He had slept in today. In his haste to wake up and make it to his duties in time, he had knocked a vase out of his window and it had fallen to the ground far below. When he had gone to find it, it had been missing, not a shattered piece of it anywhere.
He was on edge today. Anything could have happened to that vase while he wasn't looking. After all, if it wasn't smashed on the ground, where was it? Perhaps in the time he had been getting dressed, someone had tripped over the debris and fallen into it, and the shards had gotten so deeply lodged in that person (all of the shards, even the tiny misshapen ones) that they'd required hospitalization? What if that person were Lord Ay, and this was seen as an assassination attempt by an enemy ninja, throwing the entire peace into question?
More importantly, what if the shards worked their way somewhere critical, and the nurses were so distracted looking for an enemy that wasn't there they missed one crucial piece of the vase, and Lord Ay were killed by the vase? Then the Land of Clouds would be forced to withdraw from the treaties and declare war on the other ninja villages until they could determine which ninja village had sent assassins. And what if while they investigated the vase pieces, they were able to track it back to himself, and he became a suspect of collaboration? He might be dragged into interrogation and tortured for information about which ninja village he had betrayed Kumogakure for, and why and when.
Then again, it was possible he was secretly an agent, and the interrogation could trigger a sleeper command and cause him to go berserk and attack his own people, and this might happen just as one of their new enemies struck the city, forcing Kumo to fight a battle inside and out at the same time...
He shook his head, frowning in worry as he crouched on an outcropping of rock above the rest of his team.
The longer the mission took, the more likely it would be that they would return home and find Kumo in chaos. Maybe he could head it off simply by admitting immediately that he had been the one to break the vase...?
Omoi | Kumogakure
He had slept in today. In his haste to wake up and make it to his duties in time, he had knocked a vase out of his window and it had fallen to the ground far below. When he had gone to find it, it had been missing, not a shattered piece of it anywhere.
He was on edge today. Anything could have happened to that vase while he wasn't looking. After all, if it wasn't smashed on the ground, where was it? Perhaps in the time he had been getting dressed, someone had tripped over the debris and fallen into it, and the shards had gotten so deeply lodged in that person (all of the shards, even the tiny misshapen ones) that they'd required hospitalization? What if that person were Lord Ay, and this was seen as an assassination attempt by an enemy ninja, throwing the entire peace into question?
More importantly, what if the shards worked their way somewhere critical, and the nurses were so distracted looking for an enemy that wasn't there they missed one crucial piece of the vase, and Lord Ay were killed by the vase? Then the Land of Clouds would be forced to withdraw from the treaties and declare war on the other ninja villages until they could determine which ninja village had sent assassins. And what if while they investigated the vase pieces, they were able to track it back to himself, and he became a suspect of collaboration? He might be dragged into interrogation and tortured for information about which ninja village he had betrayed Kumogakure for, and why and when.
Then again, it was possible he was secretly an agent, and the interrogation could trigger a sleeper command and cause him to go berserk and attack his own people, and this might happen just as one of their new enemies struck the city, forcing Kumo to fight a battle inside and out at the same time...
He shook his head, frowning in worry as he crouched on an outcropping of rock above the rest of his team.
The longer the mission took, the more likely it would be that they would return home and find Kumo in chaos. Maybe he could head it off simply by admitting immediately that he had been the one to break the vase...?