[ml1201]

"Hm...good point, and we wouldn't have to waste as much time either. A sparring match? Any rules you want to put into place before we start?" Smiling like a child causing mischief, Yusa stretches before the match. She had stretched before, but that was mostly to get her body moving, this time it was to make sure none of her muscles would cramp on her while they sparred. Once she's done she ties her hair back to keep it out of her face and less likely a target for grabbing even though she doubted Akira would do such a thing to her. "Alright, ready when you are!"

[CycloneKira]

Akira considered her question and came up with some rules. "All right," he began. "I won't go overboard with the rules, but just a few to make sure it's fair. No avoiding the match or evading by turning your back on your opponent. And no grabbing, holding or pushing. That is all."

He smiles too, in excitement. "Right," he says and gets into a fighting stance, before running towards Yusa.

[ml1201]

Nodding her head she accepts the rules, then gets into a stance as well. Keeping her stance until he's almost on her, Yusa, feints to his right, bringing up her fist as if she's going to hit, but instead continues pulling up her arm, using the momentum and force to try hitting him right in the chest with her elbow. This has thrown many people off because it looks like she's trying to punch them upward towards the jaw, so they throw their head back to avoid it only to be winded and knocked to the ground from her elbow hitting them instead.

[CycloneKira]

Akira notices both of her movements, but can't decide which one is a feint and which one is a real attack. So he throws his head back and moves to the side simultaneously, nearly getting hit by Yusa's elbow.

"That was a good one," he says, laughing excitedly. "Let's see you reply to this!"

He runs towards her again, and throws a series of punches at different angles, before going for a surprise kick.

[ml1201]

She dances away from the punches, being just out of reach when she catches a glimpse of the kick coming. Jumping up she grabs his shoulders, adding her weight to the force as she quickly lets go and swings her knee forward at his chest. The momentum would knock him to the ground and she would land on his chest, his skull gripped by her knees if he didn't counter her attack. What Yusa forgot was that since she was wearing something different from her ninja gear there were no pants to cover her under garments. Of course she's been trained in how to seduce men, but that was for men she was planning to kill, she had no idea how to interact with a man she was falling in love with. So needless to say she didn't realize she was doing something considered embarrassing.

[CycloneKira]

Akira had been in enough fights to know what is going to happen, even if there is no time to respond to the situation fittingly. But nothing could have prepared him for what came next. Yusa's undergarments were in plain view, and Akira blushed, and made keep his eyes trained on Yusa's face.

"You win," he says, trying to keep a straight face. "That was a rather good move, I didn't see it coming."

[ml1201]

Seeing his a bit red, she jumps off him and offers him a hand up, concern on her face. "Are you alright? I didn't hurt you did I? You're face was red after I did that attack." She was completely clueless that he had seen her undergarments, though she did find it odd how the whole time his head was in her knees that he kept looking straight at her. When she had done that move on targets she was killing they did do that.

Straightening she brushes the dust off her clothes then heads over to her belongings to get changed for traveling, "I'm going to get behind that bush and change, then we can get started on breakfast. Did you want to eat what's left from the night before?" Using the bushes as a screen, her head still peaks over the top as she's changing.

[CycloneKira]

Akira chooses not to answer her question, simply because he has no idea how to. Especially now that he knows that she's completely clueless about what he's seen. Oh, well. It's probably better this way. She'll forget it soon enough, so he won't have to be bothered by it either.

"Sure, we can eat that, if it's sufficient," he says. He guesses that it would be just enough for them to be able to travel for the next few hours without going hungry.

[ml1201]

Now wearing clothing more suited for traveling, Yusa still has a look of concern on her face since he hasn't responded, but doesn't say anything about it, "Well, its good for a quick start anyways, if we're lucky we'll find another village within a few hours. There we can have some more food, and maybe do some odd jobs to get up some money or something. Our money won't last forever after all. Though I won't be able to do much outside of basic manual labor or fighting things." A bit frustrated, she tugs on a lock of her at the thought how she can't do much to help that getting money. And the thought that the people of the village might get scared of her because of her strength was also upsetting to her. Sighing, she shakes her head to get the thoughts out of her mind, "Maybe I should ask the woman how to do more complicated things with tailoring, all I know how to do is crude patching of clothing. Learning how to stitch better would also be handy if one of us needed to have an injury stitched as well." She continues to mumble to herself some things she might be able to try and learn from the next village.

[CycloneKira]

Akira smiles at her. "Don't worry about it, Yusa," he says, gently. "It's not like I know more than that either. Well, except for some minor cooking that my mother taught me." He shrugs. He can see that it bothers her, not being able to help much. But they have enough skill to be able to support themselves. No need to do anything fancy.

"As for stitching, my father taught me how to do it for injuries. Let me see..." He searches around in his bag and smiles as he finds what he was looking for: a suture kit. "I don't know whether stitching clothes and stitching injuries are the same, but, well.... if they're not, at least we've got one thing covered." He smiles.

[ml1201]

She nods her head when she sees the kit, when she was on missions she usually had on on hand, but for severe injuries she wouldn't be of much help. Yusa grabs her back and puts it on, "Alright then, lets get started, it's probably best to cover as much ground as possible. Soon we'll be heading into the more populated regions like towns and cities, and there will be plenty of bandits on the way there."

After traveling for most of the day they reach a larger village, almost large enough to be called a city. Though people are looking at them a bit fearfully, which is unsettling to Yusa. "I wonder why they seem scared of us?" Then she hears a commotion not far from them and an evil laugh. Around the corner comes a muscular men wielding poorly crafted swords, villagers backing away from them. "I'm guessing they think we're with them..." A woman screams as one of the men grab her, he man saying he's going to take her to be his play thing, which makes Yusa mad. Picking up a rock she throws it at the man's hand, making him yelp in pain and drop the sword. The man looks around angrily and spots Yusa glaring him down, one hand on her hip and obviously not pleased with him. Tossing the girl aside he strides over to Yusa, looking down on her since he was taller than her.

"Well, was someone being jealous that I was paying more attention to that wench than you? There was no need to-" Yusa stomps on his feet, even more angry with him.

"Who do you think you are, going around and terrorizing these poor people, I suggest you leave now before I get any angrier."

[CycloneKira]

Feeling relieved at finally reaching a city, Akira looks around with a smile on his face, until it becomes far too obvious that the people around him are not feeling the same way. He frowns at Yusa's question, clearly at a loss as to why they are creating fear in the minds of people. He looks at the amateurs behind them, a look of disapproval on his face.

He watches Yusa get into a fight with one of the men and is about to try to intervene, when another man comes up behind him.

"She's a piece of work, your wife. How much do you think she's worth, a hundred, two hundred pieces?" he says, leering at Yusa in a way that pisses Akira, but Akira keeps his cool.

"Don't talk about her in that way," he says, and the man looks at him.

"What are you going to do about it, runt?" he challenges him. "I can talk about her in any way I like, and do to her, anything I like." Saying so, he starts walking towards Yusa, but Akira doesn't allow it.

Within seconds, the man is lying face down on the ground, and Akira's foot plants his face to the ground. Akira bends down and speaks to him in a low voice.

"A low life like you will never know how to respect women unless someone teaches you," he says, in a dark tone that is uncharacteristic of him. "Do you want me to teach you, or will you back off and behave yourself?"

[ml1201]

"Oh? A mouthy little thing aren't you?" Smirking he goes to grab Yusa by the hair. In the blink of an eye she ducks down and throws a punch into his stomach, dancing to the side as the man throws up a bit, having seemingly eaten recently.

"I wouldn't say mouthy, but stubborn as an ox more likely." Seeing their friend on the ground they shout curses at her and charge her. Sighing and rolling her eyes she tucks herself down as the first one gets to her, flipping him over her shoulder and crashing into an empty merchant stall. The other one, thinking that he's smarter than his friends, takes out a katana, smirking at her. She just raises a brow at his confidience in himself.

The bandit swings wildly at her, Yusa easily dancing away from the blade, "Your form is horrible by the way, even a child could disarm you." To prove her point she does a karate chop at his hand as he's swinging, then grabbing the blade of the sword without hurting herself and tossing it in the air and grabbing the hilt. Getting into a stance she waits as the bandit charges at her, his face red with furry. Swinging a few times very quickly she then dodges to the side, the bandit smirking thinking he's got her until he collapses to his knees. His body was sore and not responding to him. Looking back he sees she wasn't using the bladed side of the katana, but the flat edge. She has used the flat edge to hit specific locations on his body that were vital points, which caused him to collapse.

"Anyone else want to keep terrorizing these people? The next one will loose a finger for his crimes." Intimidated by her the rest grab the ones that were defeated and run. Snorting in annoyance, Yusa takes the blade in her hands and snaps it in half like a stick, tossing it to the ground. "Jerks like that really make me mad, I'm half tempted to teach them and their boss a lesson in respecting others."

[CycloneKira]

More fighting, one of the bandits realizing that the two ninjas are Yusa Akiyama and Akira Koga. Bandits bow down, and stop attacking them immediately. Akira tells Yusa they should leave.

[ml1201]

"Huh? Leave, but we just-" looking around she now sees why. Yes, they did stop the bandits, but now the people here were more scared of them than the bandits. Crestfallen, she nods her head in understanding as she follows Akira out of the village. She takes one sad look back there, her hopes of learning normal things from the people there dashed.

They finally stop as the sun begins to set to make camp, having only stopped long enough before to rest, eat and take care of some necessary things. Sullenly she goes out for some wood so that they can at least heat up some water for tea to have with their cured meat.

"I know I shouldn't have interfered, but I just couldn't stand there and let them do that to the people. Those people didn't deserve to be attacked like that, its not like they were corrupt officials or something." Yusa stares at the sticks she's setting up for the fire, still depressed about the whole thing.

[CycloneKira]

Akira can see how disappointed she is with having to leave, but he decides not to say anything until she wants to talk about it. He looks back at the bandits, giving them one last glare before turning away for good.

He decides to go with her to get the wood, when they've set up camp, so she doesn't have to be alone when she's feeling this way. After they're back, he listens to what she says and sighs.

"I know, Yusa," he says, giving her a gentle smile. "Your intentions were good, and honestly, I can't see any other way that would have stopped them from doing it." She puts a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry about it, all right?" He gently takes the sticks from her hand, and sets them up before starting a small fire with his magic.