Kurai ran. She ran until her knees felt like jelly and every breath she took was a lungful of fire. Every step felt as though it should have been her last, but she didn't stop. She pushed on.
Her pursuers were lost behind her, that much she was certain of. But she even as her legs gave way and she slumped to all fours, she crawled on – every inch away from them counted.
Shinobi from the Hidden Mist had been hunting Kurai for days now. A rumour had spread that she was in one of the surrounding mountains – living peacefully away from conflict after devoting the better years of her childhood to war – and now the hunt was on. It wouldn't be long before the other villages found out that the long lost prodigy of war was alive and kicking. And yes, she was a prodigy. A killing machine with one flaw – she was not heartless. Sure, killing was easy, but the faces of the dead don't let you sleep easy. At least not for Kurai.
"Dammit," she thought. "Why won't they just leave me alone? I've done enough. I've given enough of myself to them. What more can they take from me?"
Exhausted and nauseous from running for hours, Kurai rested her back against a tree and closed her eyes. "Just a few minutes, then I'll be off again..."
~ Five hours later ~
Kurai's POV
I opened my eyes and panic flooded into me. It was dark. How long had I been asleep for? "Shit!" I immediately jumped to my feet and continued running, trying to ignore the deep aches in my leg muscles and the hole in my stomach. I hadn't eaten in over twenty hours. But food will have to wait.
Confirmingmy suspicions, a kunai knife flung past my left ear and embedded itself into the tree in front of me. It was so dark I almost didn't see the explosive tag attached to it, and the subsequent explosion lit up the forest like a bonfire in the night. I jumped behind another tree – shielding me from the blast.
"We know you're there!" a voice called. The Hidden Mist. I was sure of it. "If you surrender, we promise to not hurt you. All you have to do is come back with us to the village. Let the elders decide your fate. Don't be stupid."
Me? Stupid? I'm frigging Kurai Akira. The Black Death. The Soul Counter. The One Who Didn't Die. And they want me to surrender? Never.
And they didn't deserve that in words either. I pulled a shuriken from my pouch, loaded it with chakra and sent it flying. It passed through the heads of two of my pursuers before missing the third and landing in a tree. There was a collective gasp from the remaining shinobi that I revelled in, before I drew my two short katanas and laced their edges with more chakra.
"Time for you all to die..."
But despite my immense skill in battle, my years of experience, my fast mind and keen intellect, there are times when I can be undeniably stupid. Small lapses in judgement that I'm pretty sure no ordinary shinobi would have made, and that could easily have cost me my Life.
Eight days on the run and twenty hours without food had depleted almost all of my chakra. My katanas ceased glowing. My arms fell limp. My knees gave way once more. "Shit." My consciousness slipped away. The last thing I remember was a man … with a purple ribbon tied behind his back. "How odd..."
