"That sounds... complicated."

"It's hard, yeah." He shrugs. "Some questions are also rude or insulting. But usually there's more slack on that for the young." He likes the tell culture of the place he settled in. "I don't really care, so ask whatever, I'll just say if I don't want to answer something."

"Then... where did you learn your techniques?"

"I designed them." He shrugs. "I can show you the theory."

"Yes."

He pulls out a pen and some paper and then draws a series of flowing symbols. A twist of his hand, and they gain an odd, dizzying depth, shifting and unstable as the paper moves. "Each of these is a concept. I put ones like them together, memorize them, and then use the - pathway the memory makes - to channel them, with a phrase and a motion to help. It's - once I know them, putting them together is just tedious." A pause, "I was just... Playing around when I figured out the first one. It seemed... Obvious."

Chihiro blinks.

"That seems unlikely."

Shrug. "Where do you think I learned it, then?"

"I do not know."

"I might've seen it somewhere, first; memory's strange like that."

"This does not resemble any school of sealing I am familiar with."

"Do they resemble each other much? Across origins, or time."

"...No."

"I'll look through the compound and all when we get back. If there's any old books, or just... Places I remember going. If I saw it it would've been written down, I think." His best bet might be to forge something he could've reasonably spotted as a small child, but that might've been overlooked by people investigating the compound.

"I... would be interested in seeing that."

He nods. "I'll show you whatever I find."

Chihiro nods. This seems to have exhausted this conversational thread.

He hums a bit. "What was that technique you used to disappear earlier?"

"An active camouflage."

He nods. "It seems useful." A pause (while he internally flails for something to say), and, "What's your - opinion on the mission. In general."

"It is the mission we were assigned."

He leans back. Makes a face. "Fighting jounin-level opponents wasn't."

"It is now."

He sighs. "The client shouldn't have put us at risk." But, with a shrug, "My opinion: the mission is important. Gatou is acting immorally, and contrary to Konoha's good. But the client lied to us. Even if for understandable reasons, that action was wrong."

"Given that we did not opt to abandon the mission when the deception was revealed, our opinions are irrelevant. The village leaders will decide the consequences when we return."