The Chuunin that stare at Kage [P, NK, Kurisu]

Risako's life had been missing something ever since her old Senju had passed away. It wasn't his eyes, or his smile, or even the fact that he was the clan head. No, she missed him because he was the Hokage, and the Hokage's office had probably the most comfortable chairs in the existence of the universe. 

The atmosphere wasn't too bad either, so that's always a plus I suppose. 

With her destination set, the young chuunin pushed forward on that Yellow Brick Road to the Hokage's... administration building? I'm not too sure what the fuck to call it. Given that she lived within a stone's throw of the place, her trek was rather short lived. 

The flow of traffic in the building seemed significantly slower than when Jason was in charge, but then again. Some of that traffic may or may not have been some shady shit, this traffic here, in the present day, was probably clean and pure. Probably.

Opening the doors, Risako blew off all the people standing around like a bunch of back ground NPC's, and went straight to Kurisu's office. Allowing herself in through the man shaped hole in the wall, her silvery eyes scanned the room and located the object of her desire, it was probably for the best that the chairs hadn't been changed out, lest Kurisu wish to start WWIII.

She only said like, four words, (I didn't count, don't yell at me.) "Kur- Lord Hokage, if it isn't a problem, I'm gonna take a seat for a while." Then, unless he actually got up to stop, her (a simple no wouldn't suffice,) she'd grab the chair nearest to her, and pull it off to the side.

And then there was silence. Unless Kurisu had to protest. Then there would probably be a lot of yelling. (And maybe chair theft?)

Hokage office, more like Paperworkkage office. He could remember dealing with the papers for a while, but there were still a lot of stacks setup on his desk. His vision of the entrance to the office was blocked off by papers, though he thought he heard someone enter. A voice asking to have a seat would confirm his thoughts and it sounded like Risako, though since he couldn't see and it wasn't the first time something like this had happened he merely assumed the paperwork was talking to him. 

"Okay I mean you're already sitting on the desk but sure have a seat." he'd say, ignoring the sound of a chair being grabbed. Grabbing a stack of papers he'd walk around his desk to put them in a chair, at that point seeing Risako sitting down. "Oh well then. I thought the papers were talking to me." he say towards Risako. 'No seriously, we want a chair.' the papers said to him. "Nevermind, they do want a chair." he'd say, setting the stack of papers into a chair in front of his desk and then went back to his own chair.

Returning to his new routine, he'd stamp a paper and grab another with the same hand that he was using to stamp papers while his free hand would hold a bottle of Jack that he was drinking out of every time he stamped a paper. Looking over at Risako and not losing a beat in his movements he'd speak. "So what brings you in here?" 

What? Risako cocked an eyebrow and looked at her feet, confirming that she most certainly was on the floor in front of the desk and not on top of it. Her eyebrow remained arched up, and her eyes flicked from her feet to the Hokage. In response to his comment about the papers, she'd mumble a quick "I see." 

And then came the part where he confirmed the papers had indeed spoke to him. To herself, she'd think "Okay, please, let that part be a joke," as her eyes flip flopped back and forth between Kurisu and the papers, which were now sitting in the chair opposite the room from her. It was then that she decided to keep her eyes on the Brick Wall, hoping instead to find some sign that indicated he was trying to be humorous. 

While she found none, she did continue to reassure herself that, that was the case. For a few seconds of silence, Risako simply watched as the Rokage continued stamping papers like an automated machine. Drink, stamp, move, drink, stamp, move. Maybe alcohol was the key to happiness, and she was just a prude. 

Shaking that thought, she had a question to answer. "Well. I've been a little down lately, remembering some of the times that have passed." There was a brief internal debate with herself on whether or not to continue, "Once or twice when Jason was the Hokage, I came into his office and kinda sat there for awhile." 

Then she kinda stopped for another second. "It was always a little calming." Her voice was much softer than her usual, demanding tone. Although her guard dropped a bit, her attention didn't. Her eyes remained peeled on Kurisu, for she was still uncertain if the paper thing was joke or not. 

Oh right! Pushing the chair all the way against the wall, she plopped down in the confines of its cushions. As she sank into the chair, she sorta sprawled out. After that was done, her attention was brought right back to the most powerful man in the ro- 


Pffft. He may have been the most powerful, but Risako was still the manliest. That's all that mattered.

He continued his routine for a little while as Risako explained why she came here. It made him think of how he felt when he found out about Echo and Navi dying along with two of his kids. "Jason died before he should have, that's always the worst part. I know the feeling so you're welcome to come in here whenever you need to. This village itself feels peaceful to me, after my brother Echo and Navi died I didn't get that feeling til I came here. Always good to find a calming place where you can remember those you've lost and just get things off your mind." That was probably another one of the big reasons why he'd come to Konoha, it brought him closer to all of his family.

He leaned his bottle off to the side and poured a little out onto the floor. "For those we've lost." it was becoming a habit for him, feeling guilty that Echo couldn't drink with him anymore so it was the way he'd chosen to honor the dead. Even in the somber moment his mind was working against him, hearing the papers he was stamping say 'ow' every time they got stamped. "Shut up papers!" he'd yell at the paperwork before stopping and sliding his chair backwards to take a break. "I think I've been doing too much paperwork lately." he figured it was best to try and play it off some considering that it was probably all in is mind or was it? Maybe Risako had heard the papers say ow as well, but he'd let that be determined by the girl's reaction.

Having decided to take a break, he wasn't sure if Risako needed some quiet time to just relax and think. "So, I never really got a chance to know Jason. What was he like?" he'd ask, figuring some small talk on the subject couldn't hurt, things often got better when talking about it.

In between her answer and Kurisu's response, a few seconds of silence lingered in the air like a weight atop Risako's shoulders. Had she not been a trooper about controlling her emotions, her face would've been wetter than Water World. But then the silence was broken, and with the words to follow, she began to see a few similarities (despite the vast number of differences,) between the two. Albeit, the notes which strung Jason and Risako together when they first started to bond played a bit of a cheerier tune.

As he gave his little monologue, her eyes remained glued to Kurisu, but not because he talked to the paper and she was worried, but in earnest. (She also took note of the bureaucratic machine that was the Hokage. Moving and stamping papers like a robot.) As he spoke of the early passing of Jason, Risako gave a nod. He was just the first of two that had passed away recently, the second being Kasai. She nodded along when he said the village felt peaceful. Her nod train was broken slightly when she heard the name "Echo." 

She'd have to ask if it was the same Echo who wrote that book of hers, not now of course. It'd be a little inappropriate, or at the blue at least. 

Not knowing what to do when he poured the drink, because she didn't have her own, she put two fingers to her forehead for a quick salute. 

After that, her eyes drifted to the window, where for a few brief seconds, she paid a silent tribute to those they'd lost. Jason, Kasai, Ryugia, and even though she never met Echo or Navi, they were thrown in that mix too. 

Did I mention those chairs in the Hokage's office are comfortable? It was almost like floating on a bed of feathers, at least to her. So when the man with at least two voices in his head suddenly shouted, "Shut up papers!", nearly every muscle in her body flipped the switch and kicked into fight or flight mode. Like a corpse being shocked with a paddle, her body jerked into attentiveness. 

Maybe it wasn't a joke. If paper was sentient, then she had a lot to rethink in her life. Her only real response was a nervous chuckle as she leaned back into the chair, attempting to relax once more.

Then after what was assumed a few more seconds of silence, the Hokage inquired as to what Jason Senju was like. 

Risako had two answers, depending on the Jason you wanted to know. In her eyes, Jason was like an older brother. It didn't matter how hard she tried to match him, he remained a step in front of her. She would start with "Hmm," still deciding how exactly to word it. 

"There's a lot that could be said. In some ways he was a bit like an older brother. Always one step ahead of you, and right when you thought you caught up, he was gone, in the blink of an eye. Then you'd find him again and," she stopped herself, trying to find the words without repeating herself too much. "and, you'd... You'd try to catch up again, and then. Bam!" Her right fist pounded into an open left palm, as her voice went from the soft tone she picked up when she first came in, back to her usually annoying and energetic, (but not too hyper, she knew how to stay civil,) tone.

Another short pause, "He'd be gone again. The Slowkage fought like that too." Oooh, she started throwing out old nicknames huh? Of course that small rant right there, that was referring to Risako's will to beat the man. A dream which could no longer be achieved, nor did she want to achieve it. Beating the shit out of a corpse was wrong, after all.

"As a person, he always kinda downplayed himself and stayed humble. Even as Hokage, he never seemed to look down on others. Or at least he never looked down on me."

By the end of her even smaller-than-the-first-little-rant rant, she had once again relaxed into the cushions of the chair.

If nothing more was to be said by Kurisu, Risako would continue the conversation, choosing to switch the topic to Echo and Navi.

He leaned back some to relax more, finishing off his bottle of Jack and grabbing another one which he'd of course began to drink on while listening to Risako talk about Jason Senju. The description she gave wasn't far from some of the thoughts Kurisu had of Viper, his rival and brother always one step ahead, granted Viper wasn't that humble. It made him laugh a little but also feel guilty because at least Viper was still alive even if he was banished into Asgard.

"Yeah that sounds right, sounds just like an older brother. I know that feeling all too well. He sounds like he was a good Hokage, hopefully I can fill the shoes left for me. A Hokage is suppose to treat the village like family and care for them, no matter how short of a reign he had he always be remembered by the village and those close to him not everyone gets that." He didn't know if there were somethings that Jason had done during his reign that might have been considered bad, but being humble and treating the villagers right was a big plus in Kurisu's book.

He'd continue to drink and see what else Risako had to say.

Risako supposed that maybe she had gone on about her Hokage long enough, after all, if Kurisu was the new Hokage, then he could pretty much find out whatever he wanted to find out through documents and-

Well, that was kinda creepy, and she hadn't thought of it til just now, but they even had documents on her. 

Anyway, she would hesitate for a moment, allowing Kurisu to take his drink. Then, she decided to ask. "Um," her hesitation was real, she didn't know if it was best to drop it, or to ask. Nonetheless, she'd done stupider shit before, so. "If you don't mind me asking, sir. All I've heard about Echo up to this point were rumors and tales. It seems like you knew him personally, so what was he like?" 

Quickly, as a follow up, she would stammer out, "O-of course if you don't wanna talk about it that's fine too. I don't mind." 

Well, now she ran the risk of embarrassing herself. Or at the very least the conversation would run into an awkward halt if he didn't wanna talk about him. But, she guessed that'd be fine too. After all, she only came to sit in the chairs and take a break. Unlike with most people, Risako didn't maintain that unbreakable eye contact of hers with Kurisu, for some reason she actually preferred to look around the room when addressing him.

Kurisu took a deep breath, it wasn't easy to really find words to describe Echo. "I bet a lot of those rumors and tales are true. Echo could do just about anything and he was a damn good brother. I was...busy as Raikage so I didn't get to spend as much time with family as I wish I had." he didn't seem the need to explain out that last part in full, busy was code for the fact that he was way worse of a person and spent too much time doing things he shouldn't have been doing. "Really, words aren't enough." that was the most accurate part of it.

If Risako didn't bring up anything then Kurisu would think for a moment to think of something to say to prevent it from getting too quiet. "So what are your goals in life?" he asked. He saw Risako are part of the future generation of ninja, the ones that still had a full life ahead of them and so he wanted an idea of what kind of ambitions this new generation might have.

So Echo probably was the greatest in the world huh? Risako wasn't sure how much of those rumors she could believe, but with what Chris had just mentioned, well. She probably wouldn't have too, as the rumors and tales probably fell short of what Echo truly was. Really, she had nothing more to say. Finally content with just sitting in the office, she began to slump back into the chair, once more becoming relaxed within the cushions of her chair. She was even content with the talking papers, which she still hoped thought was some joke. 

Then she was asked the question that all adults ask children, one that usually is responded with an "Uhhhh" which Risako did, before putting her hand to her chin. "I'm pretty content with teaching academy students." And honestly, she was. The chuunin life was pretty decent, you didn't have to do the grunt work the genin were forced to do, and you didn't have to put yourself in as much danger as the jounin or higher ups. "I guess if I ever happened to be placed as the leader of a squad, I'd see how that goes." Squad leadership was usually reserved for the jounin, despite that, she had still led a grand total of one squad. Her last squad wasn't a total failure, but they quickly outgrew their use for Risako, and the squad was disbanded.

As a sort of joke, she'd end with "WELL! Enough about your's truly. What are your goals for the future?" 

This was somewhat new, most of this new generation seemed to be striving to get promotions and become stronger yet here was a chuunin that seemed to be more content than most. Kurisu saw it as a sign of maturity and good potential, those become greedy for ranking up usually don't have the village's best interest at heart. "That day may come." that was all he'd say, though he was tempted to making the Jounin exams he was planning more public; however, withholding that information until it was closer to time would expose those haven't been keeping up with their training and be an advantage to those who train hard all the time.

The question about his goal, surprisingly he hadn't even given that a lot of thought. He wanted to be better for his family and protect Konoha but he wasn't sure if those really counted as goals. "I'm not sure, I feel like i have everything I could want. A village full of family and the means to keep everyone safe, guess I could always use some more ryo in the village funds if you're feeling generous." he laughed at the end, merely joking around about the ryo. It did remind him to speak with the elder council in the near future to try and make sure the village had enough defenses setup.