Seeing how no requests came aimed at the Tribunal, Mana expected the procession to move on but, oddly enough, it appeared to go the entirely different direction.
"Well, in that case, we shall settle the matter of the samurai and their ability to provide us and the Voices the necessary security." The Fire Lord leaned back into the massive, carmine cushion of the throne-like chair that each Feudal Lord or another manner of a member of the Council sat on. The Council made a much bigger deal of this incident than Mana had predicted initially. If it went a particular direction, the entire event may have been postponed or canceled.
"It was one minor mistake, surely it does not cast a shadow too wide upon the entirety of the samurai order that has provided more than adequate protection when asked for it every time." The Water Lord stroke his long beard. "No disrespect to the Voices of ninja, but they are dangerous people, it is next to impossible to avoid accidents like these when putting so many of them together under one roof."
"That is beside the point." The young man behind the Fire Lord in regal attire closed his eyes. "While I do agree that conflict between ninja of various countries, villages, and backgrounds is unavoidable, we have promised to provide them total security. It does not matter how possible that is, it is a matter of our promise to the Kage who have entrusted the security of their people to us. The importance of this accident will not be downplayed, I will not allow my father to be made into a liar."
"Indeed, we have promised the Kage the security of their assets. If you borrowed a shogi board from your fellow Feudal Lord and then had it accidentally burnt in a fire, you'd feel responsible for the loss of the item, would you not?" a small, dark-skinned old-timer in orange and white colored, majestic silks and an afro-like, round nest of curly hair noted with a joking smirk.
"Assets? We have come here to judge how much more reliable ninja are than assets. If the Lightning Lord has already made his decision, perhaps our presence here isn't necessary. I'm sure with only the Land of Lightning party present, the samurai could avoid even the few accidents they could not prevent." A bald and feeble old man wrapped in similar royal-looking clothes to his colleagues but also littered with countless accessories to compensate for the lack of height or stature of the man. Still, even with the towering hat counted into the equation, the man looked merely as tall as his peers.
"That will be enough, Esteemed Tribunal!" Isuki, the samurai leading squad fourteen who was the figurehead behind the discussed matter which managed to postpone the main topic on the agenda by demanding all of the Tribunal's time already. "I am a man of honor and as such I shall be imposing my own punishment. I do not yet know how the accursed snow-woman managed to slip her dogs through our security, nor do I care, my knowledge of the exact reason for the mistakes I've made does not matter nor does it prevent me from my penance."
The past-his-prime sword-master moved his black and white haori to reveal a short scabbard tied to the belt holstering his main two weapons. The man unsheathed the blade and made it twinkle in the gleaming light of the Tribunal room, the lightning-fast arm of the battle-hardened warrior stopped raised in mid-air.
"Don't tell me..." Mana objected, her objections were wobbly at first but they rose in intensity directly proportionate to the worry of what the man was about to do. There were too many people around, too stoic and static, like planted into the ground, like little stone army protecting the repenting man from Mana's attempts to change the drastic nature of his atonement.
The swordsman plunged the gleaming tanto into his gut, the burst of blood that scattered onto the mat was tame at first but with a forceful push, the warrior drew his blade from left to right, slicing his entire abdomen open. That was when the contents of the man's physical essence spilled to the outside for real, just like the captain intended, no doubt.
"Well then... I suppose this settles that..." Fire Lord sighed. His son who stood behind the man just looked at his father with slight disapproval.
"The only thing is signs on is the report of our drastically weakened protection. Letting the captain of our guard kill himself was pointless." The young man shook his head.
"Your successor does not approve of our ancient ways then?" the baldy Earth Lord smiled kindly at the young man. "Do you share his sentiments, Hoshiku?" the man addressed his own companion standing behind him. An elderly woman in a brown kimono and a sophisticated, violet belt that was sizeable enough to cover her entire waist with the ribbon in the front being comparable in size to the woman's chest.
"Samurai care greatly about their honor. It would be unkind, to say the least, to rob them of this ritual and relieve them of the only way they know to clean blemishes from their scrolls." The elderly woman replied with a kind smile, she did not respond with a look either toward the dismissive of the ancient traditions young man nor her own husband sitting in front of her.
"My wife speaks great truth, as always. You remind my old and tired head why I invite you as my counsel to all these sessions and summits..." the Earth Lord nodded at his wife patiently standing behind him to his right.
"Well then..." Isuki, the disemboweled samurai captain grunted in pain, spitting out blood from his mouth whenever it opened. "This is a bit awkward..."
The Lightning Lord laughed out with great vigor in the thunderous rumble that came from deep within his chest. "Well, well... It seems our honorable captain is made of sturdier stuff than he himself thought."
"This is most disgusting, plus his bleeding is messing up the hall we're supposed to host this session in." the Water Lord complained, resting his head against his hand while the hand used the table for support. He looked like a schoolboy complaining about how boring his classes were in that pose. Had it not been for the dire circumstances, Mana may have found this event and the Feudal Lord's behavior somewhat amusing.
"I apologize. Can one of my seconds quickly finish me off!?" Isuki turned at his stone-faced squad of swordsmen, then to the samurai in silver armor and hi-tech masks equipped with gas-masks and glowing, red visors.
A vigorous and mighty-looking samurai with the chonmage typical to the samurai stepped out in front and raised his fist up. "I cannot, captain, I respect you too much to raise my blade against you!"
"You fool!" Isuki coughed up more blood. "That is exactly why you should..."
"None of us would be able to cut you, Sir, no matter how hard we focus our chakra and how weakened you are." One of the silver-armored samurai reported as numbers and diagrams glowing in yellow ran down his visor.
Mana's vast interest in the history of the world and various stories, including those of historical as well as legendary nature, allowed the magician to identify these silver-clad men as the Iron Shogun's men. The sturdy, cold-hardened men from the Land of Iron. They were close enough to the Land of Snow and Kumogakure to mingle with the villagers and settlers from both locations but their differing values and political neutrality should not have allowed any significant pacts to be made between the village with the strongest military or the land breeding some of the toughest civilians known to this day.
And yet... These masks... They looked oddly hi-tech, hardly something that the legendary samurai blacksmiths capable of crafting heaven-splitting blades or nigh invincible armor would have made. They lacked the technical knowledge as they were craftsmen of the old, masters at their craft but lacking any skill whatsoever with chips or even gears for that matter. Something about the gear used by the Iron Shogun's men seemed off to Mana, it was troublesome to see the neutral samurai wearing tech that only Kumogakure, Iwagakure, and Konoha had the ability to make and only Kumogakure had the military funding to actually produce.
"Very well... I shall remove myself from this room an ashamed man and await my penance somewhere where it shall not disturb the Esteemed Tribunal or the honorable Voices." Isuki bowed to the Tribunal, as the man bent over, his gut sprayed more and more blood onto the floor making the Fire Lord cover up his face in frustration.
"Well then, if this matter is settled, now that we have covered the attending Voices and participants, all Voices, please leave the hall for now. You shall be called up once your turn to answer questions in front of the Tribunal comes. Do not worry, these walls and gates shall ensure the integrity of your village secrets, if questions of such nature need to be asked." The Fire Lord gestured at the obsidian walls encrusted in accessories of golden glow and a traditional-style gate wearing the face of a demon for its walls and crimson-red tiles that were modeled after drops and squirts of blood.
Jagaimo whistled to Mana's left. Clearly, the Voice of Kirigakure was impressed by the design. The magician had every reason to share the boy's first impressions, this gate was every bit as fascinating as the Rashomon gate Mana had witnessed in the Land of Wind but it was sending out signals of even more powerful chakra from every cell that made it. It was like a massive beacon of chakra, contained into a single combo of a door and a pair of walls around it, powerful enough to interfere even with a ninja's enhanced perception. If one tried to listen in on something behind this gate, they'd likely have only heard the intense buzzing of the chakra's circulation, which was actually audible even to a naked, more casual ear.
Not too long after the limping and bleeding out captain of squad fourteen of the Divine Retribution Squad, the rest of the voices slowly hobbled, careful so not to step into the bloody mess he left behind. Had the subject behind this bloody display not been so grim, it would have likely seemed quite humorous. It still was to some, Mana couldn't help but notice a few cringes here and there and hunched over bodies stuffing fists in their mouths.
A handful of samurai stopped Jagaimo and gently held him in place. The face of the young man looked petrified for a brief moment but then the stoic swordsmen pointed at the stand as a sign that he was the first Voice to speak and therefore should not leave the hall with the other Voices in the interest of time. The black, demon-faced gate slammed shut behind Mana's back, even while the magician was turned away from the large structure that led into a whole different room compared to the squeaky door the bunch entered through, she could visualize the entire process. It felt so remarkably similar to seeing, sometimes Mana got confused about what she visualized or the chakra signatures she sensed, thinking of them as something she saw. The sharper and more numerous one's senses got, the more one found their body on a peculiar fritz about it.
"So we are removed from the premises..." Tokui grumbled. Mana turned at the large Kumogakure ninja, after yesterday she had written the man off as someone she was not actually familiar with but she forgot that Jagaimo did his fair amount of research before taking the shinobi's face. Likely a precaution in case of the Voice being conned having already met the person being impersonated...
"I'd have liked to hear Jagaimo-san's story. Everyone's really..." Mana looked up at the decorated roof of the deluxe structure. Ninja from all over the world likely had a bunch of interesting stories to tell, motivations, things they've experienced and blows that tempered their steel into the battle-hardened resolutions they now carried within their hearts. Even if everyone around were just average ninja by definition and the judgment of their superiors, one still had to harden themselves like a bar of iron to become average at this profession.
"I would not. I am glad we got removed..." Tokui wrapped his arms around his chest. "I am surprised to see someone like you here... Nakotsumi Mana, someone who has beaten an Imarizu member all by herself in hand to hand combat."
"It was hardly a fair fight." Mana shook her head overcome by modesty. "The man I was fighting had suffered through an intense battlefield before facing me. I am considered quite an unimpressive martial artist back home..."
"Really? The Champion of Sun Disc is unimpressive?" Tokui raised an eyebrow.
"The only way you'd know that is if you..."
"Participated in the fun myself? I sure did. It is a wonderful place for someone to throw their fists around, improve their skills and be shown their place under the heavens compared to real professionals." Tokui grinned. It was not difficult to see that the man was living somewhere else right now. More than likely in his time spent beating the face off of someone less lucky than him and getting his own punched off by someone much stronger and more experienced. "Ever planning to come back for one more reign as the champion?"
"I have little interest in fighting just for fun. The time in Sun Disc was revitalizing and educational for sure, it taught me plenty about the artistic value of martial arts but... Sadly, fighting people to blow off some steam just isn't my ideal pastime." Mana politely refused the idea.
"That's too bad, I would have loved to spar with the Gauntlet Champion and someone who has fought the Imarizu and survived." Tokui sighed. "I figured to ask you this yesterday but I thought it might have been... Too forward of me."
"Twice."
"Sorry?"
"Fought the Imarizu twice. Once when they all tried to kill us the night before the wedding we were trying to stop." Mana admitted.
"Goddamn, you survived a legitimate assassination attempt?" Tokui leaned back. "Now I refuse to believe you've got no Kumogakure blood in you. Because... You know..."
"Yeah, I look weird, right?"
"Maybe to a paleskin... I was kind of wondering about that, you know... A champion of the Sun Disc, survived the Imarizu... Must be a Kumogakure heritage, you may consider it bragging or not, we still have the mightiest military on Earth so..."
"Who knows... I've got a pretty varied and mixed heritage. I might have someone from the place somewhere far up the tree." Mana shrugged.
"Oh... I see..." Tokui looked away, the awkwardness of his response was only aggravated by his attempts to play his extremely dismissively looking reaction as something normal and completely proper in a social encounter. He was disappointed with Mana not admitting or feeling proud of possible Kumogakure roots, not only that, there was a whole different other smell in the air... The Voice of Kumogakure was perhaps even taken aback by Mana's nonchalant acceptance of her status as a human-mutt. Perhaps admitting that in front of someone who took pride in and greatly loved their own race, perhaps a tad bit more than it was deemed admirable and traditional, was a mistake.
"In any case, I did not expect to see you here, of all people, is all I am saying. You are one of few Konoha ninja I am familiar with, despite the attempts of each village to veil their rosters with a shroud." Tokui nodded, it was his attempt at excusing himself and his own dignified attempt at leaving the conversation with a shred of honor. His own version of what captain Isuki did in front of the Tribunal.
"Voice of Kumogakure, can you please come to the gate now?" one of the servants entered through the gate through a small gap in between the demon's twisted fangs that moved just an inch to each side, providing the petit figure just enough space to squeeze through. Had the young woman not been so tiny and nimble, she'd have gotten stuck or not have fit a single limb, to begin with.
"Hmph... It appears they are questioning the Great ones first..." someone farther away let out a whisper to the ear of their friend that had the unfortunate property of being let loose during a moment of quiet, making it stand out and reach everyone it was not intended for except those the farthest in the back. Without replying or acknowledging the pale, young servant, Tokui walked up to the gate and placed his hands firmly around the fangs that she slipped through initially. Through sheer physical prowess, the Kumogakure ninja pushed them aside, even more than he reasonably needed to pass.
It was a particularly interesting party trick considering the fact that this gate was made as a chakra blocking beacon by emitting its own bland and overpowering signal. It stuffed every orifice where chakra was to be molded with its own signals, to try and augment oneself to move such a structure would have been the equivalent of making a clay jug while drowning under ten thousand meters of clay.
"How was it?" Mana asked the leaving Kirigakure street rat.
"Eh, kinda boring really, they just asked me a bunch of stuff..." Jagaimo shrugged.
"Well... What did you expect? That was quite literally the mission description..." Mana smiled.
"Yeah but... They just kinda extracted all the sob stories outta me, like sticking a big pump and giving a nice, broad-shouldered yank, you know?" Jagaimo squirmed again.
"Like the stories about crooked vampire-men compelling you to destroy the ninja system?" Mana raised a teasing eyebrow.
"Cheeky..." Jagaimo rolled his eyes.