Saiyuki looked at herself in the mirror as she had just splashed cold water in her face. The refreshing feeling on her skin was a delight. Some morning she really needed that splash. It woke her up after a long sleepy night or on short not so sleepy nights.

With some music in the background Saiyuki continued her morning rituals. Having a quick wash after putting on the coffee machine. It wasn’t coffee everyday though, sometimes she felt like tea or just some orange juice. However today was one of those days that she needed the caffeine in that delicious cup of dark heavenly substance. It would be ready as she got into her daily outfit. A loose vest made out of a green camouflage pattern with the typical Jounin vest over it. Some strands of her light grey hair kept on falling in her face so she gave up on putting it back. Her different coloured eyes were looking at the reflection in the mirror. The last thing Saiyuki did was cover her blue right eye with the red trademark eyepatch of hers. At some point she was to take off the eyepatch. For certain reasons in battle as a genjutsu user, both eyes would be better.

The small lady went down to her kitchen, setting up her standard breakfast table with coffee, bread and some fruit. She ate a few things and drank her coffee before going into the city. The Tsuchikage had made her visit the office. She figured it was about taking in some students but, he didn’t say it precisely. She was used to going to the Kage’s office. It was part of being a Jounin. She, however, did not meet the new Tsuchikage. That was going to change soon.

Saiyuki moved her way through the streets of Iwagakure, not letting anything unusual unnoticed. Her quick reactions were often an abrupt change of body movement due to some kid playing with fire crackers or something else that could sound dangerous. It was something she had developed in the past years. Even though, she had always been jumpy at sudden movements, the past years had made it worst. Her eyes would jump from one moving object to another. It were her reflexes. At some point it was useful but at other moments it was pure irritation. Besides, she had no time to slack. Her meeting with the Tsuchikage would start in a few moments, but she had just left her apartment and needed a few minutes to walk to her destination, the Tsuchikage’s office.

She wondered who would be her students and what kind of personalities they would have. Would they fit with her style of teaching? Or would the individuals clash with each other? Something she could not tell until she had met her own pupils. All she wanted was some good kids with the willpower to become stronger and help the city when bad times come. Her main goal, make a good team that will last for years and train them to their best. Something probably all squad leaders would want to do. While she kept thinking about the squad she would have, time went by quick and she got closer and closer to her destination. Now it was only the stairs that separated them. Saiyuki took a deep breath before calmly walking up the stairs. Step by step she could see the door getting closer. Once it was within reach, she knocked three times.

((this was shorter than i anticipated ;-;
also cheesy title be cheesy xD))

585 words

Karumo sat at his desk, up bright and early as always, the sun having hardly risen at this time and making it before any of his secretaries had even left their homes. Sitting in the small hallway outside his office, waiting for a pot of coffee to brew, the smell of the brew began to fill the area. The calm brown pastels of the wall were calming, his eyes could hardly stay open, not from fatigue but exhaustion. He was hardly getting used to all this effort and lack of sleep, it would be a long and arduous road to adjust to this lifestyle. Though, truth be told, he knew he would still be able to slip away for a nap from time to time if need be.

He sat there and watched the light flicker on for the coffee, having filtered the water through the grounds, the black liquid steamed from inside the glass pot. Lazily walking up and pouring it into his white ceramic mug, his clan symbol emblazoned upon it's face. The black liquid steamed up from the mug and the smell filled the air, it was so tantalizing, the only thing keeping him going between yawns and his heavy eyelids. Walking quietly back towards his office, letting the wooden doors close behind him as he dragged his feet across the hard floor and soft carpet of his office. Sitting down at his desk and sipping away at the black, bitter liquid as he watched the sun rise and read the paper for the news.

Time. It was always time to restore himself, keeping distracted and waiting it out. Truth be told, this job was less of a 9 to 5 kinda job and something that put him on call 24/7. Meaning he had no reason to truly exert himself outside of decision making and putting out metaphorical fires, but he did need to be conscious and centered for it all. It meant far less drinking and relaxing and more patiently waiting and deep introspection and thought on everything. At least he enjoyed the thinking part of that deal. But time. It would restore him, the blurred vision and groggy headache from lack of sleep would fade soon. The coffee really did nothing at the end of the day, other than short bits of stimulation.

It would take time and distracting his mind to keep him awake and functioning, after a few hours, he would be at a par he could maintain. It was merely fighting past the immediate pain of losing sleep. His thoughts would ran tangent, often repeating the same phrases as he wondered things, doubling back to his original point and into a new place of logic where his reasoning would be the same and consistent but different from its initial path or previous path if it had been a while.

Time would continue on, people arriving and knocking on his door to offer morning greetings and check if everything was alright. Of course everything would be fine as long as it wasn't on fire, or in an equally bad situation. But their arrival meant he had work to do and tasks to hand out and assign as well as papers to look through and sign off on. Tedious at best. But! Fate smiled upon him this day, an early morning meeting with a jounin who would be taking on students soon, he needed to meet her and figure out a few things. It would offer little more than a distraction from the paperwork but it would be a decent way to keep his mind running fresh.

A moment before the scheduled meeting, Karumo reading through a recent ANBU mission dossier, several knocks came at the door. His eyes flickered up and the papers lowered slightly as he called out, "Come in!" he yelled through so that it would audible through the door from across the room. His desk at the center of the room, and a wooden cabinet behind him along with a few grey, metal file cabinets off to the side of the room. Everything was wooden and blended in color to the brown of the walls of the building. Karumo would cross a leg and lean back slightly in his chair, setting the folder down on the light brown colored desk as he spoke up and motioned towards the seat in front of him.

"Please, take a seat..." Karumo would offer and grab his coffee mug for a sip as his arm reached back. Giving her time to approach and all, assuming that it was Saiyuki and she would do such, of course refusing the offer was always an option if she so chose. Karumo would finish off, or rather, start the conversation regardless of her choice by offering a few simple words, "Saiyuki Kobayashi, I presume?" he would ask with diligent eyes. His purple eyes following off her demeanor and expressions, reading into everything she would do.

Hopefully his overly analytical nature wouldn't get him into any trouble with the rash decisions. Karumo did so ever like to show off, and especially so to people he just meets.

[862 words]

The Kobayashi waited until she could make out a response. It was only when she heard the gesture to come in that her hand reached the doorknob and twisted, opening the door in front of her. As she looked up from the knob to her Kage Saiyuki gave away a smile and greeted him as polite as she could. It was the first time seeing this man and it would be best to stay polite for now. For all she knew, this man was the one person that could bring her up in ranking and could that change a great deal of things in her life as it is now.

With curiosity she glanced from left to right, scanning the room for any changes that had been done to it. To her memory it mostly stayed the same or she just had a bad memory since it really had been some time since she stepped into the office of the Tsuchikage. With all the travels in between, it would be most likely her memory of the space faded and got lost inside her head. Not that the woman was interested in interior design, it was just that the space could give away what kind of person this was.

Sai was deeper gone into her thoughts than she realised and almost could not hear the offer to sit down. And we all know, that one can't decline an offer from a Kage, so she behaved like a good girl and sat down in front of the desk. With wandering eyes she now got fully snapped from her gazing when he said her name. After a few blinks and her eyes focusing onto the man himself, she could give out a proper answer. "Yes, that's correct." While looking at him, she couldn't help but notice the mug full of coffee. So he was a coffee drinker and so was she. One topic she could bring up if the conversation got silent. However, that would be more of a chit chat topic, now Saiyuki would like to get to know more about her squad or further details about the students assigned to her or maybe the plans were cancelled to get her a squad after all. The woman cleared her throat and just  straight out asked. "This is about the squad right? Because I didn't do anything bad this time, did I?" In previous months, Saiyuki got called in the office for rough handeling missions or while she was trying to fix some discussion. She, however, could not recall rough handling someone or something in the last few weeks. Even though, Sai sometimes can't hold back her frustration toward someone, she tries to keep it inside. She wasn't in puberty anymore  or a rebellious teenager. Ever since she was a 'grown up', she tried to keep herself calm and collected. Which would be the case for the last few weeks or even months.

1081 words

Karumo watched the woman enter, glancing around the room and taking note of everything as he took note of her. He could see her thoughts lost around as she took everything in, each step leading closer to his desk as he waited there. Karumo went ahead and posed his question, a rather formal response came about as her she took a seat on the opposite side of the desk. Karumo smiled a bit as he rose his cup and took a sip of the coffee before him, Saiyuki cleared her throat and began to speak up again. "This is about the squad right? Because I didn't do anything bad this time, did I?" Karumo took a hefty sip of the coffee while she spoke, a small exhale as the liquid slid down his throat and set the white mug down.

A small bit of vapor would be visible from the mug when he set it down in a small stream of light from the sun. Indicating its heat and how he ignored it so, the bitter taste lingered a second as he chuckled a bit. "No, no, no." he gave with a slight laugh to pause his speech, hoping to ease a bit of worry from any potential nervousness, he could almost imagine the voice matching a much more fidgety figure all the same... "No, you're not in trouble or anything, I hope..." he offered back. "Where are my manners, coffee, tea? They're both quite good, everything imported at a very high quality... in the off chance the Daimyo or someone else showed up, but I borrow from those stores of goods every now and then for my own enjoyment..." he would ask and point towards the mug waiting to see if she would accept any. A dumb smile accompanied his face at the small admission of his own personal use of their coffee and tea when he so felt it. Some might hate him for that, acting like a kid towards everything, and others might point it to some sign of corruption, but Karumo would be the furthest from it.

After all, his dirtiest secret was probably this coffee, and he were far too uncompromisingly honest for anything greater than that to be swept under the rug, all part of the ideological bit of him. Hell bent on leading through example and all that jazz, if anyone else besides himself cared to buy into it. If Saikyuki would accept his offer for coffee or tea, he would stand up and head towards a small coffee pot on a table in the front left corner of the room, behind her as he would begin to speak. "This is a bit about the squad. And even more so about me not knowing you or anything about you." he would say as he would pour a drink for her into another blank white mug. Continuing on as he brought the mug to her, "You see... it is just a bit of my style. I'd like to get to know all of my jounin a bit before I put them in charge of the genin squads. I don't want any irreputable or irresponsible persons in charge of shaping the future of the village. A sort of personal vendetta against preventing the worst. Of course, just because I don't want a person leading a squad of genin doesn't mean they can't lead other squads into battle or on missions, or serve on ANBU. I just place a very high regard on the genin themselves. So why not tell me a bit about yourself so I can get to know you... I'll return the favor of course if you want to hear my story" he offered with another smile and chuckle at the end of it.

Should Saiyuki decline his offer of a drink, he would give the exact same speech verbatum, just seated from his desk where he initially began instead. Then leaving off for her to fill in the gaps, object, question, or whatever it is that she would do from there. For Karumo, he would return to his desk if he needed to and take another smaller sip of his coffee as his purple eyes watched the girl in front of him.

[719 words, 1581 words total]

She sighed in relief as he said she wasn't in any trouble, or that he knew of. With that Saiyuki leaned back a little in her chair, relaxing as this wasn't about her inability to keep her mouth shut. Her nose had been picking up the delightful smells of the coffee. It had been hugging her nose ever since she entered the room. When Karumo offered a cup of that deliciousness, she could in no way not say yes to it. "I'd like some of that high quality imported coffee, yeah. Yours already smells like a bit of heaven in a cup, how could I resist?" Sai smiled a bit sheepishly. She tried to joke around at times when she would be a bit nervous. She still was, even if it wasn't because she did something that wasn't tolerated. It probably was just being in that office that made her uncomfortable. It really yelled authority in her face and as much as she disliked authorities. She was part of it.

"This is a bit about the squad." A bit? What else is this about? Her thoughts went on trying to figure out what else it could be. "And even more so about me not knowing you or anything about you." That made sense. Of course, the Kage wants to meet and analyse their new squad leaders first. Saiyuki began to smile ridiculously at her own scenarios of disaster. She waited until the mug was in her hands and then thanked Karumo for the drink. Both her small hands were wrapped around the blank mug. Three fingers of her right hand through the ear of the mug and the others around it supporting the mug at its best. The smoke coming from the hot beverage made it clear it was still very hot and fresh. While Saiyuki was listening she often blew a bit to cool the drink down. She didn't want to burn her tongue after all.

When the drink was finally as the best temperature for her, she took a sip. "I don't want any irreputable or irresponsible persons in charge of shaping the future of the village." Her eyes widened at the word irresponsible. She should have never asked if this meeting was because she was in trouble or not. She kept on listening acting like it wasn't anything she should worry about. However, she could see why he took these measurements. The genin would be the future of this village in every way you looked at it. If she were to be a squad leader, Saiyuki would take her job serious at times when she has to be serious. However, she would still make sure the kids that would be part of her team would have a good time for they would be leading other squads as they would grow up and hopefully use the techniques she used to teach them. "I get why you place such a high value on the new generation of shinobi."

Her story. She looked into the mug. Remembering everything that had happened in great detail in her past. With a little shake of her head she looked back at her superior. "I'll give you the short version." A grin across her face was seen to hide any other emotion that might come by while telling her story. Her childhood wasn't one she liked, at all. "I grew up wanting to be a shinobi along with a friend of mine. Due to events in my past that friend isn't here to become a great shinobi along with me, but I won't let myself drown in sadness and stop doing what I love to do. In fact, this was what I wanted and I got here eventually. Even better, I now became an idol to my little brother. Both my parents are proud of me and whatever happened in the past is the past. Like I said, I'm not the person to drown in sadness for years. I'd rather take those emotions and replace them with energy and willpower to have my goals accomplished. I, however, don't know what my future goal is so I focus on today only. One of the reason why I started traveling a while ago. I met interesting people, but nothing that could define what I wanted in the future." It really was the sort version of her life up until now. Saiyuki didn't want to go in too deep in her childhood. It really didn't matter if she would tell it in detail or not. It would all be the same and this wasn't therapy. An honest smile was plastered on her face. "Since I have the opportunity to hear about your story. I'd gladly listen to it."


1839 words

Karumo prepared the cup of coffee quickly, taking in any requests for cream or sugar and bringing it back to her to taste. Taking a sip of his own as he sat back down at his desk with a loud exhale as the bitter black liquid of his own made its way down his throat. Their conversation went on, Karumo laying his details and motives for bringing her around and for their meeting in general. Saiyuki would go on to give her understanding of why he was doing it, given the genin situation and such, it would be hard to argue against his motives in the end.

Still, she continued on and agreed to give him the short version of her story with a grin across her face. Part of him wanted to poke at getting to the 'long version' but that might be a conversation for a more relaxed meeting and for now, he would just leave it at whatever she would give. He listened in calmly, taking a sip of coffee and nodding along as needed, heeding every word and more importantly, her tone and mannerisms towards each detail. Her words would change as she got into the more emotional bits, but beyond that, her attitude and body language would tell far more than her words ever truly would. A rather quick skip to becoming a shinobi, but leading on to the tragedy of losing that friend that brought her to where she was. Karumo's head would tilt down as he nodded in understanding at the loss, such was the tragedy of shinobi and their missions. When all was said and done, he didn't learn much outside her own resolve, which he admired upon briefly. Her resolve was nice, but she also seemed to be a bit... free? at the moment. Not sure of where to go or where she was heading or anything of that nature, not that Karumo could be sure of that outside of what she said, it was merely what he read into the situation. In the end, she seemed happy of where she was regardless of the struggle on the way to this point, he would smile in return and nod in affirmation of her story.

She ended with a request, or rather, accepting that she would hear his story out, but that confused him on where he would go or what he would say, if anything worthwhile? What was there to Karumo other than what he had done and accomplished.... he paused for a second and scratched at the side of his chin as he thought to himself. Musing upon where to start and what to say,

"Well, I was born here in the village and all, like a lot of the citizens. My parents were both well off as leaders of my clan but I lost them and a younger brother at a young age and was sent to live in the clan compound on my own. I entered in the academy and all like everyone else, became a ninja, did all the basics and such..." he laughed to himself a bit and rubbed the back of his head with a stupid smile on, thinking about how little he had to add and how quickly he wanted to move on past his own tragic past too. "Anyways, I also took the mantle of clan head after some time in my parents legacy, but stepped down when I joined the ANBU and became Captain of the Oracles and such, but all of those things are all pretty well known... up to my becoming Tsuchikage and such."

He gulped a bit and took another sip of his coffee, "As for me, I'm no great ninja or anything, and I'm not that great. I just want to help raise the new and subsequent generations and carry on the Will of Stone, that's my job and what I'm dedicated to. Teaching and helping everyone else around me prosper into full fledged shinobi." he led on and gave with a small smile to end his bit. There really wasn't much more to add to him, he had his motivations, as his past had been dug into by tabloids, papers, and spread around enough as it is for most everyone to know the details of such.

"Sorry it's not much of a story or anything like that..." he apologized a bit bashfully. A slight chuckle as he reached for the coffee mug, waiting for her response if she were to give any at all, otherwise Karumo wasn't entirely sure where he should go onto next in their conversation.


[780 words, 2361 words total]

The Jounin waited patiently for her Kage to find the right words. To hear the story of the Tsuchikage. It really peaked her interest and made her curious nonetheless. He must have done so much to get where he was now. The first sentence kind of struck a smile on her face.

It wasn’t just her that had lost someone close at a young age. Again she got reminded how it felt and she only lost one friend. This man, the new Tsuchikage, had lost his family. Father, mother and brother. Something that she could imagine being the worse thing that anyone could have had taken away. Especially at a young age. For her, her parents and little brother were everything. They were her pillars holding her up high as she couldn’t do it herself. Yet, she could also imagine the loss being like putting oil on a fire. At least, she would have felt this way. The more reason to get up and do something instead of having sorrow take over. Of course, she would mourn, but not forever. It would be a new drive like the death of her friend was to get the twisted minds erased from the earth.

As he went on with his story, Saiyuki took some sips of the good quality coffee she had in her hands. The dark goodness was lovely. As she didn’t ask any sugar or milk, she liked it pure and bitter. It seemed like Karumo had been a lot of things before becoming the Kage, like she thought. It seemed that he was quite humble. One does not simply become the Tsuchikage. “I’m sure you do have some ability and quality. You wouldn’t be sitting in this office if you didn’t.” Saiyuki raised one of her eyebrows with a smile. It wasn’t like anyone can simply walk in here wanting to be the Kage of a nation and represent a people. “At least you know what’s important and that is already a good quality you got.” Saiyuki took another sip of the coffee and started to chuckle. “Plus, you have great taste in coffee which is also important. Can’t start a day without some good coffee, right?” She paused for a bit, hesitating what to say next. In the meanwhile, she scratched the back of her head and gave an awkward smileto the person opposite of her.

“It seems we both had something taken from us. Most people get something taken away at some point. To me, it made me want to do something worth the loss. Put my energy into something that they would be proud of.” It may be something risky to say, but she didn’t know what else to say yet. Everything was better than an awkward silence. She can’t take silences. Especially after someone just told how their life had been up till now. “Do you have anything planned for a squad in particular?” Saiyuki pushed her eyebrows in an upward direction, scratching the back of her head another time. It wasn’t like the possible silence got to her. She was just curious actually. When someone gets three kids under their wing, you would want to know if there was planned anything that she should know of before having a squad. It could be anything and nothing as well. A normal usual squad was good to her. Saiyuki herself would bring enough trouble into the squad anyway.

[584 words, 2423 words total]

"Some ability, sure... but nothing more than anyone else..." he offered as a short retort to her statement, he was a jounin before he became kage after all. There is some minimum of prowess needed within to succeed, but compared to the other kage and such... well, he'd never press his luck. Not as things stand now. She moved on to compliment his coffee choice, he laughed a bit along and gave a short half smile with it as well. "For me.. it's probably the only way to start the day now." he added and let the pause she gave continue as she scratched at the back of her head and gave a sort of goofy smile.

Karumo nodded though, he agreed, put energy into that which would make others proud and especially his family, but he'd never thought about that before. His parents had left him so young.. he never really got a chance to think about what would make them proud? He was certainly smart, and no parent could despise their child for being intellectual, but did they want him to continue in their footsteps of being a leader? Would the ANBU have been a decision they supported, his mood fell for a second and the small lump in his chest built for just a moment as he thought about it. Part of him would like to think that his parents, the former clan head and his wife, would be proud of their son rising through the ranks and becoming the Tsuchikage... but after the small uprising in the clan, the death of their elders and his stepping down. What would they have thought or said there? Would they have supported him and offered him their advice or would they have cast him out and stayed with the clan and their xenophobic and isolationist attitudes? So many questions and struggles... it was these moments that he could feel like he never had. Weight and magnitude like a boulder on his chest or a knife cutting deep in his heart.

Curse his thoughts for doing this to him now of all times... the short melancholy in his eyes and demeanor would most likely be obvious to Saiyuki. But in the same way, everything he'd done had been to make others proud of him and support him, his friends in the village and the citizens, he only wanted to lead them and some how, his stubborn and prideful way had let him rise above it all and be chosen to lead. Strange circumstances behind it certainly, but that was for a separate argument in itself. His musings would be broken, unless Saiyuki wished to comment in some other way at his demeanor, about the squad. A quick gulp to swallow the air in his throat as he refocused his mind, his eyes would focus in and sharpen a bit as he gathered his thoughts. He'd been so distracted for the brief moment that he'd hardly heard her words...

"Oh, right umm..." the brief stammering as he pushed the melancholy out and tried to bring the business aspects of his tenure back in quickly. "I don't have anything just yet set up, finding personality matches and such with so many genin and squad leaders is a pain.. so I've been trying to objectively search and place similar skill sets. So I'd expect students with similar skills to your own... bukijutsu, right?" he left off, ranting through his mindset and unable to find the brevity to fix his posturing and rambling. Hopefully the hurried and broken tone of which he delivered his sentences wouldn't be too painful, listening to his words as they were randomly thrown together was painful enough to himself as it was.


[633 words, 2994 words total]