Rain was pouring mercilessly from the sky, determined to soak everything in its path and sink it's damp coldness to the bone of any creature foolish enough to venture out into it. From his position perched high in a tree, Genma wiped away the water trying to run into his eyes and silently cursed the misfortune that made him one of those creatures.
He swayed slightly, carefully mimicking the movement of the branches around him, as he watched the four figures below him prowl the area. He wasn't exactly sure what was contained in the scroll he and his partner had stolen two days previous, but it had to be damn important for the Rock nin to have followed them this far into fire country to try and retrieve it. There had been ten enemies when the chase had started, now only the strongest were left.
They were in too close of a group now to attack one without drawing the attention of the others, but just far enough apart that an exploding tag wouldn't reach them all. They were good. He was just glad they weren't being pursued by shinobi from rain or mist, someone who could use the rain against them. As it was, the precipitation washed away their scent and helped muffle any noise they made. A blessing disguised as a curse.
The shadows next to him darkened for a second and then his partner was beside him. She looked almost feral with the way her bangs were clinging to her forehead, but feral wasn't a completely unfitting term to describe Anko even on a good day.
"See any openings?" she murmured quietly. He simply shook his head in response, shifting his senbon from one side of his mouth to the other. She growled low in her throat, obviously frustrated.
"Well we have to do something," She stated, keeping her voice low enough that he had to strain to hear it, "We've been hiding since they caught up with us an hour ago, and if we don't act soon we're going to go hypothermic in all this damn rain."
He hated to admit it, but she was right. He could feel the chill sinking deeper into his skin the longer they waited. Quickly, Genma drew up the best battle plan he could think of given their situation.
"We need to split to opposite sides of them," he began, "throw exploding tags at two of them," he pointed at which two he meant and she nodded, "one for each of them from both of us so that they can't effectively dodge. Then we can engage the other two, using the trees and the rain to our advantage. If all else fails then I'll hold them off and you run for Konoha with the scroll."
Anko frowned at the thought of running but nodded her ascent anyway.
"You stay here and I'll circle to the other side," he continued, "We'll begin the attack after a count of 30, starting now."
She nodded one last time and he began to quickly and cautiously make his way around the enemy, keeping a careful count down going in his head. His adrenalin started pumping as he reached his destination and wrapped exploding notes around the handles of two kunai.
When his countdown reached 30 he let the kunai fly, pleased to see Anko's do the same. The rain had kept the shinobi on the ground from seeing the attack in time to react to it. And as the explosions rocked the tree he sat in Genma knew that they were two enemies down.
As the smoke was quickly washed down by the rain, and the snakes burst forth from the trees to descend on one of the remaining enemy nin, Genma hurled himself out of his hiding place and towards the last remaining opponent. His senbon flew ahead of him and the rock nin just barely dodged it, receiving a small cut on the side of his neck where it grazed him. Landing, Genma struck out with his kunai only to have his initial thrust parried. He and the other man bobbed and weaved around each other, and Genma dodged blows back and forth between the trees. He knew his opponent was stronger than him, but being on his home turf gave the leaf shinobi a definite advantage. After a few minutes of carefully exchanging attacks Genma saw his opening and took it. Slipping beneath his enemies guard he thrust his kunai up and into the other man's gut, causing the other to reel and stumble backwards. Genma quickly drew out another kunai and threw it at the disoriented man, killing him.
Looking around for his partner, Genma quickly located Anko as she dispatched her own opponent before turning to saunter towards him. She reached out and, with a positively wicked grin on her face, swiped the blood away from a cut he had gotten on his cheek.
"What a rush" she grinned, waggling her eyebrows at him. He simply rolled his eyes in response.
"C'mon," he said, turning in the direction of Konoha, "Lets get home."
~*~
AN: Look what I can accomplish when sick and confined to bed, *cough, cough* This started as Genma's thoughts before a fight and then morphed into this. Ah well, I need practice with battle scenes anyway. But I can't help but feel that this feels like it's been displaced from a larger story. Please tell me what you think J