DISCLAMER: Flame of Recca, or Recca no Honoh belongs to Anzai Nobuyuki, and his co-workers who created this manga.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Okay, I'm starting on this chap a few moments after I uploaded the two previous chapters, and I'm hoping that I can get this one finished before I go to Japan for my entrance exams for high school. (Hey, I'm only fifteen, and I got a life too believe it, or not) The school system is very different from the US, and I'm not gonna go into details but I need to pass this exam to get into high school back home in Japan. I'm just gonna be getting real busy soon, but as soon as I finish the exams, I'll be back to writing. It's Chapter 10, and I'm done with the whole, "how they get their powers back" chapters, that were annoying people, and annoying me. Okay, onto chapter 10, and this chapter will be mainly about Nae's past. Hope you enjoy!! (^O^)



A NEW BEGINNING

CHAP 10- Memories of the Past

Koganei, and Nae walked up the long uphill roads to the Hokage House. They were both tired from the events of the previous night, and waking up early to get to the Hokage House was not their plan for the next day when they returned home late last night.

But, Kagerou insisted that she get there before anyone else did. Of course they could have stayed behind, and went later, but Kurei pulled off their bed covers, and dragged them out of their beds (or futon to be exact) at 7am on a Saturday morning.

"Mmmahhh~" Kaoru yawned with his jaw wide open. He carried his Kougan Anki in one hand using it as a stick to help him walk. "Ato dore kurai de tsuku? (How much longer till we get there?)" He asked in a sleepy tone while he yawned again.

"Almost, Kaoru-chan." Kagerou smiled sweetly at the young tired boy.

Nae, and Koganei both VERY tired, and worn out were delighted to hear that they were almost there. Their plan was to find a comfortable place to sleep as soon as they arrived to the secret house.

They walked up the long uphill road until they finally began to walk on a straight flat surface leading to the old Hokage House.

After only 15 minutes of uphill walking (which to the two sleepy heads felt like 3 hours) they reached the Hokage House.

They slid the shouji open, and entered into room with the little cooking area in the middle of the wooden-floor. Nae found a pillow in the edge of the room, grabbed for it went into a quiet corner, and began to doze off. This all happened in about 2 seconds, and Kagerou was amazed at how speedy the young girl was. Koganei who had just picked a random place on the floor just dropped dead on the floor (not literally) and began to snore loudly. AND I mean LOUDLY. Boy, he must have been tired.

Just as Kagerou was getting everything ready, laying down the zabuton (floor mats), and getting drinks Fuuko arrived along with Yanagi trailing right behind her.

"Hey, Kagerou. What's that giant annoying sound I heard from down the hill. It sounds a lot louder here." Fuuko asked as she began to plug her ears. She was referring to the LOUD snores coming from Koganei.

Kagerou pointed her slim finger at the snoozing figure on the other end of the room.

"Man, that was Koganei? He sure snores loud. I don't see how you guys sleep at night." Fuuko sighed as she looked at the little brat.

"He came home late last night." Kagerou said. "And he brought his Kougan Anki back with him. He didn't explain to me how he got it back though. He fell asleep as soon as he got home."

"Fmm..oh well at least he got his madougu back." Fuuko said smiling.

"I see you have your Fuujin back too." Kagerou said as she looked down at Fuuko's right arm.

"Yup!" Fuuko smiled satisfactory, but then frowned as Koganei exerted a loud snore again.

"He must have been tired." Yanagi said looking at the young figure.

"It looks like he isn't the only one tired." A familiar voice was heard from a little distance behind them.

"Mikagami-senpai!" Yanagi smiled at the older boy with long silver hair. He was clutching his Ensui with his right hand, and his left hand was holding a bottle of mineral water.

"Yanagi-san." He gave her a nod.

"Hey Mi-bou!" Fuuko waved her hand at him, "What do ya mean he's not the only one tired?"

Mikagami raised his hand, and pointed his index finger at the sleeping girl in the corner of the room clutching a pillow in her arms.

Fuuko looked at the girl looking a little puzzled. She had forgotten about the girl they had met, and it took her about 5 second to figure out who she was.

"Nae, was her name right? I totally forgot about her." Fuuko said

"Of course, monkeys never had good memories." Mikagami said in a murmur loud enough to be heard by Fuuko.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Fuuko bursted, but was stopped by Yanagi pulling at her sleeve, and a certain gorilla running up the hill.

Ishijima Domon was on his was way up the long bumpy hill roads to join his friends.

"Fuuko-sama~!" He yelled waving his big arms at her.

"Hey Domon~!" She said as she gave him a nice HARD pat on the back that threw him away into where Kurei had been standing ever since they got there.

They also had forgotten that Kurei was there, and didn't even notice his presence. (Well, for the exception of Mikagami)

He bumped into Kurei who knocked him away making him slam right into the wall, as he left a huge mark of his body.

"Ouch.." was all he said painfully before he was knocked unconscious.

Kurei walked up to him, and tried to help him up feeling a bit sorry for knocking him away, but he was too heavy even for Kurei to hold up.

Fuuko seeing Kurei try just told him to leave it alone.

The whole Hokage was gathered at the Hokage House except for its leader, Hanabishi Recca, who was ALWAYS late, and not breaking tradition, he was late.

Everyone was beginning to get a little irritated.

Nae had woken from the shake that was caused by Domon's crash into the wall, and Koganei was woken violently by Fuuko who was no longer able to take his loud snores. Domon was still unconscious from the blow lying in front of the wall he had crashed into, and ruined.

After a while Domon finally woke up when a mirror appeared right on top of him. From the mirror appeared Recca who of course not breaking tradition, landed on Domon. (Author's Note: Remember he landed on Fuuko in the manga?)

"Safely back." Recca said to himself as he got up, and dusted himself.

"Hanabishi~" He heard a familiar voice from beneath him. "GET OFF ME!"

It was Ishijima Domon, and he was standing right on top of the Mohawk gorilla.

"Oops! Sorry Domon." Recca said looking sorry hoping not to get a punch from him.

"Just get off me!!"

He was still standing on Domon.

He jumped off Domon, and walked into the House with the others before Domon could attack him.

They all sat around the little cooking area in the wooden-floor room. They sat in the order of Fuuko, Kagerou, Yanagi, Recca, Kurei, Nae, Koganei, Mikagami, Domon.

They all had their powers back. Fuuko had her Fuujin, Mikagami had his Ensui, Domon had his Dosei no Wa, Koganei had his Kougan Anki, and Recca had his karyuus back, and his tattoos back in their proper positions.

"Looks like we all have our powers back." Recca said looking satisfied.

"Well, I don't have my Kuchibashi Ou, or the Tetsugan." Domon said in a small murmuring voice.

"Don't worry Domon! We'll find it somehow." Fuuko said giving him a slap in the back.

"Domon, I think I can take off one thing from that list of madougus" Kokuu who had slipped out of Recca said as he stuck his hand into his pocket, and took out a small red marble looking ball with the symbol "tetsu" written on it.

It was the tetsugan.

"Here take it." He handed the ball towards Domon.

"Thanks Jiji!! To think of it, you were the one who gave it to me in the first time." Domon said grinning widely as he opened his big mouth, and popped the Tetsugan into his mouth, and swallowed it.

"Well since that's settled." Kokuu began to talk in a serious tone sitting down between Fuuko, and Kagerou. "I think there's something I want to know, and I think everyone else does too." He turned his head towards a certain person in the room.

"You mean about me?" Nae who had been quiet ever since she had woken spoke up, looking at Kokuu with her deep pure blue eyes.

"Yes." Kokuu said giving her a nod.

"Boku mo shiritai. Kimi no kako ni naniga attanoka. (I want to know to. About your past, and what happened.) Mikagami said as he raised his head up, and looking towards the girl.

Although the rest of the Hokage believed in her, he still had some sort of suspicion. The timing of her arrival, and how she knew all these things was just too good to be true.

"Okay. I'll tell you about my past. But a lot has happened in my past, that you might not even be able to believe." Nae said looking at the gang who was all staring at her with deep interest in their eyes. (All except Kurei who already knew everything.)

"That's okay, just tell us." Recca was interested in every word coming out of her small mouth.

"I'll start from where I come from." Nae sighed, and began to talk again.

"I come from a little orphanage in the town Kodo (Author's Note: a town I made up. Don't think it exists). It's right next to Nagogiri. There I met my friends."

"Friends?" Fuuko asked.

"Yeah, Friends, (sigh) but they'll probably be our enemies. They're all on Mori's side now."

"Oh..." Fuuko just looked down, wishing she never asked.

"Anyway, at the orphanage I was at since I was 2 years old, I met them. They were all in my work division."

"Work division? What's that?" Koganei faced Nae.

"The orphanage I was at was a horrible place, we had to clean it ourselves, cook for ourselves, and work in the storage room of the grocery store that they owned."

"They made you work?" Yanagi asked.

"Yeah, and it was a tough job, and we were getting tired of the torture day after day." Nae's voice was beginning to tremble as she remembered her bitter past, in her early childhood.

"We all lost hope of living, and we felt like we were dead." Nae's eyes were looking far away into the corner. Her eyes were full of sadness, and hate.

"The only thing that kept us from wanting take our lives away were each other."

"You mean your friends?" Kagerou asked

"Yeah. My work division consisted of 4 girls, and 6 boys. 10 in total." Nae began to talk. "We were all orphans brought from different orphan programs, and put into a small cabin inside of the property, and lived there."

"Boy, and girls together?" Koganei asked looking shocked.

"Boys, and girls together." Nae replied while nodding her head. "We were all different ages. The older ones were to take care of the younger ones, and when you turned 20, you had to leave. But none of my friends left during the 7 years I stayed."

"What kind of people stayed there with you?" Fuuko asked becoming more, and more interested of how this girl spent the early part of her childhood.

"Well, there were all kinds of people." Nae began to talk "First, there was Souta, he's 6 years older than me. He'd be 21 by now. He was the oldest in the group, and took care of us as the leader. He was nice, and caring, but he's in Mori's side. Just like most of the others." Nae said looking far away. Then she continued.

"Then there was Shuu, and his sister Yuumi. Shuu would be 20, if he was alive, and Yuumi is the same age as I am, and quit the Uruha the same time I did. I don't know whether she's alive or not."

"How did your friend die?" Mikagami asked the question that most people in the room wanted to know, but was afraid to ask.

"He was killed in the UBS II" Nae kept a straight face although tears were welling up in her eyes.

They all remembered the time they first saw Nae, and how Kurei had told them she had quit the Uruha because a friend of hers was killed in the UBS II.

"Then there's Mika, also my age." Nae said "She was my best friend, but unfortunately she is in Mori's inner circle, so that makes her my enemy."

Everyone looked at each other not knowing how to react, but Nae just kept on going.

"Kaito, who's 2 years older than me is also on Mori's side. He's not much of a talker, and he usually acts on his own. Mori liked that side of him, and he was one of Mori's favorites, and I'm sure he still is." Nae said as she sighed, and took a breath.

"Then the two young ones were Kayo, and Taku."

"Young ones?" Domon asked looking puzzled.

"They're both 7 years younger than me, and the last time I saw them, they were three-years old, and Yuumi, Mika, and myself were taking care of them. When Yuumi, and I left, we left them behind with Mika, so they're probably still with her."

"Then there was Naoto, and Kazuki. They're a year younger than me. They were twins, and lost their parents in an accident that they indirectly caused, but they weren't too fond of their parents. They said they use to beat on them everyday just to relieve stress. Kazuki died when he was 6, from pneumonia. We didn't have any medicine, and we weren't allowed out of the orphanage, except to go work, so we couldn't do anything, and we had to watch him..die."

A tears trailed down Nae's soft cheeks, but she wiped it off, and no one except Koganei noticed.

"So out of the 10 of us, 2 were dead before I left the Uruha, and 5 of them, Mika, Souta, Kaito, Kayo, and Taku are our enemies, as far as I know." She said as she finished, and took a breath.

Recca was about to ask something, but Kokuu spoke up first.

"But how did a girl such as yourself who was in an orphanage end up into an assassin group like the Uruha?"

"We ran away from the orphanage, right after we destroyed the grocery store." Nae said

"WHAT!?" Everyone's eyes were focused on Nae.

What did she mean by "destroyed the Orphanage"?

"It was about 3 months after Kazuki's death. We went to go visit his grave. There was small graveyard in the middle of the area because it wasn't so uncommon kids died in our orphanage. We all sat down around the grave, and just began to talk. Then all of a sudden Naoto said he wanted revenge against the people running the orphanage for Kazuki's death. We all knew it was hard for him because they were this close." Nae said as she crossed her fingers together.

"But we thought going for revenge was too much, but he just kept on rambling that Kazuki died because the stupid orphanage didn't give them any medicine. Souta who was 13 then, and the oldest tried to talk Naoto out of it, but it was just no use."

"He really wanted revenge, didn't he?" Yanagi said in a sad expression thinking of how Mikagami use to be.

"He even said that if we wouldn't do it with him, he would do it alone."

"wow.." Koganei said in small mummer.

"Yeah, I know. He was 6 years old, and wanted revenge so bad." Nae said looking down.

"Hhm..that remind YOU of anyone MI-CHAN!?" Fuuko asked the older boy moving her head closer to him.

"Shut up, monkey, and I wasn't 6. I was 10." Mikagami said with a straight face not changing a single expression in his slender face.

"Big difference." Fuuko murmured.

"I said Shut up." Mikagami was beginning to get a little irritated although he didn't show it in his expression.

This went on for a little while until Recca finally bursted.

"Will you two shut up? Let Nae finish her story." Recca was being serious, which was really rare.

"Sorry.." They both murmured turning a slight red.

"Continue, please." Mikagami said as he looked at the girl who he still felt a little suspicion towards.

"Anyway, Naoto wanted to start a fire in the grocery store, and destroy it. He thought putting fire onto the whole area would cause too many deaths, and he didn't want to get the other orphans into the mess. He still had some reality in his brain. So one night, we snuck into the grocery store with our belongings. We decided to destroy the store, and run away since it would be a matter of time before we were caught. It wasn't that hard to get into the store, there was only one key lock put onto the door. Naoto picked on the lock for about 5 minutes, and opened really easily. It was actually harder to get out of the orphanage area without getting caught." Nae laughed a little, and for the first time they saw the girl laugh.

"After we got into the store, we got some oil, and some matches, and spilled the oil all over the store."

**Flashback**

"Nae! Grab those oils on the shelf, and pass some over here. We'll get the front of the store. You guys get the back." Shuu said to them in a whisper as Nae handed him some gallons of oil.

They walked all over the back of the store carrying the heavy bottle of oil, and pouring it down onto the concrete floor of the grocery store.

In a little distance away Kayo, and Taku were sitting on the counter. They weren't even 1 years old yet.

As they finished covering the whole entire store with gallons, and gallons of oil, they all walked to the front of the room.

The boys were there getting ready to leave filling their backpacks with food. Souta had 3 boxes of matches with him, and handed one to Shuu, and one to Nae.

"There are three doors to this store. Nae, go stand in front of that one, and Shuu go to the one in the middle." Souta said as he pointed at the two doors on the other side of the room. "When I say "go" light the match, and throw it towards the store, and run out as soon as you can."

Nae, and Shuu both nodded.

Everyone else walked out of the store, and the 3 of them all stood in front of the 3 doors.

"One..Two..GO!" Souta yelled, and the 3 of them lit their matches, and threw them inside the store. The second the matches touched the oil, a huge fire erupted, and began to slide towards the back of the store.

**Flashback END**

"We lit the floor with oils, and matches, and the place burned down." Nae said as she took a breath. "But as we were beginning to leave, the owner of the store, and orphanage came running towards us, so we ran while Souta, and Shuu carried Kayo, and Taku in their arms."

"Did he catch you?" Recca asked as her story became more, and more interesting to him.

"No, we got away, but we lost more than half of the food we collected from the store."

"So you ran out of food?" Domon asked thinking how it would be if he didn't have any food to eat.

"Yeah, the food we had left was gone in 3 days. We had very little money that we used to buy a cartons of milk, and a two small cans of baby food for the little ones. We couldn't let them starve. The rest of us had to pent about 5 days without food, and we just wandered around town, and at night we slept in an alley, and that's..."

"Where you met Mori?" Mikagami finished for her.

"Yeah." Nae said in a low voice, "and one thing led to another, and by the time I knew it, I was in the Uruha. Only Souta, Shuu, Yuumi, and myself were put into the Uruha. The rest was put into the Ura-Uruha which at that point was already part of Mori's inner circle."

"I see." Kagerou said as she looked at the others.

"I did hate the Uruha." Nae began to talk again. "I mean, I had my friends, and we were released from that constant torture. The only think that I didn't like was all the killing."

"You were part of the Assassin Group Uruha, but you HATED to kill?" Fuuko asked back.

Nae just nodded her head up, and down in reply.

"Once I was in the Uruha, trained, and given my madougu, I was forced to kill anyone in our way."

"Onushi ha dono madougu wo tsukate iru? (What madougu do you use?)." Kokuu asked.

"This" Nae stuck her hand into her pocket, and took out a ring with a blue stone in the middle. The ring part was silver, and on the stone had the symbol "sui".

"The madougu, Sui, if I am correct?" Kokuu asked.

"You know it Jiji?" Recca asked Kokuu. "Is it one of yours too?"

"Aa shiteru, demo washi no sakuhin de ha nai. Kaima no da. (Yes I know it, but it's not the madougu I made, it's a madougu made by Kaima.)"

"Kaima, the guy who made the Tendou Jigoku?" Domon asked.

"Yes, him." Kokuu replied. "and it's kind of the same type as your Dosei no Wa."

"What? What do you mean it's like the Dosei no Wa?" Fuuko asked this time.

"Look at it, it looks similar. They're both in the form of a ring, and the element of one is of the earth, and the other is of water." Kokuu began to talk. "The Dosei no Wa, is not used only to give the user strength, but the true power of it is to control the earth."

"Control the earth?" Domon asked slightly confused. He had never known about this side of his madougu.

"Sou jya (That's right) if you were able to use the madougu to its full power, then you would be able to produce earthquakes, or make the land in front of you split. You know control the earth."

"wow.." Domon was surprised at what his madougu could do.

He had only used it in the past to help give him strength.

"And, Nae-chan's madougu Sui can also control water?" Kagerou asked.

To this Nae replied.

"It does control water, and it can make water appear from under earth, but just wearing this ring, it lets me produce water out of my hand, kinda like the Fuujin. Like this." Nae pointed her index finger towards Recca's empty glass of water, and water exited out of her finger, and ended up inside Recca's empty glass.

"See?" Nae turned towards Kagerou.

All of a sudden there was the sudden presence of someone else behind the thin shouji doors.

Recca felt something coming towards him, and grabbed Yanagi, and put her down on the ground. There was a loud thud, and something was pierced into the wall closest to Yanagi.

It was a sharp knife, and on the blade was the symbol "kizuna" (bond) carved in it.

Nae gasped as she saw the knife pierce into the wall.

The blade was clearly aiming for Yanagi, and if Recca didn't feel it coming, it would have pierced right through her heart, and not the wall.

"Yanagi, Recca you guys alright!?" Fuuko ran up to them.

"Yeah, I'm alright, you alright Hime?" Recca turned to a trembling Yanagi.

Yanagi just gave them a nod for she was not being able to speak from the sudden shock.

Koganei, and Kurei who once again felt the presence of someone close by, quickly got up from their sitting positions, and ran to the shouji, and slid it open.

The next thing they heard was a big gasp coming from someone behind them in the room.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: That was a pretty long chapter. I hope there aren't too many mistakes in it. I'm going to go over it, again, and again to make sure. This chapter is probably the longest chapter I've ever written so far. It was mostly the explanation about Nae's past, and that might have been a lil confusing, so here's the explanation on the other 9 people that Nae introduces in the chapter as her friends. Here it is:

Souta: age 21. The oldest one in the group, and acted as the leader figure. He is an enemy, and on Mori's side.

Shuu: would age 20, if he was alive. He was the one who was killed in the UBS II that led Nae to leaving the Uruha. More about that will be coming up.

Yuumi: age 15, a friend of Nae, and Shuu's little sister. Left the Uruha, almost the same time as Nae for the same reason: Shuu's death, and she hated to kill. She MIGHT come up in future chapters.

Mika: age 15, and Nae's best friend, or was her best friend. She's right in Mori's inner-circle, and she was the one who told Nae to join the Ura- Uruha when she was about to leave the Uruha.

Kaito: age 17. I didn't do much explaining on him in the chapter, so I won't say much here either. He's kind of a loner. He likes to do things independently, but he sticks together with his group. He's one of Mori's favorites.

Kayo: age 8. One of the youngest. She's also an enemy because she was raised by Yuumi, Nae, and Mika, when the two left all she had left was Mika, and stayed with her ever since.

Taku: age 8. Also one of the youngest. He's also close with Mika, and is an enemy.

Kazuki: would be age 14. Died of pneumonia when he was 6. You rarely can die from pneumonia, but people do, and the kids in the orphanage weren't given any kind of medication, so that's how he died. I really can't say much about him since he won't be in this story as a living character.

Naoto: age 14, and Kazuki's twin older brother. They're identical twins, and were very close. Where he is, is unknown (even to me...lol). After about a year-and-a-half Mori Kouran adopted them, he just left for no reason without saying anything, and went on his own. (I think, I didn't put that in the chapter, but let's just say he did.)