Chapter 2
"I'm tired, I'm hungry, and she has split ends!" Once again a pair of strong arms wrapped around the waist of the flaming kunoichi; stopping her from hurting the smirking brat. (F/n) growled in frustration and surrendered to the restrain, telling her captor that she would not hurt the mission. The young puppet master let go of the brown haired girl and was soon thrown to the ground by the weight of another.
"Kankurou did you see? She tried to hurt my beautiful face! Oh she's horrible; but you'll protect me right?" said girl snuggled into the chest of the cat boy and the latter could do nothing but grin stupidly at nothing in particular. He turned his gaze to look up at the chakra seer and his grin quickly vanished at the darkness of her glare. (F/n) turned her back to him and started walking away with a nervous Chyoyi following her every step.
Kankurou gently pushed off the blond that lay on his chest and followed after (f/n) throwing excuses about how it wasn't his fault as she casually ignored him. They had requested that the driver, Reginori, and the oxen return to Sunagakure and tell the Kazekage of what happened; it was easier to hide with two people than three and two oxen.
"It's getting late" commented the young brown haired girl as they entered the forest of Konoha. "We should set up camp before the sun sets" The blond brat turned visibly pale at the words; and her father didn't look any better. "Camp? As in out here? In the woods?" right on cue a wolf howl filled the air as the brunette smirked at the brats words. "Yeah. Out here. In the forest." The blond frowned at the kunoichi's mocking tone. I know it's a forest! She thought bitterly as she took her father's hand. "Father, surely we aren't to sleep out here are we?"
His weary gray eyes also showed fear as he turned to look at the over sized cat of a shinobi. Kankurou nodded his head "We didn't make much progress after the, um attack. We were lucky to get inside the Land of Fires borders before nightfall as it is. It's not safe to travel at night and the nearest Inn is at least another hour's walk form here." The old man pulled at his thin blond hair and nodded in understandment. "I see" was all he said as he sat down on a nearby log.
The blond was left shocked and could do nothing but gape like a fish at her father. She turned to the shinobi to find them setting a small camp. "(f/n) can you go get some logs?" (f/n) nodded in the general direction of Kankurou before setting of into the forest to look for firewood. She hadn't walked long before the sound of a breaking twig filled the air. Out of instinct, she reached down for her kunai which were strapped securely to her left leg.
Another sound, one of a grunt, was heard closer to her left now. She gently placed the already collected logs on the ground so to not warn her attacker that she knew of his or hers presence. Then as the sound of feet hitting wood was heard no more than ten feet away she took a defensive pose just as a kunai impaled itself next on the tree to her right. She smelled the metallic of her blood where the kunai had slightly grazed her darkened cheek.
She looked in the direction the weapon had come from. There're no chakras… She told herself as she scanned the surrounding area. An ear bleeding screech sounded of from the direction of the camp site. "Shit!" the kunoichi quickly turned on her heal and ran to were her companions rested. Another scream pierced the night air, louder this time and followed by the mutterings of someone's name.
Kankurou! Thought (f/n) as she broke through the last of the trees and into the clearing. Karine was crying over the body of what seemed to be her father as Kankurou stood defensibly in front off them fighting of the rouge ninja they had seen earlier in the day. Blood trickled down his left arm which fell limply at his side. He gave another yell as he single handedly tried to control all three of his puppets. (F/n) ran up behind the almost invisible ninja and jumped into a kick. It connected with Kankurou's chin as the ninja turned to water.
"A water clone!" she said with surprise as she helped the injured cat to his feet. "Damn it (f/n). Must you kick so hard?" she only gave him a sympathetic glance before standing defensibly in front of him eyeing the true ninja. "What do you want?" she growled as she reached behind to her weapons pouch for a shuriken. The ninja just smirked and turned to water once more leaving them alone.
"Argh" said Kankurou as he collapsed to the ground holding his injured arm. (F/n) gave one last look around the surrounding areas before kneeling down next to her partner. "Take of your shirt" she said. Kankurou managed to smirk through the pain "Well if you wanted me that much you could have just asked…" she frowned at his words and said a silent prayer to the night sky for hiding her slight blush.
He obliged to her request; wincing when the shirt scraped the wound. "Damn" muttered (f/n) as she took in the depth of the wound. She did a couple of hand signs and channeled her chakra into them. A green glow emitted from them as she placed them on his bicep and the wound started to close slightly. "That's all I can do" she removed her bloodied hands from his incredibly defined arm and wiped them on them grass.
She looked at the wound closely in the moonlight. "Do we have any bandages?" the shinobi shook his head 'no' "They were in the carriage…" she nodded in understandment and grabbed his shirt. She ripped of a few pieces of it with her teeth as the puppet master gave her a questioning look. "We need bandages" she said as she started to wrap them tightly around his upper arm. "I know. I was just hopping you'd get them from your shirt." He smirked and she 'accidentally' made the knot to the makeshift bandages a little too hard.
"I was only kidding" he pouted as she walked around him to the old man. She quickly checked his pulse and breathing. "His fine, just unconscious" she said to the sobbing girl. She nodded and continued to cradle her father's head in her lap. Kankurou came up behind her and started talking "Go to sleep I'll-" she caught the kitty off. "No. You're more tired than I am. I'll take the first shift" he gave a reluctant nod and lay down close to the body of the fast asleep brat and her father.
"(f/n)" he whispered "Yeah?" she looked down at him from the tree in which she now sat in "Thanks" she was taken by surprise. "Your welcome" she stuttered slightly. Kankurou shook his head "Let me finish" she smiled "ok" she said barely audible "Thanks for not giving up on me" she looked down at him with a questioning look to find he had already drifted back to sleep. "I'd never give up on you" she said, more to herself than the man. She looked up at the starts; missing as Kankurou replied a silent 'me neither'.