[Muramasa Uemon]

a broken pursuit

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Ragged breaths sounded out alongside swift, constant footsteps as a figure ran with someone clutched in his arms.

A young woman, in-and-out of consciousness due to a hasty dose of Drowsiness Poison. "Damn it." The figure thought as he glanced over his shoulder. "I need to shake them." Tailing quite a ways behind the pair were pursuers.

Ishi-nin most likely, having happened upon the scene of the caravan ambush and taking to tracking the two attackers who fled afterwards. The wanderer was fast— but notably less so while carrying someone else. He was somewhat fit but lacked any great strength to aid in this endeavor... so instead he relied on the only things he could. 

Wits and a honed intellect. "First thing's first: I have to muck up this trail." Normally his footfalls were light and he left nary a trace of his presence, but with the weight of two people he was leaving behind clear prints in the dirt. In the brief window between pacifying the woman and taking off he had resealed his puppets and did not have the usage of his hands to summon them again. "Into the canopy." He thought as he bent slightly at the knees and slid...

Only to leap upwards and off of the road, channeling chakra into the soles of his feet with the Kinobori no Waza to aid in him rebounding from trunk-to-trunk, then up onto the branches. At least this way it would harder for them to follow. "I'll double back just in case." To be safe, he kept his path erratic and made sure to retread some of the path he had taken. It would be tight, but if he could muddy his trail just enough to confound the pursuers, he should be able to gain enough ground on them to leave them far behind. "If I'm remembering right, there should be a town not far from here." The thought occurred to him as he traveled with the woman in tow, a lone bead of sweat trailing down one side of his face from the exertion. With any luck, they could blend in with some of the locals. And if fortune was not on their side... well, at least it would be a more defensible position than the middle of some vast forest.

Aside from his breathing, the wanderer was mostly silent as he darted along the branches of the trees, pushing himself as hard as he dared to create distance. After some time the signatures in his head grew more distant, and eventually blipped out of his range entirely. "We have at least a kilometer on them, now." He mused to himself, not slowing down in the slightest as he leapt. It was a larger gap than before, but not nearly enough for his liking. "Is that..." Jump by jump a distant opening in the tree leaves grew nearer, and once he neared the end he slowed up just enough to peer out. "Finally... we're here." Glancing down at the woman's face, he adjusted his grip on her form. By now his arms were burning and he was almost completely out of breath, add to that his chakra fatigue and her injuries, and their situation was looking dire. With a slight grunt, he dropped down from the branch, landing in a crouch near the edge of the tree line. "She needs medical attention— fast." Somehow, he made it through unscathed.

Kazama was not as fortunate, and it was likely her serving as distraction that allowed for his own lack of serious injury. "This woman needs a doctor." He spoke as he approached a local townsperson, who could only stare mouth agape and point down the road to a local clinic. With a nod as thanks, he briskly walked in that direction.

Hopefully the local medicine practitioner was up to snuff. Of course he had the antidote for his own poison, but his expertise in healing did not extend beyond old soldier's remedies of common herbs. "Hang on, Kazama..."

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[Fuu Kazama]

❝

So we're on the road to Yuki no Kuni...I miss Miruko

❞

Fuu would find herself unconscious having collapsed after an encounter with some shinobi from Bird country which resulted in an unfortunate loss of life, however Fuu herself was relatively unharmed save for a few pieces of shrapnel and some severe chakra exhaustion, with the battle now over Uemon would bring the woman to a nearby Doctors office in one of the towns within wood country.

Inside a portly older gentlemen seemed to be looking over some blood samples and compiling physicals for his patients. As he looked under the microscope to cross reference any of the abnormalities within the blood with a small chart he kept beside himself he would hear a knock at the door and then look over at the schedule he kept on his wall.

"Oh who could that be? I'm not expecting any patients at this hour?" the man would sate as he rubbed his beard and made his way towards the door. As he did so he'd notice the dark haired and then the woman he was carrying knowing immediately that it was his child rather than a usual hello he'd simply look to the young man.

"What happened." somewhat shortly he'd allow him inside and would put up a sign on his door that read "Out to lunch." before guiding the man into the home. "Set her down..." after she was placed down the man made no haste to set a bed for her and get all of the proper medical devices situated an IV and an EKG all hooked up to her. "Leave us, wait upstairs if you like but work needs to be done." the Doctor had no idea who this man was or why he had brought his daughter here but she needed to be tended too.

"And don't try anything." a subtle warning he may have been a doctor but he was still a shinobi and while possibly not as potent as Uemon he wouldn't let anyone harm him or his family.

332 WORDS ● Muramasa Uemon ● NOTES

deltra of gangnam style

[Muramasa Uemon]

gives way to a moment of

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As the door opened and a question was posed, the wanderer said little at first, worrying more about setting the girl down carefully on the hospital bed. "Ishigakure shinobi." He replied, glancing afterwards to the bearded man.

Worry shaded the strangers' features— like that of someone who knew the girl personally. "She lost control during a skirmish... so I gave her a sedative to calm her." The wanderer admitted, reaching for a pouch that hung from his obi to produce a small glass vial. "This will counteract it." He said, offering the Antidote to him.

The doctor seemed concerned, and his curt instructions might have caught the young man off guard had he not already been dialed in from their recent battle. "I will wait outside." He said, moving to the open the door but pausing as the man sought to warn him. "...there are more ninja in the area." A warning of his own, spoken as quietly and as colorlessly as the rest of his words. "I did my best to cover our tracks... but a discerning eye may yet find this place." The way he spoke seemed almost archaic— an artefact of his Tetsu no Kuni heritage that resurfaced during times of stress, or battle. After a pause, he glanced back over his shoulder at the doctor.

"If this town has a militia— or other defenders, you may wish to warn them." He said, his dark eyes narrowing a bit as he stood in the doorway. "...more Tanjo, perhaps?" If they were as skilled as they seemed, they would suffice. The pursuing foce would be small, but still more than he would like to fight exhausted. "Much more..."

With luck, the trackers would miss the place and no battle would happen at all... but he knew better than to rely on fortune. Regardless of the man's reply, he would finally step outside and wait, leaving him to his work while he used the time to rack his brain for a solution to this problem. "In is too damaged to use with Yō, and the new ones are not ready..."

A finger on his right hand twitched, and his eyes glanced down at his forearm. "I may have need of you." He thought, then took a moment to look around. A hooded stranger bringing a wounded girl into town would attract attention...

...he only hoped it was that of Kazama's allies, and not other unpleasant company. 

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