Sakura ran until she was out of breath and sat down on a rock choking back a sob, 'Ryo' she thought to herself. 'You're such a jerk sometimes.' Kero bounded up to where she was sitting and sat down beside her and put his paw on her knee comfortinly. She smiled at him and scratched him behind his ear. White Blaze appeared soon after Kero, followed by Mia and Yulie.

"There you are." Mia said panting. "I didn't think we were going to catch up."

"Well, nobody was supposed to follow me." She said slightly angry. Mia gave her a small smile. "Don't be upset." She started. "You know Ryo didn't mean anything by what he did." Sakura didn't respond and lowered her eyes.

"Do you really hate Ryo?" Yulie asked innocently. "He was just worried about you. You're his top priority." Yulie said thinking back to a conversation he had over heard between Ryo and the others.

Sakura gave him a lopsided smile at him. "He has a weird way of showing it." She said, putting her hand to her cheek.

"Do you really hate him?" Yulie persisted.

She shook her head. "No Yulie, I don't hate him." 'Quite the opposite really.' She thought.

"Then why did you say that?" Yulie asked.

Sakura sighed. "I shouldn't have said it, but I was frustrated and angry and hurt. I thought that he didn't trust me."

"You know he does." Mia said gently. "He's just concerned about what might happen if you went in there with them."

"I never asked him to look out for me like that." Sakura pointed out and then sighed. "Yes, you're right, he's just trying to look after me."

Kento slowly pushed open the huge gate that separated the outer courtyard from the outside of the gate. The Ronins advanced, slowly prepared for anything that might decide to leap out and attack them.

"Keep your eyes open guys," Sage advised. "I'm sure we are expected."

"I love this spy stuff." Kento joked as he made a small show of hiding behind things and tiptoeing around.

The others gave him an exasperated look as they continued. A mist began slowly filling the air, surrounding them.

"Is that a spider?" Cye asked, motioning toward a spider like shape hanging upside down, slightly visible through the mist.

"That's no spider." Ryo said, readying his weapon. "That's Dais!"

Dais laughed as the mist cleared long enough for the Ronins to see him launch his first attack. Sending out the sickles on his back he threw them at the Ronins, Cye dodged one just in time to dodge another. Ryo gripped his sword and tried to cut the thread that was attached to the sickles, but the thread held. Dais chuckled evilly.

"Nice try Ronin, but the thread on my sickles can't be cut by an ordinary sword." He laughed again as he sent out another wave of sickles and threads for them to avoid. Cye and Kento had already been tied up by the threads and Ryo and Sage were trying to untangle Rowen when they got caught themselves. Dais strung them up on a gigantic spider web and started gloating.

"We have to find a way to break the thread." Ryo yelled at the others struggling to break free.

Dais laughed cruelly, "Struggle all you like Ronins, it won't help you." He laughed as he pulled the cocooned Ryo toward him a malicious glint in his eye.

"You will be the first to die."

Sakura jerked her head up.

"Something's wrong." She said, worry edging her voice.

"I feel it to." Mia said nodding. The small group immediately headed back toward the front gate. They had just passed through the gate when the air was filled with the ghosts of ancient priests. They whizzed continuously around their heads forming a dark cloud around them, blinding them, till they retreated out of the gate.

"Now what are we going to do?" Mia asked alarmed. "We need to get to them, but we can't move in that cloud of ghosts. Sakura nodded her agreement, but had no idea of how to get past them. The air was suddenly showered with brilliant blue light, radiating from Sakura's necklace. She took it off to examine it.

"Why is it glowing?" Yulie asked.

"I don't know," Sakura replied dumfounded. "It's never done this on it's own before." She clasped the glowing crystal firmly in her right hand. She felt the crystal grow warm as it started to enlarge. The crystal turned into a glowing blue staff similar to the one she had seen Ancient use. The staff stopped glowing and turned a golden color. Following an impulse, Sakura held it out in front of her and went through the gate followed by the others. The staff formed a barrier around them blocking off the ghosts as they hurried forward. The ghosts hovering around outside the barrier eventually disappeared revealing the Ronins strung up like flies in a web with Dais about to administer the killing stroke to Ryo. In desperation Sakura grabbed a ring off of the staff and held it in her hand until it glowed blue with her magic energy. She threw the ring like a ninja throwing star at Ryo's binds cutting him free and hitting Dais in the chest. Dais fell back surprised and shouted his anger as Ryo transformed into his armor. Taking advantage of Dais surprise, Sakura cut the others free. Once she was finished her staff shrunk back down to normal size back to the normal shape of the crystal. Replacing it around her neck she joined the fight. Dais was wildly throwing his sickles, attempting to regain his edge and ensnare them again and the Ronins were having a difficult time avoiding them. One headed straight for Ryo, whose attention was focused on another sickle. Sakura dove and pushed him out of the way, taking the hit. The sickle sliced through her armor and gave her a jagged cut from ankle to knee. She quickly rolled out of the way of another sickle, holding her leg in pain. Turning, Ryo saw that Sakura was hurt. His mind clouded with anger and fear for her safety. He placed the hilts of his twin swords together, summoning everything he could for his sure kill. Ryo's flare up technique hit Dais right on and he fled. Willing to rather risk Talpa's anger than die. After the battle had subsided and everyone was nursing their wounds, Sakura managed to move and gently place herself on a rock and examined her leg.

"How is it?" Ryo asked softly walking over to her side. She tore off a piece of her shirt and wrapped it around her leg.

"It's not too bad," She said looking up at him. "I'll be fine." The two shared an awkward silence for a moment. Neither sure what to say. "Ryo," Sakura started trying to stand up. She gasped in pain when she put weight on her injured leg as pain shot up her leg and she fell forward. Ryo instinctively reached out and caught her around her waist holding her up. Sakura looked up into his blue eyes, their faces only inches apart. She stared into his eyes for a moment and then looked down, remembering what she was going to say.

"I'm sorry for saying that I hate you." She began softly, not looking at him. "I don't, I was just mad and frustrated." She said avoiding looking down self consciously.

"Do you know why I didn't want you to come in?" he asked her gently as he lifted her chin so that she was looking at him. "It's because I was worried about you." He continued.

"But, why? Do you think that just because I am a girl I can't fight as well as you guys?" she asked mesmerized by the gentle look in his cool blue eyes.

"No," he answered softly gazing into her golden eyes. "It's because I love you." He finished as he leaned in and gently pressed his lips against hers.

Sakura stiffened with shock but slowly melted into him, returned the kiss with passion and put her arms around his neck hugging him closer. They broke apart, Sakura gazing at him.

"I love you too Ryo Sanada." She whispered and kissed him again. Ryo hugged her tight, never wanting to let her go. He lifted her off the ground and spun her around happily. Sakura grinned and kissed him again. The two continued their kiss oblivious to the fact that of where they were and the job they had to do. All they cared about for the moment was each other.

The others stood back together in a group watching with smiles of approval.

"About time." Mia said. "Those two have had it bad for each other ever since they first met."

"Good," Sage said. "Now we don't have to watch them blush everytime they catch the other staring all the time."

"No, it'll probably be worse now." Cye commented with a laugh.

"It's kind of weird though." Kento spoke up. "You never would have thought it would happen."

"Never thought what would happen?" Rowen asked him.

"That Ryo of the Wildfire, our unofficial leader of the Ronin warriors, would have fallen in love with Sakura, Talpa's daughter."