Welcome to the MN Club

Kozai nods, a knowing look on his face.
"Such is the nature of power. Those without the willpower to resist it, simply can't stop using it. The feeling that a person gets simply from 'doing something' to another person without their consent is apparently pretty stimulating."
He felt himself relax more, allowing his subconcious to examine Salzem at will while he focused on what was turning out to be a most excellent conversation. It had been some time since he had talked to anyone who wasn't from this area, so this might be something that he would enjoy. Kozai liked interesting people in general.
"At any rate, what are you doing in this part of the world? It must be a new experience for you, being so far up north." Naturally, he'd expect that Salzem hadn't been too far from his village before, but he didn't know for sure. In any case, this was his chance to find out more about the other male. He didn't really expect to get any important information out of him, but conversation was something he lacked these days. Better to take these opportunities when they came to him. He found himself relaxing slightly, but had now turned his Coriolis Revelation towards Salzem's internals and organs.

Salzem nodded to Kozai's response. He agreed completely with what he had said. Power does have quite an interesting taste, doesn't it? At Kozai's question, Salzem paused a moment, considering what he should say and what he shouldn't. Shrugging his shoulders and taking a deep breath, he looked Kozai in the eye and spoke.

"My being here for one purpose. I'm here to find a man, and when I find him, I'll kill him. Plain and simple. Nothing more, nothing less. Once I've done that, I'll think of what to do next." Salzem's rage towards the murderer was like an unending pit of flames, but one could contain the endless, at least for now.

"One might call me childish for saying so, but I believe in A life for a life. And I need his life. Perhaps devoting mine to ending his is an unhealthy decision, and one that might lead to my death before I even find him, but It's something I'm compelled to do. Something I want to do." Salzem said this lightly, but a heavy tone seemed to fall over his words like a lead blanket.

"The reason I'm out here alone and not with the Hokage's support is because the Hokage and his successor refused to even look. He denied me the pleasure of seeing him dead by not even sending search parties, if not for me, then for his citizen who was killed. This was unacceptable, and after a while, I decided to do it myself."

So, his goal was much more simple than Kozai's own. Well, he supposed that there was a sort of efficiency to it. Get a task done, and move on to what was next. This step in Kozai's life had been one toward his long-term goal, and one that he would probably never achieve... however, it was in the perpetual climbing towards that goal that he was really after, he supposed. The more a person knew, he had realized earlier on in life, the more he discovered that he didn't know. New epiphanies opened up more unknowns, almost exponentially in fact.

"That's a purpose I can acknowledge." He would speak to Salzem in a slightly more amiable tone now, having decided to sit with him a while. He really didn't have much else to do, merely waiting until the time came for him to take advantage of some new situation. He was scum in the eyes of many others in that aspect, solely because he took advantage of things that they failed to see. Hmph, they merely lacked vision. Even in his case, there was room for improvement.
"So, Jason wasn't as strong-willed of a person as I expected him to be? I supposed that everyone has his or her faults..."

Salzem eyed Kozai as he sat down next to him. It occurred to him that he had been overly fearful, perhaps even suspicious, of this man. He had done nothing to him personally yet, not even make an idle threat or even seem that menacing. He decided he could trust Kozai enough now not to harm his physical well being so he relaxed. His shoulders slumped, his gaze, less pointed. When Kozai made a comment about Jason, Salzem shook his head.

"He needs to get his priorities straight. He's too afraid about his seat of power that he sees his reserves running low rather than increasing. He cannot spare 1 or 2 ninja to just take a look around the village. Its maddeningly frustrating." Salzem sighed deeply, feeling his own frustration radiate off him like fire. He turned to Kozai, a curious expression on his face."What are YOU doing here?"

Hmph. This was just one man's perspective on the Hokage, after all. Kozai had wanted to get close to the Konoha leader due to the fact that he was a Senju. As a result, he could have gained a lot of knowledge just from being around him. Then again, as he had recently discovered, he was practically capable making new Senjus entirely. It was then that a thought came to him: The Seed was a genetic bottleneck contingency device. Should he ever need to perpetuate any particular bloodline, or enhance someone genetically he had more than enough resources to do so.
In the case of Salzem, however, Kozai felt that he had a lot of anger he needed to let out. Kozai himself couldn't possibly imagine getting so emotional... if it was mere incompetency that Salzem was upset about, why not just challenge Jason and kill him? The Hokage most likely couldn't even win against a pregnant teenager, he theorized.
"I suppose you could say that I seek knowledge. Even now, I suppose that I am more scholar than shinobi..." I'm also looking for a home, was what Kozai didn't say out loud.
"That's what I was doing in Konoha, you know. I had a specific piece of information that I needed to follow."

Salzem observed Kozai with a critical eye, trying to find anything that would could define his emotions. To his disappointment, but much to be expected, he couldn't find a chink in his armor (if he had any). He seemed to look over everything with an cold, calculated restraint of a being of pure calculations, data and numbers. To some degree, this man reminded him of Stein, though he was much less manic and more controlled. A being of pure numbers with a hunger for more. More data, more numbers. More knowing. What happens when there's nothing to know? Perhaps that just means he has to find more. Salzem nodded when Kozai said he was more of a scholar than a ninja. Perhaps that was true. For sure it took more than promises to be recorded or the permission of the respected leader to gain knowledge now-a-days. You certainly wouldn't get the full experience by watching it or reading a scroll or book. Life just wasn't that simple anymore. People wanted more. They wanted the full package deal for whatever purpose they might have. When Kozai explained that was what he was doing in Konoha, Salzem nodded again. He figured as much now that he got to know the man a little better.

"It makes sense, I suppose." Salzem said, shrugging his shoulders. "I've never been one to seek out and plunder the riches of the world. I've always preferred to take it as it's handed to me. If you think about it, that might mean I get less in the end, but..." Salzem shrugged again. "Whether it's given or taken, you get stuff. Knowledge is much more powerful than a fist or axe, but is also the hardest to acquire as a whole. To understand everything means you can manipulate everything. An incising and vexing thought..." Salzem said, his voice trailing off. He was lost in thought there for a moment, wondering about what it would be like to shape the world.

Although it was pretty probable that Salzem wasn't like him in the philosophical aspect, there didn't seem to be any kind of communication barrier. Hmph, how odd. This feeling that he had... it was just like the one he had when he first started talking to Agito for the first time. The two had little in common as far as mindset was concerned, Agito in the beginning had been very devoted to his clan, a dynasty that Kozai had essentially cast aside. Near was dead, what little tissue he had left being in Kozai's possession. He's analyzed it enough to know how it worked... combining wind and lightning release without having them explode was a feat that few people could possess. And here, they had done it flawlessly.
Regardless, he seemed to be able to hold a good conversation with this one...
Hold on a second...
"It is true that knowledge can be difficult to acquire... I suppose that's why it's so satisfying when you learn something new." This was part of the reason why Kozai did what he did. It was better than training to be "then next kage" or something, especially when he had already been kage for a while. Boredom....? Was that it? He remembered the doldrums of his days when he had been only a ninjutsu specialist, talking to that brat Arcanis over pointless sophistry... thank goodness that he had moved on from such things.
"However, might I ask... you were prepared to engage me in Konoha. Did you do it solely to protect a fellow villager, with the chance that I might be overwhelmingly strong, or did you trust more in your own power, believing that you could defeat me?"
This would be asked in a genuinely curious tone, as Kozai was now attempting to get a sense for how powerful the boy was, as well as what kind of combatant he was.

Salzem looked quizzically at Kozai when he asked why he had intercepted him that day. It wasn't really something he thought about, nor was there really one reason why he would do such a thing. He shuffled around the possibilities in his head before choosing the most likely one.

"It was my job." Salzem said. "I was ordered to intercept and/or report back to someone who could handle the situation better. To be completely honest, only overly-arrogant young ninja have complete confidence in one's power when confronted by a ninja that put all of Konoha on alert. To be honest, I didn't want to fight you at all. It is not my way. I was there to prevent collateral damage should a fight break out whether with me, or someone else."

Salzem shook his head lightly, looking almost regretful. Perhaps pain.

"The person you let go that day, he was a friend, but he hated Missing Ninja with a passion. He probably feels the same way about me." Salzem's face hardened, becoming something more resembling stone.

"It matters not. I confronted you because it was my job. I hoped to avoid a fight. Perhaps convince you to leave, though I didn't have high hopes."

Hm? Why the strange look? Kozai supposed that the answer was obvious to Salzem's mind, but not to his own. He couldn't read minds (that is, without using chakra) after all. As the other male spoke, Kozai's left hand would idly fidget with the left collar of his coat.
At this point, he decided to toy with the boy a little. Not in the physical or manipulative sense, not at all. This was a chance to find out even more about him. If this Salzem was going to spend more time out here as a missing nin, then Kozai needed to decide how he fit in... if at all.
"You say that it is 'not your way' to fight... however, I've already analyzed your organs and muscles. It's clear to me now that you've trained as a superior fighter, and that your physical prowess might even surpass my own." This was, indeed, true. The efficiency of the boy's muscles was something that Kozai had noted, even if it was only a slight movement from Salzem. He was definitely a taijutsu specialist, even if his chakra was as low as it seemed.
"So... in that case, from what you've said so far... your philosophy must be to 'protect the ones close to me', or something, right?" At this point, he'd give Salzem a somewhat triumphantly smug smile.

"It is true that I may have honed my body to master the marshal arts, and it is true that I could likely knock over all these trees with just a few punches, but just because I dislike random, unnecessary fights doesn't mean I can't fight." Salzem sighed deeply. "Its a dangerous world out there and at some point I was going to need to defend myself. Its just that simple. I am never the aggressor, or at least, I try not to be..." Salzem seemed lost in thought for a moment. His memories flashed back to when he slaughtered those missing ninja children for his Chuunin exam. Blood everywhere. On them, on him, on the ground, on the trees. He might've been able to cope with the memory if...

Salzem snapped to attention, dragging himself out of that pit of thought before he went in too deep. Kozai had came to the conclusion that his goal or "ninja way" was to "protect the ones closest to him" maybe that would be true. If he had any. In response, Salzem shook his head.

"You might be correct, were it one year ago and if  I had anyone to protect." Salzem said with a hard-to-read expression. "I cast that all aside when I came out here to do the job of finding that murder." Salzem had an empty look in his eyes, like he had nothing, but kept going in spite of it. He hoped that might mean he had something...

"My 'goal' is not to 'protect those closest to me' because such a person does not exist. Not anymore. I will kill the murderer, and for now, I'm content with that. After that..." Salzem shrugs. He didn't know, nor did he care about that now. His mind was set one way and it wasn't changing track just yet...