Under Lock and Key

The clouds have built up over the ruined city of Atogakure. The rain taps gently against the skyscraper that Jitoku's organization is held in. Rumbles of thunder heard in the distance as bolts of lightning make contact with the ground. Jitoku herself sits at the front of the window, admiring the rain as it delivers a relentless downpour of water from the heavens. For the past few days, Jitoku has been sending out scouting parties to observe potential villages to take over and has been awaiting any form of response from the groups, but has heard nothing, which has caused her some concern. Breaking the stillness of silence is the opening of a door. Jitoku's assistant enters the room, a folder full of documents in her hand.

"Please tell me you have news, and please be it good news." Jitoku speaks up, content at staring at the rain tapping against the window.

"I won't make any promises." Honrui replies as she opens up the document. "I'll start with the good news, at the very least. A scouting party has informed me of a very important village, one that would provide great use to us. It's called the Jōmae Village, and its shinobi are all well versed in the art of espionage and reconnaissance, meaning if we can subjugate them to our cause, we'd have a powerful circle of spies at our disposal. The bad news is that the village has a history of not losing any of its shinobi to temptation. They're all trained to resist virtually any form of interrogation, be it physical or mental. They'd be more likely to kill themselves than offer any form of intelligence. I don't know how we're going to deal with that." Laying down photos of the village upon the oval table, Jitoku turns around and sits down at her chair, observing the photos.

"What information do you have on Jōmae Village?" Jitoku asks, inspecting the photos Honrui drew from memory based on what she saw from the Jashinist's points of view.

"It's a relatively old village residing within the Land of Keys. Their shinobi are renowned as excellent sources of information by providing crucial reconnaissance aid to the village. To make sure none of that information falls in enemy hands, they're trained to withstand all forms of interrogation, even mental ones like genjutsu. Many have tried to get information out of them, but never succeeded. We'll need to learn how to break them if we're going to subjugate them. They're not going to say anything otherwise." Honrui replies, handing Jitoku a written document of the village's size, population, military strength and economy.

"We don't need to break them. We just need to persuade them, show them the benefits of becoming allies with us. We've got plenty going for us that we can use to persuade them, we just need to choose our words carefully and use that to our advantage. Because of their unwillingness to share information, they'd expect us to assault the village through force. They'd never expect us to use diplomacy to come to an agreement." Inspecting the document, Jitoku begins her planning. "If we show up with a sizable force, it may trick them into thinking we're going on the offensive, but at the same time, it could cause elevated levels of unease within the village. But if we show up with a few members, look like individuals who are just looking to strengthen some bonds between villages, we may be capable of persuading them to lend us a hand. Because they're neutral, we need to convince them that we have no intentions of changing their way of life, and that they can go on doing what they please. We do that, and we might just sway them a bit to get talks started."