((Anyone who has met Kinnojo may post their thoughts or characters perceptions upon first meeting, and as it changes over time. Apart from this it will be of his own perspective and not about direct interaction!))
The sky and the ocean seemed to match one another in both scope and color in the homelands of Kito. A small out of the way place for all. Less a village and more a tiny thorpe. Here, life changed little for the handful of inhabitants, family names going back there for as long as anyone can remember, in a world where nothing changed. And how boring it was for a young mind filled with stories of grand battles, incredible skills, and danger. The stories of Ninja and their exploits rarely made it to such a land save for a few small merchants bringing all of the information and news of the world. To young Kinnojo, for as long as he could remember, these stories filled his dreams for the future. But for most, as they grew older they grew out of the dream and got to work as fishermen. The only thing their world knew as reality. And so Kinnojo was forever lost within these fantasies of his. His parents were supportive, despite his spoken wish to leave. Nobody left Kito, but a few spoke of it. Kin never felt the work of a fisherman to be below him, but it never sat right with him that this was to be his destiny, chosen merely by where he was born. His desire some said was like that of Rajin, the winds blowing him away from such a small, poor, but happy existence. To most, they would be born, grow up, live, and die on the coast of this ocean. But Kinnojo wanted more from life, and of himself. When he was half way through his sixteenth year, he told his parents of his plans to leave.
Though uncertain, and filled with worry for their son, they knew his heart for something more had been sent. He was given their graces, on the condition that if he made it, he would come home and see his brothers and sisters, and never forget from where he came. It was an easy promise to make, but it was leaving that hit Kinnojo hardest. He had not traveled far and knew not the way. The rumours and stories said the village hidden in the mist was in the country closest, but Kin grew up on stories of grand forest, of mountains so high they blocked out the sky. He wished to climb up to the sky and see the world under him. And so he prepared all he would need for a journey. The journey to become what something deep in his soul had been calling out for, and something which both excited and terrified him. He would find the fabled land hidden in the clouds. He would prove to himself he could become something more. He would become the pride of Kito, or he would die trying.
The day he set out had been a sunny day from the little piece of the coast. The world was as wide as the ocean he spent his life living next to, and yet he hadn't seen any of it. He knew the general direction, and he had a backpack full of the things he'd need just to survive and find the new land he was hoping to travel towards. The village hidden in the clouds, a place of legends so high up it was as if you could see the entire world like a bird might. That was the legend however, but it was the stories that had driven him this far. As he walked away from his home, he felt the immediate sense of knowing he may not come back to see this place for a long time. And yet the excitement of going on this adventure drove him forth, and he began his travels.
The walk to the closest township is how he would begin. It was a path taken by the merchants who came every so often to trade the fish the people of Kito had caught, for the multitude of other goods that they needed throughout the year. It wasn't terribly far away, only a few days, but the prospect of going to this unknown place for Kinnojo was difficult to properly understand. It was excitement as well as fear, curiosity as well as a shyness that perhaps he might not fit in there. His mind flooded with many different feelings as he made his way to the town, his thoughts focusing on what he would do when he got there. How would he even find these so called Ninja? Would any of them be able to set him in the right direction or provide any useful knowledge? He couldn't just up and approach a stranger, only to ask where a hidden Ninja village was, could he? The first night on the road was easy for him. He often went camping by himself or with his younger siblings, and he was able to make himself believe it was really no different than that. He ate over a fire what he had caught the day before with a few plants and vegetables from home. It was a simple, and yet good meal. Simple often was the best when it came to Kinnojo, so why did he feel such an urge, such a desire and need to move away from his simple life, to become something ever more complex, and difficult? It was the same desire he found it so hard to tell his parents. They seemed to always know that some day he might need to leave, and while they had forbid his younger brother, they never forbade him from the same fate. When he had told them, they offered him a small trinket, a charm, that they said was made for him in case he ever needed to travel. A small disc like pendant, with five unusual symbols carved into it. When he missed his home, he was to look at this and remember who raised him, the parents who loved him.
It brought a smile to his face to look at it. They had always done so much for him, regardless of what he wanted, even the times he was a bit more rebellious and was trying to distance himself from them. It all seemed so odd to leave it behind. His first dreams on the road, were filled with the places of his youth, his father teaching him how to steer the boat, keep it steady when fishing, how to rig the lines, the traps, and all other information he could learn about the ocean and the way of life that had been passed down here since time began apparently. Fishing and the call of the ocean, his father once told him, was the call of every man of Kito. It was in their blood. While Kinnojo enjoyed the sport and the skill required, he never felt it call to him deep down like it did to his father, his younger brother, or the other two boys his age in town.
