Chapter 35

Kuraigu stood still as the three men holding the hostages stepped forwards. He signalled with his hands and they were placed on the ground on their knees, looking up at him. He cracked his fingers and stepped towards the three young students. He crouched down, looking into Kagura's eyes.

"Do you know Tomo Takino?" he asked quietly.

Kagura was silent for a moment. This man knew Tomo? How should she answer?

"Y-yes I do" she said finally.

Kuraigu nodded and walked across to Yomi, again crouching down. Yomi stared straight at him, looking directly into the man's eyes. Kuraigu liked her- she was scared, he could tell, but she didn't want to show it.

"So then, do you also know a certain Tomo Takino?" he asked. "She would be about your age."

"Yeah I know her" replied Yomi dryly. "She's a pain in the ass."

Kuraigu nodded once more and marched across to the boy. He trembled slightly as he looked up at the man looming over him.

"Same question for you boy. Do you know Tomo Takino?"

"N-no sir" said the boy. Kuraigu stood up.

"Ah you are lucky not to know this Takino girl, she's trouble" he said. He drew his sword and shoved it deep into the boys chest. He spluttered and died quickly, Kuraigu withdrawing the sword. "Unfortunately though I am only interested in having hostages who she knows."

As the boy slumped to the floor, blood spilling out onto the ground, the man signalled for Takaya. The bloodied man approached him. Kagura was certain that even he seemed nervous.

"Your orders sir?" asked Takaya.

"Stay here with two of your men and begin getting the rest of the barrels of powder" ordered the man. "Have them out in the main street- I want all of them ready to move as soon as I need it."

"I understand sir" replied Takaya.

"And of course I assume I don't have to tell you to keep it away from the fires?"

"Of course not sir."

"Good. Get it ready soon. After wiping out the ninja I'm going to blow up the civilian shelter, burn the whole of this village to the ground."

"I-I understand sir."

Kuraigu nodded and turned to one of the other men who was busy flicking a shuriken up into the air and catching it. He glanced away from the shuriken when he realized he was being watched. He chucked the shuriken back up in the air.

"You'll stay here with Takaya and help" stated Kuraigu. The shuriken landed back in the man's hand, gripping it tightly. He was silent.

"Do you have some sort of problem with my orders?" asked Kuraigu in a threatening manner.

"Of course not" replied the man, drawing blood as his grip on the shuriken tightened. He showed no signs of fear at being stared down by Kuraigu.

"Good. I want one other man to stay with Takaya" said Kuraigu turning away. "The rest come with me!"

Sakaki turned as a rustling sound caught her attention. Osaka slowly awoke and sat up. She yawned and rubbed her eyes. Chiyo had been quiet ever since they had got back. Sakaki hadn't asked about the blood smeared across the floor. And she watched the flames getting higher and higher in the distance. Flames as the village burned.

"We need to help them" she said quietly.

"Huh?" asked Haru, sitting on his own away from Chiyo and Osaka.

"S-some of us should go and help the village out" said Sakaki. "Any help would…well help" she added.

"You're right Sakaki" said Kaorin standing up. "We can't just sit around here. It's all gone silent in the forest; I bet all of the bad guys are heading to the village."

"But Osaka hasn't recovered from her head injury" said Chiyo. Indeed it seemed to be a bit more serious then they had first thought. Chiyo had also pulled a thorn with some attached vegetation from Osaka's head earlier on.

"You and Osaka should stay here" said Kaorin. "We'll go and help."

"No way" said Haru.

"What?" asked Sakaki, as Kaorin also looked surprised.

"That's too dangerous. I've only just got out of the forest, I'm not going up there" said Haru.

"Our home is in danger- teachers and friends, even family are in danger" said Kaorin.

"I don't have any family in the village" replied Haru. "It's pointless going up there, they're all dead anyway. I'd rather just sit here and wait for the inevitable. We might as well live."

Smack!

Sakaki and Chiyo looked over at Haru's direction in surprise. Kaorin's fist slowly pulled away, Haru bleeding slightly, having been caught by a surprisingly powerful punch.

"You coward" she said, her voice trembling slightly.

Haru laughed. "Call me what you want. I'm not leaving here."

Kaorin turned away in disgust. She looked across at Sakaki. If she was going to die with someone, she'd want it to be Sakaki. And she wasn't planning on dying any time soon either…she wanted to spend time with Sakaki, if only she knew of a way to do so…

"Come on Sakaki" she said nervously. Sakaki nodded.

Kaorin took in a deep breath...while shouldn't she try? She held out a hand which Sakaki took, and holding hands (as friends) the two ran towards the village. She couldn't believe she had got Sakaki to hold her hand. As they left Chiyo gave Haru a grumpy look.

"Meh whatever" said Haru turning away and sitting down, facing the darkness of the forest.

Kimura kicked open the door to the small armoury.

"Ah damn it, my foot" he groaned, limping into the room. Tomo traipsed in behind him.

She glanced around the diminutive room as Kimura began searching for items to use. Many of the weapons were training items for students, most blunt mere training tools. Her teacher passed a small table and pulled a panel away from the wall on the far side.

"Oooh" said Tomo. "A secret area."

"Yeah" said Kimura sticking his arm into the chamber. He jerked awkwardly. "A bloody narrow and long secret area. Yukari and I agreed it would be best to have some real weapons here just in case."

"In case of what?" asked Tomo.

"Well situations like this" stated Kimura, before grunting and pulling out a small bag. "Ah good it's all here."

He dumped it down on the table, Tomo shuffling across to join him. Kimura handed her a few shuriken as well as two more kunai blades. Tomo took the weapons and placed them in the (hopefully re-secured) weapons pouch. Kimura then pulled out a bladed weapon, longer then a knife but half the size of a sword and gave it to Tomo who looked at it in surprise.

"Quite a few of the enemy appear to be soldiers of some kind" stated Kimura. "Many of them have proper swords, so a knife might be a bit underwhelming." He returned to the hollow and pulled out something else.

"Why don't I get that one?" asked Tomo pointing to the full size sword he now held in both hands.

"I have no intention of letting you fight anyone; I'm going to get them before they get you. Also this sword is mine" he said, ending in a childish manner. He slipped the remaining shuriken into the larger pouch built into his trouser leg.

As he finished a grim silence fell over the small room, only broken up by occasional faint battle sounds from within the building.

"So what now?" asked Tomo.

She gulped once, a slight case of nerves coming over her. Here she was, ready to face the enemy in a possible fight to the death. She clenched the hand beneath the table into a fist. The village needed her help. Finally she had the chance to live her dreams and daydreams. All those thoughts she had when she was ignored by her peers, shunned by adults. All those times when she said she'd show them.

"I guess we go and fight the enemy" replied Kimura.

Now was her time. Of course she hoped her time lasted in excess of sixty years as opposed to being the next thirty minutes. She would at least want to be able to boast to Yomi about saving the village.

Kimura shoved the now empty cloth bag back into the hollow. He turned to Tomo holding up the sword.

"I hope all of these jerks just use swords and brute force. I'll get eye ache if I use my sharingan for too long" he said, tapping his tinted glasses.

"Not much use is it?" asked Tomo.

"It helped against Zabuza" replied Kimura. "Besides this is not a normal situation. A ninja doesn't normally have to worry about fighting a miniature army. Of course, I have fought five people at once and won" he boasted.

"Good for you" replied Tomo nonchalantly.

Kimura's shoulders sunk. That's all Tomo had to say about his victory against the odds?

Tomo turned as she heard a loud bang. That sounded closer then before. Kimura gripped the sword and stepped outside, holding the door open for Tomo. The girl stepped out into the corridor when another loud bang was heard. Her attention was turned to the thick wooden door at the end of the corridor that appeared to be bulging. Kimura turned slightly to Tomo and pointed behind her. She peeked at what he was pointing to- a set of stairs. One set led up, another led down.

"What?" asked Tomo.

"Go down into the underground chamber. I'll take care of these guys" said Kimura.

"But I'm meant to help you!" replied Tomo.

"This corridor isn't wide enough for us to both properly fight…besides this way I don't have to keep a look out for you. I'm a bit rusty with swords."

Tomo paused for a moment and finally nodded. With that she ran down the stairs as the wooden door started to bulge further inwards. Kimura gripped the sword, pointing towards the door.

"It's been a while since I've used you" stated Kimura.