She died in his arms, it was not immediate. Death would take several minutes before her final breath left her. Death was rarely graceful or painless but one could say it was relatively swift. Did she have to die? No, but she was a coward and she feared the fate of what would come next. She was not a bad person but she was a killer, she felt she deserved this end for turning a blind eye for so long. She killed those kids in cold blood, they were monsters but that was the intent of their maker. Her direct utility ended as so did her life, never even unchained from the wall and hanging from that same webbed sling she slumped forward as the ANBU hopeful broke his embrace.
The young man would cut a piece of his own flesh from his body, it would posses an uncanny glow even separate from the young man. There would likely be a scar left in the wake of this recently excised seal without proper healing efforts but scars were likely the least of his worries. He would call out and alert the others before he would transform himself into a katana and slide himself through a set of narrow bars (did not have any bars or windows but sure, let's go with it because it is creative). He would have no problem utilizing his chakra outside of the building as he scaled the side of the tower-like structure near the heart of the city and onto the dusty streets.
[Start a Topic Someplace else, let's see where you take this]
[Topic Left]
Shikai would note a few curiosities. First and foremost, there was a decimated building nearby. The roof was missing and the street in front was littered with loose-leaf paper and blood could be seen on the edges. Unbeknownst to him, a fray had taken place here during the early morning hours before the exam even started. There was an attempt against the Raikage at this very site, his men were summoned and they were able to drive off his would-be captor. ANBU Sennin was also the victim/perpetrator of a sexual assault in the building that was visibly damaged. While the Raikage had left the site of their fray, the Sennin was still searching the damaged building with a new potential ally or rival (ironically Sunagakure's ANBU Sennin). From where Shikai was standing, this would not be readily apparent unless he was the curious type.
If he elected to return to the Bazaar, he would not find any tables. Those bikini-clad ladies that stood at those registration tables were long-gone, they had parted ways and returned to their homes or rather their owners. The slave trade was very much alive here in Soons but it was more insidious and accepted here in comparison to other parts of the world. As a civilian he would not get a great deal of attention by the vendors, at least no more than an unfamiliar face would summon.
If he headed towards the site of the Jounin exam, the exam would still be in progress. The crowd would have been turned against the shinobis. The civilians had been corralled behind a black barricade by an Oto shinobi. A fight was about the start between a pair of evolving factions: a paranoid demon from Kiri and a samurai from Iwa.
If he sought the Genin hopefuls, none would be found. They had never returned from their trek into the badlands. Their whereabouts unknown.
If he sought the Chuunin hopefuls, none would be found. In fact if he was familiar with those who had planned to attend the exam he would be astonished to realize that the turn out for the exam was exceedingly low. Still, of the Chuunin hopefuls (all two of them), neither could be located.
The question is: where does a boy go? What does a boy do. A nameless unknown boy who dons the mask of the ANBU.
It was a rather uncomfortable sensation, the teens curious hands that wandered beneath her kimono. The poor girl was pretty much petrified as she stood there shackled and she simply cried.
"I'll understand if you don't have an answer for this, but I'll ask anyway. Do you know who it was that infected you? Name, distinctive features, funny walk, anything at all that could lead people to them."
She actually knew the answer to something and her body tensed as the young woman's hand slid free of her kimono.
"Tall-man, both dark and pale. He did not take me but he injected me," she answered briefly as she shifted uncomfortably as the ANBU hopeful tugged and straightened her kimono.
"Lots of silver piercings and jet-black hair that is long but also shaved... and dark markings... many dark markings on his body." The girl was describing an actual person and while some of the statements seemed contradictory they were in fact absolutely true. The man was rather distinctive despite being a relative unknown. Who took her, on the other hand, was a rather mundane appearing group of men at least here during this examination.
"This exam is a set up and we all fell for it... Take a look around you and notice something missing."
What was missing besides a door?
"Not a single fucking Sand shinobi in sight..."
...Right, there was a distinct lack of those.
"Those of you in here! My colleagues. Some of you have pieced it together but this is a set-up! The girl with the blue hair has an infectious disease and someone made her bleed violently! Those of you who are willing to do what it takes to get out of here should finish up fast and do so! There will be further warning!"
A man from behind a webbed cocoon would call out.
"Yes you are correct, she's been infected with a synthetic version of the Red Death plague and each one of us is likely already infected... We were literally brought here to be infected, kill the prisoners and then head on home, slowly infecting and killing our own people from within and not even knowing it."
She was partly right. On this note, Ms Shinku: you are presently infected and a carrier of something unknown. (Note: If you do not want to deal with this potential side event offer that you can potentially take home with you are the parting give nobody ever wants, we can make it go away post haste but it would be a neat mystery to solve if you are interested. But as of this moment you are the ONLY person
infected.
"Whether or not it was entirely this Cabal or if the council members of sand had something to do with this or whatever, I can't be sure at this point, unless one of you has anything to share. Whoever they are, they'd best be prepared though because people are gonna die, there's gonna be bloodshed and it ain't gonna be mine!"
The girl was well-aware that she was infected, she tried to blurt out a warning but there was only so much one could say when faced with an interrogation that sought a different set of answers. The examinee was liked red in the face and the terrified teen simply bit her lower lip half expecting something new and terrible to transpire. The incensed young woman planted her foot on the wall alongside the girl, Mine mouthed 'don't' not entirely sure of what Shinku planned to actually do as she grasped hold of the pin over Mine's head. The azure-headed girl would fall to the ground, chains still attached to her wrists she landed on her knees. Her shoulders had a dull ache and she would find it impossible to lift them on her own, the prolonged period of stretch coupled with her injuries made it near impossible for her to lift her own arms at least for the time being.
"There's no way some poxy little plague is gonna finish me off. Definitely not until find out every last person responsible for this, rip out their tongues and stick em right up their own assholes."
The girl went on...
graphically. She ran her hands through an array of handseals.
"You'd best not think of pussying out on us, Iwagakuran. There are people out there waiting for us to kill them, curing ourselves comes second to annihilating these fucks so they can't try this bullshit again."
Over the girls head a boulder of earth and stone traversed; it crashed through the wall. A gust of fresh air would enter the space.
"We do not run, we do not falter and we do what ANBU are meant to do. We protect those who can't protect themselves by any means necessary..."
At the precipice the young woman would make a final broadcast to her fellow Kumo shinobis.
"Attention all Cloud shinobi. This is Shin'en Shinku, A student currently undertaking the ANBU exams. This is an important announcement that I hope reaches many of you currently undergoing your own exams."
"We have been set up, the exam we were given was interrogate prisoners, but upon learning many things we have discovered that we, the examinees as well as the prisoners have been exposed to and possibly infected by a deadly plague... We are of the belief that we were to kill these prisoners before learning these things, return home and them slowly kill off a large chunk, if not the whole populations of our villages or possibly countries..."
"As it stands, either the Cabal or the leaders of the hidden sand are behind this treachery, more likely to be the former, thusly, as of this moment. All known members of the Cabal are to be engaged on sight, if they cannot be taken alive, don't..."
The transmission would cut off although it was unlikely the girl would know it as she concluded. (Why: because it is more interesting to end a transmission on a "don't")
"We will be down to lend a hand shortly, so save a little for us." This last bit lost to radio-space.
"I have no idea how many people even heard that, but they'll know soon enough... The Princess is coming."
She had not vacated the cell just yet unlike some of the other ANBU hopefuls, dramatic monologues aside this is where people actually prove their worth as shinobis as well as demonstrate their character as men, women and heroes.
The gears were starting to turn for all of the shinobis now it would seem and that would include one Tsuyoshi Yoshi. His victim, or rather subject or suspect if one would prefer the use of the term had received now the worst of the beatings, his very body was broken down to the point where he would likely be a pained, quivering mass of flesh. The interrogator seemed to forget about his victim as announcements were made. Tales of a plague and a set-up being shouted out across the cell reflecting in a way the statements made by those confined and contained here. The ANBU hopeful burned away his own seal and started to unceremoniously heal the minor scarring wound.
"This exam is a set up and we all fell for it... Take a look around you and notice something missing."
The girl who should be listed as a sexual offender announced echoing the young man's apprehensions.
"Not a single fucking Sand shinobi in sight..."
She was inciting fear and paranoia between the shinobi villages perhaps or maybe she was right and it was Sunagakure that was up to no good.
"Those of you in here! My colleagues. Some of you have pieced it together but this is a set-up! The girl with the blue hair has an infectious disease and someone made her bleed violently! Those of you who are willing to do what it takes to get out of here should finish up fast and do so! There will be further warning!"
Another voice, this time a man from behind a webbed cocoon would call out.
"Yes you are correct, she's been infected with a synthetic version of the Red Death plague and each one of us is likely already infected... We were literally brought here to be infected, kill the prisoners and then head on home, slowly infecting and killing our own people from within and not even knowing it."
The girl would reply. She gave her hypothesis.
"Whether or not it was entirely this Cabal or if the council members of sand had something to do with this or whatever, I can't be sure at this point, unless one of you has anything to share. Whoever they are, they'd best be prepared though because people are gonna die, there's gonna be bloodshed and it ain't gonna be mine!"
And she also seemed to know an unusual name,
'The Cabal'. The Cabal were not overtly famous, a moniker or anything for a group of treasure-hunters turned anarchists that were behind the Sunagakure incursion two years ago. The girl carried on with her rant:
"There's no way some poxy little plague is gonna finish me off. Definitely not until find out every last person responsible for this, rip out their tongues and stick em right up their own assholes. ...You'd best not think of pussying out on us, Iwagakuran. There are people out there waiting for us to kill them, curing ourselves comes second to annihilating these fucks so they can't try this bullshit again."
A gaping hole was made in the wall. A gust of fresh air would enter the space.
"We do not run, we do not falter and we do what ANBU are meant to do. We protect those who can't protect themselves by any means necessary..."
The Cloud shinobi would leave the space in the blink of an eye, not noting or caring about the man he left behind. The beaten and bound blonde left to hand precariously over a spiked pit on the cusp of a death that Tsuyoshi Yoshi helped achieve. Still if he carried with him a headset, he would not escape the Kumo girl's rant/announcement:
"Attention all Cloud shinobi. This is Shin'en Shinku, A student currently undertaking the ANBU exams. This is an important announcement that I hope reaches many of you currently undergoing your own exams."
"We have been set up, the exam we were given was interrogate prisoners, but upon learning many things we have discovered that we, the examinees as well as the prisoners have been exposed to and possibly infected by a deadly plague... We are of the belief that we were to kill these prisoners before learning these things, return home and them slowly kill off a large chunk, if not the whole populations of our villages or possibly countries..."
"As it stands, either the Cabal or the leaders of the hidden sand are behind this treachery, more likely to be the former, thusly, as of this moment. All known members of the Cabal are to be engaged on sight, if they cannot be taken alive, don't..."
[Start a Topic Someplace else, let's see where you take this]
[Topic Left]
Yoshi would note a few curiosities. First and foremost, there was a decimated building nearby. The roof was missing and the street in front was littered with loose-leaf paper and blood could be seen on the edges. Unbeknownst to him, a fray had taken place here during the early morning hours before the exam even started. There was an attempt against the Raikage at this very site, his men were summoned and they were able to drive off his would-be captor. ANBU Sennin was also the victim/perpetrator of a sexual assault in the building that was visibly damaged. While the Raikage had left the site of their fray, the Sennin was still searching the damaged building with a new potential ally or rival (ironically Sunagakure's ANBU Sennin). From where Shikai was standing, this would not be readily apparent unless he was the curious type.
If he elected to return to the Bazaar, he would not find any tables. Those bikini-clad ladies that stood at those registration tables were long-gone, they had parted ways and returned to their homes or rather their owners. The slave trade was very much alive here in Soons but it was more insidious and accepted here in comparison to other parts of the world. As a civilian he would not get a great deal of attention by the vendors, at least no more than an unfamiliar face would summon.
If he headed towards the site of the Jounin exam, the exam would still be in progress. The crowd would have been turned against the shinobis. The civilians had been corralled behind a black barricade by an Oto shinobi. A fight was about the start between a pair of evolving factions: a paranoid demon from Kiri and a samurai from Iwa.
If he sought the Genin hopefuls, none would be found. They had never returned from their trek into the badlands. Their whereabouts unknown.
If he sought the Chuunin hopefuls, none would be found. In fact if he was familiar with those who had planned to attend the exam he would be astonished to realize that the turn out for the exam was exceedingly low. Still, of the Chuunin hopefuls (all two of them), neither could be located.
The question is: where does a boy go? What does a boy do. A boy who has not lost his identity to a cause and whose family perhaps is more important than the nation for which he dons the mask of the ANBU.
Recently freed Pestilence was a juggernaut, even after a protracted period of confinement and torture. He would rip through the cocoon walls and be followed by a clone. The clone was no match for the Wind, his powerset rivaled that of the Sovereign army or a Ranger at their prime. He was by far, the most powerful man in he room but what did he do with that power? He scooped his bleeding sister from the floor and clutched onto her. He would draw her close and bury his face into her and mutter
"I am sorry... I am so sorry."<i></i>
Pestilence is now
infected.
He knew his fate was sealed when he lifted the girl from the ground but it was not just any injured woman, it was his sister. He was also crying. He lifted the young girl from the floor and with his trunk like limbs and meaty fingers he held her tight as he took a series of deep breaths. The kids were leaving, a gaping hole in the wall and an empty web with a dead girl inside. Again he muttered an apology as if he was begging her for forgiveness. He did not miss the corpse that hung from the wall; she was considered a friend but he had no time to mourn her passing as well.
"I will get you the help you need," he promised.
He laid her on the floor with a sigh. He would approach the broken man that hung over the pit. His hands would rip through the vines and he would grab the pin that held him against the wall. Nobody else was about to save the boy, then he would.
"Dam savages," he muttered as he ripped the pin free and leaned over the pit and held the boy safely before he eased him to the solid floor.
"hurt first... ask later."
He would be asked if he infected his sister. The ANBU hopeful really did not understand.
"I would never hurt her."
]<i></i>
