13: Embers Flare in the Dark

Wooden roots and spikes blasted up from under Kana's assailants, impaling two through their torso in a burst of blood that splattered all over Kana's cloak.

The third shinobi managed to dodge the roots from the ground and started to weave handsigns before a wooden spire shot out from Kana's extended palm and stabbed him right through the neck.

The look of shock he gave faded quickly as the blood he coughed up removed his cloth facemask.

Mokuton was... brutally effective. More so than she was expecting.

And so Kana stood alone on the road in the gloom of the rainy night, covered in blood and surrounded by four corpses, the flames flickering around the burning inn casting light onto the scene. The deed was done.

She didn't drop her guard just yet though, scanning the tall grass fields on either side of the roadway. There may still be hostiles lurking around, anything from bandits to shinobi battalions.

Her attention was momentarily interrupted however, when the last man she'd killed disappeared in a cloud of smoke, revealing the corpse of a completely different person. He still had a spire of wood piercing his throat though.

This new person wore some kind of simple padded flak jacket, armored metal braces on the arms and legs, as well as a full porcelain face mask with painted decals on it. The markings followed a sort of pinwheel pattern in alternating red and white that covered much of the mask's surface, save for the region around the two small eyeholes.

Kana's eyes widened with interest. That man had used some kind of jutsu to disguise himself. And disguise was a very valuable skill to have.

Kana wanted that option too.

If she could disguise herself with such a jutsu, avoiding unwanted attention would be much easier. She might even be able to flee the warzone, which was certainly a serious priority to consider after all she'd learned. Even Mt. Shumisen would be too close to the conflict, resting on the border of the Land of Stone. The last thing Kana needed was an army of shinobi crawling around the temple, trapping her inside. The mental image itself instilled a shudder within her. It was better to stay out in nature than that. She didn't want to be trapped again, especially not there.

And then, no matter how capable she felt about fighting, the events she had just experienced were deeply unsettling. Random unknown people had attacker her and other innocent people without so much as a word. They would have killed her in cold blood for simply being here?

If this is what war was, she wanted no part of it. She was a bystander here, and had no part in their conflicts. Was this how the people of Ame felt? Forced into the battles of others, caught up in their slaughter? She could sympathize with that. Kana hadn't wanted to fight these people, let alone be kidnapped or sacrificed either.

It was clear she wouldn't find the safety and happiness she craved here. As far as Kana could tell, the best she could hope for if she stayed in the smaller countries like Kusa or Ame was survival.

Well, Kana had greater desires than mere survival. Comfort and safety being paramount among these.

She looked up into the gloomy clouds that spilled ash and rain upon her as they steadily calmed in intensity.

By this point her cloak was drenched again, and her left arm torn and wounded. Inspection showed that it was already healing over, which was mildly surprising. Not shocking however, given how powerful her vitality felt at all times... indeed Kana hadn't eaten or slept for days and was still on her feet.

Still, it was better to treat wounds properly. After plucking out the shuriken embedded in her flesh, she knelt by the nearest corpse and rummaged through its gear. Quickly finding a bandage roll, she wrapped up her arm from the wrist to the elbow.

Her fallen opponents were fully equipped shinobi after all, and looting them would solve much of her immediate resource issues.

Approaching the corpses, she looted them of their gear one by one. Impaling with Mokuton had ruined the gear of two, so from them she only looted a bag filled with shuriken and other miscellaneous small arms. A few rolls of bandages. Morsel rations, a vial of stimulant pills, wallets filled with a few coins. From that one man, a decent quality katana, complete with sheath. A flak jacket and metal breastplate, albeit oversized and a bit damaged.

It was almost enough to laugh, really, that killing these murderous shinobi had yielded many of the things she'd set out looking for. But it would be a sad, grim laugh.

The disguised man, however, had more interesting items on his corpse. For one, she would steal his mask. Until she learned how to disguise herself with ninjutsu like that, she could hide her face with a mask at least.

Removing the mask revealed that he wore an Iwa hitai-ate1Forehead protector, Iconic part of shinobi uniform, and that his face was frozen in shock and fear.

Strapped to his back was a steel tantō, much higher in quality than the one strapped to Kana's back. She promptly swapped hers out for the new one. The corpse's waist satchel contained several scrolls, one of which happened to be some kind of storage device that houses a similar stock of small arms and support equipment that the other shinobi had. Interestingly enough, it also contained hitai-ate of Amegakure and Kusagakure as well.

Kana surmised that she'd stumbled upon someone very suspicious. A disguising jutsu, gear from multiple nations...what exactly was he up to here? Kana found herself inordinately curious.

Fortunately, the other scrolls lent her a clue. The contained detailed lists and maps of the warzone.... with locations marked for troop movements and supply chains.

This was dangerous information, Kana immediately knew. Someone had gone through a lot of effort to compile these documents, and surely that someone was going to notice their absence sooner or later.

Kana bet on sooner.

She resumed collecting her spoils, rushing this time. The rain was starting to let up, finally, so the ashen gunk would hopefully stop coating her in mud.

For now, she equipped the man's arm and leg bracers. A few shuriken in the arm was enough to teach her the value of wearing those. The mask came next, and when combined with her hood, it completely concealed her face and hair. The scrolls and other supplies were tucked away into the various coat pockets of her outer cloak. The katana went into the storage scroll.

Lastly, she compared her feet to the combat boots worn by the corpses. Three pairs were much too large for her, but happily, one pair was only slightly too large. Her feet were so muddy at the moment that Kana would prefer some sort of footwear over none. It was unpleasant...

Having nothing more to gain from looting, Kana dragged the bodies into a pile, then buried them under the road with a simple Doton2Earth Release jutsu.

Kana then made her way back to the ruins of the inn, crouching on part of the doorstep that remained intact. The rain had done its work at this point, and the fire had largely been petered out. It didn't seem like any of the three inside survived the explosions. She was grateful to have learned all she did from them, the first people she'd met after finding her freedom, even if they never knew she was eavesdropping. But now they were dead, along with the people who'd killed them. Such was war, it seemed.

She would just have to try harder.

Sighing heavily, Kana picked up a slightly damp and slightly charred chair to sit on, rather put out by all the effort she'd expended today. Still, it had been productive.

Cloaking her hands in chakra, she channeled a small amount Suiton3Water Release and then Fūton4Wind Release to clean off her feet and legs of mud and blood. Her chakra control was so fine that simple nature transformations like this took barely a thought.

Freshly cleaned, she promptly donned the boots. They would do for now.

She waited a while longer for the rain to stop completely, reflecting on the battle, analyzing how her opponents attacked, and trying to grasp their motives.

Were they just out for wanton destruction? They didn't seem to care who she was, trying to kill them all regardless. Civilians, as far as they knew, right? And the presence of the disguised shinobi...

She could hardly make sense of it, save that one of the major nations was likely behind the attack. Getting caught up like again was fervently unappealing. If she was going to have to fight to get out of this country alive, Kana would much prefer to be the one with the element of surprise.

With that in mind, she plotted her next moves.