Leap [IO]

Natsuki rose from her featherbed, today like every other day. It was the hour before the dawn when the world was whole and grey. She slipped out of her bedroom gown and walked into the shower. She turned the hot water on, and it rained down on her naked frame. The steam is rising around her.

She loved that steam. She used a face lotion and then a face scrub. Both are alcohol-free since alcohol is known to try up the skin. After exfoliating, she put on a charcoal mask and left it to dry.

Once the mask was done, she removed it and put on a soothing daily moisturizer. Natsuki believed in taking care of herself. Presentation is part of who you are. She always had her nails manicured to perfection and did her hair professionally in a salon.

As far as her outfit was concerned. A black tunic decorated with gold, a red cape, and red leggings reached down to her ankles, meeting her low heel boots. The scraping these boots made as they brushed across the cobbled streets of Hoshi brought a regality to the kunoichi that some could label as eccentricity. However, a noble must dress like a noble.

WC: 206

Natsu moved through the streets of Hoshi, and behind her the guards Ayato had assigned, led by the fearsome Northman Harold Graymane. Who has served faith Hoshigakure as the gatekeeper for years. Before that he was said to have been considered for the Nova Corps but he had been phased over by Akihana and by the time Ayato took over he decided to build the Nova Corps with the people he trusted the most and there had been no room for Harold. Who although did not lack for brawn, was not the sharpest tool in the box.

Not all problems can be knocked down with a sword, the Hogokage used to say. And Harold has no restraint when it comes to fighting, I fear his love for battle outweighs even that for his village.

The Northman was dressed in plate wool and chainmail. If he was bothered by the heat, he did not let it show. Sprint in Hoshigakure already, where did winter go.? She found herself thinking, her mind traveling back to Christmas with her family. It felt like it was yesterday. The one time the entirety of the Hoshi Hyuuga were together. White Lavender eyes, and thick Konoha accents gathered in one table. Always under the Hogokage’s watch.

The first known Kage of a great village came from the Hyuuga Clan in ages. Natsuki’s older brother always looked ordinary. He had claimed the Pureblood skill only as a bit of 14, even when everyone around him was capitalizing on the transplant market built by the previous Hoshi administration.

That unbreakable stubbornness was the milk that nourished him but lately Natsuki had come to question if the Seventh would break before he bent.It certainly seemed so to Toneri who after Stein’s defeat had seen a viable business opportunity that would bring riches to Hoshigakure beyond imagination. All they had to do after they claimed his stash was to put it back in circulation. Empower Hoshi shinobi with it and sell to other ninja villages.

Ayato called it gold sickness and ended the matter there. A ruling that Toneri did not appreciate.

Tsubaki Senju had been murdered in her sleep during autumn last year. It was a death that saddened Ayato dearly. Natsuki could tell from the look on his face upon hearing the news. He was sad but not weak, never weak.

Tsubaki had done one last heroic deed before her passing. She donated her organs to the Hoshi Hospital to save someone in need. That was admirable and the kind of intention that even Ayato would approve of.

And it has done exactly that so far. Yohei and Hotaru, the two Battle of the Valley veterans, were given parts of Tsubaki's Senju body and made a return to action that otherwise would have been impossible. If they had grown any expertise in the arts of the Senju clan and their wood release, Natsu could not say. But it had been a start to get them back into the fold of shinobi forces of Hoshigakure. And a weapon for the wars to come, there were going to be a few of those. That was always a reality in ninja life.

That was a big problem with Toneris's plan of outsourcing Stein's stash. Empowering villages that you might go to war with would have been foolish. As for alliances, they are known to fall like flies in the shinobi world.