Under the hazy moonlight
Two shadows leapt from the treetops, landing with the leaves that fell in their wake.
"Blood Hound, how much longer until we catch the target?"
The two masked figures one with a crow's face, the other with a hound's were none other than Mist Crow and Blood Hound, ANBU operatives sent under Captain Great Tengu's orders.
At the question, Blood Hound pulled out a standard kunai. Though ordinary in make, its blade edge was stained with dried, blackened blood. He flipped it into a reverse grip and pressed his free hand into a seal. A strange thread of water seeped from his fingertips, creeping over the kunai until it reached the edge and wrapped around the crusted blood.
The clear water turned crimson, as if sensing something, and darted ahead like a thread before Blood Hound reeled it back in and focused.
"Three hours."
"Three hours?" Mist Crow glanced at his watch. "That'll put us at the Hour of Meeting Evil. Not a good omen."
"You actually believe in that?"
Blood Hound gave him a look of disbelief, as if seeing him for the first time.
The elders of Kirigakure called the darkest time before dawn the Hour of Meeting Evil. They swore it was cursed, that demons and ghosts roamed the sky, stealing the souls of those foolish enough to walk alone.
Mist Crow had once mocked them, calling the old ones relics too stubborn to die. And yet now, he was repeating their superstition.
"I didn't believe before…"
Beneath the mask, Mist Crow's face tightened.
But he could not shake the sense that this mission was steeped in danger.
The memory of Dark Fox's corpse, throat pierced and eyes wide in refusal. Naoko, bent and broken in the washroom sink, hands severed. And last
that strange girl with blood on her hands and eyes as dull as stone.
It had to be her.
When their captain declared it, Mist Crow hadn't even asked why. He had trusted the judgment immediately.
Because the first moment he had seen that girl, something had felt wrong.
But he had trusted his own senses too much. The sight of blind eyes and a child's body had lulled him, left him without a reason to act against Mari Kuriu.
At least he had kept her blood as evidence.
Thanks to Blood Hound's blood-tracking technique, they still had a chance to set things right.
"What if Mari Kuriu tries to shield the blind girl when we take her?"
"That's impossible." Mist Crow's tone lightened, carrying its old casual edge again.
"That girl is a bloodline ninja."
"A bloodline ninja? How do you know?"
"Examining Dark Fox's body, I found fine, oval indentations. I searched the archives and matched them to the Kaguya clan's Shikotsumyaku. I don't know how she slipped past my chakra sense, but those wounds could only be made by that technique."
"Kaguya…"
Blood Hound was silent a moment, then let out a dry chuckle. "So she wasn't really a jonin-level threat. Just a bloodline brat who relied on her kekkei genkai to kill him."
"Exactly. That makes more sense. Otherwise a six-year-old jonin would be far too terrifying."
Mist Crow shook his head, banishing the dread from his chest. "The Kurio family's hatred for bloodline clans runs too deep. Mari Kuriu will not side with one. With two tokubetsu jonin and one chunin, against a little girl who hasn't even grown her fangs, we have the overwhelming advantage."
"I'll be a jonin soon."
Blood Hound corrected him in a gruff voice.
"Ha, really? Your chakra feels the same. Still a chunin," Mist Crow teased, probing his comrade's chakra again. Nothing had changed. He frowned.
"I… volunteered for Elder Genshii's research."
Silence.
The night pressed in like a coffin lid.
"You're insane."
Mist Crow's voice turned shrill, like wind forced through a crack.
"They said my body's stronger. I can endure it." Blood Hound laughed awkwardly and pounded his chest with a broad hand.
"Ninety-seven percent mortality. What do you think you'll lower it to?"
"Eighty… wait, how do you know?"
"… Ninety-two. Forget it. Let's keep moving."
Cursing under his breath, Mist Crow sprang forward.
…
The night grew heavier.
Inside the tent, the girl snapped awake.
What was that?
Konome Taketori opened her Byakugan, scanning her body. Nothing wrong.
But the feeling lingered.
She closed her eyes again, letting her heightened sight ripple through her blood. The vessels trembled like plucked strings, a faint vibration spreading.
It was like a voice calling through a distant megaphone, the signal faint, broken, yet growing clearer and closer.
That way.
Her head turned east. Back toward Kirigakure.
Byakugan, open!
Veins bulged grotesquely. Her pale eyes darkened, depths widening.
One kilometer… two…
The pressure of chakra nearly made her dizzy, but then
She saw them.
Two figures, following a stream of blood-water, bounding through the forest straight toward her.
ANBU. From the gates of Kirigakure.
They had found her.
At that speed
Three minutes.
They would be on her in three minutes.
What now?
Konome glanced outside.
The fire had burned low. Mari Kuriu sat on watch, feeding it with a branch.
Would she fight ANBU for me?
Konome's veined face curved into a bitter smile.
What dream am I clinging to?
Even Ice Release is branded monstrous. What would they think of me, carrying two bloodlines? A freak among freaks.
Even without that, as the ANBU captain's sister, Mari Kuriu would never betray Kirigakure to protect me.
The Byakugan showed the two ANBU drawing nearer, their chakra only a shade below Mari's. Add her squad three tokubetsu jonin, three skilled genin.
This was the storm awaiting a six-year-old girl.
What a cruel world.
She slipped off her cloak, revealing the fitted black beneath.
Through her vision, six bright flares of chakra burned in the night like bonfires.
And she, the moth.
Drawn to the flame.
One touch, and she would burn.