Infection - Main Story

Ami, accompanied by her assistant Yori, strolled proudly into the office of the current and thus far only leader of the fine village of Honegakure. To give her such a title as Kage would be a falsehood as she operated under no daimyo and Hone could hardly be considered one of the five major villages of the region. Some within the village seemed to have enough respect to grant her the unofficial title anyhow, but Ami... well...

"Setsuna. Good to see you, as always," Ami greeted with a quick bow while making room for Yori to enter the room as well. She'd instructed that he whip up a quick pot of tea to bring along with them. Nothing fancy. In fact, he was meant to create the tea as quickly and shoddily as possible. Taste wasn't an issue. The tea wasn't the focal point of this meeting at all.

"Please, have a seat..." Setsuna offered warily, motioning toward the two open seats that sat in front of her desk. She didn't get up upon the entry of the duo. Seeing Ami in such a good mood had instantly thrown her off. It was very rare to see the catgirl don even the faintest hint of a grin unless she had something wickedly unpleasant up her sleeve.

"I understand that your request to meet with me has something to do with finding a miracle cure. Something capable of instantly righting any ill in the human body no matter how dire. Is this it? It seems rather simple... and it smells of a simple tea..." she inquired, casting her eyes toward Yori and the pot of tea he was carrying.

"Please, pour a cup for Setsuna if you would," Ami ordered casually to Yori without actually answering Setsuna's question. "Indeed, I've found a simple cure all solution to all that ails the human population. It's taken me much time to reach the point that we've come to, but I believe that my solution is finally at a point where the testing phase is over and I can introduce my new compound to the world and I'd like you to be the first to try it."

It was Yori to serve dutifily his Ojou-sama, Ami. Everything he did for her was always his best, nothing else would do, when she told him to whip up tea and do it quickly with no regard for the quality the manservant was slightly confused. Though even in his confusion had followed Ami's instructions to the letter making tea. It wasn't great but it was far better than instant or packet based teas.

He would bring the pot in a koozie on a tray with cups when Ami left the house, and he would follow Ami around with it completely unaware that she'd gotten a meeting with the Village's big cheese. He was not however unprepared, Yori always did his best to look his best, his image was also Ami's.

"Saizuki-sama." Yori would greet almost coldly, she was a bureaucrat like any other village leader and would throw the pair under the bus as soon as it fit her whims. That's how people in power were. Still he would greet her with all due formalities that her station merited.

When Instructed the loyal manservant would pour Setsuna a cup of the meager tea. He would then hold the poured cup on saucer on the tray out for the Village Leader to take at her leisure. Though something about this smelled awfully fishy.

At the offered tea, Setsuna could only raise her hand with a quick shake of her head.

"I'm afraid I can't allow myself to be the first to consume such a thing, as tempting as the offer may be. Despite my willingness to participate, my standing is much too high to risk undue... um... side effects." She attempted to word her refusal as diplomatically as possible. She was actually more afraid that Ami was intending to poison her, incapacitate her or otherwise use some sort of experimental drug on her. She didn't trust the feline scientist at all.

Ami's brow furrowed and her lips tightened before motioning with her right hand for Yori to return to her side.

"It's a shame that you'd refuse to become a willing participant in my experiment, but not altogether unexpected," Ami responded matter-of-factly. "Fortunately, I fancy myself quite the master of misdirection." And with that said, Ami smiled calmly as the biting pain of a needle sharp stab hit Setsuna's leg under the cover of her desk. The woman only had time to slightly raise a brow in surprise before an extreme paralysis overcame her body.

"No matter how cautious... observant... powerful... ... ...a person may be," Ami started as she rose from her seat, rummaging through an inner pocket of her lab coat to draw out a large syringe filled to the brim with crimson-black fluid. "The human body almost always responds the same to certain stimuli... and one's eyes and awareness can't be everywhere at once. After all, you're not a goddess or anything of that sort... though you may just become one once I'm through with you." She grinned as she completed her preparations with the lengthy needle and strolled her way casually to Setsuna's side.

Yori would look distraught as Setsuna turned down the tea. Though it wasn't his pride and joy he wanted to share the few minutes work with someone else. He would return to Ami's side however when she motioned him to come, completely unphased by the fact that he'd been a cover to poison Setsuna. All in all he was quite proud his Ojou-sama was as quick handed to be able to stab and inject a lady most villagers knew as the "Honekage".

The faithful manservant would set some of the tea down in front of Ami before setting the tray aside on a table and moving to the door. He would do a quick series of handseals. Barrier Enhancement Technique was his chosen spell, it would make the barriers of the room far more insurmountable, reinforcing all of the entrances and exits starting with the main door, and moving around to the windows behind Saizuki-san making them more resistant to breaking. A secondary effect of the technique made it so that it was harder to sense the goings on through said barrier.

With his Jutsu in place Yori would return to the side his mistress and await further instruction.

Once Ami was within arm's reach, Setsuna made her move. She was fighting the paralytic as best she could, her arm sluggishly lifting off the table to make a grab at Ami, who failed to move in time. Rather than grasp clothing or anything of the sort, however, Setsuna's grasping hand simply passed straight through the other woman's incorporeal body, quickly losing strength and flopping to her side, unbalancing herself in her seat without the muscle strength to keep herself sitting upright.

"Admirable resistance," Ami complimented, actually looking genuinely impressed by Setsuna's attempt to take the upper hand in a losing battle. "Afraid I planned for that, however. After all, with a strength like yours even enough poison to bring an elephant to its knees wouldn't be enough to keep a woman with a vitality like yours down, but it's that vitality that makes you useful to me..."

With that said, the incorporeal Ami sharply took hold of Setsuna's hair at the top of her head and roughly yanked her back up into a sitting position, forcing her to lean back and throw her chest forward.

"Now... this is going to sting a little... and then it's going to hurt like hell. Feel free to scream if you feel the need I imagine the paralytic won't stop you from doing that once you feel this kind of pain," she announced just before jabbing the needle sharply straight into Setsuna's chest, angled just right to pierce into her heart where the black liquid would be injected down to the very last drop. For her part, Setsuna's expression simply went from furious and frustrated to even more furious, beginning to lightly foam at the mouth as the unknown fluid was injected forcibly into her body, her teeth clenched tight enough that they may shatter from the force at any second. She'd anticipated a possible betrayal at every point Ami requested a meeting with her, but she'd expected to be able to handle it. She hadn't actually expected the scientist to outright assassinate her!

"They won't let you get away with this..." Setsuna groaned, slumping forward onto the desk once Ami pulled the needle out harshly and stepped away. "You can't cover your tracks well enough to keep them off your trail... They'll hunt you down like the beast you are..."

Yori was quick to try and intercept Setsuna's hand as it reached for Ami, but as to be expected of the woman some called Honekage, she'd already made her attempt by the time Yori would have intercepted her, that attempt being as vain as trying to see through the ploy that Ami had used to poison Setsuna in the first place.

The manservant would return his arms back to his side and watch as his Ojou-sama took Saizuki-san brutally by the hair and injected her with the absolute precision required of a highly rated scientist before letting the woman slump over. Setsuna had misgivings about being assassinated, Yori felt that wasn't quite the case here after all, she was simply using the villages most powerful woman in an experiment after all. Though Yori knew that Ami cared little of the village leaders condition outside of it meeting the specifications of her experiment.

Setsuna wouldn't give the sadistic scientist the satisfaction of hearing her scream. What was done was already done and she likely had some sort of soundproof barrier to mask sounds of a struggle. Still, it was nearing impossible not to cry out in agony as her entire body lit up like a beacon of intense pain, every cell in her body crying out for the sweet release of death even as she suffered. She'd gone numb to every feeling but pain, her unfeeling fingers scrabbling uselessly over her desk as if each and every one of them had developed a mind entirely of its own.

And then something unexpected happened. Her pain-wracked form surged with a sudden outpouring of strength as whatever substance had been injected into her body began to scratch desperately at the natural walls the standard human body erected to prevent self-destruction. With an intense flash of power, Setsuna's body instantly went from hunched painfully over her desk to standing tall, her desk toppling over at the sudden movement and outward wave of chakra. Setsuna's eyes glowed a brilliant blue, her hair flowing out behind her as if defying all sense of gravity. Without even putting forth the effort to do so she'd opened seven of the eight gates.

In the split second that she stood there basking in the newly-gained, yet innately familiar power, both Yori and Ami would be able to observe the deep black, veiny streaks of Ami's injection streaking up from the woman's neck to begin covering her face. Wordlessly, Setsuna lunged at Ami once again with the speed and strength that she'd become renowned for in Sunagakure, throwing a punch at the woman only to have it pass through her form once again. Setsuna's entire body would pass through the unbothered catgirl, landing on the other side before staggering weakly as the fire died from her eyes. With a cough and a lurch, Setsuna collapsed in unconsciousness.

"Now we wait..." Ami commented, incredibly casual despite what had just transpired around her. "Clean this up and take down the barrier. We're expecting company."

Yori was surprised for once when Setsuna practically stood up and, shone like the sun for a moment before making another move on Ami, like the first that hadn't worked, for as powerful as Setsuna was, she wasn't very smart. Ami had obviously prepared for such an attack, and it wasn't like Saizuki-san was testing her it was more like she was lashing out the best way she knew how, making a mess of the room in the process before falling down. For a moment it was amazing and then the next moment it was pitiful.

"Right away, Ojou-sama." Was the deft and quiet reply of Yori's he didn't need to speak loudly with Ami's good sense of hearing.

The cleaning was immaculate. Setsuna was put back in her chair, the desk was made upright and the papers on her desk were placed back in order they'd come off of it. Everything that'd moved was moved back to where it'd come from in the office.

When all was said and done Yori dispelled his technique, and got to work making tea from the so-called Honekage's stash. They were having company after all.

Setsuna's closed eyes went through the automatic action of blinking as she began to surface from her unconsciousness, hearing blurred and distorted voices in the back of her mind as she finally groaned and opened her eyes slowly to take in the light of her office, mostly blacked out by a congregation of people standing around her.

"Hey, sleepyhead," Natsume would be the first to make her presence known, one hand still on Setsuna's shoulder from where she'd been infusing her partner with her own chakra to stabilize her incredibly unstable condition. "I hope you appreciate the work I put in today. There's not really a jutsu designed to cure exhaustion, but I did what I could. I suggest we get you home for some rest. Kai can handle a little extra workload at least until you're fit to return to work, right Kai?" Natsume glanced in the direction of another shadow filling the room, who slowly came into focus as Kai who assisted in keeping her own workload at a manageable level.

"I...-" she began in protest to forcing her own workload onto Kai's shoulders before being interrupted by Ami's voice as her own shadow blurred into something much clearer.

"She's right. You need rest. I was in the middle of speaking about a renewed power grid for the village and I looked over and you were face down at your desk. Your chakra is all a mess and you can barely keep your head up: a clear sign of hyper exhaustion."

"...Right... I apologize..." Setsuna groaned as the memories suddenly came flooding back to her concerning the moments before she'd lost consciousness, rubbing her eyes in exhaustion and deep thought. Maybe she really was just tired...

Kai crossed his arms as Natsume volunteered him to work in Setsuna's place, "Of course, and Natsume will help me with the work." If he was under the bus he would be dragging her with him, he would also have to reschedule the Jounin association's meeting and raffle. He knew quite a few people were looking forward to getting that Anodized-titanium finished Kunai and Shuriken set. Oh well, the villages needs came before the association's.

Though something about this seemed off to Kai he couldn't put his finger on it, Setsuna, like himself had quite a bit of stamina perhaps the most in the village, though he came by it through his Uzumaki heritage, she was simply that well conditioned. He'd hoped that after their talk the other evening that she'd have put more effort into relaxing and unwinding after each day.

"Don't worry, I won't use this as an opportunity to slack on my own work either." Kai reassured with his signature sleazy smile. "I'll be by after all the paperwork's done so don't worry about making yourself dinner even."

While Kai talked it up Yori stood silently behind his Ojou-sama easily suppressing the smile that nobody even thought anything was wrong.

"Pshah... if you want the village to die in a week or something. I don't know how to cope with any of your political bullshit. I'm just the hired muscle around here. Speaking of which..." She leaned down to loop one of Setsuna's arms over her shoulders and lift the woman up with a quick grunt of effort. "I should help you get home for some good R&R. That chair isn't nearly comfortable enough to sleep in. If anyone has any last minute get well good wishes now is the time to speak up," Natsume chimed in one last time on her way to the door with her severely weakened friend only just barely keeping pace with her.

Ami had nothing to add on this matter, waiting for the two to make their exit before motioning for Yori to retrieve their tea so they could be on their way as well.

Kai shook his head as Natsume deftly evaded his attempt to ensare her into the paperwork by feigning stupidity or lack of skill, then again most Shinobi couldn't balance paperwork and and Ninjutsu. "Awe that's too bad, I figured that you'd want to have a fun time in the office with me." Kai teased as the two ladies as they left, he would be quick to take up Setsuna's chair and light up a cigarette, letting it hang loosely out of his mouth.

"We'll have to wait upon the power-grid idea until Setsuna gets better." Kai said dismissively of Ami, her manservant-whatever-his-name-was, though she was a cute little thing, she was a LOT more dangerous than she appeared.

Yori in the meantime would gather the tea makings and follow Ami as she left.

"...Right," Was all Ami had to say on the matter before hurriedly leaving with Yori in tow. She didn't actually have much of a plan for the current power grid beyond the brief section of a speech she'd implanted into Setsuna's mind with a jutsu to replace the rather violent injection she'd been given. She hadn't actually been very productive at all lately given her focus on her newly completed project.