The snow was falling in a slow harmonous chorus, which sang a melody of the heavens as Katsumi watched it fall. It brought back fond memories of the past, his childhood and how innocent everything was through the eyes of a child. He wished for the briefest of moments that everything could be that simple again, but he knew if the world became that simple it'd only allow for more evil and manipulation to enter it.

His thoughts were interrupted but the sounds of a approaching footsteps. The crunching snow, and quickness lead him to believe that these were his allies so he didn't take any haste to turn and greet them. He simply looked over his shoulder to see that 3 ANBU members were close. They slowly came to a walking pace as they kneeled next to him, offering a scroll. He took it from them, and popped the seal with a quick flick of the finger. He watched his breath turn into a white steam against the thick paper, brushing against key information that would soon lead into a manhunt for Katsumi.

The situation was simple: Three ninja entered the village, one directly assualted the Hokage, and is presently being dealt with. Your priority is to find the other two, kill one, capture the other.

Again, simple enough. Katsumi nodded in acceptance of the missions guidlines, and without a word the ANBU scrambled back to their posistions. Katsumi sighed, and stood up; allowing his feet to set into the snow. The satisfying feeling of the cold was something he welcomed compared to the dreary fog that had been plaguing the village. He turned to enter his house, letting the scroll simply hang in his hand.

He slid the door open, and felt a rush of hot air brush against his body. The warmth came from the center fire place which was directly posistioned underneath a large vent. Located on the vents corners were his swords, all sheathed, and his basic ninja kit. He took the small bag full of kunai, shurkien, and other items he'd need and tucked them into the wraps which twisted around his sides. He then walked over to the swords, wrapping the belt around him, and bringing the leather taught until it snapped into place. He smirked as he looked into the embers of the fire. He'd been given the job to protect the Hokage once again...

He walked towards his door, which he'd left open for a simple reason: he wanted to let some of the warm air outside. He didn't look as he grabbed his straw hat, placing it on his head. He slid the door shut, and turned to face the wonder of the white land before him. He rested his right hand on the sword hilt on his left, looking up at the nearest building. He quickly jumped up, and landed with a solid foothold. The crunch of the snow continued to alert him of the ongoing traffic near his house.

He watched as the people passed one another, none of them in a panic for now, which made things much easier for him to find the other two ninja. He'd already formed a hypothesis of what they were doing, and he'd thought his assumption through. Two ninja accompanying a third; both of them aren't with the ninja trying to assualt the Hokage, which means they're distracting security so that the third ninja has a greater chance of success. They're going to try and stir up a small amount of chaos, making it easy to find them but when?

Just as Katsumi finished his small stream of thoughts, he heard an explosion in the distance. He watched from the east as a large cloud of brown debrie, and white snow mounded into the air and settled down with much more speed than was naturally able. He'd have to move quickly to keep the death toll small.

He quickly treaded the roof tops, making sure his feet landed with a solid thump before picking them up again. The same sound rang out from the village again, and with it the same picture of brown mesh and snow rising and falling to the roar of deep sound.

After a small time span of 30 seconds, Katsumi arrived at the area. He scanned over the damage: two houses ripped open, atleast four hurt, two small noodle stands collapsed, and yelling echo'ing from each stand. All in all nothing to be overly concerned about, but he didn't have time to worry about them with the possibility of others getting hurt.

Kastumi didn't have to look hard to find the shinobi responsible for the explosion, because he was standing out in the middle of the street. With one hand he had a small metal object, and with the other a pipe that was leaking out a small amount of smoke. He took the pipe the ran it against the small line that was hanging from the edge of the metal object. The line lit up, and sparked closer to the metal's form. Katsumi had seen this before, and he knew if he didn't stop the metal object from going off he'd have another 10 people to worry about.

He quickly pulled out a three pronged kunai, and let it ring out in the open so that the ninja would look. The lure worked, as the ninja turned and watched as the kunai flew by the metal objects core. The kunai sang past his hand, and hit the line that now held a small ember. The line ran taught and finally snapped as the kunai finished it path to the snowy ground.

The missing-nin dropped the metal object, and quickly placed the pipe in his mouth. He took in a deep breath, and began to form handseals. His apperence didn't reveal much about the ninja's origins, or skill set. He looked to be around 5'10", heavy set, and older. His clothing looked to be a combination of crimson and black, and he didn't bear any head band that he could see. Katsumi didn't think that he would be able to perform taijutsu with particular skill and speed, but he had been wrong before. He'd have to make this quick, very quick, so that he wouldn't have to worry about any more explosions.

He took the time to form his own handseals, and at the same time to move to the broken building's edge. If he could reach the edge in time, he'd limit the damage that had already been done. He finished his small stream of handseals in the same time that the missing-nin had. The older man placed his left hand to the side of his mouth, letting his pipe slide to the opposite side of his mouth. Katsumi remained staggered so that he could move the moment that the jutsu was active.

The older man drew in a deep breath, and blew out as a small stream of flame which rushed directly at him. Katsumi rolled to his side, landing in the snowy embrace. The old man quickly turned to bring the stream of flame at Katsumi, but he didn't have enough time. Katsumi quickly merged with the ground, entering it, and setting his position as the older man stopped the katon based jutsu.

The older man already began taunting his assumed dead opponent, "I guess my jutsu is even more powerful than I thought..."

No doubt he was commenting on the ground that was singed from the remaining bits of the flame. Katsumi brought his hands up to form the 'Tiger' handseal as the remaining moments of the doton jutsu set in. Katsumi formed another 'Tiger' handseal, and jumped through the earth. The ground broke free, and splashed around from where he breached through. 'Katsumi' first approached with a simple upper-cut, his arm remaining extended. The clone landed it hit, just as the second clone appeared from the hole. The second clone kicked through the small amount of white smoke that appeared just as the first close disapated.

The second kicked directly in the center of the smoke, and landed another blow on the center of the missing-nin's chest. Katsumi finally emerged from the hole to witness the second clone finishing its kick. He pushed down on the hilt of his weapon, and lowered the center of his gravity. He concentrated his chakra into a ball on the base of his calve, and quickly released it. Katsumi raced at the missing-nin with so much speed a massive torrent of wind rose up from behind him and a split was created in the snow as he approached the old man. The older man wore an expression of fear as Katsumi quickly unsheathed his sword. He let the blade ring out across the older man's right hand and then to the base of his throat.

The older man's blood was thrown into the white snow, and quickly caused it to melt. The snow melted into smaller pools of lighter red, as the older man feel to his knees. He looked down, defeated, and struggled to take in deep breathes as he spoke with bits of blood spewing from his mouth, "This isn't over...you've lost..."

He started to laugh as he used the remaining strength he had to rip the cloak he was wearing off to reveal a set of over 100 explosive tags rigged on his chest. Katsumi couldn't help but step back at the sight of the sheer number of explosive tags. He quickly charged another bit of chakra, and pressed it to the fullest potential possible. His speed wouldn't be questioned after this moment. The older man didn't even have enough time to bring his remaining hand up to activate the tags. Katsumi slid past the old man as the chakra induced move slowly allowed Katsumi to come to a rest. The older man slumped over, letting his head fully detach from his shoulders. The snow's pure white melded with the deep red blood of the older man in a quick dream of deadly art. The snow behind where Katsumi stood was now seperated from the ground's surface in a balance of speed and power.

Katsumi slung his katana to the side, and threw the bits of brain matter and blood to the side of the street in the same fashion as generations of masters of kenjutsu had done before.

He turned and watched as the villagers began entering the streets again. He soon realized that the other ninja would be among them, watching and waiting for the chance to avenge her lost commrad. He took the roof tops as if he was done with the situation, knowing that he'd soon be under some sort of pressure from the other shinobi.

He quickly brought forth two chains, letting them hang directly infront of his body so that they couldn't be seen. The woman was hooded, and quickly rushed from the crowd. She jumped on the rubble of the household, and began to toss the broken beams and wood to the side.

Katsumi stopped, realizing that she wasn't giving chase as he planned, rather she was looking for something. Katsumi didn't want to find out what it was until the situation came to a rest.

He quickly took advantage of the time the woman was giving him, letting the chains extend to their full length of 7.5 meters each. He quickly jumped from the roof top, landing on the top of a beam.

He looked down at the woman, and quickly sheathed his sword. He yelled down at her, "You need to stop doing whatever you're doing...Unless you wish to stop breathing. "

He waited for a moment, and realized she wasn't stopping. He knew that she was willing to die to feel some satisfaction for the death of her ally. She didn't even mask the emotions she was revealing with each clawing grab, as she picked up bits of wood and metal, tossing them to the side to find whatever she needed. Katsumi tossed a kunai just at the woman's left leg, which she side stepped, and countered with a shurkien of her own. Katsumi hadn't thrown the kunai to kill her, but to get a glimpse at what she was tyring to reach. He took a moment to look into the hold of debrie and he saw what he didn't want to.

Another collection of explosives set into the hole had been cased but hadn't gone off when it was supposed to. The trip wire was supposed to be tripped when the house came down, but for whatever reason the wire had snapped before being pulled out. She was willing to pull the cord directly from the case, and there was no chance of her leaving if she did.

Katsumi quickly jumped down over the hole, spreading his feet just wide enough to press the edges of the hole. She didn't hesitate, as she rushed directly at him with a kunai drawn from her sleeve. She wore a longer shirt, letting it hang over her hands, with almost a dress like layer of silk on her lower half.

He grabbed her wrist, and with the other arm that held the summoned chains took his hand around the back of her. He let her continue on her path, flipping her as she reached the center position of his body. As she landed the chains rolled around her body, landing with a solid thump on the trash underneath her body. Katsumi pulled the chains tight, bringing in her arms to the side of her body. He then stood over her, and looked her dead in her eyes.

He quickly reached back with his elbow, and punched her in the center of his brow line. Her head thumped back to the trash of the broken house. She was out, and for the time being she could be captured.

She had been much more skilled than she just showed, but she was far too emotional. For anyone that would slow you down, or bring you to rash action. She choose both. Katsumi let the chains detach from his forearms, and quickly threw up one of his kunai with an explosive tag wrapped around the handle. He set it off just as it was out of the threshold of the surrounding houses. She would now be escorted by the ANBU that were on their way. Katsumi looked down at her, and sighed.