It had been a long night, but he had finally succeeded in stabilizing the girl's condition. The small fire he had going was flickering and threatening to die on him unless he added some more wood. Some more sticks found their way into the flames as he grabbed a small amount of rations from his pack and began to make some kind of bland soup. It wasn't until after he was done eating that the fatigue of the days travels, and the surgery he had just finished, caught up to him. Not to be one to ignore a patient, he force fed the girl the small amount of remaining soup to sustain her. After that, he found a nice spot to lie down and let sleep claim him.
A week had passed and his patient had improved dramatically. She no longer slipped in and out of consciousness and was healing at a rapid pace, thanks to his healing jutsu. She still lay in the same spot that he had placed her, except for the times that she must have been having some sort of nightmares, because she'd try to move around and mutter incoherently. He'd just try to keep her from ripping her bandages and make sure that she didn't injure herself any further. The rest of the time he spent sneaking into town at night, gathering intelligence on Lord Cho's manor, so that when the time came, no one would be able to stop him.
Inari's dreams repeated the scene over and over again as if to taunt her and her weaknesses. The disbelief as she watched a demonized Kiku kick the kunai deeper into her chest. The feeling of weightlessness as she plunged into an endless abyss that could swallow worlds whole. That nightmare of a day seemed to get less real and more dreamlike everytime she saw it. But this time was different, because this time there was a little light calling out to her. That light, so warm, calling out to her, calling her by her name. Inari reached out towards the light and as soon as her hands brushed up against the glowing orb, her eyes snapped open.
Am I dead? Inari wondered as she tried to move. Ah…. No… death wouldn't be this painful. Would it? She turned her head to look at her surroundings, a cave of sorts with small fire burning close next to her. Inari laid her head down to fall back to sleep but a small noise from right next to her made her snap her eyes back open. She couldn't see anything else but the fire right next to her and it wasn't until she squinted her eyes that she could she a figure moving about.
"So, you're finally awake, eh?" came a deathly whisper that was somehow clearly audible. The dark figure made its way next to the fire and hunched down beside her.
All Inari saw was the featureless white mask that was staring right back at her with an undying intensity that she had felt before. Then in snapped in her mind, he took a contract, He works for Lord Cho. As this grim realization came to mind, tears swelled in her eyes and she began to weep.
The dark figure had no idea what to do as this girl lay crying out of shear terror and misery and did the only thing that he knew how to do. He just tilted his head slightly, waited a bit, and asked "Are you done yet?"
Inari just turned her head and pleaded with the dark man, "P-please….I-I don't want to go b-back. He'll kill m-me…." And sobbed some more. "No more, I-I can't take it anymore…" just crying her heart out as this point in desperation.
"Haha…hahahaha….HAHAHAAAHAA!!! Take you back! Why the hell would I take you back?!" cackled the figure across from her.
Inari had no idea what to do; she had never seen this kind of disregard for her former master before. "B-but you work for him….sniff you t-took a contract from him…"
She cringed back in fear as he drew closer "Work for him? WORK FOR HIM? HA! Don't insult me. That piece of shit can't do anything except spew forth garbage at the weaklings that follow him."
She stared back in disbelief as the dark figure rose from his position infront of her and began to walk away. Not being one to be left alone in a strange place, she asked, "W-where are you going….?"
The figure in the white masked slowly turned around to face the girl and replied in a surprisingly happy whisper "I'm out to kill someone" and turned again to leave.
"Wait!" caught his attention and turned back once more to face the girl. "Yesss…?"
She hesitated a moment before asking her question. "Just who are you?"
Chuckling to himself, he gave her a glare that could send a chill down the spine of even the most experience of shinobi. "Who? No…….but What. I am nothing but a Ghost" and disappear in an instant.
Still not believing what had just transpired, Inari laid back down to rest. At this point, all of her body ached from just having this conversation. Hoping that when she woke, everything would be better. Laughing at herself for this ridiculous wish, she fell once more back to sleep.
Not wanting to cause too much of a disturbance, the Ghost waited until nightfall to make his move. As soon as the last rays of light disappear, he moved from the edge of the village towards the center of town towards the lavish mansion.
Getting inside was easy enough. Lord Cho's guards were lax and almost all of the servants had gone to bed. Ghost ran some more chakra through his mask and looked all around the house. Most of the heat signatures were too small to be someone of Lord Cho's size. For several minutes, the Ghost sat in the dark corners of the mansion looking for his target.
Doubts began filling his head that maybe Lord Cho wasn't here but those were put to rest as he heard faint yelling. "Now Get Out Of My Sight!" caught his attention and his head snapped to the direction that the noise came from. The Ghost saw a small heat signature moving away from one that had to be at least 3 times its size. I found you; you backstabbing son of a bitch and Ghost sprinted silently down the hallways towards his victim.
Knowing that no one could stop him now, Ghost didn't even bother trying to sneak into the room and just flung the door open. Lord Cho had his back to him lying on some gigantic cushions, resting. "I thought I told you to get out of my si…" as he turned to yell at a servant but was faced with the grim sight of a blank white mask and a black cloak.
"You!" as Lord Cho's eyes widened. "You're supposed to be dead!"
"Yeah, about that…..guess I didn't feel like dying back then" Ghost whispered as he approached the large man. He grabbed a wooden chair from the side of the room and broke off one of the legs.
"What are you going to do with that?" The fear was obvious in Lord Cho's eyes. He tried to get up, but the cushions impeded his movement.
"What? This?" as Ghost glanced at the chair leg he was holding "I'm going to show you what happened to people who think they can screw me over with fake contracts and then try to incinerate me!"
Ghost jammed the broken chair leg, like an improvised wooden steak, with almost inhuman strength through one of the legs of Lord Cho. "AAHHHH!!! YOU SICK FUCK!" screamed Lord Cho as Ghost broke off another leg of the chair.
"Now, you're going to have three chances to tell me where that inbred son of yours is, before I crucify you to the floor" Ghost said waving the chair leg in front of Lord Cho's face.
"GO TO HELL, YOU BASTARD!" He screamed and Ghost rammed another chair leg through his other leg. "AAAARRRRHHHHH!!!" This gruesome form of interrogation went on for another minute until both Lord Cho's arms and legs were pinned to the ground.
By now, Lord Cho's blood curdling screams had awoken almost the entire mansion and most of the servants had gone to see what was happening. The first servants to arrive stood in shock in the doorway, looking upon a horrid scene. A figure cloaked in black holding what seemed to be the remains of a chair in his hand. They watched in silent horror as the black figure gave a mighty swing and imbedded the chair into Lord Cho's skull. They watched as he wrote something upon the wall with their master's blood and then turned to face them; revealing a white mask and a black cloak covered with blood. Every single servant that was there took a step back as the figure slowly walked towards them. He stopped halfway and cocked his head to the side a little as he gave them all a little wave goodbye.
They watched as the assassin disappeared into thin air and were left there standing in utter disbelief. Most of the women started to cry and whimper while only the bravest of the men stepped forth into the room. The men surveyed Lord Cho and confirmed that he was dead. Even though the man was a sick and twisted bastard, it pained them to see him dead in such an awful way. After a couple of silent minutes, the women noticed the men staring at the wall which the stranger had written something on. The women servant read what the men already had. In big, bold, bloody letters read the name "The Ghost"
It had been several hours since The Ghost had left and Inari was enjoying this time by having a nice nap when she was woken up by a loud ruckus coming into the cave.
"Get up, we need to start moving" Ghost said as he began to shove everything in the cave into a black duffel bag.
Inari had barely woken up and had no idea how to react when she was suddenly stood up by Ghost and had a black cloak wrapped around her.
"We need to leave now before they find us" he said while looking around the cave for anything he might of missed.
"Leave, why?" then it occurred to her who his target might have been. "Who did you kill?"
"Lord Cho" he said nonchalantly shoving more items into the bag.
Inari was stunned upon hearing this, not being able to comprehend this. "He's dead?! What about Kiku, he should have been there to protect his father"
"Well he wasn't, and it'd just be more trouble if he found us now" as Ghost began to remove his mask.
Inari was almost sent into shock by seeing the face under the mask. It was the same handsome scarred man that had saved her a year ago. The same man with the dead stare that had condemned her to a life as Lord Cho's slave. She was even more surprised when he smiled and gave her a slight bow.
"How do you do, I'm Kaidan or Kai for short, and right now we need to get moving", then added "You ready to go?"
A still shocked Inari took a moment to register what he was asking and then tried moving. "It still hurts all over, I'm so sore I can barely move"
A tired Kai, in a hurry to leave, felt that he only had one choice left besides just leaving the girl behind. He shifted the duffel bag to his back, sighed to himself, picked up the girl bridal style, and jumped out into the night.
A flustered Inari couldn't believe what was going on. One moment she was standing in a dark cave with nothing on but bandages and a cloak and the next she was being whisked away in a strangers arms, who, up until then, she thought dead.
"W-where are we going?" Inari said over the wind blowing past them.
Kai remained silent for a moment, then answered "Anywhere but here" as they disappeared into the dark.