Chapter 23
Kankuro (the next day, approximate time: 3:00 AM)
Kankuro lumbered into his room, smacking the back of head into the pillow. Three and half hours, maybe, until dawn and he had just gotten home.
He felt, on one hand, numb. Not understanding what Lady Chiyo had told him, not really, besides the fact that he made a promise to it. But in another more private part in the back of his mind he did. That by living for the people who were lost that day, he was doing more than what he could ever do by killing (or failingly attempt to like all those other assassins) his own brother. A monster that it itself killed all that stood in its way.
He rolled over, adjusting himself so he could look at his bandage-wrapped puppet beside him and the shelf across from him. Full of smaller knickknack puppets he had played with to learn how to use chakra strings, children's toys, really. Each one of his collection, of a slightly different make—utilizing a different mechanism. Each one, made at a different stage of his training.
He breathed softly, remembering the wide-eyed look Lady Chiyo gave his puppet as she ran her hand over the wooden seams of Karasu—Crow. As a distance fighter due to her specialty as a medic-nin, he knew she was a puppeteer at heart. The way her nimble fingers found the hidden mechanisms so easily—how she advised Kankuro on what best poisons and deployment methods to use.
He couldn't have full training from her—he knew that—but that one day—it went by in a rush. A helpful, confusing rush—but still...
He looked over to his puppet. It had its own alcove between his bed and desk—a stand for when he had to do work on it—and an angled lean-to cubby for when he (and the puppet) went to sleep. It wasn't his—not originally, the puppet. But he cared for it all the same—as if it were—Suna not keen on putting any resource to waste and he being the only student at the time to safely bypass all the boobytraps of the puppet in its original state.
He saw the look of appreciation in Lady Chiyo's eyes at the fine care he provided for Karasu. She threw him out at midnight, but the free poisons and the tips on their preparation had to be enough. Had to be.
He rolled onto his side. He didn't bother changing or removing his war paint, he knew he'd be awake soon enough and he had slept with it before, on the move. Likewise, he didn't bother to unwrap Karasu. He planned to take just a short power nap.
Pushing his lingering thoughts aside, he closed his eyes and let himself rest.
Temari (approximate time: 5:00 AM)
It was still dark outside, but Baki-sensei had decided to do some training activities earlier in the morning. Both because shinobi were expected to act no matter the time of day… and because of Gaara's sleeping pattern (or lack thereof). As such, she found herself following closely behind Baki-sensei and next to Gaara as they descended the steps down one of Suna's underground training rooms.
She had told her sensei Kankuro went out the day previously to find Lady Chiyo, and that her brother was likely still with her. And while Baki had taken the news rather well (as it was a reason justifiable to even the Kazekage) and only told her to bring him up to speed later, he still found it necessary to continue his lesson as usual—despite it being one of their provisioned "off days." Her sensei cited the Kazekage's request as the sole reason.
And though she wasn't entirely sure, she had the faintest impression that her father had a Third Eye Jutsu watching the mouth of the cavern they had just entered, just in case the first training session including Gaara went wrong. Temari exhaled calmly. She still watched him out of the corner of her eye, but she was becoming more assured of the decreased likelihood of Gaara killing her unprovoked—even if she hadn't noticed that Third Eye Jutsu.
Gaara simply walked beside her, his half-lidded eyes apathetic.
The air became cooler and chillier as they went deeper and deeper into the cavern. Unnaturally so, even considering rock and dirt's insulation abilities. Frost crystals now visible on the walls, and her breath becoming misty plumes as she exhaled, she realized the room's temperature was only possible due to shinobi machination. Her suspicions were confirmed when she found freeze tags—which were similar to the more common red explosion tags—only blue and inscribed with the kanji of "freeze" on the walls.
Baki-sensei stopped in the middle of the cavern, placing a brown parcel—presumably their lunch—that he was carrying over to the side in a fluid motion that was unimpeded whatsoever by the artificially generated foreign environment before turning to face his two present students. Temari halted as well. Only, she found herself sliding slightly on the frozen floor despite her rubber soled sandals. Noting it, she pushed chakra into her soles reflexively to gain proper traction.
Baki spoke. "Suna's running low on mission requests—so it's very likely the next missions will be increasingly farther from the Land of Wind. So the Lord Kazekage recommended we begin cold-training. By my request, this training hall will also be open for the next week, for additional training time," Baki nodded to Temari.
Temari flexed her fingers in response, too cold to do much else. She and Gaara both had their arms crossed over their chests to warm their upper extremities, and it was only discipline that kept Temari from tucking her legs in addition to her already hunched shoulders. She shivered, scowling at how Gaara seemed much less perturbed by the change in temperature.
"I'm going to teach you two jutsu today—one to regulate your body temperature—and the other to stand on the ice—a modification of the Walk on Water Jutsu," Baki said, his eyes flicking to a spot beyond his two students.
Neither turned to look.
Temari breathed as she picked her feet up. Her modification of the Vertical Climbing Jutsu sufficed, which meant… she looked over to Gaara, only to find herself scowling. Gaara knew how to stand without slipping on the ice as well. If she already knew how to stand on the ice—and he did, but Baki didn't know—it had to mean her father had to be the one to teach him… or so she assumed.
It's proper chakra control, alright… but is Father here to make sure nothing goes wrong or make sure he uses his proper training?
She lowered the amount of chakra in her feet, then slid herself back a few steps, pushing chakra back down into her feet until she was at an angle behind her brother. From the greater distance from Gaara, she turned around to see the Third Eye Jutsu pointed directly at the former.
Shrewdly, she looked to it in an attempt to glean her own father's intentions. But it being an expressionless eye, she could not.
Author's Note
Freeze tags aren't a canon thing… and the "Vertical Climbing Jutsu" is really the "Tree Climbing Jutsu" minus the tree… because I'm not sure Suna has trees. But I'm sure they taught their genin something.
Katiya (a week later, approximate time: 7:45 AM)
"You said there'd be a 'use' for me later," Katiya said as she poured a vial of blood onto what we'd think of as a Petri dish. "But I'm not sure how I feel about that, not knowing what I'd be 'used' for."
Kabuto swirled a test tube containing jutsu formula before removing the dish from her hand to finish their lab preparations, waving the thought aside. "It shouldn't be too much, really, considering you're already at odds with the Kazekage…"
Katiya pulled out a blank dish, repeating the same process with a different vial of blood. Hearing Kabuto's rather baiting and drawl-like tone of the sentence, she grumbled, "Spit it out already."
"... We have plans to lay siege to Konoha. Suna, being Konoha's ally would get in the way."
Katiya slid two more completed dishes over to Kabuto. "I realized that when we met—but what does that matter? What tactical benefit do you hope to gain from laying siege to Konoha?"
Kabuto gave her a decidedly forced guilty smile at the questions. Katiya's eyes narrowed. Great. Okay… no tactical benefit to attacking Konoha, then. No greater scheme… and Kabuto knows it… Or, one hasn't been explicitly stated by higher ups yet… but either way, this guy's been around to know what that means… so…
"It's just Orochimaru's personal vendetta, isn't it," she deadpanned.
Kabuto's purposely fake smile dropped slightly at one of the corners… almost expecting Katiya's question.
"... Why are you supporting him then?" she asked, skipping whatever subtlety Kabuto would have used if the situation were reversed.
I suppose you do want some sort of revenge for your adoptive mother's death… if that story's even true... but that smile of yours… either you're used to hiding that desire for revenge and don't want to fully acknowledge it to me, or you truly do not stand with the reason for invading Konoha… or some mixture of both, Katiya thought.
Kabuto inhaled slowly but stiffly at that question and he gave her what she considered a bit of a shifty glance. Katiya simply pretended it wasn't there.
"... And what does that have to do with whatever use I'd have to serve?" she asked now, her voice carrying a sort of cautious, quiet stillness.
Kabuto ignored the second question. "It's… the same reason you joined after my offer, I suppose," he said falteringly, "Nowhere else to go, and a debt to pay to the one who saved me, the one who allowed me to become who I am—provided I help look after Oto."
It was as honest an answer as she seemed to have ever gotten from him, besides his abridged and possibly falsified backstory. Katiya blinked, pondering it for potential truths. "Orochimaru gave you the same deal, didn't he. When he took you in," she breathed, realizing the answer to her question without having to necessarily hear him.
Kabuto didn't answer, and that in itself was the answer.
But what do you own him that you have not already repaid? You've spent so long with him, right now you're like just an echo. Who are you if not for Orochimaru? Because for me, that answer is clear without you, without Orochimaru.
Kankuro (approximate time: 10:00 AM)
"Any mission to the northern countries is likely to be pushed off to Kiri—or Kumo—or heck, Yuki-nin. I don't know what Father's thinking," Kankuro grumbled.
"That's not the point Kankuro—you've got to take your training seriously," Temari countered as she followed her brother out of the puppeteer stronghold. She knew of Kankuro's unsuccessful attempt to get both Lady Chiyo to join the council and training and neither sat well with her. "What's Father going to say when you've got more interest playing with puppets than being an actual shinobi? You can't just sit in here all day!"
Kankuro let out a derisive snort. "We've got a Puppeteer Corp for a reason, sis. Highest number of successful mission completion, second only to the ANBU—he's not gonna try contesting that, and if he does—he's stupid."
A vein bulged in Temari's forehead.
"Relax, Temari, we came back from the last mission successful. There's no reason why Father would get on our case," Kankuro said more to himself than to his sister. "You said it yourself, the training room's going to be booked by the next hour—and I doubt there's anything I can pick up in so little time—I just made the best use of it refurbishing Karasu."
"It wouldn't have such a bad time constraint if you actually showed up to training." Temari ground out the words.
Kankuro sighed. His sister was more tightly wound than he was, and he considered it his job to get her to loosen up from time to time. "Look, the one time we ever take a mission someplace snowy, I'll beg forgiveness and you can tell me 'I told you so'—but for now, let's just drop it and be glad that there was just one less time Gaara had the opportunity to kill the both of us—alright?"
Temari scowled. Kankuro knew then he won the argument. He gave her a lazy smile. After all, he was right in the sense snow missions were next to none in Suna—right next to water missions—and skipping a day of Gaara made it a win-win in his eyes. She just got annoyed with how her brother can be so casual about some things. Even if it was as much an act he put on around her as she put on around Gaara.
"Well then, I'll be off. Our little break's almost over, and I'll bet Father has another mission lined up for us—you know, one without snow?"
Katiya (one month later, approximate time: 5:00 PM)
Kabuto pulled the trays of blood out of the incubator, handing them one-by-one to the other attending medic-nin. Two hundred of the land's equivalent of Petri dishes total, ten trays of twenty. Even from the distance between herself and where the trays were laid out, she can tell that the majority of the red liquid had not coagulated like ordinary still blood left out after a month.
They couldn't yet tell if the cells had burst from chakra overload by simply looking at them, but the fact that the blood was still liquid in the containers meant that the jutsu formula was active—even if the blood cells themselves were dead—which, depending on your definition, meant success. (Yes, the jutsu formula's chakra output thrived in all test subjects, but no, not all test subjects would have survived the formula's chakra output.)
Katiya joined the other medic-nin as they began to off samples of the dishes' contents into microscope slides, analyzing and labeling each one while they went.
Katiya didn't have a high enough security clearance to do any work herself besides research-level (meaning access to three out of the five or more internal libraries in Oto) and just low-class experimental surgery (meaning lots of death)—but she found what she did have access to and understood was good enough.
Immortality. Power. In exchange for a life of pain and servitude. She remembered her conversation with Ryuteki. Why not? If you had nothing to lose? Two hundred people, this one batch alone, experimented upon and likely to die in exchange for the chance of immortality and power. Some willing, some not. Some too indoctrinated to know to refuse, some too weak to.
From the chatter in the laboratory behind her, about forty percent of them were coming up with dead cells—to be weeded from the next stage of experimentation. Eighty people, if they had skipped blood analysis and were to have died from the jutsu formula despite being "willing" to give their lives for immortality or power.
An unnaturally joined union of chakra between oneself, Orochimaru, and a formula from Jugo's blood—immortality in exchange for one's will. Power in exchange for pain.
What happened in these people's lives to make that exchange worth it? Katiya lamented, knowing she could almost touch the answer.
…
"Blood types A, B and O—the most consistent results; blood type AB—most erratic, but highest chakra output, as measured by cellular respiration rate; blood type B—lowest, as measured by cellular respiration rate. Blood analysis only, 38.5% failure rate. Not bad for first trial results," Kabuto read to the room's occupants.
Katiya leaned onto one of the lab stations taking one of jutsu formula vials and pocketing it, using the back of another medic-nin as cover. She didn't plan to use it on herself, of course, but for safekeeping if she ever had to reverse engineer it. For obvious reasons. Of course.
"We've still got to test whether the formula takes to the nervous system—but of course, we can't do that without live testing," Kabuto called. After a pause, he added, "Good work."
Katiya pushed herself off the lab station as the medic-nin began to disperse to clean up. Kabuto certainly did have a lot of clout in Oto as seen by his leadership today and of Oto in general, but she had to make sure that clout worked to her benefit.
"So, hearing those results… I guess my chakra-dampening poison did some good," she said to Kabuto barely audibly.
Some of the medic-nin began to leave the lab to head to the doffing room to change out of the lab suits and shower, reducing the ambient noise levels of the vicinity. Kabuto detected what he thought was a hint of smugness in her voice because of it. "The failure rate is likely to spike after the next phase of trials; it's what happened in previous trials as well. Neurons are more complex than nucleus-lacking red blood cells," he retorted.
Katiya tilted her head in acknowledgment. It was a more testy result than she expected, but she could work with it. "You're not getting a curse mark, then, I take it?"
Kabuto glanced at Katiya with interest. She was going out on a limb with that assumption, and she was sure the tactic of get-on-the-head-honcho's-side was something Kabuto was immune to at that point. But it never hurt to try for herself. If the attempt failed, she lost nothing at this point, but if she succeeded—she highlighted how well she understood or at least witnessed to what extent she could pretend to understand Kabuto.
"What makes you say that?" he asked.
"Neuron," Katiya said, holding up one hand, "Red blood cell," she said, holding out the other and elevating the opposing "neuron" hand. "I mean. What do you have to gain from getting one? If you were to die during the trial, Orochimaru loses his best researcher and right hand, and what if it were to succeed—what's the use? You seem to spend more time here than on the field."
Kabuto smirked under his surgical mask. They've yet to change out, still being in the laboratory. "Well, there is that… I was thinking more along the lines of the higher risk of the formula with my type AB blood, since getting a curse mark is optional from my status, as you pointed out... Although it's a shame the woman is type AB as well…"
Katiya's lip curled with amusement. "The woman?" she asked mock-innocently. It was basically how she referred to Guren in her head and she was surprised to find it once more in someone else's mind.
Kabuto gave Katiya a withering glare. "You know who I'm referring to. Believe me when I say that woman is as insane as she is loyal, and loyal as she is conceited."
Katiya nodded. "I had no doubt about it… but are we sure we're referring to the same person?" Katiya tried, "She didn't seem that—"
"—try dealing with her every day for three years." Kabuto interjected, grumbling.
Katiya snorted, remembering her first interaction with her. Yeah, she could understand Kabuto's irritation. It was hard to work with someone insisting on insulting you simply for being cut from a different… more sophisticated cloth.
"Unfortunately, Lord Orochimaru's not keen on placing a curse mark on her—it's still too risky at this stage, and should Kimimaro die receiving his, she's his backup vessel—" Kabuto went on in a lower grumble, "—after Ryuteki, since she already has a curse mark and likely to be the next vessel after Orochimaru's current body deteriorates—to allow time for further trial before Kimimaro gets his," he resumed at his normal tone of voice again, "Unlikely as Kimimaro's death is to happen due to the curse mark either way…"
Katiya raised a single brow. Considering the volatility of the curse marks on blood type AB subjects, Kabuto thinking it "unfortunate" that she was to not get one meant he'd prefer her die attempting it. "Do you truly hate her that badly?" she asked rhetorically.
Kabuto rolled his eyes, not deigning that question with a response. Katiya exhaled slowly in disbelief, shaking her head. "I take it you're going to be doing more trials for blood type AB, then?"
Kabuto nodded in response. "Lord Orochimaru's most desired vessel, above Kimimaro, is of blood type AB so yes. All of the viable blood donors for the next curse mark are to be administered a modified formula as his intended vessel, including the AB blood type.
"The survivor of the battle royale—presumably the strongest—will be studied further. If they're deemed suitable, they'd be assigned to Lord Orochimaru's upper military. The rest, sent to the Northern Hideout for safekeeping if they survive the battle, probably marked as well, just to be safe… I'm actually going to be heading up there myself to pick out one of the other candidates for future study…"
Katiya nodded. She had assumed a lot of those details, and filed away what she didn't. Small bits of information from Kabuto. It meant she had a chance to get more the next time.
"Which, unfortunately means you're going to have to take a mission with the woman," Kabuto continued.
Katiya narrowed her eyes. Well, it was one more reason to have a possibly unstable curse mark jutsu formula tucked away. "I don't suppose I can make her disappear for a promotion…" Katiya grumbled in a sarcastic monotone.
Kabuto gave her a wry smile under his mask, as if wishing he could. She turned to leave, nodding slightly to herself. She could work with Kabuto.