one_long_mission | [OPEN] The Strange Man's Arrival

Within hours of finding himself in this new location, he'd removed his Sound forehead protector and buried it in a copse of trees beyond a rice paddy. It was clear that there were no shinobi here, and he had no desire to stand out. What was the saying about the post that sticks up...? If captured, he would need to be able to morph his allegiances to suit, not be branded prematurely by a piece of metal. Purposefully, he'd masked his Chakra and made to blend in, smiling and earning himself the trust of a simple herbsman within the village itself. To even the most trained eye, the young man with the prematurely-grey hair had made himself a home in this so-called Michi no Sato.

Yakushi Kabuto had no home, only cover stories.

Whether this was a test of Orochimaru-sama's or a genjutsu prison devised by any one of their many enemies, Kabuto would survive, would thrive, and would eventually escape to rejoin his master. Any lingering doubts that he might eventually be happy here on his own were quickly squashed. Independence was not an option.

Within a few days, other shinobi began to arrive, some more obviously than others. Through it all, the young man only smiled, collected herbs, mashed poultices, and took careful, careful notes.

The bustle of the Frost Festival provided the perfect opportunity to personally gather more information. The shifting timelines and alternate personalities he'd observed would only be to his benefit here.

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He wanted to shake his head at the reaction, but he resisted and instead just watched as Kabuto approached, "Why is it a relief?"

"Because I was all alone in this place!" It irked him, deep inside, to have to debase himself before this Uchiha Genin when he knew he was competent enough to take on the Legendary Tsunade in battle, but such was the life of a spy. "You don't think this is part of the Chuunin exams, do you? I haven't seen my team anywhere..."

"... There are plenty from Konoha here. And it isn't part of the exams," He shook his head, wanting to sigh at the teen in front of him. He refrained, however, and he looked over Kabuto from head to to before he started to explain, "It's called Michi no Sato. We have no idea where it is relative to Hi no Kuni, only that it's in a country called Jiten no Kuni."

He'd just... leave out the 'dead people magically being alive again' thing for the moment. Let Kabuto take in that information first. And it wasn't like Kabuto needed to know about his mom.

"I thought not. There's no proctors, and the whole point of the exams so far was to work as a team, right?" His frown is deep and heartfelt as he glances to Sasuke, the epitome of the slightly-pathetic Genin. "Michi no Sato... is it?"

A hand slips into his kunai pouch, pulling out the stack of orange-backed cards and giving them a careful glance. "I don't have anything on either of those countries. It must not be a shinobi nation." His smile returns to his face full-force as he slips the deck away again. "Ah, but now that I know you're here, I'm less alarmed!"

"... Mm. Whatever's going on around here, it doesn't seem like the locals are hostile at least. If anything, it seems this sort of thing has happened to them before."

"Really?" The frown his lips curve into is almost comical as he looks wide-eyed at the other. "That explains why everyone was so friendly! I thought maybe it was a genjutsu to make me lower my guard for the exam, but..."

He blinks. "You know a lot more about this place than I do, it looks like." As if. "Did you figure out somewhere to stay?"

"... Yeah. I found a place to live here," He nodded in response to Kabuto, looking distinctly unimpressed with the other at the overreactions. There was no guy this way was ever going to make it past Genin...

"Oh? Where is it? I mean, I'm going to try to find somewhere for myself, just in case it's a test of self-sufficiency, but..." He pulls out his cards again, looking over them thoughtfully. "I've never had anything like this in any of the previous exams."

"... The big mansion, at the western edge of the village."

"I'll remember that." Kabuto looks at the cards for another long moment before shrugging and slipping them away. "If you get any further information, you'll let me know, right?"

"If it's relevant."

"Everything can be relevant, Sasuke-kun. Even the smallest detail." He reached up and adjusted his glasses with a finger. "But this seems like a peaceful place. It's good to know that there are other shinobi here. Hopefully any others won't be hostile..."

[OPEN] The Strange Man's Arrival

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