In a twisted sense of irony, Uriko's latest victim was a medicine merchant. En route to Konohagakure no Sato, dragging a portable apothecary trunk behind her, the saleswoman had been struck by a well-placed senbon needle. It had buried itself in the tip of her spine, causing the lady to spasm and fall to the floor. Her incapacitation was only momentary, but long enough for the assailant to emerge from hiding and abscond with the body. A hefty dose of chloroform kept the female nukenin's victim from alerting passers-by. Once the unconscious figure was lain beside a tree in the darkness of the woods, Uriko returned to the roadside and hauled the woman's trunk out of sight too. The pungent, medicinal odor revealed its contents and the kunoichi had to stifle a laugh when she realized. The box was soon abandoned in favor of the more pressing matter. Uriko had knelt down beside the saleswoman, a scalpel already at her throat.

Thick grass and cracked earth obscured the pools of blood from view. Some ten minutes had passed, during which the female nukenin had dispatched her hapless victim and proceeded to take 'samples' of her flesh. What remained was a gruesome sight and one that Uriko could not leave to rot in the forest, no matter how secluded it was. Making a mental note to dispose of the body as soon as she could, the kunoichi set about finishing the procedure she'd begun. Stripping down to her undergarments, Uriko brought the tarnished scalpel to rest on her thigh. Gritting her teeth, she pressed it deep into the muscle. The woman guided the scalpel with care, cutting a small oval shape into her upper leg. With a deft flick of the blade, she managed to slice underneath the pre-existing incision, removing the chunk of flesh entirely. Casting it aside, the kunoichi took the first of her collected samples and slotted it into the empty space.

Uriko had completed this procedure a hundred times before. It was her most effective method of traveling unnoticed through well-guarded areas. That didn't stop it from being both uncomfortable and time consuming. After the first leg, she proceeded to do the same to the other, then again on her chest. The most stomach-churning part came next, as Uriko first formed seals and applied a chakra-based anesthetic to her abdomen. This was followed by more incisions from the scalpel. The female nukenin went deeper this time, taking rusty brown flesh from inside her own body. She was quick to replace it with similarly coloured lumps she'd taken from the medicine lady. When all was said and done, six individual parts from Uriko's flesh and organs had been switched with that of her victim. With blood trickling away down her side, the kunoichi knew to act fast.

The woman began a new set of hand seals. There were many more this time - increasingly complex, too. When she reached what appeared to be the last, Uriko held it in place. In an instant, her self-inflicted wounds healed, the flesh binding to the tissue samples and the skin growing over. The kunoichi quickly altered the seal, holding a different one in place now. Her whole body seemed to react: muscles went into spasmodic fits, her skin visibly writhing and distorting. Then, without warning, everything became still. Only the woman's laboured breathing broke the tense silence the followed such an alarming scene. "Ah!" She gasped as she sat up, a sharp pain running through her chest. This was not a complete surprise to the female medic - there were often teething problems when adopting someone else's body.

When she was able, Uriko got slowly to her feet. Her gaze fell on the unfortunate trader; without whom none of what had just transpired would have been possible. The criminal nin strode over to the corpse, reaching down to collect her own clothes at the same time. Throwing the garments across the semi-naked figure, she stood over the mismatched pile. Then, without warning, she flicked her head forward and a large, liquid mass erupted from between her lips. It landed on the discarded clothes and steam began to rise almost instantly. The acidic substance ate through the fabric in mere moments, before moving on to the abandoned body beneath. Instead of watching this macabre scene, Uriko was busy slipping into the garments she'd stripped from her hapless victim before starting the procedure.

As the faint hissing sound faded, the kunoichi was already making the final preparations. She'd replaced some of the items in the apothecary trunk with her own, hiding her katana (amongst other things) beneath stacks of medical equipment and herbs. Most of her item pouches held rather innocuous objects for a medic to carry - even senbon could be explained away with talk of acupuncture. Besides which, the loose-fitting top she now wore covered most of these holstered items. To complete the disguise, she held a couple of fingers up at chest height and muttered, "Henge." The transformation was a simple one - the kunoichi only needed her face to look a little different. Gone was the pallid skin and thin, menacing lips. They were plumper now, a rosy shade to match the colour in her cheeks. Some ten feet away, the acid had scorched the ground but gone no further, leaving just a few scraps of fabric and droplets of blood. Even if tracker-nin were to find such remains, Uriko knew it was not enough to lead them to her. A satisfied nod confirmed her readiness and the woman headed back toward to main path, pulling the trunk behind her.

Practically every trader passing through Konohagakure used this long, well-worn track. It was much wider than the smaller offshoots, accommodating all kinds of traveling cargo. Although the great village gates loomed ominously on the horizon, Uriko was more concerned with slipping into the stream of traffic unnoticed. It had taken hours of patient waiting to accost the woman earlier on - the crowds had only thinned on two occasions, the second of which had seen the female nukenin move in on her victim. It was getting on for midday now and there seemed to be no end to the travelers and merchants making their way to the village ahead. Eventually, Uriko simply had to stumble in amongst the rest, explaining her presence with a fabricated tale of her trunk wheeling itself off into the bushes.

Within a matter of minutes, she was approaching the guarded gate. Confident in her disguise, she walked forward calmly. One of the remarkable things about her particular transformation technique was the effect it had on one's chakra signature. Though her chakra was still her own, the signature no longer read as belonging to 'Uriko Nagase'. It was the icing on the cake of an already very effective skill. An unrecognizable face, a genuinely new figure, fresh clothes and a disguised chakra - the female nukenin just had to keep the satisfied smile from her face and she was set.

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