Chapter One
The luminescent moon shone down onto the snow white fur of the majestic animal. An emerald jeweled eye and ruby red eye stared at the snow covered rock, with pink twitching ears rotating like satellites on its head. The long tail with black stripes on it swished back and forth in annoyance, the snow beneath it twirling lightly. Finally, a movement was heard behind the rock, as the large beast pounced onto its target. A scream was heard along with a loud roar, as the animal slashed at the human’s back, ripping off the backpack with all of its might. The backpack hit the ground with a thud as the person took off in no particular direction into the woods. Another scream was heard as the man was stopped by two men.
One of them had a black bowl-cut hairstyle with large eyes. He was tall and seemed to be decently built, but what was strange about him was his abnormally large and bushy eyebrows, and the green nylon suit he wore, only covered by a zipped-up lighter green flak jacket. The other seemed not as excited to be there and held an apathetic look to his face. Dull, pupil-less, lavender eyes seemed to stare right into the man’s soul, as his long dark brown hair that was held in a low loose pony-tail stayed secured behind him only letting a few strands to frame his porcelain face. He wore a white shirt with loose sleeves, with a fastener running down the right side of his chest. He wore matching pants, with a dark navy grey apron tied around his waist, and black shinobi sandals. A headband was on each of these men, the first one wearing a crimson-colored one around his waist, while the other wore a black one around his forehead.
“I am very sorry, but we need you to come with us!” The green fellow shouted, grabbing a fistful of the man’s shirt and shaking him. The man let out several grunts as his head got whipped back and forth, a headband also adorning his forehead. This one had a different symbol on it than the others’ had. A symbol of a music symbol was on the man’s headband, while a leaf adorned the other two’s.
“Careful Lee, we do not want to accidently kill him. Lady Tsunade needs him for some questions.” The second man stated with a cool voice, the orbs never once leaving the prisoner.
“Ah, yes, Neji-sensei. I am very sorry.” The man now known as Lee stuttered, turning to bow to Neji quickly. Neji rolled his eyes,
“Lee, it’s just Neji.”
“But you are of Jonin level now while I am only a lowly Chunnin! Until I can defeat you I must show honor to you, my rival!” Lee shouted, giving Neji a thumbs up while the prisoner looked on with a confused expression- he was not sure if he should run away or just hope that they would forget about him.
A sudden crunch in the snow from behind the distraught man caused the three to turn and look. The animal before stepped into the moonlight, its fur blending in with the heavy snow. A smaller white tiger, definitely female due to the size. It looked to weigh maybe 250- 300 pounds, which was slightly smaller than normal tiger. The backpack from before dangled from her white sharp teeth that could easily tear off any flesh if wanted.
“Oh, Caty! There you are!” Lee shouted, “Good work on getting the backpack!”
The tiger named Caty pranced over to him in a joyous manner, acting a lot more like a house cat than some wild animal. She dropped the backpack next to Neji’s feet, farther away from the prisoner. Blue surrounded her as her body slowly began transforming. White fluffy ears became smaller than average human ears, and the cat eyes turned into large human eyes still with the right one being green and the left being red. A scar was over the left eye, but didn’t seem to affect her vision at all. The fur turned into long brownish-red hair that stopped at the middle of her back and bangs that framed her face with two long pieces that went to her chest. She was pale, maybe not as pale as Neji though. She wore a thick-strapped, V-neck, dark green tank top that stopped right above her belly button with fishnets that went just above her elbows, slightly above the slit in her shirt, and just under her naval. For pants she wore black and baggy khaki pants that ended above her kneecap, with bandages wrapping down a few inches. Two fingerless black gloves sat on her hands, and as for shoes she wore tall black combat boots that began about 4 inches from the bandages, and had dark green features on them. Finally, her only accessories was the black choker with a yellow bell around her neck, and a headband that she soon slanted over her red eye. She was short, maybe around 5 foot 2 and was of average weight. She wasn’t necessarily skinny, but she didn’t have rolls coming down in waterfalls either. She preferred healthy as a correct term.
“Glad to see you did not accidently hurt or kill him.” Neji stated, crossing his arms around his chest in an annoyed manner at the girl’s careless behavior. Caty huffed, her green eye narrowing at him in defiance.
“You asked for the backpack, and you got the backpack. All you do is bitch bitch bitch.” Caty whined, tightening her headband. Lee got in between the two,
“Now you two, let us just be youthful for once and not hurt each other before we get home.” Lee stated, clenching his fist. Luckily, the prisoner was smart and had decided not to run off during this whole spiel, and waited to be taken to the Hokage. It was all a part of the plan anyway.
The three set out, presumably back home to the Village Hidden in the Leaves, also known as Konoha, which was luckily only roughly a day away if they continued running with no stops. They were still in the Land of Fire, it just happened to be towards the end of winter and the snow was still melting. Caty was not as fast as the two ahead of her, which was fine as she had to keep an eye on their extra person anyway. His hands were bound so he could not make hand signs, but they still allowed him to run with them to make sure they kept on schedule. Taki Sukima was his name, a ninja from the Hidden Sound Village, most likely a spy which is why they had to capture him in the first place. Caty was surprised that he hadn’t put up too much of a fight, not that she was complaining though. Less work for her and the better it is. Why would a 19 year old want to be fighting with someone all day long just to have to run all the way back home that same day? Not her, that was for damn sure. She was a good ninja, don’t get her wrong, but she was not as good as the two with her by any means.
Caty’s feet began hurting almost immediately after they had taken off, cursing her combat boots versus just getting regular ninja sandals. Neji and Lee noticed her getting slower and slower as time progressed, before just stopping all together. She almost fell trying to stop so suddenly, not expecting the sudden stillness.
“Everything okay, Caty?” Lee asked, worrying over his friend and make-shift teammate for that moment. Caty nodded her head, sitting down on her butt and ripping the boots off. She stuffed them into her own backpack before standing up.
“It’s only a little snow- what could it hurt right?” She shrugged, Neji once again narrowing his eyes at her.
“If you get sick it is not on me this time.” Neji stated. ‘This time’ he had said. The first mission when Tenten was unable to come along was to the Land Hidden in the Mist when Caty was goofing off and swimming around in the icy ocean around them. Neji had said nothing about trying to get her out, if he had even noticed she was missing- but she had deemed it his fault when she came down with hypothermia.
Caty stuck her tongue out at him, “This is snow, it’s no big deal. It doesn’t affect me as long as I use my chakra.” She was a ninja from the Village Hidden in the Snow, where her clan’s special ability, or Kekkei Genkei, was to be able to control water – including ice and snow. This uses a lot of chakra, but not as much as it would for normal people. It also does not allow them to heat up this water and makes them even more vulnerable to fire. However, she did not seem to think about using her chakra when she was swimming in an icy ocean to help null the effects of the cold. Her bare feet crunched in the snow as they began running again, this time feeling way better and slightly catching up to them. Taki still had said nothing to them as he for some reason ran along without a care in the world it seemed. They ran for days it felt like, even though it had only been one before coming upon a snow-free gate to their village. The Village Hidden in the Leaves was beautiful, and was home to many people in the Land of Fire, especially because this is where the Hokage, or leader of the Land of Fire, Lady Tsunade, resided. The two guards standing gate waved at the familiar faces of the team as they strolled up to the massive gates.
“We have a prisoner for Lady Tsunade,” Neji stated, shoving Taki up in front of him. The guards nodded their heads, before pulling a switch to open up the doors ahead of the team. They entered the village and were greeted with warm welcomes and smiles.
Still, Taki said nothing, again…
This was all part of the plan.