"I've seen odder than 'is a tentacle monster,' though the gore power sounds interesting."

"Yeah, he was an interesting guy. What's the weirdest you've seen?"

"I'm tempted to say my old teammate, Jiraiya, but that wouldn't be true, he just had an odd personality. There was a member of a group I used to belong to, who had turned his body entirely into a puppet, and after I left another joined who greatly resembles a shark and has a sentient sword. It's also difficult to say, many people are strange in their own little ways, and strange for us might not be strange for you."

"Maybe our worlds aren't so different."

"Heh. I suspect humans are much the same anywhere."

She looks over at Dan.

"Sounds right. How's the anti-insanity project going?"

"Tetsuri is fairly confident. I should probably take Dan to her, admittedly, before he decides to quit."

"Can shinobi quit?"

"They can certainly try."

...she giggles again.

"You're so evil. It's hilarious. Do you go through a lot of shinobi, or are they all too terrified to do anything about it?"

"I'm not that much of an outlier at all for a village head, I just don't put on airs. I offer better pay than most places, and while I have a turnover rate it's actually lower than even Konoha's."

"Do you have a pension plan too?"

"What's a pension?"

"Sort of like a pot where a percentage of someone's paycheck goes and when they're ready to retire they get all of it and spend it on a boat, or something. Or a house, or something sensible. I don't really know."

"Soldiers regularly get a chance to retire in your world? Fascinating."

"Well, the vast majority of them aren't soldiers. But sure. Pretty sure a lot of soldiers get an early retirement too."

"Your world must be somewhat less war-torn, at least."

"We've had a few world wars in recent history, but yeah. A lot of it's very nice and not all war-torn. I'm fond."

"The leaders here seem incapable of staying out of petty squabbles - come, let's talk while we walk." He motions for Dan to follow him.

She kind of itches to take off her mask, but she doesn't know how many people are around and habit dictates that she keep her identity secret. It's still annoying.

So she just walks beside him, mask and all.

The halls aren't exactly crowded, but there's still people coming and going. Most spare Akhlys a curious glance, but quickly look away and hurry on their business.

And they all look appropriately shinobi-like?

Some look approximately paper-pusher-like, if paper pushers were all lithe and graceful and possibly deadly. There's a few medics who seem friendlier with Orochimaru, who also seem fully capable of capturing their experiments themselves.

"You do a lot of medical experiments?"

"It's one of my main focuses, yes. Medical science especially is woefully piece-meal. There's no overarching effort to train medics, though Konoha is attempting to institute something for their own forces."