Black Luck

Kayami's head hurt. A lot. Why did it hurt? An experimental motion of her arm revealed ropes tight on her wrists. Her mouth was dry and her tongue swollen. Opening her eyes, she saw the room swim before her. She moaned softly and dropped her head again. Thoughts, floating through her mind, could find no hold. A deceptive face. Fire. Screams. Nothingness.

"Don't try anything," an unfamiliar voice said above her. Kayami had no strength even to answer. Visions of flames from her dreams still danced before her eyes. She had felt this helpless only once before. Her head hung, face pale, breathing shallowly. A hand came under her chin and lifted her face, leaving the world spinning. She desperately held her eyes shut before she became sick.

"Nara Kayami."

Kayami nodded weakly. Why hide the truth? They already knew.

"Daughter of the Kazekage's sister."

She nodded again, and the hand let go of her.

"Good." Footsteps receded into the distance, echoing in her head along with the pounding of her blood. She didn't know what to think; her mind was hazy and muddled, perhaps the effect of the drug they had given her to take her chakra. Or maybe the drug was mind because they effected her with a hazy muddle?

Kayami moaned and fell asleep.

--

Someone prodded her. "Up."

With a jolt, Kayami sprang from the mat-- or at least she meant to. Her hands and feet were still bound. Sunlight came low through a half-shuttered window, only dimly illuminating the room. She ached horribly.

"Ryo said to let you know what we're doing. He gave us orders to bring you to him." Hands grabbed her, pulling her to her feet, then releasing the bonds around her ankles. Masked faces filled her vision. Evidently, Ryo had ordered everyone to take extra precautions. "Move. If you try anything, you'll regret it."

Dazedly, Kayami walked through dimly lit hallways and down twisting corridors, her feet constantly stumbling. Her throat was parched; she couldn't make a sound even if she wanted to. The group of people escorting her all had grim eyes above dark grey and black masks, the colors of Ryo's Wolves. Kayami stared bleakly ahead at the long, blank floors, reflecting upon her doom. It made sense that the rebels would capture her. Being the weaker of the two closest relations of the Kazekage, the foremost ruling power in the Hidden Village of Sunagakure, she could be extremely valuable. The rebels would most likely try to beat information out of her, or they might ask for a ransom. Kayami made a valiant effort not to be sick.

She stumbled on, thoughts still buzzing through her head. The Wolves, or simply the rebels in some conversations, had first appeared a year before her birth. Then it had been headed by a ruthless man who had no luck whatsoever when trying to recruit new members. He had been killed in a dark alley some time after Kayami's first birthday. In recent years, however, a man calling himself Ryo had begun gathering people about him, protesting against the way the city was ruled. And the people he gathered were mostly children, no less. The image he created of himself was both repulsive and strangely drawing. It was rumored that he trained the children to become powerful ninjas, raising an army that he would use to wipe out the Kazekage and his advisors.

Then a girl had been beaten by a masked gang calling themselves Wolves, shouting Ryo's name as they attacked. A wave of terror had swept through the city, as mothers huddled closer to their sons and daughters, and fathers stood grimly at the door night after night. Soon, the darkness had passed, and once again the number of Wolves was growing.

At last they entered a room, and Kayami sank gratefully into a chair, breath ragged. She still had little of her strength back. Her senses were so worn that she barely noticed the room's other occupant before he spoke.

"Nara Kayami, is it? Of Nara Shikamaru."

Kayami snapped her head up to look at the speaker. There was no energy left in her to glare, but she had the strength to scrutinize him. Strangely, he didn't look at all like the man she had pictured, so powerful and charismatic from what she had heard. This man, barely out of his boyhood, seemed weary, exhausted to the point of collapse. Already there were lines on his face that told of more age than could be possible. Kayami blinked. Was this the rebel leader who had led the protest a year ago that turned to chaos? The walls of the city still bore marks of the fire that had raged through it, accidentally unleashed by a group of untrained ninja. This man before Kayami was barely passable as a young teacher in the ninja academy, and yet his name was like a spark to dry tinder among the wild youths of Sunagakure.

Ryo watched her keenly when she made no response, keeping his face a careful blank. "The students supposedly within my responsibility acted on their own. They brought you here--" he did not mention where "here" was, "--and informed me of your capture."

Kayami simply stared at him. Not that she could speak if she wanted to, but she practically radiated skepticism.

"I know you don't believe me or my sincerity," Ryo said coldly. "You're going to have to stay until we can be sure that you won't spill anything to the Kage. You've seen some faces. I don't want to see any bloodshed, even if you disagree." He stopped abruptly and returned the same curious, searching look she had given him. Kayami wondered dismally exactly how long her stay would be.

"Ryuu!" Ryo called. Another nin appeared beside him, a few strands of chestnut hair carelessly hanging over his chocolate-brown eyes. He smiled at Ryo, who gave him a look of long-suffering patience. "Ryuu, tell Tsubaki that he's coming here. Now."

Ryuu rolled his eyes, but he wasn't about to push his luck. Kayami watched him leave warily. If that Ryuu was the one who had killed five jounin single-handedly, she was in the lion's den now. Or, she thought wryly, the Wolves' den.

Soon, Tsubaki walked into the room, looking guilty and frightened but managing to hold himself upright. He was the one that Kayami had seen first, and-- supposedly-- the one who had led several others to capture Kayami. The boy looked about fifteen. If he had really done what Ryo said he had, Kayami admired his ability.

"Look at me!" Ryo barked. Tsubaki sprang to attention, a drop of sweat rolling slowly down his cheek below the red scarf that was tied to his forehead. Kayami noted that he didn't brush it away. Evidently he had been disciplined.

"Explain her, please," Ryo said in a tight voice, indicating Kayami. Tsubaki flinched as if struck.

"I gathered a team and abducted her, sir."

"Who was in the team?"

The boy reluctantly gave a list of names that Kayami didn't recognize. Ryo listened, stony-faced. When Tsubaki finished, Ryo stood from his chair and gave the boy a look. In the instant when their eyes connected, Kayami almost saw a spark of chakra leap from Ryo's hands.

Immediately Tsubaki cried out in pain and crumpled to the floor, holding his side as if stabbed by an unseen sword. He didn't whimper when Ryo hauled him upright, but his fearful eyes betrayed his emotion. Kayami watched in fascination as Ryo spoke.

"That," he said in a fierce whisper, "is what this feels like to me." Tsubaki nodded furiously, his eyes still bright with tears. He all but ran out the door, still holding his side, when Ryo released him.

"Ryuu."

The brown-haired ninja cocked his head. "Yes?"

"Take her back to her room."

"Yes."

--

When she awoke again, Kayami was in the same room that she had been in before. In the corner, a girl sat with her knees tucked into her chest and her head laid on her knees. She tensed when she saw Kayami rise: the tension of a predator before the strike.

"Akemi," the girl said, standing and walking over. Kayami realized with surprise that she was not tied up. She met Akemi's gaze squarely without moving. "Ryo told me to watch you." Akemi tossed her mouse-brown hair over one shoulder and went to a table that Kayami hadn't noticed before. "Food, if you want to eat."

A bowl of food sat on the table, and Kayami realized how little she had eaten since she had been brought to the... what? Hideout? Looking around her, she realized how far the word was from the truth. The whitewashed walls and wooden floors had a well-cared-for look, unlike her own impression of the Wolves' organization, and everything seemed to be in good condition and fairly new.

Akemi watched her keenly as she sat before the table, eyeing the food suspiciously. Was it poisoned? Drugged? Ryo had not given orders for Kayami to be bound, so he must have been confident. The girl didn't look like much, but who knew? Ryo was almost legendary among the people of the Hidden Village in the Sand. Even the ninja in other Hidden Villages had heard of him as a distant threat at their borders. What kind of ninja did he train these outcasts to become?

The disturbing image of him didn't match up with what Kayami had seen. Most likely, he had people spread rumors about him to guard against challengers. Perhaps his power was all feigned, and his skill as a ninja was really a sham. That Tsubaki boy could have been acting. What a relief it would be for the Kage, if Kayami reported this to be true!

Half-smiling, she bit into her food.

--

Ryo growled as he glared at his desk, a simple mockery of the Kazekage's heavily embellished mahogany nightmare. In frustration he banged a fist on the smooth wood, which emitted an ominous creak. "Damn that Tsubaki!" Ryo snarled. "I want to convince the Kage that we're trying to protest peacefully, while helping to hone these kids' defensive skills. All of these street rats and urchins were thrown away like trash. I was one of them; you were one of them. Gods, I hate those advising Council bastards. 'This is best for the village. Right now we need more defense.' They've outlawed organizations that help kids. If they set up a public academy, Sunagakure's forces would be doubled. Almost all of those old geezers've been allying with the other nations to overcome the Sand for years."

Ryuu laughed at his friend's outburst. "You'd need to make that girl, Kayami-or-something, look at everything three times before she believes you. They're all ignorant Dogs, for the gods' sakes. It'll take a long time to convince them; they follow that Council as if they were on a leash." Ryuu laughed at his pun. Ryo's Wolves had a deep-running contempt for "Dogs", supporters of the Kazekage, and vice versa. Certain acts of unspeakable degree had been done in Ryo's name, and the Wolves had developed a way of looking down on anyone who believed that the acts had been performed by true Wolves, while Prey had learned to hate Wolves for what they had not done.

Recalling all this, Ryo shook his head. "You'll see. She'll try to assassinate me, even though the Council's made orders for me to be captured alive. Some of the Dogs are half-wild."

A knock sounded at the door, and Akemi swiftly pushed it aside, towing behind her a blindfolded Kayami. The sand-haired girl had changed into one of Akemi's loose-fitting clothes, wide-sleeved and made of a rare, thin material that Ryo had never dared to ask about. Ryuu stared at Akemi shamelessly.

Ryo looked through the girl. "Nara. We have sent a message to the Kazekage regarding your capture."

Kayami spoke bitingly, voice hoarse but determined. "Very trusting of you, to send a message expecting the messenger back. Do you trust me without a blindfold?"

"We won't expect the messenger back until we've sent you to your uncle. He's holding the boy as collateral." Ryo gave Akemi a nod and purposely took his eyes off of Kayami. "Take her back."

All of a sudden, Kayami ripped the blindfold from her eyes, slid a knife from its sheath along Akemi's leg, and leapt the desk. Ryo watched her calculated movements in admiration. There had to be something said for her high breeding and close relation to the Kage. His gaze rose from her hand to her eyes, and in that moment, their eyes locked. A quick flash of chakra and Kayami was rendered helpless.

Kayami held the knife to her own throat, caught in Ryo's illusion jutsu. He panted shallowly. The girl was fast. That attack had been too close for comfort. Slowly, still not breaking his mental hold on her, he took the knife from her hands and held it at her throat himself while pinning her arms to the wall. In her mind, she was doing all of this to him, only--

Kayami gasped as he released her from the genjutsu. Her eyes were wide, the mind behind them wondering how he had turned the tables so quickly, seemingly instantaneously. Ryo slid the knife in a gentle caress across her skin, leaving a thin red line. Never taking his eyes from Kayami's, he tossed the weapon to Akemi.

"My power isn't all feigned," he whispered dryly in her ear. "Be careful, little girl. Don't play with knives, or you'll get hurt." A satisfied smile spread slowly on his face as he handed her to her guard. Kayami was trembling when she left the room.

It's kind of messy for the moment, but I guess it's not too bad. I still really need to edit some more, though. Maybe a lot more.

Review, please.