"Do not make the mistake of thinking that Oto's offers are the right ones to pick. No matter how tempting do not accept. The Land of Snow was just redeemed, I do not want to see it condemned again."
...
"You do not want me to pick your own village?" Koyuki masks her emotions, the playful air we had about us moments before is gone. Now it's two very powerful people discussing the future of a country. One is the country's leader, the other is one of the most influential people in Otogakure. After all I am one of the select few people Orochimaru will listen to.
"Correct. Do not pick Oto. Do not pick Orochimaru. Do not pick me." I am being deadly serious. "Otogakure is not a good place. In the long run it will only hurt your home. Trust me, I've seen the corruption that Oto and Orochimaru are capable of first hand. I've experienced it myself, hell you saw me when we first met. You want nothing to do with us. Avoid us at all costs."
"Consider it done. The Land of Snow shall not work with the Land of Sound." Koyuki regally says, then her face softens. "But you are always welcome here. I owe you too much to bar you from here forever. My people owe you too much. You may come and go as you please."
"Cool!" I merrily chirp out dropping my own seriousness and replacing it with my usual chipper self. "I'll be going then. Bye Koyuki, may we never meet again."
"Goodbye Alvarcus, I hope to see you soon."
"No you don't, trouble follows me everywhere I go."
"Okay, part of me wants to see you again."
"That's better." I step out of the room and close the door.
I stuff my hands in my pockets and start whistling as I'm walking out of the Royal Palace, drawing a lot of attention to myself with the horrible tune. Seriously I can't whistle for shit.
But I'm doing that on purpose. I want to be publicly seen as being slightly incompetent by the masses. It will make them not blame me later.
Because in my pocket I'm holding the Hexagonal Crystal.
...
Thirty Minutes Later
"You're leaving." A delicate voice accuses me from my temporary lodging doorway. "You weren't even going to say goodbye?"
It's Ino, she looks very displeased with me.
"Uh… yeah I'm leaving. Tomorrow." I bluntly tell her. "I'm just packing so I don't have to do it in the morning. Did you think I was going to run off without saying bye?"
"Duh. Look at your track record, it's what you always do." She sags in minute relief at hearing me say I'm not leaving yet. "So. This is your last night here. With us. Before you leave again."
"Yep that pretty much sums it up." I toss a final scroll on top of the rest, I'll stuff the scrolls into various pockets in my coat when I leave tomorrow morning. Fuinjutsu makes traveling so much easier. I put a suit of armor and an armchair in a pocket. Fucking brilliant! "Oh yeah that reminds me I have something for you. Summoning Jutsu!"
"Sup Al?" Shirokumo says from on top of my head.
"Gah how did you get up there I touched the ground!?" I shout at him.
"I'm just that good." I can feel the pride wafting off of him.
"Fine fine. I'll just ignore that." I really shouldn't be surprised by that, the little guy loves using my head as a perch. "Shirokumo it's time. I need the Package."
"The Package?" He asks in a very serious tone. "Are you aware of the full ramifications of what that entitles?"
"Yes. I am very aware. I need it regardless."
"Summon me back here in ten seconds." Shirokumo vanishes in a cloud of smoke that blinds me for an instant.
"What was all that about?" Ino asks in curiosity. "What's the Package?"
"You'll see." I fly through the hand signs once more and touch the ground. "Best step back a bit, I'm not sure how big it's going to be."
Ino quickly steps back to give me more room.
"Summoning Jutsu!" With a huge cloud of smoke that fills up half of the room Shirokumo reappears before us but this time he's perched on a gigantic brown sack instead of on my head.
Now when I say gigantic I don't mean the size of a beach ball or an oversized backpack. You could fit six fully grown adult male bodybuilders in this sack. It's probably going to be impossible to move this out of the room because of its sheer size.
"I present the Package." Shirokumo bows elegantly from on top of the oversized sack. "And now I'm going to run away from the aftermath."
The cowardly spider vanishes once more into smoke. I really wish I could do that right now, it would be amazing.
"Well. There ya go." I say to Ino as I point at the sack. "The Weavers finally finished. Have fun."
"You mean… it's my clothes?" Ino squeaks out with wide hopeful eyes. "They're all done? All of them?"
"I did have to tell the Weavers to stop. They would have kept going forever if I let them but I think that is enough." Six fully grown adult male bodybuilders. It's fucking massive. I lean a large scroll on the bulging sack. "Here. It's the scroll that I used to bring over the cargo on the ship. You can seal away the clothes into that so you can get them all back to Konoha. Cuz there's no way in hell you're picking all of that up. There's a good twenty or so large storage seals on it so you can pack them away however you want to."
"Squee!" Ino leaps at me and envelops me in a crushing hug. "Thank you Alvarcus! Thank you so much! This is amazing!"
"Yeah yeah." I smile to myself at her excitement and pat her on the back while she tries to crush me via hugging. "Just… let's not make this an ongoing thing yeah? The Weavers get so fiesty when they get open orders like that."
"You mean you could get me more?" Ino squeezes me even tighter. I didn't think it was possible. "Could you?"
"Well technically it's possible-"
"YES!" Ino breaks the hug in favor of firmly grasping my shoulders and forcing me to look her in the eyes. "I'm going to come to you if I need anything. A new dress for an elegant ballroom dance, a swimsuit to make the girls jealous and the boys drool, a nice pair of silk pajamas to curl up and read a sappy book in."
"Pretty sure all of that is already in there?" I weakly gesture to the gigantic sack again. "And how do you plan on contacting me? I'll be in Oto, you'll be in Konoha. They're not exactly neighbors or even on speaking terms."
"You were in contact with Tsunade." She points out. "Surely it'll be much easier to get in contact with me. I'm not the one under constant guard. How did you do that anyways?"
"Trade secret." I mildly laugh as she pouts without releasing my shoulders. "Sure I could do it but I don't feel right about using my spy network for something so… small." I wanted to say unimportant but I think that would get me yelled at.
"Wait you have a spy network?" Ino asks in surprise, the clothes are momentarily forgotten. "Really?"
"Yep! How else would I possibly know the things I do? I knew that Koyuki wasn't Yukie the night we met. It's a damn good network."
"Wow. You're always doing such cool things." Then her face darkens. "Alvarcus Mar have you been spying on me?"
"Yes." I easily admit. "I have been keeping tabs on all my friends back in Konoha. I prefer to say keeping tabs, spying sounds wrong."
"Perfect!" She finally lets go of me and skips over to the sac of clothes. "Then you'll know if I want more clothes, I'll leave a note on my desk for you."
"Shit. I walked right into that one." I sigh as I accept my defeat.
"Yes! These are amazing!" Ino has opened the sack as is rummaging through its contents with glee.
"Uh… Ino?" I call out to her.
"It's so pretty!" She holds up a top of some kind then tosses it onto the bed. She's completely ignoring me. "Oh this one is just gorgeous! And such a lovely material too!"
"Right." I turn and walk out of the room. "I'm just going to go now."
...
A/N:
If we hit 400 Power Stones by the end of this week, I'll drop an extra chapter as a thank-you!
Thanks for the support! ;)
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