Touye was wearing a tight-fitting stealth suit, her hair and face completely covered, with only her bright eyes visible. She had even been using a hoarse, fake voice. To think she had been identified as a girl at a glance.
The caged girl now wore a sly smile. "Because boys don't have a natural sweet scent..."
***
The girl hid behind a tent, watching the campfire in front of it. Two bandits were lying nearby.
Aside from the bandit leader in the main tent, these two were the last ones left. All the others, including the sentries, were now meeting underground. All she had to do was kill these two and their leader, and she could openly go and free Jun.
She walked out into the open and killed the two bandits with a single slash each, then strode toward the main tent.
She had just reached the entrance when she heard the wind whistle by her ear.
Her heart tightened. She dodged, and a massive Fuma shuriken ripped through the tent flap, grazing her face as it flew past. Though it didn't hit her directly, the wind it generated was enough to slice a shallow wound on her neck and blow her hood and owl mask off.
"What's this... Just a little brat... And here I was hoping for a good fight... How disappointing!"
A grating voice followed the attack, and a rogue ninja with a Kusagakure forehead protector appeared, staring at the girl with a perverse look in his eyes.
The girl, head bowed, began to tremble. Then, slowly, her mouth split into a grin, and a dangerous aura radiated from her.
"Heh, heh heh heh, hahahahaha..."
The girl pathologically wiped the trace of blood from her neck with her hand and brought it to her lips as if savoring her own blood. A feverish, intoxicating blush crept onto her fair face. "Hey... On such a beautiful moonlit night, won't you... dance with me?"
***
"Hey... On such a beautiful moonlit night, won't you dance with me..."
The Kusagakure ninja froze. *These days, even kids this young are becoming psychos?*
The girl waited a moment, but when the ninja didn't attack, she grew impatient and charged at him, swinging her tachi.
The ninja, startled again, cautiously leaped backward.
"Heh..."
Seeing him retreat, Touye flashed a bloodthirsty smile and pursued without hesitation.
The Kusagakure ninja's face darkened. *Foolish girl!* he sneered inwardly.
His right hand reached into the tool pouch on his back, pulling out several shuriken and flinging them at her.
Faced with the incoming projectiles, the girl only deflected the ones aimed at vital spots, ignoring the rest and letting them embed themselves in her body.
The shuriken did nothing to slow her down. She closed the distance in an instant and brought her sword down on the ninja's head with a vicious chop.
Still in shock, the ninja was too late to dodge. He only had time to take a single step back and pull out two kunai, crossing them to block the girl's powerful strike.
Clang!
A deafening metallic crash echoed through the silent night as the three weapons met.
Seeing her attack blocked, the girl let out a cold laugh, released the tachi with her left hand, and quickly formed a one-handed seal.
"Ice Release: Breath of Flowers Technique!"
The girl's cheeks puffed out, and then, like a dragon's breath, she exhaled a blast of blue frost.
"Whoa!" the Kusagakure ninja cried out in alarm, leaping backward. But the frost was fast. Despite his best efforts to evade, it grazed his left arm. The arm froze over at a visible rate, the frost spreading all the way to his shoulder before finally stopping.
Clutching his left arm, the ninja panted heavily, staring daggers at the girl. "You're... from the Yuki Clan!"
"Hehehehe..." The girl didn't answer, only smiled at him, the pathological blush on her face deepening. "Why are you running? Wouldn't it be better to just let me kill you? Then you wouldn't have to suffer anymore..."
Hearing this, the ninja jumped back again. "You psycho! You're insane! Only an idiot would let you kill them!"
With that, he turned and fled. But with his left arm frozen, he couldn't maintain his balance and stumbled as he ran.
The girl still wore a cruel smile as she slowly gave chase. The stumbling ninja was no match for her. She followed leisurely behind him, landing a cut here and there. The night echoed with the ninja's agonized screams...
After finding the cage key on the now-unrecognizable corpse and chopping off the head to seal it away, she ignored the rest of the body and walked back the way she came.
On the way, Touye looked at the tachi in her hand. She had received it when she first applied for her codename. It had been with her for months, through dozens of battles, and was now battered and worn. Though she had taken it to a blacksmith for repairs several times, the high-intensity combat had pushed it to its breaking point.
It was a pity, but she sighed and dug a hole to bury it. The sword could no longer fight alongside her; carrying it would only be a burden. Though she was reluctant, she had to let it go.
Soon, the girl returned to the camp and found the tent where Jun was being held. She used the key to open the cage and lifted out the sleeping girl. Jun drowsily opened her eyes, looked at Touye, and shifted in her arms to find a more comfortable position. "Is it over?"
The girl nodded. "Yes, it's over. It's not dawn yet, so go back to sleep. I'll wake you when we get there..."
As she spoke, the girl in her arms fell asleep again. Touye smiled, took off her outer coat, and wrapped it around the girl, leaving herself in just a thin layer of clothing as she headed for the Underground Exchange.
***
At the Underground Exchange, in one of the private rooms, two girls, one large and one small, sat facing each other on a bed. A large pile of food was spread between them. The smaller girl was burying her face in the food, while the older one had her knees drawn up, her arms wrapped around them, her chin resting on her knees as she watched the younger girl with a gentle smile.
"Don't rush, eat slowly. There's plenty more," the girl said comfortingly. The younger girl was clearly starving. Though she wasn't gorging herself, her little head bobbed up and down as she ate with surprising speed, letting out cute, unconscious "mm-hmm" sounds. The bangs on her forehead bounced with every chew. The girl felt she was about to die from the cuteness.
Before this, the girl had told her story.
Her name was Akayo Jun, five years old, a year younger than Haku and two years younger than herself. She was one of the two surviving heirs of the now-extinct Akayo Clan (Note: a fictional clan). Her parents were dead, and she had been wandering the ninja world with the other heir, her older brother. They had been caught in a conflict between ninja and were accidentally separated while fleeing. After that, she had wandered alone until, on the brink of starvation, she met the bandit leader—the Kusagakure ninja. For some reason, he had taken her in, only to be killed by Touye that very night. That was her story.
As for the Akayo Clan, the girl had heard of them. They were said to have been a major clan decades ago, renowned for their powerful fire-style ninjutsu, even rivaling the famed Uchiha Clan. Unfortunately, they backed the wrong side and were wiped from the ninja world by the combined forces of the First Hokage and the Uchiha. The fact that it took both the First Hokage and the Uchiha brothers to deal with them spoke volumes of their strength. Some even said that tailed beasts had appeared during that battle.
But that was all in the past. Now, all that was left of the Akayo Clan was Jun and her brother.
Jun had found her, but what about her brother? Would he also find someone to help him? The girl wasn't optimistic about his chances of survival.
She told the girl her thoughts. The girl didn't cry or throw a tantrum, just continued to eat her food. But the girl saw crystalline tears well up in the corners of her eyes, roll down her cheeks, and fall onto the food in her hands. The next second, she bit into it.
Touye let out an almost imperceptible sigh and placed a comforting hand on the girl's head.