Fan Fiction ❯ Little Flower ❯ Progress? ( Chapter 6 )

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: I told you it would get difficult. For me, that is… Took me ages, this, and I still believe it's not that interesting yet. I also didn't make the guy's name as much of a "surprise" as I wanted it to be. But hey. It'll all become clear in the future - why these people are so co-operative towards our little Kohana.

Chapter 6 - Progress?

Now that she had done so well with the army, Hayate considered her to be at the same level as this group of kunoichi she was approaching right now. Her skills would be tested by whoever had taken up the task to do that today, and then she would be let in on the details of the female side of the Tenjin Mon.
She only hoped the differences were not that big. Having that big gap of skill between herself and the other kunoichi, Hayate had seen to it that she would get a jump start. Now that she had finished the practice under him, she was ready to move on. The only problem was that Hayate used the male version of Tenjin Mon Ninjutsu, while the kunoichi used the female version.
He had, however, assured her that he knew just as much of the female style, so there should not be many problems, if any.

'Oi, you there.'

She turned quickly to see a woman with dark brown hair behind her. She was probably about her own age, and a little taller than herself.

'Who are you?' the woman inquired, with a disapproving eyebrow raised.

Kohana became aware of the somewhat hostile attitude, and prepared for a tough test of her skills, if this woman was going to be doing the testing. 'Kohana.'

The kunoichi nodded, recognizing the name, 'Hayate-sama's "addition" to the clan.'

She didn't like the way the woman said "addition". It sounded as if she knew more than she was letting off. Nevertheless, she straightened her back and replied, 'Yes. I was sent to you for more training.'

'Of course, you're still a rookie, even the kids can probably do better than you.' The woman looked over her shoulder to the kunoichi behind her, who were, at this moment, sparring at a fast pace. 'I hope you can keep up with us. But, if Hayate-sama says you can, I won't doubt him.'

Kohana suspected she didn't usually doubt Hayate indeed, but doubted his judgement at this point, even if just a little. 'Who are you?'

'Is that really important, Kohana?' she answered, crossing her arms beneath her chest. 'The only thing important for you is to live up to the standards, ne?'

Kohana concluded that this woman was not one to be liked.

'The name's Hoshiko, if you really care.'

But at least she knew she should avoid people named "Hoshiko" from now on. The brown-haired kunoichi cast another look to her side, half turning to see how her clanmates were doing.

A short while was spent in quiet and Kohana got the eerie feeling that she was going to be attacked sooner or later, even though Hoshiko was not paying attention to her at all - as if she had been forgotten already.

Her suspicions were confirmed unexpectedly as Hoshiko suddenly went into stance and lunged at her with a formidable kick to her side. Kohana raised her arms to block with her lower right arm, as Hoshiko continued with a jab to her other side that was now wide open. Kohana quickly made up for this as she sidestepped into her left-handed stance and blocked with her left lower arm. Her opponent, however, showed no mercy and continued to jab with her other hand. If she did not break her opponent's stance, Kohana would be forced to stay defensive and sooner or later, Hoshiko would find an opening and hit. Once her opponent would find an opening, it would be too late to think of anything else than blocking once again. One does not win a fight by just blocking.

With the third jab, aimed for her gut, she grasped the other woman's arm, just below the elbow, pulling her closer. As she had learned, she spun around the woman until she was beside her, pushing her knee up and against her opponent's back. Completing the counter blow, she then pulled the arm she was holding back, and forced her knee down, knocking Hoshiko onto the ground.
Releasing the arm and getting back into a right-handed stance, she waited for her opponent to get up, quickly thinking over what to try next. In order to beat Hoshiko, she would have to be either faster or stronger. Kohana assumed that this woman had been with the Mugen Tenshin clan for most of her life, like most - or maybe all - ninja. This meant the other woman was stronger than her, and she had to bet on getting the first blow after the kunoichi got up.

All this in three seconds, because, trained as she was, Hoshiko recovered very quickly. The woman got up with a roll and was back on her feet in no time at all, this time taking a defensive stance.

Kohana hesitated with an attack - the kunoichi was obviously more experienced, so she wondered why Hoshiko had switched to defense after her counter blow. But, because there was no other choice for her than to attack, Kohana decided to attack with a low punch, which was quickly blocked, followed by a second, also blocked by her opponent. It was then that Hoshiko launched a short sequence of two kicks and a punch that broke Kohana's stance, and once that happened, Hoshiko delivered a tremendous spin kick to her ribs, sending her back and onto the ground, almost rolling over backwards. It was obvious that even though the kunoichi style focused on speed and agility rather than force, they sure knew how to use their strength in an efficient way.

Kohana rolled back up on her feet, almost getting back into stance but then Hoshiko straightened herself, rubbing her hands together as if it was a routine job to kick people all over the place.

'That's about average,' Hoshiko commented on her fighting, seemingly uninterested. 'You leave too many openings for the opponent to see and, if they get the time, use.'

Kohana shrugged. 'I've not been here for very long.'

'I could also see that.' Hoshiko looked around. 'Why are you not jabbing like the rest of us?'

A good question, and finally one that was easy to answer, 'Because the men use punches, no jabs. My first bit of training came from Hayate-sama.' She admitted it must have sounded a little defensive…

'I see…' Hoshiko pondered for a moment, thinking of what to do. 'If you think you can hurt your opponent enough with those punches - …'

'Hai,' Kohana interrupted, before any other sneers came her way, 'I do.'

'Fine. Come on, I'll me show you how a real kunoichi does it.'

Bitch.

The forest was quiet and slightly orange because the sun was already beginning to set. Some sleepy birds croaked in the trees, but there was no other sound than that. Not even her feet touching the soft grass, speckled with moss here and there, made a single sound. At least she had permission to be here. She had not been sure if anyone would let her go out for a walk. After all the training, the Mugen Tenshin village was the last thing she wanted to see. Hoshiko had mercilessly beaten her up with every mistake she made. At the end of the day, however, the more experienced kunoichi had said that there was some progress and that she was a quick study. Kohana had been so very proud of herself when hearing that… Then realized who had said it and that she probably hadn't meant it.

She carefully made her way past impressive trees, feeling the calmth of the forest beginning to ooze into her as well. At least whatever she had come here for was working.

Finally, she noticed that she had arrived in a familiar part of forest - how long had she been walking to even get there? Kohana remembered how she and her friends used to come here after school and play in the forest and around the old, boarded up cottage near this place. And later, when they had grown older, they would sit in that cottage until it went dark all around, and tell each other secrets they would giggle about.
Kohana smiled as she remembered all her friends - in fact she had had many but had not seen any of them in the two months before Makoto was killed. Sometimes they just forgot to contact each other. She wondered if they thought she was kidnapped, or dead, or moved out of town. She wondered if they missed her.
Her feet came to a halt as she realized that she had reached the cottage, a few miles away from the town where she had lived.

I must have come a long way since I left the clan. Maybe I have been out longer than I thought…

Feeling another smile tug at her lips, she squinted slightly at the cottage, not more than a dark silhouette in the oncoming grey and blue of the night, and made her way down the hill.

When she arrived at the small wooden house, she again hesitated for a moment, then adjusted the mask in front of her mouth and nose and went up to the cottage's door. Gently placing her hand on the wooden knob, she gave a soft pull at it.
Nothing happened.
It must have rusted shut, she pondered, as she gave a harder pull to get it open.
The wood squeaked but the door opened; she closed her eyes slightly in delight and took a few steps inside, clutching the edge of her mask with her fingers so as to lower it.

And it was then that she noticed she was not alone.

Someone was in the room, fiddling with something judging from the movements of his shoulders that she could see. He had his back towards her, but it was obvious that this was a man, she guessed he was around thirty or forty. A lantern that emitted a soft yellow light was placed beside him. His movements stopped as soon as Kohana had stepped in.

Kohana released the grip on her mask since she was about to pull it down and have some fresh air instead of having to breathe through a cloth. Now she realized that would not be a smart thing. He might have seen her, but as long as she had the mask on, he could not know her face. She wondered if that would work, seeing the colours of her hair and eyes. But she had been convinced that these things worked, because every ninja she had met so far had told her so.

The man turned but stopped halfway, looking over his shoulder with a scowl. A quick glance past his broad shoulders told her he had been doing something with black, shiny objects. Guns, no doubt.
When he saw what kind of strange person had so sneakily violated his privacy, he got up, pointing a gun at her that she did not know what to name. She had not ever seen a gun so she knew nothing about them.

'Who are you?' He asked her with a low growl, with a slight accent that she couldn't quite make out.

Kohana's mind worked at top speed to figure out a good way to answer and have him put that gun away. Then she figured her name was probably very common, and to a foreigner like this man, would mean nothing at all. 'Kohana. Could you please lower that gun? It's not like I'm a threat to a strong looking guy like you.'

That should do it. Flattery always worked, if only a little.

The man gave her a suspicious glare before saying, 'Don't think you'll get away with that sweet act, girly.' He slowly lowered the gun. 'What are you doing here?'

She decided that, since he had the weapons and she had not learned to dodge bullets - yet - she would simply answer his questions until he allowed her to ask him some in return. 'I used to come here when I was younger. Call it nostalgia, if you wish.'

Another cold glare before he actually put the gun away, 'Good. This place is occupied, so you can go back to your little dress-up party. I'm sure your boss doesn't like it when you run around and meet people.'

Kohana found herself nailed to the spot as she noticed her usual way of talking to people didn't help get him friendlier. Most of the time she could talk them into being a little nicer to her, but this man obviously didn't fall for anything. That was new… He obviously wanted to get rid of her, but for what purpose? This cottage had become a public place years ago, after all.

'Go away, miss,' the gaijin grumbled.

His rudeness made her curious - what was a gaijin doing here in this cottage in the middle of Japan? Why was he fiddling with those guns? Those obviously weren't toys.

'Who are you, gaijin?' she asked him forcefully. 'What are you doing here, in a cottage in a forest in Japan? For you, this must be the other side of the world.'

The man grumbled, 'It is.'

This guy obviously wasn't going to give away much, which made him even more suspicious to her. Tonight was just not a good night. She had already been away too long, the man seemed agitated, and questioning him now would not be good for either of them.

'Yosh… Listen, sir, I won't bother you because I have to get back to my "dress-up party", but tell me one thing before I leave you alone.' She already went to the doorway to prove to him that she was willing to leave him alone indeed.

The gaijin frowned, obviously wondered if she would report him to the police. His eyes became slits as he judged her with his icy eyes.

'Go ahead. But go to the police and I will kill you.'

Oh, sure. As if the police would be looking for you if someone who disappeared a year ago suddenly showed up at their station. 'What's your name? I told you mine - I need something in return.'

The man gave her a small smirk, 'Bayman.'

Kohana nodded to him as a thanks and went straight out the door before he would shoot her. It just had to be a codename, and he just had to be up to no good.

As she quickened her pace to start running back home - Hayate would kill her if she came back after midnight - some of his words played back in her mind.

'I'm sure your boss doesn't like it when you run around and meet people.'

Even if he was a gaijin, he sure had recognized what she was. She might have to kill him for that if he could find out which clan she was from… She had to watch him. And never tell Hayate - she could do this on her own and he would only get mad if she told him. There was no need for him to yell at her…

~~~

Author's Note: Um yes. I promise it's going to get more exciting after this. I can't promise fast updates, though, but that doesn't matter cause there's only like two people still reading this ;)

Japanese words (even though you know them…)

Hai: Yes

Gaijin: Foreigner

Yosh: Good, OK