I cannot doubt now the origin of this place, the elven-like figures in the stonework, a proud race, something more than the elves of today. No, these people were prouder, making cities of stone like we make cities of brick. To us it is a dwelling, to them it was an art...

The Highland girl closed the worn leathery red diary and detached herself from the scribbles inscribed within. Most of it was illegible, either by ink blotting or worn eaten pages that had failed to keep from succumbing to the elemental forces of nature. It was nameless, no signature or name tag gave clue to it's owner, much less when it was written, but analysis could clearly show that it was definately old enough to be antique.

That didn't matter, the strange phenomenon of the giant statue of a groundhog, her groundhog, still played precedence in her mind, and was yet unanswered by the tome she now held. Her and her companion had discovered the diary underneath a bridge that would have once led over a canal. No water rushed through these ruins now, the cracks having whisked them away or the geography having changed dramatically since the city had even been inhabited.

Rememberance... the word played tricks in her mind, the whole place seeming to be alive with stones speaking histories unknown, statues telling the tales of those whom shared their likeness, paved roads telling stories of a great and grand civilization that had fallen. It was indeed an artform and, sighing, Mille regretted that she could not bring with her some form of nostalgia of her trip here. It wasn't because there was nothing to take but, rather, that she couldn't bring herself to remove or displace a single stone pebble, even those that might have never belonged here.

Ending her retreat into her thoughts, she turned round hoping to catch sight of her companion, the boy-ninja Sasuke. They had traveled the ruins for nearly a day, searching and looking, fascination echoing on both their faces. She found him, standing before a statue, staring.

At what was her question as she caught sight of the statue's likeness: A beautiful woman.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" she glared omnimously, dealing her words out with a growling snarl, repeated again by the impression on her face.

"Uh..." Sasuke spun round and looked guiltily at the girl, avoiding her gaze and quickly blurting, "Isn't it amazing, I mean, beautiful, the way everything is and... all... and... well... I just thought this statue was pretty special..."

A sharp pang of jealousy hit her hard in the ribs, triggering a reaction in her lungs that followed to her throat and remained trapped there. The reaction would have been perfect if she knew what to say, she would have known what to say if not caught up in the magical atmosphere, one that dulled her mind against any rebutance to his words. It was impossible to disagree with him, the place was amazing, beautiful and pretty special. Millie decided, more to her benefit than his, to let him get away with it... this time.

"Any luck with figuring out what this whole place has to do with that?" Sasuke gave a slight gesture towards the gargantuan representative of their chosen prey. No matter how much he found the whole thing grosteque, he could not voice his opinion in fear of the wrath of the Highland girl who found the whole idea of a giant statue of her Bonaparte 'cute'.

Needless to say, the whole 'kawaii-cute' deal was thoroughly lost on him, but he would bear it if it meant that he was allowed out to finally venture forth in the world. A small price to pay, he wagered.

"No, most of this book is worn and torn, the ink is running and pages are missing," she stated, her face displaying dismay at her inability to conclusively complete their investigation of the enigma beset against them.

"Well, if we keep searching, I'm sure we'll find something, right?" Hopefully, he finished in his mind. He wanted to figure out the answer to this riddle nearly as much as she did, and he decided to give a little ring of hope in the matter to lighten their spirits somewhat. He was beginning to feel bogged down and knew that they had accomplished little, the lathargic effect of the place holding sway over them.

A smile, however weak, found it's way to him and he knew that his words had helped at least a little. It gave him a satisfaction to see her smile at him that way. Beats getting beat all the time, his mind quickly affirmed, There's nothing more than that, honest.

For some reason he didn't quite believe himself.

"Want some?" she held the stick out to him, offering the fluffy white chewy thing that dangled off the end. Sasuke didn't quite trust it and knew that there was no way it would be nutritious enough to sustain either him or her in the wild. Politely declining, he continued attacking the rations Mondo had prepared for him. Admittedly so, the coot wasn't such a bad cook and knew how to condense things.

"A ninja-chef's secret is preparing great things in small packages," Mondo would always say, "That way, you can give the illusion of a stable diet and make lunches simple enough to pack on official missions in large quantities."

He had offered a portion to Millie, worrying excessively that she would die of malnutrition on those strange fluffy things she kept burning in the fire, but she had too declined, preferring to fill her mouth with it and feign a form of jaw lock. Sasuke scowled each time, knowing full well her intent to mock him for the first time she had done that, and he had fallen prey to her ploy. She always knew how to get him and it bothered the boy-ninja, mainly because he didn't know her weaknesses, and to probe for them would mean to be subject to several trail and error experiments that would leave him handprinted each time he failed.

"You sure you don't want to eat some real food? I have more than enough to spare," he persisted, as he had every few minutes.

"As I told you the last time, and the time before that, and the time before that... No. I'm eating my 'mallows and not any of that wierd looking rice wrapped in grass!"

"It's sushi! And it's not grass, but seaweed!" he protested.

"Eww... Weed? No thankew!"

Sasuke gave her a blank look and she flashed a smile back at him, munching in a barbarian fashion, her mouth opening wide each time and chomping down on what he considered 'disgustingly bland'.

"If the woman won't take your offer, I will." a darl voice, deep and filled with mystique, rang from the inky blackness of the shadows in a monotone, "It's been a long time since I've had the pleasure of Mondo's 'set snacks'"

Sasuke spun around, reaching tentatively to the hilt his ninja-to hidden between the folds of his garb. Millie too responded with surprise, darting her head around searching for the origin of the speaker.

"Who's there?" she asked, "Whoever you are, show yourself or be punished severly by trained ninja's of Rokkaku!" Sasuke looked at her and she arched her brow back at him. Her ploy would have worked in normal circumstances but the boy-ninja already had his suspicions as to who their unknown visitor was.

"Worry not," a figure leapt forth from a shadowy perch, landing with perfect form on the ground and rose from a croutched position. Their guest was tall, leanly muscular and covered from head to toe in a purple-black dotted with red flecs all over. Sasuke could see the outline of a ninja-to hidden in the folds and several shuriken lined on the belt. His hair, or what was betrayed of it, was a white and his face was jagged and rough, although unwrinkled as of yet.

His suspicions proved true, he knew this man who had snuck up on them in the night and asked for food. Once a resident of Rokkaku and of relation to Master Hanzo, this was a man cast-out by his own for the good of the community. Sasuke didn't wish to even begin to measure the bitterness this individual must have felt, or still was feeling, but he hoped to whatever gods would hear him that he wasn't here on business or, at least, that the business didn't involve them. He knew the dark ninja's name as well, or at least the name he took after exile, and it was an appropriate title at that as well.

"My name is Kage," he announced in his silent voice that hushed the very night around them, "And I will not harm you."

The boy-ninja looked quizically at the cast-off and could see his expression mirrored on Millie. Maybe all the stories I've heard about Kage weren't true... he seems like a nice enough guy...

"As long as it is not stated in my contract," he finished.