Title

Bloody Roar II: Attack of the Innocent

By Andy (Morphfan1@aol.com)

Snap! went the large branch; as the young assassin stepped foreword he realized that the sounds of his movements had caused a ruckus in the tranquil canopy above. Many tiny birds came flying out of the large pine tree that stood overhead.

Had they heard me? Wondered the dark haired boy.

As he looked up, he noticed that his targets had not sensed his presence; they continued their activities. He approached his victims cautiously; his narrowed light brown eyes tracked the movements of the two figures. As he stayed concealed from their sight, the black-haired boy crouched behind a large bush. He analyzed his victims, noting their every move. The young girl that he was observing seemed to have a low sense of balance because she kept falling over, and the tall man she was sparing with seemed to be unfamiliar with his legs, almost always using his arms. The assassin also noticed that they were using the martial art style of Kenpo.

I am ready, thought the assassin. As he was preparing to strike, he started thinking to himself, Why am I doing this?

While he was pondering this, he felt a sharp pain in the back of his head; then he realized he was doing this for the great master Busuzima. He remembered now that he had been given orders to assassinate the two zoanthropes. The black-haired boy remembered his assignment to kill the girl named Uriko Nonomura and the man known as Long Shin.

The two were both zoanthropes. Zoanthropes were people that had the ability to transform into half-human, half-animals; this transformation would raise their fighting abilities, giving them better speed, strength, endurance, agility, and also heighten their senses. The assassin remembered what a zoanthrope was because he was one too.

He jumped quickly out from the bush, high into the air, and landing right behind the girl. Uriko did not notice the loud plop behind but sparing partner did.

"Watch out!" Cried her master, Long. The young girl spun around looking at the black-haired boy; she noticed that his eyes were following her every move.

"Who are you?" asked Uriko cautiously.

"Get away from him," barked Long, as he made his hands into fists.

"Why, who is he?" his young disciple questioned.

"He is an assassin sent by Busuzima," replied her instructor.

"It is true. I have been sent here to kill the two of you." Stated the boy evilly.

"I will take care of you," growled Long. "Uriko, you get out of here!"

"At least tell me your name…?" she inquired.

"Call me Bakuryu," responded the ninja.

Almost instantly, Bakuryu flung his foot, just barely missing Uriko's face. As a response, Uriko's master swung his fist towards the evil assassin's face, but the blow was easily dodged. Bakuryu quickly countered with a punch of his own, directly into Long's ribs.

"Not bad for an old guy." Bakuryu smirked arrogantly.

"Not bad for a little brat," growled Long, parrying the blow. Long gave a heavy punch to the side of Bakuryu's head, knocking him to the ground.

"You're going to pay for that," hissed his opponent angrily. The brown-eyed boy jumped high into the air and kicked his opponent, sending Long straight into a pile of rocks. Struggling to pull himself up and out of the boulders that covered him, Long was finally able to stand up.

"How could you still be able to stand?" asked Bakuryu curiously.

"I am stronger then you think," answered Long.

Bakuryu charged straight at his opponent, leg out-stretched, ready to kick Long. Quickly, his opponent grabbed Bakuryu's leg and slammed him into the ground. The young boy had been hit pretty badly; blood was spewing from his lip and he was sure that one of his ribs was broken. After he was standing erect again and he could see clearly, he saw Long standing right in front of him. His fists seemed to be glowing with a faint yellow color.

Long punched Bakuryu three times in the stomach, then he yelled something that sounded like, "Watch out,"

As soon as these words were spoken, the assassin was punched repeatedly in the stomach. Bakuryu could take it no longer; he reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a small gray sphere. Murmuring the words, "Smoke bomb," he threw the sphere on the ground. The ball connected with the ground, and smoke filled the arena.

"He d-d disappeared!" muttered Uriko shakily.

"Keep your eyes open," Long ordered. "He could be anywhere."

"Do you think you should transform?" asked Uriko.

"I don't really want to, and I'm kinda weak from those rocks falling on me…but I will give it a try."

Long closed his eyes and concentrated on him and the tiger becoming one; orange fur instantly started to sprout from every part of his body, covering his face and hands. His feet enlarged until they burst out of his shoes, as his face grew longer and stretched into the face of a cat. His eyes went from dark brown to yellow; his canine teeth grew until they were large fangs.

The sleeveless white shirt that he had been wearing ripped from the increase in muscle mass. A long thin tail sprouted from his rear and his knees inverted, allowing him to stand upright. His ears elongated into the powerful ears of a cat, and razor sharp claws grew from his fingertips and toes; he grew taller until he reached a height of six feet. The final touches of his transformation were the many dark black stripes that covered parts of his orange fur. Finally, he had completed his transformation; Long was a combination of tiger and man comprised into one.

With his back turned, Bakuryu leaped from the tree he'd been hiding in and kicked Long in his back. With a loud roar, the enraged tiger came crashing to the ground.

"Are you okay?" shouted Uriko, keeping her distance.

Long could not answer because he no longer had a human tongue or vocal cords.

The Asian man stood up, but before he could move, Bakuryu grabbed his hands and slid in between his legs. The young assassin swung up from behind his opponent and kicked the tiger in the back. The tall feline swung around and connected his mighty fist in the chest of the black-haired boy.

Bakuryu fell back, but quickly recovered from the blow; as fast as lightning, he grabbed Long under his armpits and jumped high into the air. He then turned Long upside down. With his head towards the sky and Long's head pointing towards the ground, and his feet entrapping his helpless victim's legs, he plummeted down to the earth where Long's head hit the ground and twisted his neck.

Howling in pain, the tiger started to turn back into his human body; the shaggy fur turned back into skin, his teeth shrunk and his eyes changed from yellow to dark brown. His muscles shrank and his body changed until he was back to normal.

"W-W-What did you do to him?!" screamed Uriko, her hands gripped into fists.

"Uriko, come here," begged Long.

"Yes, what is it master?" The girl inquired, darting past Bakuryu, towards her fighting instructor.

"You must beat the assassin," whispered Long.

"But how…? He defeated you when you transformed, and he didn't even have to change…"

"Just try, and remember the training I taught you." replied Long.

"I'll do it," said Uriko. The young girl stood up and raised her arms, ready to begin fighting.

"You're no match for me." Bakuryu remarked arrogantly. "Resistance is futile…"

"I can do it," his opponent replied confidently.

The brown-haired girl ran straight at Bakuryu, slid on the ground and struck her attacker in the knee. He tried to kick her, but she easily dodged his blow, because she was much faster than he was. She jumped off the ground and kicked him into a nearby tree.

Uriko stumbled back as if she were about to fall over, and taking advantage of this, the evil assassin bounced of the trees like a bullet and headed straight at her. As he was about to hit the unbalanced teenager, he noticed her smile, and then realized that she was only pretending to fall over. Uriko jumped over Bakuryu's head, then used her hind legs to strike him face first into ground.

"Not bad, little girl," laughed the young ninja, maintaining his cool posture.

Hey, I bet he's not that much older than I am! His opponent thought irritably. "You know, you would look a lot cuter, save for the bleeding," Uriko smirked her reply.

Bakuryu's fingers grazed the area by his mouth; he then looked at his fingers and noticed the thick red liquid dripping from them.

"You really think I'm cute…?" asked Bakuryu, with a dumbfounded expression on his face.

"Well, I said you would be if you weren't bleeding," said Uriko with a teasing smile.

"Grrr…that's besides the point!" Her opponent barked angrily.

He quickly threw another smoke bomb on the ground; after the smoke cleared, he had vanished.

I'm not going to make the same mistake… thought Uriko.

The young girl concentrated on her transformation; she could felt the changes beginning to happen. Brown and black fur spread all over her body and her teeth enlarged into sharp fangs. Her nose turned into a pink button as a tail burst out of her rear and long claws grew from her hands and feet. Her eyes went from brown to red, and finally her large, sensitive catlike ears grew from the side of her head. From her old human figure emerged a half-human, half-cat beast form.

Fool, thought Bakuryu, sneering quietly. Making the same mistake as her friend did…

He jumped down from the tree with his leg outstretched, smoke encircling his upper thigh, trying to knock Uriko. Almost as if she were psychic, his opponent turned her head, and ducked just as he was about to kick her. His foot landed deep into the ground.

That would have hurt… thought Uriko.

"But h-how did you know that I was coming?" asked the astonished assassin. Since she couldn't respond, Uriko just pointed to her cat ears.

Of course, she can hear me better with those stupid cat ears. "Very smart of you," Bakuryu complimented with humility. "But it'll make no difference; I will still beat you."

Don't be so sure about yourself… the brown-furred cat thought, glaring at him with her wide red eyes.

Uriko started slashing wildly at her enemy but he kept dodging her, until finally, he got slashed right in the side of his face. Bakuryu started spinning quicker and quicker, there was a big flash of light and suddenly, there he was again, but he had changed. He had no shirt but very large muscles; his skin was brown and he had an elongated face with a tiny black nose and whiskers. But the most intimidating thing about him was his very large, sharp claws, the deadly objects sticking out from his "fingers". Bakuryu was now in his own beast form of a mole.

He and Uriko started going into a ferocious slashing contest that lasted for at least ten minutes, both tired bleeding pretty horribly, and felt as if they were about to fall over.

Uriko was very tired and could no longer stand the fighting; she wanted to end it quickly. The agile cat quickly jumped on top of Bakuryu and rolled the two of them into a big blue ball of energy. They bounced up and down several times like a ping-pong ball; finally, Uriko threw Bakuryu to the ground.

Both were exhausted and beat up at the same time they fell to the floor. The male teenager was the first to stand up again; he limped over to Uriko, who was unconscious and lying on the floor. As he was bending down to finish his job, her eyelids fluttered partially open and she looked at him with her compassionate light brown eyes, unafraid of what she knew was going to happen.

Bakuryu slowly withdrew his hands and stood up; feeling a strange sensation for her in his heart like none he had ever felt before. Although he wasn't sure what the feeling was…he knew that he liked it.

"Who are you…?" whispered Uriko hoarsely, wondering why he was hesitating.

"I told you, I am Bakuryu," responded the failed ninja.

She managed to weakly shake her head. "No…who are you really?"

As a small flash of pain hit him, the former assassin suddenly remembered: "Call me Kenji."

As he was wandering back into the forest, Kenji felt like his head was clear for the first time ever. He was no longer under the control of his ex-master, Busuzima. Now, he was free. Disappearing into the sunset, Uriko wondered if she would ever see the young boy ever again… The brown-eyed girl carefully picked up her master and took him to the hospital; the doctor told Uriko that Long had a couple of broken ribs and a few other minor injuries, but he would be fine in a couple of months.

One thing was sure: Uriko knew that she had only herself to depend on, now that her Kenpo instructor was temporarily out of commission. She'd used up too much time training; the young girl was ready to go out and rescue her mother from the ZLF.

The End

Special thanks: Tiger5913 for editing and knocking some sense into me.

(Note from Tiger5913: I didn't really do that! J)