A Good Light

Akame awoke, more groggy than she had ever been at any point in her life. Lifting her eyelids felt about as possible as lifting a mountain with one hand at the moment and it was all she could do to focus her mind and form a thought; what the fuck happened? Still not opening her eyes, she instinctively reached out with her mind to read the signatures of those around her. Much to her dismay, her sensory range was pitiful compared to what it had once been. To be honest, that she could even use her sensory capabilities at all was a miracle in and of itself the way she felt.

The readings that came back to her from the surrounding fifty meters or so let her know that there were a lot of people lying prone. Just like she was. Why was she laying prone, on her back? As a matter of fact, what the hell was this tube going down her throat and why hadn't she noticed it before. She tried to groan but nothing came out except a weak choking sound.

Don't force it, you'll only hurt yourself, she thought. Thank the heavens she was naturally intelligent and able to use that intelligence like muscle memory. Just like the well trained warrior she was, Akame ceased struggling to avoid damaging herself with the tube. She had to think, had to feel. She had to focus. There were tubes in her nostrils too, forcing air into them. That was annoying, just as the tightly tucked blankets covering her body were annoying though in a different way. Moving her legs was just as difficult as opening her eyes had been. More so, actually, as they appeared to have atrophied. Bad sign... bad sign...

She flexed her left hand, her primary hand, finding that her grip strength was virtually nonexistent. Her arms were atrophied too it seemed. But there was one thing that had not changed, one thing that was still coursing through her. Her curse. She felt the familiar power begin flowing into her at a pace more than a trickle now that she was conscious and moving around a bit. The little bit of strength it provided reinvigorated her body, only ever so slightly but at the same time just enough.

Heavy eyelids fluttered open weakly, scarlet eyes peering at a white tiled ceiling. They still held their enthralling scarlet color, a deep, rich shade of the color. No amount of sleep could ruin those. Weak muscles began to move again, knees creaking as they bent of their own volition for the first time in months. The blankets came off and Akame carefully pulled the feeding tube out of her mouth, gagging and drooling everywhere as she did so. She coughed and hacked as she pulled the air tube from her nose, rolling to the side of the bed that didn't have an end table nearby. Instead, it had a couple chairs. And she tumbled right into both of them, her legs forgetting how to hold her weight.

Akame collapsed to the floor in a heap after bouncing off the two chairs and crumpling from the sudden impact. She sense people nearby moving her way, likely hearing some noises from her room as she struggled to get up. To her dismay, she was wearing a hospital gown that also happened to open up near the back in a very undignified fashion. Brain on autopilot, she wove a few sloppy seals and managed a barely passable Transformation Jutsu to change the hospital gown into a dress that looked the exact same with the back covered. It was a simple addition and one she could maintain even in her current condition.

The nurses got to her room as she was managing to push her way to her feet, skin a slightly darker color than usual as she used a bit of her curse in order to perform the basic function of standing. Akame barely heard the two nurses as they berated her and ordered her back to bed, another realization coming to her.

She couldn't feel the beast inside of her anymore, nor could she sense the seal that had been on her. Two emotions flowed through her at that thought; relief, and devastation. She had been hoping to become a more useful asset to the village, and instead she had gotten sick somehow and had that potential taken from her. It was disappointing, likely mostly to herself only, and it beat on her pride that she of all people hadn't been strong enough. The nurses managed to get her to sit back down, her color returning to normal. They hadn't even noticed with their tirade of threats and warnings distracting them from the oddity. Akame hunched forward, leaning on her knees with her elbows as they performed tests on her vital functions. Her arms were so small now, all from the inactivity she had been subjected to. Likely her entire body was like that, and that would require work to change.

Akame remained silent as the tests went on, a doctor coming into the room to check on her personally. An ANBU ranked shinobi coming out of a coma was likely to be big news. She wondered briefly if her rank as ANBU Captain still held. Probably not. They couldn't go without a captain for too long, and juding by how she felt... yeah, they had to have a new captain by now. Her mind cleared more as time went on, her sensory abilities expanding into near what they had once been. Thankfully, they didn't rely on the strength of the body itself too much to draw the ability forward.

Now that she looked around the room, she saw that it was fairly well furnished. She was also alone, having no room partner like other patients likely did. Didn't want anybody potentially faking illness to try and kill her, more than likely. There were multiple chairs and a table not including the two she had basically toppled over as she fell out of her bed earlier. Good to know people were at least comfortable if they came to see her. Heavens only knew how exhausted she still felt, her throat raw. She absently wiped the spittle that had gone unnoticed in the excitement from her chin and cheeks with one hand before wiping it on her gown. As the doctor approached with a needle, Akame reach out and grasped his hand. She had a bit of strength left, and the action stopped the doctor. "No. Out," she said hoarsely, her voice as broken and jagged as her throat told her it should be. The two nurses and the doctor froze and debated for a moment, wondering if they should try and force her down or not. "Ple-*hack*," she began, wheezing at the effort. "Please. Alone." After another moment, they relented and left the room to leave her to her thoughts.

The pathing of information in the city was incredibly fast. From the nurse to the doctor to the ANBU and to Nariko. When it came to something Nariko cares a lot about, she had already made preparations, and Nariko cared about Akame. Thus it was that the chain of events reached Nariko almost immediately. A member of the ANBU rushed into Nariko's office. "Akame. She's awake." Before he had even finished saying anything, Nariko had already begun to stand up and move. All she needed to know was that it was about Akame.

-

Akame had been out for several months, and Nariko had actually begun to start losing hope that she would even wake up. The plague had been more or less stabilized by this point, as the medical community had learned how to curb the death portion of the plague, but it did leave people in coma's on occasion, so the waking process hadn't quite been dealt with. Akame was one of those that hadn't ever woken up after being cured. It had gotten to the point that Nariko had finally decided to pull out the 1 tails from Akame and transfer it to someone else.

This had only been recently, so perhaps that had something to do with Akame waking. It was a little awkward, honestly, to have to explain that she had already handed the tailed beast away. Nariko herself had been more or less sequestering her own tailed beast, since she couldn't take the time to master it with so much having been going on lately. Still, it had been experimental fuuin that had allowed Nariko to even transfer Akame's seal without killing her, so she wasn't sure it was replicatable anyhow. Nor would it be fair to the twins to take back the beast. It created a weird situation for Nariko to have to talk about.

-

Entering into the hospital, Nariko didn't do much more than flash her hat at the desk. They knew her, and they knew she'd be coming as soon as she found out that Akame had woken up, or in the previously thought of more likely event that she passed. Nariko was wearing a simple jumpsuit, the same as most chuunin or jounin would, although she didn't have her tools or armor on currently. Apart from the Raikage hat, Nariko hadn't really geared up at all. Her hair was back in the usual ponytail, and her headband was missing, having been left on her desk. It was obvious that Nariko hadn't been slow about arriving.

Moving down the hallway to Akame's room, one she had been given in a more secluded portion of the hospital so that she wasn't disturbed by anyone who shouldn't be there, Nariko moved to the door, and gave a sharp knock on the wood. She waited a couple of seconds so that she wasn't just walking in on her, and then she would enter into the room.

There she was. A little thin, a little weaker looking, but awake, and alive. Nariko's mouth moved into a very relaxed and relieved smile. "I'm glad to see you finally wake up. I'm impressed with how lazy you are. Longest nap in the world." The Raikage was known to crack jokes. She wasn't an overly serious person unless she needed to be. To be fair, Nariko didn't even particularly want to be the Raikage, she never would have imagined herself being in this position when she was growing up. Even when she had taken office, she hadn't expected she would still be in charge. Seriousness wasn't her natural state.

Akame sensed Nariko's presence as she entered the building, long before she actually got to her room. The ANBU sighed, still absolutely exhausted. She likely looked like it, too, and was far from presentable to the Raikage. Not that she really had much of a choice, but it still irked her a little bit inside. As Nariko made her way down the hallway, Akame would will herself to stand and face the door on the side of her bed closest to it.

Right hand over her breast, feet shoulder-width apart, left arm tucked behind her back, Akame stood at attention. Haggard, exhausted beyond belief, and more hungry than she had ever been before, the energy to greet her kage appropriately was still found. When she knocked on the door frame, Akame would bend at the waist only slightly. It was the most she could manage without the threat of falling forward. Kneeling was out of the question entirely but this was something that she felt she could manage.

"My lady," she croaked when Nariko entered the room. The Raikage greeted her with a jest that prompted a weak smile from Akame. "I've never slept very well, Lady Raikage. The more I get, the less it matters."

Her voice was still ragged from not being used in months alongside a raw throat from her pulling her own feeding tube out. Not the brightest move, but she was groggy and a little panicked. The damage would heal just like any other. Still, she kept her sentences short as she worked muscles that hadn't been worked in what felt like a century. Perhaps she could find a medical shinobi and pay them to heal her... eh, that was something to worry about later.

Nariko was dressed casually which was expected. Akame knew her kage wasn't one beholden to tradition, the humorous greeting she had given earlier being proof of that. It wasn't something Akame could bring herself to do until told that it was appropriate to do so and Nariko frequently did just that. Ever a stickler, Akame still tried to greet her superiors appropriately. Her own appearance could best be described as 'distraught'. There wasn't much dignity for Akame in the situation, with Nariko's casual attire looking like a ball gown compared to the thin hospital gown Akame was being forced to suffer with. Regardless, the ANBU would stand at attention until put at ease by Nariko. Should the raikage be merciful enough to do so, Akame would right herself and clasp her hands behind her back to help keep the posture. A light smile still gracing her lips, Akame would greet Nariko more casually. "It's good to see you, Nariko-san."

Nariko entered the room, and Akame was already standing at attention in some form of salute. It was very typical of the former ANBU captain to be incredibly formal and aware of her surroundings, but Nariko wasn't having any of it. Still, Akame managed to make a joking remark in reply to Nariko, which the Raikage was appreciative of. It was nice to see her awake again.

"Go ahead and have a seat, no need to stand on my behalf." Nariko said, pulling up a seat for herself and plopping down into it. "I came here to check in on you and fill you in a bit on how things have been the past few months, not to have you collapse because you want to respect me properly." It was fairly evident that Akame had suffered at least a temporary set back when it came to physical ability, but that would probably be quickly rectified with a strict physical therapy regimen. She wasn't too worried about that. "And no need to worry about your shinobi duties until you're in a place where you are comfortable with it. I'm not here to ensure you extend your stay in the hospital."

She sighed and leaned back into the chair. Hospital furniture wasn't the most comfortable thing, but it wasn't the worst thing she'd ever sat in. "It's good to see you too. Things have been a little.... hectic. On the whole though, Kumogakure has been improving, even though there's been some... less than favorable circumstances."

If Akame was willing to listen to her now, instead of having some small chit chat beforehand, Nariko would get right into it. It would let Akame rest her voice a little bit and absorb the information as it was relayed rather than segmenting it all into tiny conversations about each little thing.

"So, ah... where to begin. I guess, the previous exams. You fell into your coma shortly after the Society arrived, so I suppose you don't know anything past that. Luckily, they went off more or less without a hitch with no infighting. Kumogakure's showings were top notch, with Ryuko and Shimiko making quick work of most of the competition for the higher level tournament. Sad to say, Ryuko ended up falling ill as well, and so their match was cancelled. Honiko's lieutenant, the Jinchuuriki Nozomi ended up beating Shimiko for the final round, and ended up proving she was a more than capable fighter. We managed to get some pretty useful information about her fighting methods and a good gauge on her abilities, which was a plus."

She shifted slightly. "The exams themselves were cancelled after the first round, due to some sort of emergency in Konoha. Rumor has it the Hokage was assassinated, although there's been no conclusive evidence as to who did it yet as far as I am aware. The Jounin Masuyo took over for a while as a stand in, but there is now a permanent filler for that position again. The hokage is interested in having another round of exams soon though, and has seen fit to follow my example and invite all the other nations, major and minor. We've had to postpone for various reasons, but hopefully those get resolved soon."

"Uhm.... some other information. Kirigakure. One of our shinobi went rogue, Lei? While we were attempting to apprehend Kiri's Jounin Ken for various war crimes in the Land of Demons, we sent Lei to deliver a message to Natsuru in Kiri, but apparently he attempted to kill various members of Kirigakure, including the Mizukage at the time. Shortly after this, Natsuru withdrew from the military, and returned to her family's homelands. I sent in Shimiko, who took your place as ANBU Captain while you were out of commission, to deal with Lei's actions, but she's short tempered and may have exacerbated situations with the current Mizukage, so our current standing with Kirigakure is strained at best."

Nariko wasn't pleased at all with the way that Shimiko handled the situation down there, but it was done with at this point, and there had been no militant actions taken, so there was nothing to be done about it now. "Luckily, we apprehended Ken with little issue, he more or less gave himself up and is acting in full cooperation with Kumo. We staged a trial for him, and then set up an escape, so he can infiltrate the Society in your stead, as you were my original choice but, again, were unavailable. In exchange for this, we are going to keep his daughter, for leverage, and to keep her safe as well. Once the Society is destroyed, he will have earned a pardon from Kumogakure, and can leave."

Looking a little uneasy when it came to talking about Akame's unavailability, Nariko took a breath. "I've been working on increasing Kumo's military forces. We now have a massive naval fleet that should be able to deal with any real navy. I... also approved the transfer of your tailed beast, so we had it available. There wasn't a guarantee that you'd survive the transfer, it was an experimental thing, but I waited as long as I could. I didn't expect that you'd wake up so soon after. I'm glad you did though."

Akame gratefully did as ordered, sitting on the bed with a small plop. Her back remained rigid as she moved her hands into her lap, watching as Nariko made herself comfortable. Nariko told Akame that she was temporarily relieved of duty in order for her to recover. She understood the reasoning behind that with as weak as she currently was. There were likely many chuunin that could defeat her if she had to fight tomorrow, if she was being honest. Being this weak made her resolve to buy half a cow to eat for dinner the night she got home from the hospital. Food was a key part of getting lost muscle back, and meat had the protein required for quick growth. There were to be many feasts in Akame's near future. She hadn't said anything when she first woke up, but in the back of her mind she swore she had heard the cries of fear from a herd of cattle somewhere in the distance.

When Nariko spoke about there having been bad circumstances while she was out, Akame raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "How... unfortunate," she asked, her voice drawing down at the end of the last word in an apprehensive question. With that, Nariko began to explain. After the first paragraph, the ANBU would nod slowly one time though her mind was drawing a blank on the faces of all but Shimiko since Akame had read her file more than once. Reading up on the exams would have to be the first thing she did when she was released from the hospital. She needed to know what people could do, particularly the ones who made it to the quarterfinals. Those were always the ones to watch.

The next few tidbits were a little surprising to Akame but she managed to hold back any kind of expression of that emotion. The parts about strained relationships with Kirigakure was no surprise to Akame. The two nations had been at each others throats for virtually their entire existence. Even before the shinobi villages existed, her ancestors had fought against people from the archipelago to the south. That there hadn't been open war between the two villages yet was the surprising part of all this in Akame's opinion. Not that she wanted to go to war or anything, but she was being pragmatic about the situation.

Taking on a rogue shinobi and using his daughter as a hostage in order to infiltrate the society due to Akame's absence came as a complete shock, however, and after hearing that particular string of information her face would show a hint of that shock. Her mouth was open slightly and her eyebrows were raised a little. Nariko sounded serious when she said that this man was to bring the Society down by himself. Akame herself had been a victim to one of their members, or at least she was mostly sure that it was one of them, and it hadn't even been a fight. She had just lost, so this "Ken" person must be fairly powerful in order to have Nariko's trust with this.

"Interesting..." Akame muttered to herself as she mulled over the information she had been given while Nariko finished speaking. This was the part she had been waiting on, and dreading. It was as she thought; the beast inside of her was gone. Once Nariko finished, Akame would take a second to gather her thoughts before replying.

"Thank you," she started with a light smile, "and it's fine. No reason to let a tool sit in the body of someone who had a good chance of dying." She chuckled a little as she said this next part slowly to avoid straining her throat. "I wouldn't doubt if that thing being inside of me helped cause the illness, actually. Having that thing inside of me... I was only really half kidding about the sleep earlier. It actively tried to make the nightmares worse," she said with a tinge of distaste to her tone. "I'll find something else that can make me as valuable to Kumogakure as that beast did. Without the coma, hopefully," she said with the same smile. "How's, uh... your beast doing?"

Nariko quickly reacted to expand more on the situation with the daughter as a hostage. "I wasn't the one in charge of getting Ken Tetsudashi to agree to this mission. That was Shimiko's doing. I don't have any intention on killing an innocent girl, regardless of her parents, but the threat is still there. My moral compass isn't a well known thing, otherwise the threat might not have worked. However, I also don't quite expect that Ken will actually be able to complete his goal, and I truly believe he deserves to die. My hope is that he can do enough damage to them before he goes down that none of the other nations need to worry about the Society. They already were major players when it came to the destruction of the Blood Prison in the land of Grass from what I hear."

"As for the Bijuu, I.... don't really know. We more or less leave each other alone for the moment. I haven't been letting myself be compromised to train up at all. Shimiko's been tied up with missions and stabilizing our country, so I don't have anyone who can actually subdue me should I lose control of the beast. I get the sense that he's a very honorable creature though, so as far as it goes, could definitely be worse. I couldn't imagine not being able to sleep well on top of my job."

Nariko looked down towards her stomach, where the seal had been placed. She'd spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the purpose of choosing her to carry it had been, but she didn't know who had done it or why. Even after all this time, she wasn't any closer to figuring it out. Perhaps she had simply been meant to have it. More likely, there was some sort of trap, and it was meant to release the beast at some point, while also killing two of Kumogakure's top shinobi in the process. But if that was the case, it had been a long time with no sign of weakening the seal.

She had lost a lot of sleep over the worry of the Bijuu, but it hadn't been because of anything the beast had done itself. As far as she could tell, the seal was a very sturdy one, with little danger of the beast actually getting out beyond overuse, much like any seal. But honestly, she hadn't wanted to use it or train it when there was nobody else around who could actually do anything to try and stop her if she lost control. It could end disastrously for the village otherwise. As long as neither of them bothered each other, for the time being, it seemed to be good enough to maintain a decent status quo.

Nariko apparently noticed Akame's shocked expression, providing more information about this Ken fellow. Akame didn't really care why Nariko did it, she was the Raikage and it wasn't really her place to question Nariko's decisions. Especially when she didn't have any inkling as to the current state of affairs. It had just surprised her when her guard was down is all. The news on Nariko's bijuu was also somewhat a surprise. Her own experience with a bijuu had been less than pleasant, so for the seemingly large difference in personality between Akame's lost bijuu and Nariko's bijuu to be so prominent surprised the ANBU.

"A respectful bijuu... that's a good thing, I think. Mine was an asshole," Akame said with annoyance. With a sigh, Akame would lean back onto her hands rather than sit straight up as she had been. Today was a lazy day, what with the coma and all, so why not enjoy it? But despite that, a desire to know what was going on in the world filled her thoughts. Not knowing was annoying to her and knowing there was little she could do at the time to remedy that made the feeling even worse.

Still focused on Nariko, Akame would mull over a couple questions for a moment before asking one of many. "What of the Society currently? Have they been active outside of their machinations here inside of Kumogakure, like forcing bijuu into people? Any other nations hosting them?" Nariko had said that Ken took her place on infiltration, but that didn't mean Akame couldn't glean more information just in case Ken failed and she needed to go after all. Thinking about what the could possibly entail was a little daunting in all honesty. It meant she would more than likely have to face whoever had planted a bijuu inside of her and perhaps even fight them. That wasn't exactly a prospect she looked forward too if she was going to be honest with herself. Not many people could evade her detection as well as that of the Raikage simultaneously and then put both out of commission at the same time. Sure, they had been tired, but what had happened to them had been a display of raw power.

And it was effective in one thing; Akame wanted to know more. Why her? Why Nariko? Why do it in the first place to anybody instead of just keeping the two beasts for yourself? None of it really made any sense to her, and she wanted that rectified. Killing the people within the organization would be next if she had her way, but again, there was the issue of that one particular member. All of it made her head hurt a little and reminded Akame that thinking about that stuff right after waking up from months in a coma was certainly unhealthy.

Nariko frowned. She'd touched on it earlier, but nodded. "Last we heard, the Society was in operation in the Land of Grass. They were major players in the destruction of the Blood Prison. Some details place, specifically, Nozomi Himitsu as one of the foremost in the attack, personally killing the Warden and many who defended. Bayushi Sojima assisted heavily in destroying the walls, using the Nature Clan abilities. Honiko kept reinforcements from being able to join and help the prison. There were many other criminals who assisted, but there's no confirmation on whether any others of the Society had actually participated."

It was a little infuriating how little information on the Society ever made it back to her. "I still don't actually know where their home base is. Information on them is admittedly sparse. Either the other nations haven't pulled up anything either, or they aren't sharing any information they do have."

She wished she knew more. It wouldn't be as simple as finding them and killing them. There was so much information on the Society that was unknown, so even killing the more well known members might not accomplish all that much. It could even hinder progress on taking them down once and for all. If they lost all connection that they knew of the Society, it could simply slip back into the shadows completely. At least with Honiko and Nozomi and Bayushi, there was a connection there. A thread to follow.

One of Nariko's first comments in her response caused Akame to sit upright again. "They destroyed the Blood Prison?!" That piece of information truly shocked her. The Society was powerful enough to destroy the Blood Prison? Definitely a large problem, then. Despite just waking up, her mind was working to try and piece information together and come up with some kind of an idea to try and combat a threat that large. It was instinctual on Akame's part, but she couldn't really come up with much right now. A handful of shinobi, not even a full squad, took out one of the most heavily defended places on the continent and apparently without a single casualty on their part. Akame's hand found its way to her chin, index finger curled up over her lips as her face drew down into an expression of concentration on her part. These bits of information were not good, not good at all, especially considering that Kumogakure knew little to nothing from what Nariko was saying.

"Nozomi is a Kirigakure rogue, and Bayushi is one of our own. These two are seemingly two of their brightest, or perhaps their elites even. Many of their known deeds in the world at large have taken place on the eastern half of the continent, in these two lands particularly or their surrounding area..." she began, trailing off at the end as she muttered the last few words in an accidentally expressed thought. Realizing that she had spoken this though, Akame looked back at Nariko and dropped her hand as an intense look entered her enrapturing eyes.

"Do you know of any attacks in the Land of Wind or Earth, my lady? Not just related to the Society, but in general. Perhaps in the surrounding minor nations, or even the Land of Fire? I know you want me to relax, but I can still think for the village at least." Akame had heard of a mysterious forest fire that had started around an old temple in the Land of Fire not too long ago, right around the time Nariko and Akame had gotten their bijuu forced into them. That event had overshadowed Akame's interest in most other things going on at the time, for understandable reasons. People had said that there were wounded shinobi involved, though not much else was known and she paid it little heed at the time. Perhaps she was connecting dots that didn't exist, but still, the Society had made an appearance in multiple lands now so a presence in the Land of Fire wouldn't surprise her. Considering that their every appearance tended to end with violence and destruction... well, it was an idea to keep in mind.

For now, since she couldn't do a blasted thing physically, she would use her brain. At the very least, she could think on this to try and figure out something that maybe someone else had missed. She hoped that Nariko had a little more information on the topic, but if not then there were a few other things Akame had in mind to research. She had a feeling that she'd be in the archives a lot, digging for information on the eastern parts of the continent. Any little holes they may have overlooked, places that nobody would have thought to check before. This Society was getting out of hand and nothing could be done until they were found. They had to be somewhere, after all.

Akame certainly wasn't prepared to hear that news, and Nariko couldn't particularly blame her. There had been a full siege on the Prison, and it was one of the most fortified places in the entire world, so the fact that it had fallen wasn't really a good thing. She had already had some plans to talk to some of the other nations about establishing a new prison for the world's criminals, set apart from the mainland and surrounded by a major fleet comprised of multiple nation's armies so that taking down such a place would be impossible.

Akame immediately started thinking, something Nariko had missed. That woman didn't really like to slow down at all. Especially given that the Society was a major threat. Akame seemed to relish the chance to take on such a challenge as they presented, a worthy use of her intellect. Simply put, Akame was one of the most intelligent people in the country, so Nariko always appreciated hearing her thoughts and keeping her informed. Her intelligence had been one of the reasons she had been in charge of the entire ANBU outfit.

"There was something in the Land of Earth a while back. I'm afraid I don't particularly know all that much about that. Besides the Land of Grass, nothing much has been on the radar of the world. I'm assuming there was an attack on Konoha around the time you fell into your coma. We had to cut the Chuunin Exams short because the Konoha-nin were called to return for some emergency. I'm assuming that the Hokage at the time had been assassinated, given that there is now another one. So shortly after a call for emergency, that's the most logical explanation."

Nariko wished she could provide more information, but she'd been focusing her resources more inward and towards Kumogakure than anything else. The other nations weren't a particular concern for her to send scouts to. Her lands were defended, the seas covered by her fleet. As long as the Land of Lightning was safe, she didn't care what the other villages were doing at the moment. Perhaps she should have been, so she could have given more information than that, but that's all she had.

Akame nodded slowly at the raikage's response. It was as she had expected, there really wasn't that much to go on. Once she had recovered more, she would have to dig into this herself in order to answer all of her questions. "I see..." Akame sounded somewhat detached with her short reply. This was not the fault of Nariko, it was just the result of Akame being in thought about everything she had discovered in the last hour or so after waking. It was quite a rush to get so much new information all at once.

Her throat felt better too, speaking coming easier to her now that she had managed to recover a little from the shock of it all. Despite that, there was one thing Akame was sure of; she was tired. Despite all that sleep she had just gotten, her body was utterly exhausted. With that in mind, Akame would let out a sigh and lean back on her hands again.

"All of this is quite intriguing, I have to admit that. I'd like to investigate further if that's alright with you. Perhaps I can find a way into this Society with a bit of time," she began. A smile crept to her face. "But I must also admit that I'm utterly exhausted. I'm sorry my lady, but I can barely keep my eyes open. Can I..." she yawned at this point, covering her mouth with her left hand to be respectful. "... can I report to you tomorrow, pleaes?"

Akame expressed interest in finding her way into the Society, and Nariko knew if anyone could figure a way out to do so, it would be Akame. Still, she needed some training before she was ready for that. Physical therapy to get her back up to par, the works. They'd done well in keeping her alive and tried to keep her muscles exercised, but a ninja needed more than what their medical staff could do in order to not suffer some forms of degradation.

"Absolutely. In the meantime, rest up, get back to training, and let me know if there is anything I can do to help. You're not in any condition to be trying to infiltrate the Society right now." Nariko got up, and with that, she bid Akame farewell for the time being. It felt to her like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders, knowing that Akame was finally awake and alive again. She would improve her health in time, and then all would be right once more.

-Exit-

"Of course, my lady. I'll just dream of it, for now," Akame said with a bow of her head as Nariko left. Once she did, Akame would lay back in the mattress as doctors and nurses came back in. She had calmed down now and understood they were just doing their job, so she let them poke and prod her. Then they brought her some food, mostly vegetables, that she scarfed down before completely passing out. And true to her word, Akame would dream of the Society.




[exit]