7 It Can Always Be Worse

"We Really Are In Over Our Heads"

"Wonderful," Kotori grumbled as she returned to the guest house and saw the other members of the cell collapsed around the table in solid sleep. "Makes me really glad I didn't eat that much of the food… and now I guess the only sensible course of action is to wake them up. We'll be that much harder to get rid of if we're all conscious." Unfortunately her uncle was as hard to stir as a rock and after several attempts to wake him Kotori gave up and moved on to Naeko. The dark-haired girl muttered several foul words in her sleep and swatted Kotori away, but likewise refused to budge and it was with a sigh that Kotori moved to Taiki. She stopped for a moment and wondered how best to rouse him from his almost comatose state, cursing at her limited amount of options. A light tap on the shoulder did nothing, and with a grumbled oath Kotori rocked back on her heels to think some more.

Leaning in to give him a vigorous shake, Kotori blinked when he sleepily murmured "Oooo, come closer, Tori-chan" and jumped back like she'd been slapped when one of his hands grazed her chest. Incensed at this unwarranted contact, she lashed out with her hand, struck him across the face with a loud crack and smirked triumphantly as he lurched awake and gave her an injured look. "What was that for, Kotori?"

"The only way to wake you up, nimrod," she commented. "None of the others will move a muscle."

Sitting up and knuckling the grit from his eyes, Taiki squinted over at the still-asleep Naeko and Takeshi and frowned. "We were drugged."

"You're just figuring this out, genius?" Kotori grumbled, giving him a dark look.

"But then again, odds are you just figured it out ten minutes ago yourself mmph - " His last words were muffled by Kotori abruptly clapping a hand over his mouth to silence him, reinforcing this with a finger held up over her own lips and her other hand cupped to her ear to tell him to listen. After she removed her hand, Taiki whispered, "I don't hear anything."

"Exactly. It's too quiet… Stay in here and guard those two. I'll head them off outside." Seeing him forming a protest, Kotori shut it off at the source with another glare. "I need room to work, and maybe I can divert them from their real goal. After all, I am just one weak little girl against who knows how many of them…" A disarming smile that made Taiki flush in embarrassment but chilled his core was the last thing he saw as the girl silently made her way out of the guest house.

Here goes nothing, Kotori mused as she stepped out into the pale moonlight, assuming a sleepy slouch and shuffling across the back yard as if on her way to the toilet. I'm hoping that whoever they are will be at least as slow as we've been. As far as they know, their plan's working all too well. I'm just curious, though – if the manuscript was acquired through a legal purchase, then why is the Grass Country so interested in getting it back? It almost sounds like a cover-up. She mentally noted the faintest sounds of unnatural movement in the foliage on the outskirts of the yard but made no outward sign that she'd heard, pausing to stretch and yawn in a sign of obvious unguardedness. Thank gods it's rained recently and there are some puddles for me to work with, thought the genin as her pursuer made their move from the cover of the bushes, entrapping her in much the same way as she had the cook…

…and came away with an armful of water as the mist clone of Kotori vanished, soaking them and eliciting a faint curse. "So you're awake after all," the man – who Kotori placed to be maybe a few years older than her uncle – remarked with a sly grin. "It'll be easy enough to get rid of you, though. I give it ten minutes at most, or I'm out of form."

"I wouldn't count on it," Kotori replied, ice prickling in her veins as she realized that this one had to be a jounin in rank and skill. Something else tugged at her awareness, a faint veil of illusion that fluttered aside for just a moment to reveal what she'd suspected earlier. "You might as well drop the pretense. I'm curious as to why the Mist Village would send out a team to recover a manuscript that was legally purchased from the Grass Country - care to fill me in before we get this started?"

A disdainful laugh. "They really don't tell you genin anything, do they? That manuscript was originally stolen from the Mist Village, and we just want it back. Wouldn't do for someone from the Fire territory knowing our secrets too…" A shrug. "But that's another story for another time, which you'll never hear. I hate to have to eliminate someone so young, but our orders were to take out whoever gets in our way."

"And I told you not to count on it," Kotori hissed, drawing her scroll from her belt and flickering through the hand seals required to unlock its contents. "You can tell me in hell." With a brief flash, the zanbatou appeared in her hands and she brought it around to the ready, noting the brief surprise flashing across the Mist jounin's face. "Don't tell me you've never seen one of these before!"

"Just never with someone so young." The grin returned again. "So it really is you. I've heard about you – raised by the Mist Village but ultimately a turncoat just like your mother."

"Don't… even… start!" the girl hissed, focusing her chakra for the strength needed for a fast dash and even faster swing of the keen-edged man-sized blade at her target. "You know nothing of my mother!"

"Her name was Emi, yes?" the man guessed, tracking the trajectory of the blade and nimbly hopping aside. "I know her all too well. I was one of her teammates that she deserted to stay with your father! And if I heard right, didn't he die right after you were born? So sad."

"He died an honorable death defending our village. I'm proud to be his daughter, more than a weevil like you could guess." The zanbatou came around in a low strike, one that would have cut its target off at the knees had it connected. Instead the form of the Mist jounin vanished in a spray of water, and Kotori realized with an inward grumble that she'd been caught by her own trick. She didn't realize this soon enough to dodge, though, as a vicious strike to the back sent her sprawling into the ground.

"Obviously your mother didn't think so," he continued. "Or else why would she leave right after he died and you'd been taken from her?" One foot flipped Kotori over so that she could look him in the eye. "For gods' sake, I'm disappointed. You're one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist Village and this is the best you can give me?"

"You're only getting me warmed up." Vaulting to her feet, the girl took sword to hand again and darted away to just out of reach. She could feel a growing rage hissing inside of her, stirring to life at the slights against her parentage and more recently to the insult to her talents. We'll teach this man a lesson, a new voice said in her mind, and Kotori saw no reason to argue. Forming another seal, she brought one hand to her lips, kissed the fingers and then ran them along the edge of the zanbatou, oblivious to the injury this caused. As her bright blood ran down the blade the weapon glowed faintly and then subsided, and without thinking about it Kotori licked the excess from her fingers before continuing. "Now we can get to work."

"Finally. All of this talking was starting to get a bit boring."

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Man, I'm gonna give those two hell when they wake up, Taiki grumbled mentally as he fought off the combined assaults of three genin bearing the insignia of the Grass Country. This is definitely more than I bargained for. Noticing one of them making a move towards the still-drowsing Naeko with blade bright and ready, he cursed as he realized that even with the shadow hands of his bloodline assisting him, he was still in no position to defend her. Forming a clone or two for the others to play with, he pinned the third to the floor with a few well-placed kunai and then rendered them unconscious with a blow to the back of the skull. "One down, two more to go," he muttered, turning his attention back to the remaining pair of genin.

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"So you still think I'm a weak, useless traitor?" Kotori yelled as she swung the zanbatou, arcing it so that it would slice the jounin right down the middle. "Do you even know exactly who you're dealing with?"

"I've heard rumors," the older man answered, once again dodging to the side. "Haven't you figured out by now that I can evade your attacks because your weapon is so big and slow?"

"There are things about us Swordsmen that even you of the so-called elite cannot even begin to guess at." The girl smiled a predatory smile, all teeth and claws as she readied the blade again and watched as a powerful gust lanced down and caught him across the arm, severing muscles and tendons with a satisfying gout of crimson. "I told you I was just getting warmed up." This time the zanbatou's aim was true, and the jounin's other arm joined its fellow on the dirt in a growing pool of red. Now we move in for the kill… Putting the sword aside, Kotori leaped forward and knocked her stunned prey to the dirt, catching them in the throat with a smaller blade and grinning as she watched their life ebb out into the grass with a hollow gurgle. Her ears then caught the sounds of a struggle from inside the guest house and after speaking the words that would dismiss the zanbatou for later use, she darted off to see what assistance she could render.

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"I can see the drug is still affecting him," one of the genin remarked to the other as they watched Taiki's increasing reaction time and slowing movements. "Even with those extra hands, he's still at a loss…"

"My choice was right, as usual," the second Grass genin murmured with a smile, blocking the strikes of the shadow hands with minimal effort. They, however, did not count on the pair of stealthy and all too substantial hands that locked around their throat, slowly squeezing the air out until their captive dropped to the floor senselessly. It took Taiki a second to recognize the blood-spattered wraith with the strangling hands as Kotori, a strange feral light glittering in her eyes as she turned to face the remaining member of the Grass party.

"Kotori, are you all right? I hope all of that isn't your blood…"

A grin to match the gleam in her eyes. "Of course not. We had a generous donor outside."

"Who the hell are you?" their foe wondered, aghast. "We were told this was a grab-and-go, a C-rank mission..."

"Well, obviously you got more than you bargained for. Why don't you save yourself some energy and drop that illusion you're fighting to keep up?"

It was Taiki's turn to blink in surprise as the garb of their opponent altered accordingly, the last change being the rippling line of the Grass Country mark on the headband altering into the four lines of the Mist Village. "What the…?"

"I'm quite frankly wondering the same thing," Kotori muttered. "Their leader was less than specific as to the true nature of the manuscript, only to say that it originally came from the Mist Country. Maybe you could help us out a little bit?"

"I know as much about it as you do," the Mist genin squeaked, backing away from Kotori until they ran out of space and into the wall. "Please… don't kill me. I'm just doing what I was told to do."

"Which was to kill us," Kotori growled, drawing a kunai. "Give me a better reason as to why I shouldn't do the same to you."

"You've spilled more than enough blood for today, Kotori," Taiki interjected firmly, grabbing her wrist and forcing it back. "I don't think this group will be bothering us for a while longer… will you?" A quick head-shake from their opponent. "Good. Now get out of here."

"If anyone else does come after us, I'll take them apart just as easily as I did their master," Kotori added, flexing her red-stained fingers and causing the Mist genin to quiver in fright. "And hopefully you'll have learned a few things by the time you take on something like this again."

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"Mmmmh…" Squinting against a sudden headache, Naeko rubbed her eyes and sat up, looking around to see where she was. "Tai-kun?" she murmured, peering around in the dark. "Tai-kun, it's too - "

"Quiet." The commanding voice, low and gravelly, barely registered to Naeko's ears as human, and the genin slowly turned to see what manner of creature it had come from. A humanoid figure lurked in the open doorway, head turned over its shoulder to gaze at her with strangely glowing eyes. As Naeko watched, it raised a hand to its mouth and dabbed at it with a long, flexible tongue, then lifted the hand to its face and dabbed at its cheek as if trying to scrub something away. After locking gazes with the petrified girl for a moment, the being returned its focus out to the yard, growling lowly somewhere deep in its throat.

"…T…tai-kun…" Naeko quavered, glancing from corner to corner and trying to find the more reassuring form of the third member of her team. He appeared moments later, shutting the door that divided the dining room from the sleeping area, and she wasted no time in throwing her arms around him in a deathgrip. "Tai-kun, there's a monster at the door! You have to save us from it – kill it before it hurts us - "

Blinking in confusion and blushing in embarrassment, Taiki tried to free himself from captivity but was about as successful as trying to peel a barnacle from a rock with a chopstick. "That monster, as you call it, is Kotori. She saved all of us."

"Are you sure?" Naeko whispered uneasily, shooting a look back at the figure poised in the doorway. "It looks like a demon."

"Score one for Captain Obvious," the other girl grumbled. In the pale moonlight that came in through the door, Taiki and Naeko noticed that the marks on her left shoulder, previously only scar-like in appearance, had taken on the qualities of raw open wounds and now oozed blood. "I would highly suggest that you avoid looking outside for now. Also, Naeko, get off of him."

Naeko detached herself, but not out of any desire to obey Kotori. Hearing Taiki make a quiet retching sound as he glanced out into the yard, her curiosity triumphed and she too got a look at the bloody scene. Before she could stop it, she let out a shriek of alarm as she saw the mangled heap that remained of the Mist jounin's body. This was enough to provoke a stirring and a groan from the last person in the room, and Takeshi lurched to his feet with a curse. "Would you three keep it down in here? A man can't get a wink of sleep with all that racket - " He looked from the panicked Naeko to the confused Taiki to the indescribable Kotori, who had rocked back on her heels and now devoted her attention to licking the last of the blood from her fingers. He followed the eyes of the others as they pointedly glanced outside, and he too winced in vague nausea. "Kotori, did you do that? What or, more to the point, who was that?" When his questioning yielded no answer, Takeshi fixed the girl with one of his sternest looks, only to have his façade broken by the strange sight of the girl's systematic hand-cleansing methods. "Ugh, would you stop that? It's disgusting."

"Waste not, want not," Kotori murmured, but ceased in her actions. "In answer to your question, Master, that was the jounin in charge of a Mist Village cell that was sent to kill us before we could retrieve the manuscript. I did the honors first."

"…From the Mist Village?" Takeshi frowned. "I don't get it."

A stretch and an all-too-wide yawn that displayed glisteningly sharp teeth. "I'm tired, and I'll explain it tomorrow. If you'll excuse me, I'm going to sleep now."

"Not without a bath, you aren't. Taiki, take care of the body – no one needs to see that." A brisk nod from the younger male, and a hiss of dismay from Kotori. "What, have you all of a sudden become allergic to water? I don't know what they taught you when they brought you up in the Mist Village, but no one goes to bed looking like that around me if I can help it. For my own ease of mind, Kotori, don't make me ask again…"

"But… it's water." The girl grimaced in distaste. "I can clean myself more efficiently without being drenched like a river rat."

The jounin rolled his eyes. "Fine, be that way. Taiki, help Miss Kitty here to become reacquainted with human sanitation, and then take care of the body before someone sees it. I'm going back to sleep."

Miss Kitty? Shaking his head in resignation, Taiki turned to Kotori and said reasonably, "Come on, let's get this over with. Shouldn't take us too long, now should it?" He approached the girl with the intent of patting her shoulder in encouragement, but something wild still glittering in her eyes gave him a second's pause. Even this was not enough, though, to give him room to dodge the hand that lashed out and caught him across the face, tracing five lines of pain across the cheek where her now oddly clawlike nails scored the flesh and drew blood. Taiki flinched and bounced back a step, Naeko gasping at this new injury and Takeshi chuckling at the scene. "So you want to play rough, huh?"

"Just try me," came the low growled taunt, and Taiki could not help a wince of disgust as the girl once again cleaned the new blood away from her fingers with her tongue. "What are you going to do?"

"This." The same pair of phantom hands that had defended him earlier now appeared at the youth's bidding, wrapping tightly around Kotori and lifting her from the ground in an unwavering grasp. Kotori struggled and hissed, clawing at the hands, but to no avail. Smirking triumphantly at her, Taiki gave a thumbs-up to Takeshi and Naeko before turning and walking out of the guest lodging towards the bath house.

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"And that ought to do it." Down came the water with a cold splash over the frustratedly writhing girl, washing the last of the blood and grime down onto the floor. "Now before I let you go, you'll answer a few questions. First one, what the hell is going on with you?"

"What do you mean, what's going on with me?" The voice had lost its otherworldly rasp and now only came across as that of a very wet and very angry girl. "I didn't know there was anything wrong."

"You mean you don't remember tearing a Mist Village jounin to shreds just a little while ago, then choking one of their subordinates unconscious and scaring a few years off of Naeko's life expectancy with that nice little hellcat act?" Taiki stared in disbelief. "You also scratched me across the face when I tried to convince you to take a bath, and you were covered in blood, not all of it his." Taiki jerked a thumb back over his shoulder to indicate the corpse in the yard. "And then Takeshi called you Miss Kitty and told me to reintroduce you to human sanitation. Obviously there's a side to you that I don't know about and probably should before it decides to eat me alive in the middle of the night."

"Whatever, Taiki. If you're that curious, ask him, because I have no clue. All I know is that elite asshole started making fun of me and my parents, and something just cracked. Next thing I know I'm in here, and you're throwing water on me and asking me all of these stupid questions…" She peered at the scratches marring the strong lines of Taiki's face and grinned smugly. "Let me guess. You're just mad that I ruined your perfect pretty-boy complexion - " This was cut off by the liquid slap of the contents of another bucket of water, causing the girl to choke and sputter for air. "What the hell, Tai? You're a bastard, you know that?"

"You don't know that," was the grumbled response before Taiki stalked out of the bath house in a huff, momentarily forgetting that he still held the girl captive until she yelled after him. The hands then disappeared, dropping Kotori to the ground in a sodden, confused heap. What was that for? she wondered, crossing to the entrance and looking out on the yard where Taiki stood alone with the body of the Mist jounin. Kotori's stomach turned as she saw what she'd done and could only stare in fascination as Taiki summoned one of the phantom hands again, wrapping the severed limbs and torso in its dark grasp and squeezing once. The dead body evaporated in a puff of ash, the shadow hand glimmering briefly before being dismissed by its summoner. As Kotori watched, Taiki then crossed to the back step of the guest house and sat looking into the forest, eyes quietly unreadable.