Starring:
Date: June 10, 2016
Summary:
Taiki heals Akane and removes the odd seal on her side that seems to ‘punish’ her whenever chakra is active in her system.
Poster's note: foul language filtered in obvious places.
"Fujikujo Saga - The Demon You Know"
Konohagakure - Hospital
After Akane tried to escape, Akumu was determined she would not be doing so again until the village had answers about what happened to the Uchiha Clan Head. The crimson-haired would-be-escapee has found herself tied to her bed with her hands and feet bound so as to keep her from trying to escape or making any handseals to cast jutsu. It's not ideal to have the person who brought Kurome's body to them bound as such, but she refused to give answers and tried to escape before she could be helped and before she would answer, so…
Whatever. The ANBU is having difficulty finding sympathy in his mind anymore, his mind drifting further into the darkness as voices whisper in his head. 'She's probably the one that killed her.' 'Or maybe she's working for them.' 'You should torture the information out of her.' 'You should just kill her then try to revive her. Maybe she'll be more talkative if she wakes up.' In his standing position in the room across from her bed, his arms are folded over his chest and fists clenched, that same skull mask covering his face as when he tracked her down, his body lacking the ANBU vest but the tattoo quite clear on his shoulder.
This being a hospital, and having such a flight risk, saw the mystery 'guest' being assigned to one of the most senior medic nin of the hospital. Therefore, it was Taiki and Nozomi who started entering the door, with Shinobu standing outside with the guards in the hallway to provide additional support. Thus the Inuzuka duo was let in by the gaurds after an admonishment not to release the bonds.
Taiki looked somewhat grim-faced as he walked over to the clipboard to get some idea about the case. Even the paperwork for this prisoner was kept in here. Other than a few notes at the nurse's station, there wasn't much Taiki had access to outside the room. So first he doesn't even acknowledge either the supposed patient or the ANBU. Instead, he starts flipping through the chart and waits for the ANBU to say something.
Akane had been out cold for most of the time she was tied to the bed. Her head was turned to the side and her eyes were closed. She revived a short time ago, opening her eyes to find herself tied to the bed. It gave a pretty good view of the odd sealwork on her side. It was now more of a dark brown or black tone, the skin seeming to be seared, burned into her. She bore bandages on one of her arms where a burn was being treated without chakra and the wound on her back was of course under her but the fact a tree limb nearly went through her was in her file.
She had brought Kurome home and with her eyes intact, though there was a sealwork on Kurome's eyes that Akane did not have the aptitude to place. She wasn't wearing anything that denoted her as from Kiri except for the very aware. green crystal pendant around her neck carved with the Okumo clan crest. She saw the ANBU in the room and siged softly, dropping her head back to the pillow and closing her eyes again.
Taiki's entrance got her attention again. Two things would probably be the most interestig in her file. 1. She was o longer pregnant, though showed signs medically of having given birth recently. However, the last time taiki saw her had only been a few months previous and she wasn't even showing then. Which would cut the pregnancy down by nearly four months. And 2. Kenta had made a note that the burning seal on her side reacted to anyone's chakra, draining her and buring deeper into her skin.
Upon seeing aiki Akane's eyes narrowed slightly. His presence could be good for her in that he was at least rational. But it could also be bad. Taiki was formidible even if she did have her chakra….
As Taiki steps into the room, the white eyes of Akumu glances to him briefly before falling back to the patient. He remains silent as Taiki loks over the chart, his eyebrows furrowing slightly beneath the mask. There's really nothing else for him to do at this point than observe quietly and hope his questions are answered soon. If they are not… Perhaps it's time for a change of pace and to finally do things his way.
After a few moments to gather his mental notes, a slow hmmmm, can be heard escaping his lips. His eyes flit toward the bed, as if verifying something, before they flit back to the chart. "Kenta'san always gives me the interesting cases," he mutters quietly as a small smile forms on his lips. Of course there's a deactivation seal… it must be a standard piece of work for those who have things they can actually lose that others may actually want. Not that he understands it personally, since his clan doesn't employ them or silence seals without rendering them full-time active.
After a moment he turns and starts to walk over to the bed while Nozomi moves around to the other side. She starts to open a pouch on her jacket before Taiki speaks aloud, "Wait on that. There are… complications that would not be beneficial for anyone at this juncture." Nozomi stops and growls softly to Taiki, to which he says, "Not likely to us directly, but I really don't need her unconscious as of yet."
That said, he diverts his attention back to Akane and inclines his head minutely in greeting. "Hello Akane-san. You're a long way from home, are you not?" he asks, his tone laced with a hint of politeness. No need in being antagonistic yet. "I can't help but to wonder why someone of your stature would be here, now. Last I saw of you, you were… well… different."
Akane watched te two men. Akumu was silent as ever, no doubt glarig behind that mask. But as was typical of her, she didn't flinch or allow herself to seem nervous. Even Nozomi would only scent a hint of tension. Green eyes watched the ninken move around the bed, acknowledging the partner as usual. Then she turned to look at Taiki as though they were speaking of a caserole recipe. "I certainly was not aiming for the Land of Fire when I left Kirigakure that's for sure." She smiled brightly, caseroles indeed… Still in that bright cheery tone she said, "Next time I won't bring the body back for you hmm? Though I'm not sure what you mean by different unless you mean the burns.. or the thing on my side maybe?"
Akumu remains silent, cold white eyes moving between the medical ninja the… other medical ninja that is currently their captive. Despite his internal desire to extract the desired information as quickly as possible, he manages to just remain silent and observe the situation for now. It's a difficult thing to do, but one does what one must. This woman probably doesn't like him too much, but, were the situation reversed, he doubts she'd let him leave before she knew what she wanted to know.
Nozomi wuffs breifly, then gives a shake of her head from side to side. Taiki nods and reaches up to scratch his chin. "Funny thing about Inuzuka, and about our ninken partners, we have stronger senses of smell than just about anyone else, particularly if we were… enhancing it as we were on that island that day. We can tell quite a bit from scents others give off, including generalized home environment, generalized work environment, people they are most in contact with, though that one depends on if we know the people involved enough to remmember individual senses… sprite, we can even recognize certain medical conditions without having to look. Blood smells a lot different than sweat, and someone menstruating is rather easy to discern. It's why women who are sent against us are told to be especially studious about certain areas, and why it is never a good idea to send a pregnant female on a stealth mission where we might be involved. Humans release pharamones too, you know."
Taiki glances over toward the ANBU, as if guaging his reaction to the conversation at hand before looking back to Akane. It should be obvious to her, from that observation, that he was well aware of her status then, and now. "As far as the reception you garnered, I'm sure you realize that tensions between Kiri and Konoha are somewhat… tenuous at the best of times. And I'm sure you can appreciate how a Kiri shinobi or kunoichi bringing back a dead clan head, with no explanation as to how it happened, looks rather bad for the person in question? It would help matters immensely if you could tell us how she died, or if you don't know that, how you happened to find her. But then again, does that thing on your side prevent you from telling us that?"
Akane didn't flinch or shift. She didn't grow angry, really, though her eyes were as cold as ice, her tone confident, assured and dripping with acid. "I suggest you leave my children out of this." Once that seemed to sink ina bit she closed her eyes and took a breath. More serious and far more honestly she looed up again. "Well, the Hyuuga I brought her to was rather volitile. Then I hear there's a spy suspected. Of course I'm not going to stic around for that accusation to fall on me."
She shook her head slowly, a darker sense overtaking her expression and aura. "We were on separate missions. Kurome-san was apparently hunting her parents' killer. It just so happens tht that man's boss was my target. Unfrtunately, even combined she and I were no match for the man." She turned to stare directly at Akumu. "Her last word, her last breath was the name Yasuo, the man I brought her to so you could honor a fallen warrior." Her gaze softened a touch then as she peered at Yasuo. "She died well. I already told you I am sorry I could not do more. But you have seen what this damned thing does to me." She looked at Taiki. "As I told Atsuro-san. If your men run into seone uder the crest of the Wisteria, tell them to run."
Well, Akumu's not that well disguised, so her figuring out it's him isn't that fair of a stretch. Really, whoever came up with the idea that ANBU's only disguises to hide their identities is a vest and a mask with most of their identifying features like their hair and physical figure unhidden needs a lesson in stealth.
As Akane speaks, the ANBU's brows furrow beneath his mask again. At last the information he wanted has been given. "I'm not certain volatile is a strong enough word to cover it… But I am grateful for the information," he says with a nod. "I fear Yasuo may be no more… but you do have his appreciation for bringing her home."
Taiki sighs and shakes his head before glancing over at the ANBU. "First, I've done many things in my life, some I'm not so proud of, but so far I've managed to avoid using someone's family like that. Quite simply, I find the very idea repugnant, which is one of a few reasons why I would make a horrible special ops person." Of course, he's also far to recognizable to get away with a mask to hide his identity, but that's not the point here. "I merely brought that up because I wanted to verify a few things before I got a good look at you. Truth be told, I've been called in more more my medical and seal knowledge than any direct interrogation technique. But there's a problem. It's the same one that prevents more aggressive questioning, truth be told. I can't heal you with that seal active. Given that, I thought that perhaps appealing to your reasonable side would be a better option for getting some questions answered, at least. But for me to actually treat you… well, that is going to require some investigation. Will you cooperate?"
Taiki's eyes turn toward the ANBU standing there and said, "Was there other things that are just as urgent to know, or should I begin trying to figure out what to do with that seal?"
Akane watched Akumu and whe he spoke she let out a soft breath before odding. She was well aware that he might not have been able to take the answers she could offer when he had just moments before learned of his lover's death. She looked back at Taiki then. There wasn't much to say of his claim about the family situation, but she did ot argue or refute him. The warning had been given.
His coments about the seal made her smirk faintly. "If you could see my back you would see I' not easy to break. By all means remove the seal. But please try not to bring out Kyoujin." She shook her head slowly and lifted her wrists. "If you would kindly untie me, I won't run as long as you don't let that spy goblin land on me." She glanced between the two men. "If I had had my way I would have simply walked away after returning your precious Uchiha."
"… That is all I needed to know to begin my investigation," Akumu replies from behind that rather menacing-looking skull mask. He offers a nod to Taki and then to Akane. "It was… an unfortunate situation, but the information was vital. I'm certain you would not let someone go who had information something that had happened to one of your loved ones or villagemates, so, in hindsight, I think you'll understand." He then turns his eyes toward Taiki as if to ask if his presence is still needed, though he doesn't verbally ask the question and will hang around until dismissed.
"Unfortunately for both of us, I'm not in charge of whether or not you're restrained. Apparently you tried to escape once, and the ANBU thought it a security matter. Even though I am a Clan Head, and hold a high rank in this hospital, unless I need to for urgent medical reasons, I can't countermand that." He glances at the ANBU as his original question is answered, then, shakes his head. "I've got this, though I will need to know if the restraints can be removed."
Nozomi looks up at Taiki and tilts her head to the side. "Should I tell them to get the chamber ready?" the canine asks in human toungue. Those same eyes have been watching Taiki's conversation with the Kiri nin for a while, and seems to be watching her partner carefully.
"Yes, that would be fine," Taiki tells Nozomi, then watches her go. "Bring out Kyoujin? Who or what is that?" he then asks Akane as he moves over to the location of the seal to take a closer look at it.
Akane looked at Akumu and shook her head. "Which is precicely why I slipped away. I had spoken to Atsuro-san and Kenta-san but I know from experience that when you lose someone you're not it he mood to talk." She shrugged it off. It had been the weird rumor about ANBU infiltrations that had spooked her. As was evident by the fact she had been in te hospital for a few days before skipping out the window.
Taiki's comments made her shrug as best she could and looked away from him, paying attention to Nozomi's words. chamber hmm? Akane laughed. Then laughed harder. Maybe it was a stress reaction and she'd suddenly gotten the giggles.. But half way through she coughed, choking even as she finishe laughing. Blood slid from the very corner of her mouth as she turned her head back to stare at the ceiling. "I would be greatful if you could deactivate it and then I could heal myself. s I am I can tell you that tree probably knicked a lung."
Another cough and she swallowed, taking a breath.
"Kyoujin is what the Other inside me was called. She's far less rational and far more violent." Before Akumu left she spoke one last thing to him. "I don't blame you. I just knew you could not be told until you calmed down some." She had purposefully not gien the enraged Hyuuga the answer that would have set him into the face of death. Then she looked at Taiki again. "Have I told you how much I loathe trees at this point?" It was conversational, a jest. Though Atsuro /had/ mentioned the forest fire she'd started a few years before when Isura had chosen to try and chase her.
RP: Taiki makes a Int and Seal roll and got 12 and 16, respectively, for a total of 28.
Ah, so the woman is is insane as well. Small world… Akumu sort of wonders how well he would get along with this Kyoujin, but not enough to find out. There is a definite darkness in his voice, resonating there constantly now without the attempts to cover it up that he made before Kurome was gone. "… I am far from calm… but I am sound enough to direct my anger where it needs to go," he comments before looking to Taiki.
"You may free her from her bonds… It has been a pleasure." That almost sounds like a simple farewell from the room with them, but the tone of his voice could imply something far different… Could he be leaving the village? He reaches into his a pocket on his pants, withdrawing a sealed envelope that he sets on a counter near Taiki. "If you don't mind, give this to the Hokage when you are finished here. I must be on my way." With that he turns to walk of the room and out of the hospital.
Taiki smirks as he takes a closer look at the seal, allowing Akane to have her laugh. "Depending on how advanced the seal is, I may need that chamber to utilize a special kind of surgery to remove it," he explains as Nozomi soon reappears. "This one is fairly advanced, and reacts to any chakra presented, even your own. Interesting, and also what I was afraid of. Any normal chakra, including seal chakra, will activate it, normally making removal without knowing the specific counter technique very difficult if not impossible. Fortunately I know a way to work around it, but that means I'll have to isolate the seal from your network prior to removing it." At this point, regardless of any other considerations, Taiki makes a decision and starts to remove the constraints. "Given that even isolating the seal will cause some level of activation, I would recommend that I render you unconscious for this… the seal will react to the initial procedures."
Akane held still, watching Taiki as he spoke and removed the bindings. Carefully she moved to sit up a bt, take some pressure off that wound on her back. After a second she closed her eyes, glarg at something in her imagination and once again her aura shifted. "That gnome… The words haven't been invented yet to describe what I'm going to do to him….." Ut was mutterd, though loud enough fr Taiki to pick up on. Her eyes darened slightly but then she reached up and took a deep breath. The aura and the color faded from her eyes, leavin them green once again. She glanced to the side at Nozomi then to Taiki and reached for some water on a nearby stand, sipping at it.
Taiki tilts his head as Nozomi leads in a couple of nurses. "Well, I don't know who you're talking about," he says while seemingly ignoring the outburst, though he files the chakra shift away for later, "But if you want this removed, I suggest you lay back and let us prep you. You have my word as a Medic Nin that I will not do any unnecessary procedures unnrelated to either seal removal or wound healing."
Akane shook her head slowly, taking another sip of water before leaning back again. She looked at Taiki quietly for a long moment then simply stated to him. "We are not enemies." She stared up at the ceiling, thoughts drifting before hse closed her eyes again. If he chose to treat her more as an enemy after this, she would note it.
Taiki shakes his head and waits for Akane to drift into unconsciousness before the nurses come to take her to the operation chamber. "A Kiri nin that doesn't automatically hate me on sight, imagine that," he says to Nozomi as the two make their way to prep. "Watch out for flying pigs on the way home," he says to a nurse at the nurse's station, who apparently has no idea what Taiki is talking about. After prepping for the procedure, Taiki moves into the chamber.
The chamber itself is rather plain, save for a stone table about waist high (compared to Taiki) and a small metal table set beside the stone slab. The entire room is made of stone, with permanent seals etched into it that cover all the walls and lead off in trails to the slab, which are also etched in seals on all sides except the part the body lays on. The table contains ink, blank tags, and several brushes.
Before beginning, Taiki takes five of those large tags and inks the same set of seals on each one before placing them in a radial pattern around the seal that Taiki is about to remove. He then takes a sixth tag and inks a special array on it before placing it on Akane's stomach. "Hopefully that will buy us some time…" he says to the nurses and Nozomi. Both Nozomi's paws and Taiki's hands glow blue as other seals are activated before Taiki says, "When I say now, activate the monitor tag…" Taiki then reaches down and says, "Fuinjutsu: Isolation Array, Kai!"
Akane slipped into sleep, her inner world. Once she was on that surface, her eyes closed, Taiki and Nozomi began what they were doing…. Taiki was right, the seal reacted as soon as they came close to it. Despite being asleep, Akane's body convulsed as the seal light brightly. The sensitive noses of the Inuzukas would note the smell of burning flesh as they worked, But slowly slowly it began to 'peel away'. Golden red light fro the seal itself was surrounded by blue of the duo's chakra as they slowly painstakingly began to separate the seal from Akane's skin. It was slow working but it did start to succeed. The fact that, unconscious she convulsed, was a testament to her self control when awake, even using chara knowing it would burn deeper. There would be a scar or a ghost of one anyway.
"Now," Taiki said as the seal started to peel away. Nozomi raises a paw and rests it on the seal on Akane's stomach. An instant later Akane is bathed in a blue light that starts to separate from her and float above her body. All the seals in the room light up in various colors, most blue, a few yellow, and some red. A complete picture of Akane's chakra network, down to the smallest tengetsu points, forms in a hologram-like image above her, with the seal there a sickly black color. "Reminds me of a curse seal," Taiki says solemnly. He ignores everything else the chakra network could tell him, save for the area where that seal is.
Taiki takes a very short time, not even ten seconds, to analyze what he's seeing before he starts to manipulate the chakra network feeding into the are where the seal is. Streams of miniature black seals stream from where Taiki's hands are touching Akane's in the hologram, quickly forming a ring around the seal. Soon Taiki starts to reroute the network around that seal, cutting off each stream one at a time. It isn't long before the seal is completely cut off from influencing her network at all, which effectively removes all chakra feeding into the seal, since he's not sending chakra directly into the seal itself.
Akane's body slipped back into stillness as the seal was slowly cut off. Even her breathing improved markedly. His comment about the cursed seals was pretty close, though there was a small section of her chakra that wasdark, tainted… nearly as black as the seal energy he had seen. It kept still and out of the way, but perhaps that was the Kyoujin she had spoken of. If it was probe, Taiki would find a sharp backlash but it appeared defensive. As for the seal itself, Once Taiki bega working with it, he could see a straight path to removing it. Whoever had placed it did not want it to be permanent…
And that is exactly what Taiki does, first probing the the seal, then the small kernel there. The backlash's energy is quickly drained into the supporting seal arrays, causing a portion of the wall to turn yellow. "Booby trapped. Unfortunately for whoever set this, they didn't likely count on having me remove it…" In Taiki's line of work, he faced the worst, most infectious chakra diseases known to man, and this entire room was set up to handle any kind of backwash, something that Taiki was very grateful for now. After taking note of the techniques required for removal, he starts to do just that, pealing away layer by layer of the seal itself much faster than it had been before. At the same time, Nozomi increased the backlash shunt operations just in case th seal decided to put up a fight.
The seal lost it's ability to lash out after a bit of tie and then it came off like washing dust off one's feet. It had left behind a darkened mark on the Kiri-nin's side, but considering the seal they were dealing with, that was a small price to pay. As the final layer peeled away, her etire system flooded withher own chakra once more, allowing actual natural healing to resume. It would be best for a chara medic to fix the burn on her arm and the hole in her back but there seemed to be nothing left of the seal.
Taiki performs a quick check of the area to make sure the seal is gone, then puts his hand on the tags around where the seal used to be. "Fuinjutsu: Isolation Array, Fuin!" The tags deactivate and fall to the ground, allowing Taiki to focus on the other parts of the body. "Amataresu damage," he notes as he looks at the arm. "That's going to require an advanced technique… Fuinjutsu: Spiralling Seal of Health, Fuin." Another stream of black seals spirals out from Akane's mid-section, quickly filling her body as it starts to knit Akane's skin back together. Another stream heads toward the same area that Taiki had just finished and starts to set Akane's network back to normal, though it goes slowly to make sure the seal doesn't make a return.
Akane remained asleep of course, though her chakra seemed to be helping Taiki knit her back together. Her arm had been close enough to the Amaterasu flames that it had caused her signature damage but luckily it had caught her jacket so 'close' was really all she got. Her back was closing as well. The seal did not return in any form either. There were enough scars on the woman's body to draw a map with and as Taiki's seals worked to heal her, some of those scars faded slowly as well. She frowned in her sleep, her head turing to the side, but then stilled again, Whatever dreams haunted her mind, they di nothinder the process.
And as the last of the hard-to-heal damage was fixed, Taiki breathed a sigh of relief. "That takes care of the big problems. Okay Nozomi, shut it down." Nozomi reaches over and touches the remaining tag on Akane's stomach, and the hologram slowly drifts back down to Akane's body and then flickers out. The red areas of the room have turned yellow, and all the yellow areas drain away into a chakra-sink that will bleed off the excess chakra into various networks in the hospital to run more demanding pieces of equipment. Taiki then steps back and slouches over for a moment before looking at the nurse who had remained back in the back during all of this. "Change her bandages and put her back in her room. I've done all I can for her. Then get Kenta to reschedule my appointments for the rest of the day. I'm drained and I need to take a nap." That said, Nozomi walks around the slab to allow Taiki to put an arm across the dog's back to rest against as he starts to make his way out of the chamber.
