Goemon ruffles his messy mane that grew longer over the years, letting out a yawn as he makes it up to the Hattori mansion.
"Did you even sleep last night?" Momo questions his friend as he walks up to him in the same clothing he wore the day before.
"You can call it that."
Before Goemon makes it through the front door, Momo grabs him by his collar and pushes him against the wall.
"You fucking reek!" Momo growls. "You went to the Redlight District, didn't you?!"
Goemon shoves his friend off of him, straightening his kimono and pushing back his hair.
"I didn't need distractions. In fact, I have been doing some thinking all night." Goemon replies to Momo in monotone before turning away from him and entering the mansion.
"But you drank -"
"Yeah. I drank. Kept myself from sleeping stressed."
"Goemon. Momo." A familiar voice pulls the ninjas out of their conversation and they both look forward to find Kuma walking out into the hallway to greet them.
Kuma was still the same Kuma aside for losing some weight over the years. And her loyalty to the Hattori clan is as strong as ever. There are even rumors that she and Hanzo are unofficially together and that there is a chance that Kumo will be married into the clan, but no one really is sure about the rumors.
"Kuma. Long time no see." Goemon bows to the female ninja, a small smile on his lips as nostalgic memories flood back from when they were close friends back when.
"Same goes with you. How long has it been?" Kuma raises an eyebrow, cocking her head to the side and resting her fist on her still wide hips to show him some sas.
"Too long apparently."
"Come on in. We're all expecting you." Kuma waves the two ninjas into the office.
Goemon and Momo stroll into the office and immediately find Hanzo at his desk with stacks of paperwork in front of him. And for some weird reason, he is just sitting there with a cup of tea in his hands and an unfocused gaze looking out to the courtyard.
"Master Hanzo." Goemon and Momo both bow respectfully, standing in front of his desk and waiting for him to turn his attention to them.
It stays silent for another long minute before Goemon decides to speak out first.
"Hanzo, I may have come by your request and I am grateful that you would think of me for this proposal, but -" Momo snaps his head towards his friend in surprise. "I am going to have to decline your intentions of allowing me to mentor these two ability trainees."
Hanzo doesn't turn his head, but Goemon was definitely able to tell that his royal blue orbs stared at him from the corners of his eyes.
"If this was like any other case, I would have found someone else," Hanzo states, finally speaking after another long silence.
"And this isn't like any other case?"
"How much did you tell him?" Hanzo looks over at Momo, a blank stare on his face.
"Not a lot." Momo nods a bit.
Goemon glances back and forth between the two. And just like he felt the day before, Momo didn't tell him the entire story and his gut feeling was right again.
"Hanzo, what -"
"You are not going to be able to back out of this. These two will be assigned to you with or without your objection. Now sit your ass down so that I could tell you more about the two trainees you will be mentoring." Hanzo explicitly states, grabbing the two top pieces of paper on top of one of the stacks of paperwork.
Goemon glares at Momo for a long moment before clicking his tongue and sitting on his knees in front of Hanzo.
"You can't catch me!" Goemon suddenly hears a young girl's voice out in the courtyard and looks over to catch a quick glimpse of a little girl tumbling gracefully over the large rocks of the zen garden.
While Goemon saw the girl, he didn't see anyone else chasing after her as it seemed like she was playing cat and dog with someone else.
"That who you just saw is one of the two who you would be mentoring." Goemon looks back at Hanzo, finding that he held up one of the pieces of paper and reads it out to him. "Her name is Fuyuko -"
"She looks like she's 12." He interrupts Hanzo, glaring at him before pinching Momo on the thigh.
"She's actually 10." Hanzo corrects.
"Are you fucking kidding me?!"
"Shut up." Hanzo glares back at Goemon, warning him to shut his mouth.
"I'm not going to mentor a fucking child," Goemon states through his teeth.
"Fuyuko is from the Fuuma clan. She has the ability to manipulate wind."
Goemon grew silent. That was really the last kind of information he expected to hear from Hanzo. Someone from the Fuuma clan.
"You are going to mentor her to be able to control her abilities. Due to her young age, she has a hard time knowing when not to and when to use her ability and how much is too much. And while it would have been easier to find someone with the same ability as her or someone from the same clan, her father requested she be put under your training." Hanzo explains, putting down the piece of paper and looking up at the speechless ninja.
"Who's her father?" Goemon asks.
Hanzo stares at him for a moment. "Kotaro is the father."
Before Goemon was able to act in surprise or ask any more questions, Hanzo raised his hand and halted his thoughts.
"Speak to him after this meeting."
Goemon nods once.
"Next, we have 16-year-old Yakeru. He has a sort of fire ability like you." Hanzo begins to explain.
"Hm. Another fire name." Goemon thought as he broke down the name of the fire ability trainee.
"So what clan is he from?" The ninja asks, only to earn a silence from both Momo and Hanzo.
"Are we going to tell him or not?" Kuma interrupts with an annoyed tone.
Kuma has always been like that. No matter the news, she was the type to just rip off the bandage; whether it hurts or not.
"I believe it would be better to meet him so that you two could be introduced properly," Hanzo tells Goemon, his voice sounding a bit nervous.
The three stand from their spots on the ground and follow Hanzo to the deck of the courtyard. It was silent for almost a minute before Fuyuko appeared almost out of thin air onto a nearby boulder.
"Heyyo Master Hanzo!" Fuyuko waves.
Appearance-wise, Goemon could see a little bit of Kotaro in the girl. She has the short white slicked-back hair and red eyes to match the albinism that Kotaro genetically also has. She wore a light blue with dark crimson kimono that seemed too loose and big on her as one side was slipping off her shoulder, and under the kimono, she wore a plain black haneri that fit perfectly. The belt she wore around her has the familiar pattern of the high neck piece Kotaro wears with his ninja outfit but it matches more of the kimono color than that dark burgundy that it was with his outfit. And included with the civilian outfit were the tabi boots with almost neat and experienced wrapping from the ankles to the knees: usually worn with their ninja attires.
"Fuyuko, do you by chance know where Yakeru is?" Hanzo asks the girl with some seriousness.
"No idea! I am trying to hide from him right now." Fuyuko briefly tells him before hopping down from the boulder and with feathery steps skips across the courtyard. "He'll come up sooner or -"
"I gotcha!"
Another figure appears from thin air behind Fuyuko and lifts her from the ground, twirling her around in the air like a little child. Fuyuko let out a surprised screech before laughing loudly in excitement.
"Yakeru." Hanzo calls to the figure, pulling his attention from the little girl towards the group that patiently waited to introduce him to Goemon.
"Master Hanzo, is there something -" Yakeru freezes when he notices a figure to his side, setting down Fuyuko and hiding her behind him.
"Yakeru-kun," Fuyuko grabs hold of his red and gold kimono and looks up at the ninja in nervousness.
Goemon finally gets a good look at the other trainee he will be mentoring. And his appearance was far too familiar.
His head is half shaven off but what isn't was long enough to drap his right shoulder. His hair matches the dark crimson of his kimono with a strange coloring of white tips. Yakeru's eyes glowed brightly in a rare gold coloring, even becoming enhanced with the red makeup he wore on his waterline. His kinagashi was colored red with gold decals on the bottom and edges with a tightly wrapped belt styled in plain black with tiny gold accents. Yakeru also wore the tabi boots with his civilian attire; almost like the two didn't fully change out of their ninja attire into their commoner attires.
The group notices the sudden defensiveness of the trainee and all look towards Goemon in curiosity.
"I believe it would be a little more appropriate to introduce you two face to face." Hanzo continues, unfazed by the tension around him.
"I'm sorry. Why is it such a big deal to meet him face to face?" Goemon asks, glancing at the people around him.
"Figures why you would think lightly of me. Guess we aren't that important to you anyway." Yakeru speaks, his voice low and threatening.
"Oh, then please tell me how important you are." Goemon counters with the same level of dauntingness towards him.
Yakeru stood up straight, facing the Fire Dragon ninja and stating with formality and pride:
"My name is Yakeru Ishikawa, the next Fire Demon ninja of the Ign clan!"
