The Fire from the Mist

[Thalia]

Hiroko quickly began to make her way back to her village. She had just finished with a very troublesome mission, and was happily making her way home so she could report her success and maybe get a day or two of relaxation before she got assigned her next mission, though of course that was likely a bit too much to ask, for as a skilled member of the Anbu, Hiroko was a very busy shinobi, and had very little down time to herself.

Suddenly, Hiroko saw something down below that put her on edge, and she stopped on the branch of a tree and looked down, examining what she was seeing. After waiting for a minute or two and seeing that the body of what seemed to be a woman was not moving, she quickly jumped down to examine it, ever ready for an attack.

When it still didn't move, she bent down and rolled it over onto it's back to look into it's face. As soon as she did so, she realized that in the unconscious woman's hand was a kunai knife, which could mean little other than that she was a fellow kunoichi. Hiroko moved a bit of her crimson dyed hair out of the way so she could get a better look at her and quickly noticed a Mist village headband on her.

Knowing that something must be wrong, she carefully picked her up, trying to avoid touching any of her many injuries and rushed her to the hospital in Konoha. She just hoped that the medical ninjas could save her in time, not for any love for the woman or the Mist, but just because of the bond of another shinobi. Surely anyone would feel and do the same.

As soon as the kunoichi was left in the capable hands of the Konoha medical ninja, Hiroko quickly took off to visit the Hokage and give her report of the mission she had just undergone.

 

[felitha]

Felitha barely understood what was happening. It had taken almost all of her strength just to work her way to the nearest group of humans and when she had finally gotten close she had simply fallen down. Now even just lying there she wasn't very aaware of her surrondings, only just noticing as she was picked up and then worked on by the skilled medical ninja. Her whole reality was simply covered by a haze of pain.

Gradually, as the healing ninja worked on her, she could feel that pain recede and eventually she managed to fall into the the blessed blackness of unconciousness. How long she stayed that way she didn't know, only that when she began to feel the world around her again a beam of bright sunlight was falling across her face. She blinked her eyes groggily, slowly coming back into conciousness.

Suddenly the woman sat up, her hand moving towards her waist, obviously searching for a weapon. She suddenly doubled over in pain though, the quick movement making her stomach erupt into fire. It looked like as skilled as the ninja here were she was just hurt.

Felitha looked over to the side, catching sight of a mirror. She quickly made an inventory of herself. Black hair, streaked through with lines of green, was cut short, just to her shoulders, on the top of her head. Brillant green eyes stared underneath the metal lining of the headband that she wore, the symbol of the village in the mist obvious. An almost delicate heart like face moving down into a toned and athletic body. Average sized breasts pressed tightly against her clothing before giving way to a toned stomach and log legs. Her clothing and weapons had been stripped away, leaving her in a white shift that must be the ninja's version of a hospital gown.

The signs of battle had been erased though, except for some obvious deeper damage. Where she was was still a mystery to the water ninja, but it must be someplace friendly.

 

[Thalia]

The door to the dimly lit room with the Mist kunoichi was left ajar in case the young woman in the bed showed any real signs of coming to. She had now been in bed for the better part of a week, though they knew that she couldn't be dead for she kept groaning a few disconnected words while she slept.

After a few minutes, someone walked past the door and glanced inside to notice the woman inside was now sitting up, looking at herself in the mirror. "She's awake!" Said the ninja rather loudly. "Someone, go fetch the Hokage quick! She said she wanted to speak to the patient as soon as she regained consciousness!"

One of the ninja quickly took off, returning a few minutes later with Tsunade-Sama in tow. She quickly burst into the room, grabbing a chair and sitting right in front of the woman. "Hello. Welcome to the Hidden Leaf village. I just wish that you could have arrived here under other circumstances. Might I inquire as to your name, and what happened before you lost consciousness?" She asked.

 

[felitha]

Felitha's head snapped to the side as she heard the yells though she woudl have to admit that there wouldn't be much that she woudl be able to do if they were enemies. The young ninja felt as weak as a kitten right now, even after so much time unconcious.

Felitha watches as the woman walked into the room with her. It was obvious that the woman was powerful and if the voice was telling the truth that she was also the Hokage of this village. Apparently the Village Hidden in the Leaves. They were well known, certainly the most powerful village at the moment and they had faced the village hidden in the sound before.

"My name is Felitha. I had been spying on the Village Hidden in the Sound when my team was found. You can imagine what happened with that. We escaped. I'm not sure how many of us did but I was hurt badly already and worse in the escape. We did find the information that we were looking for though."

 

[Thalia]

Tsunade seemed to look a little shocked at the idea of the Mist sending spies into the Sound, but quickly tossed the problem aside and asked the woman, "And what did you find out? If you can tell me what you learned while you were there, then I can send word to your home village right now. Either way though, I will be assigning one of our most skilled ninjas to escort you home."

"Just one second while you think about that." She stood up and walked out of the room, stopping one of the other ninjas. "I need you, or someone else to go fetch me Hiroko. She was the one who found this young woman, and so I'm making it her responsibility to take her home when she is all better. She'll probably be either at her home or one of her usual spots because she's been put on stand-by until this mission. Send her over here and have her wait outside this door until I'm ready for her."

Once she finished with her, she walked back into the room, closing and locking the door behind her. "So what do you think Felitha? Can you give me any information on what you found, or do you think that they need to hear it from you in person? In which case we will just send word that you will be on your way shortly."

 

[felitha]

Felitha was a spy, and a good one that that. she was well trained in stealth, sabotage, and above all she was trained in keeping her mouth shut. How to resist torture, keep herself from accidentally giving people information, and even to kill herself if needed. Still these were allies and the information did involve them as well as the Village Hidden in the Mist.

"I spent some time in the Sound village. Not much because they are a small community and any new person for any amount of time can draw quite a lot of attention. I did manage to get some information though. The Sound village is preparing to attack. They plan to start with the Village Hidden in the Mist, but it won't be long before they move onto the other villages. My village is usually peaceful, and our ninjas work more towards stealth than combat. I need to warn my people before the sound village gets there so they won't be surprised." Felitha dropped her head, the long speech taking the little bit of energy she had managed to recover since her beating.

"An escort will be most helpful, but the Sound ninja's will come after us."

 

[Thalia]

Lady Tsunade listened to everything that the Mist ninja had to say, not saying a word. When she was finished she sighed and said, "That really makes things difficult. I wish that we could send several of our more combat oriented shinobi along with you to help, but we also cannot deny the idea that little seeds of misinformation could have been leaked out among them, or even the fact that they may change their plans now that they know that someone has escaped, so I fear that Hiroko alone is the only person who I can send with you. But please excuse me for just a moment. This knowledge is top priority, and the sooner it gets to the Mist, the better."

She then turned around and left the room, as always leaving the door shut behind her. She quickly went herself to write and send the message, always fearful of the fact that if she told someone to send it, that they may freak out, or if some fool hardy ninja heard it, that they may try something foolish.

As soon as the message was written down and on its way to the mist, Tsunade returned to the woman's room, now finding Hiroko there. "Good, I am glad they were able to find you. It's time for you to be briefed on your new 'S' ranked mission."

The two entered the room, Hiroko a little surprised when she saw the woman she had rescued a week ago and wondering what was going on. "Hiroko, this is Felitha, a ninja from the hidden mist. She has been trapped in the Hidden Sound for quite some time, and has just recently gotten away. Your mission is to spend some time with her and to make her as comfortable as possible until she is fit to leave. When that time comes, you are to escort her to her home village, and will stay there for a while, as there is a possibility that the Sound will attack. You are to treat Felitha as your team captain while you are away, and anyone above you as you would if it were here in the leaf!"

Felitha simply nodded her head saying, "Yes Tsunade-Sama."

 

[felitha]

Felitha nodded at the other ninja that entered the room. She didn't recognize the ninja who had saved her by her face alone, after all Felitha had been quite delirious at the time. Still she could guess who this was. Something that Tsunade had said before led the mist ninja to at least figure that out.

What Felitha was chafing at was the delay. The information needed to get to her village now and she was too wounded to go out and deliver the message herself. Felitha glanced over at her new partner, at least for the duration of this mission. There was an option right there. Really all she had to do was convince Hiroko that she was well enough to start making their journey. That coudl be done plenty of ways of course. Begging was popular, threats might work, but Felitha always prefered something a bit more subtle and more enjoyable for both of them.

Hiroko was going to get laid, or at the very least seduced. As the meeting finished Felitha stood to her feet. She had changed back into her battle garb, thankfully cleaned and repaired while she had been asleep. It didn't consist of too much though, after all she didn't want something getting in the way while spying. A simple short pair of dark green shorts and a vest of the same color that was covered in pockets over a mesh top. Tall tan boots covered her feet, but besides the various other equipment pouches attached to her arms and legs that pretty much made up her clothes.

"Well do we have a place where I could take a bath. I feel like a need one."

 

[Thalia]

Tsunade left the room soon after giving Hiroko her mission. Hiroko sighed as she saw the woman stand up and start to get changed and turned around to give her her privacy. When she heard the girl ask of a place to take a bath, she turned back around, believing that that must mean that she was fully dressed.

"Well... It's up to you, I can either take you to my place and you can have a good soak in private, or we can go to the bath house. It's a little more relaxing there, but there is one man who shows up every once in a while trying to spy on women's side. Either way though I'll lead you out of here because my house is on the way to the bath house." She said turning toward the door and slowly making her way through the town so that the injured girl could comfortably follow her.

"By the way, You look a lot better now. You looked rather dreadful the day I found you out in the forest. What in the world could you have been doing to let yourself get captured by the Sound village? It's not a very common thing to hear about. Especially not when you were able to get away to tell the tale."

 

[felitha]

"I have to say that I think the bath house is the better idea. That way you will still be able to answer my questions as I relax and get clean. I know that they wash you while you are injured, but I never feel clean until I have done it myself." Felitha said as she followed after her new guardian and caretaker. If it had been any other village she would assume that she had been assigned Hiroko so that the woman would be able to spy on Felitha and make sure she didn't do anything they didn't want. In Konoha though that didn't seem very likely. Most rumors spoke of this as an open village where they didn't worry too much about deception.

Felitha did bristle a little bit at the Leaf ninja's questions though. It almost sounded like she was doubting Felitha's competence at her job.

“Well I have to say that the idea behind the mission wasn't to get caught and tortured for weeks. That was just one of life's fun little bonuses.” Felitha's words had a bit of bite behind them but they were more meant to be a warning for the future than any attempt to hurt Hiroko.

 

[Thalia]

Hiroko sighed as she heard the woman's snappy reply. She hadn't been trying to be rude, she was just trying to learn a bit more about the mystery woman. "Perhaps I worded my question wrong..." she said. "I was trying to ask what kind of a mission you were on that could have allowed you to be captured by them."

She continued walking until they came up to the bath house, then into the women's changing rooms. She went and grabbed two towels for them and handed one to Felitha before heading over to a corner, facing the wall and peeling off her Anbu Black Ops suit before wrapping her body in her towel and turning around to see if Felitha would make it all right. "You ready?"

 

[felitha]

"Well we have been keeping our eye on the Sound Village because of the trouble they have caused before. Now we keep our eye on them though they haven't caused any trouble for a while. Still what we had worried about finally did happen." Felitha stripped her clothes off, not worrying about covering herself with anything like a towel. The Village Hidden in the Mist was centered on water which included outdoor baths and swimming spots. So it wasn't too strange to see a naked man or woman walking around in certain parts of the village.

Felitha threw her towel over her shoulder and stepped into the water. She sank into the warm water with a sigh of relief, her sore body happy as her sore muscle began to loosen.

"So how do you feel about being put on a mission like this. I'm sure it is not what you are looking for."

 

[Thalia]

Hiroko grimaced as she saw how obviously open Felitha was in the fact that she seemed to feel comfortable enough in her body to allow a bunch of complete strangers see her womanly charms. She kept from looking at her and led the way to the hot pool and sat down on the wall, letting herself sink down a bit so she could relax.

"Well no... Honestly I'm not entirely happy about being your companion to the Mist and having to stay there until I get word from Tsunade-Sama... N-Not that I think I won't like it at the Mist, but its just not excited about leaving home for an extended period of time to go to somewhere totally strange to me." She said. "Plus the fact that the Sound might attack while I'm there doesn't help things, because I don't know the village, and so teamwork with them will be difficult as I won't know what to expect."

 

[felitha]

"I wouldn't worry about the sound village attacking you at the moment. THe Village Hidden in the Mist is weaker and seems to be their only target right now. Plus I don't think the sound village is that interested in tangling with you guys after last time." Felitha sunk down into the water, her short green and black hair floating around her ears as she slipped into the water. The water was already making her a bit sleepy, probably a result of still being wounded, but it was a godo feeling to the tired woman.

"I wouldn't worry about teamwork either. I'm very easy to work with." Felitha grinned though she didn't open her eyes or even move her head out fo the water. Felitha did have a liking for the opposite sex, pretty much exclusivly actually, and though she wasn't so horny she was going to go out and attack some woman she did enjoy the situation. Beautiful women in a bath house. She wasn't a pervert, but she wasn't a prude either.