-Prologue-
It was night in the silent forest.

A young girl, with the looks of a fourteen year old, slowly rose from a tree. On the direct opposite tree, a young man that looked about twenty, landed on a tree branch with ease. He was unscathed, showing no effort to fight. She was bloody, battered and had critical wounds as she coughed up blood.

The young man had the eyes of a dragon—Red and pupils dilated. His hair was a deep crimson and he donned a large black cape around his body. His boots shone in the pale moonlight as the girl had started to stir, showing signs of life. He chuckled at this. The girl has a un-dying will to not be defeated, he mused inside his head. But will that do any good for her? It took him a while to answer that as he watched the girl. …No. It will not do any good for her, he replied to himself.

She raised her head, showing the wounds on her forehead and cheeks. Her eyes gleamed a dangerous fiery golden as she snarled, her wolf ears pressed on her head in anger. Her hair was matted with dry blood and dirt, but it was a pitch black color. It reached past mid-back and almost to her tail with her bangs covering her right eye. Her hair in the back spiked up, as the rest of her hair was. Her armor was a deep burgundy red, with wire thin scratches to brutal bashings on it. Her armor covered her chest, shoulders, thighs, forearms and backs of hands and her upper arms. Her boots had a small heel to it, but they were open toed, leaving her toes bloody from the blood that seeped from her wounds. Her tail and wolf ears were black, but her wolf tail had a light grey underside to it. She got up from the tree and limped towards the young man with a katana in hand, eyes guarded and temper flaring.

He smirked and let her come close before disappearing. She had not seen this coming, and so she swung the katana quickly in his direction before he could stab her chest with his ice covered hand. He smirked again and grabbed her shoulders. He then took a step back and swung her into the ground and placed a knee onto her stomach quickly before she could get up. It was too oblivious to dodge, but she countered with a stab to his stomach with the katana and twisted the katana around. He howled in pain as she thrusted the katana even further into his stomach, leaving a good size hole in his abdomen.

She smirked and kicked him off, causing the young man to slam into a tree and gasp for air as the girl slammed her knees into his lungs, causing his wind to leave him. She grinned wolfishly but that moment was brief, for he had kicked her into a boulder. Her impact on the boulder caused it to shatter, sending debris into her spine and into the young man’s body. She coughed out a good load of blood, because her sight was going black around the edges. As she struggled to stay conscious, the young man left the girl and the area to leave her to die in the rapid rivers. She then lost consciousness and fell into the hands of the void.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
In another part of the forest, a young man that looked about sixteen slammed a hammer onto a piece of white-hot metal. The sunlight streamed through the tree branches and through the green leaves. Beads of sweat trickled down his forehead and landed on the metal, causing small streams of steam to go into the air. He lifted the hammer again and pounded it into the metal. The metal and hammer sang a high, vibrating note that hung in the air after it was released.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a humanoid figure – but it had an arm around its chest, a limping gait and its shoulders were slumped. He put the hammer down and grabbed a small dagger that could be deadly. He then put it in the pocket of his apron, just for quick access. He then walked over to the figure and stood fifteen feet away from the area it was in and waited.

The figure stepped out of the dense shadow and revealed itself. The figure was a fourteen year old girl with wolf ears and a wolf tail. The girl had a deep and long wound that started at the middle of her chest and twisted to the right and stopped at her small of her back. Her hair was matted with water and blood. Her armor was totaled, but crushed in. Her armor was now too small and did not let her get out of it, causing wounds on her abdomen and shoulders. Her leg was broken and shattered from hitting the boulder last night.


The young man ran over to the girl as she slumped over, her knees buckling under her. She tried to grab a tree branch, but was too slow and her reflexes did not click fast enough. He ran over and caught her right as her knees touched the ground. Her eyes flickered over to the young man who had caught her with a wary eye—she did not trust any man yet. She opened her mouth a bit and barely got the words out, “Thank you” before hissing in pain. Her mind had wandered over to the fight last night—why did he attack me? She asked herself. She shook her head slightly, ridding herself of that question until later. She was fatigued and wanted to get to the next village quickly to contact her friends that she couldn’t bring him back. The young man put her on his back quickly, seeing how much blood she had lost.

“No problem.” The young man replied to her. He smiled a smile that no one could do if they were ninja—but it looks like he’s not ninja… she said to herself again. She turned her head quickly and coughed out a lot of blood into her hand. “Let’s get those wounds fixed.” He said with a underlying concern for the girl and her health.

The girl shook her head, refusing the offer. “No thank you, but I’ll be fine.” She received a skeptical look from the young man before she passed out from fatigue, pain and hunger.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Her consciousness woke up as the young man walked in with bread, warm soup and water. There were pills next to the water and she looked at him. “Are you…going to drug… My reflexes..?” She asked in a whisper. Her eyes were narrow slits before they grew accustomed to the pale moonlight.

“No. I won’t drug you—these pills are actually supposed to help you. Here, stick your tongue out.” She did so but hesitated. She then stuck her tongue out again, and he put the pills on the tip of her tongue. He then made her drink the water and made her swallow the pills. “There,” he said with a sigh of relief, “You’ll be fine soon.” He smiled again. “So how do you feel?”

“I feel like cr*p and I want out...” She didn’t like being in a bed with a stranger taking care of her when she could have healed herself. Her reserve of chakra was not touched, but the pain made her pass out without warning. She swung her legs over the bed and got up, only to fall “Gah!” she cried out.

“Wait! You’re not healed yet!” He caught her and gently pushed her back into the bed. “Please, let the wounds close before you walk around.” With a defeated sigh and the knowledge that he could beat her any ways, she crawled back into the covers. She didn’t like this situation because she was at his mercy.

“Fine. But who are you?” She asked in a whisper because her voice was not with her yet. She carefully prodded his mind and made sure that his intentions were pure to protect herself. She did not realize that she was quickly sensed. If that man tries anything, she thought to herself, summon something. You idiot. We’re slow, we can’t fight unless you want to be screaming in agony and the young man we fought before—he wasn’t even trying! You were! Her demon shook her on the inside, swaying her long blue-ish/white hair, her bright grey eyes alight with anger. Think this situation through! We’re helpless. Just go with the flow and try not to mention that we’re being targeted, PLEASE. Her demon stalked off and slammed her door behind her in anger.

“ I am Layne. And you are…?” He paused, giving her room to answer.

Her lips were dry and her voice seemed to be stuck in her throat. She opened her lips and hesitated before saying, “I am…Yuki.” She did not release her surname, for it brought bad memories back.

He nodded. “You’re going to need lots of sleep, so I’ll leave you alone to sleep. And if you get out, I’ll drag you back here again. You’re sick, you’re in critical condition and you need to rest.”
She coughed some blood out as he said, “You’re in critical condition” and he didn’t hesitate to run to get a new, clean rag. The blood slowly seeped from in between her fingers and onto her hand below. She had her eyebrows furrowed together—it hurt like h***. He returned and wiped the blood away with the rag.

“Just rest Yuki.” Those were the last words she heard before she fell into the arms of sleep.

-End of Today We are Friends, Tomorrow We are Lovers Prologue-