I shot my finger toward Ibuki. My words stumble over each other before I could speak, the nerves come over me…I can't control them, "T-tell me where Oro is right now! He's gotta get what's coming to him!" Ibuki firmed up and pushed me back, "That wasn't his fault!"

My body tensed, keeping me off my back, "What do you mean it wasn't?! My father is a champion! No one could ever beat him!" Ibuki kept that enraging, dumb look on her face, "That-that Oro must've done something to him. The Rindou-kan fighting style is perfect in every way! HE. HAS. NO. WEAKNESS." The ninja's sharp eyes pierced right through me with knit brows. She unballed her fist and took a deep breath, "Listen! I don't know much about Oro, but he's an honorable man. He wouldn't pull off something like that! Now calm down, you're being irrational again."

Irrational.

Something I'm often accused of being.

I tried letting it go, but Ibuki's response boiled my blood bubbling hot. My feet stomped along the distance between us until we were face-to-face, "What are ya trying to say?"

The moment Ibuki opened her mouth I threw my fist right into her jaw. Ibuki recovered from the blow quickly and tackled me to the ground. "Just what the hell is wrong with you?!" she shouted, pushing my face into the dirt below. I sent my elbow into her chest as an answer, yet she withstood the hit.

Ibuki yelled at the back of my head, "I don't think you've noticed, but we're not in the best situation right now. Running off to find him would only put us more off schedule than we already are!"

The moment I found a hole in her defense I flipped around and kicked her in the stomach, "I'll find him myself!" Before I could even dive through the forest Ibuki's hand snatched my foot. My chin smacked the ground.

Ibuki threw herself on top of me, pinning me firmly with her knee jabbing my back.

"Cut it out!" She seethed.

"No! You don't get it! Defeating Oro in battle would mean more than just solving a grudge! It would be avenging my father's death and restore honor to Rindoukan dojo! What would you know about that?!"

"Honor doesn't mean doing something to screw us over even further. The only good thing that's happened to us was making a decent amount of money at the farmers market. Ever since then our situation has been getting worse."

I attempted to throw her off, but Ibuki held her ground.

"We have no food! Almost no money!" She continued to shout loudly, "You're probably not gonna last a day out there before passing out!"

What the hell does she know. The farm. The dojo. We...They're...Damn it. She's right. I would be screwing us over.

I untensed my muscles and eased up. A sigh blew through my lips as I faced away from her. Once she released her vice grip on my I walked back to the log and sat down. The ninja busied herself catching her breath a few feet away from me.

"It's just that…after Dad lost he…wasn't the same person afterward."

She turned to me. Her look of frustration turned to one of concern. Ibuki walked over and joined me at the log.

I continued, "He fell into a deep depression. Nothing we could do would snap him out of fishing trips stopped. He barely did anything around the house. He stopped teaching lessons at the dojo. He even stopped fighting all together." My lip quivered. I slap my sleeve across my eyes, "Shortly after he…he died because of an accident...out in the forest."

Those words broke the dam that held everything back. I grabbed Ibuki's clothing and buried myself in her bosom. She patted my back in a warm embrace.

"Let it out," sang Ibuki as she rubbed my shoulder.

"I'm s-sorry for hitting you earlier."

The ninja chuckled and patted my shoulder, "It's alright. Just focus on letting everything out so we can get some sleep."

Although it's been many years since my father passed, Ibuki was the first person who wasn't family that I opened up to about it.

I'm really glad we met.

The next morning we quickly loaded our supplies on the canoe; Bait, fishing poles, a few leftover apples, and a bucket to keep the caught fish in. Ibuki it onto the shimmering water of the river then she brought out a map.

Ibuki brought out a map of the river, "So, we start here. The main channel of the river splits in two a good distance up ahead." She instructed marking the trail with a pencil. "When the time comes, I'll change course to go to the right. The left side leads a little too close to the ninja glade, if you catch my drift." Ibuki traced all the way until the marked waterfall. "We'll be sure to hop off way before we get there."

Ibuki and I nodded to each other and boarded the canoe.

Still waking up from last night's slumber I stretch my arms up high. The warm wisps of air breezed through my thick hair and felt relaxing enough to put me back to sleep. There was even enough shading from the trees to convince me to fall asleep. Summer weather like this is sparse; Not too hot, muggy, or humid. Just right at the perfect temperature to catch fish to eat.

I kept myself awake by playing around with the water. It felt just as cool and refreshing as it looked, "Could ya ask for better weather?"

"Don't think so," Ibuki tilted her head toward the warmth of the sun. "It'd be nice to catch a lot of fish along with this nice weather." I cupped a bit of water in my hands and splashed it in my face, "Ugh, did the water always smell this bad?"

"Duh," Ibuki scoffed after casting her line into the river, "Fish use the bathroom in it." That wasn't the most pleasant mental imagine to get. "EW! Don't say that!" I shook the water off my face, getting a good laugh from Ibuki, "That got to you? Of all people?"

I snatched my fishing pole and cast it into the opposite side of the river, "I know I'm a bit rough and tumble, but come on!"

We sat in silence after those words. All of our energy, focused on catching something to eat for the week. And as the hours passed, the bait didn't get the attention of a fish. Come to think of it, I haven't even spotted a single fish swimming along. Something like this would concern me, frustrate me, force a response out of me.

No. I instead felt unusually calm. Like opening my mouth to speak suddenly felt not worth the effort. I kept my eyes fixated on the water that began to shimmer and glisten even harder. The sparkling continued to get brighter and brighter just about blindingly bright. That's when it hit me, everything started looking really bright.

"I don't know if you noticed this, but I haven't seen a single fish in this river." A voice? Ibuki's voice. Ibuki said that.

I must've not slept too well last night.

Again, I didn't say anything. Ibuki assumed my silence was just me being fixated on the water and said nothing else. I shut my eyes closed to soothe the pain. Only thinking of the occurrences as a short term thing.

I redirected all of my energy on holding on to the fishing pole, hoping some fish would come our way. But even that started to slip..

More time passed where the line dangled aimlessly in the river. No bite or even a little nibble happened on my end. Everytime I opened my eyes to see, they'd just get blinded a second later. It couldn't be the hunger doing this to me. Something is really wrong. I have to say something!

"...mmm..."

Nothing. Not a damn thing came out of my mouth. What the hell is wrong with me? Touched my lip and felt almost nothing, but a numbing sensation. Even worse, my entire face felt numb.

I fell back into the canoe and started to writhe enough to get Ibuki's attention whom runs over in concern.

"Maiokto! Awwewr ljpip okay?" Now my ears started to fail me. I barely felt Ibuki shaking me and poking my face. She was doing anything to pull me out of my fading consciousness.

"Waber-wab..."

"Waber? Watojuir? Ypuop dreine thi robiier?"

In my blurred vision, I could barely make out Ibuki's face. Her panicked words were somehow muffled, becoming useless. Just about everything down to my sense of touch felt numb. Like I was drifting off into deep sleep. The last thing that I sensed before my eyes shut close was something loud. Like TV static.

Ano out-of-body experience. I felt it. I didn't see, say, or hear anything.

I could feel.

Ibuki kept trying to lift me up. Get me to respond. Do anything.

But she couldn't.

This went on for a while.

And then we fell.

Presumably off the river.

For a long time.

The bright orange clouds above me rolled on past. Or was I the one moving? There's no way of knowing. I had no motivation to get off my back. I just let myself float on top of the water. Constantly rising and falling again and again. Weird. My back doesn't feel wet.

I closed my eyes again.

I feared nothing would be here.

No sense of danger. Nothing at all.

That was until my head bumped into something.

"Daughter. What are you doing in the water?"

I immediately recognize the voice, not to my surprise for some reason. I turn in the water to face the voice. My father, Masaru Rinduo, looks at me from the side of his deep, brown eyes. A half-cocked smile draws on his face.

"Just practicing my floating. Am I better at floating than Mokoto now?" His square jaw widened into a rectangle, "I dunno. He's an excellent floater."

"Just you wait! I'll float circles around him in no time!"

"Your spirit is as admirable as the day is long. Help your father catch dinner."

"Of course." I leaped onto the canoe with great ease and grabbed a fishing pole. Both of our lines were cast out into the calm water. The chance to ask my father sometime got swiped away by the sudden tug of the fishing line.

"Here we go. Nice and steady." His massive hand on my shoulder, I remember is instruction to reel it in akin to drawing circles with your wrist. The fish's fight to eat the bait ended when it's body withdrew from the water. A fish not too big. Kind of small for the fight it put up. I held it for Father who received it with great pleasure.

"Very well done, Makoto. Now watch me bring in a big one!"

Father's line whizzed through the air then landed into the water by an audible drip. The gentle rocking of the canoe soothed us both as we went under the ultimate test of patience.

"What does it mean to have honor?"

I hated when he did this. Father liked to ask deep questions just out of the blue. Wonder if he needed to build up the courage to ask me this? Similar to giving your kids 'The Talk'.

"Erm, honor? Uh..."

Here's the part where I hesitate. There's no use in saying anything if I can't give the right answer. What should I say exactly? Something about being faithful to your ways? Family? The dojo? Fighting? ...Do I even know what honor is?

The sudden rocking of the boat saved me from answering. Instead I ask my father a question, "What the hell was that?"

His grip white knuckles on the fishing pole. "Let me show you what honor is." I watched the line violently jerk around. Father lurched forward, nearly flying off the boat, then jumped backward onto the boat. Whatever is on the other end of that line has got some serious power.

"Honor is strength."

The clicking of the reel

"Dad! Water is filling up the canoe!"

He didn't hear me. His gaze fixated on the water. It's not clear like it was before. My eyes couldn't see past an inch of the water. The boat lurched forward again, this time father pulled back.

Hard.

"Honor is persistence."

The sky around us grew darker. Strong wisps of wind picked up and breezed harshly against my face. I looked at the water once more to see its no longer calm, but rapid waves being fought against.

Are we moving?

"Honor is refusal of failure!"

I turn back to him. He's barely hanging onto the boat. I rush over to him and pull on him. Every muscle in his body is concentrated toward holding onto the fishing pole.

"You're going to slip off! Let go!"

He didn't answer me. His attention is beyond what I can reach at this point. I try my best to hold onto him.

Then with one quick tug from whatever is below, Father flew off of the canoe.

"FATHER!"

I watched helplessly as his body breezed through the wind, still holding on tight to the fishing pole, and then dive right into the water. The boat jumped and crashed upon the water, splintering many planks of wood holding it together.

The canoe sank faster than I could work with. Too much water filled the canoe and capsized it. I was left fighting against the water engulfing me. My last breaths above water, I chose to shout, "FATHER! FATHER! HEL-"

Drowning.

I fell deeper in a force dragging me deeper and deeper into the mysterious depths of the dark blue water.

Never to surface.

Never to see sunlight.

Alone.

All alone.

Forgotten.

...

...

"She's awake! She's awake!"

...?

Just as I regained my vision a pair of grubby paws squeezed my cheeks, "Don-Chan! Cut that out!" Never in my life have I felt so relieved to have that rodent touch my face.

Ibuki conquered my field of view, smiling ear to ear.

We're in a cave. It's dark except for the lantern giving light between us.

"How do you feel?" She Asked after wiping the sweat off my forehead. "My heads a little fuzzy. But I've felt worse." I placed a hand on my pulsing temple, "What happened?"

Ibuki sat back and crossed her arms, she began to recite the events unknown to me, "We fell down a waterfall and somehow survived. I tried to get you off the raft before that happened, but you weren't responsive. You just kept mumbling something about water."

I rubbed the remaining weariness from my face, "Yeah, I felt out of it. Something in that water messed me up."

Just then the wet slaps of damp footsteps echoed throughout the cave. We both stopped silenced ourselves as it got closer and closer. From around the corner, a man of yellow tinted skin and beaming red eyes entered the scene, "You didn't drink it did you?"

"…Yer Oro…"

"I'll take that as a 'No'. Consider yourself lucky." His face would look like it were made from stone had it not be from the jowls hanging around his jaw. Oro shifted his gaze toward Ibuki, "Come. I must show you how to make the preparations."

Ibuki patted my knee with a well meaning smile then departed off with Oro.

Don-chan watched me rise to my feet as I started to stretch and warm up.

It wasn't until a few hours later that Oro and Ibuki returned.

"Let's go, Makoto. We really should get home before-"

"We can't leave just yet!" I shouted sticking my finger out toward the elder, "Oro! I challenge ya to fight me!"

The elder didn't open his mouth, instead his face slightly stretched into a look of unamusement. "What's the look fer? You're an ancient master of fighting aren't ya?" Ibuki mirrored Oro's expression, unimpressed and unamused.

I lowered my finger, sinking down slightly, "I mean to say, thank you for your hospitality. We will be on our way." My statement ended with a bow of respect.

Before I headed out, Oro finally decided to share some words, "When you believe you are ready to fight me I will be waiting here. Only when you are ready."

Ibuki and I traveled for hours until we finally made it back home. We drove the truck back up the path where it died reaching the top of the hill.

"Just look at some of the things we need! Gold bar shavings! Moon Dust! How did he even get a hold of this stuff?"

"I don't know," The dojo door took some effort to get open, "Can we discuss this after I-?" Never before had I seen so many red letters scattered across the floor. All stamped with candle wax with the letter K imbedded in.

"Woah!" Ibuki ran beside me and scooped up a few, "Are these all-?"

"Invitations."

The angered voice whipped us around. Karin Kanzuki stood in a mixture of ways. One trying to not come at us both with the force of one thousand angry men. The other trying to maintain her hoity-toity composure through subtle shaking. Karin looked at us both with her eyes full of fury.

"I DO NOT TAKE KINDLY TO HAVING MY INVITATION IGNORED! GET IN THE LIMO! NOW!"

It's always one thing after another…