“See? I’m telling you, this bridge is 100% safe.” Ayame hopped up and down on the bridge she was standing on in order to further prove her point. Right now, Ayame and Tsuki had walked all the way south of the Fire Country and had made it over to the Great Naruto Bridge. So far, they hadn’t dealt with any threats like she was told they were going to encounter yet, which marked well in Ayame’s book so things were going smoothly so far, but they still had a good boat ride and a little more walking before they were safely in Kirigakure.

Unfortunately though, they were at a standstill at the moment, due to Tsuki’s newfound fear of heights and bridges. For some odd reason, she was completely scared of crossing the bridge for fear that it might break right under them and send them to a watery grave. For that kind of imagery to come from a ten year old was scary in its own right, but nevertheless, Ayame was currently demonstrating that the bridge was fine to walk in by going on it herself. “This bridge has been up for over a hundred and fifty years. It was built based on the strength and will of the great Naruto Uzumaki, hence the name.” Ayame then stepped off of the bridge and stared over at Tsuki’s direction as she waited for her to begin walking on the bridge.

Taking a second look at the confidence written all over the face of Ayame, the shy little girl reluctantly took one of her arms off of the bridge handle and slowly moved her leg over to the bridge, stepping lightly on it before shifting her weight so that she could take yet another step. She made sure she took her time until she had to completely let go of the wooden handle and her entire body was on the bridge, though she still kept a hand on the rope handle. Tsuki then continued to walk over in Ayame’s direction at a relatively slow pace, moving ever so carefully as to not upset the weight limit of the bridge.

Once she was within four or five feet of bridge however, Tsuki suddenly heard a crack and ran backwards until she was off the bridge and holding on to Ayame’s leg. Ayame then giggled just a little bit before picking the child up and holding her with her arms, keeping that same confident smile on her face. “See, that wasn’t so bad now, was it?” Ayame playfully placed a finger on Tsuki’s nose. “Alright, we’ll just have to try again later, for now, let’s just get something to snack on.” Ayame then shifted the weight of Tsuki in her arm before continuing over back to the Land of Fire.
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A good twenty minutes or so later, Ayame held two hot cups of tea within her hands, blowing out a bit of the steam as she placed one of them on the table she was sitting at, where her little companion was there waiting. “It’s herbal tea. Drink up; it’ll make you stronger and more relaxed at the same time.” Ayame said as she gently pushed the cup over in Tsuki’s direction. Ayame slowly took a few sips of her own tea as Tsuki sat in her chair and stared at hers. “Ms. Ayame?” After hearing the extremely low voice of the girl for the very first time since they started their trip, Ayame was a bit surprised and put her full attention over to her. “Hm?” “Who’s ‘The Great Naruto Uzumaki', you spoke about earlier?” Ayame placed her tea cup down and smiled, happy to give the answer. “Why, non-other than the Sixth Hokage of Konoha and the greatest shinobi that ever lived. He’s like my idol and the reason why I am the way I am today. The stories that I’ve heard about him and read in books are absolutely amazing. They say that he started from absolutely nothing, no parents, no money, no friends, no talent, nothing. He was just regarded as a failure to the village but then he had this drive that spelled tout that he should never give up and defeated many legendary shinobi and surpassed countless more, eventually bringing out the “Golden age of Peace” for a period of time.”

Tsuki continued to stare at her tea as she heard this. “I see… so you look up to him?” Ayame nodded her head as she went in for another sip “Without a doubt.” Tsuki placed one of her hand on the teacup. “I’ve always wanted someone to look up to. But I’ve never really had anyone to call a role model, my daddy just wants me to study all of the time and my mommy really doesn’t seem to care about anything anymore, it’s like nothing I ever do is good enough for them. I… don’t really know what it’s like to really think for myself anyways.” Ayame looked at Tsuki as she slowly placed her teacup down. “You just need start believing in yourself. No matter what anyone tells you or anything, you just need to remember that all you need to do is try your hardest and that will always be good enough. Trust me, there’s no right or wrong here.” Tsuki then looked up at Ayame for a minute before letting out a small smile and then picking up her teacup and taking a sip.

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Once she noticed that Tsuki was actually taking a sip of her tea, Ayame’s smile warmed up a bit. She was truly happy that the young girl was beginning to open up, even if it was at a slow pace. This would only mean that Ayame was warming up to her, which she hoped would carry on all the way to her school. Having enough confidence in yourself so that you can make your own decisions was a trait that Ayame viewed as something priceless. That trait was the very same thing that Naruto Uzumaki carried with him and it was the same trait that was basically her code throughout her entire shinobi career and look where it had taken both of them. Ayame can only hope that it will take Tsuki far as well.

The two females will then continue on with their tea, having a few short conversations in between their sips. It was then that the bells of the teashop entrance can be heard, which instinctively caught the attention of Ayame. Not exactly turning her neck, but only moving her eyes to catch a view of the new customer, Ayame caught sight of the green hooded coat accompanied by matching green hair. The appearance of this person would cause Ayame to shift a little in her seat as she took a hold of her sword’s sheath and positioned it a little higher up the back of her waist for easier access while sitting down. She didn’t exactly know why, but in Ayame’s experience, going into a public shop with a lowered hat, hood, mask, basically anything that was designed to hide her face only marked trouble so she remained extremely cautious as she took yet another sip of her tea, giving the illusion that she wasn’t aware of the person’s presence.

It didn’t really take too long after that before Ayame could practically feel someone glaring at her, something she was quite familiar with. This time though, it wasn’t the average glare of a high maintenance woman who viewed the basic concept of Ayame’s body as a means to “show off her good looks”, aka jealously towards the fact that she didn’t look like that or have a bust size that was equal to or perhaps even bigger than the size of her head. It also wasn’t the look of pure lust from someone who was just itching to do things to her body that one would never be allowed to say in the general public. No, this time, it was something much different that Ayame was still a bit familiar with but just couldn’t place her finger on it, but it was definitely something cold and sinister like.

As Tsuki would continue on with her side of the conversation, this feeling got stronger and stronger until she could practically feel a knife being dug right into her back, quite an uncomfortable feeling. Once she was within distance and gave her greeting, Tsuki looked upward towards the woman and Ayame would follow up by turning her head and body slightly to get a look at her. Though Ayame wasn’t exactly one to judge someone’s appearance, especially in this type of situation, she had to admit that this woman was quite the looker. Flawless skin, lean body, flowing green hair and very unique amber cat like eyes that sort of reminded Ayame of someone she’s seen somewhere before, perhaps if Ayame wasn’t straight as a line, who knew what she would do in a different situation.

The woman would then follow up with a ridiculous question that caused a nice old drop of sweat to run down her head. "You’re… kidding me, right?” It wasn’t even just the question; it was the fact that, for a second there, she really appeared to be serious when asking that. But after that second past, the woman would then burst into that was sort of sickening to the ears. In fact, a few people would then begin to stare at the green haired woman as if she was insane, which was probably a good guess at this point. As she continued laughing, Ayame turned her head over to a somewhat frightened looking Tsuki before subtly moving her head towards the door several times, indicating that if and when Ayame gave a signal that she should make a run for it.

Ayame had a good hunch that this woman was not just hear to crack some kind of sick joke, something was about to go down that Ayame was hoping to avoid. If Ayame had a good guess, she would believe that this woman just might be one of the “hired help” the man’s colleagues had hired to capture Tsuki for ransom. Ayame turned her head back just in time for the woman to finish her sickening laughter and continue on, confirming Ayame’s theory that she was here to capture Tsuki, along with a little added bonus that she wished to fight Ayame herself. ‘Whoopi freakin do, I have just received a new challenger.’ Sarcasm aside, both Ayame and Tsuki tensed up as the challenge was made. Ayame was now able to pin point what that feeling was now that she stared straight into the cat eyes of this woman. It was blood lust, that killer instinct that one could only achieve if they enjoyed killing to the point of pure amusement. It was as if she was looking into the cat eyes of a devil. Ayame’s eyes widened as it finally dawned onto her who she was facing at the moment. ‘Wait a minute… she’s-'

But before Ayame could finish her train of thought, one of the waitresses moved over to them and began speaking to the woman. She would then go on to announce that she had planted a bomb and was not allowing anyone to leave the building. ‘Well, that’s just great… there goes that plan.’ She thought to herself, referring to her earlier plan to let Tsuki leave the area so she could take this woman on without Tsuki or anyone else getting harmed. That was when Ayame heard the sound of metal as the woman went within her pouch for a weapon of sorts. Ayame quickly reached forward and took hold of the woman’s hand just before it would reach the waitresses ribcage, the tip of the kunai would be just inches from her body before the waitress would suddenly be literally blown away about ten feet from their position.

As she stood side by side with the green haired woman with her hand tightly gripping her opponent’s hand and weapon, Ayame took a look at her and stared directly into her eyes while keeping her other hand tightly around her sword handle. “You know, you are quite a rude one. You come over here, challenging me personally to a fight… and then you give someone else some attention. How rude is that? If you’re going to challenge me, at least have the decency to give me your full attention and leave everyone else out of this, Cat Eyed Devil.” With each word she spoke, Ayame went from playfulness to seriousness, evident from her grip tightening with each of said words. Ayame then pulled both of their hands back to turn the woman around as she sent a kick over to the woman’s own ribcage.

Jutsu used:

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The kick Ayame was aiming for ended up being a hit and miss, much like she expected it to be. What Ayame was more curious about than if she was actually going to be able to gain a hit was Satsuriku’s choice of defense. This little tidbit would give Ayame a little hint of her instinctive choice of combat so she could scout her out a little bit more. The way she gracefully moved backwards told Ayame that she had at least some training in the physical arts, also known as Taijutsu. This would prove useful if Ayame was going to try and keep things in close quarters.

Catching Satsuriku’s movements as she kicked upward, Ayame quickly took her other foot off of the ground as she moved from Satsuriku’s direction and backed up into a cartwheel, where she would position her body properly so that she was directly facing her adversary. As Ayame looked over to Satsuriku’s direction, she started to shake her leg a little bit, feeling some of the jolts that she was apparently attempting to send her way. ‘So, she works with that Nintaijutsu stuff, huh? That means that I’ll have to be extra careful if I’m going to face her in hand to hand combat.’

Ayame watched as the green haired kunoichi began to move around her hands, indicated that she must be preparing for some type of Ninjutsu. Ayame nodded her head as she planted herself to the ground and went in for a few handsigns of her own, preparing to be able to make a quick evade and hopefully go in for a good counter attack. If she wanted to guarantee everyone’s safety, Ayame had to end this one quickly. There was just no telling what her opponent would do as time went on, especially when dealing with someone like Satsuriku, who appeared to take some sort of enjoyment in killing the innocent. Just as she was able to get a hand on the floor, Ayame noticed the first spike coming from the ground towards her direction.

Ayame was instantly prepared to move out of the way and rush in for a surprise attack as she did this. Ayame would first take quickly hop towards the left and was about to go in for that surprise attack she was thinking about before she noticed something. The spikes that Satsuriku had sent her way was also given another path towards Tsuki. ‘Dammit.’ Ayame thought to herself as she quickly dashed over to Tsuki’s direction while still in the air, using the wind to put in some extra momentum so she could reach her client in time.

Once she was within distance, Ayame held out her arms to the still frightened little girl and grabbed her just before the last spike would hit her. The same probably couldn’t be said for the Shaman of Sexy due to one of the spikes actually grazing her left leg. Ayame winced a little in pain as she held on close to Tsuki while rolling on the ground right behind one of the longer tables and away from the green haired missing ninja’s sight. After her rolling had stopped, Ayame simply had down with her back against the table as she looked at Tsuki’s frightened expression and shook her head. ‘Just a little girl and she have to deal with this kind of lifestyle.’

“Ms. Ayame, are you okay? You look hurt" Tsuki’s extremely low voice caught Ayame’s attention as she referred to the light grazing of her left leg. Ayame took a look at it to observe the damage; the wound wasn’t too deep so it shouldn’t really hinder her performance too much, but it could have been worse if she had moved just a little slower, much worse so Ayame was put on notice. “Yeah, I’m perfectly fine; a little scratch isn’t going to put me out of commission, no way no how. Plus, I’ve dealt with a whole lot worse before.” Ayame went through her pouch and pulled out a small cloth, wrapping it around her lower leg, where the wound was inflicted, and tied it up tight.

Now, Ayame had to think of a good battle strategy. Truth be told, she was put at a real disadvantage here due to all the people here, especially Tsuki. For now, she was going to have to try and keep things up close and personal in hand to hand combat if she wanted to prevent anyone from getting hurt because one inaccurate kunai or shuriken can end someone’s life so she would have to keep those kind of weapons limited until she can either figure out a way to get everyone out of the building or to get both of them away from all the people, even most of her Ninjutsu seemed somewhat off limits at the moment. Not to mention the fact that Satsuriku didn’t exactly have the same morals Ayame did so she that only lead to Ayame needing to put her attention towards multiple places and people at once.

Ayame placed her index finger and thumb on her chin as she tried to think of some kind of strategy. ‘Maybe if I can…’ Just then, Ayame heard the other kunoichi’s voice ring from beyond the other side of the table. She might notice a puff of smoke coming from Ayame’s direction as the Energetic Enigma stood up from her position behind the table and into the missing kunoichi’s sight. Ayame then walk over past the table as she began to speak. “Yeah, I know who you are. Satsuriku, you’re known for theft stealing village secrets. Not only that, you’re also known for torturing and murdering many civilians. You’re also suspected to have assassinated 3 on duty Konoha shinobi, important figures throughout the world, and a member of your own clan. Also known as Ms. Sunday and the Cat Eyed Devil, Izumi Kaguya.”

The tension within the room seemed to double, if not triple, as everyone’s fear rose along with it after hearing of all the deeds that Satsuriku had done in her past time. This could only mean that, if Ayame wasn’t able to put a watchful eye on all of them and stop this woman, all of their lives were a good as gone. Ayame knew this, which is why she was determined to end this bout quickly. “As for me… well, I didn’t really think you’d care much who I was, but the name’s Ayame Akira, pleased to meet you.”

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Ayame caught the glare of Satsuriku once the name “Izumi Kaguya” had left her mouth. ‘So, I struck a nerve, did I?’ It didn’t surprise her one bit though; when Missing Nin would change their name like that, especially in complete secrecy, it usually meant that they were trying to forget their past, exemplify that they were not the person that they used to be or something like that. It all seemed too melodramatic for Ayame to really care too much about so she didn’t bother dwelling too deep into those kinds of stories. But it did seem a bit amusing to see her current adversary grow so upset over it.

That was when Satsuriku began badmouthing Konoha itself, practically blaming it for what she’s done in the past. That sort of took the humor out of the equation because Ayame felt like she was attempting to whip the blood that was in her hand off on Konoha’s name. Born and raised within the very confounds of the village, Ayame was always kept safe by all of its proud villagers and she always felt that she was doing the same for the younger generation by standing alongside her fellow shinobi to maintain that will of fire and protect it, which Ayame kept closely to heart. Of course, things may not be the same now with the continuous controversy surrounding the seat of Hokage along with the ANBU squads, but that was a completely different story that wasn’t appropriate at the time. In Ayame’s eyes, Konoha is still the very same village that her idol had brought through prosperity into the “Golden Age” and it was the same village she had vowed to protect. But Ayame was still curious as to what happened in this woman’s life to make her behave in such a way and talk like that about the village that took her in as well.

"Ooooh hey! Now I remember! You are that .. what was it called. Shaman of Sexy right? Some very important lil ninja from Konohagakure."

Ok, now, it was Satsuriku who had struck Ayame’s nerve for calling out a certain name. The Shaman of Sexy… To this day, Ayame still couldn’t figure out how part of a simple pick-up line that was said to her by a perverted council member of the Fire Country over two years ago had somehow officially became her new alias among the ninja world. During her Chuunin and early Special Jounín years, sure it was “They call her the Energetic Enigma.” back then, but now it’s “Now, I know why they call you the Shaman of Sexy. wink wink.” along with many other vulgar comments about her name that she couldn’t possibly mention in public. Unfortunately, once a rumor or such like that spreads out, there was absolutely no stopping them so she might as well just work with it. Even now, a few of the civilians were quite interested in the fact that they were currently in the presence of two well known “celebrities”, despite the fact that one of them had a reputation for killing massive amounts of civilians just like them for little to no reason.


Ayame’s full attention was caught though, as Satsuriku continued on to explain some type of deal that she appeared to have in mind. Apparently, she wanted to exchange Tsuki for the lives of everyone in the room, not to mention relieve her of the need of unnecessary fighting. Basically, she was implying that as long as Ayame gave up the girl peacefully, she would leave them all alone. But Ayame wasn’t exactly willing to give up just like that, she was determined to take this mentally unstable kunoichi down in order to achieve the objective of her mission and that was to ensure Tsuki’s safety. The citizens within the room, however, didn’t have the same obligations that Ayame did so most were having mixed feelings about the situation, despite the fact that they were talking about a little girl no older than ten years old.

Probably seeing the mixed reactions going around, Satsuriku would then go on to increase the already high tension even more by ever so slowly the fact that if Ayame didn’t give her what she wanted, she would kill every single person there. "No, don't." Ayame’s eyes would then widen in shock as Satsuriku would go on to make an example out of the father of a small family by stabbing him in the eye with a fork, not so much as batting an eye at the distorting scene that she was creating. Merely acting as if it was a game as she began to think of her next victim. Evidently, this would initiate a silent uproar within the restaurant. Each person in there too afraid to speak, move, anything that would make them stand out amongst the crowd and bring Satsuriku’s much unwanted attention to them. But Ayame could very well feel the stares bearing right into her beck and continuous mental signs that she should undoubtedly give up the girl. Ayame would only stand there, not able to shake off the feeling of helplessness as sweat poured down her forehead ferociously, her breathing pattern getting deeper and deeper as she tried desperately to by herself some time to make a good solution out of this.

But she doubted that Satsuriku would wait long for her answer. Making her wait very long would potentially cause the mass murderer to grow bored and Ayame was not ready to see what that would cause for a room full of civilians. Ayame simply tried to drag this out as long as she could, but if Satsuriku would make a move that would hint that she was going after anyone else, Ayame would yell. “Stop!” As she would then hold her palm up in a stopping motion. “Fine… I’ll give you what you want, just… don’t kill anyone else.” At this point in time, anyone would be able to till that Ayame was holding some sort of mental conflict inside her head as she said this. “Just promise… that if I give you the girl… you’ll leave this place and everyone in here at peace.” Waiting for some type of confirmation from Satsuriku, Ayame would then let out a deep sigh as she brushed through her hair with her hand. “… Ok…” Ayame would then walk over to the table, refusing to look directly at the little girl as she took a hold of her arm. “I’m sorry Tsuki, but… but you’ll have to with her.” The little brown haired girl looked at Ayame in shock as she began to pull from Ayame’s grip, afraid of what might happen. Ayame simply let out a deep breath as she hesitantly picked the little girl up by pulling the back of her shirt with one hand and holding the front of her waist with the other. Ayame then slowly walked over to the direction of Satsuriku, continuing to say in a low tone voice. “One life is not worth a hundred.” as if to keep her naturally community serving conscience completely clear of any negativity. Ayame would then stand in front of Satsuriku as the child buried her face into Ayame’s chest. “Here… now pull up your end of the deal and leave this place…”

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As Satsuriku began to push Tsuki away from them, Ayame’s eyes widened in surprise. What was this criminal doing? Was this not part of the deal? Of course, what else would someone expect from someone who would cold heartedly murder anyone and anything she sees, even children, if she so much as simply feels like it. There was truly no such thing as honor among thieves anyways, it was either kill or be killed in this world so it can be figured that you should seize any opportunity that one could get, or at least that was how it was implied.

Once Tsuki caught sight of the clone going on the assault, she would seize her opportunity and make a run for it before she would get caught into what was about to happen next. At this point, there was really nothing that Ayame could do about it right now. She was in no place to escape and she was being hit in point blank range so there was no other alternative than to be hit. So as the, bullets went on to get the blonde kunoichi right around the torso, she would begin to fall back, everything appearing to move somewhat slowly as lights started to fade out and Tsuki kept running from the action.

But then again…

A loud sound relatively similar to that of an explosion could be heard from Ayame, or so it seemed, not too long after she was hit. Simultaneously, the blonde kunoichi seemed to burst into a blast of wind, potentially taking out the clone right in front of her. Due to the sheer force of the blast, Tsuki was literally blown away to the other side of the restaurant. Before she would hit something though, the real Ayame would dive from one of her previous hiding spots and catch the young girl before rolling behind yet another table, though this one was overturned by the blast. With her back against said table, Ayame kept her hand over Tsuki’s mouth to make sure that she didn’t create any unnecessary noises.

Within no time at all though, a random follow up of a real explosion would follow through, causing the destruction and overturning of many more objects within the restaurant. All while this was happening, Ayame shielded Tsuki with her body while keeping hers down as her hair and clothes started blowing with the enhanced force of the explosion, forming a few handsigns as a just in case factor. ‘Damn, did she see through it or what? Well, if she did, she probably assumed that it was just a Shadow Clone or something.

Once the explosion died down a bit and they were left with smoke and dust everywhere. Ayame simply sat still with her arm around Tsuki’s face while holding her own breath and closing her own eyes to prevent the dust and smoke from doing any damage to them other than get their clothes dirty. The sound of everyone screaming seemingly muffled from the sound of the explosion. ‘Still… this one’s a bit too cautious for my tastes; she just refuses to get close. I mean is she afraid of a little hand to hand action or what? Whatever, if that’s the game she wants to play, I might as well beat the high score then.’ It was then that the Shadow Clone next to Ayame nodded towards the real deal before dashing over towards the broken window in front of them and quickly went through it, using the sight impairing smoke and the hearing impairing blast to her advantage. Ayame then proceeded to form a couple of handsigns and focusing her chakra towards the air surrounding her. A second later, the wind around her face and body began to gain a small amount of force, just enough to keep the dust from her hair, eyes and clothing, enough to allow Tsuki and Ayame to open their eyes and breath.

Once she took that first breath, the sound of everyone panicking was now being made apparent at full blast (No pun intended) to Ayame and Tsuki’s ears. She didn’t know why, but everything seemed to move faster all of a sudden, possibly because of the dozens of panicking people that were screaming, some instinctively running around in order to escape danger but the question was, where could they run at this point? Ayame had to fix this situation that Satsuriku was causing at the moment and she needed to do so quickly if she wanted to get as much people out of here safely as possible. Normally, in this situation, this would be the part where Ayame would either charge in or run through stealthily, utilizing the smoke to create a particularly interesting bout between the kunoichi. But this was much different from the average battlefield where freedom was the key. Right now, Ayame had lives to protect so she had to be a lot more tactful and patient in this situation than she would normally be, otherwise, it could result in unnecessary deaths of innocent people. Of course, it was quite a bit frustrating to the kunoichi considering the fact that “tactful” was never really her style, but this kunoichi was exploiting Ayame’s morals and her own lack of them to its fullest potential. But at the same time, there was nothing she could do about it for now so she simply sat there, perfectly still while trying to run through some strategies in her head.

Meanwhile, Ayame’s Shadow Clone kept her body in an extremely low position as she was just about finished with searching for the “bombs” the green haired kunoichi was referring to earlier, utilizing as much of the ANBU training her grandfather was able to provide for her before his untimely death. After she had searched for a while, Ayame was able to determine the bombs Satsuriku was referring to were not intimate explosives like she assumed. “Ayame” wasn’t able to find paper bombs, seals, plastic bombs, stink bombs, nothing; the only thing she was able to spot was a crowd of citizens beginning to grow curious of the internal explosion within the teashop. Putting two and two together, “Ayame” figured that there would be one option here. The first one she thought of was that Satsuriku was bluffing about the bombs but were using the clones as a just in case factor.

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