Starring:
Youkio (emitter), Ogosokamaru, Masahiro
Date: November 10, 2012
Summary:
A woman from the Land of Demons asks for a meeting with Masahiro and Ogosakamaru to discuss removing a major threat from the upcoming wars.
"Bringing Down the Giant - An Alliance of Demons and Lightning"
Rakurai Bar
Later in the evening after Youkio and the lady he has been hired by initially met Ogo in the training center, the pair have sent a request for both him and Masahiro to meet them at the Rakurai Bar. Inside a private room in the bar, a spread has been laid out on a table with all sorts of local delicacies and saucers for sake. Apparently the woman is serious enough about this to prepare the evening like a business meeting. Both she and Youkio sit traditionally on their side of the table, opposite the door, silently waiting for their intended partners in this endeavor to arrive. Of course, the man standing just short of seven feet tall makes the woman almost appear to be a child's height in comparison.
Ogosokamaru wasn't one to be tardy to something in which he was sure that he was going to participate. He was even a little early. At least ten minutes before the scheduled time (or suggested time) Ogo would walk through the doors of the bar, and guidance from one of the workers there he would make his way to the back room. Always on guard, and always armed with his weapons, the white-haired shinobi made his appearance in the room, standing in the doorway looking at all the food, then to the two current occupants, he would walk to stand behind one of the empty seats, but not sit down just yet.
He was taking account of everything, and with the possibility of someone seeking him and masahiro specifically, it might be a trap, so for now, he kneels at the table and doesn't take up any food just yet. Nor does he say anything to either of them, but eyes them blankly as he studies them.
Masahiro may be old, but the whole flickering arrival tends to catch most people off guard. Fortunately for the ex-Raikage, he was not amongst most people. Upon arriving, he slowly makes his way to seat himself amongst the other shinobi. There are no words exchanged between the waitress and the man. A dusty bottle of unfiltered sake is brought to the table, placed right in front of him with a single glass. The old man has taste, and apparently is not the type of person to share a bottle, which perhaps was worth a small village.
The others are finally acknowledged after he takes the first sip of sake, "Good evening." Wrinkled hands cross against his lap as he awaits for the meeting to commence.
As one of the two requested Kumogakure shinobi show up, both Youkio and the woman look up to him. Since he doesn't speak, both simply offer him a nod in greeting and silently wait for the Elder Jounin to arrive, which he does promptly. They remain silent as he arrives and sits, waiting for him to speak.
"Good evening," the woman says, bowing lightly in her kneeled position. "I am Himura Hana of the Land of Demons. My associate here is Wu Youkio, a mercenary from the Land of the Moon hired as a bodyguard and to perform whatever tasks we may ne;ed of him for the endeavor I have asked you here to discuss." With that, she rises back up to an upright position. "It is an honor to meet you both, and I hope this evening finds you well." She gestures toward the spread, offering it. "Indulge as you will. There is plenty 0to eat that may as well be taken advantage of."
Ogo still didn't say anything, but his eyes did fall onto Masahiro for the moment when he arrived, but returned to the two on the other side of the table. He doesn't start digging into the food even yet, having been given the go ahead even. "Why did you bring us here?" His purt and to-the-point question the only thing he wanted to know. He was in business mode right now.
He did, however, reach out to take a bottle of sake and take a sip straight from the bottle. Very unrefined in the social department still.
There is a reason Masahiro orders his own bottle of sake, "Thank you for the hospitality, but I'm afraid I just ate a giant meal." The Shinobi sits perfectly still. Too still. Despite his wrinkly old age, and droopy old-person eyelids, the man is very sharp, and he's quite aware of absolutely everything that is going on. He says nothing further when Ogo speaks, asking all the questions he had. After taking another sip of sake, he crosses his hands once again and awaits a reply in silence.
As Ogo is rather blunt in his questioning, Hana casts a direct look his way, pausing moment before answering. "War is coming. That's no secret. It may be postponed with the Exams, but it is going to happen." She pours herself some sake as she speaks, her voice soft yet confident. "There is one Jounin in Kirigakure whose power could decimate forces from both our villages enough to tip the odds against us all because of the types of techniques he is able to pull off. Some think he is invincible, but I know where his power comes from. If you can get past his armor of demonic chakra, you can damage him… His name is Daeshiro Maikeru." She pauses a moment, lifting her saucer to take a sip. "But that is why I specifically requested the both of you. Your reputations tell me you may just be the men for the job, to save potentially countless numbers of your friends and family from annihilation in the war."
Ogo wasn't stupid either. He had pushed air into the bottle to make it look like he was drinking the sake, and it would even have that little burp from the bottle as he pulled it from his lips like air was returning into the bottle, but in fact it was escaping. The name comes to his ears, and he glances at Masahiro for a moment, then back to the woman. "Why, if war is coming, shouldn't we wait to do this- IF and very much -if- we were to do this, before war starts? I see this a chance for Kirigakure to say we made the first move. Bad politics, bad blood." Ogo wasn't one to leave a chance to kill someone legitimately, but with war on the brink, he was questioning the probability of other villages pointing the finger at Kumogakure. A chuunin who doesn't think on a chuunin's level.
Masahiro frowns at Maikeru's name, "As Raikage, I came across his profile several times. He is a figure of serious concer. A bringer of death and destruction." A light sigh escapes the elder jounin, "Last time I checked he was not aligned with any village. If he has joined forces with Kiri again, it could be bad. There are few shinobi who could take him on one on one. I doubt.. even I could." He looks to Ogo with a serious expression, his arms crossing as he ignores the sake now.
Hana remains silent for a few moments as both men speak their concerns. While Ogo's concern is a good thought, Masahiro's is more realistic. "He has. We've been keeping an eye on him for a while now," she says then gestures to Youkio, who places a folder on the table in front of him, filled with pictures of things like the ruins of San Sara and a mafia estate that look like they were hit by a nuke, a few people whose appear to have been mangled and crushed like grapes, bones crunched to the point the person would have been a vegetable if they survived. "The reason we need to strike preemptively is casualties. Would you sleep well at night if this had happened to your village or loved ones and you passed up a chance to prevent it?"
Odo's thoughts immediatly go back to something else he could have prevented. His father's death. The plot that brought his demise from his own family members. Ogo's own brother and uncle. His look goes dark for several moments, thinking on all the lives of Kumogakure, even if they weren't people he knew, or even cared about.
Fathers, brothers, sisters, mothers, sons and daughters.
Three words escaped his lips.
"I'll do it."
The wrinkles around Masahiro's eyes tighten as they close, a deep breath escaping from a long-winded inhale. They remain shut for just a second. It's a point in a shinobi's life that is made only once, as if they were weighing the pros and cons of death. In one breath he exhales all doubt and he opens his eyes, accepting the fate that awaits him, "I will also do it." His facial expressions are as stoic as one can be; the epitome of the word. His hands uncross and he downs his cup of sake with a single quirk of his wrist.
Hana and Youkio are both silent as moments that seem as eternities pass before the Kumogakure shinobi agree to take up the task. "You are making the right choice," she says with a smile. "And my village is with you. Myself and three others will accompany you and form a barrier of chakra around and over the battlefield to keep him from escaping as well as anyone else out. We will put our lives on the line with you. In for a penny, in for a pound, so to speak… The question now is, when and where? Sources indicate he will participate in the Legendary bracket of the Exams. If there is a Survival Round, we could take him during it, or does either of you have a better idea?"
The gravity of the situation just hit Ogo when she spoke of a barrier to keep them in and everyone else out. The survival round suggestion made Ogo shake his head deftly. "Mm, no. The survival round is in his home territory. Very dangerous even -if- he doesn't know that area like the back of his hand. I don't want him to have any upper hand. But within the land of lightning is too risky bringing him here if we fail, and even if we succeed it might be too destructive wherever it happens." He didn't even get into the public or private aspect of it, his thoughts only on tactics and ability of actually doing it. "I can scout out a 'where' within the next few weeks before the exams and tournament," he suggests, reaching out and accepting some of the sake for real this time, a simple single cough as he reaches for some of the food. Fish. More specifically, wasabi spiced sashimi. Trout, if he weren't mistaken.
Masahiro listens for a long while without saying anything. He keeps his eyes focused ahead of him, before shaking his head and looking up towards the other two, "No. We need to lure him out and catch him off guard, far away from anything and anyone. Maikeru might expect something during the exams.. and he will be well protected. We need to cut him off at the pass."
Listening silently for a bit, Hana ponders different options for a bit. "Well, the best option I can think of is to have someone call him out for a mission in a desolate area. When he's passing through a place that is a large wilderness with nothing around, get the jump on him. Our execution will have to be perfect to capture him." She glances between them before looking to Youkio and saying, "That can be your job. You have enough contacts to at least know one person willing to send out a fake bid for a mission." The massive man gives a nod in agreement, the details of the job apparently no big deal to him.
Ogo listens as Masahiro gives the reasoning for why not at the exams or tournament. Then Hana's explanation of the mission. A light bulb turns on. "Well, what about -we- be the mission? We could pull him to wherever we want, or say we are going after the same mission. If that happens and he comes with others, we can abort and act like it's nothing and just leave in the 'effort of peace'." Putting up the bunny ears. He wasn't looking for a way out, but having an out plan was always a good idea. "Likely a place that he doesn't know very well. Or hopefully doesn't. Hell, the land of wind has plenty of area that would be covered in a matter of minutes by sands and wind. Or the forests in the northern part of the land of Fire are pretty sparce of people. Far enough from a border there's a ghost town that was ran out by the fact it wasn't near anything. Not even a main thoroughfare. I've been there a couple times." Though as of why he didn't mention. "Or, crazy enough, one of the small uninhabited islands between mainland and the island that holds Kirigakure."
Masahiro hmm's, "We have to assume that Maikeru even bothers with missions. We would have to lure him out there with something too good to be true, but not so good that he doesn't fall for it. Maikeru outshines the Mizukage in skill level, you must remember this. We need to create SOMETHING to draw him out that is worthy of his attention.. otherwise he will ignore it." Masahiro takes a drag from his sake bottle now, discarding the cup
Hana takes a few more sips of sake as she listens to the Kumo shinobi speak their ideas, pondering what would be the best tactic. "What would that be then? A fellow Jinchuuriki that needs help? We say we have that woman he used to date, Manami? What do you have in mind?" Trying to trap Maikeru is very thorouh thought process. Mari's attempt failed miserably.
Ogo shakes his head. "maybe a tailed beast on the loose? That might be a big notch on the belt for him to take it down." Ogo didn't know the man too well, so he was just using conjecture from what the other two were putting out for right now. "As far as his old girlfriend, how would he know it was really her? Could we get some proof or something? Is she still alive? If so, is she anywhere that would get in the way?"
Masahiro sits quietly, articulating his thoughts with little movement, "What if we put out a rumour that there is a shinobi out there who knows about the demon in detail and can help increase his power, or something along the lines. What do people with incredible power want? More power. Offer more power in a round about, subtle way, he will show up. By himself."
So many options, yet which one would be the best. Hana thinks on this as she takes a few bites of food then drinks a bit more sake. She can apparently hold her own. "He has full control over Jigoku's power, but perhaps if there were a claim that someone knew more about Jigoku's Kekkei Genkai and could help him unlock it in himself, thus exponentially increasing his power. Something like that could draw his attention. What do you think?"
Ogo looks from one to the other who are talking, letting them for now hatch the idea, as he really didn't have much of a part in it. But a guy who has full control over a kekkei genkai. The idea of that was surreal enough. But to even think he could get stronger? Yeah, if this guy has any type of power hunger, and assumably so for his mastery of his kekkei genkai, he should take the bait. "It sounds logical. To master something, or at least think you did, is to be power hungry. The chance to further it even more would be passably a chance to lure him out. Who plays the guy that knows this.. Jigoku or whatever it is?"
From seated to standing, Masahiro might actually break a record, "Then it is settled. Please keep in contact." With that Masahiro disappears like a ghost in the night.
