The petals of the cherry blossoms flew freely in the gusts of the dancing wind. One of the many petals landed on the soft shoulder of the young, beautiful girl that stood there. That girl had black hair that was silky, soft and smooth. Her dark, innocent eyes matched her fluttering lashes that made her much more cute than she was. Her pink kimono complimented her very well. She was also an apprentice geisha (Maiko), and a practitioner of the fighting style: Ba ji quan (Hakkyoku-ken). She was known as Kokoro.

"...I'm never tired of seeing this scenery. I'm really proud to call this place home." She sighed.

Kokoro smiled as she stared off into the setting sun. At this time of year, the village was much more beautiful than it is. It was known to be 'Mankai no Kyōto' or Kyoto in bloom.

She resumed her pace of walking and was heading to the cherry blossom garden in which someone was waiting for her. She was promised extra training on improving her martial arts and what better time than before the fifth dead or alive tournament?

As she was on her way to the garden, a huge cloud of smoke covered the area concealing what appeared in it. Kokoro didn't know what to expect, her eyes were closed from the dust flying all over the place. However, she was ready to get rid of the problem. The dust died down, kokoro opened her eyes, she fanned her hands to blow the dust away more. The person who had appeared before her was the super ninja himself: Ryu Hayabusa.

She gasped as he kneeled there, injured with bruises and cuts.

"H-Hayabusa-San!" Kokoro ran to Ryu with open arms ready to assist him. "Hayabusa-San, are you alright?!"

The green-eyed ninja groaned from the sharp pain that he felt all over his body. He yelped as Kokoro accidentally touched one of his wounds.

"I'm fine, really..." Ryu tried his hardest to stay conscious.

"Liar, I could tell that you weren't fine from a mile away. What happened, did you take on another brutal mission?" Kokoro asked with concern in her voice.

"I'll be alright, these... l-little cuts are nothing. they'll heal in...no...time..." Kokoro was wide-eyed from seeing those huge cuts Ryu considered to be little. "If those cuts are little I'd hate to see you with big ones." Ryu smirked, but didn't have the strength to let out a chuckle. He collapsed to the ground and began to lose a lot of blood.

"Oh no! Hayabusa-San! Stay there, I'm gonna go get help!" Kokoro ran to the village in search for the closest medical clinic. She found one, and raced back to Ryu with medical attention.

Moments later...(just out of curiosity, does anyone pair Kokoro and Ryu? ;)

"Thank you very much. I don't know what would've happened if you didn't come to us. We appreciate your concern for your... boyfriend?" One of the doctors said as the others brought Ryu into the clinic.

"We're not together..." Kokoro blushed from the thought of the doctor, thinking that they were a couple.

"Uh... it's no problem at all. Anything for a friend, besides I haven't been training for no reason. I wanna make sure to see Hayabusa-San at the fifth dead or alive tournament." She smiled at the doctor as his eyes filled with light.

"Oh! So you're going to enter the world-wide championship fighting tournament?!"

Kokoro nodded, enthusiasm filled the doctor's head. "Well I'm definitely gonna vote for you on winning the title of world's greatest martial artist. Be sure to bring back that honor Kokoro."

She laughed at the response, seeing she had at least one person that'll cheer her on. "Thanks, I really appreciate your kindness!"

At that very moment she realized she forgot to meet someone at the cherry blossom garden. She gave out a huge, horrified gasp and asked the doctor.

"Excuse me but, what time is it?!"

"Um...I'm not sure myself, are you supposed to be somewhere?" Replied the doctor.

She didn't have time to ask questions. She wasted too much time. Kokoro sprinted out the sliding door and ran straight to Sakura garden. She was late, she can tell she was going to be. As she ran, not stopping for air nor breaking a single sweat, she completely forgot to say goodbye to Ryu. She can't turn back now or she'll be even more late than she already was.

(I feel like this is a bad introduction. I'll just continue for all of you still wanting to read more, and thank you for reading this)

As she ran up the steps to enter the giant garden, there he was waiting for her. The person she came for all this way. He was also another martial artist of the fighting style Ba ji quan (Hakkyoku-ken). He was taught his own unique style of Ba ji quan from his father. The person that Kokoro was promised to help her train was the broad master of the fighting style they both possess: Akira Yuki. He stood there with an impatient expression on his face. Kokoro walked closer to him, looking down the entire time and bowed with respect.

"My apologies, Akira-San. I'll go change into my sparring clothes now..."

She tried to walk around Akira, but then he suddenly blocked her path by stepping in front of her.

"A-Akira-San, I've already apologized. I'm going to go change into more comfortable training clothes." She attempted to walk around Akira again. Every time she did he kept moving in front of the way, not letting her pass him.

Kokoro was getting irritated by it. It went on for minutes, and she notices a weak grin on his face. She could tell he was doing this on purpose to mess with her. The frustration was building up inside her, getting stronger by the second.

"Akira-San, please...MOVE OUT OF THE WAY." Kokoro was starting to lose her temper. Akira continued to refuse, not moving a single inch.

She snapped. Clenching her fists, Kokoro couldn't hold in her anger anymore. "That does it! You asked for it!" She swiftly went into her fighting stance and executed 'ryogi-chu'. As expected of Akira, he blocked the elbow attack like it was nothing.

(If you know where I'm getting at on this reference of Akira in dead or alive 5, to put it short he blocks way too much and it gets really annoying. does anyone else get annoyed when he does that? Hmm?)

She knew Akira would block her attacks with ease, and so she saw that he was open for a throw. She grabbed him and commenced to perform 'Shinso kaimon'. She knew Akira's always vulnerable when it comes to throws.

As she pushed away Akira from the final blow of her throw, Akira tripped on his feet falling to the ground.

He quickly got back up, a fire ignited in his eyes. Kokoro already had the flame in her, burning from Akira's annoying and stubborn jokes. She wasn't playing around anymore, nor was Akira.

"Prepare yourself, we fight!" Yelled Akira.

Exhaling and motioning to a more firm stance, she was ready to face him.

"Let us begin!"

The pink petals flew pass their vision of each other as they were dancing in the wind once more. The setting sun only made the scene that more suspenseful. The gale breezes whispered in both their ears, they can hear a faint voice...saying something.

"Get ready...fight..." As soon as they heard the signal of beginning, they ran to each other both fighters armed with an arsenal of moves.

Akira quickly comes up to Kokoro with a 'tetsu-zanko', breaking her guard. She quickly recovers and attacked with the same move she used before. She stunned Akira and continued to keep him stunned. When she was at his peak, she gave her final blow and landed a critical burst on him. She saw the opportunity to finish it with a power blow.

Concentrating on her most powerful attack, the wind swirled around her, the atmosphere surrounding her giving her more power. She went all out on Akira, starting with her palm thrust. Quickly following after that, she transitioned it to 'geimon-sanfuko', then 'jiro-tanzan'. As Akira was put into a sit down stun, Kokoro finished it with 'heisui-ko', pushing him over ten meters away from her.

She was victorious, and she smiled seeing she defeated Akira so easily. That smile faded when she saw Akira stand back up, minor limping and still being able to move without feeling too much pain.

"Not bad...but stop with the warm ups." Akira exclaimed to Kokoro, watching her grow red from his intimate taunt to her. She was furious and ran to him.

"AKIRA!" She yelled as she was too blind to see she fell into Akira's ruse. He stood there smirking, waiting for her to reach the perfect distance for his long range attack.

This battle between the two experts of hakkyoku-ken has only begun...