Gore Warning, Viewer Discretion Advised

Before Ritsu's mind could catch up, he was blindly watching Suzume immediately engage in combat with the invader and the merchants were screaming as more and more of the bandit's number appeared out of nowhere.

Baki was defending Akira and fighting to make an opening for him to run, the bandits were swiftly seizing the wares and throwing off the merchants who were trying to protect them, the camels were running off in a panic.

The sounds of flesh meeting flesh in powerful strikes and bursts drowned out the chaos around Suzume. She was hyper aware of how, if she hesitated, it'd be a grave mistake that would cost her her life.

He had appeared almost as if out of nowhere in the middle of the camp and his comrades doing the same right after.

The bandit had never expected someone to have noticed him immediately, let alone a Genin. And the little shinobi was overpowering him, he was falling back, overwhelmed by her swift attacks and fluid blocks and retreats. They recognized each other at the same instance and the man grinned.

"Nice to see you again, little mouse."

Her onslaught became more intense with no room for him to counter.

That power. Sora absorbed the full brunt of Suzume's palm strike and stumbled back.

That speed. He tried for a kick and Suzume ducked and pounced again, sending him flying back.
Suzume prepared the finishing blow and charged.

He bared his teeth in a heinous show of bloodlust.

It's all kind of pathetic!

Suzume gasped in surprise and pain when he clocked her on the side of her head, ceasing her momentum. It was immediately followed by a knee to her navel and then a hammer into the small of her back, smacking her into the sand.

Disoriented and scared, her mind immediately registered in the increase in level the man abruptly showed. 

Suzume rolled out of the way in time to dodge a heel to the head. She threw herself upward and Sora bent backward to dodge a steely blade to the face.

As Suzume swung the sword, she used her foot to sweep under his and the sudden imbalance and his impetus backwards was couple enough to make him fall.

But as he did, he kicked upward right into her chin and then flipped backward to land on his feet again.

Disconcerted from the blow, Suzume was a bit slow in defending as Sora plunged his kunai toward her collarbone.

Blood spilled but Suzume was up in the air upside down, above the man, and she sent a shower of shurikens, which were all deflected, but what he wasn't expecting was the following dive from the sky.

Suzume's hands danced while the shuriken showered. "Air Spring!"

She'd been flying diagonally up to the sky feet first and her foot found a cushion as the wind warped into a spiral and pushed her off.

Like a hawk diving toward their prey, she positioned her sword to aim for the fast approaching target of Sora. Something was flying out of the sun.

Sora threw himself back to narrowly avoid the edge and he tripped over his feet. Suzume flipped and landed on her feet and then swung her sword straight to his neck.

Sora's throat closed as he saw razing metal.

Ritsu's mind finally wrapped around what he should be doing and he went to make a pathway for Akira to get away and help the merchants. Then the two of them left Baki to let loose.

He was exasperated to see the merchants struggling to haul their things away even as the danger was bearing down on them.

"Leave it!" he roared as he pulled off a merchant from their damaged cart. "Akira lead them through the canyon!"

"What?!" Akira threw a crate at an approaching bandit. "We'll be surrounded!"

"Better than being out in the open! And it doesn't look like they're hurting them! Safety is priority!" He flung a kunai at a man sneaking up behind his friend. "Hurry up! Just get them out of the way!"

Ritsu had to block an incoming attack and he lost sight of Akira, but most of the screaming around him had gone to be replaced by the sound of clashing weapons and fists.

He saw Baki surrounded by most of the bandits and then the bandits flying through the sky as the Jonin demolished them. Suzume was in a tight fight with the only man who seemed like a threat to them and it looked like Baki was trying to get to her to take her place. There were other stray bandits collecting whatever they could while the shinobi were distracted and running away with carts of merchandise.

Ritsu sent a few kunai their way and they lodged into the fleeing bandits' limbs and they fell to the ground.

He was about to go relieve Baki of his attackers when something stopped him.

"Please, shinobi-san..."

A merchant was trapped under the wreck of a cart and Ritsu rushed over and lifted it up with one hand then reached for the woman with his other. "Can you stand? Are your legs okay?"

The merchant crawled away from underneath the wreck and grabbed his hand. Ritsu pulled her up. She cried out in pain and Ritsu caught her before she fell.

Looking over, he saw blood seeping down the woman's calf and couldn't help but glancing worriedly over to Suzume.

He bent down. "Get on my back."

"These sons of bitches..." the merchant said under her breath as she lowered herself on his back. "I hope they have aneurysms."

"That'd help," Ritsu agreed as he kicked away an approaching bandit.

Sora had caught the sword before it landed.

Suzume's chest hollowed as her body chilled to the core. The pair was both absorbing the situation, and once the bandit's eyes landed on her, she shivered.

"The back of the blade?" His voice shook with rage. "Are you fucking with me?!"

A palm thrust sunk into her abdomen knocked the breath out of her. A flurry of strikes kept her in the air and unable to think and counter. The man prepared a decisive blow to the back of her head and swung at empty air.

Ritsu had grabbed her and wrenched her back before the hit could land. He used Suzume's weight to surge forward and kicked out, showering the man with sand. Growling at the inconvenience, Sora thrust out a hand to grab the genin, but his arm was grasped and twisted.

Ritsu had rolled out of the way with Suzume and after seeing Baki occupying the rogue ninja with combat, he forced Suzume onto her feet again. "Help the merchants!" he ordered.

Suzume crawled to her feet and ran up the hill to see the panic happening below. Akira was doing all he could to direct the stampede of people but his instructions were being ignored.

"But my silks!" sobbed one merchant, clinging to his crates.

"It's your silks or your life!" Akira grasped the man by his shoulders and pushed him forward.

A gale picked up and sliced through the sand around the circumference of the merchants. Suzume's air bubble jutsu popped and dust clouded around them. Once it settled so had the merchants.

She wasted no time, "Everyone to the south, stick together, keep calm. Listen to Akira and go!"

Akira gave her a nod of thanks and quickly escorted the merchants. Suzume watched them trail away only to leave a white cloud where they once were.

The baying of frightened lambs told her she wasn't just seeing things. Miraculously, Jabari's herd had stayed put and by his side.

She saw that the fight had moved down into the valley. Baki and Ritsu were managing to hold them at bay, but they were still dangerously close.

"Jabari!" Suzume thundered.

He was trying to herd the sheep but the animals were too spooked to listen.

"Hut-hut!" he ordered and pitched his staff in the direction the rest of the merchants went.

Blindly, the sheep swept after the staff, completely bypassing it where it was stuck in the sand and toward the others.

Suzume stumbled forward, "Jabari..." she muttered and tripped and rolled down the cliff, unable to stop herself until she found a grasp on a jutted rock to cling to. She noticed now, as she dangled there, how her side throbbed. Broken rib, internal bleeding, potential collapsed lung.

After finding her bearings, she let go of the jut and let herself fall. She landed carefully on another overhang and blacked out for a second.

Then, the fear sparked and Suzume's eyes were drawn to the other side of the valley and saw Sora there.

He smiled.

And hurtled toward them.

Her eyes found the tiny figure of Jabari looking worriedly up at her. "Run!" she screamed as she too ran. Jabari saw the man as well and scrambled forward.

But he suddenly stopped and Suzume almost couldn't bear it. He then darted diagonally to the side and Suzume's eyes reached the merchant before he did. The merchant was alone and getting up from what looked like a bad fall. Jabari went to his side and helped him to his feet and together went to where Suzume was scaling the cliff.

It was like they were stuck in a dream, their limbs like jelly and weighed down by tons; they couldn't move as fast as they wanted-- had to.

Jabari reached the base of the canyon just as she did and the only thing separating them were the rocks at the bottom.

Sora was only a few meters behind.

When Suzume blinked, she could see Jabari right in front of her, trying to climb up a boulder.

He helped the merchant up and Suzume impatiently pulled the man over, wanting nothing else but to be away from here as quickly as possible with her friend safely by her side.
Jabari was right there.

She could also see the whites of Sora's eyes.

The two friends met eyes for the first time.

"JABARI!" She thrust a hand out to reach for his and just as their fingertips grazed, his hand severed and detached from his arm. A line of blood circled his neck like a choker and then his head fell along this line. His body slumped to the ground.

Suzume watched the blood pool. A scream tore inside her. She knelt there, still.

The man swung his blade to let the blood fly and splatter across the ground. The merchant behind Suzume, shrieked and scuttled away, leaving the shinobi behind.

Sora reveled at the sight of the girl who ruined his life defeated and small below him, knelt in front of his previous victim's body. He wanted to savor this moment forever, it was such a thrill to lift his sword knowing where it would end up.

Baki, amongst his circle of foes, glimpsed his student at the mercy of a loon. "Futon! Blade of Wind!"

The cries of pain distracted Sora for a moment and he was turning his face to see what had happened when a fist met his cheek. He spun in the air like water going down a drain and then crashed to the sand.

"Get up!" Baki pulled Suzume to her feet by the scruff of her shirt. "Move!" His propelling shove sent Suzume into blind autopilot, her feet speeding away from the fights.

"Ritsu!" Baki bellowed. "Retreat!"

Ritsu disarmed and kicked an enemy away, going after Suzume and running by her side. He sent a quick glance her way and was taken aback to see her usually unreadable poker face fallen into anguish.

Baki flung bomb tags onto the rogues drawing closer to them and as they evaded or sliced them away or else exploded, he threw down smoke bombs.

The canyon started to rumble and the bandits cried out in warning. The canyon collapsed and buried some of them in the rubble.

Once the smoke cleared away, the panicking merchants and their guards were nowhere in sight.