One: ハッピーエンドは悲しい始まりに変身
I leaned against the opened carriage window and got dizzy as I stared off beyond the acres of trees that stood tall in the evergreen woods. The dirt and rock path bounced the carriage back and forth as my stomach went with it, I could hear it sway inside my stomach and felt it just beyond my tonsils as the reflex to barf came back over and over again. Nothing would come out though, so I laid my head out the window and tried to think about other things except for this exhausting trip I've been obliged to go on.
My father needed to commit some trading deals at a local festive city just halfway across the country from our city. Instead of leaving me behind like always, he wanted to show me off to the world and brought my butt along. He even sent an order out for jounin ninja's to come and escort me along the ridges and woodlands of the country in case 'assassins' were to mysteriously ambush us.
Matter of fact, to help me not get injured or hurt during an ambush, my father has three carriages taking our family. One for our luggage, one for mother and father, and the last one for me and me alone. Except my ninja escort, personal ninja escort.
I looked behind me as he sat in the opposite seat across from me on the other side of the carriage, he looked straight ahead though and wore a thin white and red mask with swish marks on it to conceal his identity. Only two ninjas wore these and dressed differently, but one of the masked ninjas were to watch me while the other overlooked my parents.
"Jeez, is it just me or is the carriage spinning?" I asked, laying on my back on the cushion seat. It was velvet but soon to be barf-vet if we didn't stop. My escort glanced at me hopelessly and looked back up. I groaned.
"So, you're just going to sit there? No conversations? No talking? I see, gotta play it cool and quite. You probably have to concentrate, huh? Is it because you sense some assassins coming our way? No problem, I can take them out with my fists of fury!" I started punching thin air for his interest, but this time he didn't even glance my way. I sweat dropped and let my clay blue hair in it's pig tails sash on the floor as I sat upside down in the seat now.
I propped my legs against the carriage walls and had my feet dangle against the ceiling.
"If I got hurt while doing this, will you get in trouble?" I asked the escort. He didn't even twitch, I got an anime vein and lost balance as we ran over a rock. I fell backwards and hit my head on the hard part of the seat, a big red shiner appeared on my forehead. I started to curl my toes in my sandals and whine on the floor now. I rubbed my head and groaned in agony as the bump pulsed pain through my body and my heartbeats ratified in my ears.
"I hate carriages." I concluded as I leaned outside the window and barfed all my insides. Finally.
The few ninjas outside of the carriages stepped around my breakfast, I shakily leaned back in my seat and watched my escort ninja. I studied him very intently as I noticed his dark red hair poking out, it wasn't bright, it was dimmed and clay like. It was very dark and contrasted with his bright red swirls on his white mask; he wore a sleeveless black jacket with a pair of black pants that reached to the middle of his shins. The bottoms were tapped and his wrists were taped too. He had black sandals on his feet and manicured fingernails of purple paint with a kanji ring on his left thumb.
"Your ring," I pointed to it, the ninja stiffened and lifted his hand as his ring was now in view of both of us. "It says 'kanji' meaning love, correct?" I smiled at my Ancient Japanese knowledge, the ninja remained there frozen for a second before setting his hand down and being anti-social again. I pouted.
"Look, this will be a very long ride if you keep ignoring me." I crossed my arms around my chest and settled them near the belt of my kimono.
My kimono was an egg shell white with pink cherry blossom petals, my large belt was the pink shade of the petals. I had silk ribbons weaved into my hair and used to tie bows around my pigtails; my ribbons had white little clasps on the ends of it. Underneath on my right leg was a holster for five kunai and on my left was four shuriken. For of course, a real attack.
I've been practicing all on my own with my nanny, she found out my kekkei genkai one day and was determined to treat me as a real shinobi and have me master it. A special technique that my great grandmother once had in her possession, she was taken hostage multiple times and fought over by other villages like a weapon. My parents didn't want that happening to me, and with all their money- they were able to lock me away. Friends was hard. Sometimes, I can slip beyond large mansion gates with my nanny, Kisana. She was the only experience I had with interacting with friends, so whenever I was given chances like this- then I would like to meet as many people as I can.
I sighed and looked out the window, something in the distance above us was flying overhead. A bird maybe, but a rather large cliff was poised high and we were just riding along the edge of it going down. Boulders were sitting on the edge, ready to crush us over an avalanche if that happened. I threw my head out the window further and threw up once more, I coughed and spit the remaining acids from my mouth onto the ground.
I looked up and squinted my eyes, the bird landed on the edge of the cliff and wasn't like any birds I've studied. Not even this far out in the rocky's. It was a pale yellow and orange color, like clay, and had no detail on it. I saw it look at me and than burst into a giant bomb. I shielded my face with my arms as I was still leaning out the window, the bird explosion was really huge and it scared some horses.
They jumped up in fear and rocks started to slide down as the ground and earth rumbled and shook. I lost balance and fell out the carriage window when the carriage was hit with a rock on the opposite side. Then, a rock about six times my size came toppling down onto the carriage and made it fall off the edge we were on. The grassy ground below the ridge was immediate death and that escort ninja was still in there.
"NO!" I screamed crawling to the edge, I looked for signs of life but I saw nothing but a pile of rubble. I saw the horse lay limp below and realized he must've died, I gasped in fear.
"LOOK OUT!" someone yelled. I was swooped off my stomach and into the arms of someone as a boulder started to roll off the edge I was laying on. I turned around and sighed in relief as the escort ninja from earlier was jumping away and holding me bridal style.
He set me down and scouted for the other carriages, the luggage one had fallen and my mother and father were escorted to a nearby place were it was safe. We were still in the middle of the boulders when I saw another boulder coming my way.
"Watch out!" I screamed jumping high into the air, the escort ninja followed and within a split second had hold of my body again and jumped from boulder to boulder to the top of the cliff were no rocks no longer sat. I wiped my forehead as I let out a pocket of air I was holding, I sat on the ground and on my knees as I held my chest. I felt my heart beat a million times fast when I looked up. I didn't hear my heart beat in my ears because I was tired, no, something else.
Something silver, cold, and sharp creased along my neck. I held my breath again and looked up. The escort ninja was standing a few meters away from me as someone else was standing behind me with a kunai to my neck. They dragged it deeper and I felt it start to open up skin, I closed my eyes and held his hand that was against my neck to ease up on the pressure. Blood dripped onto the kunai and into my lap as I stayed stiff and tried not to make sudden movements.
"She's mine." the guy mumbled, a humble and sweet voice yet with a pretentious clause.
"Through me first." the red-haired escort pulled off half his mask to reveal a very young and dark envy red eye man. His smooth skin and quirky smirk made me smile a little until the kunai pressed harder.
"My missions to assassin the daughter of Okogami. So after I kill her off, than we can have a proper battle." the sadistic voice reached my ear as his cold breath pressed against my ear. I clenched my teeth as I darted my eyes at the kunai, in a matter of one second, a pool of blood seeped my kimono.