Before reading this, bring up www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJNoj7… and listen to it as you read. The story was made for this song... the story is about a samurai and a kitsune.

  They met as the samurai wandered down a path lined on both sides by Cherry Blossoms, and found the kitune on the side of the path. The snow white pelt of the creature was stained by its blood after it had been hit by the arrow of a wandering hunter. The samurai could not leave such a creature to suffer, and nursed it back to health before leaving again on his eternal journey.
 
  The kitsune fell in love with the wandering samurai and followed him. It watched as the samurai had many battles, winning each before continuing his endless march. But one battle he did not win, and he was left injured on the road. The kitsune came to him then, taking the form of a beautiful woman, and gently treated the samurai's wounds. The samurai grew well under her care, but eventually had to continue his journey. He left as the sun set on the horizon, with a promise to see the woman again.

  And so time continued, the samurai stopping by to see the woman each time he passed through. The years passed by, each one weighing on the samurais back and lining his face into a weathered frown, but his face would always smile upon seeing the woman.  Their relationship brought joy to them both, though each held their own secrets. From the man, the woman kept secret her nature as a kitsune. From the woman, the man kept secret his failing body and shaking hands.  

  Sadly though, all things must come to an end, and so too did this. A clumsy step, a misjudged swing was all that it took for the samurai to be wounded. He had lost his final duel, and now wandered down a familiar path, the Cherry Blossomed path from so many years ago.  His steps were heavy and the metallic tang of his blood was on the air as he looked up at the budding trees, his eyes refusing to focus as he fell to the ground.

  In the trees though, was another set of eyes which brimmed now with tears. The owner of the eyes jumped down to the samurai, changing into the form he knew so well. The kitsune cradled him in her lap as his life blood drained from his body, three words spoken between them before he closed his eyes for the last time. Three words which held so much weight, yet so little power, "I love you" and as they were spoken, the cherry blossoms bloomed

  The kitsune lay there with the body of her love, silent tears flowing down white cheeks as she mourned his passing. Her heart, broken under the weight of grief, lead her to bury the fallen samurai on the road they had met, his sword thrust into the cherry blossom covered ground in a silent monument to him.

  And thus the years flew by, eventually becoming centuries, and finally millennia. The kitsune aging and living, but never forgetting the samurai of ages past. Until finally came the day for her passing, her old body moving to lay next to a rusted and chipped blade. Her head lowers to the ground, her eyes close, and she drifts off into the Endless Dream; to meet her samurai once again.