"Rikou!"
Rikou looked up as she fell away to see Ken reach out to grab her hand, missing miserably. He swore loudly as he was thrown off balance as well, pitching forwards along with her. The rain whipped across her mask, blowing through the eye slits and burning her eyes as she looked below her.
She felt Ken grab her arm and pull her close as he tried to bring chakra to his hands and stop their fall, but he had barely any left. Rikou pannicked, her breaths coming in gasps as she looked at her destination, a number of dead pine trees that stuck up like white spikes from the ground. A fire must have burned through this area sometime years ago.
She closed her eyes as her stomach sank, not wanting to see how this would end. She wished Ken hadn't reached out after her, he threw away his own life. She remembered a conversation she had had years ago with her sensei suddenly, the moment flashing through her mind as she fell.
"There's no point in me becoming a chuunin. I only have five more years. What's the point of becoming a chuunin?"
"That's just another of your excuses, Rikou."
Rikou opened her eyes in shock. "An excuse?"
"Yes. Tell me, why did you join the acadamy in the first place?"
Rikou thought back to when she had been little, thinking hard for a reason. "Because I wanted to be able to protect others..."
"So, if you give up now, then wouldn't that make everything else that you've accomplished so far pointless? If you don't keep fighting, what would happen if something went wrong and you were unable to protect those around you?"
"... I don't know..."
"Everyone has to have something to look forwards to, a dream, a goal in life. Every ninja has to have something important to protect, otherwise there is no meaning behind their fighting, it becomes pointless. If I remember correctly, when you first joined this team, you never answered any of our questions. You never told us your likes or dislikes, your dreams, you skipped everything with a simple 'pass.' That means that for all these years, you have basically had no meaning in your life, but if you had no meaning then you wouldn't be here, would you? So what is your meaning, your reson to keep fighting? Why don't you just give up now?"
Rikou dropped her eyes to the ground, thinking hard. "...I don't know..."
"Yes, you do."
She closed her eyes, searching for a reason. She coughed quietly. "I'm not sure right now... before I thought it was to protect others, but now the ones I wanted to protect are all gone, all dead..."
Kanzu smiled slightly. "So your reason is still to protect them. There are still people to protect, on top of serving Konoha. You have to watch out for those two, Ken and Kirema, they can't take care of themselves. As long as you have a team, you have something to fight for."
She swallowed hard, thinking how she would be failing to fufil her dream. It was her job to look out for Ken and Kirema, but now she would be failing.
"I'm sorry Ken," she whispered, her voice blowing away in the wind. Ken's mask had blown off, hanging off of his neck as his eyes grew wider in fear.
'The hidden chakra, the Dark Chakra, can only be released by someone who is very experienced, but is a very powerful weapon. It is made by the mixing of the Shikon's chakra and regular chakra, and is brought on by feeling overwhelming emotion. The crow demon will release it's chakra to be used if it feels the current cursed child is in danger.
That chakra, she thought. If I could release it, I could stop the fall... But I don't know how!
She closed her eyes again and pulled Ken closer to her to try to nullify her fear. She pressed her face into his white trenchcoat, noticing her mask had blown behind her as well. Ken pulled her close and began whispering into her ear.
"Rikou, listen to me... I don't want you to be killed here, alright? Before we hit the ground, I want you to jump off of my body, alright? Rikou?"
She shook her head stubbornly. "You'll be killed."
Ken said nothing, but Rikou noticed the ground approaching fast. She held out her hand, tears streaming off her face.
"I don't want any more people to die because of me! I won't let it happen!!!"
Something flashed before her eyes, a pair of black wings. In the back of her head, she heard a voice.
Useless kid, can't even save yourself. You're the last and you can't save your family name. At least try.
I am trying, she thought angrily, the ground looming closer.
Feh, useless. You know you'll be killed.
She closed her eyes as the wings rustled through her mind again and she found herslef looking into a pair of beady, black eyes.
You are...
Yeah, unfortunately. I've been stuck here for many many generations, the idiot that sealed me here did it wrong and made us both immortal by taking years off of my host. So he'll never die and I'll never die.
You have that chakra! She looked head on at the crow demon, Shikon, as her body seemed to be engulfed in black flame, blacker than his own feathers.
So what?
Give it to me, I am the last Gekkou and if I die then even you can't live on.
Give it to you...? I suppose I could... Fine.
The dark flames licked up around her, completely engulfing her as she felt her body's energy returning. She opened her eyes, feeling Ken holding her still, the ground coming up fast.
"I can see," she muttered. It was true. Her eyes had somehow fully adjusted to the dark, making it look almost like full daylight except for the dark flames surrounding her arms, her body.
She almost cried out in suprise as she willed the chakra to leave her body, forming a dome between her and the ground, licking up the sides of the canyon and cracking the rock easily. Rikou looked straight into the dead trees below her as they were blown away like toothpicks, before the chakra began eating away at the ground itself. She cried out, releasing even more chakra and slowing them down, resting them gently in the middle of the gigantic, burnt crater.
Rikou was breathing heavily as the chakra dissapated, leaving her on the ground beside Ken, breathing heavily.
"Geez... Scary..." he muttered, swallowing hard. His short, silvery-spiked hair was blown back and his mask had completely blown away. Rikou lay on her side, looking at her arm in disbelief, not because the slwweve was ripped and torn, but because....
"There are less scars..."
Ken pushed himself up, looking around him in disbelief as well. "Holy shit... look at the size of this crater!"
Rikou ran a hand over her forearm, feeling only a few raised scars left on her skin before looking up at what she had just done. "I... Did I do this?"
Rikou pushed herself up as well, her clothed dripping with rainwater. The crater was slowly filling up with water as well. She looked up at the distance they had just fallen, looking at the sides of the canyon where there were two slide marks. Her eyes darted to the ground beneath the slide marks where gigantic slabs od stone lay imbedded in the forest, reaching up higher than all of the trees.
Ken turned back to her, his hair dripping and handing in his face. "Okay, I don't know what you just did ther, but there's no way we can get all the way back up today... It's morning. We need to find somewhere more... concealed."
Rikou looked around tiredly, there didn't seem to be anywhere mre concealed. All the trees were dead, leaving nowhere for them to hide. But Ken grabbed her arm anyways, pulling her away and slowly appraching the edge of the crater. It took them awhile to climb up the steep sides, the mud causing them to slide back down every once and awhile, but they managed.
Byt the time they reached the dead trees, Rikou was exaughsted, drenched, mud-covered and utterly confused. Ken motioned her over to another tree where he slumped down, not caring about the mud anymore. Rikou slumped down beside him, noticing that for the first time ever, his trenchcoat was actually dirty. The bottoms were covered in mud, which was caked over his legs and hands.
"We should rest until tonight," he said quietly, pulling his trenchcoat tightly around him. Rikou huddled a few feet away, leaning against another tree and pulling up her knees. She shivered as the rain drenched her even more.
Rikou closed her eyes, starting to shake again. The cold was seeping into her very bones, taking away any heat that might have been there. She pressed herself further into the tree and squeezed her arms around her knees, burying her face in them and trying to get some sleep. She heard something to her right and Ken's voice reached her ears.
"Here... Move forwards," he said quietly. She lifted her head and moved away from the tree. To her suprise, Ken dropped down in the mud behind her, wrapping his coat around them both and pulling her into his chest, his arms wrapping around her thin waist. She tensed for a moment, not used to another person's touch, but relaxed slowly. The warmth slowly returned to her body, seeping back into her bones as she pressed herslef closer to him, closing her eyes.
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Rikou woke in the darkness again, still nestled against Ken's chest under the trenchcoat. It had stopped raining, and the wind had died down considerably although it was still cold out. Rikou bent her neck back, looking into Ken's face and studying it carefully.
His face was unusually pale, his hair had dried and sprung back into it's usual spiked position. Looking closer, she noticed two paths of partially dried tears running down his cheeks, tracing a path down his chin. Rikou found herself noticing for the first time how handsome he was, she had never thought about it before.
Rikou stared at him for a long time until his eyelids twitched and he opened them, his crysta blue eyes fixing on her. They looked at eachother for a few moment before Rikou realized their position. She felt her face burn as she looked away, pushing herself off the ground and turning away, blushing furiously.
Ken yawned, wiping his cheeks and pulling his drenched coat back over his shoulders and standing as well. Rikou felt her face cool down and she turned around to face him again.
"We should find a way out of this place," said Ken quietly, looking up at the high canyon walls.
Rikou had thought about that the previous night, and had already decided on a plan of action. "Umm..." she said, coughing nervously as she glanced at him again. "I can probably summon the crows to get us back up. I can summon the head summon, Akurei, and ask him to fly us back up..."
Ken examined his trenchcoat, frowning slightly at the mud, before lifting his head and nodding. "Sure, if you have enough chakra left after... after blowing up half the forest."
Rikou turned away again, noticing her vision was still perfect in the darkness. She preformed the correct seals before biting her thumb and shouting "Kuchi-yose no jutsu!"
When she placed her hand on the ground, she felt the same, huge amount of black chakra pour from her body, leaking into the mud as she summoned the crow. Does this mean... I'll have this chakra forever? How will I ever learn how to control this much energy at once?
There was a large puff of smoke and Rikou found herself standing on the feathered head of a giant raven, the boss summon of the crows, Akurei, which literally meant 'evil spirit.' It was true, even Rikou, who usually got along with the crows, had trouble dealing with him sometimes.
"Oi, Rikou, what're you summoning me here for?"
"We need to get out of this canyon, Akurei-sama," she said quietly. The large raven blinked, looking around.
"'We'? You mean that muddy rat down there as well?"
"...Yes," she muttered. The crow laughed.
"Hah... Only for you, you know that? I wouldn't do this for anyone but you girl. But only to the top, you interupted my sleep so that's as far as I'll take you two."
She motioned for Ken to join her atop the soft, feathery head and the bird spread it's wings wide, stretching for a moment. It then brought them up high above it's head and brought them down again, sending chunks of debris flying everywhere as they took off into the night. It took the large bird only a few downstrokes to reach the top, where he left them in the exact spot where they had fallen.
"Looks like they left us a trail to follow," said Ken, pointing to a tree. There was an arrow slashed into the bark, pointing east.
"...Neji could probably see through the darkness," said Rikou, turning east as well.
"If we hurry, we can make it by tomorrow afternoon."
Rikou sighed, but broke out coughing halfway through. I think I'm getting sick from the cold, she thought, getting her breathing under control again. Ken glanced at her for a moment, before moving in front of her.
"Let's go," he muttered. Rikou nodded, taking off after him into the darkness. To her, everything appeared as clear as daylight. Rikou blinked a few times, trying to understand why she could suddenly see like this, but gave up and continued after Ken.
By the time the sun broke over the horizon, they were a long way past the Fire country's border, making their way towards Konoha and following the arrows. Ken stopped, flicking open a small compass from inside his pocet and checking their direction. He turned more southeast before continuing on.
About an hour and a half later, Rikou sighed inwardly with relief as she saw the walls of the Hidden Leaf rising up before, with no signs of war or attack. She easily jumped the wall with Ken and sped towards the Hokage's quarters.
"We've beaten them back, they must have set up camp or camped earlier due to the storm," said Ken, dashing along the rooftops beside her. Rikou raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"How do you know?"
"If they had already reported to the Hokage-sama, there would be Anbu out and the walls would be covered in shinobi, waiting for an attack. The security would be much tighter than this," he said. Rikou turned back to the roof, paying attention to where she was headed. The Hokage's quaters was nearing, and they jumped easily onto it's level, heading through the doors.
Two jounin met them inside and escorted them to the Hokage's room, openeing the door and closing it behind them. Rikou and Ken kneeled for a moment before her, until she told them to stand.
"You two... Where are the others?"
"We were separated, but they should be fine. We got caught in a storm and were blown off a cliff."
The Hokage eyed them for a moment. "Alright, make your report."
"We went to each of the four locations suggested by Rikou and investigated each thoroughly. The first turned out no Akatsuki, but we did find a former Leaf-nin hiding there, a missing-nin, and disposed of him. The next two locations turned out no clues about the wherabouts of the Organization.
"When we came to the fourth, however, it at first seemed deserted. Apperently it was the same cave Rikou had been kept in previously. We found a number of weapons, torture instruments, on the walls, but no missing-nin. When we were about to leave, Rikou stopped us and forced us to hide.
"Luckily, we finally listened and hid in the shadows of the high ceiling. After waiting for a few minutes, we noticed a shadow enter the room, followed by eight others. The Akatsuki had apperently come back to have a meeting.
"They brought two children with them and played with them for awhile before killing them. We realized nine was too much for us too take on, so we simply gathered information instead. After killing the children, they commenced with their brief meeting.
"The leader seemed bent on... on getting Rikou... He wants something from her, and he said that he'd do anything to get it. He punished one of the members, threatening to kill him if he didn't bring Rikou to him, before moving onto more important matters.
"First of all, Orochimaru has a new body and is planning to attack Konoha at any time now, but the Akatsuki want revenge and are going to wait until he is weakend before killing him. They said if Konoha gets in the way then they will crush us. And I believed them, they are unbelievably powerful.
"Hokage-sama, we need to prepare for the worst. If Orochimaru attacks us and catches us off guard, we will be at a disadvantage."
The Godaime thought hard for a long time, her face serious. There was a knock at the door, and one of the jounin's voices came through.
"Hokage-sama, the rest of the team has arrived."
"Let them in," she ordered, not lifting her head. The door opened and Shikamaru and Neji entered, bowing slightly and looking towards Rikou and Ken. They still wore their hunter-nin masks, unlike them, and appeared alot drier and less muddy.
"You two may leave, thank you for the report. Please file a copy in the other office, and then you're free to go," said the Hokage, indicating them. Rikou lowered her head respectfully and left the room.
She followed Ken into another room where he lifted a scroll from a drawer along with a pen and began to write out his report. He paused halfway through and turned to Rikou.
"What were the names of the Akatsuki that we know so far?"
"Umm... There's Uchiha Itachi, Yami Kagi, Kisame, Tatsu and that big guy with the sword, Toushin," she said quietly, looking out the window. Ken finished writing up the report and rolled it back up, filing it away in a cabinet.
"Do you want to go get something to eat? We haven't eaten properly for awhile, and I'm starved," he said, turning towards her.
Rikou paused for a moment. Is he asking me out...? She sighed, turning to face him. "Sure."
"What do you wanna get?"
Rikou fell into step beside him as they walked out of the building, heading back into town. "I don't know... Maybe we should get some sushi and bring Kirema some. He's probably training his team right now," she said, looking around at Konoha and thinking about Orochimaru.
"Sure," said Ken, kicking a rock in his path. "But let's get changed first... I need to get out of this coat."
Rikou nodded, looking over his helpless coat. It seemed permanently stained. Since Ken's house was closer, they went there first. She had never been in his house before, but she was amozed when she looked around.
It was incredibly clean and very large, the walls painted white and many windows facing in all directions. He had many swords hung on the walls, katanas, ninja-tos and a few other kinds of swords or knives, all polished and shining.
"You can wait here, I'll just be a few minutes," he said, indicating a chair. Rikou sat down at the table, resting her arms on it casually as he left the room, pulling shut the sliding door behind him. She looked around, turning to face a table by one of his couches. There were a number of pictures there.
Looking around, she noticed that framed pictures were everywhere, from the large ones on the walls to the smaller ones resting on the tables. She stood and looked around at them curiously. There were many of Ken and his team when they had been gennin, with Kanzu in the background grinning widely.
There were pictures of him and what remaining family he had, even a few of him as a baby with his parents holding him. In all the pictures of him as a child, there was also another woman in them, who Rikou guessed to be a sister. She looked to be around five years older then Ken and had the same silvery hair that she kept tied in a ponytail.
Rikou looked at some more of his pictures of his former team, and frowned slightly. I look so enthusiastic in these pictures, she thought sarcastically. She wasn't smiling in a single one, and her hair hung in her face, obscuring one of her eyes and making her look even darker.
There were also individual pictures of his team, Kanzu asleep while they were training, Ken getting whacked in the head with a fist Rikou assumed to be Kirema's. There was even a picture of Rikou smiling, which she didn't remember being taken, and another of Kirema and Ken fighting.
Something caught Rikou's eye and she moved to the other wall, looking up at a large display of pictures surrounding one picture in particular. The one in the middle was a picture of two medical-nin, a man and a woman, standing together in a hospital, smiling. She assumed they were his parents. Around the picture she was suprised at what she saw.
They were various pictures of Ken working with patients. From when he was a gennin watching other medical-nin work, to him passing a test to become a medical-nin in front of the fifth Hokage, the legendary medical-nin Tsunade. There was even a picture of him looking as if he was about to pass out as he smiled faintly, a picture of Rikou in the background and Terasu hovering over her.
Rikou moved back to one of the tables and looked at another family picture with him, his parents and the girl in it. She heard the door open behind her and turned to see Ken come out in a new, white trenchcoat, his forehead protector reattatched on his forehead.
"Who's that?" she asked, her curiosity getting the best of her. Ken stepped over, looking at the picture.
"That? Oh, that's my sister, Mikiri."
"Oh... Was she caught in the Demon War with your parents?"
"No... She wasn't a shinobi. She died when I was seven. Her boyfriend was an Uchiha and she was staying with him. When Itachi slaughtered the clan, she was killed as well."
Rikou turned around and looked him over."That's... Horrible..."
Ken shrugged it off, turning back to the door. "Let's go. I'm sure you want to get out of your clothes as well."
They walked over to Rikou's house quickly, and she opened the door to her small apartment. Ken sat on the bed as she went into the closet, pulling out a new outfit and grabbing her black jounin vest. As an afterthought, she pulled a black trenchcoat from it's hanger as well and moved into the bathroom to change.
Looking in the mirror, she decided to take a quick shower as well. As she stepped into the steaming water, she examined her body, noticing how there were only half the scars she had had before. She ran a hand over her arm and felt only a few raised scars. What happened? Rikou shrugged it off and washed her hair quickly.
She stepped out of the shower and dried herself off before changing into her clean clothes, hanging up her old outfit. She dried her hair and brushed the knots out of it, letting it fall into it's usual position with a peice hanging in front of her eyes. She opened the door, glancing at Ken, and grabbing her forehead protector, tying it bandana style over her head and flattening her hair further.
"Okay, let's go," she said, Ken stood up from the bed and followed her out, closing the door behind him. They walked down the busy streets, Ken leading her towards a sushi restaraunt where they ordered quickly, Ken paying for all three orders.
Rikou lifted her order along with Kirema's as they left for the training field that he was usually at, weaving through the trees until they found him leaning against a tree, watching his three-cell gennin team train.
"Hey, Kirema-sensei, we brought you lunch," said Ken, laughing at the unenthusiastic look on Kirema's face. Kirema turned to face them.
He had changed alot over the last years as well, him and Ken becoming even better friends. He wore a blue forehead protector tied bandana style over his head with the metal plate at the back and the cloth tied in the front. His pale blue hair hung in his face, covering his right eye entirely and reaching down to his chin. He had a long scar on his face that stretched from his right eyebrow, over the bridge of his nose and down to his left cheek, stopping at the jawbone. He had gotten it a year ago when he got mad at Ken and they ended up fighting, Ken having to use some of his more serious attacks and langing a blow on his face that would leave a mark for the rest of his life.
"Heh, you two look good together," he said in his usual greeting. "You look like Ying and Yang."
Ken laughed as Rikou threw him his lunch, where he caught it lightly in one hand, grinning still. Rikou leaned against a tree across from him, turning to look at the training gennins who still hadn't noticed them.
"How'd the mission go?"
Ken sighed, opening his lunch and breaking apart his chopsticks. "It was cold... And wet... And we found out that there are nine people who will stop at nothing to get Rikou. The leader seems almost obsessed with getting her."
Kirema stopped eating for a moment, looking at Rikou as she opened her own lunch. "So I guess you found the Akatsuki then."
"There's more," said Ken, leaning closer and whispering something into Kirema's ear.
"What!? Orochimaru-"
"Shh! What if your brats hear? I'm sure the Hokage will have fun dealing with a pannick if it gets out and the gennin and acadamy students know. But you know what this means... We'll be on duty until something happens."
Kirema nodded, looking out at the kids who were still training. Ken turned to Rikou. "You should be careful from now on. If they find you again, the-"
"Ken-sensei!"
Something small and brown ran into Ken, knocking him over and causing him to drop the rest of his lunch. The shape was joined by another as they began attacking him, wresling with him as he tried to defend against the two gennins. Ken suddenly began ticking them, causing them to fall back before he started chasing them around the training field.
"How immature," breathed Rikou. The third shape lened against a tree beside her, folding her arms across her chest as she watched her teammates try to catch Ken.
"How immature," breathed the gennin. Rikou's mouth twitched slightly in a smile. Kirema's team reminds me of when we were gennin, she thought, watching as Ken gave up, falling to the ground in exaughstion. Kirema snorted.
"Geez, they like Ken more than they like me. That's sad-Hey! Be nice to him! He just got back from a long mission!" Kirema ran out onto the field where Ken stood facing the two gennin, one holding onto his katana which had been ripped off of him.
"Teach us more genjutsu!" called one of the boys, the one holding the katana. He propped it up against a tree as Kirema took Ken's place, letting him grab his katana back and head back to where Rikou was still standing. The third gennin, the one beside her, pushed off the tree and moved back into the clearing, joining her sensei as he whacked the other two over the heads.
"This peice of junk... I'm suprised it isn't broken yet," muttered Ken, wiping off his sword and reattatching it across his back.
"The only other sword I could use though is that Gurehane, but that's long lost."
"Isn't that the sword that was stolen?" asked Rikou, thinking hard.
"Yeah. But if you don't know where it is, then no one does. It's gone forever I guess."
Rikou paused in thought, thinking about the book that she had found three years ago, thinking about the small post-script. 'The crows will always lead the Gekkou's through anything. They will show the location of any item or find a person when lost. Always trust in the crows.'
They will show the location of any item...? Maybe... Rikou suddenly pushed herself off the tree, causing Ken to turn back to her curiously.
"Do you really want the sword?"
Ken blinked a few times. "I guess... But what...? Do you know where it is?"
"I'm not sure... But I have an idea," she said, raising her hand. She held it there for a few moments before she heard cawing and a crow flew to her, digging it's claws into her fist. She lowered it to eye level and stroking it gently. She brought it closer and began whispering into it's ear.
"Please... Show me where the sword is, the Gurehane."