"What is it?" I called out when I heard a knock on my door. Kabuto opened the door letting himself in before closing it. He had a smug look on his face which made me send him a glare. "It's quite rude to enter someone's room without permission." I told him as I sat up on the bed.
"I did knock," he chuckled.
"But I never told you to come in. Now what do you want?"
"Someone's in a mood today," he commented. "I don't know who's worse, you or Sasuke."
"What do you want Kabuto?" I questioned again becoming impatient.
"I have a mission for you, I need another dead body. I prefer a male in his late twenties and if you can, I'd also like a teenaged woman."
"You're that desperate for love you need me to get you a dead girlfriend?" I commented which made him glare at me.
"Just do it smartass." He spat before exiting my room.
Once he closed my door, I got up starting to get ready. It was suppose to be my day off but of course Kabuto had a different idea. I never understood why he needed corpses and always sends me to do his dirty work. I made sure to pack plenty of weapons including Sinju unsure of who I'll run in to out there. I wasn't sure about how many towns were in the area despite being here for a few months. The Land of Earth is a big country and must have plenty of towns...I hope.
Once I was ready, I exited the hideout without saying a word to anyone. I exited the snake mouth entrance sealing it with a hand sign. I activated my eyes searching for any civilization nearby but I only saw miles of trees followed by rocks; no town. I sighed in frustration then picked a direction to run in. I wasn't risking it knowing the Rock Village was towards the East so I decided to go South.
After a few hours of traveling, I saw a figure heading towards me. I wasn't able to tell what rank they were, but it was definitely a shinobi. I decided to let them approach me hoping he will possibly meet Kabuto's expectations and save me time. He was about five miles away when I saw another figure heading towards me from the opposite direction. I was able to sense the first one now; he was a Jonin so I'm guessing the other might be as well.
The first one finally made it stopping a few yards away. I studied him determining it was a man but he wore a white mask with red paint around the eyes. I couldn't see a village insignia anywhere making me think they were rogues as well. He lunged towards me kunai in hand, but I side stepped avoiding his attack.
"That was too predictable, is this guy for real? What is he planning?"
"Ko Himura," he spoke from behind me making my instincts kick in and jumped away. "Am I correct?" He finished with a low chuckle.
"He's fast, so he was trying to psych me out."
"Who are you?" I questioned.
"A bounty hunter who wants the money hanging over your pretty little head. I'm not sure who to turn you into though, the Leaf or the Black Market?" He mused pointing his kunai towards me.
"The second one is almost here, now there are two others heading our way. This is bad, I can't do this alone."
He lunged towards me again aiming a kick towards my stomach but I jumped over him landing on the ground.
"He's not even trying, he must be stalling." I thought.
His partner finally caught up instantly throwing shuriken my way but they were easily evaded. They landed next to Red giving me time to examine them as well.
"She's stalling too, they all must be professional bounty hunters testing my abilities first before the others come." I thought as I looked at the second one seeing I was right about her being a woman and saw she had the same mask as the other but with blue paint around the mouth.
They both ran towards me engaging me in taijutsu. I was able to dodge and block their attacks thanks to my eyes but I couldn't retaliate. I've never fought more than one person at once before and I wasn't liking it one bit. The other two were only a few miles away now, how am I going to get out of this one? Dodging two people at once wasn't bad but I won't be able to handle four.
Finally, I saw an opportunity to escape their attacks. I saw they were about to hit my stomach so I poured chakra into my feet jumping out of the way making them hit each other. I flipped in the air landing on the ground wishing there were more trees around but of course they are pushing me further away from the tree line. The other two finally caught up making me wish I told Kabuto to shove it and stayed home today. Once again, they wore the same white masks but one had green paint around the eyes and the other had orange around the mouth. If I weren't in danger right now, I'd question them about the masks.
All four came at me working together. My eyes were my only hope now but I knew it wasn't enough. I had to watch out for Orange, he was much faster than me which earned me a kick to the side. I stumbled back but rolled onto the ground to avoid Red's kick.
"They're not using jutsu, they must be trying to wear me out first. I can't keep my eyes activated for much longer, I'm putting too much strain on them." I thought as I jumped into the air landing behind Green.
He turned around aiming for a kick but I backed away. Our eyes met which made him stop and stare blankly at me; he was caught in my genjutsu. The others knew exactly what happened and tried to reach him but I wove hand signs blowing fire around Green keeping the others away. Red reached into his weapons pouch throwing multiple shuriken towards me while Orange wove hand signs.
"Wind style: Slayer of wind!" He shot out a gust of wind directing each shuriken towards me, no matter how much I moved, I couldn't keep dodging them; it was impossible with the wind directing them. They finally embedded into my skin making me grunt in pain.
"So Orange has wind affinity." I thought as Blue ran towards me.
I held out my arms making snakes emerge from my sleeves. "Striking Shadow Snake!" I shouted.
She jumped out of the way but I wasn't aiming for her. She realized my true intentions when she landed. She looked back at Green who was still in my jutsu. The snakes passed through the flames catching on fire as they attacked Green. He screamed in agony as the snakes started to bite him bringing him back into reality.
"No!" Blue cried as she watched the snakes bite him over and over making him fall to the ground. She started to run towards him but Orange grabbed her shoulder stopping her.
"Focus on the prize," he warned, "get revenge."
She looked away from Green to me with anger in her eyes. "Plan C guys," she said turning towards her teammates as Green's screaming died down.
Red reached into his bag pulling out a chain with a sickle attached. He swung it towards me with great speed so I lunged to the left earning a cut to my right shoulder. Orange flashed in front of me punching me in the face making me fly towards Red. He threw the sickle again but I rolled away, unfortunately it still got my left arm. Both arms started to throb in pain but I had to keep fighting. I ignored my body's scream to stop and took out my sword holding it out in front of me just as he threw the sickle again. It wrapped itself around my blade so I yanked on it pulling it from his grip making it get stuck in a rock.
"No wonder that hurt so much, that thing must be extremely sharp."
Red quickly drew his own sword and ran towards me. We engaged our swords making me quickly realize how skilled he was. It was starting to get frustrating knowing they have landed plenty of hits on me but I haven't landed any on them except for Green. Red pulled out another sword making this even more difficult; I wasn't able to block everything. He slashed my stomach making me grunt in pain but I quickly recovered trying to slash at him. I went to stab him in the chest but he used both swords to grip it then tossed it backwards out of my hand like I did with his previous weapon.
He ran up kicking me in the stomach making me scream in pain. I turned around seeing Blue making an Earth dragon while Orange made a fire dragon. My eyes widened as the dragons flew towards me. I had two options, either get hit by both or dodge one and get hit by the other. I chose the latter dodging the fire dragon only earning a burn to my left leg then quickly got slammed by the other. The force knocked the wind out of me as it hurled me closer and closer to a nearby boulder. As soon as my body made contact, my mouth spewed blood all over the dragon before it disappeared.
I fell to the ground trying to catch my breath and wiped my mouth. I could feel I had broken ribs and a bruised back. I didn't have time to check over my injuries as I saw the three running towards me.
"Wind style: Tornado barrage." I said weakly as I made signs.
The wind started to pick up making the three halt. Three tornadoes started to form making them back away but I managed to make each tornado follow each enemy. It kept them occupied giving me time to check over my injuries but first I activated the seals on my arms summoning multiple shuriken throwing them into each tornado. Once I was out, I started to heal my right arm hoping I'll have time to fix my ribs. It was starting to get difficult to move around but I needed to survive, this pain can't stop me.
I saw Red getting sucked into one of the tornados screaming as each shuriken pierced his body. I could see the numbers over his head slowly dropping as he plummeted to the ground. Two down, two to go. I managed to completely heal my right arm but I saw that my tornados started to disappear. Blue sprinted towards me weaving more hand signs.
"Earth style: Earth Dragon Bomb!" She shouted in anger as she stopped in her tracks.
The ground began to shake once more until the head of a dragon appeared next to her. It opened it's mouth which started to glow. My eyes widened as the glowing light started to get bigger and bigger. Orange caught up to her making his own signs blowing fire into the dragon's mouth. Fighting my screaming body, I got to my feet just as the fireball flew towards me. I could already feel the intense heat on my skin as it got closer and closer. I ran to my right but stumbled due to my previous burn earning a hit to my already injured left arm. I screamed in pain as I clutched it to my stinging stomach.
"This is bad, I can't keep going like this." I thought as I dodged another attack.
I was kicked to the ground by Orange and rolled towards another rock. While on the ground, I wove more seals. "Ninja art: Formation of a thousand snakes." I said then opened my mouth as wide as I could feeling the small snakes slither up my throat.
Snakes started to slither from my mouth by the hundreds heading towards the two. Now, I was a glad they lead me away from the treeline, now they have nowhere to go. They jumped away from the snakes but they weren't having any luck dodging them. I quickly shut my eyes as they started to burn so I was forced to deactivate my Subete Miru. I was exhausted, these guys knew what they were doing and I didn't know how much more I could take. My body wants me to stop and it's getting harder and harder to ignore the pain.
The two were still avoiding my snakes until Orange used a fireball to extinguish them. He turned his gaze to me along with Blue. She was about to run towards me but Orange held out his arm stopping her. He started to make hand signs; whatever jutsu he was about to use must be powerful. I could feel his chakra starting to deplete once he finished the seals.
"Wind style: Beautiful Destruction," he said.
"That doesn't sound good." Suddenly I looked around me seeing bubbles forming in mid air. "Don't tell me this guy is just like that woman Father had me fight after I left the village. I had a hard enough time dealing with her."
One bubble was starting to get close to me making my instincts scream danger. I managed to jump away just as the bubble exploded. My ears rang from the explosion as I flew from the blast landing roughly on my left arm feeling it break. My body wanted to stop but I couldn't just yet. As best as I could, I made a one handed sign then held out my right arm towards the two.
"Wind style: Air stream pressure!" I shouted as my hand glowed blue.
A blast of air shot from my hand hitting the two sending them far away from me. I needed time to recover but they weren't giving up. Orange was the first to run towards me and moved his hands controlling the bubbles that still were in the air. All converged towards me making me start to panic. I only managed to jump a few feet before they all exploded. I already could feel the burns on my back as I flew forwards landing on the ground then started to roll on my side.
Once I finally stopped, I screamed out in pain feeling my back on fire. I was too scared to see if it actually was so I painfully rolled over trying to put out the flames but my back protested making me roll back onto my stomach. I propped my arm up attempting to get up but I fell back down.
"Get up," I said to myself as I tried again but failed. "Get up! Come on Ko! GET UP! MOVE!" I could feel them getting closer. "MOVE!"
I finally managed to find the strength to move thanks to the adrenaline kicking in. I moved just in time to avoid a kunai which landed right where my head use to be. I couldn't die here, I refuse. I started to weave another hand sign then held out my hand which started to glow blue.
"Wind style: Air stream pressure!"
My blast sent them away once again giving me some time. I saw my bag to my left thanking the heavens that it was still intact. I grabbed it taking out Sinju; I only had enough chakra for a few more jutsu but I needed to slow them down. As they drew closer again, I sent Sinju towards them catching them off guard. They were ready to fight but I only flicked my right ring finger releasing Sinju's poison. The purple fog surrounded the area making it unable to see the two so I pulled Sinju back putting her back in my bag. Now I just needed my sword to finish this. The fog started to fade allowing me to see the two running towards me again. My eyes darted across the rocky terrain spotting my sword two hundred feet away. I won't make it on my own so it looks like I'll have to take a beating.
Orange was the first to reach me kicking my injured back sending me towards Blue who kicked my stomach. I rolled on the ground hitting some rocks on the way making me glad I couldn't feel any pain right now.
"You bitch! What was that smoke screen suppose to accomplish?!" She shouted kicking me once more with a chakra induced kick breaking more ribs possibly puncturing an organ.
I coughed up blood confirming my fears. I looked up seeing my sword was closer which gave me some hope. My next jutsu was going to take up almost all of my chakra but it was my only hope. I received another kick from Blue which made me smirk; my sword was within reach now.
"Wipe that smirk off your face!" She said kneeling down punching my face. "You're going to pay for what you did to my comrades!"
I stretched my right arm out to the side towards my sword sending a lone string towards it attaching to the handle. I was glad I mastered this and can make the strings nearly invisible. I saw Orange appear next to Blue; she looked away from me giving me an opening. I moved the sword sending it towards them missing Blue but hit Orange right in the stomach before ripping it back out. He grunted in pain falling to one knee as he clutched his wound. Blue snapped her head back towards me.
My body was numb allowing me to quickly catch her leg that was coming towards me and threw her to the side. I summoned all of my chakra into my blade as I weakly stood. I saw Blue land on her feet weaving more hand signs.
"Wind style: Slicing Blade!" I shouted swinging my sword towards them.
"Earth style: Rising stone pillars!" She shouted slamming her hands to the ground.
As the ground started to shake, my jutsu sliced right through the two killing them instantly but this wasn't over yet. Spikes started to emerge from the ground quickly giving me no time to react. They pierced my body simultaneously making me scream in agony. It felt like hours before the jutsu was cancelled but I laid on my side bleeding out unsure if I will survive. The adrenaline was wearing off making me feel all the injuries I have received. I had enough chakra for one more jutsu and probably before I pass out. I had plenty of blood surrounding me so I weaved hand signs summoning Athena, a medium sized snake.
"Master Ko! Are you alright?!" She questioned slithering her red body towards me.
"A-athena...t-take me h-home." I weakly said.
"Master, you won't make it in time."
"P-please," I pleaded honestly not wanting to die.
I didn't know why I wanted to live so badly but something was telling me that I should. All I had in life was Father...but he wouldn't care...he has Sasuke. What was the point? I'll receive a beating for being so useless.
"Hold on, I'll be back." She said before disappearing.
I looked straight ahead as I started to see black spots in my vision. My eyes were starting to get heavier and heavier as Athena appeared over me.
"You'll be home in no time Master, just stay awake."
"M-my bag," I said before coughing up more blood.
It was getting harder and harder to breath and which each breath, it felt like my last. I felt Athena carefully lift me up and wrap herself around me. I was in pain but I was too tired to even let out a scream. My eyelids started to grow heavy.
"No, I can't sleep...I'll die. But what do I have to live for? Father? No, he doesn't care...no one cares. I have nothing in this life..."
Sasuke was resting in his room when smoke appeared. He quickly got up ready for an attack but lowered his defense when he saw a familiar snake, Athena.
"Master Sasuke," she bowed, "I want you to summon me in five minutes, Master Ko is going to die." She finished which made Sasuke's heart stop.
She disappeared leaving him to count the minutes. He couldn't believe what she said, Ko was dying.
"How is that possible? She just left this morning...what happened?" He thought as he looked at the clock only seeing a minute had passed.
He'd never admit it but he did care for the girl. There was something about her that made him respect her. They had a bond that he couldn't sever even if he wanted to. He always thought she was a strong shinobi and couldn't be killed which made him wonder what had happened. He worried that the Leaf had found them again or the Akatsuki did. He looked over at the clock again seeing it had almost been five minutes. He bit his thumb making the proper hand signs summoning Athena.
Smoke filled the air and when it cleared, he saw Ko laying on Athena; he hardly recognized her. He could tell her chakra was dangerously low, her whole body was covered in blood, she had holes in her body and still bleeding; she was unconscious barely breathing. He quickly scooped her into his arms rushing to Kabuto's lab. He didn't hesitate to kick the door down which startled Kabuto but quickly got up when he saw Ko in Sasuke's arms. He cleared off his medical table motioning for Sasuke to place her on it.
"What happened?" He questioned as his hands started to glow.
"I don't know, Athena appeared saying Ko was dying and to summon her within a few minutes...how bad is it?"
Kabuto hovered his hands over her body a few times before sighing. "It doesn't look good but I'll try my best." He admitted. "Go inform Lord Orochimaru."
Sasuke looked at Ko one last time before heading towards Orochimaru's office. He didn't bother knocking on the door and let himself in.
"What is it Sasuke?" Orochimaru questioned turning towards his star pupil.
"Ko has been attacked badly," he informed him, "Kabuto is working on her as we speak."
Orochimaru was silent but stood up from his chair passing Sasuke making his way to Kabuto's lab. Sasuke followed curious about how Orochimaru will react to seeing his daughter on death's doorstep. Sasuke stood at the opposite side of the table of Orochimaru watching his expression when he finally saw Ko. A flash of concern was shown on his face before quickly disappearing but Sasuke could still see it in his eyes.
"What happened?" He questioned looking at Kabuto.
"We're not sure, Athena brought her here. Her left arm is broken, almost all of her ribs as well, her back has third degree burns, her ankle has a minor burn, lots of shuriken were embedded in her, her lung has been punctured, she really took a beating, and her chakra is extremely low...she went through hell." Kabuto explained.
Sasuke saw Orochimaru's hand clench as he also examined her wounds. "Will she live?"
"I might have to work on her for a few hours but she will."
"Athena!" Orochimaru called which the snake immediately responded to quickly slithering towards him.
"Yess Master?"
"What happened to my daughter?" He questioned looking straight at the snake.
Sasuke was shocked by his words and by Kabuto's face it looked like he was too. They have never heard him call her his daughter.
"I'm not exactly sure Master but there were about four bodiess sscattered around her."
"Four against one," he scoffed looking at Ko, "she's never fought that many at once...she never had to...Athena, you're dismissed."
Athena bowed before disappearing. Orochimaru looked back at Ko then turned his gaze to Kabuto.
"Let me know when she wakes up." He said before turning away and headed out the door.