"You should not be out of bed in your state." Said a voice from the doorway.
"Nothing escape from your prying eyes." I replied with a smile and turned towards Y'shtola who stood in the opening.
"Well I'll guess there's no way to convince you to change corse now? " She replied.
I did not reply at first and just performed a quick ninjutsu to summon a armor coffer, then said.
"There is no other way. "
"And you are going to face her with daggers instead of the sword?" She asked.
"I guess I can't run from it anymore. I have to face her with all I've got. " I replied and opened the coffer that contained my shinobi gear.
"And that is what scares you the most about fighting her again. " Y'shtola said.
I did not reply and just started to take out my gear.
Among all the Sicions, Y'shtola is the one who has the easiest to read me. But then again she was the first one of them that I met. And the first to learn about my past. So these questions don't surprise me.
"You are afraid of becoming the monster that you were before your Master found you." She continued
"Well I'm not going to deny that. But knowing what Akane was capable of doing to her victims in the past, which terrify me of what she can do now." I replied as I took my gear and went behind a screen to change.
"Can you tell me a little more about her." She asked.
"Well what more can I say then that she is a sadist. And as one of the people who headed the investigation into her to see if she was fit to stay in the tribe. I got to see her work first hand. The pleasure that she took of dragging out the suffering of her victims is something that I really can't explain or compare. As for the woman herself well outside of work she really did not do much. She kept very much to herself which is very contrary to who she acted during work. Where she wanted to be seen. She did not seem to want to have any friends and none really wanted to be either." I said.
"Sounds like she only lived for her own work." Y'shtola said.
"Yeah I drew that conclusion to. However the way she did it is something that most people in the tribe could not get behind. Which ultimately lead to her exile." I continued.
"You've said that you thought to have killed her in the past. Do you have any idea how she could have survived?" Y'shtola asked.
"No I don't. There's no way she would have survived that fight. I stabbed her quite close to the chest and not only that but she also fell down a cliff. " I replied as I came out from behind the screen now fully dressed in my old gear.
I went over to the coffer one more time and picked up one last piece. A wolf like mask(a version of the kokuko men mask.)
"You will win this time." Y'shtola said as she went up to me and reached me my Katana that had been leaning towards the bed.
"You said that you were going to face her with everything you got. So don't forget this." She continued.
I nodded and smiled as I hung the mask on my belt and grabbed the sword.
Leah had noticed that Akane was coughing from time to time and now she could see that she is actually coughing up blood.
"Dammit. It's getting worse." Akane said in a low tone. But then she noticed that Leah was looking at her.
"A side effect of the Blackwolf's handy work." Akane said with a grin as she revealed a poorly healed scar near the bottom of her ribcage that would clearly have punctured her lounge.
"But I have to commend you. I did not see your faith in Lyn being that strong." She continued.
"Well perhaps it's you that is wrong about her." Leah replied defyingly.
"Oh I doubt it. But I think it's high time to do more than just talking in order to break you." She replied with a menacing look.
I'm not really surprised that she picked this place to hide in. I thought to myself as I entered the castrum.
I found Leah first sleeping. And I could feel the anger growing from seeing the wounds that had already been inflicted on her. Nothing to serious yet but it still to much.
"Leah?" I whispered as I carefully untied her.
She slowly opened her eyes and said in a weak voice.
"Lyn? Behind you."
As I turned around Akane said with a big grin.
"It's about time for you to show up."
"Although it seems you only listen half of what I told you. You have not let your wolf out." She continued.
"You said that you wouldn't hurt her." I replied.
"You took too long I got bored." She replied.
I did not reply. I just took my mask off the belt and put it on.
Akane's grin grew even bigger.
"There she is! "
Leah suddenly felt a chill go down her spine. As quick as Lyn put on the mask the presences of her aether changed completely. From her normal warm light into something cold.
Me and Akane took of. And the sound blades clashing and jutsu's going off could be heard echoing throughout the Castrum.
"Oh what I've missed this! You can't imagine how I longed for this fight! Wolf against Wolf!" Akane said.
"You are no Wolf. You are a beast that only hungers for blood." I replied as I threw a mix of knives and shurikens towards her.
She dodged and parried all of them and said.
"It's one and the same. The only difference is that one of them is what you get called when you are no longer of use to the tribe."
"Come to think of it, none of us would have been exiled that day if it was not for what you did." She continued as our blades clashed again.
"I only did what I needed to do." I replied as I pushed her away and went for her neck.
"I could have cut out the corruption out of the tribe. " She replied as she dodged and kicked me in the stomach so I fell back a few yalms on the ground.
"But you had to come to that woman's aid. I don't get it. She never acknowledged you as her own child. Even though you were the best the tribe had. Equal if not better than Lady Greywolf. You gave her your servitude and what did she give you in return? Nothing but to take everything you had and deserved." She said.
"I served the tribe not a person." I replied as I forced myself up. I could feel that I was close to reopen one of my wounds.
"You said so back then as well. But look what that got you. You have been misguided all your life. All pointless and wasted." She said, but I interrupted her.
"You were wrong to go after her."
"What?" She replied looking surprised at me.
"It was Greywolf and the Chieftain who convinced my mother to exile you." I continued.
"The Chieftain did? Don't play your mind game on me. All I did was to uphold my oath to her. She was the one who I." She said but at the same time I took the opportunity to launch towards her.
But just as I was about to land a hit, I fell to my knees in pain. I had reopened one of my wounds.
Akane took this opportunity to grab me by my head and slammed it face first into a wall.
The mask took most of the force, it cracked and I could feel it cut into my face close to my right eye.
"You are pathetic! You have grown so dull! I wanted to fight the same woman I faced back then! That was the only reason to why I refused to die! Why were you the one who stopped me from saving the tribe, the one who I had so much admiration for! To to not be able to do it again and try to use such weak words. The wounds I gave you would should not have stopped you. They don't even come close to the ones that you gave me." She said as she started hit me again and again. But as she grabbed her daggers and cut off my head. I disappeared in a puff of smoke.
"A shadow clone! But when?" She said as she frantically looked around.
As I appeared next to her again and went in for the kill.
But she tried to parry it but failed, but still messed up my attack as my dagger went into her arm instead and made me drop my other dagger.
"You were never that fast before?" She said her grin started to grow again.
"Did you forget that you should never underestimate your enemy." I replied as I grabbed my last kunai knife and stabbed her right around where I had done years before.
She groaned in pain and jumped back coughing up blood and laughed.
"Beautiful! This is what I wanted to see! But sadly it seems like you are out of blades."She laughed even more.
Well she was not completely wrong. The dagger was still stuck in her arm and kunai below her chest.
But I just looked at her with a grin this time.
"All except for one. " I replied and made a simple hand sign and summoned one last weapon. My Katana.
"Well then. Let's finish this! " She said as she pulled out the two blades that were stuck in her. And raised them and prepare to strike.
I simply unsheathed my sword and let go of the scabbard and charged in at same time as she did. And as the scabbard hit the ground the battle was over.
"Amazing." Akane coughed.
Her attack had just grazed me.
But my sword now went straight through her chest.
"You really came through in the end." She said as I pulled out the sword and she fell to her knees.
"What were you really after?" I asked.
"To be honest up until now I did not know." She replied.
"And now?"
She looked up at me and simply said with a smile.
"Peace."
I just looked at her as she looked back down on the ground.
"But before you finish me of. Promise me one thing. Promise me that you will go back to the tribe and set it right. Make sure we are the last ones they wronged." She continued.
"I promise." I replied as I lifted my sword again and cut of her head.
Leah suddenly heard footsteps and looked to see me limping towards her.
"Lyn!" she screamed and jumped toward me as I practically collapsed in her arms.
"Hey. You should not be moving that much." I said but she interrupted me.
"You silly little wolf." She replied in a calm tone as she took off my broken mask and started to clean the blood of my face
"I'm sorry I made you wait." I said but again was interrupted. This time she gave me a small kiss and said.
"I knew you would win."
I just hugged her. It was a over we could finally have a little breather.
Meanwhile in the deep shadows of the Castrum two masked individuals met up with each other.
"what are your thoughts my Lady? " Said the younger one.
"The mission was a success. Let us return to the tribe." The older one replied.
"Are you satisfied with her performance? " The younger asked.
"I think you already know that answers Lady Snow-wolf" the older replied and signaled the younger one too move.
The younger one smiled as the two disappeared into the shadows.