The Dagger's Unfinished Business

[Willoria]

Karugata Asami made her way to Ryu's home in the evening. It had been a pretty eventful day, but she still remembered not only what she had told Shinjiro, but what he had told her. Part of her was still upset that Ryu hadn't given her more information about the test Shinjiro had inflicted upon him but in a lot of ways she could understand why. Shinjiro's tests were always rather scarring, always mentally, and often physically. But this one sounded like it was worse than most. In fact she wasn't certain even Shinjiro had come out of it completely unscathed in spite of the emotional mask Shinjiro always kept up.

When she knocked on the door she was let in rather quickly and said her greetings to Yoshiko. She knew where to find Ryu however, the moment she walked in she could hear him still in the training area and simply rolled her eyes. She went straight for the doors and pulled them open. "Ryu." Her tone was almost cold, it was clear she wasn't there for a social visit, especially as she practically ignored Yasu who was clearly trying to train the boy.

"The boy Shinjiro left you with after your test. You're going to show me where you left him."

[TyDie]

"Don't get a big head just cus you got taken as a dagger, boy! You're still not the swordsman your father was!" Yasu's voice could be heard outside the training room, while Ryu grit his teeth and barked back in kind. "Still better than your old ass!" Ryu snarled as he rushed in with his sword, ducking low into a slide as he went under Yasu's strike before pivoting on his heel and delivering a resounding strike to Yasu's rib. The bokken they were using made sure the blow wasn't lethal, but it'd leave Yasu with a nice bruise at least.

"Damn child, easy!" Yasu dropped the bokken and held his side, just as Yoshiko came up behind Asami and laughed. "It's your own fault, Yasu. You keep chiding him for not being as good as his father, when I honestly feel he's made faster advancement than even him. But go ahead and be his opposition. He needs it."

This was the scene that Asami interrupted, and with a smirk Ryu turned to his sensei and smiled, clearly proud that she got to watch him get the better of his grandfather. However, her stern look and statement brought him down from the peak of glory, earning a small clear of the throat. "S-sure... Let me get my sword." The boy would move past Asami towards his bedroom, assuming that she would follow him as he retrieved his weapon. Once in his room though, as he fit the sword onto his waist, he'd ask his question.

"What's going on, Asami?"

[Willoria]

Asami couldn't help a sly smirk as Ryu stepped out of the training room and she glanced at the boy's grandfather. "Sounds more like maybe he's outgrown you Yasu-Sama." she said with a bit of a chuckle, bowing to both Yasu and Yoshiko before leaving the room to follow Ryu back towards his room. Of course by time she got there her stern expression had returned and her arms were crossed under her chest. She leaned against the doorway and looked at him a moment as she watched him gather up what he'd need. "Shinjiro told me more of what happened in the Slums that day, about your test." she told him.

"He told me about the boy..." Of course a hint of a smile returned to her face as she spoke. "I guess I couldn't resist being even more of a pain in the ass. I told him I'd go back and find the boy and finish what he started. He thinks I'm going to kill him. But I'm going to give him a chance. If he accepts the chance I'm going to offer... then I'll pay to sponsor him to train at the academy."

But then that stern look returned yet again as she looked pointedly at Ryu. "But only you know where you left him... and I think it's important you're there for this."

[TyDie]

Ryu was chuckling about what Asami said to his grandfather all the way back to his room, but in the room the situation turned much more serious. The boy let out a sigh as it was made clear that she knew everything now. "Yeah... I'd rather forget it all to be honest." She went on to explain what she planned to do, and he couldn't help but slap his hand to his face. "So first you take me as a dagger despite his refusal to take me himself, and now you want to hunt down the kid he let live to make him a shinobi? You really do love pissing Shinjiro off..."

But, it wasn't like he could say no to her. She was his mentor at this point, not to mention his superior. "For what it's worth, I agree with you. The kid had everything taken from him that day... It was all I could do to get him to an orphanage, and it wasn't a very good one either... nothing in the outer ring is good after all." As he spoke, he'd move past Asami and head out towards the front door, assuming that Asami would follow him back out into the cold night air of Kirigakure.

"Start towards the outer ring. I'll start leading once we get there."

[Willoria]

Asami frowned as he mentioned leaving the kid in an orphanage in the Outer Ring and shook her head. "...yeah I remember what the orphanages there are like." she said darkly as she turned from the room to follow him out. She remembered the description of the area Shinjiro had given inadvertently as he'd described the events of the night and immediately her mind went over the possible orphanages in the area. Out of sheer habit she started making her way towards the Outer Ring, and the first orphanage that came to her mind, silently hoping she was heading towards the wrong one. She thrust her hands in her pockets as she walked along.

"Pissing Shinjiro off is a fun hobby." she admitted, trying to turn her mind away from an old and dark place as they walked along. "Sometimes it makes training with him harder... sometimes it makes the sex better... though oddly enough pissing him off by recruiting you made him oddly confessional. He told me a lot more about his past than I've ever heard." She had purposely said some of what she said just for the entertainment of trying to make Ryu blush, but also knew the boy hardly saw Shinjiro as human. She almost wished she could tell him what Shinjiro had confessed to her that night.

But she had made promises.

[TyDie]

Ryu was a bit stunned to realize that Asami had been a part of an orphanage on the outer ring. Or at least, that's all he could infer, given that she knew what they were like. "Wow... talk about humble beginnings. I didn't know you were from out there." He wasn't sure what to do with that information truth be told, but it seemed like she wanted to get away from the subject anyway. However, the following subject was hardly what Ryu wanted to talk about. "Groooossssss! That's the last thing I want to hear about Shinjiro!" Ryu rolled his eyes and gagged audibly as they rushed through the village streets, making their way towards the outer ring.

It took a while to get there, but eventually the duo would find themselves on the same rooftop that Shinjiro had taken Ryu too not so long ago. "This is where we started..." the boy trailed off, looking for the alley where he had killed the drunkard...

[Willoria]

Asami laughed at Ryu's discomfort, finding his reaction just as entertaining as she had hoped it would be. "I did tell you I would take his punishment, I just didn't say how." she teased, laughing most of the way into the Outer Ring until they got to the rooftop and he told her it was where they had started. Asami crouched and looked out over the area, frowning as she looked around. "You found me out here once, bleeding out in an alley if you remember." she commented, sighing before straightening up.

"I'm surprised you didn't realize I grew up out here, lived out here all my life." She pointed out towards the docks. "Lived in a shock out that way with my parents until they were murdered by the Karagata. Got dragged to an orphanage for awhile before I was sent to the academy by a coin purse and a mystery letter." The woman crossed her arms under her chest and looked down below.

"Show me where you took the kid, Ryu."

[TyDie]

Ryu held his hands over his ears as the woman continued to talk about her and Shinjiro's private affairs, clearly not wanting to hear another word of it. But once they reached the rooftop overlooking the alleys of the Outer Ring, he grew more serious, as did she. "Yeah, I remember that day... Scared the shit out of a couple of kids with Hisan. That was a good day..." She went on to tell more about her life story, and truth be told it wasn't that he never realized how she lived. It was more like, he just never thought about it all that much. She was a strong woman who didn't take anyone's shit, and that was what he knew about her. The rest of her life, growing up out here in the Outer Ring, didn't mean anything to him. She was still his teacher.

"Just goes to show that a true warrior can come from any kind of upbringing. All the more reason that what Shinji did out here pissed me off..." He spit on the side of the roof, as if to get the taste of that memory out of his mouth, before nodding to the woman and hopping to the next rooftop and continuing on. "It was this way. Might have even been the same orphanage you were at, but I had heard it was better than your average Kirigakure orphanage..."

[Willoria]

"Probably wasn't the same one then... I killed my way out of that place, spent six months hiding in my parents home so I wouldn't get taken back until I was old enough to officially inherit it and be on my own." she told him as she followed him across the rooftops. The further they went, the closer they got she realized she had an idea of where they were heading. It wasn't the orphanage she grew up in but she thought she knew which one they were heading to. "I know you don't see Shinjiro as human, and I know he prefers for people to see him that way. To him that's power and authority in a way. But you should know he is that way for a reason. As you train with me you may start to learn some of his secrets as a side effect as well."

Asami came skidding to a stop and turned, grabbing Ryu by the arm to stop him and force him to look at him. "Anything you learn about Shinjiro from me, I expect you to treat it like a secret. To protect it as you would a secret of my own. The bond between Student and Master is sacred, and so long as you are my Dagger I will protect you from anyone I can, Ryu, but I cannot protect you from Shinjiro. Anything you might learn about him from me, whether by accident or not, I expect you to be an adult about it. You won't mock him with it, you won't even let on that you know about it. Do you understand what I'm telling you?" As Asami spoke her serious demeanor took on a shift to notes of concern. She knew Ryu hated Shinji, and that for some reason he had a tendency to want to goad the man, but she also knew from personal experience how dangerous that could be in the end.

"What we're doing today could reveal some things about him that I have sworn to secrecy... being with me for this? You too are sworn. Understood?"

[TyDie]

Ryu kept his eyes on their path ahead, but the words Asami spoke about her upbringing made all the more clear how hard her life had been. She really had it rougher than most, and still managed to come out of it all to get the life she had now. No wonder she hated people who had been handed everything their whole lives... she had to fight tooth and nail just to survive, let alone to get ahead. "Damn... you really lived through it, didn't you? I'd say I felt sorry for you, but I think you'd hit me if I showed you pity. Fact is, you are who you are now."

He was about to leap to the next roof when he felt the woman's hand grip him hard, wincing a little in pain as she held him still and spoke to him. Truth be told, all this talk of Shinjiro was making him uneasy. "Jeez, take it easy Asami. I don't give a shit about Shinjiro on the best of days, so why would I purposely piss him off? That means having to deal with him, and I'd rather just pretend he doesn't exist." She seemed pretty adamant about this, her demeanor seemed to be more concern then anger. Whatever the case, he'd pull his arm back to himself and dust off, but eventually he'd sigh and nod.

"Alright, understood. I'm not going to goad Shinjiro, whatever I learn stays between us. Now come on, it's just over this roof." Ryu would leap across another alley, standing over a small square with a few buildings lining the outside of it. "There it is..."

[Willoria]

Asami didn't like how almost flippant and relaxed Ryu seemed to be, but she had to just accept and hope that Ryu understood the gravity of what she was saying. She followed him across the rooftops, stopping when he did to look down into what passed for a yard outside the orphanage. It practically looked like a prison, but in the Outer Ring that was hardly inaccurate. The places were built after all to keep people out as much as to keep the children in. She'd drop down and push open the gate to step in, seeing a few children milling around outside before heading towards the door. "Let me know when you see him." she told Ryu as she walked up to the front door.

She pushed open the door and walked inside, making a face as she saw the sparse furnishings, some of it outright destroyed. She passed an adult who quickly tried to get her attention but Asami ignored her and walked into what clearly seemed to be a common area.

"I said excuse me!" A woman pushed her way in front of Asami and crossed her arms, staring at her. The woman was rather short and pudgy, trying to glare at Asami who looked completely unbothered.

"What?"

"We don't have visitors except by appointment, you don't-!"

"I am Karugata Asami of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, and I go where I damn well please." Asami snarled at her, causing the woman to clam up. Several of the children paused their various activities as well, turning to see what was going on, though one boy in particular seemed to suddenly try to vanish behind a partially decrepit couch. Asami looked over at Ryu. "Do you see him, Ryu?"

"Wh-Who are you looking for?"

[TyDie]

Ryu looked down at the orphanage with a grimace... It wasn't the worst place he'd ever seen, but most everything in the Outer Ring seemed like it wasn't good enough for human life, let alone children. As they passed through the gate and into the courtyard, the woman who tried to stop them was paid no heed by either of the shinobi. But as the woman got in Asami's way, Ryu just smirked while Asami set the woman straight. As she did so, Ryu scanned the room, taking a look at all the different faces. While he didn't see the boy at first, he did see someone quickly move behind a couch.

"I think so..." Ryu walked over to the couch as he spoke, and quickly peeked over the couch to see what was behind it. Sure enough, the young child on the other side was the boy Shinjiro had kidnapped that day. However, with a scream of fear, the boy lashed out with his hand and poked Ryu in the eyes, causing the young swordsman to recoil with a groan of annoyance. "Oh, you shit!"

[Willoria]

Asami ignored the woman entirely as she asked who she was looking for. Fact was, technically Asami didn't know know she was looking for. That's what Ryu was there for. She watched as he went to check behind a couch, and couldn't help an outright laugh as it seemed the boy must've jabbed Ryu in the eye. "Well clearly he recognizes you." Asami said with a grin. She practically heard the woman beside her open her mouth to speak, but Asami interrupted her by drawing one of her swords and putting it against the woman's throat. She turned her head to look at her in almost a bored fashion. "Stay out of this." she snarled at her before moving away from her and towards the couch where the boy was still hiding and cowering.

Asami motioned Ryu back before putting one hand under the couch and tossing the busted piece of furniture aside easily. One sword still in hand she stared at him and looked him over. He had greenish blue hair and green eyes, but immediately his eyes were the only similarity she really saw to Shinjiro in the boy. He looked so frail, and so thin. He looked too young, and so incredibly weak. She could see why Shinjiro lamented leaving him alive, especially as he whimpered and cowered back, putting his back against the wall at the sight of Asami. "What is your name?"

The boy looked up at her with wide-eyes, and then back at Ryu. His whole body was shaking, but then Asami hissed at him between her sharpened teeth to get his attention and he yelped. "Tora!" he answered, still shaking. "Akimitsu Tora!"

Asami raised an eyebrow at the boy's name. "Tell me, Tora. What do you know of the night your mother died?"

The boy had pulled his legs up in front of him, hiding his face behind his knees. But at the mention of his mother he lifted his head and looked over them, looking at Ryu for a moment. "He was there." he whimpered. "He was with the man who killed her. He could have stopped it. He helped!"

[TyDie]

Ryu grit his teeth and groaned with annoyance as he cleared his eyes, wiping away a few tears that had formed as a result of the poke. When he got his vision back, Asami had already cast the couch aside and revealed the skinny child. Ryu scowled at the kid, glaring at him as he crossed his arms, clearly upset at having been poked in the eyes. "Didn't have to bring you here, yknow..." He muttered to himself, letting Asami take the reins on this. After all, she was the one who wanted to find this kid.

But as the kid clearly address Ryu, claiming he could have stopped Shinjiro, he let out a sigh and swallowed his pride. "Your memory must be fuzzy kid. I didn't help him, I tried to help you. In fact, I'm probably the only reason you survived. That man is far beyond my skill; It hurts to admit, but it's just a fact. I couldn't have saved your mother... Believe me, I was trying to. Not much I could do after he ripped out my rib and stabbed me with it." He turned his head away at the end and closed his eyes, upset with his own weakness. After all, if he was stronger, maybe the kid's mom would still be alive...

[Willoria]

Asami sighed as the kid finally showed a little anger, and directed it at Ryu. She kept her eyes on the boy but tilted her head in Ryu's direction as he replied. She could hear the pain in his voice, but she heard what she wanted to hear. She had brought him along as a guide but that was only half the reason she wanted him there. The other half was to force him to confront his own weakness, to admit it. Ego was a huge problem for him, and she wanted him to be self aware enough to admit that he was weaker than Shinjiro. She had concerns about what his ego might cause him to do when it came to her own Sensei, concerns she had voiced on the way there. Hearing him admit that he couldn't stop Shinjiro helped calm some fears, though not all.

She looked to the boy however and sighed. "You have some hard truths to face, Tora." She told him. "Every boy loves his mother but yours was a particular brand of a whore." she said harshly. "I bet you didn't know you weren't her first child. She starved her others, just as she starved you and I bet in feeling her loss you've forgotten that part. How often did she eat and leave you to fend for yourself in the trash and in the alleys? How often did she toss you scraps that weren't edible but you tried anyway? I can see it in your shape and your ribs." The boy recoiled as she spoke, pulling his knees up into his chest again and burying his face as he whimpered but Asami didn't stop. "She had other children. She sold them away to save her own skin, just as she tried to sell you to the man who killed her that night to save her own skin.."

"No... she wouldn't...." he whimpered, shaking his head.

"These won't be the last harsh truths you hear, Tora." Asami pulled a Katana from her hip, one she'd taken from Ryu's room when he wasn't paying attention and she tossed it to his feet. "But first a choice. The man who killed your mother was Karagata Shinjiro, Overseer of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. He is my Sensei. Pick up that sword and I will pay your way through the academy, you will train under me and mine to become a shinobi." Asami drew one of her swords. "Or I do as he has ordered, and finish what he started when he hunted in the slums that night and I kill you here and now."

[TyDie]

Ryu hated to admit his own shortcomings. How could he hope to compare to his father if he was constantly weaker than all of his peers? How could he hope to make a name for himself if there was always someone better than him? It hurt in a way that was far worse than any blade... But this wasn't about him, this was about the little shit that had poked him in the eye. And it seemed that Asami had a lot to say to the boy, regaling him with a tale of his own upbringing. But how could she have known that much about the boy, when she had never even met him?

As he watched the interaction, Asami producing one of his own Katana for the boy to take, he tilted his head. He hadn't even noticed her take the blade from his room, but it was an old spare that was smaller and lighter than his preferred weapon. He hardly used it anymore, so perhaps it would do well in the hands of another. She offered her choice, but as she concluded it became clear that it was hardly a choice. "What kind of choice is that? Become a shinobi or die?" The boy scoffed, clearly upset by her words... but it wasn't his place to say anymore. If she had orders from Shinjiro, it was on her to complete them, as much as he hated the sound of it. But if she had to kill him, he sure as hell wouldn't be with her when she did it.

[Willoria]

Asami ignored Ryu's questions. She knew he'd hate what she had said in the end, but she was playing a gamble here that she had hoped would pay out. When Shinjiro had spoken of the boy all he could talk about was the boy's dead eyes, how he had no will to live. More than once he had talked about how that was the difference between this boy and her, how he didn't deserve the same chance she had gotten because he didn't have the same will to live that she had had. But to her, he had to have that will buried in him somewhere. It just might take more to draw it out than one interaction.

She really wanted to be right, that this second encounter and her words might draw that out of this boy. But she only had this chance to draw it out, or she'd have to follow the promise she had made to Shinjiro. She would either kill this boy or give him the chance.

She watched as the boy stared down at the sword, his hands still shaking as the option lay before him. "Pick it up and leave the whore's name behind." she told him. "You'll take mine. Karugata Tora you'll become, you'll train, you'll become stronger. Maybe even as strong as your mother's killer." she told him. She knew her own name wasn't much better than that of a prostitute that had died in an alley, her name was the lowest of the family's, but it was still somewhat better. She had built herself up from nothing to the Seven, the connection to her at least would give him a goal.

After a few moments of silence the boy reached out to take the sword and unsheathed it, seeming to still think about it. And as Asami smirked at him he suddenly seemed to come alive in the eyes for a moment as he rushed at her with it, yelling. Asami laughed as she side-stepped him easily and came down with the hilt of her own against the back of his head and knocked him out. She sheathed her sword and grinned at Ryu. "Now that's another bet Shinjiro lost against me."

[TyDie]

Ryu found himself holding a breath as he waited to see what the kid would choose. Surely, even if he lived out in these slums, he had the will to live right? He had to have at least enough of a will to want to get back at Shinjiro for killing his mother... no sane child would choose death, would they? For a moment, he wasn't sure what the kid would do. He really did seem rather lifeless, as if he was just waiting to die. But as he took the blade and looked at it for a moment, Ryu saw that fire ignite at the same time Asami did, and as the boy rushed Asami he couldn't help but laugh. Of course Asami made quick work of it, knocking him on the head and putting him out cold, but it was better then dead.

Anything was better then dead.

"Good. About time that bastard lost at something. Sick of him being so damn good..." He'd scratch the back of his head now, turning to the rest of the orphans all wondering what the hell was going on. "Sorry kids, only one comes with us tonight. But hey, knuckle down and do something with yourselves. Don't be like the rest of the urchin out here in the Outer Ring." The kids were too afraid to actually do or say anything, and the woman Asami had held up was too scared to protest to Asami taking the boy. Plus, it wasn't like she could... A jounin like Asami could pretty much take whatever she deemed necessary, including a young orphan.

"We about done here, Asami?"

[Willoria]

"Yeah, we're about done." Asami replied as she picked the kid up off the floor and slung him over her shoulder.

She walked over to the woman who ran the orphanage, eyeing her a moment as the woman seemed to recoil from her and grinned, letting her see her sharpened teeth a moment before digging in a pouch. She produced a few coins and dropped them in the woman's hands before looking out over the rest of the orphans. "I was raised in an orphanage like this one." she told them. "Both my parents were murdered in front of me, and I was dumped on these steps... I dug my way out, it's up to you to dig your way out too." she added before turning for the door as well.

Once outside she stopped long enough to check the kid, one hand glowing green with an Iijutsu technique briefly as she used the Medical Diagnosis technique. "Alright, let's go." She told Ryu rather seriously. "I'd like your grandma to get a look at him before I take him home just in case I missed something... I'm going to have to spend at least a few days just getting this kid's health up before he can go to the academy. Even I've never seen malnourishment this severe."