Chapter 29: A Warm, Bloody Welcoming
A knock at the door pulled Helena from her carving as she rose to her bloodstained feet, and pointlessly wiped the blood from her hands, only serving to smear it across her skin as she made her way to the door, knowing that the pest wouldn't be able to run as she had already cut the tendons from his legs and arms.
The pained muffled groans of a man who barely cling to life was the only background noise, as the door creaked opened to reveal Hizuren flanked by four masked figures, his expression tense and solemn as he eyed her blood soaked form, the bloodied kunai in her hand, the bits of flayed skin that cling to her bloodied frame…
Helena showed a welcoming smile, one that she had forced upon her face, though wasn't difficult as she had vented much of her frustrations previous to Hizuren's arrival, "It's been a while since I've tasted death…," Helena's voice was smooth, pleasant as she stepped aside and gestured for them to enter, "…A taste that had begun to fade from my tongue, yet I tasted it so deeply not long ago…
I should go fetch the other guest… Help yourself to some of the Bread and Salt."
Whether they accepted Guest Rights didn't matter to Helena, it was a mere gesture that signifies that Helena understood that they meant no harm… as if this brief interaction…
Somehow… Somewhere… A shift was undergoing, changing Helena's view of those around her—
It was whisked away, by a torrent of thought that left chaos in its wake, which churned to create something new, only for that to be washed away… The cycle turned once more.
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Inu's gaze hardened as a vaguely familiar figure was dragged into the main room of the small apartment, a brief moment of scrutiny was all it took for Inu to understand that the youth was from the Nara Clan, around the same age as {Helena} most probably born of a brothel and without talent in the clan's Secret Jutsu…
She'd find work in T&I if she was ever trusted, that much Inu could tell from a look… The Nara Teen was still breathing, a shallow breath but one that a Medical—Nin would be able to help the Teen recover from, though the visible lack of skin was frightening… The fact that she had been able to keep him alive…
Inu would never admit that he shuddered… The sheer casualness she held, as it she never expected a consequence. Allowed all present to understand the Queen before them…
It was clear in her expression. This, was her 'Mercy'.
She knew…
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Hizuren sighed as he looked down upon the young… Queen before him…
He could see it in her eyes, the weight of her gaze finally made sense, it all clicked into place within his aged mind.
A Samurai without its Master… A Queen without her Kingdoms… A Ronin—A Fallen…
Dangerous all the same.
Hizuren gazed down at the flayed figure, his honed senses allowing him to catch the scent of various medicinal hints, his curiosity peaked as he crouched down and inspected the body, Helena had pulled the corpse to her front as if understanding his thoughts before he could act upon them, an amused chuckle broke out internally as Hizuren sought to find the positives of the situation.
He could clearly gauge how experienced the fallen one was, and to say she as experienced would be underestimating the work laid out before him, it was meticulous. A thin layer of skin remained, leaving the largest veins unharmed, taking only the surface to inflict pain without killing the subject…
His eyes rose, meeting that cold blue gaze, a pleasant smile laid upon her face as if she knew no problems in the world, a naivety that held within her gaze that he knew was naught more than a mere fabrication… No naive child could flay a man alive, and continue to smile afterwards… Perhaps only the promised children of Root were capable of such a thing, as they were trained to find joy in the completion of their mission, rather than the normal facets of positive emotion…
Hizuren found himself stumped as to the next step he should take pertaining to the Teen stood before him, simply killing her would be a waste of resources and sway against the philosophy he had painstakingly fostered to this point, his image would be stained by her death as he had no true reason to have her life brought to an end. It had been proven she was not a spy, and he recently had given her temporary citizenship only a few hours ago.
She had broken no laws, and as it stands due to Root's precarious standing, the flayed teen could only be officially seen as a Spy from another nation…
Hizuren stifled a sigh, gesturing for one of the anbu to remove the body, as he rose to his feet, "I apologize—"
"An apology is unnecessary, it has been an enlightening experience. I have learned much during my time welcoming this guest, sadly it seems it is time for him to depart… Hah, I do hope that we can come to much less 'welcoming' terms," An odd smile came to her face, "I would hate to take my time away from the Forge, I have disrespected the art for long enough."
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
Inu had found himself shadowing {Helena}, Neko at his side as they lingered in a distant tree, taking advantage of Neko's particular talent, "It'll soon be time for a shift change, and she hasn't shown a sign of exhaustion yet…"
Inu nodded at Neko's words, having already seen {Helena's} days long forging sessions, "She'll be there for a few more days, she rarely goes past eight days."
A silence fell between the two of them, as Neko spoke once more, "97 Knives, she just finished another…"
Inu nodded, and silence fell between the two of them once more as Neko watched as Helena grabbed the handful of knives she had made, and began to smelt them down back into an ingot.
It was boring… Oh, so incredibly boring simply sitting watching this woman repeat the same actions endlessly without stopping or resting aside from cramming dried chopped bits of meat and berries; poisonous berries, into her mouth or sipping water from her hands; from the same barrel she wets her hair…
Was this how some found watching a Shinobi practice their Katas…?
Neko had once tried one of those berries, and found them quite sharply sour, but trailed by a gentle sweetness… Before the throat began to swell, not enough to prove a hindrance to his daily actions due to a level of resistance built from young, but that simply proved how dangerous they were to the average civilian, or civilian born shinobi who normally didn't have the background to be able to afford/safely undergo such training.
Only spoke to the Young Queen's background…
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Danzo, I have already told you…" Hizuren heaved a breath as the words slipped his lips, tired of having to repeat himself and with far too much paperwork atop his desk to wish to entertain his old friends' antics, "She has been carefully screened, and is currently being supervised by a Squad of Anbu. She rarely steps away from the forge in the Courtyard, and has yet to even return to the apartment she had been given… She has isolated herself, in a position where there is no information for her to gather, aside from learning the language we speak.
The threat she poses is minimal, and can be swiftly dealt with, as I had said before, the Courtyard is currently manned by a squad from the Barrier Corps, and if they somehow, can not stop her they can stall her long enough to mount an offensive.
Now, can you leave…? I am already behind on my paperwork as it is."
"Hizuren—"
"Danzo," Hizuren's eyes fell to the paperwork on his desk, "I'll cut your funding in half if you don't leave me with my paperwork."
Danzo eventually left in a fuming huff, but didn't interrupt Hizuren as he slowly began to work through the stack of papers…
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
"Inu," Helena spoke lightly as she balanced an odd shaped dagger upon her finger, the dog masked figure appeared with a blur, and Helena offered the dagger in the palm, "Is it comparable to your standards?"
The dog masked figure took the Kunai, weighing its weight in his hand, resting the balance of the blade upon his finger, shifting through a number of different grips and movements, before snapping his arm to the side causing the odd—shaped dagger to fly off to the side and stick into a tree with a distant 'thunk'…
"It's…" Inu seemed to allow his words to settle on his tongue as if to see how they tasted, "It is better than most, though not something I'd field personally."
Helena hummed in thought, before she splayed out her hand gesturing towards the pouch of Kunai at his waist, seeing no additional harm in handing her a weapon, as she just held one moments ago… Inu pulled a kunai from his pouch and gently laid it in her hand.
Helena spent some time silently going over the odd—shaped dagger in her hands, before her gaze rose to meet the darkness of the mask's eyes, "How much would this cost you?"
"500 Ryō," Inu replied simply, not particularly seeing that information as something meant to be hidden.
"Mhm… You prefer your weapons…" Helena's words trailed off as her gaze lingered onto the hilt of the shortsword that was strapped to Inu's back, handing the kunai back towards the masked figure, she gestured towards the shortsword, and found Inu to be reluctant before he eventually took off the harness/sheath and laid it carefully upon her table…
Helena's curiosity peaked, until she began to free the blade from its sheath, finding cracks staining the metal, the blade breaking its shards filling the sheath…
A deep frown settled across her face, as her gaze returned to Inu, "Do you mind…? This is a travesty of the Art that I can not allow to exist. The level of workmanship forged into this blade… I wish to repair it."
Inu fell stiff, as he stared at Helena's hardened gaze. It was evident she wouldn't take 'No' as an answer, and Inu found it difficult to refuse, as he knew that the woman before him wouldn't rest until—
Helena had taken his silence as acceptance and immediately began to heat the forge, as she took the wrapping from the weapon's hilt, and began to brush the metal with a wire brush… Slowly she used the shards to reform the basic shape of the weapon, finding most of its pieces gathered, though a few smaller shard were missing from the make of the blade…
She spoke, her voice smooth and pleasant, "This is a different metal than I have been given, I recommend finding a supply of metal the same as the weapon has been made from, as I don't know how the lesser quality metal I have been given will meld with the metal of the blade. It may create stress fractures, refuse to meld, or become a damascus.. I'd rather not experiment with such a piece of art, so I ask that you fetch the appropriate metal."
Inu saw no reason to refuse…
-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-
[2 Months Later]
Inu stared down the length of the finally finished blade, it had been a struggle to find the white—washed chakra metal that the 'White Fang' had originally been forged with, a struggle that proved to be futile as Inu had to eventually settle for a basic chakra metal… Much to the disappointment of Helena, who had all but chewed him out for attempting to ruin the Art of the Blade…
Which had led to Inu needing to supply an additional ingot, and forcibly agreeing to sacrificing a shard of the blade to Helena's experiments, as she had refused to forge the blade until she was sure that she would ruin it during the process of its reforging.
The result was a blend of metal that the woman had called {Damascus}, something the blacksmiths of Konoha had been absorbed with the past few weeks, as the process of folding metal had paired well with the creation of {Damascus}…
Only for a few of the elder Blacksmith Families to be enraged that the 'Secret Techniques' of a fellow Blacksmith were stolen… Which led to an unspoken rule amongst the Blacksmiths of Konoha, that they wouldn't include such techniques into their work until they received permission from whomever the technique had originated from…
Helena had shown a rare smile when Inu had told the woman, and she agreed to give such permission, as long as they provided a small part of the income from such art made with the 'Secret Technique' in the form of ingots. Something the various Blacksmiths were all too happy to agree to… Now, most civilian shinobi held such weapons, as they were considerably cheaper than those made purely from Chakra Metal, or those with Chakra Metal cores…
While the Damascus Chakra Metal wasn't as conducive to chakra as weapons made from/with pure or cored chakra metal, their cheaper price easily made up for the lack of chakra conductivity; which was leagues better than mundane metals.
_________________________________________
(A/NStats -
Main Level: 110 -
• Basic Special Knowledge [Indepth First Aid]
• Synthetic Mutation [False Immortal's Brew]
• Basic Awakened [Chakra]
Strength: 30 [|||||||||||||||||||||||||||] -
• Exquisite Knowledge [Leverage]
• Greater Knowledge [Chakra Saturation]
Agility: 30 [|||||||||||||||||||||||||||] -
• Greater Knowledge [Breathing]
• Greater Knowledge [Flexibility]
Vitality: 50 [||||||||||||||||||||||||||] -
• Moderate Uncommon Illness Resistance
• Heightened Physique
• Greater Poison Resistance
• Greater Chakra Resistance
Combat -
Defense: 15 [———————] -
• Exquisite Knowledge [Parry]
Warfare: 9 [|||||||||||||||||||||||||—] -
• Basic Knowledge [One V. Many]
Axe: 10 [||||||||||||————] -
• Moderate Knowledge [Edge Alignment]
Bow: 2 [|||||||—————] +
Hammer/Mace: 6 [|||||||||||||———-] -
• Basic Knowledge [Blunt Alignment]
Spear: 4 [|||||||||||||||||||||||||-] +
Sword: 7 [||||||||||||||———] -
• Basic Knowledge [Edge Alignment]
Unarmed: 20 [||||||||||||———] -
• Exquisite Knowledge [Stance]
Skills -
Alchemy: 16 [|||||||||||||||||||||||—] -
• Basic Knowledge [Natural Remedies]
• Moderate Knowledge [Distilled Remedies]
Blacksmithing: 32 [|||||||||||-——-—] -
• Exquisite Knowledge [Steel]
• Moderate Special Knowledge [Damascus]
Bowery: 0 [———————] +
Carpentry: 8 [|||||||||||||||—-——] -
• Basic Knowledge [Rough Building]
Drinking: 8 [||||||||||||||||||||||—] -
• Tempered Gut
Herbalism: 15 [||||—————] +
• Greater Herbology Knowledge [Riverlands]
• Meticulous Picker
Horsemanship: 5 [|||————-—] -
• Basic Knowledge [Rhythm]
Houndmaster: 0 [———————] +
Hunting: 4 [|||||||||||||||||||||||—] +
Lockpicking: 0 [———————] +
Maintenance: 30 [||||————-—] -
• Basic Knowledge [Tools]
• Moderate Knowledge [Weapons]
• Greater Knowledge [Armor]
Pickpocketing: 0 [———————] +
Reading: 29 [||||||||||||||||||||||—] -
• Greater Westerosi Language
• Moderate Calligraphy
• Mindless Reader
Tailoring: 22 [||||———-——--] -
• Moderate Knowledge [Linen]
• Moderate Knowledge [Leather]
• Basic Special Knowledge [Armored Clothes]
Stealth: 18 [|||||||||————] -
• Moderate Habit [Light Footed]
• Basic Knowledge [Camouflage]
Total Level: ???
____________________________
(A/N: [22?? Words])
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone