A/N: Has it been long enough for all of those people who were actually interested in this to move on with their lives? Oh it has? That must mean it's time for an update. Sorry it took so long folks, I don't really have any excuses so I'll just forgo all of that. For those of you that are still around, thank you--it makes me glad that at least one other person out there is enjoying this story like I am. Please let me know what you think. Hopefully I'll be a little active on this story through the next few months. I am deployed to the Middle East right now though, so things may come up. Please be patient (as if you haven't been already and I promise this will get moving. I want to know how it ends too.
Disclaimer: Blah blah sue me, I don't care. It's not mine.
In the pre-dawn twilight two gray silhouettes sprinted along the sandy shore as the tide slowly came in, wave by wave. Their footprints did not remain long after their passing with the water washing them away.
Just before the full break of day when the barest of shadows still clung to the land, the two figures encountered the last of the sandy beach, and stared across a river at a cliff towering several hundred feet above them. The taller of the two looked to the shorter, and noticed the fatigue on her features.
"Looks like we're out of beach. We'll break here for awhile," he said.
Tayuya turned to glare at him, but not having the breath to argue, she silently agreed and plopped down on the rocky sand with her back to a palm tree. They had been running non-stop since they made their escape from the city and heading south along the coast. The sand on the beaches had slowed them down considerably, especially Tayuya. She had been okay on the roof tops and trees, though Kyosuke had had to catch her once or twice when she lost her footing on some of the trees. He had not said a word, or reacted in the slightest—which Tayuya decided was good for his overall health.
'If he says one word…' she groused internally, trying to catch her breath.
Kyosuke had taken a seat against an adjacent palm tree, sitting so he was facing her. He stared at her for several long moments with a puzzled look on his face.
'She seems to know me, but…' he thought, but he got nothing at all when he looked at her. No niggling feeling of a memory trying to come forward or any sense of familiarity whatsoever.
Tayuya could feel him staring, and it was starting to piss her off, but she was too tired to say anything about it for a few minutes, so she let it be. When she had caught her breath and he was still staring though, she'd had enough.
"Okay, you freak! I'm not a free show or something—I'm not going to get up and start dancing around for you so just stop looking at me, you stupid pervert!" she screamed at him. To her satisfaction, he flinched and turned away, embarrassed.
"…Sorry," he said a moment later. She opened her eyes and looked over at him, waiting. As she expected, he continued—but only after locking his gaze with hers again, which she did not expect. "I don't recognize you at all. When I woke up some of my stuff managed to affect me, and I remembered just a tiny bit, or maybe felt something, but with you? Nothing." He looked at her critically, "Are you sure you know me?"
Tayuya laughed a mirthless laugh and leaned her head back with her eyes closed. "Ha! I never said I knew who you were, I just said I recognized you. The only time I ever saw your ugly face before was when me and my team were trying to take that emo-fag Sasuke to Orochimaru's place. You and your team came after us and we fought for a couple of minutes. I just figured that you had tracked me down somehow and were coming after me. I couldn't figure out how you knew I was still alive though—that butt-ugly sand girl's summon practically killed me," she nearly mumbled. Looking back up at Kyosuke, she continued, "The only other thing I know about you is that you're from Konoha."
Kyosuke listened to her, feeling his heart sink when she revealed that she didn't know who he was, and only recognizing the name 'Sasuke' from the mask he had found. He frowned and dropped his head between his knees.
Tayuya wasn't quite sure what she had said, but it was clear Kyosuke was not happy. Not that she cared—he may have helped her a little bit at the hotel, even though she had been trying to kill him and he had no idea who she was, but that didn't mean she gave a rat's behind about how he felt.
"Tayuya, right?" Kyosuke suddenly asked. "Tayuya what?" he added.
"I don't have a last name you dork," she shot back. "Just call me Tayuya, you weirdo." They fell silent for a few moments, until she spoke again. "You really have no idea who you are, do you?"
Kyosuke shook his head. "No. I woke up yesterday with only the things I have on me in the middle of a giant crater north of here. It looked like there used to be a town there, but there was nobody left. I managed to figure out how to get to that city we just left and that's where you came in. That's my whole story."
Tayuya whistled. "Wow, that sucks. You're really screwed!"
Kyosuke made a face. "It doesn't sound like you're much better off, you know. It seems to me that you're living as a thief and are just barely surviving at that. So what's your story?"
Tayuya's smirk disappeared while he threw her own comments back in her face. "Look butt-face, I could get up and just walk away and leave you here but for two things: you helped me out last night, so I owe you; and…"
Kyosuke squinted at her. "And?"
"…I need your help to get up the cliff across the river," she barely whispered.
Kyosuke quirked an eyebrow. "What do you mean? I thought we were going to follow the river or something. I don't know how to get up that. What am I supposed to do?"
Tayuya glared back at him incredulously. "What do you mean you don't know how to get up that? You just scale the wall with chakra. Obviously that's something I can't do, since my chakra system is burnt out."
Kyosuke frowned. That was the third time she'd mentioned that 'chakra' stuff. "What do you mean, about chakra? What is that? It sounds really familiar, but I really don't know what you're talking about."
Tayuya regarded him with a curious glare. "Wow, you really have lost your memory if you don't even remember what chakra is." She paused and closed her eyes, holding up one finger in front of her, trying her best to look like a teacher. "Chakra– " she began, but to Kyosuke, his vision flashed and her image was replaced by that of a pink haired girl standing behind a desk in what looked like a classroom.
"Chakra is made up of spiritual and physical energy. The physical energy, or stamina, is the energy that keeps our bodies alive and is increased through physical training. Spiritual energy sustains our spirits and is developed over time by concentration and mental training. When the two are combined to form chakra, it can be molded by a person into an outward manifestation of one of two types: ninjutsu and genjutsu, or otherwise known as physical attacks and illusions. Chakra flows through our bodies along pathways which make up the chakra circulatory system, which works the same way as the normal circulatory system, except that it transports chakra instead of blood. Chakra moves out of our bodies through the tenketsu, which are small pores chakra flows through when we mold it."
The girl smiled prettily as a man's voice complimented her, before directing her to sit down and continuing on about chakra…
Kyosuke shook his head as Tayuya finished her explanation and opened her eyes. Kyosuke felt wetness on his cheeks and moved his hand up to wipe it away, realizing that he had been crying.
"Oi!" Tayuya shouted, "I know it was a good freakin' explanation, but if it moved your sorry butt to tears then we might have to cut down on the freakin' lessons. What's your problem anyway, crybaby?"
Kyosuke stared at his wet fingers for a moment before answering. "I…I think I remembered something. When you started to talk about chakra I remembered a girl…with pink hair. She was explaining how chakra worked and what it was, but I don't remember her name. I don't remember anything!" he shouted, pounding his fist into the sand.
Tayuya wasn't sure what to say to that, so she fell back on her usual method. "It was probably some stupid girl that dumped your pathetic butt when she found out how much of a loser you were." She smiled smugly, waiting for him to get angry. Instead she got silence, so she looked back at the blond and found him looking down at the ground.
"Maybe you're right, Tayuya," he murmured, completely catching the girl off guard. "Maybe all I am is a big crybaby, and that pink haired girl is just an ex-girlfriend. But I don't think so—when I think about her, I feel like…like there's a hole in my chest, and it doesn't feel like rejection. It feels more like she's gone. For good. I don't know why, but I have this terrible feeling that she's dead, and somehow it's my fault." He looked up at his acerbic companion. "Does that make any sense? Does that sound right? Is that what it feels like to lose someone?"
Tayuya's mouth failed her, for once. No matter how hard she tried, she simply could not get any of her standard barbs to issue out at the man before her, looking so lost, and yet so earnest. The look on his face told her that he knew what it meant to bet everything and lose, and then have to suffer through living afterwards. She suddenly felt an unbidden wave of sympathy for this man—and then she washed it away. "Look you dork, people die. There's nothing you can do about it so you might as well just get over it."
Kyosuke forced a sad smile. "Yeah, I guess you're right. It's kind of silly to miss someone I don't even remember, isn't it?" he asked, but his voice betrayed his lack of conviction.
Unexpectedly, he shook off his melancholy and met Tayuya's eyes with determination. "Okay, so I remember what chakra is—when I unsealed the scrolls in my pouch I didn't know exactly what the energy that I was using was called, but now I remember. I guess that's how I did that thing with my hand at the hotel?"
Tayuya looked at him strangely, wondering if he was always so manic-depressive, but finally answered. "Yeah, though I have no idea how you did that—that's a special technique that I've never seen before. Do you remember how to scale walls by chance?"
Kyosuke shook his head. "No…sorry."
Tayuya grit her teeth. "Tch. Figures. I have no idea how I'm going to show you this without being able to actually demonstrate, but here it goes." She got up and moved to the tree Kyosuke sat under, looking down at him. "When you unsealed those scrolls you mentioned, you had to focus the chakra to your hands, right?" Kyosuke nodded. "Okay, well this is similar, but instead of focusing it to your hands, you focus it to your feet. Stand up and give it a try."
Kyosuke's eyes widened as she spoke. "Wait a second! Is this anything like walking on water?" he asked.
"Well, yeah," she answered. "Why?"
"Well that I can do, but I don't know how it works. On my way to town yesterday I was just walking along the beach as the tide came in and didn't realize I was walking on water until a wave smashed into me."
"Well, water walking is usually a bit harder than tree climbing, so I guess you should be able to. But you don't know how to actually focus the chakra to your feet consciously?"
Kyosuke shook his head. "Like I said, I didn't even realize I was doing it until I got all wet. It's like I do this stuff instinctually."
Tayuya sighed. "Okay, let's start by focusing chakra to your hands. Maybe we can backtrack from there and get it to your feet."
Kyosuke nodded, and before he had even thought about it, his hands were encased in a bright blue glow. Tayuya peered at his hands. "Dang, you're putting out quite a bit there. And yours is darker blue than most people's too…almost indigo," she trailed off. "Did you feel anything? Did you feel a draining sensation from around your stomach area?"
Kyosuke shook his head. "Sort of. It doesn't so much feel like draining as it does like letting the pressure out of a soda that's been shaken up. But I still don't know how to make it go to my feet instead of my hands…" He closed his eyes and concentrated, thinking about chakra and hoping to remember something. For a long time nothing came to him, and all he saw was the darkness behind his eyelids.
Tayuya had been about to suggest something, but she noticed Kyosuke close his eyes and calm down. 'Heh, I guess he beat me to it. He doesn't really seem like the type for meditation, but it might work.'
Tayuya sat watching him for several minutes as he sat beneath the palm tree. Watching the breeze blow through his long blonde spikes and seeing the serene look on his face, Tayuya was forced to admit that all in all he wasn't bad—at least not bad looking. 'I'll hold off judgment on the rest of him until later. He still annoys me,' she thought to herself. 'Speaking of annoying, did the idiot fall asleep? He's been there for way longer than he seems like he'd be able to stay quiet…'
Tayuya leaned forward to confirm her suspicions, walking forward on her hands and knees until she was almost nose to nose with the blonde, listening carefully for the telltale signs of his sleeping. As she listened however, his blue eyes suddenly snapped open and locked onto her brown ones—right before they both screamed and fell backwards away from each other.
"Wha…what the heck were you doing?" Kyosuke nearly shouted.
"Me? I'm not the one who fell asleep when he's supposed to be trying to remember how to tree-climb!" Tayuya shot back, completely forgetting that she had never ascertained whether or not he had indeed been sleeping.
"Fell asleep?" Kyosuke asked, confused. "I never fell asleep—I was meditating."
Tayuya hung her head and grumbled unintelligibly. When she lifted her head again she found Kyosuke attempting to climb the tree—but not like a ninja, more like a child would.
Seeing that Tayuya was occupied, Kyosuke had decided to try his idea. 'When I was walking on water, I didn't even need to think about it, I just did it—the same with the fight in the hotel and that weird ball. Maybe if I just put myself in the right situation, I can figure this out too…'
He could feel Tayuya's eyes on him as he continued to climb all the way to the top, hugging the tree the whole way.
"That's great, meathead, but how is that supposed to help us? No way can you carry me up the cliff that way—not that I'd let you," the redhead called from below. Kyosuke simply turned to look over his shoulder at her before he grinned and let his hands slip off of the tree.
"Idiot!" Tayuya screamed as she impulsively ran to the base of the tree. She wasn't really sure what she was thinking, because when she arrived it dawned on her that a body much larger than hers was about to land right on top of her, so she cringed and waited for the impact.
Which never came. What did come was a chuckle that sounded very close.
She looked up and nearly poked her eyes out on the blonde spikes hanging just at eye level. They turned away as Kyosuke craned his neck to turn towards her—he was hanging upside down by his feet, gripping the sides of the trunk.
She looked up at Kyosuke, who was staring at her grinning like an idiot. "How?" she demanded, "How did you do that?"
Kyosuke turned his gaze on her, and it was so ridiculously happy that she nearly felt herself grin, as if it was contagious. "I don't know. I figured I already know how to do it subconsciously and I should trust my instincts, and so I did. This is awesome!" he shouted exuberantly. He ran up and down the tree, laughing like a fresh genin after learning his first jutsu.
At first Tayuya found it amusing, in a very adolescent way, but eventually the charm wore off and she had to end it. "Okay you moron! I get it, you're happy you learned a new trick! Now get down here and let's get moving. I want to get to the next village before dark," she called.
Kyosuke jumped down from the top of the tree, landing squarely in front of Tayuya. "Ossu! Hop on!" he exclaimed, turning his back to Tayuya.
She stared at his back for a moment until he turned and grinned over his shoulder at her. Deciding that it couldn't be as bad as she thought, she hopped onto his back and held on to his neck. After hooking his arms under her knees he leapt across the river and ran straight up the rock face, never stumbling once.
For his passenger though, the ride was not so smooth, so she held on for dear life—without chakra.
And she introduced Kyosuke to a whole new level of cursing and insults.
lll TKI lll
Several hours later as the sun was going down, Kyosuke spotted lights ahead of him in the dusky twilight.
"Ne, Tayuya—wake up," he said, jostling his passenger lightly. She had yelled at him pretty good for his climbing stunt, so in a self-preservation move he decided to keep them on the cliffside until she calmed down. That would have been fine, had she not fallen asleep before calming down. Kyosuke was more than a little nervous about her waking up and really walloping him, but once he left the cliffside and readjusted her weight on his back she had settled in quite comfortably. And so Kyosuke had continued traveling to their current point.
Now, however, he needed Tayuya to guide them—he didn't know where she had been intending to go. "Tayuya," he said a little louder, bouncing her a little bit on his back to help wake her up, "We're here, I just need you to tell me where we're going."
He heard a yawn and a smacking noise from behind his left ear, and then he went deaf.
By means of shrieking banshee.
His fears suddenly realized, he dropped Tayuya on her butt faster than gravity should have allowed and raised his hands placatingly in front of him as he whirled to face the angry woman.
For her part, Tayuya had woken from a very nice nap to the sounds of the waves crashing against the rocky shore and a warm body beneath her—which was what alarmed her and caused her to unleash her sonic assault on Kyosuke's ears. By the time she finally remembered what had happened Kyosuke was already in front of her talking so fast she couldn't understand a single word, and she was growing angrier by the minute. Her eye started to twitch and she reached for one of her throwing knives when she was finally able to glean something intelligible from Kyosuke's ramble.
"…and I'm really sorry! I didn't mean to make you mad, but then you fell asleep and I didn't know what to do so I just kept heading south on the coast like you said and now we're here and the city lights are right there but I don't know where to go so I had to wake you up and I'm really sorry! I promise I'll…"
"Kyosuke!" she shouted, causing him to immediately cease his monologue. "I'll kill you later for trying to take advantage of me," she smirked seeing his face blanch, "but thanks for bringing us here—I didn't think you'd actually carry me the whole freakin' way you whack-job."
Kyosuke, sensing that she was joking (after a fashion), relaxed and locked his hands behind his head and grinned widely at her. During the journey along the coast he had had a lot of time to think. In spite of everything he didn't have and might never recover, he decided that things could definitely be much worse. He did have a couple of good things going for him anyway, between his health and his apparent skill in chakra use (as long as he could force the techniques to come).
Still grinning at Tayuya while she smirked at him, he thought, 'Yeah, it could be a lot worse. As long as I'm alive I can make things better, so I'll start by just trying to be happy with what I've got.'
About that time, his stomach growled loudly. 'Well, maybe there are a few things that I'm lacking…'
Tayuya made a face as her stomach gurgled too. "Crap. I guess we haven't eaten in a while," she said as she stood up. "Come on, I know a place we can eat before we make our scheduled stop." She took the lead and Kyosuke followed her into the town.
lll TKI lll
Kyosuke and Tayuya walked in silence along the darkened streets of the town, having filled their stomachs and turned to business matters. It was a tense silence they enjoyed, owing mostly to the awkward events at dinner.
Since Kyosuke had bailed her out the previous evening, Tayuya had offered to buy him dinner. They had eaten at a teriyaki shop, and although he had enjoyed the Unagi Donburi that Tayuya had ordered for him (who knew eel could taste so good?), he still felt that it was somehow not completely satisfying, and had said so.
Tayuya had nearly strangled Kyosuke over the giant stack of bowls next to him as he made the ridiculous statement.
Kyosuke had apologized afterwards and tried to better explain that what he had meant was that although he really did like the food she had bought for him, there was something in the back of his mind that was screaming for something else, but he couldn't tell what.
'Jeez, you'd think he'd know a little better than to say something like that to a girl who just bought him dinner,' Tayuya fumed. 'I mean, I know he lost his memory and everything, but he sure seems to be on the slow side sometimes…'
Before too long, they arrived at the place that Tayuya had been leading them—a large house that was even too big to be called a house. A mansion, really. Kyosuke reached forward to open the gate when Tayuya stopped him.
"Nah," she shook her head. "He reserves this entrance for his special guests. We're just riff-raff—we'll use the back." And with that, she leapt off around the side of the walled property with Kyosuke right behind. It didn't take much more than a minute for her to find the inconspicuous shrub hiding the secondary entrance to the property, a rusted gate just large enough for one person to squeeze through. From there they strolled across the lawn to the patio and entered through a door on the veranda looking out to the sea.
Tayuya led them through a short series of corridors until they arrived at what appeared to be a library. Moving quickly between the stacks, Kyosuke noted the large number of artifacts and glass cases along the outer walls of the room. 'This place is almost more like a museum,' he thought to himself. Before he could discover any more a loud booming voice pierced his thoughts.
"Tayuya! Wonderful to see you. I suppose this means you've brought me something?" the voice asked. Kyosuke had fallen behind Tayuya while looking around and now hurried to catch up. "Of course Nobunaga. I'm sure as heck not here because I missed you," Tayuya replied with a hint of disgust. Kyosuke rounded the end of the stacks and immediately saw why.
Tayuya was several stacks down to his left glaring at a…robust man, to put it mildly, sitting in a large leather chair with a large plate of shrimp and oysters to one side. It was apparent from the stains on his shirt and the large pile of empty shells that he had been there for some time. Kyosuke involuntarily grimaced—luckily his host did not seem to notice him.
"Tayuya," the large man called Nobunaga drawled without conviction, "you wound me. Now what have you brought me? As I recall I had asked you to recover something that was taken from me..."
The girl nodded and reached into her hip pouch, extracting the mask that had ultimately cost at least one man his life. The man's face brightened immediately, causing his already red face to shine in the dim light. "Ah! I have missed this one," he cooed. Kyosuke looked at the mask that Tayuya was carefully handing to Nobunaga—it certainly didn't look like anything special. It mostly looked like piece of tree bark covered in river muck and seaweed. Tayuya showed no reaction, but she seemed to relax a little when it was no longer in her hand. Nobunaga meanwhile looked adoringly at the hideous mask. "The Kappa's Mask was one of the first in my collection—and unfortunately one of the first I sold after the civil war here in Water Country."
"Great, I'm glad you've got your crappy mask. Can I have my money? I've got places to go," Tayuya said gruffly. The rotund man smirked at the much smaller girl and started to reach into his coat with a sweaty hand. Kyosuke tensed to leap forward, afraid the man was going to draw a weapon, when suddenly his face went slack in surprise and he slumped forward, revealing the kunai buried in the back of his skull. Kyosuke's eyes moved quickly from the protruding object to the silhouetted figure beyond.
When the figure was joined by five others, Kyosuke placed his hand on Tayuya's shoulder and pulled her behind him. "Stay behind me," he said quietly. Tayuya saw no immediate reason to argue with him, since it was easy to see that these new opponents were a level above the minor police force they had faced in their previous fight.
Kyosuke surveyed the six oncoming ninja as they slowly crossed the room. He knew he could hold a few of them back in a fight, but he wasn't sure he could keep them all busy enough to keep Tayuya safe or give her a chance to escape.
'What can I do? What I really need is more people on my side…' Kyosuke's eyes widened as he remembered the hotel room when Tayuya had been held hostage. 'That's right! I made a copy of myself, and it was able to take out the enemy without me taking a step. Now how did I do that?'
He tried to remember what he had done to clone himself (he wasn't sure what else to call it), but before he could force any memory to surface his opponents made the first move, throwing an assortment of shuriken and kunai. Running on instinct, Kyosuke picked up Tayuya and ran, pulling down stacks behind them as he ran.
'Crap! I need more time—I feel like I know what I need to do, but I can't remember how to do it!' he screamed internally. They rounded the corner through the doorway with the whistling sounds of more kunai flying in their direction. The long hallway caused Kyosuke to pause a moment.
'Okay, there's no place for me to hide down this whole hallway. With Tayuya on my back she's totally exposed while we run…' The thudding of kunai hitting the doorway behind him jolted him into action. He ran up the wall on their left, changing his grip on Tayuya as they climbed.
For her part, Tayuya was getting angrier by the second. 'Those buttheads cost me my pay! I didn't really like the guy, but at least he never tried to cheat me out of my fee. And now this blond bastard is toting me around like a piece of friggin' luggage! I'm not totally helpless you idiot!' As they stopped over the doorway, upside-down, the first of their pursuers started through the door, and Tayuya wrenched herself free from Kyosuke's grip, eliciting a hiss from him and drawing the ninja's attention upwards, just in time for Tayuya to plunge her knife into his forehead.
Kyosuke breathed a sigh of relief. 'One down, five to go,' he thought. Tayuya suddenly gasped and started to sprint down the hallway, followed by a fast moving torrent of water that was sure to either drown her or crush her. 'Crap! I can't get to her in time,' Kyosuke realized. He started to run towards her anyway, wishing that he could remember how to make clones.
And like he had really made a wish, a clone appeared running alongside Tayuya, scooping her up and taking her to safety on the ceiling. Kyosuke quickly ran to them and took Tayuya from…well, himself, he supposed. Meeting his own eyes (which was a strange experience anyway), understanding seemed to pass to his clone and he ran back towards the library to hold their pursuers at bay.
Meanwhile Tayuya looked at him with frustrated, but grateful eyes. "Thanks, I guess. That's two I owe you."
Kyosuke shrugged, looking at her upside down. "Thank me later. We still need to survive this." Adjusting his grip, he ran toward the far end of the hallway and the lone skylight. Just as he reached it, he received a brief jolt of memories from fighting the pursuing ninja.
'Whoa…that was weird. I'll have time to think about that later though.' Twisting in a nearly inhuman fashion, he threw himself and Tayuya upward through the skylight and out into the darkness.
