Chapter 5: Bones
Nightfall the second day finds Tenten, Neji and Anko outside their mission objective. There is another pair of guards stationed outside the entryway: a downward staircase framed by granite blocks and illuminated at regular intervals by burning torches. To their credit, they seem more vigilant than their predecessors. No amount of preparedness, though, could have readied them for the sight of Anko charging out of the brush at them, trench coat billowing like a grim specter of death.
The first guard's hand is wrenched aside and four stiffened fingers are driven into his throat. His alarm cry dies before it begins as his attentions are focused on the more important task of trying to breathe. A shattering back kick hits home on the second's jaw, gagging him with his own blood and teeth before a horizontal knife swipe puts him out of his misery.
Anko licks the coppery lifeblood off of her fingers and, from the slight shift of her cheeks, Tenten can tell that she is grinning. She suppresses a shiver and moves into the descending tunnel.
Out of the darkness, another guard lunges at her and she reacts with what has become indelibly etched into her muscle memory: the Shape Will straight. It cannons the man's head back, snapping his neck instantly with the whiplash force and he comes to a skidding stop on his knees, already dead.
"I can see better here. I'll lead," Neji says, moving in front of her. As he breezes past, she glimpses the hint of the faintest smile on his visage. His approval fills her with a fierce sort of pride, and she resists the urge to mime her attack again. She almost misses his movement when he whirls past another ambushing guard, dealing a sharp blow to the back of his head as he passes. Stricken, he falls, but Neji is already applying his momentum to the next man with a short palm strike to the solar plexus. He, too, expires, albeit with a disbelieving choke.
Neji lets his body thud noisily to the ground. There is no purpose, after all, in stealth anymore. The complex has been roused by the sounds of combat, which carry far too far in the echoing hallways. A woman materializes before them, light glinting off of her glasses, blocking their access further into the base. Her hair is strangely styled: one side is smooth and clean where the other is ragged and unkempt. Tenten wonders if any of Orochimaru's subordinates are normal. Just behind her, she spies a two-way fork.
"She doesn't look like much of a fighter. Take care of this, Hyuuga," Anko orders briefly, "I'll take the left passage. Tenten, you take the right. Keep an eye out for hidden exits. We don't want anyone escaping."
"A Hyuuga, huh?" Tenten hears the woman say as she hurries down her corridor. She isn't concerned. Neji is strong, and she can tell even from the woman's posture that she is no combatant. Further whispers of their conversation are buried as a group of guards rush at her. From their sloppy dress, Tenten concludes that they have only just woken up. She must be heading towards the residential quarters.
Tenten knows the close walls will hinder her larger weapons, so she opts for a pair of Emei daggers. She slips the rings on each hand, giving the attached, double-bladed rods of metal a test twirl as she runs. They are well-maintained and spin on their oiled joints without protest. The first in line lashes out clumsily at her and she ducks under, shredding his armpit and nullifying his offensive capacity. For good measure, she punctures his kidney as he drops.
The next learns from his fallen companion and drops into a defensive stance, but Tenten is inexorable. She brings both piercers across in parallel diagonal slashes, putting the whole of her body into the motion. To his credit, he blocks one; the other tears a spurting gash in the side of his neck. Tenten slips under the arc of arterial spray, twirling her leftmost weapon in a hypnotic dance. The third guard looks for just a moment and she takes his eye with a brief upward cut from her right hand. Blinded by pain, he does not see the left dive back in to drive through his orbital cavity and into his brain.
The point lodges into the interior of his skull and she abandons both dagger and corpse. She crouches low, ripping through the last guard's groin with a sweeping slash to render him immobile, then lays his torso open with her return strike. The limestone floor hisses as it reacts to his stomach acid, but she is already gone.
Twenty feet later, the narrow path flares into a larger room. There are bunks lined up against the wall, each with a chest at the foot. She is surprised by how spartan the quarters are, with no privacy or personality, but she supposes that is to be expected of one such as Orochimaru. The reflected light off of a pair of glasses catches her attention, and a masked man steps forth into view.
"Well done," he congratulates with a sneer visible even with his face covered, "You've improved since the Forest of Death."
"Misumi Tsurugi," Tenten recalls. What was his ability again? To stretch and bend his body freely, right? A terse grin manifests itself on Tenten's face as she levels her lone Emei dagger at him.
"That little toy won't work on me," he taunts. His arms begin to dislocate and distend and his fingertips brush the ground. He would seem almost comically simian were it not for the gravity of the situation. Tenten keeps a wary distance, knowing that to be caught in his embrace would be fatal. She begins to circle him, looking for a vulnerability.
Without warning, his hand shoots out. Tenten reacts, bringing her dagger to bear on the incoming fist. It swerves impossibly, coiling around the blunt shaft in an unshakeable loop. She has the presence of mind to disengage her finger from the securing ring to avoid losing it as he yanks hard on the weapon. It clatters off somewhere in the shadows.
"Got any more tricks, little girl?"
He is arrogant. Good. It will give her time to think. He had previously been defeated in the crushing grip of a puppet, which had broken all of his bones. His bones must still be solid, then. She steps forward and throws a shattering left at his face. His head lolls back from the punch at an unnatural angle, but the feedback from the hit is completely absent. Tenten jumps back just in time to avoid his grasping coils.
"Too bad," Misumi snickers, righting himself again, "My body will absorb anything you throw at me."
He begins to advance, half walking and half slithering with his grotesquely malleable body. Tenten shuffles backward, her mind simultaneously forming and rejecting ideas and plans. She settles for the simplest solution she can think of: to throw something he can't absorb. Tenten puts one foot forward lightly and raises her left hand before her.
They surge forward in the same moment, like two jousting knights. Tenten is the faster and her right cross connects solidly. His neck sways to mitigate the impact, but she is ready. Tapping into the explosive rush of the spear, she drives her fist all the way through, bearing his head in a downward arc and smashing his skull between her knuckles and the solid earth hard enough to jar her teeth. Hot blood bursts from his ears and he gives a rattling sigh as his body goes limp; this time, for good.
ใ[_|[__ยง__]|_]ใ
Neji looks up as Tenten reenters the fork. His robes are as immaculate as when she last saw him, in rather stark contrast to her own white shirt, which has become positively ghastly with bloodstains from her messy encounters with the guards, particularly her long sleeves.
"The woman?" she questions curiously.
"She got away," he answers briefly. His eyes seem far off for a moment and Tenten frowns. Strange. She has never known someone to successfully escape from Neji, especially not at close range. He is easily one of the fastest ninjas in the village, and his touch should have instantly crippled the woman, who didn't appear to be very skilled in the first place. Before she can ask further questions or consider what it all meant, a familiar voice cuts through the silence.
"Ah, she got away? That's too bad," Anko drawls, "Fortunately, I found something interesting."
She comes to light, and Tenten sees that her attire far outstrips her own in gruesome appeal. Her coat is more red than tan now, and she has the pale mass of a man's body slung casually over her shoulder. Anko wears a wild, triumphant smirk โ clearly, there had been more than enough guards down her corridor to slake her bloodlust.
"Let's get a move on, kiddies."
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