Title: A Ninja's Legacy

Author: Nemu

Warnings: This story contains an original character, if you do not like possible events with original characters I suggest you push that little Back button on your browser, as I do not yet know where the story will take me.

Disclaimer: Yeah, I wish I owned any of the Dead or Alive characters or concepts, but I don't. Only Kohana is mine.

Author's Note: Shame, shame, I picked it back up. Finished this last night in a major writing spree. Pretty happy with it, except the fight scene. My problem is that I know how fights go but only because I've been in them myself at karate training – being one of the fighters isn't exactly a good point of view, it's kind of hectic and full of instinct and reflex stuff. Sigh.

The Beat Up Alley Cat

In her own opinion, Kohana was not one to easily complain. Not someone that would just ask questions out of the blue. But uncle Makoto was being unreasonable. There was no reason at all for keeping her away from martial arts. None at all.

Because of this lack of a good reason, Kohana was again spending her time reading through books on the style that Makoto practiced. He owned many of these books and hid them in his study, which was usually locked.

Usually.

Kohana had, years ago, figured out how the lock worked and picked it daily so that she could read all of the wisdom in Sakuyurai Makoto's little library. She always did it while her uncle would spend hours practicing and perfecting his Aikijutsu, a style she had previously never heard of, but the books had taught her a bit more. Her uncle's seemed different from the books in that he attacked as much as he defended, with moves that she guessed were not Aikijutsu moves. His real style, so far, was unknown to her, but she thought nothing of it. Maybe he was so good that he adapted the style for himself to suit his personality and tastes better.

Currently, however, the young woman had a small problem. This problem being that she had read every book in the room twice by now, so she had to pick one she really wanted to study for a third time. Her fingers were slowly stroking the backs of a few books on stances and moves, her other hand clenched in a fist. She was just itching to try these things out, but she had only done so a few times when she was sure her uncle was not home. In her opinion, this was not enough.

A loud bang in the room Makoto used to train, close to the library, startled her. The man never made that much noise other than the occasional yell to support whatever he was doing.

Kohana's eyes strayed to the door and her fingers abandoned the book cover she had been caressing as her feet hesitantly started to move her away from the bookcase. Another loud bang – no, it was more of a thump. As if someone had fallen over. Slightly worried, with an eerie feeling in her chest, she started to jog over to the door, through it and towards the other room, forgetting to lock the library back up.

Heading for the training room, an eerie feeling turned into fear. Kohana was a stubborn woman and ignored it with all her might, so she could see what the cause of the noise was. She heard two different yells, one from her uncle, and one from an unfamiliar person, as she approached the door, hand outstretched. Had he found himself a training partner and were they trying to see who was better?

Gripping the door handle, she took a deep breath, calming herself down so the feeling of fear left her almost completely, and opened the door with a harsh pull. The next thing she knew she was dodging a bulky body headed for the door. Sidestepping, she noticed the man was dressed like a burglar and obviously not Japanese. She winced slightly as his body hit the wall opposite the door with a loud bang.

Uncle Makoto was staring at her, wide eyed, panting. She could not figure out what the odd expression on his face meant, but felt that this was not the time for that. 'Uncle, what...'

'Kohana, get out, now,' Makoto told her strictly, sounding as much out of breath as he looked.

'But what's going o-...'

A harsh voice behind her grunted something in a foreign language and she was swept aside by a thick, muscular arm. She banged into the doorframe and bounced off into the hall. The man that had batted her out of his way as if she were an insect lunged into the room, at her uncle, who sidestepped and used the other man's speed to throw him on the floor behind him. Kohana thought the unfamiliar opponent was no match for her uncle, but saw the bruises forming on her uncle's arms and the parts of his chest that were visible through his rather traditional – and half undone - training attire. The other man was also rather good at whatever it was he was trying to do, and currently getting back onto his feet in a matter of seconds. Meddling as she was, she tried to warn her uncle for the knife she saw the foreigner pull out of a sheath in his boot: 'Uncle!'

Instead, Makoto thought his niece was scared and moved around to try and protect her, at which the skilled fighter behind him took his chance. He did not throw the knife, but pounced on top of his target and plunged his weapon into the back of Makoto's neck, twisting it for maximum damage and almost instant death.

Makoto's eyes glazed over as his body twitched involuntarily. Blood trickled from his ears and nose down his neck and face, and Kohana found herself wanting to scream, but she could not make a single sound as the assassin's cold blue eyes settled on her.

She realized he saw her as a witness to a crime and that he would try to get her next. If Makoto had lost the fight, then she could not expect to do much better.

But as she stared at her uncle's limp body a different feeling took over from her fear. This person was the only one that had taken care of her since her parents had died when she was only a baby, and more of a father to her than his brother who she had only seen in pictures. His death at the hand of this large man that she had never seen before angered her so much that the part of her brain that was telling her to run shut off completely from one second to the next.

She ran at him without thinking and wanted to kick him in the groin area because her instincts told her to – the first thing a defenseless person would do. Her victim, however, was not defenseless at all, and he got hold of her leg, twisting it.

Fearing he would break her bones, she went with the movement and fell, attempting to roll towards... anywhere.

Her heroic dive for freedom was stopped when she bumped into the wall opposite the room's entrance and was nearly beheaded by the old weapons her uncle had decorated the walls with, which came crashing down upon the impact. As she shuffled out of the way, she grabbed a very decorated katana from the floor, trying not to cut her hand on the others, and dove out of the way before the attacker's knife hit her in the head.

Getting on her feet quickly and jumping out of the big man's way again – he was obviously much faster – she held the katana out in front of her, instinctively looking for the right pose.

From there on, something in her head took over and made her abandon all rational thinking. She knew she was probably not using the right techniques at all, but she attacked the man and tried to fight him, drive him out of the house. Somewhere in the back of her head a voice told her it felt good to fight like that.

This good feeling was short-lived, because her brave attempts to get rid of the dark man were parried and countered, earning her plenty of cuts and bruises. He was toying with her, seeing she didn't know what she was doing.

Suddenly Kohana got the eerie thought that his accomplice had come in when a hand stopped her next inexperienced swing by grabbing one of her wrists – rather tightly. She attempted to break free but the fingers tightened more, hurting the tendons in her arms.

A man clad in dark red, smaller and not as buff as the man whom she had tried to fight stepped in front of her, refusing to let go of her arm, twisting it a little but not breaking it.

'Don't,' he said softly, his voice rather low. 'You'll get yourself killed.'

She felt her eyes widen as she looked at him in surprise. What he was saying was not really out of concern, but he did not mean her any harm, either. He was keeping his eyes on the bigger man, so she could only see him from the back. His clothes were obviously of Japanese origin, dark red with a pattern on it that she couldn't quite make out from where she was – she could only think of him as a ninja with that outfit on, especially with the large sword strapped to his back. She felt her mouth try to speak but all that came out were a few incoherent squeeky sounds.

'Keep that sword with you in case he comes at you,' he instructed – no, ordered – as he let go of her arm and stepped forward. 'And keep it lower, else it will not do you any good.'

Surprised at his calm behavior, she nodded even though he would not see it and stepped back, lowering the katana slightly, but keeping it ready all the same.

What followed was something that came straight from the books in the library down the hall, or maybe from a movie. The bigger man got a few seconds to scoff at the ninja, before said ninja suddenly shot forward, aiming a rather deadly looking hit for the other man's gut.

Big Man opted for a dodge to the side and swept his left leg out to where Ninja Guy had ended up, but Ninja Guy jumped over it and lashed out with a quick kick to Big Man's brow.

Big Man grabbed the leg and twisted it just like he had done with Kohana's incredible crotch kick earlier.

Ninja Guy didn't seem to care as he rolled with it and used his free leg to kick himself loose. Finishing his roll, he ended back up on his feet and paused half a second to find an opening before letting loose on Big Man again.

Big Man seemed annoyed, for he had hoped to finish his job quickly and get rid of the witness. Now he had two witnesses, one of whom appeared to be a fighter as good as he. Quickly finishing it was no longer an option – he had to deal with Ninja Guy if he liked it or not.

Kohana's heart raced as she watched the two men fight. She had never seen anything like it, for she had not been allowed to watch her uncle the times he set out for tournaments that seemed vague and not so legal at all. She wondered if those fights had been like this, with both men trying to hurt each other as badly as they could.

She could cleary see differences in styles, too, for Big Man was indeed big and heavy, so he used his weight and big arms to get Ninja Guy in various holds that would break him in half if he managed to push through. But Ninja Guy was slippery and quick, delivering fast, hard punches and kicks to Big Man and using the environment to his advantage.

At one point, Kohana cringed as Big Man had Ninja Guy stuck in a hold that would break his back, when Ninja turned on Big and slammed him into a wall.

The fight paused, both men stepped back and Ninja Guy seemed to allow his opponent a chance to leave, for somehow he seemed pressed for time. Big Man growled, made sure his mask had stayed on, and said in a low growl, 'Fine, live. If I ever run into either of you again, you'd better be prepared to fight for your lives.' He walked over to the wall behind Kohana, and pulled out his knife. Seeing her involuntary twitch with the sword, he snorted disdainfully before turning around and disappearing.

Hey, said the little voice inside her, his back is turned, you could get him now. Why don't you go after him and stick that nice sword you're holding between his shoulders?

Kohana shook her head, wondering where this rather odd thought came from, and her eyes strayed to the lifeless body of who was once her uncle. Surely that assassin didn't think he could get away with that?

Her right foot slipped back only slightly and she pushed off to bolt out the door and kill the man, but Ninja was in the way. Very much in the way. So much in the way that she bounced off him and the sword clattered onto the floor, useless.

'What did you do that for!' she screamed at him, tears filling her eyes and making him one big red and orange-brownish blur. She blinked to see him more clearly, while she briefly wondered how he had intercepted her so quickly, and got back up on her feet, raising a fist and slamming it down on his chest, hard. All she met there was steel. Or possibly muscle, but sometimes it felt just the same on a man anyway.

'He would have killed you, and I would have cracked a window for nothing,' the ninja replied calmly.

'You broke a window?' she asked, shaking her head in confusion. So many things at the same time. Her uncle was dead, so she had to cry, but the ninja was getting in her way of punishing the assassin, so she should be angry and scream, and he broke a window on top of all that. And she should worry, for she had no idea what to do with her uncle's body, or with the house all on her own. Why had Makoto been so awfully protective of her? Now she knew nothing of what she had to do next!

Finally, anger chose to stay on the upper hand for now. She banged her fist on his chest again, and had it joined by her other fist, repeatedly attempting to smash in his ribcage. 'You're gonna have to help me kill him now, you bastard!' she yelled at him. 'You teach me or I'll get myself killed, right?' She tried to hit him harder just to make it clear to him.

'Oi,' the ninja tried, stepping back and sighing to himself. When she made another attempt to come at him, he sidestepped and was suddenly behind her. Next she felt a sharp pang in the back of her head and she fell over, her vision blurring with both tears and pain this time. Then it started to go black, from the edges, and through the tunnel she could see the ninja's feet moving toward the old katana she had dropped. He moved to pick it up, but then she couldn't see him anymore.

Cool air and the smell of fire. Leaves that rustled, that couldn't seem to shut up. Creaking of wood around her, muffled voices in between. A hard shoulder pressing into her stomach, one hand on the small of her back. The sheath of a sword knocking against her jaw with each step of... wait, was she being carried? Who would bring a sword in these modern times, anyway?

She managed to open her eyes with some difficulty and through the blur and dizziness made out sand and stones. An old road? The environment that she could not well see because she hadn't the strength to lift her head and look around seemed to light up a bit more. She floated up a flight of stone steps before coming to a halt.

'Hey, is that a present for me?' a man's voice asked. It seemed like a joke, but Kohana couldn't hear any jest in the voice.

'Find one of your own,' answered another voice, which sounded slightly annoyed. As he spoke, she felt something under her rumble. So this voice belonged to whoever was carrying her.

'Funny that you're desperate enough to kidnap a woman,' said the first voice, actually a little amused this time.

She tried to speak, to protest, to ask what was going on, but only a low grunting sound came out.

'You hit her pretty hard, it looks like.' She saw two feet in front of her, then a lock of hair as the owner of the feet bent over. A hand touched her chin and lifted her head up a bit. She squinted her eyes because it hurt. Green eyes looked back at her calmly.

'Very much down, not so much out,' he commented. 'What do you want with this one?'

'Chuck it in the nearest pit, is my suggestion,' a harsh female voice butted in. 'Since when do you take in beat up alley cats, Hayate-sama?'

'Shhh, I will explain after I drop her off,' rumbled the voice below her.

Her head hurt, she wanted to go back to sleep instead of having this green-eyed creature stare at her. If she wanted green eyes staring at her, she could look in the mirror. She twisted her neck to break free of the hand gripping her chin, which seemed to convince the hand to let go.

Her eyes closed again, while someone softly mumbled, 'This sword will interest you, Ryu. Hold it for me until I get back.'