[Chikamatsu Kiyoshi]

     Sekara. It'd never been his favorite port of call. It'd gotten a bit better over the years, but it was still a unsavory place. Kiyoshi stood above the port, leaning against a wooden railing. He was wrapped up in a simple disguise that made him appear to be just another Sekara resident.

     For various reasons, it wouldn't do to be spotted here. He was still quite new as the Kazekage, so it might not be a problem elsewhere - but his face was still quite well-known at Kaze no Kuni's coastal cities.

     His predecessor, Oonakayama Takato, stood beside him. He'd asked him to accompany him to the city for a few reasons: the first lay waiting in the harbor. A ragged ship flying a worn Na no Kuni flag bobbed on the waters, its hull rubbing against the dock thanks to poor rigging from the inexperienced hands aboard. The Land of Vegetables was no stranger to exporting goods, but these 'sailors' weren't a part of any merchant navy.

     They wore poor disguises, but the only people in the city who knew who they really were were Kiyoshi and Takato - they were Tanjo. Their vessel was loaded with a shipment of lumber, originating in Hayashi no Kuni - stolen from one of the Wood Daimyou's lumber camps.

     The shipment'd been promised to him in a letter from the organization's leader. Kiyoshi knew the nation needed that lumber, and more of it besides, especially taking into account his own plans for an infrastructure and naval buildup. Yet the diplomatic side of it bothered him: which is why he'd invited the Fourth.

     He turned to look at Takato. "Well - what do you think? Can we accept this?" he asked, unsure if doing so would offend the Wood Daimyou or have the potential to spark a diplomatic incident.

Oonakayama Takato | 302 words

[Oonakayama Takato]

This Is For the Future

For The Days To Come

The Lord of Iron kept his silence, appraising the situation at hand. His disguise, crude as it was, would not hidden his stature and posture. Arms crossed before his chest, eyes watching the harbor as a ship came close. As his face retained an air of patrician solemnity, his eyes shifted to his successor, his expression unchanging. It was strange, he thought, to be here with the person that assumed the office after him. How many times had the last Kazekage coexisted with current one? In history, perhaps he could just count once, at the very beginning of the history of the village.

"Under the right conditions." He said, after some short deliberation. "Which they need to agree to. The agreement was for a tentative meeting, nothing was penned about payment." He said, recalling what had being given to him during the latest meeting of the council. He assumed that whoever the wood daimyou had sent to deal with the negotiations understood this as well and sought to make the most out of the shipment. "They will try to sweeten the deal. Perhaps guarantee constant shipments for specific needs, whatever they might be." He added.

A shrewd negotiator would try predict what these needs were based on. If they had sent anyone that would be that sort of individual, they could ask more for premium materials. "The question is they have down their research and brought more than what was asked or if they have brought what was originally agreed to negotiate." He said, placing arms behind his back as he would step away from the view. "Now, I think we should meet them and I would very much like to be off this drags." He told Kiyoshi. "Lead the way, Lord Fifth."

Chikamatsu Kiyoshi

310

notes

MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Chikamatsu Kiyoshi]

     Kiyoshi smiled underneath the scarf that wrapped his lower face. "Certainly." He signaled to one of the men on the dock, gestured for him to follow. He hurried up the stairs and tailed them from a reasonable distance.

     As far as Kiyoshi was concerned, appealing to both the Wood Daimyou and the Tanjo was the best course of action - but how to best do that was yet to be determined, as favoring one side almost naturally rubbed the other the wrong way. But Takato would know best.

     From what he could remember, he'd had that same innate sense of justice and strong principles, yet flexibility - the things that made him such a good negotiator - back in the late 990's. Less cynical, perhaps, but he recalled that he'd heard good things from his team leader.

     Yet from the other side, sometimes he seemed a little inscrutable - Kiyoshi'd never been quite sure how Takato felt about him. He imagined his cousin's memory perhaps dampened his opinion somewhat, but he figured Takato wasn't one for flattery regardless.

     The pair, with their trailee, made their way through the cramped and dirty city streets for a while - passing all manner of filth. He made a mental note to try and 'clean' this place up. Before long, they'd arrived at a tavern titled after some sailor's vulgar saying.

     They settled down in a booth at the end, where Kiyoshi estimated he'd be best able to toss up a barrier between the two of them and the rest of place. The three ordered drinks. The Tanjo representative stumbled over his words - perhaps a little overwhelmed to have two Kage in front of him - but managed to explain the situation.

     The gist: The Tanjo's leader, Niina Nanjo, had sent this shipment as an 'indirect' payment to secure a meeting with the Kazekage to discuss Sunagakure supporting them with - as the representative explained - "training, legitimization, and military support." Admittedly, he said, he was merely a messenger - a full agreement would come with that specified meeting, to occur on the border with Na no Kuni.

     He unfurled a large map over the surface of the table. A crude sketch of Hayashi no Kuni, it detailed the locations of the Wood Daimyou's destroyed lumber camps - and other locations where Sunagakure troops, should everything go as planned, could find more 'reclaimed' lumber. Kiyoshi said a few customary words to the representative, then looked over at his predecessor with an inquisitive look, waiting for him to take the initial lead.

Oonakayama Takato | 417 words

[Oonakayama Takato]

This Is For the Future

For The Days To Come

Takato kept his silence, watching the proceedings. His mind picking appart everything in the exchange to give it a context within the unspoken. Keen eyes watching the subtle bodily movements, the quiet, imperceptible changes in expression. They all seemed very sincere but he could imagine there being a note of desperation behind them. Almost as if they were eager to put the merchandise they had brought in their hands and make sure that Sunagakure had deployed its shinobi before even the ink had dried on the paper. His eyes then followed the actions of the Kazekage.

His expression changing as he saw the crude map, eyes shifting to gaze upon the traveler that brought the request. he saw in their eyes some incomformity. Perhaps on how the map had depicted their land, perhaps that the response from Sunagakure hadn't been the most adequate one or the most desired. As Kiyoshi looked to him, asking for his opinion to lead the negotiations, the Lord of Iron reached for his glass of water, brought it to his lips and drank a quick sip, allowing the water to wash down before he cleared his throat.

"Pardon the confusion." He began, slow and deliberate with his enunciation. "These are initial estimations, based on our previous information and cartogrophical records of the area. To my shame, we limited operations into your country as we lacked the numbers and we were slowly building up our numbers." He said. flicking his fingers as a nebulae of iron sand rose from the back and settled on the map, the grains compacting one after the other by an unspoken command as they made a tridimentional representation to the area, as accurate as his own memory from studying what they had available could give, this included positions from which Suna could secure the area to give a better idea. "As ever, plans change and evolve and we can accomodate these changes, within reason of course." He added.

Chikamatsu Kiyoshi

343

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MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Chikamatsu Kiyoshi]

     Kiyoshi smirked as the black sand filtered over the map, leaned forward. The Tanjo carefully set a few markers down on key places of the map. Lumber camps, he explained, of the Daimyou's. One was already fully in the Tanjo's territory - the source of this specific shipment. He gestured over an area of the southwest of nation, de facto occupied by the Tanjo. Another, in the northwest, effectively occupied by foreign mercenaries from Law.

     The Kazekage's eyes drifted to the east. "We can't help you there," he said while gesturing at the border with Tsuchi no Kuni. "I won't let my shinobi anywhere near Earth. Can't rouse Iwagakure." He formed a small barrier that floated over the paper, tinting an area along the border in light red to demarcate a demilitarized zone.

     He leaned back, keeping many of his thoughts to himself. They possessed a good sum of desperation and impatience. Worried that the Daimyou would hire more mercenaries and push them out entirely? Or that, worse, they might hire Iwagakure or another village?

     Were they to get involved, it would mean a great deal of physical wealth for Kaze no Kuni. Vast amounts of lumber at no cost, certainly, which they could use for infrastructure or getting a navy off the ground. Yet Kiyoshi was still worried about international relations or undermining the role of the Daimyou.

     If this went far enough though, the Wood Daimyou could even be replaced - a secure ally on the border of Tsuchi no Kuni would be invaluable. "Well," he said to Takato. "there's certainly plenty in it for us. Lumber, an ally. I just want to know the risks aren't too great."

Oonakayama Takato | 279 words

[Oonakayama Takato]

This Is For the Future

For The Days To Come

The Lord of Iron agreed with all that Kiyoshi said. There was wisdom in keeping the impact of the operations that Sungakure could do in the country. It would allow freedom of choice on what to do should Iwagakure decide to expand their territory in any form of military operations. He imagined that there would chance of maybe use some form of disguise, learn the customs of the land should things come to worse, but he decided to keep that for another conversation with Kiyoshi in private.

As the emissary exposed the gains that Sungakure could win from this agreement, he kept his eyes on their guest. Trying to gauge the desperation, trying to see in that unspoken language about any sort of hidden deals that they had made with any other village and understanding, they were the option that seemed the most likely. It wasn't something to boast, but it was something that they could use to their advantage. An idea was birthed from that point and the Lord of Iron tapped his finger on the table as the emissary finished speaking, certain of what he would say.

"As the Lord Kazekage said, the risks are great, but so are the rewards." He commenced, allowing the silence to settled before he spoke once more. "And this deal would indeed benefit the village, our concerns are if your organization is found and with it our ties to you." He added. His eyes continued to look for those clues, is expression stern. "If we choose to go forward, we will need some guarantees, a form of information should any of your operations fall to any... let us call it intrusive force." He said, turning to Kiyoshi before turning to their guest once more.

Chikamatsu Kiyoshi

308

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MADE BY VEL OF GS

[Chikamatsu Kiyoshi]

     Kiyoshi nodded along with Takato. Another sip and a few moments later, he leaned forward over the table. With guidance from the Tanjo operative, he created another tinted barrier - grey - over the area which the mercenaries from Hoki no Kuni were effectively occupying. "Tell us more about these Law mercenaries," he asked while glancing at Takato.

     Those mercenaries had been known about for a while, in the west of the continent at least. They'd been taken into consideration for their upcoming collaboration with Kusagakure, and Kiyoshi wagered that if they ended up attacking their transports during that mission, they'd have a legal "in" to enter Moku no Kuni. And even if they didn't, the idea that they had would probably be taken as truth by most.

     "Well," the man started. "they're ashigaru, for the most part. Trained and quartered by a very rich citizen in the northeast of the nation. A ruthless oaf, really." The Tanjo looked disgusted. "Takes advantage of people, and the environment, but its' all within the laws of Hoki no Kuni - as to be expected." he sighed. "We wager he thinks he can make gains of an illegal sort outside of his home country."

     Kiyoshi sat back. No doubt they could secure a contract of some sort with the Tanjo, even if semi-legal. Perhaps if their caravan was attack by Law mercenaries, they could secure a contract with the Wood Daimyou, as well? From the outside, it'd look like above-the-board revenge, and they could play both sides - support the Tanjo while pushing Law out of Hoki no Kuni. He whispered as much to his predecessor, hand over mouth, quiet so the other man wouldn't hear over the din of the bar.

Oonakayama Takato | 285 words