บท 32: The Curse Mark
Hokage's Office (Two Days Later) (Kamui's P.O.V.)
Walking into the Hokage's office, Kamui noticed a few other people already there. To the left, were Shikaku Nara, Inoichi Yamanaka, Mikoto Uchiha, and Ibiki Morino, the commanding officer of the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force.
Ibiki is a tanned-skinned bald-headed man with a large figure and two long scars diagonally across his face. He wears a darker version of the standard uniform of the Intelligence Division, which normally includes a long-sleeved button up shirt with a high collar and thick material, a black belt over the shirt and secured around the waist, and long grey pants. Over his darker version of this uniform, he wears a black trench coat and gloves.
On her right was another young woman. If she remembered correctly from some of the Kunoichi specific academy lectures, this was Anko Mitarashi, Konoha's Snake Mistress.
Anko is an average-sized, young woman with a slender frame. She has light brown, pupil-less eyes and violet hair styled in a short, spiky, fanned-out ponytail. Her attire consists of a fitted mesh body suit that covers her from neck to thigh. Over this, is a tan overcoat with a purple in-seam and a pocket on each side, a dark orange mini-skirt, a dark blue belt, and pale grey shin guards.
In front of her was the fourth Hokage, who started getting up once she entered the room.
Seeing the final member enter, Minato activated the isolation seals in the room and started the meeting.
He spoke, "Alright, now that everyone's here, let's begin. Not all of you know why you're here, so I'll make it clear." At that, Kamui and Anko nodded. They had no idea what was going on.
Initially, Kamui had thought it was related to the intel she'd been transcribing the past couple of days, but she was starting to feel like that was not the complete truth in this case.
Minato continued, "In a month and a half, we plan to conduct an operation to locate and assassinate Orochimaru." Instantly, Anko's eyes widened into saucers.
"You two have been identified as key figures in this operation, Kamui for her special abilities and Anko, for your connection to the man as well as the chakra in your neck." Hearing this, Kamui nodded; this wasn't all that surprising considering recent events and if everything she'd heard about the snake was true, her unique abilities would indeed be useful.
Anko on the other hand was petrified. 'They're finally going after him? We finally get to kill him!?' Internally, she was ecstatic at the thought of finally ending the man who betrayed her and butchered her teammates like they were cattle.
'They're actually letting me be a part of this!?' She thought ecstatically. She had been discriminated against for so long for the simple fact of being Orochimaru's apprentice. It didn't help that she had a permanent 'tramp stamp' on her neck; at least, that's what the villagers called it. The funny thing was, despite her liberal form of dress and reputation, she's actually 'purer' than her friend Kurenai. Unlike her friend, she'd never even had a boyfriend; Orochimaru's name had been that much of a stain on her image.
Seeing the expected reactions, Minato continued, "I won't go into the details of the full operation now. Today, we'll focus on the first stage. The rest will be discussed in the following weeks. To be clear, you two will continue to operate as normal, including going on your normal missions. It would risk the secrecy of the operation if your mission schedules changed too radically; this applies mainly to Kamui. As my daughter, she's in the spotlight for not only Konoha, but the spies of the elemental nations as well.
"The first stage of the operation is the identification and interrogation of any of his spies we may have in this village. For that, we will be tracking the chakra he uses in the control seals to their location."
"But how would you do that? The control seals he uses don't emit any chakra and have been verified by his summoning snakes as being undetectable by natural energy; I was there when he tested that." Anko asked in confusion.
Hearing this, Minato responded with his trademark smile, "You are correct. He has accounted for those methods, but my daughter has one that he hasn't accounted for. We plan to use the spiritual chakra he left in you to track the intent he left in all of his control seals." He explained. Hearing this, Anko's head tilted as a look of confusion appeared on her face; this method was news to her too.
'What does he mean by intent?' She thought to herself.
Seeing Anko's look of confusion, Minato continued, "Basically, we have a means of tracking that Orochimaru isn't aware of and therefore, can't account for. Incidentally, there may be a chance Kamui could remove the curse mark with this method." Anko's eyes grew wider as Minato's explanation progressed until she heard the final part, where her head snapped in Kamui's direction with a gaze reeking of desperation.
"You can take this off!?" Anko frantically asked. This was extremely important to her. Her chakra levels had been drastically reduced trying to keep this seal in check. It slowly ate at her mind, preventing her from sleeping. If it weren't for her iron will and the few friends in her support network, she'd be as crazy as he was. Hell, she was half way there by some accounts. She really wanted this thing off.
Kamui shrugged her shoulders at the question. "I don't know. This is my first-time hearing about it. What's a curse mark?" She asked.
Anko's eyes looked at her strangely at the question, then at the fourth. The question in her eyes was obvious. How can someone who knows nothing about the mark get rid of it?
Chuckling at the scene in front of him, Minato answered, "The curse mark is an intricate seal placed by Orochimaru. It ties itself to the host's chakra network in a manner similar to a tailed beast, which has made it impossible for us to remove without killing the host. It's designed to slowly eat at its host's mind, bringing them closer to Orochimaru's influence, and acts as a slave seal to an extent. It also works to convert the host's chakra into its own and merges it with a distorted version of nature energy. Once the fusion is complete, it pumps it back into the host's body, empowering them, further influencing them, and addicting them with its power."
During the explanation, Anko's gaze was toward the ground, her fists clenched with as much force as she could muster. The Hokage actually understated the severity of the effects. It sounded so simple the way he put it, but it was anything but. Truly, it could be considered Orochimaru's magnum opus.
Kamui's eyes furrowed at the explanation. This really didn't sound pleasant. How could someone live with something like that on them. It would take an incredible amount of will, especially someone without extensive spiritual training.
"Couldn't Aunty have removed it? Considering her heightened ability to interact with the intent stored in seals, surely a non-Uzumaki couldn't have made something she can't undo." She pondered aloud.
Minato shook his head at her question, "She could feel the intent in the seal, but the language is different. We suspect that Orochimaru found an ancient site with an earlier form of sealing. It's not necessarily more powerful than our own, it's just in a different language and encoded in a way that we don't fully understand. That's the primary reason why no one could ever undo it. We didn't have the confidence to do so without killing her. Luckily for us, your sealing method doesn't rely on understanding the language and you've reached a point where I feel confident in entrusting this matter to you." Kamui nodded. It made sense. She didn't need language to understand and manipulate intent. She could do it in its raw form. That said, she was interested in this different language they spoke of.
"Can I see it?" she asked Anko. She wouldn't be able to provide input without seeing it first.
Anko nodded. Deciding to trust the girl and her Hokage's judgement, she pulled off her coat and pulled the collar of her fishnet shirt to show Kamui the mark. Truthfully, she was trying to rein in all the hope that had welled up in her from their conversation. This was still uncertain and she had been disappointed too many times concerning the potential removal of this mark.
Kamui walked up to Anko and looked at the mark on her shoulder. It consisted of three tomoe styled in a manner similar to a sharingan, announcing Orochimaru's final desire; the eyes of her clan. Technically, it was also a mark that has been historically associated with the Kami, but she highly doubted a man like him was a worshiper of the gods.
Deciding it was time to start, her eyes flared to life as they shifted to the sharingan. On her wrists, her silver bands glowed in a soft light, stunning the members of the room who hadn't noticed them before. With that, she took her right finger and placed it on the seal, while gazing at it with her eyes.
As soon as her finger made contact, the seal started to squirm. It tried to spread its mark across her body as to brace itself against the threat it could feel. That was the part few knew about it; all curse marks were alive to some degree and this one realized pretty quickly that this girl was a threat. As it tried to spread though, it realized it couldn't. Whatever this girl was doing was keeping it mostly in place.
"Who would be stupid enough to make something like this?" Kamui mumbled to herself in disbelief.
"Stupid?" Shikaku asked. He'd heard it called heinous, but never stupid. Not even the fourth used that term to describe the abomination. The others in the room frowned as well. What had she seen?
"It's his soul. I don't know why, but there is a dormant soul fragment in this seal. When you described it like a tailed-beast's seal, you weren't kidding. Anko literally has Orochimaru inside of her, if only a piece." Kamui explained with incomprehension, causing the others in the room to look away in revulsion from her choice of phrasing. Even Ibiki's face had lost its composure. Minato glanced at Mikoto, who nodded back.
"Sweetie?" She asked.
"Yes?"
"Please mind your phrasing. Some things need to be explained with tact." She explained with a smile, barely managing to mask her own revulsion at the notion.
"What do you mean?" Kamui asked, not quite understanding what about her words could trigger this reaction. Sure, having someone else's soul in you sucks, but it should be anger, not the clear revulsion they were exuding. This man must have perverted hobbies she wasn't aware of.
Anko, on the other hand, felt like crying. She had that man inside of her, violating the sanctity of her body? She may not be the most prude of shinobi, but she didn't want 'him' of all people touching her, let alone living in her. It took everything she had not to wretch in a corner. The only thing keeping her in place was the reality that the mark was only kept in place by this girl's command, as weird as that was.
She could feel it demanding her to fight off this blight that restrained its divine might. Yes, she could hear it whisper in her head, its voice dripping in fear and narcissism.
Loudly clearing his throat to get everyone's attention, Minato asks, "Getting back on topic, what do you mean when you say there's a soul fragment inside of her?" The others shifted their focus back to Kamui, ears trained on her every word.
"Truthfully, it seems like he broke off a piece of his soul from the main body and included it into the sealing matrix. It's dormant now, but it serves as a means Orochimaru can use to direct his will from any distance. He could pop her mind like a watermelon any time he wanted with this from any location in the elemental nations.
"Theoretically, he could revive from this spot as well. If he had some outside aid, he could use one of these curse marks as a beacon to draw his scattered soul fragments to this location after death and recreate his physical body. I'm not sure how well that'd work though. From the looks of it, he even has a white snake sealed in there as well. From what I can read from the intent, that would serve as the vessel for the soul fragments. Basically, if Orochimaru dies, you want to make sure that all curse mark users are hunted down as well. I should be able to get rid of the mark on her though." Kamui explained, trying to keep her astonishment at the method out of her voice; she failed.
The seal was beyond anything she'd ever thought to do. Having a backup plan is nice, but splitting your soul to do it was madness. The more pieces were taken from the whole, the more fragmented one's mind became. Effectively, if the man split his soul enough times, she shuttered to think of what his mind would be like. Maybe that was why he was considered so deranged. That wasn't all though, if someone managed to destroy one of them….
"Is it possible to remove it without hurting Anko, and if you did, what could you do with it? How would it affect Orochimaru?" Minato asked, his expression stern. This was getting into territory he wasn't too familiar with. Chakra, he knew. The soul was a different story. Inoichi was probably the only other person in the room who knew more about what she was talking about.
"I can. While there are components that are tied to the host like a tailed-beast, the soul can't be like that. The tailed beasts are chakra with sentience. While they have sentience, they do not actually have souls. That's why they can be sealed in such a way. For example, if you were to split the nine-tails' chakra multiple times, they would all eventually become their own versions of the beast. Then, they could eventually be merged back into one being with little consequences. Human souls can't do that. While a human's soul produces their spiritual chakra, they aren't their chakra. Technically, if the sealing mechanism failed, the soul fragment would meld into Anko, bestowing her with knowledge and an increased capacity for learning. That is, if you manage to consume it rather than the other way around.
"Since Orochimaru designed the seal to function as a backup of himself, his soul can't fully merge into her. Funny enough, if he let it happen and fully bonded the two, then he would have a much easier time manipulating the host through a modified seal. If I were to guess, his obsession with immortality led him to believe that having a backup is better than having better control. That said, I can eliminate it now. The cool thing about this situation is that we should be able to review his memories from the soul fragment. I can extract them from the soul and seal them into an object for later review."
'Well Yume should be able to' she thought. Internally, she felt Yume acknowledge her assumption. Clearly Yume's maker made sure she had the ability to do that. It'd be a nightmare if Kamui had to review all of those memories herself. From what she'd heard about Orochimaru, it wouldn't be a good idea to review his memories herself. Yume could extract all the necessary knowledge and filter the necessary bits to her. She could wait till she was older to absorb the rest. The best part in this case was, Yume could extract Orochimaru's understanding on jutsu. Kamui could use that as inspiration going forward. Of course, this would be Orochimaru's understanding from many years ago.
Kamui continued, "As for effects on Orochimaru, I'm not sure. Considering all soul fragments are constantly entangled with each other, it should damage him immensely; Inoichi can vouch for that. At the very least, his soul will be confined to its vessel. His other backups will receive damage as well, though he probably won't realize it unless he personally checks the seals. Likely, he won't be able to use any techniques that involve the soul ever again unless he can receive treatment; his soul would be too unstable to risk it. Even then, it would take an act of a powerful Kami to heal a fractured soul. Needless to say, he should curse whatever possessed him to perform such a stupid experiment." Her words dripped in disgust.
Kamui couldn't believe Orochimaru could be this stupid. Then again, the procedure was likely done out of ignorance of the consequences. After all, the soul was a domain that mortals had a hard time interacting with. It was only through her own divine essence and her predecessor's understanding that she was able to. Even then, most of it was done in collaboration with Yume.
The room lit up in astonishment at the news.
Minato quickly asked, "Kamui, are you confident in this information?"
This was too important. If Kamui was right, as soon as she destroyed that soul fragment, Orochimaru's ambitions would crumble. Also, any curse mark bearer they found would be a significant weakness to the man. If destroying one can cause all that damage, what about more?
He was also interested in where she got a lot of this knowledge on the soul and Kami, but would wait till she was ready to tell him. Considering how forthcoming she's been lately, he had a feeling they'd be having that conversation very soon. He could probably ask now, but that probably wouldn't be very wise.
Inoichi's eyes narrowed at one of her statements. He thought, 'What did she mean by Kami? Does the fourth's daughter really believe in gods?'
It was an extremely uncommon belief in the hidden villages. There were some settlements that believed otherwise outside of them, but from a shinobi's perspective, the belief in gods is frowned upon. Then again, she knows information about souls and reality that none here were previously privy to. Truth be told, if she wasn't the fourth's daughter, he'd request that he be allowed to mind walk her. Unfortunately, something like that wouldn't be possible given the circumstances. He'd have to ask her about the Kami later though.
"Do it! Please!" Anko asked in desperation. She honestly didn't care if it left permanent damage. If she could remove the mark and injure Orochimaru at the same time, she'd be a happy woman.
Hearing this, Kamui glanced at the fourth, who nodded in response.
"Alright, I need you to hold still. This'll probably hurt…. a lot." Kamui grimly warned.
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