[Ako POV]

I go into the forest, surrounded by nothing but leaves and a damp chill. I lay down on the grass for twenty minutes before hearing footsteps in the distance, I quickly decide to flee further into the forest, I look back for a moment before heading deep into the forest dark region.

"There is nothing here, probably just some birds." the two ninjas say before leaving. I find a tree, with a huge opening at the bottom. Deciding to sleep inside of it, I think about what just happened to me, my family murdered, my clan destroyed, my village a shroud of nothingness.

All that is left of the Rising Sun Clan, is me! I am all that remains of that legacy and there is nothing I can do to bring them back. They are gone forever and I could not save them. I cry myself to sleep, hurting from the agonizing truth.

After seventeen miniutes, I pass out from hunger and dehydration, hoping that I die so that I could be with my family again. I was asleep for a total of ten hours, when I woke up, I was in the arms of a mysterious woman with a mask on his face. She takes me to a place where there is a campfire and I see another woman sitting by it. I don't know what they look like, since my vision is a little obscured.

"Make a fresh tent and get her some water and food, this one is on the verge of death." I could not make that out all the way. As the mystery woman was speaking, I was losing consciousness. Slipping into a dark sleep I begin to have flashbacks of the sight of my family and clan, mutilated and butchered, like animals.

Two hours later, I wake up and I noticed that my wounds have healed overnight and that I am no longer suffering of dehydration or hunger. I get outside of the tent and I see that the two women are eating breakfast together.

"Oh good, you're awake!" one of the mysterious women says to me. I look around the campsite and I can't help but think that they are bandits. The way that they live is kind of giving it away to me.

"If you feel threatened by us, don't worry... We are not your typical bandits, we just take what we want and we live in peace, two things we don't do are, steal from high profile ninja clans and kill innocent people." says the mysterious bandit sitting across from me.

"So what's your name?" the bandit sitting next to me on my right side asks.

"What does it matter?" I say bluntly and broody.

"Well, we just want to the name of the person we just gave shelter to." the bandit, dressed in black, sitting in front of mes says.

"But, it's okay, you don't have to tell us, if you don't want to. We can tell you our names for starters, my name is..."

"Thank you for nursing me back to health, excuse me." cutting the woman off mid sentence, I go off towards a river, far away from the campsite. I kneel down towards the water and I begin to wash my face. As I am washing my face, I see that the river turns red, with blood. I panic and I hear my fathers voice calling out to me.

"Ako... you could have saved us Ako! You could have saved your family!" I start to shake my head in disbelief and denial. That can't be my father, that just can't be...

"You're not real, You're not real!" I say to myself, trying to keep a cool head.

My father says to me, "You could not save me, you could not save your sister, or your mother, or your brother!"

I hold my head, covering my ears and I say, "Shut up, stop it!" I couldn't resist the pain of hearing my father haunt me.

My father continues to belittle me, "You have failed me, you have failed your clan and most of all, you have failed yourself!"

In pure anger and rage I yell, "STOP!!!!!"
suddenly, from out of nowhere, I release a golden beam of energy from my hands and it destroys nearby trees, plus it evaporates the water in front of me. Shocked at what I have just done, I noticed that the voice in my head was gone.

"What the hell was that?!" I say to myself.
I hear footsteps and I see some trees, that were not victimized by my mysterious outburst and I jump into them.

While in the trees, I see one of the bandit women arrive, with a katana in her hand. She looks like a Chinese woman, dressed in blue with a scar on the left side of her face. Despite the scar, she looks stunning. I silently leap from the trees, without her noticing me.

While trying to sneak away, I accidentally step on a broken tree branch making it snap Goddamn it! She saw me! She tries to strike me, with her katana but I managed to block the attempt with my wristguard. Her katana looks familiar, the blade is colored in a sapphire shade of blue, with engravings of dragons, wrapping around the cold hard steel.

"Why are you following me?" I ask her, still blocking the blade.

"I heard a rumble in the distance, I just came to see what it was. I didn't know that it was you." the bandit says to me.

"So who are you? Why did you save me?" I ask the bandit, grabbing her by her vest.

"I saved you, because you were starving and were near death. I did not want your demise on my conscience." she says to me, with a smirk on her face.

I form a look of exasperation on my face. "Since when do bandits care about anybody but themselves?"

The bandit tells me, "Well, I guess I may have a soft spot for a beautiful woman in a ninja training garb."

I release my wristguard from her blade, she puts it away inside the sheath on her right hip. She looks at my sash and she asks, "That symbol on your sash, are you a Rising Sun ninja clan member?"

I then shockingly look at him. "How could you possibly know that?" I wonder out of curiosity

"Let's just say, I know my history." the bandit brows her long black hair and she says to me, "My name is Yashin, me and my friend are here for our own reasons. What are you here for?"

I then look away and say, "I have to go."

The bandit known as Yashin says, "I can't let you do that." She swiftly throws a dart at me and it hits my neck area. My vision gets blurry, I can barely see whats in front of me. I slowly pass out instantly upon impacting the ground.

Moments later, I wake up and I find myself chained to an oak tree. The bandit known as Yashin tries to give me water. I drink it and I spit it back in her face.

"That was unpleasant." she says while wiping the water from her face.

"Let me go!" I demand, grunting in rage.

"Not until you tell me who you are." Yashin says, while eating a piece of jerky in front of me.

I let out a deep sigh and ask, "Why is my identity so important to you?"

"Because, I want to know, what you are after and why are you pursuing it." Yashin tells me. I say nothing and she walks away from me.

Nightfall hits eight hours later. While still being chained on a tree, I was asleep. I begin to have a nightmare about what happened to me yesterday. I look around my surroundings, only to see death and destruction. Suddenly, to my horror, I see my family members, trapped in Iron Maidens that are hovering in the sky.

"No! Father! Mother!" I yell out.

"Ako, my daughter, AVENGE US!!!!" My father says to me. The Iron Maidens violently close and my families blood splashes down on me. I scream out in rage, but the dream ends and I wake up. I look over, towards the campfire and I see Yashin and her friend, having dinner.

Yashin walks over to me and she offers me a piece of deer meat.

"No thank you..." I say to her with a calmer voice this time.

"Even you have to eat something." Yashin says. I nod in agreement and she feeds me the deer meat piece.

"So, are you gonna tell me who you are? At least tell me where you are from." I stayed silent, still shaking from the nightmare I just had.

"Okay, fine." as Yashin begins to walk away, I then say to him, "Wait! Your assumption about me is correct. I am a rising sun ninja clan member."

Yashin slowly walks up to me and asks, "What are you after? Why did you come here?"

I then reply, "I ran here, because what happened to me, is something you do not want to know." Suddenly, a rustling sound is heard in the distance.

"What was that?!" Yashin asks me.

"I'm not sure." I reply. Yashin and her friend grab their swords and they go deeper into the forest to investigate.

[Yashin's POV]

We go deeper into the forest and I wonder what lies ahead. Maybe it was just a bear, or a small wolf.

"I don't know Yashin, something is just not right." my friend Pai says to me.

"Be prepared girl, anything can happen." I say with caution. I see something on the ground. I go over towards it and I see that it is a small Kunai on the ground.

"It's a trap." Pai says. Suddenly, from out of nowhere, we are attacked by ninjas. I recognized their garb and I noticed that they are scouts for the Hidden Lotus clan.

"Yashin Kenlong, odd seeing you here." says one of the scouts, while pointing her blade at my face.

"You know, I thought that I would never see you bastards again." I say scornfully.

"You can't escape your past Kenlong!" One of the scouts reply to me. The scouts both begin to attack me at once. I held my own for a brief moment, until I was kicked in the jaw by one of them. The six scouts then try to finish me, but my friend, Pai manages to block all of the scout's attacks with her Chinese Sword.

Pai manages to kill three of the scouts, but the other three overpower her. Before the scouts could end us however, the girl that we rescued, came in and she single handedly killed the last three scouts. How did she just do that?

[Ako's POV]

"How did you manage to break free from your chains?" asked Yashin.

"I'll explain later." I replied. I notice that a scout was still alive, but barely. I walk up to him and swiftly, without mercy, I decapitate him, with one of his partners swords.

"Who were those guys anyway?" asks Yashin's friend.

"They were Hidden Lotus ninjas, dishonorable and treacherous." Yashin explains.

"But, why were they after us?" Yashin's friend wonders, feeling puzzled.

"I don't think they were after us..." Yashin walks up to me and she grabs me by my shirt. Placing me aggressively against a tree, he then asks me, "Why are they after you?!"

I quickly reverse Yashin and I place her in a sleeper hold. Pai takes out her chinese sword, alerting to taking the head of Ako.

"You move , I break his neck!" I say, putting her in a state of fear.

The chinese woman slowly walks up to me, but I yell, "Stay back!" The woman still slowly apparoaches me, ignoring what I just said.

"You don't want to do this, it's better if you just tells us what we want to know and you can be on your way, there is no need for you to spill unnecessary blood." she says to me.

After one minute, I release Yashin and I say to the Chinese woman, "You remind me of someone that was very precious to me."

The Chinese woman replies, "Who?"

I say to them, "I will tell you everything you want to know, but we have to get back to your campsite." Back at the campsite, me and the bandits sit around the bonfire and Yashin sees the broken chains.

"So, how did you get out of your bonds? that is a very impressive, for a human." says Yashin.

"I am a very special type of ninja. I come from a long line of super ninjas, I am the first one to be born in many years. Ninjas like me are more efficient and advanced than normal ninjas." The two bandits look shocked, upon hearing my revelation to them.

"So, are you still human?" asked the Chinese woman.

"Yes, I am human, my bones and anatomical organs are like yours, but I age much slower than normal humans and my bone density is twenty five percent tougher." I replied.

Yashin then asks me, "What's your name and why were those scouts after you?"

I wipe a tear from my eye and I reply, "Because, my family and clan were killed by the Hidden Lotus." The Chinese woman that reasoned with me earlier, put her hand over her mouth, stunned by what she has heard.

"My god... I'm so sorry." she says.

I then say to them, "As for my name, my name is Ako... Ako Kusanagi."

Yashin looks at me, surprised and he says, "The daughter of Han Kusanagi... I knew him!"

I form an astonished look on my face. "You knew him?" I ask.

"He spared my life when I was a young ninja." says Yashin.

"How did he spare your life?" I ask her.

"About 20 years ago, I was a member of the Sapphire Sun Clan. My family was killed by Hidden Lotus ninjas, under orders from their leader Oroschon. They were cruel and heartless to do this. My clan is all gone, and I am the last of my family. After I found my family and clan dead, I ventured to a village, where your father was traning his ninja. He offered to shelter me and train me in the ways of bushido. Everything about your father, Ako, was unique, from his heart to his fighting style."

I shed a tear while smiling and I silently said, "Papa..." looking into Yashin's eyes I ask, "How did you become a bandit?"

"Despite what you may think, I am actually a Ronin actually." Yashin says.

"A warrior without a master..." I mumble to myself. "It seems like we both have a grievance, with the Hidden Lotus clan." I say to Yashin. I look at her and I ask, "Where did you meet this woman, your friend?"

Yashin then replies, "I met her after I met your father and after I left my past behind. She is a Chinese Warrior. I seen her in a forest, just like this one. We decided to travel together and we have been friends ever since." Yayan introduces me to her.

"This is Pai Taisho. Half Chinese and Half Japanese, but don't worry, she can also speak english as well. She is skilled with a sword, hand to hand tactics and archery." says Yashin, with a smile on her face. The woman known as Pai, walks up to me and extends her hand out.

"It is an honor to meet you." she says in Japanese. I shake her hand in response.

"It seems like that we all have a common enemy, so I think we should unite against this threat. As for after we complete our goal, we shall see what happens." I then shake Yashin's hand and I say to her, "I must go back to my village, I have to bury my family. But, I must go alone, so don't follow me."

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