Starring:
Date: May 29, 2013
Summary:
After demanding Takeshi's head and threatening the life of a child, Yuuka takes a stand against Raiji and his rebellion.
"Blood and Bones - Confrontation"
Kaguya Village [Kirigakure]
Kaguya Village [Kirigakure]
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This area smells very strongly of blood and views of ivory, each building in this district made by the Kaguya that owns it and out of their own bone. At the far west end of the village there is one house that is double the size of any other which could presumably belong to the head of the Kaguya Clan. Among the buildings are small resturants and shops, all made of the same bone material as the other buildings, though the merchandise is not necessarily such.
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The Kaguya village smelled like blood. It always has. The bones that are made from the very people used to create buildings, homes, but the scent always lingered. It was a constant reminder of who they are as a people. And it is why it was here that Yuuka chose to make her stand, in the very heart of who they are. Already there were people gathering. Those that she had rallied, that support her and intend to back her up in this crucial moment. It was the tipping point, where it can go either one way or the other. And those that didn't know what was going on, they saw the crowd gathering, tension rising, and were compelled with curiosity to follow.
Among those in the village was Tsiro. He had recently returned. Despite his orders he had no intentions of missing this. A crimson eye is left on Yuuka. The other scans the crowd. He wanted to meet this Raiji. The man who had the audacity to threaten Yuriko. Tsiro steps forward to Yuuka's side. Bones start to emerge from his body. She could take the stand. Anyone trying to knock her down though had to go through him. "It's too bad you have to go through formalities before we start the blood shed." He's not exactly bashful.
Raiji is in the usual corner bar, sitting on a large sofa with two girls in his lap, his usual posse around him, drinking and laughing. The bar is PACKED with supporters. While usually it was empty, right now it's bruising with all sorts of tribes, including main branchers. If Tsiro and Yuuka have violent intentions, they would be headed straight into a hornets nest. That's likely why Raiji acts so high and mighty right now. Though, it's rumored that he and his most trusted officer are fighters to be reconned with. Though nobody really recalls Raiji actually fighting. "Another round on me!" Raiji shouts, a large cheer erupting from the bar. "For every head that will roll in the coming week, we shall drink!" Another Kaguya yells, downing his sake and ordering a new one. Everyone was riled up.
Eventually Yuuka comes to a stop, people at her back for a long moment before she turns around. Her eyes were colder these last few days, lacking the warmth and kindness that has normally been associated with the Clan Elder. But that didn't matter now. Facing the crowd, she reaches over her shoulder and pulls free Kubikiribocho in a sudden hard swing over her head, earning gasps before she buries the huge sword into the ground at her feet.
"This is my sword." Yuuka's voice carries. "It is the symbol of only part of who I am. A Seven Swordsman. A warrior of the great Land of Water. But this day, I discard my sword!" Her voice rises. "Today I stand before my people not as a Seven Swordsman, but a warrior of the mighty Kaguya clan! And my strength as a warrior has been questioned!"
As fast as lightning, several dozen bone spikes shred through the kimono she wears, completely ruining the fabric into tatters while Yuuka smoothly reaches up over her shoulder and tears her fingers through her flesh, pulling at her spine before it finally pulls free. The bone spine of the Dance of the Clematis. This only stirs up the crowd further. "Kaguya Raiji calls me a traitor… but he is the one questioning my authority. He calls me a coward, but he dares to attack the life of my child instead of comforting me himself." Her voice growls, rising higher with her anger and passion. "He dares demand for the head of one of our Elders! But I will give nothing to a spoiled brat that only wants to spill blood to amuse himself! He knows nothing of pride! Nothing about being a warrior! AND KNOWS NOTHING ABOUT BEING A TRUE KAGUYA!"
Tsiro stands still as Yuuka gives her declaration. It was about time she got mean. He'd only seen her this way once before. Kiku got catty and Yuuka was really displeased. Back then he feared it a bit. Now though, he was on board to embrace it. It was too bad about her kimono. Where she chose to use words and compassion in life, he embraced the battle. His uniform already had holes where the bones popped out.
Like Yuuka, Tsiro himself reaches back towards his neck. With a sickening sound, he reaches past his skin and muscle. He gives one hard yank until his own has come free. Like the crowd, his blood is starting to boil. He was looking for this brawl to start, but he yells nothing. This was Yuuka's time.
From afar, Kiku hides under Yuuka?
Raiji grins deeply at Yuuka seems to have snapped. "Right in time, sweetie." He whispers. The entire bar is dead silent. Though none of the glares are too compasionate towards Yuuka, even after her speech and impressive display. Raiji stands up, he has been careful about these things for a reason. "Yuuka, yuuka yuuka yuuuukkaaa.." Raiji says slowly, holding up his palms while his sly tongue does his work for him. "I don't know where you got these crazy ideas, about me 'challenging' you… Or.."
He pauses, placing his palm on his chest. "Or having the guts to threaten my own family!" He grins. "I would never.." He says slowly. "I merely stated I was a little discontent with the unstable leadership." He bows at Yuuka. "As you so willingly demonstrate here. A little pressure and our clan head…" He pauses. "Snaps." She smiles and lifts his arms. "It's not me who threatened my own kin." He says. "It is you, who walks into a bar owned by your family…" He pauses.
"It is you, who draws her own bones in front of her bretheren, bretheren she swore to protect….!" He pauses again. "It is you, who challenges your own family to a duel over no evidence. Condemning poor old me for a crime I couldn't possibly have commited!" He pauses yet again. "So thank you, for displaying how effective our calm Kaguya leadership is. Thank you, for showing how stable our leadership is.." He looks at Yuuka. "Thank you, for proofing my point."
With those words, he's about to slip out of the backdoor of the bar, two of his followers blocking the way to him. Though Yuuka is in for a barfight! The Kaguya behind her has picked up the wooden barstool, aiming to smash her across the head horizontally. While two others who were sitting near Tsiro twitch, bones erupting from their bodies. "Leave…" One says, giving Tsiro but one chance. Everyone is frozen right now, Raiji is the only one moving, walking extremely slowly towards the back door, it's a huge taunt. Everyone was just waiting for a spark, if it goes off, a good thirty Kaguya would collapse on Yuuka and Tsiro.
"'Snaps'?" Yuuka asks, the corner of her lips tugging with a slight smirk. It was amusing after all. "I am not your 'sweetie'. Nor will I tolerate such insolence." She takes a step forward and the smile fades from her lips, her eyes cold. "Prove your innocence to me. Prove that you were not the one demanding Takeshi-sama's head in exchange for the life of my daughter. I am not unforgiving or heartless, all I want is to protect my clan, my family." Her expression darkens. "But that does not mean I will tolerate everything that has happened."
His words. Every word he uttered was like poison, being twisted for his own use to make her look like the bad guy. "I may want peace, but I am more than willing to fight for it. Leaders that do not want to fight for their family have no place in this clan." Her bright eyes look around at the crowd of people, the followers of Raiji. She wanted to get through to them. "You are still my family, I believe that more than anything. If your lives, if your family was threatened, you would want to take up the sword too. Because a coward that threatens the life of an innocent child has no place on this earth. And if you were helpless and someone had threatened to take your life, I would be there in a heartbeat, without a second thought defending you. Can you say the same, Raiji-san?"
Her eyes look up at his back as he begins to retreat. "Can you prove that you would do the same, lay down your life for the people here, all around you? It just looks like you are retreating like a coward, with no intention of doing anything but try to prove that others are inferior to you."
If he reacted or was affected by her words, it wasn't immediately apparent as the hard silence was broken and a chair is swung in her direction. However, Yuuka takes one step in just the right spot and it misses her completely. "The next person that gets in my way will be killed…" she warns, still following Raiji as he retreats.
Tsiro watches as the man tries to bend the words around his sensei. His head lowers and his crimson eyes glare. "You try to boil my blood and then walk AWAY? Get back here you coward! I am a full blooded KAGUYA and it is my right to kill. You think you are so smart. To incite a riot among those prided on anger. Come and I shall send anyone who think their brass is bigger than mine to the next world." Tsiro's hand hits the floor and bones begin to rise up across the exit door that Raiji is walking towards.
Raiji calmly walks away, simply ignoring Yuuka's words which get somewhat lost in the uproar of the croud. It did reach some of them, and they're quietly sitting in their chairs, letting things run their own course. Raiji just calmly walks away. This battle was his victory. Time to extra-… He perks an eyebrow, looking at the bones that block his way out. "That wasn't very nice." Raiji says. Calm as ever. "If you spent that energy on your own clan rather than on your knees under the Mizukage's desk."
Raiji flicks his fingers at the bones, rather calm about things. "Maybe we woudln't be in this mess in the first place."
Raiji then leans back against a nearby wall. "The burden of proof lies not with the defendant Yuuka. You accuse me of something, it's your job to provide evidence. Or should we all randomly start spouting nonesense around?" He smiles. "Now, either unblock he doorway." He looks at Tsiro. "Or this is seen as a direct assault, your life will not be spared."
Yuuka arches a brow as she calmly approaches, ignoring others around her while keeping a careful watch to make sure that she wasn't intervened. "Has that not what you have been doing this entire time? Spouting nonsense? As if you have any actual proof that I do anything with the Mizukage. However, the problem with you, Raiji-chan, is that you think you are so clever. Because you think you never directly accuse me of anything that you are in the clear. But I am very different."
And long sleeve lifts up as Yuuka sweeps her arm out in front of her, scattering what appears to be dirt. "I do not care for indirect assaults. I do not mind getting my hands dirty and doing things myself. Its the only way to show pions like you that I will not be pushed around." It was at that moment that the dirt, the slivers of bone dust she had scattered at his feet suddenly spout in a thick tangle of ivory vines aim to entangle Raiji and his guards, preventing any further attempt of escaping.
Tsiro watches as Raiji makes more taunts. Yuuka seems to take care of the issue though. "Maybe you left your nuts at home. Since when do Kaguya hold trials? I thought we settled things with blood. Who's pulling your strings? No self respecting Kaguya turns their back on a fight. You though would let these people die so you become a martyr?" Tsiro had hoped maybe the crowd might realize they were being manipulated.
Suddenly, the whole world starts shifting, everything turns black for Tsiro and Yuuka, voices are muffled. What the heck is going on!? …. A genjutsu! When they snap out of it Raiji was standing right in front of Tsiro, his bones that were supposed to block the doorway were actually sticking through a wrecked wall. The otherwise calm Kaguya crowd were all armed with bones. He had them trapped in a genjutsu this entire time! Even Yuuka her attack missed completely trapping a child of all things!
"Look at her! Preaching not to attack children! And yet she attacks a sixteen year old boy for the sake of getting at me." Raiji smirks. So that's why he can get to people on such a deep level! Turns out, he's quite good at this genjutsu thing!
"Unlike these savages, I don't attack family. Though I'm sure they'll pay for a new wall.." He looks at Tsiro. "You would, wouldn't you, cousin?" He smiles and rubs his thumb over Tsiro's cheek, before he tries to use the same genjutsu technique to fade away, this time out of the front door. While Yuuka and Tsiro might have to go through another spell of plastic reality.
Genjutsu. Yuuka tenses subtly. And she had trapped a sixteen year old boy. Thankfully she had only wanted to catch Raiji and hadn't done any actual damage. A low growl tugs at her throat as he turns away and tries to fade into the genjutsu, but its too late. She can sense his movements. She knows where he is. And its time that they get back to business. Yuuka holds out her free arm and exposes the flesh of her forearm, barely flicking the spine whip in her other hand to make a shallow mark in her skin, drawing blood. It was small, but it was enough to break the genjutsu she knows.
"It really is too bad. You are so talented and you use your jutsu like this." she murmurs quietly to herself. It was time for another try now. The young woman blurs with sudden speed as she dashes straight at where Raiji was supposed to have disappeared, planting her left hand on him to connect another small piece of bone there. And once more ivory quickly grows to try to ensnare him in its web.
A genjutsu…. Tsiro hated those. "Coward" is mumbled under his breath as a bone pierces Tsiro's knee. He spots Raiji and moves in forming his hand into a drill like appendage. He aims to stab tge man in his back. "Only a coward uses genjutsu!" he yells. Tsiro no longer cared of the casualties. This man needed to die.
Raiji didn't even turn around to meet Yuuka, his bones pop out behind him, protecting him from impact, though she did manage to crack a few, and thus Tsiro's powerful attack broke through the defense, causing a large bleeding gaping wound to build in Raiji's left shoulder. Raiji however turns around, slowly moving his left arm around while he lets his body heal. "Ouch.." He muses, he didn't use handseals before in his genjutsu. "Oh the pain of losing what we love.." Raiji says. Voice activated genjutsu? "The illusion of suffering." Raiji says, narrowing his eyes at Tsiro and Yuuka.
If the genjutsu hits, Yuuka would see herself holding her still infant daughter in her arms, while slowly bones come from her own back, crawling at the baby girl. Yuuka can't stop the bones no matter what she does, and so she has to live through watching her own bones very slowly slaughter her own child she's cradling. Who's crying and holding out her hands.
Tsiro however gets a whole different dish. He sees whomever is dearest to him, walking down the street and being shot down by an arrow to the spine. As if they just left home for some groceries. Dropping dead in the street.
The stun didn't follow through. The armor at Raiji's back was just enough to deter the vines from slowing his movements. Yuuka narrows her eyes as she watches Raiji turn around to face them, finally, but his words… The world warps around her again as she feels the familiar weight of Yuriko in her arms, barely a newborn coddled in the loving depths of her mother's arms. And she watches with cold fear as the surface of her hands bubble with movement beneath the flesh, her own bones moving as if like a living thing to break through the skin and steadily wrap around the small child.
It was a vivid nightmare, it felt so real that Yuuka struggled to breathe for several moments as eventually the baby's cries fall silent, thoroughly pierced and nothing more than a bloody armful staining her arms. Breathing hard, she dips her chin as she holds the still body against her chest, long locks hiding her face for another long moment before her shoulders begin to shake with what one would assume to be silent sobs. However, chuckling could be heard. "Really…" her chuckling grows as Yuuka looks up at Raiji. "Really? Is that the best you can do? You think this is the worse I have suffered through?"
Tsiro connected with the drill. That had to hurt. No one had ever been hit by that move twice and been left standing. Of coutse now he has a vision of Yuriko. The girl is like a sister to him. Then she is shot by the arrow. He is unsure how to take this. She is not there. In his mind he knows this. She is really not old enough to go shopping by herself. Seeing the arrow strike her down causes him to grit his teeth. "Quit playing mind games" the boy growls.
It was but a distraction, when they both finally snap out of the genjutsu Raiji crumbles into a pile of dust. An earth clone was left standing where Raiji was supposed to be. And now that crumbles. Nobody can really know where he disappeared to this time, probably went to his protected compound to get his wounds healed. He wouldn't make this mistake again.
Yuuka and Tsiro have more pressing matters to worry about. The entire bar is getting up, armed and ready to commence a lynching. Either they bolt or they get assaulted. Choice is theirs.
Narrowing her gaze on the clone, it crumbles into earth on to the floor as the genjutsu begins to fade. But there was still a bar full of Kaguya that were none too pleased, each with their own weapons and blades. "Tsiro." Yuuka snaps her eyes to him at the corner of her eyes. "I can still detect where he is, we need to move quickly before he gets too far." She won't let him get away. And staying here will only hinder them, waste chakra they'll need to save. "Lets go…" Pushing her weight through the slight bend of her knees, she takes off with practiced speed, blurring as she disappears through the door.
Once Tsiro is out of the Genjutusu, he lets out a cussword before following Yuuka's lead. She was right. They woukd only be wasting time in the bar. He did ponder how many genjutsu the man had used on his followers. For now though he was in flight after his sensei. He could always kill rebel Kaguya later.
