The shadowy figure met the shields and froze, pushing back against the energy in an attempt to break through. It failed and the figure rebounded back, landing on his feet and sliding back a yards back before coming to a stop. It assessed the situation for a second or two before moving back in. This time it brought its katanas in from the left and right aiming to cut him in half at the waist.

Tsu grinned as she watched the archer switch his attention to the shadow summon. "Remember what I promised to do?" she asked, letting go of the arm to suddenly stab her sharp claw covered fingers into the man's eye sockets. It would no doubt be more effective than strangling.

Jedan hollered in pain and dropped his Ohm Shield, clutching at his face as she tore into his face. He grabbed her hand by the wrist and pulled it away sharply. He felt as though he was going to vomit when his vision suddenly altered. It was quite disturbing to see one's eyeball attached to a woman's fingernail, mere inches from one's face. He winced and twisted her arm away, letting her keep his damn eye. He'd be screwed if the shadow summon struck him with the swords, there was no way he'd be able to bring up another shield in his condition. He clutched his face and released a surge of chakra through all of his points. With a Poof! of smoke, he vanished from before the two of them.

"ONE MORE FIGHT AND MAYBE I'LL BE ABLE TO MAKE ANOTHER ONE OF YA OUT OF THE SPARE PARTS!" Tsu yelled at the top of her shrill little girl voice, picking up the arm and waving both the eye and the arm in the air at the same time. She yelped as she was tackled suddenly by her own clone. She -looked around, realizing that she'd just been saved from the seeking arrow. Barely. "Shit." she muttered as she took off. She needed to fake the arrow out.

When the jutsu's caster vanished from the field, his influence over the arrow vanished along with it. After the clone knocked Tsu over, the arrow thudded into the tree trunk and ceased its movement.

The shadow figure aborted its attack and stood motionless, waiting for the target's return or new orders. Hinji stepped out from the shadow of a tree. "Do you think he will come back?" He asked Tsu, "Or has he fled the fight for good?"

"Oh, I think he's left for now." Tsu said with a nod "He's gone for the others at least. He's injured, so no doubt he's looking for back up. Either another enemy, or one of his brothers."

Hinji stood there and waited to see if she would give any sort of instruction. "Should we return to the wagons or should we wait to be ambushed?"

"Well, perhaps we should go check for the girls. If they're not dead, they went back to the caravan already." Tsu said, looking thoughtful "It might be an idea to try and track the archers down, make sure they're dead."

"They're not dead." Hinji said, "The girls are not that easily defeated and the archers were only slightly wounded."

"Lets go then." Tsu said with a little shrug, moving away towards the direction that Akane and Kami had vanished to. She was still holding the pieces of her attacker.

Hinji followed behind Tsu with his swordsman following closely behind him. His bird was flitting from tree to tree trying to keep an eye out for any signs of ambush.

---

Akane looked to Kami, "We need to get moving!"

"One sec." Kami said and used some of her valuable chakra by making a few hand signs and striking the funnel with a brilliant flash of lightning.

The archer howled in pain as the lightning struck him. He was quite glad that he was the wind natured of his brothers. It was the only thing that kept him alive after the blast.

"Okay, now-" Akane said and grabbed Kami's arm, "Before another pops up."

There was the muffled sound of jutsu being released as Jedan appeared within the funnel cloud. "Trys! What in the name of Kuraitsu?!" He was bleeding from his eye socket, a large gaping hole where his eye had once been. His words were greatly muffled by the roaring winds of the tornado. He grabbed a hold of his brother and sliced through the wire with a kunai.

Kami felt the wire go slack. "Right." She said. "It'll take more than a minute to recover from that and as she joined Akane's side, she grabbed her hand, propelling them forward with leg power rather than letting Akane waste her chakra on movement.

"Aren't we out of elements for crying out loud!?" Akane called to her as they flew.

"Those were the brothers controlling lightning and wind." Kami said. "It's likely we didn't slow them down for long. "I can't throw lightning strong enough to take out another lightning user and wind trumps lightning... The best we can do is get back to the caravan and let Tsu Sensei and Hinji handle them.

"You really think I meant for you to show up in here with me, Jedan?" Trys replied as his brother carried him free of the funnel. "Damn little girls are better than you said they were."

"If we make it out of here, you can bet I'll be letting old Tetsu know that his intel sucked." Jedan replied and grimaced, moving a hand up to his face and holding his empty socket. The last thing he wanted to do was tell Tetsu anything...the man scared the hell out of him, but it was his fault for giving them weak intel on their enemy. Because of that, he'd lost two brothers and his right eye.

The two brothers landed outside of the funnel cloud and Jedan grimaced as he saw the state his brother Trys was in. "You look worse off than me, and I've lost an eye." He set the man down and stuck a thumb towards his own face. "Wrap this up, would you?"

Trys groaned and tore a sleeve from his shirt, wrapping it about his brother's head snugly. The man was lucky it was a clean plucking, didn't look like they'd have to worry much about infection. He couldn't help but wonder what sort of tool the ninja had used to remove it from him...

"I hope they can handle them." Akane called to Kami as they traveled. "Tsu sensei was swinging around a guy's arm like a weirdo..."

"We might want to hang back." Kami said. "Use his tactics against them. At least until Tsu Sensei and Hinji engage them."

"Then let's get this over with. These guys are morons." Akane scoffed. A booming chord sounded over the forest that gave Akane a nagging worry for El and the others. "We never should have split up like this... we are completely feeding into their palms."

"They're wounded and half what they were." Kami said. "We can surround them if we work properly."

"Think we could give them one heck of a storm?" Akane asked, noting her wind and Kami's lightning.

"You're suggesting we combine our chakra..." Kami said. "That is chunin level training..." If they could actually pull off something even half resembling combining their chakra it would be one hell of a destructive force for their ages. "Master Risu might be able to show us something..."

"I don't think we have time for that." Akane said honestly. "Let's just snuff out these goons while they are distracted by their own stupidity."

"Hello ladies." Tsu said with a little smile to Akane and Kami as she came across them "How'd it go?" She had an extra grisly body part, so that showed how her fight had gone.

"What the fuck is the matter with you. Get rid of that!" Akane said suddenly to Tsu sensei. She didn't understand why this woman was so fucked up weird.

"We're trying to decide how to surround and take out the remaining archers." Kami said, wishing that despite Tsu Sensei's eccentricities, Akane would be a little more respectful.

HinjiRemained silent along with his shadow swordsman. Last he knew, they had no idea where the archers had vanished to. So the fact that they were making a plan to surround him caught him as odd.

Tsu shook her head and tutted at Akane "Respect your elders Akane, or you'll be eating this eyeball." She looked around at the surrounding forest "Any idea where they went?"

"Yeah." Akane said, trying not to roll her eye. "Right there." she pointed directly to where the two archers were chatting.

The two brothers looked down at the regrouped ninja and groaned. They had thought they'd have a moment or two before that would happen... "You'll have to do the shooting, Trys..." Jedan explained and brought his hand to touch the bandages on his head.
"Yeah yeah, your aim sucks now more than ever." Trys told him with a smirk. He brought his bow up and knocked an arrow. "Just pour your chakra into me and we'll call it even."

Tsu grinned at the sight. "And you girls just let them stand around?" she asked as she readied her weapons "Hello boys!"

Hinji's swordsman wasted no time. Once the archers were spotted, it took off at a sprint, using the trees as jumping points to gain elevation.

"We have the same chakra types." Kami told Tsu sensei. "Wind trumps my lightning and the lightning user is formidable. I'm trying to reserve what's left of my chakra. At least until you two got here."

"We thought about attacking together. But if you two can handle it, be my guest." Akane said.

Tsu nodded "Smart girl Kami." She chuckled gently, licking her lips and darting forward. She would take the opportunity before it vanished.

Trys breathed in sharply as he felt his brother's hand on his side. He twisted his shot and released the arrow, sending a fresh surge of chakra into the haft. The arrow flew through the air, intending to find its mark in the swordsman's face.
Jedan's hand tightened on his brother when he saw the little girl dart towards them. "Trys.." He pleaded, he was incapable of finding his target without his second eye to balance out the trajectory.
Trys brought his hand up, making a quick gesture of a hand sign, "Wind style - Tempest Blades!" Several arcs of chakra shot forth from before the man, swirling outwards and slashing through the air, hoping to fend her off before she got too close

"They've almost had it." Kami told Akane. "If you want to go on, go, but I'm going to help Tsu and Hinji."

"Well I might as well wait at this point." Akane said, sounding annoyed with all the standing around.

The swordsman caught the arrow directly in the face which caused him to do a backflip before poofing away. Well., Hinji though to himself as he pulled another card, "That worked about as well as I thought it would" he looked at the card with a frown, it was the spiked monkey one he made in town. He wanted to wait for a controlled environment before trying it, but this was card for the situation. He tossed it and with a poof the card spawned four of the monkeys, but they were the size of a small house cat. Hinji shook his head and pointed towards the archers, the creatures leaped onto the trees and towards their targets.

Kami left Akane's company and disappeared into the trees, endeavoring to circle around while the archers were focused on Tsu sensei.

There was a sudden twist in the air, a groan from Tsu as the chakra sliced the air and she did her best to avoid it. She had to pull back a bit, but the moment she hit the floor, she found her footing and attempted to dodge her way past the chakra burst.

"Collaboration?" Trys asked his brother, looking over at him with a wide grin. They certainly wouldn't be expecting him to be doing anything other than shooting, especially given their current experience with them. He was already forming the handsigns for his own half of the jutsu, figuring his brother certainly wouldn't refuse. "Wind style - Cumulonimbus!"
Jedan nodded and moved his hands quickly. "Lightning style - Rolling Thunder!"
The clouds rolled off from Trys's shoulders, swirling about him, as the lightning did the same around his brother. "Collaboration Jutsu - Thundercloud Dragon!" The brothers shouted in unison, their two individual jutsu swirling together, the white puffy clouds turning dark grey, then black as they absorbed the lightning. They twisted up over the two men and then formed a long bodied dragon. The roar that issued from the dragon's mouth with a sharp peel of thunder, lightning rippling along it's open maw.

Seeing the cloud dragon forming, Hinji realized they were going to be in for a hell of a time. They were going to have to hurry and take out the brothers. His summons moved forward at a rapid pace, hopefully unseen by the cloud dragon.

The jutsu was impressive, but so was the speed in which Kami attacked. Building speed as she ran, she struck a branch, allowed the natural elasticity of the branch to whip back and jettison her forward. The only thing she lacked was breaking the sound barrier as she crashed into the two ninja, twin fists finding their twin jaws in an effort to take their heads off before their jutsu could hurt her friends.

Meanwhile, Akane stood on a branch and merely watched from afar. It's not that she didn't want to help, but too many cooks in the kitchen would only make this fight complicated and sloppy. Besides... they seemed to have things under control.

"I took down a real version of you, do you really think I'm scared?!" Tsu yelled at the large chakra dragon in front of her. She braced, taking a deep breath and hitting the floor again as she got ready to dodge. She was being the distraction here, she knew that already. She just hoped that the others could finish the two off.

Jedan didn't see the girl coming and his head snapped back sickeningly as her fist connected with his jaw. Trys had seen her movement, but only just enough to be able to brace himself. He tucked his chin as her fist connect and rolled with the blow, flinging himself upwards with her momentum.

The thundercloud dragon roared, great booming thunder issued from its maw as it coiled downwards after Tsu. There was no telling what would happen to her if the dragon managed to sink its teeth into her.

Jedan fell from the tree and crashed loudly into the brush below. He groaned audibly and then fell silent as his mind slipped from consciousness.

Hinji saw one of the brothers fall and stop moving, "Akane. Keep an eye on this one." He called out as he moved in closer to the other archer. As soon as the other archer took to the air, Hinji's spiked monkey quartet let loose a constant torrent of pine cone sized spikes.

"I'm on it." Akane said and dropped down to the ground where the fallen archer was laying. She wasted no time in taking his weapons and tieing him up. Should he wake, he could be used for questioning.

Tsu tossed a weapon at the giant creature, making sure she had its attention before she dashed away, trying to lead it a merry march into the woods. Electric chakra couldn't split wood too easy, but this was a powerful jutsu indeed, so she didn't trust the trees to stop the beast entirely.

Trys dodged the spikes easily, they were big enough after all. "Cute little buggers." He taunted Hinji as he leaped out of the way of the monkeys. He made a few handsigns, "Wind style - Cyclone Shove!" He pushed outwards with his hands and a tremendous wind swirled before him, growing in intensity as it pushed outwards, rocketing him backwards through the air while simultaneously forcing the ninja back as well.

The wind chakra of the dragon jutsu sharpened as the trees became obstacles. It sliced clean through the wood as it came in contact with it. The trees fell wherever the dragon touched, sending great chunks of broken wood crashing down to the forest's floor.

Kami, seeing the cyclone jutsu came in from the side, attempting a similar maneuver as before, using her momentum to slingshot herself towards the evading ninja from an angle which avoided the cyclone.

The spike monkeys had no trouble keeping up with the fleeing ninja, throwing spikes with whatever appendage was not currently gripping a tree branch or limb. Hinji leaped from through the air, trying to avoid the attack. He was caught by the tail end and spun like a top, sideways, before being plopped to the ground. He used his walking stick to help himself back up.

Tsu didn't try to dart or dodge or avoid, she was too busy running as quickly as possible away. She was trying to outstrip lightening, and she knew that this was going to be very difficult. She could beat it at the beginning, but she knew she would tire first.

Akane lifted her head and could hear the commotion happening several yards away in the woods. She had the archer without the eye tied up securely and stripped of his weapons. Crouching down, she slapped his cheek a bit, "Wake up!"

---

"If you gouge the other one out, then won't I need two instead?" Was what Jedan replied to her with. He grinned from ear to ear and couldn't help but laugh a little when she offered up her kunai. "Why don't you cut me loose, girlie? Maybe then I'll tell you."

Akane gave him a look to show that she was not amused. Her palm slapped on his forehead and forced it hard onto the grass and keeping it in place. "Last chance." she said and edged the tip of the blade to his lower eyelid, pressing down to expose the white of his eye. "Tell me what I want to know."

Jedan grimaced as she pressed the blade to his eye. "Can't do it, cutie. How's that asset of yours feel? I bet Trys would love to stick his arrow in you again." He sneered, not even trembling from the threat of her kunai. If he told, Tetsu would do far worse to him and to Trys...

Akane puckered her lips and held them to the side, looking down at him with an unamused expression. Her kunai kept at his lower eyelid while her other hand lifted up and held her two first fingers together. Jedan suddenly felt six rapid thunks on his chest, shoulders and hips that made his body feel heavy and lifeless. He was still conscious, but his body wasn't reacting to his commands. "You'll be practice for me then." Akane said casually before digging the blade into his eyesocket Her hand made a short, sawing motion into his skull, carving out the eye and working to slice the optic nerve. Jedan saw his world be shaken while the eye was turned and rubbed up against her knife.

Kami had slowed up and was coming around to see if Akane needed help. She obviously didn't because what Kami saw made her stomach turn. She snatched Akane's wrist and drew her hand away from the man's face. "What are you doing?!" She couldn't believe Akane was actually capable of torture.

Jedan couldn't do much of anything but bite the inside of his cheek. He would not scream for her, no matter how painful the extraction would be. He grinned when Kami stopped her, a chuckle making its way from his chest. Without his eye, he was already done for anyway, it wouldn't make much difference whether or not she took his remaining one. The same went for when he killed his brother, an archer without an arm was as useless as an archer with only one eye...

Akane's face shot a glare at Kami, offended that she would stop her like this. "I'm working here!" she argued, pulling her hand with the kunai back. Hearing the faint chuckle of the archer, Akane grew enraged. His eye was exposed as it lacked lids on both the top and bottom. Blood poured over the man's face and pooled around his skull and yet he taunted her by laughing.

"He isn't going to talk." Kami argued with her. "He's missing an eye, he already might as well be dead in his mind. This does nothing but mark you as barbaric."

Akane looked down at the archer and thought about Kami's words. She was probably right in that regard. Having not yet severed the optic nerve, Jedan could still see, but his eye couldn't move when he tried to look elsewhere. The muscles had been severed and it left him with a horrible disfigurement.

"Heal it..." Kami said. "If he dies in battle that's one thing... but... this? ... That's not who you are..."

"What?! No way! I'm not healing this asshole." Akane argued, "You know what guys like this are capable of and he's working with our enemy. He's made his choice and I've made mine." 

"Doesn't matter..." Jedan mumbled, breaking the silence of his torture. It didn't matter, if she healed him, she'd be wasting her own chakra, he was dead as soon as she let him go anyway.

"You've made a choice to mutilate and torture a man who deserves to die in battle." Kami told her. "You keep saying you've changed... prove it now..."




Trys was running out of options, even with his brother's borrowed chakra... He knew he couldn't outrun them, not even on his best day was he the faster of the four brothers... The cyclone shove got him far enough away from the majority of them, but that fur-clad girl had avoided his attack entirely. Not to mention the damned monkey-things... He batted away many of their spikes, but he cried out as one landed in the middle of his thigh. He landed briefly to pull the spike from his flesh, cursing when he lost sight of the girl.

As the distance between Trys and the dragon lengthened, the jutsu began to slowly disperse. It wasn't meant for extended use in the first place, after all. It charged after Tsu, seeking her hungrily, mimicking its namesake quite effectively. The thunder boomed from its jaws as it swooped downward to enclose her, at the last moment the jutsu broke and exploded in a brilliant flash of lightning, deafening peal of thunder, and a powerful gust of wind.

Jedan woke with a start as Akane slapped him across the face. He looked about quickly and struggled when he noticed he was bound. He glared at the one eyed woman darkly and couldn't help but chuckle as he noticed his predicament. "You haven't got a spare one of those patches, do ya?"

"If you don't answer my questions, I'll gorge the other one out and you won't need it." Akane threatened, taking out a kunai for good measure. "Tell me about your hire." she demanded.

Tsu let out a happy little giggle as the dragon disappeared, ignoring the fact she'd been about to wet herself a moment before. She bounced off a tree, then made her way quickly back towards the others. She hoped they weren't in trouble at all. As she flipped over Akane and Jedan she smiled to the girl, saying "Good job." before continuing on to chase Trys.

Once Hinji was back on his feet, he was off after his summons. He was worried that they would be taken out and then they would lose the archer. He had to be there to make sure he didn't get away.

Trys was panting for breath, hiding behind the trunk of a large tree as he tied off the blood flow to his leg. Damned little monkey thing had gotten him good...If he didn't get out of here soon he wasn't going to.

The spiked monkeys were sticking a tree, rather thoroughly, by the time Hinji arrived. He assumed that the archer was behind the tree. He snapped his fingers and pointed at a few places, the monkeys stopped what they were doing and spread out around the tree. "You're injured, aren't you? Otherwise you would not have stopped moving. How about you surrender and our medic can help you out before you go to prison."

"I don't know what you're talking about! Never felt better!" Trys shouted from the opposite side of the tree. The movement of the creatures was certainly not lost on him. "Just out of curiosity, those spikes, are they poisonous? I must congratulate you on a wonderful summons, even if they are not. Remarkable creatures."

"Oh yes, quite poisonous. Why do you think I let them go ahead of me? It was to keep me out of the line of fire." Hinji said, bluffing his opponent quite nicely. "They are actually the result of a mistake, they should have been larger and only one." He made a gesture with his hand and one of the creatures threw a spike, purposely missing the archer and hitting the left side of the tree. " They are getting anxious, you should probably surrender now. They don't like to listen to 'No' too often."

"_{I got}cha haND!" Tsu almost screamed as she came through the trees like a missile, still wielding the arm as an avenging weapon. She was a blur of noise, mostly giggling, as she searched for the last archer. She clocked his hiding place, disappearing behind a tree before she made for him like an arrow, holding the arm high to land a killing blow.

Trys was shocked by the sudden appearance of Tsu rocketing towards him. He dodged out of her way at the last second, landing on the ground and cursing as his makeshift bandage snapped and blood shot from the wound on his leg. He looked around quickly, out numbered and in close combat, this was not at all what Jedan had promised... He was in no condition to flee now, he didn't think he could jump back up if his life depended on it, and with that crazy little girl up there it probably did. He dropped his bow and looked at Hinji as he raised his hands. "Keep her away from me and you've got a deal."

Hinji snapped his fingers and three of the spike monkeys turned and leaped at Tsu to keep her from attacking again, while the fourth dropped down and ran over to the surrendering archer. He used a spike to snap the bow in half and then used the bow string to tie the archer's hands from wrist to fingertip to prevent secret hand signs. "Now, while we wait for our medic to get here, why don't you tell me a bit about yourself and your late brothers and what you all were doing here. And no dilly-dallying or I'll let my sensei loose on you again."

Tsu pouted, staying up in her tree and crossing her arms, three of them in fact. She glowered at the shadow creature, then watched Hinji taking care of the archer down there. Good, she'd hoped one of them would have been smart enough to surrender.

"I am Trys Iteza, third of four brothers. Together the four of us posed as Iteza Locksley, the Assassin Archer." He replied, looking down at the broken remains of his bow. "A real shame you broke that..."

"Why were you after the weapon?" Hinji asked, "What plan does your employer have for it?"

"Did you have to break my bow?" Trys asked him in return, looking down at the remnants. "Surely you could've used some other string, you didn't have to use mine...Do you know how much a bow like that costs these days?" He was rambling, avoiding Hinji's questions really.

Hinji walked closer and picked up one of the bow halves. "It does not look impressive." He said before striking the archer across the face with it, like a glove. "Why are you after the weapon? What is the plan that requires this weapon?"

"ANSWER THE QUESTION!" Tsu yelled from above, dropping a few large pine-cones onto Trys' head from her place above him. She was going to do what she could, which was being menacing from a distance.

Trys flinched and scowled first at Hinji, then looked up and repeated the gesture towards Tsu. "First off, ow. And of course it doesn't look impressive, it's broken. We're after 'the weapon' because we are being paid for it. I don't know what Tetsu has planned for it. The old man pays us to not ask questions, and he pays really well for someone who looks the way he does..."

Tsu was leaning over towards, trying to over hear what the man was saying. He was keeping an eye on the archer, frowning slightly. He was being very cooperative, and that worried her a bit, but it felt as if he was stalling. Maybe she was just paranoid.

The question Hinji had asked had been answered, so he did not strike the archer again. "Is Tetsu a part of the attack, or is your 'team' supposed to meet him somewhere after you've retrieved the weapon?"

"Look kid, quit calling it a weapon. I don't even know if it is a weapon. Couldn't tell you what it was if I saw it, either." Trys responded and fidgeted a little, glancing around, hoping nobody was listening in. "If no one shows up at the rendezvous with the package, Tetsu will come for it himself, that's all I know."

Hinji paused for a second, "So you're telling me that some of the most dangerous ninjas were recruited by one man to pick up something from a heavily guarded caravan, and they have no idea what the thing looks like?" He looked at the man incredulously, " You're gonna have to work harder to make me believe that."

"Tell him I'm gonna do horrible things to him if he doesn't help!" Tsu called down from the tree, watching from a distance and wondering if she shouldn't just shatter the summon trying to stop her and go down there herself to do some questioning.

"I can hear you just fine you know." Trys shouted up to the trees. "What I'm telling you is the answers to your questions, whether you want to believe them or not is your problem." He shrugged a little, "Besides, I never said I didn't know what it looked like."

"Where is the rendezvous point and how long did he give you guys to get back?" Hinji asked, deciding to change the topic of questioning.

"You'll have to ask Jedan that." Trys replied with a shrug. "As far as any of the others were concerned, he is Iteza Locksley, we don't exist. As the rendezvous didn't matter to our roles, he didn't share it."

"Then you are no longer of use to me." Hinji said as he tossed put the broken pieces of the bow into his kimono belt, "Tsu sensei, he is all yours." And with that, the spike monkies jumped away from her and followed Hinji as he left to meet back up with the girls.

Tsu landed in front of him with a loud whump she looked around at Hinji, then as he disappeared she looked down at Trys and said "I can do two things. I can finish you quick, or I can take you back as our prisoner. That being, if we fail in what we're doing, your boss will no doubt want to... use you as an example. So chose."

"Oh, that's a real tough decision. Let you kill me while I'm completely defenseless, or be taken prisoner and hope Tetsu doesn't find me?" Trys said, looking at her in disbelief. "I would much rather live, thank you very much. Prisoner is quite fine by me."

"Well, at least that shows some confidence that we won't fail." Tsu said, suddenly roundhousing the man to knock him out. She would carry him back with the others, so she had to pick up the heavier man and make her way back towards Akane and Kami.

---

"I'm trying to get answers!" Akane argued, "These men don't care about our lives or the lives of the innocents...why should we care about his?"

"Because it separates us from them." Kami pleaded. "It's what makes us better... Akane... please..."

Akane looked at Kami and took a deep breath through her nostrils. Holding onto the handle of her kunai, she made a flinging motion and splattered the blood on Jedan's body to clean it before putting it back in her satchel. "What a waste." she remarked and wiped her hands on his shirt.

"Heal him." Kami said. "Don't leave him like that... take it back..."

Akane huffed with annoyance and held her hand over the fallen man's socket. A minty blue glow hovered down onto him. When she moved her hand, his eye was fixed. Bruised and a bit swollen, but working and no longer bleeding. "Happy?"

"Yes." Kami said and was smiling. "Alright. Let's try this without full out torture."

"Be my guest." Akane said and gestured for her to give it a whirl. No doubt she wouldn't get much further than she had.

"Yes please." Jedan said with a taunting smirk as he looked at Kami. "You're certainly prettier than she is, maybe all you have to do is ask."

"I could ask." Kami said, kneeling beside him. "And I can also let you scream and rave in madness if you'd prefer. I've been working on a genjutsu... It's not perfected yet, I don't know what could happen if I used it on you."

"Asking would be simpler, for both of us." Jedan told her with a smirk and attempted to shrug, but his arms refused to move. Whatever Akane had done to him, it only permitted his head to move apparently.

"Why are you attempting to stop the caravan?" Kami asked. "Who are you working for?"

Jedan shook his head, a great smirk across his face. "Being paid to. The Weapon Masters." He answered truthfully, perhaps a little too truthfully.

"Keh-" Akane scoffed with irritation at how willingly this man gave up the info she was looking for.

"We knew that much already." Kami said. "Tell me why you wish to stop it."

"You're asking the same question twice, sweet cheeks." Jedan told her with a smirk. He was beginning to become a little delirious from his wounds, despite Akane having healed his eye, she had done nothing to the other one.

Its not like there was anything she could do for his other eye anyway. It was destroyed. All Akane could do was patch up the cut.

"What motivation was there to hire you?" Kami asked. "You may be motivated my money, but what of your master?"

"Motivation? We're the best archer in the world." Jedan replied with a smirk. If she wanted a more elaborate answer, she might just have to use her jutsu.

There was a swift kick to the man's stomach. "Hey smart ass! You better give us what we wanna know!" Akane threatened, hoping Kami would see now why she had carved out the man's eye.

Jedan doubled over and groaned, unable to grasp his stomach from the blow, despite the instinctual need for it. "Or what? You'll kill me?"

"If you won't talk I'm forced to use my genjutsu." Kami said, preforming the first of the hand signs. "I don't know what will happen... but I wouldn't be surprised if this left you insane..." She was mostly making threats. She had used it on Kano and he had turned out just fine...right?

"You might as well give it a try. I'm no use as an archer any more..." Jedan told her, glaring at her. He was speaking the truth, her threats of insanity did not frighten him. If he was taken their prisoner...Tetsu would kill him, it wasn't as if they could send him somewhere, they'd have to keep him with them... And when they reached Tetsu, he was a dead man.

Kami rose and looked to Akane, nodding her head to come with her. She walked a few steps away.

"Leaving so soon, sweet cheeks?" Jedan asked as the two girls walked back. He had thought she was going to cast a jutsu on him, so why was she walking away?

Akane stepped away and said in a hushed voice, "Empty threats don't work on this guy... I told you."

"I think Ishiaki Sensei might be able to get more out of him." Kami said. "Or even Master Risu. I do not have the stomach to torture him and I don't believe my Genjutsu will break him... I hoped the threat of madness was enough..."

"I'm not so sure he is going to spill..." Akane admitted, "I almost carved his other eye out completely and he didn't speak. I think he is a lost cause."

Jedan chuckled, looking up at the two girls. "Lost cause....Funny, I was thinking the same thing about the two of you."

"HEY!" Akane snapped around to face him, "You better watch your mouth before I carve something ELSE out of you!"

"Ohhhhh I don't think you will. Not with your lovely conscience standing right there next to you. She won't let you carve me up like a turkey." Jedan sneered back. "Why don't you release whatever you've done to me and we see if you like getting stabbed in the ass again?" It was a strange question, considering he had no weapons for which to stab her with...

Kami saw the fire in Akane's eyes as she began to storm her way over to him.

A small, but powerful bolt of lightning struck Jedan in the chest and Kami looked rather... rather pissed all of a sudden. She held her hand outstretched, blue arcs of lightning connecting her to the man against the tree. Thanks to him he was sitting on the ground, which probably saved his life. Then again, Kami wouldn't kill an unarmed man. The lightning flashed out and left the center of his chest smoking lightly.

"If you kill him, he can't answer our questions." Hinji said as he walked towards the girls. "Me and Tsu sensei just killed his brother, so he is the only one left that can answer any more questions."

Jedan cackled with laughter, his flesh burning from Kami's lightning touch. He shook his head from side to side as Hinji tried to lie to him. "I don't respond well to empty threats, boy."

"I wasn't trying to kill him." Kami said. "If I had been he'd be dead."

"Believe what you want." Hinji said as he threw the broken pieces of the brother's bow in front of the man, out of his reach. "I didn't carve that out of a tree branch on my way over here. Also, he cried and begged for his life like a baby for its mother's milk."

"You're a horrible liar, boy." Jedan replied with a smirk. "You have no idea who you're up against." He shook his head lightly, not believing for a second that his last brother was dead.