Love Your Hot Sauce

Introductory Chapter One: The Reject

"Pardon my intrusion," a maid opened the sliding door a few inches, "There is a summons for you, Lady."

Yuffie was busy standing like a giant T as her chambermaids tied intricate knots at the sides of her ceremonial dress. She turned her head slowly, the ornaments in her hair jingling. "Hey Hana, come in. Tell me what you think."

Hana did as she was told and after shutting the door behind her, she tried to remain as respectful as possible, her head low. "Lady Wutai, the summons is from The Elders and they were very insistent you make a hasty appearance."

"Sure sure. What do you think of these jade fastenings?"

Hana sighed, but didn't raise her head. She didn't need to. "They are lovely. A true work of art."

Yuffie smiled, "My mother carved them. Every Lady is supposed to add to the dress for their descendents. I think I'll use jade, too."

"Very good Lady, but the meeting. . ?"

"Oh all right, I'm coming." Yuffie carefully stepped down into her slippers. Custom made slippers with a blue dragon design and extra padding. She could get used to this pampered stuff. Life here did have a downside: the unexpected summons, etiquette lessons, political discussions, trade meetings, and various ceremonies were seriously grating on her free spirit. But she had to be an adult sometime; a fatal truth she could no longer ignore.

Yuffie followed her maid to the top floor where Hana opened the door and stepped aside (Hana insisted on this at all times) and shut it behind her. All nine Elders were assembled, looking regal but not as formally dressed as she. This caused her to pause; Yuffie's ceremony was only two hours away.

Nonetheless, she took a seat on a pillow before the council, her hands extended to receive a roll of parchment. The Seal of Leviathan on the outside rang warning bells, but Yuffie maintained an outer image of calm. Her fingers rubbed against the texture, wondering if this was her first official statement as Lady Wutai. Her hair fell like a dark veil in her face, hiding gray eyes as they wandered from the elders to her gift. She hoped it was interesting. Please, please be interesting. Please, not another boring history scroll. The ninja always scoffed at the bizarre rambling of her teachers and elders, the weird fixation for what once was instead of what is now.

She was tired of her people being wrapped up in the past. Wutains that concentrated on their long gone glory treated Yuffie differently. They would only notice her great bloodline and her silver gaze—the legendary trademark of the Kisaragi clan. Since the beginning of written history, everyone believed silver eyes were the emblems of their ancestors receiving a blessing from the gods. So they stare at her with expectations and disappointments, but Yuffie was never one to pay much attention. They cared about tradition and history. Those were not things a person could touch, see, or talk with. What was the point in acknowledging people like that?

After the three-day festival, her first order of business would be the future. Fighters knew about Wutai because it was the martial arts hotspot, but nothing more. Yuffie figured it would take five to ten years, but she would put Wutai on the map. The outside world will learn to respect her people.

"Novice!" an Elder admonished, "Pay attention when your elders are speaking to you."

She sat perfectly still, as any fully-fledged ninja would. Because a novice—as in, not Yuffie—would hardly deny herself the satisfaction of smacking the loudmouth around until his teeth came loose. For fuck's sake, she (had help but still) saved the world. But noooo, let's poke fun at Yuffie, the ninja who ran off to save their miserable hides from METEOR! "I offer my humblest apologies. I take no pleasure in insulting the senile. If you might repeat yourself, I will try harder to listen."

Yeah, that got brownie points. They leaned towards one another, murmuring outrage, forgetting she was still in the room. It was as if the Monkey of Insanity just appeared before them and offered to bed their wives. What was the big deal? They were rude first. In truth, she wasn't supposed to be at this ridiculous meeting; not that they told her what she was here for. She was supposed to be preparing for her welcoming celebration into that womanhood stuff. It's why she returned from her training—to accept her Kisaragi heritage and become Lady Wutai. It was time to give up her reckless tomboy ways and become a leader of her nation. A nation of traditions and manners and assassinations you weren't allowed to do yourself. She would miss life when she became a woman.

Would they ever shut up with the muttering? Geez. And why did they keep referring to her as a novice? A feeling in the pit of her stomach, akin to nausea, was rising into awareness. Something about the confident way the Elder addressed her; like her years of dedication and work before meeting her friends was inconsequential. This felt like the door to her future slamming shut in her face. This was denial. Yuffie could recognize it a mile away.

The nausea was spreading to her throat and her fingers felt cold around the parchment. She spared it a quick glance, as if she could read through the seal. 'Don't let this be what I think it is. Please be a history scroll.'

One of the Elders spoke above the rest, trying to keep the mood a calm one. "Lady Kisaragi," he started, earning the ninja's attention, "you do realize that Meteor was destroyed about two years ago, do you not?"

"My friends and I saved the world," for bald geezers like you to live another century, "two years ago, yes." Her chin lifted, as if daring someone to correct her. "What of it, Elder Sohi?"

Another Elder sneered at her playful tone, downright ignoring Yuffie's position in society. Considering how much Elders loved tradition, this was an alarming rudeness. He pointed his gold-tipped fan at her, "Where have you been since? Why didn't you return to complete your ninja training?"

"What are you talking about? I already am a ninja." Yuffie exclaimed, her eyes blazed like lightning in the distance. But she did nothing else, trying to express calm of body.

A new irritating murmur. She must resist the urge. . . don't poison your Elders. Remain calm. Someone new spoke up, though she couldn't place his name. They looked the same once people get that old. "We all acknowledge you dexterity, Miss Kisaragi—"

'That's Lady Kisaragi to you,' she wanted to shout. What was with the disregard to her person? Did everyone just decide to forget the Kisaragi name and its honored place while she was away? Better yet, what of the respective hold as Lady Wutai? What weren't they telling her?

"—but you are not a ninja."

Of all the things anyone could have said to her, this one completely derailed her.

The Elder paused a moment but Yuffie couldn't form a retort. Nothing of sass came to mind. "Though you may be skilled—"

May be skilled?

"—your skills differ from those of a ninja's. In your prolonged absence we have agreed that your talents have dulled since your return."

She blinked and the world slowed to halt. Her concentration on reality zoned out and faded into a growing sense of disbelieving horror, 'Dulled? I have dulled?"

Are they insane? One cannot simply dull a lifetime of rigorous training! Saving the world does not make a person think, 'Oh, well, that wasn't hard'. It's a very demanding task! Did they not comprehend the effort, the sacrifice she went through? And those two years of "absence" was hardly a Gold Saucer vacation. . .

"Surely you understand, there has never been a Lady or Lord Wutai who wasn't first a ninja," she could barely hear the geezer. Others said some things, but what really caught her attention was Elder Sohi's wrap up. "So, if you wish to claim your rightful—" someone in the back row cleared his throat "—inheritance, then you must start again."

Her body snapped to attention.

"Whoa, yo—you what? Are you geezers serious?" Yuffie looked to each face in disbelief. "From the beginning. . just like that? START OVER!"

So she lacked discipline, whatever, but if Yuffie didn't accept the responsibility of becoming Lady Wutai, no one else could. There was no other Kisaragi left; she was an only child, the last of her bloodline. This was her obligation since birth, her very life began and ended with this title and they were taking it away. "Who could possibly bear the title. . ?"

No one spoke, but they held themselves a little higher. Politics. How disgusting.

She couldn't sit through this any longer. With a free hand, she pulled her new ultimate weapon, Stain, from under her robe. Her right hand fisted what she assumed to be her official rejection papers, "Y—you. ."

A few Elders attempted to sympathize with the young reject and rose to console her, but she waved her conformer. "YOU GREEDY MAGGOTS!"

They want dulled do they? Yuffie yanked out a smoke bomb and threw it to the floor. Before she disappeared completely, she spared a glance to Elder Sohi, who waved goodbye with a sad smile. That was the only encouragement she needed, the smoke thinned, and the supposed Lady of Wutai was nowhere in sight.

This was a relief in more ways than one could count. Sohi rose stiffly and moved to shut the sliding door Yuffie had left ajar. He shook his head at the holes in her manners. Out of habit from encountering her in the past—or just by being in the same building as her—he searched for his purse. To his delight, everything was accounted for. Perhaps she was feeling gracious? Had her two years absence taught her some measure of restraint?

"My purse is gone!"

He thought not.

The others followed suit and patted themselves down, "My materia! Guards!"

The next five minutes were quite a show for Sohi as he watched the rest of the counsel members without a means to buy dinner tonight. And somewhere on the outskirts of Wutai was a noblewoman riding a snow-colored chocobo toward the mountain range. She was angry and alone. She needed a shoulder to cry on, and knew exactly where to find one.

End of Chapter

Thank you for reading!