Eating out (open)

“Tis quite a queer way to eat a cake” remarked Ryuko. She happened to be passing though the area on her way back from an important meeting at the local church when she spotted Renny chowing down. While the man was tall it was the way he was consuming his pasty that made him really stand out. It wasn’t often you saw someone bite into an entire cake while on the run like that. A slice perhaps but never the entire thing. It was as she had said most peculiar.

Ryuko for her part was dressed not in her battle armor or kage robes but in her dull purple with gold trim vestal attire. Complete with her stardust staff in hand she looked every inch like you’d expect to see from a shrine maiden except for the golden arch-angle tiara on her forehead marking her to those in the know as the Queen of the Kingdom of Thunder.

“Could I offer you something to wash that down? A nice wine perhaps?” She offered. It wasn’t like she had time to spend with just anyone who came to her lands but something about Renny had peaked her curiosity so she figured she could spare him a few minutes at least

[1]

From the way the man said that he would take anything he could get to the way he was woofing down his cake, it was enough to make Ryuko wonder if he was down on his luck. Cake used to be considered a luxury but these days it was fairly cheap. It wasn’t what she would consider the most nutritious meal but it was better than nothing in a pinch, at least in the short term. That said telling a starving peasant to just eat cake if they had no other food was a quick way to earn yourself a trip to a guillotine.

“Red wine huh? Consider it done. While I’m at it, can I interest you in a proper meal? Tis no need to worry, I would never knowingly serve a guest something harmful” she said reassuringly. To her his request was a simple one. She couldn’t feed everyone in the country even if she wanted to but one person was no trouble. Reaching into a pouch on her waist she pulled out a small bottle of D’ont Poke the bear with one hand and two wine glasses with another.

The wine bottle:

She had been carrying with her in order to share with Shimiko later but she figured her sister wouldn’t mind her giving some away when they had plenty more to spare back at the palace.
True being the Queen she could afford to import the really expensive brands from overseas if she wanted to but the truth was she preferred the more down to earth tastes. Lord knew she had enough experience drinking wine to know that cost didn’t always translate directly to taste.

“Ryuko, Vestal of the Divine Church of Hakkin at your service.” she said, introducing herself with polite curtsy, being a Queen she bowing was out of the question. There were very few citizens who wouldn’t recognize her enough to need to ask for her name, well outside of her student Tsumi but he was an outlier. Well if Renny didn't know she saw no need to tell him just quite yet. It was easier dealing with strangers when they didn’t defer to her out of respect on everything simply because she was royalty.

“Tis a good day for a drink.” She said as she offered Renny a glass and began pouring some wine into it until the glass was just on the verge of overflowing before pouring herself some next. “Well we’re here, might I inquire about your name my good sir?” she asked. She could hide a lot about herself but her polite and regal way of speaking was often the most difficult.

[2]

Ryuko wasn’t particularly worried about spies being in her country. The location of Kumogakure hadn’t been a secret for years. Once it had leaked they had transitioned from being super secretive to allowing for some tourism. The downside of having the capital of your control also being a military base meant it was bound to attract some but on the plus size it also meant her forces were always nearby for added security. Any place in the village that was considered sensitive was under heavy guard leaving the rest to be relatively peaceful.

This wasn’t Moonspire, a town that had been filled almost entirely with civilians at the time of its destruction. Even at the peak of the war nobody had tried to cause trouble here because it would have been sheer suicide. In any case her job wasn’t to worry about small fries, with her experience level it was easy to tell how strong somebody was just by analyzing someone for a little while. From what she’d seen of Renny so far he seemed harmless enough.

Of course if he was dumb enough to pull some stunt and got caught he’d likely ended up gutting like a fish by one of the village’s many Jashinst. It was a cruel fate but she wouldn’t feel the least bit sorry for him since you reaped what you sowed. Conversely as long as he kept on the straight and narrow they were more than happy to have him around.

“If that’s enough to make you happy, wait until you try the cookies.” Ryuko said as she pulled out a bag of chocolate chip cookies and offered it to Renny. She’d like to take credit for baking them but she rarely had time to spend in the kitchen when she had an entire country to run. No, these had been made by her good friend Ayano the owner of a large restaurant chain and professional chef. They were, in a word delicious.

Taking the lead she walked Renny over to a nearby food court that was packed with various stalls. All the Japanese standards you could think of from Ramen to Sushis and rice balls and even a few westren stands that served sandwiches. It wasn’t what anyone would call high dining but instead focused on serving good food at a reasonable price.

“Charmed to make your acquaintance Renny. Feel free to pick whichever you’d like from these stands, tis my treat today, a gift from one researcher to another” she said as she considered how best to answer his question about what was new and exciting for her. She hadn’t been back from her interdimensional trip for long and trying to explain what had gone on with that was a story and a half in of itself just from the bits she remembered.

“With the war winding down tis been mostly business as usual for the most part. I did however finally get around to inspect the Royal Kumogakure Training Facility the other day. Not to brag but I found the building to be most impressive. I would most definitely recommend visiting at least once even for those with no association with the shinobi arts.” The sheer scale of the building alone made for quite the spectacle.

“What do I have to thank for your presence on our fine shores. Business? Pleasure? Or a bit of both?” she asked with a somewhat slightly suggestive and playful tone. She wasn’t interested in men in any sexual manner but that didn’t mean she didn’t know how to be charming towards one. It wasn’t like she was trying to be particularly nosy either but since she liked to study new and exciting things herself she was mildly interested in what Renny was up to.

She had a feeling that Renny was starting to cotton onto her identity which in some ways might make things simpler. She was known as a great sage for her wisdom (unrelated to her actual sage powers which she didn’t publicly broadcast outside of her innermost circle.) While she was far from omninessant she knew at least a little bit on a broad array of subjects which meant she was generally pretty good at giving out advice. As long as what Renny wanted didn’t run against national interests she wouldn’t mind lending him a bit of a hand. If nothing else it would help alleviate her boredom some.

[3]

“I”m good thanks. I’m fasting in preparation for performing my priestess duties at the coming end of the war festival.” she explained. That was the truth but she was omitting the fact that she didn’t need to eat much in general these days. The fact she could survive on a fraction of supplies that a normal human required was an advantage she wasn’t keen to advertise.

“Oh I’m sure there are many lessons to be had, the real question is will they be the correct ones?” she asked half rhetorically. People that didn’t learn from experience were simply foolish. She was sure every village would soon be reviewing their experiences from the war trying to figure out what they had done well in order to be able to kill the enemy better next time and where they had done badly in order to avoid their own troops being killed. Sadly humans never seemed to learn the real lesson that war was bad. Oh sure they would know it for a time and commit to not fighting again but would inevitably revert back after maybe a decade, maybe two if they were lucky.

She didn’t have much to comment on how much food Renny was getting for himself. Perhaps she had been spending too much time around her new student Tsumi lately since Renny’s meal seemed merger in comparison. Of course being a Queen she was so astronomically rich that Renny could have cleared out the entire plaza of food and the bill wouldn’t even make a dent in her coffers. Not that she would have allowed him to get to that point.

“If you’re interested in architecture we’ve got a lot of great buildings. The Royal palace is closed but you can still visit sights like Shimiko Tower, St. Memori's Cathedral or New Boros. That last one in particular is literally modelled after a place not of this world.” she exclaimed. It wasn’t every day you got the chance to experience the building style from another dimension. It was a shame Moonspire had been destroyed in the war and that she couldn’t take him to see the Tower that had been there. At the time of it’s construction it had been considered one of the crown jewels of the entire country.

“Let’s hope I can keep things that way then. I would be remiss as a host if my guests left less than satisfied.” Much of Ryuko’s money had come from owning stocks in the service industry so she was well versed in the ways of customer satisfaction. She wanted tourists like Renny to enjoy their time in her country. Both because then they would be more willing to come back and visit a second time and because they would tell their friends about the experience, essentially acting as word of mouth advertising. He might not be a citizen but Renny was a vital part of her economy just the same by his mere presence here.

“I’ve travelled quite a bit. To the land of Frost before it became part of the Kingdom. Kariforunia Island over in the Land of Earth, heck I’ve even been overseas to the country of Vladveria. Sadly though whenever I’ve been out of the Country it’s always been for work.” Before Ryuko had become the Queen, heck even before she had become a Gennin she had been a noblewoman. Whenever her family had taken her with them on a trip to another land it had always been for diplomatic purposes and never simply vacation. She had simply been carted along for the ride as their mascot of sorts.

It was only now that the war was winding down that she was making plans for a trip that was solely for personal purposes even if she was using work as an excuse to go on it. The hardest part about being royalty was it restricted her freedom to do her own thing in a lot of ways which meant she couldn’t just leave on a whim outside of emergencies.

“I’d like to see more of the world someday. Maybe visit my clan’s ancestral homeland.” Her accent didn’t show up in her speech much these days other than her constantly turning the word It into Tis but she was of half gernamic descent. Her clan had once fled from overseas and apparently still owned land there. She figured she should check it out at least once during her extended lifetime.

“Value is all in the eye of the beholder I suppose. Personally speaking, I always admire the desire for self improvement. If you’re looking for a job I’m always on the lookout for fresh talent, you’d be surprised about the amount of gems that could be had with just a bit of polishing.” Ryuko said with a grin. She herself had started out with almost nothing to her name and was now the single most powerful woman in the entire country. Most of her best men and women had also started out from simple humble origins. If Renny didn’t think he had enough value for her to hire him then the simple solution was to help him obtain that value while on the job.

[4]

Thankfully Renny didn’t push the point on insisting that she have food once she explained she was abstaining for religious reasons. Given that she was trying to establish a rapport with him the last thing she needed was for things to get awkward. She wondered just how much of her religion he knew about and if he’d find it ironic that a follower of a god of war such as herself despised bloodshed.

The queen could be quite hot blooded when she needed to be and enjoyed being involved in conflict but that was purely in a sporting sense. She couldn’t participate in things like the Jounin tournament now since losing would be intercepted as a sign of weakness and taken advantage of by the other Kages but she loved the chance to go head to head with a fellow warrior and then shake hands after the match was over.

It was more that she disliked killing, of thinking of things in terms of the number of casualties that would be inflicted, not just on her side but on the enemy. Some people might think this attitude would make her soft and not suitable to be the Raikage let alone Queen but the scary thing about her was her ability to put her personal feelings on the subject aside and do what must be done. She was willing to do monstrous things in the service of protecting her people, she was simply lucky the war had ended before it had progressed to the point that such actions had become necessary.

When Renny gave her a pleading look to be allowed to see the Palace she confirmed that he indeed had to know who she was. There was no way your average Vestal (Even if there were only 3 of them) had the authority to allow for such a thing. The problem was that if she started to make an exception for one person she’d have to start doing it for others. Of course if he started working for her that would be a different story since he’d be an employee and not just a tourist anymore.

“Patience my friend. Tis won’t be long now before the palace is open to the public again.” With the War winding down it was only a matter of time. It was simply a matter of security to it be closed while fighting was still underway. That and to hide the fact she had gone missing instead of merely been convalescing from a bout of the plague like most of the public had been led to believe.

“Now now, don’t be that way.” She laughed lightly in response to him pouting when she’d called him a guest instead of a friend. "As the Queen the entire country is my home, in a way everyone who visits is my guest even if they are a friend.” she explained to pacify him. “Tis all a matter of perspective. A customer is contingent on financial interaction while a Guest is someone you invite into your life, a relationship that outlives the product or service.” She was saying taht she tourists as him as being about more than just money but a vital exchange of culture.

“I wouldn’t call that controlling at all. In fact I venture to make everyone that comes here feel at home during their stay, temporary or otherwise. Few things could be as pleasing as knowing that you feel comfortable here.” The satisfaction of knowing that a job was well done was its own reward. Every time she made someone’s day she was making the world a slightly better place. Some might ask what difference she was making since she’d never be able to help everyone. What they didn’t understand was that making that difference even to just one person was what mattered in the end. If one would diligently went about accumulating small happiness in that way then eventually larger happiness would be born as a result.

“Now I’ve told you about where I’ve traveled to so I believe tis your turn now. What sort of places have you been before now?” she asked to try and keep the conversation going. It wouldn’t be very fair of her to keep the entire thing about herself. It wasn’t like she needed that kind of self aggrandizing ego boost.

“My, you have some very big ambitions don't you?” Ryuko stated unperturbed by his opening quota. He was ballsy outright asking for restricted jutsu and so much funds but in a way he reminded her of Damian who had asked for much the same things.

“As you may be aware, Kumokagure has some of the most cutting edge facilities in the entire world. We have the Thunder Forge to help cut down on crafting times and the Thunder Lab which improves Chemistry yields. We also have access to the Eclipse Federation who can provide access to just about any material goods you might need for your research. We also boost one of the largest public library’s that can be found anywhere on the continent.” She wasn’t sure any of the other hidden villages could boast of a library half the size as hers.

Even before she had taken over the city had prized its level of public education and amenities. She had simply turned the dial up to 11 as it were. If possible she would like to increase those areas even further by adding vocational schools for an even more advanced curriculum.

“As it so happens I also have plenty of holes in my administration to fill though which post I would offer you would depend on which particular talents you can bring to the table. While tis not millions of ryo I’m told that the salaries we offer are quite competitive. I’m also not shy about providing funds for research though the scale of which depends on a case by case basis. Naturally the more promising a project is the more money will be allocated.” Hakkin knew how much funds she’d given Natsuru and Damian for the things they had done. She had exchanged millions of Ryo with them as if money grew on trees because they had been good at getting results.

“If you become my employee I’d be happy to provide the location of every village we know outside the Kingdom of Thunder.” She said with a grin. Thanks to Seid calling her scouts off she hadn’t finished her Map of the elemental nations but she still had a much more complete picture then most. She didn’t care much if outside forces learned where neutral villages lay. Much of them lay outside her zone of influence so she couldn’t do much about them anyhow. More than likely much of it wasn’t anything the other major powers didn’t know already anyhow.

The location of Shimogakure and Yukigakure on the other hand wouldn’t be divulged so readily. High level information like that required one to be more than just an employee but rather for someone to swear an oath of loyalty to her. One could not graduate from the academy making such an oath first. While such an act was not ironclad by any means it went a long way towards ensuring trust between both parties. Of course to even become her employee to begin with would require he was vetted by security first but she wasn’t worried about that. They were good at their job and worked fast. One of the Royal guards that discreetly shadowed her at nearly all times had already run off to begin the verification process the moment she had even made her offer.

Beyond that she had a good eye for talent and was a good judge of character. Because of her experience she trusted her intuition that told her Renny would be a good person to have under her umbrella. Generally speaking she rarely went wrong with her choices in such things.

“I can arrange to share a summoning contract easily enough. Do you happen to have any preferences for what type of animal you’d like to become your familiar?” she asked. Depending on the circumstances she might even consider sharing her Hydra contract with him provided he had the medical knowledge to make proper use of it.

“As for restrictions, those are purely merit based. If you work well I’d be happy to share some of them.” Again which ones would depend on circumstance. There was little point teaching him a restricted technique he couldn’t use. Beyond that some like the lightning release armor where reserved only for the most loyal of her men because of how important it was.

“In any case Renny there is no need to rush to make a decision. Tis an open offer, feel free to take as much time as you need to think it over. I can even provide the location of at least the other Major villages we know in the meantime.” she said. If he wanted to see what the rest of the world had to offer first so be it. She was that confident in what she’d built that she was sure he would chose to return here in the end once everything was said and done.

[5]

The queen could feel a headache coming on the more she listened to Renny talk. He had a somewhat unusual way of talking that that could sometimes be hard for her to parse. There were times she had to stop and carefully consider just what it was he was really trying to say to her. Except for Damian and Rini it was rare for her not to be the smartest person in the room which meant it was a bit exhausting having to deal with someone like Renny. he was one of those rare few who exceeded her in the brains department.

She could keep up to an extent but it took a lot of work on her part to do so. If she wasn’t careful with how she negotiated with him then he’d eat her lunch and maybe her breakfast and dinner to go along with that. With smarts like that he could be one of the greatest allies she could ask for but conversely that also meant that if he joined one of the other villages he could one day become a great threat.


It was a great stroke of fortune he hadn’t wandered over to Kiri or Kohana earlier in the war otherwise things might not have turned out so well for her country. Outnumbered they had still held their own well enough not to lose which was a major accomplishment but she knew how easily the cards could have fallen a different way. That said she wasn’t about to start taking drastic preventative measures just because she thought she saw a potential bad end, being paranoid like that was only going to make her more enemies rather than friends, especially since she’d be cutting off the possible good ends at the same time by pruning someone before they actually became a problem.

Now it was time to do or die. She was going to have to gamble a bit here if she wanted to win Renny over. He was asking for an awful lot and now the question remained if she could even meet his demands, or if she even trusted him enough to try. The thing was it didn’t matter how advanced the facilities in the village were if there weren't skilled enough people around to make use of them.

The enchantments he could do were handy sure but nothing she didn’t already have at least partly covered thanks to her flying turtle summons. Of course having a boss summon do all the enchanting wasn’t the most realistic option and it never hurt to have alternatives. Now what made him interesting to her was the top tier medical skills he was packing. That made him interesting in several ways.

She couldn’t place him in charge of the hospital since Seid had given Kara Darhk that role while Ryuko had been away but she had plenty of reasons to make use of a good doctor. Medical skills of her own she wanted to share and pass along. The person she’d be planning to teach those had retired in her absence. Renny also made for an excellent candidate for her Hydra summoning contract as he was one of the few people who might actually be able to make full use of it.

As Renny took off his jumpsuit Ryuko couldn’t help but flash him a grin. Talk about looks being deceptive. To think something as simple as one layor of clothing could change his entire profile. She knew he was far from fat but she never would have guessed he was quite so slim either.

“This is no place for high tier negotiations, follow me.” Ryuko said cryptically. She could have taken him to any number of places inside the village that were private and secure to talk. Her office in the administrative district or one of her stores would have more than sufficed but she was talking him directly to the palace after all in order to prove a point to him. That she was well and truly welcoming him with open arms and an open heart.

[6]

[Attempted Exit to the Royal Palace]