Sunagakure, Near Kazekage Tower
I landed near my posse after listening in on the meeting of the Kazekage and some random man, likely some kind of bounty hunter. "Shit, the third Kazekage, I'm really out of my element." I thought as I glanced around and bid my clones to spread out to track down a building that might likely have jutsu scrolls. Information about what happened to Sunagakure was lacking in the manga, however, what was not as lacking was the information about the third Kazekage. He is dubbed as the most powerful Kazekage in Sunagakure history, at least until Gaara became Kazekage. This is going to be tough if I am found out, I'm not sure of my survival, but I'm not going down easily. When it comes to the other person, based on how he carried himself, he seems like trouble as well, if he's a bounty hunter, he seems like a good one. And that bow on his back looks quite tempting, it'll definitely go well with my flight and stealth abilities now that my theory has been proven correct. "Either way, let's focus on the task at hand, the sun is nearly fully set by now," I said in thought as I, along with Karasu and friends, took off in search of more buildings with a security presence.
Sunagakure: Scouting Mission
I separated from Karasu as he mentally told me in bird language, "Troops are mainly centered in the training grounds and are moving out to military outposts across the Land of Wind, mostly at the border with the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain. The Kazekage is an early bird and leaves to rest shortly after sundown." With that, that meant that only the village Anbu was to be watched closely at all times. Any building with security was likely a building that had important scrolls or documents, however, I'm mainly in search of jutsu and perhaps poisons, and anything higher level will likely be in the office building of the Kazekage. Said building also has decent security, with two Anbu on the top and two on the bottom making their rounds. I was also told by Saki chan, Karasu's ally, that the Anbu exchange shifts every two hours and never enter the building itself, probably for clearance reasons considering all of the other Kazekages were assassinated.
I inwardly made a note to myself that I needed to pick up a bingo book soon since it seemed that my actions garnered the attention of nearly all villages. I allowed that thought to the back of my consciousness as I landed across the road from what looked to be an archive of some kind based on the kanji above the door and with a couple of Anbu stationed at the front. "The main challenge is getting into the Kazekage building, no doubt, there are some kind of seals or genjutsu blocking access to the room that may have the scrolls. If I maintain stealth like this, I should be able to at least incapacitate the guards for a bit, damn, I should have learned a bit of genjutsu." I inwardly spoke, cursing myself for not studying any genjutsu. I decided that enough information was gathered here as I took off again, managing to spot the same bounty hunter from earlier eating at some kind of restaurant with a wide smile. I decided to ignore him for now as I made my way across the village, occasionally crossing paths with my clones or comrades.
Sunagakure, Nightfall: Time to Strike
I, along with all of my clones and comrades came back together on top of a random house and acted as if we were normal, picking and grooming ourselves here and there as I covertly watched as the Kazekage came out of the building, looking slightly worn out. I watched as he turned to lock the door by placing his hand on it, causing a sealing array to spread across the door, as he made his way presumably to his house for rest. "It's time," I thought as I then mentally commanded my clones to begin to move on my signal as well as commanding Karasu and friends to maintain a perimeter, "Yes Ma'am," responded everyone as we waited for the right moment.
After several minutes of waiting, I watched as the Anbu on the roof settled down in their positions and commanded Karasu and friends to take off and secure a perimeter for the nearest radius, while also making sure to command Saki to follow in the direction that the Kazekage went to watch over him. I, along with my clones tensed up, and took off toward the other side of the circular tower's roof. I landed on one of the high points of the roof as my clones landed on the railing, earning curious, but short gazes from the two Anbu before they turned back to looking out for people. "Big mistake," I thought inwardly as I commanded one of my clones to slowly inch our way to them, me taking one of them while my clone took the other one. With a mental shout of, "NOW!" My clone and I disregarded our transformations, returning to our normal forms, all while immediately channeling chakra into our nails, elongating them. At the same time, we came up from behind the Anbu, shifted their masks, and covered their mouths, then instantly sliced their throats in the process. As expected, they started moving around erratically as my clone and I had to channel even more chakra into our bodies, enhancing our strength, we then stabbed and hacked at their throats some more, killing them immediately.
With a sigh, I nodded at my clone and commanded her to follow me while the others remained outside, as we made our way to the entrance of the roof. The entrance was nothing more than a hatch in the ground which had a seal on it. "Fuck, I think if I remove this seal, it may trigger an alarm," I said quietly to my clone, earning a nod from her. A moment passed as I mentally commanded all of my clones and comrades to prepare to flee east after breaching in case of an alarm. "Fuck it, let's see if this works," I said before placing my blood-covered hand over the seal and channeling some senjutsu chakra into it. A moment passed...then another...then another. I felt my heartbeat start to quicken as the seal array lit up and started to glow and then-.
"What?" I asked myself in thought and slight shock at how the array quickly broke apart quietly, without triggering an alarm. "What the fuck, I thought that would be worse? Damn, no wonder the previous Kazekages were assassinated, this seal work is lax at best." I finished in a whisper as I opened the hatch door and started on my way down, my clone followed after me. "Hm, you did use nature energy, which is very potent, and perhaps that could have overridden such a weak seal." Ariana chirped. I reached the bottom of the ladder, landed in a dark room, and waited for my clone, "Or maybe, since it is nature energy and not chakra from a normal person, the nature energy could have accelerated the decay of the seal almost like how it can turn a person into stone without the right chakra control or focus. By it being a weaker seal, considering Suna was never known for talented seal masters, it may have been more vulnerable to decay in a shorter amount of time." I finished as my clone finally reached the bottom, we both scanned the dark room, red eyes glowing in the night. "Let's go, any scrolls should be in the main office," I said to my clone as we hurried out of the room.
After leaving the room we looked both ways before she spoke, "I'll go left, you go right, we'll meet in the office downstairs in 10 minutes." I nodded as we both separated, opening doors and glancing around to see anything of value on our way. I went down the stairs and opened the first door that I came across to see a couple of bookshelves with a few documents and scrolls lying around. I immediately rushed to the books, scanning over the titles before a couple of them caught my attention. "Sealing Basics, Advanced Poisons, the Art of War?" I said out loud in a whisper, remembering something about a book on war in my past life before shaking my head, I grabbed the poison basics and and the sealing basic scrolls and put them into my backpack. After that, I took a glance at the documents on the desk, seeing that they were nothing but some academy-related documents, I decided to leave the room and prioritize getting to the main office.
Kazekage Building, Main Office
After I met up with my clone, I broke another seal that was subpar at best and entered the room, immediately spotting a nearby door. I mentally asked for an update from my clones and comrades, "What's the status of the Kazekage and any Anbu?" A moment passed before an answer came, "This is Karasu, we have a team of Anbu making their way toward the building, they seem to be calm, perhaps the ones who are showing up for the next shift. Hurry!" I cursed before asking, "How far are they?" Karasu responded, "They are roughly 700 meters away from the building, they are walking and would likely be there in the next several minutes." "Roger that," I answered as I placed my hand on the seal on the door and destroyed it. Opening the door, my eyes gleamed with excitement as I spotted a few scrolls, books, and a couple of bookshelves like the other room. However, this room also had a few random weapons, dust-covered fans, a wooden sand gourd, along with some trinkets all around the place.
I, along with my clone, moved quickly to the scrolls and books seeing what was useful. "Fuck yeah, S-ranked!" I said, excitedly grabbing some of the jutsu scrolls and putting them into my backpack along with some books about advanced wind jutsu practices and poisons. "Katomi, you have to get out of there, the Kazekage has been alerted and is getting out of his bed!" The voice of Saki sounded, causing my clone and I to pale slightly while finishing up our scavenging. "Let's hurry to the roof, now!" I said as my clone and I quickly left the office, running towards the roof, "Everyone, start making your way out of the village, head to the east, we'll meet up at that rock that we were at before, go!" I mentally commanded, "Yes Ma'am," responded my comrades as I assumed they had flown off by now, making their way east.
Residence of the Kazakage
"WHAT!?" I shouted as I felt a pulse from the seal under my bed, I placed it there for when the seal on the door leading to the advanced techniques room that held some of the most powerful techniques of our village. I glanced out of the window into the night. "What happened with the Anbu? No matter!" I said as I quickly got up and put on some clothes and quickly left out of my window.
Sunagakure: Final Phase
The Kazakage rushed towards the building before glancing down at a unit of Anbu, who seemed to be calm and relaxed. He jumped to the ground before shouting, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? SHOULDN'T YOU BE ALREADY AT YOUR POSTS?" The Anbu straightened up immediately before bowing as one of them responded, "S-sorry Kazekage sama, we were just making our way to the office to exchange shifts, it was nearly time to-" His sentence was cut off as the Kazekage spoke, "Nevermind that, secure the perimeter of the village and lock It down, someone has managed to infiltrate the secret archive in my office! Now get going!" He ordered and shot off towards the tower, already activating the iron sand from his gourd. As he landed at the top of the tower, his eyes narrowed at the downed corpses of the Anbu. He went to check the corpses, swatting away some of the crows, and causing them to fly off the railing, letting off squawks into the distance. He bent down slightly to see the injuries as more Anbu arrived swatting away some of the remaining crows away from the hatch opening."Shit, Racoon, Badger, get down there and check the office; Mongoose, Goat, you go check the rest of the floors!" Commanded the Kazekage as the Anbu followed his orders obediently. The Kazekage then took off to scout around the village to see where the perpetrator went.
Sunagakure, Outskirts: Who Do We Have Here?
As my clone and I landed behind the familiar rock, we ditched our transformations and I turned to her with a serious look, "Take this and make your way back home," I whispered to my clone as she nodded and took off, intentionally going south instead of east. I stood still and sniffed the air, smelling a hint of blood and some sweat coming from behind me, "There you are," I said in thought as I decided to play a game and started running east, towards the open sandy plains that had many caverns and cliffs. The very same area as my last battle. Let's see how this will go, shall we?
After a couple of hours passed of chasing my long-needed target, we finally came to an open area. Not necessarily open in terms of geography but more open in terms of not being too close to any other shinobi of Suna. After two long years of pursuing, I've finally found her. However, I couldn't help but feel quite nervous about this girl, she seemed to have trained far more in chakra since from what I heard of her before. To be able to infiltrate a major village without detection, and to be able to seemingly transform into a crow on command and to use shadow clones. Yes, this girl has become something, and only 7 maybe 8 years old at that. Even now, I still cannot feel her chakra as I kept my eyes on her form, sprinting through the sandy ridges, narrow rock passages, and sand dunes. After a few more minutes, she finally came to a stop, near a large cliff with some sparsely populated trees.
Land of Wind, Ridgeland: We Finally Meet
Turning around to the man whom I had led on a chase for the last couple of hours, I glared at his form before speaking loudly, "So, you want my bounty?" I asked, and immediately dodged an arrow that landed next to me on the ground. "Hm, so you're not much for talk are you?" I stated before beckoning my wings to form while grabbing my Wakazashi blades from my back scabbard and changing them to a reverse grip. "By order of the Tsuchikage, you are under arrest for the murder of the son of a court member. Please come peacefully for your own good," Stated the man while standing on top of a tree branch several meters away from me. I smirked in return, "Well, you're a long way from home," I said as I took off in his direction and swung my right blade, only for him to dodge without much problem as I sliced an indent into the tree. He jumped away, firing an arrow at me which I dodged. Fortunately, with my enhanced perception, I was able to realize that a smoke bomb was attached to it, however, I was already in motion to move away before it went off.
After moving out of the area, Katomi couldn't see him or feel his chakra, his character blip on her map completely disappeared. However, she could still smell him slightly, and made her way towards him, noticing that he was in the upper canopy of a tree nearby. He fired off a few more arrows as she dodged and, to his shock, flew behind a few trees, disappearing from his sight. "What the hell?" He asked himself as he tensed up and remained on guard. He looked side to side, before looking up, only to move out of the way as a quick sword swipe nearly managed to cleave his body in half. He backed away again and ran through a few hand signs, "Illusion Arts: Hell Viewing Technique." He said as he finished his hand signs releasing his genjutsu onto Katomi she froze, eyes looking distant. The hunter sighed, "You were good, but you're still just a little kid," He said making his way toward her, aiming to arrest her. She stood frozen and silent as he approached her, taking away her swords and placing them on the ground. He turned to take out the ninja wire as he heard a poof noise. He turned back to Katomi, only to see nothing but smoke. "WHA-" His sentence was cut short as one of the blades on the ground transformed back into Katomi, and she immediately tried to slice his head off from behind, however, he was able to just barely lean away, earning a slice on his shoulder for his troubles.
"Shit," he cursed as he jumped away, taken by complete surprise at her actions. "Damn, this girl is good, but that's expected from someone who manages to infiltrate a major village," he said mentally before jumping behind large rocks. "Damn, she can fly and she's also tricky, I'm at a real disadvantage here. Although, it seems as if she doesn't have any long-ranged jutsus, or perhaps she just hasn't shown it yet." He continued in thought as he made his way back into a tree, suppressing his chakra once more. Katomi watched as he jumped away, allowing him to form a plan as she took flight once more and made her way to a nearby cavern, "Let's see what you can do," she said as she landed in the cavern.
"Is there a reason that you currently playing with your food?" Ariana asked. I shrugged slightly before replying, "Just want to test myself, I may not have many battles like these for a while." A moment passed as I tried to formulate a plan, "I am at a disadvantage when it comes to any ranged attacks, so I need to get in close. But he's good, probably as good as that last guy I fought, however, his main weakness is his focus on using that bow and arrow. He definitely seems more like a stealth fighter and does not have much ability for face-to-face. His usage of genjutsu only cements him as being more of a stealthy type." I thought as I kept my senses aware, taking a few glances around me before concluding, "Well, just like before, unless I get in close, this will be for nought and we'll just come to a standstill," I finished before dawning my Wakazashi blades, with one of them in reverse grip and the other one in a normal grip. I then jumped and flew off back to where I last saw him go, picking up his scent faintly.
"Here goes nothing," stated the bounty hunter as he formed a few hand seals before speaking softly, "Illusion Arts: World Reverso." He released the B-rank genjutsu around the area that he was in before jumping into the nearest tree and drawing a poison-tipped arrow, suppressing his chakra down to almost nothing. He waited...and waited...and waited some more. He sat, waiting for a few moments patiently. He was so focused on the opening that he missed the crow landing on a branch directly above him. After a few seconds, his focus was cut short as a warm, wet feeling made its way known on his back as he was crouched in the tree. "What? What was that?" He spoke as he looked around quickly, checking for movement, before looking up, only to see the crow above him look at him in the face. He stared in confusion as he turned to look at his back, only to see an unpleasant gift, likely from the said bird. "Damn it, you -" his sentence was cut short once again as the crow above him turned into Katomi once again as she flew down and landed a kick to his face, causing him to crash to the ground.