To The Plate [Social]

[Niro]

Akari, Tatsuo had been called from his opulent office, decorated with maps of the entire Elemental Continent and Rock Country and books filled with lore and history of the lands, in the massive Jousai headquarters, which was carved into one of the mountainside of Iwagakure no Sato, to the puny, pathetic office space the village assigned him to when the time rolled around to dole out certain procedures. Book shelves filled with boring topics filled the walls of the room and a large window that gave a clear overview of the village was behind him.

One such thing was the fabled 'Jounin Interview' upcoming Special Jounin were tasked with going through while the villages Bannin were the ones who tended to conduct them. Usually any of the older generation of Bannin were up to the task due to their workloads being eased up on with the new trio but Tatsuo had collected the short straw this time, however, and was stuck with Jounin Interviews for the day. He sighed in defeat, reclining back in the chair, as he looked at the stack of interviewees he'd see today. The Akari was quiet for several moments before the intercom buzzed to life and the voice of the male secretary crackled to life.

"Your first appointment is here for the morning, Lord Akari."

"Send 'em up, let's get this rollin'."

[Willoria]

There were very few moments anymore where Ume felt like her old, giddy self again. But being told she would be getting looked at for promotion to Jounin was certainly one of those moments. She had to stifle that giddiness of course as she approached her destination, making her way up who knows how many stairs certainly helped her calm down though. In truth, when she got there she had briefly forgotten she had her hood up and mask on, at least until the secretary reminded her. Taking a deep breath to ready herself and try to dispel any nervousness, she reached up and pulled back her hood, shaking out her blue hair before pulling down her mask and revealing her face. But as she did so she heard what the secretary said through the intercom and froze. "Akari? Uh... which Bannin Akari?" she asked hesitantly feeling some kind of cold terror grip her heart briefly. The man only rolled his eyes at her and motioned her towards the doors.

Ume had taken up the path of the assassin over the last several months, dedicating herself to the practice and nearly changing every aspect of her own tactics to match her new path. She was used to the unexpected, and prepared for any kind of surprise. But nothing prepared her for when she opened the door, speaking before she saw. "Akari Ume, reporting as instructed, S-s-sir..." Her words trailed off and failed her as she saw exactly who was before her, causing her to swallow hard as that terror within only got worse.

[Niro]

Tatsuo gingerly plucked the bottom most manila folder full of profile files from the stack of interviewees he had for the day, his pointer and thumb precariously tugging it free from the others above it lest they come toppling down and spilled everywhere across the office. With a grunt of success, the buff folder came free with little fanfare or complaints from those on top of the stack who may be jealous they were unread as he leaned back in his office chair and crossed his left leg over his right while his eyes danced across the file in front of him. The Special Jounin was ok, their skill set was decently rounded but just so...average...but something about the profile was off, there was something he couldn't quite place but he didn't like it. Maybe when the guy came in he'd be able to pinpoint it?

The oak door to the office swung open and the hinges creaked with disuse as the applicant entered the room. His attention still on the file directly in front of him, the young Lord Akari didn't hear the person announce their name or anything, the predominant thought in his mind getting the hinges oiled until he put it down and locked eyes with them. Purple eyes met purple eyes in recognition between the two Akari clan members who had quite a turbulent history together.

'Ah. Shit.'

Instantaneously Tatsuo found himself envisioning a daydream of putting Hibiki's head on a pike. The old bastard KNEW and that's why he was here today. Oh, the next time he ran into the old geezer he'd be given quite the earful. He would make sure to channel his mother like his life was on the line. Unless the man put him into a Genjutsu first...but even then he'd find way to make him pay. Tatsuo slowly closed the file in his hands and took a deep, visible breath as he straightened up in his chair and turned it to face forward. He lifted his chin to the door in a gesture to close it as he raised his hands to the top of his desk. There they found each other and steepled together with the Bannin clearing his throat right after. His eyes locked onto hers as he spoke.

"Ume. Please, sit. Let's discuss your career thus far. Please, give me a general break down since your Chuunin promotion so I may take everything into consideration."

[Willoria]

She felt like a child again as she stared at him. She'd had a crush on him the day she met him, and when a fellow Akari died in a freak accident on a simple mission he had guided her through taking her first shiin from another. Every memory came flooding back to her mind, including the stupid thing she'd done to hurt him which of course brought a slew of other painful memories. As he spoke she found herself wondering how he could remain so calm, just as she silently wondering if her career was at a standstill for now. She had expected her to go off on him, though why she wasn't sure, he'd hardly yelled at her in spite of what she'd done. It was his disappointment and hurt that had eaten away at her after all.

Taking a deep breath to steel herself, Ume allowed herself to sleep into the cold facade she had adopted in recent months as she took a sit at his request. 'I knew this could happen... I knew I'd have to be ready for this...' She sat upright, the way she carried her bow hardly allowed her to sit any other way but in this moment she found the discomfort of it oddly comforting as she faced Tatsuo. She rest her hands in her lap, though her right hand fidgeted quietly with the ring on her left hand that was part of her weapon 'A Lady's Threat'. It was the only sign of her nerves that she seemed to allow to show as she began to speak.

"I suppose technically after my Chunin promotion things went to hell for awhile, as I'm sure you heard." she remarked, forcing herself to address him as if she didn't know him personally at all. She felt as if it was the only way she could get through this interview. "In celebration of my promotion my guardian, Akari Koyama, took me on a mission to hunt a missing ninja. It was supposed to be simple, but I'm afraid I made a fatal mistake and wound up captured. Koyama did what he had to do to rescue me of course, but in the process of protecting me, he died." She couldn't stop herself as her hand came up and briefly touched the red crystal on her necklace. "It was a long time before I was found after this, and much of the between I don't remember, but Akari Kotaru found me and returned me home some months later." Here in front of Tatsuo's, Kotaru's name felt dirty as it came from her lips and silently she hoped it wouldn't remind him of what she did.

"After that I dedicated myself to training, I took on a new approach to combat and adopted my bow. I focused on destroying enemies on my own, rather than simply being available to support others. I knew I couldn't do it anymore, after what happened and the shiin I possess I know I was only a risk with a target on my back. I couldn't keep relying on others to protect me so I became good at it myself. After a few successful missions I became a Special Jounin and took an interest in specific mission types. Since then I've focused almost solely on assassination missions. I'm well known for wiping out my targets, and other risks, without prejudice, albeit a great deal of blood."

She looked at Tatsuo a moment, feeling like she'd spoken more in the last few moments than she had in weeks, simply because she often spent so much time by herself. She found herself wondering if Kotaru had spoken to Tatsuo yet, but quickly buried the thought as she knew this meeting was hardly the place for it. She did though, find herself wondering if he knew she'd gained a reputation as well for wiping out more targets than the mission actually called for. It was something Kotaru had called her out on when she turned in her last mission.

[Niro]

The Bannin's royal purple orbs not once broke their lock on hers but he caught the deep inhalation through his peripherals; her face shifted as muscles shifted and were reigned in, manipulated to put on a mask to hide one's raw self, her shoulders rising and falling as her lungs and diaphragm expanded and contracted, and overall intonation of the room shifted into something much colder, more professional... more like Kotaru when he had first encountered his adopted brother. Tatsuo had worked hard to undo the boy's closeted nature after all the work his birth parents had put into harming and neglecting the boy and it had worked to a certain extent over the years so the sight of his former lover becoming something similar to that was disturbing even if it did not reflect in his face or eyes. He listened quietly as she told her story of her career since then, his only movements being when she mentioned the death of Koyama. Tatsuo bowed his head for a moment in respect for the fallen jounin, noting how her hand flew up to the necklace around her neck.

Not even at the mention of Kotaru's name did Tatsuo's visage shift, it was unmoving like the stone the village was founded on. Only once finished did he speak. It was low, calm, entirely too reserved.

"Yes, the only issue the village has as of now is your tendency to...decimate every one and not just the target. Turns the mission from an assassination into an assault in their eyes, if they wanted all of them slaughtered they'd send in a different personnel. Besides that, the village is pleased with how your career is turning out so far. Your promotion to Jounin is secured but be aware the village will be keeping an eye on if you continue to overkill and may decide to pull you until you learn to reign it in."

[Willoria]

Ume fell quiet at what he had to say, resisting the urge to suddenly jump to her own defense about her last mission. She forced patience into herself, her new mantra echoing through her mind. 'I am Nothing. I am No-one. I am Empty.' A few lines and the calm washed back over her though even calm, she couldn't hide the slight smirk that only seemed to show off part of her sharpened teeth.

"On my last mission I had to make a judgment call." she remarked. "The target spent a great deal of personal time with his people, he didn't keep his personal and professional life separate. I felt it was possible that any recent information he had gathered could have been verbally spread among his people. Killing him and retrieving the documentation seemed a half measure... I did what I had to do make absolutely certain the information didn't leak out in other ways." Her smirk grew slightly. "If I had truly lost control, the Innkeeper and his family would have been slain as well, but I made sure they were not." she added.

The smirk slowly faded, almost as if the fact she was sitting in front of her ex-boyfriend suddenly sunk in again. "But yes, I will exercise more caution in the future." she added, swallowing hard as she tried to keep her eyes from dwelling too long on Tatsuo. 'He looks like he's doing well at least... I hope his pain as subsided maybe...'

[Niro]

Tatsuo's calm finally broke when Ume smirked. This was an interview for a promotion and although it was all but secured, the gesture still rubbed him the wrong way.

"Did you ever maybe stop to think...maybe the village wished to keep those others alive?" Tatsuo began, a small sigh of frustration escaping from his mouth. "Maybe we wanted the information to leak, to find out where it was leaking to? If there were others involved? His allies in other areas? Yes, you kept the innocents alive but any baits we wished to dangle were destroyed before they were even set." He chastised, his voice raising and his tone like that of an angry, disappointed parent due to the smirk on her face.

"You'll be working with a partner from now on. Just the two of you on missions, they'll be sure to keep an eye on you and make sure you don't wander from the mission objective." Tatsuo revealed to her at the end, his eyes probing her for a reaction to the news.

[Willoria]

The smirk faded fast. She took a deep breath and let it out slow as she buried her desire to scream at him. She wanted to go off on him over it. She wanted to demand to know where he got off judging her for a job she only did because she couldn't stand to risk working with him again. She wanted to demand to know why he was running her interview when clearly he had something against her. But all of that remained as a smoldering flame behind her purple eyes as she stared at him. "Perhaps next time an addendum to the mission file would be appropriate." she said instead, her voice stone cold and devoid of any emotion.

But her lack of emotion only lasted until he told her the news that she would be receiving a partner. Hissing through her sharpened teeth she suddenly leaned forward, glaring at him. "A partner?" she practically spit the words out. "Did you already forget, Tatsuo that everyone around me either dies or gets hurt?! Giving me a partner will only put someone else at risk. It will only end in someone else dead or worse." she leaned back in the chair, ignoring the way her bow dug into her spine as she did so, and crossed her arms over her chest.

"I'd rather stick to working solo, expendable, thanks. It's better for everyone." she snapped.

[Niro]

He took some sort of perverse satisfaction at seeing the smile wiped off her face at the mention of a partner. Tatsuo had been doing his best to prevent any of his bias leak out during this interview but just for the moment, he indulged in it.

"Or you stick to the mission directive and don't deviate." He hissed back, his eyes glowing with a smoldering anger behind them. "You're to follow orders, shinobi, not make them." Tatsuo chastised her, his eyes daring her to challenge his authority.

"Be better, then. Maybe they'll stop dying." The young Lord shot at her, fully knowing how hurtful his words could be. "This isn't a recommendation or something you can refuse; it's an order."

[Willoria]

There was a time when Ume would have described herself as having no temper at all. Back when her crush on Tatsuo had first blossomed, she had been so eager to please him she would have gone with anything he said. She never would have said a word against him but over the last few years things had changed significantly. Ume felt abandoned by every person in her life, including him, and especially when she needed her friends. And though through her own guilt over what she'd done she felt she deserved it on some level, there had still been a rage boiling in the background for some time.

In these moments her rage seemed to meet her more recently self-destructive tendencies and it all came to a head.

She stood so quickly her own foot snapped back and sent the chair across the room. "No!" she snapped back at him. "The only life I should ever put on the line is mine! Just leave it that way! Just let me die already!" It wasn't unlike her outburst in which she'd told Kotaru how she really felt about him, words she had buried for so long they eventually pushed their way out. And just as with her confession then, this one came with the snide remark on the way out. "Don't pretend you want it any other way."

[Niro]

Tatsuo's face housed a bored look at her outburst. He was expecting it, honestly. The Bannin had begun to see her muscles coil in anticipation underneath her skin as his words struck home and tore into her. His own grief over their history softly boiled in the back of his mind, knowing it was neither the place nor time for his own outburst.

"Shut up. I'm not going to let you die. I never wanted you dead, don't want you dead. I loved you, once upon a time. Then shit happened and we changed, grew apart. Hard not to with what happened." Tatsuo shrugged at the young woman, refusing to meet her anger with his own. "I don't care if you like it. I don't care how much you hate it. You'll be stuck with a duo partner for the coming months. Deal with it."

[Willoria]

Ume paced for a few moments as she tried to regain her composure and mostly failed. Eventually she found a wall and leaned against it, crossing her arms over her chest. "We grew apart before that happened." she said quietly. It was the first time she'd actually said it out loud, but his words stinging at her brought it all back to the surface. She hadn't spoken of it much, she had absorbed every bit of the blame but the more time she spent around Kotaru as of late, the more she felt like she remembered. She had done something stupid, but she remembered now, she did something stupid because she had felt abandoned. 'It's no excuse for what I did... but it doesn't mean I deserve this bullshit years later.'

For a moment she closed her eyes, leaning her head back against the wall as she muttered to herself. "I am nothing. I am No-One. I am Nothing." She ran it through her mind a couple more times before lifting her head and opening her eyes again. She looked at Tatsuo a moment as if measuring the space between them mentally. "Just tell me they aren't from our clan?" she finally asked, chewing on the inside of her lip carefully.

[Niro]

"Before what happened? Showing up in my living room after being considered KIA while Kotaru knew for days beforehand? Or the lip locking with my adopted brother before you disappeared?" Tatsuo hissed at her, throwing the words in her face. "Your actions caused this rift between us. Actions have consequences." He almost dared to look at the crystal on her necklace to drive the point home but decided not to. Too cruel.

"I know nothing about them. I just know what the council members and Tsuchikage have decided in regards to this manner."

[Willoria]

Ume's eyes darkened as the arms crossed over her chest all the tighter as she tried not to push off the wall. She knew it was useless to react physically. Tatsuo was stronger than her in any way. "How about before then, Tatuso?" she said, coldly. A deep anger boiled in the back of her words and yet the words themselves seemed to come with no emotion. "You vanished. You took every mission you could, and I never saw you. I was dying. I had to find out I had that damn plague with Kotaru at my side instead of you, because you couldn't be ass'd to check up on me but your brother worried enough to check for you, unprompted. He was with me when I found out, he was the one who comforted me and the one who stood by me as I tried to figure out jutsu just to save my own life. YOU, my supposed own BOYFRIEND, were nowhere to be found!" Ume shook her head, resisting the urge to chuckle at what her Jounin interview had quickly devolved into. "It's no excuse for what I did to you. For what I caused to happen to Koyama. But the truth is you left me alone long before any of that."

Ume rolled her eyes and pushed off the wall, forcing herself to keep from moving towards him however. "I was a stupid fucking kid too. I did stupid shit. We're both adults, you're a freaking Bannin now and apparently I'm a Jounin. It's past time we move on from this." She shook her head and tilted her neck forward, a hand reaching up to pinch the bridge of her nose. "You probably should have handed this interview off to someone else if all I do is still hurt you this badly."

"There she is: the crybaby I fell for even when I didn't want to."

Ume cursed herself under her breath as she cleared her throat and fought the urge to cry, Kotaru's words from when she turned in her last mission coming back to her at the worst possible time. "I really do hope someday I can walk past you in the street and not wonder if I'm hurting you just by being there."

[Niro]

"I was quite absent, you're not wrong." Tatsuo said quietly, his hands falling free off the table and settling in his lap. He could feel every muscle in his body straining to keep calm as the meeting escalated into something more intense than that. This always happened with her, she always caused his passion to flare up like the sun. One's First Love would do that, no matter what, he assumed. He leaned over his desk, crossing his arms and resting them atop of it as he spoke. "Missions and meetings consumed me during those days. Do you know what those missions were, by chance? Expeditions into Rock Country to find the origin of the disease, find some sort of answer for what it is and what had taken your parents lives, turned them insane and violent. Trying to make sure it wasn't elsewhere in the clan, in the village, the country. Trying to find some sort of cure, some answer so you could live without any sort of negative side effects. I was racing the clock. Attending summons by the elders demanding your head and your shiin be consumed by someone who wasn't infected. Yes, I was quite absent. Absent trying my absolute damnedest to make sure you lived, it wouldn't be passed to you. I failed, obviously.

"So yes, feel free to cling to the claim I was absent or had left to justify what you did. Or take responsibility for your own actions that no one forced you to do." Tatsuo pressed, his eyes narrowing. "I didn't even know it'd be you until you walked through the door, I didn't have much of an opportunity to hand it off to Kota like I was able to the other day. That'd probably be a reward instead of a demerit for your recent mission overkills, however. You hurt me deep and fucked me up bad for quite a while but I'm pretty much over it. At least I thought I was."

[Willoria]

Ume herself was surprised when she didn't just get angry again as he tried to say she was justifying her actions. Instead she shook her head almost sadly, feeling a single tear escape and run down her face. "I never said it made what I did right, Tatsuo." she said quietly, finally lifting her head to cross her arms again as she looked at him. "I know its all my fault, Tatsuo. I'm well aware that I didn't just fuck up my relationship with you. I fucked up your friendship with your own brother. I got Koyama killed. Why the hell do you think I changed how I fight? How I operate?" She paused a moment, swallowing hard as part of her wondered if he'd actually answer her, or if he wouldn't.

"I stopped doing anything unnecessary to limit how much you or Kotaru would have to see me. I focused on my missions only because its all I have left. I changed the way I fight because I can't keep relying on others to be there for me. I isolated myself... because of what I did to you. Because I deserve it." Ume took a deep shaking breath as another thought occurred to her. 'And I'm still fucking stupid... just seeing me upsets him like this, if he finds out Kotaru and I reconnected? That we've talked about dating? What we've confessed?' Her lips tightened over her teeth a moment in thought as she licked her lips. 'No... I can't keep doing this to him, not matter what I feel for Kotaru... I can't keep hurting people...'

'I have to go back to not existing in their lives.'

Ume took another deep breath before she looked at Tatsuo again. "I'm sorry. I had no idea it would be you behind that door, this interview... I didn't mean to drag things off topic." She felt the cold returning but this time it didn't come easy. It was painful, and for a split second the child in her just wanted to run away like she used to always do. "Are we done here... sir? Or is there more I should know about this new partner?" she asked, trying desperately to return to the business at hand.

[Niro]

"You might not have said it was right but you're definitely acting like it was." He shot back, his royal purple eyes a lit with a restrained rage. Tatsuo leaned back in the chair and swiveled it around to the face window as he contemplated dropping the next bit of information on the young woman. Holding it back any longer wouldn't help, not when they were already at this point.

"I know you and Kotaru have been in contact. I know he's been to your residence in the Compound and spent the night. You forget I still have family who live there, who notice when their older brother is walking the streets with their eldest brother's ex-girlfriend. Sisters are some of the most amazing spies I've ever had report to me, in all honesty." Tatsuo said, just low enough to be enough from their positions in the room. "I'll be in contact with him soon enough as well."

[Willoria]

Ume rolled her eyes. "Like Hell I was. You're reading too much into it, I've blatantly said time and again there was nothing right about what I did." As he revealed what he knew, she couldn't help rolling her eyes again. "You're a fucking stalker you know that?" she spat at him. "We haven't even done anything. He stayed the night to sleep off a drink I gave him. I couldn't have him walking through the compound so drunk off a drink that he was nodding off on his feet. I've done enough bad shit to both of you without getting him killed on top of it!" That familiar feeling was returning, like an emotional cage around her person. Her arms and legs felt bound, her feet rooted to the spot. Everything she did to try and fix things fell flat, any attempts to be happy just destroyed those around her.

"You know what? When you see your brother tell him I'm done with both of you." she snarled. "Alright?! Message received. I'm apparently yours and no one else's. I'll go back to my missions and isolating myself in my little cage so you never have to wonder what I'm doing again." She turned for the door and straight up kicked it open, not caring if it would damage the door.

"I wash my hands of both of you fucking stalkers!"

[Niro]

"Saying something is different than the attitude you give each time you say it. Like you aren't really sorry, like you don't really care how it affected others, only how it affected you. What YOU lost. Not really caring about others feelings in the situation, even if you say you do, just to save face. Selfish, like always." Tatsuo lectured as she kicked the door open and began to make her way out of the office. "You automatically assumed my visit to him would be negative, a fight, something bad. So you jump to conclusions and make a scene rather than find out the details." Tatsuo chastised as she walked away, his voice growing louder as she did so. He didn't care who heard at this point, it just needed to be out there.

"I was going to tell him to go for it, good luck and all that crap but be careful but I guess I don't need to now!" He called in a sing song manner down the hall as he closed the door. He shook his head in exasperation at the woman. She never let him finish, almost always jumped to the conclusion rather than finding out the supporting info. Tatsuo felt bad for whoever walked into the office next, ready to draw ire they had no clue was there.


"Fuckin' hotheads."

[Willoria]

"Right, because cutting myself off for YOUR SENSITIVE ASS'S SAKE was selfish?!" she shouted back as she stormed out. When someone near by, Ume didn't really notice who, tried to shush her all they got for their trouble was a snarl and a hiss like she was some kind of animal in her anger. As she walked she pulled her hood back up and her mask, though neither would cover the fact that tears were streaming freely down her face now. She heard his parting shot, but didn't respond. Some part of her felt everything else in that office proved his words a lie, that there was no way he would do such a thing.

She was fed up.

She was hurting.

No mantra of hers would calm her now, and part of her wondered if her new 'partner' would have orders to kill her if she took things too far on her next mission. 'Maybe I'll push and find out.' She thought to herself, knowing that at least half of the bottles of sake she had bought the day she ran into Kotaru were suddenly in danger of disappearing overnight.