Hinata stood nervously on the side of the road in the pink kimono. She fanned herself and looked around tentatively.
Not much later, a large carriage stopped in front of her. The curtain protecting the window rolled up. The face of an older man with graying hair appeared. "Are you ok, miss?"
She started to pour through the lines that Akihiro gave her. "No sir. I'm afraid that I'm lost. I meant to head towards the Samurai Bridge to make my way home, but somehow I've ended up in bandit country. Oh what am I to do?!"
She thought that sounded believable enough, and she swooned a bit. Her cheeks turned bright red with embarrassment to add to the effect.
"That sound's awful dear. Why don't you come and ride with me?" The old man said slyly. "I will make sure you get to where you need to be."
"Are you sure? I don't want to inconvenience you, sir." She lowered her eyes to her feet.
"Never mind, my child." The baron unlocked and opened the door to his carriage. That's when a sword whizzed by his head slamming into the side of the carriage. "What?!"
Akihiro appeared from the trees. He said jovially, as though speaking to an old friend. "Oh hi, Mr Hashimoto, Land Baron of the southwestern territory in the Land of Vegetables. I've come to collect Lord Gokurukon's payment. I think you know what I want. Where is the key?"
"Why you… Why you, bandit! That key is mine. Tell your master he will get nothing more from me!" Mr Hashimoto attempted to back up to close his door, but Hinata placed her hand on the knob and held the door in place. Since training at the monastery, her strength had increased enough that poor Mr Hashimoto was not getting his door closed. "Why you little bitch!"
"Daichi! Isao!" The baron called to the two samurai bodyguards who were driving the carriage. There was no answer. Then Daichi's body toppled over and out of the carriage seat with a thump! He was dead. Bunta appeared at the front of the carriage with two bloody human hearts in his hands.
Hinata's eyes opened wide. She did not know that they were going to be killing any one.
"Really Bunta!? You couldn't've done that cleaner!?" Akihiro yelled. "I wanted to keep this carriage. Now it's a shitty mess!"
The baron started to sweat profusely. As Akihiro boarded the carriage, pushing the horrified old man out of his way, the baron looked wild eyed in Hinata's direction, and then he bolted.
Hinata did not move. She was stunned, first because some one had just died, and second because the old man was barreling straight toward her.
"Hinata! Stop him!" Akihiro shouted down at her.
The baron ran into her, wrapping his hands around her neck to choke her. Hinata gagged. She felt herself fall back, pushed by Hashimoto's weight. And then the pressure started in her left eye. Reflexively, she dispersed. Vanishing from sight, and uncontrollably flooding into Mr Hashimoto's body, she fed off his chakra like a starved vampire.
Now all three men were stunned. The two bandits stopped pillaging the carriage, their mouths dropping open. Mr Hashimoto, who was not long for the world, peed his pants, and then he dropped dead to the ground, blood trickling out of his nose and eyes.
Hinata reformed next to the dead body. She panicked. She had not meant to do that. It just happened –like an uncontrollable impulse.
She frowned. But it had felt good. It had felt like she had just stretched her legs after a very long and cramped carriage ride. She looked over at Akihiro. "I know where he hid the key."