Book V: Eito
Eito's shadow clone had to admit that the kunoichi was good as he walked up to the mercenary - whatever the fuck his name was - who had the woman slung over his shoulder. He hadn't sensed her chakra until the pair had entered the clearing, and it took quite a bit of skill to pull that off with him even if he only had half his normal amount of chakra. The fact that she also seemed to be transformed was a bit of a surprise, because that hinted at a large store of chakra she was hiding so adeptly.
He circled around, sizing her up and wondering what she really looked like as he gripped her chin to lift her face. It was too bad, really, the bitch had a stunning transformation even with the odd markings on her cheeks. Perfect, in fact, for a special request they'd gotten recently. Arai was going to be pissed. Still, there was some consolation that they might at least get needed information out of her concerning the shitstorm that had happened in the Tea Country. It was vital that they find out if their men had been identified, and if so, they needed to know if Konoha had jumped in bed with Iwa and Suna.
"A lovely piece," Eito said before letting go and nodding at his brother's clone to signal a need to clean up. "Pay them. This one is worth the price."
As soon as the lithe body was settled over his shoulder, he pulled out a syringe and stabbed it into the kunoichi's calf to ensure she'd be completely unconscious before they left. He was already starting to drain her chakra, which would leave her out cold soon enough, but there was no point in taking chances. Rolling his eyes at his brother's extremely messy way of 'cleaning up', he dispassionately eyed the bodies falling to the ground in wide sprays of blood as they were eviscerated. The price for bringing in damaged goods was the loss of a limb, but the price for bringing in a shinobi was death.
He turned his attention back to the kunoichi, something nagging at the back of his mind at the subtle odd feel of her chakra. It wasn't enough to concern him a great deal, it was just a bit off the mark of what he'd been expecting. His concentration broke for a moment as she struggled weakly and surged her chakra, making the hairs on his arms stand on end. Fuck, how much stamina did the bitch have?! Jin was going to have to seal her up tight at this rate, and he was not looking forward to that tedious ritual taking longer than the last time he had to sit through that boring ass bullshit.
"Aren't you a feisty one," Eito said, digging his nails into her leg to resume leeching away the blonde's chakra. "And here I thought this was what you wanted, little shinobi."
When her transformation finally dropped in a haze of smoke, he stared at the legs he was gripping in shock. Well, that might account for her odd chakra, because she wasn't a 'her' at all! The plump breasts that had been pillowed against his back were gone, as well as any kind of feminine curvature to the frame draped over his shoulder. Fucking hell, this sucked! Not only was he going to be stuck in a god damn cave with Jin and that disgusting pet of his brother's for another week, but he wasn't even going to have the option of looking at some female company because Saburo was taking the two girls they'd picked up a few days ago with him!
It didn't help that he was still draining this stupid fucker's chakra! He could feel his head starting to buzz with a high, his senses stretching out like spiderwebs flying on the breeze. They needed to get going before the overabundance of chakra ended up dispelling him. He looked impatiently at his brother's clone, who was bundling up his collection of severed limbs into a bag slung over his shoulder. The shinobi's escort would be along sooner or later, and he needed some time to mask their trail before they reached Jin's summoning seal a few miles away.
"You've got bad taste in women," Saburo said as they finally started leaping their way through the tree branches. "That's kind of an ugly chick."
"...that's because she's a man," Eito said flatly after an irritated pause.
"Oh. Well, then you've got good taste in men, cause he's kind of a pretty guy."
"Will you please just shut the fuck up," he growled. Seriously, this whole situation couldn't possibly get any worse...