Shadow in my Memory.

Chapter nine

Night Stalk laughs as Storm Shadow closes the door to her training room.

"This is the part in the movie when you suddenly kill me silently." She jokes.

"You watch too many movies." Storm Shadow replies.

"How else do you think I amuse myself with this sort of lifestyle? Even being tortured was better." She runs a hand through her hair again. Storm Shadow walks over to look at the many types of equipment she had; guns, mats, knives, arrows. It was a surprise she wasn't arrested yet for the amount of weapons down here. Most of the stuff was shifted around, used by Night Stalk to try to get acustomed to the weapons. She was locked up for quite some time, not used to using things like guns.

"I see you come down here often. What do you strive for?" Storm Shadow asks, a genuine question. They make eye contact.

"I strive to be better than the people who kidnapped me. To never let it happen again." She states, turning back to loading the gun in front of her.

"To be better than the man who was picked instead of me." Storm Shadow mumbles.

"Snake Eyes?" Night Stalk asks quietly, turning around again. Storm Shadow stays quiet, meeting his eyes with hers again.

"That's why you killed the hard master, isn't it?" She asks, and his muscles tense.

"That wasn't me. Zartan had framed me, in order to make me flee the clan and join him." He calmly informs her.

"Zartan. A Cobra?" She asks.

"A dead Cobra." Storm Shadow concludes. Night Stalk nods her head slowly, still unsure if she should believe him or not, and raises her gun to test it out. Storm Shadow watches her body, but nods his head and walks over.

"No, like this." He whispers, straightening out her body. He runs his hands down her arm to level them out, bending down to place her feet differently, then stepping back. Night Stalk's body was suddenly on fire, Storm Shadow's fingertips leaving tingles as they dragged across her skin, clothed or not.

She lowers the weapon to crack her neck, lifting it again and cleating her throat before firing a shot. A perfect hit in between the eyes of the target man. Night Stalk smiles at the gun and sets it down, glad that the room was sound proof.

"Thank you." She whispers and looks at Storm Shadow again, making eye contact once more. A sudden flash in her memory sends her shuddering in disgust, stepping away from Storm Shadow and breaking the eye contact. He starts to walk closer, but she gestures for him to stay there while closing her eyes to calm down, placing her hands against the wall.

"What is wrong?" Strm Shadow asks.

"Just...just a flashback, I guess." She murmurs.

"What did they do to you?" He gently asks, geting closer.

"What didn't they do?" Night Stalk snaps quietly to herself, the hands on the wall fisting.

"You'll have to tell me you haven't told me yet, so I can kill the bastard who did this to you." Storm Shadow insists.

"Then you will be killing a lot of men, because almost all of them have done something to me." Night Stalk concluded.

"But who did this?" Storm Shadow asks, running a finger over her arm to prove a point and she moves away from the feeling. Realizing what he meant, she hesitantly makes eye contact with him, pushing a strand of hair away from hr face.

"I was tied up against the wall, gong through the senses treatment. I already had my hearing, sight, and smell cut off, but with the ropes around my arms and ankles I could still feel things. I guess a Cobra man noticed this, and noticed my lack of movement. Before I could even try to do anything...he..." she stammers, breaking eye contact again. Storm Shadow angrily nods his head, understanding.

"I have to leave now." He states, body tense. Night Stalk gently nods her head, arms crossed and looking away from him.

He was upset. She wasn't innocent. The rules at Arashikage were that once you bonded with one person, you stayed bonded. Many went against this, but he was sure one of the masters would stick to it harshly, meaning she was stuck with a man she didn't even know. And that man probably wouldn't stick with only her. She was stuck with a bastard that he had to kill, for stealing her before he got the chance to.

Ever since they first were friends, he always planned on stealing her.

But now he had a mission.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.