Disclaimer: I do not own Cardcaptor Sakura….even though I wish I do…But unfortunately I don't…Neither the techniques in this chapter.

Chapter 3: First Encounter

As Tomoyo, Eriol, Sakura and Syaoran entered the office of Queen Yelan, the Queen saw Sakura glaring at the playfully smirking Syaoran. She huffed and turned her head, there she saw a woman. Sakura stared at her; she was stunningly beautiful. She had black charcoal hair with matching black eyes. Her hair was tied up and she was wearing a traditional kimono. It was soft delicate shade of pink with a light purple sash around her waist.

As the four assembled to their seats she looked at Sakura and Tomoyo, "Welcome Kinomoto Sakura-san and Daidouji Tomoyo-san to the Li Kingdom. I humbly thank you for choosing us to help you with your mission." She nodded her head and the girls nodded back. Queen Yelan continued, "Now, all of you probably know why I have called you here. This mission is very important to the Li Kingdom and the Kinomoto Kingdom. We must get those stones back as soon as possible. Now there have been rumors that a strange man wearing a black robe, has recently entered into the Hidden Village of Konoha. I have also heard that he had a strange duffel bag carrying rounded objects. I want all of you to travel there and find this man. Now, are their any questions?"

Syaoran, who had a bored expression on his face spoke up, "This is stupid, all this ruckus over some colorful stones…What's so important about them anyways?"

Yelan looked at her son and frowned, "Xiao-Lang, these stones are important because the prophecy relates to our Kingdom and the Kinomoto Kingdom. Now stop with this nonsense and finish preparing for your mission. You will leave as soon as possible." Syaoran rolled his eyes and left his mother's office slamming the door behind him. Sakura, Tomoyo and Eriol were the only ones left in Yelan's office. Yelan sighed and faced the remaining three, "I apologize for Syaoran's behavior; he was really a great child and he was always so friendly and kind, but after that incident he changed." Sakura's eyes widened, she thought of the fact of Syaoran being kind.

She shook her head and shuddered, "He could never be nice after what I did to him…" As Sakura saw how stressed Queen Yelan was, she soon got the message that they were to leave. Sakura bowed to her and thanked her for the information. She then opened the door waiting for Eriol and Tomoyo to exit. After, she then closed the door softly leaving the Queen with her problems. Sakura then turned to her friends and asked Eriol, "Hiiragizawa-kun, I didn't know that Li-kun used to be kind…What happened?"

Eriol's face darkened and replied, "Syaoran was really close to his father when he was young. They were always together, laughing and playing if the King had time. You never saw them separated from each other. But when his father went to battle, he was killed. After his death, the news reached the castle and Yelan was shocked. She told all the servants and advisors never to tell Syaoran about her husband's death. But eventually the news reached Syaoran and he was angry and cold to everyone. He hated everyone and everything around him, so ever since then, he has remained the same." Eriol finished and saw Sakura and Tomoyo stunned. Sakura felt sorry for Syaoran, she knew how he felt. Yukito also died from a war, she was close friends with him. She even had a crush on him, but got over it quickly. She also felt sad when she learnt of his death. "We better get prepared soon; we have to leave as quickly as possible." Eriol said breaking the silence; Sakura looked up and nodded to agree. She and Tomoyo went back downstairs to retrieve their bags.

Sakura felt bad for Syaoran as she lifted her belongings, "Poor Li-kun…I know how exactly how he feels…."

Sakura sighed, and Tomoyo looked at her while they were waiting for Syaoran and Eriol, "That incident with Yukito-san?" Asked Tomoyo, Sakura nodded slowly. They waited for ten minutes and finally Syaoran and Eriol arrived carrying their bag and weapons.

Sakura smiled at them and said, "Ready to go you two?" Eriol nodded and Syaoran didn't reply. They exited the door of the castle and went on the road leading to a forest that leads to the Hidden Village of Konoha.

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"Uh…you sure this is the right way, Li-kun?" Asked Sakura, Syaoran turned to her and gave her a deathly glare. He turned back around and went back to his map that his mother gave him. Sakura sighed, "We are in the middle of nowhere!" Thought Sakura, she looked around at her surroundings. They were in the middle of the forest; it seemed like an eternal maze, every where they went each way was a dead end, the trees were dark and it blocked all the light from the sun. They have been walking for hours and their feet were starting to hurt. Sakura sighed once again and then saw a black shadow move beyond the trees. She stopped, and walked the way the shadow was before. She peered over a bush and saw a piece of clothing snagged on a thorn bush. She picked it up and then heard another noise. She turned to her right and saw a foot coming right towards her. She gasped and the kick landed on her stomach, the blow made her go backwards and she hit her back on a tree, "Agh!" She put her hands on her stomach and was slowly getting up. The others heard her cry of pain and rushed to her side. Tomoyo helped Sakura up and asked if she was okay, Sakura nodded and took out her fan, opening it. "Huh, it seems like he hidden himself…" She held the fan and was about to swing it when a person landed on a nearby branch. He was wearing a dark red shirt and black pants. On his back was an enormous sword. It was thick and itappeared heavy. He had blue eyes and blonde spiky hair.

The man looked down on them and smirked evilly, "You four must be the ones that the master talked about. So all of you are after our "Five Stones of the Dragons," well, It looks like this is the end for all of you…"

He made a few hand motions with his hands; Tomoyo was watching each motion and gasped, "Sakura-chan, he's summoning Bahamut!" Sakura gazed at Tomoyo and nodded. Sakura bit her thumb hard enough that blood was dripping. She then laid her blood on her hand and made swirls on her palm.

Finally she closed her eyes and chanted,

"Oh power of the seven colored dragons,

I humbly ask for your power and reveal my dragon of power.."

She then lifted her hands and a pink aura was surrounding her, she then opened her eyes and shouted, "RAIDON THE DRAGON OF THUNDER COME FORTH!" Then a pink light beam shot up to the sky, and then the clouds started to separate from each other and slowly descending was a black scaled dragon that had three heads. Its wings flapped slowly while descending down to the ground. As soon as Tomoyo saw Sakura summon Raidon, she then also bit her thumb to reveal blood. She dashed a line on her palm.

She then crouched on the ground and laid her hand on it and shouted, "KUCHIYOSE-NO-JUTSU! (the summoning technique)" Then a big whirlwind surrounded her and after the dust was cleared, a white glimmering scaled, with blue eyes dragon was shown. Tomoyo was standing on it with her hands on her hips. Eriol and Syaoran looked at the two beasts, their mouths were wide open. Eriol was a bit impressed but Syaoran was becoming angered; he was a bit jealous. Then all of a sudden the four heard a loud roar. They looked up and saw a fire red dragon coming down from the sky. It landed beside their enemy. Again the dragon roared, and then something was forming on his mouth; a black electrical orb. It started to grow immensely, Sakura then took this chance to summon her wand. She lifted her hands up to her stomach and a pink aura was surrounding a key necklace. She then said,

"O key that holds the power of the stars

Show me your true form

Under the contract, I, Sakura command you!

RELEASE!"

Then the small key started to grow in length and then it released to a pink wand that circles a star and small little wings coming out of the sides of the key hole. Sakura grabbed her wand and looked at the stranger's dragon, it was about to release the black orb. When Sakura looked at it, the orb was now ten times bigger than a ball. She was ready; she took out a card that said "The Shield." She then took a deep breath and was waiting for the right time.

The blonde hair man smiled and then shouted, "Attack Bahamut!" Then Bahamut fired right at Sakura and her friends, Sakura then threw the card and hit the card with her wand and also shouted,

"SHIELD!" A Gold like dome surrounded everyone, including the dragons. She them spoke to Raidon through her mind, "Raidon, I need you to use your "Protect" tactic to make my shield stronger." The black dragon sent a color of rainbows soaring through her head. Sakura smiled, Raidon agreed. After hearing Sakura's command, the three dragon head's eyes glowed red and then it roared. From the clouds lightning shot down and also made a dome like shield in front of Sakura's. The black orb suddenly turned into a beam of black light and it hit the shield that was created from Raidon. It then deflected and was going straight to Bahamut and his owner.

The owner jumped on his dragon's scaly back and shouted, "JUMP AND FLY!" The red dragon jumped and started flying through the air just dodging its own attack. Bahamut hovered over the four, growling as he flew. As the four saw the black beam miss the red dragon they saw what damaged it had made. Almost the whole forest was destroyed except the part behind them. Then all of a sudden, Sakura heard a shout. She looked up and saw the man jump from his dragon's back and was going straight to Tomoyo.

Sakura screamed out a warning to her, "Tomoyo-chan, um mi nai (look out!)!"

Tomoyo looked up and saw the enemy coming at her with his sword, shouting, "You'll be the one who dies first!" Tomoyo quickly reached into her pouch of weapons and took out a kunai knife. She held her defense stance and then the sword came down on her. The sword came down upon her but was stopped by Tomoyo's weapon. She then held the sword by not going any further. Tomoyo grunted and pushed back the sword with all her strength. The fighter was shocked; no one in his life has stopped his sword. Finally the man jumped and landed on ground. Tomoyo followed him holding now ten shuriken's, five on each hand. Tomoyo then jumped into the air and threw her shuriken's at him. The man used his sword to deflect each one and swung his sword at Tomoyo; she dodged gracefully and landed on the flat side of the sword.

The man gasped, Tomoyo glared at him with her arms crossed and said, "Ta-ku (geez), you're so hasty in killing…" She then lifted her leg and kicked him in the face. Tomoyo did a backwards flip as the man tumbled backwards, away from her. He was dazed a few seconds and then he got up slowly, he then rested his sword on his shoulder.

He looked at the two girls and smirked, "You're stronger than I thought…But not strong enough." He then lifted his sword and was about to charge at Tomoyo, and then he couldn't move. His whole body was completely still, he then looked closely and saw a blue aura surrounding a wire. "A Chakra String…." He growled, ahead of him he saw Tomoyo just a few meters ahead of him, he saw the wire and it lead to her hand. It was wrapped around her hand and was holding a tight grip. Eriol and Syaoran saw the battle sequence, and both were quite shocked and impressed on how strong the two girls were.

Seeing the man frozen on his stance, Syaoran walked up to him, "Now that you can't move, why don't you answer a few questions of mine?" The man just glared at him and spat on Syaoran's feet in disgust. Syaoran looked at Tomoyo, and she got the message. She then tightened the wire's grip on him and the man gasped for air, making him drop his sword to the ground. Syaoran looked at him once more and asked him a second time, "So now that we got your attention, let's try this again. What's your name and who is this master of yours?"

"Ronin, and my master is Kaori." When Sakura heard the name she winced, she heard of that name before, but where?

Syaoran continued, "So when you said those stones were "ours" what did you mean?"

"I meant that they rightfully belonged to us. Kinomoto Kingdom stole it from us! We were the ones who discovered them!" snapped Ronin. Tomoyo tightened Ronin again after what he said about the Kinomoto Kingdom. He gasped for more air and collapsed on the ground.

"Where is this "Kaori" man located?" asked Syaoran.

"The Hidden Village of Konoha…" gasped Ronin.

Syaoran grinned evilly and took out a knife; "Thank you…" said Syaoran and stabbed Ronin in the chest. Ronin gasped and coughed out blood. He looked up at Syaoran and managed to say one last thing,

"Damn you…." He then chuckled, but then gasped foreven more air. "Huh…the prophecy will come true and there's nothing that you can do about it or your little friends…" He then winced at the pain and died. Tomoyo released the wire that was holding him and gathered it all up. Syaoran then took out his knife from Ronin's chest and cleaned of the blood with a piece of cloth.

He then turned around to his comrades and said, "C'mon, let's go…We have all the information we need." He walked passed Tomoyo and Eriol and then Sakura. Sakurafelt himbrushed her shoulder, she thenlooked at the dead, lifeless body a few meters away from her.

She turned back around and asked Syaoran, "Was it really necessary to kill him Li-kun? You could have just tied him up on a tree or something, why do you have to be so forceful?" Syaoran turned around and walked up to Sakura.

He gave her an icy glare which took Sakura taken back, "He was useless anyway. If we let him live he would have escaped and tell his master "Kaori" what happened. I was wrong about you, you're just a weakling who wants everything to live and thrive." Sakura blinked back tears but a few drops slipped out. She felt anger boiling inside of her. Tomoyo, who was listening was red in the face with anger. No one, absolutely no one spoke to Sakura like that. She ran at Syaoran full speed. Tomoyo using her forearm pinned Syaoran tightly on tree. She took out two shurikens and snagged his sleeves to the tree, which enabled him to move his arms. Syaoran gasped for air and was struggling to get out of Tomoyo's grasp.

Tomoyo held him down and pushed her forearm tighter on his neck, "Don't ever speak to Sakura-chan like that. If I catch you doing that again I'll make sure your life is living hell! Now APOLOGIZE!"

Syaoran grunted an apology to Sakura. Satisfied, Tomoyo lowered her arm and turned back around. Syaoran collapsed on the ground and started rubbing his neck. Eriol sighed, "Let's go, minna (everyone)…We have to reach the village by tomorrow evening..."

But then Sakura had an idea, "Ma tae (wait) Hiiragizawa-kun, I got a better idea!" She then patted the black dragon and said, "Why don't we ride on mine and Tomoyo's dragons! It would be a lot faster than just walking around aimlessly." Tomoyo agreed and jumped on her white scaled dragon. Her telepathy asked the dragon if it was alright, and so did Sakura to Raidon. Both dragons nodded and then Sakura jumped on the back of Raidon. She glared at Syaoran to climb on, but Syaoran took a step back with hesitation. He never has flown on a dragon before in his life.

A smile curved on her lips and understood why Syaoran didn't want to go on, "What's the matter Li-kun? Scared? I thought you be a lot tougher." She then winked at Raidon and the three headed dragon just licked their feet, it seemed they didn't care at all. Syaoran cussed in Chinese and jumped on the back of Raidon. It felt weird to him, it was all bumpy and rough…but he didn't really care. He held one of the scales of the dragon for support so he wouldn't fall. But when he looked at Eriol he growled. Eriol had no problem with riding a dragon; he had ridden on one before when he was very young. He was quite excited when he jumped onto the dragon's scaly back with Tomoyo. Sakura then took out a rope from her bag and wrapped it around Raidon's face and neck, she then tied it tightly to a knot and at the end she had reins. Sakura nodded at Tomoyo and she nodded back. They were both ready to fly.

Sakura snapped her reins and shouted, "Let's go Raidon, to "The Hidden Village of Konoha!" The black dragon opened its mighty wings and stretched them out, revealing all the veins connecting to the bones of his wings. Raidon then flapped slowly and then he was in the air. Tomoyo and Eriol were also in the air, waiting for Sakura's orders. Sakura without turning her head spoke gravelly, "So which way Li-kun?" Syaoran fished for his map in his pocket and finally took it out. He unraveled it and scanned at it.

He then finally said, "West…the village is located there, near some mountains." Sakura nodded slowly and turned her dragon to the west. Tomoyo smiled and also turned her dragon. Sakura then kicked the sides of the dragon to go that direction. Raidon roared happily and flapped his wings and flew to the direction that his master directed. Tomoyo did the same and followed the black dragon. Sakura smiled gleefully and gazed at the sky and the surroundings…

"How beautiful…" thought Sakura, but then she turned back to what was in front of her and frowned, "I will get those stones back, even if it costs me my life…" The dragons flew into the late afternoon sky towards their destination.

A man in a brown cloak was hidden well in the shadows of the forest; his whole body was covered by his cloak except it revealed his lips. He saw the whole battle with Sakura, Tomoyo, Syaoran and Eriol against Ronin.

The man smiled, "So he was defeated by two girls, how pathetic." He looked up and saw the two dragons fly away into the afternoon sky until they were gone. He looked back down and smiled even more,

"It seems like the prophecy is already starting to come true…" With him saying that he disappeared into thin air.

A/N: Hey all! Sorry for the extremely slow update…You know…I have school and all that junk. sigh I may only update during breaks or w/e…I'll try to find some time to update sooner. Hope you liked this chapter! Stay tune for Chapter 4!