"No, we should just concentrate on getting to the tower. I don't want to get ino any battles around here, just stay around the tower and ambush someone ther," said Rikou, trying to talk her companions out of their own plans.
"I don't know... I think we should go after the weakest team. That would probably be team ten," said Ken, across a clearing beside her. Kirema was silent, trying to think up a plan.
"I think Rikou is right. If we hang around the tower and lay a whole bunch of traps, we're bound to catch something," said Kirema.
Rikou followed them along, keeping pace for awhile as they travelled towards the tower, but she soon began to slow. The sun was beginning to get to her; she could only spend about five or six hours in it per day before she began to feel sick.
She slowed down more and more as she began struggling for breath. It was the only type of pain she could deal with, since she had been stuck with it her entire life, but it was still devastating. It slowed down her heartbeat and her lungs, not allowing any oxygen to travel to her muscles, sometimes causing her to pass out.
"I have to rest," she breathed out, her chains jingling slightly as she collapsed on the spot, brushing her short black hair from her green eyes as she move over slightly, into the shade of a nearby tree.
Ken and Kirema were used to this, she just needed a few minutes to regain control over her lungs. She leaned against the tree, closing her eyes and letting her shoulders slump down as she took a few deep breaths.
Rikou heard a twig snap to her left, and was instantly alert, her pain momentarily forgotten as she jumped up and readied her kamas.
"What's there?" asked Kirema, looking into the bushes.
Rikou remained silent, glaring into the underbrush as she searched for the source of the sudden noise and finding nothing. A moment later, she heard a soft whistling, and spun around just in time to avoid being hit in the back with a pair of shuriken. There were a few things she was good at in battle, or more likely to avoid it, and those were being extremely difficult to hit, running away, and stealing.
Looking into the branches, the three Leaf-nin saw three other gennin, each with their weapons readied as they looked down upon them.
"Shit..." muttered Kirema, setting his fighting stance. Ken drew his katana.
"Give us the scroll and we'll let you walk away from this, Leaf-nin," shouted the leader, glaring down at them. He carried a long staff with a sharp, curved blade on one end.
"Yeah, right," said Ken. In one movement, he threw three exploding notes at the Rain-nin before jumping up beside them and starting the battle, clashing swords with another. The one to the left dropped from th branch and ran straight at Rikou, spinning a chigiriki, a metal pole with a spiked ball and a chain attatched to one end, and slashing down at her.
She jumped backwards, causing him to miss by about three feet as the spiked ball buried itself a few inches into the dirt. That's enough force to kill, she thought, jumping and sending out her left kama, ripping open the enemy's sleeve, but not drawing blood. He spun his chigiriki at her and she spun her kama at it, tangling the two weapons up for a moment before releasing her end and sending the kama into his shoulder, untangling the chains at the same time. She pulled it out and dashed behind a tree, springing into the branches and hiding, another thing she was good at.
Her enemy lay panting on the ground, a deep gash in his shoulder where he had been hit by her. Ken and Kirema were still fighting as well, but she had had enough. She was staying here.
"Where the hell did Rikou run off to again!? She always does this!" shouted Kirema, narrowly avoiding the tip of the enemy's spear as it slashed inches from his left eye.
"Damnit, we can't fight three on two. And we don't have the time for this. Let's get out of here."
Kirema managed to elbow the Rain-nin in the stomach before taking to the trees, followed by Ken as they ran away. Rikou slumped down and caught her breath, still hiding. Too much sun, she thought, regaining her breath in a few moments. The Rain-nin were hunched over the one she had fought as he sat in a small puddle of blood. She stood and flanked the small clearing, heading after her team-mates.
After taking a few breaks, she found them at the edge of a stream, each sipping the cold water from small containers. She caught her breath for a moment before stepping from the trees. The reaction from Kirema was not good.
"Why the hell did you run off again, Rikou!? We're supposed to work as a team, which means you fight as long as we do!"
She dug in her trenchcoat wordlessly, producing two scrolls.
"Sorry... But I stole the Earth scroll from him before I injured him and ran."
She handed the shocked Leaf-nin the two scrolls, ending the conversation with silence. She remained standing for a moment before sitting a few feet off on one of the larger stones by the stream. She pulled out her kamas and gently dipped one in the water, washing off the blood and letting it float downstream. She pulled it back out and wiped it on her black trenchcoat, replacing it inside.
"Where are we going to camp? The sun's beginning to set," asked Rikou, looking over at her leader.
"We should split up and look around a bit," he replied, standing. He removed a kunai from his weapons pouch and threw it into the ground, wedging it between two stones. "Meet back here in fifteen minutes."
Rikou was left behind as the two boys vanished, Ken taking the left, back into the forest, and Kirema heading out across the stream. She stood and took off behind her, following the path of the stream for awhile before entering the forest again.
There was the sound of voices, and Rikou quickly hid in the bushes, looking out into a small clearing. There were two groups of gennin facing eachother, negotiating. One was a group of Rain-nin, the other was the three Sand gennin.
The leader of the Sand, Gaara, seemed to want to kill the Rains, and she noticed Temari and Kankuro trying to talk him out of it. Too late.
A moment later, Rikou had to cover her mouth in shock as sand reached up from the ground, completely covering the Rains, cutting off their screams instantly before compressing and killing them, sending droplets of blood flying everywhere.
Poor Kankuro and Temari, she thought, dropping her hand. They have to stick around with that sand freak. He scares me, I wouldn't want to fight him.
To avoid being found out by Gaara, Rikou quickly slipped away, back to her search. The sun was getting lower in the sky, and she only had five minutes left. She returned to the stream bed, scanning the edges carefully for a good campsite, but finding none.
Just as she was about to turn back, she heard the wind whistling through something a little ways off, creating a hollow moan. Turning back to the edge of the forest, she went through it again, looking more carefully and finally finding what she was looking for.
The opening was covered in vines, and the hole itself was wuite wide, going deep into the roots of the large tree. She carefully brushed aside the vines, looking into the dimly lit cavern, which was actually very roomy and had several holes in the roots that allowed the remaining sunlight to filter in. Crawling in further, she felt the temperature drop as she looked around curiously.
There were no cobwebs or insects crawiling around in the dirt floor, and it didn't seem to be used by any other creatures as all of the openings were well hidden and thoroughly grown over with vines, roots and weeds. The dirt floor was covered in leaves and twigs that must have been blown in awhile ago, as they were all dry and dead. It was perfect.
But she was late now, by almost five minutes, so she hurried out again, crawling back into the hot, summers air and heading back to the meeting place as fast as she could.
When she reached it, she found Ken and Kirema already waiting patiently for her, Kirema looking annoyed again. She quickly appologized for her lateness and joined them.
"Alright, I found a small hidden clearing further back into the woods, it's surrounded by trees and on slightly higher ground, so it will give us a good lookout point. There wasn't any other gennins there, so I suppose it hasn't been found yet," reported Kirema, turning to Ken.
"Well, there wasn't many choices. There were many clearings, but they were fairly easy to access. The only better place was in the middle of a thick stand of trees, but we'd need to climb to get there. In the middle of the stand was a place where a bunch of dead branches had collected, forming a large platform that was pretty stable," said Ken. They both shifted to look at her.
"Umm... I found a cave. Its dry, almost impossible to see, and well protected. And the inside is large, the walls allow a little light in as well."
Kirema sat silently for a moment, going over the choices. "I suppose we should look at the cave first, it seems like the most hidden."
Rikou nodded, standing silently and leading them back to where she had found the cave. The sun was halfway down now, but it was still affecting her, and she began to struggle for breath again.
After poking around for awhile, looking for the cavern, she finally found the large tree and pulled away the thick vines covering the entrance, letting the other two enter first before climbing in after them. She leaned up against one of the walls and caught her breath, coughing lightly as the other two looked around.
After a moment of hushed speaking, they decided to stay here for the night. The two boys removed thire trenchcoats and lay them on the ground, before laying on top and pulling them over as a blanket. Rikou remained sitting against the wall, not removing her trenchcoat.
"Hey, Rikou, why don't you ever take your coat off?" asked Ken quietly. Rikou lifted her head slightly.
"I'm always cold, I have bad cirrculation. And anyways, you wouldn't want to see what my arms look like."
Ken looked at her for a moment longer before rolling back over and drifting off to sleep. A few seconds later, the light in the caver completely vanished as the sun set fully, leaving her in the darkness.
Before she drifted off to sleep, she reached into her pocket and withdrew a small container full of pills. She had forgotten to take her medicine earlier, so she would just have to take it now. Removing one of the white pills, she popped it into her mouth and swallowed, replacing the lid to the container and placing it back in her pocket.
A few moments later, she felt her eyes slowly close and her mind slip away as she drifted off to sleep, still sitting up against the wall.
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Rikou woke early the next morning, the sun had not yet risin, and she shivered slightly, opening her eyes in the pitch black. She rarely got a full night's sleep, and this time was no different. It was not unusual for her to wake up at midnight, but she guessed it to be around three or four in the morning.
She sat for a moment, breathing easily thanks to her medicine, before crawling carefully towards the entrance out into the cold morning. The air was even sharper outside than inside the cavern, but she wasn't tired and did not feel like going back to sleep.
Her stomach growled loudly as she stretched, looking up at the slowly lightening sky. She hadn't eaten in two days now, but she didn't want to complain to Kirema, it showed weakness. She flopped down against the tree, taking a deep breath. She had had another nightmare, the same one again. Almost every night, she relived the year of torture, and no matter what she did, the nightmares still came.
This time, she had dreamt of the wort man who often came to torture her. He was a memeber of an organization called the Akatsuki, and it was almost as if he were only on this earth to torture. He had the strangest eyes, blood red, with black designs on it. If she looked into his eyes, which she had often been forced to do, it felt as if she were being stabbed with katanas for three days, even though in reality it was only for a few seconds. That had been one of the worst things.
The only things she remembered from that horrible year besides the pain were the endless questions. They torture her to get her to talk. At first, she had thought they had captured the wrong person, but after awhile she began to tell them anything to get them to stop torturing her. But in doing that, she convinced herself that she was the right person, and began to make up even more stories about her life in order to stop the pain. That only caused them to become more interested in her, and try to torture more out of her.
The Akatsuki wanted some kind of power from her, but she couldn't exactly remember what it was they had wanted. In her mind, in the place of that, there was only a large gap filled with more pain and suffering. Rikou lifted her head slightly, pulling up the sleeve of her left arm and looking upon the scars.
They had all healed fairly well, but they left a sea of white lines, darker burn marks, holes and stitches etched permanently into her pale skin. She ran her cool fingers over the flesh, cooling it as she traced along a long scar that ran from the crook of her elbow all the way down to the palm of her hand.
They had also used a different, sharper type of pain when they suspected she was lying. They would break and re-break her fingers many times over. She held up her hand, letting her sleeve fall back into place. The medical-nin at the Hidden Sand had fixed her fingers well, they looked mostly normel, but they were thin and brittle. She could not make a full fist, although she could still punch, she could not bend the joints in her fingers fully due to the stress that had been placed upon them every time they were broken. In fact, a few of her fingers, her right pointer and her left pointer and middle fingers, had lost all sense of feeling, the nerves had been severed after excessive breaking.
She looked up into the sky, which was now fairly bright and allowed her to see the pale outlines of the trees more clearly. She had been able to see fine before, though, as her eyes were more suited to the darkness. In fact, she had almost perfect night vision due to the fact that she spent most of her time in the dark anyways, her eyes simply couldn't take too much sunlight.
She heard a soft rusling from inside, and remained still as Ken crawled out from the shelter, followed by Kirema, both back in their trenchcoats.
"You're up early. Again," stated Ken, standing and stretching. Rkou turned her head slightly.
"We should get going, if we leave now we'll be at the tower before noon," said Kirema, attatching his nekotes. Ken nodded and rubbed his hands together, trying to warm up. Rikou stood, the chains of her kamas feeling cold and steely against her body as she carefully slid out the weapon, wrapping it n it's place around her arms and neck.
"We should be careful," she said, turning to Kirema. "There will be groups of gennin around the tower waiting to ambush us and steal our scrolls."
"Yeah, yeah," said Kirema, heading out. She followed at a slight distance behind Ken as they reached the stream, looking around. The sun had risin by now and it glinted off something a little ways off, and to their left. It was the roof of the tower.
They changed directions, crossing the stream quickly and running through the forest towards the tower. Ken sped up, leaving Rikou even further behind as he went to say something to Kirema. She could see the tower gates ahead of them now, but she suddenly froze.
Click.
She dodged behind a tree, jumping onto a branch and peeking out from behind, gasping.
A group of Sound-nin had ambushed the other two, and now held kunai to their throats, immobilizing them. The leader was crouched a few feet behind the other two as they restrained Ken and Kirema.
"Where is the other one? Which one of you has the scrolls?" demanded the one on the left, digging his kunai into Kirema's throat. Kirema gasped for breath as he struggled. The leader came forth and searched their trenchcoats, not finding the scrolls.
"Damnit, the other one must have it. No matter, they have to have all three to pass, so we'll just wait here until they show."
Rikou clenched her teeth, trying to think up a plan. She crouched down, calming herself as she closed her eyes and racked her mind for anything. Quickly thinking up a plan, she pulled out two smoke bombs.
She raised her hands, making a few seals, before whispering "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu." Two clones appeared beside her, crouching along with her in the tree's shadow. She handed one the smoke bombs and the other the two scrolls.
"Alright. I want you two to stay here and wait for my signal.Then you," she indicated the clone to her left, "will come forward with the scrolls when I say. When she is about three feet from me, I want you," she indicated the clone to her left, "to use the smoke bombs, alright? And don't let them get the scrolls, follow me after and give them back."
The two clones nodded silently as she readied her kamas silently. She dashed as quietly as was possible around the small clearing, coming up behind the leader, who had fallen back into place behind the other two as he waited.
"Damnit," growled Kirema. "Did she run off again!?"
Rikou frowned slightly. I'm not that unreliable, am I?
"Hehehe, looks like your team-mate's smarter than you two," said the leader. Rikou stepped up silently behind him and whacked him over the head with the end of her kama, knocking him instantly unconcious and hiding his body back in the bushes. She quickly looked at his appearance, bringing into her mind a visual before whispering "henge."
Taking on the form of the Sound-nin, she stepped back out quickly and fell into a crouch, as the leader had been doing.
"I'm getting tired of waiting. Hurry up and come out, or I'll order them to kill your tem-mates," said Rikou in the Sound-nins form. She stood, holding the kamas behind her back as she stepped in between the two other Sounds, looking into the bushes where her shadow clones were.
The bushes rustled slightly, and she saw a perfect replica of herself step into the open, holding out the two scrolls.
"Hehehe, good," she said to her clone. "Now bring them here and I'll let these two go."
"A-alright," muttered her clone, stepping forwards slightly.
"Kill them when she gives us the scrolls, and then kill her too," whispered Rikou to the other two, who grinned and tightened thier grip around Ken and Kirema.
"Don't, Rikou! Get away! Don't give them the scrolls!" gasped out Ken, struggling agains the grip of the Sound-nin.
"Get back!" yelled Kirema. But the clone kept coming forwards, holding out the Heaven and Earth scrolls.
"That's it, just a few more feet," she said, the signal for the other to throw the smoke bombs.
"Don't!" Yelled Kirema.
The clearing was suddenly engulfed in smoke, and Rikou lashed out with her two kamas, knocking away the other two Sound-nin and releasing Ken and Kirema. She grabbed thier hands and pulled them in the opposite direction, bursting from the smoke and running into the forest, stepping over the still unconcious body of the real Sound-nin leader and heading into the forest.
She released her henge and reverted back to her normal self, slumping down and catching her breath as she released Ken and Kirema's arms. But they didn't have time to rest as the two other Sound-nin burst out of the bushes, quickly locating them and chasing after them.
As she forced herself up again, her two clones burst out as well, the one in front still carrying the scrolls.
"Rikou! Catch!" It yelled, throwing the scrolls towards her. She caught them quickly and ran with her team-mates towards the doors of the tower while her two clones occupied the Sound-nin.
Kirema placed his hand on the door and pushed it open, allowing the other two to follow him in.