Pier Peers [IO, NK]

Approved

The moment that Kozachi spoke, Kenjiro straightened up. He was a brand new person as he looked to Kozachi with his familiar grin that spread across his face like an infectious vine. He spoke his next words carefully as he did not open his eyes nor did he show that he was in mental distress.

"Everything is going according to plan, just keep an eye out. It won't be long now." He would say as he would let out a sigh before standing up and nonchalantly begin browsing the books of the library. He was very aware of his situation and what would soon happen so he waited for it.

After about thirty minutes later the commotion he caused seemed to become just apart of the silence that enveloped the area. After a quick movement, he was wrapped in darkness as he felt something tie over his head and his hands, and finally his legs as he was carried off. He showed no signs of trying to escape, which threw the kidnappers for a weird moment where they looked at each other confused. A two-man team managed to kidnap Kenjiro Uchiha in broad daylight as they made haste to take him to their lair.

They carried Kenjiro down empty halls and downstairs quickly, making sure to duck into empty rooms or closets to make sure they were not followed. They were both quiet as they carried Kenjiro, making sure not to let him know where he was. It went without saying that if his sister really was watching their movements and sticking to their plan that they made it to their destination, the academy basements, without any disruptions.

As they delivered Kenjiro to a cold steel chair they tied his arms, hands, and fingers to the chair so that he could not make hand seals. They knew about ninja and their abilities, but it seems that the precautions they made were so that they could not fight back, not resist. From what he could deduce, it seems that the captors wanted him to be scared...they thrived on fear and perhaps wanted to make sure they captured the fear...sick fucks.

After what felt like hours, the hood was pulled from his head as his vision was met with bright lights shining directly in his face.

"Jeez, at least you fucks could make me feel a bit better about it being the end of my life." He said as his captors looked stunned as the only noise seemed to come from a few generators in the back...they were caught off guard as well.
"That's right...I know what this is, now can we please just mov..." Before he could even finish he was clocked in the face. It caused his face to jerk as he then laughed and spat blood out onto the floor which only served to make the assailant hit him harder about three more times. Kenjiro stopped laughing, but the lights were taken a little off of him.

"You stupid bitch, you managed to make me lose out on a little bet me and my friends had up and going there in the library. I never managed to actually convince them I was cheating, I mean I had a few tricks anyway...they would have never caught me if you hadn't shown up. Now they don't trust me anymore. For that, it looks like you are gonna be the next contestant on our little show. You should be honored, we're gonna make sure this is the longest episode to date. Make sure to wave to the camera when they turn it on." The voice belonged to the kid from the card game earlier...it actually made him laugh as he spat blood out uncontrollably, his luck had to be the absolute best.

Then as the camera started to roll these clowns began their usual spiel along with minimal torture. Mostly physical abuse with their fists in his face and stomach. Kenjiro did not flinch, for five minutes it continued as he now sported two black eyes, a broken nose, busted lips, what felt like two broken ribs, and blood pouring from his right ear. These fucks really had no remorse, and once they saw that Kenjiro did not flinch they sighed before pulling out a picture, in which they showed the camera to be Kenjiro's family. The faces of his mother and father were blurred a bit on camera, but his sister's was not. When they showed it to Kenjiro, it took a minute for him to focus, but once he did his face grew red with a fury unlike the which he had never shown before. then the main clown spoke, Kenjiro still recalls the words every night.

"So you think physical abuse is the extent of what we do. No, my stupid little friend, here is how this is about to go. We start with you, and because of your little fucking fiasco this afternoon my next target is your sister. The only difference is we're going to be getting A LOT more physical with her, and we won't kill her off...were going to make her into a "pet" for our personal and private use." He said as the others laughed before he held up a hand to signal the others down there to shut up.
"Now... how about this, you die a glorious, violent, bloody death in which we can then dispose of your body in the fires here in our hideout...and we just let bygones be bygones and I will only kill your sister instead of keeping her. Sound good?" He asked Kenjro just as Ken just looked at the picture and then to the man as his eyes began to water, he was not scared for his safety...but for his sisters. Tears soon began to roll down his face as the kid spoke again.
"Hey, you two..." HE said as he waved at the two off-screen.
"Go find his sister, bring her here so she can see what is about to happen." The kid said as Kenjiro began to shake and try to plead with him as he tried to turn, but found he was bolted to the floor as he let out a silent scream as it seemed he had no voice.

WC:1,050/3,050

“Keep an eye out”? Well… that wasn’t really what she had in mind. Still… if it was part of his master plan, she supposed that she should probably go along with it. Keep it in control, she told herself. Ken's good enough to know what to do at this point... probably. She had to trust that he knew what he was doing. Still, if they were going into the field, she knew that she probably needed to develop another technique, and fast. She was already close to one, she just needed a second. ... or maybe she should focus on mastering the first? Nah, she had a time constraint this time around. She'd just have to try and learn both before Ken did anything rash.

Now that she had learned control, she'd have to try for condensation. Gathering the power and manipulating it was easy, but compressing it was relatively harder. If her sharingan was stronger, she could probably just watch people and learn from what they did with greater ease than she did now. It was one thing to look at a machine and realize "hey, this machine works". It was still another to look at a machine and know how each piece of it worked with the others to cause the machine to function. This was the capability that the sharingan could give her... if she was strong enough.

At the moment, however, she was certainly not. She could be, though. No doubt, even if she were to come up with the perfect formula for an A-rank jutsu right now, she wouldn't be able to keep up with Ken and whatever it was he was doing. Still, she didn't need some special eye (despite said eye being the hallowed bloodline limit of her clan) to kick some major ass.

She managed to keep herself from getting too rattled as Kenjiro was abducted. Well, she might not need sharingan to beat them, but it sure came in handy when it came to tracking them. Regardless of where they went, or where they mixed into, she was able to see their weak, pathetic energies like little candle flames around a larger one: Ken's. This kind of advantage, of course, put her heart a little more at ease. As long as her brother was there, nothing could possibly go wrong, right? 

As mentally ill as these people clearly were, it didn't bother her as much as it bothered her brother (though she didn't have an inkling of what he was thinking at the time).  People like this would always be around. Some argued (even around the kitchen table at large clan gatherings) that the inherent nature of humanity was always like this. Without laws and ethics forced upon them, humanity would collapse in on itself due to lack of harsh and strict guidance. Kozachi herself still wasn't quite sure what to think about that. The inner nature of humankind was a subject that was a bit over her head, of course.

It was interesting that not only did most of the abductions occur in the academy, but the execution hour program itself. That... was rather stupid of them, she thought to herself. Typical idiots with a predictable MO. Still, she knew better than to underestimate any opponent. Whoever was sponsoring them had probably already predicted that some kind of infiltration would happen, but that didn't matter. She was good enough not to get caught, as she peered throw a dusty aperture into the room below. More little fuck-flames around Kenjiro. One of them seemed to be the ringleader, with terrible syntax and sub-par diction. Typical academy kids, no wonder he'd been stuck in his class for so long. 

As the torture began, Kozachi's blood REALLY began to boil. This was NOTHING compared to the bizarre jealousy or the inferiority she had felt before. The was actual rage, the kind that doesn't create any sort of cognitive dissonance whatsoever. Why don't you just break out and fuck them up, Ken? She thought to herself. Or are you waiting for something else? What is there that you could possibly want to know? We know where they operate from, and their leadership (or at least some of it) is here. Even if we can't destroy the entire group, surely we can scare them into stopping. 

As the brat began to speak again, talking about... her? Kozai grinned. They'll have to catch me first, she thought. Little known to them, as she'd been watching them, she'd been working on her control and condensation. Full power infusion wasn't available to her yet, but that'd come soon, very soon. This feeling... this knowledge that with but a few motions of her hands, she could transform these kids into smoldering piles of ash..... god, it was truly wonderful-

Wait a second, that wasn't something a normal girl would do. Hell, only a few days ago, the thought of burning people alive would have horrified her. Still, she knew that she needed the power to beat these people, so she might as well. There were warnings in her clan of those who got powerful enough to defy clan laws. Something about the agni-kai, of which she'd only ever seen one, and punishment, but she vowed years ago that she'd never be that corrupt at heart. Integrity and loyalty ran deep in her veins, and she knew (or thought) that this would be more than enough to defy any temptations that might gnaw at her soul.

She stood up, and entered the academy, retracing the steps that Kenjiro had walked moments before, toward the basement. At the same time, the two that were coming from the basement walked towards her, not sure what to think. They didn't really know about her, since she'd been their upperclassmen and superior in every way, so they didn't know she was a genin with her own set of skills. Well... that meant she'd have to tone it down, right? If anything, she could totally screw them up, though. Burns they would never be able to get through until they'd had a lengthy stay in the hospital. 

Actually, now that she thought about it as she crouched behind a corner, weren't they technically criminals? As part of what was essentially a military force, she could TOTALLY execute them. Wow, imagine that, doing crimes and becoming a missing ninja... before being an actual ninja. The humor of it made her grin, despite the circumstances. These kids really were pretentious, then. What did the followers think they were doing? Their ringleaders were using mob mentality to manipulate them, so maybe it was just a sense of belonging that every adolescent longed for. 

That gave her pause. Were they really so different? She had found her place, in her clan and in her village. Maybe these kids were still struggling with that idea. Then, the wavering feeling left her, replaced with a hard and cold finality. So, they thought they were hot shit, these young folk (although they weren't much younger than she was, and some were actually older). That meant they would have the judgement to determine right from wrong. If they didn't have the mental fortitude to resist the orations of some nefarious cuckerino, they might as well die either way.

She heard footsteps two hallways away, and heard a distant voice as she reactivated her sharingan in preparation.

"I'll check down this hallway, you go to the left."

Wow, she thought to herself. Way to broadcast your plan, idiots. Had they graduated from the academy, they would have known the hand signals by now, but clearly they were either low underclassmen or slackers. Hell, maybe both. Still, this was going to be sooo easy. She could dispatch both of them. Then, a thought came to her. What if she actually used her brain for once? 

Wow, now that she thought about it, there WAS something better that she could try. There was a manual on war in the library, which said something about "inseminating" the enemy. No, gross, that wasn't what the author meant. He had been talking about espionage. As a matter of fact, these guys hadn't mastered the basic jutsu, had they? This would be so easy peasy. She doubted she even needed the fire jutsu that she had just developed while on her way down here, but she'd still use it anyway. Practice makes perfect, especially against live targets.

She stepped out from behind her corner, while moving her hands. She hadn't really had time to practice this one, but the motions still came naturally to her. Two handseals, only, were needed for this technique, she thought, as the chakra surged within her, shaping itself into a massive fireball that roared down the corridor. This, of course, was one of those amazing ninjutsu that those academy students struggled so hard to comprehend. Now that she was older and more understanding, however, she was able to gain comprehension of these as fast as... well, other genin. Nothing special, but it was more than enough to crush these ants.

You see, they hadn't just chosen to fuck with a boy named Kenjiro. When you mess with one, the hive comes after. This was the will of the clan, whether the clan knew it or not... at least, that's how it went in her mind. Either way, the fireball roasted the boy to a fine crisp, the remaining body reminiscent of something you'd see in war photos and history books. Did killing make her a monster? Nah, no way. She was sure that most of the villages high ranking ninja and nearly ALL of Kirigakure's ninja had taken lives at some point or another. That didn't make them evil or inhuman.

Besides, even if it did, power could overthrow morality. Hell, power could RESHAPE morality. She'd seen it happen, here at the academy. The power that these ringleaders held twisted the ideals of the people who were following them, turning concerned and enraged students into essentially murderers. Even if she was giving them their same medicine, even if she was sinking to their level of depravity (which she toooootally wasn't, by the way), she could solve those problems by simply getting stronger. 

A slight smile danced about her lips as she stalked down the corridor, toward the concerned sounds of the other boy, who had no doubt heard the blast. So, too, would the ones down below by this point. Ken and whatever big wig fuck most certainly had heard the fireball go off. They were broadcasting live now... does this add a little spice into your program, dear spectators? Does it make you tingle with glee, or anticipation, or even fear? Stay tuned, kiddos. It's about to get MUCH, MUCH better. Kozachi's far from being done with these insects.

She didn't even notice as the drain on her chakra from her eyes lowered significantly. Her senses were tuned, trying to locate the position of the other kid. Hmm... it looked like he'd discovered what remained of his old friend and was now hiding in the bathroom. The girl's bathroom, no less. It occurred to her that this kid had no idea she, the one they were hunting, was now hunting them. She considered toying around with him, but remembered that her big brother was still tied up in the basement. Right, no time to waste.

She rushed into the bathroom, and grabbed the kid, slamming his head into a wall. His cry of pain didn't cause her hesitation, but she did feel a little guilty. This guy must be a freshman, pulled into the cult clique to protect himself from bullying. But that didn't make his fault any less. How dare he prioritize his own comfort over the comfort of the many who had disappeared due to the actions of this execution hour group? Now, he'd pay the price for his arrogance. Kozachi threw the boy to the ground, and stomped on his leg, hearing a little 'crack' as she did so. Not a complete break, just a small fracture, to give him a limp. 

She leaned in close. "Now, you're going to do what I say, or you'll end up barbecue'd, like your buddy." 

After a few minutes, the door to the basement flew open. The ringleader whirled around (Ken would see this as well, if he was watching) to see a rather healthy looking young boy pushing an injured (limping?) Kozachi into the room. He'd definitely given her quite the drubbing, but that was nothing compared to what the ringleader had planned. 

"What too you so damn long? Jesus... bring her over here." The look on his face was one of sheer depravity. The kiddo and Kozachi came closer... and then, suddenly, the air turned red. 

Look again.

Co-ercing the kid into using the transformation technique to look like her had been easy. Using the transformation technique to look like him had been even easier. Simple tactics, to deceive the enemy and ensure she got close enough to pull off THIS trick. The demon lantern jutsu took focus and a lot of chakra, but she could handle it. With the further enhanced eye, she was more than powerful enough to dish out punishment to those around here. There was an explosion, then another, and then four more. Burning blasts rattle the stage as the ringleader managed to dodge just in time to avoid dying, only to have his right arm essentially vaporized. The camera and recording equipment was blown away, the metal melting off of them as the heat did its work.

The final three tomoe of the sharingan blazing away in her eyes, Kozachi looked at her older brother.

"Doin' alright, Ken? Don't worry, I'll get you out in a second."

[TWC 6337
requesting 3-tomoe, due to a hunger and lust for power within the circumstances interacting with another player character]

Approved my guy

When the other guys left, Kenjiro's anger flared as he spat blood out and onto the clothes of the man that was the brains of the show...at least on this level. He made sure that he laughed after he did it too, the fucker did not deserve respect, and even more so was the fact that he was the Uchiha from earlier. A disgrace to the clan, and when the boy turned around again, this time with a hammer in his hand he looked furious.

"I'm gonna break those bones in your fucking skull so that way you can only drool you stupid fuck." He said before smacking him across the face with the hammer once, Kenjiro felt the crack as his jaw felt numb, but the adrenaline kept him going as he looked up at the boy's face.
"I will take that symbol off your back..." He said as he drooled a bit now, blood flowed from his lips as he curled a smile just before being hit with the hammer again, this time it dislocated his jaw, rendering his smile and ability to speak almost nil.
"you're going to die a fools death Kenjiro...and your sister is going to become a fucking pin cushion, your mother will be beaten and her throat slit, and your father...I will make sure my associates know to make him watch." The boy said in anger before gripping Kenjiro's hair and lifting his face as his back was in full view of the screen now blocking their view.
"And this time I will make sure I deliver your remains personally...instead of having you cremated. You are scum to this pathetic village, and personally, I cannot wait till those from Kiri take the world over...Cull the worthless." He said as he looked into Kenjiro's eyes.

Kenjiro was not scared, not of his death, or even crying in pain. His body and soul began to tear and rip as he began to finally sob. His family meant the world to him, and this fucker was trying to take that away. How many other families were crushed because of what this group was doing? It was like a well of power awoke inside him though as he felt his blood boil. In his head, he was cursing the gods for giving him the ability to fight, but instead, he chose to be the bait so that way he and his sister could take down these culprits and find the benefactors. The explosion that rocked the area next brought him back to reality as the boy looked up.

"Those dumb fucks better not be fucking up the place..." He said under his breath before going back to work on Kenjiro. Alternating between hitting his ribs and then hitting his face with the hammer. The hits were enough to crack bone, but he continued to be quiet as tears streamed down his face. Then a break came as the door above them opened, Kenjiro easily able to look back to see the vision of his sister looking defeated as the bastard cursed out his lackey and told him to bring her down. Kenjiro lost it, he shut his eyes at the look of his sister. He was not strong enough to save her, he was worthless. Little did he know that his bloodline awoke at the sight of his sister and his first Tomoe would be unlocked.

After the pair were brought down and the jutsu ended revealing his sister in her true identity as the boy sounded confused for a mere second Kenjiro opened his newly awakened eyes as he saw his sister then the area seemed to be tinged red as explosions rocked the little stage they had causing Kenjiro to fly back some feet as his face became burned, he let out a terrible cry. The smell of burning flesh filled the room. What kind of power did her sister have? How was she able to do something so great, last they trained together she had problems just controlling chakra...now she could bring about devastating fire attacks that could literally melt skin. His face boiled and festered as his sister jumped up and spoke to him. Before he was able to speak though she launched off to fight the ringleader again leaving him there in the chair on the floor. It had broken in the fall as he also found that several of his fingers seemed to be broken as well, and now he was pissed as he stood up, unable to talk or really move quickly as the fire began to spread in the basement. He was jealous, angry, and filled with sorrow as he watched his sister. There was no fucking way she had surpassed him, not this quickly. His jealousy and anger brought him closer to her however though. As he continued to watch the fight, walking slowly towards them, he picked up the hammer the boy had discarded. His blood boiling, inside he was raging mad as he yelled out in his mind.

"I AM THE PRODIGY OF THE FAMILY! I AM THE NEXT ONE TO LEAD THE UCHIHA INTO PROSPERITY! I WILL NOT FALL BEHIND...ESPECIALLY NOT TO MY SISTER!" His eyes once again took charge, the power of his clan awoke inside him now as his second Tomoe took root and he saw chakra in a new light. His sister was definitely strong in the ways of ninjutsu...the only one that rivaled her in that room was the boy that was called the ringleader. The one that she used as a transformation focus was already on the floor knocked unconscious. Kenjiro stared at him as he thought about ending his life then and there, he could not speak at the moment, his jaw was swollen and his face looked like he had gone a few rounds with a boxer. Instead, he made some half-assed hand seals and used the genjutsu technique he learned earlier to look at the memories of this individual. He was able to quickly sort out the bullshit enough to find the benefactor, called himself Gus...a portly man that sat behind a desk, the smell of the room reminded him of an old bar. The decorations were that of some old artifacts of Konohagure...who was this Gus character...

When Kenjiro was finished he left his hand with the boys head as he hefted the hammer in his hand. Deciding on what to do, looking back to his sister fighting inside the burning basement.

They did not have much time.

1,100/4,150

[Going to go ahead and Claim the first two Tomoe. Kenjiro has been increasingly jealous of his sister as she showed an aptitude for the Sharingan before he did and was quickly brought to depressing almost mourning tears as he was sad to see his sister captured.

The second tomoe for his jealousy and anger reaching an almost overbearing level as he sees his sister as almost a rival]

Approved

It seemed that her playing around with those two kids in the floors above had cost her. Wow, Ken was in… bad shape. Regret filled her, though she knew she didn’t have the time to complain about things. That could come later. Now, however, was the time for action. She raised her hand, forming more of those wicked cool looking heads from her katon chakra. Damn, she really needed to train more. She hadn't expected this jutsu to be as draining as it was. She'd have to end this quickly. The fire shot forward, and she felt the air around her grow hot and close.

Yup, they were running out of time. Well, at the very least, she'd done her job here. The ringleader boys who had taken her brother were now either incinerated or burned so badly they'd never take part in this disgusting program again. She walked over to a working camera as her brother did his business with another kid. Staring into the lens and giving the presumably shocked audience a winning smile, she raised her hand and the last lantern slammed into the console on the other side of the room, killing the lights, camera, and action for all time.

That being said... what was that Ken had said about her not surpassing him? She knew that her goal was to do exactly that, but now she felt... well, a little bad about it. Maybe she should have tried for something more subtle. At least, that's what he would have done. Then again, had her trick with the transformation jutsu not been sneaky enough? Things could be so confusing sometimes. Right and wrong could get blurred, and that was when one had to be careful. A slip in the wrong direction could easily send your mind careening into depravity.

Either way, as she finished with the equipment, she turned around and spoke to Kenjiro.

"Sorry for taking so long, Ken. I ran into a couple of... bumps." Right, bumps. Either way, she wasn't skilled enough to extinguish the fire on her own, so she figure they could just get out of there and let the higher ranked folk deal with it. She knew enough of the bureaucracy by now to know what they would do: pin all of the blame for the fight and the fire on the TV fanatics and their execution hour. However, she doubted that they'd put any more work into it than that. 

Still, pursuing further into this investigation was... dangerous. Hell, look at what had happened to her brother! Almost as bad though, she had almost slipped into temptation. They certainly wouldn't stop. Her vengeance demanded that they continue. A break for some time didn't sound so bad, though. In the end, maybe the benefactor of these kiddos would take the warning and cease whatever plotting he was trying to do. Not likely, she mused, but this was in fact the most optimal outcome. Maybe, though, he'd get pissed and try to hunt them down. Hah! Within the walls of the Uchiha compound? Not likely. 

The kids who'd run this place were Uchihas and associates, but their sponsor was most likely not. She didn't know many who could amass this amount of wealth, and probably none at all who'd step so far out of their boundaries as to sponsor a sick academy children's program like this one. Was he entertained by it? Probably not. Maybe he was delusional, thinking that he could shape the future of Konoha's youth by sprinkling money around. Well, he'd be in for a surprise. Money wasn't an object for everyone.

"Alright, let's get out of here. We gotta get you to the hospital." 

Should Ken follow, she'd climb the stairs, leaving behind the dreaded basement. Luckily for them, the hospital was closeby. If Ken was still with her by this point, she'd indicate him to the ER nurse, who gasped in surprise. 

"Sign in here, honey. What on earth happened to him?"

Kozachi froze for a split second. She, uh, hadn't thought this far yet. What would Ken say? Well, he was right there, but the nurse was talking to HER. 

"Gas explosion." She said, simply, looking down as if she didn't want to talk about it further, which was true. The burns and blood would be easy to explain this way, and the broken ribs could be attributed to falling debris, but would this be enough to fool a more skilled medical eye? 

Please don't let it be some kind of super skilled med nin, she thought to herself. Then, their secret would be out for sure. She didn't have confidence that they could defend their actions against a group of older, accusing shinobi. After all, vigilante behavior wasn't encouraged. Then again, they were shinobi of the village, and they were executing justice.

Then again, they looked pretty busy. She had to hope for the best. At last, if Ken was cooperative, they'd lead him away to a normal med nin, who wouldn't be able to figure out that Kozachi had been lying about the cause of Ken's injuries. She'd wait in the lobby, reading a random ass magazine that had been left on the table in front of her. Man, she realized she was tired as hell. Using those fire style jutsu had been no joke. Clearly, she needed to work on her stamina a bit more than she had been.

But her thoughts roamed elsewhere soon, back to the subject of justice. Was it something that came to people naturally? Was there some kind of inherent moral law that people followed? Or was it that people were just plain bad, and that justice was a tool to stop them from hurting each other? Man, these thoughts were too crazy for her mind right now. She closed the magazine and shut her eyes tight. This was the first step in taking revenge for her friend, but she felt that the journey was far from over.

[TWC 7338]

Kenjiro saw his sister absolutely decimate the enemy in what looked like just a few simple steps. It was something to behold for the Genin as he watched on while clutching the hammer in his hands as he began to see red. His anger had boiled over as his sister destroyed the equipment, including the camera. Kenjiro looked around and then back to the boy as soon as the blast of flame brought him back to reality, he noticed that the lackey and the ringleader where nowhere to be found. Regardless...the deed was done, and now those that watched the show knew of their faces...knew that they were not to be fucked with.

When his sister came back and supported him, he did his best to hold back from yelling in pain, but then again the adrenaline was also making him numb to it all...he chose to wince instead as he looked to his sister and simply nodded as they walked from the flaming basement. Outside there was a blaze as soon the fire squads arrived to put out the blaze to the academy basement. They would find the rubble there and eventually find the video equipment...those kids were each going to become a missing ninja, Kenjiro and Kozachi were eventually going to be found out and brought before some sort of judicial system that would let them off for exposing criminals...nothing would change. The world was just as much shit as it was before.

They avoided the firefighters and made their way to the hospital just as Kozachi had stated. Kenjiro was quiet the entire time, only answering with looks and nods when needed. As he was carted into the back he shot his sister a final look to show that he understood and would not say anything to the contrary. Once back into a medical room the adrenaline began to wear off as he turned off his newly awakened eyes. A doctor soon came in as they began to work on healing various wounds and burns on his body. As they reached his face Kenjiro reached up and grabbed the doc's hand and told him to make sure that the burn remained on his face as a scar. A reminder to never let himself fall into another situation like that again. Of course, it was said through a dislocated jaw so it came out almost like gibberish, but the doctor understood enough to respect his wish. Kenjiro leaned back in the bed as they finished their job, everything went smoothly and after a few hours, Kenjiro was able to walk and talk again.

Once the doctor came in he sat down and looked Kenjiro over a bit before sighing and asking him some questions pertaining to his wounds at which he casually looked at the doctor and spoke in a cool and calm voice.
"It was as my sister said in the lobby when I arrived. A gas explosion in the academy. She pulled me out of the debris, nothing more. I don't even remember the time of the explosion." He said as he stood up and went to grab his bloody clothes, putting them back on his now sore body. He was bandaged significantly, and his hands looked like that of a mummy, and the right side of his face was covered in bandages...including his eye. Once he was pulling over his Uchiha vest he always wore he asked the doctor if there was anything else he needed or if he was free to go. The doctor was quick to bring out a clipboard with a release form that Kenjiro signed without missing a beat as he walked out of the room with a chuckle.

"Thanks, Doc..." He said as the door shut behind him.

Once out into the waiting room he found his sister sleeping still as he sighed and went and sat down in front of her. She looked peaceful, and nothing like the monster he saw in the basement. He was full of envy at that point but at the same time jealousy and the anger from earlier welled inside of him as he knew he was still too weak. He needed more power, and he needed it fast. His eyes activated as he looked at his sister and became annoyed...He needed the power of their clan, he needed to grab more power from the Sharingan eyes. He craved for the power that was held in those eyes. It was no simpler than that moment as he looked at his sister and thought of that craving for power, and relying on his own awakened eyes did the third Tomoe make itself known to him. He could see the chakra of the people around him, their levels and chakra all became known as he looked at his sister again...she still had a better control over her abilities than he did. What was her god damn secret? He shook his head as he stood up and canceled his eyes activation as he gave her foot a nudge with his own.

"Wake up sis, we're going to be late for dinner as it is...we better not worry mother and father any more than what we already have." He said as he waited for her to wake up and see his bandaged face. His lack of vision in his right eye due to the bandage had become cumbersome so he removed the bandage after waking her up. The scar left from the searing of his face looked like someone had stuck a branding iron to his face as smiled at his sister. He was still jealous and angry, but she was still his sister...and his reason for getting stronger...so that she would not have to rely on those eyes of the clan for her whole life.

He would then begin to walk her back to the family home as he answered any questions she had for him, the burn felt numb now, though every so often when the wind blew just right he would feel his nerves react just a little, causing him to wince a moment before going back to normal.


WC:1,025/5,175

[Claiming Third Tomoe for realizing as he sat in the waiting room looking at his sister, that he needs the eye of his clan to protect her]

Approved my guy

Kozachi hadn't even noticed that she had fallen asleep until her brother nudged her awake.

"Eeeeeegh!" She looked around drowsily, and realized that she was still in the atrium of the hospital. Right, then, she supposed that since Kenjiro was out, it was time to head back. It had been a very long day, and she was nearing the point of exhaustion. Of course, that was when she saw Ken's face. Oh, crap... had they not been able to fix that? This is my fault, she thought. If I hadn't been so flashy with the fire jutsu, he wouldn't have gotten hurt like that.

Then, she thought... what if he was mad at her? Well, it didn't seem like it, though she still felt really bad inside. She'd never intended for this to happen at all. It dawned on her, of course, that her actions had consequences. The problem with her is that she had pursued vengeance and dragged her brother into it, knowing that he would help with eagerness. In other words, she'd taken advantage of him without even realizing it. Had she been so acclimated and steeped in evil that it had become second nature to her? Or had she always been that way to begin with?

Cognitive dissonance can be a bizarre thing. When a person suddenly discovers an inconsistency in their behavior, they'll correct it with ease, but the outcome might not be morally favorable. A man with lower continence might find that he succumbs to temptations that he'd never think about before. A commonplace thing, to be sure, but something that people rarely give the space of thought to. Well, to be fair, it's not like Kozachi was thinking about her own state of mind at that very moment (she wasn't THAT cerebral), but she was certainly distressed.

Still, she didn't let much of it show. Giving a worried expression to her brother, she noticed the clock behind him. Wow, it was still the mid-afternoon? What was he talking about? 

"Ehrm, big brother... we're not due back for another few hours at least. Maybe we should rest up for a bit, and think of a way to explain that to Mom and Dad first." She said, indicating the disfigurement on his face. Just looking at it... made her heart ache with guilt. Should she push these emotions back? Would they harm her performance in any way? What would the great Uchiha in the old days do? 

Well, there was supposedly a place to "commune with the ancestors", though she thought it was honestly a bit pretentious. Did the pure world really connect with earth? Transmigration was certainly a reality, though it was a distant one indeed, and resurrection certainly wasn't out of the question. She knew some of the more conservative elders looked down on such techniques, stating that they broke down the long hallowed boundaries between life and death. Whatever, right? People would do as they pleased, regardless of the grumblings of the previous generation.

"Let's get outta here." She moved toward the door, hoping that her brother would follow her. If he did, she'd begin to make her way through the streets toward the more rural portions of the village area. Her destination was there, within the Uchiha district, and she hoped to get there before the currents of rush hour began and made movement around the village difficult. They were on foot, and even though pedestrians had right of way on crosswalks, it's not like most wagon drivers cared about it. It wasn't the normal folk who owned the streets, it was the people in the heavy vehicles which could crush the skulls of fully grown men, depending on their load. 

At any rate, if Kenjiro was still following her, they would have made it over to the Naka river within the Uchiha district, near its shrine (that she would have totally gone to if she was a more pious person) and sat down. 

"Whew... what a day." If Kenjiro had anything to say at that point, she'd listen to him. She was totally paying attention, but her eyes wandered a little bit. The river, the shrine, the totally not suspicious tablet with the markings of the sharingan on it, the nearby residences...

Wait, what?

"Hold up, Ken... you see that?" She activated her sharingan, the pattern of tomoe appearing in her eyes as she peered at the tablet. She stood up and walked over to it. The pattern on the tablet was subtly different from the appearance to normal eyes. 

"I don't think it's a coincidence that it's here, next to the shrine." Crap, maybe the elders were right?! Or even worse, maybe there were gross corpses down there. Her mind ran wild, creating bizarre possibilities where there were none. Man, why did this stone tablet creep her out so much? It was almost like the card trick that had been done earlier, just on a stone tablet.

She knew it had no relation to those execution hour fuckers, since this area was always carefully monitored. Now that she thought about it, this tablet looked like it had been here for CENTURIES. What kind of things were underneath it? She gazed at it, and stretched her hand over the tablet, syncing her chakra with it. 

And just like that, the tablet moved aside, allowing them passage down a dark stairway.

Well, shoot. She looked at Ken, if he'd kept up with her throughout this time. 

"Well, then... should we check it out?" She wasn't sure if they could handle the exploration if it was an extensive catacomb network (which it isn't, by the way), but if it was just a single room with secrets of the sharingan written on a plot convenience tablet, left there by previous generations of Uchiha and a meddling child of Kaguya (which it is, by the way), then it would probably benefit them to go down there and check it out, at the very least. After all, they'd both reached their bloodline limits by now, right?
[TWC 8348]