Chapter Seventeen: Alone for the Night

The Shichinintai were around a fire, celebrating Akiko's joining of the group. She figured that it was probably more for them than it was for her, but she didn't mind. She was still thinking about what it would be like being a permanent member of the seven-man army.

"Bankotsu?" the now named Neikotsu said to her leader, just thinking of something.

"Yeah?" was his somewhat drunken reply.

"Are we going to be called the Shichinintai still?"

Bankotsu pondered that for a second before saying, "Well, Hatsunintai sounds kind of weird, and we are already known as the Shichinintai, so I guess we'll keep our name. You don't mind do you?"

"No," she said truthfully. "Just wondering."

Chouyouma had joined back up with them. For some reason, it seemed that they already liked him even though they hardly knew the shifty ghost. He hadn't left Neikotsu alone since he declared he'd stay with her. She found him rather annoying, but tolerated him and had to admit, he wasn't all that bad. Even Renkotsu didn't seem too upset to have Chouyouma there.

Neikotsu smiled to herself as she watched everyone celebrate. She would have joined in on the fun, but remembering how horrible she felt the last time she drank, she decided to sit this one out.

MEANWHILE

Naraku sat in his castle. He was watching an image through Kanna's mirror. "Enjoy your celebrating, for it shall be the last enjoyable thing that will ever happen to you," Naraku said with an evil laugh as he watched the group of mercenaries.

"Naraku, everything is ready. Do you want me to send the soldiers now?" said a short, small, red, scaly dragon.

The hanyou chuckled evilly. "Yes, Kageyu, that sounds good. Soon I will have the shards of the Shikon Jewel that are rightfully mine. Just wait until I set those fools up like the first time they died. I'm sure Bankotsu is naive enough to fall into that trap twice."

"Actually," the traitorous dragon interrupted, "I was thinking and I believe that Bankotsu may find some way to fight back. And I know Akiko all too well. She would not die so easily. Perhaps we can let the two of them find out about their friends after we kill them and let that be their trap. When the eight of them are together they are too powerful, but if we spilt them up and lure them here with anger, then maybe we can beat them."

Naraku considered this and finally said with once again an evil laugh, "Yes, that sounds very good indeed. Now, go send the messenger."

With a bow, Kageyu turned and left Naraku. With a motion of his hand, Kanna left Naraku to enjoy his plots of death.

THE SHICHININTAI

It was the next morning and everyone was still tired. They had wound up staying up until dawn. The thing that awoken them was the sound of horses approaching. There were about ten men all led by a mean looking daimyo.

"Are ye the ones who call themselves the Shichinintai?" the daimyo asked, with an equally mean voice.

"We are," Renkotsu said with strong annoyance. He wasn't much of a morning person anyway.

The rough-looking man's expression showed that he was not very happy to be greeted with such disrespect, but most likely because of fear, didn't say anything. "The lot of you are requested to come to our land and defeat our enemies. Will ye come?"

Bankotsu sighed heavily. "I suppose. Of course I want to be sure that-"

"I'm sorry," the daimyo said interrupting Bankotsu in a rude manner, "but yourself and the ninja have been said to cause problems for people, so the two of ye have not been asked."

"What!" Bankotsu and Jakotsu shouted. "I am the leader!" Bankotsu exclaimed as Jakotsu said with the same furiousness, "He's our leader!"

"I'll make it worth while. I'll pay ye the same and even more so. In fact, ye name the price, and I'll pay it."

'Paid as much as we want?' Renkotsu thought. 'Sounds like a trap. Bankotsu better have learned his lesson the first time and not agree to this.'

Bankotsu settled down some. "Getting paid without having to do any work huh? And as much as we want? Not really something I'd do, but what the hell. Sure, the two of us will stay behind."

Renkotsu couldn't believe it. 'What? That fucking moron! Does he not remember what happened the last time? And he's agreeing to this without even coming along? Oh well, it doesn't matter. We can defeat them if it's a trap. Even if Bankotsu isn't there.'

"Bankotsu no Oo-Aniki!" Jakotsu whined sadly. "Pweease?"

Bankotsu smirked and said, "They won't let me. Not much I can do. Besides, think about it, Jakotsu. We get paid whatever we want."

Knowing he was defeated, Jakotsu sighed and with one last sad look at his best friend, turned to leave with everyone else who was asked to go with the daimyo and his men.

"How long will this take?" Suikotsu asked, as they were getting ready to leave.

"About a day to get there, a day to get back, and judging by your reputation a day to kill everyone. So I suppose about three days altogether.

Neikotsu and Bankotsu waved to their comrades as they departed for their destination. As they walked further and further away, Neikotsu started to feel nervous. Never before had she and Bankotsu been alone together. Well, without the rest of the Shichinintai somewhere around.

When they were completely out of sight, the two remained in an uncomfortable silence. It lasted for about a minute before Bankotsu broke the silence saying, "Well. Alone for three days. What do you wanna do?"

Her nervousness got worse and she blurted out the first thing that came to her. "Are you hungry? Because I am."

Bankotsu gave her a lazy shrug as she mentally kicked herself for sounding so stupid. 'What was that! 'Are you hungry'? I don't think I could have come up with anything stupider than THAT! Now what do I say?'

"I'll go make us some breakfast," Neikotsu said, wanting to get away from him for a moment. She quickly stalked off to find something and wasn't sure if he said anything, but she figured he was too caught off-guard by her stupidity to respond.

Neikotsu trekked through the woods, gathering a few things she thought would be good to eat. Growing up, being raised by Master Kensei, she often had to find her own food so she did know some about cooking.

Returning about a half an hour later, she met Bankotsu sitting down near the fire, waiting to eat. Avoiding his glance at her, she sat down across the other side of their campsite. With her back turned to him, she took a knife out of her outfit and began cutting up some of the fruits she had found.

Even though she had her back turned to him, Neikotsu could feel his eyes boring into her. 'Is he mad? Was that stupid remark dumb enough to make him mad at me? Gah! BAKA!' she thought angrily, chopping their "breakfast" up faster.

Bankotsu watched every movement that Neikotsu made. He wasn't sure what was wrong with her, but she seemed to be upset about something. 'She's been even quieter than usual lately. I hope that guy didn't hurt her feelings when he said she couldn't go with the rest of the Shichinintai. Nah, that wouldn't make her act this way. Could it have been what I said? When I asked her what she wanted to do, did she think I was asking her if she wanted to…? No! It can't be that. Maybe it has something to do with becoming the new member. If I ask her, I could upset her. How can I figure out which one is causing her to act like this? …Maybe I could…? No!' Bankotsu thought, blushing at his last idea.

Neikotsu could hear Bankotsu walking up to her, but didn't acknowledge his presence. She could feel that something was wrong, and she didn't know what to do.

At first, Bankotsu didn't do anything; he just stood there watching her. Then, without warning, he slipped his arms around her waist. She stopped cutting for a second, but then started again when he rested his head on her shoulder.

"What are we going to be eating?" he asked softly.

"I don't know."

Bankotsu chuckled, but didn't move at all.

'My clever, witty charm certainly knows no bounds,' Neikotsu thought bitterly. 'Still… why is he doing this?'

Bankotsu lifted his head off her shoulder and whispered rather gruffly in her ear, "I'm not hungry. Let's do something else." After he had spoken he moved down to her neck and kissed and bit it softly.

Neikotsu was frozen where she stood. Unable to say anything or move a muscle. Shivers went up and down her spine as his lips and teeth gently brushed her neck. Bankotsu let go of her waist just long enough to remove her hands from her knife and what she had been slicing with it, and then returned back to let his hands rest on her hips.

"Bankotsu…" she finally managed to say. Though, he ignored her and started to kiss her more roughly.

"Do you remember that night that you were drunk?" he asked quietly in between kisses.

"I don't remember exactly what happened," Neikotsu uttered nervously. 'Oh no! What did I do? What if I? What if we…?'

"Want me to tell you?" She nodded unsurely. "You said you loved me, then you kissed me. And then you…"

'No! I can't believe I could do something so unforgivable! I got drunk and… and…"

"puked," Bankotsu finished his sentence. "Then you fell asleep. My point is that you said that you loved me."

Not sure how to respond to this she said, "What was your reply?"

He laughed. "What do you think my reply was?" When Neikotsu didn't say anything, Bankotsu continued. "The reason I am telling you this is because I wanted to know if you said it because you were drunk, or because you meant it."

Neikotsu didn't know what to say. On one hand she could destroy her chance to stay with the Shichinintai if he knew how she felt about him, but on the other hand, he could return her feelings and she could break his heart, and lose him completely.

"I really meant it," she said, her voice very evident to the nervousness she felt.

"Good," Bankotsu whispered, "because I meant it when I said I loved you too."

"I…" was all she could say before he turned her head to face him and kissed her in a rough, but gentle way. She resisted at first, but slowly calmed down and kissed him in return. His hand moved down her right thigh and brushed open her kimono where it was closed to her bare skin. He pulled her closer to him as his hand slid up the side of her leg. Before Bankotsu got to the very top of her thigh, Neikotsu pulled away.

"Sorry," he said quickly. "I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright. …Do you want me to finish making breakfast?" Bankotsu nodded and went back to where he sat before as Neikotsu went back to slicing up their breakfast. They ate in silence, not looking each other in the eye.

'That was strange. Why did Bankotsu do that to me? My heart is still beating like crazy from it. This is going to be a fun three days,' Neikotsu thought miserably. 'Alone with Bankotsu while he knows that I'm in love with him.'

Bankotsu was thinking about what had happened as well. 'So it's settled- she was acting strange because she's in love with me and she felt weird being alone with me for three days. Haha, this should be fun,' he smirked.

Author's Note: Yes, yes. I know, I know. Bankotsu's been acting OOC here, but that's how I needed him to act for this chapter. I've tried rewriting chapter sixteen and I just can't find the inspiration to write it well. My last attempt was even worse than the first. So, until then, The Death of Akiko and the Birth of Neikotsu will stay how it is. Also, I am so sorry it has taken me so long to update. These past few Fridays (which is the day I type everything up) I have been really busy. I'll try and get on the computer more often. 'Till then, review, M'loves!