The trip back to Kiri had been uneventful, the three former prisoners being more than happy to drown the crops of their desipised enemy. In the span of five days, the raiding party had reached a mouth feeding into a stream that would lead home to Kiri, but nightfall made the trip dangerous, so camp had been pitched, rations and instant ramen cooked and consumed in the darkness, and three water clones, summoned from the little stream, guarded the camp for the night. For the most part, the party was silent, but the shy, hesitant member of the Swordsmen finally gathered up the courage to speak to their new team leader.

His steps silent, he made his way to the tent that she slept in, finding the small tent dark with no signs of life. If he didn't know better, he would have sworn the tent was empty. With a shaky voice, he called out.

"Akula-san?"

There was no answer. Silently, Chojuro peeked into the tent, finding a sleeping bag with no occupant, and a small Bingo book, it's pages no more than a week old, and a smaller, older sheet of paper neatly folded inside.

It was a roster, almost one hundred faces, male and female alike, a note on the top identifying the group as the graduating class a half decade prior. In the fading moonlight, suffocated by clouds that promised even more rain for the farms they had just flooded, Chojuro could make out that half of the faces had been scribbled out, others in red boxes, drawn neatly with a highlighter, some of which had vicious red crosses drawn across the faces.

Chojuro glanced around, suddenly realizing that he was snooping in privte property, but he glanced back to the page once more, lighting a match quickly as he glanced at the sheet in much more detail. The first ninja he noted had been dead for about two years, barely able to see though the ink that had been scribbled, a side result of a weak marker, he persumed.

It was fairly simple for him to figure out what each sign meant. The loyalist ninja were unmarked, except for the occasional note on their late known deployment, the black scribbles had been either Anbu elites or the dead. The rebel ninja has red squares around their pictures, and those with red crosses were the rebel dead.

His face pale, Chojuro forced himself to put the sheet back, the Bingo Book hiding it's secret bounty within.

...

Walking back to his tent had not been easy, but Chojuro did so after making a short detour to the stream that would lead to his bedroll, taking off his sandals as he slipped his feet inside the water, the cool liquid chilling his feet. As he did so, he became strangely aware of the water moving, and the fact that the moon was finally visible again, like a great cake in the sky. It was this calmness that almost led to him being split in two, as a torrent of water from the little pool overcame him, knocking him onto his back as a watery reaper seemed to desend, and he stared into the violet eyes of his team leader, a scapel pressed to his throat.

"Oh," the voice of Akula Hoozuki muttered. "It was just you."

Chojuro was still frozen in place, the scapel still on his windpipe. A quick slash of the blade would end him, and the girl, built chillingly similar to him, would know exactly what he would do to escape his situation, and would make preperations to ensure it would never happen.

"Go back to bed," Akula ordered at last, her blade retracting from his windpipe, his breath panicked as he stared at his team leader, who expertly dove back into the water, her flesh turning into water as her watery form settled within the liquid.

Having enough excitement for one night, Chojuro headed back to bed, his breath panicked.

Watching Chojuro leave soothed Akula for a moment, as she fell back into the water, eyes staring toward the moon above, her limps splayed out, simply watching the stars *le in the sky. Even then, she could do nothing about her tears, flowing freely over the newly fallen Mangetsu, and the fact that she was truly doomed to be alone.

AN: Yes, I know this is a short, actionless chapter, but this is little more than a transition into the main story.
Also: Review.



This post was last edited by Aruka T (EvilPopT... at 2017-4-1 12:58
This post was last edited by Aruka T (EvilPopT... at 2017-4-2 05:47
This post was last edited by Aruka T (EvilPopT... at 2017-4-2 05:49