"Ha! I guess your lackies now, I'd hate to work under that guy. Akami sneered before making his way on out. Enough words had been shared, it was high time for action.
She kept her hands plastered to her mouth as she slowly recognized the big house cat and its owner. It had taken a minute for the name to match the face as Moriko tried not to dwell to much on people from her home land. Not that knowing his name made it any less terrifying for her. Byakko. That was this man's name. A Rouge like the rest of the small group. He had actually done something to be known though. In the five years since the reign of peace and quiet he had captured the eight tailed demon himself. And in the process destroyed a bit of Konoha, which she silently applauded. However, it didn't make her want to trust him. He had betrayed the entire village. Once a person did that Moriko found it hard to believe he could gain someone else's trust back. Even another rouge.
Thankfully the rag-a-muffin who had trapped her in this situation dragged her thoughts out of the past scenes. Though he wouldnβt be getting anything, according to the lead rag-a-muffin, he was welcome to tag along. Moriko's shoulders sank at that. It was one thing to follow a couple of kids, but to have someone who was doubt stronger than her in multiple ways was cause for fear. She blinked, partly in disbelief, at the sewer rat as he quite rudely brushed her off. She didn't dignify him with a response to that. Not yet at least. Plus this was starting to sound like to much work for Moriko. She'd stick along for the ride if it meant getting something in return though. She watched as one of her small shields finally walked off to begin his plan.
The second rag-a-muffin was next to leave with a small insult. Lackie indeed. Which left her completely alone and without anyone between her and the Konoha rouge. Moriko was silent for a moment longer before she finally removed her hands from her mouth. She kept them clasped together though in worry. "U-Umβ¦I'll justβ¦" Moriko didn't finish her sentence as she carefully, but quickly followed the two sewer rats out of the Cistern. Her odachi clinking and clanking on her back as she moved out.
α"Shhhh, shh shh. Be quiet now," she whispers, lips dangerously close to the mouth of the man whose throat was held in a vice-like grip. Every second, with blood streaming in crimson rivers from the corners of his mouth, he lost his grip. Lost that spark that defined what it meant to be alive. With every passing second, his assailant saw life escape from the man's slowly dulling eyes, struggling to find breath, to find purchase against her. A small flex of the muscles in her hands, ragged and raw from strangulation, and she felt something crack, crumble and then he let her go. Now limp, and lifeless, Nava flung his body aside. The entire process took her but a few seconds, opening the stormdrain that led to this little skeevy meeting between those who would rather hide and plot than act, and send others out to make things happen on their behalf. When she did step inside, it was without a word that she acted, flustering several men and women with the precise and deft movement. A single step took one far with her training, scattered paper and coin alike, blocking the view just enough to allow her to remain a blur of shadow and now blood.
As the scene settled, prey looked upon predator, standing and wiping blood down her own face from the man she'd relieved of his life. Pale, pearl eyes peered into an infinity they couldn't hope to fathom. "Who the ******** are you?" one deigned to ask. Smarter was the one who had already made a hasty retreat. As for the one who had spoken, and the three others who had chosen to remain, well that question would go without an answer. Nava Uchiha advanced in the same movement that allowed her to face them, and preceding the actual woman an after image shook their footing. Off balance from avoiding an attack that never came, horror flashed across the face of the one who had dared speak as Nava, bent low, entered striking distance. A squint in Nava's eyes spoke volumes: she was beyond disappointed in him, but hardly surprised even so. He was saved from a palm strike that could crush his sternum by quick intervention from another, throwing a kunai as a last minute attempt to save him. Nava merely pivoted and changed her standing to be on the opposite side of her target. One eye twisted into her sharingan, seeing the response coming a mile away. Still, his will to survive was ramping up and that was good.
She needed a worthy sacrifice.
She snatched his coming fist out of the air, her other hand snatching his collar, and with a single mighty spin she flung him into the last of the three to decide if she would run or fight. Now with them toppling over each other, Nava focused her extrasensory vision on the one choosing to stay far away and weave handseals. His expression was focused, and his decision to fight was much clearer in the one eye not hidden behind an eyepatch. She matched the stream of water, clever boy knowing Uchiha dealt in fire, with a thrust of her palm. The mountain crusher didn't outright stop the jetstream but it slowed the attack long enough for her to move and close distance just enough for another propulsion borne of her inborn skill as a Hyuuga. Hardly a heartbeat passed between the two motions, and she rocketed past the other two who were still reeling from impacting each other like bowling balls.
Now close, she could sense murderous intent in him, and that spurred her more than anything else. Her body twisted out of the way of a shoddy attempt at striking her, and her heart sank a little as she all but flung her foot in a roundhouse to answer. Blood came free along side every thought in his head. Killed in but an instant. She sighed, for the first time not immediately springing into action as his body hit the floor and convulsed. She didn't even bring back her foot. Instead she merely stared the way one looked at a child when disappointed in them. The other two were finally fighting to their feet, and while it hadn't taken them a long time per say, it still had taken too long. Nava's eye started to twitch as she reset to a neutral stance, and turned on the two of them.
"Why do I feel... nothing," she growled to herself. A deep inhale, and her lungs filled beyond capacity. Handseals weaved faster than reason, and she released all that packed in air and frustration... in a confined space. The resulting sea of fire wrapped around the two of them before they could escape, and only a last second, sudden burst of spinning motion protected Nava from it herself.
When she left the Cistern, she ran bloody fingers through her hair, frustration still mounting within her, as it had the last few times she had gone to handle the business of fulfilling her contractual obligation to Magatai. A worthy kill? By the strict definitions laid out for her people, yes those three men had counted as worthy. For Nava? ******** no, she was visibly irritated, blackened and maybe pretending her knuckles and shin didn't feel like s**t from hitting things too hard as well. It wasn't simply that she didn't feel like god would be pleased. No, nothing quite so simple. Instead, she felt personally as though she had accomplished NOTHING.
For all of what she had managed, slaying a man a day, thinning the ranks of the ones unworthy of life and clearing out the ones who would skitter their way into that same position. It was her purpose, one she had adopted free of any coercion or influence. Kya had preached so goddamned much about the importance of motion, and then died so suddenly that the world stopped for just a few short days. What little purpose there could be found had almost been taken away from her by that small betrayal.
Now, "Our Favorite Little Nava," as she had been called by her sisters, brother and cousins, was not so little. No, as she took a step on the path to hunting down the runner, Nava had never felt like more of an adult. She would reach him before he got anywhere important, even at a brisk pace, but that, too, was of little consequence. Damned if she did or didn't at this point. She'd carve up him, his family, and the ******** flower salesman if it suited her god. But more and more she felt like there was little purpose in all of it.
Nevertheless, she smiled as she descended from her Landhopping like an owl in the night with glowing pale and striking red eyes. He fell as she swiped at his foot, rolling through her own rough landing and finding her footing first, before he had even finished hitting the ground himself. She barely even got up before she had descended on him like a wild cat, one knee pinning his left arm, the other driven into his chest. She licked her lips, bringing down a pair of hammer fists, slamming down over and over like a child with their first sand castle, bashing him over and over and over, until she was making a mess of blood and sinew and gray matter.
And yet still she felt absolutely nothing. No spark like the first time she killed for Jashin, for her Magatai. No, just an ever creeping feeling akin to dread, that her sister is going to tap her shoulder and tell her she's wasting her time, her life, her talents. Not that it would ever happen, but nevertheless she couldn't shake it. One overriding truth, however, was that Nava needed to get to the bottom of this overwhelming incompletion in her own soul before her destiny could be reached. [A rank mission with an Extra five thrown in. 3200 EXP acquired.]
