The Deal With the Devil[Flashback Menza only]

Yui had become desperate with everything failing around her and her plans coming to a halt she needed someone to support her other than Rin. He brother was her strong pillar but he was now dead, she had been researching and found there were people that promised to bring back those they loved. She was unsure how to contact the group but she did have one ally that would very likely know how to revive her brother or a group that could as she would focus on the seal on the bottom of her foot and whisper Menza.

"Menza please I need some help, I know the cost but I am desperate."

She would wait for the man to appear once more, she made sure she did not seem suspicious as she was in her bedroom in her own house. Even if for some reason the village was keeping a close watch on her a male visiting her was not something they likely would care about. If anything they would figure she was doing some promiscuous activities.

Menza...

Menza was minding his business in the lovely Land of Menzagakure when he heard his name called. The Cursed One perked up and smiled, sensing the desperation in the young lass's voice. The seal he had placed on her foot spurred into action and he allowed its effects to grasp him. One minute he was in his palace, and the next he was transported into a plain living room. Menza had utilized his intellect (which was so deep it could be described as a bottomless ocean!) to ascertain that he was not being called for combat purposes. Thus, he did not arm himself or teleport into the area in a transformed state. The amazing and wonderful benefactor looked to Yui with an expression of concern. Menza's "concern face" was far less disturbing than his "amused face". The man's oddly shaped trapezoid eyes and dilated pupils weren't as pronounced when he displayed negative or neutral emotions. Menza had often mused that Nee-san had purposefully kept him miserable and depressed so that he wouldn't ever have to see his smiling face.

Yui made it clear that she knew the cost of calling him. She said she was desperate but judging from their surroundings, the situation couldn't have been that bad. This meant that whatever she needed Menza for, it probably wouldn't require violence. It didn't make a big difference either way but it was still a plus in his mind. He relished opportunities to use his superior intellectual acumen. The man brushed a long strand of hair from his face and spoke in a low voice:

"How can I be of service Dear Yui?"

Suddenly he appeared before her, as he asked the question she had to think how to word it, she needed her brother back alive, her life without her brother had been hell. She felt everything was falling apart and she needed the pillar of support he had always given her. She had to have her bother back at any cost, she had all the power in the world but without emotional support she found herself lacking in being able to deal with difficult situations not involving combat.

"I want you to revive my brother, or find someone that can, I need him alive to support me the best way he can. This village... it has changed no longer does it seem to respect my power or my clan's power instead they tell us we need more than military combat skills to have a clan district. For that I need my brother to help me politically, he was so much better at that then I am, and at the rate, it is going... I am unsure how long I can hold back my rage."

She sounded bitter and angry and cleary when she said she found it hard to hold back her rage it was clear she meant toward the village and its destruction. Something had changed since he had last met her, she was much more bitter and angry, she showed discontent toward the village she loved and clearly was having second thoughts about being part of the village.

Menza wasn't a sadist. He didn't particularly enjoy to see others in pain or distress. However, he was not above inflicting it on others to achieve certain ends. Some would say this classified him as a sociopath. Menza wouldn't disagree but he had always found the term undignified. It was more about not being blinded by empathy or feelings but also having the sense to recognize their utility. Menza could see that Yui was not holding up very well without her brother. She was frustrated, headstrong, and clearly unstable. Menza entertained the idea of refusing her request. He was curious to see what would happen if Yui was forced to go through the world alone and without assistance. He knew that she was a powder keg waiting to blow, and part of him wanted to see what would happen when she went: BOOM. Part of why he had granted her the Iwagakure Kinjutsu was because he knew that she'd probably upset the order of things. His organization had a reputation for holding discipline and order in high regard, but as a chaotician, he knew that rebirth could not be achieved without some sort of catalyst. And catalysts worked best when they were reactive and explosive.

But Menza was a man of his word (or he tried to be). He was not a liar nor did he like to see Yui in pain. He had promised that if she called for him, he'd lend his aid to the best of his ability. The cost of his services was not free nor would it be cheap, but he'd render them as best as he was able. Therefore, he decided to help her although he would keep this line of thought in the back of his head.

A cornered and frightened Yui? Hm, I would have liked to see what she can do...

"Oh my. I'm sorry for your loss..." Menza tucked a hand under his chin as he considered what his options were. The first thing that he'd need to find out was the cause of death. "How did he die?" Menza asked. There were different strategies depending on the cause of death, but since Yui had neglected to elaborate on how he died, Menza would ask. In truth, he could probably make an accurate guess but having her explain would actually yield more useful information about the situation.

Menza seemed concerned and a lot different than the last time she had met him, he had asked how he died as Yui began to prepare to tell him. She teared up a bit as she had lost her entire family to this disease. This damn plague had killed so many lives, she would find a way to end this across the land, somehow, someway she would help end its source.

"He died to the plague like my entire family, my bother died later but my mother and father died early on. They all died to that cursed disease... but please find a way to bring him back... I need him..."

Her eyes held tears it was clear all the pressure put on her was making her like a bomb about to go off, very little was holding her together. She hoped he could do this, but she also wondered what he would request from her for his actions. She had a price to pay for bringing her brother back from the dead. It was not a combat situation, so maybe it would not be as severe but she was willing to do anything to get her brother back. Looking at the man he was not actually half bad looking, quite a pretty boy, as Yui blushed lightly before taking her gaze off his features.

Menza noticed that Yui was a bit shy in his presence. He was aware of the effect he had on some women. He didn't consider himself a dreamboat, but he had used his looks to his advantage more than once. Setting aside her obvious attraction, Menza considered the problem at hand. The plague was a virulent and lethal disease. It would not be easy to reverse death in such a case, but it was possible.

If Yui had told him that Taichi had died in combat that would have been a far more difficult situation. Edo Tensei could raise the young man but he wouldn't be the same. He would exist as a paper mache copy of his old self. He'd be more of a slave and less of an actual person. Menza guessed that this was not what Yui had in mind. Worse yet, his own liege would not take kindly to him utilizing Edo Tensei for a matter as trivial as this.

The plague was a bit "easier" in a sense. Menza was one of the world's foremost experts on the disease. However, even his own knowledge on it was quite shallow. He had no idea on where it had come from and how precisely it functioned. He had managed to isolate it and acquire a healthy amount of information on a few of its properties though. After he had started working on his liege's projects in earnest, he had abandoned his experiments on that front. He had gained what he needed and so when another group attempted to recruit him for the purpose of doing research on the plague, he refused. He opted to sell them his research instead and from that transaction, he kept in regular contact with them. The group was ultra-secretive and based on his understanding, they worked underground in the literal sense.

He soon learned that the organization's scientific expertise was beyond compare. If he was not engaged with the Society, he'd have been tempted to join them. They had managed to help humanity gain resistance to the plague and had actually found a "cure" of sorts. The cure was costly and involved materials that could not be found on this planet. As a result, it was rare for them to actually deploy it. Menza knew very little about their methods but he had heard rumors about its effectiveness. The cure was able to literally use the plague as a vehicle to reverse the effects of death. Reconstituting, rejuvenating, and reanimating corpses long after the spirit had left the body. With a working body, the spirit was probably called back from the Pure World naturally as opposed to by force as was the case with Edo Tensei. This was at least Menza's conjecture on how the procedure worked. In reality, he was completely in the dark.

The organization was quite selective on whom they used the cure on. They tended to prioritize the politically important, young, and of course those who had a high probability of responding well to the miracle cure. There was some randomness mixed in for fairness sake. The average person had a 1 in a million chance of being resurrected. It was better than nothing but Menza was certain Yui could not rely on those odds. He had contacts with the group and he was certain that he could convince them to use their cure on Taichi. If it worked, then he'd be brought back to life as if nothing had ever happened.

It would cost him a lot of social capital with the group though. They didn't like being told what to do. Nevertheless, he had promised to render aid when she called and that is what he would do. Yui was desperate but she had thought this through. She had lost everyone but the one person she could not live without was clearly her brother. Menza was not touched by the sentiment but he could understand the rationality behind it.

"I can help you Yui Kotoshura. I'm sure you've heard of the resurrections of deceased plague victims? It's a rare occurrence and I happen to know the group responsible. They have created a miracle cure that can reverse death and restore the victim to life. Its as if they never even contracted the plague in the first place. I'll contact them and do my very best to convince them to bring your brother back."

Menza expected Yui to be very happy, and he was happy that she was happy. He didn't give a rat's ass about her brother, but if she was happy with his services then she would have no grounds for refusing his own request when the time came. Menza clasped his hands behind his back and spoke in a clear tone once she had reacted (probably favorably) to the news.

"Yui, I need you to gather up all the information you have on your brother. I need his complete medical history, where his body is being kept, his academic records, pretty much all the paperwork on his existence. I'd prefer it if you found a way to gather this information in a discrete manner. Its not an easy task but it is an important one. Our friends in this fight against the plague are big on secrecy."

She waited for his answer before he finally told her he could help her, she could not be happier with tears coming from her eyes before wiping them away. She would still owe him of course as he explained she needed to gather the information in secret. This was not an issue as clan head she had access to all his files and often would be seen reading them in the past so nothing would seem out of place. Many had heard her years ago claim he had been targeted and assassinated so they likely would only believe she was back at the investigation again.

She would move from the living from motioning for Menza to follow as she opened a room with the walls covered in papers and articles about the dead being risen. Inside the room were tons of files on her brother and even a board with strings and pictures for those who she suspected was somehow involved in her brother's death. It was a shocking look at how far down the rabbit hole her mind had really gone in search for revenge for her brother's death.

"Most files on my brother are located here, his body is buried in our home nation of Iwa, int he old clan grounds. He will have a large gravestone with his name on it and you won't be able to miss it. I am pretty sure I can get his academy records quite easy if I request them, after all, I am the clan head and me researching my brother isn't out of the ordinary."

If Menza looked at the board he would see the society circled with some names mentioned such as Honiko. Other various names were mentioned missing-nin she suspected caused the initial start of the plague. She also had reports where it originated from and where the massive outbreak began to spread, it was quite thoroughly covered, though she had no idea if someone made this or it was caused by too many people being close together.

Menza's trapezoid eyes widened a bit at what awaited him on the other side of Yui's investigation office. The girl was truly obsessed with bringing her brother back. He noted that several of the articles and newspaper clippings were related to the miraculous resurrection of plague victims. The details were scant but if someone were deranged enough to find each incident and take careful note of it, they'd notice some similarities. It would take a person of above average intelligence to do such a thing which meant that at a minimum Yui was not as simple-minded as he had originally believed. Yui gave him the details and he nodded in response. The Cursed One didn't take notes of her words as he had a photographic and audio-acoustic memory. Nonetheless compiling the paperwork would help him produce a dossier for the organization.

"Excellent work Yui. This is going to move faster than I thought."

Menza would spend the next few hours reading over some of the information and then teleporting it away to his office back in Menzagakure. After all was said and done, he'd have all of the information she'd gather along with his files and the place where his body was stored. He would take it from here. He'd also put a Flying Thunder God Seal on her so that she could be summoned straight to him if he needed her.

"Okay Yui. I have everything I need. I'll be in contact periodically to let you know of my progress. Eventually, your brother will return to Konoha and resume life as though nothing happened. I suggest you keep the details of his resurrection secret and simply tell him that he has recovered or if he is aware of the strange circumstances do your best not to mention me or the organization. And I when I say best, I mean please do not mention us....at all. Furthermore, I will visit you again at a time of my choosing and we'll discuss your repayment of my debt in greater detail. I fully expect your brother will be brought back to you but in return you must not balk at paying me what you owe. What is given can be taken away. Anywho, ta-ta for now!"

And with that Menza teleported out of Yui's house. In the coming days she'd experience a miracle.

Exit.