Daraku watched the moon in the sky with tired eyes from the balcony of his room. The Ishido Castle held its usual gloomy feeling, standing almost enigmatic in the night with Daraku's slim figure clearly visible, like a king looking out over his invisible followers. The courtyard was empty, and the wind breezed through at intervals, kicking up small sandstorms now and then. It was the same as every night, and as peaceful and majestic as it was, Daraku was bored deeply. He pivoted his foot and turned to face his chamber door, passing through it and following the hall downstairs toward the front gate. His footsteps echoed as he grinned the door handle; with great effort, he pulled, and the gate creaked open. He walked out, leaving the courtyard and heading to the outskirts of the village.

The blond ninja wasn't stupid. He figured that his father would have heard him leave and would come to find him (if not send a team of clansmen rather than do it himself) but he didn't care; he wasn't tired and he just wanted to get out of that prison of a castle. He kept walking until he reached the Meeting Cactus, which was Mahe's designated rendezvous point. He sat down in the sand next to the oversized plant, and waited for a few minutes.

The sound of sifting sand behind alerted him, and he turned to see Mahe looking back at him. "Hello, Daraku. What made you leave the Castle this evening?"

"I'm just bored. I figured you could train with me, maybe?"

"At this hour? You sure are a night owl."

"Yeah, sleep isn't exactly a priority to me. Training, on the other hand..."

"Yes, yes. I understand, and I'll help you. What training did you have in mind?"

"Medical Ninjutsu. I'm just practicing a new way of killing people and using precision chakra in battles...sort of like a degenerative technique that uses the concepts of Medical Ninjutsu to ensue a reverse healing process."

Mahe nodded, and removed her dark coat. Her pale face was outlined by long, black hair that fell down to her upper back. Her eyes were a pinkish shade, and she wore a low-cut eggshell white strapless top, showing the tops of her shoulders. The sleeves on it extended a bit past her fingertips. Her shorts were a black color, adorned with pockets full of ninja tools, and she wore ninja sandals of the same black. She stood in front of him in this outfit, prepared for battle.

"You're very pretty. Why do you always wear that cloak? It really disguises your beauty."

"I'm a Nuke-Nin. Why wouldn't I want to disguise myself? Simple as that. Now, onto battling." Daraku nodded and took off his sash and sword, throwing them into the sand. He held his hands out in front of him.

"You make the first move."

Mahe made a quick nod before sprinting forward and throwing a lightning-fast punch. Daraku dodged it as best he could, still getting hit in the shoulder, but at least it wasn't his face. The pain rang through him violently; she was a powerful woman. She followed up with a kick, one aimed to the torso, which landed successfully and made Daraku fall to the right. She finished the combo with a footsweep to completely knock him to the ground, and then held an arm to his throat. "Let's try that again, shall we? you need to react faster." The man gave her an amused smirk. "I got it, I got it. Come at me again." Mahe nodded, readying a fist for a moment and feinting a punch. Daraku dodged accordingly before realizing it was just a ploy. She roundhouse kicked him in the back of the head, and he fell forward a few steps, where he ran straight into her rushing elbow at full force. He fell to the ground again, the pain in both his gut and in his skull throbbing violently.

Daraku knew that Mahe was more powerful than he was, which only made this training even more valuable than before. If he could overcome her Taijutsu prowess with his Medical Ninjutsu, it would surely be a step in the right direction. He got back to his feet, wiping a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth down his chin. He spat into the dark sand, and turned to face her again. The rogue ninja wasted no time; almost as soon as Daraku turned to face her, she shot an open fist jab forward. He unsheathed his sword and held it out in front of himself, so that her hand struck its sharp edge. She recoiled before using the momentum in a full turn, placing one hand under her and pivoting into a 360 degree spin, ending with her foot slamming into the back of his knee. He fell to the other knee in immediate response, feeling the pain in his gut wrench again but not letting it overcome him. Before she could go through with her uppercut, he pulled the woolly glove from his right hand and pressed its palm to her stomach. She yelled out in pain, falling back and clenching her gut with both arms.

Daraku smiled and got onto his feet again, brushing himself off and resheathing his blade. He began to slowly press his fingers back into his glove, one by one, while her pain subsided and she looked at him with surprised eyes. "How...how did you do that? That hurt like hell, but you hardly touched me." Daraku smiled his usual sinister grin before raising two fingers to indicate the separate parts of his answer to her question.

"First, powerful burst of chakra aimed precisely through my palm into your torso. Next, triggering the chakra to cause cell degeneration, leaving slight internal damage and severe pain. It worked!" Mahe nodded in approval before standing and pushing back her hair. The look on her face showed that she was still in pain, regardless of how hard she tried to act tough. He placed the same right hand to her torso, and she flinched in reaction. "Calm down, calm down. I'm only healing you." His hands glowed blue for a moment before fading, and her expression perked up as she let out a meager "thank you". "No need to thank me, I don't want you dying. Not when we've only started training..."

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Training Medical Ninjutsu B > A
Word Count: 1,093/3,000

"This is only the beginning, huh? Looks like I'll need to step up my game, then." Mahe said as she held out her arm. The cut on her hand continued to bleed, but she only smiled and acted as if it wasn't there as she activated her jutsu. "Kuchiyose: Hydra Effigy Rapid Summoning -- First Head!" The ground shook in response, and she sprinted forward at nothing. Daraku gave her a confused look before a massive hydra...or one of its heads, rather, emerged from the sand and she landed on it as it rocketed into the air, at least 30 meters above Daraku. She stood atop the base of the Hydra's nostrils as she made another series of hand seals and called out, "Second Head!" Daraku was getting the pattern now, and as he watched yet another Hydra head emerge from the sand and sway near the first, he calculated that there were four heads more, based on the legends he'd heard of them.

"Quick question: how is this going to help me practice my Medical Ninjutsu?" Mahe heard him call out, and looked down at him with a blank face. "Why, you can attack my Hydra with it, of course. Now go, before I make them devour you whole." The tone in her response read that she was being serious. Being eaten was the last thing that Daraku wanted, so he ran to the left as one of the heads smashed back down into the sand in an attempt to catch him. He continued sprinting at full speed, feeling the wind and hearing the sounds of roars behind him. He unsheathed his sword at the last possible moment once he had a sufficient distance between himself and his pursuer before activating Firestorm Blade and throwing a tornado at the menacing creature of legend. It was hit straight-on, and it sunk back into the sand as a retreat method. With only a few seconds after being hit, it re-emerged with a pitch-dark burn alongside its face from where the tornado hit, and it swayed next to the first head that Mahe stood upon once again.

"Third Head!" This battle was advancing quickly. In the time that Daraku had retaliated against the Hydra, Mahe was already finishing her hand seal sequence and summoning the next head. He couldn't handle all six at once, so he made his current goal to restrain the three in play and stop Mahe from summoning any more. He spun the Sword of Shadows within his hands before letting it throw another tornado, flying forward at Mahe. She jumped to avoid it, landing on an adjacent head and resuming her hand seals. Sprinting at full speed again, Daraku made it to the base of the Hydra she stood upon, and the other two dashed down, in a fleeting attempt to stop him. He pressed a hand on the Hydra, transmitting his medical chakra into it. A cry of unbearable pain escaped the Hydra's scaly lips, but the other two heads were still advancing quickly. Daraku used a substitution technique to replace himself with a tumbleweed that was blowing by, and the two Hydra heads collided with the base of the other. They all were dazed by the crash, and they each dropped down into the sand, leaving Mahe falling through the air. She wasn't worried, though, at least not by the looks of it. Her dark hair whipped wildly as her voice resonated through the uneasy sands. "Fourth Head!"

This newest Hydra was longer than the other three, and it caught Mahe mid-fall, raising her back up into the air. Two of the three that fell into the sand popped their heads out and raised to meet their summoners elevation, but the third never stirred, most likely unconscious due to the Medical Ninjutsu paired with the collision. That meant that with these three already out, there were two more left that she could summon, and Daraku was making slow but steady progress. He sprinted forward toward the head on his right, holding up a palm. Orange chakra raged around it, ready to destroy any cells in its path. The specific cells Daraku chose to target where those of the bones; he ran around to the back of the Hydra's head as it wrapped around in an attempt to chase him. He jumped onto it and flipped over, working as easy bait for the Hydra to follow suit; within seconds, the beast had tied itself into a knot and was immobile. He located the spine along its back and pressed the chakra-infused palm to it, causing another immediate cry of pain. It continued for a few seconds, before silencing and going stiff. Two heads down...they weren't very large. Though extremely long, he could handle them fairly well with his prototype medical ninjutsu.

Mahe had was preparing the for the next head already...Daraku didn't realize that she was going so quickly. "Fifth Head!" And naturally, yet another Hydra head emerged from the sand, this time not wasting even a moment to get acquainted with the cold Suna air. It broke through the surface of the desert headed straight for Daraku. The Special Jounin hid behind the previous head that was just killed, and the Hydra slammed into it. The other two heads came from different angles, with both of their mouths open and ready to swallow Daraku whole. He realized that his sword was still aflame, but not for much longer. He used the last of its blaze to launch a tornado at the head coming from southwest, stopping it upon impact as he dodged the second incoming head. Mahe stood atop the head that was struck with the flames, but she fell off, tumbling through the air. Nagare knew all too well that she would do something about it, and he could already picture what it would probably be..."Complete Hydra Summoning Style: The Final Head!" The ground quaked fiercely, setting loose a sand storm that tore through the air and left sand in Daraku's eyes. He felt a sinking feeling as the surface of the desert seemed to cave-in a bit, and then a loud blast sounded.

There, in front of Daraku, stood the full body of the Hydra. The last head being summoned seemed to bring back the last two...It was a massive thing, basically a six headed snake. Each pair of eyes were locked on him, and Mahe stood atop the largest head, the one that just emerged. Daraku raised his blade in a battle-ready stance. "I'm liking this, so far. Quite the little challenge."

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Training Medical Ninjutsu B > A
Word Count: 2,215/3,000

Daraku wasn't exactly an expert on fighting essentially seven against one. He just knew that he was the one and Mahe's summons and her were the seven. He knew that they seemed to be vulnerable to his cell degeneration thing, though, so if he could get close enough, that would be his primary course of action. His guess, though, was that they wouldn't even give him a chance to do that. There were six Hydra heads, and Mahe was now free to launch jutsu seeing as no more needed to be summoned. Wait...he thought for a moment. That was it! Mahe was the summoner, so if she was incapacitated, all of the summons would disperse. So it was settled, he only needed attack her, and the battle would be over. He made a hand seal, and breathed a bit more clearly. His hands both glowed with medical chakra, which he transmitted through his blade, giving it a stark orange sheen. He sprinted forward, all six heads dashing at him from different directions. He managed to outspeed them as he weaved between their necks. Eventually, he got an opening and jumped onto one of their necks, climbing vigorously.

The ninja couldn't run much faster, but at least Daraku was on the Hydra. The head that he was on attempted to jerk and throw him off, but he held fast as he noticed Mahe on across from him. He jabbed the glowing blade into the Hydra's spine. A roar was let out and it fell forward, crashing into the Hydra that Mahe stood upon. Daraku jumped into the air as the two heads smashed into one another, and slashed across Mahe's torso. Blood was drawn by the slice, a thin trail dripping from the wound as the blade passed all the way through. They landed in the sand in a heap, and the Hydra disappeared in a blast of smoke. Mahe held the cut with her already bleeding hand and offered the other hand to help Daraku to his feet. "That was a good battle, you used that painful medical jutsu thingie on my Hydra a lot and it seemed to work well. I think you've gotten your training in." The Ishido smiled back at her, as she walked over to her cloak which was still on the ground near the cactus and put it on.

"Thanks for helping with that. I've decided what I'm going to do, by the way. I'm leaving for Iwa...pretty soon." Mahe nodded, pulling the hood of the cloak back over her head and obscuring her face.

"Am I coming with you?" she asked, with a bit of an innocent tone peaking in her voice. He was used to women wanting to be with him. Most of them, he took advantage of, but he didn't want Mahe coming along. She had helped him plenty, though, and he still needed to know where Fuiyoka was, exactly.

"Can you tell me exactly where Fuiyoka is in Konoha?" Mahe crossed her arms as she replied quietly.

"There's a forest clearing directly north of the Hokage Monument. It's in the middle of a dense patch of woods; head east from there, and a path will start to come into view. Follow it until you hit the back wall of Konoha, ask the guard deployed there for "the truth". He'll take you from there." Daraku nodded. It was a detailed enough explanation, and he committed it to his memory before looking into the shade that now covered Mahe's face. She knew where Fuiyoka was...she claimed it was just from a simple trip to Konoha after going rogue, but it was more, obviously. No one could know precisely how to get into there with just a visit.

"Now tell me how you know that. You weren't one of them, were you...? I know that they accept non-Ishido members." Mahe stayed quiet.

"....I left them as soon as I saw the error in their ways. I came to Suna to be alongside the Seekers, not as one of them, but as an ally...I found you. And...I feel like I'm in lo--" He pressed his index finger to her lips, to shush her gently. 

"I know, it's in your eyes. You're in love with me. But there's...just one problem." Her ears perked up, and their gazes locked for the longest of seconds. Just as she was about to ask what the problem was, she felt a pain in her gut. She looked down, horrified to see that Daraku's sword was planted in her stomach, all the way to the hilt, and his hand was holding it steady and pressed into her. Blood seeped from the wound, and she looked back up into his crystal blue eyes.

"Why...? I..."

"The problem was that my only use for you was the location of my grandmother. You're pathetic and weak. I have no need for you any longer." He gave her an ominous grin before ripping the blade out of her, and wiping it on her cloak until all of the blood was off of its steel finish. He kicked some sand over her body, building it up until she was buried behind the cactus, never to be remembered. Even if someone found her, she was a rogue. They wouldn't be concerned with who had killed her. Daraku was safe, and even if he wasn't, he was leaving to Iwagakure within the week anyhow. This feeling was exhilarating! He had complete control over everything around him. If he wanted to kill someone, he could. If he wanted to take something, he would. He sheathed his sword and turned to head back to Ishido Castle, the same ominous grin still held on his countenance. This was to be a good month, the month of a newer, freer Daraku.

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Training Medical Ninjutsu B > A
Word Count: 3,215/3,000
~Training Complete~