.: Fun fact about this chapter, I had to type it out one-handed due to a new injury I've received. I can't bend my fingers and I have lost feeling in two fingers temporarily. I'm just a mess at this point lol. I'm okay, tis just a flesh wound. I'm just glad it isn't my dominant hand :} :.

The Archangel of the Hidden Leaf

Chapter 24:

The Encounter - Origins of Project Archangel, Part 3

The overwhelming scents from the archangel cadaver were starting to get to Hikari before Akuma could show her more. Not only was a headache developing for her, but a small wave of nausea was also tampering with her salivary glands. There was no sense in pushing her to see what else he had discovered about archangels' bodies, so he escorted her out of the mortuary and took her to where her appointment was being held at.

After saying their goodbyes, Akuma returned to his office to finish his notes. He had to be ready to report to Onoki about his findings before setting out once again. He did not get to share his favorite part of the dissection with his sister, but he would make sure the Tsuchikage was aware.

After removing the head from the body, Akuma had taken time to thoroughly examine it by doing x-rays and taking it apart. The most interesting discovery from the x-rays was seeing two rows of normal teeth hiding behind the needle-like teeth sprouting from the oral cavity. After closer examination, he found that the needle-like teeth were forcing themselves between the roots of the normal teeth. To ensure the validity of the visuals, he spent almost an hour extracting the needle-like teeth and setting them aside to see the normal teeth inside. What was presented to him from it was the face of a normal human being. It awed him to see such a difference by just removing a monstrous feature.

His favorite part of the dissection, however, had to have been when he was examining the eyeballs. Every archangel he had seen so far in his life had eyes that were completely black in color. His first thought about it was the dilation of pupils. When an animal like a feline locked on prey, its pupils had the power to dilate as wide as their eye sockets. The only problem with his hypothesis was why and how the archangel's black eyes remained even after death. Certainly, if the lenses had lost their ability to stay stretched, that would force the pupil to shrink down to normal size? As it turned out, that was not the case at all.

He successfully removed an eyeball without damaging it and found an unbelievable sight. Half of the eyeball was black, and the other half was white. He snipped away the optic nerve from the white half and looked closer at the structure, but it was difficult to understand what he was looking at. What surrounded the pupil was supposed to be the iris, but…there was not one. That was when he decided to open up the eyeball to see what was inside. The lens could have given him answers because it contracts and expands, altering the size of the pupil to allow certain amounts of light to pierce the retina. If half of the eyeball was an entire pupil…Akuma wanted to understand how it was possible to withstand such extreme dilation.

Using a sharp scalpel, Akuma sliced the organ down the center of the line separating the black from the white. Fluid immediately leaked out, as to be expected, but as he opened it up completely, something shocked him. A tough sac-like object sagged out of the vitreous chamber, revealing not one lens, but two!

Baffled, Akuma sliced out the sac to get a better look. He had to use a microscope to inspect if what was presented before him was true or not. The black half of the eyeball had a large lens behind the cornea, and the white half had a normal-sized lens behind a cornea as well. But Akuma knew this anatomy made absolutely no sense; eyeballs had to have a retina to perceive light and therefore allow a person to see. In addition, he had snipped away the optic nerve from the white half when extracting the organ from the embalmed corpse.

But he remembered the sac that was inside the vitreous chamber. Slicing it open and placing it underneath the microscope, he tried investigating an outlandish possibility. In regular eyes, the vitreous chamber was, well, a vacant chamber. Why would something actually occupy the inside for archangels?

Unable to conclude what exactly the sac was, Akuma stored the contents of the eyeball for later inspection and traded it for the second eyeball that was untouched so far. He made sure to not damage it when he extracted it from the skull, but instead of inspecting its anatomy, he took out a small light to shine through the cornea of the black half. He searched for the second lens on the opposite side as the inside of the vitreous chamber illuminated red with light piercing through. But oddly enough, there was no sign of the second lens whatsoever.

When he took a scalpel to cut it open as well, he allowed the vitreous humor to leak out before cutting enough to split it apart like a clamshell. Just like the first eye, a sac-like object flopped out and revealed two sets of lenses.

That was when the realization hit him: That sac was the vitreous chamber. Fluid also leaked out when he cut into it. It had a firm membrane similar to the sclera. Putting a fragment under the microscope, he tried to magnify the surface of the inside to confirm his suspicions. The retina was made up of rod and cone structures that were responsible for interpreting light and conveying the signals to the optic nerve. Unfortunately, though, the microscope was not powerful enough to make out the tiny structures he was searching for. With a huff, he sat back and rubbed growing fatigue from his eyes. He knew he had to get a female specimen soon. He could check its eyes as well to see if these mysterious sacs and lenses were just a fluke he came across or actual genetic modification. If it was something that composed every archangel's visual organs, he wanted to know how they worked.

He thought about his late-night research the whole trek back to the cave. The medical shinobi had gone home to rest for a few hours to prepare for his continuation of the mission. After giving the Tsuchikage his up-to-date file on the archangels to look over, he told him what he would specifically compare the female archangel's features to. Onoki also thought the anatomy of the eye was most intriguing. Akuma figured that he would study the sketches of a normal eye's anatomy in contrast to the rough sketches of an archangel's eye.

It was not unusual for a kekkei genkai to be involved with special eyes. Akuma had never seen them for himself, but he knew about the existence of the Byakugan and the Sharingan. Their abilities were practically extraterrestrial. Who knew what other kinds of dojutsu were out in the world? Depending on how the archangels' operated, they could be placed in the same category.

Akuma moved faster this time around. He had left his pack up in a tree, and since it still had everything he needed in it, he did not bring anything with him when leaving the village. There was just a fresh stash of food pills he had hanging from his waistline. Whatever food was in the pack he would use to bait the trap.

Looking up at the starry sky, he could tell there was no sign of the sunrise appearing for hours. It was a good thing. Once dawn arrived, he had a feeling that another scout would appear in search of the next meal for the day. If one did, he would not follow it again, but he also did not want to be spotted laying the trap and become that meal. When the gaping mouth came into his view, he ascended the same tree as the previous day and found his bag still pinned into the trunk with a kunai. The leafy branches had kept it shrouded from any archangels finding it.

Suppressing a relieved sigh, he pulled down the pack and opened it to pull out the contraption he concocted. Its hinges softly squeaked as he unfolded it and grasped the attached chain before descending back down with the staling food Hikari had prepared for him. He had to find the perfect hiding place. It had to be somewhere not easily found and not where many archangels would congregate. The easiest way to kill a new specimen would be to injure it with the trap and then quickly execute the finishing blow. He would have preferred to spend the day observing archangels to see behaviors and potential routines to help him find a hiding place, but time was of the essence in this mission, so he had to act now.

Wandering away from the vicinity of the cave, Akuma stayed close to thick brush where thorns and thicket bushes were bountiful. The rocky terrain only had patches of grass sparsely dispersed in the area, but green leaves littered it plenty. He brewed a plan in his head until he was out nearly too far. He wanted to stay in a tree that was close to the cave, but if the trap was too far away, the commotion that would come with it would draw attention and spoil his plan. Turning around, he made his way back to the cave.

This is like a shot in the dark. I don't know where to put it, and if it doesn't work, then they're sure to avoid the trap next time, he thought to himself.

Returning his gaze back up the sky, he could still not detect any lightening occurring. He tried to relax; there was still enough time for him lay the trap. If it was going to take a little while, he would be okay.

Hugging the left side of the mountain now, Akuma slowly left behind the cave once more. More trees were clustered closer together in the area, resulting in more leaves littering the ground and fewer grass patches catching his eye. He finally just stopped walking and looked around, dissatisfied with his route. But he decided to throw in the towel before his nerves stressed him out too bad by laying the trap on the ground with its metallic spikes facing the heavens. His hands brushed leaves over top it to conceal its presence. Grasping the chain once more, he unwounded it from around his wrist and took the end to a tree to hook it in place. When an archangel was caught, it would try to escape, but the trap would stay anchored until he arrived to terminate it.

Before he could leave it, he pulled out the staling food and carefully laid it on top of the center of the pressure plate. It was not heavy enough to activate the mechanism by itself. He just hoped archangels ate more than just meat.

Standing up, he brushed his palms against each other to release any crumbs. But that was when his body completely froze, and his breath hitched in his windpipe. Only a few feet in front of him stood a snow-white body.

His heartbeat quickening and thumping harder in his eardrums, Akuma felt gravity increase on his body. It was an archangel. There was no mistaking the distinct skin pigment. His gaze darted around as his impending doom closed in on him with time. The first thing that caught his attention was the severely distended abdomen, a sign of pregnancy with a forthcoming birth. Like other archangels, this female wore no clothing. Her breasts were swollen for nursing. Her clavicles were protruding from a lack of muscle tone. But when he met her gaze, he was almost thrust backward.

Where was her face? Surrounding her thin frame was tangled black hair, but there was nothing else to be detected. No black eyes, no sharp teeth…

She…She looks like the cadaver, he compared, thinking back to the specimen after removing its teeth and eyes for inspection. He also remembered how half of the eye was white…with two sets of lenses.

Fully realizing what he was seeing, he noticed the biggest feature of the archangel was also nowhere to be seen: her wings. This thing…This creature…This woman…had caught Akuma in a trance. He went numb against his flight or fright senses. Nobody else in the world had seen an archangel without their kekkei genkai triggered. He was the first.

Having been standing for a solid minute in front of the mysterious human, the archangel tilted her head sideways. Had he not heard her approach? Now he was standing there just staring at her with widened eyes.

The fetus in her womb squirmed against the walls keeping it enclosed, causing the surface of her abdomen to visibly shift and reminding her why she approached the human. Any intruders had to die. That was how her kind survived. Recently, humans with shiny foreheads and wearing red garments had tried to invade their home, so they were hunted and feasted upon. It felt good to have a full stomach for once, but now they were back to scavenging for mere scraps day by day. To make things worse, her mate had not returned from a mass feeding, leaving her to fend for herself and her unborn child.

Now there was another human near their home – an intruder. But being up close to him, she found that he did not have a shiny forehead or red garments. In addition, he had avoided going inside the cave. So, was he really an intruder? She was not sure. "Who…" she vocalized.

The sound made Akuma gasp and step back. Did it just speak?! He never imagined the archangels knew language!

She paused at his reaction, but suddenly her unborn child served a hard kick that made her wince. Placing a hand on top of her abdomen, she took a breath as the pain eased. The birth was getting closer.

"Who are you?" she finally got out, her diction wavering with a speech impediment.

Akuma felt himself respire properly finally. Not only could she speak, but it was the same language he spoke! He just wanted to pull out his journal right at that moment and jot down the new discovery, but he dared not move. He was face-to-face with a murderous creature who was partly responsible for killing his comrades. The danger was still a massive threat against him. One wrong move and he could be dead. So much for having the upper hand in a one-on-one confrontation.

But at the same time, this archangel was heavily pregnant. He did not recall seeing any expectant mothers during both of his previous encounters with the horde. Perhaps pregnancy physically hindered them, or they were protected by stronger individuals. She was also not transformed despite his unfamiliar presence. There was no possibility that she trusted him, but she also did not seem threatened by him either.

Blinking, she watched as Akuma did not respond straight away. He instead carefully raised a hand to hold against his chest. "Akuma," he answered.

"Ah…kuma," she repeated back.

He smiled and nodded. He had hoped that the archangels had intelligence, and now he was seeing it was true.

"Who are you?" he asked, slightly extending his hand in her direction to indicate it was her turn.

Her blank stare momentarily concentrated on his signal before returning to his face. She was intrigued by his short hair and how many characteristics his face had. She was so used to the people in her kind having nothing to see that it was a foreign attraction to her. He was…different.

Placing her own hand on her chest as he did, she replied to him. "Tenshi."

"Tenshi," he repeated back. "It's a lovely name."

She parted her lips, not knowing what to say next. She did not understand the statement he made. Confused, she looked down at the ground between them. There were many tree leaves underneath a small pile of edible sustenance she did not recognize. No hint of red meat was present.

Akuma followed her gaze to his hidden trap. Since it was set, he wanted to keep it where it was, but Tenshi was putting his plan at risk. It was true that he desired a female specimen for his research. The one factor he did not consider, however, was if it was a pregnant female. Seeing the subtle movements in Tenshi's womb grew a pit in his stomach. His sister was more than likely with child as well. If something dire happened to her, he would be destroyed. Because of that cherished condition he considered himself fond of, the thought of Tenshi or another pregnant archangel falling for his trap came across as inhumane to him. The unborn was innocent in his research, so he decided to change his plans.

"Be careful," he warned her, kneeling down next to his trap and uncovering the metallic.

Tenshi stepped back and laid her eyes on the daunting spikes.

"It's okay," he assured her, slipping off the bait into his palm. He then stood up and offered his full palm to her. "Food."

Her eyes shifted from his hand to his face. Food? But there was nothing meaty about it. The fetus inside her did not care, though; it impatiently extended its legs fully, making Tenshi gasp aloud in surprise.

Akuma suddenly braced himself for her to lunge at him in a full-fledged attack. He would take her fangs into his forearm and drive the handle of his kunai into her jaw to free himself and escape. But her blank face only scowled in discomfort, not erupt into a mess of teeth with black eyes. He recognized the look of pain instantly. "Are you okay?"

Trying to breathe until the fetus relaxed, she placed both her hands on top of her abdomen where the pressure was greatest.

Akuma was not medically trained in any prenatal care. The only thing he had done was assist with two complicated cesarian sections in the past since he was a very skilled surgeon. Whatever was happening with Tenshi, he was unsure how to help. If she was going into labor, she might alert other archangels and then he would be in trouble.

The fetus relaxed after a few seconds, relieving Tenshi of the discomfort. This was her first pregnancy, so everything was new and unpleasant during it. But she always knew what her baby needed somehow. "Hungry," she said.

"Hungry? Here. Food," Akuma responded, extending his full hand closer to her.

She looked at the sustenance with uncertainty, but Akuma was very sure about it. She reached and picked up a little piece to sniff it. It was not meat at all. Was it a…plant? It was green like a plant.

The calmness in Akuma's blue eyes did not quake. Somehow, he was no longer afraid of this archangel. She was simply a delicate human being who was close to bringing life into the world. If only the other archangels were like her.

His expression softened, even more, when he watched her pluck the vegetable into her mouth. This was good. Now he just had to get her out of the area so that he could collect the trap. Taking another piece from his hand, she continued to eat and relish in the strange tastes. The fetus held off from moving again as new nutrients began feeding it through the umbilical cord.

Eventually, Akuma held Tenshi's hand and settled the rest of the food in it for her to take. "You should rest," he told her. "Being on your feet in your condition is probably not good for the baby."

As she chewed, she did not break eye contact with him. He was speaking to her, but she did not understand what he was saying.

Not getting a response, he hesitated. He did not want her to feel unsafe so she would attack him, but he had to move her and get her to sit down. With the birth obviously approaching for her, he would rather nature take its course than for her to speed up the process by tiring herself out. Besides, she should be asleep anyway during this time of night, not wandering around aimlessly.

"Tenshi," he said to get her attention.

The sound of her name alerted her.

"Sleep. Baby," he said, patting his stomach.

She looked down at herself, knowing what he was talking about.

"Cave?" he continued.

"Cave," she repeated, seeming to easily comprehend the word.

Being gentle, he moved next to her and swept her up into his arms. She watched him in bewilderment as he easily handled her bodyweight and proportions. Nobody had ever picked her up before, not even her mate. With her knees draped over his elbow and his other arm wrapped around her back, Akuma began to walk back to the cave for her. "Eat," he insisted, focusing his chakra in his upper body to help give him strength for the task. Pregnancy usually added twenty to thirty pounds of extra weight, so he knew she was probably much lighter without it.

Tenshi saw they were going back to the cave and relaxed. Her fingers plucked more pieces of food to snack on until they made it. Staying out of sight, Akuma found a stone and rested her on it. "Sleep," he communicated, standing up straight. "For the baby."

Unsure how to reply, Tenshi looked up at him with a hopeful stare. Would he stay with her? He gave her food. Within her kind, mates provided food when it was needed. Since hers was gone, she could not help but wonder…

"Goodbye, Tenshi," Akuma said, stepping away. He turned his back to her and headed toward the direction of the village. If he wanted to part ways without raising suspicions, he had to pretend that he was leaving the region completely until he was out of sight.

Not ready for him to leave, she tried to protest, but the appropriate words would not come. Tenshi the archangel was left sitting by herself under the white moonlight.