An Empty Victory "What's the status outside?" Shiryu asked a runner who came to relay news of the battle as she and her cousins ran down the halls of the castle with the last of their masterpieces. "All the casualties seem to be restricted to the enemy's side, ma'am. None of our soldiers have yet to fall or take any serious wounds. We'll win the battle for sure," the runner said after stopping in mid-run and turning to catch up with the kunoichi as they ran past her. "And the civilians?" Shiryu asked. "They have all been successfully evacuated, but..." the runner said, trying her best to keep in pace with the Hitsugis. "But what?" Shiryu asked, not liking the hesitation in the runner's voice. "A new individual appeared. She's dressed like you and is fighting one of the enemy. I didn't catch her name, but she wields two Ji Zhua Lian," the runner said. The Hitsugi trio stopped dead, nearly causing the trailing soldiers to crash into them. Shiryu's face was grown three shades paler and her eyes reflected a great shock mixed with a deep sorrow. Both of her cousins looked at her with great concern, even the usually cheerful and silly Masio seemed upset. Momo... Without warning, Shiryu sprinted forward at full speed. The twins, looking at each with unmistakable worry, ran after her while the soldiers stood confused and witless until their senses returned. Momo dashed about the battlefield, effortlessly hacking apart the undead soldiers that the crimson miko drew together like a wall of flesh. Though the enemy was weak, their never ending numbers proved to be a powerful distraction. Known as Iwagakure's melee specialist, the girl chopped, slashed, kicked and slammed into the enemies with a ferocity that made her feared when fought in close-quarters. It was also known that her ability to fight at range or use and defend against ninjutsu and genjutsu were nearly inexistent, making it no surprise that she never there was something up with the constantly replenished wall of dead before her. Byoshi simply smiled and watch the girl fight relentlessly against an enemy that didn't exist, slowly exhausting herself in a hopeless battle. All the miko need to do was to wait for the girl to spend every drop of her energy and, when that opportunity has risen, slit her throat without her even knowing. Of course it wouldn't end there; no way, she'll enjoy adding the kunoichi to her army of shambling, mindless dead just for hell of it! A dark ecstasy washed over her as she thought of her pretty little corpse dolls. Looks like Ningyo is rubbing off on me! The woman's enjoyment was interrupted as the Hitsugis appeared with Shiryu in the lead. Seeing their kinswoman's predicament, Shiryu ran straight towards her and knocked her over the head with a falling kick. The sharp and painful kick to the head having, among other things, freed the girl from the genjutsu she was trapped in. "OUCH! What happened to all the zombies?" She said, rubbing the knobby lump that grew out of her head. "That's just like you Momo-san. Rushing head first into battle and every trap that's laid before you," Itamu said, sighing to herself. "Momo-chan, you're as blunt as ever," Maiso said, shaking her head. "You were trapped in a genjutsu, but more importantly what you doing here?" Shiryu asked, looking at the girl with a whirl storm of several different emotions. "I begged Tsuchikage-sama to send me here because I..." Momo said looking away from Shiryu so she wouldn't see the tears building on the rim of the girl's eyes. "...I wanted to say I'm a total idiot and nothing I can say can ever make-up for treating you like monster! No matter how much I tried, I couldn't forget you and I've spent countless nights awake thinking about you! I can't live without you!!!" Despite her best attempts, she couldn't conceal the tears that fell onto the blood covered cobblestone streets or her following sobs. "Momo..." Shiryu gently reached out with her hand and rested it on the girl's shoulder. Suddenly she yanked the girl back and socked her with her free hand. "YOU STUPID LITTLE IDIOT! YOU CHOOSE TO DO THAT IN THE MIDDLE OF A FREAKING BATTLE!?! AND WHAT'S WITH THAT EMO LITTLE CRAP ABOUT NOT BEING ABLE TO MAKE-UP TO ME!?! WHY COULDN'T YOU JUST WAIT TO AFTER THE DAMN BATTLE TO CRY YOUR EYES OUT AND BEG FOR FORGIVENESS!?!" Shiryu screamed nearly at the top of her lungs. Momo, the Hitsugi twins and even Byoshi looked at Shiryu with wide eyes filled with shock and horror. The former three, for as long as they've known her, never seen her ever get so angry before. "Y-You're right, Shiryu-san. I'm sorry..." Momo said, wiping the tears from her eyes. "As much I as would love to say behind and play with you, it's clear whose the victor of this battle is and should retreat," the miko said. Bowing, she turned from them and began to walk off. "You think you could humiliate me and just walk off so unharmed so easily!" the girl cried, charging the miko and swinging her Ji Zhuo Lian in a decapitating swing. The miko's head fell to the ground, detached from the rest of her body, and rolled briefly around before coming to a stop. "I hope you enjoyed our dolls, our Ningyo put so much time time into making them look like us!" the miko's head said, laughing mockingly at them before closing her eyes and becoming void all signs of life. Her body to the ground listlessly though no blood came from the stumped where her head was once attached. "Dolls?" Momo asked, confused. Itamu grabbed the miko's lifeless arm in one hand and, drawing a scalpel from up her sleeve, cut it open. Peeling the skin back, a ball joint limb was revealed. "This is a human puppet and cleverly disguised one at that," she said. "So among the enemies is our age old enemy, the Puppeteers of Sunagakure," Shiryu said, nodding her head. "This'll be fun!" Maiso said with a wicked glee in her eye. "I don't like the sight of this," Nekomi said. She had begun to dispose of the Inuzuka's body even if she wasn't a Kiri-nin when she discovered the ball-joint doll body that was hidden under the layer of skin. "If Kuroki is like this too- I hope Tachi-chan is alright..." "Doll parts...?" Tachi said in shock as she looked at the exposed ball joints that made up Kuroki's body. She heard of human puppets before, especially Sasori of the Red Sand who joined the Akatsuki, but from her knowledge, only a human puppet with a single part of its original body preserved and living could use chakra let alone think and act on its own. Kuroki's body was in fact, void of any living body parts. In fact it seemed like body was stitched together from several different bodies. In truth, she realized in horror that this wasn't even the real Kuroki. Her heart was plunged into a bottomless abyss of anguish, believing she had finally avenged her beloved sister's death to find that she just fought a lifelike doll of the devil she had been tracking for so many years. The Konoha kunoichi looked over the corpse of their opponent, exhausted from the difficult battle that they had fought. "Hinata, can you search the area for the rest of the enemies," Tenten said, the sensation that something wasn't right crawling over her body. "Yes," the Hyuga said, activating her Byakugan. The first thing that caught her attention was right under them. Shinai's body was covered in paper bombs. "Watch out!" The girl cried, tackling Tenten and knocking her to the ground just as they all went off. Body parts were scattered around, but Tenten's sharp vision noticed something particular and most disturbing there was no blood, shattered bones or torn up internal organs. What littered the ground was charred flesh and ball-joint doll parts. "What the hell?" On the country side of Yuri no Kuni, there was a large house. Built over a hundred years ago, it has long been abandoned and many believe that it's haunted. It has gone long unattended, it's wood warped and rotted, its shoji tattered and faded, its tatami mildewed. Black mold grew colonies born from rain water collected through the holey roof making the house inhabitable until it was removed. None would ever suspect that this was the base of operations for a band of nuke-nin. "Hay, Ningyo, mind doing something about the mold?" Said Panda, her voice distorted from wearing a gas mask like most of the others in the house. She, among the others, sat cross-legged in a circle. The room was lit with a single, faint candle, barely enough to illuminate the few that sat adjoining to her who happened to be Mimi and Kuroki. The rest of the group were hidden in the darkness of the room, their identities known only to those that were gathered. "Why? It works wonders to kill any intruder," said one of the figures in the darkness. "I've got no problems with, maybe because I'm already dead!" Kuroki said, cackling out loud. She was one of the few of them that didn't wear a gasmask for the very reason she stated. "Ch! A little mold doesn't hurt!" another voice said from the darkness in a boastful manner. "Says the woman wearing a gasmask!" Kuroki taunted. "You want a piece of me bitch!" the voice hissed, the tip of an unmistakable oversized sword hung inches above the woman's face. "Still carrying around that cheap replica of that fools butcher knife?" Kuroki said, cackling to herself. "HOW DARE YOU INSULT ZABUZA-SAMA, YOU THIRD RATE ASSASSIN!" the voice yelled. "Hay, hay! Calm down guys! Weren't both followers of Momochi-san?" Panda said, trying her best to calm down the two kunoichi. "Unlike lover-girl here, I just helped him try to assassinate the Mizukage 'cause he promised that I get to kill all I want!" Kuroki said, grinning monstrously. "I enjoy just as much my kinsman, but killing mindlessly without any restriction will get yourself caught by the hunter-nin, or have you forgotten the last time your carelessness had nearly gotten you killed?" the voice retorted. "You talk big, but without Momochi to hide behind, you're nothing!" Kuroki snarled. "THAT'S IT!" The voice screamed. An assailant leaped forward from the darkness and chopped down with the heavy, oversized knife. The wielder of the sword could have easily mistaken for the relative of Momochi Zabuza. She wore her forehead protector in same fashion as him and wore the same style of pleated pants. She had long black hair and cold brown eyes, full bosoms whose shape were in no way hidden under her form fitting black shirt that exposed her midriff. The bandages that covered her face and neck from the nose down were rearranged to allow a gasmask to be worn, but left little doubt to whom she was making a tribute to. Kuroki allowed the knife to plunged into her body with out attempting to evade or block the attack. "I was looking for an excuse to kill you!" "Stop it you battle-maniacs!" Byoshi said stepping into the light. "We can't afford to be fighting amongst ourselves!" "Konoki-sama; please stop!" Cried a beautiful girl in a blue kimono covered in white snow flakes who stepped out of the darkness and hugged the swordswoman from behind. She had porcelain white skin, long black hair and cold blue eyes. "Yuki..." the swordswoman said, looking down at the girl with concern. After a moment, the woman withdrew the sword from Kuroki's flesh and sheathed it. Kuroki smiled to wickedly, but kept any condescending comments to herself. "Now that everyone has calmed down," Byoshi said, looking at both Kuroki and the swordswoman, "Let's discuss our 'defeat'. We made no mistake on our side except underestimating the enemy's power and resourcefulness. As it seems, they have their own necronin so raising undead armies won't help so much. Also the enemy now will be on guard and most likely attempt to summon reinforcements so we must stop them before they outnumber us. Using the knowledge we've gathered from the enemy, we should be able to fight fire with fire." "Isn't there a Hyuga among them?" Spoke one of the voices without the gas mask. "Byakugan eyes are hard to come by..." "I knew these would come in hand one of these days. I was going to use them myself, but my body was dead by the time I got them," Kuroki said reaching into her robes and drawing forth a tube with two Byakugan eyes floating in preservatives. "The Hyuga I won these from went down easy! I guess they aren't much a of match against me!" "I can't believe you're useful for once!" the swordswoman said insultingly. "Ah, we're blessed! Jashin must be smiling upon us!" the voice in the darkness said. "I never knew that you were the religious type Ningyo," Byoshi said in amused tone. "I'm not, but one of my master's allies was a fanatic. Apparently by killing in Jashin's name and performing lengthy rituals made him immortal," the voice said. "Wasn't he defeated by Konoha like your master?" Panda asked. "The name of that girl... Haruni? Harunee? Harunu?" "The name of the blasted woman who slew my master was HARUNO SAKURA... One day I will avenge him!" the voice hissed in clear, venomous tones. "Oops! It looks like I hit a sore spot... sorry!" Panda said nervously. "Yes, yes. You will have your revenge; in time. But we must first focus on the task at hand. Eliminating the shinobi who has intruded on our land. Everyone be prepared to go to battle!" "Right!" "Right!" All the other members, except Mimi, said. The candle flickered and only the Inuzuka remained in the room. Shiroko... Can you ever forgive me? She thought, clutching her stomach. On that very portion of her stomach was tattoo like symbol portraying the kanji for "Inugami" written in the middle of a group of marks and symbols that made up some mystical formula.
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