Idle No More

She hadn’t paid much mind to Shiro. Not at any point in the earlier fight. He had come in as an annoyance, just a distraction that she wished hadn’t been involved. It was a liability, and she would have to protect him if Nozomi had been feeling particularly cruel and used some massive area of effect technique. He would have been caught in the blast, and Ei would have had to protect him in addition to herself- Either that or choose. One or the other. If she had to choose between protecting her own life and Shiro’s, what would she have done? She didn’t even know this child’s name, but...

Her words fell on deaf ears. She truly didn’t really understand why Shiro Suzuki was here in the first place, or at least she hadn’t until now. Initially her glare increased, tired and fed up, as Shiro began speaking, but as he went on that glare softened. Ei really couldn’t refute anything he said now. Despite his intelligence, or lack therefore of, he had struck directly into the route and truth of the issue. Ei worked out the same deal with the Society as her predecessor. Even with all her posturing and that little fight between Nozomi and herself earlier, nothing really got away from the fact that she was the clear submissive in this relationship. Nozomi had essentially told her at the end what was going to happen and Ei had no choice but to accept. She surrendered those exclusive techniques that had been with their village for generations to Nozomi because that was what reality dictated. It was the only way she had any chance to redeem this village and turn it away from the disaster it had become.

That was how she justified it to herself. But it didn’t matter how she chose to rationalize her own actions. She had failed the village. Not just now, but consistently, ever since it had decayed. She had been too absorbed, absent, to do anything for over a year now. The same had been true to Azuma. She had failed to protect it against Nozomi just now, and chose to surrender rather than die fighting. It was hard to deflect from his accusations of her being a coward.

So when he revealed his hand, tying those strings around her that he had deftly hidden as invisible, she wouldn’t move. Not that she couldn’t. That same trick from just moments ago could have been pulled, blowing the strings away. A sense of shame had stopped her though. Something about being chastised in this way by a child stung, especially as she understood he was correct.

Of course, she wouldn’t resign herself to her fate just yet. There was still too much work to do.

However, she would be stopped before having to do something drastic. Shiro’s own incompetence had saved her. Slipping as he jumped, his aim had been way off and the strings that had been tied around Ei would release immediately with his loss of focus. Her eyes would track him, following his descent downwards into…

She hadn’t noticed the state of her own kimono until now, as his face collided directly with her chest. Due to the… cushion, she had, even with the force he had rushing forward she wouldn’t be harmed in the slightest. She would lose her footing at the same time, falling backwards harmlessly onto the ground, where she would land with a thud. While not injured from the fall, she couldn’t exactly claim it was pleasant.

With a slight sigh, Ei would raise a hand up to pat the young Shiro’s head, even as awkward as it was in their current positions. A slight tossle of his crimson hair would be given, and she couldn’t help but let off a tired smile at how the situation had turned out.

“You’re awfully brave, aren’t you? Throwing that pan before, and jumping on me like this now. It was pretty clever of you to use chakra strings in that way…” She muttered out his praises, sighing afterwards. “Much braver than I am. You’re the sort of shinobi that Suna desperately needs more of right now.”

“Why don’t you stand up and tell me your name?” She honestly was uncomfortable in the current position they were in. “With the talents you’ve displayed now, I’m certain you’ll make a fine shinobi when you come of age. Until then… Since there are so few competent people left remaining in this village- Become my assistant. There’ll be a lot of work that needs to be done to return this village to what it was. I could use someone like you by my side. Someone brave to balance out my cowardice..

Shiro found himself in the most awkward of positions for a 15 year old boy. This was even worse than that one time he'd tried to steal and smoke Kensai's cigar. But what happened had definitely not been his fault, oh no. The woman had made use of her features to bewitch the young and innocent Shiro causing him to fail the attack on her forehead. In fact the first thing Shiro noticed was that she hadn't even gone to the trouble of adjusting her kimono properly before giving out her motivation speech. But Shiro wouldn't fall for the same trick twice, obv-actually he did. Because he was a 15 year old boy, why wouldn't he? Shinobi were trained to make the most out of the conditions in a battlefield and try to take advantage of every possible situation. Shiro saw an opportunity, and he took it. For a couple of seconds at least, before it clicked on his mind that the last time he got distracted things had gone wrong.

He got up instinctively, not needing Ei to tell him to since it was now as uncomfortable to him as it was to her. Landing on top of clothed people wasn't an issue, he had accidentally done just that a surprisingly large amount of times during his ninja career so far. But this was the first time he made contact with skin, and somehow the transposition of the simple barrier that was the thin layer of clothing she wore made all the difference. Suddenly, the ninja who before had had no issue with falling on people before, felt what he was doing was extremely uncomfortable. He got up just as spoke the words asking him to and immediately put some space between the two.

So he'd cover his eyes with his left hand while gesturing with his right one for her to cover herself. "I'll tell you, I'll tell you, I'll do whatever you want but for the love of the Sage have some fairplay here woman, I'm just a boy!"

Shiro assumed the awkward moment would pass and eventually he'd remove his hand from his face, revealing an very serious expression paired with the sight of incredibly red cheeks which in itself made for an awkward look. "My name is Shiro Suzuki, and this is my pan." He'd make en effort to remove it from the wall. An effort which would prove to be futile. After a couple of attempts, he gave up and turned once again to Ei. "Well, I guess it's your pan now." Yet another great thing the elite from Suna took away from the plebs. But the pan god had spoken, there was no going back and Shiro would just have to accept he wasn't worthy.

"Hey, I'm already a shinobi. You're not taking this away from me." He'd close his hand in a fist and point his thumb at the headband across his forehead. Suddenly the head patting seemed a lot more suspicious. As hard as it might be to believe it, Shiro actually did graduate from the Ninja Academy in Sunagakure no Sato with exceptional D's all across the board. As for being a "fine" shinobi...well, maybe when he came of age. Maybe.

The sound of the word "assistant" had made his ears wiggle, however. An assistant to the Kazekage? That had to be a promotion, right? He fucking knew it. His hard work and natural talent was finally being rewarded with proper acknowledgement. Shiro needed to consider this job offer very well, think about what he wanted to do, about his fut- "I'll do it." sigh

"I'll teach you how to not be a coward. But I'll have you know, my expert advice doesn't come cheap! I have my terms.

First of all, no more of that weird flashing Genjutsu you pulled earlier. That should be a kinjutsu, really.

Second, what exactly does 'a lot of work mean? I'm asking for a friend who's also a ninja and likes to nap a lot."

She was utterly relieved when Shiro stood up. She would stand up as well shortly afterwards. Falling and being headbutted like that did hurt an awful lot, despite her attempts to play it off. She wasn’t exactly someone who had the constitution to be falling down flights of stairs and remaining uninjured after. Even though this wasn’t down a flight of stairs, the walls and floor here were all made of stone and didn’t even have any carpet to cushion the fall or anything. Brushing herself off, she would make sure to properly adjust her kimono and tighten the obi sash that held it all in place. Having something loosen or fall out of place would be… A bad thing, especially with her current company. Already by accident she had shown too much skin, although fate had saved her from showing off anything that would be beyond PG-13. Lucky for her. If she accidentally flashed herself in front of a child she’d likely have to turn into an alcoholic to deal with the shame.

Shiro finally revealed his identity, which was a good thing. With how intelligent Ei was it was hard to imagine there being anyone who was literally so irrelevant that she wasn’t aware of them, but Shiro somehow managed to slip by her radar while also having the gonads to jump her in her office like this, and also still maintain his job while likely not being paid. At the very least he was tenacious. She gave a slight gaze to the pan, but diverted her eyes right away. The pan was none of her concern. Just an iron cooking instrument. Honestly she had never used one in her life, so she didn’t really have any opinions on the matter, especially as she didn’t know the reverence Shiro held for it.

“My name is Ei Kanagawa. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Also… No, the pan is still yours. I wouldn’t be so cruel as to steal from a child. It just wouldn’t be right.”

His insistence to stay a shinobi did make things difficult though. She did just agree to removing child soldiers to Nozomi, one of the propositions she didn’t really mind making to the woman. In an ideal world there wouldn’t be any, but… Well, to leave Shiro without a job would likely just send him to the streets. Something would need to be done.

“You’ll do it? Fantastic.” At the very least, this would be one less homeless child off the streets. She’d have an excuse to pay him and provide him with a home in return for his work, even if they would perhaps have to redefine the whole Shinobi business. Of course, then Shiro began making demands, and the woman before him would curiously blink. Was this how Nozomi felt when she had been demanding things from her earlier?

“First of all, it wasn’t a Genjutsu. Just a standard ninjutsu. I could teach it to you, although I doubt you’d be able to use it the same way. Secondly, a lot of work means… It’s mainly for myself. Bringing this village back to something respectable. Hiring new shinobi, making sure jobs are done, cleaning up the streets. A lot of different things. Don’t worry yourself over them. They’ll largely be my responsibility. For now, why not… Hmm.”

She had to think for a moment. She needed a real job for him.

“If you want to help, you could start with… Managing the village gates. Maybe you would enjoy that? I could give you an administrative position for now. You’d be in charge. Of course, nap time would be respected. Or, would you perhaps like something else?”

Of course, she didn’t actually mean that. There’d be Jounin actually managing things there, but Shiro could be given the illusion of being in charge.

Shiro would raise a single index finger as Ei mentioned not being interested in the pan because it would be like stealing from a child. Well technically it's not stealing if you throw the loot at the thief, right? "Shhh, the pan has spoken. As per Sunagakure scavenger laws, if it's stuck at your office and other can't remove it, it's yours Ei Kanagawa- It's not stealing, it's...erm, a gift. Makes for nice decoration doesn't it? And you can be sure it won't be stolen. I'll find something else for me. I think I spotted a good looking spoon earlier.." Shiro's gaze would be diverted upwards and to his right side as he tried to remember where he saw the metallic object. Spoons were great because you could make knives out of them while still having some metal leftover to do others things with. That, and for eating soup.

Her next words would also be listened to attentively, although obviously not completely understood due to Shiro's nature. "Why are you taking away jobs from our own shinobi to just then go and hire others to do it?" It was Shiro's own turn to blink twice, as a sudden realization came upon him. "Oh my Sage, the racist old man living at the scrapyard was right, foreigners are invading our country and taking all of our jobs away from us honest folk!"

Shiro would take a pencil and a small notebook from his jacket's pocket and scribble furiously upon it, taking notes to share with the old man later. Today it would be easier to distract him and steal metals while he was blabbering. Shiro had hoped he'd die soon, but he was more resilient than the youngster had given him credit for.

As he wrote tho, another word made his ears wiggle. Gates. Oh no, that meant guard duty! His index finger would shoot up in the air yet again. "No no, no guard duty! I've been promoted, I'm done with guarding gates!" This was perhaps his most non-negotiable claim. A few moments ago when he thought he was about to die, he was able to look back upon his gate guarding memories and cherish them, but now that the prospect of a long life was ahead of him the idea of making more of those memories didn't seem as great.

"I want something better. Oh, I know! Make me admiral of our fleet!" Nevermind that they lived in the middle of a desert, the idea that having the title of "admiral" was something he could throw at Chen's face whenever he met him again was what enticed him the most. "Oh but if I'm an admiral I won't have time to teach you anything properly..."

Shiro was a boy of his word. If he promised he'd teach Ei how to not be a coward, then he'd come through with that promise! unfortunately this meant that the admiralship would need to wait. That was alright. "I like your idea of respecting nap times, but that's not enough to make me like you yet, oh no. I learn my lessons. The last time someone approached me with proposals regarding kid nappings it turned out to be a huge disappointment, I went napping thinking everything was alright and ended up waking up inside a container at a ship near the harbour. "

She couldn’t help but stare now that Shiro said ‘the pan had spoken’. Truly incredible. She wasn’t dealing with any normal child, but a pure imbecile. Not just because of his age either, it seemed that he truly excelled in stupidity in ways that no other could. It was sort of endearing, in a way. Not in the way she would want to deal with all the time, but she had an awful lot of patience for children. She could handle him. If Chen's difficult ways didn’t drive her mad, then Shiro surely wouldn’t either. Of course, she had no plans of actually keeping that pan, but she would nod her head anyway. Perhaps she would just let it stay there, in that wall…

“A gift? I suppose I have no choice but to accept. I’ll treasure it.” She gave the child a small pat on the head, along with a soft smile.

“We’ll be hiring new shinobi from within the village, not from outside… Although, I suppose attempting to poach outsiders for our military should be a strategy I consider as well. We really need all the help we can get. Rest assured as well, you’ll be… You’ll have a new job. One of equal importance, one of...” She hadn’t even remembered to tell him not to talk to that man in the scrapyard- She was too busy trying to think of some way to pacify Shiro. Of course, the little genius gave her the answer himself.

“Yes. Yes. Perfect. You’ll be an Admiral of Sunagakure.” Sunagakure, the village in the middle of a desert. They had no ships, not even a port as far as Ei was aware. Still, it would likely make him feel special. “You’ll have plenty of time to teach me though, don’t worry. We’ll find a way to make time… And I assure you that what I’m suggesting is very different from kidnapping, Admiral Shiro.” - Apparently they did have a harbor, and if not any state run ships some civilian owned ones. Interesting.

Ei was wrong if she thought he was dealing with a pure imbecile. Shiro was much more than an imbecile, so how could he be a pure one? Somewhere in that pot there was also room for moronic, stupidity, a ridiculously high amount of luck and a special talent for building puppets and working their mechanisms. Sometimes talent was hidden away in people, tucked somewhere until they stumbled upon it by accident. Sometimes it happened early in life and people made careers out of it, other times it happened later and the talent would turn into a joyful hobby. Shiro? He knew he liked puppets, but he'd never had the resources to put one together. He'd never worked hard to master the chakra strings technique either, it just came naturally to him. But due to the stupidity part inside his pot, he'd never try to go beyond their basic function.

"I'll...I'll be honest with you. I'm not entirely sure I want a new job." He had went and become excited about the prospect of throwing admiralship at Chen's face and while that idea did indeed please him a lot...He was also scared. Not of Chen, but of his new responsibilities. Shiro knew next to nothing about ships- he could tell you they floated, but if you asked him to throw one out into the water there's no guarantee it wouldn't land upside down. But it wasn't just that. After all, he was confident he could learn-he couldn't, but he was confident. How hard could it be? But the real problem lay elsewhere. Shiro had wanted to be a shinobi for the entirety of his life.

Well, perhaps not his entire life. The first thing he had wanted to do was inherit the flower shop his parents used to run back in the day, under the apartment they all had lived at. Both civilians, both entirely uninterested in the shinobi world. Well except for the potential sales of medicinal herbs of course. They frowned at his idea of becoming a shinobi at first, but his love for the oddities of marionettes and puppets became too evident to ignore. He'd enrolled in the academy with their blessing, and succeeded. As a gift, they'd purchased a small space in the market district for him to open a workshop at. "At least it'll keep your tools away from my kitchen" his mother had said, between his childish giggles and the hoarse laughter of his father. Those had been good days, happy days. Days he'd cherish.

But those days were no more. The flower shop was now little more than a ruin, and his parents gone forever. He wasn't even entirely sure how it'd happened. As a kid it's easy to be unaware of your surroundings and the politics happening around you, you know? Especially for an imbecile like Shiro. He didn't notice the slow decay of the village. He didn't notice how the streets became emptier, how the shops and markets slowly started to close earlier and some permanently. It had been a slow process, and he'd been nothing more than a child. An imbecile child, even. He didn't notice his parent's concerns about the ever growing violence, and he didn't notice their struggle with paying taxes to both the village and a different gang every week. At some point, happiness had faded away from the village and their home. People were no longer interested in flowers, even those which endured the strong and unforgiving heat of the sun. What are flowers in a world that's forgotten beauty?

It was hard to tell what had triggered it, and Shiro dared not to try and and guess. Had they fail some payment? Had it been an accident? In a village such as Sunagakure no sato's, the possibilities were many. But oh, what did it matter? It truly didn't. He'd arrived home from the workshop that day to find the place ablaze in flames. If the sight hadn't been in front of his eyes he might have found the sweet scent of burning flowers and medicinal herbs quite pleasant. But the ashes, the odour of burnt flesh and the crackling sound of wood had made the entire thing a nightmare. Has anyone ever told you the smell of burnt human flesh is terrifyingly similar to that of roasted pig? No one had told him either.

As it turns out, being a fool does not shield you from everything. That day, Shiro had found himself thinking the academy shouldn't have let him graduate. Every handbook stated the shinobi mustn't show their emotions under any circumstance and yet there he'd been on his knees, babbling nonsense and feeling the hot and heavy tears stroll down his cheeks. Being a fool was hard sometimes.

"If I were an admiral, I'd need a hat. And I wouldn't want just any hat, no." He needed to come up with some sort of excuse to the refuse the job. "And, well, you don't have any fancy hats I'm sure, and..." he realized he hadn't quite thought this one through. Alas, he said he'd be honest and by some other curse of fate the young boy was left with no other option.

"Look, miss. I'm not very bright, but I know what you're trying to do here. And I'm not very good at it either, but I am a ninja. That's...all I know how to do. The only thing I can do but above all the only thing I want to do. If you're serious about taking this away from us, then you don't know what being a ninja means." He wasn't entirely sure why, but it was true. Perhaps because the graduation from the academy was the one thing he'd actually succeeded at. His family had loved him in their own way, but nothing beat the sense of pride in surprising them with a graduation. Being a ninja was his one accomplishment in life, and he didn't want that taken away from him. "I worked hard to graduate, to become stronger, a fitting ninja for the village. And if you or the moody blondie won't let me be one, then I'll fight you for it. I really will. " There was an immense freedom to enjoy in having nothing left to lose. Everyone he knew was gone, and Shiro would be sure to challenge Ei and Nozomi's ruling before he got attached to either.

He turned his back on Ei and his gaze towards the window he'd entered from. Leaning against it, he watched the horizon imposed by the walls. Leaving was also an option, he supposed. but where to? The sands of the Land of Wind were all he knew. Could he really escape? Well he could, but that would make him no better than the traitors who'd abandoned this village. He hated them. He hated them all.

When he turned back towards Ei, there would be a different expression spread across his features. No longer that of a goofy boy, that of an imbecile and inconsequential kid. The mask'd fallen off, momentarily perhaps. Shiro had the gaze of someone who'd seen far more than a person his age should've, but above all Shiro had the gaze of a man who'd come to terms with his own death.

"I'm a Sunagakure no Sato shinobi today, and I'll be a Sunagakure no Sato shinobi tomorrow." he produced a kunai knife from an improvised leg holster made out of cloth and wood pieces. It would twirl in the air right above his hand for a moment until it fell back down and Shiro held it by the very tip of its blade, between two fingers. "And if you want to stop that tomorrow, you really will have to kill me. " He offered the kunai to Ei. A second gift. Shiro was being very generous today. "Enough with the sweet talk, with the persuasion attempts. I am a kid and yes, those might work on children. But I'm also a Sunagakure Shinobi, and I demand honesty from the Kazekage."

She was in a difficult position. Ei hadn’t come here to take over Sunagakure with this in mind. Really, she hadn’t had anything in mind. None of this was planned. For someone who should have been so intelligent, this entire moment was spontaneous, messy, and unplanned. That style of doing things did appeal to her inner artist, but she couldn’t very well claim to be some sort of intellectual mastermind while at the same time making a bumbling fool of herself. At first Ei had only come here to commit petty theft, but with each passing moment she found herself pulled into something greater. First she had, out of perhaps some misplaced attempt at creating beauty and loyalty to her homeland, attempted to take the position of Kazekage for herself. That was likely her first mistake, and many more would follow afterwards. The dealing with Kara (who was surely now escaping, with it being unlikely for Ei to have time to pursue), the negotiations with Nozomi, and now her dealings with Shiro Suzuki- The unplanned spontaneity was perhaps working to her disadvantage. When painting there was nothing outrageous about making mistakes. A press of the wrong color in the wrong location on the canvas could be mended, painted over, or at worst the entire thing could be scrapped and she could start anew. The same principles unfortunately didn’t seem to work on people.

Shiro’s story wasn’t something she was aware of in the slightest, but his fate wasn’t particularly unique. His past was unknown to Ei. She had only just now learned his name. But Sunagakure was sick. Deathly ill, and that disease had been allowed to fester and grow for far too long. Only now did it seem there was any hope for the future. A future with no more gangs, no more corporations discretely encouraging crime, no more rampant drug use, no more innocent civilians being killed for whatever mundane, pointless reason.

The kunai was pressed into her hand. The handle was cold, even more so than normal against her overly-warm body temperature. It was like ice against her skin, and immediately she could feel the heat draining away from that limb. Her glance towards Shiro was stoic. For all her thoughts of him being a fool, an imbecile, the stunt that he was pulling off here truthfully did show that he could at least see glimmers of reality as it was. It seemed that the clownish mood of the previous few moments had collapsed in on itself, and now without that ridiculous aura of her attempting to appease him with talks of admiralty the weight of the situation returned. Despite all her posturing, Ei had no power to disobey Nozomi. If she didn’t do as she said there would surely be consequences. Someone would be selected to replace her. Or maybe not? It surely didn’t bother the Society to leave the village decapitated. It would return to how it was. Poverty and destitution on every corner, gangs ruling the streets, people suffering for no reason.

“Honesty?” She questioned, repeating that last word. Her eyes were down on the kunai she had been handed, having not turned her gaze away ever since it was handed to her.

“I can not refuse a request by Nozomi. If I had the power to really tell her no, I would. If I had the power to make Sunagakure an independent nation again, free of foregin influence, I would. But it’s not that simple, Shiro.”

A long sigh came out of her after that, tension that had built up over the course of this all finally releasing. The heat had been getting to her head. Now feverish, despite how cold she usually felt, the woman would finally strike to the core of the situation.

“This will be my only chance at making this village a tolerable place to live in. To get rid of the gangs, the narcotics, to clamp down on the corporations that took advantage of us. For this village to have a place on the world stage again other than just the dumping ground of scum and villainy. If I have to surrender myself to Nozomi in order to do that, I will. It’s the best opportunity I’ll get. If that means no more children working as Shinobi, I have no choice but to make that sacrifice.”

The kunai was dropped, slipping from her fingers. The point would collide with the ground, digging in and allowing the knife to stick straight up.

“The duty of a shinobi is to make sacrifices for their home. Not just for the honor, but to protect and support the community. To ensure a better life for the commoner walking the streets of Sunagakure. That’s why I accepted these terms, no matter how humiliating they may be. So that someone could have a better life, even if not myself. That’s what it means to be a shinobi, being willing to fight, die, and suffer for the sake of your home. If you, Shiro Suzuki, are unwilling to make any sacrifices for your homeland… I have to question if you truly understand what it means to be a shinobi in the first place.”

She didn’t want to say any of this. Long gone, apparently, was the genius painter who locked herself away to work on her art. Now she had true civic responsibilities to attend to. She would have to sacrifice bits of herself, piece by piece, for the sake of the village.

“When you reach the age of sixteen, you’ll be eligible to become a shinobi once more. Until then, we won’t discuss this any further.”

Turning from the boy, Ei would return to what was now her desk, signaling the end of the conversation.

Shiro smiled as he noticed Ei drop the kunai. Throughout its path towards the ground of the Kazekage Office, Shiro smiled at Ei. It was a sad smile, far from the goofy young boy seen earlier in this meeting. He smiled not because his life had been spared, twice for that matter. Not even because of any silly thought like the ones he usually had. He smiled because he could sympathise with Ei finally. He too knew what it was like to feel powerless when confronted with a terrible scenario.

And what was he to Ei? Nothing more than a difficult child to handle, apparently prone to throw tantrums. At least that was how Shiro saw himself in Ei's eyes. The sad smile present on his lips was also because he knew what was coming. Ei wouldn't go against Nozomi. It wasn't that she couldn't, she wouldn't. After Ei made her speech and turned her back on him, Shiro felt angry for a moment. Sacrifice? What did this woman know about sacrifice? She had sacrificed nothing. And she dared lecture Shiro about sacrifice? He grind his teeth for a moment, before speaking.

" So being a shinobi means being willing to fight, die, and suffer for the sake of your home. But you're unwilling to do any of those things, and you now refuse to let others do it. That's pathetic." His words were harsh. Harsher perhaps than Ei deserved, but while Shiro sympathised for her at the moment that didn't mean he'd let certain comments slide. He was rarely ever angry. He took all sorts of punishments for failing to do simple tasks without getting angry at all, he'd volunteer for the crappiest tasks and do them with a smile. If anything his ever glowing optimism was annoying to some. But not today. "You speak as if you had no choice, as if your will has been taken away from you by the blondie. But the truth is I gave you two choices, and you were too much of a coward to take either."

He took the kunai from the ground. It was much easier to pull back than the frying pan. Holding it in his hand, he walked towards the desk and stopped in front of it as Ei sat down. But his expression was no longer a hardened one. somehow he'd managed to bottle down his feelings once again and return to his old goofy self. But while his voice tone and smile were goofy, his words were not. "I've sacrificed family, friends, and the few years I've had on this world for this nation. I was hoping you would have done the same, I was hoping you'd be willing to sacrifice more. Perhaps the meaning of the Shinobi way of life and its sacrifices is just too different for us.

But I cannot, and will not, recognize you as the Kazekage. You're strong, polite, and more willing to listen to me than most. I really respect you for that. But you're not a ninja." With an audible thump he'd stab the desk, leaving the kunai there in a more solid position than it'd been on the ground previously. Maybe metaphorically this meant something. It'd then be his turn to turn his back on Ei as he made his way towards the window he'd originally entered from. As he reached it however, he stopped and glanced back at the woman.

"Please don't resent me. This is my shinobi path. I wish I could've explained it to you better, but I'm stupid and bad with words. Well, bad with things in general. It's not your fault, it really isn't. It's mine, for not being able to explain it to you.

But...perhaps I can show you."

And with those words, Shiro would jump on the window and then towards the village streets down there. He would head to his workshop first, to close it down for a while and board it all up. He'd be gone for some time. He'd then pack what little belongings he had, and that night...that night would perhaps be one of the most important nights of his life. That night Shiro would use his full knowledge of the patrol schedules to sneak away undetected. Away from the village, away from home. That night, Shiro would march on a quest to find himself. Despite his words he had no power to challenge the self-proclaimed Kazekage's rule. But the Kazekage only ruled over the Land of Wind, and nowhere else. In his mind, he still had a shot at being a Sunagakure no Sato ninja elsewhere. So he'd march, and eventually he'd hear about the conflict between Konohagakure and Kumogakure at the Land of Rice fields, and how Kirigakure was fighting alongside Konoha and most importantly how little support their forces expected to get from Sunagakure given that their alliance was old. And there lay his opportunity to be a Sunagakure ninja elsewhere. Ultimately that night, Shiro began his march to war.

Well actually he'd march to many places before he actually got to the Trench War happening at the Land of rice fields, but at this point him getting lost was expected.

[Exit]

Sitting down, the gravity of the situation was more manageable. She was arguing with a child, trying to explain these heavy concepts to him in a way he could understand and sympathize with. What success she might have made originally evaporated almost immediately as she finished her speech and gave her verdict. She knew there was no winning here. No matter how she wrapped this it would never be a satisfying answer to Shiro. No amount of persuasion or sugar coating would do it, and neither would be honest about the situation at hand. He was frustrated, and rightly so.

He was right. She didn’t die for Sunagakure, and she wouldn’t kill Shiro for it either. Neither would make this village a more beautiful place. It was important here that she took the path that resulted in the most benefit, even if it wasn’t the most honorable or satisfying one. Or was that just her own self interest speaking up? Obviously, Ei didn’t want to die. Killing Shiro was out of the question as well. But what other options did she have other than meaningless, unnecessary death?

The kunai collided down against the desk. Her eyes focused on it, and then to Shiro. The gesture would be repeated by him, with Shiro turning his back on her mere moments later. It was a strong statement. Ei had nothing to say in response. There wasn’t much she could say, but suffering in silence under Shiro’s frustrations with her. She watched him as he left, eyes tracking the movements of the young man as he jumped towards the window and then out.

Show her? What would he show her? There was something poetic about the situation that she couldn't deny. It was the beginning of a tragedy. Perhaps this was her punishment for hubris. She had seen similar stories in ancient plays, of heros and heroines being struck down and smited for their foolhardy belief that they could challenge and change fate.

Resting down against the flat of her desk, Ei would rest her head in her hands. Already she had failed Shiro. How could she be expected to be a successful Kazekage if she couldn’t even handle a situation like this?

[Exit- Finally Claiming Kazekage, All Exclusives in Suna, All Artifacts in Suna]
[Exit]