[Yuki Shuka]

Yuki Shuka --- TAG Nue Toru - - WORDS - - -

O

ver time, the village changed, different leadership flexing the nation's ways back and forth. One constant of history was how inconstant it was, ever moving, the faces of the village shifting over time. There was one constant, however. Nue Toru, the hospital director, leader of the medical division. Though people often joked that Shuka herself had survived miraculously long for a shinobi, the fact was that Toru was older. More than twice her age, in fact. He had seen the dramatic span of the nation's history.

This meant that, despite him being a bit odd, he was a man whose wisdom was to be trusted. Further, he oversaw all general medical experimentation done in the hospital and going through him for ideas on possible progression was never unwise. Whatever sparked his interest with a new subject was probably well worth exploring, as he had well over a century of building medical information under his belt, practically a walking medical library.

Shuka arrived at the hospital on a particularly frigid afternoon and made her way inside. The hospital seemed sluggish in the early hours, no catastrophic missions of late bolstering the number of injured beyond the usual threshold. She was shown to the lab of Nue Toru.

She knocked, but as Yuki Lady there was little to be done in the way of denying entry, and she entered slowly, ideally so as not to interrupt any sensitive experiments going on in this space. Luckily, none seemed active.

There, between the jarred organs and bodies, diagrams, scattered papers and notes, was the head medic, hunched over a bowl of... something. Whatever it was, he was eating it. Shuka decided not to look too closely at the grim paste, assuming it was something thrown together quickly (Toru was known for being so absorbed in his work he neglected other functions), and resolving to move on.

"Good afternoon, Nue Toru," Shuka greeted, hands folded in front of herself. "I was hoping I could discuss a subject with you."

ISHY of THQ & ADOXOGRAPHY

[Nue Toru]

In the early afternoon hours Toru's day had gone remarkably well so far. His foolish underlings had managed not to botch anything crucial to his work, fresh materials had arrived for some of his experiments and most of all he had not needed to see a patient the entire day thus far. Somewhere at the very edges of his mind Toru also considered that no patients had died so far this morning, a small, but ultimately insignificant victory for him. The idea of not needing to deal with any bereaved was far more important an aspect to him than the actual life lost.

While the Yuki Lady made her way through the hospital, unaware to that fact Toru continued to prepare his midday nourishment. His meal appeared something between runny oatmeal and a weak paste meant for binding paper together for decorations, definitely something that most normal people would not consider appetizing. As far as Toru was concerned though, the gruel held all the calories, vitamins, minerals and so on that his body required.

While he was willing to eat other meals, he simply found them to be too troublesome to prepare in his lab and he would rather his underlings keep to the work he assigned than to make one prepare a meal for him, beside there was always the chance one of his underlings would use such an opportunity to advance their position with his death.

Just as Toru began to bring the food to his mouth in repeated, almost robotic motions; his meal was interrupted by Yuki Shuka. Immediately Toru set his spoon beside his bowl and rose to give a slight bow towards the Yuki Lady. As always a large smile adorned Toru's face, but it did not match his eerie doll like eyes.

Why is this child bothering me? Hopefully its something of interest and not another stupid task that will just be a waste of my time.

While his thoughts were quite scathing and critical of the woman, it was not a personal vendetta towards her. Rather, most people in the village were merely children to one who had lived so long and just about any request others made of him was seen as a waste of time in Toru's eyes. Still, Toru did understand at least some rules of social hierarchy and never would say such aloud about Shuka.

"Good afternoon Lady Shuka. What brings you to my humble lab this afternoon? If I had known you were coming I would have prepared a second helping, if you like I still could. That is what is what a host is supposed to do right?"

Toru's head tilted a bit at the end of his words. One might wonder if he was being facetious or genuinely was offering to make a meal, but his facial expressions and dull eyes gave away no indication as to which was true. His actions though at least seemed a bit more hospitable as Toru at least made the effort to clear a second chair of paperwork, gesturing when he was finished for Shuka to take the seat he had been in moments before; it being the better seat of the two that were now clear.

Made by Riley at THQ!

[Yuki Shuka]

Yuki Shuka --- TAG Nue Toru - - WORDS - - -

B

eing bowed to by one's elders was always a strange thing, but perhaps that was the clannish hierarchy in her speaking. In most other societal spheres such a thing was not necessarily uncommon, especially for the leader of a nation. Sometimes it felt as if her appointment had happened just yesterday, though by now it had been over a year she had held the seat and the responsibility of leadership. In either case, she gave a slight bow of her own, always intent on returning the respect that she received when dealing with someone with such position or experience.

Watching Toru's expression was always interesting. A smile that didn't reach his eyes, which rested wide and flat, always neutral and searching, curious. As though even the squint of a smile would cause him to fail to notice something, to miss out on a second of information. It made truly reading him more difficult, even though that was an area in which she specialized.

"I appreciate the offer, but I would not waste your time on such a thing. Our most prestigious medic has better things to do than act as a chef for me," she joked, smiling softly. "I apologize for interrupting your meal and your research. I will attempt to make my conversation with you quick. I know you are busy."

She would move to the seat he had offered and sit down, resting her hands in her lap.

"As you are well aware, we had an incident some months back with an intruder from Konoha. The eyes we received from this prisoner are still on ice awaiting further implantation or research. As our head medical expert, I wanted to ask your opinion on the fate of them. I do not want to presume to know more about possible useful medical research than you and make a decision of my own accord."

ISHY of THQ & ADOXOGRAPHY

[Nue Toru]

As the Yuki Lady took the seat Toru had indicated for her to be seated at, he in turn sat at the second open seat and began to shift his bowl of gruel to be placed before his new perch. Whether due to her apology for interrupting the meal or just because it was time efficient, it was plain that Toru planned to continue his meal while they spoke.

That was not to say he did not give proper attention to the Yuki Lady's words however, even as he scooped his spoon through the gruel Toru's head was practically seizing with how much he nodded at the mention of the eyes being kept on ice. While this only went on for a few seconds, stopping as the spoon was brought up to his mouth his excitement at the eyes procurement was quite clear.


"There is a great deal that could be learned from such eyes, although sadly most villages that found themselves in possession of such rare samples go for implantation." At the word implantation a small squinting of his eyes might have revealed his disgust at the thought. "Even then they can not be bothered to do a proper job of it, children playing at surgery."


A spoonful of gruel was shoved into his mouth and immediately swallowed, Toru looking at the bowl before him as if it contained some great secret of the universe while he brought his thoughts in order and tried to subdue the sudden irritation he felt.


"There are definitely interesting experiments that could be conducted using the eyes. Weaknesses could be found obviously, but even more interestingly we could try to find a means of disabling them. Granted such a skill would likely be only usable by skilled medics and the use of it might be impractical for many who even could use it."


His emphasis on skilled made it quite clear that Toru believed those who fell into such a category were few and far between. Honestly in Toru's mind half the medical-nin who worked under him were little better than mothers kissing wounds to make them feel better.


"Implantation is obviously an option as well, albeit a boring one. I believe I could have it done far better than the children who call themselves medical nin in the other villages though. It would be a simple matter as using this spoon."


Driving the point home Toru scraped his spoon across the bottom of his bowl to hold a great amount of the gruel upon it, raised it for the Yuki Lady to see it and proceeded to tip it slowly to allow the slop to fall once more into the bowl.

Made by Riley at THQ!

[Yuki Shuka]

Yuki Shuka --- TAG Nue Toru - - WORDS - - -

T

hough it was not that surprising, Toru seemed against the idea of implantation. He was a man of exploratory science and the field of implantation was, while not thoroughly developed, at least touched on. The process was understood in theory and while there were many things yet to work out, organ transplants were not exciting. They might be an interesting tool that one could use for the development of an individual, but they did not provide much in the way of universal understanding or advancement of the biological processes that underran kekkai genkai.

She nodded along with his explanation, considering the words carefully. There was a lot to contemplate here. The immediate military and the long-term scientific aspects were somewhat at war, which was unfortunately often the case with many technological developments. Strength now or better strength later?

Her eyes followed the path of the gruel on the spoon dripping back into the bowl. It was, at least, good to know that Toru was that confident in his abilities, regardless of which route was decided upon.

"If you believe you could develop specialized techniques for counteracting the Byakugan based upon research of the eye, I would be more than happy to allow you access to that end. Do you believe it would be an efficient use for us to move one into active use while the other remains here in your lab for research and development?"

ISHY of THQ & ADOXOGRAPHY

[Nue Toru]

Toru found himself leaning forward slightly at the Yuki Lady's most recent statement. He honestly had not believed that she would be open to the idea of leaving one of the eyes with him to be experimented with. While he certainly believed she was intelligent enough to see the potential benefit of the eyes, he also believed her to be intelligent enough to see the risk that the eye would be ruined in an experiment with nothing to show for it.

Turning his head slightly as if to reexamine the woman in front of him, Toru's voice slightly shifted from his usual speaking tone. It became quieter with more of a monotone to it, his mind quite obviously already starting to go through the possibilities.

"A single eye would require the utmost care to not ruin the sample, early experiments would need to be kept relatively tame. Still, it is quite likely that either some weakness to this specific eye could be discovered or even the development of a medical technique to disrupt the fine control of the eye turning its abilities into a detriment."

Almost ignoring the Yuki Lady for a moment, Toru suddenly stood up, setting his bowl on the table before shifting through the various piles to pull out blank pages where he began to sketch out rudimentary drawings of the eye as well as the typical chakra pathway locations around it. After only a dozen or so seconds he placed the paper between the two of them with a rather wicked grin finding its way to his face.

"Obviously I'll need the eye to fill in some of the blanks, but this is one such technique that could be developed. We look for the fine pathway that is used in conjunction with the eye's ability to see through materials and the like, apply something akin to a junction point to divert those electrical signals to the parts of the eye and brain that register light intensity, effectively making those trying to use the eye be subjected to the equivalent of a flashbomb at every activation or attempted usage. Although there's no need to stop there. So long as we understand where the signals come and go for the doujutsu, then we can divert those signals to all sorts of fun areas."

Made by Riley at THQ!

[Yuki Shuka]

Yuki Shuka --- TAG Nue Toru - - WORDS - - -

A

n idea sparked for Toru relatively quickly it seemed. It made sense, he was a scientist and it was his job to formulate ideas for experimentation and carry them out. She watched quietly and patiently as he began to sketch out the form of an eye, putting together a sort of schematic for her benefit. Having a visual model in front of her would in fact be very helpful, and she was appreciative of his consideration.

She leaned in to look at the paper once it was placed down, considering it. She wasn't particularly familiar with biology, but she was familiar enough to apply her genjutsu, so this structure was recognizable to her. She nodded slowly, then sat back up straight.

"I think that is agreeable. I trust in your ability to utilize the eye to its full potential and put together something like this. I will have it delivered to your lab so that you can begin your experiments." She would hold the other eye in reserve in case anything went wrong with the experiments, so that she could provide another sample. But she wouldn't say so aloud for now. She would hate for the good doctor to behave more recklessly on the assurance that he would have another available to him. These eyes were a limited resource. Unless Konoha came to them looking for more trouble, they wouldn't procure any more anytime soon.

ISHY of THQ & ADOXOGRAPHY