Disclaimer: See Chapter 2.

A two on one battle was hardly fair.

But, Sabaki reflected as she backflipped to avoid the chain, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. After all, they were shinobi. Assassins. Demons of the shadows. Ninja were stereotypically known for underhanded tricks and sneaky illusions, as well as their ability to kill with no emotion. Guys like Tsuimaru and Chinji giving her a fair fight? Psh. Not in this dimension, Sabaki.

The kunai whip whizzed over her head, then abruptly shifted directions, coming back at a steep angle to aim for where she had crouched down on the forest floor. Sabaki rolled away again, stopped, then resumed rolling to dodge the whip as it slammed into the ground beside her.

Meanwhile, she hadn't been paying attention to Tsuimaru, as he hadn't moved. Bad decision on her part. She turned her eyes on him just as he finished what she presumed was a row of seals, held out both palms at her, and shouted, "Kaze Taihou!"

The air separating the two Genin seemed to quiver. At first, she was confused as to what that jutsu had done, but on sudden instinct, ducked down and felt two invisible yet definite somethings pass overhead. With mouth slightly open, she turned and watched as they collided with a tree, leaving a pair of small craters the size of grapefruits.

Kami-sama, was she glad she'd missed that one. At least now she knew Tsuimaru was a fuuton user...

But if she didn't get her butt moving, she wouldn't stay alive long enough to utilize that knowledge; the kunai chain was heading her way once more like a relentless attack dog. Sabaki jumped to the side, then ducked as it swerved back to grab her, then forced chakra into her feet and boosted herself away as it ate into the ground.

Possibly the only good thing she had going for her was that Chinji hadn't launched another attack since magically bringing his demented kunai whip to life, which meant that it took too much concentration for him to maintain it to use another jutsu simultaneously. That was good, but-

Sabaki grunted as Tsuimaru's kick caught her in the ribs. Reflexively, she grabbed his foot and started to flip him, but in a feat of strength and acrobatics that surprised her, he leapt up and hit her in the head with his free foot. With a dull cry, she fell and clenched the dirt angrily in her fists.

Just what was with this guy and aiming for the head? And he'd gotten her on the same side as the first time, too… With throbbing temples, Sabaki rose and crossed her arms in front of her to ward off three rapid punches from the dark-haired boy.

She needed to incapacitate him if she wanted to stand a chance. Chinji was helpless so long as he kept up his whip jutsu, unless he released it, but avoiding the evil thing had been simple enough so far, so all she had to do was keep it up long enough to attack him directly. However, versus Tsuimaru, even in a closely locked one on one struggle, she was no match.

As if the gods were trying to state that they agreed with her conclusion, Tsuimaru found an opening in her defense and punched her in the stomach. Hard.

Not even bothering to attempt a counter-attack, Sabaki leapt backwards to put some distance between them, also avoiding another strike from Chinji as the whip barely missed her throat. With one hand across her stomach, leaning forward slightly, she scooped up a kunai from her pouch and launched it at Chinji. As she'd hoped and expected, the whip came whizzing back to knock it away.

Her hands slammed together to form a few seals as Tsuimaru dashed towards her, three shuriken held in his left hand. Kumo Bunshin! Four forms, cloudy and heavy, began to condense in front of Sabaki, and as her opponent hesitated in a brief moment of uncertainty, they formed into her exact copies.

He seemed to snarl as he realized what she'd done. With a silent cheer of triumph, Sabaki sent her clones to keep him occupied and hurled a handful of senbon at Chinji, making the frustrated boy work at keeping them away from himself with his kunai chain.

However, as she quickly discovered, even with the numbers against him, Tsuimaru was no weakling. Before she could blink, two of her clones had been dispatched with the shuriken, his fist was plowing through the third, and he caught the fourth in the shoulder with a well-aimed kick… She would have one chance to do this.

A smirk was gracing his features as he straightened up to face the real Sabaki, but it quickly vanished. Tsuimaru was fast, but he wasn't fast enough to dodge this… Her kunai speared into his arm. The dispersing clouds from her Kumo Bunshins had made really great cover.

Sabaki mentally shouted a 'hell yeah' in triumph and cocked her wrist, grinning confidently and preparing to toss a second one at him-

And was effectively stopped as Chinji's whip encircled her and tightened, trapping her arms to her sides. As the blades dug into her from too many angles to count, she screamed in pain, her legs buckled, and her kunai slipped from her fingers. Kami-sama, the pain! Sure, she'd been impaled by projectiles before, and she'd gotten her ankle snared by the kunai whip before, but that had only been one small circle around her foot…

This on the other hand, was her arms and torso, with the whip wrapped around her three full times, and though it was difficult to tell, Sabaki thought that Chinji was still stepping up the pressure on his unlucky captive, making the chain squeeze her like a boa. The agony was indescribable; this must've been what it felt like to be under torture.

"Kaze Taihou!"

Her screams evaporated into feeble gasps as Tsuimaru's Wind Artillery attack slammed into her, sending her to the ground. Sabaki tried to get up, but failed. She couldn't hold enough focus to stand; the pain was that great. All the helpless Genin could do was writhe as the chain continued to crush her in a vicious hug.

Understandably, as she was too distracted, she did not notice Tsuimaru approaching her. She did not notice how slow and leisurely his steps were. She did not notice him tugging her kunai out of his arm. She did not notice the way his eyes danced over her convulsing form, narrowed in contempt. She did not notice him at all until he bore his heel down upon her head.

For Sabaki, it was added hell and a blessing at the same time. Temporarily, the powerful beating of her temples was so bad she forgot all about the kunai whip that was holding her prisoner. She lay still, listening to the uneven rhythm of her tremendous headache and pounding heartbeat. And then, Tsuimaru had to go and wreck her peace by seizing the collar of her shirt and pulling her up.

He was strong for a guy his size and age, about average; he was holding her with just one hand, her feet dangling just barely above ground. As the symphony of dull and sharp pain meshed together and began to return in full force, Sabaki looked at his scowling face with one eye, opened her other eye to look at the wound she'd given him, then finally flicked her gaze over to his other hand, in which was held the kunai, tip smeared a deep red.

"Weak..." he growled, scorn dripping heavily from his tongue. His grip on the kunai tightened.

Despite her terribly weakened condition, Sabaki could not help but be annoyed. It was two on one! Unfair, unfair! "So what?" she returned, her voice a soft but harsh whisper.

"Worthless vermin like you deserve to die," Tsuimaru replied ferociously.

"Screw you," she snapped back. Her body tensed as the kunai whip jingled, and Sabaki mentally cursed Chinji. Couldn't he see that she and Tsuimaru were having an important chat? Why was he squeezing her again?... "Do it, then. Kill me."

His reaction was unexpected. In the brief few days she had known him (brief because she kept getting knocked out by Yuumoya), to have him hesitate on anything, especially a decision that was battle-related, would have completely thrown her off. And yet, here they were, the ruthless and hitai-ate-less Genin with an opponent just begging to be killed. Seriously, she'd told him to do it, straight from her own mouth. And he wasn't taking action.

Why? He wasn't killing her... Because Yuumoya had told them not to? Was that it? Sabaki relaxed a little even though she was still in immense pain. Ah, so he couldn't kill her because his precious sensei had said so... Ha! Take that, you icy bastard!

"Go ahead."

Yuumoya, who had remained silent throughout the entire battle, suddenly spoke up, and his statement scared her to death. He was revoking his earlier rule. A shiver passed through her, and as Sabaki turned her head towards him with some difficulty, he repeated, "Go ahead. Kill her, Tsuimaru."

No. No, no, no. He can't... No, I can't die. I refuse to die! Sabaki started to struggle, heightening the agony to whole new levels, but she ignored it as best she could and thrashed about, tossing little specks of her own blood onto the ground and Tsuimaru's clothing. Terrified, she watched as he brought the kunai up, steadied it so that the point was aimed at the hollow of her throat, and gradually applied pressure.

She felt wetness stinging her eyes and realized she was crying again. Damn it, Sabaki! She probably appeared even weaker now. Not wanting to witness the moment of her demise, she shut her eyes...

"No."

What?

And to her sheer amazement, she was dropped onto the forest floor, wholly alive. Subconsciously, she was aware of the sudden loosening of the kunai coils wrapped around her, and that the faint blue glow surrounding them had disappeared. Chinji must've broken his concentration out of shock; she didn't blame him.

"Why not?" Yuumoya's cool voice prevented her from being relieved. If the Jounin wanted to, he could just as easily remove her from the world of the living. But when Tsuimaru did not answer, he murmured, "So, I see..."

What? What did he see?

But her vision was blurring badly, and as she lay stomach down on top of the whip, Sabaki realized at last that she was bleeding quite profusely. Strangely though, the pain had vanished, replaced by a pleasant state of numbness that was steadily creeping towards her brain, clouding the corners of her thoughts. Augh, she was going to pass out again...

Yuumoya's indifferent voice was the last thing she heard, "Take her back and patch her up."

When she came to, the first thing she realized was that someone was poking at her wounds. Feeling déjà vu wash over her, Sabaki briefly contemplated whether or not to keep her eyes closed and pretend to still be asleep, but a familiar, cold voice broke her thoughts.

"Finally back with us?"

Tsuimaru. She released a heavy sigh as she opened her eyes and settled them on the brown-haired boy. "Unfortunately, yeah." She was back in her bedroom... No, not her bedroom, but the bedroom that her kidnappers had stuck her in... And was currently laying flat on the old mattress, the blanket pulled up to her waist.

He snorted in response and rubbed the white healing cream at a spot on her arm. In contrast to yesterday, the pain was sharp instead of dull, but did it really matter? Sabaki supposed not. Pain was pain. And frankly, she was a tad sick of having to wake up with pain as company. Though she sorely wanted to tell Tsuimaru to be a little gentler, she recalled his annoyance with her last time, and so held her tongue.

"You're improving."

Raising an eyebrow at this flat remark, Sabaki turned her head and gave him a look not too far from exasperation. "What the hell? I lost. Again."

"While that may be true..." Tsuimaru's voice carried no sympathy as he lifted her arm by the wrist and applied some cream to a gash on the back of her hand, "You didn't stay unconscious quite as long today." His dark eyes studied her for a moment, then turned their attention back to his task. "It's only around two in the afternoon right now... Yesterday it was almost evening before you woke."

"Oh," was all she could think to respond with. Well, there had to be an explanation for that. She hadn't gotten trounced quite so badly today as she had yesterday. Okay, so maybe not. How on earth was she supposed to compare the two battles, anyway? Either way, she'd gotten her butt kicked. Just look at her. She was bedridden, for crying out loud.

Wait, why was she trying to justify herself to this guy, anyhow? If she was getting stronger, that was a good thing.

At that moment, she felt Tsuimaru's hands rove over her stomach, across bare skin, and she gave a start, sitting up abruptly. Pain stabbed her in the stomach, but Sabaki ignored it and pushed herself back against the headboard, blushing furiously and gritting her teeth. "Hey, hey! Keep your hands to yourself, buddy!"

He stared at her, surprised. Then, his eyes drifted downwards, paused on her chest, and suddenly the normally stoic Genin looked away, appearing flustered. He quietly cleared his throat.

Sabaki looked down. Ah. Now she had a better picture of things... Her shirt had been removed, which explained how Tsuimaru had been able to touch her bare stomach in the first place, but amazingly, some considerate person had covered her upper torso with a towel. However, when she sat up, it had fallen, and was currently pooled around her waist.

Silently, she thanked Kami-sama she always took care to dutifully bind her breasts before venturing out to do training or missions.

As her cheeks grew uncomfortably warm, she eased herself back to a lying position and subtly rearranged the towel over her chest. Tsuimaru, sensing it was once again safe to look at her, dabbed his fingers into the little container of healing cream in his hand, and resumed his work.

"Um..." Sabaki began, trying to phrase her question as neatly as possible, "...Where's... my shirt?"

She saw his ears turn red, and the boy mumbled, "It was cut up. I had to take it off." When he felt her tense, he immediately added with haste, "But I didn't do anything funny! I swear!"

Oh, what was this? Suspiciously, Sabaki raised an eyebrow at him again and wondered... Could it be true? Was the deadly, unemotional Tsuimaru actually embarrassed at her unintentional slip-up? Yes, he was! A silly grin plastered itself over her face, though she couldn't exactly figure out why she was so happy. Perhaps it was discovering that even he had a weakness. And what a weakness it was.

Tsuimaru noticed the decidedly evil smirk she was wearing, and apparently figuring out what was on her mind, unexpectedly pressed down on a gash in her stomach, causing her to jerk in pain.

"Ow!"

He returned her indignant cry with a light chuckle, and spread cream on the other side of her stomach without a word.

Hmph. Grrr. Sabaki settled down and mentally cursed him. Stupid Tsuimaru. She turned her head away from him and refused to look him in the eye again.

Kaze Taihou no Jutsu (Wind Artillery Technique) – Sends two spheres of condensed wind at the opponent, like small cannonballs.

Kumo Bunshin no Jutsu (Cloud Clone Technique) – Creates copies of the user, made of clouds. They are very weak and can deal light damage, but serve best as a distraction.