That place where cool people meet [P,NK]

So Takeo had been power walking for a couple of hours. It had not been that long since he had been in the vast skyscraper filled city of Tengakure. It was quite a change of scenery. The Rain Country was certainly living up to its name, because it was bloody raining. Something which Takeo was slightly annoyed about. Though he did have his ever trusty coat on him, it was luckily water proof. Still he wasn't a fan of the rain, and neither was he of jumping from tree to tree. Something which he had to due because the ground floor of the jungle seemed to be water logged. Perhaps heading this way was not a good idea after all? He should of really consulted the map more before heading on out. Nothing he could do about it now though. Instead he made his way back down to the ground, though on a slightly less watery logged and more solid, dry land. He kept on walking forward, he did not wish to stop in this place or stay here for too long. Who knew what kind of disgusting creatures he would run into?

[14/30]

Ryuu Koga, esteemed jounin of Amegakure, had taken to the vast jungle that surrounded the village hidden in the rain. True to its name, the jungle was currently being drenched by a light yet unyielding rain. However, Ryuu had found a dry spot beneath a vast umbrella like tree. Oddly enough, Ryuu was reading a book. This was no ordinary book, rather it described how one would go about mastering the crystal release. The crystal release was in his blood. He doubted that someone who was not from his clan could learn it. As such he had to get the book he now read from the vast library his parents had-he hoped it would aid him in attaining the spot as village leader. So, far, as far as Ryuu could tell, the crystal element was simply the combination of the katon and doton element, but Ryuu had not made it too far into the book. He had just gotten through the first chapter when he heard something. On a whim he glanced up and saw a man jumping from tree to tree.

This sight intrigued Ryuu as he did not see many foreigners around these parts. So, in a loud commanding voice of an aspiring leader the black haired jounin called out to the man, "Hey! You there! What are you doing around these parts?" Ryuu hoped that the stranger had the common sense and courtesy to come down under the shelter of the tree and talk. However, Ryuu did also keep a deft eye on the man if he did descend as strangers could become dangerous at the drop of a hat in the shinobi world. However, strangers often brought opportunity-hopefully this one brought just that.

While moving from tree to tree Takeo heard something. Through the slight patter of the rain he had heard a voice calling out to him. The source of the voice was off to his left. Of course it had to be in his blind spot, probably why he hadn't seen anyone. Takeo silently berated himself for having failed to keep an eye out for people. How naive of him to assume a place such as this was empty. Balancing himself on the tree branch, not bothering to use the tree walking technique, he turned his head to look down towards the source of the voice. He identified the person as male. At least he hoped it was a male, otherwise that was hell of an ugly women. What was quite strange was the black-haired man seemed to be holding a book in his hand. Takeo was of course slightly confused by this, quite a strange place for a spot of reading wasn't it? He then took notice of the place where the man was standing. It was dry. Acting rather quickly Takeo dropped down from the branch, thankfully avoiding any puddles on landing and made his way towards the dry spot. It was as he entered under the shelter of the tree he decided to answer the question. "Good evening, I'm travelling." He decided to begin with a simple answer. Though once again he felt like he should elaborate once again, this seemed to be becoming a common thing. "I'm on a journey you see. I thought it would be a good idea to head towards the coast, which meant having to pass through here." He paused for a moment, thinking upon if he should bother to say anything else. "Ah right. My name is Takeo."

[16/30]

As Takeo spoke Ryuu mentally went over what he had learned about the crystal release-not that he was no listening rather he wanted to be efficient with his time. When it came to nation taking one could not be too efficient. Once Takeo finished speaking Ryuu answered in kind to the man, "Well, my name is Ryuu Koga, Jounin of Amegakure." Taking a rather wry tone Ryuu continued, "Allow me be the first to welcome you to rain country. Home of well...rain. So, where do you hail from?" Ryuu was not really sure what to make of this Takeo guy just yet, so he decided to get a bit more information before he continued.

Takeo's eye took the small break as a sign to wander around the area. The examination of his surroundings took about a second, since there was pretty much only two things here. Trees and rain. His attention was brought back when the man began to speak once more. Introducing himself as Ryuu, a Jounin of Amegakure. Takeo assumed that was the name of the village in this country. He wasn't really up to date on all the names of the 'minor' villages, since he had never needed such information. The boy smiled slightly at the remark about the country. He couldn't disagree though, seeing how it had been raining since he had arrived in the country. The question about where he was from didn't surprise him. Having expected such a question he had been thinking on whether or not he should reveal his true origins. After a few moments of debating it in his head he decided he had no reason to lie, yet. "I am from the village of Tengakure." He made sure he keep his one eye on the man, after all he did not trust this person that much. It did after all seem rather strange for a person to be in a jungle reading a book in the middle of the rain. Though perhaps the foreigners were just weirder than Takeo had anticipated?

Tengakure, Tengakure, Tengakure...Ryuu recalled from his studies of geography and history. Tengakure was the village of skyscrapers and technology, but most importantly it was considered a "major" village. If Ryuu recalled correctly it had supplanted Iwagakure or something like that. However, Ryuu was not too worried about the history of the village right now, rather he wanted to see if he could get help. This might be a chance....a perfect chance. People within the village were unreliable and liable to be spies, but someone from abroad, well, that was a different story a very different story.

All his life Ryuu had strove to get more and more powerful. In the academy he worked as hard as he could to best those in his class and he did with ease-he graduated at the top of his genin class. Then he executed a few missions with his team and, in general, he was left 'carrying' the team. Thus, when the chuunin exams came around Ryuu and his team were the reigning champions hands down, no one could even touch them when it came to teamwork. After reaching chuunin Ryuu set his sights on the next rank: Jounin. Like the last two ranks Ryuu attained it with ease and aplomb. He had been jounin for some time now and he was growing tired of it. However, thus far Ryuu had to bide his time, because the next rank was the village leader-it would not be like the others, no, it took more work and planning. So, in this man, Takeo, Ryuu saw a chance. A slim chance, but a chance nonetheless-naturally he had to try.

Ryuu's mind worked like clockwork as he spoke to Takeo in a clean business-like manner, "Well, seeing as you are from one of the major villages...Can I bother you for your opinion?" If Takeo agreed then Ryuu would continue: "Well, our village leader enjoys spiriting away random people around the village. Naturally they are never seen again and when confronted about it he denies it ever happened, but I have seen it with my own two eyes...Do such things happen in the major villages? Are you made the play toys of your leaders?" Of course the village leader did none of these things, but Ryuu needed to get the attention of the foreign shinobi. It all hinged on Takeo's reaction. While waiting for a response the jounin glanced down at the book and scanned over a few paragraphs with the ease of a practiced scholar.

A nod from Takeo was the signal for Ryuu to keep talking. Listening to the man talk his expression darkened, his one visible eye narrowing as the jounin continued to speak. Once the man was done talking Takeo took a moment to think. He examined the face of the man, looking for any hint of a lie. From the way he spoke of it though Takeo had no reason to distrust this man. After what seemed like a minute or so of awkward silence he spoke. "I can not talk for other villages, but Tengakure certainly does not do that." At least he hoped they didn't, then again the two leaders of the village did allow him to kill a child out in the open. But that boy also turned out to be a missing-nin, so that didn't really count. "However, regardless of if others do it or not. This cannot stand." His tone changed, he felt anger building up inside of him. While he felt it was not his place to interfere with the affairs of other villages he could not just stand by and do nothing. "If you would be so kind as to tell me more about this leader of yours Ryuu." Takeo wanted to hear more before he acted. Though it was during this brief moment he wondered something. Was this man stalling him? He closed his eye for a moment and focused, his mind's eye opening to sense his surroundings. He felt no other chakra sources within the immediate area, which put him at ease. This man did not appear to be intent on screwing him over, so he would listen some more and come to a decision. He opened his eye once more, with his mind's eye 'closing' in order for him to focus on what the man would reply with.

[20/30]

During the rather awkward silence between when Ryuu finished speaking and Takeo began speaking, the jounin quickly scanned over the book he brought with him. Thus, far the crystal release seemed fairly basic to say the least. The only hard part seemed to be keeping the crystals one creates from growing too fast. Oddly enough the book made the crystal release seem much like a disease if it was not controlled it could consume and destroy. In a way it was much like Ryuu's hunger for power, but he was blind to its destructive properties on himself, because he was always looking forward-never at himself or behind. All the same when Takeo began talking once again, Ryuu nodded along with the Tengakure shinobi's story. His face had taken on a very grave look as if he were just realizing how bad it was in his village.

Then came the kicker, and another hurtle for Ryuu to overcome, Takeo wanted to know more about the leader, which was, if Ryuu was intent on telling the truth, very hard. However, as it was the jounin could easily spin a story. Hell, all he knew right now was that the leader's name was Worr Terumi or something like that. Once Takeo finished speaking the Jounin paused for a second as if to consider how to break the news to the Tengakure ninja. Then in a slow deliberate tone Ryuu began his web of lies, "To start this man's, if you can call him a man, name is Worr Temuri. He is rather reclusive and tends to remain holed up in his lavish leader's quarters. However, as opposed to merely calling himself a village leader he takes on the title of Amekage." Ryuu hoped this detail would highlight Worr as a person attempting to usurp the major villages by taking a title often reserved for the kage of the five major villages. Continuing from this point Ryuu began to launch into his personal story of sorts, "However, there have been whispers and rumors of people going missing and our leader being the cause. Now, I personally did not believe such stories and discounted them as old wives stories. However, one night...about a month ago now I was patrolling the village when I saw it with my own eyes. A man, resembling our leader snatched a child off the streets. Unfortunately I was not fast enough I could just barely keep up, but I was able to tail the kidnapper to the leader's building. At that point I dared not follow for fear of being dispatched by guards. Alas the kid who was snatched has not been seen since. Until now I have only told a few people about what I saw for a feared retribution from our leader. I do not know what he does with those he kidnaps, but I try not to think about it." Ryuu finished speaking and lazily glanced back down at his book trying to take in as much knowledge from the book as possible in the short time.

As his eyes scanned the lines of the book he awaited the response of Takeo. He knew there was a few ways this could turn out. One way was that Takeo would alert the corruption in Amegakure to the other nations or just flat out help him. Another was that Takeo would call Ryuu's bluff and then merely think Ryuu a fool. And the final and perhaps most unfavorable outcome was that Takeo would just not care in the least. All that remained to be seen was how Takeo would respond.

Takeo's mind began to wander during the brief moment that there was a silence after his words. Before he could come to any actual sort of coherent thought the man began to speak again. His attention was dragged back and he listened to the man speak. The name of the leader of Ame was said to be Worr Temuri? Takeo refrained from commenting on how these foreigners had some strange names. Though really what kind of name was Worr? He felt a brief bit of pity for the man who had parents who thought the name Worr was suitable. Worr....war? Takeo frowned. Was his name supposed to highlight his savage nature? That could be it. The next bit of information that Ryuu gave nearly made the wandering Chuunin burst out into a fit of laughter. Amekage? It took all of his self-restraint to reduce the want of laughing to a slight smirk. From this information alone the man seemed like an arrogant fool. Takeo was already debating on knocking some sense into the idiot before Ryuu had begun the 'serious' part.

The hint of a smile retreated when the Jounin moved on to what he guessed was the main part of this. While the man spoke Takeo's expression soured once again. He had not heard of leaders like this before. From the sounds of things no one outside of the village knew about this. While the ones that were inside it did not try to do anything in fear of consequences. The main question that was going through Takeo's mind right now was what did the man want with these people he kidnapped? Was he trying to gain something from experimenting on them? From what he had been told Takeo came up with a possibility. The 'Amekage' wished to either gain more personal power, but was too cowardly to perform the experiments on himself. Human test subjects. Takeo tried not to think of the gruesome things that could be happening to those people right now. The other possibility was breeding super soldiers. Really both of them were the same thing.

From Ryuu's words Takeo came to a conclusion. Worr Temuri wanted for his village to become what was considered a 'major' village. How foolish of the man to assume he would be capable of doing such things without being found out. Takeo then realized that Ryuu had stopped speaking, from the silence he guessed he was waiting for Takeo to respond. The thing is Takeo wasn't exactly sure how to respond to this. Should he go back to Tengakure and inform them of this? No, he doubted that Shinji or Den would be willing to get into something like this. But he couldn't just ignore it however, that went against his morals. "This I cannot overlook. I thank you for not succumbing to fear and for telling me this Ryuu. I will deal with this 'Kage'." Though how he would do it was something he had not yet thought of.

Had Ryuu been woefully unpracticed in the art of deception then his mouth would have curled into a triumphant grin as he heard what Takeo said. However, this is not the case. Rather, upon hearing Takeo's word, the jounin nods gravely as if he is being delivered bad news. Looking at the ground for a few seconds Ryuu raised his head at last and, taking a deep breath as if to clear his mind, spoke in the slow resigned tone of a dead man, "...How can I help? One man cannot surely not take on a monster such as this on his own....Please tell me what to do...." Yet again were Ryuu to not conceal his true intent a slight sneer may have passed over his face. Instead he simply looked down at the book he still held as if reading it would distract him from what he had just been told by Takeo.

Waiting for a response of some sort the jounin scanned the lines of his book. Currently he was at a section of the book that detailed various jutsu that were made possible when one could wield the mighty power of the crystal release. However, Ryuu could see another more subtle use of the crystal release. As opposed to using the crystal release to bring about physical damage it could also be used to bring about a powerful genjutsu, which was something that Ryuu had been pondering as of late: how to go about creating a powerful genjutsu, but no ideas had come to him, so he remained at a standstill in that department. However, one could be sure that the young jounin would indeed find a way-he always did when he put his mind to it.