I do not own the characters or places seen here. Please enjoy anyway as I make no money from this.

Usagi's face creased in effort. His raised sword shone in a beam of light falling through red leaves. The bite of the surrounding air faded from his sweating skin.

He shoved his sword forward into a cross block. His opponent stumbled back a few steps. Usagi raised a leg and kicked him even farther away. He used a following moment of reprieve to ask the warrior behind him, "Why are they attacking us?"

"I might have captured and turned over their leader for a bounty!"

Usagi "almost" cast a glance over his shoulder at Gen. He didn't, though. Six assorted dogs, pigs, and rats bared their teeth and crude weapons before his face. The attackers numbered somewhere between twelve and fourteen. Some kept darting back into the surrounding foliage making it hard to count them.

Usagi scowled back at those facing him. He often jumped over the heads of his foes, landed behind their backs, and knocked them off their feet. However, he could not leave Gennesuke's back open to attacks, not and call himself his friend.

Instead, the rabbit Yojimbo set his feet and raised his crossed blades before him. A rat raised his knife and leapt straight at his head. Usagi's eyes widened. He was stunned at the suicidal aspect of the attack. It was so pathetic his compassion was aroused. The rabbit leapt straight up, caught the knife's edge with his swords, and forced the shorter blade up. Then he headbutted the rat.

The rodent was sent flying backwards. He landed on the earth. His companions had backed out of his path through the air. They gathered back around him once he lay on the ground.

Usagi raised an eyebrow and his voice at them. "Why do you do this? What do you hope to gain?"

The fallen rat raised his head and glared at him. The others glared at Usagi over his head. Usagi's ears caught snarls from behind his rhino friend's solid form.

A pig finally answered him. "We are ruined."

A goat stepped out of the bushes and continued "Ever since our leader was captured, we can barely steal enough to eat."

The rat stood to his feet and finished their joint complaint. "Even Hebi told us if Gennesuke could make off with our leader, he would not promise 'us' anything to capture or kill you both. He did not believe we could."

A pig grinned and rhythmically patted his palm with the flat of his ax, "But if we 'do' take your head to him, along with Gennesuke's, the snake will 'have' to pay us enough to feed us for a lifetime."

The Samurai saw the foes before him grin. He lifted his brows. "Or, you could hire yourselves out at the nearest port, to load and unload cargo on a ship, and then travel on it to another place that knows you not and start new lives there rather than ending them here."

The glares sent his way showed what they thought of this suggestion. Then their scowls fell away. A blue light fell into their open mouths. Their widened eyes now reflected it.

Usagi noted their gazes had shifted away from him and Gennesuke. He also noticed their holds on their weapons had loosened. He leapt forward. The flats of his swords fell upon their fingers and wrists. Blades, axes, and even a staff dropped to the ground. Then his enemies turned their backs to him and ran.

Usagi turned his head. Gen blinked in the direction those he'd faced had also been staring before he'd taken a tactic like Usagi's with them. They'd also fled. Usagi's gaze switched to the source of the blue light. The Daimyo of the Battle Nexus appeared before them.

"Daimyo!" Usagi sheathed his swords, grinned, and bowed. "It is good to see you again. To what do we owe this honor?"

Gennesuke had also bowed. "Greetings Daimyo." As he straightened, his ears lifted and he rubbed his hands together. "Is there another competition coming up in your land?" He paused and rubbed his chin. "That Kluh, fellow won't be in it, will he?"

The Daimyo looked down at them through his mask. "No, my friends, tis not a competition, but a celebration I have come to invite you to, nor is it my own, but an invitation I pass on for others."

Usagi and Gennesuke both looked at each other and then back at the Daimyo. The Daimyo continued in a jolly voice, "Splinter has invited me, and Leonardo has invited Usagi, and both have invited you, Gennesuke, to a yearly celebration held in their world they call "Christmas."

What do you think? :)

God Bless

ScribeofHeroes