A/N: I do not know anything of Fuu's mother's past...so I decided what the heck? I'll make it up...so yeah here you are. Chapter Seven should be up soon. This does contain a little tiny SPOILER and its a major one so beware! I don't own Samurai Champloo.

Chapter Six: Dancing For Her

The sun had waited long enough in its slumber and began to awake over the trees. The early morning fog rolled in around a large okiya. Two guards stood outside the large doors gazing out over the woods. In the trees Mugen, Jin, and Totomi waited for the right moment.

"This is the Ruzuki Clan's hideout. We shelter our toughest men here, away from the villages." Totomi explained.

"It's a damn whore house." Mugen stated.

"It isn't running anymore with women…that's why they take young girls from the villages…mostly two or more for their entertainment." Totomi said lowering his head a bit.

Mugen gawked at this so called "man", and felt sick. Mugen was not one to be known as a gentleman but he did have some sense. Mugen observed Totomi; he couldn't seem to find what Fuu saw in him. He couldn't understand what she needed him for.

Out of all the people she has to fall for, she falls for this dumb ass. He's just a kid…what good is a kid going to protect a kid? She deserves someone bett…

Mugen stopped his wandering mind…he noticed that his thought was in good intension for her. He wanted her to have someone better, someone that she deserved. His thought scared him a bit.

"I think if we're quiet enough, we can sneak past the guards." Said Totomi.

"Ready man?" asked Mugen.

"After you." Jin replied. The two samurai jumped from the branches to the ground without a single sound. Totomi watched with amazement as they moved quickly, using the fog to keep themselves hidden.

Mugen and Jin were spotted coming out of the mist, and were quickly dodged. Totomi saw that they were found out and leaped out of the tree landing hard on the ground. He picked himself up and made his way up the okiya steps. As he ran up the steep steps he unsheathed his sword.

Once he made it to the top he saw the two large lookouts lying stiff on the stone floor. He heard a whistle by the wooden carved doors. Mugen and Jin stood there without a scratch, not even sounding tired.

"Hurry your ass on!" Mugen shouted to Totomi.

"Come on baby…for me, let me see what you got!" The lean man began to open up her pink kimono showing more and more pale skin by the second. After only a few inches of opening; he saw a small creature stick its head out of her kimono.

It's big black eyes stared up at the man like doll's eyes. He tilted his little brown head and then hissed.

"What the hell?" asked the skinny man.

Momo flew into his face scratching the thin man's oily face. He screamed as the small animal dug his tiny little nails into his cheeks, chin, and forehead.

While the man was distracted Fuu quickly turned toward Satsu, who was being yanked around like a tug-of-war rope. Fuu made her way down the wooden table to the poor girl but was quickly stopped when she felt a painful snatch of her hair from the man that took away Satsu. Fuu stopped, and fell to her knees.

"Ow Dammit! Let me go!" Fuu yelled hitting his meaty hands, still he did not let go. The scrawny man finally got Momo off his face; he threw the little flying squirrel against the wall, making him squeak in pain. The man walked down to the end of the stage and took hold of Fuu's small wrists.

He had a stern angry look on his face; he bent over to her level and took out a large black dagger that was sticking out of its sheath. The word Ruzuki was painted in gold, Fuu's eyes opened wide as he pulled it out. The large man pulled Fuu's hair back, jerking her head upward.

Everyone in the room was quiet and still, even Satsu. The skinny man softly touched Fuu's skin with the cold razor and he started from her neck and went downward to her chest. The man could fell Fuu's heartbeat against the blade.

"She's frightened." The man said with a heartless chuckle. He then gently pushed back the kimono showing her shoulder.

"Please…don't…please." Fuu pleaded. The man stopped pushing back the dress. He looked up into her brown eyes that overflowed with tears. She shivered in dread and made small whimpering noises. He smiled a twisted smile and pushed back his long scraggily hair.

He stood up and waved at the larger man to let her go. Fuu felt some relief when she could not feel the tight grip on her hair any longer. Fuu closed up her kimono and sat on her legs looking up at the man with brown strands of hair in her face.

She looked up at his twisted smile; he examined her for a second or two and simply said:

"Dance for me."

Fuu's face had become distant and lost…she hadn't danced in a long time.

"Like this Fuu." A beautiful woman turned gracefully with pink and gold fans. She waved them around as decently as a breeze to the trees. A small child with her hair put up in a messy brown bun, and brown eyes that sparkled imitated her mother's actions.

Fuu was no more than 13; her mother was a beautiful dancer who entertained men at a geisha house. She was not a geisha…she was just a dancer, who kept food on the table for her and Fuu.

"Ugh." Fuu fell to the floor while trying to turn swiftly yet gracefully.

"You almost have it." Encouraged Fuu's mother. Her face was always warm with a smile, and her hair was too a dark brown. In her hair she always wore a small sunflower that she wore when she would perform. The men called her the "Sunflower Dancer". They would also pay big money to come and see her dance.

Her mother began to twirl again but was caught off guard by a noisy cough. She fell to the floor coughing hard. Her mother had become very ill these past few weeks, so she had not been dancing…which did not help pay her taxes, Mejia's payment, or put food on the table.

"Mother! Mejia! Mejia!" Fuu cried for Mejia's help. Mejia was younger then…and a little faster than she was. She brought in some hot tea, she poured in an herb that was recommended by the doctor. Almost everyday Fuu's mother had to drink this medicine, and each day…it seemed as if it wasn't even worth making.

Once her mother got the mixture down, she rested on her futon. Fuu hated seeing her mother so weak and tired. She missed playing with her and being with her all the time.

"Your mother needs her rest now child, go outside and play." Mejia said sweetly as she covered her mother up with a sheet.

Fuu quickly stormed out of the house angry and upset. She sat outside their small home and watched as the other children played. She usually would sit outside her mother's bedroom window, just to hear her breath…to hear some kind of life from her.

One day when Fuu was returning from the sunflower field she saw Mejia sitting outside her mother's room, looking sad and lost.

"Mejia? What's wrong?" Fuu asked. Just then a doctor walked out of her mother's room with a sadden expression on his face. He bowed in respect.

"I've done all I could…but she has gotten worse. I'm not sure she'll make through the night." Said the doctor sad.

Fuu saw Mejia flinch in sadness. Fuu looked into her mother's room, to find her lying on the futon again. Mejia and the doctor did not follow Fuu in; they left her alone to be with her mother.

"Fuu…my baby, come here." Her mother's voice was raspy and cold, she held out her hand to her. Fuu walked over to her ill mother. Her mom was paler, and her hair was a mess and had not been washed in days, and her eyes had become dull and dark. Fuu could see her mom slipping away. The only color on her mother was the bright yellow sunflower that she had kept in her hair.

"Mother…what's going on?" asked Fuu taking a hold of her cold hands.

"…I'm sick." Her mom hesitated. "I'm not going to make it sweetie." Her mother said rubbing the tips of her fingers over Fuu's warm tan hands.

"You're going to die?" Fuu asked in a shaky voice…her eyes stayed on her mom's, watching as she drifted away.

"…Don't think of it as dying…Think of it as dreaming forever." Fuu's mother said with an attempted smile.

At this point Fuu's tears had begun to roll down her cheeks. Her mother wiped away the tears that fell from Fuu's eyes. She then, reached up to the sunflower and took it out of her hair. Fuu leaned closer to her mother and she placed it in Fuu's hair.

"…I don't want you to go." Said Fuu laying her head on her mother's chest. Her mother rubbed her soft brown hair.

"I don't want to go either." Said her mom softly. She smelled the scent of sunflowers on Fuu.

"Fuu…" her mother said. Fuu lifted her head up and her mothers said:

"Dance for me." She said with sweet tender eyes.

Fuu vacillated at first, but then realized it was for her mother. She took the pink and gold fans that laid nest to her mother on her small vanity and stood in the middle of the room. She pictured the music in her mind and began to wave the fans quickly in her hands. She slowly did every step perfect and delicate…without falling or tripping over her own two feet. She twirled around like her mother, she bowed like her mother, and she threw the fans in the air like her mother.

She finished off with the fans high above her head and she brought her body down to the floor kneeling to her mother. Fuu heard a whimper from her mother, she looked up quickly and saw that she was crying…Fuu dropped the fans and crawled to her mom.

"Mom, what's wrong? What is it?" Fuu cried in terror. Her mother smiled to her with tears still rolling. "I have never seen a more beautiful dance in my life." She said. Fuu blushed to the compliment. Her mother took her hands once again and said to her firmly.

"Fuu…I want you to do something, please promise me that you will do this for me." Said her mother.

"Anything mother!" Fuu said getting a tighter grip on her hands.

Night had rolled in, and Mejia still sat outside the room. The whole day Mejia prayed for Fuu's mother…yet when she heard a heart-wrenching scream from inside the room.

"MOTHER!" Fuu cried in such a powerful scream…it was heard all throughout the village. Mejia listened to the young girl cry and plead to her mother. Mejia cradled herself as she prayed for the woman.

About an hour passed and Fuu finally opened the door. Mejia looked up and saw her eyes sore with red, and her hair chaotic in a tangled bunch…she looked at the old woman and said nothing.

"Is she?" Mejia began. Fuu looked away with angry eyes. Mejia had gotten her answer.

"What are you going to do, Fuu-chan?" asked Mejia looking up to sadden girl.

"She wants me to…she wants me to find him." Fuu said turning her back to the old woman.

"Who? Who does she want you to find?" asked Mejia.

Fuu then turned back around with half of a smile and tears still in her eyes; she said to her with a shaky low voice:

"The sunflower samurai."

"Dance?" Fuu questioned.

"You! Play some shamisen." The skinny man said to Satsu. Satsu was tossed onto some pillows roughly, she was handed an old dusty shamisen. Satsu took it with fear and looked up at the confused Fuu.

For a while there was only silence, then a monstrous roar frightened Satsu. "PLAY! DAMMIT!" The skinny man shouted.

Satsu flinched; she tried to keep her fingers steady as they brushed against the strings. She tuned the instrument and played the first two notes slowly. Once she finally got the music flowing…the men turned their attention to Fuu.

"Dance." Said the man. Fuu was still on her knees holding her kimono closed. She looked into the eyes of the men that stared back at her…she wanted to dance…just not for them.

Fuu just sat there staring at them…she was stiff, all she could hear was the music that was off key and kind of lousy.

"Dammit girl! You better dance!" The skinny man shouted. Fuu just looked at him blankly with no reply. The thin man would not stand for disobedience; he yanked Fuu's hair and pulled her off the stage.

"Ahhh! Let go of me!" shouted Fuu as he yanked the petite girl down. Fuu landed on the ground with a hard thud, he placed his hand firmly on the side of her head, pressing it down into the wooden floor. He again pulled out the dagger and cut open the back of her kimono. Fuu squirmed and wiggled to get away from them, yet she couldn't. The cold hands of the man rubbed her bare back making quivers ran down her spine.

"Fine! Ok! Ok…I'll dance for you." Fuu said with tears rolling down her face.

The men stopped caressing her and let her bring herself to her feet. Fuu looked at Satsu with such eyes…Fuu looked at Satsu with her mother's eyes. Eyes that begged her to play.

Satsu took her shaky hands over the shamisen strings, and played one solid note clear and well. She then plucked the stings in a soft, sweet, slow tune. Fuu held one hand on her chest to keep her kimono from falling, Fuu then waved her hand in the air gracefully. The pink kimono followed the dance along with her hand…swaying like a dragon's tail. She twirled graciously around turning her back to the men, she turned her head back slowly to them and raised the one hand that held up her kimono high above her head, along with the other one. She brought slowly down to her sides and then sat to the floor on her legs, facing backwards she again lifted both hands back into the air and twirled them down like dragons to the tune of the beat.

"They keep the girls down this way!" Totomi said, leading the samurais down a long hallway painted in pink and gold. Totomi slid to a stop, "Maybe it's this way." He said pointing to another hallway connected to the pink and gold one. "No, it's this way!" he said running back around to the colorful hallway.

"What the hell tomato? You're leading us around damn circles!" Mugen shouted at him.

"I promise you, this is where they do the entertainment…this where they take the girls." Totomi said in his defense.

"For your sake…I hope you are right." Said Jin, he was getting tired of playing "follow the leader" with Totomi. Running through the halls, Mugen;s mind began to wander again:

"God dammit girl, you better be okay…" He thought to himself...with out a regret of thinking of it.

Totomi, Jin, and Mugen came to a paper door. Through the thin screen, the three men heard music being played. Totomi slid back the door and revealed a dancing Fuu. Standing on her feet, Fuu was bent backward and still moving her arms like tiny dragons. No one turned around to look at the interlopers. Every one of the men kept their eyes on Fuu, even Mugen…especially Mugen.

When Mugen's eyes came upon her, he was stiff. He had never seen Fuu this way before, her hair was down and her eyes shimmered from her tears, and the way that the light from the sun shone on her from the breaking roof; made her glow. Her torn kimono only hid a bit of her petitebody from eye's view yet made her that much more desirable.

Fuu moved her hips and swayed to the sound of Satsu's Music. When the tone got faster, so did Fuu's dancing. At a resting point of Satsu's song…Fuu fell to her knees. Her brown hair dangled in her face and she kept her eyes to the floor. She looked up only once to see Jin and Mugen, and she saw Mugen staring at her with intense mesmerized eyes. When Satsu's playing began again, Fuu hoisted herself up onto her feet, then onto her tippy-toes, holding one leg out straight in the air.

Everyone was silent, and then the men clapped and cheered. Even Totomi, Jin, and Mugen. Once the crowd settled; Mugen asked out loud to get their attention:

"You dancing for me?" he asked in a low, raspy, yet somewhat tender voice.

"No…Dancing for her…" she said with a more womanly voice, and a sweet smile across her face.

TO BE CONTINUED…