| abstract | - Shikahime entered what would be a darkened house. Another late night meant everyone else was already in bed. So she quietly closed the door, yawning slightly before seeking the kitchen. Building a massive meal from what Hime could find in the cupboards, she waited as various portions finished before consuming every last bit, resulting in several discarded plates she would subsequently wash and place in their proper locations. Having satisfied her hunger for the time being, she went upstairs to shower after placing her anbu uniform in the dirty pile of her room. Hime sighed. The mission had been successful, if a bit rushed due to the primary objectives. What mattered though was its completion, and that much had been assured. Turning the facet off, she slid into some pjs are raking through her long sunset locks, a shade of auburn now because of their wetness. Grabbing a book, Shikahime returned to her room, eying her anbu mask before putting it away. After a stretch, she settled down finally, relying on generous moonlight filtering through her window in order to read the content of her book's pages. Despite having no one to greet her because of the late hour, Shikahime found such silence restful. It allowed her to mediate upon the various issues and missions she had yet to finish and the affairs she had to put in order. Nevertheless, she could feel her eyes closing, the late night catching up with her. For now at least, she would succumb to the land of dreams, earning a much needed reprieve from the busy schedule that was her life. ...And that was when the sound of a falling object suddenly rang against the floor, followed shortly thereafter by a groan of the male variant of their species. It was then that Shikahime most probably took notice of the open window, which brought with it the flaky breeze of the night. Down with his back to the floor was a familiar figure, his blank eyes looking up to meet with her own. Gritting his teeth, Teizen failed miserably to mask his obvious pain. "H-hey, long time n-no see, Shikahime..!" One of his eyes twitched shut, the jolting of pain in his gut forcing a hand to his stomach. And thus her tranquility dissipated. With her annoyance only further by the sound of a very familiar voice as she made note of the open window. "What are you doing here?" she hissed back after placing her book down. "You're a missing-nin of this village. If my father catches you here he'll kill you." she continued while thinking to herself, "Hell, I have an obligation to terminate you as a anbu of this village." Only then did she notice Teizen's agony. "You do realize you're in trouble for the death of Sannoto right?" Shika said, before estimating the man's injuries were a result of this affair. After all, the death of Sannoto was recently made public, causing the village to fall into a state of mourning over the grizzled yet peaceful war veterans death. Though Hime doubted Sannoto was truly dead. His Senju vitality and his ability to survive multiple world wars made it unlikely for a young albeit dangerous S-rank missing-nin to succeed at a task everyone had previously failed. "Where did those injuries come from?" she asked, placing a feeler question as she bent to examine them. The consequence of her medical-nin nature kicking into high gear at the sight of grievous discomfort. She sighed once more. "You're such an idiot." Hime said, her tone blunt as Tei grasped his stomach tightly. "They came from him," he managed between coughs, "he may have been old, but he sure as hell put up a good fight." As she gripped his stomach, he fought back the blood bursting up from his throat, so as not to cover Shikahime within a coating of it. "Urghh..!" To think word of his battle with Sannoto would have already leaked out. While it felt good as hell, even now, to be the cause of all that tension --since it more or less praised his ability in battle-- Teizen didn't want the one person in this world that he appreciated think of him as being some senseless killer. "I didn't want to do it," Teizen sympathized, "but he was persistent. He wouldn't let me go. There was no other way to stop him beyond taking his life." It was the first time he had spoken of Sannoto to anyone since the conclusion of that bout; he was confirming the old man's death, just as he had with his old eyes back then, perhaps removing any doubt Shikahime would have had in regards to his capabilities as a shinobi. Teizen sneered. "My insides don't feel too good," he went on, reverting back to the subject at hand, "just touching him turned out to be so dangerous. From what I managed to see with my eyes, it would seem he somehow managed to infect my liver, spleen, and kidneys with traces of... of gold." It was at that point Shikahime started to snicker before it evolved into a laugh. "You think Sannoto's dead? Please tell me you're not that dense. We're talking about a war vet. Someone with greater experience than both of us put together. A person who survived hundreds if not thousands of people trying to kill him. His Senju vitality is on another level. Perhaps we're strong and you defeated him. But dead? Absolutely not. He's definitely alive." Shika responded, her voice somewhat smug. Call it a hunch, but she doubted that lecherous pervert would succumb to the new kid of the block. Probably because there were many women in the world to be peeked on. And such a task is difficult when one is deceased. Shikahime shook her head. "You really are an idiot. How could you not allot the time to study up on potential opponents? I'm sure you realized he was coming after you sooner or later once other retrievers returned to Konoha in a body bag. He's not someone you want to approach with taijutsu. For you may have won the battle, but he had a greater target; the war. And it appears he's winning." Shika then slipped into medical procedure. "Do you know how far the gold corruption has spread within those organs?" she asked, before sitting on her knees while examining the sensitive area. Hime touched it lightly; she had her doubts about the effectiveness of Delicate Illness Extraction Technique due to the properties of gold and how intertwined it may have became with the vital organs. Hence it was likely they would have to removed should the lad survive to see another day. Though there was the small matter of her rival now being classified as an S-rank missing-nin. One wanted by multiple villages. Thus the idea of helping him would be a poor one logically. "I know he's dead," he rebutted, "I drowned him with my own two hands into a pool of lava. I felt his longing presence vanish against my body. I saw the chakra vanish from his soul before my very eyes; my Byakugan never fails to see the truth, and you know that, Shikahime. He's dead." He grunted in pain shortly after his pompous remark. "Believe me, I did my studying all right. But you can't account for everything; I knew from the very beginning that my taijutsu wouldn't work out so well against him. Not with those defenses of his. And that's why they sent him after me, out of all of the other people they could've had on the job. They handpicked him out of retirement for me. But that's not to say I had any other choice; my fists had gotten me as far as I am today. I knew I couldn't turn against them. Not in a battle like that. And look, I'm here in front of you now, aren't I?" Teizen let out a slight chuckle, the best he could manage between the pain. "Even against the odds, I still managed to pull through. I really did it, Shikahime, can you believe it?" Teizen's head fell back to rest on her knees as she sat down. He bore a trying smile onto his face. "It hasn't spread much, yet. I was sure to come to you as soon as I possibly could; I would've been here last night, as a matter of fact, but looking through the walls of your house with my Byakugan, I could see that your dad was still awake, for whatever reason. So I didn't want to risk it." Shikahime shook her head. If he want to believe the Sannoto was dead then so be it. But if Hime was him, she'd start preparing for the chance that the man was still alive. And very, very pissed off. Though she did elect to nod at his decision to remain faithful to his bread and butter techniques. She could respect that at least. "That's true." Shika conceded. As Teizen rested his head on her lap, she took the opportunity to more closely the area in question, prodding the infected location while reading for the chakra imbalance that would mark the gold. Though she was snapped from this affair by the mention of Teizen's nonchalant spying. "You were peeping into my house? What are you, some kind of pervert? Besides I wasn't even here last night. I had things to take care of." she responded. While he had endangered his life in the process, Hime was mildly impressed by his ability to defeat one of Konoha's legends. Yet it would be all for naught if he died. She made her decision, one that she figured she'd likely regret it due time. "Fine. I'll see what I can do." Shika said as she prepared to stand, resting Teizen's head on the floor. Her left hand formed a Chakra Scalpel, becoming deadly sharp in the process in order to make the necessary incisions for the procedure. "This is going to hurt. Do you want me to put you under or no?" Hime asked, locating the cuts she would need to make in order to reach the infected areas. She also kept track of the moon's position, allowing Teizen's shadow to be seen. So should one maneuver fail, she would have another one up her sleeve. For now at least she would wait, eyes trained upon the target in question. She would have to see if she needed to remove the entire organ, a portion, or isolate the gold and extract it without harming the patient. "Y-yeah, that should be fine," Teizen replied, in response to Shikahime's suggestion of being sedated by genjutsu. He was placing his life itself within her hands without a hint of hesitation, dropping his guard entirely. With that, he fell into a deep slumber with the aid of her genjutsu, leaving Shikahime with nothing more than the guise of the moon to do her work. Initial procedures completed, Shikahime sterilized the environment before beginning to make the incisions around the corrupted location. She then peeled the skin back ever so slightly to reveal the mechanisms known as organs underneath. Sure enough, traces of gold were visible, particularly around the kidneys and spleen. "Not good," Shika mused aloud as she activated the initial technique, placing her right hand over the gold flecks in order to draw them out. While she could salvage the organs because of the relatively low concentration of gold within each of the vital organs due to Teizen's timing, she would have to dig deeper in order to properly isolate the minuscule pieces. Though they grew larger by the second. She activated her chakra scalpel once more in order to dissect a portion of both kidneys, pulling out each individual gold fleck with painstaking patience. Sweat beaded on her forehead as she did so, drawing out the heavier metal with the light fluid. Shikahime began to dislodge the remaining gold flecks in each kidney before moving onto the spleen, repeating the procedure with greater speed as it became muscle memory for the surgeon. Next would come the liver, which proved to be the least challenging of the three affected areas due to its roll as a filter. The result being all of the gold collecting in a pile that was easily removable by her current methods. Though the higher concentration made the organ more volatile and most likely to succumb to the gold's effects. Thus further tension ensued as she carefully pulled apart this mass and deposited it in her growing pile of gold. At last, every bit had been removed, though the organs themselves were still injured from her prodding and the stress of that element. So she activated one final aspect in order to complete the deed. Taking the unconscious man's active chakra system and putting it to work on healing the wrongdoing. Satisfied with its progress, Shikahime closed him up before sitting down. Gazing at the impressive amount of gold gathered. All things considered, if it had managed to condense into one or two organs bad things would have happened. But the inclusion of a third system diluted it enough to save the rest. She dispelled the genjutsu. "You're lucky. Very lucky. Someone above is looking out for you whether you believe it or not." Shika stated plainly. The woman was about to dismiss him from her chambers until she made note of his predicament. While healed, it appeared that such an involved affair had left him drained. She groaned inwardly, realizing he would likely stay the night, risking discovery in the morning. "Fine. Stay. Try to be inconspicuous about though. And I want you gone by the time my parents wake up. If you're still here there will be issues. Not even me but from my father, who will likely want you dead for all your part crimes. Understood? Good." Shika stood from her bed, hunger striking her once more from the amount of time and energy expended. By the time morning had come around, Teizen was sitting with his knees to the ground, his face to the edge of the bed, and his shirt hanging from his torso. He was cast into a rather deep sleep, being unaware of his snoring and hard breathing that sprayed over onto Shikahime's feet with every repeated cycle. Wide mouthed, he had left a pool of drool on her sheets as well.
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