(A/N) Assasination Mission! This is a murder, so uh, if squemish, don't read.
Tenten breathed out silently, releasing the arrow as she did. It flew true, landing with a thunk right below one of the guards of the wall. The bow and arrows were from a nearby town, making sure nothing led back to Konoha. Neither of them were even wearing their headbands.
"Nice aim," Shisui muttered.
"The best," she murmured back.
As expected, the guards freaked, ringing alarms and generally sending the fortress into a tizzy.
They slipped into the fortress easily, using the confusion and panic to walk unhindered. On the ceiling. No one bothered looking up anyway.
The person they'd been sent to murd-assassinate, it was an assassination, had his rooms around the middle of the fortress. Of course, they weren't difficult to find, given that they were the most lavish of the rooms.
Often, assassinations came with a request of how to kill the person, be it to make it look like an accident, which was easiest to manage through use of poisons and a bit of pushing people out of windows and making sure they got impaled on a branch on the way down.
In this case, they were told to make it look like Kumo had done it.
This didn't mean leaving a Kumo headband at the scene, no, that would be too overt. They were ninja, if a headband got left, then someone was clearly being framed. However, they could leave a bit of fabric that could belong to a Kumo headband, and make the murder look like it had been done by a Kumo nin. People were good at drawing conclusions. As long as she and Shisui left nothing of theirs behind, they'd be fine.
There were rumors that the man had Hyuuga descent, with pale purple eyes and barely visible pupils.
Personally, Tenten thought the man was just blind, something about how he acted and didn't react to movements to the sides of him that he presumably didn't hear. But orders were orders, and a mission was a mission. The rumors about his Hyuuga heritage would come in handy here, giving a motive for the Kumo nin to kill him.
And while it was perhaps a bit gruesome, gouging out his eyes was the best way to lend credence to the Kumo thing. They were famous for the Hyuuga debacle ages ago. Well, fewer ages now, given what time she was in. While it had happened when she was a kid, some 13 years ago, right now, in the time she was in, it was a scant 5 years ago, still fresh in most people's minds.
The man was alone in his quarters, which made it all the easier for them. They were lavish, of course, and Tenten snorted internally at the ridiculous paintings strung up around the room.
She exchanged glances with Shisui, then struck, slicing across the man's throat as she fell. An easy clean kill.
Shisui had volunteered to remove the eyes, personally Tenten thought he was being salty about how it'd almost happened to him, but she wasn't going not let him indulge in a bit of saltiness. Especially when he'd almost died. And had died in the original timeline.
With the assassination finished, Tenten dropped the slice of Kumo fabric.
"This place is so tacky," Shisui complained, glaring down one of the paintings.
"He's a rich evil douchebag, what did you expect?" Tenten asked, examining the embroidery on one of the pillows. "Huh, I recognize a lot of this code from the kunoichi classes, this may have been left here on purpose. What's known about this man's wife?"
"Not much I think, she's pretty hidden. I think they have a kid or two though," Shisui replied, leaning over her shoulder to look at the pillow too. "What's it say?"
"Well, not so much saying as there's red snapdragons on here for deceit or trickery, a four red spider lilies which usually mean death, and the date in the corner is two days ago. If anything, I'd have to guess it means whoever embroidered this will die in two days, or possibly make it look like they're dying. Or someone else will make it look like they're dead. I'm not entirely sure."
"Do we know who embroidered it?" Shisui wondered, looking at the other pillows.
"His wife is the primary suspect, but could have been a maid. Should probably ask the wife first," Tenten decided. "We do have another three days on the mission, so might as well."
"Can't hurt probably, as long as we make sure nothing leads back to Konoha," Shisui agreed, shrugging.
"I guess we search the area then," Tenten said. "You take west I take east?"
Shisui nodded, and they separated. Tenten made a pair of shadow clones to help her search, avoiding the still panicking guards, and checking in each of the rooms she came across.
She didn't find anything, so she extended her sensing field to find Shisui, who had stopped somewhere in the fortress.
She hurried to where he was, keeping a metaphorical eye on him to make sure he wasn't just pausing somewhere to catch his breath or something, as unrealistic as that was.
Shisui was waiting on the ceiling right outside a door, likely waiting for her. She walked up, tilting her head in a silent question.
"She's in there," Shisui replied quietly. "Four children, youngest is six, eldest is 15."
"Shall we go in?" Tenten asked, tilting her head to the door.
"Let's henge as guards, I wanna see their reactions," Shisui said, glancing down the hallway both ways.
Tenten looked as well. There weren't any guards in sight. Which would be more odd if they hadn't just set off an alarm not 20 minutes ago. "Let's do it."
They dropped to the floor silently, and applied henges of the guards. Shisui knocked on the door.
"C-come in," the woman called, and Tenten opened the door.
The mother flinched away when they opened the door, curling protectively around the youngest, while the middle two stood in front of the eldest one, who glared intimidatingly.
The eldest of the children, a boy, looked like their father, while the next two, a girl and a boy, looked like their mother. The final one, looked about like an even split down the middle. Tenten wondered if he'd originally been twins that fused together while still forming.
"Why are you here?" The eldest asked guardedly, pushing past his siblings.
"Are you Rei?" Tenten asked instead, looking at the mother.
She nodded hesitantly, and the eldest growled at being ignored. "Why are you here, who are you!?"
Tenten glanced at Shisui. 'Let see?' She signed quickly.
Shisui shrugged in a 'might as well' way.
Tenten dropped her henge. "We're Konoha nin, and can get you out of here. Rei, you embroidered the pillow with red snap dragons and four spider lilies?"
Rei nodded, holding the youngest closer to her.
Shisui dropped his henge as well. "They're your kids?"
The eldest nodded for his mother. "I'm Touya, these are Fuyumi and Natsuo. Mom has Shouto. You can get us out of here?"
"Do you have an alternative last name you could use?" Shisui asked instead.
"Yuki." Rei said, standing up. "We can use Yuki. It's my maiden name."
Tenten traded glances with Shisui. Yuki was the last name of the ice clan from Mist. Tenten had been thinking they'd drop the family off in a nearby town, but it looked like that wouldn't be the best option.
She scanned the area quickly. Guards were fast approaching, and it looked like the kids had bigger chakra systems then the average civilian.
'Konoha?' She signed to Shisui.
'Konoha,' he signed grimly back.
"Alright, come here, and we'll get out. I'm going to teleport us a days walk from Konoha. I'll have to rest afterwards. Shisui, when we get there, send a crow to Konoha and tell them to expect us." She turned to the family. "You'll be safe in Konoha, but we have to leave, and now."
With anxious glances towards the rapid thudding coming down the hall, the family crowded around.
Tenten reached out an arm. "Hold on, and don't let go. You too Shouto. Everyone has to."
Once she was sure everyone was holding on, she reached for the right mark, taking a deep breath, and teleporting them all to it.
She stumbled as soon as they were in the clearing, the trip draining her reserves. "Settle in here, I need to pass out. Shisui, you're good for at least a couple hours?"
Shisui nodded quickly. "Yep, we're all good. Sleep and get your chakra back."
Tenten nodded her thanks, set up her tent as quickly as she could, and crashed.
(A/N) Well that was a trip. There was a cameo here. Let's see who finds it…