Sly was as stunned as his ancestor when the ninja in green addressed Rioichi by his name.

And Rioichi was not in the least comfortable knowing that this stranger knew his name, for he still had no idea who was under the hood. At first he thought that perhaps this was just some trick that one of his fellow classmates were playing on him. They tend to surprise each other and test their skills when they least expect it. But as quickly as the idea came, Rioichi shook his head clear of the thought. None of his classmates would ever engage in such a brutal battle such as what he had just fought in knowing that someone was seriously injured. As he sat on the cold ground trying to regain his breath and ignore the pain in his leg, he confirmed that this was not someone from his village and suspicion started to rise immediately, even after the ninja he was fighting had dropped his weapons in surrender.

Ears laid back in an aggressive manner, Rioichi snarled as he unsteadily jumped up and pinned the enemy to a tree almost effortlessly and held him in a choke hold with his cane, despite the pain in his leg firing up and making him stand with a horrible limp. Adrenaline was pumping in his blood again, giving him the energy he didn't have just moments ago. No games were being played this time.

"How do you know my name? And what business are you doing in my village? Assassin?" he hissed darkly. However, the stranger couldn't talk. He was quickly loosing oxygen due to the pressure being applied to his throat. He lifted his shaking hands and placed them on the cane to try and push it away from him. But Rioichi only slammed it back against his throat again roughly, making the enemy cough in response.

"Answer me!" Rioichi ordered.

"G-Give m-me a c-chance to e-explain…" the other ninja choked out. Rioichi eyed him through narrowed slits but did not loosen his grip. The raccoon still couldn't see the stranger's face due to the darkness and the hood, but the look in his blue eyes gave away his weakening state and he was buckling to his knees when he was no longer able to stand. Sly started to feel uneasy as he came up to his ancestor and laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Rio…" Sly tilted his head towards the stranger, telling him to give him a chance.

"P-Please, R-Rioichi…" the weaker ninja begged, almost desperately.

'He doesn't seem to be much of a threat now anyhow…' the Japanese Cooper thought. Left without much of a choice, Rioichi released his grip and let the other ninja completely fall to the ground, gasping for breath. Despite being released from the choke hold, he was barely able to get back up on his feet. The few rough coughs that came from him gave away a large amount of congestion that was in his chest. From the sound of that, Rioichi knew that he was sick and that was probably the reason why his fight was slightly poor. The look Rioichi saw in the stranger's eyes seemed to be thankful for sparing his life, but the Cooper's serious glare never disappeared.

"Start talking…" Rioichi muttered, longing to sit down and get off of his bad leg. He looked down to examine the damage done and mentally winced. Even from a few feet away, Sly could see blood had soaked through most of the blue material of his pant leg and started to worry some when he seen Rioichi look faint and lightheaded every few minutes. He had to get him back home soon.

Once the ninja in green regained his breath again after coughing for what seemed like the hundredth time, he noticed Rioichi checking over his wound and flinched from what looked like a very painful cut. "What have I done…" he said regretfully. He stood up slowly and started walking towards him, voice full of worry. "I am so sorry, Rioichi…"

"Don't come any closer…" Rioichi cut him off sharply, pointing the hook of his cane straight at him threateningly. The other ninja backed off immediately, hands held up in surrender.

"Don't make me regret sparing your life." the red raccoon added quietly. Why is he concerned for me? I thought we were enemies.

"Calm down! Please understand that I do not want to fight anymore."

But the comment fell on deaf ears. Sly cleared his throat to gain both ninjas' attention and stood in front of his ancestor defensively. "Look blue-eyes, I may not be a master fighter, but I will fight you if I have to."

"You're not listening!" the unknown ninja growled, knowing that Rioichi and this other guy still thought of him as a threat. "I do not wish to hurt anyone anymore! I want to help him-"

"Says the guy who intentionally fought and injured him just minutes ago!" Sly interrupted. "Why do you want to help him all of a sudden?"

"You wouldn't understand, my friend, b-but, I'm a Cooper. Rioichi is family." the ninja's voice was filled with great emotion. Rioichi's ears perked up upon hearing this and he straightened his posture. His rusty brown eyes read pure confusion in them, yet he remained silent. Family?

The red raccoon swallowed hard and lifted his cane to address the stranger again. He didn't even try to hide the angry growl in his voice. "You have five seconds to tell me just who you really are…" he said in a dangerously low tone. "It's risky to claim being part of an honorable family as the Cooper Clan when in reality, you, my friend, are nothing but a ruthless assassin. If you really were family, you wouldn't have attacked me."

"I promise you I'm not an assassin!" the other 'Cooper' defended. "Your hood hid your face before! If I'd had known it was you, I would have stopped fighting!"

"I have no family in this village!" Rioichi hissed. "You're lying!"

Instead of arguing, the ninja finally lowered the hood over his head. Who he was surprised both Sly and Rioichi.

It was another raccoon, somewhat similar in appearance to Rioichi. Instead of in a bun, his somewhat long hair was down and plastered to his neck from sweat and his fur was a slightly darker shade of reddish brown. He had a couple faded scars on the side of his face and a piece of his left ear was torn slightly at the tip from previous fights. He was slim in figure and was slightly malnourished, but if he was healthier, he was a little stronger in build than Rioichi. And despite putting up one heck of fight with Rioichi, both Coopers realized just how weak and tired this raccoon was and realizing why.

Besides the small scars and the noticeably bright blue eyes, he was almost a spitting image of Sly's ancestor and it was very likely that he wasn't lying about being a Cooper.

Rioichi stood speechless. Sly could see different emotions expressed on his ancestor's face at the same time from shock to even despair. Did Rioichi recognize him as family?

Seeing that the ninja in blue still had nothing to say after a brief period of time, the other raccoon spoke up again. "Rioichi," His blood ran cold as he swallowed the lump in his throat. "I know it's been awhile, but…d-don't you recognize me at all?"

Rioichi shuffled his feet uncomfortably and studiously eyed the other ninja. His mere silence was a clear 'no' in answer.

Rioichi could then see tears glistening in the raccoon's eyes, but none of them fell. He quickly blinked them away. "Rioichi…" he choked on the quiet words. "I'm Hiroki…your brother."

Rioichi gaped for a moment, taking in what he had just heard.

"You have a brother you've never told me about?!" Sly couldn't hold back his question, absolutely amazed and a hint of a smile stretching across his lips. He knew a few of his ancestors had siblings, but he always believed that Rioichi was an only child. However, unlike his descendant, Rioichi was very far from being overjoyed.

The ninja master's pulse started racing and he tried to remain calm, but the other two Coopers could see he was very troubled upon hearing this. In fact, it seemed that Rioichi was struggling to speak.

"I-I no longer have a brother…" came his muttered response. "I have not seen him, or a-any of my family, in seventeen years."

Hiroki nodded his head slowly. "I know…neither have I." he replied.

"I-I…don't understand…"

Hiroki and Rioichi stared at one another after the response. Rioichi's mind was still racing a million miles an hour, trying to decide on whether or not to believe if this raccoon really was family. It was true; he had a brother named Hiroki and he hadn't seen him, or his parents, in seventeen long years because of a terrible separation caused by an enemy of the family. Needless to say, he became an orphan when he didn't hear anything from them after the tragic incident. It was a lot for him to take in seeing a family member he believed to be dead and to be standing before him now almost twenty years later. It was blinding him from believing anything Hiroki said.

And ninjas weren't supposed to be alarmed, but that was the only readable expression on his face as he tried to find the right words to say.

"I know you're confused, brother. It's okay; I'm just as shocked as you." Hiroki spoke softly, breaking the silence they shared. "But it's really me."

But the ninja in blue continued to stare in disbelief. "How can you prove it?" he finally asked.

"Our father's name is Keiji Cooper and our mother's name is Masami. They have only two sons; you and me. We come from a long line of master thieves, who only steal from other thieves." Hiroki started to explain.

Sly stood back and was trying not to smile. Despite the seriousness of the situation, the grey raccoon thought it was cool hearing the Cooper code coming from one of his ancestors. And the more Sly thought about it, if Hiroki was Rioichi's brother, that would make him Sly's ancestor as well.

When the other Japanese raccoon was going to continue explaining, he paused when he seen Rioichi's cane. Something was tied around the hook of it and was reflecting light from the moonlight shining on it.

"…and Mother made that for you." he pointed out with a sad smile. Rioichi eyed his cane and saw the woven material around the bamboo.

It was originally a bracelet woven out of the finest leather material in all of Japan and sewn in the middle of it was his birthstone; a small piece of real sapphire.

Rioichi couldn't remember much about his parents, but Hiroki was right; he could remember that his mother had woven this bracelet together for him when he was very young. The birthstone was real and the woven fabric was very rare. Both items were stolen by Rioichi's father to give to his wife to weave into a beautiful, one of a kind bracelet.

The bracelet was one of the very few things Rioichi had kept from his lost and very secret childhood. He had worn it on his wrist his entire childhood but eventually, it became too small. So, he tied it around his cane where he would still have it close to him. It became sentimental.

When Rioichi looked back up, he saw that Hiroki had unsheathed one of his twin canes and unwrapped something from around it. His eyes lit up when he seen his brother hold out a similar bracelet. But instead of sapphire, his birthstone was a rich emerald. "Mother had made me one, too." he added. "She gave us the bracelets just a couple days before we were all separated from each other."

Rioichi studied the bracelet in front of him thoughtfully. For so many years, Rioichi had tried to forget about his troubled past, move on with his life, and overcome the loss of his family. But now the memories were trying to come back in a flooded mess. The reunion still didn't seem real.

"If you really are my brother, then you remember that night our family was separated…" Rioichi muttered as his brown eyes trailed up to meet Hiroki's eyes.

Hiroki nodded slowly and looked away briefly. "Yes."

"Who caused it?" the ninja in blue questioned, giving the final test to see if Hiroki was family or not.

"Clockwerk." the name was spoken emotionless and cold.

Rioichi turned away and let out a stressed sigh; that was all he could do. Sly watched with his breath held, having absolutely nothing to do with this situation and decided to stay out of it. But the mention of Clockwerk did send a chill down his spine. He started to wonder if Rioichi had lost his parents the same way he had lost his.

Just what was the story? What did Clockwerk do? Sly was becoming more confused the more he listened to the ninjas speak bits and pieces of their past that explained nothing to him.

In the end, Rioichi let his cane fall to the ground as he let his gaze fall with it, ears flat against his head. He had to turn away from his brother to avoid any kind of eye contact. "Hiroki…" his voice was hoarse with pain. "I-I'm so sorry. I-.."

The master ninja wasn't able to finish his sentence. He felt a hand rest on his shoulder, making him turn around to face the other ninja again. Before anything was said, Hiroki's eyes sealed shut as he embraced Rioichi tightly in a crushing hug. After the shock of the whole situation disappeared, Rioichi returned the hug just as tightly.

"Don't be sorry, Rioichi. I didn't expect this either. I thought I would never see you again, Otouto…" Hiroki said, holding back newly formed tears. "All these years I thought you were dead. Thank goodness you're alive and okay…"

Squeezing his eyes shut, Rioichi couldn't reply back, for the tightness in his throat prevented him from doing so. It took a lot for him to keep his emotions in check. All he could do was simply hug his brother in silence.

All the while Sly stood there, remaining in a complete phase of disbelief. One second a stranger comes out of the woods and attacks both of them, another second they're drawing blood and practically trying to kill one another, and then come to find out they're brothers and are hugging?

Hiroki broke the hug and placed his hands on Rioichi's shoulders. He couldn't hold back the surprised laugh, despite being choked up. "You've grown up so much; almost as tall as me now! And wow, do you look different from when I last saw you! You were just a little child back then."

"Everyone grows up sooner or later," Rioichi smiled lightly. He then focused his attention on Hiroki's suspicious apparel that would mistaken him to be an assassin, with the long green cloak, heavy hood, and belts across his chest to hold a variety of weapons. "Why are you dressed like this? One would mistaken you for being an assassin." he found himself asking.

Hiroki scanned over himself before answering. "This cloak helps me blend into the forest best. It comes in handy when hunting or staying hidden from other people."

Rioichi tilted his head in a puzzled manner. Hiroki seen this and sighed tiredly. "I haven't been in a village in months, brother. I'm always on the move and unable to settle within a village and call it home. The forests of Japan have been my home since we've been separated."

'Explains the poor health, over-worn clothes, and being underweight,' Sly thought to himself after noticing the tears and small holes within the cloak.

Clearing his throat, he walked up to the ninja brothers and smiled having seen this serious reunion take a lighthearted turn. "So you two are brothers? And you haven't seen each other in seventeen years?" he asked.

He got two nodding heads in response.

"You have got to tell me what happened! That's a really long time!" the present day Cooper wondered in amazement. "What did Clockwerk do?"

"Clockwerk has hated our family for many years," Hiroki explained, weariness lingering in his voice. "He chose the worst time to ruin our family when Rioichi and I were still young."

"Our mother was also a ninja master, but I believed that if anyone could have stopped Clockwerk, it would have been our father. The night we were all separated wasn't the first time he confronted him..." Rioichi added sadly.

"So wait, your father was the legendary Keiji Cooper? Did he …!"

Sly's comment was interrupted when Rioichi suddenly bit back a sharp hiss. He laid a hand on the knee of his bad leg and growled in pain. He tried to take a step to shake off the stinging sensation within his injury, but it was noticeably unstable. Hiroki grasped his arm before he almost stumbled over his own feet.

"You need help," Sly pointed out fearfully, forgetting about his earlier question. "We need to get back to the village."

Rioichi glanced at Sly and nodded. "I agree." He then turned to Hiroki, who looked just as terrible as he did. "You need to come with us. You're injured as well." he said, pointing out the still bleeding gash on his shoulder and the faint look in his eyes.

"Actually, I'm better off out here. I know how to dress my wounds so I'll be okay." Hiroki was quick to say, his voice lowering into a mumble. They could hear the congestion rumbling in his voice.

"You need to, Hiroki. You are not well." Rioichi objected.

"It's true I am not. I've been ill for a few days, and I feel it's only getting worse. But I can assure you I'll be fine and it will pass sooner or later." Hiroki said with a small, hopeful smile.

"Well, you also look like you could use a hot meal or two. That might help you get better." Sly added.

Hiroki smiled sheepishly upon hearing about food. "I'm going to guess that you really didn't take my fish?" he asked, nodding his head towards the baskets of fish that were probably already going bad. "I do apologize for fighting over them. I had caught fish earlier this afternoon and saw two bandits steal them from my camp. I assumed they were you two. I kind of needed those for I, uh, haven't eaten anything in a couple days."

"Don't worry about the fish," Sly waved his hand, dismissing the subject. "I'm sure the village has plenty for you." Hiroki still had an unsure look on his face and still declined the offer. Sly took it upon himself to bring up Hiroki's uneasiness. "We understand that you haven't been in a village in awhile. And it may seem frightening after such a long time…-"

"I'm not afraid," Hiroki defended calmly. "I…" He paused when he didn't know how to explain his reasons.

"Come with us." Rioichi spoke quietly, "I'll make sure you get the help you need." he promised.

Hiroki decided to not argue anymore. The thought of a hot dinner and sitting inside a warm house had won him over. The ninja was utterly exhausted and his wound had caused him to feel dizzy, which didn't mix well with his illness and hunger. Wordlessly, he started to follow the other two Coopers down the dirt road back to the village.

"Oh, my apologies, this is Sylvester." Rioichi introduced his descendent to his brother.

"Sylvester, huh?" Hiroki stifled a laugh but bowed respectively. "Well it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I'm Hiroki."

Sly did the same. "Everyone just calls me Sly. But yes, it's a pleasure to meet you after our uh…little confrontation there. Glad we're all on good terms now."

As they walked, Hiroki noticed how the limp that Rioichi had was slowing him down significantly.

"Will you be okay? You can barely walk." he asked. He grasped his brother's arm with his one good arm when he almost stumbled forward again. The longer his torn arm remained untreated, Hiroki felt it becoming more painful to us at all.

Rioichi nodded in an assuring manner as he retrieved his arm and used his bamboo cane to steady his steps. "Yes, please do not worry about me." he replied back. "I've handled wounds far worse than this."

"You never took wounds very well when we were kids." Hiroki smirked, remembering how squeamish Rioichi used to be around wounds when he was young.

Rioichi couldn't help but return the smirk. "I can assure you that I will be fine." he said.

As they were nearing the village, Sly flinched from the sights of the wounds on both Cooper brothers. Rioichi's right leg didn't look too good and Hiroki's upper arm looked just as bad, and there were a few nasty bruises and minor cuts along their arms, wrists and hands to add to it. He was thankful that they all got inside the village by the time he thought they couldn't take another step.

And from a distance along the outskirts of the forest, a pair of golden eyes never left the trio until they had disappeared within the village. The creature growled in great annoyance before turning tail and rushing back into the heart of the forest.

…...

It was very quiet in the village now that it was night time. Lanterns and fire torches had been lit up to provide a little light for village roads and some lights in the small homes were going out as the three Coopers walked past them.

"Strange being back in the village again. It's been so long since I've sought shelter within one." Hiroki stated as he eyed his surroundings cautiously. "I'll be honest with you, Rioichi-san, part of the reason why I didn't want to come back to the village was because I feared memories of Clockwerk would return."

Rioichi hummed in response, but that was mainly because he barely had the strength to even speak his thoughts. The only thing he wished for at the moment was to rest.

However, after glancing at things a little closer, Hiroki narrowed his blue eyes after noticing something was off. The buildings in the village he was born in were built out of dark wood; this village had light wooden homes. He also didn't remember this many fruit stands and school houses, tiny streams of water…

"Rioichi, this isn't our village."

"I know. But this is where I grew up." Rioichi managed to say.

Hiroki's expression of confusion only deepened for nothing here looked familiar to him. 'Just how did he get over in this village? This place has to be miles away from home…'

"Then how did you get over here? And where are we going?" the questions were finally asked.

Rioichi's smiled a little when he stopped outside the door of a large home. He knocked on it gently and stood back.

"Visiting someone that I know would love to see you again."

A/N: Sorry for such a long update! A million apologizes. So the mystery ninja just so happens to be Rioichi's long lost brother, Hiroki Cooper, that he hasn't seen in seventeen years. And it seems Clockwerk had affected more than just Sly's childhood, but Rioichi's as well. What happened to Rioichi's family? The next chapter is going to answer a lot of questions asked about his family, Hiroki in general, and even Clockwerk. Until then, thanks for reading and reviews are always awesome!

Otouto- brother