Can't Fear Your Own World II

A small symbol was drawn into the dirt. The ground here was hard, but there was a layer of softer soil torn up that was laid overtop. This was just what was natural in a training grounds area, or something like a baseball diamond. Anywhere people stomped around a lot and killed all the grass and packed the ground in tight in the process. There was just a few millimeters of it that was loose on the surface. Just enough for her to play with. It was just idle thoughts at first, messing around with it from a lack of other things to do. Now it progressed into drawing with her index finger, although she was anything but an artist. All she made was a stick figure. There were no distinguishing features, but it was supposed to be Akihiro.

She wanted to talk to him, but it was impossible when she didn’t know where he was. After what had happened in that forest, even as unimportant as it was, she had the need to talk about it with someone. Akihiro was the only ‘someone’ she had, who she could talk to about this.

The stickfigure would be given some more features. Two eyes. It wasn’t big enough for her to add more detail, but she tried to add in little sharingans. Beside it she would make another stick figure, and this one would be given little cat ears.

There wasn’t any reason to wait around. If she wanted him here she could force him to come here. The only reason she hadn’t already is due to a bit of bashfulness. If she just pulled him to her to take care of her whenever she had a problem it would end up annoying him. It wasn’t as though he was her father or anything, obligated to deal with her.

Still… maybe just this one time. It would be okay. It wasn’t like she was going to abuse it. This would only be the second time.

She would concentrate for a moment, and her Rinnegan would flash to activate.

[Summoning- Akihiro]

In a poof of smoke, Akihiro showed up to Kirigakure no Sato. He definitely wasn't used to this kind of travelling yet, even with Flying Thunder God in his arsenal. Because you see, whenever he used Flying Thunder God he was prepared to go and knew exactly where he would show up after activating the technique. But if Ikomiki was the one to summon him, there was a chance he would neither be prepared for travelling nor for whatever it was he was going to find. Last time he had found a dead body, what was he going to find this time?!

Akihiro thus showed up wearing his light armor under the black cloak that he always wore. This time however, he also had a smoothie in one hand and a couple of palm sized chocolate cookies in the other. The Uchiha blinked twice, before looking around and examining his surroundings. He wasn't surprised to find Ikomiki there since she was the one with the ability to summon him. "Oh I...left without paying." He'd mutter as he realized what this teleportation had implied. Akihiro had effectively robbed Kumogakure of two chocolate cookies and a strawberry smoothie, mostly because he had been teleported right off the counter before paying. His gaze would rest upon Ikomiki who was crouched, having scribbled something in the dirt. "Aw, that's cute. Cookie?" He'd offer one. This way at least his crime would be shared!

"How are ya holding up? The new bloodline treating you good?" Akihiro wasn't mad or anything that he had been brought over. Truth to be told she had done him a favour. He had been wanting to return to Kirigakure and the only reason he hadn't was because his only mark in the village was under a hospital bed, and he figured he'd scare the crap out of some poor sick guy if he teleported back.

Where he had been summoned from, Ikomiki had no idea. What he had said about having left without paying and the treats he hand in hand gave a bit of context, but she wasn’t really familiar with human society all that much. The cookies and smoothie in his hands, although she could recognize them as food of some sort, were foreign objects to her.  She would stare at them, a bit confused. The last time she had summoned him he was dressed a little different, and wasn’t holding this sort of stuff. She was used to all the things she summoned  always being the same. Stagnant, never changing. It was because they weren’t truly alive, being summoned from a different dimension in her eyes, but the implications and separation between the two weren’t something she could always understand.

As he offered it down to her she would take the cookie, although it was something she did out of trust rather than understanding. If he was giving it to her then it was probably good. The cookie would be sniffed at a bit before she brought it too close to her mouth. It smelled sort of like bread. Still, she would put it in her mouth after a bit of that and crunch down on it. It did sort of taste like bread, but only in a vague sense. It was denses, and much sweeter not even including the chocolate chips which were like little bombs of sugar in her mouth. She had never tasted something so sweet before, having hunted for meat and berries for the majority of her life, and so she nearly coughed and gagged as it first hit her tongue. It was so sweet that it almost burned, although she would steady herself and slowly adjust. As soon as she had finished her first bite, forcing it down, she would go in for another nibble. Even if it burnt, it was delicious in a way she had no idea existed.

The cautious nibbling quickly turned into voracious hunger, and in a second or two after the initial bites she would scarf down the entire thing. Only once it was gone and she was licking her lips of the chocolate and crumbs would she begin to respond.

“Thank you…” She would clear her throat, wiping at her face for a moment to remove any excess crumbs or smears of chocolate. “I wanted to talk to you about that, actually…”

“I feel more powerful. I can feel it in my eyes, and in my heart.” She would gesture down to her chest for a moment, putting her hand over her heart. “It hurt at first, but after a few days it felt like I had so much energy. It felt like I could do anything I wanted.”

“I’m afraid, though.” She would pull her hand away after a few moments, her eyes flickering down to the drawing she had made in the dirt. Still sitting as she was, Iko was a far way away from Aki’s height. It was a habit she was starting to develop with him though, to speak to him without actually looking at him.

“There’s something else inside of me now that isn’t me. It makes me afraid that some part of myself is lost now forever because of it, and that I’m changing to turn into something that isn’t me anymore, but something new and different. I like the power, but I don’t want to become more like Shinsui was, or less like myself. I guess I don’t know how to feel about it yet.”

Akihiro blinked twice as he watched Ikomiki eat the chocolate cookie with a voracious appetite. She had seemed hesitant at first, but Aki expected her to like it. After all, who doesn't like chocolate? If someone ever told him they didn't like chocolate, Akihiro would be very suspicious. You can't trust someone who doesn't like chocolate, chocolate is great! Well,except for dogs...an-"OH SHIT" The Sparrow would widen his eyes and look at Ikomiko, trying to see if she was alright. She seemed fine..but chocolate was poisonous for dogs, could it be for cats too? Iko was a cat...more or less. The Uchiha had offered the cookie out of habit, but he hadn't really considered the possibility of accidentally poisoning his new friend. That would have been a rookie mistake.

But Ikomiko seemed fine. And she seemed to enjoy the gift. Just for safe measure tho, Akihiro didn't offer her a second cookie and ate it himself instead. It seemed his friend needed to talk. "Aight, we can talk." He'd seat down too in order to be at her level- The cute drawing separating the two of them while Aki sipped his smoothie through a straw.

He listened first. There was no need to interrupt her while she poured out her feelings. Truth to be told, Akiiro couldn't truly understand what she was going through. He had performed implants and surgeries before, but ht had never had surgery done on him. A foreign agent in his body was simply an experience he never had to go through and while he could sort of try to see her perspective, he had never felt it. He pondered for a bit and there was a moment of silence after she finished speaking. Then, he would gently place the smoothie cup on the ground, and clap his hands.

The sound echoed a little, sharp and decisive. Bound to get her attention and to get her to actually look at him. "Alright, listen!" There was a chance he would be giving the wrong advice, but he tried not to think about it. He had to do his best for his friend, everything else was filler. "Iko, look at me. Our power.... whether it is this-" he would gently poke her forehead, referencing her eyes. "Or this." he would then point at his heart. Obviously he wouldn't poke the girl's chest. "It doesn't define who we are. Here, I'll let you in a little secret of mine." He would glance around and casually activate his sensory technique to make sure no one was around. They were alone.

Opening up his cloak, the Sparrow lifted his light armor and shirt slightly, revealing a large seal on his chest. The Eight Trigrams Sealing Technique. "See? I have something inside me that isn't me too." He'd put his shirt down and smile. "It's a bijuu. Big, strong and scary. Wild and prone to destruction."

"Damn right."

"But it doesn't make me big, scary or wild,does it?" Akihiro chose to ignore the creature for now. "Ah! You wish." "Of course, my bijuu and your senju blood... those things become part of us and of who we are. But they do not define who we are. You have Shinsui's power... But you're not Shinsui any more than I am a giant talking cat." He'd chuckle at the thought. It was both funny and terrifying at the same time.

"What really defines who we are..." Akihiro would take his hand to the ground and add up to Ikomiko's earlier drawing. He would draw a simple flower next to the cat eared stickgirl. "...is what we do with the power we have. " He'd smile at her again for a moment, his long hair falling over one of his eyes for a moment before he adjusted it. "And I know that you, dear Iko, are destined to do many great deeds with your power. So cheer up, not everyone gets that chance, you know? "

As it turned out, chocolate was extremely poisonous to cats. It was actually extremely lethal. There was a surprisingly large list of human foods that were like this for cats. Onions, garlic, chives, grapes, raisins, caffeine, most kinds of gum, and especially chocolate, are things that should never be given to cats. Akihiro, in his infinite wisdom, likely should have known this. Chocolate toxicity could easily result in liver failure, which would bring Ikomiki to a slow and painful death.

That is, if her biology was really that similar  to a cat. Was it? She had the cat ears and tail, but despite that she was relatively humanoid. There was also the issue of her technically not even being human, but rather descended from the Otsutsuki. Did Otsutsuki, these Celestial Beings, have allergies to anything that humans ate that could result in serious complications? Ikomiki certainly didn’t know. She just trusted Akihiro implicitly not to feed her poison, and so it wasn’t a concern in her mind.

She didn’t seem to react immediately to the chocolate though, foaming at the mouth or anything. So maybe she was fine? Instead she would be listening as he responded, peering up at him undistracted. The clapping had caught her attention, in maybe a predictable and childish response from her. Her attention was easily captured by sudden movements and sounds like that, and the motions with his hands did help her take what he was saying to heart. Her eyes would follow his motions, first to her forehead, leaving her cross eyes for a moment, and then his chest and then to her own.

The seal that she showed him wasn’t something that initially meant anything to her. She didn’t know anything about fuuinjutsu. It was just a pretty picture, some tattoo he had drawn on his body, until the explanation was given. Of course, it would only take until he said the word “bijuu’ for her to understand. Her reaction would be immediate, with her ears flattening down to her head and her eyes going wide. It wasn’t that long ago that she was in the exams, thrown into a panic due to the idea of even potentially coming in contact with a jinchuuriki. Still, the fact that he mentioned ‘Giant Talking Cat’, made her a bit more interested than afraid. Was the bijuu inside of him… a cat? She only vaguely knew information about the nine of them.

Still, he was afraid. A little bit. It was instinctual, and hard to suppress. Just unthinking fear at the knowledge there was an apex predator around you. But at the same time it was hard to rationalize that idea that the apex predator was Akihiro. He was right, of course,even if it would take a bit to sink in. He wasn’t a Bijuu, or a cat. She wasn’t Shinsui.

“What really defines who we are is what we do with the power we have.” She repeated it, saying the words back after he did. Her eyes would be down on the flower he had drawn into the dirt, beside both the little stick figures she had made earlier.

She wasn’t any less than she originally was. But then, what was she going to do with her power now?

“What do you do with the power you have, Akihiro? With bijuu inside of you.” It was the logical continuation of what he had just said, a natural conclusion she reached and asked with innocent eyes. The question behind it was implicit.

“And… Is it a cat? The bijuu. You mentioned that.” She was obviously interested in this fact a bit more than she probably should have been. "Does that mean you're like me?"

Akihiro was a bit taken back by Ikomiko's question. What did he do with the power he had? So far he had mostly kept it to himself, and hadn't really put it to proper use. This was a question that really did bother him. Over the last couple of years Akihiro had accumulated an arsenal of techniques and weapons that could very well serve to topple nations. But he hadn't done...anything with them. Other than conquering some minor countries, Akihiro had been pretty laid back in the last few months.

He knew that the techniques and bijuu would be safe with him... But could this power be put to good use somehow? Ikomiko made a very interesting question. Not that Akihiro had an answer, tho. "Well, to be honest... I haven't done much with it. And the things I did do...I'm not entirely sure they were right either." He sighed. Finding purpose was hard. Most ninja sought to find power and power alone, and for a portion of his life Akihiro had sought the same goal. Having achieved that tho... he felt he should put it to good use, a sort of responsibility somehow. But he didn't know how he would do that. "I don't have all the answers, it seems." He'd smile at the girl. It was a bit humbling to admit it, but even within his large intellect there were things he simply didn't know. "But I suppose I'd like to keep it safe. The bijuu. And my Clan...and my friends. Yes, I suppose that's the basic of it." Akihiro wasn't entirely satisfied with his answer but it was the best he could do for the moment.

"Oh yeah, the bijuu is a cat. A two tailed cat. Very angry all the time, for some reason. There's also a fox, a raccoon, a monkey... Bijuus tend to resemble animals a lot. But mine's a kitty."
I will murder you.
"A very angry kitty." he added. It was fun to poke Matatabi every once in a while, although he felt he would regret this some day.

The Uchiha would pat his own head. "Well I don't have those fancy ears of yours, nor a tail. So I can't say I'm like you. But that's alright!" He wasn't sure if this would be disappointing or not. Ikomiko was a bit hard to read at times.

"Either way, there's no point in duscissing what someone will do with their power if they can't achieve or control it, right? Come with me, I know of a safe place where you can go all out and show me your new strength." He would offer his hand, and as soon as she took it, the two of them would vanish.

[Exit]

She waited silently until he would respond. His initial hesitation wasn’t something she thought anything of, waiting with patience like a student would when desiring an answer from a teacher, or a child from a parent. The question was necessary, after what he said to her. What really defines a person is what they do with the power they had was something that she could accept and made perfect sense, but it led to a new question. What should she do with the power she has now? She had a lot of it all of the sudden. Her own birthright and also the power she was gaining from Shinsui’s blood. It was a complicated way of asking, ‘What is good? What is bad?’

The answer was neutral. It didn’t answer her concerns. He hadn’t done much. He didn’t have all the answers, or so he said. She wasn’t entirely sure if she believed it was anything more than humility on his part. Akihiro had, in just the time that she had known him Akihiro had performed two organ transplants for kekkei genkai, revealed himself as the leader of a global information organization, interfered in the Chunin Exams, revealed himself to be a Jinchuuriki, and shown himself to have the ability to teleport at will. Rather than directly asking him it seemed that Ikomiki would have to observe him to find out.

For now? Find what she wants to keep safe. Beyond just herself.

“A cat. A cat bijuu...” She would repeat the words. A cat with two tails? She was only vaguely familiar with the Bijuu, and their tail numbering. There were plenty of myths about two tailed cats, but Ikomiki had never thought they actually existed. Or perhaps Bijuu were just a special case. Still, even if it was frightening, it confirmed something important to her. Even if they weren’t exactly the same, the fact that they had met was something that had been meant to be. It was too much of a coincidence, that she would be born as she was and Akihiro would have the Bijuu that was a cat, for their meeting to not be decided by destiny.

She would nod her head quickly. There was a lot to think about, and it seemed that Akihiro had somewhere he wanted to go.

For a moment, she thought about what Akihiro would look like with ears and a tail, like her.

She would take his hand, and they would poof off moment later.

[Exit]