Shapeshifters and Sunlights [Akihana, IO]

Sanae had served her purpose in guiding Ari to the Hogokage's office. Presumably as the man named Valen said, she could have some questions answered while her injuries were seen to. Ari wasn't positive about getting answers since she was an uninvited foreigner; not only that but a ninja to boot. On the other hand this village's approach to foreigners so far was quite different. After Sanae made her leave and disappeared from sight, Ari approached the Hogokage's door. If this were the Hokage's door she would consider kicking it down for fun. The thought made her chuckle and provided some relief from the tension she felt. Ari quickly composed herself once more and knocked on the door four times, each knock separated by half a second and barely strong enough to make the door chatter. If nobody answered the door within ten seconds she would repeat this knocking process; if another ten seconds passed she'd invite herself in by turning the door handle and stepping through.

Assuming either scenario, if Ari were greeted with the presence of somebody from inside she would perform a full bow. The gesture was difficult due to her injuries but she persevered and began speaking during the lowest point of her bow. "Greetings, my name is Ari Hiyu. I'm a Chuunin of Konoha and would greatly appreciate some of your time please." These words spoken with determination would act as her introduction. For the moment she remained in the shape of a child and the clothing she wore was part of her body, created through the use of a Hiyu technique known as Advanced Transformation. This same transformation gave Ari the aforementioned appearance of a child. The purpose was not to deceive the Hogokage however and upon finishing her introduction she spoke again. "I apologise for my current appearance, I felt it was a necessary step for avoiding conflict to take on this appearance; I can take on my true form if you so desire." Ari would not rise from her bow until invited to do so.

“Come on in!” A man would yell sitting at the desk, while shuffling papers around reading them and signing them if all was in order. As Kyousuke was sitting, he could not return the bow but promptly rose as the lady opened the door and did so. “Good afternoon, miss Hiyu. I am the deputy kage, Kyousuke Snow. Our leader had other matters to attend to, which puts me here.” He would say before continuing.

“Please, take a seat.” There was no information given besides there was a lady at the gates in need of medical attention and wanting to speak with the kage. So, the information that she was a leaf chuunin was new and likely important. Speaking of medical attention, the girl did raise a good question in regard to whether her actual form would be preferable.

“If you don’t mind. I’d like to see the extent of your injuries which may prove difficult if your body is altered. That is if you don’t mind me looking at them, I can get someone else otherwise.” The jugo wanted to take care of the lady’s ailments, before moving into why she was there. Even though, she was okay enough to walk from the gates to the palace he didn’t need a person collapsing in Aki’s office.

If Ari did not mind the male looking over the injuries, Kyousuke would make an ox and tiger seal, causing the man’s hand to radiate blue chakra. “Mystical palm technique, should have you patched up in a bit.” The energy would enter the girl’s body slowly and begin to close the wounds. At this point Kyousuke would begin asking more questions.


“So, what brings you from konoha?” He would ask scooting his chair over to sit, as he continued to pour chakra into the technique while watching the wounds heal at a snail’s pace. This should be faster, maybe I need to pour in more energy.


WC: 343

After swiftly dealing with their greetings the man invited Ari to take a seat. She happily obliged him, standing up straight and taking a few steps into the room where she'd reach a chair. Promptly sitting, Ari wished to get her request out of the way first. However the man named Kyousuke Snow took initiative in this exchange and asked of her injuries. "You may look but they involve fractures in my left leg; on the same side I also broke my hip not too long ago. It's still recovering." Ari explained. Naturally the man asked her to take her natural appearance as he figured it might help with healing her. Although this wasn't the case as the injuries remained identical in her transformed state, she would abide his request and perform the Ram handseal. Suddenly Ari had reasonably short red hair and eyes of the same shade, her masculine figure would also give away her training in Taijutsu. The chair creaked as she grew in size until within less than a second her natural form was achieved.

Since Ari was no longer carrying her adult clothing, she used the transformation to create a pair of short jeans and a black tank top. Due to the transformation process these pieces of clothing were naturally part of her body like an extra layer of skin. However, they were less intrusive than the clothing she had in her child form. Normally Ari would distance herself from somebody that performed handseals just encase they planned to attack her. In this case she couldn't afford to continue travelling with her injuries, it seemed she had few options but to trust the man. Naturally her permanent cellular transformation nicknamed Bodily Monitor would tell her that Kyousuke was keeping his word and healing her injuries. Wasting no time, he asked her a rather difficult question which she responded to immediately. "Well technically I didn't come from Konoha, I was in Suna for the Jounin exams. Before I could attend them however, I tripped and fell off a roof while chasing a thief. Whether it happened because I was dehydrated or for some other reason I'm not sure..." 

Ari paused for thought before continuing. "After I woke up, nobody from Konoha was there with me to escort me back, not even my husband-" Remembering why she came here in the first place she suddenly lurched forward with desperation in her face and voice. "Kurisu Ametsuchi, Konoha's current Hokage, do you know where he is?"

“Well we are in luck, as this jutsu can mend broken bones.” Kyousuke would say as he moved the glowing palm over the ladies left leg. Since, it was no simple flesh wound it would probably take a few minutes to heal. This being the first time he had ever used this technique; the man would flood more chakra through his hand to speed up the process. Surely, though he was a more efficient technique as the chakra seemed to be wasted mostly on air a small amount being used to heal the lady.

Naturally, the man would listen as Ari gave her situation. Not only was she abandoned in suna after falling, but her husband was the former hokage of the leaf. “So, they left you like this for weeks?” Kyousuke would ask finding it odd that a peaceful village would do such a thing.  If they indeed had, perhaps the sand village was not as good as everyone had believed.

“I can explain why everyone was gone.” At least Ari was already in a chair, before he told her. “Kumogakure has taken over Sunagakure. Koroshi Uchiha, has been deemed as dead and former sand ninja are now working under the raikage.”


“While I am not sure what this means for your husband, I do have some information on the leaf village.” Kyousuke would grab a newspaper on it was the date from the previous month and the headline read Ashi Inuzuka is now hokage. The first line read “With the disappearance of Kurisu…” “There is still hope that your husband is still out there.”



Perhaps we can send a team to search for him, but I fear that is something the leaf ninja would have already done. “I am not sure on this, but I believe the leaf ninja could leave freely. I don’t have any reports on it, but I also don’t have any to the opposite in which Kumo attacked them.” Kyousuke was sure hearing the news that there was a new hokage would make the lady believe her fears were true, which is why he added the statement of there being no reports of an attack on Konoha natives. Maku even failed to mention such an event in his letter to Akihana if such an event existed.

WC: 382

Ari reclined in her chair again before responding to the man's question with some hesitation, "Yes... Kurisu would never." Pausing, her bodily monitor informed her about something unexpected, she was coming close to crying. Why Ari was certain something had gone horribly wrong she couldn't understand. Instead of continuing to speak she decided to listen while regaining her composure. The man offered an explanation on where all of the Sand ninja were and she paid close attention. Kumogakure? Ari hadn't heard of it before, so she thought. Furthermore the man named Koroshi Uchiha, the man Kurisu referred to as his brother, was dead? Her fears were slowly being realised with every sentence from Kyousuke. All Ari could do was hear about events that passed her by before deciding what to do next. After glimpsing the newspaper however, Ari's eyes immediately became jaded and her voice became sombre.

The words of hope that Kyousuke gave were ignored. He didn't know Kurisu the way that she did, this was completely out of character for him. Ari's thoughts now focused on her remaining family, Kasuga being the oldest was hopefully taking care of them. She had confidence in her firstborn son and decided not to worry about them for now. "If Leaf ninja can move freely, I have a strange request." Ari continued, "My purpose in the Sand was to attend their Jounin exams, I missed that opportunity... If Kumogakure is making moves I should like to become stronger before retrieving my remaining family from Konoha." Although this was surely enough for the man to understand what Ari wanted, she decided to elaborate just encase. "I would like to join your village before retrieving my children from Konoha. Our only purpose in Konoha was to raise a family in a safe environment... If I return to Konoha as a Jounin of Hoshi, perhaps I will be allowed to take my children without resistance."

While she appeared jaded and sounded sombre, she would go to hell and back to ensure the safety of her children.

It seemed Ari was taking the words from his mouth and from the headlines as anyone would expect. Actually, she was better. She hadn’t turned into a puddle of tears. Strange after learning the possibility of losing a loved one. Kyousuke himself after learning Akihana was missing was more emotional about it than this. There were many thoughts running through the orange headed males mind, about whether she was holding all that emotion in and just didn’t want to show it. Ari was a ninja, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be human at the same time.

Flooding more energy to the wound, the bones in the leg would begin to mend back together. Most of the healing discharge from his palm was still erratic as before, but as he adjusted the flow the aura would calm and freely enter without having to force it. For now, it seemed that it was time for him to do the listening and for Ari to do the talking.

“While, I wouldn’t mind adding you as a member of our village I do have to tell you of recent events even within Hoshi. As you came straight to the palace from the gates, you may not have noticed but we have kumo forces within our walls.” The man would say hoping the news wouldn’t shock her. “That isn’t to say we are in cahoots, whether we are or are not has yet to be determined.” This wasn’t a secret and if it was it wasn’t one worth preserving. The more people that knew and the sooner those that came from Kumo knew the better.


“If you would still like to join Hoshi, I wouldn’t have a problem with accepting you as a chuunin for now. Then maybe after you have shown me what you can do, then we can talk about jounin.” He would wait a moment hoping she would understand that he couldn’t just make her into a jounin she had to prove it. “As for your return to Konoha, if you don’t mind I would like to go with you. Perhaps, I can talk to the leaders there. Besides if we fly to Konoha there is little chance of us running into trouble.” Of, course this was just an idea but perhaps Kyousuke could get leave from Akihana to form an alliance with Konoha.

WC: 393

After hearing what Kyousuke had to say about Kumo, Ari was uncertain about Hoshigakure's motives. Immediately following his explanation that they weren't in cahoots she followed up with a question. "Is your village the kind that allies themselves with an invader? Who knows what the people in Sand are being subject to right now." Whether or not he had a response to this, he would eventually explain that Ari had to prove herself before being granted the rank of Jounin. This was expected. Furthermore he wanted to escort Ari back to Konoha, whenever that would be. "Naturally I will be happy to prove my worth to you. If you wish to escort me to Konoha then I guess it's your decision now, after all you did just accept me as a Chuunin and you outrank me." Ari tried to force a smile for the cheeky comment. Unknowingly her expression remained as before, jaded; her voice also didn't commit to the cheek, still sombre from the news earlier.

"My leg is starting to feel much better." She quickly added. Whatever happened next would depend on Kyousuke now. Still, Ari had concerns about Kasuga's reaction if Kurisu was missing. Hiding her fears came naturally from spending years with Kurisu. Never had she wanted to express any negative emotion that might worry him and she never did. Now there would never be the opportunity to see his reaction, she thought. Everything left unsaid between them, her goal to become stronger with him. Ari had to leave him behind to forge herself and protect their children. Whether or not this village was the right place to bring them remained unclear. Would Kurisu have done the same or would he take them on the road? Perhaps he could but she wasn't strong enough to defend them without a village behind her, yet. "I can't afford to remain this powerless." Ari uttered without thinking, remaining deep in thought.

“Well like I said, we aren’t exactly allies. It is a really difficult relationship to explain in all honesty. ” The male would be mentioning continuing the stream of chakra through his hand. “But I would have to agree, I do not know what happened to any of the ninja from the sand or any of the many smaller villages kumo has taken over. Knowing Youka, it is far from good.”
“As far as I understand it the kumo forces are here under the guise of peace. Do, I believe that. No, no I do not. But our kage believes it and that’s… Well that’s something.” The words were spoken as if well he didn’t believe the kage believed it either. As if she knew to be wary, but smiled on the outside.

Continuing, his healing Kyousuke would laugh a little as Ari gave her cheeky comment. “I suppose, I did.” He would say with a small smile. “Well how about this give me a week, you can train or even learn about the village in that time. After that we’ll see what you are made of.”


“I will ask shortly if going to Konoha with you in the future is doable. After, you are tested I would like to give you a few days to relax and then we can head out and see if we can bring your family to Hoshi.” The man wanted to run the idea past Ari, as she was part of the reason he wanted to go to Konoha. “How does that sound to you?”


As Ari, said her leg was starting to feel better Kyousuke would look to his hand watching as much of the chakra was escaping. “Yeah, my bad. This is my first time using this, it is taking a bit to get the hang of. If, I was the queen this probably would have took seconds.”

Ari’s last words were what raised the man’s interests. “Perhaps, you won’t have to. The desire to become stronger is already a step forward. When I fought the raikage I was weaker than I was now. But I’ve trained hard and… Well probably still can’t beat him but I am closer than I was. If you don’t mind I would like to test you myself, perhaps we can learn from one another.”


WC: 388

The conversation moved quickly, Ari listened intently to every response Kyousuke had to give before finally being asked a question. "I don't mind waiting a little while before returning to Konoha, my eldest son should be taking care of the other three kids right now." Unfortunately this was not the case as Kasuga had been dead for some time. Ari was still yet to learn this fact, the thought of seeing all four children again brought a smile to her face. Kyousuke eventually commented on his skill, or lack thereof, with the technique he was using to heal her leg. Luckily for him, Ari didn't mind. Having endured the pain while travelling on it from two countries across made the waiting here feel trivial. During Kyousuke's final speaking piece, Ari was surprised to hear a title mentioned that jogged her memory. Raikage, that's what Kurisu had been before returning to Konoha.

Finally it dawned on her that the Raikage was head of Kumogakure, Kurisu's previous occupation was to run the village which now invaded the Sand. So this man named Youka that Kyousuke mentioned earlier was now holding the title Ari's husband once did. Perhaps she would get to meet this man one day, for better or worse. Kyousuke finished speaking shortly before these thoughts occurred to Ari and distracted her momentarily. Blinking, she eventually responded with a monotone voice. "I would appreciate being tested by someone of your rank, it's been a long time since I sparred Kurisu, I think he always held back, too." Ari jabbed her left fist into the exterior of the same thigh, it appeared to be near fully recovered, along with her hip. "I'm anxious to get started with your test, to focus my efforts on something productive.. Let's not waste any time after we finish here."



[Maybe exit?]

“Well at least you know someone is taking care of them.” The giant would say smiling ending the flow of healing chakra to look upon his work for a moment. From her outward appearance, all of the superficial wounds had been removed, but the internal wounds could possibly still be problematic.
 
 
“How does moving feel? Any better, than when you arrived?” If Ari continued to show signs of pain he would tell the girl to sit back down and continue the treatment, until she either lied to him or the procedure was a success. In the process, he could potentially learn a little more about the lady. Maybe she had as many questions as he did.
 
“To truly test you I cannot hold back. If I did it would diminish the rank, I hope you understand.” The kage would say placing his hands upon his lap. “I would like to get started as well, however you also can’t hold back. For that, you must be completely healed. So, Ari lets head over to the hospital and make sure you are okay.”
 
The giant would get up from his seat and if needed help Ari up as well. He would then pick up a headband, grab some papers, and hold the door open. “Your first mission as a Hoshi ninja is to get better.” He would then pass the head band to her. “We will fill out your equipment and housing requests at the hospital, along with starting your portfolio.”
 
He would of course guide the ninja to the hospital and stay with her in the waiting room, going through the papers with her in case he was needed.
 

 WC: 278