A Bad Day [Private]

[Chiyo]

The mid-morning sun leaked around the edges of the blackout curtains that covered the one window in their room as Chiyo awoke, her golden eyes struggling to focus on the clock beside the bed. How in the world had she managed to sleep a full 18 hours? Normally the Uzumoreru functioned on about 5 hours or less a night but she had been uncharacteristically tired the last few nights and decided to get in a nap while Michino was working late. Well, apparently that nap had turned into a light coma. With a heavy sigh, the young woman gently disentangled herself from her lover's arms and pushed herself into a sitting position. Long, dark hair swung forward to create a curtain around her shoulders and she instinctively reached up to comb her fingers through the strands when a shower of black powder rained down around her. Turning automatically to examine her pillow, her eyes widened. The lavender satin was covered with the same substance. With a shaking hand, she pinched some of the offending dust between her fingers and brought it to her nose. The sharp scent was unmistakable...hair dye.

With a gasp, she stood and stumbled in disbelief out of the bedroom and across the hallway to the bathroom where she stared at her reflection in the mirror. About 3 inches of her hair, starting at her roots, was pure white rather than the inky black of the rest of her locks. Her knuckles paled as she gripped the edge of the counter top, staring at the impossible in the mirror. Yesterday she had noticed just a few silver strands and assumed they had been caused by stress. Being somewhat particular about her appearance, she had purchased a kit to dye her hair and hid the offending strands from sight. Shortly after that she had laid down for a nap and now her entire head had several weeks growth of white hair. "What the hell?" Her voice came out in a hiss as the confusion morphed into anger and the whites of her eyes faded into blackness for a moment, just long enough to see her heart thumping wildly in her chest before her stomach turned and she rushed to collapse beside the toilet where she expelled what little acid was left after nearly a full day of sleep.

It's getting worse.

The thought rang through Chiyo's head as she finally felt her stomach settle and she leaned against the wall beside her to calm her racing heart. When she first started getting headaches and having trouble focusing her chakra, she had mentioned it to her father and they had both delved into finding any hint as to what might be happening to her. After exhausting most of their resources and finding next to nothing that would explain her situation, Toushin had suddenly sought out the last person she had expected, Ryuu Tama. Of course, that had been several months ago, and the old man hadn't mentioned anything more about it, but she also hadn't noticed any further changes in her condition. Luckily she knew the extent of Michino's brother's genius and had every confidence that he would be able to solve the problem, even if his methodologies were a little off-putting.

With a renewed resolve, Chiyo pushed herself to her feet and brushed her hair out, causing a new cascade of black powder to fall to the floor, and twisted it up into a bun before pulling a black headband on and adjusting it to hide the white roots. There was no need to get Michino or her father worked up over this new development until it was absolutely necessary. Satisfied that she looked somewhat normal again, she took a deep breath and splashed a little water on her face before she quickly cleaned up the black powder and went back into the bedroom to dress for her morning warm-up. As she dressed in a simple pair of black shorts and a matching tank-top, she watched Michino as he slept. A small smile stretched across her lips as he shifted to stretch his arm toward her side of the bed as though searching for her. Not finding her warm body next to him, a small frown formed on his face and he pulled her pillow toward him, knocking the black powder onto the sheets.

Reminded of her new problem, a frown replaced the wistful smile and the petite young woman crossed the room to clean up the remaining evidence. Once satisfied, she headed into the kitchen to climb through the window and up onto the roof where she had a couple training dummies set up. The heat of the day had already set in, the main reason she normally made a point to wake before the sun was up, but she set to stretching then laid into the canvas covered figures. Luckily the issues with her chakra didn't effect her training so much as she relied much more heavily on the power that her Uzumoreru blood lent her, though it was only expected that even it would fail her today.

Soon enough, a heavy sheen of sweat covered the young assassin's body and her movements slowed until she was forced to take a knee and catch her breath. Her mind raced as she struggled to get a grip on her body. How had this had come on so suddenly? Just two days ago she had even been growing accustomed to the headaches so that she barely noticed them and now it was a struggle to train for 10 minutes? Well, it wouldn't hurt to take some time to rest if she had to, so she pushed herself back to her feet with a sharp exhale as her gut twisted again. This time she managed to recover without needing to heave and she walked to the edge of the roof over the kitchen window, stepped off the side, caught herself on the top of the frame and swung her small body into the open window as she did every day. Unfortunately, her pride would not allow her to properly examine why that might have been a bad idea. On the way back into her small, bright kitchen, her foot caught on the edge of the sink and her ankle twisted to the side and back, causing the rest of her body to flip forward, crumpling into a pile on the cold tile floor.

"Ow, ow, ow! I shouldn't have done that." The words came out as a sharp mumble as she pulled herself into a sitting position and reached down to feel her rapidly swelling ankle. Well, she had already decided to take some time to rest, and now she had a ready excuse rather than letting on that her condition was worsening. The last thing she needed was her father hovering over her or Michino worrying when he was already working himself ragged at the dojo. She would have to come up with a better reason behind the injury other than falling through the window, though. As she probed her ankle, making sure there weren't any fractures, it occurred to her that the injury also gave her an excuse to see Tama without making it a big deal. Now confident that the damage was minor, she struggled to her feet once again and started to walk toward the fridge to get ice for the swelling but as soon as she put the smallest amount of pressure on the strain, the pain made her stomach twist again and she slid back to the floor. The degree of pain made her rethink her plan. The daughter of Uzumoreru Toushin should be able to handle the pain of such a minor injury, hell, she had endured much worse than this when she was still a child. There was something very wrong, and it was much worse than any of them had expected. Doubling over, she retched again, though there was nothing left in her stomach to expel, and as soon as the cramps subsided enough to allow her to breathe, she croaked out a shout, "Michi!"

 

[Toraono Michino]

Michino Toraono, for all intent and purposes, was a really heavy sleeper. Of the small handful of things that kept him from progressing on to becoming a Jounin rank, the fact that he was such a heavy sleeper was probably on up there. Right next to having problems with fighting multiple opponents, he just wasn’t skilled at it. However as a soldier, nay, a shinobi, he should able to sleep with at least one eye open. Yet the blackout curtain? His idea. Any small ray of light shining into a room he slept in, for some unknown reason, really bothered him. It kept him in something of a half-sleep, never really resting, and it made him irate when he only ever had a single day off from the Dojo every week. With the Swarm sweeping the country like a plague, the refugees pouring in daily, and his ancestral clan home having been turned into the new Academy; rarely did a day go by that Michino actually slept at all.
Still, deep in the blankets of shadow and sleep, he heard Chiyo call his name. Little more than a croak, something than someone who was paying attention would have trouble hearing; it rang loudly into his mind. His eyes shot open with a deep breath as his right leg kicked off the blanket, and his left arm launched him off the bed. In a single fluid motion he landed on his foot, grabbed his staff, and was next to his beloved in two hops. A rush of air followed after as he crouched down next to her form laying on the kitchen floor. As if reading her mind, his hand reached down to gently graze her ankle and then drew back from her reaction. His brain was in a panic. Was this an attack? Was his rivalry with some of the other instructors finally reach the fever pitch he feared? His breathing was quickening but a small voice told him to calm down. Owari metaphorically smacked him upside the head and began giving instructions to her brother who was terrible at rational thinking under fire.
“O-okay, I’m going to summon Owari, and send her out to get some help. It’s going to be o-okay,” he said, trying really more to calm himself down more than Chiyo, as he did a few deep breaths.

His hands clasped themselves together before he rolled them through three different seals and tapped the ground between himself and Chiyo. In a poof of steam, the red-skinned Owari sat with a flicking tail of annoyance at her twin brother’s panic over such a simple situation. A word didn’t need to be spoken as she got up and began to walk out towards the front door. The giant of a man reached out to stroke some hair behind his lover’s ear that had fallen onto her face, when he noticed the white on her crown that she was trying to hide. Yet before he could question her, Owari made an odd squeaking sound, before a cloud of steam from her dismissal back into her own realm rolled into the kitchen. Sure now that this was an attack, Michino’s arm and leg flared to life, wreathed in a purple flame, as he darted towards the living room…only to see no one there. Just an open door. People talking casually a few floors down. Fully on guard he began to carefully move towards the open space as the image of another gigantic person began flickering in and out of space behind Michino. After about twenty flickers, Ryuu Tama in his oldest form finally solidified and struck his younger brother on the neck at an odd angle. In the most amazing turn of events, the giant Toraono actually dropped to the ground without a fight, unconscious. Tama, was shaking his hand and swearing,
“Holy seasonal holidays! Badgers! Ahhhh! Seriously, you really didn’t have to train every damn neck muscle, Michino! Kami! I’m going to be feeling that all goddamn day now! Ugh!”
With a spin he held out his arms towards the assassin on the ground with a slightly annoyed look on his face, still shaking the hand he knocked his brother out with,
“Look at the state of cha! Yep, yep, yep. That’s Coil Industria Degeneratum if I ever saw it. You can tell by the way you look like you’re in absolute misery but have no idea why. Oh, and the early silvering. Usually a good sign as well. Oh but, that poor leg, can’t be having this now…”
The mad scientist, without any seeming fear of Chiyo’s gender so far, knelt down and grabbed her leg without reservation before also gripping the injured ankle. He waited, it seemed like, until she finally broke down and cried out in pain before healing energy began circulating into the bone. A smile formed over his lips, just a small one, as he watched a woman who looked very much like a certain other female whom had been a source of misery in his teens. With a jerk he popped it back into socket and then all but erased the injury.
“Can’t be having you unable to walk, cause I ain’t carrying your tiny ass. If you want to get better before either your precious beau or your jerk Dad can get in over their heads with worry before our gates are literally swarming with enemies…then I suggest you follow me. I have some…information, you would do well to have. Though I warn you, you’re not going to like everything you hear. Come now, time is money.”

Without another word he turned his back to the assassin and stepped over his brother unceremoniously. It was clear he really didn’t care if she decided to follow him or not, punctuated as he took out a flask from his lab coat and took a long swing in broad daylight, outside her apartment, before making a right and heading down the stairs. He knew that she would follow him, and that it wasn’t going to be easy either, but he really didn’t care. The Uzumoreru had long been an antagonist to the Ryuu, and it seemed the older scientist was one for tradition.