Stranger's Kiss (Youka)

The sky above was dark, through clouds or smog or the sorrow of hundreds of souls trapped within Kumogakure, Akihana could not tell. Even as her large summon deposited her safely in the mountains she'd once felt so safe in, the blonde could feel the darkness and sorrow surrounding her, a cloud of gloom threatening to suffocate the last bright stubborn ray of light that persisted against failing odds. Perhaps this was how her light was meant to snuff out, not be extinguished after a show of blaze or a twinkle of sparkle. Maybe she would die out as cruelly as the candle that had reached the end of its wick, quietly, and without notice.

But she wouldn't be Akihana if she didn't at least try. Momma Dough must have felt her determination tinged with fear because the maternal slug said nothing, simply pulling Akihana into a warm embrace. No words of 'take care" or "be safe", the finality was palpable in her farewell. They were past the point of being safe, now all the golden haired kunoichi really sought was one last chance to bow her head before the Goddess who had watched over her throughout her life... And then walk up to the man who had enslaved her people and hope her life was a worthy trade in exchange for their freedom.

Akihana had never believed in monsters, and as a result, the world had seen fit to challenge her view again and again, defying her to hold her naivete as close to her heart as she did. Today she would either die defending her beliefs or overcome once more. But the world around her didn't seem forgiving. Not with the sky as overcast as it was and the ground so sharp beneath ehr feet it would hurt if it was less familiar.

As the blonde slowly made her way to the invisible steps of the shrine, her faith in Goddess Etro gowning with each step, the Kumo of old sprung to life around her. There were howls of foxes and wolves in the distance only she could hear. Yaju's pack leading stray genin home. There was snow falling from the skies, blanking the sharp rocks with a fresh white power that begged someone to ball it into globes and toss it at a friend. Somewhere far away, blue fireworks erupted against the actual dark sheet skies because someone was in a good mood and wanted to put on a show. The laughter of children, shouts of picnic goers and barks of puppies joined the crescendo as Akihana made her way up the steps, lost in the memory of the way Kumo been - the way her Kumo had been.

The fireworks, the laughter, the freshly fallen snow, all of it faded as she stepped up to thr door of he shrine. The world returned to as it was, dark, devoid of hope and quiet as a tomb. This was no longer her Kumo, but the people within were still her people. And she would till do what she could for them. Her resolve strengthening with each light footfall, Akihana made her way inside. Someone had been here recently. Th structure that housed the Goddess was not derelict, in fact, it felt a little lived in.

Or perhaps it was just the arms of the Goddess welcoming Her most devour follower home. The blonde felt a weight lift off her shoulders as she took slow, trembling steps to her final destination, the altar. For the first time since she'd left Lightning Country, the medic felt she could stand straight again, straight and for a brief moment, free of guilt. She was here, where she belonged.

Come what may.

The young woman didn't remain standing for long. Having reached the altar, she sunk down on her knees, fresh tears trailing down from her golden eyes though whether they were of sorrow or joy she could not say. Was a home really a home if everything about it save its geography had changed? Akihana had always felt a part of her was connected to these mountains and now she understood. That part of her had never left Kumo, she'd just lost her along the way.

And now, here kneeling at the feet of the Goddess of Life and Death with Maku`s red and black cloak wrapped protectively around her, Akihana was whole once more.

Even if it was now far too late.

Everything about the world around the once and always plague prince had changed ever since the confrontation with the evil and lives of the ones he had taken. There was no remorse nor tinge of regret in his mind, the conflict and eternal struggle of if he was right or wrong had washed away. The old paths into the mountains were his and only his, access to the area had been long restricted to enforce control and restrict practices he was unfamiliar with. It was through these slopes that he and Epidimius has come to terms with each other, and also where Mortarion had chosen to be the necessary evil for this sheltered world. His armored steps broke the normality of the ecosystem around him causing the forest creatures to scatter well before he had reached them. It seemed his existence was such a slight to nature that even the trees blew in opposite directions as if attempting to uproot to escape the nauseating chakra that naturally leaked from his body.

This was the day that he had decided long ago when the village was taken that he'd rid it of the old gods and make room for the only God Kumogakure would serve in life and death. Chaos was a necessity just as much as justice was, being two sides of the same coin the Kage chose the powers of decay, for in death there is life. It was a old teaching of the bijuu that resided in him constantly speaking the sweet nothings of a higher calling and power yet never truly speaking it's name. Continuing his stride through the mountains his rebreather apparatus chugged and fumed releasing slight fumes into the air above him as he took a filtered breath of airy grouch his lungs and exhaled. The leaves that were touched simply wilted and returned to nothing as was the beginning of all things.

Using Silence, his man reaper as a walking stick to help with the pacing of his walk, the toxin that coated it dripping not only on the earth corroding the ground; drops hit the pale gray armor causing it to sizzle as it attempted to eat through the metal. He no longer needed to wear the ritualistic battle gear, he was no longer being constantly decayed from the inside out as was once the case. Yet he still did as it enforced the image of a god among the normal humans. The red and black orbs of pure chakra that constantly circled his head in the form of a fallen halo added to the effect. As his steps continued he felt the familiar voice of the bijuu calling out to him, it no longer forced its words into his mind but waited for him to answer as was their agreement once the monsters chakra had been controlled.

"Once this is done and you've erased the false gods from this mountain, we must speak on what comes next in training the masses to worship decay in all things and the lord they must serve."

Mortarion nodded to himself as he trudged further noting the fireworks in the distance of the village as well. It was a day of celebration and relaxation that the villagers had earned. He had worked them night and day building walls and other defenses. This was also the day that all were treated equal between the different castes of civilians, there were no districts for today only and it promoted growth and change as well as giving the ones that had once turned away from him a chance to move forward. However if they still rejected him theirs lives became forfeit on the next day only to fuel the growth of the rotting fields that circled the outside village.

"I understand Epidimius, we will begin after the celebrations are over. We've been over this, today is important, even as a dictator I must still give into the whims of the village elders at some points and listen to the cries of the various villagers. The village doesn't run with just me."

Their conversation was cut short however by the unfamiliar feeling of what seemed to be four different chakra readings in the not so far distance, they weren't something that had grown closer, they just appeared as if they were manifested in. Feeling them out more told him that whoever it was wasn't of Kumogakure and also they had considerable amounts of chakra between them. Who'd be foolish enough to appear in a village that surely had been known now to be run by a tyrant, someone that impaled children and adults alike without bias. His mood soured at the Apperance of the intruders and his face contorted into a raw primal rage as the mechanics of his armor whirred with purpose moving him forward at a quicker pace and the grip on his scythe tightened as his muscles tensed with anticipation of attack. If he sensed them than he was sure they had already felt his presence growing closer. There was no need to rush the inevitable, he took his time and used it to muse over how slowly he'd flay the bodies for information before adding them to his undead collection. Once he had what he needed his gaze would turn towards the village dumb enough to send such a small force to take on a village.

Calm down, calm, were the words that kept coming to mind thoughtless reactions of violence wasn't who he was anymore, yes he was evil, and yes everyone would know his rule but everything wasn't meant to be solved by killing. Reaching the old steps that led up to what he assumed was a once very important shrine to a goddess of sorts he let the chakra of the three tails ooze its malicious intent into the world to ensure that the intruders knew he was coming. With each step that was taken up to the building the chakra grew darker and the orbs forming the halo seemed to be vibrant against such a harsh dark purple chakra. Upon reaching the top the only chakra he could feel was of someone inside the temple, the other three had vanished more than likely hiding their presence in an attempt to gain the upper hand. The slit in his forehead opened slightly as the milky white eye of the byakugan activated just under the hood of his cloak to where it was visible. The body inside was female, the others he didn't attempt to find till it was time. Stabbing the hilt of his scythe into the ground Mortarion spoke softly yet his voice still carries for those in the vicinity to hear him. 

"Come out,show yourselves, or know true despair."

Makona felt the unease in the world before her jinchuriki did, making the blonde raise her head from prayers and insisting on being careful. The blonde brought her hands together in a discreet seal - one that Makona had slowly begrudgingly agreed to, sensing the chakra of the two knights sent to escort her disappear. no doubt Ser Arthus and Ser Otto had sensed what Makona had, and made themselves scarce. It was the plan after all, and Denkiteki's fears on sending a solo unit were justified. As both knights were probably using chakra suppression and hidden from sight, the medic wouldn't worry about them. They were the scouts of this mission.

She was the trade off.

Akihana had never expected her arrival to go unnoticed even this far from the village and in this particular shrine which showed itself to only the true believers - another reason why the Queensguards had been unable to enter. Protected by Misaki's chakra long ago, the shrine of Goddess Etro was not for the eyes of the faint of heart. She supposed that said a lot for the source of malicious chakra moving towards her. Despite the stories she'd heard and the horrific scenes she'd witnessed, this man Maku had called a friend was in fact a believer.

Feeling the cloud of metaphorical decay thicken the air around her, Akihana remained knelt where she was. If it was the Goddess's will to not grant her devout more time in prayer, then so be it. It as pat really, the source she would have gone looking for after her trip into the mountains was now taking steps up the very place she had held most sacred when she'd lived here. One last thing for the man now styling himself as Raikage to take from her. But the jinchuriki had never measured possessions in terms of ownership. Kumo - the part that she had loved and the part that still lived inside her - would always be hers.

"Would you care to pray with me?" she asked, her tone polite and steady, surprising even herself. Never a stoic persona, the medic in fact was faulted for always feeling too much, for trying to help too much, for expanding rivers of empathy and never expecting anything in return so she had never expected herself to appear as calm in the face of death as she was now. Her poise was overlooked however as Makona continued to let out a string of warnings in her head. Something about the chakra leaking from this armored demon being that of a bijuu, more things Akihana couldn't comprehend at the time. Were they anywhere else, the kunoichi would have been touched by Makona's concern for her shell. As it was, now the warnings only evoked a sad note in the young woman.

Should the man accept her offer, Akihana would move aside to give him space at the altar. Should he decline, she would stand up once more, golden eyes leaving the carved image of the Goddess to land on Her counterpart. Or perhaps Her creation. Years of being raised in a traditionalist clan were enough for the medic to lower her gaze politely after meeting his but the years of being a ninja were enough to sharpen her senses, taking in everything about him from his weapon to his Armour to the way he spoke and breathed and interacted with nature. Equilibrium and balance with nature had ben an interal part of her training as both a medic and a sage and this man was a walking slight to the worlds the Gods had created.

"I apologize if I'm in your way. I didn't realize anyone else would be here. This place used to be frequented by a total of three people once upon a time..." A time that would never return. Wrapping the red and black cloak more closely around her, the young woman found herself wishing Maku was here. But only for a moment. She had to do this on her own. "I am Akihana of Kumogakure," she spoke in introduction and after what felt like an age, it finally sounded right to her ears. Hoshigakure was a refuge full of good people, conveniences and love but Kumo was her home, and now she could admit it freely without fear of judgement or pity.

"I was on my way to see you once I had finished praying. I wasn't sure I would have the chance after."

Making his way into the actual temple itself his metal steps sounded and felt out of place against the wood and quiet of the once great worship house it seemed. His mind attempted to stay clear and think of all the possibilities of attack as he neared the kneeling woman. Apparently not only were these people intruding but they felt at home enough to take time for prayer in a land that wasn't their own. The thought of him being dismissed increased the burning anger that he and the bijuu were experiencing at this moment. The other presences were still hiding their location and while he could find them if he wanted to he assumed the one that mattered the most was her if she hadn't done the same.

Walking through the temple slowly to the far walls and supporting pillars he pretended to ignore what the woman had said. Reaching the first, his free hand ran its length of the pillar before he began slowly pushing on it causing the wood to splinter and the pillar to slightly bend in. He stopped and moved on to the next, before letting out a sigh before speaking through his rebreather giving him an almost artificial voice.

"Prayer...something I did once hold value on, I find its practice obsolete."

With his words another beam caved under the pressure causing the roof of the temple to shake slightly as its weight shifted.

"The action, while noble begets no solution and no action. You don't worship a god with prayer, it's through action and manifesting their will into reality. This etro that you pray to is weak and desolate, will she not protect her own home?"

As he spoke he never raised his voice nor let any emotion guide the message. The roof shifted once more and debris started falling from the ceilings and the ground giving way as a little under half of the supports were shifted. Even now as she stood to turn her eyes on his he ignored her, walking past her slowly towards the shrine and statue that depicted the goddess etro. Raising silence with purpose the man reaper found its blade behind the neck of the statue, the toxins that coated it eating at the statue with ease. Mortarion kept pulling forward slowly till all that was left was a piece of the neck and the statues head hung low looking down towards the earth. Leaving his back to the woman as he looked over the shrine he recollected much information and finally put a name to her voice. Interrupting her mid sentence about being in the way.

"I know who you are Akihana, I spent a considerable amount of time learning and disecting the body of a Yaju. Your features might have changed some but that voice is unmistakable. You hope you aren't interrupting me, yet you come to my village in secret and wearing a cloak that wasn't given to you. Before this building collapses and this statue of a dead God carries its own head tell me whose cloak you wear."

He now turned towards her and casted a gaze on her face waiting for an answer. He didn't think any of the members would willing give their cloak away and while she didn't look the type that could kill she was a ninja. She might also have information on Maku or he'd find her to be his killer and enact a swift vengeance.

His wrath came before his response and Akihana wasn’t surprised at all. She’s known who this man was the moment his chakra had neared the building but in truth, she had known Youka Tau a lot longer than that. Over a year ago, she had known him as the companion of the man responsible for the murder of Echo Uchiha. Later, as she’d watch him drawn the streets of Kumogakure in blood from Sanctuary’s pond, she had known him as a demon she refused to believe in. Over the year as Maku spoke of him, she had known him as a friend, a partner, a doctor, a teammate, a musician, a swindler, a murderer, a thief, a sadist, a brother and a leader. But only now did she realize that this man was more than the sum of his parts.

“Does it bring you peace?’ the blonde asked, doing nothing to stop his progress as he continued towards the statue after a beam fell into rubble somewhere in the distance. Akihana wasn’t particularly concerned about her own safety. The portion she and the new Raikage occupied of the shrine was in no immediate danger and even if it went that way, she had counter measures in place. Makona having sensed danger had begun gathering nature energy the moment Youka had stepped through the door despite Akihana’s refusal to take a battle stance. “Some would argue that we pray for ourselves more than we do for the Gods. If defaming Her name and destroying Her home brings you peace, then you too have done your service to the Goddess,” she spoke as he sliced off the statue’s head, corroding the stone body out of a sense of what? Vengeance? Righteousness? Akihana couldn’t tell but she liked to think neither could he.

At his admission of what he had done to Yaju’s body, the blonde flinched, a river of sorrow flowing through her golden eyes in less than a moment. She had always known Yaju would die for his village but now she knew he had. The finality merited a moment of silence she would never be granted. “I apologize for entering without permission. I suppose my only excuse is that I was coming home.” It was not the best explanation but like her, it was honest. “As I said, I was coming to see you right after. Fate simply chose to intervene and push our inevitable meeting forwards.”

At his question of her cloak, he finally looked at her, and though he couldn’t make out a face beneath all that armor, she hoped he could make out hers clearly. From the weary fatigue on her brow to the sorrow lined in each dip and curve of her pale, heart shaped face. From the stubborn golden light in her eyes to the chapped pink lips she’d been worrying the whole day. Looking straight into his eyes, she spoke. “It was given to me by Maku Jemuzu. He gave it to me over a year ago in these very mountains. We met for a picnic and I hadn’t brought a picnic blanket so we used…” reaching down, she scoped up a bit of the fine fabric in her fingers, as if she could still feel Maku in the garment. “This. He never asked for it back after that. Perhaps he knew I would need something after… after he was gone.”

The kunoichi lowered her eyes respectfully, no longer in sadness but in quiet acceptance. She had mourned Maku with everything she had in her. Now it was time to do as he’d said. “I come bearing a message from him. He thought of you as a brother you know, he used to tell me stories about your travels. About your misadventures. It was the only time I ever saw him cry...”

He knew what he was doing wouldn't illicit the response sought from the woman in front of him, yet it still had to be done mainly for his own sake. From what he had remembered she was a very caring person, putting others above herself. Epidimeus slipped past the blockade once more to whisper into his mind in a sinister tone.

"Kill her followers...slowly, make her watch as you dismember them digit by digit. Adorn her head with their intestines and let her wear them as a trophy. Let her view the decomposition process of a human body first hand. When it's all over bring them back just to the brink of death and do it all again."

The idea did strike the plague prince as a good choice if he was still the same person he used to be, and may still be something he'd pursue if he didn't like her answer. The way she spoke had a tinge of sarcasm in it when she asked if it brought him happiness, yet he knew it more than likely came from his own anger in the moment. Attaching the man reaper back to its socket on his back armor he looked deeply into her features, the three eyes attempting to peer through to her core as his halo stayed glowing around his head of pure chakra.

"Peace? No it does not bring me peace, this is necessity. There can't be growth if there isn't death. There can't be new life if there isn't decay."

Stepping forward two steps he'd close the distance between them once more, the added height of the armor and his natural frame clearly towering over the female in front of him. Moving his right hand upwards towards his face it grabbed the rebreather and lossened the clasps allowing it to fall away revealing his face under the cowl. He was still in his early twenties yet held the face now of a much older male there were patches of skin that flaked away from where the original necrosis had started and it continued to die and heal at a continuous rate. Breathing in the unfiltered air, something he hadn't done for a very long time caused a distasteful frown to appear on his face before he spoke once more after she finished.

"Pray for yourself? Kumogakure is now protected by the ones that would pray for theirselves and the stand sentry in the fields sentenced to a life of eternal regret. Inaction is still inaction no matter if you attempt to put religion behind it."

At the mention of him doing a service to her fallen idol a slight chuckle broke his lips, he couldn't fathom that someone as innocent as this still existed the would speak in such a manner at such a time and place.

"Any god that would see this as a service is not a god"

Motioning with his left arm he waved it around what was now transpiring in the shrine. After mentioning the previous cloud ninja the response although slight and minute in the grand scheme he did catch and noted the turn of sadness. He listened to her speak once more, his eyes unblinking yet still on full guard. Most of what she said he did have questions but they were all pushed to the side at the mention of Maku. Everything she spoke of were indeed things that the fool of a man would do yet they still didn't explain where he had been all this time and why he wasn't here now. Her last words of the man didn't sit well with Mortarion as Maku was truly the only one that understood him. His two main eyes swirled to the style of the rinnegan while the milky white byakugan sat atop his forehead all eyes now furious, the red and black orbs no longer spinning but just sitting in stasis.

"What do you mean after he was gone, your tone holds finality, if you tell me he's died at someone's hands..."

The three tailed demons chakra coated Mortarions armor as tails emerged from behind a darkish purple flailing in the air slapping into the ground crushing the floor boards beneath. His face took on much more serpentine features and slindered down as dulled teeth turned more to fangs.

"Where is my brother..."

Ironically, he was quoting the message of the Goddess of Death even as he desecrated her very home and image, but Akihana needn't point that out, all would be revealed in good time, just as it was intended to. As the man drew closer, reaching to pull off his mask, the first look that flashed through the kunoichi's eyes was concern. This was the face she had tried so hard to hate for over a year, going over all the horrible deeds he'd done, all the lives he'd taken and all the deaths he'd prevented. And she'd failed spectacularly, not being able to hate the one person responsible for taking way the only home she'd ever felt she belonged to. She had really thought she would finally be able to hate him after facing him, after looking into his eyes and fully understanding what he’d done to her, to everyone who lived so prosperously in Kumo once upon a time.

And yet what she saw only made her worry for him. His face looked like it hadn’t seen sunshine in a long time, his eyes full of none of the light Akihana always associated with a soul. Yet she knew he wasn’t soulless. “I can help with that,” she offered softly, raising her eyes to the peeling skin. “There’s no reason for you to be in unnecessary pain.” The blonde wasn’t sure where the words came from, all she knew was that they were hers. She wouldn’t be Akihana if she saw an injury and refrained from an offer to help heal it. This man had unknowingly changed her life in many ways but as she stood there, so near Death she could taste it, she was proud to say he hadn’t changed her.

“That’s the thing about Gods isn’t it?” she replied wistfully. “We mortals don’t get to decide what They see as service and what they see as a challenge. Though the attempt to find that line has caused much strife throughout history. I personally prefer a path that builds rather than destroys.” The medic hadn’t really expected a philosophical debate upon her arrival at Kumo. But she hadn’t expected to live this long either. She already felt her existence running on borrowed time and for that, she was only grateful. As she spoke of Maku, she could see the changes overcoming him. Maku had been right; Youka was more to him than he was to the rest to the world. perhaps that was why she felt she knew this man too, because after seeing him through the lens of the world, she had seen him though Maku’s.

His anger and chakra would have hurt her had her own health and armor not been in the way. But even as his frame trembled in rage while he inquired about his brother, Akihana could see the fear and the coming sadness. She was too well acquainted with both emotions to not recognize them in the eyes of a crazed demon. It turned out the monster had emotions just like everyone else. “Maku just left one day,” she spoke, her voice steady despite her shuddering frame. Her feet still firmly planted on the trembling stone floor and her gaze still steadily, unflinchingly regarding all three of his eyes without judgment. “He left you a note but I assumed you never read it. I came because… I didn’t want you to find out on your own. I found out when I was alone and... and I would never wish that on anyone.”

She doubted she could help him in any way. But at least she would be here. If for no other reason then just to be here. Maku had cared about this man and she had cared very much about things he cared for. In the end, she hadn’t been one of them but that did nothing to lessen her resolve. “He loved you, you know. He always said you were the only person he could ever be completely himself with. I don’t know the contents of his note but I’m sure he would never have left without speaking to you.”

Fighting the urge to now maim and kill everyone as his senses now located the two others quickly and effectively. Knowing that Maku could possibly be gone forever was not something that sat well with him, they had been through too much just for him to leave peacefully. What made this harder was the fact that he was newly trying to recoil his rage and place it towards goals of things that actually made a difference on a large scale. Her voice still agitated him to an extent that he wanted to attempt to redo her voice box to change the tempo of what came out. He could still hardly believe that she would come here just to speak to him on such matters and his mind raced for what village was sending these spies.

His stature shrank and Epidemius's chakra reverted and dispersed around him as his mental state finally came back under his control. His eyes reverted and the eye in his forehead closed once more hiding the byakugan from view. Slowly pulling his rebreather back to his face and attaching it he took a deep breath of the toxic mixture and sighed as it calmed his body. The beast inside him tried speaking and telling him that this all might be a trap, and sure it was some thing that he did have run through his thoughts, but everything he had read on this woman and seen through the mind of another warranted that she spoke the truth at all times.

" I won't read the note, and I will hear nothing else on the matter. He's not gone and I will bring him back no matter the course and price. I don't need your consoling either woman, why else are you here and speak quickly."

Mortarion walked past her and made way for the entrance of the shrine to place him back outside with her following hopefully as the shrine was on its last leg creaking and shaking while it descended more. He'd wait for her answers here and decide what to do with her once he figured out where she was from and all she had to give.

The kunoichi was prepared to take action should she sense more danger in the slowly crumbling building around them, concerned for both his safety and her own, the blonde would not have dispersed alone, taking Youka with her should the need arise. As it turned out, his anger appeared to have dimmed, or at least it would seem so to the casual observer. The bijuu appendages retreated and the malicious chakra corroding the foundation he stood on ceased for a moment, and then his mask was up again, in more ways than one.

It had taken her months to reconcile with the fact that Maku was never coming back, she could never hold it against this man for escaping into the welcome lands of denial. She had done the same at first, pretending the empty space on her ring finger had always been there, pretending that there was no blue rose she incorporated into her hair every time she made an official visit. She had gotten so good at pretending that she hadn't even realized she was doing, at least until she saw Denkiteki doing it just as well as she could. His denial had made her realize her mistake, a mistake she was not about to repeat.

"If you don't wish to talk of it, I will respect your wishes," she agreed solemnly, taking a moment to kneel down once more and retrieve a shard of the statue he'd dismembered, one that wasn't poisoned by his blade. Folding the jagged piece slowly into her sleeve, she rose to her feet once more. He might have destroyed the place she found comfort in for so long but perhaps he wouldn't grudge her a momento.

"But I'd like to be here when you do wish to speak of him. I made the grave mistake of not being there for his biological brother, I will not repeat it with the man whom he also called a brother." It wasn't that she hadn't wanted to talk to Den about Maku, it was just that she had never known how to broach the subject. Everyone in the room had some kind of monopoly on the fallen man's memory. Brother, Comrade, Son. She had nothing, nothing that could be defined or justified yet she was here, carrying out what he would have wanted. So what if her relationship with Maku could never be defined, it didn't need to be.

Following him out the door and down the steps once more, Akihana felt more than heard the building behind them crumble to its knees, and yet there was no defeat in the crumbling, not from where Akihana stood. Temples rose and fell every day, Gods resided in the hearts of the devout, and no one could take Goddess Etro away from her, not even this man.

"There is one other matter I'd like to discuss with you at your earliest convenience but first," raising her golden head slightly, Akihana's soft voice hardened a bare octave. Nothing offensive but unflinchingly firm. "I did not come here alone. Two of my associates are here as well as I'm sure you know by now. I beseech that no harm come to them. If you wish, have them escorted from the village but do not harm them. I wanted to come here alone, they had no say in their mission of escorting me." Inching her gaze downwards, she added. "The request to not hurt anyone does not extend to me. You may punish me as you see fit if I may have your word that they will be safe."

As she made her way out behind him he turned to look upon her once more to hear all she had to say as long as it no longer pertained to Maku. The temple finally gave way in the background just as they made it safely from under its roof, Epidemius smiled as he thought on building the shrine to eternal decay and growth over the ruins of the broken goddess. She spoke of family that Maku had, a biological brother, that was also news to him and something he'd instantly taken as a lie till proven otherwise. A slight snarl under his rebreather hit the air before he spoke.

"I said nothing else wold be said and I meant it, the next word you breathe of him in any form will forfeit your chance to leave this village."

It was true, he was in a deep agony at this point, yet like all men it was something he dealt with in a different way than what should be. Sadly his way was torture and the dissection of human bodies. She had spoken about the other two that had as of yet still been unwilling to show themselves. He knew they were there just as she had said but there motive was of little concern to him, he was sure if it came to it they would all fall one by one.

"They will stay with you at all times, if at any point one of you are ever away from the others all of you will surrender your life to decay."

His weight shifted slightly as he stood and his arms crossed his chest plate while he looked down at the girl still trying to see what inner strength she held because as of that point he still could only see a female ninja out of her element.his haze shifted down the valley towards the village as celebrations were still going on.

"You're in my earliest convience right now, I still haven't decided what exactly to do with you. Tell me where you hail from and who leads you. Then I'll hear your matter."