Play To Win [Rewrite] || Naruto Fanfic

Love

 A gruff voice disrupted her stride, commanding and sneeringly. "Put your hands up, nice n' slow where we can see 'em."

Tamako paused lightly, frowning as she stared at the rough rag-tag group. A few laid their katana's threatening on their shoulder and the others pointed up makeshift daggers at her. She glanced down at them, calculating the distance between them and her.

"The longer you keep us waiting, the more we get... ideas." The group of men seem to laugh together as if they were joking in a way she couldn't understand. Oh, but she understood what they wanted.

She spotted their leader, the one that has been dishing out orders. Just moments ago, she crossed the border into the River Country towards Konoha. She's heard of the outbreak of petty crime since the end of the Fourth War. People were restless, and many shinobi didn't like the idea of playing niceties.

Some people born into war just never leave.

She spotted a few crossed out Village Insignias, but she couldn't put faces to names. They must've been Chunin-level before defecting.

Her eyes roamed to the group, counting roughly six before her hand slowly rose behind her cloak. "That's right. Nice and slow. We'll be gentle, don't chu' worry your pretty face. Just need to check if you're hiding anything valuable."

He took a step closer, a grin smacked onto his face as he sheathed his blade behind his back. He met eye to eye with her, leaning down to get a better look and simpering. "Why, you look better up n' close. Why don't you let me and my boys show you something?" His breath stank and she could make out hints of food stuck between his teeth. "Haruto! C'mere and search her." He grinned nastily. "I think I'll watch first."

Another man, at least a decade her senior, approached, the same grin on his face. "Of course boss." He reached forward and froze. Face contorted in pain and fell to the ground.

Her katana was soaked in red, dripping to the ground. She angled it just enough where it wouldn't splatter on herself, she only took necessities and didn't quite bring a second cloak with her.

"You..!" The man grabbed the scuff of her cloak, his hand instantly enveloped in crystal, his body quickly following and he fell to the ground, shattering.

She turned to the remaining four.

Four.

Wherever she went, the number four seemed to follow her.

With a single wave of her finger, she summoned shackles that trapped the men in their steps. What should she do with them?

Was murder even legal anymore?

The first two were self-defense, but these men cowered under her gaze.

"Akatsuki no Tamako..!" One whispered, falling to their knees. "We apologize for the offense! We had no idea that someone like you would be roaming these parts!"

Each step she took left crystal footprints, the area seemingly growing cold as she released her chakra into the air. "I no longer hold such a name."

These men were a threat to the peace she had painstakingly fought for. They threaten to turn this hard earned peace into an era of unpredictability.

She was right, she needed to shut down such thoughts, and if her estimations were correct, she had just a few more months until criminal groups who were in hiding, would spring back to action.

With narrowed eyes, she let her crystal eat them alive, shattering it with a single pulse of chakra and erasing all presences into dust.

She turns to look at the sky, sun setting past the trees. It was getting late, she should use whatever light was left.