The curious assassination (P)

[Amelie]

Tamako was now alone stalking the usual cargo workers of the clan when she heard their plan. As usual these workers were a loudmouths and told her exactly when and where they will be taking their illegal goods to. This time they were going a little too far, one of the dirty workers mentioned young meat. Were they transporting people? This was curious since the Hyuuga clan has never done this in her entire life, or at least if they did, she had no clue about it.

It was already past noon and she had time to prepare everything needed. Her henchmen were going to be a little busy this evening. The entire operation should start at around 18:00 where the cargo workers would load their merchandise. Tamako went into her house to get her precious soul gem since the woman had a bad premonition about this mission. It was a high stake operation, the slavers were no pushovers. If something would happen to her, the woman would at least have a backup plan, but who was trusted to bring her back?

[Skulking Shinzu]

“Tamako! A pleasure as always.” Zuruel recognized the footsteps of the girl. Unlike bulkier individuals, hers were light and well-calculated. Such subtle differences were difficult to detect for most sensors and individuals with enhanced hearing, but not Zuruel. His prowess with Bard abilities were almost supernatural. No sounds within a 90m radius of himself could ever escape his keen and ever-analyzing ears. “Now now, what is all this? Planning on some fun without me?” The Kedoin spotted the array of gear. Tamako was clearly preparing for a mission. Why hadn’t she requested for Zuruel’s help? Did she not trust him yet, or did she simply feel it wasn’t worth his time? While pondering over the topic, he leaned against a wall and tapped at the edge of a door frame to place a permanent Hiraishin seal on the structure. Realizing he had yet to mark the village, he decided this was the best opportunity in order to gain quick access to it.

[Amelie]

Just when she thought there was nobody around she could trust, not even her old team it seems. Zuruel has appeared, like a godsend. "Ah, it is you Zuruel. Long time no see." she said and her face lit up. The mission was about her clan, therefore she could not bring anyone to it anyways, this was an internal matter among the Hyuuga. "Zuruel, I need your help." she announced, he might have thought that she was going to ask him to do a mission with her but that was not the case.

"I am going to a dangerous mission soon, and just in case anything happens take this gem." she showed him the gem and passed it forward. "Using this gem, you can resurrect me. But do not do it anytime soon after death." she ended. Obviously this was going to be a very dangerous mission from what she has told him. "Do not follow me, this is a Hyuuga matter." she quickly said "Good bye for now." her tone was neutral.

It was imperative the assassin took this gem, who knows what she could encounter. With that farewell, she left him standing there while she herself went to her hideout.

[Skulking Shinzu]

“Happy to oblige, but I fear I am short on time…” Before Zuruel could outright dismiss the request, it appeared that the young Hyuuga’s request was a simple one. “You only need me to look after the gem? Very well.” Zuruel was a cautious individual. Normally he’d refuse out of fear of the gem being some sort of explosive or worse. However, he recognized the faint shimmer inside of it. This was a soul gem. Not unlike the one he had stashed away with a sliver of his own soul in Mo’s alchemy lab. “This sounds ominous… But good luck.” Upon pocketing the gem, Zuruel placed a hand on the girls shoulder and with a gentle tap of his finger, slyly marked her clothing with a Hiraishin seal. “Stay safe.” He smiled before leaving the girl to her business. His next stop was Leaf’s tower. Or so it seemed...

[Amelie]

Tamako and her henchmen were finally ready for the operation. For this one she doned her usual purple outfit with the leaf headband tightly wrapped around her wrist. She was wearing greaves to protect her legs plus gauntlets (Left: Shock Enhancement, Cryo Enhancement, Enhancement Stabilizer and (Right: Thermal Enhancement, Enhancement Stabilizer) and the modified sniper crossbow.

The young hyuuga set up shop on the roof of the warehouse. With a quick activation of her byakugan she scanned the area. Inside the warehouse were indeed people already, there were small constructs that looked like metal cages. Her henchmen were in place, they gave their statuses before waiting for the workers to start. It took them a while, a good time for Tamako to unwrap her sniper crossbow. Before she was done, she heard some banging noise coming from the warehouse.

The workers has just brought some children through the back door, she was told by one of her henchmen. The hyuuga checked the facts with her own eyes, there were about ten children being forced into the metal cages. "The bastards" she cursed silently for all her henchmen to hear her. Not long before the workers seemed to paralyze their victims that fought against being put into cages. Her aim was to wait till the workers finished loading the children into their transports and then picked her team would come in.

Finally done, she gave the signal. Everyone jumped into their targets while she shot one worker in his abdomen. A short fight ensued as normal and in the end the hyuuga won against those workers. Tamako scanned the area again to see if anyone was still around, little did she know that the transports were filled with mercenaries the clan hired especially against their own clan jutsus. They were hiding securely between hyuuga non scannable walls, once her henchmen opened the transportation they would be surprised by them.

Even Tamako was down at the transport and so her long range sniper crossbow was useless. She had to resort to hand to hand combat. Using her jyuuken the girl has killed almost a dozen mercenaries before the main mercenary force arrived. It was really fast, her eyes could hardly follow this cloak mans movements, he stabbed her a few times but somehow Tamako still managed to take those. She was kind of tired of fighting those other mercenaries and was not in peak form anymore.

The man kept shooting water techniques her way but was quickly deflected by her rotation chakra techniques. He kept his distance, whenever Tamako came closer he would disappear even further. This was a predicament since she was already bleeding and could not find anytime to stop it. Tamako had to resort to shooting chakra punches at the guy that caused her leaf headband to fly away but miraculously the man counter-attacked with his own chakra punch. That was when she realized the man she was fighting was also another hyuuga.

She could not think of any possibly strong hyuuga that would go against the main house, unless they were ordered to by the head of the main house. She cursed her father as it could have only been him, both hyuugas exchanged a few more blows before Tamako was out of breath. She underestimated her enemy, the henchmen all looked like they were beaten already and the rest of the mercenary force has already surrounded her. There was no other choice then, with all her might she went into a little rage.

Tamako was almost out of the encirclement when she felt a cold sharp blade go through her back. She had no chance seeing it as the other hyuuga knew by now where her blind spot was. Was this the end? Bleeding and stumbling the woman continued to run from the encirclement. All she could hear now were footsteps behind her and the sound of a running water. Was she already at the great cliffs? That would become her last stand probably as the woman has ran into a dead end.

She slowly turned towards the mercenary force who just caught up to her, they blocked the only exit leaving her to stand at the edge of the cliffs. All of their faces were of laughter, they were happy of the skirmish results. "Cowards!" she still managed to yell before the horde closed in on her. With her last breath she has thought of something fun, since they were charging at her, the hyuuga concentrated all her remaining power into this strike.

She punched the cliff straight on, at least if this was the end she would take the rest with her she thought. The result was a semi success as the cliff cracked, it quickly fell down taking Tamako and at least half of the mercenaries with her down the cliff and into the water below. Tamako thus knew nothing afterwards.

[Scrap death]

[Skulking Shinzu]

Unbeknownst to anyone in the area, Zuruel was trailing Tamako. Such a feat was possible thanks to two things. One, the Hiraishin seal he had placed on her shoulder a while ago and two, his 90m enhanced sense of hearing. Although he constantly maintained just under 90 meters of distance to avoid detection, his hearing allowed him to pinpoint most of Tamako’s movements. “An ambush…” He thought to himself as a bombardment of sounds erupted suddenly. Most notably, the sound of blades slashing into flesh.

Normally, a tinge of guilt would force Zuruel to assist his comrade. However, he was a logical being. Even if Tamako died, her soul was still safely held within the gemstone on his person. Using it, she could be revived at any point. As cold as it may have seemed, Zuruel simply couldn’t bring himself to waste any energy in saving her when she was technically safer than most. “Oh?” The Kedoin heard something clink against the ground before footsteps moved away from the location. Tamako seemed to be attempting to escape. Naturally, the men followed her.

“Where to?” He wondered. By the time he had reached the spot where Tamako’s headband had fallen, Zuruel managed to catch the sounds of the Hyuuga shattering the cliff and likely taking quite a few opponents down with her. “Not bad. She wasn't a quitter.” He snickered coldly as he picked up Tamako’s headband and slid it into a pocket on his cloak. Not the least bit curious how it had ended up here, he simply focused on a Hiraishin seal back in Leaf and vanished in a flicker of black light before he could be spotted by anyone. No sense in sticking around for more trouble.

[Exit]

[Spectre of the Falls(Kuroki)]

Confirmed So much for Kyodai's duty to guard her.