忍ぶ意思 Shinobu Ishi
Title: Part 1: Shinobu Ishi
Rating: PG13 (for mild violence)
Pairing: TBA, Ohno-centric
Genre: action, AU
Chapter: six
Disclaimer: I guess Johnny’s technically owns Arashi, huh? Not me.
Summary: Ohno Satoshi is the student of a strong ninja lord who has lived his life following his teacher’s strict guidance. But what happens when he slowly learns he has to live for himself?
Chapter one, Chapter two, Chapter three, Chapter four, Chapter five
Jyani grinned down at the four boys sitting across from him.
His plan had been a success. Aiba’s enthusiasm for life had rubbed off on the rest of the group, especially Nino, who was slowly returning to his former self, and they were become proficient in their missions once again. Although Aiba’s training in the city wasn’t quite complete, Ohno and Nino and Sho needed him more than the boy needed the extra year of experience.
And now that the group was whole, Jyani had decided to step up their training a bit.
“This is probably one of the hardest missions you’ll ever face, even in years to come,” he began, although he really couldn’t hold back his enthusiasm at the prospect. If this mission was a success for his boys, their name would stretch across the entire country and he would get waves of high paying missions for them and the other ninja in the clan. Jyani couldn’t wait to show both his allies and enemies what he had created.
At the warning, Aiba looked enthusiastic, since it was the first real mission he had been on with the other members. They had been out, of course, but nothing more difficult than escorting an old merchant across the prefecture.
Nino also seemed excited at the mention of something dangerous, and it was an expression that he hadn’t seen on Kazunari’s face in a while. It warmed Jyani’s heart.
Ohno and Sho both looked apprehensive, but decisive about the announcement, and the ninja lord silently congratulated them on their caution. It would be needed, especially with Aiba and Kazunari, who seemed to rush into things without thinking them through all the way.
“You will be infiltrating a castle to assassinate a lord,” he began to explain. He watched Nino’s face for a reaction to the taboo word and couldn’t detect a change in expression.
That was… possibly a good thing.
“The lord is under tight guard at every time of day or night and his personal quarters are located within the heart of the building. It will be up to you four to devise a strategy and relay it to me by tonight. You must complete your mission within six days.”
After his assistant placed the summary of the mission and all available information in front of the group, Jyani dismissed them, suggesting that they take the day to talk out possible tactics, from their initial attack of the castle all the way down to who would assassinate the target and how they would escape.
Ohno was feeling a little overwhelmed as the group of boys left the meeting room. It was true that they were probably ready for something like this, but in the pit of his stomach he couldn’t help but feel a little anxious about the mention of an assassination. Even with Aiba added to the group, Nino was still the most qualified for the task and would no doubt be the one to end up with the responsibility again.
As he shuffled through the papers, looking over the details for the mission, Sho began mumbling under his breath and furrowing his brows. The group slowly made their way down the hall, unconsciously going back to their room, while Nino and Aiba began chatting about the task. Ohno was losing himself in his own thoughts while still trying to analyze the reaction of his group members.
Nino didn’t seem fazed at all, which was strange. Aiba looked a little uneasy now that he had gotten over his initial excitement, but he still seemed confident that they could finish it without a problem.
Sho glanced over the last page and sighed, handing the report to Ohno with a frown. The older ninja blinked at him and then moved his gaze down to the notes resting in his hands. The first page was a layout of the castle as well as some estimated numbers for the amount of people that would be present: which ones were guards, who lived in the castle, etc.
“Looks like we’re going to have to deal with around two hundred people,” the tactician said in a pessimistic voice. Nino and Aiba turned to him immediately as Ohno began running the figures through his head. How were they going to deal with that many people? Even if only half of them were guards?
“Wh-what?” Nino was the first to respond to Sho’s statement. He looked at Aiba, who was worried himself, and then frowned, in his usual thinking pose.
They had finally arrived at their room, and so the tactician slid open the door, since their leader was preoccupied with the notes in his hand. The group went inside and sat down, none of them really paying attention to the movements, and each of the boys thinking of how they were going to take care of so many people.
It was making Nino’s insides ache a little, actually. Even though Aiba had only been with them a few months, the youngest ninja had almost completely gotten over his own angst and instead had dedicated himself to protecting his friends, especially his newest one (who had grown on him over night). Nino still wanted to keep lives lost to a minimum, but he felt like he needed to protect Aiba from the same pain he had gone through. He didn’t want Aiba to kill anyone if he didn’t have to, and so Nino would do it himself.
With those thoughts, the weapons master had managed to pull himself out of his funk, and suddenly the group had slid into place. They were working together twice as well as they used to and the youngest member felt like he had gotten to know more about Sho than he even did about Ohno.
Nino knew all about Sho’s past, that he was abandoned as a baby and taken in by Ogura right away, and he knew that the boy was a little clumsy sometimes, but that Sho was actually really smart and loved his friends as much as they loved him.
The youngest ninja was also getting to know Aiba, too (since he volunteered most of the information himself).
The herbalist had been born into Jyani’s clan, so he didn’t have a melancholy back story like the rest of them did. His mother had raised him and his brother by herself, and when Jyani requested that Aiba moved into the city to train with the ninja that thrived there, she decided that she would pick up and move, too. When Aiba was called back, she said she loved him and that he needed to do some growing up. When he had told the group all of this, he had smiled and said he missed them, but it was all probably for the best.
Actually, out of all the members of the group, Nino probably knew about Ohno the least, despite having been with him the longest. He still couldn’t bring himself to ask Ohno any hard questions and it didn’t seem like Sho or Aiba could muster up the courage either. And, of course, Ohno didn’t reveal anything himself. Nino knew it was because he didn’t think it was important, but it wasn’t worth the effort it would take to convince him otherwise.
But all in all, even with the ever growing gap between the three ninja and their leader, Nino felt like he had a real family now. Even more than when he had been living with the other orphans, before he had moved into the Main Building. Ohno was his cool older brother, Aiba was his giddy little brother (even though he was technically older than Nino, he’d found out), and Sho…
Well, maybe Sho was something a little bit more, but he couldn’t tell yet. The weapons master was only fourteen after all, and he had heard that kids his age couldn’t tell the difference between love and lust and whatever, not that Nino really cared about all that stuff. All he knew was that when Aiba and Sho hung out together (which was a lot) he felt angry most of the time, and maybe even a little jealous.
But despite his sour emotions towards the newest recruit, Nino couldn’t bring himself to hate him. In fact, he found himself getting just as close to Aiba as Sho was.
“Okay, I think our first step is to set some goals,” Sho said sagely, plopping down on the floor in the middle of the room. Ohno sat next to him and placed the layout of the castle in front of them, and so Aiba and Nino sat down opposite to complete the circle.
Nino looked at the map for the first time, immediately noting the easy entranceways and which halls were less likely to be patrolled than others. He got distracted, though, when Aiba piped up next to him.
“Wow, that sound so official, Sho-chan,” he said in a melodious voice, his face shining as if he were a proud parent. Nino didn’t want Aiba to have all of the attention, so he broke in a moment afterwards in order to draw the tactician’s interest.
“What does that even mean? Set some goals?” he said in a sarcastic voice, since that was the only one he could really push out. Nino averted his eyes in embarrassment directly after his questions had been voiced. He hadn’t meant it to sound harsh, but he certainly wasn’t going to take back the words now.
Sho pursed his lips cutely and then answered Nino’s question, completely straightforward. “Before we start planning anything I think we should discuss what we want to focus our efforts on. For example, do we want to get it done as quickly as possible? Or would you rather draw the least amount of attention?”
Feeling sheepish, Nino started to pout lightly and nodded his head at Sho’s explanation. That did make sense.
Aiba, who was seated between Nino and his maybe-crush, turned suddenly serious, staring at Sho as though trying to convey now important the next sentence was.
“I think we should keep casualties to a minimum.”
Aiba looked down at his hands suddenly and Nino had already turned to him with a surprised look on his face. It was almost as if Aiba had opened the younger boy’s chest and read what was written there, then immediately voiced it instead of mulling over it like Nino usually had to. They seemed to be of the same mind, Aiba and Nino, only the older boy wore it openly on his sleeve, where the weapons master tried to keep it locked away inside, viewing it as a weakness.
But this was exactly the sort of Aiba he wanted to protect.
“I agree,” Ohno said before Nino could, and it only took a second for them to confirm that point as their main axis to begin spinning plans around.
They concentrated for over an hour, trying to devise a solid way to enter the building and continue all the way to the lord’s chambers without being caught or stopped by soldiers. In the end, the group had come up with an entrance route, but Sho had assured them they would probably have to make it through three rounds of guards this way, even with strict timing.
Nino began biting his lip unconsciously, staring at the map and trying to think of something else to add. He had already contributed what he could, but Sho was better at this than him and after three of Nino’s suggestions had been neutralized he was ready to give up.
“Say…” Sho started suddenly, looking up with a bright expression on his face. The cute expression that said he had thought up something good. “Aiba’s here, now… Why don’t we put him to use and poison the water supply or something?”
Aiba perked up at the mention of his name, then tilted his head, as if thinking so hard that his brain was trying to come out one ear.
“…Actually, that might work,” Nino said in wonder, his eyes still glued to the map lying between them. It was beginning to become crumpled from illustrating entrances and exits, not to mention that none of them were particularly careful with it in the first place.
“Yeah…” A smile was growing on Aiba’s face by the second. “Yeah, I got it!”
Sho looked over at the newest member, a grin slowing forming on his own lips.
He was so happy that he had realized what he had been missing when forming the strategy inside of his head: he had only been thinking about him and Nino and Ohno. Although Aiba had been with them a little while already, none of the missions had required any sort of planning, and so the tactician hadn’t taken all of his resources into account.
The enthusiasm on the newest member’s face and the relief evident on Nino’s calmed Sho’s nerves and relaxed his brain, which had been on overdrive for the last hour. This would all work out, of course, and now it seemed like it would conclude with the minimum amount of casualties as well.
Nino patted Aiba on the back as the herbalist began to explain that yeah, there was something he could put in the water supply that would put the entire household to sleep.
“It’ll last a few hours, and if we get the timing right…”
“…We should be able to take out eighty to ninety percent of the household in one go,” Nino finished with his own grin. Aiba smiled back at him, the two enjoying themselves now that they were slowly forming a strategy.
Sho cleared his throat in order to draw the other two’s attention. It wasn’t that he didn’t agree with the plan or anything (he had been the one to bring it up after all), it was just that Sho wasn’t quite comfortable with the two of them being so buddy-buddy.
Well, it was more the fact that Nino had known Sho longer but now seemed to be drifting more towards Aiba, despite his apprehension with the new member at first.
Sho could certainly understand why; the boy had a certain charisma about him that made you want to protect him and make him smile… but still.
Nino had been weird with Sho lately and it was bothering him. Only a few weeks ago, when they had barely known Aiba, Nino had suggested that they switch up their sleeping order. It was something that could have been worked out, but Sho didn’t see why. He always slept next to Nino, and Nino always slept next to Ohno, just the way Nino liked it.
But the day that he had tentatively said maybe I should sleep next to Aiba-chan instead? with an embarrassed expression, Sho’s heart had almost been torn out. At the pained look, Nino had immediately retracted his statement with shifting eyes, but the damage had already been done and the archer was almost tempted to make the change anyway, just to prove how much he didn’t care.
Sho didn’t mind sleeping next to Leader, of course… Actually, Ohno’s shoulder was quiet comfortable, it was just the meaning of the whole thing that had really gotten to him.
The throat clearing had gone unnoticed by Aiba and Nino, partially because Sho hadn’t done it with enough force, but mostly because of the animated conversation now going on between the two. Sho sighed instead and felt a hand on his shoulder.
He looked over at Ohno, who was giving him a sympathetic stare. Sho nodded at him, although he wasn’t sure why, and scratched his nose as he glanced down at the castle layout once more.
The tactician and the captain began quietly deciding how to split up their team and which route who would take, and it wasn’t long before the energetic duo across from them had joined in to work out the details.
Ready to say something to contribute to the current conversation, the words died on Sho’s tongue as Nino suggested that Aiba and Sho work in a pair.
Now Nino didn’t want to work with him either?!
But the capable part of Sho’s brain immediately yelled out that it was a smart idea. Sho could cover Aiba while he moved in close to a target, as could Nino with Ohno. Besides, it was almost a given that the youngest would be the one to complete the assassination, and Ohno would be able to get him close to the target, even if they had to slaughter their way in. Aiba didn’t have as much experience as the other two, and Sho should stay in a place in which he could see the entire situation and make adjustments as necessary.
All of their parts were laid out before them, but that didn’t mean Sho couldn’t be disgruntled at the lack of interest he was getting.
He would just have to leave Nino to Ohno and hope that they would both be okay.
+++
The poison had been prepared by Aiba (it had taken three days to gather enough ingredients for the scale they were looking at) and it had been deposited by Nino and Ohno roughly an hour ago.
Sho was stationed at the front of the outer wall with Aiba, as per their plan. They would wait for the signal from Nino, a flickering light in the bottom window on the east side of the castle, before they would enter themselves.
Nino and Ohno were hiding in the kitchen of the household, waiting until the poison had taken effect on the occupants, and then they would sneak towards the back entrance, leaving it open for Aiba and Sho, before making their way to the lord’s living quarters upstairs.
It was solely Nino’s responsibility to kill the target, as it had been before. Ohno would protect the entrance to his private quarters (where he would most likely be, as it was almost an hour past dinner which was when most of the household would get their tainted water). They had assumed that the lord would be up for a fight, since he would most likely be drinking sake or red wine instead of the affected water, and so Ohno would be needed for backup as well.
Sho and Aiba’s job was to protect the exit so that they didn’t all get caught in the main hall after the mission was completed. There was a balcony just outside of the lord’s private quarters, and it had been decided that they would repel from there once they were done. Aiba had a rope slung around his torso and over his shoulder for that purpose, and his pole was gripped tightly between his hands.
Instead of his usual archery equipment, Sho had a dart pipe held tightly in one fist and a string of darts around his waist. Aiba had made special venom that would paralyze on the spot when hit, and all the ninja had all taken the antidote before breaking apart, just in case.
The archer was nervous, though. So, so nervous. He hadn’t seen the signal yet and couldn’t help but think that something had gone wrong already. He didn’t doubt his comrades, but at the same time he wanted so badly to help them that he couldn’t stand it.
Just as he was about to ask Aiba, who was wringing his knuckles around his weapon, if he was sure he hadn’t seen anything yet, the signal came.
Without any confirmation from each other, the two jumped down onto the soft grass of the castle’s lawn and darted to the back door waiting in front of them. It opened with something slightly softer than a squeak and Sho motioned Aiba to follow him inside.
He had the layout of the castle memorized and quickly made his way to the stairs leading up, stepping over six collapsed guards and one that had his throat cut. The arched looked away, recognizing Ohno’s impeccable swordsmanship and realized that the pair had been through this area already.
They ran up the stairs with little noise (although Sho had stepped on a part that made a creaking sound by accident), and rounded the corner, not knowing which way the other pair had gone. They made it a few feet before they heard a frantic voice of a man and immediately doubled back.
Instead, they took the other route, which would also lead them in the same direction, since the floor was set out in a perfect square. They took off towards the next flight of stairs, which led to the top floor and where the lord’s personal rooms were. Before they had reached their destination, though, the same voice from before was heard again, this time accompanied by a swaying shadow against the dimly lit hall.
Sho motioned for Aiba to back up and the retreated once more around the corner.
The first confrontation came halfway through the layout. They had neutralized the ground force better than Sho could have imagined.
The ninja stayed pressed up against the wall, Sho looking around the corner with just one of his eyes, waiting until the guard or whoever it was presented himself. After just a second of waiting, the man came around, calling loudly into the desert hallway and looking completely terrified.
“Please! Is anyone there? Something’s happened! Everyone is dead!” After saying these words, the man let out a strangled sob and Sho felt Aiba grab his hand.
He squeezed it back as if to say don’t worry, they aren’t dead.
Sho brought his other hand, which was holding his pipe lightly, up with a dart ready inside of it. He took careful aim, making sure his movements were slow and fluid as to not draw attention to himself, and blew the projectile out, hitting his prey on target in the side of the neck.
The man cried out and tried the grab the wound, but he stumbled before any more words came out, and caught himself against a wall as he began to lose consciousness.
After he was passed out on the floor, Sho led Aiba to the staircase, the two of them quickly climbing up to the top.
+++
Nino fumbled to unlock the wooden door as Ohno stood behind him with his sword brandished. They had made it all the way to the lord’s private quarters and only had to deal with five guards. One of them Ohno had killed immediately, since he had been coming at them with a sword, another they had avoided on the second floor, and the other three were laying at their feet now. All except one were alive here, being spared from the afterlife by a hit on the back of the head with the handle of Ohno’s sword and a blow to the temple by Nino’s fist. The last one had lunged at the ninja before he could be taken care of, and they couldn’t risk leaving him with a simple flesh wound.
But with everything considered, Nino thought that they had done a good job so far. Only two dead, and there had been no avoiding it.
Now, as he popped open the door, he was hoping there would only be one more casualty tonight.
Ohno backed up to block the entrance as Nino went into the room and slid the door into place behind him. It would make it harder for his target to escape that way, and even if he did, he wouldn’t be expecting Oh-chan waiting for him on the other side of the exit.
The room was pitch black as Nino slid up against a wall, slowly feeling his way around the quarters. If he was correct, the most likely place to put a futon would be directly in the middle, and there should only be a limited number of other items taking up the space, since the treasure room was in the basement.
Nino got down on his hands and knees and withdrew the dagger from the back of his belt, thinking it would be a quick job.
His fingers touched the edge of the futon when suddenly there was a loud scream from outside: the voice of a man.
It wasn’t Ohno, but a wave of terror went down Nino’s spine, even though he knew he had to complete the task at hand before he could help his friend.
But the man whom he had been sent to kill was sitting up, mumbling something about the racket, and Nino had to act right now.
His target was fumbling for something and a moment later a spark lit up the room. The man’s face was only inches away from Nino’s when he had sat up from his futon, and the ninja plunged the knife into his chest without thinking twice about the action. The lord’s expression froze in surprise and sudden terror.
He groaned and fell backwards as Nino stood, and in the dim light that was left in the wake of the lord’s spark Nino saw a woman rise next to the man to see what the noise coming from outside of the door was. She was completely naked and when she looked at Nino her reaction was to cover herself from him, but after she noticed the lord, also naked, bleeding profusely next to her, she let out a scream.
Nino tucked the knife back into his sash and retreated against the wall again, slightly more hidden in dancing shadows.
He didn’t even wait one second before he darted for the door.
There was more noise coming from outside-it sounded like a group of soldiers, which was impossible. The ninja slid open the entrance and Ohno was immediately pushed back against him, barely holding his own against the hallway full of men that had come out of nowhere.
The only reason the swordsman was doing as well as he was was due to the tight confinement of the passage; only about three men could come at him simultaneously while the others had to wait behind them. He blocked a thrust on one side, then immediately deflected a swing on the other, one directly after the other, but he couldn’t break the onslaught enough to formulate his own attack. It was only a matter of minutes before one of them would slip through or Ohno used up all of his stamina.
But there was no way that the two ninja could break through the throngs of men, even though their escape route was only ten feet away. Nino felt himself swallow and tried to come up with a strategy.
There was nothing.
They were corned in the lord’s chamber, which had no windows, facing a hallway full of trained soldiers.
And Sho and Aiba were nowhere to be seen.
Nino tried harder to think of something. He must have some powder or a smoke bomb or something…
But he didn’t. All he had were the herbs that he always kept in the pouch at his side, and those weren’t potent enough to use on so many people, even if he devised some way to.
There was nothing.
Ohno’s face was pinched in pain and exhaustion and Nino couldn’t do anything but watch.
Suddenly there was a sharp pain in the ninja’s side and he looked down the affected area.
There was a blade sticking through him.
He held back a strangled cry as it was pulled back out of him, and he twisted around sharply, gasping for breath and trying to repress the pain coursing through him, to find the naked woman he had spared a moment ago with a short sword in her hand.
He grasped as his wound, trying to stop the blood from pouring out of him and dodged another swing, leading her away from Ohno’s back.
Nino managed to fumble his own knife out from behind him while still clutching at the wound that was making him weak. He didn’t want to take her life, but if she got behind Ohno, his friend wouldn’t be able to defend himself.
“You killed him,” she whispered, brandishing the weapon. She kept it trained on Nino as he skirted around the room, as far away from his friend as possible. They had minutes left, maybe even just seconds. “You killed him…” she repeated.
Nino wanted to tell her it was nothing personal and that he was just doing his job, but he couldn’t push the words out past the throbbing in his side. It probably wouldn’t have matter to her, anyway, and might have just enraged her more.
The woman threw herself at him again, but Nino deflected the blade against the wall, attempting to pin it under his arm and make it immobile.
Through the scuffle, though, the woman managed to get away, and was once again pointing the short sword at Nino, who was leaning heavily against a wall trying to keep himself upright.
Past the woman’s shoulder he could see Leader stationed firmly in the doorway, still blocking the blows directed at him although it was obvious the work was wearing on him; his legs were shaking and his movements weren’t nearly as fast as they had been a moment ago.
On the verge of collapsing onto the floor, his injury leaving Nino barely capable of holding his own weight up, the ninja was forced to stay upright as the woman came at him again. With fury in her eyes, she pinned him against the wall, her blade barely stopped a few inches in front of Nino’s neck with his own knife. His hand was wavering as she towered over him, stronger with adrenaline that she would’ve been otherwise.
Nino tried to push back. With all of his might and thirst for a long life with his friends he pushed back, but weakened as he was he was no match for her. His own weapon had been shoved back enough that it was digging into the metal band that protected his throat, slowly but steadily cutting off his air supply.
The ninja closed his eyes tightly and tried to think of a way he could at least immobilize the woman so she couldn’t hurt Oh-chan too, even after he was dead.
There was no strength left in him, though… It was all he could do to draw out the battle a few more seconds…
Images of the woman plunging her weapon into Ohno’s back flashed behind his lids, and the only thing that Nino was grateful for right now was the fact that Sho and Aiba hadn’t been caught up in the melee too.
Suddenly his assailant stiffened and cursed, dissolving her effort from cutting down Nino and instead had sluggishly slid her free arm to the back of her head. Only a few seconds later she felt forward and on top of the young ninja, her eyes closed lightly and her bare breasts pressed against Nino’s stomach.
They both fell to the ground together and Nino immediately saw the dart sticking out of the back of the woman’s shoulder, where she had been trying to grasp a moment before. He looked up and saw Sho crouching on the rail guard that was built around the edge of the balcony, at the spot the group of ninja had meant to escape already.
In front of the sniper was Aiba, blocking blows in a way similar to Ohno, only not so many of the men had noticed that the two reinforcements had arrived. The new pair didn’t seem nearly as overwhelmed as the other two were, and were trying their best to aid their friends’ escape.
Sho tried to calm his erratic breathing.
Nino was alive, he had just seen him.
But if that were the case, why was he not moving?
The tactician pushed the thought to the back of his mind and instead focused on sniping as many of the men crowding the hall way as he could.
Just a few moments earlier, after they had arrived on the third floor, the two had heard the mob of soldiers headed up the staircase. They had climbed onto the roof through an open window in order to hide themselves and had snuck across to where the open terrace was, listening to the battle below.
It appeared that all of the men that had been unaffected by the water supply, which turned out to be a little less than twenty, had banded together, resolved to protect their lord (since that’s what they were getting paid for). When they had seen their dead comrades, it had thrown them into panic and the group had reached the top of the castle as fast as possible, immediately confronting Ohno.
Unsure of what to do, but knowing it was up to the pair to make a path to the balcony, Sho had peeked his head down to check the scene, anxious with leaving Ohno to deal with all the men himself.
But he already knew of Ohno’s swords skills and if the tactician didn’t take the moment to properly plan out his next move, it could cost them all their lives.
The door was closed at that time, meaning that Nino hadn’t completely the assassination yet. Yet as that thought crossed Sho’s mind, he’d heard a high pitched scream of a woman coming from the lord’s room. It must have been a lover, since the man himself had no wife.
Sho told his racing mind to calm down. Nino could handle himself and right now the important part was to make a path to the escape rope, which Aiba had already secured to the balcony.
The herbalist was looking at Sho for directions and the tactician knew they had no choice. There was nothing to be done now except fight.
The older boy relayed a brief plan to the younger and the two of them nodded once to each other before dropping onto the deck below.
Of course they immediately drew the attention of two of the soldiers, but Aiba promptly took guard up in front of Sho, who had no defenses himself. After a short squabble, the new recruit even managed to knock one of them out with a blow to the head.
At the yell the other man made though, two more turned back and headed towards Aiba while Sho secured his position perched on the railing. This location gave him a height advantage, even crouched as he was, but at the same time, if he tumbled backwards he wasn’t sure he would survive the fall. There was no choice, though, limited with his weapon as he was.
Sho had already knocked out one of the soldiers fighting against his partner when he noticed that the door behind Ohno was open again, and that Leader had stationed himself firmly in the doorway, effectively reducing the room the men around him had to move. The arched squinted, trying to make out Nino in the dark room, even though his head was screaming for him to continue his job and save Leader as fast as possible.
His heart began racing as he noticed two figures fighting towards the back end of the personal quarters, and Sho wondered if Nino hadn’t been successful after all. Or maybe he had panicked when he heard the additional soldiers outside.
Either way, it was obvious Nino was struggling with someone right now.
Sho took aim with his dart pipe just as one of the shadowy figures pinned the other against the wall. If it was Nino, the dart would only sting a little. He would probably feel groggy for a few seconds, but they had all already taken the antidote and so Sho wasn’t worried about any after effects.
What he was anxious about was the fact that the figure might not be Nino.
The archer hit the back of the person exactly on target, but both of the figures collapsed instead of just one. Sho felt bile rise in his throat as he realized that the one against the wall was covered in black, almost completely blending into his surroundings, while the one he had just shot was reflecting more of the outside light.
Nino was alive.
He had to be alive.
Sho repeated these lines to himself as he began sniping the soldiers one by one, watching as Aiba took out three more consecutively with blows to the temple and Ohno slowly began pushing the rest of them backwards.
Although more than half of them had been neutralized, there was no clear path from the room to the escape rope and Nino still hadn’t resurfaced yet.
And Sho was out of darts.
Every profane word that Sho had ever heard cycled through his head and the tactician declared himself officially useless. He couldn’t really use a weapon other than a bow, which he was not carrying that night. He had other darts, but none that were treated with the poison that Aiba had made for him earlier, and therefore they were useless too. Instead, he would just have to wait for Aiba and Ohno to take care of the rest, or until they were exhausted and he had to resort to attempting to use a discarded spear.
Everything was solved a second later, though, when a futon came flying out of the room behind Ohno, landing directly on the three men he had been fighting. Ohno looked surprised, but lowered his sword and pushed them all backwards into their comrades, creating a ripple of off-balanced guards. Aiba joined in, sweeping his pole under the legs of the men closest to him, and a moment later Ohno was pulling Nino through the tiny path that had opened up to where Sho and Aiba were waiting.
Their leader told Aiba to go first, followed by Nino and then Sho, while he held off the men that were recovering. Sho thought about arguing, but he himself had said in the planning stages that it would take long enough for someone to either cut the rope or untie it that they could all make it down, at least far enough that a fall wouldn’t be fatal. If Ohno gave them a few seconds head start, the captain could climb down quickly after them, and although he would probably have to take a fall, the other three would be there to break it.
Sho noticed that Nino’s hands were covered in blood, and so he offered to help his friend down, but the younger boy immediately pushed away the help with a shake of his head. He gripped the rope tightly and took off after Aiba, who was halfway down the wall already. The tactician kept his eyes on Ohno, who had run his sword through the side of one of the soldiers (a wound that wouldn’t be fatal but would prevent any further conflicts with him), and was now fighting two more. He seemed to be up on top form again, either because of the adrenaline pumping through his veins at the prospect of getting away, or simple desperation to protect his friends.
Even when his feet touched the ground, Sho was looking up, along with Nino and Aiba, waiting for their leader to climb over to the rope too.
Several heartbeats later, Ohno vaulted over the railing with his hand barely on the rope-- he struggled to grasp it, already several feet down from where the line was tied, and basically slipped down the wall as heads of guards leaned over the railing, shouting out curses at the escaping quartet.
Leader made it almost half way down before one of the men had enough wisdom to begin cutting the rope, but by the time he fell, he was barely a head’s span above Aiba. The newest member caught Ohno with no problem, righting him immediately, and the group began running towards the outer wall.
They had almost made it, Sho and Aiba in lead, when a shout from Ohno, who was behind them, made the pair stop in their tracks.
Sho turned just in time to witness Nino fall to the ground, his hand still covered in blood and grasping his side.
+++
A/N: Ho ho ho~ A cliff hanger!
Actually, I apologize because this is my last update before vacation. I'll try to post again when I can, but I have no idea when that will be. :) But a pairing showed up, so it's not completely bad, right?
chapter seven
Rating: PG13 (for mild violence)
Pairing: TBA, Ohno-centric
Genre: action, AU
Chapter: six
Disclaimer: I guess Johnny’s technically owns Arashi, huh? Not me.
Summary: Ohno Satoshi is the student of a strong ninja lord who has lived his life following his teacher’s strict guidance. But what happens when he slowly learns he has to live for himself?
Chapter one, Chapter two, Chapter three, Chapter four, Chapter five
Jyani grinned down at the four boys sitting across from him.
His plan had been a success. Aiba’s enthusiasm for life had rubbed off on the rest of the group, especially Nino, who was slowly returning to his former self, and they were become proficient in their missions once again. Although Aiba’s training in the city wasn’t quite complete, Ohno and Nino and Sho needed him more than the boy needed the extra year of experience.
And now that the group was whole, Jyani had decided to step up their training a bit.
“This is probably one of the hardest missions you’ll ever face, even in years to come,” he began, although he really couldn’t hold back his enthusiasm at the prospect. If this mission was a success for his boys, their name would stretch across the entire country and he would get waves of high paying missions for them and the other ninja in the clan. Jyani couldn’t wait to show both his allies and enemies what he had created.
At the warning, Aiba looked enthusiastic, since it was the first real mission he had been on with the other members. They had been out, of course, but nothing more difficult than escorting an old merchant across the prefecture.
Nino also seemed excited at the mention of something dangerous, and it was an expression that he hadn’t seen on Kazunari’s face in a while. It warmed Jyani’s heart.
Ohno and Sho both looked apprehensive, but decisive about the announcement, and the ninja lord silently congratulated them on their caution. It would be needed, especially with Aiba and Kazunari, who seemed to rush into things without thinking them through all the way.
“You will be infiltrating a castle to assassinate a lord,” he began to explain. He watched Nino’s face for a reaction to the taboo word and couldn’t detect a change in expression.
That was… possibly a good thing.
“The lord is under tight guard at every time of day or night and his personal quarters are located within the heart of the building. It will be up to you four to devise a strategy and relay it to me by tonight. You must complete your mission within six days.”
After his assistant placed the summary of the mission and all available information in front of the group, Jyani dismissed them, suggesting that they take the day to talk out possible tactics, from their initial attack of the castle all the way down to who would assassinate the target and how they would escape.
Ohno was feeling a little overwhelmed as the group of boys left the meeting room. It was true that they were probably ready for something like this, but in the pit of his stomach he couldn’t help but feel a little anxious about the mention of an assassination. Even with Aiba added to the group, Nino was still the most qualified for the task and would no doubt be the one to end up with the responsibility again.
As he shuffled through the papers, looking over the details for the mission, Sho began mumbling under his breath and furrowing his brows. The group slowly made their way down the hall, unconsciously going back to their room, while Nino and Aiba began chatting about the task. Ohno was losing himself in his own thoughts while still trying to analyze the reaction of his group members.
Nino didn’t seem fazed at all, which was strange. Aiba looked a little uneasy now that he had gotten over his initial excitement, but he still seemed confident that they could finish it without a problem.
Sho glanced over the last page and sighed, handing the report to Ohno with a frown. The older ninja blinked at him and then moved his gaze down to the notes resting in his hands. The first page was a layout of the castle as well as some estimated numbers for the amount of people that would be present: which ones were guards, who lived in the castle, etc.
“Looks like we’re going to have to deal with around two hundred people,” the tactician said in a pessimistic voice. Nino and Aiba turned to him immediately as Ohno began running the figures through his head. How were they going to deal with that many people? Even if only half of them were guards?
“Wh-what?” Nino was the first to respond to Sho’s statement. He looked at Aiba, who was worried himself, and then frowned, in his usual thinking pose.
They had finally arrived at their room, and so the tactician slid open the door, since their leader was preoccupied with the notes in his hand. The group went inside and sat down, none of them really paying attention to the movements, and each of the boys thinking of how they were going to take care of so many people.
It was making Nino’s insides ache a little, actually. Even though Aiba had only been with them a few months, the youngest ninja had almost completely gotten over his own angst and instead had dedicated himself to protecting his friends, especially his newest one (who had grown on him over night). Nino still wanted to keep lives lost to a minimum, but he felt like he needed to protect Aiba from the same pain he had gone through. He didn’t want Aiba to kill anyone if he didn’t have to, and so Nino would do it himself.
With those thoughts, the weapons master had managed to pull himself out of his funk, and suddenly the group had slid into place. They were working together twice as well as they used to and the youngest member felt like he had gotten to know more about Sho than he even did about Ohno.
Nino knew all about Sho’s past, that he was abandoned as a baby and taken in by Ogura right away, and he knew that the boy was a little clumsy sometimes, but that Sho was actually really smart and loved his friends as much as they loved him.
The youngest ninja was also getting to know Aiba, too (since he volunteered most of the information himself).
The herbalist had been born into Jyani’s clan, so he didn’t have a melancholy back story like the rest of them did. His mother had raised him and his brother by herself, and when Jyani requested that Aiba moved into the city to train with the ninja that thrived there, she decided that she would pick up and move, too. When Aiba was called back, she said she loved him and that he needed to do some growing up. When he had told the group all of this, he had smiled and said he missed them, but it was all probably for the best.
Actually, out of all the members of the group, Nino probably knew about Ohno the least, despite having been with him the longest. He still couldn’t bring himself to ask Ohno any hard questions and it didn’t seem like Sho or Aiba could muster up the courage either. And, of course, Ohno didn’t reveal anything himself. Nino knew it was because he didn’t think it was important, but it wasn’t worth the effort it would take to convince him otherwise.
But all in all, even with the ever growing gap between the three ninja and their leader, Nino felt like he had a real family now. Even more than when he had been living with the other orphans, before he had moved into the Main Building. Ohno was his cool older brother, Aiba was his giddy little brother (even though he was technically older than Nino, he’d found out), and Sho…
Well, maybe Sho was something a little bit more, but he couldn’t tell yet. The weapons master was only fourteen after all, and he had heard that kids his age couldn’t tell the difference between love and lust and whatever, not that Nino really cared about all that stuff. All he knew was that when Aiba and Sho hung out together (which was a lot) he felt angry most of the time, and maybe even a little jealous.
But despite his sour emotions towards the newest recruit, Nino couldn’t bring himself to hate him. In fact, he found himself getting just as close to Aiba as Sho was.
“Okay, I think our first step is to set some goals,” Sho said sagely, plopping down on the floor in the middle of the room. Ohno sat next to him and placed the layout of the castle in front of them, and so Aiba and Nino sat down opposite to complete the circle.
Nino looked at the map for the first time, immediately noting the easy entranceways and which halls were less likely to be patrolled than others. He got distracted, though, when Aiba piped up next to him.
“Wow, that sound so official, Sho-chan,” he said in a melodious voice, his face shining as if he were a proud parent. Nino didn’t want Aiba to have all of the attention, so he broke in a moment afterwards in order to draw the tactician’s interest.
“What does that even mean? Set some goals?” he said in a sarcastic voice, since that was the only one he could really push out. Nino averted his eyes in embarrassment directly after his questions had been voiced. He hadn’t meant it to sound harsh, but he certainly wasn’t going to take back the words now.
Sho pursed his lips cutely and then answered Nino’s question, completely straightforward. “Before we start planning anything I think we should discuss what we want to focus our efforts on. For example, do we want to get it done as quickly as possible? Or would you rather draw the least amount of attention?”
Feeling sheepish, Nino started to pout lightly and nodded his head at Sho’s explanation. That did make sense.
Aiba, who was seated between Nino and his maybe-crush, turned suddenly serious, staring at Sho as though trying to convey now important the next sentence was.
“I think we should keep casualties to a minimum.”
Aiba looked down at his hands suddenly and Nino had already turned to him with a surprised look on his face. It was almost as if Aiba had opened the younger boy’s chest and read what was written there, then immediately voiced it instead of mulling over it like Nino usually had to. They seemed to be of the same mind, Aiba and Nino, only the older boy wore it openly on his sleeve, where the weapons master tried to keep it locked away inside, viewing it as a weakness.
But this was exactly the sort of Aiba he wanted to protect.
“I agree,” Ohno said before Nino could, and it only took a second for them to confirm that point as their main axis to begin spinning plans around.
They concentrated for over an hour, trying to devise a solid way to enter the building and continue all the way to the lord’s chambers without being caught or stopped by soldiers. In the end, the group had come up with an entrance route, but Sho had assured them they would probably have to make it through three rounds of guards this way, even with strict timing.
Nino began biting his lip unconsciously, staring at the map and trying to think of something else to add. He had already contributed what he could, but Sho was better at this than him and after three of Nino’s suggestions had been neutralized he was ready to give up.
“Say…” Sho started suddenly, looking up with a bright expression on his face. The cute expression that said he had thought up something good. “Aiba’s here, now… Why don’t we put him to use and poison the water supply or something?”
Aiba perked up at the mention of his name, then tilted his head, as if thinking so hard that his brain was trying to come out one ear.
“…Actually, that might work,” Nino said in wonder, his eyes still glued to the map lying between them. It was beginning to become crumpled from illustrating entrances and exits, not to mention that none of them were particularly careful with it in the first place.
“Yeah…” A smile was growing on Aiba’s face by the second. “Yeah, I got it!”
Sho looked over at the newest member, a grin slowing forming on his own lips.
He was so happy that he had realized what he had been missing when forming the strategy inside of his head: he had only been thinking about him and Nino and Ohno. Although Aiba had been with them a little while already, none of the missions had required any sort of planning, and so the tactician hadn’t taken all of his resources into account.
The enthusiasm on the newest member’s face and the relief evident on Nino’s calmed Sho’s nerves and relaxed his brain, which had been on overdrive for the last hour. This would all work out, of course, and now it seemed like it would conclude with the minimum amount of casualties as well.
Nino patted Aiba on the back as the herbalist began to explain that yeah, there was something he could put in the water supply that would put the entire household to sleep.
“It’ll last a few hours, and if we get the timing right…”
“…We should be able to take out eighty to ninety percent of the household in one go,” Nino finished with his own grin. Aiba smiled back at him, the two enjoying themselves now that they were slowly forming a strategy.
Sho cleared his throat in order to draw the other two’s attention. It wasn’t that he didn’t agree with the plan or anything (he had been the one to bring it up after all), it was just that Sho wasn’t quite comfortable with the two of them being so buddy-buddy.
Well, it was more the fact that Nino had known Sho longer but now seemed to be drifting more towards Aiba, despite his apprehension with the new member at first.
Sho could certainly understand why; the boy had a certain charisma about him that made you want to protect him and make him smile… but still.
Nino had been weird with Sho lately and it was bothering him. Only a few weeks ago, when they had barely known Aiba, Nino had suggested that they switch up their sleeping order. It was something that could have been worked out, but Sho didn’t see why. He always slept next to Nino, and Nino always slept next to Ohno, just the way Nino liked it.
But the day that he had tentatively said maybe I should sleep next to Aiba-chan instead? with an embarrassed expression, Sho’s heart had almost been torn out. At the pained look, Nino had immediately retracted his statement with shifting eyes, but the damage had already been done and the archer was almost tempted to make the change anyway, just to prove how much he didn’t care.
Sho didn’t mind sleeping next to Leader, of course… Actually, Ohno’s shoulder was quiet comfortable, it was just the meaning of the whole thing that had really gotten to him.
The throat clearing had gone unnoticed by Aiba and Nino, partially because Sho hadn’t done it with enough force, but mostly because of the animated conversation now going on between the two. Sho sighed instead and felt a hand on his shoulder.
He looked over at Ohno, who was giving him a sympathetic stare. Sho nodded at him, although he wasn’t sure why, and scratched his nose as he glanced down at the castle layout once more.
The tactician and the captain began quietly deciding how to split up their team and which route who would take, and it wasn’t long before the energetic duo across from them had joined in to work out the details.
Ready to say something to contribute to the current conversation, the words died on Sho’s tongue as Nino suggested that Aiba and Sho work in a pair.
Now Nino didn’t want to work with him either?!
But the capable part of Sho’s brain immediately yelled out that it was a smart idea. Sho could cover Aiba while he moved in close to a target, as could Nino with Ohno. Besides, it was almost a given that the youngest would be the one to complete the assassination, and Ohno would be able to get him close to the target, even if they had to slaughter their way in. Aiba didn’t have as much experience as the other two, and Sho should stay in a place in which he could see the entire situation and make adjustments as necessary.
All of their parts were laid out before them, but that didn’t mean Sho couldn’t be disgruntled at the lack of interest he was getting.
He would just have to leave Nino to Ohno and hope that they would both be okay.
+++
The poison had been prepared by Aiba (it had taken three days to gather enough ingredients for the scale they were looking at) and it had been deposited by Nino and Ohno roughly an hour ago.
Sho was stationed at the front of the outer wall with Aiba, as per their plan. They would wait for the signal from Nino, a flickering light in the bottom window on the east side of the castle, before they would enter themselves.
Nino and Ohno were hiding in the kitchen of the household, waiting until the poison had taken effect on the occupants, and then they would sneak towards the back entrance, leaving it open for Aiba and Sho, before making their way to the lord’s living quarters upstairs.
It was solely Nino’s responsibility to kill the target, as it had been before. Ohno would protect the entrance to his private quarters (where he would most likely be, as it was almost an hour past dinner which was when most of the household would get their tainted water). They had assumed that the lord would be up for a fight, since he would most likely be drinking sake or red wine instead of the affected water, and so Ohno would be needed for backup as well.
Sho and Aiba’s job was to protect the exit so that they didn’t all get caught in the main hall after the mission was completed. There was a balcony just outside of the lord’s private quarters, and it had been decided that they would repel from there once they were done. Aiba had a rope slung around his torso and over his shoulder for that purpose, and his pole was gripped tightly between his hands.
Instead of his usual archery equipment, Sho had a dart pipe held tightly in one fist and a string of darts around his waist. Aiba had made special venom that would paralyze on the spot when hit, and all the ninja had all taken the antidote before breaking apart, just in case.
The archer was nervous, though. So, so nervous. He hadn’t seen the signal yet and couldn’t help but think that something had gone wrong already. He didn’t doubt his comrades, but at the same time he wanted so badly to help them that he couldn’t stand it.
Just as he was about to ask Aiba, who was wringing his knuckles around his weapon, if he was sure he hadn’t seen anything yet, the signal came.
Without any confirmation from each other, the two jumped down onto the soft grass of the castle’s lawn and darted to the back door waiting in front of them. It opened with something slightly softer than a squeak and Sho motioned Aiba to follow him inside.
He had the layout of the castle memorized and quickly made his way to the stairs leading up, stepping over six collapsed guards and one that had his throat cut. The arched looked away, recognizing Ohno’s impeccable swordsmanship and realized that the pair had been through this area already.
They ran up the stairs with little noise (although Sho had stepped on a part that made a creaking sound by accident), and rounded the corner, not knowing which way the other pair had gone. They made it a few feet before they heard a frantic voice of a man and immediately doubled back.
Instead, they took the other route, which would also lead them in the same direction, since the floor was set out in a perfect square. They took off towards the next flight of stairs, which led to the top floor and where the lord’s personal rooms were. Before they had reached their destination, though, the same voice from before was heard again, this time accompanied by a swaying shadow against the dimly lit hall.
Sho motioned for Aiba to back up and the retreated once more around the corner.
The first confrontation came halfway through the layout. They had neutralized the ground force better than Sho could have imagined.
The ninja stayed pressed up against the wall, Sho looking around the corner with just one of his eyes, waiting until the guard or whoever it was presented himself. After just a second of waiting, the man came around, calling loudly into the desert hallway and looking completely terrified.
“Please! Is anyone there? Something’s happened! Everyone is dead!” After saying these words, the man let out a strangled sob and Sho felt Aiba grab his hand.
He squeezed it back as if to say don’t worry, they aren’t dead.
Sho brought his other hand, which was holding his pipe lightly, up with a dart ready inside of it. He took careful aim, making sure his movements were slow and fluid as to not draw attention to himself, and blew the projectile out, hitting his prey on target in the side of the neck.
The man cried out and tried the grab the wound, but he stumbled before any more words came out, and caught himself against a wall as he began to lose consciousness.
After he was passed out on the floor, Sho led Aiba to the staircase, the two of them quickly climbing up to the top.
+++
Nino fumbled to unlock the wooden door as Ohno stood behind him with his sword brandished. They had made it all the way to the lord’s private quarters and only had to deal with five guards. One of them Ohno had killed immediately, since he had been coming at them with a sword, another they had avoided on the second floor, and the other three were laying at their feet now. All except one were alive here, being spared from the afterlife by a hit on the back of the head with the handle of Ohno’s sword and a blow to the temple by Nino’s fist. The last one had lunged at the ninja before he could be taken care of, and they couldn’t risk leaving him with a simple flesh wound.
But with everything considered, Nino thought that they had done a good job so far. Only two dead, and there had been no avoiding it.
Now, as he popped open the door, he was hoping there would only be one more casualty tonight.
Ohno backed up to block the entrance as Nino went into the room and slid the door into place behind him. It would make it harder for his target to escape that way, and even if he did, he wouldn’t be expecting Oh-chan waiting for him on the other side of the exit.
The room was pitch black as Nino slid up against a wall, slowly feeling his way around the quarters. If he was correct, the most likely place to put a futon would be directly in the middle, and there should only be a limited number of other items taking up the space, since the treasure room was in the basement.
Nino got down on his hands and knees and withdrew the dagger from the back of his belt, thinking it would be a quick job.
His fingers touched the edge of the futon when suddenly there was a loud scream from outside: the voice of a man.
It wasn’t Ohno, but a wave of terror went down Nino’s spine, even though he knew he had to complete the task at hand before he could help his friend.
But the man whom he had been sent to kill was sitting up, mumbling something about the racket, and Nino had to act right now.
His target was fumbling for something and a moment later a spark lit up the room. The man’s face was only inches away from Nino’s when he had sat up from his futon, and the ninja plunged the knife into his chest without thinking twice about the action. The lord’s expression froze in surprise and sudden terror.
He groaned and fell backwards as Nino stood, and in the dim light that was left in the wake of the lord’s spark Nino saw a woman rise next to the man to see what the noise coming from outside of the door was. She was completely naked and when she looked at Nino her reaction was to cover herself from him, but after she noticed the lord, also naked, bleeding profusely next to her, she let out a scream.
Nino tucked the knife back into his sash and retreated against the wall again, slightly more hidden in dancing shadows.
He didn’t even wait one second before he darted for the door.
There was more noise coming from outside-it sounded like a group of soldiers, which was impossible. The ninja slid open the entrance and Ohno was immediately pushed back against him, barely holding his own against the hallway full of men that had come out of nowhere.
The only reason the swordsman was doing as well as he was was due to the tight confinement of the passage; only about three men could come at him simultaneously while the others had to wait behind them. He blocked a thrust on one side, then immediately deflected a swing on the other, one directly after the other, but he couldn’t break the onslaught enough to formulate his own attack. It was only a matter of minutes before one of them would slip through or Ohno used up all of his stamina.
But there was no way that the two ninja could break through the throngs of men, even though their escape route was only ten feet away. Nino felt himself swallow and tried to come up with a strategy.
There was nothing.
They were corned in the lord’s chamber, which had no windows, facing a hallway full of trained soldiers.
And Sho and Aiba were nowhere to be seen.
Nino tried harder to think of something. He must have some powder or a smoke bomb or something…
But he didn’t. All he had were the herbs that he always kept in the pouch at his side, and those weren’t potent enough to use on so many people, even if he devised some way to.
There was nothing.
Ohno’s face was pinched in pain and exhaustion and Nino couldn’t do anything but watch.
Suddenly there was a sharp pain in the ninja’s side and he looked down the affected area.
There was a blade sticking through him.
He held back a strangled cry as it was pulled back out of him, and he twisted around sharply, gasping for breath and trying to repress the pain coursing through him, to find the naked woman he had spared a moment ago with a short sword in her hand.
He grasped as his wound, trying to stop the blood from pouring out of him and dodged another swing, leading her away from Ohno’s back.
Nino managed to fumble his own knife out from behind him while still clutching at the wound that was making him weak. He didn’t want to take her life, but if she got behind Ohno, his friend wouldn’t be able to defend himself.
“You killed him,” she whispered, brandishing the weapon. She kept it trained on Nino as he skirted around the room, as far away from his friend as possible. They had minutes left, maybe even just seconds. “You killed him…” she repeated.
Nino wanted to tell her it was nothing personal and that he was just doing his job, but he couldn’t push the words out past the throbbing in his side. It probably wouldn’t have matter to her, anyway, and might have just enraged her more.
The woman threw herself at him again, but Nino deflected the blade against the wall, attempting to pin it under his arm and make it immobile.
Through the scuffle, though, the woman managed to get away, and was once again pointing the short sword at Nino, who was leaning heavily against a wall trying to keep himself upright.
Past the woman’s shoulder he could see Leader stationed firmly in the doorway, still blocking the blows directed at him although it was obvious the work was wearing on him; his legs were shaking and his movements weren’t nearly as fast as they had been a moment ago.
On the verge of collapsing onto the floor, his injury leaving Nino barely capable of holding his own weight up, the ninja was forced to stay upright as the woman came at him again. With fury in her eyes, she pinned him against the wall, her blade barely stopped a few inches in front of Nino’s neck with his own knife. His hand was wavering as she towered over him, stronger with adrenaline that she would’ve been otherwise.
Nino tried to push back. With all of his might and thirst for a long life with his friends he pushed back, but weakened as he was he was no match for her. His own weapon had been shoved back enough that it was digging into the metal band that protected his throat, slowly but steadily cutting off his air supply.
The ninja closed his eyes tightly and tried to think of a way he could at least immobilize the woman so she couldn’t hurt Oh-chan too, even after he was dead.
There was no strength left in him, though… It was all he could do to draw out the battle a few more seconds…
Images of the woman plunging her weapon into Ohno’s back flashed behind his lids, and the only thing that Nino was grateful for right now was the fact that Sho and Aiba hadn’t been caught up in the melee too.
Suddenly his assailant stiffened and cursed, dissolving her effort from cutting down Nino and instead had sluggishly slid her free arm to the back of her head. Only a few seconds later she felt forward and on top of the young ninja, her eyes closed lightly and her bare breasts pressed against Nino’s stomach.
They both fell to the ground together and Nino immediately saw the dart sticking out of the back of the woman’s shoulder, where she had been trying to grasp a moment before. He looked up and saw Sho crouching on the rail guard that was built around the edge of the balcony, at the spot the group of ninja had meant to escape already.
In front of the sniper was Aiba, blocking blows in a way similar to Ohno, only not so many of the men had noticed that the two reinforcements had arrived. The new pair didn’t seem nearly as overwhelmed as the other two were, and were trying their best to aid their friends’ escape.
Sho tried to calm his erratic breathing.
Nino was alive, he had just seen him.
But if that were the case, why was he not moving?
The tactician pushed the thought to the back of his mind and instead focused on sniping as many of the men crowding the hall way as he could.
Just a few moments earlier, after they had arrived on the third floor, the two had heard the mob of soldiers headed up the staircase. They had climbed onto the roof through an open window in order to hide themselves and had snuck across to where the open terrace was, listening to the battle below.
It appeared that all of the men that had been unaffected by the water supply, which turned out to be a little less than twenty, had banded together, resolved to protect their lord (since that’s what they were getting paid for). When they had seen their dead comrades, it had thrown them into panic and the group had reached the top of the castle as fast as possible, immediately confronting Ohno.
Unsure of what to do, but knowing it was up to the pair to make a path to the balcony, Sho had peeked his head down to check the scene, anxious with leaving Ohno to deal with all the men himself.
But he already knew of Ohno’s swords skills and if the tactician didn’t take the moment to properly plan out his next move, it could cost them all their lives.
The door was closed at that time, meaning that Nino hadn’t completely the assassination yet. Yet as that thought crossed Sho’s mind, he’d heard a high pitched scream of a woman coming from the lord’s room. It must have been a lover, since the man himself had no wife.
Sho told his racing mind to calm down. Nino could handle himself and right now the important part was to make a path to the escape rope, which Aiba had already secured to the balcony.
The herbalist was looking at Sho for directions and the tactician knew they had no choice. There was nothing to be done now except fight.
The older boy relayed a brief plan to the younger and the two of them nodded once to each other before dropping onto the deck below.
Of course they immediately drew the attention of two of the soldiers, but Aiba promptly took guard up in front of Sho, who had no defenses himself. After a short squabble, the new recruit even managed to knock one of them out with a blow to the head.
At the yell the other man made though, two more turned back and headed towards Aiba while Sho secured his position perched on the railing. This location gave him a height advantage, even crouched as he was, but at the same time, if he tumbled backwards he wasn’t sure he would survive the fall. There was no choice, though, limited with his weapon as he was.
Sho had already knocked out one of the soldiers fighting against his partner when he noticed that the door behind Ohno was open again, and that Leader had stationed himself firmly in the doorway, effectively reducing the room the men around him had to move. The arched squinted, trying to make out Nino in the dark room, even though his head was screaming for him to continue his job and save Leader as fast as possible.
His heart began racing as he noticed two figures fighting towards the back end of the personal quarters, and Sho wondered if Nino hadn’t been successful after all. Or maybe he had panicked when he heard the additional soldiers outside.
Either way, it was obvious Nino was struggling with someone right now.
Sho took aim with his dart pipe just as one of the shadowy figures pinned the other against the wall. If it was Nino, the dart would only sting a little. He would probably feel groggy for a few seconds, but they had all already taken the antidote and so Sho wasn’t worried about any after effects.
What he was anxious about was the fact that the figure might not be Nino.
The archer hit the back of the person exactly on target, but both of the figures collapsed instead of just one. Sho felt bile rise in his throat as he realized that the one against the wall was covered in black, almost completely blending into his surroundings, while the one he had just shot was reflecting more of the outside light.
Nino was alive.
He had to be alive.
Sho repeated these lines to himself as he began sniping the soldiers one by one, watching as Aiba took out three more consecutively with blows to the temple and Ohno slowly began pushing the rest of them backwards.
Although more than half of them had been neutralized, there was no clear path from the room to the escape rope and Nino still hadn’t resurfaced yet.
And Sho was out of darts.
Every profane word that Sho had ever heard cycled through his head and the tactician declared himself officially useless. He couldn’t really use a weapon other than a bow, which he was not carrying that night. He had other darts, but none that were treated with the poison that Aiba had made for him earlier, and therefore they were useless too. Instead, he would just have to wait for Aiba and Ohno to take care of the rest, or until they were exhausted and he had to resort to attempting to use a discarded spear.
Everything was solved a second later, though, when a futon came flying out of the room behind Ohno, landing directly on the three men he had been fighting. Ohno looked surprised, but lowered his sword and pushed them all backwards into their comrades, creating a ripple of off-balanced guards. Aiba joined in, sweeping his pole under the legs of the men closest to him, and a moment later Ohno was pulling Nino through the tiny path that had opened up to where Sho and Aiba were waiting.
Their leader told Aiba to go first, followed by Nino and then Sho, while he held off the men that were recovering. Sho thought about arguing, but he himself had said in the planning stages that it would take long enough for someone to either cut the rope or untie it that they could all make it down, at least far enough that a fall wouldn’t be fatal. If Ohno gave them a few seconds head start, the captain could climb down quickly after them, and although he would probably have to take a fall, the other three would be there to break it.
Sho noticed that Nino’s hands were covered in blood, and so he offered to help his friend down, but the younger boy immediately pushed away the help with a shake of his head. He gripped the rope tightly and took off after Aiba, who was halfway down the wall already. The tactician kept his eyes on Ohno, who had run his sword through the side of one of the soldiers (a wound that wouldn’t be fatal but would prevent any further conflicts with him), and was now fighting two more. He seemed to be up on top form again, either because of the adrenaline pumping through his veins at the prospect of getting away, or simple desperation to protect his friends.
Even when his feet touched the ground, Sho was looking up, along with Nino and Aiba, waiting for their leader to climb over to the rope too.
Several heartbeats later, Ohno vaulted over the railing with his hand barely on the rope-- he struggled to grasp it, already several feet down from where the line was tied, and basically slipped down the wall as heads of guards leaned over the railing, shouting out curses at the escaping quartet.
Leader made it almost half way down before one of the men had enough wisdom to begin cutting the rope, but by the time he fell, he was barely a head’s span above Aiba. The newest member caught Ohno with no problem, righting him immediately, and the group began running towards the outer wall.
They had almost made it, Sho and Aiba in lead, when a shout from Ohno, who was behind them, made the pair stop in their tracks.
Sho turned just in time to witness Nino fall to the ground, his hand still covered in blood and grasping his side.
+++
A/N: Ho ho ho~ A cliff hanger!
Actually, I apologize because this is my last update before vacation. I'll try to post again when I can, but I have no idea when that will be. :) But a pairing showed up, so it's not completely bad, right?
chapter seven