Hisako's throat was soft, the skin protecting her madly pumping jugular was smooth and unblemished despite the maltreatment. I squeezed and she whimpered, feet kicking uselessly and fingers scratching as tears streamed down her cheek. Her eyes barely met mine, but when they did they begged for mercy I was running short of each passing day.
She croaked out a gasp, wasting what air she had stolen from my strangling grip to mutter a pathetic— "Please...."
I strangled her. A single arm hoisting her body off the ground like a trash bag. A disgust filled rage spiked through me at the sound of her cornered plea, just a moment ago she had the guts, the audacity to suggest—
"aAH!" She cried out as she slammed against the wall, free to breath but lungs drained of air. She crumpled against the hard concrete wall of my office, her mess of hair sprawled across the blue-white paint. She looked up and jolted in terror as she saw me approach, her eyes wide now not with the fervour of some self-righteous freedom fighter but of a mouse thrown in an ocean of sharks.
Her lips parted to speak, to whisper more pleas but a narrowed look bodied by my unrestrained Killing Intent drove the words back down her throat. She coughed, sobbed and seized in fright all at once, choosing to stay as still as a deer all the while she trembled at my shadow.
"I won't correct you again, Hisako. You have no leverage here, not with anyone, and certainly not with me." I said, crouching over her tangled legs to touch her cheek. Chakra surged into my palm, boiling against her skin as I collided two powerful energies until a hitched breath later [Coral] crawled up around her.
She gave up on being still, hyperventilating as tears poured freely, her eyes shifted against their sockets as she tried to see the Coral rapidly encasing her face, growing across her neck and into her back.
"There is not a single version of this where you come out with my mercies, Hisako." I promised, taking my hand away and watching with moderate satisfaction as the Coral fed off itself and off her, growing down to her shoulders and stiffening her neck in an all too natural brace, "Whether you choose to cooperate or not, death is not a mercy you will find in my hands. I'd sooner return you to Eiko to experiment with, you're quite knowledgeable in Fuinjutsu, perhaps you will offer greater insights to his methods than his other…toys."
I snorted and turned away, pacing through the filling cabinets and glowering out at the village that's been eating itself. My village. It may well be time to abandon modern sensibilities and do as the Blood Mist do.
"Or perhaps, since you're so eager to bear a child, a noble child, I shall gift you to Lord Funato, that old fool must surely be infertile by now but who knows…your womb might just host the perfect conditions for a brand new heir."
Her cries intensified at this and I could only shake my head, "No matter the case, you are an arrogant fool to believe you could ever sway my furies. What you have done…what you and your vile mentor have committed behind my back. You will pay tenfold."
"Please!" She managed to cry out, the Coral now swallowed her left side, eating its way around her torso to a slow but grueling completion. "Listen! Let me tell you. The spy, Kuzo! He's their leader but he's not the one in charge! He only receives external commands!"
I waved my hand and found my chair, "Espionage and its processes are not a foreign concept to me."
She crawled over on her right side, as if trying to flee the creeping Coral attach to her body. But no such thing. "I know, I know but!"
"But what?"
"Their Handler, I know how to reach him. I didn't trust them when I discovered them, I did my research and they have a code, a signal to communicate and…and give updates."
"You've almost run out of your face, Hisako, if you don't speak quickly you won't ever speak again."
She gulped, still crawling over, elbowing her way up to my feet to beg with redden tears as the Coral began to seize her head in place, "I-I know what their latest instructions were. They want Kaguya! They want Bone-users!"
My lips parted in thought at this. How greedy could you be, Unruly Ay? I thought back to Lord Funato's words, his extreme yet valid belief that the Fourth Raikage would sooner choose war with the Blood Mist than bow to the embarrassment of an apology and reparations. I personally thought he couldn't be so unwise, so arrogant and yet…
Perhaps I've been a fool all this time. Evidence after evidence of his cunning, his thievery and his guiltless shame have been shoved in my face and yet I choose the benefit of the doubt.
Hisako's clawed at my feet, her fingers slipping between my toes as the Coral covered her face, growing well around and underneath her to wrap her right side. She looked like an alien entombed in gems. I scoffed in disgust and raised my fingers, "You understand what you must do now, don't you?"
She tried to nod but only her skin could shift underneath the grip of the Coral. I continued to speak nonetheless, "Don't mistake this for mercy, Hisako, I've yet to pass judgement on your fate still. There is so much left to punish and so much of your vile work to undo."
I snapped my fingers and the Coral shattered off her body like seven years of bad luck. She gasped, "Thank you, Mizukage-sama, thank you!"
There's that respect you've been missing.
"Kurohane!" I yelled and the door swung open not a second later, the ANBU walked in without question and bowed. "Hisako here has information you will need to extract, verify and use to execute a bait. It's time we turn our blades on Kumogakure, war be feared or not."
"Sir!" He wasted not a second before snatching her by the scruff of her shirt, dragging her off with him.
As he left I called out once more, "Oh and, keep a close eye on this one and make sure Eiko is present with her, he's the best person to give her attention."
Hisako's eyes went wide, her mouth slackened but no words nor pleas escaped them. There was no one left to bargain with.