Fuu tip toed through the forest at night with her shoes in her hands. She nervously leaned on a few trees as she got closer and closer to the hot spring. 'I can't believe I'm doing this!' she thought. She could hear Jin and Mugen's voices coming up from the steaming valley below.
She tread quietly down the dirt path, pushing leafy branches aside. She dove behind a tree and leaned her back up against it. Her adrenaline pumped as she closed her eyes and thought back to what set her on this little tryst with the night.
They had been at a restaurant and gotten involved in yet another pointless argument. Mugen shook his chopsticks at her while he said "You probably haven't even see a naked dude! Have you!"
He disgusted her as the food particles sprayed from his mouth, but she couldn't help think he was still sexy. 'This dirty disgusting pig…sexy? Jin is a much better catch—Ah! What am I thinking!' The thought alarmed her, but no more did it alarm her than embarrass her. 'I never have seen a naked man! And I've been traveling with these two bozo's all this time! I would have thought that perhaps maybe, just for a second, they wouldn't have been totally clothed.'
Mugen's comment embarrassed her and angered her. He was right. She hated it when he was right. She looked at Jin who stayed out of the argument and focused on his noodles. "Whatever, dog breath" Fuu had said to him. 'Damn, what a lame come back!' she had thought.
Mugen laughed to himself knowing he had not only won the argument, but that he was right about her, and what type of girl he knew she was.
Her companions didn't have the same habits of hygiene, and when Jin went off to find appropriate water to wash in, Fuu was often left with Mugen. This did not leave her with the freedom to go off and satisfy her curiosity of the male sex. Fuu was at an age where it was perfectly normal to be curious about the opposite sex and curious she was. Hence her barefoot trek through the woods at night, the sounds of her arguing companions the only trail she could follow towards them.
They were both in the hot spring and it provided the perfect opportunity for her to quench her curiosity.
Fuu snapped out of her memories and got back on the trail. The moonlight lit up the mist over the rocky hot spring. She heard them more clearly now. Mugen was saying "Of course she was all over me 'Oh Mugen'" he said in a clearly feminized voice "'I see how big and strong you are and I know only you can help me!'. I told her only if I got what I wanted!"
Fuu figured he was talking about one of the various women who he had met during their journey. Fuu and Jin had recently found him leaning on a tree outside of town with a large bump on his head. The men had spent the night in the red light district and had abandoned her for the pleasures of the flesh.
Jin responded to Mugen's comment with a low key mumble that Fuu couldn't make out from her distance, but that obviously offended Mugen.
Mugen ferociously rebutted "OH WHAT DO YOU KNOW! YOU WERE OFF TRYING TO HAVE FUN ON YER OWN, BUT I DON'T SEE WHAT YOU COULD'VE DONE WITH YOUR BACK OUT."
Fuu was closer and heard Jin slide through the water "My back went out after the exertions of the evenings activities."
She could see them now through the mist hovering above the water. Fuu crouched down behind a large stone along the edge of the pool. Jin was walking out on the opposite end. He stood from the water and sloshed through gracefully to the edge. Fuu watched the water cascade off his shoulders and then down his back. Soon it rolled over his narrow buttocks and back into the water.
Fuu gasped and Momo climbed out of her kimono. The small animal twittered and squeaked. Fuu grabbed the animals face and pushed him with a little force back into her kimono. "Sh! Momo! Quiet!"
Jin tensed, feeling that he was being watched. Mugen noticed his companions shift in mood and said "What?"
Jin turned and looked over his shoulder back in Fuu's direction. She gulped loudly and covered her mouth with her hand afraid she would give her secret position away. She crouched further behind a large fern growing out of the ground. Jin turned the whole of his body towards Fuu's direction.
She saw Jin. She saw everything. Fuu closed her eyes for a few reasons, one of which being embarrassment, and the other fear of being caught peeping on her companions.
Jin narrowed his eyes into the darkness and Fuu opened her eyes. He saw her. She saw him seeing her. Panic welled up inside her and she realized that her pink kimono would not be great camouflage in the forest. Mugen did not see her from his vantage point below, but Jin was higher up on the bank and would be able to see her perfectly well.
Their eye contact continued on for Fuu what seemed like an eternity. 'I've been caught! Oh God, I'll never hear the end of it! What was I thinking!'
Mugen stepped forward through the water and looked up at Jin "What's goin' on?"
Jin looked down at his companion and said "Nothing. It's just an animal." He then turned and picked up his clothing.
Mugen shrugged and decided it was time to get out of the water. By the time Mugen made it to the waters edge Fuu was long gone.
Running back up the hill she could see their camp, and that the camp fire had gone out. She slid to a stop and frantically looked for the flint to reignite it. "If the fire is out Momo, it will give Mugen reason to ask questions!" She found the flint and was about to strike it when she froze.
"Momo?" she asked her fury friend who peeped his squeaking head out of her collar "You don't think Jin will say anything, do you?"
Momo let out a long questioning meep.
"Oh…no time for that!" She sparked the flint and restarted the fire. 'Everything is different now! Everything will change!' Once she had done that she sat back and tried to catch her breath and compose herself before their return.
She went over the image of Jin's nude body in her mind. 'I wonder if they all look like that' she thought. 'Mugen's body type is different, maybe his—I have got to stop these thoughts! Things won't go back to the way they were if I keep up thoughts like that!'
A few minutes later she could hear the men returning to camp. 'They're men! No longer just Mugen and Jin!' she thought noticing a change in herself. 'How will they treat me now and ooooh, what does Jin think of me now!'
She heard Mugen saying "You're such a fuckin' pussy, four eyes."
Jin did not retort, he only glowered at Mugen.
As the two men came in and sat down at the fire Mugen pointed at Jin with his thumb and said "Four eyes here was all scared over an animal in the bushes. He said it didn't get close enough for him to see it, but you shoulda seen him. He froze like we were being watched by total killers or something."
Jin busied himself with attaching a fish to a stake to cook in the fire. He did not look at Fuu.
Fuu then wondered if it was true. 'Could Jin even see me? He wasn't wearing his glasses. I must have gotten off scot free!' With this thought she felt free and happy to continue on as if she hadn't seen anything. 'It's still my little secret! It's not like Momo can say anything!' With relief flushing her veins she said "Oh shut up and eat, Mugen"
Jin watched Fuu munch on her fish and kept his thoughts to himself. Jin did not tell his companions why he wore the glasses. One thing for sure, it wasn't his vision. He could see everything perfectly.