Her lungs were burning, so were her legs and chest, but she didn't dare stop: how long had she been running for now? She could hear them behind her cursing and swearing in frustration as her pursuers tried to keep up. Her smaller form made it easier for her to dart in and out of the people in the crowded market compared to the large brutes behind her. But, they still had longer legs and larger bodies than her, so they were keeping up well enough. People in the crowd of course weren't taking too lightly to being pushed or shoved out of the way by the three brutes especially since on several occurrences of this happening groceries and other goods went flying or crashing to the street, but they hardly cared: they were more focused on Amaranth than anything else. Revenge was in their eyes, hatred in their hearts: in their minds she had taken from them – caused the death of their leader – and they were going to take it out of her hide. Well, if they could catch her.

Amaranth meanwhile knew she had to put as much distance as possible between herself and them: one on three was not a fight she was looking for. They would destroy her, there was no doubt in Amaranth's mind about that. Her best chance was going to be to either separate them and fight them one on one – which she really didn't want to do – or to escape and hide out... and then figure out what the hell she was going to do now that they knew what village she was in. It wasn't like she could up and leave after all, and she really didn't want to: this was home, home was where she wanted to stay.

Her life wasn't perfect here: she lived in a one room apartment and just scraped by in a moderately comfortable way: but it was her life and she didn't want that taken away from her so soon after so many years in hell. No... she would have to figure something out.

For now though she kept pushing forward, her red hooded cape billowing out behind her; and her black skirt practically sticking to her legs and the stockings she wore underneath both from the wind and from the fact that she was sweating: her black outfit wasn't necessarily the best choice for a run like this in the middle of the way. Even her short black hair was sticking backwards, dripping with sweat from her pushing herself as hard and fast as she could go: there was no pacing herself as she tried to escape her foes.

Deciding to take a chance Amaranth leapt up on a barrel, then onto a nearby awning – her lighter weight allowing her to move across it without falling through the fabric. From there she jumped up onto a nearby roof, traveling across it without the worry of anyone else being nearby: it gave her more freedom to move.

Meanwhile, down on the ground, one of the brutes had tried to follow after her example. He made it up onto the barrel well enough, but the moment he tries to step up onto the awning the same as Amaranth had done his weight broke it immediately and sent him ass first – and quite stuck – into the barrel of water. His bodies, driven by their lust for revenge, left him behind as they darted after Amaranth while remaining on the ground. The man in the barrel took to cursing and swearing as he attempted to lift himself up and out of his very wet predicament.

Amaranth didn't bother to spare more than a glance backward to see this – she probably would have stopped and maybe even laughed had the situation been different – before she continued to push herself onward. Chances were, knowing her luck, that man was going to get out of that barrel soon enough and join his friends who were still determined to chase after her at all costs.

Amaranth pushed herself onward, beginning to wonder if the rooftops were her best bet: she could move easier, but it was damn near impossible to hide. Just as she prepared to head back down toward the street the roof she was on – part of an abandoned building she hadn't realized she was on in her haste – gave way. With a loud crash the female fell through, landing in a mass of debris as more broken pieces of the roof fell in on her....

What a stupid situation to get yourself into...

Word Count: 800

Syekren was enjoying a peaceful day, meditating on top of the administration building. He was wearing his shinobi netted shirt with black out sleeves to conceal his arms' markings, a shinobi gi vest, shinobi tights and black tabi with sandals. His hitai-ate was pristine and tied around his forehead, bearing the mark of the village he was sworn to: Sunagakure no Sato. His eyes were closed while he hummed to himself quietly,  breathing in deeply through his nose, and out through his mouth. His scruffy facial hair moved with each movement of his mouth, looking rather scratchy in itself. His eyes quietly opened after a while, his right eye a darker shade of blue than his left. The left eye had a scar that ran from the eyebrow down to the cheek, even through the eye lids as though someone had slashed down his eye. Otherwise, the pale skinned man was rather attractive, and a smile came to his lips when a few people waved at him as they'd come up to visit the top of the building as he had.

It was cut short by the sound of a ruckus somewhere in the village. People were shouting and acting unruly, which meant that the special jounin's time to relax was over and he would have to go down and take care of whatever was causing the disturbance in the village. By the sounds of it, it was coming from the bazaar district, which would not be too far away. The man stood and sighed, stretching out as he did so, making sure he was limbered up. After this was done, the Uchiha ran forward and jumped, making it to the next rooftop. He did this one after the other, jumping to each roof with a better landing each time, to try and cut down the time spent en route to the disturbance. Once he reached the Grand Bazaar, Syekren jumped towards the ground, performing a front flip as he did so, landing upon his feet near a crowd of worried looking people who had gathered around a building.

The building in question was apparently an old warehouse for storing goods that had fell into ill repair. Someone had been on the roof for some reason and had fallen through to the floor below, possibly getting injured. Syekren learned all of this and little else by listening to the gossip and whispers around him. The Uchiha sighed and turned away, thinking this more a task for a medical ninja than an off-duty ANBU. He was beginning to walk back to fetch someone when he heard the shouting of three men as they pushed their way through the gathering flock of people, making their way to the doors of the warehouse. Three rather burly brutes of men yanked open the doors and rushed inside for some reason. The way they were laughing and celebrating among themselves it seemed as though they had ill intentions towards whoever had fallen in through the roof. This was turning into his type of job and Syekren shook his head, making his way back to the crowd. Once he was through, he heard one say: 'Got you now' and pushed his form forth.

He ran in and jumped, performing a flying kick while shouting. "Taste my youth! Dynamic Entry!" This caught the middle brute off guard and when the kick caught in the back before he could turn around, he flew forward, his face breaking an old barrel upon contact, rancid water coating his upper half. The other two were still surprised and dumbfounded, which the Uchiha capitalized on. He struck with a snap kick to the head of one, turning to then mule kick the chest of the other. The man kicked in the head stumbled to the side, falling upon his rump while the other man was knocked back into a pile of crates, splintering and breaking a few of them.  The three were getting out of their confusing and standing up once more, the special jounin smirking all the while. He pulled his form into a renoji dachi stance, squaring off with the man he'd flying kicked into a barrel and made ready. He even closed his eyes while he waited, breathing in, then out.

As he expected, he was charged from the front with a tackle while the other two swung from each side. Syekren opened his eyes and jumped over the tackling assailant, kicking the back of his head, watching the attacker fall out into the streets outside where other ninja were gathering.  He was quickly restrained by two chuunin while Syekren dealt with the other two. The figured attacking in tandem was their best bet, and they would be right. If Syekren had been anyone else it might have worked. But as the rushed him, he ducked down and slipped behind one brute, kicking his rump so he went into the other, their faces slamming together. He then did a quick spin and jumped, dragging his heel through the air to contact both of them in succession. The were knocked back and knocked out, more chuunin restraining those two as well and dragging the three off for questioning. With a yawn, the man dusted himself off  and turned towards the rubble, spotting a form underneath the bit of debris.

Tilting his head, he kicked pieces off into different directions of the warehouse, slowly but surely unearthing a small girl within them. His lips curled into a smile and his eyes grew soft while he looked down. It wasn't out of character for him to act this way towards women he'd seen. It was actually how he had always reacted and while he was usually surly and unfriendly, women brought out the better side in him. As long as they weren't plant using she-devils. Syekren crouched down, looking at her and spoke. "Hello, miss. Are you alright? I'm here to help."

WC: 1,000

235/250:

[Exiting due to inactivity]