markofthebrave | [ Action, Voice ] .031

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[ Action, Voice ] .031

[If you are passing by the Southmost bridge at just the right time, you will find it hard not to notice the girl in an unusual dress and boots facedown on the ground. One shoulder is strangely disjointed, and there are bruises up and down her arms, particularly violent ones around her wrists. She looks like nothing more than a broken and discarded doll.

As the sun continues to set, the coolness in the ground will cause her to start to stir. When she sits up, she grimaces, moving as if there might be something wrong with her ribs. If you happen to be looking at her as she does, you'll notice the sickening blue and yellow bruise spread across her right collarbone, the lovely shiner on her eye.

The wonderful thing about Luceti? Sometimes there's a journal right where you need it. She barely has enough presence of mind to make sure the picture points away from her face, but her voice is very tired.]

Sokka, Aang - I'm back. [Sorry Suki, Zuko.] I'm okay.

[10 100 (thank you, Shikamaru) percent filter to Chopper, Raine]
Hey guys, if you're there - I could use a little help.

[She doesn't want her brother and Aang to see her like this.]

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[...but some part of her remembers Roku, and by implication: Sozin.]

...what did he do?

[Most of this is public information if you're from his world, so he decides to be honest.]

He's a traitor. And a murderer. He killed all but one of his entire clan off in a single night before abandoning our village. [He substitutes 'massacred' with killed. Honest he will be, gritty he will not. The crime was bad enough as it is.]

[There are no icons appropriate enough to express the depths of horror and revulsion Katara feels at hearing this. Such a crime strikes at the heart of everything she holds dear - you would have to be mad, you would have to be Azula to do something like this. You would have to be worse.] That's horrible! Why would he do something like that? How could he?

[Katara had been around evil before. She knew the feel of it. Itachi... he'd just been a too-serious kid! Had she been so wrong again?]

[That's something Shikamaru's been wondering himself ever since seeing Itachi as a child. 'He lost faith in his clan. Wanted power; was insane' would be the answers he's grown up with. That he went rogue is the official reasoning recorded on his page in the Bingo Book.

It's surprisingly vague. But these are thoughts for another day.]

I don't know. But the fact is he did, and he's done more since then. [And it's best not to get into that mess.] I think he's smart enough not to pull anything here. On top of that, he'd have no reason to. Still, it's better to be safe than sorry. If you can't avoid him, at least don't seek him out.

[As overwhelmed as she is with horror at hearing a story like this...

...it's so terrible that she has a hard time accepting it on face value. As far as she knows, Shikamaru doesn't have any reason to lie to her, but...]

If he - did this, if you knew he was like this - why didn't you say something sooner? There's even a list of people to be careful of, even if they haven't done anything here...

I mentioned it to Diana right before you were sent out to help infiltrate the Malnosso's facility. I was told your brother maintains that list? [If you remember, Sokka was kinda busy with something right before that. And then he had to spend over a week as Itachi's babysitter and then the world went to hell a few days after that-] A lot has happened between now and then, and I'm sure Sokka had as many other things to worry about as I did. Itachi's a threat, yes, but there were things that took priority over him.

[Luceti makes it so much more difficult to organize things, oi.]

[Fail actor that Katara is, her eyes first widen in surprise and then narrow. No one is really supposed to know that Sokka maintains that list. It's dangerous enough for him that he does. She's temporarily put off track by this.]

Who told you that?

The Justice League. [Specifically Diana, but she acted on part of her group.

Though if this is supposed to be a secret, he's known who held the list before that. It's kinda been in unfiltered conversations.]

Oh. [Well, she's not going to outright deny it, but she doesn't like it. She'd seen that conversation with Blackbeard when it happened but hoped that Sokka had managed to put it off... apparently only the somewhat-less-than-brilliant pirate's satisfaction.]

...are you going to put him on the list?

Yup. [And Sasuke, while he's at it.] Next time I see your brother, unless something else comes up.

[She's not comfortable with Shikamaru knowing this about Sokka - and with how public he seems to imply that it is. Before he goes, she'll have to remember to ask him to be quiet about it.

Her hands curl into fists at her sides. She looks down.]

I don't understand - his whole clan? He's just one little kid. Did it happen when he was older?

Itachi hasn't been a kid for a while, Katara. [And he means that in more ways than one. Here he scratches at the back of his neck. He never knew Itachi before the man left the village, but even he figures something big must have changed things.] He wasn't one when he killed them - by that point he was a teenager.

But he was still just one person! How big was his clan?

[Yes, she's shifted focus to logistics. Because that is easier for her mind to comprehend than this - horrible thing that you're telling her.]

Larger than most. I don't know exactly how many - I was a kid when this happened. [Rough estimate? Over a hundred. But Katara looks very much like a girl who's heard enough bad news for one week, and he's not sure how she would take that information.]

I told you he was dangerous. [One of his world's worst criminals, even.] I'm sorry if that was vague, but it wasn't an exaggeration.

[...okay that wasn't good. She lifts her free hand to her mother's necklace as she automatically begins to puzzle out how such a thing would be possible, how she would-

-she feels sick.]

...I need to know what he can do. I saw him practicing with his knives and I know how accurate he is, but he also told me about something called 'chakra' based attacks. Can you tell me about those?

I can, but we'll be here for awhile. That sounds exhausting for the both of us. [Which isn't to say he won't. Think of it as a subtle way of asking if she really wants to hear it now.]

[She very much takes it that way. Aang. Zuko. Sigmund. Capell. She's got a lot on her mind already... a lot that she doesn't want to think about.

She looks down for a minute.]

...if you're too tired from the last week and you want to tell me later, that's fine. I'm not going to be leaving the house for a few days, and I won't be contacting him.

[Katara lifts her gaze to Shikamaru's now.] But I do need to know.

Troublesome. But I have little better to do anyways. [Ahahaha... yeah. He doesn't really want to go off and think about last week.

That she's listening to his warning is making him far more agreeable to speak to her about it though. He respects people who can listen to reason.]

To put it as simply as possible: jutsus are techniques that utilize a person's chakra. There are three main types of jutsu, and Itachi excels with all of them. Most people are lucky to specialize in one.

[Katara nods to show that she's following.] What are the different types of jutsu?

[He counts them off on his fingers as he goes.]

Taijutsu is the most basic of them. It's essentially hand-to-hand and weapons combat, and can be done without using chakra.

Genjutsu are illusory techniques and can effect any or all of the five senses. If the person using it is good enough, it can trick them completely. Trust me, getting stuck in one isn't fun.

Ninjutsu... they're far more varied. Essentially, they let you do things a normal person wouldn't be able to, either by manipulating shape or forces of nature. All of its effects are real though.

[...your world sounds scary, Shikamaru. Her brow furrows a bit and she nods again.]

And.. all of the ninja in your world do at least one of those three things well?

The good ones do. Or they're at least decent with it. You're not going to be a ninja for long if you can't manage any of them.

So... what you're saying is that he's got good defenses from a distance, that he can trap you in the same kind of illusions that the Malnosso can use, and that if you manage to get up close to him, he knows how to use his body as a weapon.

[Just making sure she's getting all that right.] And that's on top of his weapons training.

[He nods. But oh wait...] And on top of that he has an ability that was exclusive to his clan. His eyes can see the flow of chakra, which is usually invisible. When using it, he's twice as perceptive as a normal person. He can track movements as you're making them to the point where it might look like he's predicting it. He can memorize any technique he sees with it. It can be used for a unique type of hypnosis.

[It kinda sucks.]

[...

Well, that sounds distinctly unfair. There's a bit of a pause here as Katara once again glances down and tries to puzzle through all the implications of an ability like that.]

What if you don't have 'chakra?' Or if an ability is unique to your world or to something that you've - [eaten] - done?

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