Tales of a Ninja Magician: Of Where We Come From

Kage Summit Begins, the Mysterious Mizukage

The group comprised of Howoku - the Fourth Hokage and his two Sannin: Tanshu and Misu advanced through the countless large halls. Howoku occasionally turned and commanded some of his men to guard the halls, it appeared like this decision was by no means a unique one as many more ninja were standing around watching the halls as well as the samurai of the Iron Country. "What are the samurai doing here?" Misu asked silently so that only the trio from Konoha would hear it. "I asked Haoru-san to moderate the Kage Summit" Howoku replied, Misu's eyes shot wide open in surprise, then he adjusted his shocked expression so that he didn't appear caught out of his comfort zone to the ninja around.

"I guess there is no better man than one of the legendary samurai wielding one of the God Sword techniques to observe the order and protect us..." he added his conclusion when Howoku gently shook his head. 

"No. That is not why I invited Haoru-san, I am well aware that he and his insane kenjutsu prowess can best any ninja on the battlefield but I am more interested in his personality. He hates all ninja and thinks them arrogant of their own power and irrelevant, he believes that they are a sick mutation of noble warriors like the samurai and that they not only have outlived their purpose, they never had one in his eyes, to begin with." Tanshu scratched his wild brown hair and looked at Howoku questioningly, 

"I haven't seen that guy but... Is he really that strong? He doesn't really sound like the guy that'd be fitting to moderate ninja villages' petty squabbles." 

Howoku smiled, "Exactly, he won't tolerate Mizukage's dragging political bullshit, he'll force us to go straight to the point, he won't be afraid to ask the tough questions and offend us on a deeply personal level and people like the Mizukage cannot stand that, they'll be exposed, they'll be stripped and if we're lucky... Removed from their post..." Both Sannin following the Hokage looked at each other, none of them really thought it was a good idea to invite such a man to oversee this event.

As the group entered the second hall leading up to the hall surrounding the main meeting hall Tanshu looked around. Something looked very suspicious to him and he just couldn't understand it. "What's with all those men in hoods? Those steel masks on their faces, who are they?" he grunted as he felt a bit on edge around people concealing their bodies and faces. He wouldn't have minded if they pulled something funny, that'd have given him the excuse to take them out. 

"They're the Kirigakure Barrier Corps, they serve a similar function to Konoha's Barrier Corps - they're the protection team whose main purpose is to create and observe the village protection system, notice barrier breaches, close the threat inside and take it out," Misu replied. 

"You know a lot about Kirigakure to identify those guys from their uniforms..." Tanshu looked at his comrade with surprise. Misu smiled back at him, "I've been to Kirigakure many times on missions, so has Hanasaku, you're the only one who avoids missions there." Howoku scratched his chin, the fact that there were so many Barrier corps ninja in here alerted him.

"I feel you, Howoku, it's unusual for Barrier ninja to even leave their own village. Once they complete their exams they stay inside their village and protect it from threats, their presence in such numbers is something to bring up during the Summit, huh?" Tanshu spoke out nervously reacting to the nervousness of Howoku. The Hokage ordered all of his remaining men to stay in that hall, a secretary bowed and gestured that the men entered the main hall and took their seats. As Howoku and Misu entered Tanshu looked back and observed all the ninja he could identify before turning back and following Howoku and Misu inside. 

"I don't like this, I would have thought that Mizukage would bring his dogs but... I see none of them." Howoku nodded as he moved his large chair and sat down, Tanshu and Misu followed sitting down on smaller chairs from both sides of Hokage.