Sora turned around and looked at the voice behind her.

Shit.

Shit, shit, shit, shit.

There was a man and a woman; both dressed in gathered black pants and open jackets. She wore the traditional midriff baring blouse, while he was bare-chested. Their skin was dark creamy color and they possessed a highly muscular build. Around both of their waists were blood red sashes.

There was no way you could mistake them, which was probably why most of the bar was starting to clear out.

Kaze warriors. A partnered pair most likely. After years of avoiding them, she had run smack into a pair the day she came back. Couldn't fate cut her a break once in a while.

She pointed at herself. "Me?" she asked in as innocent of a voice as she could muster.

The women sneered, twisting full lips. "We've waited years for you to venture back into our territory and here you are. We're not about to let you go, Sora."

She tilted her head to the side and tried to look stupid. "I'm sorry, I am Sora, but I don't know what you are talking about. Maybe you have the wrong person? It is a common name in the east."

Again the women sneered. "Don't play stupid with us. We heard you in the restaurant. I only speak a little eastern, but enough to hear the names Sora and Nanashi. Plus, no middle age woman would sit in a bar in the middle of the afternoon and drink. Who else could you be?"

"Very thirsty?" Sora asked.

"Well, if you're not going to be cooperative, maybe we should just go see if we can find those two you were traveling with." The woman and her partner turned to go.

A kunai flew over the top of her head, cutting some of the hair in her bun.

"Well, if you really want to get your ass kicked, I suppose there is nothing I can do about it," Sora said, releasing the illusion spell and crossing her leather clad legs. At the sight of her, the rest of the bar cleared out.

The woman arched an eyebrow and looked back over her shoulder. "Large words from someone who couldn't keep her identity secret for five minutes once she came back to the east."

Sora shrugged. "Everyone messes up sometimes." But she had really done a doozy this time. The only thing keeping her from berating herself was the fact that she knew she was going to need to concentrate to keep the situation under control. She had to have confidence in the kids to figure it out by themselves.

"Indeed. We should have never let you and Nori leave the Kaze alive. But now that you are back within our reach we won't be letting you go again."

"Just for old times sake, could I get your name? I just want to see if I remember you."

The women grinned what was obviously meant to be a sinister smile. She wasn't very good at it. "He's Nitin. I'm Chaula."

Sora grinned. "The one who used to cry because her curry was too hot?"

The grin instantly fell off of Chaula's face. "I also remember beating the hell out of you."

Sora looked up at the ceiling, as if she was thinking hard about something. "I was a good, what five years younger than you?" She shrugged. "Unfortunately for you, age is now a difference in my advantage, as well as the fact that I haven’t been stuck in the Kaze rut for years."

The two warriors tensed and their eyes hardened, although the man continued not to speak. The woman's voice was harsh when she spoke. "The way of the Kaze is the best way in the world. That you do not agree only shows your ignorance."

Sora polished off the rest of her martini. "Really? Well, why don't we just step out of town and see what that rut has given you?" She put money on the counter and slipped off her barstool.

The woman smiled again. "Your regard for the lives of bystanders is famous. It kept the dGra Klesha accepted by the public, but it makes you weak. The Kaze show no such weakness."

Naruto and Hinata were walking back hand in hand to the hotel, when they noticed a crowd was starting to form between them and the hotel. People were crowding around, standing up on their tiptoes to try and see.

"Is it really them?"

"No, it's only one of them."

"Man, I thought they were dead."

"I heard they turned into nuns."

"No way, not with the way they dressed."

"She's going after the Kaze now?"

"I heard the Kaze is going after her."

It only took Naruto and Hinata a few seconds to realize what was going on. Frantically they started to push their way to the front of the crowd.

They broke through the front lines just in time to see Sora come crashing through the hotel window. She arched her body up and over, back flipping across the street before leaping up to land on the railing of the balcony of the building immediately across the way.

She sat down and looked casually over her shoulder. "It's probably best if you leave," she said to the customers and waiters, all trying to quietly enjoy a late lunch.

She crossed her legs as the restaurant customers on the balcony rushed out. "You know the Kaze's reputation has been going down considerably in the last few years. You're certainly not regaining any of that now," she said as her two attackers emerged from the broken window.

The woman sneered. "We're just getting warmed up."

Naruto started forward, but Hinata held him back. Looking down at her questioningly, he realized why she had done it. Sora was doing okay, at least for now, and it was better to save their energy for later on should they need it. Plus the fighters were obviously Kaze; probably wanted to deal with them herself.

Naruto and Hinata could just barely see the woman as she went flying across the street, landing on the balcony rail as one leg shot out to kick Sora's head off her shoulders. Sora bent backwards, avoiding the hit, only to find that the man was now behind her. The outside blade of his hand sliced through her throat.

The man growled low in his chest as the clone disappeared. He and his partner looked left and right, trying to find her. As their heads were turned, Sora swung around the edge of the roof and slammed both of her feet into his chest before once again landing on the railing. The man stumbled backwards into the wall. A few seconds later, his chest burst into flame.

"Ninjutsu," breathed Chaula. "What sort of fighter uses ninjutsu?"

Sora shrugged. "Everyone but the Kaze. Gone are the days when good taijutsu was all that needed to win battles. Gone are the days when using it makes one seem corrupt. All’s fair in love and war."

A manic look came into Chaula's eyes. "We will see." She charged at Sora, flipping over onto the railing, before twisting around, trying to confuse Sora as to where her attack was going to be coming from.

Unfortunately, Kaze tricks did not work on those who were trained by the Kaze. Sora stood and blocked the kick with her shin. Then she grabbed the back of Chaula's head and smashed it into one of the support beams before throwing her down into the street.

Naruto swallowed hard. He knew that Sora was not a Leaf shinobi. He knew that she was a mercenary. But after the event the first day on the road where she had taken an almost pacifistic stance, it had never occurred to him how...brutal his sister was capable of being. But as the women stood up in the street, blood streaming down one side of her face from being smashed into the post, her legs trembling slightly, Naruto looked up to see Sora looking down at her with cold, hard eyes.

Sora was about to administer a lecture on how the Kaze should leave them alone and consider themselves lucky that Sora thought that the Lady of the house was simply a bitch and not klesha when she realized that she should not have counted the man as being dealt with. She sensed him just in time to turn as he barreled into her, running them both off the edge of the balcony. She barely managed to twist in the air enough to land on top of him instead of the other way around.

Twisting his wrist back against his arm, she slid free from his grasp just in time to block another kick coming in from Chaula. Naruto watched as Sora faulted slightly and the woman managed to land a blow on her thigh, pinching a nerve. Sora was getting tired and her moves were starting to show it. But just the taijutsu shouldn't be tiring her out so quickly. There had to be something else going on as well.

He looked down at Hinata. "She's tired," he said.

Hinata instantly realized what he was asking and with a nod, turned on her bloodlimit and watched the chakra swirl around Sora. "She's prepping earth, and she's marked them both" she whispered back to him. Naruto nodded. Sora was getting ready to do some jutsu with earth, although until she began to seal, they wouldn't be able to tell what it was. She probably wouldn't use her bloodlimit here: there were too many witnesses. She'd also put a marker on the two Kaze fighters so that the jutsu would only affect them.

Sora bent her knees and jumped up into the air, followed closely by Chaula. She quickly began to form hand seals, twisting in the air and blocking kicks with her shins. "Earth Anchor no Jutsu!" she yelled and used one foot to push away from Chaula in the air.

A rope of dirt shot up from the ground and wrapped itself around Chaula's ankles. With a short shriek of surprise, she was pulled sharply to the ground where more ropes wrapped around her arms and torso. A few feet away, the same thing was happening to her partner.

Sora landed gracefully on her feet a few feet away. She ran through a few one handed signs before slamming her hand into the ground and yelling "Entrapment!" The dirt from the ropes started so spread out, coating both of them completely in a layer of earth. Soon they were frozen in place, all sound and all movement locked in the dirt. Sora breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth, trying to calm her breathing. She sauntered over to the two encased in dirt, and spotted Naruto and Hinata across the circle. She grinned and was about to start bragging when she noticed four more Kaze warriors sneaking up behind them.

"Look out!" she yelled, as she started to head over for them, only to be blocked by the arrival of more Kaze fighters.

Naruto and Hinata for their parts had managed to evade the initial grasp of the fighters who had come up behind them and how now entered the fray. "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu,” he yelled, producing a dozen clones which evened out the numbers.

"There should be twelve of them!" Sora yelled. "Right now we've only seen ten, so chances are there are still two more out there hanging back." Naruto's clones jumped the four men splayed out in front of Sora. "Hey! You worry about your idiots, I can handle mine," she said, starting the Chakra Bind no Jutsu. The blue light spiraled up and down her forearms before settling in on her hands.

Naruto grinned at the man and girl in front of him. "You guys picked the wrong people to mess with," he said, a group of clones behind him, cheering him on.

The girl, who appeared to be about thirteen, looked at him with wide eyes. "Is that really Sora? THE Sora?"

This had not been the question Naruto hade been expecting. He looked at her, puzzled and slightly offended. "Huh? Of course she's THE Sora!"

The girl's eyes were practically sparkling. "And you're her apprentice?"

"I'm her brother."

A look of pure shock came over the girl's face, quickly followed by adoration. You could almost see the little hearts dancing around her head. "Really?" she asked.

The man next to her had had enough. "Shivani!" he yelled sharply, shaking the girl out of her daydream.

"Sorry," she said sheepishly, and moved into an opening stance.

Man, of all the luck! Naruto pouted slightly at the idea of having to beat up a girl. But she was Kaze, and there were two more guys standing a few feet away, honing in on Hinata and he didn't like the look in their eyes. He wanted to get rid of these guys and fast.

The girl, now identified as Shivani, came at him with a garass to the head, hooking her ankle around and through his face. Thankfully, she wasn't able to tell the difference between the clones and the body simply puffed into smoke.

Out of the clouds came a kick, catching the girl in the side and sending her flying off to the side. Naruto spun low and tucked his legs underneath himself and spotted the man a few feet away. He had successfully gotten rid of a number of the clones and was now prepping to attack the real Naruto.

Naruto breathed deep and put one hand down out, as if ready to ward off an incoming attack. Discreetly, he slipped his right hand behind his back and started to make a series of one handed seals.

The man's eyes narrowed. He didn't do ninjutsu: the Kaze were above such things. Their taijutsu was strong, strong enough to beat any foe not matter what they came armed with. But no matter how little he knew about how to perform a jutsu, he knew that it took two hands to perform one. The boy must be reaching for a kunai.

He charged in, moving to block the anticipated kunai with one arm. His opposite hand moved in to rip out Naruto's throat.

But when Naruto whipped his hand out from behind his back, there was nothing in it. The flat of Naruto's palm landed against the man's arm and he grabbed it and grinned. "Fever no Jutsu!" he yelled, pumping chakra into the man's body. Suddenly, the man felt his body temperature began to rise and he began to sweat even more heavily. Despite this he started shivering, and an ache was starting to form between his eyes.

Naruto jumped up slightly, driving both of his feet into the man's stomach. Then using his planted hand, he whipped himself up and over, flipping over backwards and landing on top of the man’s chest. He wheezed as all of the air was crushed out of his lungs.

Immediately, Naruto jumped up and ran to Hinata's side. The sickly sensation left the man as soon as Naruto's hand left contact with his arm. He continued to lie on the ground, trying to regain his breath.

Hinata stood perfectly composed in front of her two opponents, her face a quiet mask of calm. She moved into opening position.

The man in front of her sneered. "The bitch has been teaching you Shina-To-Be? This is going to be fun. Come on, let's rip her apart."

The men attacked her, first heading towards her front then repositioning themselves slightly to come in from either side. Hinata feigned right and then went straight up and over the head of one of her attackers. It was a classic Shina-To-Be move, however what was to come next was not. Pressing her middle and index finger together, she sighted the chakra holes that ran up the spinal cord in the man's neck. Snapping and recoiling her fingers quickly, she pressed all the holes, paralyzing his neck and with it the nerve connections. The man collapsed to the ground.

The second man stared at her. "What the hell did you do?" he demanded, suddenly noticing for the first time the raised veins around her eyes.

"I sealed the first few of the major chakra holes in his neck. There's no permanent damage," she said in slow, careful western. She was shaking on the inside, part of her thrilled at what she had just been able to do, part of her terrified at what was going to happen next. But after months of training with Yasu, she stood completely calm and every inch the lady.

The man's eyes flashed. "You bitch!" he yelled and charged at her. Hinata stepped into a fighting stance and prepared to hit the holes on his chest.

Then she felt a movement behind her, someone coming up behind her fast. Recognizing the rhythm of the run, she sprung into the air, clearing the way just in time for Naruto to come charging in the Rasengan.

She smiled sweetly up at him. "Thank you."

He grinned back. "No problem."

"She partner trained you," a voice said in awe.

They looked away from each other to see that the girl, Shivani, had recovered from being kicked and was now standing in front of them. But she seemed more interested in talking about Sora then attacking them.

"I can't believe she partner trained you, that's amazing! She left before she was able to complete any of the partner training," the girl rattled off, enthusiastically. "She must have taught it to herself."

Actually, Sora hadn't even thought of partner training them until Nori had suggested it. Both of them had taught Naruto and Hinata, with Nori supplying most of the basics. However, they had been warned not to mention Nori or Yasu on this side of the mountains. Nori was still the heir to the de-throned Reifujin no Kaze: he didn't want anyone to think that he was interested in the position and come after his family.

However, it was doubtful that she was going to listen to them anyway. She seemed to be off in her own world.

Which she was abruptly brought out of when one of her associates, chakra freshly bound, came flying through the air to land at her feet. The man groaned and lolled on the ground.

All three of them turned to look at Sora. She was partially obscured by the still dirt covered forms of Chaula and Nitin, but they could see her working on the last remaining Kaze warrior.

Naruto ran and jumped up to deliver a flying kick to the man's head. He managed to dodge, but ran himself right into Sora's palm. He whipped his head around just to see Sora seal all his chakra.

Sora and Naruto watched the man drop to the ground, before grinning at each other, letting out a whoop of success and giving each other a high five. "All RIGHT! Nobody better mess with us!" Naruto yelled.

Sora looked around. "I still only saw ten of them, including that one," she said, waving a hand at Shivani, who was still just standing there. "Which means that we're still missing two. What is she doing anyway?"

"We're having some problems with her at the moment," a voice said from behind them. They all turned to look.

Everyone gasped, even Shivani. Two women of the Kaze stood there, knives pulled and held at the throats of two children, no older than five with wide, frightened eyes. Their feet dangled in the air as they struggled for air. A thin trail of blood ran down one of their necks.

Naruto's fists clenched at his sides. "You bastards, put those kids down."

The woman grinned and there was a slightly crazed edge to it. "Then come with us."

"What happens if we go with you?" Hinata asked.

"Then you appear before the Lady of the Wind. Your teacher here has crimes she must answer for."

"There is no longer a Lady of the Wind and the only crimes that were committed were those by you," Sora said, eyes shooting daggers at the two women.

The smile dropped and the woman snarled. "We committed no crimes. It was the Lady who tried to rip us away from tradition, who tried to dirty our lines and those who supported her who committed the crimes. And now we find that you have further trespassed against us by teaching those not Kaze our secrets. Too long have we let you run amuck and mock us! We will not let you escape this time."

"Tell me where in the Kaze's history did they put knives at the throats of innocent children. You have become nothing more than schoolyard bullies."

"That's enough!" the woman screamed. "Every second you delay you are killing them. Are you going to surrender or not?"

Sora looked over her shoulder at Naruto and Hinata who were in turn looking at the girl Shivani. Her eyes were wide and she was shaking ever so slightly.

"Hey, kid," Sora said.

Shivani looked up, startled by her voice. She had a white sash, Sora realized, a sign that she was lower ranking than the others they had been dealing with.

"What's your name?"

"Shi-Shivani."

Sora raised an eyebrow. "Shweta's Shivani?"

The girl nodded. Well, with her family, she was probably as close to a trustworthy Kaze as one could find these days.

Sora pointed to the women behind her with a jerk of her thumb. "Have they done this before?"

She nodded.

"And they killed the children?"

The girl’s voice was small and trembled with fear. "The only time someone was able to get the children away, they started randomly killing bystanders until the person surrendered."

Naruto and Hinata's eyes widened in horror. Sora had told them that things within the Kaze had gone downhill since the killing of Nori's family and the instating of the branch family as the head of the clan. However, they hadn't imagined that things had gotten this bad. It was hard to think of the farmer as having come from such stock.

From the disgusted look on Sora's face, it was clear that she hadn't thought that it would have gotten so bad so quickly either.

They were running out of options. If they managed to get the two kids out of the grasp of the women, they would start randomly killing people. It looked like Shivani would not be participating, but some of the others were starting to revive. There was no way that the three of them could prevent the Kaze from killing any defenseless people. However, if they did not make a decision soon, the women would kill the two children.

Sora looked at Naruto and Hinata. They looked at each other for a second before turning back to her and nodding in unison.

She looked back over the shoulder at the women.

"Alright, we'll come with you, just put the kids down. I've been wanting to give the so called Lady of the Wind a piece of my mind anyway.





“We won that round.”

“Eh? Then how come we’re in the dungeon?” Naruto glared at his sister over the top of Hinata’s head. He was leaning against the stone wall while she leaned back against his chest, his arms around her waist.

“Hey, we didn’t had to fight against all the warriors in the Kaze.”

“That’d be better than rotting away here!” Naruto yelled. Hinata winced and shushed him, rubbing his arm to try and calm him down. He grumbled and held her tighter. “I don’t get all this stuff about the ‘purity’ of the Kaze.”

He felt, rather than heard, Hinata sigh, and pulled away enough to look at her face. “You understand?”

She sighed again. “It sounds like something my father would say. That the strength of the clan lies in the purity of each member.” She shook her head. “In fact, I’m almost positive he’s said just that.”

“And in a way he’s right,” Sora said.

“What! You mean you agree with that woman!” Naruto shouted, gesturing wildly with one hand.

Sora shook her head. “When I said that the strength of the Kaze used to lie in their character, I didn’t just mean their reputation. Their strength of character actually made their taijutsu better.”

“What do you mean?” asked Naruto

“You have a friend back home named Lee who doesn’t use ninjutsu or genjutsu, right?” They nodded. “But would you say that he’s an easy mark?”

Naruto thought back to the fight between Lee and Gaara. He shook his head.

“Taijutsu is the use of chakra in a different way from ninjutsu. After generations of working only on that method, the Kaze were experts, much in the same way that I’m guessing your friend Lee is. They could do things that you would have thought impossible. They moved faster than anyone I have ever seen, could slow their enemies’ movements down or even completely stop them. There were times I swore they could fly.”

“What happened?”

“Well, the Kaze attributed their ability to do this to clear-sightedness. Basically, because their intentions were good, they were able to focus without clouds of anger or aggression distorting the view. The old Lady, Nori’s mother, thought that they could keep the clouds at bay while learning to use ninjutsu, (;) that the purity of the Kaze’s intention could be kept.”

“And the bitch upstairs didn’t think so?”

Sora shrugged. “I’m not sure what the bitch upstairs thought. As the leader of the branch family, she stood to lose a lot of power if the old Lady continued her reforms into the political structure of the Kaze. Nori’s mother was good friends with Nanashi, and so it wouldn’t have been out of the question for her to be at least considering political reform.”

“So that’s why she hates my mother so much,” Naruto said darkly.

“Well no one can be universally liked. In any case, shortly after Nori’s mother pleaded her case, she began to introduce small, beginning jutsus into the ranks. Transformation, substitution ; things that could be easily integrated into battle. She knew that it was going to cause trouble among the ranks, but she was positive that is was the right thing to do.

“Less than six months later, Nori snuck into the girl’s dormitory and woke me up. His mother had been killed and they were searching for him. Nori had never wanted to lead the Kaze, and now that his only living relative was dead, he was leaving. He only took me because he knew his mother would have wanted it.”

They stared at her and she looked away. She knew it sounded cold; the two of them simply running away without avenging her death, Nori only taking her because he knew that it was what his mother would have wanted. But they hadn’t been the same people then that they were now, and she didn’t know how to explain that.

As if sensing that she wasn’t going to understand the answer, Hinata didn’t ask the question that was hanging in the air. “Why did Nanashi send you here if things were so unstable?” she asked instead.

Sora winced. It was actually a trickier question than “How could you do that!” she thought had been coming. “Nanashi wanted me somewhere where I could learn taijutsu without having to learn ninjutsu, at least for a while.”

“Why?” Naruto asked.

“Because of my bloodlimit,” she said, and there was so much shame in her voice that it brought Naruto and Hinata up cold They knew that she hadn’t used her bloodlimit in the first few years she had been with Yasu, but they had always assumed it was because the nature of her ability had always needed to be kept secret from the general public. But then why the shame in her voice?

“In any case,” Sora continued, “the important thing is that it sounds like the Lady is starting to waver and loose support.”

“What makes you say that?” asked Hinata.

“The fact that the guards were willing to support my position and call for a council. With the addition of some jutsu use she opens herself up to accusation of hypocrisy. With any luck, we won’t have to fight the whole clan to walk away free. Best case scenario, they just let us go and don’t pursue us.”

Naruto snorted. “Best case scenario she keels over dead.”

“But then who would take her place? What would keep it from being someone just as bad as her?” Hinata asked, looking up over her shoulder at him.

“Raoul could,” Sora said softly. They both turned to look at her. She scowled. “I’m not saying we should get involved. In fact, overall I think that getting involved in the political life of the Kaze would be a bad idea. I’m just saying that potentially Raoul could take over.”

“Who’s Raoul?” Naruto asked. His brain was becoming a mess of Kaze names and faces.

“Shweta’s son and Shivani’s older brother. My guess is that he was the guard who questioned the Lady’s orders. He has his father’s looks about him. Their family was typically the Captains of the Guard”

Naruto was about to question her some more, when a guard appeared at the door of their cell. “You,” he pointed at Sora with a stubby finger, “Stay here. The two of you come with me.”

“Like hell I’m going to stay here while you take the two of them away!” Sora said, almost snarling at the guard.

“Oye, Nee-chan, don’t worry about it. We can take care of ourselves,” Naruto said, standing and helping Hinata to her feet.

Hinata was far from convinced that leaving without the only person who seemed to understand what was going on was a good idea. However, defying the guards seemed to her to be an even worse one.

“The Lady wishes to speak to them,” the guard growled, “without your presence. What YOU wish is of no consequence.”

“Well, she is just going to have to learn to listen to my wishes!” Sora yelled through the bars.

The man snorted. “You must not have trained them very well if you are so afraid to let them go for a few minutes.”

Sora’s blood boiled. “How dare you! They are better trained than all of your stupid little Kaze warriors combined! You would think that a past-its-prime, fading clan would be a little more-“She stopped abruptly as she realized that while she had been screaming at the guard, Naruto and Hinata had slipped out through the door and into the hallway.

“NARUTO! You get your ass back here in this cell right now!”

He waved at her and stuck out his tongue. “Hang tight Nee-chan, we’ll be back.”

“HINATA! Don’t you let him drag you away, I know that you are more sensible than this! Damn it you two GET BACK HERE!”
  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  

“I have been advised by my council that perhaps simply killing you is not the best policy.”

Oh, well that was nice.

It was now almost four in the morning. Neither of them had slept any, and having just finished coming through the mountains that morning, it was only sheer adrenalin that was keeping them going. The couple stood next to each other in front of the Lady, who was now surrounded by what they assumed was the council she had spoken of earlier.

Hinata fought the urge to grab for Naruto’s hand. She was a fighter, stronger now than ever before; she could stand on her own two feet; she didn’t need to hold on to him for comfort. She shook slightly, but she held her ground.

Naruto glared at the Lady. “That’s because we did nothing wrong, you stupid old hag!”

Both of them expected the woman to explode, but instead she was strangely calm. In a way, it was more frightening than her explosive behavior before with Sora. Something had changed since the last time they had seen her.

She smiled cruelly. “Instead, you will be asked to prove the intentions of your teacher.”

“What do you mean?” Naruto asked.

The Lady smiled again and started studying her nails. “Well, Sora claims that she has been thinking about what would strengthen the Kaze since the day she left. Therefore, it would only make sense that her apprentices, blood relations or otherwise, would be raised as Kaze.”

Hinata got a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. “We did not become her apprentices until a little over eighteen months ago. We were raised in the Leaf.” A vague sense of panic was rising up within her. She took a deep breath and continued to hold her ground.

Naruto kept staring at the woman as almost palpable tension built up between the two of them. He had just found the scattered remains of his family, and now this woman wanted to insult his mother, call his sister a traitor, and kill all three of them.

He was not going to stand for it.

“That does not change the fact that she has obviously been teaching you at least some of the Kaze trainings. The question is, did you receive enough?”

“What do you mean ‘enough’?” Naruto yelled.

The guard, whom Sora had identified as Shivani’s older brother Raoul, stepped forward to speak. “Having been taken on as students by a member of the Kaze, you are currently considered to be whites. Tomorrow, you test for your blacks.”

Naruto’s mind raced as he tried to remember what Sora had said about the testing and ranking process for the Kaze. You wore a white uniform with a white sash until you tested for your blacks. You still kept your white sash though until you tested for your red. But the tests themselves he couldn’t remember much about.

Dear lord, he hoped there wasn’t any history on them.

The Lady of the Wind smiled, but it was a smile full of mockery. “And if you can pass the test, all three of you will be considered members of the Kaze.”

Hinata realized that there was something going on here that she didn’t understand. The Lady was acting as if this was a victory. She swallowed hard. Was there something about this test that they could not pass?

“Ha! We can pass any test you give us!” Naruto shouted.

The Lady arched one eyebrow. “Really? It will be interesting to see how the students fare when the teacher herself couldn’t pass.”

Hinata paled. “What do you mean?”

“We reverted the requirements to pass to blacks back to the original requirements a few years ago. Despite the fact that Sora passed to blacks before she left, she doesn’t know all of the requirements. You both have to know all of your sets, both the individual ones and the partnered ones. Sora never learned all of them.”

Hinata breathed a sigh of relief inwardly. No, Sora hadn’t known all of them. But Nori had, and he had been a stickler for technique.

Naruto resisted the urge to shove the fact that they knew them into the woman’s face. Nori didn’t want the Kaze to know he was alive, so until they could figure out how they were going to cover for the fact that they knew all the sets, they were going to have to keep it a secret.

The Lady yawned and they could both tell that it was just for effect. “And then of course there’s one other thing.”

“Which is?” Naruto ground out.

“Why, the fight of course. A traditional Kaze duel to the death.” She smiled. “Without any jutsus.”
  

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
  

Sora sat with her back up against the wall of the cell. Stupid little squirts. When she got her hands on them...

She sighed, and absent-mindedly drummed her fingers on her knee. She wondered what that bitch upstairs was planning. The council could advise and put a lot of pressure on her, but they couldn’t actually force her to do anything. She was the sole ruler of the Kaze.

She could hear talking amongst the guards at the end of her cellblock. She peered through the bars towards the exit. The door opened, and she was shocked to see Raoul walking down the hall towards her.

“I don’t have much time,” he said, his voice low and rumbling. “Shivani is standing watch for right now, but if anyone sees her, they’ll be suspicious.”

“Why?”

He smiled ruefully. “She’s something of a fan of yours.”

Sora groaned. “You’re kidding me.”

“She got in huge trouble a few months ago for putting a big red stripe in her hair. She has been following the attempts to make the movie for months.”

Sora’s heart stopped. “What movie?”

“The one about the end of the dGra Klesha. Sora, most people think you and Yasu died. There’s only been the occasional sighting of you and none of her in the past four years. Where have you been?”

She sighed. “Yasu got married, then she had a kid and then I started training those two upstairs.” She looked at him, clearly apprehensive. “What are the bitch’s plans?”

Raoul shook his head. “The council was able to convince her that it would be a bad idea to just execute the three of you. Unfortunately, what we managed to get was not much better.”

“Which was?”

“They test for their blacks tomorrow. If they pass, you are all considered members of the Kaze. If they don’t, you are all traitors and executed.”

“Shit!” Sora breathed and rubbed her hands over her face. They were going to keep her locked up in here. She wasn’t going to be able to do anything; it was all going to rest on them passing the test. She hated being useless.

“The Lady has put them into a sealed training room for the day. Shivani thinks she can get them out and I can bust you out of here. We’ll get the three of you through the wall, and from there you should be able to...”

“Why would we leave?” Sora asked.

Raoul stared at her. “Sora, you left the Kaze after only training here for three years. You yourself just barely passed the test for your blacks and the standards have increased since you were gone. There are things they need to know that you couldn’t possibly have taught them.”

Sora grinned. “Those two could pass the test for their red sashes. They’re good. They took down two of your Kaze warriors each.”

“Using ninjutsu. If there is so much of a hint that they are using ninjutsu, genjutsu, bloodlimits; anything that is not straightforward taijutsu, they are going to be disqualified and killed. Plus, they need to know sets and patterns that you never learned.”

“They know all the sets, they’re partner trained) they can handle this.”

“How the hell would they-“Light dawned in Raoul’s head. “Nori. Dear lord,we all thought he was dead.”

“Keep thinking that. The last thing he wants is for people to decide that he is the right person to take over the Kaze.”

Raoul ground his teeth together. “He’s willing to hide away somewhere while the clan that his ancestor’s built goes to hell?”

Sora shook her head. “My understanding is that he thinks that putting him in charge would just send things to hell faster. Come on, Raoul, you know as well as I do that he wouldn’t want to be Lord of the Wind.”

Raoul sighed. “It’s been eleven years. I had hoped he had changed.”

Sora shrugged. “Those who want to take charge of a whole clan for the right reasons are a rare breed. Most of us aren’t that insane.”

He took a deep breath. “How green are those kids?”

“What do you mean?”

He looked her dead in the eye. “The Lady restored what she called the original requirements for the test, although I can’t find any historical references to it.”

“Meaning?”

“The final part of the test is duels between those potentially moving to blacks and a new blacks pair. Individual if their not partnered yet, pairs if they are.”

Sora rolled her eyes. “That’s nothing new.”

“It’s to the death.”

“WHAT!” Sora grabbed the bars in front of her, pulling herself in close. “But that’s ridiculous! Every time you test, you loose half your young fighters!”

“She was adamant on the issue; said it was going to keep us on our toes and in top form. It was one of the first things she did when she assumed power.”

They were silent for a second. Then it dawned on Sora. “She used it to weed out the last of those who she wasn’t sure were loyal to her.”

Nori nodded grimly. “Some of them. Other’s she poisoned. I’m pretty sure that’s what happened to my mother. Shivani and I have had to fight to keep alive. She passed the first test, but just barely. Her partner is very good, but if she gets up against someone much stronger than her, I’m not sure what’s going to happen.”

“Raoul! Someone’s coming!” Shivani whispered.

Sora smiled. “Don’t worry about us, we’ll make it out just fine.”

He frowned. “That’s not all that I’m worried about.”

Apprehension began to unravel in Sora’s chest. “What do you mean?”

He looked at her hard. “Unless the Lady changes the rotations, Shivani and her partner are going to be your kids opponents.”

Sora paled and her eyes went wide.

“Raoul!” Shivani whispered.

Raoul took one last look at Sora, shook his head and headed back down the hall. She leaned against the bars of her cell.

Dear gods, what had she gotten them into.