Black lightning.

She'd remembered it too late – the fact of exactly what Kaguya's will is, and how that connected to the Shinju, the corallians, humanity, and to the black Zetsu.

Sentient cancer.

Why hadn't she taken the time to piece it together before?

The shards of hatred… and a curse.

It wasn't her doing, or the Shinju's, not even the corallians could be directly blamed for the sorry state their world was in. Rather, it was because of the interactions between humanity and the corallians that the black Zetsu existed. It was because of the unresolved anomaly between the Shinju and Kaguya that the idea became pronounced to the degree that it was given a physical form.

And it was because that form was the manifestation of human hatred, of any human's hatred, towards the corallians; that so long as humanity existed, and so long as the corallians did too… the cycles would continue. There was no way to break it other than their own extinction, and that would require surpassing the Question Limitation… which in turn would destroy the entire earth and everything within its vicinity.

'No wonder this thing is so full of itself!' She thought bitterly to herself as their battle ensued a few miles outside of the desert-town, flashes of metal and light, chakra and trapars searing through the air and alternatively scorching, blinding, rushing about and laying waste to the immediate area in a truly chaotic and fearsome display.

Both of the teams that had been escorting Eien were having trouble keeping up, despite their best efforts. Kio's sealing jutsu was not fast enough, even with Miara's assistance, and Eien was uncannily predicting their efforts and moving at speeds too great for them to overcome. The black Zetsu seemed eerily focused on her alone, responding to their attacks only in order to defend itself or evade them. Temari and Shikamaru were working with the second team and their own subordinates on alternative plans, and only at one occasion was their charge nearly sealed. At that time, Eien displayed a strange time-lapsed teleportation technique that may or may not have been an illusion. One thing was certain about it: she still was not using chakra.

Throughout the battle, Eien and the black Zetsu's interactions made it clear to them that it was attempting to manipulate her. She had taken the bait, but was not yet at risk for being truly lost to them, so far as they could tell. In fact, that possibility seemed rather far off, considering the sheer level of rage and bloodthirstiness she was displaying in attempting to annihilate the thing. Fortunately, Eien was keeping her wits about her enough not to put the local town or anyone else in the area at risk, her fellow Union members included.

Her ability to battle so fiercely with the black Zetsu was due to an interesting new ability that had manifested itself after the thing appeared. A full-body armor of white scales, hard as diamonds, had covered her entire form. Shikamaru had called her off; told her to stand down as soon as the armor showed itself, he could tell that she'd been riled by its words. But she'd chosen to ignore him, and proceeded to attack.

She was slipping right through it, as if the woman may as well be made of water. 'Diamond?' Impossible, she wouldn't be able to move with armor that hard. There had to be weak points.

The Kazekage flexed his hand, sand searching and prying along her form as she continued to move and struggle while enveloped in a rushing mass of his sand. She would free herself soon enough, it was only because he kept the sand moving that she hadn't broken through it yet – the sheer force was giving her trouble. 'Almost…' she might be predicting what he was trying to do, and the continued movements weren't making his efforts any easier. 'Almost…' a tendril of the stuff found an opening between two of the armor's scale-plates, near the bend of her left elbow. 'There,' he bent his fingers inwards, though not as much as he'd usually done earlier in life.

'That…!' Eien was surprised that he actually broke the skin.

In the white-noise, battle-focused state her mind was in, she could tell exactly how much blood was being lost, and at what rate. The corallian clusters within her immediately relayed information to her mind about precisely where and how severe the puncture was, the best courses of action, any risks for disease or infection, and so on. She had them focus on exactly where his sand was, it had entered into her bloodstream but was too heavy to move away from the centralized area of the wound. Pressure closed around her left arm, the same tendril that had also found its way between her armor was now holding onto her to prevent escape.

In 1.714933 seconds, he could form the sand and seal her within it using the Sabaku Sōtaisō. Kio and the Nara both, as well as additional shinobi from the second team and in the area would then strengthen it with their own seals. They would not mess around with her this time.

But the black one would remain. And they had no idea what it was capable of… not even she knew.

She closed her eyes and focused, scanning for it's whereabouts as time slowed for her though it continued to whittle away. '1.519 seconds remaining… 1.32 seconds… 1.07 seconds… rate of sealing jutsu completion increased… revised 0.719 seconds remaining…' the clusters updated her as she mentally scanned her surroundings, a form of sensory ability unique to corallians and their humanoids alone, post-Shinju that is. She was not able to move any quicker in this state, but it did allow much more time for her to process things. 'Revised 0.452 seconds remain, threshold eminent!' Just then, it revealed itself – fifteen meters behind him and a group of shinobi, the kuroi was making its way around to use what would have been a blind spot after the Kazekage sealed her. 'Damnit,' Eien grit her teeth and rushed into overdrive, pushing energy into her legs and arms to rip through the dense layers of sand. Head tucked and arms folded in front of her, she pushed against it as hard and fast as she could, knowing full-well it would seem like she was rushing the Kazekage himself.

She exploded at the last instant with a force entirely unpredicted by any of them, even considering what they knew of her abilities. The sheer force with which she escaped and the drama of the situation only served to heighten the perceived threat. The Kazekage flexed sand immediately, shoring up defenses upon himself while also moving the sands behind and ahead of her to attempt to grab Eien again. The nearly-formed pyramid fell away as he allocated chakra to increase the speed of the sand coming after her. She passed overhead, just fifteen centimeters between her and the closest bunch of the stuff.

Eien stopped short, just a few meters behind them, and the tendrils caught up to her; wrapping about her form as her struggle to escape completely disappeared.

That was when they saw a blade had manifested itself, held in her left hand and piercing a partially-manifested portion of the black Zetsu's side. They hadn't seen it before she flew over them – the fact that she'd formed the weapon so quickly was unnerving. She could have easily killed someone without any resistance, had she truly been their enemy. The black Zetsu pulsed and retracted from her sword, disappearing into thin air. Eien made a motion as if she were going to continue to hack away at the vanishing thing, but her arm caught – sand was pushing its way deeper into her initial wound.

She paused and attempted to crane her neck back towards their direction, though not so much as to cause further concern to the Kazekage or shinobi present. The man tightened his hold, and raised columns of sand around her. It wasn't enough to hurt her, there was no need for that, but rather his intentions were being spoken crystal-clear to her. 'Stand down,' that was what she'd been told to do. That was why they were all here… though it wasn't his original reason for coming out.

The message had said something about a vision, the possible influence of the black Zetsu. It was entirely possible that it had wanted her to do this. It was possible the thing had influenced her. And even more than that, there was the possibility that she was acting of her own accord – that Eien had directly disobeyed their agreement.

Her hand released and the sword dropped, falling apart into white flakes as it fell and hit the dry earth below. "You let it get away," she told them impassively.

It was Kankuro who spoke up first, fluster and a texture of sass for her lack of self-awareness splintered into his voice, "Yeah, Eien, you were told to stand down."

"I had to defend-"The country's shadow-lord cut into their exchange, "That is a direct violation of our agreement, and the reason you were trusted to come here."

Her eyes caught, though they weren't clear – something within them was not the Eien they'd been spending time with. Socializing with, learning, training, working together… and yet it was the Shinju that wanted her to do these things, according to her own statements. Was that really the truth? Or had it been using her?

"You don't know what it's capable of-"she began to which Gaara interjected again, "The same is true in what we understand of you," only to have her cut him off once more, "It could have razed Suna to the ground," that was more than an exaggeration.

The black Zetsu had gotten to her. It was toying with her, for what reasons they did not know. But the fact stood that there had been no other instances in their world that might have been due to the black Zetsu's influence. It wasn't focusing on anything but her, and due to the fact that her being was so closely tied into the Shinju, the present dilemma made Eien more of a concern than anything. If the black Zetsu succeeded in manipulating her, perhaps even taking control of her if that were possible, then there was no telling what it would do or where it would stop, if it could be stopped.

On top of that, Eien had completely missed anticipating what the thing's intentions were. 'Shinobi cannot afford to have their emotions present in the heat of battle,' this was something she'd completely disregarded. And she had intentionally crossed a line by engaging in a fight with it, per her agreement with the five Kage and the fact that Shikamaru had been entrusted as one of their officials over her.

Gaara's sand still held her in place, but Eien turned slowly, and she was now nearly facing them. He only allowed it because the sheer effort with which she turned her body would have forced him to either lift her off the ground or increase his hold on her to the point that it would have crushed a few bones. This wasn't the first time she'd displayed such a high and sudden incease in raw physical strength, and her lack of struggle to escape further made it clear that Eien, or something within her, truly and simply wanted to turn to face them.

He'd begun to say something about the fact that while the black Zetsu was a threat, it was not so great of a threat to validate her actions. The Kazekage was completely calm as he attempted to reason with her. She threw them for one more loop when her emotions truly got the better of her, if they were Eien's emotions anymore.

"You don't know!" her voice had raised into a shout, seeped in anger and frustration – and was it a hint of fear they detected in there as well?

His face barely registered the surprise, and then the Kazekage's blank eyebrows furrowed. She could tell by the very slight movement of his skin, even hairless as it was; human instinct remains human instinct. "Eien."

It was just a statement, and though her name might have sounded soft compared to the verbal outburst she'd just attacked him with, she could tell the emptiness following his spoken word had been intentional.

Upon noticing the shinobi's responses behind him, faces painted with indignation and rage, Eien turned her face away. She recognized she was in the wrong. The Kazekage held his glare on her for a moment longer, before turning to the shinobi that had accompanied him out of the village. "Return to Sunagakure at once," he began, "Let them know the situation here is under control." He'd specifically faced one jounin in particular to trust with that message. That person bowed, "Right away, Kazekage-sama," before taking off with her team. A couple others lingered a moment, some eyeing Eien or even the Kazekage himself before taking off. One woman in particular, with dusty-brown hair and matching eyes opened her mouth as if to say something, but seemingly thought better of it and made her way back with the rest of the teams.

Eien remained bound with only him, the siblings, and the teams that had accompanied her.

Once the sand-shinobi were all out of earshot and sight, they readdressed the situation.

"Why is the black Zetsu trying to manipulate you?" He began plainly.

Eien took a couple moments to think about it, perhaps calming herself too. He hoped she was, anyway. "I can't be certain," she began, "but…" No, she didn't want to admit it to herself. That she was a threat to them. He could tell from her visage, Eien was caught somewhere between her relationship with the Shinju and the rest of the shinobi world. She was struggling.

He waited to see if she might figure out what to say next, keeping up his own apathetic appearance as always. 'She can't be…' The thought began, and the realization that followed it hit him like a train. 'She's bound by guilt,' the same thing that he had faced in relation to his village. The same reason he still faced difficulty, he still faced assassination attempts, he still faced trouble in coming out of his shell, socially speaking anyways. Of course, as Kazekage, that didn't matter. What mattered was what he did for the village, what mattered was how well he performed in that station.

The similarities to that station and the one Eien held, as an emissary to the shinobi world from the corallians, were uncannily similar in some aspects. 'But that would require her to perceive their feelings as her own,' and there, that was where it made sense that she had disobeyed Shikamaru's command.

She hadn't done it to offend them. She'd done it because the black Zetsu may also be affecting the corallians, and if that were true, Eien represented a double-feedback loop. What happened to her would be perceived by them, to some degree, and their responses would be fed back to her. Thus, antagonizing certain trigger-areas may be all it takes to set them off.

He closed his eyes, not sure that this was the case. Before he could open his mouth, Eien spoke.

"It may be that it's trying to seize a level of influence on certain parts of the corallians." She wasn't certain of this, or whether the kuroi truly was truly capable of doing it to the degree she feared. The theory was unnervingly similar to the Uchiha's level of influence on the corallians. And if she was right, this was why the corallians feared humanity.

Eien returned her face to meet his eyes, now open that she'd said something. She didn't want to go too much farther into the possibility of it, but… he needed to know what may or may not be the case.

Another few moments passed, and he decided to bring her into Sunagakure.

Temari was surprised, though her years of experience with the younger brother made her more mature in responding to the initially preposterous idea. "Gaara," she began, insinuating at the response the village would have to this course of action. Kankuro wasn't too pleased with the idea either, but he didn't verbalize it. The Kazekage only said something to the effect that now that they'd dealt with the problem at hand, there shouldn't be any more concern, especially considering they'd be safer to keep her in the village than outside of it.

He was referring to Eien's dedication even in the midst of that battle-raged state, to not harm anyone besides the black Zetsu. It would also be easier for them to deal with the black Zetsu if it appeared to antagonize Eien within Sunagakure than it would be outside of it.