Tea Break

[Unknown Eldritch]

'I don't think that I will ever get used to this cold.' Fudo thought to himself, thankful for what little warmth his clothing gave him as he stepped out of his workshop and into the ever-cold air of Iron Country. Despite the temperature, Fudo rather enjoyed the landscape of the place that he had made a home in, admiring the way that the sun peeked from behind the mostly overcast sky, casting pale beams of light down on the surroundings, glinting off of the snow. Making his way over towards the side of his workshop, Fudo began drawing some water, quickly stripping down to scrub off the soot that had accumulated over the past few hours. It only took a few minutes, but by the time he was finished Fudo was much cleaner... and much colder, as the freezing air pierced his damp body like daggers of ice.

Swiftly dressing himself once more, Fudo thought for a moment about his next course of action. He had reached a natural stopping point in his work, and as much as he would like to continue to learn more about smithing and refine his craft, he did not have an unlimited amount of metal to forge. As Fudo shrugged off the worst of the cold, he began to make his way towards a nearby tea shop. It was a rather small location that he had been to in the past, enjoying the combination of good tea and quiet, though he had occasionally met some rather interesting people there who were pleasant company, and he enjoyed speaking with them. Regardless, the tea was delicious for how cheap it was, and the atmosphere was just what Fudo needed for a brief break after a long day of working in the forge.

As he approached the small, cozy shop, Fudo admired the mint-green roof that was free of any buildup of snow before making his way inside, relishing in the wave of pleasant warmth that washed over him, so different from the normal intense heat of his forge that he was used to. The interior of the shop was small and charming, with around half a dozen tables with three chairs at each of them, and an elderly man standing behind the counter. The man, named Taro, was familiar with the smith's usual order after visiting as often as he did, and Fudo gave him a brief smile of gratitude before heading to one of the free tables to wait for his tea, his eyes going half-lidded as he relaxed into the cozy seat.

[Ace Trainer]

There didn't seem to be any winning; mist or rain or snow, Shio couldn't seem to find a place that was...nice. The Taishou pulled his cap closer to his forehead, trying to block out the snow that was slowly floating down from getting on his face. In Kirigakure, the village was blanketed in a constant shroud of mist, no matter where you went the mist was there. After he'd left Kirigakure and moved onto the Land of Tides, he'd found himself in the region in the middle of their monsoon season, which meant heavy rains on most days than not. The name was fitting, high tides for several months in a row. It made little difference to him, but it wasn't ideal. Now, onwards to Iron he had come and the weather was no better. When he was inside of Sanrou, the Three Headed Wolf, it was fine. An enormous architectural ft, much of the capitol (and solitary) village of Iron Country was protected by the elements, deep within the coccoon of rock. But, over the many centuries Iron had existed its population had grown, and many of the tradesmen were forced to move their forges and workshops outside of the mountain, to make more room for residence. Of course, class came into play here and it was often the younger and newer craftsmen who found themselves working out in the elements.

The cold went to the bone, that's just how it was. In many ways, it was good. It hardened the samurai, playing an integral role in their training, and after so many years even if you didn't get used to it, it didn't sting quite as much. Fortunately for Shio, while he may not have had the years of training in this environment to prepare him, he was a shinobi, and activated chakra coursing through your body was just as effective at protecting you to some level. Shio's mind was perhaps focusing on all this in order to distract from the code, however, which might have indicated it was not doing quite as good of a job of keeping him warm as he would hope.

On this day, he was simply wandering. While he had been Taishou for three years at this point, much of that had been spent during the war, and despite the role the Taishou played in Iron, he was careful in his new position and was deliberate in using existing lieutenants to do much of his early work to make it more likely to be well received. With the war having settled down and his eyes on new goals, Shio was being more purposeful now of the opposite; doing things himself. So, face to face time with the many loyal citizens of Iron was key.

Finally the fourteen year old boy would find himself in front of his destination, a small shop. He'd heard good things about it, and it was one of the few shops outside of Sanrou that wasn't intended to be for craftsmen but instead for tea and a warm meal. Much needed. Entering just as a boy did mere minutes before, the Taishou would remove his cap and bask in the warmth for a moment before allowing his eyes to scan the room. Finally, they landed on a boy about his age and size and Shio thought they might be a good place to start. Approaching the table Fudo was sitting at, Shio placed his cap down on it, clearly indicating to the boy who he was before saying anything, "Mind if I join?", he would ask, not that it was something Fudo would have much choice in refusing.

[Unknown Eldritch]

Fudo blinked up at the boy standing before him, before turning his uncomprehending gaze toward the cap placed on the table in front of him. He had barely managed to take a single sip of his tea when the boy, who Fudo was now beginning to understand was the Taishou, decided to make his way over to the table. He was... confused, to put it simply. Why was the Taishou here, so far from his residence? Was something wrong? Was Fudo going to be executed for some reason?

... Did he have a comission that he wanted made? No, that was ridiculous, Fudo was not so prideful as to think that he would be the best option available if the leader of Iron Country needed to have something forged. So many questions came to mind, but in the end, Fudo just blinked up at the boy who, despite being the same age as himself, found himself in such a potent position of power. "Ah, sure?" Fudo said uncertainly. In spite of being in what many people would consider a very stressful situation, Fudo felt nothing but simple curiosity, wondering why such a powerful person would approach his table.

[Ace Trainer]

Shio could tell that his new company was flustered or confused, in some capacity just not prepared. This should probably be expected, he was surprising the boy a little after all. The solitary guard that had accompanied Shio would diverge his path to the counter and place an order, one that would be very quickly addressed, and a small cup brought and placed in front of Shio as he sat down. Pulling the chair out, he'd sit and nod at Fudo respectfully, "Thank you. I'm Mistaki, Shio, the Iron Country Taishou.", this was obvious, the introduction wasn't necessary in any capacity, but it was polite. "Its another cold day.", he said for a moment as he picked up the tea. Talking about weather seemed mighty cliche.

"As I'm sure you know, I am not a native to Iron Country, so this is all quite new to me, even if I have been here a few years now. I'm hoping to integrate more into the culture here. So, I'll let you lead the conversations. Your name? Tell me what you do.". In truth, Shio was not often this polite, the young boy had learned to use his authority at a very young age given his unique background, and he had rarely been afraid to leverage such authority. Especially in taking over Iron Country, even if it had been a somewhat peaceful transition it was necessary that he was heavy fisted. The guard who remained still by the counter had a curious look on his face, the Taishou being friendly? How interesting.

[Unknown Eldritch]

Fudo found himself very relieved that Shio didn't seem to be approaching him for any serious business, and he found his tension loosening as he thought about the Taishou's words. He took a small sip of his tea, before beginning to speak with a small smile on his face. "Ah, well it's nice to meet you Shio." Fudo actually had not known the name of the Taishou, having paid very little attention to politics in the past few years, so he was glad that the boy had decided to introduce himself.

"My name is Muramasa Fudo, just a humble blacksmith with some lofty goals. I'm not a particularly skilled smith quite yet, since the majority of my knowledge is self-taught, but I like to think that I've been making progress in that regard." Fudo's amber eyes traced over Shio's form, not needing to be particularly skilled in combat or analysis to realize that despite being roughly the same age, Shio would be able to kill him before he even realized what was happening... But despite this, Fudo still found himself relaxing into a familiar pattern of speech, as though speaking to a friend instead of the ruler of the country. "I come by here every couple days to take a break from my smithing. It has pretty good tea and it's cheap too, and it's the perfect environment for either thinking on your own, or having a chat between new friends." Fudo's admittedly tense smile softened a bit into his normal casual, warm smile as he looked at the boy sitting across from him.

He had noticed by now that of the few patrons that were present when the Taishou arrived, most of them had rapidly vacated the premises, which made Fudo feel a bit... odd. He wasn't quite sure how he felt about that. Deciding to decipher his feelings at a later date, he continued speaking. "So, what brings you around here? I doubt that it's for the weather, and as nice as this place is, you can probably get much better tea back home."

[Ace Trainer]

Shio took the cup of tea placed in front of him and sipped it softly as Fudo spoke. Muramasa? What were the odds? Surely it was a coincidence, perhaps a long lost relative to the Muramasa family of Kirigakure. He wondered if he should comment on it, or if it was make him come off as homesick or with multiple loyalties. Maybe he was overthinking it, Fudo didn't strike him as the type to think too harshly about these things, especially considering the rather casual way he was speaking with Shio. It was refreshing, if not slightly insulting to Shio's ego, all things considered.

He mentioned lofty goals, and Shio found himself slightly disappointed when Fudo didn't expand on that. Allowing the boy to finish speaking, he responded to Shio in kind with questions of his own. "Hm.", was all Shio would produce for a moment as he took another sip. "It does seem like a nice aura here.", he said absentmindedly. "You mentioned lofty goals? Its good to have those. I'm particularly interested in young talent with big goals. Being one such person myself....it seems I picked a good day to come here.", he gave a small smirk. It appeared the Taishou had an ulterior motive, though maybe he would not play his hand too soon.

"Anyways, to answer your question it's as I said - to learn more about this country. When I defeated the previous Taishou and took the seat, there was quite a bit of business I had to attend to, managing to shifting powers, the war, so forth. Now that things have settled I finally have time to truly become a citizen of Iron. It would be improper of me to remain in this place as the Taishou and be an outsider all the same.", a good point. "So. Your goals?", he brought the conversation back. It seemed this was to be more about Fudo than Shio, so much for letting him guide the conversation.

[Unknown Eldritch]

Fudo watched as a thoughtful expression found its way onto Shio's face, and he couldn't help but wonder what was going through the Taishou's mind before the expression faded away and his attention was grabbed when Shio began to speak. As Shio spoke, Fudo carefully listened, mulling over the words in his mind as the Taishou explained his purpose for visiting. "That makes sense," Fudo spoke, referring to the mention of Shio's desire to learn more about Iron. "It might not mean much, but I can appreciate that you are going through the trouble of learning about the people under your rule rather than imposing your own thoughts and customs on us without taking our own into account." Fudo took a breathe, trying to find the right words to describe his goal before continuing to speak.

"As far back as I can remember, I've always had a burning desire to be a blacksmith. My first memory was me watching my grandfather forging a simple katana, and ever since then I've worked towards becoming a smith myself, even at the detriment of other parts of my life. But as I grew, I came to realize that so many of the smiths that I saw seemed so... purposeless. Like they were forging for something that didn't matter whether it was for money, for fame, or just because they could. For me though? Ever since the moment that I made my first strike against a lump of metal on the anvil, I've had a single goal in mind: the creation of the ultimate sword. A sword that can destroy hatred, cut through fate, and sever karma." Fudo's eyes raised from where they were locked on his open palm, staring Shio in the eyes with a burning determination in his amber orbs.

"To call it a dream is to acknowledge the possibility of failure. I will succeed. That is my goal."

[Ace Trainer]

A small smile crept onto Shio's face as Fudo offered his appreciation to what Shio was doing. Shio had been born a prophet, the 'chosen' child, of his people. For so long people gave him gratitude and appreciation and seemingly worshipped where he walked, that it had all become very hollow. He'd become aware at a very young age that they weren't seeing him, but what he represented. He had grown to disdain it, even if it had blown up his ego, and eventually he would turn on his people and abandon them and everything they stood for. Clear by the fact that he was even having this conversation, the act of using his voice something he'd gone so many years without. The genuine appreciation offered by Fudo was a not digression from that, it meant he was doing something right at least.

"Thanks.", was all he offered back.

As Fudo continued on about his history, and his objectives, Shio restrained his reaction. Fudo was likely unaware, as most people in Iron Country were, that Shio was also something of a collector. That is how he ended up with Michi and Kesu, and why he'd be leaving soon to gather this young woman from Star Country as well. Due to his circumstances growing up, Shio was rather attuned to the experiences of 'gifted' youngsters, and he formed an orphanage to bring in those who were rejected out in the world due to their ability. Fudo likely wouldn't be rejected, he was a blacksmith in a country that treasured craftsmen as if they were nobility. Even Fudo found himself unhappy with the state of things, he would eventually find his place without issue. But Shio couldn't help but wonder if Fudo had talent for the Taishou to tap into. Something that Shio could given shape and form into something great.

He let the impulse die down, if only partially, and nodded in understanding, "Lofty goals, but, surely they'll be attained. If I can take the seat as Taishou, anything can be done, I imagine.", he took another sip of the tea. "Would you forge me something?", he asked, apparently failing at resisting the impulse. "What would you equip the Taishou with?", his eyes thinned over the small cup, looking directly at Fudo. There was a sudden intensity about him, suggesting this conversation had taken a turn. Was Fudo up for the challenge?