Strength in Numbers?

Daiyuki and Shiroi sat in the middle of the valley. The communication between them was now seamless, they needed to become better teammates, they needed to become one efficient unit.
Daiyuki would start in on doing his usual routine, chasing and marking wild animals. He had become successful in tracking small snow rabbits up to a mile, his range seamlessly growing.

Daiyuki had thought about the time Youka attacked. He did not seem normal as if he was running off a different personality or an entire new entity. Looking at his ninken Daiyuki remembered the genjutsu he was placed under by Maku in which he was told to master his animalistic and become something more. Remembering the chains, the blood and eveentually the silhouetted man near the end... What was Maku hinting and where was Shiroi present in this genjutsu. Something felt out of place. 

At this moment in thought and mid chase Daiyuki had let the rabbit escape his range for just a moment before eventually catching up to it and capturing. He wouldn't hesitate to bite down on the rabbit feeble neck ultimately tearing into it. Shiroi would come lay at her master's feet and await her portion of the catch.

Kira moved quickly through the tundra, looking for a place to be alone in her thoughts. She knew the act previous were required, she didn't have a choice but the effects of her scythe weighted heavily on her heart all the same. She had killed someone she trusted. She had killed a student of hers but more importantly she had been forced to take the life of a friend. The more she thought about it the more the realization hit her that she had actually not lost a companion up until this point. It was her first kill with a name attached and more so the first comrade she had lost in combat. It hurt to think that it could happen. The realization that people died was something only spoken about until now and yet....here she was.

She continued to run at her full speed, and unfortunately unless something stopped her she was headed unknowingly on a colision course with daiyuki, who stood eating his rabbit. If he noticed her and acted she would catch the sudden shift in front of her and her eyes would shift back into focus, allowing her to react but if he didn't move, or didnt notice her she would accidentally run into him, and they would topple over to the snow below.

(twc 219)

The wind in the tundra had begun to pick up.  It would push Kira’s scent well ahead of her, in which Shiroi would notice her.  Shiroi would nudge Daiyuki seamlessly forcing him to stop eating and attune his sense of smell toward the direction of the incoming kunochi.
 
 Daiyuki would try to gauge her speed but because of how fast he knew the wind was blowing there would be no sure fire way to be exact.  He begin to mold some charka forming the handseals Tiger → Boar → Ox → Dog → Snake in the process. The boy’s intention was to allow the woman to collide into an object rather than him. However to avoid frightening her he would allow Shiroi to remain beside attempted substitution object.
 
 

Daiyuki wonder what brung this woman way out into the tundra, he wondered was she running away from Maku after realizing she had probably heard about what happen to Youka. Remembering their background and relation with each other seriously confused Daiyuki but in a sense comforted him because each of the Missing-nin that happen to be here had in essence raised him. He waited for the woman whom he knew to greet with the proper respect she taught him.

Substitution Technique

AP Used:

She didn't notice the boys movements as she ran and when she got in range thankfull for him, though unfortunately for her he was no longer in her way. She tripped hitting saiyuki's substitution object and fell head over heels for a moment before landing flat on her but and losing a few inches. The fall hurt.....a lot, and she let out a loud yelp of pain when she finally came to rest. "Ah!!! What the..." Her eyes searched for what had tripped her and them she saw the substitution and the wolf. "Daiyuki?"

Daiyuki watched as Kira tripped over the object and Shiroi. He thought to himself for an elite missing ninja she sure is clumsy. The thought came with a chuckle that gave away his position.  “Sorry Kira-sama” he said laughing a bit. There was something odd about Kira scent that had not crossed Daiyuki’s mind she smelled much like Yorice in fact for a split second while she was far off he thought it could’ve been him.  “Are you okay!” The boy asked something about Kira’s posture and her sudden exclamation made seems as if something was troubling her.  
 

Daiyuki suddenly remembered her was still wear his black and blue wolf poreclin mask. He removed and bowed in fashion for this was the respect that was due to Maku’s old friend.  Shiroi noticed the gesture her master was making, it made her a bit happy because she knew how was before.

Finally her eyes met the wolf boy who surprisingly had escaped her sight until he began to speak. She took a look at the scene before her for a moment before devising that she had almost just ran into him it would seem and he substituted out of the way. "AH...Um yes. Just a little lost in thought I suppose daiyuki. What are you doing out here so far from the village? And especialy with Missing ninja apparently causing trouble? " It had completely escaped her thought that the boy before her was one of the three promoted to chuunin even though she had heard from people in the village. Of course he would with the threat of danger encrouching on their borders, she thought after just a moment. He's a chuunin now.

"Right...Sorry. I forget sometimes you three ah...um...Two.... are chu...chuunin. " The sentence lost steam at the realization that once of the three was now dead and it was because of her. She'd only left maku's office maybe a half hour ago so there was no way Daiyuki could already know, but Maku would tell her at some point so she decided to make the convorsation as pleasant as possible before he began to look at her with eyes filled with hate. She looked upon the boy, studying his features for a moment before her eyes fell on the mask. He had definitely grown quite a bit since they last met, but she didn't think about that. Instead she studied the mask with a look of intense interest. "You know.....I have a mask similar to that. " She reached into the bag at her side and pulled out a black mask that resembled that worn by the anbu. On the center of the face mask was emblazoned a royal blue raven whose wing span stretched across the mask's face with it's head just above her left eye when she wore it. After a moment she turned it so he could see before offering it to him to look at.

The atmosphere between the two ninja was an awkward one. Shiroi would walk over to Daiyuki and nudge his leg. He would ignore the gesture made by his ninken.  The boy reached out for the mask, upon taking it in his hand he would examine it. He would then hand the mask back. “I’ve been out here for about two hours or so!” Daiyuki would say. He would ignore the missing-nin statement she made because he had always come to the tundra and never experience such encounters.
 
“Kira-sama where are you headed so fast” He asked curiously.
 
Daiyuki looked at the woman’s posture, her demeanor in fact he just watched her. She was different from the last time he had scene her. Daiyuki had grown his interest in things had matured but it could not help but wonder who this woman was in front him.  

 

"So you don't know yet. " She nodded, taking the mask back to slip it into her bag as she nodded her head. It was unfortunate that they would be speaking of this here, now. Out in the outskirts was the last place she would want a ninja to learn of the death of a friend. She hoped he wouldn't attack her, though she half expected it. "I had to get away and clear my head after....." She let out a sigh, pushing herself to her feet. If something happened she needed to be able to defend herself, she thought. "Yorice is dead Daiyuki. "

Daiyuki was half lost in his thoughts again, he was imagining the first time he had meet Kira. He awkward out break, her “lesson” in manners, the introduction and disturbing disappearance of her student Kanae nothing added up or made sense in his head. Daiyuki’s attention would change just Kira’s tone seemed and as the words escaped her mouth. Yorice dead? No that could not possibly be true he thought.  Yorice was cleaver, forever thinking ahead of his enemy who could have possibly gotten the jump on him and his 3rd tomoe activated sharingan?
 

Daiyuki could not make sense of it. “Kira, how did this happen” He said trying to keep his composure. Shiroi on the other hand was seemingly torn up and rather shaken up by the news.

"We were training in the outskirts of Yuki.....he was different. Angry and cocky. He used some strange jutsu to slip into the earth constantly attacking me from under ground and I defended it. Finally all I saw was an arm stick out from the ground. As i turned to look at it he appeared in front of me with a kunai only an inch or two from my throat. By the time I realized what had happened he was laying dead at my feet with a shadow sewing tendril burried in my neck. THe only thing i remember is his face with a strange look in his eyes pushing the weapon foward to kill me....He was going to..."

She paused for a moment, clearly also distraught over the situation. She shook her head several times to get the memories from her thoughts. "A second slower...A fraction of a second and i'd be dead...but the price for my life was his death. "