Kintsugi is here

The first light of dawn broke over the horizon, filtering through the shoji of Sakoshi Kurosawa’s room. As many had before, the day began as a quiet continuation of the life he had built in the village. But it was a morning with a purpose. It was a morning when Ren once again entrusted the role of gatekeeper for the town to Sakoshi. The role was repetitive, but it was filled with each day’s new experiences and insights. Sakoshi accepted Ren’s request with a silent nod, an agreement between two men of the duty shared, and a subtle note of anticipation. It was a role Sakoshi had taken previously.

It gave him not only a view of who came and went from the village but also insights into who the people were. Sakoshi rose from the bed with careful steps, each more familiar as he neared the day. Each was a bridge from his rest to his alertness for the day. He donned his clothing at a measured pace, slow but careful, as he chose each item, from his dark clothes to his gear, working with slow precision. Each choice was made for its function and comfort, the single bridge between readiness and silent protection he offered the village. The walk to the village gates was well-trodden. He moved at a slow pace but with headstrong dedication. The streets were stirring, but the town was starting its day. He was apart from the scene but still a thread.

As he took his place by the gate, Sakoshi assumed his position with a practiced grace, his eyes drifting over the vista before him before settling on the pathway leading to the heart of the village. The gatekeeper’s role was that of watcher and judge, with depth perception and mental clarity walking hand in hand. For Sakoshi, it was more: a chance to engage with a unique skill, a form of mind-reading that he found profoundly gratifying. Sakoshi extended his quiet greeting to the village people as they approached the gate, eyes locking briefly in the unspoken stories that each mind held.

A merchant fretting about the day’s trade, a traveler bearing news from far off, a child grappling with the thrill of departure: each and more stared back at Sakoshi from those eyes, and each formed a thread in Sakoshi’s thoughts. His silent communion with these minds formed a barrier between him and potential threats, allowing him to be the protector of the physical village and the guardian of its mental well-being. This tool, in the hands of a caring master, allowed him to anticipate needs and address them before they could be voiced. All day long, Sakoshi was struck by a sense of indifference. It was an almost meditative sensation, helping him to mediate the village’s security one more way. On the outside, it might have seemed a monotonous task. For Sakoshi, it was layered with the silent stories of those he sought to safeguard: a chance to play a profoundly local role in the tapestry of his home.

As the sun made its way to its peak and cast its lengthening shadows before the village gates, the unmistakable arrival drew closer, different from the villagers’ round-of-the-mill arrivals and departures. The stranger had a bouncier step, more suffice in his stride, and more confidence in his being than the innumerable travelers and dwellers that Sakoshi Kurosawa had met in his duty. As he watched, a purpose at the ready to perform his obligations, little details in the stranger’s demeanor distinguished themselves; was it confidence, or maybe just a bit of mystery, but behind his eyes, there was an intent, a sign that the man had a plan of some kind, and it made Sakoshi cautious yet curious. He was a strange sight; not strange “strange”, but peculiar. The moment of the new encounter slithered and seeped into his reality, and although the event was a common event, this time it was different.

His eyes met Sakoshi’s, and with that silent exchange, a new word was uttered: “Kakushin”. And it was not a word on its own, it was a conveyer of familiarity, an offering of update, a hint of mystery. “Kakushin” meant something, and although Sakoshi still did not know what, he knew that he recognized the word, as he had in fact heard it from somewhere. The stranger was no longer a mere wanderer – he meant something, and he was filled with some significance as he approached the village gates with Sakoshi deciding on his entrance options. The word danced between them in the changing air; it was a taste of what’s to come; it was the edge of future signs.

He would immediately activate his Mind's Eye of the Kagura, focus his chakra into his hand, and he would ready himself to perform his duties. When the man got close enough to the gates, the Sloth of Tsukiagkure would wave him down, motioning for him to approach his little area. When he did this, Sakoshi would begin his protocols for this situation.

"Hello, Kakushin. I am pleased to be seeing the man with the name that I've heard already." Using his sixth sense, he would notice that this individual didn't have any parents, meaning that this being was something crafted, something created instead of being someone born. The individual didn't seem to be emotional in any way, simply being present in the moment, maybe with some excitement and he did sense a bit of uncertainty.

"There are a few things that we need to go through to ensure that we are going to be able to allow you access into the village. Firstly, I will require your hand, and eye contact for just a moment. This will allow me access into your mind and soul, granting me further access into your memories. I do hope you understand these protocols. It shouldn't take long as I am quite practiced with my work. Oh and along with the scanning, I shall be asking you three questions alongside. So. Shall we?" He would widen his eyes as he looked into his eyes, awaiting the man's compliance.

Sakoshi would have already sent out notices to Ren to ensure that this individual wasn't going to do anything bad. For if he did, then the gate would be flooded with several of their shinobi, ready to kill this possible intruder.

WC: 1067
Using Eye Mind Reading
Using Sixth Sense
Using Chakra Sensory to memorize KAkushin's signature

As a young man approached the gate after Kakushin had waited a bit in the road leading to the large stony structures one needed to enter to visit the village, the fabricated Senju slowly got up from his chair in a polite way to be standing tall and face the young man. The young man waved in the direction of Kakushin, signaling him to come closer to interact with him. As he approached the young man, and the gate guard approached too, the tall Leader was calm and gratefull for being received this fast, not having to wait days on ends at the gate for a contact.

Weirdly enough, this man seemed to have guessed and known the name of Kakushin, a fact that made the Senju feel invaded in his own existance. He was a secret project, a being of mystery, always living in the fringe of the world, and this was his first interaction with a large part of the civilized world, yet they already knew his name? His visage of calculated moves would show compassion and smile accordingly, but he would briefly feel some anxiety, mainly paranoia to that fact, and would strongly dislike it. Bowing to the man in a form of salutation, the Senju would quickly gather back his toughts into a more positive headspace, moving the insatisfaction into a sense of gratefullness. As his bow went really low to the ground, in a sing of humbleness and honor to be received, not at all vain and lofty in his ways, even as a leader, almost touching the very ground itself. Kakushin would also in his bowing remove his hat, showing his uncovered head and long locks of savagely cut dark brown hair.

''Well met.'' would say the Senju in a sweet and deep voice, calm and austere. Not a lot of words were said, yet the simple truth were often stronger. With how the gate guardian behaved, and the guessing of the name, Kakushin had his mind sure that this shinobi was someone who could enter his mind, read his very emotions, and learn of his past. He didnt mind, as honnesty was his strongest card in this situation, where he was asking asylum, having nothing to hide, and taking responsability for his past actions. In truth, kakushin wasnt a man of emotions, and therefore, not a man of regret. He was transparent to a fault, and stick to the truth as much as possible. 

The young man then explained the procedures to check him at the gates, a well defined and torough way of detecting the ill intent in dishonnest people, which the Senju admired. Too few gates of villages were only protected by regular question-asking shinobis with no way of pure access to the truth, and as a specialist in the art of Sensory jutsu the tall fabricated man understood perfectly the desire and arts in such things. He asked simply for the hand of Kakushin, as well as his eyes, to peer into them, into the very soul, or in this case lack thereof, of the Senju man. As Kakushin slowly extended his left arm toward the man, keeping his hand flat and straight in front of him, right between the two man, he looked right into the eyes of the guardian, assuming, intense. Kakushin gaze was piercing, flamboyant and vibrant with green hue, but the way he looked at the other man was enthrancing, enthralling even. He had a char to himself and his eyes, something almost unnatural, beyond charismatic. 

''My hand. Please do take it. As for our gaze, I do not mind at all to lock them into one another. By all means, ask me any questions you please regarding what you see in my past and present, I am all ears.'' said politely and softly Kakushin, his tone charming and cooperating beyond measure.

When the stranger approached the village's boundaries, introducing himself as 'Kakushin,' the name seemed loaded, carrying an effect, a narrative yet to be told. Even Sakoshi Kurosawa, permanently taut in his role as guardian of the gate, found his thoughts interlocking even as they met, for it was his singular talent to read minds that others did not look to see the sign that was his own. When their eyes locked, Sakoshi was dragged into a hurricane of memories, a torrent of experiential knowledge that was not his but Kakushin's to give. For the man named Kakushin was not a regular visitor; he was something else, something at once extraordinary and frightening – born not of nature, not of faith, but of the sterile laboratories of men, that cold hammer of ambition that had sought to duplicate the divine power of the Senju clan.

Through Kakushin's eyes, he saw the power to wake, the realization of that self that should not yet exist beyond the cradle. The intense desolation of escape, the man waking for the first time whole within thunder and fire — in a burst of energy, Kakushin's creation had ripped itself unceremoniously from his stem. The narrative of Kakushin's life was one of rebellion, of refusal of the world, as it stood, a lack of acceptance with the moral limitations cultural and heartwarming either had in stowing upon the true potential of one. He felt the warm embrace of himself in mental liquid, the cool embrace of his past trauma. He felt anger split through his millimeter muscles — living in a decayed laboratory, then a ninja, then the rejection of the own people who expected its membership.

Kakushin's story was dark, filled with the lawless, with the horrid sweat memory of self-preservation, punctuated by the violent, awkward death of those who believed they could take his living for their own. Kakushin's dream was of a union, of a shared struggle, of uncounted others untitled by the power of a village they abide in. As Sakoshi seeps within the mind of Kakushin, the free fall of remembrance fading as a tide pulls from a shore, he still profoundly understands how hard and horrible the man before him was. Kakushin wasn't a visitor; he was all that survived a world that exercised a bending will upon him. Sakoshi knew that permitting the man inside the village's capital was just as essential for protection as the kind understanding of the chasms bellow whence he came.

As Sakoshi journeyed more profoundly into the recesses of Kakushin's mind, a trail of motivations unraveled behind him, descending into discernible intentions that crafted a valid purpose for Kakushin's wanderings to the village gates. Beneath survival and defiance lay a pursuit – a guided rummaging that brought Kakushin across fields both physical and emotional to arrive at this very line before the gates of his village. Kakushin was coming with someone, a rogue shinobi known as Yama, his trail undeniably identified by associations within the ambivalent limits of the isle's borders now he lay. This pursuit was no flight of fancy but a dedicated walk guided by necessity and desire. He desired alliances more than enemies.

Kakushin's pursuit was as layered as the men behind them, stories etching themselves across the history of the worlds both inhabited. When the silence lifted, Sakoshi understood the gravity of his revealed conclusion. Kakushin was undeniably in danger out in the wilds; the world beyond had intertwined him, Yama, and others who hadn't come with him onto the island. The information Sakoshi garnered, fed by an internal library only he carried, was an impossibly complicated yarn that spun in the shades at play beyond the thick village walls. The world beyond was thin and complex, and one man's pursuit inexorably dragged the bunch into rope.

As he stripped away the veils of shadows, the weight of the whole affair settled on him with a sense of massive responsibility. The pursuit, the reasons behind it, and the safety of the village could be sucked into as pawns – it was too much for him to let be. As they broke the stare, Sakoshi was aware. When he saw Kakushin, he would see these threads, thicker than life, between them. Their meeting at the village gate was painted in several shades – a reminder of complexities at play just outside his boundaries – where men like Yama and Kakushin tried to survive. The reality that stood before him needed to be negotiated with balance, his duty over the village, and the pragmatic truth. People had adventures the quiet town was ignorant of, and the most well-lined steps could topple peace in a moment.

He thought for a moment; he knew that this individual was dangerous. But he realized that this individual was tied to the one who could bring a lot of benefit to the village. Many thoughts would run through his mind, but he decided to treat this man like that crimson-eyes Chinoike. He would assign Kitsu to watch over this one and the other. This would be a good enough plan, as Sakoshi didn't believe this individual would cause them enough problems to worry about when it came to power. Sakoshi knew they had the sumo Takeshiyama and Ren himself to deal with these issues, should they become one. With this knowledge in mind, he would relent to his concerns and allow this man into the village. He would reach behind him and grab a pass. "I have forgotten to ask my questions. But I have already gotten the answers that I require. Welcome to our village, and may you find what you seek within our hallowed walls."

Upon completing the ritual, he would send a message to Ren to send one to Kitsu. Ren confirmed that Kitsu would follow both individuals, Kakushin and Akaime, within the village. The day would continue as he bid him farewell and moved to the next person seeking passage. He would think about the men that he had seen today. Both are members of the same rogue group. He hoped his decisions were good, not something that harmed the village, but he was confident in his calls.

WC: 1035
TWC: 2102
EXIT

Claims:
Claiming Kakushin Senju's chakra signature
Allowing Kakushin into the village with Kitsu's supervision

WC Claims:
+1875 towards Mind's Eye of the Kagura (Complete)
+227 towards Ninshu (1037/1500) (Previous Progress)

After a while of looking into his eyes, Kakushin peered into the eyes of the young man too, watchfull and waiting. Kakushin knew the peering was probably looking at all his previous details in life, including the less than shiny ones, but he was owning everything he had done before, criminal or not, calculated or not, in anger or not. After a few more moments, the young gate guard simply removed his palm from the hand of the Fabricated Senju, and took a pause before speaking.

"I have forgotten to ask my questions. But I have already gotten the answers that I require. Welcome to our village, and may you find what you seek within our hallowed walls."

Just like this, the man decided to not press the matter more, and to let Kakushin go. This was most suspicious, and the Senju man immediately frowned his eyebrows, unsure of the meanning of this maneuver, of what it entailed. But the phrase was nonetheless reassuring. Whatever that young man saw was either not threatening enough, or he simply accepted the fact that Kakushin and Kintsugi wouldnt prove to be a threat, and would behave in the city of the Moon. 

''I thank you. Maybe we will see each other again, who knows.'' Would say the Senju man, before walking inside and accessing the city inner depths. 

[EXIT]

TWC: 1310

claims: 

• 193WC going toward  Nature Chakra Proficiency from there completing it
  
• 514wc going toward Chakra Sensory  from here  to acquire it
  
• 67wc going toward  Sensory deprivation from here to acquire it
  
• 375wc going toward Basic sealing technique at 25% off for max stats
  
• 161wc remaining going toward sage knowledge skill at 25% off (161/1500)