Chapter II | First Meeting

[Kanna]

II | First Meeting ^♫
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The day was calm, for the most part; the sun shining down onto the beaten paths that were the roads, green grass lining either side with trees here and there. The shade of the sun through the leaves made a nice pattern on the ground, shifting as the breeze blew the leaves and branches around. Though the breeze was cool, the sun warmed the day considerably, making for a fairly decent day, if it wasn't for the rain clouds that were churning in the otherwise blue sky. Almost ominously.

Tap... tap... tap...

Soft footsteps broke nature's silence as a slender figure came into view, walking calmly down the path back toward her home in Konohagakure. The breeze tussled her long, black hair, which she delicately shifted behind her ear with her right hand before letting her hand fall back by her side. Blue eyes looked up to the sky to take note of the cloud coverage.

It would be raining soon, though judging by the clouds, it didn't look like that bad of a storm. If she kept going, she would be wet, but that was about it. It was better to reach someplace to stay before dark, anyway. The herb-gathering she had gone to do had taken her down the roads to find the ones she needed, nearly across the Hi no Kuni border. But, at least she had found them.

Looking back to the path ahead of her, she began to pick up the pace a little to shave off some time in her trip. At this point, home was looking really good. Though, lately the dojo was reminding her of past events she rather not remember, and nightmares were bringing up questions she didn't know the answers to.

Her real family was a mystery to her; even her last name. Jin had helped her with her kekkei genkai, but there were still things that she didn't know about it. She needed to find someone to talk to that knew what happened to her parents and the rest of her clan... maybe there was a few left somewhere. She just needed to dig to find answers. She never thought about looking into the Konoha archives before, mostly because she was happy and kind of oblivious to what she was missing. She had Jin until he passed, and then had her duties to keep her occupied.

Now, though, she needed to find answers. She just didn't know where to start...

[EgzINC]

He clenched fist, the metal scratching against itself with his arms before it cracking slightly. His eyes peered through the leaves, his hand pressing down lightly onto the branch. His breath passed lightly through the fabric of his mask, through his nose the moisture could be smelled in the air as the clouds darken. This was going to be a fitting evening, the sun was slowly setting and that woman's body would perish in this serene setting of rain.

"Your life has been deemed forfeit Tenshi Kanna..., I fate I regret and sadly can not change. I however am forced to become the architect of your demise, let my soul not be destroyed from this act."

His voice rang back into his mind recalling the past, the time where his parents had arranged for him to marry a beautiful child who would turn into a beautiful woman. The one set before him, he slowly crept along the trees as her pace picked up. He could still remember the words as if they were the dark echoes of the past, his life was now to be a tool of the Organization's and not his own. His feelings were no longer a factor of his mind set, ones he had to put aside as well as love.

The thunder cracked letting the lightning hit the ground, in that moment that a flash was created he was positioned behind the woman his eyes piercing to her soul. A tear left his eye in the mask of the storm, his arm arched back and on swinging forth it released his hand by a chain. The fingers at the end of the hand were all pressed forward into a point aimed at the heart of the woman he was forced to hate.

"Forgive..."

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[Giboshi Hibiku]

His thick brow furrowed, and his eyes narrowed. Hibiku's gaze was to the sky, which angered him. Rain was not the weather he wished for. Born in the desert, it was never something he was accustomed to, and always something he chose to avoid. With a grunt, he let his gaze fall to what was before him, and propelled forward. I won't be able to make it to another village before the rain starts. Might as well find shelter under the trees. He didn't care if it was going to be light rain or not; he didn't like it at all.

As he glided over the path, his eyes became fixed on a slender figure. It was the image of a woman, not at all uncommon in appearance. She was of fair beauty, which Hibiku had seen a great many times in Sunagakure. So it was an oddity that he gazed at her so intently. Was there something on her face or in her teeth? No. He shook his head, unable to discern the cause for his slight attraction to her visage. As he came closer to her, he let his eyes follow her next to him. Thunder cracked in the sky, signaling the fall of rain to come. He stopped and wondered briefly when he had missed the first bolt of lightning.

Then he had no time for thinking. The next bolt lightning came behind Hibiku's back, and the appearance of a hand on a chain appeared. It was an attack, it seemed, propelling toward the woman. On impulse, Hibiku thrust his hand to the woman's shoulder, to push her out of the way of the attack. They would both have the luxury of avoiding this unscathed. Instantly afterward, Hibiku let his form fade instantly, and then appear once more some seven meters away. A scroll was unstrapped and unrolled before him. He brought his hands together for a seal, and then planted hi right firmly on the opened scroll.

A large cloud of smoke billowed into the air instantly, blocking Hibiku from view. It was apparent that he had brought something into the field for battle. A figure broke from the fading smoke, and lunged at the origin of the attack on the woman. It was a female puppet, with movements orchestrated by Hibiku. She -- the puppet -- wielded a katana fit for cutting. As she reached the origin of the enemy, she made a horizontal strike.

[Kanna]

Her eyes averted to the horizon ahead of her, then the sky for a moment, hearing the thunder and feeling a drop or two of rain on her face. Maybe she was wrong about the storm... In any case, she needed to get to shelter until the storm blew over. Last thing she needed was to get fried or sick. Little did she know, she was in for far worse.

All of a sudden, she felt herself be pushed and fell gently to the ground on her side with an "oomph!". By the time she looked to where she had been pushed, the man faded and appeared a ways away and a chained hand flew past her. Her expression changed; her eyes widened slightly and her lips parted. What the hell was going on?! That's what she gets for not paying attention. Her eyes went to the man who had apparently saved her life, who was summoning puppets from a scroll. This didn't look like it was over, and those weren't aimed at her.

Standing, and bracing herself for a fight, her eyes followed where the man's puppet was going.

In a tree was an assassin, or what looked like one. Was he after her? What could she have possibly done to draw his attention? So many questions popped into her mind, but now wasn't the time to answer them. She realized if she tried to help, she would only be in the way of the man and his puppets, so instead she ran to a more tactical area, closer to the puppet man, so she could defend herself and heal him should he need it, taking a defensive stance.

Who were these guys anyway? Whoever the one that saved her life was, she was entirely grateful to him and owed him her life. She would introduce herself properly later. Now, the assassin was her concern.

[EgzINC]

The links of the chain rattled as they clicked back into his arm, he clenched his fist using the back of it as a guard. The blade would clash to the metal of his hand and at that instant he would shove it off and in the blink of an eye his hands came to seals. Even from beyond the mask his chakra was molding, far down in his stomach and as the seals were completed he brought his hand to his mask as if he was holding some thin straw.

"Katon- Gokakyu no Jutsu"

A large ball of fire came shooting forth from his mouth, at the time this had begun the puppet woman may have only just recovered from the blade being shoved backwards. His eyes even though were facing the puppet he knew exactly where she went, this had just gotten more complicated. The longer he allowed this to continue the more likely the chance his feelings would interrupt him and cause hesitation in his actions. Without care of what his fire did under the shroud of rain he moved immediately away from where he was. To wherever her last location was he shot his hand out once more but in a massive swinging motion. The edges of the hand had thin pieces of metal to act as blades while the points of the fingers themselves were lethal.

Through the rain and trees themselves the hand would cut through them all, charged with his Fuuton Chakra he was a force to be reckoned with. The trees would be cleaved clean at where they were struck clearing the way for his sight to catch Kanna and this intruder.

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[Giboshi Hibiku]

Akufu's blade met resistance. A clash of metal sparked the beginning of a longer battle than Hibiku had first anticipated. His eyes narrowed as his puppet was pushed away. Unlike living opponents, however, Akufu needed no time to recover. With intricate finger movements, the puppet exceeded the normal ability of humans to regain composure. Within that moment, Hibiku's puppet was pulled back toward him in what was considered a leaping motion.

Hibiku grimaced both at his opponent and the woman. She had moved close to him, making it easier for their attacker to strike at them all at once. That chain linked hand could easily make a sweeping motion to capture Hibiku, the woman, and Akufu. He turned about, calculating the motion of the attack. Hand seals were formed quickly, and he brought his hand before his mouth. With his target as the hand of the chain link weapon, where the fingers bore claws of death, Hibiku released the powerful technique, Daitoppa.

Wind blasted from his mouth, leveling the earth in it's path and intercepting the attack made by Hibiku's opponent. With the target being the end of the weapon, even the wind matured chakra in the attack could not prevent it from being thrown back. Then, with the second attempt on the woman's life thrown to the side, Hibiku instructed Akufu to move once more. This time, Hibiku took advantage of his enemy's drawn out weapon. Before it could reel in, the female puppet rushed forth and made a downward slash at the man, in attempt to sever his striking arm from his body.

"If you remain by my side," Hibiku said to the woman, "He will take advantage and attack us both at once." He was wary about this battle. He couldn't explain why he gave a damn about this woman, and he knew this opponent he faced had no reservations about killing. "Stay close, but not too close."

[Kanna]

A second attempt at her life avoided, thanks to the man with the puppets. It was obvious the assassin was determined to go after her at any cost, since his main focus seemed to be her. She wasn't sure why, though. She hadn't done anything to get a mark on her that she knew of! So why would he be after her? It didn't make any sense!

Still in the defensive position, she glanced over to the man and nodded at his instructions. "Right," she commented and jumped a little ways away to be close enough to him to be able to run over and help defend and heal if needed, but not close enough to make them one big target. She didn't know why this stranger was defending her, but she was grateful to him... and a little compelled. Not many people would risk their lives for someone they didn't even know like that.

For now, she would wait until she was needed. He seemed to have the situation under control, being as strong as he seemed. Being a medical-nin, she only specialized in the medical arts and defensive jutsu to preserve her life and other on the battlefield. He seemed as though he was from Suna, judging by his puppetry; a trademark of the village. Whoever he was and wherever he was from, he was really doing her a favor.

But just how long would this fight last, and just how dangerous was this assassin?

[EgzINC]

His head turned to notice the puppet woman moving once more, his opposite hand gripped the chain and tightened its length to deflect the blade. In the moment he had to defend himself from the strike the hand retracted fully onto the wrist. He moved himself back taking a defensive stance, the appearance of this new opponent was not foreseen. His eyes surveyed the area and met with the two hiding within the trees that were cleared away.

"...!"

It was then he took the realization that she chose to move away from her protector, he kicked his feet onto a fallen tree and took a height advantage. From his back he gripped six kunai, each had a small string of tags attached. From one hand three flew towards the assailant, the rest fled towards Kanna. If he had to strike them separately to gain any sort of vantage on this battle then so be it.

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[Giboshi Hibiku]

Akufu's sword was met by the chain. Hibiku's opponent was good at thinking on his feet. But, so was Hibiku. Akufu's swords maneuvered, wrapping the chain around the blade quickly with only the movement of the blade itself. The chain hand, as it came back together, clamped the sword in place, and Akufu's grip was tight under Hibiku's control. So as the enemy moved, so did the puppet with him.

This was not to say, however, that Hibiku managed to halt the production of kunai with tags placed on them. Akufu's jaw merely unhinged, and a poison mist bomb (see Akufu for details) was ejected at the man. At such a close distance, evasion was impossible. Killing the man would come later, though. At that moment, Hibiku had a different problem.

When he caught sight of the kunai, he made sure to form hand seals quickly. Upon completion and appropriate hand movement, another Daitoppa blew back three kunai heading his way. At the same time, intricate movements in his free hand moved Akufu away from the man (her sword left behind). The projection of the Daitoppa also had the enemy in target range. If hit, the mysterious attacker would be thrown back quit a ways. Immediately after, he made a quick Shunshin to place himself farther from his previous position.

Unfortunately, the enemy had succeeded in separating him from from the woman. For a quick moment, Hibiku glanced around to see if she had dodged. I'm sure she did. Dodging kunai is not difficult.

---

I'm not sure if you planned to activate exploding tags, or some other kind of tag. If they were exploding tags, feel free to add in that the Daitoppa was fiery, but that wouldn't really change any of my post.

[Kanna]

So she stood, watching this skilled man at work with his puppets defend against the unknown assailant. Though she was on the defensive rather than the offense like the man, she still kept alert to sudden changes in movement, all the while etching a memory of the assassin in her mind so she knew who to look out for should he escape the battle alive. She would have to draw it later and perhaps show it to Jikoku, a friend of Jin's who had been very kind to her.

Suddenly, there was movement. Seeing the kunai fly out of the attacker's hand, Kanna's knees slightly bent before she used Shunshin to avoid the brunt of the blast caused by the tags attached to the projectiles, halting a few meters from where she was -- now a little further from the other man -- and protecting her face as the explosives went off. Her hair blew around her and a piece of something made a small cut across her arm, but otherwise, she was unharmed.

She let her arms drop from her face back into the ready position they were at before and took a quick glance at the spot where she had been, now blown apart and blackened. Her lips parted as she looked back up to the assassin. He wasn't playing around. He was out to get her.

For a moment, she glanced over to the puppet man--

Seeing he had been able to deflect the kunai himself, she was relieved. The last thing Kanna wanted was someone to get hurt over her, especially when they had initially risked their lives to defend her. Again her attention went back to the attacking man as she braced herself for what he was planning next. If she wasn't feeling useless before, now she certainly was.

[EgzINC]

Ooc: The point of the chain was bouncing the sword off, puppets aren't immune to recoil.

An explosion... of large proportions took place, sadly they all survived. Though before that realization took place, he had a puppet to deal with. As the bomb released he was able to replace himself with a downed section of tree letting the bomb hit only a log. Though that wouldn't be easily seen just yet, his eyes drew back to his Kunai which he activated as they neared the two but a strong wind had pushed the explosion in a different direction, he was at a safe distance due to his Kawarimir for now.

From the shadows he placed his hands together and generated a wind from hid body that instantly fired off at the puppets. "Kazekiri" The wind would shoot through and slice through the puppet from its blind side, the bind side as well applied to the puppeteer as his location was unknown.

The wind propelled forward, he wouldn't pause to see what the outcome was, he had a job to do. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." He created a shadow clone out of sight to provide distraction to the puppet user, he himself kept to the shadows and let his feet be covered by the sound of rain. He would make his way to the woman slowly with his clone keeping them in eye sight.

[Giboshi Hibiku]

It was a mere set-back for Akufu's strike not to land. But Hibiku reeled her back quickly, out of necessity and caution. In consequence, he narrowly escaped his puppet's demise. When the opponent was no longer seen in battle, there was no satisfaction to be had in leaving yourself, or your puppets, in the open. I was lucky to know when to be cautious.

For a moment after, only the sound of a light rain pervaded Hibiku's ears. That, and the whisper of words, which he could not make out. His only clue to the activities his opponent had made was the appearance made by the clone (although Hibiku didn't know it was a clone at the time). His eyes shifted to the girl, and then to the clone. "This needs to end soon," Hibiku stated aloud, indicating his intention of ending the battle quickly. He rolled out another scroll, and performed the same "summoning" he had before with Akufu. Only this time, he had summoned a different puppet; Eijisu. Attaching threads of chakra to this puppet, Hibiku had made an arsenal of two puppets on the battlefield.

His eyes narrowed. Eijisu's shield was raised, and it's sword was reeled into preparation. Akufu was poised for activity once again. The battle was meant to be ended soon.

[Kanna]

As the fight was going on, Kanna kept attentive to the surroundings as well as the attacking man. This Suna stranger was defending her, and the least she could do at the moment was not make herself an open target, which meant she had to be prepared for an alternate attack aimed at herself. After all, the man's main objective was to either kill or capture her, from what she gathered from his constant attention to her. The reasons would have to wait until he was no longer a threat.

The medic kept her position and watched as the man fired off a wind jutsu, then disappeared from line of sight for a moment before being revealed once again. Rain again picked up, which would serve to his advantage at hiding his footsteps and dampening the ground to make it harder to hold it. But, Kanna's kekkei genkai was one to be admired.

Throughout the whole fight, she had been observing not only the moves and fighting styles, but the chakra auras of both men; her savior having a passionate mix of rose red and a fairly dark yellow with tint of white. Though she was still learning and trying to figure out what the colors meant since she had no teacher from her own clan, she did feel at ease near him. Though, it seemed as if his aura was confused. He might have had some turmoil in his mind he was trying to confront.

The assassin, on the other hand, made Kanna question what his intentions really were. His aura was a cloudy, swirling mix of gray and white. She had seen this before, and it was from someone who was forced to do what they didn't want to. Their senses of right and wrong--their own desires and a command from a superior--were mixed and confused, but distinctly separate from one another. Just what was going though the assassin's mind, she wondered?

But, of course, that question like all others would have to wait.

Out of the corner of her eye, she again saw the faint mix of white and gray around a blackened figure. Her hand slid to the pouch on her right hip and withdrew four shuriken, which she tossed at the figure. "He's using clones!" She told her new found comrade as she backed away and poised her hands to form In.

[EgzINC]

The clone emerged at the sign of the second puppet and brought up its own defense, the chakra was limited of course now that he had used quite the arsenal already to fight with. He wouldn't let the words get through that the woman was trying to speak, as she attempted to make her cries to make the tactic known the clone leaped to the air above the puppets swiftly creating seals and released a massive fireball downward onto them. The flames roar would be enough with the rain to drown out the woman's call to her savior.

At the same time this was happening Kaze himself made his way to the woman's position and prepared an attack of his own as she moved to her defensive position. He didn't want to continue using his chakra so recklessly, his claw hand shot forward but it wasn't aiming to strike Kanna instead it was targeted past her. He would jerk his arm back and cause the chains to whip around and wrap around Kanna's body in order to capture her.

[Giboshi Hibiku]

Hibiku heard two words that Kanna was able to produce. "He's using--" but she was cut off the roar of flames from a well-sized fireball coming down on them. She knew something the attacker didn't want Hibiku to know, but that matter had to wait. He utilized the Shunshin to get close to Kanna, and reeled his puppets out of the way of the fireball. Akufu then hiked her leg up and shot a torrent of needles at the attacker in the sky.

In consequence, the chain came up to both Kanna and Hibiku. Catching sight of this instantly, he dropped his strings that linked him to Eijisu, and grabbed hold of the chain claw to connect a chakra string to one part, and then he let go quickly. Hibiku had also, as soon as he saw the chain, attempted to push Kanna out of the way, sot hat she would not be entangled in that mess.

Should Hibiku get caught, the chain would no longer belong to the attacker. He had set up his ability to place chakra strings along it. Getting Kanna out of the way was a bonus, if he had succeeded.