Lt. Simon "Ghost" Riley

Task Force 141

Kyoto Mountains

It had been a "routine mission", a little cover there, a little protection there. Ghost knew this kind of missions would be ultimately easy to carry out, but this particular one was boring him out of his wits… And just when he was about to take a smoke, he saw a familiar head of fiery red…

"Reddie, what the hell are you doing here?" he asked, hoping that he had not been mistaken. Thankfully, he was not. He could recognize that dragon with the ruby eyes on that katana sheath from anywhere in the world. It belonged to Ryuka, the co-Lieutenant of the Task Force 141.

Ryuka turned around and raised an eyebrow at Ghost incredulously. "Ghost, what the hell are you talking about?" she asked him, placing her hands on her hips. Dressed in a traditional woman's hakama and gi instead of her new and improved light armor, which was in fact a catsuit made of leather-looking materials with a Kevlar corset, she exuded an air of calm and peace, and not subtle hostility hidden within her ultimately eye-pleasing female form.

At least her reply seemed to convince Ghost enough that she was the real deal. "Well, look at you!" he exclaimed, gesturing about her. He really, really was not used to see her like that, the katana he was used to, so demure and… well… docile. In fact, most of the women on that mountain were wearing the same thing as she was, katana included. Being the alert man that he always was, he knew that something was up. "So, what's the occasion? I thought that you're supposed to be in Tokyo!"

"Something to do with your mission, I can tell you that," Ryuka replied with a smirk. In fact, she had taken a month's long leave to come back to Japan for a family gathering. After all, this was the ancestral home of her line from both sides of her family. "Didn't you get the memo?"

Ghost was a dutiful lieutenant, of course he got the memo. "Wait a minute," he said, "You're from the 'mystical samurai line' that China wants to get back at for Japan's WWII atrocities?" Wow. No wonder Roach was so enthusiastic about that mission. "Does the Captain know?" he asked.

"The Captain?" Ryuka asked almost sheepishly. He knew that she was back in Japan for a "family thing", but said gathering concerned the traditional meditation, sparring, and the usual catching up with the relatives. The most important thing was that every single living female descendant of that samurai line was there, which included the Algren daughters from America, which meant that this would be the greatest concentration of US servicewomen in foreign areas, thus, the Task Force 141 was called to protect them in any way possible.

"You didn't tell him, didn't you?" Ghost rolled his eyes. He knew, from the very start of Ryuka's career in the 141, Soap had cared for her more than any person he could think of. Besides, it was an open secret that the two of them were in a relationship, and given Ryuka's unorthodox methods of overcoming enemies, which usually resulted in life threatening situations on her part, he knew that the Captain would go ballistic if he found out that she was right there in the danger zone. "Reddie, love, you do know that he's leading the mission, right?"

Ryuka's expression immediately paled. "No, I thought you were," she replied. "He told me that…" At her pause, Ghost told her that Soap had wanted to surprise her by visiting her in Tokyo after the mission, but apparently, the reunion between the two would be coming a little earlier than expected… She knew that she had to face the music this time, and she knew that there was no hiding or weaseling herself away from the tight spot that she would be in this time. "Alright, where the hell is he?" she asked Ghost, heaving a long, labored sigh.

"Talking to the matriarch," Ghost answered. "He wants to plant two sniper teams around the perimeter, but she does not like the idea of it. Something about not defiling the ancestral grounds with modern weapons and whatnot…"

"I'll talk to them," Ryuka said. Her grandmother was a stalwart defender of their own traditions, and knowing that Soap might be a future grandson-in-law, perhaps, she would let her own convictions down for the safety of all.

"For the last time, Captain, I will not tolerate the use of modern weapons in the very heart of the dwellings of my ancestors," the older woman, Grandmother Ryu, in black and red Japanese traditional clothes said to Soap. Strangely, she reminded him of Ryuka, an older, and slightly wiser Ryuka, that was, and she was even wearing a katana… Somehow, he knew that it could not be a mere coincidence. "Even if we are under some threat of Chinese extremists, we are perfectly able to handle the situation ourselves."

Soap, however, disagreed. "Ma'am, they are all fully armed, while you only have katana to defend yourselves with," he reasoned. Suddenly, he felt a familiar hand touch his shoulder, and when he turned around, he saw Ryuka, right before him, dressed exactly like the matriarch before him. "Red-"

Ryuka leaned towards him and kissed him before he could say anything, stopping him mid-sentence, much to her grandmother's and his surprise. "It's good to see you, Captain," she greeted with a small smile after bowing to her grandmother. "Oba-sama, forgive me, but I would have to agree with MacTavish here. We are indeed under much more trouble than we have ever imagined."

Grandmother Ryu looked at her granddaughter and raised her eyebrow. She knew that it would be highly unorthodox to be involved with a person in the same team, much less her own superior, but she had never doubted her granddaughter's tastes in men. Amused, she looked at her youngest grandchild and said, "My dear granddaughter, you are not foreign to our ways… You know why we are not allowed to bring modern weapons here."

"Oba-sama, there are 40 of us, and about 200 of them. No matter how fast we are move, that's eight gunmen to a swordswoman. We'll be sitting ducks without sniper cover," Ryuka reasoned, almost begging her grandmother with her large, dark eyes. "Whatever damage done can be rebuilt, Oba-sama. But if our line ends here, both Japanese and American, we're done for."

Soap looked at Ryuka and could not help but to smirk inwardly. It seemed that family dynamics really worked the same in each and every family. Ryuka was the youngest of two sisters, and not only that, she was the youngest child of her generation, making her the effective "baby" of the family. Usually, that meant negotiating power. Coupled with the fact that she was the only one in the family that got into the Task Force 141, he knew that before long, she would have successfully gotten the clearance to get Toad and Archer as well as Ghost and himself into the appropriate spots before the Chinese would schedule their attack.

Ryuka looked at her grandmother, waiting for a response. "I can see that you trust this man with your life," Grandmother Ryu said to her in Japanese. "Is it because he is your leader, or is it because of another reason that I should know?"

"Both," she answered in the same language. There was no need to elaborate further. Grandmother Ryu knew her granddaughter well. This child was strong and steadfast, firm in her beliefs and those that she loved. If she would have so much faith in this one man, and the soldiers that he had brought with him, she would trust Ryuka's judgment as she always had.

"Very well then," Grandmother Ryu said, reverting back to English. "It has been decided. I will allow snipers into the ancestral plain, but only snipers. The rest of your team will have to defend us from the outside. However, I will have one condition from you, Captain MacTavish: remember that Ryuka-chan is off duty. She will be safe with us."

At that point of time, neither Ryuka nor Soap knew whether or not it was a test given to them, but Ryuka agreed. They would not have enough weapons if she had joined them anyways. Thus, Soap gave Grandmother Ryu a polite bow and walked towards the team after planting a soft kiss on her temple.

"You know, Ryuka-chan, this man, hold on to him," Grandmother Ryu said, almost matter-of-factly. It had been three years, more or less, since she had been in the Task Force 141, for three years, she had been with the same man. It was a sign clearer than the light of day. "I can see that he clearly cares for you. Has he asked you to marry him anytime soon?"

"Oba-sama, we've been through this before," Ryuka said to her grandmother. Being together for three years, in their line of work, as almost an eternity, she knew it and she knew it well. With FNGs getting killed off as soon as they're sent into the 141, and older combatants dying with every mission, Ryuka knew the sadness of losing a great friend, and a team mate. She had kept things "casual" with the Captain, because they knew that any single one of them would die at any single moment, they had told themselves that if they had kept things simple, perhaps, the pain that they would feel would not be as great… that was why their relationship was hardly acknowledged, but widely known throughout their organization.

Of course, it was just them lying to themselves. Anyone in the Task Force 141 knew that they were highly monogamous to one another, and Grandmother Ryu seemed to agree with them. "Alright, I shall not probe you any further," she said to her granddaughter. "Now, go with your mother and your sister, the ceremony will be starting soon."

"Hai, Oba-sama," she said, and bowed before leaving through the door.

Roach had never seen so many beautiful women in one place before. Heck, even the older ladies, from the way they looked now, he could tell that once upon a time, they must have been total babes. "Roach, what are you doing?" Meat asked him as he looked down from the tall, ancient pine tree with binoculars. "Checking out hot babes?"

"Nope," Roach replied rather sheepishly. He could point out one thing, though. "They all look, like, well, Reddie," he added. The bone-structure, the height, and those features which blurred between Asian and European, all of them had the same characteristics that Ryuka had.

"Well, it's their ancestral home, go figure," Meat added. "Why is this place so sacred to them anyways?" They were all before a majestic, roaring waterfall, and the woman, they just sat in lines and meditated, their katana gracefully placed upon the ground.

Roach, a fan of all things Japanese, knew the answer, of course. "Well, apparently, this is where their ancestor found an injured female dragon and nursed her back to health. To repay him, the dragon married him and gave him two beautiful girls, and told him that their daughters must be trained and respected like a samurai. So when the dragon left for Heaven, she taught them the most powerful style of kenjutsu to remember her by. I think this is some family gathering to commemorate that."

While it was an interesting story, Meat hardly believed any of it. However, that did not mean that the mysticism was not getting to him in either way. There was a strange quality to that place. All of them were battle-worn soldiers, but there was a sudden peace that swept all of them, as if the wind had brought them security and calmness whenever it blew.

"Look, over there," Roach said, spotting the rustling of some leaves that he knew should not have been there. There they were, the Chinese radicals. "Bravo Six, I'm picking up a few signals, they might be tangos," he reported to Soap. "Bravo Six, do you copy?"

"I got you, Roach," Soap replied. He, on the other hand, had a vantage point closer to the women, and had the perfect view of whatever was happening there. "Do not engage without my go," he said. "We can't afford to scare them off…"

What the hell did Soap mean by that?

Ghost caught the answer almost immediately. "Sir, you can't be using them as bait!" he exclaimed.