Tracking

Present day

There was an unpleasant squelching noise as Kazuki slid his sword out of the man's stomach. The fallen ninja gurgled as blood seeped out of his mouth and gaping stomach wound, before slumped back against a tree trunk, dead. Kazuki let out a relieved sigh as he looked across the blood splattered clearing to where Tsuki had just released one of the men from her chain noose, his lifeless body crashing to the ground. Bits of the third man lay all over the clearing. Kazuki shook his head; he couldn't even remember doing that to him. He ripped off a piece of one of the dead guy's jackets, using it to wipe his bloody swords. Tsuki walked up to him, flushed and panting. Kazuki smiled reassuringly at her, sheathing the now clean swords. The female ninja recoiled from his smile.

"Er… Kazuki-kun…" He murmured, indicating the area around her mouth, "You've got some…"

Kazuki frowned at checked his reflection in one of his sword blades.

"Ah…"

Kazuki's mouth and chin were covered in his enemy's blood. When he opened his mouth, he saw little chunks of flesh stuck between his teeth. He grumbled in annoyance, starting to lick the area clean. This was the down side to fighting in the form of a carnivorous animal: you tend to bite off a lot of stuff, which gets stuck in your teeth.

"A few years ago, this would have made me sick…" Thought Kazuki, lapping up the excess human blood around his mouth. He looked at Tsuki's paling face. "Not sure she's used to it yet, though."

Tsuki turned away, not really wanting to watch her friend licking up the blood of the man he'd just killed. She looked down at the body of the one she had strangled. She was perturbed by the ease at which the two of them could kill. She remembered a time when the mere thought of killing was abhorrent to her. She sighed at the throbbing pain in her chest.

"I thought this was supposed to get easier?" She thought. She looked at Kazuki, wiping the last of the gore from his face. "Look's like it has for 'Zuki-kun…"

Kazuki approached Tsuki, slightly embarrassed about what he had done, yet not really feeling guilty about it. He glanced at the bodies.

"They tried to kill us…" He thought, trying to reassure himself. "They deserved it. I have no reason to feel bad about killing them."

Kazuki and Tsuki stared sadly at each other.

"We're not kids any more…" They both thought, as they moved on, leaving the massacre behind.