Konnichiwa Minna-San. Animefreak99-06 here again. I really liked Chibi Washuu's story 'Feudal Honor', and I read a few books on ninja and samurai, and I thought,"I think I want to write a story similar to that one." So without further ado I present my new story. Disclaimers: 1. I have no intention of copying Chibi Washuu's story, so if the story starts to sound just like her's, please let me know, so that way I can remove it and rewrite it. 2. I don't own Samurai Troopers. And only one of my characters from 'Cursed Maidens' will appear in this story, the rest will not. 3. The armors will not appear until all the characters are assembeled. And 4.This is a Fantasy/Alternate Universe story. Just so you know. And now on with the story.

The Path of a Leader

Chapter 1 Poor Young Ninja

He had to get to his target. Never mind he had no known enemies. He just had to find his target, of his entire family would be killed. The pain in his left side only managed to remind him of this. When he completed his task, he would return and kill the hooded man, Badamon and his female accomplice, Shakalli.

He was a ninja, and every now and then, his family was contacted or placed under contract to kill, injury, or kidnap whoever they were contacted to. This time he and his family were asked to kill the new head of a very famous family, the Date family.

There were problems with the request however. The family was in Sendai, a considerable distance from the home of the Sanada ninja family that lived in Yamanashi. Another was the target himself. They were asked to kill the only male heir to that family. The former head had died only two weeks ago of natural causes, and had left a huge burden on his only grandson, Seiji. The young man was only sixteen, yet he now had say over over several servants, loyal warriors and many more. And the mysterious man making the strange request was wanting the Sanada family to send one or two of their own to kill young Seiji.

His father, Sanada Shiro, had distrusted the pair when they had walked into their tiny village like home. Shiro and his wife, Rena, had told all four of their children to always trust their instincts, and his instincts told him that the pair walking to his father was that they were evil. But his father admitted them. His young sister ,Himeno, the only remaining girl born into the Sanada's, screamed in pain, and passed out from seeing them. He and his younger brothers knew what that meant. Bad things were going to happen.

And less then an hour later, Shiro, Rena, Himeno, his younger brothers, and the rest of his family. was being held for ransom. If he as the oldest male Sanada, couldn't fufill the cantract by returning without killing Seiji, he would be left an orphan and a only child. When he tried to help his younger brothers, the hooded Badamon had Shakalli strike the young ninja. Shakalli was more than a little furious that he had avoided her sword, but that soon disappeared. He went to dodge her swing, when he saw her draw a short sword, and he couldn't get a way from two strikes at once. The short sword struck his left side, going at least two inches deep.

He went down and was clutching his side as he heard his sister call out to him, but he couldn't hear what she yelled. It seemed as though Badamon had placed a forcefield around everyone, except him. Shakalli bent down, grabbed the young ninja by the throat, and picked him up off the ground. As he tried to kick her to make her drop him, she told him, that he had to do as he was told, or else every week he was gone, four members of his family would be killed. He had stopped struggling and nodded his head that he would do what had been asked of him.

Shakalli had him get his things together and told him, that she would make sure that he knew which of his family members died. Through the wound itself, she would let him know, quiet painfully, that more would die until Seiji was dead.

That had been two weeks ago. And if he was gone two more days, only a few cousins, his younger siblings and his parents would be left. He had to get to Sendai. He prayed that his family could forgive him for what he was about to do. And he wished the tiger, that protected the forest around the home of the Sanada's, would somehow protect his family and help them. It was all he could do.

At the same time, on the same night, in Sendai, young Date Seiji, knew that someone was approaching that was intent on killing him. Or being killed by him. Seiji hoped he was just stressed out. But deep down he knew better. He told those on guard to be extra careful for the next three or four days, especially at night. He was not taking chances. If someone was coming to kill him, he wanted to make sure the invader was caught and punished. And he was worried about his sisters, if some thing happened to him, his sisters would have to choose who was worthy to be the knew head of their family.

The young ninja had arrived at the large city that was Sendai just before dawn. He had to arrive and make an entrance like any normal person, so he choose to wait until it was later in the day to enter the city. As he waited he dismounted and went insearch of clean water. When he found a stream, he filled his water pouches, and then he removed his shirt and checked his wound. He had bathed three days ago, and his wound had been red. Now when he checked it, he could smell something that smelled terrible and he knew it was infected. Even though he was a ninja, he knew little about wounds and infections.

He had only slain his enemies, thinking about that made remember everyone he had killed. He knew as a ninja he has not to be disturbed by worrying about the death he had inflicted. But he couldn't help but think about what he and his family was doing was wrong. And after he had killed a person, he prayed for the person. He had been told doing so meant that a ninja had weakness and therefore could be hesitant to kill. He however had seen his father, grandfather, and a few cousins doing the same thing he did, but chose to keep quiet about it, and to keep doing what he had been doing for his victims. He hoped this time that he would return to see his family. And should he kill Seiji he would pray for him like he always did.

He washed his wound carefully, as it was painful to touch, dressed it, replaced his shirt, and went back to his horse. The horse looked at him and saw that he was holding his side. The horse nudged his shoulder and tried to get his mind off of whatever was on his mind. The ninja knew what the horse was tring to do and looked for some oats to feed the horse. He knew the first place he was going to go was the livery stables. to make sure his horse got the best treatment possible. He feed the horse and waited for the sun to get higher in the sky. He heard a noise and turned to see a bird flying to a low branch. When he turned however, he gasped, and held his side.

He looked down at his side to see it was bleeding, again. And everytime it started to bleed, it hurt at least twice as bad as the time before. At present, it felt like some one was trying to brand him with a white hot poker. Panting, he silently hoped to kill Seiji, before the wound killed him. He didn't want to kill, but he hoped he would be able to fight to the death, that way if he failed in killing Seiji, he would at least be taken out of his misery. If he was caught, he could always kill himself, either way, his family would be safe. His horse winnied, and he suddenly felt like someone was trying to calm him down. He looked the horse straight in the eyes and smiled.

Ever since he was little, he knew he could understand what animals were thinking. Well, he could only sense there emotions, like if they were angry, or scared. He could only understand what the tiger was thinking. When he little, he had wondered into the woods and gotten lost. He heard a noise and turned to see a large white tiger slowly moving towards him. He was scared, and tried to back away. He didn't get very far as he backed into a wide tree. He started shaking his head and tears fell down his face. As the tiger advanced, he closed his eyes, expressing loudly that his life end quickly. He started cring when at tongue licked his face. But then he heard in his mind,

'I will not hurt you young one. You are from the Sanada family, and I made a promise to an ancestor of yours, several years ago, not to hurt your family. Don't cry young one, I have no intention to break my promise, or to eat you. I am the protector of this forest. The animals call me guardian, your family called me friend, but you can call me Byakuen. I promise not hurt you or your family.' the little ninja opened his eyes and saw the tiger staring at him calmly. He lifted his hand slowly to touch the tiger. When he felt the soft fur of the tiger, he heard what sounded like purring coming from the tiger. He was happy and rubbed the tiger's fur. He began to say something, stopped, shook his head, and opened him mouth again,

"Your a tiger. So how is it that I heard you? I'm human, so how come I can understand you?", the tiger looked him in the eyes and then he heard,

'You just heard everything I said? But that is impossible. No one, not even your ancestor could hear me. You, child, are special, and you possess a gift, or a few gifts, that make you very unique. Guard this ability of yours, evil and dangerous people may seek you out. Don't tell any one of what you have talked about. Do you understand?'

"Oh, I see. But what if I need you, or your help? I don't think the others will like me calling a tiger to help me. What then?"

'Try to speak to me without talking, young one.'

'And how do I do that?'

'You just did. Now if you ever need me just consintrate on takling to me without speaking. And I will come to you. All you have to do is call my name. Byakuen'

'Okay. Byakuen. Thank you. My friend' from then on all he had to do was call out to Byakuen, even if it was to visit him.

And now he wished Byakuen could help his family. He sat down causing another pain to shoot through his side. The horse looked at him again, and again he could feel a calming presence, but this time he also felt worry. He rubbed the horses left front leg and told him everything was going to be alright. Or so he hoped. Then he closed his eyes, and tried to take a nap.

Sumimasen. I made my first chapter so long. I was trying to put in the information I needed. Until next time, Animefreak99-06 signing out.