Chapter 12

They made them get down one by one and made them align in front of him. Fuu was the last to exit the carriage. Anger was boiling inside. Her wary nature was urging her to kill the man on the spot, but she had to consider the whole situation and she still didn't know how many people were actually there - any rash decision could put the others in danger. She puffed in annoyance. She needed to analyze the situation first, only then she could take action and get rid of this poor excuse of a human being. From the corner of her eye, she spotted another two men were next to the vehicle, snickering. Their looks were similar to those of the man who made them get down, just as much dirty and worn-out. One of them, the tallest, had stains of blood on his face. So they killed the driver... Something made her attention turn back to her traveling companions. Next to her were the two men who had been sitting next to each other. The one next to her was nudging the other as to calm him down. The man couldn't stay still and was breathing heavily to release stress. On the other end of the line, the young woman and the young man accompanying her were standing close to each other. They seemed to have accepted the situation as they were the quietest. Near them, the father was keeping an eye on his child as if the kid was up to no good. The little boy was glancing at the man with such a serious look that, if not because of the imminent danger that was hovering over them, the situation would have been comical.

Her attention went back to the man in front of them who made a sign with his head, and the other two jumped in the carriage while he went back on studying his catch. Another bunch of starving beggars... he grimaced as he walked around the small group, seemingly disappointed by his efforts."Clothes and stuff like this. Nothing worth it boss", the two bandits had emptied the carriage and all the belongings were scattered on the floor. One of them, a short and round man, walked to join his leader. He was swaying and taking his time to make each step as if doing it on purpose while looking at the passengers. When he arrived, he grabbed the other man from the shoulder and pulled him down to wisper something at the other man's ear. In a matter of seconds, the leader's mood brightened up, and a smile appeared onto his face, showing yellow stained teeth. He approached the small group clucking his tongue, the short man walking by his side. When he arrived in front of the panicking men, he suddenly drew out the wakizashi suspended at his side and slashed the throat of migrant. The short man was about to do the same thing with the his friend and, while he raised his arm to proceed with the execution, Fuu took out the kunai from her left sleeve, grabbed the bandit's arm and quickly hit him in the armpit with the kunai handle and the man fell down stone dead. Turning to take care of the rest, Fuu saw that in the meantime, the young man from the other side of the line had engaged in a fight with the leader, but before she could do anything, the young man was stabbed on the back by the leader's second acolyte. The leader was then giving his back to Fuu so she threw a round-kick, but was blocked by the the man's arm. He then grabbed her ankle and pulled her forward, then punched her on the face. She instinctively cross her arms to protect herself, but she lost equilibrium and fell on all fours. Taking advantage of her position, she cut the Achilles tendons of the man with the kunai she had on han and the man fell down next to her, screaming in pain. Fuu stabbed him on the heart and the man fell silent afterwards.

One more left. Fuu looked up and was surprised to see that the child's father, who was a well-built man, was circling the other rogue ninja, holding him back. She stood up to help him but the bandit freed his arm and gave an elbow at the other man's side, loosing the hold in the the process so Fuu launched her kunai at the bandit's throat. The man spit blood and looked at her warily, but as soon as he attempted a step, he collapsed.

Fuu looked around, panting heavily. There was just one loss from their side. The young man, although he was in a bad shape, seemed to have survived. The young woman was sitting next to him was trying to stop the bleeding, but the injury was severe and needed to be checked out.

"Those three aren't the only ones. Others will come soon so we need to leave! Okay?" it was the tall man who spoke first. His child suddenly appeared from behind the carriage, adjusting his trousers and looking oblivious of what happened only seconds ago. But a quick look around put him pulled him back from his reveries, and run to him father with a very serious expression on his face. The man took the younger one on his back loaded him into the carriage. The woman quickly followed him inside. Fuu was about to join them but she realized that the man that was standing next to her was still in shock and didn't move ever since his friend had been killed. She pulled him from a sleeve, but his feet were still grounded. Fortunately, the tall man came to help her and pushed him inside. Fuu helped the child loading their belongings, but his father, who had already took the driver seat, yelled there was no time to take everything and they needed to go right away, so they jumped in as the carriage started leaving.

"Let's take a break. There's a well here and nobody on sight. We can get some clean water and recover a bit. The road sign said we're around ten miles from Arane... By the way, I didn't tell you my name yet, right? I'm Takeshi."

It was already dark. Fuu was completely absorbed by the the warmth and the crackling sound of the campfire. Even if they were close to their destination, they all agreed that a break wouldn't harm. The desert was quite cold in the night, and there were no emergencies. The young man's bleeding had stopped a while ago and the wound wasn't too deep. Thankfully his wife, Haru, was a nurse, so she had been able to stabilize his state soon enough.

The journey had gone quietly, with only Fuu and Haru exchanging some words. The child had been back to sleep and the man who had lost his friend was still on shock and had sit still on a corner the whole time. He was reluctant to go out when they had stopped and stayed inside the vehicle with Haru's husband. Fuu couldn't be more grateful for this. She needed to take some fresh air and re-organize her thoughts.

Takeshi had lit a fire then he joined Haru at the well to help filling water-skins. In the meantime, Fuu was with Takeshi's child, sitting in front of the fire. She was pretty sure Haru and Takeshi figured out she was a kunoichi, but none of them had brought up the subject and they were acting as if it didn't bother them. True, she had saved them, but on the other hand they didn't seem like to appreciate shinobis much when they had that discussion before everything went wrong. She inwardly feared of what they were currently thinking of her. She had killed three people with much ease, with the only use of some taijutsu and a kunai. For a shinobi, it was nothing impressive. She hadn't even needed to use ninjutsu, but she knew it was different from a civilian perspective. What if they despise me? What if they are afraid of me? Perhaps I make them feel uneasy... I hope we will arrive soon to Arane so I leave...

Next to her, Ari was fighting sleep as best as he could. His father had forced him to go out and stretch his legs a little – although Ari was pretty sure it was because his father didn't like it when he slept too much. He needed to distract himself so he started looking around and he found some small branches he could light up to make small flame sticks. Fire was so fascinating for a four year old child him, one of the most beautiful things he had ever. In front of such a miracle, one couldn't possibly be sad. Yet, the young lady sitting next to him looked a bit sad. He thought she had been amazingly brave when she had faced those bandits. The way she handled the situation was worth of those heroes' in the fairy-tails his mother used to tell him – people fighting with their lives to protect the others. In his opinion, he had no reason to be disappointed. It pained him to see her like this. He looked at the two fire-sticks he had in his hands, then looked back at Fuu and shyly handed her one. The small flame that appeared in her line of sight made her startle at first, but seeing the origin of it, she realized how exaggerated was her reaction and a small chuckle escape her. She took it and thanked him warmly. For Ari, it couldn't have gone better. He was beaming at his small fire-stick and he was glad to see that his new acquaintance was protecting the flame from the cold breeze.

Some time later, Takeshi put off the fire and the small group was back on the road.

The next and last stop: Arane.

Notes: The previous chapter and a couple of the following one are about Fuu entering the world of illegal migrants. I know I am drifting away from canon a lot, and I like talking about things canon doesn't even mention but there are so many questions to explore and understand... I got inspired by the stories of illegal migrants, from Mexico, Afghanistan and Africa. I dedicate these chapters to them and to all those who have and had to flee their homes because of poverty, because of war, for the sake of freedom.

Here is a side-note about some vocabulary:
*wakizashi: it is a small sword, shorter than the katana but easier to manipulate.

I hope you and your dears are all doing well. Stay tuned and take care!