The rare occurrence of desert rain splashed against the window of Toushin’s cheap apartment. The assassin had rotated through enough side missions that his face was currently the ‘real’ Uzu. A tired old face with tight golden eyes glaring at the rain, knowing it would somehow make the new mission sent to him impossible. Clutched in the robotic hand of his left prosthetic was a black envelope with an magnetic onyx clasp. He hadn’t opened it yet, knowing that by procedure he had only thirty minutes to read and absorb the details inside before it would catch fire and burn away. Most of the mission dossiers above Orange Level did that, but he found it hard to believe he was already being asked to embark on a Black Level after having been given Red clearance two weeks ago in his last takedown.
Somebody wanted the members of the gang dead. Uzu had only killed two, the rest were alive and well when he had last seen them; which made him too efficient. Those were talking mouths in the custody of Main Branch with only the core leader being interrogated by ANBU. It was really only a matter of time before one of the lower rank broke and would try to bargain, meaning that the person behind the betrayal had only so much time to set things in order to minimalize the damage. Sending Toushin out of the village to kill something was apparently part of their plans.
It made sense, the assassin mused as he slipped off the kitchen counter to pad soundlessly with his bare feet over to his coffee table. Tossing the dossier on the lacquered black wood, he flopped onto the couch that was his home and tapped the bottoms of his metallic palms together with a ‘clack’, fingers pointing down. A jolt of chakra and two handseals formed the energy into a special code that, when placed against the onyx, released the magnetic jutsu placed on the envelope. The button popped off and the paper unfolded itself to reveal a small stack of documents; about five pages. Toushin’s face turned down immediately; the lack of information only further playing into his paranoia. Scooping the papers up at the right edge, the old killer held them up and began to scan the information.
The target was a one, Honsho Ryuugan. Hon, was the newly found leader of what was basically a desert themed Yakuza. He read over the man’s impressive background: three years service as Genin in the Sunagakure Military, two in ANBU, and then in his third year went rogue over a redacted reason. His background involved siblings, claiming he was the oldest son of four brothers and one sister; Uzu had an idea to what made him leave. Information after that is sketchy, but it was clear that Suna was trying to keep as close an eye on him as they could. He then began to join and taken over at least five separate gangs leading up to date, all in different parts of the desert, with different beliefs, and has somehow united them together. Despite that, Hon has apparently only used his small military to help out where Suna hasn’t or couldn’t, and according to the little intelligence in his hands, has been a bigger help in keeping the Swarm at bay than known. Yet despite that there was now an order being pushed suddenly to kill Hon, and they were sending big guns; perhaps not their strongest but then again the Chief wasn’t apart of this political debacle.
Toushin was.
It had only taken Uzu half the allotted time to read, memorize the theorized base schematics, guard rotations, and current list of known kekkei genkai users. Wrapping the black paper back around the pages and placing it a metal waste basket, Toushin used the extra fifteen minutes he had to scribbled out a coded letter and drop it off at his daughter’s apartment as he walked towards the Underground to get prepped.
An hour later and the rain was still pouring dismally as the old man stared at the small metal double doors that would let him out into the desert wilds beyond. The smell of wet sand had kicked up into the Inner Wall long ago, and a horrible humidity had taken hold between the sheets of metal. Yet everyone went on with business as usual, not even flinching from the extra moisture but probably even basking in it a little. The guard for today’s rotation was Michino himself, but the giant didn’t say a single word to his girlfriend’s father as he checked over the coded documents in his current passport. Raising his huge arm as signal, the small door opened up as the Toraono kept his purple irises hard ahead. Uzu didn’t know rather to be insulted or flattered, but the seven-foot tall monster was clearly very angry that they were sending the old man out in this kind of weather. Moments after the entrance opened a gust of cold wind and wet grains roared in after. Lifting his ANBU mask up and drawing his shawl tight, the old assassin stepped out into the wet sand.
It was slow travel, step by step, but at least the storm was providing a natural cover for him. After an hour in he finally came across his first member of the Swarm. It was a beastly thing, taller than Michino and hulking over like some grotesque bear. On either paw were seven-inch steel blades and it’s eyes glowed red through the haze of wet desert and storm. It exploded from beneath the ground to land before the assassin but the old man stood still and silent. The creature looked around with a few grunts, swiping slowly at the air as if trying to feel for something, and coming constantly within inches of clipping the assassin’s head. Yet with but a few sways of his body, Toushin kept quiet and dodged each one until the creature turned its back to the assassin and began to lumber in the direction he was headed. Sighing internally the old man carefully began to step in a wide circle around the lumbering creature, but never getting ahead of it so that he could still see it. The thing appeared to be moving to the exact location he was, and he couldn’t help his paranoia from dipping into just how far the conspiracy went. Did someone from the inside really signal for this thing to take him down? Surely not…
About half-way to the destination is when things got dicey. Other Swarm members were beginning to show up as well, here and there at first, but then suddenly in large packs; and they were all converging in a march behind the lumbering bear. Dodging around them was simple with the storm keeping him covered, but the sheer unified organization was unnerving. On top of that, they all followed towards where Suna thought the bandit’s base was. If there was one thing he hated about being paranoid, is that sometimes it was hard to tell where the actual conspiracy started and where his mind wandered. If the Swarm was gathering together in such a size, it was surely to attack something, and to his knowledge outside the mission there shouldn’t be a single thing out in this area but hot open world. Quickly clacking through a few hand seals while thunder rolled, the shinobi surged his chakra to activate the motor under his heart. It fed his natural power and expanded it before pumping it back through his body. Power exploded throughout him, and with a strong huff he contained the excess energy zapping through his muscles; however a nearby member of the legion managed to notice him anyways.
Before he could take more than three steps a strange jaguar-man landed before him and proceeded to inhale while striking at the assassin. Stepping inside of the creature’s guard, he fully took to the blow aimed for his left arm and with his right, Uzu slammed his straightened fingers into the creature’s windpipe as it’s claws bounced off metal. The creature died instantly as he lowered it slowly to the ground, but he knew he had been spotted now. Uzu could sense two more coming as the pervasive smell of death immediately exploded into the air; it was only a matter of time before the entire army would be on him. Throwing his left arm at a cliff’s edge he shot three cables that latched to rock and retracted him up and over. His feet hit the wet rocks that cracked beneath the pressure of force, and like a bullet Uzu shot towards the intel’s location of the base.
With a dead sprint he was a full ten minutes ahead of the Swarm, but only just so. Uzu didn’t known what time it was, but had a feeling he didn’t have enough of it to wait for guard changes. Leaping off the rocky cliff and using his cables to propel him safely downwards, the assassin caught full sight of the base. It was simple, basically a bunker, but not a single person there walking around in the weather looked anything like a bandit; at least not any that he knew. They all walked with the trained patience of a militant.
He landed outside the base with little noise, but was almost instantly noticed. Blades of water rose up and shot at Uzu, his feet maneuvering in a dance to slip through the edges of water as he darted across the courtyard towards the nearest door. The guard stationed turned in surprise at the speed of the masked man as Uzu rolled up on the guard and lunged into an uppercut. The water blades stopped just short of decapitating them both, half a second, before shifting around to only attack Uzu but struck against the building instead. The blades struck the metal door, destroying the entrance and giving the assassin an easy in. As the water specialist ran in, he found that only the unconscious guard remained.
An alarm went up. The hall he was maneuvering through suddenly began to shift and roll, lances of stone erupting just inches from Toushin’s body as he pulsed another jolt of chakra into the engine. His right side slammed into the end wall after kicking himself through the spikes. Pushing his legs hard again, Uzu dove down a second hall, narrowly dodging every attack the Earthborn was sending at him. Tucking into another roll, Toushin launched himself upwards at a steel door that blocked his path with his body straightened like an arrow. Blades appeared on his fists and he shot through the steel before grabbing the bricks of the left wall on the other side. His feet dug into the stone so not to waste chakra as he ran along it and over the heads of the bandits waiting on the other side. The wide hall lead downwards with a single set of stairs down to another door that the assassin barreled through with his feet before he grabbed the frame and swung his body weight into another blow.
The steel flew off the hinges into a large barely lit room. On the other side was Honshou Ryuuga sitting behind a large oak desk in an office that clearly doubled as a training ground. The assassin swung his way inside and landed on the door that was still skidding across the floor until it stopped short, about half way. He rolled his wrists causing something in his arms to click and move around before crossbow bolts shot out in rapid procession from extended finger tips at the man casually sitting in the shadows behind his desk.
The Uzumoreru could feel his opponent smiling.
The bolts were met with desk. All of them thudded against the thick wood as it suddenly launched into the air at him. With a quick punch, the mechanical arm broke it in half, but as the left half of the desk flew away, Ryuuga was there waiting. A strike faster that Uzu could see with steel-like strength connect to his jaw. The force propelled the assassin into the dark part of the training grounds, where he quickly caught himself and slid to a halt on all fours. The assassin’s golden eyes quickly scanned the room for his opponent, looking upwards at the last to find Ryuuga’s foot inches from his face.
It had been a long time since Uzu broke a bone. Despite his advanced age, his training and physical upkeep made it so that doing such was rare. He had forgotten how painful it was, and when Uzu felt his opponent’s heel crush his nose into his face, an emotion he tried hard to keep buried roared to the surface; fury. Without flinching from his crushed nose the assassin grabbed Hon’s ankle and with a quick jerk shattered his opponent’s foot. Gripping the ankle harder, Toushin roared in fury as he turned and slammed Ryuuga into the ground, lifted with furious strength, then slammed again. The second time the bandit leader felt his face smash the floor, he was able to push against it with his hands to kick out his broken foot towards the assassin’s face. The blow didn’t connect but Uzu was forced to release and move back. Drawing his palms towards his chest and flicking them back out caused two blades to set into place from his arms over the back of his hands. His cracked mask shifted in the movements and fell off, revealing his furious golden glare. Drawing himself up and taking a deep break, the assassin tried to cool his anger and access the situation strategically.
If there was one fatal flaw to his design, it was Pride and Wrath. The former he couldn’t get rid of, but has learned to swallow it when needed. The latter…has caused him great pain. It nearly ran off his daughter, caused the destruction of his clan, and has toppled him from his seat as Shadow King twice. Letting his pride step first followed by an unrighteous fury to those who trampled on it put him in a position where everyone was made sure to away from him; then eventually attempt to remove him. His stoic lone-wolf lifestyle didn’t come from a lifetime of being a paid killer, but one of burned bridges. Honshou lifted off the floor and landed on the unbroken foot, the other lifted ever slightly off the ground. The opponent looked nearly as angry as Uzu was, but a broken foot was a hard disadvantage over a broken nose.
Toushin acted first, darting towards Ryuuga as fast as his legs would allow. The bandit leader followed suit half a second later. Blades and fists clashed as they scored hits on each other in a fight that lasted seconds but felt like years. Once more they were pushed away from each other, Ryuuga bloody but with Toushin now missing an right arm clutched firmly in one hand as a weapon. Finally a few other bandits began to pour into the room but were halted by the leader’s hand. Toushin crouched his form a little, looking at the ground level window on the far wall and plotting his escape when one of them yelled,
“Boss Honshou! The Swarm! There’s an army of them heading this way!”
The man seemed to care less. The big boss didn’t even so much as acknowledge them directly, with eyes only for the man who had drew blood.
“You heard them assassin, what is your plan? Do you really think you can escape in time? Weathering assault from us, the storm, and now the Sovereign's ill-gotten children?”
Toushin wobbled a little, the injures from the intense fight starting to really kick in. He could feel that his chakra reserves were on their last legs and he doubt he had enough to even activate the engine one more time; if he could, that would be it. An escape from one danger and into two more. His eyes narrowed hard as he spoke up, bladed arm still held up before him.
“No, I’m old enough to know I’m not going to make it back in one piece tonight if I do that, and I still have things yet to be set in motion before death calls. What do you suggest, bandit?”
“How about an alliance? We’ve move our base and people more times than I can count this last year. The Swarm has all but decimated most life in the desert, but despite that we’ve struck some blows and gathered intel on our common enemies we doubt your military knows.”
“…and what do you propose Sunagakure do in trade for this information?”
“Immunity from your forces until the war is over. Operating against one force has been hard enough, but two is wearing my men ragged. Striking Suna off our list of worries would boost morale and bring a much needed bite back to the sands. Trust me when I say, very little natural wildlife is able to stand against the Swarm.”
“I agree then,” Toushin said after a moment of silence, “but I can’t guarantee Sunagakure will. I’ll need collateral to work with as a bargaining chip with my branch.”
“Done. Yi! Teneka!” the leader shouted as he threw down Uzu’s arm to the floor.
Without a sound two clearly shinobi-level trained bandits appeared in front of Honshou. One was a fourteen-year old girl with silver hair and little defining features. The other was an overly muscular martial-artist in his twenties with dark hair that spitefully reminded him of Michino. Their sudden entrance belied the skills each had, and with only a nod from Honshou he knew what the bandit leader intended.
“These two are my strongest and have faced against the Swarm countless times. Take them as prisoners, and do what you must. Know this, though, if any thing bad happens to either I will know - and we’ll join the other side by focusing to take advantage of the Swarm’s attacks. Make no mistake, assassin, we hold all the cards in this gamble.”
“…bad at cards anyways,” Uzu mumbled as he righted himself and retracted his blade. Shuffling over to his ripped off arm, he picked it up and quietly wobbled over towards the leader with a metal hand held out. Honshou’s strong hand clasped it and a deal was struck. A ceasefire between the bandits and Suna, at least the start of one, and a chance of uniting the desert more than they had ever been before.
[MFT]
Somebody wanted the members of the gang dead. Uzu had only killed two, the rest were alive and well when he had last seen them; which made him too efficient. Those were talking mouths in the custody of Main Branch with only the core leader being interrogated by ANBU. It was really only a matter of time before one of the lower rank broke and would try to bargain, meaning that the person behind the betrayal had only so much time to set things in order to minimalize the damage. Sending Toushin out of the village to kill something was apparently part of their plans.
It made sense, the assassin mused as he slipped off the kitchen counter to pad soundlessly with his bare feet over to his coffee table. Tossing the dossier on the lacquered black wood, he flopped onto the couch that was his home and tapped the bottoms of his metallic palms together with a ‘clack’, fingers pointing down. A jolt of chakra and two handseals formed the energy into a special code that, when placed against the onyx, released the magnetic jutsu placed on the envelope. The button popped off and the paper unfolded itself to reveal a small stack of documents; about five pages. Toushin’s face turned down immediately; the lack of information only further playing into his paranoia. Scooping the papers up at the right edge, the old killer held them up and began to scan the information.
The target was a one, Honsho Ryuugan. Hon, was the newly found leader of what was basically a desert themed Yakuza. He read over the man’s impressive background: three years service as Genin in the Sunagakure Military, two in ANBU, and then in his third year went rogue over a redacted reason. His background involved siblings, claiming he was the oldest son of four brothers and one sister; Uzu had an idea to what made him leave. Information after that is sketchy, but it was clear that Suna was trying to keep as close an eye on him as they could. He then began to join and taken over at least five separate gangs leading up to date, all in different parts of the desert, with different beliefs, and has somehow united them together. Despite that, Hon has apparently only used his small military to help out where Suna hasn’t or couldn’t, and according to the little intelligence in his hands, has been a bigger help in keeping the Swarm at bay than known. Yet despite that there was now an order being pushed suddenly to kill Hon, and they were sending big guns; perhaps not their strongest but then again the Chief wasn’t apart of this political debacle.
Toushin was.
It had only taken Uzu half the allotted time to read, memorize the theorized base schematics, guard rotations, and current list of known kekkei genkai users. Wrapping the black paper back around the pages and placing it a metal waste basket, Toushin used the extra fifteen minutes he had to scribbled out a coded letter and drop it off at his daughter’s apartment as he walked towards the Underground to get prepped.
An hour later and the rain was still pouring dismally as the old man stared at the small metal double doors that would let him out into the desert wilds beyond. The smell of wet sand had kicked up into the Inner Wall long ago, and a horrible humidity had taken hold between the sheets of metal. Yet everyone went on with business as usual, not even flinching from the extra moisture but probably even basking in it a little. The guard for today’s rotation was Michino himself, but the giant didn’t say a single word to his girlfriend’s father as he checked over the coded documents in his current passport. Raising his huge arm as signal, the small door opened up as the Toraono kept his purple irises hard ahead. Uzu didn’t know rather to be insulted or flattered, but the seven-foot tall monster was clearly very angry that they were sending the old man out in this kind of weather. Moments after the entrance opened a gust of cold wind and wet grains roared in after. Lifting his ANBU mask up and drawing his shawl tight, the old assassin stepped out into the wet sand.
It was slow travel, step by step, but at least the storm was providing a natural cover for him. After an hour in he finally came across his first member of the Swarm. It was a beastly thing, taller than Michino and hulking over like some grotesque bear. On either paw were seven-inch steel blades and it’s eyes glowed red through the haze of wet desert and storm. It exploded from beneath the ground to land before the assassin but the old man stood still and silent. The creature looked around with a few grunts, swiping slowly at the air as if trying to feel for something, and coming constantly within inches of clipping the assassin’s head. Yet with but a few sways of his body, Toushin kept quiet and dodged each one until the creature turned its back to the assassin and began to lumber in the direction he was headed. Sighing internally the old man carefully began to step in a wide circle around the lumbering creature, but never getting ahead of it so that he could still see it. The thing appeared to be moving to the exact location he was, and he couldn’t help his paranoia from dipping into just how far the conspiracy went. Did someone from the inside really signal for this thing to take him down? Surely not…
About half-way to the destination is when things got dicey. Other Swarm members were beginning to show up as well, here and there at first, but then suddenly in large packs; and they were all converging in a march behind the lumbering bear. Dodging around them was simple with the storm keeping him covered, but the sheer unified organization was unnerving. On top of that, they all followed towards where Suna thought the bandit’s base was. If there was one thing he hated about being paranoid, is that sometimes it was hard to tell where the actual conspiracy started and where his mind wandered. If the Swarm was gathering together in such a size, it was surely to attack something, and to his knowledge outside the mission there shouldn’t be a single thing out in this area but hot open world. Quickly clacking through a few hand seals while thunder rolled, the shinobi surged his chakra to activate the motor under his heart. It fed his natural power and expanded it before pumping it back through his body. Power exploded throughout him, and with a strong huff he contained the excess energy zapping through his muscles; however a nearby member of the legion managed to notice him anyways.
Before he could take more than three steps a strange jaguar-man landed before him and proceeded to inhale while striking at the assassin. Stepping inside of the creature’s guard, he fully took to the blow aimed for his left arm and with his right, Uzu slammed his straightened fingers into the creature’s windpipe as it’s claws bounced off metal. The creature died instantly as he lowered it slowly to the ground, but he knew he had been spotted now. Uzu could sense two more coming as the pervasive smell of death immediately exploded into the air; it was only a matter of time before the entire army would be on him. Throwing his left arm at a cliff’s edge he shot three cables that latched to rock and retracted him up and over. His feet hit the wet rocks that cracked beneath the pressure of force, and like a bullet Uzu shot towards the intel’s location of the base.
With a dead sprint he was a full ten minutes ahead of the Swarm, but only just so. Uzu didn’t known what time it was, but had a feeling he didn’t have enough of it to wait for guard changes. Leaping off the rocky cliff and using his cables to propel him safely downwards, the assassin caught full sight of the base. It was simple, basically a bunker, but not a single person there walking around in the weather looked anything like a bandit; at least not any that he knew. They all walked with the trained patience of a militant.
He landed outside the base with little noise, but was almost instantly noticed. Blades of water rose up and shot at Uzu, his feet maneuvering in a dance to slip through the edges of water as he darted across the courtyard towards the nearest door. The guard stationed turned in surprise at the speed of the masked man as Uzu rolled up on the guard and lunged into an uppercut. The water blades stopped just short of decapitating them both, half a second, before shifting around to only attack Uzu but struck against the building instead. The blades struck the metal door, destroying the entrance and giving the assassin an easy in. As the water specialist ran in, he found that only the unconscious guard remained.
An alarm went up. The hall he was maneuvering through suddenly began to shift and roll, lances of stone erupting just inches from Toushin’s body as he pulsed another jolt of chakra into the engine. His right side slammed into the end wall after kicking himself through the spikes. Pushing his legs hard again, Uzu dove down a second hall, narrowly dodging every attack the Earthborn was sending at him. Tucking into another roll, Toushin launched himself upwards at a steel door that blocked his path with his body straightened like an arrow. Blades appeared on his fists and he shot through the steel before grabbing the bricks of the left wall on the other side. His feet dug into the stone so not to waste chakra as he ran along it and over the heads of the bandits waiting on the other side. The wide hall lead downwards with a single set of stairs down to another door that the assassin barreled through with his feet before he grabbed the frame and swung his body weight into another blow.
The steel flew off the hinges into a large barely lit room. On the other side was Honshou Ryuuga sitting behind a large oak desk in an office that clearly doubled as a training ground. The assassin swung his way inside and landed on the door that was still skidding across the floor until it stopped short, about half way. He rolled his wrists causing something in his arms to click and move around before crossbow bolts shot out in rapid procession from extended finger tips at the man casually sitting in the shadows behind his desk.
The Uzumoreru could feel his opponent smiling.
The bolts were met with desk. All of them thudded against the thick wood as it suddenly launched into the air at him. With a quick punch, the mechanical arm broke it in half, but as the left half of the desk flew away, Ryuuga was there waiting. A strike faster that Uzu could see with steel-like strength connect to his jaw. The force propelled the assassin into the dark part of the training grounds, where he quickly caught himself and slid to a halt on all fours. The assassin’s golden eyes quickly scanned the room for his opponent, looking upwards at the last to find Ryuuga’s foot inches from his face.
It had been a long time since Uzu broke a bone. Despite his advanced age, his training and physical upkeep made it so that doing such was rare. He had forgotten how painful it was, and when Uzu felt his opponent’s heel crush his nose into his face, an emotion he tried hard to keep buried roared to the surface; fury. Without flinching from his crushed nose the assassin grabbed Hon’s ankle and with a quick jerk shattered his opponent’s foot. Gripping the ankle harder, Toushin roared in fury as he turned and slammed Ryuuga into the ground, lifted with furious strength, then slammed again. The second time the bandit leader felt his face smash the floor, he was able to push against it with his hands to kick out his broken foot towards the assassin’s face. The blow didn’t connect but Uzu was forced to release and move back. Drawing his palms towards his chest and flicking them back out caused two blades to set into place from his arms over the back of his hands. His cracked mask shifted in the movements and fell off, revealing his furious golden glare. Drawing himself up and taking a deep break, the assassin tried to cool his anger and access the situation strategically.
If there was one fatal flaw to his design, it was Pride and Wrath. The former he couldn’t get rid of, but has learned to swallow it when needed. The latter…has caused him great pain. It nearly ran off his daughter, caused the destruction of his clan, and has toppled him from his seat as Shadow King twice. Letting his pride step first followed by an unrighteous fury to those who trampled on it put him in a position where everyone was made sure to away from him; then eventually attempt to remove him. His stoic lone-wolf lifestyle didn’t come from a lifetime of being a paid killer, but one of burned bridges. Honshou lifted off the floor and landed on the unbroken foot, the other lifted ever slightly off the ground. The opponent looked nearly as angry as Uzu was, but a broken foot was a hard disadvantage over a broken nose.
Toushin acted first, darting towards Ryuuga as fast as his legs would allow. The bandit leader followed suit half a second later. Blades and fists clashed as they scored hits on each other in a fight that lasted seconds but felt like years. Once more they were pushed away from each other, Ryuuga bloody but with Toushin now missing an right arm clutched firmly in one hand as a weapon. Finally a few other bandits began to pour into the room but were halted by the leader’s hand. Toushin crouched his form a little, looking at the ground level window on the far wall and plotting his escape when one of them yelled,
“Boss Honshou! The Swarm! There’s an army of them heading this way!”
The man seemed to care less. The big boss didn’t even so much as acknowledge them directly, with eyes only for the man who had drew blood.
“You heard them assassin, what is your plan? Do you really think you can escape in time? Weathering assault from us, the storm, and now the Sovereign's ill-gotten children?”
Toushin wobbled a little, the injures from the intense fight starting to really kick in. He could feel that his chakra reserves were on their last legs and he doubt he had enough to even activate the engine one more time; if he could, that would be it. An escape from one danger and into two more. His eyes narrowed hard as he spoke up, bladed arm still held up before him.
“No, I’m old enough to know I’m not going to make it back in one piece tonight if I do that, and I still have things yet to be set in motion before death calls. What do you suggest, bandit?”
“How about an alliance? We’ve move our base and people more times than I can count this last year. The Swarm has all but decimated most life in the desert, but despite that we’ve struck some blows and gathered intel on our common enemies we doubt your military knows.”
“…and what do you propose Sunagakure do in trade for this information?”
“Immunity from your forces until the war is over. Operating against one force has been hard enough, but two is wearing my men ragged. Striking Suna off our list of worries would boost morale and bring a much needed bite back to the sands. Trust me when I say, very little natural wildlife is able to stand against the Swarm.”
“I agree then,” Toushin said after a moment of silence, “but I can’t guarantee Sunagakure will. I’ll need collateral to work with as a bargaining chip with my branch.”
“Done. Yi! Teneka!” the leader shouted as he threw down Uzu’s arm to the floor.
Without a sound two clearly shinobi-level trained bandits appeared in front of Honshou. One was a fourteen-year old girl with silver hair and little defining features. The other was an overly muscular martial-artist in his twenties with dark hair that spitefully reminded him of Michino. Their sudden entrance belied the skills each had, and with only a nod from Honshou he knew what the bandit leader intended.
“These two are my strongest and have faced against the Swarm countless times. Take them as prisoners, and do what you must. Know this, though, if any thing bad happens to either I will know - and we’ll join the other side by focusing to take advantage of the Swarm’s attacks. Make no mistake, assassin, we hold all the cards in this gamble.”
“…bad at cards anyways,” Uzu mumbled as he righted himself and retracted his blade. Shuffling over to his ripped off arm, he picked it up and quietly wobbled over towards the leader with a metal hand held out. Honshou’s strong hand clasped it and a deal was struck. A ceasefire between the bandits and Suna, at least the start of one, and a chance of uniting the desert more than they had ever been before.
[MFT]