She was a very secluded kage, making public appearances as much as was necessary, but preferred the isolation of her quarters. Leaning somewhat more heavily on scribes to handle the village’s paperwork, she was much better at delegation than most other kage- to the point that some might consider her lazy. Others saw her leadership as what won the village from her predecessor, despite the fearsomeness of her powers.
She wasn’t in seclusion now though. The command tent was ready and reconnaissance forces were preparing for deployment. She had already a change in the rosters of the shinobi who presented their ideas to her, in part to keep shinobi from different lands honest. She was exerting and some would say even overextending the influence that Otogakure could command over the other nations. Experimenting with the chips that she held. Was each nation so afraid of Otogakure assisting their enemies that they could be bound together to stop the empire? She would find out with Onomichi.
Mai did not pick jounin lightly. She was paranoid of the previous regime. She hand picked motivated shinobi to help round out the ranks in her favor. She would delegate important tasks to them, and they were the only ones she didn’t place under genjutsu when entering her inner sanctum.
The command tent had several desks where people sat scrawling on scrolls. They had managed to rig up electric lighting from a generator that was lent by Amegakure, though they hadn’t gotten the permissions to use their radio technology. As Yousei came to enter she would briefly pass by the kazekage, who had just met with Mai to finalize her plans leading the front line.
Mai was uneasy about the initial plans to pull so many shinobi from the main force into reconnaissance, and the kazekage had agreed and recommended reinforcing the west side of the village based on tactics that she had seen. Mai had sent for Yousei, a trusted leader of shinobi, to assert her will and perhaps stave off the boredom of command for a few moments.
So far the command tent had only Sound Shinobi staffing it, even though areas for representatives from the other villages were available once the hour was upon them. For now they could seemingly speak without worrying about being discrete. She sat in the center of the room on a comfortable mat. A young girl with brown hair sat next to her with a scroll and ink ready to transcribe orders given by the kage.
"Yousei, is there something different about you?" she asked as on the jounin's approach as she detected the heartbeat and vibrations of the jounin's movement. Something as subtle as a new blade could change the rhythm of a person's step slightly. Not even most jounin were privy to the fact that she was blind, and Yousei had not yet been informed.
OOC: This isn't the offical command tent post, which will be up later this week.
Last Edit: Oct 21, 2021 2:35:13 GMT by Mai Nobusuma
[attr="class","pwfbody"] Oh gosh, oh man. Not only was it the big day, the eve of the anxiously anticipated Battle of Onomichi that had the entire village abuzz with last minute preparations, but Mai had just called her out to the command tent! Oh gosh, what could this be about? Her mind was racing to come up with an answer, but obviously it was all just wild speculation at this point. [break][break]
Even so, any chance to meet with the Hokage was one that Yousei was gladly willing to take. She was practically wheezing on the inside just thinking about it; this was Mai Nobusuma, after all! Who wouldn't get a small colony of butterflies in their stomach whenever they got to talk to her in person? (Is this what it felt like to be an Aburame? She'd have to ask Maimai at some point, before she went back to Ame.) [break][break]
Making unnecessarily good time in reaching the tent, Yousei took a deep breath and tried to psych herself up for what was to follow, passing the- oh heck, was that the Kazekage? Yousei was feeling like a small fish swimming into a real big pond right now, and sat right in the middle of that pond was none other than her #1 idol (and her secretary). She could practically feel her heart skip a beat, as she fought hard to suppress her inner fangirl. [break][break]
"Something different?" The question caught her somewhat off guard, and she had to think for a minute to figure out what might've changed since the last time the Kage had seen her (you know, metaphorically). "Oh! Probably the new-" [break][break]
Sword~? [break][break]
Her breathing hitched a little as a soundless voice whispered into her mind. So much like hers, yet at the same time different as night and day. It left her standing there awkwardly for a moment, frozen mid-sentence, before she finally came back to her senses. [break][break]
"-sword..." She concluded, though her tone was notably less vivacious than it had been when she'd started speaking. However, that absentness would last only a moment before Yousei sprang back to her usual self (if ever so slightly forced, as though a splinter still hung in her thoughts). [break][break]
"Did you need something, Mai-sa-" Darn it! There she went again. She cleared her throat in a panic as she tried and failed miserably to cover up her little faux pas, before inelegantly deflecting back to the subject at hand. [break][break]
"D-did you need something, Hokage-sama?" [break][break]
It seemed whatever was bothering her had been forgotten in the heat of the moment, at least for now. [break][break]
[attr="class","APP3"]“A new sword hmm? I hope that it serves you well.”
A catlike smile formed on Mai’s lips as she leaned forward on the mat, unblinking with her famed yellow eyes. She blew he hair from her eyes softly before speaking, not that it bothered her, but because it helped to create the illusion that she was a being that relied on her sight. She nodded to her assistant, who stood up and approached her with a scroll that she insisted forward. It was a small list of personnel that she was to pull from the reconnaissance team and divert to the western side of the village to reinforce it.
Mai would give Yousei enough time to look the scroll over. It assigned her command over a team with some big names on it, namely Seiichi of the Hidden Cloud.
“There was an incident between the Hidden Mist and Hidden Cloud involving Seiichi, but there wasn’t really any evidence either way. We weren’t going to give up such a powerful asset to play politics so close to the operation, nor were the claims of the Mist backed up by anyone from our own village,” she said. “I’m going to split up the group that the mist requested, and I will place you to supervise the group of shinobi listed, with respect of course. We need to keep everyone honest long enough to get through this operation.”
She paused for a moment and pushed a hand forward to offer Yousei a seat, which her aid made by pulling a small cushion from a pile and placing it a few feet in front of the kage.
“Do you think that you can handle that?” she asked. "West of Onomichi is an easy highway for mounted forces to move through, and too difficult to defend conventionally. Disrupting their command would be best."
Last Edit: Oct 25, 2021 2:49:36 GMT by Mai Nobusuma
[attr="class","pwf1body"] Yousei read through the contents of the scroll curiously, scanning over the list of unfamiliar names that she was apparently supposed to be pulling from the- wait, huh? That she was supposed to be pulling? Mai wanted her to lead this team!? Her eyes went wide, her thoughts suddenly feeling like scrambled eggs as Mai went on to explain the situation in greater detail. [break][break]
"A-are you sure you want-" She began, but cut herself off before she could finish. It was a natural reaction, of course; she'd only been a jounin for a little over a month, and now the Hokage was asking her to lead a group of foreign shinobi into a major battle against the Taiyou? She couldn't understand how Mai always had so much confidence in her, but if she really trusted her that much, then she'd just have to believe in the her that believed in her. [break][break]
Scrambling down onto the cushion like a fawn that was still figuring out how its legs worked, Yousei gave Mai an anxiously vigorous nod. "S-sure thing! Just need to round these guys up and go deal with whoever's commanding their cavalry unit, right? I-I can do that, no problem." [break][break]
Her words were laced with the nervous energy of someone who was assuring themselves as much as the person they were speaking to, but the fact that she had the determination to push aside her doubts and force out this resolve in the first place was already a good sign. [break][break]
"I-In fact, I know someone who would be perfect for this team!" Might as well strike while the iron was hot, right? Seemed like as good a time as any. "I met her a few days ago, she's this swordsman with a real grudge against the Taiyou. Kind of a...free agent, I guess? Pretty sure I can convince her to come along, though. Should definitely be an asset to the team." [break][break]
[attr="class","APP3"]"You can most certainly recruit additional people," Mai said with a soft voice. "I trust your judgement in handling the situation. Just be careful, I'm sure I've provoked the other kage a bit. So far it seems like they are willing to do what I asked, but who knows if the fear of us teaming up with their enemies will last," she warned.
She took pause for a few moments. Another assistant brought a glass of tea to her, which she took in her hand after a catious reach. Lifting the cup from the little tea plate to her mouth seemed exagerated, but truthfully her abilities had their limits and it was easier to use her sense of touch here than her sense of hearing to bring the glass to her lips. It was still a bit fumbly, and a bit of tea splashed onto her lips and down her chin, causing her to whince a bit.
Without a word one of the aids came to wipe at her mouth. She sat perfectly still like a doll as they attended to this, and then she went back to consuming the tea as if the incident had never happened.
"You seem a bit nervous, Yousei," Mai said. "There isn't much time before things get serious, but it is my responsibility to look after the jounin of the village so that they can take care of everyone else. Is there anything that is troubling you?" she asked.
[attr="class","pwf1body"] Score! Ms. Tsubaki was officially on the team. That was easier than she'd expected, honestly. Now she just needed one of the people on this list to be a ninja bear, and the dream JRPG party would be complete! What were the chances of that though, right? I mean come on, a ninja bear just coincidentally being part of her squad? That would be some crazy RNG. [break][break]
"O-oh, no, it's just..." It was hard to find the right words to explain how she was feeling. "I still don't have much experience as a leader...and I don't want to let you down, or make you look bad or anything..." [break][break]
Aw, isn't that adorable~? But if letting her down is what you're worried about, then I've got a simple solution for you. Just don't! Kakaka... [break][break]
"I won't!" Yousei snapped out suddenly, her cheeks flushing as she realized that she'd said that out loud. Quick, follow up, follow up! "N-no matter what, I...I won't let you down, Mai." [break][break]
... [break][break]
Her face was on fire now; like, she was approaching spontaneous combustion levels at this point. She'd just been trying to cover up that little outburst so she didn't seem like a weirdo, but somehow she'd only managed to dig her hole even deeper! [break][break]
"A-anyway, you don't have to worry about me! I'm sure you have enough on your mind, already; it can't be easy, coordinating this whole coalition effort. But don't worry, we'll definitely teach those Taiyou bastards a lesson! You can count on it." [break][break]
