from HIM. She scratched her head being at a loss for ideas on how to go about this. "I suppose we could just split up and search for them unless you have any better ideas?"

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Celestia was going to get the chance to try makeup! Albeit being a good development it was a new one considering the information disclosed prior to the other girl being kidnapped. "So your brother outgrew his makeup theft phase?" The teenager was kinda jealous, Priestess would never outgrow believing that the vessel for Matatabi should never sully herself with it. "You can use some of whatever I get for it too, considering I can't really buy much outside of food I mostly just put it into a savings stash." In this particular situation that was beneath the fifth floorboard beneath where she kept the futon in her closest, helped avoid Priestess finding it. One day Minx was well aware she may have to run and the girl didn't exactly want to be flat broke if she could avoid that.

Feeling the other girls hand wrapped around her own as she led her down the street was odd. Before the only person who did that was Priestess when the older woman dragged her somewhere. However, this was different from that in so many ways that she just wasn't adjusted to. Minx found the oddest thing was Celestia's apartment discomfort with one of the ninja in the office. "Did he do something to you? I'm pretty sure I could pick a bone with him." She made the half joke comment forming a kunai made of bone in her hand, twirling it once.

"Well my first suggestion is one of our team take sensory up. Apart from that, it really may be best to stick together we have no true proof of the enemies skill or rank." Minx didn't want them having to repeat the last incident, at that rate they'd make their teacher infamous before long. "What we really need is info, we could review the gate logs and such if they'll give us access. If we know what and who we should be seeing it'll be easier to spot the infiltrators." Than they could start with the most populated places, it really sounded like quiet the well made plan, should work just fine.

"Umm not exactly." Celestia said growing a little somber. "Something happened at home and my transformation jutsu broke. My family didn't take it well and disowned me. But thankfully Haru sensei took me in. It's taken some getting used to, you know how sensei is, but it's been going really well so far." Celestia said her mood brightening back up. Minx offered to lend some money to the cause but Celestia refused to accept that. "No no no. Now that my family isn't sucking me dry I actually have more money than I know what to do with. Keep it and use it for yourself, treat yourself."

It seemed Minx had noticed Celestia's discomfort with the guy who gave them their mission. She chuckled at Minx's pun to bone him. "No, I just uh." Celestia shuffled her feat nervously. She didn't really want to talk about it. It was embarrassing to have such a stupid issue. She didn't even want to acknowledge it herself. Convince herself she was normal, nothing was wrong. It was hard to do that when even now she was scanning for potential 'threats.' "It's nothing, no worries."

Minx mentioned someone on their team taking up sensory. "If it wasn't for this stupid transformation jutsu I could basically function as a sensor. But nooo." Celestia vented a little bit. The more people ended up finding out about her secret the more she questioned what the point of keeping it was. Especially now that she was free to roam around as herself at home, it was incredibly liberating.

As the two were speaking outside Celestia noticed a couple people walking by who matched the descriptions they had been given about what the infiltrators looked like. A young guy 14 probably about 5' 8" with short spiky blond hair and blue eyes and wearing a hoody. He was just casually walking by flipping a zippo lighter open and lighting it before closing it and repeating the process. The other a young gal also 14 probably about 5' 6" with purple hair and blue eyes twirling a lollipop around in her mouth.

"That was easy." Celestia said before dashing out in front of them black their path. "You guys are here illegally. I'm going to have to escort you out. The blond guy shot her a glare like she was an aggravating pest, like a rodent or something. He deliberately started walking towards her. "Celestia's mind then started fighting itself over 'stand your ground' and 'get the heck out of there' this the latter yelling louder. She backed away from his approach. "Aww scared little mouse. We're not leaving yet. What chu goin do bout it?" He questioned rhetorically. Celestia balled up her fits in anger. 'I'm going to do it, I'm going to take him out. Force him out of the village.' She kept psyching herself up convinced she very much going to do something about it and yet her body didn't move.

Spoiler:

While Celestia was growing somber over the topic her friend tried to match the tone in her expression. However, it was very likely that Minx had some errors in this interaction because it just didn't hold to her the same way. Albeit having fairly comparable experiences a few key differences existed that resulted in the white haired of the two having less of something due to the caution she held towards all of the world apart from her bijuu. "It's good you're in a better situation." At least that much was entirely honest though the smile she gave over it was a bit off compared to what one would normally give. "We both know all I'd treat myself to is another feast or a new book if I can get priestess to approve one. Anything else would get taken." though an all you could eat grill was now starting to sound really tempting.

Venturing forward through the village talking, the flames which danced in her head demanding to be seen slowly roared quieter. "Maybe you could just do a small trick. Call undoing the transformation as a different jutsu, so people think it's a jutsu you developed instead." if people didn't think the features were 'real' than Celestia could also get away with going around as herself more often. The other girl was lucky in the sense her coloration didn't match the fox inside of her, meaning if she was clever enough it could be passed off as something else.

Minx was just fine letting Celestia take the lead on this due to the other girl being more 'bubbly' and in general likely a better people person. 'Are you sure it doesn't have anything to do with wanting to watch the flames of that lighter?' Of course it had something to do with that too but if asked her trust in Celestia was the greater one. However, it wasn't long until the other ninja was uncharacteristically backing away from an enemy which reasonably stood no chance against either of them. "Forgive my rudeness sir, but she won't have to do a thing." That was when Minx acted, making her way behind and throwing her arms around both of their shoulders. "You're both just going to take a walk and leave nicely with us all polite and proper." Looking at it from the outside the civilians surrounding them would suspect nothing, it looked like two ninja meeting up with non-ninja friends. "Of course we're civilized here so I'll let you know the other option is I enact the violence of that sharp pressure you feel against your shoulders and than drag you out in unbearable pain from being impaled in each shoulder. So you gonna be nice to my friend now, mouse?" Because there were only two cats here and two foxes, none of which were these two punks. They were just mice caught in the predators trap!

"It's good you're in a better situation." Minx said giving a smile. Celestia had a keen eye for people a not so subtle joke could go right over her head but body language was something she never missed. It might not even mean anything but that smile just made Celestia think about things from her perspective. All she had was the priestess who wanted nothing more than to keep her locked up. Possibly her only true parental figure was Matatabi, which Celestia could relate with. Kurama was often more of a father to her than her true father was. Just like Haru was more of a mother than her true mother. But compared to Minx's situation it all seemed trivial. She was honestly starting to get pissed off. She was going to have to figure out some way to help Minx. "No I insist. By all means treat yourself to a feast or buy a book."

Minx's suggestion on passing it off as a jutsu was interesting. She doubted Haru would agree with it, too risky but given she was considering abandoning pretense it was a better compromise. Kazetora was the publicly known jinchuuriki though. Nobody would ever expect her to also be host to the Kurama. Hidding in plain sight so to speak. The idea was growing more and more attractive to the girl.

Celestia was very grateful for Minx's assistance. The boy froze up in fear. Being grappled from behind tended to change one's opinion. The girl with the lollipop attempted to act but with her Celestia had no problem acting forming a few hand signs and channeling lightning chakra into her hands. She rushed the girl and slammed her palm into her forcing electricity to course though the foreigners body. She screamed in pain collapsing and ultimately surrendering.

Once those two were escorted out of the village there were just two left to find. A white haired girl about their same age and an older black haired gentlemen. According to the two genin they deported the older black haired gentleman was after some ramen and they were supposed to meet up at such a restaurant. As for the white haired girl they conveniently knew nothing about her. Celestia believed them though. It was likely a separate incident. "Want to split up. I'll look for the white haired one and you go for the guy?" Celestia really just wanted to get out of having to confront another guy after what just happened.

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