A very long time ago, a demonic fox spirit was tricked into attacking a village full of ninja who had become too full of themselves in their superiority over the other four villages in the land. Not taking the attack well, the ninja retaliated with violent force by throwing their most powerful jutsu at the demonic fox, attempting to beat it into submission to little success.
The body count rose astronomically as the fox spirit continued to crush the village beneath it's paws and ignored the ninja trying to halt it's progress, until a single ninja who was hailed in the village as a genius among geniuses came forward with a solution to the attacking demon, and promptly sealed the demon inside of an unwilling child, who would go on to become the pariah of the village as word spread through the village about the child holding the spirit of the fox that had caused so much grief and killed so many of their kinsmen.
This child ended up largely being ignored by the villagers that refused to acknowledge their presence, and even though at first this child had dreamt of becoming a ninja dedicated to protecting the villagers that had turned their backs on them, the dream eventually died and the child disappeared from the village at the age of 12 without fanfare, many of the villagers believing that the child had been killed by one of the village's ninja.
Stories of a young child with fiery red hair traveling across the elemental nations killing bandits and other ne'er-do-wells began to spread, but no one was able to confirm or dismiss the stories as it seemed as though the child was akin to a ghost that only revealed itself to it's clients.
Natsumi Hatsune Uzumaki yawned aloud without bothering to try and cover her mouth as she sat in a tree overlooking the nearby village that she had stopped at in order to meet her most recent client, and ignored the brief chastisement of her partner in her head as her red eyes scanned the rolling countryside for any signs of trouble "I'm sure that I've told you before that those types of things are unladylike child."
"Don't start acting like an old lady Kyu, I've never worried about acting remotely ladylike before, so why should I start bothering with it when my entire job involves killing people?" Natsumi responded aloud without turning her attention away from her survey.
"Sometimes it doesn't hurt to be concerned about your appearance, it's what kept people from attacking me for centuries" Kyu reminded her young charge, who could only snort in derision of the woman's point as she finally looked away from the horizon.
"Are you sure that it wasn't because you were so intimidating that people didn't want to risk starting a fight with you right up until that day when you were tricked into attacking Konoha?" The red-haired girl inquired cheerfully as she reached over to collect the pack full of her supplies that she had hung from a nearby branch while she was up in the tree.
"I'll have you know that I was regarded for my beauty and cool personality right up until the day of that attack, thank you very much" the demon replied with a hint of pride in her tone that made Natsumi snort out of amusement at the older woman's prideful attitude.
"Whatever you say you old lady fox" Natsumi chirped out with a bright smile as she unceremoniously jumped from the branch that she had been seated upon and fell to a softened landing on the grass below with little concern for her safety. Shouldering her pack once more as she started out for the nearby town where she was to meet her contact, Natsumi smiled in thought of everything that had changed since she left the village hidden in the leaves.
Natsumi was now 16, and had grown into her body much more then when she had been a lanky undernourished 12 year old, and now she sported a more svelte body toned with light muscles hinting at near constant training of her body and mind that could only be brought about by serious shinobi training, though most civilians wouldn't think of it in that way or be able to make the connection.
Wearing a dark green vest similar to those worn by the Chunin and Jonin of Konoha that was lined with chain mail for light protection and ease of movement, and a pair of black shorts that would not restrict her legs, Natsumi had carefully cultivated her outfit in order to make sure she would have full movement in a fight.
Though she kept her bright red hair long against what most serious Kunoichi would advise of their female students, Natsumi rarely ever gave her opponents a chance to use it to their advantage before they were dead, and anyone who had mocked the girl's long hair weren't long for this world.
Oddly enough it had become one of the few things that Natsumi and Kyu were able to agree on when they weren't firing light-hearted jabs and one another, as in Kyu's own words "A Kunoichi should not be forced to hide her beauty in order to be a more efficient killer. Beauty is simply another challenge that a Kunoichi must learn how to overcome."
Natsumi was under the impression that Kyu was just too vain to admit that she ought to cut her hair once in a while, but agreed that she enjoyed the challenge of making sure that her opponent couldn't use her long hair against her.
Of course there was another element to the girl's life that she sometimes tried hard to forget about, but for the time being it wasn't a problem that she felt like focusing upon when she had a meeting to get to, so she brushed the thought away to a corner of her mind for now and stepped into the town to meet with her contact.
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A few men leered at the two girls sitting at opposite sides of the table staring one another down, but both ignored them for the time being as they weren't their immediate focus.
The second girl's large oval glasses and short black hair contrasted with Natsumi's bright red hair and clear red eyes, but neither were making a move to say a word for the moment as silence reigned at the table the two had occupied in the small café they had agreed to meet at.
Natsumi ruined the moment in a single second as she threw her head back and began laughing uproariously about something none of the other patrons of the café could fathom, while the glasses-wearing girl showed no immediate reaction to the shift in moods for the moment.
Reaching out to grab her cup of tea and bringing it up to her mouth so that she could take a sip of the slightly bitter drink, the glasses-wearing girl set down the cup just as Natsumi finished up her laughing fit and finally began the conversation "still as unpredictable as ever dear Uzumaki" She informed the taller girl emotionlessly.
Smiling across the table at her favourite contact as she recollected herself from the sudden laughing fit, Natsumi grabbed her own cup and took a large swig of her tea before slamming the cup down onto the table, forming noticeable cracks in the polished wood that made a few men at the bar flinch away from the two girls.
"You appear to be in good health as well Hikari, but I have to wonder what kind of trouble you've been getting into since the last time we saw one another" Natsumi accused the smaller girl who held herself with much more dignity than the red-haired Kunoichi.
Reaching up to adjust her glasses momentarily Hikari offered a small smile to her friend and contact "Unfortunately as I am here solely on business today we will not have the time to catch up" She informed her friend before getting down to business "our organization would like to once more hire your services in order to take care of a rapidly expanding group of bandits that are becoming a serious threat to our operations."
Lifting a brow at the professionalism that her friend was showing in this situation Natsumi became a bit more serious in response "what sorts of trouble could a group of bandits cause to an organization full of highly-trained warriors?" She asked out of honest curiosity. She wasn't one to freely offer praise to anyone without reason, and the organization that Hikari was speaking of had some very well trained civilians and shinobi alike.
"This particular group has been gaining notoriety among the five villages, and might have caught the attention of the official shinobi, so we are concerned that there may be a conflict of interest if we attempt to take care of them ourselves."
"You're worried that if you take care of it yourselves there may be village shinobi already hired to take out these bandits before they start to attack towns surrounding the hidden villages?" Natsumi inquired despite already knowing the answer. Village politics could be a nightmare to wrap her head around, and shinobi villages tended to become a bit offended if private groups like Hikari's organization stepped in to take care of missing ninja and bandits on their own.
It might have hurt no one but the hidden villages income in the long run, but the Kage would throw up a fuss and complain about their authority being undermined.
Resting one of her arms atop the table that the two girls sat at Natsumi nodded her head in understanding of what Hikari was asking for her to do "so you want to hire me for an assassination contract against these bandits who are posing a threat to the organization to avoid all of the legal red tape that taking action yourself could cause with the closest hidden village."
"That is correct" Hikari replied with a small nod of her head as she took another sip of tea. "As usual the organization is prepared to reimburse you with everything you could possibly need in order to carry out this mission, and our leader is ready to hand over a hefty paycheque for your services."
Nodding as she crossed her arms over her chest momentarily, a few people jumped in shock when Natsumi suddenly slammed her hand down upon the table, adding further cracks that created spider webs across the wooden surface and made the floor shake slightly.
"I'm always up for a good mission to take care of some bandits, and I'm starting to run out of ninja supplies anyways, so I don't see why I shouldn't do this mission for my dear friends" the red-haired girl informed her friend with a bright smile upon her face.
Releasing a light laugh at the exuberance her contact was showing in the face of an otherwise dark request from her organization, Hikari reached over to the bag hanging from the chair beside her and dug inside to collect the official contract that was required to show that Natsumi had agreed to their terms that was practically required to prevent the hidden villages from shouting at them.
Sliding the contract across the table and turning it to face Natsumi, the taller girl barely glanced at all of the legal fine print and flowery bullshit on the pages before pulling out a kunai and senbon needle.
Pricking one of her fingers with the point of the kunai Natsumi dipped one end of the senbon in the blood that wept out of the self-inflicted wound before pressing her bleeding finger into the contract above the line that she knew from past experience was where she was expected to sign her name.
Hikari simply shook her head in bemusement at the ridiculous flair ninja felt was needed for a simple contract signing, but didn't complain as Natsumi went about signing the contract as she had in the past.
Once the bloody thumbprint had dried slightly upon the paper Natsumi took the senbon and treated it as a writing utensil to sign her pseudonym on the dotted line in her blood with dexterity expected of a shinobi. Finishing up with her signature Natsumi reached out and returned the paper to Hikari with a smile as she tucked her weapons back into their respective pouches before leaning back in her seat and waiting for the glasses-wearing girl to look over the document.
Identifying her satisfaction in the transaction Hikari took and tucked the document back into her bag for the time being before leaning forward on the heavily abused table and held herself up with both of her arms as she offered Natsumi a small smile.
"We will await your arrival at the warehouse to pick up your supplies before the mission begins, so I do hope you will not keep us waiting for too long" Hikari informed her friend with a twinkle in her eye before getting to her feet and collecting her bag and then proceeding to leave the building without another word.
Sighing and shaking her head in amusement at the sort of professionalism Hikari held herself to when she was working, Natsumi would never vocally admit that she kind of admired the way the girl could keep her cool in any situation before shrugging and climbing to her own feet so she could follow the smaller girl's example and leave the café after dropping off some coins to pay for the two girls drinks.
What the red-haired girl missed once she had departed was the way the table split straight down the middle before falling to the ground in two pieces as everyone stared at the damage the unassuming-looking girl had caused from her presence alone.
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Taking a life was nothing new to Natsumi after many years of looking out for herself in the great expanse of the Elemental Nations, and the idea of assassinating an entire army of bandits barely made her bat an eye.
She was more concerned by the red haze that was beginning to creep into her vision as she sat in a tree near the bandit camp trying to survey their numbers, which was the only thing the organization was unsure of.
'What an absolutely wonderful time for this to begin happening' Natsumi thought sarcastically to her partner as she couldn't risk alerting her targets to her presence in any way despite possibly being too far away to overhear her.
"You knew that the deadline was coming up soon and were doing nothing to sate it before you agreed to take on this mission, so it's truly your own fault" Kyu gleefully reminded the teenage girl, who could only growl quietly at her partners cheek at the moment while trying to fight back the haze at itching of her skin as she moon shone bright overhead.
"On the bright side this is a perfect opportunity to take care of your problem without hunting innocents or asking one of your friends in the organization for help, which you always complain about afterwards" The demon continued helpfully, though it did little to make the actual problem abate for the moment.
Though she never liked asking for her partner to do it, Natsumi did not want to risk going into combat while having to try and hold herself back, so she swallowed her pride and made the request 'Could you subdue long enough for me to at least take care of all the bandits?'
There was a quiet growl in her mind as she knew Kyu was thinking it over, but in the end both women knew that Kyu would agree since their little 'problem' had a habit of making both of them increasingly cranky if it wasn't suppressed or taken care of "I'll give you until all of the bandits are taken care of, but after that you are on your own."
'No worries partner, there will be plenty to feast upon once we're finished with the bandits' Natsumi cheerfully reminded her partner as she jumped down from the tree with a good idea of how many bandits there were for her to take care of.
Sneaking into the camp was laughably easy for a well-trained shinobi, and Natsumi was even under the impression that an untrained Genin of the tree-hugging village would be able to get past this band of idiots.
In the centre of the camp there appeared to be a party going on among most of the bandits that included drink and dance, so it was even easier for Natsumi to stick to the shadows and more silently under all of the noise the bandits were making as they had their fun.
Moving towards a tent set slightly away from the rest in the camp that she had marked early on during her observation, Natsumi paused a moment outside of the tent to poke her head around the corner of the flaps before pulling back and nodding to herself.
While it wasn't surprising to find a bunch of slaves locked up inside of the camp that had likely been victims of the bandit attacks, it still caused Natsumi's skin to crawl uncomfortably as she tried to suppress thoughts about her being in the poor girls situation if her life had gone in a different direction.
Thanks to the party going on outside there was only a single guard half-asleep at a wooden desk with a strong bottle of alcohol at his side facing away from the opening to the tent, and a few of the captives inside, mostly younger girls that were weeping quietly as they held each other in an attempt at comfort.
Offering motions to keep quiet while she snuck up on the guard and sighing in relief when they listened to her request, Natsumi slid her hand down her side and drew a kunai without a sound in preparation to put this sick monster out of his misery.
If she had the chance she would have informed the captives to turn away, but since that included a possibility of the guard overhearing Natsumi had to swallow the guilt of making these kids watch her take a life in front of their eyes.
The kill was quick and mostly painless as Natsumi used one hand to reach up and cover the guard's mouth, while the other plunged the kunai into his neck for a silent kill with barely a shudder at the dirty deed. Letting the body flop lifelessly onto the table in front of him as blood leaked from the new air hole in his neck, Natsumi plucked the keys from his belt and busied herself with freeing the captives inside of the tent.
A few were shaken up by watching Natsumi kill the guard, but most were simply thankful for being free from these monsters, and gathered in the middle of the room while they waited for the shinobi to finish freeing the last of the captives.
Once finished Natsumi turned to the girls and gave them a quick once-over before picking out the oldest-looking of the group and giving them orders "I am going to go through the rest of the camp and take care of the other bandits while freeing any other hostages they have taken. I'd suggest that you slip out through the west and keep going in that direction until you find a road. If you follow it south you'll reach a nearby town that should help you get back to your lives."
Having done this plenty of times before Natsumi had becomes used to the same song and dance, and having already mapped out the geography of the area both with her own eyes and a map provided by the organization, she knew the safest way for these captives to go in order to avoid any patrols and reach safety.
She held back only long enough to make sure that all of the captives were out of the tent before slipping back out into the night after them, though her destination was towards another tent that she had caught a few bandits entering while she was surveying the camp.
Going after all of those bandits partying in the middle of the camp would have to wait for now since she knew that they would sound the alarm immediately, so instead Natsumi decided to take a more methodical approach and circle around the camp clearing out any occupied tents before going after those bandits around the fire.
Thanks to her previous intelligence provided once more by the organization Natsumi knew that there were a few missing ninja among the ranks of these bandits, and was already on high alert when a sword came flying for her head when she tried to slip into the next tent on her list.
Rolling backwards away from the threat in front of her and landing on her feet in a crouch Natsumi held up the kunai that she had previously used in front of her in a defensive stance as she inspected her opponent.
The first thing to cross Natsumi's mind was that the man was definitely better built than most of the bandits with rippling muscles in his arms that were bare thanks to the white tank top he wore along with a pair of black pants, and the dangerous blade that she had almost become far too intimately acquainted with.
"Wouldn't you know it but the boss was right that someone would send shinobi after us if we recruited a few more people" the man revealed as he hefted the rather thick blade over his shoulder and held it in a relaxed grip for the moment "are you willing to tell me who hired you to come and take care of us, or am I going to have to beat it out of you babe?"
Frowning at the challenge in the man's tone Natsumi chose to remain silent in response as she rose back to her feet without moving her kunai, and found her mind moving much more quickly than it had been when she began the infiltration as a true opponent stood before her.
She was thankful that Kyu was repressing her instincts at the moment or else she might have charged straight at this muscle-head, and though she was more then sure that she could have obliterated him even in her haze, she wouldn't get away without a few injuries of her own, and alert the rest of the camp.
Watching the man step back further into the tent he had come from, Natsumi noticed there were a few older women inside that she could only guess were supposed to be the "entertainment" for the party, and she was briefly able to smell alcohol on the swordsman's breath as he grinned at her.
"I don't see any headband on you, so I'm curious what village ordered you to come and take care of us" he continued speaking to her as though Natsumi was going to offer any answers to this scum. Laughter followed as he shifted his hold on his blade and moved one of his legs towards Natsumi.
Given very little time to react Natsumi was surprised by just how fast this swordsman's reactions were as she was forced to use her kunai to block an overhead swing of the man's cleaver, and had to brace her hold with her other hand to prevent him from overpowering her guard.
Laughing at the way this would-be-shinobi crumpled against his strength the bandit pushed harder against her with his weight as the power struggle continued. He even had the audacity to try and taunt the girl as he saw one of her legs beginning to slip under the slightly damp grass at her feet.
"You think that just because you come from some stuck-up village and learned a few fancy tricks that you're a ninja girl?" The man told the girl in an aggressive tone, leading her to believe that he had some hatred towards the hidden villages "obviously those fools underestimated just how powerful of a force our little bandit group has become since we started recruiting, and I'm looking forward to showing off your pretty head to the boss."
Sliding down to a knee as the man continued to put pressure on her Natsumi was tuning out everything this idiotic swordsman was saying as her mind worked furiously for a way out of this situation.
Pulling his blade back momentarily offered Natsumi a chance to catch her breath and she unseen to the swordsman she smirked as he held his weapon over his head in what he likely thought would be a killing blow.
In the next moment Natsumi was standing behind her opponent holding onto a katana that glowed with demonic red light and runes inscribed upon the metal, a smirk upon her face as she offered a response to this fool "obviously you really like to listen to yourself talk, but I never found that very useful in a fight, unfortunately for you."
Sighing to herself as she looked down at the blade in her hand Natsumi shook her head in bemusement before flicking her wrist to send what blood had gathered upon the blade to fly onto the ground. In the next moment the man's head slid from his body as his sword clattered to the ground beside him, and the new corpse fell into the mud with an amusing sound.
Dispelling the blade in her hand with a thought Natsumi had to frown to herself as she started up a conversation with her partner "man I hate those guys that love the sound of their own voices in a fight."
"The fact that you had to pull out the sealed blade to take care of him just goes to show that you were underestimating the difficulty of this job" Kyu chastised her partner in the sort of tone a disappointed mother might, causing Natsumi to blush and reach up to rub the back of her head with a hand.
"Okay maybe I should have been expecting a bit more difficulty then I originally had, but you have to admit that kill was awesome" Natsumi gushed to her partner, who snorted in amusement at the girl who could go from stoic killer to goofy teenage girl in a heartbeat.
Speaking of heartbeat both women noticed when Natsumi's red eyes drifted towards the blood that was leaking from the corpse and how her mouth began to water before she caught herself and turned fully away to focus on the women in the tent.
There would be time for that later, once the bandits had been taken care of and all of the captives were released and well out of harms way.
Most of the other tents weren't nearly as difficult to empty as the swordsman had initially been, and Natsumi was pouting by the time she was standing around the corner of another tent watching the party begin to wind down as the men likely were running out of alcohol and were waiting for the next round of entertainment to begin.
Not really wanting to have to stay in the camp longer than she already had, Natsumi decided to go with the nuclear option for dealing with the bandits around the campfire, and with a flick of her wrist summoned the same red-hued sword that she had previously used.
"I'm sure that you could kill the lot of them without using your blade you know" Kyu interjected disapprovingly to her partner as the girl took another look around the corner at the bandits gathered around the campfire.
"We both know that it's bad to hold back the cravings for too long Kyu, and at this point I just want this job to be done, since it's been highly disappointing considering what Hikari offered me" Natsumi argued back to her partner.
Other then the single somewhat trained swordsman it appeared that the camp was filled with only simple highwaymen and idiots that had too much to drink, and it had taken no effort for Natsumi to take care of them. A small thought in the back of her mind made Natsumi wonder if perhaps she was missing something since there had been no in the camp that made her think of a leader, but she brushed it aside for now and refocused.
The last round of kills were almost insultingly disappointing for Natsumi as she stood in front of the campfire looking into the flames as she watched the life leak out of the bodies of the bandits, and sighed to herself as she cleaned off her blade with another flick before allowing it to disappear for now.
Hearing one of the bandits begin laughing caught Natsumi's attention, and she turned to face one of the men that she had effortlessly cut down with a quirked brow "what's got you laughing pincushion?"
Through the pain that he was likely in and the fact that life was rapidly leaving him the man was able to speak up to the girl that had tried to kill him "you think you're so tough, just because you cleared out this camp?"
A bit confused at where this man could possibly be going with this Natsumi allowed him to continue talking as she had a feeling he could have vital information for her.
"The boss took most of our better-trained guys and the ninja we have contracts with on a raid tonight to a pretty far away town. All you did was kill a few grunts and maybe one guy with any kind of experience in combat" The man revealed to Natsumi before starting to laugh once more.
He was promptly silenced as Natsumi crouched down beside him and plunged a kunai into his neck to make him shut up as her mind spun.
"It looks like this mission won't be as easy as you thought" Kyu informed the girl as Natsumi tried to keep her focus over the way her vision was starting to turn red and her skin itched horribly.
"Have you already released your grip on the cravings?" Natsumi asked rhetorically since she knew perfectly well what her partner had done. It didn't take a genius to know that Kyu was being particularly vindictive tonight from a lack of anything interesting going on.
"Just enjoy the blood haze for a bit and be glad that I didn't release it while you were fighting that wimpy swordsman" Kyu chastised the girl to no response as Natsumi's consciousness faded and the beast replaced her for the night.
After a momentary look around she spotted exactly what she'd been able to smell and craved and dove towards one of the corpses, grabbing it and immediately sinking her sharpened teeth into it's tender flesh to begin sucking the precious lifeblood out that sustained her body.
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A young girl fled from her home village once she realized that no one would ever forgive her for something that she had not caused to happen, and disappeared into the forests surrounding Konohagakure.
Unfortunately for the girl she had received little training prior to her disappearance, and ran afoul of a group of ninja who were speaking of highly confidential matters that she hadn't been intended to overhear.
While laying in a pool of her own blood as her partner tried her best to sustain the girl's life against the strange poison that the ninja used on her that made her entire body feel like it was being eaten alive from the inside out, a stranger approached the pair garbed like a dark princess.
Looking down upon the girl with disdain and a small amount of interest, the dark princess offered the girl the choice to continue living or allow her story to end here, knowing well that the girl's stubbornness would make the choice simple. The princess was able to see beyond what most could, and had been able to view where this girl could go if only given a chance.
It took but a thought before the girl nodded her head as best she could to the dark princess, and the blonde-haired girl approached before kneeling on the blood-soaked grass beside the rapidly-cooling body and allowed her fangs to sharpen as she leaned in towards the orphan girl's neck.
Only a note of distaste escaped the dark princess as the red liquid forming their pact slipped past her lips, and in return the young orphan felt like her body was being both torn to pieces and filled with fire.
The princess was gone by the time the young orphan awoke once more, and the girl was surprised to hear actual concern in her partners voice as she cried and chastised her for nearly dying and leaving her alone again.
Refusing to allow her partner to be weak anymore now that the gift of new life had been given freely, the two set out to become powerful enough that no one would be able to defeat her once more, with only a quiet thanks from the pair to the mysterious blonde-haired dark princess that had saved her life and unknowingly given her a precious gift.