Emilia walked in front of the mission group along the worn path. Solomon walked slightly behind her, and the other two kept a few feet back. Emilia had set the tone early on by hushing everyone and staying completely serious the entire time. The group had been walking for nearly half the day now, and they weren’t expected to arrive at their target location for at least another few hours. When anyone in the group had tried talking to one another, Emilia turned a death glare onto them until they shut back up. Solomon heard that she took missions seriously, but this seemed like overkill. Something was clearly wrong, and he was fairly sure that he was the cause, though he was hesitant to bring anything up. The group continued on like this for most of the day.

  A rumble disturbed the ground and the trees. Birds flew away, sticks and seeds fell from the sky. The rumble passed after only a few seconds, but it left the group on edge. There were very few landmarks that marked their passage to their target location, but they had just passed the last one mere minutes ago. The path had grown from worn to well traveled as it joined a larger road paved with cobblestones many years ago. They moved cautiously now, unsure of what exactly caused the disturbance, but they knew it could only mean one thing: combat.

  After a few minutes of walking and keeping their surroundings in check, the group stumbled into an absolute mess. A small array of stone buildings stood in a small flat clearing among the forest, with what used to be a tall tower located on the edge of the compound. The tower had crumbled, with what looked like a large chunk missing on one side, causing the entire tower to collapse inward. In most situations, a normal group of shinobi would presumably have to dig through the rubble to locate any possible survivors. This group was not normal.

  They were all proud members of the Hyuuga clan, and possessed a powerful ability perfectly suited to this task. Emilia surveyed the compound as veins began to visibly bulge around her eyes, as if her blood pressure had just risen drastically. Her eyes, like all Hyuuga, were a milky white in color, lacking any visible pupils. The Byakugan changed this detail. A small, stark white circle appeared in the center of her eye, signifying the full activation of the ability. The penetrating eyes were framed on her sharp pale face, exacerbated by flowing dark hair that fell over her shoulders. The entire group had activated their Byakugan.

  Focusing all of their attention on the set of buildings, they all fixated on the single Chakra source in the entire place. Someone was weakened at the bottom of the collapsed tower. There were no other sources of Chakra in any of the other buildings, or the surrounding area. Whatever had done this had either died, or gotten away, or hid somewhere. The group moved forward with caution and haste, working at Emilia's guidance to clear away the rubble of the tower, until they came across a girl in an exquisite dress.

  The girl was unconscious, with a deep cut on one arm, but seemed to be fine otherwise. The group extricated the girl from the rubble, then went to search the entire place. What they found disturbed them deeply. There were very few residents in this place, which appeared to be a combination inn and homestead of sorts. A family was dead in the home, and multiple men and women were dead in the inn. Two more men were found dead at the bottom of the tower. The men in the tower wore similar armor, with a guild symbol that matched the group the Hyuuga members were supposed to be escorting. The same symbol was found on an arm band the young girl wore. Somehow, this girl, maybe 14 or 15, had survived a terrible disaster that killed everyone else in this town. And all the group could do was wait for her to wake up.

  “I finished looking all of the corpses over… I can’t figure out the cause of death. Their bodies were punctured, but I don’t know what kind of weapon leaves massive puncture wounds…” The other girl of the group, Otoha, said.

  Solomon and the other boy, Jimpei, were busy pulling the armored men out of the tower. Their bodies held similar wounds, large puncture marks that ran straight through the chest and abdomen and out of their backs. The men carried swords on their persons, but no other equipment. They were not shinobi.

  Solomon went off to clean his hands while the other three talked amongst themselves. He went over to the still unconscious girl and sat cross legged, brushing his hands off and wiping his arms down with a rag. A soft cough dragged his attention up to the girl, who was beginning to wake. Her eyes barely opened, then shut close, her face wincing. Her hair was caked in dust and debris, but it was cut shorter and clearly a bright blonde in color. Solomon called out for the others as he pulled his water skin from his pack, trying to get the girl to drink some. They had patched her arm the best they could, and at least got the bleeding to stop, but they weren’t sure how much blood she had already lost. Seeing her waken this fast meant she didn’t lose too much, Solomon hoped.

  The girl was eventually fully awake, sitting up straight, looking at the group. Her name was Shirai. She explained that she is the daughter of a powerful lord, and she was sent out to bring a peace offering to another feudal lord. Her group had contracted with a shinobi for the trip to the other lord's township, and then had arrangements to meet with the Hyuuga members, who would take over the return trip. The shinobi had left them only earlier that day.

  “We were supposed to be safe… It was only one day. You were supposed to arrive by the end of the day, and we didn’t think anything would actually happen in between that time… I am so foolish.” Shirai said. She looked over at her two guards in sadness.

  “If we had just contracted with that shinobi for the rest of the day, none of this would have happened..” Shirai continued, beating herself up.

  “That’s enough. You can’t change the past. We’re here now, and we won’t let anything more happen to you. That is a promise.” Emilia said, walking over and standing in front of Shirai. She offered a hand to the girl. Shirai looked up in surprise, then took the offered hand.

  “I must admit… It is quite strange to be protected by children, especially ones so much younger than myself. I do hope you all don’t hurt yourselves too badly…” Shirai gushed, looking at the group arrayed around her. Solomon felt his face flush slightly. He turned to start marching away.

  “We have a schedule to keep. Now that we know someone is out looking to kill you, we should get moving. You are supposed to show us the way back to your father's estate.” Emilia stated, walking back toward the road they came from. Shirai spent a moment brushing herself down as best as she could, then moved to catch up, her dress dragging along the ground.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  For the first hour on the road, the entire group was on edge. After the first ten minutes though, they had to deactivate their Byakugan so as not to strain themselves too much. After the second hour of walking, Shirai began small talk with the other three. Emilia kept her focus on the road in front of her, trying to ignore the blatant rule breaking the others were knowingly committing. She would punish them for their mutiny later. Shirai told the group a longer story of her travel, going into detail on the lavishness that was the other lord's compound. Then she began to talk about her own home. She got caught up when talking about the two men that were her bodyguards. She had apparently known them for most of her life, and they were steadfast in their duties to protect her. The three Hyuuga plus Shirai all drank out of water skins in commemoration of the brave men.

  Eventually, night fall came. Camp was set up, and the group seemed more relaxed. Except for Emilia. Solomon went off to look for sticks to start a campfire with, but Shirai showed up with a bundle of sticks ready to go. She started a rather large campfire that Emilia balked at, but relented when all the others sat down and began telling stories of their own. Emilia moved to sit in front of her tent, a distance away from the campfire. She listened to the stories they told. Solomon began describing a story that sounded suspiciously like something Kotetsu had done, involving an anthill and a dare to eat one. She barely kept the outburst of laughter from escaping. The hours of the night went by, the fire was put out, and the group went to sleep.

  The next day, the group moved quickly. They were making record time, and Emilia was almost positive they could get to Shirai's father by the afternoon. They made haste, and after a few hours, entered a section of the forest that had been trimmed over the years. The ground was more level, and the road was paved with smoother stones. Soon, a large wall came into focus, and the group came upon a huge set of metal doors. Two men atop the wall peered over the edge, spotting the group, and after seeing Shirai, began to open the doors. They had made it. The group waited patiently, taking the time to catch their breath, while a large contingent of armored men and women gathered just past the large open gate. One figure, a robed male, approached.

  “Hello, Princess. I see the Hyuuga clan found you well. But, where are your guards?” The man asked.

  “They were slain during an ambush. I barely survived, and if it weren’t for these shinobi, my life would have ended buried under stone.” Shirai said.

  The robed man looked down and bowed, then looked back up at Shirai. “That is what we paid them for. I am happy they could be of service.”

  “Yes, that is what we paid the Hyuuga clan for.” Shirai turned to the group. “You may leave now. There is no need for you to stay. I am safe within these walls.” She continued.

  Emilia paused.

  “Our mission objective states we are to escort you to your father, safe and sound. None of these men look like your father. We will escort you through the compound to see him.” Emilia stated. She eyed the armored men and women. Some of them suddenly looked uncomfortable.

  Before Shirai said anything else, Emilia turned to Solomon. “Stay out here. Please watch outside for any threats. Whoever attacked Shirai and her group at the tower could have followed us here.”

  Solomon nodded without any complaint. Though he did want to see the inside of the castle. Who would miss the chance to see a castle? The other two gave Solomon a knowing smirk. Solomon turned and casually walked to the edge of the clearing, looking up at the tall trees that surrounded the glade and making a series of jumps to the top of one tree with particularly sturdy branches. He sat and looked down, where he could just barely see the top of the castle and its three towers. The others won’t get to see this view at least.

  The three Hyuuga followed Shirai through the gate and toward the inner castle. They walked through a yard filled with extravagant plants. There was a series of ponds with a variety of small fish lazily swimming in circles within. As the group walked, the small brigade of warriors trailed along behind, acting as a marching parade. The robed man walked quietly just behind the Hyuuga group. Emilia dropped behind slightly as the man asked her a question.

  “Was she hurt?” The man said.

  “Yes. Her arm was cut open, but we bandaged her up. She hasn’t complained about it since then.” Emilia responded.

  “Really? She has gotten much more brave… Usually any small wound will send her into a fit of distress. It is too bad her bodyguards died so quickly. The lord spent quite the sum for them to follow her across the country…” The man trailed on.

  The group continued to walk, the sound of metal clinking on stone trailing behind them, others giving a wide berth to the group as they made their way to the center of the castle. Something nagged at Emilia.

  “Did she know them well? The bodyguards, I mean.” Emilia asked.

  “For the few months we had them, I’m not sure. They spent most of their time in the bathhouse as far as I could tell. Lazy bums if you ask me.” The man said.

  Emilia was confused. She tried to piece together what she was missing when the group came to a solid set of wooden doors. She asked another question.

  “Excuse me for asking, but who was the lord she was tasked with visiting?”

  “A lord? Oh, you must be mistaken. She was sent to discuss our dealings with merchants who had sold us poor quality cloth. We won’t be buying from them anytime soon. Now, I must get going, we are going to discuss the details further inside. You may leave now.” The man said, quickly moving past Emilia to rush toward the opening wooden doors.

  Emilia reached out to grab the man by the back of his robe. The man turned around, pulled his robe away, and scoffed. “You will receive your payment after we discuss our dealings. Good day.”

  Emilia tried to say something, anything, but the words wouldn’t come out. The door closed. She stood and looked at it for several seconds, before coming to an abrupt decision. She marched right up to the door, activating her Byakugan. She reached forward to pull the doors open, when she was frozen solid by the sight on the other side of the door.

  It had only been seconds.

  She pulled the doors open, slowly.

  Blood spilled out from the doors into the hallway. A head rolled out of the doorway. It belonged to the robed man. The inside of the room was a chaotic mess. Multiple bodies strewn about, suddenly bleeding from massive punctures and dead where they lay. There hadn’t been a noise, or even a rumble. Shirai was gone. One man, covered in gold and purple clothing, sat dead on a sturdy and ornamental wooden seat. Emilia took the entire view in one glance, then turned around when she heard a collection of gasps. The guards that stayed with them at the foot of the chamber saw the blood, and were now running toward the Hyuuga group, screaming with weapons drawn.

  Emilia felt her heart in her throat.