Hunger.

It was such a demanding thing. It rose up from her gut and took over her mind so easily these days. Food was needed to survive, survival was a must. Therefore, she needed prey. She needed to hunt, needed to kill. But who? What? What kind of prey would fall at her hands this evening?

Most evenings it was simply a question of what kind of prey crossed her path first: a boar caught in a trap, a deer who strayed a little too far from home, or a human caught unaware? What kind of prey would cross her path this evening to be claimed? As usual she was on the outskirts of the village, far enough where she assumed she wouldn’t be bothered. Within the village she felt… trapped. Crowded. Too much noise, too much overloading her senses. It made her irritated, caused her to lash out most times. No, outside was better. Outside she was free, she had space: and it was so much easier to watch her own back that way.

Ashii moved forward, sticking to the shadows as extra cover: a means of keeping herself all that much more hidden from whatever might cross her path. There were a few people around - woman scurrying about with packages clearly heading home, groups of men laughing and heading to what was likely the local watering hole, and a lone male child holding out a tin cup and begging for even the sparest of ryo to feed a stomach she could hear growling even from across the street. All of them were looked over. The woman carried food meant for a while: Ashi didn’t hunt those who needed to tend to the young. The group of men were over-looked simply because a group was too much of a problem to bother wasting her time with. The child wasn’t even thought about: too young, too innocent; she didn’t harm the young. So, onward she pressed hoping as she did so that she wouldn’t end up spending the night feasting on some kind of rat: it wasn’t a taste she could get accustomed to.

”Give me your money and I won’t hurt you…!”

And then Ashii heard it. Music to her ears. A male voice demanding something from what was likely a female considering the feminine sobs. The woman… the woman who had been carrying the groceries home to her child(ren). She was being attacked by some male who stunk of beer and body odor. Her groceries had been dropped in her terror, a can of formula spilling open and tainting the already sickly sweet air with a nasty perfume. A growl, loud and animal like, rose up from Ashii as she stalked forward, leaving the shadows and revealing herself as a human-like beast. Corpse-like now she had her teeth, elongated and sharp, bared like some type of dog or wolf, and the growling coming from her was just as vicious. Her attire - a white t-shirt, jacket, leggings, and boots - were worn and torn, rips and tears through it, and it only added to her frightening appearance.

The woman screamed in terror and the man took off running. Ashii darted, following the man who was moving at a dead run. The hunt was on…

Wordcount: 550

”Give me your money and I won’t hurt you…!”

Why. Why did he have to stumble across shit like this. He was just wandering around, looking for a place to grab some food, and he hears that. Classic mugging in progress, especially so with the scent of fear and possibly urine in the air; although there was something else... something... dead? Maybe it was the mugger, and this dude was a killer? Or no... something else; he could hear too many foot steps, too much movement for just two people. A third, but only two heartbeats, only two sparks of life, outside of his own. What the hell?

Before he could move toward the altercation, the scent and sound of a female, by the weight and cadence of the feet, took off fleeing in a random direction, and the male as well as whatever the other thing was... didn't. They moved in a wholly other direction, and there was this sense of... predation; something only another predator would know. While he didn't fancy himself a killer, he was a hunter by nature and skill, so he would recognize that feeling in the air anywhere. There was a beast hunting; it would seem as though a beast was hunting the hunter, and whatever the beast was, it didn't seem to be alive. Weird.

Still, he wasn't too worried about himself in this; the victim was free and that could be handled by the local cops. He was interested in the mugger and whatever was making him piss himself as he sprinted in terror. He was pretty sure of himself, so there wasn't any sense of trepidation, and he was a shitton faster than anything around; so he didn't need to waste time thinking. He just moved, and he was there; directly in front of both beings, an arm extended to clothesline the mugger and a kunai in hand to work over the beast creature chasing it.

Well, he didn't actually feel the impact of the mugger; although the body laying broken on the ground was telling of his success there.

No, he was too busy staring slack jawed at the beast that was running toward him. Slack jawed, and in utter surprise; but not a fearful surprise. No, he looked like he was seeing a ghost, but not a reaction of fear. This was one of utter agony; the look of a being who's heart was shattering into dust as the moments ticked passed and reality sunk in.

It couldn't be. She couldn't be. This corpse thing; that grey skin and stench of death, no heart beat and old, rotten blood; it couldn't be her. But those markings, those  scars, that face... it was his Cousin, his beloved Cousin that was the closest to a biological sister and for a very long time the only blood family he had. The only Inuzuka family he cared about, outside of his other psychotic cousin Takoma, but no one talked about Takoma unless they had to; that pyromaniac gave them all headaches too much to worry about him normally. But this... this was his favorite cousin, his beloved friend that had given him everything and then some; the one person who he couldn't forgive himself over. His parents, Hikou... he could forgive himself over them in time; he understood that he couldn't have done anything, but that didn't stop him from blaming himself. Ashi though... he sent her to her death; unknowingly, but that excused nothing.

But here she was; dead but not dead, and racing toward him like a feral beast with no understanding of what was going on or happening. Or maybe she did, and hadn't had time to react yet; he hoped against hope it was that, because it would destroy him to have to put her down; to kill his own Cousin with his own hands, even if she'd become some undead corpse beast...

"A-Ashi...?"


WC: 675

He was going down. He was going to be torn to shreds and eaten by a savage beast without a care in the world who saw it: likely alive to boot if Ashii did it right. Or… that had been the plan. A plan that was suddenly thwarted. Another being, one much faster than her, seemed to appear out of nowhere in front of them. The mugger, too slow and clumsy with fear to react, was broken the instant he clotheslined himself on the man’s arm. He was likely dead before he hit the ground, the snap Ashii heard likely his neck.

Ashi, better on her feet - training from long ago that still kicked in from time to time when needed - was able to bring herself to a stop with sharpened fingernails dragging on the ground to create enough friction to keep her from ramming straight into the male. She kept her being low like an animal; like some kind of beast ready to pounce and yet she didn’t. Black eyes with red irises stared at the being in front of her as she heard a single word be spoken: her name. A name no one knew her by anymore. A name no one had called her in ten some years.

The face in front of her… The single fang mark, the hair, the eyes. Even aged she knew who this was and it brought her instantly out of her crouch and into an upright position. This being in front of her, the one who just denied her the sweet relish of the kill, was none other than Kenta. Her cousin. Her best friend.

”...K...Kenta…” Her voice was raspy from lack of use yet clear nonetheless. Tears comprised more of blood than water began to stream down her cheeks, only adding to her somewhat frightening and feral appearance. Slowly, as if she were afraid she might give the wrong impression, she approached her cousin. The mugger, the man she had intended on making dinner, was all but forgotten about as all kinds of reason and understanding flooded into her mind and over-rode the usual animal instincts she listened to.

”... Cousin.” Then she was reaching for him, unable to bring herself to move further. It was like the nightmares she used to have: back when she didn’t know what was real and what was not. Could this be real? The mugger was dead… the man before her… but could it all be a dream? Some evil trick from her brain? Or… had she truly been found?

Wordcount: 437 | 987

Cousin.

Cousin...

It was her. It was and it wasn't. What had happened to his cousin to make her.... this? She was dead, he could see that; but he could also see that she was very much not. She was alive, she was standing in front of him, reaching for him and breaking as hard as he was; but her heart didn't beat. Her skin was grey and ashy and broken; her blood no longer flowed and and there was an inescapable air of death and rot about her. She was dead. She was alive. What was going on?

Fuck caution, fuck instinct, and fuck life. He wasn't going to lose her again. If she was an illusion, so be it, he'd run toward it and his death gladly; in that moment all he cared about was his Cousin was here and he could have her back and his pack would be whole again; larger and grander than when she vanished and it shattered, but whole and real and complete again for the first time in a decade. He would drag her back from this undeath and she would come home with him and everything would be okay again. Amaya, she could do something. She could keep her alive; even if it meant this undeath was what they got; he wasn't letting her go again. But she was stopping and he couldn't understand why; but that didn't matter, because he could move; in less than the blink of an eye he was there with her, strong arms around her and burrying his face into her shoulder and crying like the little child he was inside; a little broken child that just got the best Christmas present ever, his Cousin was alive (sort of) and had come back to him and he could love her and protect her and give her back the life he'd taken from her; even if that was stupid and childish and he couldn't really give her back those years; it didn't matter because she was there and he was so happy just to see her, even if she smelled wrong and looked wrong and sounded wrong; she was still his Ashi and she was there and solid and that's all that mattered. "Ashi... Ashi... You're here... You're real..."

WC: 410

1085 Total.

Kenta came to her and it was glorious. Her arms wrapped around him and she hugged him as tightly as she could manage. It was a grounding feeling: he was real and this wasn’t some kind of twisted nightmare that her mind was attempting to cook up to torment her with. Kenta was the real deal. A real piece of her past that was finally found. A piece she had no intentions of losing. But why was he here in Iwa? Why wasn’t he home in Konoha? Where was everyone else? A kage - if he still was one as she was simply grasping at straws at this point - wandering the streets of another village alone? It… wasn’t wise. Not from what she remembered.

But, then the thought occurred to her that he likely had questions too. Lots of questions for her. In fact… was she in trouble for not going home? The thought was almost laughable. In trouble with Kenta? No, never. But what if Kenta wasn’t the Hokage anymore? There were just too many questions going through her head, too many things that needed answered.

And then there was that damned stomach of hers which took that moment to break the happiness and the sadness and the other emotions whirling through the air between them to start growling again.

Instead of focusing on her gut, instead of allowing instinct to rear its ugly head and ruin the moment for her she instead focused on her cousin and what he had said. He had called her ‘real’. But she wasn’t… well, not fully. ”I… am real but I’m not real. I’m undead. My chakra connects me to my body, were it to all be used up I would die. I did die. Fire… black… black flames. They consumed Kusagakure… they destroyed me, us...all of us. There was nothing we could do. Then someone special came… they tried to bring us back. Something went wrong though so we all returned as I am now… as an undead being.” She spoke while continuing to hold onto Kenta provided he didn’t pull away: she was scared to let go while she told her story. She had told no one before him, and not she found it a nearly impossible thing to face without her grip on reality: her grip on Kenta.

”When I came back I couldn’t remember anything at first… but then I started having nightmares. I… didn’t realize until recently they were real though… But… why are you here Kenta? It’s not safe for a Kage to be alone…” Ah yes. Good old Ashi: concerned more about her cousins well being then her own even though out of the two of them he could take care of himself better than she could. But that was Ashii. Just as she had been alive she was in death - it hadn’t changed her personally any, if anything it had only made her more animal like.

Wordcount: 505 | 1,492

”I… am real but I’m not real. I’m undead. My chakra connects me to my body, were it to all be used up I would die. I did die. Fire… black… black flames. They consumed Kusagakure… they destroyed me, us...all of us. There was nothing we could do. Then someone special came… they tried to bring us back. Something went wrong though so we all returned as I am now… as an undead being.” ... ”When I came back I couldn’t remember anything at first… but then I started having nightmares. I… didn’t realize until recently they were real though… But… why are you here Kenta? It’s not safe for a Kage to be alone…”

Black flames... black flames... Amaterasu. He'd seen it often enough, Naota used them in a pinch, and he'd seen the devastation an uncontrolled burn could cause. He'd even said such when the reports came in from Kusa; there was no way this wasn't an Amaterasu burn, but initially no one believed him. Now though, it was mostly accepted that was what happened, but he'd gone nearly insane trying to make people understand that no normal fire could have done what they saw. His report said as much; and while it would have been nice to be able to say as much to Ashi's family... well; he was all the family she had; him and Michi and Naota and Amaya and the babies that weren't babies now. So there was no closure in that sense; but he didn't need that now.

Growling stomachs. some things never changed. "We... we both need food. I have lots of that." He wasn't ignoring her conversation; merely sidestepping a moment. He needed to process for a second, and this distraction allowed it. "Come, come! I have a hotel suite, there's plenty of room. I'll rent another room for Tre if I have too; Satoshi is family, you'll like him. There's so many new family members you need to meet; the pack has grown massive over the years. Good people, all; you'll love them. Tre isn't bad, but he's not family; so he can sleep by himself if he has problems with you staying with us." It was his usual respond, his usual attitude; he didn't mind sharing, but he wasn't about to make her feel awkward and put out. Never that.

"Hokage, not Hokage; it's always dangerous to be me. Politics, dear Cousin; I have to do them every so often. So many Tsuchikage since that dunderhead Dengen; I wanted to give this one a shot to redeem his country. That, and Satoshi is a wonderful person, so I was willing to be less enthusiastic about glassing Iwa like I used to be. I don't want to see Satoshi's family hurt; and there's enough War going on right now with Kiri and Kumo fighting. Need to send someone to get Ai and Bastardface; I don't like him, but she's awesome, remember? I like her, so I'll stand him for a while, at least until things settle down and they can go home. Or whatever. But you, you my dearest! Where have you been hiding? Nightmares; lost memories... have you been in the Earth Country this whole time? What else do you remember?" He was vomiting words in that childish way he did when he was excited and happy; a verbal tick he'd never gotten under control around family.

WC: 601

1686 total.

"We... we both need food. I have lots of that. Come, come! I have a hotel suite, there's plenty of room. I'll rent another room for Tre if I have too; Satoshi is family, you'll like him. There's so many new family members you need to meet; the pack has grown massive over the years. Good people, all; you'll love them. Tre isn't bad, but he's not family; so he can sleep by himself if he has problems with you staying with us. Hokage, not Hokage; it's always dangerous to be me. Politics, dear Cousin; I have to do them every so often. So many Tsuchikage since that dunderhead Dengen; I wanted to give this one a shot to redeem his country. That, and Satoshi is a wonderful person, so I was willing to be less enthusiastic about glassing Iwa like I used to be. I don't want to see Satoshi's family hurt; and there's enough War going on right now with Kiri and Kumo fighting. Need to send someone to get Ai and Bastardface; I don't like him, but she's awesome, remember? I like her, so I'll stand him for a while, at least until things settle down and they can go home. Or whatever. But you, you my dearest! Where have you been hiding? Nightmares; lost memories... have you been in the Earth Country this whole time? What else do you remember?

As Kenta spoke it was like broken pieces, fragments of her former life, began to come together into one being. What was once scattered and lost slowly became found and whole once more. It would never be perfect - broken things could never go back fully to what they once were - but it was so much better than where she was at just five minutes ago. This was almost… normal. The way he shared automatically what he had without a single forethought to it, the way he instantly made Ashii feel welcomed and special despite the fact that she was far from the way she used to be, and his usual method of calling Raijin some form of bastard while showing nothing but adoration for Ai. It was all normal. All perfect. She was more than willing to follow Kenta, and simply allowed him to lead while she followed: focusing more on answering his questions then where they were going.

”It took I want to say a few years before the nightmares started. Before that all I remember was the fire; nothing before it. The fire…” She shuddered, showing clearly her terror at the memory: her fear of fire in general now. ”Then I started getting images of things.. Faces mostly; yours, Amaya’s… sometimes others. After a while I started seeing whole instances of things. It was like watching a movie. Each time I woke up feeling like my chest was hurting, I felt sad but I couldn’t understand why. Sometimes I felt scared - when I saw something particularly horrific. I thought they were just dreams and nightmares. It wasn’t until they became so frequent and uncontrollable that I started looking into them. It was hard, too. Trying to gather information without a name or ID at the best of times can be difficult, more so when those people are ninja. But I managed… and that’s when I found out these weren’t just dreams I was seeing but real memories. That’s… that’s when I knew who I was again. Until then I had been calling myself Mitsukai because that was the only name I knew when I came to: I thought it was mine…” And then she could go on no more as a look of terror crossed her face: Mitsukai, her little girl, her sickly little girl who had barely made it through her birth and who clawed at life with every ragged and short breath she could take. What had become of her?

She touched Kenta, looking at him with that same fear in her eyes and yet a hundred questions: what had become of her daughter? Was she still alive? She opened her mouth and yet no words could come out: she feared so deeply asking the question she wanted answered: a question she also feared the answer to.

Wordcount: 720 | 2,212

”It took I want to say a few years before the nightmares started. Before that all I remember was the fire; nothing before it. The fire…” ... ”Then I started getting images of things.. Faces mostly; yours, Amaya’s… sometimes others. After a while I started seeing whole instances of things. It was like watching a movie. Each time I woke up feeling like my chest was hurting, I felt sad but I couldn’t understand why. Sometimes I felt scared - when I saw something particularly horrific. I thought they were just dreams and nightmares. It wasn’t until they became so frequent and uncontrollable that I started looking into them. It was hard, too. Trying to gather information without a name or ID at the best of times can be difficult, more so when those people are ninja. But I managed… and that’s when I found out these weren’t just dreams I was seeing but real memories. That’s… that’s when I knew who I was again. Until then I had been calling myself Mitsukai because that was the only name I knew when I came to: I thought it was mine…”

Oh dear, Mittens. That... was going to be interesting. Very interesting. She was so frail, it was going to be interesting to see how she handled the news of her mother returning, let alone as an undead corpse person thing. Then again, knowing Mittens... she was going to absolutely adore Ashi like this. Mittens was a strange child, in a good way; so this probably wouldn't phase her at all. "Mittens is fine, Cousin. She's a little frail, and she spends a good amount of time with Amaya healing her when she gets sick, but she's alive and she's a wonderfully happy child. Well, around family. Hiroyuki is the same way, he's a brick wall with strangers, but around family he's an open book of happiness." To know only a name... he couldn't even begin to fathom that; he'd always been Kenta, he'd always known who and what he was, in the sense of his basic identity. He hadn't always been confident in whom he was, but the what and all that was a solid idea forever. This fear of fire though... it was new. Definitely new. Michizuka was going to have a field day with this, he was a fire cat himself, Temaki used fire for everything, Naota and Amaya... just Uchiha. Nothing else to say there. Uchiha and fire.

"I sense you and Michi spending a lot of time together when we get home. Having a trained mind god in the family... Something to help with the nightmares and such. If you want to; you know I'd never force you, nor would he." He'd given her a few moments to let the news that Mitsukai was okay to sink in, let her calm down so that she would be able to move again, and began to lead her back toward the hotel once more; if she'd allow him. He wanted to get her somewhere safe, somewhere away from the local ninja that could possibly have issues with her existing, let alone being near him. The reactions some lower ranks had toward their seniors, even foreign ones; or rather, especially foreign ones negotiating to remain in a peaceful status, when the foreign one has a habit of turning your country into dust every so often. He didn't want to risk someone freaking out over her looking like a walking corpse too. So many ways this could go bad.

WC: 612

2298 Total.

"Mittens is fine, Cousin. She's a little frail, and she spends a good amount of time with Amaya healing her when she gets sick, but she's alive and she's a wonderfully happy child. Well, around family. Hiroyuki is the same way, he's a brick wall with strangers, but around family he's an open book of happiness.” Mittens was alright? This… this was glorious news. Ashii hadn’t been able to stop herself from fearing the worse: her mind coming up with a hundred different scenarios each as sad and depressing as the last. Of course… Mittens was frail and sickly. But she was alive, and that was a lot better off than how her mind kept imagining her.

"I sense you and Michi spending a lot of time together when we get home. Having a trained mind god in the family... Something to help with the nightmares and such. If you want to; you know I'd never force you, nor would he." Oh no, this sounded like a glorious idea. She was tired of waking up screaming time and time again as she relived what it felt like to be burned alive. No amount of water had helped, no amount of screaming. It was likely akin to what Hell itself would feel like, or so she imagined. At least she wasn’t in Hell, not anymore at least.

With the good news that Mittens was alive and mostly well, and the idea of MIchi being able to fix the cluster fuck that was her brain at the moment, she allowed herself to be led once more in the direction Kenta desired. She fell silent as they walked, simply allowing her mind and imagination to come up with all kinds of positive and happy scenarios of what would happen when she returned to Konohagakure and finally got to properly meet her daughter. She didn’t bother tormenting herself with all of the things she had missed - such as her first steps, first word, and so forth - but focused rather on the time they would get to spend together from here on out. She would get to know her daughter, actually know her, instead of just making guesses and ponderings of the kinds of things she liked and the sorts of things she liked to do.

Her silent musing brought them to the hotel and into the room - a safe place, or as safe as one was going to get for someone like herself. No sooner though had she entered into the suite and the door shut behind them that she heard a female voice call out ”Oh my god… you have fucking awesome hair.” Ashii blinked, looking toward the direction the voice had come from only to see a long and dark haired female covered in an assortment of tattoos and piercings much like Ashii herself grinning from ear to ear and looking quite excitedly at Ashii’s hair. There was no judgement on this unknown female’s face, only a sort of awe at what she clearly thought was some awesome color and styling.

The fact that she wasn’t being looked at with disgust or some kind of loathing caused her to wonder briefly about the girls sanity - this was by no means the normal reaction Ashii got. Then again, she didn’t know that Nana was by no means a normal girl. Grinning a bit she looked towards Kenta, ignoring the fact that her teeth were a little too sharp now, ”Oh, I like her cousin… Is she one of yours? If not can we kidnap her?” Oh yes, typical Ashii indeed: if she wanted something - or someone - she was totally willing to break all kinds of laws to get them.

Wordcount: 630 | 2,842

Oh good, no more fighting. Good, good. He could get her to (relative) safety fairly quickly now, and that's what he did. A verbal torrent of updates and such to keep her occupied as they walked; it kept the strangers away from them as well. It made them look busy, so they where less likely to be bothered. That, and the ice cold air wafting from him. He was projecting his massively powerful chakra outward, filling the air around them with a sense of 'GO AWAY!' and dangerous cold that would drive all but the most determined interloper away. He wasn't going to let anyone disrupt them. There would be no risk of her being taken away when he'd only just gotten her back.

The hotel wasn't much from the outside; a fairly simple affair, a classical tea house tavern facade, with the rooms arranged around little gardens in the back. There was a side gate that he utilized, the little key to his suite was able to open the lock to this as well, so it meant that they could slip inside without issues. He didn't even count his not realizing the Nana was in the rooms as a problem; as her reaction was... rather amusing to him. As was Ashi's, really. Had he even stopped to think about it, he would have guessed, even bet on, them getting along like best friends instantly. He would have been wholly correct at that. Excellent.

"Ashi, Nana. Nana, Ashi. Nana is family now, yes; so have fun with her. Nana, Ashi is... well, Ashi is my cousin. Who we thought was dead. Who sort of is. It's... weird. BUT! I don't actually give a fuck about all that. She is very much my Ashi, so she's coming home with us. I definitely seeing you two being BFFs by the time we have dinner delivered. Speaking of which!" He flashed across the room and out the door in that way only he could; appearing moments later with a receipt for room service, as well as a key to one of the private hot spring bath rooms. Time to relax, yes? "Come, come. Hot water and food, sounds good yes? No one will bother us there, and there's too much noise from the running water for anyone to hear us talking. I want to tell you everything, and hear more about what you can remember. Plus, a hot bath is just the best thing ever." He was channeling Michizuka hard at the moment, his absolute joy and excitement over her coming back to him making him drop ALL his walls and just be that slightly spazzy kid that she'd grown up with; before all the bullshit made him a silent, slightly douchbaggy adult.

WC: 475

2773 total.

"Ashi, Nana. Nana, Ashi. Nana is family now, yes; so have fun with her. Nana, Ashi is... well, Ashi is my cousin. Who we thought was dead. Who sort of is. It's... weird. BUT! I don't actually give a fuck about all that. She is very much my Ashi, so she's coming home with us. I definitely seeing you two being BFFs by the time we have dinner delivered. Speaking of which!"

The girls both blinked as Kenta went flashing out of the room in typical Kenta fashion. They looked at each other, shrugged, and then grinned - Ashii’s far more toothy (pointed) than Nana’s but it didn’t seem to bother her any at all. In fact, Nana seemed already one hundred percent accepting to Ashii even given she was a reanimated corpse. It was… strange… but really quite nice. It also made her understand fully why Kenta considered Nana family. Before the girls could say anything, however, Kenta was suddenly reappearing once more.

"Come, come. Hot water and food, sounds good yes? No one will bother us there, and there's too much noise from the running water for anyone to hear us talking. I want to tell you everything, and hear more about what you can remember. Plus, a hot bath is just the best thing ever."

That… actually wasn’t a half bad idea. Ashii couldn’t remember the last time she had properly bathed - outside of using a stream or other fresh water source - and the idea of just getting a chance to honestly soak without having to watch her back constantly or have to hurry was indeed nice. The idea of food only doubled this idea as a good one: her stomach starting to grumble as if reminding Ashii that she was indeed starving even if she had forgotten about it in the moments of meeting Kenta and coming back here. Plus, though Ashii would never admit this out loud, she was kind of glad they would be doing other things rather than heading straight back to Konohagakure. While she wanted to see her daughter, along with everyone else, she couldn’t help but feel nervous as hell when it came to seeing Amaya after all of this time. It was something she was going to have to steel herself again: she would have to be prepared for whatever reaction Amaya might have and that was going to take some time.

For now though she didn’t even want to think about it. The idea of hearing everything that she had missed, eating, soaking in some nice and warm water, as well as getting a chance to give Kenta - and apparently who was going to be her new best friend with the way Nana was so automatically accepting - the whole story of what had happened to her seemed like a good idea for sure. Plus, maybe she would get a chance to hear more about Nana too, and how she got collected into their lovely pack. ”Mmm… that sounds like an excellent idea. I can’t remember the last time I just got to soak in some hot water… much better than a half frozen stream any ol’ day. Lead the way, cousin!” Ashii glanced toward Nana who was grinning at Ashii’s enthusiasm while also rubbing at what looked to be a sore arm. This caused Ashii to pause, head tilting as she stared at the offending arm as if it would answer her silent questions of ‘What’s that? How did it happen? Is the person dead or object lying in pieces?’, before she realized she was likely looking like some creepy serial killer: she would get her answers later, likely, so she wouldn’t focus on it right this second. Instead, her smile returned to her face and after moving to the other side of Nana she would hook her arm into hers so the pair could (and would) follow Kenta when he led the way.

Wordcount: 664 | 3,506

Excellent, excellent. Simple agreements among all, and the complete lack of anyone giving a fuck about how insane this entire situation was made it so that he didn't have to care at all. Security, logic; fuck that noise. He had his cousin back; end of discussion. There was no worry or care for towels or clothing or whatever; between Inuzuka especially nudity wasn't really a thing, you learned quick enough that most clothing you could buy in human lands was worthless in the wild, so outside of catching and tanning some rabbits or deer, you went naked with a layer of dirt. This? This was nothing. This was them getting clean in a super comfortable hot spring that was private as hell and they didn't have to worry about being bothered unless someone ordered food. Which was where the food was going, once they left the room and he put the little thing on the door that told them to redirect room service.

"Follow me.~" He was already at the door; scribbling something that was probably a note for Satoshi and Tre about where they where; and why the room would suddenly smell of new person and death. He didn't need Satoshi freaking out if he stopped by, and it was just common courtesy to say something to Tre. He didn't care, but he did care enough to say something. Or something. Whatever. He knew they'd follow, and he could clear the area with his ungodly chakra easier than anything. They wouldn't notice it, but everything else for a few hundred yards would. Animals wouldn't be scared, but humans? Pissing themselves and running for the hills. It was a quick trip, really; exit out in the main halls and around a few corners until they'd hit a little stone path that lead down a bit of a hill toward a very classical looking outdoor hot spring area. Paper lanterns hung in the trees, stone and bamboo walls separated the private pools from the 'public' (in the sense of being unisex and open for all patrons to use at any time) pools. There was a door built into the stone wall, which a little golden key he produced from his pocket (acquired from the front desk when he'd flashed down earlier) opened; the secondary and slightly larger silver key upon the same ring would open the gate to their private spring.

"We're looking for... the third on the right." Beyond the now open door was an open air pathway between the individual building and springs, each closed off from each other by walls of stone and wood and each gated off with a small metal gate with the silvered key would open. He moved down to the correct gate and popped it open, ushering them inside and around a little dividing wall which gave them privacy from the main walk way. Once inside, there was a little changing area with piles of towels and such as was appropriate for a hot spring bath house type place (Onsen for the win, after all), as well as rattan chairs and loungers that looked mighty comfortable. His focus was the hot water pool; which was rather... well, massive. If he was going to treat, he didn't half ass. It was more than large enough to go swimming in, really; which for a water god like him was needed. It also meant there'd be plenty of space to not get crowded or uncomfortable or whatever. Carved dragon's sat along the edge of the pool, stylized to channel the water from the spring below into this pool and keep it refreshed; he'd guess there was a drain system near the deepest point of the pool to keep the water flowing and cleaned; so it would be excellent for them to enjoy without having to worry about problems for Nana or himself.

"So yes. Last one in and all that junk!" And he was exploding out of close and (literally) melting into the water; which given this was him made perfect sense. He'd studied the fuck out of the Hozuki clan as a kid, and he'd just about learned to perfectly mimic their kekkei genkai without too much trouble; even if it wasn't as perfect or effective. Still, it had him vaporizing out of his clothes and splashing into the water as water himself, so that he could just... exist, for a moment, as the water before reappearing at the bottom of the pool in that way that only water breathers could. Ah, clean, warm water. So good for healing aching lungs.

WC: 785

3558 Total.

A note was scribbled, one Ashii assumed was to the other individuals staying here – she couldn’t see them, but she could certainly smell them. Whatever she was now she still had a wonderful nose. With her arm still wrapped around Nana’s uninjured one – she was still curious to hear about that though she still hadn’t asked quite yet – the pair followed after Kenta. Ashii was quite curious what someone would do or say if they stumbled across them – or rather her – but they met no one on their way to the hot spring area. This hadn’t been the first time a strange situation like this had occurred: a place normally filled with people strangely empty. She had a feeling Kenta had something to do with it, but she didn’t mind in the slightest. Her appearance, especially since she was looking a little, well, dry, wasn’t going to help matters if someone stumbled across her corpse looking arse.

Nana, if she noticed at all anything strange, didn’t comment on it; in fact both Ashii and herself remained quiet as they followed Kenta. Once they arrived though Ashii unhooked her arm from Nana’s and all but threw herself out of the worn and torn clothing she had had on: modesty simply wasn’t an issue for her.

A laugh escaped her as she glanced over in time to see Kenta all but meld into the water. ”Still part fish, I see.”, she called out jokingly before jumping right on in – not exactly caring if she splashed water anywhere or everywhere. Ashii allowed herself to sink down to the bottom, allowing the water to completely wash over her: and it felt glorious. Once she floated down to the bottom she sat there, eye lids closed, for several minutes.

Nana meanwhile had likewise followed suit, removing her clothing and stepping fairly carefully into the water. Her arm looked atrocious – covered in scars still healing – and she found herself rubbing at it before she slipped beneath the water; leaving only her head above the surface since apparently she needed air more than the other two did.

It was then that Ashii opened her eyes, glancing up in time to see Nana rubbing her arm even beneath the water. Her arm looked horrible, and Ashii was no fool – she knew the kind of weapon that would make those kind of marks and cause that kind of damage because she herself used to wield one. After several seconds of watching her rub her arm even underneath of the water Ashii shifted and allowed herself to float back up to the surface. Once she broke the surface she pushed her hair back and out of her face before looking over toward Nana. ”Who did that to you?”

Nana blinked, shifted her attention to Ashii and then glanced down at her arm. “A dead man… a very dead man and his dead friends.”

Ashii blinked several times and then threw her head back and laughed. ”Oi… Kenta’s been murdering people again, eh? Seems I’ve been missing some fun….”

Wordcount: 510 | 4,016

"When am I not murdering someone or something?" There was just about half of his head reappeared above the water level, the rest of him still merged with the liquid and happily water-based. This was just enough of his form rendered physical for him to speak, as he could cause the water to vibrate and make sound instead of vocal cords at the moment; in this form he wasn't in horrifying pain from his lung melting, nor did he feel like he was about to drown; which was hilarious when you think about it. His way of getting a few minutes relief from his lungs and the constant feeling of drowning on his own blood was to turn his body to water and melt into a pond. Hilarious.

"Long story short, fucknut decided to be a fucklenugget. He hurt Nana. I like Nana. I killed fucklemuffin. Simple enough." He was leaving the details to Nana to share, if she wanted, beyond that the story was true enough. No one hurt the people Kenta cared about, not without some sort of... restitution. The ledger was balanced now, so in that aspect he was happy. He wasn't very happy about the state of her arm, but he trusted Amaya absolutely, he'd leave it to her to work her miracles. "So Cousin, you're going to absolutely love how Temaki's grown up. She's... as wild as you where at that age, only she loves making stuff go 'splode more. Yuki's turned out to be the 'perfect' child of the three; cause Hiro's gone brooding teenager; but then again Hiroyuki's still smarter than Michizuka, only verbally mute and really, really shy. Kinda expected, but still drives me a but nuts sometimes. I expect you'll have some fun pulling him out of that habit."

WC: 310

3868 Total.

When suddenly, problems arise. Keen hearing could hear the cry of the hawk in the air, and he was nothing if not well versed in the sounds of his people's messenger birds. The cry of a priority bird, sounding for him to respond so that it could find him. Important, if it didn't just wait at the window of his rooms like another would, or race off to find another ranking member of their team. If it was looking directly for him, it was extremely important, and he was going to have to answer it. Rising fully from the water, he release a sharp, almost inaudible whistle; a signal the bird would notice, but few others around outside of maybe Ashii herself, and that wasn't even an absolute given the strange transformation that his beloved cousin had undergone. The hawk would be able to see them once it knew where to look, the spring was open to the sky, but not to the other pools around them, so it merely had to glide down through the rising steam trails and such to land on a dry rock sticking up from the water not far from where Kenta was floating.

Moving toward it, he removed the scroll case from it's leg and cracked it using a burst of chakra through on of his clawed nails at the seal; allowing it to open under the required chakra signature and releasing a tiny bit of paper with a single symbol upon it. It was from Michizuka; he could tell that instantly, and it was in a code language they used between them often. A simple message; merely 'Come Home."

Right then, Michi needed him home. He was going home. Easy.

"Cousin, Nana. We need to leave. I'm sorry, I promised you both a good time, but Michi is calling me to return. You know me, I'm not about to ignore my husband like that. Nana, stay here and wait for Saotshi; come home with him if you can. If not, just come home. Cousin, you can handle me carrying you home; I've done it before and it won't take us long. I refuse to leave you behind, so please don't fight me on this." He was almost pleading in a way, even though he knew he didn't need too. They would listen to him without question, and that's all that mattered.

He didn't care if he left anything behind, Satoshi would make sure it got home to him, and he was fast enough to risk flashing up to the room to get them close and leave a note for the other male over what was happening; so he didn't feel so bad about his hasty departure from the village.

-EXIT-

469 WC

4337

A-Rank Jutsu 'Decent of Eagle' 2000/2000
A-Rank Jutsu 'Hundred-Year Water Prison' 2000/2000

4000/4337

337 leftover