Sent to everyone who isn't also a daimyo

[problemdaimyo]

Fellow Shinobi,

I have a request of you, particularly those of you with long hair. What methods do you prefer to employ to tame it on difficult missions, where hair loss is both a significant possibility and a likely method of tracking or detection should stray hairs be lost?

Comments

[problemdaimyo]

[Ah, Chakra. He never has learned that part yet. Being a shinobi wasn't all about chakra control, though! That was just a short-cut. A true shinobi should be able to suffice completely without it. Until he felt he'd trained himself to his limit without chakra, he didn't want to distract himself with the extra.

...But maybe not put that on paper. Better to let enemies think he could.]

There is a difference between being unaware someone is following you, and being prepared for the possibility that someone might overcome your detection, however. There are many secret techniques that exist which would overcome conventional methods of tracking someone following you, to be off-guard in those times seems unwise.

That does seem like a wise move, though. But while it would prevent lost hair, how to prevent broken or cut hairs while moving quickly through tangled areas?

[ghostpepper]

I haven't come across that problem before. If I see something like that, I can usually go around it. Otherwise, it's something you have to cut or burn through to begin with. You just need to trust your judgment in situations like that.

[problemdaimyo]

You are most certainly correct on the matter. Still, I thought it would be wise to ask others their methods. There is no better way to learn than from those who've gone before you and learned their lessons already, don't you think?

[ghostpepper]

[And this is where she has to stare at the message she just got back in utter disbelief. Whoever this was didn't even sound like they knew much about how the world worked. Learning from the past was great and all, but this seemed to be taking it to an extreme.]

No. That's not always the case. If you're always looking to the past, you'll never see the future.

Who is this anyway?

[problemdaimyo]

Are textbooks anything but captured past, though?

[...Now why would this person want to know a silly thing like that?]

Only a fellow shinobi such as yourself.

[ghostpepper]

Textbooks can only teach you so much. They won't teach about the world as it is now.

And I meant that I want your name.

[problemdaimyo]

Exactly why I want to learn from others, rather than textbooks!

Isn't it rude to ask someone's name without giving yours first?

[ghostpepper]

It's better if you learn from your own experiences. If you always learn from what others have done, it's not much different from books since it's all secondhand information.

[If this really is some genin, they've got a lot of nerve. She'd normally insist that it goes by ranking or however anyone stands in the hierarchy of power. But over the scrolls, there was no telling who anyone was.

Depends on the circumstances, I think. But since we aren't meeting face to face, I am Uzumaki Kushina. And you are?

[problemdaimyo]

Ah, true, but it is tragic to miss the opportunity for teaching by the assumption your own experience is enough.

[Well...He is often reluctant to give out his identity to strange shinobi when discussing matters irrelevant to his position. Those who recognize his name often feel burdened with the need to treat him as a daimyo rather than a shinobi. But, he could hardly withhold it from her and remain polite. Thus, his reply was delayed long enough to be certain a properly applied seal would allow the only the newly revealed lady to read his response.]

Ah, it is my honor to make you acquaintance, Lady Kushina. I admire what I have heard of you. I am known as Hotohori, but to far fewer than you, I think.