Chiaki put down the version of Riki Tiki Tavi, a story of a weasel that bested a snake and sighed. She liked the story, as evil was vanquished and good won. She wondered if the story had any real life application, or if good and evil were just constructs of the world around her. She gulped down the last of her tea, setting the cup and saucer on the counter for later and stretched. Time to train. Nodding to herself she wondered what she had in store for today. Obviously there would be training, but where at? Perhaps in the training grounds of the fourth? It was a popular spot, to be sure, but she didn't feel obligated to do anything there. No, perhaps not. She, as she was rounding the stairs, almost tripped and fell down them with a young courier scurrying up the stairs with a letter in hand. He had an urgent message, or so he said, and she wondered what it was that made him almost lose his life by stair descent.

"Urgent missive for you, Guanyin-sama." He said, straightening up and giving her the paper. She placed a ryo bill in his hand and waved him off. As soon as he did so she opened it and read it aloud. "Urgent B ranked mission, there is a bear not far from the Konoha border which has been terrorizing citizens. It has eaten four and hurt at least a dozen, put an end to its rampage." She looked down and frowned at the seal of the administration office. So it was assigned to her by them eh? She crumpled the paper and stuffed it into her bag. Well, at least she would get her stretching and exercise in.

She sighed and placed her foot on the step, sailing into the air and to the rooftop. She would at least get this B ranked mission out of the way and then get back to training. It was a drag, but she had to do it. Seeing as the ninja they were at were short, because of the warpath of Takao.

Looking to the west, she sped off.

In little under a day and a half, she found the bear and defeated it, making an awful din in the meantime. She was in the process of beheading it, wondering if she should take the hide instead, and make a bear skin rug out of it, looking down at the grisly work, she twirled her kunai in her hand and frowned, a pensive look on her face.

WC: 430

Dilligently making her way through the Land of Fire towards her intended target loaction of Konohagakure, Orochi Risu, mostly known as Lamya made her way through the forests that cov"ered most of the large nation's swaths of land and fertile soil, eager to think of a way to make sure she'd get her hands on the right sequence of sealing jutsu that were being used to monitor and protect the borders of Konohagakure. Along with her trusted snake companion Uraeus, she made great progress in traversing the land, camping ever so often in the forests, yet the closer they came to the center of the nation itself, the more chances they had or rather Lamya herself had by sleeping in Inns or taverns in some small local towns.

It was easy to make herself go under the radar, after all...she had been a part of Konoha's own ANBU and had lead it as its captain general as well for a time. There was no way she'd be spotted so easily, as she was carefully making sure she'd curtail her own chakra expenses to a minimum, simply using a  medically enhanced transformation jutsu to keep herself hidden in plain sight. As she had managed to get her hands on the hairs of one of the inkeepers of one of the Inns she had slept at, she only entered villages disguised as a rotund, tall and hairy, bearded man to avoid drawing in too much attention from others. With but the drollest of clothes and the most forgetful of faces, her transformation jutsu made her able to blend in within basically any of the outlying village societies near Konohagakure.

As she could not go through the gates of the Village hidden in the leaf, nor simply pass its borders without being detected or at the very least alarming its shinobi, the woman had to lay low disguised as she was, by staying at each village for a short period of time to try and see if she'd find a wayward shinobi to get her hands on if possible.

As if luck was playing into her own hands so gracefully, one day Risu woke up in one of the Inns she was staying at to a loud ruckus outside, quickly using the transformation jutsu to make herself look like the innkeeper of a few towns back, she looked outside of the window of the room she was sleeping in, to see a bear fighting someone. In a feigned panic, she stromed out of her room to the tavern within the inn below, only to hear the innkeeper mention that there was no need to worry, the shinobi of Konohagakure had arrived.

To her own surprise, Risu could see that the one who had dealt with the bear, was none other than the  shinobi she was supposed to find to begin with: Guanyin Chiaki, the Hokage's assistant. From the looks of it, she wasn't all that much of a shinobi in Risu's eyes, just some girl thinking she was strong maybe, nothing more. However, to take her out in such a place like this village wouldn't be in Risu's advantage, not to mention that it would most likely cause quite a stir, so she had to figure something out in order to force this shinobi to follow her, but what could she do?

Perhaps making her presence known wasn't really a good thing to do, she couldn't have the entire hidden village in the leaf being sent after her, but luckily Risu did think there was at least one way of handling this. After all, a shinobi would no doubt try to save someone of this village if something would happen while they were present after all. Using her telepathic connection to her own pet snake Uraeus, Risu formulated her plan. With so many onlookers leaving their homes to praise the shinobi, there were also a lot of children present at the scene and her pet wouldn't really have any trouble with snatching one of the smaller ones in an obvious fashion to lure the shinobi that was present at the scene.

Having relayed that plan, it didn't take long for a ruckus to be caused when people screamed and panicked near Chiaki who had bested the big bear, when a massive white snake coiled itself around a poor little girl near the edge of the forest, hissing loudly before dragging the poor toddler into the darkness of the woods. Calling out for the shinobi to help them, to save their daughter, unexpectedly, the parents of the child only aided in Risu's own plan to get the shinobi's attention.

Swiftly hightailing it through the back of the inn, Risu herself vanished into the forest as well, going to the rendezvous point she had discussed with her pet, due to her own superior speed, it didn't take long for her to reach the point, only to have Uraeus arrive there was well with the kid, now unconscious within his grasp. Undoing her own transformation and jumping into the foliage of a large tree, the woman awaited the arrival of the shinobi she'd been looking for, all the while letting Uraeus at the very least pose himself as the antagonist in this little game she'd made specifically for this Guanyin Chiaki.

907

While looking down at the bear, Chiaki was surrounded by cheers, and praises. Some people were singing songs, as was their way, but not Chiaki's particularly. Soon enough though, there was a hissing noise and a mother cried out, "Toro-kun!"

Chiaki looked up only to see that a giant white, why was it white, snake was taking a child off into the forest. Well, not on her watch. The snake, no matter the color or the size wouldn't escape her. She found it odd that something like this would happen, but her own bravado and thought that she was infallible blinded her to what the snake was doing. It hadn't gobbled up the youth on the spot.

Or that is what she thought.

Chiaki, with each passing moment, was getting further and further behind the beast, and with each passing moment she was losing sight of the kid. Damn her and her speed. She knew that there were beasts beyond her, but if she didn't save the child now, then it would be eaten and she would be... she would be just like that time when the shinobi and Kunoichi of the hidden leaf had left a wake of destruction in their path.

She ground her teeth and tried to push forward, calling after the snake "Wait!" She tried running further and further, the images of the dead people from her past nipping at her heels like dogs would as she tried to make it to the snake. She didn't want to lose another person, to have another person's death on her hands, especially that of a child.

Running to try to keep up with the Snake was all that she could do, and she was leaving herself wide open. The snake was constantly out of range for any type of jutsu, but once it got out of range it only kept away from her by a little bit, tantalizing her. Or she was tiring it out. Thinking that it was the latter, and not the former gave her hope and kept her feet pounding at the ground.

WC: 785

Uraeus cursed the child's constant squirming and moving, forcing him to constantly slow down just to make sure the kid wouldn't make a break for it. Sure he could've gobbled her up and be done with it, but his mistres'' train of thought was infallible in this regard: people tended to work harder and keep up the idea of being able to save someone as long as they weren't sure that those they aimed to save were in sight and alive. Thus his slowing down actually helped that cause as well, as it seemed his snatch and grab activity had gained the attention of the one shinobi they'd hoped to bait with it. "Looksss like you're lucky kid," The snake hissed at the child, deciding to go full throttle for a moment in order to make a bit of distance between the pursuing shinobi and itself towards the rendezvous point.

When it had arrived at a small clearing practically at the center of the forst, the snake dropped the kid at the bottom of a large and broad tree, coiling around the child and raising its head a bit to keep watch on the direction where the shinobi would've most certainly be entering the clearing from. "Be a good little kid and ssstay put...as long asss you do that, you wont get hurt."

Having arrived at the rendezvous point herself, Risu waited for the shinobi as well, though she managed to hide herself within the very tree in front of which Uraeus was waiting and keeping the kid. Covering her face with the eerily designed white mask, the woman crouched upon one of the branches covered by the tree's foliage and kept an eye on the preceedings as well, curious as to how good the shinobi truly was. After all, to beat a mere bear was one thing, but to face off with a snake like Uraeus was an entirely different matter. Uraeus was after all, a child from the great white snake sage and without a doubt much more versed in the shinobi world than just some random snake found in a forest, comparable to a shinobi jonin on its own.

371/1278

The snake skittered up a tree with the child in tow, and Chiaki ran to the edge of the clearing, trying to get her breath back. Trying to keep up with the stupid snake was its own workout, and she didn't want to lose sight of it, no matter what. Her mouth felt dry and her ears were ringing from the exertion. She gulped down a couple lungfuls of air before she started to proceed further. First, she wove hand seal for her guanyin otter tackle, standing her ground and focusing her chakra while staying well out of range of even her most powerful attack. She didn't want the kid hurt, or to be ambushed suddenly. A good 100 meters off would ensure that. She wove the tiger seal and concentrated, a teal two headed otter draping itself around her and forming over her hands, its jaws open and snapping with each hand movement.

She hoped that this would intimidate the snake, "I don't know if you can understand me, but if you harm that child I will kill you." She burned with rage, "If you give him to me, I'll consider letting you live." This damned snake was going to be a nuisance, she knew it. She knew because it was faster than her, that she probably should work up the bravado that she had lost chasing after it, and her eyebrows knitted downward to show her anger.

The next part would be tricky, she started to walk towards the snake, molding chakra into her hands, one was a red senbon, of the guanyin clan, and the other was making the signs for a plasma barrier, which, when she was at 80 meters, she stopped and it hummed to life around her, crackling with electricity and teal chakra. She was angry, and she wanted to show dominance to the snake, but she also was wary of it. What would it do now? What ploy would it employ to get out of it. If it ate the child, she lost, if it came after her, she had a slim chance of survival.

"Besides, don't you want a bigger meal than that small snack you have? It looks like it'd barely be a mouthful." She grinned and put her hand, the one that had made the plasma barrier, up in a taunting 'come here' fashion.

She hoped that the taunt would work.

WC: 1192


Chakra left:
280/370

Jutsu used:


Name: Guanyin Otter Tackle
Origin: Personal Creation
Rank: B
Type: Offensive
Element: N/A
Range: Touch
Specialty: Medical ninjutsu/ninjutsu
Duration: 3 posts.
Cooldown: 0
Hand Seals: Tiger, sustained
Description: The user makes and holds the tiger seal while firmly planting their feet into the ground. The user inhales and is surrounded by an incorporeal water-like aura. An otter drapes itself across the user’s shoulders. Upon inspection it is a double-sided, or double headed otter. When the user touches the victim within the duration the otter bites and they suffer from full body paralysis for three posts. While the victim is helpless it looks like there are otters on them, made of teal chakra. This costs 30 chakra to activate.


Name: Lightning Release: Plasma Barrier (雷遁・荷電障壁殻 ~ Raiton: Purazuma Bōru)
Origin: Library
Rank: A-rank
Type: Defensive
Element: Raiton
Range: Self
Specialty: Ninjutsu
Duration: 3 posts
Hand Seals: Snake > Ox > Tiger > Snake
Description: After weaving the required seals the user exudes raiton chakra. This chakra exudes to a maximum of 1 meter away from the user and is capable of defending against a single technique of up to a rank higher.


Name: Red Drakpo
Origin: Ayakashi’s creation
Rank: B
Type: Offensive
Element: N/A
Range: ½ m (length of the senbon)
Specialty: Medical Ninjutsu
Duration: 3 posts
Cooldown: 0 (outdated)
Hand Seals: Hold Tiger
Description:At the cost of -30 chakra; the Guanyin is capable of generating a single 1/2 meter long red thin sewing needle made of their own stem cell chakra for three posts. The needles while active are solid and can interact as a weapon to block basic strikes but can be broken by a technique of equal rank.

At this rank, the Red needle upon piercing a target is absorbed into the victim and spreading its energy over the whole body which is capable of Minor 3rd degree tissue damage due to necrosis.

The snake calmly tightened his coiling body around the little kid when Chiaki finally managed to catch up, letting out a threateningly loud hiss at the shinobi while opening his maw and revealing two pairs of imaculately deadly fangs and a forked tongue flicking about. However, upon seeing something he had not seen ever before, Uraeus slowly swayed his head to the side and looked with renewed vigilance at what this shinobi was trying to pull off, only to hear her actually bartering with him...for his own life it seemed. "Curiou-sss...you truly think that you can threaten me?" The snake's voice was hollow and surprisingly deep, truly befitting the frightening nature those of his species seemed to possess and the fear they usually invoked in the less...brave among the humans. Letting out a mixture of a chuckle and a hiss at the same time, Uraeus' body started to tighten its coiling grip around the child even more.  "Hmm, you really are a ssstrange one...so cocky and sss-ure of your-sss-elf when fa-sss-ing off again-sss-t sss-omeone...SSSHE like breaking that kind of people'sss sss-pirit."

Suddenly the snake had to refrain from bursting out in a fit of laughter when Chiaki commented on the child being way too little to be a proper meal for one of such size as himself. "Well, I can't sss-ay you're wrong in that regard," With another mixture of a chuckle and a hiss escaping the beast's maw, the snake loosened its grip upon the child a bit, even going so far as to allow for it to have some wiggling space within the snake's grasp. "I-sss that you offering your-sss-elf to me?" He laughed loudly now, the tip of his tail tapping the chin of the tiny child, slowly sliding down towards the toddler's throat. "SSShe won't allow you to hit me...but do try and make your be-sss-t ssshot."

Risu in the meantime remained hidden behind the foliage, high up in the three, watching the events unfold from afar, smiling each time She noticed the target's bravado and tomfoolery towards Uraeus. The snake was smart and strong, but in a long range fight, he'd lose to even a genin and Risu knew this, calmly keeping her right thumb and middle finger pressed together, just in case she needed to act in favor of her pet.

419/1697

Chiaki growled at the snakes taunting, standing there at the precipice of the 80 meters that she had put between herself and the snake, wondering who this 'she' was that it kept blathering on about. She looked at the child and thought of any jutsu that she could use on that snake that would make it drop the child, but in a manner that she could still save it. If she attacked, the kid died, that was certain. She ground her teeth once more in futility as she shouted up, “You are going to regret this, and so is she, whoever she is. I have protected the people of this land, and I am not going to let them down now.”

She wove a hand seal, the rat, with one hand as she was wont to do and started to concentrate, a healing aura coming up around her, before she seemingly disappeared from sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. She moved quickly to get to the child, there was no more hesitation, her movements were swift and she was going to kill that snake. No more hesitation, there was only her and the snake. As she moved at her fastest, she wove another hand seal sequence, monkey, snake, boar, snake, and stopped at 20 meters, slamming her palm to the ground, sending her chakra deep underground, sealing the snake and herself inside the barrier. Perhaps now it would drop the child and would fight her. At least it couldn’t run anymore, and she had closed the gap.

She had the upper hand, or so she thought, having disappeared from all five of the senses, and waited for the snake to move away from the child to end its miserable life.

WC: 1483

Jutsu used: Sixteen Pillar Bind, Otter's dispersion.

Jutsu used:

Chakra: 220/370

Maintaining:

Jutsu duration 2 more posts.:

Uraeus kept his eyes closely trained on the young woman, the tip of his tail gently touching the child's throat while he was doing so. However, just as he was ready to take whatever this young shinobi would dare to throw at him, she vanished, leaving not a single trace of her presence. "She's gone, mistress...I can't sense her at all...what should I do?" His thoughts were rather erratic, spooked by this sudden vanishing, which almost seemed to look like a genjutsu of sorts, but given that he was pretty certain he'd have known if he was under any influence of someone's chakra, Uraeus could only let out a threatening hiss in desperation.



"Tsk...I'll have to deal with this myself," The woman in the tree hissed to herself. She had no idea where the young shinobi was either, but unlike her pet, she was certain she could handle anything this little shinobi could dish out. So she jumped down from the tree, right towards the snake and his captive. However, just before something blocked her way, she could see how the child was taken out of Uraeus' rather weak grasp upon it before a large structure barred her from reaching her pet. "Hmm...pathetic."

Uraeus, shocked by how fast he had been removed from his position of power, coiled himself in order to defend against something he couldn't see, though getting at least a semblance of a location was easier when two handprints could be seen flattening the grass on the ground when suddenly a structure of shining light seemed to raise from the ground around him, cutting him off from the outside worl. "Trying to kill me, are we? It won't work...you're already right where we want you." Without a warning, the snake started to laugh, when he could feel the sinister chakra building up on the outside of the barrier.

Risu's own black chakra emerged in a violent pulse from within her body, rapidly expanding as she walked towards Uraeus, any kind of chakra that was weaker, not hers and lacking in the intensity and pressure to defy her own immense chakra, would simply crumble and be erased into nothingness. Even the chakra within people's bodies would be completely distorted and scrambled, making it incredibly hard to even weave but a single jutsu. Alas, Uraeus himself was also privy to this effect, feeling himself getting queasy as he slumped down, just like the child, who though slightly better off due to being further away, still had chakra of her own as well. "Children of Konoha these days are so hasty, so irresponsible and so...foolhardy." With Chiaki's jutsu no doubt all completely erased, she was most likely visible again, something Risu would be most keen to point out by looking right into her direction. "So much for the Guanyin clan's pride in their medical ninjutsu...

Instantly, she grabbed a kunai out of her hippouch, her arm swiftly slithering through the air like a whip towards the unconscious child laying on the ground. "Now than, shall we perhaps take this elsewhere?" Without a prior warning, Risu would aim to slam the side of her hand against the young shinobi's neck in an attempt to knock her out if she were to comply.

561/2258

Jutsu Used:

Right where they wanted her? She looked around and tried to figure out what the snake meant. Who was this woman that he keep referring to? Who was this person that he was thinking would save him? She grit her teeth and started towards the snake, and the child. Raising her senbon high above her head, like a dagger she would try to strike. The red senbon hissed with ill intent before she heard something she had not heard before.

The lightning between her sixteen pillars fizzled and died, leaving the jutting earth there, completely useless against the onslaught of the chakra, and as she raised her hand, Chiaki felt her chakra be hit by it, the technique which threw her chakra network into disarray. Panic spread as she could hear her own breathing once more, could see her own flesh, her own nose. She looked to her hand, where she had held the dagger of a senbon, the red glow that was supposed to be there was gone. Her plasma barrier was gone as well. No. No this couldn’t be happening.
“What did you do to me?” She demanded, whirling on the woman. She looked at the mask, and glared at its faceless face that stared back at her. The woman’s arm then stretched, unbelievably long, unbelievably fast, and unbelievably elastic to rest with a kunai against the child’s neck. “Damn you.” her eyes burned with rage, she tried to mold chakra, but felt it was useless, the surge she usually felt was dulled, mulled, like it had been hit with a sedative. She remembered this feeling. She would have to, if she got out of this, make a technique similar to it. This was indeed a powerful technique. She would practice as long as it would take, and it would be turned against this woman.

She couldn’t do anything but comply, nothing more could save the child now, as she felt helpless and small. She felt her height, that five foot nothing ninja, and she felt like she was smaller than she actually was. Was this what non-shinobi felt like in the presence of shinobi and Kunoichi alike? She hated the feeling and the anger burned ever brighter within her. She couldn’t help it pouring out of every pore that she had. That short fuse was going to get her into trouble someday, but she managed to sigh and put her hands up in the air as a sign of surrender, “Alright, just don’t hurt the kid.”

As she glared daggers at the woman and didn’t notice the other arm until it was too late, it came from an impossible angle, a fist slammed into the side of her head, just below her jaw, rattled her brain and the world reeled. She took a shaky step forward before collapsing into a heap on the ground, knew nothing but the taste of blood and blackness therein.


WC: 1984

Doors opened, doors closed, the smell of damp stone and stale air filled the air. Metal objects clinked and clanged, the sound of gaslamps and electrical buzzing resonated throughout the area. Even the weakest, least sensible of shinobi could hear the creeping and skittering of bugs and other kinds of critters. When Chiaki would regain conscious, she'd find herself in a dimly lit space, a rather large area which seemed to have some relics of a bygone past, disc-shaped targets with rusty kunai stuck in them, sand and dust upon the ground which still containt some trace elements of what was without question the blood of people that had been in that same place as Chiaki, long before. Genin, jonin, ANBU, clanheads, many a person had been brought into this place either by force or by trickery and deception, this was a place where many a man, woman and child had either lost their lives or their spirit and the very place where the madness of the Ouroboros had been reignited.

"Had a good rest, little hatchling of the Guanyin tribe?" From within the darkness of the dimly lit space, the soft, hissing voice emanated hollowly, like the soft whisper of a ghost at the stroke of midnight. "Welcome to the Hive, the place where the most powerful and most deranged member of my family managed to trap, ensnare and intoxicate both the weak and the strong with delussions and fear. You should feel honoured, seeing as you are the first outsider in this place ever since the days in which Konoha's shadows threatened to swallow the shinobi world whole."

Slowly, two glistening and glimmering golden orbs with pupils the shape of fine slits appeared within the darkness peering at a chained to the wall Chiaki. Iron chains with clasps around her anckles and her throat, all connected together on a large, castiron ring, driven deep into the wall.

The sound of boots clacking with high heels upon the ground resonated through the entire place, verifying the sheer emptiness of the place, as the woman who wore the mask before, came closer and into the dim light the gaslamps were spreading. If this place had been so old as she said, it was almost a practical miracle that it still had its inner sanctum up and running. The sound of boots became more pronounced as the golden eyes came closer, a massive amount of black chakra thickening the air in the room, like tendrils of concentrated hatred and madness, the chakra leaked out of the woman, a chakra signature that had it not been for the very fact that they were in the Hiva, would have no doubt alerted konoha's most elite shinobi and would've sent shivers down the spine of many a clan elder and leader. "I'd advice against struggling...but we both know you wouldn't give up on trying unless I'd force you to...so do be aware that in here..."

Instantly, the woman leaped out of the darkness, slamming her black, gloved hand against the wall behind Chiaki, the white, ghoulish mask up close. "In here, for the better lack of a word...I am god."

537/2795

Chiaki looked blearily around the room, the smell of iron and perhaps blood was palpable, but that of dust and decay was more readily available. She had been chained, and the rough cuffs from misuse, or disuse, had fallen into the general state of decay as the things around them. Being thicker than her wrists were around, she knew she wouldn't be able to escape them easily, or without help. She looked up, a collar around her neck rattling noisily as the woman spoke so that she could see the ring that tied together all of her restraints above her head. The mortar around the stone that kept it there was strong as ever, and so was the pin that held that ring to it.

So with no readily available way to get out, and with her chakra all which ways from the woman's jutsu, she could only feel minor pulses and gurgles of what her chakra reserves should have been, she was more or less helpless in this place.

The hive struck no bells in her, as she had never learned it, and it had been erased from the annals of time, forgotten in some history scroll that she had never touched, or uncovered. She would, once she escaped this place, have to find this scroll and make sure that she burned this place to the ground, razed the foundations, and made sure no one was ever brought here again.

A fire danced behind Chiaki's dark blue pools that she called eyes and as she was given the history of the place, she felt a shiver sneak down her spine all the way to the base of it. Two yellow eyes stared out at her and her rage flared hot again, a spark lit in her igniting the gasoline that was her anger at that snake. She would have her vengeance upon it one day.

The chakra inside of her pooled and boiled over, it wasn't hers to control anymore, but it responded to her emotions as well, if not better than before, and the black chakra was met with a dark red chakra, the chakra a color of blood that lit the wall behind her dimly and dripped from her as the woman approached, wearing a white mask to hide her face. She let the woman talk, still looking for a place to escape, and still giving a defiant glare.

The woman's hand slammed into the wall behind her, rattling the chains on the wall and her face was close to a head-butt distance away. Chiaki's glare intensified, almost as if she could form jutsu and burn a hole right into that woman from here, "Why am I here, and what did you do to me?" She asked, even tones coming out, "If it is for revenge for your pet, let's get this over and done with. You seem like a busy woman." Her sentences were short, full of venom and bitten off.

"My my...such a feisty little child," The masked woman laughed, retracting her hand from the wall behind Chiaki with a sinister sounding chuckle and taking a step back while motioning with her black-gloved hand to feign being impressed by Chiaki's rather surprisingly defiant behavior. "You really don't seem to be affraid or distressed at all in the situation you're in..."

Having seen how Chiaki's own chakra seemed to defy her own dark chakra with its own intensity and ferocity, the woman felt a sort of joy, an elation that perhaps she wouldn't be dealing with some jumped up pipsqueak to contend with, but a promising youth who's mind she'd be more than willing to expose to the reality of the shinobi world. "Rebellious, strong willed, perhaps a bit foolhardy...hmm, what is it that I want, you ask?" Removing her gloves and revealing the smooth, perfect, alabaster skin and perfectly manicured nails with onyx black nailpolish with gold dust  expertly applied on them, showed that the one who held Chiaki captured was not some uncultured barbarian or a lowlife shinobi with only desperation on their side. Slowly, those same hands reached for the mask which covered the woman's face, now revealing a young-looking,slender and immaculate ivory white face with black, luscious lips, golden eyes with thick black lashes and long silky, jet black hair adorned by probably her most inhuman feature: a set of thick, curved horns protruding from her skull and actually forming a sort of crown around her hair. "Though probably you don't know who I am and given the fact that my own clan hasn't fared that well after me relinquishing my position as its leader...I might actually doubt you'd know more about me than a newborn child suckling their own mother's teet. I reckon after all this time even my own home may have forgotten about me, but ah well...that is part of the ravages that time presents to us...oblivion."

Raising her hand with a sinister grin upon her face, the woman let her own chakra now burst out in all its glory, showing that where her other technique may have felt harsh and overbearing, it was nothing compared to the feeling of being blasted full force by her overpowering and overwhelming amount of chakra. Slowly, she walked up to Chiaki and with each step, her grin turned into a more pensive expression. "What I want is simple...information, I want to know the ins and outs of konoha...I want to know how to get in and out without being detected by that damn barrier and most importantly, I want information on the one who actually managed to kill me, the one who controls fire to such a degree it would even completely overwhelm a member of both the Uchiha and the sarutobi clans," Standing still about a meter away from the chackled and bound Chiaki, the woman let out a chuckle and leaned a bit forward, reaching out to gently lift Chiaki's face a bit upwards to look right into her own eyes and be looked down upon by this former member of Konohagakure no sato. "Be a good girl and grant me what I want to know...I don't think either of us would want to have someone get hurt...though we both know who that someone would be, don't we?"

580/3375

Jutsu used:

Chakra: 395/470

As the woman pushed off the wall behind her and let her masked face recede from Chiaki's own, she pulled at the chains which groaned under her strength, but were made to hold shinobi, made to hold people of much stronger strength than her there. She couldn't mold her chakra, and she had no way out. She would have to think of another way to best this woman, even if it was just to not give her any information.

Her defiant glare turned into a sneer as the woman told her that she didn't seem distressed or afraid. Fact of the matter was, she was more angry with herself and the situation she was in than anything else. She had hoped to have saved the child and didn't know what had happened to him, she didn't know where she was or even why she was brought there. "No sense in being either. They cloud a shinobi's judgement." She recited a bit of wisdom shared with her years ago.

She looked to the woman's hands as she talked, wondering how she got such white skin. They probably didn't see the light of day, but still, it was an unearthly white, almost an albino white and the snake had been as well. She wondered whether or not it had to do with some long forgotten clan, lost to the annals of time, or the history scrolls. She had no clue who Lamya was, nor how dangerous she could be.

She was actually quite affluent to have such meticulously cared for nails, or she was at least not scrounging for the last bean bun in the bottom of the barrel. She had money, and probably resources besides, like contacts, and a base of operations. Chiaki had truly blundered and stumbled across someone who was a true threat. The temper of hers was calmed to a slow simmer as she watched the woman pull her mask off.

The mask, for what it was worth, hid her horns, but they could not be called bestial. They seemed, tame to say the least, to say the most they were meticulously upkept like the rest of the woman's features, but Chiaki's eyes went straight to them, none the less. She looked from the horns down to the face that they sat atop, and Chiaki's beauty was dwarfed by that of the other woman's. She had immaculate skin, no wrinkles or signs of age like Chiaki was already starting to develop, and she dared say that this woman would be a pinup or a centerfold model if she wanted to be. A runway model, someone to be worshiped for their looks, if she were not a shinobi, that was.

Chiaki almost forgot who she was dealing with for a split second before her features, which had softened were brought to their usual hardness by the words that came from the woman's mouth.

"Oblivion is only for those who do not serve anyone but themselves." Chiaki managed to get out, her anger boiling under the surface again. How arrogant, how... how truly... She couldn't believe that this woman thought that the village would remember someone who left it for their own selfish goals. Or... or maybe she didn't. A thoughtful look to the ground was given before Chiaki asked another question, "You... you do serve only yourself right?" It was a bit of conflict, the first sign of weakness that she had shown throughout the entire ordeal.

Or the first that she remembered.

The woman raised her hand and while Chiaki's guard was down, no... even if her guard was up she still would have felt the same. It wasn't like she was being overwhelmed, per se, it was more like her chakra was being inundated by the woman's own chakra, that it bled into every pore and seared her. She looked at the woman, the chakra twisting within her and all of her muscles said to flee, to get away from this woman, that she was too much for Chiaki, even if she did fight or even if she did escape.

The woman walked slowly up to Chaiki, her chakra still a menace to the girl as she walked closer and closer, and while their ages might be similar, their experience in battle was understandably different. This woman had been out in the world, whereas Chiaki, well, Chiaki had no idea what was going on in the shinobi world other than that Kumo had been decimated, flattened, totalled, and she was trying to find her place in that world. That chaotic world. This woman knew her place, and she strode towards Chiaki proudly before a pensive look overtook her, and she told her what she wanted.

Information? What kind of information? then came the all important reveal. It was about Takao. She wanted to know who had killed her. She found that she had averted her eyes, trying to come up with a compelling lie for the woman, but the first question she didn't have to lie about, she had no idea what the woman was talking about for a barrier.

"I..." She looked down and then back up, "If Takao managed to kill you before, he'll do it again. He's the hokage now, and he is the only one that I know with the katon prowess to rival that of an Uchiha or a Sarutobi." She shuddered, remembering all of the carnage, the wasteland that had come about when he had set his eyes on kumogakure no Sato.

"Yes, I believe that it is him that you are looking for information about, and I am not giving it to you. Not that I know anything anyhow." She glared, and decided to bury the other question under the answer to this one, hoping that the woman would forget it. "He's the strongest user of katon that I have ever seen, his breath melted buildings, leveled the entirety of Kumogakure no Sato, and brought the village hidden in the clouds to its knees. Or rather, it was completely decimated. I am not sure if any of the people there survived."

Another lie, one to cover up that she was trying to hide the barrier question in this one. She had managed to save at least a couple of the people from Kumogakure no Sato and she had worked in a hospital to save those who were ravaged by Takao's warlike rampage.

She gave a determined look, or tried to, but it came out as a terrified, almost half-panicked look because of the person that she was dealing with.

WC: 3631

"Emotions cloud a shinobi's mind and their actions," Risu used the very words Chiaki had mentioned earlier, while she was being subjected to the full force of the woman's chakra being unleashed without reserve and without restraint. However, when learning that the one who had killed her was apparently none other than the current Hokage...that did slightly unsettle the woman, taking a step back and pensively rubbing her chin. It was true that she had not been a match forr this warrior during the siege of Inabayama and the whole news being spread around of him being a rather warmongering kage to boot, didn't really help her cause either, yet as her thumb went towards her lips, her nails ready to be bitten off, she restrained herself and suddenly grinned. "You asked me wether or not I serve others or only myself, didn't you?"

Slowly the woman reached for the zipped on her armor, pulling it down so she could slide down the left half of it over her shoulder, revealing a tattoo which without a doubt would say more than any words might have said to Chiaki. Upon Risu's shoulder, contrasting greatly upon her white skin, the uniformly known ANBU tattoo was clearly visible. This was both an answer and a threat, as after all...the konoha ANBU were very well-versed in the extraction of secrets and information. "I served more dilligently than you can imagine...only to be betrayed, cast out and shunned by the ones I was supposed to protect. Blamed for the madness that befell Sunagakure, so do tell me...do you still think I'd serve another than myself when learning where serving someone might get you?" Letting out a rather chilling laugh, Risu puller her armor back over her shoulder and closed the zipper, stopping her chakra onslaught upon Chiaki to allow the younger shinobi some respite and a breather, after all...things were just getting started. "As the hokage's assistant, you should be privy to the codes of the barrier jutsu...if you are not, well...I guess that shows just how much trust you are being given by those you...serve."

Spreading her arms a bit, the woman chuckled at the sight of Chiaki being bound and chackled, amused by how awkward it was to see someone other than herself in those shackles for a change. "In a few moments you should be able to mold chakra again, I'm not an animal like those you serve, who'd bind someone permanently with the excuse that it is for their own good. In here, you can mold your chakra as much as you want, you may defy me as much as you desire...but in the end, we both know who will win such a little game, do we not?" Wagging her finger in the air, the woman turned around, practically taunting Chiaki whilst showing her back exposed as such. "There's an easy and a hard way...simply divulge that which I wish to know or well...allow me to have some fun, now what will it be for you?"

527/3902

Chiaki heard the words echoing in her benumbed mind, benumbed because of the abstract fear that she was feeling, it made her muscles clench and relax at the same time, and because she couldn't loosen her bonds, she stared there, almost thunderstruck. She nodded, rather dumbly to the question, as the woman went on to unzip her armor, revealing the shoulder and tattoo. She made out the tattoo, an ANBU black ops member. Oh great, she was in for it now. They knew how to torture, and Chiaki had no training in withstanding torture, others or her own.

She grit her teeth and looked down at the floor as the woman went on to talk about her betrayal, and subsequent betrayal of the village. She remembered the decimation of Kumogakure no sato and only heard it mirrored in what Risu said, only heard it echo in her mind as someone who had been through the same thing as her. She shook her head to clear it from the terrifying fog that had drifted around it, her words coming out slow like molasses from a wounded tree.

Then something stung her, struck her to her core. She hadn't been given any of the information that she had been asked to give. She wasn't trusted enough to have that information? She hadn't been a valuable asset to the hidden leaf. She hung her head in defeat, for the first time, the defiance flickered out of her eyes and as soon as she was able to mold chakra, she wondered what the use was. She was not a combat ninja, she had trained herself to withstand a beating, but she was more suited for work in a hospital than she was to actually fight and make her escape here. Not only that, but she had no jutsu to penetrate the chains that held her there. Dark blue locks fell in front of dark blue eyes as she looked at the feet of that woman and she shook her head, "I don't have that information. I don't know why I wasn't trusted with it. It is probably because I am weak. As you have so plainly shown me."

She let her body hang from the chains as she sighed, breathing in deep and feeling the onslaught of chakra fade, and her own chakra network finally start to come back into being. She had no defiance left in her, she had been shaken, "I saw the hokage go on a rampage, destroying mountains, tearing the village of Kumogakure no Sato apart." She looked up at Orochi Risu and gave a small chuckle, "There's no way that you can beat him in battle. There is no way. I would give up on your thoughts of revenge. He is an unstoppable force of nature. He is like a volcanic eruption, and thrice as deadly and accurate. He melted flesh, wood, and even stone with his breath."

It wasn't bragging on Takao's part, she was afraid of Takao now. She had seen his destruction, seen what it had sewn. She had also seen that she was leagues behind him, even now, and that if he should ever turn his ire on her, she would be incinerated, like the woman standing before her. She didn't know how powerful she was, but she was still at least fifteen steps below him. And to Chiaki, he was standing on a mountain.

There was no resistance anymore, "If you wanted to know, you should probably capture one of your former comrades, they know the barrier code, I don't know it." She shrugged. "As for whether you want to have fun, that all depends on whether you think I am lying or not."

A small smirk came to her face at that, perhaps she could at... at least stall for time, and perhaps she could make it so that Orochi Risu would think that her information was unreliable, that she really knew the code. She had a good poker face. But she didn't know if she had... that... jutsu. She had seen it twice. Once with Takao, once with another, Mizuki. Both knew when people were lying. Perhaps those eyes meant she knew as well. She would just have to see.

WC: 4367

The former ANBU general laughed loudly when hearing that apparently the one who had managed to outmaneuvre her was by all accounts indeed in all most likelyhood the hokage of Konoha, even finding it most impressive that Chiaki actually seemed to be comparing Risu to the man, taunting that the Hokage was someone who'd change the very drawing of the maps of the shinobi world on his own. It was true that Risu's destructive capabilities did not reach such a level, far from it even. "Destroying mountains, tearing down villages...it is true that I do not possess such brutal force, but you seem to forget one thing...how much of that force remains when you no longer have the possibility to access your own chakra, when your own body becomes your worst enemy?" The woman chuckled, turning around again and walking back to Chiaki, standing still just out of the reach of her arms and hands, on guard for the possibility of the shinobi trying to use any sort of jutsu, thus making her movements cautious and controlled when closing in on the younger shinobi. "But no...it is not my plan to confront the hokage in any...violent manner, no...had he been anything besides hokage I might've been tempted, alas I do know my limitations and that man might very well be beyond my current ones."

Looking down on Chiaki, Risu grinned at the sight of the young woman's casual pokerface, not betraying a single thought or emotion, truly impressive when thinking about the situation she was in and the utter hopelesness that it presented. The younger shinobi was alone, there seemed to be no attempt on rescuing her and Risu truly doubted that there would be any rescue, not unless the hokage himself would be part of said rescue and that...did not really seem plausible given the state of the shinobi world. However, when she was thinking about that, Risu still listened to what Chiaki was saying, hearing the timbre of her words, noticing how her muscles contracted and relaxed, the hints of fear that washed through her eyes when mentioning just how powerful this...Takao truly was, but more importantly, she noticed the young woman's singular moment of breaking her pokerface with a smile, so brief others might have missed it, but she did not.

"Such a strong will...I wonder if I should use some of the old techniques to just calmly extract the information which I need from your mind, but I always thought letting those who held the information to speak out of their own accord," Bending through her knees, Risu positioned herself to be on the exact same level as Chiaki, looking her dead set into her eyes. "You probably think you have seen many bad things, the decay of bodies in these fires of your master, but have you ever imagined the pain they have felt, have you ever thought how it would be to experience the very act of your flesh burning to a crisp, your bones charring and your fluids boiling within your own body?"

Making a single Dragon handseal with her hands, the woman showed a sinister grin towards Chiaki. "You have given me the most important part of information...so let me thank you in a rather fascinating way, by showing you just how cruel this world is, just how savage the shinobi world is at its core," With one hand covered with her black chakra, the woman reached out for Chiaki's head, aiming to place her palm straight upon the child's forehead in order to flood her system with Risu's own dense chakra, forcing Chiaki's entire nervous system to go haywire. This Extreme Pain technique had been created by Lamya herself, designed to make victims feel insurmountable varieties of overwhelming pain without actually physically hurting them. After all, where most shinobi were blunt force weapons, she likened herself to a surgical tool and the Kyokai Itami technique was just the testament of this comparison, allowing for victims to experience a mere breath upon their skin as being sliced a thousand fold by knives, their own breathing feeling like their chest would explode, in short: the ultimate trip into a conscious hell of pain and despair. "You're a Guanyin, a shinobi that acts with precision and control. I rather like both your spirit and your will, so why don't you just stop resisting me so much, while at your very core, you already know you are serving not a cause, not a greater goal...you're just a cog in a neverending warmachine."

Standing up again, Risu looked down on Chiaki, not with anger or hatred, just simply with pity. "Do tell me...what do you know about the Glassing of Sunagakure?"

808/4710

jutsu used:

Chakra: 375/470

Chiaki grinned at that statement, the one that she wasn't able to match the hokage. She might be here for an indefinite amount of time, but if she escaped, Takao would protect her. Right? He would protect her right? The psychological damage that was being done was actually... actually starting to take its toll. She looked around her prison and strained against the chains, trying to get herself free. Finding that the woman did have a weakness, and that weakness was Takao, she thought that perhaps she could play on that a bit. But first, let her monologue. It wasn't like she had done anything to Chiaki yet, and Chiaki could always just... just endure the torture right?

A flicker, a hint of doubt clouded her eyes, perhaps she wasn't worthy of being rescued, perhaps she wasn't even worth anyone's time. She had gone on a mission that was rather cut and dry. They should be sending out a search party right? Should have already sent out a search party. How long had it been?

What did this woman think that she would willingly tell her? What was that sort of threat. It seemed totally baseless, and yet, she was in the chains, and the woman was there in a position of power over her. She knew if she attacked she would be met with retribution, so she bided her time. She would be rescued, right?

Chiaki didn't know what the woman had planned, but it had to be something nefarious, and as she reached out to touch Chiaki's forehead, Chiaki wove a couple hand seals, attempting to catch Orochi risu in a counter attack. The palm touched her forehead before she was halfway between the seals, and just as soon as she had the touch of the other woman's palm to her head she formed the last seal, but it was too late, lightning crackled in her mouth, feeling like a hundred lightning bolts were there. Her eyes opened wide with panic and pain as she shrieked, letting loose the false darkness technique, which erratically paraded around the room, uselessly as she reeled in the sudden pain that her own technique wrought on her.

The chains were burning her skin, the clothes on her body were tearing her flesh to pieces. Or it seemed so. If this was a genjutsu, it was a good one. She shrieked, and her pain receptors in her ears reeled as she tried to cover her ears against her own wails, the chains rattled, and it felt like the skin tore right off of her wrists as she tried to move. Her head jerked to the side, blurred vision from the tears already streaming down her face made her blink twice, the feeling of just blinking felt like someone was pulling back her eyelids and raking her corneas with rusty spoons. She looked at her wrists in disbelief. This couldn't be? They were undamaged. Chiaki slumped against the wall, her tailbone bumping it as she grit her teeth so hard they almost cracked.

She willed every muscle in her body to relax. Relax.... Relax damnit!

Each breath was labored, ragged, and shallow. She couldn't speak for fear of her lungs exploding with the force of each breath, she had her eyes closed and she struggled to say, "N.." A pained exhalation as she consciously relaxed her muscles, trying to move as little as possible. "Not much. Konoha glassed Suna because Suna was going to attack Konoha. It was done to protect the citizens." It was barely above a mumble, barely above a whisper. The pain of each word, each tongue movement felt like it was ripping her apart. She relaxed her mouth, letting it loll open, resting on the ligaments there. She just had to endure it. Just had to endure it, endure this pain, endure the suffering.

She was a guanyin, as Orochi Risu had pointed out. She would get out of this alive. And she would make this woman's jutsu her own. Even if it took a thousand hours.

But something nagged at the back of her mind, budding to the surface. She inhaled, a fireball exploded in her chest, not literal but a fireball of pain, stemming from her nervous system, "I... I have never really felt a part of... that warmongering... part of the village. I might be just a cog, but I fight for those who cannot help themselves. And I will help anyone, from any village, at any time, if I feel it is the right thing to do." Her conviction was hard, firm, and dense. Even if her words were breathy, shaky, and full of pain.

WC: 5157

Jutsu used:

Pain is a necessity for evolution just as much as fear was, where fear simply made a person smarter and more cautious though, pain elevated the very reaction to it by pushing a person's limits and expanding upon them. It was the mixture of these two things, which Risu had viewed as crucial for the very understanding of oneself and to better one's own power and use thereof. In a sense, she viewed this mental and physical abbrassiveness towards Chiaki not as a detriment to the young shinobi nor a punishment, but a wise lesson, a new way of understanding her own weaknesses and failures. However, to fully break the shinobi's beliefs and understandings, to completelky shatter her hopes and desires, Risu knew that she had to show that though perhaps as suspected she was weaker than this...Takao, this was merely when looking at it from the perspective of pure destructive capability. However, when it came to the very physicality, the power to shrug off damage and wounds which would've otherwise incapacitated other skilled shinobi, THAT was what made Risu so dangerous and after her revival she had already begun to eek towards and even greater strength than she had garnered over a long period of time before her death.

As the child writhed in pain after being touched with Risu's unadultered technique of ultimate pain, a beam of light coming from Chiaki's mouth bounced through the entirity of the massive underground space, even managing to swing across Risu's armor and slicing the side of her face, burning it as well.  grunting and hissing slightly, the woman's hand which she had just used to touch Chiaki, got covered with her own black chakra again, yet this time it was saturated with a green tinge as she raised it to the side of her face, sliding gently over the cut and burned part to quickly force her body to heal the wound rapidly. With a single swipe, it seemed the cut was gone and not a single mark was left.

Around the same time though, the shinobi apparently managed to subdue the pain through extraordinary mental strain and physical effort, greatly impressing Risu in doing so. However, when words poured out of Chiaki's mouth with a ragged breath, Risu's eyes widened, while her pupils constricted, a sharp hiss coming through her thinned lips, denoting the feeling of anger and rage that started to well up within herself. Without a single word being spoken, without any sort of obvious provocation...at least not to Chiaki's probable knowledge, Risu lashed out at the young woman, her hand grabbing for the child's mouth, aiming to slam Chiaki with the back of her head against the wall and looking straight into the child's eyes with her own ragefilled golden orbs. "Lies, foolish stories made up by warmongering elders and their relentless desire to gain power...what a joke," Taking a step back and letting go of the shinobi in her 'care', Risu calmed down by taking a deep breath and letting out a long sigh afterwards. Konoha didn't even glass the place, they had nothing to do with it. It was a shinobi called Sarutobi Mitsuo...a former Hokage who had been pardoned twice for his crimes prior to his ascension, who was responsible for the utter destruction and carnage of that place, him and a local ANBU agent managed to cripple the place and reduce it to an unrecognisable state. However, when I sought to stabilize the country, to fortify and unify the lost and abandoned people again...all the nations attacked us, eager to use the supposed threat of a rising nation to tear apart the remainder of the Land of Wind and devour all that was left with their greed and volatile desires."

Laughing out loud when hearing Chiaki's desires and her feelings on her own place within the hidden village, Risu was simply feeling quite understandably disappointed in just how foolish and ignorant the people of this world seemed to be. On one hand, there were the people from Iwagakure and Kirigakure that had always been capable of seeing the truth, yet acted poorly upon it and on the contrary there were the people of kumogakure and konoha, who were either completely ignorant of the true world or simply ignoring it by their own accord on the ground of some baseless desire. it was harrowing to say the least. "If you have lived through what I have lived through, seen what I have seen, you would no longer hold such a pointless desire, such a wasteful stance towards the shinobi world. All a shinobi does is bring war, devastation and despair. At least as they are now...the people in this world simply do not deserve to live in it. The weak neglect their own suffering, the strong neglect their duty and those in between simply don't care...until they are all faced with a crisis they can not avert their eyes from, nothing will change."

"This world is sickened, decadent and complacent, willing to let itself be devoured by the greed of the incompetent," Risu raised a single hand in front of her, while holding her other behind her back, straightening herself as she placed the hand upon her chest, slowly channeling some of her chakra into herself, while keeping an eye out for where she knew the entrance of the space was. "Your own actions and beliefs only testify to how rotten the world has become. Only by liberating it from this cycle of constant tension and violence can it be purified to a state where it can once again evolve and grow."

961/5671

jutsu used:

Chakra:330/470

Chiaki was too hurt to watch as Risu batted away the wound like someone would a fly, but she had hurt the more experienced kunoichi, and she knew that she would probably have the chance to do it again. But for now, she was full of turmoil. Full of doubt, full of pain. The fullness of the pain was the fullness of a woman about to give birth. It was the fullness of a barrel of pregnant beer. The kind of fullness that, with just a little nudge would spill over. And she didn’t want that.

Then came the hand, with nails on her skin like daggers, pulling away at the flesh like hooks in her skin and slammed her head against the wall. Spots exploded in her vision, her eyes dilated and her lips went white and numb. She didn’t catch the first couple words, how could she when the roaring screeches of her own blood pumping in her ears was so loud?

Then the words were clear. Konoha didn’t even glass the place? What? The glossed over eyes looked up with confusion and a sort of anger at the woman, when would the pain end? Then came a part of the story that Chiaki didn’t know. A part that she didn’t understand, “Liar.” She said, plain as day, her words echoing in her head more than in her cell, “Liar.” She thought she shouted, thought she screamed it but it came out a hoarse croak.

“You just said you don’t care for anyone but yourself. You just said that you were fighting for yourself. Why would you help the people of Sunagakure?” She let herself be pulled back down, her head lolling to her chest.

Then, as she heard the words she bit down, her teeth rattling together, screeching together, her fire returned, and it boiled over, boiled over her pain, boiled over the grating feeling that she was having, it boiled over her, “What do you know? I will heal this world, and I will kill anyone who says otherwise. It’s because people like you giving up that the world is in the way that it is right now. If you had the gumption, half of the brains or the brawn to back it up, then things wouldn’t be the way they are right now. If you had only fought and fought harder then people wouldn’t be mindlessly slaughtered when kages went on the warpath! You could have stayed and protected those that were hurt.”

She felt, after all of this, when Orochi risu turned her back, that the pain was fading, that the stupid feeling in her head, the dumb feeling that was glossing over her was beginning to recede, “Fight for that which you so dearly want. Fight for the world you want. My ideals aren't the ravings of a madwoman, they’re of someone who still has hope. That seeks power to unseat those who are cruel, those that would tear the world apart. I wish to heal the world, but the poison must be extracted first.” She looked daggers as her vision returned to full, her pain receptors returning to normal. “So when will you pull the poison out of the world, when will you be a healer that you claim to be? I choose now.” Chiaki’s anger burned away the pain, or perhaps the jutsu just wore off. Either way, she was covered in sweat, she expected to be covered in blood, but her muscles were heavy, sore, and still spasming from the pain, they still bore the marks that Orochi Risu made against her.

“I don’t even know why you’re in the business anymore, you say that you want to get rid of the cycle, do away with the violence, but you’re breeding more of it.” She sighed, letting go of the anger, letting it flow down the river, like her mentor taught her, the herbalist. “I want to see it purified too, and I don’t even know why I am here. I don’t know why you chose me, I get that I am the hokage’s assistant. But, but you know about the guanyin, you talk as if we’re sisters in a sense. And I know your jutsu is not as destructive nor wild as others. You are a knife, a scalpel. You should be cutting out the poison, not creating more.” She shook her head, “I refuse to be made into poison. But, but if I serve Konoha, am I no different than all the countless other faceless, headless, brainless others?”

That one question, that one question alone burned into her mind. Was she no different than the countless other ninja out there? She felt like she wanted to be, but perhaps, perhaps she was not, not right now. She needed to be stronger to do that, and as much as she hated it, she…. She needed to be more like this woman, perhaps.

Perhaps.

WC: 6000

"Helping Sunagakure helped furthering my own goals just as well, after all...one can not be expected to oppose the world without a strong foundation," The snakelike woman wagged her finger to show just how incredibly unexpected she found the young shinobi's train of throught to be. Serving oneself didn't mean that they'd be completely oblivious to others when it still served their own goals and desires in the end. "You may shout it all out, call me a liar as long as you think it'll help you remain ignorant to reality, but than again...wouldn't the one who's been blamed for it all be the one who knows the real truth to begin with?"

Chuckling a bit, Risu wondered just how much effort it would take to turn this poor soul to her own cause, how hard it would be to make her see the decaying, poisoned state of the shinobi world and the fact that being nice and helpful in the end would only get you so far as the world would let you. Someone so naïve and blind to reality could only be someone who had not yet felt the true depth of loss and pain, the despair that gnawed at one's soul when experiencing the loss of a loved one or a comrade at the hands of another shinobi. The madness that came with loss, the anger, the despair, those were all the building blocks of what defined a shinobi, what hardened those same men and women and which in the end created and molded them into heartless soldiers or broken tools no longer fit to hold a weapon in fear of retaliation, the endless cycle that represented violence. "We all like to think we've grown past the eraof warring states, the great shinobi wars, but truth is...we haven't and only those that realize it, are able to tear themselves away from the mold in which shinobi are groomed to become tools of war and weapons in the hands of incompetent fools."

letting out a sigh and pressing her fingers against her forehead, the woman came closer to Chiaki, now so close that the breath of the two would mix in the air, the warm of it touching eachother. Though one could expect the captive in such a moment to feel intimidated or afraid, Risu really showed that she had no intentions to do anything at this point, simply looking at Chiaki with an expression filled with both guilt and anger at the same time. Disappointment, despair, it was all there, a whirlpool of negativity in her eyes, but perhaps most prevalent, was hatred and disgust. "You think you are the first to try that path, the first to dream of mending bonds, healing wounds and mending the rifts created throughout the ages between people? How presumptious can you be, how foolish can you truly act, to think you'd be the first to walk on such a path...not knowing that all you'll do is walk over the corpses of those who came before you and in the end act as a stepping stone for another, to end up as another corpse to pave the way leading to nothing," With her upper eyelids lowering a bit, there was some true heartfelt sorrow within the woman's expression, as if she could already see Chiaki's future or simply because one time long ago, she might have thought to trod on the same path. "The only way to truly cure this world, is to become a monster, to become a threat so big, so unmistakenable, so vile and despicable, that it would unite everyone, forcefully forge bonds between all those that continue to be intolerant towards eachother. To drown the world in so much chaos, disorder and despair, that it will be forced to heal itself...because humans are foolish, stubborn and cruel...only learning from mistakes when forced to do so or when confronted with the consequences of their own choices. So either we forcefully give them the choice to change...or we change them forcibly. A monster or a god, those are the options I'd present to them."

Laughing out loud, the woman's voice cracked as she took a step back again. "I could do so one person at a time, but to do something like that to the world...one doesn't need a scalpel to cut, but a grinder to completely remove every sin completely."

757/6428

Chiaki bit back her anger, it turned to tears in her eyes which beaded and rolled down her cheeks, damnit. She wasn't strong enough to face this woman as she was now, and she was passing herself off as the victim. But what if she was? What if Chiaki was going to be blamed for the leveling of Kumogakure? That doubt was upon her lips, her face showed it, it was plastered on the wall that was her face for a good long couple seconds as the woman in front of her talked.

"Where are you going to get such a grinder?" She asked, listening to what the woman said, in its entirety, looking up her eyes were almost pleading, she was scared, but it wasn't of the woman in front of her, it was of Konohagakure, it was of the people there, of the politic there. She might be blamed for the destruction of Kumogakure. She was, after all, in a seat of power, a position of power. What happened if they forged, or worse, tortured someone into writing, a missive that was 'found' by a Konoha ninja to be false evidence and she was condemned like the woman in front of her. If it happened before, it would happen again. She wanted to break the cycle.

"I... what happens..." She gulped, and felt like she was drinking poison, willingly. "What happens if konoha does betray me?" It was barely above a whisper, the fight was finally gone from Chiaki, "What happens to me then?"

She knew that this woman would know, this woman who had so easily captured her, nullified her and made her seem like she was smaller than anyone in the village that couldn't use jutsu.

"W-" She bit her lip and looked to the ground, "Would..." She couldn't do it. The people of konoha still needed her, didn't they? Were they going to cast her out as soon as she took a position of power? Would she be a scapegoat? Doubt clouded her next words, she even heard them and they sounded like she was speaking from a different person. "Would you happen to... need someone to help you with purifying the sickness of the world?" She asked. There, it was done. She wanted to go about it in her own way, and she would fight back against anything that she felt to be wrong, but perhaps... perhaps this woman wasn't evil, just had a new set of eyes, a new view on the world. After all, when one stole from bandits, was it not justice? When one killed criminals was it not justice? When one put a killer, a torturer of innocents to death was it not merciful?

"I don't know." She shook her head, and now the tears that were angry turned to ones of confusion, despair, and she let them roll silently down her cheeks. "I don't know what's true anymore. You say that you're the victim, but what's written in the anals is different. It is glossed over, like we did something that was justified. That we were the ones that did it. That we... that we won a glorious victory over a sneaky Sunagakure."

"I don't know what to believe anymore."

WC: 6553

"To talk as if this grinder would be a single thing, a single idea...no it is so much more, encompassing so much more than you can imagine," Looking up into the darkness of the room, the woman smiled and turned to Chiaki once more. "They will be here soon, the ones that are supposed to come and capture me..."

Letting out a sigh while hearing the konoha shinobi whimper and seemingly break under the pressure of selfdoubt and confusion, doubt obviously having Chiaki in its grasp, Risu simply came closer to touch the clasps around the shinobi's wrists, unlocking them and taking a step back again. "You won't be blamed for Kumogakure, as in this case your own hokage relishes in his desire to destroy and desecrate. The world will not blame you and you will be allowed to live your life as you desire. However, I wonder...can you live with the guilt, the weight of the pain you and yours have caused those who had no part in a war only their higher ups desired?"

Before any answer would possibly be given, a loud explosion boomed through the space, iron doors being wrought out of their hinges a good twenty feet above Chiaki and Risu's current position. A dozen of masked figures burst through the opening of the doors, jumping down towards the duo down below. Upon closer inspection, they looked to be Konoha ANBU, who immediately engaged the golden eyed Risu, while one of them managed to remove the last clasp chaining down Chiaki, asking her if she was okay.

Streams of water and lightning clashed, jutsu being cast successively to subdue the golden eyed woman, while the remaining ANBU made sure that Chiaki would be safely brought up to the surface. "Aren't you Chiaki Guanyin? What were you doing here?" The ANBU seemed completely unaware of why the woman was even there to begin with, yet before she could ask anything more, the ANBU operative was interrupted by the ANBU captain, who simply motioned her to get out with the konoha shinobi, making sure that any wounds the young woman would have would be tended to.

A massive dragon flame jutsu clashed with a large water dragon bullet, enclosing the entire space within a burst of steam and water vapor, until a massive bolt of lightning crackled through the air, instantly tearing through the torso of the golden eyed woman down below. "We got her, get out of here, sir..."

The ANBU captain ordered the operatives to go check on the fugitive down below while he took over Chiaki and brought her up to the surface, on the outside of the entrance where the iron doors used to be. "Wait here, I need to go make sure everything goes according to plan."

471/6899

Chiaki listened to the woman once more, and as she was about to say her piece, her mind was already a turmoil, but she didn't know whether she could live with herself, she didn't know whether she wanted to live with herself, with the guilt- the door exploded inwards, shattered by a jutsu about twenty feet up. Chiaki's gaze lazily went upwards and as the shinobi from the hidden leaf descended, she dumbly watched as they tried to capture Orochi Risu and she was asked if she was alright.

She nodded, not able to speak, and as she was questioned the barrage of jutsu deafened her, it even made her world seem more chaotic, more hectic, and she was brought to the surface, thank the spirits that lived in this world that she made it.

The anbu captain looked her in the eyes, and told her to stay put. She didn't stay because she wanted to, she didn't stay because she was ordered to, she didn't stay because it was a nice day outside, or anything, and she didn't stay because she wanted to know what happened down below. She stayed, silent on top of that little mound, propped against a tree, sitting there, because she was simply unable to move.

WC: 6773

The battle seemed to rage on below, when eventually the captain of the ANBU team ordered the operatives to seize fire, letting the smoke and steam to clear up. To the surprise of most of the operatives, it seemed that they had managed to beat the one they had come to capture, with only one of them apparently taken out of commission. The Captain ordered two of his operatives to check on both the teammate and the target. Alas, while the ANBU operative only seemed to be unconscious, their target was found to be dead. "Damn, she could've been a valuable source of information," The captain sighed and ordered them to wake up the unconscious teammate and head on up to the surface. In the meantime, he himself lowered himself to his knees and started kneading his chakra to do what had to be done, the destruction of the hollow shell that remained of the one named Lamya. As he touched the remains, the shell crumbled into nothingness under the influence of the body destruction technique all ANBU knew, a technique to prevent other nations from using a shinobi's body as a treasure trove of knowledge and Lamya's remains, even in a hollow and vacated state like this were...priceless to say the least. "That takes care of that."

Back up top, one of the ANBU reached the surface and looked at Chiaki, moving closer to the young woman, the masked shinobi greeted her to make sure she'd avoid from getting all panicky. Hoping there was no need to restrain the young shinobi, the ANBU operative started checking up on Chiaki, touching her head and her wrists gently, removing the scuffmarks coming from the clamps and easing the fatigue and soreness that came as an aftereffect from the Ultimate Pain technique she'd been subjected to. "Lady Guanyin, you should be fine, but do check into the hospital when we return, just to be sure," Turning around to see the rest of the ANBU team reach the surface, the operative stood up and greeted them, with the other operatives doing the same.

Another, female ANBU operative was brought up top by two others, laying the operative down next to Chiaki. The unconscious operative moaned and groaned a bit, after which the one treating Chiaki moved on to her. Checking the female operative's pulse and pupils, the apparent medic of the team gave the rest of the team a nod and asked where the captain was. However before a reply could be given, the ANBU captain appeared at the surface as well. "Well, that's that...bring our young shinobi here to the village, I've got to report this to my superiors."

As the ANBU got up, the captain walked over towards the young shinobi and the unconscious operative, bending through his knees between the two. "To survive an encounter with Orochi Risu of the Ouroboros clan and live to tell the tale, you'd need to be very strong, very lucky...or both," The man chuckled hollowly, giving the waking ANBU a pat on the shoulder while the other ANBU operatives motioned Chiaki to come with them to the village. When the young shinobi would move, the ANBU operative near the captin would let out a sinister chuckle, peering at Chiaki with golden, snake like eyes behind the porcelain mask with the image of a snake. "Or just fortunate enough to be useful."

Even if Chiaki would've heard this, the captain and the ANBU operative had vanished without a trace, leaving behind but a clearance near a tree.

605/7504

[exit thread]

converting 7500 wc to ryo: 2250 ryo

Chiaki heard the booms and splashes, explosions and clashes of jutsu on jutsu down below. She knew, somewhere in her heart, that they wouldn’t be able to take her, wouldn’t be able to capture her. Look at what she had been able to do. Nothing. She knew that she ranked, in terms of strength, among the captains, perhaps, but she didn’t let them know that, she couldn’t. Her head span from all of the torture, not the physical one, but the mental, the nerve torture that she endured. No, it was not something that even crossed her mind, to tell them that she was harder to kill than anyone, but they should know that right?

She watched as the woman came up and turned to face her, the coldness of the mask was enough to set her mind to panic. In her mind’s eye she saw the mask that Orochi Risu had been wearing, and she couldn’t take it, couldn’t stand the anonymity. She kicked back into the tree, it groaned under her strength, and her eyes were panicked. The woman moved forwards slowly, trying to tell her that it was alright, but she didn’t feel it. It wasn’t until another member of the ANBU came up that she relaxed a little bit. At least Orochi Risu, if she was there, wouldn’t be able to do something to her if someone else was there, right? That was what that was for right? That failsafe?

She sighed and relaxed, the tree behind her groaned once more as she wasn’t pressing herself against it, and it seemed to settle behind her. When had she gotten so strong? When had she surpassed her parents? She didn’t know. She didn’t know what was going on, or who she could trust anymore. She allowed her head to be touched gently, but watched as the woman inspected her, hatred, disgust in her eyes. A burning distaste in her mouth and her gaze. She wondered who this woman was, who she had killed in the name of Konohagakure.

“What happened to her?” She asked, “I want to know.”

The ANBU Looked to her captain, who nodded to her, “She was destroyed, with the corpse destruction technique.” She said, simply. The next thing that came was her wrists. As she moved slowly to grab them Chiaki was lost in the sensations of the cave and panicked again. She gripped the other Kunoichi’s arm as she grabbed hold of her wrists, her hatred burned bright for a second before dying out. It would be a while before she would be able to see an ANBU mask again. “It’s fine, Lady Guanyin.”

She relaxed and closed her eyes, setting her head against the tree and relaxing as the ANBU used her clumsy medical techniques to heal her from the minor wounds that she had sustained. They were minor, and at the very least self-inflicted.

She opened her eyes and found that there was an unconscious operative next to her, she wanted to help the other operative, but after what she had been through, she doubted that she would be able to mold chakra into the right sequence to actually help. Emotions played a huge part of her healing, and if she let out her chakra now intending to heal, she might end up killing the poor unconscious woman. No, better to let the ANBU take care of their own. She nodded to the suggestion to go and see the hospital. It was a good idea, to say the least, but she didn’t verbally answer.

The ANBU captain came to her, saying that she needed to be taken to the superiors and that she would need to give a report. Of course, more paperwork for the Hokage. Yeah, that made sense. Made total sense. She nodded and looked between the two of the operatives on either side of her.

The captain then said something that made her feel even worse. It was something that haunted her, almost as much as the encounter for the coming months. That she had been very lucky. She hadn’t been strong, matter of fact, she hadn’t even killed the woman’s snake. She shook with rage, and fear, and hatred. She had cracked under the torture, and she knew it. She had given the woman enough information to be useful and as if there was an echo in the room, she looked up to see the golden eyes of Orochi Risu and hear her words. Just fortunate enough to be useful.

As soon as they took off Chiaki yelled out, “Orochi Risu!” To which the operatives actually laughed, looking at each other with that mask on their face, that anonymous mask that let them kill without remorse, kill with impunity. Kill and leave the bodies to their families to sort out. Chiaki’s madness set itself, hooking itself deep within her. The ANBU were working with Orochi Risu to help her into the village. She was going to start her plans with Konoha and the ANBU were helping her to get in.

How else had they known to find her there? Even she didn’t know of this place. They had helped with the torture, that was the only thing she could think of. The only possible Explanation.

With no warning, she wove hand seals with one hand for a plasma barrier, and with the other hand for her Guanyin Otter Tackle. She would leave them here and run back to tell the Hokage, To tell anyone who would listen. Yes. That would be her plan. As soon as the barrier was up she felt it get pulled back down by a jutsu and she rushed to punch the nearest ANBU in the chest. They went flying and crumpled into a heap, completely paralyzed. The next ANBU operative was weaving hand seals already, as was Chiaki with her free hand.

“You betrayed the hidden leaf! How dare you!” Chiaki roared as another plasma barrier leapt into being and she aimed what looked like a water prison, but looked like an otter turning in on itself at the ninja. Their killing technique bounced harmlessly off of her neck and destroyed her plasma barrier, which solidified what Chiaki had thought. She shot off the otter water hell jutsu and it consumed the ANBU operative, holding them, limbs splayed, in is depths. She maintained eye contact with the jutsu and asked the operative that was paralyzed, “What is your plan for Konoha.”

“We want to protect the village hidden in the leaves, what are you doing Guanyin-sama?” The ANBU next to her asked, “Why are you attacking us?”

“Liar! Orochi Risu was with you, she was with you the entire time, that’s how you knew where I was.” Chiaki grit her teeth. “Don’t follow me, or I will kill you next time. Don’t follow me, I am going to report this to the Hokage and let him sort this out.” She burned with rage, with hatred, with confusion. She didn’t know what to think anymore, who was on whos side?

Was this all a farce? It had to be. She trusted Takao, but… but he burned innocents, killed people in Kumogakure that weren’t even part of the war. Could she truly trust him? Could he have sent the ANBU there to… no he wouldn’t would he?

In her madness, she sped off, leaving the operative that had been caught in the otter water hell coughing up water and the other operative paralyzed for at least another good half hour as she tore through the forest.

Tore through the forest going to the only place that she truly felt safe. Home. To hell with the hospital, she knew what she saw. She would tell the Hokage tomorrow. She would tell him what she had seen, and of the ANBU operatives. Or should she do it today?

Chiaki was caught in turmoil for a while, but ended up leaving a note for the Hokage on his desk, in a letter that was sealed with a simple seal. It would show whether it had been tampered with, and she left the office, going home, disobeying the ANBU orders of the captain and shut herself in her room for a good two to three days, it was hard to tell, as they passed by in a matter of moments to Chiaki. She barely slept, didn’t eat, and only drank when her mouth was completely dry. The rest of the time she spent sitting in front of her front door, going over what had been said, every minute detail of her encounter, trying to make sense of it all.

It was a bit… too perfect that she had been saved. And how had Orochi Risu known the ANBU were there to capture her. How had she known the exact time? Damnit, it was all a setup.

It was all a set up. And Chiaki didn’t know who to trust anymore. Perhaps Orochi Risu was right, she needed to purge this world of all the people that she found to be wanting.

She wept.

WC: 8320

WC to Ryo Conversion: 2496 ryo