Visiting Prisoner Number 24601 [Open-ish/Free]

[Akechi]

Mark one in the win column for the home team. Surely, the brilliant minds behind Kumogakure’s bingo book must’ve been happy to see another stricken off the list. Unaware if it were supposed to be public knowledge or not, Kazuma overheard where this particular criminal was being detained. It was odd to see someone of her reputation captured rather than killed, considering the crime that she allegedly committed but decisions like these weren’t really up to him. Maybe it wasn’t completely unheard of, but people that did what she did normally were hunted down with extreme prejudice. Shinobi normally gave their lives toward the opportunity to hunt down and kill someone as vicious… as treacherous as this.

However, here she was alive. I guess that meant that he could take a field trip… at least learn something from a person that most would’ve deemed irredeemable. Then again, no one could truly be irredeemable as there is always a price disregarded another’s retribution… even as just as that comeuppance may have been. It was a fact of life, and a reality that humankind invited into their greedy lives. Information tended to be the catalyst to fuel human’s selfish curiosity and invite such mercy into their psyche. That was called a deal…

”You know… I’m probably not even supposed to be here,” Kazuma laughed, casually walking threw the house of human horrors. ”Will I ever get used to this smell?” It was the smell of oppression… of chained, malnourished people that were given the bare necessities so that they could suffer out the rest of their lives in feigned repentance. Not to say that this side of forced subjugation wasn’t completely justified. Most of these people committed dastardly deeds that crippled the lives of the innocent and they were only punishable by death in Kazuma’s eyes. However, the dank mixture of rotting, malnourished flesh and stale blood, tended to cause the ANBU trainee to reminisce over a time that he wished to forget. His job may have centered in death and he may have even enjoyed the adrenaline that followed a life or death situation, but he may have never gotten over that disgusting smell. It was just a fact of life for him…

Slipping in and out of shadows, moving through faceless ANBU through faceless ANBU, the underutilized trainee made his way to a cell that housed an infamous criminal. Lighting a match of incense that smelled of cherry blossoms suddenly spoke out to this famous person, ”I always wondered how celebrities were treated here.” The man grinned behind a pale-faced mask, evident of his trainee status for those that were familiar, as he stared at from behind it through the cell window. ”It’s why I brought something decent for you to smell. Tell me… has this place driven you crazy, yet? I, myself, may have gone claustrophobic in such a place.”

To be honest, he wasn’t even sure if she’d respond… people like her weren’t normally the talkative kind…

”So… how long has it been? Can you tell?”

[Topic Entered]

 

[Sanageyama Masaoko]

The smell of cherry blossoms. Suddenly she was back there, in that singular time when she decided to play dirty. The moment on the river alongside Hoshikata. She shivered. She hated the smell more than the Underprison's own personal brand. The Shima remained unfazed though as she huddled against the eastern wall of her cell, gazing out at the other side. Her bed was unoccupied as she opted for the floor this morning. Her uncouth frown cemented upon her face as the little bug came buzzing in. For what reason was he here? Who even was this guy?

She mulled over the idea of ignoring him until he disappeared. Haruka had remained silent for months now inside this cell, save for when Nobuyuki died. Holding her silence now would be no challenge. She had no innocence to prove. Nor did she have any thoughts for someone so beneath the situation. Still, she wondered what an outsider with no knowledge of those involved would think of it all. Perhaps this was what her people thought her after her fall from grace. The hardest part of all this was losing the ability to protect the people she loved. No one would ever trust her again.

"Eight months. Its rude to speak to someone without proper introduction. Do you have a point to this visit?" She spat coldly and quite quickly, never looking his way. Still the same woman. Still a complete hard ass for propriety. Yet, she didn't feel like Shima Haruka. Her hand lifted towards her collarbone, grasping for something that was not there. And just as quickly, her hand fell back to her side. They took everything from her, how could she be the same person?​

 

[Akechi]

Was it the delightful smell of cherry blossoms or just her natural prickly demeanor that caused her to call out to Kazuma in annoyance? Honestly, it was to be expected from a person that had been locked inside of a metal box for months on end. Again, not saying that Kazuma held any sympathies toward her but there was a rationale behind her “sunny disposition.” Not just that but Kazuma was no one she would’ve known before. These were two strangers meeting for the first time… and one had their freedom. Perhaps, there was even the tinge of jealousy within her voice as she spoke out to him. ”You’re right. How dare I not introduce myself in a lady’s presence,” the man commented, opening her cell door before closing it behind him. Part of him was a bit nervous that she had grown savage during her stay in Kumo’s most prestigious roach hotel, but he had trained himself to be quite fearless when it came to these things. Now the man was clearly visible to her with a tray in hand, if she decided to turn and face him.

”Sliced sashimi with soy sauce and some miso soup. Better than the food here and you look like you could use something healthy.” Food always soothed the soul, right? Food and liquor…

”My name is Kazuma,” he commented, deliberately ignoring standard protocol about identities. If she let him, Kazuma would place the tray in front of her before sliding back toward the opposite wall. ”Even devils need company… I guess that’s the point. Aside from that… curiosity mostly.” Kazuma spoke, removing the pale mask that obscured his face, staring at her from behind golden eyes and a scarred face. There was a strange sensation in the air as he stood there, staring at a person that had lost their standing in a world she helped throw into chaos. Did she loathe herself? Did she regret what she did? Maybe it was something else altogether.

”Someone that did what you did must have a story… a reason why you betrayed everything you believed in and tore this place into shreds. What’s your story?” Just what made her snap and start murdering figureheads? He had read about the “kingslayers” and their plot, but this would be the first time that he had the opportunity to speak to someone similar. What would drive someone toward cause such a betrayal?

 

[Sanageyama Masaoko]

He must of have a death wish, she thought as he opened her cell. Didn't people understand the bars were in place for both their safeties? He began to approach her with a tray but didn't get much further than a few steps before he was frozen solid to the ground. "That's close enough." She growled, her eyes still never meeting his. She was poised like a cobra ready to strike, while maintaining all the ease in the world on the floor. Her power had grown that much with the Jinchuuriki. Fortunate for Kazuma, she was not interested in violence. She unfroze him. He set the tray a distance away, now that she had set the limits on how close he may approach.

"And I'm not interested in your charity." She really was akin to a caged and cornered beast. She stood up, shoving the tray aside with her foot to further prove that point before pacing back to a new corner of the cell. She faced outwards, looking between the bars. It was almost as if she was expecting someone to arrive. It was then that he got to the point. He wanted her story. She scoffed in disbelief, rolling her eyes and shaking her head. "Get in line." Haruka snapped.

"You know nothing of me. Do not presume to know what I believe in."​

 

[Akechi]

”Interesting,” Kazuma responded, somewhat impressed by the chilling sensation of his feet being frozen solid. Most prisoners were prohibited from even using chakra, and this woman had managed to freeze an uninhibited ANBU… well a trainee as far as anyone was concerned. It seemed that letting his guard down had caused the woman to unintentionally reveal something about herself. It was interesting to him… and also quite alarming. I mean, imagine if this beast had suddenly found itself unshackled.

”It wasn’t charity. I was just treating you the way a person should treat another person,” Kazuma responded, stepping backward from the chilled cement that she released him from. ”And I don’t know what you believe in… that’s why I asked. But, I wouldn’t say that I ‘know nothing about you.’ You’ve already said plenty…” After all, the majority of human interactions are derived from body language. Facial expressions or even subtle optical cues, offer more information about another individual than any spoken words could. The way she captured him in icy bondage meant that she believed she was in control over her situation. She wearily peered outside of the window as if there were still some figment of hope in the outside world.

”You are powerful enough to escape this cell on your own merits but you haven’t for these eight, pitiful months…” He paused, gauging the woman’s interest and monitoring every subtle motion that she made. After all, as foolish as Kazuma was at times, he never allowed the same tricks to work twice on him. ”In fact, reports say that you’ve been as you are now… eerily quiet, less demanding than any other prisoner and staring out of that window day after day, night after night.” Honestly, he wasn’t sure what to expect when he came down here. It was mostly on a whim but that’s what made it interesting. That’s what made it worthwhile to someone like Kazuma. Despite being lost himself, there was something that he always desired…

”You’ve been striped of your pride, yet you are still clinging on to hope. You fear being forgotten, yet aimlessly stare out of the window as if you wished someone would come for you. Locked in a cage, despite having the key…” Kazuma mused, allowing curiosity to flow between his lips as he struggled to understand this woman’s plight.

”Why?”

They should've asked her months ago but they didn't. However, it could never be too late.

 

[Sanageyama Masaoko]

Warning: Extreme sass ahead. Haruka didn't think she could roll her eyes far enough into the back of her head to get the point across. Seriously, who was this dude? Did he think she was born yesterday? She knew how to play people from the moment she was born, and she certainly knew when they were toying with her for their own gain. She was a Shima woman. Intrigue was a skill necessary to survive. She was the village's Spymaster. Manipulation was key to success. The fact that he said she had already said plenty told her that he really did know anything about her. She chuckled, if only to alleviate the annoying headache rising in her skull.

She looked down the hall once more from the bars of her cell as he went on. She'd let him stroke his own ego for now. She smirked ever so slightly under the dark lighting of the prison. Apparently he had looked her up before coming to the cell. He seemed to know only the bare necessities of her behavior in the Underprison though. It seemed he didn't grasp the bigger moral. No one had yet. She did't think anyone would ever see it her way. Not that she asked them to.

"I'm not looking to leave. Nor do I cling to hope. I don't fear to be forgotten. My pride is not gone." She answered in turn. Remember the thoughts of another time. Her eyelids fluttered shut briefly, taking her back to the summer sun and warm escape of that lazy Sunday afternoon with Masao. She was gone once again, standing in the Torre surrounded by chaos yet feeling so oddly safe in the arms of her cousin. Then the dripping smile of a blonde Kaguya called to her under the weight of the Kirigakurian sea. Memory after memory gone, like pictures passed in an unending corridor. She could go back to those times, but she felt them alive in her. It was all so real, then it was all gone.

"I want to be left alone here. The village will move on without me and someday I'll be a distant memory." She huffed, crossing her legs now as she repositioned on the floor. "And hope is a mistake. If you can’t fix what’s broken, you’ll go insane." The prisoner replied matter-of-factly. The only ones she looked for down these halls were the dead. She wondered if their spirits would ever visit her again. Their memories certainly haunted her enough. And that was the point he was missing. He knew nothing of those she loved. At her very core, that's who she was. Haruka was a torch carrier for the dead. A screaming echo of what they left behind.​

 

[Akechi]

”Women these days. Can’t live with ‘em and you can’t kill ‘em,” Kazuma giggled to himself as he pondered on her words for a bit. She was hard rather hard to talk to, but I guess that was just the creature that this world nurtured. After all, blind optimism and undying devotion didn’t seem to hold a candle to this world’s standards of pessimism and duplicity. Boring stuff, really but he couldn’t really complain. That was the world that he was raised in. It was a world that he desperately wanted to find a place in, despite his acting toward the contrary. Just another lost person with a simple goal and no direction. Honestly, the file he had read depicted similarities between the two but reality was never so simple.

Nah… he was learning that the hard way.

”Then maybe I am wrong,” Kazuma answered, his back sliding down the cold steel surface as his legs began to bend until he reached a seated position. Of course, he didn’t think he was entirely wrong. People tended to lose themselves when they found themselves trapped in a box. He knew that all too well. However, he could only imagine how he would change if the box had been smaller and solitary, each day passing without words from another person. Solitude tended to drive people insane more than anything else. After all, there’s no person that scares you more than yourself…

”An eye frozen in time, staring at the past that haunts them. The other searches for the power to escape it… stuck in place with no way out.” He mused, a hand reaching toward his scarred eye while he stared at the ceiling. He could understand the notion, especially considering that he spoke of himself more than her. She may have been going through something similar, but this was a beast of his own creation. There wasn’t a plan for him, other than to run, and he was done running away. ”Even still… Hope is a mistake worth having, isn’t it?” Kazuma would ask, his voice growing a bit more defiant than before. She claimed that optimism was “kin” to insanity, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

”Maybe you fear being remembered… rather than being forgotten…” Kazuma spoke distantly as if she weren’t in the room. He truly didn’t get her… Like most women she had confused him but he was right about one thing…

Her fight wasn’t over…

”I guess I just needed your help. I wanted to understand you so that maybe I could understand myself. Guess that doesn’t make sense to someone like you.” And it wouldn’t have. She had people that still cared for her… if they were able. Kazuma didn’t understand that type of unconditional love. There was always a condition… there was always a motive.

”Maybe I’m not worthy of it but… Help me understand.”

 

[Sanageyama Masaoko]

She sighed, and for the first time since his arrival it was out of guilt and not to be moody. Her shoulders slackened, eyes never meeting him. She decided to help him. Maybe it was because she was too worn to keep a front or because deep inside, Haruka only wanted to give a little good back to her village since the the murder. "Ehh, fine, you win."

"I'm not someone you should be seeking help from, even still... I don't want you to end up like me. I don't want anyone to ever be like me. You're right, I want to be forgotten, but maybe I should be remembered..." She gazed at her hands, as if in a far off dream. Someday, she'd be the moral of a story. The story that warns children of the consequences of evil and greed.

"No matter what, you have to find a reason to protect this village. You may absolutely hate everyone in this place, but you have to find that one reason. It may be the only way to save yourself. That one thing that will keep you holding on. It's important to find a balance. Don't let that cause consume you, but don't lose sight of it either." She still wasn't sure to this day if she had lost sight of what mattered to her in the village or if her love for the people consumed her. Haruka probably didn't make much sense to such an inexperienced ninja, but maybe her words would ring true in the future.

"Ultimately, you have to fight for this village for yourself and no one else's cause. I fought for another's cause and in the end, I lost myself when he died. My sense of purpose, my sense of right and wrong. Everything vanished with one tiny human soul."​

 

[Akechi]

”I win?” Kazuma repeated to himself, hardly believing this victory that she offered him. I guess it was the notion of her guiding one of the village’s youth that mattered, but something about this victory seemed half-hearted. It was almost as if he stared into the jaded soul of a person that barely believed the words that she spoke, but spoke them regardless in an effort to atone. For whatever reason, these thoughts seemed to have plagued her psyche out of guilt. Whatever she believed before had been replaced by regret and misplaced doubt. She was worthless… at least as she was now.

”If I win then you can at least try my cooking. I’ve been trying to get better. A guinea pig may help me out a little bit,” Kazuma giggled, casually pointing to the unopened tray of food, still in the same spot Haruka’s foot had moved it to. If she wanted to give back, this was the perfect way to inject a slight bit of joy in Kazuma’s life. Practice makes perfect and he had been practicing quite a bit lately… though he didn’t have anyone to cook for other than himself. It was the only thing that kept him from thinking about his uncertain future.

Speaking of which… ”Balance? And a reason to protect this place? That’s an odd sentiment coming from a person like you.” Maybe losing sight of something that mattered caused one to retreat into this bubble of self-doubt and solitude but Kazuma just didn’t get that. He never truly understood the emotion. He was never truly connected with another person or even an ideal to cause such a retreat into depression.

”You believed in something and someone died believing in you. That ideal still has meaning. That purpose still has meaning, doesn’t it?” Kazuma asked, wondering why she would forsake something that she had previously given everything to. Being a traitor was one thing but how could you turn against yourself? That was something Kazuma couldn’t understand.

Perhaps, he never truly could…