Chapter Text
“Owl. Thank you for coming.” The Hiratas had a small estate, and Owl knew they were not rich by any stretch of the imagination, and yet something in his gut told him he had to answer the request to meet. It was the rumors swirling around the noble family; their son had some special power. It was his gut feeling, the suspicion that the opportunity he had always been looking for might have just asked for an audience.
“Lord Hirata. I must extend my thanks for the esteemed invite to a lowly shinobi like myself.” He bowed from his kneeling position. “Whatever you desire, I can do my best to fulfill.”
“Good. I have a need for a good shinobi.” Lord Tatsuo Hirata was tall like his uncle Isshin Ashina; when standing, he and Owl could have seen eye to eye. “I wish to hire your services to protect my son, Kuro.”
“Is he particularly adventurous? I know some children would do better with a shinobi following them than a samurai.” Wonderful , Owl thought, straight to what I want .
“Not more than a normal child. At the risk of being rude, but I must ask your discretion on this topic; more people already know than we would like.” Lord Hirata continued after Owl bowed again and affirmed his silence. “Kuro was born with a gift called the Dragon’s Heritage. What we know is that he cannot bleed or be injured. My understanding is that there are several other things that occur with it. We have tried to stop the knowledge from getting out, but rumors are beginning to spread. If someone is desperate enough we fear they may go after him for whatever they think it promises.”
Owl knew of the Dragon’s Heritage; hadn’t he been the one to break off a branch of the Everblossom tree Takeru planted? He’d meant to investigate the lord’s immortality but had doomed Takeru to a slow death from dragonrot instead, at least until he had his samurai put him out of his misery. Takeru had died almost a decade ago; this child must have been born soon after.
This was the opportunity he was looking for. He knew how Takeru’s sworn samurai had died, over and over again, but always came back to life until after Takeru himself died. But he could not take this job. He had plans to set in motion now, people to contact. How lucky for him, then, that he had spent the last twenty years preparing for this.
“While I would gladly protect the young lord, I fear I may be too old to keep up with a child, and too well known; there are plenty of men who might attack for the chance to face me. Instead, may I offer the service of my son? He is the best shinobi I have ever trained, but is young enough not to have enemies willing to track him down. While I may require him for certain tasks, I can ensure that if he is needed elsewhere I will be here until he returns.” Owl waited for the response. If the Hiratas were set on him, he would have to enlist Butterfly as a go between or use Wolf to take messages. He didn’t like the idea of his son helping that directly; Wolf could be very single minded, but occasionally showed an unfortunate flash of inquisitiveness and compassion that could jeopardize the plan. It would probably work, but it would be easier to leave him here from the beginning and let him focus on the young lord, not Owl’s scheming.
“If you believe that is best, we would gladly have your son as protector for Kuro.” Owl breathed a silent sigh of relief. That would make life much easier. “How soon can you bring him here?”
“Within two days, my lord. And I will, of course, alert you first if I have need of him. But, may I ask, my lord, why a shinobi as a guard? Why not a samurai?” It sounded like an innocent question, a question anyone would ask in this situation. Hirata would not hear the hidden lure for information.
“There is a samurai guarding him currently, one of the Nogami family, and he will continue to watch over Kuro during the day. But one man cannot be on guard constantly and we are worried that a kidnapper or thief would steal in during the night and take him, and a shinobi would be better protection for that.” Lord Hirata gave a small chuckle. “It’s not like an entire raiding party would descend on the estates after a rumor that the lord’s son might be immortal.”
“No, my lord, of course not. I will return in two days with my son, Wolf.”
“Wolf! I have a new task for you.” Owl always got straight to the point with any change to Wolf’s training. Not that training was really what he did, now; sparring to keep his and Owl’s skills sharp kept most of their days full unless Owl sent him on a small errand or some task. Generally it was just something Owl himself did not want to do; someone needed to be killed in a town that was annoying to get to, materials or items needed to be retrieved, some noble needed a guard for a few days until Owl had killed an enemy. Wolf expected this to be more of the same.
“The Hirata clan requires a shinobi to guard the lord’s son for the foreseeable future. We agreed you would be the best fit. I am too old for the child to fully trust me.”
“Of course, sir. Child?” A longer assignment, then, but a welcome change.
“Yes. Fairly serious by all accounts but likes to visit with the villages around the estates and play with other children. There is a samurai who will also be protecting him but that will not be an excuse to slack off.” Owl leaned closer to his kneeling son and lowered his voice. “The child cannot be injured by normal means and is rumored to have immortality. His parents are worried that he will be kidnapped by someone testing that. Your job is to ensure that does not happen.” A much longer assignment. Wolf felt a thrill of excitement he squashed immediately. This was like the previous jobs, just longer.
Owl straightened back to his full height. “You have five minutes to gather what you need and then we leave.” Wolf nodded and hurried to his room, quite a glorified term for a section of Owl’s quarters that had a few threadbare curtains strung around it. Short as he was, he could touch both curtains and the wall while laying on the wooden floor. The final wall only had a small chest- which he could also touch laying down- pressed against the wall. From this chest he pulled out the spare sharpening stone, the extra rope for his grappling hook- the hook he carried already; this forested area practically required it- and, as the only item that was not completely essential, the small Buddha statue Owl had given him, three nights after Owl brought him here. After a moment’s consideration Wolf grabbed the small sewing kit Butterfly had taught him how to use and closed the chest, now empty except for a few scraps of cloth used to patch holes.
He ran back outside the main building to Owl’s loud voice berating him for taking longer than he needed. Wolf dropped into a kneel, apologizing, but Owl had already turned and was taking the main path out of the compound.
“Keep up! We need to be at Hirata before sunset.”
It was only an hour before sunset when the two shinobi entered the main estates. Kuro looked up at his father as they stood in front of the large window in the main hall.
“Owl is the taller shinobi, not many people have a braid as long as his. The other man must be his son, who will be your shinobi.” Tatsuo looked down at his young son and smiled. “I’m sure you’ll get along fine once you get used to him. Owl said he’s a little quiet, but you could get a stone to talk back.” Kuro did not share his tranquility.
“Father, why do I need two guards? I have Inosuke already. Two people watching me is a lot, especially when you and Mother don’t have anyone.”
“Your mother and I are normal people blessed with you.” Tatsuo had answered variations of this question multiple times since he brought up hiring a shinobi to guard Kuro. “We want to be sure you stay safe and the best way to do that is to have a shinobi as well as a samurai guarding you.”
“This is just because I can’t bleed, right?” Kuro stared up at him; he had obvious white streaks in his hair, the only outward sign he was different from anyone else. Tatsuo had asked his uncle Isshin for the books he had on the Dragon’s Heritage but had not received any of them yet, and was hoping this was normal for Kuro. He knew his understanding of the heritage was severely limited, but he also believed his son deserved to know what he had been born with.
“It’s part of that, Kuro. You have Dragon’s blood; like a dragon, then, you cannot die easily, and you can give that to someone if you choose to. But we don’t know how it works, or for how long, or anything else about it. That’s why I asked your Great-Uncle Isshin for his books, so we could learn more.” Tatsuo knew he probably should not have gone that in depth, but Kuro had had Inosuke following him around since he was five and now would have a stranger following him around possibly for the rest of his life. He deserved to know as much as his father did, even though it was barely nothing. “Inosuke is a good guard for you, but we felt it was better to have a ninja to deter other ninja.” Kuro nodded, still frowning; he may not have understood everything but he got enough of the explanation. Tatsuo chose not to mention that Owl had struck him as incredibly shifty; he hoped the man’s son would be better, but he had no other options for shinobi; the two Isshin had employed were apparently both out of commission now. He would have to hope this one was better than the few he had employed for various jobs around the estates in the past.
“Lord Tatsuo, the shinobi Owl and his son Wolf have arrived and are awaiting you in the main reception hall.” A bowing servant had entered the room quietly as they talked. Tatsuo nodded to the man and squelched his own worries.
“We will be right there. Come, Kuro, let us meet your shinobi.”
“Listen Wolf, you must never forget the Shinobi Code. As your father, my word is absolute. Your master’s is a close second. As of today, he is your master. Defend him with your life. If he is taken, bring him back at any cost. You understand me, don’t you Wolf…” Kuro heard Owl talking to his son, then leaving. His father had offered a room to Owl for the night but the older man had declined and said he would leave after making sure his son was prepared.
Kuro thought about their meeting as he prepared to sleep. His father had given him a plain sword to present to the shinobi and told him what to say. The new shinobi, his shinobi, hadn’t needed any prompting. He was a much shorter man than his father Owl, who could look Kuro’s father in the eyes. He had much shorter hair too, though Kuro had never seen someone with hair as long as Owl’s. He had a scar over his left eye, running from almost his hairline to his jaw. Kuro wondered how he got it. Owl had had a large scar too, running from above his right eye to his left jawbone, but that looked more like one of the Hirata samurai’s scars than his shinobi’s did.
His shinobi had been kneeling the entire time Owl had been introducing him. Even kneeling he was taller than Kuro, but everyone was. He’d followed Kuro to his room silently, inspected the room as Kuro pulled his sleeping pallet out, then kneeled again to ask for permission to use one of the small windows to get onto the roof to scope out the outside. Currently he was still on the roof somewhere; despite knowing he was supposed to keep it closed, Kuro had left the window open slightly anyway in the warm early summer night.
Kuro wondered how stealthy this shinobi could be, wearing a dull orange haori, but his father seemed happy so he couldn’t complain. The sun had fully set and the room was quickly getting dark; Kuro curled up on his pallet and fell asleep.
So this was Hirata. Wolf pulled himself up onto the roof and knelt there, listening to the child that was now his master settle onto a sleeping pallet and eventually fall asleep. Lord Kuro had smiled at him while he was swearing fealty, showing off several teeth in various stages of growing in or almost falling out. He had a few streaks of white through his hair as well, a strange sign of age contrasted with the few adult teeth. Wolf shook his head; it didn’t matter what his new lord looked like, he had a job to do now.
Owl had given Wolf a few final instructions to go with the list he had dictated as they traveled, and seemingly had left; Wolf doubted he was truly gone.
He could explore the estates, checking the lay of the land and finding potential routes in for invaders, but he had a feeling Owl would be waiting for him to abandon his charge and would yell at him when he returned from scouting. Equally possible, Owl would be hiding somewhere around the estate and would find and yell at him for not searching thoroughly for invaders.
Wolf looked towards the barely open window and made a decision. He could check around the manor proper, and return to the rooftop to ensure Lord Kuro was safe frequently; the rest of the estates would have to wait. He hoped the samurai guarding Kuro was good at his job, because despite his father’s warning he wanted to take advantage of the man to look around the retainer’s buildings below the manor proper.
Dilemma solved, Wolf carefully descended from the rooftop and began prowling around the buildings. A few areas still had servants working, and he paused in the shadows to memorize faces before moving on. The estates were not very large but that meant he could take his time, returning to his rooftop often to check on Lord Kuro. He got to the bridge crossing the river and down the path, combing the bamboo on either side, by an hour or so before sunrise and decided to return until Kuro rose. He saw a ledge to the right of the bridge as he walked back across, down almost at the river, but he had been out here longer than he wanted already; he would need to explore it tomorrow. Wolf returned to the rooftop to wait for the sun to rise.