Yamanaka Ino instinctively scrunched up her body into a ball as the cold, hard ground rushed up to meet her. She hit the ground and rolled forward, allowing the force of impact to disperse across her body. Her instinct served her well, allowing her to walk away with only minor scratches as opposed to broken bones. However, the event left her dazed, rendering her unable to meet the incoming threat.
"Ino, get down!" the speaker screamed, tackling the stupefied blonde to the ground as a hail of kunai flew over them.
"Sakura?" Ino gasped as the pink-haired girl glared at her with inflamed eyes. The bleeding wounds on her forehead and arm showed that Sakura had been less fortunate when the balcony collapsed.
"Stop standing there like a log, piggy! Do you want to die?" the pink-haired girl howled. On the other hand, Sakura seemed to be suffering none of the shock of being suddenly thrown into battle, which was strange. Her friend was usually the more reserved and less adventurous of the two. It was as if an emboldened doppelganger of Haruno Sakura stood in her place.
"Right, sorry, Sakura," Ino muttered, feeling foolish for spacing out in the middle of a battle. The two kunoichi of Team 7 had little time to socialize, however, as Sound genin suddenly appeared.
The resulting battle was short and appropriately summarized by a single word.
"Pathetic," Zaku crowed mockingly. The arrogant genin roughly nudged the defeated blonde lying at his feet. Despite a valiant stand, the Konoha girls were soundly trounced by their opponents. If anything, this defeat was even more shameful and humiliating than the ones they suffered before.
"You guys go on ahead. I'll take care of these two and catch up," offered the only kunoichi on the team. The two boys nodded in agreement.
As her teammates left, Kin turned to her victims and couldn't help but feel a small pang of regret. They reminded her of herself before she was discovered and transformed by Tayuya. It was almost a shame that they would never receive the same opportunity to shine.
"Sorry, but you girls had no business getting yourselves involved in ninja affairs." Ignoring the wretched cries of the blonde kunoichi, Kin slashed out with her kunai at Sakura, who was closer.
The weapon never completed its arc. A storm of shuriken forced the Sound genin to jump clear and abandon her target.
An irritated Kin wanted to yell at the fool that stole her kill and almost impaled her as well when she noticed something strange. While there had been dozens of shuriken in the air, only one remained on the ground. Months of training and living with Tayuya had impressed upon her the obvious signs of a setup. That developed instinct saved her from being cleaved in two by the Konoha ANBU that suddenly appeared behind her.
Initially, the newcomer's appearance didn't worry Kin too much. She was as prepared to fight against ANBU as any genin could be, courtesy of Tayuya's tutelage once more. So instead of being steamrolled, the Sound kunoichi actually went toe-to-toe against the special ops ninja. Briefly, she even entertained thoughts of triumphing over the elite Konoha ANBU. Such a feat would have greatly enhanced her standing, and might even have impressed the ever pessimistic and scathing Tayuya. But her hope was quickly dashed when she tried to go on the offensive.
It should be noted that Tsuchi Kin was neither a particularly brilliant nor an inherently strong ninja. She also did not possess any bloodline limit or any gift for the elements. In Tayuya's words, what she did have was, "an affinity for the best all-purpose trump card any ninja could have."'Simply put, she was very good with illusions and had the ability to turn the tide of battle with them. But that could only happen when her techniques weren't being preemptively blocked. To her growing amazement and horror, she found herself unable to even setup the simplest illusion. When her prized bells, her final trump card, were slashed into pieces less than two seconds after being deployed, Kin realized she was in way over her head.
Since the Konoha ANBU was most likely not charitable enough to allow her to escape unhindered, Kin needed an exit plan. Seeing the two Konoha kunoichi struggle to free themselves from their bindings gave her an idea. The Sound genin feigned a retreat and as her opponent moved to cut her off, she doubled over and shot straight for the two girls.
There were just three things that Kin didn't count on. First, her opponent had noticed her lingering gaze on the two genin and guessed her plan. Second, he happened to be very, very good with the Shunshin no Jutsu. And third, even though he was unwilling to admit it, the Konoha ANBU had a vested interest in the two kunoichi Kin wanted to take hostage.
Kin never made it to Ino and Sakura. She was mere inches away when the Konoha ANBU popped up behind her and rammed his ninjaken through her back between her left shoulder blade and spinal chord. Kin twisted and screamed in pain as she slid off the blade and fell on the frightened Team 7 kunoichi.
Pushing the Sound kunoichi's body off, the ANBU turned to his fellow nin. His blade flashed twice and severed the bindings.
"You two okay?" the ANBU asked. The two girls nodded numbly.
Satisfied with his work, the ANBU turned to leave. But Ino was unwilling to let him go before expressing her gratitude. "Thank you for saving us, eh, Genji-san."
Genji nodded solemnly. "You two need to stay clear of the battle. Let the professionals handle this one." And just like that, he was gone, leaving the two genin and their fallen attacker.
Sakura and Ino, however, weren't left alone for long. Not long after the ANBU had left, another Konoha nin arrived on scene.
"You two all right?" The newcomer, a medic-nin by the look of things, didn't wait for an answer before performing a series of diagnostic techniques. She sighed with relief when she realized neither was seriously hurt. The blood on the two girls made them look worse off than they were. Ino and Sakura watched with silent interest as the medic-nin quickly and efficiently healed their wounds, wrapping them in bandages to prevent infection.
"What about her?" Sakura asked, motioning at the twitching and moaning Sound girl. The Konoha medic dutifully gave the raven-haired girl a cursory diagnostic. The results caused her to shake her head.
"You didn't do this, did you?" the medic asked with noticeable disbelief.
"No, an ANBU did, to save us," Ino explained quickly, not knowing whether to feel insulted or not.
"Figures. I gave her some painkillers but you might want to finish her off." Horrified, the girls of Team 7 wanted to protest, but the medic-nin went on talking before they could. "If you don't, she's going to suffer a very slow and painful death. She has a punctured lung. Your savior must have been one vengeful protector." Having done what she could, the kunoichi disappeared much like Genji did, leaving behind two rather distressed young girls.
"Let's go, Ino," a queasy Sakura suggested. She was eager to leave the area as quickly as possible.
"Wait! We can't just leave her," Ino called out, nodding at the dying Sound nin, who took to calling out to someone named "Tayuya" in her delusional state.
"It's not like we can help her," the pink-haired girl pointed out despondently. Ino, however, found it hard to just turn around and walk away. She realized just how perilously close she and her friend had come to dying. Had Genji not appeared when he did, their situations might have been reversed.
With an evidently shocked Sakura watching from the sideline, Ino drew forth her kunai and performed the admirable task of ameliorating her enemy's pain. Iruka was far from being the poster boy of Konoha ninja, but he instructed his students well. The blonde kunoichi definitely wouldn't have wanted to fumble her mercy kill.
"It's what Haku would have done," the blonde muttered softly as she pocketed her weapon.
Sakura was at a loss for words. Aside from her teammate's extraordinary act, the name of their late friend and enemy struck a chord in the pink-haired girl. She suddenly felt ashamed of her earlier eagerness to flee and leave behind a dying girl. "Ino…"
The blonde turned to her friend with a small, wry smile. "Let's find the others, Sakura," she suggested.