A new home

Rin slowly limped along the road; her battered and broken body covered with a simple worn straw cloak, her missing arm hidden beneath whilst her remaining arm held a straw umbrella to shelter her from the sun; a straw hat covering her head and hiding the ruined mess that was her left eye; Before her stood the gates of a relatively small village, not one that was particularly well known but at the very least one that she might be able to find shelter within for a month or two.

Coming to a stop 20 meters from the gates she called out; her voice breaking from long disuse over the last year. "H-hello there, i was wondering if i might speak to someone about shelter and perhaps offering my services" she called out, waiting for a reply from whoever was manning the guard station

The woman would be walking up to a fence on the outskirts of a vast field, the only indication that it was the entrance to something being the large, well trodden path running out into the greater world. The guard booth that had once adorned the walls now existed elsewhere, though the booth had not moved. Rather, the fence had. Temporary at best, but still a new, permanent, or soon to be permanent, addition. The village stood behind him, off in the distance, as he sat on a pole of the fence.

The man, known for his gloomy complexion, seemed down right dour, looking from the pole on which he sat to a spot on the ground. If Rin could look close, which would be difficult from a distance of about seven stories away, she might notice his knuckles white, as he gripped the wood planks running between each circular fence post.

His mind was filled with 'what if's. His heart ached, and he knew Dai Cho was in even more pain.

The Kage had confirmed it, as best as she or anybody could. Someone had entered the village, used something _powerful_, and with that...

He swallowed the clump that was growing in his throat.

He had a job. And he could not do the job while staring at a bouquet and a small wooden plaque.

They did not really know what had happened. Nobody had seen it go down but... but whatever it was, it was bad

He looked up, and saw someone a distance away. He thought they were trying to say something?

"H-"

The words caught in his throat.

He took a breath, and swallowed. Then coughed to clear anything else up.

"Hello there!" he shouted out, jumping down from the post, careful to avoid the flowers. He would signal the person to come closer, looking for where he had stored that clip board of materials.

Assuming the person did come closer, he would simply say, "I'm Kuruoshiki. Name and business?"

Unless of course the woman had already restated her name and/or business while standing at a more reasonable distance.

Rin sighed as she looked at the man in the distance hearing him shout out, times gone by her voice would have radiated power and carried on the wind far enough to make this conversation more than comfortable for her at such a distance... But as with all things since her torture and subsequent maiming her powers were greatly diminished. Slowly making her way forward and holding up her hands... Rin paused mentally checking herself. Rin slowly made her way forward holding up her one good hand and shrugging her straw cloak off her other shoulder enough to reveal the missing limb there. As she drew closer she tried again, "hello there, i was wondering if i might speak to someone about shelter and if we can come to a suitable arrangement perhaps my services to your burgeoning village. The name is Rin, Rin Togakawa" she said, allowing enough of her chakra to leak out that if the man had any skill at all he could no doubt tell what line of work she was in. She just hoped the corruption within her channels didn't leak out too much, she wasn't the most vain of people anymore but having her chakra associated with that monsters was one thing she thoroughly desired to avoid

Turmoil. Regret. Sorrow.

Mourning.

The village was in mourning, the loss of a talented, dedicated Shinobi. And, on the one hand, now was the time to be trimming down, locking in to just specific people, being careful...

But the village was at risk. At lot had happened in recent history, and the state of the village was... less than good. The new Kage was trying her best, but Kurioshiki knew, hell, the Kage admitted, they were NOT someone to ask about conflict, battle, war, and strength. That was something they were working on. It was quite the change. She was surprisingly OK at economic development, or at least, good things were happening under her, and there were rumors of potentially something big and important coming. Cultural on the other hand...

To say that Kurioshiki and the new Kage had a difference of opinion might be a bit of an understatement. But, at least as of now, there was not a significant issue he had. That may change, but the far more important thing was...

She was completely ill prepared for the dangers of being a Kage. Completely. The man with shaved horns had known the village was in dire straits. But for one such as her to be elected Komekage, even just of economic development, it spoke much of the state of the village. It was not good, and it would not be good.

Kurioshiki glanced at this person, asking to enter the village. The individual was not trying to hide their ninja nature. They also clearly showed off crippling deformities. There was a part of him that immediately distrusted someone doing that. Presenting oneself as weak is a great way to lower expectations, lower defenses.

That the same time, the person standing before him was... being abundantly clear, in a more quiet way, what they were.

And if they did not realize what they were broadcasting to the world, well.

They were a fool. And if a ninja is a fool, they are often too new to the world to be a threat.

Kurioshiki had a lot to weigh in this encounter.

Was this individual presenting themself as too weak? No, he did not think that.

It was also made clear: the person standing before him was offering services for basic accommodations.

There were a lot of factors to weigh, and this was neither the time, nor the place, to weigh in on them.

He grabbed a peace of paper and a writing tool, and scribbled a quick note, then folded it and held it out to the individual.

"Just over two kilometers further along the trail," he said, pointing in the direction of the village, "you will find someone else waiting for inspections. Give them this paper and follow their instructions."

While the paper was folded shut, there was little to no attempt beyond that from Kurioshiki to hide its contents.

'Come out here and take over, I want to escort this person into the village. Red Bean Paste and short grain rice.'

---

WC 503

Rin sighed a little as the man looked her over, especially when his eyes lingered on her missing arm, It grated on her deeply to have someone one form their opinion of her based purely on her weakness, but as much as she hated it she had come to grow somewhat accustomed to it. Still she had to resist the urge to make a snide comment, when she felt his spiritual senses move over her, evaluating her she couldn't help but return in kind, what she felt, in all honesty worried her, she had hoped that this village might be somewhere safe to shelter for a while, but this gate guard felt even weaker than her in her ruined state. Still she didn't exactly have anywhere else to go so with an internal sigh she waited patiently for the man to finish his assessment.

When he reached into the pouch at his waist Rin tensed for a moment before relaxing just a little as he started writing on a piece of paper, When he then held it out to her she tentatively strode forward, taking the note from him without looking at it. Giving the man a slight bow, one deep enough to be respectful without being so deep that she would have to take her eyes off of him.

"My gratitude, hopefully i will see you soon" said, having no clue what was in the note of course but rather alluding to the possibility of the two working together in some respect in the future. With that Rin would make a point of cautiously striding past the man and getting well out of eyesight before surreptitiously flipping open the note for a quick glance as she continued down the trail. She suppressed a slight chuckle at the irony of her words as she scanned the words, Fate was funny like that sometimes, and funnily enough the use of what was no doubt code words at the end of the note comforted her a little, even if the man had seemed a little weak to her spiritual senses and the villages defenses appeared somewhat poorly equipped to deal with an attack like what she had witnessed in the past, over all this displayed a refreshing competence. So many shinobi forgot the basics as they grew stronger, and many of the newer generations didn't even show the wherewithal to put those basics into practice in the first place. Not that she wasn't technically one of the newer generation, she was still quite young after all, but her scars, training and experiences out in the wild had left her viewing herself as somewhat separate from the softer shinobi that seemed to grow in lands of peace.

Eventually she made her way to the second gate house, scanning it for any threats and following the same procedures she had before, certainly she didn't want some panicked individual to stab her because they hadn't seen her coming. Upon reaching 20 meters from the checkpoint she called out a greeting, warning whoever was manning the post of her presence before approaching and delivering the letter she had been handed.

She sat at the inner gates. If they got to her here, well. Either she was as good as dead, or, more realistically, the person was fine.

Manning the inner gate today was not one of the normal guards, but rather a humble citizen of the village. They saw the carefulness with which Rin approached. That was somewhat scary. She was not used to the world of ninja, the propensity for those to announce themselves before approaching. However, she took the note when offered, and frowned.

Red Bean Paste and short grain rice? Has Kurioshiki forgot the other ninja, what was her name, Dai Cho? Had he forgotten that she had left for the day.

But this was most certainly his handwriting. She had been working here enough recently to remember at least that. Until the village was able to hire another full time guard, she did not mind staffing the inner gate every now and then.

"Sure, yeah..." she said, reading the letter.

It was... somewhat scary. Two kilometers away? That far outside the village? It would take her nearly an hour to walk that distance...

She was thankful when Kurioshiki came yelling from not too far in the distance.

"Ah! Apologies! I forgot Dai Cho finished for the day. I came running when I realized!"

A ninja, particularly one as talented in the physical arts as Kurioshiki, could run quite fast. For him to have closed the distance only now would mean he had set out just a short while ago. While not running at full speed, one could say it was well over a trot.

"Apologies, ma'am. I will see you in now," Kurioshiki said to the newcomer.

To the volunteer, he said "There is no one coming for a time. You may take a break. One of my fellows will be around shortly. For now, the "closed sign" has been put up.

[Entry allowed]
[I would say exit but these are just NPC posts...]

Rin allowed a hint of surprise to show on her face as the woman took the note from her, giving her a quick scan with her spiritual senses revealed the strength of a perfectly normal civilian, she was in all ways perfectly ordinary; that bothered Rin, certainly some shinobi were skilled enough that they might be able to mask their true strength or veil their spirit entirely, but to appear so perfectly mundane was indicative of a level of skill that Rin had never even heard of, she took a moment preparing herself to memorize the feel of the woman's chakra before realizing that  someone this skilled would no doubt have the ability to alter something as simple as their chakra signature at will. All the same Rin made a point to take note of the feel of the woman's chakra on the off chance that she felt it again, even if the woman was able to change the feel of her chakra the downfall of many shinobi was coming to believe they were safe, if she re-used this signature then perhaps Rin could use it to find her again.

When the woman frowned at the note however, Rin tensed up, mentally preparing herself to run; had she messed up, the contents of the note certainly hadn't seemed like it would mark her as hostile, but could this have been a trap? A small part of Rin's mind found grim amusement in the irony of her just thinking that the woman before her might have become complacent when it would seem she had been the one to fall to complacency. Preparing herself for the worst she reached out with her spiritual senses and had to suppress a bone deep panic that began to rise up within her.

The man who had met her at the gates was only a hundred meters away and approaching fast, gritting her teeth and bracing herself for the pain she began cycling her chakra, preparing herself for what seemed to be an inevitable fight. there was no reason to let these two know their trap had been detected of course, so despite the fear, pain and terror inside of her she put on a calm smile, tilting her head to the site and politely addressing the woman, "is everything okay, you look a little perturbed" as she spoke of course she subtly shifted her hand closer to the side of her leg where a band of kunai lay strapped to her side; and so it was she barely managed to stop herself from grabbing a blade and taking a strike at the woman in front of her when the guard from before came up behind her yelling his presence to them both.

As he spoke Rin relaxed, just a little, doing her best to suppress a relieved laugh, of course it had just been a mistake on the guard's part, not everyone was out to get her, and not every interaction with other shinobi had to end... the way the last one did. when Kurioshiki gestured her inside the village the last of her panic faded as she strode inside, still alert but at least now she was not fighting off a panic attack.
[Exiting (Entering?) into Tanbogakure]
TWC: 1,420
Claiming
1420 words towards Lie To Me (1420/2500)
14 Stat points in chakra
Almost having a heart attack counter = 1

Approved!

On an unrelated note, you can put village exits/entrances like so: [Thread Exit and Village Entrance into Tanbo]

TWC 1175 from NPCing
11 Vigor
https://www.narutoroleplaygame.com/t50688-nukite-the-spear-hand#383969 learned to C rank
dropping the other 100ish words

Emi Tanaka wrote:TWC 1175 from NPCing
11 Vigor
https://www.narutoroleplaygame.com/t50688-nukite-the-spear-hand#383969 learned to C rank
dropping the other 100ish words

Approved