Enjoy. I only own what's mine.
(Sophia's POV)
I paused, throwing my back against the trunk of a fallen tree, the large bark shielding me from the onslaught of continuous explosions. We were in the middle of the stonewall forest. A memorial for the passing of the second Tsuchikage, he loved to travel and see the forest. Always stopping to stay a few extra days on his journey to Kahonha and like a child sticking their finger in the center of a beautiful white wedding cake a large crater had been blown in the center of the forest curtesy of the trigger-happy moron. His insane laughter echoed around the forest as a series of explosions shake the ground, I sink down lower in frustration as the force jerks my head forwards. The terrified screams of his captive echoed seconds after, prompting more explosions and laughter.
I roll my eyes and brush a few tresses of hair out of my face. It had been wrapped up tight in a braided bun and pinned to the top of my head for style and efficiency but with the constant explosions, the falling, tumbling, rolling and flipping over every piece of shrapnel sent in my direction the neat look was now messy and looked just as sad as I was. Except I wouldn't say I was sad, I'd say more pissed off that this was the second asshole we'd run across in the time span of twenty-four hours.
"Oh my god!" I snap out annoyed, my teammates drop to my side, ducking behind the tree also with verifying degrees of annoyance plastered on their features "How many paper-bombs does this fucker have?!"
My anger wasn't unjustified. We had thrown ourselves into this shit-storm by accident. We'd been on our way to collect out bounty when we happened across the same field as our captor and captive and Christina just HAD to help. I was all for helping out people in need but this was our second fight and the first fucker we'd taken down was less than easy. I had used up half my chakra on the first fight and even though he wasn't too high up this fucker was in the bingo book and wouldn't be a walk in the park. Sammy had read out his weaknesses and strength while he engaged in battle and now, after forty minutes we were here.
We were a little ways outside the land of water, crossing the lake would be a challenge and a time consumer but I'd assumed, since we didn't brief them before on a fight, I'd thought the mist ninja would have shown up by now. I wasn't one to complain about an opponent and was met with a few quiet looks, half of them judgemental and the others clearly confused. Sammy most likely understanding my thoughts pulls out her book, flipping through to his page.
"I can't come up with a strategy but I can't do it with all this noise."
To prove a point, the ground shakes once more as several explosions go off at once. Five bodies move in sync, diving behind another tree as we look at each other. We needed a distraction. Nathalie, the only one as crazy as I was, sent me a smile, her mind thinking the same thing. Nathalie's hands started to glow, her eyes shut in concentration as chakra surrounds her hands. Slicing through the end of the tree with ease, obviously mindful of the large roots sticking in all directions and after pulling her other hand back punches the end of the tree trunk with full force. A loud noise rips through the air as the tree-trunk goes flying through the air at break-neck speed. It hits the ground, creating a huge crater and only after that do the explosions halt, the ninja clearly startled that we finally chose to fight back. I think he thought he'd scared us.
I had five people on my team, my self-included. Well, I actually had four people on my team and an extra that was too scared to actually fight and often opted to stay back and tend to our captive. If that meant protection or healing depended entirely on the day. Nathalie was the oldest of the group and my heavy hitter. She had massive amounts of chakra that was used in combat and gave her massive strength. Nathalie's short temper and bad attitude often got us into more dilemmas than I could count but I only see a real smile on her features when she caving someone's face in. Nathalie has long reddish-orange hair that reached her mid back and a killer smile; we bonded over a love for blood.
Alex was my weapons specialist. Any weapon you needed she had, and she was trained to the teeth with all of them. Her hair was cut in a short bob, her hair dark black with piercing eyes. She was trained to fight and often watched Nathalie's ass as our resident hot-head was too busy ripping someone's arms off to look around her. Alex wasn't one to start a fight and often reprimanded both Nathalie and me when we bickered, she was more of a pacifist, ending all of our captives swiftly and without pain but make no mistake, Alex had no problem stepping in when needed. I've had more than a few bruises from her hands.
Christina was my sensor. Her eyes were the treasure of our group, the byakugan. They weren't hers. They belonged to her child; her lover was disowned from his family after Chrissy fell pregnant. Everything went downhill from there. Michael, Chrissy lover was from the branch family and after their affair came to light Michael's byakugan was sealed and his brain liquefied. Chrissy ran, hunted down by the Hygua clan trying to take back what they thought, was rightfully theirs. I found her in a cave six months later, giving birth alone and scared. Long story short we were found, I moved quickly but was too late. The baby died and wanting to hold onto something of her broken family, I implanted its eyes into her. They took a few years to mature, being held inside a sealed container until they were ready but my god, that girl wasn't one you wanted to piss off. She was as deadly at Nathalie and twice as ruthless.
The only one that wasn't a stone-cold killer or a sociopath, as many others put it, was Sammy. The youngest of our group and Nathalie's younger sister. At first glance, you'd never guess, not only in looks but both Marino sisters were total opposites. Nathalie had long red hair that reached her back, with dark green eyes and Sammy had light brown hair and golden eyes. Her specialty was healing, our shy medic, often hiding from the shadows with her sad little kunai shaking in her hands. After spending three years training under Lady Tsunade she's proficient in medical ninjustu, poisons and about everything else the crazy blonde lady could do.
My names Sophia, the official leader of this merry band of misfits and skilled in taijustu. I was the last survivor of my clan; we were hunted down for our kekkei genkai, the ability to use blood as a weapon. I was taken in by Lady Tsunade for a few years, taught everything I know and was abandoned by her when my blood lust became too much to handle, or that's I think that's why she left, she never really said. Maybe losing both her brother and her lover was too much to handle and my enjoyment for taking a life rubbed her the wrong way. Death had never bothered me, while my clan was fairly large only a few people in each generation possessed the kekkei genkai, and when it surfaced blood lust was hot on its tail. It was so much at once, hearing nothing one second and hearing the blood pumping through your neighbor's veins three doors down. One freak out, one panic attack, which always happened and every heart in the immediate vicinity exploded. I got mine very young, and I sat in the kitchen at the tender age of three, watching my mother, sister and brothers choke to death on their own blood. The red liquid foaming out their eyes, nose, and mouths while they flopped around like a fish out of water. I decimated half the town and after that, my father took me from the village and forbid me from ever using my gift. He taught me how to fight with my own strength, not my gift.
We're bounty hunters. Damn good ones too! No one likes us though, and who could blame them, my group was made of bingo book shinobi. I started this little jig at the age of ten, seeing posters around the village about a man causing trouble, I asked about the job and the lady, thinking I was joking, told me everything I needed to know and within two days I was dragging the body into town, half broken and barely alive. The villagers feared me after that, sending me odd looks and sneers. Dragging their kids away from 'the weird girl' and into their homes. I didn't care, often spending my time out of the village and hunting down assholes causing trouble. By the time I was thirteen I'd made a reputation for myself, bring in more wanted criminals than the ANBU in the land of iron. When I was fourteen I was summoned to the five cage summit, standing quietly in the room, the building is hidden in a secret location while the adults continued to look at me with disdain.
A treaty was set in place, each Kage fearing my skills would be used for harm, agreed to 'share me' creating a large bingo book of all their problems and sliding it my way. I was allowed to be a bounty hunter, I could go anywhere, be anyone I need and even take a life if it called for it but I had to stay outside the villages, anyone inside a village was the kages problem. At fourteen I thought it was odd, why ask a child to fix adults problems, didn't it seem a little warped?
In the next three years, I collected my team. Each member on the bingo book, each person marked for assassination but like me, I felt their deaths were unjustified, like the looks I was given and after some close observation and a proposition I got my team. The kages were less than pleased, voicing their objections with gusto but I did the same thing I had with all the other adults, looked at them quietly. Stating calmly that any harm to my team would be harm to me and I destroyed my enemies and walked out. They didn't like it. They didn't like it one bit but those were my terms.
I wanted a team and I'd finally found one as messed up as I was.
Things weren't all sunshine and rainbow though; Nathalie and I constantly butted heads, her murderous appetite shining through. She almost murdered a man once for looking at her wrong. I often let her have her fun; after all, I wasn't any better. Often fanaticising about smashing someone's head into the wall, the floor or the sound of someone's bones breaking under my fingers but I have stepped in once or twice. While our missions and paychecks are Kage sanctioned they asked that I keep my team in order. Sammy often buried her head in a book, knowing her sister wrath was viscous; Christina looked at her nails or brushed her hair, while Alex calmly told Nathalie to calm the fuck down.
After the death of her husband and her child Chrissy's mind sort of broke, during a fight she was focused, letting that anger out but when not she was lost, looking around in a daze of sorts, pointing out things like beautiful butterflies and flowers like a child would or a hospital patient of medication. Sammie's attention would be on her when it wasn't buried in a book, often mothering the broken woman and keeping her with the group or up to date on current rules. People would send us some looks, wondering our sanity. Boys would send heated stares but one icy look from Nathalie deterred them. While she was a cold stone bitch through and through she cared about her little sister and this team very much, opting more than a few times to smash someone's balls for looking at her sister for too long or a creeper hitting on some poor girl. She had a heart, an ice cold heart but a heart none the less.
My head snapped back into the present, picking up on the words my scrambled mind had ignored but stored for later.
"Can I just kill this mother fucker?!" Christina growls, cracking her hands loudly, she was itching to rip out his throat, I could tell.
"After you get the young girl away from him, sure!" Alex snapped back, her voice clearly annoyed at Nat's limited patience.
I glanced up over the tree, scouring the damage. The ground was a mess. The once proud forest was now standing with a crater in its middle. The large tree's blown down by consent explosions as smoke billowed up to the sky. Nothing was on fire. Anymore. Alex put it out with her wind, a very rare ability, one swing of her giant fan and the fire was gone. Seconds later so was the fan. Vanishing in a puff of smoke as she reached back and twisted the large green scroll to her front. Crouching the scroll was as big as her. Holding an arsenal of weapons she's collected through the years. We'd defiantly be paying a damage penalty, damn it.
"It says dead or alive with this one, so it's up to you," Sammy says, pulling out the bingo book. Half of the people were marked off in different colored X's. Each color represented each of us, whoever got the kill shot got the X, of the years it turned into a game, Nathalie and I winning of course "Sophia?" Sammy asks I snap back a stare, making the younger shinobi jump.
I soften the look, a lot, and send her a small smile and a nod. The last thing I needed right now was a lecture of how Nathalie was the only one allowed to scare her sister and close my eyes, quietly formulating a plan. I knew Sammy had one, she always did, but she'd never say it until I had voiced mine, slightly altering any life threating choices like switching out Nat for Alex but said nothing else. If I was ever hurt or had to leave, I'd pick her as captain hands down. Half the time I wasn't sure why she wasn't captain, she had no backbone that was obvious but she always had a strategy running through her mind.
Thankfully my job was pretty easy, like each of our personalities each of my teammates was different. Different skill sets, different personalities and different chakra natures. I had the whole arsenal at my disposal. Fire, water, earth, air and lightning and each induvial skill mixed within. I played things out in my head, taking five seconds, maybe six and open my eyes with a smile.
"Okay girls, listen up."
"We need to separate the hostage from the target." I state "Alex, I want you to force him back into the forest, use whatever means necessary but push him back" she nods "Sammy I want you to grab the hostage and fix any damage that's been done, Nathalie watch her ass but don't kill him until their separated," I paused a beat, my eyes on hers just to emphasize my point "Then he's all yours." Nat grumbles once but doesn't argue, just happy she gets to break some bones "I'm going to hit his little friends back, Chrissy I want a five-mile wall of fire, turn them around or turn 'em to ash." She nods once more "After this is over I want Chrissy to fix the forest if that's not too much trouble."
Chrissy blushes but nods furiously, Nathalie snorts once, probably running her own little joke through her head or laughing at Sammy's obvious crush on me. I didn't mind, I played both ways, even messing around with the shy girl a few times. What? Her innocence was too hard to pass up. I never spoke of this outright but I had a feeling that Nat knew, the way she'd send me death looks or just looks in general, but she'd look, pause like she's about to say something and not. Ripping her eyes away and walking away. If she had a problem with it she'd never voiced it, in fear or me or hurting her sister I wasn't sure.
"I'm going to rip his fucking head off!" Nat screams once more as just that our time was up, the explosions starting as fast as they started.
I toss my hand into the middle of our circle, waiting for the fraction of a moment it takes for their hands to find mine. Then the pause. A second, maybe two for me to feel each of their hearts. And feel mine leave me as a cold void opens in my chest and my throat goes dry as blood becomes chakra, then blood again, flowing into their veins, streaming from me to them. It's a last resort of sorts. An extreme measure. And every time I do this something in me begs for a world of last resorts and endless extremes.
I pull my hand away and we split. Nathalie and Sammy run, bolting around the crater, jumping through the trees along diverging arcs shaped to meet somewhere in the middle. We had run all the scenarios in our free time and had plans for each contingency, in every possible combination of partnerships and tactical objectives. This one's gamma nine. On Sammie's read, guided by my blood. I duck once more, tuned to Alex. Christina's gone of course, before I notice, slipping under cover and heading to set up the net.
"Care for a boost?" I ask as pieces of tree rain down on us.
"Please?"
I lean forwards, hooking my hand under her shoe and timing it right tosses her up into the air. Alex reaches back, grabbing the end of her large scroll and pulling it hard so that it unravels, wrapping her like a ball of yarn and seconds after firing with a pale orange chakra. Moments later a tsunami of weapons comes hurtling in from every direction. As predicted the shinobi, sensing this, runs for cover, heading for the dense centre of the forest.
I drop down, almost floatingly, casually folding my legs, perfectly calm, perfectly concentrated. In a flash I can feel every heartbeat in the forest. The hearts of deer, darting birds, scurrying lizards, like drumbeats and panicking flutes. But I blocked it all out, all the mad music that usually sounds when I'm like this, locking instead on my chakra, knitting my hands together, my mind opened upward and out, a membrane of power over a cold void. I spread myself outward, attracted to their bodies, finding them and touching them from within their skin, and letting the void ice the touch, until I could feel the blood within their veins hardening, thickening and the skin above becoming armour.
In a flash Nat and Sammy burst from the forest, Nat jumping into the air, chakra pumping through her fist and Sammy quickly launching into a spiral. The idea was insane, no one wanted to do it but Sammy, the younger trusting her sister to the dime. But we were all crazy which was the only reason this team has worked. By spinning quickly Sammy could defuse the chakra from Nat punch, so if it hit her the damage would by minimal, the hardened blood also helped. In this state they were impenetrable, a hard enough hit could break through but most attacks with thrown weapons or jistus were rendered useless. The weapons rained down from the sky, hitting the girls before bouncing off. When it was over they would be covered in red little dots, burning the flesh like you got a mosquito bite.
Even though I didn't possess the byakugan I could see everything, as well as Chrissy, could. The heart beats mapped out each movement, sending out a lighter form of radar and turned everything around me into a 3D hologram, but the rest stayed black, lit up slightly by the other animals. Like I hoped the idiot didn't see if coming like he thought we'd stay put all night long and let him blow us up? Dodging the raining weapons they had little time to dodge Nat, her fist connecting to the head of the leader, his neck snapping back at an odd angle. The world froze for a second, their opposing momentums colliding and standing still, giving Sammy just enough time to grab the child. She continued spinning, pouring her chakra and mine into the girl before siphoning her chakra out and leaving mine in the timespan of two seconds. Wow, no wonder Tsunade was pissed when I stole her, this girl had amazing chakra control.
As fast as it happened the world snapped back into momentum. The leader flying backward into the ground, a large crater now added to the mess. Seconds after the weapons stop raining down, Alex hitting the ground and turning her attention to our youngest. Sammy had hit the ground, sliding to a stop before rolling once more to avoid one of the assailants charging at her. Alex throws up her hands; the weapons held with chakra strings and launched them in his direction. Another tsunami rained down but controlled this time. A handful of weapons latched around him and he's instantly ripped to shreds. A whooshing sound rips through the forest and the smell of smoke fills my nose. Christina was done. I dropped my consternation and flipped over the log, bounding into the forest after the rest of the shit-heads.
Somewhere behind me the leader let out a blood chilling scream as the sound of ripping flesh sliced through the air, I couldn't help the smile that graced my lips.
This was going to be fun.
I walked over to the civilian; the girl was actually a woman to my surprise. A very small woman, I'd say five foot maybe four foot eleven. A rag over her lips as she looks anywhere but Nathalie and me, the two most blood crazy looked like we'd bathed in blood. Blood matted our hair and I think the large intestine was still wrapped around Nathalie's shoulders like a scarf, she idly played with the ends if it and smiled like a mad man when it oozed more blood down her chest.
Our assailant was currently lying in a pile under a tree. Two of his bodies turned to ash somewhere in the forest and the others were lying beside their boss, headless and disemboweled. Alex walked over and pulled her weapons out one man's head and stabbed it through another, tossing that head onto the pile. We'd have a bond fire after the mess was cleaned up. While this scene wasn't new to us I think was too much for her as her face paled dramatically and she emptied her stomach moments after. I rolled my eyes.
"This is why we don't save civilians." Nat sigh, rolling I looked up rolling a severed finger between my own "Can't we just kill her and say it was an accident?"
Sammy sends me an angered look, one I would usually ignore but her chest was sprayed with blood from earlier and those cute little-enraged eyes were too much, I sighed.
"Nat, calm the hell down and go clean up." I state, pointing in the opposite direction with the severed finger, while I was no better looking I was referring to the insides lounging on her shoulders.
Nat, knowing this sighs, pulling open a scroll and sealing the intestine in the scroll for proof of the kill. After this she reaches down, pulling out an actual scarf and dips it in the pot of water that Sammy was using, the youngest looked annoyed but said nothing as Nat places the scarf to her face to start cleaning up parts of the dried blood.
"God, you both smell like shit," Alex says, taking a step away from me.
Rotting blood was never appealing and the heightened senses she was feeling didn't help. She looked two seconds from puking as well. I rolled my eyes, throwing my hands into a quick sequence of hand signs and poured some chakra into my hands. Instantly water began pouring from my palm, the more chakra I used the more water I got. Nathalie pouted once but walked over to my without a fight. Well after I cocked a finger in her direction seductively, Nat snorted and walked over. I lifted a hand and began washing her down, the smile stayed on my lips as Nat titled her head back and ran her hands through her hair.
The dried blood stuck to her like glue but the added water soaked through her clothes and gave me a nice view of her assets, my eyes followed the water down her toned stomach and the lower the water went the more my smile grew.
"Shut up," Nat smirks, eyes still closed.
"What?" I asked, an innocent smile on my lips once she opened her eyes.
The bloody water rolled between her eyes and down her nose as she ran her hands down her chest and over her stomach where most of the blood resided. I'm guessing she stepped on his chest to rip off his arms first, leaning down into the step to watch the flesh tearing in her grasp. She liked that stuff.
I was washing the last of the blood off when the smell of burning flesh hits the air, the signal that we were packing things up. I stop the chakra flow and the water stops; I ring out my hair, dark brown and reached my mid back, tilting my head to the left to get the water out of my ears. I took off my shirt next, wringing out the flexible cloth.
"You better have left me a body," I state as I step over the tree and into the line of sight.
All eyes fall on me as I walked in, wearing skin tight pants and a thin laced bra. Sammy blushed and looked away, the smirk back on my face as she was no doubt remembering our many nights together. Nathalie rolled her eyes.
"Yes, of fearless leader." She grumbles and leans back against the tree, her clothes only slightly damp.
I felt another pair of eyes and turned to see the civilian staring at me. Her eyes widening slightly as she takes in my form. Like me the woman was fit, obviously working out, but the body of a kunoichi was lined with muscles I doubt she knew existed or could be defined with such precision. The lithe muscles lining my body were well built and kept up to standard but I think the most shocking thing was my skin. Unlike Nathalie's, which she had the pleasure of seeing wasn't covered in scars. Yes, Nat had more scars than most as she recklessly jumped into danger but even Sammy, the scardy-cat of our group had scars. Most of them from me, but hey! My body, however, only had one. A large one running down my spine, large jagged scar when I finally unlocked the full potential of my powers. Running from my hairline to the bottom of my spine and about an inch long. It burns sometimes when I think about that day. Other than that my skin was baby smooth, soft and supple. I could feel her eyes widening and drawn to my back when I finally past her but I knew what she was thinking. I was practically glowing.
I turn back to look at her and hand my shirt over to Sammy, who, bless her heart, continued to wring out.
"you're not going to want to see this," I state to the second pair of untainted eyes.
The same eyes widen as she slaps her hands over her face. The first time Sammy saw this she passed out, this time she just sat, watching the shirt intently as the water poured out of it. I walked over to the corpse, standing over the body and closing my eyes. I lift my hands out in front of me and paused, twitching my fingers every few seconds as I feel the blood in his body. The others step back in caution, I'd never grasp them as well but the fear was still there, just not voiced. I moved my hands a little more, mapping out the blood in his body and clench my fists. I rip them out to the sides and like the sound of tearing flesh the body exploded, the blood ripping from the pores of the body, out of the limbs, the intestines, the heart, and brain. The skull cracking from the pressure like the snapping of duct tape being ripped from the roll.
The blood shoots out in a wet cloud of red and into the air, I hold with one hand and mold it around my body, sticking it to my breasts as a shirt, up behind my neck and back around before turning the rest into a cape that reached my mid-calf. I use the other hand, clenching my fist even harder and rip my hand to the right, with a sickly sweet pop the water rip out of the blood, leaving the red blood cells, white blood cells, and plasma mold together and form a jelly-like substance that freezes in the form I left it. The jelly like substance is sticky for a moment before it mixes with the air and hardens like leather. I turn around and look at the group.
"Well?"
I was now wearing a crop top of sorts that wrapped around my neck and ran down my front in an hourglass shape a thick line ran from the strap around my neck down my back, covering the scar but expose the rest of my back, before meeting with the rest of the material around my front in a small belt and turning to a loose material that hung around my legs.
A set of low whistles echoed in the air, Sammy just blushed harder as the shirt pushed out my breasts and sunk low in a deep V-neck that reached to belly button. If I hadn't made this shirt by hand there was no way it would stay together, the skin-tight nature also helped it stay in place. The civilian removed her hands at the noise, assuming it was safe to look as another blush dusted her cheeks. I made a mental note of that but put it aside; did I have two shy lovers?
Sammy reaches into her back, wraps my over the top of her backpack and swings it over her shoulders. Rocking back and forth on her heels impatiently.
"Are we ready to go now?" she asks quietly, looking for a distraction to stop looking at me.
I send her a raised eyebrow in response.
"Uh Sammy, the forest?"
"Oh right!" she groans and slaps her head with her hand.
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