Chapter 7

I run into the Soft Master as I get back in our compound. He blinks at me, probably surprised to see me back so early, and his eyes widen. He rushes to me, whips my mask off and turns my head this way and that.

"Your ears are bleeding," he says. "Doctor!" he cries out towards the compound. "What happened?" he asks me.

"Fire alarm," I say impatiently. "It's not important. Why did you give me this client?"

He looks down.

"You knew!" I cry out, losing what little self control I had left. "You knew what he was! Why did you let him hire me? Do you know who was after him? The American Army! I almost had to fight my old sergeant! I've never been so glad to be masked! Do you have any idea how embarrassed I was? He's a terrorist! He's already killed hundreds of people, and he tried his best to make me kill the people after him, including tipping them off as to where he was to make sure they'd find him while I was protecting him!"

The Soft Master just stands there, letting me vent. He cuts in when I pause for breath.

"Come," he says. "Let's find that doctor and then the Hard Master, you and I will have a chat."

"When is my next contract?"

"Never mind that. Come."

I curse under my breath and follow.

The doctor, after a quick examination, predicts my ears will fully recover in a few weeks: my eardrums have been damaged, but not so much that they won't heal with the proper medicine. He gives me the first dose right away, and I take it under the eyes of my uncle. I feel like a school kid being watched by his parents to make sure he really swallows his pills. It does absolutely nothing to improve my mood.

We walk to the Hard Master's office silently, he lost in his thoughts, me seething against the two of them. When we get there, we find the office empty. The Soft Master grabs the first clan member to go by – one of our newest young students - and orders him to go fetch the Hard Master. The kid takes off, running as fast as he can.

The Soft Master and I sit in the office and wait. I'm glaring daggers at him, he's avoiding my eyes.

"Why?" I ask again after a couple of minutes. "Can't you find me respectable clients anymore?"

"Don't be silly," he says.

"What's THAT supposed to mean? Why did you make me protect a mass murderer?"

"Please wait until the Hard Master gets here," he says. "We have several things to talk about; your question is not easily answered."

I clench my jaw and wait. I'm bursting to tell him off, I haven't been this angry in a long time. It doesn't help my mood that I can hardly hear anything: my uncle is only paces away and I can't even hear his heartbeat. It feels like I'm in a room with a lifeless puppet.

The Hard Master arrives quickly enough, startling me when he enters the room; I couldn't even hear his footsteps. He frowns at me, puzzled.

"His eardrums have been damaged by a fire alarm that went off right next to him. The doctor says he'll be all right in a few weeks," the Soft Master explains.

The Hard Master's frown deepens and he sits down.

"Is that why you came back early?" he asks.

The Soft Master shifts uncomfortably, probably regretting he didn't launch right into the actual reason for this little reunion.

"I left my client because he wilfully endangered us by allowing his enemies to find him and repeatedly working towards preventing our escape," I say, keeping a completely formal tone that belies my anger.

The Hard Master raises an eyebrow.

"Did he, now? Why?"

"He wanted to watch me fight."

The Hard Master shrugs.

"Silly man," he comments. "We could have arranged that for a fraction of the price he paid. I still don't understand why you chose to leave. Under these circumstances, I would have expected you to demand not to be hired by this man again, but running away seems a bit… out of character."

I close my eyes, intending to count to ten to cool myself down. The buzzing in my ears and the fact it's drowning almost every other noise automatically becomes a lot more noticeable and I re-open my eyes before I even start counting, even more irritated than I was following my uncle's comment.

"I would have stayed for a normal client," I admit in a snarl, "but you sold me to a mass murderer!"

"I RENTED you," the Hard Master corrects me.

"Fine," I concede to prevent the discussion from turning into a debate of semantics. "Why did you rent me to this man?"

The Hard Master sighs.

"We arrived at the decision to accept less than recommendable clients for you after a lot of debate," he starts. "We ended up discussing the very purpose of this clan, and how to best serve it."

He actually stiffens a bit under the glare I give him.

The purpose of the clan, the reason our founder created it, is to guard a supposedly magical jewel. We have to perform sealing rituals every now and then to prevent its power from being released and apparently, we also have the power to harness it if it becomes necessary for the good of mankind. I have no idea if the jewel is actually magical or not, but considering that if what our founder believed is true, it could destroy the planet, there's really no sense taking any chances. Therefore, we continue to perform the sealing ritual. Thankfully, the other clans don't know – they'd either laugh so hard they'd hurt, or try stealing the thing.

"How does making me fight my former comrades to protect an evil man relate to our purpose?" I growl.

"You're miserable," the Soft Master cuts in, "and that has everything to do with the purpose of the clan, and its future."

"I'm not miserable," I protest. I'm not sure how to describe my general feelings, but saying I'm miserable sounds much too whiny for my taste.

"You hate being a wage-earner, and you hate not being the best in the clan anymore," the Hard Master elaborates. "You have this idea in your head that because you are the heir, you need to be the best, and not being able to train enough to achieve that enrages you. You are jealous of your brother's progress and you feel threatened by his talent."

Trust my uncle to make it sound like I'm being unreasonable.

"I know my brother has surpassed me," I growl, "and I understand that I can never catch up with him, not as long as he's still improving at this rate. The fact that I realize this doesn't mean I'm jealous of him!"

I don't bother denying feeling threatened: I'd be a fool not to.

"Your concern is such that you think you need to be the best in at least one discipline to be able to call yourself a specialist and give yourself an excuse for not being better than one of our students in most disciplines," the Hard Master says.

I swallow. That's exactly right, but I don't like finding out I am this transparent.

The Soft Master sighs. "Your concern is not warranted," he says. "Only a member of our bloodline can lead the Arashikage because only a member of our bloodline, who is also the current head of the clan, can perform the sealing and releasing rituals."

I nod. That's precisely the problem: someone from our family must lead, I'm the only current heir – my cousin's mother, who gave her the name Arashikage, was adopted - yet a student who is not related to us by blood is better than me. We will be stuck with a leader who is not the best of the clan, and will lose all respect from the other clans. If the other clans don't respect us, they will not fear us and we will be under constant attacks by would-be thieves and assassins.

The Soft Master's eyes are drilling into mine and after a second, they widen a bit.

"You're not worried about losing the head of the clan," he says, sounding like it just dawned on him. "You're worried the other clans will not respect the clan anymore if you lead it."

"How could they respect a clan where the students are better than the masters?"

The Hard Master rolls his eyes at me.

"When will you ever get around to training what's above your neck as well as what's below it?" he says. "If you were to become the leader of this clan tomorrow, and if the whole of Japan suddenly found out that your brother is indeed a better fighter than you are, they would still not conclude you are weak. Do you not realize that your brother is simply on an entirely different level than the rest of us? The fact he is part of this clan would make us stronger in the eyes of everyone else, not weaker."

"They will not understand why he is not the head of the clan," I say slowly, as if I were talking to an idiot. I know I'm being incredibly disrespectful, but I am in no mood to be lied to. "And this client you gave me, a foreigner, knew that my brother is better than me; I think you had better stop assuming that this is not common knowledge. Also, don't you know by now that he doesn't intend to stay here forever? What will it look like when he leaves? The other clans will believe he left out of disgust at being kept under me."

I bite my tongue as soon as the words are out. I had no right to reveal my brother's intention to leave to his sensei, and I had no intention to: I just got carried away.

My uncle scowls at me.

"Do you realize just how many things are wrong in what you just said and in how you've said it?" he growls. "I will not tolerate you, of all people, talking down to me."

"Brother," the Soft Master interferes. "You started it, and you're continuing it now. Enough."

There is an authority in his voice that I have never heard him use against his brother. I expect the Hard Master to respond in kind that he will deal with me as he sees fit, but instead, the Hard Master's eyes narrow and he nods.

"That put aside," he continues. "Your client seems to have known your brother personally and to have kept close tabs on him. He knows much more about him than any of the other clans. Your brother is known to be extremely good, but as of yet, very few people realize you are not even better; and as I said, it wouldn't matter if they did. Finally, we are perfectly aware of my apprentice's intentions: he is only on leave from the military, and we have assumed from day one that he intended to leave here eventually. He confirmed our assumption by discussing his intentions with me yesterday."

I'm at least reassured that I did not betray my brother, but I quickly get back on subject.

"You don't deny the other clans will not understand why he is not the leader and that they will misinterpret his departure."

The Hard Master rolls his eyes again and turns to the Soft Master.

"If you insist I don't insult him anymore today, you do the talking for now. He's not even listening to me, and I'm out of patience," he says.

The Soft Master nods and turns to me.

"We just told you, the other clans don't realize he has surpassed you. As long as that's the case, your leadership would not be questioned. In addition, even if that were to change, most ninjas don't share your conviction that the head of a clan must be the strongest fighter. Even if they did, there are ways around such things. All that being said, we're getting off the subject, which is that your missions take up too much of your time at the moment."

"I believe this digression is important, however," the Hard Master cuts in. "As irritating as this conversation is, the Young Master needs to be aware of exactly what his position is, and what it is not. He needs to realize my student is not a threat to him or the clan, and he needs to realize that attempting to surpass his brother, especially with minimal training time, will only lead him to disappointment. He also needs to understand how precious his friendship is."

I clench my jaw and glare at the floor. The only reason my uncle would insist on discussing this is to make me realize how much ahead of me his apprentice is. It suddenly becomes quite clear why they assigned me such a client: they're offering me to the highest bidders to cut down on my mission time so that I'll be able to train more and thus catch up with my brother. I find myself wishing I could enter the Tournament again to get the prize money, but former winners are not allowed to participate. My brother's refusal to re-enter it himself suddenly seems very selfish of him, but I can guess his reasons – it's become clear since the squirrel incident yesterday that although he is training as a ninja, he will always avoid violence unless strictly necessary.

"Yes," the Soft Master agrees, snapping me out of my thoughts and back on the topic, "but I think he deserves to first have his question answered. Why did we allow this man to hire him?"

"I understand why you did, now," I say. "You are trying to give me higher paying clients so that I will have more time to train and have a chance to catch up with my brother."

"Half right," the Soft Master says.

"More like one third," the Hard Master adds. "You are the second best ninja in Japan, and as long as your brother is still in training, you will not catch up no matter what you do. Once he stops training, you will catch up by way of his regressing. His leaving to join the army again is a travesty… so much talent, and it's going to go to waste…"

The Soft Master coughs.

"More training, at this point, is only for your personal comfort," he says. "It will not change your rank, and does not affect the clan, positively or negatively. You're already better than any potential adversary and you have proven time and again that you can defeat groups just as easily as individuals. That being said, we do want you to be comfortable."

I nod, trying to decipher what he's saying. He seems sincere, but I'm guessing the reason that my two uncles seem to be in disagreement is that where the Soft Master does not see a need for me to improve, the Hard Master does. Whether I can catch up or not, it would probably be far less embarrassing if I was at least not too far behind. Either way, I have the answer I was looking for: I ended up with this client because he paid through the nose and by getting higher rates, I can spend less time on missions and more time training.

As much as I want more training time, I can't stand the thought of serving a murderer.

"I will train harder," I say, "but please don't let such clients hire me again."

My uncles sigh.

"This is not about your training harder," the Soft Master says. "It's about your not having to be on missions nearly every waking hour."

"What else than training would you have me do if I had more free time?" I ask, before it dawns on me that the Hard Master is constantly complaining of how foolish I am. "Study?" I guess. "To learn how to run the clan?"

"He's going to make us spell it out, isn't he?" the Hard Master asks his brother.

The Soft Master chuckles.

"It would be beneficial for you to study, yes," he says. "But we can always arrange for an advisor to help you with the administration of the clan. It's a shame your brother is leaving…"

"We're more concerned about the future of the clan," the Hard Master says.

I clench my jaw. So they wanted my brother to be the real leader of the clan, with me as a figure head… it explains why they pretend not to care that he has surpassed me and why they are so disappointed he is leaving. The Hard Master is trying to give me more training time in the hope that I will fill in the gap left by my brother a bit more adequately, while being convinced I won't. It's no wonder he is in such a bad mood and, as he just admitted, worried for the future.

"An advisor would be the one that is truly in charge," I remark.

"Only if you wish him to be," the Soft Master says. "I assure you, the fate of the clan under YOUR leadership is not at all what causes us concern right now. We simply want you to be happy. Have time to… socialize."

I snarl before I can help myself. The idea that they are concerned for my happiness, of all things, is beyond ridiculous.

"How can you say that?" I growl. "How can you pretend to care for my happiness while forcing me to do something I hate day in and day out?"

They both look like they're about to answer something but I keep talking. I've heard enough out of them.

"I've worked out the average, you know, to figure out how much training time I could get in. For the past year, I've been on missions for an average of 17 hours a day. With one hour of training, which is what you're going to say I'm supposed to be doing, this still leaves me only six hours to sleep, study and everything else you might want me to do! You have kept me on this schedule for over two years now. Don't insult me by pretending to care about my happiness!" I'm about to continue on to the subject of how they obviously prefer my brother over me, to the point of wanting him to be the true leader of the clan, but the Soft Master cuts me off.

"That's precisely why we need to reduce the time you spend on missions. We also feel this has gone on too long already. But our efforts will be wasted if you use every bit of free time training, futilely trying to catch up to your brother."

"I'm doing my best," I snarl. The ringing in my ear is getting worse again, and if not for the fact I'm sure it would hurt, I'd be screaming at them both by now.

"We know," the Soft Master quickly replies, cutting off the Hard Master, who looks like he was going to say something much less friendly. "Remember what we told you already: it is no fault of your own that you cannot catch up to your brother for now. You should not worry about what you cannot change."

"Then what do you want from me? What will it take for you not to rent me to clients like this again?"

"You should think carefully before you make this request," the Hard Master says, "accepting such clients would gain you back some freedom."

I don't need to think.

"I'd rather have no freedom at all than work for someone like that again!" I cry. "You want me to officially request it, do you? Fine. I hereby request for my services never to be s… rented to scum like that again, no matter what they're willing to pay."

The Soft Master sighs and shakes his head. The Hard Master scowls. I stalk out before they have time to add anything.

I suppose I should be glad they won't sell me to anyone like that again, but I'm seething. My ears are hurting like mad, the buzzing won't stop, and I have just found out that my uncles are conspiring to make my brother the real head of the clan. They have discarded me and they were trying to make a brainless mercenary out of me.

Yet the part I'm the most angry about is that even if I were to receive an offer to join another clan right this moment, I wouldn't even hesitate before I turned it down, and my uncles know it.

Author's notes:

I tend to get carried away by dialogues. Can you guess what it is that the uncles should have spelled out? There are a few hints, but if Tommy ever figures it out, it won't be for a while. He's going to have more pressing concerns very soon.

About the jewel: as far as I know, this only appears in Arashikage showdown. I rather like magical things, so I threw it in. I think this story makes a lot more sense if the clan has a purpose other than just making money. It provides the motivation for the way some of the characters are acting and will act later on. In particular, the Hard Master and the Soft Master would be pretty rotten to keep the clan going by enslaving their nephew if going out of business was an option. It's also behind their current concern regarding their nephew.

That being said, whatever power the jewel may have will not surface. For all intents and purposes, it has no power other than the influence it has on the actions of the Arashikage.