Author's Notes:
I just found out there's a GI Joe Transformers crossover where Hawk calls Snake Eyes chatterbox because until he becomes mute, he's very chatty. Just to clear up any possible confusion, I based my version of Snake Eyes on his comic book persona, and every flashback I've seen leads me to believe he was the quiet type even before he became mute.
Chapter 2
Chatterbox is not there yet when we arrive, but the Soft Master is already sitting on one of the mats. The Hard Master sits next to him, on the middle mat, and I sit on his other side. My heart is actually pounding in anticipation. It may be because my life has taken such a bad turn since the last time I saw him, but even though we have been separated less than a fortnight, I can't wait to see him again: even before he is officially admitted into the clan, I already find myself thinking of him as my brother.
Protocol dictates my face remain emotionless while greeting new students, and since this little ceremony is probably the closest I'll ever get to being a teacher, I intend to do it properly.
That is the only reason I don't react to his expression when he comes in and sits in front of us. My face remains an unperturbed mask - or at least I hope it does - but I'm suddenly very worried for him.
He looks... empty. Even after we lost half our unit, he didn't look like this. His eyes go from me to the Hard Master, to the Soft Master, back to me briefly before settling on the Hard Master. Although he's looking at us, he doesn't seem to actually care at all that we are there.
The Hard Master asks him for his name and glances at me. I am to be interpreter.
"Please state your name," I say, pretending not to know.
He gives his name – I'm so used to thinking of him as Chatterbox that it's almost odd to hear his real name. Even the other members of our unit hardly ever used it.
The Hard Master introduces us by our titles and asks the potential new student why he is here.
I translate our titles and the question.
"To train as a ninja," he replies. He talks so little at the best of times - thus my nickname for him - that I almost expected him to just roll his eyes and not bother to point out the obvious. Obviously, he realized this would not have been a good idea.
I faithfully translate his answer to my uncle. Normally, he would deny that the clan has anything to do with ninjistu, to test the new student's certainty and resolve. He doesn't bother this time, and I'm grateful for it.
"Why do you want to go through such training?" he asks instead. "It will not be an easy life, and you will be cut off from everyone you know, even your closest family, for years."
My own family IS the clan, so I had never realized before today the implications of this customary question, but it suddenly strikes me: Chatterbox, who couldn't wait to be reunited with his family, left them again so soon? Why?
I faithfully translate the question, wishing I could make it more personal but knowing that I need to follow the script.
"I have no family," Chatterbox says.
I try my best to remain expressionless, but I can't say whether I fully succeeded or not. I swallow and translate his answer in as normal a voice as I can manage.
"No family?" my uncle asks me.
I nod. "That's what he said."
The Hard Master thinks for a while, and takes a good long look at me. I think he's trying to decide whether to use this as a test for me.
Students come to clans like ours for all kinds of reasons, and more than a few do so following a personal loss: they do it in an effort to start over and to forget their pain, but they never last. When they start healing from their loss, they lose the necessary motivation to endure the difficult training we put them through.
If Chatterbox came here because he's lost his family, there is a reasonable chance that he will lose interest in a few months. If he does, he will become a liability to the clan: some clans kill drop-out students to protect their secrets, but the Arashikage doesn't believe in this practice. Instead, students we don't think will last are on probation for a number of months. While on probation, they are treated as guests, not privy to any of our secrets: they are not even allowed in the main part of the compound and are restricted to the public areas.
We still get students who decide to leave after their probation ended or who were never on probation. What we do to them is not exactly tender - we manipulate their memory - but they live and our secrets are safe.
Since I invited this particular student, I should get to officially recommend that he be accepted, and therefore, I should be the one requesting a probation period. Judging by how he is looking at me, it seems like the Hard Master is not sure I can be trusted to do this. He finally nods, indicating that I can talk.
It's among the hardest things I've ever had to do. Whether he will realize it or not, I'm about to deny my friend the trust of the clan and to delay his real training. I feel like I'm betraying him, but my first duty is to the clan.
I quickly translate the usual probation speech in my head before reciting it.
"You can stay and study with us as our guest for 3 months. You will be restricted to the same areas as the general public and your training will remain basic. If you haven't left yet, you will be brought here again in three months to decide whether you can stay or not."
My friend - I can't call him a brother yet after all - looks hurt, but he bows in acceptation and he is shown out of the room. I excuse myself and follow him out.
"I'm sorry," I say. "I..."
He cuts me off.
"I don't blame you."
He sounds angry, though. I wish he wouldn't try to be reasonable and just yell at me. How am I supposed to make amends if he won't even let me apologize?
"I know the probation is a pain," I start.
He cuts me off again.
"It doesn't matter. I just want to get started. Can we?"
"You don't want to talk?" I ask. I mean about his family.
"No."
It's just one word, but there's so much anger in it that I get angry too. My next words are said in a snarl.
"You just want to get started, then? Fine, I'll advise the Hard Master: he's your teacher."
I turn my back on him and head back for the parlour. I feel his hand on my arm and spin around irritably.
"What? Oh, you thought I'd teach you, did you? I can't blame you, that WAS the idea when I invited you. But see, my father has died too, and I inherited his responsibilities, which means I can't teach."
Even as I'm saying it, I have the feeling I'm being an insensitive jerk – not so much for the words, but for the condescending tone. I might as well have just gone for broke and pointed out that he was not the only one who had ever lost someone.
The look he gives me confirms my feeling. I expect him to yell at me, but he just shakes his head and lets go of my arm.
I roll my eyes at him and get back into the parlour. I almost bump into The Hard Master, who was about to get out of the room.
I tell him his new student is ready to start training and storm off.
I hear him tell said new student to follow three times before Chatterbox finally understands what he is being asked. The thought that they'll have to deal with not speaking the same language feels like sweet revenge for not being allowed to teach my friend myself.
I head straight for my private room, and knowing that I'm probably feeling so angry in good part because I'm tired, I give up on any thoughts of training and head straight for bed. Despite the racket everyone is doing in the dojo, I'm asleep in minutes.
My new contract is only for the night. I am to steal one of the prizes and guard it until morning, when my client's regular staff will take over.
It's not nearly as bad as it sounds. The prizes are expensive trinkets that our clan and some others have deliberately put in circulation so that a group of collectors would fight over them and constantly hire ninjas to steal them back and forth from one another. We think of the wages we earn moving them around as the rental rate for them. Even when they end up buying it from a third party (a non ninja thief), the collectors are very much aware that they are buying stolen merchandise and deserve no sympathy for losing the item again, especially since said items were carefully chosen to be utterly useless and that having them or not cannot possibly actually have an impact on the collectors' lives.
I personally believe they all know that all those prizes they keep fighting over were planted by us and that they just enjoy the game as much as we enjoy charging them to play.
I get to the residence of the collector currently in possession of the prize my client wants me to fetch him and easily find my way to the item (it happens to be a vase). It is guarded by another ninja, wearing the crest of the Kamura clan. I take my sword out; that clan is not friendly.
She hears me and turns towards me, her own weapon out.
"Arashikage..." she muses upon seeing me.
I expect insults or mockeries to come next. I almost fall right off my feet when she drops her weapon, takes off her mask and smiles.
"Will you marry me?" she asks.
I raise my sword in a defensive position, figuring the only reason she could have to do something like that would be to take advantage of my surprise to attack, but she just stands there, looking amused at my reaction. I don't understand what she's trying to do, so I try to keep her talking.
"If you'll swear service to my clan and donate all your wages, I'll be happy to," I reply. I wouldn't mind if she actually accepted. She could easily be kept in the public part of the compound and disowned should she start misbehaving. In the meantime, if she actually did my job for a while, I'd be free to train and teach.
"How romantic!" she laughs. "But I was thinking of doing this the other way around. I wouldn't join your clan, you would join mine."
"What makes you think there's any chance at all that I would do that?"
"Everyone knows you didn't want your father's job. If your family won't let you choose your own path, what loyalty do you owe them? We're offering you a position as a teacher, and marrying into the clan would spare you from being branded a traitor to your blood relatives."
My head is spinning. How does everyone know I didn't want to be a wage-earner? Is the Kamura clan seriously trying to lure me away from my own, or is she just playing with me? If she's serious, why? Why would another clan bother with me?
"I will never abandon my family," I say. "Now, step away from the vase or fight."
Her heartbeat accelerates again and her breathing quickens. If I didn't know any better, I'd swear she's afraid of me.
"My offer is serious," she insists. Her voice is shaking, just a bit, and although I have no idea why she would be afraid of a ninja who hasn't seriously trained in two years, there is no denying that she is.
"My refusal is serious. Step away or fight."
"You really are the lapdog your reputation makes you out to be," she sneers. "I'd love to see if the rest of what they say about you is accurate as well, but I have better things to do than risk getting injured over a useless trinket."
She walks away from the vase and right out of the room. I have already moved away from the door, so she doesn't have to get anywhere near me to do this, but she still keeps her eyes on me.
I stare at her until she's out of my sight then listen for her footsteps. I only move when they fade into the city's general noise, and even then, I don't let my guard down. I expect her to come crashing through a window and attack me, but once again, my expectations are not realized. I remain undisturbed as I examine the room for any active security system (there is a motion sensor, but it is not activated) and the vase (as well as the table it is resting on) for any kind of trigger. I find nothing, so I take the vase and leave, amazed at how easy this has been.
I spend the rest of the night sitting by the vase in my client's house, wondering just what all this was about. The Kamura clan is a rival of the Arashikage, and relationships have always been rocky at best. An alliance between the two is just about unthinkable.
And yet, she tried to draw me to the Kamura clan. That is astounding enough, but what really tickles my curiosity is that she has heard of me, and that based on what she has heard, she did not want to fight me for fear of getting injured.
I've only been back for a week and a half: why would anyone have heard about me? And worst, why would anyone have heard anything that would cause them to think of me as a dangerous opponent? I see myself as borderline incompetent, not having trained for over two years. Why does the Kamura clan have a different opinion?