Wandering Heathens

Mission: Bounty - Kumo

They finally stepped over the border into the Land of Lightning, a rather anticlimactic event after a few days of travelling. "Welcome to Kumo, where the girls are electrifying and the Raikage is weird" Ryuu said while laughing and spreading his arms like a ringmaster. He leaned on Kakuza's shoulder and whisper-shouted "I heard her and Killer B...do things..."

Kakuza rolled her eyes and pushed Ryuu away from her, "she's not far, just a few more hours of walking." At her statement, Shinjo, Ryuu and Hida all huffed and pouted at having to walk several more hours after spending days walking. "You're all children" Kakuza said with irritated impatience and continued walking. Noticing Ryuu's raised eyebrow, Hida nodded solemnly and said gravely "see what I have to put up with?" "Then let us go forth, together!" Ryuu proclaimed as he wrapped an arm around Hida's shoulders and lead her after Kakuza but before Shinjo, who was using this opportunity to check out Kakuza's ass.

After breaking for lunch and eating the meals Kakuza packed for them ("waste of money, you all should just learn to not eat") and a quick nap, the four of them were closer to capturing their target. "Give me a break down" Shinjo commanded and Ryuu snapped to attention, prattling off the target's information like a proper soldier: "her name is Mako, lightning nature, dabbles in other natures but nothing of significance, mid- to long-range combat, taijutsu is her weakness and ninjutsu is her strength. Uses kunai and shuriken for weapons, adequate chakra reserves and her signature jutsu is Lightning Chain." Shinjo nodded and checked their coordinates: "not far now, roughly an hour I'd say so keep silent."

They crested a hill, crawling on their stomachs, and confirmed that Mako was below them. She was laying on the ground, arms behind her head and her legs propped up on her feet, crossed. She seemed none the wiser that she was being stalked. Kakuza let out a breath in disappointment that their target was nothing but a small insignificant woman; Hida licked her lips and glanced at Kakuza who nodded.

With a happy yell, Hida leaped off the hill's edge and landed on her feet with her scythe slamming blades first into the earth next to her. "Wake the fuck up, bitch!" She yelled, pulling her weapon from the ground as Kakuza calmly slid down the hillside and stopped next to Hida. Mako cracked an eye open, looked at the Akatsuki members, shrugged her shoulders and closed her eyes again. "You're fucking rude ya know that?!" Hida said, pointing her scythe at Mako and placing her Jashin pendant between her teeth.

"Should we help?" Shinjo asked Ryuu as they watched from the hilltop. Ryuu shifted and chewed on a blade of grass, "nah. They look like they can take care of themselves. "Sides it's free entertainment for us!" Shinjo nodded and turned back to the unfolding battle.

Hida approached the woman on the ground and poked her with her scythe. She took a step back and looked at Kakuza uncertainly as their target disappeared in a puff of smoke. "LIGHTNING STYLE: ELECTRIC TENDRILS!" She quickly blocked the threads of crackling lighting from attaching to her, Kakuza sending earth infused tendrils to cut the electric ones and prevent damage to Hida. "Great...a lowly Earth user" Mako taunted as she stepped into view from her hiding spot. Kakuza remained silent but glared at her with hatred clouding her eyes. "OI! Should say the same to you! Jashin is gonna be fucking pissed at me for offering you as a sacrifice."

"Hida," Kakuza said quietly causing the albino woman to look at her, "ready your spike. This will be over quickly." Hida nodded and balanced her scythe loosely in one hand and pulled the spike from her robe and flicked it open. "You do realize that holding metal around a lightning user is suicide, right?" Mako mocked while lightning crackled her in palm. Kakuza undid and took off her robe, tossing it to the side.

She wove hand signs and focused her chakra and one of the masks on her back began pulsating as it sought release from her tendrils. The Wind mask started to take shape, a body, wings, legs, and it finally pulled itself free of Kakuza. "Go" she commanded with a low voice. "HAH!" Hida shouted as she swung her scythe.

Several events happened at once: Mako created a lightning cloak to protect herself from Hida's scythe; Kakuza's Wind mask used its infused tendrils to block and create a parting in Mako's cloak; one of Hida's scythe blades cut Mako's skin. While the scythe was swinging back to Hida, Wind mask and Mako battled with Kakuza keeping a close eye on her creature.

Mako was becoming increasingly frustrated as the wind creature finally ensnared her, it's tendrils wrapping around her body tightly. "Now, it's my turn," Hida said menacingly as she licked Mako's blood off her blade. Her skin changed and became black and white skeletal markings. "Jashin-sama! Please bless your unworthy servant!" She thrust her hand onto a scythe blade's tip and used her bleeding palm to draw her prayer circle. Standing in it, she then took a deep breath and plunged the spike into her heart. Mako, amidst the tendrils, gasped and coughed blood as the blood pumped out of her punctured heart and slowed and shuddered to a halt when she was exsanguinated.

Kakuza's Wind mask crawled back over to her, climbed onto her back and melded into her back, taking its place next to its brethren. She put her robe back on and zipped it up, concealing her masks.

"Bravo!" Ryuu said as he jumped down from the hill, clapping. "HEY! I'M FUCKING PRAYING HERE YOU KAMI DAMNED HEATHEN!" Hida yelled from her prayer circle. Seeing her breasts exposed due to stabbing herself, Ryuu leered at her. Shinjo landed near them and walked over to Kakuza. "You ok?" He asked. "Of course I am," she snapped, "I'm not a helpless woman for you to rescue" she said bitterly as she walked to the corpse and hauled it up. Shinjo quietly took the body from her and she was about to lash out at him but he stopped her with a raised palm.

He knelt down and took out a carrier scroll and transferred the corpse to it, rolled it back up and handed it her. She silently took the scroll and placed it in her briefcase, the clacking of the locks closing echoing in the mostly silent valley. "Come on," Shinjo said gently, "let's go."

The group left the valley searching for a place to stay for the night. Ryuu fussed over Hida, wanting to treat her wounds but she pushed him off, yelling about her regenerative abilities. Looking at Shinjo's strong back, Kakuza said quietly, "thank you." Shinjo kept looking and walking ahead but he smiled at Kakuza's words.