Forums » General Roleplay » A House Divided

The last few ninja had left the small village that was now in ruins. The townspeople looked around at what the clan battle had done to their homes and shops, the image of heroic shinobi slowly crumbling. There were dead bodies and limbs scattered everywhere. Children cried in the streets; some had mothers comforting them, others didn't. It was a truly grisly scene to behold.
A mother cried out, noticing that her young daughter was still inside her burning home. A tall woman with young and bright aura walked up to the sobbing woman and conversed with her about the problem. Then, she turned and ran into the flames. A tense minute ensued before the bright woman ran back out with a young child in her arms. There were burn marks on the woman's hands as well as ash on her face as well as the child's. But the child was alive and unharmed. The tall and mysterious woman handed the child to her disbelieving mother before disappearing into an alleyway to wrap her wounds. No one would have guessed that the woman with the purple hair was a ninja. However, her amazing feat didn't go unnoticed, for she wasn't the only ninja in the village...

Kori was still young to see her world go up in flames. Her skin was too dark to be native born in this village, but she was raised here nevertheless. This had been her home, and how it was going up in smoke. All she could do was watch, hiding behind the cover of the rising smoke on the thatched roof upon which she stood.

Stealth was one of the few ninja arts she had a chance to learn properly. The rest of her training would be doomed to incomplete it seemed, until she saw her. She had run into a burning building and came out alive. She had to be a kunoichi, she just had to be. Someone had to be left. The way of shinobi could not die so easily.

She ran from her hiding spot, using the crackle of fire to drown out her movements as she leaped from building to burning building. She would not leave the woman's side until she could become a proper kunoichi herself. She would stay unseen, using whatever skills she had until she could be alone with her. The only problem was that Kori had never dealt with a woman like Nakamikado before.

Ai Nakamikado sighs as she leans against the wall. She knew that relations between the ninja clans had deteriorated, but she didn't know until a few days ago explosive the disagreements had become. This was the fourth village destroyed by clan wars in three days, and the healer was having trouble picking up the pieces.

Ai pulls a roll of enchanted bandages and starts to wrap her burns. Despite the ash on her face, her white and blue kimono stayed perfectly clean. Ai froze as she could feel someone close to her. She turned towards the girl, drawing one of her ninjatō and holding it at the ready. She sees her and sighs in relief, lowering her weapon. "Oh, so it was you," she says in a melodic voice, sheathing her sword. "What are you doing here? Do you have any injuries I can help you with?"

She had been caught. Either her training was very far from complete, or Kori was correct in thinking this woman was indeed a shinobi.

She dropped down from the rooftop and landed behind her, the position of power for a ninja. "You are kunoichi," she spoke, her voice low and hoarse. "I am Kori, of the Koga clan, and I am here to complete my training. My teachers are all dead." She stood up slowly and reached to her side for her kunai. "You will help me complete my training, either as an instructor--" She lowered her stance and readied her weapon. "--or as mere practice."

Ai looked confused as the ninja dropped behind her. She glanced at the girl and raised an eyebrow. "I am not a kunoichi," she lied. "I'm merely a medicine woman trying to heal those devastated by ninja attacks. You must have me confused with someone else." Even as she said this, her hand gripped her ninjatō across her lower back as her amber eyes were glued to the ninja. "I assure you, I have no intention of fighting you. There are too many injured to heal, too many homeless to console. Now is not the time for sparring matches or training. Such an act would be selfish and inconsiderate, and a good medicine woman is neither."

"I don't care about the weak and the homeless!" Kori barked. "If you really are nothing but a medicine woman, then you can die like the rest of us!"

Kori sprang quickly forward, only to dodge to one and strike at her from an indirect angle. She was very swift, one might even say she had a natural talent for the art of death. Still, her talent was raw, and it was more than clear that passion was clouding her judgement, in spite of the cold, steely look in her eye.

Ai was calm and her body seemed relaxed yet somewhat tense as she springs into action, drawing her sword quickly and parrying the strike before leaping back, her long, dark purple hair and kimono flowing behind her. "This is foolish! Stop this, right now! You can't possibly expect me to fight at a time like this! My job is to heal wounds, not create new ones! What is it that you want from me anyway?"

Ai didn't understand the aura that her assailant was putting out. It seemed like one of rage and hatred, yet she felt something different. Something more...innocent. Maybe it was confusion, maybe it was disbelief, perhaps it was even pain. She didn't know for sure, and any other person would probably miss it. Whatever it was, she knew that there weren't a lot of options she could take other than fight this girl or try to run, the latter of which she would most certainly be unsuccessful since her kimono was far too long for that kind of activity.

"I knew it! You are kunoichi!" Kori knew she wasn't competent to face that sword, but none of that mattered. She still had her kunai at the ready. "You have two options. You will complete my training, or or one of us dies tonight!"

Kori did not risk another close up attack just yet. She reached for a pair of shuriken and threw them both at the woman in front of her, curving their trajectory through the air so that they came at her in a pincer formation. From there, Kori lunged forward, completing the three pronged attack. She only had once sword. Surely she couldn't stop three attacks at once, right?

Ai didn't answer the girl as she was attacked again, this time from three fronts. She was quite impressed with the complexity of her attacks. However, the assault didn't have equal lethality on all fronts, meaning that there were multiple ways to avoid the attack. She decided that if this girl wanted to be trained, then so be it.

The kunoichi waits until the moment before the attacks were to meet her before taking a step forward and jumping, somersaulting over the girl. She was aware that the attacker was now in danger from her own attack, so she shoved the girl forward as she completed her flip and kept moving forward. The two shuriken met and fly off to the sides, but they clash right behind the girl's head.

Ai wasn't done yet. Without turning around, she flung two shuriken behind her as a small counterattack, one over each shoulder. The shuriken travel perfectly straight and fly by the girl's ears.

The two metal stars lodged themselves into the ground next to Kori's ears, leaving the girl stunned with fear. This was the shadow of death looming over her, that dark, heavy presence that her teacher had only ever hinted at but taught her never to feel. It was impossible to ignore it now that it had some so close to her.

She was so weak. This ninja in the beautiful kimono, this medicine woman, evaded her carefully practiced attack as if it were nothing. Little by little, she pulled her limbs closer to herself. She was shamed. This was ultimate shame. Tears began to flow from her eyes, and she fought for the will to do what she had to do. She slowly, shakily lifted her kunai and turned it toward herself. Could she really do it? Her dishonor was great enough, but not her conviction.

Ai turned and saw the girl turn her kunai on herself and she stopped cold. The innocence in her aura was becoming more and more evident now, and she wondered if perhaps she had been too competitive towards the young ninja. Besides, her ambition and spirit reminded her of a young Ai after a year of training. She didn't know what kind of ninjutsu teacher would instruct his or students to commit suicide upon being shamed, but this was not the ninja way of old, not the way that old man Yoshida taught her.

"Stop," she said to the troubled teenager, a commanding word and yet without any sense of aggression. "Is this what you think the way of the shinobi is? Suicide upon shame to one's skills? Child, seppuku is a Bushido practice, not a Ninjutsu one. Ninja do not die by their own hand, they die in battle without fear or shame. That is what makes a ninja deadly, more than any number of blades. A ninja always follows this code: she who learns when to run away, lives to fight another day. Put away your kunai, I have seen enough death for one day."

Her posture and stance was one of power and superiority, but her amber eyes were gentle and even a bit hurtful as she witnessed yet another ninja on the verge of unnecessary death.

Kori turned and looked at the woman. She was beautiful and powerful all at once, like an ancient tree in the full bloom of spring, and yet the color of her kimono brought in the chill of winter along with the flower of spring. The girl rolled over to take a better look at the woman, dropping her weapon to her side.

"I don't want bushido," Kori uttered, trembling. "I don't know what to do. I don't know what to live for. You--you are the only chance I have left. I'm small. I'm incomplete." She looked at her weapon. "I could never take my own life. I don't know. I don't know--"

Ai saw the troubled child and gasped quietly. Those were the same words she spoke to Sensei Yoshida after her parents were killed. The scene of her begging for the elder to take her played in her eyes as they widened a bit and went out of focus. After a while, she comes to and looks back at the girl, sheathing her ninjatō. "Fine. I may not be the best teacher, but if you are certain that I am the only one who can help you... You may learn from me. My name is Ai Nakamikado, by the way."

Kori tucked her knees under her and bowed her head to the floor. "Thank you!" she sobbed. "Thank you for taking pity on me! I will do whatever you tell me! I will fight by your side to the death!"

Little did the girl know that there were still bringers of death in the burning village. Two of them just happened to poke their heads out from behind a dying flame, pointing dart blowers at the kowtowing girl.

Ai looks down at Kori bowing and looks awkward, not used to that kind of treatment. Ai see the blowguns and once again spins into action, spinning effortlessly and flinging two shuriken at the ambushers, proceeding to grab Kori's hand. "We have to go, now. This village isn't safe anymore."

Kori was quickly overwhelmed with the sudden movement, but her swift legs carried her easily with Ai.

The warriors in behind the flames jumped out and started in pursuit of the two. Kori turned around and saw them in the lapping light of the surrounding flames. It was them. It was them!

Kori broke away from Ai's grasp and turned back to the attackers, her own weapon at the ready and a fiery cry escaping her mouth. They fired off their darts at her, but speed was a the girl's greatest natural gift, allowing her to dodge to one side and counter with her last shuriken. This weapon hit neither target, but it did force the two of them to separate.

That's when Kiro threw a smoke ball at the ground, filling the area with even more blinding smoke than before. Kori tried to use this to quickly take out one of the enemy ninja, but her kunai trust was met with a short sword, and the girl was thrown over the target's shoulder and pinned to the ground, her arm behind her back.

Ai ran with Kori, paying close attention to her feet to make sure she didn't trip over her own kimono. When Kori turned away to fight, Ai skidded to a halt and spun around just as she saw the smoke bomb. She gasped as Kori's attack was countered and she knew that she had to act fast. She tossed one of her last two shuriken into the air and presses her hands together, concentrating and letting out a short yell. Suddenly, dozens of shuriken, at least 30, appeared out of nothing and hurled themselves at the warriors.
Not a single star hit its target, as we're their instructions; however, Ai used the resulting confusion to snatch Kori away and keep running, carrying the girl in her arms as the warriors eventually gave chase.

"Put me down!" Kori screamed. "Put me down! I have to kill them for what they did!" She thrashed and licked in Ai's arms, and her face was wet with blood, droplets flying around as she tossed her head.

The two ninja avoided the shuriken attack. One was about to give chase when the other raised his hand to still him. "Hold it! We can't stand up to that."

"You can't," said the first, loading in another dart into his blower. He lowered himself to one knee and fired off another dart after the medicine woman. Kori had her head turned in their direction when the deed was done.

"Look out!" the girl cried.

Ai gritted her teeth as the girl struggles against her grip. She looked behind her, responding to Kori's warning, web the dart embeds itself in her shoulder. Ai yells out and stumbles but remains on her feet, sprinting to the edge of the village before letting out another yell and falling to her knees, panting softly.

Kori rolled to her knees and crawled over to Ai. "No, no, sensei. Please don't die! Not now!"

She found the dart in her shoulder and quickly yanked it out. It tore at the woman with its barbed edges, opening a small wound. The girl's eyes widened when she examined the dart. "It's poisoned. No. Please, no!"