Fire Red (Naruto)

A Chilling Song: the Guilt of After

The sounds of metal hitting metal immediately filled the air, creating a song that chilled Aiko down to the bone. For all her boredom, nothing compared to going face to face with an actual enemy. The man in front of her towered over the small redhead, leering down at her.

"What's a child like you playing ninja for? Don't you know it's just going to get you killed?" His voice held mock pity. He didn't see her as a threat at all.

"I'm afraid you have our destinies swapped!" She growled out, leaping back several yards, hands forming several handsigns. 'Fire style: Pheonix Flare jutsu!'

An arc of fire went streaming towards her opponent, catching the fabric of his left leg on fire. This didn't seem to phase him, however, only work in making him angrier. He came running at her, and his kunai clashed roughly against her own, adding another note to the song.

Aiko grunted in the effort of keeping his weapon at bay. 'Shit, he's strong.' She swept his feet out from underneath him, sending him to the ground, but as he fell pain exploded from her right thigh. As the man regained his balance, she looked down to see a gash had been opened on her skin, tearing through the fabric of her pants. His fist narrowly missed her face as she once again leapt back.

'Shadow Clone jutsu!' Three copies of her appeared beside the girl, rushing at the man and managing to knock him out. She wasn't out of the woods though, as two more men came at her. A fist made contact with her stomach and sent her to the ground, winded. A foot connected with her side then, kicking again and again.

Meanwhile, Akemi was having a similar experience. With only one man to defeat, she quickly caught him in a genjutsu that confused his senses, but she wasn't expecting him to know how to get out of it. These men had shinobi training at some point or another, and her Genjutsu wasn't going to work. No, she would have to focus on her Taijutsu.

Hit after hit, they struck at each other with vigor. Akemi's skin was littered with quickly forming bruises, and the skin on her cheek and both arms had split, but eventually a well placed kick to his stomach caused him to fall unconscious.

Eventually, Aiko's vision darkened at the edges. It took several moments, but finally she steeled herself and sunk a kunai into the belly of the bandit. There was no time for guilt as she watched his eyes widen in pain. When he dropped, Aiko quickly focused on the other man. Thankfully, Riichi had taken care of his opponent and moved by her side, tar flooding out of his mouth. (Again, it's really gross.) It wrapped around the feet of the bandit and trapped him in place. Aiko, seeing her chance, threw four shuriken at the man. Each one hit its target with a sickening thud.

The sound of metal hitting flesh was as chilling as the song of kunai.

Aiko closed her eyes once he was down, trying to wipe away the memories of the men she had just killed. Before then she had never taken a life before. Granted they interfered with a mission, and the price for interference was death, but she had blood on her hands now.

She didn't realize she was shaking until a hand placed itself on her shoulder, and she opened her eyes to look into the pale yellow eyes of Riichi. His eyes reflected the same feelings of shock and guilt that she was feeling.

"We need to move on, Anko is finishing off the ones who were simply unconscious, and we're less than an hour away from Suna. You need to get your injuries treated." He said.

The adrenaline of the fight had kept the pain at bay, but now that he mentioned it her body was aching in the middle, with a burning in her thigh that overwhelmed her. "Alright."

Looking at the other two on her team, Aiko noted the bruises that were on Anko's body, and Akemi had wounds on her face and arms. Riichi was bleeding from a shallow cut on his forehead, but was otherwise unharmed. That Kekkei Genkai of his really came in handy.