Sweey: Okidok! Here we go! Gonna hit this chapter hard! Oh! And fyi... my "t" key is messed up so if I happen to mispell a world by omitting its "t" then cut me some slack... ;D Enjoy! Oh and Tomoko-sama, you're really gonna like this chap, you can bet on that! haha!

Chapter Five: Plans

Kotaro stopped suddenly at a cliff overlooking the sea. Sasuke nearly tripped over him and fell, but the masked shinobi grabbed Sasuke's shirt and pulled him back up.

"Ah, thanks," Sasuke muttered between breaths, "Man, we've been running since yesterday evening. The sun still hasn't risen and I'm officially pooped! Well," he stared down at the beach, "Looks like once again you've successfully found our target. That's a lot of people. So, which one are the foriegners? I mean, I can see some people from the Takeda clan that I recognize. But, they're just a couple of peddlers I used to see in the market while I was buying dango for Yukimura."

Kotaro, as always, didn't reply. Though he himself could not locate the new arrivals. He narrowed his eyes, looking through the slits on his helmet to scan the mass of people. Then he saw them, just a handful of people circled around a low table. One with a strange pair of katanas sat at the head, obviously the leader. His brows rose when he realized that this leader was indeed a woman. Beside her sat another young woman, bearing similar features. Kotaro had a sneaking suspicion that the two were related. Another stood behind the female leader, with the looks of a young man.

Sasuke had also noticed the young man, "Is that a shinobi?"

Kotaro nodded finally. He could tell just by the way that the young man carried himself and by the way that he scanned the crowd of people for intruders.

"He is," Sasuke muttered, "I wonder what clan he's from." He turned to Kotaro, "Could he be a Fuma?"

Kotaro crossed his arms. He himself couldn't be sure. This new face was covered by a mask strange in character and design. No weapon was visible and Kotaro assumed that he had many concealed in the where abouts of his stormy blue clothing. Oddly, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of familiarty when he looked at the young man. Something about him reminded him of playing in the trees when he was just a little boy.

Back then life had been so carefree, for he did not carry the same burdens that he now bore today. He heaved a sigh without realizing it. Things would never be the same. Life would never feel so tranquil, not since so many had died by his hands. No, by the wind demon, not himself.

Kotaro's frown deepened slightly as more memories flooded into his mind, crashing down upon him like the waves of the ocean against the trembeling sands of the beach below. He stared at the white foam of the waves, recalling a similar sight in his own childhood. A chill crawled up his spine when he realized that it was a memory of his dear mother. He could see her eyes, sunken in from lack of sleep and malnurishment, staring wildly at him, lashing toward his childish figure. White foam formed around her mouth due to days of dehydration and it spilled from her mouth to her bony hands and onto the grass below her.

He could almost hear her screams over the ocean waves. The demon within her had destroyed her until she became nothing but a skeleton of her former self. Kotaro's sensei had said little about the matter, avoiding it when it was brought up. His eyes narrowed as another memory filled his mind. He remembered the first time he had seen her tied to the tree. She was reading. When Kotaro reached her, she looked at him smiling, eyes full of tears.

"My little boy," she had said, "I love you my little boy. I can no longer be with you. The dog that bit me was rabid. I want you to stay strong and never submit to failure. Understand, I love you my little boy, Kazama. Never forget your name as you place another stone upon the path of your legend."

His name. He had nearly forgotten his name. The secret had been locked away in his subconscious mind, hidden since that day so many years ago. He looked up in the sky and watched a lone bird fly across the broad horizon. A tear formed in the corner of his eye, but he refused to let it die. The child within him, stuck inside a demon's body, needed so terribly to cry, but Kotaro could not allow it. It would dishonor the Fuma clan should their leader show such a sign of utter weakness.

"Hey, you okay?"

Sasuke's voice cut through the air like a whip and Kotaro snapped his attention to the shinobi. He nearly replied that he was perfectly fine but he caught himself, tightening his lips before they had the chance to slip apart. Sasuke's look of concern only sickened Kotaro further. He needed no one's pity. He only wanted to feel alive again. Seeing death and delivering it without hesitance was beginning to take its toll on his very being. He realized the first day he killed a man how fragile a life really was. From that day on, no matter the consequence, he refused to kill another life unless he was forced to. For now, it was his living, but human lives weren't he only ones worth saving.

"Well, I'm ready when you are."

Kotaro was already off, dashing quickly down the cliffside like a shadow. Sasuke looked after him in surprise before jumping down after him. They landed on a small beach on the other side of the cliff that split the larger in two. Slowly they creeped around the corner.

"That's a lot of people," Sasuke muttered, "I mean, you may be a legend, but there is no way we're gonna make it through all those people to get to the foreigners."

Kotaro looked at him out of the corner of his eye.

"What are you planning?" Of course, Sasuke expected no reply. He was beginning to fully realize that Kotaro answered not with words, but with action. It didn't take long for that answer to occur.

Sasuke then noticed a man walked along the beach. He was a common soldier by the looks of it and was leading a gray horse. At this point, he would be hidden from view from the people on the otherside of the cliff. Kotaro took this oppertunity and lashed forth, snatching the man and covering his mouth then dashing back again. Quickly he layered the man's clothes over his own, abandoning his shoulder armor, and concealed his ninjato within the loose clothing of the man.

"What about me?"

Kotaro, now in full incognito, pressed a finger briefly against Sasuke's chest and then to the man before he trotted off to retrieve the man's horse.

The man, now gagged, naked to his underpants, and scared to death, stared up at Sasuke with wide eyes.

Sasuke muttered, "Why am I always the one left with the dirty jobs?" He plopped down next to the man, perching himself on a rock, "I mean, it's not like I've earned them. While he's off being Mr. Legendary Ninja, I'm stuck babysitting. This is how it's always been for me. Sasuke watch your little brother. Sasuke watch your step. Sasuke watch Yukimura. Sasuke make sure we don't spend more than we have. Sasuke do this. Sasuke stay here and babysit the guy I just jumped!" He let out an exasperated sigh, "Well, enough about me. What do you do for a living?"

"Muhm uh uff muvumuffa," the man replied. He found it far more difficult to speak past the gag than he realized. Ironically, it was one of his own socks they had used. He knew he should have gone without them.

"Not much of a talker are you? That guy who just jumped you, well, he never says a word to me. I've known him for two weeks and I've heard not a peep. Once I stayed up all night, hoping he might talk in his sleep, but even then he didn't even make a sound. He didn't even snore! I mean, the guy is dead serious about his job, being speechless and all that. Then again, I have to wonder if he is a mute. What do you think?"

The man shrugged.

"See, he doesn't even do that! I mean, there's no way to communicate with this guy. It's almost as if he's separated himself entirely from the rest of the world. It's facinating as much as it is irritating," sighed Sasuke. "I have to wonder though, you know, why he is the way he is."

...

Kotaro entered the crowd, followed by the gray horse. In the short time that he had with the beast, he had already bonded considerably. Already it was happy following him without a rope to guide it. Instead it rested its head on his shoulder has he walked.

Kotaro pulled the rim of the straw hat further over his face. He was glad for the company of the horse. For one thing, it made people get out of his way and secondly, he didn't feel so insecure. If something were to go wrong, he could mount the horse and get away with relative ease. Unless of course, that unnamed shinobi spotted him. Then there might be trouble. Might.

Quickly he made his way indirectly toward the clearing where the table was. He looked over and saw a cart being pulled by an ox. He looked at the horse, knowing it would follow him. It was for the best, he decided. Then there was a loud crash nearby. Instead of doing what everyone else was, in this case looking frantically to see what had happened, he slipped underneath the cart, gripping on the few handholds he could find and wedged his feet in a gap between two boards.

He stayed alert for he next cover. It was his luck that the cart was pulling up beside the table. Unfortunately that meant he'd have to stay there until he was able to move to better cover, for at this moment, the leader and her two persons in company, was fast approaching the cart as it stopped near her location.

"So what's all this?"

"A gift from Motochika Chosokabe, my lady," the driver said, dismounting from his perch on the cart.

The woman grunted softly, "Like I said before, just call me Raikane, alright?"

"Yes Raikane-sama," the driver replied, with a brief bow.

Raikane sighed, turning to the shinobi beside her. "What exactly is the meaning of sama, Katsuo? I keep hearing it now and again. Come to think of it, you say it a lot, but I just thought it was part of my nickname."

"Sama is a suffix added to a name to show respect," the shinobi said. His voice wasn't nearly as deep as Kotaro had expected. In fact, he sounded very young, "It is our way of saying lord so n so, Tomoko-sama." Tomoko was the name that Katsuo had dubbed Raikane with. It meant young and wise. Katsuo had selected such a name because of how quickly Raikane had managed to catch on to his culture and language.

"So I see," Raikane mused, "Well, I suppose that's fine. I could get used to that." Her feet pivoted back to the driver, "So, what did good ol' Motochika leave for us? I have to say, he's quite generous for a pirate."

"Indeed, Tomoko-sama," Katsuo muttered softly, "Though it is most likely a gift prior to a request for an alliance."

"Sure, but it's still a gift and right now, we need all the help we can get." Raikane sighed. "Well, let's see what exactly this gift is, shall we?" Kotaro watched as her feet moved closer to the cart. She was dressed in the traditional footwear of Nihon. It was as though she was now apart of their world. Her accent was the only true sign of her foreigness. She was learning, but appeared to have learned very quickly.

"Hey sis," she said, "Come over here and check out what the pirate gave us."

Kotaro couldn't help but smirk. No one was there to see it anyways. He had been dead on when he assumed that they were related.

"What is that?"

"Some sort of machine," Raikane said happily, "I'm sure this baby will come in handy sometime later. Seeing as we're going to head away from the beach soon, I suggest we keep that a secret for now. We'll figure out how it works when we get to a more suitable location."

"Chosokabe was kind enough to send the machine with directions, Tomoko-sama," Katsuo said quickly, holding up a scroll.

"That was very nice of him. Now we have less of a chance of breaking it! I'll read over them here in a minute," Raikane said, "For now, let's get back to that map so we can plan a route."

"Very well Tomoko-sama. I will see to it that these are read through thoroughly," the shinobi replied, his voice muffled behind the mask.

As Raikane walked back toward the table, she stopped.

Her sister quickly took notice, "What is it?"

Raikane cocked her head, "I dunno. I just have this ever present sensation that someone is watching me."

"There are hundreds of people around us, sis! There is bound to be at least one staring at you," her sister replied.

"No, no this one doesn't set well with me. The feeling didn't start until that cart showed up," Raikane said with brows drawn.

Kotaro's heart nearly stopped. This probably meant he wouldn't be giving them a warm welcoming.

"Hey sis," Raikane said, "Do me a favor and go with a small party on horseback and say thanks to good ol' Chosokabe."

Her sister nodded and walked off, ordering around a few men to come with her.

Katsuo's brow was creased, "I don't like this. I can't see whose eyes you sense."

Raikane shrugged, "It's fine, really. We'll find the sneaky lil' coward whenever the oppertunity arrives. Then we'll snatch 'em up and take a little look see."

"I'm not so sure," Katsuo replied. "Let me check the cart once thoroughly. That will at least settle my nerves."

"Suite yourself," Raikane said. She watched as Katsuo trotted over to the cart, climbing up onto its roof and searching around it's interior. Something about the air suddenly changed and it didn't take but a second for Raikane to notice. Suddenly before them stood a shinobi, muscled and armed, dressed as one of their own. He had been hiding on the underside of the cart. Now he threw aside the straw hat on his head and drew out a pair of ninjato, saying not a word.

"Good, at least he's not one of those damned shuriken throwers," Raikane muttered. She personally hated fighting any long-ranged opponent. She preferred to charge in, wack the hell out of her enemy, and then go on to the next one and so on. But when she had to dodge weapons from a far, judge her opponent who thought it was funny to appear out from where she least expected them to be, she just got plain irritated.