9 Meeting in the Forest

Mission Accomplished…?

"According to my friend, our next stop should be only about a mile's hike to the west," mused Takeshi, gazing up at the faint lightening of sky that signaled the quickly approaching dawn. "We'll find a chicken farmer named Aya who should be able to give us better directions."

"And you found this out how?" Naeko wondered, giving her instructor a dubious look.

"Secret technique," the jounin answered with a sly smile, which quickly turned to a stony glare as he noticed Kotori whispering something to her teammate and the black-haired girl letting out an alarmed squeak of laughter. "All right, what seems to be so funny?"

"It's no secret, Master Takeshi." A sweet smile from Kotori. "Just about every female of dateable age in the village has heard of or experienced the dread… what did they say you called it… Secret Art of the Bachelor Ninja, Pick up no jutsu… or something like that." Ignoring the deepening venom in her uncle's eyes, Kotori added, "And from the sounds of it, you've got a bit of practicing left to do. I guess even a jounin such as yourself continues to be a student until they die."

"Well, at least I try," Takeshi muttered, turning red around the edges at the implications of this. "And it got us a better lead than we've had this entire mission."

"At least give him credit for that," Taiki chimed in, giving the older man a secretly sympathetic look. "If it hadn't been for him, where would we be?"

"Not answering that," Kotori grumbled and then fell silent, ignoring the curious stares given her by the other three.

The quartet resumed their journey, walking quietly in the direction indicated by Takeshi. After about five minutes of such walking, Taiki fell back so that he could talk with Kotori. "Hey, Tori-chan, what's up? If your thoughts were an odor, you could smell the stink back in Konoha…" This only got him a dark glance from the pale eyes before they resumed their intent study of the surrounding forest. "Seriously, though. If you know something's up, spill."

"I've just got a feeling, that's all. This whole thing with his 'source' - " the girl jerked her chin in the direction of her uncle, moving along at a brisk trot a few paces ahead with Naeko next to him, the two engaged in a discussion of their own " – seems a bit too convenient, too easy of a solution. It's like we're walking into a trap again, and you know what happened the last time we let our guard down."

Taiki frowned and nodded once in thoughtful agreement. "I know, but we've got to follow what information we have. You know what else seemed odd?" An eyebrow raise from his teammate prompted to continue. "The innkeeper's daughter. She seemed almost too eager to find out what we were doing yesterday in the clearing. Considering how squirrelly she was in the morning, wouldn't she have just told us that our food was ready and then ran off before you could bite her or something? She seemed… I don't know… just too calm."

Kotori made an mm'ing sound of acknowledgement. "You're right about that. Perhaps someone else from the Mist Village, picking up where the others failed?"

The youth shrugged. "I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine."

Another fifteen minutes passed, and the Konoha group came to a small, nondescript farm with an abundance of chickens scratching around in the fenced-in front yard. Takeshi gave the surroundings a brief visual examination and nodded to himself, almost as if assuring himself that it was safe to go on before calling out to the owner of the farm. "Aya-san, are you here?"

There was silence and the jounin was about ready to call out again when the door to the farmhouse slowly opened and an old woman peered out. "Who is it?"

"My name is Takeshi, and your daughter Rio sent us to ask you about a guest that came to visit about a week ago," he ventured, trying his best smile again and giving the genin a triumphant wink when the woman made a gesture to beckon them in. The house was even smaller inside than it appeared to be from the exterior, with a kitchen, toilet, and one main room forming the first floor and a creaking staircase leading up to a second floor. "Thank you for letting us in, Aya-san. Rio said that you could help us?"

"I'll need to be seeing some proof of who you are first," the old woman grumbled, watching the jounin carefully as the latter reached into his vest and withdrew the assignment scroll bearing the seal of the Hokage. Looking it over two or three times, she nodded to Takeshi and added, "I may be old, but I'm not a fool. There've been too many around here asking about our visitor, and I wanted to make sure you were legitimate before I let you continue." With a wavering step that belied an old injury or illness, Aya once again beckoned the group to follow as she moved up the stairs to what once had been a storage room and now had been partitioned off into two separate sleeping areas. The group went into one of the rooms at her gesture, and after following them in she closed the door again.

Then there was a brief flicker as the form of the old woman altered into that of a young man in his early twenties, bandages wrapped around his lower torso as well as his head and right leg. Sweat stood out on his brow as he sagged to the floor and propped himself up on a futon, regarding the group with interest. "I know, I shouldn't have tried that in the shape I'm in, but it's the best protection I have left until I can move again and while the real Ayame is out. You're the group sent from Konoha, huh?" An affirmative from Takeshi. "Good job on making it this far. With the way things've been going, I half expected to die here without seeing this through… and you're a group of genin too. Akegata must've told a tall tale to get help this cheap."

He laughed off the flat looks given him by Naeko, Taiki, and Kotori. "Ah, whatever. If you've gotten this far without biting it, you're a cut above most of that crop." The messenger then waved a hand to a carefully wrapped bundle leaning in the corner. "That's the manuscript. Be careful when you take it back, because someone obviously is willing to kill to stop it from getting into the wrong hands." A wheezing cough shook the messenger roughly, and he laid back down on the futon with a sigh. "Send Master Akegata my apologies for not completing this myself."

"Hey, stuff happens," muttered Takeshi, gesturing for one of the genin to pick up the scroll from where the messenger had pointed. "I mean, we weren't expecting any of the things that've happened to us – but we'll tell him just the same. Take care of yourself."

"And the same to you." Nodding once in silent dismissal, the messenger then closed his eyes and fell into a light doze. The Konoha quartet chose this moment to make good their exit, closing the door quietly behind them and making their way back down the stairs.

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"Part one down!" Taiki cheered as they made their way back up the road, once again following their instructor. "Now all we need to do is turn this bad boy in, and we're good to go. About how long did you say it is to the guy's place?"

"About a week's walk, maybe less if we take a few shortcuts that I've heard of," Takeshi replied back over his shoulder.

"Heard of? You mean you've never tried them yourself?" Kotori muttered, rolling her eyes.

"I don't care how long it is, so long as I don't have to carry this thing the whole time," complained Naeko, readjusting the straps that held the scroll to her back. "I swear, this thing's heavier than you, Tori-chan."

"You've done the least amount of work this whole trip, Naeko, so shut it," Kotori growled back. "And it's not that heavy. Nothing can be heavier than this pack of yours…" At that moment, even the usually composed girl let out a hiss of alarm as she saw Takeshi pitch over suddenly, several long needles protruding from his neck and other vulnerable points. "What the – all right, whoever you are, get out here and tell us what you want!" she yelled, at the same time reaching for her summoning scroll.

The three genin were dumbfounded to see a delicate, doll-like youth no older than any of them drop silently from one of the trees by the roadside, Kotori noting with a chill that the stranger wore a featureless white mask that marked them as a hunter-nin, the insignia of the Mist Village centered on the brow. "Once again, you three carry on so loudly that even a blind man could follow your trail," came the faintly amused commentary from behind the mask. "And don't worry, your teacher is only unconscious. If you cooperate, I'll make sure he wakes up again with a minimum of pain."

"I'll ask you again," Kotori grated, unrolling the summoning scroll and bringing forth the zanbatou, which she then casually balanced over one shoulder as if oblivious to its weight. "What do you want from us?"

"Just the manuscript, that's all. It belongs to the Mist Village, and we'll be taking it back with us."

"Right," Taiki muttered, trading looks with his teammates. "Who's this 'we' you're talking about?" There was a light laugh from the hunter-nin, a scared gasp from Naeko, and then he noticed an eerie shadow looming over him from behind.

Before he could say anything, though, Kotori fixed the newcomer in an icy glare and commented, "So you really do exist. I thought you were just a story made up to frighten small disobedient children."

"…You know this guy?" whispered Taiki, finally risking a look up and behind.

"Momochi Zabuza, originally of the Mist Village but now on the run for some reason or another. Rumor has it he's a demon," Kotori replied flatly, not removing her eyes from the tall, well-muscled man that bore a blade matching in size to her own. "I'll handle him. If I can't, then my upbringing has been for nothing…" Springing up from the ground in a powerful leap, Kotori landed on a tree branch and readied herself for action. "If this indeed is who I think it is, Tai, then you should be more than capable of taking care of the other one." Kotori jerked her chin at the hunter-nin. "His name is Haku, and although he might be a bit of a special case, he shouldn't be a problem for you. Don't let me down."

"You have nothing to… worry about." The bravado of the beginning of Taiki's reply now dissipated as he watched the giant man fade out of view again and Kotori likewise vanishing. Sighing, he turned his attention to the hunter now identified as Haku, still impassive behind the featureless mask, and began to focus his energies. "Naeko, will you be all right guarding Takeshi and the manuscript?"

"B-but Tai-kun, you saw that man! He's going to eat Tori-chan alive, and then he's going to come back and make snacks out of whoever's left. I should be helping her!"

"If I were you, Naeko, I'd trust her on this one. If she says she can keep this Zabuza guy at bay, I wouldn't challenge her. She seems to be at least familiar with him and his skills, and I've seen some of what Kotori can do with that sword of hers," the youth muttered as he settled into a ready stance. "Besides, that's not what I asked you about."

"Oh," Naeko murmured, blushing as she moved back to a defensive point near the unconscious jounin and un-strapped the manuscript from her back for easier maneuverability. "I'll do my best, Tai-kun!"

"That's more like it!" Taiki broke his ready stance to give his teammate a glinting grin and thumbs-up, unaware that his foe had palmed another handful of the deadly needles and now readied them to throw. Only an alarmed squeak from Naeko told the genin to move, allowing him to dodge all but one. That needle scored a hit on his already-scraped cheek, adding another line to the scratch marks from earlier that still had not managed to fade. "Oh, so there's someone else jealous of my good looks?" he taunted with the same glinting grin.

"Hardly," the stranger murmured, reaching a free hand up to loose the mask. Both Taiki and Naeko gasped when Haku's features were revealed. "You may begin whenever you please."

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Leaves fluttered to the ground far below as Kotori darted from branch to branch like the bird of her namesake, plotting her offense as she ran. Speed is my advantage against this monster. If I can just outmaneuver him, keep one move ahead of him, I'll be able to grind him into the dirt. Only a quick leap to the side kept her out of the path of her foe's blade as it slammed into the tree trunk ahead of her, forcing Kotori to change her path. Using the enemy zanbatou as a launch platform, she used the split second of advantage her evasion had earned her to bounce up into the air and slam her own sword downward. The image of her opponent evaporated with a splatter as soon as she hit it, and the girl realized with a growl that once again she'd been tricked by an elemental skill – even worse, she was falling towards the ground at an alarming rate with no way of catching herself.

Swinging her zanbatou around a second time, Kotori smirked grimly as the metal hooked its grip into another tree trunk and halted her fall with a jerk. Not wasting a second, she swung herself up and over with an acrobatic flip to balance on the grip of her sword. "Damnit, you, don't toy with me," she oathed as she felt something dark once again begin to stir within her, questioning and curious. No, I don't need you just yet. Watch if you must, but don't interfere.

"Then show me you're something worth actually putting up effort against," came the cold voice from just above her, and Kotori did not need to look up to know that her opponent hung from his feet, poised to drop.

"Ask those who saw me tear a Mist Village jounin to shreds and then lick his blood from my fingers," the girl replied quietly, feeling the scars on her shoulder begin to itch. Just another minute. I need to see what I can do against him by myself… The girl looked to the older man still hanging above her and then raised one hand in a deliberately mocking obscene gesture. "I may not be a butcher like you, but that does not mean that I do not carry my own demons."

Then there was the quietest whistling sound of metal parting air, and a crack as the branch the swordsman hung from parted company with its parent tree. "You want me, Zabuza?" cried a voice from above. "Come and get me!"