Chapter 22 Hooded Memories

I stepped back, licking the blood off my hand. Nobu had cut me good but it was the only damage he had done since out bout started. Actually it was the first wound of the battle. Neither had landed any blows up 'till now. Nobu was holding back. Before he could strike me or cut me he would stop or pretend to miss. Now it seemed he was getting serious. Nobu held his blade towards me, half of it swallowed by his long black sleeve.

"Why are you holding back?" I asked.

No response. He ran at me instead. I kicked upwards and I ducked. Again we were locked in melee but neither of us made contact. I was about fed up with this when I felt something dig in my stomach. I hadn't even realized how close the wall was until I hit it. Then, with out hesitation, Nobu back-fisted me into a nearby boulder. I groaned and tried to stand but I stopped when his blade came to a stop at my neck. He hesitated. I took the opportunity and tossed a kunai towards his face. He moved enough to avoid getting stabbed but the kunai caught onto his hood and pulled it back.

My breath got caught in the back of my throat. I knew that dirty blonde hair and those honey colored eyes. Everything seemed to stop and a ringing filled my ears.

"I-Izumi-nii-san?" I managed to squeak out.

Nobu's blade dropped and he stepped back. His eyes as wide a mine probably were.

"How…you…you…" I stuttered. "I…I kil…I watched you die!!!"

"Karasu, I'm…I'm not…"

He turned and ran instead, covering his face.

"Wait!!" I called after him, quickly standing.

The moment I took my first step, I felt my body tackled to the ground. Whoever it was put one foot firmly on my hand, his other knee on my back and pressed the edge of a kunai against my throat. I glanced back a bit, enough to see another person in the same cloak as Nobu but I could see the bottom half of his face, his lips curled into a smile.

"Eh?" Said a male voice. "Not half-bad. So you're his sister, huh?"

The kunai edge was pressed against my skin harder. I could feel something trickle down my neck.

"Who do you work for? Orochimaru right?" He asked. "Why you here? The base near here is where he keeps certain documents, correct?"

Alright, this guy asked to many questions. It was rather annoying.

"Tell me, or I slit your throat."

I stared out at my hand, recalling some of Itachi's training. I had never really been afraid of death. It wasn't a bad thing, everyone dies eventually and when one's time comes then that's it. When a tiger senses it's end is near, it fights with everything it has. I'm the same but I really can't do a whole lot of fighting in this situation. I breathed out slowly, my heart rate slowing down subconsciously. I have no regrets.

The kunai and my throat pulled back a bit.

"Aren't you afraid?" He asked. "I will kill you!"

"There is nothing you can do to make me talk." I said, calmly.

To my surprise the kunai was pulled away.

"Heh. It's rare to meet someone as brave as you." He chuckled. "I like strong women."

He leaned in slowly, breathing on my ear.

"Don't you go anywhere."

Then he was gone.

I stood slowly, having no honest clue what just happened or what the hell that guy meant. And there was Nobu, or so he called myself but that was defiantly my brother, Izumi.

"Karasu!"

I turned to see Sasuke running towards me.

"Sasuke-sama!" I turned towards him. "You okay? You look tired."

He shook his head. "I'm fine. I just been running around."

I smiled…until I noticed he was holding his side, blood leaking through his fingers.

"Oh my god! Sasuke you badly injured!" I cried. "You need help!"

"I'm fine, I can pull through."

I looked at him, doubtful. "You sure?"

He nodded.

"Let's go find the others then."

I turned and we both began walking. We made it to a fork in the road.

"Which was should we go?"

I got no response. I turned around but Sasuke seemed lost in thought.

"Sasuke-sama?"

"Oh, I think we should-"

His whole body shuddered and he gasped sharply, gripping his side tightly. Sasuke stumbled forward and I caught him.

"You are not fine!" I said. "Let me help you."

I pulled the arm that wasn't gripping his side over my shoulder, and reached behind his back to grab his belt. There was that distant look on his face again, as if recalling something.

"Better, right?" I asked, cheerfully.

"…sure."

I looked at the wound.

"Just keep putting pressure on it." I said, dead serious.

"Yeah." He mumbled.

We were about to head down the left tunnel when…

"Sasuke! Karasu!"

Mizuko, Ekima and Hiko came running out of the right. The three stopped to catch their breath.

"Ah! Sasuke-tatsujin!!" Ekima said. "You're hurt."

"I'll live."

"But…"

"Is everyone okay?"

I turned and nearly jumped when I say Yoshimitsu standing in the entrance of the left tunnel.

"Sasuke injured but the rest of us are fine." Hiko explained.

Yoshimitsu nodded. He pointed back into the tunnel.

"I saw the exit back there. We should probably get going."

We all nodded.

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The sun was slowly starting to set, bathing the world in orange and red light. It had already been a day since we had escaped the maze. The exit led to more forest but as we continued on it opened up into a large field, three waterfalls on the far side shaped like a half-moon. Below the waterfalls was a large lake, almost the size of the field, which traveled underground into the river that ran through the canyon. It was breathtaking but we choose to make camp in the trees to avoid detection.

After we had set up camp I dragged Sasuke over to the lake and dumped him in. He wasn't very happy with that, of course, but I told him he needed to wash up his cuts and wounds before I bandaged them. Ekima was beat up pretty bad but she was more bruises as an oppose to Sasuke. The rest of us were good, the only wound I had was on my hand.

It was evening of the next day now, Sasuke was sleeping (which I noticed he did a lot, even back at the hideout) and the others were preparing a meal. Ekima and myself went out to gather mushrooms which grew near the water source. Ekima stood up suddenly, mushrooms gathered in her arms.

"Look at that." She said.

I looked over my shoulder at some cherry trees that grew near the edge of the forest. The pink petals tinted by the glow of the sun, took on an almost salmon color.

"Isn't it pretty?"

I nodded.

"It's very pretty."

I turned to look at Ekima and smiled. She smiled back. The ground behind her shifted. My smile faded.

"Ekima-san!" I yelled, activating the sharingan and revealing the chakra of someone behind her. "Run!"

She looked at me confused and began to stand but the shinobi revealed themselves and grabbed her. She screamed. They started popping up everywhere, black shapes crawling from the earth. I looked around. We were completely surrounded.

"Mizuko-san! Hiko-san! Yoshim-!"

A gloved hand came around my mouth and I elbowed whoever stood behind me. Immediately another shinobi came up from behind and grabbed my arms.

"Sasuke-sama!!"

The four figures of my comrades emerged from the forest. Yoshimitsu ran forward, straight for Ekima.

"Yoshimitsu-kun!" She cried, reaching out for him.

He violently tossed the shinobi from his path and stretched out an arm for Ekima. But he was kneed in the stomach and was knocked back. Hiko ran forward to help him and Mizuko ran for me, attacking anyone who tried to stop her. A shinobi in front of me was knocked to the side and Sasuke kicked the shinobi that had grabbed me in the face. I dropped to the ground and smiled up at him.

"You're that last person who should be-" I began.

Another shinobi attacked Sasuke, fighting dirty and striking him in the wound. Sasuke sucked in his breath sharply and stumbled back. I began to stand, kicking the shinobi that had attacked him in the stomach and elbowing one in the face that had tried to attack me from behind.

"Sasuke-sama! Are you okay?!" I asked running up to him.

He looked up at me and began to smile.

"Yeah, I'm-"

Something struck me in the back of my neck and I gasped. I felt someone grabbed me around the torso and my vision blurred and went black as air whistled in my ears.

*~~*

Sasuke's eye's snapped open at the sound of a high-pitched scream. He sat up, ignoring the pain in his side. He looked over at the others who had been alerted as well. They all stood up and began running towards the field.

"Was that Ekima?!" Hiko asked.

Yoshimitsu nodded, running ahead of the rest of them. The sound of Karasu's voice screaming out their names reached them and the four sped up. They burst through the trees and into the field. Sasuke found himself starring and what looked like over twenty shinobi, all dressed in shinobifuku. Yoshimitsu charged to the right immediately, where a struggling Ekima was surrounded by the shadowed figures. Hiko followed him. Mizuko charged to the right where Sasuke saw Karasu in a arm hold. Mizuko attacked the shinobi in her way without hesitation, Sasuke running through the path she made. He was almost to the other Uchiha when a shinobi jumped in front of him and Sasuke back fisted him in the side of the head. He ran up and kicked the shinobi that held Karasu and she dropped to the ground. She smiled up at him and was about to say something sarcastic when Sasuke caught someone running at him from the corner of his eye. He didn't have enough time to react and the shinobi landed and fist in his side wound. Pain sliced through his body and Sasuke could feel the wound reopen. He gasped sharply and stumbled back. Karasu did a little avenging and kicked the shinobi back and fending off one that had tried to come at her from behind.

"Sasuke-sama" She said as she ran up to him. "Are you okay?!"

Sasuke couldn't help but smile. He was about to respond but Karasu's eyes suddenly went wide and Sasuke saw the shinobi standing behind her. The shinobi grabbed her around the torso and jumped back through the air. Sasuke stood quickly, watching as Karasu's eyes slowly closed.

He looked over to see Yoshimitsu fighting off some shinobi while trying to reach Ekima who was already knocked out and being pulled away. Sasuke looked back up but the shinobi were gone. Shortly afterwards the others followed leaving behind the four beaten and bruised.

"God dammit!!!" Yoshimitsu screamed after that disappearing shadows.

Both Hiko and Ekima looked like they had seen better days, Mizuko's lip bleeding and Hiko with a bloody nose. Sasuke flinched as his wound throbbed and he dropped to the ground. Mizuko ran over and looked at his side.

"Tch! It's reopened." She said.

The other two walked over to him.

"I'm going after them." Yoshimitsu stated firmly.

"We don't even know where they went!" Hiko said.

"I don't care!" Yoshimitsu snapped, his usually calm composure now gone.

Hiko shrunk back a bit.

"What're you going to do?" Yoshimitsu asked Sasuke.

"I agree with you." he said. "We got to go find out what they were after anyway and Orochimaru will be pissed if we lose both of them."

Mizuko stood up and looked down at Sasuke. As he tried to stand again she pulled back a fist and punched him across the face, sending him back to the ground.

"Mizuko! What're you-" Hiko began.

"Is that all you care about?!?" Mizuko screamed down at Sasuke. "What damn Orochimaru wants?!?! That's the only reason you care about them?!?! Because you're trying to save your damn ass and…and you're revenge?!? Is human life that meaningless to you?!?! Both Karasu and Ekima would be willing to risk their life for you!!! Because they consider you a friend!! A nakama!!!" She reached down, grabbing Sasuke by the collar and getting right up in his face. "Are you that heartless!?!?!"

Sasuke remained silent and avoided eye contact.

"Well!?!!?"

"You're wrong." He said, practically in a whisper. "I do care."

With that he stood up and pushed away from Mizuko. Sasuke, holding his side, began walking in the direction where the shinobi had disappeared.

"You should really see to that wound before we continue on." Hiko said as he passed her.

"It's nothing."

"Sasuke-"

"I said it's nothing!"

Hiko dropped trying to convince him and followed him. Yoshimitsu turned to Mizuko.

"I'll grab our stuff." She said. "You go one ahead."

Yoshimitsu hesitated, then nodded and followed the other two.

Author notes: Yay! Drama!! I've been having so much fun with this lately. Sasuke got dumped in a lake and punched in the face! I'm so abusive to the poor guy XD! Oh, so many secrets, twists and skeletons in the closet! I love it! Squee!!