[Kirigakure] Kage's Citadel

[Bloodedge]

"Yes, I do. Everything is fine; there's nothing to worry about back home," Youko said prior to his attention returning to the "corpse" at hand. His left hand still held the sheath of Tenseiga, and now, his right hand gripped its handle. "Are... Kochou... whichever you prefer to call her, had two conflicting chakras in addition to the chakra of the Gobi. That's where her split personality issue came from," he explained as he hovered over the body. "Hai," the present Mizukage interjected to offer an explanation of his own. "That's Chiyosohi, our Kekkei Genkai. Members of our family are born with blood that has its own chakra. It becomes stronger at a faster rate than most shinobi, so it can be overpowering if it's not mastered."

"So that's why your hair has two colors. Between Are and Kochou, they had white and dark hair," Youko replied. Koji nodded, giving the white-haired man a bit more understanding of the situation. When he drew his sword, it glowed white, and a ghastly veil of sorts spread from it over the body of the former Mizukage. "She's not quite dead. Well... she's basically dead, but... look." The veil over the former Mizukage soon took shape, bringing forth the Shinigami and a silhouette of Kochou with a thin stream connecting the former to the latter, and another connecting the latter to its physical body. "I imagine plenty of time has passed since this happened, but the Shinigami hasn't taken her yet. Just an interesting little thing; it doesn't really make a difference." With that said, Youko slashed out at the thread connecting the woman's soul to the Shinigami, severing the ties to allow it a return to its body. "There. From the looks of it, her chakras have been trying to combine this entire time, keeping her from the next life. She'll be fine now."

[Apollymi]

"I'm not worried," Toriko said seeming not to have realized the old habits that surfaced in her in these moments. Moving right along, it seemed that there was a Kekkei Genkai shared between the current Mizukage and the Former. And this was at least partly to blame for the woman's shifts in personality. A bit of a brow raise would occur from the red haired young woman, because at the very least she remembered her elder sister's on again off again relationship. This was rather interesting to see, and it seemed that Youko had a bit to say about the 'death' of the former Mizukage as well as the state of her mind and chakra.

'OH?!' it seemed that Toriko hadn't ever seen this before this point. Beyond this, it was revealed that the former Mizukage wasn't really dead because of the combinations of her two chakras. Beyond all this, he was able to severe her connection with the reaper. A few seconds after the woman's chakra would stabilize and the former Mizukage would sit up touching her entire front and opening her eyes. Soon a grin full of sharp teeth would spread across her face. "Holy shit!!"

[Bloodedge]

With the ties to the Shinigami severed, Youko sheathed his weapon in time for the awakening of the former Mizukage. "Good morning..." he said, pausing briefly to view this woman's chakra and determine what she should be called. During this observation, he took note of a change occurring in the woman's hair. "Kochou. Long time no see. I like what you're doing with the hair," he concluded with a wink. Closer to the back of the room, Kaede stood with his arms within his sleeves, watching this revival with raised brows. "Did he just revive the old Mizukage just to flirt? Unbelievable."

[Apollymi]

"Yo, hmm... Yokkun~" these were the words of the Mizukage who seemed to not realize fully what had gone on. The commentary about her new hair seemed to make the current Mizukage swoon. "Oh? Really? Where's Red? I realize, I was a bit..." she held her fingers up very close together, "Of a bitch to her last time... she probably thinks I'm a psycho. I just didn't understand her. But I've been through some shit, and I've had some time to think..." she paused looking around the room, she saw her brother and her brow raised, she saw the other small redhead, and the other white haired people, and confusion seemed to settle in on her. "Wait, why the fuck does it look like a funeral in here, Ko-chan, did you grow? The hell is going on here?" The woman said as she hopped off the table, she'd have no idea how much time had passed nor that she'd been basically dead for almost a decade.

There was the matter of the rather flirtatious white haired man which simply made Toriko chuckle. "You-niitan is complicated... and a flirt, it's best not think about it too much." she said, it seemed the former Mizukage had no idea how much time was missing from her life, and it was about 9 years at this point. Two years after the disappearance of the previous Kazekage this woman had been taken and her bijuu removed by the Akatsuki.

[Bloodedge]

"Definitely. It really brings out the fangs. Speaking of, I'm sure you've got a way to work around those, right? Never got the chance to... Never mind." Youko chose to take pause again, simply to avoid a much longer and less-than-appreciated discussion taking place here. Besides, the former Mizukage wondered about someone dubbed "Red," who he knew to be Benihime. "Well, to be honest, you are a bit of a psycho. With love, of course~"

Koji had been relatively silent up to this point, but his formerly deceased sister had now acknowledged him. He wasn't quite sure what to say, but the woman obviously didn't know what happened to her before. "You... well... you were dead," he said, prompting Youko to complete the unspoken clauses. "You've been dead, probably for years now. From the looks of things, Tori here has your old Bijuu now. You were found by Akatsuki, weren't you?"

[Apollymi]

"Oh you, nice to know you still have a one track mind, Yokkun~" she said, in a voice which imitated the way the red haired woman she thought of used to say it. Of course, she also knew this particular conversation was not really one for the company of people she didn't really know. Though a quick glance towards the obvious couple in the room and she could at least see one thing she liked. Moving right along, it seemed that her brother was finally willing to speak.

"I was dead? Huh-huh..." the girl said an pushed her stomach a couple of times, squeezed her own bottom then pushed in the cheeks on her face. "Yeah, totally don't feel like I was dead..." she said as Youko went on to explain that she was likely dead for years and that the red haired young woman in the room had her bijuu presently. This prompted her to look at the white haired man. "Alright, so I don't know anything about that group, but I assume if I was dead, since your pretty face was the first one I saw that it was you who woke me up? Arigatou yo~" she said before turning on her heels and walking towards Toriko. She'd never seen this girl before, but her face... looked a bit familiar. "Eh, you look a bit like Red... but... the eyes are the wrong color. If ya' got the Gobi~ Good for you, I thought I felt weird," she said to the girl who could only chuckle. "Thinking back on it, I was bar hopping a bit outside of the village, ya' know, sneaking off for some fun because this job fucking blows." said the Mizukage. "But, I was just hanging out, I met a guy, but I don't remember much else afterwards... he wore this black cloak with red clouds, we all know it's my favorite color and shit..." the third Mizukage put together her night and realized what had led to her rather unfortunate fate. "Fuck, I got genjutsu'd didn't I? And fucking died?!" she immediately held up her hands in mock defeat. "Well, fuck, Little Red, how long you had the Gobi?" she asked the girl who looked stunned. She knew why the woman was asking, and technically speaking she could answer the question. "Little...Red? Really? Toriko seemed to think this nicknaming thing had gone a bit far. It was especially distressing knowing this woman knew her sister, even if she didn't presently know the other woman was her sister. "Nine years ago, I was... gifted with the Gobi." she said calmly. "Sumimasen..."

[Bloodedge]

"It's been years; cut me some slack," was the response Youko chose to give the former Kage. With that exchange seemingly over, the Jounin crossed his arms and leaned against the podium Kochou previously occupied. Discussion continued between the others briefly, eventually coming to the point of Kochou realizing how she met her end nine years prior to this moment. "Uchiha Yuichi," Youko interjected. "You were placed under Sharingan Genjutsu, and had your Bijuu removed... and likely not before spending some amount of time as a slave to that man's desires." Youko moved away from the podium then, choosing to step toward Toriko. He was gaining new information now, and it seemed to tie a few loose strings together. "And then he gave you the Gobi? That's where you got it, right? Why would he just give it away?"

[Apollymi]

A quick turn caused the Mizukage to stick her tongue out at the man. She was willing to cut him a bit of slack, after all, he'd never been anything but nice to her, and they were what most would consider to be friends. He'd also just raised her from the dead with no ill side-effects so she was technically in his debt. Beyond that the words from this young woman made her believe that they were in an even worst predicament than she initially thought. "Eww, that's disgusting. I'm glad I don't remember..." she said about the idea of being any kind of slave to any man who would use genjutsu to capture a woman who would more than likely have a go with him, no strings attached. Beyond this point one thing stuck out in the mind of the Mizukage. "Nine years? Fuck, I'm thirty-two. I'm fucking old," she stood there palming her face thereafter trying to pull herself together.

Soon enough though, Youko's attention was on Toriko, the red haired young woman sighed, but she was always honest in these moments so she simply began speaking after the man's questions. "Hai, he gave me the Gobi, he thought it'd be cute to have four and five be a pair of twins," she said as if she wasn't at all attached to this situation. "But right after he gave me the Gobi. I was talking to Mari, and she said she didn't like what was going on. That something about the situation was wrong, and what he was trying wasn't worth it. I voted we should run, go back to Sunagakure. But... she said he'd simply follow, that she couldn't get away from him... she was too far gone. But I wasn't. There was a small break between when I was given the Gobi and Mari getting the Yonbi, apparently because there wasn't anyone strong enough to take that Jinchuuriki at the time so Mari needed to be stronger and her cursed seal needed to mature. Whatever the case, he planned to keep us as a pair, but the break meant I went without whatever else he had planned for me..." she paused thinking about it. "One second I'm talking to Mari, and the next... I'm on a raft floating out in the middle of the ocean. With a puzzle box, detailing to me what she thinks I should do. She said she was saving me, and putting a hiccup in the plan to have all of the bijuu in one place. That she would stall as much as she could until other villages caught on. She wanted me here, said I could help, and that out here, was I far enough away from her, that it wasn't feasible to just send someone out looking for me. They'd done it once, so the rest could be picked up later. I still don't really know what the plan was... but I trust Mari, she saved me." she said finally stopping her speech.

[Bloodedge]

"Kuso... that makes things far worse," Youko said with a sigh. "It's been assumed that Akatsuki's members exist to each hunt down a Bijuu so they could revive the Juubi. But... that man was instead making Akatsuki members Jinchuriki? I figured Mari having the Yonbi was a coincidence, or maybe some special second-in-command privilege." The more he thought about it, the more this idea made sense to Youko. One could aim to revive the Juubi if they wanted, but there was little to no way even that much power could compare to controlling all nine Jinchuriki in the form of already S-ranked Shinobi. "This Akatsuki... am I right to assume it has nine members?" he asked to hopefully solidify his idea.

[Apollymi]

Toriko looked to Youko who seemed to be trying to piece together what the plans of the man who lead the Akatsuki were. She could only state information from the time she was there, and that wasn't very long considering what her sister had done. "Mari was supposed to have the Yonbi, but apparently there was a bit of a mishap right before the two of us were recruited. And someone hadn't been able to capture the Nibi nor the Ichibi, they'd instead been killed so there was a wait on their spawning again in the world. We knew Nee-tan had the Nibi but didn't bother mentioning it for obvious reasons, and the Ichibi was still too far out for it to matter," she said of the tailed beasts and their jinchuuriki. "It's why Mari wasn't told to go after the Yonbi, he didn't want to risk having to wait an extensive period of time, and why... he went after the Gobi himself, because his abilities let him capture her. Sumimasen." she said again to the teal haired woman who seemed to be taking all of this in, without so much as a word. "The members of the Akatsuki are supposed to total ten, including the man himself. But the numbers shift a lot... people are often the subjects of his experiments, Bijuu having to spawn because a capture attempt has gone wrong, application of cursed seals, and the like. I have no idea what that man's actual plans are..." she said with a shrug.