Another crow landed a few feet away from her, but she kept her eyes fixed on one name that had been etched into the stone on the memorial. Gekkou Hayate. She remembered when his name had been at the very bottom, the newest one placed on the list, but now there were many names following his. It had been three years since the war with the Sand and the Sound.
The doctors had been wron when they told her she had two years until permanent hospitalization. She was still living as a shinobi. She had recently been promoted to Anbu a few months ago, and had been promoted to Special Jounin at the beginning of last year, when she was fifteen. Kanzu had new gennin, Ken was an experienced special jounin and medical-nin, and Kirema, who was now seventeen, was a powerful jounin.
Her condition had been going steadily downhill since when she had last been captured. She had many different types of medication she had to take every morning or night to keep her alive now. But she had grown stronger alaong with Ken and Kirema this time, she now knew all five dances and used a ninja-to as her weapon.
Rikou had grown alot in the last two years, her hair growing out longer, reaching past her shoulders. She would have been one of the most beautiful girls in Konoha, had the sickness not affected her as much. Her skin was pale and she had small bags under her eyes, which were still the same striking green colour. She wore her black forehead protector bandana style, with a few peices of hair hanging out the front in her eyes, the rest pushed further back.
She had also abandoned her trenchcoat, instead wearing a skin-tight black outfit and long, black gloves. The bottom half of her face was usually covered up with a black face-mask, although she didn't wear it constantly, leaving only her eyes visible. She also carried her brother's ninja-to, ever present, across her back.
Sighing, she stood from her crouch, causing a few of the crows around her to hop away. They had recenlt started following her, and she now had four or five that were almost constantly with her. Before she left, however, she glanced at one of the crows, thinking about what she had read years ago. A little post-script at the end of the last paragraph.
'The crows will always lead the Gekkou's through anything. They will show the location of any item or find a person when lost. Always trust in the crows.' She held out her hand to one of the crows, stroking it gently and thinking about the words carefully. When she found no explaination, she turned and vanished, dashing back to her apartment. She had a mission today.
When she reached her small apartment, she stepped in slowly, leaving the lights off and moving to one of the walls. She had hung her three Anbu masks on the far wall, a blue racoon mask, a red tiger mask, and a purple bird mask. Her brother's masks remained in the closet. Below the three Anbu masks was the one thing she had worked hard to get.
Her green orbs traced the paths of the black designs that stood out on the white surface of the mask, curving up and around in intricate swirls. Her Hunter-nin mask. On the desk below it rested a small case, which she moved over to and opened, checking the contents.
There were many long, metal senbon needles neatly arranged from smallest to largest. Below them were many different pairs of tweezers, knives, scalpels, peices of metal and other tools, all neatly organized. She folded it up and attatched it around her waist. She then grabbed a pre-packed backpack ful of supplies and slung it over her shoulder, before removing her headprotector and replacing it with a plain black bandana.
She didn't like to use senbon as weapons, but she was fairly accurate with them, so she would often resort to using them in battle. Lifting her black and white hunter-nin mask from the wall, she pulled it over her face, attaching it at the back. She quickly stuffed a number of pill containers into a black side pouch, closing it securely before heading back out, locking the door behind her.
She dashed out of the building quickly, taking to the rooftops and heading for the edge of town where she would be meeting three other Hunter-nin. This was a mission she really didn't want to go on, but the pay was extremely good, and they needed her above all else to guide the other three shinobi.
The sun was about to set, and the shadows were taking over the village, so Rikou managed to keep hidden as she left the village walls, landing in the forest below and heading a bit further in. In a tree to her left, she noticed one of her team-mates sitting lazily in the shade, his blue and white mask hiding his face. But Rikou knew who it was.
"Where are the other two, Ken?"
"Oh, you're here. Neji just went to find Shikamaru, he should be back soon," he said quietly. He still wore his completely white trenchcoat, and he had grown much taller and more muscled. He had cut his hair shorter, and it now stood in small, silvery-white spikes that looked as if his head was covered in frost.
Rikou leaned against a tree patiently, shivering slightly in the cold autumn air. Winter is coming soon, she thought. I won't make it through it so easily this year.
A crow laded a few feet away, eyeing her before gliding onto her shoulder and nestling close for warmth. There was a soft whoosh of air as to other ninja landed beside her in crouches, one with a purple and white mask and the other's red and white.
"Are you guys ready now?" asked Ken in a bored voice, still lazing back against the tree.
"Yeah, let's get this over with," said Shikamaru, he was wearing the purple and white mask and was the team leader. Ken dropped from the tree branch, slinging his small pack over a shoulder and joining them. Rikou remained against the tree, looking out through the eye-slits in her mask.
"What's the plan?" asked Neji, standing as well. Shikamaru began planning out their movements, giving them their instructions as if he did this every day.
"Alright... Neji, you will be spending most of the time in the back and using you Byakugan to scout behind us. Ken, you will also spend more time towards the back to watch over me and Rikou un case of an ambush, you're the medical-nin and we need you to stay uninjured.
"Rikou will be leading us most of the way, or giving me directions so I will lead. When we're travelling, we'll travel in the D formation with me leading, Rikou behind me, Ken behind her and Neji in the back. I will watch the front, Neji the back, Rikou the left and Ken the right. When we near the destination, I will switch with Rikou and she will lead.
"If an enemy is sensed nearby, we will switch to formation A, but if we are currently looking for the location in question, we will take up formation B instead. If there are no enemies and we are near the location, we will switch to scouting in formation C, or split into groups Ue and Tei to spread out more. Now, Rikou, please show us these locations."
Rikou sighed, pushing her body off of the tree she was leaning on and moving forwards to join them, falling into a crouch. She drew a long senbon needle and began to draw a map of the shinobi countries into the dirt.
"Umm... There are four locations where they could currenlt be hiding according to my information. The two most likely locations are here, on the border of the Sound and the Leaf, and here, just inside the border of the Cloud. These are the two most recent locations..."
She marked the locations in the dirt as 1 and 2, circling them. "The other two were locations from four years ago, whe I was captured and tortured. I don't clearly remember, but it was either on the border of the Sand and Grass, or morewesterly on the border of the Sand, Grass and Rain. If they aren't in any of these locations, we can hunt them down individually, or at least in pairs, but I'll give you that information only if these locations are uninhabited."
She circled the last two locations as 3 and 4 before wiping off the senbon and replacing it in her weapon's pouch. Shikamaru paused, thinking hard as he eyed the map.
"Alright... We'll go to them in this order: 2, 1, 3, 4. So, we'll be heading to the Cloud first, I'll lead in D formation until Rikou tells us to stop, and then she'll take the lead. Let's go, we'll only be travelling by night," said Shikamaru, standing and sighing.
Rikou coughed lightly and adjusted her face mask under the mask before falling into place behind Shikamaru. Shikamaru raised his hand and waited for the others to fall into position before turning it slightly and taking of northeast towards the Cloud. The sun was almost fully set, it would take them two nights to reach their destination. They were off on their hunt for the Akatsuki.
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It was early on the second morning of travelling, and the sun had not yet risin, although the horizon was beginning to pale. Shikamaru held up his hand in the darkness, signalling for Rikou to take the lead. She sped up, passing him and taking the lead as the group slowed down slightly.
Rikou scanned the terrain, the forest ahead giving out into a vast field. She paused at the edge of the forest, raising her hand and telling the others to halt. She filed through the different pieces of information she had collected on the Organization, trying to place the location.
"Wait here," she ordered, breaking her cover and heading into the open. The field had several large, almost house-sized, stoned scattered across it, and she used them as cover, darting through the shadows.
Pausing at a particularly large rock, she jumped on top of it, raising herself ten extra feet off the ground where she stood. The view was breathtaking, the moonlight from the almost full mon painting everything silver. The grass seemed to blow as one, looking almost like an ocean as the wind blew in waves. Rikou shivered, ignoring the scenery and finally finding what she was looking for.
Another gust of wind kicked up, blowing the grass in waves, but the wave was broken at one point by something sticking up under the grass. She marked the rock she was on in her mind before vanishing, dashing back to the forest edge and crouching in a tree, looking around for the others.
"Did you find anything?" came Shikamaru's voice to her left. She nodded.
"I think I found it. Follow me," she whispered, taking off back to the rock. She landed in a crouch, alone, but she was soon joined by the other three, crouching around her. Shikamaru nodded and she glanced around for a moment, picking out the disturbance in the grass and taking off again in that direction.
She landed in a crouch in the tall grass, and being the smallest in the group, it rose completely over her head, concealing her completely. The other three joined her and they surveyed the second location she had mentioned earlier.
It consisted of a single rock, about the size of a door and was over a foot thick. Rikou moved aside as Neji and Ken began trying to lift it, soon joined by Shikamaru. It moved an inch, dirt and dust falling off of it as they struggled to lift it, finally moving it up enough. But that was as far as they could move it, only a foot off the ground. Before they dropped it, Rikou looked into a large hole, a tunnel that went deep underground.
"I can see," she said. "Lift it again and let me go in, I'm the smallest."
"What if there are people in there? What if they see you?"
"The underground system is bigger than you think. There are many entrances and different caverns and it is highly unlikely that they would be near this point anyways," she argued against Ken. He sighed and looked over to Shikamaru.
"Why can't we find another entrance then?" he asked, looking at Rikou.
"Umm... The other entrances need to be opened from the inside, except for one other, but that one is well hidden, underwater somewhere."
Shikamaru looked up at the stars, thinking hard. 'We have no choice then. Let's lift this again."
The three male shinobi grasped the edges of the large stone, forcing it slowly up again. Rikou removed her backpack and slid feet-first into the one-foot opening, wriggling her way into the darkness.
"Hurry Rikou! We can't hold it any longer!"
Rikou ripped off her weapons pouch and tossed it out, buying her some extra space and allowing her to slide into the darkness. The stone above her dropped loudly as she lay in the dark, catching her breath for a moment. When her eyes adjusted to the black void around her, she slid forwards slightly, but suddenly couldn't stop.
She fell forwards, but managed to slow her fall by bringing chakra to her feet and hands. It was no use though, because a moment later, the tunnel dropped off completely and she pitched forwards into a freefall, stifling a scream.
She fell for only a few moments, but it terrified her because she couldn't see the edges or the bottom. She landed painfully on her side, narrowly missing something sharp and white that stuck up from the ground an inch from her eye. She swallowed hard and pushed herself back into a crouch, looking around curiously.
She had been held in a similar chamber for some time, it was kind of like a level one torture chamber. But apperently, the ones being tortured here had died long ago, leaving only a few bones. She looked around a bit longer before standing. She moved over to a doorway which was covered in cobwebs, which she igneored, brushing past them.
She weaved carefully in and out of tunnels in no particular order, looking for entrances for over an hour, when she began to wonder if the others were worrying about her. Her eyes were now well suited to the darkness, and she managed to pick out a slight disturbance in the ceiling.
It was a stone hatch. She stared up at it for a while longer before bringing chakra to her feet and walking up the wall and across the ceiling. She paused for a moment before finding a hand hold on the hatch, pulling hard. The hatch wasn't as hard to open as she had thought, and she almost fell on her face as it flung her earthwards. Climbing back onto the ceiling, she looked up, light shining in her eyes.
There was a rough, wooden ladder running up the side of the hole, and she grabbed the bottom rung, starting to climb back into the morning. She popped her head from the ground and climbed out fully, standing and looking around.
"Took you long enough," came Ken's voice, inches from her ear. She spun around and saw the three other Hunter-nin standing with their arms crossed.
"...Sorry. It's bigger than I thought..."
"Is there anything down there?"
"...No," she said quietly.
She took a few steps forwards, but the other three suddenly jumped back, pulling out their weapons. An arm wrapped around Rikou's waist and a hand armed with nekotes dug into her neck, immobilizing her.
She struggled for a moment until whoever was behind her tightened their grip, almost suffocating her. She looked around, noticing that Shikamaru and Ken had disappeared, leaving only Neji facing her.
"Let her go," he said dangerously, raising eight senbon and glaring at them through his mask.
"How did you find this place?" asked the person holding her. His voice was low and dangerous to match Neji's. Neji said nothing as Rikou struggled harder, thinking of a solution. Moving quickly, she twisted ackwardly, catching the man's shins and spinning him onto the ground, her falling on top rougly where she drew her ninjato and pressed it ino his throat. But he was fast. He also held a knife to her throat, making it impossible for either of them to move.
Suddenly, her body stopped moving, freezing up. As she looked into the face of her attacker, she saw his eyes darting around in confusion, and she understood. Her legs began moving against her will, forcing her to stand along with the man. She noticed he had a Leaf head protector as her body turned to face Shikamaru's.
Her body relaxed as he released the Shadow Imitation jutsu from her body, allowing her to move away, joining Neji. Ken appeared as well, beside Shikamaru.
"Who are you? Why are you in the Cloud?"
The Leaf-nin said nothing, glaring at Shikamaru.
"He's not an Akatsuki," said Rikou, looking him over. He had no slash through his forehead protector and wore no Akatsuki robe.
Ken eyed him suspiciously. "You're... Kamunabi Oroshi from the Leaf, a missing-nin who ran a few years ago, after the war."
The missing-nin growled dangerously as Rikou vanished, reapppearing beside Shikamaru and whispering into his ear.
'It's not part of the mission... But he is a missing-nin from our village, so we should dispose of him, right?"
"Hn... I guess we should," muttered Shikamaru. "It's just so troublesome to get rid of the body."
The sun was higher up now as they stood in silence. Shikamaru made his move.
"Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu!"
The shadow around the missing-nin's feet crawled up his body, taking the form of hands as they moved up his body and grabbed his neck, strangling the air from his body until he slumped over. The shadow retreated and his body slumped to the ground, dead.
Geez, these guys... Shikamaru can kill so easily, she thought, eyeing the body.
Ken examined the body for a moment before lifting it and heading off towards the forest, followed by the other three. Rikou hated this part, it made her feel sick. Ken seemed to notice her dicomfort, and stopped preparing to dispose of it.
"If you don't like this then you don't need to watch," he said quietly. Rikou backed away thankfully, turning and walking into the forest. She leaned up against a tree, facing away as she slumped to the ground. It took them about an hour to dispose of the body completely, and Ken came over to her after.
"Rikou, we need some crows to finish up," he said, his hands covered in blood, but his white trenchcoat unstained. Rikou glared at him through the mask, thinking about whether or not she should summon some crows, and finally diciding to. Still sitting on the ground, she half-heartedly bit her thumb, making a few seals before placing her hand on the forest floor beside her.
"Kuchyose no jutsu," she muttered, forcing chakra to the hand. There was a puff of smoke and a large crow appeared beside her.
"You again? What do you want now?"
"Another body, Kuro. You can call others, but don't attract too much attention," she muttered. The dark bird seemed to perk up a bit as it took off, flying towards the body and cawing. A few minutes later, there were a total of eight crows gourging themselves on the leftover organs. Rikou almost gagged thinking about it, but they were finished quickly and she was able to go back over to the small clearing.
The clearing had no signs left of the body, no blood even. Neji was packing up his own case of tools and Shikamaru came up to her.
"Here," he said, handing her her bag and weapon's pouch. She took them and re-attatched them, slinging the bag over her shoulder.
"Thanks," she muttered, turning away. The sun was getting higher. "Shouldn't we set up camp?"
"Yeah, Neji already scouted out an area and found a suitable area to spend the day."
They slowly followed Neji to a small, concealed clearing, setting up camp and lazing around, eating a small amount of food. Rikou began coughing, but it wasn't an attack, she hadn't had one for a few months now. She shivered, the cold autumn air whistling through the partially bare branches of the trees around her.
Rikou jumped into a tree, leaning against the trunk and coughing again as she brought her legs up, still shivering. I'm so tired, she thought, slipping away without even getting in a bite of food. Tomorrow I'm going to be wasted.