"Kids! You're not much older than us!"

Yuu rolled her eyes and looked at Natsuki. "You look smart. Why do you have a ten year old on your team?"

"Ten?" Kenpatchi screeched again.

"He's more like six or seven sometimes."

"Suki! You're supposed to be helping!"

"Why do you keep him around them." Yuu asked, ignoring him. Natsuki shrugged back, "I wonder the same sometimes."

"Sukiiii!"

"Shut up!" Both girls yelled. Kenaptchi suck back a little. His lizard stuck it's head out from under the clothes and gave a loud hiss.

"Yuu." Mitsuaki took a step forward. "The scroll."

"Oh yeah." She looked back at him and smiled. "Thanks for reminding me, Mitsuaki-kun~" She said, slurring his name flirtatiously. Mitsuaki's blank expression didn't change. Yuu frowned a little and stepped forward to Gaki's body.

A mix of blood and rainwater leaked down into the roofs gutters. Gaki's wounds were wide open and the rain was making the red fluids pour out even faster. His hood was down and the hair had fallen out of his face. It was the first time anyone had really even seen the whole face clearly. His pale green eyes were staring up into the air, his mouth wide with surprise.

Yuu gave the body a hard kick. When it didn't flinch she reached down to grab the scroll from his hands.

Natsuki whipped out a pair of shuriken and threw them at her. The stars hit their target, but she didn't bleed. She disappeared and faded into light purple smoke. The puppet masters eyes snapped. "A clone." She looked at Kenpatchi. "Where's the real one?"

Kenpatchi looked around, eyes glowing. He pointed. "Over there. Not too far, but hurry." He started to head that way, but Natsuki jumped ahead of him. "Hold that guy off!"

He halted. "What! Bu-but!" She was already sprinting ahead unable to hear.

Mitsuaki drew his swords and pointed one at Kenpatchi. Kenpatchi ran a hand through his wet hair nervously. He calmed himself and gripped the weapon on his back.

Setting: Kumogakure, Maximum Security Prison, Guards Room

"I'm telling you, Shyama Verena is the best. Have you seen her swords? They aren't even like swords. And she controls them like...like..."

"Like what? How you talk? Finish your sentence, Isamu."

The first girl talking, Isamu, frowned. "Well who do you think is the best, Kurai!"

Kurai adjusted the mask around her face. "I don't care."

"The best for sure is one of the Seigi" A third girl spoke up. The other three in the room suddenly turned and stared at her. It wasn't that often she spoke up. "I don't know his name however. But I did see him in combat and the genjutsu is just amazing. Genjutsu is something incredibly rare for the clan"

"Really?" Said the forth, leaning against a wall. "I dunno know them. Are ether of them from the Leaf, Amaya?"

"No." She replied. "If I remember right...one's from the Sand and the Seigi originate from the Waterfall- they rarely show up in the Leaf. Though if this is limited to the Leaf I would say Hoshimaru."

"Hmm really? I was thinking that dark haired girl. The one who always trained with Sasuke Uchiha before he turned bad."

Kurai let out a laugh. "Ayumi, the girl resorts to hitting below the belt most of the time. Anyone who is so weak they feel the need to do that to win is sad. You ever heard of Jemaru Bur-"

The door opened cutting them off. A brown skinned man in his early thirties entered. His eyes were as brown as his skin, his hair spiked and pulled behind him. "Sorry for keeping you waiting gentl- L-ladies!"

The girls stared back at the new comer. Kurai stepped for forward. "About time. We're the Konoha shinobi you requested."

"A-ah yes, I'm afraid you'll have to wait a few more minutes." He closed the door and let a slightly panicked look appear on his face. He rushed over to a very dark skinned- almost black- Kumogakure shinobi. "You ordered the shinobi from Konoha right?"

The dark man nodded, "Is that a problem."

"The problem is they're all girls! Why are they all girls!" If he hadn't been trying so hard the whisper, the man surely would have been yelling. "Not a single man on that team! I asked for guards, not princesses!"

The man simply frowned back. "You asked for shinobi from Konoha to assist in guarding the prison while our guards are on break. Konoha assigned it to those four young kunochi as they had the skills and happened to be available. How is it a problem, Jiro?"

The brown man Jiro shifted a little and replied. "Well...you know girls. They tend to be weaker. If they start doing make-up while a prisoner is breaking his lock-"

"Then Konaha will be informed and handle it. Now stop being rude and welcome our temporary guards." Jiro was shoved back down the hallway.

He reached the door where he left them to find one of the girls standing in front of it waiting. Kurai wore all black and a dark mask with blue marking. "Are you the one who hired us?"

"Umm...Yes in a way. I'm Jiro-"

She held out a card. It held nothing but an odd symbol of a fish. "You asked for ANBU if possible to assist you. They are busy right now, so you'll have to accept a lower member." She tucked the card back. "I am a member of KIO. Call me Nenriki Mei."

"Mei..." He repeated.

"Your name is Jiro, correct?"

"Er...yes."

"We will not be underestimated, Jiro." She said sharply. "I wear my mask because I was chosen as one of the best. One of my team was handpicked by me and the other two by the Hokage herself. We are not simple kunochi. We are fully capable of guarding S-rank felons. All we ask is for our pay and equal treatment without discrimination. Understand?"

'She knew!' Jiro thought, but didn't show his fear. "Very well. I understand. You're already impressing me. I shall like to meet all of you now.

He opened the door and asked for names.

"You've met me. I'm leader for this mission."

"I'm Yoshino Isamu!" Isamu smiled. She had brown hair put up into pigtails. She dressed in bright blue and black. Her skirt had the symbol of the Yoshino clan: a blue circle with a slit-like shape inside and four catlike stripes coming out toward the slit. Four black marks were also on her face, making her look a lot like a kitten had magically gotten a human body.

"Miharu Ayumi." The second brunette introduced herself. She had a black and white top with green pants and gloves she was currently tightening around her hands. Bandages covered her arms, but it didn't look like she had done any recent training (that injured her at least). She didn't look like the strongest, but she looked determined and good at what she did.

"Fuuma Amaya." The last one said quietly. She was more Gothic in appearance than Kurai. Her hair was long and black with white strikes at the sides. She wore black with red on the chest of her shirt and many bandages. A blindfold was wrapped around her, hiding her eyes. Jiro wondered how she could see with it on. She was facing his way and her vision seemed unaltered by the cloth.

"Right...nice to meet you ladies. My name is Jiro and I will be in charge of your assignments here. This way please."

They exited the room and walked down a dark hallway. He explained as they went one.

"Most of the prisoners here are A rank. There are some S rank here, but you'll only be dealing with a few. S ranks are under different, more extreme guarding conditions. Due to security measures I can not describe to people outside the village the details of their imprisonment.. I apologize but hope you understand the situation."

"We understand." Ayumi replied, "So who do we deal with?"

"You have the basic guard duties with the A ranks."

"What about B-"

"There is no B rank. Only low A rank criminals. You will have night shift, so you'll have to be extra alert."

"Okay, so we guard A-ranks and prevent escape at night." Isamu said. "What if an S-rank escapes and your security can't handle it."

"If that rarity happens, you will receive orders from me or another Cloud-nin."

"But otherwise we don't deal with them at all, right?"

"Well I won't say that..." Jiro said. He went down a hall lit by torchlight. At the end, they could barely see a cage.

"You see the thing about the S-rank is the prisons are complex. We can't have enough to put every single high rank felon in one. So we move a few to the higher A-rank prisons when space gets to crowded. This one for example, is S-rank for extreme mass murder. However prison chains seem to have worn him down to a weak level and he doesn't know any jutsu. If he does anyway, there are seals here that prevent most."

Ayumi's eyes widened in awe. "S-ranked without knowing jutsu. I'd understand if it was a Tai Jutsu master, but-"

"Woah! He's huge!" Isamu shouted.

Jiro rolled his eyes, but the others stared at the prisoner. The cloud jonin guessed it was because he had seen this mans appearance before and he had to admit, he was huge. He tapped a bar. "Brom-san. Are you awake?"

The man grunted and sat up. Prison didn't spare him any favors. His beard had grown back over the months and his face was dirty. His muscles were weaker and his eyes glared darker than before and not just because of the dark circles under them.

"One of these young ladies will bring you food after the tour." Jiro said, turning around. "C'mon."

Amaya and Ayumi followed and so did Kurai at first. She stopped and realized Isamu wasn't with them still. The girl doubled back and found the cat girl squatting down at the edge of Brom's cage.

"Brom-san~ That's your name?" Isamu asked.

"Yeah..."

"How tall are you."

"I dunno. At least seven, maybe eight feet. I don't like keeping track of shit like that"

"Wow...I bet you've thrown some people. Is that how you killed them?"

Kurai stepped back as Brom let out a loud laugh. "Haha! You know, I really have killed quite a few that way."

"So how old are you?"

"Dunno. Stopped counting after eighty-eight."

"Really?"

"No. Not really." Kurai said, putting a hand on her friends shoulder. "Come on Isamu. We're falling behind."

Isamu shrugged. "Long hallway and they're walking. We'll catch up with we run. Besides I'm curious. This guy isn't in the Binbo Book. My sensei loaned me a copy once and I never saw anyone like you in it." She looked back at Brom. "I kinda like you. You're interesting."

"Thanks." Brom muttered back. "Yah know, I kinda like you too. I have a student your age."

Kurai smirked. "Are you sure he's not fifty-six, but stopped counting?"

"Kuraiii!"

"Tch, yah don't think we're a threat." Brom grinned back at her, moving closer to the bars of the cage. "I hope you're a god fearing girl. Our god made us immortal."

"Okay, let's rest here."

Sora stopped running and looked around. It certainly felt higher up and the land was mountainous. "You know where we are, right?"

"Right. We're just outside of Kumo. The Maxium Security Prisons should be away from the village."

"Why would it be away? Shouldn't it be in Kumogakure since it's a Kumogakure prison."

"But it's a prison. If the prisoners escape, you don't want them inside the village where they can hurt families, do you?"

Sora grinned a little, "Depends. Are we looking at this as a stupid shinobi or as us, because personally I don't care if they die."

Kitai just frowned. "We'll spend the night here and search in the mor-" He coughed suddenly. "Morning." His red eyes moved around. He had sworn he had just someone, but he didn't feel much chakra. He could hear movement.

He looked over and Sora. The kid seemed to feel it too. They both reached for their swords.

A twig snapped and the swords whipped out. There was a shine of reflected light as a metal helmet. Kitai instinctively started to attack, but Sora reached out and grabbed his shoulder stopping him.

"Sora! What are you-" He noticed Sora wasn't paying much attention, but staring at the figure emerging, his mouth open in disbelief.

The head of a brown bear came out of the bushes with the helmet. The bear seemed to smile for a moment and said in a deep voice. "I knew I smelled you."

"Smell-"

"Kanemaru!" Sora rushed over to the bear, who let out a small roar and put his front paws up. Kitai rushed next to him, thinking he was going to be attacked. He halted and blinked as Sora grinned and grabbed the bear's paws. It was a greeting.

"You...you know him, Sora?"

"Huh?" Sora looked over. "Yeah I know him. He's Brom-senpai's summing animal. He was there when he-" Sora looked back at Kanemaru, looking much less happy. "What happened the night of the fight? When the ANBU attacked us?"

Kanemaru's expression turned sober. "You disappeared."

"I had two, maybe three ANBU attacking me! I blacked out! I woke up and you both were gone! What happened!"

"...they captured him."

"We know that! What happened!" Sora screamed.

"You disappeared in the fight- I guess due to the people attacking you. I was fighting hard too. We were...outnumbered. That's the best excuse we have for losing. Anyway, I got held down and they began to place these...these papers on Brom. Seals. I was sealed too. Forced back into the world of summoned animals. I made my way back here over time...it wasn't easy."

"He's in Kumogakure Maximum Security Prison." Kitai said, "He's still around. I bet the seals are just preventing him from getting out or summoning you."

Kanemaru looked at the red head for a moment, then back at Sora. "We can break him out tonight then. The prison's not that far."

"Wo-wo-woah! Tonight!" Kitai put his hands up, "We just got here from the Land of Fire! We're tired."

"I'm not tired." Sora said flatly. He glared a little at Kitai.

"But you're not full energy ether. If we just run in there with no plan, we're going to end up in prison next to him."

"Then at least I'll be able to see him. To learn from him again-"

"No you won't!" Kitai snapped. "You'll be treated like enemies and separated! You won't talk to anyone and be expected to be a good little boy who keeps his head low and mouth shut...I know from experience." He admitted in the end.

Sora's frown straighted a little. He spoke sounding almost like a kid, "How can you expect me to sleep knowing we're this close to getting him?"

"..."

"Brom was late when he came back to find me. He said himself if he had just been a little earlier, I would have my hands."

Kitai shuttered a little at this, thinking of the metal stretching up Sora's right arm. Sora had a strong point about sleep. He wasn't sure he himself would be able to sleep. "I'm about to meet another immortal..." He spoke out loud without realizing.

"Come on, kid. We're going. It's better to break him out at night anyway."

The four girls who are guarding the prison were created by other people on Deviantart. Not by me. This chapter is old so some OCs mentioned may not be drawn by their creators. If you would like to know the usernames of these artists, PM me.

When I first started this fanfic, I was a beginning freshman in high school. I am now a high school senior who can't give up writing and am still working on tweaking this OC to make him interesting, even if I focus on other writing more. Thank you for still paying attention to Sora all this time.