"Are you ready, Ryo?" Ryuu asked quietly as he reached for the doorknob.
Ryo nodded, preparing his chakra. As Ryuu went to turn the doorknob, the door flew open and a beautiful girl with extremely long orange hair stood before them, a smirk plastered on her face.
"Afternoon. How may I assist you?" She asked softly.
"Cut the crap, Reina." Ryo hissed.
"Now!" Ryuu thrusted his hand towards the ground as lightning shot from his hands and he charged at Reina quickly.
Reina gasped as his fist collided with her stomach, sending her flying down the hall, her body feeling like it was being fried from the inside.
Ryo stepped into the building, walking down the hall and toward Reina. "Where have you hid her?" He growled.
Reina weakly pulled herself to her feet, swaying slightly. "I was gonna be nice, but now you've pissed me off!" She shrieked, vines shooting from the floor and covered in spikes with neon purple liquid dripping from them.
Just as Reina was about to attack Ryo, Kureji forced Ryo through the wall, along with the second wall. "Pests. It's rude to enter a house without the house owner inviting you in." Kureji sighed.
Ryo coughed up blood as he tried to regain his breath. Kimichi stepped from behind Reina. "Fighting is extremely pointless..."
"Coming from you!" Reina growled, about to slap Kimichi when a vine threw her back.
"Stop it, Reina!" Christma sighed as he stood in front of Kimichi.
Reina growled at him as she jumped back to her feet. "Stop standing up for that brat! You know she destroyed everything!"
"You really think now is the time to get into this!" Christma growled back, clenching his fists.
"She had no knowledge of what she was doing." Kureji stated.
Ryuu was about to charge through the house to find Emi when another interesting looking female came in from the basement. Her head turned to look at the cluster of people. "A little reunion going on?" She asked.
Reina seemed to still be in her own world, not even taking notice to Yua. "How dare you, Kureji! You know she destoryed everything we had! What about our friggin' brother?" She screamed.
"I'm guessing a family reunion?" Yua laughed before slowly turning to look at Kureji. "Brother? As in..."
Kureji quickly stopped Yua. "I don't want to talk about it at the moment."
"You never want to talk about it! You treat Kimichi like she's an angel when you should really hate her guts! I want to kill her so badly!"
"And you wont lay a damn hand on baby sister, Reina." Christma sighed.
Ryuu looked awkwardly around the room before slowly sneaking back out the front entrance unnoticed. 'Apparently they have too much issues to allow me to go unnoticed...' Ryuu made his way around the house perimetres to find an open window. When he found one on the opposite side of the house and climbed in quietly.
Down in darkness of the basement, Emi stirred and tried to take in her surroundings. "Wh-What the-?" She groaned in pain, as she tried to move, realising her body felt stiff and was still bleeding severly, dispite the fact that Yua had cleaned her wounds and placed bandages over them.
Several tears slipped down her cheeks as her mind drifted in thought of Ryuu. Why hadn't she just been smarter and moved quicker before Kimichi caught her. Also, she knew Reina was in the area, she felt Reina's presence the moment she stepped into the village. She sobbed as she felt her cuts stinging from her tears. 'J-Just know that I'm sorry, Ryuu. I wish I had the chance to be in your arms one last time.' She closed her eyes once more, waiting for death to claim her.
"If you guys didn't have your heads attached, you'd lose it!" Yua sighed. "You lost one of your opponents." She pointed towards where Ryuu had once been standing.
Reina glared at Christma and Kimichi before jumping up on a vine she created. "Damnit!" She hissed. "He's gonna find that girl! Kureji, make sure he doesn't go anywhere!" She growled, pointing toward Ryo who was gripping his rib that he discovered was broken.
"Yua, is Emi locked up tight?" Kimichi asked innocently.
Yua nodded. "Yes, she is locked up perfectly. Even if he were to get to her holding stall, he will not figure how to enter into the room. Only you Fernu's can unlock it." Yua smiled.
"I knew I could trust you with anything." Kureji said before turning to glare at Reina. "You should learn yourself."
Reina hissed at Kureji. "I will never trust anyone again, not even you."
Kureji rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah...let's just find this guy. He's part of the Akatsuki, so be aware that you do not underestimate him. He was chosen for a reason." Kureji said before quickly heading up the stairs only feet from himself. "Yua, take the left wing and I'll wrap around to meet you at the far side of the house. Someone, anyone, take outside..." Kureji said before disappearing before the corner and quickly stepped back, "I want him alive, by the way." And then he disappeared down the hallway.
Reina rolled her eyes as she look off outside. "Akatsuki, pfft!" She mumbled in annoyance.
"H-He wasn't chosen." Ryo mumbled to Kimichi who was watching him while everyone else ran off.
"Then why are you and him here?" She asked, looking down at him.
"H-He loves her." He choked out, wincing in pain.
Kimichi frowned and walked over to Ryo, a blue aura surrounding her hands as she fixed his broken rib.
"Wh-Why did you do that?" He asked, in shock as he sat up.
"I'm not like the others." She mumbled before saying, "Midori." Vines, without spikes wrapped around him. "Please just stay quiet." She frowned, sitting down on a ledge.
"Great, a window." Ryuu chuckled quietly before moving to the basement window and smashing it open. He slid through the small opening and looked around at his surroundings, suspecting someone to be there. Surprisingly, there wasn't. 'These people are stupid!' The room that Ryuu was in was completely empty. The walls were grey and ground was concrete. The only thing in the room was a set of stairs leading upwards.
Seeing the stairs as the only way out of the room, Ryuu quietly made his way up and looked outside the door. All there that lay on the other side of the door was a long hallway. Not knowing which direction to take, he went left and headed down the hallway.
Down the hall was a tall male, his arms crossed and his sword unsheathed. "You go no further." He stated simply.
"I'd beg to differ." Ryuu shrugged before narrowing his eyes. "You have nothing on me."
Christma smiled. "I doubt that." He lifted his hand calling out, "Midori!" a poisoned vine popping up behind Ryuu and aimed to stab into his back.
Just as the vine pierced through Ryuu's torso, he suddenly disappear and reappeared behind Christma, ready to strike him.
Christma's eyes widened as he quickly jumped forward, pulling his sword back behind him toward Ryuu, attempting to slash his flesh.
Ryuu disappeared once again to reappear behind Christma. "Come on, show some fight."
Christma growled as his anger started to rise. "Stop doing that!" He yelled, several poison covered vines latching out in several different directions around him.
Ryuu stepped back to avoid the poison spikes and chuckled lightly before his face turned dark. "You have my beloved Emi locked up and hurt, and I will return her safely to her village. You cannot stop me." Ryuu shoved his hands into the walls on both sides of him and shouted, "Inabikari!" Jolts of lightning left Ryuu and travelled through the walls, jumping out at Christma and electricuting him. Ryuu stuned him enough that Christma fell to his knee's conscience but temporarily paralytical.
"N-No... R-Reina... w-will... kill m-me...f-for... f-failing..." He choked out before passing out.
Ryuu stepped past Christma and made his way quickly down the hallway. "Emi?" He shouted out quietly, searching through each room he passed. When he reached the end of the hall a girl stepped out and looked at Ryuu with a giant smile. "You're looking for that girl aren't you?"
Ryuu narrowed his eyes at the girl before nodding slowly.
"I can help you if you want..." She smiled before motioning for him to follow. She disappeared back around the corner and Ryuu suspiciously followed.
"Why are you helping me?" He asked.
"Because I can." The girl giggled.
"I'm not settling on that answer." Ryuu stated and stopped in his tracks. "For all I know you could be leading me to a trap."
"I'm not like the rest of my clan. I don't agree with half the things they do. Our clan has a reputation for being ridiculously crazy; my immediate family loves our cousins, don't get that wrong, but my parents wanted to reduce the amount of influence they have on us. I saw Yua put the girl into the last holding cell, one of a few holding cells that are designed that only other Fernu's can enter into the cell. So, I'll let her out for you on one condition." The red haired girl paused and turned around to face Ryuu.
"Of course...conditions." Ryuu rolled his eyes.
"It's easy. Forget this place. Forget this village, and forget this clan. Don't return, and don't even think about us." She said.
"Fair enough." Ryuu shrugged.
Reina traveled around the outside of the mansion, trying to cool her temper. She wished things had never been messed up. It was all Kimichi's fault that everything was as it was. It was her fault Reina was the person she had become. Reina noticed a broken window and carefully jumped in.
"Ugh, I wonder where he is..." She sighed as she walked down the hallway, spotting Christma on his stomach. She ran over and kicked him over onto his back. His eyes opened slowly as he groaned.
"Where is he?" She hissed. "And how the hell were you defeated?"
"I-I u-undere-estimated h-him..." He choked out weakly.
Reina rolled her eyes and kicked Christma across the face. "Where'd he go!"
"Wh-Where E-Emi is, d-duh!" He hissed, wincing at Reina's kick.
Reina growled as she ran off down the hall to where she knew Emi had been put.
The red haired girl stopped infront of the cel Emi was in and motioned for Ryuu to stop. She placed her palms to the holes that were on the door and whispered, "Midori."
"Midori, midori, midori!" Ryuu mimicked. "That word is popping up a LOT since I've got here!" Ryuu shook his head in annoyance.
The girl shrugged. "It's our kekkei genkai. Right now there are tiny little vines weeving their way through the inside of this door, moving around to unlocked certain locks. You have to know which ones to unlock, or it could result in a giant explosion that would destroy half this house and anything in it."
Ryuu raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Whatever. Just get me to her."
The door clicked and slowly began to open. The red haired girl smiled and walked through the door and moved over to the girl laying on the ground, appearing to be unconscience.
"Hey, get away from her! Just because you led me to her, doesn't mean you're not still our enemy." Ryuu stated.
"I understand." The girl whispered before standing up and stepping aside.
Ryuu suspiciously watched her as he went and picked Emi up. "Oh, Emi. Why did you let them kidnap you?" Ryuu shook his head before hugging her tightly.
Emi's delicate body seemed to stirr in his arms. Her lavander eyes slowly opened and looked up at Ryuu. "S-So I d-died?" She murmured weakly.
"Why do you think that?" Ryuu asked with confusion.
The girl giggled before ushering Ryuu out of the room with Emi in his arms. "I have to lock this up to keep the others preoccupied. But we have to hurry, Reina is close by."
Ryuu nodded and quickly followed after the girl once she had relocked the door.
Emi closed her eyes as she rested her head on Ryuu's shoulder, a weak smile at her lips.
"Naomi!" Reina screamed, sensing her cousin was close by.
Naomi giggled as she heard the faint distance scream. "Reina is angry~" She sang happily as she led Ryuu back to the stairs that led out of the basement. When they reached the top floor, they looked around carefully for anyone close-by. Over not too far was Ryo and Kimichi. Naomi motioned Ryuu to stay hidden as she went over to Kimichi.
"Kimichi! How goes it? Whose this?" Naomi raised an eyebrow at the man wrapped in vines.
Kimichi gave a small smile as she looked up at Naomi. "I don't know."
"I was Ryuu's guide." Ryo answered.
"That doesn't give me much to work on. Anywho, can I borrow him?" Naomi asked with a grin.
Kimichi smiled a bit more. "You got the girl and that guy?"
Naomi looked at Kimichi with confusion. "Girl and guy?"
Kimichi nodded as she released Ryo. "Help them get out of the Mansion. And tell them I'm sorry." She frowned. "Reina's coming. I'm going to go stop her." She ran off passed Naomi.
"Huh...Kimichi's taking a turn of events." Naomi murmured to herself before helping Ryo to his feet. "You're lucky she didn't strangle or poison you." Naomi shrugged.
"A-Actually, I had a broken rib that she healed..." He murmured to Naomi.
"That girl is too unpredictable." Naomi laughed before leading the three opponents out the door and through the village. "You guys are actually really lucky!" Naomi laughed, still not able to get over the idea of Kimichi acting nice. "You are one of only a few who have been allowed to be set free...in a sense."
Ryo looked over to Ryuu. "We should get going, now. Emi needs to be looked after, now."
"I can lead you through a short cut to get you out of this place quicker." Naomi said and led them through the darkness of the first part of the village, leading them over a few walls to get to the first entrance.
"That was a short cut?" Ryuu asked.
"In a sense. Only the Fernu's know of the short-cut, but it just involves more ice walls." Naomi shrugged and walked through the two tree's that were the entrance to the disguised village. "Anywho...there you go."
Ryo bowed slightly in respect to Naomi. "What will your family do to you since you helped us?"
"Nothing." Naomi laughed. "Reina will be angry and yell and blah blah blah...but I don't really care. I'll have to answer to my parents the same as always. They'll understand that this was just a pointless hold, not one that needed serious watch. So it doesn't matter. Just go quickly." Naomi said before shooing them off.
The group of Fernu's and Yua headed toward the gates where Naomi was heading toward them.
"Naomi! How dare you do this! Do you have any idea how valuable she was!" Reina hissed.
Kimichi was tied up in Reina's vines, covered in some cuts and Christma was also tied in another set of Reina's vines to keep him from attacking her.
Kureji and Yua followed beside the angry Reina. "Go easy on her, Reina." Kureji muttered.
"Oh, she was?" Naomi asked innocently with a smile.
"You don't even live in our mansion! How dare you set foot in it!" Reina hissed.
Kimichi struggled to get her mouth uncovered. "Naomi is a Fernu! Any Fernu can set foot in it!"
Reina slapped Kimichi hard across the face. "Shut the hell up, brat!"
Anger rised in Christma as he tried to get free and failed. Kimichi screamed out in pain, tears forming in her neon green eyes.
"Way to treat your family." Naomi murmured. "Besides, she wasn't your prisoner. She was Kimichi's." Naomi stated matter-of-factly.
"I don't care!" Reina shrieked, stepping toward Naomi with hatred in her eyes.
"You know, you'd do good to learn the essence of love." Naomi said and crossed her arms.
Reina stopped in her tracks, her mind hazy with what she once knew of that emotion. "Don't you dare speak of love to me!"
"Someone needs to." Naomi said before walking around Reina to head back towards the village.
Emi's eyes slowly opened, her eyes adjusting to the darkness of the room. She still felt weak and her body stiff. 'D-Did I imagine Ryuu? O-Or am I actually dead?' She realised she was in a hospital bed, and as her sences kicked in, she realised she wasn't alone.
"Finally, you're awake!" Ryuu muttered and pushed Emi's bangs out of her eyes. "I'm sorry I didn't leave earlier. None of this would have happened if I did."
Emi looked up to see her love. "Wh-Why are you here? I-I thought you couldn't l-leave the Akatsuki?"
"I didn't leave it. But I did say I would return to see you. Although, I didn't imagine to see you so badly hurt. Or kidnapped for that matter." Ryuu said before taking Emi into his arms to hug her gently. "Please, be careful next time!"
"I-I'm sorry." She whispered, hugging him back, ignoring the pain of her wounds. "I knew my mistake after it was too late."
"I'm just happy that you're alive!" Ryuu sighed before slowly letting go of her. "Now you had better be here next time I come! Alive and well." Ryuu narrowed his eyes at her.
She laughed nervously before frowning. "You're leaving already?"
"Not yet." Ryuu sighed. "Not until you're well, and we've had our fill of each others prescense." Ryuu laughed. "I wish I could take you with me, but I can't." Ryuu muttered. "And it kills me when I don't know whether you're fine or not."
Emi leaned her head against his chest, trying to hide the sadness she was feeling. "I worry about you too. Since you can never give me a time before I see you, I often think of... e-ending myself." She shook her head. "I don't want you to l-leave again, Ryuu." She sniffled.
"I'm sorry, Emi. As I said, I will try my best to come to you as often as I can."
Emi sighed deeply as she closed her eyes again. "My parents still think I'm missing, don't they?"
"I already let them know." Ryuu said. "Speaking of..."
The door opened to reveal Emi's parents. Her mother sighed in relief at the sight of her daughter.
"Oh Emi!" She smiled as she ran over and threw her arms around her daughter.
"O-Ow... M-Mom..." Emi choked out.
Her mother let go of her daughter and laughed nervously. "Sorry, dear."
Emi looked back at Ryuu, not understanding how her parents were okay with him being there.
"Your dad and I came to an understanding." Ryuu shrugged before looking at Emi's father who was watching him suspiciously.
"Y-You wont tell the Kazekage, right dad?" Emi asked nervously.
He shook his head. "He saved your life, Emi."
"From now on, I'm putting a leash on you, Emi!" Emi's mother said before kissing her daughters forehead. "I can't bare to lose you like that again."
Emi frowned. "I'm sorry! I-I knew that I messed up when it was too late to get out of it."
"We're just so happy that Ryuu returned. It was a nice reunion. I thought he was dead." Her mother said before smiling respectively at Ryuu.
Emi smiled weakly. "I had thought that too, before..."
"So that day, he was the Akatsuki member that 'tortured' you?" Her father asked, raising an eyebrow.
Emi's eyes widened, realising what she had just said. "N-No. It wasn't." She lied.
"Your daughter was brave." Ryuu said. "Most people are terrified of the Akatsuki and not too many people work alongside us either." Ryuu murmured under his breath.
"So, will you be returing for Emi, Ryuu?" Her mother asked with a soft smile.
"Mom!" Emi scolded, blushing faintly.
"What? I remember how close you two were. That necklace hadn't left your neck since the day he had given it to you - except now?"
Emi's eyes widened as she touched her bare chest. "I-I dropped it when the Fernu's g-got me..." She sighed.
Ryuu gasped and reached into his pocket to pull out the pendant. "Ryo gave it to me when I came here at first." He said and moved to put it back in it's rightful place - around Emi's neck.
Emi smiled as she touched the pendent before looking up at Ryuu.
The nurse entered into the room and checked out Emi one last time. "She's seems good to go home now. Just make sure she gets lots of rest to allow her sometime to heal." She said before leaving the room once again.
"I'll carry her home." Ryuu said and picked the cleanly bandaged Emi up.
"Thank you." Emi's mother whispered before exiting the room first.
Just as Ryuu was to follow her out, Emi's father stopped him quickly.
"Next time you come to visit, as much as I'd rather not due to your affliation with the Akatsuki, leave your akatsuki cloak behind. There are a few people who know about the Akatsuki and it's better if we leave war out of this situation." He said.
Ryuu nodded in agreement before following Emi's mother.
"As long as I can come to visit Emi still." Ryuu said and smiled at Emi before kissing her forehead.