A Cat's Claw

In the deepest parts of the Uchiha training ground there was a place where no one but the Clan Leader was allowed. A deeper part of the forest, filled with strange creatures and dangerous beasts. Comparable to the Forest of Death so often used in the Chuunin Exams, this place had seen many less human souls roam it. There was a reason for this of course. It was the training grounds dedicated to the Uchiha Clan Leader. But it was more than training grounds, it was a place of self discovery and meditation. The Sharingan awakened in circumstances of extreme danger so it was only natural for the Uchiha to seek these circumstances often in order to grow further. This part of the forest was a natural aid for doing that. Fast creatures, swift and deadly, roamed the grounds and large trees. Sunlight would rarely make it past the dense tops of these gigantic wood beasts. Not all creatures were inherently dangerous to men, but they all could be. Instead the common trait to these creatures was that they had all evolved to survive in this harsh environment, and the Uchiha Clan leader expected to do the same.

He had sneaked out of bed at night, getting dressed and making the trail here. He could place a Flying Thunder God formula on a tree but Akihiro had a feeling that would be dangerous. The forest was alive and those who roamed its paths would soon he able to tell it could be incredibly moody. There was a process to getting here, and disrespecting it could bring severe consequences. Akihiro feared leaving marks in no place ruled by mankind, but this place was beyond that. He wasn't particularly superstitious but there was just something different about this place. Trees were often found dropped or clawed by many different creatures marking their territory in a constant and terrible turf war.

Well Akihiro today would release the most dangerous of these creatures. Not himself, no. He was adorable. What lied within him however...his secret. His inner demon, in the most literal sense possible. Truth to be told, the Sparrow was afraid . Scared of what he'd  find out. But he needed to know. Ever since the beast had been sealed within him, it'd been quiet. Akihiro respected its space and it respected his. But ever since he'd gotten together with Ikomiki and his emotions ran wild during certain...moments, he could feel something growing inside of him. Was it because the woman was a cat? He couldn't tell. But there was something awakening inside him, and Akihiro needed to deal with it sooner than later.

"Wake up." He'd say, standing shirtless on top of a tree, watching the forest's natural rooftop from above. It was cold out here, slightly windy too. But Akihiro couldn't really feel it. The markings of the Eight Trigram sealing technique placed twice upon him, his hand upon the seal on his stomach. But there was no reply, only silence.

"I said wake up!" Louder, but his voice faltered a little. Did he need to loosen the seal a little? That would be suicidal, no? But he had to try something. He prepared to do it.

"Tee hee hee" The voice scared him, making him lose balance for a moment before regaining his composure. "What does the small pussy cat want?" It was terrifying. Deeper than he expected, the voice itself carried more power than he could understand.

"Show me. " Akihiro commanded immediately, but even he himself wasn't sure of what he wanted to ask the beast.

"Show you what?"
"You...your..wild side. I need to understand it."
"I don't have a wild side. I am the wild side, you ignorant fool." Well that was harsh. Akihiro had been called many things, but never ignorant nor fool.
"Well then show it to me."
"Why should I? You've never shown an interest before."
"Well I'm asking you now."
"Oh, I see. It's about the cat girl..." The words it spoke were frightening, not just because of the voice he could hear inside his head but mostly because they were spoken with a carried truth that felt like a knife's edge against his throat.
"Does it matter?"
"Yes."

Akihiro dry swallowed. He felt he was about to do something stupid, something really stupid. But this was the place to do it, the place for self-discovery and personal progress.

"Then yes. I...I need to understand her better."
"And you expect to understand her better by understanding me?"
"That was the plan."
"It's a stupid plan."
"Are you gonna help me or not?"
...
...
"Just this once, I will indulge you. It should be...entertaining to watch you try to comprehend something which can only be felt."
"Good, how do I-" - A sudden and immense surge of chakra interrupted him. He'd never felt this before, Akihiro's body felt like it was on fire. Chakra was pouring our of every single one of his tenketsu points and it felt like his body was far too weak and small to contain it.

Then, the explosion.

Every single tree in a 30 meters radius was brought down by a violent wind blast, leaving only a single one standing- the one with Akihiro on top of it. What he was feeling was indescribable, an immense surge of power. He felt like he could bring down entire mountains with the flick of his finger. Whether this was true or not, it remained to be seen.

A layer of intense blue chakra covered his entire body. The power was so immense he could afford to let it dissipate into thin air, because there was always more emanating from his cells, replacing the ever disappearing cloak faster than it vanished.

But power was more than what he was feeling at the moment. There was something, something else. Instinct. A voice in his head, a feeling in his gut and a hunger in his mouth. "Hunt." His eyes immediately turned red, three tomoes furiously spinning and looking for prey. The hunt was on.

While it was an unflattering comparison, Ikomiki truthfully lived a life more similar to a racoon than a wild beast these days. Living within civilization, but not entirely a part of it. Sleeping beneath the trees in Konoha’s parks and training grounds and finding her lunch through whatever she could scavenge from nature. Rooting through trash at times. She had come a long way from the days she would stalk through the darkest portions of Konohagakure’s forests, a menace to mankind. But then she had only been a child, not much more than a mere kitten. Even if her pride had been curtailed in part, it was part of the process of growing up. The mountain of wild deer and other prey she had slaughtered in those days was nothing more than an anthill now. The mounds of civilization, even if she disliked it, were incomprehensibly larger.

But still there would be times, with her back to the grass and with the starry night sky above her, that she longed for a return to how it had been before. Back when she felt like the largest, strongest thing around. Overflowing with power at all times. Prideful, lazy, able to spend her time doing nothing but killing and eating. It was simple. She never had to think. And there had been Nikoban always beside her, until he wasn’t. Maybe it was that things started to change once she chased him here, to this den of humans, looking for him. It made her introspective, and made her understand how small she really was.

A flock of birds flew southwest. Those tired eyes of hers, half asleep, picked them out among the stars. Were they… Had she been younger she would have been able to recognize them. Her grasp on the natural world was slipping over time. All that old information in her mind being pushed away to make room for the new. It had been a natural extension at first. Seeking more power, more strength, more skill. Then came with it the gradual compromises. Adjusting to human dress, learning their language, ingraining their customs into herself, and a thousand other tiny cuts. One after another. Until...

Living within civilization, but not entirely a part of it. She didn’t really belong anywhere now. It had been a realization that she came recently. Things had become so complicated over time, overwhelmingly so. Maybe this was the fate of all animals who associated too long with humanity, to be warped away from what they once had been. The same thoughts from that night ran on repeat in her head now, that same question being asked again and again.

But still, she hadn’t become dull. Someone special to her sneaking around in the middle of the night wasn’t something she could miss. Not after becoming so closely acquainted with his smell. The idea of stalking him again almost was too much trouble. Her eyes were heavy, and so too was her mind with thoughts. But for the same reason she stood. The alternative was too heavy to bear. As muddled as her thoughts had been as of late, she could consistently agree with one thing. The idea of him leaving her now wasn’t something she would be able to live with. Even if it was something she had no reason to fear.

It was rather fortunate that Akihiro didn’t make an effort of using those sensory skills of his. Maybe he enjoyed being surprised by all the times that she followed him around like this? It was hard to say. But the distance she kept was supplemented by the unfamiliar ground, and there were moments when the uncivilized stench became so overpowering that she feared that she might lose his trail. This was a part of Konohagakure’s forests she had never been to, but despite that it felt familiar. Capricious, beastial… Well, maybe jealousy wasn’t the right word, but she felt as though she shared a certain something with it.

Then the sulfur hit. Enough that just the scent could give her indigestion. She had kept a certain distance from him as she stalked him now, but apparently it wasn’t nearly enough. The violent vortex of wind had come from his direction, and had she not been just nearly impaled by a flying tree his safety would have been the first thing on her mind. She had clearly gone soft. Or maybe the feeling of a full grown tree rushing over your shoulder like it was a thrown javelin was truthfully just that terrifying. Using that same momentum she would fall back, back, and back until the tired girl would manage to scramble behind what appeared to be safe ground. This was a rather complicated way of saying that she fell on her ass and combat rolled behind a big rock, but ultimately the end result was the same, and she would struggle to catch her breath—

The stench came after. Not sulfur. Something else, foreign and disgusting. It infiltrated her nose, and the gagging that followed was raw. Saliva was desperately spit from her mouth, as if she could somehow rid herself of that tainted monstrous energy. The excess was wiped away, and a dazed woman would peer carefully into the night again while she attempted to push that pounding out of her head.

What had just happened?

The rush of adrenaline was real. It was like Akihiro had been reborn, found a key that gave him access within and allowed him tap into his deepest instincts. Or were these not his instincts? Things were blurry, difficult to rationalize, to consider, to think of. Perhaps that was the point of becoming a wild beast. For better or worse these things were simple. The hunt was on: There was no time to consider which was the best prey, no time to think of a strategy, no time for anything else but his ultimate purpose: "To kill." And kill he would.

A tremendous roar, the sign to all the inhabitants of the forest that the game had changed. This night, no one was safe. From the fox hiding in its den to the wolves hunting at night. Tonight they were all prey. Everything. Everyone. Not even the trees would escape this wretched hunt. It felt good to move with a purpose. Was this what it meant to be wild? Akihiro couldn't help but wonder for an instant before his mind aggressively kicked questions out. What purpose was there in asking questions? He was the strongest beast in the forest, the better equipped to to dominate and defeat anything below him. Claws grew from his knuckles, hardened by a demonic chakra. So these were the instruments he'd use to kill? Interesting. The warning had been given, from now on everything within the forest was fair game.

He vanished from the tree, dropping it down as he jumped from it towards the ground. Then he ran, deeper into the forest with two large tails trailing behind him. Every tree, bush, rock he passed were mercilessly brought down as long as they were within reach of his claws. He was destruction, in its pure and simplest form. Had he known Ikomiki was here perhaps things would have been different but Akihiro believed he was alone and so he gave in completely in order to better understand Ikomiki's love for the wild. And he had to admit as he sliced a poor deer in half: this was fun. There was a sick  enjoyment to be had in this. The deer had raised its head and looked towards the incoming danger but by the time its pupils had focused on the danger, its body had been cut in half and Akihiro had gone forward. The deer might as well have been an ant in his path. But perhaps killing that hadn't been as satisfactory as killing other things. you see, the deer was used to being prey. It ran scared from every major predator in the forest, there was no merit to killing it.

But wolves? The dire wolves of this forest were probably one of its apex predators. So chasing down an entire pack and crushing it little by little was incredibly satisfactory. For too long had these lesser creatures reigned over the forest. How  dare they? Keeping him trapped for so long, bound to yet another lesser creature. How dare they?. Chase, slice. Kill them all! The queen of the forest was  back and they all would tremble in fear again. It was hard to tell how much time had passed, but he'd not stop. They were all weak and they had dared take his place. Kings and Queens kill as they please, there's no need to justify bloodshed. That's the meaning of power. But now that she had a justification?  There was no escaping her, and particularly no escaping his furiously spinning eyes.

Blood trailed behind him. The only reason it didn't stick to his clothes was because it was incinerated the moment it touched the chakra cloak. The forest was running thin of prey now. Every animal who could hide did, the really fast ones escaped and all others who'd come across his path had been killed, those who had tried to face him killed in particularly gruesome ways. The forest which had once been so dangerous had been tamed, almost. His nose picked up a scent. It was...familiar. Yes, it smelled of home.  But how could it when this was his home? Perhaps it would be best to investigate.  Or kill whatever was giving off this confusing scent.

And so this beast tracked down its prey once again, moving fast through the hunting grounds until it came across Ikomiki. The image of the woman made the beast hesitate for a moment. Something in the back of his mind was yelling at him, but he couldn't tell what it was.  Frankly she didn't care, but stopping for a second could avoid danger. It was one thing to hunt wild beasts, but  humans could be complicated.

"I recognize her, she's my prey. another roar echoed as Akihiro stopped 20 meters in front of Ikomiki. The two cat like tails wiggling behind him, giving out a clear sign that he was excited. The cat ears he'd gained from the cloak were down and pointing back, signaling aggression. Was his face recognizable? Hard to tell. Perhaps his scent was in there somewhere, mixed with this aggressive chakra, but his body was entirely covered in a cloak. Only his eyes remained fully visible. A torrent of emotions was filling him but in this state it was very hard to process them. Unknowingly he was beginning to understand what Ikomiki had felt when she had been asked all those questions... it was hard to answer, he merely wanted the questions to go away. He pushed them away, and the three tomoes in his eyes came together to form the Mangekyou Sharingan.

OOC:
Strength: D >>> C
Constitution: C>>>B
Stamina: A
Speed: C>>>B+
Coordination: B>>>A
Intelligence: S >>> A
Perception: A

What had just happened? Something awful, it turned out. The definition of apex predator had warped over the course of her life. From wolf to bear, from bear to lion, from lion to her, from her to shinobi. The constant shifting made her realize such terms were mutable. You could only stand at the top of the mountain as long as you could stand, and eventually your legs would get weak. Just like everyone else who had crawled up that high. You would get torn down. She was knocked off that mental pole, and now… Images flashed back to her mind. Demonic chakra. Great beats. Amidst the forest, the stench of that racoon. Or was it a tanuki? It didn’t matter. Her memory was fuzzy. She had never actually come into contact with it, but her mind was playing tricks on her now. The words reverberated in her head. Jinchuuriki. Bijuu. There was a lump in her throat. The only way she knew was from the taste. Familiar.

It was a tornado. A terrible tornado. The sort that inspired envy, but a terrible fear as well. She knew what it was like to be hunted. For other creatures to want to eat you and to be aware of that. Here, everything was hungry. Hungry even if their stomachs were full. Even if satisfied the instinct to kill remained, and it became only for entertainment rather than a necessity. The primal instinct flashed in her mind, and worries were swept away. It was almost beautiful in its simplicity. The fact that she had been following him here was swept away, along with concerns about his presence. In the back of her mind little sweet things were reassuring her. He could teleport away. Hide wherever he wanted if he needed. Whatever inkling that might have connected him to this monster was forgotten, erased from her mind as she scampered away, keeping low to the ground. She never managed to catch sight of it, luckily. Had she been that close it would have been already over. Being cornered by something like this likely would have made her piss herself, a fate she would have liked to avoid. But each sound, each smell. All familiar ones. She knew what they meant, and from them she could measure distance.

And that it was now coming closer. Even as she ran to hide, the easier prey had been culled rather quickly. There wasn’t much left, besides her now. Whatever was chasing her was faster, to an appreciable extent. She had become soft. Lazy. She used to be faster than this. Stronger. Living so casually, allowing herself to feel so human, had allowed to decay and now she cursed herself for it. Cursing everything and everyone she had met in a silent string of worldless profanities. Now that she was a target there was little else she could do. Just from each pound of its gait she could tell that it was maybe over twice as fast, and maybe more if this was just it toying with her.

A cornered rat, she spun around as her feet continued in their backwards momentum. Only to stop, skidding to a half. Although prepared to bear her fangs, the woman would stay her hands. It was impossible not to. Her heart had skipped a beat. Even in this twisted visage she could recognize him. This corrupt stench made her want to vomit, and it was even worse seeing it polluting his face. But that face, the way it… No. She had been mistaken. In the moment she had thought it was…

It was too late. Only when she saw those Sharingan did she understand the truth, and that was when the tomoe gave way to a complicated pattern she had never seen before. The Mangekyou Sharingan. They would be greeted by their kin, addressed by the sudden activation of the one-ringed Rinegan. It was instinctual, nothing more. She had no plan or desires. Dust and wind swept up by his road caught her dead on, and she would be buffeted by the blast. Her hair would stream out before he like a cape, and for a moment she would struggle to stand her ground.

“Akihiro?”

Ashitaka had been minding his own business in the most literal sense -that is, he was working on laying down roots for his weapons manufacture and distribution business- when the explosion from within the Uchiha District echoed across the village like a clap of thunder from a lightning bolt that was far too close, both demanding his attention and "inspiring" a series of memories within him that he viciously trampled back down. Leaving behind the location where he'd planned to reestablish his arms dealership, he leapt up to a rooftop nearby and leapt again, forming the necessary hand seals while in mid-air.

Snake. Ram. Hare. Dog. Snake.

The vast wooden dragon more or less grew out from his feet, carrying him onward as it flew toward the source of the noise. It was doubtful at this point that there was any question regarding his claim to the Forest Throne. He had clearly inherited the power of the Blood to an extent not seen in centuries, and given that he was headed towards the unmistakable sound of trouble, the sense of duty that was expected to come with it as well. The paperwork that would be involved in the process seemed like such a minor concern in comparison.

The dragon was much, much faster than he was on foot and also not concerned with the minor trivialities of navigation or social niceties as it tore through the sky in the direction of its destination. There was little the average ninja could even do about his passing, since he was already beyond the scopes of most by the time they even registered his presence. The great serpentine figure crossed the boundary between the districts and plunged into the skies over the Uchiha's hidden depths in a matter of seconds. He smelled the abundance of blood moments before he heard the roar of an entity that was half-man, half-demonic beast. Activating his Sensing Field verified what he'd already suspected: the true nature of what he was facing. He also picked up Ikomiki a short distance away, but she was a lesser concern. If she wanted to flaunt the power of the Senju and the chakra capacity of a Bijuu, then she was going to have to learn to do something with them.

(Pleasant...) he thought to himself, committing a back-burner train of thought to wondering why Konoha's resident Jinchuuriki would pull the asinine move of unleashing his Bijuu while unsupervised. Part of him wanted to do nothing upon learning the truth of the situation, to sit back and let him live with the consequences of his own actions. But he knew that the village would suffer an upset from this kind of instability this early in its development. So he directed his Wood Dragon to respond to Akihiro/Matatabi's roar with one of its own, then rode it as it dove down to hover directly in front of them, forming hand-seals as they descended and the dragon interposed itself between the two cat people.

Boar. Dog. Bird. Monkey. Ram. Monkey. Tiger.

"Akihiro. I strongly suggest that you and your... companion get control of yourselves before I get it for you." Ashitaka sounded calm and collected, but the truth was he really wasn't. Though his powers were ostensibly uniquely suited to tackling rogue Jinchu and Bijuu, this was his first encounter with one of either, and he got the feeling a lot was riding on his ability to handle this situation. What matters worse is that it seemed that things were relatively tranquil in this version of the world before he arrived in it, and he now worried that he carried with him some kind of infectious curse of chaos as he crossed the boundary between realities.





___________________________

Stuff:

So easy. It was so easy. She couldn't believe she'd been afraid of a tiny little human- in fact this girl wasn't even entirely human. Was she lost? Perhaps, but it mattered little. Every death happening today was happening due to her will, out of her own whim. Who cares if the girl is lost? She had been unlucky, wandering where she shouldn't have been. Was she at the wrong place at the wrong time? Perhaps. But so had been the deer, the wolves, the foxes. And they hadn't even gotten lost. In the beast's mind they were more innocent than this girl, who'd made such a silly mistake. What was her name again? Ikomiki Right. That was the name. It was a good name for a gravestone. Not that they'd find her anytime soon, or at all. But certainly someone cared enough for her to at least make a memorial of sorts. I care I don't, kill it. And kill her they would. If not for.

The two tailed beast lunged forward. She is pretty, isn't she? Beautiful even From somewhere in the back of his mind Akihiro was contemplating Ikomiki. Not unlike the day he contemplated her at the hotsprings. She was beautiful, her curves and mannerisms drew him towards her. Was this why he was lunging towards her now? It had to be. She was so beautiful, whatever else could he do? He wanted to keep her forever.

And then, the Rinnegan. The beast was wild, but it wasn't stupid. There was something about those eyes...it drove some other kind of instinct inside the Two Tailed jinchuuriki but especially inside the Two Tailed Bijuu. Those eyes...they weren't the eyes of prey. They were the eyes of a predator, of the ultimate predator. And for the first time in this state, Akihiro felt fear. A terrible, terrible fear. He'd become prey. This hesitation was ultimately what allowed him to regain some sort of control. It allowed space in his mind for more than pure instinct because for once his own instincts were telling him to think and find a solution to this problem. And then he realized he was not at the hotsprings. He realized that the chakra focused in his eyes was like a bow pointing a deadly arrow at the one person he cared about most in this world. He realized that this had all been a huge mistake and spiraled out of control far too quickly.

He'd been naive. The beast had been sealed so he'd be able to control it, he believed. Akihiro had only wanted a taste of what it was like to be wild, but one could not be partially wild. Not with this kind of creature inside them. The drive to follow his instincts was something he could understand now, but at what price? He would retreat immediately, to put distance between the two of them. But at the same time he wanted her close, he needed her help. His head hurt a lot although he wasn't sure why. His body felt sluggish, like he wasn't in control and soon he would realize he was fighting himself. Hands upon his head, he made an effort to seize control.

The screaming. He was screaming. For how long had he been screaming? Could Ikomiki hear him? He hoped not, it would be so shameful to be seen in this state. But she was here. She was here. He screamed louder, worry filling his head now and his desperation to regain control grew even bigger. What if she was hurt?! He needed to help her. That was his duty! She was his student, his protegee and ultimately his lover. He couldn't let her get hurt! but what if she'd already been hurt? Images of blood splatters flooded his mind, memories from no more than a few minutes ago. Had that been Ikomiki's blood? He prayed to the Sage it wasn't. He needed control back. But the beast was strong, so strong.

"Had enough?"
"Yes! I have to help her!"

He was talking out loud, in the middle of screams. It seemed the beast was displeased. Having a willing host made it so much easier to unleash the wrath of the bijuu, after all.

And then it happened. A massive wooden dragon came between the two. In his current state Akihiro had more or less control over the bijuu but the effort required to control the beast meant he simply wasn't paying attention to what was being said. So once again he was driven by instinct and pure instinct alone. This time however there was a major difference from before. It was not the beast's instinct he was following, it was his own. Somehow in the middle of all the chaos he had reconnected with his primal self. "Destruction" as a goal was replaced entirely. No, his heart desired something else. From his deepest self Akihiro wanted one thing and one thing only. To keep her safe. He didn't know what the threat was, in fact he hadn't even realized he had been the threat just moments earlier.

From his foggy perspective, he'd seen Ikomiki and then a giant dragon between the two of them. The dragon was keeping him from her. Even in his current state he could not let this stand. Akihiro was master of space and time, physical barriers would not keep him from the ones he'd marked, from the one he loved. As Ashitaka descended and made seals, Akihiro vanished.

He'd reappear next to Ikomiki, his back turned towards her and Akihiro facing Ashitaka and the Dragon's own back. Unfortunately for the Senju, Akihiro only needed to make a single hand-seal.The dragon was evidently made of wood, and wood burnt. As Ashitaka was busy going through his handseals, a gigantic wall of blue flames formed and rushed at him from behind, shot from a mere 10 away from behind him. It would grow immensely in size spawning a 250 meters length and travel 500 meters forward reducing everything in its path to absolute ash. The blue fire was particularly strong, even close proximity with it causing severe damage. It was one of Akihiro's strongest weapons, but it mattered little. This wood beast would not touch Ikomiki. He had regained enough control to set and establish this basic goal. He'd placed himself between the danger and the girl, and everything else was irrelevant.

Spoiler:

How quickly things would change. As it turned out, it was rather foolish to expect that nobody else would take notice of this Jinchuuriki rampaging through the forest, even with its distance away from Konoha. The explosion that came with the activation of the version two cloak was more than noticeable enough from a distance, especially with the flight of trees that it had sent outwards in every direction. This had both advantages and disadvantages. But most obviously, catching her and Akihiro doujutsu alight doing this little Jinchuuriki dance in the middle of the night was surely something that wouldn’t reflect well on either in the time to come. Consequences would be sure to follow, but that was assuming she could avoid the current consequences. Being able to live to be scolded about this all almost felt like a luxury.

Akihiro lunged at her. Even if her hands were moving up to form seals at the same time she was half convinced to just let him. Truthfully her heart wasn’t in it tonight. As melodramatic as it was, having to fight the only person you truthfully had bonds with while already melancholy made for strange and awful desires. It made her slow. Luckily, it seemed that he was hesitating too. She had become disgustingly soft. Even though she only needed to make one seal with her hands those fingers of hers slipped together awkwardly, and her chakra roiled inside her gut as if she had spiritual indigestion.

The presence of the wooden serpent between the two of them thus became both a blessing and a curse. Something, anything between her and Akihiro right now was satisfying. She had half a mind to just turn tail and run and use whatever this was as a distraction, but abandoning him to his fate here was… Even if her instincts wanted her to run she wouldn’t dare.

But, of course she should have expected this. There was a FTG mark on her. Of course there was. She remembered the moment it was placed fondly, but that was a different memory for a different time. He appeared right before her, and for a moment she saw her life flash before her eyes until it became clear that she was staring at his back.

Her left leg swung up. With him this close, right next to her and facing the other direction, there was no capability to avoid it. A deep black sheen coated the flesh as she did, and just how solid and dense the impact of what was already a strong girl would become apparent right when she made impact between his legs. The only mercy was that she didn’t have a running start, and that really she had never been anything more than adequate with taijutsu. Kicking him square in the gonads at point black range would hopefully be enough to make him stop and think a bit about the situation. Maybe reconsider his course of actions. If not? Even if her hands had been slipping like she was some sort of ametuer there were only so many times that she could make that mistake. Eventually those numb fingers of hers would fit together in the right pattern. Snake. That was all that she needed.

Wood sprouted out in all directions, and those chakra reserves of hers would finally be put to use productively. A massive range ninjutsu, it was once again fortunate they were a good distance outside of Konoha proper. The forest that Akihiro had blown down in his path to Ikomiki would regrow in an instant, as it would appear. The full range of this technique would be used, perhaps by accident, and within a full one hundred meter radius the forest would become incomprehensibly thicker. In the area around the two of them, really the relevant part of this technique, countless wood trunks the thickness of arms would wrap around the rampaging Jinchuuriki. Around every limb, around his neck, around his tails, around his torso. Everywhere, leaving him a wooden mummy ideally with the exception of his head. The speed they were working at was especially intense, and even with that caustic chakra of his cloak it should be enough to hold him still… Right? She prayed that was the case. Prayed to the Sage, even if she swore once that she would never do that. Perhaps she'd be able to stop him through that sucker punch before he could cast the fire, and if not then perhaps the wood she spawned would be able to consume it. That would be the case if she was fortunate.

Spoiler:

The roar of Ashitaka's wooden dragon had drowned out Akihiro's words, and the Uchiha didn't appear to be registering the Senju's. As far as communication went, they might as well have just continued screaming at each other. However, the other important aspect of what they said was timing. The Forest Prince had already formed his second jutsu's set of hand seals before he started talking, and Akihiro, though capable of instant teleportation, didn't start until after. (Shit... forgot he could do that.) And like it or not, even he couldn't move faster than time itself. That said, the Wood Release user wasn't familiar with the Flying Thunder God Technique although it was ostensibly created by one of his own Clan's paragons. Knowing about the jutsu and experiencing it second-hand were two entirely different matters, and though he was acutely aware of Akihiro's relocation, there was little he could do to interrupt his own jutsu with any kind of response before his opponent got that wave of fire off.

(Is it just me, or is it getting h-ohhh fuck!) Ashitaka's mind raced as he briefly lost his cool at the instant and total obliteration of one of his most powerful techniques. And to salt the wound, the flames responsible happened to be blue... just like the ones he'd used to end his own life in an effort to escape the twisted and warped world from which he hailed. As the image of a wall of all-consuming blue fire seared itself into his eyes, he fell to his knees. His mind was haunted, keenly remembering the sensation of his flesh burning away, his bones splintering, and his thoughts boiling as a death that only took a few moments stretched out to a hellish eternity before dropping him in this paradise that didn't know him.

His palms struck the ground and brought him back to reality. This wasn't his first time dealing with this kind of trauma, and he was sure it wouldn't be the last. That damn Jinchu was still out of control, and he needed to be stopped before he did something that cost the man his mind permanently and the entire village everything. He sunk into the ground and burrowed under the fire, ignoring the scorching heat and weaving through the surging roots as Ikomiki unintentionally made the short ten meter trip much longer and more perilous than it already was.

Ashitaka never saw the physical attack which the catgirl directed at her master, but when he managed to navigate his way out from under the ground, he saw the trees surrounding the other man. Seizing the opportunity, he summoned a ring of pillars which merged with the trees and reached out to slap him with the palm bearing the Za kanji.

"You... absolute JACKASS! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING? WERE YOU THINKING? BIJUU ARE NOT TOYS!"

Ashi never told anyone, but he was the kind of person who responded to terror with aggression. He had to, having grown up in the wilds of the Senju Forest meant having to fight to survive. Every day. "Flight" was the fear response of prey animals. And prey animals got eaten. It was for the peace offered by civilization that he'd sacrifice and strive every moment of his life, and it was that same civilization that seemed to betray him at every turn. Especially here and now, where a guy who'd grown up nestled in its protective arms had risked everyone's safety for a taste of ferality.

Ashitaka was furious.


__________________

Stuff wrote:Continued 60-YO-Tech from last post.
Doton: Subterranean Voyage -5 CP
Sensory: Sensing Technique -0.5 CP
199/235 CP

Burn it aaalll~ There was a childish joy to the voice echoing in his mind. As the fire spread and consumed everything in path Akihiro could feel the joy of the Bijuu inside him. There was even a certain sense of pride, as Matatabi was not capable of producing the technique Akihiro had used by himself. Even he found himself enjoying the complete and utter destruction he was causing. Before he had simply made use of his superior physical abilities to hunt down and kill animals one by one, but now he was absolutely crushing everything. It was like using a cannon to hit a fly, destroying it completely even tho it could have been done with a simple mosquito swatter. What he held was power, and he was drunk on that power. The Bijuu's influence over him reigned supreme now, the joy in destruction recovering for the Bijuu the space in his mind Akihiro had struggled to hard to conquer just moments before. Unknowingly, Ashitaka has extended the time during which Matatabi was in control. Had he killed the man? It didn't matter, he'd die eventually. Everyone would. They would all be crushed under her paws, obliterated by her cannons. What could they possibly do against her?

And then pain. Sharp, immediate and excruciating pain hit Akihiro, snapping him momentarily out of it and allowing him more space to be himself. It was not a pleasant experience but very much in the same way it would have worked against Genjutsu this pain would awaken him. He'd fall to his knees interrupting the massive sea of flames he was expelling, his hands reaching between his legs. Bijuu healing kicked in immediately, but the pain was there and Akihiro's pain threshold was rather low.

This stun alowed Ikomiki's wood branches to involve him. Even with his cloak active Akihiro didn't currently possess the strength to break free. While he could've easily teleported out of the way and immediately end the threat that now was Ikomiki, the pain clouded his decision making. His instincts were yelling at him to take cover and protect himself down there and so he hesitated. That hesitation was what ultimately allowed him to be entrapped by her technique. Before he could react properly Akihiro found himself mummified by wood, enveloped in a cocoon of incredibly durable wood.

The beast was furious.  It struggled to break free, forcing Akihiro's limbs to exert more pressure and strength than they were prepared to deal with, breaking several of his bones only to heal them and try again to no avail. In a matter of seconds Akihiro's gonad pain had been forgotten, replaed by the feeling of being broken and healed only to be broken again, repeatedly.

As if the cocoon hadn't been enough, more pillars emerged from surrounding trees and fell upon it applying greater pressure and thus greater restraint. The beast's anger and thus Akihiro's grew to a newer extent. Above anything else she hated being caged, she hated not being able to roam the wilds and reign over them as their queen. They would pay. They would all pay, one way or another. Akihiro would raise his chin (really the only thing he could do) and his eyes swirled in their newest pattern. It wasn't the three tomoes any Uchiha was used to. At this point his eyes had become a more complex swirling pattern, a mix of red and black.

A single drop of blood dropped from an eye. It focused on his enemy, the man in front of him. He would burn, one way or another. They would all burn. "Amatera-" *slap*

There was something about the man's slap which was entirely different from any attack so far. Animal claws, bites, the pressure of wood. Nothing had really succeeded in dropping the beast's control over him. Even Ikomiki's blessed nut kick had only succeeded in doing so momentarily. But this was something else. A single slap, and the beast finally shut the fuck up. It was completely and entirely shut down, the control it had over Akihiro escaping through her paws like water. Word were spoken towards him but he could not hear them. Akihiro felt exhausted.

Waves of steam rising from his neck and head, the only place the cocoon allowed for escape. Akihiro's head was down, the carefully tied pony tail he wore had ripped itself free from its bonds long ago, and so his long hair now fell over his shoulders or, in this case, over the wood cocoon. Slowly he was regaining conscience. Tried to move, but for some reason he could not. Tried to breathe but even that was difficult.

He spit over the wood, staining it red. His mouth tasted like blood, but it was not his own. Frankly it felt disgusting and this was the only way he could get rid of it. He opened his eyes, blinking twice as vision returned to him. The sharingan was still active, perhaps more out of survival instinct than actual will. Still he couldn't move, but he didn't feel any pain other than a slight one on his cheek.

Everything was foggy. He couldn't move and barely breath. Was there someone else with him? He saw a man about 5 meters away. Akihiro's words came like like a whisper. "Can't...breathe..." Basic needs first. Wood coffin and pillars stacked on top of it made it impossible to breathe properly, much less speak. Whatever else he needed to resolve could come second. He could technically teleport to Ikomiki at any time but he didn't know where she was, or if she was safe. If this was an enemy he'd rather save his trump card for when he really needed it.

Ashitaka Senju. The man she had just met at Konoha’s gates just… How many days ago was it now? It didn’t matter exactly, but it hadn’t been a long time at all. She hadn’t recognized him at first. Even if she had, there wasn’t the time to process information like that mid-combat. Just that there was a Mokuton jutsu flying in their direction, one that was landing down closely. Only when he finally applied that seal on Akihiro, the one that she couldn’t, would his face come into picture. The fact that she was so blatantly using her Rinnegan here and using secretive Senju techniques was a huge problem considering the nature of their audience, but it was a problem that would be pushed back for later. Preventing her own gorey demise came at a higher priority.

She hadn’t caught sight of what had happened to her maybe-rescuer after that initial blaze of fire, but at the very least her shin to his groin seemed to work. Even if it potentially locked her in place so close to him, men were predictable. The burns that she had received on the point of impact were definitely worth the seconds of time that it bought her. The wood branches would pull him away, removing that dangerous entanglement of limbs. Only the top layer of skin from her upper shin had been sloughed off with it, burnt away. It was a rather fortunate result considering what she knew could have happened. It left her struggling to stand properly, but that would only be momentarily. Steam began rising from the wound as soon as it was able, cells working in overtime to begin the healing process. No scars, no permanent wounds, except the ones on the inside.

Only when Ashitaka pressed that seal against him did the Jinchuuriki calm down, pillars rising up to restrain his rapidly weakening body further. Perhaps unnecessary, but with the previous rampage any excess caution was something she could appreciate. Wrapping him tight in this wooden cocoon now was of incredible importance as well. Even as his body began to go limp she wouldn’t release it. Now, while she could still manipulate those branches and vines it served to both insulate Akihiro from them as well as from himself.

The gasping in the air, sudden heavy breathing that hit her ears, was something she suddenly recognized as her own. Having barely used any chakra she had no excuse to be feeling so exerted right now. But the realization came to her as the adrenaline started to leave. Her heightened pulse, the chill sweat coating now what felt like every inch of her skin, that still present sting from that minor wound. She hadn’t been this afraid in a long time. Whether it was justified or not.

“You idiot.” A deep inhale, and then long exhale followed that bitter swear that came half under her breath. “Idiot. Idiot, idiot idiot idiot idiot…” Teeth snapped down before she could go any further. Gritted now into an ugly snarl. With her shoulders slumped she would begin her approach towards her captured master, now at her mercy. Or, at their mercy.

“I’ll let you hit him once more, now that he’s stopped. Only once. There’ll be no grudges after. Past that, he’s mine.” The words were directed at the Senju, but she wouldn’t look at him. Her eyes were focused on the still restrained male, now only a few feet away. That much had to be established first, at least.

The branches around his throat and chest would relax. A little. Only a little.

“... Thank you. Ashitaka. I might have died if it wasn’t for you.”

Reaching out, her hand would stretch into the cocoon of wood. That mess of black hair, she would rub her palm into it and let her fingers graze against his scalp for a moment before pressing past to his neck. Just to check for a pulse. Then into his eyes. It was more than checking for activated dojutsu, but also to measure his pupils. Truthfully she was no doctor, and so checking for signs of a concussion and a pulse were the only things she could think of in the moment.

“...And you. What were you even thinking? What’s wrong with you? Do you have a death wish or something? Or did you just want to kill all of us? Was that it?”

"No. I don't want to risk him forgetting what he did." Ashitaka replied in response to Ikomiki's offer to let him hit Akihiro again, as if there was much she could have done had he chosen to. He looked around at the scorched forest surrounding the restrained Uchiha. So she was capable of utilizing my Clan's bloodline to this extent. He looked down at her healing leg. And... that one.

He made a noise that was equal parts growl and sigh, the sort usually expected of a moody teenager not getting their way, but actually far more appropriate in this situation. A lot had happened in this extremely short period of time and while he wasn't entirely powerless to act on it, as he'd just demonstrated, he was going to have to wield what power he did have with precision and care. That was something he didn't have a lot of practice doing.

"I will not belittle the station of Uchiha Clan Head by treating its bearer like a misbehaving child. Since you already follow him everywhere and seem to have no trouble wielding the blood you stole from my family, I doubt Lord Akihiro will make himself a threat to the village again." He didn't tell Ikomiki to move the trees away from her master before they settled into place and became nigh impossible to manage. Partly because he felt the inconvenience was the least of Akihiro's dues for everything, and partly because he didn't think she'd obey him anyway. "We will discuss reparations for that particular crime at a later date. For now, I want to be sure that you're lucid, Akihiro. Do you know where you are? Do you know who you are?"

He folded his arms across his chest and glared at the bound Uchiha. The man had a lot of power but seemed to lack the discipline to handle it alone. That was a dangerous combination, especially with Konoha being as small and weak as it currently was. A disaster like a rampaging Jinchuuriki would have leveled the village, would have cost them everything.

"If I hadn't been here..." he muttered, then froze as the weight of his idle thought came crashing down. He had up until this point thought his presence here was a curse on this halcyonic version of the world he knew, but in hindsight he realized that he didn't make Akihiro decide to unleash this power he couldn't control. If Ashitaka hadn't been available to arrive when he did, the damage caused by Matatabi would have been utterly catastrophic. With him absent, or present only in the form of some no-name child, and Ikomiki dead, there would have been no one to stop Akihiro and the Bijuu would eventually have freed herself and rampaged across the lands, possibly freeing up other Tailed Beasts in the process.




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Stuff:

The tree branches being released even if just a little bit did wonders for him. The opportunity to catch his breathe allowed Akihiro to finally realize the situation he was in and analyze everything a lot faster. Ikomiki's hand which he recognized immediately by her scent would touch him. It was a sweet, familiar feeling. It stung a little to realize she was merely checking him for a pulse. Had he been been dead, would this be how she'd react? He would've expected something more, something more...human, he supposed. But perhaps he'd been expecting too much, or even more likely was that he was demanding too much from someone who'd just been scared for their lives. But he didn't know, the memories at this point were still foggy in his mind.

Her words stung him far more than her gesture however. She'd been by his side for a long time now, and while Akihiro didn't exactly require bodyguards she had always been there to stand between him and danger, to shield him from enemies and harm. And to the full extent of his abilities, he did the same. The thought of him allowing anyone to hit Ikomiki like that was far more disgusting than carnage leftovers inside his mouth. He could not imagine what circumstances led to this, but Akihiro felt betrayed. Betrayed by his closest friend. How had it come to this? What was he missing? The torrent of emotions he was feeling was further amplified by the humiliation he felt when Ashitaka replied.

Despite his usual easy going and casual personality even when dealing with Clan Elders, Akihiro was a prideful person. It was only natural given the environment he grew up in. Unlike these two Akihiro had been raised in the heart of the Uchiha Clan and from a very young age he'd been considered a genius. A full fledged shinobi by the age of 12, he had assumed control over important responsibilities regarding the village's information network. At age 14 he'd taken control of the Uchiha Clan. And he had excelled at every task he was assigned. He had to, it was expected of him. Aged 21 now and with a near flawless memory Akihiro could scarcely remember the last time anyone had told him he'd done something wrong. The last time someone had tried to correct him? He couldn't remember that either. Instead they all relied on him one way or another, because he was expected to be perfect. And the one time he wasn't, his greatest friend and her who she thought was the love of life betrayed him. And he couldn't figure out why, what he'd done wrong. It didn't sting, it cut. It generated a feeling which carved deep into his heart and one he simply wasn't used to process, beyond any Bijuu healing power.

And that? That made him angry. Her words of praise for Ashitaka would only pour salt on the wound, regardless of how deserving he was of such praise. He'd saved her life? But that was Akihiro's job, not his. Why was Ashitaka doing his job, and why was Ikomiki binding Akihiro and allowing this man to hit him? In an instant he was bond by Senju wood, respecting Ikomiki's safety by not drawing any potential enemies toward her. In the next one tho, and having realized she was right there and apparently safe, he was right next to Ikomiki.

He didn't do anything to harm her. How could he? In silence he'd raise his arm a little and slowly open and close his fist, making sure he still had full control of his body. Everything seemed to be working as it should. Slowly but steadily memories from a few minutes ago began pouring in and he gained comprehension of what had happened. Even still and perhaps inexplicably so he was angry. He refused to look Ikomiki in the eyes, the temptation of using the Sharingan to forcefully read her mind and try to understand her being too great at this point. That was a line he didn't like to cross...but Ikomiki had crossed hers, hadn't she?

How easily he'd freed himself from his cocoon revealed something else too, something absolutely frightening. It revealed the fact that he'd never been really contained. It was true that he'd been too distracted by other factors to consider teleporting himself out of the wood bonds and go on rampaging, but they didn't know that. From an outsider's perspective it would seem he'd been stopped not because he was forced to, but because he'd been willing to. A whim, so to say. Nevertheless if one could have been inside Akihiro's mind at the time, they would know this Uchiha owed a great debt to this Senju, but he would die before admitting it.

"Crime...threat..." He'd repeat some of Ashitaka's words while still staring at his own hand opening and closing. Then he'd glance at the Senju, his Sharingan eyes peeking from behind a couple locks of black hair. "I know who I am. And I know where I'm at. Do you?" He would reply to the Senju and shoot back the exact same questions. He purposefully ignored Ikomiki, despite being so close to her. His wound still bled and her image would only make it bleed more. Sooner or later he'd need to face her, but later was preferable.

"These are..." it was hard to put into words what this place meant to him, to the Clan as a whole. "Uchiha sacred grounds. My ancestors suffered and bled here to uncover the secrets of their inherited power, as now did I. You shouldn't be here, Senju. Now that is a crime." He looked around. The place had been soiled by trees grown with Senju chakra and that broke him a little. This place had always taken damage one way or another, but it had also recovered. Slowly and steadily this part of the forest had always naturally recovered to embrace the next Uchiha Clan leader who would reign upon it. The look of unnaturally grown trees bent in all shapes and sizes saddened him. But that sadness paled in comparison to what he was already feeling.

The way he spoke with Ashitaka wasn't threatening. It was...oddly calm. The stating of a fact, spoken with such calmness and clarity that one could think Akihiro was stating the sky was blue. "Is that what I am? A threat?" He was asking the both of them. "Surely if I wanted to kill all of you...at least one of us would be dead." This part was directed at Ikomiki, an answer to her question. He resisted saying they would all be dead. It seemed only logic. Akihiro held Flying Thunder God marks across the many places in the village. Now he couldn't quite remember just how he felt while wearing Matatabi's cloak, but surely these people didn't think they'd have been able to stop him if he had wanted to go on a rampage against them. He remembered using Flying Thunder God to kill a dragon in this forest...If his intention had been to kill everyone then why not just teleport straight into his house at the heart of the Uchiha Clan district and start there? His logic seemed solid, but he felt something was off.

More memories flooded him. This time Ashitaka's previous words reached him. "Bijuu...aren't toys." He couldn't help but chuckle, but there was no joy in his timid laughter. Of course he'd think that was what he had been doing, toying. "And how would you know what Bijuu are?" The first question was honest, but the follow up ones were rhetorical. "Do you have one inside you? Whispering in your ear at night? Eager to come out and play? Forcefully caged against its own nature? Does yours constantly threaten to kill you too, or just the ones you love? You know nothing of this Bijuu's true nature." There was an accusative tone here. Everyone was so quick to jump on the trigger with Jinchuuriki but not one of them had to live with Bijuu daily. Akihiro's outstanding mental discipline allowed him to ignore the Bijuu 99% of the time, but the voice was there. And sooner or later it would come out and make itself heard.

This time however, he'd called for it. He'd called for his inner demon, and for good reason. He'd done it for her. For Ikomiki. He'd finally glance down at her from his height. The look on his face was impossible to hide no matter how many years one might have put into mastering their emotions. Betrayal. Confusion. Sadness, more than anger. "I...Why?" Ashitaka he could deal with, but finding words to express his feelings towards Ikomiki right now was far more difficult. The questions were too many. Why had she followed him here? Why had she betrayed him? Why couldn't she understand? They all got stuck in his throat for a moment however, until Akihiro decided questions were not the way to go. He needed better pictures in his mind right now. "I asked you time and time again to adapt, to fit into human society, every time taking a little piece from the wild Ikomiki. It..wasn't fair, so we went on a journey, together." Those memories helped him a little bit, but the emotions contained within him and his words were strong.

"And for so long we hunted... how many times were you allowed to be wild? How many times did we sleep outside, under trees, hunting eating what we could find? And still, it wasn't enough." The words were coming out slowly. It pained him to say this. "After we returned, I don't think I could make you happy like we were out there. I couldn't help you. I kept thinking about it, but I didn't know what to do." He couldn't be sure she'd understand what he was trying to tell her. This always happened whenever he spoke with Ikomiki and it was one of the things he loved about her. But this time he sincerely hoped she could understand.

"So I asked her to show me. What it meant to be wild. to truly be wild, to follow one's instincts. And she did, here in these forbidden grounds where it should be safe for everyone but me. You weren't supposed to be here, no one was. Just me...and this demon." Akihiro placed his hand upon his stomach, feeling the marks of the now weakened seal. It was obvious who he was talking about. "I knew there would be a price to pay, but I was willing to pay any price to help you. I just didn't expect it to...be this." The wound she'd caused him was bleeding like crazy, almost having him on tears. The lengths he'd gone through for her, to make her happy, were beyond anything he'd ever done before. However stupid his plan might have been, not even the Uchiha themselves could boast such commitment from their leader. And here she was seriously asking him if he'd wanted to kill her, allowing a stranger to hit him, questioning his motives and loyalty to her. It hurt. It hurt a lot. Harsher than any kick in the nuts, Akihiro had been kicked in the heart.

The body was a pretty wonderful thing. The prey instinct, fight or flight drive. Running away for your life had a certain, irreplaceable energy that just couldn’t be replicated elsewhere. The sting of that wound on her leg was something that came only into its full picture over time, as things calmed down and the threat disappeared. Even if the wound hadn’t been that extreme in the grand scheme of things, Ikomiki considered for a second that she could have lost the entire limb and continued going without flinching in the moment, and only now would something like that have caught up with her. Not too impressive really since there were only seconds between then and now, but those seconds felt stretched out. Like ages, with so much happening in each. That anger that had bubbled up afterwards, welling up the surface after the initial threat had passed. Her voice hadn’t raised, not yelling but instead spitting out words in that still panting voice with a certain calm venom that only a person’s normal intonation could bring. The matched expression of that resting snarl she wore wasn’t something she had ever directed towards this man before in all the years they had known each other, but right now it came naturally. This wasn’t him anymore, to her. She had always had that image of perfection in her mind when thinking about him. The all-knowing, all-powerful human who stood in the clouds above all others. Responding nonchalantly to all problems and having a solution to everything. Something closer to a demigod. It had been like this ever since he had saved her life that one day, however many years ago that it was now. An overwhelming, overpowering thought that clouded over reality over time to where he couldn’t see anything past it. When they had met it was more than appropriate. She was begging for help, and only by his mercy did she survive. They weren’t equals in that moment, and the title of ‘Master’ and that idealized mask had been appropriate. No longer was that the case, apparently. She had grown, and so had he, and now together their marks in the world weren’t disparate enough for her to always be viewing him in that infantile manner.

Humans were animals too, after all. Maybe nobody ever claimed they weren’t, but they always had this self-righteous sense of superiority. Separating themselves, placing themselves above all aspects of nature rather than within. Acting like they were beyond those animalistic values of instinct, creating complicated rules and societal values to delude themselves on a grand scale. Always she had known their assumed exceptionalism was a farce, but in Akihiro’s case it had been something she believed. If all other humans were animals, then he was the only true human. The most highly endowed of all creatures, fit to have dominion over the lesser...

But she had been wrong. That finely painted mural had shattered, and there wasn’t anything that would be able to put the pieces back together. He had lunged at her in the sort of what that predator did to prey, and if she hadn’t activated her dojutsu in that moment she likely would have been torn apart like all the other animals in this forest. After so many years of him inspiring safety and confidence in her it would now be impossible to really see him in the same way again.

“Reparations?” Her eyes flickered to the man who had assisted her, having not looked at him before this. “It’s all so tiresome. Had I known humanity would be this exhausting I would have never left the forests.” She had half prepared excuses. Something related to the Rinegan. That would have been her first instinct for a lie, and truthfully Ikomiki could be a good liar at times. Even if with those familiar to her those tells she had were obvious. But that angry snarl, those running emotions, none of it was something she could maintain. It was too much right now. Too much effort to respond with her normal barbs and daggers.

She had kept her hand in his hair, and so the moment that Akihiro teleported away she would be aware. Another moment of panic rushed through her as she began to fear the entire process would begin again. He was right beside her, although clad in his normal visage rather than that cloak of a beast. She took two steps back. It wasn’t something she could help but do after what had just happened, even before Akihiro started talking. The distance was absolutely necessary now that he wasn’t bound any longer.

He said a lot of things, speaking with an energy that had seemingly welled up from nowhere. How he could speak and stand after that experience was unknownable, especially as her legs were still shaking. With each word the exhausted cat would become further and further muted, her own mind retreating back. That fight or flight reflex of hers had never really shut off. Her first and only instinct here was to leave. Run away. Humans were too much trouble. She wasn’t cut out for this, clearly. Just returning back to the forests permanently seemed like less heartache. But of course, even if that was her instinct she couldn’t actually follow through with it. There were too many reasons for it, and the irony that would have been present in the situation was the most striking. She felt like she had gone through all of this before, a long time ago. So much of it was familiar, to the point where if she didn’t recall clearly Ikomiki would have assumed it was some form of déjà vu. The only situation was that the roles were reversed. That image of when she first saw Akihiro, charging in full cloak, wasn’t something that she could avoid. Was that how she had been? Her mind was stuck half in the past even as the present warbled and sung.

“You lunged right at me. If I hadn’t stopped you there, then you would have killed me. I was half prepared to let you do it too.”

The statement was plain and released into the air only once Akihiro had finished speaking. Why had she tried to give Ashitaka permission to hit him? She had, in her roiling rage that all seemed to evaporate now, wanted nothing more than to beam and strike Akihiro another thousand times for what he had just done. But even as mad as she had been the idea of doing something like that to him just wasn’t possible for her. The idea of hitting him at all was difficult. And to offer it to the man who might have wanted to kill him in a controlled way instead of allowing free retribution had seemed like a good idea at the time. Two birds with one stone. But she had overestimated the rage of this stranger and her own.

“If we hadn’t been here… You could have died. You didn’t… That wasn’t you…”

He had nearly killed himself by doing something this dangerous for her sake? Why? It made no sense. Because he thought being more like a beast would make her happy, and the Bijuu inside of him was the path to that? She was at a legitimate loss for words, and as she had been trying to talk they just stopped coming out entirely. Unlike him she wasn’t on the verge of tears, but the bags under her eyes felt all the heavier for some reason, likely a trick of her mind. There had been too much of this lately for her already. Introspection, thoughts and feelings and memories. She was barely able to deal with her own mind at times, and now Akihiro was seemingly having the same issue. Maybe they were more similar than she thought. It was only natural, after all, to suffer without understanding why you were suffering. That was what it meant to be an animal, ruled by your instincts. Just as the beast of burden would spend a hard life, whipped and forced to work by others without any comprehension of its position, humans were the same at their core. She had always known this.

Ikomiki sighed.

“I’ve always been satisfied being with you, even if there were moments that adjusting was difficult or I didn’t understand. That never mattered. I don’t need to understand everything that happens to be happy, and neither do you. You don’t need a demon to show you what instincts mean, or how to follow them. You already do it every day, whether you know it or not. And even then, sneaking out in the middle of the night to let a demon run loose because you wanted to better understand wild instinct… Why couldn’t you have just talked to me instead of doing something so stupid and dangerous? What do you think I would have done if that Bijuu broke free and you had died here?”

How was she supposed to feel when he said not that he did this all for her sake? Her shoulders had slumped somewhere along the line. It was true that she changed over time. The wild, feral-cat Ikomiki was gone now. Or at least, changed to the point where if the girl then stood in front of the girl now it was difficult to say they’d recognize each other. It had been something she agonized about at times, having lost control over who she was, but now it felt like the least important thing in the world. If her concerns had inspired this sort of behavior in Akihiro then clearly she never should have expressed them to him.

Her chakra abandoned the branches around them. Something she should have done a long time ago, but only now did she recall that it was something she was still maintaining. Every one of those previously prehensile trees would go still, resting in place. Her eyes, still active, would scan round the area slowly. Until she found a path, somewhere to go. When she was ready to leave. That instinct would win out in the end, and she would only be half here even as she still stood where her body rested after getting that space away from him. But that wasn't really an option either, was it? Even if she had committed to running away to get some space. It wasn't possible when he could teleport to her whenever he wanted, as he was so ready to display. Boxed in, there was no other way to deal with this situation than resolving it. And so, she would be forced and pinned into place, forced to speak and talk even if she really didn't want to.

Ashitaka responded to Akihiro's teleportation with lightning reflexes. Or more accurately, the reflexes developed due to the necessity of having to fight a number of terrible foes who casually threw lightning around. The instant his Uchiha rival disappeared, Ashitaka snapped around like the business end of a bullwhip, his body and especially his fist making the minute adjustments necessary to accurately strike the man in the side of his face as soon as he appeared next to the catgirl. It's not like he had to move far, since they were all more or less within arm's reach of each other to begin with.

"That trick is only going to work on me once, Smart Guy," he'd quip. Like Ikomiki, he only had the most rudimentary training in Taijutsu, but he had the kind of physical prowess that needed no compensation. And his Sensing Field had told him both where his opponent's nearest seal was and that he'd triggered it. Ashitaka would strike so suddenly that before Akihiro popped into the path of his attack, it would be understandable for someone to mistake it for being intended for Ikomiki.

Regardless of how it landed, the blow would likely disrupt the already rocky flow of conversation. He was pretty sure his technique had suppressed the Bijuu within Akihiro, so there should have been no reason for him to make any sudden moves, but that was exactly the mistake he made. Ashitaka smoothly untied the sheathe of Effortless Perfection from his belt and methodically tied the hilt to it, rendering it a mostly nonlethal if still fairly dangerous weapon. He brandished it in the direction of the Sparrow's face.

"You've made a series of poor choices recently. I recommend you stop before the consequences pile up over your head." the Forest Prince stated with an expression somewhere between a snarl and a grimace. He didn't want this fight, but this Akihiro was far from the coldly calculating one he knew and just couldn't. Stop. Pushing him. "I'm giving you one last chance to reflect on what's happened here recently and maybe walk away with your dignity intact. Don't make me regret it. Please."

In spite of his calm tone, Ashitaka's tension was rising. He believed that if things returned to blows, the Otsutsuki's loyalty would outweigh her mood and the Uchiha's pride would outweigh his sense. Fighting either one of them alone would be problematic, but if they teamed up against him, he was sure he'd feel the pain and humiliation of yet another defeat. But strangely, he found that he didn't fear losing again as he once did. He didn't know if it was because of his more mature body and mind, or he was just numb to it from the frequency of occurrence. Even if he did fail again, he would make sure this time that his foe(s) knew they'd been in a fight.

"I suppose now's as good a time as any to come clean about who and what I am. I don't expect either of you to believe me. And frankly, I don't give a damn." he took a step back and to the side so that the two Dojutsu users were an equal distance away from him, ready to strike again in less than a moment's notice if it proved necessary, this time with the full force of bringing his true specialty to bear. He focused primarily on Akihiro as he began speaking. "I am Mononoke. A last desperate cry from a ravaged and dying world. For mercy... for forgiveness... for another chance.

I've seen things... I doubt either of you can imagine. A crater kilometers wide made by a meteorite which struck the border between two minor nations, and the surrounding wildlife grotesquely mutated by its presence. The near entirety of the land spanning from Konoha to Kumo scoured of life, gouged with trenches full of bodies. Every great demon and god we know, and several we don't has chosen champions to perform great and terrible deeds in their names. Yet the destruction wrought by these powerful individuals paled in comparison to that brought about by the common man."

Ashitaka shifted his attention to Ikomiki.

"The Otsutsuki were making headway in colonizing the ruins of Earth in earnest, although at the rate things were going, there'd be too little left for them to bother. Beyond that, the you I know was virtually a Bijuu herself, with the difference seeming only a minor technicality that allowed you to walk freely. You killed so many people that everyone except your master lived in constant terror of your mere presence."

He returned his gaze to Akihiro.

"And you... You were the boot of the Uchiha Clan, pressing down on my face and forcing me to accept the reality of their unshakeable stranglehold on the village. The Hokage at the time had appointed members of your shared Clan to all of the highest offices, and it was the combined power wielded by the two of you that prevented any thoughts of resistance. Thoughts which, through whatever power that version of you had and you do not, could be gleaned straight from our minds and used to justify executions of even other Clan Heads without trial, evidence, or appeal.

And yet... I can't even seek any form of retribution, because here in this world, none of those things ever happened. The Hokage that gave those orders on your word never rose to power. Neither the War I spent my blood and life in, nor the massacres that sparked it ever occurred. My own family doesn't even recognize me. You are not the same people.

But today isn't about me. This conversation is about you Akihiro Uchiha. You and the weight of the decisions you make. Don't even begin to think you can blame the creature sealed inside you for what you've done. If she were truly the one at fault, you would have stopped when I silenced her."




__________________________

Stuff:

It wasn't like Ashitaka's attack came as a surprise. Well, actually Akihiro was surprised the man would punch him after saying he wouldn't, but Ashitaka was nowhere near fast enough to surpass the predictive abilities of his Sharingan. Dodging that would have been fairly simple, but Akihiro didn't do that. He wasn't quite sure why, it was hard to tell. Maybe in a way he felt like he deserved it, on the other hand this seemed to be one of Ikomiki's wishes. It wasn't like he would die from a punch anyway, the beast inside him was very much keen on keeping him alive until she could kill him herself. So he took the punch. The impact was just another item to add to the list of unpleasant experiences he had went through tonight and it was nowhere near the list of most painful things he felt. Even so there was a significant difference to tanking hits while wearing a bijuu cloak and tanking hits without any sort of protection. It did hurt.

He stumbled a bit and would then proceed to speak as described on the last post. Ikomiki's words were both soothing and extremely painful, if that was even possible. On one hand it was very good to hear she was happy with him at all times even if confused, that she didn't need to understand the world around her to feel happy. This was something foreign to Akihiro, the man who lived by logic and reasoning. Understanding was essential to him. On the other hand however, her words made it incredibly obvious where his mistake had been which led to a feeling of guilt inside.

The lunatic's words were something else entirely tho. What one has to understand is that the descriptions of these events, its consequences, Ashitaka's experiences in another universe... They meant nothing to Akihiro. Especially in this kind of context. He had just been extremely close to killing the woman he loved, and things between the two of them were going through a rough patch. And this lunatic came out of nowhere to ramble about events of another universe where Konoha had had some sort of tyrannical Kage. Akihiro's patience was running incredibly thin especially given the fact that he'd been hit in the face twice now by this man. Given his emotional state it was a wonder why he should even let him finish.

But Akihiro let the man go on speaking, Ashitaka's gaze fixated upon him. And that gave Akihiro an opportunity he wouldn't let pass. He still had his Sharingan active from the previous action and even if he didn't he would've certainly activated it after being hit in the face a second time. As the man went on with his speech the temptation of just shutting him down there and then became far too great to resist.

But today isn't about me. This conversation is about you Akihiro Uchiha.

This was the point at which Akihiro's patience ended and he triggered the Genjutsu: Sharingan technique. Eye contact having been established, Akihiro's assault on the man's mind would be quick, efficient and brutal. In one moment Ashitaka would be speaking and in the next moment he would have been robbed of consciousness, his mind temporarily shut down by the power of Akihiro's Dõjutsu. Even if he could sense it, the damage transmitted by eye contact was instantaneous. This wasn't something he could break out of by realizing he was under a spell. By the time the jutsu landed it was already too late. It wasn't by coincidence that the Uchiha had become one of Konoha's great clans and neither was it a coincidence that Akihiro was the best among his peers. This was effortless to him.

"Well mate, feel free to continue living in fear of my presence in this universe too." He'd glance at Ashitaka's unconscious body. Despite the man's seemingly lunatic ramblings he had obtained pieces of information he shouldn't have been able to know. Akihiro kiiiiind of wanted to know what was going on there, just not now. He was already dealing with too much shit at the moment. But he'd want to be seeing Ashitaka again, eventually. Hopefully this incident wouldn't make relations between the two too complicated. Alas, Akihiro already had to deal with one complicated relationship.

He stood up and looked at Ikomiki. Again he wondered just when had he become so attached. She'd been nothing more than another person who owed him a favor at some point, but in due time she grew to be so much more than that. How and when that happened was hard to tell.

"Iko...You weren't supposed to be here. I don't think I'd be able to live with myself had I.." the words were hard to say, but he forced himself to say them. "killed you. But I didn't know. I suppose I owe him a thank you for that." He'd tip an invisible hat. "Thank you Mr.Lunatic." For some reason it was far easier to thank this man now that he was knocked out cold. Really, quite the interesting phenomena.

He'd take two steps towards Ikomiki shortening the distance she'd put between the two. "Understanding you is important to me, more than you can imagine. Instinct...you and I both know I couldn't have just asked you. It's not the kind of thing you can explain, is it? It's just...there. Guiding you somewhere although you're never quite sure where. I needed to know... But that's not all." there was another reason why Akihiro had done this. It was not the major reason why but it was an important one too. "Understanding what I have inside of me is important for everyone in this village. Sooner or later I will have to face this thing and I also needed to know what I'll be dealing with."

He'd place a hand on her head, if allowed. Pats were serious business, but Akihiro was well aware a pat wouldn't be enough to fix this situation. In fact he wondered if it could be fixed at all. But he attempted to do it regardless. Patting he found, was as comforting to him as it was desirable to her. And if this was the last head pat he wanted to make sure he'd remember the feeling so he could bring it back this memory in gloomy days.

"You've grown so much. Despite everything, it fills my heart with joy to know you've been happy by my side." He wasn't sure what was going on. If she'd come back home or not, if they were breaking up or not. He was full of uncertainty and he hated that as it went directly against his nature of seeking knowledge. It was becoming too much to handle, even for him. Akihiro could feel tears begging to burst out but even in this situation he was still proud, perhaps too proud for his own sake. He'd remove the hand from her head and turn around. The sleepless night and all the stress which had been put on his body were catching up to him. The temptation to just teleport to his bed and sleep was great, but. This place was still to be respected. So he walked away, slowly but steadily, towards home. Perhaps there was still much to be said, much he wanted to tell her. He wanted to apologize, to tell her he loved her, to tell her to stay by his side. But had he any right to do so? Probably not. Right now he needed to go home, to find a quiet place to lie on and just let out his emotions in the form of tears. The bottle had to burst eventually.

[Exit]

Used:
Genjutsu: Sharingan

Ashitaka lunging right at her caught the catgirl by complete surprise. Honestly she was flabbergasted. The disappearance of Akihiro wasn’t something she caught at first, and so her eyes had been exclusively caught by the motion and movement. While his footwork was nothing more than basic, the speed of that punch he threw was beyond what she was capable of. While she wasn’t a physical fighter by any means Ikomiki had an at least Jonin level of competency when it came to her physical reflexes and speed, so the sudden burst further caught her off guard. Twisting to the side, she would manage to avoid what wasn’t aimed for her anyway. Although she did fall down in the process. Right on her ass in the dirt, bewildered beyond compare. Only when she saw that the true target of the blow was Akihiro did things begin to come into focus.

Her first instinct was rage. Blind fury, that fist impacting against her lover’s face. It was outrageous in every sense of the word, and she was about to stand up and maybe do something more than just snarl and make dirty faces until she remembered that this had been something she had just given Ashitaka permission to do. Her own words were thrown in her face. Maybe Akihiro did deserve it a bit, but it was one thing to say that it could be done and another to actually have it happen. Regret flowed through her, although in part she was also confused at how Ashitaka had initially refused her request only to take her up on it moments later. But now with that blade unsheathed and pointed directly at Akihiro’s face… The tone of this situation had reversed completely. It seemed that Ikomiki’s original fears had been confirmed in Ashitaka wanting to kill Akihiro. Her hands pressed back together into the snake seal, preparing to end whatever conflict might be started.

But it was what Ashitaka was saying now that was the most bizarre. He was always an odd man, having said odd things at the gates. Having known things he shouldn’t Immediately he knew of Ikomiki and Akihiro’s student and master relationship. But now those suspicious things from before that he had left as slips of the tongue were beginning to come into picture as well. He had nearly said her clan name, and that reference he had made to Mokuton and the Senju… He knew that she had the element before she had displayed it here, didn’t he? She was no genius, but the things he was saying now specifically made it seem as though he did. A massive war that dropped a meteorite on the planet and scoured the Earth? The Otsutsuki clan colonizing ruins afterwards? And herself being as strong as a Bijuu and slaughtering so many that she inspired terror in everyone else? That was…

“That’s a pretty flattering description of me. Are you… Is it supposed to be a compliment? Thank you, I guess.”

The confusion was obviously present on her face, although she didn’t seem displeased specifically by what Ashitaka was saying. Was this… Was he flirting with her, or was this just an attempt to psyche her up after this drama with Akihiro? It was something she was having a hard time figuring out. Still, with all her concerns recently that she had been going soft at least it was a nice thing to hear. But still… Was this a metaphor or something, or was he being literal with this story? All the tension from before had fallen out of her face as Ashitaka continued his rant, Ikomiki blatantly having lost any track of what was going on. For someone like her the idea of an alternate universe was too much for her to understand.

“The Otsutsuki Clan though, I don’t actually have any—”

She had tried to get a word in, but it seemed like this wasn’t the time. Between Ashitaka talking and Akihiro spinning up those eye tomoe. She hadn’t gotten the time to interject or even really collect her thoughts. There was a strange silence between this and Akihiro beginning to talk again. The two of them would just look at each other, looking into each other's eyes with dojutsu active. Even now, when she was fighting with him like this it wasn’t something she shied away from. Even if she was angry, there was a certain level of trust that she had in him still. He wouldn’t hurt her. Right? Not on purpose. Even if he had made a stupid mistake with the bijuu, that wasn’t really him… Right?

No. He wouldn’t. She hadn’t ever doubted him. Between Rinnegan and Sharingan, she would look into his eyes without faltering or hesitating. When he came forward she wouldn’t shy away, and that hand down on her head would be something she would close her eyes to and allow herself to enjoy. Having never picked herself up off the ground the height difference was more pronounced than normal, and it was a natural movement for the both of them even if somber from all that had just happened.

She couldn’t say anything. Not because there wasn’t anything for her to say, but instead because she just hadn’t the time to collect all those thoughts together. But really, nothing more needed to be said right now. Actions always mattered more than words, and that head pat had spoken enough for her right now. In silence, the girl with the Rinnegan would watch as Akihiro left, staring silently at his back.

Sighing, she would turn back to Ashitaka. Assuming that genjutsu really worked he would be left out cold. She couldn’t just leave him here. But with Akihiro leaving… Well. It was up to her now.

A massive beast would be summoned beside her. A giant dog, one perhaps the size of a two story building, the Rinnegan appearing on each of its eyes and massive black receivers drove through its upper maw. The beast would reach down rather gingerly to pick up the unconscious man in its mouth, and then it would work its way back to the village to return him safely there. Just leaving him in the middle of this forest right now was definitely irresponsible.

As for her? She wouldn’t get up. Not just yet. It would take some time before she would return to Konoha.

[Exit]

Ashitaka didn't have enough time to kick himself for opening up about his own problems in the worst possible situation with probably the two least sympathetic people he'd ever met. Nor did he have the opportunity to do it for failing to account for the unique threat which the Sharingan represented. He couldn't do or think anything at all, because Akihiro's mental assault had granted him (at least temporarily) the thing even death could not: the comforting embrace of oblivion. For the second time in his life in perpetual danger, the Senju Prince was able to rest.

Mercifully, he did not dream, nor did he remember. He did not have to face the wily machinations of the Sage or the haunting whispers of the ancestral spirit which laid claim to his bloodline before even that legend. There was no million-strong silent choir of damning souls blaming him as though he single-handedly lost the War and got all of them killed with his ineptitude. His nonconsensual respite wasn't plagued by shadowed hands, real or imagined, seeking to tear him apart so they could take what he was born with for themselves or for sale. Also absent were the burns of lightning and fire, the wails of the day's survivors, and the horrific intrusions on his body and soul that were the Black Receivers.

There was nothing but the moment's peace.

The Genjutsu: Sharingan had turned off his consciousness like a light. Ashitaka simply crumpled to the ground where he stood, his Sensory abilities unable to grant him any resistance to the attack. If he'd retained even enough mental capacity to dream, he'd have nightmares about finding himself in this situation. In fact, before he'd crossed the unknowable boundary into this world, he'd had those exact nightmares. Luckily, his brain activity had been reduced to what was necessary to keep him alive.

He would wake up a couple days later in a bed in the Senju Clan Head's manor. It seemed that the clan had much more love for him in this world, though whether it was because he was an adult now, or that was simply one of the dimensional variations, he couldn't guess. Still, the loneliness of his life up to this point had already been branded deep into his heart, and no contrary force seemed to reach it.



[Exit thread.]