The Lord of Light and The Ragdoll

Valen would listen to the man’s words, nodding his head in understanding as he told him the cold hard truth of the matter. Valen however, would merely shrug. Safety was relative in their world. There wasn’t even a guarantee any of them would survive the next day after all. As it stood, Sunagakure was the safer of the two locations, given that Sunagakure was much more defensible, and also had a stronger leader than Hoshigakure did, if any at all remained. He’d make these thoughts known to his conversational counterpart, speaking without any real inflection in his voice. “You’re wrong about them being safer here than Hoshigakure. This village is not only more defensible than our prior home, but also has a stronger leader in you than Hoshigakure has ever head in my opinion. You understand what’s necessary and are clearly able to see the bigger picture much more easily than I ever could.” He would say, activating his storage displacement with a quick seal or two and pulling out a bag. It held multiple items but two would be more interesting to the self proclaimed Kazekage than others. “Allow me to return something to you. These won’t do me any good, however I know you’re skilled enough in medical ninjutsu to get more than just a little use out of them.” He’d say as he opened the bag and retrieved two scrolls. One was the corpse storage scroll for Kyousuke Snow, and the other was the scroll for the Uzumaki that Kenshin had given him while bartering for his unmolested exit from Hoshigakure.

After doing so he’d retrieve a few more scrolls before closing the bag and putting it away. “These scrolls contain the sum total of about one hundred and twenty thousand ryo, as well as the corpses you gave to me when you left Hoshigakure. Consider them my own personal investment into the village. Whether or not I join your village or not has yet to be decided, but at the very least know that I’m not against you nor intend to move against you. I’ll lead any in Hoshigakure who wish to join you here. At that point I’ll have decided if I’m joining you completely or simply moving on. Is this acceptable?” He would say, holding the bundle of scrolls toward Kenshin if the teen took them he would nod his head and continue speaking “If it’s not too much to ask, I’ll remain here for a minute or two while I make a quick plan with Evelynn here and try to contact Hikari again, to see if she might be willing to work with me when I return. Having everyone gathered and ready would make things significantly simpler.” He would say, raising an eyebrow in curiosity. If his old friend declined that was simple enough to fix, he’d just run a mile or so out from the village and proceed to do so. If he did, then that at least made things less sandy while they planned. The walls were so high up after all, that unless a legitimate sandstorm was blowing, not much landed up here.

One way or another he’d begin focusing on his telepathy seal to send a message before the stirring Gobi within him would cause him pause. ‘Kokuo, I don’t really have time to talk right, I’m about to try to contact Hikari.’ He would think toward the beast who would simply sigh before responding. ‘About that, I think it’s time I came clean about something. You see, I’ve been blocking her messages from reaching you..’ The beast would say simply, prompting Valen to pause to make sure he heard his tenant correctly. ‘Excuse me? You mean all this time? I’ve thought she had abandoned me or was killed, and you were simply blocking her responses?’ He would ask a mildly hostile tone in his voice as he voiced the question. The beast would respond promptly ‘Indeed, I’ve been manipulating you from the beginning little prison. You wouldn’t have left the village if you didn’t feel like no one was on your side there. You had to feel alone, completely and utterly alone there. That way you could slowly move your way of thinking closer to mine. Think of that night you rescued Evelynn, didn’t using my power, my strength feel good? Slaughtering those men like animals? Think of earlier this week with Alice. Do you think that would’ve happened if you were still in Hoshigakure? You needed to be free in order to become a worthy container. Now, you’re closer to being one than you’ve ever been. I don’t regret manipulating you. Now, you can’t take it all back, Hoshigakure will never accept you now. There is no way to go back in time. You’re forced to reap what you sowed Valen. Hell, the only reason I’m telling you is because if you do go back to Hoshigakure there’s a chance she’s alive and you’d find her. Then you’d find out anyway. She’s tried contacting you twice, once when she and Masashi were ready to return home. She wanted to use you as the anchoring point for her jutsu. The next, was when you tried to message her before. She responded, asking questions about why she was being asked questions about your abilities, whereabouts. She even hinted at torture being used on her. So go ahead, go see if she’s alive, go save the day, and try not to reduce the village to rubble while you’re at it.’ The beast would say, a dark smirk evident on the creatures face within his mind as Valen took in the information and took a deep breath.

He was pissed, plain and simple, he wanted to kill Kokuo, but you can’t kill a mass of chakra. Plus, the beast was right, he couldn’t take any of it back. Hell, he’d robbed the village too just to spite the damn place and he just found out it had all been for a lie. He was furious, and he expected more from himself when it came to controlling the bijuu’s influence. ‘I trusted you Kokuo, don’t expect that again.’ He’d say before activating the Telepathy Seal once more. ‘Hikari? Are you there? I’m sorry I haven’t responded, the Gobi just told me it’s been blocking your messages to me. It shouldn’t be a problem now, long story short, I left the village Hikari, Gobi manipulated me into abandoning and robbing it to boot. I won’t use it as an excuse, but right now I need to make sure you’re okay. I’m intending to return now to bring any shinobi who wish to come with me as well as everything from the archives, to a new home for them. I’m not sure I’ll stay there, but it’s a place with a stronger leader than I ever was. With a civilian populace who doesn’t resent them for what they are to boot. What’s going on with you Hikari? What’s happened? Gobi mentioned you hinted at torture in your last message to me? Have they hurt you? Has the password been updated? If so I need it so I can come to you Hikari..’ He would say, the mental words spilling out in a near mess of frantic speech as he tried to get everything he wanted to say said. On one hand he was worried about her, on the other, if she didn’t give him the password it meant he’d have to run the long way home. He’d have to wait and see what she chose to do.

WC: 1263
TWC: 7072

(Taking a liberty or two since Hik can’t resist the summoning anyway)

She sounded like she was in so much pain.

It cut Valen to the very core of his being hearing her like that. He needed to do something, but thanks to her he could now. His face, normally stoic, expressionless except in times of amusement or sarcasm, would be etched with worry now, fear, sadness. He would save her, for he simply couldn’t go on without her. ‘I’m bringing you to me now, Hikari.’ He’d think back to her as he channeled chakra into the ring he wore upon his finger. The same ring that she had given him. It gave him access to her dimension, but more importantly in this scenario, it allowed him to summon her directly do him. He’d aim the summon to the area in front of him, a clear space, between Kenshin and him. Now that he knew the password, he could summon her to him freely, no matter what he was in the world. He would normally just teleport to Hoshigakure, but the sound of pain in her voice, and the words Gobi had said about her hinting at her being tortured, made him want to get her as far away from that place as possible as quickly as possible, and this was the fastest method.

Besides, if she had been tortured, Kenshin was the best medic that Valen had ever personally known. If she could be healed, he could do it, and the ex kage had just handed the man one hundred and twenty thousand ryo, do the math.

A smoke cloud would appear as the summoning went through, the ability being unable to be resisted by the one who it was meant for, Hikari. The girl would appear as she had been left in Hoshigakure, in a crucifixion pose, Valen’s eyes would widen in shock and horror for a brief instant before he would begin to move to catch her. Should the movement be successful, he would catch her and hold her bridal style, before gently setting her on the ground, his eyes taking in the damage. She had effectively been brutalized by those monsters. If what the Gobi had said was true, this time, it had happened because of him. All of this damage, the cruelness of her torturers, all because of him. His anger would begin to rise, but he’d choke it down, he could exact revenge upon them later. Now, he had to make sure she was alright. “Kenshin..” He would say simply, an unasked question in the air that any medic worth his salt would immediately recognize. However it wasn’t an order, for he had no right to order anyone, even in his mental and emotional state. It was a question through and through, and one he hoped would be answered positively. For he didn’t know what he would do if he lost her, didn’t know how far he’d go against the village if she died, here in his arms, after the monsters that had tortured her.

It was a question he didn’t want to have to find the answer to.

The energy was required to teleport Hikari would make her black out due to exhaustion. She was now at the mercy of the tentacle monster known as Kenshin Uzumaki.

[Exit into Suna]

TWC: 912

188 Words to Invisible Seals Completing it.

724 Words to Vim Aeris

As the smoke come, so did Hikari, without his Golden Eyes then Valen truly had no hope of seeing through the smoke of the summoning but judging by the look on Kenshin’s face, he could. It wasn’t the look of someone happy to see someone, it wasn’t the look of someone glad someone was suffering either. It wasn’t even a sadistic look, although cold could certainly describe it. The look Valen saw in Kenshin’s eyes was the look of a practiced medical professional. Someone who was categorizing issues, fixes, analyzing injuries, severity of damage, and building an order of events in their head for what needed to happen and how quickly. That look alone sent chills down Valen’s spine as the smell hit him. It wouldn’t affect him, anyone who had been forced to kill countless people in a small area would smell the stench of death. A brief flashback to the cave where he had slain hundreds of bandits as he fought he way in, eliminating them in open combat. Their blood making the ground beneath him slick, and the smell of death staining the very air within the closed confines of the cave. No, the smell was something he could handle. However it was the fact that it was coming from Hikari that drove him mad. By now, the smoke had cleared, and he could finally see what had become of her. 

That, was the sight that nearly made him retch. The sight of his beloved in so much pain. The sight of her with such horrendous wounds. All because some civilians that she probably couldn’t bring herself to harm wanted information about him. The rusted nails in her limbs, the torn, puss filled nails. The dead seeming skin, was it called necrosis? He wasn’t sure, all he knew is that she looked closer to death than he had ever seen before. Her laboured breathing nearly drove him mad with guilt and rage. Kenshin would begin to form hand seals, and a pulse of chakra. Then fifteen strange scarlet coloured orbs seeped out of Kenshin’s body, circling behind him passively before moving and entering Hikari’s body, each and every one of them would phase into her and Valen would feel a burst of chakra that he recognized well enough from the times Kenshin had healed him, medical chakra. The majority of her wounds would fade, and her colour would mostly return. However there seemed to still be large amounts of internal damage to her body. The nails were still in her, and she looked dangerously thin and covered in blood and waste. 

His old friend would begin to speak, the ex kage would shake his head of his thoughts and listen. She wouldn’t die yet, but she was still very much in danger. The frankness in Kenshin’s speech was usually quite refreshing and welcome. Now however, it hurt, it came with a clinical detachment that simply had the job of laying down cold hard facts. He wouldn’t lie about something like this. Kenshin knew how important Hikari was to him, knew that he would go into a rage if she was mistreated in her current state. Even if he didn’t know that, he didn’t think Kenshin would have let someone as strong as Hikari die so easily. Not when she could become a potential tool for him. Kenshin would need weeks, maybe even months to heal her, and she might still never recover fully. However Valen couldn’t stay regardless. Kenshin was right to tell him now, before Valen made a decision to stay near Hikari. He didn’t think he’d ever leave her side if they got to the hospital together. Besides, the medico was right, she was a kunoichi, and that meant something damnit. She knew the risks, even if Valen felt it was different due to her injuries being largely his own fault. 

Then Kenshin would say something quite interesting, a thought that due to his shock of seeing Hikari in her state, and his stunned silence at Kenshin’s prognosis, hadn’t occurred to him yet. Vengeance, on the people who did this to her. He had already planned to go to Hoshigakure to try to recruit others to Sunagakure, already intended to destroy any trace of the shinobi presence there to leave the civilians to what they wanted. A village without the shinobi that merely wanted to protect them. Now however, he had a reason to find some of them. A reason to call out the inquisitor, who would be the one any civilian government would put in charge of extracting information out of her. Him and any Queensguard that might have helped. None of them would be alive when Valen left that village, not so long as the ex kage breathed. It truly would be a perfect channel for his hatred. ‘Gobi..’ He would say, the word echoing within his mind as the beast stirred. ‘I didn’t expect you to want to talk to me so soon after what you’ve learned.’ The monster would say, minor confusion in it’s voice. ‘I won’t forgive you for what you did. It may have killed Hikari, but we can work together if you help me now.’ The man would say, he didn’t need the beasts cooperation anymore, not to utilize the perfect cloak of a Jinchuriki, now that he had used it once, felt the flow of chakra between them at least once, he could force the issue with no difficulty whatsoever. However the beasts cooperation would prove, useful. If he could find a reason to trust the monster, it’s insight might come in handy. The echoing voice of his tenant would respond ‘Revenge on your enemies? Consider me helping.’ The beast would say, prompting a nod to Valen. Kenshin would still be speaking, tell him that he wouldn’t always be around to fix the ashen haired teens mistakes. Prompting Valen to meet his gaze and nod. “If I can do anything to help her Kenshin, don’t hesitate to contact me somehow. I should be back  relatively soon.” He would say, before disappearing into a flash of light. The password past Hoshigakure’s defenses still fresh within his mind.

[Exit to Hoshigakure]
WC: 1029
TWC: 8614

Giving Kenshin the corpses of Revan Uzumaki and Kyousuke Snow, as well as 120,000 ryo.

Claiming 1500 words to learn Bond of The Seraph using my handy dandy max stat discount.
6000 words to learning Arms of The Highlord using that same discount.
1114 words toward Seraph Art: Resolve putting me at 1114/3000 (Go go gadget discount)

Take it all you dirty wc farmers

You have my stamp of approval @Ken