Chapter 5: The Beginning of the End

"Damn it! Karina beat me to it again." Hanzo cursed as he arrives with a dead deer in tow, drenched in sweat. Hanabi noticed this and throws him a towel.

The Shadow smugly approached her, grinning.

"Wipe it off for me please."

Hanabi turned beet red and instantly slapped Hanzo in the arm. "Stop joking around! Just go and clean that up, will you? I'm starving!" she said, looking away in embarrassment. Hanzo laughed and messed her hair up before leaving.

The two had been traveling for almost a year now. They have roamed around the forest of Izanami, but the Akuma ninja is still nowhere to be found. Three months ago, they came across a village just north of the border and decided to stay there for a while until the Akuma ninja reappears once more. Yes. They've been playing house for three months. And one might say, the bond that the two has formed over the span of a year grew even stronger.

"Good Morning, Hanabi." their old neighbor, Suzume, greeted as she stops by their porch, carrying a bag of tea leaves. "I have just picked some tea leaves fresh out of my garden today. I thought you and your husband would like some." the old lady smiled, her wrinkles even clearer now.

Hanabi still cringes at the word 'husband'. They've been pretending to be a wedded couple to prevent violating local customs for three months now, but she just can't get used to it.

Hanabi thanked the old lady and went to the kitchen to prepare what Hanzo managed to hunt for the day.

The day went by like normal days. They did their own laundry in the morning, set up talisman trackers in the forest until before twilight, and then went home. But when they got back to the village, something was not right. There was no sign of life anywhere. Hanabi and Hanzo stopped in their tracks and stood on guard. Whoever attacked the village is smart. They did it when they were away.

"Could it be… The Akuma ninja?" Hanabi said under her breath.

"That's not possible…" Hanzo replied, unaware he had actually said it out loud. Hanabi looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"A-ah. I meant, i-if it was the Akuma ninja, the talisman trackers would've gone off by now." he hurriedly tried to recover, and the Scarlet trusted him enough to let it pass, until a cold mysterious voice came out of nowhere.

"Heh. You're really enjoying your time playing house and lying to her, aren't you?... Hanzo."

A masked ninja said, emerging out of thin air with his spiritualist friend. Hanabi's eyes widened.

"Ha-Hayabusa… What are you doing here? A-And what did you do to the villagers?" the Scarlet asked, not knowing what to make or think of this situation. She knows something is up. But what of it is, she doesn't have a single clue.

"Don't worry, Hana. We have evacuated the village just in case. They're safe now." the young Shadow said, eyeing Hanzo angrily.

"W-What do you mean?" Hanabi asked. In a flash, her old friend was now in front of her, grasping her arm. But Hanzo was fast. He grasped Hayabusa's wrist hard, preventing him from taking the Scarlet away.

The Shadow-born looked at Hayabusa murderously, his grip getting tighter and tighter by the second. "Don't you dare," he said with gritted teeth. "She's mine." Hayabusa scoffed at Hanzo's attitude. He turned towards his childhood friend who was still confused about what's happening.

"Hanabi, stay away from this man right this second." He warned. Hanabi was still confused, but her eyes twitched in annoyance at Hayabusa's behavior. Who was he to boss her around? But nonetheless, she still wondered why her 'oh-so-righteous' childhood friend is acting hostile towards Hanzo.

"Where did this rude behavior come from, Hayabusa?" Hanabi said while looking straight into Hayabusa's eyes, surprisingly calm.

The young Shadow couldn't hold it in anymore. And so, with his tone raised higher than usual, he looked at Hanabi and told her the truth.

"I'm not sure how he managed to hide too damn well, but the man standing next to you is Hanzo… the Akuma ninja."

It was as if the air was knocked out of Hanabi's lungs. All of a sudden she found it hard to breathe. She knows Hayabusa is a man who never lies. But this time, she didn't want to believe him. She hoped that for once in his life, the young Shadow was lying.

"What are you talking about, Hayabusa?? He's clearly not the Akuma ninja! He's the Shadow-born who was said to be dead a decade ago!" she turned towards Hanzo and held him in both arms. "... RIGHT??", she said, almost begging him to tell her what she wants to hear. But Hanzo was unresponsive. He just stood there. Staring at nothing in particular.

"What Shadow-born are you talking about, Hanabi?!" Hayabusa exclaimed, now frustrated at his childhood friend's stubbornness. "There was no Shadow-born, Hanabi!! The Shadow sect only made the Scarlet sect believe that he had died so that we wouldn't lose face if you found out he was never born in the first place!"

Hanabi's hand trembled as she covered her mouth. "No… but Hanzo… had the birthmark… No… It can't be…" she said to herself as if trying to convince her own mind not to listen to reason.

"You know why he wasn't born??" Hayabusa continued.

"No… Stop--!!"

"BECAUSE THE PREVIOUS ONE NEVER DIED, THAT'S WHY!"

There was dead silence in the air. No one moved for a couple of minutes until Hayabusa grabbed his friend by her arm and looked at her straight in the eyes. "Please, Hana. Trust me. I just don't want to see you hurt." he pleaded.

The two young ninjas just stared at each other, letting their eyes do the talking. While Hayabusa's eyes were pleading for his friend to see reason, Hanabi's were pleading for something else—that Hanzo would get out of here safely. Despite everything, she still believed in the good inside him. She knows the one year they had spent together was not a lie. It was real.

But Hanzo saw her eyes differently. He thought the longing reflected in Hanabi's eyes were for her long-time love, Hayabusa, and not him. As the sadness and betrayal washed over his system, a dark presence started lurking inside him as well. He held his head because of a sudden headache, as heat pulsated through his body.

Hanabi and Hayabusa were brought back to reality when Kagura warned them of what was happening to the man beside them. They looked at Hanzo and saw what was becoming of him. Hayabusa instinctively grabbed Hanabi's arm and whipped her behind him as he grabs a kunai in anticipation of what's about to happen.

Hanzo screamed in agony as the abyss slowly ate off his consciousness. His teeth were starting to become sharp, and his left eye was already glowing in a shade of emerald green. His muscles are starting to rupture further as the handsome ninja turns into a hideous demon more and more by the second. Hanabi felt like choking as she watched Hanzo fight against his own self in horror. She did not mind his hideous state, and the fact that he was starting to become her worst fear— the Akuma ninja, was not what bothered her the most either. Instead, what made her tremble is the realization that her assumptions were true. Hanzo was not a bad guy entirely. There was something more to the Akuma ninja than meets the eye.

The Scarlet took a step forward, attempting to move closer to Hanzo. She didn't know what went inside her, nor why was she feeling this way towards him, but at that moment, she just wanted to hold him in his suffering state.

"Are you crazy?! Have you forgotten how that thing almost killed you?!" Hayabusa screamed as he pulls Hanabi back in annoyance. But the Scarlet ninja wouldn't budge. "Damn it! Kagura, help me out!" the young Shadow called.

Though she was distracted by Hanzo's screams, Hanabi heard this and saw through Hayabusa's plan to make Kagura perform a binding spell on her. She looked at Hanzo once more and closed her eyes, taking one long breath.

"Higanbana."

Almost instantly, the sacred weapon burst into the open, destroying the porch of what was supposed to be Hanabi and Hanzo's house, and grazed Kagura in the knee before it flew into Hanabi's hand. Though it was temporary, Kagura fell on her knees because of this. Hayabusa's attention was diverted for a second towards the onmyoji as Hanabi had planned, and the Scarlet used this as an opportunity to go near Hanzo. The Higanbana was starting to burn her hand, but she did not pay attention to it and walked straight ahead.

Hanabi was only an inch away from touching Hanzo when suddenly, everything around her turned into light. It was as if everything had gone away in an instant or she was transported into another dimension. But this sensation is all too familiar.

"What do you think you're doing, Lunox?" Hanabi said. Though the mage was not physically there, she knows Lunox can hear her. Of course. This was the her dreamland after all.

"You must remain calm, Hanabi. You will have the chance to save him. But first, you must know who you really are, and where this all started."