These people were clearly accomplished at the soft martial arts applied in these kinds of competitions. Ren had gotten a lucky flip out in her first match. She just picked up the old man from the second match by the back of his shirt and carried him out of the ring, while he tried to ask her to dinner.
Her final opponent of the semi-finals was making her work.
Ren sidestepped his lunges with elegant turns and spins out of his reach as she worked her way behind him in a continuous circular rotation. Steady movements. Firm steps. Focus on breathing and leading him closer to the edge of the ring.
With a quick rotation, Ren seized an opportunity to knock her opponent's feet out from under him, and lock his arm for the throw. He struggled, knocking Ren's white tiger mask off and to the center of the ring. Ren felt her stomach drop to her feet as the crowd became the only thing she could focus on. No! She had to focus. With a shout Ren exerted the last bit of force needed to flip him out of the ring with such speed and force he tumbled through the air, continuing to summersault through the dirt around the edge of the ring.
The referee took Ren's hand and raised it over her head as the crowd roared and she tried not to puke at the thought of those eyes upon her.
She picked up her mask, putting it back in her coat pocket and walked back to the locker room only to find someone already there waiting for her. It was the old woman. Her last opponent for the grand prize.
"You look nervous." She was small and white headed with large almost bulbous eyes that seemed to peer through Ren's soul. She smiled politely and took a sip from the flask at her hip.
"You seem calm."
The old woman chuckled, "My little friend here," she held up her flask, "is very helpful in that regard." She put the top back on and put her flask back in her pocket. "My name is Shinju, and you are?"
"Oh, my name is Ren. You are very skilled to have made it to the finals."
Shinju smiled, "So are you. The way you flipped your last opponent out of the ring was marvelous. Your teacher must be so proud."
Ren smiled awkwardly to the point her cheeks resembled a chipmunks. "What brings you to Konoha?"
"I'm looking for someone, this seemed a good place to start."
Ren felt an eyebrow rise, "Who are you looking for?"
"My people need a fighter, but we cannot afford a shinobi. So I've volunteered to find some brave soul to help us." Shinju looked Ren over, giving the girl the idea the old woman could peer into her soul. "I'd do it myself, but I'm not qualified to fight actual shinobi. A burden of old age, really."
"They say age comes with wisdom."
"You would be right, I've heard things over the last several months, rivers whisper secrets to those trained to listen." She gave Ren a knowing smile, "That spear you brought in is truly a work of art, it's the kind of craftsmanship that gets one unwanted attention. In fact, there are whispers of dangerous people looking for a young spear master about your age."
"Spear master? Me?" Ren waved her hand dismissively, "I'm just an amateur. Easier to threaten bandits with a weapon they can see."
Shinju looked Ren up and down slowly, like she was assessing her combat skills. Ren hunched over slightly and shifted to a slightly pigeon-toed stance with her knees bent slightly. There was something in the old woman's eyes that told Ren she was not fooled in the least. Right, she had just seen her last fight. Dammit.
"I see. If that is truly the case, then be careful, because these people do not care so long as they accomplish their mission to kill the spear master. They are professional hunters and don't know how to ask questions or when to give up the hunt."
"Are those the people you need handled?"
"No, but they are a symptom of a much larger problem."
It may not be safe to stay here.
"I see…"
Ren glanced at the competition and winced, a win would be easy here, but it would make her visible to her pursuers if she was not already. Too visible to ignore. Plus, it was getting harder to manage her bloodline ability the more anxious she got about the noise and the crowds. Juro always said she was reckless and impulsive.
Thoughts of her teacher made Ren's eyes dampen as she turned away from the old woman and went to the desk to resign. She would wait for Kai to come back and they would go ahead and leave tonight. The boy would not like that.
She decided to fake a muscle strain, take second place and leave quickly.
It was much easier then she thought to limp over to the sign in shinobi and tell him about a pulled muscle and explain that she could not stay for the final bout as she had to walk out to her home village in the morning. He was very understanding and Ren felt bad about lying to him as she faux limped over to her locker to retrieve her weapons and then out the door of the stadium to look for Kai as the winner was being announced as Hisakawa Shinju.
Kai appeared quickly as if he had been waiting for her for some time. "Ren! I got recognized!"
"What?"
"Dango hair girl from the teashop!"
"Seriously?" Her hand flew into her face. "We don't have time to deal with that right now, lets get moving!"
Kai tilted his head like a puppy as the crowd roared as the little old woman received her reward money. Ren was quick to point towards the door to the street and jog towards it with Kai on her heels.
Ren turned to do a quick survey of the area outside the arena to find the cloaked man slipping into the shadows. Her heart leapt into her throat so quickly she almost choked on it. Stay calm. She had to stay calm. If she freaked out, then Kai's chances of survival lessoned as he fed off her panic.
Her eyes moved around the crowd to try and find the others. No sign of them. Yet.
Ren took Kai be the shoulders and leaned over him slightly. "We're being followed. Do as I say."
Kai nodded slightly as Ren began to walk faster, turning down streets and thin dark alleys. She kept a comforting and protective arm over his shoulders as she lead him down unfamiliar paths. Occasionally backtracking back up to the main road to merge with a crowd of villagers for few minutes before turning down more alleyways. They took so many turns that Ren had lost track of where exactly they were, but they had to keep moving. She knew the general direction of their camp, they would weave their way to the wall and then follow it down to the training grounds.
"Ren!" Kai hissed, "Your spear!"
Shit! She forgot she was even carrying it. "Kai, I need a blanket or something to make a cloak out of!"
"Can't you just change your appearance?"
"This is easier, trust me." Ren saw a clothesline hanging across the alley above her head, she pulled off her spear to knock down a couple of purple sheets that were strung across the line. She caught one and threw it over her head, measuring quickly before pulling out a senbon and using it as a pin to keep her crummy disguise in place as she hunched over like an old woman and wrapped the second sheet around her spear as she focused her chakra to give herself the appearance of a very old woman, her spear now a rather large walking stick.
Ren then turned to Kai and placed two withered fingers in the center of his forehead, her other hand weaving signs. Ren concentrated on the image forming behind her eyes. The image of a young girl with ink black hair and dark eyes, the image flowed down Ren's fingertips and fell over Kai like water. Ren's head felt like it was being split like an axe as her focus turned to keeping the image over her student.
"There. I've put a genjutsu on you to hide your appearance, as long as you stay close to me, I'll be able to hold it. Anyone who looks at you will just see a little girl. Might be enough to throw them off the trail until we can leave town."
"Leave town?"
Ren threw her arm over his shoulders again before he could say anything else and pulled him back to the main road, past beautiful carts and stalls of food and exotic wears. The makeshift cloak hid Ren's flickering transformation back into her normal form.
"Ren, your nose…"
Ren wiped her nose on the back of her jacket, the splash of crimson blood turned Ren's stomach. Some passersby were noting the bleeding old woman with concern; Ren dropped her head down further as she tightened her grip on her walking stick. They would have to hurry.
"It's fine, just a bit longer…"
There was a metallic taste on her lips.
They moved slowly through the streets, Ren peering up at the rooftops and the crowds around them. Hiding her face from the ninjas patrolling in particular before creeping down another side street and turning down another alleyway to reach the wall of the village. This street was empty. Ren left her arm over Kai's shoulders to keep her illusion active and pulled him towards the grove of trees where they had made their camp.
She dared not let her student go until they reached the safety of the trees.
Ren felt the illusion drop off of Kai, returning his appearance to that of a young boy as she released him and fell to her knees, her spear falling into the grass, her breath growing rushed and shallow from the strain of holding the genjutsu over Kai. She pulled some sealing paper from the inside pocket of her coat, wiped some of her nose blood on the papers before flinging them at nearby trees and weaved another hand sign quickly.
"Sealing Art: Distortion!"
The area around their campsite grew fuzzy for a moment before returning to normal as the sealing papers activated. Ren groaned, her headache had progressed to feeling like it was being set on fire as blood trickled from her nose. The illusion had worked, but the added pressure of activating sealing jutsu papers over even a small area like this was draining, especially with her rather shallow chakra pool.
Ren placed her head on the cold grass for a moment. "Kai, start packing!"
"Wha-"
"We can't stay here! Our enemies are beating at our door!"
She could her the boy shuffling around their campsite, making sure nothing had fallen from the trees as Ren began to collect her thoughts. She glanced up as his footsteps stopped a few feet in front of her.
Kai had drawn his bo staff and was pointing it at her, the end a few inches from her face. "Then we should fight! You killed a warlord! Led us against our oppressors! This is nothing!"
Ren gripped her head that now felt like she had been hit with a rock as placed her forehead back in the grass. "I'm no hero, Kai."
She shook her head as the pain finally receded, her chakra beginning to resume its normal flow through her body. Her stress, anxiety and adrenaline moving things along quicker then usual. Her headache was now a dull throbbing sensation leaving Ren feeling as if the rest of her body was covered in a protective layer. She stood up and ran up the tree and cut down the hammocks an threw down their backpacks to a waiting Kai. Ren could not even feel the breeze of a coming storm or the bark of the tree under her hands as she swung down to the ground to the small pile of items and a disapproving Kai.
"Give me a hand with these. We'll go east, the Land of Rain is pretty decimated from so many wars, it's a mess of foreigners and people who mind their own business. We can hide there and I can start training you properly."
"I think you're a hero," Kai whispered, "and you're running away."
Ren was rolling the hammocks into her backpack and hiding the money in the center of her pack beneath the food. She threw the matches in the waterproof pouch near the top before closing it and double-checking Kai's own bag.
"That's all you've done since you left the Land of Iron, you're running from something you have no control over and I think you're scared! No! I know you're scared!"
Ren's mouth fell open.
"You realize what I did right?"
"Yeah, you killed a monster to protect us from starvation and whatever else he came up with to torture us!"
"Kai, he was drunk and naked when I found him! There is nothing heroic about killing defenseless tyrants!"
"You were the hero I had waited for to come and save our people!"
Ren picked her spear off the ground and rammed it into the dirt with a snarl. "Do you want to know what happened? Why these people are hunting me after I did something so heroic?"
Kai's eyes were wide at her sudden outburst.
"I came home because I wanted to find out if things were better, because after Juro died I was tired of traveling and wanted to return home to my people, but that monster was still alive and Masaru was leading that pitiful resistance! I wanted to help, if that monster was dead, I could live in peace!" She slung the backpack over her shoulder as a gentle, misty rain began to fall. Ren's voice grew louder to make sure Kai could hear her over the rumbles of thunder that were coming closer to the village. "That's not what happened. That tyrant had enough presence of mind to arm himself, so I slit him from navel to nose." Ren mimed the action by moving her pointer finger straight up from her navel to the tip of her nose as she spoke. "It was inglorious and slow. I watched him bleed out, gargling and choking on his own blood. It did not make me feel any better." Kai stepped back as Ren stepped forward, never breaking eye contact with the boy. "You want to be a warrior, Kai? That will be your life, killing people, living with it and waiting for the day it happens to you. I'm no hero, so get that idea out of your head!"
"Why did you run away?" Kai poked her in the chest with his staff, "You're a part of our clan, what made you leave? What made them chase you away?"
Ren's mouth opened and closed like a fish pulled from the river. "Masaru. There was talk about putting me in charge after everything and Masaru turned them against me. Then he and his allies tried to kill me…" Ren paused before deciding to finish. "The blades broke."
Kai's mouth fell open. "The blades broke?"
"That's all you're getting out of this story?"
"They broke!"
"I-It's not important."
Kai looked like he wanted to continue that avenue of discussion but was wise enough to drop it.
"I was so happy when you came and committed yourself to helping us, teaching us how to fight to push for one more day, to turn the people who worked inside the palace so we could break in and kill a man who would have killed us all if it had gone on any longer!"
The man had asked for women. None returned.
"Masaru never did any of that! That was you, Ren!"
The man had asked for children and their corpses would be found in the river at dawn.
Ren knew exactly the kind of things Kai had seen, but she did not feel like the hero he desperately needed her to be for his own sanity.
"Aren't you going to say anything?"
Ren shrugged, "What is there to say? You've got me all figured out. I'm a coward who got a lucky shot at a samurai warlord. Sorry to disappoint you."
"I-If you won't fight, then I will! Because you can't live like this!" Kai readied his staff and stormed away through the distortion barrier without another word, leaving Ren in silence with her own thoughts and a sick feeling in her belly as thunder rumbled in the distance.
She had saved those people and they had turned on her once her use was done. Her home, her community leaders had decided it was easier to stab her in the back for being a… freak or monster as Masaru called her. A traitor, Masaru had said, sent by the Shogun. A lie he told their people to remove Ren as a threat to his plans for the region now that their oppressor was dead.
Her ability had kept her alive; Kai did not have her freaky ability. If he found them, he would die.
Ren would be alone again. Running from things she could not change.
She sighed as thunder rumbled in the distance before leaping to her feet, breaking the barrier and running out after her student. Ren stopped suddenly at the voices she heard, some were familiar.
Then came the sudden scream of a child.
"KAI!"
Ren dashed towards the noise but did not get very far before she had an answer.
"I see you, Ren," A voice said from the treetops above before something sharp and fast flew by her face and stuck in the tree beside her. There was a paper wrapped tightly around the arrow. "I suggest you read that note if you want to see your student again."
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH HIM?" Ren drew her short sword with a snarl and leapt up into the trees where she had heard the voice only to find nothing there at all. She turned around, surveying the area from above.
No sign of anybody.
Ren came down to the ground and pulled out the arrow and read the message.
If you want to see your student alive again, come to the top of Hokage Mountain by the time the fireworks start.
Tell no one.
Come alone.
Ren fell to her knees with a curse. Kai had run right into their pursuers hands. There were very few choices available to Ren right now and they closed around her neck like a vice so tight it was hard to breath.
The girl got to her feet and walked to her campsite and opened the bag she had been shoving things into a few minutes before. She took the small bag of paper bombs and flash balls and attached them to the opposite leg as her senbon case. For her final small arm, Ren placed a couple of sentetsu in her senbon pouch. There was a moment where she stared at an old picture of her and her old master, Juro before putting it in her pocket. If she died tonight, she wanted to feel his presence one last time.
Plus, Ren felt she needed the reminder about what a good teacher was.
Ren hung the backpack in the tree where she and Kai had spent the night; Kai would have a good start in life if she died. He had enough sense to come back to a known safe place like she had taught him after they first started traveling together. She whispered a quick prayer to the Seven Gods and an extra one to the one who watched over warriors and travelers before she ran out of the trees and towards the village.
The people were loud, their voices seemed to come over Ren like a wave as she weaved through the crowd. The smell of rain permeated the air and made Ren's hair stand on end like it was recharged with electricity. She double-checked the security of her spear and the location of her short sword. Both were ready to draw quickly. Her stomach flipped around while she pushed her way through the crowd with raspy apologies to the people she passed in their nice clothes.
Mercy, she was going to die without having owned anything pretty and impractical.
Maybe in her next life she would be lucky enough to be a silly rich girl.
She could feel the strange looks of the crowd at her back, piercing through her the way she imagined a dagger or katana would. She ducked down an alleyway to get off the main road and walk along the wall. Ren pulled the hood of her coat over her head and tilted back on her heels to get a better look at that mountain. Her breath caught in her throat. The faces of the previous Hokage seemed judgmental, like they could see her. An outsider. Deemed unworthy to be within these walls, they knew that she would be fighting to kill at the top of their heads and perhaps saw it as an action beyond disrespect.
Ren decided to apologize on the way up.
The smell of rain offered the girl some comfort as she made it to the Konoha Gate, Ren moved seamlessly with a crowd of people looking for their lodgings to move past the guards, breaking away once she was out of their line of sight, she risked one final peek at the world beyond, possibilities of living another day running through her mind at incomprehensible speeds.
Kai, I'm so sorry.
Ren turned away from the Konoha gate.
I haven't been a good teacher.
She ran through the streets as the mist quickly became a heavy rain.
And I have not been a good friend.
She pushed her way through the crowd. Some just stepped aside when they saw the shining spear at her back, others bumped into her in their rush to get out of the suddenly turned weather.
If we survive this, I will do better. I will be better. I will teach you everything I know without reservation or fear.
She scrambled down an alley and up a fire escape to get to the roof of a residential building to begin her desperate leaps and bounds over the rooftops.
I'm tired of being alone.
Her foot slipped as she landed on a rooftop at the mountain base, Ren slammed the head of her spear into the roof to stop herself from falling to the street below. She quickly righted herself and began her frenzy of running leaps, culminating with a jump to the mountain itself that she immediately began to scramble up as thunder rumbled.
I missed Juro too much and maybe I saw you as a way of getting back the time that was snatched away.
Ren's hand slipped on a rock, she adjusted her grip and sent her chakra to her fingertips to help her dig in. She jumped and clawed her way up the mountainside towards the scaffolding that was in front of an empty section of the face, perhaps to start measurements for the next Hokage.
I've never had friends before; it's long past time I learned to be one!
Her grip slipped again. Ren gave a determined shout as she placed her feet on a jutting rock edge, using it to leap towards the metal scaffolding. For a few terrifying moments she hung in the air before pulling herself up by the metal beams, her teeth grinding together as she eyed the top of the mountain. No force on heaven or earth would stop a teacher from protecting their student.
This way I'm living, I'll die before I'm twenty, and I will not lead you down that road!
Ren ascended the peak, whispered a brief apology to the former Hokages and saw the silhouette of a child slumped on the ground in front of a large rock. Ren's jaw clenched and she ran forward thoughtlessly, sliding through the mud on her knees in her rush to get to her student.
"Kai!" Ren's voice was horse and raspy. "Wake up! Who did this to you?"
Blood dripped from the corner of his mouth as bruises formed around his eyes and left cheek. His bo staff lay broken next to him and his right arm and shoulder were resting at unnatural angles. Kai had tried to put up a fight and clearly got beaten for his resistance. Ren's rage burned hot in her belly as she checked his pulse, faint but steady. He was barely conscious, but he could survive this with medical help. She was afraid he may have internal damage.
She cut through the chains around his ankles with a small electrical charge to her spear before shaking Kai's uninjured shoulder.
"You need to wake up! Kai!"
One of the boy's eyes opened, "Ren? You came…?"
"I guess he was right about you after all." A high-pitched giggle came from behind them. Ren stood quickly, her spear in her hands in a defensive stance, keeping Kai as hidden and protected as she could. "You were all he talked about. How you would come to save him and kill us all!"
They were surrounded by seven people.
Ren's jaw clenched.
The giggler was a short woman with a smiling mask and a large battle-axe standing next to a taller woman with a matching mask who held a bow while the other figures remained shadowed for the moment.
"So which one of you psychos beat the hell out of my boy?"
The biggest man Ren had ever seen raised his hand proudly as he rested his warhammer on his shoulder, "He got mouthy and hit my girlfriend in the face with his stick. It seemed fair."
Ren smiled darkly. "Then I guess I'll kill you first."
There was nothing but the sound of the rain hitting the rocks and ground around them. Ren shifted into an on guard position, placing the pommel of her spear next to Kai. He put his hand on it and whimpered as she pulled him to his feet. Ren could hear him and felt a slight tug on the back of her coat as Kai righted himself.
"Kai. Go down to the village, and don't look back."
"I can still fight!" Kai wheezed, showing the obvious pain he was in as she felt him stagger.
"Do as I say," Ren's voice was quiet as she put on her white tiger mask, "I'll find you later."
Kai staggered once more as he moved backwards away from the combatants a if he were in a fog. The boy for sure had a concussion.
Ren's knees buckled as her heart threatened to leap free from her chest as she struggled to breathe. She had to give Kai a chance to move away. "Who sent you? Was it Masaru?"
The group laughed, "Who the hell is that?" A man stepped out into Ren's line of sight, he was clad in the black garb of a ronin. Ren felt sick. "Your boyfriend?"
Kai turned his back to run as the big man who had hurt him began to draw his weapon to finish off the small boy. He pulled back his arm to throw his kunai into Kai's back. Only problem was the senbon now sticking out of his neck.
A horrible scream split the air as his kunai dropped to the earth and his warhammer followed with such force it seemed to shake the ground while blood poured from his neck.
Missed. Hit the artery. Lovely.
The archer was screaming.
Ren rushed forward to put him out of his misery with a quick cut to the throat with her spear before facing what remained of her opponents. Ren couldn't say he wasn't warned.
"Six against one isn't fair," Ren felt a calmness consume her body as her heart beat loudly in her ears, "you needed one more person to even the odds."
END CHAPTER THREE
A/N: This chapter and the next were conceived as one chapter that got too big to manage.