Standard disclaimers apply.

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The whining roar of the engines hurt her ears. The pungent black smoke billowing around her stung her eyes. She coughed into her hand and her whole body shook.

"I'll take Ki!" she heard Ryu shout.

"Iie. . . " she tried to stay, but a blast of smoke to her face left her coughing violently into her hand.

Kisa was grabbed by the back of the ebony black uniform she was wearing and jerked towards an emergency exit. She struggled, not wanting to go anywhere with Ryu.

"Stop it!" Frost snapped. His features were all composed, but something about his words let her know that he was worried and maybe even on the verge of panic. Hiding his feelings, he grabbed a black pack and threw it to her. "Put it on and then jump with Ryu!" he ordered.

She stared at the pack strangely. Her watery vision refused to allow her to see very many details, but for the most part it seemed to be just like a regular back pack. She slipped it onto her back, and held a couple of the straps in confusion.

Unlike a normal back pack, a parachute needed to be fastened tightly so it's wearer wouldn't plummet to the hard earth bellow them. Since she had never even went on a plane ride before, she didn't know where all the straps were supposed to go.

The normal thing to do would have been to ask Ryu to help her. However even in the midst of smoke and confusion, she had a feeling that he was planning on killing her soon. If she asked him, he might guide her incorrectly so that she would plummet to her death. In the same breath, if she didn't ask him, she would probably do it wrong anyway.

Before she could make up her mind, the straps on her parachute were taken out of her hands and secured around her body. "Stupid boy. . . . . " Kenneth muttered. "Don't you know how to do anything right?"

Before she could answer him or even thank him, Ryu grabbed her arm and pushed her out of the emergency exit.

For several terrifying seconds she just fell.

They were over the Amazon and it was day time. The trees looked like a springy green carpet from where she was. Every now and then a thin, murky line signified the presence of a river, and even rarer were the jagged gaps in the leafy canopy.

And she was plummeting towards it with eye tearing speed. She screamed loudly, but the wind stole her voice away from even her ears.

Then she was buffeted by a strong gust of wind.

She closed her honey brown eyes and began to count to ten. It was no different then falling from a tree, she told herself. Reaching ten, she opened her eyes and saw Ryu.

He was practically beside her and had a smile on his face. "Ki Souma!" he shouted. "I'm going to - " but the wind stole the rest of her words.

"Nani!" she screamed back at him. She was assuming that he was threatening to kill her.

He smiled and pointed up towards the plane that was still billowing black smoke. Then he pointed to his hand.

Her eyes trained in on them. He was holding a fist sized object with a bright red button. At first she didn't understand what it was. She had never seen anything like it before except when watching T.V.

Realization dawned on her as his finger closed over the button and he pushed down.

The loud bang from the explosion sent heat coated winds flying in all directions. Her eyes trained on the plane, she watched as it was completely engulfed in a fiery orange ball.

'Please let everyone have gotten out,' she thought furiously. The smoke and flames were starting to die down, pieces of wreckage heading towards the jungle canopy. "Please. . . . . . ." she whispered.

She spotted a lone figure dropping away from the wreckage.

"I almost blew up Mitsu!" Ryu laughed, drawing her attention away the destroyed plane.

She had tears of rage and fury glistening in her eyes. "How could - " she started to scream. Then something tore into her shoulder, ripping through the black fabric and nearly severing one of the precious straps tying her to her parachute.

Ryu pulled a cord and his chute opened up, a pattern of a black rose on it. He was holding a couple of shuriken in his right hand and flipping them lightly.

Before she knew what was happening, he was flinging them at her with deadly accuracy. She went for her own shuriken, hoping to somehow stop his offense with her own. Then she seen the jungle canopy.

She was less then fifteen feet from it and falling fast. Her hands flew to the release cord and she pulled it, watching the black chute slowly fill with air.

Her velocity slowly slightly and then she smashed into the vibrant green canopy just as it started to rain.

The branches slapped at her face, arms, neck, and legs as she fell. Once or twice she crashed into a branch that offered strong resistance to her weight. One of those times she had heard a crack that didn't come from any branches. She guessed from the blossoming pain in her chest, that she had broken a rib or two.

Her fall was cut short abruptly as her parachute got caught on several branches. She was left dangling in the air, looking at the still distant ground.

"Well, that's no fun," Ryu's voice came from somewhere in the jungle greenery.

"Why not?" Mitsu's voice joined him. Evidently both of them had landed with cat like grace. None of them sounded the slightest bit injured. "I think his getting hung up like that will be great fun!"

"Oh?" Ryu's voice came. Kisa could imagine his left eyebrow arching upwards slightly as he uttered his single worded sentence.

"Sure . . . .We cut gradually cut him to pieces with our shuriken," Mitsu said, laughter in his voice. "I'm sure the pain will really piss him off! He might even cry like a baby girl!"

"Too easy. He's weak already," Ryu answered. "I think we need something a little more painful. It's been too long since we killed anyone."

"Bastard!" Kisa screamed. She didn't even try to conceal her feminine sounding voice. "It has not been long since you kill anyone! You just . . . . . you just. . . . . . " her voice trailed off as a sob shook her body.

They were all dead. Even if she hadn't been good friends with any of them, she didn't want them to die. She wanted them all to live. She wanted them all to be alive. None of them had deserved to die.

Kenneth, who was always snide to her, was also one of the kindest people at Shinobi Academy. He looked out for her while making it seem like he disliked her strongly. Kisa had finally seen through his act and realized that he didn't hate her. He wanted to protect her because she was weak.

It had occurred to her when he had stopped Mitsu's second punch, only hours earlier, that if he had known she was a girl . . . . He wouldn't have let Mitsu walk away from the 'Dark Storm' alive.

He had a protective nature in him. He thought that she was a boy, and that was why he was careful not to show his protective nature. He didn't want anyone to think he was soft.

And yet, at the same time he had been jealous of her. That jealousy could have turned into a friendly rivalry, Kisa was certain of it.

She had never really gotten a chance to know Drake, but Frost was always kind to her. He probably was feeling guilty for letting one of his cell mates die, but that didn't change the facts that he always had some sort of advice to give her.

Even at his cruelest, he was looking out for her. Now she wouldn't even be able to find out about Frost's friend, Xeo.

They were all dead. . . . . .

"That wasn't nearly painful enough for my tastes," Ryu informed her. The sharp sound of air being rapidly displace filled her ears, forcing her thoughts away from the deceased ninjas.

From hours of training with Briar, she realized where it was coming from. Her reflexes weren't good enough to do anything but dodge. An advanced ninja like Briar would have been able to catch the shuriken and throw it back before the attacker even realized his attack had failed.

She twisted her head out of the way, her left cheek getting split open in the process. She almost cursed. She still wasn't fast enough. Briar had warned her not to think at all when attacks were coming in.

"It will only distract you," he had told her. "Just let your body's training take over and you should be fine."

"I bet you don't remember who I am. Or even where we first met. . . . " Ryu called out from the trees. He flung eight shuriken this time and Mitsu flung four.

There was no way that she could dodge. She braced herself, trying to keep all vital areas away from the many edged stars. They cut her arms and legs, leaving bloody gashes in her clothes.

"Why do you want to kill Briar?!" she shouted. She was fumbling with the release straps, but Kenneth had tied them tightly so that she wouldn't fall out while in the air.

A shuriken smashed into her hand, digging deep into the back of it. She screamed in pain.

"I don't see how that's any of your business, but since you're about to die I'll tell you," Ryu said smugly.

"Briar has to die because he has the Darkness Sphere. Once he's dead, the Sphere will be mine and then. . . . . ." his voice trailed off. "Dammit! Kill him now!" he shouted.

Kisa had only been listening to his explanation in part. Most of her attention had been on getting the straps untied.

Her fingers were refusing to corporate because of the shuriken sticking out of the back of her hand. The sight of the blade gave her an idea though. She waited until he had started to talk and then pulled it out with her other hand.

Blood seeped down her arm as she tightly clasped the weapon and severed the cords holding her to the parachute.

She heard Ryu call for Mitsu to kill her, but by then it was too late. She was plummeting towards the ground once again.

Landing on what she hoped was the forest floor, she started to run. Her legs felt strange after dangling for so long. The cuts of various deepness made them ache as she forced them to propel her foreword.

Her entire perspective narrowed to racing between the ancient trees and thick foliage on the ground. She tripped and fell often, although that was helping her avoid getting killed by the deadly shuriken.

Both Mitsu and Ryu were behind her, but she couldn't hear either of them. She was afraid that they could hear her though.

Her breath was tearing through her throat in ragged gasps. Her feet were snapping twigs and the smaller branches were slapping against her. She could faintly make out the rustling of fabric in her pants. She imagined that the sweat pouring down her back and face was roaring as loudly as any river. She was certain that the pounding of her head was shaking the ground around her.

In the end, even if she was as silent as the night, she wouldn't have been able to run and hide. Everywhere she ran, she left a trail of blood for them to follow. There was no way for her to escape.

She realized that with a sob and almost came to a stop. Maybe if she fought them both she might injure or kill one of them. . . . . maybe. . . .

Her body was trembling. She stopped running. It hurt to breath. Her clothes was in tatters. She looked down at her hand, wondering if it would allow her to close it around the handle of her katana.

Her vision blurred for a moment and she found herself laughing. If Hatori were to see her now . . . . . . . The time Akito had beat her was nothing compared to the pain she was in now.

Hatori would be so worried. He'd probably give her pain killers to keep her from transforming. She remembered that he always said that it was easier to treat them in their human form.

Her eyes widened. That was her solution. She started to run again, confident that when her body could take no more it would transform. Then she would be safe, but only if they didn't see the transformation.

She picked up speed, running with tiger like grace through the jungle. The trees were no longer obstacles, they were her friends. Every tree that she zipped around offered protection from their prying eyes and their blood thirsty shuriken.

She still got hit with the blades, from time to time, but she was pushing herself harder then they were. She was trying to work herself into a collapse. They fell behind, or at least she thought they did.

Then, she stumbled and her body could take no more.

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Author's notes;

Well? What do you think? Questions? Comments? Let me know!

Oh, and I really don't like Mitsu or Ryu -_- They're just nasty!

Thanks for reading,

Kissa-chan