[Sunagakure] Amakajiba

[Bloodedge]

http://i570.photobucket.com/albums/ss142/vastolordeulquiorra/NP/Sky_Forge.png

The Amakajiba (天鍛冶場, Sky Forge) is a place within the Sand Village between the Kazekage's mansion and the village's inner wall. The forge is where Jounin Hancho and local blacksmith Katsuhara Youko crafts not only weapons of legendary quality (comparable to those wielded by the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist) but also general tools to suit the needs of villagers and travelers alike. The forge's fires are among the hottest in the world, as they are fed from beneath by magma channeled from a volcano in a distant location.

[Apollymi]

Nearly six months after she'd set out to find for herself the ability to know and control her newest power, a small redhead returned to the village of her birth. Specifically she returned in a crimson flash of light to a spot she'd marked almost a decade prior. The woman was ever so calm, appearing to sit cross legged in her small shorts and fishnets with her legs crossed at the knees. If one were to take a gander at her, they'd find, her eyes were not the crimson color that was normal for her. No instead they were pupil-less orange moons which allowed her to flicker her gaze around the entirety of the village from this prime spot. Still, she couldn't help but feel a bit nervous as she absently ran her left hand through her hair. This woman was for all intents and purposes the most powerful person in this village, and yet, she felt a bit like an abashed child approaching the one she'd come for.

[Bloodedge]

Several minutes later, the sound of metal lightly tapping against other pieces of metal encroached upon the forge, repeating along with the footsteps of the one carrying said metals. This man with his long, flowing locks of white bore neither shirt nor armor, as per usual when entering the forge. The metal beams were carried in his left arm, while he carried a large, age-worn scythe draped over his right shoulder. He sensed the presence of the redhead prior to climbing the hill to his forge, but by the time he reached his primary workbench, he was only just glancing in the woman's direction. "Finally done with the sage, I see..." he said casually while placing his materials on the bench.

[Apollymi]

"Uh-huh. The Moonman is... strange," she commented. This of course, was a bit odd, since, she'd taken to calling that particular man, such an odd name. Beyond this, she was rather strange herself, if her lack/choice of clothing wasn't obvious enough she was also just weird in the way she dealt with people. Case and point, the interaction taking place between herself and the apparent forge master. "Still, hard at work I see." She commented unsure of where to point this conversation. But there was a prickling along her skin, which had been feeling since she entered the village. And it was only getting worse. The more she felt such a feeling the more she balled up, pulling her legs into herself and allowing her eyes to dart back and forth.

[Bloodedge]

"Strange indeed. He means well, but his methods are beyond me," the blacksmith replied. As this conversation ensued in whatever form it chose to develop in, he moved from the workbench to the forge itself, carrying the scythe with him. "As usual. Okuyasu-jii is still trying to run that garden outside the village, so he wants his scythe fixed. Looks like he's just been beating the dull end against rocks for a week." Once this was said, he exposed the scythe's blade to the fires of the forge, shifting his eyes toward the Kazekage as he did. Her movements since he'd first taken note of her presence were quite bothersome, so he chose to speak on the matter while the metal heated. "Why are you doing that?"

[Apollymi]

The redhead thought about the methods of the old man at the waterfall. And she decided she agreed with the idea that his methods were unorthodox to say the least. A curt nod of her head would follow this agreement. Soon enough she was learning of an older villager she knew about who was still trying to create a garden outside of the village. The news that his scythe looked as if it had been blunted against rocks made her laugh just a little. Even her her current state, she could see the humor in that. "Okuyasu-jii is funny like that. But maybe one day all that persistence will get him somewhere." She concluded. Finding his determination amusing, even though so far it'd been all but useless. Soon enough the conversation progressed to the point that she was asked about her present seating situation, she'd barely noticed that she was pulling away collapsing in on herself, as she felt the prickle of malevolence across her skin and it made her feel strange. "Oh?" She seemed a bit stunned at noticing herself but she didn't actually change her seating arrangement at all. She simply kept looking around. "I feel anger, hatred, disappointment... and something's..." she couldn't quite place it, but seemed immediately distracted, in fact, her eyes turned away from the man before her without explanation. Before the most recent events surrounding her kidnapping, mental breaking, and new powers, she'd had powers of her own which had been suppressed. Now they were also at the forefront of her abilities and it wasn't something she could stop feeling.

[Bloodedge]

"If he finds a way to pull rich soil out of his ass, then sure," he said. Finding himself dissatisfied with the heat being applied to this scythe, he fanned the forge to intensify the flames slightly, until the blade glowed the most perfect shade of orange for optimal re-forging. Once this had been accomplished, he began reshaping it right above the fires. When the redhead next spoke, he somehow managed to knock away the tip of the blade accidentally. "Chikusho!" he muttered as he dropped the rest of the tool into a bin of water for immediate cooling. "I guess I'm making a new one. Anyway, if you're feeling all that junk, maybe you should be in somewhere different."

[Apollymi]

The old man who had been trying to grow things outside of the oasis area the village was situated upon, was a strange one as well. But somehow Benihime found herself believing in him. Of course, while she thought this over, her words seemed to strike the white haired man before her the exact wrong way, so wrong in fact, that he'd managed to make a mistake on the thing he'd been trying to repair and this was something most unusual to her. Her eyes shifted back to him as she heard his words and felt a tiny prickle from him directly which caused her eyes to widen. "Well, I mean... I am going to leave." she said as she unfolded herself from her balled up position her eyes had found new focus at the far end of the village this time. "But... I wasn't talking about you, Youko." she said as she was now standing in front of him her eyes flickered directly over him and she reached towards him, with her right hand, stopping shy of his skin but swiping away a bit of chakra which she was playing with in her hands as she spoke. "Though, now that you mention it, you've been feeling like that since you rescued me." Unbeknownst to Youko, she could feel those things from him, right after he rescued her and right up until she left to seek the guidance of the Blue Moon Sage. Still, one person, right in front of her, shouldn't be enough to make her subconsciously shrivel up, and beyond this there had been a bit of random scurrying about since she'd arrived in the village, because the hospital had been her first stop and not the forge she was now standing in. "Something's wrong..." she mentioned with a sigh, and holding up the chakra she'd taken from Youko in a small ball. "This isn't all that is here, something worse is around." She finally finished her earlier statement and had the brilliant idea to use her eyes in conjunction with her feelings, the moon allowing her to see the chakra she could feel, letting her trace the malevolence around the village to various places and figure out what was going on.

[Bloodedge]

When he chose to move toward more materials for a new scythe, Youko was halted by the presence of Benihime in front of him. Her outward reach fell short of physical contact, but did somehow create a sphere of chakra which she proceeded to toy with while addressing matters. Instead of speaking on her first clause, Youko chose instead to save his response for the "something worse" of which she spoke. "There couldn't possibly be a great threat to the village already. If you're sensing malicious intent, it shouldn't be much to worry about. Aiko is probably out and about, and she's more than able to stop almost anyone before they are deep into the village."

[Apollymi]

Benihime heard out what Youko had to say after acquiring the ball of chakra she intended to play with for a bit. She was mostly using it to test out this newfound ability of hers, which she thought was directly connected to her moon, but didn't really appear to be the case. As she played with the chakra she found it a tad prickly to her skin but nothing like the other things she was feeling all around. "You know, normally, I'd just agree with that... but I'm pretty sure that is Aiko," she commenting pointing in the direction she could see a different chakra in. "In the ruins of the village, surrounded by a few dozen of those malicious energies." she said pulling apart the chakra ball that she was playing with and allowing it to fall away. Once this happened she used her left hand to pull at her own chakra straight from her core and wound that into a ball as well. This one would have a light orange color like the moon in her eyes as she concentrated a bit further past it. "Hm, and Hakudoshi is with her. It's a trap... probably for me. Oh... and there is someone coming here too... that one reeks of vengeance. But I doubt it's for me." She said calmly. "None of this felt this way until I left the hospital. I'm no detective, but it seems a bit too coincidental."

[Bloodedge]

Youko found himself glancing in the direction Benihime pointed. Indeed, that was the direction of the old village ruins, but he had no idea how or why anyone would take the girl there. As for this other presence, the description gave him a single idea who it may have been. If he was correct in his assumption, one intruder sought him specifically. "No coincidence, no problem," he said, easily having his eyes gain the appearance of moons that soon filled with blood. "We kill them, then we move on with our lives. Them being able to reach Aiko for any reason at all is grounds for at least that, right?"

[Apollymi]

Benihime watched after she made her statements, as Youko's eyes became moons filled with blood at an ease which would have made most people shudder. She herself could fill nothing but killing intent from such a form, and it bristled across her skin as she held the little orb within her hands. After finally having a feel for it, she sighed. This mindset she had presently, didn't lead her to wanting to kill anything. "Of course it is. But, I need... to trade." she said very calmly. A few minor handseals with the chakra in her hands and she made it into a small glowing seal which she held on the tip of her left index finger. She'd reach out for Youko again, this time swiping some of this new chakra with all of its murderous energy and once she had a small amount she'd perform a similar action. Turning it into a small red moon shaped seal she'd subsequently apply to her forehead, with the opposite index finger. "Hey, will you take this for me, and tell me what it does? I'm still not sure yet." she mentioned of the orange seal of her own condensed chakra. Her own chakra in this form, was kind of warm and tingly, but she wasn't sure the extent of the powers she possessed while she was like this. The creation of seals was something she'd always been good at, but she wondered what these little moon seals would be capable of.

[Bloodedge]

"Trade?" he questioned. With his ocular ability active, he could see not only the color of the chakra sphere Benihime held, but also its composition. As such, it became clear that the second construct she produced was one containing the Blood Moon's power. This first one, then, had to be her own moon. Apparently, she wished for him to utilize the power of this moon, and report his findings posthaste. "Sure, why not? I'll give it a go."

[Apollymi]

"Hai, I don't really feel like killing anything or being violent. And I don't think that will work given what I am seeing and feeling around here." The Kazekage mentioned. She at least, had enough battle experience to know the difference between a fight she could win without violence and ones she'd need to kill someone over. And this was definitely the second kind of battle. Beyond all this, Youko seemed to think only for a moment before agreeing, likely after figuring out what she'd done. Given his consent, she moved forward at her usual pace and applied the tiny orange moon shaped seal, to the inside of Youko's left wrist, where it'd likely send a warm tingling sensation up his forearm. All of this done, without laying a single finger on the man's person. "Alright then, I'll return once I've sorted out the Village. Have fun~" she said and if there was nothing else required of her, the redheaded young woman would disappear in a flash of crimson light.

[Bloodedge]

The red flash signifying the woman's departure marked a moment in which Youko heaved a sigh. When he did, the blood-filled moons vanished from his eyes. "Vengeance, huh. That won't end well at all," he spoke, simply in a moment of thinking aloud. Whomever this assailant happened to be, he was certain they would be of no threat to him on this day. In his current state, Youko was of the state of mind that had him taking assassination jobs brought to the village, so no matter what purpose his approaching enemy had, he figured he'd be dealing with them in a very enjoyable way for him.

[Apollymi]

A dark skinned man with blonde hair soon approached the Amakajiba. He was looking for Katsuhara Youko, and knew from the information given to him, that the man if he was in the village could be found here. He made his way up the steps and once he reached the top he drew his weapon a short broad sword aiming it at the white haired man. There was nothing save vengeance and anguish in this young man's face. He wasn't wearing any gear which affiliated him with one place or another, but his general look and gear said he was from the Cloud Village, originally. "Oi, I'm Di, you killed my brother, so you die here and now." He said. Apparently this man had no great stakes in the coup being attempted in the village. He instead, simply wished to avenge his dead brother, who happened to be the previous Raikage. This would become obvious as the blade he held, became lightning imbued, but the lightning on it, was black in color, strangely enough. He'd dash towards Youko aiming to stab him through the chest with the surprised of his attack and his strength alone.

[Bloodedge]

When the man targeting him finally arrived, Youko sighed once more. It was obvious from this one's appearance alone that he was, indeed, of the Cloud Village. Youko may have been previously unaware that the last Raikage had a brother who would seek vengeance for the man's death, but it made no difference to him. "Oi, I'm Youko. I've killed many people's brothers, and I die by no man's hand," was his reply. As the man named Di approached, Youko channeled his chakra into his left thumb, and gripped the sheath of his Bakusaiga, placing his thumb against the guard. Once Di was in range, Youko pushed against the guard to release his sword from its casing with enough speed and accuracy to have its pommel slam against the Cloud-nin's electric blade, parrying the strike while potentially disarming him at the same time. Whether Di remained armed or not, Youko's right hand swept across the space between them to snatch Bakusaiga from the air and re-sheathe it. "You're no swordsman. I'll at least give you the mercy of not striking you down with my blade." As he spoke, Youko looked into the orange moon seal on his left wrist. By focusing his chakra, he caused the seal to fade into his body. As it did, his eyes became the very same moons Benihime used. This gave him the very strange ability to sense the emotional state of the man before him, feeling and seeing it in his chakra. "You're doing it wrong. If you're going to fight with anger, fine, but drop the sadness. Your brother is dead, but if you're still mourning, you can never honor his memory if you're crying when you go out for revenge. That's not how he would have wielded the Black Lightning."

[Apollymi]

The man Di, got confirmation that this was indeed the man he was looking for. Beyond this point, it seemed that the man was more than well prepared for a potential attack. He soon had his lightning imbued blade bounced back with such for as to disarm him. But that didn't matter long term. The sword wasn't his, that much was true, but the fact that this man belittled him so, wasn't something he was prepared for. "So, you just slay people's brothers all over the place, then try and make it sound like we're wrong for seeking you out. Save that self-righteous shit for someone else." The man said, true enough he was simultaneously sad and angry but both of these things contributed to his desire for revenge. Without the blade he had something much greater to offer as far as the use of black lightning was concerned. A singular hand seal, ram would allow the man to channel black lightning and turn it into a large cat like beast. If this man wouldn't accept an honorable death by sword, he could be devoured by the technique he'd learned from his brother. In this way, he felt he did the most honor to his brother, and as a skilled hand to hand fighter it launched towards the man with this technique sending the beast forward at incredible speeds and aiming to maim and devour the man in the black lightning in a single stroke.

[Bloodedge]

"Does your village just produce stupidity?" Youko asked. "I don't mind you coming for me. It's only right that you do. But... not like this," he said. In his fight against the Raikage, Youko had seen the truest form of Black Lightning, and what he was watching form now, was nowhere near its level. He decided he would have to show this man how the true ability looked, and after holding the Harvest Moon thus far, he knew he could do it. "Rozan..." he said when the duo of black panthers were created. His chakra became tangible around him, taking an orange hue as it collected around his hands, which occurred as he moved his arms in a circular pattern, ultimately bringing them together in front of him. When the technique reached a state of completion, he decided to rename it. "Karitori Rozan: Shouteiha!" With the lightning panthers en route to him, Youko unleashed a wave of orange chakra from his hands, consuming the beasts in the most literal of fashions. An attentive enough individual would even take note of the black lightning traveling against the wave, being brought into Youko's body. "Ay must not have finished teaching you, but I know he understood. Black Lightning is a Sage Art that draws its power from your conviction. Ay's signature technique was the Black Liger because that's who he was. Your panther doesn't compare." As his previous technique faded away, blackened lightning chakra enshrouded Youko's body. It was the very same chakra taken from Di's attack, amplified by Youko's own power. With a simple Ram hand seal, he collected this lightning into the shape of a fox twice the size of his own body. "Raiton! Kurofuokkusu!" The fox moved at incredible speeds, taking a non-linear path that eventually led to it pouncing with fangs bared toward Di. As it did, Youko's lecture continued in a way reminiscent of how the former Raikage would have spoken. "If your mind is weak, your lightning construct won't be anything but a spark. Man up and focus on the fight, or you'll never get anywhere because you're too caught up on why you're fighting!"

[Apollymi]

Whatever Youko planned to do, there was nothing that Di could do about it. In fact, he was more than a bit surprised to watch as his entire beast disappeared into Youko. Beyond this, he was receiving a lecture about the nature of the technique in such a way that it reminded him of his brother. A quick beat of his heart, made him realize that he was indeed going about it the wrong way, but he was in far too deep to back out now. "I know I'm not as strong as my brother, but... I can't let that stop me from trying." the young man pleaded. He had a fight to handle and much to his surprise there was now a black lightning fox headed his way. He'd heard about the fight between his brother and the man known as Youko, but he didn't expect this man to be able to just take his jutsu and make it something else entirely. "Bakana!" Di was stunned, there was no way he was seeing this and beyond it, no way he could avoid it. The lightning fox soon made contact and was sinking electrified fangs into his person, even while Youko continued to lecture him. His words struck a cord and when it did the man's entire attitude changed. He created the ram seal once more making a better construct of the panther he'd created before this one was the same size as the fox and would begin to tussle with it instead of him while he retained the focus the fight required.

[Bloodedge]

"Then don't let it! Honor the fallen, or don't fight for them!" This was the final advise Youko had to offer this grudge-holding man. Satisfyingly enough, the fox striking him did not end his life, nor his efforts. Youko's lightning fox was soon occupied by another panther of Di's creation, leaving the two men free to bump heads once more. With this freedom, Youko's now-orange chakra swarmed around his body again, concentrating itself around his left fist. "Still not enough. This is not the day for your revenge."

[Apollymi]

The advice Youko gave was heard loud and clear. Now that Di wasn't wrapped up in why he was here, he was able to concentrate better on what he was doing as far as this fight was concerned. With the two lightning beasts fighting one another, he and Youko were free to prepared a final clash. The black lightning of the young man's body came to both his fists. "Well, I am already here, so... taking it." said the young man with a bit of an attitude. He launched himself towards Youko with superior speed and agility seeming to go left but twisting his body so that his right arm aimed to close-line the man and take his head off his body with the lightning imbued chakra. This was how he chose to fight, and as such he had no regrets, if he happened to die here by this man's hand. He'd done is best, and that was all he could offer.

[Bloodedge]

When Di replied, a sly grin crept onto Youko's face. This was something he could actually respect. Nevertheless, he would not be having someone take his life so easily. The moons in his eyes followed the tan male's movements, reading into them as a very familiar attack was performed. 'Lightning Straight,' he thought, remembering when the former Raikage nearly beheaded him with the same technique. Responding to this was always risky, but Di still did not compare to the man known in life as Ay. The arm aimed at his neck was met with thin air, as Youko leaned back until the attack passed overhead. When Di passed him by, Youko spun clockwise to face him, unsheathing the sword Tenseiga with his left hand and flipping it into a proper hold. He had a technique planned; one that he had learned from the Blue Moon Sage during his time at the Rozan Waterfall. However, he could now honor the man before him, and so, he chose to use his kenjutsu ability and modify the technique by channeling his gathered chakra into the blade. "Karitori Rozan: Shouryuuken!" With an upward slash, Youko aimed to drag his Tenseiga's blade along Di's back, simultaneously unleashing an orange dragon meant to lift the man from the ground while absorbing all of his chakra into Youko's body. The slash, while powerful on its own, would be found to accomplish nothing by way of damage if it struck. In fact, since Youko utilized the Tenseiga, its touch would actually work toward healing the wounds Di already had from earlier in this encounter.

[Apollymi]

Surprisingly, or perhaps it wasn't really surprising given the man he fought now had once faced his brother, Youko had a comeback for Di's lightning straight. It was a unique one to say the least, one which risked much but it meant that his counterattack was almost guaranteed as even Di, could not turn fully to avoid the coming upslash. The dragon which erupted form the man's sword seemed to to devour every bit of chakra the man had and the coming slash he figured would end his life. This would have been honorable. But when Di hit the ground, he found himself to feel, much like he had when he'd arrived only less sad and drained of his chakra. "How and... why?" he asked seemingly confused by being spared this day. But as he tried to move, initially he found himself to feel strange. "What... did you do to me?" he asked. Knowing the man had absorbed his attack earlier to make something new, he could only imagine what had been done just now.

[Bloodedge]

When the dragon's flight reached its end, the chakra creature returned to the confines of Youko's form, allowing Di's chakra to meld into the white-haired man's own. 'Sou ka,' he thought upon feeling the sensation that was this man's chakra becoming one with him. Of course, this was followed by Di's confusion, which led to him asking what Youko had done. "My wife wanted me to test a power for her, so I used it with my own abilities to try it out on you. Your chakra is mine now, but you're still alive, so you'll recover in a day or so. Save your vengeance for another day. I'll be waiting when you're finally ready to face me," he said, placing a hand upon the fallen man's shoulder. "Now... back home you go." With a flash of white light, Youko then teleported the other male to a location in the Cloud Village where he had previously placed a Hiraishin seal. In a matter of seconds, he returned to Amakajiba, hand touching a seal on a side of the forge.

[Apollymi]

"Your wife!?" This was the somewhat surprised reaction of Di, even so, he had nothing to say on the matter. He figured if this man had married a woman, it would only make sense if she was equally as powerful. The thought that there were at least two people boasting a power such as this, let him know that he had goals to strive for, more so than he'd assumed. This would be no easy task but perhaps one day, he'd be able to do something against this man. And soon enough the man was being taken back to his home which was more kindness than he generally expected from anyone.

In the seconds it took Youko to leave, someone else had come to the forge. Actually said person, had been hiding their presence there, the entire time, watching the entire fight take place. She was cloaked in a black with red clouds a hood pulled up over her head and sitting on the very edge of the forage, a habit formed in her childhood. It seemed that the man who inhabited this forge normally had become a bit less angry over time. Nothing about this small young woman could be seen, except if one happened to look into the blackness of her hood, they'd see, glowing red eyes lined with three small tomoe. "Yare yare, Onii-chan~ A lecture and timeout! Ha that has Onee-chan written all over it." She commented.

[Bloodedge]

Youko's return to the forge was not fated to be a lonely one, it seemed. He reappeared to find a cloaked individual next to his fires, in a way that seemed somehow familiar. He couldn't quite place his finger on it, but when this person spoke, he was able to discern their identity in only a moment. "Okaerinasai, Mariketa," he said, only then looking toward the young woman to notice the eyes she bore beneath her hood. "Sharingan? Whose eyes did you rip out to get those?"

[Apollymi]

Surprisingly enough the young woman in the cloak, apparently named Mariketa was welcomed home which made her smile just a little beneath her hood. She'd always thought of this place as home, specifically sitting right here on the edge of the forge. To the man's question she could only shake her head from left to right. "Onii-chan, that's a bit rude. Even I am not usually so violent. I didn't take these eyes from anyone. They are mine. The ones I was born with." She stated with a calmness that was open to interpretation. Truly enough she wasn't lying these eyes of hers had awakened on their own and she'd even been awake enough while they advanced to their current form. Her right hand extended over the fires of the forge and she felt warm and happy here. It was part of what had drawn her in while she'd been wandering the desert in her travels.

[Bloodedge]

"Really now?" he questioned. He found it a bit hard to believe that she just developed a Sharingan in any natural way, but he supposed there was a bit of weirdness about the clan she belonged to. Perhaps this was legitimate. Either way, he'd never pinned the young woman as a liar, so he would at least take her word on this. "So, you're part Uchiha? With red hair... that would be a first. Even with that being the case, aren't you a bit old to just be..." He paused, having come to realize something about Mariketa's connection with the recently slain Uchiha Yuichi. His eyes widened when he came to this realization. "That man... he gave you a cursed seal, didn't he?"

[Apollymi]

"Hai!" Was Mariketa's rather simple response to the man's obviously rhetorical question. She scoffed at the idea she was part Uchiha, such a thing would make her parents disown her. Well they still might given how she looked at present. Moving right along though, Youko finally asked a question which made the small young woman shrink up just a tad as she stared over the fires of the forge. "Yes, yes he did. I have had it for years now, since I first... she seemed to have trouble thinking of the right way to phrase her alignment with the fallen Uchiha Yuichi. "Well, since he first recruited me. It was never actually a problem..." she said as she thought about it. "Until after he died and he started speaking in my head. The Sharingan developed as an effect of me trying to kill myself, in various ways I could think of at the time. And the cursed seal spread itself around as well... trying to force me to do things. Sometimes it succeeds and sometimes it doesn't, I can't really trust myself anymore, half the time I am not sure what I am doing." She finished an explanation of her present situation, not that it really matter.

[Bloodedge]

Youko heard out the young woman's explanation of the... strange situation she'd found herself in. He had dabbled in cursed seals a bit himself, after uncovering the Senjutsu abilities of his clan. He'd become a bit of an expert in Sage Arts; enough that he thought himself capable of perhaps dealing with Mariketa's issue. "I might be able to help you. There's no reason for you to go out trying to kill yourself. Let me see the seal."

[Apollymi]

"Onii-chan, you sound a bit worried. To be fair... I thought it would be best if I died, and just took him with me, but it appears it won't work out that way, I'm not even allowed to die with any dignity." The tiny hooded figure mentioned as she stared into the flames. At the mention of wanting to see the cursed seal the girl pushed back her hood and opened the front of her cloak down to her belly button. The seal itself was at the back of her neck and like most people in her family the young woman was shoe-less, though wearing a pair of half cut off leggings and a small bustier complete with weapon sheath for specialty kunai she carried. "Also, I said I can't trust me. What I really meant was, you probably shouldn't trust me either." She said those eyes of hers filled with another acquired Kekkei Genkai. "Speaking of not trusting me, is Onee-chan okay? I was a bit worried that without knowing about our Kekkei Genkai she might have become a bit... unstable."

[Bloodedge]

"Well, that makes one positive thing he's doing. He at least kept you from making a stupid decision," the man chided. He then stepped forward, moving within arms reach as Mariketa opened her cloak and unveiled the cursed seal she bore. To her statement about trust, he shook his head. "Whether you think I should trust you or not, you helped me, so I'm going to do what I can to help you." In this moment, Youko continued to make use of Benihime's version of his clan's dojutsu, peering into Mariketa's emotional state while also looking over her chakra. He could see the two chakras battling each other as one grew from the cursed seal, but he could also see them seeming to consume one another on both ends. While he observed, the redhead asked about the well-being of the Kazekage. "She's fine, I guess. If nothing else, she seems stable enough." This was all he had to say prior to moving on, reaching out to touch the cursed seal with his right hand. "Ten no Juin. This one is very strong. A lot of time was spent perfecting it, I'd say," he speculated. "I... I don't think there's anything I can do right now. It's weird, but your chakras are eating each other while his is trying to overtake you. Even with yours fighting back so much, it's still growing. I might be able to help, but... not right now. All I can do is keep you from being shut out entirely if he turns your body into a vessel."

[Apollymi]

"You say that, but it isn't to keep me from doing it. It's to protect his own interests..." she said of the being who presently only existed within her. At the very least, she did feel like a vessel, but she also simply wasn't the type to allow such a thing to happen to her, if she could avoid it. To be fair, her death would have been the easy way out, she figured that if it really mattered, she'd be able to find another way. When she'd first wandered here from the desert, she'd intended to ask this man to help her die, but it was becoming rather obvious that he had no intention of helping her out in such a way. At the news that her eldest sister was apparently fine and at the very least stable a small chuckle escaped the young woman, she was immediately relieved though she was quite surprised that Youko didn't have a more fruitful answer for her.

"Stable is good. The Kutai, is dangerous. The genjutsu she was under was meant to spare her the worst of it, taking it off could have been disastrous. Feeling everyone else's emotions and intentions through their chakra, might have made her homicidal and delusional, like what happened with Talon-onii." She said thinking about it just a little more. "Well, given who she is, she'd probably be more likely to go hermit. That also happens." Mariketa offered this information as a warning to the white haired man with her, so he'd know what to look for if the Kazekage went off the deep end. As Youko went on to explain what he thought was going on, she couldn't help but smile. "Of course it is happening that way, if it wasn't, this wouldn't even be a problem. My chakra should be able to ingest anything. It's what my version of the Kekkei Genkai does. It is also why I can properly wield the Shikotsumyaku." The explanation came without any prompting. "So, if you can't really help, what can ya' do?"

[Bloodedge]

"Common interest is good," he replied. The longer Youko looked at this cursed seal, the more bothersome it became to continue looking. Still, he had an idea that would at least help out, if Yuichi's seal came to the point of accomplishing what the man likely wished for. As for Mariketa's explanation of the Kekkei Genkai Benihime bore, as well as the version she herself had, Youko nodded his understanding. "I know. If the two of you are as alike as I think you are, your chakra should have converted his into your own by now. Actually, there shouldn't have been much of a wait time to it, right? That's how Beni's is." Without further ado, Youko took his hand away from the cursed seal, using it instead to form the Tiger hand seal and channel his chakra with the added ability of the Harvest Moon. In doing this, he absorbed natural energy from the surrounding area at a much higher pace than normal. His sclerae turned red, and his canine teeth grew into fangs while his nails became more akin to claws. "What I can do is... give you my own cursed seal. Unlike that of Uchiha Yuichi, my chakra won't try to consume you. It should instead boost your chakra and strengthen it against his. If I use the chakra I have from your sister, it should also hold on to enough of yours that, even if your body is taken over, you won't be swallowed whole no matter what. If you're willing to take a second seal, I'll apply it."

'That's downright adorable. How nice this man is for trying to help a worthless cause like you.'

[Apollymi]

"Ugh." the girl managed. Finding it odd that this man was so intent on saving her life in this way. Of course, she generally found him to be a very kind individual and it was probably why she enjoyed his presence so much when she was younger. As he went on to explain how Benihime's version of the Kekkei Genkai seemed to work at a much faster rate than her own, the young woman's eyes widened drastically. Confusion spread across her face as plainly as it would have a normal person. "That isn't possible, Onee-chan shouldn't be able to absorb anyone's chakra. The Kutai doesn't come with that, she should be able to touch it, but it is more likely that she won't want to, there is a certain level of likeness required for her. It's the reason that version isn't sought after, she wouldn't want to be near other people's chakra, most would burn her. Absorbing it should be like setting her on fire from the inside out."

Whatever the confusion surrounding her sister's Kekkei Genkai, there was Youko explaining what he intended to do. And even going so far as to began absorbing chakra from the air in the hopes of completing a second cursed seal to help save some of the girl for herself. Before she could answer though, a familiar voice spoke within her head. She winced at the sound as she always did, but she'd noticed something about when and why Yuichi chose to speak to her. Her own chakra would likely be putting on a crazy show at present given that such a thing generally dictated the start of a take over. "Oh? You're speaking again, does that mean you don't like this idea? 'Cause, I've noticed this only happens when I'm about to do something you don't like." she said in a gentle whisper to herself, aloud but apparently distracted by the conversation she was having with someone no one else could hear. She looked up at Youko and grinned. "You should do this while I am still me enough to agree to it, I can't say that will last for very long."

[Bloodedge]

"It's certainly possible. Trust me; I'm using her power right now. I absorbed and converted the chakra of the man I just defeated." As he worked toward fully entering Sage Mode, the state he personally needed to enter for his cursed seal application, Youko heard a bit of mumbling coming from the young woman in front of him. He could only assume this was due to Yuichi's voice appearing in her mind again, which did not bode well for what he intended to do. Luckily, this was not a sign of possession. Mariketa remained herself, and agreed to the seal application, prompting Youko to nod.

"Alright then. Brace yourself," he said as he stepped even closer, leaning forward to sink his fangs into the right side of the woman's neck. In doing so, he applied a cursed seal in a shape reminiscent of three sixes with heavy curves. Actually, a close inspection would make them seem something like hollow raindrops that were a silvery-blue color.

'Oh, another biter. He must know you're a glutton for punishment, too.'

[Apollymi]

"Kuso, that doesn't make sense." Mariketa was confused about her sister's manifestation of their clan's Kekkei Genkai, if she could remember, she'd have to figure out why this was the case. At the very least though, she couldn't go home directly, it would be very bad for her to be on the small island which was home to all their clansmen and her parents. Perhaps... she'd be able to get her older sister to go there, and give her enough information to create a leading set of questions.

Before she could think too much about it though, there was the coming application of the cursed seal which belonged to Youko on the opposite side of her neck. It was quite a strange and somehow pleasant sensation, and Yuichi seemed to think something of the application method. "Shut the fuck up already." She mumbled to the voice in her head which was apparently still content to torment her. While the cursed seal settled and had a battle with the previous one, the small redhead girl winced a little and touched the spot where the new seal lay. "Onii-chan the last guy that bit me like that got run through. Just saying, you people should think of less painful methods to apply those things." Now there was the waiting to see how the original seal tried to deal with the first.

[Bloodedge]

As the seal settled in, Youko's Sage Mode faded away. Such was also the case when it came to Benihime's Harvest Moon within him. By the end of this ordeal, fangs were no longer within Mariketa's skin, as there were no more fangs to pierce her flesh. Youko was then able to withdraw. "Gomen. Not much choice," he said about the seal's application method. "To apply that seal with the effects it needs, the user's chakra has to physically enter the body. Cursed seals can be made without the biting, but it's the parasitic type I needed to apply. Don't worry though; you shouldn't have to go through a false death state a second time. Not that your other seal would let that happen anyway."

The introduction of another chakra to Mariketa's body was not received well by the seal which held Yuichi's consciousness. In fact, the seal's chakra went into a virtual fit as this new seal cemented itself. 'Sou desu ka. This is the chakra of my killer and the slave Kage. They must have made up by now. Perhaps you should occupy yourself with them while my physical self is away; I know how you miss our special time together.'

[Apollymi]

There was an explanation that apparently these types of seals had to be applied in the way they were. It would have been nice to know it wasn't personal, but she happened to know this was not the case for Uchiha Yuichi, who likely would have chosen to do it that way regardless. Moving right along, "Well, I mean... it isn't like I need an apology or anything." She said though she gathered a reasonable bit of understanding from the rest of his speech. This new seal was poked at a couple more times but then she felt fine about it, since there was no immediate take over by the part of her which was Yuichi. But...

Then there was his speech. It was so creepy and within her mind with such a strange way. The small girl had returned to her seated position at the fire side and now clapped her hands over her ears, like it would help to shut out the sound. "Shut up, shut up... fucking shut up." She mumbled. She couldn't take this. The girl was rather steadfast in her own right, down right obstinate if one really thought about it, but something about the speech within her mind opened her up just a little bit, and it was enough for the part of her which was Yuichi to take over, though it did so based on the girl's own needs at the time.

[Bloodedge]

"Well you got one anyway, didn't you?" was the white-haired man's retort. Much like Mariketa as she waited, Youko was content to observe and ensure the seal of his application did its job. It seemed to be settling in just fine, but the activity of the other seal was more than a bit disturbing. He had accounted for this when making assumptions about the seal interactions. However, he didn't think the Uchiha's hold was quite this strong. As Mariketa sat with her hands cupped over her ears, he grasped the woman by the shoulders and shook her. "Oi oi! Stay with me here; it needs time to start working!"

[Apollymi]

Unfortunately, given the state of the young crimson haired girl, Mariketa was unable to properly respond to the retort of Youko. If she had it probably would have been something rather simple and childish. Like pretending to be angry and sticking her tongue out at the man, as per something she would have done during the happier times long before this. Even so, she was trying really hard to fight what was coming, and Youko was doing his part to help. Though she'd succumbed to the darker intentions of the chakra which was poisoning her, she was still fighting it with all her might, until of course, the white haired man touched her. "Onii-chan..." there was a pause in her speech. Something about this touch, set the young woman off immediately and while he was shaking her by the shoulders she rather suddenly looked up at him, and with the swiftness of a practiced martial artist swept his hand away from her left shoulder, and drew back in the milisecond it would stake for a bone spike to pop out she'd already be headed for the place his hand was going, her apparent aim in this moment to spike this man's right hand to the wall by the forge. A sinister grin on her face as she did so. "We can't really allow that can we?" she asked of the starting of the seal. Of course, this wasn't really what Mariketa wanted, but in the interest of keeping Yuichi alive and eventually being ready for his comeback, obviously not letting this seal get too strong a hold would be the top priority. And an outlet for the sadistic tendencies both of these individuals possessed.

[Bloodedge]

As he called out to the redhead, his right hand was knocked away from her person and had a bone spiked through it to affix him to the stone wall nearby. This was obviously a shocking turn of events, but Mariketa had obviously lost control of herself to Yuichi's chakra. As such, there wasn't much else to be done. Spinning clockwise, Youko gripped the bone spike with his left hand, jerking it from the stone and his right palm simultaneously, all while turning to face Mariketa again. "That was fast," he said, twirling the bone around betwixt the fingers of his left hand. "So... I guess we're doing this now. Alright. I'm game."

[Apollymi]

Mariketa's countenance looked a bit confused. It seemed that she wasn't really prepared for the man to actually free himself from the wall with such swiftness. "I don't think you are, Onii-chan~" she said of his willingness to participate in this game she had planned. Of course, while she was like this she didn't really care what happened, though part of her was still fighting rather solidly to regain control of her body, the part of her mind that was Yuichi went on the attack again. Those red eyes bouncing around as she created another kunai sized bone spike from the middle of her left palm. "I should make the spikes sturdier." Mentioned the crazed redhead, as she charged again, this time a twisting lowering of her body would lead to a sudden upward thrust towards the man's uninjured left hand as she aimed to spike him again. She could do this and wear him down again, until he was more pliable. Most things were after they bled a bit.

[Bloodedge]

"Heh. You'd be surprised. I've been in a really bad mood lately," he said as the bone spike began being tossed lightly into the air, only to be caught after a few spins. As she came his way again, Youko held the retrieved bone as if it were his own weapon, using it to deflect the second one Mariketa created as it came toward his hand. He did this while turning to his left, letting the bones grind against one another as the one in his hand cracked under pressure. This barely mattered. Youko had a very convenient hole in his right hand at the time, and it was his plan to make use of it. As he blocked the secondary bone, he moved his right arm in a rapid sweeping motion, with an open palm, aiming to sling his blood in the woman's eyes. As an individual with a dojutsu of his own, he knew the benefits of being able to use one, and intended to rid Mariketa of this ability for a bit.

[Apollymi]

"A bad mood, looks like we were wrong~" she said. Though this statement would lead one to wonder who was wrong about what, mostly this was in reference to an earlier statement Yuichi had made in the girl's head about her sister and her husband having made up since the time of his death. Such a thing apparently hadn't occurred yet, or at least this was inferred this way by Mariketa. And as for her attack, it seemed this man was much more swift than one would normally give one credit for, he reacted to the coming attack with the weapon she'd given him the first time, though his was obviously weaker so it snapped as they clashed, he then took this time to sweep blood into the girl's eyes. Which stung and immediately caused them to close. This would normally be a huge hindrance for someone who relied heavily on a doujutsu, but... Mariketa didn't need the doujutsu to be dangerous.

Mariketa took this as an opportunity, her eyes closed she spun creating two forearm length bone knives and then listening for the man's movements she began attacking again, without even bothering trying to clear her eyes. The viciousness and the speed of these bone thrusts could be described as animalistic and if Youko moved to dodge any of the numerous attacks aimed towards his torso, then they'd only become more accurately aimed at his limbs specifically, the girl intended to spike him against the wall, and she'd eventually get her way in this as she tried to blink away the obstruction to her vision.

[Bloodedge]

"Wrong?" he questioned. Though Mariketa remained on the offensive, Youko had at least done himself the favor of disabling her Sharingan. This would be a great enough ordeal if he hadn't produced this handicap, so he resolved himself to make the most use of the time in which she could not see. However, there was hardly time to do much. He had lost proper use of his right hand before the fight even started, which was another heavy disadvantage, but he still made use of the one hand he had by drawing his Bakusaiga in reverse grip. This was how he chose to defend against the flurry of attacks sent his way. In this exchange, he had the advantage of his own dojutsu. He dreaded to think of what it would be like deflecting so many dual-wielding attacks against this woman if she had use of her own eyes, but he had to consider an out before things became too ridiculous. 'Tch! I'll actually end up losing the stamina match-up at this rate. Gyuuki, gimme a boost!' At his command, Youko's Tailed Beast chakra began seeping from his body, producing a chakra cloak with two of its potential eight tails forming. This gave him the added strength and speed to not only continue, but take over the more offensive role in the blade clash. He started pushing forward, continuing his parries while also slipping in numerous attempted attacks of his own in the moments of interim. "For whatever's left of you in there... you're damn good now. I'd have liked to do this without you trying to kill me."

[Apollymi]

The question posed by Youko was answered as Mariketa adjusted to the man's parrying of her weapons as they fought. "Yes, we thought the two of you would have made up by now, based on the composition of the seal. But it seems like we were wrong." Mariketa mentioned, as her onslaught continued. Much to her surprise as she continued to try and blink away the obstruction of her vision, she couldn't tell why, but Youko's strikes became more powerful and practiced, it seemed the lack of his right hand didn't much matter as she had to create the protection of her rib cage of bones around herself to brace against thrusts of a sword she couldn't simply parry or dodge while she continued to try and fight him. His words came to her ears as one of his sword thrusts finally slipped between bone instead of simply ricocheting off of one, a pause came to the young woman as she finally opened her eyes and saw what had been adding to his strength, tailed beast cloak. "Onii-chan, we aren't trying to kill you." She said as calmly as if she'd been herself, as she pushed herself further onto the sword, one might wonder if she was trying to kill herself again, at least until she spoke. "There'd be no fun in that!!!"

The exclamation came and the young woman's bloody mouth opened up and as she spit a newer version of herself out from the shell stuck to his sword. At this point she'd launch herself forward again, this time with a spinning motion as she aimed to spike him with new bones created by her own growing tailed beast cloak. These would be coated in the Yoton nature transformation and melting into place as she aimed to spike his left and right arms respectively against the wall in a way that would leave him in the seated position prostate to her wishes and her in his lap without her cloak to hinder what she was trying to do.

[Bloodedge]

"Tch!" The scoff which followed Mariketa's statement could not be avoided. A nerve had been struck; that much was certain, but Youko's primary concern was the ongoing battle. Eventually, his forced offense resulted in his blade piercing the flesh between the woman's ribs, telling him the win was virtually his here. Such would normally be the case; however, Mariketa continued moving forward along the length of the blade, speaking more as she did so. It was unfathomable why she did this, but much to Youko's surprise, she had gained more from Yuichi than his Sharingan. When a new body for the redhead emerged from her previous form's mouth, clad in her own Tailed Beast Cloak, his eyes widened. And, before he knew it, two additional bone spikes were driven through his arms to bind him against the stone wall again. These, however, were coated in lava, and thus cauterizing themselves to his arms over the few moments in which they first sat. It was quite excruciating, and as if his muscles wanted to tense, but couldn't. Only guttural groans and a gritting of teeth followed, as Youko's narrowed and moon-filled eyes looked toward the young woman now sitting in his lap. "Crafty... I'll give ya' that. But if you're not gunning for my throat, what should I even be worried about? Gonna put me in chains? Wouldn't be the first time."

[Apollymi]

Her most recent maneuver was a success, and now Mariketa's possessed self was rather happily occupying the lap of one Katsuhara Youko. The sounds of his pain, and his subsequent commentary about his capture were quite amusing to the crimson haired lass, and as such she rather playfully laughed in his lap. It was almost as if she hadn't just caused him an intense amount of pain to get him into this position. "We dunno what should you be worried about, to be fair we thought about poking more at the sore spot that is Onee-chan, but it seems we might get to do that indirectly anyways." she said altogether amused as she stared the man in the face. If he happened to be looking at her ever changing chakra, he would notice his own seal starting to properly take hold, but it would be a while yet, for Mariketa's own chakra to completely overcome Yuichi's. It seemed the girl had managed to push this particular interaction one way and intended for it to be less traumatizing overall than it could have been. "We've missed our special time, and Onii-chan's already started. We think Onee-chan should have been included, but if you two haven't made up yet, it's fine with just you." The girl explained in a way which was rather vague but oddly still fitting of the situation. If her meaning wasn't clear enough her next actions would make it obvious what she intended, as she rather easily cut a hole in the man's hakama and found his cock at surprising size. "Neh, Onee-chan is surprisingly good at picking men for someone who doesn't really like them very much." she mentioned as a casual compliment as she began gently stroking his dick, as experience dictated she should to help achieve her overall goal.

[Bloodedge]

The more this woman spoke, the less Youko understood. He couldn't quite grasp why, in the middle of a fight, she decided to sit down and converse with him from his lap, but he would soon be discovering the reason behind this. "Already started what?" he asked, though there were so many more questions. Of course, a more immediate answer would come in an unexpected fashion. Youko's eyes widened when Mariketa's next movement resulted in her slashing through his hakama and commenting on what was naturally found within. Suddenly, there was much he understood. "Oh... I get it. It's not just crazy; it's a personality overhaul," he said, seeming to prioritize this understanding over the fact that there was now a grip upon his very manhood.

[Apollymi]

There seemed to be a great deal of confusion in Youko about the transition made from full on battle to the death, to sitting in one's lap having a nice laughing conversation. But Mariketa would do nothing to fix this problem in the mind of the white haired man whose lap she now occupied. No, as she busied herself with his cock, he seemed to catch up rather quickly. "We don't know what our personality has to do with this, but we think your understanding should be secondary in a moment like this." She stated as she flicked her thumb ever so gently over the tip of him. She found this whole situation rather amusing and was simply waiting for the right stiffness to be reached below for her to continue.

[Bloodedge]

"Really now?" he replied with utmost casualty in the face of Mariketa's words and actions. If she didn't know what her, or rather, their personality had to do with the matter, Youko would offer some level of explanation. With it, he would also shine light on why these thoughts took the forefront of his mind instead of the fact that she presently toyed with his groin. "You should think twice. Once for each of you. Personally, I was just picking at a distraction from the idea that you might technically be a man with his hand on my dick right now. That train of thought is a bit of an issue for me."

[Apollymi]

"Yes really." The possessed version of Mariketa responded. She didn't know why this was so hard for this man to grasp. He went on to rather casually explain that he had an issue with the fact that the small redhead girl possessed presently both a male and a female personality. This made the woman grin in his face. "That seems like it would be a real problem for you, but that makes this, better and not worse for us. It makes us wonder how long picking at such thoughts will keep your body from responding." She stated, apparently it was among the things this personality possessed a dominating need to be a bit of a sadist and whether that torture was physical or mental didn't really matter at present. "Also we would be completely bonded and all female, if we didn't like fighting with ourselves so much." All while she spoke her hands were still moving, she'd even scooted back a bit over his lap, adding a slight bit of sensation to his manhood so she could have a look at her progress a bit more directly.

[Bloodedge]

"Doesn't it? I don't think it helps that every time I had an opportunity to consider trying on a guy for size, I walked off in the other direction," he said, choosing to toss in a bit of cheeky commentary to keep himself mentally occupied. Of course, things were difficult enough already. He was simply waiting to see if his own seal could even hold a candle to what had been produced by Yuichi, but he had always been a very sexually active individual, and much time had passed since his last "fix" so to speak. Most of all, his mind could label the individual in his lap a male, but knowing otherwise did him no service. All he could manage was to keep talking as he had been. "Ngh! Y'know, if you like fighting yourself so much, you could go fuck yourself while you're at it."

[Apollymi]

"Hmm, good thing for you we are not a guy." Mariketa mentioned in response to his rather cheeky commentary. She knew what he was doing, he was trying to wait this out. But, to her knowledge, this man and her sister had been rather active with each other and other people for a long time. If he hadn't made up with her sister some six months ago when they were rescued from the clutches of Yuichi, then he'd likely been denying himself as a result. Knowing this she figured it was just a matter of finding the right thing to trigger him. Since she'd already slid back on his lap, she opened her mouth and allowed her tongue to fall, through use of some strange jutsu, it was extended all the way down her torso to his dick where it would sweep across the tip of him before returning to her mouth. "But we don't want to fuck ourselves if we don't both have physical forms." She mentioned as if it was the most normal thing in the world, only before her tongue trailed low out of her mouth again, she would get what she was looking for even if she had to continue to work for it. Her body soon shifted down his lap more so she could bend and give herself more access. All the while her originally light tongue strokes would become more lengthy travelling down to the base of him.

As this happened, Benihime would appear in a crimson flash of light. She had with her, a basket of food, and sat atop the normal seal she summoned herself to on the table. When she looked up, instead of finding Youko busy at the forge, she felt first chakra which made her skin crawl. Her eyes widened as she soon saw, her sister, orally trying to please her husband while his arms were pinned to the stone wall behind him via melted bones. There was so much confusion over what she should do in a moment like this, that the tiny redhead seemed to be completely at a loss. "Um, this scene is a little confusing for me. Should I come back later, or should I put a stop to this?" Asked the Kazekage. After all, she was not ever a jealous person, and everyone was entitled to do what they wanted. She knew her younger sister, had harbored a crush on her husband, and as such she'd always expected to see a scene like this at some point. But... in this moment, she wasn't sure how on board with it her husband was, so her questioning of this situation was necessary, instead of just congratulating the girl on her prowess and having at her first meal in months.

[Bloodedge]

"Saying 'we' doesn't help your point along much." Much to his disappointment, Mariketa had the perfect retort to his otherwise wonderfully cheeky comment. With this, came a rather grotesque ability that could have only come from one Uchiha Yuichi, that being the abnormally long tongue which protruded from the kunoichi's mouth to lash out at his tool, both before and after her statement. During this time, Youko chose not to let his demeanor falter just yet, though his comment was surprisingly relevant to what he observed. "Ugh. Not gonna lie... That feels pretty good, but I can't tell if I think that's hot, or gross," he said. Moments later, another chakra entered his periphery. Its color was unmistakable, and immediately drew the man's attention. The words which followed, though, were a bit queer. "Confusing? This is confusing?"

[Apollymi]

Youko's words to the girl in his lap made her smile. Leading her to believe he was simply confused about how he felt about this day, she would continued to work. The arrival of her sister, would be initially missed given her positioning, but since she spoke aloud the girl got excited turning, and showing an extremely long tongue as she sucked it back into her face. Youko's response to his wife, gave her about all the information she needed and as such she moved forward with a quickness most people couldn't follow, and even Mariketa seemed to blink at. She appeared right at the girl's right side while answering Youko's apparent question about her confusion. "Well, in my defense, if those were cuffs, and not bones melded into the wall, I'd just assume you'd gotten into kinkier things since I've been gone." She said as her eyes shifted to orange pupil-less moons of her special Kekkei Genkai variant. "And beyond that, violence seems to be her foreplay, and I have no idea what you might have agreed to I wasn't here. Had to ask." She finished up as the girl looked at her sister stunned.

"But Onee-chan, you shouldn't be angry about this, we could have fun together. All three of us!" said the girl as a set of spikes launched out of her back but this just caused the older crimson haired woman to shift even further to the girl's left. "I'm not angry, but if you forced him, it's not fair to him yeah? Besides I'd be more inclined to believe that if you were being yourself. I might even entertain it as an idea... but you feel like him, and I can't even." mentioned Benihime as she reached out and tapped the seal created by Youko with a ball of her own chakra. Such would feed the ability of Mariketa's to eliminate Yuichi's control of her person, but harmonizing Benihime's chakra alone, while being so much Yuichi, made it burn, and her entire body seemed to give out as a result causing it to temporarily shut down as the new seal finally settled, and the smaller redhead lost consciousness. "Ara ara, you just gonna pass out like that? Totally fucking figures." she mentioned moving the smaller redhead from the man's body. "Would you like some more help with that?" she asked of her husband, as she figured he'd probably want to free himself from the wall, or maybe fix up his injured body a bit.

[Bloodedge]

After Benihime's initial response to his rhetoric, Youko leaned his head against the stone behind him, and shut his eyes. Over the course of a few moments, he heard the conclusion of the woman's interaction with her possessed sibling, and felt the latter being dragged off his body. This resulted in an exasperated sigh from the man. "A scythe. My one plan today... was to fix a fucking scythe. What do I get to do instead? Smack some stupid kid around, then deal with ten-foot rape tongue from a man-woman." Now that he wasn't in such a position that would allow his assailant to counter him, Youko evolved his Chakra Cloak to its second stage with three tails. Doing so allowed him to tear his arms away from the stone, and rip the molten bones out to allow his accelerated healing to take place. This took several moments to complete, but when it was over, he returned to his normal state and lean against the wall again. "Now I'll have to deal with Okuyasu."

[Apollymi]

Benihime saw her husband fix himself up, and while this happened he seemed to be lamenting his plan for the day as it had all gone completely down the drain. She understood at the very least, how having such a messed up day, could properly affect someone. She'd had a few of these so called messed up days herself. She could also feel this man's discontent, and unlike how she felt about most people, she wanted to help ease his discomfort. "I'm sorry. Today, has been really fucked up for you, given that list." She mentioned, soon after she picked up her younger sister and teleported her to an undisclosed holding space for more advanced criminals just outside the village. It was the sort of place she couldn't just leave, and it would give them access to her. A few seconds later she'd teleported back and to the seat she'd previously taken. "I'm here to help ya' out, if I can. But only you can make weapons and stuff, not in my skills list. Okuyasu can wait a tiny bit longer, even without telling him exactly why, he's an understanding ol' man. But, I brought dinner, we could talk, you could relax a bit, and eat... It'll help." she said as she pulled a several bento from the basket she'd brought, obviously intending to eat for the first time in months. She didn't know what she had a taste for so she'd gotten a bunch of things intending to share them.

[Bloodedge]

"Ugh..." For several moments, Youko remained utterly silent. Then, without so much as a response or a warning, he vanished in a flash. His return was roughly a full minute later, at which point he appeared by the forge again. He had donned a new pair of hakama, as well as his typical top. "I guess I had a dinner break planned. I can probably finish a new scythe that'll outlast his roughness if I add a bit of time to my night." With that said, the white-haired man reached into the basket to retrieve any random bento he first touched, being in no state to be picky about what he consumed. He wasn't quite sure why so much food had been brought, but he wasn't one to question much of anything at the time being.

[Apollymi]

Her husband soon disappeared in a flash without a word; Benihime was left to ponder whether or not she'd be taking her meal alone, in the full minute he was gone. But when Youko returned he was almost fully dressed with new pants having apparently thought over what the red haired woman had to say. He came back with a sentence or two in mind. A smile came to Benihime's face as she realized she would not be taking this meal alone and as such she opened up the bento's she'd chosen and with a pair of chopsticks in hand began picking various items from each to eat. After a few happy bites were taken she paused her meal to explain what the earlier mess in the village had been. As her second in command, Youko might have actually needed this information for some reason or another. "So, that mess in the village earlier, was Usui trying to kill me. He apparently really wanted Mikunichi to be Kazekage... and that was how he planned to do it. He used the Inquisitor's Son, talked him into thinking it was a mission to kill me, probably figuring I wouldn't kill a kid." she said with a nod. "Aiko and Hakudoshi got themselves captured on purpose, Aiko wanted to figure out what was going on, Hakudoshi was with her and she thought it'd be an interesting bit of training for him." She finished as she grabbed a small dumpling dipping it into soy sauce. "Usui, Yagi and Toda ended up being in on it, so they were all executed with the approval of the rest of the council." she concluded about her general day. Leaving space for more explanations, since there was still the large matter of what their son was presently capable of.

[Bloodedge]

After Youko popped open his own bento, he retrieved a pair of chopsticks from within the box. From there, he first began eating various suchi pieces with wasabi from one end of the packaged meal, hearing out what Benihime had to say about the day's earlier ordeal. All things considered, Youko was never a fan of Usui, or the other individuals listed; nor were they members of his fan club. He did, however, recall doing some work for one of them some weeks prior. "They must have been hard up for money. I happen to have filled an order for those guys, big enough to equip a task force, a few weeks back," he said between bites. "So, did you kill the son?"

[Apollymi]

Benihime continued dipping various dumplings into sauces she hadn't tasted in a while. It was then revealed by Youko that he'd been the one to make the order which likely went to equip the task force charged with killing her. "Hmm, Aiko fought a guy with a kusarigama... and I assumed you made the tanto for the Higuchi boy as well." she said noting the ability of the man and even praising it. "I knew that work was a bit good for the run of the mill, mercenary type." She commented before taking another bite, the words spoken next by Youko made the small woman choke. She wondered why he bothered ask such a question, it'd been quite a while since she'd killed any children, in fact, she'd sworn off the practice after the last time. "Of course not. He was upset thinking I'd mind broken his dad. But... since I don't like leaving stuff undone the first thing I did when I arrived back was wake up Higuchi the Older. When I explained the situation he seemed to rethink his murderous intentions. He's a good kid, I remember him before he was old enough to do anything scary. I wouldn't kill him over being manipulated." The Kazekage explained. It really wasn't in her nature to kill anyone she considered a child.

[Bloodedge]

"There was a special order for a tanto, yeah. They must have been really confident in their mercenaries' abilities. I don't know why; even the Kumo-nin was only a low-tier Jounin. If they were going to use my equipment, they could have just paid Akatsuki to wield them. They would have at least been able to." Moving right along, Benihime had apparently refrained from killing the young male who'd been tricked into targeting her for assassination. This was in line with her normal methods, but the white-haired man thought it to be a matter worth checking. "Sou ka. By the way, I ate the Kumo-nin's chakra."

[Apollymi]

Benihime thought about the power of the given mercenaries, and given this had a rather singular conclusion for why they were the strength they were. "If Toda is the one who made the order, then it was done that way in case something went wrong after all of us were dispatched. Technically speaking we are the strongest in the village, if they hired someone capable of easily taking us out, with no real trickery and mostly force. Then they'd be left to deal with them. Toda is...." she paused. taking a bite. "Was a bit too much of a coward to want to deal with that outcome. After all, they were just trying to replace me with their choice. Fat lot of good that would have done them, if they'd succeeded only to find out he didn't want the fuckin' job." She said, at least retaining enough of her logic training and memory of the Elder Council members to be able to piece together why their plan had formed that way. "All of the weapons were abandoned in the old ruins. Aiko might have taken the kusarigama though, you know how she likes her prize wall." She said of the young kunoichi who was a trophy taker for reasons that redhead hadn't begun to fathom. She kept on eating soon finding an end to multiple bento but move along to dessert based bento as well.

As she found her next course, it seemed that Youko had indeed tested out what the power of her moon did for him, and it gave her great pause. "You...ate his chakra. Do you still have it?" She asked, thinking it a valid question. Again she wasn't quite sure how this power worked, and thus the testing had been necessary.

[Bloodedge]

"That's stupid. Look what going cheap and manageable got them? Their lackeys were beaten, and they're dead. It's a lose-lose situation," Youko said once he came to the end of his sushi portion. Then, as he moved on to the rice, he addressed the likelihood of Aiko keeping the kusarigama he made as a trophy from the battle. "Had I known that, I would have made it look better. No matter. She'll have a hell of a trophy one day," he stated. At last, there was an inquiry directed toward the nature of Benihime's dojutsu. He found it to be a very interesting thing, and to explain the occurrence, he placed his bento next to him on the workbench. "Yes and no. It's mine now; all of it. I took what I could see to test, and I drained him dry when I understood it completely. It seems like I could have done the same in reverse, or even taken myself out of the equation entirely. I guess I should do my job, huh..." As he spoke, Youko looked to his left wrist, which once again held the orange moon Benihime had placed there earlier this day. "Rozan Sennin, when he passed the Dragon Power on to me, told me that I would likely be creating a new moon... but I haven't done it yet." As he spoke, Youko's left arm began to exude a misty, blue chakra which occasionally pulsed outward, as if radiating an even greater power from within itself. "A name. A proper fusion of Oborozuki, and your natural latent abilities. These are the things required to create a new form of Oborozuki. I haven't done either thing fully yet, but I think I can access just enough of the power to do it." With that said, Youko raised his arm, placing his left forefinger just over the bridge of Benihime's nose. The moons in his eyes glowed a very light tint of blue, and he seemed to split the chakras within the woman's body, separating her original Kekkei Genkai fully from the Oborozuki. Afterwards, he not only forced them back together, but molded them into a single, orange shroud to encase Benihime before fading into her being. "Oborozuki: Harvest!"

[Apollymi]

"I never said it was a good plan," she said of the scheme hatched up by the fallen elders. She personally had no idea why the girl had a trophy habit, it was apparently something she'd done even in her younger childhood. Still, she managed a chuckle for the girl's habit, and Youko's mention that he would have made the weapon look better if he knew she would be taking it.

As their conversation progressed, it appeared that Youko had to stop eating to fully explain how her version of his Kekkei Genkai worked. At the news that he simply possessed the chakra of another person she was stunned. Before she could say anything though, Youko mentioned needing to do his job. She looked at him a bit strangely as he went on to explain that the Rozan Sage had told him he would need to make a new moon and she was confused by what such a thing would properly mean. A question was on the horizon for the lass, but soon enough the man was exuding a calming blue mist right over the bridge of her nose, separating her parts and then forcing them into an orange shroud which would encompass her person. It was the final sealing of her own moon, which she'd been told would happen whenever Youko managed to do it. The feeling of her moon fading into herself was interesting, and all the while she maintained the ability to feel chakra. And this chakra he emitted was one she'd felt before, it felt calm like cool water and it was amazing. "Ara, the Moonman said the moon wasn't finished yet, but that it wasn't his place to do it. This power is a bit freaky." she mentioned. But she still felt utterly comfortable in this moment. "I'm glad I gave that to you. I am not sure it wouldn't have taken me a really long time to figure out most of that on my own. Well, I also just noticed something kind of important." she said reaching up to tap her own forehead and finding the seal of the blood moon she'd made was still there, and now visible with a little chakra. "I accidentally made these a bit strong. I meant for them to be one time use... if you don't want yours I'll take it off ya'. I know it is probably a bit annoying."

[Bloodedge]

"I was right then," Youko said, looking at the seal on his wrist once more. The Kekkei Genkai had faded from his eyes during his use of the cursed seal, but when that happened, the orange moon returned to him. He had expected it to disappear after using its power, but it seemed to instead be restoring itself, as if it were his own chakra. "It's like having a second source of chakra that I can access like my own. I think it's worth keeping. I might want something else in my repertoire later," he said, simultaneously producing black lightning-nature chakra in the very same hand he held out. "I don't know if I mentioned, but the properties of the chakra are absorbed as well."

[Apollymi]

"Hm-huh. Gomen, I wasn't really thinking about it when I made them. Seals like this require more concentration. They ended up a bit like the Yin seals, because they were the easiest things to compare it to." The redhead finished speaking. But in realizing that Youko planned to keep the extra chakra anyways because he liked the potential diversity to his repertoire, she only smiled. "Fine keep it then." She said only to watch his extended hand showcase the ability to use the properties of the nature transformation it held. "Oooh, that's pretty cool." She thought with her eyes active, she swiped a little off the top and rolled it into a ball. "I did this earlier and stunned a kid with is own lightning. Hm, it is all yours though, definitely feels like you." She said apparently amused with it. Speaking of children there was a rather important thing going by the way side.

"OH! I just remembered, did ya' know Hakudoshi can teleport? In a way very different from the Hiraishin..."

[Bloodedge]

"It should be very useful. It took a great deal of my own chakra to absorb and convert, though, so I would watch out for that. It wouldn't be a good idea to go absorbing chakra from whole armies, unless you can find a way around it," he said as he retrieved the remains of his bento. As he continued eating, he heard Benihime's notice about their young son's teleportation ability. With a cheek full of rice, he shifted his gaze in the woman's direction. "Hakudoshi's Oborozuki is mutated. After the barriers, it doesn't surprise me that he can also teleport."

[Apollymi]

"Eh, I don't think I would do that anyways. To be fair, chakra has, um... not been pleasant when it's come from other people. I'd have to be much more picky than draining whole armies would allow." said the red haired lass, who seemed to shiver at the thought of touching so many different sources of chakra. Moving right along, apparently Hakudoshi possessed a mutated version of the clan's Kekkei Genkai and as such his developments weren't outside the realm of what Youko thought possible. "Okay, glad one of us wasn't completely surprised. He fought today, and... he wants to be a ninja. But I watched his fights, and for the safety of the other children I don't think I should allow him to be a Genin nor Chunin. He has better chakra control than I do. Logic tests and puzzles would be pointless because if any one in the room knew the answer he'd also know the answer. And he's a bit savage. I am not even sure what to call that Rasengan he used, but it was like three inside of one in a ball which he dropped on Yagi's head, which subsequently exploded. Can't have him just doing things like that to other villagers." she said thinking on it aloud. "It's amazing, his developments are phenomenal and he's only six. I'm pretty sure he has better chakra control than me, but no hand seals..." she said with a chuckle thinking of his angry little face. "Those don't work for him yet. I might end up making him Tokubetsu...." she was simultaneously proud and a tinge jealous at the thought that her child had better chakra control than she did.

[Bloodedge]

After a few additional moments, Youko consumed the final bites of his bento. Apparently, Benihime thought their child to have superior chakra control to herself. Youko had an observation to make about this, but chose to wait until the moment she finished her own piece. Beyond this assumption of hers, she thought to make the boy a Tokubetsu Jounin, which he nodded to. Of all the ranks, he considered the boy to be of Jounin level already, though information from Benihime's outing with the lad gave him reason to doubt his ability to be a true Jounin. When the woman's speech ended, he spoke on the thought he'd been holding about chakra control. "Chakra control comes naturally to my clan. Our entire Kekkei Genkai is all about maintaining a constant balance between Yin and Yang chakras, and those are not the easiest to deal with for most. Having Oborozuki now should help you out, though."

[Apollymi]

A nod came from Youko has he agreed to her placement of Hakudoshi as a Tokubetsu Jounin. And she couldn't say it wouldn't be good for the development of the lad in question. Given his imaginary friend, she figured the young man could use a bit more time hanging out with actual people, lest he become a shut in of his own mind. When she finished speaking she started in again. This time a stick of dango was her choice in food, and as she ate one Youko explained that chakra control was simply something which came naturally to those who possessed his clan's Kekkei Genkai. He also mentioned that now she should have an easier time of it as well, this caused a sarcastic chuckle. "Hm, if I had something like that as a kid, I wouldn't still be considered one by my family." she said in a side ways sort of pouty way. Before going back to her choice of dessert and having another. "Whatever, I'll get it eventually. See what else I can use it for." she said with a smirk at the very least, she might use this new moon based ocular ability to create some more jutsu.

[Bloodedge]

"Whatever the case, you have it now. It also holds the power of your original Kekkei Genkai, at what I imagine is its full potential. Using it alone should passively raise your control." Now that the dojutsu Benihime recently received was a topic of conversation, Youko came to the realization that he had no idea what the sage of Rozan had offered the woman during her time. "So, did Rozan Sennin offer you anything, or is that also something he's pushing off to me?"

[Apollymi]

"Hm, that's going to freak someone out eventually." She said of the passive control increase and added Kekkei Genkai specialization. It was very different to think about, considering she was mostly a failure by her own clans standards. Moving right along though, it seemed Youko wanted to know if she'd been offered anything by the Rozan Sennin and she couldn't help but chuckle as she shook her head from left to right, finishing up a dango and placing the stick back into the box. "I don't think the Moonman is pushing it off on you. He did mention that normally communing with him, his word, gave a particular power to the one who came. But he said he didn't create my moon so he shouldn't interfere, or rather couldn't. He only has power over ones that came before, and ones he created, or something like that." she said trying to recall the details of that conversation. Whatever the extra was, it didn't really matter to her at present, she had more than enough that she could do at this point, she wasn't terribly pressed to drag out every little ounce of power she could get at the moment. "I totally didn't get that at first, but it kinda makes sense now. The one I possess just came into being... fully, so anything else I'd get from it, would have to come from you." She said with a shrug. "But I'm not to pressed about it, I'm sure whatever ya' got later will be something I didn't think I needed but amazing."

[Bloodedge]

"Ugh. Figures," he said while removing himself from the workbench. He had received the information regarding how the Blue Moon worked, and knew the sage could have technically given the woman something, with multiple reasons why. "He could control your moon if he wanted. He has the ability to take mine if I offered it to him; and I did offer it. Besides, it wasn't the moon-related things I was asking about. He gave me one of the dragons from the falls, and in doing that, I gained the knowledge of Rozan itself. There's an entire combat style connected to Oborozuki and that waterfall, but I guess now I have to make up your thing. Whatever. I'll get around to it someday." That being said, Youko discarded his shirt toward the workbench, shifting himself toward the forge with the intention of doing something about the elder male Okuyasu's scythe.

[Apollymi]

Youko finished his meal and removed himself from the work bench. In so doing he removed his shirt and the red haired lass in his presence, took to packing up the discarded dishes of the basket of food she'd proffered mostly so she could return them to the kitchen of the mansion when she did leave Youko's side. The knowledge that the man had tried to give away his extra moon was a bit startling but she supposed given the effect it had on his personality she could understand why this was the case. "Hmm, I take it then he didn't wanna. Still he's pretty cool. I imagine he has some weird reason for doing it that way~" she said of the Rozan Sage. Moving right along with the basket all packed up and having eaten a meal and conferred all necessary information to Youko. She felt relatively calm, and he seemed to be more alright than he had been immediately following his interaction with Mariketa. "Hm-hm. You'll have to show me that new fighting style, sounds like fun," was all she responded to him eventually getting around to giving her something like a fighting style. "Until, then... I think I'm going swimming then doing that shit ton of paperwork which likely came from executing about half the council." If there was nothing else from Youko, the woman would disappear in a flash of crimson light.

[Bloodedge]

"Of course he does. His reason is to push the responsibility onto me, so I can pick up his legacy. I want no part of it," he said regarding the title of sage among the Oborozuki clan. As Benihime made known her intentions for the evening, Youko brought the iron for his craft to the forge. "Alright," he said, as if disregarding the information. With that, he went on to heat the iron, and hammered it to shape. During this time, thoughts returned of the sensation he had when utilizing the Blue Moon. In a way, he thought it may have been best if he remained in such a form.

[Apollymi]

A decent while after Benihime left to occupy herself with her evening activities, Aiko returned to the forge. She had preparations to make in light of Hakudoshi becoming a ninja and intended to make a few things for him specifically which couldn't be found anywhere else. She'd do this work figuring that Hakudoshi was busying himself with his other friend, now that he'd had is ice cream. "Oh? Onii-sama, I figured you'd be done by now." she said as she leaned her weapon against the sword wall, and slipped on the tasuki to hold back the sleeves of her kimono. Once this was done, she began moving around the forge finding the small blanks and things necessary to begin work with what she was doing.

[Bloodedge]

As he hammered away, a voice rang familiar in the white-haired man's ear. It was that of the one who could be called his ward, who, judging by her actions upon arrival, had come to craft something. "Konbanwa. I meant to be finished, but I got caught up on my own end of the events earlier. Oh, and then Mariketa came back. She tried to have at me. Go figure, all I wanted was to fix Okuyasu-jii's scythe. So, that's my day. What's life been like for you?"

[Apollymi]

Aiko smiled as she was greeted and by the time she'd started warming up small pieces of metal the man known has Youko had given her a run down of his day, which included an apparent run in with the Kazekage's younger sister, among the other things which were happening in the village. "Oh? Mari-nee? That's different, you don't sound too happy though. Your day sounds a bit too busy considering what you wanted to do." She commented while turning a small piece of metal over in the fires. After a few more seconds eyes keenly watching she decided how to phrase what happened with her day. "Eh, I was playing with Haku-chan earlier when everything started. We noticed the start of the craziness when several people surrounded us, so I decided to get captured so he could get some experience fighting in a good situation. That went well, Onee-chan appeared, so we got to play targets. Haku-chan used the water dragon jutsu, but it took him a while to make it... too many hand seals. And I killed a guy who had a kusarigama, and it looks like you made it. I kept that by the way." the young woman said as she took out the piece of metal and began hammering it into the triangular shape she was going for. "Also that guy I killed mentioned strawberries in reference to our clan. He apparently thought I'd be weak without a guy with me and I got no idea what the hell that means, so... yeah... fill me in on that, in a second." she said turning the small piece of metal. This looked to be a Kunai about 25 percent smaller than ones meant for adult hands. "Oh, and then we went with Onee-chan to the Elder Council and I beheaded the coward Toda, Haku-chan technically beheaded Yagi, and Onee-chan went a bit dark and killed Usui. I then took Haku-chan out for ice cream, he left without me." she summarized her day while finishing up the shape for this small kunai then she began more finely tuning the shape. This had been the young girl's day for the most part, and even given the events it was mostly normal.

[Bloodedge]

"I heard you had an encounter with the person that got that one. I was saying earlier that I wish I had made that kusarigama a bit better. I would have, had I known you would end up with it on a trophy wall." While hammering his scythe to shape, Youko glanced in the direction of Aiko's work. "A bit small, isn't it?" he asked. When the girl mentioned Strawberries, a reference made by one who apparently encountered some of their clansmen in the past, Youko took pause. This was a strange thing to note, and something Youko hadn't seen in full form for quite some years. "Strawberry Moon. It's a rare form of Oborozuki that requires a link between two people for its power to show. For someone to think that's the root of our Kekkei Genkai, the country must be ruled by them now... or it was recently."

[Apollymi]

"Iie, it's fine. It's actually been quite a while since I've seen one~ It's nice. I picked out a really good spot for it." The young girl said of the most recent trophy she'd taken. She had nothing bad to say about it's craft, and at present she didn't think she would have done a better job of it. Beside that, it was simply a memory for her, something to help her remember in the future this day she'd won. Moving right along there was a comment on the size of her work, there was a deep bit of concentration in the girl, and as such she didn't immediately respond to that bit. Instead she perfected the size she intended before quenching the piece and moving on to make another of identical size. As she punched out this one as well, she heard about the Strawberry Moon which was apparently rare and likely belonged to whoever was in charge of their clan presently. "Sou ka, that makes a great deal of sense." she said then she remember. "Oh and they are small, but I am doing it on purpose. Haku-chan wants to be a ninja, I remember being small, and finding weapons to be clumsy until they were made for me. I figured I'd cut him a bit of slack, it'll make him a good present... and a couple of other things to help him out. He's way smaller than I was when I was his age..." she said. The girl was uncommonly kind, and often found herself looking out for the child of Youko and Benihime. She'd in fact been a major caretaker of the lad when she was younger and it'd helped her get over her own trauma a bit. She was in all actuality just as invested in his developments as his parents.

[Bloodedge]

"Well, as long as you're satisfied with it. I guess it'd be pointless to try and sneak in a better version while you're not looking, huh?" he asked, mostly in rhetoric. Apparently, the smaller size of the kunai Aiko crafted was something she'd done on purpose, intending them to be given to the young male of their clan. This was understandable, and let him continue to believe in the girl's craftsmanship. "That's a relief. Here I thought you were losing your touch. That's very thoughtful of you, though... but I guess you've always been that way. Must be nice to be so empathetic." As he shared these words with the lass, Youko quenched his own iron, and moved toward where he'd placed the original scythe of Okuyasu to retrieve its handle. As he had no other wood of such size to spare at the moment, he figured the old man would simply have to deal with it. After all, the original intention was only to make repairs.

[Apollymi]

The white haired girl would scoff just a little, even rhetorically the question was completely unnecessary. "Nope, would drive me crazy. It isn't a decoration piece someone actually tried to kill me with that one. I actually clashed against that one. I actually won against that one, not that I ever doubted that would happen in the first place." She said, giving reason to why she collected these trophies off people she killed, aside from being a smith's apprentice and simply having always enjoyed bladed weapons.

Moving right along, it seemed that Youko had thought she'd initially lost her touch, making such small weapons, but when she cleared up her reasoning seemed to find it to be solid enough. Even going on to comment about how thoughtful the idea was and a commentary on the amount of empathy shown in it. While she finished up the second of some dozen or so kunai she intended to make at this reduced size for Hakudoshi she laughed at his words, and chided him. "Right? I thought it was pretty good, I've been thinking about it all afternoon, and thinking about other things to hide it from him. I shall see if it works later..." she responded first to the commentary about her work, the last bit though, she found odd so she responded to it as well. "Empathy is learned Onii-sama, and it is something I learned from you." She stated as she continued her work making another of these having found her groove. Her statements about this true, Youko was by far the nicest adult she'd met in her life. And since she'd known him, he'd shown her nothing but kindness and empathy, it had to rub off somewhere. "So, you shouldn't be so hard on yourself, everyone has bad days after all." She mentioned, making an assumption given what he'd said about his rather chaotic day.

[Bloodedge]

"Calm down; I'm not plotting to swap it with another or anything. I mean... I thought about it, but I wouldn't actually do it. I'm just saying, it would be nice if these mercenaries stated that they were going to fight you when they had weapon orders made at my forge. It's almost rude otherwise." All jokes aside, Youko thought Aiko's trophy collection was a solid idea, and one befitting of one who followed the way of the sword. It was apparently thought by Aiko that this empathy of hers was inherited from him. This was something he couldn't quite agree with in his present state, but to each their own, he figured. "Try bad year so far. I haven't been very good at seeing things from other people's perspectives lately. Maybe I'll have to relearn that from you."

[Apollymi]

A smile was on the girl's face as Youko joked, and clarified about his intentions with her trophy collection. "Oh yes, because it's totally a thing for people to tell the smith who they plan to attack with the weapons they have made~" she mentioned sarcastically. A bit of a snicker would come from the lass as she reached the half way mark in her dozen, and took to addressing her calmness in this situation. "Hai hai~ I'm just making sure you don't ever have the idea again." she said in her final jest. As she worked it seemed that Youko didn't necessarily think that he was seeing things from other people's perspectives lately. And he even went so far as to class himself as having a bad year so far, as such, she couldn't help but chuckle at him again. A mock bit of excitement coming to her face as he stated he might need to relearn his empathy from her. "Oh? I don't get many teaching moments! I'll be a stellar example, make sure you take notes!" she joked as she got down to work, she wanted to finish this set before she went to bed, would devote a great deal of her attention to it, even while chatting with the man who'd taken her in as a young teen.

[Bloodedge]

"I'll be sure to do that. All I ask is for short lectures. I can't be bothered to sit in class for any more than half an hour," he said to continue the apparent joke going between the two. These two had always seemed to have a very casual/relaxed relationship with one another, sometimes akin to parent and child, but most times akin to close siblings. A situation such as this one was certainly the latter among their interaction. Since Aiko was halfway done with a standard set of kunai, Youko figured he'd step aside and leave her access to tools he would otherwise make use of.

"Grindstone's yours. If one of us should get any sleep tonight, it should be you, so use all the equipment you need first," he said, choosing to post up against the forge with crossed arms. "Besides..." he trailed off, yawning between his words. "It's always fun to watch you work. You seem so focused."

[Apollymi]

Aiko kept working and joking with Youko, soon enough finishing the actual creation of a dozen small kunai, while Youko joked that he wanted short lectures only. A laugh would escape the girl but her concentration would be rather high. She couldn't help but notice by the time she was finished that the older male of her sort of sibling sort of parent relationship, seemed to have stepped aside to give her free range of the tools she would need to clean up the set of weapons she was creating. His commentary about her potential sleeping made her laugh all the more. "Oh? Really? Me sleeping? We aren't going to go into why that isn't really a thing and ya' know it. You're yawning, you should be the one sleeping..." she mentioned as she moved the set of a dozen over to the grind stone and began work on the first one. The wheel spinning at maximum speed as she began grinding the first down bit by bit and making it perfect and sharp to boot. "You'll end up sleep where you stand. But somehow I feel like arguing with you about this isn't gonna work out." She stated plainly. Her eyes were focused and her fingers perfectly placed to avoid accidental injury. "Also if I looks like I am focusing it's because I am, not all of us have decades of practice in you know~"

[Bloodedge]

As Aiko spoke of sleep, Youko yawned again without even realizing it. Still, he had resolved himself to finish this scythe before nodding off this night, and he would see to it that he did exactly that. "Urusai. You've gotta sleep more, or you'll start slipping. Anyway, you've got a trip to bed to make. I'm sleeping out here again tonight," he concluded. Quite some time had passed since Youko slept in his own bed. As of late, he either slept at the forge, or took rest breaks in areas wherever he happened to be on a mission.

"Decades?" he asked when Aiko addressed the amount of focus she put into her work. He seemed a bit perturbed by this word in particular, and in fact, he was. "I'm thirty. Saying it like that makes it sound like I've been at it for half a lifetime or something."

[Apollymi]

"No you!" the girl said, she was about five or six in on her grindings. All of the perfect ones were launched towards a wood pole which stood in the distance with an accuracy that only required a moment of thought, mostly so the girl could make sure they were properly balanced. "I'm not going to slip, I intend to sleep as I always do. You're the only one slipping, almost into unconsciousness." she said, choosing to keep to herself any commentary she had about him not sleeping in his own bed. Her eyes only flicked up for a moment, as she thought about what these two adult people in her life were like, but it was them so she decided it was best not to comment. Before she could properly comment on his statements he seemed to take offence to a comment made which kind of hinted at his age. The statement that he was thirty made her laugh a little. "Well, I'm 19 and you've been at probably for longer than I've known you... so at least a decade, that's about half my life anyways~" she said with a smirk as she threw another kunai with the same concentration she'd had the entire time. And took up another on the grinding stone. "Oh, ya' know, sleeping out here is probably bad for your back, Ojii-sama~" she teased, bring up his sleeping choice at the last minute for a jab. He could at least sleep in his own bed, from what she'd seen when she'd passed the Kazekage, the woman was sleeping on top of the desk in her office instead of in the bed she normally shared with the man before her.

[Bloodedge]

"Pehh!" This noise was made by Youko when he chose to have his tongue protrude from his mouth, and point it at the young lass. "The amount you sleep isn't enough. You should get more. Listen to an old man once in awhile!" he said. In this, he was simply running with the apparent ongoing joke about his age. "Who am I kidding? I haven't had a good night's sleep in ages; I can't lecture you about getting one."

[Apollymi]

Aiko flicked her gaze across at Youko as she finished another of the kunai, and the man had his tongue sticking out at her as she had recently pointed out the contradiction of his statement to his actions. When he went further to say she should get more sleep she scoffed, he then recanted stating that he also didn't get enough sleep or good sleep. She chuckled just a little. "Yare yare, only Haku-chan and I get good nights sleep. And I include myself in the general sense..." she said as she finished the last of the kunai against the grind stone. She'd found the weight of all of them to be what she wished for and cleaned up nicely and as such she went to collect them. After gathering them up she wrapped them up, choosing to take them with her tucking them into her obi and picking up her sword, finally a yawn would escape the young lass. "S'all good though..." she said as she headed out of the forge yawning once more. "I'll set a good example for ya'. So you relearn them sleeping habits.." she giggled. She wondered how long it would take for the leaders of the village to properly make up, to her knowledge neither of them was quite themselves.

[Bloodedge]

"Hai hai," he said to Aiko's mention of setting an example. When it became apparent that the girl was done with her craft, he claimed the grindstone and worked on sharpening the scythe blade. As the lass walked away, he spared a glance in her direction while continuing his work. "Sleep well. Ja ne," he said. When all was said and done, Youko finished sharpening the blade, and applied it to the handle. Eventually, he completed the work, and fell asleep against the wall with his swords leaned against his shoulder.

[Apollymi]

In a flash of crimson light a small red haired woman would appear. She was still wearing her shorts and fishnets, but her appearance would be markedly different from the norm, with hashed in whiskers on her cheeks and claws on her hands and feet, her eyes full of the moon bestowed to her by the man she was actually seeking. "Do you know the ridiculous shit your son is capable of?!" She questioned immediately, pacing back and forth with a hand in her hair like an annoyed cat.

[Bloodedge]

When Benihime appeared, Youko had barely woken himself. In fact, he still sat against the forge wall, only having recently moved his swords to the side of him. "Ugh... huh..." he mumbled while dragging himself into a standing position. "Mmm... what did he do now?" he asked. As he rubbed his eyes in this moment of waking, he formulated a query related to the current topic, which he asked soon after his first question. "Wait... Why is he only my son when he's doing something you don't like? You're the one that cooked him up."

[Apollymi]

Benihime was still pacing, having noticed the grogginess the man had, she took a moment to gather her thoughts before she spoke again. Still, she seemed agitated beyond normal reason, but that being said, she wasn't actually upset with the child that they had together. She couldn't rightly but a finger on this newfound emotion she'd been associating with her first born, but whatever it was... she blamed Youko for it almost completely. She had a flippant reply for his final query which had to do with why the male child was referred to as his, and the commentary about her having cooked him up. "Sure! I cooked him up. And he still came out looking like you, and doing ridiculous shit like you, your son." she said still pacing. This conversation would go on from this point, as the small red haired woman would rant her way into explaining her current state of disbelief. "Let's start at the fact that he can just use senjutsu chakra. That is something I can barely do while trying. He fucking throws Rasengan. That's a thing. The shadow clones he makes, multiply his chakra, not divide it... and... he just made a Rasengan so big, I could barely see the end of it, and it took two of him just to hold it up. Did I mention he didn't use any chakra doing it? That he can probably just keep going, if I did that shit, if I made one that big, I'd be tired right the fuck now." she sighed turning to look at the man were he now stood. "He didn't get any of that shit from me." the woman concluded her final rant and still felt a tinge of something she couldn't explain in her chest. She was quite proud of her son in this moment, and each of her statements beamed with parental pride, though she didn't think she could take any of the credit for it. Thus the conversation she was having right now, which would clearly show anyone who had a normal understanding of emotion, the mixture of parental pride and the unnamed jealousy at the child's astute abilities.

[Bloodedge]

"Well... yeah," Youko replied while rubbing the back of his head. "Everyone in my clan looks like this, though. And I don't know what you mean by ridiculous, but I don't do anything insane," he defended. Moving on, Benihime properly began the tirade about their son's apparently ridiculous abilities. Youko had to agree, these feats were quite inhuman by his own approximation. Mostly, the seemingly infinite chakra reserves was a troubling discovery. "It's possible that his mutation of Oborozuki makes him able to draw natural energy more easily than the rest of us. I have no idea what to say about how much chakra he has, or how he can multiply it, but... in my defense, I don't even use Rasengan. That one can't be anything but you."

[Apollymi]

"Everyone in my clan looks like me! You overrode me, my baby doesn't even have red hair!" The annoyed pacing of the Kazekage continued as Youko went on to explain how it might be possible. She was a bit relieved to know that her husband didn't know of the ridiculousness of the feats their six year old was capable of. But it still didn't change the fact that he could do these things. Beyond this, Youko felt the need to mention that he didn't even use the Rasengan so that was something that their young son had to have gotten from her. She sighed, stopping completely and turning towards the white haired man. "True, but he still did a you. I taught him that yesterday, and he already has variations on it. Or don't you remember learning Chidori?" Youko had learned the assassination technique directly from the red haired young woman, during a time period where she'd sworn to herself that she wouldn't teach them to anyone. He then went on to make several different versions of it, much to the woman's surprise. Her son did the same thing, thus the activity was one connected directly to the man before her, the thought of it, made the red haired woman a bit pouty. She ran her hand through her hair once more and tried to get rid of the static like feeling that had built up in her while she was pacing. A slow exhale would follow. "Okay, it's cool... random mutation thing... probably. Don't know about the chakra reserves, okay. Still, it's pretty cool." she finally concluded. A smile growing across her face. "Gomen, you were just waking up, that was a lot to just throw on you. Ohayou gozaimasu~" she offered. "I should get back to him, I kinda just ran off without telling him where I went, and since he isn't reading my mind right now... that was probably a bit shocking."

[Bloodedge]

"Yes, and the boy also has a Kekkei Genkai that's been constantly on since the moment he was born! That doesn't happen in my clan, so there's obviously some heavy influence from your people in there," was the man's retort. When his learning and development of the Chidori technique was brought into the discussion, he switched from rubbing his head, to scratching the side of it with his forefinger. "Uhh... well. Yeah, that might have happened. Oh... as for the chakra thing..." Youko paused there, taking a moment to yawn and collect himself before moving on. "Did you check his chakra? Maybe he's using Senjutsu Chakra to keep boosting it back to the normal amount?"

[Apollymi]

Benihime started to argue with the bit about the constantly active Kekkei Genkai. "That's..." she paused, because given her present predicament she couldn't really argue. "Fair. Okay." She said, the man then seemed to remember a bit about his own training, and haphazardly took a bit of responsibility, though barely. This made the small redhead chuckle just a bit, but she wasn't sure why. As he went on to question the boy's seemingly endless chakra reserves the red head smirked. "Of course I checked. And there is no difference. He uses 'the green chakra' as he calls it, specifically to put it around the Rasengan so it stays together. He showed me how to do this." She said beginning to pace again but much more slowly, and explaining her current sage state. "But I watched the entirety of this new technique from start to finish with these eyes. And I felt the differences in the chakra after I figured out what he was doing with the Rasengan. He isn't taking any in and converting it. His pool is just seemingly endless. His body shows it is there, and the amount doesn't drain, but he also just isn't using the Senjutsu chakra for the whole of the techniques. I really don't get it." she said thoughtfully. "I mean obviously he's still only six, so I could probably just beat him with physical fighting, his body likely couldn't take it, but I'm not gonna beat up on him, just because I won't win the jutsu competition, that'd be mean." She finished this statement realizing she'd already thought about it, and talked herself out of it, for whatever reason.

[Bloodedge]

"So it's not Senjutsu. That's very strange. Even the most hyperactive kid shouldn't regenerate chakra quickly enough to make it seem like it's not going anywhere. Hell, even the Nine Tails' Jinchuriki shouldn't be that incredible. We might want to look into that, if for nothing else, then for a bit more understanding about our own kid." Youko yawned once more, moving himself toward the forge as he did. From the knowledge he had of his own clan, there was nothing to go by. But, he knew there were secrets that only the clan's royal family possessed. Perhaps they could be of use. "I may be heading home soon."

[Apollymi]

Benihime looked at the man before her, and he didn't seem to have any real answers. Of course, parenting didn't really have a set of rules, and their child was far from ordinary. Still, she couldn't help but shrug. "Yeah, I figured something like that might be necessary. Actually, I should probably just figure out where my parents went. With the way his Kekkei Genkai manifested, it might be something they know about. And since I can prove I am an adult now... they'll have to tell me." She said, thought this wasn't really something she looked forward to. This conversation had taken several moments and she still had to get back to Hakudoshi. "Oops, I almost forgot. I really gotta go finish up with Hakudoshi. I'll be back, lunch?" she offered, so they'd have a bit more time to speak, in a less taxing situation. Beyond that just talking to this man without their usual closeness was a bit taxing for the young woman, she'd even abandoned sage mode in her lack of concentration. Not that it really mattered at this point.

[Bloodedge]

"Mm. That's why I need to go back. Whoever the royal family is now, they would have inherited all the clan's secrets. Even if they don't know for sure, they might have some connection," he clarified. Of course, his success in this endeavor was completely dependent on what branch of the clan was considered royalty at present, and how the overall clan viewed him since the fall of the Blood Moon Cult. He would simply have to find out when he arrived. It seemed Benihime was keen on returning to the boy of whom they spoke, which virtually cleared Youko to move on with whatever he had planned to do. Before her departure though, she spoke of an eventual return, and offered to meet for lunch. "Sure. I don't think I have any major orders today anyway."

[Apollymi]

A nod came from the woman as the man agreed to lunch. Even so, she was used to such things meaning very different things. So she decided she needed a clear head before returning her attention to her six year old. "Hai hai. Ja." She mentioned before she disappeared in a crimson flash of light. Though her teleportation wouldn't take her directly back to her son, and instead, to the top of the oasis so she could take a quick dip, before teleporting form beneath the water, back to where she went.

[Bloodedge]

"Sayonara," the man said when the woman chose to vacate the area. Once she was gone, he began a series of morning stretches to wake himself a bit more. A quick use of Hiraishin took him back to the mansion to bathe himself, after which he would return to the forge again. As he thought, there seemed to be no requests of any significant quantity. So, he went about a very relaxed pace in crafting tools for the day.

[Apollymi]

An hour and a half after she'd left the previous time, Benihime, reappeared in the forge, with a basket of food in a crimson flash. She was sitting atop her usual place when she visited one of the work benches. If one took a gander at the young woman, they might notice her change in attire, now she was wearing general purpose clothing, pair of shorts, a small tube top which was laced in the front, but still no shoes. Though she'd brought food, and herself, she was still quite nervous about the conversation she should have with her husband. Something about the bluntness of the way her son said she should fix it, still made her feel weird. She wasn't used to conversing in such a way, particularly since gaining access to her clan's Kekkei Genkai. This was such a preoccupying thought she didn't even bother announcing her presence.

[Bloodedge]

It seemed Youko had underestimated the quality of some orders he'd received on this day. One in particular - the weapon he worked on at present - was a Zanbatou of great girth. This weapon was large enough to consume his entire forge with its blade, while still hanging off the edge. He even had to use Water Release techniques to cool it, which he ended up doing shortly after Benihime's unannounced arrival. After doing this, he took a breather and wiped his brow, turning toward the workbench when he did to see the redhead once again at the forge. "Right on time," he said. "Madoka decided he needed a Zanbatou, so I happen to have worked up an appetite. What's on the menu?"

[Apollymi]

Benihime looked up in time to see the man slaving over what happened to be one of the largest swords she'd ever seen. She was quite surprised and even so, she seemed to chuckle at the mention of Madoka having decided on such a thing. "There's a joke to be made about requesting a sword so large... but I feel like I shouldn't make it." She said thus making the joke indirectly. Moving right along when asked what was on the menu for the day, and since she'd given the kitchen staff so much time, it was a surprisingly large meal. The basket she brought today, was huge compared to what she normally had. "Umm, I think the kitchen staff were having a bit of fun, Tempura, Sashimi, Miso soup, pickled veggies and rice. Like a full spread, it's kind of amazing. Oh, and there's Anmitsu and Dorayaki for dessert." she said. Her listing was basically a three course meal, but an old woman had once told her whenever husbands and wives fight, a large meal should be made and consumed together, because everything can be properly discussed if everyone is full. And thus the young woman had figured she'd have a bit of an easier time moving on that.

[Bloodedge]

"It wouldn't surprise me if the joke ended up being accurate. Poor guy couldn't even swing a tanto properly," Youko asserted as he moved closer to the workbench, ultimately taking a seat atop it next to the red-haired woman. Apparently, the cooks in the Kage's mansion were quite busy on this day. For a simple lunch, the amount of food listed was quite the hefty amount. "That's a lot for just lunch. They must be bored in there today."

[Apollymi]

Benihime couldn't help the snicker which came from her at the white haired man's assumption. She didn't know for certain, but the joke was in her head already. Soon enough her second in command was joining her atop this work bench where they would ultimately share the meal prepared by the Kazekage's cooks. At the mention that the meal was quite large, she couldn't help but smile and nod. "It wouldn't surprise me. And it makes me fearful of dinner." she said offering a bit of a shrug. She soon broke open the large basket setting between them different bowls full of the necessary food stuffs in their orders in their portions between them. There were also dipping sauces and bowls of white rice, in addition to the actual eating utensils. It took a couple of seconds to get it all set up, but once it was it was a pretty sizable looking meal. "Sugoi!~" she said before picking up her chopsticks. "Itadakimasu~"

[Bloodedge]

"With a spread like this, I doubt they have anything left for dinner," he commented nonchalantly. With that, Youko retrieved a pair of chopsticks for himself, and waited for Benihime to finish digging through the basket for the various pieces of the meal. When she was done, he chose to begin with a bowl of rice, taking it upon himself to add the sashimi to it. "Itadakimasu," he said while mixing the two, immediately following this by taking the first bite. He was relatively silent otherwise, seeming to have indeed been made quite famished by the day's work thus far, as there was hardly a moment taken between bites.

[Apollymi]

His commentary about there being nothing left for dinner spawned a small chuckle from the young woman, who soon began to eat, while casually glancing in the man's direction from time to time. Even with the idea of them sharing a meal together, she hadn't quite figured out how to broach the subject of the oddness between them. She ate consciously starting with the Sashimi and rice which she didn't mix together and instead had a bite of each occasionally dipping in soy sauce as she did. Not to her surprise the food was amazing, but as Youko seemed to be enjoying his meal, she wouldn't interrupt with a conversation which might spoil it. Her gaze would flicker away from him, and she'd keep eating. 'You are an adult, the least you can do is converse with your husband.' she thought to herself, trying to hype herself up to speak with him. She was more than halfway through her bowl and finishing a bite as she finally let a single question fall from her mouth, and it would likely seem a bit random. "Do you hate me?"

[Bloodedge]

The silence between the two allowed Youko to progress virtually uninterrupted, though this was sure to change momentarily. He was within a few bites of finishing his rice bowl when Benihime spoke, and her choice of words caused him to take pause just before another bite was brought into his mouth. He had no choice then but to lower his chopsticks back into the bowl, and heave a sigh before responding properly. "Now why exactly would you go and ask a question like that?"

[Apollymi]

Benihime had let a very odd question fall out of her face, and she'd be the first to admit that. But Youko's response was no less strange to the woman than her own question had been. She seemed to be thinking about it, and as such had stopped eating while figuring out how to word her query. Surprisingly enough, the Kazekage, didn't have much experience in having these sorts of conversations and immediately became a bit flustered, speaking fairly quickly. "Well, I mean... I would understand if you did. But this is kind of confusing, and things are really weird between us." she said, and then realizing that this likely sounded strange she continued. "I mean, you feel strange, but I don't really get it, and I don't know what to do... so I had to ask... I guess." the woman had gone red in the face, and was now looking down into her rice bowl like it'd defeated her. The truth was, she was very unsure of how to take Youko's emotional output, and she really wanted them to be like they were before, but she wasn't sure how to fix what was broken between them. She figured if he hated her, at least she'd have a clear answer, and she'd know not to bother him. "I mean, if you hate me, I get it, and I won't bug you anymore. I just really don't know what to do with myself when I'm around you, now."

[Bloodedge]

Suddenly, the otherwise vague purpose of Benihime's original inquiry became clear. Frankly, this was a topic that had indeed been troubling the white-haired man for months on end, and he was having his own problems resolving the issue within himself. Only now did he consider that this had been an obvious thing outside of his own mind. "Yare yare," he said as he placed his bowl on the workbench. He went silent for a few moments, using said time to cross his arms and shut his eyes, seeming to be in thought. "Gomen. No. It's just that... well... Even when I have access to the Blue Moon, my other self still retains consciousness inside. I have few memories of what happened when I was in that state the first time, but there is one in particular that shows clear as day. I think... maybe if I hadn't shown up when I did - if I didn't see what I saw that day - things would be different."

[Apollymi]

After she finally finished making her statements, she seemed unable to look up from her dish. She didn't notice Youko's shifting, and beyond this the closure of his eyes. Her own were glued to her remaining rice as she finally heard his voice. It seemed that her husband had returned to fetch her at a very bad time for him. And that he retained the memories of the event, and something about that crushed her just a bit. "Sou ka," she murmured. In all actuality, Benihime also remembered when he'd shown up, and knew what she'd been doing in that moment. She hadn't known how badly it would affect him, though it'd also taken her a little while to get over it. Still, it made a great deal of sense of why he couldn't talk to her, and why things were odd between them. Still, there was nothing she could do about it now, that it was already done. She spent several minutes staring into her bowl.

[Bloodedge]

"Hai," he said with his eyes opening slightly. It was never that he had anything against the woman next to him; he simply could not unsee the visions. It was not quite the all-consuming thing, but whenever he laid eyes upon his own wife, the visions return. "I can see it right now. It's almost laughable. I killed the entire Blood Cult, save Aiko and Hiei, without a second thought... but this is the source of my nightmares." At that moment, the white-haired male actually snickered, though it did seem quite forced. "It's funny, you know? You didn't even know who I was at that point."

[Apollymi]

The woman still stared at her own bowl. His words about what he saw, and the things his nightmares were made of, made her nod her head. She at least understood this, to be fair, she'd been having a similar problem. She felt the bitterness of his laugh at this situation which was kind of horrible, even now. "Yeah, I know. It was the source of my nightmares too." she finally spoke again, her voice rather small. "And you're right, at the time, I had no idea who you were..." she commented. "And then I did, and I knew everything. And it was horrible, because I couldn't explain why I did that. I drowned trying to figure out why I couldn't just stop myself." the young woman said. She realized in this moment, that her husband likely didn't hate her, but that their interactions were tainted by something that had happened between her and the man Uchiha Yuichi. "I was weak, and fell to something that shouldn't have been able to control me anymore."

[Bloodedge]

"Indeed you did. The fact that you didn't originally, though, was the most painful," he said for clarity's sake. In all fairness, the worst thing about the situation was the unknown; that which he didn't see, but knew had occurred prior to his arrival. Benihime went on to note her falling to something that shouldn't have been capable of controlling her, but Youko disagreed wholeheartedly with this. "It shouldn't have controlled you, you say," he said while sliding off the workbench to stand before the redhead. In doing so, he triggered the transformation of his Kekkei Genkai into its Blood Moon state.

"You were against the Sharingan. You can't even begin to fathom the strength of a true Genjutsu. Previous manipulation aside, there was nothing you would have been able to do without falling deeper into the web. Here... I'll show you." From that moment forward, if Benihime happened to look the man in the eye, she would be subjected to the full force of his own Genjutsu. Both individuals would appear within a void world of his creation, occurring in real time. "The key to breaking Genjutsu is first knowing you're being affected by one. That advantage is immediately taken away when a Dojutsu is in use. If you were to start breaking out of this now, I could just as quickly create another Genjutsu within this one. You'd free yourself from here, just to be in the next world."

[Apollymi]

It seemed that Youko disagreed with what Benihime had to say about not falling to Genjutsu simply because she couldn't have been able to avoid this. Apparently, he seemed to make a point of this, which involved him moving from where he was to directly in front of him. Such a thing also dealt with the triggering of the Blood Moon form of his Kekkei Genkai, which also caused the woman to immediately want to move further back, her skin crawled against what could only be described as murderous intentions which made her want to be nowhere near the man in front of her. Beyond this it made her more than a bit fearful. She wished to move, but couldn't given where the white haired man was standing, she was still looking down into her food bowl, and finally found herself moving it away from her, as she pulled her knees into her chest.

"This is what I am talking about. Right now, I don't want to be anywhere near you, it doesn't feel right... it burns... and I'm scared." she said, knowing that this was what she should have felt when confronted with Uchiha Yuichi and she should have run, the fact that she didn't had previously driven her towards madness, but now she simply accepted that it wasn't something she could have fixed. She finally flicked her gaze upwards to confirm what she felt, and saw the Blood Moon, and fell into a Genjutsu. One which Youko explained he could remake around her even if she managed to break out of it. She looked down again, and when she looked up the Harvest moon would be filling her eyes. "Well, fine, if I can't get out, then what do I do?" She honestly had no idea, and didn't wish to ever experience anything like what she had previously.

[Bloodedge]

"You shouldn't want to be around me like this. That feeling you have is the essence of the entire Cult of the Blood Moon. You're feeling something that drove a teenage boy to genocide, and the result of that," he said regarding the state of his Chakra. Once Benihime was under the influence of his Genjutsu, Youko's avatar began pacing the area. Given her choice of questions in this moment, he could gather that her understanding of Genjutsu did indeed fall below the standards of a Dojutsu wielder. "If you can't get out, and you are outclassed, you have to survive. The alternative is... you take control. A Genjutsu battle between Dojutsu carriers is a test of resolve. It's not about who cast the first Genjutsu... it's about who is in charge of it by the end."

As Youko gave his speech, his pacing stopped, leaving him once again in front of the redhead. A sigh ensued, leading into his next chain of words. "I take a great deal of responsibility for what happened. When we trained, I knew you had a weakness to Genjutsu, so I never used one at full strength. If I had, maybe you would have been ready to combat a Sharingan. My other self gave you Oborozuki, but that will only let you know when you're under the illusion. You have to counter it. Switch the roles, make it your Genjutsu, and... use that to show me everything I didn't see before."

[Apollymi]

"Sou ka..." she said of the feeling the Blood Moon chakra possessed. She wondered why it was so very strong before, her own feelings were not very different when she'd done something very similar, which she still hadn't forgiven herself for. His advice for properly dealing with a Genjutsu given by a Doujutsu wielder was rather ominous and open ended. The Genjutsu she'd had contact with before this incident were simple enough that knowing about them would allow you to break out of them, no harm, and their wielders were weak enough to be overpowered and shocked by the ability to overcome a rather simple game. Apparently, this was not the way between proper users of this craft, and it was all about who had control at the last turn, even if you are outclassed initially. "Hm, well... it's not like you can be shouldered with the responsibility for that. Shit happens... I don't blame you for not mind blasting me knowing I was a weaker, hell, I didn't even know anything about genjutsu before I met you. And to be fair, even if you had I am not really the type to have figured out what it was back then anyways." This was all true, it took the red haired young woman quite a bit of time to catch up to normal things. And the fact that he'd helped give her any resistance to genjutsu at all was proof enough of that. She knew absolutely nothing about it before having met him.

The redhead thought this over and supposed there was some truth to it, she wouldn't have had any reason to consider before, but as the white haired man stopped pacing it seemed his request was for her to fix the situation she was presently caught in, and his method was something that caused the woman's eyes to widen. "Now, I am totally on board with trying this reversal thing. But... why do you want to see that? If what you saw already has you fucked up, won't that make this worse?"

[Bloodedge]

"It's not that simple. The same way I could have shown you such Genjutsu, I could have transferred to you Oborozuki, at least in its standard forms. Of course, I would never have thought such a thing would happen in the end, but... still," he continued. There was a certain amount of remorse the man would have regardless of how things turned out in the end, but this was by far in a way not the most problematic thing for the time being. When Benihime chose to question the purpose of his request, he simply seated himself within the illusion world they now shared. "Just... just do it. I need to see everything from beginning to end."

[Apollymi]

It seemed that Youko was remorseful over what had happened to Benihime, and blamed at least in part, his lack of foresight. She generally didn't agree with this, because no amount of foresight would have stopped these events from occurring on her part, at least, this was how she had come to understand it. Moving right along, it seemed that Youko was resolved to seeing the whole of what had happened from the start of Benihime's endeavor all the way to the end, and though she'd watched it herself hundreds of times (along with every other major life situation she'd ever regretted), she still didn't now why he needed to see it. Perhaps it was as simple as not knowing that was bothering the man more, she could imagine if you didn't know something, making it up, would always make it a bit worse than it could be. "Okay." This was all the woman had to say, she'd given up once he'd sat down because obviously he was resolved to see it. She'd watched it enough not to care about it anymore... and as such the next thing she'd do was recreate the scene she'd seen so many times, and experienced herself first hand. Which started with Uchiha Yuichi waltzing into her office, and fighting her. Before he tricked her into a single moment of eye contact which changed her perception of the things around her. It showed the man using the Genjutsu to open the previous one given by her parents. It showed directly what happened when she came into contact with a Chakra which was powerful even if she didn't like it, which would erase all in her head which would keep her from submitting to its power. It showed a rather promiscuous nature, which left her doing exactly what Yuichi wanted in the moments before they left her office together.

Benihime watched all of that and seemed to feel nothing of it, this genjutsu would shift again, showing what happened over the point of her captivity. A burning need to please the person with the strongest Chakra in vicinity. Being taken advantage of, happily submitting to whatever he wanted in those moments because that is what her nature without filter demanded of her. She couldn't help herself in these moments. It happened for days on end for no reason other than Yuichi wanting it to. There was nothing of this woman in that situation, none of the things she'd enjoyed previously with her husband just submitting to the will of another because his Chakra felt wonderful to her. Such would go on, for the entire time each image rather gruesome and happening in stereo as it always had in her head. All the way up to the moment of her rescue the restoration of her abilities, and beyond that the return of all things that were her. Her immediate reaction and all. She didn't seem to have anything to say about it, and once it ended, the world returned to void space around them.

[Bloodedge]

After he sat, the woman acquiesced to his wishes, transforming the void space into the scenes in which this capture of hers took place. His eyes were glued on the ongoing imagery, and he seemed to grow more distraught as time passed. At some point during the woman's time in "captivity" there was a moment in which Youko took control of the Genjutsu again, stopping perceivable time around them. He walked forward then, getting a closer look at an image of the woman's expression as she pleasured multiple clones of the Uchiha she'd been taken by. He found this expression to be one of ecstasy, above anything else.

"... Sou ka," he said as he returned time to the Genjutsu. He then continued watching, until the moment prior to his entry, at which point he paused time again. "Well... that clears things up a bit. I can't say these visions made me feel any better, but..."

[Apollymi]

Benihime got to watch for yet another time as she was taken captive and held by the man Uchiha Yuichi, only this time she had the comfort (or discomfort) of having Youko along for this particular endeavor. At some point, he seemed to stop and look at something taking a closer look at it, before returning to keep watching. She had no idea why he wanted to see these things, but she felt the various changes in his state as he watched and he seemed to grow a bit more distraught over time as the images played out. When he spoke again the woman had taken to wrapping her arms around her person, instead of curling up in her usual ball, his statement seemed a bit open ended so she questioned it. "But... what?" she asked. There was still nothing in this moment that she thought of as being necessary for the man, and she had no idea why she'd decided to just show him, simply because he'd asked.

[Bloodedge]

"But..." he said, pausing yet again. There was a very blatant amount of rage building rapidly within him, and since this was a Genjutsu of his original creation, said rage affected the world itself. The surrounding area darkened significantly, and blood dripped from the moon above as a red mist enveloped the vicinity. When Youko finally finished his clause, he spoke through gritted teeth. "Now I have a focus." When these words were spoken, the copies of Uchiha Yuichi within this world had blood pouring from nonexistent wounds. The blood itself soon ignited into a white inferno to encapsulate the bodies, burning them until there was nothing left of the images. "If he comes back, he's mine again."

[Apollymi]

There was another pause from Youko. The man seemed to be having a distinct problem formulating sentences but she soon felt the reason for this. An inconsolable rage. If she'd previously been wrapped up in herself, she was very presently wishing she could make herself even smaller. This rage burned like wildfire and the imagery in her mind was soon quite literally taking place as misty blood settled above and clones of Uchiha Yuichi, were bloodied by invisible wounds and then set aflame in a white blaze of fire. It became apparent to her in this moment that Youko wasn't upset with her, and would instead settle his rage upon Uchiha Yuichi. In fact it was clearly stated as such when he decided to tell her that the man would be his if he spawned again. "Sou desu. So, you're furious, but not at me." This was a rage she'd never felt before, but she supposed since it wasn't directed at her, she didn't have to be so troubled by it.

[Bloodedge]

When the redhead spoke, Youko's gaze shifted in her direction. "I never was. Honestly, it never crossed my mind," he said. "Mariketa gave me all the information I needed before I went to the sage. I always knew it wasn't your fault; that just didn't change he imagery." With that said, he took a moment to regain his composure, draining the blood from the moon until the mist around them disappeared. "At any rate, you're still in my Genjutsu."

[Apollymi]

Benihime's gaze flickered over Youko as he stated very clearly that he had never really been upset with her. That it was simply a matter of what he'd seen which made it hard to separate from his usual self. After a moment of thought she supposed she could understand it, she wasn't much on this sort of thing herself, and didn't feel many besides base emotions. As such she supposed not being able to tell where his anger was directed was her own fault for not speaking to him about it in the first place. After a few moments of silence, Youko seemed to gather himself, withdrawing the hateful red moon and its associated mists. While this happened the redhead considered her younger sister, and her foreknowledge, and wondered why she'd bothered with such a thing. This line of thought was soon disrupted by Youko's speech about the nature of the genjutsu they were still in. "Well, I suppose that is true," she then thought about something else. Something she wanted instead of this scenery and shifted it to something she liked, the Oasis she seemed to take place in a matter of seconds and the red haired woman would soon be seen atop a waterfall. If this was simply a matter of conviction it would stay this scene as she extended a hand to Youko. "Come on, this will be good." she mentioned, and if he came along they'd dive together into the water, experiencing the nice purifying sensation of it the woman always seemed to enjoy for herself, which was made out to be a Genjutsu within her own Genjutsu a single non-harmful experience she could provide for her husband and perhaps help quell his feelings the way she quelled her own. An idea, she'd taken from her son's use of Rasengan, though applied to something very different.

[Bloodedge]

Benihime's acknowledgement of the Genjutsu led Youko to believe she would be aiming to escape from it very soon. Instead, she chose to transform the world into the image of an oasis, which she offered to have him join her in within moments of its creation. Not knowing where this was meant to go, he reached out to accept the woman's offer, and was soon diving into the water for reasons unknown.

[Apollymi]

With Youko accepting her hand and diving off the the water fall with her they'd soon be submerged within the calming waters. The waters themselves were the coolness and warm chakra cleansing feeling that she normally felt when she moved about in water. But soon it was just a series of the random Youko related thoughts she'd had since returning. None of them were at all negative, and if anything, seemed to show how much she'd rather be doing things with him which would replace her more traumatic experiences, and explained in general how distracting she found him. Things like how interested she was watching him work the forge. How attractive she always thought he was, how distracted she was when she entered and he was shirtless, how much she enjoyed laughing and joking with him while they were alone together. How amusing she always found their conversations, and even more so how much she'd enjoy the pair of them getting naked right now, and making up for most of this lost year. If all went to plan once she felt better in this, she'd push against the Genjutsu Youko had created originally shattering it like it was the bottom of a glass pool, and breaking herself out of it. If she was successful, she'd soon be looking back at Youko directly in front of her before reverting her eyes. "Hm, that feels weird still. How'd I do?"

[Bloodedge]

As he sank into the water, what Youko saw beneath the surface was numerous visions of himself. Within these, he was either paired with, or apparently being watched by Benihime. It seemed to be the case that the deeper he sank, the more in-depth these images became, with one in particular being a scene he did not remember. Instead, it seemed to be a passing thought of a potential future.

Upon reaching the bottom of the oasis, Youko found that the Genjutsu was beginning to falter. Moments later, his consciousness returned to the outside world, where he stood before the red-haired woman at the forge. A moment passed before he returned to a normal state from the Genjutsu, but when he did, he was able to answer the immediate query of the Kazekage. "Well, I can at least say you're never going to live down any of what I just saw."

[Apollymi]

Youko seemed to see all he needed to, and had a rather immediate answer to her query. One which made her eyes widen slightly before she immediately turned her head a blush coming to her face in a way which was much more severe than it'd been in a long time. When she'd created those images she hadn't realized that she was actually laying all of her feelings bare, and she seemed to be a bit at a loss. "Ara... well... I mean..." she paused playfully cross. "You would tease me." she said her cheeks getting puffy in a surprisingly childish way. But when she looked his way again, he was still surprisingly close, she couldn't resist the desire to reach out and touch him now. The fingers of her right hand tracing the muscles of his chest and down his stomach as she subconsciously scooted towards the edge of the work bench, her legs open enough for his body to occupy the space between them, if only he took a step forward.

[Bloodedge]

"I would," he replied. With the woman's hand against his torso, and her scooting toward the edge of the workbench, he grabbed her by the extended wrist and stepped between her open legs. "And you would fall right into it," he continued. It was then, that the white-haired blacksmith pulled Benihime's hand away from him, but used the open space between them afterwards to lean forward, raising his free hand to the woman's cheek as he brought their lips together for likely the first time in several months.

[Apollymi]

It seemed the blacksmith had a bit of sass left in him, as he clearly owned up to the fact that he would tease the crimson haired woman before him. Soon enough he'd grabbed her extended wrist and took the step forward which would let him occupy the space between her legs. He seemed to think she'd fall right in line for this teasing and she wanted to argue, except, he placed a hand on her cheek and brought their faces together for the first time in ages. They kissed and it was something worth enjoying, for her it would start innocently enough as a press of their lips, but if the Kazekage had anything to do with it, it would soon be something much more. She'd slip her tongue into his mouth after nibbling on his lips, she missed him and couldn't be happier to be experiencing this, in this very moment. Her legs closed around him as he occupied the space between them just to extend this feeling of closeness.

[Bloodedge]

And just like that, it was as if nothing out of the ordinary had ever happened. Of course, it was the simple fact that nothing had happened between these two in a very long time which served to add purpose and intensity to the moment in which their lips locked, and Benihime chose to be the first to progress things beyond a simple gesture. This began with a simple lip nibble, but developed quickly into the woman sliding her tongue into his mouth, and wrapping her legs around him to cease any away movements he would have made. This made no difference to Youko, as his intentions were anything but moving away. In fact, he immediately responded to the tongue in his mouth by repeatedly thrashing and caressing it with his own tongue, while the hand he previously used to grab Benihime's wrist found its place gripping her hip instead.

[Apollymi]

Benihime also immediately felt as if nothing had changed between them. But it didn't stop the present since of urgency which she felt as she kissed her husband. Soon enough the man's arms had changed position so he was now holding her hip instead of her wrist. This freed one of the woman's hands to slide up, and around his neck with fingers soon to be entwined in white locks as she forced their faces closer together. All the while the tongues of the two of them seemed to dance inside and between their mouths. As this occurred her other hand was wandering further down his body tracing the line at the top of his hakama, as if she intended to slip said hand into his pants.

[Bloodedge]

With the passage of time, there seemed to be neither halt nor regression to the occurrences betwixt the pair. Instead, things only seemed to gradually progress into further stages. Benihime's hand managed to find its way to his obi quite casually, but Youko didn't seem to hold this sort of restraint. His left hand moved from her hip, up her torso, until sharpened nails slid between her breasts, slicing effortlessly through the laces of her top. Afterwards, that very same hand latched onto her right breast, where it began to rub and squeeze accordingly.

[Apollymi]

The passage of time seemed to let Youko find the need to begin undressing the young woman before him in a rather aggressive manner. A hand that moved from her hip up her torso and sliced the laces of her top, freeing her chest to be molested. If the woman cared about the now cut laces of her top, she couldn't be bothered to respond to it in a negative way. Instead she simply found what she was looking for after loosening his obi at which point she'd begin to stroke his rod, as she moaned into his mouth finding pleasantness in the sensation. All the while she was rather steadily reaching a level of peak arousal which only seemed to feed into her further actions.

[Bloodedge]

As Youko's left hand found its activity of choice on Benihime's chest, his right hand abandoned the side of her face. It moved down hastily toward her hips, where it gripped the waistline of her shorts and opened them enough to allow him to reach inside. Unlike Youko's left hand, his right hand did not presently possess nails manipulated into claw form. As such, he was easily able to begin circling the woman's source of arousal with a single finger, without any form of worry for applied damages. This action was markedly less aggressive than his previous efforts, but for rather obvious reasons, he figured.

[Apollymi]

It seemed that Youko's actions were still rather hasty as he pulled at her shorts to reach what was hidden within. Soon enough there was a more gentle circling of the woman's most sensitive spot under the man's fingers which finally caused her face to separate from his. "Aah~" There was no resistance to be had. In fact her whole body seemed to relax including the loosening of her legs around his body as they fell apart before him to provide easier access to her person. If anything her own body was more than prepared for what was to come, and as such that one finger sliding around her pearl was enough to bring small pleasurable noises from the young woman as her mouth moved towards Youko's neck and she licked a line down from his jaw to his collar bone before settling in to place a line of kisses and bites there. All the while her right hand was occupied delivering strokes to his manhood which now mimicked the pace of his own motions below her waist.

[Bloodedge]

In the moments that followed, Youko noted the disappearance of legs from around his person. This afforded him a certain amount of previously unavailable freedom. He immediately took advantage of said freedom, lowering his left hand to pull away the redhead's shorts while his right hand continued its efforts. Once this was done, he grabbed onto her right thigh and began pecking and licking at the left side of Benihime's neck.

[Apollymi]

After the release of her legs, her shorts were soon removed from her person. This would leave the red haired woman naked atop the table with one of her husband's hands on her thigh and the other busy between her legs. And just as she was giving attention to the man's neck and upper chest he did the same to her, which only elicited more sounds from her person. Her hands stayed busy below his waist as her right index finger slipped over the tip of him, and she got outrageously close to orgasm as his actions continued.

[Bloodedge]

Though much time had passed since his previous encounter of such nature with his wife, Youko knew of he encroaching flourish merely by the feeling of his right hand. Ease of movement had reached an almost perfect point for his lone finger, which prompted him to deftly slip both his fore and middle finger into the redhead's core, with an upward curve of said fingers occurring as they moved toward the limit of their reach. At the same time, his tongue protruded from his mouth, tracing a line up the side of her neck until it thrashed against her earlobe.

[Apollymi]

Benihime was still busying herself, but soon enough the methods of her husband would change. At the moment he when from simply circling to inserting two fingers curving them upward within her, her body tensed like the start of a flourish. This feeling was sent over the edge by the added stimulation of the lick delievered up her neck before the tongue thrashing of her earlobe. The finish which came to her was hard and infinitely relieving and was accompanied by the man's name falling from her mouth. "Youko!~" all while the stroking of his cock never ceased.

[Bloodedge]

And so, the first of what tended to be many peaks was reached. For Youko, this was presently nothing more than a sign to continue, so he did exactly that. With his fingers already within the woman, he began ever so casually stroking at her interior. All the while, he received the constant sensation of Benihime's gentle hand upon his own groin, but this seemed far from his center of focus. "Haven't heard that in a while," he commented upon hearing his own name fall from the woman's mouth. "I'm gonna have to get used to it again."

[Apollymi]

Her first peak reached, the young woman seemed to have relaxed quite a bit. Even so, her gentle stroking of his manhood didn't seem to be at the forefront of the blacksmith's mind. Knowing this the woman changed her methods a bit using her unoccupied hand to fondle his sack, and knowing full well he hadn't achieved release in just as long as she had. All the while he'd continued his casual stroking of her interior causing moisture to leak from within her and other small sounds to fall from her mouth. Having noted that it'd been some time since he'd heard his own name called in such a way and saying he'd have to get used to it again, a huge grin would cross the woman's face. "Um-hmm, wouldn't want you to forget it or anything." she mentioned cheekily. She was more than readily oblige him in this, particularly when his fingers were so busy below her waist. After she spoke she busied her mouth with tracing the man's collarbones with just the tip of her tongue.

[Bloodedge]

"I bet you wouldn't," he replied. Noticing the change in Benihime's efforts, Youko chose to follow an upgraded path as well. To do so, he used the very same fingers he had within her to form a hand seal by straightening them, channeling his chakra to create a Shadow Clone behind her on the workbench. With the clone's body pressed against her back, it reached around her with both hands, using its left hand to fondle her right breast and nipple, while its right hand occupied itself with the pearl and folds Youko's true self previously abandoned.

[Apollymi]

It seemed that as she changed her efforts, Youko changed his as well. Fingers straightened within her person were used to create a shadow clone which appeared behind her. This was very different for Benihime as a second version, of the man seemed to occupy himself with the parts of her most recently abandoned by the original in front. Such a combination of sensations were fairly unexpected, but not unwelcome. "Ah~" a moan came from the young woman, which made her for an ever so slight change in the pacing of her hands.

[Bloodedge]

As Youko continued with his chosen task, it seemed he would have the clone specifically pick up the slack elsewhere. With this being the case, Youko himself brought the pair's lips together again, while the clone behind the woman latched onto the right side of her neck to begin kissing, licking, and even sucking the flesh he found there. Soon enough, Youko would remove his fingers from the Kazekage's body, choosing in that moment to spread her legs further and shift forward with intentions of entering her properly.

[Apollymi]

Soon enough the original form of Youko was bringing the pair's lips together once more. The kiss they shared only seemed to further excite Benihime as the clone behind her latched onto her neck, admonishing kisses, licks and even suction would follow which all seemed to add stimulation to the young woman's body. Beyond this eventually the removal of Youko's fingers would come with a pout of slight protest, before of course, her legs were spread further. When this occurred Youko began the act earnest, gaining entry to the center of the Kazekage with an intimate push forward. This left the woman's hands free to meet his shoulders. A sigh escaped the young woman as she was filled in a way she hadn't been in quite a long time, and an immediate tightening of her nether around him would follow.

[Bloodedge]

Upon entry, a slight bit of shifting was to follow. Youko made the decision to slip his forearms under each of Benihime's thighs, allowing him to also grab her by the hips without disturbing the still-ongoing efforts of his clone. Like this, he was able to proceed unhindered by a lack of leverage; and proceed, he did, starting with lightly winding thrusts of his own hips while gliding at an ever so regulated pace betwixt the shallows and depths of the woman's canal. All in all, the motions between himself and his manhood became akin to gears working in tandem toward his partner's pleasure; when he rose, the woman would receive additional sensation lower, and when he fell, the opposite would occur.

[Apollymi]

After the initial entry, Youko shifted his hold on the red haired young woman. In so doing, he was able to leave his clone to the attentions he provided, while giving himself a bit more leverage with the Kazekage's body. Leverage, he proceeded to take advantage of, as he gave the woman winding thrusts as a pace which was so steady it was almost unbearable. Almost. At every forward push the woman received a sensation lower which caused her to moan her appreciation. "Aaah!~" And every time he withdrew a different feeling spread towards her upper side. Such an undulation of her body would push the young woman towards a flourish which caused her entire body to tighten as a result. The warm flush of this feeling washed over her, sending sensation around her entire form as it happened. "Youko~" a sigh would ensue as her body relaxed from the sensation of her peak. "I missed you." she leaned up then and pecked his lips before slipping her tongue into his mouth.

[Bloodedge]

Youko's movements were soon rewarded with the second cresting of the Kazekage, prompting the woman to state that she'd missed him before her tongue entered his mouth. Moments later, after reciprocating this action, he withdrew his face enough to retort. "It's a bit early for that kind of talk, isn't it? We're just getting started." As if he had been waiting for this cue of sorts, Youko then stiffened his posture, and began a series of straightforward thrusts at a hastier pace. At the same time, the clone behind Benihime tightened his grip on the woman's body while twirling his fingers around her nipples.

[Apollymi]

Youko would reciprocate the kiss the Kazekage offered, before cheekily stating that they were only starting in this endeavor. "Psh, not gonna stop me from saying it." Benihime retorted, before she used a free hand to push their faces back together. True as it might have been, it only seemed to make the woman enjoy it even more. As if waiting on the sort of approval he'd just received, the blacksmith soon went to work at a hastier pace. Pushing himself forward while the clone which held the redhead from behind tightened his grips while playing with the peaks at the mounds of her chest. It seemed to do its work, contributing greatly to the sensation she felt, as she wiggled her own hips against the faster paced strokes, meeting them at each push. The longer this went on, the more this woman felt.

[Bloodedge]

If Youko had any response for the woman's most recent statement, it was silenced before he could formulate it, due entirely to the fact that his face had been pulled back into hers. This neither halted nor slowed his movements, in fact, only causing them to intensify as his grasp of her hips tightened. A minute or so later, Youko's clone leaned its head forward, until its mouth was next to Benihime's left ear. "Yare yare. Do I get left out for being a clone?"

[Apollymi]

Any sass from the original version of the blacksmith had been silenced by Benihime's own mouth, and soon enough her contributions to pacing seemed to only feed into the intensity of it. About a minute into this shift, the red head had Youko's voice in her ear, but as the man's face was presently connected to her own, she knew it had to belong to the clone he'd recently created. Speech directly in her ear, seemed to stroke something deep within the woman, causing a tightening of her nether which wasn't a flourish at all, but simply a deep bit of satisfaction. A grin spread across her face as she realized she'd been neglecting the clone version of Youko just a bit during this endeavor. She separated her face from Youko's and twisted her body at the waist so that she could have a proper peek at the clone whose words made her chuckle.

"Hmm, why would you ever think something like that?" The Kazekage responded with a question of her own. Since she was turned at the waist she had very easy access with her right hand to the manhood of Youko's clone, and as such would begin to stroke him with nimble fingers. "Ah~" the moan would escape her while Youko kept up is work. She'd lick up the side of his neck while her fingers played with the tip of him between the gentle strokes of her hands, a whisper would come from the woman as she licked the line of his left ear. "If ya' get Youko to pull the bottom half of me off this table a bit, I can do this for you properly." as if to hint at what she meant she tongued the side of his neck just behind his ear with a few quicker paced flicks of the tip of her tongue followed by a singular long lash down the side of his neck straight to his collar bone.

[Bloodedge]

Moments after the clone spoke, Youko felt the results. Immediately after that, though, the redhead was leaning away from him, directing her attention to his other self. "Why shouldn't I? I've been back here, all by my lonesome, this whole time," the clone jested. Following a fiddle with the clone's groin, and a lick to its neck, Benihime's whispered words resonated between the two versions of the man. There was a brief moment of eye contact and a grin shared between the Youko's selves, and without much prompting, the original body pulled on Benihime's lower half. Not only did this acquiesce to her wishes, but it gave Youko the freedom to reach greater depths within her being.

[Apollymi]

The clone's jest caused a bit of a chuckle from Benihime. Even so, by the time she'd delivered the wishes to help him out in this situation, the man and his clone shared a grin and a single look, and the next thing Benihime knew, the end of her was sliding off the edge of the table. A giggle came from the woman as she was rather suddenly moved, but it soon shifted to a moan as the original Youko found himself buried even deeper than before. Still having had her wish granted the woman busied herself still turned at her waist at an angle which would have made most people uncomfortable, she lowered her face to the groin of the clone behind her, giving the tip of him a few gentle tongue flicks before she'd practically swallow the full length of his cock all the way down to the base while applying an unreasonable amount of suction, and wrapping her tongue around him. While this occurred the increased depth seemed to bring moans and the like from Benihime which would be vibrated into the clone's rod through her mouth.

[Bloodedge]

Soon enough, Youko's clone officially became part of the ongoing act; something which occurred via very unnatural contortion on Benihime's part. His hands still occupied her chest in the meantime, but with her efforts, there were several moments of pause from the clone. "That's a shame. I don't get to know what that's like until he's dead," Youko's original self stated. Next, Youko quickly slid himself out of the redhead's nether, taking the time between to rotate her lower body out of this contortion until her feet would be able to touch the ground. Before that, however, he pulled back on her body while the clone slid forward. This shift would quickly lead to both versions of the man standing before each other, with the woman bent over between them. And so, Youko inserted himself again, finding his lunges easier to perform in this fashion.

[Apollymi]

Given the clone's pauses, Benihime could assume she was doing her part to help him along. She also noticed the shifting in position of the trio of them, and did what was necessary to help it along while she continued to occupy herself with her face in the groin of the clone even as Youko withdrew to change positions and comment on how he wouldn't get to know what this was like while the clone was active. The final alignment of this trio had the woman bridging the two standing men with the clone occupying her mouth, while Youko himself, reinserted into her nether performing easier lunges which caused even more noises to be passed along. At this point the redhead began to withdraw moving her head to apply pressure along the clone's shaft, while her hips wiggled against Youko's thrusts behind her. With her pulling back of her head, she'd flick the narrow tip of her tongue along the clone's cock, only to follow up with suction which would take her back down to his base, she'd do this repeatedly until such a time as she'd pull back and run her tongue rather flatly along his tip. Her eyes would then flicker up to the clone's face so she could approximate her progress.

[Bloodedge]

From Benihime's rear, the male's true self found better use of his left hand than simply grabbing onto her. He chose instead to slip it around to her fore, reaching once more for her pearl to maximize whatever levels of pleasure he already delivered. In the meantime, Youko's clone was dealing with being completely out of control of his own situation, as Benihime resorted to oral methods his body had all but forgotten about until this day. For the duration of this, there were numerous instances of the clone jerking away slightly due to momentarily feeling as if he couldn't handle what was happening to his groin. "Oi, oi, take it easy. It's been way too long for me to keep holding out against that."

[Apollymi]

Benihime's work on the clone's dick seemed to cause a very interesting reaction. She seemed to be having a very good go of it, and had something cheeky to say but the addition of extra stimulation to her most sensitive spot, seemed to cause the woman's canal to tighten around the original as she pulled back to moan an orgasm aloud. "Aaah!~" she finally managed. The words of the clone then made the young woman look up as she went back to work. This time she spoke between lavishing tongue strokes down his length which stopped just shy of his sack. "Ara ara, you don't get to hold out on me. Now, I really have to stop takin' it easy." the woman mentioned as she flicked her tongue down the base of him and took one of the jewels found there and rolled it around her tongue before she switched and did the other. With an equal amount of attention being paid to both, she'd eventually return to his shaft licking up its full length before she closed her mouth around just the tip of him and batted her tongue gently against it, while applying suction to it with her jaws.

[Bloodedge]

"Tch! Of course you'd say that," the clone said in response. It seemed this one was unlucky, or perhaps just lucky enough, to have been placed on this end of the session. He struggled all he could to resist while the woman continued, seeming to be failing at it. All the while, Youko's original self simply kept increasing the pace and ferocity of his movements at her rear.

[Apollymi]

The words of the clone were acknowledged fully but this didn't mean, that the redhead intended to change her actions. If anything, it let her know she'd soon be rewarded, and as such they continued. Even as the original of the blacksmith upped his speed and ferocity feeding into the building peak the woman had coming, she concentrated her moans and the movements of her mouth on the clone's cock. After batting her tongue against the tip of him for a few seconds, she began a gentle swirling motion around him, clockwise, while alternating that with suction which would progressively take her down his length and towards his torso. Once she reached there, she'd apply the same motions in the opposite direction while using her hands to massage his balls. By the time she reached the tip of him again the simple swirling motion of her tongue and the added suction of her jaws would make it seem like she intended to use the man as a straw all while she reached yet another orgasm right now, her entire body tightening as she did.

[Bloodedge]

Youko's original form had a very simple task to accomplish. All he had to do was keep moving to and fro, and his own peak would only be a gradually approaching end. His clone, on the other hand, was receiving a treatment that was almost torturous. Numerous methods were stacked atop one another, ending with suction and tongue-swirling at the tip of his cock. If the clone thought he'd be able to hold out for long, he was quite wrong. As the woman sucked away as if she intended to use this clone as a straw, that would be precisely what ended up happening. Only a few moments after this occurred, the clone lost whatever restraint he had. He'd be found tensing all throughout his body, convulsing and throbbing away before releasing his essence en masse then and there.

[Apollymi]

Benihime's work on the clone seemed to be going quite well, and by the time she reached her next peak, the clone was reaching his as well. Leaving her with a mouthful of his finish which she swallowed without restraint or hesitation. She looked up as she finished, licking her lips clear of a few creamy splotches. "Gochiso sama deshita!~" The woman finished as Youko the one behind her, seemed to be rather steadily going in on her. And soon enough the young woman would be pushing back against him as well, seeming to add friction and speed to their already existing activity.

[Bloodedge]

Moments after the clone's finish, it looked down again to see the redhead licking her lips and looking it in the eye. Just then, a puff of smoke signaled the clone's disappearance. Youko's movements did not cease then, as there was still velocity to be added over minutes to come. However, he did note the vanishing clone's experiences. "Sugoi! Didn't feel like holding anything back on that one, huh? Shall I make another?" he asked, leaving the decision completely up to the Kazekage herself.

[Apollymi]

"I mean... no need to right? I knew you'd get to experience it, so I wouldn't hold out on you... ah~" the speed of their activity seemed to catch up with her for just a moment, and as it did, she also had to consider the usefulness of making another clone came into her mind. She thought about it for a few seconds before a rather wicked grin spread across her face and she turned to look back at Youko as he continued his work. "Make another one... and you switch. I got new ideas~" the woman mentioned, having a full new set of techniques to try out on the man some of which she intended for him to experience in a much more direct manner. If given her wish over the next couple of hours positions would be changed, and when she was next seen she'd be stretched out over the work bench with a clone plunging in and out of her nether while her husband fed himself without resistance down her throat with her head upside down.

[Bloodedge]

"Hai hai." After they had come to this new agreement, Youko spawned another Shadow Clone nearby, and removed himself from the Kage. Much later, it seemed Youko was able to experience first-hand the treatment previously received by his clone. And, with Youko's new self also being a clone, the latter was able to put forth ridiculously tiring amounts of effort without risking the long-run.

Some time later, it was Youko who would be found atop the workbench, with Benihime held over him by eight tentacle-like tails growing out of the man's backside. Eight more of these tails supported another of his clones, who hovered above the woman's body while the original form forced the woman's movements between the two. As Youko pulled her upward to a more shallow point of her nether, the clone would fall deeper into her mouth, and vice-versa.

[Apollymi]

Their agreement had given Youko first hand knowledge of the oral skills the Kazekage was apparently still honing over time. And as they shifted and moved along, she soon found the incorporation of tailed beasts into the kind of play which they busied themselves with. She was presently being held by multiple tentacles, and this chakra much like Youko's own didn't seem to have any sort of negative drawbacks. In fact, she was becoming a bit power drunk as a clone's cock was fed down her throat as Youko himself moved the woman up and down in his own lap. "Aaaah~" the muffled sound would come from around the clone, as her throat vibrated around his girth and she tightened, reaching orgasm once more, she'd eventually find them changed once more.

In the final stretch of their particular session, she'd decide she wanted to finish similar to how they'd started. She'd be facing Youko with no clones involved, and instead two blue flaming tails sprouting from her own back as she rather vigorously rocked back and forth in the blacksmith's lap. She leaned in to kiss him pecking his lips, and face while wrapping her arms around him.

[Bloodedge]

The next change would, without a doubt, be the very last for this particular session. With this position of choice, there were no more clones of Youko; all had long since disappeared, and Youko himself seemed to be reaching his own limit. As Benihime leaned forward to start them kissing again, the white-haired male felt himself reaching the same absolute limit multiple clones had experienced thus far. When there was no time left, he applied a tight grip to either side of the redhead's waist. His breathing had already hastened over the course of this round, and with a mighty grunt, all the tension that had built in his body was released, along with his seed.

[Apollymi]

Benihime's own peak was forthcoming, as she felt the undeniable tingle from within her nether. Even so, her movements continued, and she instead noted the coming finish of her husband, marked by his heavier breathing, the tightening of his hands around her waist, and then finally a grunt and his relieved tension and the unique sensation of being filled from within. Such was enough to push her over the edge, as she got to experience this for the first time in ages, and after their kiss ended she'd moan her contentment into his face while settled into his lap. "Ooh~ Youko!~" was the woman's final expression as she hit a supreme level of relaxation and her tails disappeared as she relaxed into his body.

[Bloodedge]

A sigh of contentment escaped Youko as his back and head collapsed onto the workbench. His respiration started its path toward a normal pattern soon after, while Benihime went about relaxing atop him. "Huhh... that was a long time coming," he commented. He was content to relax for several minutes thereafter, but some fifteen minutes later, he was leaning against the workbench and tying his obi, having popped out for a bit to clean himself off a bit.

[Apollymi]

"Yep." Benihime agreed as she regained her composure atop him. It seemed that the pair of them were both content to simply allow themselves to relax in their post-coital bliss at least for a few minutes. At the same time she knew eventually they'd have to be people again, so she enjoyed these moments of closeness with her husband radiating much contentment and feeling it from him as well.

By the time Youko was standing in front of the table fixing is obi, Benihime was sitting atop the workbench freshened up with, wet hair which dripped down her back, and a huge smile on her face. She sat there, happily swaying by herself as she relaced her top around her chest, so that she'd be dressed once more.

[Bloodedge]

With his obi in place, Youko went on to consider what he was to do next. This resulted in him looking toward the forge to see the zanbatou he was meant to be working on. However, when he moved, it was toward Benihime instead. "Mendokuse. There's a lot I should be doing here, but..." As he approached with a sly grin on his face, Youko was stopped dead in his tracks. This was due to the sudden appearance of three individuals via Hakudoshi's teleportation, including the boy himself, Aiko, and a man whom Youko had never met. Hakudoshi himself appeared with eyes locked on his father, having only a single word to share with the man. "No."

[Apollymi]

Benihime had finished fixing her clothes, but it seemed her husband was a bit torn about what he wanted to do next. After all he had a major project to be working on, and the red head was rather content to sit, and watch him work. But other ideas seemed to be on the man's mind, and given her propensity for feeling chakra she already knew as he approached her. "Ara ara, you know we could..." but whatever would have finished that sentence the single word no from her son drew the red head's attention away from the man in front of her. "REALLY?" She asked, she was never actually upset with her son, but she was about to at least demand an explanation given that he'd been the one to tell her to fix things between herself and her husband. But... there was someone else with them, and it gave her great pause to see this man again. She was stunned really, into silence.

Aiko on the other hand who'd arrived with Hakudoshi and the other man only chuckled. "Yep, knew it." she said, looking to Hiyama to confirm that the pair were about to start up again. It would be then Aiko's attention would be diverted to the zanbatou. "Who the hell ordered a sword that big?" She questioned, noting the recognition across Benihime's face she moved right along.

"Machi?! What the hell kind of time do you call this?"

[Bloodedge]

"... Of course. Ohayou, Haku," the white-haired man replied with a sigh. In the meantime, Machi noted Aiko's apparent correct call on what was soon to happen if they didn't arrive here quickly. "Alright, so who's the lucky wo-" As he spoke, he turned to face Youko. This was stunning. Aside from the three newcomers and Benihime, there were none here, save this male figure. "... Man?" With that said, Machi shifted around Youko numerous times, inspecting his form until taking pause while looking at his hair. "Took a moment, but yeah... definitely a man, right?"

"I... am a man, yes," Youko said through a blatant amount of confusion. Without lingering on this too long, he shifted his gaze toward Aiko. "Would you believe me if I said Madoka made the order?" he asked in response to her opening query. Machi, it seemed, had already moved on to address Benihime. "Beni-chan! Forget all that! You're MARRIED now!? To a man!? WHAT!?"

[Apollymi]

Benihime had been about to start a tirade on how late the man before her was in his return. But, it seemed he was more caught up on who she was married to, more over that it seemed to have taken him completely by surprise. "Yes, I'm married to a man. Katsuhara Youko, blacksmith, Jounin Hancho... Him." she said her head nodding in the blacksmith's direction. Of course, she realized it'd been more than a decade since she'd last seen the Second Kazekage, so he wouldn't know how her tastes had shifted a bit since the last time they'd seen each other. Even so, this amount of attention was a little embarrassing. "I am going to need you to calm down, you're making a really big deal about this." Benihime said a reddish tint coming to her face. Though she expected some friction from her variable life choices, she didn't expect the previous Kazekage to make such a big deal out of it. "Seriously, take your job back, it's so much paperwork. And they keep me locked up in here... I wanna go out... and do stuff. Speaking of going out and doing stuff, where have you been? They made me take your job."

As the Kazekage caught up with the previous one, it seemed that Aiko was being told that the order for the giant sword was from Madoka. She couldn't help but laugh. Actually it was more than a laugh, the girl became nearly hysterical, tears forming in the corner of her eyes as she laughed so hard at the idea of the young man known as Madoka, ordering this sword. "What would he go and do that for? You might as well make it cute, I don't own one of those yet... " she said standing up a bit straighter and wiping the corner of her eye. "Hm, I'll have to pick out a spot for it."

[Bloodedge]

"Aww man," Machi replied while rubbing the back of his head. "And I don't even get an invite. Is there still cake?" he asked. When that was over, he held his right arm akimbo while his left hung at his side to hold the herder's staff he wielded. Of course, Benihime virtually demanded that he return to the position of Kage. Whether this was jest or seriousness, his answer remained the same. "Why would I do that? I wanted you to be Kazekage. Though, it's my understanding that Ookami came back for a bit? Why'd that happen?"

Since his previous idea was obviously being put on hold for an undisclosed amount of time, Youko moved toward the forge and zanbatou he was meant to work on. While Benihime caught up with an apparent former Kazekage, he decided to continue chatting with Aiko, with Hakudoshi seeming content to begin skipping around the area. "He's still using you as a milestone then, huh? I wonder when he'll realize that he'd be better off sticking to one blade and learning how to wield it properly."

[Apollymi]

"You were missing in action, why would you get an invite or a cake. They figured you died somewhere. Besides, the council forced me to get married." She said running a hand through her hair. The truth of the matter was, given hers and Youko's propensity to engage in random sexual activity anywhere they could squeeze it in, it was a moral demand by the council that they at least marry each other to avoid setting a bad precedent. Moving right along, it seemed this man would not be taking his job back, which caused nothing but a pout from the red haired woman. "Ugh, come on, just take it back for a week or two, I got stuff I wanna do. Or just do the paperwork, I'll do all the other stuff. It'll be like old times~" She said pleading lightly, which was by far a more ready compromise than forcing the job back on the man. "Why'd you want me to be Kazekage, you should have known better. Ookami-jii, ended up being Kazekage for a few of years to consolidate power, and back me as a choice. Usui and his lackluster group of old prudes were trying really hard to make Mikunichi the Kazekage. But Mikuni-kun didn't wanna be it, so... that. They gave me a bunch of rules and other dumb stuff over that time period and eventually decided to make me Kazekage, then a couple of days ago Usui and his friends tried to have me killed. So, we executed them. Ookami-jii is fine though, so is Junko-obaa." she said with a curt nod.

Meanwhile Aiko took a seat in the forge further back and continued chatting with Youko while the Kazekage caught up with the former Kazekage. "Yep. But... it's stupid. I told him that last time. It doesn't matter if the sword is big or small, if you don't know what you're doing with it, you'll always lose." said the girl. She seemed to miss the overt comparison which could be drawn between this and something else which might have hurt the other man's feelings, but that wasn't really her problem. "But when he comes to me with that, I'm taking it from him... Later I'll make him a more suitable one for what little skill he has and he'll take the hint."

[Bloodedge]

"I was perfecting a jutsu. I couldn't tell anyone, because I couldn't have anyone near me when I did it." True enough, the entire decade or so this man had spent away, he had taken in absolute solitude for reasons unspecified. But, he was apparently now done with this trial of his own choosing, even though he did not at all wish to return as Kazekage. He did still take issue with how the elders were presently dealing with matters, though. "That's no good. You're the Kazekage. I formed the council starting with Shodaime to help myself and any Kazekage after me, not to run the village themselves with the Kazekage as some sort of representative. They must have taken advantage with Shodaime back in power. And... treason..." There was a brief pause from the man, as if he considered something out of his normal line of thought. In fact, he was doing exactly that. "You should be Kage. The good you have done, and can still do for this village, outshines a washed-up guy like me. My time is over... but I can still help you have a better time in this position."

When Aiko explained the situation with this Madoka individual, Youko failed to restrain a laugh. "I don't think it would matter much if he did know how to wield a weapon. There's too big a difference in ability already, and you don't seem to be slowing down at all."

[Apollymi]

"You've been gone over 11 years, perfecting a jutsu?" the small woman hopped off the table and stood before the former Kazekage eyeing him strangely. His chakra felt interesting, and before this point she'd never actually sensed it before. "Better be one hell of a jutsu." the woman said, figuring she'd get the opportunity to see it one day. Moving right along, the Second Kazekage explained the true purpose of the council, and how the job was supposed to work. This caused the red haired woman to scoff just a little. "I don't think they understood the job. The remaining elders are good though. Fun people... " the young woman said. Then Hiyama mentioned helping out and making her job a bit easier her eyes widened. "Uh, the village hasn't changed that much. You could definitely take back over, and I am sure no one would care. Seriously, what is it you think I've done, Machi?" the woman said, and true enough she didn't think there was anything in her skills list or anything she'd done thus far, which made her any more qualified to be Kazekage than the man standing before her. But, there was another statement which got her attention. "Is that a yes to doing the paper work? 'Cause seriously, it's a drag." Benihime stated without clarifying other things she'd rather being doing, for obvious reasons.

Youko's unrestrained laughter at the statement she'd made, caused Aiko to chuckle a bit. She didn't know what about it was so funny, but it was good to see the man in a better mood than he'd been the last few times she'd come across him. On the matter of her skill though, she shrugged just a bit. "I've been training with a sword, since I was five. It makes sense that I outclass most people but I still practice, so it also makes a bit of sense that I'd be getting better. I don't think I'm unbeatable or anything. He should get over it." she said. She was all for setting the bar really high, after all, Youko was her own bar, but she didn't let that confuse her nor change how she felt about her own sword usage.

[Bloodedge]

"Honestly, have I ever made a jutsu that didn't amaze?" the former Kage asked of his successor. Moving on from his accomplishments, the present Kazekage didn't seem to mark down her own achievements within the village. He had already taken note of several, which he would be sure to list immediately. "Like I said, my time is over. I have nothing else to add to this village as its Kage, but you... You've made a Jinchuriki of Shukaku who's still a perfectly functional member of the village, and a Jounin at that. When I walked through the village, everyone seemed to be living peaceful lives without a care in the world. You also recovered the peace with Kirigakure. Those aren't feats any run-of-the-mill Kage could make happen."

[Apollymi]

"Well, you were 'The man before whom all Ninjutsu are worthless' But... you got some pretty stiff competition now~ You go off to learn just one thing. Better be amazing, is all I am saying," said the red haired young woman. To be fair, Machi had been the one to help her become a proper ninja. Had found her wandering around the edges of the village and set her up after helping her figure out chakra manipulation enough to be able to use jutsu. This man seemed to have been in the village quite a little while, enough to know about Aiko, which meant the young girl probably saw him and mistrusted the amount of power he possessed. Beyond this, he seemed to think a lot of the 'feats' brought about by Benihime's tenure as Kazekage. The young woman shrugged him off. "To be fair, you guys are just bad at seals. The ones you were using for Shukaku-kun, were a bit too weak, that's why he was rampaging all the time. It didn't take much for me to modify it when I sealed him within Aiko. She'd always be a functional member of the village, Aiko-chan is an awesome person~" mentioned the Kazekage about Youko's ward. About the Kirigakure she couldn't really agree, and for a very specific reason. "Also I wouldn't say I 'recovered' peace with the Kirigakure. The current Mizukage, can't decide if she wants me killed or wants to bed me. Seriously, Arella went a bit psycho. Started calling herself Kouchou, and going into these violent fits whenever she saw me. So we've found ourselves in an interesting state to simply leave each other alone. That isn't a ringing endorsement." the Kazekage stated.

[Bloodedge]

"Competition is good, assuming it's all in the village. I left to gain strength because the abilities I had weren't enough to fight against the Akatsuki. I hope I can be of more use the way I am now," said Machi. Prior to his travels, he had an encounter with members of Akatsuki, and found himself lacking the skill to defeat them. "They had a woman I just couldn't fight, no matter what I did. She even got the best of my Kekkei Genkai, and my newest jutsu at the time was incomplete. I tried using it again later, but it had a side-effect, and... well, I haven't aged a day since."

Benihime went on to clarify the alleged peace between the two villages they discussed. Apparently, the Mizukage who followed the one he knew, was more than a bit bipolar, as it were. Perhaps this was the cause of the oddities surrounding that village as of late. "That might explain a lot. Lately, the Mist's borders have all been sealed; no one goes in, no one goes out. Maybe she's gotten stuck as this... Kouchou. But! That doesn't discredit what you've accomplished, nor am I letting you stop being Kazekage for any reason at all. I will, however, take a seat on the council as its head chairman. The village will be yours, as it should be, with the rest of us helping you make the best choices for the village."

[Apollymi]

At the mention of the Akatsuki, Benihime's gaze shifted. She knew the strength of these people, but there was a bit of a silver lining to that, reminding her there was something she needed to do before she did anything else today. It appeared that this man's use of jutsu had ended up with him being made immortally young, which wasn't the most terrible side-effect she'd ever heard of. "Believe me, jutsu going wrong, there are way worse things you could end up with, than eternally young face." She said making light of her own situation. A bit of consideration was given to the man as he stated the Mist Village had been locked up tight for quite a while now, she exerted a bit of chakra and found a seal she'd placed there was still there, so she might be due for a visit to check on things. Lest their supposed ally turn out to be in a bit of trouble. "Well, I have a seal in the Mist Village, still in place, I'd pop over there and have a look. But I got some stuff I can't miss right now." she commented pushing that to the back of her mind for later. As their conversation progressed, he went on to say that he was going to make her keep being the Kazekage despite her own protests and instead take over the council of elders as it's chairperson.

Given the intimate nature of his new job, she decided to give him some major information that he'd likely need. Especially given the strength of the Akatsuki. "Hm, well, I don't know the person you speak of, but the Akatsuki captured me about 9 months ago, so I get what you mean about the power there. Um, their actual leader is sorta dead right now, and I use sorta loosely there. One of it's members is technically hosting the other guy by way of a cursed seal, we have a bit of time before he reemerges but his host is one of my little sisters, who is also holding the Yonbi." She mentioned thinking it best to give this information now. "And this village is currently in possession of 3 Jinchuriki and another tailed beast. So, that is the situation you are coming in on Mr. Chairman~" she said with a bit of a smirk on her face.

"Also, I am probably leaving the village sometime in the next couple of days, and I'm taking the Little One with me as a body guard. Here have this." she said producing from a seal on her wrist one of the Hiraishin Kunai. "In case you need to call me back or something."

[Bloodedge]

"It's... not quite that simple," Machi interjected, needing to explain the situation with a bit more detail. "It's more like my body clock has just stopped. I can't seem to get any physically stronger, faster... anything. The way I physically was the day I used that technique, is the way I might be forever." A bit of new information was given to the second Kazekage, including the fact that the village was now in possession of four, out of nine, Bijuu. This was quite the ridiculous number, and was sure to make Sunagakure the prime target for Akatsuki.

While on the topic of Akatsuki, Machi learned that their leader was no more. Of course, he wasn't able to celebrate this, as the follow-up was mention of the man's inevitable return. "Mendokusai. Work never stops getting harder. We'll just have to prevail the only way we know how," he said. When a kunai was offered to the tan male, he looked at it strangely, first taking issue with its appearance. Luckily, closer inspection made him recognize something about this tool. "This is the Hiraishin seal, isn't it? You use that with kunai now?"

[Apollymi]

At the explanation of what happened to his person, Benihime got a bit curious. She was by her very nature, extremely curious and likely to investigate anything and as such she activated the new Kekkei Genkai which belonged to her husband, filling her eyes with orange pupil-less moons as she looked over the previous Kazekage and walked around him swiping a bit of his chakra. "Hmm, that really is weird. I think it looks weird but everything looks weird." she said as she played with the ball of his chakra in her hands after having passed off the Kunai. "It feels weird, you seem to be a bit worried about this stop in time. I'd love that shit, but... if you're worried about it. I can try and help ya' figure it out. Get time ticking again." She said seeming to be having a bit of fun playing with the ball of chakra.

Benihime appreciated his reaction to the situation they were in. It was part of the reason, she went out of her way to help keep the village as peaceful as possible. They'd be fine in her eyes, because they'd eventually get everything together. There was soon enough, mention of the Hiraishin Kunai which made the woman smile. "Hai! Youko made me those, when I first met him for the sake of versatility. It makes for interesting high speed combat. Also unlike the regular seals applying chakra to them will summon the creator of the seal. It's on you though... it wouldn't be the first time I ended up somewhere naked."

[Bloodedge]

When Benihime triggered the activation of her Kekkei Genkai, Machi's brow rose. This was a very different form to the ones he'd seen thus far, but he found it interesting that she held it. "Look at you, being all integrated. You've gone completely native after all. Anyway... I'm not worried about the aging thing. My only concern is being strong enough to keep the peace, but you know me. I'll always find a way."

This Hiraishin Kunai was quite the useful little tool when Machi considered its major application. However, the thought of what state Benihime would be in if he used this, caused a cringe. He held the kunai as if it were unsightly in its own right, moving it closer to Benihime as he did. "I... think I'll pass. Good luck on your trip."

[Apollymi]

"Iie, this is a new development. Like, brand-new." She said, not believing for a second she'd gone native in anyway. It appeared that the Second Kazekage didn't care about his lack of aging, he only wished to be powerful enough to keep protecting the village. "Eh, you should be fine. You're still pretty strong." said the woman with a curt nod of her head.

Moving right along, it seemed that the former Kazekage didn't want to risk the state that the young woman might show up in, if he needed to call her back using the item of hers and Youko's combined creation. "Aww, don't be so mean Machi, I can feel you cringing. It was a joke, mostly. I swear, most times I am wearing something by way of clothing. And if anything bad happens you'll be happy I'm there." She mentioned pushing it back towards him and letting the chakra she played with dissipate in her hands.

[Bloodedge]

"... Fine. But if I catch one eyeful of something I don't need to see, I'm ditching this thing!" Machi concluded. With that, he stored the kunai in the armor he wore as a belt, keeping it there for any potential later use. He figured there was a high likelihood that he wouldn't need it under any circumstance, but he would have it in case he simply didn't feel like searching for the woman later.

Early the next morning, the forge's flames were at their hottest as Youko hammered away at a new weapon; one he'd been working on in his free time for what felt like ages. He seemed to be putting the finishing touches on the already enchanted weapon, which bore the design of a chokuto with a strange orb attached to its pommel. When he delivered the final hammer blow to this weapon, a sheen slid across its blade from base to tip. In this moment, he knew he'd finished it.

[Apollymi]

A chuckle would escape Benihime, at the words of Machi, and such would end their interaction for the day.

The next morning while Youko, worked the forge, the small redhead appeared in a flash on top of the table. She was still damp from a morning shower, and her hair rather heavily sat over her shoulders as she covered her mouth for a yawn. "Ara ara, Youko, why'd you leave so early, we could have slept a little longer." She commented about the hour. For her, it was still early, but she supposed this was about the only way she could guarantee to beat their child to where she wanted to be. "Ooh? That feels strange." she said of the sword he was presently working on, only to get a frown over her face. "Wait, please don't tell me you are planning to give another underage kid a dangerous weapon." she said almost in rhetoric.

[Bloodedge]

Just as he was finishing up his word, the voice of the red-haired woman he'd wed resonated through his ears. She seemed to think this new sword felt strange, which was about what he expected. However, she went on to ask if he intended to give a deadly sword to a child... again. A grin passed Youko's face as he finished cooling the sword, only to sheathe it and turn toward the redhead. "I guess I won't tell you, then. Is Hakudoshi still asleep?"

[Apollymi]

Benihime hopped off the work bench and when she did she paused, extending a leg and stretching her spine at a rather intense angle as she completely stopped moving forward. She popped her left eye open and looked at the grin on her husband's face, which let her know he was doing exactly the thing she was talking about. "Alright, but when it comes back to bite us in the ass. I told ya' so." she said as she yawned once more. To the question of whether or not their young son was still asleep she finally stopped stretching seemingly satisfied with the activity. "Hmm, I think so. As far as I can tell he was at the very least still in his room. He's a bit weird. I've noticed his chakra doesn't fluctuate as much as another person's should. I can't really tell what he is doing by feel alone." she said. "At the very least he's pretty considerate, he won't leave his room until everyone else is up. He thinks everything is too quiet otherwise." she mentioned.

[Bloodedge]

"Everything worked out fine last time. I'm sure this will end the same," he said while gripping the sheathe of the newly crafted sword in his left hand. "As long as he's in his room, this should be easy. Well... painless, anyway." Almost as if cued by the man's words, this pair's child appeared atop the nearest workbench in a moment of teleportation. He immediately looked toward Youko, extending his hands as if waiting for his present to be delivered.

After realizing his son had appeared, Youko sighed immediately. He knew in this moment that the boy had read his mind prior to now, and thus, he knew exactly what the lad wanted. So, he produced the new blade for the now seven year-old. "That's... just not fair. Happy birthday, Hakudoshi."

[Apollymi]

"To be fair I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop on that one. I maintain the thought that I feel bad for the first person to break her heart." the Kazekage said of Aiko, the statement seemed to summon the girl who walked into the forge as well with a single scroll tucked into her obi. "Onee-sama, that's a bit mean. I am not that bad, plus not like anyone has ever asked me out or anything. Obviously it's nothing to worry about." Aiko said offering a smile to all present. "Ohayou Gozaimasu." she offered both of them.

Youko went on to be excited about having gotten the drop on their son. Only soon enough the small boy would appear before them, on a workbench much like Benihime had done, with a hand extended like he expected his present. Youko would sigh and it'd cause Benihime to chuckle. "Of course it isn't fair. Now you understand a little of my pain." she said sticking her tongue out at her husband. She grinned towards her son as he got his first gift and produced for him another in the form of a small box from her pocket, which contained a ninja-ID card with his name, age, photograph and his special designation as Tokubetsu Jounin, with a note of being an interrogator. and the boy's village headband complete with the sand village symbol and a light purple wrap which matched the colors he seemed to enjoy wearing. "Happy Birthday, Little One." Aiko also found the young man's appearance to be one she couldn't help but laugh at. "Happy Birthday, Haku-chan!" she said, in light of the present given by Benihime, she also gave the boy everything he'd need for his first missions. Including kunai which accounted for his size, a couple of jutsu scrolls which listed ones he might want to know, and a few other essentials.

[Bloodedge]

"It's probably only because you never get out much. The people in the village have known you since childhood. I bet if you went anywhere else, you'd have to fight 'em off with Tessaiga," Youko joked with the young lass.

Hakudoshi accepted the sword given to him by his father, immediately taking issue with its size relative to his body. With his telekinesis, he targeted the obi worn by Aiko, choosing to unravel it and use it as a strap to bind the sword to his back. Once the blade no longer occupied both of his hands, he received a box from his mother, containing all the things he needed to be considered an official shinobi of Sunagakure. With a wide grin, he immediately pulled the forehead protector, only to frown when he saw it. He could already tell this was something he did not want upon his head, so he chose instead to wear it as a belt. "Tokubetsu... Jounin," he said, familiarizing himself with a title he'd never heard of before this moment.

There was one additional thing Hakudoshi was to receive this day. The next gift was a package from Aiko, which included ninja tools and jutsu scrolls. He took special note of the kunai, pulling one from the parcel to inspect it. The boy found its size to be... not quite what he'd ever seen. "These fit my hand..."

[Apollymi]

"Oh, don't say that, I get out plenty." she said seemingly cross with the man. But it seemed that though he'd accepted all of his presents Hakudoshi took issue with the sizing of his sword. Having no available way to carry it he decided the best course of action would be to untie Aiko's obi and take it to use to wrap up his weapon. As such the girl's kimono came open and her sword fell. Though she caught the latter, her kimono opened, and her eyes widened. "Haku-chan, I would have gotten you one if you wanted. You didn't have to take my obi." the girl said. Benihime giggled just a little then disappeared in a flash. Within a second or two she returned with another obi for the white haired girl which matched the one the boy had just taken. The speed of this was so quick the girl's brow raised. "Onee-chan, do you have a seal in my room?" she asked. "Iie, I just felt like moving a bit faster, I went to the laundry room." the woman said chuckling as Aiko took from her that which she needed to fix her clothes. "You really don't like being naked huh?" she asked the girl, who had bandages over her chest and a skirt on underneath her kimono, and shorts under the skirt. It made Benihime sweat just thinking about it. "Arigatou Gozaimasu, Onee-sama." the white haired young woman said as she turned placing her sword on a workbench and starting to retie her obi. All of this done while not acknowledging what the woman said about her layers of clothing.

When the boy spoke on his rank, Benihime nodded. "Hai, it classes you as a special Jounin. Until you've gotten enough experience to go out on your own, you'll have to take higher level missions with other people. But anything that requires an interrogator, you can handle on your own." she said with a smile. The explanation was likely unnecessary but she wasn't sure if the child was presently reading her mind or not. Moving right along, Hakudoshi had a look over his tools and seemed to note that his own kunai were smaller than the ones he normally saw, Aiko was still tying her obi with her sword resting on a work bench even so she explained. "Hai, they fit your hand. I made them that way, they'll be more effective than they would be if you had to figure out how compensate for wielding ones too big for you right now." She stated finishing tying her obi and placing her sword back where it belonged.

[Bloodedge]

"That would have taken too long. I needed my hands," Hakudoshi said while looking at the kunai in his hand with a furrowed brow. It was explained to him that these were made smaller, apparently by Aiko herself, due to the size of his hands and the greater ease of use they would have. "Sou ka... you made these." Without further ado, Hakudoshi slid the necessary items into an included tools pouch. It seemed he even accepted the usefulness of the scrolls provided to him, and in fact, Hakudoshi enjoyed the idea of training to learn techniques instead of simply taking them from the minds of others. It afforded him a certain sense of accomplishment he didn't normally get. "Arigatou," he said, showing gratitude - for some reason - only toward this particular package.

"Well, that's not fair at all! I spent months on that sword, and I get no thanks," Youko said, seeming genuinely surprised by this occurrence. "You always make swords," Hakudoshi replied. After this, Youko was left standing back, scratching the side of his head with his forefinger. "Uhh... well..."

[Apollymi]

The small boy's explanation for why he needed her obi was at the very least logical. She let it slide because it was his birthday. Beyond this, Hakudoshi seemed to take from what she said, that she'd created his kunai and then went about fitting all necessary things into his pouch. Soon after thanks were issued, but only directed at Aiko. A smirk came to Benihime's face as her husband seemed to be in awe of the fact that he wasn't thanked. And Aiko seemed to be just as surprised, given thanks from this particular young man was rather rare. "Oh, but when I was upset, I was just over-reacting. Hush up, and feel my pain." the redhead said to her husband as her son added insult to injury by having a very logical reason for not offering him thanks. Aiko for all her composure, simply smiled at young man. "You're welcome, Haku-chan. Let me know if you end up needing more." she said appreciating the small boy's thanks. "Oh or if you want sword practice." Aiko offered the young boy. She figured given her general line of thought he at least knew the basics, eventually she wouldn't mind helping him reach a good level of proficiency. Now that the boy at least had his presents Aiko would take this as an excuse to go out into the village. "See you guys later, I'm hungry." she said heading off into the village in search of something good for her breakfast.

[Bloodedge]

"That's a completely different situation, and you know it," was Youko's retort for the redhead. As these words were spoken by the man, Hakudoshi nodded toward Aiko, taking up his sword thereafter. "Mm! I'm gonna go use this to help out my friend from the mirror now," he said. Of course, Hakudoshi knew exactly the purpose of this new sword, and in remembering his mother's words from prior days, he chose to take her advice about helping others. Without further hesitation or explanation of his actions, the boy teleported away from the forge. This left Youko to sigh. "Ja, Aiko," he said. Once both of the young ones were gone, he leaned his head back and shared a few more words with the remaining Benihime. "Well, there goes the birthday party."

[Apollymi]

"Nope." the redhead said sticking her tongue out at the man from where she sat. Soon enough, the young woman who'd made the boy his tools and care package was excusing herself from the group to go off in search of breakfast. Benihime waved at the girl as she exited and then her son mentioned going to talk to his friend in the mirror again. It was such an odd thing, she really didn't expect her son to retain the sort of active imagination that was necessary to have a friend that didn't actually exist. But before she could question him properly he disappeared. "Hm, it really astounds me he can even do that. Maybe he's more normal than I give him credit for." she said of her son as he disappeared. Soon enough, Youko was commenting about the missing birthday party at large. "Um, so it is." A sly smirk came over the redhead's face mere seconds thereafter. "How about a private party, just the two of us?" She said motioning the man towards herself.

[Bloodedge]

"I don't know if I'd call it normal to have an imaginary friend who's stuck in a mirror, but... it's almost there," Youko asserted. Either way, he supposed it was a healthy thing for the lad. More importantly, Youko had cleared all orders for the day, for the sake of the child's birthday celebration. Since this was essentially canceled for the time being, he had nothing to do as far as work was concerned. As such, he began moving toward Benihime. "Private parties tend to be more up my alley. I'm in."

[Apollymi]

Benihime shrugged about the normalcy potential of their son. Of course, she wouldn't know about imaginary friends herself. For the most part of her young life, she had her twin to keep her company. She supposed she always wondered if her son was a bit lonely, perhaps she'd ask him later. But for now, she was still trying to make up for lost time, and given that her husbands approach would have her reaching out for him. She'd aim to kiss him and if she succeeded in this she'd pull away quickly and explain. "We should totally go somewhere they won't look for us." she said her plan was semi-devious but would at least give the run around to most people. "We'll stop by my office, lock the door from the inside, and then just go to our bedroom. No one will look for us there, because they already saw us leave~" she commented as she pecked his lips again. "And then, we'll have the whole morning~" she murmured against the side of his face.

[Bloodedge]

Once within reach, Youko grabbed his wife by the midsection. After only a brief kiss between the two, the latter pulled away to suggest that they choose a different location before moving on. Her plan seemed quite solid, if he were to say so himself. It just so happened, though, that his hakama were already seconds from being removed from his waist. "Ugh, you mean I have to wait several seconds? Fine. Let's go."

[Apollymi]

"Seconds for an uninterrupted morning." she scoffed kissing the side of his neck. "I offer you gold, the least you can do is be patient." she said a wicked smirk on her face. As she leaned forward once again. "Plus I got new ideas~" she said, in a voice which was delightfully wicked. A second later, she was disappearing, likely with her husband in a flash of crimson light, headed for her Mansion.

[Bloodedge]

Not long after a return from the Land of the Moon, Youko appeared at the forge's side in a flash of white light. It was late, but a conversation with the girl named Aiko let him know she was on her way here a few minutes prior. Assuming she was, he would immediately scan for her to deliver a bit of missing information about her upcoming mission/trial.

[Apollymi]

Aiko would soon enough approach the forge, she wasn't wearing her normal kimono and instead simply walked around in a pair of over-sized hakama and a pair of socks with bandages wrapped around her chest. Such was normal for her when she was going to be in the forge for a while. She was a bit shocked of course, to find Youko there as well, her brows came together in abject confusion. "Onii-sama?" she questioned only to have her face break into a smile. "You forgot something... didn't ya'?" she asked as she began moving around the forge collecting the materials for the creation of two blades which she had in mind.

[Bloodedge]

"Konbanwa," he said upon confirming Aiko's approach, and being on the receiving end of her confusion. It seemed she knew exactly why he had appeared here after a moment of thought. "No. Well... yes," he said while producing a single scroll for her use. "You'll need this for sealing your prey's pelt. Also, don't use any jutsu you've picked up from being a ninja. This is a test of your hunting ability, and nothing else. No nature transformation, no Rasengan, no Shukaku... you know the stuff. You'll have to figure out a way to take down the Kouga with your abilities as a Hunter."

[Apollymi]

Having found the pieces of metal she wanted to use, she began heating them. Soon enough, Youko was handing her a scroll which was very odd to her she gave it a glance over and then tucked it into her obi. "Hai hai," she said the further explanation of what she was, or rather wasn't allowed to do in completing this task made her look up from the fires at the man across from her. "So, I can't do jinchuuriki stuff, and I can't do ninja stuff..." she thought about it, and though it would be a bit of a pain she supposed she could get away with just a weapon and skill alone. "Onii-sama, that sounds unnecessarily difficult. I mean, I'm still gonna do it, but it's a lot." she said as she started hammering away on a short warm piece of metal. One would notice this was considerably shorter than what would be used for a standard katana, but that was her intention. "Any thing else? I am expecting you to tell me I have to blind myself and not wear clothes next. In which case, I am going to protest heavily," she joked as she busied her hands with her new work.

[Bloodedge]

"Right, and right," he confirmed. "I did say the trials were no easy task. Don't worry; the Kouga clan isn't full of ninjas or anything. You'll do just fine." Youko spared a glance or two at the tool being created by Aiko as he spoke. By the first look, he knew what she was going for; the rest were simply to enjoy watching the craft. He thought hard to confirm whether there was anything else for Aiko to know, but he could come up with nothing. "I think that's about it. Have fun." With that said, Youko vanished as quickly as he'd initially appeared.

[Apollymi]

Aiko spared a glance in this man's direction. "I'm not worried. I figure it will be fine, though I thank you for the vote of confidence~" she mentioned soon enough she'd reached the proper thickness and shape for the weapon she was creating and as such its shape needed to be set. She quenched it in a nearby bit of oil and left it to set while she started on the next one. It seemed that Youko was intent to at least gaze at her craft a bit, he always was but soon enough he was gone as well. "Hai hai, ja ne, Onii-sama," she said to the man and after a while she was alone with her thoughts while she worked on the proper katana of her set. It would be while she was in the middle of this that she would have a very interesting thought. Which was, she hadn't been gone for more than a few days, since the birth of the village leaders child. She fully acknowledged that she likely spent more time with the young boy than any other than his parents. This thought led her to the idea that she should probably make sure to say good bye to him before she left.

A couple of hours after she had this set of thoughts she was fitting two sharpened blades into their casings and putting the finishing touches on them. In addition she'd also created another few sets of minor kunai which she would present to the young boy when explaining why she'd be gone. A smile came to her face a she finally finished her set of works which were a standard katana much like the sealed form of her given tool Tessaiga. And a much smaller wakizashi which was made more like a shirasaya which was something like the secondary sword she used to carry. She slid both of these weapons into their sheaths and activated the full moon state of her Kekkei Genkai to have a look and figure out if the small boy was awake yet. Knowing if he was, he'd likely come to her given he'd know she was looking for him.

[Bloodedge]

Mere moments after the activation of Aiko's Kekkei Genkai, the young lad Hakudoshi appeared in front of her, making eye contact from the instant of his arrival. He had indeed been awake at this hour, but he had nothing to do, so he was quick to react when he sensed Aiko seeking him out. "Training?" he asked, taking note of the tools Aiko had created, and assuming they were for a quick sparring match.

[Apollymi]

"Hmm, that was much quicker than I imagined it being," she said with Hakudoshi's rather sudden appearance in front of her. He'd made eye contact upon doing so, but that had only served to make the older white haired girl smile. His question though made her realize exactly how much time she spent with this young man. "Not this time Haku-chan," she said she then reached for the two swords and set them into her obi, behind her back so she'd be able to draw both of them if she needed to. "I am about to leave for a while, I am actually not sure how long," she said offering the young man a pat on the head with her left hand she used her right to grab a couple of scrolls and offer them to him as well. "I made you some more kunai, since I don't know how long I'll be gone for," she mentioned. Ever thoughtful, among the things done while she created her swords were making more weapons for the boy she'd spent all her spare time with. Even so, this didn't change what she needed to do or why, and given his own abilities to read minds she figured he'd understand the reason for her extended absence.

[Bloodedge]

"I was bored," the boy replied to the mention of his quickness. He was then given the answer to his query, which was not what he had hoped for upon receiving this summons of sorts. Still, a peek into the girl's mind gave him some insight to the situation. Since he had his answers, he accepted the items handed to him, and spoke on the matter. "Hai. I'll just play with Kanna in our head place while you're gone."

[Apollymi]

"Sou ka..." she said, finding his boredom to be reason enough for him to come with such quickness. Moving right along, it seemed the young man easily accepted the reason for his summoning as well as the gift provided by the white haired lass. She was quite glad he'd have something to do, to stave off unending boredom while she was absent but the idea of the head place was something new. "That's new, so you two have a head place. And you can play together," she repeated this because it was odd. But knowing his imaginary friend, wasn't quite as imaginary as they'd previously thought, she it assumed it to be some sort of twin connection, which remained along with the girl's consciousness. "That's a relief, you have Kanna-chan to keep you company. I was worried you'd be really bored while I was gone," she said offering the boy another smile she stood a bit straighter. "Alright then, I'll be back as soon as I can. Ja, Haku-chan~" the girl said walking off. She had to get proper clothes for her journey but after she would indeed be leaving the village for the start of what would be a rather arduous journey.

[Bloodedge]

For days, Youko the Jounin blacksmith had been in and out of his forge. He could presently be found in this very location, standing shirtless - as per usual in the forge - above the fires. He continuously hammered away at a large slab of heated iron, shaping one of many large shuriken. Others lay around the floor, but the first of these he created had been strapped to his back, and took up his entire torso with its size.

[Apollymi]

A crimson flash would appear within the forge, bringing the Kazekage, but she would not be alone. As the redhead appeared in the seated position, in her usual spot atop a work bench. Two red haired twins younger than herself by about a decade would appear holding each of her hands as well. One was female and sported a mess of wild hair and a sporty outfit including a headband. She had blue eyes with a singular red ring near her pupils. "Sugoi~ Aneki... this forge is really different from the last one we saw." she said having a look around only to have her eyes stop dead upon the elder redhead's husband. She seemed to go into an immediate fear response stepping back and immediately going on guard, dropping her older sister's hand in the process.

[Bloodedge]

The other twin to appear alongside Benihime was male, wearing his long crimson locks in a ponytail, while sporting a simple kimono and hakama of blue and white respective colors. While Teruko's first observation upon arrival was the forge itself, Akira's eyes widened upon seeing the man who worked said forge. "B-b... but that's..." he said with relative fear in his expression as Youko looked toward these new voices in his forge.

[Apollymi]

"Okay... didn't expect that, why are you both afraid right now?" Benihime asked of her siblings, she'd seen the changes in their behavior and felt the difference in their bodies. There wasn't any denying that, but her brother acted as if he recognized her husband and it simply shouldn't be possible. "These are my two youngest siblings and they are freaked out for some reason..." she said seemingly fine with this, knowing this probably wouldn't get to far out of hand. "A-aneki, this man... is the one who attacked us in the Forest of Death!" she said seemingly wide eyed. This made Benihime look at the pair and then at her husband and then the familiar feeling of the boy's scar made sense to her. She'd had a lot of contact with the kind of chakra which created the long nails in the hunter clan, because her husband was prone to keeping his that way. "Oh... that makes sense, I thought it felt familiar. But it wasn't him. This is my husband, Youko~" she said. "But.. Aneki!" the girl was pleading, and genuine in her feelings, but there was one thing Benihime knew and it was the comings and goings of her husband, especially in recent weeks.

[Bloodedge]

"Ah, so these are the ones in need of the tools I'm making," Youko said, only to then be confused as one of these twins claimed he'd attacked them. "What the hell is a Forest of Death?" he asked, looking toward his wife. "I've been here at the forge this whole time. Well... most of this time. Well... some." The more he spoke, the quicker Youko came to the conclusion that he should be silent, lest he incriminate himself for his devious behavior. Paying no mind to the blacksmith's words, Akira stared him down. Benihime's claims were ones he wanted to believe, but it took several moments of staring at this man to determine that he wasn't their attacker. "Eto... no, it's not him. He's way smaller, and has all white hair."

[Apollymi]

"Hai!" Benihime said. It seemed her husband didn't even know what the Forest of Death was considering but that also made quite a bit of sense. "Sou ka, I forget you weren't here when we were holding the occasional combined Chunin Exam with the Konoha so you don't know about that. It's their training ground that they use specifically to test suitability. They usually hold this wide scale capture the flag type of game, it's pretty fun to watch, I proctored one of those. It was nicknamed the Forest of Death because of all the dangerous and poisonous animals and creatures found there, and because it's technically titled training ground Shijuushi you know how superstitious kids can be." she explained rather calmly.

Though her sister seemed to be sure of this, it seemed her brother was quite a bit calmer and had decided that this wasn't the man that attacked them. A smile crossed the woman's face, as she came to a couple of conclusions based on the things her brother said was wrong with this man compared to the one who'd beaten them. Teruko also stared after her brother spoke and she'd had several run ins with that man during their time in the forest and when she thought about it, the other man was quite a bit larger than this one and had red and white hair and not just white hair. "Sou ka... you're right Aki." she said thinking about it more she went on to apologize to Youko. "Sumimasen, that was really scary, and you look a lot like that guy."

[Bloodedge]

"A training ground known as the Forest of Death... Interesting," Youko said. "Now that you mention it, isn't the next Chuunin exam being held in Konoha? I remember some offer coming to the office, around the same time the Gokage Summit was mentioned." When Teruko apologized verbally to the Sand Jounin, Akira gestured with a bow. "Hai. He almost killed us," he said. This prompted Youko to return his attention to the twins while scratching his head. "Don't sweat it. It's not the first time strangers thought I had tried to murder them. Most people in my clan look like me. I'd even guess at it being my brother, if I thought he would do that sort of thing." With that said, Youko stepped toward this group, extending his right hand to whichever of these two would accept it. "Katsuhara Youko desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu."

[Apollymi]

"Hai, it's back around to them again... I saw that the other day." she said about the Chunin Exam being hosted in the Konohagakure. "I know we have a couple of teams that may want to participate, I asked their team leaders they submitted some names... it's going through. And if they go I have to go too, anyways soo~ We could make it a trip. It's a bit of a ways off though, they are trying to hold it a bit closer to fall." she said about the Chunin Exam. On the subject of the Gokage Summit the woman simply huffed. "I don't wanna go to that either, ooh I wonder if I can get Machi to go instead of me, then we could take a vacation~" she chimed thinking most deviously of skipping out on the summit as mostly a joke.

The younger twins then went on to apologize in their usual way, seeing such a thing made Benihime smile, though it was quite odd that people were always assuming Youko had done something to them, she couldn't even say it was the first or second time she'd seen such a reaction to the man. "Ah, yeah, Hiei hasn't been around in ages, but he's a nice guy he wouldn't either. Though I thought you got rid of all the others like you except for you three, that one left the mark on Aki's face and it feels like your nails do, I thought that was something only your branch could do." she said seeming to have at least a little knowledge of this thing, probably because she'd questioned it once or twice. In the face of this the man's extended hand would be met by Teruko, who'd go on to introduce herself and her twin. "Yoroshiku! Suzukou Teruko and that's Suzukou Akira~" she said of herself and her twin happy to have put any unsettled feelings aside.

[Bloodedge]

"That should be fun to watch. We've got some interesting prospects in this generation," Youko said about a few select Genin in their village. He assumed he would be going along to the Chuunin Exam as well, whether he was expected to or not. As for the Kage summit, Youko was not at all surprised that Benihime wasn't keen on going. "You can't just send him in your place. At the very least, it should be a short visit that we can leave at a moment's notice when everything's over. It won't be so bad," he said. It seemed Benihime had likened the chakra which caused Akira's wound to his own when using the claws common among Hunters in his clan. "The Blood Cult is dead; there's no doubt about that. There's every possibility that a lone wolf of sorts, or even a splinter group, exists somewhere, though. That is... unless they encountered the Yokujin."

With his handshake accepted by the female twin, Youko locked eyes with the lass and accepted her return greeting. "So, you're here for the tools? I'm not quite done, but I do have a ton of Fuuma Shuriken - both straight-edge and fold-able - as well as some other tools ready. Did you guys need anything specific?"

[Apollymi]

"Hai, those are always pretty fun. Though to be fair, I'd rather be proctor, better view," the girl said of the Chunin Exam. She could only imagine the set up they'd have for the Kage during such a thing, and that made it even worse. Moreover, it seemed that Youko disagreed with the playful idea of her sending the previous Kazekage in her place to the Five Kage Summit. "But, I really could. Ease of leaving one of those things not withstanding, it never says the current Kazekage has to go, only the Kazekage, technically speaking people are Kages for life, any one could go. I thought about sending Ookami-jii last time, but he stone faced me." she said pouting only lightly, in reference to the cold blooded look the First Kazekage had given her when she'd tried to get him to go the last summit in her place. "But... I was only joking," she said which seemed to catch her sister's attention just a bit. The woman's wording implied she was the Kazekage, which was a very odd thing. She looked at her twin seemingly stunned wondering if he'd heard the same thing she had.

As Youko went on to explain how his clan might have fractured and thus left a few loose ends for the rest of the world at large to deal with, he mentioned a name she'd not heard before. Of course, this left the young woman to look confused because of what the name translated to. "What the fuck is a Yokujin?" she questioned. Before she'd get an answer to this, her sister and brother would be told of other things the blacksmith intended to provide them which were all interesting. Teruko herself never really used weapons so she didn't know of one she wanted. But beyond that she was still stuck on something else. "Wait wait, what? Aneki are you the Kazekage?"

[Bloodedge]

"Proctoring wouldn't be so bad. The responsibility of it would be pretty boring, though. As a spectator, it'd be way easier to sneak out for whatever reason." This was Youko's take on dealing with Chuunin Exams. He had overseen exams from both positions in this village, as well as a couple of others, but he found the freedom of spectating alone to be more satisfying than a closer look as the battles. Moving on, Benihime's trip to the Blue Moon Sage apparently did not involve mention of the latter's antithesis. "There are two ultimate powers in my clan; there always have been. Kinshuzen is the sage you've met, and exists to maintain the balance as dictated by the moon's teachings. But, as every Yin has a Yang, for every Kinshuzen, there is also... a Yokujin. Yokujin is the Hunter beyond Hunters, to whom all things are prey. Were you not told the story of the original pair at the Rozan falls?"

While this conversation progressed, Akira stood on the sidelines in utter disbelief with his twin. That these two would continue a casual discussion like this when the young ones were being battered with such a massive piece of information, was astounding. "Sugei. No wonder her kid's so strong," was all he could say to cope. After speaking these words though, Akira quickly looked in every direction around himself, simply to see if he had accidentally summoned the young lad again. Little did he know, the boy did not care to appear before them again, but currently stood elsewhere in the village, inflating his chest after hearing these thoughts about him.

[Apollymi]

There was a very devious glance from Benihime to her husband. Of course this was simply because she could think of many things not related to the Chuunin Exam that they could do when they slipped off. That would be for later though, as he went on to explain the existence of this Yokujin person and how it was the opposite of the man she'd met at the Rozan Falls. After his explanation the redhead nodded looking thoughtfully, and when asked if she wasn't given this story when she went she simply shook her head from left to right. "Iie, Getsu-ojii and I talked about different stuff, like life, letting shit go, and finding your happy place." she explained. "The rest of the time, I spent there meditating to ah, fix myself." she said seeming to glance over all details of what that situation entailed. "That's an interesting way to do stuff," she stated, there was more she intended but she noted the activities of the other pair of twins, who seemed so stunned by a recent realization.

To answer her sister's question she simply shrugged running a hand through her hair because being asked such a question at random made her feel a bit awkward. "Ah, yes, Sandaime desu. I thought I mentioned it before." she said seeing her brother's reaction to mentioning her son she simply chuckled. "Don't worry Aki-chan, he probably won't show up just cause you said that." Benihime said, willing to let the twins get over their apparent bit of excitement. "You see that Aki, she just let that fall right out of her face. She's the Kazekage, jinchuriki, has a kid, and got married!"

[Bloodedge]

"Well, that sounds... just a bit useless, honestly. He should have told you an important thing like that, but I guess that gets pushed off to me as well," Youko said with a heavy sigh. Of all the things the sage could have addressed, he figured history would be a top lesson on the agenda. From what Youko understood, this Yokujin was almost as much of a threat to the world as Uchiha Yuichi and the Akatsuki. "Yokujin is a threat to anyone who encounters him, and more of a threat to anyone he deems worth hunting. If he latches on, it's said he'll never truly give up the chase, unless a greater hunt appears."

While Youko went about explaining this Yokujin, Akira stared at Benihime, blinking occasionally before looking toward his twin. "And she strength-checked you. Don't forget about that."

[Apollymi]

"Well to be fair, you can tell me about this guy, and anything else I don't know but might need to. Besides that, I didn't really ask any questions. I was just sort of too relieved to care, Getsu-ojii has nice chakra~ And the other stuff was more pressing in the moment," Benihime mentioned. It was rather true that the Rozan Sage seemed to be pushing quite a bit off on the young man before her, but if all they had to do was talk, she doubted it would be less of a problem. Actually now that she thought about it, it was likely why he left that part to Youko, because their problem as stated by the redhead was that she didn't know what was going on with him and that they weren't talking. Moving right along though, it seemed that this Yokujin was something worth making sure no one encountered. "So, what you're telling me is, your clan has two people in it, one designated just to help everyone, and one designated just to kill anything it feels like? Yeah, that's cool," the woman said sarcastically. There was something about this story which made Benihime immediately curious. "Wait, wait... so, if he doesn't stop until he finds something else, who saved you two, and are they alright?" she asked of her siblings, randomly including them in the conversation. Benihime had pieced together that this Yokujin was likely what had encountered the pair of twins, because only he would be something what would have frightened Hakudoshi.

The pair of twins were still in awe of their sister and her apparently giant leaps since the last time they'd seen her. After Akira mentioned that she'd also been strength checked by the woman, Teruko let out an exasperated sigh. "And she fucking strength checked me. Wait, I said she was married right?" she then seemed to notice that they'd been asked something but she completely missed it and looked blankly towards her sister and her husband and would find the female crimson locked lass chuckling just a bit. "Ara ara, you're gonna have to let that stuff go, I promise, I got nothing else really shocking on my plate. That question though..." the redhead asked, of course, she seemed to have already forgotten that she also possessed Youko's Kekkei Genkai but that would be fun to explain later.

[Bloodedge]

"Ah, so you found out the secret to the chakra," he replied when it was mentioned that the "Moonman" had nice chakra. For her to be capable of knowing this, she had to have discovered that the Rozan falls were of the sage's creation. "To be more specific, the first Hunter became the Yokujin by going mad with his ability to gain power from killing, much like the future Blood Cult would. Kinshuzen came into existence to offer power to other members of the clan, to create balance against the rising Hunters created by Yokujin. The two brothers eventually became figureheads of the clan."

"Yeah, you did. Jinchuriki too!" was Akira's response to Teruko. Of course, this had previously been stated by the lass, but it was very easy to get caught up in the hype of a moment such as this. Benihime brought her question back up after stating that she had nothing else surprising to share, prompting Akira to retort while nudging Teruko with his elbow. "It was Fon-san from Konoha that saved us. He gave that guy the business for sure!"

[Apollymi]

"Hai, he seemed surprised by that a little~" she mentioned of her understanding of that man's chakra. Youko went on to explain the real dichotomy between Yokujin and Kinshuzen which was apparently that one was created in the vacuum of power created by the other. Such a thing was about as normal a story as one could ever hear. Actually there were likely stories based upon such a thing. "Uh-huh, so... you got two immortal siblings that are basically the parents of your clan right now?" she asked most rhetorically. "OK." she let it go then, apparently it was her turn to be astonished by the outlandish things she was hearing. She'd accept that very calmly.

Her siblings seemed to have finally settled down enough to converse with and when they did Akira nudged his twin causing the girl to glare at him angrily as he explained which of the Konohagakure's Jounin had saved them. The name was one which Benihime was familiar with and her younger sister's reaction made her smile. "Fon-san?" Benhime was charmed by the feelings coming from her younger siblings chakra so she decided to tease just a bit. "Uh-huh... not judging but he's older than I am~" she said with a casual eye roll, a hint of devious recognizable likely to her husband if no one else. The younger redhead got the most fierce blush Benihime had seen on her face in this moment. "ANEKI!... it isn't like that!" she chimed which caused the elder redhead to burst into giggles. "I am only teasing, geez, though you have tomato face... that's for giving me a complex about being married." she said sticking her tongue out at the other young woman who'd crossed her arms and turned her back with astute pout-yness usually reserved for small children. She soon moved along to her brother's explanation that he'd managed to put a hurting on the Yokujin.

"He better have, he's practically immortal using the Eight Gates, shouldn't be anything he can't at least beat the hell out of, if he does it quick enough." she said, there were limitations to everything and she figured that Fon's was chakra amount though he had the Yin seal to help cover that and another of Benihime's own creation. "Oi, he still got that dragon seal on his chest?" she asked of the twins, Teruko seemed to have gathered herself enough to respond. "Hai, that was a strange seal... I can't say I've ever seen one like it before." she said of the marking which had danced during the man's fight with the being that sought the death of herself and her twin. "I knew you looked," such speech would be followed by a wink from the Kazekage as she chuckled.

[Bloodedge]

"Sounds about right, yeah." With his information shared with the redhead, and with the knowledge that there was nothing to be worried about at this very moment, Youko turned back to his works. He still had a couple of Fuuma Shuriken to hammer out, so he figured he may as well do so while these three conversed.

Akira hazarded several sly grins with an elevated thumb as Benihime spoke to Teruko about this Fon person. It seemed she even knew the man who saved them, and addressed a specific seal the Jounin bore. This was of some apparent significance, but it seemed to primarily serve the purpose of having more material to use against the red-haired teen. "Hah!"

[Apollymi]

Benihime relaxed back into her seated position, content to watch her husband work while entertaining her younger siblings. After having a thorough go at her youngest sister who seemed to be embarrassed beyond repair the young woman had simply raised her arms in the air. Particularly because she couldn't deny the last thing said by her older sister. "I fucking give up. I'm done... with all of you," she said of her twin, and her elder sister. Such a statement of defeat, caused the elder redhead to extend a fist to her younger brother in a congratulatory way so they could fist bump in celebration. After this she went to pull her left leg up onto the work bench where she sat and tuck it under her right thigh. Her eyes didn't ever leave Youko but as she sat here she remembered that she hadn't actually asked any important questions about when she'd be returning this pair of twins to the island where they lived.

"Oh, I forgot to ask, what festival?" she said which caused her younger sister to turn and glare but not speak again. "What? I forget to ask these things, it always seems like other stuff is more important," said the Kazekage as she tossed her hair around. "I mean I already agreed to go, you might as well tell me what I agreed to~" a few seconds after speaking her younger sister frowned deeply. "Ugh, you do this on purpose I swear, you know Aki doesn't pay attention to this stuff, so only I know the important bits," Teruko said before taking a deep breath to begin the explanation of the festival which they needed to make it back.

"Hiyuri Matsumi, you probably don't really know it but it's the Fire Lily Festival. According to the 'adults'..." she said using air quotes around the word to describe their parents. "The festival was celebrated a lot before the Uzushiogakure was almost washed away, it celebrates the blossoming of the Fire Lilies with you know fun activities like food, drink, kittens and ah, firebreathing~. It is also the time that potential mating pairs come in for approval by the Sanjikai, and if there is a big enough group a time for the true adulthood ceremony from the bigger part of the clan. Ya' know, celebrating fertility, drinking tea, playing with all the kittens around. Apparently the Fire Lilies make the cats around all a little weird, but it tastes pretty good in tea and can be used to treat burns and stuff. Also apparently back in the day, the Sanjikai would perform impromptu marriages if ah... someone ah, couldn't wait~" she said finishing the explanation of the festival. "Anyway, it's supposed to be a lot of fun."

[Bloodedge]

Though he had returned to his work at the forge, nothing said went unheard by Youko. As such, when Teruko next spoke, he turned his head toward the group with mock offense upon his visage. "Oi, what did I do?" he said before nonchalantly returning to his work. Benihime sought information regarding the festival she'd been invited to, and though Akira attended regularly, he was not the best at explaining its purpose and the like. Luckily, Teruko was quick to explain. Akira nodded along with the explanation, and when Teruko was done, he chimed in. "Oh, and You-san's invited. I think we forgot that," he added. This, of course, caused the working blacksmith to speak again. "Oh? I'm invited to a festival of catnip flowers?"

[Apollymi]

It seemed that Youko took offense to being included in Teruko's claim that she was done with all of these people. A sigh came from the youngest red haired female in the room, and as such she turned back towards the man and shrugged skeptically. "Nothing yet, I guess... so not you, but I am definitely with them~" she said of her two siblings. After her explanation, Akira added the fact that the blacksmith was also invited, to attend the festival which he summarized in a very peculiar way. Even so Teruko couldn't really argue with it. "We'll that... yeah... that's pretty much exactly it, but we've both been a lot, and it's pretty fun," Teruko said with a curt nod.

After hearing out what was said about the festival Benihime frowned just a little. The explanation of this festival didn't explain why Hakudoshi wished to attend. A frown came to the elder redhead's face as she realized that this couldn't have been all there was to it. "Who else is on the Sanjikai besides Kouha and Kougyoku? I don't think they are enough reason for Hakudoshi to want to come, and he wants to go so I am missing something important," this would be the woman's final question asked with much seriousness.

[Bloodedge]

"Oh, well... good," was all he had to say in response to Teruko. All the while, he was simply joking around, but he thought it worthwhile to have a bit of fun as well. As for this festival, he supposed if both Benihime and Hakudoshi were going, he could spare the time to do so as well.

Akira's eyes widened when Benihime questioned the members of the Sanjikai. Apparently, her son's interest in going could not be connected to Kougyoku and Kouha, nor to the festival itself. When Akira thought about this, and remembered his first interaction with the boy Hakudoshi, he figured out exactly where the lad's excitement could have come from. "Err... well... it was Koukai until about a week ago. But... it seems like Kouen came back, killed him somehow, and took over."

[Apollymi]

A gruff nod came from the younger red haired lass. Soon though the seriousness of Benihime's question reached her ears. She knew her twin would provide the answer to she didn't say anything immediately she just watched for her elder sister's reaction to the information. "Uh-huh, En-nii huh?" she said of that. It seemed that she'd been processing the information and determined that it was likely Kouen that Hakudoshi wished to meet, which wasn't very surprising. From what the redhead remembered of Koukai, he likely would have also caused the young boy a bit of excitement, but it would have been much less amusing overall for Benihime. "Well, that explains bunches, might be a bit of fun after all. Though I am still annoyed by the idea of people summoning me for no fucking reason." she chimed, seemingly still not all together sold on the idea that she had to appear before the Sanjikai. "Aneki isn't nearly as surprised as I thought she'd be by that news," she muttered to her twin. She still couldn't really imagine the circumstances which would led someone to killing their twin, it seemed unfathomable. Nor did she have any idea why anyone was just alright with Kouen taking over after he did it. "Besides, that, it's really weird yeah? En-nii killed his twin, and no one is even upset about it..." she said looking between her brother and elder sister.

Surprisingly enough, because Benihime had read through all the scrolls looking for answers about her daughter, she had an answer about that which was rather interesting. "The Clan exiles people for killing other people's twins because the act is thought of as being exceedingly selfish regardless of the reason. To deprive someone of their other half, even accidentally or in defense of yourself is thought of as an ultimate crime," she said, this likely stemmed from the idea of thinking that two people were essentially halves of one being. With that in mind, it's basically like maiming two people. "But, to kill your own twin, is the ultimate act of altruism. To willingly part with your other half, when everyone else has one, is thought to be a type of martyring. Which is probably why no one had a problem with Kouen taking over afterwards. After all, it is highly unlikely that any would willing choose to end their other half, especially given what such a thing would mean for most positions within the clan. Which require you to have another half to participate. Basically to kill your other half you make yourself a hermit, unless you marry or find another half-less individual to pair up with." she said. "Besides that, the Sanjikai has to exist as a council of three or the balance is disrupted. Generally speaking it's a set of twins and one twin-less elder, the fact that Koukai ran as part of it while his twin was still alive was likely a bit strange." Benihime finished which made her little sister looked at her shocked by the knowledge. "What, it was in those scrolls I went looking for last time."

[Bloodedge]

As the conversation progressed, Akira found himself sitting with his cheek pressed against the palm of his right hand. The topic became not Kouen's standing in the Sanjikai, but the fact that he'd killed his twin. "I'm more surprised he was able to. Koukai was way stronger than anyone. En has to be some sort of monster now," he added. He had personally seen Koukai's fighting style on a few occasions, and knew for a fact that none within the Uzushiogakure could have ever compared to him, but the man's twin had somehow accomplished the impossible after returning from a sudden disappearance. When given the knowledge of the clan's functions involving twins and the deaths of one over the other, Akira raised his left brow. "So... if I kill Teru, that's cool. If somebody else does it, though, it's not cool? That's kinda weird, but I see what they mean."

[Apollymi]

It seemed that Koukai was apparently the stronger of the pair of twins, and he'd somehow been defeated by Kouen. It'd been about two decades since Benihime had seen either of them, so she didn't have enough information about either to be immediately surprised in either direction. "Well, to be fair, I haven't seen either of them since we were small children. A lot can change over that amount of time, the fact that you two are surprised, means they were both strong. Curious thing that is, but it isn't worth getting worked up over," she said to her sister, who seemed to look at the other woman with much shock in her face. "Yep, don't even know what to say to that," Teruko said.

It seemed her brother found it strange that it was apparently acceptable if he killed her, but not acceptable if she died by the hand of someone else in the clan. Frown came to the girl's face. "Oi, you could have used that example in the other direction, why do I have to be the one to hypothetically die here?" Teruko seemed cross, which made Benihime laugh a bit. "Teri-chan, are you hungry? You seem a bit cranky..." she said to the girl, which made her look at her sister, though she couldn't really argue with being hungry she wondered what would make the other woman ask such a question. "I'm just kidding, though, I mean I could have sent you to get some lunch, just sayin'." mentioned the elder sister of the younger redhead who flailed her arms in the air and turned her back once more. "So a week, anything in particular you guys wanna do while you're here? I mean besides getting your tools and whatnot?" she asked of the pair, not knowing what they intended but knowing they would likely find reasonable entertainment within the village.

[Bloodedge]

"Yeah, but that's a lot changing between the time Kouen left the village and came back," Akira replied. With that said, his eyes shifted toward Teruko, who seemed to take issue with his hypothetical scenario simply because she was the dying one in it. "What was I supposed to do? I'm not gonna be the one dying in my own scene!" he said, crossing his arms and turning away as he spoke. He had to admit, now that Benihime had mentioned lunch, he was quite hungry as well. As such, mention of plans resulted in an immediate answer from the young male. "I'll take that lunch!"

[Apollymi]

The conversation went on and it seemed that her youngest brother seemed to want lunch. This was fine with Benihime and as such she'd treat the playfully arguing twins to some lunch while husband finished up his work. "Hai hai, lunch it is. I'll bring ya' something back~" she said to her husband and such would start the twins adventures within the Sunagakure.

Eventually about a day before they'd depart back to the Land of Whirlpools, another young woman would be making her way back to the Sunagakure. She had white hair and wore a white kimono with an obi decorated in various chrystanthemums. As she headed in, she'd immediately go, to the forge where she expected to find the man who'd sent her on the journey in the first place. "Onii-sama, tadaima~" she said. Tucked into her obi, there was a scroll and a single bladed weapon a short sword with a no guard.

[Bloodedge]

Almost a week later, Youko had returned to his forge to complete the final works for Uzushiogakure. Actually, these final pieces were not necessarily for Uzushiogakure, but for the twins he'd met earlier in the week. As he tempered a katana, Youko heard the familiar voice of Aiko. Her trial had been about as quick as he expected, if not quicker. "Okaerinasai," he said while holding the blade over the forge. "Did you have fun?"

[Apollymi]

Aiko was greeted with the sight of her adopted brother, at his forge as he normally was. He greeted her and she in turn relaxed in the forge seeming to see it as her second home anyways. As she watched him work on a katana she thought over whether she'd had fun or not. "Well, it was interesting at least. Though, you probably should have warned me. 'They turn into beasts', is a lot different from 'they turn into bijuu sized super wolves'." she said, though overall, she didn't find her experience to be bad. "It was pretty fun though, I don't usually have to work so much to kill things~" she said as she pushed a stray lock out of her face. In the time she'd been gone her hair had grown down to about shoulder length or more. "Anything new? How are Haku-chan and Onee-sama?" she said, generally surprised that at this hour the Kazekage wasn't present in this place specifically.

[Bloodedge]

As Aiko had her little rant, short though it may have been, Youko cooled his blade and moved toward the grindstone to sharpen its edge. Once cooled, the metal this sword was made from seemed to show signs of something other than typical iron or steel. "You're already well-established in your Kekkei Genkai; I figured there was no point warning you about something you could easily deal with," he replied. "I'm glad you enjoyed the hunt, though. My trial was horrific. Everyone else is fine; Haku even seems to have started playing with Kanna. They have some sort of... telepathic head space. We were recently invited to Beni's homeland of Uzushio for some festival. I'm sure you'd be welcome to come, too, if you'd like to rest before your next trial."

[Apollymi]

As Aiko watched the man work on the sword, it appeared to be something entirely different from what she was used to seeing. It made her a bit curious as to what this sword was going to be used for. "Um-hm, well that is fine and all, I just had that thought in the middle of it, so I thought I'd share that information with you. You said you were really young when you did it, I can only imagine it being way worse for you." she said about her hunt in particular. The news that Hakudoshi was alright and that he was playing with Kanna wasn't nearly as surprising to the girl as it could have been. "Yeah, I knew about that, he mentioned it before I left, still a bit strange though, I can't imagine what that's like but as long as they're happy," she said of the pair of twins. The news that the family had been invited to some sort of festival in the Uzushiogakure was something entirely different. She shrugged at the thought. "I guess I could take a day or two, sounds like fun and you are always saying I don't get out enough." she said of her lack of general travel. "That blade is weird... why are you making it?" she asked curiously. It was obviously something special and it made the young woman curious about who'd asked for it in the first place.