A/N Alright fuckers, it's done... Didn't take me long at all... No but seriously I'm pretty happy weith this chapter and I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do. Though if you have anything to say about it, good, bad or any critics, let me know. So... Yeah thats it, hop to reading ya cunts. Peace Fuckers - Two
Kudou Kanna's hideout 04:51 | Tuesday 20th Mar 13 aNb | Land of Fire
The crimson filled room remains silent and all present look on in awe at the figure at the end of the room. The aura he emits sets them on the edge and his changing appearance frightens the once so confident Kudou Kanna. Her subordinates are far worse off, most on the verge of breaking rank and fleeing just from the intent alone, but before a single one can act the figure disappears from sight. All look around, finding nothing but slight disturbances in the crimson pools of blood around their feet. This continues for over five minutes before Kanna is able to break herself out of her fear-ridden state.
"Stop gawking at nothing and defend yourselves!" Kanna orders as she pulls out a mask from her a pouch on her belt.
The six shinobi mirror her actions after a second, placing the masks onto their faces before redrawing their respective weapons. Each takes up positions around their leader while keeping tabs on the movements of the ripples in the blood. Without any sound to warn one of the unsuspecting shinobi, Kaii appears behind him, his eyes burning with a deep rage. The shinobi tries to act but finds both of his arms in a vice-like grip and pulled backwards, a lone foot rests on his back as his arms are pulled out of their sockets with a crack. Unhappy with the result he continues to pull at them as those around simply watch, knowing their teammate is doomed and this gives them a chance to gauge the new threat.
The shinobi cries out in pain as both of his arms are torn from his body and dropped right behind him. Before he can fully react to his arms being ripped from him, a set of hands find themselves around his neck. The loud snap of the man's neck echoes around the room, creating further distance between the attackers and Kaii. Kanna finds herself one man down, not an ideal situation against an opponent with an unknown amount of power at his fingertips.
Kanna clicks her tongue, the display of strength before her leaves no other option but a drastic measure to ensure her own life. From the same pouch, she produced the mask she pulls out a vial like object and holds it up to her eye, seemingly to check the contents. Content with what she's pulled out she turns her gaze to Kaii, whose skin has darkened to a dark grey, before dropping the vial onto the ground. The vial shatters on impact with the ground, with the liquid immediately turning into a cloud of green-ish smoke that begins to take all of the space in the room.
As the smoke does this, Kaii turns to face Kanna, a sick grin plasters over his features which reveals his elongated canines. Seeing this his target uses the smoke to hide herself, using the Rakuyamas own strategy against him, and her bodyguards. They continually move around the small space with only the crimson pools truly allowing Kaii to track them… or so they think. A death rattle is heard only a few moments after the gas truly fills the room, with a second, third and fourth coming not long afterwards. As time passes without either Kanna or her subordinate finding or even landing a single blow on the lowly genin begins to get to the missing-nin. Her mind starts to race at ways to survive, one of her special poisons did nothing but create a void in which Kaii could eliminate all but one of her men.
With time running out, Kanna rushes to create a new plan. "Get rid of the smoke dammit!"
"Got it." The single remaining shinobi confirms, creating the hand seals for a basic wind jutsu, which he releases on the smoke revealing Kaii directly in front of him.
Kaii's form has changed again, his skin is scaly and has grown darker to match his grey sclera. His hair is now fully stained onyx black and it has grown to a messy medium length with spikes defining the messiness. At either side of the back of his head just behind his ears, four horns protrude between his hair and share the same colour as his scaly skin. A dark aura rests closely to his skin, barely visible to the naked eye but to a shinobi, it's akin to a thin chakra cloak. His actual cloak falls to the floor, exposing his worn out long sleeved coat, which has a deep crimson tint from the amount of blood he's soaked up.
"What the hell are you!" Kanna shouts at the boy, her speech riddled with fear just like her whole demeanour.
"Kudou Kanna, this boy is a Rakuyama… though I wouldn't expect you to know of them, but I shall regale you with their tale. They are the only clan in shinobi history to forge an everlasting bond with one of the sage regions, and as such, I entrusted them with a gift that only they could carry the burden of." The same sinister voice escapes Kaii's maw, his own nowhere to be heard. "This child, when he awakes shall cause untold carnage… but I believe I've had my fill in his stead." He holds his arms out to the sides, gesturing to the horribly disfigured and limbless bodies that surround them. "Rakuyama Kaii, take ahold of your consciousness and rid the world of thine enemies!"
For a moment, Kaii's eyes fall shut and his body falls to its knees. At the sight, Kanna laughs thinking she's outlasted the boy's sudden power increase and that her day's trails have come to an end. With a slow exhale the kunoichi returns her attention to Anko… or at least she will if she's able to find her. The poison should have killed her or at the very least made it impossible to recover from the first poison. Slightly angered at the lack of a hostage, she sighs and looks to where she left the large snake, but he too is gone along with the crimson bubble he was in.
Seeing his boss about to blow with anger, the subserving shinobi asks for an order. "Kanna-sama, what do you want me to do?"
"Find them while I kill the boy, I can't have him get back up after the first display." Kanna seethes, strutting over to the boy with her tanto visibly shaking in her hand.
A solemn nod of acceptance comes from the shinobi before disappearing in a cloud of thick white smoke. With nothing else standing in her way Kanna crouches next to Kaii's kneelings body. He shows no signs of life as the kunoichi grabs his slightly longer hair, pulling his head in all directions to take a look at his face. Her anger turns into a sadistic smile as she brings her tanto to his throat, the blade resting carefully on the boy's neck. In the next second two things occur, first being the blade running across Kaii's neck creating a small waterfall of crimson from the shallow wound, second, the shinobi returns with Anko under his arm. The man smiles as he places his captive down before holding her head up to watch as her genin's blood runs down his front.
Anko's eyes widen, her mouth starts to quiver as she can do nothing but watch her genin die right in front of her. Kanna lets go of the boy's thick black hair as blood spits out of the wound and stands herself up to look to her shinobi. Her smiles only widen as she sees her other prisoner prime for their death. A simple gesture is enough for the shinobi to hold up Anko's head to reveal her throat. With a deep sense of pride, Kanna methodically paces over to Anko, her blade still stained with the crimson blood of her first kill today.
"Dear Anko, I'm glad you have finally broken. It makes this moment so much sweater for me personally, I mean it's not every day you make a famous kunoichi shed a tear, is it?" Kanna laughs maniacally at the very notion. "Take one last look at his corpse before I finish you off, would you?"
Reluctantly, Anko is forced to look at the boy's body, but instead of the crimson waterfall that once ran down his front, there's no blood other than the drying blood on his coat. For a second the shinobi looks to Kaii too but misses this small detail as he continues to hold up Anko's head for his boss. The still dripping tanto is brought up to Anko's throat and is placed in the exact same place as before. Just as Kanna readies to slice the kunoichi's throat, a black snake quickly lunges at her from her periphery, an attack she barely dodges ahead of landing next to Kaii's body.
The next moment is filled with confusion and blood as the second Kanna's feet touch the ground Kaii roars awake, his eyes shoot open and a thick wave of chakra explodes from the boy's body. The wave sends all in its path backwards with the force of a thousand men, burning all who come into contact with it with Kanna taking the brunt, her skin smouldering at the exposure. The force propels her across the room and into the far fall, her body making contact with a deep crack before she falls helplessly to the floor. All others in the room were far luckier, Anko in the last second had the assistance of Yuta who coiled around her to protect her from the force but the heat still seeped through causing minor burns. The last shinobi suffered a similar fate to his master, as the wave passed him creating a few minor burns while pushing him into the wall behind him and along with it until the wave loses its strength.
Kaii's roar eventually dies down, his mental state becoming somewhat stable as he rises slowly to his feet. The black chakra coating around his skin flows around like water as he takes slow steps in the direction of Kanna. Watching from the sidelines, Yuta takes in every detail of his partner's new state… his true state while he uncoils his body from Anko who also looks to the slowly advancing genin. For the first time, she takes in Kaii's new appearance, his new wealth of power that emits from him for all, even non-sensors, to feel. The longer she watches, the more a feeling of worry and fear starts to settle into her soul. This feeling is one she refuses to ignore and begins to try and move her body, yet her limbs refuse to cooperate with her. Even with the feeling returning it means she still has to sit and watch while a genin faces an easily A/B-rank Jonin missing-nin.
The young Rakuyama stops just shy of three meters away from the missing-nin, shaking his head before looking at Kanna's slow rise. "Yuta… kill the shinobi." His own voice returns, but it has changed, it's no longer a young and innocent tone but one filled with malice and bitterness. "Anko-sensei… are you okay?"
Yuta hisses in agreement as he slithers away from the kunoichi towards the shinobi, Anko, however, cannot take her eyes off of her student. "I've been better, but what the hell happened to you?"
"I… don't know. I heard a voice and then… it all became blurred." Kaii returns, resuming his stride to the now kneeling Kanna. "One thing is clear though… this woman deserves death above all here."
The kunoichi tires to crawl away, using all of her remaining strength to power through the pain of her second-degree burns. Kaii slowly and methodically follows her, taking each step with great precision as to not disrupt the crimson pools at his feet. The slow chase goes on for a good minute as the sound of screaming from the last shinobi echoes around the room. His death rattles creating the backdrop for the missing-nin's last moments. Another minute elapses before Kanna reaches a door, a door leading out of the room and into god knows where. She tries to reach for the handle, hoping she can escape with her life intact, but it is not to be. The void like chakra that surrounds Kaii travels along his arms and down to his forearms where it begins to shape itself into a new form. That form resembles a snake or at least an ethereal one made solely of chakra. From the first snake forms another and another until it is akin to the Hidden Shadow Snake Hand jutsu.
The snakes act freely, edging their way to the fleeing kunoichi as one by one they coil around different parts of her body. Two find themselves around each leg and the same for her arms, stopping her dead in her tracks ahead of lifting her body up into the air directly in front of the still calm Kaii. They position her eye level with the genin, a sign of her defeat and a way for the boy to taunt her, or deal the final blow while maintaining eye contact. For a moment he allows time to pass, awaiting a response from the missing-nin, one he fails to get. Tired of waiting Kaii reaches out and takes hold of the woman's chin, moving her head from side to side to see the burns that now occupy most of her skin.
Kaii props her head up and with his other arm directs a swift strike into her gut, forcing her out of her broken state. She locks gazes with Kaii's, her eyes filled with misery and regret amongst many others as she looks to her own demise. Two further ethereal snakes form from the boy's chakra cloak, but unlike the others these form from two completely random positions on his body. The first from his lower stomach and the other from his right shoulder, both of which slither through the air to the missing-nins neck before making ready to strike. Kanna resigns herself to her fate and makes her final choice, that choice being to muster any remaining strength to spit on Kaii.
The act creates a sick smile on the boys face, one followed by two strikes by the ethereal snakes on Kanna's neck, ending her miserable life. Blood from the wounds begins to flow from down the woman's neck, some, however, course through the ethereal snake's bodies and deeper into the shinobi's dark chakra cloak. After a few moments, blood refuses to enter the ethereal snake's maws and as such they finally relinquish their grip on the kunoichi's neck, leaving only the marks from their fangs. The blood flows around Kaii's chakra cloak before eventually dispersing into the crimson pools below him.
As soon as Kanna's body hits the floor, Kaii's eyes roll up into his head and his chakra cloak fades. As a result, he falls backwards, landing hard in the crimson puddle, his consciousness once again no longer with him.
Konoha General Hospital Trauma Wing 13:38 | Monday 2nd April 13 aNb | Konohagakure
The hustle and bustle of Konoha's lone hospital fills every inch of the building, from caring for injured shinobi to the vast population of civilians. However, the top floor is reserved for extreme cases, injuries that if they were with others attending the hospital it could create all kinds of problems. It's known to the shinobi who are unfortunate enough to be taken there as the trauma wing and to the civilians as the shinobi wing as they've only ever seen shinobi enter. Though they've never seen many leave the place, yet it always has an intake of stretchers.
Just to the right of the lone stairwell that has access to the top floor, is the Third Hokage in his usual formal white robe and his Kage hat adorned with the kanji for 'Fire'. Accompanying him is a purple-haired kunoichi with a long tan overcoat, a fitted mesh body suit that goes from her neck to her thighs and an orange skirt. She wears a look of worry, though as to why is not evident to those who'd look upon her. The Hokage, however, dons a stoic outlook, puffing on his pipe as he stands idly seemingly awaiting something. That something soon makes itself known to the pair of shinobi by approaching them and bowing with the due respect. After a moment the woman finishes her bow and awaits a question or instructions. Her attire is that of a standard Konoha Chunin, but in place of a flak jacket is a white apron with a few splatters of blood and other liquids.
Hiruzen looks over the woman, a member of the Medic Corp. "Yaguchi Azumi, how is the boy doing?"
Azumi gestures for both shinobi to follow as she starts to explain. "I don't know Hokage-sama… the woman won't allow us to diagnose anything… we're lucky if she lets us even a metre near the boy. We've had to employ a seal array made by Jiraiya-hakase to dampen the killing intent she lets off when we try to enter. If it's not her it's that damned purple snake, near took my head off a few days ago, and I didn't even try to do anything that time."
The elder shinobi's hand twitches at the news, one he ignores but the two kunoichi do not. "I understand, please leave Anko and I once we arrive at the room. We shall talk to Kuroyuri-san ourselves."
A curt nod acknowledges her Kage's orders as they climb the stairs to the 'trauma wing' of the hospital. The two shinobi keep a small distance behind the medic-nin as she shows them through the hallways in the trauma wing. Medic-nin's fill the halls, each with varying degrees of blood down their fronts and in various moods as they tend to the some of the worst injuries since the last Shinobi War. However, with all of the blood and shinobi who rest injured, the ward is silent, nothing other then the medic-nin's themselves conversing in the halls can be heard. No screams of agony, no wails of pain and curses at the medics operating on them.
Hiruzen and Anko follow the medic-nin to a room at the furthest end of the singular hallway, the door itself has no room number or even the name of the patient on it. The two ninja share a look, both agreeing on Anko to take the lead as they push into the room. A long creak echoes as the door is pushed inwards which is soon joined by a slight humming of what can only be chakra use. The hum is then accompanied by a faint purple glow in the dim room as Anko opens the last few inches of the door. The room is sparse, basically empty other than a lone bed and chair next to it, a few medical monitors and machines but nothing else. Three figures can be seen in the room, one rests in the bed with a second sat in the chair in front of it while the last lies on the floor, coiled on itself.
"Leave us." Hiruzen's voice booms as he takes his first step into the room, leaving the medic-nin to close the door behind them.
With the door now shut, both Anko and Hiruzen feel a cold chill creep up their spines, their bodies stiffen as the chill reaches their minds. Both know the sensation well, but neither was expecting such a strong reaction from their visit. The lack of light creates little issue for the two as they inch closer to the bed and the three figures, one of which fixes its gaze onto them. Their eyes digging deep as its own killing intent lords over them, like a predator waiting for a reason to lash out. Though it's threat does little to stop either from approaching the bed, the first figure sprawled out on it with various pads and wires attached to him.
"Kuroyuri-san, how is the boy?" Hiruzen asks, his tone politer then most would expect from a Kage to those under him.
Kuroyuri turns to match his gaze, her eyes filled with sadness and rage. "He's stable, no thanks to that damned mission you sent him on. His seal, however, is broken..." Her words trail off into nothingness as she returns her gaze to Kaii's body.
Anko attempts to offer up something, anything but is stopped by her Kage. "Let the medic-nin's see to him, Kuroyuri-san. They could help if you'd let-"
"No one can help him but his own!" The elder Rakuyama snaps, her killing intent spiking as she does so. "I alone will see to his aid, and when I think he's ready to return to duty, then you can see him."
"Kuroyuri-san, he's not just your son anymore, he's a shinobi of the Leaf. You will keep me updated, understood?" Hiruzen orders, his own intent matching the woman's as to not be mistaken. "Anko-san, stay here for now. I believe you have something you wish to say anyway and I am needed elsewhere."
Before Anko can object to being left alone with Kuroyuri, Hiruzen disappears out of the cold room. Silence takes ahold of the room as neither shinobi look at or even near one another, only the snake, Risa, has her gaze firmly on Anko. The purple haired kunoichi tries to talk, but no words can find their way past a newly formed lump in her throat. Without her words, Anko feels useless and simply a burden to the one person helping the unconscious boy. The room keeps this scene for an entire hour as neither party wanted to start the conversation, though only one really desired to talk. As the time passes the ever-present intent wanes and retreats into Kuroyuri, her anger cooling leaving Anko feeling ever better and the lump finally diminishes.
"Kuroyuri-san, I-" Anko tries to speak, her words eventually finding their way out before she is cut off.
"How?" Is the lone word that quiets the room again, yet that one word conveys a heart full of emotion.
Anko recoils slightly in confusion, her mind not really clicking as to what she's being asked. "What do you mean, Kuroyuri-san? How, what?"
"How did this happen? Why was my son inches from death on your watch? How did you fail to protect your sole genin? That would be a start." Kuroyuri seethes as the chakra glow fades and the room slowly returns to darkness.
The words carve themselves into Anko's mind, slowly and methodically repeating in her mind as she tries to come up with the answers asked of her. "I… I… I failed you Kuroyuri-san. The target was listed as a C-rank, but well someone gave crap intel and turns out she was a shinobi. I was worried after his first real fight, he nearly died then and there. I contemplated retreating and going alone to find the target… yet I felt compelled to take him with me so I could watch him."
The woman stands from her seat and turns on her heels to lock eyes with the Jonin-sensei, her purple eyes burning with an intense passion. "A noble notion, Anko-san. Tell me how you failed to do so, hm? What stopped an A-rank Jonin, famed student of the Snake Sannin himself, from protecting a single genin from some trash missing-nin? From a gutter rat that can do no better than prey on bandits and civilians?"
"He wasn't thinking and rushed in. I can only do so much Kuroyuri-san, I'm not Hokage-sa-" For the second time, the Rakuyama refuses to allow Anko to finish.
"That may be the case, but you knew full well what would happen if he experiences such stress this early. You knew this would happen and even with that, you allowed him to, not once but thrice, face the razor's edge of death. The seal shattered because he had no other option, so tell me how you let that happened? I care little for anything else." The kunoichi's eyes shift, her pupil contorting from the norm to slits.
"Poison… I was poisoned when I let my guard down to check on my him and his partner." Anko answers with her head hung low to the floor, not wanting to look her student's mother in the eyes.
"Ah, so he failed to build your resistance to that of a snakes then?" Kuroyuri's tone changes sharply, the once venomous anger turns to intrigue. "Perhaps Koshiro-sama was wrong about that man's power and foresight."
With the room returning to normal, Anko breathes easier, pushing away her failure as she uses the stressless environment to ask a question of her own. "Who's Koshiro-sama?"
Kuroyuri ignores the question for a moment, electing to continue her own train of thought. Running the thought back through her mind over and over, wondering what Koshiro saw in the Snake Sannin even after his acts became public knowledge. Why his power was always considered legendary to the clan head and why such foresight was to be followed like the word of a Kage.
After a minute or so, Kuroyuri looks to Anko and crosses her arms. "He's the leader of the Rakuyama clan and currently the protector of Ryuchi Cave and it's secrets. To put it simply he's answers to the White Snake itself. Oh, and he's my father."
The conversation dies down, both processing the information they have gained. With silence now taking over for a good half hour, the room resting in a void-like state as neither have anything to add or to say. Another six minutes pass with Kuroyuri resting back in her seat and Anko stood next to her, the two back on cordial terms now that everything is in the open. Though Kuroyuri would never admit it, she feels at fault for Kaii's affliction, her refusal to explain the seals in their entirety to the boy even if it is clan mandate to do so.
Out of nowhere, Kuroyuri performs a set of hand seals and upon their completion places her hand over Kaii in the style of a medical ninjutsu. The same chakra glow returns with it flowing out of her hands and into the boy's body at a steady pace. Anko simply watches on while taking in every detail of the jutsu the Rakuyama is performing, like what purpose does the chakra have and is it the same as the ritual Kaii performs on himself before training?
Before either question can answer itself the boy moves, his eyes sluggishly open and his form rises up from the bed with help from his arms. He looks around the room, resting his gaze on his mother then Anko and finally Risa who unlike the others gives him a look of annoyance. Mostly for wasting her time worrying about him when she could be doing nothing and lounging on her favourite sofa.
"Okaa-san? Anko-sensei? Where am I?" The words leave Kaii's mouth
lethargically with his gaze landing and staying with his mother.
"You're in Konoha Kaii-chan, you've been unconscious for a while now and we weren't sure you'd ever wake up." Tears fill the Rakuyamas eyes and all the anger she held inside vanishes. "Don't move too much, we don't know exactly how well you are."
To the surprise of the two kunoichi and snake in his presence, Kaii runs a hand through his onyx hair while flinging his legs off the bed. "I'm fine Okaa-san, I promise. Just a little confused at what happened and how I got here. Last I can remember is the barracks of Kudou Kanna's hideout… and… and the de-dead bodies each stained a deep crimson." Kaii's features change, his mind reliving the events again as he hunches over and stares blankly at the floor. "I nearly died..."
Kuroyuri rests a hand on the boy's shoulder while also lending her reassuring intent to ease his pain, her own head sinking until her gaze locks with the floor. The two share the moment as the boy tries to see past the images ingrained in his mind and push forward. However, Anko keeps back and lets the Rakuyamas be, having already done what she can and failed horribly to prevent it. The embrace continues for a few moments with Kuroyuri breaking the embrace to look her son in the eyes. Seeing his head still sunk she places a hand on his cheek, moving his head up to face her own.
"Hush now little one, Anko and I will make sure it never happens again. Now, please turn around Kaii-chan and show me your back." A level of cheerfulness emits from Kuroyuri as she whips a fresh tear from the boy's face.
Unable to look away Kaii concedes and pushes himself off of the bed before he turns around. The elder Rakuyama scans his back, looking for the first time in detail at what scars he could have obtained. Unlike his front, there are none, no slight scratch, no entrance wound from a projectile. It's completely fine, but that concerns the kunoichi as if his seal broke his back would have extensive burns all around the upper part and slightly less severe ones on the lower half. The seal, however, has changed, just like before when he gained control over a portion of the seal, the rest has changed to mimic the first quarter. Once two seals they find themselves intertwined and 'complete', much akin to her own seal.
"Anko, tell me something." Kuroyuri voices, gaining the attention of the kunoichi who silently chastises herself for being unable to help. "What did you see when Kaii… well, you know."
The secretive tone the woman takes concerns Anko slightly. 'Can keeping the boy in the dark help him?' her mind's questions as it searches for the answer but ends up failing to yield anything. "It was in the report, the one you read, Kuroyuri-san."
"Then he's ready to be released, train him just as hard Anko-san." Kuroyuri's words distract from their true meanings, he's not ready but she cannot reverse what's been done. "Kaii-chan, when we get home we need to talk, okay?" Anko nods to the kunoichi before sending a smile towards her genin as she quietly leaves the small room, all while Kaii sighs deeply.
"Yes, Okaa-san." Kaii drones out as he full well expects a long lecture, one he really wants to avoid.
The sound of a slap resonates around the tiny room as Kaii holds the side of his head with newly formed tears in his eyes. "Don't sass me, Kaii."
If snakes could laugh Risa would be wailing at the scene before her, not an hour ago her master was enraged at her son's fate. Yet now she's openly joking and acting the same as usual. With that Kaii places his clothes on after picking them up off of a small table next to his bed, sliding each one on quickly as to get out of there as soon as he can. His mother rests in her chair as he does, thinking about how she's going to hide his true self while also explaining it to him.
Rakuyama Residence 21:02 | Monday 2nd April 13 aNb | Konohagakure
The two Rakuyama's land softly in front of their humble home, a small house nearest to one of the larger groups of training grounds. The elder of the two taking the lead and opening the small brown door with little issue as no shinobi lock their doors as it would be a fruitless endeavour. With the door, open Risa slithers off of her partner's shoulder and reverts to her usual size, glad she had a ride and didn't have to exert her own effort. She makes her way to the front room as both Rakuyamas follow suit, with the smaller of the two lagging behind slightly locked deep in his thoughts.
Kuroyuri immediately takes off her coat and sandals, prompting her son to do the same before they too slide into the front room to sit upon the sofa. By the time Kaii joins his mother Risa is already sprawled across the back lazily, her head resting idly while gazing at the boy. He takes up the seat at the end of the couch, sitting with his legs crossed up on the sofa before leaning back to mimic the snake and get comfortable. He waits patiently for his mother, though how could he not if what she said on the way home, he'd have died without her. The lack of memory of what she told him about, irks him to his core, only feeding off of his emotions and feeling of inadequacies.
It feels like an eternity to the boy before his mother finally takes her seat next to him. She takes a deep breath before turning her attention to him, a look of seriousness mixed with a wave of reassurance. The latter to help keep him calm for the upcoming talk.
"Kaii-chan, do you remember anything? I know you said you didn't… but I need you to dig deep for me okay?" Kuroyuri begins with the hardest thing for him to do, a task even she's worried could cause him to relapse.
Unexpectedly, Kaii feels fine and simply makes eye contact. "Nothing, Okaa-san." The surprise he gave her is hidden well. "Nothing, but the those I killed will enter my mind, will it last forever?" The boy's tone is emotionless as he asks a question of his own.
Kuroyuri's hearts skip a beat at the query made by her son. "Yes." She pauses for a moment as a long sigh exits her lips. "It'll never go. You'll see their faces every time you sleep or dream for even a moment. You just get used to it and in the end, you get over it… but it never goes."
The boy doesn't react, his aura, however, reacts for him as it darkness as if he's resigned to his future of sleepless nights. The two leave let an air of silence reign over the room for a while. Each collecting their respective thoughts, Kaii simply trying to repress the memories while Kuroyuri decides what to discuss next.
The elder Rakuyama settles on the topic, thinking it an easy transition. "Kaii-chan, do you know why you can't remember anything?"
"No, I don't Okaa-san." Kaii voices letting his head sink a little.
"I thought as much. I was going to let you know what your seal did at the Chunin Exam, as you know, but now is far more prudent. Kaii-chan, your seal ruptured and that is what caused your blackout." Kuroyuri chooses her words carefully, not letting the boy know more then she can tell him.
The revelation creates a small spark in Kaii, though it's completely suffocated by the shadows in his mind. "My seal… broke? Then how am I still alive, Okaa-san?"
"That would be because our seal breaking does not kill a Rakuyama, Kaii-chan. It's the power it contains that can kill us if we are not ready to use it. It holds back our true selves, to hide us from those who'd hunt us and allow us to grow into the power steadily." The elder woman explains steadily, taking a small break before she continues. "With the seal in its current state, you'll need to quadruple your training, understood?"
"Yes, Okaa-san," Kaii answers lifelessly, his mind still elsewhere as he picks himself up out of the chair and slithers over to the front door. "Okaa-san, where is Yuta?"
The woman follows the boy as he moves. "Upstairs in your room, I'm sure he'll want to know how you are… and if you need to talk Kaii-chan, I'm here as well." The last few words are slightly quieter than the rest, but the impact is there.
With that, the boy changes his plan and heads up the stairs. Once at his room he swings the door inwards to find a sleeping Yuta coiled up neatly on his pillow, his head resting neatly on the length of his body. Kaii saunters slowly over to the snake, sitting carefully on the bed next to the creature. The two stay like that for a while, Kaii knowing Yuta hardly gets much sleep as it is and if he's been out for as long as he's been told the poor snake must of only just got to sleep.
An hour in all passes before Kaii places a lone hand on the snake's thick black body, the coldness of the scales creating goosebumps on his arm. As his hand lays on the snake it begins to rouse. The warmth of his partner's body heat is what he needed to ease the worries Yuta's had of late. His eyes slowly open, the golden yellow irises scanning the boy next to him, checking for any discrepancies since he last saw him.
"Glad you're feeling better, Kaii." Yuta hisses quietly, still waking from his slumber. "I expect you are eager to get busy, would I be correct?"
Kaii just nods as he mentally prepares to leave. Yuta uncoils himself while he waits, slithering over the bed to the windowsill and with no difficulty opens the window. Now ready, Kaii hops off of his bed to pick up his weapons, which during his stay in the hospital had been left to rest on his desk that stands in the corner of his room. Both tanto's and the kusarigama look freshly maintained, no doubt his mother knew he would want to get right back to training after leaving the hospital.
He sheathes them quickly and leaps across his room to the windowsill before waiting for his snake partner to shift to his smaller self. Yuta, after only a moment, is now resting on Kaii's shoulder as the boy launches out of the window with a great amount of vigour, happy to be back to what he likes doing. The air rustles his hair, the rush of running over the rooftops empties his mind of all of his memories, if only for a moment. After an hour of simply exercising over the top of Konoha, he finally changes his movement from least effort to maximum effort and heads towards the training fields.