Polish comes from the cities; wisdom from the desert (P)

[Hamura]

As soon as he stepped out through the portal, the first thing he felt was the increase in heat. Truly, the difference between here and where he just came from was immense, going as far as giving him a minor headache due to the temperature being near-instant due to the portal travel. Powering through after taking his cloak off and tossing it over his shoulder, it was only after getting a moment to adjust to his new surroundings that he actually managed to take in the change in scenery. As a citizen of the Cloud, he had never really been to any other Shinobi villages as such things were normally not allowed and was actually punishable in a manner of the local Kage's choosing.

The way he saw it, there were too many people that might have come around to other villages for some reason, only to abuse the situation. And since it was a military seat of power for the nation in question, it made sense that the local leaders and Shinobi did not look kindly to foreigners wandering their streets. Luckily for Hamura, he did not look like much of a Shinobi, the fact that he never wore a headband making it that much less likely that he'd get attacked. While he was slowly becoming a more potent Shinobi himself, at the end of the day, what people saw when they looked at him was that he looked like the average ten year old kid. Messy black hair, a small frame and a lightweight, all while wearing a hoody and slacks.

In truth, there was very little about him that screamed "Shinobi", though that was exactly the thing that most likely kept people from attacking him or attempting an arrest the moment he set foot out in the streets. Starting to slowly wander the streets without looking too much like a tourist, the adventurer in him really wanted to go around and explore the village and the country surrounding it, though common sense and decency kept him from doing so. The reason why he refrained from such things was because he did not know the land that well, nor did he want to wander around too long without anyone knowing about him being there. The first thing he needed to do now was drag himself to the local Kage office.

If the Cloud had taught him anything, it was that the Kage usually enjoyed working from the biggest building in town so he or she was capable of overlooking the entire building, which was more or less why he had always considered the "Shadow" part to make sense. Even though the name "Wind Shadow" made no sense since wind had no shadow to speak of, it was the idea behind it that held some weight. Sitting atop his tower in a manner of speech, the Kage cast a shadow over the village he or she protected, which was what the title stood for in his point of view. While the real purpose of the name was likely something else entirely, that was just the way he saw it and the significant meaning it had in his eyes.

Thanks to his pondering, it wasn't long before he arrived at the large building and stepped inside. While there were guards stationed in and around the building, most likely considered him to be a child of little consequence. Despite that, they still kept their eyes on him as he wandered over to the desk on the lower floor. Figuring that the person sitting behind it was a secretary of some kind like the people Marii had employed, he hoped that the Kage here was a bit more open. Since he wanted to speak to someone with actual power, he hoped one such person would be willing to take the time to actually do so. After all, he had been invited to come a while ago, though he figured that the invitation was still open by now. Asking the person behind the desk if there was anyone who had the time to speak to him, he was told to wait while they'd check.

[Deleted]

[Sunagakure]

Shiki heard the footsteps before the newcomer announced himself. Shiki in his office just underneath the kage's office was a room inlayed with metal but covered by warm chestnut and oak woods and sandstone accenting. The inside of his office was a trophy room. His recent addition were 5 massive dragon skulls. 

Shiki's white hair was pale in contrast to the warm colors in the room around him. His white cloak of protection across his shoulders with the sigil of his house and clan across his back. Aside from that he wore simple clothing and carried his sword across his back. 

"Player Speech is A25428"

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[Hamura]

It wasn't long before he was told to move along as a guard appeared to guide him where he needed to go. Even though he had technically been invited some months ago, it seemed like the secure thing to have people escorted just in case. At the end of the day, there was no telling whether or not one of the people that had been invited to come to the Sand had been instructed to pull off any kind of heist or terrorist attack. As such, it seemed only natural that he wasn't just allowed to walk around what was arguably the most important building in the village on his own.

After a short walk, the two arrived at a closed office door. Knocking twice, the guard opened the door and let Hamura in after which he swiftly closed it again. The way he saw it, the one who had escorted him didn't enter the room with him because the one he was meant to see was a high ranking member of the village, meaning they were supposedly a very accomplished Shinobi in their own right. It was either that, or they were just very trustworthy and renowned within the village, though even if that were the case, a modicum of the former should still apply.

Taking a quick glance around the room, he wasn't really shocked to see that Shiki was the one sitting behind the desk. He was the person that had invited him to the village in the first place, so there was no more fitting person for him to speak to now that he had actually arrived. The interesting bit was that the office seemed to be somewhat of a collection of trophies as he saw a bunch of animal skulls from creatures he did not exactly recognize. Personally, Hamura enjoyed the company of animals more than that of the average human being, and therefore did not really enjoy hurting animals for sport. That said, there were plenty that disagreed with him on that front.

"I figured I might see you here, though you weren't the one I had in mind when I came around for this visit."

Taking a moment to look around and get himself a seat, he sat himself down in front of the desk so that the two could have a proper conversation. He realized that this wasn't like things were back during his time in the land of Fang when he met with a local politician. He had been a pencil licker with influence, nothing more and nothing less. Here, he was dealing with a fellow Shinobi, and that was something Hamura could more or less respect enough to sit down and be more humble and patient for a change.

"So I have taken some time to take things into consideration, and I felt that it would be wise to have a look before I would make any final decisions. As of right now, the list of Pros outweighs the list of Cons in terms of making the change to this new place, which is something I felt needed to be said up front. That said, I know very little about the population, the land itself and, most importantly, what makes this place so different from the land of Lightning. So if you wouldn't mind shedding some light on that matter, I'm sure I can bring myself to give you my answer right here and now."

[Deleted]

[The Sand Flows]

Shiki wasn't surprised to see the young cloud ninja here in sand. He took a moment and listened to what the ninja had to say. Shiki watched him closely looking for any signs of betrayal in his tone or any falseness to his words. Finally, (if successful)  Shiki would simply shake his head. "You are asking a stranger to these lands to give you a tour." Shiki said slowly. 

"This is the land of wind, the largest country in the world. Hundreds of minor lords, wizards and warring tribes share ties to a larger feudal kingdom for international protection. The deserts are expansive and inhospitable. The coasts are full of expansive fishing villages, the mountains surrounded by forests and grazing farm lands to our norther borders." 

Shiki said as he gestured over to the map on the wall. "You're asking me to show you the difference in policy if you want to see the differences. The Land of Thunder is in the midst of an ongoing unending war because the Raikage is unwilling to escalate the war time efforts. The differences you want to see are not something I can point at. It's going to need to be something I can only prove after a period of time."
T


"Player Speech is A25428"

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[Hamura]

"A stranger who was given a high position, yes. To me that seemed like a good enough reason as to why I might ask."

In hindsight, he understood how him asking about such things might not have been the best plan he had ever come up with, though there was some solid reasoning behind it. Whoever had decided it was a good idea to give the man a high ranking position had likely not done so because he knew exactly nothing about the inner workings of the village itself. If he or she had, that was just poor judgement on their end, as no one should be put in a position such as that without knowing what to expect or know what might be going on within the walls.

As for the rest, it made sense that Shiki did not know everything that went on outside of the village gates, as most high ranking officers and even the resident Kage couldn't truly be expected to know every little thing that went on in the country. This was most likely even more so the case when dealing with the biggest nation in the known world. Sure, most of it was nothing more than sand that held little to no natural resources, though it was ground none the less. And as was the case with the Sand village, the inhabitants knew quite well how to handle such a thing.

"Sounds like this place has many of the comforts we had at home, as well as a massively inhospitable desert that covers most of it. But yes, I primarily meant to learn more about the village and the difference in policy, seeing as the land of Lightning and the Cloud were always rather open, never bothering to check up on me or where I went."

When he stated that much, he wasn't exactly lying either. During his time as a Shinobi, which was getting close to a full year now since his graduation, he had spent little to no time in the village itself. Most of his days were spent training out in the neighboring forests, the mountains and even the cliffs overlooking the oceans. Aside from that, most of the time he spent after concluding his participation in the hunting competition had been spent for a small part in the land of Fire and for the most part in the land of Fang where he actually received a bit of training from Shiki and continued on his own.

"Still though, you must have an idea as to what you plan on working towards. Even if it is something you can only really show in time, there have to be some fractions of it that you can explain. After all, if you didn't have an idea of what you planned on bringing about through change, you most likely wouldn't have been much of a candidate for this position, or is that a poor assumption?"

[Deleted]

[I'm not a Politician]

Shiki gave a wry smile. 

"The one thing I've always been good at. Is making people stronger." Shiki said with his smile fading. "The Village Hidden in the Clouds was weak. My parents were killed in a war between the Gale and Kumogakure because the kage was more interested in dealing with domestic issues than tackling the war. I made it my personal mission to train others in my own residence. A residence which was actively trying to be stolen by the village." Shiki said with his smile replaced by a more stoic look. 

"I'm no politician, so policy is not something I have lined out too much. But I am a soldier. I understand when something is battle ready. I do however understand the geopolitical climate of the great ninja villages has changed a lot. The days of total war are over, everything is small unit tactics and reliant on subterfuge. The future of any nation is thus in its military. The more covert, powerful and reaching that military is, the less danger and threats it will recieve." 

Shiki looked at Masar and his eyes grew slightly more intense. "I don't mean this to be boastful Hamura, but I want you to take these next words to heart. For whatever reason, fair or unfair, good or evil. There are people on this planet with power beyond ordinary measure. I could have ended that war in a few weeks. But the inefficient tasking of skills and abilities have caused countless deaths. I can only assume, that this is because the leadership in Kumogakure was is non existent."

Shiki paused for a moment. "This is due to a leadership that does not know its people, that does not care to get involved with their people, their talents and their potential. It is this mismanagement that is born from an non involved kage. A kage that was more concerned with intervillage politics than the success of their people. Here... I wish to find a place where I can settle my people and look after them. I plan on doing that by personally involving myself with the training and readyness of this village."

"Player Speech is A25428"

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[Hamura]

Now that the words were finally coming out, all Hamura really did was listen to anything that might contribute to the situation. After all, he held no grudges towards the Hidden Cloud. In fact, some of the only people he cared about a little bit were still living there, having been given the home he and his grandfather had lived in up until this point. If it truly came down to it, he would try his hardest to make sure to protect them as they were nothing more than civilians. Even if things ever took a turn for the worse, he didn't really see any of the current Shinobi villages really trying to harm them. Still though, if there was any chance that such a thing was to happen, he'd certainly try his hardest to get them out and maybe lead them with him to the land of Wind.

For now though, they were safest in the land of Lightning, living in a fairly comfortable house with ample opportunities to sustain themselves for a very long time. All they really needed to know was that he had disappeared and wasn't coming back, leaving them to grieve and move on with their lives. Whether he was joining the Sand or not, he had already planned on not returning home, which was why he had come here at this point in time. The first part of what he was hearing was something he had already heard before and had already seen as well. Whereas he had been invited, it seemed that there were others like Shoko that seemed quite willing to come and train under him in the Dojo, meaning he was well known for his ability to do just that. This was, however, he already seemed to be quite aware of himself.

Stating that his parents had been killed by a war going on between a place called the land of Gale and the Lightning country however was the first thing he brought up that Hamura himself was not aware of. Since he had never met his own parents and couldn't really remember anything from when he woke up from a coma inside of his grandfather's house, it had always been strange to picture the concept. While he had a scroll containing some information about them as a parting gift from his grandfather after he passed away, he could never bring himself to open it up, afraid of what he might find. Aside from the dead relatives, which was something they likely had in common, Hamura also knew nothing about any war with a land of Gale. In fact, he had never even heard about it, which added to the story about leadership not planning to do anything about it.

"Land of Gale? Strange… I don't recall ever having heard about such a place before, and my geographical knowledge is quite well developed as far as I can tell. Though I guess that means you are somewhat right regarding that issue, because as I Shinobi, I feel like I should have known about an actual war…"

As he pondered more on the issue, the next point to be raised was the non-present leadership that did not know its own people. In a way, this had also been something that had bothered him personally, as there had been a point where he believed one of the desk clerks in the Raikage tower was actually the Raikage herself. Never having met the woman, all he really knew about her was that she was in fact a woman and was called Marii Kazeraikou. Although shameful in a way, he felt that it wasn't entirely his own fault that he knew little to nothing about her as she had never really made an attempt at talking to him either. But that was mostly his own fault as well as he was always too busy training to actually give a shit about meeting people and playing aristocrat. Even though he tried shrugging it off, it still bothered him quite a bit.

Not just that he had never really met his supposed leader that was supposed to act as a sort of role model for new Shinobi such as himself, but also the fact that he had personally been so uninvolved with his own village as to not know a single thing about a seemingly ongoing war. The more he thought about it, the more it frustrated him about how he had been giving himself a lot of thumbs up regarding his quick rise through the ranks and mastering new forms of Ninjutsu, yet had somehow managed to completely overlook something that threatened his village. Returning from his own thoughts for the most part when Shiki brought up that he wanted to actively train and stay involved with "his people", he imagined those would be his other clansmen and the people he brought with him from the Cloud Dojo. Even though Hamura was not, and did not feel like one of those people, he

"For the longest time I've been looking for a place where I could settle on my own, live in a place of my own, no longer living in a place left by the last of my relatives. While I wanted that to be in a place with a more… nature rich environment, the land of Lightning did not make the cut because there were no people there against whom I could spar. There was no real reason to grow beyond what I was there, though I feel like that might not be the case here. I've met a few people that seemed to have followed you here, and some of them are quite capable."

Pausing for a moment, he realized that one of the biggest reasons why he had actually come to the Sand was because it was all new to him. The Cloud and the surrounding country had gotten rather stale the more he got to know it, which was something he hadn't done with the land of Wind. Since it was the largest nation in the Shinobi world, getting to actually explore it all would take a whole lot of time. More importantly, there were going to be a lot of strong Shinobi there, some being stronger or more promising than he was, though that just added to his drive to become a more powerful Shinobi. Luckily, it seemed that there were some portions of soil within the land of Wind that were actually fit for settling, meaning he might create a home for himself there at some point. Right now, those were really all of the things he was looking for in a nation.

"While it might not be the best reason, or even the kind of reason you might want to hear, I feel like that might be why I am going to be staying here. I never really felt at home in the Cloud, though that might be because I don't really feel at home in any village. But here, I have a chance to create something that is my own, all the while being surrounded by strong people whom I can try to match up to. To me, that feels like a good enough reason to stay here. And maybe in time, when I have made this place my home, I might come to feel as strongly about protecting it as I once did about the Cloud. I hope that is enough for you, for it is really all I can offer you right now."

[Deleted]

[INSERT SNARK HERE]

"That sounds like something we can work with. I can't take you into the village however until you make the decision." Shiki said as he handed hamura a map with the villages location, a note from his office as the Jounin Commander giving him permission to pass through. Finally Shiki would hand him a headband with a symbol of the land of wind on it. Shiki would hold out a small piece of paper (a vivre card). "Just infuse your chakra into here."

"Player Speech is A25428 "

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[Hamura]

"Oh don't get me wrong, the decision has already been made. I've lived in the Cloud for two years, have been a Shinobi for almost one full year now, in which I have felt more like an outsider than an actual resident. Maybe here, I'll feel like less of an outcast now that I'm not the only foreigner being adopted into the village."

And in those words, there was truth. The fact that he had never really known where he came from or who his parents were had always been a reason for the other kids to pick on him. This was something that was made that much worse by the fact that he had been in a coma for a year, which was why everything before the two years he spent in the Cloud had been a blur to say the least. The bullying had been an issue until he had beaten one of the bullies up with his crutch, after which it had more or less stopped. That was, no one dared to say anything to his face, knowing what might befall them if they did, though that would not stop them from talking behind his back.

That, mixed with the fact that he had little to no ties to the village now that the last remnants of his actual family had died along with his grandfather, the fact that he had done several missions for the Cloud took care of the debt he felt he had when it paid for the funeral. With that, he had freed himself, even though the other Shinobi from the village might consider him a traitor and might not have forgiven him yet, and might never. But that did not matter to him, not really. He held no grudges towards the Cloud, and in fact wanted the place to remain safe, which was part of why he had come to the hidden Sand. At least that way, he could see to it that the two places would never fight one another needlessly.

"Now I'm not sure how many of the others have made the journey here, though I personally want to see to it that things turn out the way you say you'd want them to. I might not have needed it as much, though I can tell that there are plenty of other aspiring Shinobi that might benefit from the hands-on type of leadership you promised. That, among other things, is something I am willing to work towards."

With those words, he figured that he might have convinced the man of his intentions. That was because, again, he wasn't lying about his intentions, even though it was harder to convince himself about this being the right decision. There was the gnawing feeling in the back of his mind that told him that the life of a Shinobi inside of a village wasn't for him, which was why he truly hoped that he could find a place here in the Sand that was satisfying enough for him to prove those feelings wrong. Placing a finger on the piece of paper, he infused it with chakra as a show of good faith, figuring that the rest was now no longer up to him as he put the new headband into his pocket.