Uzushiogakure, Ninth day of the Fall

Idly slipping beneath a kunai, the kunoichi flicked a spinning fuuton at the boy's throat. Killing fuuinjutsu wielders was far easier than most believed, merely a matter of taking them by surprise. They were only mortal, after all. The chuunin was good, but that didn't matter when he had no time to react. Another kill. She moved to aid her comrades (relatively intelligent ones were hard to find, and when you factored in the fact that all three were eye-candy, they were even more irreplaceable), who were preoccupied with a single crimson-haired demon. That was when she heard an ear-splitting screech as the Uzu Jounin her three squadmates were distracting broke free from their harrowing to charge straight at her, leaving the boys frozen in comical positions. She smiled dreamily. Now, that was a fuiinjutsu master. She would be a challenge. How delightful. She drew a katana and faced the Uzumaki.

"You took my son from me, Kiri-nin. The Mist will take your children from you as well!" The witch snarled, recklessly striking at Karatachi Mino, half mad with grief and rage. What the Uzu-nin did not realize was that her opponent was half Uzumaki as well, which made her ideally suited for combat against Uzushiogakure shinobi. Sinking into the same battle-madness as her oponent, Mino bared her teeth in a blood-thirsty grin and struck with a katana.

Parry, lunge, feint, feint, oopsy-daisy didn't dodge, half-hand seals for a raiton, and counter the witch's unfurling scroll with a seal-enhanced katon. Roll, and bring the katana up to block a kunai. Fling it away before it can detonate, swallow the suiton coming her way into a storage seal in her mouth, throw it back with an extra punch, courtesy of the modifications to the seal, use the moment of surprise when the water turned out be corrosive to kawarimi with the rock behind the witch and chop chop! Hot crimson sprayed over her face and neck. She licked her lips, mmmmm, salty and sweet with a metallic tang, perfect.

Taking a moment to savor the rush that was part and parcel of her heritage, she pushed the bloodlust down. "Another for me, bedfellow dearest. A Jounin Sealmaster counts for five points, I believe." The ash-blond Hozuki feigned a shiver, "Beloved, your ability to switch between mad and demure disturbs me." He paused, considering, "And everyone else."

Mino laughed, a beautiful tinkling like a spring flowing over stone, sweet and ladylike. "Then they are undeserving of their hitai-ate-" Whatever she was going to say was lost in piercing sirens.

"Evacuate?" Asked the Hozuki's second, a saner-than-average Jounin.

Mino covered her mouth with a fan produced from a storage seal, and asked, with courtly grace, "Why so twitchy? There is still blood to be drawn, lives to take, seals to steal... Why flee, when by staying here, you may better serve Kiri?"

Then with a gait more concubine than kunoichi, she floated back to the housing line and jumped onto a roof.

Seeing the blank stares, she beckoned with a hint of coyness, before transitioning back to kunoichi-competence. Raising an eyebrow, she asked sharply, "Well? If you're worried, why are you standing there? Come back here."

Her lover snorted, "Listen to the lady, boys." And he sauntered towards her. The other two shinobi followed. Just as they stepped past the sole kunoichi of the squad, Uzushiogakure imploded, sinking down as the sea rushed in to fill its gaps. Ignoring the roaring water beneath her feet as well as her gaping comrades, Mino turned to her captain to continue their conversation.

"Aren't you worried about the witch's curse?" He asked.

"She merely stated the obvious." Mino replied, a serene smile on her face. "I am Karatachi, so my children will be Karatachi as well, and Karatachi spend ourselves in the service of Kiri. If Kiri demands their lives, then their lives Kiri shall have."

"Will you even name our children if they are doomed from birth?"

"Not doomed," the Karatachi said, with an eerie smile and a shake of her head, "honored beyond measure. So of course I will name them."

"Then what will be their names?"

"Ginkanmuri, silver crown, if it's a girl. If it's a boy, I'll name him after the strongest of castles, the Tower, Yagura."