"What? What is this?" I asked, my voice going high. Ashley, who must have caught the weapon, moved it away from my face and turned it a few times to examine it.

"A shuriken huh?" she muttered. I saw Kenichi's face and I would have laughed had I not almost died. He whipped around to glare at a woman wearing a very short, purple kimono. She was also wearing a little fish net thing around her chest and dark purple leggings. On top of her leggings she was wearing the typical wooden ninja shoes.

"Shigure!" Kenichi yelled.

"Yes?" Shigure said in a small voice.

"Why did you toss a shuriken at our guests?" he asked.

"They…were guests?" she asked.

"Yes!"

"But it's fine, see? That girl behind you caught it," she said.

"That still doesn't excuse the fact that you threw one at them!" I decided to stop listening to those two and look at Ashley. When I did, I saw her looking at her hair and that she was trembling.

"Um, Ashley?" I asked. I poked her shoulder and then I took a step back when I saw her facial expression. It looked like someone had just told her they killed her dog for fun. As in, she was very p. . She looked up at Shigure and glared at her with all her might.

"What?" Shigure asked. Ashley held the shuriken in her hand and threw it at Shigure.

"You cut my hair!" Ashley yelled.

"Ashley! No!" I yelled. Luckily, Shigure was able to push Kenichi out of the way and got down to the floor before the shuriken reached her. It went over her just as the sliding door behind her opened. My eyes widened as I saw Sakaki coming into the room with a beer in his hand.

"Hey guys! What's going on?" he asked.

"Oh no!" Shigure yelled. She tried to reach the ninja weapon before it reached him, but, somehow, she was too slow. It hit Sakaki before Shigure could reach it.

Allie

Allie and Akisame were laughing as they walked back to his dojo.

"Are those two really that stupid?" he asked. Allie laughed.

"Yeah I guess so!" Allie said. They laughed for a good 3 minutes.

"But seriously, I can understand why you are hesitant in telling those two the truth. Especially your cousin, whom you've told me doesn't like to be lied to or kept secrets from. Especially if they're about her and she has a right to know," Akisame said, hinting at something at the end. Allie sighed. She knew what he was hinting at.

"I know she has a right to know. I just want to make sure that that guy won't try to harm her again. And how am I supposed to break it to her that I know who her parents are? I don't know what she'll think when she learns that I've known all this time and didn't tell her," Allie said. Akisame nodded.

"Yes, she will be devastated and will probably not trust you much afterwards," Akisame said.

"Yeah, right? So how do I keep her trust but still tell her the truth?" she asked.

"I don't know. What I do know is that I'm sure you'll find a way. If not, you'll tell her the truth and find a way to gain back her trust. Who knows? She might still trust you afterwards too," he said. Allie smiled.

"Yeah, that would be nice," Allie said. They then arrived at the dojo. "Well, I guess this is where we go different ways." Akisame frowned. Then he made a face as if he had gotten an idea.

"Hey, I have an idea. Why don't you and your friends stay over for dinner? To make up for us taking up so much of your time?" Akisame asked. Allie thought about it.

"Yeah, I guess that sounds okay. I'll go home and tell them to come here with me. I'll be back in a while," Allie said.

"Okay, we'll be waiting," he said. Allie smiled and started to walk away. However, before she could take one step away from him, a roar was heard on the other side of the wooden gates that lead into Ryouzanpaku.

"What was that?" Allie asked, quickly turning around. Almost forgetting the sake in her arms.

"I don't know, but I'm sure we'll find out," Akisame said. He opened the doors easily and they both walked in to see Sakaki kicking Ashley through a sliding door and into the courtyard.

"What the?" Allie muttered.

"That's what you get for making me spill my beer!" Sakaki yelled, shaking his fist at Ashley. Ashley stood up and glared at him. She cracked her knuckles and Allie heard Haley yell 'ew!' from the house.

"What is going on?" Allie asked.

"It's not my fault you came in at the wrong time! And you didn't have to roundhouse kick me through a door!" Ashley yelled. It seemed like she was getting more and more angry the more she spoke. "Just yelling would have been sufficient!"

"Don't tell me what to do, woman!" he yelled.

"I'm not! I'm just telling what not to do! There's a difference, genius!" Ashley yelled. This screaming contest went on for quite some time. It was a matter of time before Allie and Ashley's masters got there and joined in the yelling. Akisame sighed.

"Really, why can't they act like adults?" he muttered. Allie started to chuckle at how stupid they were looking and sounding. Another thing Allie would notice until later, was that at that moment, Akisame looked down at her, and a small smile found its way onto his lips.

Ashley

That night was possibly one of the most fun nights Ashley could remember. All of the masters, Kenichi's and Ashley's, were fighting over the food and constantly stealing food from each other. They would have stolen from Haley but Ashley and Allie kept constant guard over her food and Haley also guarded it by leaning over it and putting her arms around it while eating. For a while, Ashley hadn't even noticed that people other than the masters, Kenichi, Miu, Allie, Haley, and herself were there. Well, she didn't notice until the blue haired guy asked to sit next to her.

"Oh, Takeda right?" she asked, wanting to make sure she got his name right. He nodded.

"Yeah, and your name is Ashley, right?" he said. She nodded. "May I sit here?" She nodded.

"Go ahead," she said. He sat down. "So, do you train at this dojo with Kenichi?" Ashley asked. Takeda laughed and rubbed the back of his head.

"No. Actually, I don't really have a master right now. But after seeing Kenichi going through all this hard work and getting a lot stronger, I have to say that I am looking hard for a boxing teacher," he said. She raised an eyebrow.

"Why not Apachai?" she asked.

"While he is a really good fighter, he fights using Muay Thai. I fight using boxing," he said.

"Oh," she said.

"You're probably wondering what's the difference. Let me tell you," he said. He was about to begin describing how the two styles are different when Ashley interrupted.

"Actually, I do know the difference. Muay Thai originated from Thailand and is pretty much the art of killing and or knocking out your opponent. Boxing is trying to either knock out your opponent or make him unable to fight any more for a certain amount of time," Ashley explained. His eyes widened.

"Uh, yeah. That's right," he said.

"Ooo! Ooo! Little girl!" Apachai suddenly yelled, pointing at Ashley and stealing some food from Sakaki as he wasn't looking.

Um, yes?" she answered.

"Apa. Who is your Muay Thai teacher?" he asked. Ashley pointed across the table to the woman who was sitting next to him.

"She's my Muay Thai teacher," Ashley responded.

"Apa. How much do you teach her? Apa?" Apachai asked, looking at the woman next to her.

"I teach her the basics of Muay Thai history and I am currently teaching her some of the tougher moves," she said. He nodded.

"I see. Like the…" he said. They started to talk about all the different moves of Muay Thai and the different strategies and how effective they were. From time to time Apachai would say something in a different language and Ashley stopped paying attention to them.

"So, are you good in boxing?" Ashley asked Takeda quietly, trying not to disturb the masters' conversations. He smirked then pointed at himself.

"I would like to think so. But then again I'm not really a master of boxing, not yet at least," he said. Ashley nodded.

"Nice. Do you go into tournaments?" she asked.

"No, not yet. I'm training right now and am going to wait until I'm 100% positive that my left arm can handle it," he said. She raised her eyebrow.

"Why just your left arm?" she asked.

"Oh, that's right! Takeda, Ashley wouldn't know what happened to your arm since she just met you today!" Kenichi said, interrupting Ashley and Takeda's conversation. Ashley looked back at Takeda, full of curiosity now.

"What happened to your left arm?" she asked.

"It's a long story, I don't think you'll want to hear it," Takeda said, closing his eyes but then peeking at her out of one eye.

"No, you've got me curious now so you have to tell me!" Ashley said.

"I don't have to tell you anything," he said, teasing. Ashley began to poke him on the shoulder which caused him to look at her. After a while he started to get annoyed by it and laughed. "All right! All right! I'll tell you." Ashley smiled, happy that her plan of annoyance worked. Takeda then began to tell her the story of how he had gotten his arm paralyzed helping a friend. By the time he was finished, Ashley was speechless.

"Wow," she said. "I would have never thought." That was all that she could think of to say. "But it's alright now, right?" Takeda nodded.

"Yeah, thanks to Doctor Akisame over there, my arm is on its way to healing," Takeda said. Ashley smiled.

"Cool! Well, be sure to tell me when you do enter a tournament! I'd be glad to go and see you kick someone's ass!" Ashley said. Takeda and Ashley laughed.

"Sure! I could always use people to cheer me on!" he said, putting his arm around Ashley's shoulders. Suddenly, Ashley's body moved on her own. She grabbed his arm and was about to stand up and flip him into the table. However, she felt the arm being removed from her shoulders as quickly as it went on. So all she grabbed was air and part of her shirt. She also found that she was in charge of her body once more. She blinked twice, wondering what was going on.