A Hatred That Will Never Bloom Into Friendship

The wind dies down, and Lloyd drops his arm from in front of his face down to his side. “Well, finally you have that jutsu mastered,” he says to me mockingly.

I roll my eyes, not having enough strength to make a comeback at his sarcasm.

My heavy breathing slows down a bit, and Naria sensei steps up beside me.

“That was very good, Kimina. Now, I want to teach you something else.” I smile uneasily, but excitement sparkles in my eyes.

Naria sensei smiles back. “Now, watch.”

She disappears into the morning air, and reappears suddenly in front of Lloyd twenty yards from me. She gently pushes him in the chest, and that little press sends Lloyd hurling backwards into a tree. Instantaneously, she grabs out several diverse weapons from her pouch and flings them at Lloyd’s body.

I watch in amazement as the tools perfectly align themselves around the edges of Lloyd’s clothes, pinning him to the tree.

“Hey, what the heck…?” Lloyd tries to get free, but to no avail. “Alright, this is a pretty good trick, but why do I always have to be the test subject?” His eyes dart to Rakuyo, who was standing a few feet to my left.

Rakuyo only smiles, and I laugh at Lloyd’s annoyed expression.

Naria sensei clears her throat. “Now, Kimina, you will not be able to do this technique like how I did. You don’t have the necessary speed yet.” I nod. “But I do have another way you can do this that will be in your field of expertise, so to say. You up for it?”

I straighten my shoulders up, and the green chakra flows over my battered and bruised body, healing the marks up profoundly and giving me my energy back. “Yep, I’m ready.”

“Wind style: Wind Dragon jutsu!” I yell in fury, my hands together in a hand sign.

The wind rotates around me, gaining speed and form. The massive dragon opens up its twp piercing red eyes, and it roars with deafening bass.

Ryron hurriedly tries to take out the shuriken and kunai knives thrown around the edges of his clothes that had him pinned to a tree, One, two, three, four. The weapons drop down to the ground with a clank. But it was too late for him to escape.

As the dragon rushes out towards his trapped form, I run over to Lloyd. His body was still and unmoving when I dropped down beside him.

“Hang on, Lloyd.”

I place my hand on him and the green chakra streams out. The chakra circles around the knives protruding from his back and dip down below his flesh. His wounds begin to close up, and his body moves up and down slowly in superficial breaths.

I would have felt alleviated at that moment, but instead my body tenses up in alert. It was too quiet, and I realize I didn’t hear the dragon coming in contact with Ryron; the screams I should have heard, or the breaking and splintering of the wood. It was just silence.

A shadow passes overhead, and I look up to see Ryron skyrocketing down towards us. How the heck did he get out of that?

I hastily glance over to where he was pinned and many of the weapons were still penetrated in the tree, and pieces of his clothing were still hanging from them. Okay, so he ripped himself from the tree, but how in the world did he stop my dragon so completely, and so quickly.

Hmm? I thought I saw a silhouette in the bushes past the tree. The figure looked too big to be a friend of mine, but the shadow moved too fast that I figured that I must have imagined it.

I lift my head back up to Ryron. “Fire style: Fireball jutsu!” I spew fire from my mouth, but at the last second he flips out of the way of the incoming inferno. He kicks his leg out and dive-bombs again. Crap, I had to move.

I put Lloyd’s arm around my shoulder, and begin pulling him up beside me.

“Kimina,” he whispers softly, his eyes unfocused.

“Here I come!” Ryron screams above us. His shadow grows darker around us.

I bend my knees to jump away.

Closer and closer he gets. Until…

“Get down!”

He jumps out from the bushes on my left, and I drop down to my knees. Lloyd grunts from the sudden decline, and I give him a look of apology.

The new incomer bashes his body against Ryron, and sends him flying in the opposite direction. He lands on the other side of Lloyd and I, and looks back at the two os us with unusual lines sketched around his eyes.

“Neji?” Lloyd says stressfully.

“Why don’t you get him out of here? I’ll take care of him,” Neji tells me simply. I thought I saw a look on Neji’s face as he gazes at me, but I overlook it.

I nod in agreement. “Right, thank you.” Out of the corner of my eye, I see Ryron stand to his feet. Neji turns his attention back on him.

“Now go!” Neji takes off in fast speed and strikes Ryron in the chest. The quick move looked so simple and easy that it was hard to believe that blood spewed from Ryron’s mouth. His body also seemed unresponsive.

“What the…?” I hear Neji exclaim lowly.

“Kimina,” Lloyd tries to get my attention. I shake my head and tear my eyes off of the scene in front of me.

“I’m sorry, Lloyd. Come on.” I’m sorry for everything that has happened.

I jump on a branch above us, supporting Lloyd’s weight as I did.

As we begin to get away from the battle spectacle, I faintly hear Ryron’t gurgled voice yell, “Your dead anyway, girl! Bu Yasu’s hand! Yasu will…!” His statement is cut short, and the chilling silence freezes me to the bone.