Return of the Robokage's 20/20 <Open>

[Toraono Michino]

The days would pass on slowly. Once a week the father would be forced to put on a mask and walk down the stairs to play a game of free thinking and imagination with his son. As the weeks moved along so did the campaign they created characters with, and before long it became glaringly obvious to all there the two males were never going to really get along. It wasn’t from lack of trying on either participant to make the relationship work but from a genuine clash of their personalities. Tama was a prideful being before he was reborn into the Solar Courts. Now he was an outright pompous ass with anything regarding his intellect being questioned. His son, Michino, being a teenager who didn’t have any real way to vent about the frustration that was his father, often used this to poke fun at his old man. The most infuriating part for the old mad scientist was just how smart his kid actually was. Whenever he tried to bring up medical topics with Sousuke to try and run off the boy after one of their game sessions so he could actually work on things, the boy would quip up and join in the conversation like a full grown adult with years of practice in the field. The amount of knowledge the teenager had managed to store away was epic, to say the least, but the older man had the advantage of putting the practice to use and often was forced to use that to win any of his arguments. Of course Tama knew they were all futile and with each fight he won the boy only sharpened his wit that much more. It would only be a matter of years before the Toraono spawn would be outsmarting him…at least so long as he kept to his studies and didn’t find any distractions out side of work. In the last two visits the boy seemed a little more distracted than usual and it didn’t appear to be because of the upcoming mission back into Soon, or the Steward’s eventual surgery to have his friend return the eye he stole. No, Michino’s distractions seemed to be lovelorn and without even giving second thought the prideful scientist went full lecture on the follies of love and relationships versus a man’s dreams. This argument, like all before did not go over as well as Tama thought they would. In the end the boy simply left in the middle of his father’s rambling.

Then three weeks passed without a sight of his son.

The boy was all fine and healthy but had decided to stop trying to build a relationship with a man he had nothing in common with but in intellect. The Hybrid took the slight against him as harshly as one so melodramatic as he, and locked himself inside of the room completely. Diving deep into his work the scientist pushed aside all humanity again only opening his door to receive the weekly fowl soul he was allotted to live on. The taste of human souls had quickly became one of the things he missed about running a criminal empire. He also missed the cleaning crew. The pile of chicken ash left over from the soul-dried corpses he had in a corner of his room was really starting to grow out of hand.
Yet, despite how much his son’s spite hurt him, it probably helped the scientist in the long run. The taste would never leave his mind but after one month the creature no longer craved the desire for human souls. Just as well after another month of storing up chicken energy the Hybrid was able to craft on his body a seal that turned back the clock on his appearance into somewhere in his mid thirties. Where most beings had some problems keeping age to a certain point the being of the Solar Court did not. The limitations of his body were not those of a mortals for multiple reasons - the first most being that his form was reconstructed by pure energy. The second, and probably more important, was at least one-third of his overall research was into finding ways to stop his chakra from aging his mortal shell. Now he no longer had a shell bound by the limits of mortality…just the limits of running out the energy he was made from. Transformed into a more youthful form the man was able to work twice as hard as he did with the foggy mind of a guilt ridden elder.

Four months have passed since the trial. Despite the multiple downs the man had faced in this time he was finally starting to turn around. The people of Suna would never get back the bright-eyed imaginative inventor that once proudly fought for his country. Instead they had in their possession a captured being of some fearful power trapped by the bindings of words and seals who fought for his own ideals, but so far remained faithful.
During this time of personal transformation and weening himself off the taste of human soul the man had managed to create a fully functional eye that would fit neatly into Sousuke’s eye socket. The eye itself was made of hand blown glass reinforced with a thin layer of a flexible metal on the inside to house the tiny circuits and wires that allowed the eye to work. It colored the iris a steel gray. Surrounding the glass orb was the same light flexible metal that would protect the glass orb while still allowing it to sit comfortably inside of the man’s head. Two long exposed wires ran out of the back of the eye that Tama would coat in a bio-plastic during the surgery and use chakra to guide them to attach themselves to where the original nerves had been fried by his electrical attack.
Today, if the Steward was up for getting his full 20/20 vision back, was the date of the surgery. The only argument remained was if they actually went to the hospital to preform it, which Tama was against due to his house arrest and general dislike for people, or to preform it in the kitchen where the scientist swore he had more than enough room/tools to do it.

[mft|1077]

 

[Ryu Hime]

Today was likely going to be quite a special day for Tama for he was about to receive something he has not gotten in quite some time; a visitor. However it was not any visitor but one of a stranger that he has likely never met before. Akazukin had heard of Tama through word of mouth as an extremely intellectual entity. For some reason she did not find out why he was under house arrest but she did not really care to much for she really just wanted to pick his brain. She had an idea for something interesting, but could not figure out the method to do it. She wanted a device that could provide chakra for a clone to not only sustain it self but also enough for it to cast jutsu. Akazukin believe someone of Tama’s intellect could think of something that would help her in her endeavor.

Akazukin did not come in her normal form but activate her Avatar of the Divine before coming. She heard that he had shed the shell bound by the limits of mortality, so she decides to appear in a similar form. This was her divine form where she was as close to a deity as she could get. Her hair was pinkish white, her skin deathly pale, her one clock eye was now two and she was dressed in a kimono. However the most unnerving thing about her was likely the giant ethereal clock that floated above her. She knocks on the door and waits for him to answer. If he would open the door he would see her floating in the air as if gravity did not exist for her.

Akazukin is a rather interesting individual possessing an extremely rare doujutsu called the Tokeigan or clock eye. As much as she is aware, she is the only human to possess such a strange doujutsu. Its appearance as one could guess by the name is a clock within an eye. What is really unusual about its appearance is the fact that it is a functioning clock, which tells the correct time. The eye gives the user the ability to look into the future and temporally step into it. However the distance into future is relatively short compared to science fiction novels. Akazukin can see and travel through time on a scale of three minutes. Some would find her restricted vision and travel makes the power mute, but one can do interesting things by seeing events a minute ahead of time.

 

[Teke]

Today was one of the rare occasions that Teke planned to spend a little time at home. She was slowly getting used to the idea of living outside of the Kage tower, as much as she enjoyed saying she did, this wasn't too bad, it was big at least. Given her otherwise active lifestyle, working on advancing her ANBU ranking and taking missions for experience and sustenances sake she hadn't really been in the house much at all other than setting up her bedroom just how she liked it and sleeping here sometimes, today however she was gonna laze about and maybe get to hang out with the old man, should he be around.

She hadn't long woken up at this point however and was in the middle of her morning chores, meaning she was freshening herself up, specifically she happened to be brushing her teeth when the knocking came from the front door. She ignored it at first, as you would if you were brushing your teeth, but as the moments went by it was clear either no one else heard it or they just didn't give a damn. She rolled her eyes and thought about leaving it alone too but she had promised to at least be a "good" girl at home, a good as she could be at the very least. with toothbrush still sticking out of her mouth and foam around her lips she moved toward the front door and answered, only to be greeted by what could only be described as a floating clock salesman. "Ermm, sorry we're not interested in... clocks?" She said, little bits of minty foam flying from her mouth as she spoke.

She continued to stare, her morning brain was still half asleep clearly, but she couldn't help but look through narrowed eyes at the woman, mainly at her eyes and the ethereal clock behind her and slowly but surely things started clicking into place. "Akazukin? You look... different, interesting. I assume you''re here for something rather than selling clocks." She chuckled, it was a little weird that she was visiting but then, she also had no idea just who Sousuke and by extension, her family actually knew or had dealings with. She moved aside and motioned for her to float on in, someone had to know why she was here right? Either way, she wasn't dangerous as far as Teke was concerned.

 

[Takahashi Aki]

Did Sousuke find it annoying that Tama and his son could not get along? Verily. It was perplexing. It was frustrating. It was long and tiring. Did Sousuke's face express these things? Maybe? Sometimes? Hints of it? Sousuke was able to put together that Tama was very much of the Solar Court, which was almost insufferable due to their pride. History went on about Fuujin and his temples, and his shows. While Sousuke was very much human for the most part, he seemed to have some very outlandish characteristics about him. At either rate humans had their quirks. Tama would find out more times than not that Sousuke had a habit of turning out all the lights. It was possible that the man had really good night vision, or he really was frugal about the electricity that was being used.

The Steward went about his household turning off lights as usual when he heard the door bell go off. Sousuke would slide his eye patch down as to cover the gaping hole in his face. Yes. People tend to freak out when they see something that one deems to be normal missing in the face. Sousuke would look down at his forearm, which was still slightly bruised. A mission of his went a little off kilter, but he still managed to make the most of it. There was always something annoying about Jashinists. Sousuke reached for something to put on over his arm, because they last thing he needed was to have someone in the household get accused of beating him. Sousuke would walk down the stairs. The sounds of metal clicking as his legs worked down the stairs. He would find Teke at the door answering it. Inugami Akazukin. Middling rank. Somewhere in close age proximity to Sousuke himself.

Once the Steward has seen that she was being attended to he would go back up the stairs to go poke at Tama. The Steward wondered what threat today he could use to get an excited Tama into action. Sousuke had pondered and thought of mentioned his grandmother. Yes ... that usually would do it. Sousuke would approach the door and give it a sound knocking. "Tama. It's time to get out of bed. We have work to do today, and by work you know what I mean."<i></i> He half expected there to be the sound of a thud. Tama sometimes just fell out of bed. Other times he was already up. Sometimes he wasn't there and he was in the basement toiling over something.

As Sousuke waited for Tama to answer, he silently considered that today was the day we was supposed to have surgery to fix his eye. He wondered how things were going to be different. With his present eyes he was already a keen observer. He was able to figure out weak points on an individual quickly enough. He was able to see repetitive movements and be adept at trying to dodge them. Would having a completely different eye cause a problem in both right and left eyes sycning up? Sousuke was already used to having a metallic arm, and metallic legs. Sight was something different altogether. It was one of the five senses. Sight was perhaps one of the more important ones for Sousuke since he was practically relayed on sight more than anything else. "Tama, you come down when you're ready. We've got some unexpected company. It was not on the agenda that I know of at least."<i></i> Sousuke did in fact not threaten Tama with mention of his grandmother. The man would simply walk away from the door and head back downstairs to where Teke and Akazukin were.

 

[Toraono Michino]

Within the confines of the room there was a loud thump as the hybrid did indeed fall out of his bed.
It was a rare day for Tama. Normally the creature really only deigned to rest his head after feasting on his weekly soul of fowl. During this time he slept in a dreamless slumber as his body went through a sort of…reboot, and it went for exactly twenty four hours. The humanoid’s slumber for these last eight hours was so he could be in rare form, prepared to preform the delicate work he would be tasked to do on his friend’s face/skull. Unfortunately, which was the norm for the mad scientist’s affairs, this sort of back fired but only due on a casual scent in the air most shinobi wouldn’t bother training learning how to catch.
In his dreams, something he hadn’t had in quite some time - years in fact - the madman found himself in the body of his youth being chased about old parts of the Underground that no longer existed. He ran breathlessly through the worn down and grimy halls of that certain broken down apartment complex. The feeling of powerlessness was as real in that dream as it had been in reality when he had lost his chakra coil; or stolen. Something like that. It was complicated.
As the man-boy ran through the halls of his terrifying past from an unknown terror that certain smell whiffed by his nose. Everyone had a different smell about them depending on cleanliness and the such, but, there was one such smell that has haunted the shadows of a man who didn’t fear death.

The subtle scent of the opposite sex.

Sousuke’s grandmother had quickly picked up on this and loved to use it as a pick me up when she was feeling…bored, or something; Tama had no idea why she tormented him. All Chiyoko needed to do was step inside the house and immediately the Ancient hybrid could pick up that certain smell that only females carried with them. The less odor masking scents they decided to wear that day the less this smell was able to assault his senses, but, either way the very sight of one of the opposite gender turned his danger meter up to eleven.
It wasn’t that he didn’t have good reason either. At young mental age, trying to understand the new mental aspects his older physical form had granted him, he witnessed the murder of a woman across from him in a co-ed hot spring. This sudden removal of life wasn’t what bothered him. At this point in his life he had witnessed death and even caused some of it. What disturbed his mind beyond repair was the conflicting emotions his mentality went through at that moment.
His body was sixteen, his mentality thirteen. Before him a woman of no clothing bathing with him is suddenly shed her mortal coil by another woman, also of the nude quality, quickly reaching down and snapping previous female’s neck. The body was pulled out, casually, hidden, and then the assassin came back to bathe with the traumatized teenager while making lewd jokes the entire time. From that moment on two things happened. The boy’s once pristine white hair had shocked itself into a golden blonde, and his brain forever more turned the female sex into that of the enemy.
In time his one exception had been Sousuke’s first adoptive daughter, Okibi, but even she had ended their relationship with his body being broken to a point that he should of died.
It wasn’t her fault, in any way, but the prideful Solar Court beast blamed his descent into evil and further madness on the emotions she dragged out. Had Ryuu Tama never fallen in love, perhaps he wouldn’t of fallen into such corruption and darkness.
Right as he felt like the petite hands of the assassin slide sensually down his chest, then slowly around his neck, did the Stewart decided to bang on his door. The noise jerked the man out of his night terror and threw him down to the hardwood floor below.

Pain. It throbbed through his arms, elbows, and left knee. A proud smile slowly formed on his face that couldn’t be pressured down by the smell of his long threatening foe. His recent youthful shape was something he was quite proud of due to how human he was able to make it while retaining his current true form. For the first time in a decade he felt true mortal pain, and it was exquisite. With the speed and agility he had once had in the youth he now mirrored the humanoid stretched his muscles as he spent the first five minutes awaking his shell up. Once he had finished his small in-room exercises he began to quickly dress himself in the noble attire both his old self and Okibi would have mocked relentlessly. Sliding on a black cloth glove over his right hand he turned to look at his left for a moment as he always did every time he dressed. On the ring finger where there had never been a mark of any kind before he forced the tissue to scar around it in a ring shape. No matter what darkness he had fallen to or what her life was going towards now without him, he was certain that no other would ever take his heart. As he was slowly learning with Michino, his own son, love was a mistaken emotion he needed to let go of as it was only bringing him misfortune. With a quick tug the scientist slid other glove’s mate over his hand and opened the door to the hall. His presence outside that door wasn’t too long behind the ex-Kazekage. The scientist’s heterochromiatic eyes glared around at the dim darkness of the lights turned out. Tama understood the practice but in the form he resided in the act of it brought his hackles to bare. Included that there was one familiar scent and one he didn’t recognize, both female, only triggered his trigger harder.

Peeved his pet.

Slowly, cautiously, the scientist made his way to the staircase and started to move down step by step, taking each on as if he approached the Lords of the Pits themselves.

[mft|1098]

 

[Ryu Hime]

When she saw Teke answering the door, the first thought that crossed her mind was that she had the wrong house. "Ah, I see you recognized me. I am guessing my eyes gave me away.” Akazukin looks quite different in her divine form and thus she would not be mad at her if she somehow did not recognize Akazukin. “No I am not here to sale you anything." Akazukin had to wonder what sort of things go through this kids mind. However judging from the toothbrush, she would guess Teke is not fully awake. "My apologies it seems I have came to the wrong house. Sorry to bother you" Akazukin then leave in search for Tama.

(left topic)

 

[Teke]

Teke blinked a few times before shrugging and waving the floating girl off. "No problem, good luck on your search!" She called after the woman before moving back into the domicile and closing the door behind her. That was a strange wake-up call to be sure but the dream created cobwebs had all but been shaken from her mind now, causing her to realize that she was in fact still halfway through brushing her teeth. Quickly she dashed back off to the bathroom to finish off, hearing Sousuke banging on one of the upstairs rooms before calling out to someone which elicited another, hardier thump to follow. She finished up and rinsed her mouth off before dashing back to the base of the stairs to meet up with her father, she'd actually had some business to discuss with him now that she was healed up enough to be out and about.

She arrived back at the base of the stairs, still dressed in her pajamas as the two men were descending. Teke had not met the other man before but she assumed he was some kind of guest and would need to be on her best behavior to save her self from having her ear talked off, only one of the two of them seemed happy about losing body parts for stupid reasons and it certainly wasn't her. "Hey! You hanging around the house much today? I have a couple things I've been wanting to talk about for a while and a couple things that have come up... recently." She announced to him as she stood to the side to allow them down and off of the steps.

She had indeed had a few things on her mind for a while, including the subject of a weapon that she had talked about quite some time ago with Sousuke. She, in fact, had taken it upon herself to draw up some very basic sketches based on what she wanted from the hammer and knew he would simply go above and beyond to make it fancy, given the way she did the very same thing to his own body. That was perhaps the easiest of the subject she had in mind for discussion today, though she doubted anything bad would come of the others they were just harder to talk about, especially around a stranger, guest or not. "Unless you think we should have these conversations alone, of course, I just figured since we're both in one place for once, you know?" She added as an afterthought.

[WC - 425]

 

[Takahashi Aki]

"Glaring at the lack of not needed burning electricity is not going to make things any better for you."<i></i> Sousuke spoke, how he knew Tama was annoyed was something of a mystery. Then again, Sousuke knew Tama quite well. He may have been in the body of an old man for a time, and then he was in the body of a younger man, but he was still Tama. He had habits, and he had quirks. Just because Tama wasn't quite human anymore, didn't mean that he was in escapable of them. As they were moving about to deal with their guest, it seemed that the party had left. It was an odd thing considering he knew the person in question, but it didn't really matter in the long run of things. Sousuke and Tama came down the stairs, Sousuke had his eyepatch on, and really didn't speak much about the matter at length.

The two were intercepted by Teke who awaited the two of them at the base of the stairs. "Good morning Teke."<i></i> He spoke plainly enough. When she asked him the question of him staying at the house today, he would turn around and glance at Tama, he would then turn back to glance at Teke. He blinked twice. "It's complicated."<i></i> He spoke first and foremost. He didn't really give Teke the narrative as to why someone was staying with them, and why it did not seem like two people considering at one point Tama was incredibly older, and the other moment he was young. He didn't provide the narrative either that Tama was responsible for him missing an eye, or the fact he had to make another new arm unit for himself. "I was going to go to the hospital today to have my new eye ... inserted and wired up, however, I suppose it could be a home appointment."<i></i> He shifted back and looked over to Tama, "Did you actually have a precise timeline for this thing, or was this going to be something of a 'I'll figure it out as we go along because I can and I will' sort of things?"<i></i> Eye surgery. Did those even happen often, was there an allotment of time to go with them, or was it all just 'play it by ear' some would call it.

Sousuke then scratched the back of his hand with his metallic hand. "Teke meet Tama. Tama meet Teke. ... ... ... The two of you are both residences in my household, which really now is back to being my father's household since he has returned. Thankfully."<i></i> Sousuke would look between Tama and then Teke once again. "That's not to say the conversation cannot be had of course. I just don't know what shape I will be in later on. I suppose Tama could use an assistant ... yes?"<i></i>

 

[Toraono Michino]

The scientist’s lip curled up a little in disgust looking down at the girl at the end of the staircase. Upon finally matching her face to her specific feminine smell he realized for the first time that this was a scent he would catch every once in a while. All up until now the man had thought that perhaps his mind was finally unraveling beyond his control but the evidence presented itself otherwise.

To which he was very thankful to his ancestors.

That lone favor that Teke accidentally provided Tama put her in his good graces for the day. Using the steel trap of his recently gathered willpower he focused it on trying to deduce everything about the girl that wasn’t based on her gender; which unfortunately put her in a delicate spot of sorts. For now the scientist shifted his brain to try and determine what practical uses she would have to anything.
“I will glare at what I wish, Roboske,” he replied cattily as his boot cleared the last step. Standing ridged with as much posture as he could manage being this close to a female the scientist held out a gloved hand for Teke to take and shake, “Ryuu, Tama. It is good to finally match a face to what haunts my nightmares.”
Regardless if she took his hand to shake, preferably she didn’t, he would quickly scoot away towards Sousuke and slowly remove a small glass case from the lone pouch hanging from his belt. Inside was clearly a human eyeball, though, a metallic woven cord hung from it in place of muscles and nerves. He started to toss the incredible invention at the man, thought better of it, and simply handed it over for the Steward to get a better look at what he was to have installed in his head.
“This will be one of my crowning achievements…if it works correctly. I will say without access to all of my equipment it was hard to calibrate. As to the when of the install, well, that is up you so long as it is within twenty-four hours as of ten minutes ago. I have no doubt we will have to run some tests and do some more once it is up and running, regardless.”

There was some look of lament as his old friend overlooked the masterpiece of modern Sunan technology.
“I’m afraid that I was unable to add anything…well…high tech, I suppose. I really wanted it to fire a highly focused beam of light on its own, but the best I was able to come up with was a tiny cluster of chakra crystals that you can channel chakra into. You’ll be able to cast a few small or one large ninjutsu through the crystals before they, you know, overload. Also sadly no cross-hairs. All my tests showed it was far too distracting and we just don’t have the technology to run a full heads-up display yet. I just couldn’t get the parts small enough to run the power it would need without catching fire. He sighed,
“But I suppose the long and short is that you will be able to see with both eyes again. It might be a little better than you’re fleshy one though, but once again, tests.”

Ah but this conversation wasn’t just about him and the impending surgery. There was talk of custom weapons and the mad-man’s curiosity was naturally peaked. While every last voice in his head wanting to refuse Teke’s help with anything involving his work, he also figured this might be enough to make sure she continued to leave him alone in the future despite knowing his existence. For some reason just knowing that he was a real person seemed to draw people to him, or so his pride assumed towards the person that was at the door and no longer present. Part of the scientist wondered if the female that was still here was the reason for the disappearance of the second scent; another thing he owed her for.

Shit. That’s two.

“I suppose I could use her talents, granted she knows anything about the nervous system, proper hand sanitation, and some minor knowledge regarding the structures of the human face muscles…then I suppose I could use her help in your surgery”, he sincerely hoped she did not know anything but the hygiene part, “Which, yes, I can totally do this here in the basement. I know earlier I was joking about the kitchen but that is quite unsanitary. I finished constructing the Operating Chamber a couple of nights ago…if you were wondering why the basement door has been locked lately.”

[MFT|824]

 

[Teke]

Teke couldn't deny that she was alittle disappointed that there wouldn't be to much time to talk. Some of the stuff was important but she could rattle it off happily and just wait for the results but other subjects required a... clearer head. She was interested in the prospect of Sousuke staying home for the procedure but wondered just where such a thing would be done that wouldn't risk infection at the very least. Luckily she would need to wait for that answer as the second male coming down the stairs would begin to talk, a lot, as if he'd been deprived of social contact for some time and wanted to just stretch his throat as it were. She couldn't help but give a small chuckle at his greeting to her however as Sousuke introduced them. "Funny, people don't usually start the nightmares till later, have we met before?" She asked rhetorically, knowing full well they hadn't. Much to his dismay, Teke being the social butterfly she was indeed grabbed ahold of his hand, giving it a firm squeeze and seeing how stiff he was about the whole ordeal was the only reason she did so.

She eventually let go and had a smirk painted across her face as the subject changed now to the medic-babble that Teke could just barely keep up with, not through lack of trying but at the same time, only a man content with becoming a battle borg would need to know all of this stuff. One thing caught her attention however and she would interject once Tama decided to take a breath."So, casting jutsu through your eyes is meant to be... special?" She asked, looking a little shocked at the revelation, this was one of the changes her body had adopted since the incident and she thought it was something that was simply difficult to train but not that impressive. More so the fact that he seemed to talk about only being able to cast one or two jutsu before a short circuit, she'd certainly not done a stress test as of this point but she'd managed more than that with ease. "See? This is why I need to talk to someone about all this and... I don't really have anyone else I guess?" She said, folding her arms across her stomach.

The mention of her being an assistant during the procedure was brought up and she was fairly interested in seeing it but was unsure of how much help she could truly be given her specialist knowledge being of a more violent nature. "I know more than most about the human body, I can't deny however that the nervous system is something I know literally the basics about, muscles are pretty easy though." She answered truthfully, though again was unsure how much help she'd be outside of handing tools over, as for hygiene. "Also, I keep myself clean as is needed, I hardly want to get myself sick over something stupid." She responded as if it was ridiculous that someone would think she, the epitome of beauty, was dirty. "As for conversation, pops. Are you going to be awake during? coz I could use that time to go over things but." She looked up at Tama. "Do you want him to know everything I might say? I personally don't care but I know you might so, object now or forever hold your peace I guess?"

[WC - 572]

 

[Takahashi Aki]

Sousuke would fold his hands behind his back. It was a gesture akin to someone else Tama had seen use before. "Teke is quite right. Nightmares occur after the mind has been subjected to a frightening and stressful experience. This is the first time the two of you have met."<i></i> He would pause for a moment. Michino and Teke might be in about the same age. He considered having the two have a 'play date' or something or the sort, or if Teke would want to play 'Pretend Wizards' with him, his father, and Michino. Teke wasn't overly fond of the board games, but his father had a habit of making them exciting. Whenever Judori put on that absurd hat that was coned, blue, with white stars, things suddenly became compelling and thrilling. Tama spoke of the surgery. The eye part caused Teke to make an inquiry. Sousuke would turn to face her. His one good eye would lock onto her face. He was giving her his full attention. "Pending your lineage, yes. Those of the Uchiha clan can cast genjutsu through their eyes ... for what Tama is getting at he's more referring to genjutsu. I am not going to be firing needles out of my eye ball. That's just terrible, weird and ... I am not even going to consider how one reloads pins into the eye without it being short of disastrous."<i></i> Teke continued. She needed someone to talk about these sort of things with. She would see a strange quirk form on the side of Sousuke's face. He seemed at an unease. "With Lord Katuso being Kazekage now ... I do have some free time ... if I'm not injured or ... otherwise."<i></i> He would pause for a moment. "I am sorry."<i></i> He apologized.

"The basement would suffice. Mother was asking about the basement. She was wondering if someone had ... borrowed the washer and the dryer and had repurposed them. I assure her that they were not, and that you had located them to this floor."<i></i> Sousuke would speak on the matter of where this was going to be done. Sousuke had an unease about this, but if Teke was going to be present ... well certainly quite a bit less could go wrong. Would she smack Tama? Probably. Would Tama shriek like a little girl? Yes. Would Teke enforce Tama to behave? Most certainly. The odd question of whether or not Sousuke was going to be awake for this. Well. Sousuke had very odd limits. His limits were certainly above most people. He would look over to Tama, and then to Teke. "I suppose so. I suppose for all intents and purposes ... consider Tama as ... an uncle I guess. An adopted uncle. We go back. A long ways."<i></i> Did he tell Teke that Tama was the reason why he was having this surgery? No. He did he tell Teke that Tama was the reason for a newer looking arm? No. Did he tell Teke that Tama was the reason why part of his face was healing? No. The purple haired man decided to keep certain things quiet. He didn't need Teke going into a fit of rage, killing Tama and then be eating him later. Did Sousuke tell Tama of Teke's diet? Nope. Did he tell his parents? No. Did he tell his grandmother. Oddly, yes he did in fact tell his grandmother that. Mako's response was a hard laugh, followed by downing four shots of hard liquor while smoking. It was the typical response.

"Let us begin. I will say this now ... what happens here, remains in this household."<i></i> He would say cryptically as he would begin his way to the basement, which Tama had 'stolen' and had 'redesigned'.

 

[Toraono Michino]

“Oh, no, no,” he chided at both Teke and Sousuke, “You cast Ninjtusu from it. I built it in as more of an emergency feature to keep your head from being destroyed. You know. In case something tries to break that.”

The decision to use the basement as opposed to an actual hospital lifted the lights in the scientist’s eyes. Perhaps enough not to judge the female in their presence too harshly for not knowing the nervous system.
It wasn’t that hard of a read.
“Then let us away,” the mad scientist quipped before moving quickly past the two in a fast shuffle to the basement stairs. It would give the two a moment to talk in private if they wished. Tama didn’t care too much for what it was she wanted to construct weapon wise but since creating the eye for Sousuke he had tapped into an old side of his he hadn’t in some time. There was once a time he had been a inventor of gadgets and he did sort of wondered if he could try his hand at weapon crafting.

Back in the day there was a time when he had a decision to focus his science towards engineering and mechanics or biological study. The nudge towards the latter came in the form of an Ancient waking up a hunger that caused all sorts of physical problems. Learning how to slow down his rapid aging and, at one time, removing and replacing his own chakra coil; Ryuu Tama should of been dead well over four or five times. It was only through his tenacity and endless wellspring of pride that he struggled to where he was now.
Even if he was under house arrest and under the leash of the humanity he rather disliked on a whole.
His shoes tapped against the boards of the stairs rapidly and he descended into the damp shade of the basement. Reaching up on his way down the scientist’s hand caught the dangling chain of a raw light bulb and pulled the damgling bit down until it clicked on. In a strange chain reaction that had not been there before Sousuke decided to let an unhinged genius in to live at his house, a set of florescent lights turned themselves on and chased away the shadows with a vengeance. It was bright enough in the basement to light the house above twice over. Tama took a moment to breathe the lingering energy and sterile cleanliness in as if it was fresh cut rose.
When he stepped off the last stair he reached up and lifted a white lab coat hanging on a row fellow jackets meant for multiple people if he was to ever, say, get approval for some lab assistance. He had yet to submit such a request but with advance technology he had to create at home and the difficulty of the medical cases spiking he was going to need to branch out; his mind couldn’t solve everything.

The basement itself seemed like it had been cut in half from what it normally was and, sure enough, after walking to a hidden panel and pressing in a series of switches the “wall” that ended the room began to slowly slide apart to reveal the rest of the basement behind a long clear hard plastic pane. Attached to the pane was a small room made of the same see through material that slowly slid out of the space beyond with tubes and hoses attached to the top that all went towards the ceiling. Beyond it was a medium sized surgery room. Inside were two waist high shelves with at least six drawers each, two stainless steal adjustable tables, and of course the table where the magic happened. Overhanging the table was a large light with a multitude of mirrors to enhance and shine it where it was needed. These were the disinfection chamber and the location of Sousuke’s impending surgery.
Flipping another switch the parts he had repurposed from the washer and drying machines sprayed the operating room down with a hot steam to ensure the full death of any germ before sucking it all out through the old dryer vent and heating the room into a non-moist state. All in a matter of two minutes or so. If he could get his hands on proper disinfectant that wouldn’t cause rashes on humanoids he’d be able to do his room cleansing in half that time; at least so he theorized.
Stepping over to the chamber extending away from the surgery room the scientist grabbed the lone metal handle and slid the plastic door open before stepping inside and closing it behind him. The moment the door closed the hidden panel on the wall across the made a tweeting sound and hot steam rushed in on him. Crossing his arms and holding a “not bovered” stance Tama waited as the steam enclosed him, hung in the air for a moment, and went through the same process the room beyond had seconds before. The door blocking his way popped itself open the moment the pressure in the chamber dropped down to a certain level. As he walked through his fingers pushed it closed behind him and he started to dig through the draws of the mobile tables and shelves until he began placing out a long spinal needle, some strange flask of softly glowing fluid, alcohol swabs and a cotton ball all neatly on a little towel atop one of the stainless steel tables. Digging through a few more drawers he pulled out a single edge razor blade, a bowl and brush to lather up shaving cream, and two fresh towels. He moved over to a sink hidden away in the corner behind one of the shelves and began to fill a bowl with warm water.

If the two he was expecting to follow took their time to wait until he was in the surgery room setting up he would turn around and instruct them both on how to use the sterilization chamber before stepping into the operating room and that he would need Sousuke to undress from the waist up.

 

[Teke]

Teke shrugged, the idea of a senbon shooting eye seemed like an interesting if albeit cringe-worthy idea from an attacking point of view because no one in their right mind would ever expect it. She would jab her father in the ribs with her elbow and chuckle as he tried to apologize for being seemingly forever in disrepair. "Please, if you only have free time when you aren't injured I can't imagine we'd ever actually talk ever again." She would begin moving with them, trailing the pack as this was their show that she was along for the ride. "You're a magnet, almost literally, for people or creatures wanting to either beat the hell out of you or kill you." She continued, she was quite interested to see this whole process and even just to see what had become of the basement she almost didn't even realize existed which shows how little she ever washed her own clothes at the very least.

They all slowly descended the stairs into the dim basement and honestly, her excitement was starting to waver, perhaps she was expecting too much of a basement makeover from a single man but she'd seen stranger things in her time. She'd had a little time to think as they continued their small moment of silence, however, Sousuke telling her that she should consider this man, a perfect stranger in her eyes, as family. She wouldn't normally second-guess the mans words but that seemed a little sudden, his direct family sure, that made sense but it seemed almost like he was pushing a tad too hard to make them close for a reason she couldn't fathom; especially since he seemed to be wary of her in a way she wasn't used to and was still also trying to figure out.

By this time the lights of Broadway had begun to shine, it would have been blinding for most people but desert dwellers tend to had eyes well adjusted for such brightness. This is where she actually had an opportunity to be impressed, the room was moving and opening up into a fairly minimalistic but passable lab space, better than what she would have done with the basement but then, who can hate a huge, walk-in freezer? The other man, Tama as he had introduced himself, took this time to start cleaning the room beyond, at least that's what she assumed was happening. "This is all quite impressive, surprised I didn't hear any of this being made. I must be a heavier sleeper than I thought." She mused as she watched the machines doing their business. Soon after Tama would leave them to seemingly clean himself next, time and a place but Teke thought better of mentioning that for the time being and instead took the moment alone to talk to Sousuke, even if he was able to hear them, Tama being away from them made it a little less awkward.

"I think I need to leave the village for a while...." She started off strong, but this had been on her mind long enough that getting it out was a weight off her shoulders. "Not forever obviously, just, things are happening to me, inside of me. I think it has to do with the Mistress's ritual but, things are happening against my will and my head is being filled with... it's hard to explain." She took a moment to step toward the glass, getting close enough to see her eyes reflecting back at her. "I'm not hearing voices before you jump to conclusions, so kill that idea now. I just, I have memories that clearly aren't mine and I can't make any sense of them like they're still jumbled but slowly I'm seeing more." She explained as best as she could but it was hard for her to really verbalize that it felt like a second brain was fusing with her own. "Add to that these strange abilities that are manifesting... I'm just worried I'm going to explode again and I'd rather not do that in the village, for your sake mostly as I could care less about most of these... humans. It's that fact that you care which is keeping me on the level." She now turned to face her father, now with her left eye activated, a magenta glowing orb seeming to have replaced her eyeball with arcs of lightning of matching color spraying from it a short distance. Then to demonstrate just how different this was to her usual abilities she proceeded to focus on the fluorescent lights in the small laboratory come surgery, having all the light in the room change to now glow Magenta, her control, and manipulation over lightning being that much higher now. "Whatever this is, I need to figure it out alone, lest I hurt someone I don't mean to." She maintained the change in the color of the lighting for a few more moments before her eye flashed before returning to it's normal, golden hue along with the lights changing back to their clean, white light.

[WC - 846]

 

[Takahashi Aki]

"Am I a magnet to things that wish to kill me or beat the hell out of me?"<i></i> Sousuke asked Tama ironically. The Half-Ancient had tried to kill Sousuke some time ago, and this was why he was under house arrest. Maybe Teke did not realize the position that Sousuke held, and that people trying to kill him was something that occurred more often than not. The worst of it was Shouki really who kidnapped people, tortured them, and then got Sousuke's attention because of the people who were kidnapped in the first place. A part of Sousuke was very much wary that Shouki would return one way or another. He did it once and somehow survived not being fully dissolved by Gambunta's stomach acid.

Sousuke when hearing what Tama's intention was for the eye being able to actually cast ninjutsu, wondered if this was done on purpose considering Tama was trying to behead him in the first place. The Steward said nothing about it any further. Teke didn't know what happened, and Sousuke intended it to remain that way. The trio of them entered Tama's laboratory. I was somewhat remarkable really he got away with this without having either of his parents shout at him or Tama about dramatically changing the Takahashi household. Teke remarked about this being done while she was sleeping and how she must have been a sound sleeper. "Maybe you were out when this was being done, or maybe your room is sound proof. More likely the latter of the two."<i></i> Sousuke remarked with what almost seemed to look like a small smirk on his face. "Maybe I made the room sound proof to make sure that a growing girl like you gets her beauty rest."<i></i> Just like that the smirk was gone as if it never existed. The Steward listen to Teke describe how things were happening with her. He was aware of certain things coming to fruition. "It's more than just me now Teke, my parents care for you a bit too. My father helped out and got you checked out of the hospital ... it was awkward I guess? Since that was the first thing he did when he officially came back."<i></i> Sousuke went silent for a moment. He seemed uncertain of himself, but concerned for Teke. He watched as her eye started changing colours and lightning danced about. "It's not the safest place out there anymore, but you're not an infant either ... just be careful. Rater not have you get caught by Shouki or ... well you know how it is."<i></i>

At this point they had arrived at the surgery room so to speak. The Steward rubbed his forehead. Alright. It was time to get this done. He removed his shirt and sat on the table. He swung his metallic legs over and the clicking could be heard as he tried to get himself comfortable. His single eye stared up at the light and he focused. He heard the buzzing of the light and said nothing more. It was time to get this started. The Steward was hopeful that Tama wouldn't be dragging his unconscious self to the hospital and having to deal with Kyuji over a blunder. Personally, Sousuke didn't really want to have to face a disappointed Kyuji either.

 

[Toraono Michino]

As his patient slowly moved to settled himself on the table, the scientist/surgeon moved away to fiddle with what appeared to be a radio. A few seconds while Sousuke took his shirt off the scientist worked tuning the radio until the sound of classical music being filtered through a soup can began to fill the room. Tama nodded his head in the accepting of his working tunes and turned to face his patient right as Sousuke was lifting his metallic legs onto the table.
All at once the color and happiness drained out of the inventor’s face. A hand simply raised up to his mouth upon seeing the scarred upper torso of his good friend and felt a pang of guilt through his pride at the side joke he had made earlier. The man had seen more battle that the Hybrid had ever dreamed of and had the scars to show it. Closing his eyes and taking in a deep breath he calmed the guilty conscious so that he could properly get to work. Once calmed down from the horrific site of his beaten friend’s body the man set his mind on a mission to make it better. Improve it.

They had the untested technology. They had the time. Tama could give his friend full vision again; he hoped.

Moving to one of the many drawers he remove a couple of sheets of pre-soaked alcohol pads over to Teke with the instructions to find a good vein and wipe a spot. While she was working on that the scientist worked about rigging a metal pole near the table and hung two bags, one with a strange blue fluid and the other with a fluid mimicking the stuff in the vial on his table but far less…glowey.
The mad man raised his needle and stuck it into the prepared tube on his little table as he began to explain in a very calm manner,
“Teke once you are done wiping down that spot take the razor and shaving cream and do see about removing the hair on the side of his head with the missing eye. Not all of it mind you, just about three inches or so above his ear. This fluid,” he spoke as he tried to tune his voice to focus more on his patient now, “Is a special made blend of botanicals and…ingredients I’m sure you’d rather not know about. It will sever the link between your brain and your nerve endings for about ten minutes. This will give me time to remove the side of your skull so that I can better find the part of your optical nerve that I’m sure is fried off and dangling back there. Then I shall kick the IV on which is a diluted form of this shot. It’ll kill the pain but just enough to keep you conscious and aware so you can tell me if the vision is working. This is all pretty much experimental science so…touch and go with a lot of this here. Untested too.”

Once Teke had finished with the possible hilarity of shaving the side of her father’s head the scientist began his work. Drawing out about 10ccs of the glowing emerald colored fluid he moved to the vein wiped and stuck it in. With a push of the plunger the man in his care would first feel a warmth spread through his body like pure bliss being injected into his veins; then nothing. The cold of the table, the weight of his metal appendages and flesh - all gone. Souske’s mind would be placed on a sort of threshold akin to one who is close to blacking out but the drug flowing through his body wouldn’t allow him. Tama pulled on a pair of latex gloves, slipped a surgeon’s mask over his face, and tilted down a pair of lab goggles before placing his gloved hands through a series of ninjutsu seals. At the end his hands glowed the soft green color of healing known by the medical shinobi. Moving his left away he focused all the green aura into his index’s finger tip until he had turned it into a fine sharp point. As it touched the flesh of the Steward a strange thing would happen. The chakra blade being used didn’t really ‘cut’ his flesh as it tricked the body into thinking that it need to separate and rapid heal causing the man’s finger to cut into flesh and bone without drawing a single bit of blood. While normally the technique used by the medical field relied on tricking the body to heal faster, Tama’s ability was one born of his Hybrid powers. As he had shown with his son it was nothing for him to place life energy from himself into someone else to heal them without the side-effects and limitations of a normal healing jutsu.
Once he had cut his little rectangle of flesh from his friend’s head he grabbed and gently pulled it away to reveal the inner workings of Sousuke’s head for everyone to witness - to Tama’s disappointment there truly were no gears and just the same gray matter everyone else had.

Blood began to well up a little from the sudden exposure of brain and upper face but not enough to really get in the way of his work as, with a pair of tweezers he began to fish around for the optical nerve. Once he had found it he used a pair of clamps to hold it in place so he wouldn’t lose it and called to his assistant to open the bottom drawer of his furthest cabinet and bring him cooled bioplastic he had been working on for this exact surgery. As she went to retrieve the item from the refrigerated bottom drawer the scientist took his bloody gloves off and walked around to start the IV. He then moved away and grabbed the eye in it’s case and began to carefully remove the glass casing from the invention before tossing it into a corner to shatter without much concern on his face. Putting on a fresh pair of gloves he slowly removed the eye and dipped the wires into the bioplastic sitting in the little metal bowl Teke brought him. As he lifted it from the cold steel the warmth in the room from the lights caused it to harden into the appearance of nerve tissue. Taking the end of his mechanical eye he gently placed the orb into the man’s natural eye socket before feeding the wire back into the slowly pooling blood. With the clamps he moved the nerve endings of Sousuke’s optical with the end of the new eye’s nerves and began to connected the two with a fine point of healing energy. Though honestly it looked like Tama was working one a circuit board as sparks of his healing jutsu flew into the air as they connected the two bits together. Once he was done he placed a bloody hand on the Steward’s abdomen and forced a pulse of chakra through his body to activate the eye.

“Okay, tell me…what do you see? I need to know if you see naturally or grayscale. If it is the later I need to do a few adjustments before I reattach everything.”

 

[Teke]

Teke scoffed but smiled happily. It was strange to know that people gave a shit about her, sure her tribe had been nurturing in their own way but only because they had to because she was special, this was different however and she was having difficulty knowing how to react or feel. "I doubt anyone will be interested in the mile-wide plate of glass, so I'll probably end up returning there to meditate on a few things." She spoke up, trying to avoid the task of putting her confused feelings into words. "Plus, I think I am capable of defending myself from most threats, especially out in the dunes, I was born out there after all." She added with a smirk, someone born in the sands would always have an advantage over anyone in combat happened, home field advantage after all.

The time for this was quickly coming to an end however, they weren't here for her problems, as much as Sousuke would probably make it his business as hard as he could, that was his personality after all. Alas, it was time for the surgeon to begin his prep and Teke was kind of excited to see it all happen first hand however little she got to be involved in the process as a whole. The short journey through the decontamination area was interesting, to say the least, the steam made her long for a steam bath in fact, a spa trip could be in her future. Once inside it was straight down to business however, she would stand herself on the opposite side of the table to Tama and awaited her instructions as her father lay himself down.

The instructions came fast and Teke was handed some alcohol pads and told to find a vein and clean the area. She spent a few moments pressing along the Antecubital space till she spotted a faint dark blue line, she massaged it for a moment to have it show more clearly before proceeding to wipe down more of the area than was probably necessary, but given what she'd seen of Tama so far that was probably a good thing for her to have done in his eyes. At this point however she could only watch, her medical skills would probably benefit a little from overlooking the procedure but that wouldn't be the only thing on Tekes mind for much longer.

She watched as the chemicals were pumped in, curious about what they were but as if reading her mind Tama went on to explain in vague detail what it was and what it did, seemed to be rather interesting to Teke and she could think of a few other uses for it, she'd have to pull the man aside one day and try to get her hands on some. Here's where the young girls problems began, seeing part of her father face removed like some like of lego brick was fine, she'd seen gore and then some, no it was the fact that his brain, albiet only part of it, was on display and she would very noticably begind to swallow and lick at her lips as she started to salivate, she managed to keep it all in her mouth but it would be pretty obvious, especially with her golden eyes constatly looking at it, then looking away as she tried to fight off the cravings, muttering to herself quietly. "Not this one, just tough it out. Focus on other things..." She'd try to keep it relatively quiet but in the silence of a sterilized operating theatre, a pin drop was noticeable.

Her next instruction, much to her relief, was to retrieve something from a draw just across the room, seemed easy enough even if she wasn't exactly sure what it was. Some kind of cooled liquid or another, she brought it back, refusing to make eye contact with Sousuke as best her instincts would allow at the moment, offering the bowl toward Tama and simply focusing on what it was he was doing with the robotic eye he'd created. He started to fuse it into the piece of the skull he'd removed, seemingly trying to get all the nerves in place whilst they were still numb. "I might have to look into getting my medical license one day, this is all very fascinating." She managed to say through the swallows. "Though I may have other things holding me back more than time and work."

She was indeed learning a lot by being here, though discovering her battle against the hunger that she thought had slowly been dying off was alive and kicking, though under far more extreme circumstances that it used to. Perhaps this was progress on her end, after all, how often do you see a mans brain on display and he's still alive and kicking? At the very least, her unwanted salivating would be over soon enough and hopefully not questioned.

[WC - 824]

 

[Takahashi Aki]

Sousuke trusted Tama and Teke to do their work. Sousuke trusted people to be within their nature. He trusted Tama's pride in making something perfect to push this surgery to be effective. Tama himself did not want to do this surgery outside in the hospital proper. That in itself was informative. If he was suspect that his abilities were flawed then he would have taken him to the hospital. The Steward laid down and the pain killers were indeed injected. He was awake, or at least in some aspect he was awake. Time seemed to slow down, which he found was infuriating truly. This was going to take time and that was not something he wanted. His undamaged eye seemed to roll for a moment and he seemed to phase out for a moment.

The Steward would find himself in his mind palace. A place where he had all the information stored. Perhaps to no one's surprise, the place was covered in metal. Tall skyscrapers stood and seemed limitless. The Steward sat cross legged as at the heart of this metallic metropolis. The Sousuke that sat at there was entirely comprised of machine. His eyes were closed, but they would open up. The lenses glowed yellow as he seemed to become aware or as if he were waking up. The metallic mind made entity rose up. He would go for a walk for the time being. The machine would walk down empty streets. From time to time there would be several screens playing old memories behind thick glass windows. The machine would approach an old memory of Shiori. A much younger Shiori and Sousuke interacting doing some childish things. The metallic hands would press against the glass. The fully metal rendered Sousuke watched the images. A sense of sorrow sort of came over the machine. The scene ended and what came across next on the screens was something unseen. Fire. Raw and uncontrollable flames. The fire raged and raged and then the screens would turn black.

The machine would continue his walk through the end empty streets. Nothing grew, but everything present endured. The walk would push on into a rundown part of the city. There were buildings that had large scratch markings present as if a beast had ran its claws down the side. It was as if there had been a battle that occurred some time ago. Life time ago. Something had been here, and had died fighting here. What it was, his mind did not know. Curiously he would find shattered and broken glass on the ground from what looked like a test tube, or a large one at that. No body. Nothing really, just broken glass, and a burning fire. The scene would unfold and reveal a large and broken glass tube. Yes. Something had been here, some time ago. Whatever it was, it was dead and had been dead for a long time. Perhaps for the best.

The run down town would again fade like a bad memory, and what would give way was the city once again. Nothing broken, nothing damaged, just simple metallic perfection. This was how things would be, eventually.

Sousuke's eye would focus as he would indeed come back from his mind palace. He would take a moment to adjust to seeing out of two eyes once again. He blinked both eyes. He then blinked the eye then that was now mechanical. He held it shut for a moment. When asked what he saw, "Darkness."<i></i> He spoke out loud. He then opened the eye again. "Greyscale."<i></i> He answered. He closed the flesh eye. He blinked the mechanical eye again. "Grey scale confirmed. It's quite confusing really seeing out of both eyes and one of them having greyscale."<i></i> He seemingly blinked again. Colour was now feeding it. "No. Coloured now. ... Is that normal or a function of the eye? Hm... Oh and well done Teke. You've shown alot of nerve." <i></i>

 

[Toraono Michino]

The scientist/surgeon worked diligently at his job even after his eye caught the female in the room contaminating his clean space with her saliva. Tama could only begin to imagine why she was perfectly fine up until now but he chose to ignore it; there were far more important things at hand. With a slight bump of his hip the operating table swung a little and the tall man followed along in perfect timing as to not lose his place in Sousuke’s brain. In doing this he cut off any direct line of sight to the man’s exposed inner workings. And while one would probably be led to believe that he did this for the benefit for the girl behind him and the man in his care, truly he was just revolted at the sight of the drooling female. If she continued to be in the corner of his vision the operator was likely to be sick.

Upon hearing that the vision was greyscale the frown on his face increased twice-fold. The skilled surgeon preforming what was no doubt a miracle to begin with was upset that he didn’t get it perfect on the first try. Holding back an exaggerated sigh he shifted his index finger on the attaching nerves until his friend said he was seeing in the correct color palette. His other finger crossed over the one holding the nerve down and sent a shot of his own life force into the man’s body to instantly heal the connecting flesh to the wires. His patient would feel a light shock and possibly a few of the mad scientist’s memories if he was unlucky. Casual as a man cooking dinner Tama lifted the slab of perfect skull and meat rectangle that was part of Sousuke’s head. An index finger on each end of the flesh block he very carefully slid it back into place before using the same healing jutsu he had used to fuse his eye. This was to keep from using anymore of his friend’s life span to heal wounds that would naturally take years. As Tama’s own life force slowly reconnected the patient’s nerves and muscle tissue the young blonde man before Teke would slowly start to wither and shrink a little. His hair started to grow out and turn snow white and by the time he finished a man older than the Steward stood over the table.

“You should be good to go now. Life uninterrupted.” The scientist shuffled over to an end of the room and fiddled with a switch on the wall. After a soft click the decontamination room detached with an audible hiss as the room completely depressurized. The natural musk of a desert basement would assail all of their noses.
“Let me know if your eye lids get uncomfortable, I have a natural lubricant for the eye to keep your flesh from getting stuck on the glass. Other than that let me know when you want to talk about the terms of my release. I’m tired of cleaning up backlog and I’m pretty sure I’ve freed up more than enough work for the hospital staff by now.”

He didn’t wait for an answer though, showing in his own way, (by elder shuffling up the stairs), that he’d rather discuss these things away from the prying ears of someone who would take offense to the past relationship between the ex-Kazekage and the mad scientist.

[Topic Left Unless Stopped]
[MFT]

 

[Teke]

The girl was careful as she watched the process going on, trying to keep both her eyes and mind off of base desires and on the task at hand. It was helped along by the fact that she did have a vested interest in the whole operation even if it was one fo advanced she'd likely spend years getting even close to that level. It always helped to have a headstart with these sorts of things of course and having an intimate knowledge of a human bodies internal layout and general inner workings was a boon, for a short while at least. The girl thought little of it when the table was moved around, simply following it and taking up the same position once again with her eyes focusing intently on the fusion of man and machine, she'd not gotten to see this kind of intricacy the few times she'd seen Sousuke working on himself. It would soon be over however and in a rather strange and unannounced way, she watched as the piece of her father's face was placed back into his head and put back together with no signs of scarring at all, "Amazing." Was all she could mumble under her breath as things seemingly came to a close.

Teke had not really been looking at Tama during the operation, apart from his hands which had been working the magic she'd seen before her, so it came as quite a shock when she turned to congratulate the man only to be met with the face of a not entirely different but considerably older man. She didn't quite know how to react to seeing such a thing transpire but her head was surely flooded with theories and conspiracies about just who, what and why. As quickly as his now old frame would carry him he made a beeline for the exit before Teke could really get a word in edge ways, though she managed to quickly blurt out. "Thanks for letting me watch, even if I wasn't able to do all much." She had a cheery smile on her lips as the old man waddled away, she had chosen not to comment on his current state out of confusion more than being tactful.

Soon enough the father and daughter were alone, Teke waited in silence for a few moments while Sousuke likely took the time to re-acquaint himself with the miracle that is depth perception once more. "I don't know about nerve, I enjoyed watching this though and I was serious about possibly seeking a medical licence. Once I establish myself in the ANBU corps that is, which could be a while." With the owner of the operating theatre now off doing whatever Teke took it upon herself to have a little explore around the room, picking up and examining random medical implements that she found strange or interesting and chose this moment to bring up a more serious topic whilst her eyes were focused elsewhere. "So why would you ask me to treat that man as family, I shan't pretend to understand the circumstances but it's been made fairly obvious that he's being held prisoner here, as... subtle as he may have tried to be about it." It wasn't really that subtle and Teke had gotten the vibe from him that she was disliked but that just meant it would be easier to torment him, even if she was unaware of the actual reason behind his unwarranted hate she was a button pusher and enjoyed it very much.

[WC - 590]

 

[Takahashi Aki]

Sousuke remained on the slab for several minutes after Tama had left. He said nothing as Tama left the room. It was thinking time for the Steward as he was considered what Tama had said. He was really unsure of what to do with Tama. The man had to be pointed in a direction and told 'go'. Sousuke would raise up from the slab. "He's in fact younger than me, and before you ask how old am I really I will answer ... past thirty, but not forty. I suppose I should count it up to being good genes. My grandmother is over sixty, and she looks maybe in her late forties? Appearances and age has this weird thing that occurs in one person out of every thousand. My father looked old, even when he was young. He lost all his hair when he wasn't even twenty-one."<i></i> He explained as he closed both eyes. He opened one, then the other. He then closed both again, and opened them in the opposite order. So far everything was checking out. Medical technology in Sungakure was quite advanced compared to most places. That being said the Kirishii, humans who were once Ancient slaves and warped by Homura's design, they too could be considered advanced in terms of medicine. Their medicine was far more herbal and dust based. Sousuke had been healed by them before.

Teke's question about how to treat Tama was something he should have expected. He thought about it. "I'm sure you're mature enough to know and to keep your cool about this as a whole."<i></i> He began. "About the time when you were getting acquainted with my parents, there were a few days I wasn't present. How do I put this ... uh ... ah. How ... well acknowledged are you with the gangs in the Grand Palais and their ... forced groupings? That is to say ... sometimes people or groupings are forced to come together due to a threat or the ... concept of a common goal?"<i></i> He inquired. Teke was smart. She deserved quite a bit of credit.