Morning came sunny and bright upon Komura's face. Mentally, she cursed herself for falling asleep during her watch and letting Akino sleep all night.
What if something had happened? They wouldn't be survivors then, they'd be a pair of kids acting like ninja when they had no real skill or knowledge. Speaking of which...
"Akino wake up, it's time to get moving again."
"Uggnnn," he groaned. "Another 5 minutes?"
"Nope! If you don't hurry up I'm leaving without you!" Cheerily, she ran off in the direction of the stream before Akino had a chance to realize that he wasn't woken up last night.
As she approached the water though, Komura heard the distinct sound of voices. She slowed her pace down considerably, and peered around before coming out from behind any trees or bushes.
Down by the water she spied a pair of boys, looking to be about the same age as her brother. These ones were in full shinobi attire, with weapons and the like, instead of her brother's loose and light colored clothing.
Neither of the pair wore any sign of status however, other than the headbands depicting their home village. Even her brother didn't have his headband, for as far as she knew in the moment he had forgotten to grab it.
The two boys were conversing lowly, in words that Komura couldn't catch. She turned around slowly, attempting to move back to retrieve Akino before moving in a different direction, but something held her there.
Recounting the incident later, she could never determine exactly what had kept her rooted to the location, deciding that it was just another mystery of the universe never to be uncovered. For the pair were not particularly remarkable, other than their very existence, and at such a close distance so early in the morning.
The moonlight had allowed her to practice in the darkness, but now the sun revealed shapes and forms that hadn't been available to her at night.
All she could do was gaze at them as they spoke. It seemed to her when the talking ceased that the shorter of the two was searching for something. He didn't exhibit any signs other than a closing of the eyes, but it still sent a shiver up Komura's spine.
Suddenly, the smaller one looked directly at her location, frightening the small girl. The taller boy glanced over before tapping the other's shoulder.
The latter simply nodded at the former and made way for him. The green-haired boy, who was the taller of the two, leaped over towards Komura, closing the distance with a blinding speed.
Scarcely had the bushes been parted than Akino fell in front of her, effectively stopping the incoming attack. She gasped, surprised, but had no time to sit there and stare for a pair of arms grabbed her from behind. One covered Komura's mouth as the other wrapped itself around her waist, lifting her up and backwards.
She struggled, unable to see the captor, flailing her arms about and trying to wrench the fingers from her side to no avail. Akino turned to look at the commotion behind him yet only the quickly vanishing shoes of Komura could be seen.
As quickly as she was gone, so to was his vision as Akino crumpled to the ground.
Breathing a sigh, the green-haired boy checked the red-haired one's pulse to make sure that he was actually out for the time being. Feeling satisfied, Otoke gazed down at him.
He wasn't particularly admirable looking on any fronts, but he was still wary. You never know what could happen on a mission, especially when other people get involved.
From what he saw of the girl, she didn't look like a shinobi, and neither did this guy. He wore light clothing, in both color and weight, that was loose, probably to allow the fabric to breathe a little. He took a little or it between his fingers and marveled at it's creation.
It was a thickly woven fabric that didn't allow for much stretch, likely worn for it's durability. Perhaps a villager of an Earth village? He seemed to have a little bit of training in him when he blocked your first strike, but certainly not enough for the second.
If he hadn't known any better he'd have guessed that the kid was a Genin, but with no forehead protector he best he could go for was a trainee. If they're starting to send people who can barely block a punch then this war is starting to get ridiculous, he thinks to himself.
For safety precautions, a bit of rope is used to tie the boy to a nearby tree. Otoke checks him thoroughly beforehand for any weapons or any useful artifacts but is surprised to find not a single thing on him other than his clothing and an interesting piece tied around his chest, covering the boy's heart.
The knot looked as if it hadn't been undone in quite a while, for what the loose clothing covered was, assumedly, the boys forehead protector. The sign of Sunagakure was engraved there, taking him aback.
It was certainly easy to guess at clothing, especially when your parents sold it and talked about it nonstop. It got annoying sometimes but it came in handy occasionally by identifying the homeland of an incapacitated enemy. Kinda like now in fact.
What really got to him though was that he was wrong. About these things he was rarely wrong, but this time he was. Even on a boy clothing from Suna would entail something where the fibers were more spread out to allow it to breathe in the heat and sweat of the day.
He was certain that the boy would be from an Earth village, yet he wasn't. Otoke almost pushed it aside to continue moving along with life, but it really stuck to him.
As he got up to check on his teammate, Otoke paused for a moment, before tearing a scrap of fabric from the boy's shirt. He would check this out when he returned. It was certainly possible that some Genin had been sent to infiltrate the Land of Wind, so double checking and notifying someone wouldn't be a bad idea.
As for Komura, she was certainly having an interesting time. The hand on her waist, after dragging her into a standing position, moved upward so that while the hand on her mouth remained, the other was held at her neck.
With every gulp she could feel the skin of his hand clench slightly tighter around her throat, leaving her gasping but more than complacent.
They walked a little ways, making strange patterns and occasionally doubling back before finally stopping. Out of fear, Komura hadn't tried anything better than a few measly kicks to his shin every now and then which only got her a grunt and a tighter squeeze before letting her breathe.
She felt lightheaded and thoughts appeared and left unaided by her mental state. Not a single word was spoken by either of them, one out of desperation, the other out of cold calculation.
To the brown-haired boy, this girl was below weak. She had barely put up a fight, and what little she had posed not a single threat to him other than maybe a bruise later.
She was obviously no shinobi and by the looks of it no training in the slightest. It was almost a chore to go through with all of these precautions. Otoke always said you could never be too careful but he just thought it was unnecessary work.
When he finally let her go she fell to her knees, scrambling away from him. Her back hit a tree and she swiftly turned her head to gaze at it before snapping her eyes back to him.
"I'm not going to rape you or anything if that's what you're worried about," he called out to her shaking form.
"T-then what do you want?" She asked. If he left her here it would take her a long time to get back to Akino for she hadn't kept track of where they had gone. They could be 20 feet away and she wouldn't have known for the stillness of the forest.
A pause, then "What's your name?" She gulped at the non-answer but answered truthfully anyway.
"K-Komura."
"And what are you doing out here in the middle of the woods all alone?"
"I'm not alone! I'm with my brother!"
He simply nodded his head, contemplating the answer.
"Age?"
"Ten."
His eyebrows rose at her age but he kept the rest of his face impassive.
"Brother's name?"
"Akino..."
"Hm...Where do you come from?" Otoke was the nicer of the pair. Where he would use fear and power to make opponents tell him information, Otoke would figure out the details from sight and hearing alone.
Both ways were flawed certainly, but if certain details matched up from both of their interrogations, it was almost certainly correct.
That was there purpose here in fact. They weren't very skilled in any form of jutsu but surprise had always been their ally and against two children like this it was a piece of cake. He would gather info from the girl while Otoke would from the boy, write it down and compare it later to assess the movements and whereabouts of anyone and everyone in the forests of the Land of Wind.
Komura paused, trying to come up with an answer. She shouldn't say her actual village for that could be hazardous to be known to come from there, but any other might not sound convincing.
"I can tell if you lie by the way," the boy added. It was a total bluff on his part but she didn't need to know that.
"Sunagakure," she concluded. It wasn't a total lie. Their town was so far on the outskirts that it had it's own name but it was considered to be part of Sunagakure by the elders.
"Well why are you so far from home?" Komura looked away from him crossing her arms with a sad look on her face.
"Exploring..."
"Lying remember?" The boy reminded her. She huffed before looking back at him and really looking. It had gotten easier over the past days to do it, so now it took only a blink to be able to pick out the aura's of everything.
All of the plants and animals suddenly became clearer as Komura's vision sharpened. Her eye twitched a little, still unused to the extra strain on it but the sight didn't falter. Most of the plants remained green in aura as in color but a handful had strange and bright ones.
Even the boy in front of her projected a green aura liken to the plants around him. This time however it almost seemed that the aura gathered itself around the boy in points. It still looked like a sphere around him but some parts looked deeper than others, almost like strings connecting the outside to his body.
She gave a little gasp, never having seen them before, which set him on guard. He glanced behind him a moment but turned around as soon as she made to move.
"My question...?" He asked again, the narrowing of his eyes and way that he spoke regaining it's coldness. Although Komura rose, the brown-haired one only got into a defensive stance, not even moving closer.
She didn't know what she was doing, but having her sight comforted Komura and she decided that no more questions would she answer. He would catch her if she decided to flee so no doubt fighting was her only option.
A quiet came over the pair, neither making a move against the other. Finally Komura moved, slowly making her way towards the other.
He just gazed at her as she neared. A thousand different plans ran through his head of how to beat her, with other replacing them with each step she took. When she moved her leg up to kick him however was when he moved.
A flicker of movement by his aura in her direction was noticed before she was unceremoniously knocked over. Only a little push was needed to set her off-balance enough to tip her over on the one foot.
Komura let out a breath on the impact before rising again and this time aiming a punch. He was only playing with her at this point so he let it hit him, waiting to see her reaction when he was perfectly fine.
What he didn't expect was not to be perfectly fine. For at the last second, Komura changed her attack. An open palm struck a bit below of the center of his chest but the effect was almost instantaneous.
A jolt went through him as he collapsed to the ground, exhausted. He tried to make himself stand up but his legs felt like jelly, as thought they couldn't support any weight.
The sight of her attacker face-planting would have made Komura laugh if she too weren't able to move. Her body gave out, only a small amount of energy left within it and it couldn't take the use of any more.