A Bright New Face {Private}

Hotaru awoke to the rising of the sun, just as he had for the majority of his life. Living with his parents spared no time for oversleeping, he woke up at the crack of dawn and fell asleep six hours before the next. This was how had head lived before and it was how he planned on continuing to live for the rest of his life. He stretched out in much the same way a cat would, letting out a soft yawn. Suddenly, he felt refreshed. He leaped from the bed, sending the sheets flying to the floor, and padded over to his messenger bag. Rifling through it, he found his change of clothes. Hotaru threw his dirty clothes off of himself, standing naked in his room and letting the cool dawn air wash over his body. He moved to his window, opening it and leaning out to breathe in the moist air of the hidden mist village. The light and pretty colors of the sunrise danced upon the mist, sending fragments of colored light like bloodshed all over the ground and walls of buildings. It was beautiful, almost as beautiful as the sunrises on his home island, he liked it in this village. It reminded him a lot of his home. He smiled warmly, as he turned to the clothes he had strewn over his bed. Putting them on in a messy fashion, he ran his fingers through his hair twice and washed his face, only to leap out of the window.

Landing in the alleyway, he dusted himself off and turned to enter the empty streets. Apparently the village wasn't as fond of the early morning as he was. There were a few people straggling about, probably on their way to work or something. He smiled and waved at them all, getting little acknowledgement in return. Today was the day of his meeting with the Mizukage, in four hours, and no one was paying attention to him. How was he supposed to kill four freaking hours without company? Well, despite his temporary dilemma, he managed to kill the time long enough for him to show up to the meeting ten minutes late. He ran through the hallways, and slammed his fist on the Mizukage's door, not breathing anything heavier than usual despite his physical exertions.

With the village being peaceful, Naizu's job was pretty easy and took him little time to take care of paper work on the daily bases. As the Mizukage, he rarely went far unless required by mission or summoned by another kage for some reason or another. He was in the building this day, something that rarely transpired because of his neediness to be as active as possible and do what he thought could help the village. "Trigus, I believe our guest has arrived, can you get that for me?" he asked of his loyal nin dog. Today was a day that he welcomed a new shinobi by the name of Hotaru, a jonin of the Goyan clan and a clan he was qite fond of due to his relationship another of theirs. He had heard that this was a special shinobi and he looked to see if the rumors were true about him in one way or another.

"Come on in kid" said Triagus as he opened the door and simply walked back to the desk of Naizu's. The fact that a dog was being nice to a cat seemed like a walking contradiction and brought a smile to the Mizukage's face. "There has always been something that puts me in a good mood with the Gouyans and your family Triagus, you know that right?" he said with a slight laugh.

Spoiler:

Hotaru smiled at the dog as he opened the door, what a fascinating thing for a dog to be able to operate doors and speak. He purred in an interested manner at the thought, entering the doorway and closing the door behind him. He walked straight up to the chair directly in front of the desk, and sat down in it. Hotaru was silent for a while, staring at the Mizukage while purring. He occasionally rubbed the large bell that hung from his father's collar, tilting his head to the side as a thought struck him of something or another. What felt like hours to Hotaru, a child with a short attention span and a large resource of energy, was actually mere minutes. Finally he could take it no longer, and instantly began to speak.

"Naizu Nimakee? My dad, Kidate, he sent me here to talk about joining you village. 'Says I have to be my own man, live my own life, get a story worthy of bringing to his fire. Honestly, I don't know about all that, but he's my dad and I figure there's no turning back now. I think I'm only genin level worthy, from what mom and dad taught me, but I would also need free time to travel, finding my aunt. Her names Scarlet, and Dad only met her right before leaving with mom for good, but now I have to find her. She'll take care of me, he says, just like you're supposed to." He said without pause or breath. He obviously would give the man no time to respond until he was finished, and in order to signal this long-awaited end of his rant he nodded toward the Mizukage in a serious manner, as if giving him permission to speak. It appeared Kidate had forgot to teach him the whole 'respect your superiors' bit of being a shinobi, but it wasn't like Hota's dad did that all that much as a shinobi himself.

Through everything the kid was saying, the Mizukage had a limited attention span when it cam eot those who rushed through with what was said. If it weren't for the fact that he mention Kidate as his dad, he would have probably told the kid to repeat himself and force him to slow down. "Hmm...I never would've thought of him to the father type. Well, I need to know what you have learned from him as well as how you are in pressure situations. You know there are going to be times that one will need to absolutely.." as Naizu said that, he broke out a shuriken and threw it oward the young Gouyan. The action was merely to test his reaction, for it wouldn't hit him if not avoided, it'd land about a half inch away from his head. Triagus saw the action coming and simply watched him with no emotion but also a bit interested of what the kid may do. "Scarlet Gouyan, haven't seen her in quite some time so I suppose this one is gonna bring about a bit of activity now. I do wonder where she is now, I'd assume probably towards the land of fire" Naizu thought to himself.

Hotaru, for all of his faults in communication, was a very good listener when he got around to it. So he trained his ears directly on the Mizukage as soon as he heard him speaking. He wondered about what Kidate was like a shinobi, to make the Mizukage believe he wasn't the father type; to Hotaru he was the best father in the world, except for the part where he made Hotaru leave the island. Though Hotaru didn't like it, he did see that his father and mother just wanted the best for him, so it wasn't like he was bitter about going on this journey, in fact he looked forward to carrying on his father's legacy. His ear twitched slightly at the faint clink of a shuriken. The Mizukage's wrist snapped forward, and the flash of steel flew toward Hota.

Hotaru's eyes were well-adjusted to the faint light of the room by now, to the point where his cat-like eyes practically gave him better sight than he would have if his pupils were more circular. So, he noted that all he really had to do to avoid the metal star completely was to not move his head toward he. He stood patiently, erect, with ears standing high and eyes alight with the anticipation of another test. Hotaru so loved tests, Kidate gave them to him all the time.

Naizu looked at the kid and smiled a bit, taking note of the way he handled the situation by not getting angered nor questioning what was the motive behind what was being done. Beyond that, the young one seemed to have quite the pep to him and it seemed that the energy was controlled and not all over the place. The Goyans were naturally an intelligent clan as they had naturally knew how to combine their elements efficiently. "Tell me, where is your father now? I haven't seen him in some time and I'd like it if he came by some time to say hi. Not sure if you knew this but he was the one that introduced me to the canines and was the reason for me becoming what I am today" Naizu said as he stood up and stretched. "What he's not tellin ya though, is he's a self narcissist that thinks enough about himself to write about book about it" said Traigus hopping onto the desk and looking at Hotaru and laughing at the Mizukage. "Aw shut up, everything I say is true and you know it" said Naizu with a laugh. "Lets take a look at what ya got, in a bit we'll head to the training ground and you can show me a couple of the jutsu you know so I can see what we need to improve on, what are you strengths and weaknesses" said Naizu walking towards the door as the canine hopped down and followed. "Come on, lets get something to eat"

Hotaru tilted his head silently, laughing inside at the comment the dog made. A good connection with one's partners always warmed Hotaru's heart. However, his father had warned about divulging his location to anyone, not everyone could be trusted and Hotaru wasn't wise enough to tell who the few were. So, Hotaru tried to only partially sate his potential leader's hunger for information with a vague answer. "He is living with mom and all the animals on an island pretty far from here, he says that when you and Scarlet decide to retire, I might be allowed to take you guys to him so you can live there too though." He said, hopefully offering a little more hope for the Mizukage to see an old friend once again. He would then quickly hop from his seat, and turn to follow the Mizukage.

[[Short]]

Well then, I suppose we'll have to visit him when you get to his level...I'm pretty sure you'll surpass him as you progress" said Naizu as he stood and walked over to the young genin. As he did so, his arms were by his side and his left hand made a quick seal during the short slow walk to Hotaru. He stopped as he stood directly in front of the kid and chuckled a bit as he seem very little like his father as far as his physical features. His eyes and nose were the only resemblances Naizu saw between the two however there were a good amount of other features reminiscent of Kidate. The ear twitch, the calmness, the observant nature...things that one would expect from the son of one of the greats. "Heres the deal though, before we get something to eat, were gonna meet one of your teammates elsewhere to see where you two are as far as your levels are concerned ok?" said Naizu as he now crossed his arms. "By the way..." he said, pointing to the other direction, directly behind Hotaru. "There is a technique that I would like to teach you when you get older...but see what you can do with it at your current stage" said Naizu...though it didn't come from the man standing directly in front. At the door was another Naizu leaning up against it with his arms and legs crossed, standing beside Triagus and awaiting Hotaru. "Lets go kid" said Triagus.

Name: Canine Style Death Clones
Rank:
Element:
Description: These clones possess all of the skills Naizu possesses including his Oakegan traits and have 4/5 of his strength and speed. The clones can see what Naizu sees and vicea versa as well. The can only be made in the 4th or 5th stage of Oakegan. Naizu can only make a total of 5 of these types of clones and they can be made with a single hand, even in mid combat.

Surpass Kidate-dono..? Hotaru thought with a glimmer of hope shining in his eyes. He had dreamed of even coming close to his father's level, to surpass that level would be like nothing Hotaru had ever felt in his life. His father would be so proud, even more proud than he already is; and imagine what his mother would say in reaction to such power. Smiling cheerfully, he agreed to meet with another shinobi, presumably his new partner in combat and missions. He figured it would be necessary to learn each other's personalities as well as their skills and skill levels if they were to be a successful team, so he would need to spend time with the individual eventually. He followed the dog on their way to meeting the teammate, the whole time thinking of his future power if what the kage said was true, as well as this new jutsu that the Kage wanted to teach him.

[[Again, short, but I don't have much time on 'ze internet xD]]