Mist clung to the forest as Sanosuke did simple reconasaince for the Village hidden in the mist. It was his turn to do so. These sort of missions were done by highly skilled shinobi that were jounin or ANBU level in strength. On Sanosuke's side was about 3 to 4 upper level shinobi. One of them Sanosuke believed to be a special jounin that was from the village hidden in the leaves. 2 of them were jounin that were from the village hidden in the sands; while the last one in Sanosuke's group was a member of Kiri's ANBU corp. He was quiet. The Konoha shinobi was a girl that was about 18 years old, the 2 Suna shinobi were twins that looked to be around Sanosuke's age, and it was hard to tell how old the ANBU agent was since he had a mask on. Sanosuke was picked out as leader of this patrol unit. Being a highly experienced and power shinobi of the clouds, and the fact that he was a master at the difficult art of senjutsu, gave him the qualifications needed to lead this small patrol. Gingerly, Sanosuke accepted the job. He was sure of his abilities but he wasn't used to leading a group. That changed as he found out that he was leading a group dangerously near enemy territory. They already had a coup border skirmishes with some of Seven Bells patrol units. And each time Sanosuke led his unit to victory with only a few cuts and bruises on their side; the Kumo jounin couldn't say the same about the patrol units they encountered.

As they traveled through the woods, it seemed as though besides the skirmishes they had there was nothing to report. They were about to call it quits when Sanosuke heard someone yell. A flock of birds flew outwards into the misty sky at the loud noise that came from close by the group. It wasn't audible but it was certainly loud enough to scare the birds. Sanosuke came to a screeching halt at his running to take in the sound he just heard. His group stopped as well. What was going on? The sound was coming dangerously close to enemy territory. Looking down, he found a pathway that would lead into the direction of the sound. If he wasn't mistaken, the path originated from the Kiri docks. Did some passengers find any trouble and get lost? No that wouldn't make sense. All incoming passengers were screened and guided into the village upon arriving to Mizu no Kuni. He knew the protocol because he was instructed in it since he was a shinobi that was fighting for Kiri's aid. This was odd indeed and needed to be checked out. Holding up his hand, Sanosuke made hand signs that he was taught in the academy. It was fairly universal in the other hidden shinobi villages, so Sanosuke was confident that his subordinates would understand. It read that the 2 jounin Suna shinobi would come with him to investigate while the Konoha special jounin and the Kiri ANBU would report back to headquarters to report about that was going on. There was faces of confusion at first; the ANBU cocked his head as he was trying to figure out why his commanding officer would do such a thing. Finally he gave in and escorted the kunoichi back. With the Suna shinobi at his sides, they nodded that they were with him. Smiling at them softly, Sanosuke gave them a nod as they ran into the direction of the noise to investigate.

Sanosuke jumped through tree to tree to with his teammates at his sides. Looking around at both sides, Sanosuke made sure that he was taking in as much of his surroundings as possible. The last thing he needed was an ambush. One of the Suna twins was a tracking ninja so he was tracking down the footsteps of the pathway. They were following the fresh footprints. One was small like a woman's and the other was big like a male's. They followed the footprints into the woods. They were really getting close to enemy territory, that's when the Suna shinobi noticed that there was a change. The woman's footprints seperated from the man's and ran off to the east. At the sight of the sepatation, the tracker ninja directed Sanosuke's attention to the multiple arrows and kunai that was in the area. Walking to one of the kunai that was eembedded into one of the trees, Sanosuke pulled one of them out of it. On the kunai was the insignia of their enemy. The group was ambushed by Seven Bells shinobi most likely and the woman ran away freightened. "Seven Bells..." Sanosuke growled under his teeth as he followed his subordinates along the footprints of the woman they were tracking.

The sound of laughter could be heard as Sanosuke's group was getting closer. Pointing upwards, Sanosuke darted high up in the trees so that he would remain hidden in the eyes of any Seven Bells troopers. The other jounin followed his suit. They were masked in the mist and the leaves that were in the trees. Now they would have to wait and watch what was unfolding before them. A cloaked figure was masked and being confronted by Seven Bells shinobi. They were puppeeters and looked as though they knew how to fight; they had to be about special jounin level. Still though 3 special jounin level shinobi at once? That would be quite difficult to hold off. Why were these men attacking this cloak figure? When the hostiles said that the cloaked figure was Kiri ANBU, it made Sanosuke wonder. The Suna shinobi that were at his side poked him to get his attention to ask him if the cloaked figure was really Kiri ANBU. Sanosuke shook his head quickly and quietly. It made no sense, there was no way that the cloaked figure was Kiri ANBU. No forces on the alliance, except Sanouke's patrol unit, was this far into enemy territory. This got even more confusing. When the figure declared that it needed reinforcements, the shinobi pounced on the cloak figure. This person was very mysterious indeed and thus needed to be question about what happened to the couple that was in the forest. It was something that needed to be investigated and so far this figure was their only lead. Clenching his fist swiftly in the air, Sanosuke made another hand sign. It read simply; Eliminate hostiles, swiftly with efficiency.

Leaping down from the tree he was in quickly, he position his body so that he jumped high in the air so that his body was block out the sun. The sun was already masked by Kiri's natural mist, but it was only partial blocking. With his body in the way, the group was covered in a shadow. It would make them get their attention away from the figure and onto him. When he was going down in an arc, Sanosuke put his hands to his sides and shifted his weight forwards so he was air diving towards the tree that was behind the cloak figure. Moving quickly, his body was coming at the tree at high speeds. Adjusting his position in his feet, Sanosuke landed on the bark of the tree so he was mid way to the ground. The tree served as a spring board as he made a beeline dive towards one enemy shinobi with his already unsheated sword. He was at a diagonal angle so he was going diagonally downwards at the enemy shinobi he was encountering. His blade was aimed with precision as he took down one of the shinobi with a quick slash to the jugular with Sanosuke's hand and a half blade. The slash may have been quick but it was done with a heavy blade so the gapping wound was almost big enough to cut all the way through the shinobi's neck to lead to a decapitation. Blood sprayed allover the place. The shinobi didn't even know what hit him. His body hit the ground with a thud. Sanosuke landed skidding about 1 meter behind the group of hostile shinobi in a low crouch position.

The two remaining hostile shinobi looked at each other and then looked at their dead comrade's body with shock and disbelief. "Oh my God! They killed Kenny!" one of them said. The other one looked as though he was about to cry. He looked at Sanosuke with tear eyes of hatred as he held a kunai in is hands. "YOU BASTARD!!" The other one roared s he made a lunge towards Sanosuke. Turning around and standing up properly, Sanosuke got a good look at his enemies. These shinobi looked rather young. They were about 16, much too young to be in this war. It was a pity they had to be killed this way. Dodging the shinobi's strike, Sanosuke used the enemy shinobi's momentum against him and side step the kunai coming at his chest. With a quick swipe to the boy's Achilles's tendon, Sanosuke watched as the boy collapsed to the ground in pain an agony. He was holding his wounded leg cradling it in his arms, he was crying and begging for his life. This was hard for him to do; he even sligtly hesitated. He hated when enemies begged, it made him have to second guess himself. But swiftly he hardened his dissolve and plunged his sword into the boy's chest cavity killing him instantly.

The last shinobi looked at Sanosuke and tried to escape with his life knowing that his entire patrol was killed. Sanosuke didn't even have to move to kill this person. Not a single step was taken from Sanosuke as the boy ran. All the jounin did was whistle. It was the distinct and sorrowful song of the mocking jay. Normally it wouldn't have meant anything. But to his patrol group, it was a call to strike. 1 meter, 2 meters, 3 meters, 4 meters. That was as far as the last shinobi got before a bolt went straight through the boy's head from behind. The lifeless body of the boy fell to the ground instantly. All of the shinobi that were hostile were dealt with. With a sigh of relief, Sanosuke swiped the air with his sword before sheathing the blade once more.

Turning around, Sanosuke noticed that the shinobi he stationed in the tree had come to rendezvous with their commanding officer. "Good work out there Katniss. You shot pretty damn well out there." Sanosuke said to the one twin. She bowed and blushed a bit at the compliment. He also nodded to the other twin who went by the name of Peeta. When he turned around to look at the person cloaked in a black cloak and a mask, Sanosuke folded his arms. "Okay, I'll bite. State your business. You aren't our enemies since those shinobi would have wanted to kill you as much as they wanted to kill me. So why are you so far out of nowhere?"

She ducked under the first man’s blow, jumping several metres back while she was at it and prepared for the other two attacks.
That was when a sword sliced through one of the assaulters as though he was made of paper.
Misoka’s heart skipped a beat in surprise.
She hadn’t even seen who or what had just come to her rescue. Or then again, that might be a bit jumping to conclusions – For all she knew, that person could have simply been nearby, heard her call, thought to themselves “Oh, nice, Seven Bells!” and was right now acting for their very own reasons which … involved having an undying blood thirst they needed to satiate.
Alright, slow down. This was jumping to conclusions.
The spectacle before her ended as soon as it had started.

An angry shout filled with craving vengeance quickly turned into a plea for mercy. The last whimper coming from him was silenced by the tip of the sword.
As for the remaining hostile shinobi, a plain mocking jay sound sufficed, sending an arrow through the man’s chest.
Only moments later, each of the enemies lay dead on the ground.
Two other people, a man and a woman looking incredibly alike, jumped off the trees next to their colleague, who, by the way, seemed to be the leader of their group.
With a few words he complimented the female on her arrow’s perfect accuracy before he – and Misoka knew this couldn’t have been possibly avoided – turned to her and demanded more information.
She used the time in which he spoke to further examine the man. What had first caught her eye were the black dreadlocks framing his dark-skinned face. Not surprisingly, he stood tall and intimidating, a physical trait which definitely helped put emphasis on his authority.
The short seconds of talk were over far too soon.

Desperately, Misoka racked her brain for a plausible explanation, but the dazzling idea refused to come to her mind just yet. She needed more time to think.
“What I’m doing far out of nowhere?” …Yes, pretending to be so dense that she had to repeat his question – check. A reluctant check.
But now that she was disguised as a different person, a male shinobi to be precise, any humiliation didn’t exactly direct itself against her in that sense. Eh, not the most convincing justification, but… anyway.
Leaving her question hanging in the air for a few moments, Misoka proceeded to burst out into a deep, very manly laughter – at least in her opinion. Those were the couple of seconds she’d needed to come up with something.

“Oh… that! I heard a rumour that Seven Bells himself is out here. I wanted to challenge him to a fight. You see, every ANBU strives to improve their skills, haha!” Wait, if she were so strong, why would she have been in need of reinforcements, then? Oh mighty white lies, come to me!
“But thank you, friend! I wanted to save up my chakra for the real fight later on.”
While she was talking in her masculine, cheerful voice, Misoka let her eyes flicker from one person to the next.
Escape seemed impossible at the moment. Not only would it make her look more than suspicious, but that Katniss kunoichi would probably not hesitate to shoot her leg.
On the subject of her leg, she was still holding onto the end of her metal chain.
As she felt the gaze of the same bow woman she had just addressed in her thoughts travel down to Misoka’s hands, she added jokingly,”I also specialize in throwing this, um, metal chain at my opponents.”

Damn, that was all so far-fetched that not even a fool would believe it.  At that rate, they might already consider her a suspicious threat and well, she’d seen what they did to their enemies.
Misoka took a deep breath. Best to slip in a half-truth to appear more trustworthy.
“Okay, okay, you got me!” She faked another roaring laugh. “I admit, I’m not really an ANBU! I’m just… wearing this mask because I’m really shy about my appearance. My face is scarred and … and partly burned as well!”
Alright, here goes: further loosen up the tense mood with a joke. “You have no idea how hard it is to hit on girls without a mask! But if I tell them I’m an ANBU, woah – they’re head-over-heels for me! Just imagine how they'll react when I was the one to kill Seven Bells! Phew, I'll have a hard time choosing, man.”
She was definitely not going to give away her true identity as long as she couldn’t be sure to trust them.
As a matter of fact, they would of course do the same and not just buy all that nonsense she was telling them.
Still, what Misoka hoped was that the leader would label her as a young, overconfident man who needed to be taken under his wing before he killed himself in this war. And then... she could go with them and head to the village.

---

OOC: Sano, we'll stay in the forest, ok? xD

WC 2387

When Sanosuke asked his questioned to the cloaked figure, the jounin crossed his arms to hear him out. Just from the start of the guy's story, Sanosuke could already tell how much bullshit he was smearing. For this own guy's safety, he really hoped this cloaked figure didn't honestly believe this story for a second. At the sight of him explaining his chains, Sanosuke almost cut off the cloaked figure's explaination short. The Figure decided that now he should come clean about what was going on. And it was just another lie, this time more believable than the last. It was still bullshit, but it might have fooled a low ranked shinobi other than Sanosuke. Tough break for this guy. He said that he was ANBU and was trying to perfect his skills while out in enemy territory? No, no ANBU member was that stupid. ANBU were the elite few of the shinobi hierarchy that was handpicked by the kage themselves to complete the most difficult of tasks. Somebody acting like this would never be part of an ANBU core no matter how skilled they were. The fact that the cloaked figure wanted Sanosuke to believe his story was humorous enough to the point where it was ridiculous. Plus this person was obviously masking their voice. A shinobi at his skill level could detect something as obvious as a forced voice change easily. As verification, Sanosuke looked over to Peeta his tracker ninja. The Suna shinobi gave a quick shake of his head that symbolized that not a single word of the story was true. A second opinion. That was all Sanosuke needed to act.

Taking his hand out, Sanosuke grabbed the cloaked figure by the cloak and slammed them against the bark of the tree. "Do you honestly think I'm going to believe that shit you told me?" Sanosuke asked while holding the cuff of the cloak figure's cloak. The figure was short than Sanosuke by a significant amount so it was easier for him to just lift the girl straight up from the ground while still being pushed against the tree. He held the figure like that for a while and just noticed that while he was grabbing the cloak, his fingers grazed something that was warm and soft. The feeling was coming form the cloak figure's chest. It slightly surprised Sanosuke at first but he regained his thinking process. If his theory was correct then it would definitely explain the voice change. With his free hand, Sanosuke reached towards the figure's masked and threw it to the ground. What he saw was the face of a beautiful girl with the face of an angel. Light hair cascaded down her face as Sanosuke held her to the tree. Her eyes were a mixture of green and blue color. It was as though the angels laid a blessing down on this girl through true beauty. She was stunning.

With this done, Sanosuke let out small gasp of surprise. So he was correct after all, this person was a woman. But what was she doing here. It seemed as though she wasn't the only one surprised. Turning around, he looked at Peeta and Katniss. Both of their faces were so pale and white it looked as though they were looking at a ghost. They were greatly surprised at who was the cloaked figure; a beautiful girl with the most interesting eyes someone has laid upon. Snapping his fingers, he got Katniss and and Peeta's attention again. "Peeta, do you think this is the woman that we've been tracking?"

It took the Suna jounin a couple of minutes to recover his barrings before he decided to speak once more. This would be the first time he had heard him speak while on this mission. They were on a patrol unit after all dangerously near enemy territory, so speaking in leisure would be a fatal mistake. One joke could spell out death to the whole patrol group as enemy forces would be quick to swoop in and deal with them. "Yes I believe so. While we following the tracks of the woman, I noticed that her steps also had what looked like chains trailing along each step she took." Peeta finally said. It sure did fit the description of who they were looking for. A woman in hostile territory with chains around her ankles and body. She fit it quite well. Now if only they could find the man that the woman was with, they would be able to head back to headquarters and make a joint report to headquarters with his report joining with the report he sent half his patrol group to make on his behalf. "Sanosuke-sempai, this woman. She's from our village, the village hidden in the sands. The Karisuma Clan" Katniss also said to add on to what her twin brother said. Now this was even more interesting. It wasn't a surprise that Katniss and Peeta knew the woman's identity. The clan was a clan that originated from Suna, even Sanosuke heard about the clan in his travels. But the question was what was she doing way out here by herself. She was most likely escorted by her entourage before she was ambushed. So where was her bodyguard was the next question. But first  Sanosuke checked out that the woman that he was holding to the tree's bark.

"Okay Karisuma, spill. What the hell are you really doing way out here?" Sanosuke questioned. He didn't have time to deal with another game of lies. Hopefully the fact that he stripped the mask from the woman was enough for her to realize that she had no other choice but to come clean. The longer they stayed in enemy territory, the more likely they would come in contact with another patrol group. If that happened it would raise the chances of the sounds of a skirmish breaking out on Seven Bell's domain. They would be overrun in seconds; even one of Seven Bell's generals might make an appearance. So time was really their enemy. "And spare me the lies, I don't think any of us want to stay here any longer."

OOC: gotcha. Did ya like the references I made in my last post? xD

A bad feeling overcame her as she watched the leader’s expression grow only angrier than more indulgent or pitiful maybe as she’d hoped initially. He didn’t seem to have a sense of humour, but then again, she had to admit this was an assertion without substance, considering they were in the middle of a war.
Who, other than her and one of her strange methods to deal with pressure, would start joking around at times like these?
Misoka braced herself for the worst.
Something about the way the man crossed his arms and threw a sideways-glance at the male twin told her quite precisely that he saw straight through her disguise.

As if time had just slowed down, she observed his every move, how he unfolded his arms, crouched ever so slightly and then rushed towards her in a blur.
She wanted to leap away, but he was faster.

The next thing she knew, he pushed her against the bark of a tree, lifting her feet off the ground so they were on eye level.
A sharp pain struck the back of her head at the impact.
“Do you honestly think I’m going to believe that shit you told me?” His words were filled with annoyance and that was when she got an idea of what must have angered him so much.
True, from his point of view she had basically taken him for a fool; no matter the fact that she'd hoped he’d be a fool that might pity her or the young man she had disguised herself as for his inexperience.
In any case, this vague plan of hers had failed miserably so it was high time she came up with a new one.

Just then, Misoka felt the shinobi’s hand tighten around the cuff of her cloak, much to her chagrin. Now that he had her body pressed against the trunk, it became obvious that her cloak was oversized. Furthermore, the fact that she was only wearing the thin Karisuma outfit underneath certainly didn’t help.
A mixture of embarrassment and indignation painted her cheeks red as the man touched her chest in a way which could only be called unashamed. If he hadn’t already, he should know now that she was a woman, but this apparently didn’t prevent him from pinning her to the tree like this.
Must be the type of man she had come to know so many times before. He freaked out just because he’d been lied to – oh, someone had been reluctant to tell a stranger the truth, how terrible!
Couldn’t he just keep calm? It wasn’t like she’d attacked him or anything! And not to mention, what a pervert. A simple slap would have been enough, but no – He had to slam her against a tree so he could check out how much of a woman she was. How convenient for him.
Her mind became preoccupied with malicious thoughts towards the man even though she knew many of them were far too unjustified to say aloud. Not that it mattered at the moment.

When Misoka began to struggle against his grip, he suddenly reached out and threw her mask to the ground.
Both of them stared at each other in surprise.
Still, Misoka was the one to regain her composure much faster. Of course he had to blow her cover completely. Jerk.
She could be glad that there was another woman with them so she didn’t have to fear he would lay hands on her.
But technically speaking, he already was.
She met his gaze with a frown before he turned around to the others, Katniss and … Peeta as she found out right afterwards.
“Peeta, do you think this is the woman we’ve been tracking?”

His question came unexpected. Misoka blinked, letting her gaze dart between the three people. Tracking her?
This has got to be a joke.
However, she’d already realized he wasn’t one to joke in that situation.
Frustration crept up within her, a hint of it flashing across her face, making her look more helpless than tough for a moment. She knew what it meant to be tracked down, hunted. She hadn’t had the best experiences with it in the past. No, not only the past.
Even now, Taku must be searching for her in order to carry out his threat.
Misoka bit her lower lip. She was so sick and tired of it all.
All she desired was to be left in peace.  
And right now, she could hardly afford to lose time by hanging at a tree and having three people gawking at her.
The sarcastic thoughts she wrapped herself in weren’t able to cover the despair underneath, though.
How pathetic that part of her toughness was still a mere pretence.

The man called Peeta spoke, then Katniss. As the leader’s words had suggested, they’d been tracking her and Taku for reasons Misoka couldn’t quite put her finger on.
Did they see her as a threat after all? Had they only killed the Seven Bells shinobi so they could take her to the Kage and make their report?
On top of this, that Katniss woman informed her boss about the Karisuma clan. Misoka wasn’t too surprised. Of course the Suna shinobi had recognized her by her appearance.
So much for keeping my identity hidden, Misoka thought dryly.

Then the black-skinned man turned his attention to her again. “Okay Karisuma, spill. What the hell are you really doing way out here? And spare me the lies, I don’t think any of us want to stay here any longer.”
She inhaled quietly, making sure the frown was back on her face. Even with the knowledge that she stood no chance against three such skilled shinobi, she would try not to show weakness.

“My bodyguard Taku brought me here,” Misoka explained in a stern, emotionless tone. “He wanted to kill me. I ran away from him.”
A short pause. “He gave me a cloak and a mask. At first, I deemed it unnecessary, but then I remembered:
In a war, men and women are killed alike. The only difference is that women are usually raped before. If my time should come, I’d like to die as a man at least.”
She looked away, not caring about the shinobi’s reaction to her words. Or in truth, she simply felt embarrassed, something she would certainly not admit to anyone.
He had forced her to speak the truth. He had shown her just how helpless she was against somebody like him.

Misoka laid her hand on his arm, drawing her gaze back to him with a defiant expression. It was only fair that she should somehow try to humiliate him as well.
“And by the way.” She narrowed her glowing eyes. “I’d very much appreciate it if you stopped touching my breasts.”

~

A few moments later, the sound of hostile shinobi could be heard.

---

WC 3564

The girl that was in his hand looked at him as though he had slapped her accross the face. Sanosuke returned the stern face back at her. It wasn't her fault that she was caught so Sanosuke could careless about what she was feeling. It seems as though when Sanosuke took off the woman's mask, she decided to come clean at last. They were finally making progress. So the Karisuma heir was being escorted by her guard. Why she decided to use the word guard when it was painfully obvious that she was kept under her own will. So the term 'guard' seemed more out of place in her explaination, it sounded more like a her captor. Adding onto that this Taku person wanted nothing more than to kill her and so she ran away. The tracking cues that Peeta spotted out seemed to check out with what the woman had said. It would explain the identity of the footsteps of a man that Peeta was tracking; and also the footsteps of the woman that was running away. Her captor must have a significant amount of control over the Karisuma member to have her forced to wear this cloak and mask. Even though she gave a reason why she was wearing this outfit, there was a miniscule amount of force that made her wear it. This Taku person forced her to wear this outfit or else he would kill her on the spot. It may have been a partial truth on her part, but the truth portion was that she felt shielded by the clothing she was wearing. Her reason was admirable and that much Sanosuke had respect for. He stared at the woman's eyes as she glared back. If any part of her story was a lie, he would have seen it in her eyes. But the last part of her sentence, Sanosuke couldn't help but feel as though everything she was saying was finally truthful.

“I’d very much appreciate it if you stopped touching my breasts.”

Sanosuke noticed that he was still holding onto the cuff of her cloak that had his fingertips holding her breast. He had forgotten to adjust the hold he had on the woman's cloak. It was embarassing yes, but he was in a situation where he couldn't have the luxury of blushing and feeling like a blubbering idiot. They were in war, in enemy lines. If it was anytime, he would be baffled at what he did and where his hand was. Now he was in charge of two people's lives. They were brothers and sisters, and Sanosuke would be damned if he was going not be in the proper state of mind to make sure they make it back home safely because he got flustered by touching a girl's breast. After all it wasn't as though it was the first time he has touched breasts. He was a grown man with many experiences related to this. But she decided to give notice to this as though it might have some chance at making him look like an idiot to damage his pride. Rolling his eyes, Sanosuke dropped the woman from his hold so she would slide down from the tree. "Idiot." Sanosuke mumbled as he walked over to the mask that he thrown away. When he picked it up, he took some time to look at it. It was a modern ANBU mask. That was something that wasn't expected at all, the mask looked brand new. Sanosuke smirked, then that would mean that in case their patrol might run into this Taku guy intercepted them, he was either at ANBU S Ranked level or even higher. That was just perfect.

Turning around, Sanosuke got up and put the mask in one of his pockets that was in his pants. He looked at the woman before him. "Do you happen to know where you ran off to? We're on the outskirts of Seven Bell's territory. Any second now we could be flanked by several enemy forces. Sorry I don't quite have the time to be concerned about what I'm touching, princess." Sanosuke remarked getting himself ready. He put emphasis on the word 'princess' in the form of sarcasm; he didn't care much about the attitude he was giving him. The sounds of approaching backup could be heard. The jounin looked over to Peeta and Katniss growing restless. They couldn't stay here for much longer. Soon they would be overrun by enemy forces, surely bringing their death sentence along with them. The jounin walked over to the woman and took a step forward to walk over to her. He squatted low to the woman to look her in the eye so they were starring at each other once more. "Well we won't be hanging around here for a while. But you have about 3 options on you Karisuma; you can stay here and get killed by Seven Bells shinobi, keep running away and have that Taku guy most likely hunt you down, or come with us in the hope of being protected by the Kirigakure Alliance." He had to show tact when dealing with this, after all this was his call. So it wouldn't do well for him come back empty handed. The way he was going at this before, he was branding himself with the word of a heartless man without any compassion. It would be unlikely that Karisuma would go along with Sanosuke if he had forced her to go. It would just seem like she just went from one captor to another. Well with this option, Sanosuke at least gave her the possibility that she could live her own life. Now it was up to her for her to take up his offer. The sounds of reinforcements were coming in. If she doesn't make her choice soon, then they wouldn't be able to get away without being detected....

At last, the man let go of her and she slid down the trunk until she regained her footing. Standing directly in front of him, part of her couldn’t help but notice once again the fairly vast difference in height between them. Yes, it wasn’t abnormal for men to look down on women, but it was moments like these that she wished she appeared more intimidating and not like a pushover whom one could knock out with a simple snap of their fingers.
No point in worrying about that now, though.
Considering that she still had a psycho on her heels, was still more or less surrounded by three shinobi and oh, not to mention that this all just had to happen in hostile territory, the most urgent question was undoubtedly how she should go from here. Her chances seemed slim.
“Idiot.”
Misoka let her eyes shift to the voice’s owner, a thin smirk forming upon her lips at his testy reply.
It certainly didn’t take much to anger that guy. If she managed to annoy him a bit more, this would serve well as sweet revenge in her opinion. Revenge because… he had made her look like a fool, yes. And he had touched her. Hmph. No-one did those two things without receiving something equal in return.

As she watched the dreadlock – oh, perfect nickname found! – pick up her mask and put it into his pocket instead of handing it back to her, Misoka turned away with a huff. Why had she even believed for a single second that the dreadlock would understand her motives for staying disguised?
Ever since he had gone berserk by slamming her against the tree, an unnecessarily violent action if she may say so, she found herself being on bad terms with him. It was the first impression that counted and she wasn’t really a forgiving person.
In a way, she felt reminded of her first rivalry as a Genin when she had gone from smiling at her squad member Kaizen and Gin-sensei to bickering back and forth with her other teammate Jezzi… for reasons which seemed far too small in others’ eyes.
Again, the first impression had ruined it: On their primary meeting, Jezzi had outright glared at Misoka just like that and ignored her for the entire training part. Enough for Misoka to hold a century-long grudge against the girl.

The dreadlock’s voice snapped her out of her thoughts. Frowning, she looked up at him and listened to his words.
"Do you happen to know where you ran off to? We're on the outskirts of Seven Bell's territory. Any second now we could be flanked by several enemy forces. Sorry I don't quite have the time to be concerned about what I'm touching, princess."
The first part actually succeeded in wiping the frown off her face and replacing it with a thoughtful expression. She tried to remember what exactly the shore had looked like where Taku had pulled her out of the boat. Too bad that the second part of the man’s words only brought back her feisty glare.
“Guess what, I am concerned about who is molesting me!” Misoka spat out stubbornly, exaggerating what had happened on purpose.
For a moment she thought about whether she should address the sarcastic “princess” as well, but chose to let it slide then. He wasn’t the first to call her that and suggest that she was too delicate to have business on a battlefield.
Then she went on in a much calmer tone,”I… I don’t know exactly. I’ve never been to Kirigakure before. We got to the shore at the edge of the woods, but I could never find my way back there, not with all that thick fog in the air.”

At that moment, the sounds of approaching shinobi reached her ears. A shiver ran down her spine. It wasn’t safe here, she knew that. Still, she couldn’t quite shake off the feeling that Taku posed the greatest threat to her.
What a mess. After having had her share of problems in life, she only wanted to take a break from trouble for a change.

Her "favourite" person out of the three shinobi walked over to her and bent down so she could look straight into his eyes.
"Well we won't be hanging around here for a while. But you have about 3 options on you Karisuma; you can stay here and get killed by Seven Bells shinobi, keep running away and have that Taku guy most likely hunt you down, or come with us in the hope of being protected by the Kirigakure Alliance."
Misoka remained silent for a while. The man must realize this wasn’t much of a choice. More like ‘Either you come with us or you get killed.’
Nevertheless, she felt a tiny spark of respect at the way he had formulated his indirect question and hadn’t just picked her up or dragged her along with them.
By the time the sounds of hostile shinobi became louder, Misoka knew she had to hurry up and spluttered out,”Okay, I- I’ll go with you!”
On another note: Thank God her artificial options were just that – artificial. She hated making decisions, let alone under pressure.

Then Misoka suddenly heard an arrow buzz towards her and instinctively leaped back, just in time to see the projectile slam into the ground.
“Eh, let’s go?” she proposed with a tense smile, but didn’t wait for an answer. For all she knew, Taku could be right behind the hostile reinforcements as well. Not that the latter didn’t cause enough trouble already.
Shooting one last glance at her new “allies” although she felt reluctant to really see the three shinobi that way, Misoka started running along with them.

---

WC 4561

“Guess what, I am concerned about who is molesting me!”

Sanosuke had responded with that spurt of emotion with the slight raising of the eyebrow. The woman had such an emotionless face on her that this burst of emotion was certainly surprising. No doubt that when she was talking about being molested, she was talking about him. This woman had a fiercer temper than his partner that was resting in his pocket. If she was going to scream like this then Sanosuke would have to deal with 2 females that would love to make his position as captain to the Suna twins be a joke. Here he was saving this girl and she was giving him a hard time. After all Sanosuke could have just let the woman be killed by those shinobi and not done anything to intervene. Usually when saving the dansal in distress, the woman would be so starstruck by her savior that she would commonly mistake her feelings of graditude with eternal love. But his woman did none of that, no she would go even far as to insult the very same man whom saved her life. True perhaps the jounin was a bit hasty with the woman, but the reason she gave was so far fetched and stupid for a member of ANBU that if she was really a member of ANBU and wanted something like that done, Sanosuke would have no problem with beating her into a bloody pulp for risking the whole alliance's safety. But she was simply an outsider who was taken here, into unknown territory, by her captor whose whereabouts are still unknown. And supposedly terrible captor was strong enough to take down a Suna ANBU member. That was a feat that would make him a strong adversary. It was almost enough for Sanosuke to even consider just dealing with Seven Bell's forces rather than this guy. But then again the sounds of the battle might attract Taku to their location where they would have to fight Sanosuke have to lead the fight against an S Rank shinobi while facing exhaustion from their fight against Seven Bell's shinobi. Even then if they somehow defeated both Taku and the enemy shinobi of Seven Bell's army, another platoon would come in to finish them off. They had no choice but to try and avoid the Seven Bells shinobi as best as he could manage.

It still didn't change the fact that Sanosuke was getting ticked off by Karisuma's words. When she had finally decided to think about what Sanosuke had told her, the woman put on a thoughtful face. It seemed as though she was now grabbing a handle on the situation they were in. With someone's temper as fiesty as hers, admitting that you were wrong is no easy task to do. Sanosuke looked away so that the woman didn't have to feel as though she was being judged. He was taking a look at his surroundings when the sounds of shinobi approaching were drawing near. The woman finally agreed to come with them when the sounds were drawing near. Sanosuke smirked as she finally decided that being stubborn wasn't going to accomplish anything in their attempt to escape the shinobi that would soon be on their tail. The dead bodies of the shinobi were being dealt with by Peeta so the clearing they were in had bodies that were hidden by a pile of leaves in the shadows. The bodies would be found sooner or later by enemy forces, but by then Sanosuke and the others would already be in Kiri safe and sound. An arrow wizzed by and nearly pelted the woman that he agreed to take her to Kiri where she would be safe. The arrow wizzed by and Sanosuke barely had the time to react to it; since he had to turn around quickly to see it come by quickly. It was coming right at the woman so she easily dodged it and took off with a smile.

There was no worries that the woman would try and make a break for it. After all where would she run to? There was nowhere she can actually try to get to. She had never been to Kiri and as such would not know where everything was. Sanosuke looked around to his teammates and nodded. "You heard the lady let's get a move on." Sanosuke ordered. The twins nodded and followed his lead. It wasn't long before the 3 jounin caught up to the sprinting woman. She was running pretty quickly, it was surprising to say the very least. It seemed as though she had some form of shinobi training to be able to move at those speeds. Moving fast enough, Sanosuke moved so that he was in front of the woman that they were guiding. Peeta and Katniss were following shortly behind the Karisuma member at her sides. From a bird's eye view Sanosuke's group formed a triangle formation with the woman in the center of it. Turning his head around, her turned to look over at the woman. "Come on and step it up, we'll make it to Kiri in an hour." Stepping up his speed, Sanosuke moved quickly so that he was moving faster than before. The sooner they could get out of enemy territory the better. They would have to deal with their pursuers that the Kumo jounin was positive would be right behind their group.

From just running through the forest, Sanosuke could hear Katniss trying to talk to the woman. "Don't take it too personally Karisuma-san. Sanosuke-sempai is actually a really nice guy outside of work. In fact, forgive me for being a bit informal with you, but you and him are oddly alike." Katniss explained to the woman. She smiled at the woman to make her feel at ease. Sanosuke slightly blushed at Katniss' words as he ran. He really hoped that the woman wouldn't see him blush or else that would just be more ammunition for her to use at the jounin. Peeta's voice could be hear as he kept his face forward and focus on the task of running. "Beneath that temper of his, he's actually a big ole softy."

That's when Sanosuke turned his head around while running again to look at the group. "Knock it off you two! You're going to attract attention with all your talking." Sanosuke said rolling his eyes to chastised his teammates. They snickered lightly at Sanosuke's orders to stop talking, but they did follow his orders knowing that he had a point. Smiling, to himself as he focused on running forwards he tried to wipe off the goofy smirk on his face. He remembered speaking up for the two shinobi when they were denied from taking a mission like this. They had just been appointed to jounin and wanted to prove their skills. Speaking on their behalf, Sanosuke said that he and an ANBU member of Kiri would accompany them on this mission to check out the border of Kiri's forces. They did border patrol multiple times with each other, he also did training with them so they could utilize their skills properly. Even outside work, they would get drinks together and have a good time. They were younger than Sanosuke so it was like he was helping younger classmates getting used the tougher assignments they had to do. And as such they treated the jounin from Kumo with such respect. It made him blush every time he was given a compliment from the two that it was embarrassing. What's more they were complimenting him to a complete stranger. Geez. These two are a pain... Sanosuke thought to himself.

Sanosuke held a hand out to stop the group from running past him. "Halt." Sanosuke ordered quietly. He made quick hand signals to the group. He used the index finger and middle finger from his right hand to direct Katniss and Peeta to move to the right side of the forest about 3 meters away from the position they were in. He looked over at the Karisuma clan member and directed to his left about 3 meters away from their position. He quietly signaled them to take positions into hiding about 3 meters away from where they were originally running from. The twins did as they were ordered and hid from atop the trees. Sanosuke smirked, they would make it far in this world if they worked this well together. Looking at the woman before him, he ran upwards to the tree to hide from the enemy forces. The woman would surely follow their lead unless she wants to fight Seven Bells forces by herself, leading to her death. From the trees, Sanosuke counted how many shinobi were there. It seems as though they were trying to follow where they were still running. They ran past them and continued to the border in hopes of catching them before they could have the chance to escape to Kiri territory. One, two, three, four, five. Five shinobi and this time they were a mixture of chuunin, special jounin, and jounin ranked shinobi. There was about 3 chuunin shinobi, 1 special jounin and 1 jounin ranked shinobi.

When they passed the area that Sanosuke and his group were hiding in, Sanosuke looked forward. Right across from Sanosuke was Katniss and Peeta hiding and looking at Sanosuke waiting for his orders. He nodded and clenched his fists right before his eyes so that the twins could get the hand signal: Ambush. The twins moved quickly and ran outwards to intercept the Seven Bells Shinobi. Sanosuke looked at the woman. "Let's move." Sanosuke said reaching for a kunai in his pouch, he got it out and gently reached for the chains that were on the woman. Focusing chakra into the knife, he swiftly cut the chains off the woman's body so she could have more movement. This patrol group was more skilled than the last, so this wouldn't be easy to exterminate; they would need all the help they could get, and if this woman could help then why not. If they were going to get to Kiri, then they would have to get rid of this group first that was on their tail. With the job done, Sanosuke gave his one kunai to the woman before running over to regroup with his subordinates in the ambush they were going to execute. Hopefully Sanosuke could take them down without them down without anyone being alerted. The good news was that they were so close to Kiri territory; so killing this group would mean they don't have to worry about encountering Seven Bells shinobi.

When he caught up with Katniss and Peeta, there was a smoke bomb in the field that was already deployed in another clearing. It was about 5 meters away from where they were standing from. Katniss was hidden in the trees with her arrow notched. Peeta was holding what looked like brass knuckles on his hands as he stood on standby. From the smoke bomb, Katniss was going to snipe anyone who had left the smoke field that one of the Suna twins had cast upon the group of Seven Bells shinobi. Already there was one shinobi dead on the ground. It was the body of one of the chuunin. The other shinobi must be waiting for the smoke to dissapate in the air so they could get a better view of what they were dealing with. With a nod to Peeta and the Karisuma woman, Sanosuke ran at the smoke cloud to signal that those two should come with him to finish this.

WC 5922/9000-->Kenjutsu(S-->SS)

The chain wrapped around her ankle tightened again, trailing along the ground at a rapid pace, all the while accompanying the sounds of her own footsteps. She cursed under her breath and had to slow down for a few seconds in order to pick it up.
A person rushed past her in a blur, but Misoka didn’t even have to look who had done so for this was pretty obvious.
The twin shinobi caught up as well even though they chose to position themselves shortly behind at both her sides with their leader moving in front of her. So despite all, they still made an effort to protect her, the triangle formation they had gone for serving as evidence.
Somehow this ignited another flame of anger within Misoka. She clenched her fists while running and couldn’t help but look daggers at the dreadlock’s back.
As if he had noticed the fury radiating from behind him, the man turned his head and called out to them, no, to her alone, it seemed.
"Come on and step it up, we'll make it to Kiri in an hour."
She was about to snap back something not so lady-like, only to fuel her rage so she could keep up her glare, when the other woman raised her voice.

"Don't take it too personally Karisuma-san. Sanosuke-sempai is actually a really nice guy outside of work. In fact, forgive me for being a bit informal with you, but you and him are oddly alike."
At first, Misoka’s eyes narrowed, absolutely not convinced of Katniss’ words. Alike? Don’t make me laugh!
There was nothing the two, she and the dreadlock, could possibly have in common and moreover, who was the woman to tell anyway? They had met each other barely twenty minutes ago or so. Did she study psychology in her free-time?
This was…
…so pathetic. Misoka’s stomach plummeted as the anger crumbled from her features. Yes, her own behaviour was pathetic.

Slowly, she began to understand why she had lost her temper, why she had treated the man so ungratefully, why her thoughts had been so detestable. After all, that man had saved her from the Seven Bells shinobi. And even now, he was helping her to get to Kiri. What more could she ask for?
Misoka unclenched her fists, swallowing down a sigh. It wasn’t about the man. It wasn’t even really about the way he had reacted to her white lies.
No… this was about her most of all. She was angry at herself and her helplessness, which flared up so brightly in moments like these.
She didn’t want to depend on others, but … in the end, she always did or had to in order to survive.
She didn’t want to be rescued like the damsel in distress; more than anything she wanted to stand her own. The reason why she had become a ninja in the first place was to protect the people dear to her and not to be protected herself all the time.
A dream out of reach as it seemed right now. This took a lot of training, a lot of discipline and not to forget, a lot of freedom. The five years of captivity hadn’t exactly improved her skills. True, she had been training in secrecy, but only every now and then as not to arouse suspicion. Certainly not enough to make one hell of a shinobi out of her, if ever possible. Her heart sank.
"Beneath that temper of his, he's actually a big ole softy."
“Huh?” Misoka threw a glance at Peeta, jerking out of her thoughts. It took her a moment to process his words. A big ole softy? Um, fair enough.
“Oh, is that so?” she then replied with a small giggle, trying to make up for the feistiness she had shielded herself with before. Perhaps these three shinobi weren’t so bad after all. Well, the twins were nice at least.
She should really try to dissipate that wariness of hers, a character trait which had been carved into her mind over the past years. Even though there was no reason not to trust them, she had trouble opening up to the more or less strangers.
"Knock it off you two! You're going to attract attention with all your talking."
Not surprisingly, the man in front of them – Sanosuke as Katniss had told her – felt irritated by their conversation, telling them to stop. A command which was only met with fits of chuckles by his subordinates. Misoka wondered whether the three could be more than just sensei and scholars and actually share a bond of friendship outside of work.

Her train of thought was cut short when the man ordered them to halt.
A few moments later, the twins hid in the trees while their leader ran up another tree himself. They would wait for the hostile forces and then launch a surprise attack. A good plan.
Misoka didn’t hesitate for too long and followed the dreadlock – okay, she should really start calling him by his name -, Sanosuke, trying to make as little sound as possible with the chain around her ankle.
As if on cue, the enemy shinobi came into sight shortly afterwards. A smoke ball was thrown; next, an arrow shot down from Katniss’ position and must have hit one of them in the chest. The victim shouted in pain before a quiet thud could be heard.
Which meant there were only four left anymore.
Misoka tensed up. This time she would fight. She would show them what she was made of, she would show them that she could be dangerous, too. Stay confident. No rescuing. You can do this.
The anxiety monster lurking around in the shadows of her mind was tamed by her own reassuring thoughts. If she remained alert and focused, there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.

“Let’s move.”
She acknowledged Sanosuke’s words only with a nod, already prepared to jump out of the tree any moment when he suddenly took the chain into his hands.
Surprised, Misoka watched the man channel chakra into his kunai. Would he…?
Then, with a small clanking sound, he cut through the metal, freeing her from the chain.
Misoka blinked. Oddly enough, she hadn’t expected the man to care about the restriction of movement Taku had forced upon her. He could have just let her fight with the chain and get hurt or in any case he could have just left her alone in the woods.
Katniss’ words resounded in her mind. A nice guy underneath? Maybe this didn’t stray so far from the truth. Maybe, just maybe, she had done him wrong.
Taking a deep breath, Misoka met his gaze almost a bit shyly before forcing herself to say these two words,”Um… thank you.”
Good. Now it was out. Now she could feel less guilty.
Not wasting any more time, she accepted the kunai he offered and leaped out of the tree the instant she saw somebody escape the smoke her allies had caused.

Her target was one of the two remaining Chunin. He dodged her first attack and immediately unsheathed his katana. A kenjutsu user, huh?
Misoka knew that she should avoid close combat then. Not that this would bother her.
With a scream of rage, her opponent attempted to close the distance between them, but she had expected him to.
Quickly, Misoka slammed a chakra-layered fist into the ground, causing it to split and branch out towards her enemy.
Said person’s eyes widened. For a mere second, he lost his balance and threatened to fall back. This was all it took for Misoka to claim the victory.
Tiger hand seal. Breathing in. The burning chakra tickled her throat as though it begged to be let out into the air.
She gladly gave in to the plea, exhaling a massive orb of roaring flames. They rushed forward and engulfed their victim mercilessly.
The next instant, only a gurgling yell could be heard, unintelligible words.
Then there was silence.

Misoka looked away, pretending to prepare an attack for her next enemy.
In truth, however, she didn’t want to throw a single glance at a person whose death she had just caused. A painful death, burned in flames.
He would have killed her, too, if he’d had his way. She knew that. She had to kill.
This was war.

---

WC 5966

215/250:

The fighting commenced immediately with Sanosuke, the woman and Peeta behind him following suit. Looking behind him briefly to look at the woman whom was now moving properly Sanosuke turned himself around so that he could face the task at hand. They had the combined forces of 2 jounin and the woman whom Sanosuke couldn't really tell exactly how strong she was. Well he would find out now. With the chains off her ankles, then she would be able to fight without much interference of the chains slowing down her movement. When they got close to the group of shinobi, battle initiated. The smoke was already clearing up so the enemies would retaliate to the ambush Sanosuke had set up for the group of shinobi that Seven Bells had sent. Running at them, Sanosuke unsheathed his sword and got into the unorthodox sword stand that he had used for the past 5 years. The jounin held the sword that he was wielding in reverse grip behind his back and had his free hand leveled to his face to gain sights on his target. Peeta was engaging into hand to hand combat with the special jounin of the group. The hostile special jounin seemed to also specialize in taijutsu and was fighting with bladed tonfas. Taijutsu was something that Sanosuke didn't study well at all in the academy so he couldn't tell whether or not Peeta or the hostile shinobi was gaining the advantage or not. But in the meantime Sanosuke could see that the Suna twin was holding his own, so he should probably focus on the task at hand.

Around him Sanosuke saw that the jounin of the group locked eyes with her. The woman had a scythe on her and was getting ready to fight Sanosuke close quarters. Just before Sanosuke could swing his sword at the woman, the ground shook violently. Looking back briefly, Sanosuke saw that the Karisuma member had caused the earthquake with a solid punch of the ground. That meant either one of two things; she was really a giant under the disguise of a beautiful woman, or she was a doton user. The latter was more believable so he believed that one was obviously the truth of the situation. When the earthquake died down the forest was lit in a light of amber color that matched the flames. Tiny flames danced around the air and kissed his face as he watched the woman roar out fires from her mouth to burn one of the hostile shinobi to a burning, slightly bloodied crisp. So the woman was also a katon jutsu user. There was more to the woman than meets the eyes, she was more skilled than what Sanosuke had previously gave credit to. Obviously the woman was at least chuunin level in strength. However how she fought with skills that trumped a chuunin without much difficulty. So perhaps she might be a special jounin in skill, but Sanosuke couldn't tell for sure.

Wind whipping around caught his attention and used his sharp eyes to look over to the side to find the hostile shinobi, he had initiated battle with, had took the opportunity of Sanosuke being distracted by the Karisuma member's fighting to attempt to get a shot in. The reflexes he had acquired from his years of training had came in and allowed him to fight with fluid actions and movement. Dropping in low with his right shoulder leaning in, Sanosuke evaded a large arc that was meant to take his body from the bottom up. The large arc ended with the woman being open. He got his sword into a proper grip and dashed forward to slash at the woman's stomach. The kunoichi retracted her weapon she had outwards so that it was close to her body to defend the slash. She backed off again to aim another slash at Sanosuke's body so that she can aim for a more vital blow with a small pivot of her scythe. Raising his blade, the Kumo jounin rose the flat of the blade to block it and attempted to plunge his sword into the woman's neck. She spun the pole-arm around her body in circles and feinted around Sanosuke's body to attempting to slash at Sanosuke's back side. His eyes followed around the woman's movements and saw that she was attempting to blindside him. She was indeed faster than him but he had much better reflexes and hand eye coordination that than the woman had so this meant that her speed was blocked by an iron defensive stance.

It was obvious that the woman was aiming to slash at his exposed back to limit his movement so that she can go in for a final blow. That much was blocked by placing the sword he had on his back to counter the strike of the scythe. Whipping around, Sanosuke spun around tghtly in a tight spinning motion to strike at the woman's head. She ducked under it and whipped her weapon around to cut off Sanosuke's arms. Sanosuke followed up the parry by striking at the spiraling and revolving blade that was the edge of the scythe to stop it from moving. The woman had a tight grip on the scythe so it wasn't as though the weapon of the hostile shinobi would be sent out of her hands. She was way too skilled with that weapon to be defeated like such a novice move. Instead she used the momentum of the parried slash to revolve the scythe in the direction of where her arm was sent back in a jerking motion by Sanosuke's parry. The woman danced the scythe around her fingertips as made it spin rapidly, faster and faster in more and more circles. Dashing at the woman, he stopped right before the very edge of the woman's scythe radius and pivoted his foot so that he can jump backwards from the scythe arch and did an upwards slash to cut the arm off of the woman he was fighting. Before she could scream in pain, the jounin plunged his sword in the chest cavity of the woman killing her instantly.

Just before he could retract the blade, Sanosuke heard the sound of someone screaming angrily in his general direction. Turning his head around, he saw it was one of the chuunin that was a apart of the shinobi of which Sanosuke's group had engaged. "Sensei!!!!" he screamed with a kunai in his hand. He was attempting to kill Sanosuke from behind. Cursing under his breath, he reached over to one of his kunai knives that were apart of the chains that looped on his pants. Before he had the chance to even yank one off, an arrow interrupted him and pierced the head of the chuunin that attempted to take Sanosuke's life. His body dropped heavily to the ground. Looking over to Katniss's direction, Sanosuke gave his subordinate a thumbs up. They had dealt the shinobi they had ambushed and now they were home free. Looking at the trees that the Karisuma woman torched, Sanosuke scratched his head tiredly and sheathed his blade back on his back. So much for handling the situation without much detection... Sanosuke thought to himself. He looked at his group and smirked as Katniss finally joined the group. They were finally home free. The land of Kiri was right before them. In just a few minutes they would have left enemy territory way behind them

"Good work people. Now let's head home." Sanosuke said to himself. There was right now nothing that could stop them. They would be able to make it to headquarters without much trouble coming at them at all.

Everything was so easier when having people to support you. Allies to back you up. Striking together.
How strange that she had almost forgotten such a simple truth.
The fight with the Seven Bells forces didn’t last long.
One by one the enemies dropped dead to the ground. Even the last man of them standing was shot down by Katniss in the end.
"Good work people. Now let's head home."
If there hadn’t been the typical silence in the air that tended to drape over the victors after a battle, Misoka might have missed Sanosuke’s words.

A smile tugged at the corners of her lips. Kiri wasn’t her home; to be honest, she didn’t even have a home at the moment. And still, the sweetness of relief that his statement conveyed couldn’t be overheard.
Just a little bit more, just a little bit farther, then she would be able to go back to her father, with no chains, no worries and merely her own enlightened face which screamed freedom.
The thought of leaving this all behind seemed almost unreal, like a dream she would awake from sooner or later. Her stomach decided acrobatics were a good idea as she started walking towards the others, the sincere smile still plastered all over her face, more than ready to enter her new life and never return.

Misoka had only taken two steps in their direction when a faint noise coming from behind made her freeze. The rustling of leaves, the cracking of small branches – high, high up in the trees. Approaching.
Her heart skipped a beat before it started racing and pounding against her rib cage. This was no simple Seven Bells shinobi.
No-one other than Taku could evoke such fear within her.

She didn’t even wait for confirmation. She had never known better that hesitation would lead to her death. With shaking fingers, Misoka threw the kunai at a tree trunk lying on the ground right next to the twins and their sensei.
They might believe she was attacking them, trying to stab them in the back, but she couldn’t care about what it looked like at that moment. Soon enough, they would understand anyway.
‘Soon’ proved to be the right word.

The next instant, a blur of movement was all that could be seen when a person descended from the branch of a tree. A blade whistled through the air, a fierce arc of silver, ripping through Misoka’s flesh effortlessly.
Then, the typical ‘poof’-sound announcing her Kawarimi no Jutsu, accompanied with a cloud of smoke.

Misoka appeared at the trunk’s previous position. She felt short of breath as the fear crept through her veins, making her whole body shiver uncontrollably. Why? Why did he have to show up now? A few minutes later, she would have already been in the village, she would have spent the last bit of money she had left on a boat that could take her away from here.
Why, why, why?
In terror, she watched her former bodyguard raise himself to his feet, his blade pointing straight-forward, his eyes searching… finding.
Suddenly, the words came blurting out; her voice cracked.
“Sa-Sanosuke! This is the man, this is Taku!”
She wasn’t sure why she had told him, why she was hoping the three shinobi would help her. That was none of their business. In fact, they couldn’t care less about what happened to her. This was her own huge problem.
Misoka paced back. She would have to run, then. Escape. She didn’t stand a chance against an S-rank shinobi, someone who had vowed to kill her, a mentally ill person with no inhibitions at all.
Her legs felt so numb that she feared they wouldn’t carry her anymore.
I don’t want to die yet.

At the same time, Taku’s blue-grey eyes directly locked onto her. His menacing laughter filled the air. “Misoka! There you are. Come here!”
Grinning, he approached them. “Come, darling, give me your hand. Give me your hand.”
He halted. When he spoke again, the bittersweet tone had changed dramatically from one moment to the next.
“I WILL CHOP IT OFF! I WILL CUT YOU INTO PIECES!”
Without hesitation, he dashed forward, so fast that it almost looked as if he were floating across the ground, a mixture of cracking branches and rustling grass and leaves.

If she hadn’t panicked before, Misoka did now. She threw her hands up, her mind racing, shooting more and more thoughts at her she had trouble to process in these few seconds left. Dodge. Jutsu. Jump. Down. Up. Away. Don’t die. You’ll die.
It was no use. Taku’s speed was one of his most dangerous skills, one he had trained to absolute perfection.
She couldn’t dodge. She didn’t have an appropriate counter-attack that would defend herself against a person who spread such killing intent.
Trying to think of anything brighter in her life, any happy memory she could find in that mind of hers for these would be her last thoughts, Misoka squinted her eyes shut and prayed that her death would be as quick and painless as possible.  

---

WC 6845

210/250:

How had all of this turned so spoiled? How could things have gone wrong so badly? They had one job which was to run for not even an hour and they would succeed. But yet something went wrong, but what was it?

They had just dealt with the shinobi of Seven Bell's counter patrol unit to deal with Sanosuke's group. Their dead bodies were still on the ground; lifeless, torn and burnt. They had succeeded and were at the home stretch. In just an hour, Sanosuke would make sure the Karisuma woman was treated well and questioned delicately on the situation, and then Sanosuke, with his students, would be at the bar having a good time and talking. And depending if Sanosuke was man enough to swallow his pride, he might have apologized to the Karisuma woman for his actions when they first met. She might have been able to join them. They could have all been safe behind the walls of Kiri, and just have the time to enjoy the small false part of peace that the Kiri alliance created. It wasn't a complete piece but it was the one thing that every shinobi held to them. The state of mind that they know that no harm will fall on them while they are behind those walls. While in Kiri they wouldn't have to worry about death, agony, or the pain of seeing someone die before them. They were so close to that paradise, but yet this one thing had to come over the horizon and shatter the hopes Sanosuke had. The smile that the Karisuma woman gave to Sanosuke was so genuine. It was so soft and filled with so much pain that was finally free. That was the first time the Kumo jounin had ever seen her, or for that matter, anyone smile so gratefully like that.

Everything else happened so fast that even Sanosuke was still trying to figure out what happened. Branches and leaves made the sounds as though something was approaching. The same smile that Sanosuke had seen the Karisuma woman have on her face was wiped clean. And instead filled with desperation. Quickly she took the kunai that Sanosuke gave to the woman and threw it. For a second the jounin believed she was attempting to throw it at the twins, but his thoughts proved false as the kunai hit a log. The sound of the metallic knife piercing the wood could be heard. In a split second a shadow descended on the woman. Just before his eyes, Sanosuke saw the shadow had cut the woman in half. But the trick was revealed before Sanosuke, the woman used the subsitution jutsu to escape her untimely death. The woman appeared again this time closer to Sanosuke, right behind him. Taking a closer look at the shadow, Sanosuke saw someone that was right before his eyes. With a sword pointed right at the Karisuma woman, Sanosuke was about a meter from a man that was 6 feet 2 inches. He had long, brown hair, tied up in a bun. He has a long scar across his face and icy blue eyes. He began laughing menically.

“Sa-Sanosuke! This is the man, this is Taku!” The Karisuma woman blurted. Her voice was cracking in fear as though she was looking at the cold face of death herself. When Sanosuke looked at the woman, the jounin was shocked to see how quickly the color from her face drained. She was as pale as a ghost. All hope in her eyes was drained, and just replaced with despair and pain. This man was her captor and was most likely the cause of her pain she felt. The chains that bounded her was most likely because he made her wear them. The man even went as far as to force her into the garment that made her shield herself from the world. It was sickening that Sanosuke felt like he wanted to puke. There was only one word to describe the feeling that was bubbling into a storm of feelings in his stomach; anger.

“Misoka! There you are. Come here!” the man said and began to approach the group. The whole group tensed as he approached them. Taku stopped and reached out his hand "“Come, darling, give me your hand. Give me your hand." When he spoke again, the bittersweet tone had changed dramatically from one moment to the next.  “I WILL CHOP IT OFF! I WILL CUT YOU INTO PIECES!” Just like that the man changed his speed drastically to high level speeds. So this was the speed of someone who was stronger than an ANBU member. It was extraordinary. The speed had far outclassed Sanosuke's as he was right now. Without assistance, Sanosuke wouldn't stand a chance against Taku. This speed the man had was done with training without any outside help. How could someone be this fast? That's when Sanosuke saw how Taku was directing his body so he was making a beeline straight for the Karisuma woman that went by the name of Misoka, according to Taku. Without thinking, Sanosuke pushed his body to the limit and swiftly withdrew his sword from his sheathe and used to counterract the blade that would come down the woman that Sanosuke was trying to protect. Sparks flew as Sanosuke had barely made it in time to protect Misoka. If he had been late by even a few milliseconds, then there was no telling how badly things could have gone.

The man called Taku looked at Sanosuke with an eyebrow raised. He tried to make Sanosuke budge from his spot, but the jounin wouldn't let him get an inch to Misoka. Sanosuke was just about half a meter from the Karisuma woman when he intercepted Taku's attack. "Stand aside Kumo swine. This has nothing to do with you." Taku addressed Sanosuke, annoyed that he was prevented from killing the woman he had captive. This wouldn't bode well for Sanosuke at all. It was obvious that the Karisuma's captor was not pleased that she had taken the opportunity of an ambush to escape his grasp. He was punishing her with death. He tried to push past Sanosuke, but every time he did that the Kumo jounin was pushing back equally. They were in stalemate, he wasn't going to move a single inch.

"How about you make me?" Sanosuke grunted annoyed at the man's request. Taku looked at Sanouske with more interest in his eyes and laughed as they were in deadlock. Sanosuke looked confused why was he laughing at a time like this? Obviously the man was not mentally well at all. But it still didn't make any sense. Sanosuke clenched his teeth annoyed at Taku's laughter. Finally the man jumped back to get out of deadlock Sanosuke had to protect the Karisuma woman that Taku desperately wanted to kill. As he jumped back, the man quickly and swiftly, with Sanosuke barely noticing, tossed a kunai at rapid speeds. The projectile wasn't aimed for Sanosuke but it was aimed at someone else. The knife was aimed right at the very same person Sanosuke was trying to protect. The knife whizzed past him before he could respond to it. Sanosuke cursed under his breath. When he turned to look at what happened, what he saw was something that made his heart sink. Standing above Misoka protectively was Peeta. A kunai was wedged in his throat. Blood gushed out of the wound as the knife was deep in the boy's throat. His eyes kept on widening, it was happening to fast even for Sanosuke to follow.

"PEETA!" Katniss screeched in agony. Peeta's body crumbled to the ground with his back facing the ground. Blood was coming down his wound and staining the grass he was laying on crimson red. Katniss quickly moved to her brother's side with tears coming down her eyes. They were in the form of twin rivers of salt water that was dripping onto her brother. She didn't care where she was, all that matter was her brother. Sanosuke couldn't believe what he was seeing. Peeta's body was heaving violently trying to breath. It caused the blood to erupt outwards in spasms as he struggled with every breath. It made Katniss's screams get louder. She flashed through hand seals and a green light wrapped around her fingertips. She was doing medical ninjutsu to treat her brother's fatal wound. Slowly ever so slowly the color in Peeta's face was draining away. How could things have gone badly so fast? Katniss was treating Peeta trying to save his life, her twin brother was in critical condition due to the knife wound.

Sanosuke turned his attention to Peeta with guilt in his eyes. Even while gasp for oxygen, the twin still had enough in his body to look at the Kumo jounin with awe. Raising his hand up, the Suna jounin gave his superior a thumbs up. The jounin gasped in shock at that. "Peeta.." Sanosuke whispered to himself. Like that the Suna jounin's hand fell as he fell unconscious. The chakra that was around Katniss' hands grew brighter as she pushed more chaka into her brother to heal him as best as she could. Even if she somehow saved him, it would have been very close. It was his fault that his happened, if only he saw things clearly enough, if only he was faster. He looked down on the ground in shame so that his long dreadlocks covered his face so that no one could see the despair that was painted on his face. It was his fault. All of it. If Katniss lost a brother here, Sanosuke wouldn't be able to live with the guilt. Even while trying to struggle with breathing, the young jounin had enough energy to give the hand signal of "mission complete." He had done his mission, he had protected the woman that Sanosuke believed was necessary. It was for him. It was all for him. And Sanosuke rewarded that with getting him killed in the end. Sanosuke clenched his teeth angrily.

The sounds of shinobi coming in the woods to see what was happening could be heard. No doubt they were shinobi from Seven Bell's shinobi. Right now they were only spectating what was going on here. They wouldn't jump in since they might help the wrong side plus there was no guarantee of their safety. No they would just watch this fight out and kill the winner. How much Sanosuke was clenching his teeth was so much that blood was coming from his tongue that he was biting down. All he wanted was to scream in frustration. This was all his fault. He had gotten so strong to protect those he cared for, and yet he was close to losing someone whom had admired Sanosuke, despite his faults. Why did it happen to him? Chakra blasted from Sanosuke's body in anger. There was so much chakra that it was like a living torrent of chakra that errupted around his body. The chakra that was coming from him was like his feelings that he was experiencing had finally been given physical form. The chakra that was around his body made him look like a demon made of pure chakra. Pressure that was coming from him went throughout the entire forest scaring off the Seven Bells shinobi that just wanted to spectate the fight. Standing up, Sanosuke turned around to face Taku who was watching the whole time laughing at the despair Sanosuke and his group was going through. The laughter was what got Sanosuke the most. He would silence him.

"Katniss. Don't give up. You can save him. Karisuma, I want you to stay with Katniss and assist her in anyway you can..." Sanosuke barked out his orders. With hate in his eyes, he glared at Taku. Even though it may have been all his fault that this had happened, Sanosuke knew he could take out his anger out on the man that was before him. Slice him up he said.....cut him into pieces he said. Those were things Sanosuke would do to Taku to vent his anger. Bringing his hands together, the chakra that was around him disappeared. Lightning danced from his bronze plated gauntlets he was wearing. When he pulled the away from each other, two twin blades were in Sanosuke's hands. With a blood curling roar of pure unadulterated anger, Sanosuke dashed at Taku with nothing but vengeance behind Sanosuke's silver eyes. The two clashed in a show of sparks that came from their weapons. How had all of this turned so spoiled? How could things have gone wrong so badly? They had one job which was to run for not even an hour and they would succeed. But yet something went wrong, but what was it? The answer was simple. And Sanosuke would make sure he would apologize to Peeta when he wakes up from this in Kiri:

It was his fault, Sanosuke Flynt had screwed up...

310/335; Jutsu Used:

OOC: Sure, go ahead and have a swordfight with the psycho! Let's kill him!! xD


A loud clashing sound exploded right in front of her, but she could both hear and feel that it wasn’t the blade meeting flesh, it was …
Hesitantly, Misoka opened her eyes.
Sanosuke, the man with the dreadlocks, the man she had been arguing with ever since they’d met, had parried Taku’s sword lunge.
The evidence was here, so perfectly clear to her vision and yet she still couldn’t believe it.
They would protect her? She knew that they had done so before against the Seven Bells shinobi, but fighting someone as skilled as Taku was something else entirely.
Guilt and gratitude, horror and admiration rose up inside her as she watched the two swordsmen entangled in a deadlock, unable to tear her gaze away.
Until a moment ago, she had believed she was going to die. And here she realized that the stream of her life continued to flow in an unimpeded manner. For how long, though?
An S-rank shinobi desired nothing else but her death, a man with such power, such heat that he could let her river run dry so quickly that the fragileness of life seemed like a joke.

Eventually, Taku leaped back, reaching for something in one of the pouches wrapped around his leg. Then a kunai cut through the air, the buzzing sound filling Misoka’s ears as it closed in on her at unbelievable speed.
She tried to duck in hopes to avoid the deadly attack this way since the projectile was probably aimed at her throat. However, the split second in which she had to become aware of the assault, in which she had to react and move her body wasn’t enough by far. Once again, she found herself standing on the edge of her own pathetic demise.
Sanosuke wouldn’t make it to her in time no matter how strong his resolve might be to offer her protection.

Then all of a sudden, another person threw himself in front of Misoka, taking the strike that was reserved for her throat.
She gasped and attempted to catch Peeta’s trembling body when he lost every last ounce of strength and his weight pulled her down to the ground with him. What had just happened?
Misoka sat on the damp moss, holding the head of a gurgling man so he wouldn’t choke on his own blood. Even if that didn’t prevent him from leaving this world in another way. He would be bleeding to death. Soon.
And for what reason?
“PEETA!”
His twin sister Katniss rushed to them, wasting not a single instant in trying to save her brother’s life. Tears, glistening tears streamed down her cheeks. Sobs shook her shoulders.
She placed her hands on his wound, green light emitting from them, while Misoka was still supporting his head.
Peeta struggled to draw a ragged breath. Blood poured out of his mouth. Katniss screamed again. Again and again, until Misoka’s ears and mind were echoing with the woman’s cries.
Gradually, the knife wound began to close. A cracked sound of relief escaped Katniss’ lips whereas Misoka couldn’t replace the hollow feeling inside her.
This man would have died, saving her life. His face contorted with pain, Peeta raised a hand and gave his superior a thumbs-up as if trying to send the silent message “I’ll be alright” .

Misoka’s throat tightened as she followed his gaze. Why had the leader of their patrol group decided to protect a stranger? No, worse, a woman who had treated him badly all along? A girl who’d had nothing better to do but to take her frustration out on others?
And now someone of them had almost died because of her. Self-hate clutched at her heart, grasping it with its long, black fingers.
I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
She lost track of time due to the shock paralyzing her limbs, clouding her thoughts.
Katniss continued to heal her brother with everything she had.
Taku had started laughing again, louder and louder. His mental disturbance couldn’t be clearer at the moment.

“Katniss, don’t give up. You can save him. Karisuma, I want you to stay with Katniss and assist her in any way you can.”
It was then that Misoka suddenly regained the strength to speak. She knew what she had to do. This was going to end.
Her lips quivered, making it hard to get out the words which had lingered on her tongue for eternal moments.
“I know how I can assist you!” She put Peeta’s head down gently and stood up, clenching her hands into fists to prevent them from trembling. “Let him kill me! He’s after me. He won’t follow you. You can return to Kiri safely!”
Another deep breath. “None of you has to do this for me. Taku is far too strong. I have no right to drag you into this!”
A memory emerged in her mind, making her pause for a second. She had said this before, a long time ago. “Stop the lone wolf act.” Why did she remember his words now? I can’t. Not if it means having the blood of others on my hands.
The desperate determination returned to her eyes as she kept her gaze glued on Sanosuke and carried on so he wouldn’t have the chance to interrupt her.
“Please. I don’t want people to die for someone as unimportant as I am. There’s only one person who would care about my death… but my father will get over it eventually! And I won’t be a big loss as shinobi, either.”

How could life take such confusing turns sometimes? Misoka would have almost broken into a dry smile if every muscle of hers hadn’t been so strained.
Here she was, begging to be killed. Considering that they hadn't hesitated to risk their own lives for her, this seemed nothing but fair.
She only hoped that all the religions had guessed this one thing right.
That there would be life after death. And perhaps she would finally see her mother again.
In that case, the end didn't seem so frightening anymore.

---

WC 7892

Grief had was holding a cold vice grip on Sanosuke's throat as he was trying to find words to consul Peeta as he was desperately trying to get breath in his body. He was heaving loudly, with each breath. Blood splashed over the grass he was in. Misoka was holding the head of his subordinate trying to do what she can. She was feeling almost as torn up as Sanosuke was feeling at this moment; no that wasn't right, she looked even worse than her did. Reasons why there was so much pain and grief coming from him, he didn't entirely know. Right now Sanosuke just wanted to tell Peeta how sorry he was and what he could do to make it up to him. But right now he had bigger things to worry about. Scaring off the surrounding Seven Bell's shinobi was easy. Anger was making it easier for the jounin to do feats that would normally be difficult to do easier as he wanted nothing more to take his anger out on Taku. When Sanosuke barked out his orders, he was sure that he would intimidate the Karisuma woman into doing exactly what he wanted him to do. After all with that much chakra coming from him, it should have frozen her in fear. But the woman wasn't frozen instead she did something that angered Sanosuke more than to talk back to him when he gave an order.

“Let him kill me! He’s after me. He won’t follow you. You can return to Kiri safely!” she begged desperately. She was looking out for them even though it should be the other way around. Misoka, the Karisuma woman of Suna, was trying to protect them from a shinobi that wanted nothing better than to kill them. He would rather die than be saved by the person he's supposed to protect. When Sanosuke found Misoka being cornered in the woods by Seven Bells shinobi that would have most likely ripped her apart, Sanosuke couldn't help but remember how he himself was once cornered by people stronger than him. How helpless he felt, and how he hungered for power after the humiliation of being weaker than someone. He had the power so that he could no longer be protected by people he cared about, but she wanted to protect them still. And once more she wanted them to escape. The blow was a harsh, verbal slap to the jounin's face when he heard those words. Shaking in anger, Taku's laughter echoed through the forest making Sanosuke grow even angrier. When Misoka was finished her speech, Sanosuke glared at her this time letting her get a glimpse of the pain and anger he was feeling.

He decided right then and there that his actions would speak louder than his words. Taku laughed hard to himself as he was holding his sides with one sword. "Oh look at that the peasant is ready to go. I'm so scared!" Taku exclaimed loudly as he was laughing to himself as though he had heard the funniest joke ever. Ignoring Misoka's words, Sanosuke darted at Taku with his materialized swords. Blade met against blade as Taku blocked it. Even though Taku was faster than him, Sanosuke would win this by outmuscling him. Lifting his blade again and thanks to his fast reflexes, Sanosuke was slashing at Taku at inhuman speeds that made it seem as though his hands were just a blur of blades. The wind whistled with each swipe Sanosuke made, the man that was before him seemed as though he was have just a hard time trying to keep up with the jounin. The smirk that was on Taku's face was wiped clean as the man realized that the joke was no longer funny anymore. He had regained his composure too late as Sanosuke swiped at Taku's arm to have it parried by the man's blade. Dropping low, Sanosuke focused chakra into the tips of his blades before thrusting it out at the man. Taku brought his sword to protect himself from the attack of his chakra enfused swords. Sanosuke stopped when the blades were just a few bare inchest from Taku.

"Taihō." Sanosuke roared as he let loose the chakra that was building up in the tips of the sword right at Taku. The man's eyes looked in shock as he was hurled back away from Sanosuke. The man was skidding backwards from the blast. How fast he was going was easy fro the man to adjust himself, but when he did his back hit the trunk of the tree hard. Bits of the tree that composed of twigs and leaves fell down upon the man that Sanosuke was fighting. It left Sanosuke heaving in anger as he wouldn't dare let  the man think this was over. That wasn't even a morsal of Sanosuke's anger he had towards the man. He would rip the man apart for what he had done to his comrades. That much was certain. Death would cling onto Taku's throat and stangle him to death; if not then Death himself would be Sanosuke's victim after he murdered Taku.

"Keep quiet and do what I said brat. This guy just assaulted my friend and you think I'm going to let him get away with that?" Sanosuke asked the woman without laying eyes on her. All she could see is his back as he spoke to her. His words were harsh but right now, the age of tact in the scenario was over. "I'm leaving you in charge of watching over Peeta. End of discussion..." Sanosuke looked over at Taku who was now just getting up from being sent flying backwards like a rag doll. There was blood coming form the corner of forehead. The signs of first blood was drawn by Sanosuke. That was a start, it wasn't a good start but Sanosuke will quickly remedy that.

"Taku...you want to kill Karisuma don't you? Well then explain to me how you're going to do that..." Sanosuke began asking before he dashed at the man with his swords in his hands. They met once more this time Taku taking the man much seriously than he had before. They met in a show of sparks from their weapons. "WHEN I'M GOING TO BE WALKING AWAY WITH YOUR HEAD!!!!!"

295/335; Jutsu Used:

Sanosuke simply continued to fight against Taku without throwing so much as a glare her way. The answer remained clear nonetheless.
“No.”
Did he even have an idea of who he was trying to defeat? Misoka’s eyes narrowed as another wave of frustration got hold of her. You idiot. You damn idiot.
She was ready to give her life for them as far as one could be ready to embrace the eternal darkness. So why did he decline? Furthermore, she had told him that there would only be a single person to actually take note of her absence. Plainly spoken, she didn’t have much to lose.
Misoka looked down at her feet, heart pounding with anger and despair.
She had tried to escape a life in captivity and become happy – and she had failed. End of story.
“Karisuma-san, please stop. Sanosuke-sempai knows what he’s doing, you don’t have to sacrifice yourself.”
At the sound of Katniss’ trembling voice, Misoka flinched and opened her mouth to reply, but there were no words explaining how she felt inside. Defeated, she sank to the ground, positioning herself in a way that she could hold Peeta’s limp head again. Who was she to argue with a crying woman that had almost lost her brother because of her?
Katniss’ face was still tearstained even though not as pale as before. “He’s over the worst,” she whispered with reference to Peeta while a small smile was spreading across her lips.
What could Misoka possibly say in return? All she managed to give her was a shaking nod.

Clash after clash filled the cold air. At one point, Taku’s insane laughter faded. It actually seemed like Sanosuke was slowly gaining the upper hand in battle. How was that possible?
Misoka watched in complete wonder. Had she given the man with the dreadlocks not enough credit? Perhaps they would all get out of this alive.
Her heart fluttered, grasping a spark of new hope.
After Sanosuke had pushed the psychopath back, making him crash into a tree, he spoke to her shortly without losing his deep concentration in the slightest.
"Keep quiet and do what I said brat. This guy just assaulted my friend and you think I'm going to let him get away with that?"
She merely blinked. Beside her, Katniss let out a quiet chuckle, apparently a little amused at her sensei’s fierce temper.
"I'm leaving you in charge of watching over Peeta. End of discussion..."
Almost ironic how his words could annoy her even in such a dire situation. Misoka bit back a cutting remark, keeping her mouth shut tightly. He certainly mistook her for one his subordinates right now. She couldn’t remember that she had any obligation to listen to his orders.
Besides… playing superhero and leaving the women in the kitchen, huh? That was how he handled things.
Despite the snappishness of her thoughts, Misoka knew that she didn’t even mean half of them. In truth, she was desperately clinging to the hope that Sanosuke would defeat her enemy and save them all. Other than putting herself on the line in order to grant them an escape path, there was nothing she could do at the moment.
If she barged into their fight, she would only be in the way and make matters worse. As much as she hated having to stand or sit by and watch, she would definitely not cause them any more trouble.

Anxiously, Misoka saw Taku regain his composure. He showed almost no reaction to his opponent’s scream shortly afterwards. His laughter was gone, his eyes had turned cold and calculating. Without a doubt, he had just become an even more dangerous enemy. If only they could somehow disturb his concentration…
Of course! Misoka’s eyes widened. Taku’s greatest fault was his mental illness. She had already seen him having hallucinations and emotional breakdowns before – and this would lead to the perfect opening. They just had to push the right buttons.

“Sanosuke!” she called out, her voice strained as she was searching for words which wouldn’t let Taku know about her plan. “Go for his head! Make it ... spin and unable to function properly!”
Oh, please understand it, dreadlock.

---

Medical Ninjutsu B -> A-Rank
5000/5000

remaining WC 3609

“Go for his head! Make it ... spin and unable to function properly!” Misoka's scream could be heard from the sidelines. Sanosuke didn't have an inkling of what she could mean; but right now he had bigger things to worry about. 18 times. Sanosuke's life would have ended 18 times if it wasn't for last minute reflexes on his part. Taku's speed was a factor that Sanosuke had forgotten to take in account of. The whole time the Suna shinobi was fighting him, he had been toying around with his prey. There was no reason why he would fight full force. After all he was only here for Misoka's life, not to fight 3 jounin and kill them all. So he was deliberately holding himself back on purpose so he can complete his mission and leave. Where the man would have gone after he completed his mission, the Kumo jounin didn't have a clue; he could go back to Suna, help out Seven Bells in this conflict, either way he would have to go through Sanosuke first. For a jounin, Sanosuke believed himself to be the jounin that are the real definition of 'elite' under the shinobi handbook of what a shinobi was. He had pushed his body to the limit with his training to the point where he can fight toe to toe with an advesary that was faster and stronger than him. If Peeta or Katniss fought against Taku, they wouldn't have lasted as long as Sanosuke has for a single second. They would have been killed in an instant. But despite that, Sanosuke was holding his ground. For how long Sanosuke didn't know. It was only because of Sanosuke's sharp reflexes that his life hasn't ended. His skills in the art of the sword was fending off Taku's attacks just barely. Taku's speeds outclassed Sanosuke in terms of offense, but when it came to defense Sanosuke's parries were always there to save his life. Whenever Sanosuke would go in for an attack of his own Taku would easily see the attack coming and counter it with his own. Then the whole game of defense and attack would start all over again.

The forest resonated loudly as metal met metal in a showmanship of two warriors who want nothing better than to end the life of the other. Sparks danced through the air when the blades met. To an observer, it would seem as though the sparks of the swords when they met were revolving around the both of them as they clashed attempting to take each other's heads. Sweat was caking his face as Sanosuke defended for his life as Taku held a stern face of anger on his. The jounin was gritting his teeth as he refused to be defeated by a sociopath like Taku. Slowly but surely he was losing ground. It was a steady decline but he couldn't keep at this stalemate for much longer. Taku had more stamina than he did so the killer would just simply wait for the jounin to run out of strength and slow down before Taku went in to end Sanosuke's life. Taku went in for a vertical downwards slash to cut Sanosuke in half right down the middle. Raising his swords up, Sanosuke stopped the blade from coming any closer. His fingers felt a bit numb from the clash he caused so he wouldn't be halved by Taku. Just as swiftly as he struck, Taku retracted his blade and went in for a shallow stab for Sanosuke's now revealed stomach. The jounin cursed as he sidestepped the slash so it only nicked the right side of his ribs. Wincing in pain, Sanosuke grunted. That was 19, he almost died 19 times now. With the sidestepping motion the jounin continued moving and brought his sword that was being held by his right hand upwards to get a slash on Taku's upper torso.

Effortlessly, his opponent deflected the slash from his body and purused to with a stabbing motion at Sanosuke's chest to finish the job. Cursing under his teeth, Sanosuke put his palm to the ground and pushed himself off the ground with a small burst of wind chakra so he can somersault backwards to evade the stash. He used the uppermost top part of his toe to push the blade away from him as he was moving backwards. The movement did nothing to Taku's approach as his enemy kept on pursuing with the slash, readjusting his blade's angle so it would stab in easily into Sanosuke's heart. The problem was that he was still moving backwards in a flip. His back was parallel to the ground as Taku was coming right at him. It would be hard to land with Taku this close to him. This all happened while Sanosuke was moving backwards into a flipping position. When he got himself somewhat situated with his eyes locking with Taku's blue cold eyes, Sanosuke brought his twin swords to intercept Taku's stab at his life. He succeeded just barely with the blade stopping just a centimeter from his heart. Unfortunately he landed badly so Sanosuke fell to the ground back first. Taku was over top of him trying to get his blade into Sanosuke's chest.

Desperately, Sanosuke attempted to get himself free but Taku's sword was getting lee way off of his guard. If he didn't do something to get this blade away from him, there wasn't a doubt in the jounin's mind that he would get skewered. Taku gritted his teeth in frustration. "Kumo swine! Why don't you die?!!" Taku roared in fury as he stomped on Sanosuke's solar complex in an attempt to break his guard. The sounds of a couple of ribs breaking could be heard through the forest as Sanosuke howled in pain. It took everything he could so tears wouldn't come down his eyes. It hurt so much that he couldn't bear it. Blood coughed out of his mouth and pelted Taku in the face; staining the man's clothing in blood red spots.  Sanosuke was glad that he made Navi stay at home while he went on patrol. She would no doubt be furious of she saw Sanosuke being beaten like this. Taku growled and did it again. Crack, another rib was broken. Sanosuke yelped loudly as he was at Taku's mercy. Despite the pain, Sanosuke didn't let his guard break. Blood trailed down the corner of his mouth as he refused to let pain break him. "I'm getting real sick and tired of looking at your face!"

"I can say the same for you!" Sanosuke barked back angrily. He let got of his swords so that they can disappear on him in a flash of lightning from his gauntlets. The shift of weight let Taku's blade come down without him being prepared for it. Shifting over to the side, Sanosuke dodged the blade and focused chakra into his right hand so that a blade of chakra was coming from his right hand. With a roar, Sanosuke pushed his sharpened hand of chakra so that it would stab into Taku. The man's eyes widened at the development and adjusted his body so that the chakra bladed hand would simply go through a chunk of his skin to avoid major organs and arteries. Taku braced the stab would and looked at Sanosuke with venom in his eyes. Sanosuke's gauntlet was inside Taku's left side of his body. He had finally scored a wound on the man, it wasn't critical but it was a start.

"HOW DARE YOU?! YOU INSIGNIFICANT BRAT!!" Taku screeched loudly. With a chakra powered back hand, Sanosuke felt himself knocked to the ground harshly. The man held his side where he was stabbed and walked over to Sanosuke who was still trying to catch his breath. Brutally, the man focused chakra in his foot and kicked him where Taku originally stomped on and sent Sanosuke flying to a tree where his back met the trunk of the tree. Just like that, Sanosuke had more broken ribs. It was getting harder for him to breath. Each breath felt as though pins and needles were piercing his lungs before were replaced with a thousand kunai knives. Just getting back up on his feet was a struggle. Taku looked at Sanosuke in shock that he was managing to get back up. Materializing his swords again, Sanosuke got back into position. There was something different now, Sanosuke let out a small chuckle from his lips as he got back up as he figured out something from fighting Taku. Despite all of his injuries he was still laughing. It was loud enough for Taku to hear so he looked at Sanosuke with even more anger. The smile, that was shortly on his lips for knocking down the one obstacle in his mission killing Misoka, was wiped clean at the sound of Sanosuke's chuckling. "What's so funny?"

"Hooray..."

"Hooray?"

"I was able to get a wound on you. So for that I say hooray...." Sanosuke said in between pants as he struggled to just stay on his feet. That's when Misoka's words got to him. He had finally understood what she was referring to. It was a slim shot but it was the only one they had left. Sanosuke didn't know if he could go on any longer with this fight. Even thought Taku was finally wounded, he would be back and running at full strength soon enough. He had to end this now. Just saying that short sentence with a weak smile, Taku was already annoyed with the jounin. He wanted nothing more than to end this. They were going to end this right here and now. Both of them dashing, Sanosuke and Taku ran at each other ignoring their wounds for yet another clash of the swords

280/335; Jutsu Used:

With Taku beginning to take his opponent seriously, it wasn’t going well. At all.
Worse, Sanosuke didn’t seem to understand what exactly she was getting at. Not showing any sign of acknowledging her advice, he continued the fight, quickly standing closer at the edge of his loss or in other words his death than victory. The latter only seemed to get farther and farther out of reach.
Misoka had known that Taku was a threatening enemy, but since she had never seen him truly fight before until now, she felt terrified of how extremely skilled he was.
At that rate, it wouldn’t take long until Sanosuke’s defenses would fail to suffice anymore. And if the man with the dreadlocks, her ally couldn’t defeat the psychopath, who else could? In the end, they would all die. Or maybe Taku would at least spare Katniss and Peeta, given that he was originally interested in punishing only Misoka for her disobedience and lack of loyalty towards him.
A small spark of hopelessness attempted to break her spirit or what was left of it anyway, but Misoka extinguished it briskly. Sitting and waiting for her end? Not in a thousand years, not in the last amount of time she had left if worse should come to worse. She had never considered giving up an admirable action.
There was still a… chance regardless of how slim it might be. If you don’t try, you’ll never know, will you?
The cracking of bones, accompanied by a painful yelp from Sanosuke resonated throughout the forest, a sickening sound, which did nothing but further put any hope for triumph to an acid test.
Taku was sitting on his opponent, holding him in place like that. His uninhibited violence could lash out freely, again and again.
Chills ran down Misoka’s spine as she fought the urge to turn away just so she wouldn’t have to watch something so appalling as the scene spread out in front of her.

Fortunately, Sanosuke was snatched from the jaws of death at last when he mustered up the strength required to push Taku off him. Not only that, Misoka noticed with relief, he had finally managed to injure their enemy. A minor wound, albeit a start in any case.
Still… Misoka chewed on her lower lip anxiously. She had an idea of how Taku reacted to wounds in comparison to the average… well, human. He tended to snap, absolutely caught up in his fury, turning into an enraged monster out of control. This could be an advantage or disadvantage… taking Sanosuke’s inferior and already weakened state into account, more likely the latter.
His teasing “Hooray” only served to add fuel to the psychopath’s anger.
Misoka cursed herself under her breath. It had been foolish to believe that Sanosuke would understand the vague message she’d given him. And even if he did, how was he supposed to know what made a person like Taku go mad, to an extent that this man could be considered incapable of fighting?
..But she knew. It was time to take over now.

“Sanosuke!” she called out yet again, her voice developing an almost pleading tone even though she tried to hide it under the usual tinge of determination. “You will have to do an exceptional job at protecting me now. I’m counting on you.”
Misoka inhaled and exhaled, watching her breath mist in the frosty air whilst collecting her thoughts briefly.
Then she looked at Taku and forced a scornful smile on her lips. “Hey, Taku! I was wondering… how are your private parts doing?”
His eyes widened, encouraging her to continue.
“Ever heard of ‘phantom limb pain’? Could that have been the reason why you freaked out the other day? Did you remember how it hurt when your father cut off your testicles?”
Just as she had anticipated, Taku didn’t take her words kindly. Every last trace of sanity vanished from his face, until there was nothing left but pure rage and madness. His breathing became unsteady, his grip around the blade in his hand tightened.
Stumbling, he rushed forward and would have undoubtedly killed Misoka at once and on the spot if it hadn’t been for Sanosuke shielding her.
But nonetheless, the first successes had become apparent. Misoka knew she had to hurry for the sake of Sanosuke. She needed to make Taku vulnerable enough for her ally to strike.
“This is why nobody wanted to stick around!” She let out a bitter laugh. “What are you? A half-man or simply neuter? Did you think you could hide it from the others? It’s the smell. You smell differently. Everyone can pick up that awful scent which you emit.”

A loud roar escaped Taku’s mouth when he held his head in his hands, the tip of his sword pointing to the sky aimlessly.
“No, no, no…” he whimpered to himself. “It wasn’t me. I didn’t do it. I didn’t kill them. Who am I? Who am I?”
“Yes, you killed them! Your own parents! Why are you even alive?” Misoka exclaimed, putting more venom into her tone. “You are nothing! Nobody wants you alive! What are you doing in this world? You don’t belong. You must have realized this long ago!”
This was the last straw. With a loud thud, Taku’s blade dropped to the ground. He didn’t pay any more attention to the people around him, his eyes had gone so wide that they seemed to bulge out of their sockets.

Seeing him in this state might have even evoked a feeling of empathy within Misoka if she hadn’t been so sick of that man and everything he’d done to her.
Her gaze flicked to Sanosuke and she knew he wouldn’t hesitate to strike now. The chance couldn’t have been better; she couldn’t even believe their luck that simple words had been able to immobilize a shinobi of that calibre.
From the looks of it, Taku might not even take note of a possible attack coming from his opponent.
She wondered whether he would become aware of the dire situation he was in and feel the pain when Sanosuke’s sword would go straight through his chest.
Somehow, as terrible as that may sound, she hoped he would.

---

Training Mystical Palm Technique 2000/2000
WC 2676

The sounds of a grown man screaming in agony could be heard when Misoka began her verbal assault at Taku. The words the came out of the blonde woman's mouth left him baffled at what had happened. Apparently that this Misoka woman knew more things about the man than she led to believe. Everything that came out of Misoka spoke the very foundation of Taku's soul. It first started with the man shouting back at Misoka, then she kept on pushing and pushing. Signs and cracks of his mental stability were slowly being exposed to Sanosuke as Misoka kept on applying more  and more pressure. Finally the screams of a man whose world was being ripped apart from the inside was right before him. The wounds that Taku had been inflicted with by Sanosuke meant nothing to the mental turmoil that he was going through right at this moment. Screaming loudly, he even dropped his sword and was clenching his head and knelt before the ground to yield to the pain that he was experiencing right now in his head. Misoka looked at Sanosuke with a gaze as though she was ordering him to finish the job. It was an easy job really. The man's weapon was gone and the getting couldn't possibly get any good. But to kill a man whom didn't know what was going on struck a blow to his conscience. With a sigh Sanosuke knew that he should probably end the man's suffering.

Walking over to the man who was at his knee's screaming, Sanosuke's steps was heavy as the vision was dancing in his eyes. Oxygen was slithering into his gullet in slow takes due to the number of broken ribs he had. The concussion he got wasn't making it easier for him to keep his mind focused on the task of simply breathing. It took him minutes of gagging on his blood to walk over to to Taku and have the swords he was wielding aligned perfectly to the man's neck in the fashion of an X. The blades of metal crossing each other against the man. Sanosuke stared at him at him with pity in his eyes. The man had such potential and strength that if he used his abilities for the greater good, then it would have been likely that Sanosuke could have seen the man as a powerful ally. It really was a pity. When his blades were leveled at Taku's neck, the man's screaming stopped and took the time to look at Sanosuke in his silver eyes. Conviction was in his eyes as he looked up at Sanosuke know what was going to happen. Then there was something in his eyes that made Sanosuke look with curiosity.

"Kikyo..." Taku whispered.

His eyes popped open in shock. The grip he had on his sword slackened slightly as he looked up at Taku in shock. "How the hell do you know my mother's name?" Laughter could be heard from deep within the throat of Taku as he was feasting on Sanosuke's disbelief. His mother was someone whom was native to Kumo, how the hell could a Suna shinobi know about his mother? The execution slowly turned into an interrogation as Sanosuke applied a bit pressure to Taku's throat to draw out blood. "Tell me!"

"You're her son?! This is rich! I knew there was something about you that looked familiar!" Taku laughed to himself. It caused more droplets to drop down as Sanosuke forced even more pressure on the blade as he was talking in riddles. "You're mothers side. You don't know about them do you?"

"Can't say I gave a shit."

"Let me fill you in then Kumo swine about your whore of a mother. She's from a shinobi clan in Suna; born and raised. Though the library was where she spent most of her, trying to ignore the fact that she's from a clan that killed people for a living. Hell she killed people to with her kekkei genkei of hers, I see it in your eyes you know. That's when a man from Kumo came in and swept her off her feat. Telling her promises of being able to leave her family and live in the shit village of Kumo. Of course she went and left her family." Taku informed Sanosuke while feasting on the expression of grief that was slowly developing on Sanosuke's face. It was growing more and more as he realized that his father took her away from Suna to live. Everything he knew in his mind was all a lie. His mother and him had the same ability that made Sanosuke such a deadly foe. "She left her family all alone for some idiot who believed chakra was evil. It was the talk of Suna for a couple of years. But to think I'd be looking right at the son of the whore that filled Suna's tabloids for 3 years. I wonder what she'll say when you finally see her again"

Sanosuke clenched his swords in fury as Taku began speaking. He was insulting his mother right to his fact about the things he didn't know. Even though his mother and him didn't have a good history together, she was still his mother. Plus this bastard was dangling cryptic messages in front of his face. "Stop it...." Sanosuke growled under his breath.

"OR WHAT?! YOU'LL KI-" His words were cut short when his head was sliced cleaned by a furious Kumo jounin's twin blades. The man's head rolled to the ground and stopped to look right at Misoka. His body fell down shortly after. Panting to himself, Sanosuke let his swords disappear and get got to his knees tired from the energy he exerted.

Taking a look at the head, Sanosuke was holding his broken rips as he tried to blink away some blood droplets that was obscuring his vision. "Yes...exactly." Sanosuke gagged as he began coughing out more blood from his mouth. At least he didn't have to deal with this man's voice anymore.

Unlike she had thought, Sanosuke hesitated to kill his opponent. He didn’t take an advantage of Taku’s current state, at least not immediately. Could it be that… he actually pitied him?
Misoka furled her eyebrows, feeling compelled to verbally knock some sense into the guy – If he didn’t strike soon, the psychopath would just wake up from his mental horror and kill all of them.
At the same time, part of her respected the Jounin for his obvious sense of honour. It might very well be considered a cowardly thing to do: slaying someone who couldn’t defend himself at the moment. But what other chance did they have? It had to end this way.  
Sanosuke seemed to realize the same when he eventually held his twin swords against Taku’s throat.
Seconds passed, but only her former bodyguard’s screams faded, not his breathing.
Standing up to have a better view, Misoka watched the scene anxiously, one word replaying in her mind over and over. Strike. There was already a tinge of reason coming back to Taku’s eyes, so it wouldn’t take long until he could turn into the killing machine he’d been before.

However, instead of pushing Sanosuke off him, the S-rank shinobi started talking.
A name at first… the name of Sanosuke’s mother… and then he told his opponent a whole story about the woman, riddled with insults and derision.
Misoka hadn’t expected that at all. Neither had Sanosuke, judging from the way his body shook with anger.
Shinobi clan in Suna, kill people for a living, kekkei genkai, left her family.
She had no idea what to make of the new information Taku had just spilled, but her ally Jounin was furious. One last exchange of words, then Sanosuke couldn’t take it anymore and decapitated the other man.

The head rolled over the ground, stopping shortly in front of Misoka. An icy chill ran down her spine when she returned the lifeless gaze. A big lump formed in her throat.
Taku was dead.
Dead.
She couldn’t believe it, she couldn’t believe her eyes. It felt like a dream from which she would soon awake, an illusion someone had cast upon her to trick her, to trigger the sensation of bliss only to take it away from her the next moment. Yes. This seemed too good to be true.
A fit of coughs prompted her to turn to Sanosuke, who was apparently teetering on the edge of unconsciousness – no wonder, given all the wounds Taku had inflicted upon him.
Katniss sprang up, ready to go help her sensei, but Misoka held her back, somehow finding her voice again. “Don’t. Please take care of Peeta.”

Each step caused her thoughts to spin one more loop, until her mind felt so jumbled that she didn’t know what to think anymore.
She walked over to Sanosuke and took his arm – a gentle touch, but her voice remained firm. “Lie down, please. I can heal some of your injuries, roughly at least. We won’t have time to stick around for too long.”
When he had done as he was told, Misoka placed her hands on his chest, deciding to treat the broken ribs. Soft, green light emitted from her palms and seeped into his skin. She hoped that her chakra would provide some comfort and make the pain fade away slightly.
He would deserve it.

Something wet dripped onto her hands. Onto his half-ripped shirt.
Her eyes widened, lips parted as if to form a small “Oh”. It had started with a single desolate tear, sliding down her cheek. Then the heavy rainclouds in her mind let loose their turbulent nature.
She cried without making a sound, a steady stream of salty tears trickling from her chin and damping the young man’s shirt.
In a half-hearted attempt to cover her visible emotions and to spare herself the embarrassment, Misoka tried to dry her face with one hand, the other still sending off soothing chakra.
It was no use.
As if someone had broken all her dams, the river was flowing freely now, briny water staining everything it touched in its wake.
She drew a shaking breath. Although she didn’t trust her voice yet, she just had to choke out these two words.
“Thank you.”
Her heart swelled with gratitude, with bliss, with freedom.
“I have a long memory,” Misoka added, a soft sniff escaping her lips. “I won’t forget this. I won’t forget you, Sanosuke.”
She tried to laugh through her tears, but the sound got tangled up with a sob. “I’m just so glad it’s over…”

This was real. This wasn’t a dream.
All along, she had told herself that one day she would be free. But in the back of her mind, she had always deemed it nothing more than wishful thinking.
To realize, to comprehend that she’d finally achieved her goal after five years of despondency…
Misoka bit her lower lip and tasted only tears.

---

WC 3545

200/250:

Pain blossomed from his chest over and over again as he struggled with each breath to make sure he wouldn't die. Blood was trailing down his mouth as he let a breath escape from his longs. Crimson water came down and was beginning to form a puddle under his right harm that he was using to keep himself from falling on the ground, making himself fall unconscious. Darkness crept in his vision with each struggle that fought just so that he wouldn't pass out. Just breathing was like getting stabbed in the kidneys over and over again. Blood was beginning to swell up in his lungs making it harder and harder for him to breath. This wasn't good at all, in a few minutes he would pass out. And shortly after he would die from internal bleeding. Katniss was most likely to occupied healing Peeta for her to treat him. Peeta needed the immeditate medical attention. In the meantime Sanosuke would just wait until its his turn for medical treatment. Peeta was hurt because of his weakness, so this was his punishment. When Katniss was about to move to treat him, Misoka cut her off and gave Peeta to his sister. As much as he wanted to tell the Karisuma brat to get back to his orders, Sanosuke knew he was too weak to be calling any shots. Hell he was barely keeping himself conscious.

“Lie down, please. I can heal some of your injuries, roughly at least. We won’t have time to stick around for too long.” Misoka said firmly as she placed her hand on Sanosuke's arm. It was a gently touch that had a firm understanding that she had perfect control of the situation. The jounin turned around to look at the woman's eyes. The same blue eyes of defiance was soften when she spoke those words. Wavering silver orbs of Sanosuke's eyes looked into hers for comfort. At the moment Sanosuke could barely stand, so he just allowed himself to be swayed by the woman's gentle touch. Laying on the ground. Sanosuke watched as she began treating his wounds with a soft green glow that radiated from her hands. So the Suna kunoichi was a medical ninjutsu specialist, how lucky of him. At first the glow caused a sharp pain in his ribs to spike in pain. A white hot flash of pain enveloped his body as he felt his ribs slowly mending themselves. It felt as though his ribs were being forced into being rebuilt no matter how much pain it would bring him. At first Sanosuke believed that he would die from this amount of medical treatment without any painkillers.

Withering in pain as each of his ribs were slowly regenerating, Sanosuke clenched the woman's thighs by reflex. Looking up at the woman, all pain that he felt was pushed to the far corners of his mind when a small droplet of water hit his face. More and more drops continued to pelt his face as he was being healed by Misoka. That's when Sanosuke noticed that the tears were coming from her. Finally her tears streamed down her face like a river of emotions that took the form of tears. The salty taste filled his mouth when the tears hit the base of his tongue. Pain began to be dulled away as more and more tears hit his face. It was as though her tears itself was giving him a soothing relief. This woman was amazing. The choking sounds of a 'Thank You' came from her mouth as she tried to heal. It made Sanosuke's eyes widen with shock at that. It was the first time that she had ever said anything remotely nice to her. Looking at her now, it seemed as though a giant weight was removed from her shoulders.

“I won’t forget this. I won’t forget you, Sanosuke.” She tried to laugh through her tears, but the sound got tangled up with a sob. “I’m just so glad it’s over…” It made Sanosuke smile at the laughing she was trying to let out. Her laughter. Even though it was riddled with sobs and cries, it was so uplifting and infectious. Chuckling weakly, Sanosuke laughed with the girl. Their laughter caused Katniss to laugh too. They had survived, they had each seen the cold look of Death this day. It was laughable how they evaded Death so narrowly.

"You know, you really are an annoying brat Karisuma...." Sanosuke said weakly as he reached up with his hand up to Misoka's. It was a weak slap from an injured man at first. The smack was very gently because of his injuries. But then very gently with his hand, he stroke the tears that were coming from Misoka's face. As Sanosuke stroke her face, he remembered all the cries she screamed out. It was then he finally understood why she was acting like such a nuissance since they met. She was so bitter because of the responsibility the Suna woman had to deal with. "If you ever tell me to leave you alone so you can die, I'll kick your ass next. Do you understand me? I'm here for you..." With that his hand slipped away from Misoka's perfect complexion on her face. Blackness swept his vision as he fell unconscious with only the soft green glow healing his body. It made him feel so warm as he slept. The sound of the Kiri ANBU could be heard approaching the group. It was the backup that Sanosuke sent to return. They must have finally found them, to take them back to Kiri for treatment. Katniss will explain the situation to their reinforcements so he wouldn't have to worry about Misoka being treated harshly.

But for now, he would rest...he has done enough.
(Thread Exit)