Freedom Samurai

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Seed.

Sorry for the late update people! I took some time off this story to start re-typing and revising Strike Samurai. Strike and Freedom Samurai are really one story, and also the rough draft to my real story, Lotus Samurai. I just replaced most of my characters with Gundam Seed characters. It was really an experiment to see how people would like my story, and see what age groups it could apply to. My results have been successful, and I'll try and not get side tracked from this story again, heheheh. Enjoy the chapter; I've got a great battle in store for you all! And a character you hate comes back…Oh, and I decided Raine will be chapter 13 instead of 12; it just won't fit with this chapter.

Chapter 12 Return

Kira watched as Yzak fell, his eyes wide. He couldn't believe what just happened. In fact, he would have continued to stare if Athrun hadn't run up behind him and destroyed the shadow ninjas creeping up on him. "Kira, watch out!" he called. Kira broke out of the trance and turned around to find Athrun running towards three ninja. He drew his sword and readied to attack the ninja still swarming around them.

Stellar drew an arrow and let it fly into the chest of a ninja and drew another without wasting time to watch the body fall to the ground. Shinn was doing the same as they tried to protect Mizu and Kitsu. Kitsu clung to Lacus's skirt and Mizu stayed close. He was analyzing the situation, and trying to find out what made the ninjas multiply. All he could come up with was the fact they were shadow ninja, so…

The brunette boy widened his brown eyes. The shadow ninja were coming from the shadows! And besides the shadows from the shade of the forest, the Hukari were providing shadows! Mizu was about to point this out, but then realized the only flaw in his discovery. 'How would that help us? Obviously if I could come up with this, Kira could have easily! And if I told everyone, that would just create confusion that we don't need!'

As Mizu thought and argued to himself, Kitsu looked behind them when she heard a sound. Her eyes widened and she gave a small cry of surprise. Lacus glanced down at her and then behind to see five ninja slowly coming towards them. Before Lacus had a chance to think, and before anyone could notice them, the ninja advanced on them and drew their swords, ready to kill.

Before Lacus could even take hold of her sword hilt, Kitsu closed her eyes tightly and felt something surge through her fingertips. From her hands a ghostly white light rushed around them and circled her brother, Lacus, Shinn and Stellar, and herself. When the ninja struck the barrier, light raced through their weapons and into their bodies. It wasn't long before the bodies began to crack, and break apart.

Lacus tried to get Kitsu's attention, but the little girl couldn't hear her. Her eyes glowed an opaque white and the light from her body began to spread the barrier till it reached the cliff edge. The Hukari stared back at the little girl in confusion when the ninjas' bodies began to glow, and crack from the light entering their bodies. They then broke apart and shadows disappeared from the area. The white light began to dim, and then shrunk back into the little girl's body. "Kitsu!" Lacus called worriedly when the girl blinked her eyes to return them to their normal state. She looked over at Lacus and smiled before falling into the woman's open arms.

Miriallia jumped from the tree branches when she reached the clearing. She stood up straight and felt at her belt for the kunai she kept their. She also made sure the daggers hidden in her sleeves were at the ready. She narrowed her eyes and spun around and jumped to the side to avoid a shuriken thrown at her.

The princess looked towards the direction the shuriken had come from, and backed up slightly when a tall shadow slowly made its way out of the cover of trees. "I see you've gotten better Princess. Perhaps you'll be able to put up a fight," a snake like voice said quietly and calmly. Miriallia reached for her bag and pulled out a small, wrapped bundle. "It's been such a long time since I last saw you. But then you had your guards to fend me off. Now you're all alone…" the voice seemed glad at the last part. Miriallia dropped the cloth wrapping the bundle to reveal leather and steel gauntlets.

She slipped them on her hands and readied herself to fight. "Show yourself!" she shouted angrily, tension building in her veins. She knew that voice, and she felt a need to kill the voice's owner. "Now princess, don't get impatient, it will make your fighting style deteriorate." Miriallia dodged another round of shuriken aimed at her, and she tightened her grip in the gauntlets. A figure rushed out of the forest in front of her with a sword raised. As the figure neared her, it brought down the sword, and Miriallia raised her hand to shield herself.

A loud clang of metal on metal echoed through the clearing, and the figure holding the sword tried to press the blade further down, but they couldn't get the blade down any further. Miriallia smirked at the figure, her confident aqua gaze matching his infuriated red glare. Her hand she was using as a shield was shaking from the pressure of the sword. Her gauntlets weren't her shield though, steel claws had issued out from the four knuckles of her covered hand and the sword was entangled between them.

They broke apart from each other and Miriallia smirked. "I've been practicing with my soldiers. I guess it paid off. What do you think?" The man began laughing in a crazed way. Miriallia backed up, preparing herself for the next attack that was sure to come. The man reached up to the hood of his cloak and lifted it from his head. Miriallia felt a nauseous feeling grow in her stomach, but didn't let it show.

The man had shoulder length brown hair that looked as though he didn't bother to brush it. His eyes were blood red and seemed to hunger for battle. His face was littered with scars from many battles, and she could see scars running down his neck as well. "I suppose, but that just means I'll be able to have more fun toying with you." He smirked at her and ran a hand through his hair, obviously not intimidated by her. "So Princess, I must say: It will be my honor to be the one who sheds your blood."

Miriallia widened her eyes in surprise, but didn't have time to think. The man rushed forward with his blade raised. He thrust his sword at her and She used a hand to block and her steel claws to trap the blade before sending a slash at the man with her free hand, claws extended. The man moved away fast enough to only get four long gashes across his right cheek.

The princess backed away so he couldn't retaliate and she quickly pulled a kunai out of her belt. Without a moment's hesitation, she threw the small blade at the man, aiming for his heart. The man easily deflected the attack and rushed towards her. He brought his blade up to attack her vertically, but then switched his position and slashed her left arm. The woman cried out in pain and gripped her arm as blood rushed from her wound. Only when she glanced at it, she realized there were seven wounds cutting through her sleeve, all bleeding profusely. "W-what?" she asked, her mind spinning. He didn't have the time to slash at her seven times; she only remembered feeling the pain from one slash. "How did you do this?" she demanded, trying to hide the fact she could no longer use that arm in battle.

The man smirked at her as he admired the blood coating his sword blade. "It's my special attack. Do you like it?" he asked with amusement in his voice. His smirk faded and was replaced by a wild look of hunger, and he rushed towards the woman trying to keep the pain in her arm under control. Miriallia gasped when she saw how close the man was coming and dug into her belt and pulled out three kunai. She waited a moment till he was close, and then sent them flying into his chest.

The man staggered a bit and stopped the attack to lean over and clutch his chest. Miriallia thought her hits had been fatal, but her shock was beyond comprehension when the man pulled a kunai out of his collar bone, another from in between two ribs, and the third from above his heart. Blood gushed from his wounds, staining his clothes but otherwise having no affect on him. The woman jumped back when he slashed at her again. She then kneeled down and took two shuriken out of her boot and tossed them towards the man. Both slashed across his neck, but as blood oozed from his wounds, the man grinned in delight. "Those attacks will never work foolish girl," he sneered.

Miriallia widened her eyes when the man rushed at her again, his sword in hand, ready to slash through her skin. The woman could only barely defend herself from the attacks, and she tried her trick with trapping his blade in her claws and attacking close range. But she tried kicking him instead. But before her foot could hit his collar bone, one of his hands left his sword hilt and came up to grab her boot before it struck him. He smirked at her surprised face and tossed her to the ground using her unbalanced position to his advantage.

Miriallia tried to get up quickly, but the man's foot connected with her ribs, and he stomped down roughly. Miriallia gave a cry of pain and using all her strength, she rolled out from under him and levered herself to her feet. She narrowed her eyes and readied her right hand's claws. Slight pain rushed to her shoulder from her left arm, but it was going numb now anyway. The man smirked at her again and ran towards her with his blade in front of him. Before Miriallia could guess what he was trying to do, he'd reached out and slashed her across her stomach. Blood emitted from five deep gashes across her stomach and darkened her clothes. Before the woman could jump away, the man pulled back and then ripped through the skin on her right arm. Ten cuts bleed severely and Miriallia immediately felt dizzy. The blood was alien to her and her body didn't know how to heal itself from a fierce battle like this.

The man watched as the woman fell the grass. Her blood spread from her body and soaked into the dirt and stained the grass red. Miriallia's eyes became cloudy and her vision blurred. As black darkness began to creep in the corners of her vision, she heard the man's blade as he readied it to stab her through. She closed her eyes, and the image of a wheat field entered her mind. She could see a tall tree in the center, and two children playing around it. The image faded, and her mind went blank.

Dearka sent kunai behind him to keep the shadow ninja from gaining on him. They kept trying to pull him down from the tree branches or wound him with shuriken, but he'd managed to only sustain a few wounds so far. There was no way he'd let them get any where near him. 'I hope the Hukari and Yzak are all right, I left them with all those ninja to deal with,' he thought a bit worriedly, but forgot about his worry when a kunai whizzed by his shoulder, cutting through his haori and grazing his skin. "That's it! I've had it with you guys!" he shouted angrily before pulling three kunai from a pouch at his belt and chucking them with too much force at the ninja.

One ninja fell straight out of the trees with a kunai in his heart, and another was hit in the same place but fell against the branches. The other kunai missed its target and struck a tree. The last three ninja following him prepared their own kunai, and Dearka stopped to let them catch up to him. He drew his katana sword and slashed the chest of a ninja when they came too close to him. The other two halted for some reason, frozen. Dearka cut them down without noticing their odd behavior, and continued forward. The clang of metal on metal made him stop and listen. Sure enough the sound repeated and he hurried off in that direction.

Soon he heard low voices talking, and he saw ahead of him that the trees thinned around a clearing. He heard a voice cry out in pain and recognized it as Miriallia's voice! The blonde man raced towards the clearing and stayed up in a tree to observe the clearing and confirm his suspicions. He saw a man with a bloody sword standing over a woman lying in the grass stained red around her. Dearka saw it was Miriallia and felt anger, concern, and another emotion swell in his chest. Without even thinking, he drew his blade and jumped from the tree's branches.

His feet made nearly no sound when they hit the grass and Dearka used that to his advantage. The man seemed to not have heard him, and raised his sword, preparing to kill the woman lying at his feet. The ninja frowned in anger and quickly ran to the man, his sword positioned. Dearka stopped just behind the man and raised his sword and thrust it through his back and out through his chest.

Blood trailed from the wounds and slid down the blade of the sword and onto the hilt. Dearka didn't even flinch when he felt the other man's blood trail over and slip in between his fingers. But what scared him was that the body didn't crumble down to lean against his sword.

The man brought down his sword to his side, ignoring the woman he was about to kill. He reached behind him and grabbed Dearka's blade and pulled it out of himself. Dearka let go of the sword and watched in terrified amazement when the man ripped the blade from his body and tossed it to the ground. He turned to stare at Dearka with anger and slight amusement on his face. "Foolish man, did you think your simple sword could kill me? It'll take more than steel to take me down." he stated before raising his blade and preparing to strike Dearka.

The blonde man widened his eyes and didn't know just how he was going to defend himself. But just as the man was about to bring his sword down on the ninja, he dropped his sword and cried out in pain and his hands clutched his head. Dearka watched the man as he gripped his head and cried out in pain once more. But before he had a chance to even blink an eye, the man disappeared along with his sword.

Dearka panted heavily in shock and slight terror. The man had tried to kill Miriallia, and he'd tried to stab him through but it failed, and before the man could kill him, he just disappeared. One moment he was there, the next he wasn't. But he quickly got over his fear and stood and retrieved his sword before returning it to its sheath. He then walked over to Miriallia and kneeled down beside her. He could feel her blood soaking into his hakamas, but he didn't care.

He lifted the woman in his arms and stood up. It didn't take a fool to know that her wounds were serious and she'd already lost a lot of blood. The ninja knew Lacus was the only one who could help her, and without another moment wasted, he raced through the forest back to where he'd left the others to battle the shadow ninjas.

Opening her eyes, Kitsu looked around and found herself in a dark place. There was no source of light, but Kitsu could see herself perfectly. She stood and looked around, hoping to see someone, anyone, waiting for her to wake up. "Miss Lacus? Mizu?" she called, her eyes showing off her worry. "Hello? Anybody?" Kitsu felt her fear of being alone edging closer to her heart, but then heard a voice behind her. "Hey little one, don't be scared. You're not alone, I'm here!" Kitsu turned around and smiled. "Oh, hi! Do I know you?" she asked curiously.

There was an older girl standing not too far behind her. A kind smile was on her face, and Kitsu felt safe around her. The little girl observed the older girl. She had shoulder length magenta hair with bright pink highlights. Her skin was had a light tan, and freckles were sprinkled over her nose and cheeks. Her eyes were a pearl white, and she had thick lashes. She wore a pink and yellow yukata with a red sash around her waist that tied into a large bow. She wore thin white socks and reed sandals on her feet with slightly elevated heels. Kitsu liked the girl's appearance, she was cute.

The little girl looked up and asked, "Who are you?" The girl smiled and reached a hand out to pat the child on the head affectionately. "My name is Kitri, Little Kitsu. I've come to give you a gift." Kitsu smiled, "What kind of gift?" she asked anxiously. Kitri grinned and reached for the pendant hanging from a thin gold chain around her neck. She unclasped it and held it out to the little girl. "Here, take it. This will make your spiritual powers much more powerful." Kitsu reached out and clasped it in her small fist tightly. "Okay, thank you very much! But, what are my powers?" Kitri seemed amused and ruffled Kitsu's hair. "You can create shields with spiritual energy, and even destroy shadow magic. And with practice, I may even teach you how to project your magic to take a solid form as something you create. But not until you're much older."

Kitsu smiled at the Cherry Blossom Hukari, and clutched the pendant to her heart. "All right, will you appear like this then?" she asked curiously. Kitri nodded. "Just don't go telling everyone I told you so much. I can be quite the blabber mouth sometimes! Well, you should wake up now. I'm sure Lacus is worried about you," Kitsu looked confused for a moment, but grinned back at Kitri. "Okay, see you later!" she said in a naïve tone. Such a young child, she probably didn't even know what was going on.

Opening her eyes, Kitsu found herself looking up into Lacus' blue eyes, and her brother's brown ones. She sat up and smiled at them, "Hi!" she exclaimed, grinning with her cute little grin. Mizu gave a sigh of relief that his sister was all right, and Lacus smiled warmly. The other Hukari and the archers stood around the three with curious looks on their faces. Kitsu looked around at everyone, and smiled blankly. "Why's everyone staring?" she asked openly.

Kira noticed something shimmer in the sunlight that now spread around them, and leaned in closer to Kitsu. "Hey, what is that you're holding?" he asked, his eyes looking at her hands. Kitsu looked down and remembered Kitri's gift. "It's a pendant, Kitri gave it to me!" the little brunette exclaimed happily. But her eyes took on a look of wonderment when she glanced at the stone. Everyone else was also captivated by its odd appearance.

It looked like a translucent, pink crystal, and was oddly shaped perfectly into a sphere. The crystal had cracks on the inside, and also small bubbles could be seen. Kitsu was amazed, and everyone else was confused till Lacus spoke up. "It's rose quartz. Quartz is a mineral found in most rocks, and sometimes it is a large rock all on its own. There are many different types, but rose is the rarest in our lands. It is usually imported from western lands and the continent," she stated matter-of-factly. Everyone gave her a questioning look, and she shrugged, "I learned it from my brother, he was very smart," Lacus' tone changed from smart to melancholic, and everyone stopped asking.

A rustling from the trees made everyone turn and feel ready to prepare for battle, but relaxed a bit when they saw it was Dearka. Only when they saw he was carrying a bloody princess, they fell into a state of curiosity and concern. Lacus quickly left Kitsu with Mizu and ran over to the ninja and woman. "Dearka! What happened to Milly?" she demanded as the blonde man set the woman down on the ground. The man looked away and said bitterly, "She was attacked by some freak-show samurai," Dearka then explained his encounter with the strange man to Lacus and the blue eyed woman seemed to freeze in terror.

She quickly averted her gaze to Milly's wounds, and gasped silently. "So many slashes on her arms and stomach, how long was she fighting him?" Dearka told her he didn't know, and Lacus wasted no time in using her healing powers and placing her hands over the princess' stomach. Blue light poured from her hands and into the wounds, slowly and painlessly healing them. Dearka watched in amazement, and neither noticed when Kira came to stand behind Lacus. Dearka looked up when he saw a shadow, and saw Kira had a panicked look on his face when the Lotus Hukari saw the woman's wounds. Just as lacus was about to heal Miriallia's right arm, Kira kneeled down and stopped her. The Hukari sent Kira a curious look, and the man guided her gaze to the wounds. "Lacus, don't these wound patterns look familiar? See there her sleeve is cut roughly, and then these slashes are clean."

Lacus inspected the wounds more closely, and she recognized them in a heartbeat. Words escaped her for only a moment before she mumbled, "Kira, no. It can't be…" Her breath caught in her throat before she could finish. Kira stood with a grim look on his face. Dearka was curious as to their odd behavior, and inquired so. Lacus ignored him and tried to heal her friend's wounds as fast as possible. Kira looked down at his left hand where scars ran from his palm to the back of his hand. "The samurai that attacked Miriallia and tried to fight you is someone I've met. His name is Darien; he's one of Rau's personal soldiers. He and I have a score to settle, why he attacked the princess and you is beyond me."

Dearka looked puzzled for a moment, and then remembered his battle with Darien. "But, if he's fought you, how did he survive? Aren't you supposed to be the undefeated Strike Samurai?" Lacus explained the answer for Kira. "We don't know how, it has to have something to do with Rau, but Darien can take any attack and not be affected by it. I battled him some time ago, and we both suffered great blood loss and many wounds, but while we were exhausted, he was able to just keep getting up. We don't even know if he has a weakness," Dearka felt confusion, slight terror, and curiosity fill his mind.

How were the Hukari supposed to defeat an enemy that seemed unbeatable? Then he remembered how Darien seemed to get a headache and wasn't able to finish killing him. But instead of telling the Hukari of what he knew, Dearka decided to keep it to himself. Just for a little while at least.

HAHA! I finally did it! I updated the long awaited story of Freedom Samurai! And with some very good stuff might I add! I'm proud of me… (Hugs self) Ahem, enough of that now…Anyway, Darien has showed up once again to get you all uneasy! Heheheh, I love to know you're trembling with anticipation…What? You're not trembling? Well WHY NOT? Anyhoo, Kitsu now has her pendant, leaving only Athrun and Cagalli to receive theirs. Who will be first to get it? Will I make some humorous parts to accompany the race? Most likely. And what will happen to Yzak? Will he fall to an uncertain death? If you read last chapter's preview, you know he survives. Darn previews, only fun when they get you tingling from suspense! Hahaha! Anyway, I'll update again inaugust, hopefully before school starts, lol. Well, I must go, as I do have sleep to get to. (Yes, I need sleep much as the next person!) Buh-bye my wonderful reviewers!

AND MAKE SURE YOU REVIEW! MY STORY IS T RATED AGAIN, SO NEARLY ANYONE CAN READ IT AGAIN. SORRY FOR POSTING A CRAPPY LEMON BEFORE AND RUINING THE STORY! WON'T HAPPEN AGAIN!

Sam