Promise #23 The Clan Will Protect You, You Will Protect The Family

The rope wobbled underneath Shizu as she took another step. She was already at the second floor after a few days of training. She froze, letting the ropes slow their pace. Another step. Every breath of focus centered on her toes. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, cheering her on and pushing her further.

"You're almost there," the old man called out. She had learned in the last few days his name was Kamezo. The bruise on her leg was proof enough to not use his given name. Any time she mentioned him, she needed to address him with the title of sensei.

She took another step. Her hands gripped the ropes dangling at her sides. It shook and she bent her front leg to keep her balance. The rope moved out from under her feet. In a blink of her eye, she would be facing the opposite direction or plummeting to the ground. She focused on the small platform and jumped, releasing the ropes at her sides to go further.

The balls of her feet made impact with the wood, but her weight was behind her, and she tumbled backward. The wind whipped around her, pulling the scream upward as she fell. A small net caught her, and she bounced a few times before coming to a halt. Her heart pounded in her ears as she sighed in relief. The ropes and poles were built to prevent someone from dying accidentally, but not to stop them from injuring themselves. Pain was a fast lesson to avoid failure.

Matsuda cheered from behind Kamezo-sensei. "Great job! You almost made it. Gambatte!"

Shizu blushed and climbed down from the net. "Arigatou gozaimasu," she muttered.

"Still have a way to go. Have you been doing the exercises I told you about?" Kamezo-sensei asked.

Shizu walked over to them and nodded. "I've been doing laps around the room and holding myself in the air while hanging off of the pole as long as I can."

He turned to Matsuda. "And has she been doing it as she is supposed to?"

Matsuda nodded and looked over at Shizu, who was now sitting on the floor rubbing the bottom of her feet. "She works at it like any of us did. Do you think something is wrong with her?"

Shizu perked up. She thought they were about to praise her for her improvements. Instead, they were discussing her failings. She had done so well in a matter of days, yet it never seemed enough. Her arms and legs ached from the exercises Kamezo-sensei asked her to do. Added with the chores of cleaning the floors and whacking dust from the sheets, it seemed almost impossible to do anything beyond sleep.

"The kitsune saw some use in her." He walked over to Shizu. "Stand up, girl."

Shizu obeyed. She winced at the soreness in her feet. She leaned on the sides of her feet to divert some of the pain temporarily.

"Show me your hands and feet."

"My hands?" Shizu asked, holding her hands out so sensei could see her palms.

They were bright red from climbing. They didn't have wrinkles anymore from her chores in the morning, but since the first day it had been easier to clean the floors. She woke up earlier and by staying on top of the cleaning she could cover the floors in a few minutes instead of half the day. Giving her more time to exercise and practice her climbing skills.

He ran a finger against her palms. It stung, but she held the yelp back as best she could. He put another finger on them and pressed harder. She hissed and he seemed to smile in pleasure.

"As I thought. No one has been giving you any ointment."

Anger crossed his face. Shizu took a step back from him, unsure of what was about to happen. Kamezo-sensei turned to Matsuda. The anger growing wilder. Matsuda's bright smile disappeared, and he stood next to her. There was no telling what Kamezo-sensei would do in his rage. No one dared speak of what occurred behind closed doors when he acted with anger. Those that did never spoke about it beyond a whisper and even then, they flinched when they thought sensei was close by.

"Where's the ointment?" Kamezo-sensei snapped.

Matsuda gulped and pointed to the sleeping area. "It should be in the chests.”

"Get it! Now!" His voice echoed across the walls. The air grew still. The drop of a grain of rice could be heard in the silence that followed.

Matsuda took off at a run into the sleeping room. He stumbled over his feet a few times before reaching the room. Kamezo-sensei sighed and looked at Shizu with his faux calm demeanor.

"You've been failing because your senpais have been failing you."

"My senpais?" Shizu had never heard the term before. Only sensei which the kitsune had taught her.

"All of the shinobi who are ahead of you in training. Each of them outrank you, but they are not your teacher. Matsuda was supposed to oversee you, but it seems he forgot that even when he was beginning his training you need the ointment to help your hands heal and gain better grips after a day or so on the ropes."

Matsuda burst back into the training room with a small clay pot in his hand. He held it out for Kamezo-sensei. "I apologize, sensei. Please forgive me." He bowed slightly to avoid spilling anything from the jar.

Kamezo-sensei ignored Matsuda and dipped a finger into the jar. It was a golden yellow thick liquid that slid down his finger. He smeared it against Shizu's palm. The cool sensation creeped across her skin, burying itself deep into her flesh. The never-ending itch and hellish pain evaporated wherever the liquid sat. She let out a sigh. The idea of existing without pain had been so foreign for so long that she wanted time to freeze. To enjoy the embrace of the ointment and dose herself in it overnight and never awaken.

He scooped a little bit more onto his fingers and smeared it onto Shizu's hands. "Put some on your feet too."

Shizu obeyed and sat. The pressure of her weight on her feet vanished as she pressed the ointment into her soles. The cool feeling like stepping through mud without the added dirt caked on. She coated the entire bottom of each foot, pulling them close to her face to verify it was all covered.

"What is this?" Shizu asked, mystified.

"A special medicine the Hikage clan created long ago. Use it too often and you become addicted to it and forget to use your own body's abilities. Use too little and you end up how you were earlier, unable to walk properly or hold a cup without it burning." He tapped his cane on the floor. "Now climb."

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Shizu stood up, shifting her weight from one foot to the other. The pain was there, but not nearly as violent as before. It took extra pressure to pull her feet off the ground and press them back down. A small wet stain showed where her feet last stood, but none of the ointment removed itself from her soles. She sighed in relief. It wouldn’t peel off easily. Though purposefully removing it would be a different problem she would face later.

"Better?" Kamezo-sensei asked.

Shizu nodded. "Much. I didn't know my feet or hands could feel this good."

"Excellent. Now climb the ropes again." He pointed at the course with his cane. "You'll be surprised how useful the ointment actually can be for you."

Shizu ran over to the rope. Climbing onto it and getting to the first platform was almost easy now compared to her first attempt so many days ago. Her feet no longer scratched the rough spun ropes. It was a slower process, but she didn't feel slip.

She stood on the platform and looked at the bottom of one of her feet. There were marks where the rope had dug into the ointment, but none of it had reached her skin. Slowly, the ointment conjoined together once more into the solid mass she had rubbed on.

Shizu continued her ascent. Slower than she was used to as she unstuck her hands and feet from the ropes and platforms, but her balance was there. She made it to the second floor, then the third. Soon she was at a point that there was no definition of which floor was which. She swayed near the top, holding onto the ropes with a death grip.

"You're almost there!" Matsuda shouted in encouragement. "Look how high you made it."

It wasn't the best choice of encouragement. Shizu glanced down and felt the world drop under her. Her stomach churned, remembering the feeling of falling from the short distance earlier. She shook her head and tightened the grip on the ropes. Every muscle refused to release its tension.

"I ca—" she stopped herself. There was a spark of anger in sensei's face that she knew would arrive if she finished her complaints. She preferred his gentle nature over the frustrations he let get to him. The others warned him he his almost all his personal side from those he didn’t complete missions with. A perfect shinobi with no attachment to others unless needed and a rage that pushed everyone forward.

She took a deep breath and looked back up. The target rope was only a few feet above her. It swayed it below the darkening sky, inviting her to reach for it. She pushed off with her feet. Rising slowly into the air and reached up. Still too far down. She wrapped her foot around an adjacent rope, so her body was almost perpendicular with the ground then use her arms to lift herself up higher. She could almost touch, but she was too short. Her hand swung wildly, and she let out a roar of pain and anger that she had buried during every climb. The fear within her spilling out through her lips.

"Jump!" Kamezo-sensei shouted and smacked his cane against the floor.

On instinct, Shizu followed his orders and leapt into the air. She touched the small knot at the top and a low clang sounded. Now off course, and with no ropes to support her, she plummeted. Her breath locked as the floor rushed up to her.

She waited for the impact. She made it to the top. There was no need to fear his wrath and awaited the earth to welcome her into its cold, hard embrace. The nets caught her. She let out a sigh of relief and let the strings bounce her around a few times before coming to a stop again.

Cheers filled the room and within seconds the netting bounced. Matsuda was the first in her vision followed by a few of who she knew as her senpais. They all beamed down at her as they hung upside down above her or stood on the netting. If she had known such an audience was watching her, she doubted she would have been able to do what she had accomplished.

Kamezo-sensei's cane hitting the floor froze the celebrations. Everyone turned to him including Shizu as she rolled onto her stomach. He didn't have the smile on his face like normal, but neither did he have his usual rage. There was no emotion to attach to him at all.

"Too slow. You need to go faster next time."

"Next...time?" Shizu gulped.

The other shinobi and Shizu began their descent and stood in front of Kamezo-sensei. They all bowed in respect to him. He returned it in kind before turning his focus back to Shizu.

"The ointment shows you the way up, but you need to also learn to accomplish this without it as well. You will need to become faster, or the samurai and daimyo will capture you.” He looked to the others. "You all celebrate this? Is this the kind of person you want to be seen with on the streets?" None of them answered. "Tomorrow you will take a break from the ropes."

Shizu perked up. "A break? You mean I can relax--"

He held a hand up to interrupt Shizu. "You will go with some of other shinobi who are currently working on the streets tomorrow and learn more about the outside world and how you will be repaying my time. After that, you will need to practice on the ropes without me."

"I won't be having you guide me anymore?"

It wasn’t likely she’d see the girls, but the idea sent her heart soaring off the ground. The feeling of the sun while out in the streets and not from the tower would be a warm welcome on her body.

Matsuda leaned forward and smiled. "I'll be here. Sensei is only here to make sure you understand the basics. He has his own work."

Shizu nodded in slight understanding. She wondered what Sensei could possibly do for the clan when he walked so slow and could barely see. Then again, he had surprised her with the rage he showed so it was possible that there was more to him than she imagined.

"Matsuda will be taking full responsibility for you from tomorrow on," sensei said, giving Matsuda a stern glance. "I expect that he won't fail you again or your blood will be on his hands."

Matsuda gulped and bowed. "I won't fail you or Shizu again, Sensei."

"Good. Now let us all eat dinner."

"Soba again, Sensei?" Shizu asked.

Kamezo-sensei chuckled. It surprised her but she hid her shock. "Not today. I hear they caught some eels last night."