At Hana's house, 4:04 am

"Wake up Hana, its time to get up now," Shisune yelled as she rapped on the door. "You have a mission!"

"It's not even dawn yet Shisune!" Hana grumbled, as she glanced out the window. "Flowers open to the sun, not the moon!"

"Tsunade sent for you though, you specifically." Shizunes quick retort convinced her to pull her lazy self out of bed

"What stuff do I need? ANBU materials or just me?"

"Both."

Tsunade's Mansion, 4:17 am

"Good you could make it" Tsunade said with a forced smile and a cup of coffee.

"Yeah, what is the mission now?" Hana drawled, still not quite awake as she glanced out the window behind the Fifth Hokage.

"There have been Akutsuki spotted to the west of the village; I need you to deal with them." Was the cryptic reply Tsunade snapped out to gain her attention.

Hana immediately began to check if she had all the things she would need and asked "Which ones?"

"I don't know, that's why I picked-," the door opened then and Iruka walked in, exhausted.

"Whoa," he murmured sleepily "I didn't know there was someone else that got in late from a mission like I did…"

"No Iruka, this is someone leaving early on a mission," Hana said with a giggle at her former teammate's ruffled appearance. His mission had been to guard a group of Royal Children. "Fifth, I get the picture," she saluted sarcastically and waved to the three of them "bye-bye, now."

The West Woods, 5:45 am

As she staggered to a run through the woods on her way east, Hana wondered who she would encounter. 'Tsunade might have sent me to deal with Itatchi, because I am the only one with a chance, or maybe because I was the best person in Konaha this morning who can deal with surprises…'

SNAP! A form slammed past her and she cursed under her breath. She hadn't expected to collide with the enemy before sunrise. Hana knew to hide soon; in the dark she's virtually helpless. All her attacks are plant based, and with out the sun to give her energy, well, she wouldn't last long.

Suddenly, before she could get her bearings, maniacal laughter filled the woods around her and she came to the conclusion that they were trying to goad her in order to find out where she was.

'Heh, I'm not going to fall for that, it's the oldest trick in the book!' she thought

"Come out come out where ever you are to play with my little friends! Mwahahahahahaa," said a voice that was unusually high and whiney plus the laugh sounded like a recording of Orocimaru, not the actual person.

"This might be easier than I thought…"she murmured, and then she saw the, the thing that had flown past her; "Little" hardly described it. It was almost like a raptor, but it had a deathly stink about it, the whole creature was dripping with something, making the skin look weak.

Just then Hana realized that she and her opponent were in a dip in the terrain and the sun would take ultra long to get there, high ground was a priority. Dropping her tent and food supplies, Hana sprinted to the top of a rise where she turned to face her pursuers and began to climb a tree to get as much sun, and energy, as she could. Untying her mask from her leg Hana fitted it firmly over her face and readied herself for the attack. She had to jump away to avoid another of the creatures as it attacked from below. In the instant she jumped she threw a kunai at it with deadly accuracy, but it bounced off.

"That's not right, that was a perfect throw!" she hissed. After landing on a nearby tree Hana pulled out 7 kunai, throwing three from the tree that she knew whatever it was would dodge, she jumped and tossed the other 4 with precision, and they all bounced off like the first.

'That's not right,' she thought as she landed on the tree again 'its skin is slimy, not hard.' That's when she realized that the slime was poison, and had nothing to do with the strength of the raptors skin, the poison only made it more dangerous to touch. "Dammit," she cursed (adding in many blasphemic words that she would know and I don't), "how do I break that? The poison is bad enough but relatively easy to get by, now that I know what it is, but that impenetrable skin too?!"

"Just because there is nothing you can do, I'll let you see us before you die!" a voice shrieked out of the forest, and out walked two figures in large straw hats and big black robes, with bright orange clouds on them, the kind of orange that turns your stomach and makes you look for a convenient bush to hurl in. 'These people aren't Atusuki! What can they be?' was Hanas first thought 'are they even dangerous without their pet raptor?'

"You are wondering at our purpose now I believe," another voice spoke, deeper and smother that the first. It was a relief after the shrill cries she had been listening to. "We want the boy with the fox; to create more of our unbeatable summoning's. HA! The only person with a chance would be that infamous copy-nin from Konaha, him and his lightning blade!"

"Baka (Idiot)! You just gave it away!" the whiny one shrieked at his partner.

"Oh yeah, you're my new best buddy, Baka (idiot)" Hana muttered grinning now in spite of the danger. "I can do this easy, if Chidori is the answer." Pulling out four more kunai, Hana held them between her fingers like claws and began to charge them with chakra. "I will show that arrogant orange man." she laughed to herself. Swooping down from the tree she hurled herself straight at the creature, her green eyes wide with two tomoe spinning their way around each. As she swept past, it's life was over instantly. Hana had sliced it's throat with one hand and slashed it's stomach with the other. Standing with her back to the two strangers she stated quite clearly, "You are no match for me if that is all you can do." With the sun fully up now, they clearly weren't.

Behind her, she could hear them gasp in surprise as their summoning melted into a puddle of it's own poison. The rib cage and other bones sticking out as a funeral marker for the dead creature.

"Now then," Hana whispered omonosly, trying not to laugh at the stupidity of her words. "it's my turn." Turing around after saying this she saw them performing complicated hand signs and payed close attention to see what they were doing. They happened to be summoning more of those things, something she didn't have time for, but, oh well, it might be fun...