Serpent's Advocate [Cabal Aftermath] requesting Yume

[Toraono Kuro]

Akuma Kuro wore his silver grey hair long in an ancient fashion with trimmed sideburns. His muscular, thick build gave him the illusion of being slow due to his excessive muscle mass. As slow as he may have people believe he was he was far, far faster and more clever than he let on. His eyes were a fierce gold with a royal violet iris ring and though there were a few wrinkles and crow’s feet from worry here and there they stayed alert, sharp, and focused. His a black silk gi top with matching gi pants had no symbols anywhere on it. He did however have a clasp on his black silk belt that vaguely resembled a lion. Akuma Kuro was very modest and well groomed in manner befitting a grand master ninja. If anyone had been able to see his upper torso they would have noticed a massive set of scars from his lower left side of his waist to the upper right side of his chest but if Tsukiko noticed them she would also see that these scars were healing over fairly fast leaving no scars. Akuma Kuro held out a pinky finger out with fiery chakra to light Tsukiko's cigarette and stood far away from the scene. Just one aspect away from the scene made all that was Kuro have a different outlook on everything. He took a look at Tsukiko and waited for her to get a good bit of the cigarette going before starting a conversation. "So,what is it you want to talk about Lady Tsukiko?"

 

[Sagasu Yume]

On their way out the door, Tsukiko had snapped up the offered cigarette and led the way. They would walk in silence to the exit of Omni Prime, taking up post far enough away from the door to make their conversation private and to ensure the smoke didn’t waft into the facility. Leaning toward his offered finger, her cheeks pucker as her lungs fill with the acrid toxin. Lashes fluttered closed with each drag as her body slumped against the stone, letting the nicotine work its magic and sooth her nerves. Undulating rings of smoke curl from her lips and hang before her, stagnant in the air with no wind. Swishing her hand she dispels them. She had been consumed by her thoughts on their journey to this point, unsure of how the conversation would play out or if she was ever ready to have it; it had been a long time coming for her. The question brought her back to the present but went unanswered as she simply stared at him with neutrality, finishing her habit. The seconds passed as she continued to stare long after the last lungful of smog exited her lungs until she pulled another cigarette out and lit up using her own lighter. She was ready.

You know, I’ve thought about this moment for a long time and never really knew how it was going to happen. You ever do that? Picture a conversation in your head so that you’ll be ready for it? Well, every time I do it’s always different except for one thing. I always have to ask why you do what you do. Why do you feel the need to save everyone? Maybe not everyone wants to BE saved. I’ve never really seen you come help at the hospital before tonight, so the only thing I can assume is that you feel guilt or shame. Feel that you didn’t do enough. But it’s not fair of me to assume anything. I don’t know you… or at least I didn’t until close to a year ago. So I guess I’ll start with that. Why?

Manicured nails would bring the filter to her lips, her other hand holding up a finger to request that he waits to answer until she finishes. She closes her eyes and holds her breath until it’s painful, relishing the exotic feeling of being burned from the inside. Looking to Akuma Kuro again, she holds up her cigarette with a grin and chuckles, choking on the last trails of smoke as they leave her lungs.

It’s funny. I started smoking then too. I guess when you’ve died once, you don't really care if it happens again.

Wiping her lips with her thumb, she watches him closely, looking for any form of reaction while trying to keep her expression uncaring. There was an irony to this conversation that wasn't lost on her. Here they were at the scene of the incident, the victim and the persona who had saved her now discussing events long passed. She had so much she wanted to say. So much rage she wanted to let out and yet she wasn’t certain if she was truly angry at the Sennin or if it was a symptom of her condition. She couldn’t hurt him if she tried, any feeble attempt to strike him would do nothing to the large mass of muscle. Even if she could injure the demon-beast, it would do nothing to heal her. Her eyes would be void of sympathy while she spoke and long into the silence; it turned out you didn’t need a soul to stay alive.

 

[Toraono Kuro]

Kuro braced himself for anger or sadness but instead he got an easy question ...Why...
Kuro had to fight his instinct to take a knee when making explanations as he turned to her while she released her inhaled relaxant ever appreciative of the effects of nicotine but unable to partake of that kind of stimulant because of what his bodies were capable of. "Lady Tsukiko, you won't remember my actions that day but I have a deep abiding love of my people. I have faced creatures and beings capable of leveling mountains and each time my only concern was to make sure no one was harmed except me. I have a different take on life because I am not completely human. I have ties to the ancients, the gods, and the demons so I KNOW there is another side, another existence. The day djinn murdered a third of my clan, and 40% of the Sunans in the village at the time of his attack. I used a forbidden jutsu that had I not found a way to use that monster's chakra instead of mine would have killed me. Yet even then I would willingly have died to give everyone else a second chance at life. Akuma Tensei, the devil's rebirth can only be used once... I found that out when I was preparing to attempt to revive everyone that had fallen from the Cabal's attacks. I can't let anyone die when they have the chance to become something more. The failsafe of the jutsu was that only those that want to come back to life can even accept it's use and an even finer line to the jutsu is that only those whom have a high degree of innocence or fell to circumstances beyond their control can be touched by it as well. I focused it upon all that wanted to live and they returned to life free of injury or diesease. The reason I do so is because ALL OF YOU deserve to exist MORE than I do. Each life is precious, especially Sunan lives because in each of you a small piece of the First Men continues to go forth in the world. Sunans harbor the lost genetics and spirits of the strongest, bravest men and women of Wind Country to rise from slavery, death, unholy transformation, and abuse as if they were mere insects to become majestic rulers. Sunans defy the very elements that seek to destroy them for simply existing. In Sunans, is a unique power to survive and thrive amidst the harshest realities of the world that is so pure and noble that it is heartbreaking. I exist to guard, nourish, and teach them because by the blood pact of my ancestor with the divine, and the ancients, we of the Toraono Clan will eternally insure the lives of the descendants of the First Men will not be extinguished while we draw breath. In my very blood is the need to make sure every single Sunan foreign and domestic has every chance to thrive. I have only two other purposes in life, to love well and enjoy the fight that is life and those cardinal rules are secondary to my primary purpose to serve and protect the people of Suna."<i></i>

 

[Sagasu Yume]

It was that exact explanation that kept Tsukiko from hating the Border Sennin directly. After looking into him, she had concluded that there must have been some altruistic intention behind it but had hoped so desperately that she was wrong. She wanted someone to blame and she was determined to have that.

That’s bullshit. I see people die, almost every day. Do you know what they all have in common? Unless they’re geriatric, none of them want to die. Nobody WANTS to die.

Stubbing out her second cigarette to punctuate his last words, she takes another long pause to digest his words. The outburst accomplished what she intended it to; allowing her to blow off steam to continue the conversation with a semi-rational mind. It was hard not to get emotional when it was such a personal incident. Her voice dropped as the pangs of sadness set in. Placing her hands behind her back, she leans against the stone and looks up to the cavern ceiling.

Yes. I was entirely innocent. I was the perfect candidate for the jutsu. I had never drank, never had sex. I was a saint that could have made Mother Suna look like a tyrant. I didn’t want to die but I don’t think I should have been allowed to live either. Some times… it’s just your time to die. To be alive longer than that sets in to motion events that otherwise wouldn’t have happened. Something changed in me that day and I hate myself for it.

Her heart was pounding between her ears and it took gulping down a few calming breaths to encourage her to continue. Rubbing her face, her hand drops to her side as she begins to pace, voice elevating with urgency but never succumbing to a shout. Her face was pinched as she poured her heart out to a man she had never met before today and had convinced herself to hate for so long.

I didn’t remember dying but I remember the chunks of rock that were around me. I know what happens when stones that large fall on a person my size. I knew that I must have died. It didn’t sit well with me… that I survived when I knew I shouldn’t have. It felt like cheating the clock and it changed me. I stopped caring about being nice, or kind, or pure, or decent. I spent a week in the Palais doing whatever I could get my hands on and discovering that white-sand could help me stay awake so that the dreams wouldn’t come. Every time I resuscitated a patient, I felt my stomach turn wondering if they would know that they should be dead and secretly hoping that they wouldn’t come back. I wanted to scream and gouge your eyes out when you revived that mednin today because all I could think was “What if he remembers? What if he feels the same way I felt?” Take a look at me and realize that not everyone who WANTED to come back, SHOULD have come back.

The tears streamed from her eyes, twisting her anguished features. The cinema always told it wrong; no one was beautiful when they cried. If he would try and step forward to comfort her, she would hold up her hands and take a step back. She didn’t want to be touched; didn’t want to feel remotely human at that moment. She wanted to feel like the monster she thought she was.

Not everyone deserves a second chance. Sometimes, the first chance is enough and our memory is what is left to redeem us. Naganisa, despite Katsuo’s order to keep her alive, is one of those people. She very well might have a side that has promise but the villagers… the ones you swear to serve and protect… you’d be slapping them in the face and dancing on the graves of their loved ones who were eviscerated by that harlot.

 

[Toraono Kuro]

Kuro crossed his arms as he listened to one of the people saved by his edo tensei jutsu claim that people die and he should just let it happen. Well as it stands he couldn't perform the edo tensei anyway. He listened to her vent and he understood that she felt guilt but what she didn't understand is that the jutsu only worked on those who deserved to live. After she finished her emotional outburst Kuro levitated her to the ceiling so that she could look down on him in stead of up at him so that she could feel the pressure of his existence in a small bit. " You grasp that your life was restored because your mind is strong and analytical, she feel the pain and suffering of others because you are emotional and a woman but what you missed was that a great many people did not come back because they WERE content to remain dead. The jutsu I used only offers you a return to a whole body, the regeneration jutsu I used on your nurse earlier was only possible because I was there when he pushed to the edge of death and physically mauled. You are a great doctor but you have placed science above the power of the spirit of men. It Is the will and desire to live that grants anyone the strength to resist death at all. You are enjoying the thrill of a life and pushing the envelope on things you never did because you want to dance with death again. If you truly want to die if you truly believe that lives aren't worth saving, that your skills and abilities aren't needed, that there are those that don't love you simply release your will and the jutsu will cease. It only works because of your will and desire. Remove those inputs and the tensei jutsu is incomplete and fails. It is not a flawless jutsu, it is merely a chance. Accept your chance or give in to despair and you will fade away leaving only clothes. You will enter the pure realm and begin anew unless another sage pulls you back."<i></i>

Spoiler

Kuro has linked his kinesis to Tsukiko's hands so her physical motions allow her to move while in the air, it isn't flight but it's as close as we can get.

 

[Sagasu Yume]

Gehin’na hentai! Put me down and don’t you dare look up my skirt! Do you make a habit of touching people without asking? It’s very rude!

Squirming and tugging her skirt to keep any indecency to a minimum, she looks down at the Sennin with crossed arms. She refused to acknowledge the proposed metaphor of literally looking down on her superior and listed to his words with crossed arms and one food tapping against the hard air that formed ‘ground’ under her feet. She was growing tired of his explanations of why it was ultimately her choice to come back. With a sigh, she rolls her eyes and grumbles to herself that when destroying a hospital, it was likely that most of the terminal patients *would* be content to stay dead. She was very familiar with the will of her patients and had seen many of them discharged through spirit alone when medicine was expected to be fruitless.

Her annoyance would ease as he hit the nail on the head. She had become enamoured by death, intoxicated by her time with it that she craved to feel it again to remind her that she was alive and that this wasn’t a dream. Looking a little sheepish, she combs her fingers through the tips of her hair as she pulls her ponytail over her shoulder.

I never said that I wanted to die. I said that I should have been left dead. Lives of those who still have a chance are worth saving. Those who have no hope of restoration should be eased gently into that good night. As for me, I am an essential part of this team. I am a badass medic, thank you very much… wait. The jutsu is still active? You used a monster’s chakra which is to this day being constantly imbued on us, and you expect us to function like normal people? But I guess that would be normal for your kind. Monster and demon aren’t too far separated. Ya know what. Just put me down. I’m done with this conversation and long over due on my break.

She was starting to get really sick of people enacting their will on her without her consent. When this was all said and done she would have to go find her beneficial lover to put some control back in her life.

 

[Toraono Kuro]

Kuro nodded as she used the jutsu of her own will to place herself on the ground tapping her foot in irritation. "I was only giving you the most basic explanation I could and you're right I am a monster. I am simply attuned to taking care of people instead of killing and rampaging for whatever emotional setbacks or mixed up reasons I could come up with. You have control over whatever is done to you at all times, all you need do is exert your own will and you can take over anything that is used against you. If you actually trained yourself to do so you could will a person back to life as long as some portion of their life energies and soul remained in their body. You believe people should be allowed to die, I AM SWORN TO MAKE SURE THAT ALL OF YOU HAVE A CHANCE TO LIVE. Please remember that I will suffer any insult except this one... That I have done something simply to harm another Sunan. Even that snake of a girl gave Suna a chance to survive, even if she thought she was doing it for herself.You are granted your own view and value on life, I am not. By oath I am sworn to protect and serve, feel free to do as you want, you are human, and you can decide what is best for you. I am only obligated to make sure that you have a chance to reach for those goals."<i></i> Content he had spoken his peace and found none for himself Akuma Kuro decided it best that he seek out Saiga, he would be far more reasonable than Naganisa it seemed.


Topic left unless stopped...

 

[Sagasu Yume]

As he turned to leave, Tsukiko rolled her eyes at his bravado yet again. Their conversation had been fruitless on both sides as neither was interested in hearing what the other had to say. Her tongue was being held so tightly between her teeth that she could almost taste blood. Her skills were not up to be questioned, nor were his. He had the capability to perform the jutsu which meant that he was skilled, however her belief held fast that his altruism was going to do further harm for the village than help. She had never accused him of wilfully bringing calamity she only urged him to think the outcome through thoroughly, however any attempt to correct him would prove to be equally futile.

The road to the abyss is paved with good intentions, Senni-chama.

[topic left; returning to here]