[26] Unexpected

Kagami went on for a few more minutes before having to jump onto Masaru's back once again because of fatigue. Using any of Yua's chakra seemed to take a large toll on her body, as under Danzo's reign she couldn't risk being caught with anything other than the standard ninja skills, knowing in the back of her mind, if she did let him know about her skill she would be used as a weapon, and he wouldn't try to keep it a secret either.

The three have stopped in a large tree to rest, Masaru bugging the cat continually.

"Yusi, turn into a wolf already!"

"No! I enjoy being a cat!"

"Your going to be a dead cat soon if you don't transform!" Masaru pushes her with his nose, ready to shove her right out of the tree. Yusi hisses loudly and brings her paw up, hitting him on the nose repeatedly, her face screwed up in anger.

"I. Am. Staying. As. A. Cat." She hits him in time with the syllables of her sentence.

Kagami rolls her eyes and leans against the tree, still breathing quite heavily. She is sure, sure that the person she sensed was Orochimaru, but she shakes her head and mutters under her breath.

"Stop being stupid, Kagami. You are a Shinobi, stop being scared by the past, it's irrational." She rubs her arms and stands up quickly. "Let's go."

She signals to the two and they all set off again.

'It won't be hard to find a Earth scroll to pair off our own. But avoiding Suna nin will be difficult from here on out. We are on their radar, but they will finish this as quickly as possible. So we aren't in danger for the rest of this task.'

'I agree with Kagami.'

'Oh fuck off Masaru!' Yusi rolls her eyes at both Kagami and Masaru.

'At least someone agrees with me.'

'YOU SHITS GANGING UP ON ME!'

The bond was severed quickly before the rant starts up. Kagami travels in silence, not connecting to the bond or speaking out loud. She wanted to conserve energy as well as keeping alert, and speaking doesn't tick any of those boxes.

Kagami observes the space around them, feeling as if someone is close, they must be attracting some sort of attention. One thing Kagami has learnt as a ninja is no matter what, only expect you are not alone.

Flashback.

"We will camp here, we aren't being followed." The captain of Kagami's Anbu group nods to them all and jumps down into the clearing, setting up camp calmly.

Kagami stays on high alert, not feeling comfortable as the people chasing them have not been eliminated, but Kagami knows better than to question her captain. She's watched other team members brutally maimed for doing just that.

She quietly sets up her mat and sits on it tensely, watching her surroundings like a hawk. She flinches when a hand lands on her shoulder.

"Loosen up Tiger, there's nothing to worry about, we're Anbu." Suddenly her team member was gone, but his hand still clutches onto her shoulder gruesomely. She doesn't react, she simply stands up and attacks. Watching and cutting down foes.

There are many of them, they come from every direction and don't pause to attack, from her quick calculations the rest of her team are probably long dead. This was planned, the ambush. They were counting on the fact that they would overestimate themselves and stop for camp.

Kagami mercilessly cuts down everyone of them, not affected by the bodies at all, quietly walking over the top of them and picking up the mauled bodies of what was once her team. She silently picks up the three of them and slings them over her shoulder.

She gets up and jumps away, knowing they are less than a day away from Konoha and since they had already finished their mission, there was no use in sticking around for more unwanted encounters.

'Thud.'

Kagami dishes quickly to the side and is forced to drop the bodies as she does. She's not alone, there's more of them. She curses and opts to abandon the bodies and carry on.

She moves fast, having every intention of losing these people. But even with her training, the chances of her being able to shake all of them off is very slim, but the chance to pace them out and hit Konoha before they catch her is slightly less slim.

That is the plan.

Flashback

Kagami signals to the other two and stops on a low branch, watching a young group pass underneath them, not noticing any of them. Kagami rolls her eyes at their obliviousness but decided to be nice about them being dumb. She quickly send senbon down before someone can steal her catch. She jumps down quickly and searches all three of them.

The last one has the scroll shoved down her shirt, obviously thinking no one will stick their hand down there to get there scroll, think again. Kagami pulls out a Heaven scroll, just what she needs to match her Earth scroll.

"Seriously, people these days." Masaru shakes his head and starts off in the direction of the central building.

Kagami and Yusi sigh in sync, following him in silent annoyance.

'How unexpected.'

s.h.o.u.t.

~shadow