"So," Raizen started, "Before you start inhaling your food, again, could you please answer where you did learn your manners?"

"I could," Ralph replied in an even tone. He didn't say anything else before he grabbed another forkful of food and shoved it into his mouth. He chewed the bland food and shallowed. He grabbed the glass of milk and took a long drink. he stuck the glass between his knees and refilled it. he set the pitcher on the night stand and repeated the process.

"Will you?" Raizen asked when Ralph paused.

"No," the younger man answered, "Before you ask why, these women taught us Bark Children who were willingly to learn at personal risk."

Raizen raised his eye at that statement. Ralph knew he wanted more of an explanation, but the younger ninja had promised not give out their identities when the women had started the lessons. They had claimed it was for their safety. Ralph didn't understand why until later when he was in the Academy and it was explained in the social etiquette class, a student had to be have a sponsor either by law or blood before the student could get enrolled in the social etiquette lessons.

It was rather messed up that the orphaned Bark Children were excluded from a chance to raise through the social ranks. It was also in the brief introduce class Ralph learned that the women taught the orphans their manners could have been imprisoned or worst because the orphans were assigned, when they reached 18 or 19, to go on more sexualized missions. Of course, it would depend on Lord Bark's decision which Barkdaughter or Barkson would start taking on those missions.

Ralph knew of, at least, 4 Barkdaughters sent on the sexualized missions and they all came back; injured, pregnant, and got the Intel they were sent to get. Only one of them continued taking on those types of missions, citing she had seen other being held in captivity and being used against their will.

The other three took their reward for completing the mission, and found themselves a simple house, the ability to chose a different family name, and a huge chuck of money to live off for a few years. One of the three decided to adopt 3 children from the orphanage. the remaining two ended up marrying civilians who weren't aware of how they had become pregnant and accepted the story of the father of the child was dead or killed in action.

Ralph was sure there were more Barkdaugther selected for the sexualized missions, but he hadn't heard of them. He did hear, once in a while, a Barkdaughter ending her own life because how bad her mission went or how it effected her mental state, despite the fact the mindwalkers did their best to help her.

He sighed. he knew there would be a time where he, too, would be assigned for such a mission, but it was still over a year away. he turned his focus back on his meal and tried to eat as fast as he could.

The room was silent as Ralph finished off his breakfast, chasing it with the remaining milk. He lend back against the pillow with a sharp exhale. A soft smile crossed his lips.

Despite the fact, the food tasted bland, it did full his belly. he may not have to eat until dinnertime. he would have to later figure how much he still had from the previous mission. he pushed it from his mind for a bit. he still have to worry about what the doctor would say. Footsteps echoed down the hallway before another set of nurses' voices carried their conversation.

"Queen Elanor died, last night," One of them was saying, "It was old age." Ralph dubbed her as U.

"Yeah," the second nurse, V, replied, "I wonder who they would send as Reps for the Funeral Ceremony."

"If it is anything like the last time a Royal of Camelot died, each High Ranking Clan will send the Head of the Clan and their heir to the castle," U Started, "To show the village's respect for the Ruling Family."

"However, it is alarming," V mused. There was a long paused from she went on, "This is the 4th Royal family to pass away this year."

Ralph's eyes widened and he glanced at Raizen. The teacher nodded, solemnly. Ralph looked at the blanket covering his legs and frowned, thinking.

High Queen Eleanor had to be in her 70's or getting close to be 80. she was married to King Luke of House Hound. She gave birth to a dozen children, most of them being twins, during Luke's time as the Chosen King. Ralph could assume it was natural cases that Queen Eleanor died within the last couple days.

Princess Judith of House Hound was killed in a carriage accident, nearly 6 weeks ago. She was only 20 and pregnant with her first child. Her husband, Prince Mark of Arabian Kingdom, had been enraged and vowed to hunt down the ones who did it, claiming there was enough evidence of foul play.

Prince Matthew's deaths' was the result of an Assassin, nearly three months ago. That surprised everyone. How did an Assassin get close enough to a member of the Royal family to kill them in the dead of night? However, the assassin did leave a note, stating the Prince might have got too friendly with the Princess of the Yuri Kingdom in the Far North, and left her pregnant. He denied the actions they accursed him of, claiming he was in a local tavern, drinking with his guards, not with her. The note was signed by a Snowflake, the symbol of the Hidden Snow Village.

High Queen June's death was ruled as a homicide by the magi of Camelot, now four months ago. Rumor held it as another killing by the Hidden Snow Village, but some of the other ninja thought otherwise. When word reached the Hidden Bark Village that Queen June's death was caused by a certain poison found in the sea, the Bark Ninja started to taking bets to see if it was the Waterfall Village or the Teardrop Village. Both Hidden Village lived near the oceans, but in different Kingdoms.

Ralph believed the Waterfall Village lived in the Kingdom of Mercy while the Teardrop Village was a part of the Frank Kingdom. Or maybe it was the other way around? He wanted to groan. He should really remembered which village belonged to which kingdom. He knew each village had their own treaties with an Ancient and Noble House or their Kingdom's qualitative to it, depending on the Kingdom's governing system was set up.

He didn't notice the set of Nurses had walked away until there was a sharp knock on the door. He jerked in surprise. Raizen spoke up while he settled a disapproving look on Ralph who felt it, "Come in!"

Ralph knew he would hear about it. Maybe. He was still learning Raizen's teaching style. On a second thought, he would hear about it.

The door slid open and a woman with fading black to gray hair walked in. She wore the typical uniform of a Doctor: the long white coat and a set of black scrubs. Ralph's eyes widened. She had been continued her training after medical school in the other world and went on to become a Black Ops Doctor. He didn't know if he should feel honor or horrified that a Black Ops Doctor was treating him. He pushed that thought of his head and turned his attention back to her.

"Morning, Doctor Hamilton," Raizen greeted the doctor with a small wave.

Doctor Hamilton blinked her gray eyes before her lips stretched into a pleased smile. She spoke, "Well, Mr. Watanabe, it is good to see you. How is your wife?"

"She's doing good," Raizen answered, "She was out and about during yesterday's conflict, but she's doing alright and the baby is too."

"That's excellent news," Doctor Hamilton's eyes widened at the news, "I must have missed the notice about her visiting the check-up for Expecting Mothers. Yesterday was a very busy day for all of us." She grabbed the clipboard at the foot of the bed.

Raizen nodded, grimly. The Doctor turned to Ralph and spoke to him, "I'm Doctor Robin Hamilton and I will be overseeing your care until you are deemed to be mission ready again." Her grey eyes peered out him over the clipboard with a hard look. "I can tell you right now, you won't be ready for a mission for at least 3 weeks."

Ralph wanted to groan at that news. He just hoped he would be smart enough with his money he wouldn't run out before he was able to take missions again. He might have to dip into his emergency savings. He hoped he had saved up enough for this short term setback. He didn't want to think about the what if in this situation.

"You will need to rest for the next two weeks," The Doctor went on, "For Spiritual Exhaustion." She set the clipboard down and turned away, looking a white board that Ralph had missed. He must have been out of it for the last couple hours. Spiritual Exhaustion would be explain why he still felt so tired. He watched she put two pieces of black flimsy paper on the board before she reached over and clicked on a light.

Ralph let out a soft whistle. He knew what that was. He didn't remember the Nurses last nigh taking him to get a X-ray, but they did tell him when they woke him to admit him to the room.

One of the X-rays picture was his ribcage. he could see two ribs with faint cracks on his right side and four more on the left. That would explain why his chest ached until they put some more medicine into his system. The other image was one of his arms and hand. He assumed it was his left arm since it was the one that ached even with the medicine. He spotted several cracks on his finger bones and a clean break half way on his forearm on the inner bone. Seeing that, Ralph felt a hard ball of dread land in his stomach. He knew he wasn't able to take on any missions for 6 weeks now. He glanced down at the blanket covering his lap. He took a shaky breath.

"Hmm," Doctor Hamilton hummed, "Clean breaks," Ralph heard the shuffling of clothes as her footsteps drew near, "It will be an easy fix in a couple weeks. We will let naturally it start healing on its own and we will see what we can do the next time you come in."

Ralph blinked and slowly looked up at the doctor. He asked, "What do you mean? I thought I would be out of commission for at least six weeks."

Doctor Hamilton raised an eyebrow at him, "You mean you don't know about healing with spiritual energy?"

"It can help heal the body?" Ralph sounded surprised. "I thought it would help increase the power of spiritual attacks, our endurance and strength."

"I thought the Academy went over this stuff," The Doctor replied, sounding surprised.

"They did," Ralph looked down at the blanket, again, feeling embarrassed or ashamed. He didn't know which he felt more. "It was a special class, you know, for the ones who could afford it and had the spare time to attend." There was uncomfortable pause. "I was already working part time and didn't have the extra money nor the time to attend the class."

"I understand," Doctor Hamilton said, "The Bark children are at major disadvantage in their studies unless they have managed to land a sponsor or were lucky enough to be adopted." She grabbed a stool on wheels and brought it closer to the bed. "Alright. Spiritual Energy has many uses, Ralph. One of them, as you already know, will increase the endurance and the Strength of the user for the various fights and life or death situations we found ourselves in. The second use is the ability to heal with our Spiritual energy. However, it has to be the user's Spiritual Energy to do the healing. A trained Doctor can do donate some of their Spiritual Energy to help out their patient, but it is done in life or death situations during surgery or on the battlefield."

"Can any Doctor do that?" Ralph asked.

"No," She answered, "Only a Trained Black Ops Doctor like myself or someone in the process of training to be a Black Ops Doctor as long as they are under the watchful eye of a Trained one." Ralph cocked his head to the side, looking questioningly at her. "There have been a few incidents in the past where a Trainee had donated too much of their own spiritual energy and almost died as a result." Ralph's lips formed an O. "A third way a ninja uses Spiritual Energy is to deduct people nearby. It is useful during the nighttime or in an unfamiliar area. However, I don't think we have discovered a way to deduct foe or friendly, yet."

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"I don't think so, either," Raizen spoke up. Ralph's eyes darted over to him. He had almost forgot his teacher was still in the room. "So, it will be at least 3 weeks before he will be ready for a mission?"

"Right now, I can say that," Doctor Hamilton nodded. "It will depend on his healing speed for the next couple weeks with how much rest he will get and how healthy his diet is."

Ralph rolled his eyes. He would be sleeping a lot over the course of the week, but his diet? He knew eating pasta nearly everyday wasn't the healthiest thing he could eat, but it was something he could afford to buy.

Doctor Hamilton went on as she grabbed the clipboard and started writing things down on the sheet of paper, "I will get one of my nurses to start on the paperwork to send you home, Mr. Barkson, and send a series of prescriptions with you for pain and help you recover your spiritual energy faster. I want to come back in a couple weeks to see me. I will be setting your arm while you wait on the paperwork." She stood up from the stool and walked over to the wall before she pressed a hidden button. Ralph heard a soft ringing sound in the distance.

It was almost two hours later when Ralph walked out of the hospital with Raizen at his side. He inhaled the clean air before he exhaled. He was happy to get out of the hospital. It was felt too clean. He tilted his head back and closed his eyes as he walked forward, feeling the sun heating up his face. He looked ahead and glanced up at Raizen. "I can find my own way home, sir," he said.

"I know," Raizen said, "But I would feel more comfortable if I was there to make sure you did make it home safe and sound."

"Alright," Ralph shrugged and led the way to his apartment. Most of the village was cleaning up after the fight. He had heard there was fighting in the streets between the Police Force and the Wolf Pack with the Ninja backing up the Police Force where they could. He glanced over a nearby store front where blood stains could be seen on a knocked over half wall. He hoped his civilian friends were alright and had been able to avoid the fighting. He should find some time to drop by and see how they were doing.

Ralph wondered through the streets with Raizen following him until they reached the only apartment building that would have done business with a poor Bark Child. He climbed the steps to his floor and walked along the porch until he blinked. His front door was opened. He frowned before he hurried forward and came to a stop in his open doorway. His jaw dropped. His eyes widened as he took in the destruction of his apartment.

"What the hell?" Raizen breathed from over Ralph's shoulder.

Ralph slowly stepped into his apartment. His eyes scanned the kitchen and living room with horror. Someone had broken into his apartment and destroyed it. The second hand couch was broken into some many pieces that he couldn't see the wooden floor. The single nightstand was spread out over the piece of the couch. The bookcase he had been using to store his books and scrolls was torn apart. He didn't see his books or scrolls. The thieves might have took them to get some quick cash.

He turned his attention to the kitchen. Whoever it was - they went through his cabinets and shattered his plates. Boxes of food was scattered over the floor, sitting upon the destroyed kitchen table. He lend against the wall, looking at the mess. He couldn't believe his luck.

"Ralph," Raizen spoke up. The teen looked up at his teacher. "Whoever did this, it was not a random."

"What do you mean?" Ralph asked, a defeated note in his voice.

"The door is fine. They didn't break in," Raizen explained.

"Like that makes things better," Ralph spat. He felt the look Raizen sent his way. He looked at the fridge, not wanting to look at his teacher. He frowned when he saw a black seal on the fridge door. He pushed off the wall and walked over to the fridge, stepping onto the debris. He slowly reached out. It looked familiar. He knew he had seen it somewhere before and it brought a feeling of foreboding. His fingers brushed the seal as the same time Raizen called out, "Don't touch that!"

A loud snapping sound echoed through the apartment. Ralph winced as he took a step back. Black smoke poured from the seal and filled the kitchen area before drifting through the apartment. Ralph waved his good hand in front of his face, trying to see. There was a sharp breeze, sending the black smoke out of the home. Ralph blinked as he started to see his kitchen again. Raizen didn't too pleased when he appeared.

"You didn't know what that symbol was, did you?" Raizen asked.

"No," Ralph replied.

"What if it was a trap?"

"I rather spring a trap then give my enemies an advantage over me," Ralph gave his teacher grin. "However, I don't think it was a trap."

"Yeah, I know," Raizen agreed. "It was the symbol of the Black Hands."

Ralph's eyes widened. He wasn’t expecting that. The Black Hands were Lord Bark's personal bodyguards and assassins. They also carried top secret missions on the behalf of the Village and if they were caught, they knew they wouldn't get help from the village. "Why me?" he whispered.

"That is a question I would like to have answered as well," Raizen replied, "You are a ninja just starting out. No danger to Lord Bark or the Council, but why would they target you?"

A thump echoed through the room, causing both to look down at a scroll by Ralph's foot. Ralph knelt down and grabbed it. He flipped in it his hand, looking it over and saw it was addressed to him. A sense of dread settled on his shoulders. He knew having something addressed to him from the Black Hands was not a good thing unless of course, it was an invitation to join their ranks. He refrained from snorting in amusement. He knew he wasn’t skilled enough to attract their attention like that. However, the scroll held the answers they sought. He took a deep breath and walked over to the counter top. He felt the pieces of the kitchen table move under his foot as he walked over it.

Ralph set the scroll on the counter top and tried to use one hand to untied it, but he ended up using both set of fingers to do it. He tried to ignore the pain in his left arm as he did the simple motion. Once the string tying the scroll shut was undone, it rolled open. Ralph glanced toward his teacher and Raizen gave him a nod. The teen grabbed the far end of the scroll and read it out loud,

“Ralph Barkson,

You are hereby ordered to surrender yourself tomorrow by noon for questioning. If you choose not to surrender yourself by the set time, a squad of Black Hands will set out to capture you and bring you in - willingly or not.

Lord Jackson; Lord of the Hidden Bark Village”

Silence filled the apartment as Ralph finished reading it. Ralph set the scroll back on the counter top and turned to his teacher, “Well, that was very informative.”

Raizen snorted, “It is the typical summons of a criminal.” Ralph jerked his head to look at his teacher. “They won’t share that information until you surrender yourself to them.”

“Just like the Police Force,” Ralph sighed. Raizen raised an eyebrow at him. “I was required to visit their office more then once for a neighborhood fight I had to defend myself from some of the local gangs.”

Raizen nodded in understanding.

“I’m going to see what I can salvage in this mess. It’s probably nothing, but I do have a couple stuff I want to make sure the Black Hands didn’t take,” Ralph said, “Hopefully, they left my emergency funds alone and I can get a hotel room for the night after I clean this place up a bit.”

“Alright,” Raizen said.

Ralph walked through the living room, watching his step. He didn’t want to step on a rusty nail and had to spend another night in the hospital. He didn’t want to see if Raizen was following him or not.

~~

Raizen narrowed his eyes at the scroll. He wondered why Lord Bark would request this of a newly ninja trainee unless they found some sort of evidence he was linked to what happened yesterday. Keiko and he had found out late last night that someone had been able to sneak into the library underneath the Lord Bark’s Office and went through several of the records before they caused enough chaos to escape, despite the fact Lord Bark and a squad of Black Hands tried to stop him. They still didn’t know if the person was able to take anything yet. That process could take several more days with the Black Hands working nearly around the clock, especially in the mess that was made during the thief’s escape.

Lord Bark had even requested the help of the retired Black Hands. Those folks were a special class of ninja. They had managed to stay alive until they decided to step back from the Ninja Path. If word ever got about how many Black Hands were still alive and willingly to step back into the shadows, the civilians would never look at the Ninja the same way again. Lord Bark and the Black Hands often use the cover story that once you become a Black Hand, the only one way to leave the organization was be killed in action.

He rolled up the scroll and pocketed it. He would showed it to his wife when he got home. He knew Ralph would be under watch until he turned himself in. He sighed. It would be best if the teen spent the night under his roof. Keiko was a Black Hand after all, despite being on medical leave. It would also help whoever had been assigned to watch Ralph. He hoped the assigned Black Hand would know Keiko was one of them when he brought Ralph home with him. She would understand once she saw the scroll. He wondered what Ralph would do - go in before noon tomorrow or run for the hills.

~~

Ralph shook his head. He couldn’t believe how well the Black Hands went through his stuff. His bed was utterly destroyed. He could have sworn they might have used some sort of Spiritual attack to tear a part his room. He couldn’t even see the wooden floor from the mess they had created. His dresser had been ripped apart and his clothes were scattered all over the room. The mattress was slashed in half, revealing the stuffing.

“This is going to take hours,” he muttered to himself.

He turned away and walked into the living room. Raizen stood in the kitchen. There was thoughtful expression on his face. Ralph ignored him and went to the cabinet under the sink. He opened it and the cabinet door fell off. He sighed and reached for the box of trash bags. He took them to the living room and grabbed one before he shook it out the best he could. He held the bag in one hand and started to gather the pieces of wood before he shoved them into the bag. He hoped the bag wouldn’t rip.

“Do you want some help,” Raizen asked somewhere behind Ralph.

“If you don’t mind helping,” Ralph replied.

“Sure,” Raizen stated and grabbed another trash bag and started shoving the stuffing from the couch into the bag. He paused for a second and Ralph felt a surge of spiritual energy then there were four more Raizen standing in the living room. They grabbed the various pieces of wood and walked outside with it. Ralph knew they were heading to the nearby burn pit for wood.

The apartment kept a small burn pit in the back of the building for woods and other burnable items. However, they didn’t allow clothes or reusable items or even everyday trash in the burn pit. Those items were set near the dumpsters for the trash carts to grab for the village’s bigger burn pits.

Sometimes, if the landlord was feeling up to it, he would allow the burn pit to lit and they would have a cookout. Of course, the landlord usually saved the wood in the pit for the coldest part of the winter and lit it up then. It did help with the heating bill, having a fire pit in the backyard, hot enough to room up the closest rooms to the backyard. Ralph didn’t know how safe it was, though.

It was sometime later when Ralph felt his back crack as he stood up and looked around the room. The living room was cleaned up. He was surprised by the fact the Black Hands had destroyed his radio and several other items. However, the living room was empty. There was nothing he could have salvage or repaired. He knew his books over seals were missing and several of the scrolls he had purchased over elemental affinities. He would have to re-purchase them. He didn’t know if he would be able to get those items back from the Black Hands or not. He guess it would depend on what would happen tomorrow when he turned himself in.

“Have you gave anything on what to do tomorrow?” Raizen asked as his clones carried the pieces of the kitchen table to the burn pit.

“Turn myself in,” Ralph shrugged, “There’s nothing more I can do.” He paused. “I have no clue on why they would do something like this.” He paused. “Hell, it looks like if I chose to, I might sleep on the floor here tonight. I don’t think I will be able to find my emergency funds in the mess they made in my bedroom or if they took that or not.”

“I have an idea,” Raizen said, “I have a spare bed at the house. You are more then welcome to stay the night with my wife and I.”

“Will she be okay with it?” Ralph looked at his teacher.

“Of course, she will understand once we explain the situation,” Raizen said.

Ralph glanced toward his bedroom. He had to find his emergency funds. He had hoped it could have been tonight, but where he kept those funds were buried underneath everything. He had noticed the Black Hands didn’t damaged the apartment itself, just the items he owned. He sighed. He turned to his teacher and nodded, “Yeah, I’ll stay the night.”

Raizen gave him a smile before he pulled out a scroll and unrolled some of it. He bit his thumb hard enough to draw blood before he placed it on the scroll. A cloud of dark gray smoke appeared from the scroll and Ralph’s eyes widened as he heard the clip-clop of horse’s hooves as they landed on the wooden floor. The dark gray smoke slowly vanishing to reveal a black horse.

Ralph watched and listened with parted lips as Raizen gave the Horse a message to give to the wife before the horse turned and jumped over the porch railing and disappearing into the crowd. Raizen turned to Ralph, asking, “Do you have a bug out bag?”

“It’s buried with my emergency funds,” Ralph jerked his thumb to the bedroom. Raizen glanced in that direction and nodded. They weren’t able to tackle that room tonight. It would be something they would do tomorrow after Ralph got back from the meeting with the Black Hands. “My spare bag is here though.” He patted the ninja pouch, “The only difference is my bug out bag has a few more items in it then this one does.”

Raizen nodded before he spoke, “Let’s finish the kitchen then we can head back to my house. I will be swinging by check on Lillian and Enzo if that’s fine with you.”

Ralph shook his head, “I don’t mind. It would be nice to see how they are doing.” He turned to the floor. The large pieces from the kitchen table was taken care, but the food he had the cabinets covered the floor. He heard the crunching of crackers, cereal, and roman noddles under the clones’ feet as they walked back and forth. He sighed.

“Go sit down,” Raizen put a hand on his right shoulder, “My clones and I will be able to get this cleaned up quick.”

Ralph glanced around and nodded. It would be quicker if Raizen and his clones did it. Ralph stepped outside and lend against the railing, peering down. His neighborhood was unusually busy, but it was understandable. Some of the neighborhood thugs carried logs and timber to the nearby houses that needed to be repaired. The younger kids helped, carrying bags of trash from the nearby houses, chatting animately. The Ladies of the Night went door to door, carrying food baskets and medical baskets. It seemed a different world, compared to the rest of the Village or at least the richer areas of the village. Some of the local teenagers helped the Elderly, moving around the streets. He sighed. He knew the Black Hands usually didn’t come into this part of the village unless they had a good reason to. He wondered why he was getting summoned to the Government Tower. He turned his gaze over the rooftops and settled his gaze onto the Tower, poking up over the buildings. For whatever reason he was summonsed, he hoped he would be able to walk away from that Tower in one piece.