51: More than a Message

Kana shuddered against a sudden cold and darkness, the change making her skin tingle.

Disorientation, instability, vertigo - she couldn't tell how long it lasted, save that it seemed less than an instant.

But then she immediately winced with a strange pain, a headache that seemed to push in and out against her skull, followed by unsteady lightheadedness. Stumbling backwards while clutching her head led her to feeling cold wood against her back.

Cold? Dark?

The heavy scent of moss and mildew wafted past her nose.

No flaming braziers lit this room.

The rustling of tree branches echoed in her ear, along with...

Alarm seared back into Kana's body as she staggered into an upright position, scouring the room where she stood through eyes still squinting with pain. They quickly adjusted to the darkness, revealing what appeared to be wooden construction of some kind, built atop a foundation of cobbled stone layered thick with moss. No one was visible nearby, but...

But before her stood a carved wooden wall, engraved with the shaped of flames and whirlpools. Numerous pegs were nailed into this wall, but only one was occupied.

From it hung a single wooden mask, shaped like a jovial demon with long fangs and horns protruding from it.

Staring in shock, Kana lifted a hand to her face, caressing the cut on her cheek where her mask had cracked. The wooden mask hanging on the wall sported an identical crack, an ethereal turquoise glow slowly fading from the mask's eye sockets.

Wha- what had she done?

Still holding her head with one hand, Kana loosely threw her overcloak on so she wouldn't have to keep carrying it, rushing to the wall opposite the wooden mask.

Searching the wall revealed a rusty door handle, which Kana pulled open a crack to peek through.

The surroundings appeared much the same as the forests Kana had traversed to reach the Yamakuni Sanctuary, and again nothing suspicious appeared in her eyes. The mix of damp mud and snow from before had largely hardened into sturdy ground again.

But something unknown hung in the brisk night air. The back of Kana's neck tingled with concern and anticipation.

Dashing outside, Kana flickered up onto the roof above her, scanning the terrain around.

On the distant horizon, the familiar contours of the eight-peaked Yamakuni hill formation stood out as shadows against the night sky over the treetops.

A fraction of the tension wracking her left at that sight. It appears she hadn't traveled too far somehow, much to her relief.

But still... this was, this was almost unthinkable. She ran her teeth back and forth over her lips while she tried to concentrate.

Recent events and context from Kaoru's words floated around furiously in Kana's mind.

Kana had... somehow sent herself here. A person being much more than a message. This was no mere messaging system, no simple communications network.

Rubbing the blood clotting at the cut on her cheek, Kana felt a tiny amount of pain. So.. she hadn't fallen asleep somehow. This had really happened.

Standing up atop the roof, Kana removed the demonic mask from her face, inspecting it.

It sported a rather worryingly large crack from the right cheek to the bridge of the nose, overlapping with the area that cut Kana's face. It looked like it would snap entirely if she wasn't careful.

Probably not the best idea to try using it again, Kana mused plaintively. These relics... that void's darkness. Kana wanted to be certain she knew what would happen before she messed with them again. They were clearly no small matter to engage with, certainly more so than she had anticipated.

But then, this place must be part of Uzushio's network, right?

Leaping back to the ground, hardly even minding the five meter drop, Kana observed the structure's exterior.

It was like a micro version of the main Yamakuni barrier temple... a small shrine, really, and not frequently visited at that. Wait, Kaoru had mentioned that there were relay shrines near the borders of the barrier... keypoints? Junctures? Something like that was part of the design. Inklings of understanding formed with a few hypothesis in her imagination.

But just thinking of Kaoru brought Kana's mind back to her surroundings.

Something 'urgent' had been going on, was it? Chances were, that was still the case.

Only now, Kana had gotten separated.

That was when Kana noticed it. The smell, recognized as the scent of blood.

Now she was back in full alert, her mind ice-cold despite the lingering headache. She hadn't forgotten the attack on her convoy, her fight or flight choice back then.

But now she was alone... in an area where monstrous things lurked around.

Following the scent of blood into the forest, it soon became apparent that its source was a blood trail.

And it led her... to a decapitated body.  A body cloaked in frayed black robes sporting a symbol she hated more than any other: the sigil of the monstrous cultists. An inverted white triangle circumscribed in a white circle. The only difference was the absence of the red claw motif.

In the silence, a flow of wind howled between the pine branches above, the cold of night piercing through her thin nightrobes and fluttering the overcloak hanging loosely around her shoulders. In Kana's ears, those howls of wind echoed with haunted memories of her own agonized screams. Of the pain that had altered her into what she was now.

Kana felt her emotions warp, her heart clenching. Her lips slanted into something resembling a frown.

She wouldn't have felt it this strongly yesterday, but she had had to face a reminder.

Her recently recalled memories, the Shinigon's torture, spurred up the wrath inside Kana. She had barely put those feelings aside during her hotspring bath, but they surged back with full force. With them, memories of her and Fuzō's escape from the wagons, of Ryuu's death... Kana wondered if her red-haired clansmen were in the area as well, investigating the disturbance.

Kana's face grew completely blank. Not merely neutral, but hardened like granite. Her violet eyes shone in the darkness like amethysts embedded in that granite.

These feelings grew again, a rage that broiled like coals leftover from a blazing inferno, all underneath a surface of icy intent. The intent to kill. Eyes that gleamed with a promise of death.

Kana wasn't certain if this corpse was inside the barrier's bounds, but if it was, didn't Fuzō say... they always sent a welcoming party?

She felt her heart beat slow and steady, but powerfully in her chest, enough to send tremors through her torso with each pulse. Her chakra flared within her body, matching the pulses in kind as she savored the sensation of her body being completely at her command.

Kana was no stranger to death. They ought to be well acquainted by now.

Kana's motionless black shadow hovered over the mangled body at her feet; her shoulders relaxed as she calmly extracted some of her possessions. She would be careful, but not fearful. Any lingering traces of fear evaporated, for now was a time for action.

Fixing the clasps of her overcloak tightly closed over her thin nightwear, Kana raised her cowl and swapped out her cracked demonic mask for the spiral-painted ANBU one from her storage scroll. It seemed she would... be getting her hands dirty soon. With pensive thoughts, she mused that there was no sense in dirtying the soft and elegant nightrobes she wore underneath with the blood of beasts.

The glint of a steel wire in the trees above caught Kana's gaze. The corpse now adorning the ground must have ran into it at full speed, neck-first. If that was all it took to kill, then Kana was more than capable of handling them.

But someone else must have set the wire.

Kana stepped back and perused the scene once more.

Another, thinner blood trail extended from the area. Someone wounded, traveling at a fast pace.

Someone willing to fight and kill the beasts that she hunted.

Kana dashed into the trees with all the caution and silence she knew how to utilize.

Dan's lungs heaved raggedly as he gasped and wiped at the corners of his mouth.

He had fared well, all things considered, but he was reaching his limit. The blood soaking through the makeshift bandage on his waist told him he didn't have much longer.

And sensing this, his assailants ceased their battle of attrition and confronted him with likely all their remaining force. The worst outcome for Dan.

He'd had to squeeze the last of his available chakra to cover one last escape, the flames of Katon buying him a head start. And charring three more opponents.

But still they pursued him doggedly, at least ten cloaked shadows that darted in the treetops behind remained. They wanted him dead no matter the cost, that was for sure. There was only so far that traps and cunning maneuvers could get him now. And it seemed that the remaining pursuers had adapted to his tricks.

With no more time to prepare, he would have to find a place to make his last stand, somewhere, anywhere he could grasp one more advantage.

He recalled passing a building of some kind, which was a promising choice, but he'd had no time to investigate. He'd been attacked by a group of three before he had a chance to, only managing to lure one into his wiretraps before fleeing once again. They'd found him much faster than one could hope.

But before Dan could think any more, a flash of needles flew his way, forcing him to drop to the ground to dodge.

The impact on his leg jolted up to the wound on his hip as he staggered a few paces forward into a rocky clearing.

It seemed... he was out of time.

Whirling around to face behind, he leaned his wounded side against one of the many boulders dotting the clearing, twirling kunai from his weapons pouch into each hand.

Weapons raised and brandished, he prepared to deflect the next incoming attack... but it never came.

Instead, six of the black-robed figures materialized out of the night's shadows.

"Kukukuh! You fly fast, blue bird, but the wolves have caught you now." a gnarled and raspy voice sounded from the lead figure, "You must be blessed by the Lord, to kill so many. I'll make sure your death is a sacrament in His honor!"

Dan ignored the taunt, eying the positions of his foes as they fanned out around him.

Only six? There were more just minutes before.

The ones looming before him only brandished their spiked quarterstaves menacingly, murmuring jeers. Buying time for the rest of them to circle behind him? Another ambush?

Dan smirked in fatalistic humor. In the end, he knew reinforcements would never make it in time.

"A bird am I? What kind of bird kills over two-score wolves, hmm?" the corners of his lips curled down wryly, "Come now, seeing how much trouble I've given you, you can't kill me until you at least answer that!"

This was met by a snarl from the lead figure, who tossed another volley of steel needles that impaled Dan's neck and shoulders.

Or so it seemed, for a cloud of smoke popped and the slain figure of Dan was replaced by a log of wood, steel needles poking out from its bark.

'Well, they can still be baited even after all I've done to them.' Dan mused from where he hid inside a small rocky crevice concealed within the clearing.

But that was his last card, a substitution jutsu he just hadn't the strength to reapply.

"Find him, damn it! Move!" echoed out in the distance, from the same disgusting gnarled voice.

Now was the waiting game. The ambushers had once again become the ambushees. How many times would they fall for his deceptions? How many could he take out before he was caught once more? Any more running around... and he might bleed out.

Grimacing at the pain that flared up from his wound, Dan once again clenched the necklace Tsunade had entrusted to him. His dreams for the future, his lover's trust. Somehow, somehow he would return alive. If he never saw her face again, his soul would never find rest.

From the cracks in the stone near his vantage point, he spotted the six robed figures dart about the clearing slightly below.

Still only six? Where were the rest?

The gravel coating the clearing crunched as the footsteps of his pursuers drew closer.