Takezo awoke, the blurry form above him tugged at the strings binding him. "Sephi?" he called.

"Sorry, the name's Mizoto. But from the look of this," Taku's vision cleared as Mizoto held up his foxmask. It marked him as an ANBU as much as the bounty papers she held up next.

"Mizoto Kjima. Rouge Nuke-nin. Class C." Mizoto's lip curled and she tossed the paper into his face. "Class C? I run a theft business from here to Honshu and they give me Class C?"

Taku tried to sit up, but the ropes around his back restrained everything but a wriggle. "An outrage, they said you were class B at least. Now I don't get paid as much for bringing you in."

He could see Mizoto wanted to laugh at that comment, but she double checked the ropes.

"I can't believe they'd send a such a pitful hunter-nin. Getting drunk on assignment? Losing your real weapon and having to get, this?" Mizoto pulled the wakizashi from his pack. "What're you going to kill with this?" She tapped her own katana, the blade easily twice and half his.

"Look, can you let me go or am I going to have to struggle." Taku rolled his black eyes. "You obviously don't recongize me."

"Oh, I do. You're the one who got all tied up and waited while your team got killed." An sneer tore across her face, "You might be good, but you're no Uzumaki."

A vein throbbed in Taku's forehead, "I'm better."

Taku's bound finger touched the tag he'd placed in his pocket earlier. The expolisve note fused and combusted, burning through the rope in seconds. Tension gone, Taku leapt to his feet and grabbed his short sword from Mizoto's stunned hands.

Her shock lasted only a moment. Her sword cleared the scabbard and slashed his feet. Taku grabbed her shoulders and flipped over the blade and her head.

Before he could land she whirled around, harvesting a few blonde hairs from his hair as he fell. He landed and rolled to his feet, short sword out and pointed at the nuke-nin.

She laughed as he felt his hair, now a few inches shorter. She aimed her own katana at his heart, mocking his pose. "Mines longer, foolish ANBU. Don't ever take on the best ranked close range fighter in Konoha."

Taku laughed, too. His left hand relaxed, the hair from Mizoto's neck down slipped down to join his on the ground. He tightened his grip on the strings of razor wire he'd wrapped around her neck. This time she could feel the sharp stings.

"I could say the same to you, Class C."