Shiro smiled as she paused at the secretary's desk. It was intresting being able to travel freer now. She had been meaning to visit Vox for a time. Now that she was retired it seemed like a perfect time. "Is the Keukage busy at the moment?"

The man at desk looked up staring, "Um no Ma'am, Let me check a moment to be sure." He stood up walking over to the door, Shiro followed waiting a moment till he opened it, "Keukage-sama the-"

"Long time no see old friend." She smiled cutting him off as she stepped forward pushing her hood and hair back out of her face. "How have you been?"

It was just the usual. By now, the Bureaucrat no jutsu was routine. Vox blurred through his inbox, managing to finish before the next shipment came through. He leaned back, breathing a sigh of relief. He was pretty sure he was faster at paperwork than any of the other kage. He supposed he was cheating by using his abilities, but the other kage probably had their own tricks. Any kage with sense and chakra had to be using some sort of bunshin jutsu to take care of all this stuff.

He looked up when he heard the door open. Probably another round of crap to sign. It was a pleasant surprise when he saw a familiar face. The kage stood as an old friend of his pushed past the secretary. "Miss Yuki, it's been too long. Please, have a seat." He smiled, gesturing to a chair. "Fudo, hold my calls." The man bowed and excused himself.

She nodded taking a seat in the offered chair. "It has been. I'm sorry it has taken me so long to visit. So how goes things with your son?" Smoke was interesting place, it had been weird for a bit till she got used to the endless twilight that seemed to hang over the village. "The hat seems to be treating you better than it did me." She smirked seeing the completed pile of paper work. "What's your trick?"

Vox sat back down, steepling his fingers. It was a habit he'd picked up since becoming kage. It was originally just a way to look more dignified, but he'd gotten used to it by now. "Kenji's doing fine. He just got back from prom, seemed to like it." Vox considered bringing up Kenji's new girlfriend, but decided against it. The kid probably didn't want him running around airing his personal issues. If she asked he would mention it, but otherwise he'd leave it alone.

"Secret? Not much, just found a few abilities that can be as useful behind a desk as they are on the battlefield. You ever try that when you were in charge? Get some spare desks and put some clones behind them?" He chuckled at the thought. "And what about that cousin of yours, how's he doing?"

"Shadow clones leave a few and then do something else." She smiled relaxing letting her KKG cool her a bit, her hood keeping the cold in around her. "Kuroi has been, ugg. He's been gone for a while training with the wolves but when he was he around he was pain. Can't help but love the dork though, and in fact he did marry Sakura." She laughed a little remembering some of the near heart attacks he had given her. "What happened at prom, as I recall all my genin would wine about going."

The Keukage shook his head. It was a bit of a relief, knowing he wasn't the only one dealing with family problems. "Really? She's what, twenty years older than him?" He laughed, taking out a pack of cigarettes and pulling one out. "Are you absolutely sure she's not his mother?" He put the cigarette in his mouth and reached for a lighter. "Mind if I smoke?"

The Keukage groaned when she asked about the prom. It was nice that Kenji had enjoyed himself, but Vox really wasn't happy about how things had turned out. "Well, he has a girlfriend now. In Donzokogakure." He leaned back in his chair, fidgeting a bit with the unlit cigarette. "A Hirano girlfriend. Seems very taken with her. You know of that clan?"

"Yeah is something like that. So far from what I have seen it's working out. Karmi know's how." She laughed hearing the distress in is voice. "Yeah I know of them. Interesting bunch. When I say interesting I mean scary. Don't worry though he is a teenager it's his first relationship it will end they always do." She covered her smile trying not to show how mush she was enjoying this.

Vox lit up his cigarette, shaking his head. "Yeah, not so funny from my end of things. I've read some of the reports on this girl." He jabbed the cigarette at the air to emphasize his words. "She showed up at the Donkage building once, after a mission, with a bit of throat stuck in her teeth. Human throat!" The Keukage rested his head on his palm, taking a long pull from his smoke. "And Kenji looks at her and says 'You know what? That seems like a great person. That is someone I want to spend more time with.' Funny thing is, he normally has such good judgement." Vox leaned back in his chair. He was never able to sit still when he was thinking of Kenji's bad romance. "Well, kids. I hope you're right, this is giving me an ulcer."

"Relax Vox, like I said he is a teenager. We, well all normal teenager, do this type of thing. And of course I'm right. Besides to deal with our jobs everyone develops a quirk. Normally its when they reach Jonin, but I guess some just show up earlier. You smoke." She smiled pointing out. Her smile turned down as she sat up much more serious. "How has the search for Yuuki been? Any news?" Shiro pressed her hand to her chest recalling how some of her ANBU had had their heart ripped out. One had been a Squad leader she had known when she was ANBU.

Vox sighed, tapping the ashes off the end. She was right, of course. All teens went through weird stuff like this. It was just that Kenji's stuff was weirder. "I know, i know. I just worry." He took another drag, settling down a bit. Just think of the long term, that was best. Sooner or later, Kenji and Arumi would go their separate ways.

The question of his former student weighed heavily on his mind. The Keukage just shook his head. "Bastard's been quiet lately. An attack here and there, but nothing we can trace. By the time word gets out he's always long gone." Vox's fists clenched as he thought of the traitor roaming free. "Any help would be appreciated. I'd rater kill him myself but, well, kage. Can't get out too much."

"Its the same on our end, any patrols he runs into he kills, we don't find out about till the miss their check in time. The last we saw any sign of him was a month ago and it was by the Donzo border." She nodded understandingly. "You're always needed if you do try to leave. As much as you would want to go out and hunt him down, you have duties to you're village first. Hunting him down is the Hunter-nin's job."

She leaned back a bit rubbing her temples. "Have you heard anything on any the other problem?" Fifteen years was a long time to lay low aside from a couple of incidents.

"Not much, just the Smith's usual visits to Donzoko. He's probably got support, but nothing we can verify." It had been weighing on his mind for quite some time. The Smith was about as subtle as an avalanche, he shouldn't be able to hide this effectively. No leads, no whistleblowers, nothing. There had to be some sort of organization. Vox wasn't so naive to think that an organization like the Shirotori would die with its leader.

He dug through his desk, taking out a file. He didn't really have anything solid, but here and there rumors came through. He could give her those. "I've heard tidbits, though. Nothing solid, really. Just underworld gossip. Man matching his description has been seen in the same area as other known missing-nin. The others are lying low, though. Not a peep from his old pals." He handed over the folder, with a few of these sightings detailed inside.

Shiro looked them over quickly before nodding and pocketing them. "It's scary how well they have been hiding. Makes you wonder what they have in mind. Oh, a few more people disappeared from Rice and village is a barren wasteland. Scorched earth the who nine yards." She leaned over and pointed to a spot on the map in front of him. "There."

She paused a moment staring at the map thinking, before deciding to speak."There are reports...that the smith was seen here." She tapped on the Death Territory. Witnesses spoke of a large man with a beard and hammer, he was asking about someone... A girl or something. Other wise they are all ghost pretty much." She signed leaned back rubbing her head. "It's incidents like theses that almost make me regret give up the Hat."

"It's incidents like these that make me wish I could." The Keukage just shook his head. The Smith had been a thorn in the side of the villages for fifteen years, somehow evading justice the entire time. For someone who was supposed to be so damn slow, he was suspiciously good at running away. It was getting on Vox's last nerve. Why couldn't these assholes just die already?

Vox let out a heavy sigh. "Sometimes I wonder if I should just retire, but I'm not sure anyone's ready to take the hat yet. I can't just leave this village in the lurch like that. When I step down, it's going to be with a damn good replacement already in place." To be perfectly honest, he was sort of grooming Kenji for the job. The boy was skilled, powerful, smart, and most importantly he was trustworthy. He wasn't going to be screwing everyone over. It would be at least a decade and probably more before he was ready, but Vox could wait. If nothing else, time was always on his side.

"Umi seems to be doing well with out me at the helm, and I feel better playing the shadow puppet master elder that scares the majority of the ninja. It takes be back to my ANBU days and lets me, I think, better serve my village rather than be chained to a desk."

She smiled and nodded approvingly. "I'm sure you'll find one, I'm sure you have someone in mind considering how thoughtful you are. I'd be surprised if you didn't." She grinned a little looking at him knowingly. "So have you heard anything about the near disaster between Donzo and Sora?"

"I know the feeling." It was odd, being kage. With the training he'd done over the past 15 years, he was orders of magnitude stronger than he used to be. But he never got to use that strength, because he had to stay in the village and supervise. Did all kage feel like this? Having the power to end a war in minutes, but not being able to use it because there was paperwork to be done. It was frustrating, to say the least. "I've been thinking of going back into the field after I step down, taking up a jounin position or something. My stealth is a bit rusty these days, but I've picked up some other tricks."

Vox leaned forward, listening intently when she started talking about incidents. His spies had dropped the ball again, this had somehow evaded his notice. "Can't say I have. What disaster?" For years, the Keukage had been trying to promote peace between the villages. This sounded like it could deal a serious blow to his efforts.

"Oh I'm sure you could sneak up on ANBU with out trying to hard. I used to make a game out of it when I went on walks. It was very amusing." Shiro laughed a little remembering. "And you're not the only one that has learned a few things, old man."

 "Sora's ...Head ANBU..." She closed her eyes thinking before opening them and nodding. "Yes that was who it was, was visting looking into the previous Donkage's death. He ran across a genin with a bad temper who was then than willing to help. It seemed he used a jutsu on her and was about to attack her before withdrawing." She sighed and rubbed her head. "There are a lot of gray area to fill in, but I'm sure you can see the problem. Sora also says that the ANBU wasn't acting under their order so it's been a real mess. Aside from the initial impact, nothing really gone off from what I have heard." 

Vox chuckled, shaking his head. "I really have lost a lot of my stealth. The demolitions stuff, too. I haven't had to be covert in fifteen years, it's better for my image as Keukage to have overt displays of power. I've gotten rusty at infiltration and sabotage, but I can cut open a building now so that works for demolitions I suppose."

All the pleasantness drained out of his face as she described the attack. What was it with ANBU captains and going completely batshit? This was about as serious as it got. If it was as bad as it sounded from Shiro's description, then Sora either had an important missing nin or a major international incident. There was really no way for this to end well. "I'll have my people look into it." He sighed, shaking his head. "ANBU captains these days."

"Hey, careful. I'll have you know we haven't had this problem in Umi." She joked. She was still laughing over the story of Vox's inherited captain. "It's good to hear you can at least kick ANBU's butt even if you can sneak up on them. No worries my infiltration skill is down from where it used to be, but it's to be expected. And believe I said this before but its worth saying again I think. At some point we all develop a quirk, but sometime people just go off the deep end."

"Yeah, forgot about that. You ran a tight ship back in the day." It seemed like forever ago that she had been the ANBU captain for Umigakure. Fifteen years, to be exact. She had risen to power in the same year he had, maybe even the same month. He couldn't quite recall. Regardless, it was a long-ass time ago.

"Yeah, this line of work is dangerous to one's sanity. We really need a better mental health system here." It was something of a pet project for Vox. Admittedly, he had a personal interest in it. He wouldn't even be able to function if his predecessor hadn't made sure he'd had good mental care. "Maybe we wouldn't have so many missing-nin that way."

"I can't say for certain some people just are born off the deep end, but it may help with not losing ninja, that is always welcome." Shiro frowned looking at the time. She stood and bowed. "It seems I must be going. I enjoyed chatting with you. I'll get back to you on what I can find out on what's going on in death country."

Shiro bowed again before leaving.

[Exit]