Starring:
Date: March 10, 2012
Summary:
Atsuro and Hitoshi talk about the current situation in Suna and how Hitoshi will be training after the exams. After Atsuro's done some waking up, that is.
Poster's note: Profanity filtered in obvious places.
"Team 10: The Morning Blahs"
Suna Hotel Room
It wasn't too late into the day. Of course, the interview with Itami had been only a couple of hours ago. Hitoshi had time to process the information… the fact now was that he needed to confer with his Team's leader and see what was going on. What orders had been drafted? What other information was available? He had stepped off the second flight of stairs of the hotel room, dusting himself and his semi-formal yukata off as he wanders down the hallway, eyeing the door numbers as he goes.
"Two-oh-five, Two-oh-six…"
Finally, he stops in front of one of the room doors, and he takes a breath. Would he even be up this early? Well, he's about to find out.
Reaching to the door, he knocks, three nice raps on the door, before calling through… "Atsuro-sempai, are you in?" he calls, trying to rouse attention.
Having enjoyed the nightlife last evening, Atsuro has had a late night. That's okay though, he loves late nights. What he does /not/ love is being woken up at ungodly hours of the morning. 'Ungodly' here meaning 'before noon.' He awakens to Hitoshi's knocks and calls and, not even bothering to comprehend what he's heard, immediately pulls the blankets over his head and goes back to sleep. ZzzzzZZzzZzz. But sadly for him, Taizen is occupying the room's other bed, fully awake, and quite responsible about this kind of thing. The dog hops down from the beg, walks over to the door and turns the knob with his teeth.
The door opens to reveal a fairly normal hotel room. It's partly undergound so as to avoid some of the desert heat, with its windows set high up in the wall. In one corner of the room is a suitcase, left open and allowed to spill its contents (mostly clothes, as well as some ninja equipment, books, money, and toiletries) on the floor. Off to one side of the room is a plain door, likely leading to the bathroom. There are two comfortable-looking double beds, one of which has a bit of black fur scattered, and the other having a giant lump, roughly human-shaped, occasionally shifting under its sheets.
Upon seeing Hitoshi, Taizen gives a soft, pleased bark and wags his tail enthusiastically, then turns and heads over to lump and begins prodding it with his nose. "Mnmnmnnnnn…" says the lump, and burrows further into the blankets. Taizen persists and this continues on for a while until finally Atsuro's head comes poking out of the covers. He looks tired, bleary-eyed, messy-haired and five-o'-clock shadowed. "What?" he asks Taizen sleepily. The dog nudges his head to make him face Hitoshi. "Oh." Atsuro yawns. "What?"
For opening the door, Taizen gets a bit of a pat on the head from Hitoshi, smiling a little at the dog's commitment to actually doing things for his master. "Good boy," he remarks softly, stepping on into the room and letting him go to wake the sleeping lump up. He only goes in so far so he can close the door, and he otherwise leans on the doorframe, watching Atsuro quietly as he rouses around and finally comes out.
"It's after noon, Sempai," Hitoshi remarks softly, taking a soft breath and rolling his neck slightly. "I just got out of an interview at the Administration Building," he remarks softly, "and I figured I needed to come and talk to you about some of the things I learned." A pause, and he tilts his head, biting his lip. "That is… if you think you're able?" he asks.
"That can't be…" Atsuro looks over and up to the window, stretching his neck. "Oh. Well, whatever." He pauses to yawn loudly, opening his mouth up to roughly the size of a cavern in the process. "Right," he says, "Item— Ipad— Itami said 'you're a criminal' and you said 'no' and then she said 'no I'm just kidding.' Or something like that, right?" He wants to just go back to sleep and, unable to think straight, he thinks this is actually a pretty good idea!
Taizen, however, knows how Atsuro thinks, and is one step ahead of him. Before Atsuro can get his head back under the covers, Taizen pokes his own head in and bites down on his shoulder, then pulls him out. Klonk. Most of Atsuro's upper body is pulled out and he flops onto the floor, head first. "Unnnnhhh," he protests, "Just let me sleep." He's wearing his usual burgundy dress shirt, which is now entirely unbuttoned and entirely disheveled (and now with dog slobber). Which is unfortunate, because the teeth-on-skin would probably have woken him up in a hurry. But don't worry, Taizen's on it. The dog digs around under the bed for a moment, and produces a pair of black pants. He pulls them over Atsuro's head. Finally, the chuunin concedes defeat. "FINE. God." He grabs the pants, and gets back under the sheets. Once again a lump, he shifts around for a few seconds, then throws back the covers to reveal Sleepy Atsuro wearing pants and a shirt. 'bout damn time. "Okay," he says, getting up from bed. "So you wanna talk with me about this Sabaku chick?"
"Watanabe-sama explained the situation as it stands, yes," Hitoshi replies softly, and he tilts his head a little bit, shrugging his shoulders. Once Atsuro is revealed to be dressed, Hitoshi makes no reservations about moving further into the hotel and moving to sit near the bed, chilling out on one of the comfortable looking chairs and relaxing a little bit, sighing and letting himself slump.
"One's gotta assume that this has made it back to the village council and to the Hokage, right?" he asks softly. "I mean, this is some pretty heavy stuff. This is national-security-sensitive stuff," he remarks softly. "And we're caught in the midst of it. Which leads to the big question: have we got orders regarding any of this yet?"
His work here done, Taizen happily trots over to Hitoshi and sits down near his chair. Atsuro does just the opposite and lumbers over to the bathroom, enters, and shuts the door. He soon emerges, his face lathered up with shaving soap and a razor in his right hand. "I dunno if we're right in the midst of it," he says. Apparently he was able to hear despite not being in the room. "We aren't personally, at least. Suna doesn't /actually/ think we kidnapped one of their genin, so that's not a problem. So unless you knew her. I didn't. As a village, a country? Yeah, we're in some pretty serious waffles." He heads over to a mirror in the room itself and starts shaving. "We haven't gotten any orders, no. I don't even know who's giving us orders. Could be Itami, could be the Hokage, could be some other bigwig." He pulls the razor away from his face and flourishes it dramatically. "Who knows?" He glances down at the floor, which now has some shaving-soap-and-whiskers mixture on it. "Whoops." He attempts to rub it into the floor with his bare foot. "I had a talk with Uchiha Fuyu and Itami last night, actually. I dunno how much I can tell you, but I was basically just giving some ideas on where we could get a lead. We might end up following something that they find, but I don't really know right now."
"I read the letter," Hitoshi remarks lightly, "and I know that Sabaku no Hana is actually Toyotomi Hiroko… I know her status as an Heir to the Daimyo. The fact the heirs have been systematically turning up dead." He tilts his head slightly, looking toward Atsuro as he watches him shaving. This is, thankfully, something he's not had to start doing yet. "I dunno how much more Watanabe-sama told you and Fuyu-sempai," he remarks lightly, "but you know that whatever you tell me is in confidance. I'm here, and so is Taiki-kun, and Berii-chan. We're charged with the safety of Konoha and the Land of Fire just as much as the next shinobi."
He pauses, then, looking toward the window for a second and tapping his fingers on the armrest of his chair. "I didn't know Sab— Toyotomi-sama personally," he remarks lightly, "but I do kind of owe her one for helping me in the caves during the Exam. I want to help in any way I can. And I'm sure, since the rest of the team is likely aware of the circumstances, they are too."
"Not a lot more," Atsuro says, "I said I don't know how much I can tell you, but even if I could tell you everything, it's not a hash of a lot." He pauses to wipe off his razor on a handy towel, then continues shaving. "I don't think Itami told me anything she hasn't told you. And what we talked about last night was pretty boring. Just how to go about picking up the trail. See if anything suspicious has been shipped out of the city, talk to witnesses… You could make the same list if you had a pen and paper. And a functioning brain, but I know you've got that." He glances over to Hitoshi and grins, "Riiight?"
About finished with shaving, he grabs another towel and wipes the remainder of the soap off, then inspects his face in the mirror for any stray whiskers, running his fingers over the newly-smooth skin. "And I know you're loyal to Konoha. I'd never accuse you of anything but. Unless I had some really good evidence. I mean, I'm not dumb." Satisfied with his work, he turns away from the mirror. "Anyway. That's about where we are. Obviously it's pretty urgent, so I'm sure if we're ever going to get involved, it'll be soon. We'll probably be heading back to Konoha soon. And once we're there, I've got a lot of training in store for you."
"It'd be kind of an awkward situation if we took off and then got intercepted by a carrier pidgeon halfway through the desert with orders to turn back around to continue assisting in hunting this girl down," Hitoshi remarks lightly, smiling a little bit. "As for my training, one place is just as good of a training ground as the other. I can't say I'm terribly fond of the sand, though," he adds, looking thoughtful about that.
"Staying here a bit longer won't kill us," he notes softly, "and being stationary for a few more days would give us time to start on the training you mentioned." He rolls his neck slightly, then, popping it a little bit and yawning some…
Leaving the razor resting on top of a towel for now (he can clean if off later, whatever), Atsuro walks over to his suitcase and digs through his clothes. "Well, we can stay here if you want," he says, "I'm actually expecting that we'll be doing a fair bit of travelling back and forth, though. And besides, don't you want to go home?" He pulls a comb out of the suitcase and waves it at Hitoshi mock-admonishingly. "Your parents must be worried sick about you, young man."
He goes back into the bathroom for a minute to run the tap and dunk his head into the water, wetting his hair. He pats it semi-dry with a towel, then comes out again and begins combing his hair in front of the mirror. Gettin' rid of bedhead. "But yeah. Hopefully wherever we end up, things'll settle down a bit and I can turn you into something resembling a proper ninja. Have you been thinking about what you'd like to work on?" He glances over to Hitoshi. "I have some ideas myself, but I don't know you better than you know yourself. I assume."
As Hitoshi listens to Atsuro, he nods a little bit. "For now," he remarks softly, "this works. 'Til we hear something, anyway." A pause, then, and Hitoshi takes a breath. "I need to work more on my conditioning," he remarks softly. "I may know complicated ninjutsu, but it does me zero good if I can't defend myself long enough to form handseals." A pause, then, and he looks around, noticing the little vest fashioned for Taizen. He squints a little bit.
"You use sword techniques, yeah?" he asks softly.
"Huh," Atsuro tosses his comb down, "Never met someone who liked living out of a hotel so much. But then, I guess you did a lot of travelling as a kid— " He smirks as he catches himself. "As a younger kid, didn't you? Anyway…" He takes a seat on his bed. "I was thinking something like that. You did a good job against that scorpion kid, but you definitely had some weaknesses to exploit. Better to dodge a blow than take it, but being able to take a blow is nice too. I can help you with that. I can probably help with your ninjutsu too. Just not in the whole actually teaching you things way."
He gets to his feet again and walks over to Taizen's vest. He lifts it onto the bed and pulls out a sheathed ninjato. "I think you know the answer to that. Well, actually. I guess we never really got to that point. This team had a bit of a slow start. But still." He draws the sword and makes a couple of fluid, practiced slices through the air. "It sounds to me like you want to learn a little kenjutsu, eh?"
"I've seen you using that before," Hitoshi remarks softly, "but not heavily." A pause, and he tilts his head. "I'm sure you're pretty capable of it. I've never even tried to wield something like that. A sword seems such like a… better weapon than a typical kunai or shuriken. Seems a little more personal." He pauses, then, blinking.
"I think I would be interested in that, yes."
Atsuro sheathes the sword. "Well, don't get all caught up in the romance of it," he says, "You want to use a sword. Is it because you think it will make you a more effective ninja?" He holds the ninjato out to Hitoshi, holding it so that the boy can grab it by the grip. "I like having swords, but I wouldn't be using them if they didn't suit me. If I couldn't use them properly. I think you could use them just fine, but I want to know that you're doing it for the right reasons." He pauses. "When you say personal, you mean as in having ownership over the sword and becoming accustomed to it, right? Not that you want to feel the blade slicing through your enemy's gut or something. If it's the second thing, I think you need to see a doctor."
"It's not just a piece of weaponry you throw away, no," Hitoshi remarks softly. "It's something you get used to feeling the weight of in your hand. Something that you get used to carrying," he explains. "Kunai and shuriken are expendible. They can be thrown away without a second thought. We can make plenty of them. But a sword… swords can be crafted specifically to that person's needs. Balance, weight distribution… It's a very personal weapon in that regard."
Hitoshi then gives Atsuro that 'Look.' "I don't like the idea of killing someone unless I have to. Not to say I couldn't… but I wouldn't do it unless it was necessary to do so. If you, or any of our teammates were in danger? Yeah, no question, someone'd get smoked."
Giving a low chuckle, Atsuro reaches out to ruffle Hitoshi's hair. It's a sign of affection, sure, but he'll also do his best to totally mess up Hitoshi's hair if the boy doesn't do something to stop him. "That's the right answer," he says, grinning, "Look, I try to be the 'cool sensei' who lets you do whatever the bacon you feel like and mouth off to me and all that. But at the end of the day I gotta make sure you don't go home in a bodybag. I just wanted to be sure." He heads over to the suitcase again and pulls out a small handful of money. "This should be enough to buy yourself a good shinai," he says, offering it to Hitoshi. "If you're interested going the two swords route, you'll have to pay out of pocket for the other one. Sorry, but I gotta pay the bills."
Given the money, Hitoshi blinks a little bit, hair-ruffling not withstanding. He makes a face at that, but otherwise, does not complain about it. He's gotten used to Atsuro's altruistic ways of showing affection toward himself. He smiles a little bit, though, and nods, clutching the ryo in his hand and moving to tuck it into a small pocket on the outside of his yukata. "I'll go looking later today. But I'm gonna lose the formal clothing before I go," he remarks softly, moving to stand up and stretch a little.
"It's gonna be … so doggone hot," he remarks softly, looking toward the window. "But it'll work out. If training in this kind of weather doesn't kill you, surely to God it's gotta make you stronger."
"And just walk right down the street in nothing but your underwear?" Atsuro teases, an expression of faux shock on his face, "You /are/ wearing underwear, right?" He takes the ninjato and puts it away in Taizen's vest again. "I offered to let you train back home. If we sweat ourselves to death, I'm blaming you." He walks over to his bed and starts searching underneath. "While you're at the store, maybe take a look at the swords they have and think about what kind you're interested in using. I can teach you just about anything you're interested in using." From underneath the bed, he produces his chuunin vest. He puts it on. "But when it comes to buying your first sword, I'm suggesting a shin-gunto. It's no fun having a mass-produced sword, but I promise you, you're going to beat the toast out of that thing. You don't want to spend forty thousand ryo on some legendary sword created by a master smith and bend it all up fighting some random bandit sausage."
