Isamu went out of course, as it was night once again and the moon called him to be out in the darkness. The shadows wrapped and writhed around him as he walked through the quiet streets of Kirigakure. Today had been a disappointing, long day where he'd originally planned to do a lot and ended up doing very little. Although, he did make some new friends and get to know his squad, he had an unshakeable sense of waste and pointlessness. He decided to fit in some more training.

Naturally, he headed to the cemetery. It was misty and cold, the chill seemingly passing through his skin and gripping his bones. He adjusted his pitch black scarf that hung, looking forlorn as it swayed this way and that against the foggy air. So what would Isamu train? He had already tired himself out learning new jutsu, and he was planning on training Suiton tomorrow, maybe. He decided to go for Medical Ninjutsu, as he could never get enough of that. It was in his blood, quite literally. The cemetery was the perfect setting for this. He found a shovel tucked away in a corner behind a weeping willow tree, and went to work, digging up the freshest grave he could find. Was this illegal?

Yeah. Eh, Isamu didn't mind. It was too late now, might as well go through with it. (Sero'd kill me if he ever found out about this....) he thought. He ignored his moral compass and continued through the dirt, until he hit a beautiful black coffin. He opened the coffin hastily, looking to see if anybody noticed. No one was around, and the silence emitted a deafening white noise, possibly a result of Isamu's conscience telling him to stop. He shook his head, and took the body before reburying the coffin. He returned to the weeping willow tree, and laid the body out under the low-hanging branches, and put on a pair of disposable gloves from home. This was going to be simple enough.

Or not. He realized that he had no sharp tools on him. No kunai, scalpels, or even ninjutsu that could cut. "Note to self: buy cutting tools or learn a chakra scalpel technique." This didn't stop him, though. The body was soft, fetid, and weak, so he found a peeled area of skin on the chest and peeled away the layers, one by one, hit a layer of muscle that he ripped open with his bear hands, and finally got to the precious cargo; the organs. He could easily sell these at the downtown market for sweet, sweet ryo, but that wasn't the goal. He adjusted the gloves and checked for holes before proceeding into the chest cavity...

---

Medical Ninjutsu Training:

Training Rank: B to A
Current Word Count: 463/3,000

A smile rose to Isamu's face as he saw the stagnant processes and systems that lie in front of him, frozen in time by death in the body of this person. They still resembled a human, so they couldn't have died more than a few days ago. Their organs, although putrid in appearance and smell, weren't liquified, and their eyes were still in their sockets. He observed the organs, carefully pressing on the heart, then the lungs...no response. He wasn't expecting one. He noticed areas of the skin were growing blistered and falling apart. These were perfect settings for practicing the healing side of medic ninjutsu.

Focusing on his hand, globules of silver water formed, and he let them run down his fingertips and onto the blistered skin. The blisters made a disgusting sizzling noise and an overwhelming smell emerged, but they bubbled down and looked almost healthy again. It hadn't done much, but he figured it was because the guy was dead.

After spending some more time poking around in there, he discovered that bones were an interesting point on which to focus. He looked at the still white and sturdy ribcage. He gripped the sharp bones, pulled in one direction or two, and found an angle to snap them off at. He gathered all of the ribs, one by one, and removed the lungs and heart, revealing a slightly malformed spine. The man looked young, so that could be a possible cause of death. He felt the spine, it's discs, and the tailbone. He felt a serious shift between vertebrae near the spinal cord, and this seemed to be the cause of death that made the most sense. He looked into the dead man's eyes and mourned for him, a person he never knew and was desecrating the resting place of. He just felt so bad that someone had to die before their time, and hadn't even lived half of their expected life. He stopped thinking about it before the tears began to flow, and sloppily stuffed everything back in except for the ribs, and a piece of the spine from the tailbone to the midback. He cleaned these bones off carefully, and stuffed them in his pocket.

---

Medical Ninjutsu Training:

Training Rank: B to A
Word Count: 842/3,000

With bones in pocket, he grabbed the shovel, and went to work returning the body before finding another fresh burial. In a place like Kiri, this was common because death was a constant thing here, so he found one that's tombstone read that the person had died just 6 hours ago. This was the perfect specimen, and Isamu dug up the body and brought it back to the tree to go to work on it. The skin on this one was tougher, as the process of decomposition hadn't taken its course yet. He took one of the sharp rib bones from his pocket, and precisely made a slice from the lower right side of the midsection just above the hip, all the way up to the body's (a female, in this case) left arm. He reached into one flap of skin, yanked a bit, and peeled it open slightly. The organs inside of her were still perfectly preserved, looking exactly as a living persons, just without movement.

He took her heart in his hand and squeezed gently, to get the feel of it's muscles and vessels. He knew the heart's structure well; the 4 chambers, complete with primary arteries and an array of red and blue veins. Their color had been drained due to her death, and now her interior was a black red color that symbolized death. The color was everywhere, in the blood remaining, in the organs, and even one the bones, where blood had pooled and stained them the sinister color. He felt around her muscles, joints, tendons. Everything was fine. He checked her nervous system, veins and brain. That was in good condition as well. He studied more and couldn't find anything, so the closest causes of death he could determine on this information alone was that she seemed to have died of a poisoning or chakra exhaustion. She had a traditional Kiri hitaiate wrapped around her head, so she must have been a shinobi. Her eyelids were still there, so he pushed them up to reveal shining, crystal blue eyes that looked lost, of in a deep space of the afterlife, whether it be heaven, hell, purgatory, or something else. The lost look lingered and Isamu finally let go of her eyelid, as he couldn't stand to look into her eyes and be reminded that she was more than an autospy; she was once a human, a victim, just like the previous.

Her skin and her liver. These were the focal points. Isamu wanted to test his kkg on them, not that he could ever develop reanimation jutsu, but to practice the kkg normally. He found a bruise on her arm, most likely from difficulties getting her in a coffin after rigor mortis set on. He focused again and created the Fountain's Blessing, letting it fall onto the skin and soak into the bruise of the dead woman. The response was minute; it was easily missed if not carefully spied upon. But it was still visible, nonetheless. The color shifted upon contact with the silvery water, then a change in size, and now the color was beginning to blend in with the rest of the skin. Her skin cells were still fully alive, then, and it made his training easier. He took a rib bone from his pocket and sliced a large area of her skin, stuffing it in a small, disinfected plastic bag full of a home-made preservation liquid, containing more water from Isamu's kekkei genkai and embalming fluid. He put the bag in his other pocket to study later. He was amazed at how little water it took to heal a wound, albeit a very small one. He could possibly have a solution to conditions like Necrosis, if he used other substances and chemicals with his Funsui no Shukufuku. And, after taking an eyeball from her corpse for future observation as well, he reburied her properly and stood over the tombstones, searching for his next "cadaver".

---

Medical Ninjutsu Training:

Training Rank: B to A
Word Count: 1,515/3,000

The next grave wasn't fresh. This time, he was going for a skeleton to get a better look at the later stages of decomposition. And he wasn't choosing a random person, either; he was going for a legend. He went to the a large gravestone, carved in intricate beauty of wonderful obsidian, matching his luminous bracelets that dangled from his tired arms. The name on the front read:


Isamu was determined to get closure. Isamu had seen him on his deathbed, as his last words were muttered. That wasn't enough. Isamu had known this man better than any other man before; better than his own father, better than Ryu, better than any of his friends or superiors. He and his uncle had such a close relationship that they knew all of each others' deepest secrets, they spent all of their time together, and Ryunosuke had even taken Isamu out on a trip to Kumogakure once, to meet some of Ryuno's close friends. Isamu was devastated after his death, and even though it didn't change his warm and amiable personality, it changed a deeper part of him that held his emotions, and it closed it off just a little more. He'd had a difficult time making emotional connections since then, except for with Kohaku and Ryu. He opened the pristine coffin, barely damaged or scratched despite being underground for 3 years. Isamu couldn't hold back the tears as within he discovered a decrepit, dusted and cobwebbed mess of bones. He didn't touch it, fearing it would break on contact. His eyes shifted, from the spiders on its feet to the sad looking countenance permanently pressed into the skull. The tears kept running down Isamu's face, and sobs escaped his mouth every minute or so.

The bones were dry, decomposed to the point of near nonexistence. No stenches emerged from this coffin, just the feel of emptiness. Isamu got closer and examined the cracks, looking for signs of other bugs and parasites that had lingered around the body, but found nothing. He realized that it was pointless to continue staring at the bones, and he got to the point.

"Hi, Ryunosuke. I really miss you. I'm still trying to get over you being gone, and sometimes I feel alone and tired inside. I don't have many friends, not that I don't try to make any, just that a lot of people find me odd, and annoying. To be honest, I've considered everything to make this feeling go away...I've even considered becoming a missing-nin. I feel like if I wasn't a part of this village, or any village, I wouldn't have to make friends. I could be alone and be happy. But I don't know. I don't understand things like that. I understand myself, and that's as far as my clairvoyance goes.

"I suppose what I'm trying to say is that I really wish you were back here, and we were in your house, drinking tea and watching the sunset. And I'm here to become stronger, and tell you that I'm living up to your legacy. I also just wanted to say good-bye again. I love you, Uncle Ryunosuke, and I hope to see you again after I die."

He wiped the tears from his eyes and stepped away, closing the coffin and filling the grave with dirt, leaving it looking as if it had never been touched, and the obsidian caught the moonlight and danced with it. He sat down and thought about the last 3 years, his promotion to Genin, and his recent one to Chuunin, his family, Ryu, his squad, and Sero. A piece of his heart had been left in that coffin, to stay with Ryunosuke's soul and keep them connected.

Isamu stood, fixing his gloves again, and came over to the sepulcher that stood nearby. He creaked the door open and was faced with a clan's tomb. It seemed to be a rather small clan, since the sepulcher was old and unimpressive. No dead person was deserving to be put in this craphole. He ruffled through the corpses, finding the perfect one to open up. He found one that looked simple, about 40 or so at the time of death, a man. He took the skull and smashed it against the floor. A crack showed through the skin, and he peeled the layers and broke open the crevice. Inside was a disheveled mass that had shrunken to be too small for it's place. The brain was no bigger than a prune, and looked like one. The skull was mostly empty, other than that. He analyzed the hair follicles from the inside out, and the dead nerves that served no purpose.

Isamu was beginning to grow tired of these old husks once seen as people. He just needed a little more training to get to know anatomy, so he returned the bodies and left the sepulcher, finding his next target. He figured one or two more would be enough, and it was getting late anyway, so he'd go home afterwards. He was surprised that nobody had come upon him, and felt pretty lucky.

---

Training Rank: B to A
Word Count: 2,421/3,000

Isamu decided to seek out his last body as precisely as he had before. He went to the grave of the man who Boruda killed, the one boy who's body could possibly have evidence of the other conspirators and their locations. Sato's grave was cheap. Not even a tombstone, just a wooden stick, marking a mound of dirt. The dirt wasn't deep, either, but in-fact very shallow. 2 shovelfuls of dirt, and the makeshift coffin was exposed. Isamu kicked it open, excited to examine the contents. He started with the brain, fresher than the last. A crack through the skull, and break, and hole, and inside was the blood, now black and dry, and the brain, shrunken and browned. He picked up the brain, and poked at it with the rib bones in his pocket. There was already a slice in it from the lethal strike. It was hard, surprisingly, similar to the rest of the stiff body. Isamu imagined that it couldn't have been to much softer or bigger during life, however.

So Isamu moved on to another part of the anatomy that he hadn't examined closely; the neck. He took a rib bone and ripped away the blistering skin. A mass of black and grey muscle, fat, and nerves covered in maggots split forth, and a disgusting pus-like liquid came with it. It seemed that Sato had some sort of infection before his death, that probably would've killed him anyways. So, this made Isamu feel less guilty about his death. He looked back to the skull, and the hole that was left by Boruda's strike. He wondered why he hadn't gotten into the skull through that rather than making another hole, but it was pointless to worry about it. He looked back to the miniature brain, and found a similar liquid in small crevices throughout. He thought for a moment, and shoved it back in his pocket.

His last motivation was to check Sato's clothes (the people who buried him hadn't changed them, and he was wearing the same bloody clothing he had been on the day of his death). There could be evidence there. A quick pat-down showed nothing was there. A disappointed expression rose to Isamu's face, and he got one more idea. He slowly checked the throat, which stunk terribly and was full of dry blood. Nothing there. He moved on, checking different areas of the skin, feet, hands, and finally he found one clue. It was a tattoo, a dark red one, that was emblazoned on the back of Sato's hand.


This symbol, meaning chaos, stood out to Isamu as an unsettling thing. He couldn't get the word out of his mind. Chaos. He pictured the conspirators, draped in cloaks and masks, destroying Kiri, Sero lying dead on the ground beneath them. They laughed, the sun behind them beaming down on the ruins of a once great city. The screams of the innocent people....

Returning Sato's body to it's resting place, he contemplating what the tattoo could have meant...maybe it represented the group of conspirators? A clan? Isamu would think about it. He finished re-digging the grave, returning the stick, and he sat back under the willow tree, watching the moonlight shine through the branches. What did it mean?? He started to doze off under the peaceful silence of the night.

---

Training Rank: B to A
Word Count: 3,013/3,000

As the boy dozed under the moonlight a thick fog slowly creeped along through the grave yard. Slowly erasing away everything in a cloud of white. But Isamu would awaken to a cold feeling. A chill down his spine. He would know he was not alone. But aside from the tree, Within the hidden mist Jutsu he would be unable to see anything. This was a jutsu that even tricked the Sharingan. And now he was caught within it.

However there was the feeling of some one watching him. Anger flowed from the feeling. Cold rage at what had transpired within the sacred grounds of the graveyard. Sero stood within the mist waiting for Isamu to rise. He had been informed of the transgressions early enough for him to arrive to witness them himself. After everything that had happened on these grounds it was only natural that he would be keeping an eye on it. Still he was some what torn with this little incursion. Either way he fold his hands and focuses slightly to pull the mist back just enough to reveal himself. Just the two of them and an old Willow tree in a world of grey. It was then that Sero spoke. His tone cold.

"Are you aware of what you have done? How you have dishonored yourself and Me?These grounds have been home to the death of a Kage, To grave robbers and desecration. Even serial killers have frequented this place. Of course I would have it being watched. And yet you dig up the graves and tear into the flesh of the dead like a greedy animal. I should flay you alive!"

With that last sentence a very angry Sero move forward and closed half the distance in a second before stopping himself abruptly. His gaze, Those Dead grey eye's now watching the other like prey. His nostrils flaring as the temperature seems to rise with his temper. Still he breathed before he spoke again and this time slower and calmer.

"Isamu...I will give you a choice. You can run from me and see if you can escape. Or accept your punishment. If you accept your punishment then due to your services to me I shall be lenient with you and you shall keep your skin. Run from me and I show you what terror is."

Isamu knew that he couldn't have gotten away with it. Somewhere in his mind, he knew that someone had been watching him. Little did he know that it would be such a high-ranking ninja, the Mizukage himself, Sero. A thick fog blanketed the area, and Sero appeared before him moments later. Isamu began to shiver with fear as Sero explained what he had just done....and finally, he explained what had to be done to right this wrong.

"Isamu...I will give you a choice. You can run from me and see if you can escape. Or accept your punishment. If you accept your punishment then due to your services to me I shall be lenient with you and you shall keep your skin. Run from me and I show you what terror is."

Isamu was a sensitive, immature child most of the time. But here, he had an epiphany. He realized that he was a criminal, the same as the criminals that he despised, the same as the criminals he vowed to put to justice. But he didn't cry, and he didn't falter. He made a change in himself for the better. He stepped forward a few feet, and was face to face with Sero. His white and Sero's grey intertwined in the mist as he said, "I'll accept my punishment. I deserve it."

His pure white eyes were full of guilt and resentment of himself, yet his expression was calm, and his composure was ready.

Sero watched with out moving as the other approached him. Daring wasn't he? To approach some one who was capable of tearing a mans arms from their sockets. Some part of Sero admired that. Either way the individual in question had decided to accept his punishment whatever it might be. And Sero had something that fit the crime rather well.

You see. To punish the flesh is rarely enough. The mind remember the pain but memory fades in time. To truly punish one must punish the mind. Leave a mark that could not be removed. So Sero nodded as if accepting Isamu's Willingness to pay for his crime. He looked him in the eye and then in a flash his hand moved to attempt to punch Isamu in the gut. He knew how to avoid anything that would cause internal bleeding but the impact would be enough to rid the air from Isamu's lungs until he blacked out.

This was done with out words because a proper punishment leaves not a single clue of when it might end. Or if it would. Sero would wait until Isamu was unconscious before the mist would fade. Then turn to the team that had come with him. Speaking in a no nonsense voice.

"Put him in a coffin in a grave. Put some ants in there with him so they might gnaw at his flesh and torment him. And put a pipe in it for fresh air. Leave him in it for two days. Then dig him up and give him medical attention. If he escapes then tend to him and send him home."

And with that he left the grave yard with out feeling like he was even the slightest bit cruel.

[Exit thread]

Isamu didn't remember anything. He just knew that when he woke up, he didn't feel Sero's presence, and it was dark. Lifting his hand, he hit a hard surface. He felt to the left, then to the right, and realized he was stuck. There was something, all over him. He couldn't make out what they were, but they were small, and there was hundreds, maybe even thousands. He struggled to move, but the space was too small, and he realized it was a coffin. He gripped one of the little creatures, and crushed it, feeling the insides. Indeed, it was an ant. So this was his punishment. Suddenly, they all stopped. They seemed to shift, and gain a formation. And then, they went wild. They seemed to go much faster, biting and tearing at Isamu's flesh. Isamu didn't react at first, too stunned at their surprise attack, but then began screaming, loud enough to pierce through the coffin, through the 6 feet of dirt above him, and the shouts echoed through the night sky.

"Help! Aghhn! Somebody..."

No one heard his pleas, and for the first time since arriving in the cemetery, he was truly alone.

Through the pain and darkness resonating within the dreaded coffin, Isamu somehow found peace. It was judgement, and although he resented it, he knew it was fit and he was unjust. He fell asleep for a time, one or two hours at the most. He awoke to a number of bumps, welts, and bites all over his skin, from the insatiable insects that crowded the space. Their legs on him was a difficult sensation to get used to. He scratched at one or two of them, as they itched terribly. He finally stopped messing with them and closed his eyes again, desperate to return to sleep.

Isamu's eyes broke open fast. He looked around, and found more of the same; darkness. He couldn't see a thing. The ants had settled, or at least some of them had. This was it. He was done with this. It was his punishment, and he couldn't take it anymore. He clapped his hands together.

"Suiton: Bakusui Shōha!"

A gush of water burst from his mouth, and quickly filled the coffin. He didn't stop, and the wood of the coffin became waterlogged and sufficiently weaker. The water level rose further, filling his air hole (that Sero seemed to have had set up). Well, hopefully this worked, because he couldn't breathe and he would drown soon if it didn't. He heard a sharp crack. The wood must've been giving out. Another crack, and a piece of the coffin broke away, leaving a mound of dirt to fall on top of Isamu. The pressure was killing him, so he needed to be quick. He made some fast hand signs, and planned to blow the ruined thing apart, getting him air (and freedom) fast.

Isamu opened his mouth and launched three air bullets, and they impacted the inner walls of the coffin, before spreading and blasting through to the top. Dirt was thrown everywhere, as well as water and wood. He stood to his feet and brushed himself off, when suddenly, 3 extremely fast ninja whom he couldn't clarify the faces of (they were a blur, really) attacked him, and he blacked out.

When he awoke next, he was looking out over Kiri, and the sun was rising. He soon found that he was in Kiri hospital, in a room high up with a view. His ant bites were all scabbed over, and there was a note on the nightstand next to him, reading:

"Isamu, this is Waratsu. Our orders were to bring you to medical attention upon your fulfillment of deserved punishment or your escape. You're free to go, but this is your only warning. Do it again, and Sero won't be so kind."

Isamu looked back out the window at the beaming sun, and put the note back neatly before falling asleep again.

Used Jutsu: