The Daimyo's Regards (Closed)

Ever since she moved to Kumogakure, it became a rare and serious occasion whenever Baruga met personally with her father.

Simply put, the Daimyo of Lightning Country did not have many reasons to visit his military capital. The further he stayed from any danger, the better. In a country where "only the strong rule", the last thing the Daimyo wanted was to be usurped by some awry assassination attempt that went off during travel, so he was shrewd enough to delegate most things that came in and out of his capital. Trips to and from the Iron Bank would be done by trustworthy hands armed with the finest shinobi he could afford, and the dynasty was never wanting in terms of able, competent messengers. There were very few things that could move the Daimyo from his court.

Among the handful of things that could urge the Daimyo to personally visit Kumogakure, only two were not immediate life-threatening crises: his daughter and his private storage.

The usual A-Rank mission parameters would be upheld whenever the Daimyo came. For this visit, four different caravans containing their own entourages would approach Kumogakure's gates at roughly the same time, but from different directions. It was a nationally classified secret as to which one had the real Daimyo in it, and which ones had fakes. ANBU, Jonin, and the odd Chunin would escort these caravans to their destination without being told which one was real.

It was an open secret that Baruga Ryoinsatsu was one of the only few (if not the only member) of the standard Kumogakure corps who would know which one was the real Daimyo. As was tradition at this point, she usually left her own home and took up residence in a safehouse at this time, where she would assume a different identity for a few days until the Daimyo came.

Finally, after all the pomp and circumstance, once the Daimyo came through those rocky gates, Baruga released her Transformation Technique, wait edfor the ceremony to be over, and then ran over and hug her father.

"Dad, hey! It's so good to see you again!"

"Oh, Baruga-chan! It's so good to see you again! You've grown so much, honey. Are you getting an uneven tan?"

"Please, dad, you know my complexion is as perfect as ever."

"Sorry, it's so hard to see. I do so hate that I have to come in the dead of night every time. Ah, how I'd like to see you in the sunlight whenever I come!"

"Daaaad, it's a security precaution. You're embarrassing me in front of my seniors."

Baruga's blush and nervous laughter caused the Daimyo to regard the shinobi team that escorted him in the first place, and the masked Kumogakure ninja all froze up and said nothing. Giving them a pensive look, the Daimyo fixed his face and smiled at his daughter once more, laughing at her plight.

"One of the many perks of being a father, after all! Your grandfather gave me all sorts of grief when it came to suitors, when I was your age."

"And I bet you're not gonna tell me about that story?"

"Mm, no. Alright, Baruga-chan, help these nice shinobi men finish their mission and escort me to my penthouse. I'd like to get up nice and early tomorrow to avoid the Iron Bank traffic: you know how those lines are."

---

Baruga, her father, and the usual entourage of assigned guards walked briskly and with purpose through the Iron Bank, the crowd parting like the seas wherever they went. Currently dressed in her finer civilian clothes, Baruga accompanied the Daimyo as his daughter, rather than as a genin of Kumogakure, matching his steps as she was trained to do ever since she was a kid who lived on his estates. The sound of their movement was clearly echoed throughout the hallowed halls of the bank, the loud percussion of marble followed by the soft footsteps of trained killers.

"Do you suppose your Ryoinsatsu bloodline houses a bank as large as this? I had asked your mother once, but she said something rather peculiar..."

Baruga flipped her hair smugly, matching her father's tempo as they turned a corner, being led deeper into the bank by their teller.

"I suppose my bloodline's bank is infinitely larger and exponentially messier, with far more minimalistic architecture. It's a pocket dimension, not a modern wonder such as this place. Who knows "

"So you suppose! Did I raise you to leave your toys strewn about wherever you go, Baruga-chan?"

"The Academy instructors taught me to clean after myself. You raised me to think the servants would do so, dad."

The two nobles shot each other a coy smile, father and daughter, before they laughed off their little in-joke as the teller unlocked the safe leading to the fortified deposit box of the Daimyo. Motioning at the shinobi entourage to shoo and not try to take a peek, Baruga's father made sure that they were facing away before he settled back into comfort.

Baruga just snorted.

"Like that would stop them."

"Peace of mind, Baruga-chan, peace of mind."

There was a click, followed by a wrenching sound, and then the squeak of metal sliding past metal as the vault opened. Baruga crossed her arms and watched her father enter his safe, expecting to wait outside until he had withdrawn what he needed.

She was surprised, however, when he extended a hand in invitation for her to join him. That... usually didn't happen. She thought they were just going to go to the bank and get brunch afterwards, but she didn't usually participate in his professional business. Tentatively, Baruga took her father's hand and joined him in the vault, after which the ninja entourage automatically started taking position to block the door from any intruders.

Now, Baruga was curious. She'd never actually been in her father's bank vault before, even though he came here a few times just to have his excuse for spending time with her. The Daimyo hemmed and hawed over his personal accounts, seemingly inspecting the crispness and the veracity of the several thousand bills of ryo deposited in the bank itself.

(Of course, the physical currency was just a contingency for if the Daimyo or his correspondents needed to withdraw physical money, and the several bills didn't even begin to touch the actual amount of money deposited in his account. For most cases, a check would do.)

She suspected, however, that the ryo wasn't his current affixation. Not when he invited her to join him. It had to be something physical, something non-liquidated. She was a kunoichi of Kumogakure, and pointedly dedicated to her duties, so she doubted it was any sort of dowry or other item for courtships. And she knew that if he wanted to give her a present, he'd give her something nice and shiny and new that she'd want, rather than something that's collected dust over several years in a bank vault.

She still couldn't fathom it, though... hm. She had a few theories, but they were all she could muster, and at a certain point, she couldn't narrow them down.

"So, what ninja-related object are you giving me? A weapon? Or maybe some armor...?"

"Ah, you're so clever, Baruga-chan! It's good to know that your mind is as sharp as ever. But neither of those things. It is a ninja object, though. One moment."

Her father beckoned her over to what seemed to be a shrine, except instead of any god, there were a series of antique items meant either for combat or for decorative purposes. An armory?

The gold-plated armor was definitely decorative, but she spotted a few relics that had seen actual use. A worn-out, battle-scarred samurai helmet, for one. Another was the shattered blade and hilt of a sword that was nearly the size of her, clearly rusted and worn from the several heads it must have severed.

Poking at a strangely-shaped arrow with her fingertip, Katarina's attention was brought back when her father made a sound of realization before grabbing a dusty scroll. Well, correction: he hauled a dusty scroll, about the size of her torso, out of a cabinet where it was taking up a majority of space, setting it to stand upright with its sheer volume.

The scroll itself had huge golden chains on it, bound by a single golden lock. The body of the scroll was a deep blue in color, with golden wave prints that seemed to be from a more antique era. The art seemed older than the Elemental Nations... then again, she didn't know her art history all that well. Her father fished out an envelope from his pocket, which itself seemed fresh enough to be sent recently. Her curiosity piqued.

"A containment scroll? It doesn't seem to have been sent to you recently."

"No, well. The scroll is actually a summoning scroll, sent to your grandfather as, ah, spoils of war. The key hadn't been found at the time, so it was mostly just a decorative gift, and he didn't particularly feel like hiring a locksmith for a scroll he'd never use. But!"

Her father opened the envelope — which didn't contain any letter, just an key. Judging by how easily it opened up, Baruga suspected that he probably opened it when he got it, and there was likely an explanation in a letter. Well, she wouldn't be one to pry, this time.

The key itself was the same shade of gold as the lock — and judging by the shape, seemed just as old. The whale tail at the end of the key didn't escape her. So, summoning... whales? She was no Kirigakure shinobi, so she wasn't certain how she'd use this, other than perhaps dropping a huge whale on someone, or using one as a wall.

"The letter said that the key was found by some shinobi of ours over the border, and that it passed hands to Kumogakure before someone remembered our family had the scroll. I hired some archivers to look through the records, and apparently, the original gift — the scroll, I mean — was a scroll for flying whales."

Alright, now she was intrigued. And incredibly excited.

"So, that means...!"

"Happy eighteenth birthday, honey! You're going to be a summoner!"

Cheering, the Daimyo and his daughter embraced one another giddily, and Baruga's hands were shaking when she pulled away. Excitedly, she picked up the scroll under one arm — easy for her, comparatively to her father — and held out her palm for the key. Confusedly, her father gave her the golden key.

"You're not going to open your birthday present here, Baruga-chan?"

"I'm summoning whales, dad, not salmon. I need to do this in a training ground. Or next to a large lake."

"Ah! Again, sharp as ever, honey!"

---

Becoming a summoner, Baruga knew, was a huge task.

After some digging, she figured out some of the usual requisites of being a good contractor for a summon species. She was expected to learn their culture, care for and nurture their children, and respect their elders. She was to use them effectively, embrace their philosophy, and above all else, never let them die under her care.

For most, this would be akin to falling out of the sky into a foreign nation and being expected to change who they were. In some initial signing instances, an immediate reverse summon was done, and this would literally be the case — especially if someone had the misfortune of not holding their breath when signing with jellyfish, or some such.

For Baruga, who turned away from her life of opulence to pursue her dreams of working as a soldier in the most militaristic ninja village this side of the Elemental Nations, she figured the whole "flying whale" thing was a safe enough bet that she'd survive.

After all, gold bent and didn't break, so she should be the same way.

Sat next to a large body of water, Baruga opened the summoning scroll, bit her thumb, and signed her name in blood. For good measure, she pulled out a stamp and provided the mark of the Daimyo at the very bottom.

...Well, she wasn't underwater. Now, then.

Boar, Dog, Bird, Monkey, Ram.

Baruga's hand touched the ground.

---

WC: 2056
- Whales of the Endless Blue [Mythical] Contract

Claiming 2056 WC for thread.
- Exiting Topic, entering Village
- 2000 towards Mythical Summoning Contract (2000/2000)

Approved

Forgot to do this:
Claiming 20 Stat Points
— Adding 20 Stats to Chakra

approved