eswareinmal | (no subject)

Characters: Sasuke, some poor NPCs, and you.
Open? Yes.
Where: An alley.
When: RD15, late morning.
What: Stop the Knight of Fire from gutting an NPC and wearing their intestines as a belt! Or don't, whatever you want.
Warnings: Possibly violence.

They would never see him coming.

He shook the girls with clones, sending one of them to the markets and one of them to the tavern to flirt, chat and brood in the way they find so attractive. He slunk off into the castle by using Naruto's prank jutsu--who would have known it would actually be useful?--to turn himself into a girl with long lashes, an hourglass figure, and waves of black hair like his mother.

He made the tailor stammer by leaning forward and displaying cleavage, but it meant he got a display model of a tunic and leggings without having to wait to have flames embroidered around the edges, and a good solid pair of leather boots to go with it. He changed in his room at the Heroes' Headquarters, releasing the jutsu first so he'd actually fit into the clothing, and after tying the handkerchief Bakura had given him around his face to obscure his features and strapping his broadsword to his back, he set off towards the seedier areas of town.

It didn't take long for him to find his target. A man, slow-moving with a mean glint in his eyes and hands that kept straying to the front of his pants every time a girl walked by.

Sasuke crept up behind him and jabbed the soft tissue under his jaw, stunning him for the drag into the alleyway. And he waited.

He wanted to see the light in the man's eyes go out.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Because you shouldn't hurt people! It's not a game!" Shouts the little girl who had already seen too much blood and violence at age twelve. His reason made no sense. She knew careers trained as early as they could in preparation for the Hunger Games, and maybe they killed outside of the games as apart of their training, but it still didn't make it right.

"I know." And he did, intimately. Death was a game to gods, but when it became one to men, the world turned sour.

He turned away from her and back to the man under him, prodding his boot again with the tip of his sword. "You should leave if you don't want to see it."

She should leave. Rue knows how the games work. Only one person can win. The masked man will kill the person in front of her, then probably turn on her next.

Rue's feet remain where they are and she shakes her head.

"No. I can't. Because I'll still know you killed him."

And it was with that phrase that Sasuke figured out she'd seen it before.

"If you get in my way I'll stun you," he told her, more informative than threatening. He wouldn't kill a child unless he knew it was the most merciful option, and this girl still had enough fire to keep her going for weeks, at least.

There's an unspoken rule in District Eleven; you take care of your family. It's hard when almost the whole village is your family, but you learn to take care of your family and you learn to take care of yourself. When someone is whipped in front of everyone, you feel his or her pain, but you don't try to stop it because you have to protect yourself, your family.

In the games, even if you have an ally, in the end, only one can win so you learn to take care of yourself.

Rue owes the man nothing.

She runs.

"Good girl," Sasuke muttered to himself, watching her flee.

He wished that he'd been allowed to run.