"Cameia, how much further?"
The Darkness Priestess turned towards me, her gold eyes lost in the suns blinding rays.
"Anther hour or so."
She returned to look forwards, making me frown.
What was the problem?
Just two days ago she... she...
We...
Gulping, I bit the inside of my cheek as I recalled that passionate kiss under the moon, which both aroused me and angered me.
Why was she being so...
Cold?
Glaring at her back, I continued jumping behind her, going from tree to tree with ease.
Kurenai was behind me, while Anko was all the way in the back, bringing up the rear.
This was the 'formation' we went with, though it's not like it mattered since we were only a tree ahead/behind one another.
I returned to my contemplation, trying my hardest to figure out what was wrong with Cameia.
Was she... disappointed that we haven't..?
I shook my head slightly.
No, that can't be the case...
Could it?
Well, if it wasn't that...
Than maybe she was feeling anxious or nervous about leaving her home?
After all, she would be leaving everything that she knew behind, going to some new land with new people...
But she made that choice herself...
Pursing my lips, I tried to find anything wrong with what I did these last few days, but couldn't think of anything, nor anything that Cameia herself had done to warrant this unusually cold treatment...
Though I had to chuckle at that.
She was so expressionless ALL the time, and her voice was usually on the colder side anyways.
So why was I thinking she was colder now than normally?
Had I managed to get used to her stoic and neutral tendencies?
I guess I had...
Sighing, I continued staring at her lithe back for that remaining hour, pondering this problem that had presented itself.
As for preparing for this 'hunt'...
Well, before we had left the village Anko had asked "Should we be worried about this Umyeia woman?"
Cameia had shook her head, almost sneering as she said "Umyeia is weak, and her puppets are weaker. Likely she's fractured her soul completely becoming little more than a puppet herself..."
"But couldn't those puppets be dangerous?"
Kurenai was trying, as always, to be cautious and prepared, but Cameia shook her head.
"No, the puppets are always on par or weaker than the summoner. This will be as easy as slaughtering a new born calf."
Her utter dismissal of Umyeia was reassuring, considering the last hunt Chieftess Texanta sent us on...
Well, my arm still stung even after another session of trying to heal it...
Continuing deeper into the forest, we found ourself in front of a temple similar to the one in the village, just... decrepit.
Large chunks of the temple were missing, the stone collapsing to the ground.
We could hear low groans emanating from the temple, making us look at one another in mild confusion.
"What..?"
"Must be humanoid puppets. They have weak bodies, but are usually customized to some extent, so expect claws or something similar."
We all nodded, before drawing our weapons.
Spinning the two blades in either hand, I smiled slightly down at the blue metal.
"Well, come on then."
Anko grinned, her heavy dagger in one hand as Akkura coiled around her left arm, hissing quietly at me.
Nodding to the familiar purple snake, I ran behind Anko as she charged in, Cameia beside me.
Kurenai just sighed, drawing her new kunai and rushing in behind us, making sure nothing tried to ambush us.
Entering the large temple, we looked around the dimly lit interior, taking in the dozens, if not hundreds, of pale... things walking around.
They looked humanoid, but each one had various spikes jutting from their bodies, an odd mop of green hair on their heads as they roamed around, groaning in slight pain.
"Kaaaag...."
"Gyuaa..."
"Kagyu..."
They all murmured something, but when we entered they all froze, stiffly turning to stare at us.
"Well that's just creepy..."
"Anko..."
Growling lightly at my wife, we stared around at the now frozen puppets, each one returning our gazes' with their brownish green eyes.
Glancing around the temple, I eventually found a different looking puppet sitting on a large throne, this one female.
Her long hair was plated and knotted, a mix of green and black, and she sat limply on the throne, her face pulled into an expression of both horror and regret.
"Cameia, is that Umyeia?"
Giving me a quick grunt, Cameia nodded as she readied her Kama's staring at the surrounding puppets with narrowed eyes.
"Kaaaagggy..?"
"Mmmmoooootherr...."
"Intrrrrrruuuuuudderss..."
Their voices were drawn out and slightly slack, and they started stumbling towards us, gradually picking up speed.
"Here they come~!"
Anko was giddy, lowering her stance before-
Stabbing out, she skewered the puppet's throat, and instead of blood a white liquid spilled out, trying to seal the wound.
"Damn! The hell is this..?"
Shaking it off her blade, Anko lashed out again and again, severing the puppet's limbs and heads easily.
When they got close to me, I used my dual blades to mince them, slowly whittling them down to just their torsos.
However, as we would sever, stab, skewer, or slice their flesh, that odd white liquid would mend the wounds and limbs back together, bringing the puppets back to full strenght.
Gritting my teeth, I pushed chakra into my left arm, wincing slightly as my right arm throbbed in glacial pain.
Coating my shortsword in wind chakra, I sliced easily through their weak flesh, noticing that the liquid couldn't mend as easily.
"Use chakra! It stymies their regeneration!"
The others gave noises of acknowledgment, and I felt the familiar heat of Anko's fire in front of me as she scorched the crumbled stone ahead of us, turning many of the puppets to ash.
Kurenai used pure chakra to coat her kunai, relying more on her genjutsu to try and distract the puppets. They shrugged her genjutsu off seconds later, but Kurenai only needed those seconds to easily pierce their throats or chests, killing them.
As for Cameia, she shrouded her Kama's in darkness chakra, dissolving the white flesh of the puppets easily as soon as her metal blades dug into them.
Grinding my teeth together, I tried my best to ignore the sharp pains traveling up my shoulder, almost making me drop my blade.
Jumping backwards, I warded off the puppets as best I could, the other three instantly noticing an increase in the puppets targeting them.
"Koko, are you okay?!"
"Kokoro!?"
"Y-Yeah... I-I'm fine..."
Panting, I growled in frustration as my arm continued to throb, sheathing the blades.
If my arm was going to be like this...
Opening my senbon pouch, I started coating the thin needles in wind chakra and sending them screeching towards the puppets, accurately piercing their brows or joints, helping my girls out as much as I could.
Minutes passed, and the horde of spiked white puppets only seemed to grow, making me frown.
Looking around as I sent another flurry of senbon out, I turned to see Umyeia raising her hand, that white liquid flowing from her wrist freely and creating new puppets.
Each drop of liquid made the woman paler and thinner, likely costing her her life.
"Umyeia is creating more of these things!"
Cameia glanced towards the throne, before nodding.
"Can you two protect me for a minute?"
Anko nodded, while Kurenai remained silent, her kunai flickering through the air as she lodged it in a puppets skull, only to appear behind it and drag the blade up out of its head.
"Make it a quick minute!"
Cameia nodded, dropping back behind the two women, placing her Kama's back on her belt.
Kneeling, she brought her hands together, a hazy dark aura surrounding them as she muttered something.
Unbuttoning my tag pouch, I started sending explosive tags deep into the horde of puppets, explosions echoing around the crumbling temple.
Seconds later I ran out of senbon, prompting me to unbutton my kunai pouch and start sending them into the horde, the wind chakra allowing them to pierce two or three puppets before falling to the ground.
Gritting my teeth, I watched as the wave of white puppets crested onto Anko and Kurenai.
Anko had her snakes pouring from her arm, each spitting poison towards the crowd, painting the puppets purple and green, while Akkura breathed out large plumes of heated gas, melting the puppets.
Kuernai's eyes were almost as red as an Uchiha's as she used genjutsu after genjutsu, sometimes managing to make the hand signs for basic jutsus like fireball and wind blade. Her kunai sliced and slashed into the puppets, but for every one she killed, two or three more replaced it.
However, as they looked like they were about to be overwhelmed, Cameia rose to her feet, her chakra flaring.
Raising her hands, she clapped them together, her chakra pulsing out into the puppets, washing over them.
When her chakra hit the puppets they collapsed, their eyes going blank and bodies limp.
The wave of darkness chakra eventually reached the trembling Umyeia, the woman opening her mouth in a silent scream, the white liquid freezing from her wrist.
"Hah... hah... Damn Cameia... what in the world-"
Turning, Anko watched as Cameia swayed on her feet, about to drop.
She was about to catch them woman when...
"Cameia!?"
Reaching her side, I gently let her lean on me, uncaring of the pain in my arm as she fell onto my right side.
Cameia was panting, her golden eyes screwed shut as her body turned slightly cold.
Shaking her shoulders slightly, I worriedly asked "Cameia?! Cameia, can you hear me?!"
"Y-Yeah... J... Just tired..."
I sighed in relief, before looking up at Anko and Kurenai.
"Quick, kill them and Umyeia! Once she dies they should all go!"
The two nodded, swiftly wading through the limp bodies of the puppets before reaching the throne.
Bringing her dagger up, Anko was about to bring it down on Umyeia's skull when the woman screamed "She is coming! The Rabbit Goddess will return! She is com-"
"Oh shut up!"
Stabbing downwards, Anko sunk her blade into the woman's skull, making her fall silent.
Much to our relief, crimson blood seeped from the wound, and all the puppets around us slowly dissolved.
"Rabbit Goddess?"
Hearing Kurenai's confused voice, I shrugged, more worried about Cameia.
"Let's go home... this has been... interesting."
Anko nodded, severing the woman's head and storing it in a scroll.
"Yeah... A nice, warm bed and one of you in my arms sounds heavenly right about now~"
Kurenai and I rolled our eyes at Anko, however we both walked behind her, Cameia still leaning on my shoulder as we exited the temple.