The man at Ren's feet gurgled as he drew his last breath. Ren quickly held up her spear and blocked what might have been a near fatal shot from the archer who screamed as she continued to fire. Ren leapt back quickly, blocking her chakra arrows with the blade of her spear while she weaved signs with her right hand before jamming the spearhead into the earth below with a shout.
The earth moved upwards like a wave on the ocean, throwing the six living mercenaries and the corpse across the mountaintop. The resounding boom and crashing of stones echoed through the air, somewhat muffled from the sudden rumble of thunder and heaviness of the rain that had begin to pour with increasing force from the heavens while lightning split the sky behind her. Not wanting other people to get caught up in her personal troubles, Ren decided she was going to have to move fast. She yanked her spear from the dirt and dashed forward, her chakra powering her steps and helping her gain speed and velocity for a high leap into the air and off a tall stone to propel herself higher still.
She could see them now that she was at her peak. The six were getting to their feet in the small, newly formed crater, some staggering to do so, one under the weight of his armor. Ren readied her spear as raindrops hit her face like hail. The metal of her spear vibrated as she channeled her chakra into the blade, her grip on the weapon firm as she descended to the center of the group, her eyes on the armored ronin.
"Lightning Tiger Fang!" Ren's spearhead lit up with channeled chakra the sparked and crackled as it swung through the air, leaving faint impressions of fangs to dazzle in the night. There was something fuzzy at the edge of her vision as she came down she landed on a weaponless man in a fighting stance with open palms. The life left his pupiless eyes as the fangs came down around him. Ren moved in an elegant spear dance, slicing cleanly through the ronin's armor, severing an arm before cutting into the cloaked man who was pulling out his chigiriki mace, cutting through his weapon before rotating back around to cut him open at the belly.
The fuzziness of her vision remained as the two men crumpled to the ground next to the weaponless man. Ren had an epiphany. Genjutsu! Shit! She made the handsign to release herself as she turned around, her weapon still charged, as she cut through the blade of a small swordswoman who was coming up behind her. Her blade still crackling as Ren finished the swing and the severed blade flew past the ronin's face.
The swordswoman smiled, "You're good!"
Ren spun out to clear away the axe woman coming on her right, cutting an regular arrow out of the air in the process from her sister.
"Very good! No wonder you're worth half a million ryo!" The swordswoman was now pulling out a weighted chain.
Ren tensed, her eyes growing wide behind her mask. That was a bingo book level bounty! She had been so careful to stay under the gaze of the five great ninja villages. Those human traffickers she encountered must be very well connected if she had brought up a bounty that high so quickly.
She rolled under the ronin's swinging katana.
The ronin grimaced, "You are very talented." He stepped back to nurse his electrical burns from her initial missed strike, blood seeping from between his fingers. His arm still attached and unharmed. The man with pupiless eyes she had hit on her descent was clearly dead judging by the amount of blood staining the ground around him. Hm, that genjutsu had been thrown up quickly then. "Anyone who starts an uprising in the Land of Iron of all places deserves praise."
Ren jumped into the air and gained more altitude by jumping off battle axe girl's masked face, ending gracefully like a cat in the dirt.
"Uprising?"
The ronin smiled, "Yeah, a spear-woman killed a nobody warlord and inspired the rest of the rabble to try and kill their own."
Ren felt her hands tremble.
The ronin shrugged, "I've been sent here to find the instigator. These good people just happened to be looking for a spear-woman as well, not much of a stretch for it to be the same girl."
She felt sick.
"After all, there are not many sojutsu users in this part of the world."
Ren's grip on her spear tightened as her shock gave way to rage.
"Gangsters in the Land of Rivers put a bounty on your head. The Iron Shogun has offered a lord's ransom for it. We've not decided who gets it first."
"I could send them yours instead. Three and a half apiece for each, how does that sound?"
There was an ungodly howl from the archer who fired so fast that Ren did not even have time to block the arrow heading towards her. The arrow hit Ren's forehead, immediately shattering her white tiger mask and knocking her to the ground with the force of the impact.
"What the hell?" The archer screeched, her angry voice muffled behind her smiling mask. "That should have killed you!"
Ren staggered quickly to her feet, leaning on her spear for support as the instinctive shock caused her legs to shake, the pieces of her mask at her feet. "Try harder."
The ronin staggered backwards a couple of steps to regain his footing, when he spoke, his voice betrayed a level of excitement that left Ren feeling like they had come prepared for every rumor they heard about her over the last few months. "I guess the rumors were true…" He smiled as he turned his attention to the man on the ground. "Get that genjutsu up! I don't want those shinobi getting nosy!"
The black-cloaked man on the ground, pulled out a scroll and began to weave hand signs as the four who were still standing dashed forward with their weapons at the ready.
Ren gripped her spear with one hand and began weaving hand signs with the other. She stomped down with her foot and knelt down to put her empty hand to the rocks beneath her. The ground trembled as walls of rock moved upwards in front of the gang of assailants. Ren shrieked as the ronin cut through the stones with his chakra infused blade.
There was a moment of stillness as the ronin moved forward, his blade growing as he charged it with chakra. It came closer as he swung it at Ren's neck. Ren whistled loudly.
The rain seemed to stop for a moment as the girl's body crumpled to the ground, her head rolled away into what remained of the earth wall she had tried to protect herself with.
The ronin gave a triumphant cry as the five fighters with him came around the wall.
"I did it!" He sang, "I killed Ren the Spear Wielder!"
The other five seemed confused as they stared at where the ronin was pointing. "The Iron Shogun will pay more then that gangster, I think!"
"What are you pointing at?" The swordswoman shouted incredulously as she pointed at where the ronin was excitedly gesturing. "That's a hole!"
The archer made a sudden noise and released the genjutsu, revealing a Ren sized hole in the ground where the ronin had been pointing in triumph. He blinked a couple of times as he came around. "Oh that little-!"
"Where did she go?"
There was a scream from behind them and the sound of booming thunder above them as the rain continued to pour.
Ren had sprung from out of the mountain a few feet in front of the cloaked man, her spear ready.
The cloaked man flung his kunai, Ren knocked them away with a swipe of her spear before spinning it quickly and thrusting the weapon through the air towards his throat with an animalistic snarl.
The genjutsu caster dodged each blow, turning away or just cocking his head. It was like her aim was off but… Ren's jaw tightened as she jabbed the spear next to his head and send a small spark of lightening from her fingertips, up the spear and into the ribbon at the base of the blade. The ribbon hit a small piece of metal that would channel her chakra to a small paper bomb within it. The explosion was small, but very loud. The man screamed as the small genjutsu he placed on Ren broke. He fell into the mud as he clutched his ear to try and stem the flow of blood and clear liquid from his broken eardrum.
Hard to cast a small genjutsu while trying to manage the one on the mountain. Hopefully this would help weaken the larger one.
Ren slammed the pommel of her spear into the underside of the man's chin and slammed the broadside of her spear head into the other side of his face before stabbing him in the gut. His eyes rolled back in his head as he finally stopped screaming.
That was three.
Ren made a dash for a more secure position as she weaved complex one-handed signs to pop two more versions of Ren into existence running behind her. The three Rens crossed paths a couple of time to confuse their opponents before splitting off to lead various opponents away.
The real Ren locked eyes with the ronin and picked up speed with a carefully measured chakra burst to her feet.
Kill the Ronin, the others would break faith and leave.
Hopefully.
With a battlecry, the two warriors weapons clashed with a metallic bang that sent a shiver up Ren's spine. His katana glowed with the light of infused chakra. Maybe the first time was not a fluke after all. Ren's flight instinct sent a wave of terror through her body, she felt the need to run, but knew that she would survive this small part of the battle. The combatants leapt apart and eyed each other with distain and curiosity.
"So, you're really a ronin?" Ren quirked an eyebrow before settling to a more stoic expression. "That's fine, people keep telling me I'm good at killing Samurai, I guess you just want me to prove it."
The ronin laughed as he adjusted his grip on his katana. He looked like a shadow given life in his black armor. "You think you're a hero? You're so inspiring that the good villagers are rising up to die in your name, a spear-woman blessed with immortality. They think you are a liberating God who finally came down from the mountain to lead them to a better life!" He seemed to smile, Ren felt chills up her spine. "Then you ran away."
Ren's jaw clenched, biting back the truth.
"You've been running away for weeks. You never stay in a place longer then three days, I'm surprised that boy even found you before I did."
Ren smiled sardonically, "You had one job and child did it better. What a sad little man you are."
The ronin brought his katana up with an enraged roar, chakra flowing through the blade to illuminate the area with an eerie blue light. The hair on Ren's head stood at attention, it was coming down quickly without restraint.
Focus!
Without hesitation, Ren slammed her spear into the dirt and brought her arms up to block the wave of chakra radiating from the blade. There was a moment of silence as the blade broken in two. Ren peered up at her opponent from under her brow with a smirk.
"That tickled."
"How?" The ronin stepped back, drawing another blade for another assault. "That should have cut off your arms no matter what jutsu you used!"
"Maybe I'm just that good," Ren yanked her weapon out of the dirt and stabbed at his feet with the blade, he was quick to move to avoid losing several toes before she took the opportunity to drop to the ground and knock his feet out from under him with a sweep of her leg. He hit the ground so hard he bounced off the rocks below. She was quick to aline her spear for a kill shot to his neck, the spear blade flowing with chakra as she brought it down.
The ronin snatched Ren's ankle and pulled, knocking her off balance before she could land the killing blow. Ren fell into the dirt and the ronin took the opportunity to scramble on top of her to try and crack her head open on the large rock under her head.
One.
Ren was grasping his arm as she struggled to get in position to flip him over.
Two.
He had his fingers around her throat, trying to squeeze as he slammed her down.
Three.
Pain erupted from the back of Ren's head, she was low on chakra. Low enough to begin feeling the blows.
Four.
Ren bucked her hips and managed to fling the ronin away. She scrambled to her feet, swaying as her rattled brain struggled to stop moving. Ren dropped to her knees, overcome with dizziness before using her spear to pull herself upright and stab the ronin in the chest with a chakra charged blow, shattering his armor and his several ribs in the process.
His enraged howl caught the attention of the remaining combatants as Ren's clones dissipated. They were moving quickly to converge on her position, throwing kunai and firing arrows. Ren blocked them with a well-timed spin of her spear. Ren leapt over the ronin to get to a safer position. She could take the ronin if she could remove his allies from the battle first. If she was smart, she might be able to to use the ronin to blame this mess on, it would be easier if he was alive. Plus, Ren had given him some heavy damage so he should stay where she left him until she was finished with his allies.
She ran in a zigzagging pattern to avoid flying kunai and the arrows to leap behind boulders. Ren's addled mind was trying to work out a plan to separate the remaining four to make it easier to fight. Easier said then done…
If three of her enemies were dead, one incapacitated for the moment, she was doing pretty good!
She would have to take comfort in that.
Now where was that archer?
A sharp, sudden pain in her left thigh answered that.
Ren fell face first into the dirt, cursing loudly as she gripped the wounded leg, the barbed head of the arrow was buried in her thigh. Missed the bone, but Ren would definitely need to see a doctor after this for what felt like a torn muscle. She turned around quickly and saw a figure standing on a nearby rock. Ren scrambled to her feet using her spear as a crutch she balanced precariously before she pulled her spear back and lined up the shot, throwing it as hard and fast as she could.
The archer dropped to the ground with the spear buried in her belly.
"SISTER!"
That was battle axe girl. Lovely voice, a bit like nails on a chalkboard.
Ren scrambled away from her hiding place, moving slowly from her wound. Battle axe girl was moving much faster then Ren could hope to at the moment. She bent herself backwards as the axe girl ruled forward with a deranged scream and tried to remove Ren's head from her shoulders with a wild swing. Ren followed the motion through with a back handspring, crumpling into the mud as an electric pain shot up her wounded leg. That was inconvenient.
"MONSTER!"
Ren dodged the blades weaving hand signs, before calling an earth wall to put a barrier between her and her assailants that shoved them back and caged them from the direction Ren needed to go to get her weapon. Battle axe girl continued to screech as she hacked at the wall, to enraged to think about anything other then busting through the wall to hack Ren apart.
The swordswoman was trying to help the enraged woman get out of the container.
This was her chance!
She limped as fast as she could to the archer, who was still breathing faintly when Ren got to her. Her chest barely rose. This might be a mercy. She pulled a kunai out of her weapon pouch and knelt down next to the girl.
"I'm sorry."
Ren cut her throat swiftly.
The archer stopped breathing.
Ren quickly pushed the arrow the rest of the way through her thigh, before snapping the feathered end and yanking on the blade to get the rest of it out. The whole process stung, burned really and Ren struggled to keep from screaming.
The sound of crumbling rock behind her put an end to her medical treatment. Ren got to her feet and grasped her spear tightly, yanking it out of the archer's corpse.
All the Ren knew was she had to finish this fight. That had to be her only focus. She limped as fast as she could, dodging blows from the swords woman and the enraged axe fighter, tumbling out of range of her heavy swings. Ren deflected a blow from the swordswoman, the blade of her spear rattled from the impact of the sword. Ren was rapidly alternating grips, her hands sliding up and down the spear handle to avoid getting cut off in the barrage of blows.
The swordswoman stepped back and reached for something out of her bag. The battle axe girl stepped in to cover her, slamming her axe into Ren's spear over and over again, pouring her rage into every blow.
"YOU KILLED MY SISTER!"
"She shot me first!"
The swordswoman was spinning a long, heavy chain over her head. New weapon.
Well… Shit.
Battle axe stepped aside to give her companion a clear shot.
The chain flew forward before Ren could catch her breath.
Ren's spear was wrenched from her grasp, flying into the hands of the swordswoman. Ren staggered backwards, feeling her heels touch the edge of the mountain. She risked a glance down to find the outline the top of a long dead shinobi's head.
She jumped.
Battle axe girl and the swordswoman followed. Ren leapt down the line of monumental heads looking for a place to stand her ground among the spikes of messy hair that looks like a jungle. She stopped on the fourth head and turned around to face her incoming opponents, crouching behind a spike and peering around it. She still had a few surprises, even without access to her jutsu or bloodline ability, but this was going to be very dangerous.
Men were dangerous, but women had a tendency to fight far nastier. Ren braced herself as the pair landed and charged forward, the girl with the battle axe in front, the weapon held up over her head. She was still cursing Ren for killing her sister as she moved to bisect Ren into two perfect halves. Ren waited until the last possible moment before moving forward, tumbling past the larger woman before springing to her feet, her hands on her kodachi as she ran for the swordswoman.
As Ren drew her sword, the swordswoman leapt aside, her meteor hammer spinning with a glow of infused chakra.
Ren ducked down behind a spike of hair as the meteor hammer took off the top. As that happened, Ren could feel her hair on standing on end from being in the proximity of lightning infused chakra. Ren's mind whirred with possibilities.
She broke away from her makeshift shelter and made for the mountain side, grabbing onto the side to scramble down to the head of the fifth Hokage. She had no places to hide, but Ren needed an open playing field to pull this off. She tumbled down, rolling to lessen the impact to her aching limbs, she shouted as she shot to her feet. The experience of pain was always sharp. As Ren limped towards the scaffolding, she began to undo the knot at her cloth belt. The material was thick and had a little bit of weight sown into the ends, pebbles and pieces of raw iron she had collected. Ren wrapped the red cloth around her arm, stumbling as she reached the end of the fifth Hokage's head, her arms waving to regain her balance as she almost slipped over the edge.
There was a roar from behind her.
Shit!
Ren leapt down for the metal scaffolding, almost losing her grip from the rain as she grabbed on. She swung back and forth a couple of times before gaining enough momentum to swing to another bar and begin to scramble up as fast as she could to rest her feet on a smaller gap in the scaffolding to balance herself for a moment. She was level with the fifth Hokage's head as the swordswoman began to swing around her lightning charged meteor hammer. Ren got the red cloth of her belt over the bar and quickly wrapped it twice around the bar.
Well, this was going to be fascinating.
Battle axe girl was screaming obscenities at Ren and she made her own furious leap onto the scaffolding. "YOU BITCH!" She grabbed on and began to haul herself up while the swordswoman continued to charge her weapon as she looked on in horror. "COME BACK DOWN AND FIGHT! COWARD!"
"Get down from there!" The swordswoman's voice was stressed and trembling as she spoke hurriedly to her comrade. "You'll get hurt!"
Ren tried to swing away from the large woman who was climbing closer before she made and unprecedented leap and grabbed on to Ren's injured leg. Ren screeched in pain at the sudden, agonizing pain through her injured leg.
"DO IT NOW!"
Ren began to stomp viciously on the axefighter's face, cracking her nose and knocking out her front teeth before breaking an eye socket. Battle axe girl screamed in agony as her bones began to break from the force of the blows Ren was inflicting upon her face. The swordswoman below was beginning to charge her weapon, clearly horrified by the sight above her.
The axe fighter lost her grip on Ren and fell, only to grab on to the metal bar on the way down.
The swordswoman swung her weapon, it whistled and crackled through the air as it flew towards Ren, who was clutching the ends of the cloth and dangling in midair. With careful timing, Ren swung out her injured leg and kicked the ball of the weapon own to wrap around a metal pole.
Only, it did not go as expected.
Ren screamed in pain at the electric burns from the charged meteor hammer, she could feel her skin bubbling an burning from the impact under her shoe. She cursed loudly at the suddenness of it. The pain was worth it though. The ball had wrapped itself around the metal pipe and Battle-axe girl was screaming in agony as electricity flowed through her body. Ren winced, closing her eyes as the life left the woman's eyes and she fell to the ground far below.
The swordswoman fell to her knees and dropped her weapon next to her to stare at her hands in horror at what she had just done.
Ren swung forward, backwards, and turned herself to grab the rocky outline of a a mask and followed the ridge down to the uncharted rocks that jutted out between the stone faces to get down to the head of the fifth Hokage. Ren limped to the swordswoman as she drew her kodachi. Everything hurt.
The swordswoman rose to her feet and turned to face Ren. "I will never stop. If you want a life of peace, strike me down!"
Ren struggled to speak. "Drop your weapons and leave! It's not worth it!"
The swordswoman picked up her meteor hammer and threw it at Ren's head. Ren blocked it with her kodachi, the chain wrapping around the blade and yanking it from her grasp. Thinking fast, Ren dropped to her knees and threw the last of her senbon in the swordswoman's neck.
The swordswoman gasped soundlessly as she fell off the mountain in a graceful arc. Ren's kodachi followed her down, still wrapped in the chain. The thud of the swordswoman's body hitting the ground below was covered by the crash of thunder above.
"I'm sorry," Ren breathed as she got to her feet, staggering back, her fist unfurling as she looked up at the top of the mountain where her final opponent dwelled. She spun the ring of her sentetsu with a sigh. No internal chakra cloak to protect her from his blade.
She felt her teeth grind together.
Getting her spear would give her more range and give her a better chance to survive. It would be smarter to run, but the ronin would not leave this unfinished and when the storm passed who knew what he would do to get her back out of hiding. Shinobi stayed out of the Land of Iron because they were afraid of samurai, who knew techniques specifically to take them off the battlefield. Ren felt the responsibility settle on her shoulders as she grasped the rocky outcropping and began to climb.
She must be stupid. Truly, truly stupid.
If Juro could see her now he would tell her so if he didn't stroke out from the shock.
He's gonna kick my ass in the next life…
She felt her hand slip on wet stone and gave a sharp cry of surprise as she dangled from one hand, Ren flailed for a moment before she reached out and grabbed hold once more. She struggled with finding a place for her feet, the wounded leg throbbed as she pushed upwards. Her pace was slower then she would have liked, her wounds and sheer exhaustion were slowing her down. Ren tried to focus, reach for any bit of chakra that was not drained away.
There was nothing.
A climb down was going to be far easier then one going up.
She was so screwed!
Her muscles burned as she continued her mad climb. It did not look this long from the top of the dead man's head! Ren's hand suddenly grasped at empty air as it searched for the ledge. Her fingers dug into the rock like claws, scrapping through the mud and rocks until her grip was secure. Ren gave one final pull and got both arms up over the ledge and hauled the rest of her over as quickly as she could and rolled over into the mud and onto a pointy rock. Stupid rock.
Ren staggered to her feet and glanced around, her heart thundering in her chest as she clutched the stitch in her side. She was soaked to the skin. Ren could not remember the last time she felt cold and wet, this was quite miserable and this was something she could do without in the future.
Now to find her spear and finish off the ronin.
She stared into the misty rain and scanned the mountaintop with bleary, tired eyes as she spun her senketsu on her finger. Ren had never fought this hard before. Perhaps Juro was right to leave her behind. She took a step forward. Juro wanted her to live a long life of peace, Ren would not have survived going with him, but they would have died together and then she would not feel so aimless. So useless. So lonely.
She fell to her knees as her legs gave out. She slammed her fist into the ground with a shout. She needed to finish this. Just a few more steps!
Something dark was walking towards her out of the heavy rain in front of her. Ren rushed to her feet and almost fell over for the swiftness of the action.
The ronin was holding her spear as he stopped in front of her and Ren finally got a look at his face. Mid-late twenties, dark hair, sideburns and a topknot that was miraculously still in one piece as if he was just out for a walk, not attempting to murder her.
The ronin held out the spear to Ren, his mouth a grim, thin line. He tossed her spear through the air for Ren to catch. The heavy weight of it in her hands offered her comfort.
"That is a truly fine weapon, a perfectly balanced spear. Far to fine for a nameless peasant girl."
"You like it? My father made it, then I killed his murderer with it!" Ren snapped viciously, her physical pain adding to her general irritation.
They stared at each other while the rain fell down in heavy bursts. Ren could feel it pelting her skin with a sudden, cold sting as she panted with exertion. Her bones ached and her skin was beginning to form bruises, Ren's chakra was still inaccessible. She leaned on her spear like a crutch as she struggled to stay upright, she felt to bruised and battered to draw out this fight.
The ronin was not looking much better then she was.
"This is how I plan to kill you…" The ronin unsheathed his weapon with a flick of his thumb as he struggled to breathe and straightened his spine. "I'll run you through, then take your head personally to the Shogun!"
Well, that was quite specific. Ren could not tell if that was water moving down her leg or blood from her arrow wound.
"Last warning, leave us in peace and return to the Land of Iron or pick a god to pray to before I tear you apart!"
Ren lifted her spear, ignoring the pain shooting through her body as she did so, for one last strike.
They charged forward, weapons drawn for a final physical assault as lightning split the sky behind them.
Ren winced as the sword and spear crashed together to imitate the boom from the sky above. She blocked a downward swing coming at her head by getting her spear over her head in both hands and dropping to her knees. She released her right hand as the sword slid down to try and remove her fingers, dropping the pommel of her spear into the dirt before rising to her feet and slamming the blade into the side of the ronin's head. The echo of metal on bone was a thick, heavy sound, but Ren was tired, and the impact was not as heavy as it should have been.
The ronin tried to cut her uninjured leg. Ren blocked the attack by quickly rotated her weapon, slamming her blade in the dirt to block the incoming sword.
She moved away quickly, half crawling, half stumbling to put some distance between them. Ren could hear her spear blade rattling, it had been some time since she had gotten a new blade and this one had been through a lot in the last year. There might be one good blow left on it.
Ren assumed her stance and adjusted her grip, moving her grip closer to the blade, shortening her reach. If she had one hit left, she would make it count.
Ren lunged forward.
The ronin was struggling to stay on his feet, but managed to steady his grip on his sword as he took a few steps forward.
The sharpness of the katana impaling her left side was like she was on fire. Ren screamed as she yanked her spear out of his chest, leaving the spear blade behind before slamming the ronin in the side of his jaw with the weight at the other end with such force he fell off the mountain.
Ren did not hear the crunch of his body hitting the ground below over the thunder rumbling directly over her head. There was a brief moment where Ren's pride at her victory overcame the physical pain before she fell to her knees and into the mud.
It was so hard to breath. Ren gasped and fought for air as she grasped the hilt of the sword in a panic, pulling it out would speed up her end, but Ren was not sure she wanted that now. Maybe she wanted to see one last sunrise. Yes. Live until sunrise. That would be fine.
She knew blood loss would take her long before then, but Ren could not bear the idea of speeding up her death.
Lightning split the sky above Ren as she fell on her side in the dirt, mud and rock at the top of the Hokage Mountain with a katana buried in her belly. She had a perfect view of the village, even with the weather as bad as it was, this was a spectacular view. She winced at the realization that it would not take long for someone to find her corpse up here.
It would probably be the sight more then the smell. The view was to good for anything else.
She chuckled to herself, so this was how the life of Ren the Spear Master ended. Alone on the top of some mountain far from her homeland. The elder spoke of ascending to the top of the mountain after death to leave a last offering to the god of the mountain before becoming something beyond comprehension, those who left would wander aimlessly through the void. It was part of the reason her clan had stayed so long. Ren was never very spiritual, but that made her sad for some reason.
She was so cold…
There was a voice coming through the storm. Ren was to far gone to guess who it was or care. Her eyes grew heavy as she heaved a sigh. What a life she had led. Ren's eyes finally fell closed as the darkness encroached on her vision.
"Cub? Stay awake!"
Ren's eyes flew open with concentrated effort. It was Juro! He was kneeling over her, his kind blue eyes focused on her eyes as his hands glowed with chakra as he pressed them to her wounds. There was a lot of blood.
"Shishou?" Ren breathed. "How…?"
Juro shrugged, smiling softly. "Maybe I never left…"
"Please stay…"
Ren felt her hand reach up to touch his arm, it fell back into the mud with a thump as he faded from sight.
"Ren! Ren-sama!"
Thunder rumbled above her and muffled a second voice. It did not matter anymore. There was only the rain, the feeling of something opening beneath her to something beyond mortal life. Ren would fade to memory.
Her thoughts turned to her student, Kai would be fine. He knew where their supplies were, he could have a future here that was brighter then what they had left behind. Konoha was said to put value on the lives of their genin, Ren was sure that extended to all children here. She wished she had taught him more…
Were those tears or raindrops running down her face?
Ren took a deep breath and looked out over the village as a small thing slide through the mud and blood next to her followed by a second larger figure with glowing green hands. To Ren's addled mind, it appeared to be Juro again once more using one of his healing jutsus. No, it couldn't be. He was in some mass grave on the battleground of the fourth war.
"Juro…?"
The voice that spoke was feminine, breaking Ren out of her delusion. "Hold still and keep talking to me."
"Where's… Shishou?"
The vision of Juro was overlapping with this pink haired medical ninja. The images flickering over each other as Ren struggled to stay awake like the woman's voice kept telling her too as she gave instructions to Kai, his own voice joining the chorus as he grasped her hand while his own shook in terror.
"Ren," the woman's voice again. "I've broken the blade so I'm going to put you on your back for a moment, okay? Does it hurt anywhere else?"
Ren was quiet.
"Ren, you need to keep talking, okay?"
"I…" Ren breathed as she grasped the pole of what remained of her spear as she was moved gently onto her back by two pairs of hands. "I need…"
The medic weaved complex hand signs before biting her thumb to summon something as she leaned closer to hear Ren as Kai held the hand that was clutching her spear like it was her link to life itself. There was a poof of smoke and something squishy appeared.
"A bladesmith…"
END CHAPTER FOUR
A/N: That is my longest ever fight scene. It was difficult to edit for the size alone but it was the idea that inspired this fic. Yes. I wrote all this to write one fight scene. I needed practice, the idea was too cool. Hence my self indulgence in writing this.