sunshineverse | OPEN!: Kisame's whirlwind diplomatic tour

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OPEN!: Kisame's whirlwind diplomatic tour

Who: Hoshigaki Kisame, and whoever wants to meet him/work with him on his mission
When: Late March-mid April ..ish? I'm flexible!
Where: Kirigakure -> Sunagakure -> Konagakure -> ??? ~~-> profit!~~
Notes: Kisame has been named Kiri's official ambassador to Suna and Konoha and possibly other places. The latter is because he and his clan have been pushing for it, and the former is because Yagura is a dick and likes sending Hoshigaki to the desert.

In Kiri, before leaving

Kisame almost hadn't expected it to happen, even with the pushing Great Grandmother had been doing, and the hints he'd dropped, and the more outright pointed statements that had been calmly delivered. When it did, he was as unprepared as he could be, having been eyeing an assassination that had looked fun. Having a mission scroll shoved into his hands like that had almost pushed Kisame into being visibly off-guard. The papers were first, declaring him an official ambassador, and Kisame had to smile.

He didn't know why Mizukage-sama had suddenly decided to do it (and give it to him of all people) but he was going to have a chance to get in those spars he'd promised--

Suna. Well! Now Kisame wasn't so surprised. It would be like Mizukage-sama to give him what he was asking for but not what he wanted, though it wouldn't hurt to get some more desert training in. Kisame wasn't going to let this disrupt him.

It didn't take long for Kisame to prepare. A debriefing or two, a notice of his absence, and a little packing was all. It would be interesting, he thought, as he headed towards the travel seal.

In Suna
The desert burned, as usual, and Kisame had work to do this time. There was an escort to meet, first, and then maybe he could wrangle a tour. He'd probably already seen most of it, but seeing a native's reaction to the place could be telling.

Then there were meetings and paperwork. Kisame actually had an idea of a program that might foster closer ties and make them both stronger. He wasn't a stranger to how hard the desert was on Kiri-nin, even non-Hoshigaki ones, and he'd noticed more than one Suna-nin having trouble in return. A brief exchange for training purposes, probably of genin, would help both sides adapt better to the opposite environment. He had a Suna-nin to thank for giving him the idea, if he saw her.

And, of course, he couldn't be in Suna without hoping for another spar. The one with Sephiroth had been invigorating, and so many of the locals seemed strong. Kisame wanted to test it.

In Konoha
Konoha was as interesting as last time, and this time Kisame was himself, Samehada and all. If they didn't respect his weapon, he'd be a poor ambassador, so he'd brought the sword. That, and he hadn't wanted to leave it behind and find out one of his cousins had gotten drained close to unconsciousness after getting too close.

The official business was much the same here, though Kisame had fewer ideas on ways to improve relations. Well! Official ones, anyway. He had more than one "gift" of treats for the Hokage, and sparring was always an act of at least a minimum of trust when it happened between shinobi of different villages, so that might work in his favor.

He wondered who his escort would be this time, and if he might get to spend more time looking around, this time without the burden of reporting every little detail back.

((ooc: The top post is a general glossing of what Kisame will be doing! Put up a starter, or for something more focused, ping me and I'll write up something in post.))

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"Yeah, we'll get there after I show you around a bit." He laughed, looking over and giving him a wave of his fingers. "But can't a man show off his pride and joy before jumping into a training field with someone?"

He deliberately said it in coy fashion, using it as a joking flirt because he could, and fairly sure it wouldn't be taken wrongly.

Kisame chuckled as they walked. “Forgive me my impatience! I’d almost lost hope of getting the chance before it dropped in my lap. There won’t be another chance.”

It was a sobering thought, but if not completely true, overwhelmingly likely. Tensions were too high in Kiri; someone was going to make a move against someone else soon and civil war would probably erupt. But that wasn’t something to think on while being shown around by the Hokage himself.

“But please do show me your village. I can already see why you’re so proud of it!”

The man had sounded coy, but Kisame was sure it was teasing, so he chose the logical conclusion.

He laughed, dropping the play for genuine excitement. He obviously wouldn't take him around anywhere he shouldn't be, he knew better more than anyone, but he'd point out a few things, taking a walk down one of the main streets to show him a few places that might interest him. Starting with an absent wave at the stadium.

"True, it's beautiful isn't it? Even though I've seen all the main villages by now, I still think that Konoha is the most beautiful. I can admit that Kiri is visually impressive though, especially with those red sunrises you lot have."

"I think we are all partial to our own villages, but I can see the beauty of yours. If nothing else, definitely where you got your name from!"

There were trees in Kiri, of course, but most of them only species that flourished in very wet or swampy environments. It wasn't uncommon for flooding to happen, especially in the spring, and inhabitants had long given up trying to stop it and learned how to work with it. But he nodded at the stadium.

"A shame I haven't gotten to attend a chuunin exam in Konoha yet. No two stadiums are exactly the same."

He wasn't likely to soon either, because of current genin, he hadn't met any besides his own cousins that were worthy of more than a look, and he'd be unlikely to be assigned their sponsoring jounin while the current Mizukage had control. Even being assigned to Naoki those years ago hadn't really been intentional on his part, though he'd been very pleased with how Naoki had proven himself during the exam.

"Next time it comes to us maybe? We just had one last year so it'll be.. a good while actually." He shook his head. "It'll be a winter exam next time it's in Konoha, which means our trees are likely to all be naked." He laughed and headed off toward the main body of the village with a bounce in his step. "So what's your favorite kind of food anyway? Better I point out the places while we're on the move for after the spar."

"Naked trees and mild weather, however will the genin survive?" Kisame laughed loudly, taking the statement for a joke. Next time Kiri got a winter exam, Kisame was going to push for sending the kids to one of the northern islands in Water Country so they could get a taste of harsh weather. The southern island they used this last exam was pleasant for the proctors, but didn't help the kids show their mettle very well.

But he grinned crookedly, almost tempted to say "do you even have to ask?" but it was only polite to answer. "What these teeth of mine are made for. Technically, shellfish is my favorite, but I enjoy most seafood, with one exception. Serve me shark and I reserve the right to gut you for it."

It wasn't taste so much as his summoning contract, really, but Kisame could admit being a little attached to his summons. That and things like sharkfin soup were a horrible waste of life.

He snorted and then shook his head on a laugh. He may not have needed to ask, but what's the fun in assuming things? For all he knew, before Kisame answered his answer might have been cookies.

"We have river fish because of the Naka, anything else is harder to get so a lot of our dishes are more land related. There a little place closer to the training fields that has excellent grilled fish though. We can probably eat there after we have a round if that suits? If you're hungry now we could do it before. I have to confess fish is pretty much my favorite meat so the places that sell it are extra familiar with my order."

"I look forward to tasting the fish of the continent! Doing after a spar sounds like an excellent plan; I'm always hungry after a good spar. Lead on."

Kisame was nearly vibrating with eagerness. He'd been looking forward to the chance to see what the Hokage was made of, and he was sure it would push him to his limits. Still, he was careful not to get ahead of himself, and kept pace with the shorter man instead of lengthening his stride like he wanted to.

He noticed the gesture for what it was and laughed. "That is a body language I recognize well, should I hurry up and get us to the area we're to destroy this afternoon?" He waved his hand, clearly amused even as he picked up his pace, making his way toward his preferred training field. It was further away from housing areas than some of the others.

"We'll make the destruction a memorable one!"

Kisame figured he didn't need to say yes in so many words. After all his actions were obvious with eagerness for a fight. He followed easily, though his attention was always a little bit on his surroundings.

"I've been looking forward to this since our last talk."

"I was getting that impression. You have a bit of the eager face Gai tends to have in the face of a fight. Remind me to introduce you sometime before you leave." He laughed and shook his head, sweeping easily along. "Though I'm going to say that while the fight will be memorable, the destruction probably won't last the week."

"Just from that description, I'd like to meet him." Kisame laughed. "It might be repaired, but I'm sure everyone will be talking about 'that one time' for many years."

He wondered idly what kind of area it was. There were plenty of different ones, and he might have to adjust his strategy to fit the area. Well, he'd find out soon enough.

"I dunno, I end up with a lot of 'that one time's. I'm still being growled at by some folks for my last 'that one time' actually, come to think of it." He looked thoughtful, moving along off toward one of the bigger open fields. "And you're liable to do the same sort of destruction... whoops. Well at least I know what not to do this time."

Kisame was already thinking strategy as he looked at the open field. It was almost an invite to set up a field advantage. Of course, he would, because water was never a bad idea to have on hand.

He remembered the talk of the exploding tag and water waves and laughed. "Let's see if we can one-up that spar, Hokage-sama!"

"Just remember if you actually manage to kill me my shinobi might be a little upset alright?" His tone was mild though, and he spun around, walking backward as he gestured to some of his people. "They'll set up a barrier around the field. They can get in but you can't get out and neither can our hazards. Safer for the whole village that way really." He laughed and shook his head.

"Oh, I trust you to survive everything I can throw at you. Maybe not in one piece, but that's what medics are for, eh?"

Kisame was joking with the last bit, mostly. The idea of a barrier was a good one. Kisame didn't do much with them personally, but he could admire the usefulness of experts in the field.

"An excellent measure to make sure we can have our fun to the fullest extent. Now, shall we?"

Kisame drew Samehada, and now that they were on the field, he radiated killing intent. A little suppressed for an actual fight, but probably more than most shinobi displayed during a spar.

Obito didn't bother bringing his up, instead just giving a wildly amused grin. He fished out his goggles, new ones since he'd given his old ones over to Gai, and pulled them on,

"Yes, we definitely shall."

And then... he didn't attack, instead waiting with that too pleased look on his face.

There was something the Hokage was sure he had up his sleeve to wait like that. Some special ability? Genjutsu? A trap of some kind? Well, Kisame had walked into traps before just for the fun of it, so why not? Of course, there was a technique to walking into traps...

He charged, sword swinging.

And while that happened, the real Kisame started things off with a watery bang from a different area of the field. Flooding the area for a field advantage was never a bad first move.

He didn't hesitate, as the moment Kisame came at him, he fled, jumping up into the trees and darting away, dropping explosive tags in his wake like confetti. They went off like paper dominoes the moment Kisame got close enough to them, and he was laughing, throwing weapons coming to hand as soon as the initial spill of explosives left them, which he didn't hesitate to start unloading on the other man.

Kisame was laughing too, as he finally finished off the Great Colliding Wave. He’d been taking more care than he usually did with the amount. Enough to generate the force the jutsu was known for, and thoroughly flood the place, but not so much as to unduly strain the barrier.

The water clone took a hit from one of the weapons and dissolved, and Kisame directed his glide over the surface of the crashing wave. The other man would avoid being crushed by the water, and Kisame wanted to try and get a few swings in with Samehada before the momentum of the water settled.

It was interesting, and fascinating, the way the other man fought, and he kept ahead of him. He knew that his tendency to play tag with people tended to be somewhat infuriating, but it gave him a better sense of what he was working with, and with that blade he didn't feel any particular urge to get close.

So he'd run up the wave, using his experience with Kushina to ride it out and roll with it instead of fighting the momentum. And he'd watch out for tree branches this time.

With that approach he could hopefully get back around close enough without much trouble to resume his weapon hail on the one actually throwing around jutsu.

The other man was keeping his distance. A wise choice, considering Kisame’s skills, but Kisame wasn’t about to let himself remain a stationary target. He wasn’t particularly worried about projectiles, and had chakra to spare. Now that the playing field was inundated, sending some Feeding Sharks after his opponent would let him gauge just how good the Hokage was.

An S-Class skill-level, naturally, but where exactly did the man’s true specialties lie?

Obito was not a stationary fighter. That would quickly become obvious, with him moving from point to point, circling and never trying to vanish out of sight. He was fast though, having Minato as a sensei meant he couldn't much afford to be slow, to say nothing of his other sparring partners.

He also seemed content, at the moment, to watch how Kisame dodged and deflected his weapon hair, which turned into more precisely aimed throws before finally he switched tactics.

With fire. His next pass has a rain of small fireballs instead of weaponry.

Kisame was almost reminded of Sephiroth, at least a little. Quick movements and high speed. The biggest difference was the lack of the kawarimi that Kisame had almost come to expect. It took an adjustment, but a minor one. The use of projectiles wasn’t something Kisame was unfamiliar with, but it wasn’t overly common among his sparring partners, and certainly not at this level. So he made a tiny misstep or two at first when the blows became more accurately aimed and paid for it in blood, but the adjustment was almost immediate, and Kisame changed his own movements to make aiming that much more difficult.

The fire made him laugh in delight, and Samehada spun up into the air. The initial hand seal was familiar, but the rest… well, this kind of subtle water release was used more in their lake to direct and shape the currents and filter out impurities, but the smooth movement of the next seal mimicked the wave that rose up to block and absorb the fireballs in a burst of steam.

And a second later small, shark-shaped missiles flew out of the steam, each smaller than a kunai, but following curving trajectories more like shuriken.

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OPEN!: Kisame's whirlwind diplomatic tour

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