Chapter Nine: Experiment.

Raio was quiet when the Hokage began sticking papers around the room. While he worked, the Jonin cleared everything out. The chairs, sweeping the wood splinters out. Regrettably, they took his bed, too.

The sheer amount of constraint that he had to exert. He made Anko vow on her life that he'd get everything back after. 'Yes,' he had to reiterate, 'even the pigsty.' (She did so in a very bemused way).

After everyone except the Hokage filed out of the room, he had Raio sit on the floor. So now he was here, on his haunches.

"This will hurt briefly," The Hokage said, and Raio didn't grace him with a response. Instead, his eyes warily trailed over the ink, and sigils marred into the floorboards, the paper tags pinned to the walls. Even when he lived in the belly of his father's lab, he didn't quite see symbols like these. Raio committed them to memory. "Breathe, and do not move."

The ink on the floor shifted and moved. Symbols swirled in inconceivable patterns. Trailing to Raio, trickling up his skin and under the thin tank top he wore. The terrible itch of skittering over his skin was nearly unbearable. Tilting his head down, he was able to see the ink dancing up his shoulders, up his chest--

A searing, burning pain hammered through his thick skin. The little symbols, dozens in quantity, were sinking into his skin. A new mark. A circle of strange lettering and kanji around the three tomoe on his throat.

Raio pressed his hands flush against the floorboards, his unruly claws pressing into the wood. It splintered with his force. He tilted his head downwards as if trying to glue his chin to the base of his throat.

The pain was akin to the scraping of a scalpel. The tip pressed into his skin, cutting into it for a scar.

He was better than this. He was stronger than this.

Raio's eyes widened. Slitted pupils bore into the floorboards. The ink moving like a mirage. Behind him, he could hear the needlepoint of his tail sinking into the wood. Grounding himself in reality, Raio watched as the last of the ink snaked up him and sealed itself into his mortal flesh.

"Hahh... hah..." Raio panted in an uneven heave. All too soon was a warm and wrinkled hand pressing over his throat. He stiffened. His head reared to brandish his gleaming teeth, but he trembled after his brand caught fire.

In a flash of light and flames, it was over. The Hokage retracted his hand and looked over at Raio. He didn't care; his chest was heaving, and he was too busy catching his breath.

"It seems like your physical... features haven't receded with the Seal," The Hokage said, and Raio wanted to scream at him to shut up. "Tell me, young Raio, do you know the Transformation technique?"

"You... ugh," Raio let the tension seep from his shoulders, and he raised his head to look up at the Hokage. Vaguely, he realized that strands of his ink-black hair stuck out over his eyes. "What? No."

The Hokage kept his eyes on him. There was a certain gleam in them that Raio couldn't quite place. Pity? It churned his stomach. The same look in Ibiki's comrades when he had spoken his age. It felt worse coming from the most powerful shinobi in the village, and tenfold when Raio remembered he had talked to him like a dog.

He didn't speak. Instead, with his hands crossed behind his back, the Hokage looked at the closed door. "Come in."

Mechanically, the heavy stone door slid open, revealing the Jonin in its arch.

"Teach him the Transformation technique before he leaves this room," The Hokage spoke, not looking at anyone in particular. "Young Raio. You need to master this technique to leave here and live in The Leaf. Our civilians look more like us; we do not have horns, tails, or claws. You'll need to fit in. There'll be clothes and amenities provided when you settle in."

The Hokage nodded and turned to leave. Raio watched as he shuffled out of the room. The Jonin standing there bowed as he exited. He left the little mutant crumpled on the ground.

Ibiki looked at Anko, Guy, and Kurenai. They exchanged unspoken words before he promptly left as well.

"Well, that's good news, yeah?" Anko crouched and prodded at Raio's shoulder with her finger. "You just gotta learn one thing and you're home free. Easy."

"Yeah," He repeated shakily and let himself look at her. Raio's muscles were left fatigued and weak from the procedure, but the fiery desire to get out of here overturned that. "Show me how to do it."

Anko's eyebrows raised in surprise before she sat down, crossing her legs. "So, what you--"

"If I may interject," Guy cut in, who had been standing off to the side with Kurenai. "Raio, why exactly did you want us here?"

Raio blinked and looked at the duo. Briefly, through everything going on, he hadn't thought of how he should address them. But the Hokage was gone-- so was Ibiki, now that he noticed-- so there wasn't a point in having them here.

He couldn't tell them that. Raio needed to be polite and humanitarian-like. Maybe it was a good idea to look vulnerable. It was a good idea to act vulnerable.

"I didn't think he was going to let me stay here," Raio explained sheepishly and purposely looked at the ground in a desolate way. "I thought I was going to get kicked out. Or killed."

Guy's lips twitched like he wanted to frown, while Kurenai was much less expressive. A simple and ruminative look captured her face.

"Well, our Hokage is the number-one 'has the people's hearts in mind' kinda guy!" Guy exclaimed a moment later, crossing his arms over his chest. He uncrossed them immediately after, giving Raio a thumbs-up. "Don't you worry about stuff like that, Raio! No one's gonna hurt ya' here."

Raio nodded slowly. He tilted his head and his eyes went to Kurenai.

Guy moved in what Raio thought was a nervous tick. He put his hands in his pockets and leaned his weight to one side. "You'll have to forgive Kakashi for that... he's normally cooler than that, like a cucumber. No one here is going to want to end your life."

That eased his mind a little. Raio connected the dots in his head, taking a point from what Ibiki had told him earlier. "Just takes missions too seriously?"

A bead of sweat went down the side of Guy's face. "Something like that."

"Anyways, I'm sure you're ready to get outta this room." Anko snapped Raio's attention back to her, and she put her hands together in a symbol. "Do it with me. Curl one hand into a fist, and put the palm of your hand over your knuckles. This is the symbol 'Dog'."

While Raio copied Anko's hands and posture, she looked over at the Jonin. They shared a silent understanding, and so Guy and Kurenai left the room without much of a fuss.

"Will I--"

"You'll see them again." Anko waved Raio's concern off. "Now, this is 'Boar'. You got it? Good. This is 'Ram'. Now do the hand signs, and use them to facilitate your chakra flow. Like this."

Repeating the same three symbols, a puff of smoke engulfed Anko. Raio recoiled. When it cleared it was... not Anko, but Ibiki!? He raised his hand and wagged his finger in a cartoony way. "I'm so tough. Grr. I don't know how to have fun and I'm super strict for no reason."

Ohh. Transformation technique. In the same puff of smoke, the visage of Ibiki disappeared to Anko, and she stuck her tongue out. "Blehh. Try doing that, but... try just turning into you without your horns. Or tail. Or claws."

Raio's eyebrow twitched.

"Hey, I get it," Anko defensively held her hands up, "It blows. But you'll get to go run around the village after this. So suck it up, buttercup."

He scrunched his nose at her. You know what? Screw this. Did these people even know what they were asking? Asking him to just 'get rid of' his limbs. Asking him to get rid of parts of his body. "This isn't fair."

She sighed. Anko pinched the bridge of her nose. "Yeah well, you can't go around freaking people out. Maybe after you get used to things you won't have to hide what you are. But you can't jump into a pool without knowing how to swim, and you can't waltz into a group of normal people and expect them to understand you. Get it?"

Raio's lips twitched into a grimace. "Yeah. I guess. Let's get this over with."