It had been his mother who would first encounter the letter, her general experience as a shinobi herself understanding the gravity of such communications. Without reading the notice herself, she would bring it to Tsumugu just as he was entering the communal room. There would be no exchanging of words between the two as the piece of paper exchanged hands, his mother exiting the room after subtly giving him a kiss on the forehead. This day had been one he had been waiting on since his graduation not to long ago. It was only a matter of time before he would be requested and his future path as a shinobi of the village would begin to take shape. What excitement boiled within him did not show on his face, though as he scanned the notice an internal chill crept up along Tsumugu's spine.
His first reaction puts him in a sphere of alertness and caution, not excitement.
The summons was something normal, something understandable and that was not what elicited such a bodily response. No, it was who the letter was from. His youth did not shield him from growing up steeped in biased perceptions and seeing Byakko anything could only mean the person was connected to the Toroano Clan. This was just the tip of the iceberg as it wasn't just any Toroano, but Kyuji. The Renmei were trained from childhood to treat influence carefully. A summons from someone powerful outside the clan didn’t feel like an honor, it feels like a test. With the letter still in his grasp, both eyes would set their attention to a shifting movement in his peripheral vision. There in the doorway, his mother would be standing with his father whom she had fetched while Tsumugu was reading the summons. No words were exchanged as their facial features spoke more to him than any language could. Tsumugu's father approached though not empty handed, as he carried a large gourd which was simply placed before his son. Right, at the end of the day he was a Renmei and a proud one at that..
He doesn’t rush to leave.
He doesn’t refuse the order.
He prepares.
Before leaving, he checks his gourd seals and tightens his forehead protector. He adjusts the pendant at his neck. He reviews every rule drilled into him by the clan elders and his parents: Do not promise. Do not reveal. Do not bind the clan through your words. On the walk there, his mind is steady but sharp. He’s aware of his own age thirteen, a genin and that alone tells him something is off. A shinobi of that stature doesn’t summon a child without reason let alone send a summons without vital information such a time and place. Equally, in the back of his brain he wondered just who the other was. No street. No building. No time. Just the name of the shinobi who was famous, powerful, from a clan the Renmei did not trust and the expectation that he would appear. For a long moment, he stood before his house after exiting with the paper held between his fingers, feeling the weight of the message more than the gourd strapped on his back. It was deliberate, he realized concluding that this had to be a test before the meeting even began.
Sunagakure was loud during this time of day, with merchants calling out, shinobi moving between missions or other responsibilities, everyday citizenry going about their day to day lives. Tsumugu let the noise wash over him as he thought. A shinobi of that status wouldn’t meet somewhere private, not with a thirteen-year-old genin from the Renmei and not in a secluded place a child of his ranking wouldn't even know about. It also wouldn’t be anywhere that could be traced back to the clan’s water routes or storage vaults as that was an obvious healthy scratch off the list of possible locations. He didn’t ask anyone for help. Instead, he started walking, as what purpose would he have of rushing without vital information or a definitive means to acquire it.
As he walked a thought occurred to him, that if they were meeting then it would mean at the very least, it would be someone waiting in a stagnant location. Process of elimination running options through his head, Tsumugu would shift his weight mid-stride as a sudden channeling of chakra into his feet would aid in sending him airborne. His movements were fluid, using the edges of available rooftops in the district as platforms to further propel himself around while his eyes scanned for any possible clue. This would go one for several minutes before something caught his attention, a somewhat older shinobi who was perched atop a nearby roof. Information...That's it. In approaching the shinobi and greeting the man with general respect, he'd ask the man a simple question, "What does Byakko Kyuji look like?". Luckily the shinobi had some vague description to give though it wasn't much information either when pitted agains the shear number of people in the village that could have those characteristics; blonde, short, green eyed. With general thanks, Tsumugu would carry on before finding himself on a stationary perch amongst the bustle of the commercial district. It was here that he would take time to scan and overwatch, playing a game of essentially where's waldo. The main trait though that was of the most importance was the description that Kyuji had feline ears.
It would be this specific trait that would allow him to find his needle in a haystack, or at least for the time being he assumed he found her. A woman, alone and eating in the near distance loosely matched what he was looking for though the question was how exactly would he confirm this. He would stand there in the open, his position being easily spotted by anyone who bothered scanning nearby roofs as it was not like he was trying to hide or be concealed. For now he simply would wait, staring solely at the woman and watching her....what was he banking on exactly?
The other, as if another approached the woman then he could very well surmise that this was where he was supposed to be.
[Topic Entered]
[WC: 1055]
It had been a few days since the meeting among the noble and lesser clans hosted by the current Kazekage of the village and the one that followed that was private between my old student and I. Both meetings had been productive and really brought to light the magnitude of what had happened since I had been injured - targeted - attempted to be kill in the Red Light District. I had missed a lot of changes in leadership over that time, people growing up and the village flourishing and struggling in different ways than what I was accustomed to. There was still much that I needed to catch up on within the village, but I had been given a letter from one of the ANBU in the village from the academy that two new students had graduated and they were looking for someone to mentor them.
