The Arms of Fate [Open]

'Can life get any better than this?'

It was early in the evening, roughly nine o'clock, and Ankoku had been busy all day long between missions, training, and squad business - none of which sapped her of her good mood and all which just made it better.

Ankoku inserted the key into the lock of the front door of her shop and turned it. When she heard the familiar click of the lock disengaging she smiled and turned the handle, stepping inside. No sooner had she shut the door behind herself did she get a vibe that something wasn't right. For one thing the lights were shut off which was very strange since her and her younger brother always left at least one on so they weren't stumbling their way through the shop and to the hallway stairs that led upstairs to their apartment. For two there was no music playing which again was odd since it was on nearly twenty four seven because thankfully her and her younger brother had agreeing tastes in tunes. Finally, there was just something in her gut that told her danger.

Ankoku reached out to the left, to where she knew the main light switch of her tattoo shop to be, but before her fingers moving along the smooth wall could find it the light flicked on and a terrifying sight appeared before her eyes. There was her brother, bound and gagged, standing surrounded by seven thugs. Four of the thugs were unarmed, two had switch blades out, and the third was carrying a bat. At her left was the scariest of the men in the room, a person she knew well, someone who she thought she had loved but who had got her hooked on drugs and then pimped her out for money. Ankoku could hear her heart beating in her ear, rapid and fast, and it took all the control she had to keep her breathing from following the same pattern. Ankoku pulled her hand back, wanting as little contact between herself and this man as possible. A grin spread across his face and he took several steps closer while Ankoku took several steps back - that is until her back hit the door of the shop and she could go no further.

"Why are you here?! Get out!", Ankoku demanded, trying hard to keep her voice from shaking with all of her might.

"Now dear, that's not very nice. Think of all we meant to each other.", Tomi cooed as he kept moving closer until his body was pressed up against Ankoku's. Ankoku got a front and center smell of leather, booze, and body oder: so much so that it felt like it was smothering her. In response to his words she spit in his face. Several of the thug chuckled while others looked at each other scared. Tomi wiped his cheek as anger burned through him, where the spit had landed, with the back of the right sleeve of his leather jacket. He glanced back to his men and then took a step away from Ankoku before back handing her across her face which sent her sprawling to the floor feeling dazed - he was strong and toned beneath that jacket, so his hits packed a punch as they always had.

From across the room Ankoku could hear muffled yelling and cursing, as well as laughing. The thugs thought this situation funny, while her brother was lividly mad. Before Ankoku could register anything else she found herself being grabbed and dragged over to her younger sibling. "... You seem to have forgotten your manners Ankoku. You know better than to disrespect me especially in front of my boys. So I'm going to have to teach you a lesson." With that said Tomi snatched up her brother and dragged him over toward the other side of the room. Tomi pulled out a knife, but before Ankoku could utter a word, before he could plead for her brother's life that she was sure was about to be taken Tomi simply cut his bindings and then removed his gag. "Apparently all my lessons before never stuck.. so instead of beating it out of you I'm going to beat it out of him. That's all you care about right? Your little brother?"

Beat. Beat. Beat.

Ankoku's heartbeat grew louder in her ears as her adrenaline and fear began to kick in. Her little brother wouldn't last more than a hit or two against this big bastard no matter how hard he tried. She couldn't just watch Tomi kill him before her eyes without doing anything - even if it meant she was likely to die in his place. Tomi turned his back on her, and the thugs seemed more interested in watching what they thought was going to be a good show than actually making sure she stayed in place. So, in a flash, Ankoku attacked. She launched herself across the difference, wrapping her arms around Tomi's neck and squeezing. "RUN! GO GET HELP! GO! GET OUT OF HERE! I'LL BE ALRIGHT, JUST GO!" Her brother took off out the door like a shot while the thugs began to pull her off of Tomi who was getting red in the face fairly quickly from the lack of oxygen.

Her brother moved through the night as fast as he could, running through the market area. "HELP! Please someone help! HELP! My sister! My sister Ankoku is in trouble! PLEASE SOMEONE HELP!" Were anyone to come running, her brother, hysterical but still smart, would utter out the location to the tattoo shop/apartment that they called home.

Meanwhile, back in the shop, Ankoku found herself being held down spread eagle by the thugs; each one pinning an arm or a leg while the others stood back and kept guard. Tomi was pissed - and apparently had dug a new toy out: a sledgehammer. "You fucking bitch. You stupid fucking bitch. I was going to let you live. I was going to have you at my side, all you had to do was learn your place. Now though? Now you're going to suffer." The sledgehammer was brought up, raised up above his head so that maximum impact could be had. Even as Ankoku struggled to get free she knew the thugs overpowered her easily. So, it was as if in slow motion, she watched the sledgehammer get brought down with all of Tomi's might. It was as if she were someone else watching the scene as the sledgehammer smashed right into the upper portion of Ankoku's right arm crushing it to dust. An agonizing scream ripped out of the female, deafening her in a way, before the shock took over and she blacked out from the traumatizing pain.

Wordies: 1,143

Well, this wasn't good...

Holeman was lying in his bed, dozing. He wasn't exactly trying to go to sleep, he was just lying there, eavesdropping on situations in the village like he usually did every night before passing out. All was still in the household and clinic. Most of the family had turned in, and some of the older members of the Holeman Clan were sitting around, gossiping and smoking as they usually did too.

But then Holeman came upon something that wasn't normal. Something was going on inside one of the shops on the other side of the village. His parents and older siblings often told him to stay from over there, so Holeman figured it was just another one of those bars; those sleaze pits where dirty people went. Holeman didn't often look or listen to what was going on over there, but the noises he heard were getting too loud to ignore. He looked to see a young boy running down the streets yelling for help. His view then shifted to where he'd just run from just in time to see a large hammer come down and turn a female's arm into hamburger.

Holeman was up out of his bed and threw his window, onto the rooftop. He quickly began to head in the direction of the shop, too fast for ordinary eyes to see. He was a red and white blur, jumping from roof to roof, arriving at the shop in seconds. He couldn't waste time here.

The guys in there would see something small and fast enter the shop and begin to pinball its way between them. Hard, vicious strikes would be delivered, knocking grown men airborne and drawing blood. The sounds of fists and feet impacting jaws and other body parts were loud among the chorus of screams. Some were knocked into walls, some were knocked through them. Some fell to the floor twitching strangely, others were foaming at the mouth.

In the end, none would be left standing except for the man with the hammer. He would be left confused, until he saw a small boy come sliding to a stop, with something tied over his eyes. The boy never gave him the chance to speak, because something white formed between his hands, and the boy threw it at him. It hit the man with a loud sound. After another loud scream, the man would be rendered into nothing, and a large hole was blown in the back of the shop.

After sedating the woman, Holeman was gone with her as fast as he arrived. He carefully placed her on one of her clouds and began to head back in the direction of the clinic. Along the way he grabbed up the boy, who had to be some sort of relation to her. "I'm gonna take care of your sister, she'll be as good as new. Don't worry, alright?"

Holeman opened the door to allow the cloud to take the girl in, putting her brother down on his own two feet. He took her into the back room and carefully placed her on the exam table after turning the light on. Holeman stood there a while, looking her over. She was fine for the most part, but her arm was finished. "Hummm... She's ok, but her arm... it might have to go. Too much damage. Even I can't fix it. We might be able to do something to replace it..."

Mitsukai had been out for what was her usual nightly run around the village - running was simply something she felt she could never tire of doing - when she spotted Holeman returning to the clinic with what appeared to be an unconscious teeanger on a cloud and a younger male who looked much like the female with them. What in the world was going on? Mitsukai picked up speed, crossing the distance between herself and the clinic so that she walked in right after Holeman.

She followed him and the others into the backroom, catching what Holeman said about her arm and having to replace it - the damage that had been done was far too great. Mitsukai looked at the girl thoughtfully - she looked like a fighter, as the weights she wore indicated. Perhaps even a shinobi of the village though Mitsukai was unfamiliar with her. For someone who relied on their skills in combat for a living to suddenly lose an arm... well, it could most likely be the end of her career - and that didn't seem like a fair thing.

"What happened to her?", Mitsukai would ask as she made her way over to an empty table and removed one of the pouches off of the belt she wore - it was larger, and covered in fuuinjutsu seals to allow for the storage of much larger items without actually affecting Mitsukai herself movement wise. She began to pull then several pieces out of this pouch, along with tools - she had every intention of building this girl a new arm to replace her old one.

She would wait, and listen, if Holeman explained things to her while working quickly - Weapons Tech was something she knew well, so building a new arm from scratch wasn't entirely difficult. "I'm building her a new arm - won't take me but a moment. I can come up with something more long lasting, more dangerous, later on if she so wishes for an upgrade... but for now this will do to replace the one she's going to lose." Mitsukai's nimble fingers worked quickly and effectively, turning what was several pieces into what would easily resemble an entire arm fairly quickly though it was mainly black with a blue strip down both sides. Finer points were added - including an extra blade hidden inside. The arm would not only function like a normal arm, but could also be used to house weapons such as the hidden blade she had given it. "This'll need attached to her nerve endings.. but it should work and function just like a normal arm. It'll be stronger though, much more, so she'll have to get used to it... probably a good bit above her normal strength level now. It won't be exactly the same as a normal arm - but it's better than losing one completely."

With Mitsukai finished she gave a good and thorough wipe to the thing with nearby sterile pads, making sure that it was clean enough to be attached. She would then hand it over to Holeman - her part in this was done after all: she could build an arm that worked but she knew little about how to appropriately attach one, that was up to him. Not entirely interested in seeing someone get an arm - or what was left of an arm - removed she turned her silvery colored gaze onto her tools and began packing them away again.

Her brother, who was absolutely terrified that his sister was dead, was quite startled when Holeman showed up with her. His words calmed him somewhat, though he didn't understand how such a young kid - a kid not much younger than he himself was - could actually help to fix his sister up. Even as he glanced back at her he knew, without any form of medical training, that her arm was done for. She probably would have been screaming if it wasn't for the fact that she was sleeping, or unconscious? Maybe sedated, if the kid was some kind of medic.

Indeed they were led back to the Holeman Clinic, a place that he had heard about, and inside. While Ankoku remained sedated her younger brother remained fearful - even as he glanced over at what appeared to be some kind of Little Red Riding Hood. The girl pulled a pouch off of her belt and began to buid something while Ankoku's little brother just stood there in shock. Holeman confirmed it - his sisters arm would have to go.

What would she do now? Not only couldn't she be a ninja, but she couldn't be a tattoo artist either. He was too young to support them... though he knew he would try his hardest.

But then the equally young girl revealed an arm that she began to clean up with sterile pads soaked in cleaning alcohol. She then handed this arm to the young boy with his eyes covered. Ankoku's brother was confused, but also in enough shock not to blurt out a million questions, or doubt his senses too much - at least for the time being.

All he could hope for was that this would work - that this arm would replace the one his sister was about to lose and that all would be right again: or as right as it could be.

"Those men... they were evil people. When my sister was younger she thought the guy in the leather jacket loved her. He made her believe it. Then he got her hooked on drugs - pressed her into trying it though I think now she didn't really have a chance. I think he used to do other horrible stuff too, though she won't tell me what that is... When our parents died though she straightened up for me... Is this new arm going to work for her?"

Mitsukai caught up and came in with them. She asked what happened as Holeman was looking the girl over, rubbing his chin, wondering if there was anything he could possibly do to save that arm, but it was too badly mangled.

"Some guys attacked her," Holeman answered. "I donno why. I don't ask questions or try to get into people's business. Got there too late though..." Then Mitsukai was pulling out things and building something. She said it was a new arm. Holeman was sort of surprised and curious as to why she was so quick to do such a thing for someone she didn't know. Saving and helping them was kind of his job, being one of the main village medics and all, but Mitsukai doing something like this... Well, he didn't voice this out loud.

The boy started to explain the story. "Those men... they were evil people. When my sister was younger she thought the guy in the leather jack--" Holeman put a hand up at this point to stop him.

"I don't ask questions," Holeman said. "It's none of my business. If you really have to tell someone why this happened, how about you try Emiko, the Kage. Let's just see about fixing your sister, yeah?' Holeman rolled over a tray that had a canister on it, situating it near the girl's ruined arm. With his left hand, Holeman activated the Mystical Palm Technique, and with his right he formed a Chakra Scalpel, large enough to cut through what remained of her arm. With his left hand on her shoulder she wouldn't feel a thing as the large chakra knife amputated her ruined arm at the shoulder, allowing it to fall into the tray. With his hand still on her shoulder, Holeman attached the new arm Mitsuka just built. It was a very delicate process, and only someone with eyes like his would be able to attach all of the nerves, ligaments and tendons to the new limb. With the process finished, Holeman lightly poked certain places along her neck with the chakra scalpel, watching as the new limb's fingers twitched.

Mystical Palm Technique:

Chakra Scalpel:

Holeman put the tray with her old arm into a dumbwaiter on the left wall, lowering it down onto a hidden floor for later. "Whew!" he said, tossing the Chakra Scalpel airborne, watching it poof into a blue mist. He rubbed his hands together and grinned, looking the girl over again to make sure everything was in working order. Holeman patted the boy on the shoulder. "She'll be as good as new now! Well, that arm might sting a bit for a few days. She'll get used to it though. I didn't give her a whole lot of sedative, so she should wake up soon."


Chakra: 850/900

Mitsukai listened to Holeman's brief explanation and nodded - she too tried to stay out of peoples business. Though, she was kind of breaking her own personal rules here by offering such a gift to a stranger. Still, the girl was built like a physical fighter and clearly only had her little brother: plus she had people after her clearly willing to cause trouble. No, she would be too badly handicapped without Mitsukai's gift.

"Hopefully that arm helps.. I can tell by looking at her she's a phyiscal fighter of some kind. I couldn't imagine being handicapped in such a way... especially with someone so little to look after." The words weren't spoken in a chiding way, they were simply an explanation of why she had done what she did.

Mitsukai yawned softly after that, barely managing to cover her mouth with her hand. "Excuse me... but I need to clean up from my run, and then get some sleep..." She would wave goodbye to Ankoku's little brother before playfully poking Holeman much like he sometimes did her. She disappeared from the room, not really wanting to stick around with as tired as she was - or giving Ankoku the chance to try and pay her back some kind of way because of the arm.

Ankoku's brother simply nodded when Holeman made it clear he didn't want the story. It was quite strange since most people would have, but he didn't press the situation. Instead, he looked toward his sister with her new arm, hoping that things could go back to normal - or as normal as life with a ninja tattooist was. He was also silently kicking himself in his own ass for not having been strong enough to stop the situation in the first place.

Ankoku meanwhile was beginning to wake up. At first things felt almost dreamlike; the last thing she could remember was having her arm crushed and yet she felt no pain. It couldn't have all been a dream because surely she hadn't been dreaming when she got home to find him there. Was she dead then?

Her eyelids flew open at the thought and she found herself staring upwards at a very unfamiliar ceiling. She looked around to see a young female in a red hooded cape leaving the room, another kid who was blindfolded, and her little brother. ".. what?" Ankoku lifted her head and looked down at her arm to find... it wasn't her arm. The limb attached was not her own, in fact, it wasn't even an actual organic limb. It was like some kind of machine. Before she could allow herself to start freaking out she flexed her fingers to find that the arm's fingers indeed flexed like her old fingers would have.

"What's going on? Where am I? ... What happened to my arm?" Had she really been hit that bad with that sledgehammer? She had remembered a lot of pain, but she hadn't really had a chance to get a look at the damage before she had passed out. She looked to her brother suddenly, worry in her eyes. "Are you okay?!"

Her brother grinned, and held up his hands. "Chill, sis. I'm cool., he said before coming over and glancing between his sisters face and her arm - where she continued to absently move her fingers around.

Holeman was poked, but he smirked which was more of a grin, because he wasn't ticklish at all, unlike most kids his age. Mitsukai left, saying she was tired from running like she did; probably something she picked up from Spook. Then the woman was waking up. She looked like she didn't know where she was. She also looked surprised to see that she had a whole new arm.

She asked where she was, what was going on, and what happened to her original arm. "Well, whoever that creep was with the hammer smashed it up pretty bad," Holeman responded. "So my friend Mitsukai made you a new one, and I put it on. You're in the Holeman Clinic, by the way. I coulda took you to the hospital, but they ask too many questions and make a big deal out of stuff. My name's Holeman... It's my clan's name, but it's my name too, since i'm the "chosen one" and whatnot."

Holeman took the bloody sheets and threw them in the hamper. "I beat up those guys in your place. The dude with the hammer is dead. I'll have to apologize, there's some holes and stuff in your walls; a big one in the back from when I blasted that hammer guy. I have a friend named Suna who can do stuff with his mind? Maybe I can convince him to fix it for ya... So yeah, go easy with that arm for a few days, yeah? Might sting for a while. Anything major and come back here, alright?"

Holeman wondered if she would really believe this 10 year old blindfolded kid had actually performed a surgery as complex as this. Many didn't. It just made him grin.