Pre-Interview Interview

Starring:

Meimei, Sousa

Date: August 20, 2010

Summary:

Meimei, working under the name "Hibiki Yoko", arrives at the Administration Dome for her

job interview. However, matters are complicated by the seeming disappearance of the Kazekage!


"Pre-Interview Interview"

Kazekage Administration Dome - Sunagakure

The day following Meimei's trip to the hospital due to dehydration and heat stroke, she has finally been contacted at her hotel room about her submission to the Academy Heads of Sunagakure. She had merely presented her resume as an experienced Chuunin-level kunoichi, able and willing to assist at the Academy as a teacher or an assistant to an existing teacher, depending on what is required. Ordinarily when one is applying at a school it is for a specific position. So perhaps it is the fact that Meimei did NOT apply for a specific position that has resulted in her being called into the Administration Dome for an interview.
Or maybe it is the fact that she is an unknown ninja who just walked into the Village and decided to try to work at the Academy with no clear idea of who she really is, where she came from, or why she might ACTUALLY be here. Either way, the matter has been escalated all the way up to the Council at the very least, and possibly higher… Not that Meimei knows that yet. On her resume she has presented herself as 'Hibiki Yoko', not 'Onohara Meimei'. While the name and memory of the Onohara Clan may already be fading in he minds of those who yet live, there are still many who remember the peaceful Clan from the Land of Snow, and the cruel fate they were dealt by the Uchiha Clan during the Clan Wars, merely for being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Or so the rumors go.

Meimei had abandoned her black cloak with voluminous black hood for this interview. She is freshly bathed, despite the lack of water, has clean clothing, and wears a nice violet jacket over a white vest, with a black skirt, and knee-high black boots that lace up her shins. She also wears a pair of tinted goggles on her eyes. Aside from the goggles, this is absolutely nothing like her normal appearance and clothing. But making a good first impression is important on a job interview, so she has dressed in a way she feels is appropriate for such. When one is barely five feet tall, and is often assumed to be a child or teenager instead of a full-grown woman, one has to do her best to look professional!
And so she enters the Dome, waist-length purple hair streaming down her back, and notifies the people at the reception desk that she is here. Presumably she'll be called in when it's time for her interview.

Things seem busy in the administration dome. People walk this way and that in an anxious stride, glancing sharply around themselves. Their expressions range from worried to irritated to dull despondence. Whatever's going on, it seems to be important enough to keep anybody from noticing Meimei.
After a minute, there is a tapping on Meimei's shoulder. A little old man, a touch shorter than Meimei even, stands beside her. "Excuse me, you're an unaccounted variable in the simulation standing there," he murmurs. "Come this way, please." The old man walks off with his hands clasped behind his back, heading for an out-of-the-way stairwell.

Meimei may have incredible sensitivity to light, but with these goggles on she is more or less reduced to the same level of visual perception as any normal woman. Likewise, ninja though she may be, she does not presently have any other heightened perception capabilities to her name. The old man tapping her on the shoulder causes her to turn half-way suddenly, surprised, but despite her justified paranoia and suspicion of strangers due to her hunted status, she manages to refrain from lashing out or even giving any indication she had the thought of violence in mind. There might be subtle cues, of course. Tensing of muscles, the speed at which she turned… But all in all, she had done an excellent job of concealing her ninja reflexes.
"…Ah, I see," the short woman responds, as though she understands what simulation is being referred to. She doesn't, but no reason to mess up the simulation further by standing around talking about it! Instead, she moves to follow the old man towards the stairwell. 'A stairwell… That is a great place for an ambush.' she muses to herself out of habit. Spend enough years on the run, and the survival instincts developed are hard to put down.

The old man settles himself on the floor in the shadow of the stairwell, cross-legged. He sets his chin on his hands and stares out at the bustle in the lobby. "It was a rather impromptu experiment," he remarks. "I was going through some papers in my office this morning, and it just came to me to wonder how the administration would react to the sudden disappearance of the Kazekage. So, I slipped out, and came back in under a little disguise to observe."
The man points out a few of the people bustling about. "The newer staff are almost in a panic. It's taken some of the more experienced ones intervention several times to keep them from sounding a village-wide alarm. Wise of them, although it bodes ill for the response if there was an actual emergency." The man points at the secretary at the front desk, who is watching the hubbub almost as calmly as the old man, blowing bubbles with her gum. "Enma-san is quite used to this sort of thing. I'm tempted to keep the experiment going, to see just how much it'll take to get her worried."
The man glances at Meimei. "So what brings you here?"

Meimei listens as the man seats himself on the floor instead of leading her wherever, and starts describing an experiment that was performed as a sort of 'readiness test'. It makes sense, sort of. But she has never been part of a proper Village structure, so the intricacies of preparedness exercises and drills is somewhat lost on her. She DOES pick up that she is speaking to the Kazekage in disguise, though. Supposedly.
"Hm," she offers neutrally. When the Kazekage(?) asks what brings her here, she responds truthfully and promptly. It's not like she has a reason to do otherwise. "I applied for a position as either a teacher or a teacher's assistant at the Academy here. I was called in for an interview. I am not sure who I am supposed to be meeting, but I already reported to the front desk, so presumably someone is going to come out and call for me soon."
She pauses and then says, "I should probably get back out there, uhh, 'Kazekage-sama'." Seems she's still not entirely convinced that the old man is the real deal, but she's not going to insult him by saying otherwise.

The old man smiles lightly. "Ah, that will take quite a while, I imagine. Everybody's busy searching for me. Even if they're not worried about me, they all have something they want me to sign or something." A couple of go-fers run into each other heading around a corner, causing a small explosion of fluttering papers. "Hmmm, yes, productivity will be rather low today. How about you talk to me instead? I can inform whoever needs be of the important bits later on. So, what sort of teaching do you want to do, and what qualifies you to do it?"

Meimei pauses, and then says, "Well, first of all, assuming you really are the Kazekage, I feel you should know something. Though I applied under the name 'Hibiki Yoko', my real name is Onohara Meimei. I left the Land of Snow due to the campaign of murder being waged against my Clan by the ninja of Yukigakure. Simply because I was trained as a ninja, I was seen as in violation of their laws, and declared a terrorist. And yet it was the Yukigakure ninja that nearly obliterated the Onohara in the first place, because we wanted to remain neutral during the Clan Wars. All the civilians are kept in Yukigakure, unable to leave, and brainwashed with propaganda that it was the Uchiha who had attacked the Onohara, and that any Onohara ninja was somehow by definition a terrorist and a monster."
Meimei pauses, taking a moment to regain her placid tone. Towards the end she almost started to sound a bit upset. For most of her explanation, however, she has been remarkably calm considering the subject matter. "I felt you should know the truth about who I am and why I came here before any decision is reached. I am here to help teach, yes… But I also just want a safe place to live. I'm tired of being hunted down for the high crime of being born. I used to want revenge on Yukigakure for its atrocities… But I don't have the strength or the support of allies to free my people or expose those others for what they are. So I figured I'd try to do something productive. Maybe teach the next generation how to avoid the mistakes of the past, and ensure that they never allow themselves to be shackled by ignorance." She shrugs.
"As for subject matter, I am a Ninjutsu specialist, primarily. Though my focus is on Light Manipulation, thanks to my Kekkei Genkai, I don't have to be able to perform a technique to understand how it works and teach others to use it. Further, my experiences at wilderness survival in various climates and environments would probably be of great aid to any who plan to travel outside the Land of Wind at any point. I'm willing to bet that most Sunagakure ninja are as unprepared for constant snow and ice as I was for sand and heat."
She considers her qualifications for a moment, and then says, "Well, in terms of qualifications… I'm not dead yet, am I?" She shrugs.

The old man nods slowly. "Interesting response, Meimei-san. Most people would have jumped straight into the subject matter part, and /maybe/ had the intelligence to throw in one or two topics that don't have directly to do with the ninja arts." The old man stands up with a sigh. "Well, I suppose continuing the experiment much longer wouldn't be worth the repercussions. I'll see to it the interviewing comittee gets to you, and pass them my recommendation." With a puff of smoke, Sousa returns to his usual form, and walks off towards his office. Several people get whiplash as they spot him, and soon he's surrounded by a crowd of concerned/exasperated administrative staff. A few minutes later, Meimei is ushered in for her official interview, and the people doing the interview are…rather receptive.

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