I smile; it's something that drops them into combat stances. Can't imagine why as I'm trying to look friendly. I'm cheery as I explain my needs, saying, "I'd like to talk to the Hokage. These people need medical attention." You'd think I threatened to eat their children. Not taking his eyes off me one reaches for a little bell and rings it, bringing the captain out of the hut. He looks at me, gives a start, looks at Anko, gives a shudder. Shikamaru and Anko were supposed to bring me in. I bring one in on a stretcher.
He thinks visibly then nods me in, saying warily, "Go right up. I don't think that Hokage-sama is busy at the moment. But if you'll wait a moment…" He skirts me as he moves past, being polite but wary. I check myself mentally. Blood drying on my hands, being followed by a man with puncture wounds over his heart, another woman who was supposed to bring into custody is on a stretcher, and I think I'm smiling with too many teeth. I make an effort to rein it in. He talks with Shizune quietly for several moments, glancing at me, then goes back into his little hut. A small gong sounds and a squad of ANBU appears, quickly taking up a triangle position around me. Am I really that scary?
We split up, the crowd dispersing again, the wounded going to the med center, then Shizune, my guard, and I climbing the stairs. As the crowd gets farther away I try to relax, but the tense paranoia of the ANBU still keeps me a bit on edge. I can feel that little fire in my stomach growing bit by bit, second by second. I need a mission. I want to kill something. The ANBU draw back and put hands on weapons, so I make an effort to relax again. I smile at them until Shizune says dryly, "It doesn't reach your eyes." The smile slides into something else and weapons slide a centimeter out. There are anbu and then there are ANBU. We go up a little slower so that they can keep ready.
We finally get to Tsunada's office and are greeted by the wonderful sound of Shikamaru's voice. He's yelling; I'll bet that he's yelling about me. I am so not in the mood for this. At my frown my guards nearly pull their weapons, the guards on the door actually do. I give them a withering glare and they slowly put them away. Don't let anyone get the jump on you, but making a fight where there is none is just stupid. They're high-ranked but they're acting like amateurs. One of them lets out a sigh of relief when I turn my attention to the door. Amateurs. I loath amateurs.
Shikamaru is almost yelling, yelling about me. "… Like herself at all! It's too much of a risk to keep her here, not with her skill level. She can be replaced, there are better ANBU coming up the ranks, ones that actually work with their teammates." He has a point, a very valid point. I am, or at least I was, not strong enough to warrant execution and but not weak enough to be kept under control. It's traditional in this situation to send risks on an open-ended "last-mission". Either they come back or they don't; there are no hard feelings either way. "Besides, you told me yourself that she has an extra fucking rib now, and that can't be a good sign." Wait, what?
"Wait, WHAT?" The door hits the wall and swings back faintly vibrating. I didn't realize that I had moved. I've two knives coming from either side of my throat and something is pricking my back. I really should be more careful while under guard like this. Shikamaru is twisted back towards me, one hand on the desk and surprise written on his face. He jerks back into the corner and glares at me, hands-in-pockets sullen. He looks like a civvie teenager. Tsunade is rubbing her temples the way she does, so I suppose he was yelling at her close enough that it hurt. It'd give me a headache too. I walk forward and don't slit my throat. A gamble that they'd move, but a gamble I'm willing to make. "What are you talking about, an extra rib?"
"My headache in person. How sweet. Stop smiling like that; you look psychotic." She continues rubbing her temples, giving me a baleful red-eyed glare. Tsunade has been getting older and more tired the entire time she's been here. According to Jiraya, at least, it's because of Naruto. She was the one who decided to give him a last-mission and it's dragged on her. Not only was he most of the reason she even took the job, the council has given her shit for years for letting our greatest weapon and greatest enemy go, never mind that if he had stayed we might have driven him insane ourselves. She continues after taking an Advil, "You escaped the hospital, nearly strangling one of your guards with that trap, evaded ANBU for the entire day, and when Shikamaru finally found you he got ripped up and down both ways. Not to mention that Anko isn't here. What the hell have you done with her? Ino, do you know how much trouble you're in?"
I have to smile, for real this time. I've been thinking that the quality of ANBU has been going down in the past few years, which is probably has. Between Sound and Red Moon we've been in a cold war for a while now. Cold wars aren't good for spies or special forces. If they somehow managed to get nearly strangled by that little trap they've been getting crappier than I thought. "Not as much trouble as I'm going to be in. I don't think I should be the one to tell you." Her eyes slide to Shizune, who doesn't seem to be happy with the attention. She's still staying at the edge of my reach, where she can back off if need be.
She takes a deep breath and collects herself. She gnaws on her lip a bit, which is kind of cute, then begins in a calm and very reasonable tone, "Ino started to spar with Anko, nearly killed her before Chouji was able to interrupt, invented a new type of palm-strike, almost killed Chouji with it, but instead tried to dig out his heart before she noticed who it was." I feel like I should be fidgeting under that stare, but Tsunade thinks that it's funny in a black way. It's refreshing after all of that paranoia and fear. Speaking of paranoia and fear, the ANBU behind me is tensing up, actually breaking the skin of my throat a little bit. I really should be more nervous about that, but I don't think that he'll go through with it unless I bait him. "Anko seems to believe that she is now a genius in the way of Itachi, Orochimaru, or Hinata, and… I only saw half the fight, but Ino barely broke a sweat. We didn't stop her, she stopped herself with our help. Anko might be right. Both Anko and Chouji are downstairs in the med center."
Shikamaru is actually slack-jawed. For one, normally Chouji would have left the training area if either of us showed up. I feel obliged to explain. "I really wasn't meaning to kill her, you know how high-level sparring is, you just have to go all-out or there isn't any point to it. I didn't think that she was that… Well, fragile. Thought she was going to kick my ass actually, just wanted to get a few good hits in before I went. And, um, I was still a bit on-edge after my fight with Shika … So… Well, I was reacting without thinking. It really was an accident. He attacked me, I thought, and so… Well, I stopped when I noticed that he was just…" I let it trail off. I actually start fidgeting, at least until the knives cut me again. I push them off me with another glare. The ANBU back away fast, but go further into the room so they flank me at a safer distance. It's getting annoying to have all these paranoid bastards eyeing me, but I let the ones behind me stay because they aren't being nuisances.
She sighs and covers her eyes, making me feel like a kid caught with one hand in a cookie jar and the other spilling the chocolate milk. "So… She was more fragile than you thought, you didn't mean to, and you stopped when you noticed what you were doing. That sounds innocent." She gets up and stretches, making those huge breasts strain against the fabric, then scratches her ass. Tsunade isn't the most… Regal ruler we've ever had. Both the ANBU and, to a lesser extent, Shika seem distracted by the show. Fucking amateurs. I trip the one directly behind me when he takes the point away, which gets me two kunai pressing into my throat, but it's worth it. I can turn my laugh into a cough, but I can't suppress the cat-with-the-cream grin. She waves off the ANBU and stalks around the table, getting right in my face. "It's about as psychotic as you've been acting just now, but basically innocent. So, why did you escape the hospital and end up in a bar? Just want to go shopping? There were no sales so you needed a drink? Oh, and Ino? STOP FUCKING SMILING LIKE THAT." The last is delivered with a poke to my chest, which is pretty funny when her boobs are pressed up at me like that.
I take a breath or two so that I don't break out laughing, then try and explain again. "Er, yeah, a bit. You know that I've had a lot of missions these past few years, barely time enough for our little fights and ANBU training, so I've got a lot of pay built up without having spent any of it…" One eyebrow is twitching and a vein has softly started to pulse. I speed up a bit. "Long story short, I've no clothes and haven't even been to a party in two years, I only get invited lately through Shika and nobody was risking a break-up during an event…" The look on his face is… Thundercloud doesn't describe it. His hands are shoved so far into his pockets that he's going to break his belt.
Trying to not laugh in her face, I continue again. "Um, yeah, I need new clothes if I was going to revive my social life, but there was nothing I wanted, so I had nothing to do, so I-," can't let in that I gave up to the crowd, Yamanka who do that aren't stable– "I had nothing to do, and I needed to think, but didn't want to think, and the bar seemed like a good place to do that, and well, it seemed like a good idea at the time… After that, I kinda needed to cool off, and a spar seemed like a good way to do that, so…"
She's getting more and more flushed the more I go on; her eyebrow is a metronome and it looks like that blood vein is going to burst. The ANBU have been backing away slowly the entire time I've been talking. Shizune hasn't been that subtle. She'd have put a blast shield up if she was able. Tired and hung-over oba-chan might need protection against the big bad Ino. Pissed oba-chan can finish what she starts. "A GOOD IDEA AT THE TIME? You're waiting for a debriefing after surviving a fight with two of the most deadly people in the fucking world, so you go SHOPPING, DRINKING, AND BRAWLING? What the FUCK were you THINKI-"
I can't stop it this time. I can't keep it in. Sure, she's going to hit me, but she's just so damn CUTE when she's angry. I laugh so hard I cry; I actually fall against the doorframe. I catch sight of the ANBU team that escorted me up here cowering behind the desks of the door guard/secretaries. The wrath of the bimbo-queen is coming, flee for your lives! Everyone is staring at me like I'm fucking crazy, and maybe I am. She looks absolutely pole-axed and that sets me off again. "Are you done yet? Need a shot to help calm you down? Or do you just think that this little situation is funny?" Her anger has gathered again, the flames of rage barely held back by a wall of icy restraint. With a herculean effort I calm down and get back up, still letting out giggles every once in a while.
She's just getting angrier by the second and everyone else is wondering whether survival is worth their dignity, if they should just jump out the window before she finally blows up and destroys the entire building. I still think that it's funny as hell. All their fear should bring me down fast, but it doesn't. Instead of sharing their emotions I instead just get a sort of suicidal recklessness. It doesn't help that the fire in my belly seems to be flaring up again. I can barely restrain it, but I make my best effort to be diplomatic. I lean forward, kiss her on that cute little diamond, and begin, "Sorry oba-chan, I –" move out of the way sliding like water just enough that I feel the wind on my ear and twist and grab and put my shoulder into her and I twist again taking her power her punch and slam her down into the floor with it and it tears like wet paper and I jump back before she passes through but still get to see the basement and I slide over the desk and they come after me holding kunai thinking me off balance and so I take one arm and I break it to prove him wrong and then use him to shield from the other and hit him on that special place in the chin he jerks back but I knew he would and it connects and his eyes dim and I turn and the other three are flying towards me and it's so easy to just move like this and twist like that and they go through the window sparkling glass so pretty so bright and dodge the shadow and grab his face and slam him through the wall feeling him loose unconscious and one left not moving not a threat and she isn't attacking, Shizune is too smart to attack me after I took out five ANBU and Tsunade.
I take a deep breath and step away, putting my back against the outside wall. Two faces appear in the broken window at about the same time a horde start spilling through the door. Tsunade leaps effortlessly out of the hole, holding out a hand to stop the ninja from attacking me. She waves them off, making them gradually disperse and leave. Shizune very slowly and very carefully comes out of that oh-so-neutral stance she had gone into, watching me the entire time. They both carefully check whoever is closest, making sure none are dead. Luckily, none are, though one is pretty well roughed up, in between me breaking his arm and getting stabbed in the other shoulder by his friend. Tsunada waves some of the remaining responders to bring them all down to the med center anyways. She carefully lowers herself into her chair, rubbing her lower back. Nothing is funny right now. I think I'm having mood swings.
"First off. You've been having violent mood swings, right?" I give her a grim little smile and a nod. She chuckles, "It's pretty damn obvious. Two, you're moving differently. Not like you have discovered a new style, it's more like you're working off an entirely different set of instincts. To be honest, it's making everyone that sees you nervous. Not to mention you kicked my ass with it." I give her another nod, this one with a grimace. My mind is mine. The dream showed it, but this confirms it. The very essence of me is being changed, already has been changed. "Third, you have an extra rib. One a bit oddly shaped, a bit like one of those teeth on Samehada… Am I right?" I remember him stabbing me. I feel my chest, she's right. It's there, touching it sends a deep tingle through me. It's not her though, it's not Samehada. I give her another nod. "That's the root for both of these, I'd bet my village on it. I won't, though. I've horrible luck. Tell me the story. Know that whatever happens, I've decided to let you leave. Coming back is optional."
"At the end of the fight… He… Stabbed me. He broke a tooth off and stabbed me." In the hospital, after, I had a dream. I was me in my dream, but not. Powerful. Beautiful. Alien." The tingle is spreading, strengthening. My voice is getting ragged, coming out almost in a whisper. I start walking towards her, staring in her eyes, letting a slight sway come into my steps. "I'm a Jinochuriki now, not like Naruto or Gaara, but more something like Kisame is. Not quite, though. He is bound to her, the bone woman, but me… I have someone else in me. It's someone who refused to die for a long, long, long time, and wants to live again." She's staring at me, following me with my eyes. The words are spilling from my mouth, the moves straight from my heart. I'm drawing her in, snaring her, scaring her.
"It's hungry, it wants blood, power, flesh, it wants them any way it can get them… I think I'm losing control." The tingle is more of a burn now, a low, slow, pleasurable burn, but still fire. I need to feed it. I slowly lean over the table, over her. I can feel her fear, her control over it. Turn me on. "I want prey. Powerful prey, worthy prey, dangerous prey… I think it's male, too. I've never wanted to do this before, after all…" I kiss her. Shizune probably has her hands over her mouth not to scream, that mix of shock and fear. I don't think Tsunade has been kissed for a long, long time. I think she's about to lose control. I bite her lip.
Her fist rockets towards me and I barely jerk back in time. Her hand is trembing near my ear and I turn to look at it, watching the vein pulse in her thumb. Her blood is hot and bitter, tasty beyond belief, but an edge of something different. "I changed my mind. Tell me why I shouldn't kill you." She's hoarse as well, not with fear. I reach up and slowly pry her fist apart, finger by finger.
"What some call demons other call gods. Gods can bring nightmares, but all bring…" I lick her palm, tasting sweet sweat mixing with the blood. Rot. The other taste is death, rot. I suddenly see her chakra, and underneath the normal, powerful blue glow is a black stain clinging to her blood and bones. I bite down and she loses control. The flesh between my teeth toughens and tightens, the dark rot coming to the fore. I feel like my chakra has teeth as I tear the darkness out and drink it down. Even before my teeth get there the flesh flays and splits, seeming chewed to the bone. Blood spurts, but it barely takes the edge off my hunger. The remaining flesh of her hand softens, age lines wiping away. I glance at her face, where she's looking more alive every moment. I draw off when the pulse weakens, leaving her looking a mere sixty, whispering against her wrist, "Wonders." Someone clears their throat in the doorway. Tsunade brings up her illusion before I turn, not letting her true self be seen. No, she's not rotting. An overripe plum, perhaps, sweeter and jucier than ever.
"Are we inturrupting anything?" Udon has a pale kind of handsomeness. He's actually quite good looking, if you happen to notice him, even though you forget it once he's out of sight. He has an air of ordinariness that has lead to the death of over a dozen ninja. He is talented and ruthless. He may become jounin next year.
"Niiice lipstick. What's it called?" Moegi, on the other hand, one can't help but notice. She's Well under way on her goal to become the most beautiful kunoichi and she knows how to dress to impress. She wears red lipstick, has large red circles around her eyes, red line tattoos running from the corners of her mouth, crossing to nipples showing under her red tube top, crossing again to the insides of her thighs under a red miniskirt, and finishing in a circle at her well-shaped ankles. Jiraya's influence is easily visible.
I swallow a mouthful of thick, sweet blood. My voice is low and throaty when I whisper, "Blood red." I lick my lips clean and smile, watching her as she pales. Beautiful. I turn my attention to the last member of Jiraya's team, of the Horny Brats, Konohamaru. He's got Naruto's charisma and Jiraya's charm, and twice the style of either. Alone among the trio he wears the horned headband that is half the reason for their name. The other half is that Konohamaru is the biggest playboy of the town and neither Moegi nor Udon have much shame or self-control. In fact, you could call them exhibitionists and not be wrong. I grin at them, which makes them more uncomfortable than it should, and ask, "And why are you three here? Need another indecent exposure charge lifted? Public perversion maybe? Or just a standard criminal mischief?"
He draws back, an expression of shock and outrage on his face. "You wound me!" He exclaims, "It's been at least two weeks since any of us had any of those! Besides, we do work for Tsunada when there aren't any other Hokages in the area. Or diplomats. Or merchants. Or, uh, anyone who wants to see Tsunade." He laughs and rubs the back of his heads, managing to look both insufferably cute and handsome at the same time. "The point is," He continues, "We work for Tsunade sometimes. Currently we're delivering your victims." He steps aside and the world almost stops.
There she is, Anko. Even with ribs bound and a cast on, battered and so nearly broken, she's beautiful. Lovely eyes, wondrous pale skin, nice long curves… Pulsing at her throat, there's that knot of power. It seethes at her skin, almost bursting from her. I want to help it. I want to walk over and take her, stick my knee between her and press it into her core, caress those curves and make her cry out, make her throw back that lovely neck in ecstasy, baring it to me, and then… Then I would bite down and drink that power dry. Or I could just kill her. I will do whatever I need to do, no matter what it might be.
I can almost feel that soft skin, the quivers of her beneath my fingers, the smell of her hair, the taste of her skin, of her sweet copper-bitter blood and the rush of the power with it… I tear myself away, to Shizune. Nice, safe, weak Shizune, who only has a well of chakra on her forehead, which makes me want to… Again, I jerk myself away, my control a fraying string. This time my gaze settles on Konohamaru.
Maru is handsome, I have to admit. He's got a good body, an impeccable sense of style, and the right attitude. On the other hand… He breaks my mood when he tries to subtly flex and puff his chest out. I go from insane hunger to laughing so hard I cry without time to take a breath. It takes a minute but I collect myself enough to gasp something out. "There's a fat chance of that. I met you when you were just a snot-nosed brat, and while you aren't snot-nosed anymore… You're still just a brat." He grunts cutely and takes his headband off to polish the horns. He's a perfect picture of injured dignity, but doesn't quite pull it off. It's enough to set me off again.
"She's a Jinuchuriki." Shikamaru is in the doorway, standing in front of Anko. He has so little chakra that I barely even noticed him, to be honest. "It explains everything. The extra 'rib', why Kisame spared her, and her sudden… Feralness. Isonade eat chakra, and that's what connects the people that she's been... Whatever at. Anko has her curse seal, and both Shizune and the Hokage have their infuin." He's trying to hide it, but I think he's pretty put out that he doesn't have enough chakra to be interesting. I don't even get a twinge. "She probably reacts even more strongly because they are seals, making it easier for her to steal the energy. What do you think, Hokage-sama?" He hasn't looked at me throughout the entire speech, talking only to her. I don't mind, which I doubt is the intended effect.
"Sounds about right." Tsunade is still more than a little shell-shocked, her voice a bit thin. Understandable, I guess. When I ate that black stuff I think I took a decade off her age, which is enough to shock anyone. I think I can count on goodwill from that quarter, at least. Given a month I could get her no older than Jiraya. I let her see that I'm willing, licking my lips at her. "I think… That you don't have much control right now. And I don't think that being in Konoha will help, will it?"
I take a breath and try and ride the fire. I'm clamping down on it as hard as I can, nearly failing. It's true that I can barely control it. I think for a moment, then smile. "I can't fight this. When I woke up yesterday I could feel something, though I didn't realize it. It filled my chest, my ribs. Now…" I feel my eyes go half-lipped, staring at her. A burning point of light shines in a sea of darkness, the infuin swimming in her curse. I have to concentrate to see the "real" her. The smile tugs into a full-fledged grin. "I'm full of it. I AM it. Unless you can take out every sliver of bone in my body, this cannot be undone. I'm a Yamanka, an expert at fighting outside influences. I can't fight myself. I think… No, I should not stay in Konoha." They're all staring at me, uneasy and a little bit scared. Scared means pray to what's inside me. "Not until I learn to live with it."
"Learn to live with it?.. And how will you do that?" Tsunade has recovered from shock, and is now trying to hide everything beneath a mask again. Doesn't work when I can feel her emotions. I continue grinning, making her a stew of wonder, despair, and deva-ju. Naruto. I remind her of Naruto. I can almost see how it had gone when she released him. He would come in, clumsy, clueless, and laughing. As she explained what she was offering, what could happen, that mask would melt away, leaving something sadder, more determined, and infinitely more dangerous. No one ever saw him again. She, we, never saw him again. Nobody did. She doesn't want me to disappear.
"I'll find someone. A willing donor, a powerful one. There has to be at least one. Till then…" I pause, thinking how exactly to phrase this. Simple is best. "We've had a problem recently. I'll hunt criminal-nin." She simply stares. "I'd like the usual bounty put in my blind account, but I don't need any other support. What do you say?"
She squeezes her eyes shut for a moment, then sighs. "Fine. It's a standard last-mission anyways, I don't even need to write up any new paperwork. Just…" She pauses, her eyes glittering with tears. "Don't kill any allies and don't attract council attention. You've got two hours to prepare. When you come back… Come back yourself or don't come back at all. Everybody leave. I need a nap." She drops her head on her arms and is snoring in seconds.
I smile and stretch, muscle by muscle. I can feel everyone tensing behind me. "I'm gone." I jump out the window. Nobody follows me. I skip over the roofs, pausing only to grab supply scrolls from my apartment. I'm out of the city in minutes.