War is an ugly business. Men spend thousands and thousands of ryo on propaganda in order to make it appealing to young men who will subsequently go off to die in a place that they have likely never been before and for a cause that they could not care less about. For the first little while things seem fine but as any old soldier can say – the thing about was is that someone always lost. There was no such thing as a draw when it came to blood-shedding. In such an event both sides were the losers and the dead lay as testament to this. Smart soldiers knew that it was best to escape the ship as it was going down. Getting caught in the end of the war was never a good thing and waiting in an enemy’s camp as your insides twisted from the fear that inevitably arose when foreign bureaucrats decided your fate. Better to simply leave a little bit early and if possible with some prior arranged stash of valuables that you have managed to amass on your travels.
The army of the ruthless warlord known as Seven Bells was no different. While some of his mercenary cut-throats were more loyal to his cause a good portion of them were simply in it to loot Kiri as much as possible and take as much coin from the pockets of Aya and her government as was humanly possible. Now the only thing left was to make for the hills and lay low for a while until all the commotion was over. That meant getting over a border and that while not too hard in and of itself for those who did not have heavy chakra signatures needed to be done as swiftly as possible in order to lessen the chance that a patrol would stumble on their group by sheer chance.
There were seven of them five men and two women each one a hardened killer and ner-do-well with the blood of Kiri’s citizens staining their already grimy hands. One did not need to be a Samurai , Ninja or Sorcerer in order to kill others (though admittedly the chakra enhanced abilities did help when it came to dealing maximum devastation to a large area) and the seven had done just fine with a mixture of axes , swords and pikes which they had strapped to their clothing and close to hand. Some would probably be carrying the items were it not for the fact that they had their precious booty clutched to their chests tighter than a babe in its mother’s arms. Night was finally about to arrive and through the panting of breath smiles were beginning to emerge on the faces of the assorted scum. The night would hide them and serve even better to mask their presence from guards. In the dusk they were hard to discern at a distance and would mayhap be mistaken for simple farmers carrying their tools after a hard day’s work.
The first of the mercenaries died without making a sound. A claw sliced into her windpipe and severed her arteries causing a silent stream of blood to trickle out onto the limb attached to the claw as it lowered the body to the ground as gently as a miser caresses his prized treasure. The others did not notice her disappearance for quite some time indeed by the time that any suspicion was aroused another had already fallen to the teeth of the attacker lodged firmly into the inside of his thigh. This tore a deadly rip in yet another artery causing him like his companion to bleed out before he could cry for help. His corpse lay now on the mossy ground simply another dark blotch on a landscape of dark blotches fertiliser for the worms who would no doubt begin to crawl over his body as it decomposed too mulch.
“Wait”
One of the mercenaries stopped looking towards his companions his eyes and nostrils flaring with the shock of missing his companions in an already nerve wracking trek across country. He counted his fellows as they began to finally slow and stop with him.
There was one , two , three , four and of course himself – that was not right after all the seven had sworn to act as a group until they managed to pawn off their goods somewhere where they could make a few easy ryo for them. If things got too bad then they would have sufficient numbers to take up banditry and add to their coffers with the coin of those who travelled the roads of Iwagakure. Running off would help no one and indeed if they were captured they could easily spill the beans so to speak on where there companions were headed in order to save their own worthless skins from the gallows in exchange for an act of total betrayal for all they stood for. Unfortunately mercenaries tended to have flexible loyalties and thus it would be best if the other two were found out and silenced if they could not even follow a simple plan without playing silly buggers and running off like a pair of star struck love birds.
“Looks like Umi and Hato did a runner on us. You all know what this means right?”
The speaker drew a katana from his belt motioning with a thumb across his throat in case the rest of his companions were entirely dense to the implications. However as he was about to turn around towards back where he had come a red blur shot out of the darkness and hit one of the men in the chest. It seemed to be humanoid though twin horns grew from the back of its head like that of a ram. The speaker stopped for a second, wordless as the beast gnawed on his companions throat.
Yuki the other female of the group began to speak up – her voice rising into a pitch of terror.
“It’s a demon. Save me Amida , Save me Amiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”
The speaker cursed her under his breath for a few seconds. He was no fool who didn’t believe in demons but jumping to conclusions like that was damn foolery and was liable to get a man killed. Besides the shape didn’t stink like black jade and sulphur as one would expect from an infernal presence but rather of the earth and not a little musky.
Then he noticed the orangey red hair and everything fell into place.
“Shut up you stupid bitch. It’s only one of those primitives that you see every so often. The ones whose ancestors screwed one too many tigers or something like that”
Striding forward he lifted his sword and swung it down for the neck of what he realised was a girl of about 20 years give or take a few. He was old enough to be her father and she had just killed one of his squad mates. Well life was strange like that , but it made very little difference now he was going to end this before she made any more of a mess out of him and his fellows. The blade came down and at the last second the girl moved. Instead of cutting into her neck it sliced her back causing a cut to form across her side.
“I’m going to make you regret that you son of a bitch”
The girl snarled in a voice that while no doubt feminine had a deep undercurrent of the wild laced through it.

One of his men levelled a kick out at the primitive girl and screamed as protrusions of bone impaled his leg as it was about to connect with her side. The girl twisted causing chunks of the mans flesh to leave his leg and tearing strips as she went. The speaker cursed more openly this time and slashed again for the girls head hoping to slice her eyes and blind her before more panic would ensue. However his bleeding companion was used as a body shield and he only served to end his comrades waling by slicing the back of his neck and severing his spinal column.
The girl letting the spines retract reached out for Yuki with one wiry arm and snagged the mercenary buy the ankle. Yuki and his sword met in the middle of the air and he felt the impact as she collided with his head.
It was later. He didn’t know how long. He had a concussion of that he was pretty sure. His jaw was swollen and the inside of his mouth tasted salty. The primitive girl was still there going through his companions pockets and fishing round for whatever she could find. He strained to lift his head and get a better view but the primitive girl seemed to notice him. He fought to get his muscles back under control and bring a hand up to ward her off but his limbs just would not seem to work. She lifted a bare foot and brought it down on his head. Again and again until there was a crunch and he could hear no more.

1534/1500 words.