[Closed]The Road to Shirosato is Paved in Coal

[Yura]

"I don't know how much longer I can sit for." Misato said as she shifted in her seat, trying to get more comfortable. They had left Iwagakure early that morning, setting course for Shirosato in the north, nicknamed Coaltown due to its extensive production of coal. After speaking with Tatsuo about his desire to take on a less active role as a shinobi, Mitsuo had been offered the opportunity to relocated to Shirosato as its overseer, a governor of sorts, now that the lord of the land had been recalled to Iwagakure. He would essentially be in charge of the village, overseeing its protection and the continued production of its resources, while also dealing with the plights of the villagers, all while the Lord back in Iwagakure continued to profit off of it. It wasn't necessarily the most ideal situation, however after discussing it with Misato, the pair decided that it was a good opportunity to get some distance from the village and shinobi life while continuing to serve the greater good. And, for Mitsuo specifically, what better place to establish his weaponry and crafting business than a village that produces an abundance of coal and minerals.

"It shouldn't be too long now." Mitsuo replied. It was nearly dusk now, the sun just starting to hit the horizon. "At least Harue seems to be having a good time." He said with a smile, nodding his head in the girl's direction on the other side of the aisle. The wee girl had had her face glued to the window nearly the entire trip, taking in all of the sights (or lack thereof considering the land became more of a wasteland the further north they went). This would be her first trip outside of the village considering she had been born during the war, so all she had known were the stone cliffs of Iwagakure.

Mitsuo's eyes then fell to the young dark haired girl seated next to Harue who had her own face pushed to the glass just like his daughter. Her name was Aoi, a newly promoted Special Jounin that had served initially as a medic at Iwagakure's hospital as a genin during the war before becoming a combat medic once she had become a Chuunin. Mitsuo didn't know her well, but Tatsuo had insisted that he take her along, at least in the beginning, to assist the family with the move and act as a caretaker and bodyguard for Harue while they got settled. Both he and Misato had been against it at first, figuring that they themselves could care for and protect Harue well enough, but after meeting the girl and seeing how well Harue had taken to her, they decided to bring her along. It wouldn't hurt to have another shinobi around after all.

There was a soft knock at the door to their private car before the door swung open and a conductor entered. "I just wanted to let you know that we will be arriving in Shirosato in about 20 minutes. We have arranged for multiple carriages to meet you at the station to carry you and your luggage from there to your home."

"That was very kind of you, thank you very much." Misato replied before Mitsuo could. The conductor bowed and existed the car, closing the door behind him.

Those twenty minutes passed quickly and soon the four of them were exiting the train with their carry-on luggage, Harue holding onto both Aoi and Misato's hands as they walked. The group waited patiently as their luggage was loaded onto the first of three horse drawn carriages. They hadn't taken an extreme amount of luggage with them, choosing to keep a fair amount of belongings back at their home in Iwagakure, however there was still enough to easily fill up the first carriage and part of the second. There weren't sure what state the home would be in once they got their so they had packed some essentials as well, unsure of what they would be able to procure in this area.

Once the luggage had been loaded, the four of them climbed into the third carriage, Mitsuo and Aoi up front and Misato and Harue in the back, and set off to find their home in the village. The old lord of the village had been resistant to the idea that he should give up his home to someone else who in his eyes "hadn't earned such riches" so in attempt to not upset the man further, they were headed to a vacant home on the northwestern edge of the village. It wasn't the most ideal location for a governing lord to live, however it was apparently situated on a hill that provided a good vantage point of the rest of the village and would be big enough for them all to live comfortably.

As the convoy traveled through the streets, Mitsuo began to notice people stopping to watch them as they passed. None of them spoke or tried to offer welcome, which made Mitsuo slightly uneasy. Then again, given his limited interactions with the previous lords of this village, he could only assume that the man had treated these people very poorly and they likely expected the same from him. He predicted that news of their arrival was already spreading and that by nightfall most of not all of the villagers would know that their new 'lord' was in town.

The village itself wasn't in as bad shape had he had been imagining, though it was clearly a village in the process of transition. Some of the buildings they passed appeared to be relatively well kept yet in some areas they only needed to turn a corner to find buildings that were aged and in need of some repair. Mitsuo could only guess, but it was likely that the town's wealth wasn't exactly evenly shared which limited the ability of some of the villagers to make the repairs that they needed. He would have to see to it that that changed.

"I want to thank you again for deciding to come with us." Mitsuo said to Aoi as they rode, "Though I suppose it's hardly a choice when the Tsuchikage himself is giving the order."

"Not at all, I am glad to do it." Aoi replied, "Even without being ordered, I would have been happy to volunteer for the opportunity."

"Are you sure it won't be too boring for you?"

"Honestly, my entire shinobi career has taken place during the war. I was fresh out of the academy when it started, and by the time it ended I was a regular on the front lines dragging the injured to safety or attempting to treat my comrades on the spot and sometimes failing to do so." She replied, a clear sense of sadness in her tone. Mitsuo really hadn't considered the fact that at 17, all this girl knew was the war. She had more combat experience that many her age and rank would have normally had prior to the war and he would have to respect that.

"I see, so I suppose a little boring work might not be so bad after something like that." He replied.

"Something like that." She said with a soft laugh, "Besides, I think little Harue will keep me plenty active."

"You are probably right about that." He said in amusement.

Before long their convoy had reached the northwestern part of town and a home atop a hill could be seen in the distance. It was a modest home, two stories high unlike many of the single floor homes in the village and plenty of windows facing the village. From what he had been told there were several bedrooms and an office of sorts and despite being close to the perimeter of the village he had been told that it was actually in a good location, though that would be determined after they had had a chance to explore. "You see that Harue?" Mitsuo said, turning back to look at his daughter as he pointed at the house, "That's our new home."

"Wooow!" The girl exclaimed with a smile.

As they approached the front doors of the home, a middle aged man standing at the front came into view. "Welcome to Shirosato my lord!" He called out as the carriages came to a stop, "I was asked to meet you when you arrived to present you the keys to your new home." He presented a small parcel to Mitsuo who took it and opened it to find two metal keys for the locks.

"Thank you…" He paused, realizing he didn't know the man's name.

"Botan, sir." The man replied, "I'm a caretaker of sorts for some of the homes in this district. Looking after the vacant properties and whatnot."

"I see. Well thank you for bringing us the keys Botan. Is there anything that we should need to know about the homes?"

"Well, I took the liberty of having some of the villagers come up and give the home a thorough cleaning before your arrival sir. Wiped off the dust, opened up the windows, let out the stale air, that sort of thing. The home is in fairly good shape so I hope it will be to your liking."

"I'm sure it will be, please thank the villagers that came to clean for me."

"Certainly sir." And with that, the man bowed and began his trek back down the hill.

With keys in hand, Mitsuo approached the front doors, unlocking them and throwing them open to reveal a quite empty home, ready to be lived in. The men that had accompanied them along the convoy began taking items off of the carriages and bringing them towards the door and carrying them inside. "Where would you like us to put everything sir?"

"I'm honestly not even sure yet." Mitsuo replied. An empty room off of the entry way looked like a prime spot, if at least a temporary one. "Put everything over there for now while my wife and I get a sense of the layout and we can go from there." The man nodded and carried the items into the other room.

"Harue, why don't you go with Aoi and explore the house a little and pick out your room." Misato said, letting go of Harue's hand.

"Okay mama!" The little girl replied, grabbing Aoi's hand and pulling her towards the stairs, "C'mon Aoi!"

As the two took off to explore the house, Mitsuo and Misato ventured further in as well, starting on the first floor as well. The first floor seemed to consist of a sizable enough kitchen and dining space, an area that they could use as a living room, and the room off of the entryway where they were currently stacking all of their belongings which would likely become a sitting room or office of sorts. Venturing upstairs, they found Harue and Aoi in one of the bedrooms looking out one of the windows that faced out towards the rest of the village, marveling at the sight.

"Is this the room you've chosen?" Misato asked.

"Yeah! The view is pretty!" Harue responded eagerly, "Come look!" The pair indulged their daughter and moved to the window, agreeing with her that the window was in fact very pretty.

Over the next hour or so, the group along with their movers proceeded to move their belongings throughout the house, unpacking some of the essentials while leaving others to be unpacked later. By the time they were done, they made sure to have a well-deserved dinner and then let Harue spend some time playing in her room before putting her to bed while Mitsuo and Misato retired to their own room to unpack more of their own items.

"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Mitsuo asked his wife as he rifled through some of the boxes, "We can still go back."

"I don't like leaving the rest of my family, but like I said before maybe this is what we need." Misato replied, "It not only gives both of us the chance to serve the village in a more indirect manner, but it'll let us raise Harue outside of the influence of either of our clans. She can be a kid for once without us worrying as much about your clan placing extreme expectations on her or mine trying to kill her." She said quite matter of factly, "As ironic as it sounds, she might be safer here in the middle of nowhere in a town that is just starting to know it's worth than she would be living in quite literally the safest military village in the entire country. That alone makes this move worth it. Besides, with a little work I'm sure we can make something of this village."

"Well it certainly isn't much right now." Mitsuo replied with a soft chuckle as he looked out over what he could see of the village from their balcony. This village certainly was nothing like Iwagakure and their home here was significantly smaller than the one that they had lived in. Still, Misato had a point. No one here should pose much of a threat to them which should allow them to live relatively peacefully even if they had a lot of work ahead of them. "It's got potential though I guess."

A soft knock at the door drew both of their attention. Before either could respond, the door opened just slightly, enough for Aoi's head to poke through. "Lord Mitsuo, there's a man here to see you."

"Seriously? It's well into the evening already." Mitsuo muttered, "Who is it?"

"He said his name is Souta." Aoi replied, "Apparently he's a local businessman that used to advise the former Lord of this land before he got recalled to Iwagakure."

"And he couldn't have waited until morning?" Misato asked dryly. Mitsuo gave a bit of a sigh. He had hoped he would at least have his first few days to get his family settled. What could this person possibly want that was so urgent that he couldn't even let Mitsuo and his family unpack their belongings, that he couldn't allow them to have spent even a single night in the village before showing up on their doorstep asking for a meeting with what he probably considered the land's 'new lord'. Was he a suck up? Or was he disgruntled? Either way, he needed to be dealt with.

"Thank you Aoi, leave him in the foyer and I will deal with him." Aoi gave a slight bow and exited the room, closing the door behind her. "Guess my job has already started."

"You should just tell him to go away." Misato replied, clearly irritate by the situation as well. "What is he going to do? Complain to Iwa? I doubt Tatsuo would care that you aren't entertaining audiences on your first night in town."

"Be that as it may, we need to live amongst these people so we'd do well not to make enemies so quickly before we can figure out which ones are worth keeping around."

"Whatever…" Misato shrugged, "I suppose you're right, so you might as well go get it over with so that we can get back to unpacking."

"Wait, did you actually just admit that I was right?" Mitsuo said, feigning shock.

Misato glared at her husband. "You're lucky you're cute." She finally replied.

Mitsuo grinned widely, blowing her a kiss as he backed towards the door. "Love youuu."

~~~~~~~~

"You must be Souta." Mitsuo said as he entered the room off of the home's entry way. Ordinarily the room would be set up as a sitting room of sorts, but furniture for the room had yet to be unpacked so it stood mostly empty with a few stray boxes scattered throughout that had yet to be moved out of the space into another part of the home. "You will have to excuse the disarray, I'm afraid we have only arrived a few hours ago so the home is still being put together."

“Oh of cooourse my lord, I am after all the one that is intruding. Allow me to formally introduce myself, I am Abe, Souta.” The man said with a bow. Mitsuo took the man in, taking note of the finery of his robes and his well-groomed silver hair. From the few glimpses Mitsuo had seen of the rest of the village, those two things alone told him what he needed to know about the man’s station in this village. He even had a cane that which while quite suitable for the rest of his attire, he definitely didn’t need it.

“Well it is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Abe-“

“Oh please call me Souta, everybody does.” The man interrupted flippantly.

“Okay, Souta then." Mitsuo someone growled, “What exactly is it that I can do for you? I’m afraid I am terribly busy at the moment.”

“Oh I just wanted to stop by to introduce myself. I manage one of the local mines, basically own it I must say, and was a frequent advisor to the former lord of this land. I just thought that if I could be a use to him, perhaps I could be of use to you.”

“I see.” Mitsuo considered this for a moment. On one hand, it would be useful to have someone who understood the society that he was now expected to lead. On the other, he didn’t at all trust this man. Not one bit. He gave off a vibe that immediately made Mitsuo suspicious of him. Just the fact that the man claimed to 'basically own' one of the mines when all of it was considered property of the daimyo gave him an odd feeling that he couldn't quite describe. Still, for the time being it was probably better to keep on his good side until Mitsuo could get a better grasp on his intentions. “Well it is very kind of you to offer such a service. I must admit, it would be useful to have someone who seems to be so well versed in the workings of this village give me some insight on the important aspects to be aware of.”

“Oh I could tell you STORIES of this village, how it developed, how proud the people are. It is a most RIVETING tale.”

“I’m sure you could.” Mitsuo responded. God this man was odd. And he reeeeaaalllly didn’t want to let him start telling stories for fear he would never stop. “I’m afraid that my family and I are a bit busy at the moment though. Perhaps we could meet again in a week's time after we have had a chance to get settled. We haven’t even had the chance to see the village properly yet.”

“Oh well why don’t I show you?!” The man said excitedly “I could give you all a tour!”

“That is a generous offer Mr. Abe-“

“Souta! Call me Souta” He insisted.

“My apologies, Souta. As I was saying, it is quite the generous offer, but I will have to consider it and let you know. We will need some time to get settled after all.”

“Of course my lord, you can call upon me whenever you wish and I will accommodate your request as best as I can!” The man produced a small card from a pocket on his robe and shoved it into Mitsuo's hands as he moved towards the front door. “Until we meet again.” He bowed and then exited the home of his own volition.

Mitsuo just stood there dumbfounded by the interaction, looking down at the piece of paper to see the man's name and what he assumed was his address written quite professionally. “What the fuck have I gotten myself into…”