Kimiko's P. O. V:
I say to Fang, unshed tears in my eyes, "Fang! Hurry and heal Arielle!"
"M' Lady and I will handle this creep! Poison Needles!" Momo says as she bounds towards the Nakano, firing senbon laced with poison.
I jump back to avoid it and once again, Toshiro deflects the needles.
"Lightning Style: Twin Fangs Jutsu!" I thrust my hands forward and wolves made of blue lightning charge for Toshiro. Meanwhile, Fang tends to the collapsed Arielle.
Toshiro dances away in order to try and avoid the wolves' claws. One of them manages to scratch his left arm, leaving deep claw marks and making Toshiro cry out at the electricity. He jumps up and the wolves slam into the tree behind him.
I do another set of hand signs. "Wind Style: Bellow of the Mountain God!" I exhale a powerful gust of chakra infused air at Toshiro, throwing him back against a tree.
"Wolf Claw Frenzy!" I swing my sword wisely for Toshiro. He gasps but just barely manages to evade being sliced in half by my katana. Instead, my attack cuts clean through the tree trunk.
It groans as it topples and crashes to the ground.
I pursue Toshiro as I see Kakashi blur through the trees while fighting Furea. I clash my twin katanas against Toshiro and we exchange several violent slashes.
I slash with the same Kenjutsu move as I pursue my target. Most of my attacks land on trees, cutting them down, while others narrowly miss the dual hair coloured man.
I snarl as I pull back. I gather wind chakra to my right katana. "Wind Style: Dragon Fang Jutsu!" I swing my blade in a wide arc and send out a massive arc of chakra infused wind.
Toshiro's eyes widen but he's unable to dodge or block my attack. It slams into him and he collapses to the ground with a pained grunt.
I land before him and sheathe my swords as I stalk up to Toshiro with purposeful steps. "You shouldn't have harmed my wolf," I tell Toshiro lowly. "Big mistake. Too bad I can't kill you, though, because you're wanted alive. Wind Style," I do swift hand signs, stopping before Toshiro, "Breathless Kiss Jutsu."
Before the older man could attempt to get away, I had dropped to my hands and knees and connected my lips to his. With my Wind Jutsu, I start sucking the air out of his lungs. I feel him struggling to push me off but I refuse to move, only pinning him down with chakra in my arms.
I was close to sending Toshiro into unconscious when I suddenly feel something pierce my stomach. I yank back and cough blood before looking down. In my stomach is one of Toshiro's long swords, dripping with my blood.
I gasp sharply and stagger away from the murderer, coughing more blood.
I catch myself as my knees wobble, hand gripping at the blade. Toshiro chuckles darkly as he gets to his feet.
"You almost had me there, girl, but not quite," He says, sneering at me. Toshiro grips his second sword. I breathe heavily as I shakily grip the sword, wanting to pull it free of my stomach. "Now, then, allow me to put you out of your misery!"
Toshiro lunges for me with his second sword at the ready. A smirk tugs at my lips. I do hand signs, activating my Tengan.
"Ice Style: Ice Crystal Mirrors!" Toshiro stops suddenly when a dome of ice mirrors forms around him, with another mirror on top, his black orbs widen when he sees me step into the mirror. I create six senbon in my hands. "Now, prepare yourself!"
With that, I launch at Toshiro with incredible speed, my needles slicing through his flesh and making him cry out. I repeat this action until the older man is struggling to stay on his feet.
"Do you surrender now?" I ask, holding up more crystal senbon.
"N-Never!" He gasps, gripping his long sword.
"Very well, then," I say, before attacking him with more needles. To my astonishment, Toshiro is still on his feet. "It's over, Toshiro. You're through." I then activate my Byakugan and fly out of my mirror to loom before the black and gray haired man.
With quick movements despite my stomach wound, I strike at all of Toshiro's chakra points and slap my palm powerfully against his chest.
Toshiro groans as the force knocks him on his back with a heavy thud. My Ice Jutsu and Byakugan fade as I know he's not gonna be able to get back up from that.
"I wouldn't even bother trying to get back up, Toshiro. I've blocked all of your chakra points. It's over," I tell him, breathing heavily.
As I collapse to my knees, I see Kiba and the others racing over to me.
"Kimiko!" Kiba shouts worriedly, appearing a little injured. Before I could collapse on the ground, he catches me and holds me against him, worry in his animal like eyes. "Hey, are you alright?! Talk to me!"
"S-Sorry, but I got hit with his sword," I stutter, causing everyone's eyes to widen. "D-Did you guys...?"
I glance at my teammates questioningly as Kakashi nods his head. "Yeah. We've rounded up Toshiro's allies and they're all tied up now." The Hatake casts his gaze over to the stunned Toshiro. "I take it you've blocked his chakra points so he can't move?"
I manage to nod my head. "I d-did. A-All of them."
"Hang in there, Kimiko," Hinata says worriedly. Fang trots over, worry in her icy blue gaze.
"Here, I'll heal you, Kimiko-sama," Fang says. She places her paws over my stomach wound.
A white healing light envelopes Fang's paws as she heals me.
🗡🗡🗡
The sun has gone completely down by the time my teammates and I set up camp. Toshiro, Furea, Roku, Ken and Kaede are tied to trees, their weapons confiscated by Ibiki. Fang, Momo and Arielle, her wound now completely healed, sit around me while enjoying their own meal.
Kakashi says as we eat our dinner around the fire, "We've lost a lot of time tracking the criminals and then restraining them."
"We won't be reaching Hozuki Castle till tomorrow evening then," Ibiki inputs.
"Great," I mutter before biting into my food.
Shino says, "At least we were able to recapture Toshiro and his allies." Hinata nods her head in agreement.
"Now all we gotta do is get them back to Hozuki Castle without further incident," Kiba says, sitting beside me.
"We'll leave first thing in the morning," Kakashi tells us, the fire light dancing across his features.
We finish eating and stay up for awhile longer before finding spots around the fire to sleep. I send my wolves back while Kakashi keeps watch first.
I fall asleep near Kiba.
When morning comes, my teammates and I wake up and have a quick breakfast before I douse the fire. Then Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Ibiki, Kakashi and I gather Toshiro and his allies, making sure their ropes are secure, before we continue on our way to Hozuki Castle.
As Ibiki said, we didn't get there until sundown. My teammates and I wait outside as we gaze up at the humongous building. It really was designed like a castle, and I hear waves crashing against the cliff.
"Welcome to your new home," I tell Toshiro with a glare. He just glares right back at me.
Kiba says wearily, "Nice place. Talk about creepy."
I notice Hinata was looking worried and give her an assuring smile. "There's nothing to be worried about Hinata. There's no way the bad guys will escape from this place, and it's not like we're going inside." She nods her head once at me.
The front doors open and a group of men come out. I blink my violet eyes at the man in front. He wears a black cape over his dark clothes and has long black hair with a strand hanging in front of his face, black eyes that hold many secrets.
"Welcome, Leaf ninja, to Hozuki Castle!" The dark haired man says. "I'm Mui, the warden of Hozuki Castle."
"I'm Kakashi Hatake," The silverette introduces before gesturing to the rest of us. "And this is Ibiki Moreno, Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata Hyuga, Shino Aburame and Kimiko Sumire."
"I believe you have a prisoner for us?" Mui queries, black orbs flitting over each of us. I nod my head.
"We actually have a few more, but this man here is Toshiro Nakano. We were tasked with bringing him here."
"Excellent! We'll take it from here," Mui says. He gestures for his men to take the criminals and one of them takes Kaede's, Furea's and Toshiro's weapons from the Moreno. "I hope you have a safe journey back to the Hidden Leaf Village."
Mui smiles at us but a shiver runs down my spine. I shake off the bad feeling.
"Thank you," I say, all of us bowing in respect before we take our leave.
Kakashi suggests, "We should find an inn in the Hidden Grass Village for the night. Then we can return to The Hidden Leaf in the morning."
I mutter, walking beside the Inuzuka, "Sounds like a plan to me!"
Everyone else chimes their agreement.
My teammates and I book an inn in Kusagakure for the night, Hinata and I sharing a room while the boys share another and the male Jounin have their own room. Then we head back to the Hidden Leaf the following morning.