CHAPTER 10: Separate Paths

"Lacus!" Kira called out to the pink-haired princess as he entered the cave. Lacus heard his call and turned to face him.

"Are you ok?" Kira asked her gently as she smiled in reply.

"I guess Athrun told you everything"

Kira only nodded as she continued "It's no big secret anyways"

At that moment, Athrun, Cagalli and Shinn entered the cave to join Kira, Lacus and Stellar, looking as if they just had a serious meeting before they entered.

"Kira, one question, what are you and Lacus planning to do?" Athrun asked.

"Oh yeah! After all that has happened, Kira and Lacus can't just walk back to your respective villages. Stellar don't even want to know what the people would do with Kira and Lacus"

Everyone nodded in agreement except Kira and Lacus. Kira looked at the ground, deep in thoughts when Cagalli broke the silence.

"Run away together"

Everyone stared at her as if they had a fish bone stuck in their throat.

"How could you say something like that Cagalli!"

"Come on Athrun! What other choices do we have?!"

"But …"

"I guess that's the only path we can take now" Kira interrupted Athrun as he tried to argue with Cagalli.

Everyone turned their attention to Kira as he continued "It does seems like both Lacus and I have to leave this place for now till things calm down"

"We'll inform you both when that time comes" Shinn said in agreement.

"Do Kira and Lacus need some food for the journey? Stellar can head back to Iga to get some"

"No thanks Stellar, Kira and I will be alright. We'll get our food supplies from Euphoria since it's not that far from here"

"Where do you intend to go?" Athrun asked with curiosity "I don't think there's any place where the Hokage won't look"

"Beyond the mountains of Euphoria" Kira replied after some consideration. "Tell us anything that's going on in both villages while we're away"

"Ok, make sure you guys head there with haste and take care!"

After that, Kira and Lacus left the area, heading towards the neutral village, as the remaining four shinobi headed back to their respective villages as quickly as possible to prevent anyone from suspecting the reason behind their disappearance.

At the Iga village

Siegel started to make preparations for the war without attracting the attention of the enemy. However to his disappointment, all the shinobi were quite restless after Lacus' kidnap and do not feel like fighting. They even argued that the Koga village may hold Lacus as hostage if they tried to attack.

"How many times do I have to tell you?" Siegel was yelling as loud as usually within the past few days. "They won't hold my daughter as hostage! I dare them!"

"But Hokage-sama, shouldn't we rescue Ms Lacus first before we start a war? I mean, she might be in danger if we just attack like this"

Outside the Hokage office, along the corridor, Shinn and Stellar were walking to meet the Hokage when they overheard the loud conversation in the office.

"Don't you think I've already thought of that?! Now go and get all our shinobi ready! I want them all well-trained, even the Chunin!"

Outside, Shinn and Stellar were getting worried.

"This doesn't sound good …" Shinn whispered to Stellar as she merely nodded. But they were too deep in thoughts to hear the door open, revealing their teacher Gilbert Dullindal, who was just about to leave the office.

"Well, there you two are, I was just about to go look for you guys"

"Er … sensei, what's going on now?" Shinn asked him.

Gilbert paused and looked back into the Hokage office, where the Hokage was looking out of the office window.

"It's best that we talk outside this building"

He then led Shinn and Stellar out of the building after closing the Hokage office door.

At Koga Village

Athrun and Cagalli had just returned to the village when Mwu came running towards them.

"Where have you two gone? And where's Kira?"

"Er …" Athrun started and looked at Cagalli, hoping that she thought of something good to cover Kira's absence.

"My brother's gone away for sometime to train alone" Cagalli said quickly with a breath.

"Training along?" Mwu looked at the both of them, looking suspicious. "What if the Iga shinobi attacks him?"

"Don't worry too much, sensei" Athrun replied. "Didn't you say that Kira's the most gifted student you've ever thought? You should have more confidence in him!"

Mwu gave this statement some thought "Guess you're right Athrun … so when is he returning?"

"Well, it may take a long time … we're not sure, he didn't tell us"

"I see … Hopefully he returns soon … Mizukage Sama has something to tell him and you two as well"

Cagalli was shocked. "Tell us? Personally? What could be so important that she has to do that?"

"I don't know. I told her that I can help her pass the message to you 3 but she insisted to meet you personally"

"Oh ok, we'll go and see her immediately"

With Kira and Lacus

Kira and Lacus were traveling up the mountains after stopping at Euphoria for some light shopping for some food and water.

"Silent Mountains. I've never heard that such a place existed." Lacus told Kira as she was trying her best to walk properly across some uneven rocks behind him.

"I've came here before, for some training sessions. Sensei said that no shinobi usually come here so it should be safe for us.

"I see, but where are we actually headed? What's beyond these mountains?"

"I'm not exactly sure, I've never went beyond these mountains before"

Lacus looked upwards towards the mountain top and wondered what was lying beyond awaiting them. However she didn't notice a piece of rope on the ground and upon stepping it, the rope unleashed a trap and pulled her off the ground and into the top of a huge tree. She screamed as she fell into it.

"Kira!"

"Lacus!" Kira shouted as he ran towards her, climbed the tree and took out his kunai. But no matter how hard he tried, the rope was amazingly undamaged.

Kira found it strange and his senses tell him that someone is approaching. He immediately jumped off the tree and took a glance around without moving, with his kunai on the ready to attack. No one was approaching them in Kira's opinion however a huge ray of multiple color attack attacked him out of nowhere and Kira managed to dodge the attack. To his relief, the attack did not scratch the tree that Lacus was in. Kira looked into the direction of the attack and saw a man with brown hair walking towards him.

"Who are you?" Kira asked him with a dangerous tone, thinking that the man was a shinobi from Iga village.

The man came into view and he stared into Kira's eyes. Kira felt threatened and tried to keep himself focused on this stranger. The stranger later calmed down and smiled at him.

"I thought who it was, so it's just a Koga shinobi"

"Huh?" Kira felt rather awkward as the stranger walked towards him.

"By the looks of your eyes, you must be a Koga shinobi. I've seen a lot of those eyes since my young days" He paused and walked right up to Kira, pointing his right index finger at Kira's forehead. "But this is the first time I've seen a Koga shinobi that has soft eyes"

"Soft eyes? What do you mean?"

"I meant that the first impression that you give me is that you're the type of shinobi that don't wish to fight unless it's totally necessary"

"You can tell all this just by looking directly into my eyes?"

"Well, it's not like I've never gone through your age before"

"Before you read anymore of my mind, may I know who are you?"

"Me? I thought you would know who I am just by looking at me"

Kira looked at him closer "No, I've never seen you before"

The stranger laughed at this statement "Surely your sensei did tell you about me before. I used to be a Koga shinobi, before I retired and come here to live" He held out his hand to Kira. "I'm Andrew Waltfeld, nice to meet you … er …"

"Kira, Kira Yamato" Kira went forward to shake his hand. "So you're really Andrew Waltfeld? Mwu sensei told me about many stories about you"

"Yes, well, I was quite famous at the village at my time, but now I'm all old and retired."

"Mr. Waltfeld, may I ask that you let Lacus down from the tree? If that trap is yours"

"Lacus? You mean Lacus Clyne?" Andrew looked up into the tree "How are you two related? Couple?"

Seeing that Andrew had read his mind once again, he merely nodded.

Andrew climbed the tree and took out an ordinary looking knife and cut the rope, allowing Lacus to fall out of the trap. Kira ran forwards and catches her before she fell.

"A Koga shinobi falling in love with the Iga princess. I guess that explains why the both of you came here. To run away from the villages"

"Yes, I hope that you can help us Mr. Waltfeld" Lacus said politely.

"Andrew is just fine. Come to my house, we can talk better there"

At Iga village

Shinn and Stellar were listening to the explanation of their sensei. After they've heard everything, there was silence.

"War? But that's not going to solve anything!" Shinn broke the silence.

"I tried arguing with Hokage sama but it didn't go so well. He insisted of having a war"

"Stellar worried … Stellar don't want to fight"

"There's got to be a way out of this, sensei!"

"I'm afraid not. No one had dared to go against Hokage Sama so we just have to do as we're told. Besides, he insisted that you guys will have to start serious training with me, the elemental way"

Shinn and Stellar were stunned and both exclaimed at the same time. "No way!"

"I thought that only top shinobi are allowed to use elemental ways of training?" Shinn asked.

"Yes but now he insisted that we do this. I got a meeting with the other teachers now so I'll see you both tomorrow in the morning for training"

After saying that, Gilbert ran off leaving Shinn and Stellar shocked.

"Shinn, Stellar feels that there's going to be bloodshed again"

"I understand Stellar, unfortunately we don't have the power to stop all this at this point of time. I guess the best way out is to inform Athrun and Cagalli. I don't want to see any innocent people die"

Stellar nodded "Stellar agree with Shinn"

At the Silent Mountains

Kira and Lacus got to Andrew's house in the middle of the mountains. His house is quite small situated beside the base of a huge waterfall. Andrew poured them drinks as they sat down on the grass outside the house with Kira and Lacus explaining the situation to him. Andrew looked down as he spoke.

"I can understand your feelings. The same thing happened to me years ago. But instead the girl I loved was killed and after that I lost the desire to fight anymore and came here to live"

"I'm so sorry" Kira and Lacus said as they heard this.

"Well, that's all in the past. But I won't let the same tragedy happen again. Both of you can stay here if you want. I can teach you some shinobi abilities if you want"

"You will?" Lacus asked.

Andrew nodded. "Kira has great potential, I can tell. I shall pass on my powers to you. As for Lacus, I shall teach you how to control your healing abilities better"

"Thanks a lot, we owe you one"

"Oh come on, it's just a minor matter" Andrew laughed at them as the couple smiled at each other.

"So when shall we start?" Kira asked.

"Tomorrow I guess, you both looked dreadful. Are you sure you guys got enough sleep within the past few days?"

"So I take it that you want us to go to bed for now" Lacus smiled at him.

"Or I shall deprive the both of you of tonight's dinner as well as breakfast tomorrow" Andrew joked.

Since I've got the entire storyline out, perhaps updating this would be much faster than usual. Here's the next chapter!

As for the reviews, thanks to those who liked my story. When I first made it out, I was wondering if anyone would comment by saying that this is a really weird story. Luckily there are none so far ...