Salvation (Private, NK)

Rin was moving on high speed through a forest. For the last few days he had been deep in thought. The way Aoitsuki failed, Sameonna disappeared and then he found out that while he was gone his home village Kirigakure has been destroyed. He spent almost a week hunting for information about its destruction, visiting clubs and taverns, villages and towns, bribing or threatening people, running errands or teaching a lesson. Anyway he learned enough. The ones responsible for Kirigakure's destruction were a group called Akatsuki and shinobi from village hidden in Volcano - Funkagakure, which now became a major village taking Kirigakure's place. From everything the boy pieced together that the attackers also obtained Kirigakure's Bijuu, Sanbi, from the last Mizukage. Whether they did it before the attack on the village or during it remained unclear.

With one final step on a branch Rin left the shade of the forest and entered wide open plains. From here he could see the village and even its gates. He made his way in that direction hoping this was the right approach, hoping it would turn out the right way. When he was getting closer to the gates the boy removed his slashed Kirigakure's headband and hid it under his cloak - there was no need to be assumed as a major threat all of a sudden. When he was in sight's range of the guards he saw them already pretty alerted, which was no surprise as he was a complete stranger to them. Looking through the gates he saw a couple of ANBU on the roofs. If he tried anything stupid the would quickly get into a sticky situation. Rin spoke to the guards. "Hail, my name is Rin Taiki. Do not be alarmed, I am not here to do harm to your village, I merely wish to speak to Tenkage. I would appreciate if you let him know about this right away." He would then wait for the message to be delivered, standing still and thinking. In this approach was a risk. The fact that Tengakure did not assist his home village in time of need, which led to Sky Nation's fall and also the fact that now Tengakure was part of Fire Nation. This meant that Rin may have very well walked right into enemy territory.

Some say waking Shinji from his sleep is like kicking a horent's nest. Naturally he always disagrees. After all, what type of hornet can clone itself a hundred times over and kick your ass simultaneously? Shinji had been resting-he had finished all his paperwork and had a brief meeting with the elders. In all honesty he had had it with all the meetings he had been forced to go to lately. It was always "Tenkage this" "Tenkage that" and worst of all "Tenkage, our budget does not balance". What he really needed was a vacation, but that was a luxury he could not afford, so instead he sought refuge in taking naps and relaxing in one of the steam rooms on the lower levels of the Kage skyscraper-naturally not without the lovely ladies that made up his ANBU squad. However, right now Shinji chose to sleep. He had informed his ANBU to not disturb him unless it was absolutely necessary. Of course half an hour into his restful nap he was awoken with the soft words of one of his ANBU. Sitting bolt up right in his bed Shinji gave the ANBU a glare of death that sent the ANBU scurrying from the room. With an aggravated sigh Shinji forced himself out of bed-if this was another meeting so help whomever it was asking for it.

Not bothering to put on his kage robes Shinji wore his customary lab jacket and a grey shirt he found in his bedroom. And out of pure interest he wore a new type of clothing that he had just purchased, jeans they were called. To finish off his look he slung his kage hat over his shoulder where it would without fear of falling off. Not even bothering with shoes Shinji made his way down to the village gates barefoot. Upon nearing the gates one of his ANBU informed him of a certain man, named Rin Taiki, who wanted to see him. Shinji merely assumed a blank face and moved on without even acknowledging his ANBU-right now all that mattered was finding out who exactly woke him up from some of the only time that was truly his own and making sure it would not happen again.

Finally arriving at the gate Shinji took a seat below the archway made by the gates and yelled out for all to hear: "The Tenkage is here!.....Who ever the hell woke me up better have a damn good reason." Shinji was not up for formalities right now. Honestly he wanted to sock the one who dragged him out of bed. It was the stress and the profound lack of sleep that had gotten to Shinji. As he waited for a response he planned his vacation, but despite his mind being on a break his eyes were honed on the lone shinboi before him that was supposedly Rin Taiki-the one his ANBU had told him about. Rin would only see the face of a tired kage. Not one that betrayed the inner workings of Shinji's mind.

After a while a new figure appeared at the gates. It was a man wearing a lab coat. At fist Rin did not realize who the person was until he noticed the kage hat handing over man's right shoulder. In overall appearance the person looked fairly carefree, but his face revealed obvious exhaustion. And it was fairly safe to assume that negative attitude would come with it. The kage sat down below the archway of the gates and shouted for all to hear. "The Tenkage is here!.....Who ever the hell woke me up better have a damn good reason." Rin was right. This probably wasn't the best time, but he could not have known. On top of that the kage was unfamiliar to him, he thought he'd recognize him, but they must have elected a new Tenkage. Rin had to be careful about this. Seeing a new Tenkage could mean that Tengakure has fallen to complete influence of Konohagakure. On the other hand seeing the Tenkage so tired made Rin doubt that assumption. Either way, Rin could not bee too straightforward, nor could he allow himself to sound too complicated to the tired kage. He decided to lean towards to straightforward side, but be as careful as possible. The Tenkage was looking at him, which meant he probably already knew who was responsible for his unfinished nap. Rin looked around. There were even more ANBU around now. He looked back at the Tenkage and began speaking. "As I was the one who requested to speak with you, I should probably be the one responsible for interrupting your sleep, Tenkage-dono. Truth be told, I am following after a man named Xyxer Gyojin, a former ANBU of Kirigakure. I have reason to believe he came to Tengakure as it used to be ally of our home village." With those words he revealed being from the Hidden Mist himself. "I came here following Xyxer's footsteps. To see a new Tenkage was a surprise to me, but it does not change my intention. I will reveal my intention once I know if Xyxer joined Tengakure." Not wanting to make it sound threatening Rin added "Do not be alert, regardless of Xyxer's choice I do not wish this village any harm." Actually there was a third possibility here. Xyxer did not join because he was killed here. But knowing the man's power, even the very tip, that Rin got to see, the boy did not take it to be likely. While speaking Rin remarked at the sight of the village behind the gates. It sure had its name for a reason.

Shinji's thoughts of a nice vacation on the beach were quickly dashed when the one known as Rin spoke up. A rather aggravated look passed over his face as he heard what Rin had to say. Despite the lack of sleep Shinji's mind was still sharp enough to draw a few conclusions. For one the man before him was no threat-if Shinji wished he could probably wipe him from the face of the earth, but there was no need for that. On the other hand this man may be searching for the Goyjin, so as to kill him. Honestly there were, so many conclusions he could draw, but Shinji chose not to jump to any too quickly. First he would see what this man wanted. But, even before that he would make sure the man was on his toes and hopefully scare him a bit.

Standing up Shinji would lazily make the ram seal. In a blur of natural speed augmented with the body flicker technique Shinji would appear about a meter away from Rin. To Rin it would probably look as if the Tenkage had merely disappeared and reappeared in front of him. Shinji would attempt to meet eyes with Rin and glare deeply into them. On top of all the things Rin had done, which was not much, he had used an honorific to refer to him. No doubt unknown to Rin Shinji could not stand the honorifics-they seemed superfluous. Being called Tenkage was enough for him. Now, continuing in a rambling sleepy tone Shinji spoke to Rin: "He may have come by here...Then again he may not have...Quite honestly I cannot remember. What does it matter if he is here or not?....I am more interested in why you are here and why you think you have the right to disturb my sleep." Shinji knew he was being unfair to the man: how could he know that he was disturbing his sleep? Regardless he needed someone to blame and as it turned out Rin was the one. Furthermore he chose to ignore the part about the "new Tenkage" for now-why should he answer to a missing ninja as this man obviously was. Unless of course village ninja made a practice of not proudly wearing a headband of their village.

After hearing Rin out the Tenkage stood up and prepared a single hand seal. Rin could respond by making his own seal, but against a kage it would probably not do him too much good. He decided to take the chance - if Xyxer did join Tengakure, then the Tenkage attacking him was unlikely. Of course if Tengakure considered him an enemy because of it's clear affiliation with Konohagakure, then Rin could be in a real danger now. Still, if that was true then Xyxer would have been considered an enemy and attacked too, in which case he would not let Rin just walk into such a trap... hopefully. The Tenkage disappeared with a Shunshin technique, at speed Rin doubtlessly could not match even with his own Shunshin and at this time trying to substitute was already too late. The boy's eyes narrowed as his body automatically prepared for an impact.

A moment later Tenkage appeared right in front of him, in arm's range. In a way surprisingly he did not have a threatening stance, which was a good sign. Their eyes met. Rin was shorter, so he had to look up a bit. The Tenkage was focusing on his eyes and since backing off was a wrong answer Rin simply had to withstand it. In the background he could hear the voice which sounded a bit sleepy. "He may have come by here...Then again he may not have...Quite honestly I cannot remember. What does it matter if he is here or not?....I am more interested in why you are here and why you think you have the right to disturb my sleep." Apparently the Tenkage did not want to give the information away until he knew Rin's intention. Because he was not attacked the moment ago, Rin could assume that either Xyxer actually did join Tengakure or the man in front of him is just being merciful. Either way the boy did not have much to lose by revealing the truth. He began speaking while getting his slashed Mist headband from his sleeve. "As I've said, me and Xyxer are both from the Hidden Mist. We did not know about the attack and if we did, we would probably have stayed. But we didn't, we both left with the Sannin Sameonna. If you want I could tell you the whole story later, but now I'll cut it short. The Sannin is missing and we recently found out about our home village being destroyed. We're not village ninja nor missing ninja..." Rin went all out. After throwing his slashed headband at Tenkage's feet, revealing it he slightly bowed his head. Kneeling down would probably be an overkill. "Tengakure was the only ally Kirigakure had. I have nowhere else to go, if Xyxer did join this village then I ask you to let me join too." Rin had a feeling Xyxer was here... Otherwise Rin is in trouble now.

Shinji's face turned from sleepy to interested-there were those two names again Xyxer and Sameonna. With his mind in a slight fog he could not remember particulars about either. Then again the files of the village did not reflect much about either of them. A short brief smile would flash across Shinji's face one second and in the next second it would be gone. Rin would no doubt be able to clear up a few things regarding at least one of these people-Xyxer the man Shinji had allowed into the village naught, but a few days ago. In a world of chaos information was a stronger weapon than any sword. As such Shinji's voice took on a new stronger resolve than before and would speak: "The hidden Mist, eh?...Tell me more about this Xyxer fellow. Also, to speak bluntly, I request that you also tell me exactly why you left the Mist in the first place." Honestly Shinji was still a bit pissed off about being woken up, so he resorted to asking questions. Either way these questions would need to be asked at some point, so why not now? Waiting for a response Shinji continued to gaze at Rin with a cold sleepy stare that seemed almost vacant if it were not for a slight twinkle in his eye.

{Sorry for the short post-its been a long day..}

{No worries, this was more than enough. I will live even without you describing your childhood problems or your shoe color...}

Shinji's smile slipped unnoticed as Rin was bowing his head and waiting for a response. When Rin finally heard the response, those words sounded in a slightly different, stronger tone. "The hidden Mist, eh?...Tell me more about this Xyxer fellow. Also, to speak bluntly, I request that you also tell me exactly why you left the Mist in the first place." The boy raised his head and looked back into Tenkage's eyes, trying to glean into his goal of those questions. Was that simply because he wished to know more, so he could make a more accurate judgement, or did he simply try to gain as much information from Rin as possible before... His eyes did not give away much, other than that the man was not fully concentrated on the conversation, which could be pinned on being recently woken up from sleep. Also Rin noted that the man avoided his request to let him join. Rin sighed, he will tell some more. It's not like he knew everything about Xyxer himself, in fact the guy's past was pretty much in dark to him. "Alright... Xyxer was an ANBU captain back in the Hidden Mist. Back when I was a Genin I had a chance to spar with him together with a man named Kenchi, or at that time he went with a nickname "Jinn". Xyxer was strong, but he wasn't harsh or unfair to us, it was later that I learned that he had a pretty scary reputation. Truth be told he never lived up to that reputation in front of my eyes..." Rin paused a bit, he decided to skip the whole accident with Shino. He remembered Xyxer playing a part there, but since he did not know all the details he did not want to reveal it in wrong light. "...Then we left. Or they left, to be more exact. I happened to notice it, so I trailed them after I realized they were together with the legendary Sannin. A bit later they confronted me and after hearing Sameonna's goals I decided to join them. The rest I already told you - the group disbanded. If you want to know why I went against my orders and followed them, then I'll let you know that Sameonna was considered worth leading the Mist. She was stronger than the last Mizukage. She was worth leading us and it was worth leaving the village for, especially if it was so I could protect it... which I failed miserably." Rin finished by toning down into a soft landing, saying the last words almost in a whisper. He felt guilty for abandoning the village at the time of need. His expression slightly changed and if the Tenkage was good enough he could probably read the guilt in his face. Rin was no longer looking at the man's eyes, he was looking down at the Mist's headband between them. Rin still had the Mist in his heart, he always will. Dropping the headband was a gesture that he is willing to sever any past connection to serve Tengakure, without any personal agenda. Hopefully the Tenkage understood it. The boy leaned down and picked up the headband, then waited for the man's reply. He felt pain in his heart. He needed a new home.

Shinji, for some reason, had the odd desire to describe his shoe color, but quickly remembered that he was not wearing shoes as he listened to Rin speak. The information was indeed helpful. Before Shinji had known next to nothing about either men, but now he had a relative wealth of it. Perhaps he would consider asking Xyxer to join his anbu squad, but that was for a different time and place. From what Shinji could gather Rin was merely a wanderer without a home. As it turned out Tengakure could indeed be his new home-a place of refuge; a haven. Shinji was nothing if not fair. He decided then and there to allow the man into the grand village. However, Rin would always be the man who woke him from his sleep-it would take time for this first impression to leave Shinji's mind, but in time it no doubt would.

Maintaining his more serious tone from before Shinji spoke up with all sleepiness gone from his voice: "Very well, you may enter Rin of the hidden Mis-or should I say Rin of the skyscraper village?" Briefly snapping his fingers an anbu appeared behind Shinji. This, as always, was Shinji's most beloved anbu for various reasons: anbu operative cat. She was shortish with beautiful long black hair and a nice body. Her appearance was only offset by the feral mask that adorned her face. After snapping his fingers Shinji spoke up once again: "As it is I will ask that you submit to questioning by this anbu. If you pass you will be given a headband. If not then consider yourself as good as dead. Furthermore I will ask that you surrender your Mist headband to my anbu for safekeeping. Also be aware that you will be monitored by my anbu. Finally if you do pass I am pretty sure you will find many of your friends from the Mist here as it seems they fled here after the destruction of the Mist. Now I must bid thee farewell." With that Shinji left in a burst of speed. In an instant he was back in his bed fast asleep-he still had fifteen minutes before his next meeting. All in all it had not taken that long in the least.

{Exit, you can control the anbu's actions (you will pass the test) just dont kill her or I will be back. In a nutshell welcome to Tengakure-please do not cause trouble.}

Finally the ice was broken and Rin was allowed inside. Tenkage called an anbu to escort and then question Rin, and then disappeared himself. The boy was okay with most of it, but he had to admit having to surrender Mist's headband did not come all that easy, even considering he was willing to hand it over to the kage just a moment ago. Anyway, he followed the female anbu with desirable looks. Rin noted that, but did not give it much attention - he had his policy regarding any relationships, though appreciating fair looks did not go against it. After walking a bit deeper into the village they entered a building with some more anbu inside. It was pretty safe to assume this was anbu headquarters or something similar, at least a station. After taking his headband away the girl had him seated at an empty table and began asking questions. Most of them were security questions, not steeping much into his past. Rin politely answered the questions with a faint smile. He was happy this turned out this way. On top of that the Tenkage mentioned others from the Mist joining Tengakure before him.
When it was over they handed Rin his Tengakure headband and assigned him quarters in the village. Before being left alone the boy asked the female anbu if one of those who joined from Kiri looked like Xyxer and got a positive answer. Now finally alone, Rin relaxed in his room dropping the stuff he carried with him all the way from Kirigakure on the floor and falling into the bed, immediately falling asleep.

[Exit]
[Joined Tengakure - I assume Chuunin rank?]