Wow, a month...

Sorry 'bout that.

Oh and both Suicidal Rose and Bubbles of Ebil will get a character shout-outs at some point for knowing that H.M. Murdock comes from The A-Team. I'll let you know when the chapter with your character shout out comes out.

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Dedicated to Laura, one of my best friends of whom a character is based on, I hope she gets better soon.

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Two months ago, the youngest Sannin faked her own death after a series of unfortunate events, so that she could work towards her own goal unhindered. Hiding from anyone who knows her, she now works as a solider of fortune under a new alias.

If you have a problem. If no one else can help. And if you can find her. Maybe you can hire Howling Mad Murdock.

-

The red haired girl, known as Murdock, and the woman finally arrived at Port City, the usual bandits wouldn't be bothering the woman anymore after their meeting with Murdock. The lucky ones would never walk again. The unlucky ones no longer needed to walk.

"What do you plan to do now?" The woman asked casting a weary eye at Murdock, that girl had manage to explode the bandits camp in a ball of scorching flames. The girl smirked and placed her conical bamboo hat on, leaving the ties undone.

"What I normally do, my job," she said flipping something shiny into the air and catching it. The woman managed to catch a proper glimpse of it and could see it was a ring. It had no meaning to her though, Murdock was allowed to keep her secrets.

Murdock disappeared into the crowded market place looking for a potential client. Her actual goal right now was to find somewhere to rest, she wanted to lie low for a bit. The Konoha ninjas would be on the lookout for her.

She easily found a room and sat down to meditate, she was getting a bit too impulsive so wanted to rein in on these actions that could compromise her identity. Sighing, she ran a hand through her short hair, the dye made it feel weird but it was easier than keeping up a Henge all the time. Her natural hair colour had been too distinctive. It was one of the many changes she had made, her eyes now matched with a dull green, her skin was now a few shades darker and with the help of some Earth cosmetics her facial planes looked different.

-

In Konoha, Tsunade looked at the chart at the end of Asuma's bed, he was recovering much slower than she had hoped for and was currently in a healing coma. It had been a dangerous move, he may not wake up but it was the only hope there had been. The reports from the battle were bugging her though.

How did someone become immortal? And the whole ingesting blood thing, that was creepy. Then there was the mysterious girl. Tsunade had her suspicions about this girls identity but the personality didn't fit. Max would have taken down the other Akatsuki member.

Tsunade took another look at the sleeping form of Asuma before leaving to check on some other patients. Staring at someone would not heal them any faster.

-

The girl in Port City wandered the market place occasionally approaching a stall to examine the wares. She kept an ear out for any interesting information. She clutched the ring in her hand, she had stolen it off Hidan's body when she had slid past. The kanji for three marked it and Murdock knew each of the others had a different Kanji. She planned to go after Orochimaru's next, Sasori's had probably been found by someone by now. She wished she'd thought of stealing them earlier.

From what she knew Orochimaru's ring was still on his original arm, probably deep in his base. She would defiantly have fun with this one. She suppressed the desire to burn the place to the ground. She wanted to be subtle with her thefts of the unique rings. No one had noticed her take Hidan's no one would notice her take Orochimaru's if this worked. Unless she found an easy way she wouldn't kill him she was keeping her skill low key for the moment.

After that she would have to figure out whom to target next. Sasori's replacement could work, maybe she could spook Deidara, as Max's 'ghost', enough so she could steal his ring.

Murdock was brought out of her plotting by a knock on the door. Her new client. The man needed to go somewhere dangerously close to a certain place in Sound. His son had gone missing and sources had led him to believe the kid was in a village just south of Murdock's next destination. She didn't mind the detour though. It gave her an excuse to go there.

The next four days were spent travelling. It could have taken less time had Murdock not avoided Konoha and it's ninjas . The man didn't question it, he didn't like ninja's, not after his wife had been killed by some on during a raid that she had been caught up in.

The village itself wasn't too big but Murdock could feel a multitude of tunnels running under the buildings.

"Rest up for the moment, I'll be back in an hour," Murdock told the man, and then she vanished.

-

Sasuke was finishing up with his escort mission the elderly couple now with their child and grandchild. He didn't understand why they would want to be so near to Orochimaru but it wasn't his job to question it. As he walked to the gates he noticed something, ahead, at the gates someone was creeping up on one of the gate keepers. He hung back to observe, natural curiosity and all that.

The gate keeper was knocked out with a muted thud as the shadowed figure's foot connected with the sentry's head. The second gatekeeper who had been napping was dispatched into a deeper unconscious in a similar manner. The figure then ran into a wall. Or rather straight through a wall, it reminded Sasuke of platform nine and three quarters. Having a secret entrance near the gates made some sort of sense, no one would suspect it. He filed the knowledge away in case it ever came in handy.

-

All was not well in Konoha though. Laura lay on the sofa clutching her stomach in pain. It hurt to move and the house was empty. Louise was doing some overtime again, that girl worked almost as much as Max had. Laura tried to curl up more, remembering Max hurt.

By the time Louise got home, Laura had passed out and was looking bad. Her skin was pale and clammy. The tinge of green around her lips made Louise's stomach drop. Poison.

It was probably the desire to keep Laura alive that allowed Louise to get Laura to hospital in good time. There was no way that Laura was going to die too. When Laura was in the care of Tsunade herself only then did Louise head back to the house, looking for something to lead back to the culprit.

Heads were going to roll.

-

Murdock crept through the house, she knew that she had been watched, and she knew whom she was being watched by. Otherwise she would have waited before entering the village. She found the trapdoor and entered the underground network of tunnels. There were some people in a room a couple of hundred meters ahead but because of the density of the people it was hard to tell anything about them.

The extraction of her client's son took only a bit of planning with a huge but subtle distraction. She sent a clone with the two to make sure they got to somewhere safer. She herself ventured further into the tunnel system, Orochimaru's base was connected to them along the way from her intel. All she needed to do was find and grab the ring and get out when no one was looking.

Simple.

The getting in went off without a hitch, her Death God form was good for that much, though travelling through walls was still a weird feeling. She avoided looking at anyone, the numbers were distracting and she really didn't want to know when they would die. She didn't even know the current date to compare them too.

When she had finally found the severed arm with the ring she had been just a teeny bit disgusted but she had continued with her plan. She changed back into her human form and unrolled a scroll ready to seal the arm. It was likely to be alarmed so she wouldn't have time to do it later. It was easier to carry a scroll without looking out of place than a severed arm.

As predicted as soon as she removed the arm an alarm sounded throughout the room and she presumed the base too. She quickly sealed the arm and was about to change back to a Death God when someone burst into the room. Using the persons temporary confusion Murdock slipped out of the door using her chakra to blend into the walls, with all the noise from the alarm she didn't need to be quiet.

If she ever had a base, she would install flashing lights to warn people of an intruder. More noise was too counterproductive on trying to catch the intruder.

She weaved through the people easily, sometimes clinging to the ceiling if there was no way through.

Someone was on her tail though, they probably knew these tunnels better than she did so she didn't try to lose them. She would wait until they were out on a level playing field. She successfully exited the tunnel system and practically flew through the village gates. The person tailing her hadn't given up. Murdock knew she had to get rid of it before she did anything else.

A few hours later Murdock was still being followed, she had tried everything she could. Chakra suppression, changing her appearance and masking her physical tracks. She suspected it was her scent that was enabling the person to track her, she couldn't do anything here, she needed to find a crowded place. No one had found a good instant solution for scent covering, if you tried to replace it the tracker would just follow the new scent.

She headed up a tree to gather her bearings and found the perfect place to go to so that she could change her scent, shame she never wanted to return there.

Konoha was about a day's nonstop travel, it was the best place she had of her plan working as her scent was guaranteed to be overpowered, she could then find some substitute smell to keep her own masked.

She carried on running, just under the green canopy of the trees. She didn't want her pursuer to get above her, that would be asking for trouble. Aerial attacks were the most annoying to deal with because they had gravity working with them.

-

In Konoha hospital Laura slept on, the poison was being flushed out of her system, it was a painful process so she was in an induced coma for it, it would also allow for her body to recover fully. It had been a close call but they weren't out of the woods yet, they weren't sure if Laura would ever wake up. The poison had spread quite a bit and some of her organs had been on the verge of shutting down, they still were. No one could identify the poison and even a bezoar wasn't working.

-

Louise was taking a forced sabbatical from her work. Apparently someone needed to be alive to give information and locations. Who knew? So she couldn't take her anger out on her prisoners and she was having no luck with anything else, Itachi was keeping well hidden and Laura's assailant had covered his tracks well. She decided to take a trip to earth, see if she could find someone to help Laura. She took couple of samples of Laura's blood so that she wouldn't have to bring them to Konoha.

-

H.M. Murdock finally reached Konoha at about midday, looking over the familiar village a wave of nostalgia hit her. She wiped her eyes, tears threatening to fall. She masked the feeling and put on a slightly wondrous look as if she had never seen the place before.

If she'd had time she would have re-dyed her hair, if someone recognised this persona it could lead to her whole cover being blown if they investigated further. Unfortunately she couldn't re-dye her hair on the run.

It felt weird, walking down the streets she knew like the back of her hand. Last time she had walked these paths everything had been fine. Now nothing felt right. She felt like a stranger.

Someone bumped into Murdock and so she passively twisted with the push allowing the person past. She then recognised the person. Louise never hurried but it was defiantly her.

Murdock now had a decision, find out why Louise was in a hurry and risk her cover, probably lose her anonymity and possibly her friends or she could ignore it and stay as another face in the crowd.

Then there was the third option which she chose, with only a minimally lest amount of risk than the second option, she sent a clone to follow her friend.

That done she continued to mingle around the market place letting herself absorb the scents. She allowed herself to reminisce as she would be gone before sunset.

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