Disclaimer: I own nothing of Naruto except the Original Concepts in the story.
OC information is at the end of the chapter.
"It's a shame I couldn't fight the girl myself." Reio snickered as he watched from the background. Perhaps he might have been enjoying the show a little too much.
"I'm a little impressed with Rei myself. I never imagined that she'd be such a fighting expert..." Kazuki thought to himself as he intently locked his eyes on the two females and their engaging battle. "I just have to find a way out of here before I can do anything."
"Let's finish this battle so I may be on my way." Shiragi lashed her sword out, yet even with its extended reach it hardly even touched Rei at all.
Rei smirked when she saw that she had nothing to worry about. Rei laughed, drastically dropping her guard. That was a very foolish mistake. "You miss... huh?"
When the tip of the sword was directly in front of her, Rei caught sight of Shiragi with a single handed kata. Chakra was shot through the blade and a blast of wind ripped out from the tip of the sword and forcefully shoved Rei back. Rei skidded on her feet before she fell backwards on her butt and looked down.
Rei's stomach was badly cut and bleeding, she jumped a bit, but got herself together as she stood up.
Shiragi quickly flicked her wrist, reverting her sword back to its foot long length. "You're a shinobi from the Land of Wind and you know nothing about the dangers of wind chakra nature? How sad..."
"Shut... shut up!" Rei screamed angrily as she aimed her right fist forward and activated another mechanism on her gauntlets with a firm press. The two blades on it, which were attached by chains, shot out towards Shiragi.
Shiragi jumped forward and lashed out her blade towards Rei quickly enough to throw her off trajectory.
Rei gracefully twisted herself to the right to avoid the tip of Shiragi's sword. The blades from the gauntlets kept moving as they caught Reio off guard and harshly pierced through his right arm.
"You little son of... Ah!" Reio carelessly ripped his arm away from the water prison as he grabbed his arm. The blades released themselves from his arm and retracted onto Rei's gauntlets. "Ah, that hurts!" The water prison was destroyed as Reio turned around slowly. "Awe shi..." was all he managed to say before Kazuki heavily slammed his fist into Reio's face.
"Idiot! What are you doing?" Shiragi shrieked, glancing over at Reio with rage in her voice. Her guard on Rei fell, causing her vulnerability to skyrocket.
The white sand slithered over and shaped a hand as it slowly wrapped around Shiragi's throat and constricted it carelessly. Rei was in the background focusing the sand with her hand.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't crush your neck?" Rei shouted, her voice sounded as vicious and cold as ice.
Shiragi struggled feebly as she made a few slower and weaker katas than normal. The wind picked up and sand was blown everywhere. Once the winds died down, Shiragi was gone.
"Genjutsu?" Rei jerked around cautiously. "...Where? She just... vanished."
Kazuki casually stepped over to where Reio had fallen to but saw nothing more than a puddle of water. "...He got away, I should have expected."
Rei put away her gauntlets and ran over. "Kazuki are you okay?"
"Some bodyguard..." He mumbled under his breath.
"I risked my life for you, jerk!" She yelled as she smacked him in the back of the head. "Come on let's go..." Rei commanded as she started walking away.
Once they came back into the Leaf Village, it was starting to get a little late. The sky was turning dark and the village was winding down.
"Let's report to Tsunade-shishô before it gets too late." Kazuki said as he pulled out the papers from earlier.
"I thought she said not to call her that anymore." Rei quirked inquisitively as she cocked an eyebrow.
"It's not going to stop me." Kazuki replied as he nodded his head to the guard in front of the Hokage mansion and walked inside to Tsunade's office.
Tsunade heard the door open as she looked up from her papers. "You're late, was there a problem? I'd hate to hear if there was."
Kazuki walked in and set the papers on Tsunade's desk as he sat down. "I see you got a new desk that quickly." He gave a quick sigh as he tilted his head down to avert his gaze from hers.
"Stop avoiding questions! What was the result of your assignment?"
Kazuki paused and said nothing. Then he shook his head and mumbled quietly under his breath.
"What was that?" Tsunade demanded sternly. From the recent events she wasn't too happy, especially with him. Waiting for results from the assignment was making her agitated. "You'd best speak up and respect your superiors. This isn't like you at all..." Tsunade sat back and tried to relax a bit. "This was an important assignment, and none of the others have reported in to me. I need to know what happened."
"The others that were assigned this mission are deceased." Kazuki reported. "They were found dead when we arrived."
"I would expect as much from the people of Tomoe Town." Tsunade said, her voice morphing into disappointment.
Kazuki looked up a little, but not enough to see his face still. His mood and this day were nothing that he wanted to talk about. "It wasn't the townspeople. The leader even confirmed this, but he had no intention of even reading the papers you had written."
"Well if it wasn't the people of the town, then who was it?"
"On our way back..." Kazuki started, pausing for a moment. "We were ambushed."
"Ambushed?" Tsunade sat up immediately. She became concerned. "Who ambushed you? What were their intentions?"
"It was a male and female. The man was a shinobi from the Mist Village, from my guess he was rouge. The female, I couldn't tell. She didn't have any kind of affiliation to any village or organization. She seemed like nothing more than a rouge. Although, she called herself Shiragi..."
"What were their intentions?"
Kazuki kept silent and said nothing.
"Kazuki! Answer me immediately!"
"They..." Rei stuttered from the background. "They wanted to capture Kazuki alive and interrogate him."
Kazuki got up and left the room. Both Tsunade and Rei watched and looked confused. Rei then turned back to Tsunade.
"He should be fine..." Tsunade sighed as she sat and stared at the desk.
"Hokage..." Rei said.
"What is it?" Tsunade looked up at Rei.
"I was wondering... Why does Kazuki call you Tsunade-shishô?"
Tsunade looked away for a moment briefly. "Oh, that..." She waited another second and then motioned Rei forward. "Kazuki has known me for a few years, before I was appointed the title of Hokage. I taught Kazuki some of the basics before he even became a Leaf Village shinobi, but nothing major... I can remember it well. Kazuki was actually... happier back then."
"You don't like talking about it do you?" Rei's expression filled with sadness.
Tsunade chuckled lightly and shook her head. "Maybe another time. It's getting late and I'm assuming you haven't eaten. You should go have dinner and get ready for tomorrow. I have an important mission for you two, so it's best that you're both prepared."
Rei nodded and turned away. "Good night Hokage..." She left out of the room and saw Kazuki standing next to the doorway. "Come on, let's go get some food."
After a little longer they arrived in front of a restaurant in the village.
"The Shuyasha, of all places?" Kazuki gave Rei and awkward glance.. He shoved his hands in his pockets and shook his head slightly.
She looked to him and almost glared. "Something wrong?" She sternly tapped her foot on the ground as she placed her hands on her hips. Kazuki was starting to agitate her. She closed her eyes for a minute as she let out a disgruntled sigh. "If you don't like it, we can go to the Amaguriama and have some of those delicious dumplings I hear about!" When she opened her eyes again, Kazuki was already inside the Shuyasha. "Hey, wait a minute!" She shouted as she ran after him.
Soon after ordering and waiting around they had their meals brought to them and were in the middle of eating. They sat in their own private booth and away from most of the crowd. Both of them were sitting on one side of the table, and not next to each other.
"Mind telling me why you're always so rude?" Rei said to break the silence. She was still slightly mad, but not like before.
Kazuki kept eating and didn't look at her. "Why don't you mind your own business?" He snapped. "It's nothing you'd understand."
"Sure, like you know me that well..." Rei scoffed as she rolled her eyes. "I wonder how your parents put up with you."
"I wonder when you'll shut your mouth!" He shouted at her. His voice was quite louder than normal and his tone became fairly defensive.
Rei jumped a little and looked at him. Kazuki was furious; his breathing was a little heavier than normal. He sat there with his fists balled up. Normally Kazuki is short tempered, but this subject was something deep down that Kazuki wanted to avoid.
"Don't you ever... say anything about my parents, or my family!" He snarled.
Rei sat there for a minute as she looked at the table. "They're dead, aren't they...?"
Kazuki didn't say anything and went back to eating his food.
"I'm sorry... I don't have any family either though." She explained in an attempt to calm him down, although her attempt failed. "How did they...?"
"I did it..."
"Huh?"
"Their blood was shed... on my own hands. I just... ...don't want to talk about it." Kazuki stood up and set some ryo on the table to pay for his meal as he left.
"I wonder." Rei said to herself as she finished her food. Once Rei was done, she set her tab on the table and left.
Unaware to either of them, an ANBU in the background was watching them from outside. Wearing the same fox mask that Shiragi was wearing before.
OCs introduced this chapter; (None)