Ch. 22: Blade of the Night

Upon arrival at the weaponry specialty store, I had to immediately duck as a dagger came soaring out the door and into the street. I straightened up and stepped inside, only to stop in shock at seeing Washi.

"Wait—what are you doing here?" I asked suspiciously.

He shrugged. "The arcade was lame."

"But Yumi just went to look for you!"

"Really?"

"Ye—EEK!" I shrieked as someone poked me in the sides after sneaking up behind me. I whirled around in anger to see Yumi snickering at me. "YOU MEANIE!"

"Life's mean to ya sometimes."

"Gah…"

It was then that I noticed that Kaida was plus one sheathless, tipless katana, and minus one large scroll containing a giant water mace.

Turning towards her, I asked, "Hey, Kaida, what happened to your mace?"

"I traded it in for this," she answered, gesturing towards the katana she was holding. "It's a water katana. It's a lot easier to use with my other katana. Plus, when you put chakra in it, it can be used to manipulate water if you have chakra that is of that elemental affinity."

"Oh, COOL! Wait… how do you know what chakra affinity you are?"

We all jumped as a loud crash sounded and there was a loud 'boom'.

"OVER HERE!" someone bellowed. I looked behind me to the door, and saw Kaida's ten-year old friend Ten-Ten waving. When Yumi winced at her loud volume, she toned it down to a speaking voice and said, "Sorry! I can't hear myself right now! Explosion went off in my ear!"

We nodded in understanding and Kaida walked up to her.

"What's so important?"

"HUH?"

"WHAT'S SO IMPORTANT?"

"OH YEAH—sorry… we just got a new shipment of chakra paper, and if you guys want some, each sheet costs as much as one game at a cheap arcade."

"It tells you your chakra affinity?"

"Yep!" Ten-ten answered, and I assumed she'd begun to read lips.

"COOL!" Washi yelled. He immediately handed over the five dollars meant for the arcade, and we all received a very thin piece of paper.

"You just put in a little chakra. Let's start with you, Kaida!" Ten-Ten chirped.

Kaida's paper became damp, then split in half.

"Okay… It turned damp, so you've got water, and it split in half, so you've got wind." She pointed at Kazu next, and his reacted the same way as Kaida's. "Water and wind."

"Cool! Wind! WHOOSH!" he exclaimed.

Yumi rolled her eyes and applied chakra. Hers turned sopping wet, but it also froze.

"Mayumi, right? Well, your chakra has an especially strong affinity to water, and you also have an affinity to… ice?"

"It's a kekkei genkai," Yumi informed Ten-Ten.

"Oh! OH! ME NEXT!" Washi yelled. His turned damp, then with a cloud of steam, ignited and turned to ash.

"Interesting combination. You've got affinities to water and fire."

"AWESOME!"

"Makes sense, considering how easily he learned and performed the fireball jutsu," Deki commented. A second later, his paper was damp. Then, it crumpled up.

"Huh. Water and lightning," Ten-Ten defined.

Deki shrugged and the six of them turned to me expectantly.

I released the smallest amount of chakra into the paper. Nothing happened.

"What?" Washi asked in response to my confused expression.

"I put in chakra, but nothing happened," I explained.

"That's funny. These are supposed to be really sensitive," Ten-Ten said. "Try putting more chakra in!" she suggested.

I increased the chakra flow, yes, flow, but still, nothing happened.

"Weird. Then try putting a lot."

I did so, and the paper became damp, just slightly.

"Well, that's the weakest reaction I've ever seen. Maybe it's defective…" she reached and handed me a new one. "Try again. It's on me."

Once again, even with me applying enough chakra for a jutsu, the paper just barely became damp.

"Well, you're water natured, I guess." Ten-Ten still looked at a complete loss.

"Maybe it's just sweat and she has no nature," Washi commented offhandedly.

"Women do not sweat, Washi," Yumi admonished. "...We glisten."

"Whatever."

"Well, with your team, all of you are weaker against a same level earth move if you use a water jutsu. But, with the same level and same power, lightning overcomes earth, wind wins over lightning, fire beats wind, and water overcomes water. You'd have quite the run-around battle between the si—er, five of you," Ten-ten commented.

"Yeah, well, Tomoko has that cool genjutsu eye thingy!" Washi exclaimed in my… defense?

"Washi? Are you feeling okay?" I asked, worriedly.

"Shut up! I can be nice sometimes…"

Yumi and I burst into laughter, and Kaida commented, "Good one," treating it as a joke. Washi sulked.

"Well, I've got some other weapons like the katana Kaida has! Would you like to see some of them? We've got a pair of fire producing daggers and some electricity resistant blades and some wind cutting knuckle knives and…" Ten-Ten continued to babble with excitement, but I listened with only half an ear, more interested in exploring on my own.

Then I saw it. It was a katana without a tapering tip, but with a slanted flat edge for an end so there was a pointed tip. The sheath and handle fit together in a lopsided, backwards 'Z'-like shape. The smaller point was accentuated as a thin black stripe that ran down the length of the front of the katana and wrapped around the cover most of the backside. The rest of the backside, the smaller point, was accentuated by a thin white line, running down the length and wrapping around to cover the larger part of the front that was not black. As I looked at it, studying it, I became aware of a faint humming noise.

"Ah, yes, the legendary Blade of the Night." An elderly man with a white beard and wise-looking gray eyes appeared from further within the shop. "Also known as Night Cutter and Blade of Darkness. Legend has it that only its fated wielder can unsheathe the blade. Many believe there is no blade. No one in the past few hundred years has actually seen it, so no one really knows for sure whether there is a blade or no."

Washi immediately perked up at what seemed to him a challenge. "Oh yeah? I bet I can open that sword!" At that statement, the humming noise suddenly became a bit stronger, a bit higher pitched.

"First, it's unsheathe, and second, listen! He's saying something else!" Yumi whispered fiercely.

"If you look closely, you'll see that it really isn't black and white."

I looked closer, and sure enough, when the light hit it, the blade's sheath was revealed to be of a dark crimson color.

"It's beautiful," I remarked breathlessly.

"Yes, it is, isn't it? But the blade is cursed. It is said to bring death among those close to the wielder, but death to the wielder's enemies as well. A trade-off of sorts, I suppose. According to legend, it was associated with so much death and bloodshed that it became known as the Blade of the Bloody Night."

"Sounds familiar. 'Village Hidden in the Bloody Mist', anyone?" Washi laughed at his own joke.

The old man continued to speak as though he hadn't heard Washi. "Barely anyone even remembers what color the blade is. Some say it's silver; others say it's black. Still others say it's a blood red; a few believe it's as white as fresh snow. I've even heard it said that it changes colors according to who the wielder is."

Ten-Ten continued, "It's always been my wish to see the blade." The younger girl smiled sadly. "It's associated with death and loss of family, but since I have no family left, it's my dream as an aspiring weapons mistress to see the blade with my own eyes."

The elderly man nodded in agreement, his gray eyes sad. "But, now, would you like to try your hand at unsheathing the sword? You could be its destined owner!" But by the tone of his voice, you could tell he didn't believe his own words. He sounded like an old man losing the last of his hope.

Kaida shrugged and received the blade reverently. The humming lowered in pitch considerably. She put her hand on the handle, but with the slightest tug, she shook her head and handed it to Washi. The humming instantly turned to a high-pitched whine. Washi, completely excited, found that for some reason, he couldn't even touch the handle. He gave it disappointedly to Yumi. I sighed in relief as the whine went back down to a low hum. Yumi couldn't unsheathe it either. Down the row it went to Kazu. Kazu held the sheath in his hand and immediately shook his head, but tried the handle anyway. It didn't budge. Next was Deki.

He was just about to try unsheathing the blade when two marks appeared on the katana. One was on the front of the katana, on the white, at the farthest end of the handle. The other was on the back, at the sheath side of the seam between sheath and handle, also in the white. They were both… black flowers. As soon as the marks appeared, the noise turned to a slightly higher, more agitated buzz.

Deki showed the old man, and the man's gray eyes widened. "Ten-Ten, dear, the rightful possessor of the blade is near!"

The girl's eyes also widened in shock.

"We've gotta find him!" Ten-Ten exclaimed.

"Her, dear, her. The symbol is of a flower."

"Yamanaka flower shop! Let's check there!"

At once, they both dashed out the door. It would seem that the old man had once been a ninja, as he kept up with Ten-Ten quite easily, even urging her to go faster.

Yumi, Deki, Kazu, Washi, Kaida and I stood there, bewildered.

"They forgot the sword," Deki commented, still holding said katana.

"Better go give it to them!" I exclaimed, grabbing the katana and racing through the door, excited for some action, faintly noticing that the droning noise pretty much disappeared altogether, now just a low comforting hum. The others soon caught up, and we were racing on the rooftops, following Ten-Ten and the old man. They stopped in front of a flower shop. Yamanaka Natsumi and another, older blonde woman came out and greeted them. They talked for a little and we finally came to a stop next to the three of them.

"Excuse me, you forgot the—" he held up a hand, motioning for me to be quiet. He scanned the sky, and suddenly took to the roofs.

"The store!" he cried, just as alarms blared and a horde of men ran into the street, brandishing all kinds of weaponry. The old man landed in front of them, and Ten-Ten whispered into the blonde woman's ear before joining the old man. The woman quickly set it off in the direction of the weaponry store, presumably to lock up and take care of matters there. Natsumi then went to back up the old man and Ten-Ten. The horde of ninja stopped right in front of the three of them, all of them leering.

"Little girls, old man, whatcha' gonna do? We gotcha' surrounded," the man right in front of them sneered. Sure enough, there was a thick ring of armed men around the three of them. The empty space at the center of the crowd was soon filled up by Kaida, Kazu, and Yumi. Washi, Deki and I were engulfed by the outer edge of the crowd of weapon-bearing ninja.

"I advise you to gently drop the stolen weaponry before you get your asses kicked," Ten-Ten growled, astonishingly scary for a ten-year-old.

"Hmm… how about I say 'no' and you turn and leave us alone, little girl? How old are you? Six?"

The response had Ten-Ten grinning ferally.

"Actually, I'm ten. Oh, and wrong answer." Immediately, the men rushed forward and the six I knew were in the middle of the crowd could not be seen. But you could tell they were doing just fine, the growing pile-up of unconscious men a testament to that.

Washi and Deki fought from the outer edge in towards the middle while our friends in the center tried to fight their ways out.

I kept out of the way for the most part. I was not very good at hand-to-hand combat, and I had no jutsus that would be useful in this situation and environment. So, instead, I made sure no one got away with any stolen weaponry.

I froze when I heard a shrill, enraged shriek.

Yumi, still kicking and thrashing, was restrained by two large men on either side of her. One of the men had a fistful of her hair. He yanked hard on it in an attempt to get her to stop struggling, and Yumi shrieked again. The humming noise started again in response to my own growing fury.

Yumi would fight tooth and nail, so I looked to see how in the world she could possibly have been captured and restrained. That's when I saw, about fifteen feet in front of her, that Washi was lying on the ground with a large bruise blossoming across his face, and a large foot on his back. I followed the foot to a leg, then up to a large man—my eyes widened in fear then narrowed in rage. He had a crossbow, loaded with a steel tip arrow, and it was pointed straight at Yumi, who was fighting against the two men even harder than before.

Time crawled. His finger inched closer and closer to the trigger. My anger grew the closer it got. The appendage finally made contact with the release, and triggered the arrow to launch. I heard a muffled shout from Kazu through the fury pounding in my ears, and pained "NO!" from Deki, overpowered by the humming thrumming through my head. I could tell just by what little I could hear that they wouldn't make it in time. Washi was unconscious, and I was the closest friendly person to her. My feet began to move automatically, blade sheath clenched in my left hand, the humming coursing through my bloodstream, and I sprinted, not knowing exactly what I could do, doing what my instincts told me as instructed by the humming.

Then I was in front of her, the arrow coming straight at me, her shrieking harmonious with the humming of what must be the blade singing, and—

Clang.

I stared in shock at the bared blade in front of my eyes. Well over half of it was still sheathed, but just enough of the metal was revealed to deflect the arrow. I looked in amazement at the blade. Not a scratch was on its black surface. But as the light hit it, I realized it was not black, it was of an even darker crimson than the color on its sheath.

For what seemed like an eternity, everything froze and we were all staring at the blade, it barely computing in the far recesses of my brain that the humming was gone and there was just a comforting vibration-feeling tickling the back of my mind, soothing my nerves.

Then, I heard the old man rasp out, "The destined wielder of the Blade of the Night has been found."

"Clear out," one of the men ordered in a hushed tone, and the men quickly made themselves scarce, leaving only their weaponry and their blood in their places.

"I've finally seen the blade! Thank you for making an old man's last wish come true." The elderly man hobbled over.

"Oh, should I pay for it then, since I used it, sir?"

"Call me Ruichi, dear."

"Then please call me Tomoko."

"Yes, well, Tomoko, dear, we did not pay for this blade. It was donated to our shop by a traveling weapons trader who was tired of it and its alleged background ruining his business. Our shop, you see, is based on a long-standing tradition of customer loyalty, so we had no fear of it ruining any of our business. I plead that you will take it with you. The blade has been aching to be wielded."

"Ah, thank you so very much, Ruichi-san."

"I just have one thing to ask. May I please see the blade?"

"Of course!"

He inspected it gingerly, never actually touching it. Then he put his hands together in a sign in front of his face, and muttered, "Kai! So it isn't an illusion… Hmm… so the blade is black…"

"No, Ruichi-san, it's a very dark red. See?" I put it into a ray of sunlight, revealing it once more to be of the deepest crimson.

"Just beautiful," Ruichi-san mumbled to himself. "Dark red? So it is, so it is. Well, this old man's wish has been fulfilled. Ten-Ten, would you be a dear and teach Tomoko here how to wield the blade properly? I can just see the potential in her."

"Yes Ruichi-san."

He continued to admire the blade, muttering to himself. I offered for him to hold the blade, but he refused again and again without giving a reason. Ruichi-san's eyes widened at one point when he saw what the flower on the blade had morphed into, but he finally tore his eyes away from it reluctantly, and turned back to me.

"Thank you once again, Tomoko, for fulfilling my last wishes." With a hand motion, he dissolved into a silver dust.

"Well, that was dramatic." I turned in surprise, only to realize that Yamanaka Natsumi was still in our company. "If you ever need a sparring partner and you're in the area, look me up at the shop. Well, I gotta go. Bye!" she called as she walked back to the flower store.

I looked down at that point and ran my fingers over the mark on the katana that Tsubasa said was what my Mangekyou Sharingan looked like.

Ten-Ten and the others continued to gush in awe and excitement over the sword and the fact that it was me who had unsheathed it. Ten-Ten and I made plans to meet the next morning for lessons.

But even among all of the excitement, I couldn't get Ruichi-san's words out of my head.

The blade is cursed. It is said to bring death… I stopped mid-thought. Wait, I fulfilled his last wishes?