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"I don’t care where the sentry told you to shove your signed order, we’re getting in there. We have orders, you know that Tensei.” The black cloaked Shinobi said angrily to his partner.

“Yeah, but how in the heck are we supposed to get in when Takaira-san’s forgery didn’t work?” Tensei asked, shaking the paper.

“We’re Jounin, we’re supposed to be good at this kind of thing…” Tensei added, muttering to himself.

“We’ll just have to sneak in. Using third-level henge, we should be safe.” Amatsu responded his eyes looking through the trees to the village’s small gates.

“How do you know they won’t detect it Amatsu?” Tensei asked, eyes curious.

“I will never understand why Takaira-san promoted you… This isn’t a very big village at all, the Shinobi aren’t trained to search for high level henge, there’s nothing of value in a village still in the middle of forming.” Tensei’s partner replied.

“So then why are we here?” Tensei questioned, narrowing his eyes Amatsu.

“Because obviously, there’s someone here Takaira-san is interested in.” He retorted squinting at the setting sun to the west.

“At nightfall we’ll proceed. Just to be on the safe side Tensei, I’ll perform your henge, I don’t want any mistakes.”

Tensei nodded and replied with a question: “I wonder who Takaira-san’s after…”
“I don’t know. You know she doesn’t give us all the fine details, not even me. None of us really know what she’s after. In the beginning it was about her brother…but things have strayed from the path and she’s gotten complicated.” Amatsu told Tensei in a distant voice.

“But you’re the closest one to her Amatsu, she doesn’t tell you?”
Amatsu turned to Tensei and stared at him for a moment before bursting out in laughter.

“The closest one to her? No one is close to her. She tells us what to do, but she keeps the reason’s hidden, and I’m okay with that, a lot of the time I’d rather not know what her motives are, like we’ve always been told, don’t ask questions, any questions will result in suspended pay. You don’t want your pay to stop do you?” Amatsu finished.

“A--no. But how did you meet her Amatsu? How long have you been under her thumb?” Tensei replied curiously.

“I met her about three years ago on my way to the Hidden Mist. I was one of Orochimaru’s lackys then, on a low-scale mission to take care of his grocery list. I had just reached the border when Jounin from the sand ambushed me, and interrogated me, rather brutally I remember. When I decided I would rather die by their hand for not conveying information, then by Orochimaru’s twisted ways, they slit my throat. I thought for sure I had died, but the next thing I knew, she was sitting next to me, offering me pay in exchange for service. I don’t how she did it, but she saved my life, from both Orochimaru and the Sand nin.”

“That’s why you’re so dedicated to her Amatsu.” Tensei said. “And I thought it was just because you were in love with her.”

“Wha--! Now where in the hell did you come to that assumption?!” Amatsu loudly protested.

Tensei shrugged. “I don’t know, you always follow her every move, do whatever she tells you to do even if she’s not paying you for it.”

“That’s gratitude you dumbass, not love! Besides, I may be grateful to Takaira-san, but frankly she scares the hell out of me. I’ve always considered myself a fearless ninja, not even Orochimaru scared me, but when I first saw Takaira-san fight, and I found out just what she was capable of,…that cold, heartless air…the anger, the hate it was so strong, it practically radiated from her…she absolutely dripped malice Tensei. I can’t even describe it, that wave of just intense fear, shook down the very core of your soul…Sometimes, I don’t even think she’s human anymore..” He trailed off, watching the sun’s last rays disappear behind the trees.

Tensei stared at him with wide eyes. “Are you serious Amatsu? Wow, I mean I knew Takaira-san was strong and she’s always been cold, but I never knew it was on that kind of level.”

“Something happened to her... Something that completely eroded her emotion away, and turned her heart harder then the strongest diamond. Something bad…”

Tensei didn’t reply, but ran his eyes over the forest floor, focusing on a small, misshapen twig.

The silence was heavy as each Shinobi was lost in his own thoughts.
“Well,” Amatsu said, finally breaking the tense silence. “We’d better get going if we’re going to find the right one, and bring him in.”

Tensei nodded, and stood, watching as Amatsu put his hands in the seal of the tiger and his body and face morphed into the face of a middle-class peddler.

Once Amatsu had finished performing the henge jutsu on Tensei, they headed to the village gates and walked straight through without a single glance from the sentries.

“Wow, that was ridiculously easy!” Tensei exclaimed in a hushed tone as they hid in the shadows of an alley to remove the henge.

“Guards like these don’t look twice at peddlers and merchants.” Amatsu informed him, looking down at him, his familiar sable bangs sweeping across his forehead and obscuring right eye.

“Okay! Now where to?” Tensei asked, looking around at the dark village roads.
“Takaira-san said the Takinatsa Library will be where we find him.” He replied, and began striding down the road to the left, looking up at building signs, and past dark houses.

Tensei followed close behind, his senses spread out, searching for any threats to their mission.

Amatsu stopped at a street corner and looked back at his red-haired partner. “Anything Tensei?” He asked.

The violet eyed Shinobi shook his head. “Nope, all clear Amatsu.”
The team kept going, turning down random streets for about a half-before Amatsu began to get irritated and stopped a lone man walking on the other side of the street and asked for the direction to the Takinatsa Library.

The man pointed down the steet to their right, and there it was, at the end, their destination.
“Arigatou,” Amatsu muttered and grabbed Tensei’s sleeve and pulled him along until they reached the steps of the library.

“Here it is.” Tensei said, looking up at the columns that stood before them.
“Let’s go, I want to be back by tomorrow evening.” Amatsu replied, and ascended the stairs and through the doors.

The library was lit with dim lamps and candles, it was completely quiet and had a complete absence of browsers.

After a few minutes of quiet searching, they found it, the door emblazoned with G. Timira.
Amatsu smiled, lifted his leg, and kicked the lock, sending the door crashing to the floor. The grey-haired man looked up from his place at his desk in shock.

“Hello Timira Genga.” Amatsu said.

{-}

“Takaira-san. They’ve returned.” A deep male voice said in the dim firelight.

“With my prisoner?” She asked, staring at the Shinobi that stood in front her.

He nodded, keeping his eyes on the floor, fidgetting with his kunai pouch and pursing his lips.

A heavy silence befell them.

“Well then, don’t be daft, go and get them and stop standing around like a senseless idiot.”

He nodded again and bowed before leaving the room to retrieve his teammates.

{-}

“Amatsu, Tensei, she’s waiting for you,” The black-clad Shinobi said, jabbing a thumb to the door at the end of the hall.

The two teammates looked at each other, and Amatsu grabbed an unconscious Genga by the collar of his shirt and dragged him down the hall before throwing him into the room and closing the door behind himself and Tensei.

Timira Genga woke from his forcefully induced sleep and looked around, a look of confusion on his face.

“W-where am I?” He asked in a feeble voice, a wave of panic sweeping through his stomach when he spotted her, sitting on the couch, legs crossed, left arm draped across the back of the couch. Her expression blank, and her eyes closed.

“Timira Genga, is that your name now?” She asked in a monotone voice. “It took me a while, but I did find you, just like I promised.” Her words were followed by a small chuckle.

“Its just hilarious how you think you could hide from me. Running was smart, cowardly and demeaning, but smart. You made the mistake of thinking you could hide from me, but now here you are, front and center yet again.”

“I..I never left a trace…how could you have…?” He stumbled, trying to stand but was knocked back down to his knees by Amatsu, and emitting a large hacking cough.

“Amatsu, be careful with him, he’s too old for that kind of thing, and if I lose him before I have my information it’ll be your head.” She told him, in that same low voice.

Amatsu nodded and stepped back, allowing the man lift himself from the floor, and wipe the blood from his lower lip and chin.

“Well, it certainly has been a while my dear, and you’ve grown.” He said, his chestnut eyes lifting the girl sitting before him, her ice blue eyes seeming to glow in the near complete darkness of the room.

“Yes, it has been a while, and yes I have grown, quite considerably. However, I am not the one I brought you here to talk about. I think you know just what I’m after…don’t you Genga?” She asked.

The man looked down, a troubled expression on his face.

“How could you come to this? How? You were such a happy little girl, with not a ill thought. Who loved her family and her village. After Senro…your family and then the village…you collapsed didn’t you?” He asked. “You were all right those first few years, but that saying “time heals all wounds began working in reverse for you didn’t it?” You’re kills became more and more gruesome, the remorse you once showed on the battle field disappeared. You began to have no regard for who you killed…not even your teammates of five years. Setona and Kurosu cared about you, they really did, they put up a fight for you until the very end. What did you do after the village? Where did you go?”

She looked down, remembering every moment of what he had just said. Remembering her teammates faces. Remembering the fight and their tear stained faces.

Her eyes closed and then she looked up at Genga.

“That doesn’t concern me anymore. Who I was back then is of no matter. There is only one thing I care about now, and I don’t need nor do I want the help of a village or teammates. They only get in the way. Now, Genga, you’re going to tell me everything. Where, and how I access the shrine. There’s certain information there that’s very crucial to my mission.”

Genga stared into her cold blue eyes.

“I cannot my dear. I cannot allow you to gain access to that shrine. I know not what you plan to use it for, and it is far to dangerous to be used rashly. Second, you are not ready to read the secrets and history that is written there. I’m sorry.”

She stared at him for a moment. “If that is the case, then you have one of two choices, you can either tell me “the information I seek and live, or I can take it from you by force, in which case, you’ll die. Which will it be?” She asked him.

Genga had his eyes locked on the ground, his expression saddened, and the beginnings of tears leaking down his face.

“I’m so sorry my dear. But you cannot have that information. I watched you grow, I watched you change. I trained you in every technique I knew, I gave every resource I had, but this I cannot, will not give you. You have failed, Denkai Takaira.” He said.

And with that, before any of them could stop him, he pulled out a hidden blade and slit his own throat, collapsing to the floor in a bloody heap.

“No,” She said, standing up and rushing forward, placing her hand on his temple and closing her eyes. Light blue chakra glowed around her hand like a white, misty fire as she worked on the jutsu.

Her face contorted into a glare before she pulled her hand away.

“It’s gone.” She said. “Damn it.”

She stood up, and stared blankly at his body.

“Well, what do we do now?” Amatsu asked, his eyes moving from Genga’s dead body to his leader.

“We keep moving. He’s not the only one who knows.” She replied, stepping over his body and grabbing her cloak, striding out the door.