The Fox's Third Flash of Hope

Chapter 4

"You never told me you used to be a ANBU captain."

"You never asked."

Kansen sweat dropped at the cliche answer.

"All right, fine, I'll stop pulling on that thread, but where are we going exactly?" A slightly confused Kansen questioned. "Why was I the only student pulled out of school? Does this have to do with my identity?"

"The answer to the last question is yes. The second one should be obvious now, and I'm not going to answer the first because you never know who's listening."

"Well, at the speed we're going, no one would be able hear what we're saying if they stumbled upon us by chance." That was a truth. The redhead was beginning to fatigue due to keeping up with Senai's 20 miles per hour pace for the last 10 minutes.

"Stop asking questions, shut up, and concentrate on running."

No sooner had the words left the jonin's mouth than she halted. The abrupt stop made Kansen almost slip on the black roof tiles under her feet.

Two kunoichi stood a few meters away from them, not bothering to hide their intent of stopping the duo. Both had long black hair, but one was straight while the other was curled. Startling dark purple eyes shone with a challenging gaze under their headbands. The jagged line on the silver piece of metal attached to blue cloth betrayed their affiliation.

"What is the Grass doing here?!" An astonished Kansen gasped.

Senai looked just as surprised as the young redhead, although with a bit more discretion.

"This is an attack on the Leaf from the Grass, isn't it?" The orange haired woman addressed the two kunoichi.

"Yes, this is," the straight haired one said. "Now, answer our question and we'll consider letting you live. Where is the Kyuubi's jinchuriki?"

Kansen could barely hide her alarm. Luckily, the two enemies were focused on Senai.

"I've answered way too many questions already today. I have no interest in answering any more," Senai replied calmly with just the perfect amount of disdain.

Then everything went wrong. The curly haired Grass kunoichi had noticed Kansen's alarm. Before the jinchuriki knew what was happening, she was slung over the said kunoichi's shoulder, unconscious.

Senai's eyes widened in horror and surprise.

"Good work, Hareto," the straight haired woman told her comrade. "And as for you, former ANBU captain Senai Kuroka, I'll end you right here. You should have known better than to run with a kid out in the open like this. It's just way too suspicious, you know?"

"I'll bring this piece of dead weight back to Lord Daziru. Don't take too long, Hanito." Hareto said with a slight hint of triumph along with a contemptous look at Senai, and took off in the direction of the Hokage's office.

"Wai-" Senai attempted to follow her until a dangerous looking kunai held by Hanito appeared in front of her face. She halted just in time to avoid a nasty cut.

"You're not going anywhere, dye obsessed freak. Other than the deads' world, of course!" With a maniacal grin on her face, the black haired kunoichi brought her kunai down vertically, but was blocked by a blade of Senai's own. It wasn't a standard knife, shuriken, or sword at all, but a wicked looking double bladed staff about as tall as she was. It was split into equal thirds: the middle section was a hollow metal tube that gleamed silver in the sunlight, while the other two thirds were twin rectangular blades sharp on all three exposed sides that had the same width as the tube they were joined by.

Hanito's eyes widened slightly in surprise at the appearance of the large weapon. There wasn't any smoke, so she hadn't summoned it. Then her eyes narrowed and her expression fell back to that of a triumphant bragger. "Well, well, where did you hide something that big, orange hair? On second thought, it doesn't matter, cause I'll beat you anyway."

"See those straps on my thigh? The blades can retract within the tube. After that, it's quite easy to hide in plain sight."

Eyes darting to the said cloth straps on Senai's left thigh for a second, Hanito flipped backwards and put some distance between the two. What really surprised her was the fact that her enemy had blocked using the staff with one hand, and now taking a closer look at her kunai, Hanito realized there was an obvious nick on the edge. "Now that is one sweet weapon. Who did you get it from? I wouldn't mind a custom made blade like that."

The reply came void of emotion except a bit of threat. "Eight years ago I quit ANBU and became a shinobi weapon designer. I'm currently one of the best in the continent. A friend of mine crafts my designs, but I'm not going to tell you who that is of course."

Adjusting her stance so that both hands gripped the staff, Senai took a flying leap at the smirking Grass kunoichi before her. "This battle is just getting started!"

Ok so things like Kyuubi, Bijuu, and Kekkei Genkai I'm not going to translate from now on it's easier to write Romaji than the whole english name.

And I did try to write a longer chapter but........writer's block, no inspiration, messed up priorities etc.

Hope you enjoyed anyway XD