An escape from boredom

The crowd cheered as Taios meandered into the center of the field.  If it was possible his body had grown even larger than it had been when he left Funka.  The mastered bijuu chakra continued to merge with his own, increasing his own potential.  This chain reaction had caused the SIN cells to once again make the man grow larger.  He was now closer to 8 feet tall when it was all said and done, with another couple inches added by his armor.  His skin was harder, almost ruddy.  His hair was long, braided down the back to meet his mid back.  His teeth still sharp like that of an apes, his eyes where nearly all pupils leaving no iris of color to be seen.  As of now, only his lower half was covered in armor.  The Vulcan steel manipulated to only cover his lower half, giving a distinct “clank” every time he took a step.  His chest was bare, only the hanging fang bouncing off his chest.  In his right hand was his massive sword, all jagged edges like a shark’s mouth.
      
         Since arriving in Kumo Taios had quickly found himself a home.  It was much like his original home; only here he had more to do.  The dark masters of Funka kept to themselves, moving on their own agendas.  Here though, there was no shortage of work.  Proving himself to the kage he was quickly granted certain rights and responsibilities.  From culling any rebels, to spending his afternoons at the center districts arena of fun.  Well fun for some, the arena was the execution area for those deemed fit to die.  They were the talkative ones, the ones who wouldn’t due to be hung from pikes.  Instead, more was done by letting their bloodshed to the roar of the crowd.  He took great pride in his work, and so far he had been flawless.  Sometimes the peasants had weapons, sometimes they didn’t, sometimes he fought with his bare hands, and sometimes they were simply restrained and it was made quickly.  It was whatever his mood was, today was a fighting kind of day.
      
         The group of men huddled in the center, each with a weapon that they had been allowed to pick.  One a katana, one several shuriken, and the other twin blades of a shorter length.  Across the massive mans chest were a jigsaw of scars.  Each one from a battle, many were from these executions.  It wasn’t that he had to be cut, it was that he let them cut him.  He felt it gave them a sporting chance, and sometimes it was just nice to feel alive again.  His time while enjoyable was also boring.  Brief flashes of entertainment to be met with crushing boredom.  Even his bijuu was starting to feel it.  As much as it hated to admit it, at least when they were constantly at war it was something to do.  He had requested a meeting with the kage for later in the day, there he would ask to return to Funkagakure, and set up the alliance they had been speaking of the last several months.
        
       When the bell rang he charged forward.  The three men did likewise, they had seen the compitions.  To wait and cower was instant death, they were still bred shinobi, the fight hadn’t died from their souls…….which made it all the more fun.   The contest lasted nearly ten minutes.  In part because the three were not without skill, and in part because Taios was enjoying the exercise.  When it was said and done however, the three lay on the sands, the light leaving the last eye.  Cut in a dozen places Taios raised his weapon for one last cheer, and then left the area.  Recovering a strap from a staging area, he threw the sword up on his back.  The blood still wet his chest, the scratches in varying levels of amplified healing.  Stepping from the building he began walking down the streets, always finding a lane to walk in.  His mind on where to next, what opponent next, he needed something and he was starting to think it wasn’t here.

Neither Akihana nor Youka had needed much time off after the wedding, and though the blonde couldn't speak for the Raikage, she herself was anxious to get back to Kumo affairs. While the couple's personalities were a mixed bag, it was clear they both valued the village they had dedicated their lives too and they served in their own way. More than notion of love and poetry, it was their cause that united them as one, and that cause was the reason Akihana found herself in the first district today - a project she had undertaken since before her engagement and one she fully intended to see though.

Progress with the people confined to this district was slow, mostly because this was the group the harbored the most ill will towards Youka. More than that, they had been punished for it too. Akihana had heard tales fo the executioner who was in charge of doling out especially cruel forms of punishment to those he deemed worthy and today, as she had entered the district with her own set of guards, she had seen him in action too.

The blonde had arrived too late to stop the final blow to these people, and she doubted the large man who had dealt said bows even noticed her slight, trembling frame beyond the bloodlust evident in his gaze as he'd left, not even bothering to spare the remains of his victims a second glance. She had however been in time to erect her healing barrier, methodically gathering up the severed body parts and stitching them together via medical jutsu, years of experience the only thing keeping her hands steady even if the rest of her body shook from the horrors she had just witnessed.

It took the better part of an hour to put the three men back together and then find their life source, the last one was almost a lost cause, having been dead for too long. Even as he had finally gasped for breath, his heart restarting with a snickering empty gurgling sound, his eyes had remained closed and he had been unable to respond to anyting. All three men were taken to the hospital by her guards as per her request.

Once the newly resurrected victims had been sent off, the only sign of their deaths the spattering of blood on the ground and Akihana's snow white cloak, the kunoichi decided to go after the executioner, unsure where he would be but determined to find him regardless. Focusing the blonde found the most powerful source of chakra within the area, following it until she came in view of the huge man who still reeked of blood and death.

"Excuse me.." she called out, her voice small, though next to the eight foot tall warrior, anything and everything seemed small. He had a way of dominating the scene that had more to do than with just his physical attributes. His chakra was one of the strongest and most malicious she had encountered in a while. It demanded notice far mroe than his large frame did.

Careful, Makona warned, being ignored as usual. Akihana could almost feel the creature rolling her eyes at her Jinchuriki.

"May I impose myself on some of your time please?" she requested, trying not to let her fear show too clearly through her polite smile. Her golden eyes however, remained vary.

When the large man finally addressed her, Akihana stopped in surprise, unsure of what to do with his attention now that she had it. Her eyes swept over his form, taking in the blood that still soaked his armour, probably the same that drenched her own white cloak though her hands had only risen to heal those he'd hurt.

'Uh.." she began, drawing closer to him despite her fear, her slender frame even more palpably tiny in comparison to his. It felt as though he took up all the room she wouold never dare to, growing out into the world as she simply grew in on herself. For a moment, Akihana wondered what it felt like to demand so much space.

"I'm... Akihana," she introduced herself, unsure which last name or what title to give. Never one for the formalities, she supposed her given name would have to do. If he recognized her as the Raikage's new bride than so be it but in case he was among the few in Kumo who paid no attention to public affairs, she would not impose the knowledge of her status on him. "Would you like some muffins?: she asked, extending her picnic basket towards him with a shaky albeit polite smile. "I made them fresh this morning."

In the realm beyond space and time, Makona canted her head, one ear raised in interest at encountering yet another being like her. This one exuded rage though, not the snobbishness of that fool Kokuo. It seemed to waste too much energy unlike her brethren that dwelt within her Jinchuriki's other. The five tail waited, letting this new being create the world and assert his chakra all over it. She was a guest after all.

Once the other demon's essence was formed, Makona appeared on his shoulder, taking on the form of a mortal child, the same one she had taken on to once threaten Akihana into submission, the child with long golden hair and light blue, twinkling eyes, siting on the Yonbi's thick shoulder as if it was the most comfortable seat in the world.

"Would you like some muffins? I made them fresh this morning." the bijuu mimicked, her high musical voice ringing across the crags and fissures. The world around them was predominately fiery, Makona a taint to the surroundings in her halo of silver and music as she continued to perch on Sargatanas's shoulder. "Can you imagine living in her head? She talks like that all the time!."

Makona let out a high pitched giggle as the scene unfolded in front of her. The new bijuu was right, his jinchuriki was no wordsmith. But then again, Makona had always found humans limited by words. Only one way to communicate when the universe could be experienced via so many more methods. Reaching out her silver aura, the bijuu gently bumped it against the four tail's newly formed flesh, experiencing the form he had taken without lifting a single finger or expanding any energy. Were humans were limited, beings like themselves held absolute power.

"They called me Makona a long time ago," she began, her voice pure music to the ears as it clinked around this empty world full of cracks. She had never had a name to begin with but those who had first interacted with her, had been the first to take her freedom away, had called her Makona. And now she was bound by that name even if she had escaped the cages they had trad to imprison her in. "You can call me Makona too," she insisted, flicking her long blonde her behind a shoulder as she continued to sit on his.

"Why are you so angry?" she asked offhandedly. His aura was exhaustion, so much hate and malice, it seemed he was emotive all the time, almost as bad as a mortal.

Back in kumo, Akihana found herself shrinking as the executioner refused the peace offering, making her own golden eyes widen in fear at the lack of emotion in his. He had just killed three people and there was no acknowledgment of what he'd done let alone remorse.

"I came to talk to you about..." she began, gesturing to the field from which he had walked way a few minutes ago. "Those people... They were up for an appeal. They were prisoners true but their cases were up for a reappraisal, I have the paperwork." Had she been less scared, or even believed in the slightest that this man would care to see the paper trail, she would have shown him. As it was, it was all she could do to stand her ground as she spoke.

"They were not yours to kill, and if I hadn't reached in time today, they would have died. Luckily I was passing by. They're at the hospital now but one of them may never be the same again."

His one word reply made the kunoichi turn white, not out of fear but out of sorrow that someone couldn't care about the lives they had nearly taken. Again and again, Akihana lived by renewing her faith in the world. For every vile creature to exist, there was a chance for that creature to repent. That was the world Akihana existed in because she didn't know how not to. And every time her world view came into conflict by meeting people like these, the kunoichi was forced to suffer a single instant of uncertainty before her iron clad belief took over once more.

"Like I said, they were not yours to kill," she repeated, her voice only slightly more firm than it had been previously. "I'll be going through all your previous executions to see how many of them were valid. Please don't misunderstand, I realize you have a job to do, but so do I." The blonde meant every word, she fully intended to look through his records to see those he'd killed, hoping someone had recorded at least a number close enough to his actual count. The medic had no personal vendetta against him despite the fact that his occupation made her sick. She did however see rehabilitation as both more profitable and more humane than the spectacle he had been a part of earlier.

"Until then, you are dismissed of you... duty," she managed, trying not to shrink at his look. Afraid as she was of this huge man, she was nowhere near frightened enough to abandon her cause. "I will personally review all the paperwork and then discuss your future at this district." A little harsh perhaps but he was making no effort to be nice to her. Even then, the blonde was forced to offer an apology in case she had offended him.

"I don't mean you ill, I hope I haven't come across as doing so."

A world and a half away, Makona huffed. "I don't sound annoying," she claimed, her musical voice bouncing off the empty craters. "And I most certainly wasn't created this way," she added, affronted. Jumping off his shoulder, the child like bijuu slid gracefully down his thick arm towards the ground, making no noise at all. Makona's movements flowed like silk. Quiet, refined, rich, silvery, silk.

"I take this form to annoy her mostly. This is what her daughter would have looked like in another life - at least that's what she believes. It's nice to remind her who's really in charge now and then." The admission was casual, Makona coming to rest in front of Sargatanas now, her small chin resting in her equally tiny hands as she contemplated the hulking creature in front of her.

"I don't remember being created at all," she finished offhandedly. "Do you?"

When he asked if the jinchuriki would chase after his own, Makona merely rolled her bright blue eyes. "Like a dog with a bone that one, you'll be lucky if she lets him get a moment' peace from here on.'

"I do...." the beast would say.  These words would be the only that inflected a certain amount of pain rather than pure rage.  His creation had been one that ripped through space and time.  The culmination of terror, atrocities, of tainted chakra exuded from the most malicious individuals to have walked on the earth.  "It doesn't matter now, I'm here.........with one mission."  It would say it's voice back to raw hatred incarnate.  "I don't know how your human is.....but she treads dangerous ground.  He doesn't care, and if he strikes I'll help him.  Going against another of my kind could be fun.....the one in the kage was to weak, perhaps you'd be more fun to tangle with...". He would say.  

His smile wasn't malicious as much as it was for the first time a hint of mischievous.  The thought of mortal combat was something he found interesting.  A creature that thrives in war and death but unlikely to die never feels alive, for this reason the threat of death was more exciting than one of fear.  

In kumogakure Taios watched the women finish her speech.  She sought to dismiss him, to remove his position.  Hardly the threat it must have been intended.  Her hands trembled, her voice waived.  It was these things that started to amber him.  He let out a sigh, the heat from it more than any normal man should.  He could feel the heat rising in his body, what normally accompanied an attack.

His shoulders would start to tremble just slightly, easily missed by someone who didn't have a keen eye for details.  This wasn't the time or the place though, he knew that.  Yet it was still hard to hold back.  Leaning forward the dead onyx eyes would begin to shift to being alive.  The emotion that took over though was malice.  "I....don't.........care...". He would say his voice quite but in no way soft.  "I don't care if you spread your legs to change how things are done....I don't care how you laid to bring weakness to this place.  Consider my "position" terminated."  

He'd stand back up straight and turn his back to her, beginning to walk away.  After a couple steps of uninterrupted he would look over his shoulder.  "As for my work, if you want to stop that, then you best do something about it more than wave paper in my face....". With that he would leave her, not bothering to glance back.

Makona raised an eyebrow in interest, creation interested her, or at least she thought it did. She was created as two halves of a whole, or maybe a whole turned into two halves. There wasn't much time to dwell on it now with her human constantly taking up precious space in the Bijuu's psyche despite Makona's clear lack of interest.

At Sargatanas's threat, the childlike bijuu simply shook her head, golden tresses falling stubbornly beside her small face. "I wouldn't worry. She may not fight, but she also knows how to avoid getting hurt - physically anyway." No if the lava monster's human was to attack her host emotionally, he might stand a better chance. If Akihana was even one tenth as smart as she pretended to be, she would keep her weakness concealed.

But then again, her jinchuriki wasn't smart, neither were most humans - including this new host.

At the thought of possible battle however, the silvery bijuu's eyes lit up, the halo around her swirlingup slightly in excitement. When she spoke next, her voice was high and musical, carrying waves of thrill with each word. "Ooooh a fight, I haven't had one of those in a while." Grinning up at the monstrous form of the four tail clone, she added. "Just so you know, I hit hard even if she doesn't." It may have been unfair but Makona wasn't a stickler for the just. The last time she had truly let loose was the night that still haunted her jinchuriki's memories, and when the bijuu was bored, it was always worth the effort to drag up a blue rose and a discarded Alexandrite ring from the dregs of the kunoichi's subconscious.

"Promise not to cry though, and I hope you aren't as easy to break as the last human I played with." With that, the childlike bijuu blew a small kiss towards the demon and vanished in a sparkle of silver, leaving Sargatanas alone in the world of craters and desolation.

Across space and time, Akihana stood stock still, her damage reduction shield activated automatically, instinctively as the heat aura began to spread around the executioner of Kumogakure. The blonde stood her ground as he spewed out his anger in violent waves upon her, simply keeping her golden eyes locked into his deadly stare. Had he tried to hurt her, she would have vanished on the spot and then there would be actual reason to incarcerate him, but as it was, he only had words for her. At least at this time.

"As you wish," she replied politely to his challenge of doing more than waving paperwork his way. "We'll meet again soon," she added to his retreating back, unsure if he heard her but wanting to inform him nonetheless. There were few places in Kumo he could go without running into her, especially when she was now going to make it her mission to ensure he took no more innocent lives.

(Exit Akihana)

TWC: 2, 388

2, 000 Towards memorizing Taios' chakra signature
388 Towards charity