Kyo’s family had left the compound, they were attending a clan meeting were they would be staying over for a week and had left him alone to care for the compound in their absence, taking his two younger brothers with him. While this was not the first meeting that they had attended, it was the first time that they had left Kyo behind instead of one of his older cousins, which meant that they were putting more trust in the boy to guard their compound and take care of business while they were gone. Of course it meant that he would not get to fight his cousins and see how he had progressed compared to them, but there were always downsides to everything, no matter if they were apparent or not, this time it was easy to see, others he would need to look harder to find them. The compound was quiet, no playing children, no training going on, and no pounding of dough, nothing that usually resounded with in the place, which meant that his footsteps resounded off the walls and came back to him as he walked the empty halls before bed as he did every night. There was never anyone there or anything out of place, but that didn’t mean that the boy would become complacent, he took his duties seriously as he did everything else. The empty rooms he passed, the locked rooms, the empty kitchen, the koi ponds, the zen garden and his own room were all empty, everything in place, nothing showing disturbance from their normal places. Finally satisfied the boy went to his room so that he could sleep, tomorrow before he went to the academy to speak to one of the instructors he would need to sweep the corridors and feed the fish, which meant he would rise earlier than normal so he could get his morning exercises done in time for him to leave, which meant early to bed. The scarred boy’s room was Spartan,
but he did not mind it in the least as he preferred the hard bed and the lack of anything that he didn’t need to the comforts he had seen in others homes.
Kyo slept soundly through the night, which he found to be very surprising when he awoke as the first thing he saw as he was getting out of bed was an envelope that had been left underneath his door, which meant that someone had been in the compound and had been able to not only stay quiet enough that he didn’t wake the boy, but also tread lightly enough that his tremor sense hadn’t been triggered. A troubling prospect, if the person who had left the envelope had meant the boy harm he was sure that he would already be dead. As it was, they had simply left the message for him to find. Rather than rushing to find out what was in the envelope, the boy made his bed, dressed in his usual attire and stretched well before move to investigate it. First he checked it for traces of chakra with his Charka Sense, while he found nothing he hadn’t expected anyone able to be so stealthy to make such a simple mistake, no he would have been disappointed if that had been the case. Gingerly lifting it, ready encase it had been a trap of some kind, he brought it up to face level to read the words written on it. It was addressed simply “Hotaka Kyo” on the front of it, the envelope itself was sealed by wax, though it had no seal or impression made into it, again not a surprise.
Pulling the Kunai form its sheath the boy slide it underneath the seal, careful not to break it and opened the envelope with the back facing away from him and towards the wall encase there was poison inside or it blew, neither of which happened. He carefully brought it back to him and slide the vellum from the envelope gingerly before setting the envelope on the table next to his bed, he opened the folded vellum and looked upon the writing inside, the first thing that struck the boy was that it was familiar, but he couldn’t read it, it took the boy a moment, a frown readily apparent on his face, before he understood what it was he was looking at. “The letter is in Ancient Kumo, but not of the Vulgar variant, which means it is Classical. Who would send me such a letter?” the boy wandered as he continued going over the letter, there was a single word that was repeated twice that he understood, ‘shinobi’, what exactly was the meaning of this?
It wasn’t as if he could simply head to the Bibliotheca Conscientiae and translate it, he would have to take it to someone to get it translated, which meant that for all the trouble the person went through to bring it to his attention that the boy would have to share whatever it was with another member of Kumo’s shinobi, and one that was high ranking as well. Only those of Jounin status and above were allowed to learn the language, and even then only once they had been given permission from the Raikage himself, but that wouldn’t be the end of it either, they performed a rigorous background check on the person after words to ensure things were fine before they were even allowed to start learning. Then if they taught anyone, not only were they put to death, but anyone that they had taught any of it to were put to death as well. As Kyo pondered how he was going to get the note translated, he also pondered if this was a trap set up to kill him, after all if he learned the language in this manner or appeared to be trying to it could lead to him being killed.
The boy sat on the edge of his bed, his morning exercises not even entering his mind as he attempted to decide what to do, it was a few moments before he realized that he was putting off his duties. Standing suddenly Kyo folded the vellum letter once more and slid it back into the envelope, slid it into one of his pouches and set out for the cleaning closet, he quickly swept the corridors allowing his thoughts to run about in his mind as he worked, when he finished he feed the fish in the koi pond before remembering that he had seen ancient Kumo written on the gates to a mansion nearby, Perhaps that was even the person who sent the letter. Besides it would be better than heading to the academy or to Bibliotheca Conscientiae to try and hopefully find some way to do it. He wasn’t sure where he would have been able to find someone who read Classical other than to find a list of Jounin and go down it starting with those that he felt he and his family could trust more. Of course that would likely have been a better choice than the one Kyo did make, after all he knew little of the owner of the mansion other than that she was one of the Chief Med-nins and that she was a nearby neighbor that his uncle had spoken highly of after dealings with them in the past.
With his course of action decided Kyo set out for the nearby mansion, he would need to have the letter translated before he could decide on a further course of action, and hopefully it would contain some clues as to who was lurking bout the clans complex and why they had waited to deliver a message to him when the rest of them were not there, what it contained and why the person who did it couldn’t have just spoken to the boy or sent a messenger if they were afraid of being seen. Kyo continued think of these things as he went about securing the area, locking the doors, shuttering the windows and the like before finally reaching the gate and locking it as well. He had no idea how long he would be gone, but it wouldn’t pay to be lax, even if it hadn’t prevented the intruder performing his mission inside the complex before. Satisfied that everything was secure he headed out, it wasn’t a long walk to the mansion and he was soon at the gate. He paused a moment before he turned to the intercom and pressed the button and waited for an answer.
Kyo slept soundly through the night, which he found to be very surprising when he awoke as the first thing he saw as he was getting out of bed was an envelope that had been left underneath his door, which meant that someone had been in the compound and had been able to not only stay quiet enough that he didn’t wake the boy, but also tread lightly enough that his tremor sense hadn’t been triggered. A troubling prospect, if the person who had left the envelope had meant the boy harm he was sure that he would already be dead. As it was, they had simply left the message for him to find. Rather than rushing to find out what was in the envelope, the boy made his bed, dressed in his usual attire and stretched well before move to investigate it. First he checked it for traces of chakra with his Charka Sense, while he found nothing he hadn’t expected anyone able to be so stealthy to make such a simple mistake, no he would have been disappointed if that had been the case. Gingerly lifting it, ready encase it had been a trap of some kind, he brought it up to face level to read the words written on it. It was addressed simply “Hotaka Kyo” on the front of it, the envelope itself was sealed by wax, though it had no seal or impression made into it, again not a surprise.
Pulling the Kunai form its sheath the boy slide it underneath the seal, careful not to break it and opened the envelope with the back facing away from him and towards the wall encase there was poison inside or it blew, neither of which happened. He carefully brought it back to him and slide the vellum from the envelope gingerly before setting the envelope on the table next to his bed, he opened the folded vellum and looked upon the writing inside, the first thing that struck the boy was that it was familiar, but he couldn’t read it, it took the boy a moment, a frown readily apparent on his face, before he understood what it was he was looking at. “The letter is in Ancient Kumo, but not of the Vulgar variant, which means it is Classical. Who would send me such a letter?” the boy wandered as he continued going over the letter, there was a single word that was repeated twice that he understood, ‘shinobi’, what exactly was the meaning of this?
It wasn’t as if he could simply head to the Bibliotheca Conscientiae and translate it, he would have to take it to someone to get it translated, which meant that for all the trouble the person went through to bring it to his attention that the boy would have to share whatever it was with another member of Kumo’s shinobi, and one that was high ranking as well. Only those of Jounin status and above were allowed to learn the language, and even then only once they had been given permission from the Raikage himself, but that wouldn’t be the end of it either, they performed a rigorous background check on the person after words to ensure things were fine before they were even allowed to start learning. Then if they taught anyone, not only were they put to death, but anyone that they had taught any of it to were put to death as well. As Kyo pondered how he was going to get the note translated, he also pondered if this was a trap set up to kill him, after all if he learned the language in this manner or appeared to be trying to it could lead to him being killed.
The boy sat on the edge of his bed, his morning exercises not even entering his mind as he attempted to decide what to do, it was a few moments before he realized that he was putting off his duties. Standing suddenly Kyo folded the vellum letter once more and slid it back into the envelope, slid it into one of his pouches and set out for the cleaning closet, he quickly swept the corridors allowing his thoughts to run about in his mind as he worked, when he finished he feed the fish in the koi pond before remembering that he had seen ancient Kumo written on the gates to a mansion nearby, Perhaps that was even the person who sent the letter. Besides it would be better than heading to the academy or to Bibliotheca Conscientiae to try and hopefully find some way to do it. He wasn’t sure where he would have been able to find someone who read Classical other than to find a list of Jounin and go down it starting with those that he felt he and his family could trust more. Of course that would likely have been a better choice than the one Kyo did make, after all he knew little of the owner of the mansion other than that she was one of the Chief Med-nins and that she was a nearby neighbor that his uncle had spoken highly of after dealings with them in the past.
With his course of action decided Kyo set out for the nearby mansion, he would need to have the letter translated before he could decide on a further course of action, and hopefully it would contain some clues as to who was lurking bout the clans complex and why they had waited to deliver a message to him when the rest of them were not there, what it contained and why the person who did it couldn’t have just spoken to the boy or sent a messenger if they were afraid of being seen. Kyo continued think of these things as he went about securing the area, locking the doors, shuttering the windows and the like before finally reaching the gate and locking it as well. He had no idea how long he would be gone, but it wouldn’t pay to be lax, even if it hadn’t prevented the intruder performing his mission inside the complex before. Satisfied that everything was secure he headed out, it wasn’t a long walk to the mansion and he was soon at the gate. He paused a moment before he turned to the intercom and pressed the button and waited for an answer.
