[Zakku Burokon]

// Zakku //

I know I'm part of something greater than myself
Don't know the meaning, but I hope that matters less
I don't know anyone affected without a skill
I know I'm part of something greater than myself

Oonakayama Takato

Normally Zakku was called the Kages when he'd gotten in trouble or was caught with alcohol with his old Genin team.  He smiled softly at the memories.  They felt like a lifetime ago and here he was heading to Lord Kages office of his own fruition.  His green eyes glowed with intensity as his plans were finally beginning to move.  After getting his foothold into Sekara's underworld after his mission with Arashi and Asahi to Sekara, Zakku had been keeping ears open in the den of debauchery known as Sekara.  It was the perfect opportunity to get Sunagakure into the picture and get them a more steady supply of income from the place.  

Zakku had a personal connection with a few of the gangs the roamed the streets thanks to his supply of blunts but he needed to expand.  He needed one of the Greenhouses that the village used.  Standing outside the Kages doors Zakku took a deep breath.  This was about to be a big moment for the blue haired shinobi.  If this works he would be incharge of not only a portion of Sunas Finances but a huge responsibility.  Could he handle it?  He could just leave and go back to being a lazy stoner.  "Grow up."  He told himself and pushed open the kages doors and into one of the biggest decisions of his shinobi career.  "Lord Kage."  He'd give a respectful bow.  "Thank you for seeing me."

[Oonakayama Takato]

This Is For the Future

For The Days To Come

A throbbing headache had taken hold of the Kazekage. He stares blankly to the stacks of document, the ache beating rhythmically like the pounding of a marching drum. Even the flickering of the candles built up a pressure in the back of his eyes. He pressed eyelids together trying to dismiss the inconvenient malady to little success, only managing to bring ill temper to his humors. Releasing a sigh of exasperation the Kage leaned against his chair, his pressing against the headrest. Hands began to move through hair damp with sweat and bodily oils the product of a long day at work that had found him with little in the way of comfort.

News of his daughters tour throughout the world had been concerning and whence she returned there would be a stern talk. If anything she had taken the freedom that he had agreed she had to the very limits of what could be acceptable. The relationship with the fat blob that called himself lord of Kaze no Kuni had become strained of late as he began to complain that there had been a decrease of income from the land, even despite the fact he had signed on it, agreeing that more money brought for the infrastructure of the country was more important than money spent on his hedonistic impulses. A boy with a place to sleep and warm foot in his belly was more important than another concubine.

Lastly and no less important the problems from Sekara had, for better or worse, kept coming at a steady pace. Enough for him to consider getting all the promethium that the puppet corpse could produce to carpet bomb the area. Leave it as a lifeless, charred monument to the price of rebellion. The sound of door knock and a voice that brought a groan out of him returned him to reality, his hand plucked a glass of water, allowing the cold of the liquid to bleed through him before he spoke. "Enter." Takato croaked.

As the doors opened, the Kazekage glared at the bringer of chaos of his village. Certainly here to confess another litany of ill deeds that he had not known about as they had been lost in the byzantine mechanisms of bureaucracy of the village. "Has it been six months already Zakku? What you do this time?" Takato said as he reached for a scroll and began to unfurl it. "How much must I dock from you pay this instance?"

Zakku Burokon

429

notes

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Zakku Burokon]

// Zakku //

I know I'm part of something greater than myself
Don't know the meaning, but I hope that matters less
I don't know anyone affected without a skill
I know I'm part of something greater than myself

Oonakayama Takato

"But I didn't do it."  Zakku let out almost completely on instinct and shook his head forcing himself back to reality.  "It has been little longer than six months but I promise I haven't done anything too bad this time.  I actually came with an idea."  Walking up to the desk Zakku felt the usual intimidation he'd felt when being (at times rightfully) accused of doing something but this time was different.  At least he'd hoped the Kage hadn't known much of his Suna dealings before now.

"So I don't have to tell you Sekara isn't in favor of supplying us with taxes or supplies but there's a shake up about to happen."  Reaching into his pack Zakku removed numerous recruitment posters his clones had stolen from the place.  Each one a new recruitment offer for the local gangs with different promises some over exaggerated, Others weren't so much an exaggeration just wishful thinking.  

"Sekaras about to tear itself apart with the coming gang war and I thi-"  Stopping himself he reworded what he was going to say.  "I know I can unite everyone under the Sunagakure banner.  I just need help."  Reaching into his herb pouch he'd produce a sack filled with seeds.  Holding it out in the palm of his hand he'd show the fruits of his years of labor to the man that presided over the entire land.  

"I've spent years perfecting this and making the perfect strain.  I need one of the greenhouses.  Give me a month and I'll be done with enough of what I need to get started.  From there I'll use my grown product to help with getting the gangs to work together.  I doubt it'll go as smoothly as I want it to."  Tossing the sack up and down in his hand Zakku would briefly flash a confident smile before he caught himself and pulled it back.  "Once we pull Sekara fully under Sunas wing we bring that baby to life."  Gripping the seeds the blue haired shinobi would extend his arms.  "We don't stop the gambling or prize fights.  We encourage it in Sekara and make it one hell of a tourist trap.  The money we bring in from Sekara Casinos will liven the area back up!  Here i've drawn what I predict will happen."  He pulled out a drawing from his pack and held it up proudly.




"No I don't draw professionally if that's what you're thinking."  Zakku admitted proudly.

 

[Oonakayama Takato]

This Is For the Future

For The Days To Come

Takato remained quiet, watching the boy fumble with his words as he tried to explain a plan he had. An ill conceived plan the Kazekage decided, as Zakku went further with his madness. Albeit the fact that he had brought so many recruitment fliers and posters from that accursed region was commendable, the plan that he brought was no plan at all. Nothing was explained. Nothing was laid out in stages. Just the maddening thoughts of a shinobi that had been a trickster but nothing else. The proverbial icing on the cake came as he unfurled a sheet and placed it before him.

His face remained still as stone. Unmovable as the throbbing headache stabbed at his brain, trying to make sense of crude drawings using what seemed to be charcoal and crayons. Even his youngest boy could draw better than this and quickly he made a mental note to include cartography and writing in the curriculum of the academy. He looked at the boy once more, his face impassive, unreadable. Of all the possible suitors for his daughter, this was the one that vexed him the most. Zakku was by all measure odd, a strange occurrence that had seemed to decide to make the village his dwelling. He didn't know if Arashi was fond of the boy, but if she was, then dating him would be a cruel and unusual form of punishment for the Kazekage. A sigh, escaped his lips.

"Zakku." The Kazekage growled, his hand going to the drawer, brining out a small container of pills that he popped into his mouth with a flick of his hand. "What you just said is one of the most insane, idiotic ideas I've ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent explanation you came remotely close to anything nearing a rational thought." He pointed to the sack in his hand. "What is that, and why do I need to give you a greenhouse? Be expedient with your explanation."

Zakku Burokon

346

notes

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Zakku Burokon]

// Zakku //

I know I'm part of something greater than myself
Don't know the meaning, but I hope that matters less
I don't know anyone affected without a skill
I know I'm part of something greater than myself

Oonakayama Takato

Zakku could never read the Kage.  Lord Takato was about as unreadable as a blank book.  Breifly he wondered if Arashi really was his daughter.  Then came the familiar sight of the Kage taking a pill.  Then came the tone of voice he'd been used to hearing.  Annoyed and done with Zakku.  "Yeah that's fair..."  Zakku let out as he looked at the seeds in his hand.  "These are Hemp seeds.  They grow into a plant that I can harvest and turn into this."  Reaching into his herb pack he removed a blunt.  He started to move it towards his mouth stopping himself before it got close and instead held it out to the lord.

"When we were sent to Sekara I distributed a few of these and got into the good graces of a few of the gangsters that operated out there."  Spinning it along his fingers like one would a coin.  "I've been routinely supplying a few to my clones that I send out to gather information from the place and they've been delivering it to the gangs that still talk to me."  He knew he was revealing too much of his activities the Lord hopefully hadn't know about until now but he was in this deep might as well keep going.

"We can't do this by any of the normal bureaucratic means.  We've gotta use their methods and their rules.  No offense to everyone else but no one else can be trusted enough to know how they act and operate like I do."  Flicking the blunt into the air he'd wait to catch it but he missed and dropped it.  Cursing he'd reach and grab it quickly almost being a blur of motion at the rate he moved.  "That a little bit more detailed for you Lord Du-Kage."  He really needed to break that habit.

 

[Oonakayama Takato]

This Is For the Future

For The Days To Come

The Kazekage stared at Zakku with an incredulous look setting upon his eyes. He tried to give credit to what he had just heard, to come to terms with what Zakku had done, he kept doing and was planning to do. A thing that the Kazekage prided himself unto his ability to read people and understand their purpose. He knew himself as being a beacon of order, he knew other to excel in the role of the facilitator, the actor, the maker of things. But for all his knowledge, for all his sagacity he had failed to see what role Zakku could have in his village and the future he had been planning.

He blinked. Takato blinked and throatily exhaled, pressing lips as a shaking hand went to reach for his glass of water. The boy was chaos, he had always been that. Too wild, too unpredictable, too prone to do what he pleased if he thought it could benefit him. This idea was, like many incoherent, insane ramblings he had heard from him, illegal. The village had accepted missions to eradicate drug operations, to destroy millions of ryo, confiscate, analyze and frown upon such traffic. Skirmishes, battles had been waged against the gangs that like the vermin they were, seemed to survive the cleansing of Sekara.

Leaning back against his chair, he could already hear the sound of calls of hypocrisy from the nobility and from the other shinobi. "So." He said finally. "Your idea is to engage in illegal activities, using legal means, to distribute drugs and make capital to take Sekara? As plans go.... This isn't the most strange you've devised, but what is stopping your friends to turn on you? Or from your would be enemies to attack you?." He asked and thought, What would prevent me from unleashing promethium on that accursed land and turned to glass?

Zakku Burokon

328

notes

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Zakku Burokon]

// Zakku //

I know I'm part of something greater than myself
Don't know the meaning, but I hope that matters less
I don't know anyone affected without a skill
I know I'm part of something greater than myself

Oonakayama Takato

Would that count as a compliment?  He was going to pretend being told it wasn't his strangest idea was a compliment and keep going.  Spinning the blunt once again he smirked as he spoke.  "I fully expect there to be complications.  A lot of people hate change and are probably dead set in there ways."  

He stopped spinning the blunt and began tapping it against the palm of his hand.  "We make an example of them.  We burn their crops, poison their livestock, and deliver a plaque upon their houses.  Metaphorically speaking."  Sitting down in the one of the chairs Zakku leaned back in it making a finger pyramid supporting the blunt in the middle of it.  "Burn their crops, we Dismantle their biggest money making schemes.  Poison their livestock, We move into their market and start pulling in their money.  Then we deliver a plaque upon their houses, We force them out in their weakest and assimilate those that are willing to turn."  

To say he'd been plotting this for a while was an understatement.  After their mission to Sekara Zakku had began making preparations with what he already knew and was learning from his clones.  "We make an example of them.  That's how we stop those who wish attack us or turn my friends on me."


 

[Oonakayama Takato]

This Is For the Future

For The Days To Come

These were all solid plans. Or at the very least as solid as he had expected Zakku to provide. His frown slowly began to fade and for a moment he found himself somewhat impressed. For such a chaotic shinobi the way that the boy saw things rather clearly. Still this was the planning for what could very well be a government sanctioned gang war. Nothing unheard of but he couldn't imagine to keep something like this under wraps forever. In all honestly he would have preferred to gather all the promethium the village could produce and reduce Sekara into nothing more than a heap of glass. To have the green glow of undying, baleful flames and the stacks of smoke raising to the heavens as an epitaph towards any rebellion that might have remained unseen by his ANBU.

"Its clever." The Kazekage admitted. "You still fail to explain how you will accomplish on them turning against you however. Neuter their business is one thing, neuter their business after your head has been detached from your shoulders is another." He added, not a chide him but to challenge his plan. In his mind, it was simply more useful to unleash the might of the machinery created by the puppet corps and made the weapons available to their allies by selling them their allies after proving their effectiveness.

"About your plants, I must say I'm not comfortable with giving you one of our greenhouses for this." Takato admitted. The green houses were critical for the food production of the village and it was itself heavily tied with the production of many other goods that were necessary for the village to be running. Just one of the greenhouses would create a deficit. "And giving the inclination of most of the nobility that have funded the greenhouses against these sort of drugs, we would need to create a pretext or create a secret greenhouse to produce the plants."

Zakku Burokon

340

notes

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Zakku Burokon]

// Zakku //

I know I'm part of something greater than myself
Don't know the meaning, but I hope that matters less
I don't know anyone affected without a skill
I know I'm part of something greater than myself

Oonakayama Takato

Crossing his arms and rubbing his chin in thought Zakku had to admit Lord Kage was right.  Nobility would frown upon them using the greenhouse for him to grown his plants.  While it wasn't false his plants were often frowned upon by the higher ups.  But where else could he grow it?  There wasn't really a lot of choices Zakku could choose especially out in the desert.  Letting out a soft hum he tapped his chin.  Then it hit him.  There was one place he could go.  A place that used to be his second home.

"Then I can use my old teams Clubhouse in the abandoned part of town."  They had done many illegal things there from underage drinking to the numerous drugs they'd taken over the years.  Maybe that was why he was still immature.  Probably.  "I'll be hidden there and the locals that have taken up residency will already know to leave me be."  Zakku was surprised he hadn't thought of it earlier.  It was so obvious and he should have picked it from the start.  

[Oonakayama Takato]

This Is For the Future

For The Days To Come

"Your... clubhouse?" Hayato replied, dumbfounded that a plan that seemed to be rather well thought had a back up that was plainly... Well, just plainly bad. A clubhouse, whatever that actually was, seemed like the sort of place that such an illegal activity could be caught in the midst of a raid and that would make whatever plan that was hatched here, an exercise in futility. "No. That won't do." He added as he pushed his chair and rose from his seat, walking slowly to the one of the circular windows of his office. Eyes scanning the village as it shone under the merciless sun of the desert.

Stucco structures, raising in shades of ochre, brown and grey, some of the rooftops dotted with color, others with the green of gardens or plants that had grown under this sun thanks to careful tending. In truth, none of the green houses could serve this, not with the approval of the clans and the village council. But, he knew there was a place where the plant could be grown with little oversight from the nobility, at least as a first batch to see the suitability of Zakku's plan.

Rubbing his temples he would make his decision before turning to the boy. Looking at him, chaos incarnate, to whom he now placed in his shoulders the likelihood of peace in the western region of the country. "There is a place you can use. But I can't show you now." He added before going to his desk, drawing a piece of paper and a brush, dipping the tip in fresh ink, quickly making a map of the village, detailed in its simplicity before handing it out to me. "I will see here, this old structure. It is called Bhab Bastion." He said, expecting that the young man knew little of some of the bastions and structures that made the concentric defensive circles inside the village. "I will be there after dusk."

Zakku Burokon

343

notes

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Zakku Burokon]

// Zakku //

I know I'm part of something greater than myself
Don't know the meaning, but I hope that matters less
I don't know anyone affected without a skill
I know I'm part of something greater than myself

Oonakayama Takato

Zakku watched the older man go to the window and look out after shooting down his idea of using the old team 3 clubhouse as a greenhouse.  The way Lord Kage stared out at the village Zakku wondered what he was seeing.  Moving his body slightly to see if he could see anything but slowly moved back after seeing only the same boring village he tormented on the regular.  He was a bad kid.

Takato turning around and looking out his brought him out of his thoughts as he stared back at the Kage.  The same temple rubbing motion he'd become more than familiar with in his years of being alive.  Watching the kage as he spoke Zakku watched him draw.  It was a map to the bastion.  No to a certain spot in the bastion.  Reaching out for it when offered he examined the sheet of paper and nodded.  "Bhad Bastion."  Zakku repeated.  He was aware of the bastions but never ventured out.  Nodding his head he smiled at the head of his village.  "Thank you Lord Kage.  I'll be there."  He had to be dreaming.  There was no way the same man who'd once suspended him for drinking and ruining the chunin exams was actually going to trust him with bringing a type of peace to Sekara.  No it was real and it was happening.  It was his chance to show he was more than a nuisance.  

Gathering up everything he'd laid out he stuffed them back into his pack.  Tucking the map into his vest he'd make his way out of the office.  He could barely contain his excitement out of his step.  What would Kyoko Sensei say?  She'd probably not to get too full of himself just yet.  This was the first step of the plan.  He still had much more to do.