Squick warning for rape.
The plan goes as scripted, until they see Reika-sensei. There's only two Rock-nin left, perhaps the wounded man died of his injuries, or something. Team Four does not know. Team Four does not care.
They feel cold.
Half of the kunoichis are raped at least once in their career, but up until now it was just a statistic to them.
Michiyo miraculously keeps herself together, and continues the charade as the Rock-nin they tortured and killed. One of the Hidden Rock shinobi fusses over her genjutsu-generated wounds, while the other man prods Reika-sensei's prone but awake body with a sandaled foot. Michiyo keeps her head down and waits for Walter's signal.
It was Hiko's idea, to use seals as a means of communication. Each member of Team Four has a small spiral tattooed on their dominant arm's wrist, circled by delicate script. By channeling a tiny pulse of chakra into the mark, they can communicate with each other through Morse code, or alternately, ANBU tap-code.
It is for the pulsed signal that Michiyo waits for, grunting in faux-pain at her Rock-nin nurse as he bandages the seemingly nasty gash on her shoulder.
There. Three pulses on her wrist, unmistakable. Walter's unique chakra signature, like static on her tongue and a slight bitterness.
She pulls out the kunai she's been pretending to bite down on against the pain, and shoves it through her nurse's eye in one smooth movement. He recoils, reeling, hands instinctually going to his face, and his teammate leaps to his feet, shouting.
Walter and Hiko explode into the clearing, hands already flashing through seals. She pulls out the kunai from the man's eye socket, grabbing his blue hair for leverage, and shoves it in again with a meaty squelch. He flails and screams. She raps hard on her blade hand with her free hand, driving it in further. The man falls finally with a choked off gurgle as she lets go, unsheaths her kodachi and rams it through his throat. Blood splatters her face in an arterial gush.
There's an explosion as the two boys' synchronized jutsu go off with a flash. The last man topples to the ground, smoking. The three Genin converge on him carefully as he rolls on the ground in agony. But he isn't down yet, and he grabs Hiko's foot and yanks. The Hyuuga falls with a yell, and Walter is there to score a solid kick to the man's head. Michiyo pins the man with two deftly thrown shuriken, and then Walter begins the seals for an acid spitting technique, as Hiko climbs quickly to his feet.
"Team Four. Hold." Reika-sensei's voice is wrecked, but they obey. Walter pins the man's hands to the ground for good measure. Hiko pulls out a kunai and cuts her bonds. Their silver-haired teacher rises with a wince, her leggings in tatters around her groin, blood dripping down. "He's mine. I would have my revenge on him."
The man tries to gather himself to his feet, for what they know not. Walter gives him another good kick that sends him down again.
"Michiyo – your kodachi, please." The girl retrieves the short sword from her kill's neck, gives it over. Reika-sensei hefts it, considering. Then she strikes, and the man's head falls to the ground, the body sitting upright for a few moments before slumping onto the leafy forest floor.
There is silence as Reika-sensei stares at the corpse for a long time. Then her shoulders slump and she looks around the clearing, at the body of the other dead man. Blood continues to trickle sluggishly down her thighs.
"I expect you've had your first kills now, correct?" Her voice, hoarse from either screaming or the effort of not screaming, is unusually sharp. "Well?" she demands when there is no response.
"Yes, ma'am." They murmur.
"I expected as much. Michiyo, Walter, check yourselves for any wounds that would hinder a full run back to the village, and seal these two enemy-nin up - you've watched Hiko do it often enough. Hiko, come over here and help me bandage myself up, I have need of that medic-nin training you've begun. I should be angry at you for disobeying my orders, but then, I might not be alive if you hadn't. I will write you up for it, but I won't punish you myself – and only because this was a standard patrol, and you were not failing a purposeful mission. If you had been carrying information, or carrying out surveillance, this would have killed your career utterly, and unredeemably."
"Sorry," Walter whispers. She nods, sort of smiles in a way that has nothing to do with happiness, and they don't know it now, but she'll never be the same again.
"Let's go kiddos. I need to wash this filth off me." She heads to a tangle of bushes that might provide some modicum of privacy. Hiko follows.
Walter begins to assess himself, rolling his shoulders to feel for any cuts, pulled muscles that adrenaline may have overwhelmed. He finds a few small cuts, mostly bruises and sore muscles. He cleans them with a alcohol wipe in his hip pouch, bandages them just in case.
He doesn't regret it, Walter realizes, the killing and torturing. He'd do it again, in a heartbeat. He looks over at Michiyo, who has finished her own checks. She has a fresh bandage around her waist, and knee, covering wounds received in the melee. She's pawing over the corpses. Looting. She's looting the corpses, and despite no regrets, he is almost repulsed.
No, restocking. Perfectly acceptable. Battling with thrown weapons mean there are always tools missing. It makes sense to restock on the field, be it from enemy or ally. Says a voice that must be born of that moment (high on something fleeting and ephemeral) as blood had soaked his hands and his grip on the knife had shook a little (his hands usually so steady) and the power and confidence he had felt – it felt—
"Hey!" Michiyo exclaims, "Walter, come on over here! Found something!" She rolls the man over and pulls a scroll from a side pouch. Walter slouches over and peers over her shoulder.
"A blood seal?" He wonders, and she shakes her head.
"No I've seen blood seals at the Kagami clan manor and this looks, y'know, different. Can't figure what it is though. This document must be important, to seal it, yeah?"
"Will ask Reika-sensei and Hiko."
"Yeah."
They wait patiently for their teammate to attend to their teacher's wound. An idea hits Walter when he remembers Reika-sensei's tattered leggings.
"Hey, what're you doin'?" Michiyo queries in confusion, as Walter squats next to the body and begins to undo the button and fly of the corpse.
"Sensei needs pants," He grunts, tugging the clothing off the man's hips, difficult to do with rigor mortis setting in. "Michiyo, need help." She quickly crouches down to help, and together they wrestle the man's pants off. Once the garment is off they set it and the scroll aside, and begin to seal the bodies and blood into their own scrolls kept empty and carried around for the express purpose of storage sealing.
The look on Reika-sensei's face, a brief but genuine smile, is worth it when Walter presents the trousers to her.
"You're a good man, Walter Kovacs." She pulls them on over her leggings, and uses a length of wire in lieu of a belt. "Everything cleaned up?"
"Yep." Michiyo nods, "An' we found this." She holds up the scroll. Reika-sensei takes it, and holds it up to examine.
"Well, well, well. This is sealed with a chakra lock. That's not an easy scroll seal, so this must be valuable." She shoves it into her hip pouch and zips it. "Better get back to Konoha fast then, so the Encryption Department can look at it, and unravel it. Ready?"
Team Four murmurs their assent, and then all four of them take to the trees, letting Reika-sensei set the pace.
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