Koumei walked slowly over to the door with her crippled left hand held to her chest protectively. On the way, she attatched a nekote and a tekagi to her right hand, on top of two kakutes. She checked that her weapons pouch was loaded, and slung her mask over her shoulder by the strings. She turned the doorknob and it opened.
There was blood in the doorway that led outside, and there was nobody around. She walked over to the door and glanced outside. No one.
There was another explosion and her head snapped around to see a large snake- no, two large snakes- surrounded by a cloud of dust. She was utterly confused. I thought the Akatsuki had found me...? But then one name formed in her mind.
Orochimaru.
Koumei attatched her mask, and took off. She made her way towards the snakes as fast as her legs would carry her, which was very quickly, and was greeted by a bloody sight.
All of the houses and buildings in the immediate area were completely destroyed, and many civillians lay injured as the medical ninja rushed around. There were lines of ninja surrounding the snakes. Jounin, chuunin, Anbu and a few gennin even. They all had their weapons drawn and readied. She looked around and noticed two dead ninja. The Hokage herslef was tending to the injured, and took no notice of the Moon-nin.
Atop the head of one of the snakes stood Orochimaru, grinning. He seemed completely amused with the situation. Until he noticed black pants, black vest and a red and white hunter-nin mask looking up at him.
"You! I thought I'd never see you again. Didn't I kill you, you little kunoichi bitch?" his voice sounded unnatural. Many ninja turned for a moment to look at her, and she didn't appreciate the attention.
"You cannot kill me that easily, Orochimaru, you should know that by now. I was a threat to you by the age of thirteen." she spat back, falling into a fighting stance. She adressed the Hokage. "Hokage-sama, pull your ninja out and let me deal with this serpent. Your ninja do not deserve to suffer through this."
The Hokage did not question, and called them back. Koumei stepped forward and readied herself again. To her suprise, the Sound-nin jumped down and the snakes disappeared. What's he trying to prove now?
She didn't skip a beat though, and made a series of one-handed seals with her uninjured hand.
"Eagle Eyes no Jutsu!" she barked and flipped backwards. Behing the mask, her eyes grew lighter, turning yellow, and granted her more than exeptional vision.
But Orochimaru was also ready. He made a few seals and hissed the words "Kage bunshin no Jutsu." Two more Orochimarus appeared on either side of him and he charged. Chakra was visible around each of his arms, radiating electric blue.
Koumei jumped into the air, above Orochi and yelled "Wing Style: Hummingbird no Jutsu!"
Orochimaru and his clones surrounded her as she landed, and wasted no time in attacking. But Koumei's hummingbird jutsu took effect, and her movements sped up to a blurringly fast pace. Her taijutsu was amazing, considering her left hand was utterly useless. Two of the attacking Orochimarus disappeared in puffs of smoke, but the real one caught her chin and sent her flying backwards. She landed about twenty feet away and her hands were both bleeding. She stood up straight and raised her hand to the sky.
Kasei was among those watching, as the others looked to the wounded. The Hokage had said that if the powerful ninja was willing to die for the village, she would gladly let her fight alone. She did not want to lose any more of her Leaf ninja.
As Kasei watched, he noted that he had never seen, or even heard of, any of the jutsus she had used so far. But she was no match for Orochimaru, she had not yet landed a single blow. The hand that she held high was an unusual posture for someone in the middle of a battle. There was silence except for the shuffling and moaning of the medical ninja and their patients. But it was broken by a hoarse tok, tok, tok, tok.
Kasei looked up to see a large black bird descending in tight circles. It came to her bloodied hand and she brought it to her shoulder. Koumei reset her stance and the black bird raised it's wings above her head and she made a few one-handed seals.
"Wing Style," she announced, "Golden Talons no Jutsu!"
She charged at her opponent and the large bird took off towards him. They streaked forward at an amazing pace. And Orochimaru just stood there, still grinning and untouched. The two streaking forms collided with him, and the lighter bird was immediately thrown aside with a block from the two hands of Orochimaru. But the tekagi on Koumei's right hand found it's way into his right shoulder. His grin vanished as the jutsu ended and crimson liquid dripped down.
Kasei gasped, amazed that she had landed a fairly large blow on the legenday sannin. The Hokage let out a particularly loud 'what the Hell?', apperantly also amazed. But it was short lived as the snake summoner grabbed her throat and forced her out of him, lifting her off the ground and grabbing her right arm in his free hand. She didn't even struggle or attempt to resist. Her left arm hung limply at her side and her legs hung uselessly below her. Orochimaru brought her face close to hers and spoke, loud enough for them all to hear.
"You've grown weaker, Moon-nin, you know that that jutsu is useless against me." He brought up her right arm and continued. "Let's see you really fight. You just need an extra PUSH!" he snarled the last word and her thin arm gave two sickening cracks. She cried out and lashed out with her feet. The other ninja pushed her back and threw her up. As she came down, he landed a rib-crushing punch to her stomach and sent her flying against the wall of the nearest building.
The sannin laughed as she collided and sank to the ground. But he stopped when she forced herself up and removed her hunter-nin mask. Yellow orbs glared knives at him, her Eagle Eyes jutsu still in effect. She coughed up blood and stepped forward.
"I-If you want me to fight, serpent, then I most certainly will. You underestimate me."
Kasei slipped over to the side of Tsunade and hissed into her ear. "If we do not interfere now, the Moon-nin will be killed."
The Hokage paused before answering, "If she is as strong as she says she is, then I'm sure she won't be that easy to defeat. Just watch."
Much to their amazement, she slipped off her black vest, so that she was only clad in her black and red tanktop. The watchng ninja were utterly confused. Until she charged around to face her opponent properly, with her back facing their ranks. There were many gasps from the ninja as they saw her back.
Between her shoulder blades, sharply contrasting with her pale skin, was a curse seal. It was designed to resemble a pair of wings, and the outline was burning the colour of blood. No, the outline was leaking blood. It dripped down her back, before being absorbed by her tanktop. The seal was breaking.
Suddenly, Koumei cried out in pain. Two bright white things were coming out of her shoulders, and looked as if made from light itself. Her face, now maskless, showed blood flowing freely down from her mouth, which had a small crooked smile on it. Her eyes had changed from amber to black. There was no white to them at all. The bright things stretched out farther, about five feet out, still folded, and rose up above her. Blood was leaking from her back, causing a puddle to form at her feet. The white apendiges suddenly exploded in a flurry of golden brown.... feathers? They took form in the sunlight, causing more gasps from the assembled ninja. They were wings.
Kasei could not believe it, it was simply impossible. But the transformation was not over. The bandages of her hands were shredded and replaced with coal black talons, about six inches long and extremely sharp. Black scales advanced slowly up her forearms, both broken and not, reaching to just past her elbows. The puddle of blood on the ground was now considerably larger. She spoke out clearly, in a sharp growl, almost like an animal.
"Leave now, Orochimaru, or I wil be forced to take this fight seriously. Your snakes can't save you from this one, Sound-nin." Her coal black orbs were glaring dangerously, portraying her inhuman personality.
Kasei looked at the dark sannin. He was no longer smiling, but his face was crumpled in fury, and his eyes seemed to show something not unlike fear. His fists were clenched tightly and he looked almost small, perhaps even vulnerable.
Tsunade and Kasei's thoughts were running along the same tracks. There was much more to this kunoichi than what met the eye. A golden-brown winged Koumei stepped forward, and watched Orochimaru being torn between stepping back or standing his ground. He stood his ground and decided he wanted to live.
The Sound-nin thrust his hand into the ground and a large, dark-purple snake appeared. He jumped back a few paces as the snake flexed it's jaw. Koumei spread her wings, stretching them and flexing her new muscles. She raised her arms, the broken one temporarily healed due to the scales holding it together, and flexed her new set of talons.
Then the snake lunged at her, and with amazing speed, she vanished and appeared high over the serpent's head, her streaked brown wings hovering. Then, she simply folded them and pitched into a freefall, still unknown to the snake. She held her arms out in front of her and began spinning like a drill head. She connected with the top of the summon's head, her body driving itself about a foot into the skull, through scales and flesh and then bone. She quickly flipped out of the large hole and the snake snapped about.
Koumei dove down further and brought her bloodied talons across its throat once, twice, three times. She finished by plunging her now usable left arm into one of her previously inflicted gashes, and flapped hard, forcing it to slice all the way up to its chin. She then rolled away smoothly, letting the heavy body fall to the ground, minced. She had moved extremely fast, and the whole battle had taken less than a minute. She landed nimbly in the place she had started as the bloody serpent's body vanished, and she was still untouched.
"I have no time to spend on you, Ninja of the Wing," Orochimaru used a more honourable title for her, clearly impressed, "I underestimated you. But this will not happen next time. And there will be a next time, but not now."
He performed a long string of complicated looking seals and in a puff of smoke his body was replaced by thousands of weapons. This jutsu would easily rival Tentens Rising Twin Dragons, and it was heading straight for the Leaf-nin, and the Hokage, to Koumei's right.
She was there in an instant and she skidded to a halt. She braced herself and spread her brown wings to their full length, about ten feet each. She threw out her clawed hands as the barrage of weapons impacted. Most of them hit her wings and the chakra barrier she had forced out, but many smaller ones, kunai and shuriken mostly, were imbedded in her legs and body. One of the last weapons, a katana, found it's mark in her right side and the rest cluttered away.
Tsunade was clearly shocked. She had not in the least expected Orochimaru to flee or to aim for her and the Leaf-nin. But she was even more suprised that this Moon-nin, almost a complete stranger who appeared to hate them, jumped in the jutsu's path and saved a few lives, and prevented many near-fatal injuries.
Kasei was, if possible, even more suprised than his Hokage. He stared openly at the still standing kunoichi in front of him, along with about forty other shinobi. But he managed to snap out of his trance first and ran forward to help her.
Koumei was stuck with many weapons, and she collapsed in her puddle of crimson. She coughed up some more, suddenly feeling the chill in the air once again. And then she felt herself being wrapped up in a jacket by a pair of strong hands, soon joined by three other pairs. One of them gently touched her right wing, and she jerked it back in pain. Her arms had returned to normal, and so had her hands. Back to their normal crippled form. She felt the world become less clear as her eyes also returned to normal. Then her wings vanished, causing blood-covered feathers to fall around her like snow.
As she felt the warmth leave her body through various wounds, she made out one of the figures around her to be the Hokage. She smiled as she noticed a look of worry on her face, and let out a short laugh. She paid dearly, though, as she coughed up more blood. Please let me black out, she thought. She coughed some more as she cleared her throat.
"You.... Tsunade... You owe me for.... owe me for this..." she coughed up more blood and slipped into darkness as she heard a quiet 'Hai' and felt the experienced hands of the medical Hokage pass over her wounds.
Away from reality for the third or fourth time in the last week. It was as close to bliss she could ever feel in her condition, to just slip away and end the pain.