Chapter 75

Fuka allowed a glance behind at the man in armour who continued to pursue her. She groaned to herself. Despite seemingly being weighed down in all of that stuff he was still keeping up with her, almost with ease. How does he do that?

She didn't have much time for many more thoughts as suddenly a jutting root caught her foot, tripping the girl up. As she began her descent to the ground she had enough time to grumble and insult the annoying tree root. And then she was upon the floor, hands awkwardly breaking her fall as she landed, knees smacking against the ground.

"Damn it," she muttered to herself as she started to push herself back up. She paused and gulped as she saw a flash along by the side of her face, and slowly peered to her right to see a sword slowly moving towards her neck.

She stayed in that awkward position, legs and arms trembling as she just about held her weight up. Yamato stood a short distance from the girl, holding his sword tightly in one hand. He kept it a short distance from Fuka's neck, and as she stared at it she noticed how the sword didn't seem to move at all- the armoured man possessed very steady hands.

And so Fuka waited, wondering what would happen. Would the man hurt her? Would he kill her? She had to get moving, had to do something, but given the speed of the man she was certain her neck would be cut open before she had time to finish moving. Especially when she was in this awkward position, with neither her legs nor hands free. She moved away from looking at the sword, instead glancing down at the floor as she felt some sweat running along her forehead.

"So what are you going to do now?" she asked.

"I'm here to bring you back, that is all," replied Yamato.

"What if I don't want to go back?" asked Fuka as some of the sweat dripped from her forehead to the ground in front of her.

"I would prefer things not to be awkward," replied Yamato. "I would prefer it if this matter could be resolved peacefully."

"Y-you're the one holding a sword next to someone's neck," said Fuka.

"I am aware of the situation and I am just as unhappy as you. Perhaps even more so. It may surprise you but this is far from what I want to be doing. Not just this situation, what I have to do in general. I have had to do many things I did not wish to do…but I had to. I had to do it for…hmmm I guess I'm saying too much you don't really want to hear. Will you come back with me?"

"I have people I need to help," replied Fuka in a determined tone, even though she had yet to figure out how to get out of this situation.

"I see. So you will not just take the easy option?" asked Yamato. "I don't really want to do this, and I have no intention of k-"

Yamato was interrupted by a sudden loud crashing sound from the direction he had just come from. In fact both Fuka and the man were certain the sound had come from where they had recently been facing off.

Fuka made use of the sudden interruption to push herself away from the blade and rolled across the floor. She hissed in pain as a long thorn embedded itself deep into her leg, another roll causing it to be pushed deeper into her thigh. Yamato had regained his composure and moved to follow the girl while saying nothing.

Fuka climbed back to her feet, and watching as the man approached her she quickly leant over and grabbed hold of the end of the thorn. She hissed in pain slightly as she yanked it out of her leg and threw it to the floor. With that done she next reached into her weapons pouch to grab hold of a kunai blade. Her travels from the initial battle had occurred with the pouch hanging open so the blade she held in her hands was the only one she had left.

"So do we fight now?" asked Fuka, feeling woefully underprepared as the tall armoured man approached her with a sword held high.

She wasn't prepared for his response.

Yamato sighed and lowered his sword.

"The one I work for doesn't really have much interest in you. He only really cares about the Takino girl. I don't want to fight you…I just don't want to," said Yamato.

"Wait…you're just letting me go?" asked Fuka.

"From the offset I had no will to spill any of your blood with this sword," said Yamato. "But do not go after Tomo. If you get in the way now they will just kill you. You cannot win this fight yet."

Kaorin groaned as the world slowly came back into focus for her. She moved her head slightly and reached up to rub it. It took a few seconds, but she was suddenly surprised as she noticed the loose rope still tied around one wrist. She held it up for closer inspection, her eyes aching as she looked at her wrist.

"Wha-? Was I tied up?" she asked in a mumbling voice.

"Yeah you were…for a while," replied a half hearted voice.

Kaorin turned and was shocked to find Chidori standing a short distance away. The girl was unarmed, having put away the knife used to cut the bonds minutes earlier. Kaorin started to push herself up, to try and get to her feet and figure out what to do. A streak of pain ran across her skull and she slumped back as she gripped her head. Such a powerful headache…

"Don't bother girl," muttered Chidori. "I'm not here to fight you. In a way I guess I saved your life."

"What? My life? How did you save it?" asked Kaorin while holding one hand to her head. As the pain slowly receded she realized to herself that Chidori's voice seemed lifeless when compared to how she had been before. Instead of being playful and seemingly kind of lustful towards her, she instead spoke without much emotion, as though she didn't care much at all.

"If I'd left you there you would probably have died, impaled by that bastard," said Chidori. It seemed there wasn't a complete lack of emotion. The obvious anger in her low voice startled Kaorin as the word bastard was uttered. "I thought he was on your side, but he didn't seem to care at all."

"Who? The guy with the sword?" asked Kaorin. "He was never on our side."

"No, no not that person. Not Yamato. The man with the bandages, with the bones for fingers. The ninja who briefly trained your friend. That was the person I met, that was the person who gave me this," said Chidori, pointing to her bloodied shoulder. "The person who…who…"

Silence fell over the two girls for a brief period of time. Kaorin sat with her head in her hands while Chidori merely stood, staring off into the distance. Finally Kaorin shuffled slightly and looked towards Chidori.

"Do-do you want me to try and heal that?" asked Kaorin tentatively pointing towards Chidori's shoulder.

A deeply surprised look crossed Chidori's face. She pointed at herself.

"You want to heal me?" she asked.

"I know some forms of healing spells. I was taught of various medical treatments, for how to heal flesh wounds rapidly. I've never really practiced on a person before, but I've studied a lot."

"No, no not that girl. You want to help me?" asked Chidori.

"Well you said you saved my life. And well...I believe you. So really, healing that wound would be the right thing to do," said Kaorin.

Chidori smiled weakly. She nodded her head and Kaorin slowly stood up. The young ninja in training had been using a technique on herself during the silence and her headache had lessened. As Kaorin approached Chidori she started to say something about getting to the wound when Chidori merely pulled away that part of her shirt. Kaorin blushed wildly and gulped…and couldn't stop herself slowly looking down…

Chidori almost gave a satisfied smile, but the thought of Kasumi returned. A frown instead formed.

"I can't remember if I ever properly introduced myself," said Chidori as Kaorin began to heal the wound. "I am Chidori, former servant of Lord Saburou."

Kaorin gave Chidori a surprised look.

"In the last ten minutes I decided to quit after he arrived. And with Kas-"

As Chidori fell silent again Kaorin spoke: "I'm Kaori, but everyone calls me Kaorin. Miss Chidori I have a question to ask you."

"What is it?" asked Chidori who found herself grinning stupidly due to the odd sensation she felt under her skin as the flesh healed.

"Will you help me find my friends? I think Tomo may be in danger. And Sakaki…"

Chidori looked to the mountain peak and clenched her fist.

"Yeah. Yeah I'll help you," said Chidori. Kaorin couldn't help but notice the sudden determination in Chidori's voice, the return of emotion.