Chapter 10.

Yuffie was finished putting her "Wonder of Wutai" special pore-cleansing mud mask and half-awakedly toddled away from her sink. Her bright, fuzzy green bathrobe was warm cmpared to the cool menthol of the mud mask on her face. Her hair in matching green curlers, she made her way out from behind the screen that separated her bed and bath area with the rest of the house. She made it a point for herself to remember that when she took over leadership of Wutai she was definitely going to have to have "Lord Yuffie" embroidered on the back. In bright Yellow letters. Yeah. With gold spun from the Blonde Bomb's own gold chocobo. Yeah.

Yuffie let out an audible urking sound when the thought of Cloud crossed her mind. He's still got that materia. Her plan of action is going too slowly. Shake needed to be fired one of these days, he was causing too much trouble within the ranks. Da-chao was sleeping a little too peacefully for her taste. For now. And speaking of Shake, Shake was late. Where the hell was he? That little beady-eyed midget couldn't keep to a schedule if his life depende-

Yuffie rounded the corner of the screen and there he was. He'd just gotten up from a mat on the floor and was adjusting his dark green vest. He was late again.

"You're up late, Yuffie."

Yuffie scowled. Alright, she thought as she looked at the clock, so it was eleven thirty. She tried to scowl her very, very best scowl and directed it toward Shake. Shake was not shaking. "Shut up, Shake." It was the very best insult she could come up with after just getting out of bed.

"Two of our men were caught by Midgar authorities under Strife's supporter's network, Yuffie."

"Go away, Shake."

"And Strife and his...shall we say...cabinet...know that we're building military forces, Yuffie."

"Go away till you have good news." Yuffie didn't want to hear it. She was spending a lot of her own time giving their meager military force some practical combat guidelines. She was determined for her plan to scare Strife into coming to Wutai to work. She was losing a lot of the country's best ninjas. And though they were competent, and managed to eventually escape and come back, it was getting harder and harder. Some who came back reported that the man known as Vincent Valentine was well aware of the tactics their ninjas might use and always had one or two tricks of his own to capture them, and even if they couldn't be kept for long, at least some information could be squeezed out of them before they escaped.

"It doesn't work like that, Yuffie."

"I don't wanna hear it, Shake!" She was furious. She huffedly turned away from him and stomped toward her wardobe. He never had good news. Pulling out a drawer Yuffie began throwing her clothes mercilessly around the living area, intent on finding something that was comfortable yet worthy of Her Future Lordness. "There's always a few that must be sacrificed so that the objective of a desparate situation can be accomplished!"

"It seems to me that the only person desperate here is yourself."

That was IT. Yuffie came to terms accepting that scowling at Shake did nothing more than fuel his idiocy. He was nothing but trouble. She stomped back over to where he stood, completely putting aside the wardrobe issue for now, and bent down to meet him at eye level. Grabbing his vest with a clenched fist, she mustered every ounce of hate in she could into her voice and hissed in his face. "When my father releases the gods of Da-Chao from that mountain I'll make sure that *you* are so far under their feet people in Rocket Town will be able to see your eyeballs pop out of the ground they walk on!"

Shake was silent for a long moment. With Yuffie's pampered mug an inch away from his face, he shocked her when he couldn't contain his bellylaugh that was itching to get out of his system since the teenaged shrew first opened the door.

"Ha ha hahahahahaha!"

Yuffie was completely puzzled.

"Miss Yuffie," Shake managed to speak inbetween catching his breath, "Mud mask brown does nothing for your complexion! Hahahahaha!..."

Yuffie released her grip on Shake's vest. Over his unstifled laughter the sound of two men arguing outside was barely audible.

"Pardon me, Miss Yuffie...heheheh..." Shake managed to regain control of himself after becoming aware of the arguing himself. "That is my news flash. I must go out and resume my babysitting of Gorky and Chekhov before your *trusted sdvisors* tear each other apart! If you'll excuse me."

Shake backed away from the mud mask covered Yuffie, clearly seeing her face flush bright red under the brown mask. He opened the door and gracefully stepped out into the sun where his fellow advisors, such as they were, were still poring over a small book Gorky held in his hands. Shake heavily walked over to them, stopped himself in front of the two much taller men and silently stood there until his presence was felt.

Chekhov was pointing to some strange looking, old text in a decorative font in the little book Gorky held. "No, the proper incantation is supposed to say, 'Na ch'annamaso dai!', as in, 'We worship at your feet!', because if you say this the way YOU think it to be said, Da-Chao will come after *us* for insulting their feet!"

"Nonsense!" argued Gorky. "The phrase should be just like I said, "Na ch'annakmaso dai!' The context you're using isn't right!"

"Must you be so rock headed! In this sentence the 'k' is silent so the word would be 'worship.' If you say the 'k' then the sentence would read, 'We smell your feet!"

Gorky let his hand with the book fall down at his side and pointed to himself with the other hand as he fumed. He looked like a five year old arguing with his kid brother. "Well, when Miss Yuffie appoints *me* second in command it'll prove that I can read ancient Shinobi text better than you!"

Chekov begged to differ. He put his hands on his hips and defiantly eyed Gorky. "As a matter of fact, Miss Yuffie has already been talking to Godo about appointing *ME* second in command because I actually payed attention to the lessons given to us in wizard school!"

"You're lying! All you did was sleep through classes! There are pictures in our yearbooks from wizard school with Godo trying to wake you up!"

Shake was ready to discipline these two but knew his hands were tied. Godo would never want the two of them punished. They were his favorite two students in wizard school, not for what they learned, but for all the trouble they managed to cause together. They always kept Godo busy, letting himself feeling like he was the one in charge and giving the rest of the school the illusion that he was in control of everything. Shake was the most wise student and his constant correction was the only reason he was kept around. In short, none of these people could think for themselves. Shake sighed in towards himelf. He was tired of constantly doing their thinking for them. No wonder Wutai was going to be the pits to live in again. At least when Meteor threatened the planet everyone worked together sensibly well, all hoping and praying Yuffie would bring home a treasure chest full of mastered materia. Shake, however, wanted her to bring it back honestly, something the rest of Godo's student advisors ddn't want to understand.

Gorky and Chekhov fell to silence with their discovery of Shake watching their discussion. They waited to hear what he might say, half embarrassed, but also half annoyed at being interrupted.

"Let's go, *boys*."

They walked about two steps toward Godo's house before both simultaneously resumed their arguement.

"You never did your homework and you're complaining about *me* sleeping in class!" began Chekhov.

"At least I *remembered* what went on in class, dimwit!"

Shake sighed. The remaining distance to Godo's place was a long way to walk with these two.

"But WHY?"

"Marlene, please hand me that towel over there."

"Tifa." Marlene's persistent inquiries to Cloud's short-temperedness recently were starting to disconcert Tifa. Tifa laughed to herself as she thought that only two people were able to do that to her-Jenova and Marlene. And how different they are!

"Yes, Marlene."

Marlene WOULD get an answer no matter what, as she handed Tifa the yellow striped white towel. "WHYYYYYYYYYYYY?"

"I don't know, Marlene."

"Yes you do. What is wrong with Cloud?" Could never pull one past Marlene, even at her young age. Her most well-learned lesson from her dad, Barett, would have to be her street smarts.

"He's under a lot pressure, dear! Wutai is giving him a real big headache. He's not quite used to being in control of so many people at once."

Marlene had it with Tifa. She went over to where Tifa stood and hopped up onto the table, right in the way where Tifa's next wipe would be with the towel given to her.

"Marlene! This table is dirty! And your clean jeans...!"

Marlene took hold of Tifa's jaw gently with on either side with her tiny hands. Tifa's eyes were wide with shock as to the actions of her little friend. Marlene put her nose right up to Tifa's and frowned as she growled and shook her head, "Nuh-UH."

Tifa sighed while looking into the little girl's deep dark black eyes. Her eyes had to drop down to the table again, embarassed at the little girl's intuition.

Grooooaaaaan. How do I explain this? Tifa thought as she contorted her mind, looking for a way to calm Marlene's boundless curiosity.