Mystery of a Shadow [p,nk,Haru]

Kozurou gazed at the ruins of the Mizukage monument, pondering with a smile on his face. As wisps of mist rolled by, gliding on the wind like ephemeral pieces of silk, the sun reached its noon time peak. The heat and light (or at least much of it) failed to reach the boy's pale skin, as the Tyndall effect of diffraction scattered the light and infrared radiation through the droplets of water in the air. All in all, despite it being a warm summer day outside of Kiri, the interior of the village was basked in a cool environment. How perfect, Kozurou thought to himself. Unlike many of the other academy students around him, he knew about the Tyndall effect. What was even more fantastic was that the light scattering effect made it so that no one part of the city was illuminated too much at any given point. It was like something was casting shade onto the village. 

It wasn't an entirely bad thing, he thought to himself. Although, contrary to his usual tendencies, he didn't really know why he was out here in the first place. Being a Kaguya though, maybe it was in his nature to head out to random places to train? He didn't really feel like training though, but he knew that things like pre-tendencies and emotions didn't really matter at all. However, in a closer line, expressions and first impressions mattered more than most of his classmates realized. Hmph, well, he didn't need to concern himself with people like them. Human beings would always be at conflict with other human beings. That was just the nature of the world in general. It was his job to see what could be done BEYOND humanity, and what beings who had transcended could really accomplish... or were they just like humans? Questions within questions.

At any rate, he remained there for a bit, pondering the ruins. Old Mizukage Xyxer Gyojin... Well, it would seem that the village was under new management now, so Kozurou wanted to wait around here and see who it was if he showed up... at least, that's what he would like to say, but he knew it was probably pointless. After all, he'd find out all the information he needed through the public eventually. Still, his curiosity moved him to do strange things indeed. Blegh, so it was something like a fixed action pattern. Annoying, but it was just part of his personality. 

[TWC 410]

It was strange to Haru that people were not immediately made aware of the change in leadership. When he was an ANBU, information seemed to move like clockwork, and he was never wanting for knowledge. When he was a genin, he was a part of Tengakure, and it appeared that Shinji had been far less stingy about letting other ninja access records. The amount of people that had tried to kill him for stealing the Mizukage's hat was almost comical. Xyxer's hold on Kirigakure was something in the realm of fanatical, and it would take him time to mould these people into something more disciplined, but equally deadly. 

He pondered these things as he looked out the window, longing for the days when he didn't work a desk job, back before he even became an ANBU, as he had been behind plenty of desks in that position as well. Through the dense mist he had finally grown accustomed to, he spied the spot where he destroyed the statue of Xyxer Gyojin. Standing there near the rubble was a figure, which was rather strange, as the news of the destroyed statue had already run its course. There was hardly any reason to stand around staring at the rubble, as Haru had cast almost all of it into the sea. 

"Hey, Wraith?" He addressed his active guard. "Take five. I'm gonna go clear my head." He told the man, who nodded in understanding. His former comrades knew more then anything from Haru's rantings about his undercover jobs that Haru despised paperwork, and the job Xyxer had stuck him with had that in excess. It seemed a strange practice, making a powerful warrior a leader of a village, but Haru was well aware that there was not another person suited to maintaining Kirigakure at the moment; He'd already combed the records for any such person to take his place.

Without much ceremony, The Second Mizukage dropped that stupid looking hat he hated wearing and donned his street clothes, a neat collared shirt, buttoned up all the way, and black slacks, his cloak drawn over it. He exited the building, sticking to the darker corners of the streets to avoid attention as he made his way to the ruins. Normally, Haru wasn't much one for subtlety, but as walking around in public now had the chance of drawing a crowd, he decided to keep quiet. The last thing he needed was a big group of people surrounding him.

As he arrived at the ruins, the figure was still there, now distinguishable as a boy, who seemed to be just... Standing there. Doing... Not much of anything.
"I don't think I've seen you around before." He said to the boy as he approached, holding a hand up in greeting. "What brings you out here?" He asked politely.

Hmmm...? Kozurou hadn't seen this person before. Then again, he didn't get around as much as he would like to. After all, there were his genin exams to worry about. Shouldn't he be studying for those? Nah, he thought to himself, he was sufficiently prepared. He'd learned both jutsu and had reached sufficient body strength and durability. Though, he thought as he mused to himself, that could possibly have something to do with the fact that his clan had a durable body to begin with. Well, he would take whatever advantages he could get. It was better to do so than to believe that he was weaker than he actually was. 
Regardless, he would tilt and turn his head to the side to get a good look at the guy. Hmm, nothing familiar there. Kozurou  never forgot a face (indeed, he never forgot much of anything), but he'd certainly never seen this guy before. Well, he'd learn this guy's identity before too long. Inadvertently keeping that confident smile on his face, Kozai would address the man. 

"Just looking at this rubble." 

A truth, to be sure, but not the entire truth. Was it boredom that he was suffering now? Not really, just the fact that he was here and looking at this fine destroyed work of sculpture was quite enough to entertain him. Furthermore, someone had actually taken out the time to talk to him. Ha, Kozurou knew only too well how much human beings valued their own time. Certainly, it was more efficient for a human to merely pass by other humans without speaking to them. It saved time, and it saved a given individual from becoming irritated by the worldviews of other individuals. The mere fact that someone had randomly decided to talk to him was interesting in and of itself. Well, why not spend some time? Being his age, he probably had more of it than most people. Being more cautious than his classmates, he most likely wouldn't die out as quickly as they did either. 

Besides, the possibility remained that he could learn something from this stranger.

"And you? What do you find interesting about this pile of rock?" Kozurou's voice would have a slight tinge of ebullient derision in it, but nothing really mocking or seriously insulting. As mentioned before, Kozurou firmly believed that first impressions were important. Regardless of this guy's power level, it was better not to make enemies... at least, at first. Besides, he didn't know anything about this man. 

Speaking of the pile of rock, the ruins in front of him were indeed quite fascinating. Kozurou recalled a poem, which went something along the lines of "look upon my works and despair". Hmm, ironic how things were so hard to build but so easy to destroy. Or maybe not. After all, the law of entropy stated that the universe found it much easier to have everything dissolve into chaos. Processes tended to spread out instead of put together. It made sense, after all. It was much more probable that a statue would fall apart than a pile of rubble magically pulling itself into a statue. 

The average layman might argue that "that's what chakra's for, dumbass", but even so, doing such a thing required expenditure of chakra, which increased the universe's entropy anyway... Such was the way of the world. If it was hard to change the nature of humanity, it would be even harder to rebel against the nature of the cosmos itself. These were the thoughts that passed through Kozurou's head as he posed his query to the man. It may have seemed like a lot, but it happened all within an instant.

[TWC 1024]

Haru shifted his stance a bit, raising an eyebrow. It seemed the boy didn't exactly have a reason to be there, and while he wasn't exactly suspicious, it was still an odd thing that he was standing at the former site of the monument of Kirigakure's biggest traitor, staring at, well, not much of anything. It had been about a week or so now, and the shock on the village surely must have settled by now. He still remembered the headache of villagers fearing the First Mizukage's wrath at the site of the destroyed statue. Replacing a Kage was truly a bureaucratic nightmare. 
  
"Not much to look at. You took a trip out here for a pile of rocks?" Haru probed. Mostly just to make conversation, Haru also was curious as to the reactions of villagers to the destruction of the monument and subsequent loss of The First. The boy asked in return what he was doing here, and what he found interesting about the rubble. 

"Interesting might not be the right word. I'm considering whether I should finish what I started and dispose of the rubble." Haru explained casually. "The statue was quite the eyesore..." He continued, his fist clenching and his knuckles turning a dull white at the thought of the day he destroyed that statue. 

Closing his eyes and Shaking his head slowly and taking a breath, as if to collect himself, Haru held a hand out to the boy to shake. "I'm Haru, by the way. Haru Hyuuga." He said, not bothering to use the title he'd recently gained. A part of him simply hadn't registered it yet, he was still a little numb to it, and anyways, it was very vain to go around parading your title, and it drew attention Haru didn't particularly desire. It was better to keep things quiet if he could.

Looking the boy up and down, Haru noted he was certainly no ordinary civilian, though he knew most of Kirigakure's ninja. The boy was likely an academy student, judging by his tough exterior, and the fact that he hadn't appeared at The Second Blood Games.

"Indeed." Was it really all that odd? He was surprised there weren't more people out here, especially rock hobbyists. People like that were fine by Kozurou, but he wasn't exactly fascinated by geology. It was cool, yes, but not THAT cool. Anyways, the fact that this guy hadn't left after popping off his opening lines was good enough for the boy. Anyways, he'd already circled around the monument once before this guy had come over, and anything he needed to remember he could just recall at will from his mind. It was easy enough for him, though he could understand how easy it was to forget... things like that could be hella convenient too.

Although.... finish what he started? This sentence alone caused Kozurou's brain to go into overdrive. Every sentence he said was then expounded into hypotheses upon hypotheses, and it was up to the boy to figure out fact from fiction. So, either this guy was a random missing nin who had infiltrated and sabotaged the monument, which was extremely unlikely. After all, if it had happened, even those ignorant ones in the academy (including himself) would have heard of it by now. So, the possibility of that being a thing? Only about 4%. Extremely unlikely.
Or, then again, this guy could be the Mizukage. This was confirmed when Kozurou heard the man's named. Haru Hyuuga... yup, he'd at least known that. Though he'd never seen the man before, that meant nothing. There was the small possibility that this was the missing ninja merely masquerading as the Mizukage, but the probability of that was almost zero. So, Kozurou merely put that thought at the back of his mind and went with the most likely hypothesis.
Turning to face the man in full, his rather confident and sure smile would brighten slightly, but his would narrow a tad.

"Ah, Lord Mizukage! What an unexpected honor." Hmph, Kozurou thought to himself. Let's see if he catches this one. While he knew that he was taking a gamble in addressing the Mizukage in this fashion, he knew that if his gamble worked, he'd find out more than he would have otherwise. To render all unknowns of the world into knowns... that was Kozurou's goal. He knew that many people around the world shared this same goal (including the recently deceased librarian of Hoshi, who he didn't know about yet), and he hoped to meet and collaborate with them in the future... before stealing all of their secrets and disposing of them in a pleasant fashion.

"I'm Kozurou Kaguya. Although, I am merely an academy student, so I wouldn't expect you to know my name off the top of your head."

It was a well known fact that good leaders didn't need to acquaint themselves with common subjects. In fact, according to some political theories, that sort of relationship was something that should absolutely be avoided. It tended to make things worse in the long run. Kozurou himself didn't know quite what to think of that kind of thing. After all, he'd never really been in a position of leadership before.

[TWC 1543]

Haru chuckled at the boy's minimal response. Normally, he'd have cause to be suspicious, but, well, there wasn't all that much of anything going on here. Kirigakure ninja were known to stand alone, looking off into the distance in obscure areas. It was something to do with the aura of the place, he figured. 

The boy's reaction to Haru's statement was also amusing. He almost seemed unsure of what to do, smiling brightly and narrowing his eyes, as if inspecting him. The title threw Haru off a bit, as he was used to using it exclusively when dealing with Xyxer. He'd used the man's true name only once, and it was almost a cruel joke that Xyxer asked for his first name to be used right before he flipped his life over and fucked it up even more.

In response to the boy's greeting, Haru merely nodded his head, shrugging as the boy did not take the hand to shake. He half expected it anyways. Xyxer's effect on Kirigakure ninja tended to kill their social graces. At least the boy had the decency to give his own name, as many others merely neglected to do. Haru lowered his hand without much ceremony, shaking his head as the boy mentioned him not knowing his name. He did take interest in the boy's surname, as Haru had something of a special relationship w

"I'm afraid I don't get as much time to train the younger ninja as I used to. Not too long ago, I kept tabs on all of the academy students as well as the genin, but my title has left me... Understandably preoccupied." He explained to the boy, placing his hands in his pockets. 

"A Kaguya, huh? Have you learned to utilize the Shikotstumyaku? I am told it's a powerful Kekkei Genkai indeed." He inquired.

Hehehe... this guy could keep a cool head too, right? If he was indeed the Mizukage, Kozurou wouldn't be too surprised. Well, at any rate, he figured that the leader was making a genuine effort to try and get to know him. How atypical of someone with so much power, he thought to himself. This Haru must not have settled in and gotten used to being kage yet. Still, it was a small point of shame to him that he hadn't really learned to do anything with his bones yet. Well, he could always learn to do that later. Since it was a mostly physical art, it was something he planned to get good at.
Well, now that he thought about it, there was another point of shame for him. His meridians, what the teachers at the academy called the keirakukei, were dysfunctional. At the very least, they were nowhere nearly as efficient as normal ones. Still, what was most disturbing was that his body seemed to recognize this as it's "base state". As such, healing didn't do anything. Oh well, that was fine. He could reach the same level that everyone else did using sheer external practice alone. It had been done before, and with the benefits of his clan, he could surely get there with ease.
Little did he know that the problem wasn't with his meridians.
"I haven't yet learned the ins and outs of my bloodline limit, but I'm sure I'll get to it soon. After all, I'm still getting ready to take my genin exams, so I haven't exactly had the time to try out any good bone manipulation techniques." This was also true, though honestly, he hadn't needed to put that much time or effort into training so far. What seemed so hard for other students was easy for him.

[TWC 1849
Short post, sorry. Had to use internet explorer e.e]

Haru nodded slowly as the boy spoke.
"I see. Well, if you ever need help unlocking your kekkei genkai, come see me." He offered. "I know someone who might be able to help you out." Of course, he wasn't just going to come right out and tell the boy all his deepest darkest secrets, but if he expressed an interest in learning more about his clan's techniques, who was he not to help one of his own ninja?

It appeared he was just about to take his exams, a state that it appeared most academy students existed perpetually in until they actually received their promotions. "You'll be taking your exams soon? I wish you luck." He said to the boy. "It seems like only yesterday I was taking the exam myself. Time flies." He reminisced.

Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like..... no, forget that thought. Now wasn't the time for cheesy and outdated puns. What was a little more interesting was that this guy knew someone who could help him with shikotsumyaku. Not that he really needed it (yet) of course, but it would be good to get some insights. He knew that he could probably make it alone, but as a rule, those who did so had a much harder time. Still, he wondered who this person might be. Well, he'd find out in due time, to be sure. Actually, why not now? 

"Actually, I have the time now. It would be good to have something else to do before the exams start." Staring at the pile of rubble was entertaining for only a small period of time. New amusements and engagements were now in order. After all, meeting this person that the mizukage was referring to could mean quite the good time. Still, the kage himself.... Kozurou felt that there was more to him than met the eye. Oh well, he'd find out soon enough, wouldn't he? Just like always. 

Kozurou's expression would take on a rather curious hint, indicated his eagerness at gaining insights and the power behind them.

[TWC 2059]

Haru's interest was piqued when the boy said he was preparing for exams. Perhaps he could save the academy some time and earn the favor of some of the lower-ranked ninja, at least this one, in he, well... Sped things up...

"Well, firstly, you shouldn't be learning until you've mastered the basic academy jutsu. Have you learned each one?" Haru asked the boy, curiously. He'd remembered how troublesome it had been at first to learn the jutsu, at least for most of the genin. It was somewhat surreal that Haru had once, not five years ago, been on the level of the one standing before him. It grounded him, brought him back to reality. 

If the boy responded in the affirmative, Haru wouldn't waste much time. "Would you mind showing me? I'd like to see just how much progress the Academy students are making, and if I need to make changes to the staffing." He explained. "The clone technique, the transformation technique, and the substitution technique should be sufficient."