Chapter 32 A Reason to Wield the Sword

We left the next morning, like Kabuto had told us. Ekima was sad about staying behind but she seemed content staying with Yoshimitsu. The base in which Orochimaru had transferred to was the abandoned building in the modernized city. Today, though, it was raining, it was raining hard. It had been raining so much lately, spring must have been approaching.

Like many times before, it had taken all day to get here and I collapsed almost immediately onto my bed when I reached my room. I heaved a sigh. I was still having trouble getting behind everything that had happened in the passing week. Too much too fast. Even still, I had a hard time dealing with Sasuke. His actions and manner, however, hadn't changed one bit.

The thought of being completely covered in Nobu's blood flashed through my mind. I brought my hand up to my face. It twitched.

"Dammit." I cursed in a low voice.

I hadn't been sent out on an assignment for a while, so the Satsugai curse wasn't affecting me. But now, my body knew. I hadn't used the ability in a while. Doing so would enhance the risk. That and that I was a half-blood. Back with in Orochimaru's room with the dead body, he had been right; my father defiantly would be able to hold back as easily.

My hand dropped from my view. Resting my head on my arms, I began to feel the effects of fatigue catching up with me. I closed my eyes and slipped into my dreams.

"You came back?"

I breathed in. I could open my eyes but I knew that it was nearly just as black out there. Water lapped at my folded legs. I knew this water, I had seen it many times. It was denser than blood, clear but black at the same time, and harbored some unseen light source beneath it, or maybe it just glowed eerily.

"Oh? Have you learned to be un-intimidated?"

I opened my eyes slowly.

She stood their before me, sharingan activated, in a crouch that brought her knees to her chin. The black filled eye seemed to be the only part of her that observed me.

"Does this form no longer unnerve you?" She asked, tilting her head to the side. "Should I try another?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"I'm supposed to take the form of something that intimidates you. But I guess yourself was the wrong choice, hm? Unless you fear seeing yourself in the mirror."

"You don't scare me."

She laughed. The sound carried around the emptiness, nothing to bounce off but itself.

"You do have a rather pathetic form that doesn't express power and control. Guess I should try something else."

She slipped down into the water, disappearing from view in the clear blackness. There was no sounds, I was alone.

"I want to see your fear." A male voice whispered into my ear.

I sat up, looking around. It took a while to recall where I was. Who, who was that who had spoken? What did she mean by "change forms?" Who was she?

I dropped my face into my hands.

Was I going crazy?

My shoulder throbbed and I cried out, grabbing at the skin. The pain slid down my arm and through the rest of my body like acid. I tried to hold back the scream of pain building up in my throat, digging my nails into my shoulder. Why was it hurting so bad? I had tried time and time again to control the mark. I had to keep my promise to Kimimaro, to Juugo. The acid pain turned to fire. I cried out a second time.

A hand put itself on mine and the pain slowly eased. I hadn't even noticed that I had been gripping my blankets with my free hand until then. The hand was cool, water to the burning fire of pain. I leaned forward and worked to get my breath back.

"I hate it." I said.

"I know you do." Sasuke mumbled.

I looked up at him. "By why won't it heed! What is it I'm not seeing?"

"Learning to control the heaven seal isn't something you can overcome through training. It's an internal battle."

I looked away and continued to knead my shoulder.

"Why are you here? I don't feel comfortable sleeping in a room that you can enter freely." I teased.

Sasuke backed away. "You can't wear inn clothing forever, besides, you lost your weapons back at the mansion."

"What are you getting at?"

"This is one of Orochimaru's hideouts but my clan once used it as a weapons store house."

I looked back up at him. "For real?"

He nodded. "Orochimaru and his henchmen also aren't the only inhabitants."

"What do you mean?"

Sasuke turned and began to leave. "I'll take you to the storeroom. It's not much but they're still supplies left. We can also salvage some clothes for you as well."

I stood from my bed and followed him.

-------

Sometimes I found myself amazed by the fact that Sasuke always seemed to know where he was going, even in a place with identical hallways such as this. The more I followed him the further underground we seemed to go, I could tell by the way the air got thicker. I was surprised when we came across Kabuto, again. He seemed to be everywhere lately.

There was a boy behind him, taller than me but shorter that Sasuke, probably around the same height as Ekima. He had sad pale violet eyes, no, it was his whole face that frowned. Every thing about him seemed to fall, even his curly tan hair. His shirt was the same color as his eyes, a neat, Chinese looking piece of attire. Like the average shinobi, he wore black caprees. He kept his eyes on the ground.

"Where are you two going?" Kabuto asked.

"Weapons and clothing storeroom." Sasuke answered.

"Yes, I had noticed Karasu-san's absence of proper shinobi wear." He adjusted his glasses. "Can I ask what happened?"

"A series of unfortunate events." Sasuke said simply.

"Well, choose something, but I'd suggest also grabbing warmer outfits for you both."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Orochimaru-sama was pleased with the efficiency of your assignment. No important information was lost from the base and the perpetrator was disposed of along with his own fort. In fact he wishes to send you on another assignment. Probably tomorrow or the day after."

I had just gotten back, and now I was barley being given time to rest before getting shipped off again? Geez.

Sasuke paused. "Where is he sending us exactly?"

Kabuto smiled. "Sasuke-kun, you've been there before. Or should I say, around there."

Sasuke's face hardened ever so slightly.

"Let's go." He said and continued forward.

I followed, glancing back at the sad boy, who had never looked up once the entire conversation.

I hadn't followed Sasuke much farther when he stopped to open a door. It creaked loudly as it swung forward and dust fell from somewhere. Sasuke reached forward, the darkness swallowing his arm. He tugged on air and a light clicked on. The room was illuminated slightly but the light stopped not to far ahead where is molded into shadows.

Sasuke disappeared into those shadows and returned shortly with candles that were placed in those old-fashioned ring holders. I took one and blew on it, feeling the heat of fire stretching out from my lips onto the fuse.

"This place has been around for awhile and from the looks of it, it hasn't been used very often."

He held up his own candle and walked forward, I followed. Eventually we found even more and lit them up, placing them around the room. The room quickly became visible, revealing shelves of wooden boxes that reached up to the ceiling and stretched around the entire room, with the exception of the front wall. Old, untrustworthy looking ladders leaned against the shelves here at there. There was something eerie about the room, something ghostly. It was like taking a step back in time.

"I'll get some weapons, you find yourself some clothes." Sasuke said as he began to climb one of the ladders.

"I want a sword." I stated as I began to look through the boxes nearest to me.

"Why?" Sasuke's voice sound further than it should have been.

I shrugged as I removed the lid of a box, releasing a thick cloud of dust. "I've always wanted one and I know how to use it. I never really got around to getting one, though. In Akatsuki I was a spy, an assassin, I needed a light weapon so I settled on sai."

There was the sound of rummaging behind me.

"I see."

Finding no clothes on the first couple of shelves that I liked, I hesitantly climbed the ladder, each foothold creaking under my weight. I began to rummage though some of the higher boxes, setting the candle on the shelf. Dust was in and on everything, making it hard to avoid breathing it. Every now then I would begin to cough, then the ladder below me would begin to shake and groan.

There was the sound of something hitting the stone floor.

"You can check out this box." Sasuke said.

I pulled out some clothes that I liked from one of the top shelves, and began to study them.

"Thank-"

I never finished the word. My foothold snapped the moment I shifted my weight and I fell back. I quickly reached forward and found another foothold but it cracked and splintered my hand. As I continued to fall, my hands desperately searched for something to grab onto but in the end they came up empty. I hit the ground, though it was softer than I had expected. I opened my eyes and saw Sasuke's face.

"You okay?" He asked.

I scrambled from his arms and a good few feet from him.

"Y-yeah, yeah, I'm fine!" I answered quickly, my face quickly beginning to burn. I turned away.

Dammit Karasu, I scolded myself, you supposed to act like nothing had happened! I shook my head. No, he just acted out of instinct, that's all.

"Did you find something?"

I turned around and held out the clothes in my arm.

"Some warmer clothing." I mumbled, afraid to make eye contact.

Sasuke nodded. "You look through that box, and I'll find something."

I nodded and walked over to the box on the floor. I hugged the clothes to me. I couldn't keep this up forever, nothing would ever get done.

----------------------------------------------------

"Why'd you choose that one?" Mizuko asked pointing at the sword in my hands.

Sasuke and I had spent about an hour and a half in the storage room, very little conversation had been exchanged. At least, though, I was out of the inn clothes. Instead of wearing the full outfit, I settled with the under-clothing; a pair of black sweats and matching tank top that had a low neck line that allowed my chain mail to peek through. I ran a cloth across the blade of my new weapon.

"I liked the feel of it." I answered.

It looked like an average Shinobigatana, maybe a bit longer than they were usually made. The black hilt was wrapped in a pale blue silk tsuka and the white sageo was more of a ribbon then a cord, attached to the hilt rather than the scabbard. The silver, square tsuba was more heavily decorated on one side than the other. On the left side, a koi fish had been carved into the metal with a few wavy symbols to represent water. A koi fish swimming up stream. Above the koi fish was a branch of apple blossoms stretching out to the opposite side of the tsuba. At the bottom right corner was a single iris.

"Here look at this." I said to Mizuko as I unsheathed the blade.

She traced a finger down the kanji that was carved into the metal.

"Seiten no heki-reki.(Thunder clap from a clear sky.)" She read aloud. "Unsan mushou.(Disappearing mist)"

I flipped the blade over where another verse was carved.

"Keizoku wa chikara nari." I read. "Continuance is strength."

"I don't get it." Mizuko said.

"You don't know the proverbs?"

She shook her head. "Only one, 'Fall down seven times, stand up eight.'"

I sighed. "All right pay attention. The first one, Seiten no heki-reki, means a complete surprise, while Unsan mushou means to disappear without a trace."

Mizuko's face told me she still didn't get it.

"It's the law of an assassin." I continued. "Appear with out detection and take down the enemy, then disappear, leaving behind no way to be tracked down."

"Okay, so what about Keizoku wa chikara nari?"

"It means to not give up. A person reveals their true ability when pushed to the limits. Continuing on after a setback is its own kind of strength. Perseverance is power."

Mizuko smiled. "I kind of get it." She looked at the tsuba. "Does this hold any symbolism?"

"Well, in the language of the flowers," I said, looking at the decorated guard. ", the iris means 'faith' and 'friendship' , I think."

"What about the apple blossoms?"

I gave her and embarrassed smile. "I don't know much about flowers, I have no idea really."

"I used to know all that stuff when I was training to be a geisha but I guess as I worked to be a shinobi my mind discarded it as useless information."

"Well, geisha-girl is just as clueless as me." I teased.

"Shut up, Akatsuki-pet."

The door of the dojo slid open and Sasuke entered.

"Have you practiced with it yet?" He asked.

I nodded. "I already told you I know how to use the sword."

"Yeah, but you should still test the efficiency of the blade. Not just the way it looks." He said as he took the cloth from my hands, unsheathed his own sword and began to clean the blade.

"Hey, my sword looks much better than your plain Shinobigatana and works just fine, the edge hasn't dulled one bit!"

"Good to know, but do you have a reason to wield the sword?"

"Don't pull that samurai crap on me." I muttered.

Sasuke held his sword up to the light.

"Okay, then let me rephrase it. Do you have a reason to wield the blade?"

I thought for a second. "Well, what's your reason?"

"To gain power in order to avenge my family." He answered, turning his attention away from me and back to his sword.

"I should have figured as much." I mumbled.

What was my reason for wielding a weapon? Before it was to serve the Akatsuki, in repayment for giving me food and shelter. There was no way I was going to wield a sword for someone like Orochimaru. Actually, just the thought of being on missions under him made me shudder, but if I looked at it that I went for the thrill instead of him, I didn't feel as guilty. Even so, what purpose did I have to wield a weapon?

"I don't know." I told Sasuke honestly.

He re-sheathed his sword. "Then, that will be my next assignment to you. Find your reason to wield a blade."

I stared at him and he stared back. I was the first to look away and I noticed Mizuko looking from Sasuke to me.

"You sound like one of those people from old school movies." I said.

"Actually," Mizuko said with a smile. ", that was really corny."

Author notes: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I haven't updated in FOREVER!!!!!!! But it's okay, I'm here now!

Er, yeah, nothing too important happened in this chapter. It was kind of slow, actually. Oh well, I don't want to go a re-write it, I've had a long day and I'm lazy!!!! I love swords!!! WEEEEE!!!