[Futago Kumori]

Kumori winces a bit and gives Saya a sheepish smile when she's chastised for not even giving the other woman any warning, although she'd remembered somewhat that if you warn someone, they can tense up and make the process even more painful. Or at least, that's the reasoning the doctor had when he'd surprised her by popping her arm back in. Regardless, there's no time to explain that for now, since they were in the middle of some fairly serious combat. She worries for a moment when she sees a movement out of the corner of her eye to see the leader dropping down, only for him to meet the barrier, letting Kumori breathe out in relief.

Her focus shifts to the two final ashigaru that she hadn't defeated with her previous strike, and she approaches them with her greatsword held in both hands, giving her the force and the power necessary to bring her full strength to bear. The two soldiers move to flank her on either side, and she smiles as she coats her own weapon with minty-green Fuuton natured chakra once more, before activating her clan's hijutsu once more, allowing her to watch both men through her peripheral vision with sharp micro-glances in order to watch how they move to prepare an attack against her. When both charge at once, Kumori shifts herself backwards at the last second, causing the two to have their katana clash against one another, in a rather awkward moment between the two and their look of confusion.

Kumori winds up her strength and then brings her blade across at waist height, mowing down both men as though they were nothing more than blades of grass themselves. With a final spin of her blade through the air followed by a sudden stop with both hands on the handle, she cleans her blade of all their blood before turning back to see how well Saya is handling their leader, giving her a bright smile before she puts Oboruseki on her back once more, freeing up her hands to cross over her own bosom.

"We do make a pretty good team. Now let's get you back to Kusagakure; I wanna make sure your arm is really okay."

With this, she reaches over to Saya's uninjured arm to take hold of her hand so she can lead her back to Kusagakure, unwilling to let her face any more danger today.

[Honō Saya]

And just like that, the men fell, slain by a strike from Kumori that was almost too fast for her to follow; Oboruseki flashed, steel cutting flesh in a spurt of motion that left the two ex-Ashigaru dead where they stood, the top half of their bodies flopping to the ground in different directions from the bottom, leaving a mess of blood and viscera everywhere. Well, almost everywhere- the Futago girl was untouched, her stark white cheongsam unblemished despite the gore that was spread all over the forest floor. She struck quite a sight, truth be told.

Beautiful.

"That we do." The Hono girl said, returning her friend's smile as she glanced back at the bandit leader who, despite the rather obvious concussion she’d given him, wasn’t actually dead. She’d done that on purpose, of course; he deserved to answer for his crimes, and the garrison at Hohei-Cho would certainly see to it that he did, with or without their help. By the time the Ashigaru were done with him, he’d be lucky to have anything left to bury.

Reaching down to grab the man’s collar, the redhead hefted him up with her good arm, quickly tying his wrists behind his back with a bit of his own uniform before she turned back to her friend, left hand taking Kumori’s offer as she half carried, half drug the lout along with them.

"Let’s go home."

Futago Kumori

[Futago Kumori]

Kumori had held Saya's hand before, quite often, in fact, but this time it felt a little bit... different. She wasn't sure how she could explain it, but there was just something different about it, and she wasn't sure what it was. Well, she could figure it out later; for now, she let Saya drag the unconscious body of the once-esteemed captain behind her, although she herself could have probably physically carried him with one hand. She didn't want Saya to feel intimidated by her strength, oddly enough. She had no problems with showing her strength to Koji-kun, but for some reason, she felt a bit different with Saya suddenly.

They walked quickly enough back to Kusagakure, making sure to book the traitorous bandit that had once led a regiment of foot soldiers for the glory of his country. Despite the gore and the violence she'd experienced that day, she didn't really have much interest in personally watching what was done to him. He'd deserved it, of course, but she still wanted to make sure Saya did actually go to the hospital, and she wanted to also make sure that she hadn't hurt her shoulder any further with her little stunt during their mission.

She lets loose a little sigh. At least that mission was complete. For now.