Yuki’s golden eyes opened to the bright light of the early dawn’s greetings. She raised a hand to stop the bright light, but a pitch black crow flew in through the window and perched on her hand. It had brilliant red eyes and a sleek, sturdy build. It turned, looked at her and then left through the window as soon as it came. The girl watched the crow’s figure silently fade off into the light blue horizon.

Yuki felt her voice stir and it woke up. She could feel that it was yawning and stretching, as she was doing now. Konnichi wa Yuki-chan.. her voice said. Konnichi wa Sora-san… Yuki stretched and yawned again as Layne entered the room.

“Morning Yuki..” Layne said wearily. She grunted in response, acknowledging his presence. She sneezed like a cat and rubbed her eyes afterward. She swung her legs effortlessly over the bed and almost face planted, if Layne hadn’t caught her at the last second. Her nose was a centimeter from the floor as Layne struggled to keep her up. Layne managed to get some words out before he started to loose his grip. “Help…me pull…yourself up! You’ll fall soon!..” She did as told and he helped her back onto safe grounds without any tripping death materials.

She walked out of the room and she grunted in pain as her thigh hit a sharp edge in the wall, but she walked on. She went into the bathroom and took a short shower, dried herself off and then changed into different clothes. She now had a shirt where the left arm was completely hidden by a long sleeve. The right side of the shirt was cut off at the armpit and it had elaborate designs stitched into the fabric. The fabric was light grey and it’s designs were a brilliant crimson red. The shirt ended just below the chest and below that, a belt was on the curves of her body. On the back, it had a small dagger that was held tightly in place. She had on a skirt/ shorts that were skin color. She had on extremely short shorts under the clothing. Below her right pant leg, she had a leg protector on. Her kunai pouch was strapped tightly to her leg because of the protector’s smoothness. Her left leg was bandaged from where the protector started and just where the joints of the toes started. Her boots reached up to the middle of her shins and had a zipper on the side.

She rolled her shoulders and stepped out of the bathroom. She walked back past the room and saw that Layne wasn’t out there anymore. “Hm. Time for finding food on my own then.” She said to herself and walked to the door. She opened it and saw that the forest was alive and full of noises. She walked out of the threshold and closed the door behind her when she saw a rabbit. She pulled out her dagger and ran after the rabbit. The rabbit was a snow white and it had wide, scared blue eyes. It ran from the new predator with a new fear that it would not live to see another sun rise. Yuki pounced and stabbed the rabbit in the back before snagging another one. “That was easy.” She brushed off some of the dirt off of her and got up. She brushed some more off of her clothes and she walked back to the hut happily.

A voice said behind her, “Where are you going?” She turned around, the two rabbits in one hand and the dagger in another. She studied the figure well and saw that it was angry. She tensed up and said nothing. It walked towards her and it revealed itself. The figure was a tall man, with a hooded cape over his hair. His eyes were a brilliant, deep green and it seemed to stand out with an angry flair on the man’s face. “Well? I don’t have all day here.” The man growled and waited for the answer impatiently.

She analyzed him, paranoid that he would attack. She crossed her arms and put more weight on her left leg than her right leg. She spoke slowly to the man. “Well…Let just say I’m going back home.” This was half true. The hut was not her home, but it was a home to someone else. The man looked at her again with a “What-the-hell-do-you-think-I-am” look. She smiled and started to walk away. But the man narrowed his eyes and appeared in front of the girl.
“Not so fast.” He growled at her.

She dropped her prizes quickly and slashed the dagger across the man’s chest so fast, her hand and dagger were a blur of colors. The red liquid stained her hand and she jumped back. She jerked her hand back and the man fell over. “Now, what were you saying?” She snarled. She flexed one of her fingers and the invisible string caught light. The string that connected to her hand and fingers pressed on the man’s throat semi-heavily. The man growled.

He narrowed his eyes as he was dragged back to the hut.

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“Hey! I’m back-- “ Her greeting was stopped short when she saw the horror that lay in front of her.

Blood and gore was strewn around the hut and she saw a large orange fox fighting a large blue dragon. “What the hell?” The man and Yuki said at the same time. It suddenly dawned onto the man that the two large animals that were fighting were people.

“STOP IT!” Yuki let go of the man and her threads as she ran in between the two animals.

The fox kept going but the dragon grabbed her shirt, unfurled his wings and threw her into a tree. The dragon turned his back on his opponent and the fox clawed viscously at the dragon’s back. The dragon roared out in pain and it shook it’s barbed wings out, clocking the fox in the jaw. The dragon turned around in blind fury and roared. It bared it’s fangs and claws and landed quickly. When it landed, it ran at the fox and slammed the fox into a large tree trunk, knocking it out. The fox slid to the ground and it morphed into a person with long orange hair, a black mesh shirt and dark blue mesh pants. The dragon turned back into Layne with cuts and blood everywhere. The orange haired man was in worse condition.

Yuki ran over to Layne and put an arm under his to support him. “Damn-- What do you eat?!” She managed to get those words out before Layne passed out from the pain. She saw the man get up and support the fox man into the hut. Yuki supported Layne onto the bed that she slept in and laid him down to stop the bleeding and to put bandages on the wounds. “Almost there…” She muttered and she wrapped bandages over the now green gooey crap that covered the wounds.

The two men were in the other room where Layne slept. The tall man with the hood took his coat off so the coat would not get in the way of healing the fox man. The fox man finally grunted and opened his brilliant purple eyes to narrow slits. “Who are you..?” he croaked out. The tall man hesitated and looked at him with piercing eyes.

“I am…a friend.”

“That doesn’t-- Gah!” The fox man winced as the tall man put some pressure on a wound. “That hurts! Besides, why are you helping me?” He looked at the man that applied more pressure to one of his wounds again.

“Because some of us don’t leave dying, bleeding hybrids on the ground. Isn’t that right, Ev’mont?”

“Gr… Basil, I’ll rip your head off OW when I’m done with the healing!”

“Yeah, like you have the guts.” Basil looked at Ev’mont with piercing eyes. Ev’mont laid there, growling in frustration. When no answer was forthcoming from Ev’mont, Basil calmly said, “Exactly what I thought.”

“Jacka**.”

In the other room, Yuki panicked. The blood wouldn’t stop and there was a poison that didn’t want to break. “Uhm, tall person that tried to kick my a**? Help!” She yelled out. As Layne grunted in pain again, she tried to keep the blood inside of him, instead of the already bloody bed sheets. “Kuso, kuso kuso kuso!” She muttered angrily under her breath.

The tall man entered the room after she muttered “Kuso” four times and ran over. “Move.” She did and he put more bandages onto Layne’s wounds. “I’ll keep the pressure applied to his wounds, I need you to heal him with your ninjutsu. Hurry or else he may die!” Basil looked at Yuki and she nodded. She formed the hand seals of the tiger, horse, monkey and dog before her hands glowed an eerie dull green. She walked over and kept her hands over his body by an inch and hovered over each wound, making sure that it was healed completely. By the time she was done, his body was healed completely.

She leaned onto the wall while panting. “I’ll..go…heal the…other person…now..” She stumbled out of the room before anyone could protest. She tripped but caught her self by using a grapple in the wall. She panted and walked into Layne’s room where Ev’mont was looking at the ceiling. “Hi..there…” She panted.

“Hey. What’s wrong with you?” He said to her.

“No…thing…Everything’s ok..” She panted and leaned against the wall again. “Are..you ok..?”

“Mhmm. But it looks like you need healing now, not me. I’ll be fine.”

“Bu..ht…”

“No buts. Here, have the bed and rest.” And with that, Ev’mont got up and left the bed to stand by her. He shepherded her onto the bed, where she fell into sleep’s arms gracefully. He left the room and let her sleep. He walked over to the other two men and sat on a chair. “Our little shinobi is asleep in Layne’s bedroom. I suggest we all shut up and stay put. What about you guys?”

They nodded and for the remainder of that day, they all spoke in hushed voices.

-End-