How Different Life Will Be Now. [private/uzu]

[Hanone]

The day had been both hard and elevating on Saemon. He'd started off with news he hadn't expected, news about becoming a father. It had rocked him to his core. The man had never wanted to be a father, feared it from his own past. His father had died young and his mother turned into a drunk. He had been forced to care for his own brother from the age of 13 on. It had been almost an impossible task. Since adulthood, he'd promised himself to never have children, to never chance what happened to him to happen to his own.

But he'd left Kitanai that morning with his heart aching in many directions. He had opened up to her, confessed his true love for her and for their new baby she was now carrying. He'd meant it and for the first time in his life, he thought it was possible to have a real life. He would not leave them; he was stronger than his father was and Kitanai was stronger than his mother. He found himself wondering about what their baby would look like while he was on gate duty the majority of the day.

When night fell and he had some time to burn, he decided not to head home right away. Mio would be at a night shift and Kiti would be doing.. whatever she was doing. A small smile played over his lips as the scruffy man entered "The Damp Barrel", a rather seedy sort of place that Saemon enjoyed. Their booze was cheap and their staff minded their own business. Saemon was here to celebrate by himself, just a little bit. The 6 foot 8 monster slide between the tightly placed tables and found himself a spot at the bar. The stool was almost tall enough to be comfortable.

"Two bottles of Kiri Blue sake and.." he turned and looked at the man sitting beside him, "...and another of whatever this man is drinking for him." this wasn't the norm for men to buy for men, so he gave the other a little explanation. "Found out I'm going to be a father."


[topic entered/waiting on uzu]

 

[Toraono Michino]

Entering Thread as iNPC Uzumoreru Toushin​

Why did he drink? Because it was easy for him to get drunk, and sobering up was even easier. When one had control over their blood drinking became even more fun because you didn’t really have a limit. He had even won drinking contestants during assignments that required him to kill someone with alcohol poisoning then returned to the client sober as a bird in spring; much to the man’s dismay as Toushin ruined his trap.
Ah memories.
Of course Uzu was here not for any reason to celebrate, it was just ritual for him around this time of the month. He sat at the bar wearing his normal long grey vest over a black sleeveless turtle neck. His pants were black and seemed to blend in perfectly with his choice for footwear that didn’t seem to be anything more than a thick sole strapped to his foot and ankle. His hair was white, wild, and pulled back haphazardly into a ‘I really don’t care’ ponytail. The mask that normally hid his lower face had been pulled down to reveal the trademark scars on the corners of his mouth that pulled it down into a permanent frown so that he could drink. One of the advantages to drinking in these lower seedy bars was that he had no need to wear a mask to eat or drink, he was perfectly safe here; all the staff knew that snitches get stitches as was the going motto around these parts.

Sipping slowly at a glass of cactus liquor chilled and watered down a little with ice cubes his black eyes looked warily up at the giant who decided to sit next to him, the golden amber irises shivering a little at the sheer girth. It wasn’t in fear, mind you, but more of that feeling a warrior got when he was sizing up a worthy opponent.
“Congratulations,” Uzu said in a deep gravelly voice full of honestly, “Kami knows eventually I’m going to need kids. Looking at becoming the leader of a clan myself and I’ll need an heir if it has any chance of surviving even a year after I die.” Toushin took a long swallow of his drink, swirled it around and finished it before tapping the bar counter for a refill. The bartender simply poured the drink without question and shuffled his way down to the other end.
The assassin wasn’t exactly ever the most social of people but he couldn’t see why the hell he couldn’t on his last night away from the clan and the…paper work. Uzu gave a little shudder at the very thought as he went to drink a little more already feeling the cactus prickling his brain.

 

[Hanone]

[ooc.. lost my whole damned post!! ugh new one.]

The man's congratulations were met with a raised glass of his own. Once the drink was down the hatch, he shifted in his seat and withdrew a small box filled with hand rolled cigarettes then offered it to the man. "Clan stuff, eh? I'm glad I wasn't born into that shit; it's nothing but a pain in the ass if you ask me." the mountain of a man took one for himself and poked it between his thin lips. "No offense." he added as an afterthought.

After the other man decided whether he wanted one or not, the Jounin would slip them back into his pocket and light his own with his 'flint jutsu' which was nothing more than a small flame at the end of his thumb. It was so handy. He took a long drag, held it then let it out. "But don't worry, I'm sure you'll have a few before too long. I wasn't trying when I managed it. Your wife will no doubt be excited to have children too, no?" He made the assumption about the other because clan people almost always were married off one way or another in their youth. How many had he come across now who were 14 and married already? But it occurred to him he had forgotten to introduce himself.

"I'm Saemon, by the way. Jounin." He didn't give his family name and never did. He didn't feel any connection with his family name now, so he was just Saemon and his rank of course.. it was just customary.

 

[Toraono Michino]

Oooh, nicotine was it?

Without hesitation the assassin picked up the offered cancer stick from the giant and placed it to his lips to begin looking for a fire when he found that the new found bar buddy next to him had a neat little jutsu; it certainly solved that damn problem of keeping fire on you. Taking a deep drag of the hand rolled cigarettes Toushin in haled and exhaled slowly, delighting in the mellow flavor and feel they brought. He wouldn’t be touching them the next day, but tonight seemed like the perfect opportunity to indulge a little in the things he had been missing from his life. If there was anything he had learned on his six-month vacation after taking over a portion of the Sunagakure market was that taking time off was necessary. It would give him the chance to just relax for a minute away from his rollercoaster of a life in the clan and breathe.
“I'm not married or anything, really hard to come by a woman when your in my type of work. There is one woman I actually have my heart pumping for, but our relationship between each other has always been more on a...good friend terms rather than actual lovers.
"Also consider yourself lucky that you weren't born to a clan. Being the member of an ancient one that can trace their lineage back to the First Men is nothing more than a pain in my ass, and if I didn’t love my brother so much I would have struck out solo years ago. I’ve had to do some…rather unpleasant things for my people recently too. Things that haunt my dreams lately, but the end result has at least finally given the women of my clan protection.
“Sorry for ranting like that Saemon. I’m Uzumoreru Toushin, ex-assassin. Only really an ex-assassin because like I said I’m up for leadership and that will be more dictating that actually clearing up the Bingo Book like we used to.

Uzu brought the golden tequila up to his lips and devoured it in one long gulp before coughing a little and wiping his mouth. He then brought the smoke back up to his lips to take another long drag as he closed his eyes to enjoy every last bit of the time he had left before he was to meet with his mortal inanimate enemy. Reaching his hand down to grab the cup again absently as he felt the liquor already starting bring him into a drunken state he glared at its emptiness. His black eyes shot down to where the bartender was and smirked painfully, (as his scars dragged his lips down), and leaned forward to snatch the bottle of tequila from behind the bar and refresh his drink before slipping it back there. Fortunately anyone who saw him wasn’t likely to say anything for a great deal of the people who knew of his presence had learned firsthand how unwise it was to bother him. Last month he had brawled with three drunks that kept making fun of his hair and beat them senseless – didn’t kill them because it was day off.

He hated working on his day off.

 

[Hanone]

The other man accepted a cigarette and accepted his flint light to begin burning the end of his own. The fine tobacco in it was top quality and smooth. It was expensive, one of the only luxeries the man splurged on.

So he wasn't married. Marriage didn't matter to someone like Saemon with no clan name to uphold, but to someone looking to take over a clan, he would need to be wed sooner or later. Not that it was his business.. or frankly was he that curious at all.

All in all, though, this man reminded him of himself in some ways. He wasn't sure exactly what it was about him, maybe his size or look, the strength he projected... but he felt at ease talking with the man already.

Saemon took another sip from his sake as the man wrapped it up with his name and title. It was the latter that got him curious. He only knew a few assassins in Suna who didn't work for the ANBU themselves. It was possible this man did, for all he knew, but usually those who worked for the masked corps didn't announce themselves as assassins.

His raven haired, pale enchantress, however... she was counted among those. Setting his bottle down, he voiced his thoughts, ignoring the man's apology since none was needed,"Ex-assassin? I know a few in the profession. You're the second one today to tell me you're quitting the job too."

 

[Toraono Michino]

Another assassin was dropping out of the race? They really were a dying breed it seemed…

“Your lucky day I suppose. At least now you know two people who have the ability to do so, but won’t kill you due to anything beyond personal reasons. I can’t speak for the other assassin but I seriously doubt I would ever find myself trying to kill you for any reason beyond a very reasonable pay. Your scary lookin’, bro.”

Toushin wasn’t lying either. Not that he couldn’t lie or that he was a particular honest man, but the very size of the gigantic shinobi next to him simply unnerved the assassin on a few levels. Such as how the hell did you hit his jugular without jumping?! He couldn’t even think of a binding technique that could hold him either save for the one Uzu used to infect a person’s blood and that still required putting his blood on them in some fashion or the next. The only way he could imagine combating Saemon was unfair combat; there was simply no way he could win one on one.
Uzu wasn’t unsure of himself and his strengths either, however he knew what he specialized in and Saemon looked like he was the perfect counter against the Blood Heritage Style that the assassin solely used for his battles. The style was great for fighting multiple enemies and considered by many to be the perfect tool for killing off a single target the fastest, but in an actual one-on-one fight the style had a lot of flaws; the biggest being the complete lack of a defense. Of course the giant looked like he could easily smash through any defense Uzu tried to put up anyways, but that was beside the point.

He prayed never a day would come when the two was forced into battle against each other, and ever that day came, that Toushin would have some kind of backup.

“Ah well, I hope whoever is quitting the ‘game’ lives to have a healthy long life. We assassins burn the wicks at both ends, but at least with my clan there is a reason behind it. So,” Toushin lifted his newly refilled glass, “A toast! To new lives and the hopes that they’re far better than the ones we live now.”

He downed the drink quickly again not even really caring if anyone, including Paul Bunion over here, joined him in his toast. The prickly feeling of cactus drunk began to tickle up the assassin’s mind and he decided to foolishly indulge in a little curiosity that was starting to bug him ever so lightly,
“So! Out of complete morbid curiosity what’s your name to the mother of your child? Not that you need answer, I am just curious and assassins tend to have a dangerous thirst for curiosity – far beyond that of cats I believe. Also if either yours or her name ever comes up in the registry I can strike it out once I become leader of this godforsaken clan! …Not that I can’t do that now, but it’ll have more meaning then!”

Dammit, I’m drunk now, Toushin thought to himself. So rare was it of him to speak of his lineage and what they did but he was so tired of everyone living in the shadows that deep down he just wanted to expose everything about the clan…and show up ANBU.

 

[Hanone]

Scary was a good word to describe Saemon. He was easily one of the tallest and broadest men in Suna, if not the largest. He had been called the Monster of the Sands, the Mountain, and his own ANBU title was 'Kaiju'. He'd killed men with his bare hands, crushing skulls between palms and ripping limbs clear from bodies with brute strength. But what was worse was, he wasn't dumb either. Saemon was a tank, no doubt, but didn't have the brutish lack of intelligence that commonly was associated with his fighter type.

But right now Saemon was just a man, sitting awkwardly on his chair because he was too tall, sipping on sake. He raised his bottle in cheers and took a very long one the same time as the other man. It was a good toast, one he had a good reason to agree to. His lady needed to be out of that work and for a long life, maybe even a long life with him. Better lives, happier ones.

The hulking man set his empty jar down after his companion did, possibly cracking the clay slightly with the force of his hand. The other man was growing more companionable by the moment in his opinion and a fond smile even played at Sae's lips as he recalled the image of the pale skinned woman. He had been so mad with her lately, but yet.. his passion for her hadn't dulled even a hint. She was a terrible beast. At first the jounin hadn't seemed the point of telling the man her name, but the latter explanation seemed a nice enough offer, that he countered with, "Probably best for you anyway. Anyone that got sent after me or her would meet a bloody, painful end, my friend." He chuckled, then answered him more rightly. "Her name is Kitanai actually. She's a jounin too." He didn't expect him to know her, so he spoke more about her. Maybe it was the booze that made him more lax.

"She smells of warm vanilla all the time. Her hair is black as midnight, not that shit on the save ceiling, but the real night sky when the moon is missing. Her eyes are the other end, like the sky during the day; bright, brilliant blue and piercing." Saemon was regularly not a man of many words, but what that woman could draw from him... He didn't realize he'd been unfocusing his eyes while speaking, and brought his eyes back on Toushin's face. "Do you know her?"

 

[Toraono Michino]

Toushin took a long drag on his cigarette when he heard her name and felt his heart sink.

Twice now, this would be twice; shame on him.
Uzu should have known that a woman who was so expert at messing with his head and heart would do it again. It was literally the last name he had expected to reach Saemon’s lips, and when it did the assassin felt his heart sink a little. You couldn’t tell that he was really crushed over this because his mouth was scarred into a permanent frown, but Toushin felt like that woman had taken yet another chunk out of his heart and briefly wondered how many she had out of the giant’s.
Yet unlike the giant he knew when to let something go. To hear that she was pregnant from the man who might have knocked her up at a seedy bar wasn’t exactly the way you wanted to hear how the woman your heart pined after was acting.
It explained a lot though. The night after they made love she disappeared from the castle and the detail that was supposed to know of her were-abouts at all time claimed they couldn’t find her; though Uzu had suspected it was Oya just keeping secrets from him as she wasn’t fond of his infatuation for her. Now he knew why – she was pregnant with what could possibly be his own child and she was with another man.

What should have been fury and anger only dredged itself up slowly into the assassin’s body as sadness. To be broken again by Kitanai, and not even in her presence this time, really just hurt him to the point that he began to question those emotions he had for her. A very sad look overcame Uzu’s eyes as he began to speak of her along with Saemon,
“Eyes that are closer to a teal in color but have a special sparkle to them. Beautiful porcelain flesh, an encouraging laughter, and about twenty special little perks that make her unique. Aye, I know of Ijimeru Kitanai, and just as well I now know which assassin it is you’re speaking of.” Toushin reached behind the bar, grabbed the bottle, and pulled it back before simply drinking straight out of it with a single tear dripping out of the corner of the eye facing Saemon.
“We were partners,” Toushin said after he dropped the bottle back to the counter with a cough, “and before you get any ideas Mr. Giganto, we were partners in business. Spent a good six, seven months scamming a rich scientist out of his money for protection from me...used to meet once a month at the end to exchange payment and catch up…” Toushin sighed as he wrapped his hands around the base of the bottle, “She never mentioned you, you know…really wished she had now, as I wouldn’t have pined after her like I did and fall in love like an idiot. Never got why she kept turning me down, cause I thought I was a sexy bastard, but now it makes sense. It all makes sense…” He sighed deeply and just kind of leaned up against the bar with that sad look. Where there should have been at least a little bit of anger was now just a melon collie look of depression slowly riding it’s way in on the assassin in waves.
"They never teach you about how to deal with actually falling in love..."

Toushin wasn’t going to fight for her either. He honestly felt like there was no point if she was going to leave all the riches and glory his clan had offered to be with a giant. Of course, drunk or not, he wasn’t going to make mention of certain other things either such as the fact they had had sex twice in the time they knew each other; once quite recently. Uzu also thought it’d be wise not to tell him of what she had to go through to enter the clan she was now quite abandoning leaving him in a very raw disposition with the family he was trying to take head of. Disappearing for awhile right now didn’t sound like too much of a bad idea either given the circumstances. Of course if this child she was pregnant with did end up his then the assassin would have to find a way to steal away the child and remove himself from Sunagakure and everything related to his clan…he didn’t want his own child to be brought up in the same suffering as he had.

“Well there went my good mood,” Toushin said with a sigh as he finished the delicious tobacco.

 

[Hanone]

The same could be said for Saemon. He loved a woman who was terrible for him. Shame on him for falling for a second, terrible woman. But would that make him learn? Probably not.

And the other man's sober nature did not go unnoticed, neither did his words. From the moment he began to speak about her; her eyes, her skin and laugh... his own mirth and joy diminished like happy fireplace doused with a bucket of water. Maybe it wasn't enough to put the flames out completely, but enough to make them dim, simmer and sizzle.

The taller man leaned down on his arms, looking almost weary-like at the other man. His sadness stood out as obviously as someone wearing all red on a snowy winter day. The shift of understanding made him tired, more than angry. He knew her well, no doubt. Saemon could tell even before it left the man then that he loved her. It was hard not to. The dramatic tear from his eye, the pained sorrow and wistful knowledge of her existence.

And even though he assure Saemon of his purely business-related experience with her, he was not convinced this was the truth of it, or rather, if it were true that she hadn't been doing 'certain business' with him. He was knowledgeable in her past now and he knew she had been a whore, possibly very recently. He wished he never knew. Saemon needed another drink and tapped the bar loudly with his palm. Another bottle appeared a moment later, one he drank from much more heavily than the first. Saemon could not un-know what he knew about her and now, for instances like this, he would forever more assume old business with Kitanai meant she was spreading her legs. Even if they had both been assassins.

The only thing he didn't accept was the thought that she would have done anything with this man since becoming Saemon's lover. This thought he pushed away like a glass of poisoned wine; far away, far away so the glass might slip off the other end of the table and crash upon the floor. He would not think it, he trusted her more than that. He did.

The monster of Suna sat sobered, his hands wrapped around a bottle and his eyes staring at the far wall where the booze sat brightly gleaning against the dim lights of the bar. Why was he happy again? Was he mad with her? Or with himself for assuming anything about her? Was he mad at the man for loving what was his? Could he hardly blame him...?

Her beauty was unlike any other and she so loved attention. No doubt there were countless admirers among the Sunans around him, but how many of these short swords had slipped into her sheath? He regarded Toushin with less friendly demeanor now, his face tired and bored in expression. He would suffer no competition... and he would make sure this man knew it. "It certainly is a bitch; love is." he said, his voice low and disinterested in tone. The second sentence he uttered, however, was laced quietly with promise and malice. "Better stop falling though, someone else might catch you while you're at it and toss you off a cliff instead."

 

[Toraono Michino]

Toushin’s eyes shot up at the giant defiantly, but he took the hint.

“You got no worries there, Giganto, he said after dropping the honorary ‘Mr.’ from it as well as the friendly tone from his voice, “I doubt I’ll ever see her again anyways. Besides, what do you have to be so sour about anyways? The woman chose you didn’t she? It is your child that she carries, you should be a happy man that I wasn’t able to steal her away. Really sad for me though, I usually have far more charisma than that. Bit of a blow to the pride. Not to mention I should of seen it coming,” Uzu took another long swig from his bottle of tequila and coughed a little, “I am supposedly trained to see everything beneath a person’s personality simply by speaking to them…”

The look on the man’s face was quite sour indeed, but he was going to stick to his decision and not challenge him for Kitanai. No doubt any other man would have stood up and attempted to kill Saemon right then and there; though they would painfully fail.
Toushin was the rare bit of males that actually had an open mind. You had to have one in his line of work, or at least the creative style in which he did his work. If the woman who was destined to become queen of the Uzumoreru Clan decides that she’d rather be with some random soldier of the military instead; who was he to argue?

Of course this also meant that everything he had bet on Kitanai was now falling to pieces in the most tragic way. The council spot would become void again, the treatment to the women would resume back to its violent nature, and the Uzumoreru Clan would drive itself into destruction.
If he could simply forcibly remove every member of the council sans his brother then he would have to become the outright ruler of the clan because no one was there to oppose him. He had worked too damn hard to simply give up because his main strategy fell to pieces right in front of him. Through his drunken haze of self loathing and tequila tempered anger an idea struck him. His amber colored eyes stared back up at Saemon again, but this time with a little wicked glimmer to them.

“How would you like to work for me? Just one time, one job, and I’ll never speak to you or Kitanai ever again. I’ll simply pay you a very lucrative amount of money that you and your child will be able to live comfortably on for some time and I’ll have full control over my clan.”
Uzu smirked with the corner of his scarred mouth,
“What do you say?”

 

[Hanone]

The friendly tone and light feel was gone, vanished like the feathery dandelion heads on a windy day. The two were at a dangerous point, and it had elevated so quickly. One moment it was jovial talking and drinks, the next they were probably both mentally prepared to rip each others' hearts out.

Saemon's threat was understood when it was received, apparently by the solemn expression on the other man's face, let alone what he responded with between drinks. The monster of Suna hadn't come here tonight expecting a fight, he'd been here to celebrate, but he was always ready to kill if the need arose. So as the man's expression darkened further, he readied himself to kill the white haired man if it came to that. Physically, he was always prepared. Mentally it took a little work to get to that point. He'd seen so much blood and slashed so many throats in his time, he had to separate those parts of himself or risk being dragged down with the dead.

He slipped back into the mindset like a mednin put on gloves for a procedure. Yet.. it did not come. The man remained seated and his own muscles did not visually tense with the surge of adrenaline that came before someone attacked you. Instead he offered him something else; a proposal. Of course it was important to call it what it really was; an ultimatum. Do this and I will do that, he said. The underlying words meant, however, do this or else I won't stop.

The hulking man looked at the other's face for a time. He didn't much like this ordeal. Did he want to be rid of the man on his terms? The alternative was to be rid of him on his own terms, which meant blood. He didn't care for money and he didn't feel the desire to do anything to aid this man...

A false smile appeared on his own face and he took another drink. "Children." he said finally, correcting the man's verbal mistake. He didn't linger on this though, and spoke again. "What did you have in mind?" He could ask and decide after hearing it, but would make no promises until then.

 

[Toraono Michino]

<Voided>