Checkmate[NPC Requesting Entrance]

[Nanjirou Soku]

The sounds of his sandals brushing along the trail was audible to any nearby as he came to stop before the entrance to the village. The defense was massive, good thick walls built to absrob any type of attack. It was almsot intimidating in a sense. This was where the key choice would be made. He gripped his spear tightly, resting on his right shoulder and his straw hat was pulled low over his face concealing his features as he waited to be approached. He did not want to take the risk of blowing his cover so soon. If asked, he would remove it but until then, the hat stays. How he was going to get in, Nibachi had no idea but he would find a way. He always did. He ran his free hand through his thick moss of black hakr which almost appeared like a bush to some. In fact, Nibachi was appearing to seem completely at ease on the outside while on the inside, his heart was pounding. No documentation, no passport, how on earth was he going to get inside?

His blue cloak that he wore bore the mark of the Santaru Clan on the back but would only help him so much. He could make all these claims but without actual verifacation, it meant nothing. "Any time now...." He said tapping his foot jn a rhythmic pattern. His dark pupils scanned the area in front of him seeking a audience with the on duty guards. Wen they came, he would have a story ready and it involved the coded message he carried with him or he could always resort to bribery depending on the situation.
[NPC requesting Entry]

 

[Kogami Ayumu]

With some regularity, Ayumu was required to make a trip to the gates now and then. Whether it was to meet a foreign diplomat or handle some other business, he found himself at the gates this particular day. At times, if just to get a taste of the old days, he'd even handle a bit of gate duty while he was there. When a man showed up at the gates just as Ayumu was wrapping up his business, an opportunity to do just that presented itself. Upon hearing that someone was approaching, Ayumu peered down from guard post atop the gates and observed the traveler. The man was armed with a spear, head adorned with a straw hat that obscured any possibility of identifying him from above. A shinobi? One of their own? It was impossible to tell from where Ayumu stood. The man halted and waited to be approached.

"I've got this one,"<i></i> Ayumu announced to the guards who were making ready to go down. Planting a hand on the guard rail he swung his legs over it and dropped down from the wall. Placing a hand against the gate he applied a bit of chakra to cause a minor adhesion effect and slow his descent until he reached the ground. Looking up, he could now see the identity of the man who awaited. It was nobody Ayumu recognized, though that didn't necessarily mean anything.

"Greetings. I'll need a passport if you're looking for entry," Ayumu announced, waiting to see what the man had to say.

 

[Nanjirou Soku]

The man tilted his head to see who had come. It wasn't anyone he recgonized but he didnt seem like your ordinary run of the mill guard. That just made things a lot more difficult. For once, Nibachi decided to go the honest route and get his way in by use of words. It had worked at Konoha, did not hurt to give it a try. With his free hand, he reached up grasping the straw hat and pulled it off revealing a black moss of hair that was barely touching the lower portion of his ears. Breathing a silent prayer to the gods above, he spoke, his voice calm, collected and his expression lacking of any emotion."Greetings.
The name is Santaru Nibachi.He let a pause settle in after that statement before he continuted so the Kumo shinobi could cleary grasp his name."I am going to be honest here. No sense beating around the bush. I hail from the Hidden Leaf, a retired shinobi. I possess no such paperwork or passport which you ask for. I lost all those quite a while back when I left this very village for the sanctuary of the Leaf."Perhaps he was drawing this out too much? No, personal thoughts would only get in the way of the objective he had come to achieve here.

"I come to visit the Santaru Clan here with something. I understand that perhaps with no paperwork, most will turn me away. It was a miracle that I made it through the gates of Konoha. Their shinobi were reasonable. I am sure your's are as well. If you still have an issue with believing my story or letting me into this humble village, I am more than willing to give up a valuable item of mine to gurantee my behavior while I reside here which will only be about 2 weeks. If I go over that time-mark, you may act as you see fit."

Nibachi was playing all the cards in his deck. It was most essential he step within those gates. The note he held within his cloak was a deseperate one and he was not one to turn down a cry for aid. If need be, he would surrneder his prized belonging, his famed spear to make it in. None of them really understood how important this personal vendetta of his was. As a show of trust, Nibachi lifted his hands from his weapon allowing the spear to clatter to the ground at the guard's feet."Usually, I would not part with this but I am willing. I have a important goal to fulfill and if you wish, I shall elaborate but the task I am about to undertake is more important than some mere weapon."He said gesturing at the weapon. Actually, it gnawed at him inside to part with this but sometimes, prices had to be paid. Hopefully, this shinobi before him wasnt one of those meat-brained guards. His other way of getting inside was not so peaceful. He really didnt want to resort to that. The Santaru had considered getting a forged passport but if discovered would be automatic grounds for denial and perhaps lowered his chances of being trusted. He would take no such risk."So...what do you say?" He wished to visit the branch of the clan here and see how it differed. Nibachi seeked answers, surely that in itself was not a bad thing. Knowledge was always useful but in some cases...dangerous in the wrong hands.

 

[Kogami Ayumu]

Ayumu observed the man as he took his hat off, making no effort to hide his face or appearance. He didn't seem like he was trying to hide anything at all, but one could never be too careful. He provided his name, the clan name not going unnoticed by Ayumu, and went on to proclaim that he was going to be honest. According to his story, he was a retired from Konoha without any paperwork or passport to his name. Confusingly, he claimed to have lost the documents when he left Kumogakure to go to Konoha for "sanctuary". Ayumu wasn't sure what that meant exactly- had this man visited Kumogakure in the past? What was more, he didn't look as though he was so old as to be retired. Ayumu remained silent for the moment to see what else the man would say.

His apparent reason for visiting was to visit the Santaru clan, the clan whose name he shared, with something that he did not readily reveal. He admitted that he was aware his lack of paperwork made it unlikely that he'd be allowed through but claimed that the gate guards of Konoha had allowed him to pass through regardless. That struck Ayumu as odd, but most of this story did in all honesty. The man offered up his weapon as collateral for the guards to hold on to during the duration of his stay, going so far as to drop the weapon on the ground. Ayumu glanced down at it for a moment, admiring the craftsmanship. It was a fine weapon, no doubt, and to risk losing it the man clearly was desperate to get inside. Indeed, the man claimed to have an important goal that he felt compelled to accomplish.

Ayumu exhaled heavily as the question of whether he would allow the man in came about. There was simply no way he could let this man in just like that, regardless of whatever he was willing to give up. Things just didn't add up about the story, there were too many questions, and it would be a clear breach of protocol to allow an unknown shinobi entry without any paperwork. Surely it was within his power to grant the man entrance as the Raikage and leader of the village, but it just didn't seem like the right call to make bar any good reasoning which he hadn't gotten yet.

"Sorry, Nibachi. Kumogakure is not in the business of letting shinobi, retired or otherwise, into the village without documentation. I have no way of knowing you are who you say you are. If Konoha allowed you to leave their gates without question with no passport in hand, that is... frankly, surprising to me. If you are a shinobi of Leaf, I am not certain why you wouldn't obtain a passport from them before coming here unless you were not actually permitted by them to leave," Ayumu finally responded. No doubt, this was not the response Nibachi had hoped for but it was the only reasonable one Ayumu could give in this position. Letting a random shinobi into the village without a passport was exceedingly rare and only ever occurred in extreme circumstances. This man had not even truly given a reason for his wish to enter.

"Are you a shinobi of Leaf, and if so, why do you not have a passport? What is so important that brought you here?" Ayumu asked. In the worst case scenario, it was possible this man was a missing-nin from Leaf. The shinobi atop the gates looked to be on guard now, all eyes on Nibachi.

 

[Nanjirou Soku]

This would be tougher than expected, it seemed. Clearly, the man in front of him was having trouble processing his stiry. That was fine with Nibachi. He was not out of tricks to play yet."I assure you, I exited the Hidden Leaf via approval from one of their guards. If you find this hard to believe,
feel free to reach out to them though I would doubt you would want to go through all that trouble for the sake of a single gate guard."The Santaru male was inwardly cursing. Had he come this far to fail so soon? All the man wanted was to pay a visit to the clan houses. He was seeking a audience with the head, was that such a hard thing to request? He needed answers...answers that this man could probably not provide."I can see now I was not clear the first time. Let me adjust that then. I come here to the Cloud seeking an audience with a member of the Santaru clan. I have some questions I would like answered. I will in and out of your village in no less than 2 weeks.He paused, his eyes looking at all the attention on him and with a slight nod of his head, he took the situation for what it was."Granted, you have no way of validating my story. I would say if it makes you feel at ease, to have one of your men supervising me if you still do not trust me.As for why I do not have a passport..it was one of many things I lost...back home in a incident, to be more specific, a fire. Since then, I have been without one and I would not do this if I did not have to but I come here to seek guidance from my Santaru brethren. I do not know how I can pove my idenditiy to you but if there is something I can do, pray do tell."

This was going south quickly. He had journeyed far and long only to be stopped here. What did he expect anyways. Rules were rules and sometimes, that was enough to hinder someone."I pray you do not deny a man his goals on this journey of hope. You seem like a reasonable man and even if turned away, I shall hold you in good regard whatever be the reason. I do not hold grudges. May I inquire to your name, honorable one?"He would note down the name for further memory should he run into the shinobi again. The guy did seem pretty important to be honest. He had that aura about him. The guards seemed to defer to him so he must have been some sort of leader. Nibachi waited and prayed and prayed. All the cards in his deck were out, now it was up to the judge to deliver the verdict.

 

[Kogami Ayumu]

Ayumu listened intently to the man's explanation. He insisted that a guard from Konoha allowed him to leave, and suggested that Ayumu could verify this by reaching out to Leaf. He was correct, however, in assuming that Ayumu did not want to put forward the effort to do that. After all, it was not Kumogakure's responsibility to put forward effort in obtaining identification for someone who hadn't thought to bring any. He continued on to explain why he had come in the first place. It had been established that he himself was a Santaru, presumably from one of the offshoot clans that had migrated away from Lightning Country long ago. He had come here to ask some questions about the Santaru from the source. An understandable desire, to find out more about your ancestral clan, however...

The man continued to try to reason, suggesting that perhaps he could be allowed entry with supervision. That would, however, require the expenditure of resources to have somebody tail this man at all times for the two weeks he desired to stay. His reasoning for not having a passport was that it had been lost in a fire. This didn't make any sense to Ayumu, however. As far as Ayumu was aware, there was no reason a replacement for a passport lost in a fire couldn't be applied for. This excuse, in all honesty, hurt the man's story more than it helped. The man pleaded his case to be allowed in, appealing to Ayumu's reasonableness. As an afterthought, he asked Ayumu's name which could provide an interesting response.

"To answer your question, I am Kogami Ayumu, tenth Raikage of this village. Reasonable though you may or may not consider me to be, I'm afraid your reasoning for not having a passport doesn't hold up enough for my tastes. If you lost your passport to a fire, you should have obtained another before coming here. I don't think our policy differs much from Konoha's as far as allowing foreign shinobi in without identification... those cases are extremely rare and circumstantial. Given you have said that you are from Konoha, I believe you should have been capable of obtaining a passport if you have truly been permitted to travel, so I can't in good conscience allow you to enter," Ayumu explained, giving the man his decision on allowing entry. Unfortunately, there was just no reason for him to do so at this point.

"The way I see it is, your options are limited here... One: You can leave now and return to Konoha to obtain a passport and then return and be granted entrance. Two: You can send correspondence to Konoha-- we will provide you with a messenger animal-- and request to be sent a passport. It will be up to them if they are willing to do so. Three: I can have a message delivered to the Santaru if you wish to request either the head or a member of the clan to meet you at the gates or in a nearby village to discuss your questions-- I can't say if they will be willing to comply or not. Unfortunately, right now I don't see allowing you entry at this time to be an option given what you have told me thus far," Ayumu concluded. The man would no doubt be disappointed, but Ayumu had no idea what had made him think this would be possible with documentation.

"One caution I will give you: Not that you would, but do not attempt to return with forged documents. We see people attempt that all the time. We will recognize the forgery and it will not end well," Ayumu provided one final thought. He had no reason to believe the man would try something of that nature, but it was far from uncommon for people denied entry to do so.

[Entry Denied]

 

[Nanjirou Soku]

Nibachi was momentarily caught off guard. This man was the Raikage?! No wonder he was having no luck. Kages tended to look out for the protection of their village and he understood. It did not help him in any way though. Ayumu proceeded to speak offering him three alternatives to his current predicament. The clansman held up his hand having made his deiscion and spoke."I understand, Lord Raikage. There will be no need for the messenger animal althought I do appreciate the gesture. I shall return and hopefully return within the following 2 weeks with proper documentation. Until then, I do have a small request to ask of you if you do not mind."Digging around in his cloak, the warrior prodiced a folded piece of paper which he held out to the senior shinobi."Would you be as so kind to deliver this small note and it's contents to a member of the Santaru clan, preferably the head or a high-ranking clansmen. It contains some important contents. If you so desire, you may take a look but that is all I ask.

Note:

Spoiler

Greetings to the honorable Santaru clansmen from the Hidden Leaf. If you are reading this, it probably means I was not able to meet with you or some unfornature situation has befallen me. My name is Santaru Nibachi, a retired shinobi, I now serve as a mercernary of sorts within the Hidden Leaf. I had traveled here to seek your guidance. For all my life, I was born and raised in Konoha but have had no trace of my parents. The only close clan relative I have met is a young genin kunoichi within the Leaf I hold a special trust in. I seek your guidance on one thing, to aid me in finding my true parents. I am sure the clan here has some sort of records of its members. I would be forever in your debt. Signed, Santaru Nibachi kf the Hidden Leaf

Nodding, the man retrieved his fallen spear dusting it off and pulled his straw hat low over his face once more preparing for the long trek back."I have no intent of forgery. Such a thing is beyond my honor, Lord Raikage. I thank you, you have been more than fair. Although oerhaps the outcome was nkt what I wanted, I understand we must adhere to the rules no matter how unfornature or much if a thorn they become. I shall return...soon. Until then...farewell,Ayumu-sama."Raising a hand in farewell,he gave a little smile to the guards above watching and set on his way humming that usual tune of his. Now it was time to return to Leaf, hopefully they would let him back in as easily as they had let him out.
[Topic left unless stopped]

 

[Kogami Ayumu]

Ayumu was surprised that the man chose to walk away for now and return another time. It was a long trip to make, but then again it was also surprising that he had made the trip to begin with under the assumption he'd get in without documentation. At any rate, it was his decision to make. Apparently he had at least prepared a letter on the chance that he was not allowed in. Ayumu took the left and nodded his head. The man assured him that he would not attempt any sort of forgery and then made to leave. A part of Ayumu certainly wanted to call out and tell the man he could enter, but it just didn't seem the prudent thing to do given how little information he had and given the information that he did have.

"Very well, we'll look for your return," Ayumu said conclusively before turning and walking back to the gates. Time would tell if the Santaru would return as he claimed he would and whether he'd have the documentation needed.

[Topic Left]