Naruto Saigen Roleplay

The day was bright, a light breeze flowing through the air. For most of the world, the day was as important or unimportant as the next. For a select handful of bodies though the day would be one of great importance or so they hoped. A lot of work had been done in preparation for the adventure and there was high hopes that the work would pay off. Unable to get a meeting through the so-called "official" channels, Renji was forced to take matters into his own hands. He was setting off to find the Daimyo himself. He had a good head start, her quarters weren't hidden by any means, a few hours away at worst. The real question was if he would even be there in the first place.

The only way to find out though was to try though and left with no option the young man would have no choice but to begin on his way.

The preparations required to set out were minimal. The small apartment he'd rented in Takigakure for the last two weeks was essentially a repurposed closet, which meant that scouring it for any evidence of his habitation took only a few moments. He took one last look at the cramped quarters- the mat that had served as his bed, the scuffed and cracked desk at which he had tinkered with designs for a few new fuuinjutsu, the threadbare rug that he still ended up tripping over every single time. The place had served its purpose, but after he obtained his security department, Renjiro wouldn't be sparing a thought toward the four shabby walls again.

Hoisting his gear onto the bony shoulders that had once belonged to a young man named Isao, he paused for a quick check in the cracked mirror to ensure that the sunglasses he used to hide this body's doujutsu were functioning as intended. Remarkable though they were, the wholly blue eyes tended to attract unnecessary attention, even moreso than wearing sunglasses absolutely everywhere like some kind of first-class douche bag. Assured of their concealment, he set out.

Occular difficulties aside, Isao's body was perfect for the task at hand. A stripling whose form bore no obvious outward signs of shinobi training would serve him well in being underestimated. It may have had the side effect of making him difficult to take seriously, however, as evidenced by the measures he was now being forced to take.

He had been petitioning through official channels for an audience with Waterfall's daimyo since arriving in the foremost village of an otherwise backwater country. His first attempt had garnered a six-page long form laden with so much obtuse legislative language that it had taken him the better part of an afternoon just to fill it out. He'd turned it in, and after three days returned to the office to find it lost in some bureaucratic limbo. The Undersecretary of Official Scheduling had helpfully directed him to Form 211-A, the Request To Expedite A Petition. That one they had simply lost.

He'd tried again, portraying Isao as solemn and patient as ever, filing both forms. Only two days past he had returned to the office to find his request denied, and any attempts to discern why were met with vague deflections and patent obfuscations.

He'd been waiting too long, and much though his centuries of existence had taught him the value of patience and inured him against the more pernicious effects thereof, he needed to act. Pieces would soon be falling into place, and his participation was required to maneuver this particular piece where it was needed.

Offering a wan smile and a subdued goodbye to a neighbor in passing on his way out, Renji-as-Isao set off for the country's seat of power, for once looking well within his rights to wear shades with the sun burning brightly above.

Quin Lan had business to attend to most days of the week. While many Daimyo were quick to legislate their responsibilities to someone else, the daimyo of Waterfall Country was not one so quick to do. He kept busy all but one day of the week that he set aside for his family, today was not one of those days, unfortunately. The morning was spent in a meeting with three of his advisers, discussing a recent problem with looters on one of the border towns. After that exhausting meeting of several hours, he had been slotted for a brief lunch, and then to spend the afternoon meeting with various civilians (that had of course already requested and confirmed their audience with him), for them to voice their complaints and problems.

He was no miracle worker, but Quin Lan was a gentle daimyo who did what he could for his people.

The last thing on his mind was the request for audience by a non-countryman who had been interested in requesting employ under his name. It had been dismissed, of course, why wouldn't it? He certainly would not anticipate that the man he had rejected audience for would attempt to force his way into audience. Regardless, it wasn't even close to being on his mind as his mind as he picked away at the bowl in front of him that contained his lunch. He sat in a small office, rather simply considering the wealth that was certainly at the daimyo's disposal. His deck faced the window at the back of the room, not the door, and overlooked the courtyard of his manor. A long reflection pool was as blue as the sky it reflected, lily pads being the only obstruction on the surface. At his back were the only other people in the room, two guards who stood at the door. They stood with there eyes locked forward at the Daimyo's back, and their hands resting on the hilt of their weapons.

The lunch was short, but he enjoyed it. With a heave, he pushed himself to his feet and stood to face his guards. "Shall we go?", he asked. The guards simply nodded, and the first turned and pushed the door open, walking out the room. Quin Lan followed the first guard, and the second closed the door behind them, and followed suit. They walked down the long winding halls in silence. It was a long walk, and the Daimyo needed the time to focus himself as he prepared for the afternoon ahead of him.

Fortunately for Quin Lan, Renji had no intentions of forcing anything. His intentions at this juncture were merely to scout the seat of power and discern whether or not there was a way for him to get access to the daimyo, or failing that, someone who might be able to provide him it.

His walk was leisurely. His side-slung bag bumped gently at his hip as he crossed the village, providing a gentle counterpoint to every step he took. He used Isao's lips to smile firmly-but-politely at vendors that attempted to sell him their produce, crafts, and street food, but for the most part he avoided any hassle. He didn't look like he had much in the way of money, and each measured stride he took radiated quiet purpose.

When he arrived at the palace, it wasn't at all difficult to decide on his next course of action. There was a glut of bodies crowding about one of the entrances, and they looked to common sort of people. Likely citizens of the country who had managed to navigate the bureaucratic maze that led to a scrap of the daimyo's no-doubt-diffuse attention.

What he needed was information, and these people might prove a treasure trove of it. He scanned the crowd from afar to see if any of them seemed arrayed into groups of united purpose- in his experience, those with the loudest voices tended to get the most attention, and whatever issue they might be petitioning about could be his route to the daimyo's notice.

With a slight shift of his weight, he let his bag swing from his side toward the front of his person, the back of it butting against his right hip. Pausing against a wall, he reached into the bag with both hands, furrowing his brow in concern as if he were having trouble finding something within. His "fumbling" about in the bag disguised the series of hand seals he quickly enacted, and he held the final seal, snake, once the jutsu was complete. Immediately, he began to hear whispers at the edge of his consciousness, the surface thoughts of those nearest him. Shifting his weight expertly again, he dropped his hands, still holding the seal, toward his navel, and let the bag obscure them for the most part as he moved to get in line.

The whispers would soon become a run of voices, distinct but overlapping, flooding his mind with information about the issues faced by villagers of Takigakure. He let his eyes flit about quickly to mark the presence of any guards, but in the press of bodies, it was unlikely that anyone would notice him anyway. He didn't want to spend too much time with a jutsu active, in any case, but he shouldn't need too much time to learn something useful.

The Daimyo continued down the hallways, taking corner after corner, waving and nodding his head at the various individuals that he passed by as they quickly scurried to get out of the way of the man that ruled them all. When they finally reached the end of their walk, they were in front of a room that seemed rather ceremonial considering what the room would be used for. It had a normal wooden sliding door, and the paneling had openings at about 7 feet, allowing you to very easily hear within the room. The door was open, so the daimyo could already see inside despite his guards doing as they always did and having him wait for a few second as they entered the room first to ensure there were no surprises within. With a tired sigh he followed their lead, they both posted at the door, and he finally walked in.

The inside of the room was rather unbecoming too, perhaps the size of a small office there was a floor level table with 3 pillows behind it, situated on a plateau, with two pillows opposite the table, on the floor, with about three feet between them. Curtains hung from the ceiling, and met at the edges of the table, hiding what was to the left of right of the seat that was clearly Quin Lan's. He walked to his seat, and with yet another tired sigh he nodded to the two guards at the door. One would step out of the room, whistle, and then step in. That whistle would be mimicked three or four times, getting more and more distant each time, before it finally vanished.

---

Outside the complex, thinks were far more hectic than the orderly day-to-day that Quin Lan was dealing with. Randoms meandered about, clamoring about each other attempting to get a chance to rattle at the front gates, or at least find someone who would listen to their concerns. Most of the people here fell into three categories, elderly who had nothing more to do with themselves than complain about nonsense, deranged, who had nothing more to do with themselves than make up nonsense, and foreigners, who were here on behalf of their countries for various business proposals and the like. Renji would find, as he scanned the minds of the crowd, exactly that. The surface thoughts revealed very little, most of the people were wild and unfocused with their thoughts. Two things became clear from the flurry of thoughts though.

One. Quin Lan went by appointment, and the people who were here were merely looking to be heard by anyone, not Quin Lan. None of these people would see Quin Lan today, and likely, they would never get to meet with him.

Two. The gate that everyone seemed to be attempting to enter at was being guarded by 10 guards. Three of them seemed very uninterested in their job, but 7 of them were very attentive, as they seemed to be scanning through the crowds, each apparently reciting the appearance of individuals in there head. It became very clear that these 7 guards were the escorts for Quin Lan's appointments, which meant that seven of the people in this crowd of several dozen, were going to get in to see the daimyo.

It didn't take Renji long to realize how fruitless scanning minds at random would be. It took extreme effort for him to avoid curling his lips into a scowl. He was nearly thrice as old as anyone in the crowd, and he had certainly found better things to do with himself than wine. Isao's features remained stoic, however, as he simply watched, tuning out the murmurs, coughs, and ravings that made up the bulk of the sound in the area.

It had taken him weeks to get used to viewing the world through Isao's doujutsu, viewing patterns and people and discerning where one began and the other ended. A few moments of patient observation yielded some fairly useful information to counterbalance the dreck he'd had to sift through. Seven guards seemed to be looking for specific individuals in the crowd- likely those few who were actually important or sane enough to see the daimyo. With his eyes hidden behind his sunglasses, he observed those seven guards, watching who they watched in order to learn who those lucky seven might be. That would allow him to more narrowly focus his mind-reading efforts.

Provided that he was able to uncover their identities, Renji-as-Isao would enact his technique again within range of them in order to uncover their purpose at the village's seat of power.

Much to the guards chagrin, and would likely be Renjiro's dissatisfaction, only one of them was able to find their person of interest. It quickly became apparent that only a single person out of the seven was actually in this crowd, which meant the other six were likely to be somewhere on the grounds, wandering about. The one that was there, however, had already been by the gate, far from Renjiro (not that he would have really be able to act anyways), and as the guard who had been looking for him spotted him, he rushed up to the gates. The method of letting him in was very precise. The three guards who were there with the sole purpose of guards the gate branded their swords, instantly causing everyone around them to back up. The third walked forward, directly towards Quin Lan's guest, and gestured for him to come forward. The timid man scurried forward and the guard placed a hand on his back, guiding him back to his two partners, who swung the gates open with their free hand, and releasing the guest to his escort. The third guard then turned back around, came out of the gate, and closed it behind him as his two partners sheathed their weapons.

Behind the gate, the guard with the escort patted him down, taking the two bags the man wore on his shoulder from him and handing them off to another guard, indicating to the man that he'd get his belongings back upon his departure. The man walked up a series of steps behind the guard, where another guard, independent of the first 10, arrived to walk behind him (much in the same fashion in which they escorted Quin Lan), and the trio eventually disappeared behind a wall.

It seemed not that Renjiro-as-Isao not only had to find a target that would enable them to get into the premises, but they would also need to get through what appeared to be rather stringent security measures. Why was it that Quin Lan seemed to be one of the least accessible daimyo?

Well, he hadn't expected it to be easy. Suppressing a sigh as he watched the lone genuine petitioner get muscled through the gates and out of his reach, he took stock of the situation.

If the other six weren't here, where were they? Given the rigmarole that was seemingly involved in obtaining an audience with the daimyo, it seemed unlikely that all of them would simply skip their appointments. It might be months before they were able to obtain another. There were really only a few possibilities.

It seemed most likely that they were somewhere nearby, waiting for a specific time before broaching the gauntlet of geriatrics and madmen clustered around the gate. It stood to reason that their appointments had an order to them, and that the man he had seen brought inside had simply been first in the queue.

He slipped out of line, scanning quickly to ensure that no one was paying him any particular attention, and then moved away from the press of bodies to survey his surroundings. What was the most likely, logical place for someone to await the daimyo's pleasure? Some sort of courtyard or garden no doubt. Moving off at a wandering gait, he started to make his way along the perimeter of the palance, keeping an eye out for any likely places to vamp, or even simply other individuals who had the air of waiting around them.

The grounds were massive, and there were various fountains and ponds stationed around the grounds that were open to the public to situate themselves at. The main area all the commotion was taking place in was braced by two large walls, making only one way to enter the area. It was certainly going to be difficult searching the entire area for 6 specific people, especially when it appeared that half of the Waterfall Country were on the grounds. But with a choke point, it would be notably simple to determine who was coming and going, and who had purpose.

The problem, however, would be finding a place to station himself at the choke point, or, a systematic way to search the grounds.

The grounds was essentially a giant sqaure area of land that was about 4 square miles. The actual estate was an enormous square in itself, with a central courtyard blocked off from the public, meaning the actual public area only took up a fraction of it. Each "corner" of the square building was dipped in, rather than pointing out, and had a large circular field, likely several hundred feet in diameters coming out of it. The center point for the northern and sourthern fields was a fountain, while the eastern and western had ponds. Pathways lead from these fields to central commons areas, much like the ones Renjiro was in now, surrounding the estate. However, this commons area, again, seemed to act as the choke point as no other areas would be as crowded, and would have guards controlling who went through and who didn't. It seemed all the other areas had ways of entering the building without all the hub-bub as well, suggesting that possibly the other guests could have already gotten through and simple visiters, and could be exploring both the estate and the external grounds.

The two walls that ran alongside this commons area were about 20 feet in height, casting long shadows over them. Each had a single guard sitting at the top, (though it didn't look very professional with their legs dangling over the sides). Additionally, at the choke point (opposite of the gate that just let guest number one in), wa a large middle century styled steel gate that dropped from above to lock into the ground. It, of course, was rolled up, and had two guards stationed on each side of it. None of these guards looked very formidable, but they didn't exactly need to be to deal with onslaughters and assailants, just unruly citizen. There were several corners that granted a good place for Renjiro to sit, and benches lead up to the gate, so he could very easily just pass the time, (though the guards would see him if he attempted to take one of his target visitors).

In the end it was up to Renjiro. Stay at the choke point, and risk being noticed. Or wander the grounds, and risk missing his targets.