Act 4, Scene 17
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Act 4, Scene 17: The Ranch of Sorrow?! Secrets and lies in the far west!
If Shizue had been in charge, she would have gone straight to Dosu's hideout and wasted everyone's time. But Chuichi had been paying attention, taking in little details that Shizue hadn't even thought to consider.
Or maybe he was just psychic, because he said, "He should be at the Namasaka's right now, if my guess is right. Doing work."
"Really?" Yuichi asked.
"Yes. He should be. It's a bit of a walk, does everyone have the water for it?" Chuichi asked. "But once we have Dosu-san, it should be a pretty simple mission, unless this horse-thief is a lot more skilled than I'm guessing. If he bought the poison, and it's some sort of bizarre genjutsu poison, then that implies that it's far bigger than any one man or woman."
"What if he doesn't agree to come?" Yuichi asked, frowning a little as they began to walk. "And yes, I have water, Chuichi-san."
"Good, good. And I think he will. He's not a bad person, and he knows as well as anyone that this is worth more than not getting involved." Chuichi shook his head. "They just tried to kill us, and they came closer to succeeding than they should have, considering I'd swear that most of them were just civilians. And they have Akachi-san. I don't know where, at the ranch or hiding out somewhere just as the horses have to be, since they weren't at the ranch, but--"
"But if Dosu-san helps us," Shizue said, feeling hope welling up, "then that should be much better odds, right?"
"I'd figure so," Chuichi said. "That's the idea, at least."
*******
It took time to get to the ranch, which clung against the side of a slight dip, and Shizue wondered what it was like, living under a cliff. "Why are they there?"
"It isn't much protection, but it does make it harder for bandits and criminals to sneak up on them and steal their cattle, at least without having the ability to walk up and down walls," Chuichi said. "And the way they figure it, or so people say, if a shinobi tries to steal from them, then there's very little they can do to make it impossible."
Chuichi snorted. "Though even a pretty strong shinobi would struggle to carry a cow or horse up a sheer cliff. In my professional opinion."
"True," Yuichi said. "It seems like it'd be easier to make them think nothing was stolen at all. Some sort of fake horse, or something, or a genjutsu, and then just sneak it up out the front."
He frowned, clearly thinking rather too much about an entirely moot topic. Shinobi were not sneak-thieves, and Shizue would never lower herself to do something like that. At least not unless there was a job to do it, and even then, that'd be a pretty odd job, all things considered.
Shizue didn't think about all the things that the shinobi of the Archipelago had taken without paying, since that was different, though not really in a good way. Shinobi had walked the streets and done what they wanted, more often than not, in the same way nobles did sometimes in other lands. She was gone from all of that, and yet when she thought of Reef she remembered the way the civilians eyed most shinobi when they thought nobody was looking.
So maybe the precautions and thoughts weren't so wrong.
Either way, they wandered around the rim of the edge, and then down into the plains beneath. There was water down there, a small stream, and yet another reason why this was the site of a ranch. You had to have a cistern, you had to have a way to live and survive out here, or you died.
Like she might have if she hadn't worked to undo the genjutsu. It was a grim thought, and it reminded her of the pipe-work she was still doing, which felt as if it were ages ago. The last day had been so busy that it'd been driven out of her mind until she saw the well, by which Dosu was leaning, slowly ripping up what looked to be a letter.
"Hello," Chuichi called. "Dosu-san, can we speak?"
Dosu was dressed like a common laborer, in pants and a sweat-stained shirt, and other than the pouch for kunai, she never would have thought he was a shinobi, especially with the hat and the hands that were rough far more from physical labor than fighting. He also smelled of horses, a strong smell that she didn't really know how to describe. She was the girl who cared about sounds, not smells, and so she just accepted that it was a smell that was a little bit foreign.
"Sure, just finishing up with some business."
"What business is that?" Yuichi asked.
"Job offer, had to turn it down," Dosu replied, his voice gruff enough that it seemed like he was trying to discourage the inevitable prying. But if he was trying, he hadn't done so well, as it only made Shizue want to ask more. He frowned, taking in their appearance. Shizue felt like she hadn't had a bath in years, her throat was killing her, especially after forcing herself to throw up, her hair was mussed up, and all in all, she could have looked better.
Yuichi looked worse.
"Hey, where's… Akio-kun?"
Shizue opened her mouth, but hesitated. The full danger that Akachi was in hadn't really sunk into her mind yet. He could be dead. He might be in great danger, and here she was, thinking about cisterns and horses. It felt disrespectful. She shifted uncomfortably.
"What is it?" Dosu asked, seeing the signs on their faces, reading the situation. It was remarkable the way he straightened up all at once and seemed to change before their eyes.
"That's… what we want to talk to you about," Chuichi said.
[Opening Credits]
Dosu found a place by a closed-in cattle pen, and he sat against the fence, glancing around at the cows as if one of them could be a spy. "So?"
"What about the letter?" Shizue asked. "Since you mentioned it first."
"Just a letter from the baron. He wants me to join this organization he has going. He's hired a number of missing-nin," Dosu said, "to help make sure that anyone who steals from him or crosses him or has something he wants, doesn't get to get away with it."
Shizue frowned. She'd heard the baron mentioned. "He's a big time cattle-rancher, right?"
"Yes. At this rate he'll take over the whole area within a few years, though right now he's taking it slow. He has a number of missing-nin on dial, when he's not calling in the village ones for more typical problems." Dosu shrugged. "But I'm pretty sure it ain't them stealing the horses. It's too small time, I figure, if that's what you think."
"And you didn't see fit to accept his generous invitation?" Chuichi asked.
"No," Dosu said, frowning for a moment before he realized that it was sarcasm. Because of course he wouldn't take the offer to be a rich merchant's private muscle as anything like generous.
Shizue had heard mention of the Baron at Oshii's breakfast table, and she assumed that if she'd been paying more attention, she might have caught a few more hints. As it was, she knew enough to assume that he might be bad news.
"Well, at the moment the baron isn't a threat, not compared to whoever it is at Oshii's Ranch that poisoned us."
"Did what?" Dosu asked.
"We ate breakfast at their place, and then wandered off into the desert, a victim of some form of strange new poison. We almost died," Chuichi said, "and I heard someone taking Akio-kun away."
"And you know it was them?" Dosu asked.
"We do. And so we came here to ask you if you'd help out," Shizue said, trying not to be too wide-eyed and pleading, since Dosu probably understood manipulation. Instead, she decided to just sound like she meant it, because she did.
"I… can do that. We need to hurry and fast if they have him hostage. If they know his value to you, then they're going to be careful of how they threaten him. But first, I should tell others, so that if we die, everyone knows."
"Yes, that is a good idea," Chuichi said.
*******
Half an hour later, they were riding in style, sort of. Shizue had never ridden a horse before, and so she didn't really know what 'in style' involved as far as horses went, but the owners of the ranch had been willing to part with a gentle, rather old mare, who thus, she assumed, wouldn't be missed if she disappeared.
The others had rather more adventuresome horses, but Shizue had nearly fallen off one, and she was starting to decide that maybe horses just didn't like her, at least if her experience thus far was any hint. Even the one she was riding as she journeyed to the Oshii ranch was a little too ornery for her.
Perhaps she was a natural pedestrian, she thought as they came up on the ranch, which seemed oddly quiet. As if everyone was battened down for a siege, which perhaps they were. At the outskirts, Dosu raised his hand. "We go on foot from here," Dosu said. "Too much risk to the horses."
Chuichi nodded and jumped off, stretching for a moment and then running through a series of handseals. Shizue didn't know what sort of clone it was, but five different copies of Chuichi appeared, in formation. "Alright. We need to secure the area," Chuichi said. "And clones are the best way to do so. Dosu-san, can you make clones?"
"A few," Dosu said, a little diffidently. "I'll make two." Dosu ran through just a few handseals, and then two others appeared with him.
Suddenly, their forces had gone from four to, technically at least, eleven.
"Not bad," the lead Chuichi said, looking over the clones. The other Chuichis were spreading out.
"We do this simple. You've never done a hostage rescue, or an assault, but the rule is simple. Never let anyone out of sight of someone else. Send in the clones first if you have any choice, because they're expendable. Watch for shinobi hidden and ready to stab you in the back." Chuichi shrugged. "It's not my line of work, but in the right place, even a genin can kill a jonin who didn't come in expecting an attack."
"Yes," Dosu said. "It's true."
Yuichi followed one of the two Dosu clones, while Shizue followed the other as the Chuichis spread out, going to each building in turn and then opening the doors, one by one, and stepping in.
Shizue took a breath and listened, carefully, though she did not use her chakra. She was low, honestly, and it was only after a reluctant moment of hearing nothing that she ran through the seals for Keen Ears and listened.
She could hear people moving and walking around, and a moment later she saw a few people coming out of some of the buildings with their hands up, though they weren't yet at the farmhouse, which had to be where the horse-thief came from.
Joichiro had been so skilled with his fingers that she suspected it was he, and not the ranch hand Akira, that was behind all of this. Which was a shame, because she'd liked him, or at least he'd given her little reason to dislike him, and she knew that anyone who could love music couldn't be all bad.
But not all bad still meant one could be mostly bad, and she was annoyed that she'd liked him, as if her judgment was faulty, as if she needed to be smarter with this.
Ranch-hand after ranchhand came out, surrendering and being checked, and Shizue looked at them, these men older and rougher looking than her, and certainly more grizzled than she ever imagined herself being, and knew that she was stronger than them. Tougher than them. It put her into a certain mindset that she wasn't sure whether she liked or not.
It was a mindset that didn't help when, at last, there was some resistance. From one of the out-buildings, a man threw a kunai at Yuichi. It was a pretty expert throw, considering the limitations, and it actually got pretty close to Yuichi, who had been looking the right way to dodge out of the way and then freeze.
It was a mistake, but she understood what mistake it was when she saw his legs. He'd been wanting to spring forward and go after the attacker, but he'd remembered what he'd been told and stayed back.
"If you throw even one more kunai, partner," Dosu yelled, "I'll have to hurt ya. So come out!"
There was a pause, and Yuichi slowly made his way backwards, watching the window where it had come from. Someone had thrown the kunai and then ducked down, out of the way of any return fire, at least from someone who didn't have wind chakra flow, which was another advantage. It could turn a tense situation into the equivalent of cutting through the walls of a hedge maze.
Then Akira stepped through, his hands up.
"Akira-san, Akira-san," Shizue said.
"I… had to try. They've been good to me."
"They?" Chuichi asked. "We know what's going on. Just confirm it for us. It's the family, isn't it? But then what about the dead man?"
"A-accident," Akira admitted. "That's all."
"Well, we'll see," Chuichi said. Then he stepped forward and began to tie Akira up, as some of his clones watched the house for any sudden attacks.
Nothing.
Within a few minutes, everything other than the house was secure, and still there had been nobody entering or leaving the house.
"Dosu-san, please stay back and watch the prisoners. All three of us, and a clone or two, are going in," Chuichi said.
*******
Which was how it was that Shizue found herself watching next to two clones, with the real Chuichi and Yuichi behind her. She was stepping out as the bait, but she had a replacement ready and prepared if she had to get out of there. But she wanted to see Joichiro herself, if she could.
Kill him if she couldn't. It was an odd feeling, entering a building ready to murder someone.
It was odder still when instead you found that there was the mother in the kitchen, making food. "Oh, sorry, are you back for l-lunch, I didn't…"
Shizue growled, frustrated, and drew a kunai.
Natsumi went deadly still.
"You know what you did. Where is your husband?" Shizue asked, her voice cold and, she hoped, threatening. "I don't need to know more than that. I don't need to know that you think so and so isn't a real woman, or what the weather is. Tell me the facts. Besides the fact that you tried to murder me. With poison."
"H-he… upstairs," she said. "But don't kill him. I-if you just, t-turn your head…"
"Turn my head?" Chuichi asked. "From what?"
"We need to leave," Natusmi said. "If we stay--"
"If you stay you'll lose everything, and possibly even your life," Chuichi said. "I know. You should have thought about that before you started stealing and murdering. Though I suppose you yourself might be safe."
"N-not from the baron," Natsumi said.
"You're that scared of him?" Shizue asked. "Does he have anything to do with it?"
"We were trying to get money to get out of the way of the baron," a voice said as someone stepped down from the stairwell with his hands up. It was Kotaro, looking nervous and yet oddly assured, his mustache and lean looks now making him seem as if even in defeat he had an ace up his sleeve. "He's going to roll in sooner or later, so better to have the money to leave before his offers and attacks start to ramp up. And we know that just one family member with a little skill at being a shinobi isn't the same as an entire gang of crazy ninja."
"Some would say that that was an oxymoron," Chuichi said, almost conversationally.
"I don't know where he took him," Kotaro said. "So you can't torture it out of me."
Chuichi frowned and said. "Maybe. We'll check your son's room. It was your son, wasn't it? And him was our friend, was it?"
"He came back with a hostage, said he was going to take him to the hideout. For safety he didn't tell us where it was," Joichiro's father said, which seemed to Shizue to be valuable information on his son that was just being given away like it was nothing. Though then again, there was only so much that he could do.
He couldn't stop them from guessing the basics.
The basics were worse than she thought. She'd hoped that Akachi might be upstairs, but if he were at some undisclosed location, then things were rapidly getting worse, and there was nothing she could do. Her heart was racing as she headed upstairs, making sure that the clones were going first. Chuichi was going to stay downstairs to watch the two of them, while she and Yuichi went to check the room.
It was upstairs, and she made sure to listen for the sound of any booby traps as she slowly opened the door to the room with her hand, wishing she had brought a stick.
She saw a string on the door, and froze. The string stretched out to what looked like a far wall, and she lay on the ground and kicked the door all the way open.
A kunai flew about where an adult head would be, and lodged itself in the hallway wall.
"Oh," Yuichi said. "Some sort of…"
Shizue knew exactly what it was. The string was attached to the lever, and then the device would just pop the kunai out. It was a single-shot, and rather primitive, variant on the same sorts of devices she could and would make in her sleep. She'd seen traps like this, and knew that there might be a secondary trap.
Yet, after a moment, all seemed clear, and she gestured to the Chuichi clone, which stepped forward.
Nothing exploded, which was probably a good sign, all things considered. There were some things she couldn't prepare for, though. If there was an explosive tag in the walls, set up with some sort of fuinjutsu that could notice proximity, then they were all dead, potentially.
Once you started worrying, paranoia became a way of life, and one trap made her imagine dozens or even hundreds of more traps. Even though another part of her knew that realistically, this was a farm house. Just as with Emiko's own work on her base, there were limits to the number of traps that could be set without risking murdering someone who she didn't want to murder.
That trap, for instance, had to have been set up before he'd left with Akachi, since there was no way that he left it out like that, especially since opening the door himself would risk killing himself.
But that thought wasn't a positive one either, because that meant he'd likely destroyed any evidence.
The room itself was plain enough, though she didn't know enough about what rooms were in this part of the world. There was a bed, there was a small bookshelf, the floor was hard, cold wood, and there was a closet that probably held clothes. A rug here and there warmed it up, and there was a stand for sheet music. And then, next to the bed, in a box, is the guitar.
Shizue steps forward, opening the closet door and immediately leaping out of the way.
Inside there were boy's clothes, including what looked like a small, antique wooden dresser that she assumed held boy's underwear or whatnot. Nothing stood out, except that there were mud-caked boots on the ground next to several empty bags.
She knelt down and opened the one bag that wasn't empty.
Hard bread, jerky meat, a bottle of water… she recognized this, in general at least.
"A one day bag," Shizue said.
"That means that wherever he goes isn't too far, right?" Yuichi asked.
"And it's somewhere that's not just dusty or dirty, but outright muddy," Shizue said. "Is that a clue?"
"It could be. It does mean that there's somewhere with water that he went. Walking across a stream, maybe?" Yuichi asked, looking around. "No desks, no… ah, interesting."
He pulled out something from beneath the bed. It was a sketch of sorts, half-rough, of a set of jagged hills. Shizue looked at it and decided that he was actually a pretty decent artist. If the hills had something to do with where he was hiding, it was a clue.
Besides that, there wasn't much underneath the bed except for a magazine of some sort that Yuichi blushed to see and hid from her before she could see more than the cover, which was of a naked, dark-haired woman blowing a kiss at the camera.
Boys.
"Not many clues," Shizue said, as she reached into her clothes and pulled out a scroll, staring at the case for the Suna Guitar. She opened it and stared for a moment, and then began to unroll the scroll.
"What are you doing?" Yuichi asked.
"Just protective custody," Shizue said, staring at it. The strings were in such beautiful condition that she had to pluck one, once. The sound was pure, it called to her. And it wasn't as if he deserved to have something this beautiful, not when he'd tried to kill her.
"You're stealing it?"
"Borrowing it," Shizue said, feeling as if her own limbs weren't under her control as she put it on top of the scroll and then began to prepare to seal it.
"You intend to give it back?"
Shizue considered this. "No?"
"Then that's stealing," Yuichi said.
"No. It's collateral," Shizue said, and the guitar disappeared in smoke. She was already feeling nervous about this.
It wasn't what she should be doing in a sense. But she had looked at that guitar, and she had listened to it. There was no way she could leave it here, lonely and uncared for. If the family was run out of town, and their items seized, would anyone care for the instrument the way it needed to be cared for?
Excuse after excuse popped into her head, and she knew they were just excuses. She knew that she was trying to convince herself of it. But she also felt like she wanted this guitar far more than whatever payment she was going to get on this mission. And it wasn't the sort of mission that paid a fortune anyways.
This was just a… downpayment on her fee, right?
The truth was that she wanted it, and that she didn't feel, not after Akachi was kidnapped, not after the people she cared for were almost killed, any real compunction not to do a wrong to meet a wrong.
"So, not going to give it back?" Yuichi asked.
"Shinobi are not common, petty thieves," she said, channeling her inner Saya--better than facing up to guilt--and sticking her nose up in the air. "If you're going to make insinuations darl...I mean, Yuichi-kun, then make them somewhere else."
And then she flounced out of the room, and wondered if perhaps she spent too much time around Saya. But Saya wouldn't have apologized for stealing. Or anything, really.
[Commercial Break]
Yuichi didn't mention her the… borrowing of the guitar to Chuichi.
Chuichi had brought Dosu in to help tie them all up.
"Without food? Without water?" Natsumi asked.
"You aren't going to starve or die of thirst within a day," Chuichi said, with very little sympathy. "We'll be back for you after we capture your son. If we aren't, it's likely because he killed all of us, and so you can smile and be cut loose and start your life on the run. If we all kill each other, then I'm sure someone will be around."
Dosu winced, but kept on tying them up.
"It's well and good to be polite and kind," Chuichi said, "but they tried to murder us." He stroked his chin a little, and then said, "Did you find any hints of where he might be?"
"Well, we found boots with dried mud on them," Shizue explained, "and this."
She handed the drawing to Chuichi, who frowned and handed it to Dosu.
"Oh. He's north of me, or he went north of me."
"Is it within a day of here, or less?" Yuichi asked, lips turned downward. "Because we saw a bag left over that had a day's worth of supplies. Which means he has to have more in wherever he is."
"A cave, I bet. There's caves that way, and they're a little bigger than the ones I usually use. They're not all that stable, really, but they used to be used for storage, back before the bandits were driven out of the area, and before the Baron moved in a little north."
"They seem to be afraid of the baron," Chuichi said.
"Maybe they have reason to." Dosu glanced this way and that, his every movement now that of a shinobi for real. "It's rough living around here. But murder ain't a solution."
"I know," Chuichi said, taking a breath. "And if I can, I'll take in Joichiro-san alive."
The words hung in the air. 'If I can.' Shizue took a breath, nervous and uncertain. They had somewhere to go, and hopefully they would find Akachi at the end of it.
*******
It was hot and flat out, but they were getting closer and closer, little by little, to their destination. If they kept on going this way, they'd eventually reach the Baron's ranches, which he apparently ran, according to Dosu, with an iron fist. Each rancher reported all expenses and actions to him, and if at any time they did anything that he disliked, he had full right to kick them out of the home he allowed them to have on the land that he owned.
He was opposed, of course, by any number of figures, but with the noble absent and the people disunited, he wasn't likely to fail in his bid for monopoly.
Not that it was that important, Shizue thought. It was just a bunch of civilians squabbling over little things. Her teammate was in danger!
Halfway there, a raven started following them. Not a buzzard, not a crow, but instead a raven, or so it seemed, circling overhead.
"A summon?" Chuichi muttered, "but who could have--"
Dosu looked more and more tense as they rode, and eventually one raven was joined by a second, each of them spiraling in a different direction, as if they were trying to make sure to keep perfect watch on them.
It unnerved Shizue, and she clung onto the mare tighter, as they reached another stopping point and hopped off of their mounts. "We go on foot from here," Dosu said. "Keep your eyes out for an attack. It can come from anywhere."
Forward they marched, keeping careful watch. Shizue used her keen ears to listen for a minute, though she knew that her chakra was starting to run low, and Chuichi kept a phalanx of clones ahead of them.
They were almost to the mouth of a rather dark, damp looking cave when they heard a voice.
"Who goes there?" a man's voice asked, smooth as butter. "I do declare that we have a visitor. A guest. And they seem to be shinobi."
Shizue looked around. The voice seemed to be coming from the cave, but further on in, and yet when they advanced closer, a man stepped out from the shadows.
He was short, wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a long duster jacket filled with pouches that held kunai and various weapons. A lot of pouches. He was wearing boots, and a pair of dark, somewhat tight pants, with a golden belt-buckle. His shirt was white, with a short of vest, and looked to be silk, and his features themselves were so beautiful that Shizue's breath was almost briefly taken away. It was a rugged sort of beauty, with a strong jaw, dark, all-knowing eyes, and a waxed mustache that made him look like a bandit from a story.
And then behind him, she could see two figures. One was a slightly taller man, heavily scarred, dressed in clothing that covered most of his body, which could mean that the scars were there but not unseen. He had a square jaw, and hard, bright looking eyes.
The other was a somewhat robust looking woman, not out of shape so much as built with big bones, who was dressed all in black and had a raven on her shoulder.
"Who are you?" Chuichi asked, shifting his arm to be in position of a kunai, if need be.
"Oh, we're just some shinobi," the handsome man said. "That's all."
"You're the one behind the poisons, aren't you?" Chuichi asked.
"He looks like 'Gentleman' Ken," Dosu said, his voice low. "A missing-nin that's supposed to be working for the baron."
"I do his jobs every now and again, though he's always so boring. He always asks the same things, he always wants the same results. It's boring. Joichiro-kun, please come out with the hostage."
Joichiro stepped out of the shadows, holding an Akachi whose arms and legs were bound, but whose mouth was quite free. "And when I get free, the first organ I am going to savage of yours is… oh. I have my usual audience back," Akachi said.
He tried smiling.
Shizue tried not to scream. His face was a mass of cuts, here and there, and he was half-naked, the better to show off that he'd been beaten. Not brutally, but someone had taken the time an energy to work him over, making sure not to miss even a single spot. He was wearing just rags, and the cuts seemed like they needed treatment as well.
Yet there was still defiance in his eyes.
"Well, that's just what I wanted to talk about," Ken said.
"Why are they here. We should be killing them," Joichiro said. "My parents…"
"Boy," Ken said, his voice a lazy drawl, "you lost the right to decide anything about your life the moment you called me in for help. You fix your own messes, or we fix them for you." Ken didn't even sound angry, but Joichiro flinched, clearly terrified.
Chuichi was inching around, along with his clones, towards the edge of the cave.
"Don't move. After all, I'm going to propose a way that we can all profit. I'm bored. I could fight you, and four on four, I think I could win. I'm a trained jonin, and Dosu-kun over here is just a washed up has-beeni. And I don't know about any of you, but my two partners are… quite skilled. So, you have a choice. We fight here and now. I make sure to kill Akio--"
Shizue felt a swelling of pride at that. He hadn't given up any information, if Ken was using the fake name.
"As soon as the fight begins. And I go after the younger ones first. Just to make this more amusing. Or, and here's a choice. Joichiro, please go and get the kunai."
"Or?" Chuichi asked, tensing a little.
"Or we have a little duel. Joichiro-kun versus Akio. We've managed to even the playing field a little, you know." Akachi's eyes also looked unfocused, as if there was poison there as well.
"But, if he wins, we leave. You win, we don't fight and kill any of you, and we'll bid it all adieu. If Joichiro-kun wins, then we take him with us."
"What about my parents?" Joichiro asked, returning with two pouches of kunai.
"One leaves the nest eventually. And you have no choice." Ken shrugged. "They're the ones with the choice."
"Those pouches," Dosu began.
"I can win this," Akachi said, firmly.
"And if you die?" Chuichi asked, "I can't…"
"I," Akachi shifted, moving to stand up.
"We can…" Yuichi began.
Dosu's eyes were hard as he looked at them, as if he were just about to attack. There was horror written on his face, horror at what had been done to Akachi, and horror at the way that Joichiro was being press-ganged.
Even he didn't deserve that, Shizue thought. He deserved justice, not whatever cruel game this Ken figure was playing. A very different Ken then the only man of that name she'd ever met.
A very different situation.
So, what do you do?
[] To hell with games. It's time for a fight.
[] Play the 'game.' A duel. Hopefully if all goes well, then… well. Then you'll be out of here just a little past noon.
-[] Maybe he's watching for a trick, but maybe it's still possible to trick this Ken and attack him in the middle of the duel? It'd be dangerous, but perhaps it would provide some distraction?
*******
A/N: And depending on what you choose and what happens, we're pretty close to the end!
If Shizue had been in charge, she would have gone straight to Dosu's hideout and wasted everyone's time. But Chuichi had been paying attention, taking in little details that Shizue hadn't even thought to consider.
Or maybe he was just psychic, because he said, "He should be at the Namasaka's right now, if my guess is right. Doing work."
"Really?" Yuichi asked.
"Yes. He should be. It's a bit of a walk, does everyone have the water for it?" Chuichi asked. "But once we have Dosu-san, it should be a pretty simple mission, unless this horse-thief is a lot more skilled than I'm guessing. If he bought the poison, and it's some sort of bizarre genjutsu poison, then that implies that it's far bigger than any one man or woman."
"What if he doesn't agree to come?" Yuichi asked, frowning a little as they began to walk. "And yes, I have water, Chuichi-san."
"Good, good. And I think he will. He's not a bad person, and he knows as well as anyone that this is worth more than not getting involved." Chuichi shook his head. "They just tried to kill us, and they came closer to succeeding than they should have, considering I'd swear that most of them were just civilians. And they have Akachi-san. I don't know where, at the ranch or hiding out somewhere just as the horses have to be, since they weren't at the ranch, but--"
"But if Dosu-san helps us," Shizue said, feeling hope welling up, "then that should be much better odds, right?"
"I'd figure so," Chuichi said. "That's the idea, at least."
*******
It took time to get to the ranch, which clung against the side of a slight dip, and Shizue wondered what it was like, living under a cliff. "Why are they there?"
"It isn't much protection, but it does make it harder for bandits and criminals to sneak up on them and steal their cattle, at least without having the ability to walk up and down walls," Chuichi said. "And the way they figure it, or so people say, if a shinobi tries to steal from them, then there's very little they can do to make it impossible."
Chuichi snorted. "Though even a pretty strong shinobi would struggle to carry a cow or horse up a sheer cliff. In my professional opinion."
"True," Yuichi said. "It seems like it'd be easier to make them think nothing was stolen at all. Some sort of fake horse, or something, or a genjutsu, and then just sneak it up out the front."
He frowned, clearly thinking rather too much about an entirely moot topic. Shinobi were not sneak-thieves, and Shizue would never lower herself to do something like that. At least not unless there was a job to do it, and even then, that'd be a pretty odd job, all things considered.
Shizue didn't think about all the things that the shinobi of the Archipelago had taken without paying, since that was different, though not really in a good way. Shinobi had walked the streets and done what they wanted, more often than not, in the same way nobles did sometimes in other lands. She was gone from all of that, and yet when she thought of Reef she remembered the way the civilians eyed most shinobi when they thought nobody was looking.
So maybe the precautions and thoughts weren't so wrong.
Either way, they wandered around the rim of the edge, and then down into the plains beneath. There was water down there, a small stream, and yet another reason why this was the site of a ranch. You had to have a cistern, you had to have a way to live and survive out here, or you died.
Like she might have if she hadn't worked to undo the genjutsu. It was a grim thought, and it reminded her of the pipe-work she was still doing, which felt as if it were ages ago. The last day had been so busy that it'd been driven out of her mind until she saw the well, by which Dosu was leaning, slowly ripping up what looked to be a letter.
"Hello," Chuichi called. "Dosu-san, can we speak?"
Dosu was dressed like a common laborer, in pants and a sweat-stained shirt, and other than the pouch for kunai, she never would have thought he was a shinobi, especially with the hat and the hands that were rough far more from physical labor than fighting. He also smelled of horses, a strong smell that she didn't really know how to describe. She was the girl who cared about sounds, not smells, and so she just accepted that it was a smell that was a little bit foreign.
"Sure, just finishing up with some business."
"What business is that?" Yuichi asked.
"Job offer, had to turn it down," Dosu replied, his voice gruff enough that it seemed like he was trying to discourage the inevitable prying. But if he was trying, he hadn't done so well, as it only made Shizue want to ask more. He frowned, taking in their appearance. Shizue felt like she hadn't had a bath in years, her throat was killing her, especially after forcing herself to throw up, her hair was mussed up, and all in all, she could have looked better.
Yuichi looked worse.
"Hey, where's… Akio-kun?"
Shizue opened her mouth, but hesitated. The full danger that Akachi was in hadn't really sunk into her mind yet. He could be dead. He might be in great danger, and here she was, thinking about cisterns and horses. It felt disrespectful. She shifted uncomfortably.
"What is it?" Dosu asked, seeing the signs on their faces, reading the situation. It was remarkable the way he straightened up all at once and seemed to change before their eyes.
"That's… what we want to talk to you about," Chuichi said.
[Opening Credits]
Dosu found a place by a closed-in cattle pen, and he sat against the fence, glancing around at the cows as if one of them could be a spy. "So?"
"What about the letter?" Shizue asked. "Since you mentioned it first."
"Just a letter from the baron. He wants me to join this organization he has going. He's hired a number of missing-nin," Dosu said, "to help make sure that anyone who steals from him or crosses him or has something he wants, doesn't get to get away with it."
Shizue frowned. She'd heard the baron mentioned. "He's a big time cattle-rancher, right?"
"Yes. At this rate he'll take over the whole area within a few years, though right now he's taking it slow. He has a number of missing-nin on dial, when he's not calling in the village ones for more typical problems." Dosu shrugged. "But I'm pretty sure it ain't them stealing the horses. It's too small time, I figure, if that's what you think."
"And you didn't see fit to accept his generous invitation?" Chuichi asked.
"No," Dosu said, frowning for a moment before he realized that it was sarcasm. Because of course he wouldn't take the offer to be a rich merchant's private muscle as anything like generous.
Shizue had heard mention of the Baron at Oshii's breakfast table, and she assumed that if she'd been paying more attention, she might have caught a few more hints. As it was, she knew enough to assume that he might be bad news.
"Well, at the moment the baron isn't a threat, not compared to whoever it is at Oshii's Ranch that poisoned us."
"Did what?" Dosu asked.
"We ate breakfast at their place, and then wandered off into the desert, a victim of some form of strange new poison. We almost died," Chuichi said, "and I heard someone taking Akio-kun away."
"And you know it was them?" Dosu asked.
"We do. And so we came here to ask you if you'd help out," Shizue said, trying not to be too wide-eyed and pleading, since Dosu probably understood manipulation. Instead, she decided to just sound like she meant it, because she did.
"I… can do that. We need to hurry and fast if they have him hostage. If they know his value to you, then they're going to be careful of how they threaten him. But first, I should tell others, so that if we die, everyone knows."
"Yes, that is a good idea," Chuichi said.
*******
Half an hour later, they were riding in style, sort of. Shizue had never ridden a horse before, and so she didn't really know what 'in style' involved as far as horses went, but the owners of the ranch had been willing to part with a gentle, rather old mare, who thus, she assumed, wouldn't be missed if she disappeared.
The others had rather more adventuresome horses, but Shizue had nearly fallen off one, and she was starting to decide that maybe horses just didn't like her, at least if her experience thus far was any hint. Even the one she was riding as she journeyed to the Oshii ranch was a little too ornery for her.
Perhaps she was a natural pedestrian, she thought as they came up on the ranch, which seemed oddly quiet. As if everyone was battened down for a siege, which perhaps they were. At the outskirts, Dosu raised his hand. "We go on foot from here," Dosu said. "Too much risk to the horses."
Chuichi nodded and jumped off, stretching for a moment and then running through a series of handseals. Shizue didn't know what sort of clone it was, but five different copies of Chuichi appeared, in formation. "Alright. We need to secure the area," Chuichi said. "And clones are the best way to do so. Dosu-san, can you make clones?"
"A few," Dosu said, a little diffidently. "I'll make two." Dosu ran through just a few handseals, and then two others appeared with him.
Suddenly, their forces had gone from four to, technically at least, eleven.
"Not bad," the lead Chuichi said, looking over the clones. The other Chuichis were spreading out.
"We do this simple. You've never done a hostage rescue, or an assault, but the rule is simple. Never let anyone out of sight of someone else. Send in the clones first if you have any choice, because they're expendable. Watch for shinobi hidden and ready to stab you in the back." Chuichi shrugged. "It's not my line of work, but in the right place, even a genin can kill a jonin who didn't come in expecting an attack."
"Yes," Dosu said. "It's true."
Yuichi followed one of the two Dosu clones, while Shizue followed the other as the Chuichis spread out, going to each building in turn and then opening the doors, one by one, and stepping in.
Shizue took a breath and listened, carefully, though she did not use her chakra. She was low, honestly, and it was only after a reluctant moment of hearing nothing that she ran through the seals for Keen Ears and listened.
She could hear people moving and walking around, and a moment later she saw a few people coming out of some of the buildings with their hands up, though they weren't yet at the farmhouse, which had to be where the horse-thief came from.
Joichiro had been so skilled with his fingers that she suspected it was he, and not the ranch hand Akira, that was behind all of this. Which was a shame, because she'd liked him, or at least he'd given her little reason to dislike him, and she knew that anyone who could love music couldn't be all bad.
But not all bad still meant one could be mostly bad, and she was annoyed that she'd liked him, as if her judgment was faulty, as if she needed to be smarter with this.
Ranch-hand after ranchhand came out, surrendering and being checked, and Shizue looked at them, these men older and rougher looking than her, and certainly more grizzled than she ever imagined herself being, and knew that she was stronger than them. Tougher than them. It put her into a certain mindset that she wasn't sure whether she liked or not.
It was a mindset that didn't help when, at last, there was some resistance. From one of the out-buildings, a man threw a kunai at Yuichi. It was a pretty expert throw, considering the limitations, and it actually got pretty close to Yuichi, who had been looking the right way to dodge out of the way and then freeze.
It was a mistake, but she understood what mistake it was when she saw his legs. He'd been wanting to spring forward and go after the attacker, but he'd remembered what he'd been told and stayed back.
"If you throw even one more kunai, partner," Dosu yelled, "I'll have to hurt ya. So come out!"
There was a pause, and Yuichi slowly made his way backwards, watching the window where it had come from. Someone had thrown the kunai and then ducked down, out of the way of any return fire, at least from someone who didn't have wind chakra flow, which was another advantage. It could turn a tense situation into the equivalent of cutting through the walls of a hedge maze.
Then Akira stepped through, his hands up.
"Akira-san, Akira-san," Shizue said.
"I… had to try. They've been good to me."
"They?" Chuichi asked. "We know what's going on. Just confirm it for us. It's the family, isn't it? But then what about the dead man?"
"A-accident," Akira admitted. "That's all."
"Well, we'll see," Chuichi said. Then he stepped forward and began to tie Akira up, as some of his clones watched the house for any sudden attacks.
Nothing.
Within a few minutes, everything other than the house was secure, and still there had been nobody entering or leaving the house.
"Dosu-san, please stay back and watch the prisoners. All three of us, and a clone or two, are going in," Chuichi said.
*******
Which was how it was that Shizue found herself watching next to two clones, with the real Chuichi and Yuichi behind her. She was stepping out as the bait, but she had a replacement ready and prepared if she had to get out of there. But she wanted to see Joichiro herself, if she could.
Kill him if she couldn't. It was an odd feeling, entering a building ready to murder someone.
It was odder still when instead you found that there was the mother in the kitchen, making food. "Oh, sorry, are you back for l-lunch, I didn't…"
Shizue growled, frustrated, and drew a kunai.
Natsumi went deadly still.
"You know what you did. Where is your husband?" Shizue asked, her voice cold and, she hoped, threatening. "I don't need to know more than that. I don't need to know that you think so and so isn't a real woman, or what the weather is. Tell me the facts. Besides the fact that you tried to murder me. With poison."
"H-he… upstairs," she said. "But don't kill him. I-if you just, t-turn your head…"
"Turn my head?" Chuichi asked. "From what?"
"We need to leave," Natusmi said. "If we stay--"
"If you stay you'll lose everything, and possibly even your life," Chuichi said. "I know. You should have thought about that before you started stealing and murdering. Though I suppose you yourself might be safe."
"N-not from the baron," Natsumi said.
"You're that scared of him?" Shizue asked. "Does he have anything to do with it?"
"We were trying to get money to get out of the way of the baron," a voice said as someone stepped down from the stairwell with his hands up. It was Kotaro, looking nervous and yet oddly assured, his mustache and lean looks now making him seem as if even in defeat he had an ace up his sleeve. "He's going to roll in sooner or later, so better to have the money to leave before his offers and attacks start to ramp up. And we know that just one family member with a little skill at being a shinobi isn't the same as an entire gang of crazy ninja."
"Some would say that that was an oxymoron," Chuichi said, almost conversationally.
"I don't know where he took him," Kotaro said. "So you can't torture it out of me."
Chuichi frowned and said. "Maybe. We'll check your son's room. It was your son, wasn't it? And him was our friend, was it?"
"He came back with a hostage, said he was going to take him to the hideout. For safety he didn't tell us where it was," Joichiro's father said, which seemed to Shizue to be valuable information on his son that was just being given away like it was nothing. Though then again, there was only so much that he could do.
He couldn't stop them from guessing the basics.
The basics were worse than she thought. She'd hoped that Akachi might be upstairs, but if he were at some undisclosed location, then things were rapidly getting worse, and there was nothing she could do. Her heart was racing as she headed upstairs, making sure that the clones were going first. Chuichi was going to stay downstairs to watch the two of them, while she and Yuichi went to check the room.
It was upstairs, and she made sure to listen for the sound of any booby traps as she slowly opened the door to the room with her hand, wishing she had brought a stick.
She saw a string on the door, and froze. The string stretched out to what looked like a far wall, and she lay on the ground and kicked the door all the way open.
A kunai flew about where an adult head would be, and lodged itself in the hallway wall.
"Oh," Yuichi said. "Some sort of…"
Shizue knew exactly what it was. The string was attached to the lever, and then the device would just pop the kunai out. It was a single-shot, and rather primitive, variant on the same sorts of devices she could and would make in her sleep. She'd seen traps like this, and knew that there might be a secondary trap.
Yet, after a moment, all seemed clear, and she gestured to the Chuichi clone, which stepped forward.
Nothing exploded, which was probably a good sign, all things considered. There were some things she couldn't prepare for, though. If there was an explosive tag in the walls, set up with some sort of fuinjutsu that could notice proximity, then they were all dead, potentially.
Once you started worrying, paranoia became a way of life, and one trap made her imagine dozens or even hundreds of more traps. Even though another part of her knew that realistically, this was a farm house. Just as with Emiko's own work on her base, there were limits to the number of traps that could be set without risking murdering someone who she didn't want to murder.
That trap, for instance, had to have been set up before he'd left with Akachi, since there was no way that he left it out like that, especially since opening the door himself would risk killing himself.
But that thought wasn't a positive one either, because that meant he'd likely destroyed any evidence.
The room itself was plain enough, though she didn't know enough about what rooms were in this part of the world. There was a bed, there was a small bookshelf, the floor was hard, cold wood, and there was a closet that probably held clothes. A rug here and there warmed it up, and there was a stand for sheet music. And then, next to the bed, in a box, is the guitar.
Shizue steps forward, opening the closet door and immediately leaping out of the way.
Inside there were boy's clothes, including what looked like a small, antique wooden dresser that she assumed held boy's underwear or whatnot. Nothing stood out, except that there were mud-caked boots on the ground next to several empty bags.
She knelt down and opened the one bag that wasn't empty.
Hard bread, jerky meat, a bottle of water… she recognized this, in general at least.
"A one day bag," Shizue said.
"That means that wherever he goes isn't too far, right?" Yuichi asked.
"And it's somewhere that's not just dusty or dirty, but outright muddy," Shizue said. "Is that a clue?"
"It could be. It does mean that there's somewhere with water that he went. Walking across a stream, maybe?" Yuichi asked, looking around. "No desks, no… ah, interesting."
He pulled out something from beneath the bed. It was a sketch of sorts, half-rough, of a set of jagged hills. Shizue looked at it and decided that he was actually a pretty decent artist. If the hills had something to do with where he was hiding, it was a clue.
Besides that, there wasn't much underneath the bed except for a magazine of some sort that Yuichi blushed to see and hid from her before she could see more than the cover, which was of a naked, dark-haired woman blowing a kiss at the camera.
Boys.
"Not many clues," Shizue said, as she reached into her clothes and pulled out a scroll, staring at the case for the Suna Guitar. She opened it and stared for a moment, and then began to unroll the scroll.
"What are you doing?" Yuichi asked.
"Just protective custody," Shizue said, staring at it. The strings were in such beautiful condition that she had to pluck one, once. The sound was pure, it called to her. And it wasn't as if he deserved to have something this beautiful, not when he'd tried to kill her.
"You're stealing it?"
"Borrowing it," Shizue said, feeling as if her own limbs weren't under her control as she put it on top of the scroll and then began to prepare to seal it.
"You intend to give it back?"
Shizue considered this. "No?"
"Then that's stealing," Yuichi said.
"No. It's collateral," Shizue said, and the guitar disappeared in smoke. She was already feeling nervous about this.
It wasn't what she should be doing in a sense. But she had looked at that guitar, and she had listened to it. There was no way she could leave it here, lonely and uncared for. If the family was run out of town, and their items seized, would anyone care for the instrument the way it needed to be cared for?
Excuse after excuse popped into her head, and she knew they were just excuses. She knew that she was trying to convince herself of it. But she also felt like she wanted this guitar far more than whatever payment she was going to get on this mission. And it wasn't the sort of mission that paid a fortune anyways.
This was just a… downpayment on her fee, right?
The truth was that she wanted it, and that she didn't feel, not after Akachi was kidnapped, not after the people she cared for were almost killed, any real compunction not to do a wrong to meet a wrong.
"So, not going to give it back?" Yuichi asked.
"Shinobi are not common, petty thieves," she said, channeling her inner Saya--better than facing up to guilt--and sticking her nose up in the air. "If you're going to make insinuations darl...I mean, Yuichi-kun, then make them somewhere else."
And then she flounced out of the room, and wondered if perhaps she spent too much time around Saya. But Saya wouldn't have apologized for stealing. Or anything, really.
[Commercial Break]
Yuichi didn't mention her the… borrowing of the guitar to Chuichi.
Chuichi had brought Dosu in to help tie them all up.
"Without food? Without water?" Natsumi asked.
"You aren't going to starve or die of thirst within a day," Chuichi said, with very little sympathy. "We'll be back for you after we capture your son. If we aren't, it's likely because he killed all of us, and so you can smile and be cut loose and start your life on the run. If we all kill each other, then I'm sure someone will be around."
Dosu winced, but kept on tying them up.
"It's well and good to be polite and kind," Chuichi said, "but they tried to murder us." He stroked his chin a little, and then said, "Did you find any hints of where he might be?"
"Well, we found boots with dried mud on them," Shizue explained, "and this."
She handed the drawing to Chuichi, who frowned and handed it to Dosu.
"Oh. He's north of me, or he went north of me."
"Is it within a day of here, or less?" Yuichi asked, lips turned downward. "Because we saw a bag left over that had a day's worth of supplies. Which means he has to have more in wherever he is."
"A cave, I bet. There's caves that way, and they're a little bigger than the ones I usually use. They're not all that stable, really, but they used to be used for storage, back before the bandits were driven out of the area, and before the Baron moved in a little north."
"They seem to be afraid of the baron," Chuichi said.
"Maybe they have reason to." Dosu glanced this way and that, his every movement now that of a shinobi for real. "It's rough living around here. But murder ain't a solution."
"I know," Chuichi said, taking a breath. "And if I can, I'll take in Joichiro-san alive."
The words hung in the air. 'If I can.' Shizue took a breath, nervous and uncertain. They had somewhere to go, and hopefully they would find Akachi at the end of it.
*******
It was hot and flat out, but they were getting closer and closer, little by little, to their destination. If they kept on going this way, they'd eventually reach the Baron's ranches, which he apparently ran, according to Dosu, with an iron fist. Each rancher reported all expenses and actions to him, and if at any time they did anything that he disliked, he had full right to kick them out of the home he allowed them to have on the land that he owned.
He was opposed, of course, by any number of figures, but with the noble absent and the people disunited, he wasn't likely to fail in his bid for monopoly.
Not that it was that important, Shizue thought. It was just a bunch of civilians squabbling over little things. Her teammate was in danger!
Halfway there, a raven started following them. Not a buzzard, not a crow, but instead a raven, or so it seemed, circling overhead.
"A summon?" Chuichi muttered, "but who could have--"
Dosu looked more and more tense as they rode, and eventually one raven was joined by a second, each of them spiraling in a different direction, as if they were trying to make sure to keep perfect watch on them.
It unnerved Shizue, and she clung onto the mare tighter, as they reached another stopping point and hopped off of their mounts. "We go on foot from here," Dosu said. "Keep your eyes out for an attack. It can come from anywhere."
Forward they marched, keeping careful watch. Shizue used her keen ears to listen for a minute, though she knew that her chakra was starting to run low, and Chuichi kept a phalanx of clones ahead of them.
They were almost to the mouth of a rather dark, damp looking cave when they heard a voice.
"Who goes there?" a man's voice asked, smooth as butter. "I do declare that we have a visitor. A guest. And they seem to be shinobi."
Shizue looked around. The voice seemed to be coming from the cave, but further on in, and yet when they advanced closer, a man stepped out from the shadows.
He was short, wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a long duster jacket filled with pouches that held kunai and various weapons. A lot of pouches. He was wearing boots, and a pair of dark, somewhat tight pants, with a golden belt-buckle. His shirt was white, with a short of vest, and looked to be silk, and his features themselves were so beautiful that Shizue's breath was almost briefly taken away. It was a rugged sort of beauty, with a strong jaw, dark, all-knowing eyes, and a waxed mustache that made him look like a bandit from a story.
And then behind him, she could see two figures. One was a slightly taller man, heavily scarred, dressed in clothing that covered most of his body, which could mean that the scars were there but not unseen. He had a square jaw, and hard, bright looking eyes.
The other was a somewhat robust looking woman, not out of shape so much as built with big bones, who was dressed all in black and had a raven on her shoulder.
"Who are you?" Chuichi asked, shifting his arm to be in position of a kunai, if need be.
"Oh, we're just some shinobi," the handsome man said. "That's all."
"You're the one behind the poisons, aren't you?" Chuichi asked.
"He looks like 'Gentleman' Ken," Dosu said, his voice low. "A missing-nin that's supposed to be working for the baron."
"I do his jobs every now and again, though he's always so boring. He always asks the same things, he always wants the same results. It's boring. Joichiro-kun, please come out with the hostage."
Joichiro stepped out of the shadows, holding an Akachi whose arms and legs were bound, but whose mouth was quite free. "And when I get free, the first organ I am going to savage of yours is… oh. I have my usual audience back," Akachi said.
He tried smiling.
Shizue tried not to scream. His face was a mass of cuts, here and there, and he was half-naked, the better to show off that he'd been beaten. Not brutally, but someone had taken the time an energy to work him over, making sure not to miss even a single spot. He was wearing just rags, and the cuts seemed like they needed treatment as well.
Yet there was still defiance in his eyes.
"Well, that's just what I wanted to talk about," Ken said.
"Why are they here. We should be killing them," Joichiro said. "My parents…"
"Boy," Ken said, his voice a lazy drawl, "you lost the right to decide anything about your life the moment you called me in for help. You fix your own messes, or we fix them for you." Ken didn't even sound angry, but Joichiro flinched, clearly terrified.
Chuichi was inching around, along with his clones, towards the edge of the cave.
"Don't move. After all, I'm going to propose a way that we can all profit. I'm bored. I could fight you, and four on four, I think I could win. I'm a trained jonin, and Dosu-kun over here is just a washed up has-beeni. And I don't know about any of you, but my two partners are… quite skilled. So, you have a choice. We fight here and now. I make sure to kill Akio--"
Shizue felt a swelling of pride at that. He hadn't given up any information, if Ken was using the fake name.
"As soon as the fight begins. And I go after the younger ones first. Just to make this more amusing. Or, and here's a choice. Joichiro, please go and get the kunai."
"Or?" Chuichi asked, tensing a little.
"Or we have a little duel. Joichiro-kun versus Akio. We've managed to even the playing field a little, you know." Akachi's eyes also looked unfocused, as if there was poison there as well.
"But, if he wins, we leave. You win, we don't fight and kill any of you, and we'll bid it all adieu. If Joichiro-kun wins, then we take him with us."
"What about my parents?" Joichiro asked, returning with two pouches of kunai.
"One leaves the nest eventually. And you have no choice." Ken shrugged. "They're the ones with the choice."
"Those pouches," Dosu began.
"I can win this," Akachi said, firmly.
"And if you die?" Chuichi asked, "I can't…"
"I," Akachi shifted, moving to stand up.
"We can…" Yuichi began.
Dosu's eyes were hard as he looked at them, as if he were just about to attack. There was horror written on his face, horror at what had been done to Akachi, and horror at the way that Joichiro was being press-ganged.
Even he didn't deserve that, Shizue thought. He deserved justice, not whatever cruel game this Ken figure was playing. A very different Ken then the only man of that name she'd ever met.
A very different situation.
So, what do you do?
[] To hell with games. It's time for a fight.
[] Play the 'game.' A duel. Hopefully if all goes well, then… well. Then you'll be out of here just a little past noon.
-[] Maybe he's watching for a trick, but maybe it's still possible to trick this Ken and attack him in the middle of the duel? It'd be dangerous, but perhaps it would provide some distraction?
*******
A/N: And depending on what you choose and what happens, we're pretty close to the end!
)