The new sheriff (Private Ryu)

[Ii Hissori]

Everything had certainly been insane. Hissori like usual was overworking himself as of course, but with the death of Inu Endo, life had been turned inside out. This was something that most sennin feared. They feared situations like this where the village had no ruler, had no head. However, the medical sennin knew this was certainly and shortly about to change.

He was in the process of writing a report when a middle age women came in with a brown envelope. Placing it on the desk of the strawberry blonde, she bowed a bit before quietly leaving. His green eyes look at the envelope before he pushed his work aside and drew in a breath. It was time.

Reaching across his desk, the man in a black business dress shirt, and golden tie picked up the letter. He would take a moment before unsealing it and reading the letter. He drew a breath in. So it was decided. He would lean over as he cleared his throat. Then pressing his finger down on the intercom he made a call.

“Paging Kazehi Ryu please present yourself to the medical sennin office into the spire.” He said in strong tone as he clicked off his intercom. Then he looked out on his room.

Shit. He thought as he looked out of his room blinking. His office was a mess, and need to be cleaned. Hurrily he got up and started to clean at least putting away his blanket and pillow from his coach. Could he clean his room by the time Ryu got here? Probably not, but the new tsuchikage would see shortly.

 

[Kazehi Ryu]

The village, which had long been thrown into chaos since the death of their former Tsuchikage seemed to spiral downward and tear apart their village piece by piece; fraying alliances and putrid corruption attempting to seep out and take control of the people, it was a village gone mad at the death of but one man at the hands of the Daimyo. Ryu had long hoped that course of the village would soon be corrected, but he hadn't expected it to be like this. His fate, it seemed was full of surprises as not long after he adopts a daughter into his life, that the announcement of his apparent election into the office of Tsuchikage is announce village wide.

In that moment, his hands froze and he could only stare at the small trinket he was working on blankly wondering if he misheard the transmission, perhaps it had been the other Ryu, the strange puppet they had called and his focus caused him to misunderstand. But the followup transmission from Ii Hissori requesting his presence kicked his brain into gear and got him moving; he dressed in his usual blacks with the grey embroidery and quickly outfitted himself as though he were being called for a mission out of pure habit. The only pause he gave was at the door, returning to inform his daughter that he would be going out and would return before nightfall, and that a meal was in the fridge should she need to eat.

With...fatherly duties...complete, the tall man hit the door in a blur, boots on and laced in old, practiced motions even as he went. He didn't bother with the walkways and simply lept from platform to platform, teir by teir, to reach the central spire of the village startling many on the way who likely weren't used to seeing a hulking form move quite like he was. The man's mind still replayed the announcement back but he felt numb and detached, not sure what to feel for such a...was there a word for this? Honor? Curse? Blessing? Damnation? He was chosen to be the leader of his village, the one who would shape the future to come, to be the figure which all the village would see.

That thought mad him slip, a leap that sent him not quite as far as he should have gone and sent him arcing into space below the intended platform and dropping towards the empty air below the village. He recovered his thoughts as he neared the next teir down, slamming the talons of the left arm though the pavement and hanging there staring at the sleeve veiling his inhuman appendage. He could get away with skulking in the shadows and allowing the arm to be 'seen' in small glimpses that were below the wrist but to be in the public eye; all would know and he wouldn't be able to hide it for long. Ryu's face hardened and became a stormy glower. Now wasn't the time to have a crisis or lose his head over a petty, insignificant fact as some useless, ornery reptile riding piggy back in his body! Pulling himself up to his feet, he jerked the obsidian colored talons out of the pavement and with greater vigor and swiftness he bypassed many of the floors of the Spire to arrive on the floor of the Medical Senin's office, powered through an open window startling many of the workers there as papers went flying and down the hall to stand before the door.

A deep, calming breath, and he rapped on the door twice with his right hand before opening the door and ducking slightly from a habit he formed in the early days of his youth from hitting his head on too many low hanging objects. Entering the aftermath, his violet-blue eyes studied the helter skelter papers, the bedding, his nose the scent of unwashed man and the musk of a canine. It smelled like reports and desperation in here. "Ii, Kazehi Ryu, J-" He paused, eyebrows furrowing together. For the first time in his life, Ryu was unsure where he stood in the village ranking. It was said he was 'elected Tsuchikage', but was he still a Jounin until after some official ceremony or was this simply a passing of title and robes that would need a sizeable alteration? "Reporting, per your request." He shook it off and minced forward, trying not to step on anything vital while he offered the Senin a polite bow, closing the door behind him with a flashing twitch of a left finger.

Strangely enough, this room represented quite the state of the village beneath the calm, stoic surface of daily life. A mess. Maybe one that would soon come to order?

[MFT]

 

[Ii Hissori]

Hissori almost cleaned his whole room when it seemed that Ryu seemed to come in. The middle age man was in the process of cleaning up take out boxes when he heard the knocks on the door. Shit. He thought again as he quickly pushed the rest of the mess into the corner. He would rub his hands on his black dress pants and clear his throat.

“Come in!” He would holler at the door as he stood in front of his cluttered desk. When the man, the future Tsuchikage walked in, Hissori would offer his hand. It was not common for a man like him to break the news like this to a person.

“It is a pleasure to meet you Ryu-san. Please take a seat.” He said as he pointed to a rather nice leather work chair. He would walk around as he sighed a bit reclining slowly into his own large leather chair. He would stare at the man for a moment before pushing over the letter. Even though this man seem well refine and with it, all Hissori could think about is that this man was one set of special eyes to be some emo evil antagonist from a manga.

During the silence of this, there was shifting around in the back where the large white dog was sleeping and stirring a bit in his large dog bed. Buru seemed to be knowing of the presence that was Ryu being there, but did not seem to mind it. He had opened one Icy Blue eye to look over at the desk before just huffing and falling back to sleep. Hissori was about to speak again.

“I would like to be the first person to congratulate you on becoming Tsuchikage Ryu-san.” He said as he leaned over to the side of his desk pulling out two large flasks of special saki.

“This is the saki of my land, let us drink and talk about your next steps to solidify this village.” He said pouring him a shot and then pushing the cold saki flash towards him.

“To the new Kage.” He said as he grinned holding up his glass to Ryu.

 

[Kazehi Ryu]

Ryu bit the bullet and locked his right hand with the smaller man but it was much less a hand-shake when one's hand evelops another's. He didn't smile, or really show much beyond his momentary confusion while attempting to identify himself before his face reset to the habitual stoic expression. "Likewise, thank you." He eyed the seat for a moment, jaw muscles working and twitching slightly as though he were chewing on the veiled thoughts running circles behind his mind, creating a tumultuous cacophony of doubts, joy, concern, uncertainty, and pride while he settled carefully into the chair across from Hissori, his attention diverted to look at the shaggy source of huffing before turning his attention back to the Senin when he spoke up.

Ryu's face flickered into a faint frown, looking at the envelope on the table then the flasks of sake. "I would say 'it's an honor' but of that, we've yet to see." He worked his left hand, below the desk causing the talons to extend and retract as he flexed the fingers nervously. He couldn't check the letter with one hand, but he could drink and it was business before pleasure. "I won't lie, Ii...Hissori-san," The towering man struggled with the change of name, being used to calling someone habitually by their family name out of respect as was custom in Iwa. "This was not something expected. And, to be frank..." He looked back towards the door and glanced at the window as he built chakra in his system, forming it into a wind release before lifting his head and exhaling a Vacuum Sphere(mastered) barrier around them that would keep the sound in so prying ears would be unable to listen at the door or window for a moment. "Only one other person knows that I have a creature riding coach in my system." He grit his teeth, not really wanting to share this, but it was going to be public knowledge soon enough as soon as his arm came into question. He would rather the knowledge be released under his own control than some lurking sneak spreading that the new leader was a demon when he wasn't.

He lifted his left arm up and flicked the sleeve back to show Hissori the stone arm and obsidian colored talons that tipped the fingers. "Several years back, I encountered and fought a creature. I didn't defeat it insomuch as it destroyed it's worldly tether with assistance from my influence. In my flight, I met an unfortunate slip and the creature bound its existence to mine, using my Chakra System as a refuge much as it did the crystal that made up its tether." The pressure around them created by the barrier started to lessen within a moment, it created a noticeable change as though one were changing elevation rapidly; he only had split seconds more. "This is the arm it entered through and there are shards of crystal embedded in my skin that assist in keeping the creature in place within. But I am in control, at all times. I refuse to be driven like a demented marionette, not long ago I took full control of this limb. It's not easily covered and being in the public eye, rumors will begin to spread. A controlled leak of information, rumors of our own about this arm will keep the populace from rebelling against a "Demon" leading." He slid the envelope over to himself with the fingers of his left hand careful not to puncture it with the talons, and opened it with the fingers of his right. "I figured, since you were the first to congratulate me, you should also have the honor of being the first of those I'll work closely with, to know." The barrier of pressure vanished around them, returning the close air to normal with a few papers rumpled and mussed where they sat. Ryu pulled out the contents of the envelop, eyeing Hissori as if it were business as usual, letting the other man mull on all the information that was just dumped on him.

Ryu wasn't going to have a drink just yet, but Hissori might just need a few more shots...

 

[Ii Hissori]

“It’s a hard job hopefully you are up for it.” He told him rather bluntly as he sipped on his drink rather slowly. Of course Hissori who had always been in charge of branches in the medical world was use to the type of pressure he had leveled on him at this point he was able to do deal with the pressure of meetings and the stress of running and balancing his branch. The strawberry blonde would lean in and give a listen to what the new kage wanted to tell him. It was certainly interesting.

“Such is the injuries we gather in our duty to the village.” Hissori said rather bluntly though he did say it in a cruel term. He had never heard of an injury like that, but of course had dealt with many scarring and mutilating injuries that shinobi withstood in the field of works. Amputations, loses of eyes, ears almost everything at this point Hissori had treated to deal with people. This case though was a bit different. He was in the public eye now and as such gossip would spread, and maybe even cause problems as Ryu pointed out. With a sigh and a shrug he would just idly take another shot before speaking again.

“I would suggest just telling the truth. You were injured in the line of battle protecting the village and sacrificed part of yourself for the betterment of the village and that is of course the lasting reminder the village has about that attack. Unless of course you are more worried that this demon is going to take over your body, which is a different type of risk to the village. Now drink up! I don’t want to waste that Saki.” Hissori replied leaning back some.

 

[Kazehi Ryu]

While Hissori talked, the towering man looked over the document he'd plucked out of the envelop. It apparently detailed the complete results of his election to the position, as well as an official statement of his election; if he thought this was all a joke before this certainly drove it home that he was now Tsuchikage. Setting the document and envelope aside, he lifted the shot without much need for further encouragement and knocked it back, closing his eyes to appreciate the burn of the alcohol as it rolled down his throat. "Right. To work then. Much to do, I suppose, if the state of your paperwork has anything to say." He stood from the chair, setting the shot glass back down on the desk with a gentle clack. "Gather the other Senin, we'll have a brief meeting about the state of the village and how to stabilize." The man cleared his throat slightly a couple times, chewing on the inside of his bottom lip thoughtfully.

He was going to have to address the village, man that was going to be awkward. He hadn't really ever spoken publicly and while it was a bit daunting he certainly wasn't going to back down from it. "I have to be up for it, Hissori. I was chosen for this and I won't shirk my duty to the village. No matter what that means." He shook his head slightly and gave a shrug. "Don't think there are robes in my size, however. Last Tsuchikage wasn't quite the same stature." Maybe making a short joke was inappropriate here...he couldn't quite bring himself to make the full comment about their former Leader so he simply left the very obvious statement hanging as he turned for the door. "Addressing the village will come first, let the masses know that I am aware of my duties. We'll go from there, we'll need a direction and for now I suppose we simply have to build up morale after the events that have passed." Not that he really knew how they were supposed to go about doing so, Festivals maybe but that would feel forced if it wasn't the right time for it.

It was a touch bleak here in Iwagakure, and Ryu wondered if he'd be the one able to light the path to a better tomorrow.

 

[Ii Hissori]

“What other sennins.” Hissori deadpanned to his question as he sighed and leaned back. It seemed at this point, either the man was just lazy and really did not care, or he felt he had a handle on everything. Truthfully though, did people think Hissori would get this far by being lazy? Yawning a bit and stretching his arms over his head as he tried to readjust his back and spine, he jerked forward leaning over his desk and drink.

“It wasn’t exactly announced, but former main branch sennin Kamaru was exiled by the daiymo due to his attitude towards his job. He was aloof, and really didn’t take his role seriously. Other than that, it seemed the ANBU sennin resigned after the death of Endo, and the person whom she tabbed to be her replacement disappeared shortly after accepting his assignment. Its just you and me, Ryu. Us and Buru and Kinji against the whole world.” He joked. Speaking of Kinji, the giant spirit savannah lion had phased into reality behind Ryu, and was sitting there behind him, staring at him his mouth slightly agape revealing his sharp white teeth.

With a short nod of his head he watched Ryu turn to directly face the large lion as he sighed some.

“I will get that announcement set up for you shortly.” He told him, something though made him feel that after the news of the sennins’ Ryu would be staying to have a bit more saki.

 

[Kazehi Ryu]

The man spun on his heels and simply stared at Hissori. 'What other senin?' He took a few moments to replay that back in his mind a couple times to be sure he'd heard it right before he sighed out his nose and brought his right hand to rest his face against the palm. "Much work indeed." He had interacted with Kamaru and this 'exile' seemed rather unwarranted considering that the man had seemed to go out of his way to collect information and what his underlings thought. "Alright..." He was about to continue when a spot between his shoulder blades itched and ached, looking behind him there was a rather large feline stepping out of pretty much thin air and huffing at him. He kept eye contact with it for a moment, wary of the intentions, before resuming his statement. "..is there a way we can get a roster of Branch members and contact them. If we cannot find a suitable replacement for either Sennin I will do my best to manage until we find the proper people for the job." The more he heard about the state of the village the more he felt that action was required, they needed to pull things no...needed to pull the people together now more than ever. "We may be alone for the moment, but in the darkest of hours those who truly believe in us will be there." As far as motivational speech went, Ryu felt he was severely lacking in the department overall. It was going to be very difficult getting used to the social aspects of the position, but he would have to manage.

He dropped his hand to his hip and sighed once more. "We'll start by getting into contact with Daimyo of other lands, see if they have any matters our people can manage. We may have to start looking more closely at our neighboring countries and getting a feel for the situations in them. Sad to say, but I do not think Iwagakure can remain Isolationist as it has in the past and we may need to make a move to lay the issues in Fire or Water country to rest." He shook his head with a frown, all this might be fine well and good but how does one simply plunge themselves into global politics?

 

[Ii Hissori]

“Yeah, I don’t know really much about either branch, all I know is that both branches seem to not be running well, and now that their heads have disappeared respectively, they are in total chaos.” He said as he looked at him for a moment before nodding shortly.

“I will send out a message to their branch managers to gather them together.” He responded as he just made a face. Of course the situation that had fallen upon the village was draining for the one man who had been the face of basically every branch and the village for the past couple of months. Then with a nod of his head as he looked around fishing for stuff.

“I don’t really have any of the information of the Daiymo’s but I do have contacts in the wind village and that area from my time as a wander medic. So I will send out branches for them.” He said as he sighed a bit. He then glared at Kinji who was trying to intimidate the new Kage.

“Kinji stop it. This is our new kage.” The tried sennin said as he rubbed his temples.

“Did you at least help those people out of the village with the mudslide again???” He asked him with a slight grunt as he waited for his report. <i></i>

“Yes, I brought that squad to the medics to the farmlands and we aided getting those farmers healed. I do feel annoyed that you are sending me on such trivial missions to help these people. You know I am more trained than to just do that help with minor injuries.” The lion said in a deep baritone voice that shook the room with an angelic quality.

“I know but also I need my medics here, we are currently working overtime with the fact I am having to send my medics out on missions as some anbu and main branch and using their lack of sennin as a time off.” He responded gruffy towards his contract mentor as he then turned his attention back to the new kage.

“I would advise that we don’t make a move with other villages until we solidify the top of our branches. That way we don’t come off as weak. Then after that I would suggest helping with the Fire Country because well there is no helping my frozen village.” He said as he looked at him with a slight sigh. Obviously his frozen country was still a sore spot as there was nothing he could do to help it.
<i></i>

 

[Kazehi Ryu]

All this set Ryu's mind turning, how would they dig themselves out of this chaos; how could he lead the people to a better tomorrow. The answers weren't going to just come to him right away, he was going to have to work at this project, learn everything he could about the two Branches and be their backbone until he could find proper leaders to be the Sennin.

He remained quiet, watching and listening while the Medic and lion had an exchange. The hair on Ryu's neck stood on end, his left arm ached, and a spot on his back itched like mad when the lion spoke. His eyes stoically bored into the creature while it talked, he was bad at communication but one thing he could easily translate: he wasn't scared of the lion at all. Not after being forced into conflict with Hi-rakan and then a Kami of Hardship less than a year after.

Ryu once more turned away from the lion to look at Hissori, since they stood on either side of him, and did his best not to look frustrated. "Right. No matter what, the state of the village comes first. I'll shoulder the Main and ANBU now until I find suitable people. I'll need rosters, assignment lists, any information on our people that we have. It might take some time, but we need to take stock of those we have with us. I'll meet with the interim leaders, and we'll see about coming up with a council to ease the burden of the empty positions." They had a lot on their plate, by spreading some of it out between capable people they would be able to bring about order to the mess they found themselves in.

 

[Ii Hissori]

Hissori would give a slight chuckle as the facial expression of Ryu. It was more to himself, but the look of the Tsuchikage was completely entertaining. Hissori would compare it to a baby getting a brand new toy, and then it immediately breaking it. It wasn’t surprising that the village though did seem broken, after all with two sennins missing, Hissori’s own branch was under an incredibly amount of stress. The village as a whole was under stress.

He would watch Ryu out of the corner of his eye as he talked to his spirit Lion. The medical sennin could just tell by the body position Ryu was taking something was wrong. After listening to his spirit beast talk to him about the mission, he would take a moment to think before replying in his native tongue.

"Dankon Kinji, ni daŭrigos tiun diskuton poste pri via trovoj post finas ĉi renkontiĝo kun Ryu. Vi ŝajnas esti senorda nova Kage sur iu nivelo."

With those words, the lion just nodded and huffed. Shooting one last look over towards Ryu, he was disappear from the room, leaving the Tsuchikage, and the medical sennin again. He would speak about what he would need and that he would be in charge of the two other branches. It was like a weight was lifted off his shoulder, and that hopefully meant that he could be involved more with his own branch.

” I will get someone to put a list together of perspective branch leaders, and have it on desk by sun-up. If you want I will also set it up so that you can have meetings with those potentional sennins that whole next day. If that doesn’t work you can schedule them yourself. I will also contact the agency that employed my secretary and get you one here by the morning as well. Is there anything else you need? Hissori asked as he looked at him. After a moment, Hissori would look back down starting to jot down some notes on things that he needed to do.

Spoiler

MFT: 300

 

[Kazehi Ryu]

The departure of the lion made the tension vanish, though Ryu couldn't explain the cause if he tried, his thoughts turned inward, probing the presence inside him and got only sardonic lethargy in response. He had only encountered Hi-rakan and the Kami of Hardship and Pain, so if it wasn't the after effects of one, it must be the other. Peculiar.

Ryu shook it off, it wasn't what was important. "Set up what you can, I can handle finding additional people if need be. Rosters, a collective one sorted by branch, with ID pictures. Also, no rush on modifying the Tsuchikage robes. This was all pretty knew, he'd start by memorizing the faces of the people, the faces of those he'd lead, then work towards sorting out their financial situation of both ANBU and the Main. Which probably meant going through the mission reports from the half year before all this chaos started.

From there, well, he would take this one step at a time. There was enough time consuming work that he could pick away at in the days to come. "Ah. Hissori, I have a daughter as well. I take time to train her in the mornings, I believe in having a direct hand in the growth of my child. It won't interfere with my duties, I simply felt it should be mentioned. Shizuko was only recently adopted, though there would be no papers on it. Actually, if anything, being the Meducal Sennin, Hissori would eventually find out that Ryu hadn't sired a child. But that was for a curious mind that had less work to do as a side project. For all intensive purposes, however, the girl may well be his blood, he would treat her no differently despite being adopted. "I appreciate your assistance, Hissori. You are welcome to come by my home in the Quarters as well should I not be at the Spire." While he didn't relish the idea of bringing a lot of work home, he would do what had to be done. Evem if that meant only being able to talk with his daughter to guide her.

 

[Ii Hissori]

Hissori would nod as he listened to the Kage. He at least had an idea on how to organize the branch, or well at least where to start. The man who could control dogs would listen to him as he just diligently jot down the notes on what the new Kage would need to make the other branches more successful. It was mostly stuff he could delegate away from his own job, though he would personally would have to get access to all the personnel files for the village. That note would be underlined a couple of times because he heard his name and his emerald eyes looked back at Ryu.

“Oh really? Congratulations.” He said as he looked at him not really sure how to reply to the comment about him having a daughter. Of course, Hissori had spent his life single expect for the rather occasional one night stand. Maybe somewhere in the world, Hissori did have an offspring, but he would never know about them. It did start to make sense though as he heard he loved to train her daughter, and well Hissori had to be the bearer of bad news.

“Unfortunately, with jobs like these we often are forced to spend much more time away from the family than we actually want. The village is your whole family now. The people on the street are just as important as your own daughter. Sometimes sacafrices need to be made in order to protect the village. Just keep that in mind.” Hissori would say as he nodded.

“Thank you for the offer. I’d return it, if this office had not become my home for the past couple of months.” Hissori told Ryu in a bit of a sarcastic way.

 

[Kazehi Ryu]

The man only nodded at Hissori's comment, Ryu wasn't exactly up on the etiquette for that part of the conversation, but he stood a little taller and let a slight frown flicker across his face. "The members of the branches were a 'family' to me before this position. The only thing that has changed in that is that I now must set examples for them to follow." He was well aware that he had to manage an entire village, but he sure as hell wouldn't just leave his daughter to learn for herself, even if it meant their lessons were shortened. He was damn sure he could manage to juggle the aspects of his life, in fact he would be sure to. He was unmarried, so someone had to be there for Shizuko; he understood what he must do for the village most certainly outweighed what he had to do at home; but if a man couldn't handle his life as a father and the life of being a leader, then he was no leader worth following.

It would be hard, but he enjoyed challenges. He would make the time, however brief. "No matter. I will start on what I can for now, if there are any files that require my immediate attention I will take them." He certainly wouldn't dawdle in this situation, it would mean that more of their situation could slip; the faster he got their information under control the faster he could secure and elevate the village to a better point than the strange, silent chaos they had all descended into.

[topic left after Hissori's post]

 

[Ii Hissori]

“Anything you need me to do just tell me.” Hissori would simply tell the Kage as it seemed their conversation was winding down. He was sure that Ryu would be smart enough to realize that it seemed like Hissori thought there was nothing left to talk about. Instead, Hissori would lean down and pick up a stack of what looked like medical orders and began to scan over them. It was sad, but it seemed like the work for Hissori was never over.

Spoiler

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