A/N- Hello! It's been a while since I have updated but I have been very busy, Karate tournaments and such. I've been making one shots and I started another story. It's a dark Yuriku if anyone wants to check it out. Well… on with the story!

Chapter 5

The forest was a silent and tranquil place that created a calm atmosphere. The light wind passing through only added to the serenity by making the tree branches hum lightly, almost like an enchanting song of nature. The autumn leaves covered the ground in a multicolored spectrum of browns that moved almost liquidly with stronger gusts of wind.

Even thought it was nearly noon, the thick canopy of leaves created a shield from the scorching sun. Beneath the cover stood a young man, his cerulean eyes focused in a meditative concentration. In his hands was a massive sword, its blade nearly four feet long with a foot long hilt for controllability. He held the sword with steady hands, as if it was no larger than a simple wakizashi, and seemed to be putting very little effort into doing so.

Sweat dripped off his body profusely, making the smaller blond spikes of his hair stick to his red-flushed face. Some of the salty liquid fell into his eyes and he was forced to blink the saline fluid away to clear his vision. His body glistened in the light sunlight leaking through the leaves and his black shirt clung to the wetness of his skin.

Another gust of wind passed through the clearing, causing several of the dying leaves to flutter downward. They scattered like snow around his alert form and he watched them closely, paying attention to every fluid move they made as they descended.

Something suddenly flashed in his eyes and the muscles in his body tensed slightly in anticipation. His hands tightened their grip on the sword and he moved his feet into a better stance, his knees bending slightly for better balance and control. His eyes focused on the falling leaves, watching each closely as they fell around him.

With speed that was nearly imperceptible to the untrained eye, he launched toward the falling leaves as they continued their random movements in the wind. His enormous sword was raised to strike and his blond eyebrows were furrowed as he focused his strength into the impending strike.

The sword moved so fast that it was impossible to tell how many times he had swung it in the fraction of a second that he had moved. The strikes that could be made out were the powerful vertical slash that he had begun his attack with, several high-speed diagonal slashes in between and he horizontal slash with one hand that had ended his onslaught. Each of the attack had a perfect balance of speed and power to cause the most amount of damage to any target.

He took a deep breath as he lowered his sword to a more comfortable level and he watched as the majority of the leaves split in two from his attack. Catching one of the shredded leaves in the palm of his hand, he examined it closely, running his finger across the gash to feel the cleanness of the cut.

"Damn it," he said in slight frustration as he threw the leaf to the ground. He stabbed his massive sword into the earth and kneeled down to examine the other leaves that he had slashed.

'They're all the same,' he thought to himself, 'the cuts aren't nearly as clean as they should be,' he let the leaves slide from his hand as his thoughts began to wander. He hadn't been able to focus his mind clearly the entire day. Something else was occupying it.

"Yuffie," he whispered unconsciously, the sound barely louder than the wind. He closed his eyes tightly as he tried to keep his mind from drifting to the night before.

When he had decided to train this morning, he knew that it was for more than just one reason. It was true that he was very much in need of training, especially since he would be facing Sephiroth soon. He was tremendously rusty with his swordplay, as it had been at least a year since he had picked up any sword for a significant cause. The fact that his cuts had been so ragged was proof enough that his technique needed some fine-tuning.

The other reason that he had decided to train in the deep woods, away from all measure of civilization, was to get his mind off the previous night and what had transpired at Leon's party. He could remember everything that had happened as clear as day. The way her lips tasted as they kissed and the way her body melted into his, as if they were two parts of a whole, were memories permanently etched into his mind. That night had been like a dream, something too perfect and marvelous to be real. It was only fitting that it ended just as a dream would, with a major wake up call.

He shook his head to prevent his mind from digging deeper into the memories he was trying to bury. He would never forget that night, not in a million years, but the last thing he needed was to have his mind distracted.

He stood from his kneeling position and wiped the clinging dirt from his black pants. Placing his hand firmly on the hilt of his sword, he pulled the massive weapon from the ground with one smooth tug. He gave the blade a halfhearted swing that did little more than detach the sticking soil from the flawless carbon steel.

He glanced over to his black motorcycle parked a few yards away from the area in which he was training. Fenrir was standing as majestic as ever, the black finish of the paint shimmering in the sun. Cloud walked over to bike with the large sword flung casually over his shoulder.

"Maybe a smaller sword would be better to start with," he said as he pressed a button near the handle of the black motorcycle, causing several swords to jet out in an arranged rack from the sides of Fenrir. The large sword in his hand was placed in an empty holder in favor of a slighter one, which would still be considered massive to an ordinary person.

"Much lighter," he said as he took an experimental swing. He moved back to the center of the clearing and stood in a fighting stance, preparing to continue his training.

He woke slowly, his eyes blinking to clear the sleepy blurriness from them. He had a headache worse than any he could clearly remember; even worse than the hangovers he always got after Leon's parties.

'Maybe I'm so used to going to the parties that even if I miss one I'll still get a hangover,' he thought drolly.

He looked around the room as he tried to remember were he was. His sleep-filled mind was refusing to cooperate and the headache only worsened it. He rubbed his eyes with his hand as he continued to scrutinize the room.

The bed he was laying on looked old and well used. The sheets, that he assumed were once an unpolluted white, were now a light tan color. There were several dark stains on the pillow and he wouldn't have been surprised if a cockroach popped out from under it. He ran a hand through the long silver strands of his hair warily as he surveyed the rest of the room. The walls of the room were a natural rock, like that of a cave. He placed his hand on the hard stone of the wall and something in his mind clicked as his brain seemed to resume normal function.

"Time to wake up sleepy head," came a voice from the entrance of the small room. There were no doors, only a curtain separated this part of the cave from the rest.

"Oh," came the voice again, nearer this time, "I see you're already awake."

Riku turned toward the entrance to see the red headed Axel step in, a stack of papers held in his hand. The spiky haired man pulled up a ragged looking chair, which was sitting near the side of the bed, and took a seat in front of Riku.

"I have some information for you," Axel said gesturing to the mound of papers.

"You better," Riku replied with an annoyed look on his face, "I didn't spend the night in this shit hole for you to find nothing."

"Always so appreciative aren't you Riku," the red head said as he handed the papers to the now glaring Riku.

"Shut up," Riku said as he yanked the stack of documents from the smirking Axel.

The silver haired boy looked at the papers, flipping to the more useful ones. When his eyes landed on the tracking location page, he let out a small gasp. He turned his widened aquamarine eyes back to Axel in shock.

"What is this?"

A/N- This was a short boring chapter. I think I am going to revise this story because I really don't like some parts of it. I don't know.

My sister keeps dropping her kids over for me to baby-sit against my will! I'm a bad roll model though, I keep them up to watch adult swim at night and I let them play grand theft auto san andreas all day. LOL. I taught the oldest how to pick up the prostitutes! Maybe my sister wont keep dropping them off when she hears all of the new words they have learned!

The little brats gave me a cold too! That only added to the lateness of this update. Sorry.