Part 10

Before the three could react, a girl leapt off a ledge above them. She landed gracefully on her feet on the hard ground in front of them. Pushing her cropped black hair from her bright brown eyes, she smiled with a twisted joy. She squealed in utter delight, "An end to my boredom!"

Without warning, she began to attack, kicking at her nearest opponent-Sasuke. He skillfully dodged her hit, and delivered one of his own. Dodge, block, dodge. They seemed to be equally matched. Block, dodge, duck. Their fighting almost seemed graceful, choreographed. Kick, dodge, block. Now Sasuke was gaining the upper hand. With a fierce kick he thrust her against a wall. In the blink of an eye, Sasuke had removed his shuriken and sent them whirling through the air; aiming at the girl with deadly accuracy.

Yurushi closed her eyes tightly. She heard the zinging sound of cold metal reeling past her. She heard the sickening sound as they sunk into their targets. She opened her eyes, and looked down at herself. She was pinned to the wall with at least twenty shuriken deeply embedded in the stone. She tugged at her sleeves, but the weapons wouldn't budge. She felt a hot river of blood flow down her arm where the shuriken had sheared her skin. A ruby stain appeared on her attire.

Sasuke's smile of satisfaction was interrupted by a cruel laugh from the boy at the pile of bones. His laugh shook his body, causing the skeletons behind him to clack and click together as if they were suddenly coming to life. He pushed himself to his feet, his face still hidden in shadow.

Sasuke looked at Sakura and nodded his head toward the fastened girl against the wall. Understanding, Sakura appeared in front of her, kunai at the girl's throat. "Don't move" she warned.

"Yurushi! You are still weak. You let these ninja beat you? And so quickly too. What a shame." The boy reprimanded, sneering. Yurushi hung her head in shame, her short black hair falling in front of her face, a tangled curtain. Without looking up she gave a reprehensible reply, "I will try harder next time. I am sorry, Itami."

"You should be. I have the burden to have to call you my sister, the least you could do is make it easy for me." His words seemed to flow with an arrogant cheekiness. Both Sasuke and Naruto's eyes narrowed. Sakura pulled the kunai away from her victim's neck, but didn't let down her guard completely.

Sasuke turned his attention to Itami. "And just who do you think you are?" Naruto's words voiced Sasuke's thoughts. Itami's pointed grin grew wider. He laughed as he replied. "I'm your executioner."

All three shinobi's eyes widened as his words reached their ears, their muscles jerked into combattive states. An air of puzzlement must have crept across their faces, because Itami countinued his rueful speech.

"You all have been snooping around our home. I really hate nosey people.

"You see, my sisters and I are missing nins, criminals if you like. We've been hiding away for the last three years, and would like to keep it that way. We can't have you going back to Konoha and reporting our location, let alone that we are still alive. That may cause a disturbance in my life, and that will make me very angry. And if you get me angry then I will kill you.

"That would be a very, bad, thing-for you. So, to save time, we will skip the step where you return to your village and make me angry and go straight to the me killing you part. 'k?" He talked to them as if they were children- a sarcastic wickedness dripping in his voice as a sneer plastered itself across his paled face. His eyes looked hungry for battle, blood, death. He paced across the floor, then stopped infront of the pile of bones again.

"But enough with useless talk: why tell you anymore? You are just going to die in a matter of minutes anyway. I've been so bored lately; I may just drag this on leisurely -just to savor the pleasure" His tone sounded cold and serious with a longing for slaughter.

With that, he drew a sleek katana, hidden in the mouth of a skull. Its sharp blade glinted against the light, hissing as it was pulled from its sheath. The room grew tense and taut, frozen in fear. Sasuke glanced at Naruto, who nodded, readying himself in a defensive stance. An amused smile twitched at Uchiha's lips. This will be fun.

A/N: Sorry I haven't been regularly updating! This chapter is short because I didn't want to break the battle into two chapters. As always, thank you all for the reviews.

God Bless,

Ryu