"Is anyone else cold?" Ino rhetorically asks Shikamaru and Anko. "No. You're not. Because you all didn't have the rest of your clothes burnt!"
"You're still mad about that?" Anko asks.
"Of course I am!" Ino stomps her foot in anger. "And this damn coat doesn't have a zipper or a fastener of any kind!"
"Well duh." Anko remarks to her student. "I got it custom made just for you, silly things like zippers and fasteners just get in the way."
"No they don't!" Ino practically roars at Anko. "In what situation could they possibly get in the way for?"
"Get a boyfriend then see if you feel the same way." Anko responds with a suggestive wink. "Trust me, he'll appreciate it too."
"Thank Kami there's the ship." Shikamaru sags in relief. The long walk over here has been very stressful on him. He swears that they're doing this on purpose just to make him uncomfortable.
"What the hell does she mean by that?" Ino asks herself.
"Boinking Honey. Boinking." Anko pats innocent Ino on the head. "Also known as fucking. You know you can say it and no one will judge you."
"I'm not saying it!" Ino blushes madly.
"One of these days. Just wait, I'll get you to say it." Anko promises.
"Hello?" Shikamaru calls out to the ship. "We're here on behalf of Yukie Fujikaze."
The Captain's head pops over the side of the ship. "What is up with kids yelling at me today? The fuck you want?"
"See even he does it! It's not hard!" Anko says to her student.
"Don't care!" Ino huffed in anger and crosses her arms while turning away from Anko.
"Like I was saying." Shikamaru ignores the two females. He'll never understand them. "We're a group of Konoha shinobi that Yukie Fujikaze hired to protect her as she goes around in the Land of Snow. We're here to check out the ship."
"You're part of the actress's group?" The Captain asks. "Should have said that first."
"I did." Shikamaru sighs.
"Get on up here." The Captain waves them onboard and the three of them jump onto the deck. Two of the three draw a lot of leering gazes from the crew.
"Hey there hot stuff!" One of the crew members calls out to Anko. "What's a pretty little thing like you doing in a rough place like this?"
"Oh a tough guy." Anko pulls out a kunai and licks it suggestively. "I love me a tough guy. The screams they make when I break them are simply exquisite!"
"Message received. Not touching that." The crew member smartly goes back to his task.
"Aww you don't want to play?" Anko teasingly calls out as she spins her kunai on her finger. "I promise to leave you as at least half a man."
"Never touching that. Ever." The crew member says to himself.
"Can you not threaten my crew?" The Captain demands. "They may seem like a bunch of vagabonds and they are. But they're hard working vagabonds."
"Fine. I won't play with them." Anko puts away the kunai.
"So… we're here to do a quick once over of the ship to make sure there's no nasty surprises waiting for us or the client." Shikamaru steps between the Captain and Anko so that they quit their banter.
"Go ahead. If you break something you buy it." The Captain lays down the law. "And I charge outrageous prices."
"Duly noted." Shikamaru agrees to the sensible terms. They have no plans of breaking anything while here. Unless there's an idiot hiding out in the cargo hold or something equally ridiculous. "Anything noteworthy we should be aware of?"
"Yeah." The Captain calls over his shoulder, he's moved on to more important things. Like running a ship. "There's another one of your group in the cargo hold. He's doing some fancy stuff with paper. I really have no idea how it works at all."
"Anko. Ino. Cargo hold. Now!" Shikamaru demands and all three shinobi spring into action leaving a stunned Captain behind.
"Assholes the whole lot of them. Shinobi have no respect for other working class people. At least the first one offered to help. He's one of the few exceptions. Plus he's going to make me filthy rich with one trip! I can take an entire warehouse in one go!"
...
"That should do it." I straighten up from my hunched over position. "That's the last box sealed away. I wonder where I can bunk at? This has got to be an overnight trip. Well I suppose it doesn't really matter. I can always have Murasakino set me up with a hammock between two support beams or something."
I gaze out over the now empty cargo hold. Damn I did a good job.
"Who am I kidding? I'm going to do that anyways. Her hammocks are to die for!"
"He's on the other side of the door." I faintly hear a young girl's voice through the closed door to the cargo hold. "Further into the room, on the edge of my sensing range. Just the one."
"Okay." An equally young boy replies. "We need to take him alive. Here's the plan."
"Yeah fuck that." I mumble to myself as I rise up and make my way to the door. "I'm not going to sit here and let Hunters try to take me alive. I swear I lost them all earlier, these…"
~Three.~
"Thanks. These three are persistent." I grip the doorknob with determination set on my features.
I know that these three aren't expecting me to burst out of the room in a flurry of rage but I can't exactly do that. I'm on a ship that I need to stay intact, this will require something I'm not the best at. Precision. I'll have to go oldschool and use only taijutsu and kunai. I'm not going to risk my elemental whips at all, they could crack the hull if I'm not careful.
That being said I'd rather break the ship than be caught or killed. I push out my water heart, it's going to be my trump for this fight. If I do get caught then it's going to come free me by any means necessary. That includes sinking the ship if it has to.
"We're going in three." The young male says again. He sounds… slightly familiar. Maybe I met him back at the bounty station? Oh well, not like he's going to live for much longer. "Two."
I don't let him reach one.
I shove the door open and I'm rewarded with a dull smack as it slams into someone. I don't wait for them to regain their composure, I have the element of surprise. Except one of them wasn't that surprised, a glint of metal is rapidly closing the distance to my face.
I bring up my own kunai and block it from hitting me as I quickly trade a furious exchange of blows with whoever threw it. Whoever this is she's good, keeping up with me isn't easy. Not only am I a lot faster than I look but I'm also much stronger too. But after the very first blow between us was exchanged the kunoichi recognized that I have superior strength and switched her combat style to match me. She's not blocking me, she's parrying me. She's pushing my blows away from her but never fully absorbing the force I put behind them.
"Oto shinobi!" The kunoichi I'm trying to kill snarls at me.
Then I take in her features. Dark violet hair. Long open trench coat. Konoha headband.
"Anko?" I let my relentless attack falter for just a moment.
The Kunoichi takes advantage of this to land a vicious kick into my gut that sends me tumbling down the hallway.
"Shadow possession complete." The young male voice from earlier says. I quickly strain my body, testing the limits of the Nara's jutsu. I don't know if I can break it with pure strength alone, I might have to get creative. I do a quick once over of whoever it was that caught me, they're good whoever they are. It's not just any Nara, I recognize him too.
"Shikamaru?" No fucking way.
A delicate hand holds a gleaming kunai to my throat. She must be the one I knocked the door into since she was the last to react.
"Alvarcus?" The young kunai weilding girl knows my name.
I know hers also. I'd recognize that uniquely styled blonde hair and those wide green eyes anywhere. "Ino?"
"It is you!" Ino shouts in mixed emotions. She's happy, sad, angry, fearful, and overjoyed all at the same time. Each emotion plays across her face over and over like she can't decide how to react to seeing me at all.
"What the fuck are you three doing here?"
...
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