Forums » General Roleplay » A House Divided

Ai nods, her pale white skin turning black around the wound. "Calm down, I won't die. AHHH! Kori, calm down! It's making the problem worse!" She pants as her white kimono becomes stained red with blood.
"I wasn't lying when I said I was a medicine woman, child." She pulls off her pack and digs through it, producing a green salve. She dips her fingers in the salve, pulling down three shoulder of her kimono and spreading it onto her wound. The black-colored skin slowly started to turn red as she wraps her shoulder in cloth. "There. Give it a day or two and it will be stronger than before.

Kori brushed tears away then looked back at the village. The fires still raged on. The danger was still very present.

"We need to get you somewhere you can recover," said Kori. "Please, we need to get moving. I'm not strong enough to carry you." She took Ai by the hand and stood up. "Come on. Let's get going." She stood up and tried to pull her away from that place. She was still frantic and shaken, blood still running down her face. Kori didn't seem to notice this wound on herself, though, even as it stained the scarf around her face.

(I'm really sorry, I haven't forgotten about this, things have gotten a bit busy the past few days)

(you're not the only one. Seems everyone's been busy with life lately.)

Ai shakes her head and gives her pupil a small smile, standing up with Kori's help. "Do not worry about me, It will take more than that to stop me-" She gasps as she sees the blood on Kori's face. "Oh my...! Kori, your face! Don't move!" She grabs her pupil's arm, her expression one of concern.

"What? What about my face?" Kori touched her. Only then did she notice the blood screaming down her face. She didn't move, suddenly petrified.

She forced herself to swallow. "I'm fine! W-we need to get going! It's dnagerous here!"

She did not make any effort to act upon her own plan to move.

Ai frowns, her aura of power almost gone because of her injury as well as Kori's. She squeezes her pupil's arm and runs quickly through the woods. She thought aloud to herself, "So many ninja warring against each other... This is not good. Not good at all."

The pair ran through the wilderness until daybreak. They found another village not far from where they were. Still, they were only in the outskirts, and they managed to find shelter in a barn.

"We need food," said Kori. "I'll go into town and grab some. I can be back before—" She suddenly hissed in pain from the injury on her face.

Ai kneeled on the ground, her aura returning very slowly. "You are hurt, Kori. I'll help you, and then I'll go to the village for food." She digs truth her bag and pulls out a flask of water as well as a orange cream. Ai runs the water over Kori's face before putting globs of cream over the cuts. "Rub that in," she told her pupil while standing up, leaving her bag on the floor.

Kori stood still, letting herself be treated. "When can I begin my training?" asked Kori. "I need to take my revenge on the ones who destroyed my home and killed my clan." She started running in the ointment, wincing at its sting.

"What sort of kunoichi are you?" she persisted. "I saw you use strange techniques I have never seen before. Can you teach me?"

Ai thinks for a moment before kneeling down in front of her pupil. "I have to follow the clan wars to help the townspeople and stop the samurai from oppressing them. I will train you along the way. I am a kunoichi that uses the old ways of the ninja against newer ideologies."
Ai looks into the girl's eyes, looking very serious. "Be careful about how you use a desire for vengeance. Wanting revenge can be great motivation; however, it can easily put a ninja on the path to destruction for little to no gain. That is what my sensei taught me."

"What do you know about it!?" Kori snapped at her new master. He quickly realized what she had done, then lowered herself with her face to the ground. "I'm sorry, sensei. I did not mean to speak out!" Her voice was shaky, and her words were spoken very quickly. "I will not be insolent. I will do as I'm told!"

Ai looked a little hurt at Kori's remark but gave her pupil a small smile. "It's fine, you do not have to be so formal. However, I think it is best if I do not talk any further about it. I'll see if I can come across some food. Stay here and keep rubbing in the ointment." She gets up and leaves quickly, running on the rooftops without making a sound.

"Yes, Sensei." She sat back up, not seeming to properly comprehend the whole "less formal" instruction.

Still, she leaned back against the barn wall and continued to rub the ointment on her face. She began to think. What did Ai mean when she talked about the old ways? If there were newer techniques, wouldn't they be the superior ones? If they were, then why couldn't the ninja that had attacked them overcome her, even when she was clearly holding back? There were too many questions, and Kori needed answers.

She wrapped her scarf around her face, just in case the wound started to bleed again, and hopped out of a window and onto the roof of the barn. She was about to leap to the next building, but two things stopped her. First, the wood under her own feet creaked when she moved. Second, the leap to the next building was... far. It was so much farther than Kori was used to, and yet Ai had managed it with ease. No, Kori wouldn't give up so easily. What kind of ninja would she be if she did? If hopping from roof to roof wouldn't work, she would just follow on foot.

She proceeded to run from cover to cover, quickly diving and ducking through every shadow she could find in order to try and track down Ai.

Ai kept moving through the village, barely being seen despite her flowing white clothing. Her expression was troubled, thinking about how Kori thought of her. Her mind drifted to her mother and father; she halted suddenly when a memory of her running through the forest when she was seven years old, sobbing and yelling for help. The flashback was so painful, even after all this time, that she sunk to her hands and knees. She pants and perspires, unable to rise back to her feet.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Kori had long since lost track of Ai. Finding herself lost and alone, she found herself darting from cover to cover in a panic. From the ground, she was practically invisible. From the rooftops, however, she was a great deal more visible.

After a few minutes, Ai forced herself to her feet. She sways and gulps but stays standing. After a few deep breaths, the kunoichi starts walking along the rooftop. A figure on the ground catches her attention and she looks down at a girl running through the village in an erratic fashion. After closer inspection, Ai recognizes the girl as Kori and groans to herself. She massages her temples, the realization helping to jar her back into reality. She runs along the rooftops and leaps to the floor, landing silently behind the girl. "What are you doing here?! You were supposed to stay in the barn!"

Kori jumped a little when Ai spoke. She hadn't heard a thing. "Forgive me. I--I mean, I just--"

She sniffed the air a moment. She turned and peeked over her cover for only a second. She spotted a restaurant cooking up right, meat, and vegetables. She hit herself once more, but it was clear that she had acquired her target. "We can get food together. It can be part of my training. I need to see how you do what you do."

Ai squints, annoyed at Kori's disobedience, but she concedes that the girl had found a place to get dinner. "Fair enough. Follow me and *sigh* don't wander off this time." Ai checks her surroundings for townspeople--only one or two--and then jumps onto the roof of a house, turning to Kori to see if she needs help.

"Hai, sensei!" Kori followed her onto the roof, this time sticking very close to her new teacher, perhaps a little too close. "There's a chimney there. There's cooking food under there." She reached into her belt and took out a long, thin wire with a tiny, weighted hook at the end of it. "I just need to wait for the right moment for it."