The Last Chapter (Part 4?)

Felix remained watching the fight. How far would Kana let this go. Eventually someone would have to give. He had confidence she could take on three, but that Chuunin was holding back. And there was something about him. Most ninja didn't catch on to his riddles, but that kid was quick and he hadn't chickened out. Hadn't questioned it. Felix smirked. Yeah, this would be a good fight, had the boy known he wasn't really injured.

Keagan was just as surprised when the snake suddenly dropped in half. He thought Marcos had done it, but then the guy had started running from birds, Keaga soon joined him. "We'll be bird food if we don't do something," Marcos commented. Keagan shook his head. "And Lizards as well."

Gin knew this was weird, but it hadn't yet dawned on him that it was a genjutsu. The wounds he had were fake, but his mind was telling him they were real. He felt as though he was going to pass out. He had to stop this before it ended with the death of his teammates. He was just a Chuunin, they were more needed than himself. Gin closed his eyes for a moment. He had made his decision. He opened his eyes. Ninja Art: Shinigami Tomb. His shadow begin to extend in all directions, spreading towards Felix. He didn't like the though of doing such a task, taking people hostage was cowardly, but it was do or die here.

The task was effortless, Felix had not been focusing on Gin, he was watching Kana, seeing what she would do. The shadows on the ground were nothing until the moment he was caught in the jutsu. The silver demon's blue eyes shot towards the chuunin. He couldn't catch his breath. It was as if the very life of him was being sucked away. Fear wasn't a factor, he was immortal, but the crushing feeling in his chest told his mind he should be fearing this moment. Felix have a dry cough as the shadow tightened around his form, entering him. A feeling that he was being torn about brought him to his knees. Why couldn't he breath! Why couldn't he move! Was he being crushed from the inside out, or was this fake. The proof of it's realness was brought out into the open as the dry coughs ceased and blood replaced the effort of breathing.

Kana was confident that this was going to end soon. What she hadn't anticipated was that it would be with her loss. Her eyes scanned the area, looking for Felix and Gin, and when she spotted them, she was not happy with what she saw. What was wrong with Felix? Her eyes widened bit when she saw him bleeding. In this realm people couldn't be harmed physically, but when a jutsu was involved, it was a different story. Immediately Kana was livid. That coward, she thought angrily, whipping out kunai in Gin's direction. "What are you doing to him!" she called angrily. She couldn't risk a jutsu. She just couldn't. She knew that Felix was immortal, but... And like that, her attention was drawn away from the two jonin, even though the birds were still after them, as well as the lizards. What was she going to do?

Gin's expression clearly said he didn't want it to get this far, but she had pushed him to that point. The ninja looked at Kana as she came at him with kunai. So this was the distraction. The question was, had the riddle been meant for him, or Felix. Had Felix said it to put this entire thing into play? Gin didn't know it, but Felix had reason to do so. If he wanted to keep Kana from getting too involved with him, he would have to die, or get somewhere close to it. Death was preferred. Regardless, Gin had played his part well. He was exhausted. He couldn't block this attack, he was too tired. That jutsu had been all he could muster to buy the others some time. Blocking what he could, he collapsed to the ground, the jutsu on Felix residing.

Felix was blacking out. He felt numb. Was this what death felt like? He couldn't remember what it'd felt like to die back when Nathaniel had made death possible for him. Now he questioned if he had even died. Maybe he'd just gone into a coma and woken up without his memories. Regardless, the feeling wasn't all that bad, but it wasn't great either. Suddenly the oxygen cam rushing back to his lungs. Felix coughed and went down on hands and knees. "Kana," he breathe, "move."

Marcos and Keagan had been much thankful for the distraction. Turning around they faced the birds and in unison sent a Fire Style to the birds, then used a substitution. Moving to Kana they came up on her sides. "Ninja Art: Water Shark Bomb." Both ninja preformed the jutsu at once. They were going to take her down.

Kana was glad when she saw that the jutsu over Felix subsided when Gin went down, but she forgot completely about the other two ninja, so when Felix told her to move, she suddenly remembered, her eyes going wide before, on instinct, she started a substitution jutsu, a moment before the sharks crashed into each other. She was glad that she'd still been away from Felix, so he wouldn't get hurt because of that. Reappearing a little bit away from the two, and further away from Felix, Kana started a jutsu. She was going to end this. They'd taken out her birds, they'd even taken down a few lizards. Well, now it was her turn to take them down. Earth Style: Iron Maiden. And around each of the two ninja, the ground underneath them quickly formed a solid circle of earth around them, and made it just barely big enough for the both of them to stand with a bit of space between them. Kana walked over and put her hand on the formation. It was pitch black on the inside, but movement could be seen. There were spikes that were starting to form on the inside, but they stopped right before their points touched the ninja. "You either give up or die. Is it really worth it to die because of something so stupid? You have 20 seconds to answer," she told them, her voice firm, and sounding more like a promise than a threat.

Keagan and Marcos blinked at her disappearance and then they were trapped. Keagan gave an annoyed laugh. "Looks as though the Little Lady wins this round. I'm not looking for death." Marcos was relieved that the older ninja had said they were giving in. He didn't even try and keep the sigh in, but they weren't out yet. She could have just wanted to hear them give up before she took their lives. But then again, she was a Crested Ninja, like them. On the other hand, who would know. Her friend was out, and if he was alive, he'd probably be dead from the stress of Gin's jutsu. No survivors except her. It would have been the Perfect Murder.

(Wow. The Perfect Murder)

Kana gave a small sigh as they finally gave up. She took her hand off the barrier, and let it down, taking out another tag like the one she'd used to start the jutsu, and performed the jutsu with it in hand, before throwing it on the ground. This flash was brighter than the first, blinding, for a couple seconds. But when their sight was back, they would find themselves right back where they'd started the fight, and they'd also find that they had no wounds, but bruises where the wounds should be. "Get your friend," she told them with a glare, going over to Felix. "Are you okay?" Stupid question. "Do you need me to take you to a hostpital?" she asked instead. Yeah, she was worried about him.

The two ninja blinked as the light blinded them. When it was clear they were surprised to see things were back to normal. "Genjutsu? We fell for a Genjutsu," he said, rubbing the side of his arm as he went to a unconscious Gin and woke him up. Keagan gave a short laugh. "Well done Little Lady," he said. "Well done indeed. Never thought I'd fight the Dark Illusion. Well done indeed." With that he joined Marcos in helping Gin home.

Felix wiped the blood from his mouth. "I'm fine," he said getting up. The effort was hell, but he managed without it showing in his expression. His hair covering his eyes, too keep them from revealing how he felt he dusted himself off. "Dark Illusion," he asked.

Kana didn't look at the other ninja as they said that they'd fallen for a genjutsu. Why she felt a bit of pride in their praise was beyond her. She was still pissed at them. As they started off, she almost cringed as she heard her nickname. Dammit. She raised an eyebrow for a moment as Felix said that he was fine. He didn't look fine. But...that was how he'd always been, so she couldn't really say anything. When he got up, she did as well, looking at him blankly for a moment as he asked about her nickname. "Silver Death?" she said with a small grin. That should've been enough for him to know that she'd earned the nickname through rather...unconventional means. Much like himself. Yeah, so she was being a smart ass again. Big surprise there.

"We should get you home," she said. Throughout the day, she had been fighting with herself on whether or not to make Felix hate her at the end of the day. So that, ultimately, he wouldn't get hurt because of her. She'd finally decided that she was going to. Felix was, quite literally, the only person she cared about. So...she wouldn't let him get hurt. She didn't want him to grieve when she died. By the end of the day, she'd be nothing more than a memory to him. She'd have to make sure that she didn't end up with any missions with him, or else she could get attached again.

Yes, the real reason Kana didn't make relationships was because she wanted as few people to grieve when she died as possible. So in order to achieve that, Kana had to be cruel and unfriendly to everyone she met. And it was killing her to do that, because she was naturally a friendly person. Being cruel just wasn't in her blood, and she hated it. Her expression of concern for Felix remained on her face, not letting her intentions show through to him. He didn't need to know what she was doing, even if it was for his own good. She held back a sigh. Next chance she got, she was signing up for a transfer mission. A nice, long transfer mission.

(Two arguments in one day. Oh yeah, Felix is going to be pissed for a very long time. And this one with Kana is going to make the one with Serenity even less pleasant.)

A grin slid across Felix's face. "Alright, I'll let you have," he said with a sigh. "You aren't very letting on though, a bit more information would have been kind, but I suppose that I'll have to go digging in order to find out how it was earned, in detail. ." The jonin carefully placed his hands in his jacket and started to walk in the direction of home. Serenity would have a fit, that was, if she was there. "I've got a question, and I expect an answer," he told her. A glint in his icy eyes. "Why don't you have a boyfriend, is it because of you're a better ninja than all of the worthless ones crawling around here and they can't appreciate that?" He asked. He was obviously teasing, which he didn't do often. She should feel honored.

*nodod* (And dammit, you aren't making it easy for me to get her angry. Guess I'll have to make my own way.)

Kana's grin didn't fade when she said that he'd let her have it. "Oooh, in detail, now I'm scared..." she mused teasingly. If Felix were to search, there would actually be quite a bit on this so-called 'Dark Illusion', and to her great satisfaction, none of it had to do with her worst jutsu. That's because she'd only ever used it once, and the person had indeed died from it, an effect Kana had not anticipated. Kana blinked when he said he had a question, and looked at him. Normally this subject wouldn't be something she'd care about talking about. But she figured that now was her chance. Immediately she mentally prepared herself to be cruel to the one person she actually cared about. It wasn't easy. She could sense his teasing, and it only made it harder for her. At first she'd start off casually. "Don't worry about such trivial things," she said with a small wave of her hand. She had no idea how much she'd just sounded like him.

Felix was just noticing how much Kana was in a way mimicking him. He was sure she wasn't doing it intentionally, but it seemed to be happening. Felix would never intentionally rub off on his students. The life he'd lived in those days were of pure coldness. A blackness in his heart and a hatred of the world around him, he'd become a true misanthrope. Sadly he'd changed his ways for the sake of the girl he'd loved and now he suffered because of it. The transition had been too fast and he wasn't fairing well with it. "It's not trivial," Felix responded.

Kana rolled her eyes when he told her that it wasn't trivial. She knew it wasn't, but she had to fake it. "It most absolutely is," she told him, putting a small edge on her voice that almost sounded defensive. She had to take it slow. She knew Felix, he would keep pushing until she cracked and told him. The only problem was, she didn't plan on telling him. Her heart ached with the knowledge of what she was about to do.

Felix gave her a look, deciding whether or not he should ask again. He was beginning to believe there was something more. He wasn't here father though, he had no right to pry into her personal life. But she was his former student and he did feel obligated to make sure each and every one of them were getting along in life. He'd always told them that they could always come back to him for any help on almost any matter. Romance was not one of them, but if it was the case of less tolerant things like in trouble with the law, running from someone, etc, then he was always in touch. A few years back Tsubasa, a kid who'd he'd trained for several years had gotten into some trouble with a group of ninja who weren't exactly friendly. The kid's parents wouldn't put up with him and had disowned him for his actions. Felix had kindly taken him in and cared for him, not to mention he got rid of 'the problem' altogether. "You're not in trouble are you?" He asked.

Kana almost stopped walking when he changed the subject altogether and asked if she was in trouble. Dammit dammit dammit! Why does he have to seem so concerned!!!! she thought angrily. He wasn't making this easy for her, not by far! "No," she said, making sure that there was an edge to her voice, so he could assume that she was lying.

He was already hurting to much to care about her lying, but she was a special case. He knew about the death of her parents, knew she had no one to go back to, and that made him a bit more willing. "I hate liars. They always seem to find themselves at the bottom of the whole by the end of the day. That," he looked at her. "Or six feet under. Give or take a few feet. There seem to be so many that the graves tend to go deeper. Almost as if ridding themselves of the contagiousness of it." Felix didn't look away.

Kana didn't look at him when he said that he hated liars. Perfect, it was perfect, she could work with that. As he finished speaking, Kana looked at him, but her eyes were a bit cold. "Who said I'm lying?" she asked, her voice matching her gaze. This was the part she hated most. Calling upon an anger which she simply didn't possess. But she'd mastered acting angry, at least.

"You can try and start an argument over this Kianashi, but you're not going to win. You're not my student anymore, I don't have to play nice for the sake of your fragile sanity." Felix had stopped walking. Her sudden anger towards him was making his just as edgy. Felix was sick of arguing with females over every little thing. Why were they so damn emotional? First Serenity and now Kana. Was it just him? He'd never had so many problems in his life. Not until he'd started to let people in. He needed to change his life again, to get things straight. He wasn't going to continue living like this. The emotions of love were just a pain in the ass. Caring was too much. It was better to set everyone aside. He was done.

Kana stopped walking as Felix did and turned to face him, her arms crossed and eyes cold. "Even if I was in some sort of trouble, I can handle it myself," she said coldly. She almost wished she were in some sort of trouble, so she wouldn't have to act out every single part. It was killing her to do this to Felix, she really did care about him. But...it was so he didn't get hurt by her in the end. She gae an almost harsh laugh as he said that he wouldn't play nice. "What, you think I'd need you to play nice?" Did he think she was incapable of holding her own?

She was really pushing it. Felix was holding out from saying something he might regret, but it was a struggle. He could walk away, ignore her. But he couldn't do that. Oh no, Felix never just walked away. Not unless he didn't want to kill you. He gave a small smirk. If Kana wanted to play this game then he'd play it. Winning wasn't his agenda, but he'd let it be known he was not one of her associates. He had no problem cutting of friendships. Had no problem dismissing someone from his memory. He'd dismissed Serenity with ease plenty of times, Kana didn't mean half as much to him as Ser so it'd be a breeze. "Have at it." His hair had slid into his eyes, but there was a blue glint hidden beneath.

Kana was having trouble holding this up, but she didn't dare let it show through. She was a better liar than she let on. "Tch, what'dyou want me to say, huh? Like I said, even if I was in trouble, I can hold my own, I don't need you tryin to watch over me. You may've trained me, but you're not my father. You hold no significance to me in such a way," she told him. "I was kinda hopin this day would turn out nice. Guess that's too much to ask for, huh." Why had she said that, why why why had she said that!!!

Something in Felix snapped. Had she just told him he had no significance to her? Did she say he wasn't her father. He was glad he wasn't because what was said next would have been the end of them ever speaking again. "You're right I'm not your father, but you talk is worthless. You say I have no significance but look at you. Your attitude, the way you walk, everything about you is what you learned from me. Without me you'd still be that pathetic little parentless kid that was assigned to me fifteen years ago. If I am nothing then you are nothing." His smirk turned to a grin. "Ungrateful little girl. Who the hell do you think you are? I wish for you to remember this moment because it'll be the last memory I ever have of you." Felix's voice was icy. "Go ahead, continue this way, but remember the path you walk is a short one. Take it as a threat if you like, I don't give a damn." The silver haired ninja turned his back on her and started for the longer trek home.

Kana had expected a harsh comeback, so she was fully prepared for it when Felix snapped. Well, snapped, in his own way. She had to keep he face cold as he spoke, to hide the pain she was really feeling. He was oh-so right. She'd realized a while back that she acted like him. Actually, up until she had left the squad with him, she hadn't realized that her actions had started becoming more like him. But when she was put into a different squad, that was when it had really hit her. Kana said nothing as he finished, and then walked away. 'Because it'll be the last memory I ever have of you..' And that was just the way Kana had wanted it. As he walked away, Kana stood there a moment before turning and starting towards her own house. She had mission papers to turn in. Her gaze dropped as she walked. She had a transfer mission to sign up for as well...

Felix's trip home was a silent one. What he'd said to Kana he didn't regret. He'd meant every bit and he'd made sure to choose his words carefully to make it hit home. It was fairly late by the time he'd made it to Serenity's house. He opened the door and saw her on the couch. He with held a sigh. He longed to curl up next to her. To allow her to take his anger away, but that was just a dream that would never happen. He was still hurting from her unintentional betrayal. Why was everything unintentional? He pulled a cover over her and started up the stairs. Weariness started to sink in as he made it up to his room. Opening the door he laid on the bed and closed his eyes. He needed to shower.

Serenity had gotten home about two hours before, had called Hunter, talked with him for a while, then started cleaning the house a little bit, just to take her mind off things. She mised the way it used to be. When things had been good between her and Felix. Even though she had promised Megan she wouldn't be depressed anymore, it wasn't as easy as it sounded. But regardless, Serenity was doing was she could to avoid being sad. In the end, she laid on the couch with a book, and ended up falling asleep. She didn't even hear when Felix got home, but she stirred a little when she felt a blanket cover her. She saw him walk up the stairs, but was too tired to get up for the moment. She didn't really even know why she was tired, she hadn't done much throughout the day. A few minutes after Felix had gone upstairs, Serenity sat up, yawned and stretched. She needed something to drink. Getting up, she started into the kitchen and started to heat up some water. She wasn't really in the mood for tea, so she was gonna make hot chocolate instead. Even though she'd done a lot of thinking when she'd gotten home, now that Felix was here, it was really starting to hit her that she had to talk to him about this. And she was nervous.

Felix had laid on the bed for a moment, just listening to the silence until he heard movement downstairs. He must have woken up Serenity. He got up and closed his room door. Now that he was up, he might as well shower. He went into the bathroom and took a quick cold shower. As usual he didn't bother drying his hair but he starred in the mirror for a long moment. Who was he? He didn't even know anymore. Checking himself over he rubbed his fingers along a bruise along his ribs. "I have to stop letting my guard down." He sighed and pulled his shirt over head. He was now dressed in all black. Going downstairs he sat on the stairs and sat with his head down and his arms crossed over his knees. He felt so very empty.