It was three days later, two AnBu waiting in the treetops, invisible amongst the foliage. "I see the target." One AnBu – a man judging by his build- nodded and spoke into his intercom: "Gotcha. Circle-four six o'clock and lunge."
"Roger that," his partner responded. That AnBu's physique was slight with a tiny waist, marking her as female. Her mask sported tiger-stripes and slitted eyes; her team-mate's the savage grin of a wolf. "Birdy Five has knuckle-duster, left paw."
"I copy. Any other presents?"
"Frog-sticker, inside pocket. Two fingers' length, give or take."
"Move when the birdy sings."
"Tickle the birdy?"
"Tickle the birdy."
A shuriken whizzed over the head of a dark-haired man below the vantage points of the two AnBu. He was at the head of a column of foot-soldiers and fifteen shinobi, all guarding a kago. Their target was inside.
The man screamed and threw himself to the ground, creating instant pandemonium. The AnBu went straight to work. They would have preferred to use a Silent Homicide technique, but that was difficult in the midst of fifty people. Their best bet would be to kill them all off. It sounded difficult, but you must realize that the Tiger- and Wolf-masked shinobi were among the best in their class. They didn't fail.
The column of soldiers and the fifteen hired ninjas were dead within three minutes. The two AnBu wiped off their swords, looking around warily. "Oi, birdy." The man who had first screamed and twitched, pretending to be a corpse. He got up, watching warily as the Tiger AnBu approached him. She flicked him a gold coin. "We expect good work in the future. Is that clear?"
"Oh, yessir… I mean, yes ma'am!" he said nervously. He decided that biting the coin in their presence to see if it was real would be rude.
"Then get out of my sight." He happily complied, running for all he was worth.
The Wolf AnBu tore aside the blinds of the kago, sword raised. He faltered, then swore vividly. "Damn those bastards! It's adummy." He ripped off the head for emphasis, stuffing falling out of it.
"They must be watching," the Tiger said cautiously, scanning the trees and tensing her legs to jump.
"No. I would've sensed them and you would've smelled them. It's some of that new technology." He plucked a black button from the dummy's rich robes and destroyed it between two gloved fingers. "They know where we are. If we go right now we'll be fine if we take the long way."
"We have to hurry, then," the Tiger sheathed her sword with a sharpching. "We got blood on ourselves. If they have dogs they'll find us."
"Thatdamn birdy. I'm going to kill him."
"No time. I can hear them. There must've been another party coming behind because they knew this would happen. Hayaku!"
One moment they were standing in the road, the next they were gone with no sign but the carnage that they had been there.
The two kept up a swift pace even for shinobi all that day. After an hour or two they would feel safe, but then the baying of hounds could be heard quickly approaching.
"How can they still be following us?" the Wolf demanded, taking off his mask and wiping sweat from his face. His team-mate also ripped off her mask and unzipped her vest, flapping her sleeveless turtleneck to cool off.
"This is ridiculous!" she cried, flushed from the heat of exertion and the warmer territory they had been chased into. "They're always heading us off whenever we try to go back! They know where we're going. They knew we'd be there. That stupid birdy… he must've ratted us out!"
"They're using summons, I can tell. I lost track of how far they've pushed us." The Wolf -Katsuo- spread a map out on a broad rock the same color as his hair. The Tiger –Kurai- leaned in for a closer look.
"I recognize these plants. We're fifty miles south-west of Kumogakure and we started out thirty miles south of it only this morning."
"That leaves us in northern Fire Country," Katsuo observed. "Too bad we don't have time to pay a visit to Ichiraku's in Konohagakure."
"Maybe another time. The sun's going down." Kurai pointed up through the dense foliage to a miraculously clear sky already starting to turn orange with the dying light of day. "We can wait and double-back past them in the dark if we don't collapse."
"Soldier pill?" Katsuo offered, pulling a small roll of white paper out of his pocket and unfolding it to reveal three small round objects.
"Thanks. Now, I'm thinking instead of the twenty we've been doing, we should go-"
"As fast as we can?" Katsuo popped one of the pills in his mouth and swallowed, shuddering as the temporary stimulants coursed through his bloodstream.
"Sounds good. These the twenty-four hour ones?" Kurai gulped down her own pill, adjusting her short-sword across back.
Her team-mate pulled his mask down over his face as the Tiger re-zipped her vest.
"Yep. I can't afford more than one of those three-day ones. What's the point of wasting your money on seventy-two hours when you only need twenty-four?"
"I hope you're right. Here they come. Keep in sight, okay?"
"Hah. You can see me but I can't see you in the dark. All right, let's go!" They disappeared , not even leaving footprints in the deep loam as the snuffling and baying came closer.
It was a full-moon that night, for better or for worse. Clouds occasionally passed over it, leaving the world in perfect blackness for a few moments before being brightly lit up with silver. There was a sharp intake of breath and a crunch. It set off a fresh symphony of baying and shouts from too close for comfort.
"Damn it… sorry," Kurai whispered. They had had to stop going through the trees, not wanting to waste their chakra as it seemed they would have to fight their way out. Kurai had managed to put her foot through a blackberry bramble.
"They'll find us anyway. We're just prolonging it. Hold still." Katsuo planted his hands on his team-mate's slim waist and lifted her straight out of the bramble. "Kami you're heavy."
"Shut up. Have you got any extra bandages? I don't want to bleed everywhere." Her eye's glowed eerily in the dark, reflecting back every fraction of moonlight on the world.
"Yeah. Here. We'll pause for a moment and collect our wits."
Kurai accepted the extra roll of bandages and peeled off her boot, slick with sweat and blood. She wrapped the clean white gauze around her shin, bleeding from a multitude of small scratches and punctures. The pain didn't faze her. She'd had to work through far worse. "You're leg looks like freakin' raw meat."
"Shut up. What do we do now?"
Katsuo turned his head, eye glittering through the eye-slits in his mask. "Fake our deaths and move on, I guess. We can't outrun them. This is a very sad day for the supposed best two of the ANBU."
"Hush…" Kurai tensed, shifting her mask so that she could scent the breeze. Precious seconds passed, the sounds of trackers growing louder. "I can smell a river. It must be the Nari River that runs past Kumogakure. I'd say we're about twenty-miles south now."
"So we basically float away on the river?" Katsuo couldn't quite see what she was getting at."
"No. C'mon."
She took off, making not a sound though she stepped through dry leaves. She seemed to be mde completely out of shadow, save for her glowing eyes through the eyeholes of her mask. Katsuo could soon hear the river as well after a few minutes. He was just about to demand that the Tiger explain herself when she jumped in, fully submerging herself in the icy water. She surfaced and gasped, "Come on! Get your whole body in. Cut yourself while you're at it. Our pursuers are south-west and that's the direction the river flows in. The blood in the water will confuse them. We can try to get away while we're at it."
"You're brilliant," Katsuo said frankly, sliding in after her and shuddering at the melt-water that came from the northern mountains. It quickly soaked through his vest to his skin and he made sure to hold his weapons clear.
He sliced a vein open in his arm, his blood making a dark cloud against the silver of the moonlit water. "Now let's go," Kurai advised, hair plastered to her head and back. She stood up on top of the water, using chakra to stay buoyant. She shook herself like a miffed cat, water spraying back into the river without dampening the banks. Katsuo followed suit, but less efficiently.
They were on their way again quickly, the sounds of anybody following them growing fainter. They paused for a rest by an old road-side shrine, bowing respectfully to the statue of the shrine's guardian spirit. "I think we lost them," Kurai panted. She shivered in the cold. "And the rain should be here about-" a slight misting fell from the now completely dark and clouded sky. "-now. We can take refuge and-" Katsuo tensed suddenly, whole body rigid. Kurai was instantly on the alert as well. She looked around, eyes wide in the dark. "What-"
Katsuo didn't bother with pleasantries, simply slinging an arm around his smaller companion and throwing the both of them into the shrine, sliding the door shut with a sharp snap. "What the hell?" Kurai squeaked. It was cramped in that tiny space with no room to sit up before the ancient rice-paper window betrayed them. They were flattened together on the floor, the shrine no more than a tiny closet with six feet of length, two feet of height before the window, and approximately eighteen-inches in width. Kurai looked up cross-eyed at her team-mate, their noses touching. "You have three seconds before I scream 'rape', you bastard!" she hissed, fangs bared. Katsuo made a frantic shushing noise, apparently unconscious of the fact that he was flattening the slim Tiger.
Kurai was uncomfortably aware of how they were pressed together and how his mask was digging into her collarbone. And how it was hard to breathe with someone weighing sixty more pounds than she did on top of her. And how one of his hands was where it should nothave been. And that stifling feeling of someone that was not she masking both of their chakras-
"Three seconds!" she squealed, face turning red. Her mask was at a funny angle so that it only covered one of her eyes. Katsuo's mask was flipped to the back of his head, the cord running under his nose and his armguards digging into her stomach. "That's it! Three-two-" She was silenced not by a blade, but by Katsuo's lips connecting with hers, making speech irrelevant.
Oh. My. God. She thought. I am going to kill him. He is a dead man. But while the majority of her brain was outraged, a small part was rather enjoying the experience. Danger, suspense, being freezing cold and wet… well, not so cold anymore. When she fought to speak, he deepened the kiss. It seemed to go on forever until they broke apart. Kurai stared at Katsuo, eyes wide and staring and even he looked shocked at what he'd done. He was about to speak but Kurai shook her head, jerking her head in the direction of the door and mouthing, I can hear them. It was true. She could smell them as well. Wet fur was prominent, as well as the scent of lit cigarettes.
"Damn! Where'd those bastards go?" said an angry voice.
"Arrrr…" came a growl, deep and a guttural. "One's a Torakiba, I can smell her. The other is male. Both young, maybe late teens to early twenties. They're tired and just about to expire, too."
Summoning,Katsuo mouthed and Kurai nodded, listening keenly. She spun a quick genjutsu; just enough to make the door to the shrine appear open all the way with no places to hide.
They could hear the patter of heavy paws and a number of lighter feet. There were a multitude of growls that sounded about five inches away. "The Rain Lord is safe. That's about all that matters." There was a snarl and scream.
"FOOL! If we don't get them now they'll just come back again later!" that was the voice that had growled at first.
Big… giant-assed summoning, Kurai thought, her trained and disciplined mind running in circles in terror at the scent and sound. She could almost feel the giant heart beating within that beast.
"Ookami-sama, they're not here," another man tried to calm the summoning down. Kurai and Katsuo could hear sharp intakes of breath. Apparently, they were all afraid of the summoning.
"Then let's go. This is a waste of time. But if they come after the Rain Lord again, I am crunching all of your head in my jaws."
Kurai could hear them receding, their footsteps making slight plop plop sounds in the muddy ground. They're gone, she mouthed at Katsuo. He nodded and shifted so that when she drew up her knees, he could sit at the other end of the shrine. Kurai said up, massaging her bruised ribs.
"So… what was that about?" she asked, masking the trembling in her voice by fiddling with her mask. Katsuo stared at her stupidly.
"What was what about?"
"That…kissing, fool."
"Oh!" he said. Oh god, he actually FORGOT. Kurai thought, heart sinking. I'm partnered with an idiot. "Just… you wouldn't be quiet," he said frankly.
"You were on top of me, Katsuo." She told him flatly, stripping off her armguards and crossing her arms over her chest.
"Just… let's not make it awkward, okay?" Katsuo actually looked embarrassed as he looked away. Kurai scowled and stared out of the rice-paper screen out into the perfectly black night. She could still smell the rain and hear it pattering on the roof. She was cold, but she didn't want to admit it. Instead, she said, "Let's just wait here until the rain stops. The report to the Raikage can wait."
"Sensei's gonna be steamed when she hears about this," Katsuo sighed, running fingers through his gray hair. "We got scared by a couple of half-assed trackers and a summoning."
"Shut up," Kurai ordered wearily. "We can think about that later."
A/N: YOSH! My first time writing romance. :O Good grief it's hard. I am actually going to TRY to have longer chapters for this series. I'm only sorry I won't be writing a whole lot about Suzume, Megumi, and Haruki and the gang. So, some of you may not have read my future generation fanfic. If so, you can or cannot. There are HUGE spoilers in there for this fanfic. But if you made it through "The Blood of Children"… OSU! ANATA WO AISHITEMASUYO!
Kago: Thing of a litter (like what sultans were carried on) only more like a basket carried between two runners. Wikipedia it if you must.
Hayaku: "Hurry!" Or "Quickly!"
And I've added code. That bit when they're talking about the birdy you should be able to figure out. A "birdy" is an informant. And the thing with "circle four" is messed-up fencing patois.
I'd like some ideas as to how this should all end. I have another fanfiction in the queue (where Haruki, Suzume, and Megumi and the rest come back and we see Shizuka again). Should the end be Katsuo's and Inazuma's death, or should it go on longer? I plan to write that part sooner or later, but I'd REALLY like to get the new fanfic up and running. And I think I should make it out that Shizuka dies. Yes, I'm evil, aren't I? But she will die sooner or later. I'm sorry, but… Shizuka was always a little lost after Aniki died. She bounced from profession to profession, spending time in the Akatsuki, Cloud, then the Akatsuki again. I can't even begin to impress upon you the tragedy of Shizuka's character. And! Inazuma will have her own fanfic someday, never fear. I think it will be her younger days in the AnBu, and we'll see Itachi and Kakashi AND Orihime –cough- I mean –cough- Kushina and Minato in it. So, that's it for now. Ja, matane!