Kendo is the art of Japanese sword fighting, and is totally awesome.

Iado is the art of drawing the katana, and is still pretty cool, though as my sensei once said, "Damn moronic to broadcast the fact that you're about to try and kill someone. You might actually give them a fair chance."

My sensei completely kicks ass.


Snake Eyes had been through a hell of a lot in his life. He'd once feared himself unlucky, cursed to bring misfortune and death to everyone he cared about. His name, though he hadn't originally earned it because of his bad luck, was a rather bitter source of comfort through the deaths of his family, his master, and the seeming betrayal by his sword brother. Might as well label yourself ill-luck; warn people before they got too close.

Then he'd met Shana O'Hara. Of course, he'd at first worried that his bad luck would bring her harm, too…and when a helicopter had gone down in flames, he'd been flat-out terrified for her, and pretty much convinced that it was his fault, somehow

But she'd been fine. He'd been the only one hurt, and for a long time, lying in that burn ward, he'd alternated between trying to reason himself out of blaming her (he was human, after all, and it was human nature to blame something for your suffering) and being terrified that she'd leave him, abandoning the relationship that was so new to both of them yet, but one he'd already known was more than just a fling.

After he'd healed somewhat and had no longer had those wonderful Tuesday mornings to look forward to (he still had nightmares about that) he'd pretty quickly decided that whatever good looks he might have had were a fair trade for her life, and his (rarely used anyways) voice for her stubborn insistence on staying with him. They'd been together ever since, and he never for a moment regretted his decision to stay in that helicopter, or the loss of his voice. He didn't think himself bad luck anymore, but he still went by the name he'd earned for himself in Vietnam, years ago. He hadn't used his birth name in so long that it didn't even feel like it belonged to him anymore…it belonged to those files still locked deep in the Pentagon basement, the ones labeled "Classified".

Quite frankly, he considered her his good luck charm. Through all the hell they'd been through, through all they'd seen and done with G.I. Joe, she'd always come out okay, and so had he. After they'd married (and he'd been six hours early for the ceremony this time), after the team had been permanently stood down, and after Tommy had convinced him to semi-permanently move to Japan as one of the masters of the clan (not that this had taken much convincing; Snake and Shana both considered the prospect of retirement to be boring, and they were both too young for it anyway.) she'd given him the surprise of his life.

They hadn't exactly been trying for children, but, well…they hadn't really been trying very hard to prevent them, either. And since twins ran in both of their families, they probably shouldn't have been quite as surprised as they had been when they figured out that they were getting two for the price of one.

(Though Snake Eyes had gloated to himself, just a little bit. Again, he was human, and he was a functioning male, and just because he was a ninja didn't mean that he was immune to indulging in a little private smirking over the ego-boosting fact that he could obviously get his wife pregnant twice, with one try. He did not, of course, let on about this to anyone.)

Terry and Sean (after his sister and Shana's younger brother) were undoubtedly the best thing that had ever happened to him. Shana often said (usually while smiling, though, so he figured that it was okay) that he spoiled them rotten. This was, he knew, completely true...as much as was possible when you were also training them as ninja, anyways. Considering the fact that he really hadn't ever thought that he'd have the opportunity to have kids, he figured he was entitled.

So yes, he adored his offspring. But it was pretty damn nice once in awhile to get some one-on-one, mommy-and-daddy time too. Tommy was as good as his word; he collected the twins in the morning, and herded them out to the training yard, leaving Snake and Scarlett to themselves.

Which led to the current, entirely satisfactory situation; lounging in bed, the remains of a late lunch that Snake had taken enough time to go and bring back sitting on the bedside table, Shana using his shoulder as a pillow as they attempted to figure out just what the hell was going on in the movie she'd selected. Lots of stabbing, that was for sure, but exactly why the protagonist seemed to deem it necessary to decapitate everyone who looked at her sideways was a mystery.

To be fair, this was entirely their fault. The first hour of the movie had been pretty much completely ignored in favor of other, much more interesting activities. They could have rewound, but the remote was all the way on the foot of the bed, and shifting Scarlett off of him long enough to retrieve it wasn't high on Snake Eyes' list of priorities right now. Shana didn't seem to have any intention of moving, either.

She raised her eyebrows as the heroine of the movie pulled off a particularly acrobatic stunt. "I have never actually seen someone balance on a sword blade, you know. You think you could pull it off?"

Snake considered, and shifted her slightly to free his arm enough to sign. *So long as it's on the blunt edge, I'll give it a shot.*

She snorted. "What? Can't turn your skin to stone? Not much of a ninja, Snake."

He smiled. *You want to try it?*

"Nope. Gaijin. No tattoo on my arm, remember?"

*Right. Sorry.* Snake Eyes paused. *To be fair, pretty much all of the other clans consider you ninja, according to Tommy.*

Scarlett grinned. "I like to think I've kicked enough ninja in the teeth over the years to earn a little respect." She snuggled in a little closer to his side. "You know, I sometimes wonder what my life would be like if I'd never met you."

He raised an eyebrow.

"Boring." She answered the unspoken question. "Very, very boring."

*Glad you have some reason to stick around, then.*

"Well, your ass doesn't hurt either."

He shook with silent laughter.

It was several hours before Snake wandered outside, intending to track down Tommy and see if his sword brother would be game for a little practice sparring. Tommy was still the only one who could offer him a real challenge; Snake knew that his sword brother considered him pretty much the only sparring partner where victory was in doubt.

He found his sword brother scowling at a dozen students drilling sword forms. Kamakura was ostensibly the one currently teaching basic sword skills, but Snake had apparently happened along during a little snag in the class.

One of the students-a man of perhaps twenty, and dear god had he looked that young when he'd shipped out to 'nam? The boy looked like he was barely old enough to shave yet- was looking distinctly nervous but was actually daring to argue with Tommy about something. The boy was one of the ones recruited from mainstream martial art schools, and if Snake Eyes remembered correctly, this particular one had come from a kendo school, and also had a wall of trophies in iado. It was this latter discipline that was apparently causing the current conflict. Snake Eyes, amused, crossed his arms and waited for the inevitable verbal evisceration and physical beatdown.

"I am just asking, Phoenix Master." The young man bowed. "Drawing the sword is as much an art as using it, yet I am being reprimanded for attempting an elegant draw..."

"You are not a samurai." Tommy cut the student off short. Snake Eyes' sword brother crossed his arms, glaring irritably at the young man. "I don't give a damn if the angle of your wrist is perfect or your sword sheath is at the properly aggressive angle when you're drawing your weapon."

"But..."

Tommy raised his eyebrows. "The highly formalized movements of an iado draw developed amongst the samurai class to signal their intent to violence and offer their opponents a chance at a fair fight. We are not samurai. We do not offer our opponents a fair fight, and in fact you will be expected to do everything in your power to make a fight as unfair as possible. The only thing that I care about when it comes to drawing your weapon is that you get it out and into your opponent before he has a chance to hurt you."

"Yes, Master."

Tommy narrowed his eyes. "Get over here. Face me."

It was with extreme reluctance that the student complied. Tommy eyed him. "When Kamakura gives the signal, I want you to draw on me. Understood?"

"Yes, Master." The young man looked rather as if he was expecting to get decapitated.

"Kamakura, call it."

Kamakura was actually smiling. "Now."

There was a metallic hiss of metal rasping against wood, an almost-invisible flash of movement, and then both men went still.

Tommy's sword was just touching the young man's throat. The student's own sword was only halfway out of the sheath. Tommy was eyeing the young man hard.

"Don't move." He instructed. He glanced over at the rest of the students. "Now, a few questions for the rest of you, just to see if you've learned anything. One of us just looked very pretty while drawing his weapon, and no doubt would have won a nice shiny trophy from a panel of judges. Care to point out who?"

"Haru, Phoenix Master."

"Exactly right. One of us is also dead. Which one of us is still alive, and not only alive but without a scratch on him?"

"You, Phoenix Master."

"Oh, well done." Tommy raised the tip of his sword just a little bit. "And I assure you, the one is directly related to the other. When you are in a fight, the only thing that matters is killing your enemy as quickly as you possibly can. Musashi said it best; "In battle, your only concern is cutting your enemy." Worrying about anything else will get you killed very quickly, and I guarantee you that your enemy is not going to care how good your draw looked when he killed you. So get your weapon out and into your enemy before he gets his out and into you. We aren't tournament fighting here. Am I perfectly clear on this?"

Haru swallowed...carefully. "Yes, Phoenix Master. I apologize for my impudence."

"I'm sure you are. Finish up with him, Kamakura. He's mine tomorrow." Tommy slid his ninjato away and smiled at the young man. "We'll get you over that bad habit, even if I have to kill you to do it."

A convulsive gulp. "I thank you for the lesson, Phoenix Master."

Tommy turned and stalked over to Snake. "Brother, next time I'm looking at recruiting students, if any of them have iado anywhere on their resume', and I even consider them, please hit me. I prefer teaching them from scratch over breaking bad habits."

*To be fair, once he actually draws he's a damn good swordsman.* Snake Eyes pointed out. *And you recruited him because of his kendo skills, yes?*

"True. Still."

*I promise.*

"Thank you." Tommy leaned against the wall and watched the careful sparring. "We got a letter from Hawk."

Snake Eyes raised an eyebrow.

"He wants six of us. South America, as security for a Presidential visit to Sierra Gordo."

*When?*

"We'd have to leave in six days. Hawk requested me, you, Red, and Kamakura and Kimi by name...Billy and T'jbang will be back by then, but I really hate to send them right back out again, so the last one would probably have to be Junko."

Snake Eyes frowned. *That would only leave maybe two agents here.* Generally, there were at least four full agents and preferably one master at the compound at all times. This was purely a security measure; the Arashikage had a long list of enemies, but few of these would dare actually mess with the clan. Most people liked their internal organs to stay internal, after all.

"I know. I don't like it."

Snake Eyes sighed. *It's Hawk. And the President. We really don't have much choice, do we?*

"Not really." Tommy grimaced. "It's only for two days, but I still don't like it."

The idea of leaving Terri and Sean without either him or Shana around for two days wasn't exactly settling well with Snake, either. He frowned and shook his head. *I'm going to be twitchy the entire time.*

"Agreed." Tommy sighed. "Junko says they'll be fine here, but you know how much I hate leaving Taro, even when Junko is here. And she's probably stricter with him than I am."

Snake Eyes smiled slightly. Tommy absolutely doted on his son; it was common knowledge amongst the Arashikage. Taro was also completely a daddy's boy, which Shana actually thought was pretty adorable.

"I know...I'm being unreasonable." Tommy sighed again. "Billy and T'jbang are good agents...they'll be fine." Tommy suddenly glanced at him. "I need to unwind...Go grab a sword."

Snake Eyes, more than willing to be distracted from the issue of the week-distant mission, did so.