CHP 27: Kurenai?...

~Jacob's Pov~

*Tap~*

The atmosphere was eerily silent, so quiet that even without my enhanced hearing, I could have heard a pin drop. I surveyed the surroundings, taking in the sight of prison cells containing ninjas, many of whom were bloodied and on the brink of death, if not outright gone...

The brutality was stark, some already lifeless bodies a grim showing of how ruthless Orochimaru truly was. I continued walking with him, seeing more one or two more bodies along the cells...

"You know at first... I thought you were an Uchiha... Your eyes look just like the Sharingan, at least, from afar." I heard him say. He's making small talk. Likely trying to feel me out, guys like him liked knowing what they were in dealings with.

"I get that alo-" I looked to the side, and stopped dead in my tracks... The hair, the eyes, the figure... They looked so, familiar...

*Thump...*

'Ku... Kurenai...' I could feel my heart beating... She was here, standing in this grim place. For the first time in my life of travelling, I've never felt my hand tremble this much, and I couldn't shake the emotions flooding through me, emotions of raw wrath...

*Thump...*

It's clear she was tortured, likely for the past few weeks. Bloodied and bruised, almost unrecognizable with the muck and grime on her body. How did she even end up in this situation? How?

I had to keep my cool, Orochimaru cannot die.

I breathed in, and out, calming myself...

"Wait... That woman... Hand her over to me, and you'll get the formula for my seal..."

Orochimaru soon stopped in his tracks, turning around towards me. his eyes sharper than before, then I could see his eyes widen...

"You... Are you really human?" Orochimaru asked, but I didn't answer, he didn't deserve a response from me. Regardless, I could tell he was assessing me, however; I'm no longer in the mood, or in the need to tolerate his condescending bull-shit...

"Either way, that's interesting... I don't particularly like the idea of changing agreements, but... Since this is a better offer, I'll make the exception this time..." He waved his hands.

He made the right decision. I was one more sentence away from completely fucking over canon. I quickly grabbed onto the steel bars, bending and twisting them out of my way, not caring if he liked it, or not.

I placed my cloak over her body to cover her, she looked so weak and small now... I gently picked her up, luckily it seemed like she wasn't assaulted while she was her, if that had happened... No, it's nest not to think about it. I could barely control myself from ending his life as is.

"O-Oh... my - Is-is she alright!?" Ayata was deeply concerned.

I nodded, "Barely, she's hardly clinging onto life..." I couldn't just bring her to the hospital. They'd question me, and I couldn't deal with that now. Fortunately, I had memories, and some experience in dealing with injuries like hers from over the past few weeks...

One minute of not treating her could put her in even worse condition, so I removed my cloak and started the healing process, and in just a few moments, I had found multiple light fractures in her ribs, head, arms and legs, not to mention the ligament damages, slight burn marks and such.

'She put up a fight...', it was obvious she was ganged up on initially. If we had been just a day late, she would have been dead.

"I-I'ts... You..." I heard her voice whisper weakly, I was too concentrated on the injuries that I hadn't even realized she had opened her eyes... I could feel my blood boiling under my skin, and my teeth gnashing together...

"Save your strength Kurenai, give me a few more hours and you'll be fine, okay..." I wanted to reassure her as much as humanly possible. I could tell she was both scared and afraid...

~Omni Pov~

"Good, It looks like her condition is stabilizing... She'll need some food, and water since she hasn't eaten in quite some time..." Ayata said... However, her eyes lingered into him some more...

"Jacob... Your... Your eyes..." Ayata added; hearing this, Jacob looked at her, slightly confused, yet still angry at the whole ordeal, he responded, "Yes?"

Ayata hesitated for a moment, her gaze flickering between Jacob's eyes. "They... they look different," she said softly, almost hesitantly, as if unsure of how he would react. Jacob furrowed his brows, trying to make sense of her words amidst the chaos of the situation. "Different how?" he asked, his curiosity piqued despite the tension in the air...

"They're not, normal... Your pupils and their texture, their almost like a beasts..." Ayata replied, her voice tinged with concern, Jacob said nothing, and quicky went to find the nearest mirror he could hold.

After finding one, he looked at what she was talking about, 'Shit...' I rubbed his temples in a soothing manner, trying to relax himself, 'Since when could my eyes change like this!? Urghh...' now he was just frustrated.

He wished she hadn't seen that, now he didn't know what to tell Ayata. He didn't given her any information, on any of his abilities, and told her he was just a civilian, but now that image was gone...

"H-hey... Jacob? Are you alright...?" She asked, he huffed, "No... Ayata, I'm not... I'd prefer to not speak with anyone either, at least for a little while..." He was careful with hiding his face, not wanting her to see it, however, being as clever as she was...

"Stop... Just, stop hiding them, it's no use since I've already seen it." She added, however, he didn't budge. Instead of taking, she walked up towards him. She gently moved her hand, holding unto his face, caressing it.

He slowly began opening his eyes again, looking into hers, dark brown, orbs peering into blood red ones, "I'm not scared of it, you big oaf. In fact, and personally; I think it kinda suits you." She smiled.

He nodded, "Thanks Ayata... I just --- didn't want to scare you earlier. I didn't know this could happen either...", that much was the truth, 'At least, not voluntarily...' He remarked mentally. Making a note to take more control of his emotions from now on. If he get's too angry, his eyes now changed...

"Well, I was a little bit at first, but, with reading all your expressions as well, I figured you were still you... But, that lady, Kurenai Yuhi I believe. I've seen her come to my library on some occasions; She seemed like someone nice, was she by any chance, important to you?" Ayata asked.

Jacob simply leaned against the wall, shaking his head thoughtfully, "No-Not really, she was the woman I was supposed meet with just a few weeks ago... However, I was a week late, and missed the date. When I came back, I tried to look for her immediately, and I still had no signs of her being in Konoha at the time..."

"Let me guess, you thought she didn't want anything to do with you, right?" Ayata asked while he nodded.

"Truthfully, I didn't want to delve any deeper than that, since our first meeting was sort of abrupt in a sense... I thought I didn't have the place to look, especially since we weren't close to begin with, in fact; This is actually my second time meeting her face to face." Jacob finished...

However, this just left Ayata agitated at the entire situation, "Then why didn't you do something about Orochimaru? You met with him right, so why didn't you at least capture him? He's out there right now committing more atrocities to likely innocent ninjas..." Ayata's voice rose as she spoke.

"I'm not going to lie Jacob, what you do is starting to not make any sort of sense... Your powers, strength and actions seem to contradict what a decent shinobi would do." That--that sentence had hurt him more than it should have. He couldn't even disagree with her.

She came forward, "I know you are capable of it, no man as smart as you would go into the Den of the infamous Orochimaru alone, especially after searching for him... If it was up to me, he would be dead..." She scoffed.

"...And you think I didn't want to lay waste to his entire base? With him and every ninja that served under him?" Jacob responded calmly, yet sharply; Ayata on the other hand had taken a step back due to the sudden release of bloodlust...

'If you only knew... I can't just fuck up the entire future because of all this, killing Orochimaru would be eliminating the chances of Naruto becoming what he should, and likely him being prepared to face any future threats later on in the story...' Jacob thought deeply...

"Kurenai signed up for this kind of treatment the moment she began her path as a shinobi... I'm just glad it wasn't any worse than this." He told her.

What's worse, was that Jacob knew that Orochimaru would one day come to the good side, and even have a son of his own, whilst also benefiting all of Konoha with his mind. Killing Orochimaru would be detriment. As much as he wanted to do it...

Jacob sighed tiredly, "I understand you, I really do; but there's more to this, and that's all I can tell you... Regardless of Kurenai's disposition, let's just be glad that she will be fine. On one hand, I also found something else that might be of importance to us..." Jacob added.

Ayata just rubbed her temples, with a soft expression, "And what was that?" She asked.

"A seal I saw on some of his subjects... and desks. It seems a bit incomplete, but I get the gist of what it is he's trying to pull off..." Jacob said, grabbing a piece of paper, he copied back the seal; down to the very last detail right unto the paper...

Ayata looked carefully, getting the gist as well, "It looks like it's a seal of some kind of empowerment, or at least it should be... But - before we continue, I wanted to ask." Ayata said, and Jacob simply gave her the go ahead...

"What if Kurenai had died instead, would you still have let them go?" She asked.

"...No... That place would have ceased to exist..."

END

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