Kazuma didn't need the notebook to keep him from saying anything stupid. After that little slip up with Jaymaru he would keep his mouth closed until he was spoken to. Kazuma didn't even make eye contact with the purple haired woman when Xantrex introduced him. Her gaze might burn right through him. That was illogical, but he wasn't taking his chances. The blue haired boy's eyes widened when Xantrex retrieved the notebook. "Thank you," Kazuma immediately responded as he took the notebook and opened to the first page. He'd read it all and memorize every detail, and if given permission, he would transfer it onto his own paper and study it. As he scanned each page he wondered if he was capable of understanding any of it. This level of science was not taught in the villages, just the basics. That didn't stop him from trying though.

Jaymaru knew it must have been pretty bad for Xantrex to give up his pride and ask her for help. "Demon Dogs. You'd think the rumors would be enough to keep people out. But not you Xantrex. You're just dying to gain more knowledge. Even if it means getting maimed in the process." She gave a dismissive wave. "I'll be back." She turned on her heel and headed back to her room to retrieve the things she would need to heal Xantrex with. When she returned she'd rolled up her sleeves and put on a pair of gloves. "Alright, let me see what the damage is. I can already tell you've lost blood, you're pale and clammy looking." She examined his left arm intently, occasionally giving a "Mhmm" here and there. Finally she looked up at him and sighed. "Well, you're going to need stitches...again. And the arm is broken. I'm not sure if it's broken in more than one spot, but I can easily figure that out." She gave a mischievous smile. "No poison, no venom, no acid saliva. The list goes on and on, but none of which has happened to you." She started into her supplies. "You'll live, but that arm is going to need time to heal." She nodded to Kazuma. "Is he injured?"

Xantrex grinned and had to hold back from chuckling when she said not him. "Knowledge is power, right?" he said with a grin as Jaymaru walked out. When she was getting her supplies, his grin faded and he laid his head back against the couch and sighed, closing his eyes. He wanted to sleep. A nice long nap would be perfect. He raised his head and opened his eyes to look at Jaymaru as she came back in. He waited until she was done looking over his arm, only to give a tired grin when she said that he was going to need stitches again. "What can I say, I've been reckless since getting back from the Vallies. Looks like they made me a bit soft," he admitted with a chuckle. He was joking of course. But there was something bothering him. He really was losing his touch. He was wondering if his reflexes were slowing from screwing with time so much. It was an odd concept, but not one he hadn't thought of before. He'd have to look into that. "Depending on Deidara's mood tomorrow, you might have to restitch it," he said lightly. He looked to Kazuma, who seemed to be engrossed in reading his notebook. "He's fine," Xantrex said with a one sided shrug. He hoped Jaymaru wouldn't look into that too much. A genin coming out fine, while an Akatsuki came out with a broken arm nearly dead from blood loss. But hey, no one said that Kazuma had come into the Unknown with him. For all Jaymaru knew, he found Xantrex outside the Unknown. But...unfortunately, Jay was smart.

Jaymaru could see that Xan was tired. He'd need all the rest he could get. She'd patch him up as fast as she could, but she wanted to be careful too. Infection could play a factor in this. Jaymaru started to clean Xantrex's arm. First with diluted water and then with alcohol to kill any bacteria that may have started to form in the wound. "He must be pretty strong if he came out okay and you didn't, but then there'd be no point in taking him on as a student. The kid is pretty scrawny Xantrex." She dried his arm and looked it over. "Wait, you said I may have to restitch you after speaking with Deidara. Are you saying he doesn't know you brought this kid here?" Jaymaru was one of the less violent Akatsuki, but she shot Kazuma a look that could have sent the Devil himself running. She looked at Xantrex. "What are you playing at?" She started stitching his arm up. She had to work on one bite mark at a time because they were so ragged.

Xantrex stayed silent when Jaymaru mentioned that Kazuma would have to be pretty strong to have come out fine. He was going to say nothing about having protected him. "I didn't take him on because of his fighting prowess," he said through slightly clenched teeth as she cleaned the wound with alcohol. That didn't help with the pain, but he knew it was necessary. Xantrex gave Jaymaru a small grin when she guessed that Deidara didn't know about Kazuma. "It was kinda a spur of the moment decision. I've been on the lookout for a kid to take on as a student for a while now, and Kazuma just happened to be a perfect candidate. I plan on telling Deidara tomorrow. Until then I can't let Deidara see him. Otherwise we may very well both end up dead," he admitted with a chuckle, which was cut short as the needle went through his skin the first time. He glanced to Kazuma. The kid was really caught up in that book. "Understandin any of it?" Even sitting down, Xantrex was starting to feel a little dizzy. Whether it was from blood loss or exhaustion, he couldn't tell.

Kazuma was not paying any attention to Jutsu and Xantrex. He was all into the book, trying to figure out an equation on Time Manipulation. There was one part that he just couldn't figure out and it was driving him crazy to not know. When Xantrex asked if he could understand anything he gave an absent nod. "I get bits of pieces, but I can't figure out how anything fits together. Especially the Time Manipulation. Everything's so complex." Kazuma sighed. "It must have taken you years to figure this out." Kazuma pulled his attention away from the book long enough to actually look at Xantrex. "And jumping through shadows. It's like the Shadow Possession jutsu, but instead of just controlling the shadow, you use them to move from place to place. It's no longer passive, but aggressive...in a sense that is."

Jaymaru didn't even attempt to talk sense into Xantrex. He'd been reckless before, a beating from Deidara wouldn't change that. "Well, I hope you live," she said. "If not then I'd have woken up to heal a dead man." She gave a smile and continued her work, glancing upwards to look at Kazuma as he started to speak about all the wonderful things that he'd read in Xantrex's notebook. "I see what you mean," she said, in reference to Xantrex's input on how he hadn't recruited Kazuma for his strength. "He's like a miniature you." She finished with one wound and applied a small amount of powder on it. She did the same for the next three marks. "You're getting worse," she noted. Standing up she went to retrieve a bottle of water. Placing a small green pill inside, she let it dissolve before giving the bottle to Xantrex. "There, this should help. It'll pump you full of adrenaline, so that you're barely aware that you're injured. So you'll gain a bit more energy. Once it wears off, I'd advise finding a bed, it'll knock you out and you'll sleep well, allowing your body to heal properly." Leaving him to it, she got back to work on his arm.

Xantrex looked at Jaymaru with a small grin when she smiled at him and said that she was healing a dead man. He looked to Kazuma as he started talking about what he understood. If only he knew. Because of this, Jaymaru would get a small science lesson as well. "What most people don't know, is that shadow manipulation has a lot to do with time manipulation in itself. No one realizes this, because no one wants anything to do with time." He spoke to Kazuma as Jaymaru worked. "See, time and space itself warp and twist to keep the speed of light consistent. And controlling light is what allows us to control shadows, therefor, you must learn to bend both time and space to your will. Have you ever encountered a ninja who used shadow jutsu before? Besides me, I mean," he said. He looked to Jaymaru with a grin as she said that Kazuma was like a miniature him. "I hope not. Because then that means he has limits," he joked. He swallowed when she said he was getting worse. Was it that obvious? He took the bottle as she handed it to him, nodding as she explained. "Thanks," he said before swishing the bottle a little to mix the pill around, then drinking half of it in one go. He'd been thirstier than he's realized. After a moment he shivered, blinking a couple times. He felt completely wide awake, and the pain from his wound was almost non-existant. "Damn...where do you get stuff like that?" he asked, looking at her. He hadn't even drunk the whole thing down, and he felt loads better. Those things could be useful for missions, but also extremely dangerous.

Kazuma lowered the book as Xantrex gave him his first lesson. He had no idea he needed to manipulate time in before he could manipulate shadows. He'd had it wrong all along and that was sort of depressing. "I've only meet two people who could use shadow jutsu. But it was the shadow possession jutsu and the shadow strangle jutsu." Kazuma shrugged. "Nothing like your jutsu that you use." Kazuma hadn't caught Jaymaru's part of the conversation, but he had caught Xantrex's, in which the Akatsuki was saying something about limits. Kazuma didn't want to even get involved on the conversation of limits so he turned away before he could be dragged into the conversation. He started back on the shadow possession information now that he knew what he needed to make it happen.

Jaymaru raised a brow. "You're both a bunch of Einsteins. We have the Mad Doctor. And the future prodigy." She smiled and went back to her work. When Xantrex seemed to have gotten back his energy, she smiled. "The black market." She finished the last of the bite marks and placed the powder on it. "Not really. They're mine." She said. "We used to use these in the Stealth for the more important missions. Like taking down the Akatsuki, but we only gave them to them to the super soldiers, like Seven." She wasn't going to get into that story. "Anyway, they're real handy when you need a quick get away, but too many....or too much will kill you." They were similar to Food Pills. "Anyway, I'm glad you're filling better, because now that I know that, I can do this." She took a firm, but gentle grip on Xantrex's arm and turned it one way and then the other until it snapped. "There we go, you're bones are back in place, so that everything heals up A-okay." She then started to wrap him up. She was done, she tied another layer of bandages and then made him a sort of sling to rest his arm in. "There you go," she said as she stood up and went to the sink. "You're welcome."

Xantrex raised an eyebrow at Jaymaru. "The Mad Doctor? Is that my nickname around here? Geez, I wish they'd be a little more creative...." he mumbled. "I'm not even that insane..." He looked at her when she said that she'd gotten them at the black market, grinning when she changed it up and said they were hers, drinking down more of the water. "Seven?" He paused. "I'd heard rumors of supersoldiers in the Stealth, but I didn't realize they'd succeeded. That's interesting." Xantrex found himself a little wary as Jaymaru said she was glad he was feeling better, then tensed when she took a hold of his arm. He cringed when she snapped it back into place. In his mind, that had been a rather sickening sound. "That was...uncomfortable." There was no real reason wh he'd said that, but that had been extremely uncomfortable. "At least give me a warning next time..." Next time, being tomorrow. He stayed still and idly drank the water every now and then as she wrapped his arm. By the time she was finished, so was he. "How much time do I have before this stuff wears off?" he asked. He wanted to get Kazuma situated in the hideout before he collapsed. He watched Jaymaru as she went to the sink, silent for a moment. "Thanks," he finally said. His arm probably never would have healed right if he didn't have her set it. And anyone else wouldn't have bothered with making the pain go away before resetting his arm.

"Oh, I don't know. It was the first thing that came to mind," she said with a shrug. "Sorry for not being more creative," she said. Only to give him a look when he said he wasn't that insane. "So you're saying you insane?" She asked. She washed her hands off and then leaned against the counter. "We gave them numbers instead of actual names. Seven, Two, and Nine are the only surviving super soldiers in the Stealth," she explained. "Originally there were going to be ten total, but the project ceased when Nine seemed to surpass all of his 'brothers'. The other eight ended up with defects. Such as Two being blind and Seven having an odd Narcolepsy that caused him to sleep for hours on end without being able to be awaken, no matter what we tried." She shrugged. "Eight was a success story, but when he died, Nine was created to replace him." She paused in thought. It's been quite a while since then. The program was shut down because of the Council, but I wonder if that could be of any use to the Akatsuki. Xantrex would be sure enough capable of using that information to his advantage in some way shape or form. Or I could give the information to the kid. It'd help him impress Xantrex...or Deidara if need be. "Surely Xantrex isn't complaining about the snapping of a few bones," she teased. "Anyway, you've got an hour or so." Can I go to bed now?

(Tch. Please. I would make much more use of that information.)

Xantrex grinned when she asked if he was saying that he was insane. "Oh, most absolutely." He was joking, but she might not take it as such. "I mean, I did go into the Unknown alone after all, all for the sake of research," he said smugly. Again, joking, but not many people understood Xantrex's form of humor... He turned on the couch when Justumaster started explaining all about the Stealth's super soldiers. He, for a change, actually looked thoroughly interested in this, and even more than that, intrigued by it. "Do any of the other villages know about the Stealth's success with creating super soldiers?" Didn't look like she was getting to bed anytime soon. He paused when she teased him, giving a small frown. "Of course not." Was that a hint of embarrassment in his voice?

(Stop being so greedy for information. Give the kid a chance.)

She was hoping he was joking. She didn't know Xantrex all that well, but she knew he wasn't an enemy. "I suppose you are insane," she said with a small nod and a small look because she thought he sounded embaressed when he answered her. When Xantrex asked about if the other villages knew she smirked. "No. We agreed to keep it our little secret. Had the Council not shut it down for being, unethical, there would have been more of them. And maybe they could have prevented the attack from the Snow." She shrugged. "In the end all that time and effort was a waste." She had been furious when the Council had shut the program down. Had they had more soldiers like Eight and Nine they would have been able to take the Akatsuki down at the time. Well, that was before she'd joined. "And besides, had the other villages known of what we were doing, do you think they would have agreed? Probably not, but they'd have gone trying it out themselves, inevitably failing and creating something much more dangerous than a simple super soldier. Mutations." That's what had happened to the fifth super soldier. Something had gone horribly wrong. He got out of control one day and then, as the scientist had put it, his cells were actively mutating at an accelerated rate until his body could no longer keep up.

(Never.)

Xantrex leaned forward slightly as he listened. His mind was racing. He'd never seriously considered doing human experimentation for super soldiers, but with the knowledge that the Stealth had succeeded in it...well hell, there were crap loads of wanna be's that were lazing about doing nothing useful with their time. Things like this could be really useful to the Akatsuki. He started wondering about what Deidara would think about doing something like this, but then he looked at Jaymaru as she said something about mutations. "Mutations, huh...? I'm guessing the Stealth ran into problems like that then? What happened?" Xantrex was glad that Kazuma was caught up in the notebook. He didn't need the kid thinking that he really was insane. He still wasn't too sure of Jaymaru's opinion on his mental state, not that it mattered much. But it would be nice to have at least one person in the Akatsuki who didn't think of him as a total loon.

(Then why am I even here?)

Kazuma was into the book, but he looked up when Jaymaru said something about super soldiers. He'd never heard about that, so the Stealth had kept there secret fairly safe. "Mutations," he breathe. "The change of gene structure." He should have went there. It would have been awesome to help with modifying genetic structures. Making someone ten times stronger without the use of a Food Pill. Kazuma could only dream of such a thing. So he too was interested in what Jaymaru had to say. He would ask her later if she had any of the research left. She probably wouldn't even let him see it after he called her old. He gave a silent sigh. He wished he could have taken it back.

"Everything was going fine," she started as she took a seat on one of the couches. "But we decided that with the problems going on with the previous four that we should attempt again. We were going for perfection." She gave a sigh as she remembered it like it was yesterday. "He was the fifth one. They tried ruling out all the negative factors, but something went wrong. They were going out for training, but Five wouldn't cooperate. We knew something was up, but we weren't sure what it was. He suddenly started to change. The scientist had said his cells were actively mutating at an accelerated rate until his body could no longer keep up. I know it's childish to put it this way, but it was like something out of a horror movie. I couldn't even recognize him anymore, both physically and personality wise. He killed One and Four." Jaymaru sighed, looking down at the ground she continued. "Finally Two took him down. We still don't know what happened."

(Hush, I'll get to you soon enough.)

Xantrex watched as Jay took a seat on the couch. "Hm? Didn't they have a failsafe? Some sort of jutsu or mechanism to control them? Something like that was bound to happen eventually, the scientists there should have known that," he said. He almost seemed a bit disappointed. One of his teachers was an older scientist in the Stealth. When he was a kid, Xantrex had thought of the man as nothing short of brillant. Had the old man died before this had happened? Or was he just losing his touch? Xantrex thought about asking Jaymaru about the man. He wondered. Wondered if Jaymaru knew him. "Especially Hynelia. He should have known better than anyone what could have happened," he said. A nice, subtle way of bringing out the truth. Jacob Hynelia had been the name of his mentor. Xantrex shook his head lightly. "While I don't place too much regard on the scientists of the Vallies, their lack of failsafes is a bit disappointing. They keep something like that up, they might destroy themselves before we have the chance." He wasn't disappointed in that, his mind was still on what had happened with Hynelia. He wanted to get a response from Jaymaru on that. But he wasn't sure he wanted to point the guy out as being his mentor. That would tarnish Hynelia's reputation far more than it would tarnish Xantrex's. He still had respect for the guy.

Kazuma was listening in on the conversation. Kazuma flinched when she said that Five killed One and Four. He'd murdered his own brothers. Kazuma couldn't imagine killing his sisters for any reason. It wasn't until Jaymaru finished speaking did he speak up. "The mutations happened because they took out all the negative. There has to be some negative to be with the positive. Without light there can be no positive, without trees there would be no oxygen. That sort of thing." Kazuma paused briefly. "With no negative factors in his system, Five's body thought the world was a virus. It responded by mutating." Kazuma hoped he wasn't speaking out of line, since Xantrex was speaking of how things should have been contained.

Jaymaru shook her head. "There had been nothing wrong with the other four, nothing terrible, so it wasn't necessary. And I wasn't really in charge. I just checked in, to make sure things were going smoothly. It would have been appropriate, but sometimes people don't think." She sighed. "Hynelia?" She thought back. The name sounded familiar. "I've heard that name before." It had been a while ago though, when she was younger. She went to say more when Kazuma spoke up. "....I...I never thought of that," she said. She looked to Xantrex. "He's smart." A fail in equal balance. That was the problem. It was so simple. You'd have thought it to be more complex. She wanted to ask Xantrex if he had come up with that conclusion.

Xantrex grinned when Kazuma started explaining what had gone wrong, giving a small nod. "That's exactly correct," he said. He then looked to Jaymaru who said the name sounded familiar. "Jacob Hynelia. He's a scientist in the Stealth. One of the best there," he said with a slight nod. He didn't want to give too much away, and he sure as hell wasn't going to say that Hynelia had been a colleague of his. He looked back to Kazuma. "That being the case, what about his brothers? Should he not have felt some emotional connection to them, even through mutation?" Of course Xantrex knew the answer to this, he wanted to see if Kazuma could come up with a response on his own. Xantrex knew the boy was smart, or at least he'd hoped so, for someone with a photographic memory, but he was already beyond expectation. This was perfect.

Kazuma could practically feel that he was the center of attention. He was both nervous and excited. Nervous because if he answered this wrong, his new found teacher would think of him as a worthless waste of time, like his former sensei and father did. And excited because this was the first time that anyone cared about what he had to say. "Maybe on a subconscious level he did feel something, but it wasn't enough to stop him from," he didn't want to use the kill or murder, so he said he quickly replaced it with, "extirpating them. If the mutation was happening as rapidly as Ms. Jaymaru stated, then that would mean it spread to his brain as well." Now Kazuma really wanted those notes and he really hoped that was the answer Xantrex was looking for. "If not then he prayed he hadn't messed up too bad. When he thought about, he thought that he should have added that if everything was a virus to Five, then his brothers would have been seen as one too.

Xantrex's grin didn't fade when Kazuma answered. "Very good," he said with a nod. "You're right. The fact that Five would have been mutating so fast had a large part to play. What probably pushed him over was the fact that his brothers were not defective free, so they were also seen as imperfect, part of the viruses surrounding him, and disposed of." Xantrex looked to Jaymaru. "You wouldn't happen to have any old notes, would you?" He glanced to Kazuma. "I was thinking we could make this into a little side project of sorts. Along with your other studies of course. What do you think?" Xantrex hadn't realized it, but the boy had only just gotten here and he was mentally planning a schedule for the kid. Or maybe it was just the adrenaline Jaymaru had given him.

Jaymaru was looking between the two of them as they spoke. She was witnessing two Masterminds at work. It was such a good conversation, that she barely heard Xantrex ask her about the notes because she was wanting to hear more theories. It seemed like Kazuma had it all figured out though, and so did Xantrex, of course. Those two should have been in the village when the Super Soldier Project was being tested. They could have made history. "Um, yes I do in fact have some notes left over." The Council had ordered for all files to be disposed of, but Seven had pleaded with her to leave something to remember his brothers by. Yes, he had Two and Nine, but the other six were dead. So she'd kept the files and made two extra copies. One for the disposal process, and a copy for Seven. She'd kept the original herself. "I'll get them to you later." She wondered how they planned on testing the research out. "Oh and Xantrex. That Hynelia guy you were speaking of earlier, I met him only once before. He was very intellectual."

Kazuma let out a small sigh of relief when Xantrex said he was right. Then he had the overwhelming feeling to jump up and cheer for joy. When Xantrex asked Jutsu about the notes, Kazuma stayed silent. There went his chance he thought....But he was wrong because Xantrex glanced at him and asked him if he wanted to make it a side project. Kazuma nodded. So it was really happening. Xantrex was going to really train him, but one thought lingered in the back of his mind. Would Deidara approve of him being an Akatsuki. However, he pushed it to the back of his mind as Jaymaru confirmed she did have the notes. Kazuma would never ever call her old again and he'd treat her like royalty for this. He wondered if he could work on the Super Soldier Project as a way to impress Xantrex. Or even more, what if he worked on it over night using animals as test subjects so that he could prove his usefulness to Deidara. If he worked rigorously through the night then maybe he could come up with something. Surely he could understand Jaymaru's notes better than Xantrex's. Mutation was easy, manipulating time and space was not.