THE GIRL OF THE SOUND

Chapter 9 – Setting the Stage

Hirofumi smiled.

"Hello, Kin."

The Sound Chuunin seemed amused as Kin took an involuntary step back at his words. This movement caught Shikamaru's attention.

A bead of sweat ran down Kin's forehead. Her worried eyes were looking straight forward at her ex-sensei.

Kin knew what a cruel man Hirofumi was. He seemed like the kind of man that hated what he did. Probably none of his students would have been surprised if they had found out that he was being forced to be an instructor. Still, even if that was true, it didn't change the fact that he was, in fact, their sensei, and he obviously wouldn't go so far as to kill a student. He didn't care for and wouldn't get himself in trouble for any of them.

It was no secret that he was harsh to his students. It was supposedly part of training, since he believed that strictness bred strength (or so he said). Over the years, though, Kin had noticed that, despite treating everyone harshly, it seemed like he always treated her worse. It was almost as if she had done something to him to deserve such treatment.

As hard and exhausting as the obstacles he made for her were, though, she had always had the comfort of knowing that she was in no real danger. It wasn't worth it for him to kill a student.

But not now. Orochimaru had discarded her, so needless to say she was no longer friends with the Hidden Sound. The man standing before Kin now was the same man that had been her sensei. Except now, he could kill her without ill consequences; perhaps even good ones.

Although Kin knew that, and realized that that was the only plausible reason for him to be here, she just didn't let herself consider the possibility of dying. She had escaped Orochimaru, and now they send someone else to get her? Why was she so damn important? Why couldn't they just leave her in peace?

Shikamaru saw Kin's preoccupied expression. He looked at the Sound Chuunin across the field from them mistrustfully.

'They're both from the Sound.' Shikamaru thought, 'But the Sound girl, Kin, was walking calmly through Konoha. Plus, she would have never believed that transformation if she was seeing Sakura for the first time since the exam. Not to mention this guy's here to, apparently, kill her. Is this girl not with the Sound anymore? Well, if that guy's target is Kin, maybe if I run he won't go after me.'

Shikamaru looked at Kin out of the corner of his eyes for a moment. 'Meh, a guy can't run and leave a girl like that. But I'm gonna need some time before I can use my Kage Mane again. I have to stall him as long as possible.'

Hirofumi had been looking at Kin this whole time, but now he gave Shikamaru a dark glare. Shikamaru was already thinking of what to say, but any ideas he might have gotten wouldn't come to be used as he and Kin saw Hirofumi making a series of incredibly fast hand seals. They both tensed up.

"Dokukiri no Jutsu!" Hirofumi blew, shooting forth a stream of dark gas from his mouth aimed directly at them.

Kin's eyes opened wide from realization. She had seen this technique before, so she was the first to recognize it.

"Poison! Nara, watch out!" Kin exclaimed.

They each jumped to the side, away from each other, as the stream of poison flew towards the spot they had just been standing on. It stopped its movement, and quickly accumulated to form an opaque cloud, effectively separating the two ninja.

Shikamaru got far away from the cloud of poison. He might have deducted that this was poison, but then again, he might not have, or he might have done it too late. Well, it seemed like Kin being an enemy or not was no longer an issue.

On the other hand, he had been impressed by the potency of the Chuunin's technique. He had known of the existence of poison techniques, but he had never faced one himself. This was a mighty big cloud.

He sighed. 'Tsc, so much for stalling.'

Kin, after seeing the dark cloud form, turned her attention back to Hirofumi. However, the man was gone. She looked around her in all directions, but didn't see him.

That meant –

"Nara! Be careful!" she desperately yelled as loud as she could.

Hirofumi was almost upon Shikamaru already. With some seals he executed a simple technique, producing sounds of footsteps that seemed to come from behind the boy. Hearing Kin's shout and these footsteps, Shikamaru bolted around, but didn't see anyone. While he was distracted by the illusionary sounds, Hirofumi quickly reached him. Shikamaru felt his presence at the last moment, but he didn't even have to time to turn his head before Hirofumi placed his hands on Shikamaru's shoulders and whispered: "Nemuri."

Shikamaru's now unconscious body fell to the ground, not even having a chance to try to dispel the technique.

Kin, on the other side of the poison cloud, was waiting dreadfully for it to disperse. She heard no sounds that would indicate a struggle of some sort, but that didn't necessarily mean that nothing was happening. Finally, after many agonizing seconds, the poison cloud was gone and some distance from Kin stood Hirofumi, with Shikamaru down on the ground beside him.

The first thing that struck her was worry, when she saw the Nara boy's body on the ground.

"He's just sleeping." Hirofumi spoke up, seeing her expression.

His words eased her worry for Shikamaru, but made her remember that the one really in danger here was her. Fear and anxiousness rose up in her once more. What was she going to do? What could she do?

"Why?" Kin screamed suddenly, "Why am I so important? Why send someone to kill me?"

Hirofumi smiled cruelly.

"Nobody sent me here. I came here because I wanted to."

Kin was surprised, to say the least. Did he hate her that much?

"Why go through all the trouble? What did I do?"

Anger suddenly took over Hirofumi's expression. He began to walk forward in Kin's direction.

"What did you do?" it was more of a statement than a question, "I'll tell you what you did." At this, his lips began to twist into a grin. "But I'll have some fun, first."

...

Her mind raced as it tried to rummage through all the possible explanations to what was happening. She just knew something wasn't right... Sure, maybe there was a far-fetched chance that everything had just been a coincidence, but she just knew better.

Sakura came out of Kakashi's house in a run, but stopped soon thereafter, looking left and right.

What should she do? She had to do something, but she had no clue where Kin was.

The young kunoichi scratched her head. If someone was out to get Kin, if she were out to assassinate someone, she wouldn't do it in the middle of town. No, she'd take Kin to a secluded place. Like the outskirts.

Then again, Kin could just have gone out and she was blowing the whole thing out of proportion.

Sakura shook her head. No, maybe that's what she wanted to believe, but deep down, she knew that wasn't true. Something really was happening here.

Almost without thinking, her feet began to move and she broke into a sprint. She was heading towards the place where she had passed Kakashi's test and become a Genin along with Sasuke and Naruto. It was the closest town exit, leading into the outskirts. She just hoped that she was using the correct logic.

"Sakura!" After a minute of running, Sakura stopped, hearing someone call her name. She looked towards the source: a man behind the counter of the ramen stand on the other side of the street, waving at her.

She approached the ramen stand, panting just the slightest bit from her running. She knew the man, as she had been here a few times before, but she didn't know his name. "Sorry mister, I'm in a hurry right now. I'm looking for someone."

"Oh yeah?" he asked, looking a little confused, "What about that girl that was with you?"

Sakura's eyebrow rose up. "Girl?"

"Yeah, the one you just passed by with. Long, black hair –"

Sakura put her hands firmly on the counter. "Which way were we going?" she asked in a desperate tone.

"Huh? Well, um," the man started, looking even more confused than he had been before, "I think I saw you two heading that way? Why?" he pointed down the same direction she had been running in.

"Thanks!" In a moment, Sakura was running again.

She just walked through here with Kin? No, she was pretty sure she hadn't just done that.

Sakura frowned. So all her fears were confirmed.

She pushed herself to the limit, running as fast as her legs could take her. Then, just as she was reaching the village's border, something happened that she would later realize saved several lives.

She waved to the group of people at the other end of the street. "Heeey!"