Applying chakra to your hands and feet, you flip over the roofing behind you, keeping the hot metal from touching your skin, and land, clinging to it, standing sideways above the group of ninja.
They all look pretty similar, black hair either spikey or long, black eyes (on the two who are facing you), and pale skin. Probably not Suna or the Land of Wind then. It doesn't help that none of them are wearing forehead protectors.
Exploding off of the roof, you land in the middle of their formation, crouched low and primed to fight.
Up close, they really all do look similar. Lead girl (you assume) is taller than one of the boys and the other girl (presumably older than the two of them), has long, straight black hair, and is dressed seemingly for stealth, baggy black pants and padded black vest over a fishnet undershirt. The tallest one of them, and the most shocked, has spiky black hair, black eyes (he hadn't been facing you before), and is dressed in a pair of baggy desert camo pants and a baggy black shirt, open to expose his muscled torso. The other girl, the shortest of them all, strangely averts her eyes (though they're probably black), has shoulder-length black hair in a pair of short ponytails, and is dressed in a long jacket covered in pouches along with a pair of black shorts, similarly decked out in pockets. The shortest boy, the other one who was facing you before, has long-but-spiky hair that hangs just below his collar, and is (or at least looks like) the most prepared for combat, wearing a padded vest, baggy combat pants, and iron-plated combat boots as well as similarly armored arm guards. The last boy, who had his back to you, looks the most like the tallest boy, but his black hair is just a bit longer and, while spikey, is less jaggy; he's got black eyes like the rest of them, and is dressed the most casually, wearing a long tan t-shirt and a pair of baggy pants.
Short Boy, Medium Boy, and Leader Girl all have swords of varying descriptions. Short Boy's is a ninjato strapped to his left hip, Medium Boy's is a katana (or possibly a tachi considering its length) strapped to his back, and Leader Girl's is a tanto or ninjato strapped behind her back.
Medium Boy's hand is on his sword even as you land, so you sweep at his legs first, but he manages to back off. That's good, since it's what you wanted.
"Cuz! That wasn't Body Flicker!" Short Girl chokes out, backing off and adopting a defensive stance.
You chuckle to yourself. She must have pretty good eyes to have noticed that. Or she glanced up and saw the bent metal roofing you had kicked off of.
Short Boy actually tries to attack you, attempting to close your guard or bait a block with a quick smother before following up with a punch to the face. You smack aside the fist and deliver two quick body blows, sending him into Tall Boy with a quick redirection.
Leader Girl reaches for her sword, but it puts her in an awkward position, and she can't cast ninjutsu with only one hand (well, you bet that she can't). You maneuver past the overextended boy who attempted to attack you, and firmly plant a hand on her elbow. Your eyes meet hers, and your expression morphs into a grin before you bury your own elbow into her gut. You follow up with a punch from the same hand, releasing her arm after briefly twisting it, giving you some distance.
Distance that puts you closer to the formerly backed-off Medium Boy, who swings his sword down in an attempt to slice across your back from shoulder to hip. You spin around his blade, chopping at his neck with a knife hand. The blow lands, but Medium Boy leans into the direction of the strike, turning it into a rollunder and countering with his long blade, trying to sever your foot or cut into your ankle. You see it coming, picking up the leg he was aiming at and using it to deliver a powerful back kick into Tall Boy's midsection. Transferring that momentum, you attempt to stomp down on the sword, but he pulls it back in time.
Just as your foot comes down on the dusty, paved road, you jump out of the way of a small fireball, cast in your direction by Short Girl.
"Now that I've got your attention," you begin, pleased with yourself, "w-"
Leader Girl cuts you off, her short sword pointed at your throat. She's far enough away for it not to be a threat to you. You wonder if she knows that.
Glancing around, it seems that besides Medium Boy, the rest of them are staring at you in varying states of shock. To his credit, Medium Boy's also got his sword leveled at you, though he's somewhat further away and his stance has a lot more tension in it. And to her credit, Short Girl is now looking at you. Her eyes are, indeed, black.
"What was that and who are you?" Leader Girl is moderating her tone well, but you can tell she's either nervous or angry.
"Like I just said, that was to get your attention. As to who I am, I'm the one asking why you're here," you cock your head to the side, "So why is it?"
"Why are you here?!" Short Girl interjects from the side, angrily.
You don't even look at her, "I asked first. So what is it, Leader Girl, the reason you're here?"
In your peripheral vision, you can see the rest of the group tense up, Short Boy and Tall Boy particularly on-edge.
"If you're from Suna, you're under direct orders not to come here! The Daimyo himself declar-"
Now it's your turn to cut her off, "I don't really care what the Wind Daimyo said. What about Lord Third?"
"Wait isn't every Kage right now 'Lord Third'?" You think to yourself, wondering if you're entrapping her with that or if you entrapped yourself.
"The Third Kazekage signed off as well, the writ from the Daimyo supersedes his authority outside of the village anyway," Leader Girl's grip tightens on her sword, "I'm not asking again, why are you here?"
"Not to get political, but as it's wartime and the Kazekage is Commander-in-Chief, isn't any order he gave me priority?" You shrug, "Besides that, from what I hear the Kazekage wanted to level this place as soon as all the settlers were gone."
"Is that a threat?" Medium Boy talks for the first time.
"No, I'm not here to destroy Sora-ku, it would take too long on my own anyway," a quiet laugh escapes your lips, "besides, your leader there was the one who threatened me first, right?"
"Sora-ku is our territory now, there's a writ from the Daimyo, and Suna-nin aren't supposed to come here," as you suspect, she continues in the circle. Maybe it's your fault, "so I think you should tell us why you're here then forget what you saw."
"I said I was here to find out what was happening in Sora-ku," you roll your eyes, "so if you told me who you were I would-"
You catch a look between Leader Girl and Medium Boy. Short girl must've caught it too, because her and Medium Boy start moving at the exact same time as Leader Girl.
Leader Girl and Medium Boy come at you from front and back, her striking downward and him slashing upward. Meanwhile, Short Girl throws a handful of shuriken at you. Pivoting hard, you turn in almost a full circle, catching both swords by the flats of their blades on the sides of your hands, and redirect them harmlessly.
Or at least you meant to redirect them harmlessly. Leader Girl's blade moves according to your direction, sweeping through the shuriken and deflecting them harmlessly. As you move to dodge the shuriken, Medium Boy's sword bites into your forearm, cutting a gash into your sleeve and drawing blood.
Even as you move away, Leader Girl is upon you, her sword now moving much faster. Thanks to her eyes.
Three black tomoe on red surrounding the pupil. The Sharingan.
"They're Uchiha!" the smile that breaks out on your face runs entirely counter to the fact that she cuts you three times before you can catch her blade.
Even then, she slashes across the cut in your arm, causing you to hiss in pain.
"Mikoto!" Short Girl cries out, "Why did you let her see your eyes?!"
"We can't take this one lightly," the Leader Girl, Mikoto evidently (haven't you heard all their names now?), says with strain in her voice.
You catch the next one of her stabs in the middle of your hand, and some of the tension in the Uchiha group's body language deflates. Until she's unable to pull the sword free from your palm.
Not only are your metacarpals squeezing the blade like the jaws of a bear trap, the flesh surrounding it has ossified as well. Your first field test of the Cedar Dance!
It takes an elbow to the face to make Leader Girl back off, her blade still embedded in your hand.
"Let's all calm down for a second and talk it out," you say, heartbeat absolutely not pounding in your ears and blood absolutely not boiling for a good fight. "My only mission here is to get intel on Sora-ku, I have no intentions against the Uchiha Clan or Konohagakure, alright?"
Leader Girl takes a deep breath. "Fine, I can be reasonable, but you're not going to get much more information than you already have. Understood?"
"She attacked us!" Tall Boy interjects, Short Boy at his side. They really do look similar, maybe they're brothers.
"It wasn't a serious attack, she was telling the truth when she said she was merely getting our attention," Medium Boy responds, his eyes now also red pinwheels, though only one of his eyes has all three tomoe.
"Let's take her to Nekobaa, she won't be any threat there. And Nekobaa can decide what to do with her," Short Girl inputs. She's got two tomoe in both eyes.
"Stop using people's names!" Tall Boy shouts to her, not only because they're some distance apart, but out of some frustration.
"She definitely heard us talking before, considering how close she was," Medium Boy says with a resigned tone, "But we do have to work on opsec with you, Enko Uchiha, daughter of Aoki Uchiha and Umeyori Uchiha, chunin of Konohagakure, favorite color scarlet."
"Hey! Shut up Meijirou!" Short Girl seethes.
"That's enough," Leader Girl gently addresses her team, "But I do like the idea of bringing you to Nekobaa," she says after turning her attention to you. "What do you say? We'll blindfold you and you come with us, if Nekobaa wants to answer your questions she will."
You bite back the urge to ask what'll happen if this woman whose name is literally "cat grandma" decides you've seen too much.
[] It's a deal, they can blindfold you but no funny business. At most someone holds your wrist to guide you, or they give you a rope to lead you by.
[] It's a deal, but there's no way you're being blindfolded. You've already gotten this deep into Sora-ku, what does it really matter if you know which warehouse this cat lady lives in?
[] It's a deal. Better yet, why don't they just genjutsu you and carry you in there. They're revealing personal details so you can trust them not to pull anything funny. (But you'll really activate Willful Cactus and play dead.)
[] How about Leader Girl tells you what she knows and you get out of there? You'll mention Leaf or even just the Land of Fire are involved, no need to bring up the Uchiha Clan. Naturally, they'll owe you one.
[] Nah. You've seen how fast they can get with their Sharingan now. Even if they have more tricks up their sleeves you should be beyond them. You'll be taking the answers by force.
[] They'll give you directions to Nekobaa, who you'll meet alone. Sit down one-on-one with this authority figure, if you can manage it. You'll decide what to do once you meet her.
[] Write-in.
A/N: Saturday night I went to bed early and still managed to oversleep. At least what I had tonight didn't run too late! I workshopped the title "Curse of Hatred vs Blessing of Madness/Bloodthirst" for this chapter in my head, but I didn't think it was heavy enough to warrant it.
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