剣 - SᗯOᖇᗪ || Naruto x BNHA

2 - Come closer and I'll stab you

剣
CHAPTER 2
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Come closer and I'll stab you

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I was falling, that I knew.

I could feel the cold air swirling around me and my short hair fluttering wildly in the wind. Slowly and completely confused, I opened my eyes, squinting against the icy air.

It took a few seconds for me to realise that this was not just an unusual dream, and I tore both eyes open frantically trying to get an overview of the situation.

I spun in the air until I was facing downwards and spread my arms and legs wide to stabilise my fall.

Below me was a sea of grey buildings as far as the eye could see. The area I was falling towards seemed even larger than Kirigakure, the village hidden in the mist. Huge.

I was getting closer and closer to the ground by the second and slowly I should really start thinking of something to intercept my fall, or at least slow me down.

I could create bunshins (quite a few in fact) to catch me, but my water clones were hopefully not the only option. The decision was taken from me when I noticed something flash in the corner of my eye. Something red.

I cursed my current state.

Not only was I at least a little exhausted from the fight with the masked man, but also incredibly immobile in free fall.

Nevertheless, my hand reached for the kunai stowed in a side pocket of my trousers. My decapitation knife (more like greatsword) was definitely not suitable for a possible fight in the air.

As another bout of dizziness took hold of me, I tightened my grip around the kunai to make sure I wouldn't drop it. The world disappeared before my eyes for a few seconds and in that period the flying red something reached me.

I felt a firm grip on my wrist and when my vision cleared, I recognized a man. A man, with red wings. He flapped them frantically, whining loudly a moment later:

"-- Damn, you're heavy," he gasped. Stop complaining, I cursed automatically, a huge steel knife has its weight. It took me a moment to compose myself. Normally I would have attacked him by now, but my brain was still in trance. Sluggish.

Besides, we were hanging hundreds of feet above the ground and it seemed the man could fly, at least a little.
And, in my defence I also had to say that I had never seen a flying man with wings before, so it took me a few seconds to realise my situation.

Nevertheless, I now clutched the knife in my hand and jerked it upwards, directly towards his hand in which he was holding my right arm. His eyes widened and just in time he let go of me and put some distance between us

Reassuringly, he raised his hands as he dropped down towards the ground beside me. I was now falling faster again, feverishly searching for a solution.

"Whoa, whoa, take it easy." , he tried. Cautiously, I ventured a look down and grinned with relief behind the bandages around my mouth.

He had seemingly changed our course a little, because there were now several trees below me. Good thing. I felt a breeze as the strange bird tried to approach me again, but I pointed the kunai straight at him and shot him a deadly glare.

"Come closer and I'll stab you," I hissed. The wind drowned out my voice, but apparently he got the gist of it.

"But-" that was all I understood because he had to stop abruptly as I broke through the upper canopy of a tree and slammed into a branch. I slipped, fell a short distance, came painfully to a short stop on the next, and so it went on until I got hold of a thick branch, close to the trunk, and held on.

I hung there for a few seconds and took a deep breath. Theoretically, I could just run away now and the bird would never see me again. Or I could kill him. But probably I should let him live for now, so he would tell me exactly where I was. Use him for information etc.. Because this wasn't Kirigakure, that much was clear. I could kill him afterwards.

I jumped the last dozen feet down to the ground and landed, this time quite elegantly in a crouch. I stood up, knocked the dirt off my trousers and looked around. From above I heard a rustling sound jerked my head in that direction and saw the bird land on the ground some distance in front of me.

I lowered my body a little into something defensive, analysing his position and every movement. My hand slid almost automatically to Kubikiri Bouchou's sword hilt over my right shoulder.

Then everything happened very quickly. Much more rapidly than before, the world began to twist and spin around me. I slumped, a long, shrill beep in my ear, then everything went black.

| ---,'--,'--- |

"--, ey, ey, wake up, sword girl. Ey," a light pat on my cheek sent me up. My head screamed and protested, but I ignored the surging pain completely and slid backwards. Across from me, sitting on a turned chair, the birdman was resting his forearms on the backrest between his legs and eyeing me scrutinisingly.

"Wow, you're finally awake, sword girl. Go ahead and move fast and jerky. Must be good for your concussion." , the blond grumbled with a slightly furrowed brow.

I snapped my eyes open as I noticed the lack of weight on my back and thighs. My weapons had disappeared. I reached for the inside pockets of my wide trousers to make sure, but they were empty.

"We removed your strange knives." , the man grinned broadly, "Which brings us to my first question: how--", I didn't let him finish. Without kunai and shuriken, I was left with one option that I didn't like to resort to, but I think I could classify this situation as an emergency.

I wore the gauntlets on my arms not just for decoration. Several senbon needles were hidden inside them, which now came in handy. I pulled them out in a flash and hurled towards the winged man.

The pain in my head made me slow and sloppy, so the projectiles only grazed him as he threw himself to the side. Normally I would have hit him without a doubt, after Haku's hard training I was sure of it.

"Stop that, I'm not going to hurt you!" he tried, but I ignored his words, jumping up from the bed, another four senbon between the fingers of each hand. Within the blink of an eye I was behind the winged man, holding the pointed needles to his neck. I felt his body tense but he made no move to flee. I leaned forward until my lips were close to his ear.

"Where the hell are we? Speak or I'll kill you."