***
The girl strolled leisurely down the path, a tachi slung over one shoulder and a scroll tossed idly in her other hand. The scroll contained the details of her test mission.
She hummed a tune, seemingly in high spirits, likely because she had just vented a good deal of her pent-up gloom at the Underground Exchange.
She had already read the scroll's contents. The target of this test was a Special Chunin. In other words, she needed to kill him and bring back his head as proof of her commitment.
A Special Chunin. This had to be one of the more difficult test missions. She was sure that the rogue samurai she had killed earlier—Daiki something-or-other, she couldn't be bothered to remember a dead man's name—was nowhere near Chunin level. He never could have completed a mission like this, yet he definitely had a codename at the Underground Exchange. From this, she deduced that the missions weren't all of the same difficulty.
It was challenging, but that was exactly what she'd been hoping for. She hadn't gone to the Underground Exchange for money. She went to fight, to walk the razor's edge between life and death, seeking a breakthrough in that liminal space. This was precisely what she craved.
The target's name was Murakami Jiro, a rogue ninja from Kirigakure. His preferred ninjutsu and habits weren't listed. Besides a physical description, there were no other details. The only piece of useful information was that Murakami Jiro was likely to visit a small town nearby in the next few days for a job.
"Well, I guess I'll scout the place out first..." she muttered to herself, quickening her pace toward the mission area. "A frontal assault is probably a bad idea... Should I set some traps? But I don't know how..."
***
It was nearly midnight. The weather had been poor for the past two days; thick clouds blotted out the sky, letting not a single sliver of moonlight through. The forest was dead silent. This region, a borderland between the Land of Water and the Land of Snow, was bitterly cold and home to few birds or beasts. Murakami Jiro paid the eerie silence no mind.
He moved swiftly, leaping from branch to branch, hurrying on his way.
For days, he'd had the feeling he was being followed. The sixth sense he'd honed in countless life-or-death battles screamed at him constantly, yet no matter how hard he searched, he could find no trace of his stalker. His nerves had been stretched to their breaking point for days, never once relaxing. The constant tension had left him irritable and on the verge of madness. Every time he sat down to rest, it felt as if a needle was hovering at the back of his neck, ready to take his life the moment he let his guard down.
Days of sustained anxiety had left him haggard. His stalker, of course, was Touye.
She wasn't doing it on purpose. She was indeed tailing Murakami Jiro, waiting for an opportunity to kill him, but tormenting him like this was not her intention.
The girl had no experience with assassination, and no one had ever taught her how to conceal her killing intent. So, while she had deliberately hidden her presence, the murderous aura she unintentionally radiated constantly grated on Murakami's nerves.
She, in turn, found it odd that this ninja was so irascible, completely unaware that she was the cause.
But it was a good thing for her, so she didn't overthink it.
She had been tailing him for several days now but hadn't found a good opportunity. The mission had a one-week deadline. Factoring in the travel time back, if she didn't make her move now, she was very likely to fail.
*It's time.*
As she thought this, her heart was surprisingly calm.
Murakami Jiro, running at full speed, landed on a thick branch and immediately leaped into the air again. At that exact moment, his heart hammered in his chest, and a cold sweat instantly beaded on his forehead.
The sound of something tearing through the air reached him. Murakami turned his head in horror to see several sharp, translucent ice spears flying toward him. He hastily formed the hand seal for the Body Flicker Technique, dodging just an instant before the spears struck.
"Aargh! Who is it?! Who the hell is it?! Get out here! Get out here, damn you!"
That brush with death finally made Murakami, who had been on edge for days, snap. His face was flushed, his eyes shot with blood, and the veins on his forehead bulged as if they were about to burst.
*Tch...*
The girl realized she had made a mistake. Her first attack had come at a moment when Murakami was distracted. She shouldn't have used ice spears. Though powerful, they weren't subtle. If she had used the stealthier ice senbon, she could have succeeded in a single blow, making the rest of the fight much easier.
*I was too impatient...*
Realizing her tactical error, the girl quietly moved from her hiding spot while forming a one-handed seal.
"Ice Release Secret Technique: A Thousand Needles of Death!"
A torrent of ice senbon rained down on Murakami. His pupils contracted sharply. There was no time to use the Body Flicker Technique. He rolled on the ground, pulling two kunai from his waist pouch to deflect the needles he couldn't dodge.
With a series of dull thuds, a number of senbon still found their mark, embedding themselves in Murakami's body. But unless they hit a vital point or accumulated in great numbers, senbon weren't fatal. The small wounds wouldn't even hinder his movements.
But the girl hadn't intended to kill him with that move anyway. It was just a distraction.
"Ice Release Secret Technique: Ice Pillar Prison Technique!"
She slammed her left hand onto the ground.
Murakami had just finished fending off the senbon and hadn't even had a chance to catch his breath when several pillars of ice shot up from the ground around him at an angle. Their tips converged above his head, forming an icy cage that trapped him inside.
The girl drove her tachi into the ground with her right hand and formed seals with both. "Let's finish this in one go so I can go home and eat! Ice Release: Glacial River Burial!"
A colossal wave of ice and water rose from the earth and crashed down upon the trapped Murakami. The ice prison, along with the man inside, was crushed beneath the glacial torrent. He didn't even let out a scream before he was one with the ice...
Compared to the wave that had flattened Haku's home months ago, this one was clearly much larger.
"Hah..." The girl exhaled a puff of cold air. She walked slowly forward, her eyes fixed on a striking splash of red within the gradually settling river of ice. "It's over..."
"Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!"
A dragon made of water suddenly burst forth from the ice river before her, roaring as it charged.
"What!"
Caught off guard, the girl was struck head-on by the water dragon and sent flying backward. She flew more than ten meters before crashing to the ground, the immense force sending her tumbling another three or four meters in a wretched heap.
"Ugh..."
Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. The blow had injured her internally; if she didn't treat it soon, she could die.
Touye raised her head and looked at the figure in the distance.
After hitting its target, the water dragon dissolved into a light drizzle.
Murakami walked out of the rain, step by step. He was covered in blood, his left eye shut tight, and he was gasping for air. It seemed her attack hadn't been entirely useless.
He didn't ask who she was or why she had come to kill him. He just glared at her with his one remaining eye.
*No ninjutsu?*
Touye glanced discreetly at Murakami's hands. Seeing them mangled and bloody, she breathed a sigh of relief. *Looks like casting that Water Dragon Bullet wasn't easy for him. And he must have used up a lot of chakra fending off my attacks. Otherwise, a direct hit from a B-rank jutsu like that should have killed me instantly.*
The girl suppressed the pain in her chest and used her tachi to push herself up. She felt a wave of helplessness. To go for a one-hit kill, she had used up most of her chakra. Her opponent wouldn't give her time to cast another jutsu.
Gripping her tachi with both hands, she looked at Murakami with determination, a flash of resolve in her eyes. *His injuries are worse than mine, and he's more exhausted. I can't give him a chance to recover. I have to press the attack! If I can just drag this out, I'll be the one to win!*
With that thought, she hesitated no longer and darted toward Murakami's left side. His left eye was blind; attacking from there would be easier.
Seeing her move, Murakami drew his kunai without hesitation and met her charge.
"Hah!"
Touye brought her sword down in a straight slash. She didn't know any proper swordsmanship, so her attacks were all direct and straightforward.
Murakami swung his kunai to meet the tachi.
Clang!
Sparks flew as the blades collided. The girl knew she couldn't match an adult man in a contest of strength, so she took advantage of his injuries and impaired movement, circling him and aiming one strike after another at his head.
Murakami had no choice but to defend passively. The few times he managed to counterattack, he only inflicted shallow cuts, while his own movements caused his wounds to tear open wider, spattering blood everywhere until the ground was stained red...
The girl wasn't faring much better. The pain in her chest grew more intense. She knew that if this dragged on, her opponent would die, but she would be in no shape to walk away either. Gritting her teeth, she quickened her assault.
Murakami continued to hold on. The two were like wounded beasts, snarling and tearing at each other, waiting to see who would collapse first.
Finally, the girl's movements slowed. The stamina of a six-year-old's body was no match for an adult's.
Seeing this, a vicious glint flashed in Murakami's eyes. His sluggish movements paused for an instant, then suddenly quickened!
He had been conserving his strength during his passive defense, waiting for her to tire so he could unleash it all at once for a killing blow!
The kunai shot toward the girl's neck. It seemed she was about to die, but her face showed not a trace of panic.
She raised her left hand, which had been hidden in her sleeve, and whispered, "Ice Release: Ice Fang Bite!"
The kunai stopped, an instant before it would have pierced its target.
The girl looked at the man before her. A mass of blood-red ice spikes had snapped shut, impaling him.
Murakami stared at her, his mouth opening and closing, but no words came out, only bloody foam. The ice spikes had pierced his chest, turning his heart and other organs into pulp...
Exhausted, the girl sat on the ground. "I knew you were waiting for an opening," she said to the body. "So was I. I didn't have much chakra left, so I couldn't make much ice. I had to borrow your blood."
"But," she said with a bitter smile, "I'm about at my limit, too..."
She lay down quietly, looking up at the sky.
The clouds had dispersed at some point. Soft moonlight spilled onto the ground. The girl gazed at the moon, lost in a daze.
"So... beautiful..."
No one answered her. The man beside her was long dead.
She stared blankly, and tears suddenly began to stream down her face. She covered her face and sobbed uncontrollably...