Reform or Die! [Open, Requesting Ayumu]

[Omoi Tetsu]

"Then WHO am I SUPPOseD to blame... Huh?!" Tetsu threw the impoverished artist down at the foot of the Torre Celeste, the scent of bourbon on the boy's breath as thick and menacing as the swirling clouds in the heavens above. He took another large swig from the bottle he was holding. "It's YOUR country, isn't it?!" The boy howled out, pointing at the cold face of the tower in front of him, but it would be clear to anyone, he was sure, that the target of his scathing political commentary was none other than the ruler of the hidden village himself, the dark kage, Kogami Ayumu.

From this perspective, it may have been easy for the holders of the weary eyed and uneasy glances of the crowd, now all making their way toward the boy, to paint him as the enemy in this situation. He was, after all, much stronger than the man he was very clearly threatening, his ramblings would very soon approach treason, and he was ultimately also not very likable and pretty selfish. However, a closer inspection of the boy may have rendered some of that anger to pity, as the back of his head revealed a gaping and horrendous bald spot. The boy threw the man's scissors down on the ground and spit on them. The clanking metal echoed out through the hushed crowd like funerary bells for the poor barber, who was kneeling down, staring solemnly at the stone walkway below him.

"You think I don't... suff-fer?! That I didn't- I didn't bleed for this village?! No!" Tetsu would violently shrug away from a concerned citizen who had come up to him to try and gently usher the drunk teen away by the arm, "No! I work f-or EVERY dollar I get. And what do I spend it on? Not booze, NO no no. Not drugs, which I would have arguably enjoyed just as much, IF NOT MoRE!" Tetsu was looking around now at his captive audience, his eyebrows raised, and his mouth pulled down in that expression that slyly showed pride in the eloquence with which he was presenting his point, although privately, while it may not have been apparent to the crowd due to the boy's aptitude and training in public speaking, he was actually using that long sweeping glance at the crowd as an opportunity to try and recapture the train of thought that had somehow gotten away from him. "No, I spent it... ON A Haircut. From a barber that YOU employed AYUMU. INCOMPETENT! WRETCH! Come out and ANSwer to me! I did IT- You think I wanted to spend my... Last dollars on it?!" And here the boy peppered the streets with a few loose coins to exaggerate his point "I did it, to LOOK good! To go aboooOOve and beyond in presenting myself in this SHITTY JOB from a man who DOESN'T EVEN KNOW how to HIRE BARBERS!" The boy now grabbed the man by the collar, who was, incidentally trying to slowly crawl his way out of the situation. "I Do MY JOB, WHY CAN't HE DO HIS or YOU... YOU DO YOURS AYUMU?! I'm calling you out yooooOOU Rat faced, yellow... PUrple, you slime! CAn't Even... YOU're a DOG, you know THAT?!" The boy was stumbling now. No. He had to hold on, just a little longer and his brilliant political sermon would be delivered, and no one would have to know what challenges he was going through to complete it. He spit more on the ground, on multiple spots just to show his distaste as he tried to recapture his stability.

This would be the end of this man's corrupt reign. This moment of catharsis was not just something that Tetsu was putting his own life on the line for, it was for the future of all of Kumogakure.

 

[Kuru Watashi]

There weren't too many irregularities that a young, blind student could have in his day to day life, and without Naohiro dragging him along on some crazy scheme, the kid was walking down the same road that he always took after lunchtime. Taking another drink from the bottle that he had casually grabbed from his alleyway perch, he continued onwards through the streets, swaying slightly from side to side. He had only taken a few mouthfuls from the bottle, but he could already tell that it wasn't his normal daily dose of hydrating rain water. Maybe a kid thought it'd be funny to take a tinkle into his water bottle again, and Watashi wasn't going to be having any of it again this time. "As soon as I find the guy that did it," The blind boy said to himself as he sipped his drink. "I'm gonna toss him out of a window or something."

As the daily soundscape of life in the Cloud village continued around him, Watashi started heading towards the loudest, most irregular sound in this village. It sounded like a mob, and the kid couldn't be one hundred percent confident, but whatever it was, it sounded fun! Sauntering in the direction of the commotion, Watashi once again lamented the fact that he couldn't actually see what the ruckus was all going to be about. It was much more fun to throw rocks at things and people when you knew what you were aiming for, after all. Holding the bottle in one hand and scooping up an appropriately rock-shaped object from the ground as soon as he kicked one with his foot, Watashi hummed a small tune to himself while he approached whatever event was happening up ahead.

Watashi encountered the crowd just as something metallic sounding clattered to the cobblestones on the ground, trying to push his way through to find out what they were all gawking and pointing at. Listening to what sounded like a very unsatisfied lad cursing a terrible haircut was a wonderful backdrop to the event and he soon broke into the inner circle of the onlookers, listening from right next to the raging man. Tossing his rock up and down - a feat much harder than it sounds when you don't know where it is -, Watashi listened in awe while the seeming madman raved about being poor. Well, maybe he should just get money, The blind boy figured to himself before hearing the telltale jingle of coins hitting the floor. Not one to waste money, Watashi promptly tossed the half-filled bottle away, probably hitting some poor artist, and walked up to scoop the coins into his pocket.

"Well, well, well," Watashi said, throwing the rock away too as Mr Moneybags here complained that this Ayumu character was a yellow purple, rat faced slime dog. The imagery was lost on the blind boy, but the mental thought of it was already confusing enough. "Looks like it wasn't your last dollar if you still had the coins to toss on the ground to make a point, Fat Cat!" Tracing the outlines of the coins and feeling the weight, Watashi's astonishment grew even more at the deep pockets of the character. "I mean, this is weeks of calories that you're tossing away right here!" Hearing the other try to stumble off, Watashi hurriedly ran to catch up, pulling his hand out of his pocket and trying to jump up to the height of the other boy. "Come on then! Let me feel how bad of a haircut you got. I'm sure all of us blind lads are wondering!"

 

[Omoi Tetsu]

Tetsu's face scrunched up in visible horror as he heard the other boy scraping down on the stone-filled earth for his coins. He had taken it for granted that no one would lower themselves, both literally and figuratively, to taking what most would regard as pocket change from a bald orator such as him (as was his experience in many similar events of the past). Suffice it to say, Tetsu was disgusted, outraged, and shocked at this newcomer's behaviour, and watched longingly as his coins disappeared one by one, and forever afterwards. Tetsu swung his foot hard to kick the boy in the ribs, but the nimble rat had already seemed to have scurried away (although it was tough to be completely sure of the nature of the other blind boy's evasion, what with the world now spinning and all). Tetsu's foot would instead strike nothing but air, and so it carried itself through with it's own momentum, and the boy soon found himself on his back. His hands were now wet and muddy, it was degrading, but he'd struggle back to his feet to regain his composure and dignity, and, with some luck, his money. "Sever-al weeks of pr-protein soUNDs about right for a scrawny little RAT like you!" Surely those coins were not completely lost though, they were just being stored on the other blind boy.

O but to this thought Tetsu would have to contemplate very deeply on matters of state. Was it now he who would be committing theft? Would that be how it was received by his adoring fans who had come to hear him speak? All of this saying nothing about the inherently suggestive nature of reaching into a person's pockets. What could he otherwise do in the end though? The court system run by the corrupt dictator Ayumu certainly wasn't going to see his case in a fair light. The boy had found himself utterly surrounded by and drowning in injustice. After a few uncomfortable moments of leaning his head in, his neck furled up in resistance, and trying desperately and unsuccessfully to find his way into the thief's pockets, Tetsu would give up in exacerbation. "If YOU were blind! You RAt!" He picked up his barber prop by the shirt collar, finding him now limp with broken glass, for some reason, scattered all over his clothes, "You'D UNDerstand the injustice we all face." He was out of breath now, "THEY KNOW I'm BLIND, so they think they can bald my head without my knowing it. SEE?" He reached out to grab the other Hashigaki's wrist, attempting to guide it to his bald spot as his public volunteer service for the day, "Is this what you Wanted to sEE, THhhhIEF?!" Tetsu would spit out, before continuing, "WE don't ask for our leadership, DO we? Huh? AYUMU TOLD US HE COULD GUIDE THIS VILLAGE? Did we vote on the barbers here? Did we get ANY SAY AT ALL? No. He'd take care of it- He'll hire fer everyone, don't even worry yer p-pretty little hEad off about it." Now walking around in a semi-circle as he tried to bring his balance in toward the center, he'd throw his arms out in a dramatic gesture, addressing the crowd, "WELL Guess WHAT?? I CAN SEE IT! YOu think- Just because you're blind, you can't SEE? I see... Inju-" He took a breath, "STIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE!!!"

"Either I have to kill an academy student," He scanned the boy who had arrived to rip him off, trying to guess his age, "OR blOW up the KAge tower. ThE ONLY WAys anyone will P-pAY attention to you in this God-damned fart of a dusty wind storm village. I WANT! MY! MmmmON-EY! BACK!" The boy strung a few lazy handseals together, shooting out several Wind Release jutsus that apparently did nothing but make people spill some of their coffee as they entered and left the great stone monolith of a building. Following this failure, the failure to attract the Kage's serious attention, or really the attention of anyone who was in a serious authority position in the village who would fight him, the boy had almost lost all hope. There was, however, always a path forward that a man could forge with enough willpower. He stared at the other boy absentmindedly for several minutes, wondering if he might be of noble character, an ally on this path he was about to forge to victory. "Follow me."

 

[Kuru Watashi]

Watashi rubbed the other kid's bald spot in pure amazement after being literally lent a helping hand to find it. "Wow, mister," The blind boy exclaimed in awe. "You really have like, zero hair right there." Watashi rubbed the spot a bit more, trying to polish it for the next person with eyes that would lay them upon the spot. As he followed Mr. Baldy around his little semi circle, Watashi could feel the crowd's movement and walked off a few steps away from Baldo, trying to count the change that he had just picked up and hearing the thud of someone falling behind him.

"You know, you're right!" Watashi said to Balder, thumbing through each shiny little coin one by one. "This could even be months of sustenance here! Imagine all of the lentils that I could buy!" Sticking them into his pocket - the other one now that he could feel Moneybag's gaze on him - Watashi turned back to the other lad. Leaning on the nearest thing, or person to him, the boy flapped a hand back towards the center. "Terrible blind jokes aside, you're thinking too small! Blowing up the Kage tower is a step in the right direction, sure! But imagine all of the attention that you'd cause if you blew up, say, a hospital or something! Make those greedy doctors lose their money, AND you get to watch the nerds that got themselves injured!" Trying to casually reach for the pockets of whoever he was leaning on and missing terribly, Watashi stepped back off of the man and began going back towards Baldy. Watashi waved his arms a bit, before continuing, "Besides, imagine all of the people that would be mad at the Kage! Maybe you shouldn't let people blow up the hospital, they would say! Now you've gotta build a new one for us! It'd be genius!"

Turning back to address the crowd that the other guy has so nicely gathered for him, Watashi rubbed the back of his head abashedly, "Uhh, you guys should probably just forget that you heard that one. Someone with as great a character as myself wouldn't go bomb a hospital or anything. I wouldn't even mention it! I'm an upstanding citizen after all." Watashi tried finding the other poor man and patting him on the shoulder if he could reach it. "Maybe if they hadn't started talking about payment for medicine." he muttered. Looking in whatever direction he hoped the Kage tower was, thinking about how the day had just gotten more fun dramatically, Watashi looked back in the direction of the other guy as the crowd around them continued to chatter away. "I think I might just follow you after all. We can even find a wig or something on the way for you!"

 

[Omoi Tetsu]

Was it really that bad? Tetsu blushed as he touched the back of his head. Of course, he knew just how bald he was on a factual level, but, as every baldy ever thinks, he was considering that maybe it didn't stand out as much as he was worried about. What did blind kids know, anyway though? The boy kicked the dirt as his chrome dome was being felt up. He could be bald himself and probably wouldn't know it. Tetsu should have brought a razor with him to shave the other kid and turn this revolution into one led by monks, instantly making it more reputable.

Would it though? Monks were often seen as beggars, the boy and his band of revolutionaries might end up being viewed as petty thieves squabbling over a few coins, rather than the moral pillars they truly were. The boy was listening to the beautiful sound of his own lost currency as it was rubbed between the rat's fingers. It was like hearing one of those many soulful poems of love lost where the object of the poet's lamentations was only truly appreciated after they had gone away. He valued the money when he had it, he thought about it enough, alright, but he had taken for granted the fact that they would leave his possession if, and only if, he had found something better to give them away for. It was this greedy thinking, this internal belief that they weren't, on their own, worth cherishing, that had led to his current downfall. Even if, as the other boy said, they were only good for buying a few lentils. Worthless on their own, but Tetsu had to admit that he had not exhausted his research into the possible fermentability of lentils. In fact, he was ashamed to say, he had not even begun.

In the end, horrible experiences do not fall upon a man so that he might learn from them, contrary to how those incorrigible optimists liked to frame those events as, but only a fool allows a disaster to slip through the grasp of his memory without taking a lesson or two with it.

"The hospital?..." Tetsu seemed to be emerging from a great fog, the other boy's voice seeming to come to him from a million miles away, but slowly, the pieces were falling in place. "YoU're.. Right of course, as always. THOse doctors, trained to fight, saying things like "oh this is wrong with you, THis is why you're bald, meanwhile, all they doO is sit around and collect money for all THOse pills t-that they won't even give you if- yYou ask for them. Imagine if I rAN a restaurant and told you... "Ohh, this R-ramen is for lab purposes only" or "oh, prove to me you're hungry." RiDICulous!" The boy, at the thief's prompting, started now slowly wandering over toward the hospital, listening to his rather academic lecture on economics and healthcare. Most people, he imagined, would have this subject matter fly right over their head. It was challenging, but Tetsu was up to the task. Yes, he wanted to punish the Kage for hiring a rogue barber, but really, it was about the very nature of the employment process in the village, and it was about garnering as much positive PR as possible. In the end, Tetsu couldn't argue with the boy's logic; the hospital was a much more auspicious target for destruction.

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[Topic left with Watashi]