Unexpected Encounter

Akata fought using a dangerous mixture of shuriken and wind jutsu he'd never seen previously. Propelled by an invisible wind, she danced around the enclosed fortification spreading death everywhere she went. A peculiar fighting style relying on an extreme control of wind transformation to speed up herself and to near freely manipulate kunai's midair as if they possessed a free will of their own. It was deadly effective and took full use of her nimble body.

With the two of them together, it didn't take long to decimate the entire outpost they'd taken by complete surprise.

"We've got some runners!" Fuzen pointed at the last three survivors attempting to flee.

"Leave them, Koda will take care of them. You and I need to clean up this mess before the Hokage arrives," Akata gestured to the numerous corpses scattered inside the improvised fortification, which had done absolutely nothing to protect against their attack.

With a few of quick hand seals, Akata performed a jutsu resulting in the earth in front of her to open up.

"Get moving! We don't have all day." Akata started throwing one corpse after the other into the hole like it was nothing outside of the ordinary.

Not intending for her to do all the work, Fuzen grabbed the hair of two dead men, towed their corpses over to the hole and threw them. With a low thud, they joined on a growing meat pile, courtesy of Akata's swift work.

Moving to the nearest small corpse beside a couple of crates, Fuzen grabbed hold of a leg and started dragging it towards the hole. However, halfway over he registered a slight tension in the calf muscle a millisecond before a kick was directed his way.

Forced to let go, Fuzen backed off in time to see the figure he'd unassumingly been dragging to its burial now conjure up a scorching hot orb of flames.

"Die! You beast!" A young girl's voice commanded and sent the flaming orb after him.

Not intending to let it touch him, Fuzen dodged left and body-flickered behind her faster than she could react.

He seized hold of her green hair tied in a top bun and forced her onto her knees. "Move another inch and you die," Fuzen threatened as he activated 'Void Fist' in his free hand. The pulsating beat resonated once again, cementing the precarious situation she now found herself in.

"What the hell is going on?" Akata came over and found part of the fortification obliterated, and Fuzen restraining a young girl wearing the typical Sunagakure uniform.

"Oh, nothing too serious. Just a little girl, that's all," he responded without taking his eyes off his captive.

Twisting her head sideways, Fuzen inspected her delicate features. She had fair skin with pupilless brown eyes. Besides the short and long orange locks of hair framing each side of her face, her hair was a dark midnight green colour. Agewise, he judged her to be the same age as Kushina, either nine or ten.

"Call me a little girl one more time, and I'll cut off your balls and stuff them in your mouth after I've mummified you," she said fearlessly.

Fuzen smirked. "Little girl, you couldn't handle my balls even if you tried but if you ask nicely, perhaps I'll let you try when you get older... Assuming you do want to live, yes?"

He could see her cute face fuming in anger, yet she reined it in and nodded in answer to his question.

Fuzen could see Akata was considering the situation. "I commend your attitude and bravery young kunoichi but unlike my subordinate who as you can hear tends to think with his cock, I don't see the value of keeping you alive." She waited to hear if the girl had anything worthy of a bargain.

Both of them could see the young girl debating whether to give them information or not. With a loud sigh, she yielded. "My name is Pakura and I'm the third Kazekages personal student."

Akata looked at her. "That's it?"

"Yes, that's it and if you don't believe that to be enough, then kill me because I'm not telling you more," she huffed.

Fuzen spared a quick glance at Akata with pleading eyes.

"Why do you want me to spare her anyway? You don't know her!" Akata questioned.

"It's just one of my rules," he said. "I try to avoid killing hot chicks and girls with the potential to be. At least before they're given a decent chance to sleep with me. It wouldn't be fair if they missed out."

"Excellent, so you're a humanitarian now?" Akata joked and threw in another corpse. "However, if what Pakura says is true, she'll be an excellent bargaining chip," she eyed the girl with great interest.

Walking over, Akata applied a chakra seal and ordered Fuzen tie her up.

"Hmm, nice. Very nice," Fuzen complimented his own work and appreciated the sight of Pakura bound up before him.

Finished, Akata and Fuzen continued their clean up of the place. It took longer than it had taken killing them, but eventually, the fortification was back in order. In the dark, it was hard to spot the dark blotches of blood covering the ground, yet the stench of death still lingered in the air.

Right as he was about to sit down and relax, Akata interrupted him and made instead made him go escort the Hokage here.

"Shit..." Fuzen sighed.

"Go on, wait for Koda and keep Pakura company while you're gone," Akata waved him goodbye.

The search for Hiruzen and the Konoha force led Fuzen thirty miles east of the fortification. Materializing on a tree branch, he decided to wait for them to approach him. It was safer that way.

______________

Hiruzen and his elite force of handpicked shinobi had been travelling at high speed for the past two days, and so far they hadn't encountered any problems.

Jumping up beside Hiruzen, the byakugan user in charge of scouting reported in. "Something weird just occurred. I'm almost positive someone teleported in front of us," he said puzzled by his own conclusion. "I kept a close eye and I don't believe I could have missed someone with this absurd amount of chakra."

"Do you recognise his signature?"

"Negative, he doesn't appear to be from Konoha. In fact, I can't connect him to any specific nation or clan I'm aware of."

Jiraiya came over to join their conversation. "Is it him? The kid you've been telling me about?"

"Yeah, I'm afraid so," Hiruzen chuckled.