ChapterOne

Rei Nakadai slunk beneath the trees, their shadows tangling themselves around her as she made her way through the wet grass. Her fingers were wrapped carefully in black cloth, her dark eyes trained harshly on the clearing through the brush. She could see her target, a fat man surrounded by ninja guards, their eyes hazy with alcohol.

How irresponsible, she thought coldly to herself. She pulled a series of needles from a pouch at her hip, tipped in poison and deadly within the hour. With a flick of her wrist the job was done.

The fat man barely moved. He reached up to scratch his neck, the needle falling out of his skin and to the ground. He checked his hand. He thought it was merely a bug bite, his mouth opening up in a sickening laugh at a cruel joke made by one of his companions.

Satisfied, Rei quickly exited the scene. She had no intention of being caught.

Some ways away, she relaxed, unwrapping her hands casually as she walked and discarding the fabric into the bushes. That and the needle would be the only sign she had ever been there.

Her small village wasn't too far away. This man, this ugly fat man had been on his way there, but fortunately for her people he would never make it.

She had heard of his inevitable arrival from a roving merchant, whose eyes had been wide with disgust and greed. He had seen the man in some village or town before, his piggy eyes trained on young women before they disappeared in the night along with the slaver, never to be seen by their families again. In her mind she pictured her sweet Kishi in his fat arms and grimaced.

Apart of her thought to tell the authorities, but she knew better. A man like that had some sort of power. He managed to get away with it many times in the past, and it was unlikely that he would be caught should he manage to grease enough palms. Sagai and the villages around it were going through hard times.

In fact, all of the ninja world seemed to be struggling at the moment.

Rei was exhausted.

She unlocked her door and made her way into her small apartment, breathing in the sweet smell of lavander and ramen. She felt her stomach growl, and as she decided whether she could convince herself to make something to eat, her cat bounded around the corner to push it's face into her shin.

"Oh, Amai," she sighed, bending over to scratch his head. He purred in content, closing his eyes. As she made her way into the kitchen, Amai pranced after her, bouncing on his tiny paws and mewling to his person happily in greeting. "Oh, yeah? It sounds like you had a more exciting time than I did." He meowed in response.

As she popped him open a can of tuna, he swished in between her feet. She struggled not to step on him, smiling at the welcome home.

While he ate she boiled water, searching in her fridge for eggs and found that she was entirely out. Frowning, she turned to Amai.

"Do we have any instant ramen?" She asked. In response Amai ate his tuna. She scrunched her nose before moving her search to the cabinets.

While she was waiting for her ramen to steam she made her way through her apartment, her tired eyes searching carefully through what little she kept. She was paranoid to a fault, her intense lifestyle leading her to remain thoughtful and observant. Finding nothing out of place, she picked an old smut novel off of her shelf.

Icha Icha Paradise, Three-Jump Cowboy was pleasantly well written and only mildly bizarre. It left her feeling somewhat lonely. She glanced over at Amai, who had sprawled out near her heater and lay with his eyes half closed, peering around the room lazily.

"Should I get a boyfriend?" She asked. Amai blinked at her. Rei sighed, running a hand through her dark hair and finding her hair tie. She pulled it from her hair and massaged her scalp, wincing slightly. "Does this lifestyle suit a boyfriend? Do ninja's in other places date?" She pursed her lips. "I mean, do they date regular people?"

She hadn't really been around any other ninja's since she had finished her training. Her mentor had died horrifically, and left to find her own way, she began mixing poisons and struggling to bring herself to the next level on her own. The sight of his death had haunted her for some time. The sight of blood made her queasy, still, and even a cut on her finger made her dizzy.

Despite her fighting style, she left no room for uncertainty. Perhaps it had been cruel, but the only way to be sure had been through many tests, tests which would leave most of the people in her village gaping at her in horror if they had ever known. The mysterious deaths of animals around Sagai had been news for months, and remained an eerie legend even now. Rei had been very careful to be sure no one knew her secret, for their own good more than her own.

With a sigh, Rei closed her book and set it down beside her. She stood and stretched, and made her way to her bedroom.

She didn't even remember her head hitting the pillow.