she unhooks her earring out of sight with a flirty movement, smiling coyly at him when they break apart for air.

the man grins back at her, lust making his pulse beat much like that of a deadly battle. the alley they're obscured in smells worse than it looks, but a touch of chakra to her olfactory senses can still detect the pheromones he's giving off in interest. he puts a large hand on her thigh, coming back in for more.

then, she stabs him in the throat with the earring in one quick movement.

he staggers back as she watches impassively, wiping the blood off of the edge absent-mindedly with part of the napkin she snuck out of the run-down bar they were previously in and burning it with the slightest spike of chakra, a useful trick despite the fact her sensei knew it for smoking. the covering genjutsu is near habit at this point as there isn't a conscious soul for blocks given the time of night.

the mark chokes, throat too enclosed for the tirade of threats and promises of revenge he's undoubtedly attempting to release. she waits until he stops moving, until his heart beats its last and his weak chakra finally gives out.

only then does she move, sealing the corpse into a scroll and breaking the genjutsu on the alley and on herself as she leaps onto the nearest roof, feet silent. the bone white of her mask is dulled to not reflect light, especially not with the meager shine of the crescent moon and the stars. even so, she takes care to not be spotted as she makes the trek back home.

a familiar chakra signature enters her peripheral senses, and she pauses, slowly unfurling her own chakra signature in invitation. after a moment, her fellow anbu member stops a respectable distance away from her, purposefully in the light.

he raises one hand and signs twice through: home-priority-up-mission.

she steps into the light.

understood.

message delivered, he leaves, diverting in a direction slightly off from the town of her mission, more towards the heart of earth than the periphery of stone.

she increases her pace towards the dunes of suna.

・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。・

duck. block incoming kunai with blade. jump out of the way of wayward fireballs.

she flows with the battle, following the ebb and flow.

reposition four branches higher. throw three ninja stars at jugular, and jump out of the way because it was a water clone (.) and other enemy has a bat summons. (double .)

her teammates' chakra signatures are out of range with the package, giving her more freedom in her repertoire of abilities. the longer she can keep the opponents here, the better. (defeating them is, of course, the best.)

summon both twin tigers - taiyou (bengal) and tsuki (white bengal) - since only one human is leaving this battle alive. sense ex-clone enemy hiding underground. use doton jutsu to chase him into open as twins snap at other opponent.

even if she falls in battle now, as long as turtle gets back into the village, their mission is still a success.

parry, parry, strike. land shallow blow on abdomen. twist out of way of retaliating strike and dodge tigers' missed lunge at other opponent.

given the long journey turtle, ox, and her had made, this mission is going to be a success or she's going to haunt her opponents to death out of pure spite.

switch opponents with tigers without words. surprise new opponent with doton jutsu as twins tag team other opponent.

spite is, she's found, the best cause for making the impossible possible.

duck senbon. counter opponent's raiton jutsu with futon jutsu. follow up with sword strike.

and having to spend hours in manure one day being the better option for their roles this mission? yeah, there's a lot of spite involved.

sever opponent's head from body via chakra-infused blade and turn to see one tiger being unsummoned from a blow to the back. throw kunai, taking advantage of de-summoning smoke.

taiyou is going to complain all day if he loses so much as a millimeter of his fur, the drama king.

she infuses chakra into her hand, eyes narrowed at the enemy who'd just subjected her to an entire day of tiger angst as she grabs tsuki by the tail. the white bengal shifts into a large blade with practiced ease, curved blade meeting the enemy's torso and slicing through like tofu.

pain bursts in her leg, and she glances at the weapon buried in her thigh.

her opponent falls to the ground, dead, and she takes a moment to cinch a roll of bandages around the bleeding wound - not deadly. yet.

by the time she has both corpses sealed into separate scrolls, she's swaying on her feet as the adrenaline crash and blood loss hit, but she knows she'll make it.

・。.・゜✫・.・✫・゜・。・

her gloves are slick, blood soaking into the well-worn leather.

part of her curses at losing yet another pair. another part declares it a lost cause, much like one of her arm guards, malformed from a desperate kawarimi no jutsu out of a katon jutsu at the start of the battle.

sheep is going to be so angry.

chakra shines in her hands with the shousen jutsu, the green glow a prime target for the enemy squad of missing ninja to aim at.

even so, she keeps her chakra flowing and her focus solely on the wound - deadly if she so much as twitches wrong - and trusts in her teammates just as lion trusts in her.

in a way, he's lucky. had the blade hit an inch over, there would not have even been the chance to save him. (if she fails, his death would have been less painful and more swift.)

as it is, he signs escape at her weakly with one hand, clearly on the verge of passing out. she pretends not to notice though he'll undoubtedly throw a fit about it later.

he's dumber than a civilian child if he thinks the threat of his fit is at all scarier than raven on a rampage. (and raven will rampage if lion comes back and needs to stay in the hospital longer than a two weeks.)

deer-buntaicho appears in front of them, blocking a sword with a quivering kunai.

she doesn't even flinch, though the sparks from the clash momentarily light the dark.

deer-buntaicho kicks his opponent away, following up with a doton jutsu that she can barely see in her periphery.

lion finally passes out, mostly from blood loss, and she takes advantage of his unconscious state to heal the most painful and sensitive parts of his injury.

she keeps her focus on him until he's out of immediate danger, still at risk but not about to die if she has to take her hands off of him to defend him-

like now.

she takes a kunai with her bare forearm, chakra strengthening her bone against the blade. she clenches her muscles, ignoring the sharp pain and adding chakra to bolster the next movement, as she pushes the blade to the side and jabs a over-chakra-laced hand at the enemy's heart.

the enemy freezes for a moment, his pulse mimicking the movement, before doubling over and collapsing, blood leaking from his orifices.

the battle is over by the time she straightens, the amount of chakra to her palm dying down.

looking around, she knows with quiet certainty and relief that the mission will once more be, thankfully, marked a success.

(though sheep will, the entire squad agrees, still be upset.)