Which made her perfect for this, he just had to endure several minutes of her grumbling about "being retired damnit" and how someone of her age shouldn't be an active anything. Which were both points he could empathize with himself actually.
"Yes, well, Hiruko, I think I should be retired and spend my days fishing off the bridge and enjoying my twilight years. Instead I'm doing paperwork and trying to find someone I can hand this hat off to that ISN'T going to put things straight in the crapper. So what are your findings on the refugees?"
"They're 'elves'," said Hiruko Kawate.
"Yes, that's what they call themselves but what does that mean?" asked the Hokage, reaching into his desk.
"Please tell me you're NOT going to light up that awful pipe while I'm in the office," complained Hiruko.
The Hokage moved his hand just a little bit and emerged with a bottle.
"Well, that particular vice I'm a little less inclined to argue with," admitted Hiruko. "As long as you've got a second glass in there. Is that 'whiskey' from Land Of Green Hills?"
"That it is, and you know how hard it is to get ahold of this stuff," pointed out the Hokage.
"What was it, an A-Rank mission?" asked Hiruko as the glasses came out.
"Oh yes, you should see the mission report. This was an apology from the jonin doing the job because things went less than ideally." The Hokage quickly poured a bit into each glass.
"Ah, would that be Isao?" asked Hiruko.
"Classified, but yes," admitted the Hokage. "Was he still pulling senbon out?"
"No, they were removed before he got to the hospital, there was just a rash - allergic reaction to whatever he used to patch the wounds," said Hiruko, holding up the glass to admire the color before sniffing and then finally taking a sip. "Ah. That's the stuff."
"Elves?" prompted the Hokage.
"One of them was what passes for a medic," said Hiruko. "The world they came from also had humans, and she'd worked with humans before - so she was able to give me details on the difference between humans and elves."
"Go on," said the Hokage.
"Sensory acuity is greater, particularly sight and hearing - but they're also more sensitive to such things," said Hiruko. "Longer lifespan, much longer in fact. The young lady I was speaking to looked to be in her mid-20s but claimed she was well over two hundred years old."
"That long a lifespan?" asked the Hokage.
"That carries over to some of the other differences," said Hiruko. "They're slow to change. Very slow. When they learn a craft they can spend decades just on the basics. Those who have interacted with humans are a bit more 'hasty' because they understand we don't have as much time as they do."
"Doing anything in under a decade would be 'hasty' with that kind of lifespan, I suppose," admitted the Hokage.
"They're a bit frailer, as you'd expect from the thin bodies, but apparently their homeland was going through some great catastrophe and food supplies were strained," added Hiruko. "Tend to be good with archery and sword-work."
The Hokage refilled the doctor's glass and his own. "And?"
"Apparently there's another problem," said the doctor. "Uzumaki's summoning specified that the summoned would agree to be his friend."
"How is that a problem?" asked the Hokage.
"He used 'tomodachi' but due to translation problems with the summoning itself, the concept varied in how they interpreted it," said Hiruko. "Some interpreted it in terms a bit off from the original intent."
"Actually, it was his continued rejection from a girl he wants to befriend that led him to this odd summoning," said the Hokage.
"At twelve?" asked Hiruko. At the Hokage's nod she made a tsking noise. "Well, when I spoke to him it seemed he didn't really have much of an idea of such things."
"Probably not," agreed the Hokage. "With them aging much slower than Naruto, I'd imagine such things won't be a problem. His aging before their eyes would be a major drawback."
"Not as much as you'd think," warned Hiruko. "There's at least four planning on waiting until he hits a suitable age and then making their move."
"That could be messy," agreed the Hokage.
"Oh, it's worse than that," said Hiruko. "Turns out that he managed to summon more than one kind of elf. And the various types of elves apparently have a history of not getting along all that well."
"Well, when Naruto gets to an appropriate age, I'll have to address the issue. Likewise if they start fighting in the village," said the Hokage as he set the filled glass in front of her.
"That isn't what I'm worried about," said Hiruko. "They're more likely to get in some sort of competition from what I overheard. There's also the possibility, put forth by one of them, that the competition would be in terms of proving whose skills at the actual act of mating would be best."
Hiruzen Sarutobi made a mental note to send a report on this to Jiraiya. If nothing else, it would make sure that the wandering author would be in the village at the appropriate time.
"The others weren't as receptive to the concept," added Hiruko. "Which is good. Apparently the elf race IS cross-fertile with humans. They generally don't do that, but it isn't unheard of either."
"How is that possible?" asked the Hokage.
"Good question," admitted the doctor.
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(Posted Sun, 19 Jan 2014 09:05)
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