Kyuseishu was traversing a bushy forest after he managed to get rid of the first obstacle that crossed his way. Luckily no ANBU troops were yet to find him...

The atmosphere was utterly calm and the arena which he was crossing seemed like if no human being visited it for long ages. The floor of the forest was clothed with short green grass which was caressing his feet while he runs onwards. The sky was hard to be seen due to th tree thick branches that covered the space above him so and formed like a natural cage so Kyuseishu's only choice was to keep running ahead until he reaches his destination.

However, some pale sun rays were infiltrating through the leaves and bushes otherwise the arena would've been utterly engulfed with darkness.

The average height landed on the ground in a crouch with a calm expression adorning his face which was filled with several superficial wounds and stained with blood. His shaggy black hair was scattered in a messy way upon his forehead. He wasn't granted a time after the fight with his old comrade to take care of his look and reframe his hair to it's natural style.

His grey sleeved jacket and his black pants were wrecked in several spots. Despite of his calm expression, he appeared to be highly aware of any ANBU trackers or unwanted Ninjas that may potentially ambush him.

He bent himself down over the ground and looked around investigating his new environment with his fierce eyes then once he couldn't observe nothing suspicious, he blinked reassuringly and looked down to the the ground sighing slightly. Only God kneq what's going on inside of his head.

'... I think I reached a safe region now although the way I walked within the forest wasn't safe... Well, it's time...'

He whispered to himself and slipped his left hand underneath the fabric of his jacket pulling out his sealing scroll and quickly unfolded it upon the ground in front of his feet... He leaned his upper half slightly forward and slammed his right palm against the distinctive Kanji on the scroll. After seconds, a small pillar of smoke began to elevate from the scroll as he murmured faintly.

"UNSEAL!"

The rustling of the smoke suddenly stopped as Kyuseishu lifted his palm from the scroll watching the smoke pillar gather and shape into human form before unveiling soon on a black haired, young female sitting down with her legs crossed under her on the scroll. She was Katsumi who eventually lifted her head up calmly and slowly started to open her sleepy eyes only to fix them with a hint of confusion on the male that stood over her.

"..."

She suddenly blinked with slight shock as she finally returned to the outsider world after the long time she had to spend sealed inside the scroll in a coma state.

"Where am I?"

She mumbled and pushed back gently some of her messy, silk hair that fell slightly over her forehead and eyes. Kyuseishu was staring down at her with his neutral calm expression.

"I believe we came upon a safe region now far enough from Konoha... I should've not let you sealed for a long time anyways but I had to... How do you feel?"

Katsumi wobbled her head around analysing the new landscape with her half closed eyes as she took a step back and started to stand off the scroll slowly.

"Uh... I feel a bit dizzy but don't worry, it's okay... What is this place by the way?"

She questioned and rubbed her eyes sluggishly as she stood up in front of him. Her straight hair fell gently behind her and reached the middle of her back. Even though her hair wasn't the only trait that made her look pretty cute, Kyuseishu wasn't her that sort of attention that any woman might need from a man close from her. The mission that he sworn to fulfill was consuming almost all of his mental and physical strengths not leaving him a room to take care of other stuff. He leaned down and picked up the scroll from the ground then hid it back under his clothes after wrapping it up but he suddenly felt his stomach groaning from anger which made him remember that he haven't eaten a damned thing since he fled from Konoha exactly seven days back.

"... We are almost close from crossing the North boundaries of the Land of Fire but I'm starving... Have you brought some food with you from Sunagakure?"

He murmured faintly while glancing at her through his eye corner as he turned slightly to face her back with his left side. She tilted her head in refusal and looked back at him across her left shoulder with stern look.

"Even if I had brought food with me, it would've gotten rotten within seven days despite the terrible conditions that we were into... Anyhow, who caused you those nasty scars on your face?"

"...It's nothing important, I had to get rid of a klutz who tried to make me return to Konoha... Let's keep going..."

Katsumi narrowed her eyes as she stared at him suspiciously and placed her hand on her left bandaged hip.

"Weren't we heading North? At this rate, we must be close from the- Impossible!"

Her eyes widened a fraction at the realisation she came upon which made her feel weird tingling on her palms but Kyuseishu's words came quickly to confirm her thought.

"The Rice Fields country where the territory of The Hidden Sound Village is!"

He whispered calmly not trying to sound so obliterated and rolled his eyes back up to glance forward with valiant expression.

"Otogakure... It's the only option left for us that Konoha's ANBU troops will never expect us to take as a shelter..."

Katsumi widened her eyes more and glared at him as a her long eyelashes twitched up.

"Otogakure!? It's the main Headquarter of Orochimaru you idiot!... That creep snake. What would drive you to think that we should sneak up into his lair to hide from the ANBU troops of Konoha!?"

She complained harshly. Kyuseishu sighed briefly and looked back at her across his shoulder confidently as he finally stood upright before her.

"...Don't panic, Katsumi, we can't go back an inch from this point onwards... We even have no time to hesitate now! The ANBU troops must be flipping every corner of the forest eagerly to find us and probably the ANBU of your village as well might had received orders to hunt you down... There's no use in backing off now!"

Katsumi gulped lightly at his realistic citation and narrowed her eyebrows with concern as she lifted up her blank gaze towards him.

"I know but... It's still too reckless to storm into the hideout of the most horrible Ninja in existence, that's if he deserves to be called a Ninja not a monster... I've heard several hilarious stories about him like the one telling that he was able to summon the Shinigami at some point..."

Kyuseishu smirked at her complaints and tilting his head to the side as he took one step forward and stretched his arms backwards to relax his body.

"Orochimaru...His strengths had to be weakened now and regardless that the possibility of us finding him face to face in Otogakure is less than 1 out 10, he might be dead because it's been several years since his news reached Konoha. I guess he aged more than 75 years. Besides, I am looking forward to meet someone important to me in Otogakure so even if our destiny put us face to face with Orochimaru, we shouldn't be worried at all because the certain someone that I am willing to meet owes me a great favour so they won't allow Orochimaru harm us..."

He completed his convincing speech and looked slightly at Katsumi only to find that she was staring at him deeply with the same worrisome while folding her arms under her small chest.

"But..."

She stuttered and shook her head lightly then looked downwards towards her feet letting out a heavy sigh hiss through her dry lips.

"If you say so Kyu kun."

"Anyways, who is the person that you are looking forward to meet who works with Orochimaru?"

Katsumi murmured as the trees around then were getting more bushier and bigger. They both kept running through the forest in the North direction closer and closer from their destination. Katsumi landed on the ground with a light thud as she kept her arms lifted high above her head to ensure a safe landing before resuming to run ahead behind Kyuseishu who was running while fixing his blank gaze forward ignoring everything around him.

"You will know in the right time... It's a special person..."

He muttered. Katsumi was about to ask spontaneously "Special more than me?" but she refrained her tongue from slipping in the last second.

" Slow down your running pace, we are so close... Orochimaru's headquarters lays about hundreds of meters ahead of us."

Kyuseishu added without waiting for her answer. Katsumi gulped nervously as she felt the same weird chill ran down throughout her spine. Hearing Orochimaru's name alone was enough to make her body shudder non-stop. Her heart started to beat rapidly as her small cheeks flushed bright red from the expectations running in her brain.

"..."

She blinked twice trying to maintain her calmness as she sighed lightly and slowed down her running pace a little bit and look up at him.

"This ain't the first time you visit Otogakure right?"

She wondered noticing how well the environment seemed familiar to him. Kyuseishu stomped casually on a small branch dumped on the ground as he ran ahead of her and nodded lightly.

"It's the second time, I crossed the boundaries of the Fire Country to Otogakure before once... But I've never arrived so close from Orochimaru's hideout like this time."

He said and Katsumi sighed again. She narrowed her eyes and stared at him closely as her bottom lip twitched up.

"To be honest, I am a irritated about what'll be waiting for us there... I can't predict future but I feel that something bad is going to happen soon."

Kyuseishu continued to run few meters before halting next to a huge trunk then he turned in her direction and glanced at her reassuringly.

"... I even can't presume what is waiting for us but everything is going to be alright..."

"" Seems we got two uninvited guests here...""

A mysterious disembodied voice called out suddenly from nowhere made Kyuseishu and Katsumi flinch. Kyuseishu manifested that It was a feminine voice but he tensed as his eyes went slightly wide and he robotically shifted his head in the upper left direction towards the huge tree beside him.

"Who's there!?"

He questioned anxiously. Katsumi took a fighting position almost immediately as she blinked and raised her thin eyebrows looking up offensively towards the same tree which Kyuseishu was staring upon.

"!?"

They held their breathe until a silhouette of a human being began to emerge slowly from the shadows that engulfed the tree. It was an average height woman with crimson long hair and relatively sizeable, at least that's what Kyuseishu noted. She was standing upright on the tree high branch right above Kyuseishu who kept eying her with a dull expression but she observed them fiercely with a slight sarcastic smirk floating on her lips.

"..."

She wore a pale crimson knee-length robe with transparent leggings underneath and a pair of black Shinobi sandals on her feet. Her long silky hair was left untamed and was smoothly falling upon her shoulders. Two long strands of her hair were crossing her forehead down until her nose bridge. Her cold eyes were displaying an unfriendly look but the smirk on her lips gave her face a slightly neutral expression.

''Kuku...'

She whispered shifting her dark brown orbs from the female to the male who eventually smiled as he continued to eye the woman closely. Everything on her was surely familiar to him.

"We are just having a little promenade here, hehe... I hope we aren't heavy guests on this land."

Kyuseishu said with confident voice as he kept his eyes attached to the woman observing the curvy edges of her lower half underneath her tight fitting robe.

"Wait, since when have you been watching us? It's odd that we haven't noticed your presence until you called out..."

He added and simultaneously started to wonder why she seems like if she if she was ill or something. The woman gave a dead smile and shrugged her shoulders lightly. When she jumped off the branch and swiftly landed on the ground few feets near Kyuseishu's left side, her smile faded away and a grim expression took over her pale features. She was roughly shorter than Katsumi with some inches and her general body shape and slender waist showed that she was still in her thirties. She took a step to the side patiently towards Kyuseishu and planted her right hand on her waist glancing up at him with doughty look.

"A promenade you said, eh? Or seeking for a hideout?"

The red haired woman uttered with a taunting voice. A lifeless smile soon crept into her lips but it wasn't absolutely a smile from the heart because her eyes revealed the opposite emotions beyond those dark lashes of hers. Kyuseishu turned to face with a spontaneous smile and stared at her for moments before nodding his head slightly.

"But being the North Gate for you Tayuya, means that you are responsible for watching over the North boundaries of Otogakure not the south boundaries, am I right?"

He said. Tayuya shook her head and looked away instantly. She was certainly distracted with something but her she maintained her grim expression which unveiled her her strong personality that took over her affectionate side. She shrugged with her shoulders and looked again at him with etched look.

"You are right... But what makes you think that watching over the other gates isn't my responsibility as well? Since the other three Gates of Otogakure have fallen, I have to fill in for them because I am the solo Gate that stood still until now."

She murmured with deep voice made Katsumi ogle her suspiciously trying to realise the essence of her words.

"..."

The Kyuudaime Hokage sat calmly on his chair behind his desk inside his office. He was staring with featureless expression forward through his dark glasses and resting his chin on the back of his bony hand while laying his elbows gently on the desk. He slowly started to whisper with croaky voice fixing his gaze on the Jonin male that eventually stood before his desk.

"... He doesn't represent any threat on the village at least for the time being... I have more important issues to handle at the moment than him. However, the General commander of the ANBU troops has finally returned to Konoha from his long journey so he will surely take care of that brat Kyuseishu."

The Jonin male nodded his head slightly then stepped forward before placing a wrapped scroll on the desk in front of the Hokage.

"... This is a letter from the Rukodaime Kazekage... I think it's the response to your letter which you sent him few days ago."

He whispered and stepped back respectfully. The Kyuudaime eyed the scroll calmly and wove his hand before his face for the Jonin who immediately understood and turned off to leave the room without uttering a word. The Hokage sighed and grasped the scroll lifting it up in front of his eyes as a malicious grin crawled across his lips.

"... It's time to make everything work out according to my will..." He murmured and clenched his fist around the scroll tightly..

...

Kyuseishu's eyes twitched as he stared at Tayuya closely with slight shock. A sweat drop ran down across the side of his head slowly.

"Don't tell me... Kidomaru sensei had passed away?!"

The red headed female nodded slowly and lowered her eyelids a bit as she looked downwards at her feet. His question left her no room to remain coherent and she felt that it was meaningless to hide the truth from him.

"... It happened three years ago... I already got used to live alone without him and the others..."

She spoke with brittle voice even with her efforts to not sound agitated. Kyuseishu sighed as he slowly walked over her towards her and patted her left shoulder. The news of Kidomaru's death strucked him like a bolt. He admired his teachings even if it was only for a bit of time.

"I am sorry to hear... Is it Orochimaru?"

Tayuya rolled her eyes to the corner slowly like if she was trying to avoid making eye contact with him. And she faced away. The wound that she tried hard to forget by time is reopened.

"... It's a mere part of the past... Remember, I still owe you my entire life so I don't want you to go after Orochimaru... He will kill you."

Kyuseishu looked down and narrowed his eyes thinking of her words. He had almost forgotten what he did to save her seven years back when he first met her. He tried to recall that incident but his memory betrayed him.

"... Don't worry... Orochimaru is going to pay previously sooner or later but I hope that won't be done by own my hands."

To be continued...