It was probably because Nick was a ronin; a wandering shinobi, that he had no loyalty or bounds to a village, which would perfectly explain his hesitation on trying to find and take down those other five bandits he had seen not so far away. Risu however, was part of the hidden village of the leaf, a proud kunoichi of Konoha and wasn't planning on just letting those five get away while she had the perfect opportunity to finish her mission completely. There were rules and even when she was not willing to follow them, they were what had made Konoha to the current powerhouse that it was in the world of the shinobis.
When the ronin seemed to have taken his time to decide what he would do, he simply proposed to continue like they had done before, with him taking the high ground, while she would do the groundwork.
"Dont overwork yourself," The orochi Lady said, while having a slightly gleeful expression on her face, topping it off with quite a teasing grin on her face. "We dont want you to drop dead somewhere in the forest."
In an instant, the ronin had taken upward, vanishing yet again in the upper echelons of the trees, silently coarsing through them, while Risu followed at an evenly fast pace on the ground, carefully avoiding ditches, bushes and other stuff that could slow her down or make unnecessary noise. It took quite some time to reach the group, but when Risu heard the familiar sound of Nick's whistle, the snake princess simply halted, jumping up into a tree nearby, though in the process making the the leafs in the tree rustle a bit, which alarmed the three bandits down below.
Two of them seemed to get orders from a masked and cloaked person, who with his arms made obvious gestures to the two others to search the tree Risu had been hiding in.
"Not good," Risu thought to herself, looking at the two men closing in on them. This meant she had to react properly and act quickly, so without waiting for the bandits to act or find her, she grabbed two kunai and threw them down simultaniously towards the two men, forcing them to jump back for a moment, after which they unsheathed their swords, now fully aware someone was hiding inside the tree. "Just a bit closer, a tiny bit."
When the two men came closer, Risu quickly opened her waterflask and made a few handseals, ending with her standing on a strong branch, her left arm straight upward, while her right hand was placed with her index and middle finger stretched out, against her lips. Just an instant later, a thick mist seemed to slowly drop out of the tree, covering quite a large area and reducing the visibility to virtually nihil.
Silently, Risu dropped down from the tree and as a shudder went through her body, her eyes went from golden to gray, the eyewhite turning black. She had turned herself blind with her Snake Senses technique, to highten her other senses. Another set of handseals was quickly formed, after which the girl's cheeks puffed up momentarily and she suddenly spewed out a wave of some kind of sticky and glue-like substance, which was followed by the screams and roars in frustration by the two men that had been caught by her Starch Syrup Capturing Field technique.
She loved that sound, especially with her new keen senses, locating them instantly and while forcing some chakra to her feet, she prevented herself from getting stuck like the bandits.
Another shudder went through her body, when her entire skin seemed to turn into hard, white scales. In an instant she had reached the first of the two bandits, who had the bad luck of getting his blade stuck to the goo as well and as such was left defenseless. A straight punch towards his face made him fly out of the mist, bashing against a tree with his head and losing consciousness quite easily. The other bandit however, had not gotten stuck with his sword and despite having been immobilized, he was best not to approach too close.
"White snake style-Bloody teeth," Risu whispered, when performing yet another set of handseals, after which two snakes made out of rock and mud, surrounded and protected with a layer of constantly flowing water, protruded from the ground and quickly launched towards the second bandit, snapping their mauls around his arms, fracturing the bones and tearing the flesh, forcing him to drop his blade, which just an instant later was used to cut through his neck artery, a spray of red blood filling the air, while Risu ran past him, with the snakes vanishing again.
Her eyesight had returned, while the mist was losing its density, nearing the end of the jutsu.
With her scales vanishing as well, the young kunoichi made her way to the masked and cloaked person, throwing the other bandit's sword towards the mysterious person, only to see it being sliced in half by an obviously more suitable blade. It appeared this person was way stronger than those two bandits and probably more on her own level of expertise, so she had to be quite carefull and make no mistakes.
Realising this, the masked person came at her, blade ready to strike and a cold look in the eyes that were visible from close by. The blade made an arc through the air, missing the snake girl's neck by a hair's length, yet this was exactly good enough for Risu to retaliate, as she quickly formed some handseals, with a snake made out of water crashing against the masked person, throwing him back a few feet, after which Risu simply followed up by suddenly lashing out at the cloaked person with two whiplike appendages that had formed at her arms, lacerating the arms of the swordsman and forcing him to drop his blade and fall back, yet behind him there was only a big old tree, which meant he was pinned down and as Risu noticed that Nick had already gotten back, she knew they were in an advantage.
A final set of handseals was her final act, making sure that this guy wouldn't survive and if he did, he could not have noticed Nick yet, so in any case, the ronin could finish the job if her final jutsu did not complete the job. In a single second, Risu started throwing a whole dozen of sharp, sickle formed projectiles made out of water towards the guy, ripping up his cloak, cutting deep in his arms and flesh and even breaking apart the mask, yet somehow he had survived, though obviously bleeding to death if left alone.
"He doesn't have to be killed," Risu spoke calmly, looking at the very spot where she had seen Nick. "But if you deem it necessary, go ahead and kill him."
2500/2500 A rank mission complete
1950 unused