Chapter 4 : May the winds guide you

As Hina approached Meran with what she had found his sand settled down on his body as an armour. His body was completely covered except for one part of it, his right leg. With his sand in armour mode, it would not attack Hina, Meran had experience enough with this. He had often done it before, when he was up for a little wrestling and hand to hand combat with his friends, he was still protected this way, but his sand intervened less with the business at hand. True there were other ways to bypass his sand, he had learned of one today, but this was the easiest way to do it.

As she started to explain to him, he would simply raise an eyebrow at her, he had the same knowledge of medicine as her, Hina, Akira and Meran had often studied it together, so he knew what to expect, even though he has not had the experience with the pain first hand. Meran was no pushover, he could endure, he had endured before today and he would, should they survive, after today as well. He had ordered her to fix her leg, he knows what to expect.

As she hands him the painkillers, he would take them, he knew he would need them during the fight. Too bad they did not have any soldier pills with them. Perhaps he should get some for their next mission, though he hoped he was not going to be trapped under a laboratory yet again.
And those pills were addictive, he had to be careful about recklessly taking those.

He noticed his mind was wandering from the task at hand. He took the spatula, took hold of his upper leg and braced his body against the wall. Even bracing himself was painful, but he knew it would be nothing compared to the pain that was about to come. As Hina told him to talk to her about plans he looked at her with a look that said "are you kidding me?!". He was there after all sitting with a spatula across his mouth that she had just given to him. As if he would be able to speak while feeling the pain, but he had to fight through it and most importantly, he had to remain quiet! It would be so hard, so incredibly hard. But he had to.

Not for himself, not to safe face, but for his friends, for the others, if it was known that one of them was hurt, they would be a target too tasty to resist, like a wounded lamb to a starving wolf. He thought of his friends and that he would have to be strong, be the big brother, he needed to safe them...

Then... Then he looked into Hina's big wonderful, but worried eyes and he was transported somewhere else, he saw the two of them growing up together. Meran did not understand the worry in her eyes, Why would she be worried about him? But then it struck him, as he saw the images of Hina and himself together, no matter how often he had protected her from would be bullies, picked her up from the ground after one of their pranks gone wrong and her being hurt, Meran himself having his sand to protect him, or when she had gotten into a fight to protect her, it was always the same way the other way around.
When he stood between her and the bullies, she would come and stand beside him, when he had fallen, she helped him up, even when he would not have been hurt. When he got in a fight, she was his shadow, standing next to him ready to pick up arms. And she was not the only one! Akira and Hiten as well, though their history was not as long as Meran and Hina's, it was still the same for the most part. She was their for him as much as he wanted to be their for them.

Yes Meran was the big brother, but he was never alone.
They all stood together and Meran knew they would each give their life in turn for him as well. The last couple of minutes just confirmed their friendship and love for each other. Meran could see better now, what he had thought of as worry, was more clear to him now, it was determination, this was her big sister moment. She would do it and she would not fail!

With the trust in her beaming from Meran he gave her a second nod to start and when she did, the pain nearly made him faint. He could not help but let a groan escape him, he managed to force most of the pain into actual force, biting down hard enough to break the spatula between his teeth.
Sweat was beating on his brow, drenching his clothes... the ones not cut open by Hina with her scissors that is.

"How do you feel?" the girl asked as she looked at him beaming. Meran laid against the wall looking up at her, he was grateful, he really was, but at the moment of that question, while laying beaten against the wall, exhausted from the day, and the experience and he could only look at her with an expression that said... "I'm fine, Fuck you for asking."
He did not mean it, but how would you respond when just being put through hell.

As he opened his mouth, the spatula, or better said the pieces of spatula fell out of it and his jaw muscles were strained as if he had used them to run a marathon. Hell, he might have, he wasn't going to run one on his leg anytime soon.

He was momentarily to distracted to figure out a plan, so he settled himself against the wall and started to maul things over in his mind, the main thing was that the four of them had to limit the number of opponents that were able to face them as much as possible, make a bottleneck, but they had already started to do so. With the traps he was organizing outside and the cave opening they were already creating a bottleneck. They only had one thing to worry about inside, only the hole he had created was a viable back entrance, the rest was still clad with metal on all sides, except for that Meran sized hole. It could easily be defended by one person. What they had to do is thin the herd that would attack them from the opening, and use the fallen comrades as a block for the next line, making it even harder for the next wave to get through.
He gave the two girls that information and he added, while the pain still resounded in his voice "Hiten's mist is as much a barrier for us, as it is for the enemies, so he will need to drop the mist if we were to be able to help in the fighting. We are just as likely to strike down each other in the mist as we are to hit the enemy. I think even Hiten is barely able to spot anything with this mist in place. The enemies can just blast the area and fry Hiten from the outside if they want to."

Meran paused for a bit to breath, but would quickly continue "I suggest we briefly fight outside, or at least you do, luring them into traps, killing what we capture immediately, no time for second thoughts, then when we have them heated up and not thinking, fallback to this cave position and bottleneck them. But we would do best to prepare as best we can for as long as we can, plan traps, find weapons, keep them talking. As long as they talk, they do not attack, but you can be sure they will as soon as Hiten drops the mist, perhaps before, so be ready, we might not have a lot of warning."

Meran would face Akira next, "You did ok Akira, they are after all, not yet attacking us. But I would be damned pleased to find out who they are! Perhaps you can find out." He winked at her, his language was rough and his voice started to get gravely from the strain on it. Normally the boy did not talk so much, mostly only when he had thought up another big scheme. He faced Hina next "How dangerous are these things?" He said with a gesture around the room
"Could you for instance, find something about Hina or Akira sized with which you can replace yourselves..." He said while remembering the defense both girls knew "And say was filled with sand or a nice puppet trap or weapon system."

Meran looked at the two girls with his signature devilish smile. "Remember the prank we pulled on Madaki-Sensei?!" He referred to a sensei the kids had in the academy. (I will explain the tactic plans in more detail on skype, so I do not have to spam too much here before the fight has started)

Whatever the case, the kids would have to work in layers of traps in order to be successful and they would have to fight to the best of their ability.

Akira retreated back into the entrance after she spoke.  
"I repeat one more time," came the reply drifting out of the darkness. "Drop your Jutsu and your weapons and we may choose to spare your lives. Lack of compliance will result in your immediate termination. Consider this your last and final warning."
She couldn't say she was surprised with the response she got from whoever was out there, but she wasn't happy with it either. Well, so much for playing pretend.

Behind her she'd heard the muffled sounds of Meran struggling to keep it together, and she knew Hina was busy doing what she could to fix his mauled leg. After one last look outside, though there was nothing to see beyond the droplet floating in the air near the entrance, she went back into the building because Meran started addressing both Hina and her.

She nodded when he spoke about Hiten, he needed to come back to them so they could discuss this information! He was still out there, alone, unaware of their plans.

Akira agreed with Meran's ideas. "You did ok Akira, they are after all, not yet attacking us. But I would be damned pleased to find out who they are! Perhaps you can find out." He finished talking with a wink, and she couldn't help a small smile appearing briefly. He was so resilient, bouncing back after being beat down with such ease. It made her feel proud, even though it was none of her doing. "Thanks," she said, even though it did nothing but buy them a little more time. Then again, a little time was all they needed.

"Remember the prank we pulled on Madaki-Sensei?!" Meran asked them, and Akira rolled her eyes with a smirk playing on her lips. Of course she did. So that was his plan. "I'll leave it to you," she said to Hina. "I'm going back outside. Let's see if can subtly get Hiten to remove the mist."

Her fingers played with a senbon as she walked back to stand just outside the entrance. Meran had spread his traps outside in the sand. Added to that was the mist, with darkness to boot. Perhaps if the mist was gone there was the light of the moon and stars to allow some sight, but for now Akira didn't risk going away from the entrance.

"Fine, gonna be like that huh?" she called out, the feigned fright from before gone from her voice. "I'd love for the mist to go away, but that is none of my doing." she spoke irritably, hoping Hiten got the bloody hint, before continuing. "For your information, we are only kids and we are no threat to you. I'm being honest, now it's your turn: who are you?"

Hina would successfully set Merans leg and place the puppet part around it. She would however need to find a way to keep the leg closed if Meran wanted to try and move around some.  
 
 Meran during this time would let go of a bit more than a loud groan. The setting of his leg would hurt so much he would not only bite the spatula in two but also let go of a short scream from the pain it caused, being in too much pain. He would also lose consciousness for about a minute, leaving him with a dizzy feeling afterwards.
 With the puppet leg around Merans leg he would not be able to walk around on his own and would need support in some way. Meran would also notice the puppet leg fitted perfectly around his own leg. Around the foot area however it would be a bit loose.
After the painkillers started working and the leg was set, Meran would start to feel a lot better. 2 HP is restored.
---

Both Hiten - and Akira after getting to the opening of the cave - would notice the enemies where more restless in some way, they where moving around a little. Almost as if they where preparing for battle. They still could not see the enemies due to the mist, but it sure felt noisy, even though there was a lack of any real sound.
 Akira bought them time. She really tried, but it wasn't for the best. Not in the slightest. The person who had talked to them from start started laughing.
'Kids...? Kids? No kid would react that neutral to seeing a dead body and we recon you did see one, or maybe even hanged it there yourself. We have been keeping an eye on you and your friends, cursed child.' It appeared as if the person who was speaking knew he was talking to the girl, Sakurai Akira. The girl who had looked at the dead body, but didn't tell her friends.
Akira would realize they had been spied on. Her friends however would be able to hear every word the man spoke.
 The man fell silent for a bit. He was moving his arms, making some signs with his hands to his allies, who immediately started moving around. Everyone in the team of young Genin would feel the tension and they all realized they would only have a really short amount of time left to prepare themselves for the whatever would happen. In fact they would only have about one with a maximum of three minutes to prepare more.
 Another voice took over. 'Now listen. We do not want any of you dead and we have no intention in hurting you kids unless we have to,' her voice was  calm and reversed. Almost motherly. 'so we would appreciate your full co-operation for the time being. After we get from you what we want, we will leave you all to yourself again.' The woman was buying some time on her side, as the man gave more silent orders with hand signals.

When Meran had lost consciousness Hina had damn near panicked. But even though he was unconscious he was still breathing and he didn't show any signs of shock. She quickly wiped at her eyes. She felt so bad for inflicting so much pain on her friend for him to pass out, even if it only was for a very brief moment. One could argue that she was only helping him, and that this pain was necessary. But the immediate counter argument would be that he wouldn't be in this pain in the first place if she hadn't opened that scroll. And Hina was very aware of all this. When he came to she asked him with a shaky smile and voice how he felt. And the look in his eyes almost caused her heart to turn to a block of ice. Painful. She knew he was only in really much pain right now. He had already said he wasn't mad at her for crushing him. So he couldn't be mad at her for helping him. But it still hurt. 'This is the worst day ever.' she thought.

Though still seeming slightly out of it, Meran quickly started spouting strategies. While Meran talked Hina listened. She eyed the puppet leg around her cousin's broken one. 'It needs to be closed securely some way.' She rummaged around a little in the medpack and soon found a roll of tape. While Meran was talking to Akira she taped around the puppet leg, making sure to try and move it as little as possible, sealing it tightly shut. Just when she cut off the end of the tape Meran asked, "How dangerous are these things? Could you for instance, find something about Hina or Akira sized with which you can replace yourselves... And say was filled with sand or a nice puppet trap or weapon system."

Hina put the rest of the tape safely back in the medpack hanging from her belt. She looked around the room with a serious look on her face. "Remember that prank we pulled on Madaki-sensei?!" She couldn't help the huge grin that crept up on her face. Did she ever. Heh. Akira made to walk out of the cave, and Hina stood up as well.

"Don't worry," she replied to Akira, "I'll fix something." She looked around the laboratory once more, looking for anything big enough to be used as a substitute for a person. And which could possibly even contain sand (like a bag or box) or puppet weapons (like a self-destructing torso or something, yeah, that'd be awesome). She also looked around for other potential weapons. Possibly loose parts or contraptions laying around. Even a "point unknown weapon at enemies and pull trigger" would suffice to her at this point.

She heard Akira trying to buy them some time, but didn't pay too much attention to it. The man's reply caught her attention however. "Kids...? Kids? No kid would react that neutral to seeing a dead body and we recon you did see one, or maybe even hanged it there yourself. We have been keeping an eye on you and your friends, cursed child." What was all that about? The body wasn't that bad. She eyed the half-finished human puppet on the work bench. It actually looked better than corpses at funerals, in a way. And how did they mean "hanged"? This body was bloody laying on a workbench!

Akira was outside, so Hina couldn't ask Akira what those people were on about, but she did throw a confused look Meran's way. Almost as if asking him if he knew what they meant. Though she suspected he wouldn't. It didn't really matter anyway. Not at this moment. She went back to her search. "Now listen. We do not want any of you dead and we have no intention in hurting you kids unless we have to, so we would appreciate your full co-operation for the time being. After we get from you what we want, we will leave you all to yourself again." Hina made a sceptic sound at the back of her throat, not looking up. What were they, stupid? No way they would just let them walk away from there. And that woman? She was probably just trying to sound nice. 'When we reveal ourselves she'll probably throw the first kunai,' she thought. Though she was curious about what it was exactly that they wanted from them.

(Trying to find possible containers big enough to use kawarimi and henge on. And trying to find any and all weapons. Investigation E, Weapon (buki) C (I think?), Ninjutsu speciality puppetry D, and Explosives D?   )
(Also, because I don't want any misunderstandings. OCme is totally aware of what the man is referring to, but Hina has no idea. So there.)

The man's laughter tore through the darkness. "Kids...? Kids? No kid would react that neutral to seeing a dead body and we recon you did see one, or maybe even hanged it there yourself. We have been keeping an eye on you and your friends, cursed child."

Akira tensed. Cursed child? She glared at the mist before her. Great, they knew who she was, and they'd been spying on her. She was so sure she'd been alone. Had her demon warned her from these people then? Her next thought went to her friends, who had undoubtedly heard these words as well. It must have raised questions.

Why hadn't she told them already? Panic started to eat at her; had her friends made the connection? The irony wasn't lost on her that being surrounded by enemies didn't cause her panic, no. It was the thought of her friends being angry with her that made her panic. And angry for good reason too... She should have told them. God, why didn't she tell them? All the reasons she'd had for not telling (no big deal, just a corpse, what's it gonna do, haunt them? No need for causing unnecessary stress) seemed so irrelevant right now.

A new voice started speaking, a woman's voice. "Now listen. We do not want any of you dead and we have no intention in hurting you kids unless we have to. So we would appreciate your full co-operation for the time being. After we get from you what we want, we will leave you all to yourself again."
She sounded friendly enough, but it didn't distract Akira from hearing the load of horseshit she tried to feed them.

"What exactly is it that you want?" She called in response. "Because your boyfriend is giving me this vibe that you're not really planning on leaving us sound and healthy! Seriously, you've surrounded us by the dozens and you expect us to trust you?" She didn't believe it would work, but for the sake of stalling and trying she said it anyway: "Trust has to come both ways and you've not been very forthcoming so far! So try answering this: who are you and what do you want with us?"

She went back into the building, clutching the senbon in her hand as she eyed Hina and Meran. They'd heard about the hung corpse, but there really was no time to explain it all now. "About the dead man they talked about, I'll tell you all about it later. Please forgive me." She ended that last sentence sounding pretty miserable. Wait, what if they think I killed someone! "I didn't kill anyone!" she continued quickly. "I just found someone. Dead." Real convincing. She closed her eyes and held her hands up. "Later, I'll tell you all later." She sighed and threw them a guilty look, but she wiped it off her face a moment later and took a couple of steps back to stand near the entrance, taking more senbon into her hand.

She'd been molding her chakra for a while now, fully powering up for the oncoming fight.

(persuasion roll! Stall stall stall. And answers. Please.)

Meran would Hardly notice anything happening around him. He was still a bit out of it due to the pain he had endured. He had still managed to relay his plans to the other two, but that had taken a lot of effort. Right now he had to just lay back and relax. His preparations were made, he had to regain full consciousness. Because of this the words Akira and the enemy girl uttered did arrive in his ears, but he did not really process it. Things just seem to pass by him.

This did not happen to Hiten, he got the hint that Akira gave him and he slowly started to build down his mist. Leaving just one layer, but letting it dissipate gradually, so it would be completely gone in 2 turns. He did not reply to Akira and did not pick up about the corpse, at least what Akira exclaimed. He was confused about what the lady said though. Especially because he had not seen either of the corpse.

As hina would start her search for items she could use, she would find a log, about three empty glass jars, big enough to conserve whole body parts in, like arms or legs, a burlap sack which contained some apples and a small chest. Hina would also find a puppet chest which could open and close, that looked and could be used the same way as the leg Meran had currently around his.
 When Hina looked around further she would find a katana. It was a bit rusty and the top was missing, but it still seemed somewhat sharp and good enough to use. The handle was still pretty much in tact.
 Hina would find no explosives unfortunately, but in her search for explosives she would find something that possibly had more interest to her than explosives would. It was a scroll simply saying 'Prototype 38482.' Hina wouldn't really know what it would mean, but by the place she was in, she could make an educated guess.
[/damn girl, you had some gooood rolls x_X"]

Akira would feel the tension rise as she talked. She would realize her passive aggressive speech just made it worse. The voice in her head warned her once more. 'Stop talking, you're making it worse,' it spoke in an angered voice.
 The man would just start to laugh as Akira spoke. Even the woman would let go of a light chuckle. 'Oh look what you've done!' the woman started to laugh. Suddenly all of them would feel the ground shake, in a figure of speech. The people surrounding them where charging towards the cave, they didn't even seem to care about the mist anymore.

[Akira had zero successes...]

[each of you get one more post before battle/ten seconds in game time. Spend it wise...]

The first items that would catch her eyes were three large glass jars. 'This'll do.' She used her chakra strings to place them near the entrance. She did the same with the small chest. She used her strings to open the chest and placed it near the entrance. She found a burlap sack with some apples. She shook the apples out of the sack, put them in her pack for later, and put the sack near the entrance as well. 'That should be enough for Meran to fill with sand.' she thought. 'Now.. What mo- The hell?!' Her drifting eyes had caught sight of a log standing a little to the side. 'Why would.. What? Why?' She didn't think about it for too long, however, and used her strings to fling the log towards the entrance as well, being less careful than with the jars and other things, but careful enough to not let the log slam into the other object. The log was probably used to make wooden parts out of.

Her eyes went wide and her heart jumped when she saw the scroll. However, at that moment she felt all the chakra signatures outside charge towards the cave entrance. Without giving it a second thought she stuffed the scroll labeled 'Prototype 38482' in her pack as well. As she turned to face the battle her eye fell on a katana. It had a couple of small rust stains on the blade and there was a bit off the top missing, but the hilt was still intact. 'I know who can use this!' she thought, she grabbed the katana, turned around and yelled, "Akira! Catch!" She would throw the katana towards the girl, but only if she would know for sure Akira would be able to catch it. Akira does not get a katana through her head. Hina has already hurt enough teammates for today.

After that she would mould chakra to make sure she would have filled her chakra pool to the max for the fight. (Total of 30 chakra.) She would attach strings to Chouchou, let Chouchou float in front of her, and go to position herself in the cave entrance, letting Chouchou float about one and a half meters in front of her. She would also check outside to see if she could see the puppet arm she had taken with her when she had ran out of the cave. It would lay around where she "washed up" after the sand had pushed her out of the cave, so not too far from the entrance, she thought. If she would spot it, she would attach a string to it, and pull the arm quickly towards herself, letting it float in front of her as well. It might look a bit morbid, only having a loose arm float in front of her, but thanks to her studying it earlier she knew what kind of weapons it had and how it worked. It was basically like having two puppets. She tried not to think about the fact that that arm was once attached to a human body. 'Gross.'

Akira payed the laughter outside no mind. How lovely, they think I'm funny. That's a first. Maybe she would have laughed herself, had the situation not been so dire and were it not for the fact that once again, she had gotten no answer at all. It felt wonderful to be ignored. Just wonderful.

Meran still seemed pretty out of it and Hina hadn't reacted to her words either, so despite the stupid laughter outside, Akira felt relieved. They'd sort that out later.

The next moment she felt the enemies charge. She pushed her worries aside and let a sense of calm wash over her, the way she always did before a fight. All that mattered now was focus and clarity. Nothing else mattered but getting out of this alive, together with her friends.

Speaking of which, Hiten was still out there. There was really no time for him to linger there anymore. Thank goodness he'd had the sense start dissipating the mist, so at least they had some chance of defending themselves. "Hiten! Now!" she yelled, hoping to finally get him to move back and join them. She was aware she called his name, but the enemies seemed to be rather familiar with who they were, which rendered reticence unimportant.

Hina had moved three large glass jars and a chest near the entrance. And a log. Akira had to squint her eyes at that. A log? Well, it would serve fine to execute Meran's plan, she supposed.

"Akira! Catch!" Hina called out to her, and when Akira caught her eye she'd see a katana being tossed over to her. Akira caught it deftly in her free hand and gave the weapon a scrutinizing glance. It was a bit rusty and the top was missing, but she was glad to have something other than the senbon to defend herself with. She nodded her thanks at Hina, gave her friend an encouraging smile and looked at Meran one last time, waiting for any last instructions.

If none would come, she'd go out of the entrance to meet the approaching enemies, her senses at their highest alertness, eyes wide open despite the darkness. She was calm, standing with the katana in one hand and two senbon in the other, trying to extend her senses to aid her in feeling her opponents coming, in addition to her sight.

Her chakra was fully charged and ready for use. (28 chakra)

Meran's head cleared as the sedatives started to kick in. With his leg fixed inside the puppet part, he found the ache lessen. Sure he would not be able to stand on it, but then again if there was any clan that would be as great a shinobi clan with or without legs, it would be the Sabaku. Their motions guided the sand, but each member tied his own motions to his own jutsu, mostly the motions depended on the teacher. And Meran had the best teacher in the subject. Gaara of the Funk Desert. The man who could break heart (literally) with a wink.

Meran continues to prepare for the fight, the one that might very well be his last. He would have to make sure that they would live. With his last seconds before they would hit his traps he would prepare his body to hold as much chakra as he possibly could. With a swish and flick of his finger, Meran would fill up three glass jars with sand. He would toss in the Shuriken he had gotten from Hina into one of them and some ninwire in both for good measure.
It was too late to refill ChouChou anyway.

The log was not needed for their plan and both the Chest and Sack would not have as large an effect as the glass jars would. "Akira, when you retreat back here, please use the glass jars. They would cause the most confusion. Hina, if you see Akira get into trouble, please toss two of the glass jars outside among the attackers with your strings... If Hiten chooses to use the log for replacement. He has not heard our plan after all." Meran was a bit depressed about the fact he could not share information with Hiten. It had been like he was disconnected from them for a while now. First the hospital and now here as well. He hoped things would quickly become better.

Right before the fight truly started Meran would place a wire trap around the entrance, like he had done in the hospital. As a last ditch attempt. "Remember Akira, kill those I trap, so I might use the traps to trap others."

Meran had made his peace with whatever gods of battle were out there and now he would just have to fight his damn well hardest.


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Hiten had been charging his chakra for most of the time he had his mist up and even though he did not like it, he must trust his friends to have thought of a good defense strategy. They were right in that he was the only one with an overview of the situation at this moment. They could not see anything because of the mist and darkness surrounding them. But that meant the enemy could not either! Surely that was preferred!! Hiten was confused, but he had to do what was in the teams best interest. He could always raise the mist barrier again.

After a moment of doubt, Hiten lowered the barrier, focusing on remaining hidden among the leaves to snipe enemies in his neighborhood. He would have to remain very cool to survive this...

With the mist gone, the stars and a moon would start to show and a pale light showed their situation: they where fucked. Every single one of them would realize it. They wouldn't even stand a chance, not even a minute. Not even with all the preparations they had made. All of them would start to feel a sign of desperation: there was no way possible they would survive this. Being outnumbered was one thing, but the speed of their enemies was incredible and they showed no mercy on their faces.
 It was a situation without hope, it was wrong on so many levels. The young Genin didn't do anything to deserve this and they wouldn't even be able to save themselves. They just wouldn't stand a chance...

Yet, something seemed off. It just wasn't right. All of the people charging towards them started to trip, fall and groan. Panic, people yelling and confusion surrounded the battle area. Hina and Akira would see Hiten being blown away from the cave by something that didn't even seem human out of their sight into the bushes. The only thing they would hear was a muffled yell from Hiten, disappearing into the night.
The creature, it seemed moved like a scorpion, piercing it's enemies with his huge tail, made out of something metal-like. At the same time other people would start to show up out of the forested area. The young Genin - except for Hiten - would see the enemies trip, fall and would hear loud grunts and moans, screams of pain.

It just didn't seem right.

The commanding officer would start to yell: 'Retreat! Retreat!' but it was too late for most of his allies. He and his 'girlfriend' - as Akria had reffered to the woman - however seemed to have gotten away. A few managed to reach the three aspirant Genin, but would be pierced by something even before they would be able to make a move. Blood splattering on Akria's face. A man pierced with senbon would fall in front of her feet. Akira would be grabbed by her throat. She didn't even see the movement. Hina would realize it was a puppet holding Akira, before she was blown away into the cave and grabbed by another person. Meran would see a kunai heading towards him and would be grabbed within a movement not even his special sand would be able to foresee.
'What is your buisness here?' a groaning voice would speak. The scorpion-like creature would move towards the cave, walking over the dead bodies. Right now all of them would probably feel more happy with the army heading towards them...

[OC note: Hiten is gone for now, I will give you further info on this later. For now Meran can drop NPCing Hiten. You can however try to find him later on if you feel like it. ^^]

Dread was starting to spread throughout Hina's stomach. They would never be able to handle this. 'This is it,' she thought. They were going to die. But they wouldn't go down without a fight! Never!

However, suddenly the attackers would start to be taken out. At first Hina thought it might be Meran's traps, but that didn't seem right. They were taken out far more efficiently than Meran's traps could ever do. Then Hiten disappeared with a muffled shout. "Hiten!" she screamed. Where was he?! She took a step forward to go help her friend, but that's when she caught sight of.. the thing...

A huge scorpion-like shadow was dashing across the clearing, taking out enemies left and right. A huge scorpion-like shadow. A huge scorpion. A HUGE-ASS SCORPION!!! Hina's brain short circuited. All the years at the academy, all the big talk of being a shinobi, all that went straight out the window; and left was a thirteen year old girl screaming her lungs out at a sight that would definitely give her nightmares. She scrambled back and away from the cave opening.

She didn't notice the few enemies reaching them, but she did notice them getting taken down quickly as well. And she did notice Akira being grabbed by a puppet. 'A pupp-?!' Pain flooded through her body as she was blown by some force through the entire lab like a rag doll. Due to the force she dropped Chouchou and the puppet arm, but they did get pulled back by her strings a bit, so they landed just outside the cave opening. She let out a cry of pain as her back hit the wall, sharp pain at the back of her head as well. She started to drop to the floor, but before she had even reached it, she was grabbed by something or someone.

Her eyes were shut in pain, wishing for the sharp throbbing feeling to leave. She registered a groaning voice, 'What is your business here?' and forced her eyes to open. However, as soon as she saw the super-scorpion, her vision clouded by pain, walking towards the cave she squeaked out in fear again, closed her eyes tightly shut and actually tried to bury herself deeper in her captivator's arms.

Akira's heart sank as she watched the enemies come at them when the mist disappeared, as far as the darkness allowed her sight to reach. We're done for. Despite this thought, her grip on the hilt of the katana tightened and she raised her hand with the senbon, ready to throw. She wouldn't go down like a meek little lamb. She'd stab the eyes out of the first person who came at her...

Only she never needed to. At first it went too quick to comprehend. All around them the enemy shinobi tripped and fell and hit the ground. Some were blown away by some unseen force. Screams went through the air, and Akira recognized one of them. Hina did as well, she heard. "Hiten!" Her own mouth was sealed shut, lips tightly pressed together as she watched the scene unfold before her.

Wide eyed she watched, her grey eyes catching sight of one figure who stood out from the rest. It was an older man, or so it appeared. Hunched over, but quick. He slashed through his enemies... their enemies... was he their enemy, or their friend?

In any case, the man was way too much to handle for the dozens of shinobi surrounding them, and in the end they were falling over each other in their attempt to get away when the order to retreat was given.

Akira stood there frozen in her spot, her katana and senbon still clutched tightly in her hands. She was totally engrossed in what was happening around her. This man was utterly and absolutely out of their league. To think they'd been afraid of those other shinobi... it just showed how absurdly weak they were before this man.

A couple of the shinobi that had charged, had actually gotten to a point where they'd seemingly escaped the man's frenzy and reached her where she was standing. But she never needed to lift a finger to defend herself against them, because they were skewered right in front of her wide, shocked eyes.

Akira felt a spray of warm droplets on her face as they went down before her and knew instantly it was blood. This didn't bother her as much as she knew it should. Mostly she felt numb, paralized. The warm rivulets dripping down her face only served to make her more aware of how cold she felt inside.

What bothered her more was that she didn't know how to categorize this man, who was fighting their enemies and protected them? This dangerous, immensely strong man, who cut down his enemies as easily as one would cut through butter. Who made them trip and fall without ever touching them...

The world went still as she realized she knew what that was. Puppetry.

Her thoughts were a trainwreck as the previous experiences of the day collided into that one moment. The corpse, the puppet arm, the lab, the human body parts, the unfinished puppet.
..."Can you make puppets from human bodies?" Vaguely, she remembered one of Hina's wild tales about a puppet master who turned corpses into puppets...
...So there really were puppet masters who took puppetry to an entirely different level...
...Unbidden, a question entered her mind, and she wondered whether they should fear the owner of this property more than they should fear those numerous people outside...

Something clicked, and Akira suddenly felt very small. Could this be... could it...?

The next thing she knew was a hand closed around her throat. She wasn't lifted off the ground, but its grip was tight enough to snap her out of the numb, entranced state she was in. In less than a second she went into fight-or-die mode. The weapons still clutched in her hands, her first reaction was to stab the two senbon through the arm that held her. Following this, she rammed the katana through the torso before her in blind urgency, not caring where or how it was done, just that it needed to be done. Now. Let go of me.

Somehow she felt weirdly degenerate, skewering someone. It made some old memories resurface...

She barely heard the man speak and hadn't even registered him coming near them, but Akira was otherwise occupied and didn't respond to his question. Besides this, her throat was constricted, impeding her ability to speak.

(Kenjutsu roll for the katana, buki roll for the senbon. Even though they fall in category shuriken, right now they're being used as buki. Maybe senbon specialty applies)

As the mist dropped, Meran would suddenly see who they were facing and it would make his blood boil. Anger rose from a part of him where he did not expect it to come from and a murderous intend was a part of him, more then it was ever before he wanted people to die, to suffer...

With a cold hard voice he whispered a single word "Shinka.." before letting out a scream of anger. With great effort the boy would get himself up against the wall, leaning against it, supporting his wait on his good leg. It hurt.. sure it did, but the pain was nothing compared to his desire to see those people die.

Images of his brother flashed before his eyes, they were broken and scattered, shards of what remained, but they showed his smile. A young smile, younger than his latest smile and it was ripped from his face by the monsters that stood before him. All for personal gain.

Meran would have understood if they did it for something else, some other reason, but these people had hunted his brother down as an animal for nothing more than to get more powr themselves... For what? No other reason than to  be more powerful...

The shout turned into a growl as he got up, he was looking forward to a fight. Though it was hopeless, he would take as many with him as he could, there was no point in giving up, no reason to get knocked down and kept down.

Meran was ready to go out fighting, he only hoped that Akira would remember his words and take Hina away.

Then the mayhem started to happen and all enemies started to drop like flies and a shadow started to mow them down like he was a conductor for this majestic symphony of slaughter.
Meran's first reaction was to scream "NOOOOO" Hina and Akira might take it to be a reaction to the fall of Hiten and in a part it was, but the main reason was that this shadow was taking away his gratification to kill this scum personally.

And with that Meran started a dancebattle with the killing shadow. The boy wanted blood on his own ledger and he would take what he was entitled to.

Meran would fire off traps where he could, using sand for killing blows and stuffing throats of screaming dying men to cut off their dying scream, not granting them the pleasure of that final release.

Meran was so taken in this dance of blood and sand, that he was remembered by something that horrified him in the past. It was something his father had told him about his special sand, without going into details is was gruesome enough. Meran was curious, but the horror of it had stopped him from finding out more. Today was the day to apply it though, because they needed it. Meran send his special sand out into battle, trying to absorb as much blood as he could. He did not know what would happen to it exactly, but his father had told him that drenching it in blood of enemies would strengthen it. And if he needed strength at any time it was this moment.

He realized that it might have been a mistake when a kunai came flying towards him, but it was knocked away before his special sand had fully returned, it would have come back in time, but there was no need now He was however grabbed shortly after. An arm was poking through his rapidly returned special sand, holding him in his neck, but Meran showed no fear, rather there was his devilish grin, the one normally reserved for pranks, but now it was wrong somehow.

Hina would understand why when she saw the bodies of their enemies. Meran kept his grin even when the old man approached then. He did not answer the man right away, Meran seemed out of it. But most likely of the three reactions the man would get, Meran's was the least likely, though those that seen how Gaara was like around the time he had his chuunin exams, would see the resemblance in Meran without a doubt.

Meran's head slumped suddenly, tired as he was. "We are trying to survive," he began with a tired voice, held up by the puppet more than his own strength. The man, if knowledgeable about Suna traditions, would probably know Meran was reffering both to their current predicament as well as the Suna Genin test that all Suna shinobi from the last 20 generations had gone through. "and these guys wanted something of us what we were not willing to give. Our lives and..." Meran stopped, not knowing how much the shadow knew about their common enemy, but most likely the man knew enough to finish that sentence.

Akira's first reaction didn't seem to do much. It didn't even seem to bother the human-like thing. The senbon would just get stuck in it's arm and the katana - rusty as it was - would just deflect off. As the man heard Meran speak the grip on Akira's throat would loosen, but still ready to attack.
 Meran in his rampage would be able to make some of the enemies trip and even hurt them, but nothing major: it was all due to the panic which was suddenly caused they'd fall for any of it right now. One of the enemies would get tripped in the traps Meran had set, but would be pierced soon after by the creature. Draining the blood with his sand didn't work out at all, Meran wouldn't feel anything changing, except for his sand to get dirty.
The thing holding Meran - it didn't seem bothered by his sand trying to fight him off - would let go and step back. The thing which was holding Meran was a very familiar image to himself: he had seen the man in books and pictures. A Kazekage. The third to be precise.
 Hina would also feel the grip of what was holding her loosen and put her on the ground.

The scorpion-like creature would stand up and would open. A red-haired boy would step out of it. He was barely older than 17. It had a look on his face saying absolutely nothing and looked around the cave. There wasn't much to read from his face, but the three genin would sense some disapproval. 'Bloodlines...' he finished Meran's sentence, with a monotone voice. 'Aspirant Suna Genin with bloodline hunters in great numbers...' He looked around the cave once more and gave Meran a piercing look. 'A Sabaku...' He would move the puppet which was holding Meran closer to himself. 'And... Guessing at the butterfly... a Chikamatsu...' He chose his words very carefully, giving the gaping hole in the ground caused by Merans escape a tense look. 'I was promised to be left alone, so I wonder why you were brought here...' He appeared to be more talking to himself than to the three genin, completely ignoring them, still looking at the hole in the ground. The boy appeared to have calmed down a bit, but then again: nobody could read much from his face.
 The thing holding Akria would attempt to push her into the cave. 'Still, you found this place...' it muttered, again more to himself than to the three Genin. 'I was promised to be left alone, but they didn't keep theirs. So why should I keep mine? I have no reason not to kill you...'

Akira was startled when the senbon remained stuck in the arm and the sword didn't even penetrate. It didn't even... How goddamn useless, she thought as she eyed the rusty katana. She considered throwing it away, until it occurred to her that it wasn't the katana's fault the one holding her was... What was it?

The panic from before subsided, especially when the hold on her throat was loosened when Meran started to talk. She watched the quiet person who held her and only now noticed it wasn't human at all. Well... maybe 'at all' wasn't quite right. It appeared to be as much human as the unfinished puppet from before. Only this one was finished.

A strange sound caught her attention. After she pulled the two senbon out of the puppet's arm, she turned her head a bit to look at the source. With a shock she realized it was the old man she'd been looking at mere moments ago during the fight. But something wasn't right.

She looked on with a mix of horror and fascination as the man... opened up, somehow. And then the horror was completely wiped away when a young man emerged. He stepped out of the... puppet, she supposed... and looked around his quarters with what was probably disapproval. His floor was ruined after all, and they'd moved things around.

The thing she was completely floored by was his appearance. He was young, and handsome too, though she didn't much care about that. How could someone so young be so insanely strong?

She made sure not to gape, but she was aware of herself staring at him as he looked around.

He recognized Meran as a Sabaku and Hina as a Chikamatsu, which meant he was aware of different clans in Suna. Then again, considering he could do puppetry, he was probably from Suna himself.

"I was promised to be left alone, so I wonder why you were brought here..." he murmured. Akira assumed he was talking to himself, because he wasn't looking at any of them. Who promised him he'd be left alone? she thought. As a matter of fact, who is he anyway? She aimed to find out, sooner rather than later.

The puppet that held her moved to push her inside. Akira complied and didn't resist, she'd rather stay close to her friends. She could see Hina against the back wall of the building, staring wide eyed at the red haired boy as well, and she saw Meran who looked dog tired. The puppet near Meran looked strangely familiar... like she'd seen that face many times before.

With a jolt she realized she knew that face from their history classes. It was the third Kazekage, the one that'd gone missing a ages ago. Was this really...? No way, right? The third was the strongest Kazekage Suna had ever known, or so it was told.

She listened to the redhead speak, his voice soft but clear. He still wasn't giving them any attention. "I was promised to be left alone, but they didn't keep theirs. So why should I keep mine? I have no reason not to kill you..."

Her heart skipped a beat. He was debating whether to kill them. Not good. The fingers on her left hand fidgeted with the senbon as she wondered if she should throw them at him now. I could hit a vital spot... she pondered. Now. I could do it... Her breathing got shallower as she pictured the senbon flying through the air, landing in the temple beside his eye.

No. She stopped her train of thought, mentally shaking herself out of it. He was so powerful, she didn't stand a chance. He could have killed them by now, but he hadn't yet. Clearly something was stopping him, maybe that promise he was talking about? He had saved their lives by getting rid of those people who had apparently wanted their bloodline limits. Not that she'd had anything to give in that department, but they'd known her and surely would have killed her.

This man, or boy, she wasn't sure, he'd saved her and her friends. Surely he deserved some credit for that. She shouldn't be so quick to jump at an opportunity to kill him... an attempt that would probably only be detrimental to their situation.

I should try appeasement, she concluded. "I'm sorry we came here. I found this cave and it looked like a good place to spend the night before we headed back to Suna." She thought it best to be honest with him. "It looked deserted. Then this..." She waved the hand holding the senbon around, motioning at the metal building they were in. She felt a bit awkward with the senbon and katana in her hands now, because being armed didn't do much for making amends. Maybe she should put them away... but then she'd feel vulnerable. Not that she didn't already feel vulnerable with a hand around her throat. "...thing. Building. Your place. It was an accident, I don't even know how it happened..." Akira glanced at Hina. That eerie puppet arm. She gave Hina a look, urging her to continue where she left off.

Hina's feet shakily touched the ground. She was a bit tentative at first, but she felt like she could successfully stand on her own. She peeked through her eyelashes and saw that the super-scorpion was, fortunately, not a real scorpion. (Hey, it could have been a summons or something!) It was, in fact, a puppet. A puppet that opened up to let the person inside out. 'That is creepy as fuck! Who the hell comes up with something like that?!'

The apathetic redhead stepped out of the carrier-puppet and looked around the cave with a disapproving look on his face. Despite their dire situation and everything they had gone through, Hina couldn't help but think, 'Though a carrier puppet is a good idea...' No more unnecessary walking around. 'No more running!' However, she stopped thinking about avoiding any and all forms of physical exercise when the redhead started talking, finishing Meran's sentence.

He clearly knew exactly what was going on here. She felt a shock run through her when he looked at her and correctly identified her as a Chikamatsu. "I was promised to be left alone." Were the words that caused the floodgates of her thoughts to open. Her eyes grew larger and larger, her mouth slightly opening in astonishment as she stared and stared at the person in front of her, mind running at hyper speed.

The S-rank puppet arm. The half-processed human corpse. All the stories about a puppeteer, a puppet master, who could control entire armies, who turned humans into puppets. Fairytales, she had thought as a child, even though the older members of her clan insisted on their truthfulness. This recently used laboratory. The story her father had once told her about how he had controlled a puppet master, a living puppet, before Hina's mother had shushed her husband, saying those stories would give Hina nightmares. But she did remember three things: red hair, living puppet, Akasuna no Sasori.

Akasuna no Sasori. Sasori of the Red Sand. A legendary shinobi.

In the meantime Akira had started talking, telling the truth, apparently. And why not? They weren't doing anything wrong here. 'Except for the part where I opened his private scroll. And have another one in my pack right now.' She very consciously felt her pack hang against her hip, and was glad that it was large enough to entirely fit the scroll inside. It would have been terrible if the scroll had been sticking out.

"It was an accident, I don't even know how it happened..." Hina caught Akira's look. She clearly wanted Hina to continue. 'Me?! What the hell am I supposed to say?! Sorry for opening your scroll, planning on using one of your weapons, stealing a different scroll, and being the cause of all this hot mess?!'

Her eyes drifted back to Sasori, who had turned to look at Hina after he had caught Akira's glance Hina's way. She looked straight into the eyes of the man she had always heard stories about. Her throat felt dry and she swallowed hard to try and moisten it a bit before speaking.

"We didn't mean to not leave you alone." she said, in a very awkward sentence, "Like she said, we only happened upon this cave and laboratory by accident. We didn't mean to disturb you. I don't know who promised you that you would be left alone, but I promise you that if you let us go, we won't ever bother you again, and we will tell no one where your hideout is." She didn't think about the fact that this whole place could be put back inside a scroll and moved to a different location anyway. She had tried to pick her words very carefully, but she couldn't help the small, "I've heard so many stories about you." An incredulous, on the verge of admiring, tone in her voice. Her big eyes looked at him and she blurted out, "Is it true you kidnap naughty children and turn them into puppets, but leave their brains and eyes for the last so they will see everything?" As soon as the words had left her lips she realised how stupid that sounded!

All the colour drained from her face, except for two bright red cheeks. "I.. I mean! My father told me a story once when I was four. And I don't think it's true, but he said it was true, but I had just painted my mother's make up on Crow, so he was angry, and it's not true is it? I mean, you wouldn't do that, of course you wouldn't, it's just a fairytale, but yet, here you are... Akasuna no Sasori." Talking without pause had caused her to slightly run out of breath.

As the thing holding him released Meran, the boy sagged through his legs. All energy was spent and all was as futile as he thought it would be, nothing seemed to make a difference, no matter how good his tactics were, he was but a fly in this world and nothing was noteworthy. Sure he trapped some of the shinobi attacking, but it did not change te tide of the fight.
His wish to avenge his big brother had all but failed... Leaving him depressed and without energy.

Why were his tactics so futile? With a lot of effort, Meran took out his little book, in which he would note down all of his questions and seemingly absorbed, he would start to write things down. All he had noticed were described, so he could review things later. With all energy drained from his body, he would take in information without a lot of passion, only realizing the severity of the information after he finished writing things down.

When Meran read back what he had written, his eyes stumbled across the sentence. And the thing that broke through my sand and held me, looked exactly like the statue of great grandfather...

As if he was trapped in slow motion, Meran slowly turned to face the puppet that Sasori had constructed of his great grand father. As if dazed, he put the little book away. The boy stands up and slowly limps towards the puppet, cringing from the pain, softly speaking its name as he rose his hand to the face of the puppet.

Everyone would be able to see that Meran was confused by everything. Which was not surprising, as he was trapped under a lab, his leg was set, he was almost killed by dozens of shinobi wanting his bloodline, is faced with someone mostly known to him from stories and fables and now he stared into the empty eyes of what had once been his relative, which looked eerily like the boy himself, but older.

The boy gave a look at the three children, after finishing his sentence. He felt troubled: he was sure these were Suna Shinobi trying to become real Genin, but still: they found his lab and his experiments. For all he knew they could even have found some of his prototype scrolls. The boy had been quite busy with things the old man didn't know about and if he was to find out, that would be quite troublesome.

He looked and listened to Akira, but wasn't impressed at all. Who the hell was this girl, waving around with his rusty katana and some senbon. She was talking so much nonsense... You could not accidentally summon this, you had to open a scroll. He gave her an unimpressed look and mumbled something to himself, none of the Genin could really hear. The only word they would be able to hear was 'Liar.'
 
The boy turned to Hina, as she start to speak. The boy couldn't remember the last time he heard a girl talk this fast and this much nonsense, but still the girl was able to get his attention. He moved towards her and moved the puppet holding Hina. 'Stories?' he spoke, trying not to give too much emotion away - something he was quite successful in.
 There were only few people who could have heard of him, or still remember him. Nobody had seen him in at least twenty years. Besides: the only person who could remember him and was stupid enough to tell stories about him was...
Could it be..?
 When the boy heard the name Crow fall, he couldn't help himself but to give the girl a surprised look. The thing that really managed to surprise him was hearing his own name after so long. How long has it been..?

That old man would never dump his daughter anywhere close to were he himself lived. He was really sure about that. The boy - Akasuna no Sasori - didn't feel confused, but rather suprised and impressed. After all these years they still told stories about him.
 A grin appeared on his face. He moved closer to her and inspected her skull. 'The stories are true, little girl. An your brain looks perfect for my puppets... And such eyes, it would be a waste not to keep them...' He started laughing a bit sadistic, but would soon go back to his emotionless face and turn around, looking at the sobbing boy by the entrance. He could not kill these children, he could not risk it. What if this girl really was the daughter of that old man? He could always find out about that later. If he figured the girl lied, he could always kill her and her little friends.
'You there,' he said in a monotone voice, pointing at Akira, 'go comfort that Sabaku boy. You kids can stay here 'till dawn. I don't expect the Shinka to come back anytime soon. Eat something and get some rest. I'll keep an eye out.' Sasori let a silence fall, still looking at the Chikamatsu girl with piercing eyes. He assumed it was obvious to her he had been joking about turning her into a puppet. With a serious tone he spoke: 'You're Kankuro's daughter aren't you?'

When she looked back from Hina to Sasori right after she'd spoken, she caught the red haired guy looking at her with contempt while he muttered something. She didn't quite catch what he said, but she did hear the word 'liar'.

The fuck are you looking at me angry for? She kept herself from saying the words out loud, she didn't think he'd appreciate the words very much, but her grey eyes narrowed venomously. He thought she was a liar when she was being honest? Well fuck you, she thought while she stared at him. So much for honesty. She didn't have anything to do with the summoning of his lab. No, she thought, her gaze settling on Hina as the girl talked to the man she called Sasori, who was listening to her attentively. The one responsible for that would be over there, talking to you this very moment. Yet you blame me.

However, as she looked at her friend she knew she couldn't be mad. Hina was mesmerized with this guy. Speaking of him, she recognized the name from the stories Hina had told her. She hadn't been able to remember before, but now that Hina had spoken the name out loud the memories came back to her. Akasuna no Sasori, a walking legend stood before them. She felt her anger dissipate slowly as she continued to look at them. Hina held Sasori's rapt attention and when he started to tease her about turning her into a puppet, Akira almost smiled. So he wasn't all monotone and deadpan.

Then Sasori pointed at her. "You there, go comfort that Sabaku boy."
It wasn't so much the request that bothered her, though it was an odd one. Meran seemed positively out of it, but whether he needed comfort? She didn't think so. No, it was the tone he used, and the way he looked at her. What am I, a dog? Go comfort, bitch! But she wisely kept her mouth shut as he continued talking. When he said they were allowed to spend the night at his place, she did feel relief... even though she still felt offended because one, he thought she did something she had nothing to do with and called her a liar and two, he treated her like some dog and looked at her like she wasn't worth the air she breathed. Despite this, it was good to know they had a place to sleep.

Akira walked to Meran, tossed the rusty katana away, not caring where the worthless thing came down, and put a hand on his shoulder. "The third kazekage, your great grandpa," she said, and noted the subtle similarities of their faces. "Well, can't bring the dead back to life. You shouldn't want that either. He'd be what, a century old? Imagine what he'd look like." She resisted a shudder and inspected the odd human-like puppet a bit more. The third kazekage, frozen in time.

She gave Meran's shoulder a squeeze before she removed her hand. "Snap out of it Meran." She moved away and put the senbon she held back in the pack. She eyed Sasori warily, then rested her eyes on Hina. He seemed particularly interested in her, and she didn't know whether that was a good or a bad thing. He'd offered them shelter for the night, so she decided to lean towards 'good'... for now. "I'm going outside to get our water back and look for Hiten."

"Stories? The stories are true little girl." Sasori of the Red Sand was stalking towards her with a grin on his face that did little to calm Hina's nerves. "And your brain looks perfect for my puppets..." Speaking of Hina's brain: it just fried. For the second time that evening she was sure that she would die. However, the prospect of being turned into a human puppet was way scarier than dying on the battlefield while facing numerous enemies. "And such eyes, it would be a waste not to keep them..." Hina could only produce a very silent sound, which best be described as a "meep". The redhead close to her face, inspecting her skull and eyes, started laughing. It wasn't a kind laugh, but it was a laugh. 'He's joking. He has got to be joking. It's not true. No, it's not true. It's a joke.' A small nervous smile would appear on Hina's face.

She almost felt relieved when he turned away to look at the other.. two? 'Where is Hiten?' Was he still out there? Keeping guard? Why would he do that? All the enemies were gone. Then again, Hiten liked keeping guard. She watched Meran, clearly being out of it. Her heart went out to him. She knew how he felt. Everything that had happened so far was so overwhelming. She didn't understand how she was even still awake and sane after all that. And what Meran had been going through, with his leg and everything, must have been even more overwhelming. She was about to walk towards him, however, the puppet still holding her didn't budge an inch. She looked at Sasori, who still had his back turned her. 'Guess this conversation isn't over yet.'

A shock went through her as she noticed the puppet that Meran was examining. 'That's..! That's great grandfather!' The Third Kazekage of Sunagakure. She remembered his face from the pictures in the history books at school. She, however, wasn't quite as shocked as Meran. Like Akira said before she went outside to get Hiten, he would've been dead now anyway.

"You kids can stay here 'till dawn. I don't expect the Shinka to come back anytime soon. Eat something and get some rest. I'll keep an eye out." 'Shinka?' Their enemies had been Shinka?! Hina had never gotten a very clear view of their enemies, at least not clear enough to recognise them as Shinka. Her eyes were immediately filled with a mixture of hatred, and a tinge of sorrow. 'Those bastards..! They had been the ones to kill Meran's older brother, her cousin. Immediately she felt a great satisfaction about the fact that there were a number of them lying dead outside the cave. If she had known this she wouldn't have set up such a defensive strategy. She also wouldn't have killed them as quickly as Sasori had done. She'd let them suffer...

All this was idle thought, though Hina didn't realise it. If Sasori had not been there to save them, all of them would probably have died. And Hina didn't have the power to make anyone "suffer a slow death" (not considering the fact that she just wouldn't be able to kill the off quickly). Yet.

Her attention snapped back to the redhead Master Puppeteer when he turned back to her. She quickly let the anger towards the Shinka disappear from her face, not wanting to give the scary massmurderer who liked to play with corpses even the idea that she was angry at him for anything. She was scared of him, rightfully so, but at the same time she also felt respect and admiration, even though at the moment her fear was overpowering those feelings.

"You're Kankuro's daughter aren't you?" She supposed she shouldn't be surprised that he knew. After all, if her father's stories were true, of which the possibility had increased tenfold this evening, and it wasn't just another one of his wild stories, then Sasori of the Red Sand had fought her father. And she had mentioned Crow. And her father did love introducing his puppets during battle. She wondered if it was a bad thing that Sasori had this bit of information. But the fact was that he had. And there would be no use in denying it.

"Yes," she said, "I am." She decided to add a bit of curtesy as well. "Thank you for letting us stay the night here."

Meran shook his head after a while, finally things started to fall into place, this was the man that had killed his grandfather and made him into a puppet. This all came to light before Meran himself was born, but he could not believe it until he had seen it for himself. With a glance the boy checked out the body that lies on the metal slab, waiting to be finished, Meran was no puppeteer, but he could instantly see that his great grandfather was crafted way better than the one on the slab and his great grandfather must have died decades ago.

It therefore must be a treasured possession of the man from the red sand.  

Meran did not really know what to do with the situation, The man was Hina's terrain mostly, she would know best. Then the man ordered Akira to comfort Meran and that kind of ticked Meran off, he was not in need of comforting, all he needed was some time to piece things together. It was not every day the lab of a S-rank Hermit landed on top of your head, breaking your leg. Before Meran could react to the non-sense, Akira was already with him. "I know Akira, " Meran started a bit harsh, but his tone quickly changed, she did not deserve that from him, he was just bone tired.

"Please forgive me, it is just a bit too much information and experience all at once. I know this is great grandfather and he wouldn't have been alive right now anyway, but can you imagine coming face to face with someone you thought to be long dead and buried? Someone that looks like you in certain ways?"

It was clear that Meran's mind was getting in focus again. It was like a fog that had lifted from before his eyes... A FOG! Hiten!
Meran did not even hear Akira tell him to snap out of it, his focus was on Hiten, before Akira could walk away, Meran grabbed her hand. "Find him, please!" He begged of her, looking down on the puppet frame on his leg. It was hard enough for him to stand, he could certainly not go out to search for him.

Instead, he awkwardly skipped towards Sasori and Hina. The look in his eyes was that of tiredness. But he fought it and straightened up with great effort. "Akasuna-sama, " he would start with the slightest hint of a bow. Not because he would not bow deeper, but because his nose would hit the ground if he did so. His balance was a precarious thing at the moment and remaining upright is all he could do right now. "Thank you for your help sir, it is very much appreciated. I thank you for your forgiving nature. I would like to ask you for one more favor though, Hina here has bandaged my leg with a puppet part from you lab here, without her and it, I would not be able to stand. I would ask of you if we could borrow it until we finish this trial. I am sure either of our fathers could arrange a safe return for it to you, if not, I am sure we can find something else to brace it with. But as it is such a good fit, I wanted to ask this of you. We are no thieves, sir." Seeing it was an obvious feature on Meran's leg, it was most certainly noticed by Sasori already, but it could not hurt him asking and being polite.

Akira ignored the hint of irritation in his voice. If she'd experienced what he'd gone though this past hour, she wouldn't have been very happy either. She nodded at Meran's words. It wasn't like she'd ever been in a similar situation so she couldn't say she understood how he felt, but he did have her sympathy. After she said she'd go outside, Meran quickly grabbed her hand and said: "Find him, please!" He sounded desperate and from the look of him, he would've preferred to go himself had the situation allowed for it. The makeshift casket around his leg fitted beautifully, but that didn't take away the fact his leg was broken. It was a miracle in and of itself he was able to stand and get around on his own, though he did so awkwardly. "I plan to," she assured him, even though it was too soon to say she was going to succeed. But she'd try her best.

As Meran waddled over to Hina and their redhaired antihero, Akira turned to walk through the room in search of something to provide her with light outside. It was dark after all, and she'd much prefer something like a torch. It was too bad her previous torch was currently crushed underneath the building's metal floor, so she hoped she could find something else to use.

(Investigation roll: search for something that will provide light outside)

The boy didn't particularly like the conformation of the Chikamatsu girl. She was either very good at lying or speaking the full truth. He expected the last. There was no way this girl showed any signs of lying.
 'Following in the footsteps of your old man...' He smiled a little. He couldn't help finding himself intrigued by the daughter of the strongest puppeteer Suna had to offer. 'What's your name?'

He turned around and looked at the Sabaku-boy getting close to him, suddenly giving him a whole speech. Sasori looked at the leg, something he found really amusing for some reason. Inventive. 'Keep it. However, I suggest you take it off before entering the village and get rid of it. Hide it in the desert.' The redhead didn't say much more about it. 'And it would be best for you to lay down. For all three of you. Sunset is within six hours. Sabaku, it would be wise for you to use the bed' Sasori didn't seem to have much interest in both Akira and Meran. The only thing he did wonder about was why he suddenly was the babysitter of three kids.

His eyes moved to the other girl, who seemed to be scouting the room for something to... he wasn't quite sure. Something about looking for another guy. Hiten. Who was Hiten?
Before Akria could even touch anything, Sasori gave her a bit of a glare, which was scary enough to begin with. Kids these days didn't know their place. Why was she scouting his lab... his house?!
'Little girl, what do you think you're doing?' He sneered at Akira.

Akira stopped in her tracks when she heard Sasori speak to her, sounding not very amused. When she caught his gaze, her body froze instantly under the weight of his dark glare. It took her a moment to regain herself, and when she did she crossed her arms in front of her. She swallowed her fear and managed a glare herself, tapping into her own anger and suspicion.

"I hate to repeat myself," she started, trying very hard to keep her voice level, calm and unaccusing, instead of sounding snappish and bratty. She continued on, speaking the words slowly and clearly. "But I said I'm going outside to get our water back and look for our teammate Hiten, who was outside when you blitzed the place." And what an amazing blitz it was. Total annihilation and over in a flash. But this was no time for compliments, though he would probably appreciate those better than what she was currently telling him. He liked Hina well enough, and she was fawning over him. "However, it is a little dark outside, as you might have noticed." And I don't have nightvision, she wanted to add, but didn't, trying so hard to remain polite. Even though she felt like shouting at him, telling him that searching for Hiten and looking for their water was goddamn near impossible if you couldn't see a fucking thing.

But all this was lost on Sasori, though he probably noticed her thoughts were an angry turmoil and weren't reflected in her words. "And so I was wondering if there was something in here that I could use to light my way," she finished, and even managed to get rid of the glare and smile. "If it please you." Oh man, this was so hard. She really needed to work on her social skill. I may smile at you now, she thought, but in my head I've killed you twice.