Seeing his signal, she waits and watches, impressed at how easily he killed the rabbit. Retracting the trap she puts it away and jumps down to meet up with him.

"Now to find some edible plants and we can make a nice stew with that rabbit. There might be some in this area since the rabbit was here..." Looking around she spots some plants with roots that are edible and mushrooms. "Looks like we're covered with this." Gathering enough for the two of them, she wraps it in an extra piece of cloth.

Pleased with himself, Akira looks at Yusa, who has joined him, and nods. He watches her as she gathers the roots and then smiles as he takes the makeshift bag and carries it for her in one hand while carrying the rabbit in the other. Luckily, the rabbit is moderately sized, so it should be more than sufficient for them.

"This should be good enough for the two of us," he says. "Should we head back?" He wondered if there was anything else she wanted to do.

"Yeah, it should be enough. Heading back now should be fine, we can start cooking the stew." She takes the lead back, making sure there's nothing head that will attack them for the rabbit. When they reach the clearing where they will be setting up camp she goes up into the trees to get their things, quickly setting up an area for skinning the rabbit and getting the fire going for the stew.

"I'm going to go to the stream and get some water, I'll be right back. You can get started on cutting everything up." Grabbing the pot she heads out into the woods to the stream.

Akira follows behind her to their campsite and helps her in setting up camp. Then he listens to her and nods. "Fine, but make sure you're back soon," he says, before wondering what made him say that. It's only afternoon after all; it's not even close to evening time.

As he watches her leave, he shakes his head a little, amazed at himself. Then he obediently gets the roots out and uses some of the water that they brought with them to wash the roots and begins cutting them up. The cutting gets done rather quickly, since he has done some cutting for his mother before.

Wondering around in the woods, Yusa looks among the forest floor for branches that could be used for kindling. She spots some smaller branches that can be used for starting the fire, but is having trouble finding larger pieces that will burn longer. Spotting a cave she sees some larger branches there and cautiously goes to check it out. Finding a few decent sized pieces she ties them altogether in a bundle, tossing it onto her back just as she hears growling coming from the bushes. Crawling towards her on their bellies she sees some wolves, barring their fangs at her. Sighing she ignores them and heads back towards camp, a wolf deciding to try it's luck with her. Ducking she uses her hands to manuver it over her and into the mouth of the cave. The wolf giving a surprised yelp as it hits the ground on its side instead of landing on her. The other two decide to back off and go nurse the injured one, and Yusa returns to camp without a scratch on her.

"I had to go a bit out of the way but I managed to get some decent kindling." Smiling she sets down the bundle and makes a ring with the stones to get ready for the fire.

Akira looks up at her. "That's great," he says. "The roots are cut up too, so we can make the stew as soon as the fire's ready." He pauses for a moment, noticing that she seems really pleased.

"What is it?" he asks her, with a smile on his face. "You seem pretty happy." Not that he is about to complain. He is glad that she is cheerful.

"Hm...I guess I'm just glad to be able to do as I want instead of always having to take orders from someone else. Or people making decisions for me. And doing mundane things like gathering wood and such is kind of calming to me in a sense." Wiping her hands together she gets most of the dirt off her hands, then wipes her hands in the grass. "Alright, the wood is ready for lighting. Stand back a bit so you don't get singed." Making a quick sign with her hands, she breaths a small stream of fire on the wood to light it.

Akira has a gentle smile on his face, until Yusa breathes fire on the wood, which mildly surprises him. He knew that the Yukiyama clan specializes in Ice-style ninjutsu. He guesses that everyone has some knowledge on all fighting styles. After all, the Koga clan specializes in fire, but you can see other styles being used from time to time.

"Right, now to get the stew ready," he says and proceeds to get the pot on the fire. After a while, once the stew is done, he takes the kettle off the fire. Time to dig in.

When Akira's smile disappears, she smiles nervously at him, she figures its because he didn't expect her to use fire ninjutsu to light the wood. But she figures it is what it is and watches Akira as he cooks the food. The smell is so good her stomach growls very loudly, Yusa covering her belly in embarrassment from the sounds its making. When its finished, she happily takes her share and seats herself near Akira.

"Sorry for startling you with the fire, maybe I should just stick to using flint. Not many people in our clan is able to use fire ninjutsus after all. So people usually run for cover when someone tries."

Akira gives her a reassuring smile. "You don't have to apologize," he says. "I wasn't startled, just mildly surprised. And if we resort to using flint, we won't get our meals cooked half as fast. And I don't think your stomach will agree with that." His smile is now a teasing one.

"I actually tried using other styles before," he reminisces. "But they didn't work out for me. So I only use minor techniques in anything other than fire, and only when it's necessary." He looks at Yusa. "You're pretty good at it, I must say."

Blushing she tries to hide it with eating her food, her silly stomach acting like that. At hearing he's tried others as well she stops and listens.

"Well, that's usually because its ingrained into one's training to get them ready for a particular style of ninjutsu. Most of what I've learned has been through observing and remembering what my enemies during my missions have done. There's been a few times some rookies thought they could take me on until they saw me using the same jutsu as them. That's also one of the reasons why there's rumors of me being a demon among the clans..." She plays with her food a bit, not really in the mood to eat anymore.

Akira looks at her for a moment, and then puts his arm around her. "Listen to me, Yusa," he says, in his gentlest voice. "You are no demon, all right? What other people call you, what your reputation has been, what you've done in the past, it all doesn't matter." He points to her heart.

"The only things that matter right now are who you are now, and what you feel in there." He pauses and takes her hand in his. "What do you feel in your heart, Yusa?"

Yusa is a bit surprised when Akira wraps an arm around, more so because she didn't expect him to do that. She thinks for a moment to herself how to best describe how she feels to him.

"A little lost, a little hurt, but mostly at ease knowing I'm free to be who I want to be. And I'm also very thankful to you for helping me out as much as you did, I want to find my own place in this world. I'm glad you're letting me travel with you otherwise I'd be really lonely." Leaning into his shoulder she enjoys the warmth his hug gives; it had been so long since someone has hugged her like this. Being in his arms are so comforting that she actually begins nodding off, having to force herself to keep her eyes open.

Akira listens to Yusa as she tells him about how she feels and how she'd be lonely if it weren't for him. It's a two way street, though, isn't it? After all, if not for her, he would be lonely too. He just gets comfortable in that position, even absentmindedly stroking her hair once before realizing what's going on. Even after his drinking mishap yesterday, he still.... He realized that he needs to put some space between himself and Yusa. But then he doesn't want to ruin Yusa's mood; she looks so relaxed.

"You look tired," he says, slowly releasing her. "Do you want to sleep for a while? I could set up a bed if you do." He could keep watch while she slept.

"Yeah, sorry. I guess its partly all that built up stress up until now. But this is very comfortable, can we just sit like this a bit longer? You're nice and warm..." Snuggling against him she smiles up at him, then turns her gaze to the stars, watching them for a while in silence.

"You know, my dad used to always tell me that my mother was watching over us from the stars, and that she'd be proud how hard I've been working during my training. That was a long time ago though, he had seemed to become more and more distant from me the older I got. I overheard before some of the villagers saying how much I looked like my mother. I think that to some point my father might have been using me to replace my mother and that's way he trained me so hard..."

Akira laughs for a bit and then hugs her back, and this time, he has no qualms in doing so. She doesn't seem to mind, after all. He listens to her talk about her mother and thinks of his own parents, the biological ones, wondering whether they are alive or dead, and whether they are looking down at him from the stars.

Then he hears her say that she resembles her mother, and looks at her for a moment, before returning his gaze to the sky. "Your mother must have been a very beautiful woman," he says, smiling.

Having never been called beautiful before Yusa doesn't know how to reply, only being able to blush in response. She sits there for a while before she gets up the courage to say something.

"Akira, has there been someone you've really liked before? Someone who's company you really enjoyed and wanted to be with them all the time? My sisters where like that with their husbands before they got married, and I was wondering if you've ever experienced that."

Akira freezes at her question, and then chuckles a little to coves it up. "Well, I really enjoy your company, and I'd like to be with you all the time. But if you're asking whether I've been in love, then no, I haven't felt that way before," he says, smiling, almost saying, I have never been in love before meeting you.

He looks away for a bit, before turning back to her. "Why? Have you felt that way before?" he asks, on a whim. He doesn't know why he asks, maybe he's just curious? He doesn't know.

"Hm...I'm not sure to be honest, I vaguely remember the feeling of being with my mother. I remember feeling intense love, comforting hugs and a love for the world around her. I remember how her hair smelled and that it felt like silk, but my memories of her are mostly the scenery she wanted to show me and for me to cherish. Being near you makes me feel calm and not under any kind of pressure like the clan put on me. But I'm still mixed up about things and don't know what it feels like to be in love, so I don't even know if I can feel love. Maybe I'm thinking too much about all of this..." Her gaze returns to the fire, her eyes drifting shut, feeling accepted and cared for in Akira's arms.

Akira holds her for a while, neither of them talking. Then he looks at her face and realizes that she has fallen asleep. He chuckles and looks at her face, appreciating how gentle it looks when she's asleep. Those villagers who call her the 'Demon' ought to see her now. They'd drop the name immediately.

He sighs as he lets her head rest against his shoulder. "You're thinking too much, and I'm trying not to think at all," he whispers to nothing in particular. "I think I'm in love with you, Yusa. What do I do?" It's a question that he has never had to ask anyone, even himself. But this is alien territory for him; he doesn't know the first thing about love.

Yusa awakens early in the morning, just as the sun's rays begin to spread across the horizon. Sitting up she stretches, then stands. Quickly she packs up her sleeping gear, then begins her routine stretches and exercises. She might not be taking missions on for the guild anymore, but that doesn't mean she should let herself fall out of practice either. Finishing as the sun is halfway above the horizon, so looks around for where Akira is, not having bothered to look for him earlier.

Akira walks back to the camp, his sword dangling from his belt. Practise always helped him clear his head. Last night, after holding Yusa for a while, he carefully stood up, set up the sleeping bags and set her on one of them so she could relax properly.

The night was a sleepless one for him. So he ended up waking early and going to practise. As he arrives, he sees that Yusa is already awake and just finishing up with her practise. He watches for a bit, before walking up. "Good morning," he greets her.

"Oh! Good morning Akira!" Yusa greets him with a warm smile, obviously rested after everything that's happened and feeling better about herself. "So, who's going to catch breakfast today? Do you want to take turns catching food each day? Or would you like to try smoking some of the food to keep longer so we have to do less cooking?" She clears out the burnt out branches that won't work for kindling anymore, making certain there's no cinders remaining that could cause a fire.

Akira smiles at her questions. "Yes, and yes," he says and chuckles. "I could go and get something for breakfast today, and I'll make sure to get some extra so we don't have to keep catching them again and again. Smoking them will make them last for, what, three days at least?"

"But before that," he gives her a smile. "How about a round of sparring? After all, we're supposed to keep up with our training, and now that we're traveling together, we could do that part together too."

"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!"

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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.

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.

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."

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?"

"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."

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.

"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.

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.