Now that Sakura was an official Ronin warrior, there was only one thing left for them to do. That was to face Talpa and defeat him once and for all. The group was about a few days away, and had started journeying toward his castle, led, of course, by Sakura. The first castle gate was in sight when Ryo stopped them.
"Hey," Ryo called. The others stopped and looked at him.
"Why are you stopping us?" Sakura asked.
"I just think that it would be a good idea for you to tell us about your father's castle before we actually attack it." Ryo said.
"All right, what do you want to know?" Sakura inquired.
"Anything that you think would help us, basic information, you know things like that." Rowen answered.
"Well, I know that there are three walls surrounding the actual castle. The walls separate the outer courtyard from the middle from the inner. There is about a ten mile distance from wall to wall. These walls each have four doors, one at the north entrance, the south, the west, and the east. These doors are kept under close surveillance and it's doubtful that we can even get past the first one with out them knowing we are there. I also know that the east and west doors are guarded more closely than the other two."
"Why is that?" Sage wanted to know.
"Because we thought that most people would think that it would be the northern and southern doors that were more heavily guarded, and so they would go to the eastern and western doors." Sakura said.
"Clever." Cye said aloud.
"We thought so. But don't think that the other two aren't guarded, they are, just not as heavy." Sakura said.
"So, it looks like our best bet would be to go through the northern or southern door." Kento said.
"Not necessarily, since they know that Sakura is leading us, they would know that she knows that the eastern and western doors were guarded more and that we would go to the northern and southern door." Rowen analyzed.
"But," Cye cut in. "They would assume that we would think that they knew that and think we would go through the eastern and western door."
"Yes," Sage said. "But if they…"
"OKAY!" Sakura shouted. "Look we can analyze this situation to death, I don't think that it's going to matter what door we go through, they still know that we are coming and that I know things about the castle."
"Right," Mia agreed, "So is there anything else you can tell us?"
Sakura thought for a moment, "Not really, most of the stuff I know is about things contained inside the castle. That's assuming we even get that far."
"Guess we should go ahead and just be prepared for the worst." Sage said as the group headed toward the castle. They had reached the first door when Ryo stopped them again.
"What is it this time?" Sakura asked. Ryo turned to her.
"I don't think that you should come in with us." He said.
"What?" Sakura asked with a laugh, "you're joking right? I mean, I lived here, I know more about the inside of this castle than anybody."
"That may be true, but I don't want you coming in, understand." Ryo severely.
"Come on Ryo, I'm going in. Why don't you want me to come with you?" Sakura asked puzzled.
Ryo slapped Sakura across the face. "Sakura, I mean it. You are not coming in and that's final."
Sakura stared at him in shock as her eyes filled with tears. "You still think that I'm going to turn you all in to my father don't you. You still don't trust me after all this time, I… I… I hate you Ryo Sanada." She cried at him and she spun on her heels and ran tears streaming down her face. Kero growled as she ran past him and took off after her to comfort his crying master.
"Sakura wait!" Mia and Yulie called after her. "You guys go on ahead, I'll talk to her." Mia said as she and Yulie ran after the upset Sakura.
"White Blaze, go help Kero and Mia watch after her." Ryo ordered the large white tiger. White Blaze roared his understanding and took off after Kero and the other three.
Sage put his hand on Ryo's shoulder. "I know that was hard for you to do, but it had to be done. For her safety."
Ryo nodded. He knew that Talpa would probably go after Sakura first to get revenge and he didn't know what he would do if anything happened to her. The others agreed with him and that helped, but he hated it that Sakura was so upset with him.
"Come on." Cye said. "We better get going." With that the Ronin warriors turned and headed into the outer courtyard of Talpa's castle.
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Familiar scene isn't it. I'll try to update as soon as I can, but I've been getting ready for college and everything so I'm really busy. But I hope you are all enjoying the fanfic.