A/N: Welcome! Chapter Two, ladies and gentlemen; though considerably shorter than Chapter One, things are starting to get interesting . . . . Thanks for reading; make sure and review!

Chapter Two

Her eyes opened halfway, staring blearily at the other side of the room. Sunlight lit the room, the amount of dust evident from the layer that coated everything and the motes glittering in midair.

Breathing in as she stretched, Yurei sat up slowly, looking around the room. Genji was once again sprawled under the windows, Ryūkei curled against the opposite and wrapped in his cloak.

She took a moment to study the strange man; more details were visible in daylight than had been last night. He had a shock of hair so blond, it was almost white; it ran into a ponytail that came to the middle of his shoulders. A matching platinum blond beard covered his lower jaw; though kept trimmed for the most part, there were spots where it was slightly ragged.

He was still fairly young, approximately the same age as herself and Genji, but seemed much older. He had dark circles under his eyes, dirt smudged in multiple places on his face and clothes. Said clothes consisted of a ragged-edged, sand-coloured cloak, and black pants. His bare feet were wrapped at the instep as protection against hot desert sand. Yurei assumed there was a shirt under the cloak, but she had yet to see it.

For now, though, she supposed that it was time to face the day. Ryūkei would either say more about why he was here, or he wouldn't. It didn't really matter either way.

Getting up, she paused for a moment before going to wake Ryūkei first. If he woke up to both her and Genji standing over him, it was likely to send the already-defensive man right back onto his guard.

She crouched beside him, reaching out a hand to nudge his shoulder. Before she even touched him, his eyes opened, clear and alert.

"I'm awake," he muttered, shying away from the potential contact.

Yurei let her hand drop back to her side, standing again. "Good morning. How'd you sleep?"

Ryūkei rose as well, brushing dust from his cloak and pants. "Well enough," he answered. He glanced to the still-snoring Genji, then returned his attention to the girl before him. "What are your plans for the day?"

Brushing her bangs out of her eyes, Yurei put one hand on a hip, frowning contemplatively. "Well, we should find someplace to fill up on water; Genji said something about wanting to look around, for old times' sake. And then there's -" She paused; she probably shouldn't mention the other thing to him. "- some other places I want to check out. Like my old house," she lied.

There was a hesitation in her last sentence; she was hiding something from him. That was none of his business; if she didn't want to tell him, then that was just fine. Ryūkei was playing along for now, in the hopes that as Yurei and Genji left, they would leave some of their supplies behind with him. They seemed nice enough, so they just might. It would mean he wouldn't have to steal and add to his varied list of sins.

"I can take you to a water source," he said quietly, as Yurei moved to wake her friend. "There are still some scattered around the village."

"That'd be great; it'd save us a lot of searching around." With her foot, the dark-haired girl nudged Genji's shoulder. "Come on; up and at 'em. We've got a long day ahead of us."

"S'gonna be even longer if I have to spend it around him," the young man groused, squinting at Ryūkei. "Just as well we're not sticking around for long."

Yurei gave a light swat to the back of his head. "Be nice! He's going to help us find water. Get your pack together so we can go." She turned to her own backpack, picking up the three food packets that Ryūkei had removed the night before. Shouldering the bag, she passed a packet to each boy, keeping the third for herself. "Here. We can eat as we go, and drink when we get there."

The food was plain, but wholesome and filling: grains baked together with dried fruit into a crunchy ration bar. It was the same sort of food that Ryūkei had stockpiles of over most of the village, found in deserted homes, or made himself. It took a good long time to go bad — about five years, in truth — and was full of both energy and nutrients.

Bars half-gone by the time they reached street level, Ryūkei motioned the two visitors to wait. Holding his breakfast in his mouth, he eased open the tower's main door and stuck his head outside. A brief scan of the area showed no threat from the wild dogs; he opened the door fully and stepped outside.

"A pack of dogs moved into the village when the people left," he said tonelessly. "Fresh meat is around, but they'll take a human if they can."

Genji stepped through the doorway, glancing about. "They used to prowl the hills around the village, back in the day. It was a constant job making sure they didn't get in; they'd take some little kid or a pet."

Ryūkei nodded once, not really caring. "Water's over by an apartment complex. Ten minutes west."

They moved off in silence, falling into a triangular formation almost automatically and keeping a sharp eye on their surroundings. Wind moaned quietly through an alleyway as they passed, stirring up little cyclones of sand. Ryūkei walked quickly; the sooner he showed these two where they could get water, the sooner he could get away from them.

The water source, when it came into view, consisted of a water tap in the centre of a courtyard. A three-story building rose around the yard like a squared-off horseshoe, with a fourth side consisting only of archways granting access. The three of them passed through, and stopped before the tap. It stood in the middle of a basin with tiny bones littering the bottom.

Yurei grimaced. "I remember this building . . . there used to be fish swimming in the basin . . . ."

"Without anyone to run water, it would've dried up," Genji added, voice hushed as he stared at the little skeletons. "That's just . . . sad . . . ."

Expressionless, Ryūkei reached out and rested a hand on the valve. "Get your bottles out." He twisted the handle, and watched. Water began drizzling from the valve, reddish-brown with rust.

Pausing in taking the water bottles from his pack, Genji's eyebrows shot up. "Uh . . . Ryūkei, I don't mean to be rude, but that doesn't really look . . . drinkable."

"Give it a minute."

Sure enough, the amount of brown in the water diminished quickly, until a thick trickle of clean, clear water was all that remained. Yurei and Genji quickly filled their bottles and stored them away; Ryūkei closed the valve when they'd finished.

"This is where we part ways," he said gruffly. "I'd appreciate it if you didn't tell anyone that you saw me here."

"W-wait a minute," Yurei said. "You're not going to stick around? Just while we're here?"

The man shook his head. "I'm not really a people person. After all this time spent out here, I prefer to be alone. Good luck to the two of you." Turning, he sprang onto the top of one of the archways and sped off along it in a dark blur. He reached the rooftop and leapt to the next building, moving off in that fashion until he was out of sight.

Genji lifted one eyebrow. "I've only ever seen ninja move like that before . . . ."

"He did say he was from Konoha, and that he was in the war," Yurei pointed out, settling her pack comfortably on her shoulders. "Guess this just confirms it."

"Yeah." Glancing sideways at his friend, Genji added in a lower tone. "At least it'll be easier to retrieve the you-know-what without him following us around. Speaking of which . . . ." He glanced around the area, making sure Ryūkei was gone. "We should probably get on that.

"Right."

As they moved off, Yurei snuck a look in the direction Ryūkei had headed. Maybe when they got back home, she'd ask around, see if anyone had ever heard of a man with his description.

For the second time in as many days, people moved across the desert toward an abandoned Sunagakure. Eight sets of footprints were lost across the trackless expanse of sand as their owners drew closer to their destination.

At last, the apparent leader of the party raised a hand, calling the others to a halt. "Teams of four; enter from the east and west and rendezvous on the main street. If you see something out of place, send up a flare." The hand lowered. "Disperse."

With a spray of sand, the two teams moved in blurs across the landscape, closing in on the city and the unsuspecting trio within.