Chapter 10: Solid Shogo

Our airborne protagonist is currently praying to every deity he can remember learning about in his four short years at the Rabbit temple. All the while his sadistic “teacher” grins at Shogo’s obvious distress, waiting for his apprentice to get extremely close to the point of impact before he saves him. Shogo is now at the height where he can actually see the surface of the oval shaped lake below him and it does not look at all inviting.

Shogo POV

The wind is lancing through my hair and the skin on my face feels like it's getting pulled to the back of my neck. I bother to open my eyes anymore because my tears got in the way of me seeing anything. I could barely hear my intense heartbeat over the roar of the wind in my ears. The noise is almost deafening and makes me want to shield my ears with my hands but they are kind of full at the moment with something a little more important. My hands are currently clasped together with my fingers aligned pointing upwards to the sky. I start to rattle apologies off to whatever deity for all the offenses that I made in my life. Hopefully one would listen in hopes that they would help me survive this damn fall or at least not get fucked over in the afterlife. I really didn't want my afterlife to suck as much as the current one so obviously fucking does or goddess forbid be worse. Welp I better start these apologies, I don't have much time before I turn the lake into a chunky soup.

"I'm sorry I ate Mitsumi's pet fish. I'm sorry I chucked the Head Priestess's earrings into the ocean. I'm sorry I stole a pastry from the bakery every sunday. I'm sorry I instigated that huge fight between Yasuke and Watanuki. I'm sorry I put pebbles in Tako's dumplings. I'm sorry I unscrewed the back wheels on that one asshole of a merchant's wagon. I'm sorry I stole that Hozuki dude's life savings. I'm sorry I bullied Daru into cutting his hair. And I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise to Lady Hana-,"

"Promise? What's this promise that you have with the old woman? What does that old bat possibly want from a runt like you?"

That blonde jackoff's infuriating voice below interrupted my process and it pisses me off,

"I’M NOT TELLING YOU SHIT!"

I snap open my eyes to glare at the bastard only for them to nearly pop out of my head. I am no longer falling to my death, but I am being suspended in the air by the back of my jacket. My feet are dangling about a foot from the lake water. I look and see a puffed-up version of the Blonde bastard holding me up in the air. He really is a human water balloon! I look at the lake below me in relief that I wouldn't get turned into ground beef. All the relief washes out of my body when I notice that a normal looking Gengetsu is glaring daggers at me from a spot at the edge of the lake.

"It's not wise to keep secrets from the person that controls how much mortal danger you're in at any given time…"

With that menacing line, the blonde proceeds to snap his fingers and I drop into the lake. My dislocated shoulder burns in pain but I manage to kick my way to the surface and float on my back. Then I start kicking my legs to get to the closer to land.

*BONK*

The momentary pain in the back of my head signaled that I made it to the side of the clearing. I wiggle onto my stomach and pull myself out of the water all the while making sure to protect my left shoulder from any further injury. I stare up at the grey sky and take a moment to catch my breath. My shoulder is still burning but I can’t bring myself to care due to my exhaustion.

*Tap* *Tap* *Tap*

Gengetsu stupid face comes into my line of sight, he peers down at me with a disgusted look.

"Wow! You look like shit! Unfortunately for you, I don't have enough time for you to lay there and lick your wounds soooo …."

He hoists me up into the air by the back of my soaked jacket before I can react. I weakly struggle in the air but the sudden grip on my limp left arm causes me to freeze in pain.

"Wait wait wait wait- AAARRGGGHHHH!"

I wail in pain as my pleas are ignored and my shoulder is mercilessly popped in place once more. I am unceremoniously dropped to the floor to writhe in pain while clutching my left shoulder. Tears uncontrollably leak from my eyes as the feeling in my fingers return. After a few moments the pain subdues but there is still a burning pain and stiffness present that makes me reluctant to use my left arm too much. I stand up shakily still clutching my newly realigned shoulder.

"Get the lead out of your ass, brat! To the middle of the lake you go, chop-chop! And don't let me ever see you cry like a fucking newborn ever again!"

Gengetsu kicks me in the back and I stumble toward the lake, managing to get my hands in front of me to prevent myself from face planting into the shallow water. It seems that no matter how tired and banged I am, my "teacher" would never give me a decent break. That is unless I'm on fucking death's door after I've survived whatever crazy task he expects me to complete.

I weakly paddle my way to the middle of the lake. I make sure not to rotate my left arm too quickly as I didn't want my shoulder to pop out again. I get to the middle of the lake and turn around to give the blonde bastard a challenging glare.

"Ohoho! Feeling cocky, are we? Let's see if you can out swim my sharks, then shall we?!"

Gengetsu then does something with his fingers and I see three dorsal fins in the water careening towards me from the shore. Normally I would panic but I was too physically exhausted to give a fuck at this point. I immediately turn on the jets on that energy from earlier but I try to control it a little. I shoot down underwater away from the sharks only managing to angle my body away from the rocks at the bottom with another quick little burst of energy. From the two bursts I am already on the other side lake, but the sharks that were made of goddamn water were still on my ass.

'Time for some evasive maneuvers…'

I continue cutting through the water to the surface again for some air, but something tells me that I'm going to be swimming around for a while.

Three hours later…

I am now mentally and physically exhausted. I have been avoiding getting chomped in half by these fakeass sharks for what feels like ages. At first it was only three sharks I had to contend with, but that limp dicked blonde fuckface keeps adding a new one every few minutes. THERE HAD TO BE AT LEAST THIRTY OF THESE DAMN THINGS IN THE WATER WITH ME NOW. I just stay on the surface at this point and try to avoid getting surrounded. Luckily, these things couldn't follow the sharps cuts and long curves that I would make in the boundary of the lake. I had even been able to direct a few of them into the rocks that lined the boundaries of the lake and other sharks with some deliberate direction while underwater. However, now there were too many of them for that method to be feasible.

I had learned how to do a little slide across the water on my feet if I needed to but I couldn't hold it for long. With some trial and error, I learned to filter the energy to the bottom of my feet in the shape of my entire foot. The sliding helps a lot when more than five sharks are breathing down my neck.

!!!

I leap out of the water with a small burst of energy and let a shark flail in the air below me desperately trying to take a chunk out of my body. I squint my eyes below the water to see more water sharks speeding towards the surface in my area of landing with their maws wide open.

'Damn if I try and swim now, I'll lose a limb or something!'

The shark splash back into the water and before I land push as much energy as i can muster to the soles of my feet. I land on the lake surface like solid ground, my ankles popped from the force. Ignoring the sting from my ankles I immediately blast off on top of the water, half running and sliding all over the place. It was like a something out of a nightmare. Numerous jaws of water blasted out from the surface snapping at my previous location. All of the sharks slammed into each other, dispersing in a giant splash of water. Even still I continue to stand on the water, looking into the lake for any more immediate danger.

"Finally! Took you long enough, brat!"

I whip my head around and face Gengetsu who is taping his foot on the ground with an angry look on his face. I had forgotten he was even there, with all the danger of getting bitten in half I was dealing with for the past few hours. It seems that he wanted me to be able to move on top of the water well enough. My balance is unsteady, but I don't think I would be falling back into the water unless I wanted to go back in.

"Onto the next exercise, catch!"

Gengetsu kicks my discarded katana that the old lady gave me towards me. I didn't even remember dropping it, much less how it had gotten at that asshole's feet. I step to the side out of the soaring blade's path and lunge a bit forward to grab its hilt with both hands before it could drop into the lake behind me.

“This is your last bit of survival training for the day brat. I’ll even give you a little demonstration before I throw my weapons at your bony soon-to-be-carcass.”

Gengetsu then throws three things to the right of him and strangely enough they do not continue forward but float straight up in the air. The floating objects look like three or so of those ninja knife things being suspended in the air by a white cloth. If I am supposed to be intimidated by the slowly descending pieces of metals tied to napkins, then this demonstration is failing spectacularly. The blonde jackass just stands next to the floating things as they get closer to the ground beside him, his annoyingly smug smirk never leaving his face the whole while. An awkward second later, the knives begin to sink below Gengetsu waist with nothin-

 *POOF! *

*SPLS-SSH! SPLS-SH! -*

I watch in horror as the body of Gengetsu is basically shredded by the knives after they fly out in all directions from the pop of the paper that was making the ninja things float. Gengetsu's freakish body, now full of fist sized holes, reforms completely just as quickly as it was punctured as usual. It just seemed like pure cheating to me that he could seemingly turn his body into fucking water at will.

“Alright, your turn kid! I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that the wounds you suffer from these beautiful works of shinobi engineering will be permanent. I’ll even give you a pro tip, the cloth won’t explode if its integrity is compromised. So, make sure you're quick with your feet and the sword. Maybe then you’ll survive and without further ado, let’s have some more fun!”

Gengetsu throws out a fistful of those parachute knives directly above me and they float up in the air showing there to be eight in total. I immediately leap backwards to stay out of their landing areas, but I also keep all of them within my line of vision. The floating knives are high out of my reach at the moment unless I did a super jump which would be beyond stupid. This meant I would have less than a second to slice up some of those parachutes before they would rain down hell on me. I watch the knives glistening in the sun ominously float down from the sky towards the lake. I am too scared to blink because it might result in me getting a knife lodge in my skull. 

*POOF!* 

Two hours later…

*Drip...Drip..Drip*

I could smell the blood dripping down my face from a sizable laceration along my hairline on the right side. The flow of the blood had caused me to close my right eye for a time to avoid getting the viscous liquid in it but I found I had to keep it open to protect myself from the offending projectiles. I had gotten too close to a low kunai balloon and almost paid the ultimate price for it. I stood on top of the lake wheezing with cuts all across my body. All of my limbs feel like rubber, every movement feels labored and slow almost as if they are putting up a resistance against my mind. My arms are littered with small scraps to semi large gashes that leak blood into the lake below me and my legs have not fared much better. The only pain I can feel is that which comes from my lungs when I breathe. I continue to grasp the hilt of my now thoroughly used katana tightly. The skin on the inside of my hands is raw as my calluses have not survived the repeated recoil of deflecting fast and lethal metal. Everything is hazy but I can see the sunlight glisten off of all the metal at the bottom of the lake. Torn up paper debris and pieces of black fabric from my ripped clothes litter the surface of the lake. The jacket of my outfit is nearly torn beyond recognition, but the pants would probably be quickly mended. 

Despite my disheveled appearance I still stood as straight as I could with my legs shoulder width apart, both hands on the hilt, at the ready for more while defiantly glaring at the blonde fucktard who seemingly never ran out of ways to kill me.

He scratched the back of his neck with a scowl on his face,

“Well isn’t your lucky day, you little shit! Seems I’ve run out of “training” tools for the day. We’ll pick up from here tomorrow morning…”

A wave of relief sweeps through me and I let out a sigh as I finally relax my stance.

Gengetsu turns away from me and starts to walk away,

“OH-”

He turns around to me with an infuriating smirk on his face and a vile glow in his eyes,

“Hope your “spwecial pwomise” with the old crone didn’t have anything to do with your new linen. That cold bitch might make you sleep in the backyard with how they look now. Pssst-Gahahaha!”

I growled at his foul comments about his own grandmother, but I didn’t have the physical or mental strength to respond to the heartless ass. Gengetsu chuckles at my obvious frustration and continues walking away into the distance towards the Hozuki compound. My legs give out under me and I plunge into the water below me. The water stings my many wounds, but I relax my muscles a bit to get some relief from the strain. I sink lower and lower into the lake completely surrendering myself to gravity, it is relaxing to the point I could fall asleep. I have lost enough blood to the point it is hard to keep my eyes open.

‘Make sure you come back in one piece!’

Hana’s parting words echoed in my mind,

‘Ugghh, I can’t die peacefully here with how much I owe the old woman for helping me out!’

With one final burst of energy, I launch myself out of the lake and toward the shore. I flip in the air to slow my momentum and land on the ground on all fours. Even so I stagger forward and faceplant into the forgiving grass and wet soil of the familiar clearing. My arms and legs are screaming at me to stay put on the ground, but I’ve become an expert at picking myself up over the years despite pain. Countless sprained ankles and fractured limbs from failed acrobatic maneuvers during my heists hadn’t kept me down and neither would these few cuts and bruises.

I crawl to my feet and start hobbling to the stairs with each step being shakier than the last. As I reach the top of the stairs my foot doesn’t come up all the way from the ground causing me to fall forward barely managing to prevent myself from inadvertently eating gravel. My arms struggle mightily as I try to push my torso up then I try and get my legs under me to speed up the process. In the corner of my eye, I spot a huge fallen branch lying on the ground beside a tree to my left and the thought that pops up in my head makes me grimace,

‘Well, hopefully no one sees me. It's almost nighttime anyway.’

Ten minutes later...

*Tak...Tak...Tak...tak*

I had made it down most of the stairs going slow and steady, making sure to keep some of my weight off my struggling legs with the help of the huge stick in my hands. The stick is as long as I am tall so balancing on it isn’t really a problem. Only a couple steps more before I finally stepped on flat ground again. One step...two steps...one more and only flatness left.

*KRAK! *

I feel the stick finally give under my weight and the paved ground below is getting closer. My arms wouldn't move to protect my face so the only thing I could do is turn to the side hoping my shoulder and ribs will cushion the fall a bit.

*KRIK-POP! *

‘Annnnnndddd... I dislocated my fucking shoulder again!’

The stone pressing into my face is cold but forgiving at the same time. My eyelids start to grow heavy and it quickly becomes a chore to keep my eyes open. I stare in the direction of Hana’s house, the length of the paved road leading up to it seems to grow endlessly.

‘I mean a little nap wouldn’t hurt; this floor is really comfortable right now. I’ll just ask Hana to warm me up some grub if I miss dinner. Man, I’m starving!’

I close my eyes and drift off to sleep

Eight Hours later…

*Sniff…..sniff..sniff*

*Sharp Inhale*

My eyes shoot open and I try to sit up only to immediately have a hand on my chest push me back down on what feels like a bed. I continue to weakly struggle to sit up but the hand stays firm preventing me from moving from my back. I smell the overpowering smell of chicken broth and take a second to examine my surroundings. The familiar paper designs and decorations of Hana’s medical room calm me down, but the hardened beady almost black eyes trained on me from above make me pause.

“Are you quite finished trying to undue my hard work?”

Her question confuses me at first until I see that most of my body is wrapped in thick bandages, I even feel quite a bit of them on my face. I shake my head “no” to answer her question, my throat is so parched I worry that speaking might rupture something important. My response seems to satisfy her as she stops restraining me with her hand and turns around. When Hana turns to face me again with a steaming bowl in her hand, the pungent smell of the broth gets stronger the closer the bowl gets to my face. She gently lifts my head so the bowl touches my lips and instructs me to drink it slowly. I hastily take a sip only to recoil immediately as the burning soup stung my tongue.

“OUU!!”

Sigh~

“I told you to drink it slowly.”

Hana states, shaking her head.

I want to give her a rebuttal for giving me such hotass soup without any real warning, but I just decided to give her a light glare as I sip at the soup slowly instead. Two warm bowls of chicken soup later, I am full and happy.

“Thanks a bunch! I was hungrier than a shark on a seaweed diet. Also, it felt like I swallowed the entire Wind Country desert,”

“Yes, I couldn’t help but notice how unusually quiet you were since you woke from your coma. I’m afraid that it's a side effect of extensive use of my special healing technique using any leftover water in your body to repair internal and external soft tissue damage. And there was a LOT of damage to repair indeed.”

The grim look on Hana’s face as she emphasized the number of wounds that I had received made me wince a little. I grin sheepishly back at her in response,

“But hey at least I came back in one piece, right…”

Hana sighs at my response but she cracks a grin nonetheless,

“Yes, there is that at least but I’d prefer it if you could come back to me under your own power next time,”

“Yes ma'am!”

Hana nods at my cheeky affirmation and then turns around to grab the one chair in the room which she then places right next to the cot I am on. As she sits down, and I get a closer look at her haggard features. Hana looks paler than usual and she now had dark bags under her eyes even though her normally dark hair looked a little lighter. The concern must’ve been visible in my gaze because Hana immediately tries to ease my worries,

“Pay it no mind child. I’ll be back to my beautiful self after a good night’s sleep as patching you up has proven to be quite the task for my old bones.”

“My bad... “

“You’ve nothing to apologize for, however, if you want to help this old woman out you can learn how to protect yourself better. I can guarantee you that Gen-boy will not make anything easier on you going forward. In fact, it has come to my attention that Gen-boy is not providing you with a necessary shinobi education in between his barbaric training exercises. I would be doing you a grave disservice if I taught you how to wield a sword but neglected to sharpen your mind. With that said, I will take the remaining time you have bedridden to instruct you on the basics of chakra and the essential knowledge of ninja life.”

“NOOOOO!!!!!-”

Four hours later…

I am finally off the cot and out of most of the bandages. I still have a tight wrap on my left shoulder to avoid it getting popped out again but otherwise than that my wounds were fully healed. Hana is a miracle worker but she’s also a scholastic demon. My brain is currently smoking from all the new terms and procedures that the old woman proceeded to relentlessly dump into it for the last four hours. If I tried to rest my eyes for even a couple of seconds, then the old bat would give me a light smack to the head to keep me awake. To make sure I was paying attention she would question me on the material and if I got any of it wrong, she would reread the information then ask me a more difficult question. Although, I found this method tortuous, I do know a lot more about the energy I’ve been using to give me that boost when I’m in trouble. I guess I unlocked my chakra like two years ago and I’ve been using it to give my physical capabilities a minimal boost off and on in times of distress.

If I get good enough with it apparently, I can do all that crazy shit that blonde turd likes to throw at me during his “training” sessions. Also, those fancy knife things are called kunai, the skinny needles are called senbon and the small four-pronged spinning things are called shuriken. Honestly, the names sounded stupid to me, but Hana absolutely implored that I used the correct terminology to avoid sounding like an “ignorant buffoon.”

After the stuff about weapons and the applications of chakra, Hana starts to explain to me that I will need to enlarge my chakra reserves and work on my control if I want to pull off any of the many lethal techniques that shinobi are known for. She tells me that my current chakra reserves were below average at best for a young shinobi which definitely stung my ego. Seeing my distraught look, Hana tries to raise my spirits by telling me that I have the best chakra control she’s ever seen for one so young and successfully brightens my spirit.

“Water walking is a difficult chakra control exercise that is crucial for any young ninja to learn in this country due to the environment. Hopefully, Gengetsu will at least give you time to learn that before he brings out into the open seas,”

“Water walking? I got the hang of that yesterday while trying to avoid getting bitten in half!”

My revelation causes both Hana’s eyebrows to raise to her hairline,

“I know I’m going to regret this but please recount to me what exactly happened during your time with your “sensei” yesterday morning,”

Not fully understanding her apprehension at listening to my experience, I innocently told her of my latest death-defying performance in great detail. The whole while she listened to it with a grim face, not even a single moment in awe at my mind-blowing awesomeness which is absurd to me. When I finish my recount of my harrowing experiences yesterday, Hana looks at me in silence for a moment before she lets out a long drawn out sigh, and then leans down and latches her arms around my shoulders in a tight hug.

“You did well for surviving all of that, Shogo. You’re a very resilient little boy”

Her reaction and words come as a shock to me. I’m not entirely sure on how to respond to her sudden hug and compliment, nobody’s ever been this nice to me before,

“Uhhh thanks but I wasn’t just gonna lie down and let that bas- I mean Gengetsu-sensei kill me. I’m too awesome for that and I promised you I’d come back!”

Hana lets go of the hug and pats my head with a light chuckle, then she gets really serious as she looks directly in my eyes and grabs my right shoulder tightly,

“Death comes for us all, Shogo. That is life’s only universal truth. But it's that stubbornness of yours that will prolong your life past your current and future adversaries, promise me you’ll hold on to it…”

*Pfffttt-*

“Easiest promise to keep ever! I was going to do it anyways but sure Hana I’ll be the most stubborn S.O.B ever seen,”

Hana releases my shoulder and shakes her head as she smiles fondly,

“Good. Now go put on your shinobi garb in the living room, I have repaired it and laid it out for you on the living room table. Make sure you leave in the next hour, you can’t afford to be late to whatever next manner of insanity that Gengetsu has lined up for you,”

With that Lady Hana turns around and leaves the room probably off to get that beauty sleep she so desperately needs, as the door closes I start doing some stretches to loosen up my body since I’m all stiff from laying around on that cot for who knows how long. I try and stretch out my left shoulder a bit to get a feel for the range I could get from it only to almost double over in pain.

‘Okay, how am I going to survive if I can’t freaking lift my arm up all the way! This fucking sucks!’

I decide to start heading downstairs to get dressed, all the while dreading whatever impossible sadistic trial Gen-bastard would make me do today. I reach the familiar living room, it’s funny how big it looks when no one is in it. I spot the clothes that Hana gave me yesterday all folded and placed in the middle of the table with the katana that I had at some point dropped yesterday, sitting on top of the pile. I must’ve let go of the katana at some point when I was trying to scramble out of the lake yesterday, it certainly would’ve been more helpful than that fucking stick! I grab the black jacket to inspect the damage only to find that it had been repaired to pristine condition, after a quick glance I notice the other pieces of clothing were in similar states.     

‘Huh! All those tears and rips, gone like they were never there. Just like their wearer, heh!’

I put on my freshly repaired duds and grab the katana before making my way to the front door. I stop at the door and slip on my sandals then continue out into the Hozuki compound street. The atmosphere outside was somber and depressing as usual. Nobody is out and about which I guess can be excused since it is pretty damn early but it seems like the compound was vacant besides Gengetsu, his grandmother, and a few of his cousins. At least 4 or 5 of the ten houses in the compound had to be abandoned.

'I gotta remember to ask Hana why there's so few people in the Hozuki clan. There hasn't been a war or anything in decades.'

With that thought, I tighten my grip on the sheath of my borrowed katana in my right hand then hurry toward the main entrance. It is high time I get this over with, who knows how long it would take for me to get strong enough to get my neck out from underneath this blonde psycho's foot. But every second I'm idle prolongs my suffering and lengthens my road to true freedom.

About 30 mins later…

I take my time to get to the familiar clearing, doing breathing exercises to calm my heart down. Every step forward seems to increase my anxiety, I don't think I've ever dread meeting up with someone more in my entire life. As I step into the familiar empty clearing, I notice that the lake is crystal clear, with all the debris and blood from yesterday absent from the surface. Almost like the whole entire ordeal never happened but the emotional scars are still very much present.

'I feel like I'm walking to an execution or something! I barely left here alive yesterday when I didn't have to worry about my shoulder. I am not looking forward to figuring out how I fair not a full health.'

After about twenty minutes of waiting Gengetsu pops up in the clearing out of nowhere disheveled and sweaty. It almost looks like this bastard just woke up!

Gengetsu seems to be panicking a bit with his hands clutching at his hair as he quickly paces around the clearing ignoring my existence completely. I can hear him muttering, "I'm fucked!" repeatedly.

'What could possibly rattle this cold-hearted motherfucker this much?! It must be something HUGE if it's got Gen-bastard all worked up…'

I couldn't help but worry that whatever Gengetsu's problem is was going to become my problem in the near future. I am proven right when his beady eyes land on my nervous form as it looks like he is scheming up a plan on the spot.

"Shogoooo! … Don't I have a training exercise for you today!"

Gengetsu POV

"I'm fucked...I'm fucked...I'm fucked…"

It's not fair! She knows I need at least two weeks of planning before a big date. How am I going to do it in less than two days?!

*Flashback*

One hour before sunrise…

"Zzzzzzzzz…..."

Light shove.

"Gengetsu wake up...I'm leaving on a mission and I want a goodbye kiss…"

"Zzzzzzzz…. five more minutes..zzzz"

"I don't have five minutes!..Wake..up.."

"Zzzzzz…."

Hard shove!

"Whoa! Whoa! I'm up babe! Im up! What was the question again?"

Tamari shakes her head at my question, then proceeds to lay a big fat wet kiss on my lips morning breath and all.

"I'm going on a search and destroy mission along the southern coast of the South Island. I'll be back tomorrow night just in time for us to celebrate our anniversary!"

*Pfffttt-*

"Nice try, babe! You know our anniversary isn't for another three months..."

I wave her off before I lay back down on my imported goose feather pillow. Tamari's face goes into what I privately call 'Behemoth' mode. It is right then I knew I had wandered up into some deep doodoo. The psychological pressure being emitted from her glare made me sweat profusely, surely staining my stain sheets also imported.

Tamari sighs and closes her eyes while she pinches her wrinkled brow, usually I think it's cute but now I really fear for my wellbeing.

"Gengetsu...we had our first date in the 6th month of the year when we were both fifthteen, it was a week after the yearly squid festival."

I could feel cold sweat going down my back,

“So, we’re going by first dates now? My bad heh-heh I thought were using Coral festival date”

Tamari eyes narrow and her face steadily turns red but suddenly her face goes back to neutral as if she wasn't just about to explode. My lady gently rises off of my bed from her spot on the edge and stands over my shaking form. All the while the deranged glint in her eyes tells me she is still very volatile.

"Listen to me, Gengetsu. I was able to forgive you for forgetting the last two times since you were busy with missions. But if I get back and you don't have something special prepared...well then we're both going to discover a much darker part of me…"

With that she turns around and walks out of my bedroom, slamming the door behind her.

*Flashback Ended*

That was the most chilling threat I've ever received in my lifetime. I don't think anything will ever top such an open-ended terrifying threat because there are so many things, she could do to me. Sure, I am the better ninja between Tamari and I so managing any immediate physical threat she may pose on my life shouldn't be too much of a problem. But Tamari can and will destroy everything I value in the process of her fury. Not to mention if her family catches wind of her unhappiness... They'll probably skin me alive then destroy everything associated with me after! Even if I ran, their money would see me hunted to the end of my days…

'Think Gengetsu...think. I can't fucking go into town right now since everybody is too scared of me.'

All the stores close when fucking I step into town! It is ridiculous how cutting the hand off of one storekeeper makes them all band against you like you're the bad guy. That piece of garbage scammed a kid into buying a piece of garbage for a crazy amount of cash! But apparently maiming somebody is a dealbreaker for the pathetic bottom feeders.

Wait a minute, the kid! I can use the brat to get the stuff I need to set up my date night. I'll have to be ambitious with it to make it actually somewhat like a training exercise though. I quickly thought up a list of expensive materials around the island for Shogo to fetch. In fact, I'll add some stuff from all the other islands to make it more of an extended task.

Annnnndd… I'll make him steal it all just to up the risk for the little shit!

Shogo POV

“It’s your lucky day brat! No physical duress for you, at least from me today. The rest of your pre-mission training won’t be taking place here for at least the week. Meet me at my house in ten minutes. I’ll give you your task then.”

With that Gengetsu turns around and vanishes in his usual fashion.

Gengetsu’s words cause my already present anxiety to reach unprecedented levels, his sudden shift in demeanor when his eyes focused on me earlier is very troubling to me. 

Not wanting to be late to this unexpected house visit, I start making my way back to the stairs that lead down to the Hozuki compound. The sense of dread builds with every step I take, while I am grateful that I wouldn't be losing a pint of blood today. I know that these are unchartered waters for me. At least I kind of knew what to expect during his crazy attempts to kill/train me but now he is giving me some weird task after looking absolutely panicked.

One unfortunately short walk later…

The front of a house has never looked so foreboding to me then right now. I stand in front of the blond psycho's house wondering if knocking on his door would lead to my premature death. After about thirty seconds of mustering up any courage I have left, I rap my knuckles on the fancy wooden door.

The silence that follows seems long before I hear someone walk up to the door. The door slides open and the front of my jacket is snatched, pulling me into the house. The door slams behind me and I'm roughly thrown against the wall to the side. Gengetsu is standing above me with narrowed eyes,

"You cut that ten minutes I gave you awfully close brat! Never keep me waiting kid, it won't be good for your health…"

We maintain uncomfortable eye contact for a moment longer neither of us willing to give some unspoken battle. Gengetsu tired of waiting sucks his teeth and turns to walk down the hallway of his lavish home,

"Take off your damn sandals at the door and follow me,"

With that I see him continue down the hall and vanish into a room at the end on the left. After removing my sandals and tossing them at the front door, I step out of the fourier and onto the carpeted floor of Gengetsu's two story lair. As I look around the hallway and into the various open rooms, it's easy to see the reflection of Gengetsu's twisted and gaudy personality in the decoration of the large home. From the seafoam green and gold wallpaper to the white plush carpets, especially all the fucking white gold furniture. The deranged bastard had somehow managed to incorporate gold into almost every aspect of the house. It is honestly a bit sickening, the only thing cool about the house were the many antique weapons lining the walls. The vast majority of the weapons are swords, but some are things I had never seen before.

I make it to the room that Gengetsu disappeared in earlier, the white carpet squished between my toes. I peer deeper into the room and it's a wide windowless room, all the walls are lined with wooden shelves filled to the brim with books and scrolls. The room is almost entirely barren besides a large desk with a candle holder and a chair on both sides. Gengetsu sits behind the desk frantically writing something down on a piece of parchment. I walk closer to the chair in front of the desk,

"Don't bother sitting down. You won't be here for much longer anyway."

Gengetsu's words stop me in my tracks and I retreat to my spot near the door. My eyes never leave the blonde in front of me, I am still suspicious that he might be writing out my demise on that paper at this moment. Suddenly he stops writing and stands up from his spot, Gengetsu quickly wraps around the desk and stalks toward me before stopping in front of me, holding out the paper. I cautiously take the paper and look at its contents.

On the paper is a list written out in fancy handwriting. The first item is a bottle of wine from Tamari's clan wine cellar. The second is Bison meat from the Terumi clan ranch.  The third is a thirty-pearl necklace and bracelet set manufactured by the Momochi mistress. The fourth and final item is a silk blanket woven by the Yuki clan silkworms. It honestly looks like an extremely pretentious grocery list to me, but if he wants me to get all this stupid shit for him hopefully, I can use my leftover cash for it. As I am doing a second quick once over of the list, Gengetsu snatches the list from my hand.

"Hey!"

He puts up a hand with a serious look on his face and I button my lip. Suddenly the bottom of the parchment in his hand bursts into flames and the entire paper goes up in less than a second. My eyes are wide at the small spectacle before they meet the sinister smirk on the blonde bastard's face.

"I hope you memorized that list brat because you're going to steal exactly what I asked for and bring it to the north beach by the afternoon a day and a half from now."

The panic from earlier this morning returns to me two-fold. I quickly stammer out a response,

"I-I can buy the stuff on there. I don't have to steal nothin!"

"Oh no no no no! That won't due, Shogo! What kind of shinobi training would this be if there wasn't atleast a bit of sneaky criminality involved? Besides! I know you have at least some experience doing this type of thing…"

"B-but these are huge clans. I can't do all this alon-"

"Your testing my patience and burning valuable time! Get on with it already you little shit!"

Gengetsu puts a hand on my chest and shoves me out of the room, onto the carpeted hallway floor. The blonde asshole walks up to the doorframe and peers down at my crumpled form with a sneer.

"Make sure you retrieve the right items to the smallest detail. I'll know if you don't steal them so make sure you fucking do it without leaving a trace. Now you have your guidelines so get lost, don't come back to the compound until you have dropped off my stuff. Failure will be a dire consequence. And make sure you close my door on your way out."

With that Gengetsu turns around and shuts the door to the book room behind him. Meanwhile, I quickly scramble off the carpet and rush towards the front door. I now had to plan out and execute four heists on four different influential water country clans all within less than two days.

'FUCK!'

A/N:

I finally got this out! It only took me two months, sheesh! These last two months have been hectic lol. I went from interning full time and doing school to working part time and going to school. I’ll have more free time in the coming months and my new job has me at a desk doing nothing most of the time so expect more chapters at a way more reasonable pace. Thanks so much for reading, peace!