Chapter Four

On the road it had been noticeably clear that Sasori was to be the one in charge; any objections and Shadow would be sent home. By nightfall Shadow and Sasori had reached the halfway point of their journey and Sasori decided that they had walked enough to take a break for the night and set up camp.

They had talked little throughout the walk and only made irrelevant comments such as, "The weather sure is nice today." or, "It may rain tomorrow, we should probably get to the village as soon as possible." Shadow mostly did the speaking to be polite and Sasori answered quietly; he only returned the question or comment when he thought necessary. Shadow had even gone so far as to explain her elder brother Riku for conversation, who was similar to Sasori in ways. Same arrogance and same level of cluelessness as to handle girls. The chibi concluded to herself.

Later that night, after they finished eating, Shadow decided to go out looking for another stream. "Why?"

Shadow was surprised when the question followed her announcement. Very surprised, in fact. Since when was he interested in what she did? They've only been traveling together for a few hours, and although not very long at all, Shadow had already figured out that nearly nothing impressed Sasori. So when he actually sounded interested in this one little detail, it took a few moments for her to reply.

"W-well..." She said, cursing herself for stuttering. "Well... You see, I'm just... More comfortable around bodies of water, and I thought that I would be able to take advantage of this chance before we reached desert land." She paused for a moment to think. "You know... I have a sister, a fraternal twin actually, and... Well... I don't know. We're just naturally comfortable around certain elements. Water is where I belong I suppose." She bit her lip as she tried to explain her situation better.

Sasori shrugged and said, "Fair enough."

"If you want to watch then you can come, I could care less," Shadow said turning around. She held her hands in front of her so Sasori wouldn't see her crossing her fingers and hoping that he wouldn't.

"Thanks, but I'll pass," Sasori said but then he murmured sarcastically, "But then again it may be an interesting waste of time..." Shadow wasn't convinced in the slightest as she twitched, hearing his last sentence.

"Right. Whatever. See you in a couple hours I guess."

"Don't tire yourself out. You need your energy tomorrow."

"Yeah, yeah I get it. Gods what are you? My mother? I didn't think you were the maternal type." Her last comment trailed behind her and Sasori smirked.

Shadow started walking down the path, enjoying the moonlight as it bathed her in its silvery glow. It was a half-moon that night, not too bad, but not exactly in Shadow's favor. She walked along the road as her mind flooded with thoughts.

It was so full of random thoughts, that if you had used some sort of mind reader, all you would've heard was a mixed babble. But despite all of these other thoughts whizzing through her mind, she could only focus on how odd her so-called, "partner" was. She couldn't decide whether he was a natural odd-ball or if he had spent many years in training to become one.

She walked further up the road until she heard the faint sound of trickling water. She followed the sound off the road. She could already feel the gentle tug of water.

She only took off her shoes as she continued to revise the events that day. It had happened so quickly. After several ice ages she began working intently on how to make a fox out of ice and would move around like one, to fool an opponent when-.

Crack!

The sound of cracking tree branches came eerily from a small patch of trees and shattered the peaceful silence. "Hello?" Shadow called. "Is someone there? Sasori-San?"

Not talking, huh? Hmm... Figures. I guess that it's time to go back to camp. She slipped her left foot into her boot and grabbed her other shoe, already heading towards the road she walked off.

She hopped to the road as she pulled on her right shoe, and turned around briskly facing the road and starting to take long strides back to camp. She swore she could hear the gentle sound of footsteps from behind her and that she could hear the faint sound of 'whoosh' when the air was sliced through by a body passing by at a quick speed.

Whoever was following her was just lucky that at the moment her boots were separating her feet from the ground, muffling the vibrations more than it would if she were barefoot. But it would be too dangerous to go running around without shoes and she didn't want to tip off her followers that she knew they were around, even if they didn't know of her special ability. Not only would she look like a mad woman without shoes, but she could also step on something dangerous without noticing it.

Suddenly the night didn't seem as peaceful and relaxing as it had before. Shadow tensed slightly as the shadows of the trees suddenly looked more disturbing and frightening than when she had arrived. This was just one of the many ways she ended a night during a mission.

When she got to camp she saw that Sasori hadn't moved an inch from where he was before, but this time, he was playing with a sort of hand-sized puppet. He looked up when he heard the sound of Shadow's approach. "Back huh?"

"Yeah, you don't mind do you?" She asked sarcastically as her chibi rolled her eyes. "Because we certainly wouldn't want that to happen, now would we?"

All of a sudden Sasori's puppet disappeared and before she knew it, he had thrown several shuriken at her. She side stepped them quickly as she heard the sound of metal clash against metal and turned around to see other shinobi had appeared.

So these were the mice that had been following me. Good to know I wasn't going crazy or anything from before. Shadow thought, almost in relief. For a moment she had almost doubted herself.

She smirked and said aloud, "So you were the silent little mice following me? Good to know I'm not crazy or anything. You sure hid your sounds well, expected from Sound shinobi," she glanced at the grey headbands around their foreheads and studied their attire.

One was a woman, her long brown hair reaching to her waist. Her brown eyes were glaring at her and her hand lay on top of the dark grey holster wound tightly around her right thigh. Her fingers twitched only slightly, probably itching to hurl her metal weapons. She wore light black pants that ended at mid-calf, and a grey sweater was tied around her waist. She wore wrappings around her shoulder blades and a sleeveless black shirt beneath it and was tight around her petite waist, showing off a fairly muscled and well developed body.

Her partner was a man with brown hair sticking out in every direction. It looked as if he had been struck by lightning and Shadow had to cough to cover up a laugh. He too wore clothes that resembled the woman's and showed off muscles that practically screamed that they had been worked on 24/7 from day one of birth.

"Akasuna no Sasori, Yamoto Shadow, we are required for you to come along with us." the man said gruffly. His voice was deep and menacing, with enough evidence to suggest that he knew not of what the term 'joy' or 'laughter' meant.

"And why is that?" Sasori asked coolly, he already seemed bored. Typical, Shadow thought.

"We have been commanded to ask recruit you."

"I'm terribly sorry, Mister and Miss," Shadow said sarcastically. "But we aren't for sale and aren't unemployed."

"If you do not join then prepare for a blackout." The woman said threateningly. Her voice somewhat had an edge to it, a hidden sound that resembled... Something. A sound Shadow knew, but could not quite place.

Shadow smirked as she said, "Then bring it." Her fierce blue eyes were laughing at them. And then, the sound ninja charged.

The female rushed at Shadow as the male took up a fight with Sasori. Shadow brought out her fans and threw them, as the sound ninja ducked in time.

So close. Shadow thought as the sound ninja rapidly did some hand sings. As the smoke cleared, it revealed a very long katana, at least four feet long with a polished mahogany handle. The other kunoichi swung it at Shadow, she had little time to react but made a shield formed by her chakra just in time and the sword made no crack in the shield at all, as Shadow kept her concentration.

"So it is true after all. The Yamoto clan really has been gifted with special powers. Powers not needing hand signs at all. Impressive."

"Oh you've seen nothing yet," Shadow muttered darkly. "The things I can do are far from impressive. This is only the beginning of our curse."

The ninja swung her sword around again and Shadow ducked in time to kick the other kunoichi's feet right from under her. Shadow missed the other ninja's foot so instead she quickly jumped up in time to land on the flat side of the swinging blade.

Her weight forced it down on an angle and implanted itself into the ground. Shadow took this as an opportunity of attack and threw her foot at the kunoichi's face. She blocked and was quickly kicked back a few feet from the force of the blow. As her opponent slid backwards, Shadow took water out of the water bag at her hip, and froze the long sword into the ground.

As the other woman ran towards the Leaf ninja, she punched and forced as much strength as she could into her attack. Shadow blocked and then kicked her leg upward to the side of the sound ninja's face almost hitting her, but instead was caught in a firm grasp. Using her free leg Shadow swung it high into the air and attempted to kick the sound ninja under her chin.

The sound kunoichi had caught this leg too and swung Shadow to the side, Shadow's head almost hitting painfully into the dirt. As she recovered, the sound ninja rushed to her sword and forced it out. She successfully ripped it out and then jabbed at the Leaf kunoichi again. Shadow grimaced as she side stepped, the sharp edge of the sword lightly grazing her side as she kicked the underside of her attacker's hands, throwing the sword out of her grasp. The sword was flung into the air and flipped several times in the air before implanting itself yet again into the ground. They took a few more swings and in the end Shadow successfully held a kunai next to the other kunoichi's throat.

"Sorry," she said. "But I'm a just a bit more advanced than you." She smirked slightly, as she pushed the kunai more threateningly into the other girl's neck. A small trickle of blood flowed out onto the sharp edge and the girl smirked herself.

"Not at all," she hissed. She swiftly made some hand signs, and the blood rose from the blade, and punched Shadow back like a real fist.

What the hell?

"Don't you know who I am?" The younger girl snickered. "I am Aiko, the Blood ninja. Unlike the other sound shinobi of my village, I am able to make use of any blood that spills from my body. How unfortunate for you, but it looks as if I am the one who is more advanced."

Moving her fingers into the tiger hand sign, the fist made of blood hardened into shapes that resembled senbon and acupuncture needles. There were many of them, and already they had surrounded the area.

I will not fail Lord Ryumaru this time! The sound ninja thought in triumph.

There are too many of them; I can't escape! Damn it, I'm finished! Shadow thought frantically; eyes widening.

Edited: August 7, 2012