Pursuit was swift. Neji, Tenten, and Naruto made remarkably good time. Even so, their quarry, the mysterious thief, was making even better time. And while ninja were trained early on at the Academy to run like the wind, even along tree branches, there was just no substitution for the long legs that came with adulthood.
They were forced, therefore, to travel all through the night in an effort to just keep up with their quarry. Neji quickly came to the realization that they needed to engage them soon, or the trip would wear them out significantly. Or worse, the thief would be able to escape. Slip away in the sometimes trackless forests of Konoha and be lost to them forever.
There was one slight advantage to be found for the Konoha trio.
The snow, beautiful in Konoha, was an annoyance here, to be fair. None of them were prepared for winter travel. Tenten especially, with her exposed arms and thin silk garments, was freezing cold. However, it proved to be an excellent aid in other ways. The falling white flakes were making it easy to track the thieves footprints. As the old saying went, he could run, but he couldn't hide.
Even if he could hide from an ordinary shinobi, he could not hide from this.
"Byakugan," intoned Neji, activating his bloodline limit. Veins bulged along the sides of his face as his eyes grew intense and his vision expanded a thousand fold, encompassing the entire surrounding landscape, in near three-hundred-and-sixty degrees and for hundreds of yards in each direction.
"Anything?" asked Tenten, keeping pace beside him.
"Nothing yet..." he replied, scanning the line of his vision which extended all about him. "Still only footprints, but... wait...!"
"Yeah?"
"Got him."
Neji took point, Tenten and Naruto following close behind. Their destination was a grove of pine trees up ahead with a clearing. To their vast surprise, the three of them emerged from the trees to find their mysterious thief standing there casually, leaning against a nearby tree, seemingly without a care in the world.
"Yo," he said, giving a weak little wave in their direction. "You must be one of those legendary Hyuuga types," he said, drawling out the 'legendary' word like it did nothing to impress him. "Eyes are a dead give-away."
"Who are you?" asked Neji, immediately tense, anticipating a trap. Behind him, he could see Naruto palming a pair of shuriken and Tenten readying her summoning scrolls. Good, they'd be ready if something happened.
"Who are you?" he repeated. "Why did you break into the Hyuuga complex?" Silence came from the silver-haired thief. "Answer me. What did you take?"
"My my, so many questions... hardly know where to begin..."
"You will state your identity," demanded Neji darkly. "Then you will surrender your stolen goods and come with us back to Konoha, or your life is forfeit."
"Hmmmm... well, when you put it like that..." stated the thief, deliberately shrugging both swords off of his back. The genin tensed, but he merely held them, still sheathed, in his hand, holding them up for them to be properly seen.
"No way...!"
"Oh, recognize these I see. Mmm, must be family heirlooms," said the thief, admiring the prize in his hand. "I could probably get some good coin for these."
Neji slid into a Jyuuken stance, Byakugan fully activated. "You will place those on the ground and surrender, or I -will- kill you."
Mildly confused (as Sakura would say, having a "blonde moment") Naruto glanced over at Tenten. "Are those things important?"
She rolled her eyes. "Naruto, those are sacred heirlooms of the Hyuuga family. I've seen those swords before, they hang in the main hallway. They relics from the Great Ninja War."
"Oooh, you're quite the little scholar, missy," replied the thief, sliding the swords back onto his back with slow, deliberate motions. "Oh right, we haven't been properly introduced. Toukestu is the name... Touketsu, formerly of Hidden Snow."
"Hidden Snow's toast!" yelled Naruto. "You guys weren't so tough without your armor!"
The now identified thief Touketsu's pale green eyes opened wide in surprise as he seemed to suddenly notice Naruto for the first time. "You... I know you. You're that... that Uzumaki brat who took down the Damiyo."
"Heh," replied Naruto. "If you call that moron a Damiyo, then sure. I put Princess Koyuki back on the throne where she belongs!"
"Enough talk!" growled Neji, not interested in the boring history lesson. "Hand over those relics or you will die. You have less than one minute."
"I don't even need a minute, Hyuuga," retorted Touketsu, hands rapidly forming seals.
Neji charged forward, sprang upwards and gracefully flipped end-over-end to land in a crouch before Touketsu, arms upraised in the Jyuuken style. "This is the end for you... "
"Hakke Rokujuuyonshou...!"
"Hyouton no Yoroi!"
As Naruto and Tenten watched, Neji launched a flurry of attacks, his fingertips slamming into Touketsu with the force of a battering ram behind each strike, aiming at his tenketsu. First two, then four, then eight, then sixteen, then thirty-two, and finally sixty-four strikes. Touketsu was hurled back by the sheer force of the attacks, slamming into the trunk of a nearby pine tree. His impact shook loose some snow that had accumulated in the higher branches, which fell down to conceal Touketsu from view momentarily.
The three Genin moved in for the kill... but had a nasty surprise in store for them.
As the snowflakes settled and they could see clearly again, they saw Touketsu wasn't even hurt. In fact, he looked completely untouched. Shocked, none could say how he did it, until they caught sight of a strange shimmer encompassing his body. A distortion of light. As a cracking sound filled the air, it became more evident to Neji exactly what had happened.
Touketsu had encompassed his body in an armor of ice that fit against his skin like a second layer. Each tenketsu strike had impacted against the armor. Charged with chakra, the ice was as hard as steel and protected Touketsu from his attacks. True, it was shattered now, and began to fall off of his body in layers, but he could undoubtedly make more if he had need of it.
Like his former Sound opponent, the human spider freak, Neji had to change tactics for this particular foe.
But first, he needed to observe the full extent of his abilities. Neji backflipped backwards and out of the way of a crude (obviously a feint) punch Touketsu threw at him, allowing Naruto and Tenten to do their thing.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!"
"Tobidougu!"
Shadow clones came charging in across the frozen ground, while high up in the sky a rain of kunai came hurtling down towards Touketsu. Neji watched carefully, intend to see how his foe would protect himself from the double onslaught. To his surprise, Touketsu rushed forward, meeting both fighters as an equal, if not a superior. His taijutsu was near flawless, as he slammed knee and elbow into two clones, dispersing them in puffs of smoke, and grabbed a third as it tried to kick Touketsu, spinning him around and hurling him up as a makeshift shield, protecting him from the raining down kunai.
Sensing they couldn't beat him with punches and kicks alone, six of Naruto's clones dropped down, four filling the hands of the first two with swirling chakra.
"Rasengan!"
These two charged forward as their counterparts puffed out of existence, hoping to land a fatal blow on Touketsu while he was busy dodging aside a flurry of Tenten's shurikens. As it was, they impacted, but both attacks smashed not into a solid body, but into a frozen log that abruptly switched places with it. Both Rasengans crashed into the log, obliterating it, leaving a dozen or so Naruto's left to scratch their heads and wonder where their enemy had gone. Tenten landed nearby, one of her scrolls trailing from her hand. Six shuriken were still clenched between her fingers as she sought out a target.
"Kawarmiri no jutsu," cursed Neji, angry at himself for being so distracted he hadn't even noticed it. Instantly he spotted where the real Touketsu had slipped to, and he was a lot closer than either of his teammates. Giving a war cry, he charged forward, palm upraised. If he could hit Touketsu before he used his ice armor, if he could get a critical strike...!
Touketsu grinned maniacally, and raised up a hand, two fingers upraised.
Neji came to an abrupt halt in mid-charge, stumbling and crashing to the ground, clutching at his head as raw agony exploded inside of his skull. He gave a most undignified scream as blinding pain shot through his entire body, though focused most primarily around his head.
"Neji!" Tenten and Naruto came rushing over to their teammate, though they both skidded to a halt as Neji's wild thrashings tore loose his forehead protector. Once it was free, it became fully apparent what his troubles were.
Glowing with an unholy emerald aura, the curse mark on his forehead had become active.
"Hey it worked," remarked Touketsu, glancing down at his hand with a happy smirk on his face. "Nice. And here I thought maybe I'd grabbed up the wrong jutsu by mistake... how very nice of your Hyuuga masters to so clearly label everything," he taunted, holding up the Scroll of Sealing in his hand.
"What the hell is that?" gasped Naruto.
"Aaaaggghh... it's... he's..." Neji managed to spit out, but couldn't do the rest. Tenten dropped down to his side to try and help him, but she wasn't sure how.
"Not feeling too articulate I see," noted Touketsu, shrugging. "Pity... but at least I know it works. Well, it's been fun, but I think that's all the time I have to play today kids. So I'll have to say ta for now," he added, deftly tossing the scroll up and catching it in the pack at his side.
Naruto, enraged at his treatment of Neji and casual attitude, charged forward, kunai filling each of his hands as Touketsu made a quick hand-seal.
"Here's a little trick my sister taught me, you little blonde bastard," stated Touketsu, rearing his hand back. "Hyouton Tsubame Fubuki...!"
The silver-haired ninja hurled his hand forward, unleashing a deadly wave of small icy swallows. Naruto came skidding to a halt, recognizing the attack but unable to do dodge out of the way fast enough as the tiny birds slammed into him with the force of daggers, shattering on impact and knocking him backwards. He collapsed onto the ground, scraped and bruised beyond measure but with (thankfully) no serious injuries.
By the time he came too, Neji was unconscious, Tenten was frantic, and their enemy was long gone. Cursing angrily, Naruto slammed his fist into the snow in frustration.
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Further northeast and getting more distance all the time, Touketsu grinned to himself, allowing his pace to proceed more leisurely for the moment, enjoying his victory over Konoha's team.
"If that's the finest they've got available, then they are sorely out of luck," stated Touketsu, drawing out the scroll again and examining it as he ran. "As I thought... much easier to steal than one of those damn Hyuuga's... compact and lightweight. And worth a fortune if I can find a damn buyer," he muttered, having had little luck. But it seemed finally Touketsu's luck was turning around.
Touketsu had been away from the Snow Country during Team Seven's visit, nearly six months ago now. They'd torn down everything their leader had built up in mere days, and he'd only returned in time to find wreckage where their Village had been and dead bodies in his comrades and sister. Not even a single scrap of their secret chakra armor was left, he'd not needed it for his simple mission afar. Now he had to make do without.
So he'd gone into mercenary work, testing the waters to see if a Hidden Village suited him enough to try and sign up. So far, no luck. Hidden Rain was sour as a swampland and it's people were twice as unpleasant to deal with. But he'd made a bit of money selling them some special exploding tags he'd found in his trip. Pity he neglected to mention they'd come from a squad of Hidden Rain chuunin he'd taken out beforehand. Over time, he'd gotten good at playing the angle of the rogue merchant. Steal something nobody else could get and sell it to them for triple the amount. Hell, given a few years, he might rebuild Hidden Snow.
That was still a long ways off, however, and Touketsu focused on his priority. Getting the Hyuuga Scroll of Sealing to some 'respectable' clients. It'd been sheer luck he'd stumbled across info about it, as well as the swords. And all from one chance encounter at an inn, some guy in a black cloak talking to his compatriot. Thieves, no doubt, and missing-nin more than likely. Probably hoping to get it themselves. But he'd beaten them to it.
The swords he might even keep... he kinda liked them.
"Poor sap had no idea who he was dealing with... hehehehe."
With a push, he leapt up along the pine trees branch and hurled himself forward, putting on a bit more speed. He was anxious to be done, but he had no fear of pursuit. They'd never catch him. And even if they did, they couldn't beat him, not with him holding the weapon to take down their strongest fighter.
He was invincible.
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Author's Notes:
Toukestu means "Frozen" near as I can tell, which seems to fit into the ice-named members of Hidden Snow. Oh yeah, and he's Fubuki's sister. Remember? Pink hair, wings, totally pwned by Sasuke? Hyouton no Yoroi is "Ice Armor."
