Hissori would watch carefully as the room settled in for the prolonged meeting. While most shinobi were not use to this type of setting, Hissori had grown up in rooms like this doing these type of things. This may have not been knowledge that the Raikage, but the relaxed and interested position Hissori took in his seat showed he was ready to learn about the man.
Taking a sip of his tea, Hissori would listen to the man tell his story about his life and in so give a brief story of Kumogakure. That was one thing that Hissori wanted, knowing what Kumogakure was like could be gathered from Akira’s description of his life there.
The life that Akira told was one that one could expect from such an elder statesman of the world. A live of battles and harsh prospects, the loss of friends and family, and everything that came with living in such a violent world. It was something that Hissori had come to deal with in his time in Kirigakure, and how all of that ended.
He would nod a long with the story that Akira was weaving and take a small sip of his tea. It was certainly a very interesting one. With a bit of a nod Hissori would pause and process everything that Akira said before starting his own story.
“Well, like you know Akira-San, my name is Ii Hissori. I come from the Inuzuka clan in Kirigakure. We were a clan of stalkers and trackers that resided in the village. My family had lived on the island for generation with the rest of the pack. Honestly, I never really understood how a pack of wolves and basically wild humans got roped into reside in an island village. The myth was that before the founding of the village, the Inuzuka clan that stayed in the village was ship wrecked coming from the fire country and heading towards the wind country.
When they crashed, the pack settled in the island finding them habitable. Generations past and we found ourselves working as the villages ANBU trackers as well as high level trackers as well. Just as close as we were without dogs, we were just as close with the village that formed.” Hissori would quip as he would take a sip of his drink to move on to the next part of his story.
“Anyway, when I was born, my mother was a shinobi who became a housewife, and my father was a senior ANBU. Like most of the kids in the Inuzaka pack, we grew up all together playing and developing noraml social skills till the age of eight when we all entered the village’s shinobi academy.
My time there was rather normal. I wasn’t outstanding when it came to the field activities though all the teachers said I picked up on the methods quickly. When I was ten years old and about to graduate the academy I was given my ninken, Buru who still lives with me to this day.” Hissori said a head going onto the large skull of the dog. Buru was easily able to see over the table and even without a chair, his icy blue eyes looking around at the group obviously gathering information in his canine brain.
“After graduating, I was not selected to follow in my father’s footsteps to join the ANBU branch. Instead I was put in a group of three other recent graduates as the stealthiest of the group. For the next two years we spent working together and growing as a shinobi and as a group. That was until a mission we were on a large island that had been infested with pirates.
During the mission, I fell from a tree, and shattered my leg. Foot, Ankle, Tibia, Fibula were all broken. Luckily for me, our squad leader was a former medic who was able heal some of it. Most of the bad injuries like the compound break and shattered ankle were stabilized enough that I was able to be sent back to Kirigakure where after ten hours of surgery my leg was put back together. Funny, enough now my leg is mostly metal than actual bone.” Hissori said pausing as he rubbed his injured leg. He wouldn’t go showing off the large scar that boy had since his young teenage years during an important meeting that was a thing for the ladies to see. Starting up again, Hissori licked his lips before speaking.
“Unfortunately, after the injury like you may suspect my active shinobi career was basically over. For two whole weeks I spent in the hospital and then for the next seven months I was forced to walk on crutches and basically relearning how to walk on the bad leg. This time did open up new avenues for me.
By spending all the time in the rehab facility and in the hospital in general, I fell in love with medicine. Most of the time when I wasn’t trying to strength the leg again, I was reading up on medical jutsu, the procedure that saved my leg, and general medical practices. Towards the end of my rehabilitation, I started asking about how I could join the medical corps on an inactive roster schedule, and passed my test when it came up.” Hissori said smiling a bit remembering fondly back on getting his acceptance letter into the force of medics.
“Starting off my tenure as a medic in training, I was placed in the research division where I met my sensei and teacher Nokugara Koroki. When I started we were working on research to make Sharingan implants easier for the transplant’s body to accept. Needless to say I took this research incredibly easily. I discovered a plasmid in blood that had properties that were related to the chakra system the human had. If you were able to match this plasmid according to the donator’s eye, there would be a much higher chance of success during the surgery and recovery.
Koroki helped me publish this work and it was the first time I was ever featured in a journal. From there I was promoted to medic, and when the medical sennin was elected as the Mizukage, and my teacher was put in charge of the medical division, I became the head of the research branch. Of course, it was really just me and a secretary, but that was my first leadership position.” Hissori said as rolled his shoulders and paused to take a sip of his drink as to make it so his voice did not waver.
“However, I wouldn’t stay in that role long. Continuing my research on the plasmid lead to probably my biggest discovery. Through researching it, I isolated the plasmid and was able to determine it was related to the type of chakra the persons were naturally affiliated with. However, by using the Mizukage’s blood I made my most shocking discovery.
Mizukage Yojimbo was gifted with the ability of the Rikudo Sennin, when I studied his blood I found that his plasmid had none of the antibodies most of the plasmid did, and more importantly, when someone else’s plasmid came in contact with a Rikudo’s Sennin charka, it was converted into the originally found blank plasmid. It was rather shocking for myself, but I postulated that by injecting some of that plasmid into a living human’s body, a person could artificially contract the gift of the Rinnegan. As you would expect a discovery of this magnitude shook Kirigakure’s hospital, and at the age of thirteen I became the youngest Medical chief in the village’s history. There was a bit of a double edge sword with this promotion however.
One the positive hand, the Sennin who at this point was a man by the name of Isaki Karurosu put in me in contact with some of the best tutors for my oration, and personally tutored me on how to mature into a better leader. Sadly, the promotion also meant that I lost my freedom to do research as much more of my time was dedicated to the hospital and shinobi force as a whole.” Hissori said as he then paused just a bit to reflect on how to phrase what he wanted to say next. Hissori had felt that because Akira had been opened with him, Hissori would be open with the man as well as a sign of trust and so he wanted to tell him everything he could about his past.
“Because of this development, I was never able to complete my research on Yojimbo’s blood. My personal research fell to the side of doing paperwork, and mission briefs as well as overseeing surgeries and patient recovery. It was certainly a great learning experience for me, but for the next three years I had to fight to be taken seriously.
It was rough and a bit shaky if I am being honest, but at the end having to fight off people questioning my decisions when they had as much experience as I was alive was good for me. I developed quickly, and by the time I was sixteen, I was the right hand man of the sennin Karurosu. When he left, actually for Kumogakure, I was placed as interim medical sennin, and would be considered the last medical sennin of the village.” Hissori’s tone slowly changing from a jovial one to a much gloomier tone.
“During my time as head of the branch, the village’s environment started to change. The world around the volcano we were stationed in kept getting colder and colder, and soon the temperature drops were starting to become unbearable. Even for us Inuzaka, the first snowflakes the village had even seen came to us as a shock, and when the village’s temperature had started to dip into the negatives, it became too much for the village to sustain.
Some say, the village had angered the Gods of the volcano who cursed us with something we could not expect or deal with. Others say, a shinobi cursed us when he was forced to leave the village against his will. I truthfully don’t know what happened and wish I did, but alas as Kouin can tell you the village was dying. Freezing over in fact.
I… I was the last one out. After all I was trying to save as many people as I could from the great freeze of Kirigakure. In fact, I may have been the last one to ever walk out the hospital, and down on the once tropical beach. I was such a sad site seeing everything in front of me freezing over, but I left and journeyed out into the blizzard.” Hissori said his emerald eyes finally falling from his gaze at the Raikage to the finished oak table top. He took a moment to gather himself. Nothing really cut him deeper than the loss of his whole village. Family members, pack members, patients, everyone gone in the span of a couple of months that slowly destroyed his home. Not to mention the fact of the things he had to do on the way out. Taking in a deep breath, Hissori would start again as his hand came off of Buru’s head and back onto the desk.
“Candidly, I shouldn’t have survived the trek out of the blizzard zone as I did. The trip over the frozen water was a dangerous one and I eventually gave in to the cold and passed out. When I awoke though, I had been saved by the spirits of the land who said I had a lot left to accomplish in the world. Because of this, I was able to make it to the safety of the outlying islands which were not as badly affective.
From there I spent the next three years traveling and learning. I really was a shinobi without a home to protect, and was a true mercenary. Whoever needed to be healed and could pay would get me. I went from country to country trying to figure out what to do with myself. I never really lasted that long in one place or another.
Maybe it was because of who was paying me, but they always did something to annoy me and end the contract. Bouncing around, I went to countries like the wind country, moon country, fire country and iron country taking on independent contracts for some time. It was a great learning experience for different cultures and medical style. And honestly it wasn’t that bad for the wallet.” Hissori said slightly forcing small chuckle as he tried to shade over the inward depression he felt about bring up his past village.
“Sometime during my third year as a mercenary, I came to Earth Country in look for work and boy did I find it. Stumbling upon the large gates that you came through, I was greeted by their medical “leader” if you were to call him that. The man, Keita, was a religious leader of the village and when I gave him my resume, he seized upon me to offer me another medical chief position as the head of the civilian’s clinic.
The clinic itself was rundown to the point, I am surprised it saved any lives at all. Within the negotiations I was allowed to get the rare privilegeH to make and design a brand new modern hospital. Of course, a rather accident village like this was resistant to the change, but slowly and respectfully I worked over the higher up and the people and created the Hope Hospital.
The Hope hospital is honestly the greatest achievement in my life to date. A state of the art level four hospital which serves not only the civilians of this duel village, but the shinobi forces of Iwagakure. It was built with the thought of serving as a symbol of the evolution of the village. It was built with the first level having places for religious meetings and spiritual relaxation that serves not only the religion of Iwagakure, but most of the religions I saw in my travels. The second floor of the hospital was a free walk in clinic with a large waiting room fourteen examination rooms, and a free education section for people who wanted to learn more about their body. The third and fourth level is the center of the actual hospital, with teaching rooms, surgical rooms, and inpatient beds. Finally, the fifth level is the offices of the head branches in the hospital as well as the sennin’s hospital office.” Hissori said twisting his seat and pointing out the large white marble building that he had envisioned and created.
“The most unique thing that I put there however was all of Kirigakure’s research and medical journals as a start of the hospital own public library. I’ve added to it over the years, and currently the library houses something close to four thousand books about medicine, jutsu techniques, and shinobi tactics.
Unfortunately, when I came to the village it was in a major state of upheaval. The village had just elected its first Tsuchikage in over a decade, and then the village received a major influx of shinobi and people because both of the country of Fire, and Kirigakure migrated here when their countries collapsed. The strife of the politics that dealt with this put a major strain on the village.” Hissori said again another sad sigh leaking into his discussion about his history.
“It came to the head when the former Tsuchikage, Inu Endo was killed for treason by the Daiymo named Minamoto-Kono Haruka. The fight was a bloody one and it nearly destroyed the Titan’s keep. There were a couple of causalities, including the Tsuchikage Inu Endo. Haruka when she struck the killing blow attempted to claim the position of Tsuchikage for herself. Needless to say the village sennins and council were not happy.” Hissori said with a bit of an indifferent shrug to the whole event. Of course, if Akira was keeping a bit of track to what was going on, or maybe had information on when his shinobi was killed, it would be obvious that this was when it happened. In this battle between two Iwagakure political foes, the messenger had fallen amongst the innocence bystanders.
“She used a group of mercenaries to try to enforce her will on the people of the village and a civil war broke out. Most of the sennin’s were dethroned, and it was from this I took over as the official leader of the military branch. Unfortunately, because of this chaos, most of the shinobi force started to work without guidance and structure of the village. Our numbers were devastated and when the dust cleared, Haruka had vanished our threat of her newborn child being kidnapped.
It took more than three years, and when all the dust cleared, I was the only active sennin and the village was left without a military and political leader. It was truly a worrying time that I thought this village was doomed to fail. However, I could not leave this place as it had truthfully become my first home since my homeland had turned into a giant glacier.” Hissori said showing the maturity he had gained while living in the lands and travelling the seas.
“The council gave the vacant position of Tsuchikage to a Jounin by the name Kazehi Ryu. He certainly was behind the eight ball to begin with and would have been a great Tsuchikage given the proper opportunity to settle in. Unfortunately, that was not what happened.
Instead during a rather normal day, we were attacked. I know this may not make much sense, but we were attacked by giant reptiles which began to try to enter the village. Tsuchikage Ryu, Umashi-san, myself and others fought off the giant beasts, but Tsuchikage Ryu was left gravely wounded and was forced to resign the position.
In an emergency meeting, I finally was assigned to the position of Tsuchikage. Unsurprisingly, I am the first foreign leader the village has ever had. It is a great honor, but there is still a lot of work to be done. I am in the process of remaking my inner cabinet with branch leaders. Such as naming Umashi my successor as the leader and head of the Hope Hospital.
Beyond that, I have been working on trying to establish ties to the village. First, with Umashi’s visit to your village. Then my own personal messenger heading towards the Wind Country as we speak. I hope to establish strong industrial and military ties with both of your countires which leads me to I guess the most important question for this meeting, Why are you here?” Hissori finished.
