Morning came again without incident, and the trio was on their way again. As they got higher Fuu began to notice how pretty it was, even if she did hate the rocks. The path was lined from side to side as far as the eye could see with tall trees, which cast large patches of shadows on the ground. Birds were singing from every corner, and she could hear bugs buzzing, with their heads in the flowers that were scattered every which way. If she weren't so exited about getting to this strange sunflower valley she would have picked a few.
The skinny dirt trail ran mostly at a steep upward climb, but sometimes it would turn sharply to the left or to the right and twist around for a bit. It was a very nice day, or, it would have been, if they weren't hungry, tired, and thirsty.
Momo had decided to ride atop Fuu's head, something he didn't normally do, but the little squirrel was just as excited about this unusual setting as Fuu. She could feel him turning around in circles on her head, trying to get a good look at everything from all directions.
For some reason Mugen decided to throw his head over his shoulder and see how the other two were doing. Jin was behind him, his head down, as if her was in the middle of a walking meditation. 'Bah…' He thought.
Then he looked a Fuu, and noticed that that little fur ball was on her head. Where did she keep him anyway? "Hey, isn't that pain the ass usually asleep this time of day?" Fuu gave him a defiant look. "He's excited cuz I told him we're going to be getting some sunflower seeds soon."
Mugen made a noise like a snort. "You really think he understands that?" "He understands it better then you do!" "You little bitch!"
Jin sighed, trying to drown his companion's argument in his thoughts. For some reason the flowers on the trail remind him of Shino, and he couldn't seem to get her off his mind now. He had lost track of how long it had been since he had last seen her face, all he knew was that it was way too long.
His thoughts drifted to the night he first met her, the moment he first saw the sad, desperate look in her eyes… The first time he had ever seen her she was standing on a bridge in the rain, thinking about what would happen if she suddenly jumped in. Later she confessed to him that if he hadn't walked by at that moment, she would have fallen to her death.
His thoughts trained on with ideas and memories similar to these, thoughts of how in three years he would go back, and they could live their lives together in freedom. Thoughts of what they would do with this freedom.
Jin looked up a few minutes later to find that Mugen was fighting a loosing battle against Fuu and Momo. As usual Momo was on his face, Fuu sat on his chest, her hands pressing down his shoulders. Both were apparently attempting to suffocate him. "Take it back!"
"No pfay bitsh!" He yelled back threw Momo's fur.
"Take it back!"
"No!"
"Do either of you remember what it was he's suppose to be taking back?" Jin asked, he was trying to keep himself from smiling. He was sure that if they knew how funny they acted sometimes they'd stop having these pointless arguments.
Mugen and Fuu stopped their struggles against each other to look at Jin. "He said he'd eat Momo when I was asleep." Fuu answered, some of her hair had fallen out of it's bun and was dangling in her face.
Jin raised an eyebrow. "Don't you think your squirrel is smart enough not to be eaten by him?" Fuu thought about this for a second, the smiled widely, and pulled Momo from Mugen's face. "You're right Jin, I forgot."
"Hey! I'm smarter then that dumb ass chipmunk! He's just too damn slippery!" Mugen rebutted, throwing Fuu off him, she landed with a loud 'thump!'
Before Fuu could yell back at him Momo jumped out of her hands and began flying off away from the trail. "Momo!" Fuu yelled as she stood up and ran after him, disappearing into the forest.
Jin and Mugen eyed each other with a look that said, "you have got to be kidding me", before they too ran after Momo.
"Momo! Wait!" Fuu cried in vain, hoping that she would not loose her friend to her lack of speed. Not paying much attention to where her feet were going, it came as a great surprise when she found herself skidding downwards and landing with a spash into ice cold water.
Mugen and Jin were not far behind, but unlike Fuu they did not fall in the brook.
Momo was sitting on a rock in the middle of the water, making a noise that sounded strangely like laughter. After standing up and ringing out the bottom of her kimono Fuu took Momo back into her hands, giving him a little hug. "Who's the dumb ass now?" She asked. "See, he found water for us. Weren't you just complaining about not having any?." Fuu stated triumphantly.
"You sure he didn't just want to see you fall on you're rump?" Mugen asked as he glared at Momo.
"Chir chir chir!" Momo barked at him, showing his disliking of the rogue samurai. Mugen growled back at him.
Fuu just smiled at Momo, giving him a pat on the head. "When we get to the village, I'm gonna buy you a whole year's worth of sunflower seeds." The squirrel forgot about Mugen and proceeded to jumping between Fuu and Jin's heads, all the while making happy, hungry chittering noises that only a squirrel with high hopes could make.
Fuu wiped some water droplets from her face with her sleeve. A cool drink was just what they had needed on that hot day. Then a thought struck her. "Do you guys know how we get back to the path?" Mugen spit out a mouthful of liquid.
"No need to worry, I marked the trees with my sword as we ran. Following them backwards should be easy." Jin answered. Fuu let loose a breath of relief. Trying to find their way back would have been hard, Momo had lead them pretty far off the trail, and had taken a few sharp turns.
"That damn rat almost got us lost in these stupid mountains!" Mugen yelled, now confirming his plot to eat Momo. Fuu threw her shoe at him, hitting him squarely in the head. "OW! What was that for you bitch!"
"He's a squirrel not a rat you dumby!" "I don't give a rat's ass what he is, that thing pisses me off!"
Jin sighed. "My swords for a moment of silence…"
-----
After spending an hour taking a break at the brook they were on their way again, refreshed, cool, and in Mugen's case; wet. Jin was being serious and silent, Fuu was happily playing with Momo, and Mugen was slinking behind them. Not all too pleased at how Fuu had gotten revenge for him yelling at her.
He was glaring at the back of her head, annoyed that she could looks so happy, even from behind. She kept laughing, and it was driving him crazy, nothing could be worse then that sound, and nothing should be this…nice? He almost gagged, realizing that when he stopped thinking about how much he was suppose to hate her, he enjoyed watching her. He started to notice little things about her he hadn't seen before.
Her hair would bounce slightly as she walked, sometimes her feet would slip off the edges of her sandals for a step, and she'd stumble the tiniest bit.
'Gah! What the hell's wrong with me? Stop looking at that bitch!' He yelled at himself. This was really starting to tick him off. That was the second time in one friggin week! 'You are a murdering, non-caring, free guy.' He told himself. 'You don't stare at women with breast's two sizes too small, and you do not get urges to reach out and catch them because they're klutzes and happen to fall a lot!'
"Huh? Look'it that!" Hearing Fuu's voice he snapped back to reality, actually looking around for what ever had caught her attention. He saw a large rickety looking bridge, and figured that must be it. It was at least a minutes worth of walking, the planks served as a way to cross over a crack in the rocky foundation that was probably caused by some ancient earthquake.
Fuu put one foot on of the old wooded boards, just to test it out. It squeaked, and she quickly drew her foot back. "You don't think we having to cross? Do you?"
Mugen gave her a tap in the middle of her back with the point of his scabbard. "Yeah we gotta cross, and you're going first."
"Me!" Why me?" Fuu asked, her voice frazzled from fear.
"Because it was your idea to come this way." Jin answered, startling them both. Fuu was sure he would argue otherwise, as had Mugen. "But-!"
"You heard the man." Mugen said, giving her another nudge with his sheathed sword, this time pushing her onto the wooden walkway.
"Ah!" Fuu cried in distress, clinging onto the well-worn rope edges the held the bridge together. "You guys are so mean!" She threw a look of disgust at them, sticking her tongue out. Then, going back to the task at hand she gulped quietly, deep in her throat. Putting one foot in front of another, both hands on the rope railings, she inched her way to the other side.
"That bitch isn't gonna get to the other side by sundown…" Mugen commented, watching for his lazy sitting position on the ground. Jin thought about humming back an answer like he always did, but changed his mind. "You go next then."
"Fine by me. Bet you a drink I can get there in less then thirty seconds." Mugen said with confidence. "It is a bet." Jin answered, with equal confidence.
A few minutes later Fuu plopped down on the nice solid ground, yelling at Mugen and Jin to "get their asses over here", because when they did she would hurt them for making her go first.
Mugen was halfway across, running of course, when his acute sense of hearing informed him of the sound of ropes tearing.
He paused, looked back and saw that the ropes were beginning to separate, their old fibers coming apart. "Aw fuck it." He picked up his pace, but even his speed wasn't enough, the bridge snapped in half before he got within jumping distance, and the two broken ends of each half fell into the waiting mouth of the crack.
"Mugen!" Fuu cried, looking over the edge to see if he had caught onto something and was still holding on. She could see a red blob a few meters down, knew it was Mugen and let out a sign of relief.
"You can climb up on your own right?" She hollered down to him. "What do you think!" He barked back, climbing upward wasn't a big deal, but he had no idea which one of these steps would break off, sending him careening downward.
Jin stayed silent through the whole ordeal, and only spoke when Mugen made it back up to high ground. 'Now what…' The wheels in his brain turned, new thoughts popped into his head.
After checking that Mugen was ok, and giving him a whacking over the head for scaring her, Fuu yelled, "Hey Jin! What are we gonna do! You're stuck on that end!"
He smiled a little at her words. "Yes, I know that! The two of you should continue on, I'll go back to the town and see if there is someone who can fix the bridge so you can come back this way!" "OK!" She answered back.
Jin turned to go back to the village, then, stopped. He had gotten a sudden brotherly urge to tell Mugen that if he touched Fuu he would kill him. But instead he settled with saying, "Mugen! You owe me a drink!"
"You bastard, it wasn't my fault the damn bridge went out!" Jin just chuckled and turned to walk back the way they had been going for almost two days.
When he was out of site Fuu looked over at Mugen, he was straitening out his cloths and muttering something about 'damn bet' and 'gonna kill him'. As she watched his movements she came to the realization that this would be the first time she would be spending time with Mugen alone. Before there was always Jin, or a town full of people, but now they were completely and totally alone…together…
Her first instinct was to be wary, watch out for his hands and stuff of that sort. 'Naw, that's stupid. Mugen only goes after women with really big boobs.' She signed quietly. 'Really pretty women.'
This made her sad, and the fact that she didn't know why she was sad made her angry. Sticking out her lower lip in a pout she tried to figure out why it would matter to her. 'It doesn't make any sense, I mean, he's a total jerk, he's completely reckless and irresponsible. And most importantly he hates me, and I hate him.' She momentarily turned her head to look at a flower, just barely halfway in bloom. 'Don't I? Doesn't he? No, stupid. Obviously he does!'
"Yo, you just gonna sit there all day?" Fuu turned back to him, yelling "I thought we were waiting for you to stop pouting about loosing your bet!" "I wasn't pouting bitch!"
She closed her eyes and walked off on the path, back into the deep cluster of the forest. "Whatever, are you coming or not?" She said, as if he was the delay.
"Why you…." He grumbled as he turned to follow behind her into the wilderness.
---
They hadn't talked once since they had left Jin, and the silence was starting to get uncomfortable and lonely. Fifteen minutes was a long time after all…
Mugen was leading now, his steps fell farther apart then hers, so he bypassed her easily. Momo was asleep, as he had finally running out of energy. So Fuu had nothing to do but look at the scenery. However even the continuous beauty of the forest got boring after a while, nothing really changed about it. The tree's were either tall, short or still babies. The flowers only came in twenty colors and shapes, and the birds kept singing the same sweat songs over and over again.
One thing had changed though, the trail and become steeper, now it was more of an upward climb then a slanted walk. She was thinking about trying to count all the yellow flowers they passed, but before she could start her eyes fell on something more interesting; Mugen's sword. It was strung across his back, the hilt positioned so he could reach back and grab it in an instant if needed.
Not like Jin's, he keeps his at his waist, like a true samurai. 'But Mugen's not a true samurai.' She thought. 'Wait, what kinda fighter is he?' She pondered on this thought for a while, trying to remember names of fighting styles, and which one's sounded like what Mugen did. Maybe she would ask him later where he learned to fight like that.
While she thought she observed the markings on the hilt of his sword and the scabbard, and the other things about him. She noticed how his hair just seemed to stick out on all sides in every direction, she was sure he didn't do anything for his hair, but how could it just naturally do that?
Her thoughts paused when she noticed a scar on the back of his neck. It was long, and paler then the rest of his skin, and trailed down into his shirt. She shivered a little, wondering where he had gotten it, if it had been with her, or before they had all began their journey. She made a note to ask him about that too.
To her embarrassment he chose that moment to look back at her. "Ey, whats that look for?" She snapped out of her thoughts, blushing slightly, she answered with a nervous smile, "Oh! Nothing." He gave her a clearly annoyed look, his eyes narrowing. "Whatever, it's getting late, so start lookin' for a good place to stop."
Fuu looked over at the place where the sun should have been but saw that while she was absorbed in thinking about Mugen, 'That sounds so weird…' at least a few hours had passed. That, or maybe time just went by faster in the mountains.
It took then a while, but they had found a place before it had become too dark. A nice little place nestled between three large boulders. Mugen left Fuu in charge of getting a fire started while he went out to look for something to eat. Much to her displeasure she had only been able to conger up a small flame, not the cackling fire she had hoped for.
A cool breeze blew in through the gap between two of the boulders, which served as a door. Fuu shivered, and pulling her kimono higher on her shoulders she tried again with the spark. She blew on it, she added more wood too it, but the little fire just wouldn't get any bigger.
Mugen came back with a dead rabbit's ears between his fist. He found Fuu huddled next to the feeble flame, her head on her knees, and a look on her face that spoke of defeat.
"What's you're problem?" He asked in a gruff tone, though he already knew she was down about failing to make a proper fire.
Fuu stuck her tongue out at the pile of ashes. "It just doesn't want to make a fire…It wants to stay a spark."
"Jeez, that all?" He put the rabbit down on a rock, then he picked up two big leaves adding them to the fire. It took them a few seconds to catch on fire and burn, and between those two seconds he added a small stick to the collection. The little spark jumped onto the stick, having run out of leaf to burn. In less then one minute he had a fire big enough to cook their dinner on.
Fuu's eyes widened in amazement. "How'd you do that?" She asked, her head turned so she wouldn't see him skinning the brown rabbit.
"It's easy idiot, you just have to give it some reason to spread out, let it know you're not trying to trick it somewhere there ain't anything burn." He answered as he held the rabbit meat on the now thriving fire, skewered by his sword.
Fuu thought about what he had said for a while, something she didn't usually do, since he hardly ever said anything that needed thinking over.
She was brought from her thoughts once again, this time by a sword full of cooked rabbit shoved in her face. She reached out to take a piece, but when her fingers clasped around the hot meat she quickly drew them back. "Ow!"
With tear droplets hanging in her eyes she sucked on her two burning fingers. "Idiot!" He yelled at her, he couldn't stand how helpless she was, it gave her a reason to depend on him.
------
Jin was eating a fish he had caught, in a place little farther then from where they had made their first campsite. The silence of not having two other companions was satisfying, but he did miss the company.
"I wonder how those two are getting on. Let's just hope they don't kill each other before Fuu gets a chance to see that sunflower village." He said to himself, then continued chewing.
