Revival (Youka)

As he rose from her bed, Akihana did the same, respectfully averting her bright gold gaze from him. While the young kage took his time to test out his newly healed body, she in turn made her way to the closet on the far side of the room, opening the door to reveal the rows of neatly folded and hung clothes within. Her style and preference was obvious even in that small glance, the clothes she wore on a daily basis chosen on simplicity, practicality and light colors. Most shades of pastel dominated her wardrobe with a dark shade here and there and almost everything looked used. Anything that looked expensive, extravagant or purely decorative was hung on the side, never taken off the hanger. Reaching in, she pulled out a neatly folded robe and and a pair of comfortable slacks - purchases Ser Arthus had made thankfully without asking questions while she tended to the sick male - and placed them on the corner of the bed, retreating to her armchair once more.

He seemed surprised by her agreement to be aparty to his techniques, something that made the blonde raise a quizzical eyebrow in his direction. Did he forget that she was still a ninja? More than that she believed in a positive use for every jutsu. Akihana and Lily had once had a rather interesting debate that had continued for days, the discussion ending in Lily coming up with new jutsu every day and Akihana suggesting a positive use for them. Not only had the discussion furthered both medics's knowledge of jutsu but it had also proven that - to Akihana at least - everything could have a positive spin if one tried hard enough.

When he asked if she understood everything thus far, the kunoichi nodded, mimicking his hand gesture to conjure up the orbs he was summoning so easily. Medical techniques usually came easy to her so that part was not as tricky as it would normally be. The trick, Akihana had found, was to push all her healing chakra outwards. As it was compatible with how she worked on her nature energy - her healing techniques used only for others and never herself - the orbs of healing were relatively easy to conjure. Closing her eyes, the kunoichi focused for a moment, opening them to see a single orb of pure golden light close to her face, lighting up her newly rejuvenated features. Despite the situation, her face lit up with a smile of accomplishment.

But that was where the simplicity ended. While the orb was a physical manifestation of healing, it was just that. A passive orb that radiated a healthy glow and perhaps minor healing effects. It was nowhere near as powerful as Youka's, nor was it the same red and black as his. When he explained that he worked on the duality of life and death only did the kunoichi realize what she was missing. Her orb represented only light and healing. There was no negativity or offense in it. It was simply a weaker version of his own technique - a very weakened version.

"I can't... make it..." she began, trying to focus again, trying to imbue offensive power into the orb. But the moment she tried, it flickered out of existence, forcing her to conjure it all over again and try. Three times she attempted with the same results, the orb extinguished as soon as it met with her own offensive power or intent. It was as though her chakra was simply not able to combine what she viewed as good and bad in one technique. When she conjured the orb a fourth time, the effect taking longer to achieve due to how much effort it began to require, an idea struck her.

'Could you... Cu-old you please make another orb. I can't seem to mix medical jutsu with offensive on my own. Maybe if I saw the method..." If he agreed and conjured up his version of the technique, Akihana would murmur a soft thank you before focusing once more. This time she wouldn't try to ignite the healing orb with ill intent, no this time the orb simply began to travel, making its way to Youka's tentatively.

Her golden orb hesitated as it approached the mass of red and black, its light throwing its darker companion into sharp relief. Then, as she took a deep breath and pushed, her orb collided with it in a hissing sound. Angry sparks emitted from the mixture of their chakra, causing her to panic slightly but she maintenaned the jutsu as best she could, feeling the goiden orb absorb its companion.

The result was a radiant bright red ball of light, the color of strawberries in winter, the color of wrapping paper on Christmas, the color of a healthy abating heart.

All of the darkness removed from it.

It was while Mortarion spoke to the woman about how to control and make his orbs of healing that he watched her rise and leave to fetch something. After a moment of her rummaging through a closet she resurfaced with a set of clothing that he only could guess was for him. Standing confused for the briefest of moments it clicked that he was less than modestly dressed to be having a conversation with the opposite sex.

These were the small social ques that he never caught on to and every time they were presented to him he fell short on responding to them in the correct fashion. Taking the time to dress accordingly to what she had given him, he placed the robe on before sliding one foot in after the other into the pants he had been given.

Watching with a slight amusement as his bride to be attempted to make a orb of her own design. He could feel her chakra form in the nether before appearing in the real world for their eyes to view. The orb hovered just as his and that was where the similarities stopped. The power emanating from hers was completely lack luster, the healing potential that it carried could only be used to take care of the most smallest of wounds.

The more he felt out the multiple orbs she made the easier it was to feel where she was falling short. Her powers and abilities much like herself only focused on one spectrum of life and that ws the healing side. Life was also in death and till she could manage to find that side of her it would be impossible to continue. That was what he thought till she tried once more and this time attempted to meld their energies together in a marriage of sorts to produce a combination of both their chakra. To his surprise it worked if only in a chaotic way the two chakra's merged through collision forcing the combination of his darkness with her light. it seemed that for the tie being till she was able to find the necessary darkness in herself she would have to rely on his. Clapping his hands together in a show of good faith for her effort he would speak attempting to once more give her insight.

"Ok, you need to understand that without death life can't exist and without life death can't exist. They both feed on each other and both snuff the other out, there is a balance that you need to preserve. I meld my energy with a darker being that resides within me to make the process easier, you need to find something to latch on to or something that has a negative connotation. You can even attempt the hardest way for you which would be to hate something yourself."

Allowing his chakra to come forth once more he would pull some of Epidemius's chakra once more forming the same black and red chaotic orb of energy that hovered eerily over him.

As he explained what her jutsu was lacking, Akihana shook her head, stray wisps of gold coming loose from her braid. If hatred was what it took then she doubted she would ever be able to perform this jutsu. It was an emotion Akihana simply could not feel despite trying again and again. It was the reason she was here in the first place, because she couldn't hate the one person who had changed her life in every worse way possible. If Echo's death had taught her anything it was that she was incapable of hatred, and only aware of death from a respectful distance. Despite losing many of her friends and comrades to death, the kunoichi only saw it as a form of peace, of moving on, not something to hate and fear.

You're pathetic you know that? Makona spoke up, finally bored with her jinchuriki's ineptitude. Almost as if Youka could hear the five tail speak, he let a bit of the inner malice escape him, forming perfect, dark reddish black orbs. He seemed to have an infinite source of darkens inside him, something Akihana simply did not.

Trying again, the blonde created another orb, sending it towards Youka's leaking malicious energy, an aura so strong it made her thin frame shudder where she sat though she knew he was trying to keep it contained to his side of the room. And sure enough, just as her golden orb crossed the invisible line dividing the room in two, dark cracks appeared on the surface, streaking the golden light it gently emanated. Akihana could feel the power they received from the contamination and she found herself shuddering once more.

"I don't have a dark power.. i can't.. That is to say I don't know how to hate anyone or anything," she answered, lowering her gaze in shame. She had been aware of her weakness for a long time now but to admit it out loud in such a vulnerable way was... shameful.

Have you forgotten me completely?" Makona spoke once more, drawing the kunoichi's attention back to the task at hand.

Can you...? Akihana asked silently, forming an orb once more, this time letting a bit of Makona's own essence escape into her pool of chakra. Where Youka's reserves leaked malice and hatred in black, Akihana's exuded silver and stark, cold, unfeeling, how Makona had been before she was mastered. Swirls of silver appeared alongside the gold, tainting the hue in splotches and resembling the duality that formed them now. The duality and the sheer power that confined in the tiny orb.

Gasping, the kunoichi lost her focus, falling back into the chair weak from exhaustion. This technique was a lot harder than it seemed. But even if for a single moment, she had been able to perform it fully.

Akihana didn't know if she should feel proud or compromised. Perhaps both.

Mortarion looked on as she attempted the jutsu once more, this time allowing herself to call on a darker power. It was his first time seeing a darker side to her that could actually feel cold and unresponsive to her good nature. It combined itself with her of course natural affinity for healing and sparked the almost perfect culmination of life and death.

He smiled and clapped his hands slowly in her direction as she slumped back into her chair, the technique clearly draining her body faster as it was her first time.

"In time you'll grow to not even realize you're using the technique and it will act on it's own. For now however you've done a very good job."

Snapping his fingers Akuoy would appear outside a blue bubble of chakra holding a scroll in his hand. Laying it on her bed the clone would nod to her before once again performing the hand seals for the teleportation jutsu.

"I've been gone for too long, I must return to my quarters and see what exactly has transpired in my absence. this scroll holds all my infromation and notes on the other jutsu, you should be able to decipher it and teach yourself the beginnings of it. If you need anything you know where to find me.

With that the portal once again opened and both he and his clone were gone.

(Exit)

She heard the smile in his voice mero than saw it, her eyelids insisting on drooping as weariness overtook her slender frame. At least she had managed what she set out to do, even if it had required Makona's help in the end. The five tail may have let Akihana use some of her power but the kunoichi knew it couldn't continue. If she was to ever perfect the technique to the standards Youka described, she would have to find some other way to do it.

Because giving in to Makona was not a luxury the blonde could afford. After all she'd done to ensure she didn't lose who she was, a jutsu wasn't going to be the tipping point.

"Thank you," she managed, attempting to sit up as Akuoy appeared in her room, causing her eyes to open wide in alarm. Of course he could teleport into her room. Just because he hadn't thus far did not indicate he couldn't. With another silent pang of realization, Akihana understood that all the courtesy the clone and the raikage observed around her were simply for her benefit and no one else's.

The young woman nodded when he left the scroll on her bed, not attempting to hide how exhausted she felt in that moment. When he indicated she knew where to find her, Akihana murmured a soft agreement before wishing him an equally polite farewell. She would have asked him to look after himself but he was just as proficient a medical ninja as she was - perhaps even better than her. He had Akuoy and probably a whole team of healers at his disposal.

But more than anything else, the blonde felt it likely wasn't her place to remind him to take care of himself, even if she instinctively wanted to do so.

It was long after he'd left that she was strong enough to move from her chair to the bed, scooping up the papers he and his clone had left behind. A cursory glance through them showed the Raikage to be a man of his word. Not only did it list medical jutsu she already knew of but also ones she suspected him of possessing. The secret to the crystal that had manifested on his forehead was detailed clearly too... as well as things about the process of decay she was only beginning to understand now.

If he was a man of his word, then Akihana would be a woman of her's. Storing the notes safely, she kunoichi curled up in her bed for the first time in a week, falling asleep almost immediately.

(Exit Akihana)

TWC: 5086

5, 000 towards Patriarchal Herald
86 towards charity

Approved