Training the army [IO]

Revan sat in the office of the small banner in the lower district, this was where he'd set up with his men following their escape from the ruins of Yukigakure. "Excuse me, my lord, I brought you some tea as you requested." came the voice of his maid servant, a short young woman no older than fifteen. "Yes thank you, you can leave it on the table there," he said in a curt tone as he gestured to the edge of his desk where space had been neatly left for it. As the woman strode over to the desk Revan continued to write paying the woman no heed, she was of little note, after all, simply one among many of the lower class citizens of this village. A few minutes later Revan finally sat down his quill and looked up to take a sip from the cup of tea only to find the woman still standing there awkwardly. Revan glowered at the woman, "Did you need something?" The woman's face went deathly pale at his words, "uh, n no sir" She stuttered awkwardly before rushing out of the room, a blush on her face.

Revan shrugged and went back to his work, taking a sip of tea from time to time. "Now then, first things first I'll need to get to work on rebuilding the yuki army before we have any chance of recapturing the country from those barbarians" he said to himself as he moved his notes aside and got to writing out orders for what remained of his forces, reports showed that half of his men were gravely injured, many missing limbs or having other debilitating weaknesses that they'd developed over the course of the war... if it could be called that. Revan penned out orders for the injured to be moved to hoshigakures best hospital, meanwhile, he would have his two best footsoldiers head out and scout the borders of the new Kumogakure empire. His order's written the only thing left to do was to give the remaining forces their orders, and rather simple orders they were, to take advantage of the village's training options and learn everything they could about the forces that had taken their home from them.

His orders written and sealed Revan stood and made his way out of his office, passing the sealed orders to one of his men who'd been standing guard at the door. A guard wasn't necessary for Revan's safety, of course, however, it was necessary to make a show of force and stability to his men in these turbulent times, and moreover, it kept him from being bothered by any rabble that might decide to try and bother him with mundane and unimportant issues. "Have these delivered to their respective recipients and then take the rest of the day to focus on your own training" he would say to the man before receiving a salute from the man and returning a curt but respectful nod and turning to leave the building. Now was the time to head off and start improving his own skills, he'd been significantly weakened from the repeated battles that they fought trying to retreat from the Kumo invasion and whilst he was recovering he was still far weaker than he should be, Revan scowled and started heading to the great village's library, knowledge after all was power, and that was all he was here to attain, power to get his revenge, power to rebuild his village, power to rule with an iron fist and ensure that Yuki became a force to be feared, one that would no longer be threatened by larger countries but rather one that could show its claws and fight back against any who would dare threaten the Silver Dragon of Yukigakure.

Entering the Archives Revan gave a curt nod to the librarian before moving through into the library proper, finding a small tome labeled 'the basics of a ninja, a study on ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu' as well as a few tomes on notable military battles in the history of Hoshigakure. It wouldn't hurt after all to know the terrain well and to understand how previous battles had been fought won and lost. The books, for the most part, were an interesting read, Revan found the taijutsu portion to be incredibly drab and boring, many of the techniques listed seemed downright absurd, sacrificing any practical use in exchange for a slight increase in speed and strength, this was, of course, a waste compared to the combat training he and his men had been given in the yuki armed forces. The explanations of Ninjutsu, the clone, and transformation techniques, however, seemed incredibly useful both for a spy and to give the illusion of larger numbers than there actually were in a military force. If implemented well the clone technique could effectively allow you to leave a fortress almost entirely unguarded whilst taking your main force to reinforce another area or launch a surprise attack upon an enemy outpost. The applications were staggering and Revan was rather amazed. The texts on military events in hoshigakure's history, listed few notable battles and even fewer intriguing tactics, it would seem that until a few years ago the country was barely worth taking note off and it was only with the introduction of the rather disliked ninja from other countries that hoshigakure actually started to become a player on the world stage; before that it had defended itself mainly with an armed militia of civilians and a small elite fighting force known as the queens guard. Revan scratched his head at this, the queen's guard as a title remained of course but as Revan understood it that title was now used to refer to the Ninja who guarded Lady Akihana, the current Queen of the village. Revan paused once again, standing and going over to another section of the library he found a text 'A history of the royal bloodline.' striding back to his desk Revan opened the book.

The book began by describing the origin of the hoshigakure royal family, a rather drab and boring affair involving a handful of influential families all intermingling their bloodlines through arranged marriages and eventually unifying under one family name, after this the bloodline remained fairly stable being passed down for the most part via direct descendants and first born children. There were a few rare occurrences of odd deaths that resulted in a second son or in one case an uncle from assuming the throne, but those were to be expected in a royal family history. Were he a betting man, Revan would bet his right arm that the majority of those deaths had been orchestrated by those who had assumed power shortly afterward, or if not directly by them, then by someone who expected to find them more easy to manipulate than their predecessor. Regardless this was all ancient history and of little interest to Revan who was reading through the text for a far different reason. As he flicked through the text he came to the end of the family tree. Queen Shiera... yet that was not the current queen, and this book had only been published a year ago...

Revan stood and strode over to the librarian with a coarse grunt, "Excuse me my lady but would you by any chance happen to be able to point me in the direction of any texts pertaining to recent events regarding Queen Shiera?" Revan asked softly out of respect for the quiet that was so prevalent in a well run and maintained library. The woman's face went pale as it shifted to shock to sadness to anger, confusion and then finally to realization. "You're not from these parts are you?" she asked looking him up and down before continuing, "that's a rather touchy topic for most of the population so I wouldn't recommend bringing it up in casual conversation if you want information on it, however, I suggest you go over to the local newspaper archives and read through some of those, the hornless gazelle was perhaps the most accurate account of the events although the new queen was rather tight lipped about what information was released to the public since it was 'an active investigation'" the woman said, the incredulity and borderline hostility obvious in her voice. Revan tilted his head a little before opening his mouth, "I take it that you're of the opinion that something about that was particularly suspicious?" He asked curious about the woman's reaction. The woman opened her mouth as if to speak before shutting it again, the woman's face went pale before she opened her mouth to speak, her words guarded. "I would never suggest such a thing sir, now if you'll excuse me I have work to do," she said turning and attempting to look busy shuffling papers. With a sigh, Revan shrugged his shoulders well, at any rate, he had gathered what he needed here and it was getting late.

Striding out of the building and onto the streets, Revan was once again struck by just how different the 'village' although honestly, it was much more a city than a village, of hoshigakure, was from the village hidden in the snow. Here people moved about at all hours, in spite of, or perhaps because of the time of night, unlike his home in yukigakure, here people seemed to have time to waste on all sorts of revelries, people attending restaurants that provided food for one person on par with the quantities of what was a spring banquet in Yuki, women stood on corners with barely any clothing covering their shapely forms, with enough meat on their bones that whilst they didn't look unpleasant to the eyes, they were certainly what would have been considered fat in his old home. Revan wasn't adverse to the concept of spending the night with a woman of course, and many of his men during campaigns had used the services of women such as these, but he could never bring himself to indulge in the matter, after all, he was their commanding officer, it would have been a poor show to be seen in the company of such a person, and besides which he'd never particularly fancied the idea of spending the night with someone he barely knew. With a shrug to himself Revan turned and headed back in the direction of his residence, pointedly ignoring the calls of some of the more courageous women here and politely dissuading the attention of some of the more aggressive woman, and the occasional man, with a curt glance and a few carefully placed insults that tended to draw at least a few snickers from those listening and even a chuckle or two on occasion.

Returning home to his 'modest' estate Revan threw open the mahogany double doors that stood at the entrance and strode into the entry chamber, a handful of servants scurrying to close the door behind him, take his coat and attend to their general duties upon his arrival. "Have some tea brewed and brought to my study," Revan said as he tossed his coat to the nearest servant before striding up the stairwell in the entry hall and heading towards his study, pulling lose his tie and leaving it to hang in a lazy, although somewhat still presentable knot. Striding into the room Revan allowed himself a moment to drop into the fine leather armchair that sat by the fireplace as he let out a deep sigh. It had certainly been a day, the implications of what he'd discovered were staggering,  the 'queen' was almost certainly a murderer and was trying her best to manipulate the people; certainly a concerning turn of events for him to discover, but more concerning was what to do with this information. The right thing to do was certainly to take it to the people, but the current kage would likely get caught up in the turmoil of events that this revelation would set off. Kyouske had given his men sanctuary when they needed it most, allowed them to maintain almost absolute autonomy despite their status, and even promised them a modicum of support in retaking their home if circumstances permitted, not much of a promise that last one, certainly, but a show of faith all the same. The man deserved some degree of loyalty, at least enough to justify giving the man a chance to deal with the information himself rather than have it revealed by someone officially unrelated to his administration. With a sigh Revan sighed to himself as he decided he'd go to speak to the man shortly, hopefully, the man had no idea of what his predecessor had been responsible for, if not well, everyone had their share of dark secrets, this would be just another seemingly respectable politician who had absolutely no respect for ethics or morals. As his tea was brought in with a gentle knock on the door Revan let out another sigh, god knows how many times he'd sighed like that today but it certainly wasn't unwarented. Picking up the tea Revan pulled it up to his lips and took a single long draught as he pondered exactly how to go about arranging this meeting.


TWC: 2217
Claiming 11 Stat points
Claiming Clone (500/500) and Transformation (500/500) techs
1217 words towards Shocking Seals

Approved.