Under the Watchful Eye of War

By LastCetra

Chapter 1: A Ninja's Thoughts and the Turk's Return

Hidden away on a very excluded point on the Wutai continent stood a young woman. Even from a distance, you could tell that she was powerful, despite her deceptive slight frame and uncommon beauty. In fact, the air around her shimmered with the power she exuded. But that was to be expected. She was by far the best ninja in Wutai, highly trained in hand to hand combat by the age of eight, trained in every weapon by the age of twelve and had an armlet glittering with some of the strongest materia the plant had ever seen. Also it must be mentioned that she was one of eight people who saved the world just four years beforehand. She was sixteen at the time.

These things however were the last things Yuffie Kisaragi was thinking about while she went through her daily training ritual. What took up Yuffie's present thinking time were very serious matters, and not past glories. What Yuffie was concentrating on was one heck of a beast in front of her, not unlike the green dragons they'd encountered in Nibelhiem. In the past year foreign animals were popping up all over the continent, which was alright for Yuffie but becoming a worry for the townspeople in Wutai.

Well, she supposed, this one wasn't going to worry them at all. Stooping low she let her shuiriken fly into the beast's abdomen. It let out a shriek of rage at the wound, which she realised as she caught the weapon on the rebound was shallow because of it's hard scales. The dragon lashed out wildly with his claws aiming for Yuffie's general direction. Seeing the attack a mile away she rolled easily to the side. The dragon's claws scraped along the ground leaving a trail of toxins.

"Just great," she muttered. "It's poisonous."

Heaving a sigh she did a flip backwards, springing off the palms of her hands. After getting a moderate distance between them she concentrated on the materia on her armlet. A bolt of electricity came crashing down the dragon, but rather than having the destructive effect that she had hoped for, the shallow wound healed itself up. Groaning, she wished she'd brought her Sense materia with her. A change of plans was in order.

"Okay you son of a bitch," she said. "No more playing around. This means war." She realised what she had said as soon as the words were out. She covered her mouth subconsciously, immediately regretting it. The dragon saw her moments hesitation as an opportunity to attack and took off, closing the distance between them in seconds. He threw back his arm and slashed Yuffie with his claws. Yuffie saw the attack at the last second and threw herself back. His last attack was virtually blind, a counter for the pain he was in but this one was much better; aim, balance and control were perfect. Had it not been for Yuffie's quick reflexes she would have been ripped in two. It did however, rip her tee-shirt, turning it into more of a belly top. This really didn't worry her too much at the moment. Her pressing concern now was the raging beast just over her.

"Come on Yuffie," she admonished herself. "You took on Sephiroth better than this." She reached down and grabbed a knife from her boot, pulling it out quickly and plunged it into the soft centre of the dragon's underbelly. She then dragged it down tearing it's stomach in two with it's movement. She'd learned that one from Cloud's climhazzard attack. It let out a roar and fell awkwardly on it's side, Yuffie making sure she got out of the way as it fell. She'd learned what it was like to get dragon slime on her clothes.

Well, she thought. There were advantages to being in that kind of situation. Reaching over carefully she extracted the knife from the dragon's stomach, which made it cry out again in pain. Taking pity at it's helplessness, she stabbed it in the head, where it slipped into eternal slumber.

Giving her body a shake and wiping the perspiration from her brow, Yuffie decided to think about different things. Meditation was one of Yuffie's favourite parts of training. She began the technique when she was fourteen, without any of her trainers knowing. She had been caught by Gorky eventually, and rather than give out to her about starting things without his consent, he showed her how to do it properly. She had continued doing it till this day. What she hated about meditating though, was the stereotypical image most people had of it; cross legged in such a fashion that you almost broke your ankles, putting your hands in an ok symbol on your knees and going "umm." Yuck. What she did was a lot more normal. She just sat down and put her hands on her lap. Which was what she did now. She slowly inhaled and exhaled until she felt the world around her disappear.

Her mother had always told her that the biggest battle was in her mind. That was what she did every day. Her meditation was to fight away her fears, doubts, anything that could possibly make her a weaker fighter. She let her thoughts swirl around in her head, sorting her dreams, her memories and her goals into separate little folders in her brain. She flicked though them, and picked out a few she hadn't thought of in a while. She remembered meditating like this once when they had made camp in the Rocket Town Area. It had been a long meditation, over two hours. When she'd finished she looked behind her to see the whole of AVALANCHE staring at her.

"She awakes!" Cloud and Barret had cried in unison, giving each other a high-five and laughing their heads off. Cait Sith and Red XIII were sniggering at their comment. Tifa was holding back a smile and Vincent was as impassive as usual. They hadn't met Cid at that point in their journey and she could only be thankful that he wasn't there, otherwise she would have never heard the end of it. Aeris had given her a sympathetic smile. She was the only one that seemed to understand…

Her thoughts were leading towards Aeris' untimely death but she decided to skip that memory; she already visited that one more times than she wanted to, and it only led on to more painful memories. Instead she thought of her hometown. Since the Midgar-Wutai war everything had gone downhill. She had been far too young to participate in it as her mother had just given birth to her about a year beforehand. It was all over by the time she was three. Afterwards, Wutai had turned into a tourist trap, even more so in the past few years. The people visiting this place was phenomenal, and she hated it. Everyone in Wutai were taking advantage of this boom in economy and were setting up tourist stalls with cheap souvenirs, along with hotels and restaurants. She had to live with it before; the regulations Wutai were given for their freedom after the war was to open the town up to tourists and to decrease their army. But Midgar was gone, Sephiroth, their main soldier, was dead. But still nothing was being done. And Godo wasn't doing anything about it either. He welcomed the changes in Wutai. This was not what her mother would have wanted…

Taking a deep breath, Yuffie slowly opened her eyes. Looking at the sun, she realised she must have been out of it for almost an hour. Blinking her thoughts away for now, she gathered her things and hurried back to Wutai. She had had enough of training for one day.

Two men walked into Wutai town. Both were wearing a smart blue suit but besides that they were completely different. One had fiery red hair, aquamarine eyes and had two thin scars running down his cheeks. He held a nightstick loosely at his side, which was tied to a strap on his arm. The other was bald, had a stocky build and was darker skinned. He wore sunglasses whatever the weather. The man's arsenal of weaponry was something to be reckoned with however; there were three guns of different sizes in different pockets, he had a knife strapped to his leg and if all those failed he had some brass knuckles to fall back on. He always thought there was no harm in being prepared.

The red-head grinned and stretched, reaching high into the air. The movement made him expose his thin muscular body.

"Man it's been a while. I guess the last time we were here was when we were on vacation, huh?"

No response. He turned to his silent comrade.

"Damn, Rude, the least I could get is a 'yes Reno,' or 'yeah Reno,' or 'uh huh.' You know what? I'd even take a grunt at this stage." Rude gave him a look, before proceeding to walk into the town.

"Hey!" Reno protested, running after him. "Don't do that to me! You're always doing that! Do you take pleasure in not answering?" Again Rude didn't reply. He just kept walking forward.

"Where are we going anyway?" he asked.

Rude sighed. "To our house, Reno."

"Oh," he replied. "Where exactly is this house anyway?"

"Close to the Pagoda. Don't you listen?" Reno ignored the remark and continued his questioning.

"Do they know we're from Junon?"

"…no."

"Hmph, I'm surprised. I thought the fact that we're their potential enemy could have posed at least a few questions."

Rude paused before answering. "Let's be glad it didn't."

"I hear ya buddy," he said, slapping his shoulder. "I would have been bored stiff sitting in front of the Wutain Guard being asked meaningless questions for about six hours." Rude didn't reply.

They walked through the town, past the old shops they had seen before, and stopping a few times to look inside the new ones. They avoided the Da Chao for today as all it was just a big rock with faces on it that could never change, unless some thug got a giant spray paint can and decided the perfect place to try his new art would be on the Da Chao. Of course that man would more than likely be hunted down and killed by a mob of angry villagers. After a about an hour of getting reacquainted with the place, as they had very fond memories of their last visit, they eventually wandered into the quiet square at the back of the village. In front of them loomed the five story pagoda, the tower of the gods.

"I'd like to visit that place," said Rude thoughtfully. Reno turned toward him.

"Why? I know we've never been there and all and I suppose it looks cool but I have no real urge to see inside it."

Rude shrugged. "I just do. It looks….. interesting." He pointed to the left. "That's our house."

"What?" Reno asked, partially surprised. "But that's the house where Don Corneo captured Kisaragi and…" he trailed off. Rude nodded.

"Elena," he finished, his voice barely audible. He shook his head quickly, looked up and smiled.

"Let's go," he said brightly. "They took down the gong," he noted. "It was probably taking up too much space in the square." He strode up to the door and turned the key in the lock, letting himself in. He looked around. Check the perimeter, that's what he'd always been told. Tseng had drilled that into his brain from the very first day, and if ever Reno didn't check a room which Tseng was occupying he'd end up in serious pain. He couldn't count the number of times he'd woken from unconsciousness. His mentor always took him by the hand and helped him up, but he'd always hear his twenty-three word lecture.

"If I were your assassin, you'd be dead. I'm an assassin, but lucky for you, I haven't been paid to kill you yet."

"Rude? How many times were you knocked unconscious by Tseng?"

"Pardon?" he asked in bewilderment.

"Never mind, it doesn't matter." Happy that the area was safe, he walked inside. The interior was brightly decorated with traditional Wutain ornaments. It was almost a crime to see all their boxes scattered everywhere in the room as it ruined the scene. Almost. It was too much culture for Reno's taste. Give him a few posters and a comfy chair and he was as happy as a pig in mud. He looked at his watch. At least the movers had been on time.

"I like it," Rude said.

Reno wasn't listening to his words at all, so instead he just watched the red head disappear into the kitchen. He had good feelings about this place. The temperature was just hot enough for his liking, there were places to explore, different things to do… he wouldn't get bored of this place for several months. He'd only been here less than a day, but already the place made him feel so relaxed and at ease.

Reno emerged from the kitchen with a bottle of champagne and two glasses. Rude raised an eyebrow above his glasses, wondering how in the world Reno got champagne, chilled champagne for that matter, at this hour. Reno saw his friend's expression and laughed.

"I know that look. I just asked the movers to shove a bottle in the fridge when they got here."

Rude had to smile. It was typically Reno.

"That's the spirit!" the sloppy Turk said enthusiastically, letting the cork fly from the neck with a pop! He poured the bubbly alcohol into the two long-stemmed glasses and handed one to Rude.

"To our new life in Wutai!" he proclaimed, raising his glass.

Rude nodded and clinked his glass against Reno's.

Author's note:

Hi everyone! Decided to try my hand at a long fic for once! I do admit, though I love one-shots, it doesn't hurt to see how a non one-shot will work (or not work, depends on how well this goes!). Please stick with me; the chapters will get more interesting as I go, I just needed to introduce the main characters properly first. Thanks for reading, and it would be greatly appreciated if you'd drop a review!

LastCetra.