Author's notes: My response to the reviews.

Dan von Hinden: Congrats to you! I am Dan von Hinden, a fairly big yet unknown reviewer, and I'm happy to say that this story is good compaired to other stories.

P.S. Tell "Bill the Bard," if he's still around, that I said he should accept any review from anyone and not just authers. And that he is the best auther.

Thunder's reply: Hello Don, nice to meet you. Thank you for your kind words. Do you think next time when you review you could give a little more description as why you like the story or chapter? I really want to know your thoughts on it.Again, I thank you for the comments

Illius: An excellent read so far. I can't wait to read the next chapter. This and the other chapters have been brilliant and I do hope you write another one soon. Highly recommended, a great read.

Illius

Thunder's reply: Hey there! Nice to see I have acquired another fan. I'm your first favorite author? Aww, shucks (blushes).Wait no longer my friend, for the next chapter is here. By the way, do you think you can give some more detail into your review because I would really like to know your thoughts on the fic. Thank you for the comments.

On with the story

Akemi's long, brunette hair withdrew behind the back of her sensitive ears as she swiftly dashed through the quiet forest with the Stone of Rejuvenation held firmly underneath her armpit. Laughing maniacally while running across the steady currents of water in the shallow creeks, the cunning Ninja couldn't get the shocked expression of Isamu when she kicked the stone from his fingertips out of her head. It was hysterical, for he was totally unaware of her plan to take the rejuvenating rock from him in the first place. A massive ego Isamu had, always thinking he was one step ahead of everybody else. He didn't go as far as to think his own adopted daughter would betray and steal from him right under his nose. With the stone now in her possession, Akemi surely knew Isamu and his men would soon come after her, looking to take it back. But she didn't care or worry about that, at least for the moment.

Back at the fortress, Isamu dispatched his soldiers out in small groups into the forest. They rounded up weapons such as swords, knifes, spears, and bow and arrows before setting out to murder the fleeing young, treacherous female. Isamu came along on the hunt as well to see to it that Akemi would experience a gruesome death first hand. Nobody had ever stolen anything from him before and gotten away with it, and he wasn't willing to let it happen with his daughter. Stealing from Isamu was considered the ultimate death penalty. The executions he had placed on those that stole from him were brutal, ranging from having certain ligaments of the body amputated before a bloody beheading to a horrible fiery incineration. He was very serious when it came to something precious being stolen from him. Whatever the action Isamu would use to punish Akemi with was he was going to make certain that it'll be extremely painful.

An escaping Kasumi, Ayane, and Hayate came outside into the courtyard, which was marked by little to no motion or activity. They could see Isamu and his men heading deep into the forest while riding horseback. Some soldiers stayed behind to keep watch over the fortress and guard the place until their master returned. Kenji, the strongest soldier and Isamu's second in command, was left in charge.

"Isamu's got the stone with him, I'm sure of it," Kasumi knowingly whispered.

"Then I suggest we pursue him into the forest and take back the property he stole from us before he uses it on himself," Ayane scowled.

Hayate's eyes fluttered from Ayane's response. He knew right away that Isamu had already used the stone to restore his youth.

"I'm sure he's already used the stone by now to make himself young."

The two sisters turned to him in disappointed shock.

"Huh? How do you know that?"

"When he captured us he said by dawn he would have used the stone's power to transform himself, while giving us the privilege of watching it happen. It seems he held back on his promise since we were caged when it happened. I could already sense the stone's power being used when were breaking out."

"Great, so now he's younger and stronger than before. What do we do now then?" Ayane irritably groaned.

"We have no choice but to follow him for now."

"Well, let's get a move on!" Kasumi commanded. What are we waiting for?"

The three Ninjas snuck past the unwarily wandering guards in the courtyard, heading into the forest after Isamu and his men in hopes of taking back what he had stolen from them. But unknown to the persistent three was the fact that the Rejuvenation Stone was no longer with Isamu.

Akemi soon became tired and was in desperate need of rest. The constant running seemed to have drained her stamina down quite a bit. Breathing heavily, she climbed up to one of the nearest trees, figuring no one would see her if they came walking by. Once she reached the highest branch, the young Ninja laid her back up against the thick bark and drifted to sleep with the stone laying securely between her closed legs. At that moment, she began to slip into a dreaming state. An image of Kasumi froze in her mind. She remembered the love and care she had received from the thoughtful and polite girl the other day. The sound of playful laughter and water splashing from the soothing river were present in Akemi's ears as she slept. Together they had a lot of fun. But it came to a sad end rather quickly.

No longer were they friends or pretend sisters. They were now each other's enemy. Akemi felt that the only friend she had now was the Stone of Rejuvenation itself. She felt there was no need for friends as long as she had that. Although Akemi no longer liked Kasumi, she still somewhat missed the short time they had shared together as friends, the time when the two laughed as they ate fish by the bonfire and shared secrets with one another during the night before going to sleep. Those memories didn't seem to want to go away.

Kasumi and the others decided to rest for a while after hours of walking and running. They found no trace or sign of Isamu or his men, or Akemi for that matter. The forest remained peacefully quiet. No noises of galloping horses were heard moving throughout the area. To Kasumi, rest wasn't needed with the current situation. She highly claimed wanting to continue pursuing Isamu, but the actual reason behind it was going after the one girl she once considered her friend, Akemi. Hayate could see the determined look within his sister's penetrating eyes that told him she had other things on her mind besides just recovering the stone. Something was troubling her and he could easily tell. The male Ninja could always identify whether or not something was wrong with Kasumi.

Several times she tried to cover it up and hide it so he wouldn't notice, thinking it would make her seem childish. But no matter what she did, Hayate knew anyway.

"Something troubles you, sister?"

Kasumi sniffed with her head turned towards the other direction to try to hide her expression from him.

"I know something's wrong, Kasumi. You don't need to hide it from me."

"I was just thinking about Akemi, that's all," she said pouting.

"Akemi? Who is this Akemi?"

"Somebody who I thought was my friend. Somebody I thought I could trust. I've always wanted a sister who could be kind and respect me, a sister to share things with."

"I have a feeling a long story is involved. Why don't you tell me about it?" Hayate said, sitting down on the log next to her.

Kasumi went into extreme detail about everything that happened. And once she was finished, Hayate fully understood everything. Now he knew why his sister's eyes were looking so sinister from earlier on.

"I understand how you feel. But you shouldn't let this bother you so much. Akemi will get what's coming to her sooner or later."

"Your darn right she'll get what's coming to her," Kasumi growled in anger with images of Akemi running through her head.

"Sounds like this Akemi's really got you upset. I'm starting to like this girl already and I haven't even met her," Ayane teasingly chuckled.

Anybody that made Kasumi angry or depressed was already likeable to Ayane since she felt she could relate to that particular person.

"Now is not the time to be cracking jokes at your sister," Hayate said, bringing Kasumi's face into his chest.

Watching Kasumi gather all of Hayate's care and attention disgusted the purple haired Ninja to the extent of balling up her fist in severe anger. After all, it wasn't the first time she had witnessed this and wanted so badly to do something about it.

"Look at her, always getting him to hold and comfort her like some little child. I wish Hayate would do that with me," Ayane thought, while eyeing the hugging two with a sinister stare.