The Gates of the Sun

Salzem had his hood pulled over his face as he waited patiently (or at least as patiently as one could) for someone to allow him passage. The hood was a small comfort however, as the heavy material of his hooded jacket provided the unwanted outcome of heat insulation. Even if he wasn't enveloped by his heavy black jacket, the intensity of the sun's wrath was the cause of major discomfort. Sweat dripped down his pale face as time passed. His spider wasn't doing much better, shifting and turning in the small shadow that he cast under the sun/

One of Coco's clones was conveniently touring around the gates of Suna at the time that Salzem was coming in. She was trying to get herself accustomed to the Village before she started her duties on full. So A few Genin were giving her a tour of the walls, and all the spots to check. She had about Four other Clones throughout the village doing similar things with other posts. Meanwhile, the real coco, and a small army of Nanny Salamanders were doddering over her most precious of treasures. 

The clone looked over to the squad of Genin, then back to the figure approaching the gates. "Mind if I take this one?" the genin Just shrugged and motioned for her to go ahead. She nodded her thanks, and ran down the side of the pass that lead into Suna, and stood herself before the approaching nin. She'd cut her hair short in her time in suna, becasue the long hair was making her neck sweat too much, so it was back to her natural brown, and she wore it in  quirky spiked style. She wore some dark green short shorts, and a black tank top. She with starting to lean back out after all her months of pregnancy but was still noticeably chubby.

"Hey there." The Clone announced with a wave of her hand. "CAn I get your reason for Visiting, and some papers?" She looked queery at the man before her. He was strangely familiar. "Wait, sorry. Do I know you?"

Salzem's attention was grasped as a woman asked for a reason for visiting/visiting papers. Salzem smiled, in spite of this harsh sun. At least he was being attended to now.

"Yes, as a matter of fact..." Salzem stopped mid sentence when he saw the woman who approached him. It was that person from konoha! That one that thoroughly kicked the crap out of risako and himself, although her hair was shorter and her belly was much larger. His jaw would have dropped if he hadn't restrained it at the last minute. She gave him an odd look and asked if she knew him. He blinked, not believing what he was seeing, before clearing his throat and answering the question.

'I believe we've met in Konoha..." Salzem said quietly. He didn't meet Coco's gaze, rather, he was content to study the sand down by his right foot.

The Coclone slapped the top of her forehead, and let out a laugh. "Oh that's right! The Taijutsu guy, good to see you again!" She crossed her arms in a friendly way and chewed her lip with a faint smile. "Man You aren't here for me are ya?" She announced with a laugh. "Was hoping the hokage didn't have any hard feelings from be giving him that bump on the head." She looked him up and down, with of bit of interest. He was looking a might bit stronger since last they fought. While she was well aware that she wasn't. "So what's a Leaf Ninja doing out this way?"

Salzem had no idea what she meant when she asked if he was here for her, nor did he know the significance of that comment about the Hokage. He kept to himself, never paying attention to news such as this. He would give her a confused glance in response to these comments, before responding to her question of why he was there.

"You could say I'm looking for someone." Salzem would say, returning her small smile underneath his mask. "I won't be staying too long, if that is any consolation."

Nope nope nope. Coco had watched enough Anime to know that that never ended well when someone admitted to that. But she was a cool player, and just nodded her head. "Right Right." She announced Still biting her lip, but with less of a smile now. "So who are you looking for, and what purpose?" The clone had nowhere to be, and had plenty of time to play fifty questions if it was needed.

Salzem was getting a tad impatient at the seemingly endless stream of questions, but he kept his cool, so to speak.

"His name is unknown to me. As for what my purpose is, I intend to talk to him. Something he did a while back left me a bit confused." That was a hellava understatement. "I have no intention of harming anyone." yet.

Salzem waited for Coco to respond. Come to think of it, the hell was she doing here? Wasn't she a Kumo Ninja or something...?

Fair enough. Plenty of people traveled the land in search of a person who's name they did not know. That was just how the world worked. "Alright." Coco said rubbing her temples. "Well do you have a description of the man? Reason for thinking he'd been in here? A letter from the hokage?" Some villages had an awful reputation for just letting anyone wander into their village without being stopped. Suna certainly wasn't going to be one of those villages. He'd be let in when it was determined that he wasn't a threat.

Salzem figured this whole situation of standing out in the open desert could have been avoided if she would have just let him in from the start, but, of course, more questions came. It must have been some suspicion regarding strange and unknown travelers such as himself. Word must have gotten to them on what had been happening in Konoha and have taken steps to avoid the same conflict. Keeping all this in mind, Salzem relaxed a bit, though he was still severely uncomfortable in the open sun, as was his spider.

"I have 1 out of the three." Salzem responded. "I have a description, though I will not share it with you unless you ask and provide me with a reason. I have no reason to believe he's here, just as I have no reason to believe he's in Kumo. This is why I'm looking. No I don't have a letter from the Kage because I'm no longer his agent." Salzem spoke plainly, clearly tired of all this backwards, indirect talk. He just wanted to get inside so he could rest and resume his search. Finally, if there was any dispute of whether or not to let him in, Salzem proposed this last idea.

"Were I here to cause harm, wouldn't I try a believable lie? Perhaps forge a letter from the Hokage? I am here just to search for the man and no more. Send people to watch me or something. It matters not." Salzem took a deep breath and smiled apologetically.

"I'm sorry, but I just came down from haven and I'm tired from my journey. They sun isn't quite as forgiving as it is up north."

Well that was a blast of information. True enough if he was intending to make trouble in the village he could have given her a convincing reason to let him into the village, instead of this vague nonsense. Of course he could have given her a bunch of vague nonsense, too and then given a pretty convincing reason for him to let her in. Either way.

She bit her lip and nodded her head, feeling like his nuggets of information were settling well in her stomach. It sounded to her like he'd become a missing ninja since they'd last met. What an interesting turn of fate life presented. "Very well. " She announced at last crossing her arms, and nodding her head. "Turn over all of your weapons to The Guard Box. You can have them returned to you when you leave. After that you're free to enter the village."