<em>Three Days Later......</em><br/><br/>The road to Kirigakure was long and tedious, but they managed to cover a lot of ground over those days.  They passed various people, mostly civilians and traveling salesmen and women as well as small families.  More people seemed to be heading away from the village though.  Less than a quarter of the people they passed seemed to be heading the same direction they were, but at a much slower pace.  On the third day since they left Konohagakure, they stayed at a small hotel in a very small town, but left early the next morning.  As they moved further into the territory of Kirigakure, they came across the seven major bridges that connected the village to the rest of the land.  The bridges became large and longer the closer they came to the the village.<br/><br/>The largest bridge, the central bridge that connected a deep, wide crevice surrounded by huge waterfalls was where the group was heading to now.  The huge waterfalls created massive mists that cut vision by about thirty perfect on clear days and almost seventy percent on the worst days.  Waterfall Canyon, while a naturally beautiful place, was also a perfect spot to stage an ambush with hundreds of places to hide and the mists obscuring the vision of everyone that walked it's path.  The bridge was a little over a half mile in length and was wide enough for up to ten people to walk side-by-side comfortably.  The structure was solid and very sound, able to take immense amounts of weight with ease.  It has been said that Waterfall Bridge was designed to hold the massive weight of the Six-Tails, Saiken.<br/><br/>As the situation regarding the divide in Kirigakure slowly comes to a head, reports of attacks on traveling people start to become more common.  Deaths are uncommon, however, but there have been rumors of various ninja from various villages going missing near Kirigakure, but no one is certain.  This explained the ten cloaked, masked figures that were hidden in the mists around the bridge, keeping watch over everyone that crossed it.  They had been waiting in that same spot for two weeks, reporting everyone that seemed suspicious to their leader in the Village.<br/><br/><div align="center">~ * * * Now * * * ~</div><br/><div class="floatleft">(http://41.media.tumblr.com/8608be2bf18ddfe5f3dbfb915d94666d/tumblr_n3eugdMNvL1tx8ce6o5_1280.png)</div><strong>Name:</strong>Karin Isako<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Waterfall Canyon;  Halfway to Kirigakure<br/><strong>Doing:</strong>Chatting => On guard<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Nanase Uzumaki, Tsuneo Uchiha, Terumi Azura, Takeshi Chishio;  NPC Attackers<br/><strong>Warning:</strong>She's not happy;  Better run for the hills!<br/><hr/><br/>After Karin woke up at the small town where they rested for the night, she was feeling pretty awesome.  Sleeping in a bed was so much better than sleeping on the ground, which was very uncomfortable.  Still, it wasn't that she couldn't sleep on the ground, but a girl's got to sleep on a bed sometimes, right?  Before they left the town, the stopped by a local shop and had some breakfast before they set off.<br/><br/>This was the farthest she'd ever been in the land of the Mist and she wasn't quite sure she was comfortable with the place just yet.  For one thing, the air was much too moist and that meant that the humidity was annoying.  She'd take dry sands any day over this place.  The mists were also disturbing to her, especially as they moved deeper into the lands.  They hid figures and blurred images even more than sandstorms back home.  At least in a sandstorm her puppets could function perfectly.  Here, she had to watch and make sure that none of the joints, hinges, or mechanisms swelled or rusted in the air.  A mechanism that wouldn't work could mean life or death in this place, so she'd have to be careful about which puppet she summons, how long it stays out in this air, and also make sure she that any water that got into her puppets was removed as soon as she could.<br/><br/>Before they left, she spent a little money to send a message by bird back to her village.  The message was simple,<em>'Prepare for Water Damages.'</em>Her father would know what that meant and would begin upgrading her puppets, one-by-one so the wood and metals were waterproofed.  It would take about a week for the bird to reach her father and each puppet would take about two days to upgrade.  With the summoner's ink, she would know when a puppet was being updated and be unusable as soon as the ink fades slightly.  For now, she'd work with what she had and keep her puppets maintained.<br/><br/>Waterfall Canyon was about a five hour walk from the town at a walking pace and the trip there was uneventful.  As the reached the massive bridge, the mists thickened, cutting their vision by about a quarter.  Karin gasped at the sheer size of the bridge, the canyon, and the massive waterfalls.  The noise of the falling water was surprisingly loud, but no so much that she couldn't hear anyone talking.  Karin nudged Nanase-chan, having become close enough to the girl to call her 'Nana-chan' now,<strong>"Can you see this, Nana-chan?  I've never seen this much water before!  It's almost unnatural!"</strong><br/><br/>As the group made it to the halfway point on the bridge, ten shadows received a signal and all leaped out of the mists, surrounding the group on all sides.  All the figures were cloaked, wearing white masks with blood-red numbers on their faces, 1-10.  The leader, with a 1 on his face, stepped forward and demanded them to halt and explain what they were doing here on the bridge.  He knew who they were, obviously, but he wanted to hear what they had to say for himself.  As soon as he heard a reply, he signaled for the rest of the group to attack.<br/><br/>Ninjas 2 and 7 converged on Nanase.  They were the biggest of the group and most physically imposing.  Two pulled a huge, curved blade from a sheath on his back.  Seven pulled the arms of his cloak back to reveal two gauntlets that could focus Chakra in order to deliver devastating punches.  Ninjas 5 and 4 charged at Tsuneo, Five wielding two long, thin blades and Four using a technique to surround himself with a thick ring of water from the waterfall itself.  Ninjas 8 and 3 moved towards Chishio, both revealing wicked, sharp, metal gauntlets that dripped a clear liquid that was likely poison.  Ninjas 6 and 9 chose Karin as their target, Nine summoning a strange, human-sized lizard-like creature and Six extending a collapsible spear with a spinning tip.  The ninja designated with the number One laughed and moved to a position near Azura, his voice dripping with contempt,<em><strong>"You're outnumbered, woman.  You had your chance to join the Bloody Mist, but ignoring that signed your death warrant.  None of you will make it off this bridge alive."</strong></em>When he finished, he used some technique to form a giant serpent made entirely out of water.  Ninja 10 moved next to One and pulled out a long chain with very sharp blades on each end and began to twirl one end in a circle, holding the other end in his hand, the largest part of the chain wrapped around his wrist.  Though Ten wasn't as strong as One, his skill with the chain more than made up for it.  It was obvious that Ten and One worked well together.<br/><br/>Karin tensed up, looking at the two ninja before her, not needing to glance around her to see that the team had been split apart from one another.  Each of the ninja they were facing were strong, but the one with a One on his face was another league ahead of them.  What she didn't know was that the leader of the ambushers was a former Black Ops from Kirigakure.  The others were roughly equal to the rest of the team in strength.  Karin was the first to make a move, yelling out to her team,<strong>"All of you, stay back!  This is going to get messy!"</strong><br/><br/>As she finished speaking, she moved her arms and touched two markings, Taranchura and Bōrudā, summoning the two puppets between her and the two ninja and summoned creature she was facing.  Bōrudā was a tall, round puppet, covered with hundreds of small holes.  It was about 12 feet tall and almost as wide.  Taranchura was a giant spider-looking puppet that stood on six legs and was about three feet tall, but with a leg-span nearly twice as wide.  With a roar, Karin caused Bōrudā to to charge forward, it's heavy body making loud footsteps.  As the ninja watched the giant puppet charge forward, the smaller Taranchura seemed to just disappear.<br/><br/>As Karin attacked, the other ninja sprang into motion.  This was going to be a wild battle and no mercy was to be expected from the attackers.....