| No Quiet Man's Descent | [Apr. 30th, 2014|12:50 am] |
[Takes place May 7 and 8, Yondaime Year 5, following Grow Teeth and Pursue. Warnings: contains graphic violence and potentially triggering content. Please read with an awareness of your own comfort level.]
Day faded into night as Katsuko and Raidou closed in on Tsurugahama Port. The red-tinged sunset cast a bloody light over Raidou’s mask and gave his hair a fiery glow; he looked like a revenant from old legends, a battlefield spirit summoned to mete out retribution.
Katsuko folded the image into the back of her mind, fitting it in with all the other things that weren’t the mission, and reached for the quiet clarity of purpose.
The moon crawled up into the sky and rolled out a ceiling of stars for them to navigate by. Katsuko tracked time until they crested a hill and saw Tsurugahama sprawled out along the ocean in a cavalcade of small lights. They stopped long enough to test that their radio collars were working, hydrate, and choke down a ration bar each; then it was back to running, down from the hills into the winding maze of Tsurugahama streets.
Tsuto Masaaki and his family lived in a gated estate close to the water’s edge, near the shipping warehouses. The house itself was separated from the main gate by a carefully cultivated garden and a koi pond; round lanterns lit the yard like miniature stars. Armored guards patrolled the gate and the perimeter of the garden at regular intervals.
This place looked quiet. Peaceful, even.
Katsuko wanted to burn it all down.
She tapped Raidou’s arm. Moonlight gleamed on his blank-faced mask as he glanced down at her. Orders? Katsuko signed.
Thirty minutes, Raidou signed back, glancing at his watch. He indicated a passing four-man patrol with a flick of his fingers—eliminate them—and marked another group of guards as his own prey.
The plan was simple: chase out the staff, eliminate the targets, raze the estate to the ground. Leave the bodies behind as a message: Konoha brooks no traitors.
Katsuko saluted and faded into the shadows. She didn’t look back. A half-second later, Raidou’s chakra signature flickered and vanished. His ANBU tattoo glowed steady and warm on the edge of her senses.
Her designated patrol group consisted of three young fighters and their older captain. All four were well-armored and moved like soldiers; none of them were chakra-sensitive. Katsuko shielded her presence anyways and ghosted along in the patrol’s wake, careful not to disturb the scattered gravel lining the path.
One of the guards, a young, dark-haired woman with a crossbow, looked back over her shoulder just as the patrol reached the edge of the outer wall. Her captain glanced at her.
“Problem, Izaki?”
After a moment, Izaki shook her head and turned back around. “Nothing, taichou. Just thought I—”
Katsuko’s ANBU kodachi slid underneath Izaki’s chestplate, chakra-charged steel tearing through scaled plate like paper. Katsuko twisted the hilt, angling the tip of the kodachi up, and drove the blade into Izaki’s heart. The guardswoman choked, hands scrabbling at Katsuko’s arm, and dropped like a stone when Katsuko yanked her sword out of her chest.
Izaki’s captain wrenched his sword out of its scabbard and lunged for Katsuko, his face white with fury, while the two other guards remaining rushed to flank her.
“Nothing personal,” Katsuko said. She drew her katana from its sheath with a cold whisper of steel. |
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