A/N: Apologies for the very long wait ^.^ and thank you to ALL who reviewed or put this story on alert or favourites etc. I have no excuse. It was just a really, unbelievably stressful and busy year this year but hopefully I'll be able to update more regularly now :) In any case, sorry if the writing isn't as great; I haven't written this in a long time.


Damn it! Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it! Ayame cursed internally as she hastily rolled off her couch and landed on the floor in a crouch, just in time to avoid a speeding object that hurtled through the window, shattering the glass and sending a sprinkle of small shards of glinting glass down on her back. She tilted her body to one side, allowing the pieces of glass to slide to the floor with dull chinks, and then skilfully slithered along the couch's shadow to the deeper shadows in the corner of the room where she stood up, the adrenaline that pumped through her veins making her tense and hyperaware of her surroundings.

Seconds later, more shuriken came flying through the window, followed by fifteen shadows which flitted in through the broken window. It was a group that was normally large enough to subdue her, but they did not know that she had her supposed victim on her side. The faint sound of weapons being drawn could be heard in the following silence. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply.

A sword blinked in the dim light of the moon and came slicing towards her neck. She lowered her stance in a duck and slid her right foot forward, sending a powerful snap punch at her attacker's solar plexus. She felt the man's breath leave his body and he doubled over, wheezing. She grabbed onto his head and smashed her knee into his face before he could try anything else, and finished him with a blow to the back of his head.

She straightened and immediately twirled to her left to avoid two shuriken flying at her. She could hear the whizz of Raizo's knife and the clang of chain hitting blade as he engaged in battle. She hopped over another sword swipe and twisted in the air to avoid another blade. She hastily grabbed a couple of shuriken from the pouch Raizo had given her which was attached to her left hip and flung them with practised speed and accuracy.

One of them managed to deflect the deadly star. She pulled one of her swords from her back and made quick work of him during his second of distraction. A blade grazed her ribs, but she ignored the sting as she had been trained to do and she whipped around to face another black-clothed shinobi. Before she could connect a strike, however, a chain-held knife buried itself into the man's neck and flashed out of her sight. A hand grasped her wrist. She turned without a flinch and raised her sword, about to slice the hand off.

"Get the car," murmured Raizo's voice, and her sword stilled, not two centimetres away from his skin. "We are nearly done here."

She gave a brief nod to show her understanding and then took a running leap out the broken window. A shuriken followed her out and lodged itself in the muscle of the junction between her arm and her neck. She hissed in pain and annoyance and quickly pulled it out before she landed on the pavement two stories below. She bent her knees and channelled her momentum into a roll, then stood immediately and ran off to get the car.

Sirens sounded in the distance. Police sirens. Ayame's fingers increased their tempo on the steering wheel. Someone must've heard the fight and called the police. And Raizo is sure taking his sweet time. She revved the engine impatiently and sure enough, the car shook violently as someone landed on the roof. She kept a hand on a sword as a precaution, but relaxed when Raizo's form slithered down the side of the car.

"Drive," he ordered tersely as soon as he sat down.

"Where?"

"Away from the sirens."

She released the handbrake and stepped on the accelerator. Time to put her driving skills to the test.

~xXx~

"Go into the parking lot."

They had been driving for some time and the sirens were now far behind them. The parking lot was that of a motel, whose sign proudly declared in bright neon lights that it was the best motel in town. She did as she was told without a question. She hadn't known him for long, but she already knew that he did everything for a reason and that that reason was most likely going to save them. She pulled into a parking space neatly and she turned to ask him what was next. Except he was not there. The empty seat where a human had occupied just moments ago gave her a pause and a brief idea that she had in fact left him behind flitted through her mind.

A horn honked as quietly as it could and she glanced up at the rearview mirror. Raizo sat in the driver's seat of a luxurious silver sports car. He had the black tinted windows rolled down and gestured for her to hurry up.

"Where are we going?" she asked as she scrambled in. The seats were leather and the engine could be heard or felt and was powerful enough to outrun the car of the average policeman. The only thing that kept it from becoming the perfect car was its colour. Silver was bright. It was bling. And bright and bling do not hide well in the night.

"Ozunu Clan House."

"Oh. Why?" That meant they were heading for the airport and going back to Japan.

"The location should have been delivered there," he replied, his logic clear and cold as usual. "The easiest time to kill Lord Doku is during the tournament. There he is likely to be less well-guarded. We would both die if we ever attempt to storm the Doku Clan House."

This was true. She fell silent and leaned back in her comfy seat, finding the button that lowered the seat back. Now that the action was over – at least for now – fatigue enveloped her. The wound in her shoulder was burning on contact with the seat back so she turned on her side and brought her feet up to curl into a ball. Her shoes would dirty the pristine leather, but that was the least of her concerns. They would change cars again soon to keep the police and whoever else was after them off their spoors for longer – if only for a little while. She yawned widely.

"Sleep," he said, not taking his eyes off the road.

"What about you?"

"I don't need it."

Ayame snorted, but shut her eyes nevertheless. "Don't lie," she murmured sleepily. "Everyone needs sleep."

Raizo glanced at her out the corner of his eye. While she looked exactly like her sister, she was so different from her. She was slightly wilder and had a much harder heart, willing to kill without a second thought where her sister couldn't. Perhaps they were once alike in that regard, but the training she went through took her down one path while it took Kiriko down another. Ayame had the will to adapt and survive; Kiriko had the will not to compromise her values.

He sighed, a barely noticeable expelling of air through his lips. He was doing it again, comparing the two sisters. They were their own person in their own right; neither was better than the other, and yet his mind often wandered along this boulevard. Ayame shifted beside him and he glanced at her again. There was a rather deep wound in her shoulder, he noticed. It was still sluggishly seeping blood and looked to be a shuriken wound. He himself had gotten off with only a few scratches and bruises here and there that would heal in a matter of days. It was what he counted as one of his luckier battles with ninjas. In any case, he would treat that wound tomorrow morning. It was deep, but not serious. She looked to peaceful in her sleep for him to be willing to wake her up now.

He glanced in the rearview mirror and settled more comfortably into his seat as he saw that there was no-one behind them. There were still a couple of hours before they would reach the airport. It should be day by then.


A/N: Thanks for reading!
Updated 08 Nov '11