Some hand-signals were easier than others. Ryouma jerked a thumbs-up and turned it sideways at the squat, square tower dominating the fortress's nearest corner. According to the blueprints Intel had provided and Katsuko had interpreted, Masahiko and his closest aides kept their offices and bedrooms in this tower, leaving the remaining three for supplies, barracks, and more sentries. Assuming he hadn't decided to move into the grain stores, he should be easy enough to find.

Of course, Ryouma had probably just jinxed their mission by thinking that. He bared his teeth at whatever was watching and launched into the seals for a henge'd kage bunshin. He hadn't got much of a look at the dead guard's face before blood masked it, but in the dark and at a distance no one would be looking for detail, anyway. If they got close enough to see his bunshin had a straight nose where the guard had a crooked one, they were too close.

"Watch our backs," he told the clone softly, and slipped off into the gathering dusk.

He shaped more seals as he went, gathering chakra at a low roil. Greenish darkness hazed his hands. The heavy wooden door at the end of the wall opened inward; he nudged it with his toe, and a thin trickle of yellow light spilled out. "Yousuke?" someone asked. "Somethin' wrong? Your shift's not over yet--"

For a flicker of a second, Ryouma considered releasing the Nikutai Tokasu, weaving a henge, and trying to pull it off. But there were far too many ways that could go wrong--and he was better at killing than lying, anyway.

If they were quick enough, maybe they wouldn't even set off any alarms.

His first kick smashed the door back into the wall, half-crushing the man who'd been standing behind it. Ryouma slammed one blackened fist into his face before he could let out a scream, and spun to meet the man lurching up from the poker-table and reaching for a knife. Then Katsuko was in the guard-chamber with him, and the sweet tang of blood mingled with the heavy reek of rot.

Only one man managed half a scream before Ryouma dissolved his voicebox and Katsuko's sword slid between his ribs. Four corpses in as many seconds. Ryouma caught his first breath since he'd kicked the door down.

"We're good," he said, and went to check the inner door.

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"No, we're awesome," Katsuko corrected. She eased the last guard's body down to the floor, rifling through his pockets for any cool-looking useful items. Shrugging when she couldn't find anything, she withdrew her hands and glanced at the man's face--or what was left of it.

Ryouma hadn't been joking when he'd said the Nikutai Tokasu was a rot jutsu. The man's throat and jaw were completely decayed, putrid black sludge leaking all over his chest. He smelled like the corpses left to moulder for weeks on the battlefield. Katsuko backed away, resisting the urge to put her hand over the nose-holes of her mask, and got to her feet.

Her partner was peering through the inner door that led into the fortress's passageways, the muscles of his back and shoulders taut with adrenaline and anticipation. She slunk up behind him and tapped him on the back, fingers flickering in scout-sign when he turned to look at her. All clear?

More guards, Ryouma replied with a shake of his head, come check noise.

Damn it. This had to be quick if they didn't want Masahiko's whole damn army coming down on their heads. Although that would be kind of fun.

After a moment, she signed back at him, We attack. Kill them quiet.

It was a reckless plan, but it would buy them the time they needed to get closer to Masahiko's quarters. If it succeeded.

Well, she hadn't made it into ANBU by running away from danger.

Ryouma nodded at her and gave her another thumbs-up (she could almost feel him grin behind his mask) and slipped into the inner passageway, his hands flickering inky green. Katsuko hefted her blood-slick blades and ran after him.

Right, left--they turned and nearly ran over the small group of five guards who were coming around the corner, torches held high. "Shinobi!" one of them squeaked in surprise, and that was all any of them had time to say.

Katsuko took the one who'd talked, sliding around the clumsy thrust of his spear and cleaving his head neatly in two with an overhead strike. He sagged onto her, body still twitching, and she spun and pushed him onto the blades of two of his comrades as they advanced. They staggered backwards under the weight and she sprang forward and up, kodachi and katana blurring. Two heads, eyes and mouths wide with surprise and terror, fell towards the ground. Katsuko cursed and threw herself forward, leaving her katana buried in the guards' bodies. She managed to catch one head with her free hand and speared the other with her kodachi before they could hit the ground and make noise.

There was an odd gurgling sound and Katsuko looked around to see Ryouma pinning the remaining two guards to the wall, one inky green hand wrapped around each neck. Katsuko turned away as she saw the brown-black dappling of rot creep up each terrified man's face and laid the heads down, gently, on the ground.

Ryouma looked at her once the rot jutsu had done its job, dark eyes almost invisible behind the Ram mask. Katsuko started to scout-sign--

And a loud, braying sound, like the wail of a thousand pained hunting dogs, shattered the silence in the corridor. "Intruders!" someone bellowed from up on the wall, and the call was taken up and repeated throughout the fortress until it seemed like the walls of the corridor themselves were crying the alarm. The headless bodies piled up against each other swayed and collapsed to the ground with a clatter of armor.

She stared at Ryouma. Ryouma stared back.

Fuck.

Katsuko snatched her katana up and started to run.

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