Chapter 7
As the medics were called over and Rei was ushered to the bleachers to have her arm taken care of, she finally chanced a look at the door. Headmaster Iwa and Niko Sensei were whispering intently to one another, their eyebrows lowered. Niko Sensei was making urgent hand gestures that he was obviously trying to rein in and keep close to his chest.
The third man was staring straight at her, arms crossed across his slender chest, and Rei's shoulders tensed. The last time she'd seen a look so intense in a man's eyes, Risa had ended up dead. Rei looked away from him quickly. She wasn't defenseless anymore, not now that she was training seriously, but she knew she'd never hold her own against someone who had graduated. And this guy was obviously powerful.
Rei shut her eyes tight as a medic silently sponged the blood from her wound while the skin was woven back together with chakra. "Make sure her wounds have been tended to in their entirety." Rei looked up too quickly at Headmaster Iwa, making her head swim. "I need to speak to her when you are finished."
"Of course, sir."
As her shoulder was tended to more carefully, Rei glanced at her classmates on the bleachers several rows above her. Most of them were speaking quietly to one other, casting wary glances at Rei, Sayoko's battered body, and the newcomers by the door. The mysterious man still hadn't looked away from Rei. He lifted a covered water bottle from a belt around his waist and took a long pull from the straw, narrowing his eyes at her and offering a cunning smile. His teeth were sharp and pointed.
After defeating Sayoko, Rei felt like a new person. If Niko Sensei came to her tonight, she'd electrocute him. She'd never executed that Jutsu so well before, and she held that knowledge in the forefront of her mind. She'd grown since the last time he had seen her. He hadn't even seen her work with a sword yet.
"Alright, Rei," the medic said. He was the same one that had treated her the day that Risa had died. He gave her a sympathetic smile. "You did great, you know? Just like a real Shinobi." With that, he got up and strode to where two others were bending over Sayoko, working on her face. Rei hoped it took them a long time to fix.
Rei had never had a wound healed so completely by a medic before. There was thin line across the back of her arm where she'd been cut, and aside from the still-wet blood on her shirt and pants, there was no other evidence that she'd been injured.
Niko Sensei was coming her way, so she stood slowly, holding her hand to her head when her vision blurred, and speed-walked right past him. She could almost hear his eye-roll. "Yes, Headmaster?" she asked when she was close enough to him. He looked down at her, nodding once firmly. He'd never acknowledged her before.
"Please accompany me to my office."
There was that pang of terror of again, intensified tenfold when she saw Niko Sensei and the unnamed man making to come, too. Her fingers twitched towards her boot, where her shiv was always handy, but she knew without a doubt that any one of these men could take her down with a single hand.
The men walked in a predatory formation around Rei, with the headmaster directly in front of her and the others on either side of her. Niko Sensei was looking straight ahead, and the other man was sucking noisily on his almost-empty water bottle.
The cloud cover was almost complete, the sun only shining through in a few scarce places. The open space between the sparring arena and the main building stretched for about a hundred feet, but it felt to Rei like a mile. She was only twelve. These were grown men. She knew that the Shinobi did what they did to drive emotional responses from the students, but that didn't make her any less afraid right now.
The man with the water bottle stepped a little more quickly to pull the door open, and he winked at Rei when she passed. She entered as close to the other side of the door as she could. The headmaster's office was only a short distance down the hall, and Rei allowed herself to be ushered inside and guided into a chair in front of an expansive mahogany desk. Niko Sensei and the other man took the two seats on either side of her, and she clenched her hands in her lap, nervously scrubbing at the blood stains on her hand.
Headmaster Iwa exhaled heavily as he sank into the rolling chair behind the desk. "Please introduce yourself, young lady."
Rei's heart was pounding so loudly that she could barely hear his words. She opened her mouth, but all that came out was an embarrassing squeak.
Niko Sensei sighed in exasperation. "Reimi Taira. Twelve years old. Academy third year. Orphan. Moved into the barracks at the start of April." He paused, and the headmaster nodded for him to go on. "Average Ninjutsu skills, no success with Genjutsu, above average success in kenjutsu, according to Zane."
"Yes, it is a shame that we did not get to witness your swordsmanship." Headmaster Iwa leaned back in his chair, folding his muscled hands over his stomach. "I was rather impressed, regardless. Now, moving on." He nodded quickly at the unnamed man, who nodded back.
"Mangetsu Hozuki. Eighteen years old. Jonin. Distinguished member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen." He cracked another grin and offered Rei his hand. "Pleased to meet you."
Rei would have leaned away from him would it not have brought her closer to Niko Sensei. As it was, she stared at his hand and then quickly assessed the rest of him. He was definitely younger than most of the sensei, but he exuded a calming effect that none of the Academy instructors did. How did someone grow up in the Mist and put on such an easy face?
He didn't withdraw his hand, just met her eyes and eased his smile, revealing those pointed teeth again. Rei slowly fit her hand to his and held her breath as he cranked her arm up and down enthusiastically. His hand was damp and cold and she squelched the need to wipe her own hand off on her pants.
This was one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen?
"Would you like to know why you're here, Reimi?" The headmaster leaned forward again, resting his laced fingers on his desk. Rei's nervous energy rushed out and she nodded her head about twenty times in rapid succession. "First, I need you to explain to me what happened to you in the barracks."
Rei could feel the blood rush out of her face, turning her an unhealthy shade of white, she was sure. She gaped like a fish a few times before she was able to say, "…Nothing, sir."
Headmaster Iwa's heavy eyebrows pushed together. "Are you not anxious to bear witness to an injustice?"
Was that why she was here? To 'bear witness' to what Niko Sensei had done? What had he done?
Rei pressed her lips together, her fear slowly being overtaken by anger. It was hot, boiling under her tongue, and she pushed herself to her unsteady feet. He knew it was wrong, called it an injustice, and wanted her opinion of it? The Headmaster's eyes were warm and kind, and Rei's fear reared back to life. This was all a trap. They were liars, Shinobi who took advantage of girls like her. Mental images of the three men teaming up against her, overpowering her, forced her back into her seat.
Rather than waiting on Rei to answer the Headmaster's question, Mangetsu Hozuki spoke. "You're frightened. It's natural. The abuse you've seen has been going on for decades." He paused for half a second before adding, "It happens in the B boys' barracks, too."
"It's to kill the fear. The emotions. It makes us better at making hard choices. I know. When we die, it's no loss to the village." She never spoken to superiors like this, and as soon as the words were out, she wanted to reel them back in. Mangetsu straightened but didn't speak up again, and Headmaster Iwa's forehead crinkled.
The only sound in the office for the next several seconds was the light patter of rain against the small windows behind the headmaster's desk. Finally, Niko Sensei spoke. "Breaking tradition, especially in a village like ours, is nearly impossible, Rei."
"But it is our lives' mission to end the cruelty that defines the Village Hidden in the Mist."
Rei snapped her head to the side, unsure if she'd heard Mangetsu correctly. He looked at her with intense violet eyes, as if he were trying to search her soul. Her heart still pounded with fear, with suspicion, but a small flicker of the light that was hope was beginning to spark in her chest. She hadn't felt something as foreign as hope since she was a very small girl.
"And to do that…" Niko Sensei's voice was so quiet that Rei could barely hear him until he raised his head and finally locked eyes with her. "We need your help."
