Raised Inhibitions (p,nk,Aki)

Having already corresponded with Akihana, Kozai would have them rendevouz at the city gates. This, of course, would be on a weekend, when the library was closed. Since no one had come to sign up as a volunteer, Kozai had to keep rather strict and tight hours. Oh well, he was sure that at some point, someone would see the value in the library and go to help him out. Not that he needed it, but it would be nice to extend the opening times by a bit. Leaning against the inside of the village wall next to the gates themselves, he sighed. To be perfectly fair, he had gotten there three hours early, but that was because he honestly had nothing else to do. The day before, he had tried to volunteer at the hospital, but the elders there had locked him out.

"We don't want you using your demonic arts on our sick", they had said. Hah! To think that he, Kozai, would be mistaken for some kind of occult charlatan. This village was truly sunk in backwards ways. Still, it was peaceful, and despite his status, Kozai didn't find that he was steeped in ninja life as he had a few years ago. So, it was fine. Still, he knew that he could cure nearly everyone within the hospital in the space of a couple of days. 

Looking at the sky, he noticed a couple of kites. A butterfly one, and a dragon-looking kite. Children playing, no doubt. As he sighed and shifted his gaze back to the village, Kozai's subconscious had already observed the air currents running through the kites themselves. His sensory, in the meantime, had already scoped out the guards that patrolled this area of town. Within the space of these three hours, he'd figured out nearly everything about them from simple observation: their diets, their body language, their private lives with their families, even some aspects of their childhood. He'd divined where their ancestors came from, and how competent each of them was. Still, he couldn't help but think that he still didn't quite KNOW them. What he did know, though, was that if he walked up to them and started talking about what he knew about them, they'd probably have heart attacks. So, he just leaned there again the wall, waiting on Akihana. Hmm, didn't she have a child? Arata, his name was. He couldn't really send his sensory into Denkiteki's memories, but he could figure out some other things.

Anyways, there he was, leaning there with a manila folder under one arm. Within it, Kozai had some documents. 75% of them were pertaining to the matter at hand, that being this "water" that Akihana was so desperate to find. The other 25% were what Kozai considered "pleasure reading", that being research on Senju DNA. He knew how wood release worked, but he still couldn't quite figure out its relationship with the sharingan, that Uchiha doujutsu. Echo had obviously known something... but what? Den, too, knew that something happened, but Kozai needed more information.

It probably wasn’t healthy, or at least wouldn’t have been considered so by the young librarian who’s aid she’d sought out in search of the miraculous Hero Water the ancients spoke of. And yet Akihana found herself day by day more immersed into the possibility of what the liquid – should it ever be found – would bring. Which was not to say that Akihana had given up other aspects of trying to heal the Queen. She had even considered asking Denkiteki to strengthen her highnesses cells and immunities like he had done to her back when she had first received Makona inside her. Worried about what the Bijuu would do to the blonde, Denkiteki had added the Senju bloodline into her veins to strengthen her against the battle to come and for the most part, it had worked. Physically at least. As seen with how Makona attached her psyche on most days now, it became clear to her that there was more than one ways to hurt a body. And just as effectively too, if not more so. She’d almost prefer being in as much physical pain as Ran had been in before his extraction. Now though, the boy lived a happy enough life and for that Akihana was glad.

Her only qualms about asking Denkiteki were the same as they had been about hers. She hadn’t been given a choice, Den had simply done what he felt would give her the best chance and Akihana would always be grateful for it. But deep in her heart, she knew Queen Shiera’s problem was more psychological than of the body. Ever since the death of Princess Lissandra and then the bird country heir, Her Grace had simply give up, and now nothing short of a miracle could save her. Making the search for this healing water all the more important. Because if the Queen was to be cured, she would have to believe in it. Otherwise no number of transplants would help her Majesty recover what was lost.

Different thought raced through the kunoichi’s head as she threaded her way through the crowded city, head covered by a cloak and thin lanky frame by a dress borrowed from the same servant girl. Everyone came out to greet Akihana if she ventured into town, but a palace servant was beneath notice of most passerbys, a fact Akihana routinely took advantage of whenever she felt the need for stealth. Perhaps transformation would have been easier but the young woman found herself not resorting to jutsu if she could help it, not among the people that despised it so.

And yet a ray of hope still clung to the new horizon. As she passed the academy, a group of children kicking a roughly hewn ball around the playground made her smile. Her chakra sensory picked up tiny flames of chakra in only half of the dozen or so kids throwing the ball around. If civilian and shinobi children could play together, there was hope for Hoshi yet. The blonde arrived at the gates perfectly on time, the smile still present on her lips as she greeted Kozai warmly.

“Good morrow, I hope I haven’t kept you waiting too long. I packed us lunch,” she added, holding up her basket slightly. Since the librarian was the one with the maps and most fo the intel, she let him lead the way. “We can go on full speed once we’re out of sight of the villagers,” she explained as they set off, probably the most unlikely pair. A librarian nude servant on their search for a miracle.

Hmmm...? Kozai noticed something moving towards him some 50 meters away. Akihana, was it? She was right on time, too, so Kozai couldn't complain. Standing up straight, he shifted his lab coat so that it lay easier on his shoulders. They'd probably be travelling for only a few minutes, but knowing Akihana, she'd want him to slow down for some arbitrary reason. Sure enough, there she was, talking about only going quickly after they were out of sight of the village. How inefficient, he thought to himself disdainfully. If they were going to find something, they should do it quickly and precisely. This wasn't a picnic.
He cooperated, though. It would be pointless to argue. 
Nodding in greeting, he turned toward the gates and started walking.
"That's fine." Thus speaking, as they sauntered along at that annoyingly slow pace, Kozai opened up the folder.

"It seems that the 'well' you're looking for isn't actually a 'well' at all. In all likelihood, it's actually an underground aquifer." He still had his doubts as to the medicinal quality of this "water", but natural wonders happened all the time. If it was beneficial, Kozai would most likely attribute that property to chemistry rather than mere "magic".

"I assume you've read through that book you borrowed. Somewhere near our target location, we need to find a place where the ground is depressed. Water tends to do that, after all." Liquefaction. Hopefully, no one had been stupid enough to build houses around there. Such buildings tended to sink into the dirt.

"I have a sensory technique that'll tell us when we're near the area in question. What I want to know is how you plan to get at such a large amount of water. Blasting straight through the crust might not be a good idea."

Not one for greetings, but that made sense, the blonde reasoned as she fell into step beside the young man. His oddities always suggested to her that he'd grown up with a distinct lack of human contact, he would have had to given how ill at ease he seemed around them. Akihana's own observations of Kozai leaned towards the sympathetic more than anything right now since making friends and the ability to blend into a crowd without the use of jutsu came naturally to her. Things like body language, a kind word, a languid gait, all of these had made Akihana one of the key infiltrators a lifetime ago when she was a Kumogakure ANBU. The young woman herself had never given this ability much thought since "being a person" was something almost anyone could accomplish. But looking at Kozai, she had to second guess her earlier assumption. She had yet to ever see this young man relaxed, let alone friendly.

And yet he was here, helping her in her decidedly insane quest for something that likely didn't exist. Was this his awkward way of trying to extend the hand of friendship? The blonde couldn't say. It might be more accurate to assume that his interest in the water was purely academical but in the end, it came down to one thing. It didn't matter if her Grace's life was spared through faith or academia, so long as it was saved. There was no one to tell that Queen Shiera had slowly become a mother figure to Akihana, likely no one would care since loyalty was more in demand in Hoshigakure than love. Denkiteki probably knew but that was simply because he and Akihana were both very proficient at understanding things neither one ever said.

Perhaps that was why they were so skillfully avoiding the subject of his brother.

As he continued, she could see where the language barrier had stumped them earlier. The book, written in the ancient word of Toth, referred to the body of water as existing below ground amidst rocks, something which modern translation readily classified as "well". She wondered how many samples Kozai had had to go through to make the connection, especially give how most of hoshi's tongues weren't even his native let alone ancient religious texts.

"I dd read the book," she confirmed with a nod her her head, letting the hood fall from her face now that they were sufficiently far away from the village gates to not be caught. Her bright blonde hair caught the sunlight, the heat shimmering around them like a mirage. "And don't worry, nothing need to be destroyed for us to get the water," she added with a hint of a smile as she reached out her hand, cutting her thumb slightly. In a small poof of smoke, Cream appeared on her shoulder. Kozai had his techniques, she had hers.

"This little guy is quite the digger. Cream, say hello to Mr. Kozai. Kozai, meet Cream. " The slug, naturally remained quiet, being incapable of human speech but it was the gesture that mattered more. Once the introductions were made, Akihana addressed the slug once more.

"Okay sweetie, you rest and do what you do for now, we'll let you know when you need you." With a slight wibble of his head, the slug crawled into its usual resting place, hidden from sight nowato rest between the crook of Akihana's arm under her sleeve.

"I think we're far away from the village now? What do you say? Shall we race?"

(I stack of nature energy stored)

Hmm, Kozai knew a bit about the slugs from Denkiteki's memories. Hm, an interesting summon race to be sure. Kozai knew a lot about slugs in general, but he rather wanted to get his hands on a tissue sample of one of these special ones. Hell, he'd probably also grab a sample from one of Denkiteki's snakes at some point! Imagine what he could do with the information in their genetic codes.... anyways, that was besides the point. He'd definitely go after that, though, just not now. It was worth noting that Kozai wasn't bothered by the temperature at all. As someone who'd experienced the extremes of basically every climate, his body was pretty well-conditioned to both cold and heat.

It was good that he was here with her, though, and not in the village boiling in his own regret.

"So, he'll infiltrate the crust and retrieve however much water we need? Fine." He wondered if Akihana was going to do the smart thing and commercialize the water. After all, if it indeed have healing properties, he was sure that Haven would invest in some kind of water treatment plant and start selling it off to people as a pseudo-panacea. That would no doubt bring in the money to Haven. In addition, he thought, he could implement some rather effective marketing skills. Undercutting all the other pharmaceutical companies, expanding his grasp to things like retail and the supermarkets. From there, he could easily exert pressure on the elders, and start making real change in the village. Well, maybe he was just wishfully dreaming, but it would be nice... and it wasn't outside the realm of possibility.

"A race?" Huh, so she wanted to see who was faster? Kozai knew that she possessed rather strong physical enhancers. Hmph, that was fine. He'd start things off nice and slow, then. 

"Sounds good to me." With a simple Hoho-enhanced push from the ground, Kozai would activate his sharingan and rocket off toward their destination, at an easy speed of 120.

"That's the plan," the kunoichi nodded as the snail slipped into her sleeve, it's job now to simply keep collecting nature energy as she expanded it. Akihana hadn't actually thought they would find this miracle cure on their first excursion and trying to keep her usual amount of optimism was proving harder than usual these days. But she'd keep cookie around just in case. The young woman had no idea why she had suggested a race once they were away from the village but she was glad when Kozai agreed. The last time she'd run - truly run - had been when she had arrived at Haven nearly a year ago. It had been her, Den and Maku and they had simply started running, barely a plan in mind and their relationships still unsure. It had been good to feel the wind on her face as she'd passed it by but she had an inkling that feeling would never return. And sure enough as she set off at the more casual speed of 110, keeping behind the librarian intentionally in case she bypassed him and missed their destination, she couldn't help but confirm she was right.

The dust clouds they left behind had no hint of joy, cheer or fredom and for a moment she wished Den was here running with her. Perhaps they both had something to outrun. But she couldn't be presumptious that way.

Traversing the mostly flat planes of the desert, travelling too fast to leave even shoe prints behind, Akihana picked up speed as she followed Koza, her mind whirling with all the information they had about the water currently. There had been a note, a hurried scribble more like, of a man perhaps gone too far on drink but the scribble mentioned a guardian protecting this water. What entity could survive out in the harsh dessert for an eternity guarding water did didn't need - presumably - was beyond her.

Still, nothing could be ruled out at this point, of that the blonde was certain.

To Kozai, this "race" didn't mean anything... but why was he suddenly feeling more at peace than he had been in the past few years? It didn't quite follow any rational sense, which was why Kozai's subconcious immediately worked on that, telling himself that it was merely because of the scenery. After all, psychological stereotypes still did exist, and Kozai was a human, despite all his efforts. He was still subject to the same things that any other human male of his age was susceptible to, for the most part. Still, it worried him that Hoshi might be getting to him. He knew that Akihana was a genjutsu user, so was also on his guard for that. He knew that despite her kindly appearance, she was filled with great power and knowledge. As a result, he was worried. Thus, he kept his systems primed and on the search for anything unusual. Anyone who'd spent time around Maku probably knew about Youka and the technique he used to seal people's memories. As a former victim of this technique, Kozai knew to keep a careful watch over his own body. Should anyone try to intrude upon it, he'd stamp that person out of existence. 

Hmph. He noted that she was keeping herself behind him. Had she been literally anyone else, he would probably have been much more suspicious. Someone with her level of power couldn't be trusted, even as an ally. In a world like this one, it could be even advantageous in some situations to back stab your friends. Still, it was Akihana. She didn't seem like the kind of person who would do that, but Kozai kept watch on her just to make sure. 

Suddenly Kozai stopped, frowning intensely.

Without turning around, he spoke.

"We SHOULD be here, but I don't sense any water at all beneath us. Any ideas? We could search the surrounding areas, but I doubt it would turn up anything."

The Blonde was quite lost in her own thoughts when Kozai suddenly stopped. Given the speed which she had picked up, too fast to have the wind in her hair, too fast to have the wind affect anything on her person in fact because the kunoichi moved faster. picking up speed to 220, she couldn't have stopped when Kozai did even if she wanted to, the act alone would have hurt her if done abrupty so. As it was, the moment she felt Kozai no longer in her sensory, the kunoichi slowed down, calculating the distance at which she'd outrun him and calculating how far she had to run to get back. He was no longer in her sight lin where she'd stopped but picking him up via chakra was easy enough and instead of racing back, she simply flickered next to him in an instant.

"Sorry," the young medic apologized, her eyelashes lowed in embarrassment. "I rarely get to run like this so I suppose I got ought in the moment." A shame she hadn't been able to go to her full speed but this was not a competition, Akihana would never plead contest to something like this.

"It's been quiet dry, weather wise lately," she tried, attempting to answer his question. A mass of underground water source didn't simply disappear. Water was harder to find in desert climates anyway, one of the reasons Hoshi had fallen so quickly to the missing ninja that had killed Minorin. The city's main water supply came from the streams in and around the water gardens - named aptly for the resource they provided - and just drying up those streams had been enough to reduce Hoshi citizens tot eh depraved conditions Akihana and Den had found them in a year ago.

"Perhaps we can try sending our sensory underground to check? I don't have much in way of excavation techniques but i can get Cream to dig around. his water senses are pretty good." Another solution was that they had somehow read the map wrongly. that the water source didn't lie this way but north instead. But she wasn't about to challenge Kozai's interpretation yet. There was no point upsetting him even if he was wrong. they were both humans and therefore prone to mistakes.

Hmph, as expected. With such little physical combat proficiency, going at such a high speed meant that she would have difficulty stopping as quickly as he had. Well, she'd have to work at that on her own. In the meantime, Kozai merely nodded at her, not saying anything about it, whether negative or positive. 

So, it had been "dry", huh? That really didn't answer Kozai's question, so he would probably have to clarify. As to how he'd find enough data, though... he needed to see what was going on down there. As someone who was not yet able to tunnel freely underground, he would most likely have to rely on Akihana to help him, which made him feel useless to a small extent. He'd need to work on his earth element prowess.

"Chakra senses most likely won't help us. I have a sensory technique that can directly use water and air to 'see' whatever I need to. Its range is about half that of normal chakra senses, however. From here, I can tell that there's something underneath the sand that's tightly compacted, since there aren't any air pockets in it. It's probably rock. If you could send your slug through that layer, it might help a bit." 

From what data he was gathering here, he was already forming a hypothesis in his mind, and it wasn't one that he liked. He had hoped that he could atone for his mistake merely by coming out here and helping Akihana find whatever she needed, but if Kozai was right about what was going on here, that was going to be very difficult. 

"What are the seasonal cycles like here?" He wanted Akihana's personal take on it, since first-hand accounts might help him more than the cycles he'd read about already. He hadn't been here long enough to experience all the seasons as of yet.

When asked of the weather cycle, Akihana simply shook her head. The territories in and around Haven were largely deserts, hot during the days and cold when nightfall came. She had heard rumors of a sea port towards the very edge of the country but no map in their archives extended that far. perhaps she should suggest Kozai investigate and draw out newer maps, she was certain the young librarian was capable enough.

"We experience very basic weather. The days are unforgiving hot most of the time, very little rainfall graces our lands but the nights are unexpectedly chilly. More than a few travelers have met their misfortunes because they felt the chill of Haven's nights would balance out the heat of her days." Travelling across the terrain herself, Akihana had not experienced these extreme conditions due to her speed. So the kunoichi only admired those who made religious pilgrimages to Hoshi under such conditions. It was said that simply deciding to make the journey to the City Blessed by the Stars was an act of worship and Akihana could understand why.

"Though there might be another way," she began, her sensory picking up signs of life nearby. "Motioning for Kozai to not move, the kunoichi slowly sunk to her knees in the sand, the soft but warm sand covering the hem of her dress and cloak as she ran her fingers through the golden substance, combing it carefully. It took a minute, it would have taken lesser had she used force but then they would have established themselves as a foe.

But due to her patience, a minute later, her palm surfaced through the sand once more, a small scorpion resting lazily on her thumb and index finger, no doubt just waking up. Knowing that any sudden moves would invite a sting, Akihana stayed quiet and still, hoping Kozai would do the same as he observed. The blonde held her breath as the scorpion moved up her palm, it's tiny body tickling her flesh.

Her patience paid off in the end as the little creature finally meandered off her palm and into the sand, now fully awake but completely uninterested in her due to ehr lack of movements earlier. She couldn't say what had curbed the small predator's natural instinct to sting anything it came in contact with but she could only attribute it to her gentle approach.

"Aren't you a thirsty little guy," she whispered softly, still on her knees as she watched the scorpion make it's way through the sand, probably heading for the nearest source of water. Once it was a few feet away, the kunoichi rose to her feet. "I don't know if the water source he leads us to will be the one we're looking for, but finding a source is better than nothing. Shall we?"