Chapter 62:- Final battle

Disclaimer:- all the characters form the game belong to moonton and this is not a commercial story but just the work of a diehard fan.

Claimer:- the other characters which are not in game of mentioned are mine

"Saya-chan!", Hanabi yells, running through the forest. She really had no idea what happened but even since Saya ran off into forest she too had tried to follow after her, but the Sai'ore was too fast and wasn't long before she lost her.

"Saya-chan!" she calls but Saya doesn't answer, leaving her all alone in the forest. Hanabi doesn't understand why she would do that. She doesn't even know what her fault was, but it left her with the sensation of guilt like none other. Thus she had to find her. She must find her.

"There she is!" a voice calls from behind. Hanabi turns around and found out that it was Kagura and Hayabusa. "We heard your screams from the camp and came to check up on you, is everything okay?" asked Hayabusa worriedly.

"Where is Saya-dono?" asked Kagura, her question making Hanabi sad. "I don't know….." she says sulking, "I think it is my fault, but I don't even know what I did."

Frowning, Hayabusa kept a comforting hand of her shoulder which Hanabi deeply appreciated. "I'm sure she will be fine. We just have to talk to her."

Kagura however was in a deep thought, "Hmm, I wonder why she would run away though…"

"You have any idea what happened, Kagura?" asked the shadow shinobi.

"Don't know for sure. I mean, she did go nuts when I said that you two have a crush on each other."

After she said those words, both of them blushed like crazy.

"KAGURA!" they yell in embarrassment.

"What? You do." She states as a matter of fact, making them even more frustrated.

Mustering up courage, Hayabusa says with a shy voice, "Is it true, Hanabi-san? ...That you…um… Like me?" Having him ask such a question to her was really embarrassing right now. But still she says timid, "Well…. I kinda always did… You?"

"Me too."

Kagura couldn't help but squeak like a fan girl, 'Finally they said it!'

But their happy union ended when a deep voice echoed throughout the forest, "Hahaha, so sweet. I think you deserve a little happiness before you all die."

That voice sounded evil, sinister and demonic, it sent them all on guard as they waited for the owner of the voice to reveal himself. Soon a dark figure emerged from the shadows. They all gasped realizing exactly who it was.

"Hanzo?"

The terrifying Akuma let out maniacal laugh, "We meet again, ninjas."

-X-

Saya ran deep into the forest, her thoughts and her emotions racing in her mind like never before. So many things she felt at the same time.

She had given everything to Hanabi, her love, her care, her knowledge and literally, even her heart. Yet still Hanabi loved someone else. She felt so betrayed and it hurt so much.

"How could she? After all that I did for her, how could she use me as such?" she mutters to herself as she falls to her knees. Before her stood a small puddle of water, on it she saw her own reflection under the moonlit night. She looks at herself and asks, "Was it me? Did I do something wrong? Was I not good enough?"

No one answered her questions because she had been all alone. She looks in the puddle once more, muttering to herself, "I gave her everything I had, everything I could, yet… it wasn't enough…"

'Like how Alice had?' says a voice in the back of her mind making Saya's eyes widen in surprise. "Who is there?" she calls, but nothing answered. It was like in her solitude and grief, the barrier between reality and imagination was blurring, perhaps that was the reason why she saw that her reflection on the puddle started moving on its own.

"It's like everything is coming to a circle, yes? We broke Alice's heart and in turn Hanabi broke ours…" her reflection says, causing Saya to frown, "But I never meant to do it. She knew my priorities, I never wanted to choose."

"Then Hanabi never wanted to choose either, was it not we who turned away?" the reflection says. Her own words making Saya angry, "But how could she? After all that we did? After all the sacrifices I made for her? How could she reject my love?"

"Does she even know of our love for her?" those words that the reflection uttered left Saya speechless. The voice continues, "Our love for her has always been more practical and never verbal, she probably doesn't even know we love her…"

"But how can she not know? The signs were clear as crystal!"

"She is not a Sai'ore, she doesn't know our ways.."

"But, I…."

"It was her choice to love someone else. She loved him before we even stepped on this world. Is sweet Hanabi really at fault simply because she loved someone else? That we were not direct in our words?"

The more she heard, the more Saya saw the logic. Hanabi was never hers, never will be. Her heart was claimed by someone else before she even had the chance and here she was, unfortunate to try and fall for a girl already in love.

Thus Saya falls to her knees, her mind stopped. She had no idea or the will to do anything now. All was lost to her.

"Not ever thing is lost however…" says the reflection again, causing Saya to look at her reflection in confusion.

"True that Hanabi's heart belongs to someone else but our heart still belongs to her, we may never be with her but we can ensure that she stays happy. Isn't that what we always wanted, to make her happy?"

Weakly, but surely Saya replies, "Yes…" she slowly stands up, "That is all I ever wanted…even if it shreds my heart, I want her to be happy."

Her reflection offered a small sad smile, "That's good. We should return. Our sweet Hanabi needs us, now more than ever."

-X-

Hayabusa was not kidding when he said that Hanzo had gotten stronger over the course of time. He was practically all over the place with his new and improved skills and even with the combined efforts of the three of them, the trio were barely able to keep up with the demon ninja.

"How is this possible? Has he gotten stronger again?" yells Kagura in disbelief as Hayabusa had to once again get her out of harm's way.

He looked even more demonic than before and he fought with furiosity like never seen before, "I have trained for this very day. I will have my revenge!" he roars, charging towards them with another set of deadly attacks.

Things were bad, very bad. But what was even worse was the fact that Hanabi herself was not able to fight properly. She was distracted, her mind still lingering upon Saya, thus she was not able to concentrate into the battle. Thus all the training, all the hard work that she had put for this very day was for nothing.

Hanzo was quick to spot her weakness and exploit it. With a devastating attack, he immediately pinned her down, earning a cry of concern from both Kagura and Hayabusa. "Hanabi!"

They both rushed to her aid but Hanzo summoned his demonic spectre and pushed them away, preventing any sort of aid for her. He then looks down at her with a sinister look, "The elf will not be able to save you today, Girl. First, I will kill you, then it will be her turn!" and so he brings up his sword.

Her whole life flashed before her eyes as the sword descended down upon her. However, just before the blade could touch her, there came a flash of light and Hanzo's sword was stopped in its tracks.

Everyone looked in total shock as they saw that it was one of Saya's ethereal serpents, glowing in all its glory that stopped the blade in mid air. The tall woman gritted her teeth and with little effort pushed Hanzo away from Hanabi.

Her eyes brightened upon seeing Saya, "You came back."

A sad smile appeared upon Saya's face, "How could I not?" not able to contain her emotions any more, Hanabi hugged Saya, asking her to never leave her like that ever again, to which the ancient Sai'ore promises sincerely, "I won't…"

However, Hanzo could not stomach such a sight. Thus he lets out a roar and attacks. Sensing his advance, Saya pushes Hanabi away and turns back just in time to block Hanzo's attack with her blade. Hissing like an animal, Hanzo says angrily, "I have waited far too many days for this, woman. Today I shall have my revenge!" He attacks at her and even Saya had to admit that the man had improved, making him far more dangerous. Dodging his attacks, Saya managed to push him away once again and make distance between each other. The Akuma ninja became ever more so frustrated, "Come face me, Coward!" he roars.

However, Saya just looks stoically. "It is not my right to defeat you…" she then turns to Hanabi. "It is time, Neha…" slowly, she presents a sword to Hanabi, the very sword that Saya had forged her. The Ninja's eyes widened at this for she understands the significance of the gesture. She looks at Saya for reassurance, to which the Sai'ore nods, "You are ready. Now go forth and claim your destiny."

Hanabi holds the sword that Saya gave her. Slowly she unsheathes the blade and looks up with determination. "I will."

Now fuelled with a new determination and will power, Hanabi readied herself for the battle that was before her, "This is what I had trained for."

Hanzo laughs at this, "Do you really think that this girl can defeat me? Fine, I will kill her, then I will kill you!" confident of his victory, he lungs upon Hanabi. However, Hanabi was ready.

Like she was taught, Hanabi quickly deflects the attack and does a counter attack by smashing her elbow right on his face, causing his mask to get cracks. "What?" he roars in outrage, as her two friends looked upon her with awe.

Hanabi casually gets back in her stance.

Knowing that this girl was not longer just a mere fly, Hanzo gets into his stance as well and thus a great battle commenced. Hanzo was skilled, very skilled. But Hanabi was no small fly either; she had grown a lot stronger since he last met her and he had to really get serious in this fight.

True that Hanzo had far more experience than Hanabi, but her biggest ace was the fact that the way that she fought was unlike anything he had even encountered, while Hanabi had a very good idea of the way Hanzo fights. The new and foreign way of fighting made her very unpredictable and was the main reason why she was actually getting an upper hand.

She fought hypnotically, pouring out every lesson, every teachings that Saya had taught her because all her hard works was in fact for this very moment!

"No, I cannot lose!" the Akuma ninja roars. Seeing that he certainly would not be able to win on melee combat, he took a more mystic approach. "Enough of this!" he yells and pushes Hanabi away. Suddenly he turned into his demonic form.

"Let's see how do you like this!" now in his much powerful form, Hanabi's physical attacks seemed almost useless. He was too fast and mobile for Hanabi to follow.

Hanabi took severe damage due to Hanzo's technique and Saya frown seeing the state of the Ninja girl. She really wanted to intervene but Hanabi stopped her, "No I can still do this!" but alas it was easier said than done. Hanabi was in a pretty bad shape, yet she still refused to give in.

"Let's finish this!" Hanzo growls before hurling a river of spikes towards Hanabi. The ninja girl watched in horror as the attack moved towards her, but just when it was about to hit her, a blue umbrella appeared before her. The umbrella blocked the attack for Hanabi and suddenly Kagura appeared from under the umbrella.

"You owe me one, Hanabi-san." She chirps happily. Hanabi smiled under her mask and replied, "That I do."

While Hanzo stood stunned at the failed attack, Hayabus chose this to be the perfect time to attack and so he did. Hanzo barely dodged the attack and had to move backwards and revise his plan of attack, giving time for the trio from Iga to regroup.

"Together?" Hanabi asks.

"Together." Hayabusa replies. Now with their combined efforts, they attacked.

The way they worked together was admirable, each with their own unique style, working together to compensate each other's weaknesses and seeing such performance really made Saya proud.

However, no matter their combined efforts, no matter how many times they hit him, Hanzo was just not going down.

"This isn't working!" Hanabi grits her teeth.

"How do we take him down when he is totally invulnerable?" yells Kagura as she jumped away from yet another attack. Hanzo laughed maniacally, "Muahaha, You cannot defeat me. You only delay the inevitable!"

They needed a plan and they needed it fast.

It was then Saya spoke out loudly, "What seems is not always as what it seems. Crush the head of the serpent and not its tail."

Her words puzzled them all, that was until Kagura, being smartest of them all, noticed the faint train of smoke coming out of Demon Hanzo's body. Realization hit her hard because till now; they had been fighting just the tail and not the head!

"This is the Puppeteer technique!" Kagura cries pointing at the trail of smoke. Hayabusa was quick to react and bolted towards the direction of the smoke trail led.

Hanzo understood what the young man was doing and attempted to go after him. However, his plan on stopping Hayabusa halted abruptly because Hanabi bound his demon body with Higanbana's ultimate attack while Hayabusa went for the real body.

"No!" Hanzo yells and immediately dispels his spiritual state. Allowing him to move once again, but rendering him vulnerable. "Shadow kill!" Hayabusa yelled and used his ultimate technique, dealing massive damage to Hanzo. Kagura jumped in too and threw her umbrella towards the Akuma, "Shogyo Mogyo!" she yells as a lotus opens under her umbrella, dealing damage to Hanzo and slowing him down considerably.

"Now is my turn!" roars Hanabi and dashed towards Hanzo. The injured Akuma ninja brought up his sword for defence but Hanabi immediately bypassed it and knocked the sword out of his grasp. Acting fast, Hanabi used her new sword to finish this all with one mighty slash.

"Hiyaaah!"

Hanzo's eyes widened in shock. He felt his life liquid trickle down his body as he slowly fell to his knee and held his bleeding chest, "This cannot be… I am… the strongest ninja…." And thus fell the mighty Akuma ninja. It was over. They could not believe it but It was finally over!

Kagura cheered happily and tackled Hanabi with a bone crushing hug, "We did it! We actually did it Hanabi-san!" The ninja girl chuckled and patted the petite girl's back at this.

Then slowly Hayabusa approached them. With a smile he says, "We really did it didn't we?"

"Yeah." Replies Hanabi with a smile. Then she frowns, feeling a pair of eyes looking upon her from back. She turns and sees Saya looking at her, her eyes holding pain, yet still with a knowing smile, she nods.

Hanabi smiled back at this and turns back towards Hayabusa. "Yes, we did it." Much to his surprise, Hanabi hugged him, causing him to blush furiously. But eventually he gave in and hugged back while Kagura cheered with a squeak.

Saya looked on with aching heart, but she then sees Hanabi's face. The look of content and happiness that shined clearly upon her beautiful face. That was enough for her. To see that her human was happy and well was the greatest thing that Saya ever wanted and seeing that how she found happiness within that man's embrace, she would not argue. It was fate that caused them to meet, it was fate that brought them closer, but it was Saya's will to fall in love with her. She loved Hanabi, thus it was her by own will that she would let go of her. Because she loved her enough to see her happy, even if it meant she would not be a part of it.

Slowly the ancient Sai'ore turns away and looks up at the night sky. Today had been a glorious day, they had finally fulfilled their destiny. It was over.

In a new world, this was their story, this was Saya's story. And honestly, her story is not yet over….

The End

(Of volume 1)