Koumei flew until nightfall, watching as the snow vanished and was replaced by vast plains, and then by endless sand dunes. Although she was in the middle of a desert basically, it was night and it was freezing. The blood on her back had dried and was annoyingly itchy, causing her to fly akwardly. Kuro landed on her back and scratched most of it off.
Ahead of them rose a stone fortress, gusts of sand swirled around it, but Koumei managed to keep control and reach it in moments. She landed on one of the rooftops and looked around for any Anbu. She finally found one and ran up to him.
"Oi. Sand-nin. Take me to the Kazekage now. I have unfinished business," she spoke as bravely as she could, although she didn't want to speak at all.
"Hai, Moon-nin, the new Kazekage has been waiting patiently for your return." He turned and led her across the roof, down a hidden staircase. It took her directly to a dimly lit room cut down the middle by a dark screen. The people on the other side were only shadows to most, but Koumei still had her Eagle's Eyes activated. They had apperently been in the middle of a meeting before being interupted by her.
"Kazekage-sama. It is the Moon-nin come to complete her mission."
"Arigato. I will postpone this meeting until tomorrow night, same time. Don't miss it or it'll be your heads," hissed the middle figure.
Koumei took her place in the center of the room, facing the screen and bowing once. Her wings folded lightly across her back, but she did not remove her mask.
"Welcome back, Moon-nin. I expect to see his body in a few hours. You left without notice and your pay will drop for that. If you fail and return, I will kill you myself. The boy has become a large danger to the village, and I want him dealt with quickly, understand?"
Koumei swallowed, but hid her emotions. "Hai, Kazekage-sama."
The form behind the curtain nodded to one of the guards, who stood to attention. "Please follow me, Moon-nin." She was led upstairs onto the roof once more, and she followed the Sand-nin Anbu to the corner of the building. He pointed. "He stays in that building over there. He never sleeps, so be prepared for a one-on-one battle."
She nodded, seeing where he was pointing, and hunched down into a crouch. Pulling out four poisoned senbon, she spread her wings to their almost twenty-foot span. I'll just poison him and end this quickly, she thought. She took of and headed straight for the structure.
When she arrived, she found the Sand-nin's words to be true. In the soft winter moonlight sat a small, red-haired boy. He had a large gourd-shaped container strapped across his back. He hadn't noticed her yet. She threw her senbon in silence, and they headed straight for the small form. But much to her suprise, something rose up in front of him and the needles clattered to the rooftop. What?
Gaara of the Sand turned towards her hovering form. "Another assasin? What do you want?"
"If I'm an assasin, then isn't it obvious?" she landed about twenty feet away.
Suddenly, a large wall of sand was heading her way. She dodged it with some difficulty. He's fast... Her left arm grew into a talon which glinted in the moonlight. In her other hand, she whipped out four more poisoned senbon. But the boy didn't skip a beat. Another wall of sand, larger and full of power, was heading straight for her. She braced herself and brought up her talon with enough force to shatter stone. It cut a clean opening through the wall, but left her with many cuts. Before the boy could react, four poison needles entered his body as a wall of sand came up around him too late.
She smiled, but froze when something happened. The boy was no longer a boy. He was covered in large flesh-coloured patches of skin which spread over his body alarmingly fast. His eyes darkened and he smiled sickly. It was Shukaku.
The sand lay still all around her, but it suddenly came to life again. Two words were snarled out into the night and pain erupted from every part of her body. "DESERT COFFIN!"
And suddenly, she couldn't breath. She was surrounded by sand, and it was crushing her lungs, her arms, her wings, her entire body. It went up her nose, under her mask, and filled her mouth to silence her before she could scream. She hadn't felt this pain in years, and it was almost good to have her body scream at her again. She felt blood burst from her mouth as the demon snarled another word. "DESERT GR-" but he stopped and a growl cut through the air, turning into a shriek of pain. I... I can't...see...a thing...
But she didn't need to. Suddenly everything went silent and just as she was about to give up, the sand slowly fell away, leaving her coughing it up along with a large amount of blood. But her mask remained on. She never took it off while fighting.
In front of her lay the form of Gaara. In his chest and arm where the needles had entered were three large lumps. Blood leaked from his eyes, his mouth, his nose, and even his ears. His brain had imploded and it wasn't a pretty sight. Behind him, the gourd of sand was shattered. Koumei regained her breathing and stood, walking over to his body and lifting it with difficulty. She had underestimated him.
Koumei spread her wings, which were luckily undamaged, and took off back towards the stone fortress. Her flight was slow and laboured because of the extra weight, and her lungs screamed at her to rest a moment. But she wanted to get this over with, and continued forward.
She found the Anbu guard in the same place, and he nodded silently, leading her back down without even offering to carry the grotesque corpse for her. She silently sighed and followed him.
When she arrived in the meeting room, however, the Anbu did take the body from her. He took it behind the curtain and there was a hurried conversation. Koumei waited patiently.
When the Anbu came out, he handed her a small animal skin bag full of coins. There was about onehundred fifty dollars in there. And that was less than a tenth of the promised price.
"How much is in here?" she asked angrily.
"One hundred dollars. It's all you deserve. Now leave."
Koumei stood and was going to argue, but decided that she did not have the energy to fight all of them, let alone the Kazekage, so she folded her wings close, glared at them, and turned away, stomping out of the chamber and back onto the roof.
When she got up, she sighed. This mission had taken longer than planned. She sighed again, storing away her money bag, and took off again, forcing her tired wings to fly her away from this horrible sandy wasteland. She headed towards the mountains, looking for a place to sleep. Once out of and far away from the Hidden Sand, she found a large tree to sleep on. So she simply sat down with her back against the trunk, and fell asleep on a particularly large branch about fiften feet up. What a horrible day.
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When she awoke early next morning, her neck and shoulders were screaming. Her wings were wrapped tightly around herself, and she wasn't cold, but that changed when she lifted them and all of the cold air entered her pocket of warmth, stealing it away from her. She shook herself and rubbed her arms, stretching to loosen the knot in her neck.
Koumei spent no time gathering her weapons and as she stretched once more, her stomach growled loudly. She hadn't eaten in the last few days, but her body was used to long periods without food. The only thing she'd had besides water was a cup of coffee and now her appetite was beginning to catch up to her. Just a few more days, she pleaded inwardly. Her stomached stopped growling and she spread her wings, taking off once more.
She spent the whole day flying, mostly just riding thermals and gliding to conserve energy, and the ground soon became covered in snow once more. The sun set, and she repeated her ritual of sleeping uncomfortably in another large tree, waking early and taking off towards the mountains again.
When she arrived at the foot, finally, she spent about an hour travelling the length of the mountain range until she found what she needed. A large waterfall, surrounded by stone houses and patrolled by Anbu. The Hidden Waterfall Village. She approached the nearest guard, landing on the walls of stone and folding her wings. She spoke up as he looked at her unbeleivingly.
"Please take me to Hayabusa Kawa. I am the Moon-nin that spent half a year here before, training her, and I came to complete her training. I have the contract from the Mizukage." She pulled out a light purple scroll and handed it to him. He bowed and muttered a 'Follow me, please' as he turned and walked away.
Koumei followed the Anbu guard as he jumped across the rooftops towards the waterfall. Upon reaching it, he told her to wait outside and left her with another Anbu, as he walked behind the falling water. Fifteen minutes later, he came out followed by a middle-aged woman. Well, older than Koumei at least, being twenty-eight. She had short, dark purplish hair tied back in a loose ponytail and oddly red eyes, and she was wearing a black and light blue Anbu uniform. She smiled at Koumei as she met her eyes through the mask.
"So, you've finally come back, Koumei-san?" she said softly, still smiling. Koumei nodded. "Has the Mizukage allowed me to take you away for training? I brought the contract."
"Hai. I can leave whenever you're ready. I have all I need." Koumei looked towards her large sack which she carried over her shoulder.
"Good, because I need to stop at the Lightning to get the other Wing-nin. Let's go."
The Waterfall-nin nodded and put down her bag for a moment. She held her hands in the seal for 'bird' and her eyes closed tightly. Two wings, light blue streaked with dark blue erupted from her shoulders, but she did not cry out as Koumei did. She simply grunted and opened her eyes, taking up her sac again and following Koumei into the afternoon sun. They were followed closely by the raven Kuro, and a brown fish-owl, Kawa's bird summon.
The two kunoichi travelled in silence for the remainder of the day, travelling farther and farther north until they reached a forest of thick pines where they set up camp in a large tree. Kawa cheerily opened her sac and took out food which Koumei eyed hungrily.
"You can have some if you like," said Kawa as she ate happily. But Koumei shook her head. "It's yours, I couldn't take it."
"Suit yourself. Help yourself if you change your mind."
Koumei smiled behind her mask. She enjoyed Kawa's company. She was a very talented Medical Ninja who also used Senbon as a primary weapon. Her powers might have even rivalled Tsunade's. Koumei turned towards the tree trunk and drifted off to sleep, dreaming her usual nightmares of ice and blood, and listening to Kawa munch contentedly on bread.
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Koumei woke when she felt Kawa's hand gently shaking her shoulder.
"We should go now if we want to make it there by nightfall. It's bad enough that we have to spend any time with Sora-baka at all!" she laughed quietly and helped Koumei up. "Come on, let's go."
They spent Koumei's fourth day travelling in silence again, occasionally asking a few questions or starting a small conversation. When the Hidden Lightning came into view, Kawa spoke up again.
"I wonder if he's changed at all. I hope so, because I don't know if I can put up with his comments for any amount of time." she paused, looking at the unresponsive form of Koumei. "You look tired. Give me the scroll and wait here. I'll go get him."
Koumei gladly did so, and watched as Kawa left her in a tree. There was a little snow here, not much, but enough to make her shiver. Her comrade returned a moment later followed by a gliding form with dark blue wings, shot through with black. He was actually strikingly handsome. He had black hair which he tied his Lightning head protector around, bandana style. His eyes were odd. His left eye was crystal blue, while his right was a pallid pink. He was almost always grinning about something. He hadn't changed a bit.
"Hey, beautiful," he said casually as Koumei flew up to join them.
"Shut it, Sora-baka," she said rudely. A large black eagle followed behind him.
"Hey, hey, hey! Easy! I love you too."
"You can't hit on two girls at the same time, baka-san," said Kawa laughingly. She'd obviously shared the same conversation with him moments ago. Koumei smiled behind the mask. Nope, hasn't changed in the least.
The trio continued on for three days like this, bickering and ignoring Sora's complaints. Koumei was now really hungry. Kawa had forced her to eat once, but other than a single meal, she had still eaten nothing all week. She was used to it though. Her adoptive father, the Tsukikage, had never fed her. Maybe a meal every week or so, but her village was poor and needed all the funds they could get.
They finally arrived back at Konoha at noon on the eighth day from Koumei's departure, and almost as soon as they landed in the training field, Koumei collapsed in exaughstion and hunger, lack of energy. She passed out and was caught by a 'lucky' Sora as she fell. There were two other Wing-nin in the clearing, and they came over as they spotted the Lightning and the Waterfall, along with the unconcious Koumei.
"What happened to her? And who the Hell are you two?" asked Kasei defensively. If they did this to her...
"Oh, you two must be Kasei and Genma, ne? We were Koumei's students and I guess she wanted to finish our training for some reason, so she came and brought us here. I'm Hayabusa Kawa, and this baka is Washi Sora. She led us here, but then she..." Kawa trailed off as she knelt down by the limp form of Koumei. Her trained Medical hands moved quickly across her body, hovering inches from the skin. She removed her mask and sighed.
"I swear. This kunoichi never listens. She doesn't know what's good for her. I don't think she's eaten in about a week. She is so stubborn and never accepts help from anyone. She simply ran out of energy," said Kawa. Koumei's wings dissappeared in a flurry of golden brown. "Do you two have somewhere to take her? She needs rest."
Genma looked at Kasei and pointed at him. Kasei sighed. "You can bring her to my place. She was staying there anyways."
"Oh, I get it. So you to are together, huh? I guess that means I can't follow her around anymore..." said a disappointed Sora.
Kasei snorted and took Koumei's limp form from him, shooting him a dirty glance. Sora grinned back. The four Wing ninjas lifted off, following Kasei to the outskirts of Konoha towards his home.