Beings of Another Plane [Private/Maki]

[Hoshirei]

At the moment, Hoshirei was quite glad to be in their private living quarters. Some of the clan elders were getting on her nerves once more, especially the ones wondering when the next-in-line would be born. If she heard one more old man telling her to get pregnant while there was a potential war at hand, she could not be blamed for the aftermath. She wasn't even that old for kami's sake.

With a heavy sigh, she moved from her upright position to laying down on the couch, one bare foot on a cushion, the other trailing to the floor. Hoshirei folded her arms under her head and closed her eyes. A few moments later, a soft mew followed by a weight on her chest had her smiling softly. Barely moving, she pulled her right arm from under her head and started stroking her quickly growing kitten. The little fur-ball started purring and Hoshirei opened her eyes to look at her cat. She felt a modicum of tension release from her chest just looking at the happy little face.

An echo of a merrowr met her ears and she turned her head to look to her right. Staring at her, two paws on the cushion before her, was a rather fat, ghostly cat. Hoshirei giggled softly and replied, "Well hello to you too." The ghost cat issued another happy sound before hopping up and around her head on its' way to the back of the couch. Hoshirei just shook her head and closed her eyes once more, allowing herself a moment to breathe.

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MFT; WC: 263

 

[Kairyuu]

”But surely you must agree that your near death has left us in greater need than ever for an heir?!”

”What I’ll agree to is that if you bring this up again before this war is over, I’m going to flay the skin from your bones and sew it back onto you backwards.”

For his credit, Nobu took the hint and backed around the corner. He was getting better at picking up when Maki was out of patience for his wordiness. And for all that Maki wouldn’t trust the man at his back for any amount of time, he at least knew how to placate, for a time, the inner council into shutting the fuck up and leaving them in peace for a moment. Maki looks as the schemer back around the corner, his remaining shifting from a green hue back to its natural brown state.

The door to the room opens and closes swiftly, his hand reaching back to slide the lock into place. Maki was, for once, not in his usual getup. Instead he was naked but for a soft cotton robe of deep crimson. And somewhat wet from the shower that had been interrupted by talk of a child. The one armed man sighs and walks over to the couch to take a seat, stopping as he finds Hoshirei there instead.

And a cat. He looks from her to it, then back to her. Then to it. Finally, back to her. ”I can see that.” It was…half exhilaration and half disbelief. He’d lost this power so long ago. And now it was back. He knew the cause for it returning was likely not something his wife would be happy with, and indeed had taken to hiding the skeletal arm of his deep in the ethereal to separate it from his mortal form.

He sits at her feet and kicks his own onto the coffee table, letting out a sigh as he does. ”Can I just murder them all and we run away from this clan after setting the clanhouse on fire?” Maki idly reaches over and with a glimmer of power the skeletal arm appears, stroking at the now purring cat.

 

[Hoshirei]

Hoshirei could just hear Nobu's scampering off after Maki threatened his person. She had read about things like degloving and could imagine that having one's skin ripped off and sewn back on would certainly not be pleasant. She sat in silence a tiny smirk on her face as Maki entered swiftly. As he walked over to the couch, she moved a bit to give him more room to sit. She couldn't help but smile when she caught Maki looking straight at the ghost cat. She also couldn't help the chuckle issued from her at Maki's question.

The almost fluttery image of a skeletal arm petting the ghost cat was not entirely expected, but she never thought Maki would allow himself a disadvantage if he could fix it somehow. With a soft merrt, Mouna jumped down from her lap and sauntered off to go lay in the sun. The living cat was still getting used to Maki though she didn't mind being around him. The ghost cat purred happily as Maki continued petting it and Hoshirei reached up a slow, but not hesitant hand, to pet the cat as well, not caring if her fingers brushed over the skeletal ones.

"As tempting as that sounds, it seems to mostly be the elder generation. Those the age of Tenken and younger seem to truly understand that Konoha comes first. Before you came home from the hospital, I made it abundantly clear to the elders, and the clan as a whole, that disloyalty would end in the termination of their existence on this plane," she paused a moment, hoping that she was getting across just how much she had to change when Maki didn't come home from a meeting. "At this point, I am sorely tempted to add questioning us about reproduction to that list. Would I be correct in guessing that Nobu was the latest to make the inquiry? There is something about him that doesn't feel right. How he speaks feels familiar."

Hoshirei sat silently, petting the cat for a few moments more before standing and walking over to their private, hidden wet bar to grab them both something to drink. Just before she got there, she stopped, eyes widening for a moment before she dashed to their room to look for a particular storage scroll.
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MFT; WC: 385

 

[Kairyuu]

As her fingers hit his own, Maki recoils slightly before he forces himself to calm down and go back to the gentle petting. He hated that someone close saw him like this, but on some basic level knew hiding it wasn’t the right option here. Hoshirei knew full well what he was, what he’d done to himself, and seemed accepting of this fact. That brought Maki some comfort, some peace. Those were two things in short supply ever since he’d met that bitch from Frost.

Part of him wanted to chase her down and remove her brain from her head, then put it into a jar and torture her mentally for eternity. Part of him wanted to never see her again. And a third part just spazzed entirely when he thought about that day. That horrid day that someone did what he never believed possible. Someone had broken him. Not just physically. Even now, simply thinking about her, his living arm had developed a tremor. Maki takes in a deep breath before forcing calm over himself.

”Maybe we can put him back in charge then. Let him and Osore have Nobu ask when they’re going to make kids. Is the clan accepting of incest? I…..would assume so considering cousins are apparently an acceptable thing to them. Wouldn’t surprise me to learn they’d married off siblings before ‘to keep the line pure’ or some nonsense like that.” He smiles, having heard from the inner council of her threat against one of their own. ”Indeed he was. Apparently, he really wants us to have a kid. I’m betting so he can remove its brain and make it a puppet to let him control the clan or something equally stupid. For all his smarts, he seems to think I have no idea what lengths he’d be willing to go to. He doesn’t realize I’ve been there.”

They sit in silence for a moment before his wife rises to grab a drink. Then pauses. ”Rei….?” As soon as he speaks, she bolts from the room, and Maki rises, the ghostly cat meowing in protest at the sudden motion as he follows her. ”What’s wrong? If you just found out you're pregnant, I'm killing Nobu before he can learn about it.”

 

[Hoshirei]

On his way into their bedroom, Maki would be able to hear soft thumps as she dug out her mother's old box of communications. A quick turn of her body to place the box on the bed revealed an inconspicuous box of maple. Hoshirei flipped off the lid as she heard Maki ask her about being pregnant. She couldn't help but giggle a little hysterically but force herself to reply verbally as she pulled out the innocuous scrolls in the box. "No, definitely not pregnant. I do appreciate the sentiment. I am torn as to whether or not I am imagining something."

A soft cry of success issued for her mouth as she pulled out trap bottom. She gingerly pulled out the hidden storage scroll, pierced a finger, and swiped it across the seal. Keeping the scroll mostly closed, Hoshirei moved to a clear spot on the bed and allowed it to unroll, finally unveiling it's contents. She picked up the oldest as well as the most recent. Opening both of them, she laid them next to each other and compared the handwriting. Unsurprisingly, they matched. Familiar with the contents, she quickly scanned them again.

Hoshirei took a deep breath before moving to the side, allowing Maki to get close to the documents. "Mother was rather paranoid. She kept every piece of communication from the clan. The ones in this scroll tend to be orders she was given over the years. The first, ordering her to kill my father. The second arrived after her death, alluding greatly to me taking her place. Tell me, do they remind you of anyone? The speech pattern, vernacular?"

 

[Kairyuu]

Well, she giggled. Hysterically. That was either a really good sign…or a really bad one. And then she began pulling papers out of the box she’d rushed in here for, leaving Maki rather confused and unsure of what to do. Thankfully she had presence of mind to respond to him with actual words, and seemed to herself be unsure of what was going on.

Maki steps closer to her side as she pulls out the false bottom, looking at even more paper. A single scroll was there, one which apparently requires her blood to unseal. Must be important, and considering their discussion before this….was it a jutsu for birth control? Or perhaps one to increase fertility. Either way he wasn’t fond of the idea. There was a natural way of the body working, and throwing chakra into it could cause all kinds of issues, as he’d learned these last few weeks.

Finally she stepped aside so he could read the scrolls. And explains what was going on. He looks down at the papers for a moment, eyes moving between them as she asks her questions. After a moment, Maki holds up his fleshly limb with a ‘wait’ motion and makes his way to his dresser. He steps to the side and deftly slides his hand along the edge against the wall, releasing some latches and in two instances disarming traps meant to injure those not prepared. Then he slides the whole dresser on a pivot to reveal a safe door. Instead of putting in a combination, for indeed there wasn’t one, he simply reaches through the steel and comes out with his own set of papers.

Leafing through them, he pulls out two of his own and puts the rest back before putting his on either side of Hoshirei’s scrolls. After a moment of looking between them, he nods. ”Subtle, but there are differences.” Maki takes her two pairs each up with one of his own. ”One of mine was a missive Hoshikata sent out when the clan left Mist. The other is an order Nobu handed out to people just before I took over. Three of these are the same writer, but the signature is different for two.”

He pulls the newer of her own back down beside the other for comparison. ”Notice how the letters seem to be a bit more flowing in how they’re written on the left one here? And there’s a bit less space between them at the same time. The person who wrote this was subconsciously showing off that he could not only write this pretty, but do so in less space. Meanwhile, on yours we have the same flowing marks, but less elegant. As if the person tried but couldn’t copy it exactly. And he had to use more space to do so.”

Maki grabs the papers he’d sat down and walks back to the safe, depositing them once more and sliding the dresser back. He slips his hand back up the edge, resetting the safeties. Finally he makes his way back to her side.

”No doubt in my mind that Nobu wrote both of yours, but Hoshikata signed off on the first one. Not the last one though. That signature is close, but it lacks the grace that Hoshikata forced himself to adopt. Fucking showoff even in his unconscious actions. So….Hoshikata did have your dad assassinated…the bigger question is why was Nobu sending out orders in his name even after he’d been killed?”

 

[Hoshirei]

Hoshirei watched Maki uncover the hidden safe behind his dresser and purposefully diverted her eyes before he unlocked it fully. She fully remembered almost walking into the safe once coming home and had since made a point to not walk through that particular wall. He brought over a few papers and she looked them over closely enough to get a general feel of the writing style and handwriting on both. Maki pointed out the similarities and differences amongst the four documents. He also pointed out more details in the handwriting that would take longer to puzzle out if there weren't multiple examples in front of them.

When Maki put his two away, Hoshirei rolled her two up and placed them with the plethora of other communications she had discovered. She held the scrolls still as she sat heavily on the bed as he reset the safe's protections. She couldn't help but quirk her lips a bit when Maki bad mouthed Hoshikata. He then wondered aloud why Nobu had continued on after Hoshikata died. She was silent for a moment before grabbing two more scrolls. These were dated from just before and just after Hoshikata's death. She remembered from reading that was when the signatures at the bottom changed.

Holding the scrolls so Maki could see the dates. "I'm guessing Hoshikata died between these two dates? I didn't even know he was dead until I saw Osore using his body as some sort of puppet. We were never told he died, just like Tenken never received notice of my mother's death after I sent it. Perhaps he wanted everything to seem the same? A number of the ones after the later date included threats to keep mother in line. Part of the reason she killed herself was to protect me. Things would have been much different if we had known Tenken was in charge. Hell, we moved to Konoha in part because mother was disillusioned after she was ordered to kill father."

After she was finished speaking, she clenched her jaw tight. Nobu just had to try and wiggle away any sort of power he could. She knew Hoshikata's sins were his own, but were all of the people in the clan so desperate for power that they would torment a mother for almost twenty years? She could have been more accepted growing up, surrounded by people who had similar powers, instead of being thought of as a freak. Pain flashed across her face just before she threw the scrolls back into their pile, stood, and started pacing their room. As she paced, she alternated between clenching her fist and tugging on her long green hair. No wonder Tenken wanted to be as far away from these people as he could get.
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MFT; WC: 461

 

[Kairyuu]

”I think he did, yeah. No one in the clan knows exactly when he was murdered in Cloud, just that it happened in a general timeframe and then someone tried to cover it up. Took Osore and Tenken about an hour to determine the story the clan was given was false, but no one wanted to go to war with a whole village over it.” Maki sat heavily on the bed and began to rub his temples with his flesh and bone hand.

”I can’t see Nobu doing it unless he had something to gain from it. Little bastard has too much of Hoshikata’s personality in him for anything else. My guess is he was trying to use you to gain information to keep it from the rest of the clan. That or he was working against Tenken and wanted to use this against him. Likely as a show of poor leadership. ‘Look! Tenken forgot our Konoha relatives exist! But I have their missives here, gathered on my own after he left them to rot in a foreign land’ or something.”

He watches as his wife goes into a fit, sighing and rising to step over and grab her shoulder in one hand, pulling her into his embrace. ”Hey, relax. I know I can’t undo the past, but we can make him pay for this bullshit.” He was pissed himself, but in this situation, Hoshirei definitely had dibs on the revenge.

 

[Hoshirei]

Hoshirei listened to Maki as she kept moving. Her mind was racing, jumping from one thought to the next without spending much time on any one idea. Her mind silenced a bit when Maki caught her and pulled her into an embrace. She leaned into him, put her arms around his waist, and rest her forehead in the crook of Maki's neck and just breathing in his scent. She was still livid, but she felt more controlled after standing there for a few moments.

"I know the past cannot be changed. At this point, I wouldn't want it to be," she said softly before raising her head and kissing Maki's cheek. A moment later she moved to look Maki in the eye. Her eyes glinted with something hard and dark. "I believe, dear husband, we have a traitor to rend from his cushy life. Perhaps give him a reminder of what happens when you cross the heads of this clan. And what's better, I get to make good on my threat." Her smile looked like a shark ready to snap up it's prey. "Traitors are not long for this life."

 

[Kairyuu]

Maki nods, reaching up to cup his wife’s cheek in one hand and give a wry smile at her words. ”Indeed not. They tend to find out the hard way that no one will ever trust them, and indeed often they begin to fall into paranoia as they expect others to be as shifty as they.” He looks from her face to the papers once more, frowning as he thinks something over. ”We cannot move just yet, though. The council is a powerful group, and I don’t mean their political hold on the rest of the clan. We need to become stronger if we’re going to take them on. My hold on things is not very strong. The people of this clan don’t know me. They think you weak. Nobu represents a resurgence of someone they idolized. This will not be easy.”

Maki moves to tidy up the bedroom, helping Hoshirei to return everything to its proper spot so that nothing appears amiss in the room. ”We’ll make a move when the time is right, but that time is not now, I think. For now….let’s just enjoy each other’s company.” He smiles softly and pulls her into his embrace.

(Topic left)

 

[Hoshirei]

Hoshirei nodded her agreement with Maki's statement that they needed to wait. She more than agreed that the clan, let alone the council, vastly underestimated her, especially since she underestimates herself at times. Their political hold was certainly one thing, but that was slowly being torn down piece by piece. Hoshirei knew that if the council thought they could, they would try to remove the couple from power. They got a taste of how strong of a backbone Hoshirei had when Maki was taken, but they didn't really know them yet. Both of them were technically outsiders, being raised away from the clan, even though they were closely related to the old leadership they idolized.

She silently decided that she would work on some of the council members who seemed annoyed with their fellows and find a way to make sure they wouldn't follow Nobu in his stupidity. Maki moved to tidy the bedroom and Hoshirei did the same, stowing the scroll back in its hiding spot and making sure everything was as usual. She shared his smile and sank happily into his arms.
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OOC: Topic Left/Ended
WC: 184