[log] Step One: Don't Die. [Yuugao, Asuka]
[[Takes place two days after Asuka and Yuugao leave on their mission.]]
Perhaps they named countries accurately, Yuugao noted as he sat in the Rain Country inn and moved his eyes casually over the room he had rented under the cover of being a tourist. The rain hadn't stopped yet. Of course, they had not only rented this inn room, but another as well. Contracter laborers in deed for one day, but the real work would be that night. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes for a moment. Asuka had gone to scope things out for a moment and if he was calculating the timing right, she would be back very soon.
All this effort for a measly daimyo's son. Yuugao wasn't particularly worried about the actual assassination. It was getting into position to do it that was so much effort. Of course the customer would choose the time to be when the brat was in his father's heavily guarded compound.
He sighed once more and rubbed at his face. It felt odd to be on a mission and not be in uniform. To not have the mask, the weaponry spread across him and even be visible...
He needed to be sharp tonight. Precise, swift, and utterly flawless. An eighty percent capture or kill rate always tended to make one all the more dedicated to their work.
She wasn't used to working undercover. After all, her line of work wasn't spying, so being free to wander about, out in the open, while on a mission was... different. But in order to get into Rain Country and into this major a city, there was no way they'd be able to travel as ninja. So civilian it was, contractors out for day to day work at the port on the long, winding river that gave River Country (to the south) its name. After all, it was the river that made the merchants their money, and it was the merchant that monopolized this port that had hired them. No wonder he wasn't happy when the daimyo's son got into the business of merchanting and then conveniently came home to visit daddy, here in that exact port city; no doubt he was going to try his hand at taking over the port with daddy's help.
Ah, politics. Wonderful stuff. Made her glad she was just a ninja.
So even if Asuka could wander around the port city as a civilian, in loose traveling clothing in dull colors that hid her weapons and hid the fact that she was far too toned for a civilian woman, she was still watching everything with a ninja eye. They already had a map of the daimyo's home, so they knew where his son was being hosted for the next few nights, but they still needed to know the layout of the city, where important buildings were located, escape routes, where guards could be posted, etc.. Plus they needed to eat, because the two-day trip from Konoha had been sparse in the way of food, so out here she was.
It took longer than expected. The rain, especially, did not help, but once you were soaked at least you couldn't get anymore wet. The city was huge, and the closer she got to the daimyo's residence (near the center of the city itself), the more heavily guarded it got. Hired Amegakure ninja wandered the streets openly, and more than once she'd passed by one far too close for comfort. They had looked right over her head, though. Thank goodness.
After close to two hours of chilling out in the late afternoon drizzle, Asuka felt secure enough that she'd found several good spots to infiltrate the mansion, as well as where to mark the guards and where to hide and run when they were getting out, and so she located food and returned to the inn. Nothing much, because they didn't need to be feeling full while committing an assassination, but enough to tide them over. Pork and leek buns it was.
Reaching their shared room, the jounin tapped on the door before letting herself in and relocking it securely behind herself again.
Yuugao had sensed her chakra signature and so he merely sat up as she entered, his eyes drifting to the package of food before he looked to her face. He was a little hungry and he could smell the... whatever it was already. Some sort of meat, he knew that. Pork buns? Maybe.
"Dinner, I presume?" He stretched out his legs and wished he'd been the one to volunteer to scour the city. He could have at least gotten his legs properly limber. He'd need to use all his dexterity to get in the proper position to kill the target and stayed undetected. Though the information he'd heard and seen about the number of guards was sickening. The high risk was looming more and more, and Asuka's forced nonchalance was doing nothing to settle his nerves.
"You would be right," she replied, and kicked her (rather wet) sandals off at the door. It was a small room, only one bed (not like they'd probably be sleeping here, anyway), so it only took a few steps to where he was sitting. She tossed the waxed paper bag of food on the foot of the bed and went to drag one of the chairs from the writing table over to where she could share with him. With as soaked as she was it wouldn't do to getting the bed wet.
"Looks like it's gonna be rough," the woman said without preamble. "I counted a ton of ninja wandering the streets around his place; hard to say if they were all guards, but enough of them looked the part to make this nasty. Chuunin, probably. The jounin are no doubt inside. All the rest looked civilian."
"Glad to hear it." He tugged open the bag and couldn't help the smile that broke across his face as he could see the pork buns, the smell wafting up to greet him. "At least we can have something edible before we start this suicide." He pulled one out and then held the bag out for her.
"So number wise," he took a bite and continued talking through the food, "we're screwed. But we should be able to," another bite, "outsmart them if we do it right." He examined his pork bun and took another bite, smaller this time. "I have the interior map memorized, but do you have the town down? I've got a preliminary idea, but nothing to compare to your two hours." He finished the pork bun and was glad there were more than two in there. "I'd be a little worried if it took you two hours to find us food, so what'd you get?"
Asuka fished a bun out for herself before tossing the bag back onto the bed. "Infiltration points, blind spots on the architecture, buildings we can use to get in and to get out. Obvious patrol points, possible routes of escape. I'd have gotten more, but there was only so long I could hang around before I'd start looking suspicious."
She only got one bite in by the time her partner had finished his first portion, but she hardly thought about it; after all, she spent most of her time around guys anyway. At least he was chewing with his mouth closed, right? "I'll get us into the building, you get us to the target. The rest will just be trying not to die."
Gee, that was a cheerful thought. The jounin took another bite and resolutely didn't think anymore about it.
He snagged a second portion and blew on it for a moment; the last one had been a little on the hot side. "It will have to do." He flexed his fingers as he held the bun in his mouth, then took a bite and toyed with it. Part of him realized this could be his last meal. His last interaction with a comrade. Hayako hadn't gotten this kind of forewarning. Her life had been stolen and all by that snake...
Yuugao blinked away the past. Regret would only hold him back now. He had a mission and he would do it well, even if it looked like suicide with a paycheck. The sheer numbers of guards was disgusting. If he had been in command, they would have taken care of the boy someplace else, after he was traveling or back safe at his minimal security home.
"I'll make it as clean as possible, hopefully the kid will be asleep so I can just snap his neck. No blood necessary."
Asuka nodded. There was no point in saying, 'if you prefer' or 'think best;' it didn't really matter how the kid went, as long as he was dead by the time they left the building... whether they happened to be alive themselves at that point or not. There was going to be blood no matter what happened, because they were never going to get away without it. Not with all those guards. If they even managed to get to the daimyo's son without detection...
"Don't set your heart on any method," she said after she'd finished her portion. "Killing him's the important part, not the how."
"I know." He shrugged and licked the last bit of pork bun from his hand. It felt good to savor it. "Just was thinking it'd be easier to walk out if I wasn't splattered with the kid's blood." He stretched his arms over his head and then slumped, holding the bag out to her. "I already ate my two." He had a very good idea of what was going to happen, but he preferred to think in the moment instead of analyzing it too deeply yet. That would let him get anxious, make him doubt, and it might make him scared. All three were not what he needed right now.
It was going to be a very long night and an even longer trip back to Konoha. He fully intended on sleeping for most of the day afterwards. Though if they got through this hell together... he might even treat her to a drink. Well, maybe dinner and a drink. That way he wouldn't have to get half so drunk. The thought made him smile a little. It was a pleasant thought, going home alive from this mission.
Making it out without being drenched in blood would certainly make things easier, although there really was no way for them to sneak out in plain sight. Not with that many guards; even the lowliest servant would be recognizable, and they, well, would be a bit out of place. Stealing someone's clothing and walking out like you owned the world really only worked in the movies. Or if you were in Intel, which neither of them were. So it would be better to go ninja all the way.
Asuka leaned forward and accepted the bag, finishing off her first bun with her other hand as she did so. Now that she'd been sitting inside for a few minutes the air conditioning was getting to her - that, and the chair (and likely the floor under her) was getting quite damp. She'd have to take a shower and change, or else she'd freeze to death before they even made it to their appointed mission time (two o'clock in the morning, with an hour to get there and into the mansion, because it was the wee hours of the morning when people slept their deepest). And that certainly wasn't condusive to a successful mission.
She pulled out the last bun and wadded up the bag. "I'm going to take a shower," the woman said without preamble, "but when I get out, I'll draw you a sketch of what I saw." Best that he had an idea in his head as well about where they were going; maybe he could do the same for her of the map he'd memorized of the daimyo's estate, too. "Could you get us some paper?"
He'd been too hungry to really notice that she was so wet and he heightened his senses. How was he letting himself fade off like that? This was not a good sign. He nodded and got to his feet. "I'll get some paper." He would pass his time by trying to draw the interior, even if he wasn't the best artist there was. She was going to draw him the town, he might as well familiarize her with the estate where they'd have to move even quieter.
Just another step in the mission. And it would be done as if Konoha's honor was on the line. He refused to think about how his life was even more immediately at risk, it would only distract him. "Go ahead and shower," he stepped past her and opened the door, slipping out to get the paper. He was really starting to think Rain Country was one of his least favorite places.
----
The night passed without incident. Asuka showered, Yuugao got some paper from a nearby shop, and they doodled together a passable sketch of the mansion and the grounds surrounding it. It was hardly a work of art, but enough to detail where the guards were located, blind spots on the roads and in corridors, and - most importantly - where their target would be sleeping.
And then after discussing their plan of attack, it was just a matter of waiting.
Yuugao, smart man, took the time to nap. He'd been polite enough to offer the bed, but the other jounin had turned him down. She didn't think she could sleep, anyway. Even though it was going to be a good seven hours before they left, she was ... wired, she supposed. Not like on coffee, but like the brain wouldn't shut off even if she wanted it to. So when he took the smart road and passed out on the bed, she tugged the second chair over to the window (didn't want to get her rear wet all over again after getting into dry clothing) and proceeded to smoke the night away.
It was hard not to think, when the room was silent except for Yuugao's nearly inaudible breathing, and the pattering of the rain outside the window. It wouldn't do to think about Hanato, or Inosuke, or Kureno, and the conversations they'd had (or been unable to have, in the case of Inosuke) before she'd left on this mission. But she did her best.
Didn't do a very good job, but you got points for trying, right?
Midnight rolled around, and Yuugao woke. They reviewed their plans again, destroyed the maps they'd drawn to make sure there was no evidence, and prepared for the assassination. Since they were undercover, they'd have no armor and a limited number of weapons they could take with them while in civilian garb; a pouch of kunai could be hidden at the waistline under the shirt, and a string of shuriken inside a sleeve, but not much more than that. They'd have raingear to keep them dry on their way to the estate, but they'd have to discard it after that, and then... well, it was all up to luck and experience, then.
Two o'clock, and their cheap inn alarm clock went off by the head of the bed. Donning straw hats and cloaks to keep off the rain, Asuka led the way to the mission.
Yuugao had not slept that well, despite how quietly and easily he had drifted off. It was a force of habit, he supposed. He would only get too anxious if he stayed awake a long time anticipating an assassination. It was better to sleep for a few hours, then wake up in time to refocus. He always worked more smoothly then. And Asuka was there to keep an eye out. He resisted the urge to rub his nose and cringe as he caught the scent of lingering cigarette smoke. But if it worked for her, so be it.
The rain gear worked, and he was glad for it; perhaps these Ame-nin knew something after all.
It wasn't long before they were inside the estate and shed the heavy coat and hat, slipping into the shadows and then through the back corridors. Yuugao led them through a complicated mix of dodging and exact timing, stretching their concentration to the limit. It required close quarters and absolutely no chakra. Why they had sent in only two nin to do this was a mystery to Yuugao. And the timing... Konoha was smart enough to find another time that would connect the assassination to a daimyo feud instead of a petty merchant squabble.
It was twenty minutes later that they got into the actual suite the target was staying in. The civilian guards fell easily enough - a quick slit throat and no one was the wiser. Yuugao took a silent breath and scanned the next room, feeling secure to enter the actual bedroom and sparing Asuka a glance before slinking towards the bedroom. The room was empty...he was sure of it. Though his gut began to twist up, making him do a quick visual sweep before moving towards the doorway to the bedroom in silence.
It was this examination of the room that let him see the glint of the senbon rushing towards him. Yuugao didn't stop to think, he merely twisted and rushed into the bedroom. They needed to kill this kid now.
As Yuugao made his way into the sleeping quarters, Asuka wiped her kunai off on the dead guard's uniform and stood. It had been far too quiet on their way up; difficult, yes, because they had come so close to getting caught a number of times (particularly when they'd killed the man guarding the entrance to the servant's stairs, their only way of getting into the guest quarters; it wouldn't be long before his body was found). And strenuous, because working without chakra in these circumstances made things even more difficult than they needed to be. But still too quiet. A mission with an S ranking should have been more difficult than this. All things considered, it had been too easy getting in here. They still had to worry about getting back out, but...
... it made her nervous.
The guest suite was dark, no light coming in save what filtered in through the heavily draped windows from the lanterns outside. The two guards that had been quietly playing cards by that faint light were dead and hidden securely behind one of the couches; for all extents and purposes the living area looked empty. But there were still more guards on the other side of the door just twelve feet away - she could see their shadows interrupting the light that came in under the doors - and guards outside the window, and circling the grounds, and wandering the halls at random. Sooner or later someone was going to find the dead guard they'd left at the entrance of the servants stairs, or smell the blood of these two they'd just killed, and then they'd be shit out of luck.
She slipped the kunai quietly back into its holster under her shirt, straining her senses for any sound. She could, just barely, hear the breathing of the daimyo's son in the other room, and even more barely (so she wasn't quite sure if she heard it or not), Yuugao making his way to the kill. There was, briefly, the faint murmur of voices beyond the door, and someone shifting where they were standing.
She held her breath, for just a moment, just to make sure she wasn't missing anything. It was probably the only thing that kept her alive.
Years of battle had honed reflexes that had her ducking and rolling before she'd even properly processed the sound of weapons slicing through the air. But that was definitely the sound of senbon impacting on the door to the target's room, and the sound of a katana being drawn from its sheath, and when she came out of her defensive roll, tekko already in her hands, the Ame-nin was sliding out of the shadows like a fish out of water.
Genjutsu!
Yuugao had been prepared to do this kill cleanly and silently, but the senbon hitting the door had been just loud enough to startle the target out of his sleep. Was this entire mission a setup? Did the daimyo know they were coming tonight? Yuugao grit his teeth and rushed across the room. Unfortunately there was enough moonlight in the quickest path that Yuugao was visible for a split-second. Just long enough for the daimyo's son to let out a scream and try to free himself from his bed.
The ANBU didn't give him that chance, drawing a kunai and catching the target's shoulder to turn him back to face the kunai. He pierced the neck with ease and ended up pinning the target's quickly dying body to the headboard. Yuugao pulled back and left the kunai, but he had punctured the jugular and suffered the consequences. There were sounds of a struggle and Yuugao quickly turned to face them, rushing back to make sure his back up and teammate wasn't outnumbered yet.
But with the sheer number of guards outside and how the target had gotten out a scream... this did not look good.
Definitely didn't like Rain Country.
Genjutsu was the only explanation; there was no other way they could have missed a ninja practically hiding in plain sight like that. They should have been more careful, more cautious, but there was only so long they could wait in attacking the civilian guards before they would have raised a ruckus. Should have expected there to be ninja in the room as well as out, but the mission details they had gotten hadn't specified anything besides two civilian guards.
Well, crap. There was only so much a servant could spy on, especially if they weren't ninja themselves...
But there was no time for thinking, only time for mopping up the mess they'd found themselves in and hope it wouldn't spread. The Rain ninja, katana in hand, wasted no time in slipping across the room to engage; Asuka dodged under the stroke and did her damndest to catch his sword-arm in a lock and eviserate him, but he was swift enough to avoid it. The blade of her tekko (still sans chakra, they had to hold that back as long as possible) caught on his padded armor, but didn't make it through.
And then their target screamed. It was cut off quickly, but was loud enough in the silence to have the suite doors slam open as the guards outside reacted.
Crap!
The ninja who'd been hidden in the room with them broke her lock, tried to brain her with the hilt of his katana; she ducked and stopped bothering with any pretense of being civilian, activating her chakra blades and cutting straight through the steel of his katana the next time he struck. He was dead by the time the first guard stepped into the room, entrails slithering about his feet as he dropped to the floor, but not before he'd given her a nasty slice on the arm with what was left of his sword. It burned, but the pain was faint in the face of the adrenaline surging through her veins.
By the time Yuugao was heading back into the room, three more civilian guards had burst into the room, bristling with weapons, and the glint of more Amegakure hitai-ite could be seen beyond them, still outside the room. It wasn't looking good.
He didn't waste any time to think about his actions or curse their fate. No, they had to act fast and now was the only time they had. One civilian was eliminated by his bloodied kunai and by the time he fell, Yuugao was slamming into the second civilian guard. He gutted that man easily enough, but then the room was filling up with Ame-nin.
Yuugao only allowed himself a grunt of pain as his next opponent's fist connected with his chest - the guard's body was still twitching when he had been attacked - and he used the dying weight as a shield before the next strike caught him in the gut. The split second it bought him was used to shove the corpse at the Ame-nin and elbow in the man's face. Yuugao continued through the crunch of cartilage and rolled back into a crouch, swinging around a leg in a sweep and forcing another Ame-nin to jump to the side.
A katana blade came rushing for his neck and Yuugao could barely lean back far enough to avoid it. He fought back a shudder as he felt the blade nick the barest edge of skin. The numbers were astonishing and just as he avoided one blow, he found a fist striking his head. Yuugao's mind exploded with pain and he crumpled to the ground for only a split second. In the next moment he had flung one of his seven - only seven - shuriken at the Ame-nin's head. The telltale sound of contact was eerily welcome.
One of the civilian guards was dead, care of his own weapons, as Yuugao entered the room; he engaged the two left as more guards and ninja filled in the remaining spaces. Mission details had specified that the majority of the daimyo's guard were civilians, but there was also a personal guard of hired Amegakure ninja that traveled along with the target. Two compliments of chuunin and matching jounin; the one she'd already killed must have been a chuunin, for it had been far too easy. Now she was faced with four more - likely also chuunin - along with two civilians and likely a host more on the way. When the two jounin and the remaining chuunin showed up, things were going to get nasty.
It was going to get even nastier when the daimyo's ninja retinue arrived.
What was most important at this point was retreat, then, but they would need to make room before they could flee. Even as she dodged the flung weapons of the chuunin, manuevering around the bodies already on the floor and the obstacles of the furniture, there was little space to spare - and when they were so sorely outnumbered, even her skills in taijutsu were taxed. There just wasn't enough space to engage in the kind of fighting that would involve more damage to the enemy than to herself.
She stepped inside the swing of a katana, obliterating the face of one young chuunin girl with a right hook when she didn't bother to block; the other took advantage of her teammate's death by flinging a handful of senbon while Asuka attacked. She could have dodged - should have - but she heard the crunch of cartilage behind her as Yuugao took out his share of the enemies, and she didn't want him getting caught by an attack meant for her. So she didn't dodge, just focused enough chakra to deflect some and took the rest stoically (she'd feel the pain when she yanked them out of her right shoulder and bicep later), slipping in to meet the chuunin head-on.
Two civilian guards intervened, allowing the chuunin to retreat, and Asuka didn't bother wasting her time with blocking - one sword met the edge of her heian and sheared in half; the other she caught in the crook of her arm and with a twist disarmed her opponent (another wound she could attend to later). One guard found himself impaled on the sword of his ally, and the other disemboweled and left to die on the floor with the others.
It was starting to get rather crowded down there.
Sparing a moment to glance back over her shoulder, she caught the glimpse of one of Yuugao's ninja lurching backwards, face full of shuriken, the other preparing to strike the downed ANBU with his katana. That was bad - really bad. As more guards pushed into the room to fill the places of their fallen comrades, and the chuunin girl drew more senbon from her holsters, Asuka decided that right then would be a good time to retreat. The mission was done, the target was dead; now they just needed to get out without getting caught in the process. With a burst of speed, she moved across the room to intercept her partner's remaining enemy with a roundhouse kick, knocking him back over the couch and through the heavily draped windows. Glass shattered, and rain immediately began to dampen the curtains.
One moment he was down on his side and thinking up a deadly way to get back up and the next the air was clear, if only for a moment. He watched the katana - the same one that had made his neck start to bleed - fall out the window a little after its bearer and he spared Asuka only a glance before he followed it. It was starting to rain even heavier and there were sure to be guards outside, but at least they would have space and possible escape routes. Asuka knew the town better than him and for a moment he thought his vision went fuzzy, but he had to keep moving.
Did she have senbon in her arm? Yuugao was already landing in the quickly forming mud before he could think further. His former opponent was still struggling to move - Asuka's kick and the subsequent fall from the second story window had stunned him. Yuugao didn't leave him time to reach his sword; he beat him to it and slit the man's throat before snatching up the sheath and following Asuka as the exterior guards closed in on them.
This would be messy and it would be close, but he wasn't going down without a fight. A civilian met him first and was eviscerated with ease, Yuugao pivoting to face the first Ame-nin fluidly. Hayako would have been proud. He set his jaw and pressed onward, keeping track of Asuka's chakra to make sure she was still all right as he cut through the swarming foes. They had to get out of there, the numbers were too overwhelming. Asuka was making good progress and he followed the trail she was cutting through the Ame-nin and civilian guards.
It was nearly a minute later that he realized he was bearing several other wounds - most small cuts or even a gash along his ribs - but they were so close to getting loose that he pushed aside the pain and continued racing after Asuka. It should have worried him that she was moving just as fast, but seemed to be dying a lot more mud red. ...perhaps too much.
When Yuugao bailed out the window, Asuka was swift to follow. Besides the ninja she'd left near the door, there were easily half a dozen more civilian guards ready to enter the fray and take the place of the chuunin who was whimpering at the mess of shuriken impaled in his face. And deep inside the complex, a claxon slowly began to rise in pitch; any guards or ninja who hadn't realized there was a problem yet would know now. And she really didn't want to stick around to have them see her out.
Out the window it was, then. The rain was coming down harder now, thick sheets of it drumming down on the soft earth, and her landing after dropping from the second story window sent up a good splash of muddy water. In the wavery halos of light cast by covered lanterns, shadows converged into armed men, most guards but some identifiable by their silver hitai-ite. Four guards, two ninja - and more on the way.
She darted forward to attack, meeting the first wave of guards as they attempted to stop the intruders. With more freedom to move, it was far easier to take these out - she wouldn't have to worry about tripping over anything, or worry about Yuugao, and so she threw herself into the fight with a vengence. But there were far more guards than there was of her, and the chuunin out here also felt the freedom of space and did much better avoiding her strikes than the chuunin upstairs.
Two guards went down, then a chuunin when Asuka got in close enough to disarm her, then another guard. Somewhere off to her left Yuugao was also cutting a path through the guards that were throwing themselves in the way; he'd left at least four bodies in his wake as well, a dangerous whirlwind now that he'd gotten a sword in his hands. But even with as quick as they were cutting the men down, the guards were being replaced even faster, and the wall of the estate wasn't coming any closer. Their attempt to make a run for it wasn't working so well.
And then one of the jounin showed up.
He was faster than the other ninja - much faster - coming up on her blind side when she was blocking a guard's pike and nearly taking out her kidney in the process. She managed to twist out of the way and avoid the worst of the damage, but the kunai still sliced deep into her hip. The blood that spilled down her thigh was far warmer than the rain. With a hiss she took out the guard and whirled to face the ninja, but already he was flashing through a set of seals and a gust of freezing, dense rain was driving into her face. It hurt, like hundreds of tiny little senbon, though she knew well enough it was just rain - but the velocity and direction blinded her, forcing her to block her face and risk leaving her midsection unguarded.
She expected him to take advantage of that, and he did; Asuka couldn't hear over the rain, the claxon blaring in the estate, or the fighting, but she could sense him diving in for the attack. The kunai he threw missed, however, as she ducked and rolled to the side, coming up under another guard and taking a leg out from under him before he could pin her to the ground with his sword. His falling body blocked another wave of chakra-driven rain that, this time, served to flay the clothing (at least? she couldn't see more from this angle) from his back. He'd stopped screaming by the time he hit the ground.
They were at a severe disadvantage right now. The guards might just be civilians, without the extensive training she and Yuugao had gone through, but superior numbers really could damage even two elite ANBU. The chuunin were difficult, but still manageable, were it not, again, for their numbers. The jounin, however, were the real icing on the cake - as long as she and Yuugao were limited on their weapons, without armor, and had to consider even what jutsu they should or shouldn't use (katon was worthless out in the rain, and regardless was too reminiscent of Konoha; they'd decided not to use anything that obvious), the Amegakure jounin would be an absolute bitch to take out.
A tactical retreat was what they needed now. Or, as Shikako would put it, a more dignified retreat than running like their asses were on fire, though that would do, too. But she needed coordination with Yuugao before she could run, and she couldn't so much as look for him while this jounin bastard was grinning at her from behind his linked hands...
The guards were still falling at a steady rate, but there was too little progress for the effort it was taking. He felt the katana trembling in its guard and was really missing the blade Hayako had found for him. At least that katana wouldn't start to wear down this quickly. He took down another chuunin and kicked a particularly clumsy civilian guard away, giving himself a solitary moment to look over at Asuka. And see her fall to dodge the second assault of chakra-driven rain.
His gut wrenched up - if he didn't act now he might lose her - and Yuugao refused to let that happen when he could still breathe. If only so he could see Kotsuki and Izume's smiles again, he was going to make it out of this mission. And there was no way he was going to return home alone. Swinging his katana in a wide arc to keep the guards at bay for a moment, he collided with another katana and gritted his teeth at the shattering steel. He knew the blade hadn't been quality, but this was just pathetic. He flicked his wrist and distracted the chuunin for a moment as she hadn't been expecting the entire katana to be thrown at her. Using the time he had, he drew out a length of garrotte wire from the roll he had hidden under his left sleeve with his teeth. That accomplished, and the chuunin starting to charge again, he translocated to the other side of the fight. In the split-second he had left to surprise the Amegakure jounin, he swung the wire up and over the jounin's head.
The Ame-nin realized what had happened a split-second too late. A quick jerk and crossing of his arms left Asuka's opponent headless and Yuugao let the bloody wire fall, scanning over the guards for a moment. Luckily, there had only been civilians surrounding the jounin and Yuugao took the break at a sprint. He raced over to Asuka, grabbing her arm and dragging her to her feet. She stumbled and he felt the guards closing in again - they had to move now, forget dignity and teamwork. He could move, she was hesitating. So he'd move for both of them until she could gain her footing.
He dragged her along for a moment, cursing how the mud was making movement all the more difficult, and then set the pace as they made a break through the civilian guards. There was only one chuunin left that he knew of and she was too slow to keep up. It took more effort than it should have, but he reached the wall and leaped onto it, pushing off harder and sprinting down the main road before he spotted a back road he remembered from Asuka's map. The chuunin was following, he could sense her chakra, but they were faster even in their weakened state.
"This way," he grunted and forced more chakra to his feet, gripping her arm tighter and darting down the side road at the last moment and taking every sharp turn he could. If the chuunin wanted to play tag, so be it. But Yuugao's speed had always been complimented and his legs had yet to give out on him.
It was the work of an instant to kill the jounin - thank luck Yuugao was paying attention. She could have taken the jounin out, no question about that, but what state she would have been in afterwards (especially with all the other guards and ninja they were dealing with) was questionable. And considering that she was already bleeding at this point, it probably wouldn't have been very good shape at all.
The Rain ninja was halfway through another set of seals when his head came off in a gout of blood; her partner was at her side in an instant and dragging her up out of her crouch in a mad dash for the wall of the estate. The mud hampered their movements (she slipped and almost took them both down in a spectacular display of ninja prowess, but he was gripping her biceps so hard she swore he'd leave a bruise, and he hauled her back up before she could), but after she'd regained her feet a bit of chakra fixed that problem. Killing the jounin had cleared their way in a stroke of luck, and they took it without hesitation - dashing blindly for the wall, leaping over it, hitting the cobblestone path outside hard and nearly losing their footing again. Yuugao refused to let her go, and she deactivated her chakra blades to make certain she didn't get him cut on accident.
Behind them, the claxon continued blaring, and far down the road and around the corner, she could hear gates slamming open and boots slapping through puddles. The lone chuunin who'd been left in the courtyard was a single point of chakra that was swiftly gaining, and past her Asuka could sense more chakra following - a lot of it. Now was not the time to stick around.
They dashed off, Yuugao in the lead with his hold on her arm, but she was more than swift enough to keep up with him. "This way," he said, his voice harsh and breathless and hard to hear over the rain and their followers and the slowly quieting alarm as they ran, and he directed them to one of the back alleys she'd pointed out when they'd come this way barely an hour before.
The further they got from the estate, the more the silence grew - but the alarm wasn't entirely silenced, and all across the city it was gaining attention. Those few people who were actually awake at three in the morning in the driving rain murmurred to themselves about it, unknowing of the two ninja who slipped past them in shadows in silence, and police who patroled the streets at night looked alert and nervous. They quieted their chakra, hid themselves from sight and sound and sense in the way that only ANBU could, and after too much time in the rain it could be fairly well determined that they'd lost any tail they might have gained.
It was almost four in the morning when they slipped into the window of their inn room, which they'd specifically chosen because it faced an alley and they wouldn't be seen when they returned. Asuka, in first because Yuugao had been annoyingly chauvinistic the whole way back, let herself collapse on the floor a few feet from the window, dropping to her knees and bowing her head as she reigned in her breath and heartbeat. It had been a hard fight, but worse had been the getting back - adreneline levels had never really dropped as they skulked under eaves and behind garbage bins, but an hour after receiving her wounds it hurt. The senbon were gone, plucked out and tossed away somewhere near the docks, but her shoulder still hurt, and the slice on her bicep hurt more from Yuugao grabbing onto her for so long, and her right leg felt numb and heavy from refusing to acknowledge (or even check) the wound on her hip. She was tired and hurt and wet and cold now that they'd come back into some place more air conditioned than the early September night air.
She sniffed and wiped some of the dripping water out of her face, tucking the damp curls of hair that had escaped from her ponytail behind one ear. "How long do you think we can stay?"
The run back had been very strange for Yuugao. He kept his mind resolutely focused on stealth and speed and location, but if he was remembering right, it had been much harder than usual. "Part of the night, probably," he murmured, setting a hand to his head and brushing back the dripping strands of hair falling into his eyes.
"We should get patched up, the pain will set in soon. You can shower first, just to get warmed up." He waved a hand. "I'll secure the room again."
He didn't really wait for her reply, instead picking himself up from his slump against the wall and closing the window tighter. He set a simple trap with ease, scanning the alleyway and blinking once as the rain drops on the glass began to blur in his vision. Just tired, that was all. Nothing more. Now all they had to do was stay hidden and stay alive.
He could only hope it was that simple....
[[Also, theme song!]]
Perhaps they named countries accurately, Yuugao noted as he sat in the Rain Country inn and moved his eyes casually over the room he had rented under the cover of being a tourist. The rain hadn't stopped yet. Of course, they had not only rented this inn room, but another as well. Contracter laborers in deed for one day, but the real work would be that night. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes for a moment. Asuka had gone to scope things out for a moment and if he was calculating the timing right, she would be back very soon.
All this effort for a measly daimyo's son. Yuugao wasn't particularly worried about the actual assassination. It was getting into position to do it that was so much effort. Of course the customer would choose the time to be when the brat was in his father's heavily guarded compound.
He sighed once more and rubbed at his face. It felt odd to be on a mission and not be in uniform. To not have the mask, the weaponry spread across him and even be visible...
He needed to be sharp tonight. Precise, swift, and utterly flawless. An eighty percent capture or kill rate always tended to make one all the more dedicated to their work.
She wasn't used to working undercover. After all, her line of work wasn't spying, so being free to wander about, out in the open, while on a mission was... different. But in order to get into Rain Country and into this major a city, there was no way they'd be able to travel as ninja. So civilian it was, contractors out for day to day work at the port on the long, winding river that gave River Country (to the south) its name. After all, it was the river that made the merchants their money, and it was the merchant that monopolized this port that had hired them. No wonder he wasn't happy when the daimyo's son got into the business of merchanting and then conveniently came home to visit daddy, here in that exact port city; no doubt he was going to try his hand at taking over the port with daddy's help.
Ah, politics. Wonderful stuff. Made her glad she was just a ninja.
So even if Asuka could wander around the port city as a civilian, in loose traveling clothing in dull colors that hid her weapons and hid the fact that she was far too toned for a civilian woman, she was still watching everything with a ninja eye. They already had a map of the daimyo's home, so they knew where his son was being hosted for the next few nights, but they still needed to know the layout of the city, where important buildings were located, escape routes, where guards could be posted, etc.. Plus they needed to eat, because the two-day trip from Konoha had been sparse in the way of food, so out here she was.
It took longer than expected. The rain, especially, did not help, but once you were soaked at least you couldn't get anymore wet. The city was huge, and the closer she got to the daimyo's residence (near the center of the city itself), the more heavily guarded it got. Hired Amegakure ninja wandered the streets openly, and more than once she'd passed by one far too close for comfort. They had looked right over her head, though. Thank goodness.
After close to two hours of chilling out in the late afternoon drizzle, Asuka felt secure enough that she'd found several good spots to infiltrate the mansion, as well as where to mark the guards and where to hide and run when they were getting out, and so she located food and returned to the inn. Nothing much, because they didn't need to be feeling full while committing an assassination, but enough to tide them over. Pork and leek buns it was.
Reaching their shared room, the jounin tapped on the door before letting herself in and relocking it securely behind herself again.
Yuugao had sensed her chakra signature and so he merely sat up as she entered, his eyes drifting to the package of food before he looked to her face. He was a little hungry and he could smell the... whatever it was already. Some sort of meat, he knew that. Pork buns? Maybe.
"Dinner, I presume?" He stretched out his legs and wished he'd been the one to volunteer to scour the city. He could have at least gotten his legs properly limber. He'd need to use all his dexterity to get in the proper position to kill the target and stayed undetected. Though the information he'd heard and seen about the number of guards was sickening. The high risk was looming more and more, and Asuka's forced nonchalance was doing nothing to settle his nerves.
"You would be right," she replied, and kicked her (rather wet) sandals off at the door. It was a small room, only one bed (not like they'd probably be sleeping here, anyway), so it only took a few steps to where he was sitting. She tossed the waxed paper bag of food on the foot of the bed and went to drag one of the chairs from the writing table over to where she could share with him. With as soaked as she was it wouldn't do to getting the bed wet.
"Looks like it's gonna be rough," the woman said without preamble. "I counted a ton of ninja wandering the streets around his place; hard to say if they were all guards, but enough of them looked the part to make this nasty. Chuunin, probably. The jounin are no doubt inside. All the rest looked civilian."
"Glad to hear it." He tugged open the bag and couldn't help the smile that broke across his face as he could see the pork buns, the smell wafting up to greet him. "At least we can have something edible before we start this suicide." He pulled one out and then held the bag out for her.
"So number wise," he took a bite and continued talking through the food, "we're screwed. But we should be able to," another bite, "outsmart them if we do it right." He examined his pork bun and took another bite, smaller this time. "I have the interior map memorized, but do you have the town down? I've got a preliminary idea, but nothing to compare to your two hours." He finished the pork bun and was glad there were more than two in there. "I'd be a little worried if it took you two hours to find us food, so what'd you get?"
Asuka fished a bun out for herself before tossing the bag back onto the bed. "Infiltration points, blind spots on the architecture, buildings we can use to get in and to get out. Obvious patrol points, possible routes of escape. I'd have gotten more, but there was only so long I could hang around before I'd start looking suspicious."
She only got one bite in by the time her partner had finished his first portion, but she hardly thought about it; after all, she spent most of her time around guys anyway. At least he was chewing with his mouth closed, right? "I'll get us into the building, you get us to the target. The rest will just be trying not to die."
Gee, that was a cheerful thought. The jounin took another bite and resolutely didn't think anymore about it.
He snagged a second portion and blew on it for a moment; the last one had been a little on the hot side. "It will have to do." He flexed his fingers as he held the bun in his mouth, then took a bite and toyed with it. Part of him realized this could be his last meal. His last interaction with a comrade. Hayako hadn't gotten this kind of forewarning. Her life had been stolen and all by that snake...
Yuugao blinked away the past. Regret would only hold him back now. He had a mission and he would do it well, even if it looked like suicide with a paycheck. The sheer numbers of guards was disgusting. If he had been in command, they would have taken care of the boy someplace else, after he was traveling or back safe at his minimal security home.
"I'll make it as clean as possible, hopefully the kid will be asleep so I can just snap his neck. No blood necessary."
Asuka nodded. There was no point in saying, 'if you prefer' or 'think best;' it didn't really matter how the kid went, as long as he was dead by the time they left the building... whether they happened to be alive themselves at that point or not. There was going to be blood no matter what happened, because they were never going to get away without it. Not with all those guards. If they even managed to get to the daimyo's son without detection...
"Don't set your heart on any method," she said after she'd finished her portion. "Killing him's the important part, not the how."
"I know." He shrugged and licked the last bit of pork bun from his hand. It felt good to savor it. "Just was thinking it'd be easier to walk out if I wasn't splattered with the kid's blood." He stretched his arms over his head and then slumped, holding the bag out to her. "I already ate my two." He had a very good idea of what was going to happen, but he preferred to think in the moment instead of analyzing it too deeply yet. That would let him get anxious, make him doubt, and it might make him scared. All three were not what he needed right now.
It was going to be a very long night and an even longer trip back to Konoha. He fully intended on sleeping for most of the day afterwards. Though if they got through this hell together... he might even treat her to a drink. Well, maybe dinner and a drink. That way he wouldn't have to get half so drunk. The thought made him smile a little. It was a pleasant thought, going home alive from this mission.
Making it out without being drenched in blood would certainly make things easier, although there really was no way for them to sneak out in plain sight. Not with that many guards; even the lowliest servant would be recognizable, and they, well, would be a bit out of place. Stealing someone's clothing and walking out like you owned the world really only worked in the movies. Or if you were in Intel, which neither of them were. So it would be better to go ninja all the way.
Asuka leaned forward and accepted the bag, finishing off her first bun with her other hand as she did so. Now that she'd been sitting inside for a few minutes the air conditioning was getting to her - that, and the chair (and likely the floor under her) was getting quite damp. She'd have to take a shower and change, or else she'd freeze to death before they even made it to their appointed mission time (two o'clock in the morning, with an hour to get there and into the mansion, because it was the wee hours of the morning when people slept their deepest). And that certainly wasn't condusive to a successful mission.
She pulled out the last bun and wadded up the bag. "I'm going to take a shower," the woman said without preamble, "but when I get out, I'll draw you a sketch of what I saw." Best that he had an idea in his head as well about where they were going; maybe he could do the same for her of the map he'd memorized of the daimyo's estate, too. "Could you get us some paper?"
He'd been too hungry to really notice that she was so wet and he heightened his senses. How was he letting himself fade off like that? This was not a good sign. He nodded and got to his feet. "I'll get some paper." He would pass his time by trying to draw the interior, even if he wasn't the best artist there was. She was going to draw him the town, he might as well familiarize her with the estate where they'd have to move even quieter.
Just another step in the mission. And it would be done as if Konoha's honor was on the line. He refused to think about how his life was even more immediately at risk, it would only distract him. "Go ahead and shower," he stepped past her and opened the door, slipping out to get the paper. He was really starting to think Rain Country was one of his least favorite places.
----
The night passed without incident. Asuka showered, Yuugao got some paper from a nearby shop, and they doodled together a passable sketch of the mansion and the grounds surrounding it. It was hardly a work of art, but enough to detail where the guards were located, blind spots on the roads and in corridors, and - most importantly - where their target would be sleeping.
And then after discussing their plan of attack, it was just a matter of waiting.
Yuugao, smart man, took the time to nap. He'd been polite enough to offer the bed, but the other jounin had turned him down. She didn't think she could sleep, anyway. Even though it was going to be a good seven hours before they left, she was ... wired, she supposed. Not like on coffee, but like the brain wouldn't shut off even if she wanted it to. So when he took the smart road and passed out on the bed, she tugged the second chair over to the window (didn't want to get her rear wet all over again after getting into dry clothing) and proceeded to smoke the night away.
It was hard not to think, when the room was silent except for Yuugao's nearly inaudible breathing, and the pattering of the rain outside the window. It wouldn't do to think about Hanato, or Inosuke, or Kureno, and the conversations they'd had (or been unable to have, in the case of Inosuke) before she'd left on this mission. But she did her best.
Didn't do a very good job, but you got points for trying, right?
Midnight rolled around, and Yuugao woke. They reviewed their plans again, destroyed the maps they'd drawn to make sure there was no evidence, and prepared for the assassination. Since they were undercover, they'd have no armor and a limited number of weapons they could take with them while in civilian garb; a pouch of kunai could be hidden at the waistline under the shirt, and a string of shuriken inside a sleeve, but not much more than that. They'd have raingear to keep them dry on their way to the estate, but they'd have to discard it after that, and then... well, it was all up to luck and experience, then.
Two o'clock, and their cheap inn alarm clock went off by the head of the bed. Donning straw hats and cloaks to keep off the rain, Asuka led the way to the mission.
Yuugao had not slept that well, despite how quietly and easily he had drifted off. It was a force of habit, he supposed. He would only get too anxious if he stayed awake a long time anticipating an assassination. It was better to sleep for a few hours, then wake up in time to refocus. He always worked more smoothly then. And Asuka was there to keep an eye out. He resisted the urge to rub his nose and cringe as he caught the scent of lingering cigarette smoke. But if it worked for her, so be it.
The rain gear worked, and he was glad for it; perhaps these Ame-nin knew something after all.
It wasn't long before they were inside the estate and shed the heavy coat and hat, slipping into the shadows and then through the back corridors. Yuugao led them through a complicated mix of dodging and exact timing, stretching their concentration to the limit. It required close quarters and absolutely no chakra. Why they had sent in only two nin to do this was a mystery to Yuugao. And the timing... Konoha was smart enough to find another time that would connect the assassination to a daimyo feud instead of a petty merchant squabble.
It was twenty minutes later that they got into the actual suite the target was staying in. The civilian guards fell easily enough - a quick slit throat and no one was the wiser. Yuugao took a silent breath and scanned the next room, feeling secure to enter the actual bedroom and sparing Asuka a glance before slinking towards the bedroom. The room was empty...he was sure of it. Though his gut began to twist up, making him do a quick visual sweep before moving towards the doorway to the bedroom in silence.
It was this examination of the room that let him see the glint of the senbon rushing towards him. Yuugao didn't stop to think, he merely twisted and rushed into the bedroom. They needed to kill this kid now.
As Yuugao made his way into the sleeping quarters, Asuka wiped her kunai off on the dead guard's uniform and stood. It had been far too quiet on their way up; difficult, yes, because they had come so close to getting caught a number of times (particularly when they'd killed the man guarding the entrance to the servant's stairs, their only way of getting into the guest quarters; it wouldn't be long before his body was found). And strenuous, because working without chakra in these circumstances made things even more difficult than they needed to be. But still too quiet. A mission with an S ranking should have been more difficult than this. All things considered, it had been too easy getting in here. They still had to worry about getting back out, but...
... it made her nervous.
The guest suite was dark, no light coming in save what filtered in through the heavily draped windows from the lanterns outside. The two guards that had been quietly playing cards by that faint light were dead and hidden securely behind one of the couches; for all extents and purposes the living area looked empty. But there were still more guards on the other side of the door just twelve feet away - she could see their shadows interrupting the light that came in under the doors - and guards outside the window, and circling the grounds, and wandering the halls at random. Sooner or later someone was going to find the dead guard they'd left at the entrance of the servants stairs, or smell the blood of these two they'd just killed, and then they'd be shit out of luck.
She slipped the kunai quietly back into its holster under her shirt, straining her senses for any sound. She could, just barely, hear the breathing of the daimyo's son in the other room, and even more barely (so she wasn't quite sure if she heard it or not), Yuugao making his way to the kill. There was, briefly, the faint murmur of voices beyond the door, and someone shifting where they were standing.
She held her breath, for just a moment, just to make sure she wasn't missing anything. It was probably the only thing that kept her alive.
Years of battle had honed reflexes that had her ducking and rolling before she'd even properly processed the sound of weapons slicing through the air. But that was definitely the sound of senbon impacting on the door to the target's room, and the sound of a katana being drawn from its sheath, and when she came out of her defensive roll, tekko already in her hands, the Ame-nin was sliding out of the shadows like a fish out of water.
Genjutsu!
Yuugao had been prepared to do this kill cleanly and silently, but the senbon hitting the door had been just loud enough to startle the target out of his sleep. Was this entire mission a setup? Did the daimyo know they were coming tonight? Yuugao grit his teeth and rushed across the room. Unfortunately there was enough moonlight in the quickest path that Yuugao was visible for a split-second. Just long enough for the daimyo's son to let out a scream and try to free himself from his bed.
The ANBU didn't give him that chance, drawing a kunai and catching the target's shoulder to turn him back to face the kunai. He pierced the neck with ease and ended up pinning the target's quickly dying body to the headboard. Yuugao pulled back and left the kunai, but he had punctured the jugular and suffered the consequences. There were sounds of a struggle and Yuugao quickly turned to face them, rushing back to make sure his back up and teammate wasn't outnumbered yet.
But with the sheer number of guards outside and how the target had gotten out a scream... this did not look good.
Definitely didn't like Rain Country.
Genjutsu was the only explanation; there was no other way they could have missed a ninja practically hiding in plain sight like that. They should have been more careful, more cautious, but there was only so long they could wait in attacking the civilian guards before they would have raised a ruckus. Should have expected there to be ninja in the room as well as out, but the mission details they had gotten hadn't specified anything besides two civilian guards.
Well, crap. There was only so much a servant could spy on, especially if they weren't ninja themselves...
But there was no time for thinking, only time for mopping up the mess they'd found themselves in and hope it wouldn't spread. The Rain ninja, katana in hand, wasted no time in slipping across the room to engage; Asuka dodged under the stroke and did her damndest to catch his sword-arm in a lock and eviserate him, but he was swift enough to avoid it. The blade of her tekko (still sans chakra, they had to hold that back as long as possible) caught on his padded armor, but didn't make it through.
And then their target screamed. It was cut off quickly, but was loud enough in the silence to have the suite doors slam open as the guards outside reacted.
Crap!
The ninja who'd been hidden in the room with them broke her lock, tried to brain her with the hilt of his katana; she ducked and stopped bothering with any pretense of being civilian, activating her chakra blades and cutting straight through the steel of his katana the next time he struck. He was dead by the time the first guard stepped into the room, entrails slithering about his feet as he dropped to the floor, but not before he'd given her a nasty slice on the arm with what was left of his sword. It burned, but the pain was faint in the face of the adrenaline surging through her veins.
By the time Yuugao was heading back into the room, three more civilian guards had burst into the room, bristling with weapons, and the glint of more Amegakure hitai-ite could be seen beyond them, still outside the room. It wasn't looking good.
He didn't waste any time to think about his actions or curse their fate. No, they had to act fast and now was the only time they had. One civilian was eliminated by his bloodied kunai and by the time he fell, Yuugao was slamming into the second civilian guard. He gutted that man easily enough, but then the room was filling up with Ame-nin.
Yuugao only allowed himself a grunt of pain as his next opponent's fist connected with his chest - the guard's body was still twitching when he had been attacked - and he used the dying weight as a shield before the next strike caught him in the gut. The split second it bought him was used to shove the corpse at the Ame-nin and elbow in the man's face. Yuugao continued through the crunch of cartilage and rolled back into a crouch, swinging around a leg in a sweep and forcing another Ame-nin to jump to the side.
A katana blade came rushing for his neck and Yuugao could barely lean back far enough to avoid it. He fought back a shudder as he felt the blade nick the barest edge of skin. The numbers were astonishing and just as he avoided one blow, he found a fist striking his head. Yuugao's mind exploded with pain and he crumpled to the ground for only a split second. In the next moment he had flung one of his seven - only seven - shuriken at the Ame-nin's head. The telltale sound of contact was eerily welcome.
One of the civilian guards was dead, care of his own weapons, as Yuugao entered the room; he engaged the two left as more guards and ninja filled in the remaining spaces. Mission details had specified that the majority of the daimyo's guard were civilians, but there was also a personal guard of hired Amegakure ninja that traveled along with the target. Two compliments of chuunin and matching jounin; the one she'd already killed must have been a chuunin, for it had been far too easy. Now she was faced with four more - likely also chuunin - along with two civilians and likely a host more on the way. When the two jounin and the remaining chuunin showed up, things were going to get nasty.
It was going to get even nastier when the daimyo's ninja retinue arrived.
What was most important at this point was retreat, then, but they would need to make room before they could flee. Even as she dodged the flung weapons of the chuunin, manuevering around the bodies already on the floor and the obstacles of the furniture, there was little space to spare - and when they were so sorely outnumbered, even her skills in taijutsu were taxed. There just wasn't enough space to engage in the kind of fighting that would involve more damage to the enemy than to herself.
She stepped inside the swing of a katana, obliterating the face of one young chuunin girl with a right hook when she didn't bother to block; the other took advantage of her teammate's death by flinging a handful of senbon while Asuka attacked. She could have dodged - should have - but she heard the crunch of cartilage behind her as Yuugao took out his share of the enemies, and she didn't want him getting caught by an attack meant for her. So she didn't dodge, just focused enough chakra to deflect some and took the rest stoically (she'd feel the pain when she yanked them out of her right shoulder and bicep later), slipping in to meet the chuunin head-on.
Two civilian guards intervened, allowing the chuunin to retreat, and Asuka didn't bother wasting her time with blocking - one sword met the edge of her heian and sheared in half; the other she caught in the crook of her arm and with a twist disarmed her opponent (another wound she could attend to later). One guard found himself impaled on the sword of his ally, and the other disemboweled and left to die on the floor with the others.
It was starting to get rather crowded down there.
Sparing a moment to glance back over her shoulder, she caught the glimpse of one of Yuugao's ninja lurching backwards, face full of shuriken, the other preparing to strike the downed ANBU with his katana. That was bad - really bad. As more guards pushed into the room to fill the places of their fallen comrades, and the chuunin girl drew more senbon from her holsters, Asuka decided that right then would be a good time to retreat. The mission was done, the target was dead; now they just needed to get out without getting caught in the process. With a burst of speed, she moved across the room to intercept her partner's remaining enemy with a roundhouse kick, knocking him back over the couch and through the heavily draped windows. Glass shattered, and rain immediately began to dampen the curtains.
One moment he was down on his side and thinking up a deadly way to get back up and the next the air was clear, if only for a moment. He watched the katana - the same one that had made his neck start to bleed - fall out the window a little after its bearer and he spared Asuka only a glance before he followed it. It was starting to rain even heavier and there were sure to be guards outside, but at least they would have space and possible escape routes. Asuka knew the town better than him and for a moment he thought his vision went fuzzy, but he had to keep moving.
Did she have senbon in her arm? Yuugao was already landing in the quickly forming mud before he could think further. His former opponent was still struggling to move - Asuka's kick and the subsequent fall from the second story window had stunned him. Yuugao didn't leave him time to reach his sword; he beat him to it and slit the man's throat before snatching up the sheath and following Asuka as the exterior guards closed in on them.
This would be messy and it would be close, but he wasn't going down without a fight. A civilian met him first and was eviscerated with ease, Yuugao pivoting to face the first Ame-nin fluidly. Hayako would have been proud. He set his jaw and pressed onward, keeping track of Asuka's chakra to make sure she was still all right as he cut through the swarming foes. They had to get out of there, the numbers were too overwhelming. Asuka was making good progress and he followed the trail she was cutting through the Ame-nin and civilian guards.
It was nearly a minute later that he realized he was bearing several other wounds - most small cuts or even a gash along his ribs - but they were so close to getting loose that he pushed aside the pain and continued racing after Asuka. It should have worried him that she was moving just as fast, but seemed to be dying a lot more mud red. ...perhaps too much.
When Yuugao bailed out the window, Asuka was swift to follow. Besides the ninja she'd left near the door, there were easily half a dozen more civilian guards ready to enter the fray and take the place of the chuunin who was whimpering at the mess of shuriken impaled in his face. And deep inside the complex, a claxon slowly began to rise in pitch; any guards or ninja who hadn't realized there was a problem yet would know now. And she really didn't want to stick around to have them see her out.
Out the window it was, then. The rain was coming down harder now, thick sheets of it drumming down on the soft earth, and her landing after dropping from the second story window sent up a good splash of muddy water. In the wavery halos of light cast by covered lanterns, shadows converged into armed men, most guards but some identifiable by their silver hitai-ite. Four guards, two ninja - and more on the way.
She darted forward to attack, meeting the first wave of guards as they attempted to stop the intruders. With more freedom to move, it was far easier to take these out - she wouldn't have to worry about tripping over anything, or worry about Yuugao, and so she threw herself into the fight with a vengence. But there were far more guards than there was of her, and the chuunin out here also felt the freedom of space and did much better avoiding her strikes than the chuunin upstairs.
Two guards went down, then a chuunin when Asuka got in close enough to disarm her, then another guard. Somewhere off to her left Yuugao was also cutting a path through the guards that were throwing themselves in the way; he'd left at least four bodies in his wake as well, a dangerous whirlwind now that he'd gotten a sword in his hands. But even with as quick as they were cutting the men down, the guards were being replaced even faster, and the wall of the estate wasn't coming any closer. Their attempt to make a run for it wasn't working so well.
And then one of the jounin showed up.
He was faster than the other ninja - much faster - coming up on her blind side when she was blocking a guard's pike and nearly taking out her kidney in the process. She managed to twist out of the way and avoid the worst of the damage, but the kunai still sliced deep into her hip. The blood that spilled down her thigh was far warmer than the rain. With a hiss she took out the guard and whirled to face the ninja, but already he was flashing through a set of seals and a gust of freezing, dense rain was driving into her face. It hurt, like hundreds of tiny little senbon, though she knew well enough it was just rain - but the velocity and direction blinded her, forcing her to block her face and risk leaving her midsection unguarded.
She expected him to take advantage of that, and he did; Asuka couldn't hear over the rain, the claxon blaring in the estate, or the fighting, but she could sense him diving in for the attack. The kunai he threw missed, however, as she ducked and rolled to the side, coming up under another guard and taking a leg out from under him before he could pin her to the ground with his sword. His falling body blocked another wave of chakra-driven rain that, this time, served to flay the clothing (at least? she couldn't see more from this angle) from his back. He'd stopped screaming by the time he hit the ground.
They were at a severe disadvantage right now. The guards might just be civilians, without the extensive training she and Yuugao had gone through, but superior numbers really could damage even two elite ANBU. The chuunin were difficult, but still manageable, were it not, again, for their numbers. The jounin, however, were the real icing on the cake - as long as she and Yuugao were limited on their weapons, without armor, and had to consider even what jutsu they should or shouldn't use (katon was worthless out in the rain, and regardless was too reminiscent of Konoha; they'd decided not to use anything that obvious), the Amegakure jounin would be an absolute bitch to take out.
A tactical retreat was what they needed now. Or, as Shikako would put it, a more dignified retreat than running like their asses were on fire, though that would do, too. But she needed coordination with Yuugao before she could run, and she couldn't so much as look for him while this jounin bastard was grinning at her from behind his linked hands...
The guards were still falling at a steady rate, but there was too little progress for the effort it was taking. He felt the katana trembling in its guard and was really missing the blade Hayako had found for him. At least that katana wouldn't start to wear down this quickly. He took down another chuunin and kicked a particularly clumsy civilian guard away, giving himself a solitary moment to look over at Asuka. And see her fall to dodge the second assault of chakra-driven rain.
His gut wrenched up - if he didn't act now he might lose her - and Yuugao refused to let that happen when he could still breathe. If only so he could see Kotsuki and Izume's smiles again, he was going to make it out of this mission. And there was no way he was going to return home alone. Swinging his katana in a wide arc to keep the guards at bay for a moment, he collided with another katana and gritted his teeth at the shattering steel. He knew the blade hadn't been quality, but this was just pathetic. He flicked his wrist and distracted the chuunin for a moment as she hadn't been expecting the entire katana to be thrown at her. Using the time he had, he drew out a length of garrotte wire from the roll he had hidden under his left sleeve with his teeth. That accomplished, and the chuunin starting to charge again, he translocated to the other side of the fight. In the split-second he had left to surprise the Amegakure jounin, he swung the wire up and over the jounin's head.
The Ame-nin realized what had happened a split-second too late. A quick jerk and crossing of his arms left Asuka's opponent headless and Yuugao let the bloody wire fall, scanning over the guards for a moment. Luckily, there had only been civilians surrounding the jounin and Yuugao took the break at a sprint. He raced over to Asuka, grabbing her arm and dragging her to her feet. She stumbled and he felt the guards closing in again - they had to move now, forget dignity and teamwork. He could move, she was hesitating. So he'd move for both of them until she could gain her footing.
He dragged her along for a moment, cursing how the mud was making movement all the more difficult, and then set the pace as they made a break through the civilian guards. There was only one chuunin left that he knew of and she was too slow to keep up. It took more effort than it should have, but he reached the wall and leaped onto it, pushing off harder and sprinting down the main road before he spotted a back road he remembered from Asuka's map. The chuunin was following, he could sense her chakra, but they were faster even in their weakened state.
"This way," he grunted and forced more chakra to his feet, gripping her arm tighter and darting down the side road at the last moment and taking every sharp turn he could. If the chuunin wanted to play tag, so be it. But Yuugao's speed had always been complimented and his legs had yet to give out on him.
It was the work of an instant to kill the jounin - thank luck Yuugao was paying attention. She could have taken the jounin out, no question about that, but what state she would have been in afterwards (especially with all the other guards and ninja they were dealing with) was questionable. And considering that she was already bleeding at this point, it probably wouldn't have been very good shape at all.
The Rain ninja was halfway through another set of seals when his head came off in a gout of blood; her partner was at her side in an instant and dragging her up out of her crouch in a mad dash for the wall of the estate. The mud hampered their movements (she slipped and almost took them both down in a spectacular display of ninja prowess, but he was gripping her biceps so hard she swore he'd leave a bruise, and he hauled her back up before she could), but after she'd regained her feet a bit of chakra fixed that problem. Killing the jounin had cleared their way in a stroke of luck, and they took it without hesitation - dashing blindly for the wall, leaping over it, hitting the cobblestone path outside hard and nearly losing their footing again. Yuugao refused to let her go, and she deactivated her chakra blades to make certain she didn't get him cut on accident.
Behind them, the claxon continued blaring, and far down the road and around the corner, she could hear gates slamming open and boots slapping through puddles. The lone chuunin who'd been left in the courtyard was a single point of chakra that was swiftly gaining, and past her Asuka could sense more chakra following - a lot of it. Now was not the time to stick around.
They dashed off, Yuugao in the lead with his hold on her arm, but she was more than swift enough to keep up with him. "This way," he said, his voice harsh and breathless and hard to hear over the rain and their followers and the slowly quieting alarm as they ran, and he directed them to one of the back alleys she'd pointed out when they'd come this way barely an hour before.
The further they got from the estate, the more the silence grew - but the alarm wasn't entirely silenced, and all across the city it was gaining attention. Those few people who were actually awake at three in the morning in the driving rain murmurred to themselves about it, unknowing of the two ninja who slipped past them in shadows in silence, and police who patroled the streets at night looked alert and nervous. They quieted their chakra, hid themselves from sight and sound and sense in the way that only ANBU could, and after too much time in the rain it could be fairly well determined that they'd lost any tail they might have gained.
It was almost four in the morning when they slipped into the window of their inn room, which they'd specifically chosen because it faced an alley and they wouldn't be seen when they returned. Asuka, in first because Yuugao had been annoyingly chauvinistic the whole way back, let herself collapse on the floor a few feet from the window, dropping to her knees and bowing her head as she reigned in her breath and heartbeat. It had been a hard fight, but worse had been the getting back - adreneline levels had never really dropped as they skulked under eaves and behind garbage bins, but an hour after receiving her wounds it hurt. The senbon were gone, plucked out and tossed away somewhere near the docks, but her shoulder still hurt, and the slice on her bicep hurt more from Yuugao grabbing onto her for so long, and her right leg felt numb and heavy from refusing to acknowledge (or even check) the wound on her hip. She was tired and hurt and wet and cold now that they'd come back into some place more air conditioned than the early September night air.
She sniffed and wiped some of the dripping water out of her face, tucking the damp curls of hair that had escaped from her ponytail behind one ear. "How long do you think we can stay?"
The run back had been very strange for Yuugao. He kept his mind resolutely focused on stealth and speed and location, but if he was remembering right, it had been much harder than usual. "Part of the night, probably," he murmured, setting a hand to his head and brushing back the dripping strands of hair falling into his eyes.
"We should get patched up, the pain will set in soon. You can shower first, just to get warmed up." He waved a hand. "I'll secure the room again."
He didn't really wait for her reply, instead picking himself up from his slump against the wall and closing the window tighter. He set a simple trap with ease, scanning the alleyway and blinking once as the rain drops on the glass began to blur in his vision. Just tired, that was all. Nothing more. Now all they had to do was stay hidden and stay alive.
He could only hope it was that simple....
[[Also, theme song!]]