Night of the Hopping Dead "We didn't see anybody," Tenten said as they returned to the camp. "What good news," Yurihime said, "But I fear that I must relieve myself..." "You shouldn't go alone; I'll go with you," Tenten said. "As you wish," the princess replied, beginning to walk away. Yuribuke grabbed the princess by the sleeve, not say a word, but exchanging her worries in her eyes. "Don't worry; I will return," the princess said softly, gently taking the bodyguard's hand in her own and removing it. Pulling down the scarf like mask the warrior wore, she kissed her romantically on the lips. The kunoichi were shocked by this, Tenten ever so much more. What she always thought forbidden was happening before her eyes and it seemed so natural, so pure. "Are you coming?" Yurihime said, blush alit in her face as she parted from the warrior and turned towards Tenten. "Yes," Tenten said in a daze, following after the princess as she walked into the wilderness. "From the look on your face, it is not common for two women to show their affection for one another in public," the princess said as walked. "No, in fact it's taboo for two women to even suggest it," Tenten said, trying not to look embarrassedly. "I feared as much. I've heard that very few countries permit the romance between two people of the same sex, but I never expected it to be true. It must be torture keep it secret, isn't it?" The princess said with a smile. "W, what do you mean?" Tenten asked, wandering if she knew. "You know, how you really feel. I know that not all women think the same as we do, but I can tell you do. Do you have a lover or are you too afraid of being caught to explore your feelings?" the woman said. "I, I don't know what you mean?" Tenten said, gulping. "How about that Hyuga girl, she seems very kind. A little timid, but she is beautiful and no doubt caring towards her comrades." "I don't like where you are taking this," Tenten said, growing unexplainably angry at the princess. "Forgive me, I didn't mean to upset you," princess sighed, shaking her head. "Though you know the more defensive you are about her tells me the more you like her." Before Tenten could deny the woman's accusations, somebody screamed in the direction of the camp. "No!" The princess said her growing pale. Without another thought, she ran back to the camp, Tenten following after her. Surrounding Hinata and Yuribuke were several women in black, Manchu attire, each wearing a paper with the kanji "inochi" covering their faces. They stood with their arms stretched out before them with long, black nails and whitish-green hair covering every visible patch of skin. They hopped towards the kunoichi and warrior, unable to bend their legs. "No way!" Tenten said in disbelief. Drawing forth the scroll she wore on her back, she unrolled it and summoned as many kunai as she could hold, tossing them at the women. The women made no attempt to evade the attacks, but neither did they seem hampered by the weapons protruding from their bodies as they continued to hop towards Hinata and Yuribuke. Hinata, having activated the Byakugan, stood in hesitation, a look of confusion and fear on her face. "Tenten, it seems that chakra is flowing through their body from the talisman on their faces!" "Okay!" Tenten replied, running towards the women with kunai in hand and cutting the talisman off their faces, causing them to fall lifelessly to the ground. Unfortunately it seemed that their numbers prevented her from being able to defeat them all before they got with in attacking range of Hinata. Hinata attacked with the open palm of her hand, knocking many back, but failing to seriously injure them. No matter how quickly she knocked them back, there seemed to be two to take its place. With in seconds, the kunoichi was completely surrounded. Oddly enough, they didn't seem in any way interested in her. Instead, they continued to forth towards the bodyguard. The bodyguard, seeing the women swarming towards her, backed up, shaking in fear. "No! Stay back!" She yelled, not looking to where she was stepping. Tripping over a tree root, she fell to the ground hard and lost hold of her spear. "Princess!" Yurihime yelled, running towards the fallen warrior. "Princess?" Tenten said, confused. Picking the spear up, Yurihime slashed at the women, not particularly aiming for any part of their body in general. Though confused, the kunoichi realized that they must protect their charges with their lives. Summoning more kunai, but these attached with paper bombs at the end, Tenten yelled "Get down!" as she threw them at the women. As before, the women made no attempt to dodge the weapons and were blown apart as the paper bombs went off. Body parts were strewn across the ground as it rained blood. "Is it over?" Yurihime asked. "Just about!" Tenten said as she and Hinata tore the talismans from the faces of the heads of the dismembered women. "I, Impossible!" Yurohime said, her face turning pale. "Those are, are the girls that have been abducted!" "What?!" Yuribuke said, looking at the bodies and faces of the women strewn before them. "What have they done to my people?" "I'm sorry for your lost, but if I heard something correctly, you were called princess? Mind explaining?" Tenten said. "I guess we have no choice," Yuribuke said, "But may we give our people a proper funeral first?" "Yes," Tenten said. The kunoichi assisted Yurihime and Yuribuke in burying the bodies of the women after inspecting their bodies. The hair on their body seemed to be mold and they noticed several lines of stitching on the body from where organs and bones must have been replaced or removed. "Forgive us for deceiving you, but we assumed that the assailant didn't know what I looked like so we decided that it would be safer that we exchanged roles so that they would go after Sizume who was a better fighter than me!" the real princess, Barahime, said. "Well apparently they did know what you looked like and saw through your plan! What happened if both of us had followed her? You would have been defenseless and we would've failed our mission without knowing it!" Tenten said with a sigh. "Forgive us, you must understand, we were desperate! If the princess had died, our country would have fallen into chaos! There are people who've either forgotten the suffering our ancestors had gone through or never knew of it, mostly mothers who've given birth to male children and aren't willing to give their child nor leave the country!" Sizume said. "If she were to die, then, our country would break out in civil war!" "I guess it can't be helped, but I don't think it's over yet... somebody was controlling those women. It's safe to assume they are ninjas and powerful ones at that. We should better keep our guard up," Tenten said. "Thank you, you're so benevolent to wish to continue your mission after learning we've deceived you!" Barahime said, bowing to the women. "We are the shinobi of Konoha; we don't give up no matter how the mission goes!" Tenten said, "You'd better turn in. I'll take the first shift." The women nodded bowing and retiring to their tent. "You failed..." Said a male voice from the shadows as the three figures from before kneeled before the speaker. "Forgive us; we had underestimated the Konoha shinobi's power. We shall not make that mistake twice," the gloomy voiced figure said. "Yes we will make sure that we play with them in person next time!" The cheerful voiced figure added. "You better not fail this time or I will take my money to another village to do your job-" The third figure looked up at the man, its gaze cutting the speaker off. "You better make idle threats that you know you can't act on, we of the Hitsugi clan don't like having competition involved even if it's from our own village!" the gloomy voiced figure said. "Yes, we tend to cut them up!" the cheerful voice said with a giggle. "J, just make sure you don't fail this time!" The male voice said before leaving. The third figure looked to each of the other two. "Understood..." the gloomy figure said. "Yee! It's play time!" the cheerful figure said. At once, the three figures said at once.
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