The murdering turned out to be easy, in a certain definition of easy. After killing the kunoichi, I threw the smoke bomb through the door. Right now, I was navigating with my chakra sense and threads—thread-vision? Thread-sense? Blocking the enemy vision gave an advantage for this next confrontation.
On the other side of the door, it seemed like a bigger underground storage sort of room. It was a large square shaped room, with a lot of wooden boxes and sacks inside. Now that I could sense the room, I noticed there were two more doors. From the mental layout I constructed, I don’t think I ever saw anyone using the one at the side of this warehouse. The important passage was the one on the opposite side from where I was, from where the jounin levels of chakra just entered through. That was the path that led out of the complex.
By my count, there were still two more shinobi in the complex. Kill the jounin, kill the chunin waiting two rooms down, don’t die, escape. Easy.
I waited inside the smoke for my moment. I considered if I should use more clones, but my chakra levels were too low to divide it even more among clones. This one would have to be close and personal.
The jounin took their sweet time approaching. The wait would have been nerve wracking if I couldn’t sense their position through the smoke. I won’t lie here. I wasn’t about to try anything fancy. I had no idea what the enemy was capable of, and my Kuro Raikou no Jutsu had already scored me two easy kills. Why change a winning strategy?
I threw more smoke bombs, this time away from the jounin. The bombs hit the wall, exploded. At the same time, I threw the stolen shuriken, stolen kunai and my hardwood beacon. In my empty hand, I created a rasengan.
The shinobi swirled toward the explosion, then again to deflect the thrown weapons. Again, like magic, super op, no one expected me to appear from the flying wood kunai. At the same time I did, I brought down my rasengan. I hit the jounin, another man with no visible village markings, on the chest. Pushed all the chakra I could manage on my jutsu. The enemy reacted fast. Even under my attack, his hands flashed, he spewed fire all over me.
The op combo worked better than I hoped. The ball of chakra expanded on my hand, flew forwards, carrying the jounin away. The man hit the opposite wall, the rasengan expanded, things got shredded. It was gruesome. I was suspicious before, but I was certain now. These guys weren’t the same ones that ambushed us. It was not just the different way of dressing. They were just too weak when compared to the ones that ambushed us.
The impact of the jutsu dispersed most of the fire and smoke. The remaining enemy had just entered the room to see the end of that fight. I stood at the center of the room, my back to them, still smoking; at the other side of the room, a dying jounin.
Perhaps, the enemy decided the better part of valor was to wait for reinforcements. They turned around and bolted. Blew away the passage behind them, trapping me inside.
I would have gone after the fleeing ninja, and tried to contest that retreat. I didn’t. I couldn’t.
Like I said, easy, for a definition of easy. I stood at the center of the room, burned, hurt and with another kunai stuck to my chest. Fucker jounin didn’t even have the decency to die and leave me alone. Had to burn and stab me. Blood poured out of the injury. I didn’t pull the kunai, no idea if the man had hit anything important. It was already bleeding like a fountain. No need to make it worse.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
That complicated things, a lot.
The collapsed passage was the only path I knew that led outside. We were, by my accounts, a few dozen meters underground. I could try to doton the shit out of here, but the faint chakra lines lining the complex gave me the feeling it did a lot more than just hide the place.
I walked closer to the jounin. The man was still alive, barely. Had to remedy that. A quick stab finished him off. The amount of injuries I suffered didn’t matter when I wasn’t moving my body the normal way. Puppeteering my own limbs made it that I just needed to endure the pain, to fight. But the lightheaded feeling told me the loss of blood was more dire than I thought.
The jounin had more supplies than the others. I stole more kunais, an exploding tag, bandages and other bits and ends. A keyring with several keys inside his pouch gave me an idea I could try. Release the prisoners, let them help themselves escape. Look at that, I was going to play the hero.
I shambled my way back to the cells, pressing the bandages around the kunai in my chest. Found myself trying to fit a key in the lock. Even with the puppeteering, my hand shook. It wasn’t easy. The yelling was deafening. A hand sneaked from inside the prison, grabbed my wrist, steadying my hand. It looked young. Right, I remember, these were children. I forced my head up, and was greeted by despairing eyes and a mane of red hair.
Not only red hair, but red eyes as well. Her hair was on the short and spiky on the right side, while somewhat longer and straight on the left. She wore some sort of worn out shinobi uniform, but I couldn’t see any village markings. One side of her face was marred by scars that resembled claw marks. It was a surprise how she didn’t lose an eye, given the scar placement. I think she was saying something, but I couldn’t understand. I tried to fit the key a few more times, shoved it into the girl’s hand when I realized I was about to check out.
Damn. All this effort to drown at the finishing line.
Darkness claimed me for the second time. I hoped I would wake up again. I wasn’t confident.
----------------------------------------
Against all odds, I woke up again. I couldn’t make sense of things, but there was this voice, insistent, annoying, demanding. It was a girl's voice. I just wanted to sleep.
“You have to bite.” The voice pleaded again. “You’ll die if you don’t.”
Something was pressed against my mouth. I groaned, trying to push it away. The pain in my hands stopped me. I might have whimpered, which only caused more pain.
Cruel hands pried my mouth open, and something soft prevented me from closing my mouth.
“Bite,” the voice asked again, “bite!” She yelled when I tried to push away.
That was really annoying. Fuck it, have it your way. I chomped down. Hard. The girl shrieked. I tasted something warm and coppery. But more than that, another type of warmth spread through my body. It was like a refreshing breeze, and sweet candies. Or maybe vanilla ice cream. I wasn’t sure. I wanted more. I bit again, tried to drink, but the thing on my mouth wasn’t the nice feeling. It just left me feeling grossed out.
The voice’s owner cried out again. My hands moved, holding up the arm to my mouth. Huh, I could move now. The pain, I also noticed, was all but gone. The puncture on my chest and side smarted but was the weeks old kind of smarted. The injury on my thigh stopped demanding my attention.
“Stop.” The annoying voice sobbed.
I didn’t listen. I kept biting.
“Stop!” The girl shrieked. Something slapped my face when I didn’t.
That, I think, broke the spell. I opened my eyes to find myself holding the red-haired girl’s arms. There were several bite marks on her arm. Bleeding bite marks. My mouth tasted strange. There were a few other kids around. They were looking at me like I was a monster.
I turned my attention back to the girl whose arm I was still holding. She glared at me, eyes full of tears, cheeks rosy. She pulled her arm free. I let it go.
I looked around. The cells were open; no other enemy was in sight. I was lying flat on the ground, head on the red hair’s lap. Someone, thankfully, had laid a shirt over me. I wasn’t flashing everybody here. Meanwhile, a mental checklist appeared in my mind.
* Red hair? Check.
* Red eyes? Check.
* Glasses? No, but due to circumstances, a maybe.
* Scars? No. What was this one about?
* Heals people by letting them bite her arm? Double check.
Three in favor, one against, one undecided. I guess I could make this assumption.
“Karin?”