Chapter 3: Traveling Alone
Hey all! Chapter three coming your way so please enjoy!
I own nothing but the story.
It was dark out almost dark as the color black itself while traveling though the forest. Shirayuki herself may have known the woods as it has become her home away from home while studying to become a herbalist thought it would be nice to sit down for a quick breathier to rest for a minute but at the same time knew it wouldn't be for long, she herself was no fool and knew of the dangers that lurked into the dark forest at night from the resident animals who were quite protective of their homes to bandits looking for a easy target to rob or who knows what else they would do but one thing for sure she's rather not stick around to find out just what would happen and got up and started her journey one more.
'It's getting late, I need to hurry and find a safe place to stay for the night and wait for Sakura to find me.' she thought as she pullled her hood up to keep unwanted attention away from her and continued to trudge on forward as the exhaustion from her travels started to finally catch up to her. about thirty minutes later or so she stumbled upon a cottage near the boarder.
"FInally. man really need to get back into training again.." she spoke tiredly, fatigue setting in, she, wobbled towards the door and knocked hoping for someone to let her in.
"Hello? Is anyone in there? is it alright for me to stay the night and rest before continuing on my journey?"
She was greeted with no reply and assumed the occupants of the cottage was either not there or have turned in for the night. Not wanting to be an intruder, she plopped herself down by the wall and sighed heavily. Half from disappointment, the other half from fatigue.
'Well that was a disappointment.' she thought to herself as she made herself comfortable on the ground. She looked up towards the sky as the clouds have finally gone away revealing a bright and beautiful full moon along with a sky littered by stars.
'What a beautiful night.. at least that's one good thing about tonight' she giggled at the thought and looked just as a shooting star was passing by. She quickly closed her eyes and a made a wish as it passed by.
"I wish for a better tomorrow... hopefully Sakura will be here and everything will be alright.. everything will be okay.. I just know it.." she said to herself, sleep finally taking over pulling her into it's grasp. She smiled falling into deep slumber only comforted by the sounds of the forest and the moon shining brightly upon her, and the hopes of a better tomorrow.
While resting her head for the night, Sakura decided to do the same thing and replenish her energy as she finally reached Tanbarun and didn't know what was to com. She looked around for an inn to sleep in for the night after crossing the boarder only to find none. So going off her ninja training she climbed up a tree and masked her chakra in case there were any ninjas in the area.
'Just wait for me Shirayuki, I'm almost there.'the pink haired medic thought drifting off to dreamland herself
.
.
.
.
.
.
"Kiki! Mitsuhide! I'm going on ahead!" someone yelled
"Be careful Zen!" yelled another unfamiliar voice
'Huh..?' A sleepy and still groggy Shirayuki thought looking around as she was woken up by the sound of an unknown male's voice. as she heard footsteps approched from behind her. she quickly turned her head up to the wall just as a boy around her age with sparkling white hair and dazzling bright blue eyes hopped over it.
'So pretty..' She thought while staring the now surprised mysterious boy as his eyes widened a bit as he finally noticing her mid jump meeting her forest green ones with his bright blue ones.
'Who is she?' he thought while staring back at her, causing him to get distracted and fell off the wall hurting his arm in the process.
"Ouch.. well that hurt." the boy spoke to himself as two others ran up to him.
"Zen!"
.
.
.
.
.
(Flashback)
"Ugh... I really don't wanna be here right now doing this right now." Zen complained banging his head down on his desk to another guy maybe a year or so older than him.
The man chuckled at his friend's delimma while resting his hand on his shoulder. "Careful now, you don't want a permanent mark on your face from that or even worse lose some of the brain cells you have left."
"Shut up Mitsuhide! All my brain cells are just fine and in fact they're increasing because of all this work!" said Zen as he shot his head up giving Mitsuhide a half hearted glare
"Oh? Is that so? Then why are you complaining about it if you're growing in smarts?"
"Because it's boring!"
"Well too bad you have to do it."
"But I don't wanna!"
"This is why some people don't believe you when you tell them your age. Well. That and your height that is."
"Shut up! I'm perfectly at a normal height for my age, you're just a tall oaf!"
"Pipsqueak!"
"Giant!"
"Short stuff!"
"Titan!" (Had to do it x3)
" *Ahem!" someone said making both boys turn their heads in surprise to the door only to be greeted by a blonde hair, blue eyed female.
"Kiki?!" they both shouted a little flushed
"Now then if you're both done arguing. Zen, if you hurry up and finish your work up for the day we can take a quick trip over to Tanbarun if you hurry up."
"What? Do you really mean it?" Zen said with hope in his eyes
Kiki couldn't help to let a small smile grace her lips and nodded at him "The moment you finish the sooner we can go."
With that said, Zen started signing off on papers in record time. Kiki then walked over to Mitsuhide who was now standing bewildered at how his friend now motivated to do work. She closed her her eyes patting his shoulders. "Positive reinforcements work better than shouting at each other like five years olds Mitsuhide." she smirked at him before walking out the room leaving him in a daze. Once he came to, he looked around the room no longer seeing the blonde in sight and followed after her.
"H-Hey Kiki wait up!"
.
.
.
.
.
"This is it guys." Kiki announced as they reached the cottage around the evening after their long journey from Clarines
"Finally!" Zen said as he raced inside running up to an empty room to relax
'I can't wait to see what tomorrow has to bring' he thought while entering into a dreamless sleep. After sleeping for a while he was awoken by a noise that resembled knocking and someone asking for lodging.
"Hello? Is anyone in there? is it alright for me to stay the night and rest before continuing on my journey?"
He lazily cracked one eye open trying to get it to adjust to the dark before giving back into his peaceful slumber
'I must be more tired than I thought, I'm starting to hear things. Oh well, a little rest should fix that right up. he thought while dozing back off
As the morning has come, Zen shot out of bed as soon as the sun's rays gently hit his face and headed to the bathroom to quickly was up with last night's event still lingering in his mind.
'That really was all a dream and that no person primarily, a woman would be silly enough to sleep in the forest at night If so,I hope she's alright.' he thought slightly worried about the unknown woman. He quickly brushed it off and ran down the steps past his friends, straight out the door.
"Kiki! Mitsuhide! I'm going on ahead!" Zen yelled back at them
"Be careful Zen!" yelled Mitsuhide with Kiki on his tail
Zen paid them no mind as he quickly started to scale the wall and hopping over it. Once he did he looked down to make sure nothing was there and out the corner of his eye saw something and saw a pair of green eyes watching his every move. He stared down at her what seemed like hours what as really seconds and started to ponder to himself
'So I wasn't dreaming? She was real? Maybe she just got here and decided to rest.' Many thoughts were going through his mind at that moment which made him lose balance, falling off the wall instead.
"Ouch.. well that hurt." the boy spoke to himself as two others ran up to him.
"Zen!"
(End Flashback)
As Zen sat on the ground holding his arm Mitsuhide and ran up to him giving him a look over with Kiki nearby
"Zen! I told you! Did you hit your head?! Who am I?! What's one plus one?!" Mitsuhide asked going into hysterics
Zen lazily looked up at the boy while still nursing his arm
"Who are you again?" He said in a bored tone
"Zen! Don't mess around like that!" Mitsuhide cried on the verge of tears.
"Is that your name?" Kiki said in a playful tine
"Don't encourage him!"
At this point, Shirayuki thought was the best time to try and get away while they making a fuss about their injured friend
'Better get outta here before they spot me.' she thought while crawling away on her hands and knees and was almost to freedom as soon as strong yet demanding voice stopped her in her tracks straightening up a bit
"Halt." said Zen as he turned back to her with a slight glare. He looked her up and down with a slight smirk on his face
"So mind telling me who you are and why you're out here all alone?"
"Oh! Uh I just left my home and I was sorta in a hurry and ended up getting lost on a random road and.. " she rambled on pulling her hood down a bit farther covering her hair. Zen was quite amused by her and smiled before turning serious. he grabbed his sword, putting it under her hood quickly flicking back showing off her bright apple red hair which made him pause for a moment.
"You.. have quite the unusal hair." he spoke in a amazed yet factual tone making her chuckle a bit
"Haha, yeah I get that a lot." she smiled at him before noticing his arm
"Oh you're injured." She said to him looking at his bruised arm making him look as well
"Oh this? This is nothing." He said brushing it off. Shirayuki on the other hand didn't and pulled out her bag filled with herbs and medicine
"Well then you're in luck, I'm a herbalist." said said while pulling out a jar only to be greeted with Zen's sheathed sword in her face once more.
'If this guy don't stop pointing that thing in my face...' she thought slightly agitiated
"No thanks. For all I know it could be poison or something. I'm not gonna fall for that little trick of yours, I wasn't born yesterday you know. Trust is earned not given so we're done here." he looked directly into her eyes
"Oh... well okay then." she spoke slightly confused
Zen gazed soften a bit and smiled at her
"Well? Off you go then." He nudged his head into another direction signaling for her to leave
'Well he does has a point. But still.. ' she looked at him with determination in her eyes and grabbed the tip of his sword
"H-Hey what are you-" He was cut off by Shirayuki slamming the sword down on her own arm making him stumble back in doing so, she grabbed some of her medicine and shakily unscrewed the cap while putting some on bandage, slapping it on her arm as proof.
"Sorry to disappoint but I don't usually carry around poisons." she looked at the three of their shocked expressions as they all were silent until Mitsuhide burst out laughing
"Bwuhaha! She sure got you good Zen!" Mitsuhide said while still laughing. Zen held his head down in defeat before bringing it back up with a smile on his face laughing as well, sittling down in front of her
"Hehe. I'm sorry about that, my name is Zen." he said with a smile
"I-I'm Shirayuki." she replied shyly until Zen placed his injured arm right in front of her face.
"It's a pleasure to meet you Shirayuki but do you mind helping me out? It is kinda you fault for my ungraceful landing." he said with a huge grin on his face
"Eh?" she looked at him confused for a moment before fixing up his arm.
'Maybe he isn't so bad after all' she giggled to herself looking at her new friend while he inspected the her work