I've come to sleep with your Queen..again [Open]

[Also NK but there wasn't enough room in the title]

"You know I can't help but think I've taken a wrong turn." Takeo commented to himself with the weirdest feeling of deja vu. Well, it wasn't really his fault this time truth be told. Pig had an even worse sense of direction than him. Takeo couldn't help but remember this place though. How long had it been? Over a year, though two birthdays had passed by since then. Time had flown by it seemed. However little had changed with the palace from his last visit here.

Then again I hadn't seen much of it the last time.

A lot had happened since then. Many things had changed with Takeo. In just under a year the young man had nearly met his end twice. The man signalled to the animal that was pulling his wheelchair along like a chariot to stop. His faithful sidekick obeyed, and the two settled to a halt. Takeo's eyes scanned the area. The good thing was they were still in the public allowed vicinity at least. Takeo shifted his weight to the left, awkwardly tugging at the blanket draped over his legs to adjust it. It was plain white, Takeo wasn't sure why his landlord has insisted of him using it but he hadn't really had the heart to fight him over it.

This was where I met that irritating human for the first time.

His gaze flickered over toward the ever so familiar doorway. Two guards were stationed there. To his disappointment however, they weren't the same ones from before. It would have been an interesting encounter, if they had remembered him at all. The man waited anxiously for some moments. He half expected that woman to come waltzing out of the door at that moment.

When was the last time we spoke? Before I left for Sunagakure surely. How long ago had that been? How much has changed since then. The man questioned to himself, before shaking his head after a moment. It didn't matter. Her name would just be added to the ever growing list of people that had abandoned Takeo in his lifetime. The list was a long one, another name wouldn't make that much of a difference.

"Wonder what a man has to do to meet the Queen around here." He pondered out loud to himself, and also to Pig. The last time he had been stopped. The Queen had been ill, or something like that. He had been in this city for awhile now, yet it was still so foreign to him.

"Why exactly did I come here? Didn't he say something about me not having to stay in this...pseudo prison?," the male retorted to himself as he walked through the first set of doors in the palace. His eyes made swift yet subtle movements to fully sweep around the room before inching closer into the structure. He was...hasty about this to say the least and what was worse was that he didn't have a single idea of why he had been in here. Mo-ri had only been in this village for maybe three days or so with each day progressively becoming weirder and weirder. Luckily the shenanigans he had participated at in the Water Gardens...or was it the Training Grounds? Either way he had been most fortunate that no one had caught onto to the fact that it was him that accidentally ripped asunder the field a bit. Okay it was a lot with a bunch of trees and other things being removed from the vicinity, but the lucky thing was no one was hurt and that was a good thing in his eyes.

Dressed in his usual cloak and rugged boots, pants and shirt the male pressed on feeling the gaze of certain staff or guards looking at him with either disdain or curiosity. Either because he looked like a hobo or because he had just been walking around so leisurely that it seemed like he didn't care of his surroundings. Well one of those had been true because he had no real care and only his curious nature had kept him in this place, but maybe something would happen to the male or something. Turning a few corners he settled his favorite and only staff along his shoulders before stopping at a particularly interesting set of paintings in the hallway. The pictures of the royal family or at least that's what he had thought it had been. He knew at this point why Kyousuke had asked about his hair, all of these shiny creatures at blonde blinding hair. Reaching up to pat the top of his head he sighed for a moment and continued to walk about..

After a few moments he arrived at what would be an interesting turn of events. The blue cross eyes laid bare upon someone in a wheelchair. He had wondered for a moment if they had been lost or something, but when he realized that they had simply been sitting there his thought process stopped and he became curious. Slowly he walked up to the male of course making no moves that could be taken as hostile and stopped three meters to his right side," So what's on the other side of that door?," the question came out rather quizzical than obnoxious more so because the male had been facing in that direction. No mention of the wheelchair had been made yet or any attempt to look at his face, that was just rude.

Now that Takeo had time to actually sit back and look he had to say, the palace was quite a grand place. He supposed it made sense and all because royalty had to live there. Still, it was nice. The white haired man blinked. How long had he been sat here now? Time had a way of slipping by him more quickly these days. His mind had become unfocused whether from lack of general activity or something else he wasn't sure. Though judging by how the guards hadn't reacted to him like he was some deranged lunatic, it likely hadn't been all there long.

Once more he found his gaze flickering back to the door. His expression shifted as he gave a wry smile. Takeo wondered briefly what would happen this time if he pulled the same trick. Different guards, so perhaps a different reaction. No...best not. Takeo's expression returned to the neutral one of before. Takeo noted that his sidekick had wandered off during the time he had zoned out. Irritating animal. The man thought to himself with a shake of the head. Not much to do now other than wait.

It was at this point a voice broke through his semi-daydreaming. Takeo blinked in surprise. He turned his head to the right, examining the newcomer for a brief moment. Not a guard. The young man noted. A traveller from the looks of it. Drawn in by the fancy building no doubt. Takeo turned his gaze from the stranger over toward the door before replying. "Honestly I don't quite remember." He admitted, scratching the side of his head with his working arm. "The last time I was here some random woman exited from it and made me food. If I had to guess it would be the palace's staff quarters." It was a guess but Takeo couldn't for the life of him remember. The guess would have to do however. Takeo definitely wasn't going back to read a topic from a year ago just to remember.

He turned his attention back over toward the man again. "You don't look like you're from around here." Takeo noted. After a moment he frowned, idly shifting some of his white hair into his own line of sight. "Then again, I'm not really sure what people from around here are supposed to look like. Suppose it's the downside of not actually getting out much." Sometime as he spoke his hand dropped back down to the arm rest of the chair. "Name's Takeo by the way." He added as an afterthought.

A door that lead to either new mysteries or sudden disappointment. A furrow of his brows showed slight curiosity to see yet he could tell a door guarded by guards clearly needed some form of identification or authorization. That made this quite...perplexing indeed but at least the male in the wheelchair had been generous enough to let him know. Speaking of he turned his head slightly to look at the male more, angling his head down just a bit to get a better look at him at least from the side he could. He had seen the wheelchair and noted the white hair when he walked up to him, but only now did he notice a few things. His face for the most part had been mysterious to him until the white haired entity had turned to give him a brief look. In that moment he had took in the facial features of the male and committed them to memory for a few seconds. It was at that moment he smiled and looked at the door once more curious to how the male had gotten in such a state.

The man was no chakra reader and he wasn't going to assume the male was a ninja though that possibility was possible. Maybe he had lost his ability to walk in a fight or something and thus was restricted to the wheelchair? Or maybe he had simply been ill from birth and his body had been ravaged by disease. This guy didn't want to make an ass out of himself so he'd simply wait and ask at a later time. He had to admit however that the white hair was pretty badass, but Mo-ri wasn't the type to fanboy over someone. With the new information he made a guess it held a kitchen behind those doors, but the woman intrigued him more. There had been much talk about certain women because of another topic so he didn't actually go around asking people about her, but if this place an area he could grab some quick information maybe he would do it.

A small smile crept upon his face when the male went on to say that he didn't look like he was around here in which he responded in kind," Well you are right about that. I'm just a vagabond that was found near the moon country borders by a ninja from this village. I guess you could say curiosity brought me to this castle...well that and word has it that this place has a nice library," admittedly he only heard this from a child so...it wasn't much to go on to be honest. The urge to ask the male what had happened to him increased as time went on until the male introduced himself as Takeo. A smile would form along his face before he turned to face the door," Mo-ri. Nice to meet you Takeo. So...if you don't mind me asking what happened?," of course with a question so vague the possibility of it being misconstrued was high, but we know better than to assume someones actions.

The man nodded slightly when the reply came. The most interesting part was that Hoshigakure had shinobi going out as far as the country of Moon. It seemed their reach was extending ever so slowly. He would keep that in mind for future. Takeo couldn't help but feel slightly odd. Having a conversation with another human being. It didn't feel right for him honestly. Then again neither did actually being outside these days. The man had rarely done anything during his 'time off'. The lack of activity had dulled his social skills. Almost to the point where he had forgotten how conversing with a human actually worked. It was kind of sad.

Takeo gave a slight nod when the man spoke his name. "Likewise." He replied, then took a moment of pause when the question was asked. An amused expression etched itself onto his features. A vague question. Though the awkward nature of it being asked made it's meaning clear to Takeo. The wheelchair bound man was conflicted however. The answer itself was rather straight forward. In fact it was too straight forward. Would it be best to just stick with the truth. Another simple answer may suffice. Would divulging such information be dangerous? Takeo wasn't quite sure. In the past he had been quite open about most things.

Still, this was a touchy subject at best. "I was on my way back from Sunagakure from a job." He began to explain. The man paused once more, trying still to figure out how best to go about this. "Crossing over to the Shadow Country I was ambushed by a large beast of some sort, a shinobi's summon perhaps." Takeo had decided to simply recount it pretty much as it went. The best course of action had been to omit any mention of the tailed beast itself, a simple enough replacement was found. "It caught me off guard and wounded me. We skirmished across the Shadow Country until we arrived back in Haven. It was there that I defeated the creature. It did a number on my body though." Takeo delivered it as he would have a mission report, though the manner was slightly less serious and more abridged than it normally would have been.

"Now I found myself waiting for my legs and arm to recover. It's awful boring."

Huh. The more he had listened to the males story it became a little clear that the white haired individual that was in front of him was a bit of a badass. Fighting a summon from the Shadow country to here must have been not only rough but incredibly strenuous on the body. To see that the male had been alive in some shape or form showed his prowess at least when it came to combat. Scratching his head at least he could say that living after something like that would be better than dying over and over," Well luckily you are still alive but...couldn't you have gone to a hospital and gotten those taken care of...unless of course you like the long wait?," he stopped for a moment and thought about that. If this place had some super high medical skill then he would have saw to it.

So that point was a little moot and he felt like a dick for saying it," At any point I guess if you wanted to do that you would...So I hope at least you make a speedy recovery," wait...this was a prime opportunity to ask about those villages in case he had wanted to go and visit them...at least Suna that was. The land of Shadows was just that...Shadows and nothing more. For whatever reason he pictured just the weirdest things in that place so he left it alone," So you travel for the village then? What all do you get to do?," so many questions he had for the male and then he was simply trying to make conversation between the two since they had been standing/sitting there in the hall.

The man's response amused Takeo. It was true of course. Takeo knew perhaps the two greatest medical shinobi living at the moment. Any sort of injury would be easily fixable. Though the idea of being fit and ready to go back into active duty just wasn't appealing to Takeo. The reality of his own mortality had been realised. The man was in no rush to be fit again. He didn't explain that though. It was best left unsaid. A sign of weakness, that was something he would not allow. "Quite lucky indeed." He instead replied with. "Hopefully it shouldn't take that long before I'm able to move around again at any rate."

The subject moved onward rather easily. Takeo was glad of that, dwelling on that subject for too long may have made things awkward. He smiled at the question, glancing off toward the door for a brief moment before turning his attention back. "I'm not a member of this village or anything. I was just doing a favour for a friend."His mind flashed back to his trip to Sunagakure. How long had it been exactly? It felt like months. Not a full year though, not yet anyway. "Akihana Akari's her name. Not sure if you know it, though if you're affiliated with this village you might." Takeo went on to explain, "A high ranking member of Sunagakure had gone missing after visiting this village. So I just made a quick trip to Suna in order to explain the situation." His right hand went up rub the back of his neck. "Can't say I've done much else for this place."

His gaze flickered over to the man once more. "You don't seem like a ordinary citizen of this place. You also don't seem like a member of this village either. An envoy from another village perhaps?" It was a rather lazy attempt of diverting the questions away from himself, information gathering being one-sided just wouldn't fly for him.

So that's what it was. He didn't quite know the person he had been referring to, this Akihana Akari being lost to his ...wait that might have been the person Shiroi was referring to in their meeting but the name only rung some small bell in his mind that he would get back to later. With no face to put the name he didn't quite understand what had been going on and this is why you pay attention to secret meetings. He'd leave the name on the recesses of his mind for later to ask his still temporary partner about later and if he got some information he would commit it to memory. He further went on to explain that he was doing a simple task or favor for her so it wasn't too bad. In the process of it he got hurt so at least the friend could have paid to get his injuries healed, but that wasn't really his own problem.

When he had asked where or rather a few questions about the male he simply smiled and shook his head," I'm actually not from any village. I was stolen from my family at quite a young age and raised in a cult. Not...the happiest of times, but then again people go through worse right? Someone of this village just so happen to find me wandering about and...well i've told you that part already haven't I?? Well now i'm just finding my way around this place until I find something to do with myself. Heard from the Kage that I could potentially take part in some test to see where my skills are and move on up...not too sure if I want to be a ninja for this village yet though," the last bit came as no surprise as the male scratched his head in contemplation. The thought was nice but...things found ways of becoming tits up at times.

Takeo blinked. That was not the response he had been expecting. He guessed that this place really attracted all sorts of different people. "That's a new one." The man commented blankly. Honestly he was unsure of how exactly to respond to that. Takeo nodded along to the rest of what they said. "Yeah. I've been trying to find something to do with myself for the last year or so." Takeo said, once more rubbing the back of his neck. It actually had been that long. Maybe longer now that he thought about it. "I haven't done much since my village was destroyed. Mostly just loitering in this place or travelling around."

The news that they had met with the Kage surprised Takeo. He hadn't seen or heard anything about Den for awhile now. Wait..was Den even the Kage? Takeo had no idea anymore. It may have been Akihana last time he checked. "So..who's the current Kage anyway?" The man decided to ask. "I'm pretty out of the loop when it comes to stuff like this these days."

This test seemed interesting. Maybe Takeo himself should find out about it and take it at some point. He wondered briefly where he would end up. What rank would he be given for being above the Kage? The thought interested him. A note was made in the back of his mind to find out about that later on. Though if the Kage still was Den..then it would be difficult to actually get a meeting with him. That guy was never around.

"This village is still in development on the shinobi side." Takeo would comment when talk moved to joining the village or not. "There are little actual drawbacks to joining that I can see. Even if you dislike it you could always just leave. The shinobi here aren't particularly strong, so it would be difficult for them to stop someone." He shrugged with his right shoulder. "Though not joining and simply hanging around is a viable option as well. Just personal preference."

He didn't know the current Kage? Well to be honest he didn't know exactly how long Kyousuke had been Kage so it could have been a long time or short. Given Takeo had been out of the village the best thing would have been to ask him who had been the Kage before he had left for Suna. Instead he would simply answer the males question and gauge the interaction from there to get a good grip on the passage of time in this village when it came to the exchange of power," A male by the name of Kyousuke. I don't know much about him except he can fly, doesn't like clothes and is rather rude I guess," he would then look for any form of confirmation that this wasn't someone he knew and if not then he probably didn't know much about them....but that's just a theory.

When he heard that the village wasn't exactly strong or rather the ninja itself it caused his brows to furrow inward as he thought about that," So you're saying they are but door mats waiting to be walked on...That says a lot really. If someone can just walk out and there is little they can do...well the village ain't gonna stand for long..unless of course you yourself are some trump card. Then it might make sense to me," the male went to scratch his head for a moment before realizing what he said and chuckled," I guess i'll find out when i fight one of them in this little test of theirs. Of course...I'm more curious about the shift of power in this place," it wasn't an odd question though he began to look around for a moment.