[Aburame Azarea]

The Devil That You Forgot

A Helping Hand

The little clinic wasn't difficult to find. In fact Azarea had been to it often given it's close location near her own apartment. She'd over the years grown rather close to the old doctor who ran the place and now his new partner Shosuke was an occasional mission partner of hers. The younger man having steadily earned her trust with his professionalism and capabilities as pushing the door open the red headed Kumo nin stepped into the clinic and rather then request her usual medic... she asked Shosuke instead. The woman settling down on the plastic waiting chairs as she inspected the old slightly out of date pamphlets plastered to the walls alongside their newer additions.

The woman in question looked pale and a little vaguely ill, her jumpsuit done up to just beneath her chin and her jacket tucked tight around her to ward off the chill of the waiting room. A chill only really she felt with the slight sweat beading upon her brow and the back of her neck. The need to seek help always a shameful thing when shinobi were typically highly independent outside their squads, but Azarea wasn't close enough with her current genin team to ask for aid. Nor were any of her teammates trained for the sort of care she needed help with. So Shosuke was the first to come to her mind. As Azarea glanced up as the assistant called for the medic from the back.

SPOILER: Click to show

Justu Goes Here

流人

                           Made by Keen of FBNRP | Word Count: 244 | Yamamoto Shosuke

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Shosuke wouldn't say he was the old man's partner; He was a volunteer, someone who helped out around the shop, but he had no stake in the business. If anything, the old man was training him in pharmacology, allowing him to learn and rapidly develop skills that would help him in the field. It was just another form of training for him, a new way with which to develop his medical talents.

Still, partner or not, he was here frequently enough to recognise a pattern. A pattern of behaviour, that was, and namely about Azarea's. In the last few days, this was the second time that she had come to the clinic. The first had been to have her stitches removed, something relatively minor in of itself, but now she was here a second time, and he couldn't help but wonder why.

For the briefest of moments, he considered that maybe she was there to see him, after all were they not becoming fast friends? All of that disappeared though the moment that he saw her.

Her body was pallid, completely unlike her usual cherry red that screamed liveliness and vivacity. Her usual aura of confidence and control had vanished, leaving her looking as if she'd shrunk somehow.

Judging from the way she was dressed, she must have been feeling freezing cold. Whilst none of these symptoms seemed horrific on their own, together they knitted together to form an image that he didn't like the look of. He was, he hesitated to admit, worried about her.

To worry about Azarea in any other circumstance would have been ludicrous and might have earned him a slap for his effort. She was a powerful, independent woman and he knew it. Not to mention the fact that moments after meeting her for the first time, she had introduced herself as being skilled in "assassination", something you didn't just readily admit to unless you were untouchable. It was her presence with him in those times that had made him feel able to do as much as he did.

Deciding to not waste any time, Sho merely vaulted the kiosk's table and moved to the front of the shop where Azarea was. Of course, this earned him a rather dour glance from the shop-keep, but he could apologise and polish the table later. For now, he had a patient, and one who wouldn't come here if she wasn't feeling truly awful.

"Well now, this isn't like you, Az." His tone was jovial and pleasant but hid a clear twinge of worry underneath it all. "We don't see many shinobi around here, other than me of course. People in our line of work tend to resent having to get help from anyone in the field, let alone out of it. You doin' okay? How can I help."

471 words | Aburame Azarea

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP 1/8
Jutsus Used: None

[Aburame Azarea]

The Devil That You Forgot

Sickness

The Kumo kunoichi's eyes lit up with anticipation and relief at the sight of Shosuke as the medic jumped the counter. The red haired woman moving to stand as she forces herself not to tremble too badly her sense of balance a bit off as she catches herself with a hand on his shoulder. More weight put on the medic then she'd like to admit as she blinks the slight stars from her eyes.

"Is there a back room we can use? I... don't really want to upset the other patients you might have. I just got a hurt a while back and it's causing some complications with... with my hijutsu... is all. You seemed..." Not likely to throw up or stab her for being a living hive, "Interested in how some of my techniques worked. Figured you would be open to practicing your craft with treating another shinobi with a more unusual constitution." She explains as she nods towards the doors hopefully leading to somewhere quieter in the back. Her head was killing her and what little skin Shosuke could see was clammy with sweat and flushed with signs of early fever now that he was close enough to tell.

There was also a very strong sweet scent of cherries, almonds, and something akin to petrichor to the woman as she tried to stay steady on her feet.

SPOILER: Click to show

Justu Goes Here

流人

                           Made by Keen of FBNRP | Word Count: 229 | Yamamoto Shosuke

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Though she hid it like an absolute champion, Sho's eyes were far too accustomed to people trying to hide their symptoms to accurately be fooled. He knew what it looked like when someone was trying to hide just how badly they hurt, how their body was rebelling against itself, how it was trembling like a leaf in the wind.

It was something one never wanted to see, people putting a brave face on their injury, but it felt especially bad coming from someone as completely sensible as Azarea.

As far as Sho could tell, Azarea was a genius. She was someone who could turn something as simple as paperwork into an art all of its own, who could get the village to dance to her strings without even needing to, and who at such a low rank had somehow managed to ingratiate herself to the Kage. That someone with such wit and talent would still be hiding their symptoms from a doctor, even whilst in a clinic, was a little worrying.

"If it was something this urgent, you really should have gone to the hospital." He chided, his tone filled with worry and concern for his friend.

The clinic was somewhere you went when you had a poor stomach, or you wanted hangover pills, or you needed to see if you were pregnant. It wasn't somewhere you went when you looked like... well, like this.

But he knew that Azarea knew that. She had come here the other day to get some stitches removed, and even that was pushing the abilities of a local clinic compared to an actual hospital. Which meant that she was here for another reason, which he could only assume meant she had come here for him.

It could be his ego getting to him but that was the only reason that he could possibly surmise for this peculiar choice of action.

"Right, your hijutsu... your parasites, right? Are they acting up? Did your injury cause them to stop responding properly? Is your queen injured? Wait, do they even have a queen?" He said, moving to drape one of her arms over his shoulder before guiding her towards the back room of the clinic.

It was little more than a staff room, somewhere where he and the old man to go to brew a hot drink if they were feeling particularly exhausted, but it would do to get her out of the public eye.

"I'm going to let you know before we go any further Az - I know next to nothing about your hijutsu. Cos, well, it's a hijutsu, clans don't go around broadcasting this sort of information to the general public, as I'm sure you know.

I will do anything and everything I can to help you, but please don't get mad if I'm lacking in some department. Even regular parasites generally require specialists."

Of course, if there were any specialists, they would be in Konoha, and she didn't look well enough to make that journey. Especially considering he remembered she had been disavowed by her family.

512 words | Aburame Azarea

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP 2/8
Jutsus Used: None

[Aburame Azarea]

The Devil That You Forgot

Comradery

Azarea lets Shosuke guide her back to the staff room the tension bleeding from her shoulders as she listens to the man ramble. The noise grounding her against the pain and weariness that had settled in her bones and helped her keep her attention from slipping too badly with the fever that's heating her skin. "I'm the closest thing to the hive's queen it's err... complicated." She tried to answer his questions best she can as the woman settled heavily into the chair leaning back against it with a sigh.

"And look I uh... I got hurt... bad... a while back. I got treatment and am not at risk of dying, but knowledge of my injuries could compromise a mission if any regular nurse ran across them so..." Azarea trails off cheeks coloring with a mix of embarrassment and feverish heat. "I really need a hand changing the bandages. I can't manage them on my own I... I tried." She mutters voice soft, she's not opposed to asking for help, but being vulnerable and admitting weakness is a different animal entirely.

"A few of the healing scars have cracked and bleed and I just... I need help cleaning the entryways for my hive that have scabbed over. If I can get them clear my Kikiachu can do the rest." She assures him refusing to quite look Shosuke in the eyes and feeling a bit like an invalid. She'd been coming to this clinic for a long time. During the plague if you needed anything that wasn't life or death you didn't go to the hospital and for years afterwards that was still the case. Though times are better she's used to the easy comradery she'd built with the old medic here and with Shosuke himself. It felt safer.

"If it's too much to ask I can see about finding someone else...?" Azarea offers him the out fangs worrying her lower lip in anxiety. Daisuke would probably lend her a hand, but he wasn't a medic by trade.

SA's

SPOILER: Click to show

Joō no Taikanshiki no Regaria [Queen's Coronation Regalia]
A mutated variant of the Aburame clans Yūdai no Omorejō ["Bewildering Grandeur of the Alpha"] resulting from the subsequent poisoning of Azarea's former Yūdai no Omorejō hive to prevent potential hijutsu theft. While the Joō no Taikanshiki no Regaria lacks the Yūdai no Omorejō size instead Azarea's hive has maintained the ability to produce alpha pheromones and commanding vibrations. Evolving instead to hyperspecialize in these two aspects allowing them to produce pheramones and vibrations strong enough to be detected by human hearing and sense of smell.

Reigning Chakra Control
Fine tuning her chakra control to a razor's edge Azarea is capable of performing delicate techniques with minimal to no wastage of chakra. Allowing her to conserve her reserves in prolonged combat and managed more finickity techniques and jutsu.

Kagura Mind's Eye
Born with a natural affinity towards sensing chakra like her Father before her Azarea has trained herself to become a capable sensory shinobi. Unlocking the Kagura's Mind's Eye, and with it, the ability to passively sense chakra signatures in the distance (when using the technique), thus allowing her to not only track, but also memorize a person's chakra signature, even if barely any chakra is being used. Due to her proficiency with this technique, Azarea can currently passively sense chakra up to 500 meters and actively at 2.5 kilometers.

Techniques

SPOILER: Click to show

JUTSU GOES HERE

流人

                           Made by Keen of FBNRP | Word Count:337 | Yamamoto Shosuke

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

She was the queen? That was weird, Sho thought with a moment of deeper consideration. He was by no means an expert in parasitic insects, he wasn't even a vet but a doctor, but that being said he had never even considered that to be a possibility.

When a beekeeper kept hives, they weren't the Queen, they were essentially their landlord. He had, if he was honest, kind of assumed that would be the case with the Aburame as well.

That was the problem with having families who had unique and special powers. In order to try and prevent people from studying or from copying their abilities, they often kept their abilities and the extent of their mutations to themselves. This meant that someone outside of the clan, like himself, would often struggle being able to give them appropriate medical care.

How was he supposed to fix people when their biology was almost completely different than that of a regular human? At least most families just had a weird eye or something.

"Not at risk of dying?" Sho asked, his tone a little incredulous. "If you expected that to not worry me, Az, you really need to get a better standard of good news. Just cos you're not at risk of dying doesn't mean that this couldn't go badly for you. I mean, we're shinobi, we need to keep in perfect condition, or we jeopardize our entire jobs."

There was a part of Sho that wondered just what job she could possibly have been doing that would have made it so that she couldn't go and ask for help from a trained nurse at the hospital. However, he knew that asking that was liable just to get him a non-answer.

If she was to be believed, and he had no reason to think otherwise, she was someone who was tasked with the uglier side of their business. Assassination and wet work. Assassins tended not to have the freedom to discuss their clients.

Frankly, he was still amazed she told him she was an assassin at all, made it almost hard to believe she actually was one.

"Alright. If all you need is essentially a bit of cleanup and bandage changing, I think it's safe to say that I can handle that. Though, as said, I've never actually seen an Aburame up close before.

I don't know what one of these "entryways" are supposed to look like. Makes it a little harder to return it to pristine condition"

It wasn't a matter of willingness, that much was clear in his voice. It was more that he was worried about her. She was someone he valued as a friend, and he didn't want to end up risking her life through his own medical inexperience with her condition.

Though, he supposed, he couldn't imagine many other people had a lot of experience with her condition, being that her family was from a different village. As far as their medical system was concerned, she might as well have been an alien.

"Alright, first thing's first, I'm going to need you to take your clothes off."

521 words | Aburame Azarea

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP 3/8
Jutsus Used: None

[Aburame Azarea]

The Devil That You Forgot

Pretty

"It's all right Shosuke. Just look for where the scars have cracked and bleed a bit and clean up those areas. It's mostly along my back that is the issue. If you scrub a bit hard and there's fresh blood then that's a break. If you just find skin underneath that that's where it's scabbed over where it shouldn't. I trust you." She assures him with the utmost confidence. Grateful he hadn't asked too many other questions. While she wasn't well liked by the Aburame she didn't want to risk further isolating herself by revealing anything non-essential. Though if Shosuke continued on with his work she had no doubt he'd be head medic in no time and have her file on hand.

Turning her back to Shosuke Azarea slowly slid her jacket off hanging it over the chair before she drags down the zipper of her jumpsuit. The full extent of the damage becoming clear. Her throat was bound thickly with gauze and was the only part that appeared fresh and new. Given it was the only area she could easily reach to care for herself. Her shoulder, arms, and torso was bound with bandages. Many of which appeared to have been bled through or soaked with serous fluid. Turning Azarea settled gingerly down backwards into the chair to give Shosuke her back. As peeling away the bandages that needed changing on her torso and arms would reveal extensive chakra burns. The skin there shiny, pink, thin, and new. Hence the cracking as Azarea moved and the flesh tried to become more flexible. The woman looked as though she'd been splashed with burning tar, but with none of the tell tale twisting bubble marks. The extent of the healing done on her clearly a professional job, but even an expert couldn't rush the bodies natural healing process beyond a certain point. Azarea would scar. Not as badly as she could have and her flexibility would not thanks tot he unknown healers efforts become compromised, but she'd certainly be rather eye catching for the wrong reasons in a bikini.

"I'm really fuckin pretty ain't I Shosuke?" Azarea joked her voice carrying a slight rasp as she tilts her head as much as the bandages on her throat will allow to flash the man a smile. Knowing quite well she'd never be a runway model.

SA's

SPOILER: Click to show

Joō no Taikanshiki no Regaria [Queen's Coronation Regalia]
A mutated variant of the Aburame clans Yūdai no Omorejō ["Bewildering Grandeur of the Alpha"] resulting from the subsequent poisoning of Azarea's former Yūdai no Omorejō hive to prevent potential hijutsu theft. While the Joō no Taikanshiki no Regaria lacks the Yūdai no Omorejō size instead Azarea's hive has maintained the ability to produce alpha pheromones and commanding vibrations. Evolving instead to hyperspecialize in these two aspects allowing them to produce pheramones and vibrations strong enough to be detected by human hearing and sense of smell.

Reigning Chakra Control
Fine tuning her chakra control to a razor's edge Azarea is capable of performing delicate techniques with minimal to no wastage of chakra. Allowing her to conserve her reserves in prolonged combat and managed more finickity techniques and jutsu.

Kagura Mind's Eye
Born with a natural affinity towards sensing chakra like her Father before her Azarea has trained herself to become a capable sensory shinobi. Unlocking the Kagura's Mind's Eye, and with it, the ability to passively sense chakra signatures in the distance (when using the technique), thus allowing her to not only track, but also memorize a person's chakra signature, even if barely any chakra is being used. Due to her proficiency with this technique, Azarea can currently passively sense chakra up to 500 meters and actively at 2.5 kilometers.

Techniques

SPOILER: Click to show

JUTSU GOES HERE

流人

                           Made by Keen of FBNRP | Word Count: 393 | Yamamoto Shosuke

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

As Azarea began to strip, Sho watched, waiting patiently for her to be done. Perhaps someone else his age might have petulantly felt the need to look, to perv on her body in this revealing state, but he didn't even consider anything of the sort for a second.

Not that he didn't find her beautiful. Azarea was, in his honest opinion, one of the most beautiful people that he had ever met. Even so, he was a doctor, trained and taught, and so this was the kind of experience he'd had hundreds of times over. He was desensitised, having gone through moments just like this so many times.

Usually, they didn't come in specifically asking for him, but he supposed there was a first time for everything.

And a first time for everything there certainly was, as Sho got his first glance at her back.

Exposed to the artificial light of the clinic, it looked pretty terrible. Her entire back was one large, pockmarked mess, covered with bandages soaked in blood and detritus. Without her shirt on, it almost seemed to stink, the raw aroma of blood and viscera pungent and undeniable within the room. A lesser man might have even vomited or burst running out of the room.

Sho, for his part, did neither of that. Instead, she could hear the snap of plastic as he pulled on a fresh pair of plastic gloves, fresh and disinfected so that he could handle her with the appropriate care that she needed. His hands moved forwards onto her back, gently pressing against her raw skin, trying to minimise too much contact in order to prevent causing any undue pain.

"Azarea... I'm sorry." he said, his voice quiet and small, sympathetic and quiet. He was not asking how she got this way, he wasn't forcing his way into her life unduly, he was simply giving her his sympathies for her body to be like this.

"If it's any comfort, I do think you're pretty. Not just your face, but every part of you. Even this back of yours, as burned as it is, is proof that you're a survivor. That you've been through things I've never been through and come out all the stronger for it.

Just another reminder I'll never catch up, huh? ~"

He tried to make it light-hearted, to joke, but his concern was too genuine for that. Regardless, with his now freshly plastic-clad hands, he moved his hand out to the middle of her back, fore and index finger moving to press against one of the larger masses of flesh on her back, sending a small shockwave of mana through her body.

She wanted him just to experiment, to probe around in the dark, but he was a doctor. This was his mission; he knew what he was doing.

Though, in retrospect, maybe doing that to someone who's entire body was itself a Secret Technique might not have been the smartest decision that he had ever made.

500 words | Aburame Azarea

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP 4/8

Jutsus Used 
NAME: Ikkou Gazou
RANK: E
CHAKRA USAGE: Very Low
CLASSIFICATION: Ninjutsu [Medical]
ELEMENT: -
HANDSEALS: 0
REQUIREMENT: Chakra Control SA
DESCRIPTION: Developed before more advanced medical technologies were around this is a technique where one is capable of creating a incredibly accurate 3-D mental image of a target's internals. Similar to a palpation exam, the physician is capable of performing this by pressing their index and middle fingers against a target and releasing a simple wave of chakra where they then mentally map everything the chakra comes into contact with with precision detail. While this technique is considered far more accurate than many modern technologies is it only useful for the user and is only as good as their knowledge. User can map out around 1ft diameter around the area of contact.

[Aburame Azarea]

The Devil That You Forgot

No Comparison

"It's ok Shosuke they're just scars. They don't define me, but thank... for your kind words. They mean more to me then you know." Azarea admits her voice soft as she closes her eyes hands tightening on the chair back as the medic-nin touches her. The freshly healed nerves still raw and pained amidst the shiny burn scarred flesh tingling painfully as she bites her lower lip against the pain. The pulse of chakra he sends through her leaving the fine hair on the back of her neck standing on end as her hive shudders like bees flaring their wings against a combined thread. Though the buzz they kick up gives Shosuke an incredibly detailed view of Azarea's internals.

For the most part her anatomy is not too different from a standard humans except that in addition to her veins and chakra network her body hosts an additional network of tunnels the heart of which was wrapped about her chakra core. Forming a lattice work through her body and bones for her Kikaichu to traverse. The insects drawing their sustenance from a mix of her own chakra and her calorie intake to sustain themselves outside of external feeding. With the main entrances to the hive running along wherever her bones are closest to the surface. Such as along the length of her spine, her shoulder blades, collarbone, ribs, ankles, elbows, knees, and wrists. The bone acting as a support structure for the flexible practically invisible to the naked eye natural valves built into her skin by the Kikiachu. Allowing the insects to safely seal their hive and prevent water or other detritus from getting into it. However there's not much they can do about the entrances being sealed over with blood externally even if whoever had prior treated her had been careful to not seal up the entrances.

"And what are you talking about Shosuke?" Azare questions voice soft as she tries to process the medics words in her slightly fevered haze. "I can study half my lifetime and I'll still never be able to knit flesh nor bone, nor save someone from deaths door as you will be able too. My hands are clumsy not clever as your can be." She murmurs letting her chin rest a bit against the hard plastic of the chair.

"Comparing us is unkind to us both. Like asking a monkey and a fish to fly." She explains hoping her point gets across. "Sides when you're head medic you'll look back on these days and laugh." Azarea adds with a wry fond grin.

SA's

SPOILER: Click to show

Joō no Taikanshiki no Regaria [Queen's Coronation Regalia]
A mutated variant of the Aburame clans Yūdai no Omorejō ["Bewildering Grandeur of the Alpha"] resulting from the subsequent poisoning of Azarea's former Yūdai no Omorejō hive to prevent potential hijutsu theft. While the Joō no Taikanshiki no Regaria lacks the Yūdai no Omorejō size instead Azarea's hive has maintained the ability to produce alpha pheromones and commanding vibrations. Evolving instead to hyperspecialize in these two aspects allowing them to produce pheramones and vibrations strong enough to be detected by human hearing and sense of smell.

Reigning Chakra Control
Fine tuning her chakra control to a razor's edge Azarea is capable of performing delicate techniques with minimal to no wastage of chakra. Allowing her to conserve her reserves in prolonged combat and managed more finickity techniques and jutsu.

Kagura Mind's Eye
Born with a natural affinity towards sensing chakra like her Father before her Azarea has trained herself to become a capable sensory shinobi. Unlocking the Kagura's Mind's Eye, and with it, the ability to passively sense chakra signatures in the distance (when using the technique), thus allowing her to not only track, but also memorize a person's chakra signature, even if barely any chakra is being used. Due to her proficiency with this technique, Azarea can currently passively sense chakra up to 500 meters and actively at 2.5 kilometers.

Techniques

SPOILER: Click to show

JUTSU GOES HERE

流人

                           Made by Keen of FBNRP | Word Count: 429 | Yamamoto Shosuke

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Though Sho would never admit it to Azarea, seeing her body like this was weird. Not only from a biological perspective, since she had more holes in her than a block of cheese, but also just from a general perspective.

When Sho was young, he had had a friend in the academy who had an ant farm. It had been fascinating from an observational perspective watching how those little creatures lived their lives, either unaware or uncaring that a bigger lifeform was staring at them.

Now, like this, it was like her body itself was that farm.That these channels within her flesh were the tunnels that those ants navigated, only without the additional labor of having to carve out new ones.

Was this something she was born with, he wondered, or were they bored out of her at an early age. It was an unpleasant thought, imagining a young Azarea being consumed by her own family's pets in order to fit her better, but he had heard crueler family traditions.

Still, now that he was able to see her properly, his hand was guided and practiced, able to use the tools at his disposal to work his magic on the girl's back.

Scraping away those spots that scabbed over and threatened to seal her insects inside, he was quickly able to peel away the bits that were unnecessary. Once he knew what he was doing, it was a relatively simple job, and she would quickly be able to feel the pressure slowly dissipate, air once more filling the channels that she needed access to in order to do her work.

"Don't be silly Az," he spoke as he worked, his hands nimble and dexterous like those of a seamstress, only in this case the "dress" he was making being her back.

"Medical care like this is so basic that anyone can do it, once they know how. Heck, there are minimum wage workers in this village who do this kind of work for the elderly all the time, especially those that are disabled or otherwise impaired.

Yes, we Yamamoto are necessary for this village. If we weren't here, there would be far fewer people capable of treating the sick, the injured, the malnourished. But we're reactive, we get called in after something has already gone wrong.

You... the things that you're able to do is proactive. You can save people from ever needing to have a run in with someone like me, and I think most people would thank you for it."

It was true - Though Sho would never mention it to anyone, there had always been a little part of him that had resented whenever one of his patients thanked "luck" or "the heavens" when they had recovered. He had treated them, he had been the one to save them, and yet they gave all their thanks to nature spirits who weren't even involved. It was frustrating to no end.

When a Shinobi saved someone, he had thought, they were the ones who got the thanks. He still remembered the little girl from the village, the one who had spoken about how Shinobi were so cool. Would she have been so grateful if he had given her a flu shot? Or bandaged her leg after falling down a hill? He thought not.

"Tell me something... these insects of yours. How do they eat chakra? I mean, I know plants photosynthesize, but I've never heard of an animal converting loose, formless energy like chakra into something physical enough to eat."

591 words | Aburame Azarea

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP 5/8
Jutsus Used: See Last Post.

[Aburame Azarea]

The Devil That You Forgot

Where One Begins and Ends

Azarea sighs as the channels are cleared and her insects calm. The irritated tizzy they'd been in both at her lowered state of chakra with her healing and with their usual entry and exits blocked had been unpleasant for the both of them. The stress a slow building pressure like a collective migraine as the tension began to bleed out of the woman's body. "I can't give you too many details, but technically all beings 'feed' on chakra. Chakra is in the food we eat, the water we drink and then used to sustain and help us regenerate our own stores more quickly which is why military pills function the way they do. Technically when my Kikiachu bite into an opponents instead of draining just blood they devour chakra along with the bits of flesh and blood that come with it. When they're with me however they're able to subsist mostly off of my own chakra without need to bite me and can sustain themselves somewhat on my caloric intake because they are attuned to my chakra and don't need to process it like foreign chakra. I'm afraid I'm not really allowed to go into more then that." She explains with a soft hum as one of her bugs slips free of her shoulder the little gilded fluffy thing landing on the bridge of her nose as it fans it's wings in worry.

"But where an Aburame begins and their hives end is... muddled at best. I am the hive's host, queen, and commander. To my Kikiachu I am as much one of them as they are part of me. It's akin to asking you where you end and your body begins. You only truly realize the difference when something is wrong." Azarea adds letting out a soft hum echoed by the insects just beneath her skin. The irritated discourse fading to soft harmony.

"Still with Shinobi even simple tasks can be difficult. We're dangerous creatures when in pain and befuddled so medics need to be quite capable to handle us safely. Though there's nothing that says you cannot be both medic and combatant. You mentioned I believe your ability to use Mokuton? That's one of the more powerful elemental releases. Combined wit your medical skills I imagine you'd be excellent at capture and subdual missions." She muses after a moments thought. "Use your plants to grab and then incapacitate."

SA's

SPOILER: Click to show

Joō no Taikanshiki no Regaria [Queen's Coronation Regalia]
A mutated variant of the Aburame clans Yūdai no Omorejō ["Bewildering Grandeur of the Alpha"] resulting from the subsequent poisoning of Azarea's former Yūdai no Omorejō hive to prevent potential hijutsu theft. While the Joō no Taikanshiki no Regaria lacks the Yūdai no Omorejō size instead Azarea's hive has maintained the ability to produce alpha pheromones and commanding vibrations. Evolving instead to hyperspecialize in these two aspects allowing them to produce pheramones and vibrations strong enough to be detected by human hearing and sense of smell.

Reigning Chakra Control
Fine tuning her chakra control to a razor's edge Azarea is capable of performing delicate techniques with minimal to no wastage of chakra. Allowing her to conserve her reserves in prolonged combat and managed more finickity techniques and jutsu.

Kagura Mind's Eye
Born with a natural affinity towards sensing chakra like her Father before her Azarea has trained herself to become a capable sensory shinobi. Unlocking the Kagura's Mind's Eye, and with it, the ability to passively sense chakra signatures in the distance (when using the technique), thus allowing her to not only track, but also memorize a person's chakra signature, even if barely any chakra is being used. Due to her proficiency with this technique, Azarea can currently passively sense chakra up to 500 meters and actively at 2.5 kilometers.

Techniques

SPOILER: Click to show

JUTSU GOES HERE

流人

                           Made by Keen of FBNRP | Word Count: 400 | Yamamoto Shosuke

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

As gross as some people would consider this, there was something almost therapeutic about it. It was like doing someone else's nails at a salon, only with more flecks of scab and blood. Of course, Sho was long since desensitized to such things, so he didn't mind. Plus, it was nice to have an actual conversation with her as he worked, slowly making her back cleaner and cleaner, opening up more and more of those little boreholes to let her hive loose.

"Well, I mean, I know that." Sho said, his tone a little playfully incredulous. "Everyone knows that Az. Chakra is life energy, so anything that has even the slightest bit of life will have some form of chakra. Its why Wood Release is even a thing.

Just as plants photosynthesize, so do they generate chakra, which in turn gives life energy to herbivores which are then consumed by carnivores, many of which are then consumed by us. This is all basic Academy-grade science.

It's more difficult to imagine something consuming raw chakra, though. It'd be like... sucking the life out of a flower without killing it. Or a mosquito draining your energy instead of your blood. As far as eating flesh and skin goes, that's understandable, but it's the energy itself that's fascinating."

He had heard something like this a very long time ago. Sho knew vaguely about the concept of Sages from an academic perspective, those who left the village and mingled with animals. Animals that had gained higher consciousness and were on a human-level of intelligence if not greater.

They were fascinating from an observational perspective, but nobody had ever been able to do an actual sociological study with them. They were a very rare and elusive breed.

What he knew about them, however, was they had some ability to manipulate life energy. Something called Senjutsu, at least so he believed he understood.

Was this a similar form to that?

In a thousand years, given sufficient time to evolve, would these bugs evolve to that level of intelligence? Or was it just a similar form of evolution, like how things kept seeming to inadvertently turn into crabs.

"You know... you almost make it sound as if you're a mother with a child. These boreholes almost seem to serve the same purpose as an umbilical cord. They eat what you eat, they thrive when you thrive, and your stress affects them as if they were stressed themselves."

It was as he was talking about this that one of her kikiachu moved out of her hole and moved to flutter its wings up on her nose. Seen like this, it was cute, almost like a puppy making sure their master was okay. He couldn't help but smile at it, finding the little thing distinctly sweet. Despite knowing they thrived from eating human flesh, it was hard to hold that against them. After all, everything had to eat something, right?

"Anyway, I'm glad to hear you think I'm capable of that level of stuff. But even when I fight, I can maybe take out a small group of people at best, and that's assuming they're non-ninjas. If the two of us fought, I'm pretty sure I'd be bleeding out before I could even blink.

You're kinda scary for such a pretty lady, y'know."

554 words | Aburame Azarea

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP 6/8
Jutsus Used: None

[Aburame Azarea]

The Devil That You Forgot

Silence

Azarea lets out a low thoughtful hum her expression contemplative, "You're not entirely wrong, but... rather then their Mother I think... they're more like my immune system. Are we the parents of our white blood cells?" She questions aloud turning the idea over and over in her mind.

"If I was just their mother that wouldn't be so bad, but..." Azarea trailed off swallowing thickly as a memory rises to the surface of her mind. One that sets her tired hive abuzz with anxiety. A dark room, endless wires, and a near deafening quiet. The ever present sound of her hive growing soft and softer and softer until... she feared it would one day it would be silent forever and with that silence she would go mad.

"Aburame don't tend to live long if they lose their hive. It's why we're careful to keep backup stores of insects in case of an emergency." She explains as the little pretty fuzzy beetle with it's golden wings and carapace flits off Shosuke's nose to land on the Kunoichi's outstretched finger.

"And thank you Shosuke. I've worked hard to come so far, but the road is longer still. I suspect you're going to catch up to me sooner then you expect given your gifts." Azarea admits as the pain slowly begins to fade a little at a time as old bandages are replaced with clean pads and gauze.

SA's

SPOILER: Click to show

Joō no Taikanshiki no Regaria [Queen's Coronation Regalia]
A mutated variant of the Aburame clans Yūdai no Omorejō ["Bewildering Grandeur of the Alpha"] resulting from the subsequent poisoning of Azarea's former Yūdai no Omorejō hive to prevent potential hijutsu theft. While the Joō no Taikanshiki no Regaria lacks the Yūdai no Omorejō size instead Azarea's hive has maintained the ability to produce alpha pheromones and commanding vibrations. Evolving instead to hyperspecialize in these two aspects allowing them to produce pheramones and vibrations strong enough to be detected by human hearing and sense of smell.

Reigning Chakra Control
Fine tuning her chakra control to a razor's edge Azarea is capable of performing delicate techniques with minimal to no wastage of chakra. Allowing her to conserve her reserves in prolonged combat and managed more finickity techniques and jutsu.

Kagura Mind's Eye
Born with a natural affinity towards sensing chakra like her Father before her Azarea has trained herself to become a capable sensory shinobi. Unlocking the Kagura's Mind's Eye, and with it, the ability to passively sense chakra signatures in the distance (when using the technique), thus allowing her to not only track, but also memorize a person's chakra signature, even if barely any chakra is being used. Due to her proficiency with this technique, Azarea can currently passively sense chakra up to 500 meters and actively at 2.5 kilometers.

Techniques

SPOILER: Click to show

JUTSU GOES HERE

流人

                           Made by Keen of FBNRP | Word Count: 235 | Yamamoto Shosuke

[Yamamoto Shosuke]

Immune system, huh? Strange comparison... Sho was all but sure that she felt vaguely protective about her insects, but nobody in history had ever felt protective around their white blood cells. It would be the height of delusion to grow close and affectionate towards your own immune system, but if that was how she wanted to see her own insects? Well, who was he to correct her. After all, they were her insects, they were hers to do with as she willed.

"How long do they live?" he asked, his tone one of clearly piqued interest. "I mean... our body replenishes everything about us once every seven years. Every skin cell, hair follicle, everything about us is changed at least once every seven years, so what about your insects? Do they breed like a regular hive, or have you had all the same ones since you were born?"

He wondered, for a moment, just what the oldest living insect actually was. The one that immediately came to mind was Cicadas, they lived about eighteen years, but they were asleep for most of that time. He doubted that they would last anywhere near as long if they were as active as her hive seemed to be, always buzzing around and doing missions for their leader.

"I just... I cannot help but wonder about you, Az. I hope you don't mind me saying but you're so different from other people - Biologically, I mean." he said, pausing a second to correct himself after realizing how what he had just said sounded.

It was true that he had a strong fondness for the older woman, she was someone he deeply valued as a friend (especially considering how few of those he actually had) but he didn't view her in THAT way.

Or did he?

Truth be told, even he didn't know himself. He had never exactly been the most in touch with his feelings, logic and science was far more his bread and butter than deep intrapersonal revelations about his intentions and his feelings.

"I assume Konoha medics probably have to have additional lessons on how to care for an Aburame patient. If you weren't telling me what to do, I'm pretty sure I'd do something wrong and hurt your hive." He paused for a second, before adding

"... Do you suppose that they would be willing to share their research notes? I know family Kekkei Genkai and the like are supposed to remain a secret, but it's one thing when its blindsight like my family and its another when your bodies are fundamentally different."

It took short while but bit-by-bit the dirty bandages were removed and clean ones were added, blood encrusted filth peeled off almost like a layer of glue on the fingers of a curious child. It was weirdly satisfying, like peeling stickers off of new electronics, but he knew that sharing that opinion would probably only earn him a disgusted look.

These were the side-benefits of medical practice that nobody should know about for fear of receiving judgment.

"I doubt it - You're special, Az. I mean that both as a person but also biologically. I will never have what you have with your insects. Sure, I have Mokuton, but I'm never going to be as good with it as an actual Senju.

I don't even have access to my actual family's abilities, so how am I supposed to catch up with someone like you?"

The words might have been read as sad or even perhaps self-pitying, but the tone was anything but. It was an acceptance, an admittance, he almost seemed at peace with his own weakness and fallibility. After all, he had only just begun to walk the path of the Shinobi again, there wasn't much call for blindsight amongst the walls of a hospital.

636 words | Aburame Azarea

SPOILER: Click to show

D-Rank EXP 7/8

Jutsus Used: None

[Aburame Azarea]

The Devil That You Forgot

Treatment

Azarea lets out a low soft hum the noise mimicked by her insects, "They live about seven to eight years. Though most of my hive perished when I arrived in Kumogakure with only a few handful surviving. Of that handful around six remain from my original hive. They tend to increase their numbers to fill in their ranks like other insects with the population stabilized by how many I can host. They can't live long term outside of a host without proper care or facilities. So while the Aburame have jutsu to rapidly increase our hives size using it means whatever Kikiachu we can't carry with us usually perish so I'm loathe to use it recklessly." Azarea admits with a pained grimace.

"We are almost constantly in communication with our insects so we hear and feel it when they die. Our hives likewise have a sort of genetic memory akin to butterflies. Even though most of my old hive is gone the new beetles remember what harmed them prior and seek to avoid it." She explains with a small fond smile as slowly she stood up testing the stretch and pull of her new bandages and finding them sitting well. The job much neater and cleaner then when she'd been trying to manage alone.

"And don't be discouraged. The Senju are a kinder clan then most I hear. They may send someone to help teach you and seek to adopt you at least unofficially into their clan. Whether you accept it up to you. It's not bad to make your own way in life. It means you'll be difficult to predict. Things that might work on prior Senju will fail against you." Azarea encourages as she carefully rolls her shirt back down and tentatively shrugs on her jacket to depart.

"There's a lot of value in unpredictability." She offers before turning to Shosuke and giving him a careful bow. Not wanting to undo the mans work. "And thank you for treating me Shosuke despite my unexpected request."

SA's

SPOILER: Click to show

Joō no Taikanshiki no Regaria [Queen's Coronation Regalia]
A mutated variant of the Aburame clans Yūdai no Omorejō ["Bewildering Grandeur of the Alpha"] resulting from the subsequent poisoning of Azarea's former Yūdai no Omorejō hive to prevent potential hijutsu theft. While the Joō no Taikanshiki no Regaria lacks the Yūdai no Omorejō size instead Azarea's hive has maintained the ability to produce alpha pheromones and commanding vibrations. Evolving instead to hyperspecialize in these two aspects allowing them to produce pheramones and vibrations strong enough to be detected by human hearing and sense of smell.

Reigning Chakra Control
Fine tuning her chakra control to a razor's edge Azarea is capable of performing delicate techniques with minimal to no wastage of chakra. Allowing her to conserve her reserves in prolonged combat and managed more finickity techniques and jutsu.

Kagura Mind's Eye
Born with a natural affinity towards sensing chakra like her Father before her Azarea has trained herself to become a capable sensory shinobi. Unlocking the Kagura's Mind's Eye, and with it, the ability to passively sense chakra signatures in the distance (when using the technique), thus allowing her to not only track, but also memorize a person's chakra signature, even if barely any chakra is being used. Due to her proficiency with this technique, Azarea can currently passively sense chakra up to 500 meters and actively at 2.5 kilometers.

Techniques

SPOILER: Click to show

JUTSU GOES HERE

流人

                           Made by Keen of FBNRP | Word Count: | Yamamoto Shosuke