Blood in Tea (open)

[Chigokai Yuna]

When Ziren heard of this opportunity to meet other shinobi from around the world, he was excited. Not for the fighting events, no. But for the very fact that there was a chance that he could meet another shinobi that is a Chigokai. To finally answer his questions that he has been searching forever for.
He chose to go to a small cafe that sold tea. It wasn't very surprising that tea was Tea's thing. He heard that they make the best kind that can only be made in the Tea country. Ziren bought a refreshing drink of tea, he waited and scanned the area for something amiss along with people who might be a Chigokai.
He purposely thought of blood, just so that the white of his eyes would turn red, a common thing that a Chigokai has, that could easily spot another among a crowd.
He drank the tea that was given to him, but found the taste not as it was before. For it seemed his other self is slowly trying to claw it's way to the surface, wanting the taste of blood rather than the sweetness of tea.
He pushed that thought out of his mind and looked around. Waiting to see if this was worth it or just a waste of time.

 

[Osuteno]

Spoiler: Osuteno

A gentle figure walked along a path carrying a brilliantly red “paper” umbrella to shade them from the sun. It was so uncomfortably warm down from the snowy mountains.

The figure wasn’t tall at only 5’8” and was very slim, without even muscle interrupting the smoothness of their figure. They were young, somewhere around 20 from a casual glance, It would be difficult for most to believe such a person was a shinobi of any sort, and that suited Osu just fine.

Most of Osu’s fellow villagers ran off to enjoy some fighting tournament but Osu’s only interest was in this country’s tea, and more importantly, where the tea plants themselves might be to bring a few specimen back to Kumogakure for cultivation and the development of new teas… as a personal hobby.

Of course the first step was to sample the finished products to determine the order of importance. Osu has been to several tea shops so far to take into account the difference in brewing methods and came to the next shop on the list.

It was a small establishment, but that in itself spoke nothing of the quality of its tea, rather, the larger establishments were more prone to rushing steps for the sake of expediency.

The ‘paper’ umbrella seemingly vanished as Osu crossed the entrance to the establishment casting a glance around the establishment, before frowning slightly… Really now… With a slight sigh Osu walked over to a young man. As Osu approached, a few things should become immediately apparent to the fledgling Chigokai. The first was that Osu had six beating hearts spread throughout the body and moving. Second, that there was enough blood in Osu’s body for around 8 adults. Third was that Ziren’s own blood would receive a sensation like some force was surrounding it, not actually doing anything, but showing that it could very well attempt to seize everything, a sign of the ultimate technique of the Chigokai... if Ziren knew that much of it.

Osu sat down quietly at Ziren’s table and removed colored contacts from their eyes. The was no white, nor black, nor any color normally expected. Rather than eyes, the orbs now staring at Ziren seemed more like balls of the clearest glass filled with swirling blood. A soft voice spoke clearly but the sound didn’t travel farther than the table where they were sitting, “It is for the best if you get rid of your reliance on bloodlust early on. It is obvious that your bloodline is using you more than you are using it.”

 

[Chigokai Yuna]

Ziren was drinking his tea when he heard something extremely weird. And it dealt with blood. Instinctively, he clutched a fists, accidentally breaking the glass in his hand, the shards piercing his left hand.
And for once, he wasn't worried about him seeing blood. No, his blood line will surely make the bleeding stop in a little bit. But what he heard interested him so much that red around his eyes seemed to give off a glow.
It seemed peculiar. For a person to have enough blood for eight other people entirely seemed crazy even to Ziren.
Then his body seized up, as if his own blood stood still. He once read in an old book. About blood lines. His blood line... This technique. Was new to him but he knew very well that only a select few can even learn of it.
That's when a woman sat in front of him. And he knew instantly, before she even removed her eye contacts, of who she was.
She told him that he needs to be in control of his blood line powers. It was funny, because he came here specifically to get answers from his distant family members.
"Actually. That's why I'm here.I want to know more of who I am. Be able to control this blood lust that I have. It doesn't help that I've been kind of tortured by a half demon human puppet. I won't get into that, long story. But because of it, I gained a split personality."
Ziren stopped talking to get some air before talking again. He was so excited that he is right in front of someone who has all the answers he needs.
"You don't understand,
I have so much questions for you. First off. Who are you? What do I call you? I'm Ziren by the way. Um... Chigokai Ziren."
He held out his non bleeding hand to shake the woman's.

 

[Toraono Michino]

The heat was rather oppressive today but the older man walking closer to the edge of the street was already used to it. He had spent the last fifteen years rearing a child right next to the ocean and knew exactly what kind of humidity it caused. Yet still he desired to keep his features mostly hidden from view with a beaten up tan cloak and hood covering his body. The few features that were visible were leather boots that used to be brown, a long wavy white beard, and the bits of a scar curving from the corners of his mouth into that beard. Toushin prefered his identity to remain incognito when it could with the game of cat and mouse he played.

It had been over five years since he had been back towards the Wind Country to where his little girl was, but with the way things were it was probably best he stayed away for a little longer. The evil he had been dodging lately had finally lost track of his scent and as long as he stayed low enough he'd be able to go back home. 
Right now, though, he was figuratively dying of thirst. His golden irises looked up from the road in front of him to the shop sign. It was a simple little tea shop, nothing special, and easily somewhere he could get a drink without being questioned. As he turned towards the shop the old man watched a person with a paper umbrella walk in before him. His eyes narrowed a little when he made it disappear right before him. He moved his left arm a little inside of his cloak before darting up suddenly to catch the swinging door as he walked in right behind Osuteno. Assured that he was mostly being ignored he slid his middle finger against the latch of the door as it came to a close. The hand disappeared back into the old cloak. 
His stride was absolutely silent despite using traveling boots as his shoe wear of choice on a wooden floor. His hopes was to walk unnoticed between the patrons of the bar, order his tea, take a moment to rest, and be back on the road post haste. With some luck he'd might actually be able to stay long enough for the evening air to settle in; it would be far more decent for travel then.

The order was brief: house special, black, hot. His order was filled and placed on the counter where he stood. With his single hand he lifted exact change from his hip pouch and placed it on the counter before lifting the little plate that held the hot cup of tea. As the lady put away his money the ex-assassin found the closest seat to a wall and made himself comfortable. Without ever removing his hood he kept his eyes down and focused on his tea until it had cooled down enough to sip. A brief smirk edged the corner of his lip as he could not fully smile; the tea was excellent. Then without even asking for it he was brought a paper on current affairs and left alone.
He was leaving this place a massive tip.
While he was enjoying the contents of the best tea in existence and casually reading about concerns that were not his, the old man's attention was briefly grabbed by the two chaps on the other side of the room. He only caught a brief glance of some weird eyes but decided it was best if he left it alone unless things got stupid.

[Entering as NPC Uzumoreru Toushin|If you want his back story let me know and I'll send a PM; warning though, it's huge. Also feel free to skip over me for post order as much as you want unless you want to involve Uzu in something. At the moment I'm just sitting here enjoying tea.]

 

[Osuteno]

Osu sighed and instead of grabbing the outstretched hand to shake it, a green glow appeared around Osu’s hands and gently reached out to touch the bleeding hand, the warm green glow closing the wound but the jutsu stopped before the rest of the damage was fixed. Always best to let injuries heal as much on their own rather than relying on jutsu after all.

A waitress started coming over causing Osu to put the contacts back in a fluid motion. “I’m sorry, we will pay for the glass. Could you bring me a fresh pot of whatever you would recommend and two more cups?” After settling the matter of the broken glass and cleaning the table the waitress left to prepare the tea and Osu’s attention returned to Ziren.

Osu didn’t say anything about the mention of the split personality or demon puppet, instead spent a solid minute seemingly sizing Ziren up, before nodding.

“Chigokai Osuteno, Mednin of Kumogakure… I took reign of my own bloodlust by becoming a doctor and constantly surrounded myself with blood. Wounded people, those undergoing surgery, the dying, and the dead. Very quickly I found myself at a place where I either had to either go mad or kill the hold blood had over me. The main clan aristocracy handles their training rather differently but it comes down to the same main idea, surround yourself with blood, tempt your weakness to the extremes, which can get rather rough physically as well with how the clan does it, and you find out when push comes to shove who or what is in charge. Our bloodline is about controlling blood, not the other way around. Those who break down and wallow in their bloodlust are generally considered failures, weak of mind and will. Of course, you should never mistake a lack of bloodlust for unwillingness to kill, that can be a very deadly mistake. Of course here is where I will voice a bit of criticism about a large portion of the clan elders… They are, for a lack of a better term, far too cold blooded in how they handle solving the bloodlust. Blood becomes a tool for accomplishing ends. A very flexible and powerful tool, but it seems barely different from steel at a point. It is a good method in the fact one stops feeling compelled by blood and can effectively dominate it… but I am not a big fan of how cold the people who use this method tend to turn out. I must admit that from the perspective of creating strong and effective shinobi it is certainly successful, but the biggest issue with the method as a whole is that…”

Seeing the tea arrive, Osu paused for a moment realizing that the lecture mode had engaged and decided to change the direction a bit. Osu poured a cup before placing the pot in front of Ziren.

“As you should know, blood jutsu is an advanced element. Its concept is mostly water, but there is an extra concept involved that is thrown under the hodge podge of non-elemental. What do you think that might be?”

 

[Chigokai Yuna]

He was surprised that this woman, a stranger, even if she is his own blood, no pun intended, went to heal the wound on his hand.
"Thank you. I have a friend that works in the medical field that is trying to help me learn the basics of medical justsus." Ziren kept things to a minimum, since being an ANBU he's learned to keep it a secret. Heck, when Osuteno told him to surround himself with blood, to try to be able to control it, he smiled.
He listened to what she had to say. Wise words from someone who has dealt with this power for a far longer time than he has.
Ziren has been trying to do that for a while now. Going to crime scenes where a murder happened. Collect the blood samples and research them to find out who the suspect is.
Then the woman told him that she was from Kumogakure.
"So have you met one of our med ninja? As far as I understand he is under training and traveled to Cloud. Also. Is there any more other Chigokai? Are we the only ones?"
He drank the new tea that was presented before him. Slowly, the red around his eyes turned back to white.
Ziren pondered on the question that Osu gave him.
"I don't really know the answer to that. But if I had to guess, soul?
I mean, it could make sense to have water and soul mix and turn to blood, right?"

 

[Toraono Michino]

Toushin continued to sip at his hot tea with one hand, mostly ignoring what was going on in the cafe. He did catch the small hint of chakra in the air and his eyes lifted back up to the two fellows with weird eyes. He noticed that neither of them had anything strange going on anymore and removed his attention from their table back to his own where the paper sat. Every few sips he'd place the cup back down and turn the page with the same hand, reading article after article without putting too much thought into any of it.
His eyes did spot a few mysteries that he'd probably snoop around and see if he could fix before leaving Tea. There was an article on a string of murders that had been happening almost casually for the last few weeks. Thankfully they were able to keep enough of it under wraps that it didn't get bigger than the World Tournament. No doubt with so many military forces coming to compete with each other the serial murderer would be content to keep his hands to himself for awhile.

Toushin turned the page and picked back up his tea.

 

[Chigokai Yuna]

As Ziren was talking to Osu, he heard something. It was another blood flow. But the way he was hearing it, it was that of a predator stalking some prey. He turned to look at where a guy with one arm was sitting.
His attention of all that he wanted to learn was thrown out of the window when he knew something wasn't right. There was the guy with one arm's blood flow. And there was another one. Right next to him. But nobody was there!
"With as much fun as it has been talking to you, another family member,
I think things might get messy in here if you know what I mean. And not by me, surprisingly."

Ziren then went and sat in front of the one armed man. He didn't know how to go about this, but he decided to go straight out with it.
"Did you come here with someone? Because whoever they are, it seems like they have the same blood lust tendencies of a Chigokai. Maybe a little bit less."
He looked over to the man's left side, where he was hearing the blood come from.

A hiss came out, angry that it was revealed. "Darn you Chigokai fletchling!!" Ziren heard the blood flow come surging towards him, but he was ready. He dodged out of the way and stood up, pulling out a kunai.
"Hope you know how to fight old man!"

 

[Chigokai Yuna]

(topic left due to inactivity)