Shiruko Kanashimi
Moon Warden
Moon Warden
In hindsight, he should have told Makoto to send status updates while he was in Sand. Things like 'yes, I made it here and didn't get eaten by a sandworm' among other things. It was Kanashimi's own fault he was worried about not hearing from his little brother in a year, because he knew full well Makoto didn't think about things like that and had to be told to do them.
Doesn't even grasp we might be worried about him, he thought sourly, slashing up another practice target, the weight of his fuuma shuriken in his hand comforting and familiar. As always, he turned to the training field to take the edge off his nerves. For an intelligent person, he has absolutely no grasp of people sometimes.
Of course, he was getting irrationally mad at the wrong target again. If he was going to be angry, it ought to be at the right person and for the right reasons.
While his first impulse on thinking that was to be upset at his new cousin yet again, he had to admit that some of his dislike of the man less to do with his (abrasive) personality and more to do with the fact Kanashimi wasn't sure which of them would come out on top in a fight. He was used to being the strongest person in the family and had been for years. He had made his peace with the fact that someday Makoto might surpass him, but that was really not so bad. To have this effective stranger walk in and instantly be quite possibly better than him...
He didn't like what that said about him, that he cared about that. He'd only trained and gotten strong in the first place because he wanted to protect his family and appear as a strong leader to try and keep their interests separate from the Shrine's, as his family had managed for centuries. He should have been happy, not upset, to have another ally in that around his own power level.
Instead, it bothered him that he wasn't the strongest anymore. And the fact that that bothered him bothered him even more.
It was not pleasant to look in that particular mirror, to admit that a part of you wanted to be strong for the sake of strength itself. He had never liked that mindset--well, now he could see why he didn't. He didn't want to admit to it being part of himself.
He drew back from the target and flipped his weapon closed when he realized he was starting to put enough power into his swings to hurt himself. That was also around the part where he started to inflict irreparable damage on the targets and on living people, so he usually tried to stop before that.
Besides, there was someone else there now, a presence at the edge of his awareness. It was not Saito, or anyone else he knew that well, but one that carried with it an edge of unnatural power. He wasn't personally afraid of it, but he could see how something that felt like that would make people edge away and it was just another reason why he disliked the man.
"Didn't mean to interrupt you, sorry," Tatsuya said, with a veneer of artificial charm. Kanashimi turned to face him slowly, keeping his expression blank. "I wanted your input on something."
Sure you didn't, and sure you do. "What is it?" He managed to keep his tone entirely neutral, despite wanting to snap out the words. This wasn't exactly the best time to ask him anything.
Tatsuya seemed unfazed. Unfortunately, he was as immune to intimidation as Kanashimi was himself. "Well, namely, I was thinking that it was sure a convenient time to send your little brother out of the country, immediately after I arrived. And given it's been so long and he's still gone...I have to ask what you're worried about there. If there's something you're hiding about him, that is."
He felt his eyes narrow in response to that. His new cousin may have played the idiot quite well, but he wasn't one. However, in this case, he had jumped to entirely the wrong conclusion.
And yet, he'd still drawn the right result at the important part of that.
"You're mistaken," he said in a clipped tone. "We had nothing to do with sending Makoto to Sand. That was orders passed down from the Wardens."
"For people who don't think of themselves as a ninja village, you sure do have a lot of similarities to one," Tatsuya said idly. It could be mistaken for casual commentary on the existence of ranks and divisions, except that his posture was just a little too casual.
It was also laughable. Kanashimi had no idea if the last of their Mist-born relatives had actually bothered learning the proper political lay and history of the country yet, but pretending that their ranks were there to be similar to a ninja village's...that was just fallacy. Any intelligent country needed at least a semblance of a standing military, neutral as Moon was or no, and the divisions of regular, medical, and special forces just made sense.
Or maybe he was making a comment on how some Moon nin seemed insulted if you compared them to village nin, pretending there wasn't a difference. Growing up in the family he had, Tatsuya ought to have known how to recognize the signs of a city dominated by its underworld--and also of a populace that treated it as an open secret, rather than pretending all was well or remaining ignorant.
The problem was, Kanashimi just wasn't equipped to deal with Tatsuya's brand of inferences and insinuations yet. It was impossible to get a read on his genuine personality. Saito might have been able to, but Saito was skittish around Tatsuya because of the odd way his chakra acted. He generally needed his twin around to read into someone this complicated and detached from their own true personality.
He took a stab in the dark. "People aren't reacting like that to you around here because you're from Mist. They don't like you because you're an arrogant bastard, and people here have less tolerance for superficial charm than you're used to."
A fleeting look of surprise passed over Tatsuya's face. His snake poked her head out from one of his jacket pockets, tongue flicking as if she was curious.
Serve him right, then. It had been a pretty good stab in the dark after all.
"Well," was the reply after a pause, "I had actually assumed it was jealousy, on your part. But I'll remember that."
"Jealousy?" Kanashimi briefly couldn't help his own astonished tone, but dialed it back to his normal neutral one with effort. "What would I have to be jealous of about you?"
He didn't actually say out loud your siblings barely count as people anymore, your home country is frozen and haunted, and you don't really have any friends since your best friend died but it was strongly implied.
Tatsuya coughed indelicately. "Well...that I would be taking over and not you, actually. You would've been raised thinking you would."
And might think he was more qualified than someone who dropped off the map for a year and came back with a talking snake? Yes, maybe. That was plausible at least. But that hadn't been the deal.
"At first, maybe," he said, choosing his words carefully. "Now? No. I welcome you to the idiot politics of my home country. Especially when you unnerve people just by walking into a room."
"People." Tatsuya was watching him closely. "Not you, though."
"You don't need independent confirmation for that." He indicated his weapon. "If you unnerved me, I would have put a hole through you when I noticed you walk in."
"I'm also wondering if my void powers bother you because of other difficulties...or because they affect others? Your twin, maybe?"
In a moment of clarity, Kanashimi realized that he was just as opaque to Tatsuya as Tatsuya was to him. It was a mutual unintelligibility, it had to be, or his cousin wouldn't be fishing for information so blatantly.
He decided to be blunt. "Other difficulties with chakra don't bother me. I'm a taijutsu user primarily--as, I think, are you. I don't like that you bother Saito, no. I don't like that you can't seem to be bothered to find a way to turn that off or muffle it. And I don't like that you immediately jump to the conclusion there's some grand conspiracy to keep you away from my youngest brother."
There wasn't, really. It was just convenient timing.
"I can't turn off the void powers." A shrug, as if it wasn't a big deal. "Just how it is."
As if it were no big deal. You'd have to be practically blind to not see how they affected people.
"If you can't, or aren't going to make any effort to muffle them, you shouldn't be bothered by the fact I don't like you," he said flatly. "I will as long as you continue to terrify my family just by existing here with us. I find it hard to believe you can't avoid leaking your odd chakra everywhere, as a trained ninja."
It was more likely that Tatsuya didn't want to control it. Throwing everyone off-balance could be a useful tool for some people, even if it was deleterious to the role he was supposed to take up in the family. And it was undoubtedly much more convenient for him to not have to learn how to put a capper on it so he could leak unnatural energy everywhere all the time instead of having to learn how to control it and having to consciously let it out when he wanted to.
It was the kind of laziness he snapped at Warden recruits for. It was a more irresponsible laziness than any of them, even Makoto, had ever really exhibited around him too. Controlling your powers if they made things more difficult for you or allies was just a part of responsible chakra use.
For a brief second he was tempted to punch Tatsuya in the face, then discarded the impulse. No point starting a fight right now.
He was receiving that appraising look again. "Well then," was the response after a second. "That's that, then. I suppose it's pointless asking you for help in that control, even if you're going to demand it?"
"They're not my powers and I'm certainly not a specialist with that sort of thing." He let his fuuma shuriken fall open in his hand again and moved toward another target, a clear dismissal. "I also don't demand anything. I will do what I have to to keep my family safe, you included if necessary. I am simply telling you that I do not like you and will not even consider changing my opinion so long as you don't care that you frighten most of the complex just by walking around."
Even then, it was unlikely, but that was already implied. He was certainly one of those people with no use for superficial charm and feigned stupidity.
"That's as fair as fair can be, I suppose," Tatsuya said. He sounded slightly troubled. Good.
Really, if you could be uprooted from your home and wander half the world without much changing how you acted, there was something wrong with you. His cousin should have come to the realization he would have to rethink and update his behaviour ages earlier.
Maybe not all the stupidity was feigned, after all.
Tatsuya turned to go and started out, but paused before the door. "Oh, and. Kanashimi?"
Just get out. Leave me alone. "What?"
"I am going to meet your brother and figure you all out." His tone was serious, every bit as even as Kanashimi's own normal tones. "I'm sure it's a puzzle I need all the pieces for, and the last one is just away for a bit. But I'll have you all worked out not long after that, don't worry."
Then he left.
He resisted the urge to glare at the now-closed door, then relaxed himself into a genuine easy pose with a relaxed smile.
He really thinks he's going to understand Makoto after meeting him once or twice, hm?
His blade sang in the air as he started the next attack pattern--a light, rapid one instead of his usual heavy swings.
He's going to be in for one hell of a shock.
[NPC equivalent to B-Rank; Enter/Leave in 2 hrs]