It's a pretty sword at least.

[abileunaspada]

Who: Adela Milani (abileunaspada) & Sasuke Uchiha (not_thedragon)
When: November 19th-30th (originally planned for November 19th through 27th)
Where: Between Land of Fire and Land of Birds
Notes: A simple weapons' commission turns sour when rumours of an opportunity reach the ears of a surprising foe.

--------------------

It really was her finest work...

Adela sighed as she lovingly peace-bound the ornate sword into its hilt. It might have been overly-decorated and never meant to see combat of any kind, but it was still such a fine work that she didn't care. Hopefully the lord who commissioned it from their store would agree, because they hadn't specifically asked for uncle's work and he had given this job to her...

Well, and to Sasuke for the delivery. Really, she'd be able to handle a bunch of bandits, but given all that happened she couldn't exactly blame Obito for wanting to make sure that there was a Jonin with her. Really, even if on paper he'd been given the same mission she knew the real reason, if she was honest with herself. Well, hopefully it would just be a precaution this time...

[[OoC: Separate threads below!]]

Comments

[not_thedragon]

To claim that he hadn't been apprehensive about ending up assigned to a mission with Adela would have been a lie: for all that they'd apparently hashed things out in front of Obito's office, Sasuke's default mode of engagement on missions over the past year had become something akin to disaster control. Still, he'd hoped that the possibility that the good luck that had struck with inexplicable frequency on his last mentoring mission would somehow hold over to this one.

It had seemed to stick at first, too; they'd been bothered only by the usual civilian-level bandits in the region, easily swatted out of the way. They'd barely needed to really rest in the designated stopping-point, but with the weather unpredictable as it tended to be this time of year and their schedule working out fine, there hadn't been any reason not to take advantage of the town.

That had, evidently, been a mistake. Whoever had been tailing them for the past half-hour was far more skilled than the bandits had been. Sasuke had been hoping it was merely a patrol keeping an eye on territory, but to be followed for this long was well out of the norm, something he assumed Adela had already noticed from her question.

"I'll keep the decoy," he said, low out of the side of his mouth as they kept walking and referring to the imitation case they'd created. It had been meant only as a precaution, but apparently they were going to need it. "If needed, we can split up and you can hide the real one somewhere until they're handled."

[abileunaspada]

"Got it. Be careful, Senpai," Her words were low and side-spoken as well, absently hitching her bag higher on her shoulder -- making sure to protect her heart and lungs from a back attack with the move. There was no point in drawing weapons yet -- it'd be better to act oblivious and look for a give-away in position, though at the same instant she was ready to draw and fight. They needed to be ready, and Sasuke was right -- whoever was coming was definitely more skilled than the bandits they had fended off.

Was it really just a border patrol? The kunoichi wanted to think so, but somehow she just didn't think they'd be that lucky. Things were never that easy.

[not_thedragon]

Pretending they hadn't noticed their tail was a double-edged sword; it left them some element of surprise to use, but it also meant that their would-be attackers had the option to pick the ground. Sasuke's jaw tightened slightly as they rounded a curve in the road and it became clear exactly why they hadn't been ambushed until now: rising from between the trees was a high spur of rock, several times again the average person's height. The road had been cut through the centre of the formation, comfortably wide but unpleasantly claustrophobic for their purposes.

... yeah, Sasuke decided, that was not where he wanted to deal with an ambush.

"Hold on," he said out loud, keeping his senses carefully attuned for sound in the silence around them, and knelt on the pretext of adjusting something with his shoe. There were in fact stones all over Stone, so he made a show of trying to knock one loose, buying them time. "Maybe we should just take a break."

That seemed to be the signal needed. With a sudden rush of chakra, a quintet of shinobi appeared in front of them, ringed in a half-circle just out of sword's reach. Their forehead protectors marked them out as Kiri-nin, something that made Sasuke's eyes narrow as he straightened back up. Most of their landings had been less than impressive, but at least one -- startlingly red-headed, oddly enough -- moved with real stealth.

That one stepped forward now, expression cool: "We want something you're carrying. Don't resist, and we won't hurt you."

"We're not infringing on anyone's territory," Sasuke replied, moving the decoy package behind him in a signal to Adela -- follow the plan.

[abileunaspada]

Adela didn't move. Couldn't move.

She had managed to deflect the stray kunai that had been flung at her, but with her sword still in hand she was caught, frozen and staring at the red head before her. The familiar red hair, the kiri headband, it was too much. There was no way. This was worse than running into Shark-san*...

As if zoning in on her, one of the other shinobi -- a woman in her early 20s -- scoffed and grinned, shaking her head, "Look at that one, she's so scared she's gonna piss herself. Why don't I take care of this one now?"

Her movements weren't a master's steps, but she was still quick to pull her wakizashi in order to try and make a killer blow on Adela. Thankfully, it seemed like she was at least aware enough to jump back and dodge, but Adela was still off -- her eyes unnaturally wide and her breathing becoming faster as she looked around at them all, even if her focus was clearly on the red head in front. This wasn't happening. They might have been there for the sword, but if they were Kiri nin... This wasn't happening.

Something was definitely off about Adela, and at the moment she wasn't able to vocalize it. This wasn't a fight they could win, of that much she was becoming more and more certain. What the hell were they gonna do...?

[not_thedragon]

It didn't take long for Sasuke to realise that the plan was definitely not being followed. Reluctant as he was to take his eyes off the enemy nin in front of them, he still glanced behind him to figure out what was going on -- only to see Adela, sword in hand, apparently unable to move. There was no disturbance in chakra that Sasuke could sense, but he still activated the Sharingan, just in case.

No -- there was no jutsu at work that could be seen through chakra. His gaze snapped to the woman who moved, his own sword drawn in a flash to block the blow even as Adela managed to get out of the way. Just barely.

Was it fear? This was hardly her first mission out of the village, and these shinobi weren't even that skilled, given how the woman he blocked stumbled back easily when he pushed back on her weapon. The black tomoe of his Sharingan spun slowly as he narrowed his eyes at all of them, still seeing no jutsu that could explain what was happening with Adela, which meant that he was stuck with both a decoy and a real sword package that would rapidly make it obvious one of them was a fake.

"Adela," he hissed, edging back enough that he could grind the heel of his foot into her toes.

"You can give it up easy," the redheaded leader called out, almost casually. "Or you can resist us and we'll just kill you both."

[abileunaspada]

She winced and hissed a quick breath at the stomp, glancing to Sasuke briefly before her eyes immediately returned on the leader. With the way her heart raced it was almost impossible to think straight though, and Sasuke being right there with her didn't help with the fact that she was faced with a demon from her past.

Would the woman recognize her as traitor? Who knew. But she didn't want to risk it, swallowing thickly as she tried as hard as she could to get focused again. Was this person really after the sword? Were they even of the Milani clan? She didn't know, she didn't want to know, but maybe the fear was unfounded... Maybe...

It took what felt like an eternity to her, but she finally trusted her voice to speak, calling out to the ninja, "Just what do you want with us?"

[not_thedragon]

It seemed like the enemy was being slightly warier now that they'd struck back at least a little, the four subordinates fanning out now to form a semicircle around them. At last, it sounded like Adela had managed to get some of her wits back together, but the timbre of her voice was less than confidence-inspiring, which meant Sasuke had to deal with somehow getting a teammate with the goods they were carrying out of the way.

The leader, apparently having grown tired of talking, ignored her question, swiping a hand out in a clear signal. Two of the nin swung around to try for his sides, the other two looking to pin him down from the front -- clearly, they thought that the decoy he had was the real thing.

That would have been great if Adela had stuck to the plan and taken off with the real thing, but as it was he only had seconds to react. Lightning chakra sparked up around him with its characteristic cacophony, stunning the first two to make contact with him, and making a lightshow unusual enough that the other two slowed. It was enough time for Sasuke to yank the decoy off his back and throw it to the ground, slamming a foot on the case and threatening: "Stand down or I'll light this on fire -- we can replace it, unlike you."

Not that Sasuke had a clue if that was true, but it was the only option with an unpredictable teammate holding the goods besides cut-and-run. And the Milani forge could produce another sword to specification. Probably.

His first clue that things weren't as they seemed arrived when the leader laughed outright, putting a hand on his sword with a sneer: "You really think the fancy box you're carrying is what we want?" He swept his hand through another signal, the two men that weren't paralyzed leaping into motion as if to punctuate his words and -- Sasuke had to shove Adela back so he could leap out of the way himself as the first crushed the decoy box with an earth jutsu, the wood splintering with an ugly noise.

What -- the moment's surprise was his loss.

"Get the other one out of the way," one of the attackers snapped at the other, and suddenly Sasuke was crossing swords with a kunoichi and hoping Adela would get out of the path of the other nin aiming a fist for her solar plexus. If the other two recovered from paralysis in the next minute they were going to be in serious trouble.

... Derp I didn't realize you had made the leader male.

[abileunaspada]

It seemed like Adela at least was aware enough to get out of the way, and at last she drew her sword to fight back. She was doing all right, injuring and hopefully trying to discourage the attacker. Why wasn't the leader doing anything though? This was striking her as off -- she had purposely given her opponent a chance to steal the decorated sword, but they weren't going for it. Not even to use as a weapon against her. So why...

At last she ended it, grunting as she pinned down the other and stabbed downward right into that person's throat. That was before she focused her attention on the leader. That... Milani clan member. It had to be, didn't it? There was only one way to find out, and that was if he recognized the craftsmanship of the weapons she used.

"Senpai, change of plans! We need to finish this now!" Maybe it was foolish of her, but if she just left Sasuke there he'd likely get hurt or worse. That, and it would give these jokers an opportunity to either follow them further or call for re-enforcements. Taking out the leader while the other two were paralyzed seemed smart, leaving Sasuke to the others -- he could use Chidori more than once, she knew that was true. And these goons looked like they'd be hopeless without their leader.

"Just what the hell do you want then!?" Not that Adela expected an answer, but who knew -- maybe the question would throw the leader off enough for her to immobilize him and pin him down for questioning.

DURR IT'S OK I DIDN'T REALIZE YOU MADE HER FEMALE MAYBE THEY'RE JUST ambiguous

[not_thedragon]

The leader tsked in irritation when Adela failed to be immobilized, though Sasuke huffed out a short exhale of relief before shoving the kunoichi in front of him back, Sharingan spinning through a quick sequence of movements around her counter before he'd slammed the blade of his own sword into her gut. It wasn't quite a stomach-wound, not a quick death, but it would be fatal if she were left to bleed out.

That coupled with the one now gurgling last breaths through a damaged windpipe -- excessive for mere robbers like this, Sasuke thought privately, but better than not defending herself at all -- hopefully meant that their attackers would feel outclassed enough to --

"Not whatever pretty toy you're carrying," the leader said from where he'd flickered across the distance to appear directly behind Adela. Sasuke lunged, halfway across the distance before he was suddenly tackled from the side by one of the men he'd paralyzed. It was a clumsy move, remnants of Chidori still holding strong, but it was enough time for the leader to turn almost casually into a spinning kick at the base of Adela's spine.

"Something better," he commented as he moved. "A bloodline."

Nah I'm cool with the leader being male lmao

[abileunaspada]

It was too late by the time she reacte, and Adela cried out at the hit to her spine as she was sent flying. When she hit the ground she was stunned, wheezing a little and shaking as she tried to get the world to look normal again. Had she hit her head? She didn't know, but Sasuke was held by one of the ninja now...

"Bloodline...?" Her voice was hoarse as she just tried to get her breath, failing to get up straight away for all that she tried. Just what... Were they after her after all...?

orz sorry

[not_thedragon]

Bloodline carried its own weight for Sasuke, his body freezing for a second before he was struggling in earnest. Adela's distraction had distracted him in turn, the complete lack of fluid teamwork making both of them easily separated. And she was down again, though he couldn't tell that she'd been struck hard enough to damage the spine -- frozen once more? She'd seemed to get her fighting spirit back earlier, but now --

The man trying to drag him down tightened his grip as much as he could through the paralysis and Sasuke gathered chakra again, twisting to try and get a bead on the other ninja he'd paralyzed earlier. It was just in time to gather chakra to his feet and shove away as the kunoichi leapt for him as well, freeing one arm and arcing it backward to counter her blow. They were at standstill for a moment, just long enough for him to glance over at Adela again to confirm she was still down.

And a moment was all he needed to notice that the redheaded leader was no longer next to her. It happened in rapid succession: the man flickering in front of him with a lazy smile, Sasuke's chakra still only starting to spark noisily, and then a crunch that didn't register at first.

He blinked, trying to work out why he wasn't pushing out of the enemy's grips, and then the pain hit hard enough that it whited out his vision for a breath-stealing second, lightning chakra dissipating with an audible hiss. An unavoidable glance down confirmed it when his sight cleared, his left leg snapped cleanly from the front, a shard of bone spearing out from the side of his thigh at an ugly angle and blood bubbling messily around the exit wound -- stunned with pain, his brain observed with a weird dispassion: no arterial bleeding, but close. Very close, and any movement would --

The ninja on either side shoved him down and a strangled scream tore from his throat, entirely against his will. Through spotting vision (shock, the medic-nin's voice inside him said, clinical, your body is entering shock) he could see Adela still prone before his chin was grabbed and forced upward, eyes landing on the satisfied grin of the leader. Only deeply-ingrained lessons prevented him from letting the Sharingan rise on instinct, forcing his eyes to stay black through sheer will.

Seals, he thought, still distant even as gravity ground his weight down onto his leg with enough pressure to make him have to bite back another noise of pain. The blinding seals, the seals to --

"There they are," the man said, and reached toward his face.

[abileunaspada]

They weren't after hers. They were after his.

Adela's eyes widened and the pupil of her good eye dilated as she, in an instant, took in what was happening. A flash of what had happened to her own eye came through, and she tensed. They were after Sasuke's eyes. That was what they were after the whole time. But, as it all processed, it would appear that their enemy had made one fatal mistake.

They left her alive.

The balls of metal at her side were whipped out in a flash, chakra strings attached as she jumped to her feet. Her legs didn't want to stay straight under her and that resulted in a slight stumble, but she didn't care -- right then and there Adela had to stop what had happened to her from happening to Sasuke. There was no way she was going to let it happen again, not in front of her eyes, not while she could stop it!

"Get the hell away from him!" In those instants, Adela wasn't thinking of her own terror of Kirigakure or of how much stronger her opponents could potentially be. The metal she was using morphed into spikes and swiftly extended out to stab through the hands of all of the remaining ninja, hooking and making to pull them back so she could slam them into the ground. It was almost like puppet mastery, and it didn't take long for her to morph the metal into a rather large fuuma shuriken as she got into a battle stance.

"You want his eyes? You're gonna get cut down by me before you even get the chance, assholes!"

[not_thedragon]

It didn't register at first to Sasuke what had happened -- just that one second there were fingers digging his fingers into the delicate flesh of his eye socket, deep enough that he could feel nails marking into skin as he tried desperately to drag his hands together for the right seals, and then in another second he was falling to the ground, barely stifling a shout as his injured leg impacted dirt yet again. He managed to shove himself up onto his arms in time to realise that Adela was standing -- had she pulled herself together after all --

"You," the leader was hissing, staring wide-eyed despite the bleeding wound in his hand. "You're Milani bloodline?!"

Sasuke stared, brain blanking again on what was happening.

"Ha," the man said, expression hardening. "This is perfect -- forget the eyes, all I need is your head --"

And he lunged at Adela, moving at full speed and drawing his sword. The other two staggered up more slowly, and three on one was more dangerous than Sasuke had any confidence in Adela managing at the moment, for all that she seemed to have pulled together. Chakra was painful to gather, blood still flowing freely from his leg, but he managed to push unsteady fingers together into a seal and exhaled the easiest ranged jutsu in his arsenal, fire pluming just far enough to distract the closest lackey into turning in surprise.

Hopefully Adela could handle herself against two and one short on attention, because Sasuke was positive that he wasn't going to be able to move anywhere anytime soon.

[abileunaspada]

"Like hell I'm letting you do that!" Wasting no time, she threw the fuuma shuriken purposely curved -- right before the spikes extended to slice and dig into the other Milani's side with the intent of fatally injuring him. Even if it didn't work her sword was already in hand, and she was rushing to engage the three coming at her in combat --

Two, as Sasuke had gotten the other one distracted long enough for the extended points of the fuuma to make a killing blow on him in its spin. It was yanked in the air back to her side and used as a shield for the most part as Adela engaged the other two, entirely focused on dispatching the adversaries in front of her. Even if they weren't after Sasuke anymore from the sounds of it, she couldn't afford to let her guard down for even a second.

[not_thedragon]

The remaining lackey seemed stunned by the fact that her companions had been mostly killed, movements faltering. There was no room to falter in high-stakes combat: the Milani clansman's eyes widened at the movement of the shuriken, ducking out of the way with a curse. The kunoichi wasn't as lucky, stumbling away from the spray of blood from her left and directly into the intended path of the blades.

She doubled over with a choked cry of pain, clutching at a wound bubbling blood just over her shoulder. Even from where he was still trying to yank his body into an alignment that would allow him to at least jam his broken bone back into place, Sasuke could tell it was an arterial injury; she'd bleed out in a minute if no one gave her treatment.

And she was unlikely to get any assistance from the Milani. He'd surged back up after the shuriken shifted into a shield, fury colouring his expression now -- a frontal attack blocked, he slammed his hands together into seals instead, earth spurting out from below Adela's feet in the next moment, trying to grasp at her legs to keep her still.

[abileunaspada]

Part of her wanted to laugh at the feeble (to her) attempt, but she was too pissed to allow that bit of amusement shine through. With one-handed seals she dispelled the earth into crumbling dirt, her sword aiming to take his arm while the shuriken was used to knock his sword flying away from the two of them. He'd have to try a hell of a lot harder than that if he wanted to knock her off her footing!

And now it was one on one. Maybe she was underestimating the former Milani clansman before her, but... It felt like she severely out-classed him in almost every way, by then. It felt like she was just completely overpowering the other, like it almost wasn't a real fight at all.

[not_thedragon]

The man's eyes finally widened at the appearance of the one-handed seals, realising late that his opponent's level of control over the clan's hereditary powers was far superior to his own -- a true member of the bloodline. It meant he was fully aware that retreat was no option here, something that made his face split suddenly into a half-crazed grin.

The loss of his sword made him laugh outright, giving up on weaponry (too vulnerable to manipulation) and lunging at her with his hands stretched out for her neck, an attack he knew would fail. But his laughter continued, hysterical:

"You can never leave the clan you belong to!" He shouted, voice harsh, obviously fully prepared to die at her hands. "We traitors know where your blood belongs!"

Distantly, through blood loss and the focus required to keep his chakra steady enough to heal, Sasuke made note: he really needed to talk to Adela about her relatives if this was going to become a problem.

[abileunaspada]

"I don't belong to Kiri anymore!" Adela outright shouted as she sliced his arms off, ducking under the much taller form so his charge would result in his flipping over to the ground behind her. It didn't take long for her foot to land on his chest, and she glanced over the bloody stumps that were once his arms before she looked him dead in the eye.

"And I'm not afraid of you."

She didn't let the man suffer. Her fuuma shuriken reverted to the metal balls they were originally as she stabbed the man straight through the throat, aiming to kill him instantly.

Once she took a few breaths and realized that all of her opponents were dead, Adela rushed over to Sasuke and checked over his injuries, strictly professional even as she pulled out bandages, "Can your chakra heal it through clothes and bandages? We should probably put some pressure on it to help reduce the bleeding while you're doing that if you can."

[not_thedragon]

Sasuke was going to be hearing the gurgling end of that hysterical laughter in his head for days, but at least his memory wasn't hearing-based; the visual was messy enough without wishing for Sharingan-for-ears upon himself. There was no doubt that their opponents were thoroughly out for the count, though, so Sasuke's attention was already turned to his leg by the time Adela dropped down by his side, gritting his teeth as he gingerly manipulated the bone still jutting out of his calf.

"I tied off a tourniquet already," he said, once he trusted his voice to be steady through the deep breaths he was still taking to maintain oxygen flow to the brain and work through the body's shock reaction. "But it needs to be set before I can do more than lessen the pain."

Which would be an unpleasant endeavour that would require steady hands -- more hands than his own. He levelled a scrutinizing stare at Adela, gauging whether or not he trusted her with bone when she'd been unable to use a blade properly mere minutes ago.

[abileunaspada]

Sasuke would probably notice that Adela was perspiring quite heavily then -- more than what would have been normal for that level of combat. It was true that part of it was from her fear reaction, and even she could admit to herself that her skin felt cold and clammy, but also hot and feverish.

Whether or not she realized it, she'd probably be exhausted entirely by the time her adrenaline ran out. At that time Adela had pushed herself too hard, harder than she had in a very long time, and although it didn't seem to have any negative effects she was probably going to be feeling it for at least a couple of days.

But, that wasn't what was important. Her mind was still focused on the task at hand, hanging on a little longer as she looked him in the eye, "Tell me what to do. My field medicine knowledge is pretty limited, so you'll have to guide me step by step Sasuke."