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Ninja Tales

Volume 1 - Snowfall

Chapter 4

A young girl of seemingly Inuit descent, wearing an oversized cat onesie, could be found sitting on a mountain of pillows, at the edge of a small lounge area in the middle of an enormous library, towering bookcases stretching out in every direction. Next to the girl was a small control panel with holographic screens, an almost impossible amount of information scrolling past. Enchanted books came and went, as the girl summoned and dismissed them, otherwise rearranging themselves.

A few paces from her, Alex, Kaimana and Belinda were sitting on one of the plush couches, waiting for her to finish whatever she was currently doing. After a few minutes the girl sighed irritably and looked up at the other three.

"Aaand, nothing...absolutely nothing..."

"WHAT?!" Belinda and Kaimana practically shouted in unison.

"Sachi…" Belinda frowned, "...are you saying that you, of all people, can't find them?"

"Besides that one spike in power earlier, nada." Sachi shrugged.

"See?" Alex quipped pointing at Sachi "If even she can't find them, is it really me being incompetent?"

"I suppose not." Kaimana sighed.

"I wouldn't say that you aren't incompetent, given some of the crap you've pulled before." Sachi gave him a slight glare, causing him to sink back into his seat.

Meanwhile, in Karai's penthouse:

"My name is Seiji Yuki." Yuki spoke, still being unfamiliar with the pronunciation, her words sounded slightly strained.

"Pretty good." Chaplin grinned before adding "Although, most English speaking people use their family name last, so I'd recommend that you rather do that to avoid confusion."

"I see..." Yuki mused, "My name is Yuki Seiji?"

"Exactly."

She was just about to ask Chaplin something when there was a knock on the door.

"Yes?" Chaplin responded.

"We have visitors." Karai's voice came from the other side.

"I suppose that'll conclude today's lesson then." Chaplin stated before getting up, "Please go through the exercises I gave you on your own."

"Understood." she nodded, "Thank you for today's lesson, Chaplin-sensei."

For a moment, Chaplin looked like he was about to argue her use of his last name, but thought better of it and left the room.

Yuki couldn't help but smile to herself as she gathered up her work materials and placed everything in a binder. The progress in her English wasn't a lot given that she'd only started lessons earlier that week, but Chaplin reassured her that she was learning fast.

After putting all her learning tools away, she headed to the lounge, where she found the turtles. With them was a large humanoid rat who she assumed were the adoptive father they had briefly mentioned.

As soon as he spotted her, Mikey waved at her in an excited manner, "Hey, Yuki!"

When she reached the group, Leonardo gestured towards the rat, "This is our father."

"I am Hamato Splinter." he greeted her, "You must be Seiji Yuki."

"Hajimemashite." she greeted back.

Mikey sighed heavily as he watched his father and brothers converse with Yuki.

"Something wrong?" Chaplin asked him.

"I'm literally the only one here that can't understand her." Mikey grumbled, "I really should have put more effort into Japanese."

"She seems to be learning English really fast, so it won't be too long until she'll be able to understand you." Chaplin reassured, "Though, if you're struggling with learning Japanese, maybe I can help?"

"Really?" Mikey practically beamed, "That would be awesome!"

"Though in the meantime, rather than stressing over a conversation you probably won't understand, why not help prepare some refreshments?" Chaplin offered.

"Sure." Mikey nodded, following Chaplin to the kitchen.

"The countries you mentioned…" Donnie mentioned while frowning, "We tried looking for them, but no luck so far."

"It's alright..." Yuki sighed heavily, before shrugging a bit, "But, I suppose the further away I'm from that psychopath, the better."

"The one who held you captive?" Splinter asked.

"Orochimaru, yes." she nodded, "Once a great man, according to the stories my mother told me as a child. I knew who he was when I met him, but didn't expect one of the Legendary Sannin to be so twisted."

"Legendary Sannin?" [1]

"Orochimaru, and his teammates, Jiraya and Tsunade, received the title after managing to survive the battle against Hanzō of the Salamander during the Second Shinobi War."

There was suddenly an awkward silence as Splinter, the turtles, and Karai gave her an odd look.

"Jiraya, Tsunade and Orochimaru?" Karai asked, "The main characters in 'Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari'?" [2]

"Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari?" Yuki seemed confused, "I've never heard of it."

Splinter and the turtles shared a confused look as Karai got up.

"Give me a moment." she stated as she walked to a bookcase nearby. Quickly scanning through, she picked up one of the books and flipped through it before walking back and placing the open book before Yuki, "Here you go."

Yuki pulled the book closer, her frown increasing the more she read. She pushed the book away as she finished, silent, as she seemed to process everything.

After a few moments she sighed and looked up.

"The only similarities I can see to this," she pointed to the book, "are the animals they summon and the fact that Orochimaru turned out to be a self-obsessed jackass."

"Shinobi summoning animals…" Leo murmured, "You mentioned that when we met as well."

"Ah, yes." Yuki nodded.

"I'd love to know more about it." Donnie exclaimed, before clearing his throat awkwardly, "Well, if you don't mind, of course."

Yuki suppressed a giggle over the young turtle's childlike excitement. It had been a long time since she'd seen someone so genuinely interested about something. In fact, he reminded her of herself when she started learning ninjutsu.

Mikey and Chaplin returned with a tray of cups and a steaming pot of tea.

"So did I miss anything cool?" Mikey asked as he started pouring tea.

"Apparently that Orochimaru guy who held her prisoner has an incredibly strong resemblance to this weirdo snake guy from ancient Japanese folklore." Raph filled his brother in, holding up the book, as the latter passed him a cup of tea, "And his former teammates also resemble two other characters from the same story."

"From the 'Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya'?" Chaplin hummed.

"Weird…" Mikey murmured, before pointing at Donnie, "Any idea why he's so excited?"

Donnie and Yuki were sitting on the other end of the lounge, in what seemed to be a conversation of some sort. As Mikey had pointed out, Donatello looked like a child in a candy store, eagerly listening to whatever Yuki was saying.

"Yo Donnie!" Raph called, "So, what got yer tail wagging?"

"Remember how she talked about shinobi in her world summoning animals?" Donnie asked to which his brothers nodded, "It would appear that she has a summoning contract."

"No way!" Mikey exclaimed.

"Do you mind showing us?" Splinter asked Yuki.

She started to nod, but then faltered suddenly.

"Is there a problem?" Donnie asked.

"Well...it's just…" she faltered, before whispering something.

"Oh..." Donnie mused before chuckling, "Don't worry, he won't mind."

"Really?" she asked, seemingly unconvinced, "I mean, even though he's a rat?"

"Yes, really." he reassured, "Mikey even has one as a pet, and he's ok with it."

"Oh?" she seemed highly amused, before getting up and moving to an open space in the apartment lounge.

"She's going to show us?" Mikey asked with intrigue, "Do you know what she'll summon?"

"Oh, you'll see." Donnie winked at his brother.

Yuki bit into her left thumb, hard enough to draw blood. She then proceeded to smear blood onto the right palm, and after weaving a series of hand seals, slammed her right hand onto the floor, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" [3]

In a puff of smoke, a rather small, fluffy black cat with striking green eyes appeared.

"Hey Miki." Yuki greeted the cat

"Yo, Yuki." Miki greeted with one paw in the air, "Long time no see."

There was a slight awkward silence, as everyone stared at the cat who had literally just appeared out of thin air.

"Uh...where are we even?" Miki asked curiously, "The smells are all different."

"No idea." Yuki shrugged.

"Are you serious?" Miki gave her a deadpan look, "And who the heck are these guys?"

"The turtle guys found me after I escaped from Orochimaru, an-"

"Wait...you escaped?!" Miki stared at her in utter surprise, "How?!"

"It's kindof a long story." she shrugged, "Anyway, these people have been helping me since I've arrived here."

"Ah…"

"Yuki is officially the coolest person ever..." Mikey gushed as he stared at her in absolute awe.

"For once I agree with Bonehead." Raph smirked, "That's pretty awesome."

Notes:

Because I changed the initial plot to have Yuki stay with Karai and Chaplin instead of the turtles right off the bat like I did in the old version of Ninja Tales, I went and rewatched pretty much all the episodes where Chaplin appears to write him in character. Quite frankly, I never realised how freaking awesome and absolutely hilarious he actually is. I can totally see him being an adorkable, doting dad one day.

[1]
Sannin (三忍) means "Three Ninja". The original title given to the team in the Japanese version was Densetsu no Sannin (伝説の三忍), literally meaning "Legendary Three Ninja"

[2]
Masashi Kishimoto drew a lot of inspiration from folklore when he wrote Naruto, and the three characters, Jiraiya, Tsunade and Orochimaru, are no exception.
They come from a folktale called Jiraiya Goketsu Monogatari (児雷也豪傑物語; "The Heroic Tales of Jiraiya" or "Tale of the Gallant Jiraiya").
If you're interested in the folktale, Linfamy on YouTube made a pretty cool animation about it.

[3]
Kuchiyose no Jutsu (口寄せの術) means "Art of Summoning"