Looking at the tainted skin of her mentor, she was actually rather perplexed by what damage she had caused to the Snake Sage in general. Going so far as to make her cough up blood. Was she to be proud? Feel guilty? No matter, Laïs couldn't help but simply look at it with perplexity. She hadn't damaged anything in the sage realms, only spending days to quiet the beast and become with everything. Not just her surroundings, not just nature, but what felt like the whole universe and beyond. There had been no words to describe it, and just very briefly she had touched upon that same feeling again, here.

The expulsion of chakra had left her drained. As if her soul had violently been thrown back into her body. Drained, but not tired. To think everything went so much easier in the realm of the Corvus, the abundance of senjutsu chakra easily returning what she had lost in practice. But much like the Sage animals there, Lamya was requesting the same thing now. A subtle approach. Total control. She had done it once with a lot of frustration and concentration. Could she do it again? The Corvus had mentioned one particular part of wisdom.




Agents of chaos, deliverers of death, messengers of the gods, trickster gods themselves. Many names, but only one purpose. What was her purpose? If she knew that one, nothing else mattered. Focus all energy. Blast that critter. Nothing else mattered. She would move closer, channelling Yin-chakra into her one hand much like she did with her Carrion Fist, but more. Much more. Her hand would glow with a washed off black again, sickening green veins running through it like electricity. Focus it all in one point. The aura sharpened, growing more visible, and mostly darker in colour. It emitted the eerie cold of the death as it sapped the warmth out of the air it tainted, the subtle scent of decay growing stronger. It elongated the more she concentrated, breath deepening as exhaustion was starting to slip in. Concentrating was hard here, but a needle like shape would eventually form at the tip of her finger. Shooting it off seemed impossible, so instead she injected it into the critter as if it was a senbon and saw all of the concentrated energy suddenly disappear within the critter, the necrosis eating it up from the inside out until nothing but ash remained.

"That's more like it, huh?"

As in, not wild and explodey. Somewhat. The critter was still dead, which was probably not quite what Lamya intended to make from Lais. More control was needed, but it felt so counter-intuitive. As if the concentration and precision of the Corvus sage animals were being the direct opposite of the Jugo blood within her. And yet their words had made them sound closer to chaos and mayhem. The more she thought about it, the less it made sense.

---

524
Total: 7929

Chakra 75/170:

"It is only more like it, but yet still far from actually being IT," Lamya smirked, inching slightly closer to the Jugo child, gently placing her hands upon Laïs' shoulders while reaching so close towards the crow sage upstart that the very air passing through her lips would leave a tingling sensation onto the young woman's ears. A chuckle could be distinctively heard coming from the rogue shinobi's mouth, a sinister and rather taunting chuckle just to hit the right nerves with the Jugo child. "So close...yet still...so far," Lamya's Left hand slid down from Laïs' shoulder down to her chest, where suddenly the young woman's mistress dug her nails into the poor girl's skin. "Use that which is inside here and use what's inside your head...force your blood to pump, your chakra to flow, heat up your senses, turn your mind into a cruel, shark weapon and strike."

The rogue shinobi took a single step to suddenly stand on Laïs' other side, letting go of the child's chest and in an eerie way licking off the very same nails that had just been dug into the Jugo girl's chest. "How does it feel to have discovered that all the time you've spend away from the world had been a waste?," Reaching for the back of the girl's head, the woman just pressed her hand slightly against it and continued to talk calmly and rather coldly. "All this time being told that there were demons around, demons that would trick you, play and pull at your heartstrings and with your mind? How does it feel to know that in the very end, you've been deceived?" Another chuckle escaped the woman's mouth as she finally took a step backwards, remaining positioned behind the Jugo girl though. "Through me, you can master death, control it, use it to your will and whims. Cast aside both your fear and your doubts towards death, because in the end, all you need to do..."

Instantly stepping closer again and turning the Jugo child towards her, the woman looked Laïs straight into her eyes, while smirking deviously. "Is fear ME."

Letting out a sudden laughter, Lamya took a few steps back again. "Have we learned a lesson? Have we seen reality and thus the world as it is and as it should be? You are the crow, the carrion bird, the messenger and the one to watch over the world, but before you will ever take such titles, you'll need to hone your skills and focus more dilligently on the tasks given to you..." Snapping her fingers, a man dressed in black with the eight headed crest upon his back appeared before Laïs and stood there silently. "Try it again."

475/7347

She understood very well she was missing something, but she failed to see understand the key her mentor was giving her to unlock the secrets of her own potential. Lamya, the Corvus, they had all spoken about something beyond and yet she couldn't see it. Hearing Lamya say out her own thoughts loudly, inching closer and breathing softly into her air was strangely tantalising. She couldn't help but breath in deeply, the allure of the Snake Sage's power feeling like a seductive promise again, the reminder of her vast power instantly resurfacing in the back of her mind. It was a twisted play between  fear and seduction that was further being drawn out as the woman's hand slithered down to her chest. That cool sensation would raise the hairs on her arm and neck, and make her gasp for breath when Lais felt the nails dig into her skin.

So close. Yet so far.

Lamya had not used any chakra, but for a moment it felt as if Lais' blood froze in place as even her Jugo instincts would have much preferred to crawl away in fear. It was difficult mustering the courage to remain standing still, quivering lip betraying that struggle. The sensation of fear pulled away when her mistress let go off her, licking of her nails as she tasted the inkling of Jugo blood that stuck to it, continuing to dig into her emotions, her mind, her very soul. The questions she asked made her think.

How did it feel to know she had wasted twenty one years? Her eyes darted towards the ground. The brief period she knew Lamya had opened so much more knowledge and insight.Power beyond comprehension was revealed. A whole world of possibilities explained. It felt... It made her spiteful. Her parents had been simple people sharing what they knew, and yet their deaths at her hand had almost been forgotten as Lamya's promises had washed away the guilt with its subtle corruption.

How did all these demons make her feel? Fearful. Powerless. And all together they were the source that drove her to show them she could beat them. Surpass them. The feeling of being inferior fuelled the maddening rage of her blood, and just thinking about them stirred that flame once again. Vehemence. Spite. Wrath and vengeance. It just made her want to bring everything down to ruins for an eternity to come. Then rise up from its ashes like a dark phoenix. Claiming her place just to show them how wrong they were.

She could hear the crows again, cawing. Mocking. She looked up into the skies briefly, but there were no black birds. Was that the goal to achieve? Ruin and destruction? Lamya's words mingled with her rising madness. No, not ruin and destruction. Death and decay. Mastery. Becoming death and decay until she could cloak the world under the ashes of morbidity.

Snapping out of the vision as Risu grabbed her, golden eyes fixated on hers, demanding to fear her. Her mind compelled with pleasure, her amethyst eyes briefly filled with the Jugo's madness now drowned in fear again. Yes, to fear her. That she certainly could do. She feared the Snake Sage to such depths she was still seeing flashes of the dark aura she had shown her in the corner of her eyes. She still woke up bathing in sweat at night from indistinctive nightmares. Two golden eyes in the dark, ever watching.

"Yes, mistress.", she replied with a whisper, the nightly nightmares as clear as daylight. She understood it well now. The fear she held. She had to share it. The darkness that shrouded her mind. She would unleash it. The embodiment of ash and decay. She would become it. She had to, if she ever would wish to come to terms with the waking nightmares.

Tapping into those emotions, natural energy would stir all around her as she drew them in to fuel her own chakra once again. Stronger than first, her wind chakra softly picking up as an eerie wind. Her amethyst eyes turned a glossy black again, no longer the eyes of the Jugo but the eyes of an ill omen being reflected. Nature energy would be drawn from the earth below. Stolen. Leaving the earth sickened as her doton nature claimed it for itself. The beginnings of a disease coming to infest the land. Black hair would turn iridescent. She could hear the crows again. Circling. Greeting. Their whispers of occult secrets revealing the madness of the world in peaceful slumber. The man that had appeared from the shadows. Life held him in his grasp, but the pallid breath of death was slowly discolouring his aura. A bleak future. Purple runes lighting up on her arms. Her fear would become his. A reflection of the hidden truth.

"...I'll take you home to rest in my black wings enfolding you."

She placed her hand upon his chest as the whispers of the Otherworld persisted in her mind. Clothes rotting away. Skin turning grey and stiff under her hand. More crows appeared around her. She pressed on, the Yin-chakra spreading around her hand, digging deeper. She could feel his pain as the tissue died within his still living skin. No remorse. Only death inside. Even if he'd scream, she would be deaf to his tears. Yet she didn't want to kill him. She wanted to reform him. Embrace him. Muscular tissue was dying, his breathing became difficult as veins had died off, blood flowing out as black as midnight. The crows were all around her. "Murder, murder", they cried. He was not to die. He was to become part of the greater scheme. The dark universe that would engulf the living. Half of his chest had died off, his heart had been stopped, but she refused to let him go. He would not breathe any longer. He should have been dead, yet... There would be no rest. The man still lived. Or would that be unlived? There would be no rest. Not in her sleep. Not in his death. She. would not. let him. go.

If she could not heal, she would make death a new form of life.

But her vision blurred. Exhaustion was taking hold of her as her chakra left her at increasingly fast rate. This technique, even if it would be her gift, was just a discovery. Not mastery. She had to let go off him before he took her with her. She was to become the messenger of death, not the way around. Lais pulled her hand back, leaving a putrid black mark there where it had rested upon his chest, and with it his temporary 'unlife' was revoked. The man would fall dead like a sack of potatoes. Her sage form left her, then her eyesight. All that remained was the echo of laughing crows, and the two golden eyes in the darkness.. Too exhausted to carry on, she crashed onto her knees uncomfortably.

"As long as the crows can't fly, the snake devours them."

---

1191
Total: 9120

25/170:

She watched, her eyes staring with glee and amusement at the child's ability. The tip of her tongue ran across her lips when she could see how the child started to walk towards the man dressed in black, her hands raised upwards when the child embraced the man, her arms wrapping around herself when she noticed the life fading away from within the poor testsubject. With every passing moment, the image of Laïs' strange, yet tantalizing power made the woman feel more and more intrigued, aroused and just plain simply amazed by the sheer prospect of being able to truly train a student with such a promising future.

"Yes...yes, just like that, feel him grow cold, weak and take in all that helplessness," Lamya chuckled softly, taking a step closer to the Jugo child as she performed her embrace, as her chakra sought a way into the poor man's body and started ravaging it from the inside out. "As death comes, take it all, take everything. His life, his love, his desires and fears...take it all."

As finally the child, through a lack of chakra slumped down and let go of the poor man, the rogue shinobi got closer again and placed her hands atop the Jugo girl's shoulders. She was smiling gleefully at Laïs, with an almost feverish desire and ambition visible within her golden eyes. "The carrion has been taken, the birds have had their meal...and the snake watches patiently for the next time opportune to strike," The missing nin embraced Laïs gently and chuckled softly. "You've done very well, my little girl. I know you're exhausted and I know you're not feeling all too great, but remember that you've learned a few things today and that through learning and adapting, you gain more power and more control. In time, you'll know how to precisely use your power. However, because you are on the other aspect of the medical spectrum...I reckon I best have you train with someone who is more accustomed to the use of the negative form you wield."

Lamya thought about it, though she had some use of the negative sides of medical ninjutsu herself, there was one out there who had not just great knowledge, but also great power in the decaying form of medical ninjutsu. With some guidance and some better tutolage, this child could truly be an asset, not only to lamya, but to her will and her dreams.

422/7769

Laïs would not raise up instantly, engulfed by the strange feeling of death lingering about her body. Her heart hammered in her chest, as frantic as when she would be delivered by the Jugo madness, but it felt weak. As if every new heartbeat was a struggle to remain alive against the chilling grasp of death. She tasted decay on her blackened lips, its harsh purification stinging like salt. Even Lamya's arms around her felt remarkably warm against her own cold and lifeless skin. The sensation of death she had given to the man had affected her own body as well, a shared fate of sorts. As Lamya had suggested, she had taken all the man had until death itself was all she could take from him. And death was what she was holding now within her body.

Her mistress would praise her. This was what she had meant. No fear for anything else but her meant even death itself would not affect her. Not an inkling of life within her own chakra simply meant she would have to master death in a way no one else would do. Death would be her new life. When ruin would bring forth nothing but ash, she would still be standing, empowered by its entropy. An entropic phoenix rising from its ashes. But not the first. A flicker of life would return to her eyes as she shifted her gaze to the corner of her eyes, catching the glimpse of her mistress' face nearby. Her own breath would be cold as she exhaled, her voice hollow as she spoke.

"Whom else than you would know such power?"

Would it be necessary to meet this person? She wouldn't mind trying it out by herself. Using test subjects until she figured it out. Mastered it. Until she would be used to being Death herself, and share it with others. All in name of Orochi Risu.

Upon hearing the name of this stranger, Laïs would ask more details. Who was he, what could she expect, and was there anything she had to share in Lamya's name? How did she view this other teacher and how did he fit in with her plans? She needed to know, if only to be sure how to deal properly with a friend or a foe of the Snake Sage.

---

394
Total: 9514

"Whom else than you would know such power?" The kid's question was somewhat understandable given the fact that she probably had little to no idea how many truly powerful and terrifying people she would meet in the span of her life. If anything, though she came from the land of demons, the true demons were to be found in the shinobi world, where each and every truly powerful shinobi was a deity compared to the common folk, though with consideration to herself...Lamya did think some were more divine than others. "Trust me, Laïs...when I say that despite me being easily one of the strongest shinobi in this entire world, there are still so many around that could teach you things that I can't or can't completely," The woman let out a deep sigh and walked over to the pile of rotten, decayed and simply putrid remains of what used to be a simple man doing her bidding. With another sigh, she gently touched the remains with the tips of her fingers, feeling the necrosis still trying to cling onto her skin even when Laïs had already severed her chakra connection to the deadly affliction. "There's someone who is much more proficient in teaching you how to fully use and comprehend the Yin-style of medical ninjutsu. I bet you'll meet him wether I guide you to him or not."

Standing up again, the rogue shinobi dusted off her clothes and snapped her fingers for a second, suddenly seeming to be in higher spirits. "There's no rule that says you can't have more than one teacher and I'd rather have a talented child like you get the best," Placing a hand on the child's shoulder with a surprisingly gentle smile on her face, she squinted her eyes. "Do not think of this as me peddling you off to another, but as your master acknowledging that to have you truly grow to the best of your abilities, sometimes other people may turn out to be the better teachers. His name's Daremo, I don't know where he is or wether or not he still uses that name, but he's a real blast when it comes to yin style medical ninjutsu."

Standing up again, Lamya suddenly chuckled. "I really do think this is enough for today...I'm smelling like dead people and for some reason you're smelling even worse...I guess we better head back and relax for the time being. I'll allow you to roam the land in search of this man, just remember that when the time comes, I'll be there."

449/8218

EXIT THREAD

A rank jutsu Impalement cruelty 2000/2000 complete
A rank jutsu Apex Predator 2000/2000 complete
A rank jutsu Yamata no Orochi - Grand Slam 2000/2000 complete
A rank jutsu White Snake Style - Serpentine Entrapment 2000/2000 complete

218 wc left

The Jugo would slowly stand up as a certain stiffness in her muscles had receded. Breathing was still somewhat difficult, but the warmth of her own body was returning and her heart was slowing its maddening race against pseudo-death. She would listen to her mentor's explanation, catching the glimpse of genuine concern that would unexpectedly surprise her and bring a faint pink hue on her otherwise pallid countenance. Sometimes Laïs did feel like a kid when facing this demonic woman, like she was an unofficial adopted progeny. For a moment she'd remain quiet, everything about her just inches away from falling in a deep slumber.

"Daremo.", she'd mumble, repeating his name as if it would reveal a hint as to where she could find hm. "I'll make sure not to disappoint by the time we meet again, mistress."

She'd gaze out in the direction where they came from, her body really aching to find some rest now, her mind strangely at peace. Lamya then suggested to return as if she had read her mind, joking about the smell of dead people and how she smelled even worse. The Jugo would grin, then frown as laughing was hurting just about everything in her stomach. It sure had been an interesting training.

---

[EXIT]

217
Total: 9731
- 525 Perception -> D
- 5875 All stats D -> D-3
3331 remaining
- 2000 Iryojutsu -> B
- 1000 C Rank: Reflect Clone Jutsu
Discarding 331