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Ninja Tales
Volume 1 - Snowfall
Chapter 3
Opening her eyes, Yuki found herself lying in a grassy clearing.
She took a deep breath and focused on the sounds of the soft breeze, birds and cicadas for a moment before sitting up. The surrounding forest was bright green, just as it had been since the first time she appeared here.
For reasons beyond her understanding, this place had always filled her with peace.
"It's been a while." a voice behind her spoke.
The figure wore a white, hooded cloak and a clay wolf mask.
"Yeah…" she sighed.
Takara [1] , or at least that's what he called himself, had been appearing to her in her dreams like this for years now, though she couldn't recall when exactly it started.
"Your aura has changed…" he noted, "Don't tell me that bastard started experimenting on you again."
"Oh, yeah about that…" she jumped up, ecstatically pumping her fists in the air, "I managed to escape!"
"You...WHAT?!" he exclaimed, "How? Just how in the world did you manage that?!"
"After the failed chunin exams, things were a little chaotic, I saw an opportunity and I took it. Everyone was so focused on that Uchiha kid that Orochimaru is planning to use as his next vessel that I managed to catch a lucky break and make a run for it."
"Oh…"
"Almost didn't end well, though. " she shuddered, "Luckily, I found this amulet thingy, and it teleported me somewhere safe...well, for the time being at least."
"An amulet?" he mused.
"Yeah..." she nodded, "A silver medallion with a flame-like symbol on it. Though I swear I've seen it before."
"The Walker symbol..." he started mumbling, just loud enough for Yuki to pick up, "...could it be that they are somehow involved..."
"What?"
"Did I say that out loud?" Takara asked, before waving his hand in front of himself, almost as if he was swatting an imaginary bug [2] "Don't mind me, I'm just thinking out loud."
"Yeah, right!" she gave him a glare, now somewhat suspicious of him, "So...you know what is going on, don't you?"
"N-nothing! I said nothing!" he countered, now furiously waving his hands about in an almost comical manner.
"Nothing, my fucking ass, Takara." she snapped, "What do you know about this?"
"Nothing at all!" he countered, managing to sound even more suspicious.
"Takara, tell me what you're hiding from me." she demanded furiously.
"Uh.." he laughed nervously before shouting "BYE!"
"Oi, don't you dare!" She jumped up to try and catch him, but her surroundings quickly faded, and she found herself back in Karai's guest room.
Fuming, she flopped back on the bed.
'The fucking prick' she thought angrily.
It was still dark out, so she decided against the idea of getting up, as she didn't want to risk waking up her hosts. Lying back down she tried to see if she could get back to sleep, to no avail.
Takara's sudden change in behaviour really put her on edge. She had known him for years, but had never seen him do anything like what he just did.
'Can I still even trust him?' she wondered.
Soft sounds caught her attention, prompting her to investigate. She got up, and stepping as lightly and quietly as possible, made her way out of the room. She found the source of the sounds to be Chaplin, in the kitchen making a pot of tea.
"Good morning, Chaplin-san." she greeted the man.
"Morning." he greeted her back, sounding like he was still half asleep, "Did I wake you?"
"Not at all." she shook her head before scowling, "Something else did."
"Nightmares?"
"No, just something really annoying." she sighed irritably.
"Ah."
He placed the steaming teapot on a tray with three teacups and carried it to the low table in the lounge area. Yuki followed suit and went to sit at the table.
"So, anything you fancy?" he asked as he sat down after her.
"What?"
"For food, I mean." he explained, pouring tea in two of the cups, "Anything you prefer, and any allergies we should be aware of?"
"Oh...no allergies." she shook her head, "I eat pretty much anything."
"Are you just saying that out of courteousness?" he challenged in a joking manner as he handed her a cup of steaming tea.
"I'm really not fussy." she reassured with a small smile as she took the cup he offered. She noted scent of rice as she lifted the cup to her lips, "Genmaicha?" [3]
He nodded in confirmation before smiling "Ok, just making sure. Do you have any favourites?"
"I suppose I do like hotpots." she smiled, albeit sadly, "And I'd do practically anything to have some of my mom's cooking again."
"You don't see her often?" he asked.
"She died a very long time ago."
"Oh…" Chaplin faltered, "I'm...sorry."
"It's alright." she smiled sadly, "It's been almost 10 years now."
"That long, huh?" he pondered, "I hope it wasn't too rough."
"It's been...ok…" she sighed.
"Hm…" he gave her a calculating look
"And that look?" she enquired with a raised eyebrow.
"I can tell that you've lived through quite some hardship." he admitted before smiling kindly, "Don't worry. I won't push you, but I do want you to know that I'm willing to listen if you ever feel the need to talk about your troubles."
He held up his hand in a gesture before she could argue.
"I know that, knowing your culture, you have the mindset of 'don't trouble others', but in my honest opinion, while it's good to be considerate, I feel that it's completely unhealthy to bottle up and hide all your problems to the point where you hurt yourself."
"Ah...ok…" she smiled softly. He had a point.
"Pestering our guest first thing in the morning, I see." Karai had appeared in the doorway, giving Chaplin a warning look.
"Hey, I'm not pestering, ok?" he held his hands up in defence, "I just offered my ear in case she wanted to talk."
"Maybe he's right." Yuki murmured "Talking about stuff might actually help…"
Karai gave them both a calculating look as she joined them at the low table, while Chaplin poured her a cup of tea.
"My father died when I was a baby." Yuki sighed "My mother died from an illness when I was 13."
"You've been alone for a long time, haven't you?" Karai murmured as she recollected her own grim childhood, "Being an orphan can be rough."
"It wasn't as bad as it could get, I suppose." Yuki contemplated, "And I wasn't quite alone. I had...a friend of sorts."
'Well, that's if I can still consider that moron my friend after what he pulled this morning.' she thought sourly.
"Although, I did get involved with the wrong people at some point, so there's that." Yuki grumbled.
Chaplin and Karai gave her an odd stare.
"Let's just say I got tricked by a conniving snake." she narrowed her eyes, "I was naive enough to trust the bastard, and got hurt."
"Life hasn't exactly been kind to you, has it." Chaplin sighed.
"I suppose not." she murmured, "But hopefully things will be better now."
"I'm sure it will." Chaplin agreed, "We'll make sure of it!"
"Thank you..." she smiled softly as she finished her tea, "You were right when you said 'talking helps'."
"Glad to hear that." Chaplin grinned.
Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location:
A young woman, wearing a white saree with blue accents, was sitting on the cushioned floor cross legged, in the middle of a large lounge area in what looked like a penthouse, as she furiously typed something on a small electronic device. Her chocolate brown skin was covered in dark blue tribal tattoos while her shoulder length hair was dyed in various shades of blue, the curls ranging from aqua to indigo. When she noticed a young man, wearing a tattered black coat and dark trousers, with dark brown, albeit sun bleached hair, and several facial scars walking past, she narrowed her dark brown eyes.
"I feel bad for Kohaku and Tashi." she stated irritably, a subtle French accent audible in her voice, before dropping into a tone dripping with sarcasm, "Having a boss as incompetent as Alex sure must suck."
"Oi!" the young man exclaimed. He narrowed his eyes at her in annoyance, which had an odd combination of blue and brown, and grumbled, "I'm not that bad."
"I'm inclined to agree with Kaimana on this one." another young woman stated as she poked her head around the archway leading into the kitchen, with red highlighted, medium length, dark blonde hair. She narrowed her bright aqua eyes at him, "I mean, how did you even lose track of them like that? Huh, Alex?"
"See?" Kaimana scoffed nonchalantly as she gestured towards the newcomer "Even Belinda agrees!"
"Et tu, Brute?" Alex whimpered in an almost comical manner.
Notes:
[1]
Takara (宝) means "treasure".
[2]
The "Waving your hand as if you're swatting a bug in front of your face" motion is a Japanese gesture that means somewhere along the lines of: "No that's not true" or "You've made the wrong assumption".
[3]
Genmaicha (玄米茶), also called "Popcorn tea", is a Japanese form of green tea combined with roasted/popped brown rice. It has a slight earthy/nutty aroma to it.
Personally it's one of my favourites, although Aidan thinks it tastes weird.