WARNING: The following is not work safe. The following is not kid safe. The following is -especially- not to be read right before bedtime.
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[J.L. vs. Demon Bros.]
* * * * *
[Gai informs Hiashi of Neji's fight with Hinata; neither of them are at all pleased to have H. know about it.]
* * * * *
[meet Tsunami and Inari, discuss bridge, Gatou]
* * * * *
There was a quiet, almost subliminal noise in the background as they made their cautious way through the deserted headquarters, like an unnameable hybrid of dripping liquid and the thin keening of wind through open rafters. Despite its wooden construction, the building had old-fashioned torch nooks every dozen feet or so, but they were empty and cold, leaving jagged swathes of shadow to spiderweb their way across the walls and ceiling.
Sakura paused before opening the first door. "Sensei... I smell..."
"Yeah. Me too."
She took a deep breath and tried to ignore the coppery aftertaste that that scent brought to her mouth.
Then she opened the door, and was immediately occupied with avoiding the aftertaste of that morning's breakfast. She succeeded, barely, and Neshan simply closed his eyes sadly for a moment once he realized what he was looking at. A moment and a soft, sighing breath later, he opened them and closed the door behind him, leaving his student standing in the hallway and - to her relief - cutting off all view of that... pocket of hell.
[Dear gods, please, let me -never- understand how someone could use human skin to do...] her mind shied away from the image. In the back of her conciousness, another part of her mind clenched its metaphorical fists. {This bitch is fucking -dead-,} she vowed, and for once her more public half couldn't have agreed more.
She glanced away as the door opened. "Sensei... do we have to..."
"Yes. Anything we can learn is needed; no matter what we have to wade through."
She swallowed. "'A ninja is someone who does whatever it takes,'" she said, bouncing one of his favorite maxims back at him.
"Exactly." And with no further words needed, they moved calmly through, checking each room as they passed. Fortunately for Sakura's stomach, rooms like the first were rare - some of the others had old bloodstains spread across every surface, but for the most part there was nothing to indicate that people had ever been present.
"Well, at least the kitchen's normal."
"Take another look at what's on the spit."
"...-Thanks-, Sensei. That's -exactly- the image I needed to have in my head before dinnertime."
"You've been spending too much time around me. You're starting to pick up my sense of humor."
"At least we know that Gatou-san isn't a threat anymore."
"Granted, but do you really think that the psycho-bitch needs to get paid for this?"
"Point."
And then, at last, they came to a largeish room just off of the building's massive central chamber. Neshan paused outside of it, and raised one eyebrow in an unspoken question as he met his student's eyes. 'Do you feel it?'
She blinked, then closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. Eventually, she opened them and shrugged. 'No, nothing.'
He opened the door. At the center of the squarish room was a plain wooden table a little more than waist high for an adult. It was slightly inclined, and had deep grooves running its length arranged for maximum drainage. Much of the table was crusted to a dark brick red, as was a broad circular swathe of the floor centered underneath the table's lower end. Thin streams of brighter red flowed slowly down the grooves to drip and splash in the tiny puddles underneath the ends of the gutters.
The person - the boy - lying naked on the table looked like an image out of a nightmare. Vast patches of his skin were either missing entirely or stretched and opened away from the flesh underneath by thin cords depending from the ceiling. More cords wrapped around the table and into and -through- his body, binding him tightly against the rough wood, and still others supported both the several still-living organs held in the air above his motionless body and the blood vessels that kept them as part of the whole.
For a moment, she thought that that nightmarish web of strings was nothing more than simple threat, but as she looked closer she realised that - from their appearance and -where- they penetrated into his body - they had almost certainly actually been woven from living connective tissue.
"What a horrible way to die," she murmured unconciously.
The boy on the table turned his head to look at her, and his eyes were clear and all too lucid amid the horrible scarring and desecrated flesh that had once been a human face. "...who..."
She ran. She turned and bolted and curled up in one of the farthest corners of the main chamber to hug her knees as close to her chest as she could manage and hyperventilate until either she passed out or that image burned into her soul went away.
Some time later - she would never be precisely sure how long - someone rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. Since she had unconciously picked up his chakra approaching, she didn't jump in fright, but instead only looked up into her Sensei's concerned eyes.
"Are you all right?"
She swallowed, then nodded convulsively.
"All right." And she stood when he beckoned, and then followed him back into That Room.
"his name is haku," Neshan said to her in an undertone as he began to divest himself of most of his usual ninja gear. "and what you could see of what that woman did to him is barely even the half of it. i've managed to get him stable enough to move without danger, but we're going to need to get him to a real hospital as soon as physically possible." He paused, hesitating. "don't let him see you."
Then he walked over to stand next to the bandaged form on the table and said, gently. "I'm sorry. This will hurt."
"...w..t..." Haku whispered.
The Jounin leaned closer. "Yes?"
"...where... going...?" he forced out.
"Konoha. You'll be welcome there."
A tear gathered at the corner of one eye, then dropped and started to trace its way through the pattern of those horrible scars. "...never... want...me..."
Neshan smiled. "Konoha was founded by a number of clans who had run from different countries, each for their own reasons. Some wanted to escape being used for others' agendas; others were tired of being persecuted, and still more saw a chance to gain greater power as part of a new nation rather than an old. Regardless, they all went into what was, at the time, an impenetrable jungle full of lethal plants and nin-beasts... and they were all dedicated to building a nation where people with Bloodline Limits like theirs could live as equals rather than tools or demons. Things've changed some since then, of course, but the Hidden Village of the Leaf still holds more Bloodlines than all the other nations put together." He leaned down and adjusted the bandage across Haku's forehead before picking him up in his arms with infinite gentleness. "You'll fit right in."
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I am seriously disturbed by the fact that this was one of the easiest sequences to write thus far. OTOH, that ease - and disquiet - make me uncertain as to how far I should take this. On the one hand, it does a -real- good job of driving home the fact that one of this series relevant tropes is Anyone Can Die, and on the other, it's an -utter- departure from the expected Naruto tone... which, for the most part, I think that this series holds to.
Weigh in, folks!
Ja, -n
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."
--------------------------------------------------------------------
[J.L. vs. Demon Bros.]
* * * * *
[Gai informs Hiashi of Neji's fight with Hinata; neither of them are at all pleased to have H. know about it.]
* * * * *
[meet Tsunami and Inari, discuss bridge, Gatou]
* * * * *
There was a quiet, almost subliminal noise in the background as they made their cautious way through the deserted headquarters, like an unnameable hybrid of dripping liquid and the thin keening of wind through open rafters. Despite its wooden construction, the building had old-fashioned torch nooks every dozen feet or so, but they were empty and cold, leaving jagged swathes of shadow to spiderweb their way across the walls and ceiling.
Sakura paused before opening the first door. "Sensei... I smell..."
"Yeah. Me too."
She took a deep breath and tried to ignore the coppery aftertaste that that scent brought to her mouth.
Then she opened the door, and was immediately occupied with avoiding the aftertaste of that morning's breakfast. She succeeded, barely, and Neshan simply closed his eyes sadly for a moment once he realized what he was looking at. A moment and a soft, sighing breath later, he opened them and closed the door behind him, leaving his student standing in the hallway and - to her relief - cutting off all view of that... pocket of hell.
[Dear gods, please, let me -never- understand how someone could use human skin to do...] her mind shied away from the image. In the back of her conciousness, another part of her mind clenched its metaphorical fists. {This bitch is fucking -dead-,} she vowed, and for once her more public half couldn't have agreed more.
She glanced away as the door opened. "Sensei... do we have to..."
"Yes. Anything we can learn is needed; no matter what we have to wade through."
She swallowed. "'A ninja is someone who does whatever it takes,'" she said, bouncing one of his favorite maxims back at him.
"Exactly." And with no further words needed, they moved calmly through, checking each room as they passed. Fortunately for Sakura's stomach, rooms like the first were rare - some of the others had old bloodstains spread across every surface, but for the most part there was nothing to indicate that people had ever been present.
"Well, at least the kitchen's normal."
"Take another look at what's on the spit."
"...-Thanks-, Sensei. That's -exactly- the image I needed to have in my head before dinnertime."
"You've been spending too much time around me. You're starting to pick up my sense of humor."
"At least we know that Gatou-san isn't a threat anymore."
"Granted, but do you really think that the psycho-bitch needs to get paid for this?"
"Point."
And then, at last, they came to a largeish room just off of the building's massive central chamber. Neshan paused outside of it, and raised one eyebrow in an unspoken question as he met his student's eyes. 'Do you feel it?'
She blinked, then closed her eyes and concentrated for a moment. Eventually, she opened them and shrugged. 'No, nothing.'
He opened the door. At the center of the squarish room was a plain wooden table a little more than waist high for an adult. It was slightly inclined, and had deep grooves running its length arranged for maximum drainage. Much of the table was crusted to a dark brick red, as was a broad circular swathe of the floor centered underneath the table's lower end. Thin streams of brighter red flowed slowly down the grooves to drip and splash in the tiny puddles underneath the ends of the gutters.
The person - the boy - lying naked on the table looked like an image out of a nightmare. Vast patches of his skin were either missing entirely or stretched and opened away from the flesh underneath by thin cords depending from the ceiling. More cords wrapped around the table and into and -through- his body, binding him tightly against the rough wood, and still others supported both the several still-living organs held in the air above his motionless body and the blood vessels that kept them as part of the whole.
For a moment, she thought that that nightmarish web of strings was nothing more than simple threat, but as she looked closer she realised that - from their appearance and -where- they penetrated into his body - they had almost certainly actually been woven from living connective tissue.
"What a horrible way to die," she murmured unconciously.
The boy on the table turned his head to look at her, and his eyes were clear and all too lucid amid the horrible scarring and desecrated flesh that had once been a human face. "...who..."
She ran. She turned and bolted and curled up in one of the farthest corners of the main chamber to hug her knees as close to her chest as she could manage and hyperventilate until either she passed out or that image burned into her soul went away.
Some time later - she would never be precisely sure how long - someone rested a gentle hand on her shoulder. Since she had unconciously picked up his chakra approaching, she didn't jump in fright, but instead only looked up into her Sensei's concerned eyes.
"Are you all right?"
She swallowed, then nodded convulsively.
"All right." And she stood when he beckoned, and then followed him back into That Room.
"his name is haku," Neshan said to her in an undertone as he began to divest himself of most of his usual ninja gear. "and what you could see of what that woman did to him is barely even the half of it. i've managed to get him stable enough to move without danger, but we're going to need to get him to a real hospital as soon as physically possible." He paused, hesitating. "don't let him see you."
Then he walked over to stand next to the bandaged form on the table and said, gently. "I'm sorry. This will hurt."
"...w..t..." Haku whispered.
The Jounin leaned closer. "Yes?"
"...where... going...?" he forced out.
"Konoha. You'll be welcome there."
A tear gathered at the corner of one eye, then dropped and started to trace its way through the pattern of those horrible scars. "...never... want...me..."
Neshan smiled. "Konoha was founded by a number of clans who had run from different countries, each for their own reasons. Some wanted to escape being used for others' agendas; others were tired of being persecuted, and still more saw a chance to gain greater power as part of a new nation rather than an old. Regardless, they all went into what was, at the time, an impenetrable jungle full of lethal plants and nin-beasts... and they were all dedicated to building a nation where people with Bloodline Limits like theirs could live as equals rather than tools or demons. Things've changed some since then, of course, but the Hidden Village of the Leaf still holds more Bloodlines than all the other nations put together." He leaned down and adjusted the bandage across Haku's forehead before picking him up in his arms with infinite gentleness. "You'll fit right in."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
I am seriously disturbed by the fact that this was one of the easiest sequences to write thus far. OTOH, that ease - and disquiet - make me uncertain as to how far I should take this. On the one hand, it does a -real- good job of driving home the fact that one of this series relevant tropes is Anyone Can Die, and on the other, it's an -utter- departure from the expected Naruto tone... which, for the most part, I think that this series holds to.
Weigh in, folks!
Ja, -n
===========
===============================================
"V, did you do something foolish?"
"Yes, and it was glorious."