Starring:
Date: March 30, 2011
Summary:
A new play is in the works, but it's being kept under wraps. Kasumi, being a hired help, had all the knowledge, but wasn't going to willingly give it up. Itami, intending on getting the scoop, tries to weasel her way in and take advantage of the girl. Things don't go exactly as planned…
"Backstage Pass"
Motai Theatre
A production was in the works for the theatre, but no one was quite sure what it was about. It's been kept quiet for a while now and people are growing curious. Word is spreading quickly about it and already some fans are excited. Itami is one of those few who is wondering about what's going to be taking place at the theatre and she just has to find out. Even if…she might have to throw around her authority to do so. Anyhow!
Some are gathered around watching people coming in and out of the theatre's back doors with props covered in tarps and some are able to get a sneak peak at what they are. Nothing too out of the ordinary, just trees and bushes, the occasional chair and table as well. The workers are all smiles also and are more than happy to help out. Especially if it means a little money coming out of it.
Speaking of those doing things to get money there seems to be a rather young girl milling about the area, moving running small errands for the workers. Bringing script revisions to people, fetching drinks, tripping over stage materials, that sort of thing. She is a pale ghost of a girl with one eye. Currently she is engaged in a balancing act of carrying a stack of paint buckets towards the theatre.
Kasumi stumbles slightly, almost sending the paint cans flying. "Excuse me… Pardon me." She says quietly. Some more attentive people hear her and move out of the way, but a small group of chattering teens either don't hear her or simply ignore her. She stands there awkwardly while peering around the cans. She is stuck. Again, she speaks up but they don't hear her.
Itami is making her way through the same crowd, but is more or less barging, sometimes offering an 'excuse me' as a means of getting through. She's pretty aggressive about getting the scoop of what's going on and it's not long before she runs into the same group of teen girls. "Pardon, but I need to get through." She remarks to the girls loudly enough, but she receives a passing glance in return. She stands and stares at them and manages to catch Kasumi who appears to be stuck as well. She speaks up again. "Excuse me! /We/ need to get through." She says, but one of the girls appears to get irritated at the remark saying something along the lines of 'you don't need to yell' only to continue the conversation.
"Allow me, please…" She remarks to Kasumi and works her way in to grab the girl that spoke and lift her off the ground. She squealed in surprise. "I asked nicely." She remarked and sets her down roughly to one side and lifts her hand again to do the same to the others, but they clear the way quickly enough. "You may proceed, now." She states to Kasumi. "By the way, what is your name?" A quick glance goes at the items she has. A twinkle gleams in her eye. "You're working for the theatre….then…then you must know…" She grins like she just caught a big fish.
Kasumi blinks (Winks?) a bit in surprise as the older woman literally walks up and bodily moves the girls out of the way. She stares briefly at the woman. Such a strong woman, and not just physically either. Maybe some time she could be as confident and strong as someone like that. She is not prepared when Itami turns her focus onto her. Suddenly and strangely, she feels like a mouse to Itami's cat.
"Thank you. Huh? Uhh, S-Saotome Kasumi. Nice to meet you." She bows her head just a little bit. She has this sudden urge to take a step backwards but she holds her ground. "I uhh… Must know what, exactly?" She asks nervously. She shifts her stance a little; the paint was getting quite heavy.
"Nice to meet you as well, Kasumi." Itami offers to her. She didn't return the bow, but that's because she was too focused on benefitting from this well of assumed knowledge. "You must know…" She pauses. "Nothing. Nothing at all." Not yet. "We should get you inside, instead. Come along now, we musn't take too long." She works her way behind Kasumi and begins to gesture her along…physically. She doesn't exactly let go of the girl once she's behind her more so than play driver with her. "What else do they have you doing in here? Those cans look a little heavy." She's just figuring this out? "In fact, why don't I take one off your hands." Just one and leave her with the other two. Very helpful.
Kasumi may be young, but she is far from stupid. She can tell she is being used. While she is being guided inside the theatre she tries to give a bit of protest; the painters are just to the left inside the door. She doesn't have a lot of choice, as the woman overpowers her weak protests easily. "U-um. I need to go pick up and deliver a couple script revisions too…" She says quietly. Nobody was really paying attention to the two of them, which was good for Itami, not so much for poor Kasumi. "Other than that, I don't have much else to do t-today."
Itami doesn't pick up on the signs of protest or maybe she didn't really care. The latter was the more likely answer. Once inside, she stops off at the door and looks around at the area. "You said something about script revisions, correct?" She inquired in a distracted manner. When she comes to she looks at the can of paint she has and says, "Well, if you don't have much to do~…" She hums. "Let's get this paint turned in, then we--err, I mean you can get the script revisions." She nodded while wondering what play could possibly be going on at this place.
There wasn't any hesitation in turning in the paint to the painters and now she needed to stal--follow Kasumi around to get more information on what she's looking for. She just has to be the first to know.
Drops off the paint and doesn't get much more than a grunt of thanks from one of the painters. Kasumi rolls her shoulders a bit and bends backwards to crack her back. All that paint was heavy. She glances up at Itami. She seems to decide that it won't hurt letting the woman… tag along, as it were. "Yeah, just some script revisions. I need to bring a bunch and hand them out to the cast. You can help too, if you want. It will be easier to track everyone down with you helping." She begins to walk off a little, letting Itami follow.
She walks for a few minutes before pointing at a door. "Can you go in there and grab about twelve copies? They should be right on the table. I'm going to get a drink of water." She then begins to go off to the side a little to a small table with some snacks and drinks available.
Itami nods. "I'd love to help out! Tracking these people down. That shouldn't be so hard." She chuckles a little deviously as she follows along with Kasumi. Upon arriving at a door, she looks at it and then back to Kasumi when she voices the copies are inside. She almost grows suspicious and wonders if she's trying to avoid her, but nah, that wouldn't happen, right? Besides, if it did, this may turn out a little crazy.
"The copies are in there? I'll get them right away." She proceeds into the room and looks around before closing the door behind her and snagging one of the copies to flip through. Score! She knows what the play will be about and…maybe it wouldn't hurt to look through the revisions… Hmm. She stays in for a little longer than she should and finishes up reading the script quickly enough. Placing the copy she read on the bottom, she would then pick up the stack of twelve and leave out the door saying, "Alright, I've got the copies! Now, where to?"
Something a little strange happens. It seems like the door is a bit stuck. Or even locked. And that script… Didn't they do that play just last year? In fact, the scripts are even dated as being over a year old. The few set peices they passed did not look like they would fit in Rashomon. The door unlocks and a larger burly man and a thin stick of a man are standing there, displeased. "So, ah see we 'ave a shpy in ower midsts!" The thin man says in a foppish foreign accent. The director, to be sure.
Such a horrible betrayal by one so young and semeingly innocent.
Itami frowned. What was up with this door, here? She tried to open it, but it seems stuck. That and… "Wait a minute…" She starts. "I knew I saw this before. These scripts…" She lowered the stack to look at them. They were dated! She set the stack on top of the table and then the door opens to reveal a burly guy and a thin one. She lofted a brow. "Shpy…?" She inquired and tried to translate it…"Ooooh, I get it…wait." She'd just been had. "When I get out of here, I'm going to…." Her voice trails off as the director sends the burly guy her way.
She huffs, "I'm a seated member of the Council. You would do well to hold your guard against me." She knew that couldn't really work considering what she just did. The burly guy didn't seem to care nor the director. So, she took a script in her hand and hurled it at the burly guy's face to distract him in an attempt to escape.
The big burly man seems to dissapear as the script goes flying in his face. The man turns out to be Kasumi, the papers flying easily over her head as the illusion fails. The little girl quickly skitters backwards. "An Shtay out! I vill be sure to speak to the councel about zis!" The director call out as Itami makes her escape. Neither Kasumi nor the director had any way to stop someone with the skills of a council member. The director turns to see if Kasumi is alright, to which the girl nods her head. "Be sure that woman nevah comes in 'ere again! Now, where is Kira? E was to be 'ere an 'our ago!"
Itami now had a new mission to try and find Kasumi and she isn't sure of the first place she could start looking. She hummed while sitting up in the rafters and looking down at the people below going to and fro. To those that noticed her up there, it probably freaked them out. She wasn't exactly friendly looking, at the moment. The last place she saw her was the snack table…how could she evade her like that? Something was wrong and she needed to find out why. There was no way…
She snorts and sniffles followed by a soft sneeze. Being up in the dusty area of the theatre wasn't doing her any good. "Where…" She continued her search below with a gaze like a hawk. When the time came, she'd pounce.
It would be a few minutes before Kasumi would come back into the area. Obviously she had been lying about being almost done. Currently she was moving along at a hurried pace to go fetch something. She passes almost directly underneath Itami without seeing her. She seemed to be in a good mood at least, which is a big change from her normal demenor. She had outwitted a Jounin Council Member! A spark of pride had been lit, and it warmed her up like few things do. So accustomed to failure, it felt nice to win.
Itami scanned the area and if she could fly, she'd have made a full circle around, but she was only limited to the space she had. After giving the workers a once over for a second time, halfway into the third, she spots Kasumi down below as she walks off elsewhere. A wicked grin forms on her face as she skips through the rafters to follow her to wherever she was going. Stalking now seemed the more appropriate term than what it was before. Now, what was she up to?
She leaned forward and focused chakra to her feet so she could hang upside down. She wasn't much like a lizard and more so like a bat. She wasn't going to dive yet. There was timing to these things.
Kasumi walks along quietly before reaching a pair of men moving a large set piece. She waps one of them in the hip to get his attention. She says something to the man which seems to annoy him greatly. He says something to Kasumi which makes her pale face blush lightly before nodding and turning about to head back the other way. The two men begin to bring the set piece back in the direction it had come from. Kasumi heads for the stage in the general direction of the director. Looks like she is just running messages for the moment.
Itami drops from the roof and makes a soft thud on some random guy who was passing by. It was from here that she walked off of him and proceeded after Kasumi quietly. Nearing the stage, instead of proceeding any further, she waits outside the stage doors and observes the area as well as inside with a peek beyond the doors every so often. She was going to figure this out one way or another. She had to find out what this play was. It was exclusive and she'd be the only one to know!
Kasumi talks to the director for a few minutes. He seems like a nice man, even kneeling down to talk to the child. They talk for a few minutes as people mill about getting work done. It actually looks like there are no actors present; and just workers milling about doing their own thing. Many of the workers are contractors, one such contractor would be nursing a fairly large lump on his forehead whenever he wakes up.
"Sankyuu Kah-Su-mi~" The director finally says, standing up. "Yoo vere a big help today! You ah velcome back at anytime! I ahm sure yoo vill be a great shinobi! Now vere is Kira?!" The director turns about and walks off. Good help is so hard to find these days.
Kasumi makes her way towards the exit, counting the bit of money she got from the director. She is heading straight towards Itami.
Itami heard something about Kira, but that wasn't her concern. She just needed to get to her prey. The one that outsmarted her; ditched her. She lay in wait for a bit of time now waiting for her to emerge and time was drawing near her her to pounce. She could almost taste it…
Kasumi walks towards Itami counting the cash. It wasn't a lot, but it would at least allow her to get a few groceries. Or maybe a new pair of shoes. Well, a second-hand pair of shoes, maybe. She places the money away in a pocket as she reaches Itami and stops dead in her tracks. The woman did not look all to happy with her. "Umm…. Hi, Councilwoman." She says loudly so the few people nearby could hear her. If she was murdered, it would be good for people to know who did it.
Itami's gaze fell on Kasumi as she stopped in her tracks, raising her voice to greet her. A twisted grin took up her features. "Hello, Kasumi." She spoke with a slight growl. "You tricked me…" She stated as she began to step closer to the girl. The people grew concerned. "I felt betrayed, even! Left to look over old scripts! Taking advantage of my overzealousness!" She began to reach for the girl as if she were to strangle her. "Clever little thing." She compliments? She was still pretty worked up over the ordeal and just as she was about to grab her clothing, she'd receive a bash to the head.
She froze, her gaze still locked on Kasumi before her eyes rolled and she fell to the ground unconscious. Turns out the guy she landed on didn't take too well to that stunt. Lifting the prop he was carrying from the area where it made contact, he smiled and waved at Kasumi to continue on her way. He'd deal with the Councilwoman. "See you tomorrow?" He inquires as his smile brightens.
