Suigetsu Hozuki - Messy Love

Chapter 4- I'll help you, Sasuke, but first...

~Ash's POV~
I woke up early the next morning with a small blanket covering my body. The sun was just barely crossing the horizon, throwing red and orange beams over the makeshift campgrounds. I began to sit up, propping myself on my elbows. The fire had since been lit and burned out, nothing but black coals littering the ground. The boys had taken refuge in their respective tents for the night, and I was left outside, alone. As I say there and gazed around, I realized I was missing something, something important. My scythe was gone.
I sat there, dumbfounded. The Reaper's Scythe, my prized possession, and possibly my only possession in this world, was gone. It was the single most important thing to me, and the only thing that linked me to my past. I had to find it at all costs.
~Suigetsu's POV~
I woke up and sat up with a yawn. Stretching my arms out, I crawled out of my sleeping bag and stood up. After searching for my clothes in my mess of a tent I walked outside.
"We'll find it," Sasuke said, looking down at Asin. She looked dead, like every sense of being mad been drained from her small form.
"I know how you henchmen work, Sasuke, and I'm not pissing around with you," she spat at him, venom dripping from her voice. "I'll find it with or without you. In my situation, you're disposable."
"I'm far from a henchman, Ashin. You of all people should know that," Sasuke spoke in response, narrowing his eyes as anger built in his face.
"Oh please, Uchiha, you're a henchman if I've ever saw one. I've dealt with many like you, and I'm more than willing to do this on my own."
"Excuse me?" I spoke up, deadpanning.
"We have some business to take care of, Suigetsu, pack your things." Sasuke spoke and turned and walked into his tent.

—time skip—

"I guess someone owes you an explanation, Suigetsu, and Ashin isn't willing to give anyone the time of day until she takes care of some business," Sasuke looked at me, sighing before he continued. "I asked of Ashin's assistance on this team because she possesses a certain number of skills that can be extremely useful in combat. One of them being her ability to wield a scythe, her scythe, the Reaper's Scythe."
I'd heard about this weapon. It was said to have been forged by the Grimm Reaper himself, possessing God-like powers. It was once said the Reaper himself used that scythe to summon an army of the dead.
"Go on," I furrowed my eyebrows at him.
"In a past life, she was a notorious rouge ninja, who did bounty hunting for the Kage when they felt a mission was too high risk for their own ninja. Her name was feared throughout all villages, although no one knew her face. There was one mission though, even she couldn't complete. She died in an attempt assassination against a ninja no one knows. According to Orochimaru, however, she was resurrected by Madara Uchiha in exchange for a part of his mortality. In coming back, however, she was gifted with the location of the Reaper's Scythe in exchange for trapping all the souls she had claimed with it within the weapon itself."
"So she's dead?" was all I could say in reply. Information was running through my head faster than I could process it. That girl, that small, fragile girl, was the face of death itself.
"No, uh, yes, well..." Sasuke trailed off. "Partially,"
"Sasuke excuse me but last time I checked there was no happy medium between life and death, so what's the answer?" I spoke, agitation rising in my voice.
"I don't have that answer."
"Oh,"
~Ash's POV~
     I'd been walking aimlessly for hours now, but I could feel it. My scythe was close. Some ninja say they have a special bond with their weapon, but I had something different. That scythe was mine and mine alone, and no one else in this wide ninja world could wield it as I did. I could feel when it was close, and I could summon it from across the battlefield, that was mine.
     I stopped in my tracks. It was here. It was so close I could practically feel it in my hands, but I couldn't reach out to it. It wouldn't come to me, like something was holding it back. I was grasping at straws at this point, but I continued foreword through a small alcove of shrubs and trees. Once I pushed through, a small opening to a cave broke open from the hillside. I turned around the Sasuke and Suigetsu.
     "This is the place," I said and turned and walked towards the cave.
     Inside it was dark, and I had nothing but my senses to guide me. I never had good vision, but somewhere in the lapse of my memory I woke up with a sudden sense of awareness. I may not always be able to see, but I could feel the world around me, the life-force in everything. The grass, the water, the people, I could "see" it all. I trudged foreword and I head a voice behind me.
     "Sasuke, mind shedding a little light on this situation here? Not everyone has those fancy red eyes," Suigetsu said in a rather comical tone, and the cave came to life with Sasuke balancing a small flame in his palm like a torch.
     We came to a fork in the road, and I walked to the right without a second thought. Down, down, down the passage we went for what seemed like a small eternity compared to what I knew was at the end of the tunnel. We came to an opening and the sight before me nearly brought me to tears.
     In the middle of the cave, embedded in what appeared to be a crystal-like structure, sat my scythe. It was embedded partially in the crystal, like they had grown around it to protect it. I walked foreword and heard a growl. There, in front of me, were three bears. The growl from the first one awoke the other two, and they stood on their haunches ready to attack.
     "Sasuke, this doesn't look good." Suigetsu said as I heard him ready his sword.
     "Get ready," Sasuke said as he did the same.
     I had nothing on me. No one had supplied me with any weapons. Great. But it didn't matter. I was an expert in making something out of nothing.
     The first bear charged at me, and I dodged to the side out of its way, letting it go flying at Sasuke and Suigetsu. The second came charging at me, and I leapt over it, landing behind it and dangerously close to the last bear. The third came chomping at me, and I ducked to avoid its teeth. I have it a swift kick to the jaw and jumped back, reassessing myself. I glanced at the boys, where Sasuke was fending off the bear and Suigetsu jumped up and ended it with one hard stab through its body. I looked at the two bears in front of me and grinned.
     "Claws out," I said and charged, throwing my hands down to reveal two metal claw-like contraptions. I took a swift swipe at the third bear, landing a blow across one of its eyes and turned to dodge another blow from the second bear. I thrust my arm up to grab the second bears throat and drive my other hand up, the claw turning into a kunai. It went straight into its neck, and I pulled back. Turning around to the third bear, it went charging at me once again, and I leapt to the left, landing on top on my crystal encased scythe. The bear went straight for the boys, biting into Sasuke's arm and leaping on top of Suigetsu. His body burst into water, and he appeared too surprised to move. Sasuke took to beating his other fist against the bear in an attempt to get it to loosen its grip on his arm. I turned to my scythe and grabbed it by the shaft with both hands, and pulled it upwards. It slid through the crystal like butter and I held it above my head. I stood up and turned to the scene before me. I took one quick slash downwards and a gust of razor sharp wind leapt from the blade and sliced clean through the bear.
     I stood there looking at the two men before me, who wore two different expressions. One was impressed, while the other showed pure awe at what had just happened.