Natsumi fired her final arrow. The projectile flew twice as fast through the air and hit its target in a clean headshot. Gen fell to the ground knees first with an arrow protruding on through forehead. He lay facing down on the ground and Natsumi ran forward to confirm the kill.

“He’s dead.”

She then rushed over to her friend who was also at death’s door, knelt down and gently raised him with her arm behind his back.

“Hey Ken…you alright? Talk to me,” Natsumi pleaded tears running down her face. “Let me carry you, there must be a village nearby. When we were on top of the waterfall I could see light from fires in the surrounding area.”

No response.

She gently placed Ken back on the ground and gave him mouth to mouth resuscitation. They had all been taught the first aid in their first year at the ninja school. After a few moments Ken let out a cough and gasped out heavily for air.

“T-There goes m-my first kiss,” Ken chuckled with some difficulty as drops of blood oozed from his mouth.

“This isn’t the time for jokes Ken,” she smiled wiping a teardrop from her cheeks before embracing him. “Don’t overexert yourself you’ve lost a lot of blood.”

“Okay mom,” he remarked not trying to worry her. “I s–see you f–finally finished off that f–fucker.”

“Couldn’t have done it without you,” she replied him. 

Ken knew most of the organs in his abdomen had been fatally injured and even if he was moved to the village nearby there wasn’t much they could do. Before he could tell Natsumi they heard female voices emanating from the nearby bushes and trees.

“Help! Help!”

“Hey N-Natsumi…you hear that?” he asked before adding, “Those are p-people who need your help m-more than I do.”

“Yeah I did…the voices seem to be coming from that direction,” Natsumi pointed. “But I can’t leave you to die here Ken.”

“I don’t have much time left Natsumi…there’s something I need to tell you,” he managed to say all that in one go. Natsumi then listened attentively. “Please look after my cousin Kenji for me and as for my katana…it’s all yours.”

He coughed up a bit of blood and then mouthed, “I love y-.”

“NOOO! KEN!” Natsumi screamed as she resumed bawling torrents of teardrops.

Natsumi didn’t get the opportunity to notify him whether his love was requited or not. She wept for a few minutes with Ken held gently in her arms hoping he would wake. She stopped crying when she heard the screams of voices again. She carried her friend’s body gently and carefully hid it in the nearby bushes before dragging the rōnin’s corpse to hide it as well. After she was done hiding the bodies she took Ken’s katana from Gen’s back, wiped off the blood with a cloth and then tied it to her left side.

She went to pick up her shoes and put them on before grabbing her bow and heading towards where the sound had been emanating from. As Natsumi drew closer to the voices they started to become clearer and she could also notice a small hut. She cautiously entered the wooden structure with her guard up and found out that three women in their twenties had been tied up with their hands bound behind their backs.

“Please miss can you help us?” one of them begged.

“Right away…let me untie those ropes for you.”

Natsumi quickly dropped her bow and unbound them from their restraints. The first woman to speak thanked her countless times before explaining how they’d been abducted.

“My imōto (little sister) had been missing for several hours and it was getting late. Me and my two friends decided to go out and look for her,” said the first woman after being freed. She paused for a moment. “No one would help us so we set off from our village which is nearby from here and followed the river upstream. When we approached Death Valley we knew of the many stories about women and girls being kidnapped but we couldn’t just wait…what if it’d been my imōto as well? That was all that ran through my mind.”

“So what happened when you got here?” Natsumi asked.

“We found two bodies already on the trees,” she broke into tears. “My imōto and her kareshi (boyfriend)…without his eyes and manhood. Who the hell does that! Before we could do anything we were knocked out by a vagabond and woke up in this very hut. When we woke up he raped us and then told us we were each gonna end up on a tree just like my imōto.”

Natsumi stared at the other two women present and she could tell they had gone through some traumatic ordeal. They were so frightened not a single word could come out of their mouths. She gave her condolences to the first woman and also told her that she too had lost someone dear as well.

“As for that rōnin, you needn’t worry about him. Ken and I finished him off.”                            

The lightning kunoichi escorted the three women to the nearby village and ensured that they all arrived safely to their homes. She was offered a place to stay the night by the first woman and she gladly accepted as it was still quite dark outside and she needed the rest. The next morning before the birds started chirping Natsumi bid the woman farewell and was on her way back to her own home, the Lightning village.

Meanwhile that morning at the Fire village news of the royal family massacre was in almost every room. Kenzo who had been hiding in the Inazuma shrine was devastated when he arrived at the royal palace to see everyone dressed in black and hearing of his family’s demise. The fourteen year old prince with short dark hair and brown eyes started wailing sorrowfully and was comforted by some workers. Without a daimyo or an adult member of the royal family the young prince was promoted to regent daimyo by a group of elders, advisors and a few royal samurai who were present in the palace. The elders and advisors aided Kenzo in the necessary preparations for the royal funeral. Sooner rather than later the whole village would be dressed in black and mourning the great loss.

Back at the Lightning village Kazuo and Haru had finalized their week long plan of peeping into the girls’ baths. The deadly duo woke up just as the birds began to chirp their beautiful songs and went way to the boys’ baths before breakfast began. As they entered the bathroom they could hear the voices of Mikoto, Kohaku amongst other girls in the next room. The duo made sure they were the only ones in the boys’ side before carrying out their plan.

“Now’s the time,” Kazuo whispered over to Haru who nodded back.

They approached a ventilation outlet that was on the ceiling at the side of the bathroom. It was small enough to allow someone with a relatively small build to enter. Haru raised Kazuo on his shoulders and the latter unloosened the screws before opening the outlet.

“Yes!” Kazuo exclaimed in a whisper when the last screw was undone.

Kazuo entered the vent pipe and helped raised Haru with his hands. The duo then crawled over to the girls’ whilst side facing each other. The stopped at the central vent outlet where they could see through the metal grid.

“We hit the jackpot,” Haru told his fellow degenerate.

“Yes we did,” replied Kazuo with a wide grin. “Yo I can see her tits!” he added with an exaggerated nosebleed.

“Who’s? Hey lemme see,” Haru requested trying to scoot Kazuo over.

“Hey Haku did you hear that,” Mikoto looked around to see where the sound was coming from.

“What Miko?” replied Kohaku with raised eyebrows.

“Up there…in the vents. I think there’s someone in there.”

Kazuo and Haru were as quiet as a school on weekends. “Shit we’re busted,” the latter whispered.

All the girls present shrieked trying to cover themselves up with their hands and towels. “Oh no…not perverts!” one of them yelled out.

“Just stay quiet and crawl back to the boys’ side,” Kazuo whispered to Haru who then did as he had been instructed.

As Haru jumped to the ground on the boys’ bath he was greeted by an unexpected guest. “What were you doing in the vents?”

“I-I…” Haru stammered before turning to see who it was.

The guest was revealed in the steamy room to be none other than the goody two shoes Kenji Nakamura. “Hey Haru, I asked you a question.”

Kazuo could be heard crawling towards the opening and Haru wasn’t in a position to warn him.

“Nothing!” Haru exclaimed the first thing that came to mind. It was a clever effort to try and dull Kazuo’s steps with his voice and also warn him at the same time. “I thought I heard a sound and wanted to see where it leads that’s all.”

“Wait who else was up there with you?” Kenji further questioned sternly trying to move Haru aside so as to check the vent.

“No one!” the reply came almost instantaneously but Kenji could see through the façade.

“Let me guess it’s the Inazuma boy,” Kenji sighed with his arms folded. “Hey Kazuo I know you’re up there! Get down here before things get worse,” he shouted loud enough for Kazuo to hear.

“Shit now we’re really busted.”

Kazuo couldn’t think of anything else to do so he got down from the vent and stood beside his only friend. He wanted to tell him how he had messed up by failing to close the vent behind him and also making a fuss when they were carrying out their task but now wasn’t the time for that.

“I’ll be sure to notify our seniors about this punishable offense,” Kenji grimaced in disgust. Since he was already done with his bath he took his clothes and prepared to leave. “Damn perverts!”

“Hey wait…Haru wasn’t in on any of this. It was all me,” Kazuo tried to plead to Kenji but the latter kept on moving and he shut the door behind himself as he left the bath.

Kazuo and Haru remained behind to take their baths. They could still faintly hear the girls’ in the next room trying to figure out who the pervert was.

“Yo Haru…what’s that guy’s deal?”

“Who? You mean Kenji…uh don’t mind him he’s like that. He thinks he’s cool like his cousin Ken.”

“Him…cool?” Kazuo pointed to the door making a questioning frown. “Doesn’t he know being a nice guy won’t get him any girls?”

The duo finished their taking their baths, went to their rooms to get dressed and then made their way to the cafeteria before the first lecture for the day began.

After they were done with their food they proceeded to the classroom and when everyone had settled down their teacher had an announcement to make.

“Okay good morning class.”

“GOOD MORNING YAMAZAKI-SENSEI!” the students shouted.

“Before we start today’s lesson Kazuo and Kenji are being called to the Sage’s office.”