The following morning, Ralph stood by the section they didn’t finish the night before when they called it a night. After he had lunch with Sion, the previous day, he had returned to the Gray Distinct to do his part in the mission. He sighed, looking at the rumble they still had to clean up. Raizen had said they were getting more help today. Another 4 teams were supposed to be assigned and supposed to be tackling section 3, according to Raizen and Quill. The cart had been emptied sometime during the night or had been replaced by the trash folks. In the distance, where the trash was dumped, there was a small stream of smoke drifting through the morning air.

“Must be Burn Day,” Ralph muttered to himself. The trash was burnt once a week over the Village’s far end where there were several pits the trash companies dump trash into throughout the week before burning it. It wouldn’t be long before there would be more smoke drifting in the air. “I wonder when the rest of them will show up.” He frowned, thinking back to the previous day. He didn’t think they had discussed what time they should show up to start working again on the mission. To tell the truth, he wasn’t focused on that. Sion had spent the night at his apartment and they had spent part of the night up, talking and playing board games, but Sion had left at first light, saying he wanted to get a mission before the good ones were gone.

He shook his head, trying to ignore the nagging feeling there was something wrong. Sion could look after himself. Ralph forced his mind to go to the mission and wondered if Raizen would be joining them for the day. Quill had returned without the mysterious one armed warrior, informing them Raizen had went to the hospital to be treated for his wounds, but he didn’t get any word on what else was going on. Ralph should have swung by the hospital on his way home the night before, but Sion did managed to caught Ralph’s attention. He chewed on his bottom lip, thinking about his teacher. He really hoped the man would show up for the mission. If not, this would be the second mission Ralph, Lilian, and Enzo would do without Raizen’s guidance.

He kicked at some of the leftover debris and released his breath in a long exhale. He might as well get started on the mission, glancing toward the pile of destroyed tents then at the empty cart before he gazed at one of the roads leading out of the District. His lips twitched in a welcoming grin as he spotted Enzo and Lilian walking up the road toward him. They weren’t speaking. He didn’t know what they would even talk about since they were been together as a team for a few days. The three of them didn’t have anything in common as far as Ralph knew. Enzo and him did share a love of noodles, but Ralph didn’t know what else they would share.

“Good Morning, Ralphie!” Someone’s voice rang out from behind him. Ralph sucked in a breath then he reacted. His left hand flew to where he kept his kunai. He withdrew one of his kunai and spun on his right foot, bring his left hand up and around. His right knee was bent, intending to straighten, ready to push off away from the destroyed tent pile in order to give himself more fighting room. There was a sharp and loud cling as metal hit metal. “Ooh, nice one.”

Ralph blinked. Anakin from Team Quill stood there with a wide grin. His kunai blocked Ralph’s kunai in midair, inches away from his nose. Ralph slowly relaxed, coming out of his fighting stance and slipped the kunai away with a dark look at Anakin. “Don’t call me that,” Ralph said before he walked away.

“Ah, don’t be a sour puss,” Anakin called out after him, “I didn’t mean anything by it.”

Ralph ignored him. He would think it wouldn’t be wise or smart to sneak up on a ninja, even one out of Basic Training, due to the fact, a ninja are trained to kill. He sighed. Maybe he was making a big deal out of nothing. He should have been aware of his surroundings instead of becoming lost in thought. He pushed his irritation away. He was a mission, after all.

He half turned, facing Anakin and saw the rest of Team Quill standing with Anakin. The only one missing was the Leader, Quill. He blinked as he scanned for the Team Leader. He opened his mouth, but Ben spoke up, “Quill won’t be joining us for another hour or two. He is checking on Raizen. Your leader has been released sometime late last night, but beyond that I don’t know.”

Ralph nodded in understanding. A faint flash of guilt went through him for not checking on his master before he went home. He pushed that aside, silently vowing to do better.

“Since our masters are not here, Master Quill has put me in charge of the mission, temporary until he returns,” Ben paused as Lilian and Enzo joined them. The two other members of Team 17 glanced at Ralph then turned their attention to Ben. He continued, “I don’t know when the next two teams are suppose to arrive, but we are wasting daylight, so, let’s get started.”

Ralph turned to Enzo and Lilian and nodded in greeting to them. Lilian gave him a small smile while Enzo grinned, saying, “Good morning, Ralph. Say who was your friend last night?”

“That was Sion Barkson,” Ralph started, walking to a trash pile and bent down to grab an armful of debris, “he was an orphan who lived at the same orphanage as I did. He got back into the village some time yesterday and wanted to hang out after we finished for the day.”

“That’s nice,” Lilian commented, echoing Ralph’s actions, “Have you heard anything about Raizen, yet?”

“No, I haven’t,” Ralph said, turning to the cart and walked to it before he dumped his armful of trash into the cart, “I think Ben and Anakin said their master was going to check on him before he will join us.”

She nodded, “I hope he will be alright.” She paused as she did the same thing Ralph did. Enzo was a step behind them. “Perhaps we should look Raizen up in the Ninja Register for his address and visit him ourselves, tonight, after nightfall.”

Ralph hummed, walking back to grab anther armful of trash. He thought about it. It could be a good idea. “We could do that, Lilian.”

“It’s a great idea,” Enzo voiced his opinion, “This way we can meet the Mrs and hopefully, get a free dinner.”

Ralph turned and raised an eyebrow at Enzo, “Get a free dinner?”

“Don’t you remember Master Raizen saying we were invited to join his wife and him for dinner, yesterday,” Enzo explained, “You know before that mysterious one armed man attacked him.”

“Oh yeah,” Ralph said, remembering they were invited to join Raizen and his wife for dinner.

“It would be highly impolite to drop in unannounced,” Lilian cut in, “We don’t know how Master Raizen is doing or if he is up to having visitors, yet.”

“He should be,” Enzo argued, “If he was released from the hospital last night.”

“It all depends on what the Doctor says,” Lilian replied. She released a sigh. She turned away and called over her shoulder, “Let’s get to work. We still have a mission to complete with or without Raizen around.”

They went back to work without speaking another word. A hour slowly passed. Ralph half listened to Team Quill talk about various topics until they fell silent. He glanced up and saw their master finally showed up. He went back to work. It clicked in his head that Master Quill was back. He turned his attention back onto Master Quill as Team Quill rushed over to him.

“Welcome back, Quill,” Padme called out.

“Heya Quill,” Anakin gave his master a bright grin.

“Master Quill,” Ben nodded at the older master as the teammates gathered around their master, “I see you are finally joining us.”

Ralph glanced over at Lilian then at Enzo. They had stopped in their work. Lilian straightened up from where she had been working. Enzo turned away from the trash cart, sipping on his canteen of water. He felt their gazes on him as well before they turned them to Master Quill. Ralph took a breath and stepped forward, heading to the other Master. He really wanted to know how Raizen was doing. He stopped a few feet from the team, listening to their conversation, trying to ignore the feeling of intruding on a private conversation when he wasn’t.

“How are things progressing,” Quill asked.

Padme rocked back and forth on her feet, “Things are progressing, Master. So far, there’s hasn’t been any trouble and we have been looking out for the other team while you tend to their teacher.”

“And speaking of Master Raizen,” Ben spoked up, “How is he? Ralph, Lilian, and Enzo hasn’t heard anything about his status, yet.”

“He’s at home,” Quill looked at Ralph as he tried resist the urge to kick the ground. Ralph sensed Lilian and Enzo join him, standing on either side.

“That’s good,” Lilian voiced. “When will we be allowed to see him?”

“Tonight,” Quill replied with a small smile, “After you three finish for the day, I’ll take you to see him.” Ralph allowed a grin to spread across his face as he looked at his teammates. “His wife is still up to fixing you guys dinner if you are willingly to stay for it.”

“Sweet!” Enzo cheered, “Free Food!”

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Ralph rolled his eyes at Enzo’s actions. At least he didn’t have to worry about food for one night, Ralph mused, and the best part he didn’t have to fix it himself. Hopefully, it would taste a lot better then whatever he was going to fix. He didn’t planned that far ahead for his dinner.

“I’ll have to inform my parents before I come over,” Lilian said, “I can do that during our lunch break.”

They looked at Ralph who shrugged and replied, “Sure thing. Raizen did mention we were invited over for dinner one night.”

Quill nodded, running his eyes over the two groups of students, “Alright, when we break for lunch, I’ll inform Mrs. Watanabe of your decision. We still have plenty of work to do for the day. Lord Jackson will be sending two more teams to help us. They should be here in the next couple hours, once they get the mission assigned to them. The clean up should start going by faster and we will be making more of a dent in this mess.”

In the distance, the two teams heard the sounds of crashing and things falling. Ralph turned to see a raising dust cloud, coming from where the two teams assigned to destroy the various tents and other structure. He watched as a tent standing tall on a small hill fall inward and a figure appeared on top of the structure, looked toward the still standing tents before leaping toward it, an arm raised high then the figure swung their arm down. Ralph didn’t see if anything leave their hand, but he saw the tents shoot up, from the ground, flying a few dozen feet before they fell back down, landing in a crumbled pile. There were cheers of excitement and words of encouraged echoed from where near the figure landed. Ralph frowned. Those were probably teammates for the mission or old teammates.

A scream rang out, in the distance. The clean up crew and the destruction crew jerked to face whatever made that sound. Ralph stood still. A woman dressed what appeared to be old clothes hanging off her thin frame, appeared on a dirt road and bared her teeth at them. He felt a shiver go up his spine.

~The Government Tower ~

He paused as he heard footsteps walking down the corridor, coming from around the corner he was approaching. He pressed himself against the wall and scooted down away from the corner. He glanced the way he came from, hoping to find a better hiding spot then pressing up against the wall. There wasn’t one down his current corridor. He glanced upward. It was something he learned while he was on the other side. Apparently, no one thought about looking up while they were patrolling. Maybe he would test that theory out.

“Have we got anything from that one armed fella?” a nasal voice asked.

“Nothing really useful yet,” A throaty voice responded, “He keeps saying he doesn’t know how he got into the village nor where he is at.”

One of them sighed before replying in the nasal voice, “It’s a good thing Lady Annja had agreed to train some of our Tongue Speakers in the various languages from the other side or else we would have a lot harder time to trying to figure out who he is, who sent him, etc.”

“Anything on who his boss is,” Throaty asked.

“Nope,” Nasal answered in a defeated tone. They rounded the corner, finally coming in his sight. His eyes ran over them and noticed nothing stood out on them. They were the average ninja in the Hidden Bark. They walked under him. He had a rough idea on who they were talking about. Nasal continued, “He is being difficult from what I hear - won’t allow the mindwalkers into his mind. The one mindwalker apart of the Intelligence complained that our mysterious man’s mind was a maze, one that doesn’t make sense when she did managed to get into his mind, but she didn’t last long. Something happened within his mind to drove her out and she is on leave right now, claiming it’s her own mental health.”

“Must have been pretty bad,” Throaty replied as they drifted out of his sight, “Aren’t the Mindwalkers our strongest mental fighters?”

“Yes,” Nasal stated, “Now, they have something they might have a weakness against.”

“That’s not good,” Throaty commented, “Anyway, what are your plans for Community Day? Are you planning to work it?”

“Ah, I don’t know yet,” Nasal said, rubbing the back of his neck, “I’m hoping to take the day off and take my girl out…” Their voices trailed off.

He counted his heartbeats to 500 before he allowed gravity to bring him back down to the floor of the hallway. He landed in a crunch and smirked. He didn’t realized when he had brought the one armed assassin across the barrier, the mindwalkers would have trouble cracking him. In fact, he had thought it would be the opposite as the mindwalkers of the Hidden Bark Village had been known to be the strongest Mental Fighters of the Kingdom of Camelot.

From the information he had gathered over the clan, the Beaufort Clan had been one of the founding Clans of the Village and over the years, they had integrated several powerful magi and other skilled mind magi into their bloodlines creating what the clan is known for today - a family of powerful mindwalkers. The Beaufort Clan was led by…he frowned. He didn’t remember who was the head of the family. In a way, he supposed, it didn’t matter to him anymore. He had bigger fish to fry.

He crept forward and peered around the corner of the hallway to see it was empty. He went around the corner and hurried down the corridor as fast as he dared to without making noise. He listened for any sort of noise coming from the nearby rooms, up and down the hallway as he made his way to the secret storage room, located near the Leader’s private rooms.

He could have gone through the Leader of the Hidden Bark Village’s private quarters. However, when he started scout the entrances, he found it was heavily guarded by the Elite team of ninja, the Black Hand. He had changed his plan and find a way to distract the Black Hand. It was a risky move, but it would be worth all the trouble since he needed to find the scroll belonging to the Isamu Clan.

The Isamu Clan scroll should hold the records of who was born into the clan before they were destroyed by the mysterious assassin, 14 years ago. The Villages Elders, according to the historical records, never discovered the identity of the Assassin and the official report citied the body was unidentifiable after the fight with the Clan Elder and Family Head. They also made the decision since the surviving children were not above 3 years old and in no position to do anything productive for the village, sent the survivors to the orphanage, gave them new last names and new families, and sealed the records. The Leader of the Hidden Bark Village buried the records under his quarters, within the hidden library. He didn’t know the reasoning behind that move. Perhaps there was an heir who survived but wasn’t old enough to lay claim to the position.

Personally, he hoped his name would be part of the family records. It would make sense if he did found his name on those hidden records. He was tired of being a nobody. He wanted to know if he had a family or not. It would be the icing on the cake if he was the heir of the Isamu Clan. He would be able to rebuild the clan just like he wanted to do. He would have a legit reason why he could and would marry several women. He would only allow the strongest female ninja to gain entry into the clan through marriage of his sons. He would outcast the girls who were born unless they could be used to gain a better position within the village through marriage of another clan.

He shook his head. His master also wanted to know if there was any surviving members of the Isamu clan, saying something about a possible relation through the clan in order to reunite the World Beyond the Barrier and Avalon together again. He knew his master had a different agenda then he did when it came to the Isamu Clan scroll. In fact, his master had came up with the plan to distract the Black Hand as well as majority of the Ninja force within the village walls. He had to admit to himself it was a genius idea.

He wanted to laugh at the plan his master had created and told him to enact. He did before he disappeared from view during the night. He knew it would take a few hours before the effects started to kick in. He wanted to peer into a random room and see if there was a sun dial or another time telling device. That was one of the many unique devices he had enjoyed while he was Across the Barrier. It was simply too bad the King of Camelot wouldn’t allow such advances of technology to be created. He didn’t know if the Hidden Bark Village would have something like that.

Something echoed through the hallway, loudly. He paused, glancing over his shoulder. He hoped he didn’t walk past a Black Hand. That would suck. He knew he was getting closer to the Living Quarters of the Village Leader. The noise echoed again. It sounded like someone banging on a door, in the distance then a loud crashing sound reached his ears. He frowned, thinking.

His master had found the one armed assassin, in some far off country, before sending him to the Gray District. He was sure his master had given the one armed assassin an order, something about creating a distraction for him while he searched the secret library under the Leader’s living quarters.

He felt like insulted that his master had requested help from a stranger. It was like his master thought he couldn’t handle the mission by himself. The mistrust stung like a wasp stinging him when he got too close to a nest. A fire erupted in his belly. He inhaled, slowly, trying to calm his temper. He couldn’t lose control his temper. If he did, he would make mistakes and eventually get caught. If he was caught, he wouldn’t be able to achieve his dream of creating his own family. His master had instructed him to use the one armed assassin as he saw fit.

His gaze went back the hallway, remembering the single order he had, personally, gave the assassin before they had parted ways - cause enough chaos in the Hidden Bark Village as much for two hours. Hopefully, that would be enough time to sneak into the Secret library, grab the Isamu Clan Scroll, and get out of the Village by the time the one armed assassin was done. He really didn’t care how the assassin caused trouble.

He picked up his pace and hoped he didn’t attached any attention as he went further down the hallway. It was a short distance later when he managed to find the door leading to the secret library. It wasn’t hard to miss when the Leader had two guard standing outside the door. He reached into a pouch and pulled two kunai. He brought them up by his hand and threw them as fast as he could at the two guards.

One of the kunai pieced the guard on the right through his eye. The guard gasped, turning his head, watching his partner crumbled to the ground and took the other kunai in the temple. He stumbled into the door and fell to the ground. Blood pooling around the two guards as they died.

The mysterious thief stepped over the guards, ignoring them, and opened the door to the secret library. He ran his eyes over the room, feeling surprised. The room was lined with shelves running floor to ceiling and lined with scrolls, books, and stone tablets. He slowly stepped forward, spinning. He took in the amount of History the leaders of the Hidden Bark Village kept. It was amazing.

The Village Hidden in the Bark’s true history was on these shelves. The Village was found 700 years ago by a series of Clans who managed to raise to the Noble status within their society and kept that status over the years and added new families to their ranks so they wouldn’t eventually become too inbred from the various marriages to other clans. The Lord Bark added to the Historical records each month, according to one of his sources, and kept it organized like his predecessors did; by month and year.

That knowledge was highly invaluable to the mysterious thief and cut his work down by at least half. If it wasn’t organized like this, it would take most of the day and the night to look for the scrolls, books, and tablets he was searching for. He knew what month and year he was looking for. He glanced over his shoulder. He didn’t know how much time he had left, but he was aware the distraction he had set up wouldn’t last long enough to pick and choose the most secretive reports from the various leaders of the Hidden Bark. It would be nice be able to do that and earn some extra money when he went to sell the secretive scrolls. He could name at least 6 other hidden villages who would love to get their hands on the Bark’s delicious dark secrets. He sighed. Maybe it could be still in the cards if he managed to get out of this alive and uninjured. He shook his head and hurried to the shelves for the year 2013.