"This is our house," said Kurome. The sun was beginning to set, and this was their last stop on his tour. Saigo had said hardly anything all day, but he smiled and laughed alot. Kurome led her through the doors of a large house on the edge of town. The yard was well decorated, with a stream and a small pond and many beautiful flowers.
The inside of the house was large and spacious, with weapons on display on the tables, walls and above the fireplace. It was very clean also, everything seemed organized. Kurome released her hand as she looked around.
"What are the swords for?" she asked, eyeing them anxiously.
"Practicing, display, whatever. Don't you know anything about shinobi?"
"Not alot. I don't live in the actual Hidden Village, I live outside it. I've seen shinobi before, I've seen them fight," she said, still looking around.
"Here, I'll show you," said Kurome. Saigo shifted slightly.
"Are you sure you should be doing this, Kurome?"
"I'm not gonna hurt her, I'll use it on you," he said, pulling a sword from a shelf.
"Hijutsu: MaKatana no Jutsu!"
Chakra exploded from the sword, snapping around in the shape of a nameless creatures head, fangs of chakra snapping towards Saigo. There was a flash of light, and when Kumori opened her eyes again, she saw Saigo with a sword of his own, blocking the powerful jutsu. Kurome laughed and lifted his sword, replacing it on the shelf.
"That's how ninjas fight," he stated simply.
He showed her around the rest of the house, taking her upstairs and showing her his room. It was large with a wide variety of weapons hanging on the walls. When he showed her Saigo's room however, her heart beat faster. This would be more difficult than she had thought, for sure now.
On the walls of Saigo's room hung hundreds of forhead protectors from various villages, which she guessed to be his victims. But what was worse, on the walls were shelves and shelves of poisons and antidotes, small weapons tha could be easily hidden, ingredients for making the poisons, things even she had never seen before.
"Yeah, Saigo has a thing for poison," said Kurome, noticing her amazement as she looked around. Saigo stepped in front of them and closed the door, cutting off her view of the room and steering his brother back down the hall.
"It's late," she said. "I should go."
"Sure... I'll walk you back, this town's not as friendly at night. You coming, Saigo?"
Saigo said nothing, but followed them out of the house. It took them only a few minutes to reach the hotel she was staying at, and they said their farewells.
"Do you want to do something tomorrow? You could come and watch us train if you want. I could show you some of my other Jutsus," said Kurome.
She smiled faintly, turnind away and brushing her hair out of her face. There was a moment of silence as she left him hanging.
"Sure," she said finally.
"Great! I'll come get you before training. What's your room number?"
"208," she said simply. She pushed through the hotel's front door, leaving Kurome and his brother outside. As soon as she heard Kurome's voice vanish, she dropped to the floor, covering her mouth and closing her eyes. She sat like that for a few minutes before standing and dashing upstairs, into her room. Hikari and Tsuno were already there, speaking quietly.
She burst through the door, cutting them off and dashing over to her bag, pulling out her poison case and opening it, looking over her arsenal. She swore under her breath and stood, flopping onto her bed and leaning against the wooden wall, bringing up her knees to her chest and burying her face in her arms.
"What's wrong?" asked Hikari, looking over at her. She said nothing for a few more minutes, but suddenly stood, whipping out a kunai and a photograph and throwing them at the same time to the wall beside the door. Genma stepped in at the precise moment the kunai embedded itself into the wall, pinning a picutre of Saigo to it.
"Woah, watch it," he said, jerking his head back.
"I swear, this is getting impossible...." she swore under her breath again as the other three looked at her in confusion.
"What went wrong?" asked Genma.
"Nothing, they were both staring at me! But, that guy," she pointed angrily at Saigo's picture on the wall. She remained pointing at it for a few moments, before dropping her hand and sighing.
"It complicates things considerably," she muttered.
"What does?" asked Tsuno.
"He is a poison master, more experienced then me. If he is able to identify the poison I use on him, he will be able to counter it easily."
There was a moment of silence. "Then make one without a cure," said Tsuno.
She clenched her fists in frustration, sighing loudly and turning away. "You don't get it," she muttered.
"Then tell us so we can help you out," said Hikari simply.
There was a moment of silence before she began explaining. "A poison master tests the poisons he or she makes on their own bodies, which not only tells them if what they're using is going to work, but it also builds up a strong resistance to poison. That's the first problem, he has a great deal more poisons than I and probably has a high resistance to all of them, making it impossible for me to easily poison him.
"The second problem, is that he will know the tricks people use when poisoning another, and will easily be able to recognize it if I use any. That will also make it impossible for me to get close enough to him.
"The third problem is that even if I manage to poison him, he will be able to make or find an antidote quickly. If I am not there to watch him die, he will probably continue living. On top of that, he is a former Leaf-nin and therefore knows all about Konoha poisons.
"The fourth is that he uses Genjutsu. Genjutsu plus poison equals big problems. There is no escape and he will be able to get me to give him any information he wants, even if I think I'm hiding it well.
"The fifth problem is that if he twists this around and I end up as the one being poisoned, even with my clan's resistance to poison and my own built up immune system, it will kill me quickly. He had many types of deadly poisons that I have only heard of in books, ones that I never knew existed. If he manages to poison me, I'm dead.
"The sixth and last problem is that he is probably a hundred times smarter than his brother. No matter what I try on him, he will always see past it, twist it around, use me, and then kill me. He has over a hundred forehead protectors hanging from his walls as trophies from the people he has killed. There was no blood on any of them, telling me that he knows how to use poison effectively."
The room was completely silent as even Genma seemed stunned at this boy's talent. Her fists were still clenched in anger, but she relaxed, a smile creeping onto her face.
"I suppose I'd enjoy a challenge, though," she muttered. She turned back around, flopping down in front of her poison holster. She opened a small compartment on the left and held up a single, black vial that had been melted together at the top securely, sealing it completely.
"Are you sure this isn't a bit too much of a challenge?" asked Genma. She looked at the rest of her team out of th corner of her eye, noticing their concerned expressions. She held up the black vial.
"I still have my trump card."
She pryed open the top carefully, pulling out a small container and carefully pouring the contents into it. They were black, with small dark bits floating in it. She reached into her bag and pulled out her weapons pouch, pulling out a singe nekote, the one for her ring finger, wiping it on her shirt before submerging the tip in the poison.
"This is crushed Kuroyuri, a deadly type of lily that blooms only once every twenty years. I was lucky enough to find one small flower a few months ago, and it only made a few drops of poison, but I have it nonetheless. If he is lacking one poison, it would be this one. There is no antidote and it kills in seconds, attacking the heart directly and stopping bloodflow."
She let the nekote sit in the dark liquid before climbing back into bed. But she sat up a moment after Genma left the room, suddenly remembering.
"Tomorrow morning Kurome is picking me up from here, so when you hear a knock on the door, hide youselves and your bags. I told him I was on a business trip with my dad."
She rolled over, falling asleep again facing away from the other two gennin. She drifted away, thinking of how she would kill the two brothers without knowing the other was dead.
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It was the fourth night here, and she would be putting her plan into action tomorrow. She rolled over in her bed, thinking about her plan as she did every night. To her, it was almost flawless. Almost.
Kurome had invited her over to his house for her last night here, but had made it so that it was only her and him. Saigo was left out again, Kurome told him to 'go hang out at the sushi bar or whatever.' He had said nothing, but silently agreed.
Kumori was nervous, she could easily deal with Kurome, but Saigo was very difficult to get close enough to in order to poison him. But she had thought up a good enough plan. She closed her eyes, rolling over again as tried to comfortable position. tomorrow was going to be a stressful day.
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She shakily reached up and knocked on the door, and it opened quickly, revealing Kurome in his usual white t-shirt and black shorts. She stepped in silently, deep in thought. Her tongue ran across a small capsule in her mouth that she would bite at the precise moment if things went according to plan.
"I got you something as a going away present," he said, handing her a large boquet of flowers.
"It's beautiful," she said in a falsely sweet voice. Kurome said nothing, but he was looking at her strangely. He suddenly reached up, pressing her back against the wall. She dropped the flowers, her mind racing. This guy sure jumps to things quickly, she thought.
His arms wrapped around her thin waist, feeling warm on her cold skin as he leaned forwards slowly, tilting his head. She bit the capsule.
As his lips pressed onto hers and parted, she let a small amount of the liquid trickle into his mouth. The poison took a few moments to take affect as it finally trickled down the back of his throat. He suddenly cunvulsed, his eyes opening wide as he slipped to the floor silently, eyes still open.
Kurome spat out the rest of the poison onto his still face, wiping her lips in disgust. She moved into the kitchen, grabbing a glass of water and rinsing out her mouth before placing the cup in the sink and leaving. That was the easy part.
It took her a moment to bring fake tears to her eyes as she dashed through the town, past the sushi bar where, sure enough, Saigo sat surrounded by girls. She caught his eye as she dashed towards the hotel, fake tears streaming down her face. The last thing she saw before she turned the corner was Saigo standing and pushing the girls around him away, dashing after her. She sped up.
Kumori burst through the Hotel's door, taking the stairs two at a time and entering the empty room. She had ordered her team mates to leave the room alone that night, but hadn't explained her plan to them. Sure enough, they had taken their things, and hers too as she had ordered, and left the building.
She curled up on her bed, burying her face in her arms and crying softly. It took only a few more moments for the door to her room to burst open, a panting Saigo stumbling in.
"Kiri, what happened!?"
She sniffled loudly, raising her head and seeing Saigo in his usual black outfit. She jumped up from the bed and ran towards him, wrapping her arms around her weakly, still shedding her fake tears.
"Kurome... there-there were people there with masks and... and he was on the ground in a puddle of blood..."
"Hunter-nin!? Shit..."
He kicked the door shut behind him, rocking her back and forth gently.
"Shh... It's alright. They won't come here," he whispered, his dark hair falling into her face.
She felt the nekote on her ring finger and made a quick slash on his neck. A small scratch that barely drew blood. It was all that was needed for the poison to take affect.
He cried out in pain, suddenly pushing her away and grabbing his neck. She tossed the nekote out the open window, backing away as he fell to the ground, still. She sighed, that hadn't been too hard.
She carefully stepped over his dead body, moving towards the door, but suddenly fell, pain shooting up through her ankle. As she hit the ground, she found her eyes on the same level as Saigo's which were burning in anger. He had cut her achilles tendon, stopping her completely.
She tried to push herself away, but he grabbed her left arm, slicing it open several times with a kunai. He suddenly stopped, crying out again as the poison began to kill him, but he wasn't done. With his last strength, he stabbed the kunai into her neck, narrowly missing a main artery before he fell completely still.
It took awhile for the new pain to sink in, and when it did, she cried out, ripping the kunai from her throat and throwing it across the room, falling back down. Saigo's chest was on top of her, his dead, sightless eyes staring angrily at her and his face still contorted in anger. She tried to move, but her entire right leg was useless from the severed tendon. She fell back, breathing heavily.
Breathing heavily? Fear suddenly hit her. Her forehead broke out in sweat as her breaths became raspy. She struggled to cry out again, but she broke out coughing instead. Looking down at her cut up arm, she saw the edges of the cuts fizzing slightly, small bubbles burning to the surface. She had been poisoned.