Chapter VII – Sins of the Father, Sins of the Son

"And breathe in…hold for ten…and breathe out…and you're done, pops!"

"Huh…this meditation thing wasn't half bad…we should do this more often, Ichimaru-kun!"

Ichimaru gave his father one of his rare sincere smiles, "Sounds good to me. You seemed a little stressed lately, so I figured some old father-son bondin time might be perfect for ya."

The two Tachibana were currently sitting in the middle of the dojo on the second floor of their new home, dressed in red and black training gi and enjoying the tranquil silence. Since their official move to the hidden compound, Minato and the triplets had been doing their best to adjust to the new surroundings. Now, two weeks later, everyone seemed to have acclimated just fine, despite Minato's increased workload from assisting his brother/clan head in managing clan affairs.

"You're damned right it was! I feel ten years younger already!" Minato sprang up from his position on the ground, stretching his arms in the air to limber up, "Now we can get down to business. What's on the schedule, son?"

Ichimaru reached into his gi and removed a small planner, opening it to the page he needed, "Well, today you and Kurotora-sama are supposed to meet with the Imperial Family to discuss the new security parameters being put in place. Then there's the luncheon with the prime minister and the state secretary for defense to discuss the purchase of our new medicinal products, as well as try to get a good word in about Akasuisei…"

"I see…we might have to scratch that last bit off. I've been in the ear of the prime minister about our company for a good while, but he won't budge," Minato scowled fiercely at the thought of the countless times he'd been politely, but firmly refused by the Japanese Ministry of Defense to have Akasuisei become their primary source of munitions, "Those fucktards over at Nagareboshi have em all wrapped around their fingers! Gah! I wish Tora woulda burned the whole lot of em along with those Mononobe dogs!"

"Well, we can't win em all," Ichimaru responded with a shrug, "at least we still have the advantage in medical development and innovation. Nagareboshi's pharmaceutical branch hasn't been doing all that great compared to the rest of its divisions, so there's some silver lining here."

Minato sighed, "I guess. Still, I'm supposed to be the CEO of Akasuisei. If I can't net the people who're supposed to be our biggest clients, then what good am I doing Heihachi and the rest?"

The squinty-eyed boy rose from his seat on the ground and padded over to his father, patting the much larger man's shoulder, "Don't let it get ya all bent outta shape, pops. You'll find a way to win em over, just give it more time."

"I hope so, son. I hope so," the giant of a man looked over at his son and smiled in thanks, "Anyway, you said you wanted to check out the panic room, right? How much time we got before the meeting with the Emperor and his family?"

"About 3 more hours, give or take," Ichimaru replied.

"Plenty of time then, let's go."

The two quickly left the dojo and made their way downstairs. All around them, sub-branch members were cleaning and moving things into place, as there were still quite a few of Minato's and the boys' possessions that still needed to be unpacked. During the brief trip, not a single sub-branch member looked up or said anything to the two main-branch members, instead doing whatever they had to to stay out of their way. The fear he could sense from them brought a condescending grin to Minato's face, "I don't think I'll ever get tired of how scared of us these bottom-feeding half-breeds are."

"It's kinda funny really," Ichimaru replied as they descended the steps and entered the hallway leading to the panic room, "They outnumber all of us main branch members, but all ya gotta do is look at em funny and they'll piss their pants."

Minato laughed until he was interrupted by his cell phone ringing, "Hold on a second son, I gotta take this."

Seeing Ichimaru wave him off, the burly Tachibana reached into his pocket and answered, "Moshi-Moshi! How's it goin, 'Hachi?"

"I wish I could say things were going well, but that would be a lie," the taciturn voice of Heihachi Tachibana replied, "I'm afraid I won't be able to make the meeting with the Imperial family later today, brother. Something's come up."

"Really? That doesn't sound good, what happened?" Minato frowned. Heihachi never missed a chance to meet with the Imperial family. Whatever had forced him to leave had to be serious business.

"I received a call from one of Amagai's former associates last night," the clan head began, "Apparently they suffered a major hack a couple of days ago. Most of their databases were wiped clean by a new virus none of them had ever seen before."

Minato huffed a bit before replying, "So? They have backups in case of stuff like that, don't they? Those idiots can just restore the data-"

"Normally that would be the case, if the virus hadn't been able to somehow jump into the backups and wipe them as well."

The elder Tachibana froze, "Hontou?! The backups too?! How?! Viruses aren't THAT smart!"

"This one was though," Heihachi confirmed grimly, "and it appears it transmitted some files to an unknown location before deleting everything. Unfortunately, they couldn't trace where those files ended up."

"Kuso!" Minato growled, inwardly furious at this new development, "Do we know which files were taken?"

He could almost hear his younger brother nod over the phone, "Judging from the drive that was attacked first, I'm almost one hundred percent certain they were the files from the 'job' in Hakodate, the one regarding the construction of the new tram system."

"Aww shit," Minato cursed, remembering exactly which 'job' Heihachi was alluding to, "We rigged that whole thing in favor of that one company that promised us a ton of shares once the tram system was up and running!"

"Indeed. It gets worse however," Heihachi's ominous tone sent a tendril of fear down Minato's spine, "that same company also had some files go missing from their records room. Paper files. With signatures of the heads of the company and Amagai himself. There was no sign of a break-in however, so the authorities are investigating the employees."

Minato nearly threw his phone against the wall in his anger, "Are you shittin me?! How'd this motherfucker know to hit that particular no-name company in the first place?! That whole operation could get sunk if this gets out!"

Through his older brother's enraged yelling, Heihachi snuck in a response, "We could lose far more than that if news of Amagai's other dealings gets out. We will have to prepare for potential fallout…as well as other attacks."

"…other attacks?" Minato asked. He had assumed this was a random, if not exceedingly lucky, attack, "What are you talking about, 'Hachi? Something I'm missing?"

Heihachi took a moment to respond, "Think for a moment brother. A tenacious virus, perfect anonymity, insider knowledge on files that are only known to a few. If you piece it all together, it all seems familiar….too familiar…"

It didn't take long for Minato to connect the dots, and when he did, it took all he had not to throw his phone across the hall, "KUSO! You don't really think-"

"I do…it seems a certain troublemaker has finally decided to show himself once again…"

"Hey pops, where's the fire?" Ichimaru questioned as he watched his father hastily make his way out of the panic room into the long hallway. One second the older man had been conversing on the phone, the next he was rushing out of the room to parts unknown. It had thrown the middle triplet for a loop.

Minato said nothing as he escalated the stairs back into the hallway. Just as he cleared the entrance, he felt something small crash into his leg.

"What the hell?"

Looking down, the giant Tachibana saw a small boy no older than four sitting on the ground, rubbing his forehead where a small bump was starting to grow. He was a scrawny little thing, with light brown hair and eyes, and wearing ragged looking clothes. Tied on his upper left arm was the band that signified a member of the sub-branch of the Tachibana.

"Well well, what do we got here?" Minato questioned aloud as he gave the small boy an appraising glance. Just as the boy looked up, and nearly wet himself upon recognizing who he had just bumped into, a middle-aged man came running into the hallway, panting for breath.

"Yusuke, how many times have I told you to-" the nondescript sub-branch member stopped midsentence as he too recognized just who he had run into, and where, "M-M-Minato-sama! I-Ichimaru-sama!"

"Hoooo...well isn't this interesting. Sub-branch member in a sealed off section of the compound," Minato began lowly as he shook his head, "getting ahead of ourselves now that we're in a new home, are we?"

The sub-branch member paled until his complexion was identical to a fresh sheet of paper, "F-F-Forgive my boy! I had to keep him n-near me while I was w-w-working on s-some repairs out back. H-he just became a l-little restless and ran off. I-I t-t-tried to stop him, I swear!"

Minato and Ichimaru both gave the man false looks of sympathy, before the bearded Tachibana lifted his hands harmlessly, "Now, now, hold on there. No need to get all bent outta shape," he walked over and gently placed a hand on the panicking sub-branch member, making him stiffen, "We all had randy kids at one point or another. Hell, you shoulda seen Ichimaru and his brothers when they were growin up! Bouncin off the walls, I tell ya."

Turning to his middle son, Minato motioned for him to get the boy, who was shaking in fear like his father, "Ichimaru-kun, take his son over to the playpen where the other sub-branch kiddies are. Poor boy looks like he's about to pass out."

"Gotcha, pops!" Ichimaru responded with a small smile that turned sinister once he caught the look in his father's eye. Reaching down, he gently helped the boy up and began to escort him out of the hallway, "C'mon Yusuke-chan, let's go join the other kids. How about I give you some candy? Help ya calm down a bit?"

"R-Really?" Yusuke whispered, his panic starting to settle before a small grin spread over his face, "T-thanks, Ichimaru-sama!"

Nodding to the child, the two walked back towards the main foyer, Minato just barely glimpsing his son reaching into his pocket to give the small boy what looked to be a mint of some kind. Once they were alone, Minato turned back towards the sub-branch clan member, "So, what's your name again? There's so many of you guys around here, I get lucky if I remember five of ya, let alone over a hundred."

"D-Daichi…" the servant answered, still with a look of abject fright in his eyes as he faced the imposing man, "I-I'm terribly sorry about all of this, Minato-sama!"

To his surprise, Minato laughed, "Ahh, don't worry about it so much, Daichi! Like I said, accidents happen sometimes! Just gotta make sure they don't repeat themselves, is all."

Daichi nodded, giving the bearded Tachibana the impression of a bobble-head toy, "O-Of course, Minato-sama! I'll discipline Yusuke and the rest of my children in order to p-prevent such a thing from ever happening again!"

"Good grief, you need to calm down some," Minato shook his head in exasperation before, in a surprising move, hugging the still shivering man, "easy there, Daichi-kun. Though the blood's a bit diluted, we're all family here."

Absolutely flabbergasted by Minato's uncommon gesture, Daichi woodenly raised his arms and returned the gesture of good will. It took a few moments, but the panicking man finally settled down, "Thank you, M-Minato-sama. Thank you!"

"No thanks necessary Daichi-kun…just gotta make sure it doesn't happen again…"

So humbled by Minato's actions, Daichi never noticed the bigger man's hold on him tighten a little more, or the blade that the main branch member slipped from inside his sleeve. The only indication the sub-branch member had that something was wrong was when he felt something sharp and cold plunge into the back of his neck, severing his spine in one go. He never felt the second and third stabs from behind which punctured his lungs, filling his mouth with blood and robbing him of the ability to scream.

Slowly, Minato lowered to the ground, carefully maneuvering the dying Daichi onto the floor in such a way that he was able to prevent any blood from getting onto his elaborate purple robes. Looking down at his moribund cousin, the malicious Tachibana sneered, "And what better way to make sure none of you other gaijin trash fucks up than to make you and your family an example?"

Leaving the body where it lay for now, Minato ventured out towards the main foyer, where he spotted Ichimaru and a sleeping Yusuke on the couch. Both Tachibana eyed each other for a moment before the younger nodded, his signature snake-like smile on his face.

"Well…looks like you and your brothers are gonna have your first hunt sooner than we thought," the taller man began as he removed a rag from inside his robes and began wiping off his knife, "you remember the drill, right?"

"O'course I do, pops. I'll let the others know when they get back…Ranmaru might take a while though."

"Hmph…probably out at that club of his banging whores again," Minato grumbled before heading to the stairs. Before he left eyeshot, he glanced at his son again, "Don't start right away. I'd say wait until the day Akisora goes for his exam. Everyone'll be out that night celebrating his impending entrance to Tokyo U. It'll leave Daichi-kun's family in suspense for a week or so," he grinned evilly to the seated boy, "y'know…let em squirm a bit. Prey's always more fun to hunt when they're afraid…"

Ichimaru's smile widened a fraction, "Ooooh, you're terrible pops. Don't worry I'll tell Ran and Riki to hold off."

"Good…and don't forget to take care of that before you go to bed," Minato indicated towards the young boy peacefully resting on Ichimaru's side before mounting the stairs. After watching his father go, Ichimaru looked down at his charge, noticing what looked like foam on the corner of his mouth.

"Huh…I thought we worked out that little reaction a while ago…oh well," he sighed as he took a rag from the table in front of him and began wiping the boy's mouth, "Ah, cyanide problems…"

Naru stretched her arms into the air and groaned in relief as she exited the building where, after two years of studying and preparation, she had finally taken her Tokyo U entrance exam. Peering up at the sky, she noticed the sun was beginning to set a bit, already painting the sky orange.

"Hmm…where is that jerk? He said he'd wait up for me," the bespectacled girl mused to herself as she looked around the campus. Both of the aspiring university students had left early in order to properly navigate their way around the Komaba Campus of Tokyo U, where their exams would be held. Having never been there before, Keitaro had suggested the early arrival in order to avoid being lost. Once they got there, the two decided to meet up at the park on the eastern side of the campus when they'd finished.

As she made her way over to the rendezvous, Naru took the time to reflect on her performance on the exam. Several of the questions she'd seen had not been covered in her review guides, so she had to improvise a lot more than she was comfortable with, but she still believed her chances to be good.

'I'm pretty sure I passed…minus maybe the math section, but seriously, conic sections?! Who the hell would test people on that?!'

Minutes later, she realized she had already reached the park, and was able to spot her landlord/best friend lying on the grass next to the water, his hands behind his head acting as a pillow as he napped, seemingly oblivious to the rest of the world. After much needling from Naru, Keitaro had forgone his usual traditional garb and was dressed in slightly baggy black jeans, a navy-blue long sleeved polo, and a pair of simple black sneakers. She hadn't been able to dissuade him from his traditional navy-blue and white short-sleeved haori, although she suspected he'd worn it just to tick her off.

As she slowly approached him, the lovely brunette scoffed at how relaxed he seemed, even after taking such a rigorous test.

'Hmph…look at him sleeping like he didn't just take the biggest exam of his life…'

Finally reaching him, Naru crouched down in front of his head and gently poked him on the forehead, "Hey you. Wake up before you catch a cold."

Keitaro yawned before opening one eye and looking up at his friend, "Huh…I was wondering when you'd finally get out. What took you so long?"

Naru bristled, "Well excuse me for wanting to take my time and NOT fail, you jerk!" she huffed in mock anger, much to Keitaro's amusement, "Most of those sections were new material that wasn't covered in review. Totally not cool!"

The young man chuckled before sitting up and patting a spot of grass next to him, "Sounds like you need to get some of that frustration off your chest. Sit down and relax for a bit, it's not like we have to be back home anytime soon."

Taking his advice, Naru sat down, albeit a little closer than the landlord thought she would but it was of little consequence. The bespectacled brunette then spent the next few minutes ranting about the injustice of the few exam sections they had added, among other minor things. All throughout, Keitaro lent a supportive ear and an encouraging word here and there. Eventually, the lovely girl next to him finished and the two spent the next few moments in comfortable silence, admiring the frozen lake. Suddenly, Keitaro looked over to Naru, a curious look in his eye.

"So…random question. What made you decide to try for Tokyo U, anyway?"

His inquiry caught her a bit off guard, as evidenced by the slightly wide-eyed stare she gave him for a few seconds, "Why do you want to know?"

Keitaro shrugged, "Well, I know you always used to go on about getting in, and it was the reason why you became such a bookworm the last couple years we were in school," she playfully punched his shoulder at the 'bookwork' jibe, earning a laugh from the young man, "But I never knew why you went so nuts over the place. Just call me curious, I guess. You don't have to answer if you don't want to…"

"No, it's cool. You just never asked me before, so you kinda caught me off guard," Naru shifted closer to him to get warm, to the point her shoulder bumped into his, "Well…to be honest, I wanted to keep a promise to someone."

The landlord raised an eyebrow in surprise, "A promise? Really?"

"Yep! It was to my tutor," Naru's eyes glazed over as she dredged up the memory, "back in 10th grade, I wasn't really the best student. So my parents went out and got me a tutor to help me for a couple months. He was so cool and mature, but kinda goofy too. I remember always doing my best to try and impress him."

Keitaro noticed the slightly rosy hue on his friend's cheeks as she went on, and decided to file it away for teasing material later, "Uh huh…makes sense. He sounds like he left quite the impression on you."

Naru nodded, "Yea, I guess it does sound like that, huh? When he told me he was a student at Tokyo U, and how hard it was to get in, I promised him that I'd ace the entrance exam on the first try. He laughed at me a bit, but he said that I had nothing to worry about and that he'd see me when I went to the opening ceremony…"

The landlord suddenly noticed Naru's eyes becoming misty and her smile fading into a small frown, "But right after that session, he disappeared. I don't know what happened to him, but no one could reach him after that day. It was almost like he didn't exist."

"Sheesh, talk about irresponsible…that almost sounds familiar to someone I know," Keitaro huffed, instantly remembering his 'aunt's' ex-boyfriend, Seta Noriyasu. Just remembering the face of the man who'd been like an annoying, but dependable older brother-figure in his life was enough to give the avenger a headache…and a small smile, but mostly a headache.

"Well anyway," Naru went on, "I figured if I could keep my promise and get into the university, then I could try to find him to let him know I kept my promise-"

"As well as declare your undying love for him and tell him you wanna have his babies!"

The rosy color of Naru's face quickly shifted to an atomic red, which was followed by the girl doing her best to hit the young man sitting next to her, "Ugh, you jerk! Pervert! I don't know why I even bothered to tell you any of that!"

Keitaro laughed as he defended himself from the embarrassed girl's onslaught, "Hey, I don't hear you denying any of it!"

The two carried on until Naru finally ran out of energy. Huffing at her inability to hit the young man, she laid her head down on his shoulder, "Hmph…why the hell did I get stuck with a big jerk for a landlord…"

"Ask Granny whenever we see her again," Keitaro replied, nonplussed at Naru's actions. His right hand absently rose up and started gently rubbing his friend's hair, something she found to feel really good for some reason. Naru sighed comfortably and turned to face the landlord, "So…what was your reason for trying to get into the university? I remember a while back, you said it was too troublesome and you didn't want to waste your time?"

Keitaro grimaced somewhat as he recalled that moment, "Yea…I wasn't really into it at the time, but later on…"

"Later on, what?" the lovely brunette asked, her interest suddenly piqued even more, "Tell me!"

The young swordsman chuckled humorlessly, "Well…"

"Straight 'A' student again in school, Kyoshiro-kun? Awesome!" Kazuya praised as he read his son's academic progress report, a huge grin on his face. Kyoshiro blushed as he accepted the praise, "Thanks, Dad! It wasn't easy though, some of those subjects were nuts, ya know!"

His father nodded in sympathy, "I hear ya, kiddo. I never was that good with academics when I was your age. That was more your mother's area of expertise. In any case, if you keep this up you'll get into Tokyo U no problem when it's time to apply."

"Tokyo U?"

"Oh right, you probably haven't heard much about it," Kazuya recalled, taking a seat on the ground to better face his son, "That's the most prestigious university in the country. It's where your auntie Haru studied and met Seta…now there's a story."

Kyoshiro's eyes widened, "Really? Auntie Haruka went there too? No wonder she's super-smart! I'll definitely try to get in then!"

"Now that's the spirit! Ganbare, Kyoshiro-kun!"

Keitaro smiled sadly as the memory ended, "I guess you could say I made a promise too…"

Before Naru could ask him to elaborate, the young man stretched and stood up, "We should get going, it's starting to get kinda chilly, and Shinobu-chan's probably started dinner already."

"Wait a second, who did you promise? What happened?" the young girl asked as she too got up from the cold ground. The landlord, however, kept silent even when she continued asking while they made their way to the campus exit. She paused, however, when she noticed Keitaro suddenly stop and stare at a discarded newspaper sitting on a bench, "What's that?"

Keitaro picked up the paper, his eyes zoned in on the front page article, "Naru…come take a look at this."

Her curiosity piqued, Naru walked over and looked at the headline, eyes widening as she read the first paragraph, "Whoa! Someone just found a TON of dirt on that Amagai Tachibana and gave it to the daily paper?! Isn't he the one that was killed a few months ago?"

Naru's questions failed to register in the avenger's head as he continued reading about the backroom deals, alleged black market ties, and more. During his perusal of Mikamura's hard drive, none of this information had come up.

'Impressive…who could've found all of this? And how?' Kyoshiro pondered, all while hiding a nasty smirk from Naru, 'Hah…I wonder what other demons you red-haired mutts are hiding from the world…'

Riika Tachibana was currently cursing every deity she knew for the horrible fate of being born into the sub-branch of her 'family'.

The darkened shrubbery of the imperial gardens went by in a blur as she and her mother ran as fast as they could away from the sub-branch compound. Regardless of the fact that they were running barefoot, with several cuts from rocks and gravel, neither slowed in the slightest. To stop would mean death.

The mousy young girl thought back to the beginning of her misfortunes, when Minato and his family initially moved to Hinata. That first night, she had been humiliated when Ranmaru flipped her skirt up as she was serving dinner, and since that day, he'd hounded her relentlessly.

While she had done her best to endure in order not to worry her parents and younger brother, things took a turn for the worst when her father and brother disappeared a week and a half ago. No one had seen either of them after he'd gone to make repairs in the back of the compound, taking little Yusuke with him. What had followed were days of agonizing uncertainty, and a small pit of dread in her stomach that only grew as the days went on.

Only an hour ago, while most of the household was out celebrating Akisora's impeding admission to Tokyo U, Riika and her mother heard a knock at their door. Sensing something was wrong, the older of the two women slowly made her way over and cautiously opened the door. The bloodcurdling scream she let out as she saw what lay on her doorstep prompted Riika to run over to see what happened.

What she saw would fill her nightmares for the rest of her life.

Daichi Tachibana's head lay atop a bloody bag, the contents of which Riika had a ghastly suspicion, but refused to confirm. An expression of anguish and pain was frozen on his face. It took a moment before the shock wore off and the devastated daughter was able to notice that something was carved on Daichi's forehead. It was a single word.

RUN.

That message was what led Riika and her mother to grabbing a bag of only the barest essentials and fleeing for their lives, zigzagging all around the imperial gardens away from the palace, where the presence of their treacherous brethren would be at its highest.

"Keep going, Riika! Don't stop for even a moment!" her frightened mother called out from behind her, even as she began to falter. While Riika was fairly athletic due to all of the work she did in the compound, her mother had worked mainly as a chef, and did very little running around. This meant her stamina was nowhere near her daughter's; a fact that Riika was becoming too painfully aware of.

"That goes for you too, Mom! Hurry! We're almost to the edge of the grounds!" she called out, even though she knew very well that they were only still in the center section of the forest. Suddenly, the sound of something flying through the air caught Riika's ear, and the girl ducked. Looking back up, she saw a kunai embedded into a tree off to her right.

"Damn it! They found us!"

The two shifted direction and ran further east into the forested section of the gardens. After a short while, another kunai whizzed past them, forcing them to change direction again. This happened several times until finally the two burst into a small clearing with a single large tree. Due to her blind panic, Riika missed the low-hanging branch in her way, and smacked head-first into the protruding limb. Her mother quickly caught her before she could hit the ground, "Riika! Are you alright?!"

"I'm fine mom," the frightened girl replied, rubbing the small welt on her forehead, "Don't worry about me, we have to keep going! They'll be on top of us any second!"

"You're right, let's-" the older woman's words were caught in her throat as she spotted something on the tree in her peripheral vision. Turning quickly towards the trunk, she was finally able to make out what caught her eye.

And promptly wished she hadn't.

"No…oh no…"

The woman let out a shrill cry of anguish that sent chills down Riika's spine. Her fright only escalated when her mother sank to her knees, tears running like rivers as she wailed to the night sky.

"MY BABY! MY SWEET BABY! BUDDHA, HOW COULD YOU BE SO CRUEL?! WHAT HAVE WE DONE TO DESERVE THIS?!"

Riika reached down and tried to pull her distraught parent to her feet, but her efforts proved futile, "Mom! What is it?!"

"Riika…they…they…" her mother could only point at the base of the tree, where Riika slowly turned her gaze to find the source of her mother's sorrow.

Tied to the base of the tree by several cords of rope, the body of little Yusuke drooped like a wilted flower. Three daggers were thrust into the boy's chest up to their hilts, crimson blood still dripping from their handles. Underneath the bangs of his shoulder-length hair, his eyes were wide open, and his mouth frozen in a small 'o'.

"No way…not him…" Riika fought desperately to remain composed, but seeing the abused corpse of her brother tore into her heart and rendered her unable to do any more but stand and take in the grisly scene.

In a fit of despair, her mother lifted her head to the sky and cried out, "BUDDHA YOU HEARTLESS BASTARD! JUST KILL ME NOW!"

"…as you wish."

Before either could react, a pair of dark clad arms suddenly burst from the leaves above and grabbed Riika's mother harshly by the shoulders before quickly hoisting her into the branches above.

"MOM!" Riika shrieked from her position on the grass. She could vaguely make out the sounds of struggle, of cloth being torn to shreds, and finally the sound of a blade piercing flesh multiple times, her mother's wails and howls of pain painting a macabre picture of the assault she was suffering. After several moments, the sounds suddenly died out, and the clearing was hauntingly quiet once again.

"…Mom? Mom?!" Riika cried out, desperate to hear something, ANYTHING that would signal that her mother was still alive. The sound of rustling leaves caught the young girl's attention and she whirled her eyes at a spot in the canopy where leaves started to rain down.

"…Mom?"

Riika screamed and fell back as something fell and hung from the branches. Her screams intensified as she saw her mother dangling upside down from the branches, the top of her kimono shredded to almost nothing, exposing her severely wounded torso and arms to the world. Rivulets of her life fluids drizzled onto the grass below.

Feebly, the mortally wounded woman lifted her gaze to her petrified daughter, "R-R-Rii…ka…"

"…Mom?"

"…r-r-ru-"

A dark clad arm plunged a kunai into the woman's chest, robbing her of her last words. The abrupt murder of her mother spurred Riika into a panic and she bolted from the clearing, tripping over branches and rocks in her flight.

She had only gone a few yards from where she left her mother when a stabbing pain from her leg brought her to the ground heavily, the impact busting open her lip.

"AAAAH! FUUUUUCKKK!"

Looking down, Riika saw yet another kunai embedded into the meat of her thigh. She attempted to pull it free, but simply touching the handle sent searing tendrils of pain through her body. As she gave up and prepared to crawl away, she was halted by the sound of steady footsteps approaching her.

"Well, well, what do we have here?" a condescending voice rang out. Turning to peer behind her, Riika's heart dropped at the sight of Ranmaru, decked out in a full black skin-tight body suit and black flak jacket calmly making his way over to her. She eyed the kunai he was twirling on one finger warily.

"I gotta admit, you and your mom gave us one hell of a chase," the youngest triplet began, not even bothering to keep his guard up around his wounded prey, "I didn't think you two would actually fall for our little kunai trick to make you run to that clearing, but Rikimaru was right…that shit worked like clockwork."

Riika quickly tried to crawl away, but Ranmaru brutally stomped on the kunai in her leg, eliciting a piercing cry of agony from the wounded girl, "Hold on! You think I'm gonna let you cut and run after all the work I put in to catch ya? Learn your fucking place, branch trash!"

The malicious ninja roughly grabbed the front of the girl's kimono and slammed her back into a nearby tree, the force of the blow knocking the wind out of the cornered teen. Riika tried to pry the man's arm off her chest, but Ranmaru refused to let up, pushing her more into the rough bark.

"Please…Ranmaru-sama…let me go! What the fuck did we do to deserve this?!" she wailed while increasing her efforts to break free. Ranmaru replied by slamming her back into the bark, "What didja do? You personally…nothing really."

Riika was nearly caught off-guard by the casual admission, "Wha-?"

"Yep…you didn't do anything. Can't say the same about your pops and little bro though," Ranmaru answered with a nasty grin, "Ended up wandering into the forbidden wing by accident and ran into dad and Ichi-kun. It was an accident, but hey, rules are to be obeyed, and your daddy fucked up."

"No way…you…you murdered my father and little brother…for that?!"

Ranmaru nodded, "'Fraid so. Gotta make an example of bottom-feeders like you guys that think they're above the rules made by people better than them…but first,"

The nefarious triplet twisted the girl around and pushed her face first into the tree, dazing her. Riika was barely cognizant enough to feel Ranmaru place her hands on top of one another on the bark, but she was forced back into reality when she felt the nerve-searing pain of a kunai being thrust thru both palms, staking her to the tree.

"AAAAAHHHH, FUCK!"

"Oh, we got us a potty mouth huh?" Ranmaru whispered into her ear, heedless of her screams, "that's fine…I like girls that talk dirty."

Through her pained sobs, Riika made one last plea, "…just get it over with and kill me…you fucking asshole…"

"So ungrateful…well, I'll still give you a goodbye present," Ranmaru scoffed, before tearing the bottom of Riika's kimono apart, exposing her to the elements, "Don't worry…I'll make it memorable…"

The battered girl didn't respond, having resigned herself to her fate. And for the last few moments of her life, through the pain of the kunai embedded in her, and the mortification she felt as Ranmaru repeatedly violated her over and over, Riika Tachibana cursed every deity she knew.

She cursed them until she could curse no more.

Author's Note: Well...that happened.

I have to say in my downtime, the new reviews and follows have been unbelievable...in a good way! Some of you have given me some very good feedback and critiques that I promise to keep in mind as I move forward with this story. I'll do better with my Japanese terminology use as well (to whoever pointed out that fatal flaw with the name of Kyoshiro's style, THANK YOU. I took Japanese language two years ago, so I guess my rust is really showing _ ).

I'm going to attempt to keep the chapters shorter since the longer they get, the more rambly they become, and no one likes rambling. All in all, expect better improvements.

Now then, big shouts to my beta reader Cloud Link Zero for going over these chapters and being brutally honest with my fuck ups. Behind every good writer is a beta reader that won't let em get away with any bs and will push them to be better. He's also been feeding me some good ideas for later that I can't wait to get to. You guys'll love what's coming next...hopefully.

Anyway, I think I'll stop here before I ramble more (I gotta work on that). The Valentine's adventure is done, and you have a peek at the depravity of the Tachibana. Next up is the reveal of the test scores and the trip to Kyoto that I've honestly been DYING to write. I don't know when I'll have it out, but it's already in the works. If you've kept up with me until now and haven't been too put off by my mediocre writing skills or long pauses between releases, then thank you from the bottom of my heart, and I hope you keep reading. I promise you, this is one ride you'll never forget.

Ciph signin off