[Graded][Plotboard] Rebuilding

[Willoria]

[Plotboard] Hyuuga Clan Leadership It would take Aina a decent amount of time to get back to the village after having killed the Bandit's leader. Her technique had made it difficult to get there via a direct route, and she wasn't running. She wanted to give the three witnesses enough time to get back and fill in their counterparts on what had happened. While she was also concerned about the safety of the villages, some part of her knew that the way that group had been built, the death of their leader was enough. They would hold to the agreement and they would leave.

Worst case scenario, she might have to make an example out of a couple of them.

But as she came to the entrance of the village she found her initial hunch had been right. The bandits were gone, save for the corpse of Banto in the middle of the marketplace still. When she got far enough into the village to see him she knelt and checked for a pulse, though she knew it was pointless, she was just being thorough. Sighing quietly she stood and shook her head. "You didn't have to die... but maybe by time I'm done with the others, it'll be for the best. Sankaton is not a quick way to go." she muttered as she looked up finally and looked around her.

[TyDie]

As Aina approached the trading village of Edoshinra once again, she would be met by cheers and applause as all of the bandits had indeed left. Whether they left out of respect for their leader's wish or fear of what Aina would do to them next was unclear, but they clearly had no respect for their own dead as they left the corpse of the leader's second in command where it lay. The crowd that greeted her fell in line behind her as Aina made her way to the center of town, where the body of Banto lay, and at her arrival two stronger men of the small village quickly removed the body from the area.

"I think I speak for all of us..." a lone voice rose up over the crowd, booming, but caring. The crowd parted way as the source of the voice stepped forward, a man looking to be in his late 70s. Old and wrinkly, hunched over with a walking stick and seemingly blind by a thick cataract in his left eye. "When I say thank you young ninja. That man was a terror to behold, and with him and his done with we can all feel much safer. However, there's only one issue left to deal with..."

The old man let out a small cough as he walked up to Aina, standing easily a good half a foot under her, looking up into her eyes as he spoke. "... What now? Our leadership is dead, our town hall razed to the ground, our homes raided of money and valuables... We may fall apart with or without anymore influence from those men."

[Willoria]

As Aina stood up straight, she took a moment to watch as two men came and took the man's body away. She watched in silence, turning only when she heard someone speaking over the crowd. She kept her attention on the older man as he approached her, her expression neutral as he spoke. He had a good point, and it was an issue that Aina had been partially expecting. After all, the people here may not have wanted the new regime, they may have wished them gone, but that didn't mean they had been ready for the sudden shift in power. Yes their old leadership was dead, and Aina knew this would mean a power vacuum, one that needed to be filled or else all the work she just did would be for nothing.

"For starters..." Aina held out an arm for the old man to take if he so chose, and she sincerely hoped he would. "We should find a more comfortable place to begin this discussion." She added, and if the man would agree she'd make her way to a nearby restaurant where the seats were outside, and of course pull out a chair for the old man first before sitting herself across from him. "I think we should gather the the owners of local businesses here for this talk." she said. "You stood out from the people, and you recognized a problem most wouldn't consider. It's clear you have a mind and a care for this town, I think your leadership is key." she told him. "But I also think any town needs more than one man to lead. The business owners have another kind of stake in this town, just as I'm sure you have many memories and so much life here, they have a financial stake. Perhaps from among them choose one or two to help lead." She glanced around as she tried to get a sense of what else was there.

"Perhaps choose another from the village's teachers, those who take part in education here. With the three of you in place, you can put your heads together to bring this village back together again." But then she turned and looked at the rest. "It is going to take everyone to put this place back together though." she said, loud enough for them all to hear. "And I will stay for awhile to ensure you have the help you need to rebuild. You will have my aid, and that of Konoha, as you regain strength." She turned to the old man in front of her again as she considered what else there might be to do.

"What would you say was the greatest damage done by these men?" she asked. "Aside from your town's loss of leadership."

[TyDie]

The old man slowly, steadily raised a hand up to grab hold of Aina's and would allow her to lead him through the village towards the nearest restaurant, which was thankfully only a stone's throw away from them. "Lots to do people, get to work rebuilding your own things." The old man stated, and soon enough the crowd dispersed to deal with their own problems at their own abodes and stalls and shops. Once they sat down, the old man let out a groan as his bones practically creaked, and a small sigh as he relaxed in the chair she had pulled out for him.

"Hmmm.... I suppose you may have a point Aina. However, if I take a position of leadership, it shan't be for long. I'm not as young as I once was... the last thing I'd want to do is take up a leadership role, only to pass months later. No, I will fill in temporarily, but that will be all I think." The man seemed almost sad in his response, but also somewhat relieved; it was clear how old he was, and that at this point, he was ready to die any day. "Touaka... the richest merchant family in the village, owns at least a quarter of all of the stalls and shops in the place. I think he'd have a lot to say in terms of leadership. And as for education, well we don't really do much in terms of education out here in Edoshinra. People out here are lucky to be able to read or write to be truthful, I only know how because I spent time in the capital as a boy. No, I think that I'll show Touaka the ropes; this is a merchant's town, it should be run as such."

The older man paused a moment as he thought of her last question; what had they damaged the most? "Well, the aforementioned Town Hall being razed to the ground is clearly the biggest blow to our town. Not to mention the looting and pillaging... bastards ran off with at least a quarter of the town's valuables, and given that Edoshinra is a trade city, that's quite a bit of coin." The man would pause after answering her questions, awaiting what would be her next answer.

[Willoria]

As the man spoke, Aina of course listened in respectful silence. Though her clan saw her as someone who disregarded tradition due to her piercings, tattoos and relationship, Aina saw herself as quite the opposite and already she could see tradition was strong in this village. She couldn't help a small whimsical smile though as he mentioned others not being able to read and write, the words reminding her of when Yoru had come to her and confided that he could barely do so himself and she wound up teaching him. It was a secret she had kept to this day, even from the father of her children. "Touaka sounds like the best choice then." she remarked simply concerning a village leader, but as he moved on to the greatest damage, Aina sat in silence for several moments.

He had brought up good points, and while the building she could certainly hepl with, what he mentioned about the looting was rather pressing. "I can send word back to Konoha about supplies." she told him. "I am certain many families lost personal things that we likely cannot retrieve now, but we'll search their base and see if we cant' take something back." she added. "But as far as getting your trade going again, I'm certain Konoha can lend a hand here. I'll send word back to our Hokage and get trade flowing for you once more."

"As far as your Town Hall goes, I can certainly help with that. Give me someone with a good head to design the project itself, perhaps a couple of able bodied men, I'm sure we can get it rebuilt while I'm still here." Of course, Aina couldn't help a bit of a proud smirk. "I'm stronger than I look, I should be able to help."

[TyDie]

The old man once again hm'd in thought as Aina made her various remarks and comments on Edoshinra's situation, and how she could not only ask Konoha for aid on their behalf, but also how she could personally assist with rebuilding the town hall and trying to get back some of their valuables. "You're truly an amazing woman Aina... This village may yet see prosperity once again, despite the horrors those men wrought upon us." He smiled at her, then let out a few wheezy coughs before calling over a young boy. The 'boy' was actually about 20 or so, black shaved hair and quite muscular; clearly someone who worked with his hands.

"Akimaru, this young lady will assist you in rebuilding the town hall. And also, I'd like you to send a message to Touaka for me. I need to speak with him about the future of this village." "Alright, i'll get the message passed." Akimaru then looked the young lady over before quickly realizing how it probably came off to her and looking away, a slight blush on his face. "Why don't you accompany me to Touaka's? We can discuss the plans for this town hall on the way."

[Willoria]

Aina returned his smile with a genuine one of her own as the old man complimented her. Honestly it made her happy to see the village prosper again, to be responsible for such a thing, even though she still carried a little disappointment from getting very little fight from her opponent earlier. It seemed criminals had a very bad habit of talking themselves up too much, and Aina was realizing she was finally coming to a point where finding a good opponent was more than difficult, it was becoming impossible. 'Is it time to hunt Enma yet? Just maybe...'

She looked up as the young man was summoned over, someone only a year or so younger than Aina herself it seemed, and she listened to the resulting conversation. She still was a bit unsure of this Touaka that the old man spoke of, she saw what happened when one man had too much power over a town such as this, but she had to trust in the man's judgment. This wasn't her home after all, she couldn't possibly know it well enough to know who would lead it well and who wouldn't.

Of course she didn't miss the way the young man looked her over, smirking and chewing on the inside of her lip as she waited for him to realize it as well. At his blush she still smirked and exchanged a look with the older gentleman. "Thank you." she told him, reaching out and resting a hand on one of his as she spoke, simply to affirm her words before she turned to follow the young man.

She thought about calling Akimaru out on his looks towards her, but for now stifled the urge as he mentioned the town hall. "That would be good." she replied simply as she turned to walk along with him. "I admit I have very little experience in such things, though I can certainly help with much of the building itself. Tell me, how do you want to go about this? Planning a structure is not quite my forte."

'I wonder if I could talk Takeo into sending us a Senju team...'

[TyDie]

The young, burly man lead the way through Edoshinra, taking a few turns here and there in the streets as he made his way to Touaka's with Aina in tow. He worked hard not to look too much at her; with such an exotic look about her, between the obvious shinobi features and the piercings and such, he found himself with the incessant urge to stare. So he worked to starve himself of that compulsion, looking straight ahead and focusing on their destination as they walked. When she began to ask about the building process, Akimaru perked up.

"Eh, it should be easy enough truth be told. I'm not gonna make it fancy or nothin, we can add on to it after the fact. No, for now we're just gonna make it a simple building with a nice round table in the center for the council to group up around and discuss things. Later on we'll add offices for other employees, like secretaries and heads of various things within the village, but for now the main room is all that's important. We can have it drafted up in a matter of minutes, s'not the first time we've done this after all."

The guy seemed pretty confident in himself as he spoke, it was clear that, for whatever reason, this wasn't by any means the first time they had had to build a building on such short notice.

[Willoria]

Aina couldn't help the smirk that remained on her lips as she caught Akimaru stealing glances at her. No one had ever really flirted with her before, no one had taken such an interest in her before. She knew of course that Takeo loved her, that he was attracted to her, but she also knew that was probably more to do with her capabilities and who she was and less to do with her piercings and other oddities. She idly wondered how Akimaru would react if he knew that all the things he seemed to be stealing glances at, her piercings, her tattoos, were actually taboo where she came from and that she had spent much of her life looked down upon for them, especially by family and clan.

But she was here for business, not for entertaining flirtations. Though it certainly was the first time she found she understood why Takeo might flirt with other woman, it certainly did feel good to see someone appreciating her looks, though she was quite happy with Takeo and would never leave him for another man. Still, it felt good to be appreciated by a stranger.

"Tell me, is there a way we can send a bird or anything to Konoha? I might be able to get us an extra hand that will make this building take even less time." She mentioned as she moved to walk alongside Akimaru rather than behind him.

[TyDie]

Akimaru shook his head in response to what Aina had asked just as they rounded another corner of the streets of Edoshinra. "Nope, we don't use birds to pass messages. We had a local committee of couriers, but they were one of the first to go. Keep the town in the dark as long as possible, that was those bastard's plot." He found himself shaking suddenly as he thought about the bandits that took over his town and raided it's valuables... "I wish we could have stopped them... How are we supposed to fend off people like that Aina? We all appreciate your help in getting rid of them, but do we really have no choice but to rely on shinobi assistance when evil men like that rear their heads?"

[Willoria]

Aina couldn't help a sigh. Akimaru wasn't wrong, the town had been helpless in the hands of that man. To them he was something out of this world, and the worst part of it was... he wasn't even strong compared to other threats she had seen. "I wish I could say you didn't need to... I wish I could say you can always outsmart the bad guy... that there is always a way without our kind of power." An odd look crossed her face as she rest a hand against her abdomen, hands clenching at the fabric of her own vest as she thought of the scars hiding beneath it. "But it isn't always possible, and you may have to rely on shinobi assistance." But then a smile crossed her lips as she turned to look at him, her hand moving back to rest in her pocket. "But I can assure you that men like that are very few and far between. The likelihood of you seeing another is close to nil, and after what I did to him, anyone like him will think twice before being dumb enough to come here again."

She was trying to reassure him in the end, despite hiding the truth. She couldn't tell him about the real dangers out there, she couldn't tell him of threats that made that samurai pale in comparison. Enma and Yaku were two, but there were others, such as Nehan and Kenji who her lover had told her about. She wasn't sure how well even she would fare against such fiends.

But she wasn't going to tell him all that.

This was a moment in which these people needed hope, not dismay. And so she'd keep those secrets buried deep. 'Wonder if I could get Takeo to bless off on some of the people learning something here? Perhaps at least of our taijutsu? But even I know just teaching them the basics could be dangerous.... we could be risking more threats rather than saviors and heroes. It just can't be done.' She thought herself in the usual circle, sighing internally as she turned her eyes forward once more.

[TyDie]

Akimaru listened to the woman's answer and could only sigh... He wanted to ask if there was some way he could go and learn how to fight against these people, so that his family and friends wouldn't have to live in fear of this situation repeating itself. But he knew it would be denied, and even if it wasn't, he never had much of a mind for fighting or learning complex things. They took one last turn down one last street, and ended up in front of a semi-lavish building. "Here we are." Akimaru said matter of factly before knocking on the door.

A few moments later, a tall, skinny man looking to be about in his late 50s opened the door. He was bald but bore a rather nice looking mustache, and smiled warmly at both Akimaru and Aina as he opened the door. "Welcome Akimaru. And you must be the woman who drove those ruffians away. I'm Echitaru, the personal butler to Touaka, Tatsumaru." "Nice seein ya Echitaru. Would you go and pass along a message to Tatsumaru? Tell him that Jirou wishes to speak with him about the future leadership of the village." "I shall pass the message along. Is there anything else I can do for you?"

This would be a moment for Aina to speak up if she chose. If not, the two would start back the way they came.

[Willoria]

"Hyuuga Aina." Aina said in introduction as the man addressed her, and she inclined her head in return. As she was outside her own village her guard remained up, and a full bow was very unlikely to happen as Aina was all too aware of how that left her open for attack. The 'ruffians' might have been gone, but Aina knew that didn't always mean the danger was. However the woman remained quiet as the two men spoke. Having a servant was an odd thing to the woman of course, living in a village where slavery was outlawed she hadn't even seen servants much. There were some with such severe views of slavery that they often equated the two as one and the same.

Aina wasn't one of those people, but of course it was still odd to her all the same.

"Just one question if you wouldn't mind." Aina said, speaking up as the opportunity arose. "Feel free to not answer if this is too personal a question, but I was simply curious. What kind of man is your Master? I know so little of him, but Jirou seems to hold him in high regard." Of course she was actually asking because the village would want it in her report, anything she could find out about the man who would be this town's new leader would be seen as important.

[TyDie]

Echitaru quirked an eyebrow ever so slightly at the young bannin's question, though he remained respectful and kind in his response to it. "Master Touaka is a great, kind man. I once saw him personally hand a begger ten percent of his proceeds that day to help them off the streets. His heart swells larger than any other I have served in my days, and I could not think of anyone better for the growth and well being of this village. It is because of his grandfather that the economy here boomed as much as it did in the first place, and he has served his lineage well. Now, I must go inform him of Jirou's request. Please excuse me, and thank you again for passing along the message. Good day."

With the door shut and the two off on the streets again, Akimaru looked to her and spoke sort of softly. "He's playing the man up a good bit just so you know, Touaka is a great man to be sure, but that servant of his sings his praises like he's god come to earth. But hey, I don't know the guy too well myself, so maybe he's right after all eh?" Akimaru patted Aina's back as he concluded, letting his hand linger only a slight bit longer then normal before moving on down the streets. "Now then, before I even came to you and Jirou, I had my boys round up some other boys to help this building go faster. It still might take a few days to finish, but then again with your strength, we might be able to get it done in a day!"

By the time the two arrived back in town square, Akimaru's 'boys' stood in front of the desecrated remains of the town hall. One of them, a burly man like Akimaru, walked up to greet them with a somber look. "Akimaru... we don't know if the foundation survived." A deadpan expression crossed Akimaru's voice as he let out a quiet "Oh no..." before moving to the torn down building to inspect the foundation.

[Willoria]

Aina nodded at the servants words but also didn't miss the tone. There was an air to it that made it sound more like a fanciful story, which made Aina think that maybe that was indeed all it was. She bowed again with only a slight incline of her head as the man left and she turned to walk once more with Akimaru. She was grateful to hear his side, and was unable to hide a slight smirk. "Truth and Lie go hand in hand." she remarked. "It's good for me to hear both, even if I can't tell which is which." She raised an eyebrow as they walked, noticing the way his hand lingered but still she didn't say anything. Not just yet. At this point it wasn't because she was enjoying the attention, but all the same brushing it off as perhaps her own imagination.

As another man came to meet them, Aina frowned at his words and sighed herself. 'Removing a damaged foundation will take days.' she thought to herself, idly and mentally going through her own jutsu in her head. Perhaps she had something that would help to clear it away quicker? Still, she walked to stand at the edge of the foundation as she watched Akimaru inspect it.

Of course with her ever active byakugan she kept an eye on everything around her, including the 'boys' gathered to help with the building. As she waited for Akimaru to finish his inspection, she watched them to see their own reactions to both her and the situation at hand.