Chapter 2
"Let me guess, two pretty kunoichi have come to the rescue. Am I right?" asked the tall chestnut haired man without missing the opportunity to flash his charming grin. His eyes were not focused, obviously not functioning.
What is this? Some kind of a joke?
"Amazing! How can you tell?" Sakura asked in amusement. The handsome dark man just let out a little laugh.
"Now - "
"Now that's a secret!" the little boy suddenly cut in. "Trust me, one-chan, he will never tell! I've tried many ways, but he still keeps that little secret of his on his own. That is childish for a man his age!"
"Now, now… Don't you think you need to behave a little bit more, Kenta-chan?" smiling calmly, he reached and pulled Kenta's ear without any difficulty despite his disability.
Sakura can't help but let out a chuckle watching the scene. Kenta smiled sheepishly, but still cute nonetheless.
The same charming smile, same soothing voice, same sharp eyes, things I have longed for so long…"Please excuse him. This is Kenta. I'm Yukawa,"
Yukawa. Yukawa, huh? This must be a dream. There's no way -"Hey!" Sakura whispered and nudged.
"Er!" Natsu blinked a few times as Sakura snatched her attention from her reverie just now. Natsu looked at the man who was still holding out his hand towards her.
Yukawa frowned as his hand remained untouched. He almost put down his extended arm when Natsu suddenly snatched his hand and shook it loosely.
"Natsu, Kurosawa Natsuko," The waist length black haired woman stated firmly, trying to fight off her reddening cheeks.
Yukawa smiled tenderly before he turned his attention to Sakura who was introducing herself.
No. This is not a dream. Of course not. It's just that he has the same face with him. My Kyosuke. Unbelievably same, only that this man standing before me has longer hair and darker skin.
"KUROSAWA NATSUKO SENPAI!"
"Yes?" Natsu turned towards her pink haired colleague.
"For the third time, senpai, shall we go now?"
A look of annoyance plastered all over her young face. She caught her - gazing at him - again.
Natsu went red again.
"O-ok…"
"The pirates have attacked many times before?" Sakura asked as she jumped lightly from branch to branch, led by Yukawa with Kenta clinging on his back. The shock of his abilities as a man with sight disability had gone just a little while ago. Smart Kenta acted as his eyes and read the map for him.
"Yeah. We experienced a great loss everytime they came. There are not enough men to protect the village because the youths usually leave the village to do business. For instance, I'm a regular trader at Konoha."
"The villagers had suffered enough. This time, I'll get rid of them for sure,"
Natsu could see the look of determined on his face.
"Oh yeah, Yukawa-san. Why are we moving at night?" Sakura asked.
"Its Kenta. His body is weak. Even the sunshine can be harmful to him. So, I traveled at night, but on fullmoon night only. I don't know what will happen if he is exposed to the sun, though. Maybe he will go crazy?" Yukawa chuckled slightly.
"NO WAY!" the eight-year-old boy blushed and pouted.
"But he is a good kid. Though he cannot go to school, he always helped me. Aren't you, Kenta-chan?"
Kenta stayed silent but his face gone even redder.
To tease and to apologize again. That sounded much like…
No.
Natsu closed her eyes for a moment and then let out a heavy sigh. She tried her best not to let the others hear her. Ever since, ever since she met this 'Yukawa', her mind went into a jumble. She can already accept him not as Kyosuke but as Yukawa but still, she can't keep her mind from getting lost. All she could do for now is, to pray that this week will pass quickly.
Village Ryoushi, 11.30 p.m.
From afar, red and orange streaks colouring the dark sky of Ryoushi Village can be clearly seen. Raging fire dominating the small fishermen's settlement. Tragic moans and cries mixed up with the sound of raging fire.
"Oh my god…" Sakura whispered unconsciously, taken aback looking at the disaster before her eyes.
"Damn! It's them again!" Yukawa gritted his teeth. Natsu saw his jaw tightening. She was frozenfor a while watching the polite man's reaction which looked more aggressive than she first met him.
"Kenta!" Yukawa spoke suddenly, almost yelling. Kenta nodded knowingly even there was no single word coming out from Yukawa's mouth. The little boy expertly mumbling directions into Yukawa's ear, the direction of their destination, the village chief's house.
The lavishly carved oriental house of the village chief shared the same fate with the other villager's houses. Outside of the luxurious house, there were several housemaids together with some villagers trying to put out the rapidly growing fire on the village chief's house. There was also a late teen girl sitting on the ground, holding a limp body of an old man who was in his fifties. The girl was cying looking at the barely breathing old man.
"Oni-chan!" cried the girl as soon as she saw Yukawa coming towards her.
"Kazuki, what happened to Yamazaki-sama?" Yukawa asked immediately.
"I told him… I told him before, but father was too stubborn! He tried to fight those pirates!" the girl explained within her sobs.
The old man put out one of his hands, reaching, grabbing Yukawa's cloth. The well-respected village chief coughed several times, trying desperately just to talk.
"They are too much… this time, they want to take away young women…" Said Yamazaki-sama, the village chief with anger clearly seen in his eyes. Once in a while, his clutching hand on his chest tightened as if holding the pain whenever he coughed.
Yukawa alertly moved his attention to the two kunoichi.
"They might still be at the harbour. Haruno-san, please take care of the chief!" He ordered sternly. Both his fists were tightly clenched.
"Hait!" The young medic-jounin answered almost immediately. It seemed like the village is short of medics. All the medics had gone for the children and women who were affected from the fire. There were lots of injured men from the fighting against the pirates too.
"Kurosawa-san, please lead me to the harbour!" The blind man asked again with full of determination.
The trip to the harbour was lead by Natsu along with orders from Yukawa. Natsu was no longer surprised with Yukawa's agility and ability. It was easy for him following the sound of Natsu's footsteps, as well as the cherry aroma she left behind.
Just as he thought, the pirates were still at the harbour. Some of them were trying to fight off the attack from the villagers and same of them were already prepared for an escape. But, their mothership was not seen, only small boats were used. Obviously, they just came to drop off a warning.
With Natsu's help to clear a way for him, Yukawa moved forward, eagerly looking for the invaders' captain or their representative. This time, Natsu could not avoid her surprise looking at how skilled this sight-disabled man with his way of handling a no mere toy; sword. Even if he was not blind, he can be considered as too good for normal people.
"You guys are too much!" He screamed with rage.
A series of metal clashing went on between Yukawa and a man his age who was taking the responsible as the representative of the small pirate group that came today.
"Where is your leader?" Yukawa asked demandingly. His brows knitted closely and his jaw looked hard.
The enemy just laughed cynically. "He don't have the time to come to this dull village today," He answered in a very carefree manner.
The swordplay between the two skilled men became more and more fast-paced. Yukawa's anger was burning like his beloved village. He quickly moved forward and launched an attack almost immediately, making the katana of his opponent flew far away from them. The adrenaline that was rushing through their veins started to slow down. Slowly, the man walked backwards, trying to keep some distance from the tip of Yukawa's katana at his throat. As he walked backwards, he got closer to the end of the jetty.
"Tell me his plans!" Yukawa demanded. As his sharp blade touched the pulse line that was visible at the neck of his enemy, his opponent's sly smile began to crept away from his annoying face.
"Tell me!" Yukawa threatened. His non-functional eyes were as sharp as his katana.
"We… will come again…" He answered very slowly, almost a mutter as if teasing Yukawa's eagerness.
"WHEN!"
"…On…"
Suddenly, a small smile, almost invisible, crept on the pirate's lips.
"YUKAWA-SAN!" Natsu suddenly yelled when she realized their plan. A few of small black bombs which looked like marbles were thrown towards Yukawa by the pirates who were on the boats. Natsu quickly broke the assault by throwing any shuriken and kunai she had at the black beads, deflected them away from him.
The man who was standing by the tip of Yukawa's threatening blade quickly took the chance to jump into the water and successfully escaped.
The little bombs Natsu deflected just now flew and exploded in the middle of the air above the water thus created craters about a yard in diameter on the surface of the water.
Those are not ordinary bombs!She whispered to herself. Those bombs was full of compacted chakra. They can inflict outer and critical inner physical damage.
"Kurosawa-san!" Shouted Yukawa as he felt an incoming of those chakra bombs which was almost exploded nearby the female jounin. The pirates' boats were starting to sail away from the village but those damned pirates were still throwing the deadly chakra bombs towards the village; to be exact, Yukawa and Natsu. Those two were desperately trying to avoid the little bombs and hitting them with their weapons.
Yukawa quickly pulled Natsu's slim and slender figure into a tight embrace and used his body as a shield for her instead. Yukawa's left palm which was glowing with blue dense chakra then emitted a big amount of chakra to shield theirself from the explosion of the chakra bombs to avoid any injure for him and Natsu. Unfortunately, the collision of two uneven density chakra made the chakra which was emitted from Yukawa's left palm absorbed into his left arm along with the chakra from the exploded bomb by force.
Yukawa felt like screaming from the bottom of his lung when the muscles of his left arm felt as if they were twisted and torn from the chakra absorption but his voice stuck in his throat because of the great pain. The pain he felt made his whole body tremble until he finally fell on his knees at the jetty.
Though blurry, the cheers of joy from the fleeting pirates were heard.
"Yu… YUKAWA-SAN!
Oni-chan : older brother
One-chan : older sister
Ryoushi simply means fishermen, LOL!
Yay! Chapter 2, finished! It was pretty long. I started to wonder if this story going to be longer than I expected. Whenever I want to keep things simple, they'll become complicated eventually. Man, I always screw up like that!