Open A Kaleidoscopic Blueprint of Her Own Madness

Nozomi did not know how long she sat as time did not pass so much as accumulate in the Tarterian Specus. Minutes and hours stretched awareness into something indistinguishable. At first, she had simply closed her eyes to think. That... had been a mistake. The moment she did, the fragment of Tama’s knowledge opened inside her mind and she was simply along for the ride. Images and sensation arrived along with devastating pain from inside her bones as they rattled with fury. Vibrations that grinded through her like an engine revving at max throttle required immediate deep concentration.

Her initial perception of this knowledge was twisted down a kaleidoscope of pain as her marrow threatened to break free from its prison. It was not a linear path as there was no meaning or language as what was being shown would not fit neatly into such concepts. Diagrams like blueprints of pure light mapping out chakra pathways beneath glass that was constantly bending and threatening to shatter due to the pain. Nozomi tried her best to not resist the images while clinging onto what remained of her humanity. This fragment given to her was not so much a story as it was a tunnel system. A long corridor of bone that spiraled inward with lines of information not written in ink but with blood and a pulse that defined the information. There was a figure she continued to see, she knew it was Tengokai without needing to be told. He was always standing at the center of this storm, one of his own making, and it rages violently.

Nozomi experienced this until she hit a point where it felt like finding an exit to this storage of memories. Closing it with knowledge of how to access this vault once again. As she did, she could finally surface from that internal struggle and quiet the rattling in her bones to a quiet roar instead of a deafening one. It was in that moment that the silence of her cell hit her all at once.

There were no noises or flashes of imagery, and so she could only focus on the deep hum of her own body. Hunger spiked into existence as her stomach tightened sharply. Not dramatic, just present and undeniable, like another layer atop the burdens she already carried. She pressed a hand to her stomach and exhaled slowly while looking up... That was when Nozomi saw the moon. It hung full in the sky just beyond the metal bars, which meant she had been here more than a day...

Her breath caught, not from pain, but from a sudden realization that was quite shocking. It was her birthday, and today she was fourteen.

The number felt strange to her, as if it was a small, fragile thing, and that it belonged to someone else. It did not belong to a girl who had been cursed, torn asunder, remade, and sharpened into a weapon. For a moment the vibrations surged to mock that she did not feel like a child anymore, and yet she did not argue.

Instead, Nozomi slid from the cot to the floor, and knelt down. Bone twisted from her fingertip to form a faux cupcake with a twisted candle atop. The very tip she would place a small piece of clay to act as a wick for the candle.

Setting it aflame with a small bit of chakra she would whisper to herself, "... Happy Birthday."

She did not smile, nor did she cry, she simply remained where she was and bathed in the moonlight. For the first time since she had entered this cell, the silence did not feel like punishment.

The sounds of heavy, iron clad, footsteps could be heard outside the young girls cell coming from down the corridor. With each step Kazan took, the sound would grow louder and more easily recognized. As he passed several cells, with an Anbu escort, he remember the time he spent within this facility almost as if it were yesterday. The prisoners were rough, but he held onto his sanity and the mental challenges he faced during his stay helped shape him for the better. Still, to return to such a place for the reason he was today seemed to trouble him. As he finally reached the girls cell, he stopped and turned to face her. He could see the faint flicker of a flame, which caused his left eye brown to raise.

Glancing towards the Anbu who had escorted, he nodded as they began to walk away. By now, even with the silence, the young girl was probably already aware of his presence. He hadn't hit his approach; Kazan knew some of the prisoners here from his own stint, and he knew some might be in possession of illegal goods that had somehow made it's way into the prison. He'd hesitate to speak, wondering if he should introduce himself or not until he noticed how familiar the girl was. Within a second or two, he remembered the girl exiting a class he was lecturing without so much as even a goodbye.

A dull look of frustration crossed his face. "Hey kid." He said, without mentioning her name. While he couldn't remember it from the day she left his classroom, the report he received mentioned it. Right now, he just wasn't being formal. "I'm in the mind to strip you of your rank and let you sit here until the Arcadian Judges have time to deal with you themselves." He stated with a rude tone, before continuing. "But I'd like to know what the hell made you want to break into this dump?" He asked, calming down his tone a little.

Waiting for a reply, he folded his arms across his chest and his brows tilted in frustration.

[Wc: 300+][Marked]
[Topic Enter]

Like every member of the Orochi clan, what proceeded their arrival, was a swift chill in the air. One moment the shadows beyond the bars were empty—then they were not. Pale fabric emerged first, ghostlike against the obsidian stone, followed by the unmistakable outline of an Anbu captain standing where silence had pooled.

She stopped just outside the cell, posture straight with her arms folded beneath her chest. Her mask was bone-white and skeletal, carved into a permanent serrated grin that. Her eyes glimmered behind its hollow sockets, reflecting the faint candlelight Nozomi had made for herself. They lingered on it for exactly one second—no more—before lifting to the girl herself. The flame did not interest her. The structure did. The chakra signature. The density. The restraint required to form bone without triggering the collar.

Murasaki tilted her head a fraction, the movement sharp and mechanical, as if guided by internal calibration rather than curiosity. “Kazan,” she said at last.

Her voice was calm. Flat. Neither respectful nor defiant—merely factual. The voice of someone who spoke only when speech served a function.

“She is not here by accident.” A pause. Heavy. Intentional. “The Tarterian Specus does not attract the curious,” she continued. “It attracts the desperate, the disciplined… or the designed.”

Her gaze returned to Nozomi, assessing not the girl’s posture or expression, but the subtle vibrations beneath her skin—the quiet hum of something coiled too tightly to be natural.

“Breaking into this facility without chakra access,” Murasaki added, “while evading Association detection protocols… suggests foreknowledge.” Another pause. “And intent.” She stepped closer to the bars now, close enough that the moonlight caught the edges of her mask and turned it into something almost skull-like. “She accessed classified zones,” Murasaki said evenly. “Not records. Not inmates.” Her eyes narrowed, just slightly. “Structures.”

Finally, she addressed Nozomi directly. “You chose a prison,” she said. “On your birthday.” There was no accusation in the statement. Only observation. “And people who choose cages,” the Ghost of the ANBU finished quietly, “are rarely trying to escape.”
[mft]

Nozomi did not look up right away, instead she kept her eyes on the small clay candle. Focused on the way its flame trembled but did not go out, even as the air in the corridor shifted with new presences. Heavy steps, a pause, and then another presence layered over the first. It was colder somehow, sharper even. She cataloged it all automatically; the footfall cadence, weight of the steps, distance from the bars, and the way the hum of the prison seemed to tighten. Attention was being demanded of her. So, she exhaled through her nose and let the flame burn a moment longer before blowing it out with a short gust of wind that came from between her lips. The clay withered in on itself, collapsing inward as the bone also withdrew quietly back into her fingertip, leaving no sign it had ever existed. Only then did she lift her gaze...

Moonlight framed the bars in silver, and beyond them silhouettes resolved into figures of authority. The first one hit her not as threat, but as a memory. Kazan. She remembered him well from the Colosseum, a dangerously competent combatant. She had looked up to him, a part of her still did. That recognition made his presence worse, not better.

Her bones vibrated again at the realization, a low resentful hum, as if the curse itself bristled at being observed by someone she once respected. She pressed her thumb into her palm where teeth bit hard until the sensation grounded her, counting the pulse until it slowed. Kazan’s words replayed themselves in her head. A language of consequence, of systems, and a denial of rank. He seemed angry, but it was dulled by his curiosity in her. The other shinobi's voice lingered in the air as well. Nozomi's head tilting at certain words that came across as false. When she finally spoke, her voice was a flat sort of quiet, almost as if this place had already drained the life from her..

“I broke the rules, but not for spectacle. This is a place where some of the most knowledgeable people sit in cages.” she said. “I needed to have a conversation with one of them.”

She rose slowly from the floor, joints popping softly as she stood. There was no attempt to look imposing. She stopped a few steps back from the bars keeping a deliberate distance.

“I did it because asking permission would have guaranteed I never learned the truth. Though as I sit here, I wonder if it was worth the effort. I understood that there would be repercussions for my actions, and I willingly face whatever they might be.”

The curse stirred again, irritation rippling beneath her skin, almost as if urging her to say more. Still, she swallowed it down and kept her hands still at her sides. She stepped back to lean her shoulder against the cold stone wall, the contact grounding her once again into the reality of the situation. The cell was punishment, a boundary, and a reminder that she existed inside a system that could stop her if it chose. A system that she had to appease in order to exist within it. Realizing that perhaps these two individuals weren't privy to all the information of what had occurred this evening she made sure to reveal her neck, which did not contain a chakra collar.

"To be as clear as possible, I was placed in this holding cell after I broke into a special prisoners quarters upstairs. Abyss made sure to place me here without a chakra collar due to my own instability. Though you are right, I'm not trying to escape. I wait in hopes to be set free."

It was not a thing she divulged easily, as instability was a sign of weakness. A sign, especially within the Ryuu, of the curse taking over and the end being near. Perhaps that's why she was so sentimental over a thing as simple as another year on this planet.

"It is my birthday," she said. Not as leverage, or a plea. Just the truth. "I didn't expect company, though it is quite welcome."

[For clarity, Nozomi was/will be imprisoned at the end of the topic linked below as stated by Abyss on the word of Rei as described in the thread. Even though the topic it is not yet completed, The current thread we are writing in takes place afterward. https://ninpocho.com/threads/sanity-as-a-down-payment-requesting-tama.69629/]

As Kazan stood there, questioning the girl, another figure would appear. Kazan's eyes would shift towards them, as they said his name. "Hmmm. Their arrival was swift and without notice. Abyss has some skilled Anbu under their command." He thought, as he listened to the newcomer speak before Nozomi ever had a chance. Still, as they spoke his eyes with flick towards the dim light the imprisoned girl would seemingly blow out. As the Anbu spoke, Kazan took note of how harsh and cold they seemed about the situation. No doubt, Nozomi did this to herself and Kazan had no authority over her current situation.

He simply wanted to understand and have his questions answered so that he could decide to either make a plea on her behalf, or decide to let her sit with the consequences of her actions. As the Anbu finished saying what they had to say, a look of frustration would further sit upon his face. His brows, no tense, but not with anger; with disappointment. Nozomi was the student who ran out of his class without an explanation. And Kazan, was the instructor who didn't bother to try and figure out why. "She's showing signs of someone who really doesn't care about their future." He thought to himself, trying to hold back his own personal judgement.

With this full attention focused on Nozomi, he folded his arms across his chest and listened. Even if this Anbu had their own opinion, it was better to hear something straight from the source. As he heard her say that she broke the rules, but not for spectacle, and then explained that this prison housed people with specific knowledge the look of frustration upon his face became even more apparent. He dwelled on that for a minute, as he stayed quite for her to explain. Though, a part of him wondered about what she was capable of. This young woman managed to break into the village's prison, all in an attempt to gain intel. To Kazan, she showed a lot of potential, but was wasting it.

As soon as she finished talking, a sigh would escape him as the frustration would slowly melt off his face. Lowing his arms out in front of him, and make generic gestors, he began to speak. "I was once imprisoned here myself. I was younger, and much more arrogant." He explained, trying to connect with Nozomi by sharing his past experience. "My crime was that I hijacked the village's radio stations, and openly challenged the Raikage and Sennin of the village just to test their gal." He explained, admitting to what some would consider a form of a treason.

"Well, eventually I found myself in a cell here like this one. While here, I stayed to myself and reflected on my actions. I decided to go on a pilgrimage, in an attempt to figure out who I truly was, if I was ever released. Well, when Abyss decided it was time for me to be let go, I traveled all the way to The Hidden Sand where I witnessed chaos and destruction." Kazan explained, as he pulled his arms back to his chest and folded them once again. Sighing, he glanced over to the Anbu beside him. Everything up until his travels could easily be verified if they wanted to look further into it. Looking back at Nozomi, he continued. "Upon my return, I delivered the news of what I saw and stepped up to become the Sennin over the main branch." Glancing down to the ground, he wondered if Nozomi got the point of his story.

This story was about how Kazan messed up, but still managed to build a better future for himself. It was all about making the right decision and right now, Nozomi had to decided if she'd continue down this path, or if she'd find a reason to live. "So, regardless of your reason, will you continue to do things like this against your home? Or will you find a better way to use your skills?" He questioned, wondering if the girl would even give an honest reply.

[Wc: 690] [Marked]