Private The turnover future sight

[Keiji]

Hitomi, his little wild orange curly haired contract summon. A demon in disguise. Ultimately his closest friend and confidant, their journeys together had been what's pulled them ahead for decades at this point. Their meeting still comes back to his thoughts ocassionally, remembering the Blood Ogres, hungry huge and red beasts whos entire purpose and existence was to instigate another demon invasion within Lightning country. He could still feel the tug of the string that entangles him to the sword that enabled him to win and escape their fortress, the blade that was soulbound to Hitomi, and which through her was soulbound to him. He felt the tug increase and it was eager to shed the blood of enemies, he would be able to summon it from within him, much like how he would summon Hitomi to stand beside him.

They walked together, her eagerness to start the transfer was palpable and visible on her every movement, she hid nothing of how she felt about this big promotion. Keiji however remained his mellow, relaxed posture. Of course it was all a facade like all Shinobi his muscles were tight and his eyes darted everywhere to try and imprint the surroundings and making sure they weren't followed. He was followed. But he realized just as quickly that they were most likely among the Anbu. This was his first visit to the Complex. And now it was his office of work, this would be where he would walk to and fro every day from this point on. While a few of his Harvesters were busy packing down his office for him he was eager to get started.

At his office he had received a small note. Most likely by one of the Anbu that was now his to command. On it was the method of getting into the facility. After reading and imprinting it in his mind, he burned it. Now he was at the small simple abode outside of the village proper. It didn't seem like much, but in he went, finding the entrance down into the tunnels and settling into the cart driving off into the depths of it.

Upon arrival there was still a short way, the room the carts arrived in was loud with the whooshing of winds, with only a single door leading in and out. A strategic bottle neck for when or if invasions were to occur. He walked ahead and with Hitomi close to his side he opened it up, not sure what was to be expected on the other side of things, a surprise party? A strict attendant? Perhaps an accountant ready to lambast him with annual reports and unfinished paperwork? His entire field of Anbu standing to attention, ready for his every command?

[Private thread with Nobu & Yuki]

 

[Haku Yuki]

The female stood in the centre of the open space. A solitary desk was her only company. The walls were bare concrete that stretched upward to a ceiling obscured in darkness. All around her were empty cells. Each of them was as unpleasant as the next. Small, dank holes where you normally spend the last days of your life. She had to compliment whoever designed this place. It was particularly effective at making you feel uncomfortable. It was an imposing space just to stand in, let alone to be imprisoned in. It was a name that brought her here. One that she had not seen for a long time. Yamanaka Nobu. She was sure that it was a mistake but her curiosity got the better of her.

Yuki heard the man and his companion before she saw him. The sound of their footsteps reverberated off the stone.

"Keji, it's a pleasure to see you." She said without looking up from the papers on the desk, "Welcome to, what I affectionately call, 'The Hole'," She finally turned her attention away from the desk to look at the newly appointed ANBU Sennin, slightly surprised to see he had brought a guest. "Lovely isn't it? Yuki picked up a clipboard and walked around to the front of the desk, perching on the edge. Now I have noticed a name on this list that came as a bit of a shock, one Yamanaka Nobu? Says that he was captured at the gates by... Her elegant fingers flipped through the documents. "You actually. Now I thought that we could pay him a visit before I officially hand over the reins. I just want to see for sure if he is indeed who he says he is," She got up, turning her back to the male,"Follow me, it is quite easy to get lost in this place but I am sure you will find your way around it in no time,"

The man was led down the hall through the labyrinthine corridors to one of the few occupied cells. Beyond the bars, she could see him. He was older than she remembered, but she could still see the boy she once knew in those features.

 

[Nara Shizukesa]

Nobu was escorted into the twists and turns into what would be described as a maze, it was interesting to see how well hidden this place was, bt what did he expect for a complex that was supposed to be secured and out of the way. He knew full well that he wouldn't work his way out of here by remembering after all that was a fool's hope, however, it did seem that he would still have some tools to work with in this dark place, after all that was his best place to start within the dark. He had been forged by it in some sense.

"So this will be my lovely room, gotta say, privacy isn't a thing eh? Ah well, I can get some crash time at least while I wait"

With that he allowed the men to lock the cell door behind him as he stood there for a few moments, hands turned back towards the cell as they uncuffed him, I mean pretty sure he wasn't going to try and run anyway, the thought had crossed his mind, freedom inside of the village, but that would be for another day. Right now he wanted to have a conversation with someone who was in charge, he wondered if Asuka would come and find him.

Turning around he crashed down on the metal bed that was left for him, deciding to sleep it off instead. No point in trying to sit and think about things, it was a gamble, he wondered if his hand of cards, would beat those that he would be speaking. After what could be considered a few hours his eyes snapped open to the sound of footsteps, hauling himself out of bed he faced the direction of the noise. As he saw who was approaching he allowed a huge grin to come to his lips. It seemed that he was going to be having a lucky day after all.

"Ah if it isn't Keiji and Yuki, I do say the change of hair color suits you......how can I help?"

[Topic Entered]

 

[Keiji]

Being welcomed by Yuki, his predecessor was grandiouse for Keiji, while he was unsure at first where he was, it all fell into place when she described it as "The Hole" This was the prisons.
The letter he had received was simply to take him to that specific department of the Complex. He'd hopefully have the time on his hands to explore the rest of the complex.

Alas, this time would come later. "It definitely is quite the sight" he responded to Yuki as she described the prisons as "lovely" in a composed manner and with a curious glare in his eyes.

he nodded silently to Yuki mentioning how Nobu was brought in by Keiji. "Not like he gave me a challenge or anything, literally gave himself up. A curious case if you ask me." He followed along, trying to burn the pattern of this prison into memory, as tricky as that might be, he was already one of the leading scientists and surgeons within Kumo when he left, it wouldn't be surprising if this held true within Leaf as well, it shouldn't be too difficult, alas the intricacies and designs of the walls were specifically designed to screw with the head causing his head to relapse a few times and his mind to get stumped. This might take longer than he first assumed.

They stood on the side of the bars with Nobu looking at them welcoming their presence like old friends visiting in his house. "Humor. That should get him far.." he thought to himself..

"I see you are acquanted with Haku-san.. I assumed as much, we were thinking it'd be high time for us to have a little chat to sort out the peculiarity that is your capture and placement within these cells.." He paused slightly. Giving his words time to sit. Then continuing, partially from memory "At approximately 10 in the morning you were out by the South Gates, causing a disruption to the flow of traffic and voluntarily permitted yourself to be tied up and brought into capture. Normally, at least within Kumo; in such circumstances with a registered Missing-nin you'd have been executed within a fortnite not even permitted a last meal. However this is Leaf, and while I still need to read up on the exact protocol here we decided to look past all that to have a little chat with you to figure out what exactly it is you want."

"So.. What is it you want? Why did you get yourself captured so willingly, and why is it you were so adament to speak to a high-ranking individual?" Quickly he added before Nobu was allowed to interject "And before you ask, no you may not see the Hokage. That is most definitely out of the scope of your prerogative."

Behind Keiji followed along Hitomi, she hid behind Keiji's legs as they walked and stood in front of Nobu. She wasn't shy or anything, she just allowed the space to be set so Keiji was in the front of her to quickly pull him back, she placed herself there partially on instinct. Her wild and large red curly hair was almost so wide the tips of the hair were visible to Nobu by the sides of Keiji's legs. Her eyes never strayed from Nobu. In particularly his body language. His hands, feet, and torso angle was her main focus of attention. Her intense eyes would almost be glowing. She had an unease with this Nobu character, but she wasn't able to put it into concrete words why that was the case. Alas she stayed by Keiji.

 

[Haku Yuki]

The woman felt a smile creep across her face as she heard the man speak. There was no denying who he was. It was Nobu, without a doubt.
"You know when I saw you on my list I was concerned that someone was using your good name." She couldn't help but be glad to see him. There was a lot of history between the two of them. "So how did your quest turn out? Still righting all the wrongs of the world?" Yuki placed her forearm on her bars, leaning her weight on her arm, listening to Keji speak to him. "Nobu, let me be straight with you. The only reason you aren't being interrogated more vigorously is that I care for you a great deal. However, I am not ANBU Sennin, your fate is no longer in my hands. Whether you keep your head or not is completely up to Keji. So I strongly suggest you keep the cheek to a minimum" It was as much of a puzzle to her why he let himself get captured so easily. It was very uncharacteristic of him. "Yes, that had me stumped as well." She stood back up to her full height. She paced in front of the cell not taking her eyes off the man within. "You left the village, and now you have returned. Alone. And gave yourself up. I know you Nobu, better than most. You wouldn't come back unless you had something up your sleeve."

Yuki watched as the young girl the Sennin had brought with him hid behind his leg. She was curious as to who she was but Keji was entitled to his secrets.
"I have a feeling it isn't the Hokage that he is here to see. At least not this Hokage. You do know that Asuka isn't here right?" She watched his face as the news sank in.

 

[Nara Shizukesa]

It seemed that things were getting interested between the three of them as Nobu stood in his cell facing the two of them, what could be considered a smug grim was across his lips as he stood silent listening to both of them first. As he pondered the first question that had been given by Keiji, his attention was given back to Yuki as she decided to speak, though a laugh escaped his lips at her words, it seemed she still had really not changed since the reason he came back was simply because of the grapevine so to speak.

"So is it true then, let's not waste time with words, Leaf got kicked in by a missing ninja, your Sennin died, my wife-to-be, well she got removed thus breaking the deal she made with the Gekido clan, my clan to be specific?"

Nobu let the words ring in the air for a few moments, making sure he got the point across that information was spreading about the village, that word was out in the open about the situation and it wasn't looking great for Leaf. As he leaned into the bars to get closer to them his eyes making contact with each of them one after the other, he allowed himself to ponder the words carefully, the next few sentences laid the cards on the table for this game.

"I appreciate not being dead, however, this cell, well let's face it if I have to fight my way out, or make a deal either way I want out and soon. So I will place my cards on the table, the Gekido clan wants to offer Leaf its services, a few conditions and costs of course for this, but I am sure you would consider that a fair trade if you were in my position?"

As he started to pace backward and forward around the cell he pondered the best way to position this, rubbing his chin slightly he looked towards them.

"The clan gets access to Leaf, ranks fitting of the members of the clan, our business continues, we get to obtain property in Leaf unharassed, and come and go as we want. I will join the village and help with well the lacking numbers, a fair trade, and hard work for reward. Though I have connections as a missing ninja, thus I would prefer to keep myself undiscovered by coming back to the village. Asuka saw I was never really troubled, so maybe the ANBU Branch could use me, that way I hide my face, and I can gather intel from groups you wouldn't normally have access to in return I get a good-paying job and well let's call it equivalent exchange. The only other condition, when Leaf is ready, I get to leave once more, I'm only doing this as if Leaf falls my clan, my home falls as well. Let's not mistake this for something like passion shall we?"

He waited for the offer lingering in the air, he wanted to see what the two would make of it.

[MFT:510]

 

[Keiji]

"A bit of a lousy hand you got there, have to say." His first response to Nobu's words came out abruptly. Breaking the tension Keiji continued after a few seconds. "So basically you're saying promises were made by those in charge before, even so much as promising to marry our previous Kage. Unfortunately none of those deals apply with the new people around, in fact as far as I'm aware there's been no documentation or official notice made regarding any of the deals you mention, so I'm not sure who's to blame on those accounts exactly, I'll need to talk with the Kage office to see if anything is perhaps there. You are as they say an enigma. As I said before, normally I would just have you executed. So you're lucky you were recognized by those in power. If you had come here just a few months from now you might not have been so lucky."

He crossed his arms while resting his chin on a lifted hand in a thinking pose, trying to scrape his mind of alternative ideas. "As things are right now, I don't honestly see why we should even consider your proposal, since we barely have any documentation about you, nothing except your name in the bingo books, and the people in the village itself that can vouch for you, like Yuki here." He gestured at Yuki.
"I am in need of assistants though, was thinking to just promote Harvesters but I can see the value in someone familiar with a bit of the underbelly in this country."
He paused again, looking to Yuki. "I leave the recommendation to you, what're your thoughts on this?"

 

[Haku Yuki]

The female remained silent as the man behind bars laid out his proposition. It was an interesting conversation. There is no denying that during his absence he has grown in both maturity and power. She wasn't ashamed to admit that if it came to it, she would struggle to put him down. Her attention moved from Nobu to Sennin as he addressed her.

"I have never known Nobu to be dishonest. When he was still a child, he made it very clear that he was leaving the village. I doubt that he is trying to deceive us now." She rested her finger on her chin. "Though, I do think going missing does deserve some form of punishment." Tapping her finger on her cheek she hummed. Yuki turned back to Keji "You're missing a Captian, aren't you? Give it to Nobu, that way you keep an eye on him and the paperwork would double as a fitting punishment,"

 

[Nara Shizukesa]

Nobu couldn't help but laugh slightly at the predicament that he had found himself in, still so much use for words even at a time like this, though it seemed the two people in front of him would be the ones that decided his fate. That was almost ironic in the fact alone that they were discussing him so openly but even Nobu knew that right now he would just have to listen to the two of them. Keiji, this newcomer seemed at least switched on above life, that was something that could be commended. Yuki, the cold one that he had met, would be considered almost a calculated killer, but it seemed her role inside the village had shifted.

As he watched the back and forth and the questioning it became clear that the future that he would seek would be decided in this little cell and corridor, it was almost laughable but the reason he was here right now was to make sure that leaf would survive the future, had admitted to himself that they needed one another to survive and right now one needed the other more, he was happy with that predicament and was going to make sure that he did whatever he could to make this work for the best of both worlds. The question was what would these two make of him and his deal.

It seemed that Yuki and Keiji had finished having the discussion that they were having, he decided to make sure that they managed to finish the conversation first between the two of them, after all, it was going to be rude to interrupt them right in the middle of deciding what to with him, once it seemed the conversation was coming to an end he decided to get to the point this time.

"So what is it going to be then?"

[MFT: 316]

 

[Keiji]

Keiji shuffled as he heard Yuki expressing her thoughts on the matter. Making slight adjustments to his position subcutaneously to signify a change in opinion, or processing of new information.
The second he reached a decision Hitomi turned around started sprinting the same path they came from until she hit a small box hanging on the wall, she opened the lid, and looking at a lot of different keys all for the same cell block. She stared intensely as she tried to remember the cell number Nobu resided in, in frustration she just grabbed a bunch in her small hand and ran back to the group.

As she started running Keiji took a little breath and sighed slightly. First turning to Yuki "I understand what you're saying, and I can see your viewpoint Haku-san. Thank you for your insight." Then turning to Nobu he continued. "I suppose you can thank her to having made introductions properly. I hope you as I, can appreciate the irony of our first meeting being me putting you in handcuffs and now I end up being the one hiring you." As he paused for a second Hitomi had come back and handed him the set of keys to the cell. Staring at the bunch his eyes scowled at Hitomi's sillyness and found himself having to scramble through them to find the right number, and as the keys jangled in his hands he tried to continue.
"More interestingly, while you were technically a Missing-nin before this moment it does make both of us technically outsiders to the Village, while I've been here the last few years, you have been away the last few years, so there's definitely some Aha!" he said out loud pausing himself only to continue as he walked up to the door and put in the key. "humor in there as well you might say."

As he pulled the cell door and reached forward with an open palm hoping for a proper handshake to occur. "Welcome to the Leaf ANBU service. I expect great things from our collaboration"
Releasing the grip from Nobu once a proper squeeze and and a manly glare would be shared between them. "As Haku-san here suggested you'll have the honor of being my first Captain. Specifically your job will be paperwork and gate guard. This should provide sufficient work on your plate to keep you distracted, paid and fed well. The rest of your group can be situated in the Barracks for starters if any of them have experience we can train them up as ANBU as well, or we will try and find alternative work for them, I'm sure we can figure something out."

He'd pause and then turn around, walking out, leading the way for Nobu out of the cell properly whilst sharing a look with Yuki indicating a sort of silent question "Did I do okay?" Hoping to see her responding with a nod of some kind.

 

[Nara Shizukesa]

Nobu listened to the exchange of words, the small smile crept across his lips, after all, it seemed that by default his offer had been taken up, the irony that two outsiders, well two even missing from their own home were going to be running the ANBU branch did not go unmissed. Watching the cell door open it seemed that he had signed himself up and back into the service of a village he had once planned on turning his back on, the situation seemed to be interesting and with that would come Nobu's handshake back, taking the hand as an offering it was meant to be.

"Well seems life just got interesting again, I have to say I didn't see this one coming, for the others of my group, I will discuss this with them, however, their choice and free will are just their own."

He turned his head towards Yuki, nodding slightly in the process, it seemed that he appreciated the fact that she was giving him a second chance. As he sighed slightly it seemed his life was going to be paperwork and gate guarding, well he really didn't mind that too much, after all, he did have to make sure that he was keeping himself busy and always on top of things.

"I will try and find some form of home, any suggestions or where I should look, or anyone wanting to give me a tour of buildings, it may be worth looking for somewhere a little bit discreet and out of the way after all I don't want to be one of those high lords in a castle that exists, got to keep some moral compass sometimes. But if you don't mind is anything required of me right now, if not I will try and get myself settled in today and find a place to rest, we can pick this up in the morning if that is agreeable with you Sennin?"

He would wait for a reply before turning his gaze back onto Yuki a pleasant enough smile on his face.

"So how about dinner and a catch-up?"

[ANBU Captain Accepted]