A/N: I forgot to give credit on the last chapter, my bad. The little bit about liking girls is heavily inspired from a JoCat mini animation on youtube, named JoCat - I like girls. It's only 30 seconds. Give it a watch.
Orochimaru
Interesting. There are signs of cell death without damage. So strange… Genjutsu, so strong that it can convince your brain cells to give up on life or? The damage is so widespread but seemingly random, unlike physical trauma. Cells show time of death much earlier than the rest of its cluster, like it has just given up on living. Death of brain cells at such randomness can easily cause unpredictable behaviour in the subject, like the rest of the physical trauma is clearly self caused. Is it really Genjutsu though? There are also plenty of freshly born cells as if the brain is being reconstructed, but the death of the subject has halted this process of transformation. I wonder if the Yamanaka suffered from the same process? The girl was only unconscious from shock, but the man was exhibiting unpredictable behaviour… that suddenly disappeared from seemingly being in close proximity. Hmm. Perhaps the process was simply done, all cells or only some have been recreated, so does that mean the girl went through a milder process, developing some attachment issues. Or is the transformation just much slower reducing the strain and the damage to the subject's psyche? So if this one also survived the process, would he have gone back to normal? What exactly is the purpose of this transformation then? Is it only some kind of debilitation for combat purposes or is there more to it? There is simply not enough data, perhaps Tsunade can help with her more medical insight, but she is away healing Anko. Ahh… whatever I should perhaps take care of another chore before she comes back, nothing more I can gain from this autopsy. How I would love to see what is happening in that Yamanaka girl’s head, alas the process would be deadly to her, how unfortunate. I can only hope Tsunade has some insight. Now, where is that tongue? Good thing I know a thing or two about seals, otherwise this thing would have destroyed itself, now I can use it as evidence, instead of dealing with Danzo myself. The old man has gone senile in his age if he really thought about having a conflict with me by targeting my student. I just hope Sarutobi-sensei hasn’t gone senile as well, it would be… annoying to deal with them both.
I walked into the building with a slimy tongue in my hand. After finally reaching his office I threw the tongue on his desk. Sensei wasn’t very pleased but I did come here to make a point after all. He raised an eyebrow at the tongue, prompting me to speak. His usual authoritative plays.
“This belonged to a man that targeted Anko, something Menko I believe his name was. Imagine my surprise to find my own seal that we developed with Jiraya some decades ago specifically for ROOT, going after my own student.” I said with a drawl, calmly getting my point across.
“I see. How is my grand student doing?” He asked, still sharp as ever, probably calculating the meaning of this while gathering more info.
“She was drugged with a highly specialised paralytic, thankfully my grand student had a sixth sense or something to check up on her. Saving her life from a cruel end.” I explained the important information for him to reach a conclusion easier. His face got sterner with hidden anger as he lit up his pipe.
“Please tell me more, Orochimaru.” He said with more attention now. His meaning was clear: he wanted a report. And I would oblige.
“Close to midnight, the little Yamanaka ran into me near my house, calmly explaining that Anko was in need of assistance that they could not provide, that is she and the Kobayashi boy. I arrived at Anko’s house to find a mangled corpse in the hallway. Sporting a severe break in one arm and several shuriken bone deep around his collar and shoulders, punched straight through his Chuunin jacket. A laceration in his lower back, deep enough to damage the spine but not as deep as the shuriken, clearly the armour did some protecting. They claim after the initial blow to the spine the fight was… unthreatening. Heavy head trauma seemed to be the ending blow, the man however was technically not dead until I finished him. The brain was damaged enough to make the man unresponsive to any stimuli yet his body still functioned, a coma. That is why I was able to get my hands on the tongue.” I reported just like any other mission.
“I assume this information comes from an autopsy you yourself performed?” Hiruzen asked, unapprovingly.
“Yes.” I answered.
“So fresh out of the academy and already ambushing a stronger shinobi successfully.” Hiruzen commented absent mindedly.
“I should mention Menko was somewhat intoxicated by alcohol, probably to get closer to Anko.” I added.
“Yes, still credit is due where it’s due. To risk death, to save a teacher you have known a few months. At such a young age, as well as demonstrate quick and strategic thinking to set up an ambush. A successful one under such pressure, almost all children would crack, with very few exceptions, like you or the last Uchiha probably. Very few with exceptional circumstances. I wonder if you would have done the same for me?” He ended his commentary with a question.
“At the time, no. Now, perhaps, but for Tsunade. She would be sad if you were to pass away suddenly, old man.” I said honestly.
“Ahahahaha! Of course. I am glad you found someone to care for. It is what makes us human after all. I will take care of this tongue, you may go now.” He said after laughing boisterously.
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“See, that you do. Next time I will do it myself and you know I will make it messy.” I said as I left his office. It was time I took a nap, haven’t slept at all last night.
Ryoshi Kobayashi
I was lounging side by side with Anko as she helped me through the book I was studying as an urgent knocking on the door interrupted us. I rushed down to open the door and Ino lunged at me, tightly wrapping her arms around me.
“Huh. That was so fast. Was it that bad Ino?” I asked. She just hummed into my chest in answer. I put a hand on her back and comforted.
“You can relax now. I got you.” I said gently. I wrapped my hands around her waist and hoisted her up. Penguin waddled my way up the stairs and back to Anko’s bedroom to study. Ino fell asleep on my lap as we studied as Anko and I kept our voices low and monotone. It was time for R&R after all and Ino stopped trembling.
Now this book made absolutely no sense. There was contradicting information on what part of a seal must be drawn first and the purpose of each stroke seemed to sometimes be the same and sometimes the same line had a different use. I was getting frustrated.
“None of this makes any sense!” I said to Anko.
“I know what you mean, I’m not very good either. It just works, or it doesn’t.” Anko explained.
“So helpful.” I said sarcastically.
“Listen brat!” She started but sighed before continuing. “Something Jiraiya-sensei told me about sealing. Everyone has their own way of doing it. What works for some doesn’t work for others. Meaning the art of sealing must be done on one’s own with only minor guidance. That is why none of these books make any sense and why sealing arts aren’t more prominent. It requires too much commitment to get to a reasonable usefulness, while just focusing on Ninjutsu or something will get you the same results as well as it being easier because others can teach you.” She explained calmly.
“I see.” I responded with nothing else, I thought of her words. It can’t be that unique per person can it? Then again what the fuck would I know about magical exploding paper and scrolls somehow holding thousands of steel weaponry in them, as well as corpses and whatever the fuck else sealing does. I just sighed.
“Alright take a break, I need a nap.” Anko said as she grabbed Ino into a hug and closed her eyes. I wondered why Ino was not waking up from the jostling, she is usually a light sleeper. Then I saw the small smile, the little vixen was awake just pretending. Left out to dry I meditated to meet up with Shukaku as far I remembered he was a specialist as well in sealing. Maybe he could teach me something.
“Ahoy! Shukaku, how have you been?” I asked nonchalantly as I waved a hand at him.
“Excellent, kid. Last night’s spectacle was a sight behold. I didn’t even know one of you humans could do that to themselves. All the blood brought a smile to my face.” The beast smiled with huge sharp teeth. He was clearly content yet, the smile was filled with a craving for more.
“I am glad you are pleased. I was thinking maybe you can help with learning the sealing arts.“ I said my voice clear and crisp in the silence of the space void, that was my mindscape.
“Before that, you could have let me out against that guy that reeked of blood in the forest. Maybe the little red one wouldn’t have been hurt so bad.” He said chidingly. I was surprised at his words, the blood hungry beast was chastising me for not protecting a comrade, but then it dawned on me why. Shukaku was chaos hungry but deeper down he was the spirit of protection, that was why he didn’t make much trouble at first, because I told him I wanted to protect people. I looked down, clenched my fist, my arms trembled from the strain.
“Yes. You are right. You know, I made a mistake, because… I am afraid. If word gets out somehow, your chakra signature is noticed. Quasi gods will hunt me down and those around me, in the name of some delusion of world peace. I need to be stronger.” I said through gritted teeth.
“That reminds me, at some point we might have to find and kill one of your siblings Jinchuuriki to delay these quasi gods.” I explained.
“Looking forward to it.” Shukaku smiled.
“Now tell me about this magic you refer to as the sealing arts.” I continued.
“Fine, fine. Let me see one of those explosion tags you are so fond of first.” The beast asked. I wondered how that would work in the mindscape, how I could bring a physical object with me. I tried to reach out into my pocket where I usually keep them, to see if I could manifest them somehow through my will. It took a few tried and intense focus, but it did work and I placed it on the ground in front of me. Shukaku shrunk in size, now matching my size and he took the tag in his sandy claws as he observed. Then he started chordling at the small paper. I just looked on with furrowed brows, waiting for him to calm down and explain.
“Devious little humans. Ahahaha. I am laughing because this is so stupid and simple, yet cunning in its simplicity. Ahahaha.” Shukaku spoke between laughing fits.
“Can you explain?” I asked, still confused.
“Yeah, yeah. Okay let’s start from what it does.” He said after finally calming down.
“Doesn’t it explode, to cause damage? What do you mean?” I was even more confused.
“Just listen, you are going to see what I mean.” I nodded.
“This character in the middle.” He pointed, with a sharp claw at the Chinese character in the centre of the paper. “Is a symbol used for storage, chakra storage. All it does is store chakra. These circular lines around it that connect to the rest of the symbols act as a boundary for the storage, a barrier so the chakra would not disperse naturally.” He explained as he pointed at the various squiggly lines on the paper.
“But it’s not a full circle, wouldn’t the chakra leak?” I said.
“I'm getting there, stop interrupting!. But yeah, you are semi right. It would not leak chakra, instead it shows a weak barrier, a shabby storage. Meaning it would not take much for it to break. See how they are connected to the rest of these shitty weird lines. That is for the purpose of directing the chakra as the line's purpose is to gather chakra.” He explained and I looked at it, noticing that it covered most of the paper and the only thing that I didn’t understand now was the dots in the middle of those lines, but I did not interrupt this time.
“The only remaining things are these dots, they are simply on and off switches, the way they are spread indicates they correlate to that section of the paper, although it lacks specificity, it probably serves the purpose of timing the said ‘explosion’.” He made air quotes as he said explosion.
“The more of them are on, the more chakra gathering pathways are on and the faster the explosion occurs.” Explained further the sand tanuki.
“So, so far you’ve told me that the seals on this tag, just gather chakra into a crappy container and that’s it.” I said surprised.
“Yes, that is the devious simplicity of the tag. Doesn’t have any force amplifiers or directions, it simply lets enough chakra gather and get compressed into a single spot and the shabby container holding it all, just shatters letting it all go in one moment, causing an outburst of enough chakra to cause damage to fleshlings, like yourself.” The tanuki explained with a devious smile.