..
Two minutes or so passed under the burning sun. Katsumi was laying on her stomach half unconscious but she kept trying to collect herself together... Dead silence fell, before a tiny sound of a dashing water stream suddenly reached her ears making her flinch. Water in the middle of the desert? She thought that she got to be hallucinating after the tragedy that she had to go through but she lifted her head weakly to make sure that what she was hearing wasn't just a whim. only to watch a thin pillar of pure water erupting out from the sandy ground like a fountain just few meters in front of her before falling onto the sand again. Katsumi raised a twitched eyebrow while confusedly staring at the amount of water that started to gather in a humanoid form.
"Huh!?"
Her hazy eyes widened as she parted her shivering lips weakly realising the identity of the person whom his features soon started to clarify within the amount of water.
"K-Kyuseishu...!"
He has already emerged all of his naked body parts from the amount of water and knelt up on his knees before the astonished woman like if he was made of water himself, indeed he was. his pale skin was entirely covered with sweat while he was panting heavily. his clothes were teared off completely except a small fabric covered his private parts. He glanced over Katsumi with half opened eyes which were almost empty of any life signs.
"... Is... he... gone? I used... The last amount of my Chakra-"
He nearly completed to whisper faintly before collapsing back to the ground, passing out...
The sun was heading slowly to it's sunset sending the last rays of it's pale light upon the large desert.. Kyuseishu and Katsumi were running side by side through the sandy ground, heading for certain location. Their appearances show that they were so strained and some scratches and bruises were seen all over their bare, pale skins.
Kyuseishu Shook his head slightly fixing his gaze forward. His brain was disturbed with a train of thoughts but he tried to maintain his calmness, at least in front of the female.
"It's starting to get dark..."
Katsumi, whom was running to his left side while glancing forward with calm features and holding her arms backwards, shrugged. She wasn't fazed by his nakedness.
"...We are almost there! I know you must be feeling cold but we'll get you new clothes once we reach the village."
He rolled his eyes indifferently but soon a doubtful expression crept up into his face as a sweat drop rolled down slowly upon the side of his head.
"... I was expecting that he would appear in front of us again at anytime but I think he was reassured that he finished me off."
Katsumi looked at him slightly through the corner of her eye with stern look.
"He almost got you twice now. Because you didn't watch out carefully. Don't expect someone to help you every time you fall in trouble!"
Kyuseishu gulped lightly but he scoffed while staring at her with a smug smirk.
"...I would have survived without your interference anyways. You have almost drained all of your Chakra in the battle, heh."
"Look who's talking now!"
She shrugged not looking at him, instead she gazed forward firmly as Sunagakure's high defensive walls appeared soon over her eyevision behind some sandy hills ahead of them. She grinned and glanced back over him.
"Let's go on..."
It was already night in Sunagakure, the Village Hidden in Sand when they entered it secretly, just not to rise the suspicions. A long corridor attached to a standard house on the first floor of a big building. The darkness made it hard to distinguish which building it was but it was relatively bigger than the surrounding ones.
Katsumi approached the door of the house silently and grabbed it's latch, twisting it before pushing the door open. she looked back slightly towards Kyuseishu over her shoulder and whispered lowly.
"Here we are, come on in..."
the male, who already got a new outfit somehow, nodded before They both stepped into a large, well organised compartment. A medium sized, low desk was set in the middle of the room between two large couches and a large grey carpet was unfolded over the floor. Katsumi bent down and removed her sandals off her petite feet slowly before walking quietly towards the couch on the left side, sighing softly while glancing downwards towards the floor.
"Well..."
she muttered and sat down on the couch gently, rubbing her right bare forearm slowly while watching the male sitting down calmly on the opposite couch to face her. He rose his eyebrows slightly gazing forward at her.
"It's a bit dark here... But it's fine, I can see well. I know why we should keep the lights off."
Katsumi sighed briefly at his words and clutched the side of her unbuttoned shirt, slipping it off herself. she gave a short smile.
"Let's just hurry and do it... I can't tell you that we are totally safe here. This house is still under surveillance."
She uttered. Kyuseishu continued to stare at her as a half grin crossed his lips.
"I know. Your Kazekage must have known about my recent movements so he had probably sent that murderer Hunter to assassinate me...
...But more importantly, now to enter Konoha is nearly impossible. The Hokage must have raised the level of caution around the village by now after I had clashed with those ANBU members before fleeing... He was putting me under surveillance because he assumed that I was working in the shadows to reveal on some of the ancient Ninja Arts which the Ninja elders sealed away and forbade them right after the end of last Shinobi World War."
Katsumi tossed her gown aside on the couch after she had it removed and leaned her upper half forward slightly as she tapped the desk in front of her with her hands gently and gazed up at him, a serious expression adorning her face. She stared at him for two seconds before replying.
"So the Hokage's doubts about you were right ultimately... Anyways... we are together into this but I don't think the Kazekage has put me under surveillance too just because he assumes that I am hosting a secret encounter with a shinobi from Konoha.. Perhaps, since we remain alongside each others, Things will be alright."
A slight cheerful smile crept up into her lips revealing a side of her self softness and inner charisma. Kyuseishu nodded his head lightly in agreement and shifted on the couch a bit, leaning forward while analysing her expression closely for a moment. He felt simply content by being close from her.
"... so let's get started our procedure."
He said while holding out his hands towards the middle of the desk slowly with his palms open. Katsumi nodded briefly and started to mimic his movement by holding out her both opened palms slowly to meet with his above the middle of the desk. They clapped their palms onto each others gently and closed their eyes at the same time before interlocking their fingers together like if they were performing some mysterious ritual. Then they simultaneously lifted their pinkie and index fingers as they kept pressing their opened palms against each others softly, forming a combined handseal in utter silence. Three seconds later, they started to utter together with the same dimmed voice.
""Secret Technique-...""
They nearly whispered before their ears suddenly picked up a sound of a loud noises coming from outside the house which finished with a violent thud. The outdoor of the room suddenly snapped open with force then a several guys wearing the special ANBU uniform of Sunagakure with ANBU masks broke into the room.
As shocking as the moment seemed to be for Kyuseishu and Katsumi, a man who appeared to be the leader of the ANBU squad lifted up his arm while glaring towards them fiercely.
"CAPTURE THEM!"
Katsumi's eyes widened instantly as a shocked expression surfaced on her face. She realised that they were surrounded by those men called ANBU members from all sides. She quickly looked back at Kyuseishu trying to control her pulse.
"What should we do?"
Kyuseishu grinded his teeth as he stood up slightly, observing with a calm gaze the number of the ANBU squad that surrounded them.
"... We have no choice but to fight. They seem determined not to let us get away easily."
He declared with a hint of guiltiness on his voice. When he is going to stop dragging Katsumi into troublesome? He thought that any harm happens to her, he'd be the only one responsible for it.
The ANBU members suddenly dashed towards them furiously at the same time, leaving no chance for Kyuseishu to debate more with himself. Katsumi huffed and quickly unsheathed a short Katana sword strapped to her waist before swinging her blade swiftly deflecting an offensive blade in motion of an ANBU member charged at her from the left side.
Kyuseishu eventually ducked his head down dodging a punch aimed towards him from front then he quickly lifted his both hands to grab the attacker's arm and twisted it harshly producing a sound of crushing bones. Rough sounds of colliding blades, thuds, strikes, stabs, slashing flesh, and smacks followed...
Some minutes later, two silhouettes jumped out from the house's door and started to run away with rapid paces on the road that leads to the village's front gate.
They fled!
Katsumi was panting lightly from the strain while running next to Kyuseishu's left side on the road. She was still relatively calm although the mess she had been through.
"Shit! I didn't expect this sudden break-in... we couldn't take all of them out. The rest of them will sure trail us."
Kyuseishu was as calm but he was fixing his gaze towards a determined location as he ran with incredible speed next to the Kunoichi.
"...They are already trailing us. At least we got an opening to get away."
He whispered and ogled her through the corner of his eyes for a moment.
"Let's hurry and get out of the village before we draw more unwanted attention."
Katsumi narrowed her eyes and glared at him with dumbfounded look.
"What's wrong with that gaze!?"
His brows twitched, not expecting to hear what she just uttered. He looked back ahead of him, smirking, just not to let her notice his blush.
"... n,nothing... Let's just hurry."
Kyuseishu murmured as they finally made it up to the village's exit gate located within the front barrier. He looked up towards the front gate ahead of them and smirked confidently.
"Luckily, there are no guards over there..."
He heard Katsumi giggling softly before whispering with dimmed voice.
"Way to go..."
The sound of their running echoes soon faded away into the darkness of the night...
A pale light was infiltrating a certain rocky cave through it's entrance. It was an isolated cave located somewhere in the desert within an infinite sea of sand. The moon in the sombre sky was casting it's pale light upon the cave, revealing on a person who was inside it. It was Kyuseishu who leaned silently with his back against one of the cave's internal walls, folding his arms across his chest. Some locks of his dark, shaggy hair fell randomly over his forehead. He was staring down towards the floor of the cave in utter silence.
"...It's almost midnight."
The female that was crouching three meters away from him inside the cave, tapped the floor lightly with her tiny fingertips as she glanced towards the entrance of the cave calmly.
"... It takes three days to reach the Leaf Village. Well, at this rate we will be there by tomorrow evening or after tomorrow... That's if we don't encounter any obstacles in the way... But why you need to return to your village anyways? Didn't you say that entering it will be nearly impossible after your plan of leaving it secretly had failed?"
She murmured then shifted her gaze towards the male only to notice that he was staring at her deeply for an extended moment of time. She blinked innocently and rose a wondering eyebrow.
"Is something the matter!?"
She questioned but couldn't pinpoint which region of her body he was staring at or the purpose of his meaningful stare. A fainted smile crept up eventually into his lips as he kept staring at her with his meaningful gaze.
"..."
"ah!"
She hummed, finally capturing his message. He was eying her womanly body. Without uttering a word, the female stood up slowly and walked up to him with light steps. She grinned as she stopped facing him and planted her hands on his hips before proceeding to make any eye contact with him.
He gave a gentle smirk and rested his hands on either side of hers, holding her close from himself as he looked deeply in her oceanic eyes.
"..."
She couldn't resist from leaning with her body even closer from him and placed the opened palms of her hands on his shoulders gently, feeling mysterious warmth engulfing her. It's happening... She felt her body swaying between his arms as she parted her lips slightly and lowered her eyelids a bit, submitting herself entirely to him and forgetting all the environment around her.
"..."
Kyuseishu moved his face close from her pretty face and neatly rested his lips on hers while using his hands to pull her more towards himself. He never estimated that she'd be too easy to submit to him, nor he'd get enough courage once to hold her closely. He felt her pressing her body intensively against him while closing her eyes. Their lips nearly pressed against each others in a passionate kiss. Katsumi felt her cheeks flushing with a heated blush but she remained calm trying to relax as she receives her first kiss from him...
But suddenly,
...A luminous void suddenly shined upon them like a mysterious eye of a legendary creature. It appeared from nowhere right next to them over the cave's entrance, Only to cut their passionate moment. They tensed up, not letting go of each others as their widened eyes shifted to observe the intruder but a giant tail like spear suddenly swung down towards them from above crushing the rocks of the cave's entrance on them and demolishing a huge part of the cave...
Katsumi squeaked as she jumped backwards multiple times to avoid the crumbling rocks before landing back on the sandy ground while staring forward at the thick cloud of dust with intimidated look. Her heart was still beating fast.
"...What the hell was that!?"
She rolled her eyes around worryingly looking for Kyuseishu within the steam of dust that covered the environment around her. But soon her ears caught the sound of Kyuseishu landing somewhere close from her. He was ducking ontop of a big rock about fifteen meters in the Southwest direction from Katsumi's current spot. Kyuseishu was eying closely the steam of dust that raised due to the sudden strike with his slight widened eyes.
"...That's..."
Katsumi turned her head towards him slightly, hearing his stunned voice. she was panting lightly while trying to assume who's behind that unexpected assault on them. She wasn't sure of it but she realised that Kyuseishu might figured it out before her.
"?"
A loud roar suddenly sliced off the short moment of silence as a giant creature started to emerge from the sandy ground making it quake violently. The creature was swishing it's long tail slowly displaying a familiar appearance.
Kyuseishu gulped lightly as he stood up, observing the gigantic creature carefully.
"... That can't be...the Scorpion of that Hunter we confronted earlier!"
Katsumi placed a step back as she continued to stare at the monstrous animal with slight twitching brows.
"...!"
She suddenly lifted her both arms horizontally in front of her face. The scorpion dropped the huge claws of it's front legs wildly onto the sandy ground causing it to start quaking violently beneath their feets, enough for them to lose balance. The monster stabbed the earth again with the same mighty strength, tearing off several rocks from the ground and blasting them off in different directions also producing a massive shockwave. Kyuseishu leaped up high into air as he gasped faintly, trying to shield his face with his both arms. The blasted wave of wind was wild enough to rupture the flesh of any nearby human being.
"Gu!... What an immense force... It is even able to produce such a demolisher shockwave..."
... Not far away from him, Katsumi was sliding backwards with her both feet onto the sand, shielding her face partially with her left forearm.
"Eeeek!..."
She grumbled, trying to see through the thick steam of dust blown in the air but she suddenly shifted her eyes downwards, noticing a crack dividing the ground just between her feet.
"!"
She yelped and flipped backwards swiftly before the crack swallows her down into the unknown.
Kyuseishu eventually landed on the ground just as the blasted wave cooled down. He narrowed his eyes while a sweat drop rolled down on his forehead.
"Damn it! I have to put an end to that annoying scorpion. Why was it summoned here anyways... I smell something fishy..."
He whispered to himself and quickly bit his thumb hard enough to make some blood flow out from it as he ducked down, allowing the tiny trickles of his blood to drip off his thumb onto the ground. he then slammed his right palm quickly onto the blood that tainted the ground before exclaiming.
"SUMMONING JUTSU!"
. . .
"SUMMONING JUTSU!"
A quintuple seal was planted on the ground underneath Kyuseishu's palm. he glanced forward firmly towards the scorpion which stood about thirty meters away to collect his own Chakra (spiritual energy) onto one point somewhere around the scorpion's massive body.
"It'd be hard from this distance though... I need to concentrate more..."
The scorpion roared and lifted it's front legs, ready to blast off another shockwave. Whilst Kyuseishu kept pressing his palm against the seal trying to suppress his anxiety and focus on his procedure before the monster attacks again.
A transparent, large ghost-like silhouette suddenly started to grasp the Giant scorpion's back with numerous, massive, white legs, soon wrapping itself tightly around the black scorpion, attempting to paralysis it's movements for a while. The scorpion roared roughly as it began to squirm around to free itself from the mysterious creature summoned by Kyuseishu which soon appeared to be a giant spider.
Kyuseishu eventually clapped his hands together, glaring towards his spider as the scorpion continued to snarl like a rampaging bull trying to break free from the tight grip.
"NOW! KUTCHO!"
Kyuseishu shouted out and his spider unleashed a tiny hiss sounded like a whizz as it started to disappear slowly merging with the air around it and dragging the scorpion along into another dimension. The operation lasted a mere seconds then nothing was left on the dark spot expect some hovering puffs of smoke and dust.
"Awesome! You did it!"
Katsumi yelled gleefully while staring towards the location where the Spider had left off. She sighed of relief before gazing back towards Kyuseishu with a big grin on her pale face but she quickly furrowed her brows.
"That was surely a terrible one..." Kyuseishu was panting lightly, paying no attention to her compliments. He drained a large amount of his Chakra already although he believed that the greater nuisance didn't arrive yet. Something kept telling him eagerly that a huge menace was coming and that monster was just the beginning of the trouble. He knelt down on one knee and shook his head sighing.
"...Let's get out of here, hurry!"
``So he teleported my scorpion away...``
A mysterious voice suddenly whispered from within the darkness which made both Katsumi and Kyuseishu tense up. Without giving an alarm of his presence, a medium height male, bore a black mask on his face and long, black cloak on his body with black shinobi sandals- was standing just few meters behind Katsumi.
``Didn't I say that we will meet again soon, eh?``
Katsumi winced immediately hearing the male utter smugly from behind her back. She instantly recognised that toneless voice of his but she gave a sarcastic smirk, trying not to sound terrified in front of him.
"Heh! We are not the same as before so don't underestimate us."
She whispered calmly without turning around to face him making sure that the confidence she added to her voice didn't sound fake. Kyuseishu started to stand up slowly shifting his head to the right side in the other male's direction. His doubts were really accurate.
"You finally showed up again... You should've realised that I wouldn't fall for your trap so easily.. Now I know the techniques you use so you won't get the upper hand here even if the nature of the surrounding area is not in our advantage so don't take us lightly..."
The hunter just chuckled boldly.
The cool breeze of the desert was winding lightly the rim of his cloak. He appeared to be completely laid-back like if he was sure of his victory.
"...You think that you saw all my power earlier!? If you measure it like that, then I assure you that I don't show my real power to the low level fighters like you..."
He sighed faintly before resuming his cold speech with the same expressionless voice.
"I was just toying with you, but now I will make sure to chop your head off with my own hand."
Few dark clouds covered the full moon partially causing the area to turn bit darken over the three individuals.
A soft sigh escaped Kyuseishu's lips while he quickly pulled out six Shurikens from his pouch and held them between his fingers, three Shurikens in each hand, as he glared at the hunter darkly.
"Don't...Underestimate us... We're not going to back off this time. Tell me the motivation of the Kazekage that made him want my head!"
He said nervously, The hunter just shrugged and Katsumi turned around slowly to face the Hunter, tracing a round circle on the sandy ground with the heel of her sandal she wore on her right foot as she glanced back firmly towards Kyuseishu who stood about thirty meters behind the obscure guy, a little to the left of her vision.
"Kyuseishu, he won't be able to defeat both of us together this time, Let's do it!"
She said with neutral confidence and suddenly stuffed her right hand into her large weapon pouch that was attached to the back of her waist, reaching for a weapon. The hunter displayed a sarcastic grin underneath his mask as he closed his eyes and folded his arms under his chest.
"...I didn't want to kill you, sand brat... The Kazekage haven't ordered me to take you out along him."
He said. Katsumi narrowed her eyes, giving him a stern glare. She felt that he seemingly wants to make her forfeit the battle and let Kyuseishu fight alone.
"..."
Kyuseishu dashed suddenly towards the Hunter, tossing the six shurikens in his hands at him successively. He thought that wasting more time won't be on his and Katsumi's favour. The hunter tilted his head to the left side, smirking. Without moving a fibre.
"Hasty."
He whispered calmly as he pulled out six kunais from his long sleeves quickly and spun himself around striking Kyuseishu's dashing Shurikens in mid-air with his Kunais before they reach him, deflecting them away...
Katsumi took advantage of the situation and jumped upwards into air as she grabbed a Windmill Shuriken in her right hand. She performed a swift flips mid-air before tossing the big Shuriken, that resembled to a star with four curvy blades, towards the hunter's head with considerable acceleration.
"Take this!"
A Sweat drop rolled down on Kyuseishu's cheek as he eyed the Windmill Shuriken that slashed the air as it rotated with nearly inescapable speed towards the Hunter who simply started to weave a couple of handseals quickly without even looking at the upcoming projectile.
A thick wall of sand suddenly erupted from the ground in front of him and soon shielded him from the four directions within few seconds. Katsumi's Windmill Shuriken collided with the sandy shield and fell down to the ground without even leaving a minor scratch on the sand shield even with the pre-eminent sharpness of it's blades.
"...Haven't you learned the lesson yet?" The Hunter taunted, as the sand shield around him started to scatter and collapse down onto the ground slowly around him.
Katsumi was left stunned observing the way that he made her attack useless. But Kyuseishu smirked at the same time as he grabbed a Kunai in his right hand, staring forward over the Hunter with confident look.
"... I get it now!"
He murmured as Katsumi landed back on the ground with her feet while panting lightly. she looked forward as her forehead started to sweat.
"Damn it! My weapons can't even cut through his sand shield... It's an impenetrable defence..."
'It's the same technique Gaara sama the former Kazekage used to use... Then, defeating this guy could be nearly impossible...'
She muttered to herself and suddenly tensed up slightly as she shifted her gaze towards Kyuseishu watching him running forward while shoving his Kunai towards the other male. He eventually clenched the fist of his free hand as he stopped few inches in front of the Hunter and threw a quick uppercut punch towards his face. he spun the Kunai around the index finger of his other hand at the same time watching a tiny amount of sand blocking his punch before it could reach his foe's face.
"GOTCHA!"
Kyuseishu yelled and simultaneously threw the Kunai towards the male's throat which wasn't guarded by the sand. The Hunter widened his eyes shockingly as the Kunai pierced through his throat almost immediately, before he could even shift his attention towards it. His mask fell over while the skin of his face slowly began to turn pale... But surprisingly, no blood trickles flowed out from his throat even though it was slitted open...
