Facing Reality (P, IO)

Denkiteki, Takehiko, and Minorin had left Sanctuary for the first time in what felt like years for them. Denkiteki now appeared to be 16 years old, and had in fact lived 4 years in Sanctuary, though it had not been that long in the real world. The same had been for Min and Takehiko. Takehiko still looked the same, appearing slightly older than Den and also being a few inches taller as well.

Taekehiko and Den were both dressed for combat, Den wearing his Jounin gear and having his weapon pouch strapped to his right hip. His kunai holster was strapped to his left leg, easily within reach if he got into a fight. He did not wear his headband however, not wanting to let anyone know he was a former Kiri nin. He did wear his ring, that could transform into a sword if enough chakra was put into it.

Takehiko wore normal clothing, but his Wakizashi was strapped to his waist and he had his own weapon pouch strapped to his left side. Den had thought about giving Takehiko his old Chuunin gear, but it had the Kirigakure colors and would be a dead give away. At least Denkiteki’s Jounin gear came from the Fire Nation.

Denkiteki had still not told Minorin about Kiri, and that it had been destroyed. As far as she knew they were going to attempt to find their ‘friend’ that lived in Skyscraper, Kairashi. They had not seen him in some time, but last they had known he worked as an ANBU for Zachariah. Even though Den didn’t know if he had left Skyscraper, or if he was alive, it was really the only place Den could think about going.

If Minorin followed Den and Takehiko, the trio would walk towards the gate of Tengakure, having walked some distance there after teleporting into the real world. Luckily Den had traveled close to Tengakure once, so it wasn’t that long of a journey. If Min followed, the three of them would approach the gate and wait for the guards to address them. Den was ready for anything, not sure if he would be attacked for being a former Kiri member, or if no one would care and he would maybe be allowed in.

Takehiko was also worried, and would stand near Minorin if she was still with Den and him. Den had ‘programmed’ him to protect Minorin at all costs, even if he would die.

TWC: 411

Minorin walked behind Denkiteki as he and Takehiko walked in the direction of the gates to Tengakure.

Today Minorin had experimented a little bit with her outfit, seeing as it was a special occasion. The small white haired female was wearing a black dress with a red jacket as well as a pair of bright red flats. As a fourteen year old she felt it was her duty to try out different things to find out what she liked. However, she didn’t feel very ninja-like. But she wasn’t trying to be tough or anything today. Today was the day they were finally going to visit Kairashi!

The young girl wondered whether or not the man would be excited to see her, or if he’d wonder how on earth she’d turned four years older when four years hadn’t even passed here yet.

A faint smile met her lips as she walked along; pawing through all the possibilities she could think of. Her blue eyes twinkling mischievously as she poked Den in the back of his head.

It was an odd day indeed Shinji had just sat down to lunch at a local ramen bar when one of his anbu appeared behind him and completely blew his cover. Shinji had hoped to have been able to eat ramen in peace and not be known as the Tenkage just for an hour. But, of course the second the anbu addressed Shinji as Tenkage a small crowd seemed to crawl out of the woodwork. Ignoring the crowd he listened to his anbu. Apparently three people were approaching the village gates and they did not have any real identifying marks. With a sigh Shinji informed his anbu to hold off on an attack, because he would handle this himself. With that the anbu disappeared in ablur of speed. Following suite Shinji blurred away to the village gates leaving the crowd to wonder where their Tenkage had gone.

On the way to the gates Shinji stopped by his office and grabbed his kage hat, so that he could be easily identified. As it were he was not exactly dressed like a kage. He had all his gear on: his power bracers, lightweight jounin pants and all that stuff, but instead of a kage robe he wore a white short sleeve shirt that fit him just perfectly, so that it hinted at his impressive physique and complimented his baggy lightweight jounin pants. Furthermore he still had the bandages from his recent surgery that looped around his head and covered his right eye. The bandages around his head were covered by his hair, but one could clearly see them as the crossed over his face. The eye was still a long way from healing.

After picking up his hat Shinji made his way to the village gates with all his speed. It took only a matter of moments to arrive at the village gates. He arrived just in time to see the three people arrive at the gates-an odd bunch to say the least. One looked to be a younger girl and the other two older boys-a bit of a sketchy bunch, but it mattered not to Shinji. Walking out of the shadows of the gates with his kage hat slung over his right shoulder he would stand in the archway made by them and call out to three people in his trademark tone that lacked real seriousness that a kage was supposed to have and was even tinged with bit of laziness: "Howdy you three, how may I help you this fine afternoon?"

Shinji was indeed odd, but his words were no marker of his skill. In fact, while waiting for a response, he gauged each of the three peoples chakra signatures and memorized them for later use. The girl's chakra was a bit off, but he could not quite place his finger on why. As for the two boys they had a reasonable amount of chakra that rivaled Shinji himself-these were no simple travelers. Also at this time the sun would glint down and shine on Shinji giving his hair a certain glint. Mean while a slight breeze blew over the land towards Tengakure-on top of it all it was a nice day.

1/30 for sharingan recovery

Denkiteki was surprised that they were being greeted by the Tenkage. Were they perceived as a threat? Denkiteki was armed but he didn’t think that he was armed enough that the village leader would need to be concerned. He believed that a few ANBU would be more than adequate to take him down if he were to attack. Perhaps they knew about Minorin? This was her second time in the village, perhaps they had an idea as to what the Gobi Jinchuuriki looked like and were on edge because of that.

But the Kage seemed relaxed, and not worried about the three fairly powerful shinobi that were attempting to enter his village. Den attempted to guess at how powerful the Kage was, but he was no Sensor nin and could only guess that, if it did come to a fight, Den would be forced to transform. He hoped that it would not come to that however, as powerful as he thought he was he still wasn’t willing to challenge a Kage.

He noticed a bandage around the Kage’s eye, wondering if he had gotten into a fight recently and was injured. The thought only remained in his head for a moment however, as the Kage spoke to the group. He didn’t seem to take the situation seriously at all, Den wasn’t sure how he should interpret that. Did it mean that the Kage didn’t care who they were, and might allow them into the village? Or was he planning on killing them, and didn’t think it to be any problem.

The young man looked at Minorin before talking, hoping that regardless of what happened next she would be okay. Hopefully Takehiko would be able to get her away from the village if something bad did happen, even if Den had to stay behind and fight. He took a deep breath and attempted to calm himself, being worried did not help him at all in his current situation.

Denkiteki looked up at the Kage as he began to speak, “We’re former villagers of Kirigakure, but we were forced to flee because we were outside of the village when the quarantine was enacted. We’ve come here in hopes of finding a new place to stay.”

Denkiteki had originally planned not to reveal they were form Kirigakure, but decided that it would be unwise to lie to the Tenkage. He hoped the Tenkage did not mention the destruction of Kiri and reveal it to Minorin, but this hope was secondary to his fear that being a former Kiri shinobi might make him a wanted man and that his revealing that he was one would lead to violence. Denkiteki did not know if it was the Fire Nation that attacked Kiri, but if it was he assumed they would try to get rid of survivors.

TWC: 882

Minorin was quite surprised, her eyes widening just a tad as she saw this “Tenkage.” He had the hat with him and he looked strong enough, but it couldn’t be right.

It just wasn’t the same guy that was Kage last time she’d visited Tengakure.

How odd.

He seemed nice though, even though he really wasn’t dressed like a Kage. And on top of that he seemed to be injured, the poor guy. Minorin thought about asking him why he was hurt but decided not to. He was a higher rank than she was, and he probably didn’t want some little girl asking him questions out of practically nowhere.

As she continued to look at the man she thought that perhaps this was some sort of trick, to keep the real Kage’s identity a secret.

Minorin would play along though. She liked the way the man spoke, he seemed very casual.

She would nod to the man in what she believed to be a respectful way before looking at Denkiteki a moment. The boy looked kind of worried, and sighed not too long after she’d glanced at him.

Then she listened to Denkiteki speak, noticing he said the word “former.” Why would they be former villagers of Kirigakure? That didn’t make any sense, Kirigakure was their home, even if they had been in sanctuary for a while. Minorin stared at Den, wondering what in the world he was saying.

She’d stay quiet for now though, realizing that this might not be a very relaxing day after all. Minorin even began to wonder if they came here to see Kairashi at all. And on top of that she missed Balder. She really should have brought the little rabbit along; he was probably feeling lonely right about now.

Shinji stood listening to one of the boys as he spoke-apparently he would be the one doing all the talking, which was troublesome. He would have liked to have heard from each of the three people, but there would be time for that later. On the bright side for the visitors Shinji did not see any immediate threats from them. Although there was still something offsetting about the little girl's chakra signature though he still could not pin it to a certain reason. When the boy had finished Shinji was not in the least surprised. Even after so long the flow of Kirigakure citizens seemed unending. However, the man that had spoken said something about being locked out of the village prior to it destruction-interesting. Shinji chose to push that subject later for now there were more important things.

The first and foremost being names and information, which could be a powerful weapon in the right hands. Still keeping his air of laziness Shinji sat down in a cross legged position under the archway of the gates-he was indeed an odd person. Sitting up straight Shinji rested his hands at his side on the cool stone. He was not too worried. It would take someone who was pretty fast to catch him off guard. Once in this position He spoke up again in the same tone as before and started off with a rhetorical question: "So, you lot are from the Mist?....Theres an unfortunate village....First off I will need your names-all three of ya....And also the reason why you did not try to help your village in its time of need...." Shinji's voice trailed off in a rather thoughtful way. Naturally he was talking about the destruction of Kirigakure-everyone knew that didn't they? Furthermore their answers would be helpful in gauging what kind of people wanted to gain admittance into the village of skyscrapers. Waiting for a response Shinji's eye would scan over the three people who had assembled at his gates. He watched for any sign of hostility that would warrant action on his part-he was no slouch in a fight as the three would find out if they tried anything funny.

{Meh, lazy post. Sorry}
3/30

Shit. The way the man was talking about Kiri, there was no way Min wouldn’t realize something bad had happened. He really hoped she didn’t start asking questions now, it would make the situation more of a hassle for him. At least the Kage didn’t seem to be hostile, nor did it seem like them being from Kirigakure would be that much of a problem. Denkiteki’s worries lessened, though he was still a bit on edge.

The young man’s blue eyes watched the Kage as he sat down, seemingly at ease. He definitely didn’t seem hostile, so Denkiteki didn’t think anything was going to happen as long as he didn’t appear hostile himself, “My name is Denkiteki, I was a Jounin before Kirigakure shut its gates. The Mitzukage declared that no one was allowed in or out of the village, and my student here Minorin was outside of the village at the time. I was inside when the gates were closed, but left in order to pursue her.” He paused for a moment as he recalled the event, having teleported to Minorin’s location in order to get to her before anyone was sent searching.

“We were forced to flee after that, we were unsure if anyone would be sent after us, and we doubted we would have been able to return to the village without being killed. I know this sounds strange, I’m not sure if anyone else heard about this. A few people were killed for trying to escape before I left, so I was worried if we returned there would be a chance of my student being killed.” He didn’t mention that he had teleported Minorin to Sanctuary, not feeling any need to reveal his Space-Time jutsu.

“We have been in hiding since then. This man next to me, Takehiko, we ran into him and he joined up with us. He is not from Kiri.” That was a lie, Denkiteki had not ‘run into’ Takehiko. He had created him in Sanctuary, but Denkiteki really didn’t want to have to explain all of that to the Tenkage. He was already talking more than he usually did, to try and explain exactly why he and Minorin hadn’t been in Kiri when it had been destroyed.

TWC: 1257

The small fourteen year old girl blankly stared up at Denkiteki.

He knew.

He knew that Kirigakure had been destroyed and hadn’t told her a thing.

Then her mind wrestled with a thought for a moment, no one had said it’d actually been destroyed.. But in Kirigakure’s “time of need,” and an “unfortunate village,” Kirigakure must be no more.

Why hadn’t he told her?

The girl’s face darkened, all she could do now was stand there in disbelief.

She wouldn’t cry though, crying was unacceptable in public. No matter what the situation was.

She would do her best to keep it together as she answered.

“Minorin Senju, a former Genin of Kirigakure,” the girl paused, face emotionless at this point in time, “I was unaware.”

She looked dead ahead. The man was standing there, but she wasn’t looking at him, she wasn’t looking at anything really. Just standing there, staring into nothing.

A few alarms went off in Shinji's head as he listened to the two speak, however his face did not show it. There were quite a few disconnects in the story he was being told. Normally, he would allow some room for disconnects, but somethings were not adding up. For one the boy who had spoken first tactfully avoided talking much about the destruction of the Mist, which Shinji supposed would be normal considering it had no doubt been his home. The next red flag that Shinji saw was that of the one named Takehiko. He had not talked and apparently he was just someone the girl, named Minorin, and the boy, named Denkiteki, had happened upon-did those two truly know him? Then the oddest disconnect of all: the one named Minorin seemed to not know that Kirigakure had been destroyed. Shinji half wondered if she lived under a rock. After all everyone knew that Kirigakure had been destroyed-the news had circulated through the land by way of travelers who had hoped to visit the village and came back to tell the tale.

By the time the two had finished speaking Shinji's eye had narrowed a bit. It was an involuntary action and if either Minorin or Denkiteki were watching they would be able to notice it. Furthermore Shinji got back on his feet in a slow and deliberate action. However, during this time he kept his guard up. Upon getting up to his feet he would speak, but this time his tone would be a bit sharper and directed to Denkieki and Minorin: "Can this man, Takehiko, be trusted? How do you know him? For all I know he could very well be a missing ninja that happened upon two wayward shinobi and followed them in hopes of getting a free ride or better yet another unwary traveler." The next question was aimed at Takehiko: "Where do you come from? These two are from the Mist and their story is...believable." Not to mention the fact that their story was checkable. In fact, it would probably come down to Shinji having to have his anbu read their minds or better yet he could make use of the Minds eye of the Kagura to check if they were lying or not. While waiting for a response his right hand involuntarily fell down to his side and hovered just above a the black combat knife that had become his weapon of choice. It would be advisable for the three shinobi to get their stories straight, because as it were they seemed...off, which set Shinji on edge. He was not often on edge, but when he was it was bad. The Mist shinobi who had come to Tengakure before had been much more forthcoming-or maybe that was Shinji's mind playing tricks on him.

5 posts of recovery

It seemed that Den was allowed no secrets, and had to deal with everything all at once. This is proving quite bothersome… I really had hoped I wouldn’t need to talk this much. But if he didn’t talk, there was a very good chance that this Tenkage might kill him, and maybe Minorin too. He thought for a moment about trying to escape, but he didn’t know if moving his hand to touch Minorin’s shoulder would cause alarm. He would need to have physical contact with her to teleport, but if the Tenkage attacked Den wouldn’t be capable of getting them in Sanctuary before the man reached them.

He paused a moment, trying to think about how he should respond, but it seemed that the Kage did not want to question him, rather he wanted Takehiko to talk to him. Takehiko was unsure as to how to answer. Den had told him not to speak about Sanctuary, so unless Den gave him a command that freed him of the previous one he couldn’t tell the Tenkage anything. He looked towards Den for a moment, his expression a bit orried.

“I suppose we’ll have to let him know Take, it’s alright.” Den sounded a bit disappointed as he spoke, though he was loud enough that the Tenkage would be able to hear him clearly. He had wanted to keep his little secret, but it seemed that bringing Takehiko with him had cost him that.

Takehiko turned his head back to the Tenkage, “Alright, I guess I should start by saying my master, Denkiteki here, lied to you about how we came to meet. He did not do this because he wanted to deceive you, he just didn’t want to waste time having to explain how I came into existence.” Taekhiko smiled as he spoke. Den had ‘programmed’ his personality so that he enjoyed telling the truth, though it seemed that the offhand command had developed into an odd personality quirk. Takehiko was still happy despite having to reveal one of Den’s most guarded secrets, and they were still in a life threatening situation.

“Denkiteki is the God of my world, which he named Sanctuary. He created me to become his ally in this world, using himself as the template for my powers. It’s all really hard to explain, but basically I am a clone of Den-sama except he altered my appearance. I am not a Missing-nin, honestly I have never hurt someone in my entire existence. In fact, I have never even fought…” Takehiko would have probably gone on and on about himself, but Den interrupted him, “Yes, Takehiko is a clone of mine, created in a Space-Time dimension that I control. I apologize for attempting to deceive you, I merely didn’t want to be forced into a lengthy explanation of my power. I see now that this was foolish.”

TWC: 1726