Rikimaru's ki was like a star on the horizon. Always so close yet still out of reach. His ki was the only thing urging Ayame on. The phantoms of negative ki's and of ki's long forgotten chilled her, but his pulled her, willing her to find him.

Hold on Rikimaru, you had better be alive when I rescue you!

Flashback

"Higher Ayame, higher!" Kiku screamed as the ninja effortlessly tossed the girl up into the air. Kiku seemed to float back into Ayame's arms as she caught her. Ayame spun the young girl around a few times before setting her back onto solid ground.

"Awww, Ayame!" the girl complained as her tiny feet were on the grass again. She quieted as she saw Naotada approach them, a grievous look upon his face. His bow was quick and his movements were rigid.

"Ayame, Lord Godha requests your presence immediately." He said, unusually concise. Ayame frowned.

"Stay here and be good, Kiku." Ayame said, rubbing the girl on the head and then followed behind the swiftly moving figure of Naotada. Kiku watched them, a melancholy pout on her tiny face.

"Uh-oh, bad news." She said, childish intuition backing her statement.

Lord Godha was standing solemnly beside a koi pond, watching the fish shoot through the shallow water. He seemed unaffected by the chill in the air, not bothering to wear heavier clothing. He looked on as Naotada and Ayame approached.

"What is it Lord Godha?" Ayame asked as she bowed.

Godha hesitated, his words pained. "Rikimaru was captured on his last mission. He is in the hands of a rival clan."

Ayame froze. Something she couldn't describe tore at her chest. It took her a few moments before she could respond.

"Where is he?" she asked, spitting out the words deliberately, not wishing to show an overflow of emotion. Lord Godha sighed.

"They are holding him underground in a labyrinth of caves. They run deep into the earth, and it is nearly impossible to navigate through them without knowledge of their passageways." He responded.

Ayame shook her head. "That does not matter," she whispered.

"I know," he whispered back, his breath forming clouds in the cool air. "The rule shall be broken, just this once."

He didn't have to continue any further. They both knew if a ninja were ever to be caught on a mission it was the last of their days. No one had ever before broken this sacred rule.

"I'll go alone, in secret. Only you and I shall know of this transgression." Ayame said. Lord Godha nodded.

"May fortune favor you." He said, placing a heavy hand upon her shoulder.

Present

No matter how hard Ayame tried she had still managed to underestimate the cave system. The pathways were circular and confusing, some leading to dead ends, others leading to bottomless pits. Neither was very pleasant to find. Several times Ayame had narrowly avoided tumbling into one of the pits, and she was quite sure that if she survived this mission it would still have shortened her life a few good years. But she had managed to kill all the guards silently, their footsteps thankfully echoed in the cave tunnels and made it easier to find them.

Not only was noise magnified in the cave systems, but ki's were as well. For some reason Ayame found herself able to locate and feel the ki's around her with much more clarity than usual. In fact, she had felt Rikimaru's ki the second she had stepped foot within the first cave.

Rikimaru's ki was like a star on the horizon. Always so close yet still out of reach. It was the only thing urging Ayame on. The phantoms of negative ki's and of ki's long forgotten chilled her, but his pulled her towards it, willing her to find him.

Hold on Rikimaru, you had better be alive when I rescue you!

Her pace quickened, and the closer she came to Rikimaru's ki the more desperate she became. Ayame didn't understand, for she really hadn't been herself lately, but all she wanted in that moment was just to see his face again. She didn't care if she had to take on an entire clan herself, she would do anything to even hear him yell at her again. It was odd being on a mission without him. The more she thought about it, the more she realized how much he urged her on. Or, like on her last mission, if he was waiting for her she always wanted to rush right back to him. It was just nice having him around.

Ayame came to a small passageway that ended with a large swinging door. The door was made of old wood that looked nearly rotted through. She approached it cautiously, thankfully not feeling any guards behind it. She opened it slowly, grimacing as she heard it creak ever so slightly, and hurried past it. The ground suddenly shifted up and the path lead to a wide open area. Ayame hung back and inspected it. The circular area in the cave had high walls which opened up into the night, forest peaking through over the top. There was a huge behemoth of a guard standing in the middle of the area. Ayame scowled as she looked at his grotesque form. She shifted her sight to the two dogs that accompanied him. They sat loyally by their master, growling and sniffing at the air. In the back of the area there was a large cleft in the cave wall with huge wooden bars reaching from floor to ceiling. Sitting cross legged on the floor was Rikimaru.

"Rikimaru!|" Ayame couldn't help but whisper to herself. "You owe me big for this one."

She casually strutted right into the area. She wanted to get this over with. The huge guard starred down at her, a nasty smile forming on his face.

"So the mice come out to play. That mean, Goo get to play too." He said in a slurred speech, approaching her slowly.

Ayame smirked, and in the blink of an eye she tossed a bomb right at his chest. The explosion sent him flying back against the floor. The explosion had ripped him open, his shriveling black heart falling onto the floor. Ayame wrinkled her nose at the sight.

"Goo can't play no more, Goo tired.|" he muttered as he crumpled on the floor. The two dogs quickly ran at Ayame and attacked, but with two swift strokes she killed them both.

Ayame smiled proudly. How was that for over dramatics combined with laziness? But just as Ayame appraoched Rikimaru's prison a shadow appeared before her. Ayame gasped slightly as she realized it was a ninja, clad in clothing unfamiliar to her.

The ninja grinned. "Not bad, little child. Continue to train, for I shall come for your and Godha's heads."

"And you would be?"

"Onikage. Remember my warning."

Ayame decided it was best to swing first and ask questions later, but just as she struck the figure of Onikage disappeared.

"And I thought I was a drama queen." Ayame muttered.

Shrugging it off, and not seeming fazed at all by what had just happened, she leisurely strolled over to where Rikimaru was being held. It didn't look like there would be an easy way to get him out. She smiled at him, enjoying seeing him for the first time in his life helpless.

"You weren't supposed to do this." He muttered angrily, standing up. Ayame scowled.

"You can thank Lord Godha for bending the rules." She said sarcastically, trying to make it seem that she had been forced into doing this.

"I am in his debt." Rikimaru said sincerely. Ayame stared at him for a moment, fuming.

"You! You! You!" Ayame yelled, not able to think of a word bad enough to describe him. Suddenly an eerie calm stole over Ayame, and slowly she pulled out another bomb and tossed it right at Rikimaru's cell.

"Ayame!" he cried as Ayame literally flew away, using her grappling hook to scale the cave wall. He flung himself towards the back of the cell just as the bomb went off, shattering the wood beams that barred his cell. The cave shook, and Rikimaru ran out past the shattered and burning beams just as the roof of the cleft collapsed. He stood in the middle of the open area where he was safe from the falling rocks.

Completely furious, he slowly scaled up the cave wall, the purely manual way. The ninja's had quickly relieved him of his weapons and grappling hook as soon as he had been captured. By the time he made it up the cave wall he had falled behind and was completely enraged. He shot off into the forest that surrounded the cave and headed straight for Ayame's ki. When he caught up with her he found her waiting calmly by a small river, her feet dipped in the water.

"Ayame, what is wrong with you?!" he yelled, balling his fists. Ayame looked up at him slowly.

"What do you care?" she retorted, then looked back to the river. Rikimaru stomped up to her and looked her in the face.

"What was that all about?" he asked, this time speaking more slowly and clearly as if that would help to get a response from her. She snorted.

"I was just a little angry, 'Maru, and when I get angry I get bomb happy. But you seem to be all right, so lets go." She said, standing up. Rikimaru grabbed her arm, not nearly hard enough to hurt her, but definitely hard enough to hold her back from leaving.

"Angry about what?" he asked. She shrugged.

"Well, Rikimaru, I haul myself out here, travel through these confusing and never ending tunnels, risk my life just to save your sorry butt, and then you go and thank Lord Godha. Yeah, good for him for letting ME break the rule and come out here, but he is after all nice and cozy back at his estate. Why don't you try thanking me for saving your life, huh?" she spat out, looking at him with smoldering eyes. Rikimaru was taken aback. Ayame shrugged out of his grasp and left. She went back to the estate by herself, though she never felt Rikimaru's ki too far behind.

Lord Godha was overjoyed to have Rikimaru back, though his behavior and Ayame's completely confounded him. For the next few days Ayame and her partner didn't speak a word to each other. Ayame was moody and Rikimaru looked pitiful. Lord Godha decided to ignore it, for young people were indeed stupid and crazy.

"I guess I was a little hard on him." Ayame muttered to herself one night as she was going to bed. She sighed and stretched for a moment, then laid down on her futon. As her head hit the pillow she felt a tiny lump in its softness. Frowning, she reached underneath it and pulled out a beautiful cherry wood hair comb. She gasped and looked over the comb in awe. Two detailed dragons were carved on the top, and the teeth of the comb were long and delicate. She had seen many a geisha with beautiful hair combs like this one but she had never dreamt of wearing one herself. She reached underneath the pillow again and pulled out a tiny note that simply read:

I'm sorry.

-Rikimaru