"They fought like legends. They fought like heroes. Four of them against what had to be at least thirty of the masked men. And the faceless men had brought their monsters with them. I saw both the Tiger mask and the Knight trading blows with the monstrous demon spider that Majo-sama had become. My brothers and I watched in horror and then growing excitement as Mizako did battle with, and then ultimately defeated Tamago. You have no idea how liberating it was to see that shinobi who had beaten us, demeaned us, tormented us over the course of our journey being stood up to… being overcome like that. It gave us something that we hadn't felt for a very long time… hope."

The Storyteller shook her head sadly. "We shouldn't have spent so much time watching from the doorway of the hut. We should have been hiding. A group of three of the masked men saw us peeping and charged the building."


We slammed the door and did our best to hold it shut, but even three healthy children would have had problems holding the door against three adults. There was a mighty blow and we went tumbling away. I remember looking up in time to see the fist that smashed into my face. "Stupid brat!" snarled an angry voice as sparks of light danced in front of me eyes. "Do you know the trouble you put us through you little…" The voice changed into a falsetto wail as Kyo pounced onto the faceless man's back, digging in with claws and teeth. There was a crunch as one of the faceless man's comrades yanked Kyo from his prey and hurled him into the wall of the hut. Yuki also tried to mount an attack, and received a boot for his trouble. I am ashamed to say that the only thing that crossed my woozy mind at that point was to scream at the top of my lungs.

One of the other faceless shinobi took a single step towards me and went down in a snarling mass of dogs. The other was using his katana to block a vicious series of blows from the dog girl's tekko kagi claws. Their duel was fast and furious, and nearly ended when the masked man slipped a backhanded slice through her defenses, catching her along the temple and taking a huge chunk out of her mink mask. Kira kicked him in the stomach and he stumbled back, right into Mizako who had just appeared in the doorway. There was an ear numbing explosion and the masked man's body flew past us and hit the far wall with enough force to shake the whole hut.

Mizako was shaking me, asking something, but my ears were ringing and I couldn't make it out. I might have been able to read her lips, but my eyes were glued to the broken corpse smoldering in the far corner.

When I finally managed to tear my gaze away, the Tiger masked shinobi was in the hut and Mizako was gone. It didn't take long to figure out where she was. Every so often the snowstorm outside would light up with brilliant flames. Everything still sounded like I was swimming underwater, but I was finally able to comprehend some of the conversation. "There's no way we can keep this up." the Tiger mask said as he was wrapping a bandage around Kira's head. "We must have lost… what, half the dogs by now?"

"Closer to two thirds," grumbled Kira. "The good news is that when they reappear back at the Inuzuka compound and go whimpering around looking for someone to treat their wounds, my clan is going to know what's up, and where we are, and send out a rescue team."

The ANBU sighed. "Which, if we're lucky, means they will arrive just in time to bury us," he said with a shake of his head. "If any of us are going to get out of here in one piece, we'll need a huge distraction…" He looked up at the roof of the hut as another explosion went off outside. "And I think I have an idea... watch the kids while I talk to Mizako." He slipped out of the building.

My brains must have been scrambled from the blows I took because the next thing I knew, I was in a pile on the floor with Yuki and Kyo. Kyo was badly hurt, worse than the beatings that he used to receive in the cage. Every time he took a breath, he gave a low rattling cough that brought a pink froth to his lips. Yuki was not much better, curled up into a little ball, clutching his sides. The three of us were surrounded by six dogs, not the wilder pack that the dog girl used, but six nin-ken in shinobi uniform. They watched us warily while the adults yelled at each other.

The Tiger mask was arguing with the farmer and his wife. They were upset over something that he wanted to do… was insisting that they had to do. "We refuse!" shouted the farmer. "You shinobi think you can just barge in here, getting us normal folk tangled up in your wars! By all rights I should have just shoved the whole lot of you out the door and left you there to be cut up into mincemeat!

"At which point you would have no one left to protect you and your wife," growled Ay behind them, causing both the farmers to jump. He leaned over the pair of them, his blood and soot stained face terrifying to behold. "Do you think the shinobi out there would be content to let you be just because you are non-combatants?" He snorted. "In war no one is safe... Kakashi's plan is a good one. Be thankful he decided to give you fair warning on when to flee."

Kakashi nodded. "Thank you." He turned to the surrounding nin-ken and spoke directly to them. "Everyone ready?"

"Ready as I'll ever be," grumbled the sour-faced pug dog who was seated just in front of my nose. There was a puff of smoke and the dog was replaced by the shape of a girl. I sat back and cried out in surprise, for she was an exact double of me. I twisted my head around. Each of the other dogs was now an exact duplicate of either Kyo, Yuki or myself.

The first mirror me scowled disapprovingly. "Relax kid," she said in the pug dog's voice. "I'm not thrilled to be looking like this either, but the best chance for any of us to make it out of here alive, is for us to all split up."

The idea of that sent a chill through my addled mind. "No!" I yelped grabbing hold of Kyo and Yuki. "I'm not letting them go!"

The Knight chuckled beside as he knelt to pick up Kyo, and slowly help Yuki to his feet. "Don't be afraid child… You and your brothers are coming with us. The two Konoha ANBU and their dogs are just hoping to lure some of our attackers away." He shot a look at the Tiger mask, his eyes narrowing in a look of disapproval. "Although if I was backed up by Kumo shinobi… we would not be fleeing right now."

"Too true," said the ANBU with a snort. "Your Kumo shinobi probably would have started running a long time ago."

There was a bang as the front door was flung open and Kira stumbled inside. "I hope you're all ready… because we are out of time people!" she shouted. Three of the dog clones of Yuki, Kyo and I formed up on her position.

A half second later Mizako came in as a blur. I'll never forget the look she gave me as she put her arms around me and hoisted me up in a hug. "Don't worry Tohru," she said with a reassuring smile. "Everything is going to be just fine." She turned back to her companions. "Ready?"

And each of them threw a handful of kunai trailing explosive tags at the ceiling moments before Kakashi and Mizako blew out each of the four walls with well placed fireball jutsu.

And then I was out in the swirling snow storm being dragged along by a frantically running Mizako. There was a blurred flash of dogs jumping and snapping at an ever tightening circle of masked men, right before the world exploded.

I was picked up and tossed by the force of the blast, but Mizako held onto me tightly. She righted my footing and soon she and I were running at top speed across the snowscape, dodging through the trees, with Ay and my two brothers keeping pace."

Until Yuki dug in his heels. "Stop!" he screamed as the Knight dragged him along. "Not that way!" I smelled it too, but neither of us had a chance to answer either Mizako or Ay's questioning look, before twin towering shafts of blackest night swept through the forest canopy, shattering tree trunks and spraying us with chunks of wood and muddy snow.

In the ruined clearing the demon spider reared up on its hind legs and screamed at the sky. I covered my ears and shivered to hear the sound.

When its display ended there was a pause. Ay put Yuki's hand in mine and gently handed Kyo into Mizako's arms. She staggered a little but managed to carry him. Then he stepped forward a good six paces. "Mizako," he said in a low rumble. "When I create an opening… you take the children and run."

The braided girl's head shook as the knight kept walking forward in a slow deliberate stalk. "Ay… Don't… We'll both fight… we'll fight it together!" she called trying to untangle herself from my hand. I whimpered at her words. As much as I didn't want Ay to leave us, it would be so much worse to be left alone in these woods, which were no doubt crawling with masked shinobi. Mizako looked down at me, and then back at her lover, her face a mask of indecision.

"Please Mizako," I whispered.

She looked at Ay's retreating back. She swallowed once. "Ay!" Mizako called, a hint of desperation in her voice. "Be careful! I…" she stopped and swallowed again. "I… Just don't get killed… okay?"

There was a laughing snort and the Knight tossed his head. "Don't you spare a moment worrying about me Kitten." He stopped his advance and began to weave a series of hand signs. "I've faced monsters far scarier than this." The air surrounding him crackled with energy, becoming thick with the sickly sweet smell of ozone. He began to glow with a blazing white aura. Fat sparks leapt from his flesh and earthed themselves in the ground, lighting the forest with bright, strobe light flashes. "Tohru!" he called out in a good natured tone. "I want you to take good care of Mizako for me. She often gets... silly ideas in her head and needs someone sensible to bring her back down to earth." The storm howled around him, snowflakes flashing away to tiny puffs of steam as they neared him. He paused for a second, glancing back at Mizako as if he were about to add something else, but then he steeled his jaw and turned away.

He roared a return challenge to the spider, his voice for one moment overcoming the noise of the blizzard. Then there was just the fluorescent afterglow of his charge.

The spider demon snarled and the earth shook. There was the snap and wooden scream of fallen trees. Through it all Ay charged again and again, launching himself at the beast. It was hard to tell who was getting the worse of the battle, the demon or the knight. They were both being knocked about the landscape.

It was the moment where Ay leaped straight into the spider's face, and followed it up with a series of blows to its eyes, that Mizako started to move. She wasn't as fast as before, after all she was weighed down by Kyo and trying to drag Yuki and me, but she was still making good speed and using the remaining trees as cover when Ay was hurled past us, neatly splitting a tree trunk.

Mizako zigzagged left as a leg constructed of smoky darkness plunged down from the sky and speared the ground where we had been standing moments before. She dodged again as the gigantic demon spider took another lumbering step forward, trying to smash us. Mizako twisted again, shifting her course, only this time Yuki couldn't keep up. He stumbled and his hand slipped from hers. He tried running but tripped over a tree root that was hidden in the snow.

"Shirt!" spat Mizako. She shoved me behind a tree and unceremoniously dumped Kyo in my lap, before turning back for Yuki. She was never going to make it in time. I saw his eyes go wide as another leg came down.

It stopped. Ay grunted as he caught the leg in both arms and then gave an angry snarl as he used his might to force it back up again. With a superhuman effort, he jerked the leg off to one side and swung his hand in a knife edged blow. There was the crack of chitin. The demon arachnid reared up and screeched as Ay's hand sliced cleanly through its exoskeleton in a spray of purple ichor. The demon's head swung down, its twin fangs drizzling venom, stabbing for Ay. He grabbed a mandible in each hand and skidded back a few meters before he could catch his footing again.

Ay turned his face from the demon's maw and caught sight of Mizako standing there, staring in horror. "What are you waiting for?" he grunted. "Run!"

I'm not sure what he was planning to do next because in the next moment Mizako ran. She built up speed, leaped to his shoulders and springboarded off of the top of his head, her hands burning as bright as the noontime sun.

I felt, rather than heard, the explosion. There was a wave of pressure that washed over me rattling my poor head once again. When the wave of nausea passed, Mizako and Ay were arguing in a crater, surrounded by swirling snow and dissipating wisps of dark smoke that stank of burning hair.

"...told you to stay out of my way and protect the children!"

"I was protecting them!" snapped Mizako, her face a mix of relief and irritation. "Yuki fell! I had to go back for him!"

"I gave you an order!"

Mizako put her hands on her hips. "Since when do you have any right to give me orders?"

Ay's face reddened. "I have over two thousand hours of missions logged, twenty three of those missions were A-rank and above... How much experience has your older brother let you have, squirt?"

A hurt look flashed over Mizako's face and was quickly replaced by one of anger. "I have plenty of mission experience," she snarled back. "Unlike your father, my brother doesn't believe in throwing shinobi into the fire just to see if they can survive!"

"You will not disrespect the Raikage within my hearing," Ay said in a cold voice.

"What's the matter Ay?" asked Mizako jabbing him with her finger. "You can dish it out but you can't take it?"

"You are insulting the honor of my village."

"Oh, like you don't go around declaring the Hokage is incompetent with every other breath?" she yelled.

They were both so intent on their little squabble that neither one saw the shadows gathering on the far side of the clearing. I opened my mouth but my throat was dry with fear. "Stop it," I called trying to get their attention.

"If this is the sort of discipline your brother instills in his shinobi... I don't see how anyone can come to any other conclusion!"

The darkness started swirling in a counterclockwise current, grouping together into a black cloud, slowly sprouting legs. "Stop fighting!" I called out again, louder this time.

"You're talking to me about discipline?! You did the exact same thing when I ordered you to stay with Tohru earlier!" Her head was arched up as she glared at him.

"You expect the Raikage's heir to take orders from an enemy shinobi?" he snarled his face red with fury."

There was a pause as meaning of that statement slowly sank in. "Is… is that how you think of me?" Mizako asked in a whisper.

Ay's eyes widened as he realized what had slipped out his mouth in that moment of anger. "Kitten…" he said softly, reaching out to comfort her. Still staring at him, her face a mask of hurt. Mizako took a step back. The knight from Kumogakure clenched his jaw tight and slowly turned his head away.

"Behind you!" I shrieked at the top of my lungs. They both looked up as a huge dark spear came swinging down. Ay threw himself over Mizako, his chakra sizzling over his body like an electric suit of armor. In the previous encounter I'd seen kunai, shuriken and other blades bounce away away before they could touch his flesh.

But this was no ordinary weapon. This was the unholy fang of an enraged demon. It looked like it met some resistance from Ay's aura on the way down, but nowhere near enough to stop the blow. If it wasn't for the Kumo shinobi's almost supernatural speed, he and Mizako would have been stabbed through… instead of the neat surgical tear bisecting Ay's flack jacket. The ground shuddered with a mighty footstep and we all looked up to glowing red eyes set around a jagged, drooling mandible.

This resurrected spider demon staggered back into the clearing, forcing Ay and Mizako to retreat. There were huge cracks in his exoskeleton which leaked a pestilent purple glow. Standing atop him was Majo-sama, still clad in nothing but her mask and becharmed sugesa. One of her arms was hanging limply at her side. The blood dripping off the tips of her fingers ran in streaks down the spider's carapace, staining the snow underneath black in the storm's twilight. I could not see the source of her injury but it must have been severe, for her demon arachnid wavered and was turning transparent in spots, as if she was losing the focus to hold him together.

Mizako recovered quickly, throwing a handful of smaller fireballs at the pair of them. The shadowy spider raised its forelegs, the ruined one and the whole, to block them, deflecting two and absorbing the explosion from a third, while once again Majo-sama's hand flashed over her seals. A pair of raven black wings sprouted from her back and covered her. The fireballs bounced harmlessly away.

Majo-sama laughed as the crippled spider took another thundering step closer to Mizako, using its bulk to shield her from the braided girl's fiery attacks. She raised her good hand and pointed at Ay. "Well done… well done indeed," she purred. "It has been a very long time since anyone has managed to blood me… Would you indulge a woman and be so forward as to tell me your name?"

Ay made no reply to her. He just very stiffly got to his feet, still glowing with his surrounding field of lightning chakra. Majo-sama's charms rang like bells as she tilted her head curiously. "There is no reason to be shy young man." She waved her hand at the slowly disintegrating arachnid made of night and shadow, and the demon, still blocking Mizako's line of fire, presented the masked woman with its fangs. She ran her fingers down the saw-toothed barb and smiled when they came away red. "It appears I have managed to score a touch on you as well… Has my pet's venom made you weary? I would have wagered an imposing physical specimen like yourself would still be able to maintain the common courtesies… or perhaps," she said, amusement twinkling in her voice, "my very presence frightens you to the point where you have lost the faculty to speak?"

There was a streak of light as Ay charged forward. I missed what happened exactly, but there was another crash as he collided with the dark demon. There was high pitched keening noise from the beast. It staggered and pieces of the monster's hard chitinous shell faded for a moment, but Ay was unable to take advantage because he had collapsed down to one knee.

Again, Majo-sama allowed her wings to deflect another spray of fire from Mizako. "From your appearance, temperament and jutsu, would I be safe in assuming that you are the Kumo shinobi known as Ay? The Raikage's heir?" She held her good hand up to her mask, as if inspecting the blood on her fingertips. "Your death would be a great boon for the Land of Fire… most definitely worth the risk of more... drastic measures."

Her hand slid over to a seal splashed across her belly. She touched the seal with a peculiar twisting motion and grunted as if in pain. When she pulled her hand away there was a small black orb nestled in her palm, pulsing as if it had a heartbeat. A moment of eerie dead quiet filled the woods. Even the storm seemed to pause and stare at this… this thing. "Blood for you to bind my pet," Majo hissed. She closed her hand and with a dark purple flash, the orb disappeared.

This whole time, even with all the wounds he had taken in the various battles, I had never heard Ay cry out in pain. He threw back his head and screamed, tearing at his back with his hands. A spider's web of thin black lines could be seen worming their way under his skin at the back of his exposed neck and shoulders. As he squirmed there, his lightning chakra armor flickered once, and went out.

The spider demon awkwardly took another huge step forward and raised its two hairy forelegs. They swung down and met an arc of flame so hot it was burning bright blue. Mizako had moved, standing in front of the wounded Ay. The spider's limbs met the licking flames and they crackled and burst in the heat, jets of superheated steam forming fog geysers from its joints.

The demon lumbered to one side and charged again, this time heading for Yuki. There was a swirling trail of snow left in Mizako's wake as in the blink of an eye, she planted herself in front of my brother, again filling the air with fire, a still impressive jutsu, albeit noticeably smaller than the previous one. Thus began a slow dance of death between Mizako and the arachnid… Each time the monster lunged forward it would be met with hellishly hot fires that would tear away chunks of its flesh, boiling them away into clouds of eye stinging smoke.

But each time it was turned away, Mizako would move more slowly, her next flame jutsu would have a shorter reach... And the subsequent demon charge would take the monster a half a meter closer to us. This battle had turned into a duel between will and strength, a fading, yet determined young woman against a gargantuan undead spider. I couldn't tell which would falter first, Mizako's flames or Majo's monster.

The demon made one last brutal charge, forcing itself forward through the heat. At its mistresses urging, it thrust its gaping maw through the firewall. The spider gave a high pitched keening wail as three of its eyes burst in the baking flames, but its good eyes were fixed on Mizako, standing over a collapsed Ay and a whimpering Yuki. A long string of drool fell from its snapping jaws and left a bubbling, smoking patch on the frozen ground.

"There was a harsh white flare that lit up the clearing, brighter than high noon. Ay had somehow forced the last few dregs of chakra he had remaining into his strong right arm... And as the demon arachnid breached the firewall, he sprang up with a roar, striking with his right hand just under the spider's mandible.

His arm sank in up to the shoulder. There was an unearthly white glow shining through the demon's maw and reflected in its eyes. This battlefield tableau sat there frozen for a moment. Then the knight heaved against the spider's carapace with all his might. There was a crack and his arm came free. He dropped to the ground with a painful sounding thud, his right arm covered in steaming purple ichor and trailing wisps of foul smoke.

There were more cracking noises, followed by a series of little musical rings as chunks of the spider began to crumble off and fall. Smoke began to rise from its body as the fissures spread. This unraveling traveled back into the thorax and creeped into the demon's abdomen. One by one the legs faltered and the back of the beast started to list, bucking off its mistress as it disintegrated piece by piece. Mizako seized the collar of Ay's flak vest, adding her strength to his, trying to pull him out from under the decaying monster. Then suddenly there was a wet sounding pop. The remaining fragments of the monster dissolved into a dizzying whirlwind of shadow that was sucked back into Majo-sama.

Majo was hovering in the air, using her wings to keep aloft. She stared down at the exhausted, wounded group below her and giggled, an unpleasant sound. She soared around the clearing as she laughed, ducking between branches heavy with snow. "Well Ay-san," she called, her voice fading in the blizzard, "since we are both injured and I apparently am in no condition to finish this, we will have to meet again at a later date." We heard the flapping of wings for a while, but soon even that was lost in the sound of the howling wind.

Ay reached out a hand, trying to find purchase on tree to pull himself standing. Mizako reached underneath him and did her best to haul Ay to his feet. "Are you okay?" she asked, her face full of worry.

"We have no time… to stand about in shock… like a bunch of weak… pathetic… sniveling... failures," he said through gritted teeth. "We must... leave this place."

"It can wait," insisted Mizako, reaching out for him. "You're hurt. we need to…"

He brushed her hand aside. "I said... we need to leave this place… now!" he insisted. He shook his head at the pained look she shot him. "She could be back any moment with reinforcements." He hobbled over to Kyo and, with a grunt, scooped him up. Then he started to blindly march off into the snow.

"Ay! Wait!" cried Mizako, she grabbed my hand and Yuki's and ran after him.