Disturbing a Very Busy Mizukage

[HeadlessKoko]

Location: The Mizukage's office tent, or wherever he would be working from in the wake of the chuunin exams attack.

Time: is relative, but it's likely happening the day after the chuunin exams attack and Severin's meeting with Inka.

Purpose: To rp with Dee.
Because Kagerou is post locked across three guilds.
To help Inka realize his budding feelings for Severin.
Kagerou selfishly hopes for an audience with the Lord Mizukage so she can make sure that Severin will be alright.  

[HeadlessKoko]

"Breathe in... and out... and smile..."

Green hair, braided out of simplicity and efficiency, bounced lively with each light step that the girl took on her errand to the Mizukage's tent, bells ringing wherever she walked. She smiled brightly, as usual, beneath her shining scarlet eyes, but the uneasy curl of her fingers around the stack of neatly organized documents she held in one arm and the bag she held in the other hand gave away her uneasiness. To the trained eye, familiar with her habits, so would the frequency of her blinks and the ever so slight tightening at the corners of her lips and edges of her eyes, small signs of an otherwise perfectly replicated smile having been, well, replicated, unnatural. In this case, made a little bigger than what they would be if Kagerou wasn't trying to pass off a calm and cool front.

This... was stupid. What she was going to try and ask was stupid, and a waste of the Mizukage's good time. There was a disaster still fresh enough to be smelled and a million other things with greater priority than a missing genin found residing in another village. She expected judgement to be rendered, some punishment dealt to her by one superior or another for her withholding of information on Severin, but obviously now wasn't the time for any of that. Therefore, she felt stupid for going to waste, of all people, the Mizukage's time by bringing up right now a topic that should be had later. However, she was too worried to wait, and besides, she reminded herself that she would only ask the Mizukage if she had a chance. The main purpose of this errand she was running wasn't even to bug the leader with inane questions. It was an honest-to-goodness relevant task of delivering reports and other official documents.

Before she knew it, just as she was beginning to second guess herself, Kagerou found herself already at the Mizukage's tent, in perfect range to request permission from the guards to enter. Her bells ceased ringing as she came to a stop, and she smiled at the guards for a long moment before remember to bow and greet, in a voice that lilted lightly, "Pardon me, I've brought reports from the medical tents. Could I please deliver these and a voice message to the Lord Mizukage?".

BlackFruity

 

[HeadlessKoko]

She heard Inka's voice, soft with what she suspected was exhaustion, drift through from inside the tent. However, before the bells started ringing again, the shinobi waited first for the all-clear from the guard. Only after the security motioned her in did Kagerou give a small nod of her head in appreciation and entered. She bowed to the Mizukage and, as ever, greeted with the proper honorifics, "Inka-sama. Kagerou reporting," Green braid swayed as Kagerou straightened up, and she stepped forwards right into business, her smile a stark contrast to the formal greeting she had just given. One hand deftly split the pile of documents into two stacks, one of red and one of black, and placed them on the desk, the orderly and sizable piles of other reports not being missed by her sharp eyes. Her gaze continued, passing over dried fingers curled around a cup of tea and back up to the shoulders she had already gotten used to seeing tense. Somehow, despite being flat as any human's shoulders should be, they always reminded her of the spiky back of a wary porcupine whenever the Mizukage addressed her.

"Dear Lord Mizukage,

Please relax. I am not going to eat you.

Sincerely,
Kagerou"

Although, in all fairness, Kagerou could understand in this one case, and once she looked into his eyes, she didn't doubt that Inka had already suspected correctly the sorts of reports she had brought in. Keeping her voice calm and steady, the medical shinobi explained as she hovered her hand over each of the two piles, "Reports in red are those that will need transportation to a hospital. The reports in black are...," her smiled faltered for but a moment, "the confirmed casualties." A yellow post-it note sticking out from one of the black folders went unexplained.

Her eyes cast down as she considered for a moment on saying something to help lighten the news. Noting that the casualties were luckily low. Perhaps mentioning the high survivor numbers, or how of those that died, very few were civilians. However, knowing none of that made her feel better about the deaths, and with what she knew of the Mizukage's temperament, she doubted he would either.

Instead, she stepped back from the desk and proceeded to relay the message from the doctor she had been entrusted with. Raising her eyes back up to the Mizukage's, Kagerou orally delivered the doctor's notes, "Dr. Angel wants to move both groups asap but can't spare the medical personnel right now. She requests extra hands on top of approval for the locations to move each group to, you'll find further information in the first folder of each pile. She also wanted me to make sure that you understand that the files are sufficient for now, but they are still incomplete. If you could please return them to the medical tents for completion when you are done, she would appreciate it." Once done, she fell silent, closing her mouth around a deceptively calm smile, and waited for Inka's reply.

BlackFruity

 

[HeadlessKoko]

"For business, that is all," Kagerou concluded with a smile, eyes following the cup of tea as the Mizukage set it down. She vaguely wondered how long ago it had been poured and if it was still warm. However, she did not make to leave, but only stood there, body swaying the smallest bit in hesitation. Aside from the green braid waving behind her back like a thick vine and the small ringing of the bells on her wrist, it would be almost impossible to tell she was moving in place. If only she had all the time in the world, she very well may have pondered for a few minutes over whether she should really go through with her choice. However, she had patients to return to, and the Mizukage had even less time than she to waste. Forcing herself to end the small pause that had already gone on for too long, she added, "However, may I have permission to ask a personal question?". She appeared to struggle with making eye contact as she spoke, gaze scrutinizing some random corner of the Mizukage's desk.

If she was permitted, she would continue, with a face no longer smiling, "What will you do with Severin?". She had found the courage somewhere inside of her to once more raise her sight and lock it onto Inka's visage, to see as well as hear his answer.

BlackFruity

 

[HeadlessKoko]

A small exhale, the sigh of relief that Kagerou couldn't repress, as she lowered her head and closed her eyes. Not until Inka elaborated his answer did Kagerou feel the weight lift off of her shoulders.

She was still recovering when Inka asked if there was anything else. Lifting her head and meeting that amber gaze once more, Kagerou had the sudden feeling that her the Mizukage was expecting something from her. "Is there something I would usually ask?" she wondered, and found the answer even before finishing the thought. "Pft, as if." A silent laugh of a smile spread across Kagerou's lips, creasing her eyes into happy crescents. Though she doubted Inka would want her to ask, she asked anyways now that she had been reminded. "Oh, were you actually looking forward to hearing me pester about your health, Inka-sama?" Kagerou teased, her tone playful for that one sentence before she reeled herself in with the next. Her voice, still chipper but more subdued than just a moment ago, politely asked, "but in all seriousness, how are you feeling, lord Mizukage?". She didn't need to even mention that she thought the Mizukage was overworking himself. That much was to be taken for granted, even when the village wasn't in a state of emergency. Instead, she didn't lose sight of Inka for even a split second while he answered, her attention riveted onto trying to decipher his lies from truths. If there was anything she would never trust the Mizukage on, it sadly was his own health.

BlackFruity

 

[HeadlessKoko]

"Ahaha," Kagerou laughed silently to herself in her head as she saw the Mizukage's expression darken, "As I expected, he wasn't looking forward to it, but all the same, he doesn't seem surprised." At first, she had tread around that expression like she was walking on broken glass, but by now, she had seen it so many times, almost as many times as she had asked, that it had simply become another part of the routine of speaking to the Mizukage.

However, all the same, she could tell that this irritation ran deeper than the usual. Then, somehow, he got even angrier even after he stopped speaking, which made the curious psychiatrist-in-training wonder what he must have been thinking to draw out such a sad glare. She smiled, stumped, but also unwilling to throw in the towel.

There was no lie in the words Inka spoke, but then again, he didn't fully answer Kagerou's question either. She blinked, tapping the fingers of her right hand over the back of her left hand as she decided between one of two way to respond to the Mizukage. In the end, she chose to ask, "Why aren't you?". She paused, thinking it was enough. Then quickly realized that perhaps the question was too vague and added, "on the tracking teams, I mean. Yes, it would be an inefficient use of personnel, but it could have been arranged, and pardon me, but I believe you impulsive enough to actually do just that." From what she saw in his burning amber eyes, it wasn't like the Mizukage lacked the emotional drive to go after the perpetrators, either.

BlackFruity

 

[HeadlessKoko]

Silence followed in the wake of the kage's words, but the scarlet eyes of the green-haired teenager never left the creased expression or the pained amber eyes of the father in front of her. She had expected this answer, recalling how Takeda had once described Inka, but the depth of his pain never ceased to surprise her. His own words clouded the air like poison, one that rained only on him on his little, self-fortified island.

After a moment of reflection, unable to see him stare into the abyss for any longer, Kagerou moved her eyes off of Inka to look around the rest of the room. Quickly, she started moving casually to a chair stacked with documents and pushed to one side of Inka's office tent, letting her bells ring excessively with each step she took. The annoying bells would keep on ringing as Kagerou straightened the pile of documents and then set her paper bag atop them.

Once that excuse of a task was done, she looked back at Inka, smiling as she dusted off her hands. "Mizukage-sama," she offered her opinion whether or not he wanted with it, "I agree with you". With soft steps, she moved back to where she was standing. "Staying here is the responsible thing to do, as both single father and kage. I'd also rather see you safe in here than in danger out there," she expanded on her thoughts as she tucked a loose strand of hair behind her hair, "but you know," and her eyes shifted, their edges slanting downwards in concern, "even if you avoid physical risks, the mental ones will catch up to you one day. I won't pretend to understand what you're feeling... I know you loved your husband, the late Mizukage Sypher, but don't you think you've held onto that grief long enough? It's festered into a resentment that's poisoning you, Inka-sama."

BlackFruity

 

[HeadlessKoko]

"Guess that's as far as I should go today," Kagerou thought to herself as she saw the crinkle in the Mizukage's face and heard the exhaustion in his voice. Whether it was grief, anger, or some mix between the two, Kagerou couldn't quite decipher. No matter what, though, she had no doubt made Inka's day today that much more miserable. An unspoken apology mingled with her smile, yet there was a bittersweet happiness to it all. She was sorry for what she had done, truly, but she probably would have done the same thing all over again if given the chance.

Taking her cue to leave, Kagerou returned, if briefly, to a state of all business. "I will relay the message, sir," the green hair atop her head swayed as she bowed to confirm the reception of the Mizukage's orders. The braid swung around her as she turned to leave, but just before she took that last step outside of the tent, Kagerou stopped in her tracks and feigned a sudden recollection of certain details, "Ah, I almost forgot... One of the casualties folders is marked with a yellow tab. It contains records of a particularly gruesome death for a blonde shinobi. Also, there is a jar of honey in the bag. Even if you've already got plenty for your tea, it'll help with Itoko's burns in case they act up despite being healed." Then with a final smile, she was gone and out of sight before Inka could even breathe a word of refusal or argument.

BlackFruity