After a few minutes of profusely thanking Kushina, the owner went on to give a description of the two men who threatened her.

"They wore wide straw hats so it was difficult to see their faces, but one had a mask covering most of his face, and his eyes were bright green. The other man looked pretty normal but he carried a large weapon on his back, I don't know what it was but it had three blades and was red and black. Both of them wore odd looking cloaks, black and red, though I'm afraid I cannot remember exactly what they looked like. Please, you must get rid of them!" The woman begged.

Kushina had sympathy for the woman, not just as a shinobi, but also as a mother.

"Master, a letter from Konoha has arrived." A dark figure kneeled in front of a large throne-like chair.

"Who is it this time?" The figure seated in the chair waved for the letter to be brought up. Glancing over the scroll with the minimal light that leaked into the dark room, the figure smirked. "Same old task. And it's one of their own again."

Both figured chuckled deeply.

"Should I retrieve your weapons, master?" The servant asked.

"Go."

He quickly stood and scrambled away, disappearing into the darkness of the room.

The master did not move from the throne for a long while, only standing up to take the weapons that had been brought.

As the battle-ready man stepped out of the dark room and into the light of the sun, a thought briefly crossed his mind.

'Must be important for that large of a reward...'

That night, Kushina stayed in a room at the spa which had been offered by the owner, she insisted that it was best that Kushina stay close until the men returned again.

The redhead sat in her bed, some papers spread out before her, all of then containing information on recent crime reports near that area of the Sound village. She was looking for any other indication on the existence of these two strange men, though it was futile. There wasn't a single trace of them anywhere else. Though it was possible that they had been involved in a crime that was not reported, this still gave Kushina nothing to go on. She didn't know anything about their abilities, not even how generally powerful they were, this meant she would have to keep on guard when facing them.

Night fell and the spa was silent, everyone was fast asleep. A lone figure slid out from behind the building and quickly jumped onto the roof, landing soundlessly. Bending down, the person skillfully cut a hole into the dull tiles and dropped down into the building.

Nina saw the man from her vantage point atop a tall tree, she stood from her spot and followed the figure, slipping down into the same hole.

Nina found herself in a hallway, the main hall, she assumed. She couldn't feel the intruder's chakra but she could feel Kushina's. Quickly finding the room she was asleep in, Nina saw the figure had found her as well.

The person approached the resting woman silently, kunai in hand, intending to keep this quick and simple. He soon realized that there was going to be a change of plans.

A woman suddenly appeared before him, blocking his view of the redhead. She didn't need to speak for him to know that he would have to get past her in order to complete his task. Without wasting any time, he lunged forwards and aimed at her heart. She shifted towards the left just enough to avoid the blade and took the opportunity to slip a kunai out of the man's weapon pouch, it was soon sent flying at him, though it was only able to graze his collar.

He jumped backwards and landed in a crouch. He stared at her with unblinking eyes, as if assessing her strength. In a flash, he pulled out a dagger and leapt towards her, she mirrored him and their weapons clashed, sparks flew as the two blades met.

Nina was able to put Kushina under a hasty genjutsu just a moment before, ensuring that she would not wake up during this... altercation.

The two landed again on opposite sides of the room for a moment before the man flung a number of small senbon needles towards Nina, they glinted in the darkness as they lodged in the wall behind her. The man looked around to see where she had disappeared to, soon finding out as he blocked a kick to the head.

Their battle was highly restrained by the limits of the room and neither of them seemed to want to harm the spa. Nina recognized the man was highly skilled and could be dangerous in an all-out battle, she originally only aimed to chase him away but seeing that he could become rather troublesome the future, she decided it was best to take care of things quickly, however, before she could do anything, the man slipped out the door and into the hallway.

Quickly following behind, Nina caught a glimpse of him just as he jumped through the hole in the ceiling and disappeared from view.

Suddenly, she heard a soft padding of footsteps coming down the hallway.

The owner glanced around wildly as she arrived at Kushina's door. The hallway was empty, everything was still. She opened the door to Kushina's room and let out a breath of relief when she saw that everything was as she left it and the redhead was sound asleep. She could have sworn she heard some commotion from her office and rushed over to see what was going on. She closed the door and started back to her office, brushing off what she heard as just her imagination.

"Good morning." Kushina greeted the next morning.

The owner turned from her work and smiled.

"Good morning. Did you sleep well?" She asked.

"I did, thank you for allowing me to stay here." She bowed her head gratefully.

"No, no, not a problem." She paused. "Did you happen to hear anything last night? Some kind of... scraping noise?" The old woman questioned slowly, still unsure if her ears had played a trick on her.

Kushina shook her head lightly.

"I don't believe so, I would have woken up if I had heard anything like that." She assured with a smile.

The owner laughed.

"Of course, of course. My mistake."

That night, the same man entered the building, again through the hole in the ceiling. Someone had covered it with a block of what seemed to be concrete. Easily moving it aside, he swiftly jumped down into the same hall, it wasn't long after when he heard the soft sound of someone landing on the wooden floor behind him. Spinning around, he saw the same woman from yesterday.

He frowned; who was she and why was she getting involved?

'How troublesome.' They both thought.

It took no time for the battle to start, kunai and other weapons flying through the air as the two shinobi moved skillfully around the halls. As one of his kunai was thrown back at him, the man jumped up through the hole in the ceiling, narrowly avoiding having his ankle severed. Nina leapt after him, both of them landing on the smooth tiled roof.

Under the moon's illumination, she was able to see his face clearly. Jet black hair swept to the side, two scars above his left brow and an annoyed look on his face. Glinting blue eyes studied her as well, trying to size her up. The man suddenly formed an unfamiliar chain of seals and shot forwards. A loud noise pierced through Nina's thoughts, it was enough to cause her to wince and leap back.

'A sound jutsu...'

After a few more attacks from the man, she soon found out that, though his jutsus were strong, the severity would decrease as the distance between the two increased. Nina had opted not to use any jutsus of her own, not yet at least. It wasn't that she had decided to let him live, it was simply that she had never known many sound users, their battle might give her insight into how they fought which could certainly help her later on. Maybe she could even learn a thing or two.

By daybreak, the man seemed to have run low on chakra and fled, disappearing into the forest. Nina made no effort in chasing him, knowing he would be back tomorrow. He must be the one that had been 'hired' to kill Kushina. Hired by Konoha. How they had found someone in the Sound to do the job? She had no idea. All she could do was ponder why this was all happening in the first place.

The next night, Nina sat by a tall branch overlooking the spa, patiently waiting for the man to appear.

He did not.

She frowned slightly when the sun rose and there was still no sign of him. He had not even made an effort to complete his 'mission' last night and this did not sit well with her. Shrugging it off, she decided to simply see what would happen. She remembered today was the day that, if the old lady's story was true, the two men would come back to collect their information on the woman's son. She didn't know exactly how powerful these two people would be, and though she knew Kushina was very capable, she wasn't going to take any chances. She would watch their interaction and if it escalated into anything violent, which it undoubtedly would, she would help step in if necessary.

"They're coming!" The owner rushed through the halls in search of Kushina. "They're coming!" The old lady almost crashed into the woman upon turning a corner, she stopped momentarily to catch her breath, panting heavily. "The men, I saw them! They'll be here any moment now!"

Kushina frowned at her words.

"Alright, I'll take care of it, please stay inside until it's safe." After the redhead was able to calm the woman down, she slipped into her room and grabbed a few scrolls as well as extra weapons. Just in case.

"I don't remember the old hag looking like that." The shorter of the two commented with a smirk upon seeing an unfamiliar person walk out of the spa building. They were still a distance away but could easily tell that the woman was clad in a shinobi's uniform.

Kushina breathed in deeply before looking at the approaching men. They made no attempt to mask their chakra, it was heavy and gave her a nervous rush. They were strong. She was able to see that they wore black cloaks with red clouds scattered on them, they also had simple straw hats with what must have been a bell ringing gently in the wind.

The two came to a stop a few feet away from Kushina, close enough to see their opponent clearly.

"A leaf shinobi?" The shorter man spoke again. "The hell are they getting involved?"

"It doesn't matter. Our mission is to get the man, any opposition will be taken care of." The taller man stated, causing the other to laugh.

"Serious as ever, huh Kakuzu?" He laughed and grabbed the large scythe on his back. "Let's get started then!" A bloodthirsty smile plastered on his face, he lunged forward with impressive speed, barely giving Kushina enough time to avoid his attack.

She swiftly grabbed a few kunai and threw them towards the man who effortlessly deflected them, sending the blades flying in different directions.

'As I thought, he's good...' Kushina frowned. Her hands flew through some seals and a barrage of wind was sent towards the man, it whirled around him and was able to cause a good number of scratches. He seemed more annoyed than injured, though, leaping out of the range of the wind and lunging for the woman once again. She was able to momentarily block the scythe with two kunai before being pushed back by the sheer force behind it, she formed another chain of hand seals and a water snake emerged from the nearby hot springs and crashed into the man, throwing him to the side.

"Agh! That's hot!" He hissed, shaking the arm that was hit.

"Tired already?" The taller mocked.

"As if." He sneered. "Just watch, old man."

The battle continued for a long time, both were able to hold their ground but Kushina was clearly growing tired, she was running low on chakra yet her opponent barely seemed to be out of breath. She cursed at herself for not asking to go with a team, she thought she could handle it. They should at least have had more information on the enemy before sending her out alone.

Narrowly dodging the swing of the scythe, Kushina sent a sandstorm at the man in an attempt to block his vision, it worked for a while before she was no longer able to keep it up. Now breathing unevenly, she again jumped away from the man's blade, this time it was able to cut the side of her leg, causing her to flinch and grit her teeth.

Her mind spun as she tried to think of a way out of this. All she could do was keep on dodging; her chakra was dangerously low at this point. Her movements grew sloppier as time went on and she didn't know how much longer she would last.

Suddenly, she felt someone behind her, but before she could do anything, she felt something warm on her forehead and blacked out.

The man stared at the newcomer; another woman, younger than the first. He frowned at this unwelcomed guest, he didn't take too kindly to having his battle interrupted.

He became even angrier when he saw the redhead vanish.

"Hey! Who the hell are you?!" He hollered at his new enemy.

There was no response.

"Heh, well it doesn't really matter. Any blood is good enough for me!" He laughed and leapt forwards only to suddenly be thrown back by an invisible force.

He landed on his feet, a high pitched sound rang through his head.

"What the hell..."

The woman tilted her head slightly.

"Just picked that one up. Seems to be effective..." She mumbled softly.

Once the ringing subsided, the man stood up straight and glared daggers at her, he cursed under his breath and charged, scythe poised to strike.

With each miss, he grew more and more agitated, this wasn't like the battle with the other woman; the redhead wore out quickly but this one didn't show a single sign of slowing down or growing sloppy. Not only that, but she was able to keep up a steady stream of jutsus, each one more powerful than the last.

While leaping to the side to avoid a large fireball, he failed to see the kunai zipping towards him. A clang to his right made him turn to see what had caused the noise: two kunai lie on the ground a few feet away.

"Thank me later." A voice from behind made him snort.

"As if that would have done anything." He shot. "Just stay out of my way, moneybags."

The one named Kakuzu ignored him and dashed forwards, a fist aimed at his enemy.

The two engaged in a taijutsu skirmish, both their movements were so quick that they could only be seen by a trained eye. They exchanged a few blows before they both suddenly jumped back, a scythe was now lodged in the ground where they stood only a moment ago. The shorter man landed next to it, anger rolling off of him in waves.

"KAKUZU!" He hollered, pointing an accusing finger at his partner. "WHY DO YOU GET TO HAVE ALL THE FUN?" He yelled, though his partner didn't seem fazed.

"I saw you were having trouble handling the girl, Hidan. I decided to help." He said mockingly, only serving to further anger the man.

"Tch! As if I can't beat her!" He sneered and pulled the scythe from the ground, charging at the woman.

Not ten minutes later, the two men had tired themselves out, both from battling and bickering, while the woman showed little sign of fatigue.

The two stood opposite of her, glaring daggers, they were about to strike again when the woman suddenly vanished. Both men felt a prick on their neck before they blacked out.

The owner of the spa rushed outside when she saw the two men disappear, she put a hand over her heart and let out a sigh of relief. Turning around, she was about to go back inside when she saw Kushina leaning against the wall, she rushed over and tried to wake her, it seemed as if she was unconscious.

'Poor girl, she must be exhausted...' The old woman sighed. She hadn't watched the battle in fear of being noticed by the men, but she peeked out the window the moment it had grown quiet. When she saw that the men were nowhere in sight, she rushed outside to make sure everything was ok.

"Bless her." She whispered, smiling gratefully at Kushina.

Something blurred into view, a dull red.

Kushina had to blink a few times before her vision cleared and the wooden ceiling greeted her silently. A few more seconds passed before she remembered where she was and what had happened. She sat up, a dull pain in her legs, and looked around. Someone must have brought her back into the spa after she had blacked out.

She thought back to the battle she had with those two men, she recalled just barely being able to injure them both enough to make then retreat. She smiled at herself, she couldn't believe she had pulled that off but was grateful that she had, there wouldn't have been anyone to save her if she had failed.

Standing up on shaky legs, Kushina stepped out of the room and headed to the spa owner's office.

"You're awake!" The woman jumped from her seat and rushed over to her, inspecting her for more injuries. "How are you feeling?"

"I feel much better. Thank you for your hospitality." She bowed with a smile. "Oh, I'll be leaving soon now that my mission is complete." She remembered.

"I should be the one thanking you, I'm forever grateful that you drove those men away." She smiled warmly and shook Kushina's hand. "Let me see you off."

In just a few minutes, Kushina had packed her belongings and was ready to head back to Konoha, she chatted with the owner as she walked her to the village gate.

"I'm sure that- Oh! Takeo! Come here!" The old lady waved at someone.

A tall man walked over to them, he looked young and she noticed a slight resemblance between him and the old lady.

"Takeo, this is Uzumaki-san, a shinobi from Konohagakure. She's the one who got rid of those terrible men who were bothering us." She turned back to Kushina. "This is my son, Takeo. He's the one that those crooks were asking about."

The man eyed her blankly.

"Thank you, I am deeply grateful." He bowed respectfully.

"Not a problem, I'm always glad to help." Kushina smiled. "Well, I should be on my way now, goodbye!"

She crossed the village gate and started back to Konoha.

The owner waved as she saw the kunoichi slowly fade from view, though her son did not mirror her gesture. He simply stared at her with piercing blue eyes.

"What a wonderful lady." His mother said with a gentle smile.

He did not respond but instead turned and walked away, black hair swaying with the wind.