Private The night that hell came

[Yume Izanami]

Mitsuha was hopeful. Her mother by some miracle was actually making a recovery from this near uncurable sickness that was attached to the Kaguya bloodline. Even though lately Mitsuha has felt... separated from her parents, with their coldness of her no longer a Kaguya, she still loved them, well, at least enough to want them live a long good life. Her mother's recovery was like a ceasefire between her and her parents to celebrate and be together as if nothing had happened.

She even bought a cake for the occasion! Soft pitter patter of rain would soon fall as night has come, promising soon of heavy rain with how dark the clouds are right now. Distant thunder could be heard. The Head Jounin would hurry over to her mansion, not wanting to wait any longer to see her mother's smiling face. She would open the door, already speaking, "Hey Mom! I got you your favorite...." Her voice would trail off as she would see blood. "No..." She would drop the cake and follow the trail of blood until she came to a gory sight. Her parents.... And her butler... There was a lot of blood... And an obvious fight here... But what really struck her was the writing in blood on the wall above her parents' dead bodies. PRAISE JASHIN. Her heart grew heavy. She started to cry. But... that's not it. It won't just be cries of agony, but also, there would be cries of anger. She would hold her dead mother in her arms as she let out a scream of anguish, reality around the house morphing. Mitsuha herself would cling to her mother for dear life, her whole body shaking in anger, her image changing in and out of her regular form and what would be her battle form, a girl that looks like a hybrid of a human and a dragon.

"THIS ISN"T FAIR!!!! SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO LIVE!!! SHE WAS GETTING BETTER!!!" Tears were coming in full force as she screamed out, not letting go of her mother.

 

[Inuzuka Keiyaku]

"Yeah, I'll be okay," said Keiyaku, rubbing his temples to assuage his feeling of illness, responding Morutobu's concern. It was that time again, the night before the Full Moon, the time where his health all but deteriorated as his body prepared for the agony of the transformation. The parasite inside him influenced his mood, making him irritable and erratic, usually prompting the Shiba dog to keep a close eye on him.

"You don't have to treat me like glass, you know," he snapped suddenly, looking down at his little brother as the duo re-entered the village from the woods. Moru looked indignant at this, but he let the expression melt from his face. After all, he knew Keiyaku didn't mean it; it was unfair to judge him so harshly, "sorry, Moru... My time of the month and all that..."

Moru sneezed; if dogs could laugh, he'd be in stitches.

The evening wore on and the weather got worse, a bad omen if ever there was one. The newly homeless Inuzuka brothers were a little bit grubby from having regularly slept in the woods, but they both tried to hold onto their dignities as best they could, comporting themselves with their usual martial bearing as they strode through the village.

"What the..."

Now Keiyaku really thought his lack of sleep was getting to him. He stood there, frozen, trying to make sense of the sight before him. A large mansion was having its shape twisted and warped by a strange force. Screams were ringing out over the courtyard, and the voice was eerily familiar, as was the house, though he'd only seen it a few times.

"Mitsuha!" Keiyaku gasped, bolting forward, throwing caution to the winds, Moru bounding quickly after him. Thundering into the grand building, he stopped, looked around, and, deciding which direction the screams were coming from, searched for the stairs. With reality having become so unstable, it was difficult to navigate the house, but by exerting his own gravitational chakra, he was at least able to force the structure of the stairway to stabilise long enough to climb it. The sight that greeted the two brothers, to say the least, was harrowing. The Inuzuka faltered, watching the once shy, manga-loving girl, shaking violently while clutching someone on the ground. The air was littered with the scent of death, bloody, scarlet splattered letters spelling out a message on the wall.

At once, he was cast back to the loss of his own family, remembering the torturous journey when Corvus had indicated the arson, wishing he could arrive already, but at the same time, terrified of what he would find. His family home was nothing but rubble, littered with bones and chunks of charred flesh. The surviving clansmen, some with their ninken, some without, all huddled together in grief. Keiyaku remembered the out-of-body experience he'd had when he realised almost his entire family had been literally put to the flame. Worst still, he could remember the smell, and the feeling of holding his father's skull in his hands.

He came back to himself at once, his face even more pale than it would normally be at this time of the month. Moru immediately darted to Mitsuha's side while Keiyaku stood frozen, pawing at her arm, and trying to get her to come to her senses as she screamed. Keiyaku followed shortly after, grabbing his comrade around the shoulders. He would try to pull her into a hug, anything to calm her, to prevent her rampaging powers from burying them alive in rubble if the the house collapsed.

"There's nothing you can do for her now," said Keiyaku firmly, "Mitsu! Listen to me! Focus on my voice! I need you to breathe! Tell me, what happened!"

He knew he should've given her more breathing room, but with this ominous 'Praise Jashin' message, he couldn't help but think about the cult that had massacred his family, and how the village itself might still be in danger. Village security was absolutely paramount.

 

[Ōtakemaru]

So many events… and he had yet to hand back Mitsuha’s manga! He’d met her atop the Hokage Rock with the manga, but the revelation of Aria’s presence in Ayeka completely occupied his mind, and he forgot to actually hand it to her again.

He took matters into his own hands tonight, the manga in hand as he made his way towards her fancy mansion. It was such a huge house, easily dwarfing his shared dorm place with Nova. He knew she had a rich family, and hopefully a loving one too.

But why was her house infested with chakra? As if the space around it bent on itself, distorting his vision somehow… something was happening there. He couldn’t tell from this distance, but it was enough to draw his speed out and rush to her residence. Then, he could finally hear cries… and his blood ran cold. At this time, he couldn’t possibly tell what had happened to Mitsuha’s family, but by the sounds alone, it had to be traumatizing.

…

“K-Keiyaku…” Take revealed himself near the two, his eyes widened in terror at the sight on the wall, and the source of the painting, “T-This is… no, how’d this…?” Seeing Mitsuha in such a sobbing mess… with her dead parent in her hands… and the blood on the wall… somebody had murdered them, leaving behind a chilling message about this Jashin to her. It had been something personal, something meant to bring her to tears.

And he could finally see himself in her. A sobbing mess… and oh boy, did it piss him all the way off. Had Take ever been this angry before?

With his Cursed Seal spreading over his skin, he approached the blood-soaked wall and ran a hand across the words, trying to see if it was freshly drawn. Whoever did this to Mitsuha no longer had any right to live. “…”

 

[Ayeka]

Ayeka shifted nervously from side to side seemingly wiggling her butt in place as she worried over one of the most important choices she could ever make. Standing in one of leaf's most expensive chocolate shops the young girl was currently holding two heart shaped containers with the sweet confections inside, her eyes darting between the two held boxes one declaring gourmet white chocolate while the other declared it contents to be decadent dark chocolate leaving the poor dragon unsure which her girlfriend would like the most as she was going to visit Mitsuha in much the same way the silver haired girl had visited her own home. After agonising over her choices for a little while longer Ayeka ended up buying both with the reasoning that Aria should bring some too when in actuality the girl just couldn't decide and instead preferred to have a bite taken out of her bank balance. Sighing Ayeka stepped out into the gentle rain and pulled her hood back up as the distant crack of thunder rolled through the clouds. "Guess I'm not flying there." Ayeka murmured to herself as she turned and began the trek across the village to where the richer members of their society lived.

Humming to herself as Ayeka stepped onto Mitsuha's family estate, the dragon girl found it a little strange that the front gates were unguarded and left open but continued on her journey until an acrid smell filled her nose as she passed by the guard house causing the girl to stop in her tracks and peer inside with growing horror. Mangled and bloody bodies where all that where left of the two guards that normally manned the gates as Ayeka blood ran cold at the gruesome scene at her girlfriends house. As if on queue a horrendous scream wrenched the air coming from the mansion causing Ayeka to take off as fast as she could towards the mansion. Arriving behind both Keiyaku and Take Ayeka ignored the two as her presents for her silver haired partner dropped from her hands to land loudly on the floor as she walked toward Mitsuha. "Mi...Mitsuha?" Standing over her girlfriend Ayeka could only look on as Mitsuha sobbed over her mothers corpse before her eyes moved on to the bloodied words presiding over the scene.

Slowly hands began to clench as the blood beneath her feet began to bubble as a red and green aura slowly began to form around Ayeka, waves of fire and wind chakra creating an intense heat around the girl as her eyes glowed with rage. "Who did this?" A duel toned voice escaped from Ayeka as Aria spoke alongside her host both tones filled with barely restrained rage before finally the damn broke as Ayeka screamed in rage. "HOW DARE YOU FILTHY ROACHES TOUCH WHATS MINE!!!! I'LL KILL YOU!!! I'll FIND YOU ALL AND TEAR YOU APART WITH MY BARE HANDS!!!!!!" Hands gripping at her head and breathing heavily from her scream Ayeka began to stalk further into the mansion her draconic chakra bubbling violently around her body as all she could think about was murdering the ones who had hurt Mitsuha.

 

[Kimari Bōmu]

The night shift was always a long time no matter what way you looked at it, sometimes it had it's perks, extra pay, the average good deed. Stopping minor crimes as peacefully as possible. But some of the most terrible horrors took place in the darkness, tonight was no different. Screams echoed out from a nearby mansion, none other than his rival's, without hesitation he dashed through the dark jumping across the air with chakra's assistance as he zoomed a slight amount of sweat slipping down his forehead. Allegrophobia was all too common for a shinobi and especially for a sennin, the entire house seemed to be distorting almost as if it was glitching. It was an abysmal sight and in an instant from the sky he'd zoom down managing to spin his body through a distorting part of roof to enter the mansion as quickly as possible.

Landing upon a piece of furniture which seemed to be both in and out of reality at the same time, he'd quickly dash through what was left of the hallways towards the sounds of humans. Several familiar faces, unfortunately familiar sights. Ayeka, Keiyaku, Otakemaru... Mitsuha... blood... almost everywhere. The cold lifeless bodies of several. Immediately he'd zoom in to the room and see the writing written across the wall all in seemingly crimson blood. Without wasting time he would take a snapshot of this moment, Keiyaku seemed to be consoling Mitsuha yet Ayeka and Otakemaru looked as if to also losing control things would get out of hand if he didn't take charge right now.

He'd place his gently hand on to Otakemaru's shoulder as he walked up to him. "Take... this is dreadful however we need to act as fast as we can, could I get you to search the perimeter? Perhaps we can still catch whoever did this." Before the same hand would flick to his headset. "I'm going to need several mednins at my location as soon as possible, there's been multiple cases of possible homocides." Wiping his forehead sweat would be pouring down as he was ready to rush after his sister, though before he did he'd make sure to shoot a glance and a nod to Keiyaku. "Ayeka! We need to... we need to stay calm, we've got to be here for Mitsuha and get to the bottom of this." He likely should have said something to her, but he didn't quite have the words, nor thought that anything he would say would help. So for now he'd just try to do his job to the best of his capability.

 

[Yume Izanami]

Mitsuha would have probably been lost in anger and sadness not in control of her power until Keiyaku had brought her into a hug. She was actually quite surprised on the matter and looked down at Morutobu who was pawing at her to get her to calm down. It was then that she would realize that she was warping reality around the entirety of her mansion. It took but a simple thought for the reality warping effects to come to a complete halt. The whole manor would go back to the way it was, with the exception of the eerie feeling of dread and smell of blood spilt. She tried to form words, but found it hard to actually talk.

During this time, Otakemaru and Ayeka had shown up, both of which seemed to want to start a war for her if necessary. For Otakemaru, he would be able to surmise that the blood written on the wall must have been and hour or two ago. As for Ayeka, she wouldn't see anything out of the ordinary. And finally... Keniwa appeared. There he was, giving out orders as he was the Sennin.

She would wipe her tears away from her face, accidentally smearing blood from her hands to her face. She sat there for a minute before she eventually found her voice and spoke, "I was out training most of the day when I had heard of my mother making a full recovery from her sickness. I bought a cake for the occasion and when I came back... They were already dead..."

She would look at her dead parents. Mitsuha would take a deep breath to steady herself and speak once more, "The message. 'Praise Jashin'. You all knew of the incident at Coffee Republic? When I had went crazy and there was a cursed power that surrounded me for a time?" She would pause for a moment to let it sink in for them all. "Well... that power comes from being part of a cult, one that devotes their entire lives to Jashin, a god of Death. I had lost that power some months ago and became something... ancient. Having the powers of a dragon. If I were to take a guess, Jashin's cultists thought of me as a deserter and a heretic to their extreme beliefs."

Mitsuha would pause once again to let them process the information. Then she would say in a calm voice, one that only Keniwa has heard as this is a dangerous calm Mitsuha that he has seen a couple of times, "Those cultists... are going to die." She would stand up, her fists clenched.

 

[Inuzuka Keiyaku]

A myriad of different scents suddenly danced to life around the room as more and more fellow shinobi came to investigate the crisis. Keiyaku could feel Mitsuha relax on his arms as he consoled her, but things were being more chaotic in the meantime. Take had happened upon the scene, and, after stuttering in apparent confusion as to what was going on, he could see the guy start to lose control of his curse mark a little, the strange tattoos spreading over his body. Ayeka, too, seemed momentarily confused, but it wasn't long before it gave way to a furious rage, shouting in an odd two-toned voice. Keiyaku couldn't stand this; he was beginning to lose all patience with his fellow shinobi.

"Calm, people! Calm! Get a grip on yourselves! Have you all forgotten your training?! We start investigating this crime, and you can be emotional in private later on," Keiyaku snarled, baring his fangs as he looked around the room. It was only in the ensuing silence did he realise another scent, one much more intimately familiar, entered the room. Keni. Immediately, the Sennin to a much more diplomatic approach, trying to calm the others down in a much more kindly way than Keiyaku just had, beginning to hand out tasks to Take in order to take charge of the situation. Moru stood immediately to attention and looked from his big brother to the Sennin.

"Go with Take," Keiyaku told Moru coldly, and watched as the Shiba, looking a little ruffled, stood by Take's side, ready to assist him in investigating the perimeter.

Keiyaku rounded on Keni and leaned in close to him, whispering very quickly and intensely into his ear.

"Double homicide, a calling card left by the Jashin cult; very credible with the explanation you just heard Mitsuha give us just now. However, it also lines up with other terror attacks we've sustained around the village," Keiyaku said, so only Keni would hear, "if you remember the Inuzuka clan massacre from a few months ago, also perpetrated by a cult, we cannot discount the theory that these two are linked. My branch has a certain degree of intelligence about this, but I don't have authorisation to release it, except to the Hokage and Sennin. We need to discuss this, soon."

As Keiyaku drew away, the snarl from earlier was still clearly present on his face; it made the Inuzuka's usually kind face almost unrecognisable. Whatever the cause, the anger did not seem connected to Mitsu's calamity.

"We have a possible motive, now we need a cause of death," he muttered.

He spared a glance at Ayeka and Mitsuha, and then went to investigate the homicide victims' bodies, trying to detect any unfamiliar scents on them, before checking on the condition of their wounds, trying to see what had precisely caused them. It was getting hard to concentrate, with the scent and taste of blood on the air hitting the back of his throat, almost making his mouth water. Soon, he was thinking less about the cause of the injuries, and more about the sweet smell of abundant meat beneath him, soaked in viscous, warm blood. The Inuzuka gritted his teeth, willing himself to focus, shoving down the demon's personality as best he could. With the Full Moon so close, doing so took a herculian effort.

'No, I'm not letting you out yet. My friends need help, and I won't let you fuck things up again...'

 

[Ayeka]

As Ayeka stepped away from the group she heard her brother call out for her to calm down but the girl did respond as she stalked further into the mansion trying to find any trace or trail from the culprits but all she found was blood and bodies but the walk had allowed Ayeka to cool down her draconic instincts calming to a simmer and as they did the dragon girl found only sorrow in her chest. Sorrow for the loss of life, sorrow for her partner and sorrow for the people she could not have met whose lives were cut short. Tears spilt readily from the girl eyes as she collapsed alone in a hallway except for the projection of Aria who stood over the girl in stoic silence. "This is gonna be a bit much for you. Let me take over here." Aria spoke to her other half with gentle care knowing that from Ayeka own abuses and the kind soul she had developed into the girl wouldn't be able to handle this situation without possibly relapsing to how she was in her Yakuza days so Aria decided to take on the responsibility instead. Ayeka simply nodded at Aria words as tears slowly dried up while Ayeka's hair extended into Aria's waist length silver locks as the girl stood back.

Wiping the tears away Aria glanced around the hall with a calm expression belaying the rage she felt at this injustice while Ayeka slumbered deep within their shared psyche. Deciding to head back to the group Aria took a deep breath and allowed senjutsu to fill her body the typical crimson marks appearing around her hair and eyes as she stepped back into the entryway where Take was examining the calling card behind while Kei was calming down Mitsuha and the situation in general. "Most likely lacerations and internal injuries if the praise Jashin sign isn't a clue. We know from Mitsuha's own skills when she was one of them that she could inflict injuries on herself and share them with others." Aria shouted to Keiyaki as she walked into the room. "I'm sorry for your family Mitsuha and if it helps we will hunt those bastards to the ends of the earth for you." As Aria spoke her Ryuugan roared to life, the flame of golden chakra burning around Aria's amber eye as if her very blood was calling for revenge before the girl closed her eyes and sent out a pulse of natural chakra. The sensory abilities of a senjutsu user was unmatched even one as imperfect as Ayeka as she felt more scales growing beneath her clothes. "If there is anyone left here I will find them."

 

[Ōtakemaru]

Calm… calm down, Take. The blood was dried, but he could still rub residue up with a finger – about an hour or two had passed since it was plastered on the wall. Moru was sent to his side, and Take’s Cursed Seal began retracting again – Kei came to the rescue with that reminder. There was no time to waste.

Nodding to Keniwa, Take now had a mission – search the perimeter. If the culprits hadn’t disappeared fully by now, he’d apprehend them and await reinforcement – if they were gone, at least he could collect further clues left behind to help the team track those monsters down later.

…

Mitsuha’s house was a large mansion – plenty of floor to cover, and many objects came into focus. A Jashin cultist was usually associated with blood, and blood left hormones and chemicals in the air – things that Moru’s sharp nose was more than capable of detecting. Each human’s body was unique in its own way, so Take focused on any blood remains and footprints, letting Moru take his time sniffing them up and memorizing the scents.

Next up, he’d reach further into the dark outside, accepting the outcome of Moru’s work – were the culprits nearby, or were they gone gone. "Sorry about earlier..." he apologized on behalf of himself and the group, remembering Kei's unusually sharp anger at the scenery and their reactions. It was almost alien.

Since it had been about two hours now, maybe they'd end up empty-handed in their search... but if there were any clues left behind that could help Mitsuha, then Take would try his best to find it with Moru's help.

WC: 273 [MFT]