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"Excellent." Though there wasn't a hint of elation in the masked-man's voice, he was genuinely happy that Blanche had come to see eye to eye. Sure enough, the plan wasn't all that conventional... But, it'd only taken a little bit of prying and talking to figure out that it was, without a doubt, what the both of them wanted. Oddly enough, the conversation that had passed also served another purpose:

a new bridge had been formed between the two conspirators, even more prominent than before. Despite all the times he'd talked to Ue, this bit of Blanche's history had been left out of their conversations. Perhaps, even while working with the devil, Ue was thinking of his sister when excluding such a crucial fact.

Surely, her working with him wasn't what he hoped for when he left Kusagakure all those years ago.



Both of his eyes casually admired the "golden goddess's" physique as she basked in the radiance of the compound's lights. "I won't lie and say that I wasn't worried you'd say no, though." The distance between the two of them was comfortable, to say the least. However, it shrank with each and every step that the figure took toward her, though showing no hurry or anxiousness in his steps. "Then again, you're a reasonable woman with a lot to gain. I'm sure you can see how this benefits the both of us, yes?"

His mask tilted. "I told you I wasn't lying when I said that you were probably the most important piece of my plan, Blanche." Chuckling, he glanced up at the ceiling. "Once we've squared this away, and I know you're safe, we will be able to begin everything else."

"Had you not impressed me already," he began as she kindly removed his hand from her face. That same arm fell idly to his side where it remained. "I wouldn't have bothered to contact you, in the first place. There's no need to try and persuade me into believing in a power that I already know is within you, Blanche. The only thing I'm concerned with is your survival, and the success of our plans."

"Your voice is exactly what I'm trying to protect." He shrugged. "Again, you have no say in what becomes of you or your people if you're a corpse, Blanche. And as I've said, our plans demand your presence. Though it is somewhat embarrassing to admit this, I need you alive and healthy -- I need your help to bring all of this to fruition."

Stepping off to the side and turning, so that she could continue, a single gloved hand extended toward the path she'd been traveling on. "However, I do thank you for your consideration. I'm sure things will go a lot smoother without the worry of you throwing yourself into some uphill combat and getting yourself killed."

Of course, Blanche was never alone. From her dramatic bought with the Mizukage to her rather bland, uninteresting meeting with the Raikage, he was watching her. Though he kept his distance, her masked accomplice was nevertheless close; like a haunting shadow he lingered, never more than several feet behind her. Did she truly believe it was Akira's elite shinobi that had kept her safe and sound while comatose on the isles of Mizu no Kuni?

The truth was that they'd never even found her.

Finally alone, he saw no reason to keep his presence a secret any longer. Comfortably situated on the road ahead of the fast-paced Kusakage, he showed no indication of stopping her gait. Instead, something told him that she would bring herself to a sudden halt. It was a creeping suspicion that clawed at the back of his mind, sinking its bitter, cold fangs into his mind.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk. My dear, dear Blanche. What am I going to do with you?" The tone in his voice was dripping with admirable mockery, knowing that there were very few that could content with the Mizukage's power. His chakra was... astounding, to say the least. It was more impressive, however, that his intervention was necessary -- Blanche had survived, all on her own. "Had I know you were going to lose Samehada, I wouldn't have edged you on as much as I had."

He stepped closer. "A minor upset, but one that could most certainly have been avoided. You're much more valuable than you realize -- you can't simply run around accepting every challenge that's thrown your way like some street fighter." His voice lowered, ripe with the taunt that followed.

"You were wrong to underestimate that man."

The eyes peering through the awkward masked were illuminated with the glow of triumph as Blanche spoke her words of damnation, resigning herself to the fate that lay hidden within her blood. They were monsters, the lot of them - no matter how much they denied this bitter fact, it was impossible to escape the destiny that fate had placed before them. This force -- wholly unnatural -- is what drew them together, breaking any and all boundaries that might have been erected to prevent the inevitable reunion. Splinters of the same vile, treacherous soul, their ambitions and goals were one in the same.

Up until now, Blanche had merely sipped from the overflowing fountain of strength that her masked acquaintance represented. But now, she would drink in full - bathe herself in the indescribable radiance of unadulterated power. He would show her the ways; help her grow, properly, into the beast she had pointlessly attempted to hide for oh, so long.

The gloved hand that assertively pointed to her shifted, outstretching in anticipation of her own tender hand. "Come," he commanded smoothly. He'd already turned slightly, facing the exit more so than the Kusakage. "Your audience awaits."

"So ignorant," he chuckled. "Then again, you are but a child playing an adult's game. My respect for Uekyuuchi is what stirs me to bring him back to this world. He gave everything for our goal, and the fates were jealous - jealous of what we had achieved together. So, they took him from me. They tried to rip us apart just as they had done you. The only difference in this situation, Blanche, is that you were too weak to do anything about it. . .

. . . I, on the other hand, am not. Not anymore."

Again, his head tilted as if trying to absorb more of her figure. "We are all weapons, silly girl. However, what separates us are our blades. You brother was one of the sharpest swords to have ever been forged in this existence. You, on the other hand, are rusty. You have become rusted with your arrogance and undeserving self-worth; you have rusted with your lack of refinement and failure to control the power that dwells within you -- the same power that your brother managed to tame and bolster."

"You continue to say brother as if the title holds even a ounce of weight to his and I's relationship, Blanche. Blood isn't what makes a family; sure you can understand that. So, yes, your "brother" was my weapon." His eyes narrowed. "However, I was equally as much his weapon. Uekyuuchi deserves to see the fruits of his labor; he deserves to be here when it all comes crashing down, just as we intended all those years ago."

The mask tilted back as he cast his gaze up, into the ceiling. "Unlike your pitiful Edo Tensei, my method of resurrection will bring our beloved Uekyuuchi back in full. To his original body, of which I have purged of that ludicrous disease, with his authentic soul. He will be himself, entirely, free of the possible influence your imperfect technique would harbor."

Slowly, his eyes settled back on Blanche. "And then you will see that the man you so desperately cling to is nothing more than a figment of your childish imagination - a ghost, long since lost of his own accord. You will see who Uekyuuchi Kikkawa truly is, on that day, Blanche. . . and you will despair."

The masked outsider turned from Blanche's pathetic display, though with no judgement in his body language or eyes, and walked to the luminous entrance of the cave several feet before him. Glancing up into the sky, he allowed the crippled woman a reprieve; he gave her the time she'd need to regain a semblance of composure before beginning again. Again, it wasn't hard to tell what she was thinking - it was almost painfully obvious what was coursing through the chaos of her mind at that point in time.

"He couldn't tell you, Blanche. For the same reason I abandoned my own family, my children and my family, we continued on with nothing else besides ourselves. How could we risk the safety of those closest to us?" Surely, she would understand. "When the war was over-- he was going to find you, so that he could tell you all of this instead of me. However, we both promised that if either of us perished before the end of the war. . . we would find each others family and share this with them."

Glancing over his shoulder, his Sharingan watched her. "Regardless of how you feel about me, I look at you as family, Blanche. Uekyuuchi lives on in you - his power; his ambition; his hopes and dreams. They have all be transferred into you. . .

But, I also came to you to give you a chance to see him one more time." Had he not been wearing a mask, she would have certainly seen a smile-- or perhaps a grin --sliding across his face. "Together, we can bring Uekyuuchi back from death-- once and for all." Of course she would know what he spoke of: Edo Tensei. "It will take some time, of course. We will need to make sure everything is ready for his arrival, but you know that it can be done."

Turning, his head tilted to the side. What would she say?

"You, like the rest of the world, are under the presumption that I brought the world to the point it is by myself. Regardless of what power I possessed, it pales in comparison to what I have achieved since those days." The masked man's voice was slow, like a gently rolling stream, and as humble as a beggar that had spent his entire life surviving off the scraps of the many who placed themselves about him. "I accomplished what I did with the aid of your brother, Nagato, and many others. Please, do not insult their sacrifices-- or their memories --by crediting me with everything that has transpired.

Regardless of what you wish to believe, Blanche, your brother made his own choices; he chose to walk the path he did until the fates consumed him. The seeds for the Second Great War were planted here, in this very cave, when your Uekyuuchi and I met. All those years ago, we swore an oath to protect each other; he swore his life, and his soul, to our cause just as I had." He paused, standing to his full height. "I'm not sure what transpired, but I brought him back to who he was in Bakudon Gai - who he truly was. He stood faithfully at my side until his last breath, after that moment."

Several steps erased a moderate portion of the distance separating them, though even in the awkward circumstances that shrouded this meeting, she would feel no hostility from the obscured individual. "Your brother saved my life, on more than one occasion, and I am forever in his debt. Uekyuuchi was the only man I ever considered my equal, and the man I respected the most in this world. While I do not have the honor of sharing his blood, I loved him unconditionally - there is nothing I would not have done for him, Blanche." Despite the sincerity of his words, they were delivered with a flat, almost lifeless tone.

Unfurling the fingers of his right palm, Blanche would find herself compelled forward by some greater force, almost ripped from the earth and into his grasp. Strangely, his touch possessed a contrastingly tender aspect, cupping her "tarnished" chin in his grasp. Tapping his thumb against the seal, she would feel a slight pressure as the chakra was being drained from her flesh, literally, resulting in the disappearance of Nagato's seal. Certainly, she would feel the difference - the weight of an intruder's possible appearance finally lifted from her shoulders.

Releasing her face from his clasp, he took a step back to give her space. "I can always show you, Blanche. If you honestly believe I am lying, that is." Raising that same hand, an outstretched index finger tapped against the Sharingan-eye portion of his mask. "All of the information you desire is right in here."