"What the hell were those?" Asuka asks, her clothes a bit ripped up and a few splinters on her hands from the few times she used them to hit one of the puppets. Reaching over, I grab her hand and begin removing them as she flinches with each one being removed.

"Dunno," I admit, "aren't you the Shinobi here? Shouldn't you know more than I do?"

"I-ow! Be gentler." She whines as she watches me remove more and more of the splinters.

"Can't." I say with a smile as I remove the last splinter as she quickly pulls her arm in and rubs it. "I'd get shaky hands otherwise. Might pull at your skin instead of the splinter."

"Mou~." She groaned, turning to me with a pout on her face. "Be serious."

"I am very serious." I say with a serious face, completely aware that with the discipline instilled into me via the Nine Styles that no amount of fear or anger would make my hands shaky. "You just decided to focus on the wrong thing."

She pouts in a cute manner as she gives me a friendly punch. "Caleb-kun~."

Shrugging we continue walking while she looks to the skies. "But, what were they?"

"They looked like puppets." I point out as she whirls around, her eyes clear with confusion and her lips sucked in.

"They did, but how could a Shinobi do that?" Asuka mutters under her breath while she holds a hand to her chin.

"Oh no." I say with a flat voice, "The warriors known for subterfuge and assassination can fight using puppets. How could we ever have guessed that? It's not like it's a common type of fighter in most fighting games. Or the fact that-."

"Ok! So it's able to be done. But why us at the same time?" She asks, pointing to me and herself. "It just doesn't make sense."

"Maybe someone's trying to separate me from you girls?" I point out. "Being a Shinobi is supposed to be a secret and all that, so maybe that has something to do with it?"

"It'd be one thing if you didn't know how to fight. But you can," she turns to me, her eyes sparkling in interest, "and you can do it really well! I've never seen those movements before!" She gushes as she leans closer, her breasts resting against my arm and she doesn't seem to notice. "They seem different from the movements you used against Ikaruga."

"We're going a bit off-track." I quickly return the conversation to its previous direction. "So, our interactions aren't a reason. Maybe a rival school?"

Asuka holds a hand to her chin and nods. "That sounds plausible."

"Seems a bit extreme for 'rival schools'." Caleb grumbles under his breath.

"Don't schools in America have rival schools?" Asuka asks, reaching into her knowledge of the foreign country.

"Yeah, but that was more…I don't know, call the other names, beat them in sports, and occasionally steal the mascot. Not…this." I say while pointing to the direction we came from. But a memory came to me as I flinched. "Usually." I admit.

"Usually?" Asuka asks with a curled brow.

"Well, there was once where a school gang got into a fight with another near one of the schools and things happened that ended with most of them expelled and/or in prison." I admit while looking up to the sky.

"That sounds really extreme." Asuka notes as I simply shrug while humming.

"So, a rival Shinobi school then." I note while she nods. "Still, kinda scary that people can suddenly find themselves without free will at a moment's notice."

"If that happens to too many people they'll attract more attention than its worth." Asuka notes while leaning closer. Her shoulder against mine as her cheeks seem to flush.

"Hopefully." I mutter to myself, quiet enough that the Shinobi beside me wouldn't be able to hear.

"Besides, you've got nothing to worry about. We'll protect you if the need arises." She says while smiling as I try to ignore the warmth on my cheeks.

"Nah, it'll be fine." I try to wave her worries away. "I think I can protect myself well enough."

"Still," she hops forward and her steely gaze lands on mine, "you're our friend now, and we wouldn't be good Shinobis if we can't even protect our own friend." She says while pointing a hand to my chest with a sincere smile.

A smile that really shouldn't be aimed at my direction.

Still, I needed to answer. "Sure." I answer while giving my own smile.

She chuckles while whirling around, humming in a good mood. I glance at my phone and walk beside her. "C'mon, it's getting late so let me walk you home."

"Ah, sure." She says while smiling. On a whim, I decided to hold her hand like in the aquarium and her face quickly became red to my amusement. My chuckle quickly caused her to pout though and she looked away.

At some point in the walk our conversation turned to my fighting style and the sword I pulled out this time. Which, coincidentally, had the same name. "The Desert Wind?"

I hum in acknowledgement and nod. "Yup. Considering the style centers around heat it makes sense."

"So, you've been to the desert?" She asks in interest.

"Yes." I admit, memories flooding of absolutely horrible heat and a depressing cold at night. "I nearly died a lot of times."

I stare at the sky as Asuka simply pats my shoulder in a consolation manner as her own memories of training come to mind. In the silence, we bond over the training we had to go through.

Once the moment was over, she began asking more questions and I answered as well as I could. By the time we neared Asuka's house, my phone vibrated as I opened it and saw a message from my informants.

A large haul is being traded between the yakuza. A good opportunity for a large pay out in the docks. Taking a moment, I slide my phone back in my pocket as I scratch my head. "Sorry, Asuka," she turns in interest, "something came up and I've gotta go take care of it."

"What is it?" She asks, tilting her head in confusion. "Did something happen?"

"Just my landlord, he needs help with a burst pipe and none of the other tenants are answering." I explain, keeping the half-truth since my informant is somewhat like my landlord in some intricate and long-spanning way.

"Really? Well then…" She seemed nervous as she fidgeted. "See you tomorrow?"

Smiling, I nod. "Yeah, 'till then." I walked backwards while waving at her before whirling around and continuing until I heard footsteps.

Before I could turn around, I felt something soft but sizable push up against my back while her slim arms circle my chest. She leans forward and leaves a kiss on the cheek before pushing off and disappearing, but not before I caught a glimpse of her embarrassed expression.

I stared at the spot she was in but quickly shook my head, guilt weighing down my heart as I bit my lip as I walked off.

While it might not make the guilt go away, beating up yakuza is very therapeutic.


"Oooh, I can't believe I did it!' The Shinobi muttered as she held her hands against her cheeks while in front of her parent's sushi shop.

She was currently trying to cool off lest her parent's interrogation go awry and she be teased to kingdom come. That said the process was becoming far harder than she ever thought.

He looked so cool!

Asuka's mind wanders back to the fight with the puppets and the glimpses she managed to get of Caleb as he dispatched them efficiently with a bit of style that showed off his flexibility and muscles.

Again, Asuka holds her hand to her cheeks until she cools down, her mind then moving onto the kiss on the cheek she gave him where the heat behind her cheeks was aflame once more, extending the time she was outside by a small, if not noticeable, margin.

Finally, she slapped her cheeks and took a deep breath and prepared to face the music. "Here we go." She hyped herself up before pushing the door open. "I'm back!" She called.

"Welcome back." Her mother, a kind-face and buxom woman with her hair in a ponytail similar to Asuka's own, looking like an older and kinder version of Asuka herself with a long skirt and a white blouse under an apron that she used to wipe her hands as she grabbed her daughter's cheek and brought her into a hug. "You're back a bit late, and the boy you talked about doesn't seem to be here. Were there any problems?" She asked with worry, holding a hand to her cheek as she pondered on what to do to Caleb should he have broken Asuka's heart and stood her up.

"I'm back." She mutters, pulling away as she twirls a strand of hair around her finger, looking away with a slight flush to her skin. "Um, no, he's busy. He said his landlord, who had a burst pipe, called him for help."

"Is that so?" Asuka's mother said before she smiled. "Then I guess I can hold off on my interrogation until another time~."

"Mom~." Asuka whines with a flushed face while trying to hide it.

"Hush, your grandmother did it to me so now let me have my fun." Asuka's mother said while covering her mouth while laughing. "C'mon, let's sit down and talk for a bit. Your father is waiting too."

Asuka sighs as her mother pulls her along until they're seated on a booth with futomaki rolls in the middle, her kind-faced father sitting there while he waves at her, sipping at some tea looking starkly less enthusiastic as her mother. She sits down and her mother sits down beside her father.

Setting the tea down, her father gives her a fatherly smile, "It's good to see you again, Asuka, we were getting a bit lonely ever since you went to take your exam."

She chuckles, scratching the back of her head, "Ehh, sorry."

"Congratulations on passing," Asuka smiles brightly at her mother's remarks, "barely." Her smile dims as her mother laughs and her father simply shakes his head, taking another sip from the tea.

"Seems like the curse continues." Her father mumbles into his cup and quickly looks away from his wife, who has an enraged expression on her that dared him to repeat what he said.

Wisely, he did not do so.

His hand rested against the table as he turned to his daughter. "So, how'd your date go?"

Immediately, her face flushed as her mother began to giggle behind her hand and he just laid back and listened along.

The story was fine, a normal date for an abnormal duo until the end.

"You were attacked?" Her mother immediately began to inspect Asuka with a critical eye.

"Yeah." She admits. "But we were able to repel them."

As Asuka's mother began to pick out the rips and tears on her clothes, fretting over them, her father cursed something else. A rule that Shinobis cannot get instruction from their parents, instead from the 'head' of each clan. As a place where these 'heads' can meet, Asuka's father has interacted with enough Shinobi 'heads' to know that these are old men and women usually stuck in tradition, pushing their view as the 'correct' one.

That's the reason why most Shinobis are trained separately from their parents, even if they can visit from time-to-time.

In the end, all they could do was support her in non-Shinobi endeavors like relationships even if Shinobi are generally more open than normal people.

Finally, Asuka's mother gives her daughter a hug and tightens it as Asuka tries to ask for her father's help through her eyes.

He joins in the group hug, to Asuka's chagrin.


"Mou~, nosy parents." Asuka complains as she closes the door behind her, steam coming from her body as she dried off her hair with a towel around her neck, wearing some shorts and a white shirt that was a bit tight.

After her parents were satisfied with the safety of their daughter, they(or more specifically her mother) continued to grill her for details until they(her father) decided to let her go to shower and rest since she has school tomorrow.

She sits down on her desk, opening her phone and begins composing a message to Caleb. She looks at what she's written and shakes her head. "Too formal."

A few taps later she shakes her head again. "Too informal."

Ten minutes later. "What is with this?"

Thirty minutes later. "Argh!" She groans as she holds her head and slams her head against the desk.

She rests her head, letting the natural coolness of the desk cool her down before muttering out loud. "I wonder what Caleb-kun's doing?"


Caleb is currently ducking under gunfire as he curses behind his cover, wearing his armor and helmet to cover his face, chain in his hand as he clicks his tongue.

Wordlessly, he dashes to the side, leaping onto a car before running up a cargo crate, his chain moving beside him as he contorted it around, lashing it forward towards the leg of a thug as he fell, the chain curving around him as Caleb pulled him in and spun into a spinning back kick, knocking him out as he ducked more gunfire, letting the chain go as he ran.

He leapt down onto a group, their guns trained at him but none of them would pierce as the collisions between bullets and armor simply had the bullets ricochet off as he dropkicks one of them. The others whirl to aim at him but he jumps up, spinning as he grabs the knife off of one of them before stabbing it into the gun of one of them before following with a roundhouse that sent him flying.

He ducks a swing and grabs him by the collar, forcing them to a cargo crate before knocking him out with a push kick to their stomach. A gunshot collides against his armor and he shrugs it off before whirling around and getting on both hands to sweep at his legs, forcing him into the air before pushing up and stomping him.

Caleb looked around some more and continued running towards the remaining thugs, his steps deceptively quiet in contrast to the armor he was wearing and causing the remaining thugs to freak out as they had trouble finding him.

Caleb's armor screeches against the tarmac as he slides into one of the thug's legs, forcing it up as the thug fell while he picked him up and slammed him into a cargo crate before elbowing a second thug and then punching his lights out with a hook.

Picking up a small pipe, he throws it at a group, the head of the group jerking to the side as the pipe hits its mark, surprising the rest as he jumps in with a side kick to another thug's side as they reeled to the side. Catching the pipe, he swings it at the jaw of one of the thugs before bringing it down on the shoulder of the other then spinning as he strikes at the opposite side of the first thug's head and into the second before reaching around the first and hitting him in the back of his head as both of them fell unconscious to the floor.

He ran once more, sticking to the shadows as he occasionally popped out to wreak havoc on the enemy thugs and acting a bit of a mix between a boogeyman and Batman.

Finally, he was in the cargo that held the drugs. Making sure it's correct, he opens it and covers his mouth so as to not inhale any. With a nod, Caleb takes a deep breath before releasing it, a bunch of flames coming from his mouth as it burns down the drugs, lighting a flame in the very flammable drugs.

Once it was done, he closed the cargo crate, letting the flames do the rest as he turned.

In front of him were all the remaining thugs, aiming guns at him as more and more filtered in.

What would have been a very worrying situation was a normal day for Caleb, the ones pointing guns at him seemingly flinching as he took a step forward.

He could sense more around along with other caches of drugs he has to burn down.

Taking a deep breath, he charged sideways and atop a cargo crate to look for his next target.


That is what Caleb is actually doing, what Asuka is imagining though…


"Asuka…" Caleb muttered with stuttering breaths, biting his lip as he sat in front of his own desk, his pants unzipped and his hand on his rod as he jerked off. "Asuka!"

His heavy breaths, the slapping sound loud as the only occupant of his house, his moans and groans all audible for anyone to listen.

He bit his lip, his body and muscles tensing as he reached his climax, a viscous white liquid squirting from his cock, each string of semen punctuated by a silenced groan and a jerk of his body as some of it landed on his own desk.


Quickly, Asuka perked up, her face flushed as she breathed heavily. "What was that?" She muttered to herself, ignoring the ache in her own stomach and her deep breaths.

Her face was flushed as she squirmed, "How could I imagine that about him?"

Shouldn't it be the other way around?

As her thoughts became a flurry of activity, she missed how her own hands began to move without her consent. Before she could stop herself, she already had her shirt raised above her sizable chest and her shorts pulled down, a wet spot on her panties.

As she tweaks her own nipple, forcing her moans down, her mind begins to show her memories of Caleb. His fights, his talking, all of it fueled her arousal until she finally gave in.

Reaching down with two fingers, Asuka begins to rub at the clit, biting her lip as a sharp burst of pleasure ran up her spine, leaving her wanting more as she intensified her movement in her womanhood, rubbing it as she gradually intensified as her imagination ran wild.

It would continue to do so until the middle of the night where Asuka became tuckered out, ashamed and surprised at how far her fantasies went and how many times she came. She didn't know how she would be able to face the young man the next day.


"Here it is, Suzune-sensei." A voluptuous woman says, handing another woman a hard drive. "Recording from their fight~."

"Well done." Was all the black-haired woman said, nodding as she turned to the other four. "We will now watch what this stranger and Hanzo's descendants are capable of."

The five Shinobi nod. "Yes, Sensei."

With a click, a screen appears with the beginning of the recording, a bit before Haruka's puppets intercept. She clicks play.

A green haired girl with ripped up clothing and tattoos immediately finds herself honing in on the boy with a strand of silver hair. He was attractive, a thought shared by the shinobi there and a few couldn't help but feel a bit jealous of Asuka at the moment. But the green-haired couldn't help but really pay attention to the boy.

A form of kinship was felt, from one person who doesn't know emotions with another that hides theirs.

Soon, it came to the fight and immediately, they noticed something.

He switched from non-lethal to lethal at the drop of a hat.

Not to mention his sword and style, his attitude against the puppets contrasted with the usual reaction of a civilian, not to add in the trained ones. But everything he showed revealed two contrasting things.

A normal civilian, if not well trained, and a fighter.

Soon, the video was over and Suzune looked at her students. Each of them were lost in their own thoughts except for Haruka, who had a very peculiar look on her face. But Suzune wasn't a normal Shinobi, seeing her face was all she needed to confirm one thing.

There was no anger, no curiosity, or anything similar in her eyes.

Just two things. Interest and pure scathing vitriol.

She closed her eyes and released a breath as she scanned the other four.

They were more impartial but she could see a bud of attraction in most of their eyes, mostly physical in this case.

She'd let things play out as they will.


Katsuragi hummed, her hips swinging from side-to-side, and her chest as well, getting attention to it as she treads to the Shinobi Room, anxious to finally get her hands on Asuka's breast and information on how her date went.

She's already gone through her daily workout routine and was ready for the day but first she had to cook up something to get her ready for the day. "And I know exactly what I want." She laughs to herself as she enters the Shinobi Room.

A few minutes later and in front of her was a bowl filled with ramen and wild grass, she rubbed away the drool at the edge of her lip and clapped her hands together. "Thank you for the food."

She moaned as she shoved the first part into her mouth enjoying her own hard work after a good workout in the morning, slurping it down with gusto.

That is until her eyes spot something weird behind the paper screen. Something that was neither a tall and slim man, busty girls, or a well-built hunk.

So, with barely a thought, she flung open the screen door and bore witness to a small, white, and fluffy ball, just floating. "What is this?" She asked herself out loud. Her eyes widened in realization. "It must be an enemy's!"

With a swift kick, the ball was cut in half, disappearing with a puff of smoke and leaving nothing behind. She quickly whirls around, scanning for possible enemies but finds nothing, her adrenaline running on max as her thoughts whirled within her own mind. She clicked her tongue in realization that the ball was probably a probe, sending information somewhere, which means a fight is on the horizon.

"Katsu-nee, is something wrong?" Asuka spoke from behind her.

She took a moment but shook her head, turning as she spoke, "No, it's no-wow!" She yelled in shock as Asuka froze. "You look exhausted."

Asuka jumps as her face flushes and she couldn't look Katsuragi in the eye. Finding an opportunity to drop the subject, she pounces, "Hmmm, seems like you're missing a bit of sleep. Had a good time with Caleb?"

As Asuka sputtered, she spotted the contents of the table. "K-Katsuragi, you left ramen!" Tilting her head in confusion, Katsuragi turns to see her ramen now cold as she sighs. "You never leave any, ever, so clearly something is wrong." Asuka points out as Katsuragi scratches the side of her cheek.

Finally, she relents. "Fine, I'll spill when everyone else gets here."

Soon, the Shinobis were sitting around the table as they spoke about what the ball could mean, anxiety and worry in their faces.

Katsuragi was too, but she was also feeling anticipation. She wants to fight someone strong. Hibari's sudden skill makes for a good opponent but she's still clumsy Hibari, Yagyu, Ikaruga, and Asuka are good opponents but she's fought against them time and time again. She almost knows their moves like the back of her own hand.

Caleb…is not a Shinobi.

He's new to all of this but beyond it all, he's not to the level she wants him to be.

She wants to prove something to herself and she's willing to do many things to do it.

"Ah, someone's outside!" Hibari points out from the sliding door.

Finally.

The other four peer outside the sliding door, their eyes landing on a strange girl in the middle of the courtyard. She was also exuding a cold killing intent that seemed to sap the life from her surroundings.

As a group, the five move to the courtyard, tensed and prepared to attack. Katsuragi speaks up first. "Who are you?"

The woman whirls to them, her posture confident and her killing intent as well. "You guys are shinobi students, right?" The black haired girl takes a single step forward. "I'm Homura, a Shinobi student of Hebijo Clandestine Girls' Academy."

At the name, the group began to tense up, recognizing the name but Ikaruga quickly stepped up. "Shinobi? We're just-."

"Don't play dumb with me." She said, revealing a picture of Katsuragi mid-kick. None of them said anything but Homura seemed satisfied. "So, I've already made a Shinobi Barrier and you're all here, so that makes you Shinobi."

"So what if we are?" Katsuragi calls out beside her fellow students, shaking with anticipation.

"Then you can hand over the Super-Secret Ninja Art Scroll." Homura says with a superior nod.

"We have no reason to do so." Ikaruga declares, her hand already on the handle of her sword.

"Oh really, not even for the sake of your shared boyfriend?"

A silence shuts them all up, their eyes trailing to the tanned woman.

Finally, Katsuragi spoke, "What did you just say?"


A/N: Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed. Its a bit shoddy and needs work but its done. Hopefully you guys enjoy it.