The American Ninja
Chapter One: A Little Guy

Sarah

I sighed as yet another attempt to enlist in the army failed. I even disguised myself as a boy (I changed my name to Ceren Rogers), and it still didn't work, because I was too skinny. Steve had an array of health problems and he was too skinny, and Sammy had a heart condition and he was too skinny, so he couldn't enlist. I didn't have any health problems, but they thought I was too skinny, and not a soldier.

We went to see a movie, although we really wanted to see the news reel at the beginning. Some loudmouth wouldn't stop badmouthing the news reel, so Steve, Sam and I told him to shut up. He dragged us back out to the alley and beat us up, and to make matters worse, he wasn't the type to care if his targets were boys or girls as long as he got retribution for us standing up to him. He was definitely a big bully. I hate bullies. Thankfully, Bucky intervened and saved us from a near certain trip to the healer— I mean the doctor. However, this only served to rub it in our faces that we couldn't enlist and he could, because he was now Sergeant James Barnes, a member of the one hundred and seventh division in the United States' Army.

That only made me scowl even deeper.

"We had him on the ropes." I claimed as usual.

He raised an eyebrow at my latest form. "Right, right."

I huffed. "Go ahead, tell me different. I'll still keep trying."

Bucky shook his head. "I don't get why you keep trying to enlist."

"Because," Steve said. "When all these people are serving our country—"

Sam cut him off. "How can we do any less? Besides, our fathers were heroes."

Our friend rolled his eyes. "Yes, the Greek speaking heroes she always told you about."

When she was alive, Mom always admitted that we had different fathers, men speaking—

"They were real." Steve insisted, interrupting my thoughts. "Mom wouldn't lie. Have you forgotten the number of times she nearly took my head off for lying about bullies?"

Our friend sighed. "Okay, you do have a good point," He admitted. "But still. How do you know it wasn't just a game or something, something to tell you about your fathers when you needed the information to be happy?" We admitted that we didn't, but still. Mom always had a faraway look in her eyes when she talked about them, so that made me believe they were real. Besides that, she was usually brutally honest to the point that it sometimes hurt our feelings.

That night, Bucky took us to a future technology fair on a "double date" with Steve.

I tagged along because I had nothing better to do.

Sam probably just wanted to annoy Steve. Despite only being seventeen (since April), I had already graduated from high school, because, like Sam, my older brother and self proclaimed 'forgettable one' I worked my ass off and forced myself to understand what the seniors were learning when I was just a sophomore.

Sam did the same thing and graduated when Steve did, three years ago.

The show featured a car that could levitate. I thought it was boring, so I pulled out my latest Naruto manga. Next to me, Steve, my oldest brother, sighed. "Imouto, what you see in those things I'll never know. It's not even written in English!"

I shrugged. "So? Sammy likes 'em too."

"And Sam's the forgettable one." My oldest brother shot back.

"And he likes being the forgettable one." I retorted. He claimed that you'd remember me because of my temper (I was trying to work on controlling it with limited success) and you'd remember Steve because of how mature he seemed, but Sam just kind of seemed to fade into the background. Most people got indignant and take drastic measures (drastic times call for drastic measures) to make themselves be remembered and noticed, even if it was in a negative way (most people seemed to think that a negative reputation was better than fading into the background and having no reputation at all). However, Sam, on the other hand, he liked fading into the background. For one it helped him get revenge on bullies and no one would ever suspect it was him, not someone else. After all, how could some stupid loser with no reputation prank the biggest bully in the whole school and get away with it, and still never be found, even several years later? Or at least that was what everyone thought. No one ever guessed Sam did.

"That's right." Sam agreed cheerfully, smiling.

Steve sighed. "I hate it when you two use that against me."

"Underneath the underneath Ani-ue." Sam and I taunted in unison.

Steve sighed again. "I hate it when you two use that against me." He repeated.

We just beamed at him. He always hated it when we used obscure ninja things against him, like 'a ninja must look underneath the underneath,' or 'strong ninja embrace family connections and don't hate pesky siblings,' and of course, strong ninja don't cry and insert whatever it is that strong ninjas don't do).

And there was the 'don't need candy' incident that Steve and I were forever reminding Sam of, because it was too funny. It happened right after Mom died. When we first got to the orphanage, he claimed that strong ninja didn't cry and need candy, and then a few hours later, we caught him stealing candy from the orphanage matron's stash.

It was so funny we teased him about it for the next year every day, and even now we still liked to tease him about it. It was too funny not to.

We decided that since it was a festival (I read so many books set in the time of knights when fairs didn't really exist, so I called a fair a festival), we would try to enlist. I knew my chances of getting in were really low, because I was a girl after all, but even if I didn't want to serve my country or thought I could do better at home (which I didn't), I would still try to enlist. When our mom died, about twelve years ago when I was five, Sam was seven and Steve was nine, we all made a promise that we would always be together.

Flashback

Steve wiped his eyes. "We've got to be brave now." He announced once the funeral was over and we were alone in the graveyard, just the three of us standing by our now dead mother's grave. "Mom's gone, so it's up to me to take care of you guys."

"Big brothers," I spoke up hesitantly, being only five with none of my future temper. "I think we should make a promise to eachother that we'll always be together."

"I think so too." Sam added.

We formed a sort of circle and put our hands in the middle, and we made our promise to eachother, that we would always be together.

For now and forever, through the good and the bad, for the better or worse, and no matter what happens from this day on, my place is at your side. Always.

That was the promise we stuck by. It became our code, our nindo, what we lived for, and nothing else mattered but keeping our promise.

And to seal our promise, Sam found a sharp rock somewhere and we cut our hands open, the cuts looking like an equilateral triangle, or at least as much as one as Sam could make at seven. Sam said that he read in a book if you were really serious about something, you made a blood oath, whatever that was. Then we pressed our bleeding hands together and sealed the promise that, little did we know, would last for over eighty years.

End flashback

"What you thinking about imouto?" Sammy asked, jolting me out of my flashback.

I shrugged. "I guess I was just thinking about our promise, the one we made all those years ago when Mom died." I bit back tears and let my face fall into an emotionless mask as I held up my hand to show the triangle mark it somehow still bore, even after twelve years.

"Don't worry about it." Steve said. "We still have eachother, right?"

I nodded. "True. We do have eachother."

An old man came in as we were waiting to be examined. He asked us if we wanted to kill Nazis. Steve asked if it was a test. I rolled my eyes (only Steve would ask that question), but was shocked when the guy actually said it was. I expected him to say it wasn't a test.

I stood up. "I don't want to kill anyone." I said before Steve or Sam could. "I know I probably will have to, but all I really want is to be a hero, like my father, and to defend my country with every last breath I take. However, if someone dares threaten my brothers, I won't hesitate to kill them. Anyone who wants to hurt my precious people will do so only after stepping over my dead body! I hate fighting for no reason, and bullies for that matter."

Sam stood up next. "I agree with my imouto." He announced. "I won't kill anyone unless I really have to, but if some teme wants to hurt Imouto or Ani-ue, they'll have to go through me long before that'll happen. I think Imouto hates bullies the most, but I don't particularly care for them, and I know Ani-ue doesn't either. Right Ani-ue?"

Steve nodded and stood up. "Right. I don't like bullies and I really don't like fighting for no good reason. Besides, with all of those guys out there laying down their lives, what gives me the right to do any less? Besides, I may never meet my father if I don't prove that I'm a hero." He added. "And I really, really want to meet my father one day."

"Do the three of you have different fathers?" The old man noticed.

We exchanged grins. "Yup. We're only half siblings." We answered in unison. I was surprised he actually picked up on that. Not many people actually did.

"Well with so many big guys already out there fighting," I expected him to say we didn't stand a chance or something, but boy was I wrong. "Maybe what we need is a little guy."