Title: Little Flower

Author: Chisha

Category: General

Warnings: This fic contains an original character, created by the author herself cause she's such a pathetic person. If you do not like possible pairings with this character, do not read any further and press that cute little Back button on your browser. Thank you.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters except Kohana. The rest of the characters is owned by Tecmo. (Too bad…)

Author's Note: And here it gets hard. After this, I'm going to torture them a lot. Moo.

Chapter 5 - First Kill

The attack plan on itself was not too hard to remember. As soon as the storm would rage through the mountains in full force, the ninja who were on the lookout at the camp's borders would come and warn them; even though Kohana suspected everyone except her would know when the storm was there. The group would move to the soldier's camp and spread out to surround them. They would have the cover of the storm and the element of surprise in their advantage, and in fact they needed that just as much as skill sometimes. It would allow them to attack easier and act before the soldiers knew what had come over them. Some ninja got specific orders, but Kohana did not try to remember those. It was none of her concern. Hayate gave her strict orders to stay close to him and eliminate as many of the soldiers as she could. Hayabusa and Ayane would take care of the bigger equipment, especially the two helicopters. Iwataka would take a small group and capture their storage facilities, so that the soldiers could not reload their weapons if they even got the time to do that during the fight. Another ninja, named Botan, would take his team and take care of the jeeps so that no one would be able to escape and tell the tale. Hayate would go for the two leaders, with the help of his trainee. Kohana wondered if she could do this, but Hayate had not said anything about it, and she decided not to go against him on this one. She would receive some specific instructions before they started the operation.

And that was what she was getting right now. Hayate handed her a few metal things, sharp things with pointy edges, and after a short look she recognized them as shuriken, throwing stars. Was she going to use these?

'Because you've gotten at least somewhere on accuracy at this moment, I think I should teach you how to use these,' he started. 'You will need to learn how to prevent cutting yourself, but I'm sure you'll keep enough of your fingers intact.'

'I understand,' she muttered, a little insulted by the remark about her fingers. 'So what do I have to do now?'

'Keep these close. You're going to be meditating first, to improve your aim.'

Kohana frowned. 'Oh? How can meditation improve my aim?'

'Because being like us requires focus. Aiming requires just as much focus. Something you will have to learn is to stay focused at all times - even when you've just been woken up by someone who is after your life; any place, any time.'

'I don't want to be negative or anything, but…' She wasn't sure if she should say it, but she said it anyway. She thought she had to be honest with him with this training, even if it meant defying him. '… that sounds nearly impossible.'

'It will take a while for you to get used to,' he stated quite simply.

Was he not going to give her any tips?
As she stared at him, waiting for instructions on how to "focus", he turned and simply left.

'Yosh… He is going to let me figure out on my own, then.'

Then she had better start meditating.

The storm raged on outside, and Kohana looked through the little slit in the tent's opening. Her vision was sometimes hindered by people walking in and out, but she kept staring. She needed to know when these ninja thought the storm finally raged at full force. Wasn't this enough yet? Did it have to be worse? Could it be worse? The wind howled around them, the fabric of the tent walls flapping in the violent gusts of wind that came by every few seconds. The tent openings flapped even more, but Kohana kept staring, still. She needed to know. There was something that triggered a ninja's actions, and she wanted to know.

***

It was the next day, and someone had come to warn her about the storm. It was finally time to begin. Quickly, she got dressed, mostly ignoring the cold wind that came in. She had gotten used to dressing and gearing up very fast, because they were certainly not just going to wait for her. When it was time, it was just time.

When Kohana came outside, she heard a soft whistling sound above the wind, and it was coming her way. There was only one thing that could make this sound…

Quickly, she turned towards the sound and grabbed the spiked thing coming at her. It cut her hand, but at least it hadn't struck what it was aimed for: her head. She looked up to see who had thrown it at her, and it appeared to be a dark-haired young man standing in the shadow of a tree - for as far as there were shadows in the haze of the snowstorm.

'I'm surprised it even went where it was supposed to go, with that wind,' he chuckled. She could barely hear him because of the howling of mentioned wind.

'Why did you do that? Are you a spy?' Kohana inquired sceptically.

'No, no,' he answered, shaking his head, talking to her as if she was as ignorant as they came. And quite possibly, she was. 'I'm Keiji, I was told to throw that at you.'

'Told to? Who told you to try and kill me?' Her eyebrows lowered as she squinted at the ninja.

'Hayate-sama did. He also told me to ask you to hurry up.' The man turned around and left the scene, leaving her staring after him, slowly turning the blood-stained shuriken in her hand. She would give it back to her teacher later. Or… She could see what these things did when they struck. She moved it to her unharmed other hand, looked for a small tree and just threw it at the stem.
The shuriken seemed to even tell her she should have taken the time to at least try to aim, because it missed the tree by a mile, hit a snow covered rock and bounced off with a little 'tink' sound. Kohana cleared her throat as she watched her failure, turned and went for the main tent, hoping no one had seen her absolutely ridiculous attempt at using weapons.

***

'What made you think you could catch a shuriken with just your hand, Kohana?'

Kohana looked at him from under her bangs, feeling the red of shame slowly spread across her cheeks. 'I just thought… that was the way to do it.'

'The way to do it is to try and catch it with something hard, or to rebound it with your katana, not with your bare hands. Only actors can do that.' The ninja leader looked at his trainee, and she could see the disbelief and even a little amusement in there. If he were her uncle, he would now point and laugh. 'You're lucky Keiji decided to go easy on you. If he had been serious you wouldn't have a whole muscle in your hand left.'

She swallowed. 'Really?'

'A properly thrown shuriken can cut fragile muscles like that with ease, remember that.' Hayate handed her a white cloth. 'Try not to bleed too much. You're needed in the attack.' He turned and wanted to walk away, but halfway he stopped and looked over his shoulder, 'And count your fingers.' Then he went to a group of ninja nearby, and Kohana stared at the makeshift bandage in her hands. She supposed she could do what he said, all things considered. She didn't want to rip the wound even further open if she had to hit someone with that hand…

With a hurt pride she carefully tried to tie it around her hand, but with only one hand, that wasn't really working. Finally, she decided to try it with her teeth before making even more of a mess of her hand. It took her some time, and she had finished just before Hayate came back to check on things. Quickly, she folded her hands behind her back, looking at him from the corner of her eye, waiting for him to tell her what to do, but he left again.
More and more ninja gathered around her, minding their own business and waiting for their leader to give them the green light.

Eventually Hayate came back for a second time, and looked around at the gathered men and an occasional woman. Then he nodded. 'Time to go.'

***

The soldiers were still in their camp. The two leaders seemed to be somewhat concerned with the weather, and were constantly telling the communications officers to try and establish radio contact with home, or to try and see what the weather forecast for this area was.

The ninja did not need such a thing. They could communicate with each other by eye or hand movements if they really needed to communicate, and the weather forecast was absolutely perfect for them. The storm would stay long enough, which would be in their advantage. The ninja surrounded the army camp slowly but surely, making the smallest gestures in order to tell each other where they were, what they were doing.

'I hate this place,' someone suddenly said from very close to Kohana. She tried not to turn her head too quickly; she had been warned for this kind of movement. 'It's cold and wet and we can't see a thing out here,' the soldier continued.

Kohana now saw him. A thin blanket of snow covered his head, shoulders and the rifle he was holding. His friend looked just the same, only a little bit older.

'I heard there's all kinds of strange things here in the mountains.'

She decided to ignore them; it wasn't of any use to her what those soldiers thought, even if she agreed about this place being particularly wet.

If these guards were so close, Kohana would have to be the one to take them out. She had been instructed to do so. Not only she had those orders; everyone within a few meters of a guard had to eliminate that guard. Stealth usually prevented the enemy from discovering you too early, and that was exactly what they wanted. To kill without being seen. To win without being known.

She looked to the side, trying not to move her head to much or too quickly, to see if there was another ninja nearby. When she looked aside, she saw Keiji a few meters away from her in the bushes; he nodded to her as he carefully adjusted the mask that covered the lower half of his face. He would take out the second guard while she got rid of the first.

Shifting her gaze back to camp, she waited for the sign. It would not be a sign that any of the soldiers could see; each ninja would be passing it on to the one next to him. One of the older ninja had told her that usually they imitated the sound of a bird that lived in the neighbourhood they were in, but this time it would not be heard above the howling of the wind.

As she waited, she decided to try and loosen her katana in the sheath across her back. That way it would be pulled out faster and easier, providing a quicker kill for the user. The sound of the blade unsheathing would not be heard anyway, the kunoichi in training mused quietly.
Finally, Keiji next to her moved his hand past his cheek in a horizontal manner, almost invisibly. She looked to the right to see if she caught the next ninja's attention before imitating the sign, taking care to remain unseen, just like Keiji.
She set her gaze back to the nearest guard as she saw Keiji move in like a shadow, close to the other guard. She did not worry about being quiet yet, even though she'd had some practice in it already. The storm would take care of any noises. But remaining unseen was something she did have to take care of, even if the snow hindered the soldier's eyesight - or her own.

The guard had his back turned to her as she carefully unsheathed the katana on her back; he still did not see or hear her. If she struck now, she had perfect timing and she knew it. Placing a hand over his mouth to prevent possible surprised sounds or death gurgles, she slid the sharp edge of the blade across his neck, killing him instantly.
That wasn't so hard, now was it, Kohana?

Not as long as you managed to quiet the conscience that every normal civilian had. She was a kunoichi now, no time to feel sad about it, or guilty.

Maybe she'd just been a little rude, but that was about it, she decided as she carefully made her way through the snow, bloody katana in her right hand. Next victim; she had to make it to the leaders, like Hayate was doing, so that she was actually carrying out her orders.

Not too hard; she had looked at a tiny scribble that Hayabusa had made of the camp. Apparently, Hayabusa had been acting on his own again and made a make-shift map of the camp and its surroundings. If she went north-west now, she would find the center of the camp and the squadron's leaders.

Stealthily killing two more unsuspecting soldiers on the way there - and feeling a little more uncomfortable about it every time she did it, too - she finally reached the center, where she saw Hayate crouched behind a big container. He was signalling for her to come over and hide, too, while the other ninja went for their targets.

Kohana looked around her to see if any of the shadows was watching, but she appeared to be unnoticed so far. A quick roll in the direction of the container brought her to a crouching position next to the Tenjin Mon leader.

'Quiet,' he demanded when she was about to open her mouth to tell him she'd gotten rid of the guards correctly.

She found that so rude that she must have looked hurt, because Hayate quickly gestured for her to keep quiet and whispered, 'You know what I mean. They musn't hear us. Just follow me - the one on the right is yours.'

Kohana nodded, fixated her eyes on the target, waiting until Hayate would get out of their hiding place and she had to follow.

'Is everything still quiet?' one of the commanders asked.

Silence. Most probably someone was nodding, because a few seconds later, the same man said, 'Good. We can't have this interrupted - the information we have might be of use to the government.'

Another short silence, then: 'Do you think we will find any of those organizations, sir?'

A sigh, that could barely be heard if you were only listening to the storm. 'Iya. I think the government is just seeing ghosts again… You know how paranoid people get. The stories go that there are still secret orders around, hiding, conspiring against the established government. They're afraid those people will come out to assassinate them some day.'

A chuckle, 'That won't happen, will it, sir?'

The speaker now came in sight - his silhouette was visible, as well as some of the snow-covered green uniform. The man shook his head as he looked out over the camp, or what was still within view.

'Kinugawa,' a second male voice called out to him, 'If you say you won't find any of those organizations, why do you keep asking if everything is still in order? Your paranoia surprises me.'

'It can't hurt to be cautiou-'

His words were cut off by an explosion at the other side of the camp. Something had suddenly erupted into a big, expanding ball of flames.

'The helicopters,' Hayate explained softly. 'Hayabusa is going for his usual approach. Ikuzo.'

He emerged from their hiding place, diving over the container, rolling until he had reached the second-in-command who had asked about Kinugawa's apparent paranoia. The Shinobi No Kaze stood, perfectly still, a threatening presence behind Kinugawa, and next to the second-in-command. Rather than grabbing the giant katana on his back, he entrusted the kill to his kodachi, gripping it from the small sheath at his waist and thrusting it upwards into the man's back, searching for the heart.
There was no time to wait and see if the now doomed officer would struggle, or fall over immediately - she had her own task to attend to.

Taking a dive much like Hayate's, she reached the commander, who was still unaware of his impending death, staring at the flames where had once been two helicopters. She saw other ninja, taking care of the other soldiers. Some had been alarmed by the explosions and tried to fight back, but it was no use. The ninja still had their element of surprise and overcame them in mere seconds.
Kohana's katana penetrated the commander's stomach, went out smoothly, and was then used to separate him from his head. She was amazed at how the things she learned came so natural to her now - even now the blood seemed to be all over her weapon and she had killed four people.
There was no time to think about morals now, though, because a small group of soldiers came rushing their way - most probably to tell their commanders about what happened near the helicopters.
What they found instead came as a big shock to them; Hayate responded immediately and struck half of them with his poisoned shuriken. At least, she suspected him to have dipped them in poison, because the fallen soldiers wore strange colours on their faces after their sudden deaths.
No matter how fast Hayate was, he had only two hands like any other human being. Kohana knew she couldn't be standing around here and grabbed the first soldier by the head. She brought it down and thrust her knee up at the same time, knocking the soldier out in one swift move. She would kill him later - after the others had stopped coming at her.

She disposed of the oncoming soldiers easily, while Hayate did the same with the other half of the group. She heard some screams and even battle cries as the other soldiers in the camp resisted the ninja as well.

Still, they had no chance. In less than ten minutes, the camp went completely quiet, as the fires from the explosion spluttered in the snow storm, but kept blazing. Kohana rubbed the snow from her eyes and took a moment to look around. Total quiet.

'Well, that was it,' she heard Hayate mutter from somewhere in front of her. Apparently most ninja had gathered there to report their success. 'Let's go back home.'

~~~

Author's Note: Yup yup, end of Kohana's first mission. Child's play for the others, really. Oooh real killing machine girl now. Evil. -.- Um… Yeah.

TigerEyes: Oi, neesan, you're the only reader I have left! Enjoy :)

Japanese words

Yosh: OK

Iya: No

Ikuzo: Let's go