In the beginning there was only blood.
Primordial blood that seeped into the earth and grew deep roots, spreading life and death throughout the Universe and ever gaining in power. The roots spread to the sky and flowered and bore fruit. The fruit that through whose flesh the sacred ninshū was conceived and born. The world calmed and quieted under the weight of its newborn, the calamity ever reaching towards its inevitability as growth continued. The world and its children screamed and savaged onwards into death and destruction, the roots ever demanding blood as tribute for their gift. The roots were never sated and always searching for more new blood.
Or so the story goes.
Myths and legends aside, there is power in blood.
Kara sat in her lab switching between peering through a microscope and scribbling down notes in a notebook she had beside her on the table. She wore a smart looking black wool suit, her long blonde hair was perfectly coiffed and on her feet were her signature black leather stilettos. She would have seemed quite out of place if she didn’t also have a crisp white lab coat on as well. The coat wasn’t buttoned up and looked more like it was hastily donned as an afterthought rather than part of any safety gear for a laboratory setting. Kara was not terribly concerned with anything getting on her clothing, at least not in this particular case. The specimen she was currently examining was her own, and so while she didn’t much relish the thought of ruining her impeccable suit there wasn’t any biohazard to be concerned with.
Through a series of experiments that she had been running she had stumbled quite fortuitously upon a bit of knowledge that she thought could quite literally change the world. She had done experiments on the unwitting, carefully selecting those that would either be unaware or unbelieved. Throughout her time in practicing the art of medicine, Kara had focused more specifically on studying blood and by proxy DNA and RNA. In her more recent studies, on an Otsutsuki who was also implanted with Senju DNA, she had discovered something most curious and had taken to expanding her theories through a series of tests. It seemed, at its core, the building blocks of the universe were. . . universal. More specifically, it seemed that the ability to wield chakra was in fact universal, and that given the right push at the right time and in the right direction. . . literally anyone could. She’d found that every one of her patients held the same genomes that told the body to build proteins that gave specific chakra abilities, but that some were locked away or dormant. There were slight variations of course, a single base difference meant one person could wield the power of fire where another would wield the power of water.
Those variations were where Kara’s expertise came in. She was profoundly adept at chemical manipulation and she’d discovered that with the introduction of certain chemical compounds she could cause variations at a nucleonic level, thereby altering what that person was capable of accomplishing with chakra. Mutations essentially. Although from her studies it almost seemed as though chakra was the mutation. . .
“But that can’t be it, can it?”
She honestly didn’t know, and that was unsettling for Kara. There was little she didn’t understand, or confidently know, about the world she lived in. So to discover that the genes that aided humans in their abilities with chakra were perhaps mutations and not part of the original design was concerning. Having been to another planet however she realized, quite logically, that it would be near impossible to know everything. Even for her. So she allowed herself to puzzle over the discovery without it damaging her psyche or her ego. With weeks and months of experiments and successful trials under her belt, she had finally decided to ‘put her money where her mouth was’ and begin experimentation on herself.
Kara was no stranger to self surgery. She had needed to perform surgery on herself when attaching her prosthetic arm and hand, and while it was not pleasant it was perfectly done. This she assumed would be no different. She had tested this formulation dozens of times, making sure to account for every variable no matter how small. Setting aside her notebook she would ease herself back into an upright sitting position on the stool she had been leaning over in to look through the microscope. If anyone had asked her she would have been lying if she’d said she wasn’t just a tiny bit nervous. There was no danger here save for her own miscalculations. Doku, her trusty bodyguard, was in the hall outside the lab barring entrance to anyone that came near. So she knew there was no external threat, only the fear of the unknown - a base fear that even superior intellect like hers found difficult to overcome and ignore.
She hadn’t disclosed exactly what she was going to be doing to anyone. Especially Doku. Doku wouldn’t understand any of it anyway. This was possibly the biggest project she had undertaken thus far, and that was saying a lot. She had spent months and millions developing the pale golden liquid that floated inside the syringe on the table. Taking a breath she would delicately lift the syringe with her left hand, then she would sigh and place the syringe in her right hand. The vein she needed was in her left arm, and it never ceased to amaze her how she could forget that it simply didn’t exist in her right anymore. Rolling up her sleeve on her left arm she would pull the cap off of the syringe and line it up with the accessory cephalic vein and firmly press the needle in. It didn’t hurt exactly, just a small bit of discomfort and a foreign pressure, something she’d done thousands of times. When she depressed the plunger on the syringe however, that was when the fire started.
The cocktail of chemicals rushed through her bloodstream, screaming its way into the core of her being as her blood boiled. She held on as long as she could, carefully emptying the vial's contents into her arm and removing the syringe carefully to not cause further damage. But she could only withstand so much and within seconds she had crumpled to the floor and was clutching at her arm in agony. She didn’t remember making any noise, but she must have as just moments after her collapse Doku burst through the door and swept her up in his arms. He looked at her with panic in his silver eyes, clearly not understanding what was happening beyond his Mistress being in pain. Kara managed to gasp out a few words before losing herself to the inky blackness of unconsciousness. “Take. . . me. . . home. . .”
Doku did as commanded and carried her in his arms all the way back to her suite in Shimiko Towers, laying her on her bed and doing his best to care for her. His ‘best’ was to cover her in a blanket and sit at her side. Doku was not an intelligent man, but he was loyal and cared deeply for Kara. Not that those were necessarily admirable qualities when what Kara really needed was medical attention - not that there was anyone within the Land of Lightning that was skilled enough that Kara would ever dream of allowing them to work on her. In her unconscious state Kara tossed and turned, occasionally crying out in pain as the compound altered her DNA on a fundamental level. She had designed the compound, Neo Sanguinis, to leave her current abilities intact while also unlocking further potential. A process that she did not have the constitution to stay awake through. She stayed like this for hours, Doku getting up occasionally to retrieve cloths to mop at Kara’s brow.
When she finally woke, Kara’s golden eyes met Doku’s silver ones and she smiled weakly. “Not dead. That’s a good first step.” Doku just raised an eyebrow at her attempt at humour and helped her sit up with a pillow to help support her. Kara, surprisingly, felt better within minutes. Better in fact than she had ever felt before. She could feel the life coursing through her veins, the regenerative capabilities. . . and more. Looking to Doku with a glimmer of intensity in her eyes he had never seen before she would grip his hand with renewed strength. “I’m close now, Doku. Closer than I’ve ever been. Project Neo Sanguinis was a success. Immortalitatis vel mortis.”
[Exit Thread - Claiming Uzumaki Bloodline through Neo Sanguinis 1000/1000 WC]
Primordial blood that seeped into the earth and grew deep roots, spreading life and death throughout the Universe and ever gaining in power. The roots spread to the sky and flowered and bore fruit. The fruit that through whose flesh the sacred ninshū was conceived and born. The world calmed and quieted under the weight of its newborn, the calamity ever reaching towards its inevitability as growth continued. The world and its children screamed and savaged onwards into death and destruction, the roots ever demanding blood as tribute for their gift. The roots were never sated and always searching for more new blood.
Or so the story goes.
Myths and legends aside, there is power in blood.
Kara sat in her lab switching between peering through a microscope and scribbling down notes in a notebook she had beside her on the table. She wore a smart looking black wool suit, her long blonde hair was perfectly coiffed and on her feet were her signature black leather stilettos. She would have seemed quite out of place if she didn’t also have a crisp white lab coat on as well. The coat wasn’t buttoned up and looked more like it was hastily donned as an afterthought rather than part of any safety gear for a laboratory setting. Kara was not terribly concerned with anything getting on her clothing, at least not in this particular case. The specimen she was currently examining was her own, and so while she didn’t much relish the thought of ruining her impeccable suit there wasn’t any biohazard to be concerned with.
Through a series of experiments that she had been running she had stumbled quite fortuitously upon a bit of knowledge that she thought could quite literally change the world. She had done experiments on the unwitting, carefully selecting those that would either be unaware or unbelieved. Throughout her time in practicing the art of medicine, Kara had focused more specifically on studying blood and by proxy DNA and RNA. In her more recent studies, on an Otsutsuki who was also implanted with Senju DNA, she had discovered something most curious and had taken to expanding her theories through a series of tests. It seemed, at its core, the building blocks of the universe were. . . universal. More specifically, it seemed that the ability to wield chakra was in fact universal, and that given the right push at the right time and in the right direction. . . literally anyone could. She’d found that every one of her patients held the same genomes that told the body to build proteins that gave specific chakra abilities, but that some were locked away or dormant. There were slight variations of course, a single base difference meant one person could wield the power of fire where another would wield the power of water.
Those variations were where Kara’s expertise came in. She was profoundly adept at chemical manipulation and she’d discovered that with the introduction of certain chemical compounds she could cause variations at a nucleonic level, thereby altering what that person was capable of accomplishing with chakra. Mutations essentially. Although from her studies it almost seemed as though chakra was the mutation. . .
“But that can’t be it, can it?”
She honestly didn’t know, and that was unsettling for Kara. There was little she didn’t understand, or confidently know, about the world she lived in. So to discover that the genes that aided humans in their abilities with chakra were perhaps mutations and not part of the original design was concerning. Having been to another planet however she realized, quite logically, that it would be near impossible to know everything. Even for her. So she allowed herself to puzzle over the discovery without it damaging her psyche or her ego. With weeks and months of experiments and successful trials under her belt, she had finally decided to ‘put her money where her mouth was’ and begin experimentation on herself.
Kara was no stranger to self surgery. She had needed to perform surgery on herself when attaching her prosthetic arm and hand, and while it was not pleasant it was perfectly done. This she assumed would be no different. She had tested this formulation dozens of times, making sure to account for every variable no matter how small. Setting aside her notebook she would ease herself back into an upright sitting position on the stool she had been leaning over in to look through the microscope. If anyone had asked her she would have been lying if she’d said she wasn’t just a tiny bit nervous. There was no danger here save for her own miscalculations. Doku, her trusty bodyguard, was in the hall outside the lab barring entrance to anyone that came near. So she knew there was no external threat, only the fear of the unknown - a base fear that even superior intellect like hers found difficult to overcome and ignore.
She hadn’t disclosed exactly what she was going to be doing to anyone. Especially Doku. Doku wouldn’t understand any of it anyway. This was possibly the biggest project she had undertaken thus far, and that was saying a lot. She had spent months and millions developing the pale golden liquid that floated inside the syringe on the table. Taking a breath she would delicately lift the syringe with her left hand, then she would sigh and place the syringe in her right hand. The vein she needed was in her left arm, and it never ceased to amaze her how she could forget that it simply didn’t exist in her right anymore. Rolling up her sleeve on her left arm she would pull the cap off of the syringe and line it up with the accessory cephalic vein and firmly press the needle in. It didn’t hurt exactly, just a small bit of discomfort and a foreign pressure, something she’d done thousands of times. When she depressed the plunger on the syringe however, that was when the fire started.
The cocktail of chemicals rushed through her bloodstream, screaming its way into the core of her being as her blood boiled. She held on as long as she could, carefully emptying the vial's contents into her arm and removing the syringe carefully to not cause further damage. But she could only withstand so much and within seconds she had crumpled to the floor and was clutching at her arm in agony. She didn’t remember making any noise, but she must have as just moments after her collapse Doku burst through the door and swept her up in his arms. He looked at her with panic in his silver eyes, clearly not understanding what was happening beyond his Mistress being in pain. Kara managed to gasp out a few words before losing herself to the inky blackness of unconsciousness. “Take. . . me. . . home. . .”
Doku did as commanded and carried her in his arms all the way back to her suite in Shimiko Towers, laying her on her bed and doing his best to care for her. His ‘best’ was to cover her in a blanket and sit at her side. Doku was not an intelligent man, but he was loyal and cared deeply for Kara. Not that those were necessarily admirable qualities when what Kara really needed was medical attention - not that there was anyone within the Land of Lightning that was skilled enough that Kara would ever dream of allowing them to work on her. In her unconscious state Kara tossed and turned, occasionally crying out in pain as the compound altered her DNA on a fundamental level. She had designed the compound, Neo Sanguinis, to leave her current abilities intact while also unlocking further potential. A process that she did not have the constitution to stay awake through. She stayed like this for hours, Doku getting up occasionally to retrieve cloths to mop at Kara’s brow.
When she finally woke, Kara’s golden eyes met Doku’s silver ones and she smiled weakly. “Not dead. That’s a good first step.” Doku just raised an eyebrow at her attempt at humour and helped her sit up with a pillow to help support her. Kara, surprisingly, felt better within minutes. Better in fact than she had ever felt before. She could feel the life coursing through her veins, the regenerative capabilities. . . and more. Looking to Doku with a glimmer of intensity in her eyes he had never seen before she would grip his hand with renewed strength. “I’m close now, Doku. Closer than I’ve ever been. Project Neo Sanguinis was a success. Immortalitatis vel mortis.”
[Exit Thread - Claiming Uzumaki Bloodline through Neo Sanguinis 1000/1000 WC]
