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kouri-chan_xx rolled 1 20-sided dice:
18
Total: 18 (1-20)
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kouri-chan_xx Vice Captain
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 Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 1:07 am
Etna AGAIN?! Mistress almost up and exploded (not literally, that would have resulted in a soppy wet mess but that was probably nothing compared to the destruction already) but instead kept her cool. Well not really.
"Etna AGAIN?!" she said. "You b***h! Not only did you have to off Sin but you come here just because you got your crazy talking cat captured?!" Mistress' clone spoke mercilessly well, because she could, being a clone and all. She was so mad that she ignored Rain crying pitifully, not that she would have done any differently normally of course.
Seemed like Rain wasn't really listening, although she couldn't tell. The crazy and the mad were kind of like that. [OOC: Damn it Carlos I am picking up your RP style] After she finished telling Mistress part of her tactical plans, and as Rain was making the hand seals, Mistress' clone only had one thought:
'Guess she doesn't hate me as much as I thought. Da-'
[let's just say if I don't get a 20 I dissipate!]
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kouri-chan_xx rolled 1 20-sided dice:
15
Total: 15 (1-20)
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Posted: Mon Apr 13, 2009 7:47 pm
Andou strolled into the great white building casually. Not like he owned the place, or anything, but more of with the same apathetic grace he treated everything and everywhere else. Inside, though, he marvelled. If the building had been archaic, old, classical and all that before, now it was classical and all that and new. He didn't know how the Senju had managed to do it (and frankly, he didn't really care either, as long as it was done) but the building was back to its old gothic glorious self, minus all the leakings and squeaky pipes that had made life in it rather unpleasant... for the librarian before Harumi. Andou paused to give a few moments' silence for her memory before moving on.
He quickly reached the librarian's desk, and she looked up from the puzzles she was doing.
"Andou-sama!" she exclaimed in a surprised whisper. "What are you doing here?"
"Harumi-san," Andou acknowledged, injecting just the tiniest bit of warmth into his voice. He'd always liked her, much better than her sister at any rate.
"There's..." he pondered how much to tell her. "There's a special patient in the hospital at the moment. I just wanted to research into her identity. I have a feeling she's well-known enough for that... perhaps you've heard of her? Cerbi... Cerbi something?" Again, as he said it, the name felt sticky to his tongue. He'd definitely heard of it before.
Research into Cerbi's Past
d20 + int mod [9] + Research [0]
DC: 19
Successes: 0/5
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kouri-chan_xx Vice Captain
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kouri-chan_xx rolled 1 20-sided dice:
8
Total: 8 (1-20)
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kouri-chan_xx Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Apr 14, 2009 12:17 am
"Cerbi..." Harumi said thoughtfully. "You're right. It's quite an uncommon name and does seem to ring a bell... but not a very loud one," she finished with a small, playful smile. To his credit, Andou attempted to crack a smile, and his face did quite literally crack in his efforts. He must have pulled a muscle.
"I'll look into the records," Harumi said and shuffled some papers around. After about 5 minutes with which Andou occupied the time by looking around and marvelling at the amazing cleanness, luster, glow, majesty etc. etc. of the building, as well as observe the civilians in the library, her voice cut back into his thoughts.
"I'm sorry, I can't find any information on her in this," she said apologetically. She pushed her glasses up because they had fallen to the bridge of her nose and pointed a thin manicured finger towards the author tag. "She hasn't authored any books or research papers or anything," her fingers moved to the summary tag, "and she hasn't been the subject of any biographies or books or anything. But, but, but!" she added on with a small, yet happy smile. "I know I've read that name before. Somewhere. I know it was also a small mention... maybe one line. Not too recent, but still close, I think. I'd suggest looking in the periodicals section... starting from oh... a year ago."
Andou's heart sank at the prospect of having to go through these newspapers... the musty smell, the tiny print, the dirty feeling on your hands after you finished reading... and then he thought of the other alternative activity he could be getting his teeth into. Teaching his team the art of swimming. Oh, and cutting coral. Call him a wuss, but he'd prefer research in the library 'for state reasons', thank you very much. A sneaky grin made its way to his mind but failed to reach his face, because Andou was making the effort to keep his face blank. "Thank you, Harumi-san," he said, inclining his head for a short moment. "If anyone comes looking for me, I'll be there."
Research into Cerbi's Past
d20 + int mod [9] + Research [0]
DC: 19
Successes: 1/5
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kouri-chan_xx rolled 1 20-sided dice:
3
Total: 3 (1-20)
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Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 11:00 pm
With that, Andou strolled determinedly into the newspapers and magazines section, ready to start his search. Well, to be fair to his kids, he wouldn't stay long.
He began to flip idly through the records of the imaginatively-named Water Country Daily, starting from a year ago and stopping whenever he felt like it. Ah, a mid-December paper. Which section should he look into first. Sports? Entertainment? Business? World? Seeing as Cerbi was not a native, he flipped immediately to the World section and started to skim the headlines. Actually, this was around the time that Mistress had invaded Kirigakure, actually, and not much news had entered Kirigakure during her time in office. Andou supposed he could cross out those 13 horrible months then, which meant that this newspaper was probably void.
Research into Cerbi's Past
d20 + int mod [9] + Research [0]
DC: 19
Successes: 1/5
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kouri-chan_xx Vice Captain
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kouri-chan_xx rolled 1 20-sided dice:
18
Total: 18 (1-20)
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kouri-chan_xx Vice Captain
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Posted: Wed Apr 15, 2009 11:05 pm
He wished he knew more about Cerbi other than that she was skinny, female and starving. He didn't even know what country she was from! Although she wouldn't be in the bingo book because Andou had memorised the whole thing on the off chance that he met one of them just recently. The chance would probably be increasing since everyone looked to him as the leader now. Feeling the strain, he took this opportunity to bury his face in his hands, just for a moment, protected by the isolation and silence. Although he'd told Harumi to let people come find in, he hoped that she wouldn't. Or that no one would come.
Stretching his arms out and watching his toned muscles ripple... like the waves, like the water that was their lifeforce (and that his students couldn't swim in, he reflected disgustedly), he took a look at another pile. This was the March right before that December... around two years ago now. He flipped again to the world section and saw a huge picture of their previous Kage, Seiko. Andou wondered where that man had gone.
Research into Cerbi's Past
d20 + int mod [9] + Research [0]
DC: 19
Successes: 1/5
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kouri-chan_xx rolled 1 20-sided dice:
2
Total: 2 (1-20)
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 5:26 am
Andou skimmed the article dispassionately. It seemed that it was the article that officially acknowledged Seiko's disappearance. That had been the beginning of all the hell, he remembered. The village had been in chaos after that, which had made it all the more easy for Mistress to take over. There were a bunch of names he knew mentioned in the article too. The article was going on about how Seiko had been the latest Kage to disappear, like all the others before him. Speculationist rubbish, really. Andou had been surprised when Seiko, and Itou Reiko, and Pandora-sama never came back to work again, but it had never been his place to ask or even wonder why.
He struggled to connect the dots. He could feel that he was on to something, but it was quite frustrating when you didn't know what that something was. This Cerbi... he had the feeling that she had been through a lot. Maybe her village - because she hell as sure was a shinobi, no getting out of that one - had been through some sort of attack or upheaval. That really narrowed the list down. Not.
Research into Cerbi's Past
d20 + int mod [9] + Research [0]
DC: 19
Successes: 2/5
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kouri-chan_xx Vice Captain
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kouri-chan_xx rolled 1 20-sided dice:
5
Total: 5 (1-20)
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kouri-chan_xx Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:02 am
Try to think about it laterally... Andou frowned. He was the straightforward type, really. The only time when he wasn't being direct was when he was being sneaky on purpose, usually to hurt somebody. Like through poison. Or ambush. Gee, all this stuff was making him feel bad.
Okay, he said to himself, why would I know the name Cerbi? He returned to looking at how the newspaper sections were divided. Sport. There was no way she could be a sportsperson, the way she looked now. Although she could have been one long ago, he supposed... but anyway, Andou didn't even follow sports news anyway, so he wouldn't have heard about her from there. It was the same with entertainment. Andou didn't bother with the business section, either. He usually left those problems to the governments. All shinobi needed to know was how to kill and maybe, for the truly interested, why they were killing in the first place.
Research into Cerbi's Past
d20 + int mod [9] + Research [0]
DC: 19
Successes: 2/5
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kouri-chan_xx rolled 1 20-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-20)
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:21 am
Anyway, what was left was the World and the Local sections. Cerbi was obviously not a native of Kirigakure, not even the Water Country by any means. It was just obvious to someone who was. All that thinking had merely confirmed Andou's suspicions that she was/had once been someone important internationally, or at least important enough to warrant a mention in the newspaper.
Flipping past the article about Seiko-sama to the World section, Andou started to browse the headlines. "Grass Village Releases New Arthritis Medicine", "Sound Village Overrun"... well, Andou took an interest in the second article and began to read it, realising just halfway through that Cerbi wouldn't be in this article because she would only be in the articles he'd read before. Well, it was still interesting. Huh.
Actually, that added another thread to Andou's lateral thinking process. Aside from what articles Cerbi was likely to appear in, Andou would also have to consider what articles he'd actually bother reading in the first place.
Research into Cerbi's Past
d20 + int mod [9] + Research [0]
DC: 19
Successes: 2/5
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kouri-chan_xx Vice Captain
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kouri-chan_xx rolled 1 20-sided dice:
12
Total: 12 (1-20)
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kouri-chan_xx Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 6:26 am
As he burrowed deeper into the newspaper, Andou realised that he probably wouldn't have bothered going past the first page. He was just lazy like that. Besides, the Water Country Daily was trash anyway. After all the important stuff on the front cover they were reduced to reporting trivial matters such as betrothals and contests inside, and Andou highly doubted that Cerbi was married or going to be soon. Although, maybe, she was a widow... that, while promising, was just met with a big fat NO in his brain.
Casting that paper aside in disgust, Andou started on another one, one week prior. He made it a point only to skim the first three pages of the World section - the cover and the first two inside, since they usually held all the important things. During this process Andou found himself learning quite a bit about world history and could, in fact, connect these world events with some of the missions he'd been assigned. However, he was still as far away from finding Cerbi's true identity as he'd been at the beginning.
Research into Cerbi's Past
d20 + int mod [9] + Research [0]
DC: 19
Successes: 2/5
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kouri-chan_xx rolled 1 20-sided dice:
5
Total: 5 (1-20)
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 7:08 am
Andou closed the newspaper with a sigh and moved yet one week backwards. He'd now been through around four or five months of history now and still nothing. Idly wondering if he was going in the wrong direction and if he should change directions into the future, he decided to take a short break. He closed his eyes and allowed the silence of the library to fully wash over his ears. True silence was rarely found when you were a member of the council, it seemed. If you weren't out doing something you were in arguing something else. That was why Andou had volunteered to take a team, well, partially anyway. He wasn't going to lie. Some part of him had missed those kids, but another part of him had been totally opportunistic in thinking that his team could be a very convenient excuse when he wanted to skimp out on things.
Andou wasn't heartless though. He was beginning to feel slightly guilty about leaving the kids alone in the sea and figured that the quicker he was done, the quicker he would return. He'd better channel this unexpected guilt into doing something productive for the children before it faded. Grabbing the next newspaper with uncharacteristic vigour (and accidentally creasing the pages more than necessary...) he renewed his skimming process.
Research into Cerbi's Past
d20 + int mod [9] + Research [0]
DC: 19
Successes: 3/5
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kouri-chan_xx Vice Captain
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kouri-chan_xx rolled 1 20-sided dice:
9
Total: 9 (1-20)
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kouri-chan_xx Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 7:18 am
Andou wondered if he was getting closer to the truth. Why was he looking Cerbi up, anyway? What if she really was just some random wanderer and he was wasting his time? Discarding yet another issue and picking up one of the previous week, he began to think about his reasons. One could put only so much interest in the events of yonder before getting overwhelmed, after all.
Possibility number one: He was attracted to Cerbi.
No.
Possibility number two: She really was important, and thus, it would be advantageous for him to get to know her, and to come back armed with information.
Possibly.
But the more Andou thought, the more he realised he didn't really have a reason. That needed to be rephrased. It wasn't so much a reason as it was... an instinct. His brain had told him, "This woman is worth taking notice of." Whether it was in a good way or bad way was yet to be determined. Cerbi could easily be an axe-wielding serial killer, but she could also be in line to the Wind Country throne. No, not the Wind Country, she was too fair for that. Andou hadn't heard of anyone alive in the Lightning Country for the better part of 10 years, either. That left Earth and Fire, as well as the outskirt villages that didn't really belong anywhere.
Kusagakure, Iwagakure, Konohagakure, Otogakure, Amegakure and Takigakure.
Research into Cerbi's Past
d20 + int mod [9] + Research [0]
DC: 19
Successes: 3/5
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kouri-chan_xx rolled 1 20-sided dice:
17
Total: 17 (1-20)
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 7:26 am
Andou's thoughts on his intentions were getting further and further away as he fully concentrated on his task at hand. He pictured a map of the continent in his mind and crossed out the nations and villages that he knew weren't relevant. That left a landmass that, while large, was at least connected. It was also separated into conveniently-researchable sections.
Very well, he told himself. If he got nowhere after say... 3 months of backlog, he would look up each village and notable shinobi of each village. He'd even look up the bingo book again in case someone had fallen through the cracks of his memory.
Finishing yet another copy of the Water Country Daily, he went back another week. This was now... summertime two years ago, was it? It seemed like forever. Andou flipped to the World section and began to read.
Research into Cerbi's Past
d20 + int mod [9] + Research [0]
DC: 19
Successes: 3/5
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kouri-chan_xx Vice Captain
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kouri-chan_xx rolled 1 20-sided dice:
7
Total: 7 (1-20)
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kouri-chan_xx Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 7:29 am
His eyes now fully mellowed out by the probable tens of thousands of words he'd read up till now, Andou peered uncritically at the headlines. It was written during the time of Itou Reiko. Actually, it was talking about her disappearance. At this point, it occurred to Andou that perhaps officially taking on the post of Mizukage, which he had been considering doing, wasn't the best idea after all. After all, there were many other people stronger and more qualified than him. There was Karite-san, of course. Andou knew he was no ANBU. And then there was Nadiya. He'd met her only once, but knew that as of now, she was beyond his league.
And of course, Andou had no interest in disappearing. It was funny how in this trip to find out more about someone else, a foreigner in fact, Andou was finding out more about himself. Thoughtfully, he read about Itou Reiko, how great she had been, yada yada yada. He had a responsibility to find out more about previous Kages, seeing as he was probably going to have to reluctantly become the next one.
Research into Cerbi's Past
d20 + int mod [9] + Research [0]
DC: 19
Successes: 4/5
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kouri-chan_xx rolled 1 20-sided dice:
11
Total: 11 (1-20)
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 7:46 am
Finishing the article without many problems, he moved on. There was an article about the murder of the Kusakage - funny, those things were usually never announced in public for security reasons. From what Andou remembered, though, Kusagakure had been flowering two years ago. It wasn't strong by any means, but it would get there given a few more years. Kind of what he wanted Kirigakure to be, actually. The mention of the Kusakage was giving him a new resolve. He wouldn't let some upstart who got murdered be better than him. Apart from that, though, there was nothing interest in that issue.
On to the next issue, or should he say, the previous. There was nothing in that one, and Andou was quickly reaching the point that he'd resolved to stop at. He used that as a motivating factor to keep him going. Only three more papers, Andou, don't lose it...
Research into Cerbi's Past
d20 + int mod [9] + Research [0]
DC: 19
Successes: 4/5
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kouri-chan_xx Vice Captain
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kouri-chan_xx Vice Captain
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Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2009 8:05 am
He picked up the next issue, grimacing at the sticky feeling in his hands. He would need to give them a good washing once he was done with this. He shuddered to think of the stains he'd put on the various things he'd touch along the way. Better not return to your spotlessly white home until you get your hands clean, Andou...
Almost with the feeling that all this was pointless, he flipped to the world section, and was greeted with a smacking large photo with 8 smiling men and women in robes and that ridiculous triangle hat. Some had taken them off began they were bumping against each other and making it difficult to pose, though. Of course... the Kage meeting. It had been the only one of its kind in... well, forever. Kages weren't known for their diplomacy, or their desire for peace. Andou had a feeling that it would be the last one for a long time, too. Seriously, what were those Kages thinking? He would be surprised if any of them were even in their posts anymore. He knew that Itou Reiko certainly wasn't, and neither was that Kusakage... what was her name again?
Andou started to skim the article to find out what he wanted, and his heart skipped a beat.
Akki Cerbi.
Cerbi.
There.
Immediately, he abandoned all thoughts of looking for Grass-woman. After a bit more reading, he found out that she was the Hokage. THE HOKAGE. Well, ex-Hokage, anyway, if the girl in the hospital was her. He wasn't going to believe it until he had proof. His eyes darted furiously back to the photo until he pinpointed his target. That girl. This was more than two years ago, and she looked so young... by gods, she was the youngest out of all of them. There were two identical flamboyant-looking... Sand pansies, he resisted the urge to say it, but he did, standing next to her, arms round her shoulder. This Cerbi looked a lot happier and a lot healthier and certainly a lot fuller, not the rag of skin and bones she was now. And it was her. Now that he looked longer and closer, he could pick out the features on her face. That nose. Those colour eyes. The Cerbi in Kirigakure Hospital and Akki Cerbi, former Hokage were one and the same.
Of course, this would mean volumes for Kirigakure's security and political standing. Andou idly wondered how Konoha was doing now. Would they be happy to hear news on Cerbi or vice versa? Would it benefit Kirigakure to shelter her, or should they dispose of her? He didn't know what abilities she had, though, so he would have to be careful. Andou tucked the newspaper into his pocket, tidied the periodicals section to the best of his abilities and went back out to the reception.
"Did you find what you were looking for, Andou-sama?" Harumi queried in her light voice, and received a nod in reply.
"I need you to make a copy of this for me, Harumi-san," Andou said distractedly. His mind was still reeling at the implications of this. Naturally, Harumi read it too, curious, and her eyebrows shot through the roof. "Don't breath a word," Andou warned, and she nodded. In five minutes, Andou had a copy of the article, gloriously large photo and all, in his hand. Seeing that he had nothing much else to do, he exited the library.
[exit to Hospital]
Research into Cerbi's Past
d20 + int mod [9] + Research [0]
DC: 19
Successes: 5/5 YAY
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