Formidable

A young wolf responded to him, one he’d yet to meet. Tojo-kai was seeing a surprising amount of new faces these days, but he didn’t mind it. Raijin was a sociable wolf by nature, and while his cousin was anything but, the Genji man was more than willing to cover that base. The man seemed to be around his oldest son’s ages, and as he took a whiff to verify he had the markings of the Kai on him, he detected unmistakable traces of Usagi. Still, that didn’t mean much. Even if the grumpy Shima took after his uncle Hattori in attitude, he was still a member of the pack. Perhaps the bi-colored man had come across Usagi before coming across Raijin.

He asked if the koi man could show him out of the maze, something the Taicho thought nothing peculiar about. It took a while to learn the layout of the maze, so if he was new there was no surprise he was turned around. Still, he nodded in understanding at the explanation. “Of course. It’s nice to meet you, Kunai. My name is Genji Raijin. The maze can be really confusing if you’re new, it took me a while to get it figured out and I still have to go on a wild goose chase to find my own pups sometimes when they take a wrong turn,” he replied, his lips turned in an amused grin and his golden gaze glinting with affection as he thought of his youngest litter.

The man walked toward Kunai, indicating with a nod of his head for the orange and black man to follow him. They wove through the bamboo, going right and left in intervals until they finally reached the outskirts of the maze. “Usagi, who it seems you’ve met, put markers near the tops of the bamboo at the turns to help my youngest litter find their ways around. You kind of have to cram your head up to see them, but they’ll lead you to all the important places in the Maze if you look hard enough.” It was a kind thing the man with the gloomy exterior had done. A small sense of guilt always pinged in his chest when he glanced up at the markers, seeing how considerate his eldest boys were to their half-siblings when he knew they both harbored some resentment toward him for not being in their lives when they were young.

“Mind if I join you?” he asked Kunai.

Intel 1/3

"Speech"