Finding his place [Requesting the Hokage]

[Kato Hana]

Manzo walked the halls of the Hokage’s Mansion. As he did, he could not help but walking down memory lane. He used to spend quite a bit of time here but since he had left, it felt a little strange here again. Truth be told much of the village felt strange. He had spent too much time alone out in the wilderness that just being around so many people.

He needed to see the Hokage now and try and figure out what his place was going to be though. He could not see himself going back to his old position. There were several reasons but chief of them was he was sure that the position had been taken.

He glanced down at his new clothes. The ones that he had worn coming into the village were thrown away. There was no way that the smells and dirt would ever get out of those threadbare fabrics. But spending the money on new clothes had once again placed him in the destitute category. He might have to go hunting for dinner a few days but now that he was back amongst civilization he couldn’t bring himself to wear those clothes anymore.

Before he knew it he stood before the door. He had not been able to get much information on what had changed since he left, so he was a little unsure on what to expect. As he raised his fist and knocked on the door he realized he was about to find out.

[MFT]

 

[Uchiha Takeshi]

Takeshi allowed himself a few minutes to study the paper work on his desk, he had been sorting out the day to day paper work of filing taxes, money that was incoming and outgoing from the village, the missions that needed to take top priority nothing fancy but just things to keep the time ticking by. Leaning back in his chair he allowed a sigh to escape his lips as it seemed that this was the day to day workload that he now faced.

Truth be told he was still recovering from recent events, first with frost, then will a stupid outbreak of rebellion inside of Leaf, these where things that he wanted to ignore but he knew that he couldn’t it has transpired that a lot had happened, but life seemed to be settling down if that was for better or worse was going to be something he would have to find out in the long run.

His day dreaming and thinking processes where interrupted by a knock on the door, as he allowed his eyes to look at the wooden door he wondered who could be wanting a discussion on this day, his schedule had seemed fairly empty and nothing surprising had taken place or he would have heard directly from the radio system about it. No this was someone that had come here for either a reason, or just a chat either way he was intrigued to find out which one it was. Takeshi spoke softly but allowed the voice of authority to carry itself past the door.

“Enter”

[MFT: 259]

 

[Kato Hana]

The simple command seemed to make the door open. As it swung open it revealed a figure that had not graced the Hokage’s office quite awhile. Even longer had it looked like this. Gone was the large figure that had left the village on his mission. The figure that stood before the Hokage was much closer to that of when they had first met, though several years older. What skin that could be seen revealed wiry skin taut muscles. The figure of someone that had spent far too long on the road where food was not always the most plentiful.


His eyes quickly took in the room, his posture that of someone that was relaxed, at least as much as it was able to, but ingrained habits were hard to break. As his eyes fell upon the Hokage he could only smile. He had seen so few familiar faces since he had returned. Seeing his old friend and mentor brought a happy smile to his face.


He bowed before the Hokage, giving him the respect he deserved, something he had always been happy to do before this Hokage. ”It has been quite a while, but I have returned to the village.“


As he straightened he could only wonder how his reception would be received. He had told Takashi about his mission before he had left but it had taken quite a bit longer than expected. By all rights he should be locked up as a missing-nin but so far he had managed to avoid that fate. He could only imagine that this would be the final test before that concern was put to rest.

 

[Uchiha Takeshi]

Takeshi tried to put a face to the man that stood before him, it had been a while that much he knew already though he didn’t know where this man had been originally that was something he knew that he would have to find out. As he allowed himself a small moment of pause to consider what actions he would need to take. Leaning back in the chair he offered a seat out to the returning member as he allowed himself to smile back wondering what he had learned in that time.


“It seems that you did return to us as promised, though I have to admit a lot has changed around here since you were last inside of the village. You may have noticed that or heard whispering of rumors of what has happened since last time we spoke. Though I will answer any of those questions you have with ease, and make sure that I put your mind at rest. But first let me ask, are you ready to return and serve the village once more?”


His voice trailed off as he waited for an answer to be given about the question that he had just asked the man that stood before him. Though Manzo was back, if he was willing to serve the village would be another question all together and it was a question that he needed to have answered. After all he was Hokage now the protection of the village would fall down to him, and right now one of his Shinobi had returned he wondered what he had learnt in his time away from home.

 

[Kato Hana]

The question placed before him confused Manzo a bit. The look on his face most likely showed it as well. Why was his loyalties being put into question. Had things changed that much since he had been gone that there was a doubt on where his loyalties lie?

”I never stopped serving the village. Chansing my cousin to the ends of the earth and breaking his criminal organization was mostly for the village. I must admit there was some of the reasons I did it was to try and regain some of my lost honor from being associated with such heigions criminals. But I needed to keep young shinobi safe from having their Doujutsu stole from them for the sake of money and power.“

There was steel in his voice as he said these things. He was glad he had broken his criminal families back and chased them to the ends of the earth. If he had missed any of them he wanted them to know what waited for them if they resumed their activities.

”But simply put I am here to serve the village in any way you see fit. Where would you like my skills put to use? While I will take any position you need me in, I don’t think it would be a good idea to put me back in the ANBU.“ His words were spoken as if Takashi knew the whole story and did not need any details filled in.

He hadn’t been gone that long had he?

[MFT]

 

[Uchiha Takeshi]

Takeshi allowed himself to consider the man that was in front of him, it was clear that Manzo had returned to serve leaf, and he needed to make sure that the village was growing once again, as such a few changes needed to be made. He had been browsing the lists of names that were inside of Leaf recently and could see a few changes that would work well with people. He allowed himself to ponder on what to do but knew straight away where this conversation was going. As he allowed his fingers to click onto the intercom button.

"Can you please Summon both Haku Yuki and Keiji to my office, I have a proposal for these three that I want them to hear out first before I make any decisions on the future of the village, send this as an urgent Summon. I expect them here within a few hours."

Takeshi turned his attention back to Manzo, he didn't want to keep the man waiting so instead he grabbed the three peaces of paper on his desk and begun to write them up, each one informing the three that would be at the office of there future inside of the village, and what was expected of them,. He could trust Manzo he knew that much and the man used to be heavily relied on when he was a Sennin, he almost chuckled to himself as he sealed the document into the envelope, wrote their names on it and then sealed it with the Hokage Chakra seal.

" I apologise for the delay in having to wait to find out about your future Manzo, though I must say I am glad to see an old friend again, you know I always had you pegged to replace me as a Sennin one day, that chance has just shifted sideways. Hard work and showing me results and the future will unlock doors for you. I need your help and I need it inside of Leaf. As such when the other two arrive I will explain everything."

[MFT]
[Summoned Keiji]
[Summoned Yuki]
[Sealed Documents with CRPJ]

 

[Keiji]

"Another scalpel for the scrap heap.." he said with a somber tone over the operating table. "Those damn Kyoujouran and their tough skin.." Throwing the scalpel over and clinking as it hit the pile of another handful of scalpels.
The body had arrived the night earlier, unsure what exactly killed him, that'd be why they had asked him for an autopsy report.

Looking finally up from the bruised and beaten body he noticed the clock and said to himself with an even somber tone "Huh, it's the afternoon, I guess a lunch might be in order.." As the words escaped his mouth a scuffling of footsteps was heard from behind him, turning his head the big darkened tired bags under his eyes made his blue glowing Hyuuga eyes even more apparent as he stared at the small boy wearing the significant "messenger" robes across his tiny frame.

"Lord Hokage requests your presence immediately sir!" It took him a solid few seconds to fully comprehend the words, then powering through a smile for the boy putting him at ease as the boy seemed tense looking up at the tall Dreadlocked dark-skinned man looking down at him. "Understood, I'll be there.." as the kid ran off again, he sighed to himself as he looked back at the corpse that had taken the majority of the evening just getting through the first few layers of skin. "By the spirits I hate dissecting Kyoujourans.. Guess I'll be finishing the report when I get back.." He knew that if he had instead used his chakra infused scalpels it would have been faster and easier, but the sharpness decrease to them would have been even worse than the useless junk scalpels you normally use and re-sharpening them is easy.. Just an overall chore he thought to himself as he turned back around and walked out in a brisk pace to his office to pick up an apple and his shoulderbag with the bare essentials, y'never know with these Shinobi he surrounded himself with.

"Always be ready" his sensei had always said, he never did manage to find him.. He had heard rumors of his whereabouts being working on the rebuillding of Konoha after they had retaken it from the Samurai, but he only found scraps of paper and random art sketches of the rebuild process, certain backs and sideways angles of faces reminded him of his sensei, and the texts mentions someone resembling his description, but there was never anything conclusive.

Sighing to himself again he made his way out and turning his head towards the Hokage Mansion, thankfully not the longest destination, but still enough that he managed to devour the apple wholly and entirely as he stood by the entrance and the assistant announced his arrival into the office and the words coming back through the intercom letting him in.

As he stepped through the doors into the office he had a sense of dread as he looked upon the Kage and whoever else was sitting in the room with him. whoever he was he would be seeing a tall, slim, olive skinned man wearing a surgeon's coat, a few blood splatters from his nightly deeds with tired but faintly blue glowing blank hyuuga eyes looking about and neck-long dreadlocks hanging in a ponytail behind his head.

"you requested my presence Hokage-sama?" he managed to say with as much decorum as he could muster as he stood there in the middle of the office lanky and with a slight tilt to his stance. It would be obvious to anyone that he was tired from some kind of work, presumably involving the blood splattered lab coat..

 

[Haku Yuki]

The female looked over the gardens of the Uchiha mansion, she was finally looking more like herself and less like a husk of the person she was, her long elegant fingers were wrapped around a cup of jasmine tea, the steam from the heat of it carried on the window into the chill of the autumn air. She closed her eyes at look in a deep breath in filling her lungs with a fresh chill, it was peaceful she felt like the outside world had faded away leaving just her, that was until she heard the cracked from her headset, it was set down on the floor next to her, Yuki knew to keep it with her at all times, purely as a precaution, the sound shattered the illusion of isolation. The sound of her husband’s voice called out distorted by the static, she placed down her cup, place her headpiece over her ear and left.


The walk to the Hokage mansion wasn’t a long one beside it was one that she had made numerous times so many times, in fact, half of the time she didn’t even remember the journey. It wasn’t long before she was at the steps of the mansion, Yuki looked up at the building for some reason a sense of dread filled her as to what it was that Takeshi had to tell her she took a gulp and walked through the gates and straight towards the Hokage’s office. Her fist hovers over the wooden door for a few moments before knocking and letting herself in.


Beyond the threshold of the door the office as still identical to the room that she had been in many times, the only thing that had changed was the man behind the desk, Takeshi had changed, to anyone else he would have looked the same as always but Yuki knew him better than anyone and she could the difference in the man before her.
“Lord Takeshi, how can I be of assistance?” She bowed a little before letting her eyes wander around the room, there were two people in the room with her, one of their faces she could remember the other belonged to a tanned stranger whom she had not met before. He was wearing a lab coat still fresh with blood, he certainly caught the females interest. She extended her hand to him in greeting.


“I don’t believe that we have met, I am Lady Haku Yuki, wife to the fourth Hokage and Mistress of the Uchiha clan, who might you be?”

[MFT:425]

 

[Kato Hana]

Manzo looked at Takashi in shock for a moment. Him as Sennin? It was something he had never considered and frankly he still couldn’t picture it. ”I appreciate your confidence in me but I don’t think I would make a good Sennin. I am much better supporting those that would be great and leading the village to greatness. “ He never considered himself a good ANBU captain. It was one of the regrets he had on the road. He always thought he could have trained his team better. If he had trained them harder would they have been better prepared to protect the village against.

With a slight pause he continued ”Whatever the village needs I am here. “

With that he watched as two people came into the office. One he recognized and he gave her a bow. It was a little surprising to see her dress as she was and not how he was used to seeing her, but times had changed and he wasn’t wearing a mask anymore after all.

The other certainly did not look like he was dressed for the Hokage’s office but Manzo kept his thoughts to himself until event could play themselves out and he could get a better picture of who he was and what was going to happen.

 

[Uchiha Takeshi]

Takeshi allowed himself to sit in the seat of the Hokage, the office that he had become so used to was now full of people. It seemed that he had a few options ahead of him, and he still had to keep this village running, so maybe a few people did need a kick up the ass in the eyes of the Hokage. He had to under the balance and had to know how everything would work in order with each other. This balance was something that needed to be kept and it was a fine line that he needed to do.


“You have all been called here, most of you are wondering why, frankly I do need to put it bluntly. You are called up to serve the village. To help the village and allow us to improve. We are in desperate need to help, and I have selected each of you to fill that role.”


He allowed himself to pick the letters up that were in front of him, selecting a fourth one from the draw in front of him. His eyes narrowed as he looked at the letters knowing that this would cause some issues, and people would come to him to cause problems. But he didn’t want to know that. This was for the betterment of the village, nothing more nothing less and he was here to make changes to improve this village. That was his job as Hokage.


“I will start with you Manzo, this letter please present to the Main Branch Sennin. You are hereby promoted to the rank of Head Jounin without hesitation. Report to your assigned Sennin, Asuka will work you hard, but you will teach her at the same time. Get that branch back to what it should be between the two of you are working together. Welcome back to the Village.”


Takeshi handed the sealed letter across to Manzo, giving him the position and making it clear on his new assignment. His attention turned to Yuki after this.


“Yuki, at the same time I am going to be shifting you across in sections. You will go back to the ANBU Branch, taking equal Rank and going across with the Rank of Captain. Report to Yukio to collect your assignment, the branch needs good coordination between the two of you and I expect to see results from this appointment.”


Takeshi handed the second letter across that he had, making sure that Yuki received the sealed letter once more to hand to her new superior.


“Keiji, this final assignment is to you. Considering yourself appointed to the joint position of Medical Sennin, my branch is suffering again and I want another hand in making it work again. You are going to share this role with the Branches current Sennin Nagisa. You will work with them to make this branch stronger, though he is not summoned here I am going to give the position of Medical Chief to Hoheto, he has been in the village long enough that his time to shine has come up. I want you to get him up to speed and make sure he knows that duties are expected of him. Make this work together and get Medical Branch back up and supporting the front lines of Leaf.”




Once more the letter came out and gave it to Keiji, also the second letter underneath for him to present to Hoheto, it seemed that changes were happening. And that the new future of Leaf was what they were seeing.


“Any questions?”


[Yuki promoted to ANBU Captain]

[Manzo Promoted to Head Jounin]

[Hoheto promoted to Temporary Medical Chief]

[Keiji promoted to Temporary Medical Sennin]

 

[Keiji]

A small framed, thin, and short woman with crimson red hair stepped into the room soon after him and addressed the Hokage, then turning to him in greeting with hands extended, he noted her hair gave him a nostalgic feel. Reminding of past friendships and gave him a slight smile at the corner of his lips.

“I don’t believe that we have met, I am Lady Haku Yuki, wife to the fourth Hokage and Mistress of the Uchiha clan, who might you be?”

she said with her hands extended to him, he assessed the hand for a split second, then looking back up as he took his hands out of his pockets and lifted them revealing his palms covered in patches of dried and wet blood from the subject he had carved up earlier.

"Apologies Lady Yuki-san, While I thank you for the offer, I seem to not really be in the right state to shake hands." He then proceeded to bow with the upper part of his frame, avoiding to hit her of course and letting his dreadlocks shake in the air, then straighting up again after a second or two. "I am Suzaku Keiji, old Mednin Chief from Cloud, now affiliated with Konoha at your husband's discretion. I am happy to have gotten to meet you, even though the circumstances are a little peculiar."

Turning again to face the Hokage as he began speaking.
During the earlier parts of his speech Keiji had yawned tiredly to himself, kinda losing interest and continued to wonder why he was even there in the first place, until he was addressed directly.

“Keiji, this final assignment is to you. Considering yourself appointed to the joint position of Medical Sennin, my branch is suffering again and I want another hand in making it work again. You are going to share this role with the Branches current Sennin Nagisa. You will work with them to make this branch stronger, though he is not summoned here I am going to give the position of Medical Chief to Hoheto, he has been in the village long enough that his time to shine has come up. I want you to get him up to speed and make sure he knows that duties are expected of him. Make this work together and get Medical Branch back up and supporting the front lines of Leaf.”

He carefully thought over the words, even placing his hand on his shaved chin, leaving a small bloody mark on it as he nodded to himself in silence "No questions from here.." Then after a small pause "I guess I have no other choice but to accept for the moment, I'll do what I can for you, the branch, and the village of Konoha. You can count that Hokage-sama." He said out loud, mostly to himself but also in a manner of accepting the assignment. He reached out and took the letters in hand and placed them both in his shoulder bag without opening them, he'd do that later, he said to himself.

"I'll see about meeting up with Nagisa as well, and discuss what needs doing.." Turning around and giving a nod to Yuki and Manzo individually.
"I'll see you guys around later, have fun!~" The last bit coming out in a joking fashion as he walked out of the room waving to them, ending with another yawn as the doors closed behind him.

"Why are you smiling?! You just said yes to more work? When are we gonna have fun again?? I miss our mountain treks!" The voice from within his soul said in a frustrated tone, like a spoiled child not able to reach their lollipop.
"Apparently I'm trusted to the level of proper leadership instead of just conducting my experiments, no rest for the wicked as they say. Heheh
"You're sick sometimes, get back here and get some rest, you're not ready to talk to anyone about anything just yet.."

[Thread Left unless stopped]

 

[Kato Hana]

This meeting had not gone at all like Manzo had expected. He did not have much in the way of expectations but being promoted to Head Jounin. He had found he likes to work in the shadows supporting others that take the light of being in charge, but being thrust into the leadership of the main branch with the comment of whipping it back into shape made him wonder what kind of shape it was in.


Despite being shocked by this he was not going to shy away from his duties that were being presented to him. He had said that he was there to support the village and that is exactly what he would do.


”I am honored that you would place me in such a position. I will ensure that I will not let you down.“ He bowed to the Hokage and backed out of the room. This was not the time and the place to catch up. To many people were there for that and he was sure that the Hokage had enough on his plate while he was working.


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