Only in Shadow [Invite Only]

[Leiko-hime]

[atrb=border,0,true][cs=7][bg=000000] Sumiyaka, Leiko ------ The night was dark, and the huge trees of Fire Countries forests turned the ground level of the forest into a more or less pitch black maze. Pale shafts of silvery moonlight pierced the heavy darkness like invisible lances; cutting away at the impenetrable thickness. The soft rustle of verdant leaves in the high canopy was like a constant music; a low soft hissing that could either comfort or wear on the nerves. The soft sound of distant creatures moving about in the lightless world between the roots and trunks. Occasionally a night bird would call out a sad, and lonely tune that hung like the haunting of spirits on the stillness. The forest was oddly quiet this night, as though suffering from a time of mourning; and perhaps it was. The jewel hidden in it's belly had been wounded deeply one time to many recently. The strikes had come to close; and the forest remembered. It always remembered. Bad times, good times. Yet, it was ambivalent and even as it mourned... It sheltered the one who caused the mourning. There among the roots of the tower titans was a small warm circle of light; it flickered golden and orange, tinted with crimson and yellow. The glow was accompanied by the sparse pop and crackle of logs slowly turning to ash as fire licked up along their backs. Embers sprinkled the packed earth around the fire from time to time; there was no grass or plant life close enough to catch from from them. The dancing light played across the roots of the trees casting writhing shadows that looked like huge, fearsome snakes, pulsating with ill intent against the contours of the surroundings. Rocks created skittering insect like pools, and sitting among it all seemed to be a curled demon. This last shadow was cast by the sole human being inhabiting the desolate little grotto of warmth. Leiko sat with her back pressed against the rough surface of a tree, the silence pressing down upon her ears from all sides. Her knees were drawn up, thighs and chest pressed into one another shielding the fact that her kosode was slipping dangerously low from notice; unless, of course, one noted that the pale expanse of both her narrow shoulders was visible. The pale sand colored top she wore pooled at her elbows, caught up between them and her calves, her arms were wound around her legs, one hand clasping the other wrist. Her face was half hidden, only the upper half really visible as she stared unblinkingly into the flames of her small fire. To the lost Hime's left sat her satchel, her gauntlet hidden within the folds of some material or other; though her kodachi remained slung through her sash, the end of the sheath creating a small depression in the dirt; scratching at it in the rare moments that she shifted. Her eyes felt achy and dry, she didn't know how long she'd been sitting there; just staring into the fire like this. It could have been hours, or even years as far as she was aware. She'd stopped counting time a long while back. Slowly thick black lashes fluttered downward, blinking sluggishly. A breeze snaked through the heavy tree tops, causing Leiko's dull brown hair to sway, kept up only by the red lacquered chopsticks thrust through the twist. Her mind was far away, and her body ached with still healing wounds; both of the mental, emotional, and physical variety. The sound of a twig cracking in the dark world beyond her fire caused her to twitch, jerking her head up and staring wide eyed, like a startled foal into the shifting shadows. Several seconds passed before she relaxed from her tense position once more slumping back into her curled form. Slowly as the logs popped and snapped, her eyelids drooped; pulled inevitably downward, and before she could stop herself she was sleeping lightly. To long without any at all having caught up with the princess from the wind country. ------ The Rogue Princess

[Souku|Raidon|Tao]

OoC; no table this time, working on a new one.


The dirt was fresh and soft to walk on; typical of the Leaf's territory. A pleasure to walk on and a would have been pleasure to rest on had he had he been any more tired and any less determined. The taller grass and even the shorter shrubbery brushed against his trouser legs to create an ever so faintly audible brushing down, and the longer branches on the saplings that reached out to try and snare his clothing and whip at his face and messy, curly, mouse brown hair would occationaly be snapped by artisticly nimble fingers too irritated to simply push them aside. The darkness was no stranger to him and he walked confidentaly with strong elastic strides drawn out every so often when he needed to step over of around something. But otherwise, he walked peculiarly slow. But the choice was deliberate not accidental, even if he hid the fact well with the limp he'd developed from the combination of his fight with the metal man(that damned arm had hit his left knee, you see) and his longer travel back home from the Sand's desert. His arm had been wrapped up neatly in a paper make-shift cast. After hardening it with his chakra, he had both managed to protect it and allow himself to keep moving without having to seek medical attention until he returned home. But still, Tao moved slowly. Knowing full well what..who waited beyound the towering hates of Konoha.But he continued on, his jacket, bearing dual shades of green, blending in even more in the darkness and shifting against his armoured body with every step. And with each step, he could hear the scraping of the foliage along the metal shoulder pads that bore the Ugashi clan symbol. How silly, he though to himself. Even in his head, his tone was bitter and holding a hint of remouse; though he had little need to be right now. How silly of such a small, such an insignificant clan to have such pride in itself. Was it because of his father? Because Kaji would be the next one to hold the Ugashi under his thumb as their leader? He had little doubt. Or mabye it was a hereditary trait. Tao shook his head, a few longer curly locks of hair falling over the metal forehead protector that shone in the moonlight and into his line of vision. Couldn't be. Impossible. Because if such was the case, where was his overbearing sense of pride?

He walked on, pacing himself ever so carefully as he went. For another hour, he crept along the forest floor, as self assured as the forest's inhabitents themselves. But why shouldn't he be? He knew this area like he knew everything else he'd ever lived on. And it was because of that that he had redirected himself, the pain in his arm throbbing and burning until even he could bear no more. His reasoning being a small clearing, cut into by one of the many rivers that flowed through Konoha's borders like clean cut wounds. It took him little time at all to cross the area and breach the top of the hill that fed into the little area. For a moment, his sillouete darkened against the break in the trees until he moved silently down the other side until he reached the edge of the water. His knees buckled, giving way to the egsaustion he had been feeling and Tao could feel his legs finaly give out underneath himself. Right away his burning, paper covered arm was allowed to slip loose from his unzipped jacket and fell with a splash into the colder liuid. He hissed through clentched teeth in both pleasure and pain. How marvalous it felt to alleviate the burn for a moment. And at the same time, he could feel the filth and grime of the slow flowing, near stagnite water hit every one of the tiny puncture holes the metal had created. One blue eye closed as his brow furrowed and the muscles in his shoulders jumped and came alive again as he forced himself not to draw back. And after a moment of restlessness, he was calm again, the water stilling and soothing his arm. To his credit, he had been able to pull most of the embedded fragments out of his forearm. Only the truely embedded ones remained now. But it didn't help the open holes running up his arm, nor did it keep the growing tension out. Still, he allowed himself the little comfort he could.

He sat still for a long time, taking solace in the familiar liuid around his arm. It was one of the few things that ever did console him anymore. And yet, at the same time, it troubled him further. Because it calmed him so, it gave him an excuse to think. He could think about his cousins, and his love, Suki. Hell, he had thought about Suki a lot lately. He missed her far to much for his own good. Far to much for her good, he reminded himself. And the thought stung, bitterly, horribly it stung at him. Until he had to pull his arm from the water so that he could get a clearer view of it. Just so he could watch the rippling surface and try to find something more meaningful in it. The water stilled and he could see only himself.

But how shallow is that?

His eyes widened and he whipped around, sure that he had heard his old comrades voice. Souku! Where was he! Tao had been sure he had heard his rival, taunting him. Mocking him! He jerked his tired head around to the left, his blue eyes shifting left and right to try and deferentiate the darkness, and the shadows, and the pale slivers of light. He was panting, he realized, though he had no reason for that either. He inhaled deeply, pulling in the friged air as thought it too held answers he saught. He sank back onto his heels, his knees digging into the softer dirt and creating little piles in front of himself as his hands also flopped onto the dirt. This was insane. Simply, utterly insane. He breathed again, blue gaze returning to the water as he caught another glimps of himself. "Suki...", he muttered to himself. "How silly..", he shifted around again so that he was on all fours, face only a foot away from the water as he stared back at himself. "How..how shallow is that?", he repeated the phrase a few times in mantra. And then he paused, eyes falling on the blue shoulder pad and the insigmia of his heritage that was plastered onto the metal. "How...", he almost finished his statement before sitting up on his heels again.

He stared at the metal glyph for almost fifteen minutes before he moved again. And it was his expression to change first. "Suki...", the single sylable fell from his lips only moments before the fit over rage overcame him. He snarled, forgetting his wound and reaching up past his open jacket and tore past the zipper on his short sleeved undershirt, grabbing, almost clawing at the bucket that held the shoulder pad's fastening around his chest. It came undone easily, worn from years of use already. He thrust the things away from his body, creating enough noise to send several animals off from the area. Taking them both, he shoved them brutaly under the water, letting out a cry that was akin to a roar. And he held the noise out for a minute, his eyes flashing danerously as he caught a few, broken images of himself in the water. But he could see him too. Kaji and his damndable grin shining back at him. He forced the metal pads deeper into the water, clouding it until the blue metal, his reflection, and Kaji were gone.

The entire scene lasted only about thirty secounds. And in the aftermath, Tao was left beathing heavily through his bared teeth, sending flecks of spit into the water and air with every other exhaled breath. Strangly, he was consoled. His madness having only come about at the memory of Kaji striking Suki. Because he was an Ugashi...and she wasn't. The symbolism and metaphores just weren't good on his artistic mind. He drew tham back from the water slowly, still reluctant to adorn them onto his shoulders again. No...he'd do that only when he was in visable distance of Konoha. Of his father. Had he had more pride, he might have tossed them into the slow currant and never put another bit of blue metal on again. But pride wasn't a thing he knew much about. Rezipping his shirt and coat and letting his wounded arm air dry, he stood up slowly. A shifting in the dark and he jerked his head around, forcing the sudden rage from his memory(lest he really go insane, ironically enough). And with his paranoid nature making him restless, he let his good arm slip down to pull a bit of paper from his holster. It molded smoothly, fleshing out into his familiar little brown mouse, Nezumi.

The mouse surged to life as his chakra flowed into it's paper muscules and right away it was off, scurrying off through thte undergrowth as though it were actually alive. He brough his fingers into the familiar form, sealing the charaka and moving the digits around again to draw his own vision into the mouse's eyes. "Paper Manipulation; All Seeing Eye.", he uttered under his breath. His blue gaze shifted, this time behind the rodent's artificial gaze. It uivered and moved about with graceful speed until he firected it up the trunk of a tree. And it was then that his breath caught in his through back with his body, even if Nezumi was already nearly a hundred yards away.

The jutsu ended as abruptly as it had begun and Tao took off with the two metal pads clanked softly, yanking at the leather strap that connected them as the wind tugged at them. He had taken to the trees, the wind rattling in his deaf ears as he surged foreward. It had to be! The form of the person he had seen through Nezumi's eyes! It had been feminin, and the colour of the clothing, the way the hair had looked! Even if the image had been blurred by distance and hidden by the darkness, he was sure of it. And a small smile graced his lips as he drew closer, landing on the soft dirt and sliding a bit as it sank under his weight.

"Suki-! Ah..."

No, that wasn't Suki, he realized. Just some unfamiliar lady he didn't recognize. Cursing inwardly, he stepped back. Nezumi shuddered back to life as Tao remembered him being there and the little mouse ran up along his shoulder to sit uietly as Tao coughed uneasily. "I...I'm sorry. I though..you were someone else.."

[Leiko-hime]

[atrb=border,0,true][cs=7][bg=000000] Sumiyaka, Leiko ------ The sky was blue, a vivid bright surreal blue: Like the entire sky was the color that only appeared at the very top of the sky. Everything was empyrean. A cloudless wasteland, and the sun gave off an eerie green glow. The khaki sand was tinted an odd color, and seemed a little more orange than usual as though everything was saturated with an intense patina of... something. The cacti glowed a green that normally was only seen in verdant forests, the blooming desert blossoms atop them glowing pale whites; it almost hurt to look at them, and yet Leiko felt completely comfortable in this scene. It was at that point that she figured this was some sort of dream, the notion was only hurried when she heard a rustle of fabric to one side of her. Slowly Leiko turned her head and saw Hiiro standing to her left, he stared over her head at something and after a moment Leiko, to, looked to the right. Haru strode up the slope of the dune she was sitting on, giving her a lopsided and sheepish smile before he dropped down beside her to sprawl in the hot desert sand. His lips moved, but she didn't hear any sound at all; and decided that if he was going to be like that she wasn't going to pay any attention to him. Turning away she looked back out over the oddly colored desert panorama at the green sun. The next thing she knew was Hiiro was laying a hand on her shoulder, and she glanced up at him. The Akiyama nodded his head, the messy strands a bright vibrant red; and Leiko wanted to tell him that was wrong, his haired always been a darker shade: Rose Red. However, Hiiro was already gone. Leiko turned back toward the green sun only to find it setting a bright red, like Hiiro's hair. Or, she thought, fresh blood on the sand. Haru was standing there now, way down at the foot of the dune and farther out, his hand extended toward her. Despite the distance she could see his lips moving, forming silent words. Haru lifted his hand, extended it toward her; palm up, waiting. She stood up, brushing sand off the backs of her thighs and prepared to go to him, but when she glanced up again he was fading out like the red of the bloody sun... and quietly the first sound she could remember hearing in this strange world crawled through her ears and dripped down her spine 'My hime...' Leiko began sliding down the dune trying to get to him, but he was swiftly disappearing, "No! Haru, wait!" She cried, her voice literally making the scene shatter, and the world was darkness; but there was a sound. She tilted her head, her nose wrinkling, and jerked up... ------

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Leiko jerked out of her lose dose, becoming alert almost instantaneously her eyes staring into the guttering fire before her as she strained to hear the noise that had awoken her. Seconds later it came again, closer now. The sound of quickly approaching footsteps at a rabid pace. Now that she concentrated she also thought she could feel a few wisps of chakra in the air, but she wasn't all together sure. Almost against her will that odd feeling of hope stirred painfully in her chest: Perhaps her Phantom had come back to haunt her again? She wasn't sure why she wished almost desperately that her strange hallucination would return. Before she could think on it to much she was dragged out of her thoughts by someone landing near by, shadowed for the moment and even as the figure called out a name of their own Leiko voiced one as well; rocking forward to brace her bare toes against the cool soil, her fingertips pressed onto the ground as well to balance herself, "H-Haru?!" she called, and her voice cracked slightly with desperation. Then the fire flickered, and cast light across her sudden visitor, and she heard his second barrage of words.

Leiko's throat clenched for a moment as she stared up at this unknown man. She absently wondered what she must look like: Dried blood marring one side of her face from the gash on her temple. Rusty stains speckling her over sized sand colored kosode around tears where a rain of senbon had sheared through it. The deep maroon of the bindings around her stomach and chest a dark contrast to the oddly pale color of her skin; for a desert dweller she had always retained a light complexion. Hazy brown eyes blinked a few times, readjusting the the waking world, and almost as though coming out of a daze Leiko reflexively clutched the hilt of her kodachi where it stuck out passed her right hip with her left hand, causing the kosode to slid even lower along her arm. The angry punctures and scratches from senbon wounds were surrounded by a veneer of dark color. Leiko hadn't taken the time to clean herself up yet from her last encounter, it seemed. She absently wondered what she must look like to this stranger: Perhaps a combination of Valkyrie and Abused Run-Away, she thought wryly.

The Sumiyaka's train of thought was interrupted when something small hurtled forth, to climb swiftly up onto the man's shoulder. A small mouse it seemed, but there was something... Leiko narrowed her eyes; squinting in the darkness to try and get a better look. It was... Paper, she realized. Immediately she gave a little strangled noise that sounded like a mixture between a sob, and a laugh. Hysteria? Lovely. She suppressed the thought, and tried to stomp down on what ever emotion was running through her, but she couldn't help but remember....

------

"Leiko-chan! Watch!" Haru held up the paper crane in his cupped hands, and blew on it gently; exerting his chakra in the maneuver. The small paper bird fluttered off his hands, the seemingly frail wings fluttered and it seemed to twist and turn off its own accord though she knew her team mate controlled it.

She laughed softly, "Finally mastered it, hmm?" She teased.

"Of course, I had to learn it so I could show you!" Haru gave her another lopsided grin, and Leiko snorted. How silly.

------

Shaking off the memory with a tiny shift of her head Leiko eyed her visitor warily. Then, coming to a decision she sighed softly, rocking backward off the balls of her feet to rest flat footed once more; the dirt was still slightly warm against her feet. "It's fine, I seem to have made the same mistake." She whispered in reply to his apology, sounding just a bit wistful. "You can join me if you like. It seems to be a night for lost souls." She reached up, tugging lightly on her ear lobe as if to ward off those aforementioned spirits; though it was quite obvious she counted herself among them.

Turning away from the stranger, having decided he'd act as he pleased, Leiko picked up a stick and prodded the wood of her half gone fire a bit to get it to kick up again. Then, slumped back onto her rump in the dirt stretching her legs out slightly to warm her toes by the flames.

------

The Rogue Princess

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[Souku|Raidon|Tao]

Kinda crappy. I'm still getting back into playing Tao.

Her invitation startled him, almost as much as her sudden shuddering, sobbing laughter and he stepped backward. Readily, he suspected her motives and the little paper mouse on his shoulder shifted restlessly with the shift in his chakra and energy until it bristled, the tiny slips of paper rubbing together inaudibly. But he stilled it, redirecting the liuid energy(at least he liked to think it was liuid, it was how he had always imagined it) to a calmer, soothing flow. As if the tiny origami animal were actually alive. Perhaps it was because the paper animals had always been there for him when even his own parents could not. The poisoned thoughts bit at the open wound in his chest and he flinched, the expression hidden only by the shadows or distorted by the orange and yellow light that made his skin look dark and his curly russet hair seem a fiery red, almost. But he shook it all off and the mouse shifted weightlessly on his shoulder - which felt unusually exposed and light without the symbolic guard mounted on it. He cast the tiny watch guard away from himself with a simply change in chakra flow and the rodent flung itself from his shoulder onto a near by branch before climbing upward into a tree that loomed over them. Calming itself and suddenly seeming much to silent and still for any real mouse, Nezumi clung to the thick branch, occasionally getting up to pace and watch the puppeteer and the girl below. It was a safeguard that Tao had always cared to provide. After all, regardless of modesty, the girl was still a stranger. And now, as his eyes became more focused in the shifting light of the fire, he could see that, like himself, she was injured. Unlike himself, she didn't seem to able bodied at the moment.

He didn't answer for a long time, noting her movements as she turned away from him and stretched out before the fire. Given the chance, he would have much preferred the warmth of the fire to the cold, lonely trek back to his home. It was to appealing to him to take a seat in the soft, pleasant grass and dirt across from her than to continue walking when his body was beginning to rebel against his will. He frowned, not liking the way his mind seemed to be giving in to this. But strangely, the company suddenly seemed to be something he longed for. Even more so than the rest and the warmth she offered. Finally, he spoke, his expression watering down to a more placid look as he breathed out soundlessly. "Yeah...thanks.", he stated plainly. Even with his acceptance, it took a moment for him to coax his unwilling and overly cautions, overly suspicious body toward the light of the flames. Taking his place almost directly across from the girl, he bit back the unwanted sigh of approval as the muscles in his legs, pulled taunt from traveling and fighting, uncoiled slowly as he stretched them out before pulling back into a criss-crossed position. Before he had even sat down completely, the metal pads in his injured hand sagged at his side as he dropped them and they rattled noisily together he silenced them against his left flank. The burning sensation in his arm, though soothed by the water from before, still flopped numbly in his lap as he ran his other hand over it experimentally. His head drooped a bit, even as his shoulders tensed and remained active under the relaxing moment.

Even as his curiosity rose, he found himself unable to look at her directly. Instead, he examined her wounds from afar while at the same time avoiding looking directly at the flame. She was a kunoichi, no doubt, he had decided. A normal civilian would have been begging for help by now with a willing ninja to save them from their pain. Normal people, he had learned, just weren't able to handle the pain that shinobi were meant to. But it sparked something in him, a sort of blood deep rebellion. As though he was appalled to simply know that she was a ninja. A woman, of all things! What would anyone in their right mind do sending a woman out on the battlefie-?

Is that you speaking? Or you Old Man?, Souku spat at him in his own mind.

He blinked, his face looking uite alarmed suddenly as he shook his head a bit and sent his hair into his eyes again by mistake. Jerking his head around to look over his shoulder and peer into the darkness for that familiar young man and his damnable dog. It distracted him form the young girl in front of him for a moment before he turned back around, slowly this time, to eye her with an almost unreadable expression. Nezumi lurched forward above them suddenly. But a moment later, the mouse stilled again. Tao also, calmed himself. Breathing deeply, he did his best to shove aside the memory of his dead rival and his voice, for a while longer, this time. Turning his focus back to the girl in front of him, he shifted in his seat uncomfortably. Admitibly, he found he had expected her to be more talkative. And when the Kunoichi invited him in, however greatful, he had thought she had meant to talk to him. Though as comforting as it was to not have to answer twenty million questions, he found himself in a little more than awkward situation as she watched something other than himself. And it was then that he suddenly wished he had Souku's voice back to plague him, to show him how to be more stoic and placid in the face of company. Or perhaps Suki's would be more helpful? But they weren't there to aid him now and he regretted his decision to stay suddenly. He cleared his throat just loudly enough to be heard. Though the action was casual enough, it almost appeared as though he were trying to draw attention to himself, even if he wasn't. "Nice..", he started, trying his hand at the rare conversation starter. Craning his neck upward, he suinted at the darkness. "trees." He frowned. This wasn't helping the unease at all. If anything, he was sure he was only provoking more of the feeling. Coughing nervously again, lost without any particular reason for the makeshift conversation, he tried again after scratching at the back of his head. "So what happened to you?"

[Leiko-hime]

[atrb=border,0,true][cs=7][bg=000000] Sumiyaka, Leiko ------ Leiko's mind was a thousand miles away; and she thoroughly blamed her exhaustion for her state of distraction. It certainly wasn't normal, but then again her circumstances were rather abnormal as well. It'd been a long few weeks, months... a lot of time, she decided. Her fingers absently smoothed over the top of her calf, feeling the hard line of the bone just beneath the surface. Everything had begun to run together since she'd left Suna, and she wasn't really sure how long it'd been since Seiichii and Haru had di... Since she'd left. Her features darkened into a tiny frown as her mind tried to drag her down that dark, and dangerous pathway once again. She didn't need to think about that, not right now. To much was at stake, and she needed to be... Leik jerked out of her reverie as the man moved to sit down across from her. She narrowed her eyes taking in the fatigued figure across from her. A shinobi, as she'd figured. He seemed to be giving her the same accessing look, and Leiko mentally berated herself for letting her guard waver. Then, looking back into the flames again (though this time she kept a careful eye on him with her peripheral vision, as well as her other senses) she let her mind wander again. Leiko wasn't very talkative these days, though in the past she'd probably have insulted him as soon as he appeared. What annoyed her was the fact that she'd actually invited him to join her. The words had spilled from her lips before she'd even realized what she was doing. On a deeper level Leiko realized why she had asked what she had: She was feeling desperately alone, and the feeling was clawing at her psyche. Over the last few days she'd found herself spiraling farther and farther down a convoluted path. It was an odd truth few knew, but Leiko didn't really like being alone and surrounded by silence. While she certainly wasn't a people person, she'd been surrounded by a close knit family for as long as she could remember; remembering her clan made her chest ache slightly. Absently the rogue princess smoothed a hand over area just above her breasts. Once more she was pulled from her thoughts as the shinobi across from her cleared his throat, the sound immediately caused her eyes to snap to him and give him the full force of her stare. His comment about the trees caused Leiko to give a soft moue of distaste, her lips curling into a faint sneer though the expression barely seemed to effect her features. Though, the feel of the muscles pulling the gash on her temple was odd; the dried blood was beginning to itch as well. Reaching up she scratched carefully at the tender area, wincing minutely. His question caught her off guard despite herself, after so much silence she hadn't really been expecting him to ask. The Sumiyaka immediately riffled through a mess of different lies and half-truths, but in the end she felt to mentally tired to keep up with her own schemes and decided to go for something mostly true. Leaning back she curled her body into the embrace of the tree, her forearms falling across her stomach, and her back giving a twinge of agony as the wound there was pulled taught by the shifting of her skin. "I'm from Wind Country, I find your trees unsettling." She said flatly, her voice taking on a faintly cool monotone; without inflection or emotion. Her eyes stayed on him, watching him with all the intensity of a viper watching a mouse. He'd asked for her attention, after all, so she gave it to him. Licking her chapped lips slightly, she hoped she was gambling well this time, as the stakes were high. Logical thinking said this ninja was just returning from a mission, so Leiko hoped he wasn't completely up to date on current news. "My clan is going through a hard time right now, and I've had to step down from active duty to take care of things. I'm the heir, you see, and Father is in a coma... and mother's mourning." It was the truth, and yet not the whole of it, and she spoke it smoothly. Her throat tightened until it ached. "They... They got my little brother, the ones after the clan heirs; for years Father has been trying to get people to see him as the true heir, but my clan... It's matriarchal. Only the Hime can inherit the title despite how hard some of the fools try to make it male." Her lips shifted into a grim slash at that. "Anyway, I had some business in Konoha." She waved her hand absently. "It's been rough the last few years, you know. Got into a bit of a squabble, that's all." The Sumiyaka pressed her fingers the material of her sash feel the hard case that contained syringes of liquefied Adrenaline, a specialty made for the Sumiyaka clan to give them significant speed boosts in battle. The rule was that three was pushing the limit; four was apparently fatal. Still, they were comforting to her just then; she had an ace up her sleeve if she needed it.... How effective it would be, she wasn't sure. Leiko had never usen more than one before.... ------ The Rogue Princess

[Souku|Raidon|Tao]

I'm from the Wind Country, I find you trees unsettling.

"Oh..", his head cocked backward on his neck at the remark and he looked away, swallowing down the irritation at the memory of the scorching sands and blazing sun. How anyone could choose such a life over the neutral weather in Konoha, or even be 'unsettled', was beyond him. But he said nothing about it as he looked up to meet her gaze, suddenly regretting speaking up at all given the unexpected intensity of it. He could feel the muscles along his back and shoulder uiver nervously as he found himself unable to meet her colder brown eyes with his sensitive blue ones. So he looked away, his eyes directed more to the fire that pulled at the air and warmed his bones a little more. But he did his best to remain placid, drawing on what he knew of stoic people to do so. He suspected a bit of malice in the look she was giving him, even if there may not have been any at all. He spoke again, much more uietly this time. So much so that she might not have heard it at all, "Your a long way from home", he added finally, remember his own ten day trek back home to where he sat now. When she continued on, answering his inuire, he straightened up a bit, though his eyes still shifted between her(not ever once meeting her eyes head on) and the fire, then the ground at his feet. Though his postior said otherwise, the look on his face gave the impression that he was indeed uite attentive.
Tao listened patiently. And the information startled him a bit more than he realized. It was true that with as many missions his father had pushed him into going on lately, Tao hadn't been able to hear much of the news about the Wind Country's happenings. He had heard a few vague things about something or another while lurking within Kaji's shadow around town, when the man had been boasting about something or another, but none of it had caught his interest enough for him to make note of it. Not at the time, anyway. He had been far to occupied with trying to avoid Suki. But even now, he wasn't regretting not listening. Simply because while he did suspect her of possible hostility, he knew nothing that she hadn't told him already. He blinked, drawing his attention back from his thoughts and returning them to her. Reaching up with his good hand to brush away a lock of hair, he felt himself tense as she described her clan. Matriarchal? "What?", his voice had risen a single octave, though he didn't realize he had let it do so until the single syllable left his lips. The mouse above them began pacing again and Tao let his the bridge of his nose crinkle and his lip almost curl. He dared to look up to meet her eyes, a bolder look coming over him. She continued on and he had to force himself to keep the blood deep hurt from vocalizing itself to her and instigating something more heated than a simple debate. Still, his face was contorted a bit, distorting his calmer, uieter, resolve. Still, he looked away, covering his mutterings with the loose hood of his jacket as he buried his chin into his hurting shoulder. "It's no wonder the clan's a mess, if that's the case...".
He returned to his former position even though his lips remained pulled into a thin frown. But he slowly loosed his expression, realizing the full impact of what he had said now. And it his him what the voice from before had said to him. He sounded like his father. He flinched. And as she spoke of her brother, he allowed himself to look up to give her a look of distant relation. Relation, but not sympathy. Though he did not know what he felt he could relay such a message. He had no siblings to loose and little family to mourn over, like she did...was. Still, while he felt no need to console her, he muttered, "I'm sorry." in between her words and let her continue. But his close mindedness prevented him from keeping from getting upset, even insulted, for long and he growled lowly at her last sentence. As if he felt the need to remind her that she was talking to a male.
Even as she finished with her explanation as to why she was here in Konoha(he wondered briefly what kind of business would draw her so far from her home land in the desert, but let it go) his mind continued to mull over what was said about her clan. He frowned again, brow knitting slightly to distort his forehead protector and pull the metal band lower to it glinted for a moment in the fire light just before he jerked his head to the side to avoid her more intimidating stare. And though Nezumi's eyes, he caught the movement of her hand, tensing at the thought of a kunai or shuriken being beneath the cloth and bringing the mouse to focus on that. "Maybe...", he met her gaze reluctantly, the impact of it bringing him to choose his words a little more wisely than if it had been anyone else, especially with the thought of her hurling a kunai at him suddenly if he insulted her more than he knew he would already. "Maybe you shouldn't be so judgmental about those trying to bring change to the clan.", he was regurgitating a bit of advise his cousin had given him a while back. "If your clan is already a mess, then maybe it is time for...someone else to take over.", he knew she probably wouldn't miss the implications of that, but tried to hide his opinion that a man should take over at least a little bit. He turned away again. "But I suppose...nothing can be done to fix the past."
He shook his head, growing more and more wary of her by the word. Changing the subject uickly, he said, "S-so what are you doing here. I mean...it's a long way from your home. And I didn't think the Leaf had any problems that reuired a shino-...ninja to come all the way from Suna?", his tone held an underlying amount of suspicion now and he shifted nervously in his spot under her watch, doing his best to prove that he wanted no more trouble than he suspected she did.

[Leiko-hime]

[atrb=border,0,true][cs=7][bg=000000] Sumiyaka, Leiko ------ Leiko watched his every reaction to her words with keen, and calculating interest; as though she were interrogating a criminal. She was, by nature, a highly suspicious individual. The exhaustion was slipping away somewhat in favor of a clearer mind when facing an unknown; the unknown variable had a tendency to make her twitchy. In any case she found herself quietly amused by the shinobi's reaction to the information on her clan, and her keen ears caught his quiet opinion. His words, on her loss however garnered more reaction than anything else he'd said. She narrowed her dark eyes icily, as though picking up on some nuance she didn't like. The words that slipped off her tongue were clipped and biting, as sharp as the edge of a kunai, "I'm not looking for you're pity, nor your sympathy. My guilt, and my duty is my own." She spat, and the veiled look that came over her face as she spoke the words told how she didn't much care to speak on the subject. His diatribe on accepting change, however, wiped the shadowed look from the rogue princess' face so fast it would seem almost as though it had never been there; Leiko's head tilted back and she gave voice to full throated laughter. When she next looked at him again, the edges of her eyes had crinkled slightly, the cold heartless brown gaining a strange spark of warmth and life that they had been devoid of before. In that moment, as she smiled a quietly amused smile at him her features wearing the first real expression since he'd appeared she was completely open. The aura she wore was one that seemed to invite complete confidence, almost arrogance; as though to say 'Believe in me, for I can do anything.' In the years of her life Leiko had fully grown into her position, her power. She was very much the princess of her people, though she'd continued to portray a snobby, bratty whelp to the world at large behind the scenes Leiko had become what she'd been born to be. There was no doubt in the fact that her people saw her for what she was; their Hime, forever until the day she passed her title on, or left to rejoin the Mother Desert. Leiko lifted her hand, curling her slender callused fingers into her palm as she propped her knuckles against the stubborn line of her jaw, wispy brown strands of hair playing across the side of her face. Her look of utter amusement didn't disappeared, and as she spoke she did so in a voice that was filled with a certain amount of authority and warmth; the cold monotone seemed to have dissipated into the ether, "Let me tell you a story, Green Lander." She murmured softly, her eyes tracked to the side peering into the shadows as though seeing something far away, and perhaps long ago. "Once upon a time, and long, long ago the people of the desert suffered from hunger and thirst so great they thought they would surely all die away. In this time there was no great Sunagakure to aid them, no Shinobi to bring them relief. The nomads and bandits killed each other for every scrap of food, and mouthful of water, even as each day more of them died from their own bodies eating themselves. Then, from among them arose a woman of great charisma, and wisdom. Though she was not as strong as a man, she knew the desert better than many others and her mind was vast. She drew the nomads together, and the bandits as well; and under her leadership these warring people learned to work together under her guiding hand. Under the banner of this Princess the Nomadic Nations of the desert thrived for several years, and as the line descended they developed peculiar traits. Then, the Shinobi came, and created their great city and demanded that the desert people swear allegiance to the Kazekage. There was war, but the current princess did not like the bloodshed; did not like seeing her people suffer, and so, she bowed to change and the Royal Line became a Clan Line and pledged to serve Sunagakure." She smiled softly as she finished her narrative, her look that of an indulgent teacher enlightening an attentive pupil to their favorite subject: Leiko loved her clan dearly, it was her entire world. Yet, her she sat torn between her duties: The duty of a Sister to her Brother, and the Duty of a Leader to her People. Her soul ached, torn in two directions by her callings. "My people have existed for a long, long time." She spoke quietly now, almost as though not wanting to disturb the atmosphere of serenity the recounting left her feeling. "Several years ago my grand sires tried pushed the Hime's roll into the background, and took control. The clan has been restive ever since. My Father tried to make a male the heir." Her eyes turned aside, and for a moment she could feel the sting of tears at the corner of her eyes: When was the last time she'd cried? "If he had not been so vocal in his attempts I would be the one attacked, not a defenseless little boy!" She slammed her fists into the ground suddenly, denting the earth in slightly from the force of it. The bones ached with a soft throbbing feeling, and the guilt ate at her insides like a dark shadow. Turning her head aside she rested her cheek against the curve of her shoulder, suddenly feeling tired. She could only blame her father for so much, it was her falt... She'd been to slow. She'd told him she would protect him, and now he was dead. Her breathe hitched, and she bit her lip until it bled. Shaking her head sharply she learned forward, shifting until she sat cross legged, she propped her elbows on her thighs intertwining her fingers before her she, tipped her head to the side slightly. "Since I'm sure you aren't one for making assumptions in ignorance I will tell you this, when I left home it was with my cousin and former jounin sensei, Shuji; a man, in command. I am not against men, it is simply acknowledged of my people that females are better suited for our clans abilities." She freed one hand, and waved it as though brushing aside any tension in the atmosphere, "It was personal business, I was interested in knowing if anything like what occurred in Suna had occurred in Konoha, or if any of the Heirs were being targeted." More truth, after all, she'd come in the hopes of catching the son of a bitch who had killed Seiichii and Haru going after the shinobi in Konoha. "I heard that Konoha has their famous traitor locked away, and rumor has it that the Heir business is related to Orochimaru..." She let it trail off, not really thinking she needed to say anymore. ------ The Rogue Princess

[Souku|Raidon|Tao]

His frown deepening into a short lived scowl at her snapping. "I wasn't giving it.", he stated simply, though his tone held an odd sound, almost as though he were insulted. But his expression softened at her laugh into one of confusion. And for once when he looked at her, he was able to meet her gaze. And that confounded him.
He watched her face carefully, blue eyes tracing ever notion the light from the flames allowed him visible access to. She was smiling? He watched her, his lips parting and eyebrows coming together a bit more in a mixed look of baffled curiosity and interest. The feel of the atmosphere had changed, though he hardly took note of it. And even if his mind told him to keep alert, he was strangely comforted by her smile. It was almost familiar, he noted, and his keen eyes suinted at her from the other side of the flames to catch something he had missed before. Strength, he realized. But he pondered over the revelation for a moment. Shifting in his seat so that he moved back in the dirt and his spine arched so that his shoulders were rounded as his head lowered while still keeping his eyes trained to her, he sighed. It wasn't the same feeling of strength or intimidation that his father gave off. Or at least not anymore, though he knew now that she could give off such an impression if she so wanted. But rather, it was a more comforting kind of power that seemed to aid his own tired soul on. Just like..."Suki...", his eyes averted, the name was inaudible and whispered lowly and deliberately. She reminded him of Suki. At least her apparent will power did. And he knew then that she would end up contradicting himself. Just like his love. Where he, like the water he used, was impressionable and and submissive, Suki would always be similar to fire, much like this Kunoichi, he guess. And though he still found her near terrifying to converse with, he was consoled.
Above them, Nezumi jerked to the base of the tree branch, crawling down the trunk and back to it's master in a matter of only a few secounds. Tao could feel the scraping of it's tiny paper claws as it crawled up his trouser leg and back into the holster it had come from, the paper dispersing itself uickly. He continued to watch her, this time, with a new sense of comfort(but not trust or respect) as she called his attention forth for a 'story'. He tilted his head to the side, wondering if she was being condescending in some way as she continued.
As before, he listened without interrupting or contradictions. And as she finished, he couldn't help but find that the story had struck at his more analytical side than anything and in his mind he scoffed a bit. It seems that the entire thing was a matter of circumstance.. But he said nothing. He kept uiet still, through her lecturing and story telling, lifting his head to watch her again as she turned away from him apparently finished. "I see.", he could think of nothing else to say. Nothing to give away his secret awe but the recognition that he indeed understood what she was trying to convey. Though there was no way for him to fully understand the nostalgic feeling he could see she was having, he breathed deeply for a moment and let her alone; He was content just to have someone with such a self determined power around him. As though he felt if he stayed uiet and let her keep to her suddenly good mood, he might be able to use some of her strength and power his own broken will. He was to impressionable and it seemed she had instilled a bit of inspiration in him.
But the moment was short lived as she spoke again and he trained his focus back onto her. Flinching as she punched the ground, he straightened up into a more attentive stance even as she seemed to calm down again. But he was not wary, understanding that her anger was not directed at himself. His face softened into an unintentionally stoic expression and he muttered, "Your brother?", he met her gaze head on, deliberately implying that he was neither sympathetic, nor remorseful about the matter.
She continued on and he could still find nothing to say about her contradictions. So he nodded silently to her in understanding and took a moment of silence before she answered his question. It caught his attention, proven by the look of surprise showcased on his face. His eyes narrowed suspiciously, though it was not aimed at her. "I..I wasn't aware that anything had happened in Suna...", he admitted. And sure enough, he had not been able to gain much access to any information aside from vague rumors. His father had refused to talk about it and his cousins knew nothing(though the brothers admitted to having heard a fuss raised over something) which left Tao in the dark about the Wind Country. OF course..it was partially his own fault. He never had taken up much interest in any sort of foreign affairs and this was no different. "The Heirs?". His curiosity peaked and he was only drawn from his own thoughts when she continued on. He blinked and it took him a moment to figure out what she was talking about. He might have been a little out of the world, but he was not clueless.
"Famous...traitor...? Ah! The Uchiha?", he offered. There weren't many people who weren't aware of it. Kaji had spoken bitterly of the ANBU who had refused to let him execute the man for sport. And Keisuke knew much more than even Kaji, working with important documents like he did, the younger of his two cousins had spoken of the man as well. Tao looked down at his lap. "I know he was imprisoned there for a while. My cousin, Keisuke, he works with documentation. He knows more than I do about the man but...", he paused a moment. His face hardened into a more unreadable expression as he looked back up to watch her, blue eyes meeting brown. "Orochimaru...I heard a while ago from people within my clan that he was still alive somewhere...I didn't think it was true.", he lost her gaze, his head dipping lower as his hands fisted up in his lap, even through the pain of the remaining metal filings. "I haven't heard anything about this 'heir business' that your talking about. No one has said anything about it around. At least.....not while I have been there. There haven't been any deaths that I know of. Or if there have been, they've been kept under the line.", he frowned at the thought of Konoha having to keep secrets from it's villagers. No, he shook his head. "But look, I don't know how Orochimaru and this Uchiha kid could be related...They both have been removed from the Bingo Book entirely, either for capture or for death..", he shifted suddenly, moving his body so that he was tilted sideways to reach with his good hand into his hind pouch, fishing the book out of his supply mound. Retrieving the small red booklet and opening it up, he flipped through it, searching for both names. "You see..neither of them are-.", he cut himself off, his blue eyes catching a familiar picture and his nimble fingers having to flip back to make sure he hadn't made a mental mistake. No...his face slowly contorted into a harsher expression that seemed to be much more suiting to him in the orange fire light. The same expression he usually had when he was on missions. That same determined, unshakable resolve that contrasted bitterly against the almost shy nature he had displayed earlier. He shut the book with a snap and replaced it in it's holder. With his good arm, he braced his hand against his knee before pushing himself up with a soft grunt. Slowly, gradually he stood, drawing his dual blue metal pads up and refastening them to his body beneath his unzipped jacket and undershirt, zipping the zippers up noisily after the pads were again adorned onto his shoulders. He straightened up with a much more solid stance, holding a hint of subtle intimidation(almost comparable to her own, but not uite) about himself. His chakra pulsed and his movements were all very much flowing, similar to the growing chakra amounts pooling at the tips of his fingers, typical of a puppeteer such as himself. On his injured hand, the pain bled away as he tried to will it to do so. It wasn't much relief, but it was some. And around his wrist, the metal bracelets clinked softly as his hand curled around to brush against the black wrist pad that covered his puppets summoning papers. So that, if the need arose, he would only have to flick his wrist backward and pull the proper slip from it's hold. Right away, his mindset shifted from comfortable to that 'I'm on a mission, and I'm going to finish it' kind of thinking. He did hesitate for a moment, thinking about forgetting he had seen it...perhaps..perhaps as a though of silent rebellion to his father, to the clan itself. No. Years of practice had trained him for things like this, and he wasn't about to let this self proclaimed mission go undone.
"Sumiyaki Lieko..", he paused, his features faltering for a split second in a look that said 'you brought this on yourself' before he continued. "You said that your clan leader pledged to serve her clan..and then you hypocritically turn and run. How pathetic.", the words reminded him of Souku and he was angry suddenly. Angry at him for running away as well as her for doing the same thing. "You see how far running as gotten you? I have to bring you in, you know that.", he paused again, exhaling audibly before stepping forward and lifting an arm as though to help her up. "You'll be going to Konoha first, then...I assume you'll be deported back to Suna so you can be dealt with there." He was only a few inches from her now and he stopped, his hand still outstretched for more reasons that one. If she rebelled, he now had a direct hit at her with a barrage of hidden paper slips. If she didn't, at least he could help her up, he supposed.

[Leiko-hime]

[atrb=border,0,true][cs=7][bg=000000] Sumiyaka, Leiko ------ She knew almost as soon as he mentioned the bingo book what was coming, and he sent a chill of premonition down her spine. Her fingers smoothed over the hard box hidden in her sash once again, and she shoved herself back wards; crawling through the dirt until her back was pressed into the bark of the tree; letting the shadows wrap around her as her fingers caught hold of the fine fabric of her gauntlet, and slowly pulled it into her grasp, slinging the metal and cloth object over one shoulder for the moment. She left the satchel with her extra clothing, and her small wooden geta where they lay; not feeling the need to retrieve them as of yet: She kept her weapons concealed on her person. She looked up as he moved toward her, her head tilting back and to the side to reveal the long pale column of her neck as it sloped down to join with her shoulders, only one shoulder revealed as the other sleeve had been hitched up when she'd tugged her gauntlet into place. The eyes that he would meet now as he stood over her giving forth his proclamation and his sentence would be the eyes of a cold-blooded killer: Veiled with shadows, and with a frighteningly brittle look to them almost as though allowing the viewer to see beyond into the cracking mind within. The rogue princess' face was completely expressionless as she stared up at him with blank brown eyes, and as she spoke her voice was beyond the cool monotone of before: It was downright frigid, a voice that declared that the speaker would let nothing stop them, "Call me what what you will... for you know nothing." She hissed, calmly. Her eyes strayed down to the hand he held out toward her, and her lips curved into a cruel slash of a smirk, she laughed a humorless little sound: The Grace Keepers laugh, the laugh of one willing to run head on into their own destruction to see the goal they pursued through. Reaching down she slid her finger tips beneath the edge of her sash to the padded holster in which she kept the delicate syringes. She pulled one out, her eyes never leaving the face of the figure that stood over her, her expressionless stare fixated on him. Lifting the syringe Leiko's eyes drifted to the side as the fire light glanced off the colorless liquid in the clear cylinder; her other hand rose and pulled the protective tip off the needle, and flicking the cylinder she gave the plunger slight pressure: A small, clear jet emanated from tip. The Sumiyaka gave a soft sigh, "I had so hoped that I could endure a moment of relaxation. How many have I had to kill so far? You Konoha Shinobi are rather brash." She murmured tonelessly even as she slid the needle into the joint of her arm, and pressed down injecting the full dose. She tossed the needle aside, where it landed beside her geta. Pressing her hands against the trunk behind her she levered herself up partially, gasping softly at the feeling of her chakra speeding up: Her blood burned. The muscles in the Sumiyaka's face twitched minutely as she sent a viciously cold look at him, and then she shifted. Leiko pushed off the ground with her feet, and the trunk with her finger tips. The world went black as her eyes became sightless: She knew he'd be seeing nothing more than her flickering out of human sight. She landed on a branch above him, and her muscles twanged in protest at the sudden movement as well as the abnormal increase her velocity. Straightening she pulled her gauntlet from where she'd slung it over her shoulder, lifting her arm so that the over sized sleeve of her kosode pooled around her shoulder, she tugged the cloth and metal weapon on, quickly and nimbly cinching the buckles down. A pale shaft of moonlight passed through the thick leaves, glinting dully off the black lacquered material of her chosen weapon. Leiko tilted her head to the side, flexing her fingers experimentally, "I can not allow you to take me in, Shinobi. While my heart aches for my defection in the face of my people's plight; they understand that I grieve. They understand that a leader burdened by guilt and phantoms can not lead truly. I will can not return to the Mother Desert until I have earned their forgiveness! I will not return until I have repented for my sins!" She left it unsaid: If it required her death to earn what she sought, then so be it. She'd known since she'd spoken those fateful words to Yaki that day, that she'd probably die on this self made quest. "When you get right down to it, life is like a story. A really long story, and each of us? We’re the chapters. You never know when you’ll turn the page only to find your chapters at an end. The end of a legacy…” ------ The Rogue Princess

[Souku|Raidon|Tao]

His forehead protector shifted slightly with the crease in his brow as he frowned at the needle. What it was, he didn't know. But he ignored it, assuming it was something or another to aid in battle. Perhaps to make her wounds bearable while she retaliated. Either way, he passed it off with a simple mental notion. She stood and he stepped backward to avoid any close hand hits that he couldn't dodge if he were to close. But she didn't move to attack. Instead she dared to speak again. His eyes widened ever so slightly, the bags under his eyes becoming more noticeable as the shadows from the fire light danced along his orange and yellow hued face. Slowly, his scowl disappeared and his lips pulled back to reveal yellowed enamel that was accompanied by the distinct sound of grinding teeth. The creases and dips along the skin on his face and neck were suddenly more predominant now with the enraged look overcoming his face. But he didn't have time to even think about sending a blast of razor sharp paper slips at her. Not before she moved. But he couldn't have caught it in time. In fact he hadn't caught any obvious signs of movement at all before she seemed to vanish before his eyes. But he only allowed a deep frown to tug at the corner of his lips. How typical. Why hadn't he just attacked her when she hadn't seen it coming? Had he hesitated because of her semblance to his love? Or was it the trustworthy air about her before? It didn't matter now. He had hesitated and nothing could change that. The familiar eagerness drummed in his veins along with his chakra and the moment her voice broke the momentary silence above him, he tilted his head enough to visible acknowledge that he had heard her, his blue eyes rolling upward in their sockets, though he was not looking directly at her. He listened to her speech quietly enough, pausing before his first move just long enough to retort, "You think you'll gain forgiveness by becoming a murderer!? Your no better than your father if you think that!". Behind his own, he could hear Souku's voice, and many others as well reminding him that he was not the first one who had said that. Nor was she the first one to have the words directed at her. But he pushed the feeling aside.
His muscles coiled suddenly as his mind formulated a plan of action. She was fast, and he could already tell that there would be no way of keeping up with her on his own. And the darkness would hide her the moment she darted out of his line of vision and away from the light of the fire. He'd have to fix that. Summoning his chakra, he pulled forth his paper supply and directed a heavy amount of the loose slips from his stores. His arms extended themselves and from his sleeves and clothing came hundreds of paper slips. From every holster and container, he pulled them forth to channel them along the ground until the piles covered a fair amount of area around them. Extending the pieces upward so that only s minute sliver of each piece touched the one next to it, Tao send them upward to form a dome. It encompassed twenty feet around them in any direction, encircling the tree branches in the way and making it's way up until it had risen thirty feet from the ground . The wall was thin, given his limited store, but the moment the pale dome was completed, Tao forced his chakra into the paper, hardening it enough to stop even a heavy attack from getting through. With the manipulation technique complete, he let his arms drop casually to his sides, wincing at the burn in his injured arm as it rubbed against the fabric of his trousers.
Twenty-eight minutes.., he timed himself. Twenty-eight minutes to get her down before the barrier falls., he frowned. Bringing his hands upward, he contemplated for a moment as he leaped upward back into a tree. The moment he hit the branch he lunged forward toward her, his hands sealing the jutsu as he muttered it so that it was just audible.

"Kyuchiyose: kami yubinigyo - Ketsueki!"

The ball of his foot hit the branch and he shot backward, the action hidden by a large cloud of smoke. But in only a second, Tao skidded to a halt on another branch and the smoke was blown away in a blur of white movement. In an instant the white dragon surged forward on Tao's command, bearing a resemblance to an elongated, white bullet as it shot out at her with the intention to slam it's blunt chakra hardened nose into her gut. But Tao was too caution to let one attack be the basis on whether he could take her down or not. He didn't take her as weak(not that weak anyway, she was still just a woman, after all) and he wouldn't be so stupid as to pretend one hit would do it. Not with Shiroi, anyway. The dragon was designed for people like her, with speed and agility in mind. But it was weaker when it came to blunt attacks and Tao would need something more stable than that. Thinking uickly, he adjusted the wall around them, sliding paper slips to the side in a checker board pattern to there were small holes in the wall, to allow for air flow. He wanted to take her down, now suffocate them both once the fire from his jutsu burned through their air supply. He pulled forth another slip of paper again from beneath his wristband. "Kyuchiyose: kami yubinigyo - Hi!" Another large cloud of smoke enshrouded the ground before him. And once the smoke cleared, another puppet stood. His tiger, Kuro. He was suddenly thankful he had been given the rest and had walked, allowing his chakra to replenish itself enough to preform such tasks. But that was one of the last things on his mind as he sealed another jutsu.
"Katon: Tora no Kuro Kiba!". As Shiroi curled and arched about in the trees in wait for another command from her distracted puppet master, a burst of heat, flames, and light emanated from Tao's branch as the black cat literally burst into flames before the puppeteer. "Go!" Though the command was no needed, Tao screamed it out anyway. The tiger lurched forward with a surprising amount of agility off of the branch, chakra pumping along the sides of the paper to keep the big cat from catching fire as the branch was now. Tao leaped from it, hiding himself in the shadow of another tree to her far left while commanding Kuro. The puppet thumped noisily along the ground, with only his feet still flame-less to keep from setting the entire are on fire. Leaping up, he took of after Lieko, leaping at her to slash at her lower body. Tao hoped to burn her, if nothing else. If he were lucky, he could have her disabled in that one slash. If not, he'd have to keep trying with both puppets in the battle field.

[Leiko-hime]

[atrb=border,0,true][cs=7][bg=000000] Sumiyaka, Leiko ------ Almost as soon as the chakra began to hum in the air Leiko knew that this battle was lost. She could feel it in the ache of her bones, and the fatigue in her muscles. There were to many things weighing against her, but she refused to give up. Sumiyaka Leiko didn't give up on her dreams, or lost battles. She didn't matter in the scheme of things, after all. His words caused a fractional snarl to curl her features, pulling an expression from that blank mask of hers; her voice laced with fine splinters of rage, sorrow, hate, and grief; "I will kill the insects who would kill a 5 year old to gain power! I will kill those who stand in my way of making sure Seiichii and Haru's spirits see validation! I will earn my right to grovel at their graves and beg their forgiveness for my transgressions and failures! I will sell my soul, my shattered heart, and walk to the gates of hell to see this through!" By the end the words were almost screamed with desperation, the momentary crack in her frozen exterior showing the tumult within; and revealing the tenuous grasp she had on her own mind. She didn't care though, she was willing to accept the taint of blood and murder to see this through. She'd never liked killing before, had upheld the ideals of her ancestors. While they had been Valkyrie they had also been Peace-Makers, that part of her had been forcefully killed the night someone had stole her entire world from her. A part of her soul had been locked away, and she couldn't find it any longer. Jerking her head up she glared at the dragon zipping toward her, and without so much as a sound she pushed off the branch she was standing on flipping back wards off the branch. Immediately she twisted around, flickering slightly mid air as she put the speed of her blood line into her movements and dipped the fingers of her right hand into the folds of her over sized kosode. Her hand resurface with four long thin metal needles held between each knuckle and her thumb; and she immediately threw the senbon toward the space she'd occupied moments before and into which the paper dragon was hurtling at high speed. She, herself, was free falling toward the ground behind. Her face had morphed back into it's cold blank mask; the quick shifting of her emotions and control spoke more loudly about the Sumiyaka's current stability than anything else. ------ Shuji leaned against the rough stone of the building, eyes trained forward as he watched the group of jounin sparring, arguing, and laughing out in the low dunes. Beside him Hiiro lurked, and Haru was sitting on the ground; arms propping himself up as he leaned back, legs stretched out before him. Leiko stood a short distance away; implacably separated from the rest of her team. They were watching several jounin team up against the brother of the Kazekage; and he was standing his own quite well thanks to his puppets. Shuji's voice drew their attention from the mock battle, "Puppet masters..." the older man said. "Tend to work from a distance and let their puppets do the work for them. They could mean a lot of trouble for someone who relies on close combat." His eyes had immediately looked to Leiko, and she scowled. It wasn't her fault that, and he knew it! Shuji was a Sumiyaka as well, even if he was one who'd managed to overcome the shortcomings. Damn him. "What do you suggest I do, then?" She spat acerbically, not feeling particularly friendly toward her clansman at the moment. Then, feeling spiteful she added sarcastically, "Sensei. " He didn't rise to her temper, Shuji never did; he simply smiled that easy smile and said, "Why, get passed the puppets and attack the one pulling the strings of course!"

[/i]

------[/center]

Right, because it was just that simple, Leiko thought spitefully at the memory. Damn Shuji, anyway. The Sumiyaka twisted over again, bending her spine with surprising flexibility like a cat as she fell toward the ground. She hit the ground in with both feet immediately crouching to absorb the shock as her hands flicked forward, fingertips pressing into the soft soil to balance her out. The thump of something running across the ground preceded the scent a by a few seconds, and Leiko felt her muscles tighten in shock at the immediate connections her sense drew. The sulfur smell of fire and paper.

------

"Issen Nenshou Pe-pa-kure-n no Jutsu" Haru's voice yelled, and Leiko turned to watch the thousands of perfectly maned paper cranes streaming toward her burst into flame.

"Son of a...!" He was certainly learning wasn't he? Leiko blurred from view, reappearing and disappearing again as she worked to avoid as many as she could; the burn of fire stinging along her skin despite her attempts.

------

The sound of something rushing through the air toward her had Leiko moving as she recalled that this was no mere training spar. This was for her freedom, and the continuation of her self imposed quest. Still, it was to late to do much...

The Sumiyaka jerked her body into motion; flickering again with the speed as the world turned into a blurred mass to her eyes. Her bare feet slid through the soil as she whipped up, and around bringing her left arm flying out in a punch toward the on coming puppet's head with the spiked metal fist of her gauntlet. She slowed enough to see that she was attacking some sort of tiger engulfed in flames. The manufactured beasts claws tore through the loose cloth at her side, creating large tears in the already ripped and torn fabric. The heat singed along the fabric of her cloths filling her nose with the scent of smoldering fabric. Leiko's right hand slid beneath her kosode once more as she shoved herself back wards in a quick leap; not even waiting to see if she'd scored a hit against the beast as she dodged away from it. Her fingers found what she was looking for, and she whipped the exploding tag out; throwing it blindly toward the tiger: It was set to go off in three seconds.

The Sumiyaka leaped upward then, twisting and blurring mid air to hit the trunk of a tree side on, her hands and feet plastering to it with expert use of chakra: Leiko took a second to pin point the circling dragon creature, then pushed off the trunk and flickered from human sight. As she moved in that dark world that came upon her when using her blood line she whipped her kodachi from its sheath, clutching the short blade in her right hand. The world reappeared as she landed on a branch, and Leiko reoriented herself on the dragon puppet; calculating where its trajectory would take it, and a heart beat later she whipped out of sight again, to reappear in her pre-decided area whipping the kodachi up in an attempt to hack the thing's head in half from the underside of it's snout to the top.

------

The Rogue Princess

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[Souku|Raidon|Tao]

Tao watched her closely, studying her movements from his hidden spot and allowing his mind to log them away. Sure enough, as she had spoken of before, speed was her main asset. No doubt something that could end up killing him if he couldn't keep her away from himself. His dragon had missed but Kuro had managed to just barely get at her. It was enough to let Tao know just how close he would have to get to even slow her down. He guess that she was faster than even his white dragon that had perched herself on the branches of a tree near his first attempt to hit her. But he was forced to focus again as Kuro barreled onward towards her as she landed a blow to his head and then backpedaled away from him. Tao ground his teeth, not missing the explosive tag that had been thrown at the beast's head. He had hoped for it to be close enough for the flames that had engulfed Kuro to simply burn it before it could go off. So such luck.
The explosion rattled in his chest and made his teeth clack together as he was forced to look away as so to avoid getting debree in his eyes. Sure enough, Kuro faltered suddenly as Tao felt his hold on it loosen as the cat's right leg and most of it's face were torn away and it slammed into the ground. It's slide across the ground sent mass amounts of dusk flying upward to accompany the smoke and ash as the flaming black thing stopped it's movements. Tao let him lie, seeing the blue of motion that signaled the Sumiyaka's moves. His eyes darted toward her, catching her only as she paused on the tree and disappeared again. "Shiroi..", he growled lowly in realization. The dragon lurched with life again as Tao did his best to gauge when to move. But it was a little more than futile as she reappeared just below it. In retaliation Shiroi jerked her head upward and took several stepped backward. But in the flash of light against metal, Tao could see Lieko's hit had been made.
The dragon was still for a moment. Both puppet and puppeteer remained motionless for nearly a minute before Tao felt the corner of his mouth twitch upward into a bit of a smirk. "Heh, it doesn't work like that.", though he had directed the taunt to her, it was muttered just above a whisper. His hands twitched anxiously, a new found confidence surging through him as he motioned for the dragon to move again. And slowly, the paper serpent tilted it's head downward, it's visible empty eye socket staring at her while she was still there, before she vanished again. The angle her head was at now revealed that the blade had indeed sliced right through the hollowed out core of the narrow head of the puppet. But still it moved and slowly, Tao drew forth from the other layers of paper and they began to reform and repair the narrow rip in the head. Shiroi let out a hors noise, akin to a growl in her own, rattling, empty way and slowly, it's jaws parted and the noise grew into a crescendo. Kuro also, had been repaired. The flames rekindling and spitting outward as he shook himself dramatically(as though his master wanted to prove just how much they could shake off, literally) and stood once more, letting his flaming tail swish back and forth slowly.
"These puppets aren't so delicate as to be torn apart by a blade, Sumiyaka!", Tao called from his hiding spot, shifting in preparation to move at once if she could target his location through sound alone. Pulling his hands together in an instant, he felt his chakra pulse through both himself and his dragon. In the trees, the dragon moved in just a split second to settle on another branch hovering over their spot and suddenly stared down at her, it's chest and neck expanding as Tao commanded. The call could just be heard from where they were. "Futon: Ryuuiki!", immediately afterward, the dragon cocked it's head forward as it's jaws parted widely and a massive cloud of purple haze rolled forth in heavy layers. Tao couldn't see whether the gas had managed to get around her before she had moved, but he prayed for such to occur. If not, he would have to hope that the gas could dispurss, or that he wouldn't have to move. As it settled, hiding the dragon from sight for just a moment, she coiled and sprung away from the branch and crawled across the branches with the dexterity of any snake. Tao refocused again and, this time, Kuro lunched forward. Stepping back into balance, the tiger stilled itself for the time being as Tao let his eyes dart around in search for his opponent.

[Leiko-hime]

[atrb=border,0,true][cs=7][bg=000000] Sumiyaka, Leiko ------ Almost as soon as Leiko had made the strike she'd loosened her muscles, and gravity had reached up and grabbed her. Still, it felt like she hung there for several seconds in time as her momentum halted, and she slammed her kodachi back into it's sheath. Her fingers delved into the folds of her kosode and whipped out four senbon in each hand, but these senbon each hand a thin filament attached to the trailing end, and fluttering at the end of this nearly invisible thread was a paper with stark red kanji splashed across it. Leiko probably had enough explosives hidden in the folds of her clothing to level a hidden village: They were some of her favorite weapons. Her hands lashed out and sent the senbon flying toward the dragon, though not directly at it. Four thunked softly into the underside of the branch on which it was perched and the other four found lodging around it: one in the trunk to it's side, two in the branches just above it, and the last in a branch near the other side so that the beast was surrounded by exploding tags. The purple mist that the thing had spewed was coming toward her, and she couldn't see the beast through it anymore: Still Leiko's hands immediately came together in the seals to release the power of the tags, and the soft whumph was followed by the roar of fire. She didn't know if she'd done any damage, or if the paper puppet had gotten away from her. No, Leiko had been caught in her own attack, though not close enough to get any real damage the forces it expelled sent her falling faster, and instead of having time to land on the ground she collided with it, on her back. Immediately fiery trails of pain spiraled along her spine, making it feel like hot knives were being trailed along her back; hot, thick blood trailed slickly down the small of her back, and soaked into her bandaging: She'd torn that god forsaken wound on her back open again. Faintly she could still hear the echoing roar of detonation, and despite the fact her back had bowed automatically with pain, her shoulders digging into the ground; she could imagine the mess that would soon be raining around. She shoved the pain to the back of her mind, and jammed her hands into the ground; rolling over and getting her feet beneath her. The Sumiyaka could hear the blood chilling hiss of shredded splinters raining through the air: the explosion had simply torn a massive section of the canopy into absolute tatters. A large crack had blossomed down the trunk of the tree, and it now groaned, and began to tip to one side. The truck cracked more, the loud popping sounds like miniature explosions themselves; and then, in a rush, the massive Fire Country tree was falling. The faint smell of burning leaves reached her nose. She didn't bother checking the kind of damage she'd done; instead as soon as she had her feet was running toward the tiger puppet. Leiko brought her hands up and worked through a few simple seals, and in a burst of chakra smoke a clone materialized to her side then blurred out of sight: While never able to reach the same speeds as her, the clone could still move faster than the human eye. Leiko's right hand grabbed her kodachi's hilt again, tugging it from it's sheath while she balled her left hand into a tight fist. She jumped, disappeared and reappeared several feet ahead of her starting point; right above the tiger and brought the fist encased in spiked metal crashing down toward the puppet's head. Somewhere, in the heavy foliage of the forest, the clone moved stealthily; looking for the man who pulled the strings. ------ The Rogue Princess

[Souku|Raidon|Tao]

Slipping his good arm down to cradle his injured one against his chest, Tao kept his seat in the match as a uiet observer, just barely catching her move as she evaded the gas. It didn't matter, he reassured himself with the knowledge that even if the gas hadn't gotten her right away, the lingering effects could still paralyze her later on if she mistakingly breathed it in. All he had to worry about was not breathing it in himself. In fact.. He channeled his chakra to the paper slips strapped to his chest and felt them creep upward to his face. He could remember the technique he had learned from Souku. Praising the practical and stubborn Inuzuka, he allowed the paper to cover his mouth and nose, breathing through the narrow slips on the side. The gas would surely disperse itself around. Whether she knew of it's paralyzing effect, he couldn't be sure. But it didn't matter to him now. She couldn't get away from it anyway, not with the paper dome encasing them both in the toxin. But it would be a while before the haze would vanish completely and effect the entire area. Sixteen more minutes.., he tallied his time off in his head. He was running out of time before that dome would fall and become unstable. Sixteen more minutes until she could run. It didn't matter if she would or not, the knowledge that she could would distract him in the end. With his makeshift gas mask held to his face by chakra, he watched her make her move to throw something he couldn't uite catch aside from the glint of light at Shiroi. Suinting he eyed them and in turn the dragon naked her head around to watch them stick themselves into the truck she was positioned on. Surely the woman hadn't missed on purpose!? Why would she? Unless-! Shiroi lurched suddenly, but his realization had come to late. The explosion was enough to have easily killed him if he had been her target, no doubt. He could feel the white serpentine puppet be ripped apart, burning and crumpling into a pile of smoldering, disfigured gray mess as much of her body blew apart like some flimsy paper machete creation. He cursed. Even as the layers of paper began to repair her, the damage from the explosion halted the fix for a while. And in the end, there was only a massive cloud of smoke where the great dragon had been descending toward the ground and she was called back so he could redo her body later. Tao didn't have the time now, nor the resources to make her usable for the fight. Not now, not anymore.
Bits of wood were everywhere now and he could feel the very ground shake as the tree fell, tearing through his dome considerably as it did so. He cursed, craning his neck upward as the entire thing crashed and torn through his paper structure. He didn't have time to rebuild that either. Dammit! Think! Easier said than done. He had lost his footing when it came to matching her speed. He had lost his containment on her. And he had little that he could do anymore to slow her down. The gas remained, settling around the area and the still air did little to move it around, but he suspected the moment that she figured out what it did, she would do something about it. He had no choice now. He'd have to take a more physically offensive stance in the fight. His mind sorted out the calculations uickly, figuring the numbers up before he moved again. He'd have to bait her inward, get her closer and wear her out before striking head on. Kuro could take care of that, no doubt. Once he had forced her speed down with exhaustion, the big cat could land a harsh blow. And the mental suggestion, Kuro moved his head upward, as if following his master's gaze. But Tao's movement was cut short as he spotted her trying to land another hit on his tiger. He made a noise in the back of his throat, a sort of irritated grunt and commanded the beast from his spot. The tiger leaped backward, it's flames licking at her fist as it smashed down on his head. But unlike Shiroi, Kuro was built for such close combat. A sudden pulse of chakra and the flames extended themselves from the cat's body even more as Tao drew on the paper from the lower layers. Her hit hadn't even managed to crack through the first four layers, the density of the cat allowing for a cushioning effect. The paper surged forward suddenly, but not to heal the minute wound. Rather, the tiny slips of paper moved toward her fist, meaning to cover it and forcibly attach her hand to the puppet. It might have succeeded too, had Tao not suddenly had his concentration broken.
Apparently, those keen eyes of his had missed a key factor. And it had come to cut him off at the knees now. The paper climbing up her wrist crumpled and fell away suddenly as Tao leaped backward from his position and the cat thrashed his head about before rearing up and leaping forward to try and tackle her head on, it's flames springing up again to take a shot at burning her as well. But Tao could think of nothing else to do at the realization that she was no longer alone. Well...not technically anyway. A clone? Dammit, where- when the hell did she do that!? But there was little he could do now. He landed on a branch, no doubt visible from where she was, even if Kuro was distracting her. "Shit!", his voice sounded even deeper than normal through the mask(he suspected by now the gas has settled through out most of the area, though it had thinned considerably since it had been first released) and he crouched down to let his muscles coil and release as he propelled himself upward into a higher tree branch. So long as he could stay out of reach of her close range moves, he was fine. If not...he didn't want to ponder, given his lack of ability in such things. He Moved onto another branch, making his decision with his usual battle ready recklessness and throwing himself towards her. In the same instant, Kuro made a final slash at her before leaping backward to make room. The wind whistled around him as he drew closer towards her and his tiger, making no sound other than the damned metal plates at his shoulders moving at the wind tugged at them. His hands came together in a single motion and his fingers moved about to form a familiar seal. It he didn't do this right, if he had been wrong in his assumptions, he realized he would miss the window of opportunity he had now in midair.
"Suiton!", his hand separated and untangled themselves to tear away at his mask daringly to inhale sharply, deeply through his nose. If he had to, he could conger another mask. His chest expanded uickly and he reached out suddenly, stopping himself with a fast grab onto a fallen branch so that he nearly popped his shoulder from it's socket. "Bakusui Shoha!", where normally he would have filled the entire area, years of chakra control had given him control over the flow of water and as he opened his mouth to let the burst of water rocket towards her, it was cut off as he twisted his body to the side to push his left foot against the base of the branch and pushed himself outward and to the side. Keeping the clone in mind and an eye out for any other movements other than hers, he landed for only a moment on another branch to release another blast of water to make it's way like a bullet toward her. Two, three more all shot from various spots to try and keep in time with her speed, though he knew it was inevitably futile. Still he kept his resolve, moving about from one place to the next, making it as unpredictable for her as it was for himself. Anything he could let the chakra along the bottoms of his feet connect to next was where he would send of another gush of water. He stumbled only twice before pushing himself backward into a semi back flip. And then, Kuro came forth to his air once more, lunging toward the missing nin, the flames disappearing suddenly as Tao drew more paper from his supply to create a sort of shield around himself in midair as he fell backward with little knowledge as to what he was even falling on. With a short pulse of chakra, the center of his puppet was breached by his control and the mass of explosive tags was triggered.
His descent was slowed to a stop and the explosion threw him backward against a tree. And it was only through years of practice and experience that he remembered to cushion the impact with chakra. Still, he couldn't retain the strangled cough that escaped past his dry lips and the burning in his arm made itself known again as he slid down onto the ground on his butt with a thud. Groaning, he forced himself upward, taking to his feet and steadying himself, remembering that if she had indeed been able to escape the explosion(which only part of him doubted), she would certainly be coming for him in his moment of visibility and her advantage. Grunting and finding himself indecisive on what to do next, he wondering if he shouldn't have taken her down using Ki, instead of trying with one so unreliable as Kuro. Probably, he decided. But there was nothing to do now but pray the big cat had done it's job.

[Leiko-hime]

[atrb=border,0,true][cs=7][bg=000000] Sumiyaka, Leiko ------ Leiko immediately began to draw back as the puppet went to get hold of her with the very paper it was made of, but it seemed that almost as soon as she thought to react to the attempt it had fallen apart. Her nose was again assaulted by the smell of charring cloth, though the entirety of her arm was wrapped in a protective layer of metal, so the flames weren't so much of a bother; she could feel the heat of them across her belly, though, through the thin layering of maroon bandaging binding her torso. Then, just as quickly the cat was rearing up and coming at her as if it had suddenly gone mad, and Leiko was thrown off balance; stumbling backward and hissing in pain as fire licked across her bare skin turning the pale flesh a blistering red. If she'd been more unaccustomed to heat, it might have bothered her more; but as it was she was a desert dweller, she had tough skin: Add to that the fact that one of her team mates was a pyro, and she'd dealt with her fair share of burns. Instead she concentrated on tripping back wards away from the puppet, her right hand holding the kodachi up as if to ward off her attacker. Her head whipped around as the sound of movement caught her attention, and she finally saw the puppet master come into clear view. A grim look of satisfaction flickered through her eyes, knowing her clone had done its job, and without a thought she released it; knowing that somewhere in the undergrowth there'd be a small puff of chakra smoke as it dissipated: Let him continue to be paranoid and watch for it. In the same instant as he prepared to spring upward again she sheathed her kodachi once more, and her hand dove into the folds of her kosode to retrieve more projectile weaponry, but then the tiger was slashing at her and in her distracted state she was only just able to get her left arm in the way of the swipe. The puppets paper claws screeched across the metal encasing her arm and made the Sumiyaka grimace minutely: Still the force of the blow sent her stumbling back, once more, body swaying as fatigue and something else seemed to pull at her muscles. She didn't have time to contemplate it now, though. Her instincts screamed at her as the barrage of quick fire attacks continued, and she'd just barely managed to get her feet solidly under her when the shout came. Jerking her head up Leiko's features tightened imperceptibly as the burst of water came toward her, and she jerked to the side, and ended up slamming into the ground and rolling through the dirt a few feet as the attack caught her hip. Son of a... Something was wrong with her reflexes. What the hell...? Gasping slightly she shoved her hands into the dirt, and just barely managed to avoid the next blast; her head was up and swinging around as she tried to locate him; just barely managing to scramble away from the next few attacks. It wasn't graceful, but it worked. Then, seeing him moving back and away again she shoved herself to her feet, and took several running steps after him, getting ready to jump toward the puppet master and make use of her Sumiyaka speed; trying to ignore the clawing heaviness in her limbs. Unfortunately this meant that she didn't notice the advance of the tiger, fortunately it meant she wasn't directly caught in the conflagration. It was only sheer dumb luck that saved her. Thrown forward in a way that screamed deja vu all over again she collided heavily with a tree, her left side smacking into it with a heavy thud, and a slight clang. Her head hit the back slightly, opening a gash along the side of her head; but luckily her shoulder and arm had taken most of the impact. She slid down into a heap at the base of the tree, black spots flickering around the edges of her vision; and she gave a wordless moan of pain. Shoving weakly against the ground she managed to roll off her hip and onto her rump, coughing weakly at the sick feeling having your shoulder jammed into it's joint created in her. Some of the black veneer on the metal guard over her arm was pitted and scratched revealing the pale steel beneath, now. She flexed her fingers weakly, biting the inside of her cheek at the shards of pain that went off in her nerves when the muscles and tendons shifted. Her mind felt pulled down, and as she mentally calculated her condition. Her mind felt foggier than it ought to be, and squinted at the foggy form shifting some distance away: Then, it returned to her. The heaviness of her limbs; there was some sort of toxin in the air. She swore mentally, there wasn't anything she could do about it but hope that explosion had been enough to clear the area for the most part; pushing it outward with the blast winds. Either way... Gasping slightly she used her right arm to push herself up, leaning back heavily against the tree; her breathing was ragged as she panted. Sliding her hand into her sash she fumbled out a second syringe, chewing the inside of her lip bloody as she jerked the protective plastic tip off the needle: Her hands seemed to vibrate as she trembled with a mixture of extreme pain and exhaustion. She didn't think she could hold out much longer; her body was ready to give out... But, she couldn't allow herself to give up. Her hand lifted, then swung down; she didn't bother finding the vein in her arm this them. Instead she gave a ragged choked gasp as the needle slid into the flesh of her thigh, and jammed the plunger down with her thumb. A couple of seconds ticked by, and she jerked the syringe away; tossing it aside as a small dribble of fresh blood coursed down the pale skin of her leg. Breath heaving in her chest she forced herself to straighten, and jumped forward disappearing almost as soon as she twitched. Instead of the darkness of blindness blurring smoothly into place, it screamed in. Her entire body felt like it was being simultaneously compressed and pulled apart, and as she landed a few feet in front of the puppet master; her joints screamed, and her body trembled in pain. She was gasping quickly now, almost as though she couldn't get enough air into her lungs. Her right hand dipped into her kosode again, drawing out one of the few kunai she carried on her, and she lunged forward slicing it toward his face with viper like speed, still favoring her left arm slightly. ------ The Rogue Princess