2.
The art of the Ninja

"Ice!" the huge man shouted "Somebody get me some ice!"

Several terrified Shinra grunts scuttled off in various directions. You didn't want to be on Sergeant Laverne's bad side when he was angry….and he was always angry. Slowly and carefully a short Man approached him and outstretched his trembling arm to pass an icepack to his boss. "Gimme that,fool!" Laverne snarled. The terrified man shrieked as he tossed the icepack to Laverne and scurried away. "Ohh ooh aaaaaahhhhh" Laverne sighed with relief as he applied the icepack to his large swollen aching nose. He stared out of the window of the Officers mess hall on the 22nd floor of the Shinra Headquarters. She was out there…somewhere and by God she was going to pay for making a fool of him. He lit up another cigarette and stared out at the chaos down below. One sector of the city was in complete darkness and there was panic arising in the others. The President was scheduled to make a statement soon… which he hoped would help to calm those fools down. He didn't like this city anymore than the next man. He loathed it and all the vermin in it…Not just those in the slums…He hated them all. If it wasn't for all those greedy Pigs on the upper plate this City might of stood a chance of being one of the greatest creations of mankind…. But no…. Instead it was dog eat dog down below as those above the plate enjoyed a selfish luxurious life. That wasn't to say he had any sympathy for those vile creatures down below. He never wanted to come here. He was born and raised in Junon….the greatest city in the universe as far as he was concerned. But of course his dad was in Soldier as was his before him and ever since he was a kid his father had been training him to follow in his footsteps. "Bah!" he grunted to himself and sorely took a drag from his cigarette. He didn't need this…who was that punk to think she could get the best of Hugo S Laverne?… Right there in the late hours of the Shinra night watch a vendetta was born.

Yuffie was slightly confused….

"Where in the hell am I?" she said loudly to herself. In all this rush she had been through tonight she hadn't been keeping an eye on where it was taking her. She decided that if she could just find out which sector she had ended up in she could make some progress from there. By now she had really gotten into the thick of the slums. Crudely built shanties surrounded her in all directions…even up. They where literally built on top of each other in parts…. She was amazed at how anybody could stand such an existence and why half the town didn't just up and run away from here. But that was probably it she figured…most of them probably were running away from somewhere or someone. It was at this point very much the dead of the night and that seemed to matter in this part of town as nobody, not one single soul was to be seen anywhere. All the better yuffie thought. She picked a direction and decided to follow. Staying in the shadows regardless of the fact that she was all alone she made her way along a winding narrow street occasionally stopping to climb up on one of the numerous piles of trash to get a better view out over the small makeshift village of shanties and get some idea of the direction she was going in. After about what seemed hours she finally spotted a large door in the towering walls that separated each sector. Just above it she could make out a large number 8 stencilled on to the wall. But what did that tell her she wondered…did that mean she was in sector 8 or that it was the entrance to it…. She spun around suddenly. There had been a loud crash that seemed to come from behind one of the junk hills to her right. She held her breath and listened to her surroundings. Again…another loud crash this time accompanied by a yelp. Always one to lose to her curiosity she silently jumped down from the junk pile she was on and carefully advanced up the one off to her right.

She kept her body as close to the hill as possible as she peeked out over an old dishwasher door. There was nothing…. she waited…. still nothing…. suddenly without warning a small figure was thrown from the shadows onto the ground at the base of the hill of trash she was hiding on. The figure groaned as it picked itself up and turned back to look into the shadows from which it was ejected. There was no doubt in Yuffie's mind that this guy was a mugger….She'd know one anywhere, besides she was practically one herself….only she preferred to think of it as "strongly advised charity to Wutai".

There was loud sound that seemed to be like the air itself was tearing and darkness of the shadows briefly became a bright flash of orange revealing a feminine figure engulfed in an aura of fire as a burning mass was launched though the air and landed hard beside the mugger. It rose to its feet roaring in agony as the first mugger tried to extinguish his accomplice by beating him with his jacket. The woman stepped from the shadows holding a small green sphere in her outstretched had. Yuffie came to full attention. Materia was near. The woman closed her eyes and seemed to meditate briefly as her body began to glow again, Yuffie nearly yelped with surprise as suddenly a new shape appeared behind the woman. A third mugger had decided to strike while she was distracted. He swung what seemed to be a long steel pipe and caught the woman unaware with a thump on her neck. She slumped and dropped to her knees as the materia rolled from her palm and then bounced along the ground. The two muggers she had beaten down walked over to her squirming body. She moaned and rolled over onto her back. "You little bitch" the burned mugger roared at her as he kicked her in the side. "You're sorely gonna regret this" he added

.

Yuffie knew what was coming next and as much as she liked to keep to her own she knew she could not let this happen to the woman. With lightning speed she somersaulted from the top of the junk hill and extending into a flying kick caught the burned mugger in the jaw with her boot. She was on them. Immediately as she landed she twisted her body swinging her right leg around knocking the mugger off his feet. The other two turned and froze briefly in surprise. Long enough for her to kick the pipe wielding one hard between the legs. Unsurprisingly he dropped his weapon falling to his knees and over on his side grasping his "bell's of St. Francis" in agony.

The third mugger swiftly punched at Yuffie and hit her hard on chin. She grabbed his outreached arm and twisted it without mercy behind his back turning and using him as a shield as the first mugger now back on his feet reached out to strike her but hitting his accomplice in face instead. Yuffie threw the man she was holding towards the attacker and both fell hard to the ground. Now all three of the attackers were floored. The woman on the ground groaned again as she tried to right herself. Slowly she picked herself up from the dirt and turned to Yuffie who was posed to strike the muggers should they rise. "Ya want some more guys…I got plenty in me?" Yuffie exclaimed. The muggers stumbled to their feet and clumsily tried to run away though obviously still in pain. "Come on just a little more" Yuffie laughed as she playfully stomped a little bit after them "Hee Hee Hee"

Yuffie turned to look at the woman. She wasn't very tall about 5ft1 yuffie placed her at, with short blonde shoulder length hair and a rather petite build. The woman brushed herself down and finally gave Yuffie what she thought to be a pained smile.

"Oh…oh…thank you, you're very…kind," the woman said rather coldly

"Yeah don't worry about it" Replied Yuffie sensing the lack of real gratitude in the woman's voice.

"You're quite a fighter" the woman remarked sounding a little more genuine this time. She was staring Yuffie in the eyes…as if she was trying to find something she had lost in them.

Yuffie smiled at this compliment on her skill, she loved it when people did that.

"Yup the best in the land" exclaimed yuffie without a trace of modesty

The woman was still searching in Yuffie's eyes.

"You're not from Soldier are you" She finally said, "Though you fight like one of the best,"

Yuffie laughed

"HA HA HA Yeah right…Soldier? They're no match for the art of the…" Yuffie smiled proudly "…NINJA"

The woman looked at yuffie and cocked her head to one side….

"HA HA HA…NINJA!" She laughed out loud. Yuffie's smile dropped and her eyebrows rose.

"Yeah…what about it?" said Yuffie trying to hold back the urge to demonstrate some moves on this arrogant woman.

"No no no…Ha ha ha…No offence honestly…you just…don't really…look it" the woman smiled…Yuffie was even more deflated now.

"Yeah well…" Yuffie began "…You're safe now thanks to me so you can run on home now……..no wait…." Yuffie stopped to think for a second " ….why did you think I was soldier though I obviously ain't in no uniform?"

With this question the woman's smile dropped

"They've just been on my back a while lately that's all" the woman said quickly and turned away from Yuffie.

This grabbed Yuffie attention. Problems with Soldier eh? She just might be able to use that somehow with getting into the Shinra Building. If it came down to it. It was always good to explore your options. But she had to think fast before this woman decided to bail on the conversation.

"OOOOHHHH!" Yuffie exclaimed.

The woman turned to see Yuffie holding her ribs.

"You ok?" the woman asked

"Ohh ohh it's nothing"Yuffie said weakly "Just one of those guys got a lucky punch in…OOOOHH!

"Let me take a look," said the woman as she moved to lift the side of Yuffie's top. Quickly Yuffie backed away knowing she had no bruise to show.

"Ohh no no…its ok…I think I just gotta rest up a while" yuffie said quickly

"Oh right….ok…" said the woman "….you live far from here?"

"Ohh ohh…..Ummm well yeah…..Wutai…" yuffie said slowly "….I'm just in town briefly on a bit of business…ummm is there a hotel nearby?"

The woman looked at Yuffie puzzled. "In the slums of sector 9 at this time of night? Its ok look don't worry about it you can come rest at my place for the night how's that?……The least I can do after what you did for me"

Yuffie forced back a grin "No no I couldn't….WELL OK THANKS!" she replied.

"Alright so……Anyways my name's Kandya" the woman said

"Yuffie…pleased to meet ya….ohh…ohh" yuffie said softly

"Okay it's just about five minutes this way" Kandya pointed back into the shadows and then put yuffies arm around her shoulder to help her home

….Kandya stopped for a second and looked around…

"Did you see my fire materia around here anywhere?…I dropped it in the fight"

Yuffie answered quickly "No no….ummm…I think one of the muggers grabbed it as he was running off….sorry" Again fighting back a grin she quickly changed the subject

"What are you doing out in the slums on your own at this time of night anyways?"