Forging new alliances (Akai and Nbird.)

Just outside the borders to Hoshigakure a young man stood examining his map. His red hair as unruly as always stuck up in all directions. His Hitai-ite which kept the hair out of his his blue eyes scanned his map for his next destination bore a flame representing his home village hidden in the flames. He'd been traveling arond the Elemental Nations collecting bounties on various nuke-nin and picking up different forging techniques to improve on his own techniques. "Lets see..." He murmured, tracing over his various paths with a finger. He'd heard rumors lately about a nearly extinct clan of kenjutsu users from Tanigakure who also specialized in a style of forging unique to them. Nodding, his mind made up, Akai bit his thumb and proceeded to make hand-seals at a high pace. "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" He called, slamming his hand down on the ground causing a poof of smoke to appear which when cleared revealed a large flaming dog. "You called, Akai-sama?" The cerberus asked.

"Yup. I need a lift to Tanigakure." Akai responded, climbing atop the summon and sitting down before the cerberus took off. "Here we go again." The red-head mused.

It was just barely sunrise in the Village Hidden in the Valley and Tsukiakara was already assigned a mission, gate watched. It was a dreadfully boring mission but it certainly beat going around escorting wagons with a huge target on your back. Tsukiakara was surprised he had all his limbs together.

But anyway, his mission. It was still mostly dark so no one entered the village yet. Tsukiakara was merely to ask for there identification and if they didn’t have it just simply make them sign and get their photo taken. Since this was a boring mission Tsukiakara had a prank in his mind that he planed to do. He had lost his left eye on a mission and had to use fake glass ones ever since. Today he was going to wear his fake Sharingan. It was fun to see others reactions when they saw it.

Several hours later, Akai found himself at the entrance to the small hidden village where it seemed that unlike at several of the other smaller hidden villages there was a gateguard waiting for him. Standing up and leaping down from his summon, he thanked it before it poofed away. Walking up to the gate, he pulled his shinobi ID from his pocket and was about to show it to the guard when he noticed the man had a sharingan eye! Leaping back and drawing one of this two ever-present blades, he aimed it directly at the guard as a small fireball appeared at the tip of said blade. "Turn that damn thieving monkey marble off or lose it." He snarled. He really didnt like the sharingan. He'd had enough bad experiences with it back in Konoha when he was spending time with Kikisu. Damn sharingan wielders took every attempt to steal his style of kenjutsu as well as the jutsu he had not releated to his kekkei genkai. He didnt trust anyone with one of those blasted eyes.

This was the first time anyone reacted so violently to his fake sharingan and Tsukiakara was a little frightened. “Calm down, calm down.” He said trying to calm the stranger down. He then reached over to take the eye out. He set it down on the table as it rolled toward the stranger.

Akai blinked a few times. The eye was fake? Of course it was! There was no scar from the insertion like Kakashi had and clearly this man was not of Uchiha descent. Not to mention having it always uncovered would be a bitch on ones chakra. He doubted anyone short of a jinchuriki like his friend Rein could keep an implanted dojutsu active without feeling the drain. Chuckling nervously, Akai extinguished the flame and put his blade away. "Sorry bout that." He told the man. "I don't like having my techniques stolen by those damnable eyes." Removing his ID he slid it on the counter to the man. "Akai Kensei. Wandering Bounty Hunter slash seeker of knowledge." He introduced himself.

“Your ID looks clear you may proceed. Just don’t try and collect any of those bounties while you’re here. If you’re hunting someone then take them out of the village before you actually try and kill them.” Tsukiakara told him putting the fake eye back in its place. He didn’t say that he had a bounty on him (for live capture only) for quite obvious reasons.

Akai shrugged. "I'm not here for bounties today. I tend not to hunt inside hidden villages unless I'm attacked first. The villages tend not to invite one back when one tries to kill their shinobi." He said with a slight smile. "I'm here for knowledge this time. I heard rumor of a specific clan that specialized in kenjutsu and weapons forging. Don't suppose you could tell me where I can find em could ya?"

“There are lots of them here. Even more in a village just north of here.” Tsukaikara said. There were many kenjustu makers and wielders in the area. Weapons were the county’s major export. “Was there a particular one you were looking for?”