Chapter 35 Frozen Capture

It was unexpected and unannounced. Betrayal is a tough thing, especially when it by a person who's stuck in the same boat as you. Friends are almost nonexistent is harsh times. All people care about is personal gain and the ability to get it without consequences. Life isn't fair but it could be a bit more pleasant if people tried to make it so. Survival of the fittest is what the world runs on. Money does not make the world go, pain does. Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.

We had all barley woken up and were scattered around the kitchen to help with breakfast when a loud banging echoed from the front door. Every one froze and I could tell Himoru's blood had run cold. The knocking continued but we were sewed to the floor and deaf to our conscious' as they begged us to react.

"Himoru!!!" A stern voice bellowed. "Himoru let us in!! We know you are sheltering foreign Shinobi!!"

The look on Himoru's face dropped into confusion as we all pondered how we were discovered.

"One of the villagers claimed to have seen them enter you house!!"

"WHO?!?!" Himoru screeched in fury, only to realize his mistake.

The door bust open and smoke gushed in. Everyone quickly developed a fit of coughs. To my surprise it wasn't poison which told me many things about our attackers. They wanted us alive, for questioning most likely, and they didn't want to engage in a battle. They had covered up their scents and figures, concealing themselves waiting to lash out a grab us. Then why not use a gas that would knock us out? Did they not have that kind of material. Well, if we can't see neither could they. Which meant we could escape. We were trained to do such a thing but then…

"Himoru-san!!" I cried, whipping around.

Of course. We were blinded and did not know the house well enough to find our way out by memory but Himoru could. We were blinded and tricked into thinking that they were after us, which was true, but Himoru was the primary target. They wanted to silence him so he could not spread word of what he had tried to do and why we were here. I had seen many men like this and they don't get enjoyment out of killing an unconscious man.

"Himoru-san!!!" I called out again, much more frantically.

I felt like I was running in circles, keeping my hands out in front of me to prevent the accident of running into a wall. After what seemed like several minutes, I found a large silhouette wandering around in the smog.

"Himoru-san?"

"Karasu?" His voice sounded relieved.

"Listen, don't relax yet, they're going to try and kill you before they try to get us, you have to-"

I was cut off sharply when a sharp-stinging sensation shivered up from my shoulder and into my head. I cried out and went to grab at my shoulder but to my horror, a sharp blade prevented me from doing so. I stared at the sight of my blood which quickly began to sizzle. They were nearby.

"Look, Himoru-san, you have to get out of here." I said, my voice a bit raspy. " Don't worry about us, we have been trained for this kind of thing-"

There was another slicing sound, followed by pain. I cried out a second time as something stabbed into my thigh. Damn, it hurt so bad.

"Karasu, are you okay, I mean…"

I reached out for Himoru, careful not to grab him with my bloodied hand.

"Get out of here." I said, smiling to the best of my ability. "I've had worse."

I was obviously unaware that the blade the had penetrated my shoulder was attached to a chain. Who ever owned the weapon yanked back suddenly, pulling me with it. Himoru steadily disappeared. I hissed in pain as I hit the floor and if that wasn't enough, the blades were yanked out of my skin viciously before I was grabbed by the hair and thrown out the door and into the snow, finally free of the smoke. But it was painful. Like a thousand needles piercing my skin. I hadn't lied to Himoru. I had defiantly suffered much worse, such as the curse mark and many before that.

Snow crunched not to far away which was followed by a soft, but concerned, voice.

"Karasu-san!"

Yukimaru knelt down next to me. Working with quick fingers, he yanked the scarf from off my neck and tore it in half. He began to wrap one of the pieces around my thigh, his hands working with a memorized skill. Like always, Yukimaru's face held the look of sadness but the way his mouth hung open slightly and his brow knitted together, there was a bit of concern set in his usually stone features. Without a moments hesitation, he began to work on my arm until a shadow came to stand over us.

We both looked up to see one of the shinobi who had attacked us for the first time. Clad in white, grays and blues, he held a nasty looking blade in his hands. Even though his face was covered, I could see the smirk on his lips. Even though they wanted to draw information from us, it didn't mean the whole group needed to be brought in for interrogation, sacrifices could be made. The Kyu shinobi raised his blade and I reached for my sword, only to find it missing. Next to me, Yukimaru scrambled for something in his pocket.

Where there should have been the sound of sharp metal coming down on us, there wasn't. Instead, we heard crystallizing sound as a wall of ice rose up between us and the shinobi. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw Hiko standing behind the two of us, one palm on the ground. Standing up, she straightened both of her arms to the side in one sharp movement. Blades about the width of an arm slid from her long sleeves before she crouched, blurred, and disappeared. The ice in front of us shattered and was replaced by the small figure of Hiko as she launched her self into a full out attack onto the Kyu. It was like watching a top, she would spin in mid air before disappearing only to reappear a second later, leaving her opponent confused with several cuts.

I was so amazed and stunned with Hiko's fighting performance that I didn't notice the other shinobi coming up from behind. They grabbed me by my bleeding shoulder when I finally felt there presence. I cried out sharply and Yukimaru stood up quickly to defend me, but the Kyu planted a firm boot into the boy's stomach. Yukimaru buckled over and groaned. Reacting quickly, I reached for the hidden blade in my sleeve and stabbed it into the arm that had me. With a snarl the man's released me but as I tried to scramble away, he hit me with his elbow between the shoulder blades. Falling into the snow, I tried to recover myself. The moment I turned over, though, the Kyu shinobi put his thick boot down on my throat. All my breathing was cut off. Pulling his mask down the shinobi leaned down closer to me.

"I'm not going to kill you, because I was ordered to bring at least one of you back for questioning." A cruel smile formed on his ragged face. "But your friends are going to die here. Slaughtered like animals."

I pushed against his boot. A ringing had filled my ears and I knew I need to breath. That was all that mattered at the moment, air.

Something whizzed by and sliced through the Kyu's shoulder. He stepped backwards, removing his boot from my neck. A nauseating feeling filled me and I rolled over to cough up what felt like buckets of blood, staining the clean white snow. I looked up to see who had helped me. With a large bow in hand and an arrow knocked and ready, Yukimaru stood several feet away with a look of determination on him face.

"Don't move!" He said, his voice no longer quiet or shy. "I never miss and I will shoot."

In his ignorance, the shinobi made a move back towards me, one arm outstretched. He never reached his destination. Within a few moments of his move, an arrow lodged itself straight through his throat. He fell dead almost immediately afterwards.

Overcome by the light-headed feeling that comes with blood loss, I stood up slowly only to fall forward. A pair off arms caught me and for a moment I leaned into them. Then I recognized the familiar smell of the clothing and pulled away.

"Where the HELL have you been?!?!" I yelled.

Sasuke stared down at me with slight surprise.

"Busy." He answered.

"Busy-my-ass." I muttered, looking around.

The group had gathered, Sasuke, Yukimaru, Hiko and myself. The dead body of Hiko's opponent lay behind us and it seemed as though the attackers had retreated. Suddenly, looking back at the group, I realized someone was missing.

"Where's Mizuko-san?!" I asked, frantically looking around.

As if on cue, an engine started up and we all spun around. On a small snowmobile, the remaining shinobi had gathered to make a quick escape. They drove straight for us and we managed to avoid getting run over by diving to the side. Looking back up, I watched as the vehicle sped away. And there on the back, not captured but hanging on, was Mizuko.

I stood with the remainder on my energy and ran forward, as if hoping to catch up with the snowmobile.

"Mizuko-san!!" I called, but there was no way she could've heard me over the roar of the engine. Everything faded to black.

Author notes: Not as long as some of my others but it's a pretty action packed chapter in my opinion. Sorry I haven't been updating recently. As I mentioned a while back, I'm going through a video game faze and stuff like that and I've also been drawing a lot lately. So, don't expect there's going to be another chapter as soon as tomorrow. lol