Man in the Shadows

For the rest of that cold and bitter season, Sozin remained in the wilderness to keep a low profile and stay off the Ministry's radar. In that period, he had little time to spare for anything other than hunting to sustain himself, but when he did have a few extra moments, he dedicated himself to mastering the forbidden technique in Danzo's scroll. Figuring it out was a slow process as hunger was always the main thing on his mind. Several times, the scarceness of winter brought him to the brink of starvation, nearly resulting in his death and forcing him to head into town to get food.

The town wasn't much better than the wilderness was, but it was a start. Some of the heat from his father's death had died down so things weren't too dangerous despite what the wanted posters with his face on them seemed to indicate. Of course, he still had to be careful with who saw his face and that was only one of his problems as he had no money, and nobody would grant charity upon him, a grown man who was no longer a boy now and one that people didn't know nor care about either. Well, at least not until they recognized him from the posters pushing a large bounty for his head. It was funny to him how they cared only then when his presence would benefit them in some selfish way. Otherwise, he was nothing more than another common street rat running amok in the grime of the homeless.

Everything now was a far cry from the lavish comfort of a wealthy family that Sozin had grown up with and become accustomed to, but it wasn't like he didn't know the world could be harsh anyway. As much as he tried to stay incognito, it was always inevitable at some point for someone to recognize him after he had been begging in one place for a while, so he would relocate to a different town at that point to avoid the Ministry agents that would come to investigate the reports. That was his life for a while, just moving endlessly from one town to the next, from one paltry meal to another not sure whether he would make it this time with all the pain in his stomach that only seemed to grow ever louder.

It became too much to bear the sight of his own body. When he had grown gaunt and haggard, his own ribs peeking out through the withered muscle, that was when Sozin decided he'd had enough. If society was not going to take care of him in any sort of way, not even grant him meager scraps of charity so that he could at the very least survive to see another harsh night sleeping on the ground with the vermin, then why should he grant it the benefit of being a good citizen? Why should he contribute at all to a system that treats its lowest members as though they were garbage meant to be disposed of? And so then he found himself beginning to steal, using his skills as a shinobi to acquire that which no one would provide him with. First it was only the necessities, small things like a little food here or a little money there to get his strength up, but then he began to steal jewelry and other valuables and sell them for the highest bidder.

Eventually, someone saw his potential when he was haggling one night in an alleyway. One thing led to another and he got into the criminal business as a service for hire.

Organized crime was a lot different from the ragtag operation he had been running before. As it turns out, a good shinobi made for a good thief, and people in the underworld coveted for the kind of illicit services Sozin could provide. Considering the circumstances, it felt good to steal and then get paid so handsomely for it, like he was the hero of his own story providing for himself, and so he kept doing it. The rush of blood had to be the greatest part, and it was a different one from the kind he experienced in battle—a more subdued sense of heightening that Sozin imagined a mouse trying to get a piece of cheese while avoiding the cat would feel.

Stealing was an obviously illegal decision as was working with lawbreakers, but it was a sensical one to continue making since his status as a fugitive meant that no normal jobs were available to him nor had he been taught how to make a living with any other craft regardless. That meant crime was the only way to take care of himself—a fair justification, he thought— as he would be damned if he was going to let himself rot on the cold ground of the streets like so many often did, like he had, disregarded and then left there to waste away and die so blatantly by society. Unlike all the tales he had read as a child, Sozin was sure to remember that no one was going to just show up and be there for him, so he would have to be there for himself. With no other alternative available, from that point forward and for the very first time, he had entered his new life of crime and sinnery as an enemy of the state.

Throughout the whole ordeal, Sozin couldn't help but relate to Wolf, finding solace in the spirit animal he now considered a true brother and his only friend. The feeling of starvation—the lack of control, the way it had gripped him and wanted to turn him into an impulsive beast from the inside out—it was a unique feeling all its own that he hated experiencing, but Wolf had been there to guide him every step of the way and helped him to survive its difficulties along with many others. As someone who'd never gone without food before, Sozin had never experienced that sensation, but Wolf had, and he understood completely what Sozin was going through.

Wolf was the only one Sozin could truly rely on for the most part. Tainted by his hardships, he learned to hate the fortunate, those who almost always made up the entirety of everybody else and had failed to show even the slightest hint of mercy upon his starving soul. The few times Sozin had received help it was always from those who were suffering just like him and could understand his struggles. Other homeless. Other unfortunates. They would share a few morsels of food with him whenever they could spare. That burning lesson stuck with Sozin in a place he would never be able to dislodge it from. Generosity then did not seem to come from the good of people's hearts as much as it did the fact that they understood your struggles and could relate to them. He made sure to return and repay his debts to those who had helped him when he started making money in the underworld and had staved off his own destitution. He helped them to get back on their feet. As Wolf had instilled into him, the rule of thumb was always to amplify anything given whether it was good or bad. He called it the amplification rule: if they wronged you, hit them back even harder and make sure they regret it, but if they did right by you, pay them back even more and make sure they remember it. For better or worse, the principle went both ways, but Sozin thought it was good rule and lived by it religiously.

With his debts repayed and some money coming in, Sozin was finally able to get himself into a better place than he was before. He started to make a name for himself in the underworld, offering his services as a rogue, freelance shinobi—a lone shadow. At first, he didn't even have much of a name as very few were willing to give his skillset a chance. He was a small fry, only getting easy, lower-level jobs where petty thievery, eavesdropping, and spying were the most common requests. He even delivered mail sometimes, acting as discreet and fast speed service for regular or illicit packages. Those jobs didn't pay too well, but as his reputation grew, so did the types of jobs, their stakes, and the money that came with them. Over the course of a few years, he would go on to become known as the Lone Wolf.

Lone Shadow Lone Wolf.

Once it was common knowledge that Sozin was offering a reliable service, people began asking him for the more dangerous and darker things like assassinations and kidnappings. Sozin never forgot about the jobs he started with though. Sometimes he still took them when he wanted an easy payday or just didn't feel like hurting someone; surprisingly, they actually payed a decent amount of money if you took them at a high enough level. Still, any money really worth living on was only to be made with the more serious assignments where he usually would have to get violent.

In spite of his dishonest profession, Sozin still had some semblance of a moral compass. Unless he was in dire need of cash, he tried to stick with jobs where the degenerates of society, mostly other criminals or crime lords, were the victims. He slept good at night knowing they suffered. There were a lot of risky assigments too, and that was a bit of an issue—or just another part of the fun depending on how you looked at it—but that never stopped Sozin as long as the pay was good enough to make it worth his while, and it could be, indeed.

But with all the money he was making now, he was still just one man and a lonely one at that. An empty heart was never far from doing the devil's work. All that money quickly began to pile up until he started to gamble it away in the underground. At the time, it had seemed like such a good choice. Every hit of dopamine he received whenever he happened to win always seemed to make up for the fact that he had lost so much in the end. In retrospect, it was no surprise to him then that he was soon short on money, in debt, and was going to have to take on exactly the sort of well-paying job he normally wouldn't touch simply due to the dangerous nature of it.

During one slow week on a spring morning, a courier who looked like he had done too much running delivered a letter to Sozin enclosed with a light blue stamp that had the gold outline of a dragon on it. Sozin recognized the stamp as the insignia of the Hirata clan—one of numerous families throughout Ishida that were shrouded in crime.

Someone had a job for him. Burning with curiosity, Sozin tore off the sticker and opened the letter to see what they wanted.

Lone Shadow Lone Wolf, it began. Your reputation is known to us. We are in need of your services to capture someone of great importance to our clan. This matter must be attended to immediately lest we pass our window of time to act. Rest assured, the price is of no concern in obtaining your immediate assistance. If these terms are agreeable to you, make for Hirata Estate as soon as possible and consult with me in my palace where we can discuss your task and your payment more in depth.

The letter ended there with an elaborate signature from the head of the family, Talro Hirata.

The Hiratas were also one of the more wealthy families in Ishida. Apparently, they had an urgent matter that needed to be taken care of right away. Fortunately for Talro, Sozin had been on the lookout for work and desperately so to pay off his debt. He couldn't believe he had been so stupid as to gamble. Even if he was desperate, that didn't mean Sozin had to like what he was going to undertake. Unlike other jobs where he had free reign to use deadly force, a catch and bag assignment put restrictions on how hard he could fight in battle, making the whole thing less safe for him. It was for that reason that he rarely took this kind of work. Sozin would've preferred something else, but considering the dustiness of his coin purse, he wasn't really in any position to be picky. He started for the estate as soon as he'd gotten the message. As long as he played things safe, he should be fine.

When he finally got to Hirata Estate a few hours later, Sozin made his way through the bustling hamlet that accompanied the palace. It was where the rest of the lower-ranking family lived. The palace itself rested atop a shallow hill while the hamlet was beneath it—an interesting choice of positioning. No doubt the residents of the palace were exalted and full of themselves. It reminded Sozin a lot of Wakota and his own former home, though the hamlet was much smaller than Wakota was and the palace much bigger than the Daihachi residence.

Aside from elders and youngsters, there weren't too many men to be seen as he walked down the streets. These days, any young and able man who couldn't bribe the government had been forced into military service to fight for the country since they were losing the war so badly. Sozin considered himself lucky that he had enough to money to keep any naysayers from the government off his case if they came knocking, and his face had matured enough that they couldn't recognize him from the wanted posters that were still floating around. He much preferred it if he didn't become a pawn taking part in the wargames aristocracy liked to play with each other at the expense of the general populace. He had immense respect for the men who wanted to and did serve their country, or at least thought they were doing so, but service wasn't all it was cut out to be.

Despite coming from aristocracy himself, Sozin held little regard for such people as the common man was nothing more than a statistic to exploit to them in the grand scheme of things. It was a terrible philosophy: privatize the gains and socialize the losses everywhere he looked. Not too long ago, he had been less than a common man—nothing more than a street rat looking for a way out. He would be a fool to support the privileged class, knowing all too well how quickly you can be thrown out of it and cast aside for people to walk on you. Even average men had looked down upon him then.

Sozin shook his head. It was probably better if he didn't dwell on the past. He had other matters to attend to anyway. He had reached the palace.

Sozin made his way up stairs carved from stone towards a pair of samurai guards standing at the front gate to the palace's inner perimeter. They wore no armor, only a set of light blue robes.

"You there! You don't look like one of the family! State your business here," one of the guards said curtly as the dark stranger approached.

Calm and with a face like stone, Sozin glanced at the other guard before returning his gaze to the one that spoke. "My name is Lone Shadow Lone Wolf," he said in a low voice. "I was summoned here for some business."

"Oh, you're the shinobi Lord Talro has been expecting!" the guard said in surprise. "My apologies, he's waiting for you in the main hall."

The two guards opened the gate and let Sozin pass. Through the courtyard and past a set of large double doors came the main hall, a lofty and grand room for entertaining guests. A lengthy dining table stretched across the entire depth of it, garnished with ornate tableware and long, flickering candles lining the middle. Tracing his eyes all the way up to the far side of the table, it stopped near the end of the hall at a small set of steps leading to a raised area. There, Lord Talro and his two associates sat chattering upon opulent floor pillows.

Though he was in the distance, Sozin could hear them talking about politics from all the way at the end of the hall. Wolf's spirit afforded him with an unnaturally keen sense of hearing that he could magnify by cupping his ear, but it wasn't necessary in such an open space. It was great for eavesdropping and had come in handy many times.

Talro and his two associates stopped talking. They turned when they realized they were now in the company of a young man with an unusually dark presence, his brows eternally furrowed.

Talro himself, a bony and wizened old man with a long, grey goatee, looked Sozin up and down from beneath his bald head. He stroked his beard thoughtfully. "Ah... So you are the one I sent for. I'm impressed, shinobi, and pleased to see that you got here as fast as you did."

"You must be Lord Talro," Sozin murmured, softspoken but with a raspy voice that seemed to come from his throat. He could see the old man's ribs highlighted against his chest from the gap in his robes. He wasn't starving, but it was clear that old age hadn't been treating him well. "I received your message."

"So it seems," Talro said. "Your reputation precedes you. Are you as professional as they say?"

"I believe my clients would say so," Sozin said. "Since you've summoned me Lord Talro, I must tell you... For the right price, my services can be at your full disposal, and they do not come cheap."

Talro chuckled. "Ah, yes, money... Straight to the point, I see... Indeed, that is all that interests your type, and do hear this: our clan has much of that to go around. Well, I don't want to waste your time nor mine either as this matter must be resolved before it is too late. It should fall well within your domain."

"What is it exactly that you want me to do?" Sozin asked. "In your letter, you mentioned that you needed me to capture someone."

"Yes, yes," Talro said, clasping his hands together. "That's exactly it. There's a certain woman that my son, Takeda," Talro gestured to the man sitting down on his right, "is having issues with. Her name is Kira Tomoe. Kira's supposed to be a new concubine of his, but she's been a bit relucant to cooperate with us. Not too long ago, we managed to bring her into our family's fold, however, she ran off last night before my son could do anything with her. The guards tried to pursue, but—unfortunately—she got away and now we have no idea where she is anymore. I'm certain she couldn't have gone far, but I fear she'll escape beyond our reach if given any more time to do so." Talro pulled out a piece of parchment from his robe and held it out for Sozin who promptly took it. "Here's a picture of what she looks like."

Looking down, the drawing on the parchment immediately caught Sozin's eyes. A face sketch had been done of a beautiful woman in her early 20s with orange eyes and black hair. Her elegant looks exuded an air of regality like no other he had seen before.

"Don't let her beauty fool you," Talro continued. "She's a highly skilled swordmaster and likely won't come quietly. You can imagine how something like that might present an obstacle to her retrieval."

Sozin glanced up from the parchment. "I understand. I'm assuming this is where I come in?"

"Yes," Talro's son, Takeda, said, chiming into the conversation. "That insubordinate woman," he sneered. "I want you to find her and bring her back to us alive and as unharmed as possible. The last part is very important to me as I will be the one to punish her."

"Name your price," Talro added. "As I've made clear, it is of no concern to the Hirata clan."

"Hm," Sozin grunted in consideration. He crossed his arms, thinking for a second. If he secured a big reward out of this job, then he'd be able to pay off his debt without having to worry about finding additional work. "For a job like this, I want twenty-five thousand sen to make it worth my time and the risk. Nothing less."

Talro steepled his fingers. "Fair enough. Twenty-five thousand sen it shall be for her capture. For that amount of money, do ensure that you abide by the conditions of the deal. As my son has asked of you, no harm must come to Kira."

Sozin stuffed the sketch of Kira into one of his pockets. "I assure you," he said, his eyes narrowing in solemn confidence. "I will have this matter taken care of properly. But before I go, I'm going to need one more thing to help me get the job done."

"Oh?" Talro said. "And what would that be?"

Sozin smirked in dark satisfaction. There was a hint of humor in there somewhere. "Give me the last piece of clothing she wore."

Well, they certainly didn't expect to hear anything like that in a million years, judging by the surprise on Talro and his son's face. Sozin and Wolf both laughed about it after the fact. Talro didn't quite understand how that would come in handy, but despite his son's suspicious and somewhat outraged, bushy eyebrows, he obliged Sozin's request anyway in recognition of his reputation as a professional.

Once he'd gotten his hands on the garment—a blue kimono—Sozin messily ripped away a fistful of cloth, stashed it into one of the pockets sewn onto the underside of his striped cape, and then they were off immediately.

It would take some work, but Sozin thought he could track the woman down fairly quickly if he just covered ground fast enough and used a little ingenuity in his search. He had to go based off some assumptions since he didn't have much information to work with in the first place. He knew that she'd already made her escape from the estate. She probably thought they'd given up looking for her. And maybe she even thought she was in the clear, thinking nobody had any clues as to her whereabouts. However, Sozin wasn't entirely in the dark. If she was travelling on foot, he knew she couldn't have gone far as there was only so much ground you could cover in one day, and that's if you dedicated your entire day to running. That's all the information he needed to limit his area of search to a reasonable and manageable size given the time constraint.

As an lithe and athletic man with the wolf spirit, Sozin was afforded greater stamina than most people. He would be able to run from settlement to settlement quite easily—certainly covering more ground than his target probably could, with or without Wolf taking over and switching into animal form. Not only that, but he also had a picture of her which was probably his most valuable asset for completing this job. Since Kira was an attractive woman, people are sure to have noticed her walking through any area she's been in. By asking around and showing the locals her sketch, he could use that fact to narrow down where she's been and her general location, and then use that information in combination with her scent from the scrap of clothing he asked for to figure out exactly where she is. He had to work fast though. More than a few days of her shuffling around, and she would likely be long gone and nearly impossible to find at that point. It was a race against time to see who was the better competitor—the hunter or the hunted?

All he had to do was find her. That was the hard part. Once he found her, he could take things a lot slower since he had the advantage of surprise on his side. He didn't know for sure, but she probably wasn't expecting for Talro to send a shinobi after her—maybe a bounty hunter or something of that sort, if anything at all—so there was no rush. As long as he played his cards right, Sozin could simply perform a takedown when she wasn't looking and he wouldn't have to fight her in direct combat at all.

"Damn, I couldn't have said it better myself," Wolf said from the spirit realm. "I can tell you're already starting to think like a true wolf now. You have my confidence that this going to work."

"Thanks, Wolf." Sozin smiled as he ran along a road that cut through the forest.

"Hey, after you get payed, let's go grab a nice steak from the butcher to celebrate!" Wolf declared in rowdy happiness. "I take back what I said earlier about human food. Cooked is actually starting to grow on my stomach—the meat's got a nice, charcoally flavor now that I think about it."

Sozin shook his head as his smile widened into a grin. "Sure, Wolf. Anything for my big brother."

"Hell yeah!" Wolf rumbled. "That's what I like to hear!"

Morale was high, and the two bickered throughout the journey as brothers often did. In his time around Ikijo, Sozin had come to realize that family could be more than blood, but around Wolf, it had become clear that the boundaries of family could transcend even beyond being the same species. Connections were connections regardless of who or what they formed between.

It took the whole day but they were getting there. Sozin seemed to be on the right track as he went from village to village inquiring about Kira. Some of the villages had, in fact, seen her passing through. Marking the positions of the villages where she was spotted on a map, Sozin realized that there was distinct pattern. She was heading north across the country, and by extrapolating, he had a good idea of where she would be stopping next.

His estimations brought him to the the darkened woods outside of an Ishidan village. He was on the outskirts and slinking along a lonely dirt path that led right into it. The soft pitter-patter of rain falling onto leaves filled the forest as it ran down the back of the black hood that covered his head along with a set of facial wraps masking the face. Hours had come and passed since he'd embarked on this mission, and now the land was obscured in shadows that would work well in his favor. Hopefully, his target was asleep by now as he'd easily be able to get the drop on her in her slumber. He just had to locate her. Taking a whiff of her clothing and then smelling the air, without a doubt, he knew she was definitely here.

As he crossed into the village, Sozin took off his facial wraps to avoid arousing any suspicion but kept the hood for blocking out the rain. He made sure to keep a low profile, slipping through the various alleys and corners of the village. Every now and then he would smell the cloth again in an attempt to triangulate Kira's position.

With all the running he'd done to get here, the ninja's socks and lower hakama were muddied to the ankle, and the mushiness of the dirt made his waraji print into the ground with each step. He was surprised to see that people were still out at this time in the rain, even if it wasn't coming down all that hard. Many simply went about their evening like normal, having put on straw hats or using umbrellas as they conducted their last-minute business in the closing markets. Sozin didn't find that to be particularly unusual—country folk seemed to be more cut out to deal with unpleasantries of nature than city folk were. They weren't going to let something as small as a little rain stop their life. That was good for him because the traffic meant it was easier to blend in amongst all the commotion. As far as anyone else was concerned, he was simply another nameless warrior passing through the area—a wayfarer.

Noise filled the air and Sozin picked his head up.

Glancing off to the side, Sozin could hear the clamorous chit chat of a carousing saloon all the way from the middle of the muddy street. Strays of orange light peered out past the saloon's swinging double doors and into the shadowed road that winded through the village. Sozin stuck his hands in his pockets, looked away, and kept walking, not wanting any part of the disorganized and uncultured mess that bars could be, but then he stopped in his tracks. Just as he walked past, the orange light illuminating his expression, he caught whiff of something and his eyes lit up.

Right then, the woman's scent had gotten noticeably stronger.

Sozin turned his head and sniffed again to make certain he hadn't been sensing things that weren't there. Sure enough, the source of the smell seemed to be coming from inside the saloon, mixing in with that of many other patrons in the building.

"Mmmm," Wolf grumbled as he eyed his spirit user. "Cast any doubt from your mind. If a hunter can rely on anything, it is usually his senses. Go in..."

Sozin nodded. "Yeah, I think we should. The smell is very strong from here."

Lowering his hood, Sozin drifted through the doors and into the noisy establishment. His entrance turned a few curious heads from their drinks and poker cards as he was obviously not a regular here, but they all quickly went back to what they were doing. From what he could see, the saloon was crowded to the brim with nefarious-looking characters and general riff raff that happened to not be out polluting the streets at this time—certainly not the kind of people Sozin would ever consider associating with outside of work. Perhaps the rain had gathered all their tattooed bodies here for a boisterous indoor occasion, but this saloon in particular seemed to be a hotspot for the warrior-type anyway as all the patrons possessed armament. There were mostly swords floating around, but also a few matchlocks too which his perceptive eye took careful note of. Out of everything that there was to see, what he couldn't help but notice the most was the only woman in the establishment sitting at the front of the bar on a stool behind the counter.

"There she is. That's gotta be her," Sozin said inwardly to Wolf.

She was sitting by herself, a few seats away from all the other patrons. From where he was standing at the door, Sozin couldn't quite see her face and confirm her identity. With some money from the small purse strung across his torso, he ambled up to the front, planted a few coins onto the counter for a bottle of cheap sake, and took a seat at an empty table on the far side of the bar. During the whole process, he was fairly close to the woman, but he didn't dare glance at her once until he sat down, fearing that she would notice him and draw unwanted attention.

Sozin cast the bottle on his table a hesitant look. As a fairly disciplined man, monk, and ninja with no vices besides that bad gambling stint that had gotten him into this mess in the first place—a genuine slip-up if he was being on honest with himself—and senses that he preferred to keep, Sozin didn't want to drink and never drank in his free-time, but right now, he needed to blend in with the rabble, so he pretended to take a few sips of his sake every now and then to look convincing. From where he sat currently, he was able to get a good side view of the woman. She was a little different to see in person, but it was clearly her. She was more real in a way. Like the sketch, however realistic it was, couldn't do her beauty true justice like seeing it in person would. Vaguely, Sozin registered this within the back of his mind, but his cold face didn't flinch at all in recognition of that fact as he stole a few discreet glances to monitor what she was doing.

A pair of geta sandals adorned the woman's feet. Her traditional kasa hat, squared off into a downwards brim at the fringes, sat next to her on the countertop. A rather modest woman, she was dressed in loose-fitting black robes with red highlights on the edges where both sides of the garment overlapped over her chest. The woman indeed had an elegantly sharp face, regal as though she was born specifically to be royalty, and possessed lazy, half-lidded eyes that were a warm orange like the sunset. Sozin had no idea what someone like her was doing in an establishment like this as she stood out like a sore thumb. She didn't seem to care though. She sat there smoking a thin, red pipe that was propped between full lips, occasionally downing shots of alcohol like they were nothing. Framing her lazy and mellow expression, dark hair rolled down to just below her shoulders—a deep, defined black as though each strand had been carefully dipped in ink a thousand times over.

It was then that it hit him. The primal part in the back of every man's mind, the one that Wolf had always told him to be in control of and be better than, was telling Sozin to get a closer look as his eyes lingered on her face.

As another male, Wolf quickly noticed Sozin's unrelenting gaze. He could recognize it anywhere, and he decided to speak up before they were compromised. "Hey, asshole! Are you stupid? Stop thinking with your fucking dick!" he admonished into Sozin's ear.

"What?" Sozin uttered in confusion. He instantly realized and snapped out of it. "Oh, oops," he chuckled inwardly, tearing his eyes off of her. "Sorry..."

"You know, if you keep staring like that, you're going to give yourself away."

Sozin scratched the back of his neck. "Right... My bad..."

"Eh, don't sweat it, bro—just be careful. You're a young guy. It's just instinct," Wolf said. "The second look is the one you really gotta worry about cause that's the one you have control over. It's a good thing we're in a corner of the bar because she would've seen you just now."

Sozin took in a deep breath, feeling a little ashamed that he let himself get so far out of reach like that, even if it was just for a moment. "Yeah, I know... Thanks for that, Wolf."

"No problem, brother," Wolf said, passing Sozin a reassuring nod. "I've got your back, but I'll still get you if you do it a second time. I'm not a human so I can't really tell, but I'm guessin' she's pretty?"

Sozin's eyes flickered to the corners as he thought about it for a split second. "Maybe a little," he laughed.

Remaining serious, Wolf caught Sozin's eyes with his own cautionary ones. "You're the lone wolf, not the social wolf. Remember that shit."

As someone who would like to think he's disciplined person, Sozin was sure to shut those risky feelings down right then and there. When he was doing his job, he was always a professional first and a man second. Always. As he should be.

Having managed to not become totally distracted, Sozin glanced to the two katana on one side of the woman's hip. At the sight of them, his eyes flared in dismay. She was a dual-wielder by the looks of it and that didn't bode well for him. He definitely needed to avoid her in direct combat then since swordsmanship was his weak spot. He wasn't a bad swordsman but not particularly good one either, and compared to all of his other skills, it was one of the most unrefined of the bunch.

Sozin had to admit that he was somewhat impressed by seeing the pair of blades. Dual-wielders were an uncommon sight, and the fact that she had two swords on her person demonstrated a remarkable level of raw skill on her part. To be able to wield two blades at once and do so effectively required an incredible presence of mind and coordination between both sides of the body. Sozin knew little about the specifics of the training such warriors underwent, but he did know that to master two blades, it could not be done without the mastery of a single one first. Thinking back to the conversation him and Talro had, Talro did mention that she was a swordmaster, but it seems he forgot to mention this part specifically. It did beg the question somewhat. How did someone like her even end up as a concubine?

"I'd rather not attack her here in public with so many people around," Sozin said to Wolf. "She seems skilled, and someone's bound to come to her aid, so I'm going to wait until she leaves."

"Smart play," Wolf approved. "Even if it takes a while, you mustn't grow reckless. As I've told you before, the truest measure of a great hunter is not in his skill but in his patience. You can have all the skill in the world, but it won't mean anything if you can't wait for the right moment to use it."

Sozin's eyes narrowed. "She looks like an alcoholic. If I'm lucky, maybe she'll drink herself into stupor, and then I'll be able to restrain her pretty easily once she goes."

"Even better. Let's hope she's dumb enough to do that."

And so they waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

But outside of the occasional harassment of a lecherous man, the woman just enjoyed her drink for the most part. She kept on drinking to her hearts content like she was some kind of fish. One bottle after the next, she ordered by herself and they all came and went. Sozin crossed his arms in indignation. He couldn't believe how many shots she'd practically inhaled without showing even the slightest signs of intoxication. Certainly more than he could ever down in one night without throwing up or passing out. He would've shriveled up and died a long time ago if he had tried to keep up with her.

Sozin shook his head in the real world and in the spirit realm. "This is getting ridiculous!" he burst inwardly. "Is she going to close her tab? I know we have to wait, but how long is she gonna keep drinking like that? She's not even drunk!"

Wolf giggled at his brother's vexation. "Relax, bro. Like you said, she's an alcoholic. She probably does this shit on the daily."

Sozin sighed and let his impatience leave with his breath. "I suppose we'll just have to stay here until she's finished, even if it takes all night."

The two brothers continued to lie in wait of their quarry. Finally— at last, after what seemed like an eternity upon eternities—the woman payed for her night, put her hat back on, and silently stood up to leave.

"Looks like she left," Sozin said with a smirk. "Time to go break some bad."

Sozin threw his hood back on, the smirk developing into a sinister but charming grin on the bottom part of his unobscured face. There was always an element of excitement that came with this kind of work and it was making his blood tingle in a manner that his numbing loneliness often got in the way of. He couldn't wait to get up and follow her and finally have some circulation running through his legs. Although he was eager to jump into action, he decided to stay until after she left the bar to avoid looking like a stalker. Several seconds later, when he thought he was in the clear, only then did he head outside.

The streets were almost completely empty now. Outside the saloon, he saw her walking down the dark and rainy road. Perhaps to an inn to rest for the night? He wasn't sure, but he would find out. He tailed her throughout the village.

As he watched her, Sozin stayed far enough back that he could keep an eye on his target but not close enough that if she glanced over her shoulder, she would think he was following. As an experienced hunter, Wolf had educated him on this topic well. Maintaining the appropriate distance to a target was a delicate balance to manage, and ending up too close or too far both had their own consequences. Too far back and if he lost sight of her for a brief moment, then he might not be able to catch up in time to find her again; too close, and she would realize something is wrong and he would lose the element of surprise. Balance was nice and all, but Sozin usually preferred to err on the careful side as he would rather keep too much distance, lose sight of her, and just have to find her again, which he could through smell, rather than be too close and lose the crucial element of surprise that was so important to a shinobi.

Sozin wasn't sure where she was going though.

She never stopped walking.

Sozin was forced to tail her for longer than he'd hoped for and it was shooting chills up his spine. Maybe she'd detected him and was leading him away from the village on purpose? No... That couldn't be... She hadn't looked over her shoulder once. A one-on-one situation like that was in his favor, so it didn't make sense for her to do such a thing. But whether she knew he was there or not, she kept walking anyway. They were leaving the village. It was annoying, but at the same time, a little unsettling. With the direction both of them were heading in, they were soon going to be the only people left on road, and if she saw that it was just the two of them, he would lose his advantage.

Foreseeing this compromising situation, Sozin veered off into the bushes just as they passed the last few people at the edge of the village and headed into the uneasy forest. Despite this strange development, he kept trailing her, staying a healthy distance away from the revealing border of the dirt path and sticking to the deeper shadows within the woods. They would do well to conceal him, and he felt safe under their protection for the most part, but for some strange reason, something didn't feel right in the back of his mind even though everything seemed to be okay so far. Without the muffled chatter of villagers inside their houses or the sound of strangers that had been mucking about outside, things had suddenly gotten eeriely lonely and quiet in the rain.

Sozin turned his attention elsewhere. One thing was decided for him. This was a retrieval job, so he would have to use his paralysis technique to immobilize her and neutralize the threat factor. No deathblows, unfortunately, but how was he supposed to approach if he couldn't kill her? He could take the most obvious route and sneak up from behind, but that carried some risk and required a little bit of luck. What if she detected him? What if she just so happened to look behind her? Sozin thought he could do it, but it was too risky when other avenues of approach were available and much more attractive. His second option was to lie in wait in the thick cover on the side of the path, and then lunge out as soon as she passed him. That was good, but he could do better. His third and final avenue of approach that he could think of was to climb a tree up ahead and await her arrival for a pouncing blow. It carried the least risk of detection. Ikijo had taught him that humans tended to avoid looking above and below them and to abuse this behavior as a shinobi whenever possible.

"So, what's it gonna be?" Wolf asked.

"Tree... We're climbing up a tree," Sozin said.

"Nice! Show me those climbing skills you apes are so good at."

"You know, I can't imagine what it's like being a wolf and not being able to climb. That's like not being able to breath. Not sure what I would do if I didn't have hands."

Wolf laughed and wiggled his brows with a smirk. "Oh, I bet. We have it real tough."

Steps as silent as a feather, Sozin crept up way ahead of the woman and around the bend where the path curved and there was no line of sight. He looked for a suitable tree to perch on that offered a good pouncing position. When he found one, he climbed up the tree onto a high branch, high enough that it was unlikely she would see him lying in wait for her.

Sozin smiled dark and proud as she came rounding the corner. His hands began to fidget and curl as they primed themselves for the split second where they would need to act in order to secure victory. It would only take the briefest of moments, and then, just like that, the fight would be over. In fact, there would be no fight at all. That was the beauty of being a shinobi. Taking the quiet route made for an easy job and easy money if done right.

But then it didn't seem like it would be so easy.

As the woman was walking, one of her legs hung back in only the slightest of hesitations, a telling aberration in her stride. It was as though she had suddenly realized something but knew better than to freeze in place and give herself away. Fortunately, Sozin's trained eyes were too observant for that, and the smirk faded from his face.

She was acting natural.

But why?

The hairs on Sozin's neck stood up.

There was something going on here. If she had noticed his presence, then why wasn't she running away or trying to engage him? Considering his position, to anyone noticing him, it would clearly look like he was trying to assassinate her, nevermind the fact that he was simply a strange, cloaked man atop a tree in the middle of a forest at night if you took the other thing away.

"What's wrong, brother?" Wolf asked, seeing the disturbance on Sozin's face.

Sozin's fist curled up into a tight ball. "I think she's spotted me," he muttered.

"Impossible," Wolf cut back. "You've done everything right up to this point."

"I know..." Sozin said. "I'm not sure how she saw me, or if I just messed up earlier or something while following her and didn't realize, but I don't think I did. She never even looked back once, so I'm pretty certain it was just now that she spotted me. She might just have good eyes. Kind of messes up my plans..."

"Honestly, uh, I thought we had this in the bag, so I wasn't paying attention anymore. How can you be so sure she spotted you?"

"Her right leg hesitated ever so slightly. It was... unusual..."

"It doesn't look like she saw you though."

The woman was still a ways off but approaching slowly, slinking across the dirt path in a drifting gait. She had her head down, the rain dripping off the top of her bamboo hat.

"I know, and that's the weird part. She's still walking like everything's... just normal..." Sozin's gaze fell lower as the cogs turned in his head. After a few brief seconds, he spoke in sudden epiphany, dragging the words under his breath. "That cunning woman. She's trying to outplay me."

"How so?"

Sozin continued to stare warily at the woman from the thick branch he sat on. "She's hoping I didn't notice her little slip-up—that's why she's playing dumb. In my confidence, she wants and expects me to jump down so she can kill me on descent, but now that I know, I'm not going to give her the chance."

Wolf grinned toothily, nodding his head in proud recognition. "Sounds like a good theory if you ask me. You're probably right."

"I might be wrong and it could be nothing, but I have shuriken, so I can test the waters to see if I'm correct," Sozin said, feeling around under his cape for a metal star. "If I throw a shuriken at her leg, one of two things will happen: A..." he said raising his thumb, "she'll either deflect it and confirm my suspicions, or B..." he said raising his index finger, "she won't deflect it at all and will suffer a hit to the leg. Either way, I'm giving away my position, but if she already knows I'm here, it doesn't matter anyway. On the off chance she saw me and is planning to kill me when I jump down, I'll be avoiding her ploy in the process by being proactive about it and probably a tough fight as well if I happen to cripple her leg."

"Guess there's only one way to find out the truth," Wolf said with a grin of sinister delight. "Toss her a little present."

Sozin held a single shuriken in his hand. The pure, polished steel was a smooth cold upon the pads of his weathered fingertips. It had four sharp prongs in total with a small hole in the center. In addition to the shuriken mounted on the wheel attached to his wrist, the hole in the shuriken made for easy transport by allowing them to be strung underneath the concealment of Sozin's purple and black striped cape. The shuriken on his wrist were quicker to access, but going underneath the cape provided an element of surprise as enemies couldn't see what his hands were doing nor exactly what tools they were grabbing until he had already thrown them and they were forced to react. The advantage was a small one, but in a fight, everything factored into winning, and Sozin was going to take every advantage he could get, no matter how unscrupulous.

The shuriken in Sozin's hand peeked out from one of the flaps in his cape. In darkening focus, he narrowed his demon-red eyes at where the woman's thigh would be under her robes. In one swift motion, his arm shot out and the shuriken went flying with a flick of the wrist. Years of training and thousands upon thousands of throws stood behind the precision of his attack, and that experience did not fail him. The throw was perfectly straight and accurate, and it looked like it would hit its mark dead-on.

But the woman was fast.

Too fast.

In an instant, her eyes darted to the threat. She seized one of her blades, unsheathing it into a single, blistering swing that not just deflected the shuriken away, but reflected it back at Sozin with the piercing ring and flashing spark of metal against metal.

Sozin's eyes ignited with shock as he saw his own attack coming right back at his face. He lurched his head to the side and the shuriken embedded itself next to his ear into the trunk of the tree.

The woman raised her head to look at Sozin, revealing her face from under the cover of her bamboo hat. She bit down onto her pipe. A thin, wispy trail of smoke was billowing out just beyond the brim.

Sozin mumbled in dissatisfaction as they exchanged a hard gaze with each other. Deflection was one thing, but reflecting projectiles and doing it accurately was another matter entirely. Her coordination didn't seem to be impaired at all from the copious amount of alcohol she'd drank. Had he not moved so urgently, her attack would've hit him square in the face.

Sozin made a mental note reminding himself to be careful. Now that he knew he was exposed, he was going to have to deal with her in a direct fight. Not wanting anything to go to waste, he plucked his reflected shuriken from the tree trunk's bark and rose from where he sat on the branch. Leaping down from the tree, Sozin landed into a low, menacing thud in the middle of the dimly lit dirt road. Looming up to face her, displeasure riddled his glowering face beneath the hood.

Sozin brushed off some of the mud that had splattered onto his cape. He hadn't expected his night to be ruined by such an inconvenience of a person. She was lucky to have seen him, or perhaps, just that good. "My my... Not bad at all..." he said in a low voice.

"Shinobi..." the woman said, a steely edge in her eyes. She played with the pipe between her lips. "Don't you know it's not polite to sneak up on people?"

She was soft-spoken like he was. Her voice was an alluringly low but still feminine pitch, and when she spoke, she did so in a cool, velvety timbre that was as smooth as butter. This was no bluff. By looks of it, she was as calm as she was portraying herself to be—a trained tango through and through.

"So you've abandoned your duties and run away from your lord..." Sozin said. "Seems the consequences have caught up to you."

Kira's brows crinkled in irritation. Her free hand rested on the wooden hilt of her other unsheathed sword. "And who might you be?"

"Who I am is not important. What is important is what I'm going to do... You can either come along quietly or I'm taking you by force. The choice is yours..."

"I don't believe you're in any position to be giving me an ultimatum." Kira unsheathed her other sword with a defiant shing. They sheened in the rainy moonlight.

"It's your decision..." he said, stalking forward with a purpose in his step. The words hung in the perilous air. His features were uncompromising. "Don't say I didn't warn you..."

Sozin reached for the katana on his back and slowly unsheathed it, flaying the blade out to the side with deadly flourish.

Sozin had his tools and Kira had an extra sword. The fight wasn't exactly fair, but few things in battle truly were. Although a single sword provided great depth in terms of knowledge and mastery, a pair of swords went even further beyond that skill ceiling. Unless combined together, an attack from either blade would lack any real power because her hands were divided, but they allowed for rapid and easily chained attacks that could overwhelm an opponent. That would have otherwise been a problem, but if she tried to utilize the second blade while he was busy with the first one, Sozin could simply use the metal cuff on his wrist to block. Unfortunately, that's all the cuff was good for, but he had tools and intelligence to make up for the fact that he was a bad swordsman and needed to use a gimmick in place of a real weapon. Martial arts was where his talent had chosen to rest its head and that was fine. He could still take this fight.

Sozin glanced at Kira's weapons. He would have to keep an eye on both of her hands at all times. "All right..." he said inwardly as he prepared himself. "Let's get this over with quickly."

Kira eased herself into a defensive stance as Sozin approached faster and faster, quickly transitioning into a determined sprint to close the gap. He threw the shuriken he had in his hand from earlier and kept running forward to meet her. As he expected, she reflected it back at him and he raised his sword to return the favor. The shuriken ricocheted back and forth, the pings of metal getting more and more rapid until Sozin was on top of her and leaned to the side to let the shuriken fly free. It whizzed past him as he dashed forward into an upwards slash, using the momentum he was carrying to spin around into another heavier strike from the top. Kira repelled his attack, sliding upwards along his sword with crossed blades. Sozin went wide-eyed as his katana and the hands gripping it were blown aback behind his head. Swiftly, she followed by bringing her crossed katana out and then in from the sides like scissors. With his sword too far away, Sozin darted back with a grunt of astonishment, sucking in his gut to avoid the tips of her katana as she stepped in and nearly eviscerated his stomach with them.

Sozin staggered rearwards with a gasp, having lost his footing in the loose mud. Kira advanced, flowing from one attack to the next, dancing into a death blossom of strikes like her swords were a pair of twisting vipers. Between frantic blocks and lucky deflections, Sozin found himself being pushed back viciously by her onslaught. If he didn't do something, he was going to get overwhelmed by the sheer volume of her offense. He managed to turn the tide for a brief moment, digging his back foot into the dirt and holding his ground with a few slashes of his own. It broke her momentum, and he followed up, snarling and whipping around into a high, spinning kick to knock her out. The kick left a blistering white streak of accelerated winds across Kira's vision as she yanked her head back out of range. Before she could do anything else, Sozin leapt forward, bringing his foot back for another knock-out attempt at her head while he was airborne. Kira crossed her two swords to stop the attack, and Sozin gracefully rebounded off of them, somersaulting backwards some distance away.

The battle lapsed for a brief moment.

"Stay on your toes cause it looks like she's gonna give you some trouble," Wolf said. "Don't be so predictable."

Sozin's eyes turned analyzing. He didn't dare take them off Kira's glaring form. "Yeah," he said, reluctant to get near her again. "She's the close-range bruiser type. I've never seen such fluid attacks before... I don't think I can beat her with raw skill alone."

"Are you gonna disengage?"

"No, no..." Sozin said, a nefarious hand snaking under his cape. "This is winnable. I have plenty of shuriken and other tools to spare. She was playing dirty earlier, but let's see if she can keep up. I think I can trick her."

"What exactly do you have in mind?" Wolf asked.

"A ruse..." Sozin said. "My goal is to make her think she's reading my attack patterns by repeatedly throwing out three shuriken. She doesn't know what I'm carrying under my cape. She'll get used to expecting the shuriken at one point, and when that happens, I'll sneak a flashbang in place of the third shuriken. Her expectations will work against her. As long as I don't do it from too far away, she won't be able to spot the difference quick enough, and when she tries to deflect it, it'll explode in her face, disorienting her and giving me a brief moment to take her down."

Grinning, Wolf giggled in dark mischief. "You sly dog... I'd expect no less from my own."

Sozin smiled back, sharing Wolf's sentiments. "All in good keeping of the path. You've taught me well, brother."

Meanwhile, Kira, who was more comfortable on the defensive, heard a voice shout in the back of her mind.

"What are you doing, Kira?" a fox burst out in severe scolding. "Stop giving him time to think— he's analyzing you! Attack!"

Kira felt as though someone had booted her in the backside. Spurred on by her spirit animal's guidance, she raised her twin blades together to the side, narrowing her eyes in deep focus.

Sozin's eyes widened, flaring with alertness as his posture shot into evasive mode. In an instant, Kira entered into a flurry of slices and slashes that sent piercing shockwaves of wind hurling right at him. On reflexes alone, Sozin dodged them with jukes, airborne barrel rolls, and twisting jumps as they cut through the pulsing air like any blade would.

"How about you dance for me!" Kira yelled out loud.

They kept coming, a hailstorm of limb-severing strikes, one after the other. Sozin heard them as they shrieked past his evading form. He threw three shuriken to stagger her attacks, but it only delayed her for a short moment as she skillfully deflected them away.

"She's gonna cut you to pieces out here! Break line of sight!" Wolf shouted.

Sozin ripped off a smoke bomb from where it was tied with weak string to the rope around his waist. He chucked it at Kira's feet with as much force as he could, and it exploded in her face into a large cloud of smoke that was big enough to cover the width of the road. There was a pause in her attacks, and then a few more blind shockwaves came out of the cloud, but with the smoke obscuring Kira's vision, they were inaccurate guesses. Despite the bomb not being designed for toxicity, unlike ninja, she didn't have a face mask to allow for safe breathing and was completely exposed to the bomb's particles.

Kira refused to breath, holding onto her last breath of fresh air. Sozin's charging footsteps met her ears as he closed in on the cloud of smoke. Squinting, Kira burst out from the cover of the smoke to meet him full force with the slash of both her blades combined. Sozin jumped back before she could lock him into a combo and threw three more shuriken. He quickly dashed back in, creating his own offense with a series of punishing kicks, the final one sending her skidding right back into the cloud as it collided with her crossed swords. Sozin threw three more shuriken, pulled his mask up, and chased after, making sure to put as much pressure as possible on her abilities. They fought inside the cloud for a brief moment, then coming out other side of the dissipating smoke in a flurry of action.

As they continued their battle, Kira easily kept up with Sozin's attacks, reading all of them and deflecting their greater power with such ease it was as though she had foughten him many times before. Over the course of the fight, Sozin incorporated more feints into his attacks as he continued to throw trios of shuriken, but none of it was to any avail. With how often she was parrying him, if it wasn't for his elusiveness as a shinobi, she would've killed him already with a counterattack. His mistakes were simply too difficult to punish.

Kira growled in exasperation. "You're slippery—I'll give you that!"

Sozin didn't say anything back. The solemn concentration on his face only flickered in alarm from time to time during close calls. His calm face was hiding what was truly going on inside that he didn't want his enemy to see. Terror began to build in Sozin's blood, enhancing his reflexes. He operated well under pressure, but in this fight, it was bearing down on him harder than it'd ever had before. He needed time to enact his strategy and build complacency, but right now, the more time he gave her, the more opportunities she had to win out with her superior skill and technique. He would have to tide himself over if he was going to win this battle.

Sozin somersaulted off of Kira's blocking swords to create space. Pulling four smoke bombs from his waist, he chucked them into four corners around Kira. The bombs went off in a loud poof and left an eye in the center that was unobscured by smoke. Light as a feather, Sozin silenced his footsteps and made a mad dash for the cloud.

Kira shut her eyes and crossed her blades over each other. He was trying to box her in and use the smoke to come from an unpredictable angle. She smirked, sly as a fox, deciding to use her ears instead of her eyes which could only watch one direction.

Sozin was no fool. He anticipated her predictions and silently bolted up a tree adjacent to the ring of smoke. He would not come from the ground as she expected, but from the air! He leapt, a wolf in the night, coming down onto the eye in the center of the smoke where Kira was waiting. Just then, she heard the sound of his whistling sword as it cut downwards through the air, and her eyes shot open.

Kira deftly trapped the attack between her pair of blades.

"Denied," she said flatly.

Sozin growled as he struggled to free his weapon. She was trying to pry his sword from his hands with her own by pushing and pulling in opposite directions. By the skin of his teeth, Sozin managed to shove her back with his body and slide his sword out from under the lock of her blades just before his grip came loose.

The battle lulled into another deadly pause as both warriors stared intensely at each other, daring the other to make a move, trying to figure out the other's weaknesses. Without warning, Sozin suddenly lurched his blade forward into an ominous feint and he chuckled. Kira's face had remained calm and unflinching, completely composed and at the ready for a real attack. She knew better than to react to a strike before one's opponent was committed to it, lest she find herself a victim of deception, but apparently, the man found some humor in their quarrel. He smirked in dangerous amusement at her seemingly unbreakable steadiness.

They continued to fight there within the eye amongst the dissipating smoke, each clash ringing out with deathly sparks.

Soon, the smoke was all gone.

Slashing once, Sozin used his sword as a pivot point in the dirt to deliver a sweeping kick. Kira did exactly as he was hoping for and dashed back the perfect distance for him to have the highest chance of his ruse working. Not so far that she would notice the flashbang in time and not too close that the blast would affect him as well. Sozin smirked. Before she had time to change position, from underneath his cape, he quickly plucked two shuriken and a flashbang of the few different types that he was carrying—this one being a small, grape-like canister with a safety string that would explode upon impact when pulled and could fit neatly between his fingers.

As soon as he had them arranged, Sozin tossed the motley crew of projectiles in quick succession, the first two intentionally being the shuriken to make it look like his previous throws and then the flashbang. Kira couldn't spot the difference before it was too late. She tried to deflect the flashbang and it popped in her face with an ear-shattering bang. She staggered rearwards, somehow managing to maintain her balance amidst the chaos that instantly erupted between her ears and befuddled her senses. Letting out a painful mutter, she shut her blinded eyes tight and grit her teeth, sucking air through them as nausea exploded through her head.

She had been thrown into a stunned mass of confusion, and Sozin's eyes flared in desire like a predator that had finally found an opportunity to pounce. With blood in his eyes, he burst forth to capitalize, but the rain had been coming down for a while now, and in his careless eagerness, he'd forgotten all about it. He slipped in the mud, falling onto his hands messily.

The small size of the flashbang meant its effects weren't very powerful and wouldn't last very long.

"What are you doing?" Wolf yelled. "Get the fuck up, Sozin—you're gonna lose your chance!"

Sozin cursed and scrambled to his feet. He drove his legs into the ground, bolting for Kira, but then her eyes flew open as soon as he tried to jaw her with the hilt of his katana. She ducked, narrowly avoiding the attack, and pulled her leg back for a brutal kick.

It connected with his chest.

Hard.

The wind shot out of Sozin's lungs. He was sent soaring back along the dirt road. He hit the ground rough, the dense layer of soil under the mud that smothered his body crunching his limbs along with the rib that had just broken as he tumbled to a grinding halt. He coughed viciously as his spasming lungs tried to recover, gasping for air. The sudden stab of pain made it hard to focus and things were a blur. He raised his head and she was coming right for him.

Sozin growled, a fiery rage seeping through his bones. His brothers had beaten him worse than that. Even when he begged them to stop, they had always kept going.

Slamming his hand into the ground with a thud, Sozin burst up onto his feet, crashing his blade into hers like a sledgehammer driving a nail. A gust of wind exploded downwards and the attack nearly broke through her guard, but she managed to dissipate some of the energy in a partial deflect, somehow managing to stay standing as her knees crumpled, her back strained, and the bones in her feet cracked from only a small portion of the blow's full magnitude.

The shock was only temporary because the advantage was hers. She had him in close range now and once again launched one attack after another, stringing them along into constant danger. Sozin was pushed onto the defensive, struggling to keep up with her speed, grace, and any feints inbetween. Her attacks were fast but not wild. Each one was a calculated strike amongst a string of blows, some real, some not, meant to slowly chip away at his mental stamina and overwhelm his ability to keep up.

"Damn it!" Wolf shouted. "You're gonna lose, brother! You need to throw her off somehow!"

"I'm trying!" Sozin said with grit.

Things weren't looking so good, but the battle wasn't over yet. Sozin was going to have to get smarter if he wanted to win.

Staying close to her was a bad decision. He definitely couldn't contest Kira in close range, but thinking back to earlier, long range was also a no-go as well since Sozin remembered the shockwave attack she had tried to tear him to pieces with. Either way, it seemed he was going to get cut to ribbons no matter what he did, and it was simply a question of whether he wanted to die at her feet or not, but perhaps he could use that to his advantage? He couldn't win the battle of the blade but he could win the battle of the mind. Kira was certainly aware that she was winning because of her superior swordsmanship, and maybe even intelligence, and that smirk on her face from before was all the evidence he needed for it.

That was good news. It was something he could turn the tide of battle with. He could use that feeling of confidence against her by pretending to retreat and giving her a false sense of trust in her abilities. With the right distancing, he might be able to bait out a thrust attack and get a Mikiri Counter that way. Thrust attacks had the longest range of any sword swing. With how close she'd been sticking to him this entire fight, Kira had yet to throw a single thrust attack since she had no need to. Hopefully, her eagerness to stay close to him didn't mean she had knowledge of this obscure maneuver and simply wanted to avoid being unable to attack. With how shrouded it was from prying eyes, Ikijo had told him that it might as well be considered a forbidden technique, one that few shinobi—if any who had been taught were still alive—possessed in their arsenal.

More good news. Maybe even great. He still had an element of surprise here that he could cling to and abuse.

As a shinobi, Sozin knew how to control the positioning game incredibly well which helped play into his elusiveness. If he managed to stay just at the edge of the range of her swords, he could dash out every time she attacked, nullifying her offense and forcing her to step in for what was probably going to be a thrust attack. There was no guarantee that she would throw one out, especially if she caught on to what he was trying to do, but he had a higher chance of receiving one like that. In that moment, he would end the fight once and for all with a single, crushing counter. His paralysis technique would come in handy for the finisher.

Sozin wasn't sure how many ideas he had left inside his head, but Wolf concurred wholeheartedly with this one, so that settled things. He decided to put it into action. His brother's word was always absolute.

Carefully watching his footwork, Sozin lingered at the edge of her range and peeled away each and every time she tried to clip him just as he planned. It seemed like she had spent a little too much time studying swordsmanship since her positioning game couldn't even hold a candle to his. Her attacks were much easier to deal with this way, so much so that he was surprised he hadn't thought of this strategy earlier as it seemed so obvious now.

As Sozin dodged, flowing from one foot to the next like a leaf in the wind, he could've avoided her attacks completely if he wanted to, but he made it so that they nearly connected each time, enticing her further like a cat that was finally about to clamp her excited jaws around the mouse. He put on his best act, using the fear that he usually kept suppressed to feign growing anxiety and desperation. It wasn't that hard to do; the emotions bubbling inside of him weren't very different from what simmered to the surface.

He began to see it on her face. Calm and dignified, a smirking Kira seemed to think she had him on the run. Her blood burned in anticipation. He wouldn't block, only dodging out of what seemed to be a lack of options at this point. She thought nothing of it when she threw out a low jab with one of her katana.

Sozin's eyes lit up. His foot had been waiting for it this whole time. Rather than backing up like he had been doing, he sidestepped, and her weapon extended out beside him for the maneuver. It all happened in one split second. Raising his leg, he crushed the heel of his foot down into the heart of her blade, ramming it into the ground and kicking up mud with a harrowing slam. Kira's hand was latched onto the hilt of the katana and she was yanked forward into an unbalanced lean.

For a sliver of time, their gazes met each other.

The calm in Kira's expression drained, replaced by panic, but Sozin was as cold and calculating as any efficient machine was. A twinge of fear ran up Kira's neck when she saw the look on his face, and she swung wildly at him with her other sword. Sozin blocked it. It all felt like it was happening in slow motion. He flipped up over Kira, her frantic eyes following, and he delivered two quick jabs with pursed fingers to either side of her upper back—pressure points for each half of the human body.

Every morsel of life seemed to leave her limbs in one, single, table-turning instant. Wide-eyed, Kira choked out in a gasp from the blows. Before she knew it, her knees had buckled and her katana had slipped from her fingers. She hit the ground with a hard grunt, dirt and grime grinding into her cheek.

Sozin... had won.