Reliving Your Worst Nightmare

"Akabayashi Terumi attempted to detain Kita - while he was on his own - on suspicion of undergoing an organ transplant. It is only by fortunate circumstance that Gonk and I were present and I was able to accompany him. I shall leave Kita to fill in the details, but I corroborate all that he has to say."

Upon rising, Murata places her three reports upon the desk, with those present likely to see the titles if they are looking closely - 'Samehada', 'Kita Hajime', 'Assassination Attempt'. The last report is something of an afterthought - the assassin sent to kill her had no affiliation with Hoshigakure, but it is somewhat embarrassing that their security would be so lax. Murata is not inclined to forgive and forget given all else that has happened. It is petty - this is the life she has chosen - but sometimes she is quite willing to be petty.

Keita looked on and simply observed as the members each gave their take and experiences to the Mizukage, and the wording was a bit strange with some. The general situation was that Kita Hajime was arrested for some reason or another and held there, and they had to pay some sort of ransom to get him back from the assistant of the Hogokage. This rubbed Keita the wrong way, and he felt that he wanted to go and make sure that the Star Village lost a bit of flesh over this, but that was not his decision. He was currently trying to temper himself and gain a bit more power before trying anything daring, as it was shown that he was underprepared for certain tasks. Soon he felt that he was going to go through a lot more trials, but right now his job was to just sit and listen.
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WC: 150

Kita rose to his feet per his kage's demands, mentally preparing to give his testimony on the events that had occurred. He stood idly by as his companions began to giving their reports to the kage one after the other. When they concluded, Kita finally began his report. His testimony would likely be the longest after all.

"It started just before the second round of the Chuunin Exams."

Kita couldn't meet the eyes of his kage as the shame of what he'd done coursed through him, instead contenting himself to passively look at the objects that had made their way onto the Mizukage's desk. Papers and personal bits and bobbles, all of it was preferable to staring into the eyes of the man he'd let down.

"I was exploring the streets of Hoshigakure when I discovered a sign leading to a nearby alley promising a quick boost in power. Upon investigation it was discovered that it was a transplant service."

Kita bit his lip, wondering if he should mention his encounter with the Raikage in the alleyway for a moment before deciding that accuracy would be his best policy here.

"I encountered the vendor just as he was concluding some business or another with the current Raikage, who asked to meet him at a later date before leaving. I decided that it would be... beneficial to engage in the service myself. I underwent surgery to have a Jugo Clansman liver implanted in myself."

Kita flashed back to Yumeko. She was where he'd picked up the idea after all. Despite the trauma he felt for her death, her power was nothing to sneeze at. The face she made when she transformed into that feral beast would likely haunt Kita's nightmares for the rest of his life. If the situation weren't so serious at the moment Kita could almost laugh at his foolishness, in his belief that it was a power he should take for himself. In a way, he was grateful to the goons in Hoshigakure for saving him from what he would have become.

"It was at the conclusion of the surgery that Fu entered into the alleyway, and underwent surgery herself. Before either of us left, a member of the ANBU came to summon the man performing the surgery."

Kita's brow furrowed as he tried to remember the details. Everything after that was a slight blur. He remembered his arrest and incarceration well enough, though the details leading up to that eluded him.

"The man was apparently arrested, and informed the Hogokage of the procedure. Fu and I were both promptly arrested in kind by Akabayoshi and brought before the Hogokage."

It was at that voice that Kita's age began to show through. His voice began to show emotion once again in the form of cracks and quivers, ever so slight at first but rising slowly into a crescendo. Tears welled in his eyes as he remembered the meeting between himself and the kage in question.

"We were interrogated and threatened with mutilation by the one who arrested us. Told that Ayato was the only thing saving us from his goon carving out our eye with a spoon, or strangling us to death. When I spoke out against the injustice of the situation, his servants beat me down to my knees. I lost a good number of teeth to that."

The emotion was starting to rise again as Kita relived the scene. The pain he'd felt in his liver from that accursed organ, the humiliation and pain he'd felt as they punched him to the ground for dare defying their kage. Tears streaked and streamed down the boys face as he stared at his feet below, determined to finish his testimony.

"He told us that we would be allowed to leave with our transplants if we assisted him in tracking down and eliminating a dangerous A-Rank criminal. It was little more than a suicide mission. I declined, fearing for my life and offered up the organ. I was thrown into a cold dark cell and kept under constant watch and surveillance for months. I had no contact with any of my squad, and I had no idea what happened to them. I could barely sleep, barely eat, I had little privacy, and I never saw the sun. I was only let out when the ransom had been transferred, and then the organ was removed from my body. I was compensated with a refund and given a curse mark as way of apology, though it was too little too late."

Small sobs and sniffles were escaping his body by this point, and thin hands tried desperately to dry his eyes futilely.

"I only found Gonk by coincidence. If we hadn't met each other at the same location, they likely would have thrown me into the desert to fend for myself and trek back home."

By this point, Kita couldn't bring himself to say more. If he did, he would lose what little composure he had left. He hoped that it would be enough for the Mizukage, but he would answer any questions he had...

Word Count - 854

Total Word Count - 1548

It seems the Jounins known as Travin and Gonk would start off the meeting by informing him of what had happened during the events of the mission he had sent them both on. He was sort of glad this was the first thing that was brought as he wanted to know the exact details of how the mission and the meeting went. From what he gathered, they had gone to Hoshi, with that doctor by the name of Akabayashi Terumi who then led them to some unknown building in order to commence with the bargaining. He had already met this individual of course since he has been receiving messages from him once in awhile. he couldn't say he trusted him completely but at least he was willing to share information with him, even was taught a technique that was supposed to be exclusive to their village. Regardless, he focuses back on the matter at hand. They met with somebody called Shina which to him was a new name so he didn't put too much stock into it, despite them supposedly being the second in command. The whereabouts of the Leaf Shinobi that was held captive was also unknown. That was unfortunate but in the grand scheme of things, inconsequential. 

What mattered to him was the safe return of his villager and that was evident in front of him so he wouldn't pry too much into what else had taken place. One of his Jounin then said he had two letters for him. Silently, he took them from Gonk and proceeded to open them up immediately in order to skim the contents of the letters. One was a follow up from the issue he had asked about during his trip to Hoshigakure. The other was the Terumi using his one and only favor to overlook the imprisonment of his shinobi to which the Mizukage narrowed his eyes. He must have forgotten the terms of their agreement for asking such a thing but he figured he'd wait until all of this had been concluded before he decided whether to honor this request or not. He was already not on good terms with most of the other nation leaders after the summit, the Hogokage being one of them and now he's learned of the imprisonment of one of his shinobi, he wanted him to overlook this incident as well, madness. After words, he put the letters in a drawer near him before moving onto the next person that had news of their outings. 

Apparently, Murata was next to give her report and hadn't gone with them since they were on a completely different task as a whole. Focusing his gaze onto them, if he remembered correctly, it was their job to be the one escorting Genin or something along those lines. Ironically enough, Kita was one of those said genin she was escorting so he'd like to know how he even left her sight for the most part for things like this to even happen. She had given a brief summary of what the other two had said before laying down on the table three reports. The Mizukage didn't look away from Murata as he was still very puzzled from these turns of events. "Murata, if I recall correctly, you were supposed to be the chaperone to the genin taking the chuunin exams and prevent incidents like this from happening, or at least being discovered. Why were you separated from this boy in particular," questioned the Mizukage. He simply didn't understand. Whatever her response may be, he didn't actually want to hear it just yet. "We'll come back to this in a minute for now, I want to go across the room and see what else is happening."

Lastly, it was the genin's turn to be heard. The one that experienced all of these traumatic events. Listening to the story, it seems there was a lot more to the story than the letter from the Hogokage had let on. Threats to a child for having another body part placed inside them, madness. Beating him until he lost teeth? This infuriated Mizukage albeit for completely different reasons. Was the summit's exchange not enough? Did he have to mistreat his shinobi too? The loss of a genin was miniscule at best to the Mizukage but it was the principle that another nation would treat any of his subjects like this as a whole infuriated him to no end. This is twice now, he's been slighted and he didn't know if he should retaliate or not, especially over a genin. With his anger visibly plastered on his face, the Mizukage slammed his fist onto his desk, letting out a sigh. Well, that was that he assumed. He'd need time to think about what actions he should take before jumping to conclusions. "You're all dismissed except for Murata and Keita, I'd like to hear more about certain things as well as go over our next course of action." 

W.C: 831

To the Mizukage's immediate question, Murata is quiet, waiting for him to finish his thought before speaking. As such, she does not interrupt him, simply nodding when he says that the matter will be saved for later.

Kita begins to speak. He falls apart gradually, and then all at once.

Murata pales, jaw clenching. Shame has a way of intensifying outwards anger, as a way of deflection. She knows this, but it does not make her any calmer. When the Mizukage slams his hand against the desk, she does not flinch, despite the strong possibility that she will find herself the subject of his anger. They are kindred spirits.

She puts her hand on Kita's shoulder, squeezing comfortingly as he and the two Jounin are dismissed. A meadow at night, calm and quiet and peaceful, flows briefly across his senses from Murata's ninshu. Once he's gone, Murata addresses the question that had been directed to her earlier.

"I thought a measure of independence would be good for them," she says. It's pointless to offer more justification for that position, given what has resulted from it. "It was irresponsible of me, and I take full responsibility."

Approving WC claims.

Keita listened on to the topic as things seemed to be getting a bit more interesting. It seemed that the topic was now out in the open and there was nothing else to report about that matter, and now it was just a deliberation between the Kage and potentially himself to see what they were going to do about it. Keita wondered what the Kage wanted when he suddenly said that he and Murata would be the only ones to stay behind as the others left, and so he would simply wait until they left before heading to where Murata was as well, standing next to her and waiting for the Kage's orders.

Kita took a moment to collect himself. It took all his will to keep himself from breaking down totally in the Mizukage's office, and Murata's attempted gesture of kindness, yet he held it together. Kita left the room quickly and rather unceremoniously, giving only a slight bow to his Mizukage before rushing back to his apartment. He wouldn't get much work done that day, and most of it would be spent crying in his bedroom, wishing that he'd never gone to that wretched village in the first place.

Word Count - 88

Total Word Count - 1636

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