Welcome to Gaia! ::

"He did explain some of them." Yasashii corrected. "The one above the door for instance. "Unumijeha godd rapah qoa." There isn't a direct translation, but it basically means "May he who enters here leave better than he came.". He had it carved on his door, so I put it on my sign in memory." Yasashii smiled at the memory that brought up. The old man had indeed had words carved on his door, but those certainly weren't the ones. His had been similar to the "Paraphrase", but had included a warning about those who didn't pay not leaving at all, and seals hidden in the engravings to make sure of it. For one who spent so much time beating the violent tendencies out of him as a child, the man hadn't exactly been a saint himself.

"But no, I don't know what language it was. Zdura and I figured that either he or some ancestor of his must have come from outside the elemental nations. He taught us enough of the language to communicate using it, but we never mastered it, and never did figure out where it came from." the man shrugged, as if he'd put years of work into the task and ran out of leads, if he'd ever found any.

"Well, moving on a few years..." Yasashii began again, even as he pulled out a senbon and began lightly scratching the bracer, marking out where he had decided was the best place to position the seal. "Zdura and I grew up together, training under the old man in sealing. As a retired ninja, he tried to teach us some of those arts too. I gave up around the level of your average academy student, but Zdura took to it like a fish to water, and still kept up with me in the sealing studies as well. I'm a bit better at it than him still, but he didn't make it easy for me. His lessons in patience didn't hurt matters either, though they certainly hurt him. Our master put him to the grindstone, beat the violence and rage right out of him with his cane, and with the training he pushed him onto another path.

But all good things come to an end. Eventually, when we were a bit older, the master passed away in the night. After he was buried, we packed up, and moved together into the rice country. I started working for a bar in a small village. Zdura did odd jobs all over the place, until one day he caught wind of a group of ninja forming up in the country. He never told me the name of the group or anything, just took off to join up. I didn't see him much after that. He'd drop in every now and again for a visit, but his time was taken by the organization."

Pausing, Yasashii decided to give the boy time for any questions again, since he'd jumped a good space of time in a short while, and focused on the bracer more. Focusing chakra around his index finger, he formed it into a drill, the engraving jutsu he'd been practicing before the attack, and went to work gently carving out a shallow line for the seal's outer edges.

Yasashii shook his head, chuckling for a moment at Yamatano's question. That wasn't quite what he'd expected, but then he could be faulted for pausing at an odd time too. "No, I'm referring to the group he joined still. As I said, he never told me the name, so that's how I generally think of them. He called it the village, but also said they had no home base, so it was more of a term in the spirit of ninja villages I suppose."

"He was happy enough with the group. Said they were bringing Rice back to it's former glory, and better still. And I must say I agreed. The economy of the villages was improving, the people felt safe knowing they were protected, all was well. I even ended up running my own fairly successful bar after awhile." Yasashii paused then, from both his story and his work, leaning back in his chair with a smile on his face. He had loved that bar. It was one of the best things he'd ever had, though he hoped his little shop here could rival it some day.

"You remember what I said though, about good things? A few months ago now, I was on a trip, coming here to Suna in fact, with Zdura as my escort. It was a trading venture, to try and hook Suna on our country's finest sake. The last Kazekage was fairly well known to be a big drinker, so I figured the trading potential was endless." Yasashii chuckled, smiling at the boy before his face turned grave. "We were barely out of Rice when a message came for Zdura. An army of some kind, I don't know what or who, had come looking for the organization. They tore through the country, destroying everything they could find. A hundred civilians killed to find one ninja, and then a hundred more. I don't know how many survived. The message Zdura received said to run. Never come back, the organization, the country, was dead. So we kept going. I stayed here in Suna, had no money but what I got selling my sake and supplies, just enough to start this shop, so I did that. Zdura though, he didn't want to stay in the desert. Said he was going to head for Kiri and see if they would take him. So we parted ways, and that's the last I saw him."

Yasashii went quiet after that. The story was done, but the wound of losing his home was still fresh. He was skilled enough at controlling his emotions, and had gone through it more than the once, but it was still something hard to re-tell. If it hadn't been to help Zdura, he'd never have told the story again if he could help it. Especially when even he hadn't figured out the finer details yet. Much as it pained him to admit, Yamatano now knew just as much about the supposed fall of Otogakure and the Rice country as he did himself.

But, there were sure to be more questions, and he would be ready for them.

Yasashii looked up sharply at the boy's questions, anger flashing across his visage for a brief moment before he forced it back down, sighing instead. He was a child, he wouldn't understand. "I told you before. I am not a ninja. There would be little benefit in two men, one not even fully trained, in seeking out an army. And they won't come looking for him. If they were capable of that, they wouldn't have destroyed so much searching for the ninja in the country. They certainly won't come looking for me." The man sighed again as he paused to consider the boy's other question. Who could have done it? "Who could have done it? That question has kept me awake every night since I arrived here. Who would destroy an entire country to get at a few people? People who weren't even hurting anyone. They weren't a threat to anyone. According to Zdura, their only purpose was to keep the country safe, and prosperous. And they were doing a good job of it. So who would, who could destroy that? I don't know. I wish I did."

Another sigh, and Yasashii leaned back down on his desk, arms crossed in front of him. It hurt more than he'd like to admit that he hadn't even a clue of who had done it. The only hint he could think of was that it was somehow, yet again, related to Orochimaru. The man should have been dead long ago, but if anyone could survive that long, and pull off an attack like that, or even have the motive to do so, it would be him.

Yasashii sighed once more, his face curving into a permanent frown as Yamatano continued to pressure on a matter he had believed fully explained, even asking two questions he'd already explained that he didn't know the answers to. "I already told you I don't know much about the organization. Only that Zdura was a member of it, and that they sought to protect the Rice country. The country has been through a lot of difficulty over the years. War after war has torn through that tiny country, caught in the middle. The organization's main goal was to keep foreign powers out, so that the country would be protected from yet another war. Obviously, that goal failed." the last sentence was spoken with no small amount of bitterness. While he was sure that if he and Kye had been present, things could have gone better, perhaps Otogakure could have been saved, having no power now over it as he did was a hard pill to swallow.

"Is it overkill to slaughter a village in search of a man? To burn a house the destroy a book? Whether the organization held power or not, yes. It was overkill. From what little I know, nobody knew the faces of all the members of the group but the leader of it. Each ninja only knew of two or three others, and only a few knew the leader. That is why I say they won't be looking for Zdura. How could they, without knowing who was a ninja and who was a farmer? If they knew, there would never have been a slaughter."

Once more, Yasashii sighed, going silent for a short time as he stared downward, looking at nothing but his memories. But, Yamatano had asked another question, hadn't he? Perhaps the most important. "Familiarity." he finally answered, looking up again. "I don't know if you've ever been to Rice country, but it's a very, shall we say, wet, country. Rice fields cover every hill and rivers run through every field. It's not quite the same, but water country would feel far more like home to Zdura than the desert, or the forests of Fire, or even the mountains of Kumo, barren as they are. And if you had to pick a new home, a place to do the only thing you know, wouldn't you choose the closest to what you knew?"

"Mmm." Yasashii simply hummed in response to Yamatano's long silence and simple response. It was simple to see something in the story troubled him, but without knowing what, he had no way of... Repairing, the boy's perception. So, he simply held his tongue, choosing instead to focus on the final details of the seal. For the most part, the seal was complete, just needing a couple more minor etchings. The designation, specifically. But that was simply and quickly done, a few short motions of his hand and that was complete.

With the seal complete, the chakra around his finger dissipated, and the man set it gently against the edge of the seal, silently allowing his chakra to flow into and through the pattern, guiding it carefully through the metal etched paths, and leaving a light remnant behind. A few seconds of this, and he stopped, looking up, and lifting his hand from the metal. "It is complete." With that, he picked up the bracer, laying his hand against the seal and letting chakra flow into it once more, activating the seal, before turning the bracer, and seal, to face the boy before him. "Try it out." Yasashii offered, smiling slightly once more, his eyes trailing towards the boy's weapon pouches, obviously intending for the boy to throw something at him. It was evident from his reactions earlier that he wasn't entirely trusting of seals, or at least not Yasashii's for some reason. Allowing himself to be the target during a test should prove the seal's trustworthiness to the boy, if not his own.

As Yamatano threw his weapon, Yasashii didn't move at all, simply watching the object fly towards him, towards the bracer. it was a short flight, but as the shuriken neared the bracer, within a couple of feet, it began to slow, and then curved it's flight path, moving slightly to the left before ever so slightly picking up speed again, and flying into the wall, merely bouncing off and clattering to the floor at it's reduced speed.

Yasashii smiled at the successful test, and set the weapon down, sliding it forward for Yamatano to come and take. "The more chakra you give it, the larger and stronger the effect will be. I gave it about as much as an E rank jutsu would cost, for a field of about... Two and a half foot radius." the man explained, still with a smile, much happier to be dealing with his art than his past. "That will be... Forty gold I think. Still working out my pricing."

"And... Could I ask you for a favor, Hatake san?" he added, a slight frown crossing his visage once more.

"Heh. I hope it takes more than that to impress the longest standing kage in the modern world." Yasashii chuckled briefly at the boy's exclamation. Taking a moment to organize his request, the man bent over, plucking the boy's shuriken from the floor and holding it out to be returned.

"Yes. I expect you can guess what I need too. I've been meaning to establish contact with Zdura, but he hasn't sent me any contact information yet. I suspect he hasn't had the time. I'd be most grateful if you could carry a letter to him on your way home. I'm fully willing to pay the usual price for such a task too. A C rank mission fee if I'm not mistaken?" he finished speaking, a hopeful note in his tone. Yamatano would prove a convenient way to establish quick communication with Zdura, which otherwise could take another month or two until Zdura was able to make contact himself.



Should only take one or two more rounds and you'll be free to head home at last! Yay!

Random note, since you referenced it in your post, the Hiku/Hesu set could actually be used to pose as a Jiton user if you had the skill and precision. XD

Aw man, I'm sorry! I didn't realize you'd posted already. ... Which is actually fairly pathetic considering you quoted me... How did I miss this?



Yasashii smiled again as Yamatano accepted. What the boy had taken for apprehension was simply concern that the request might be declined. Some ninja would refuse to take on a secondary mission such as this, others might have been suspicious of the request, as paranoia seemed to be a growing problem among ninja. "I'm sure it will still reach him sooner than if I waited for him to contact me." Yasashii responded to the boy's warning, still smiling amiably. "If you'll wait here a moment, I'll have it ready in a couple minutes." with that said, the man grabbed several sheets of paper and writing supplies from his desk, and retreated through the back door and upstairs to his living quarters to write in privacy.

Or rather to seal in privacy, as he quickly sketched out a few memory seals, copying his recent experiences in Suna, and especially his meetings with Kye and Yamatano into the seals. One last sheet was quickly transformed by deft fingers into an envelope, which he filled with the memory seals, and then sealed itself, both with a common wax seal, and a security seal, such that no one but himself or Zdura could open the letter. Not that anyone would realize that until they tried to open it.

The process finished within a few minutes, Yasashii returned downstairs and handed off the letter to Yamatano, before digging around under his desk, pulling out his strongbox. Opening it up, he pulled out a small sack, and filled it with several coins before closing the chest and returning it to it's storage place, and then handing the sack to Yamatano as well. "Four fifty. I believe that's the going rate for courier missions?"


{I got nothing more, so unless Yamatano has further conversation topics, you can head out now.}