Chapter 4: Iteza-Ichizoku no Gunchoh to Uragirimono no Samurai Kan no Torihiki (Deal Between the Iteza Clan's army and the Traitor Samurai)

(Disclaimer: Zoids Chaotic Century was authored by Michiro Ueyama. I merely burrowed Ueyama-sensei's characters)

"Atsushi, you may have won the battle last time but my war with you is not yet over! I swear that you and your family will be eliminated!" a silver haired man muttered to himself.

"Prozen-sama, I know that you haven't given up your ambition of taking control of this region. But as long as Atsushi's head ninja is still by his side, we won't stand a chance against them." A pink haired woman said to his master.

"I know that, Hardin. If there is only a way to capture that elusive bastard, Atsushi's reign will come to its' demise." Prozen yelled to his general.

"My humble apologies, Prozen-sama!" she responded to the cruel person.

"Atsushi, I won't let you humiliate me again like what you and your accursed ninja has done to me twelve years ago." Prozen thought as an evil grin crossed his face.

Meanwhile, in the Lynette family's palace, Fiona was strolling along their garden when her shinobi suddenly show up….

"Ohayo, Hime!" the chuunin greeted to her.

"Ohayo, Van-kun...oops, sumimasen." the princess replied to him.

"Hime, you don't have to apologize to me. It's perfectly fine." Van responded.

"Hmmm, Van, have you told your parents about what we did in the park?" Fiona asked him.

"Nope! But I think my father and my mother suspect there is something more between us." the ninja answered. "By the way, Atsushi-sama have summoned me and my dad since the two of them have something to discuss. He said that I should teach you archery while they are taking care of something important." he added.

"Really?" the young lady asked.

"Hai." the chuunin retorted as he handed a bow and some arrows to her.

Inside the palace's main hall…

"Dan, I have received rumors that the Iteza clan is planning to wage another power struggle. I'm sure that Prozen is once again the person behind this so I want your men to keep an eye on them." Atsushi mentioned to his servant.

"Atsushi-sama, I'm also sure that Prozen would take all the necessary measures in order to prevent a repetition of his failure twelve years ago, so most likely he would use some ninjas against us." the jonin riposted to his master.

"Do you think some of your men defected to him?" Atsushi asked him.

"Unlikely. I always make sure that no one in my tribe will betray us. And in case someone does, I'll make sure he or she will be hanged in a cliff." Dan replied to him.

"So that means the only thing we must ensure is to should stop him from having his own ninjas as soon as possible." the daimyo said. "But in the meantime, have you told your son about the deal?" the daimyo asked.

"Not yet. How about your daughter, Atsushi-sama? Have you already told her?" Dan questioned in return.

"It's still a secret to her. Only we and our respective wives are the ones who know about this." he responded.

The two of them were unaware that Hotaro and Rhys were listening.

"Nii-sama, good thing Fiona and Van-kun aren't here right now. If either one of them two heard what Dad had said, they would insist to get married as soon as they want." Rhys said to her brother.

But there is another person listening secretly to them who is enraged about Van and Fiona's engagement.

"I can't believe Atsushi-sama would engage Fiona-Hime to that servant's son." a sixteen year old samurai muttered to himself. "I guess I have to do every necessary step to force Van and the princess apart." he thought.

The samurai then went to the archery field and as soon as he arrived, he aimed an arrow towards the chuunin. However, Van slashed the projectile with his ninja-ken, deflecting and splitting the arrow at the same time.

"Who's that?" Fiona asked her ninja.

"I don't know but I'll search for him." Van replied to her and headed towards the bushes.

"This boy is no push over. He can't be hit with just one shot!" the samurai reflected as moved to a clearer location. However, he was caught by the boy he wanted to kill.

"Going somewhere?" the young ninja asked him.

"No, I just came here to finish you!" he replied to Van as he drew his sword and tried to slash the chuunin. Van then blocked the attack with the tekagi he was wearing on one of his hands, disabling the katana. At the same time, he entangled the samurai with a manriki-gusari chain.

"Van, that's…. Eric-san." Fiona said as she approached them.

"Eric" You mean one of the samurai guarding the feudal court?" Van asked the princess.

"Hai." the young lady answered. "Eric-san, why did you aimed an arrow at us?" she asked the samurai.

"Hime, what if this guy wanted to hurt you? As your father's servant, I can't let anyone harm you and your siblings." Eric lied to them.

"I understand. However, Van won't hurt me. It is my dad who asked him to teach me archery." the princess said in a gentle voice.

"Should I let him go, Hime?" the chuunin asked Fiona.

"Hai." Fiona responded.

Van then released Eric from his entanglement. As soon as the samurai was free, he left Van and Fiona alone in the archery field. The ninja and the princess then continued what they had been doing earlier.

"I swear Fiona-Hime will be mine." Eric thought. As he headed back to the palace, he saw Lieutenant Hardin eating in a nearby stall. Eric then approached the pink haired woman.

"You're Lieutenant Hardin, am I right?" the samurai said to her.

"Hai. What do you want?" Hardin asked him.

"Let's just say Lynette Atsushi has done something very horrible to that I'm willing to serve under Prozen-sama as my retribution." Eric replied.

"And what service could a samurai like you do to Prozen-sama?" the pink-haired lieutenant asked him.

"I know who is the leader of the Lynette family's ninjas, the ninja who had brought humiliation to your master!" he said in a convincing voice. "If you won't accept my help, then I'm sure Prozen-sama would lose for the second time." the samurai added and started to walk away.

"Wait, comeback. I'll give you a place in Prozen-sama's army in exchange for what you know." Hardin mentioned to him.

"Well then' it's settled. And I have a plan which we could use to capture that ninja." Eric said with bitterness in his voice.

After four days at the Sawaki forest's urban edge….

"Dan, I know that beast is planning another rebellion so this time I'll fight by your side." Karen said to her husband.

"Arigato, Karen! Thanks for helping me. That Prozen surely never learned from his mistakes." he replied to his wife.

"Hey Dan, look at there! Aren't those Hayato-san and Yabuki-san?" the kunoichi pointed to the nearby bloody bodies.

Dan and Karen then approached Hayato and Yabuki who had been lying on the ground in critical condition.

"Hayato-kun, Yabuki-kun, what happened?" the jonin asked to Atsushi's servants.

"Dan-dono, the two of us had been ambushed by the Iteza clan's soldiers while Eric-san fell into a hole dug by those bastards." Hayato said to him before dying.

"Hayato-kun, wake up! wake up!" Dan shouted as he tried to revive him. "Iteza-gun...yappari!" the ninja master had thought.

"It's no use, Dan. He's dead now. Yabuki is also dead. The only thing we could do now is rescue Eric-san from the pit they told us." Karen said to him.

"Zeke, search for the pit where Eric-san has fallen into. Once you find him, return to us immediately." the jonin ordered to his eagle.

The white feathered bird then soared over the trees and located the pit. It didn't took a long time for Zeke to find what he had been ordered to search.

"So that means that the pit where Eric-san fell through is in that direction." Dan said to his wife as they headed to the nearby trees.

The two of them arrived at the pit in a nearby cypress and found Eric in the bottom. But before they could approach him, some Iteza warriors attacked the two ninjas. Dan and Karen then immobilized them using fukiya needles laced with a paralyzing poison.

"Fools! You indeed never learn from your mistakes." the kunoichi said to Prozen's soldiers as she ridiculed their stupidity.

The two of them approached Eric, who had been in pit for quite sometime.

"Eric-san, are you alright?" Dan said to the samurai.

"Ughh…. I think I broke my leg." Eric lied to the ninjas.

"Don't worry, we'll get you out." the jonin replied to him.

Dan then descended to the pit and tried to carry Eric on his back when all of a sudden another platoon of soldiers appeared from the meadows and charged towards them.

"We got more company!" the kunoichi said in annoyance to their enemies.

Some soldiers had tried to shot the woman with arrows from the left but the female ninja just evaded them by simply taking a right sidestep. However, she had been suddenly ensnared by a snaring rope hidden underneath the grass.

"What the…?" she shouted as she found herself hanging in a nearby tree.

"Karen, what's wrong?" Dan yelled to his wife when out of the blue, Eric kicked him forcefully as jumped from the ninja's back and stood on his legs.

"Look who are the idiots now!" the traitor samurai said to the jonin as he grinned sarcastically while the rest of Prozen's men surrounded the pit.

"I should have known that this is a trap!" Dan thought to himself.

"Eric-san, why are you doing this?" the ninja questioned to him.

"Why? Because Atsushi-sama has done something very painful to me! And now, I'll do everything in my power to assassinate that son of yours and take your master's daughter as my trophy." Eric mentioned in response.

"Eric, you serpent! Atsushi-sama will surely have you impaled by a spear!" Dan cursed to the disloyal warrior.

"That is…. if he and his family are still the rulers of this estate." the evil samurai replied.

The soldiers had then tied the two ninjas together and bound them temporarily in an imprisoning carriage. However, the two of them were able to use irogome grains send coded messages inside three bottles to their children.

"Zeke, send these to my son and to my father to warn the Lynette family that my wife and have been captured." Dan commanded to their eagle as he shot the bottles towards him using their fukiya blowgun. Some of Prozen's men tried to either capture or kill Zeke but the hasty bird managed to escape unscratched.

"Relax boys. You don't have to tire yourselves with that eagle. I'm sure the Lynette family's ninjas would be powerless now that we have captured their masters." Eric ordered.

In the Byakutakas' village, Van and Maria had seen Zeke flying towards them. The unusual behavior of the eagle, along with the colored grains of rice told them something was very wrong.

"Van, can you bring me the bottles Zeke is carrying to us?" Maria asked to his younger brother.

Van then took the three rice grain containers from the white raptor. However, as soon as he saw the contents of the bottle, the captain-rank chuunin grabbed his ninja-ken and some other weapons he could get on his way.

"Nee-san, warn Grandpa and the rest of the tribe that Dad and Mom had been captured by the enemy. I must go to Atsushi-sama's palace and save his loved ones right away." Van said to his sister as he headed to Saitama prefecture.

While Maria had told their grandparents and their subordinates about the incident, Van was thinking of the feudal family's safety.

"God, please keep my parents, my masters, and my Fiona safe!" Van prayed sincerely in his heart.

Inside the Lynette family's palace, Prozen's soldiers hand tied Atsushi and his wife while the traitor general himself announced to the citizens of Hoshikagami town that he would be their new daimyo. Their troops have been overwhelmed by the traitor general's army. Due to Dan and Karen's capture, most Byakutaka ninjas were uninformed of what had transpirred.

"People of Hoshikagami, from this day onward, the members of the Lynette family are no longer your masters. I, Prozen Gunther-sama, will be your new lord. Anyone who loathes me or rebels against me will be immediately killed." the general said before the public.

"Konichiwa, Atsushi-sama! It's been a long time since you and I have a talk like this." Prozen said to the daimyo. "By the way, don't expect your faithful servants will help you this time. I'm sure Eric-kun have already sent them to a concentration camp and is either torturing them or killing them.

"You mean, that samurai assigned guarding the court's hallways? Is he the one who helped you?" Atsushi asked him as the rebellious samurais constrained their struggle.

"Exactly! In exchange for his help, I would give your youngest daughter to him." Prozen said in retaliation.

"Just as I thought, that samurai can never be trusted!" Hotaro yelled to the evil general in defiance.

Prozen then kicked the lad's face in response to his anger.

"You're not in the position to shout at me like that!" Prozen reminded to the boy.

The soldiers began searching inside the palace for Rhys and Fiona. The two sisters got separated in the confusion of the chase.

"What could have happened to Dad, Mom, Hotaro nii-sama and Rhys nee-san? I hope they're alright." Fiona thought as tears began to fall from her eyes while running away from Eric's squad.

On the opposite corridor, Rhys was getting exhausted trying to lost her pursuers but to no avail. She had then collapsed on the floor but as she was about to be captured by Prozen's lackeys, a boy with onyx colored hair came between her and blinded the soldiers with metsubishi bombs, buying them enough time to escape.

"Van-san, make sure you would come back alive. I haven't defeated you yet so you must survive this." the boy thought.

"Have I lost them?" Fiona mumbled when all of a sudden, a person hiding in the shadows pulled her from the hallway.

"Who are you? Let go of me!" the princess demanded to the boy cloaked in a hood.

The hooded person then revealed himself to the princess.

"Van, thank God it's you. I thought it was one of those rogue soldiers who are after Me." Fiona said to him in relief.

"Good thing my prayers are immediately answered. I thought that you're already captured." the chuunin retorted to her.

"And good thing you came here. It's time to say your last prayers ninja!" Eric said to him.

"Eric-san, kore wa nani yo?" Fiona asked her pursuer as to the meaning of the events that have just happened.

"Well, let's just say that someone offered my something I could never resist. In exchange for that, I'll just have to eliminate the highest ranking ninjas of your family." the samurai answered to the princess.

"What have you done to my parents?" Van questioned to the rebel.

"I just took them to the Prozen-sama's prison. I'm note sure but I hope my fellows have already dispatched them!" Eric answered to them. "Those two idiots have tried to rescue me, believing I had broken my leg in that pit!" he added laughingly.

"Cursed filth!" Van muttered was about to draw his sword to slash the rebellious samurai with his ninja ken when he Raven called out to him.

"Van-san, this is not the right time to face him. We're totally outnumbered! For now, it's more important to save Rhys-Hime-sama and Fiona-Hime-sama! the onyx haired chuunin reminded to the other shinobi.

Van then nodded in response as he returned the chisa-katana type sword in its' saya. He and Fiona then made a dash at the end of the hallway and knocked the window down. The ninja tightly embraced Fiona as they prepared to jump to the river.

"Atsushi-sama, Isami-sama, ore-tachi wa kanarazu modore wo anata ni tasukete yo!" Van then thought as he vowed to return and save his masters.

"I don't think you could escape me now, ninja!" Eric said as one of his subordinates the shot the two of them with an arrow, causing them to fall in the water.

"Fool! You're supposed to shoot that shinobi only, not kill both of them!" the wicked samurai shouted to his personnel as he stabbed him with his katana.

The rebels then looked out of the window and saw that the river's water was tainted by blood. They assumed that the runaways had been severely injured and drowned. Yet Van and Fiona were perfectly fine. It's just the plank of wood used in the windows that had been shot. The blood came from a dead macaque. The chuunin and his princess emerged out of the water when the coast got clear enough and headed to the Byakutaka tribe's village at the Sawaki forest in Nagano prefecture.

"Van, why did Eric-san do that? I just can't understand." Fiona muttered as she sobbed on her ninja's chest.

"I think he's jealous that you want me, not him. That's the only logical reason I could think based on what he did to me a few days ago." the chuunin responded to her, trying to comfort her at the same time.

"Eric, you son of the devil! I'll ensure you'll die in hell!" Van reflected.

"Van-san, I understand how you feel that Dan-dono and Karen-dono are taken away from you. For now, I'll take Rhys-Hime to my tribe's village. It's safer that way than if the two of them are together." Raven said to his comrade chuunin.

"But Raven-san, would me and Rhys nee-san see each other again?" Fiona asked the shinobi.

"Hai. She could come with me whenever I'll be going here." he answered.

While Van and Raven are rivals when it comes in being the better ninja, they consider each other as very close and trustworthy comrades.

"Arigato, Raven-san! However, I won't stop until I have revenged my father and my mother's deaths!" Van retorted.

Later that evening in the Freiheit family's house….

"Miyagi-sama, I suggest we attack that Prozen's army right now! We have to save Dan-dono and Karen-dono!" Krueger humbly asked to Dan's father.

"It's already too late, Krueger-sensei! Those bastards have killed my parents!" Van said to the council of elite jonins of their tribe.

"Masaka!" Krueger shouted to his student in shock.

"Unless someone in the Lynette family's palace betrayed them." the chuunin riposted to his sensei. "One bastard samurai named Eric tricked Dad and Mom by pretending to be injured." he added.

"Then we should get going!" the jonin said.

"Krueger-san, it's not wise to do that!" Twelve years ago, we managed to defeat them even though they outnumber us but only because Atsushi's men have also helped us. Now that they're defeated, we can't do that. We'll just lose the lives of our men." Miyagi told his son's subordinate.

"Van, I know how painful it is to lost your parents. Being your father's father, it hurts me a lot when you said that he and your mother are now dead." the old ninja said to his grandson as he tried his best to stop his tears from falling out of his eyes.

"But jii-san!" Van argued to the old man.

"If you attack them now, you'll also end up losing your life. If that happens, Prozen would be almost unstoppable." Miyagi said out of love and concern for his grandchild.

"Van, Grandfather is right. think about all those people who love you! Think about Grandfather, Me and most importantly, Fiona-Hime." Maria said to his younger brother as she tried to comfort him. "By the way, I have brought her to my own house so that I could attend to her needs." the kunoichi added.

In the Benitora tribe's village…..

"Huh….where am I?" Rhys said as she regained her consciousness.

"Oh, you're awake, you highness." Raven said to her.

"Who are you?" the princess asked him.

"I'm Chen Joyce, but just call me Raven." the shinobi said to her.

"Well….where is my sister?" she asked the boy.

"Van-san and I have decided to keep you in two different ninja villages. We have assumed that to be safer." he responded. "Anyway, you could come with me whenever I go Freiheit-san's village so that you and your sister could meet." he added.

In that same night, Prozen imposed an order requiring every men aged between 16 and 28 in the Hoshikagami town to serve in his army. Whoever rejects the order would be immediately killed.


(Sumimasen for taking such a long time to complete this chapter. Ideas just keep popping in and out of my head. See you later in later chapters. Arigato Gozai Mazu.)