For days, Youko the Jounin blacksmith had been in and out of his forge. He could presently be found in this very location, standing shirtless - as per usual in the forge - above the fires. He continuously hammered away at a large slab of heated iron, shaping one of many large shuriken. Others lay around the floor, but the first of these he created had been strapped to his back, and took up his entire torso with its size.
A crimson flash would appear within the forge, bringing the Kazekage, but she would not be alone. As the redhead appeared in the seated position, in her usual spot atop a work bench. Two red haired twins younger than herself by about a decade would appear holding each of her hands as well. One was female and sported a mess of wild hair and a sporty outfit including a headband. She had blue eyes with a singular red ring near her pupils. "Sugoi~ Aneki... this forge is really different from the last one we saw." she said having a look around only to have her eyes stop dead upon the elder redhead's husband. She seemed to go into an immediate fear response stepping back and immediately going on guard, dropping her older sister's hand in the process.
The other twin to appear alongside Benihime was male, wearing his long crimson locks in a ponytail, while sporting a simple kimono and hakama of blue and white respective colors. While Teruko's first observation upon arrival was the forge itself, Akira's eyes widened upon seeing the man who worked said forge. "B-b... but that's..." he said with relative fear in his expression as Youko looked toward these new voices in his forge.
"Okay... didn't expect that, why are you both afraid right now?" Benihime asked of her siblings, she'd seen the changes in their behavior and felt the difference in their bodies. There wasn't any denying that, but her brother acted as if he recognized her husband and it simply shouldn't be possible. "These are my two youngest siblings and they are freaked out for some reason..." she said seemingly fine with this, knowing this probably wouldn't get to far out of hand. "A-aneki, this man... is the one who attacked us in the Forest of Death!" she said seemingly wide eyed. This made Benihime look at the pair and then at her husband and then the familiar feeling of the boy's scar made sense to her. She'd had a lot of contact with the kind of chakra which created the long nails in the hunter clan, because her husband was prone to keeping his that way. "Oh... that makes sense, I thought it felt familiar. But it wasn't him. This is my husband, Youko~" she said. "But.. Aneki!" the girl was pleading, and genuine in her feelings, but there was one thing Benihime knew and it was the comings and goings of her husband, especially in recent weeks.
"Ah, so these are the ones in need of the tools I'm making," Youko said, only to then be confused as one of these twins claimed he'd attacked them. "What the hell is a Forest of Death?" he asked, looking toward his wife. "I've been here at the forge this whole time. Well... most of this time. Well... some." The more he spoke, the quicker Youko came to the conclusion that he should be silent, lest he incriminate himself for his devious behavior. Paying no mind to the blacksmith's words, Akira stared him down. Benihime's claims were ones he wanted to believe, but it took several moments of staring at this man to determine that he wasn't their attacker. "Eto... no, it's not him. He's way smaller, and has all white hair."
"Hai!" Benihime said. It seemed her husband didn't even know what the Forest of Death was considering but that also made quite a bit of sense. "Sou ka, I forget you weren't here when we were holding the occasional combined Chunin Exam with the Konoha so you don't know about that. It's their training ground that they use specifically to test suitability. They usually hold this wide scale capture the flag type of game, it's pretty fun to watch, I proctored one of those. It was nicknamed the Forest of Death because of all the dangerous and poisonous animals and creatures found there, and because it's technically titled training ground Shijuushi you know how superstitious kids can be." she explained rather calmly.
Though her sister seemed to be sure of this, it seemed her brother was quite a bit calmer and had decided that this wasn't the man that attacked them. A smile crossed the woman's face, as she came to a couple of conclusions based on the things her brother said was wrong with this man compared to the one who'd beaten them. Teruko also stared after her brother spoke and she'd had several run ins with that man during their time in the forest and when she thought about it, the other man was quite a bit larger than this one and had red and white hair and not just white hair. "Sou ka... you're right Aki." she said thinking about it more she went on to apologize to Youko. "Sumimasen, that was really scary, and you look a lot like that guy."
"A training ground known as the Forest of Death... Interesting," Youko said. "Now that you mention it, isn't the next Chuunin exam being held in Konoha? I remember some offer coming to the office, around the same time the Gokage Summit was mentioned." When Teruko apologized verbally to the Sand Jounin, Akira gestured with a bow. "Hai. He almost killed us," he said. This prompted Youko to return his attention to the twins while scratching his head. "Don't sweat it. It's not the first time strangers thought I had tried to murder them. Most people in my clan look like me. I'd even guess at it being my brother, if I thought he would do that sort of thing." With that said, Youko stepped toward this group, extending his right hand to whichever of these two would accept it. "Katsuhara Youko desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu."
"Hai, it's back around to them again... I saw that the other day." she said about the Chunin Exam being hosted in the Konohagakure. "I know we have a couple of teams that may want to participate, I asked their team leaders they submitted some names... it's going through. And if they go I have to go too, anyways soo~ We could make it a trip. It's a bit of a ways off though, they are trying to hold it a bit closer to fall." she said about the Chunin Exam. On the subject of the Gokage Summit the woman simply huffed. "I don't wanna go to that either, ooh I wonder if I can get Machi to go instead of me, then we could take a vacation~" she chimed thinking most deviously of skipping out on the summit as mostly a joke.
The younger twins then went on to apologize in their usual way, seeing such a thing made Benihime smile, though it was quite odd that people were always assuming Youko had done something to them, she couldn't even say it was the first or second time she'd seen such a reaction to the man. "Ah, yeah, Hiei hasn't been around in ages, but he's a nice guy he wouldn't either. Though I thought you got rid of all the others like you except for you three, that one left the mark on Aki's face and it feels like your nails do, I thought that was something only your branch could do." she said seeming to have at least a little knowledge of this thing, probably because she'd questioned it once or twice. In the face of this the man's extended hand would be met by Teruko, who'd go on to introduce herself and her twin. "Yoroshiku! Suzukou Teruko and that's Suzukou Akira~" she said of herself and her twin happy to have put any unsettled feelings aside.
"That should be fun to watch. We've got some interesting prospects in this generation," Youko said about a few select Genin in their village. He assumed he would be going along to the Chuunin Exam as well, whether he was expected to or not. As for the Kage summit, Youko was not at all surprised that Benihime wasn't keen on going. "You can't just send him in your place. At the very least, it should be a short visit that we can leave at a moment's notice when everything's over. It won't be so bad," he said. It seemed Benihime had likened the chakra which caused Akira's wound to his own when using the claws common among Hunters in his clan. "The Blood Cult is dead; there's no doubt about that. There's every possibility that a lone wolf of sorts, or even a splinter group, exists somewhere, though. That is... unless they encountered the Yokujin."
With his handshake accepted by the female twin, Youko locked eyes with the lass and accepted her return greeting. "So, you're here for the tools? I'm not quite done, but I do have a ton of Fuuma Shuriken - both straight-edge and fold-able - as well as some other tools ready. Did you guys need anything specific?"
"Hai, those are always pretty fun. Though to be fair, I'd rather be proctor, better view," the girl said of the Chunin Exam. She could only imagine the set up they'd have for the Kage during such a thing, and that made it even worse. Moreover, it seemed that Youko disagreed with the playful idea of her sending the previous Kazekage in her place to the Five Kage Summit. "But, I really could. Ease of leaving one of those things not withstanding, it never says the current Kazekage has to go, only the Kazekage, technically speaking people are Kages for life, any one could go. I thought about sending Ookami-jii last time, but he stone faced me." she said pouting only lightly, in reference to the cold blooded look the First Kazekage had given her when she'd tried to get him to go the last summit in her place. "But... I was only joking," she said which seemed to catch her sister's attention just a bit. The woman's wording implied she was the Kazekage, which was a very odd thing. She looked at her twin seemingly stunned wondering if he'd heard the same thing she had.
As Youko went on to explain how his clan might have fractured and thus left a few loose ends for the rest of the world at large to deal with, he mentioned a name she'd not heard before. Of course, this left the young woman to look confused because of what the name translated to. "What the fuck is a Yokujin?" she questioned. Before she'd get an answer to this, her sister and brother would be told of other things the blacksmith intended to provide them which were all interesting. Teruko herself never really used weapons so she didn't know of one she wanted. But beyond that she was still stuck on something else. "Wait wait, what? Aneki are you the Kazekage?"
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