[Deleted]

Yoko gave a small nod to his remark on the birds. It was peaceful. Yoko didn't like chaos, which was why she'd chosen a home a bit removed from the heart of the village. Less noise, more nature. She felt herself be pulled closer to him and looked at him expectantly. He'd wanted to dance? "Oh. I'm sorry..." Now she felt worse.

A tiny bit better with his smile, though. And then he brought up the hot springs, the way she'd huffed away when he'd ruined her trip. Why did she keep people away like that?

Like what? By being hostile? Aggressive? Venomous? Why did she keep people away? Why wasn't she some ray of sunshine toward people? Was that what he was getting at?

Yoko averted her eyes and took another drink, clearly thinking on how to phrase her answer. "I don't really think about it. I don't know. I guess maybe... Maybe I don't like letting people get very close to me. Or learning about me. I gave everything to someone, once. He knew me inside and out--but he destroyed me inside and out, too. After that, I just... I don't know. I was afraid. I still am." Her voice had gone solemn, almost sad.

"Sorry. That's, um, probably not what you wanted to hear." She felt so awkward. Why was he asking, anyway? Why did it matter what her motivations were for keeping people at arm's length? Why did it matter that she kept others away if he had already earned a place close to her? He was inside the barrier she kept, so it was irrelevant...right?

Yoko eased back from him and stood up suddenly, setting down her glass and scooping up their bowls and utensils. "I'll take care of these," she said softly, and left the room--not hurried, but with purpose--to rinse and place their dishes in the sink.

But she didn't immediately return to the living room. Instead, she stood by the sink with the water running, staring at the stream, thinking. "Why" questions were always the hardest to answer. She didn't understand "why" sometimes. She knew the "what" and the "when" and the "who" but very rarely the "why."

Maybe she really would have to see about visiting a therapist like Kaito had suggested. Maybe she'd be less awkward in situations like this one if she actually had a solid grasp on what was going on behind the curtain in her own head. She sighed.

"What a mess you are. Going to leave him sitting in there forever?"

---

@akira ❤ HEX: #d85266 ❤ No notes!

[Deleted]

Satori Akira

"Don't... like I said, it's fine." Akira softly responded. It really didn't matter.

For the second time of today he'd managed to make it awkward between the two of them. Asking about something that shouldn't be asked about, or that's how she had taken it.

She gave an honest answer and the more that she reeled it off the less Akira felt like he should've asked the question to begin with. A mistake. The partner was abusive? It ticked an idea in his mind, from the one she meant before, one who had died. That, combined with the picture in the living room? Abusive partner. "That's... heavy." Akira knew the plight.

It made a lot more sense in his mind and Akira reeled back from it, even withdrawing his touch from her which likely exacerbated the situation. It made sense, because she'd then went off, taking the bowl from Akira and into the kitchen.

It did feel like he was walking on eggshells with her, it would've been easier if he was the sort of person who did ask for control over her, like her position would be best suited as being underneath someone's control. But she was her own woman, so Akira thought. He thought he'd made that clear to her before.

The water had been running for a while now while Akira was collecting his thoughts. Should he go in there and try to resolve the awkwardness he caused? It was his fault after all for asking the question to begin with.

The man resolved his temper and picked himself up. 'Honesty...' he kept saying to himself. Just the words that he'd been trying to learn from his sessions at home - and walked to the kitchen, looking by the ripped picture in her living room. He stood in the doorway, arms crossed, leaning up against one side. "I shouldn't have asked. I'm sorry." He tried to apologise for her, so she didn't need to bring it up again. It had affected her, he could see it in everything around her - her actions, staring down into the sink bowl, and it had been rinsing for quite a while now.

"What do you need?" Akira asked. But this wasn't about this moment, but this was about her life. Was she looking for a master, a leader - someone to organise her life for her? Or that soul mate everybody spoke about. Because Akira wasn't that. Though he'd suspended his sense of disbelief, he was still in the same boat he'd been in where she shared his bed. It wasn't the time or the place. That's why he was here in the first place, to banish those feelings.

or she could choose to take it as a literal question, and answer from there.

---

INFO SHEET

SPOILER: Click to show ABILITIES: Jinchūriki, Stalwart Hide, Bukijutsu Maverick, Hawkeyes, Seal Weaver [Always Active] Genjutsu Innovator [Inactive] Genjutsu Subterfuge [Inactive] Political Orator [Inactive] JUTSU: n/a EQUIPMENT: n/a

i hate that i love

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[Deleted]

Yoko jumped at the voice in the doorway, too lost in her thoughts to notice him approach. She shut off the tap and spun around to face him. He was apologizing? A part of her fought that idea--because clearly it'd been her who'd done wrong--

"It's okay," she insisted quickly, forcing a smile, and cutting off her own train of thought. As for what she needed, that was many things. But in the moment? "I don't need anything. I just...don't want to talk about any of that. If that's okay...?" She was hesitant, and would clearly still answer questions if he asked them, but she really didn't want to.

Should she mention that she was considering therapy? Would that help? ...No, no it wouldn't. If anything, it'd just make her feel worse. Less in control. Control was everything.

"Um. Anyway." She desperately wanted to change topic. "I was going to bring in more wine..." She grabbed the neck of the bottle and made for the doorway, though assuming he stayed standing there she would have to brush past him to get back into the living room. It would be one of the few times she didn't try to make it into something alluring or charming, though, simply moving by him to get somewhere else. That wouldn't stop him from halting her, though, if for some reason he didn't want her to leave the room just yet.

Yoko was, more than anything, upset with herself for her own blunder. She hated that even now, years later, someone long buried still riled her. Someone long buried still had parts of her psyche in some sick chokehold. She didn't look at people the same way. She didn't look at men the same way. For all of the scars she'd had purged from her body, there were still so very many on the inside, and times like this made her wish she'd just been able to heal.

"But you are healing. It's a slow process. You trust him, and you wouldn't have trusted him this way a year ago. Right?"

Her conscience was a bit warped but this time it was right on the mark. Slow progress wasn't no progress.

Assuming he didn't stop her, the pinkette would find her former place on the sofa, refilling both of their glasses.

---

@akira ❤ HEX: #d85266 ❤ awks

[Deleted]

Satori Akira

He wouldn't push the woman to talk more than she wanted to: and he didn't want to learn about it any more for the awkwardness of their situation.

The man would shift his body to allow the woman free access in her own home, and she didn't want to talk about it. 'Fine by me.' there was a gaze into the kitchen as it hung on something in there, and then turned to follow her into the living room again. He'd find her in there again, filling up both of the glasses.

Placing both of his hands on his knees as he supported himself into his sitting down. He was sat next to her, but didn't have such the intimate grip on her as before- and grabbed his glass and placed arm down on the back of the sofa to stretch out his arm, and if she found her place in the crook of his armpit, then so she would. He wouldn't have an objection about it.

What on earth would he feel the need to talk about? "I think we could be due to go on a mission together. I also... uh. I have a request I need to make..." he was being a bit mysterious as he managed to ask. "I need poison training. Or resistance training. And I know you make it so..." He'd ask of the woman. It was necessary for his ANBU test: coming very shortly. But he didn't know what to expect, and if Poison was going to be on the list - then he didn't really want to have that taken to him out of the blue. "Just training, is all." There would be no mention towards any reason why. Yoko might've known, or might've not. But she was a Poison user, and she had some use beyond her mind and body that could help him.

---

INFO SHEET

SPOILER: Click to show ABILITIES: Jinchūriki, Stalwart Hide, Bukijutsu Maverick, Hawkeyes, Seal Weaver [Always Active] Genjutsu Innovator [Inactive] Genjutsu Subterfuge [Inactive] Political Orator [Inactive] JUTSU: n/a EQUIPMENT: n/a

i hate that i love

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[Deleted]

With more wine poured, Yoko took her glass and snuggled closer to him on the sofa, getting comfortable again as he moved on to another topic entirely. She was glad for the change, though he might have chosen something more interesting than work.

She had no issue in going on another mission together sometime soon--that sounded nice, actually, and she did have some newer techniques she wanted to flex. But he also had a request?

Poison resistance training? Well, she did offer him the teaching if he wanted to learn, though she hadn't expected him to take her up on that offer so soon. Maybe it'd been on his mind since before he arrived? Since before today?

The pinkette gave a nod. "I can train you, sure. We can meet in my lab." She gestured vaguely to the hallway entrance across the room behind where they sat. "It's downstairs. All I'll need to know in advance is your end goal for your resistance to them. You can build up immunity to something with enough exposure over many years, as I have done, but a single session or even multiple sessions would better serve your physical tolerance to pain and side effects as opposed to gaining true physical resistance to the chemicals."

Maybe she was being too technical about it. She shrugged. "Anyway, I don't typically take on teaching roles. My toxins are precious and I safeguard them. In fact, you're the only one aside from Kaito that I've ever invited to the lab." She winked. "Lucky you, hm?" The woman took another drink of wine, clearly feeling better now--whether by speaking on a subject she felt better about, the effect of the wine, or both.

It would be up to Akira, as well, if he wanted his training to consist of a general review of not just the toxins she employed but the varying types. There were those that targeted the nerves, the body's tissues, and blood. And then there was the method of introduction--inhaling, injecting, or ingesting. All things they could discuss at a later time.

---

@akira ❤ HEX: #d85266 ❤ no notes!

[Deleted]

Satori Akira

Akira wasn't quite sure what he had heard when he first heard it.

A lab?

In her house?

Strange. He had to conceede his version of what a lab looked like would be those spanning buildings inside a hospital, so it wouldn't be too harsh to think it would be a smaller room. Akira looked over to where she'd gestured. She likely would've had to take more precautions than what Akira did for his weapons room. But even so, he'd only converted a bedroom into one. Did she buy a place exclusively for having a lab?

"It's for the mental and physical tolerance of the pain- since I don't know what can happen with them. So if it ever happens, I can keep fighting, or get myself out of there." Akira didn't really know what he would be getting himself into - or the different kind of pain that he was going to be signing up for.

"Right." Akira grinned. He took the tiniest sip from the wine again, easy enough to swallow for it. "Oh, you know Kaito as well? Tanaka?" Akira known the man from him working at the hospital. Subconsciously, helping Akira believe that Yoko really was a medic. But the longer he thought about it, the more it dawned on him why a medic might've been killing innocent civilians on behest of the former Tsuchikage. But it was easily rationalised. As a Medic, he had the capability to do exactly that from a hospital.

It mattered not.

"I've puked on him. Twice." Akira would remark with some comedic value. He'd known the man in some capacity for a while - bordering on three years now as well. Her soft touch inside his grasp was comforting for their situation.

---

INFO SHEET

SPOILER: Click to show ABILITIES: Jinchūriki, Stalwart Hide, Bukijutsu Maverick, Hawkeyes, Seal Weaver [Always Active] Genjutsu Innovator [Inactive] Genjutsu Subterfuge [Inactive] Political Orator [Inactive] JUTSU: n/a EQUIPMENT: n/a

i hate that i love

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[Deleted]

Ah, pain tolerance. That was easy enough. "Very well." It would be interesting to discover what he already had a tolerance to, as there were many different kinds of pain. It was a special torture to have something attack the nervous system from inside the body versus a simple burn or cut to the skin. There were so many chemicals, natural and synthetic, and so many more possibilities.

Akira confirmed that he knew Kaito as well. She gave a nod. "Mhm." While she didn't ask about it--from the desire to not talk about other men while on a date with one--she was curious how well the two knew each other. Yoko had just taken another drink and barely gotten it down her throat when Akira dropped that he'd thrown up on the guy--twice. She stifled a laugh, covering her mouth as surprise flickered across her face.

"Really?" That sounded horrible and horribly embarrassing. "I imagine the look on his face was just priceless." This time she failed to hold back a few giggles. The wine was nudging her sense of humor a little more liberally.

"Speaking of price." The pinkette shifted to bring one leg up and over where Akira sat, sinking her knees down on either side of him in a cozy straddle, her wine glass perched in her right hand. "You still owe me from earlier," she said, settling her full weight down on him and leaning forward, her lips only a breath away from his. "I accept payment in kisses." Another giggle.

The warmth from the spiced goodness in her glass was so very welcome. Despite her sour mood earlier she was feeling none of that, now. And the affection was such a release all on its own, working at her mind the same way the massage had worked at her muscles.

In truth, though, if anyone owed anyone, Yoko considered herself in debt to Akira for the day he'd treated her to. Such a lovely date--and it wasn't even finished yet. The pinkette was reminded again of the surprise she was still wearing and felt a surge of excitement. It was just so pretty. If she'd loved it that much in the store, she could hardly wait to see her lover's reaction to it...

But, patience. Timing was so important. Like being fashionably late. Except way, way better. And the payoff was exponentially higher, too.

---

@akira ❤ HEX: #d85266 ❤ no notes!

[Deleted]

Satori Akira

"It was." Though, he'd been pretty much blackout drunk one time, and very sick the other. He failed to mention the part where he'd coyly groped at the muscular man whilst being over his shoulders. That part didn't need to be repeated from his memory, as it played there.

Yoko had other ideas in mind when she changed the subject, whatever former mood and cloud above her head banished and Akira would pensively watch as she put her actions into motion.

Her sweet and supple form came across his legs and straddled against his hips: he liked it, he always had. Perhaps not at the beginning, but he saw her body rather than her personality first. He'd kiss her a few times and placate her, placing his wine down with a stretch of one side of his body and onto the floor with a small clink, and then both hands on her hips - lightly caressing her upper thighs. It also helped that he now had a reason to ditch the wine from the taste in his mouth and replace it with whatever taste she had for him. "I've run out of kisses..." he would grin, a soft chuckle escaping his lips as he stared up at her.

"I'm ever so sorry... do you take any other forms of payment?" Akira would ask politely, knowing full well the intention behind his words. He himself was getting excited, as she would feel. He'd place an arm behind her back and crunch his stomach forward into standing up, her being able to wrap her legs around his hips once more.

'I wonder where this is going.' a sarcastic remark in his thoughts - and he would smoothly place his mouth up against her neck, nose touching against the back of her ear: not kissing, grazing up against her lightly.

The night was still far from over now.

---

INFO SHEET

SPOILER: Click to show ABILITIES: Jinchūriki, Stalwart Hide, Bukijutsu Maverick, Hawkeyes, Seal Weaver [Always Active] Genjutsu Innovator [Inactive] Genjutsu Subterfuge [Inactive] Political Orator [Inactive] JUTSU: n/a EQUIPMENT: n/a

i hate that i love

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[Deleted]

The wine was truly a delight--but it paled in comparison to the sweet buzz spurred by the feeling of his lips on hers. Akira placed his drink elsewhere to allow both hands to focus on her, the caress to her hips and thighs stirring a deeper excitement in her. He'd run out of kisses? She stuck her lower lip forward in a feigned pout, giving him her best puppy-dog eyes. But it was impossible to stay disappointed hearing him laugh. She enjoyed the sound, almost more than...

The pinkette leaned forward a bit at his question. Other forms of payment? Oh, and he was so very nice about it, too. "Hmm..." She pretended to think on it, only to find them both moved as the man stood up with an arm around her. Yoko giggled happily--pure drunkenness now as opposed to anything being funny--and wrapped her legs around him, her free arm coming up to secure loosely around his neck.

Tilting her head a bit, she found the warmth of his mouth against her neck both pleasing and a short-circuit to her thoughts, her breath catching in her throat momentarily as her words scattered away from her tongue. The woman was drunk and while her body wanted to just feel, she reminded herself there was still a greater need to think.

Her fingertips roamed up his neck and through his hair gently, and there was another giggle as her thoughts reorganized themselves. The wine made everything so much better but also so much more difficult. "You can pay with physical service," she suggested, a playful lilt in her voice. "But for how bad you were, you might be here 'til morning." She giggled again, green eyes now going between his blues. Yoko fully intended to make him work off the "puma" remark and she was going to enjoy every second of it. Of course, she also intended on him having just as much fun with it. Well, with her.

"I trust that's not a problem?" she finished with a smirk, almost daring him to argue otherwise. Her right hand would bring the wine to her lips again, but even as she tilted her head up to drink she was watching him, her gaze a subtle smolder of desire.

---

@akira ❤ HEX: #d85266 ❤ no notes!

[Deleted]

Satori Akira

There was little on his mind to dissuade him otherwise of their activity for the night. She seemed so much younger, so much more youthful around him. It didn't matter about age to him, and he adored her femininity. Akira had no other plans and so he nodded to her, lightly swaying his body with movement for her.

"Your wish, my command." He'd offer up the opportunity for some deference to the woman, although knowing he could likely rip her to shreds if he wanted to. Even the touch of his lips to her neck was a tantalising honey to be caught into.

So their previous words were forgotten about, and they were back to square one. Back to where they should've gone - had Akira not the tendency to put a foot in his mouth. His head dipped as he stared at her, both arms occupied as one of them grasped underneath her as so they were eye to eye.

A fire had begun burning in his core. When it started, it was hard to stop. She certainly had her wits about her, and a charm that could not be denied by the young Shinobi, falling into her trap, if there had been one.

"You wanna rip these clothes off me?" He asked her gently and keeping her body pressed against his.

FTB ?

---

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i hate that i love

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[Deleted]

Satori Akira

The light and soft movement of silk was what woke Akira from his slumber as Yoko's had turned over and out of Akira's embrace through the night. There was light barely rising and the room was still dark as it went: but the darkness of the night was lifting with a light shade of blue emerging from the east.

There were birds waking up out of the window - the light chipper of noise also being a delight to him. He didn't get very much of it as his own home. A smooth breeze congregating in the room: chilly, even. But they were snuggled underneath the duvets, so little else would actually bother them.

Akira took some time to gather his bearings. Their night had been extraordinary, and he'd served his purpose. He looked over at Yoko, quietly making astute judgements. But he laid his head down and back into the bed - there were still some hours and he didn't feel like an early morning today. He would place his left hand over her arm while he laid on his back, still having a sense of touch with her as he took some time to breathe.

He had done everything he'd wanted to - and more from the satisfaction Yoko had faced. Him as well. But they both got what they wanted. But as time passed, Akira was still staring at the ceiling. Still letting things run through his mind both in retrospect and about the various other things in his life.

But he didn't realise how long that'd been going on for before he fell asleep again - resigned to a black slumber, and a dreamless sleep.

---

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i hate that i love

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[Deleted]

Morning arrived. But while her lover's sleep was dreamless, Yoko's was not. A recurring nightmare plagued her, eventually bringing soft, broken-up words past her lips. Please. Sorry. No.

And then a name. But not Akira's.

The woman jolted awake, immediately bringing herself up into a sitting position, eyes darting around the room to see where she was at. Relief rushed her. She was home. And safe. She turned to look at Akira, and instantly the urge hit her to put on her prettiest face. Her nightmares weren't his problem, and she had to be good. She had to be pretty.

"Good morning," she said, forcing a small smile, though her voice yet was still a throaty murmur and lacked her usual sing-song tone. And her usual confidence, for that matter. The woman eased backward to rest more firmly against the headboard, her expression calm despite the wild beating of her heart. "How'd you sleep?" A question from courtesy, as she was sure he'd slept just fine. Yoko had, as well, if one didn't count the mental torture that was what she'd been dreaming about. Or, rather, who.

Idly, her right hand had come up to her chest, and while she wasn't conscious of it just yet, the way her fingertips were moving against her skin was a specific pattern--the emblem that she'd tried and failed to forget about, yet her body had it committed to memory like it'd been imprinted on her brain rather than on her chest.

And her thoughts were whirring. Their time together yesterday, their evening, being tangled up in him yet again. Memories. Feelings. Uncertainty. Questions.

---

@akira ❤ HEX: #d85266 ❤ no notes!

[Deleted]

Satori Akira

The natural alarm clock in his mind was whirring and his body was rested now. Akira stirred from his sleep with noise: something that most Shinobi had issues with was they generally tended to be light sleepers in the face of danger, being unnecessarily shown the life they were involved in and how danger could appear from anywhere.

Yoko's: assailant was internal. A first, Akira just laid there as he came too, looking around the room. Though it was not his place, he felt jealousy in hearing her say another man's name: but that was easily dismissed knowing the reason for it, since she'd shared it all with him. That, and the words she was muttering: a nightmare.

When they were growing in intensity, Akira placed his arm over her- seeing if his embrace would calm her down. It did not. She would jolt up and his grip snapped away from her. "Morning, Yoko-chan..." He smiled at her, hand going underneath her face as a sort of 'pat' and took it away again as he sat himself up. "I-- aaaaaaaaaaaaa-" he yawned. "I slept fine." There was still some grogginess to his voice. His voice had that musky morning voice of not having water yet, deeper and slightly gravelly.

"You were doing it again." Akira said to her politely. It hadn't been the first time either, she'd done it before in his own home. "You want some coffee? Or tea?" Akira would ask the woman, if she wanted to talk about it then she could.

---

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SPOILER: Click to show ABILITIES: Jinchūriki, Stalwart Hide, Bukijutsu Maverick, Hawkeyes, Seal Weaver [Always Active] Genjutsu Innovator [Inactive] Genjutsu Subterfuge [Inactive] Political Orator [Inactive] JUTSU: n/a EQUIPMENT: n/a

i hate that i love

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[Deleted]

His smile was comforting. Cute, really. His reaction to her question gave her more an answer than words, and she would smile at him, though faintly.

She'd been doing it again? It? ...Oh. Talking. Not that she could help that she sometimes talked in her sleep. And she couldn't help nightmares the same as she couldn't help whatever other dreams she had. But the observation only worsened her anxiety in the moment that she was in some way undesirable for it. "Sorry..." She murmured, sighing softly and redirecting her focus to a set of candles across the room on her desk--long burned out.

"I'll make us coffee." She was slipping out of bed before he could protest, moving for the doorway. She turned back, forcing a reassuring smile. "Stay in bed? I'll be back in a minute." It was more of a request for him to do it than a statement. Akira was free to wander the house as he wanted, though Yoko was trying to hint she wanted the few minutes of space. She would be able to clear her thoughts quicker if he didn't follow her down to the kitchen.

Coffee. Yoko stood in the kitchen gazing out the window as it brewed, watching a flock of birds in one of the spare few trees in her neighborhood. It was peaceful this early.

She would return upstairs a few minutes later with two mugs of coffee, black. Yoko would offer one to Akira assuming he was still in the room and then slip back under the covers herself. She took a sip, then retrieved a pill bottle from her nightstand and threw back one of the anti-anxiety pills Kaito had prescribed her. Her thoughts lingered on him. And maybe they shouldn't have. But they did.

"Akira." Her voice was soft, her green eyes staring at the pool of hot liquid in her cup set atop her lap. "Did you mean what you said before? About...taking care of it? Him? Were you actually serious?" She turned to finally look at him, now, but there was a sort of solemn, almost sad contemplation woven into her face.

She wanted to tell him what she really meant to say, but she needed to know how committed he was to the idea, or if he'd just said things before to make her feel better in the moment when she'd been distraught and crying in his arms.

---

@akira ❤ HEX: #d85266 ❤ no notes!

[Deleted]

Satori Akira

"You're fine." He had no issue with it. He would regard her with a thanks as she went to get them coffee: back in a certainly hostess fashion. Akira didn't mind coffee. Didn't like it as much as tea: but it was a good replacement for this time in the morning. Though he wouldn't have admitted it, he really just wanted a glass of water.

He waited patiently for the woman, laying his head against the headboard and closing his eyes to take in the night and reviewing his memories and only reopening them when the faint sounds of the woman returned, coffee in hand.

He would still gratefully take it from her, a smile to his face as thanks - letting the heat burn through and into his fingers. He didn't mind. The man kept them there even when she'd had her questions - and he would look over at her. In thought.

"Yes." Akira would nod and answer once, and turned to face his coffee and took a sip after blowing to cool it down. There was a lot of difficulty in finding out any information: lest there be reasons for him to go to Kirigakure in the first place, but to find out more information about the clan. He'd learned a little through the grapevine about the man being a Heartbreaker: but that's all there was to it.

There was little that he or his clones could find in the libraries of Iwagakure no Sato, for the hours he'd spent pouring through the sections for any skim or mention of the name of Kuronmeru. Their activities during the wars had been surprisingly little: and as far as he could tell, they were a newer clan given the circumstances. Only because of meddling with humans did they exist, or that's what the words written addled to.

But it left him no closer to the truth. Closer to his goal.

No face. No position. Just the name.

"I'm in the process of finding out more information. Don't worry about it." It was his commitment to her that he'd kept. She was keeping a secret for him. Something so batshit insane he wasn't sure if she even had.

---

INFO SHEET

SPOILER: Click to show ABILITIES: Jinchūriki, Stalwart Hide, Bukijutsu Maverick, Hawkeyes, Seal Weaver [Always Active] Genjutsu Innovator [Inactive] Genjutsu Subterfuge [Inactive] Political Orator [Inactive] JUTSU: n/a EQUIPMENT: n/a

i hate that i love

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