Relax, I'm A Ninja (6 page)

I shrugged. “I’m sure they’re all over the place. My dad had one in Japan, then made his own when he came here. We cover San Francisco, mostly, but there are a few in the Bay Area we know of. We call one the Tiger Clan, because they tend to use claws. I don’t know their official name or identities, though. They don’t bother us—we don’t bother them.”

She nodded. “What if they do bother us? Like that guy who attacked Todd—he was a real ninja, wasn’t he?”

“Yeah, hmm …” No one had ever asked that before, and it had never been an issue. I thought about Todd lying in the hospital, how badly I wanted that guy to pay for it. “Ninja war?”

Her smile filled with mischief, like she’d been a ninja waiting for a Clan all these years. “This is so, so cool.”

I couldn’t seem to take my eyes off her. Strands of shiny black hair floated around her gentle features. I’d never noticed how full her lips were or how cute her tiny nose was. She was really pretty when I took the time to look. I stopped myself—I could not think that about Amy Sato that way. I squared my shoulders and forced myself to say something that might scare her out of acting like she was fine. “So, you know this is a permanent thing, right? No getting out or hiding or anything. No going back to normal life.”

My own words hit me. I didn’t even know what normal life was. Ninjutsu was all I knew. I’d always thought I had a lot in common with my friends. We lived and breathed nerd life, but there was a part of me they’d never know. In truth, I had to hide from them. No one really knew me.

Amy shrugged. “Normal is so overrated.”

“No, it’s not.” We stood outside her three-story Victorian-style mansion, leaning on the fence that guarded the smallest courtyard ever. “You can’t tell anyone. You’re alone. My mom—she doesn’t even know her own husband. Normal is nice. Normal is…easy.”

“Tosh.” Her smile was sad. “You are
totally
projecting.”

“Am I?” I looked away, embarrassed.

“You
aren’t alone. Your dad knows who you are, and so do Marty and all the other ones out there. And now I know, too.” She leaned her head on my arm, and I didn’t know whether to feel happy or terrible. “For what it’s worth, the real you is way nicer, even if you’re a cheater when you fight.”

I smiled. “Oh yeah, and kicking a guy in the balls is totally fair.”

“Fair when you’re my size! How else was I supposed to win?”

“You could have lost.”

“I don’t like to lose.” She fake-pouted, at which point I realized I needed to leave. She was flirting with me, like she did with everyone, and I could not get sucked in.

“Well, I better get going.” I pulled myself from the fence. “This walk is usually for damage control purposes, but it looks like you’re ‘fine’ with your new…job.”

“Totally fine.” She stood up and opened the gate. “See you tomorrow?”

“Yup.” I jogged back to the dojo, unable to stop thinking about Todd. That poison…I still had to tell my dad. He’d been too busy with classes earlier and wouldn’t even let me pull him aside. I could easily leave out Courtney and still tell him everything about the attack. Maybe he could explain what was going on.

7

The dojo was closed for the night when I arrived, its bright red and white sign darkened. I went to the back and unlocked the door. When I entered the training room, my father wasn’t there, so I went upstairs.

Mom sat in her favorite brown recliner watching a Japanese game show. Her housedress made her look sixty, though she was barely forty.

“No! Push from your center!” she cried at the television in Japanese. She got up and mimicked whatever she wanted the contestant to do. “
Baka
!”

I took off my shoes and headed straight for the kitchen. Dinner sat on the tiled counter, still steaming.

“Bring your food in here and watch this with me,” she called. “These guys are being so stupid!”

I laughed as I grabbed the biggest plate I could find. Then I opened our rice cooker and piled on the rice. I threw some steamed vegetables and rolled omelets on the other side. My bowl of miso was on the table. I chugged it as I walked back to the living room and sat on our old green couch.

“Where’s Dad?” He left most nights, but not usually this early.

“He needed a walk. He should be home in a couple hours,” she said without looking away from the TV. “This guy thinks he can pick up that big block—he needs to push it. They get the dumbest people for these shows now.” She was supposed to laugh at people willing to pedal around on cat-sized bikes, not critique their form. But she really did know what she was talking about. The dojo was bought with the money she won from those shows.

“Or at least use that stick and rock for leverage.” I shoveled another mouthful of rice in with my chopsticks. No one made rice better than my mom; it was sticky but not mushy.

She nodded. “See? You’d win.”

“Yeah, I would.” I laughed. You’d never guess she was so energetic. She was the kind of lady who never looked people in the eye or talked to strangers. She didn’t even come to my school stuff, since she was too embarrassed about her English. I felt lucky I got to see her like this. Sometimes I wished I could tell her more about my life, but then again, it was better she didn’t know how much danger Dad and I were in on a regular basis.

I pulled out my homework to distract myself until my dad got home. Dad didn’t show up until two. Mom had already gone to bed and I was dozing off on the couch, my chemistry book abandoned for some late-night, totally inaccurate kung fu movie. He didn’t even jump when I sat up.

“Do you need to speak with me, son?” He pulled his mask off, sitting in the recliner. He was always serious, but something felt different tonight. His mouth was pulled tight like he was mad at me.

His reaction to my kissing Amy came rushing back. Not that I planned on it, but relationships within the Clan weren’t technically off limits. Though they weren’t commonplace either.

“Um, did I do something wrong?”

He hesitated. At least that was what I thought the twitch was. I’d never seen him pause like that before—like he was taken off guard. “You are getting older. Such tactics are acceptable on missions, but should be used with extreme discretion on Clan members.”

“So you would have rather had me lose?” That didn’t seem like him. Coming out on top was always the goal. He should be proud of me like he’d always been.

“The fox does not lose when he retreats to the foxhole.”

“Yes, Sensei.” I tried to see his logic. He probably didn’t want Amy thinking that was normal Clan practice, that I’d take advantage of her. I didn’t regret my choice, but I’d listen to my father.

“Is that all?”

I shook my head. “You know how Todd got attacked? I’m positive it was a ninja.”

His breath caught, betraying yet another small hint of surprise. He was so off his game. Something was up. “Why is that?”  

“We went to see Todd at the hospital today. He showed us the wound, and I could swear it had the mark of Dragon’s Bile.” What I was saying was crazy. Dragon’s Bile was the most lethal poison in the ninja arsenal—incapacitating in ten seconds, fatal in two minutes.

My father tensed. “What did it look like?”

“A jade tinge in the veins surrounding his wound, and distinctly lime-colored pus. It smelled like saffron.”

He nodded. “Dragon’s Bile.”

“But what kind of Clan would allow its people to do that? I mean, it was so…unnecessary.”

He took in a deep breath, but didn’t answer. I could almost feel his indecision as he looked everywhere but my face. He knew something, but he either couldn’t tell me or wouldn’t. I wasn’t a fan of either option.

“Should we, I don’t know, go after him?”

“Perhaps.” Not a helpful answer. Even though Todd was my friend, Dad wouldn’t put the whole Clan in jeopardy for vengeance. If the ninja and his Clan were a direct threat to us, then we’d take him out.

I could always tell when my dad was done talking. It was as if the air currents suddenly stopped, so silent that sound would mean death. I stood up, tired and more frustrated than ever. “Okay, goodnight.”

If Dad wouldn’t tell me what was happening, then confronting Courtney was my only choice.

8

I was determined to get something out of Courtney that day. It had been two weeks, and I had nothing thanks to her iron-clad cover. She made sure to come to history with Logan in tow and kept a flock of cheerleaders around her at lunch. Since school was a bust, I’d even snuck back to her house a few times and didn’t find her home—at three in the morning.

A girl had been murdered in Richmond District the day before. The article I read described a crescent-like stab wound exactly like what I’d seen on Todd. I couldn’t give up, not if this guy was still killing innocent people.

“Hey, you look stressed,” Amy said as she leaned on the locker next to mine.

“Do I?” Now that she saw me so much, she could pick my façade apart no matter how hard I tried to hide. I thought it would bother me, but it didn’t. I needed someone who knew the real me.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“Eh, the usual. Can’t wait for winter break.” I shut my locker and leaned next to her. I wondered if I should tell her about Courtney, but I didn’t quite trust her yet. She might not believe me. Or worse, she might tell my dad. “So, where were you last night?”

“Oh, um …” She looked at her clunky black boots. “I mouthed off to my mom and she wouldn’t let me come to practice.”

“That’s harsh. Does she have something against karate?” I was joking, but my comment turned her smirk into a frown.

“Actually, she hates it.” The bell rang and we headed to class.

“I’m sorry.” I didn’t like seeing her upset. She was never sad. Maybe those smiles and jokes hid some of her feelings, but I still liked them.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s actually a really funny story. My dad signed me up to spite her, but he didn’t think I’d actually like it.” She bumped my shoulder playfully, like she was trying to hide the fact that her eyes glistened. “Will Sensei kill me for not showing up?”

I wanted to make her feel better, and Eddie wasn’t there to see. Not that it mattered anyway, because Amy and I were just friends. I put my arm around her shoulder and squeezed. “Not kill, unless you consider his icy glare fatal.”

She laughed, and her mouth broke into a genuine smile. “Thanks, Tosh.”

“Anytime.”

***

After chemistry I prepared to face Courtney. Honestly, I didn’t have any great ideas to get more information from her. She had the upper hand at school. It’s not like I could walk up and start some wicked ninja fight, own her face, and demand the facts.

I stared at her in history, wondering how aware she really was. She hadn’t done anything very ninja-like since she’d ripped me from her windowsill. Sometimes I doubted it had happened, but only for a second.

I should have been listening to my teacher’s lecture, but I finally had a decent idea to get Courtney’s attention without looking suspicious. She was turned the other way toward Logan and might not be paying attention. I wrote a message in Japanese and balled it up. Then I chucked the paper ball over three people. It was headed right for her shoulder.

But as it passed over the second person’s head, Courtney started to move. She lifted up her notes like she was checking something. My paper ball hit the notebook and fell to the ground. She didn’t even look at it.

It wouldn’t have made me so mad if she hadn’t flipped me off as she turned her stupid paper. I got the point without the added rudeness. I faced forward again and sighed. At least I wasn’t making up the whole “Courtney is a ninja” thing.

We were talking about the Civil War in class, and I decided I should listen for once. I still had to get good grades to keep my cover.

“Abraham Lincoln changed our country forever,” Mrs. Sanders was saying. “If Lincoln hadn’t been president, our country could be very different. Some even say it may have been different if he weren’t assassinated …”

The last word struck me. I knew a thing or two about assassination. I wondered if Courtney would think the same things. With a new idea, I shot my hand into the air.

“Yes, Toshiro?” Mrs. Sanders said my name in the worst English accent, butchering the “r” sound. That’s why I had people call me Tosh instead.

“Were there spies in the Civil War? Like, people who’d sneak around and learn important information and stuff?” Spies were a lot like ninjas, except they worked with governments. I glanced over to Courtney—she looked at me with one eyebrow arched. She got that I was talking to her. Excellent.

“A little off topic, Toshiro, but yes, there were spies on both the Union and Confederate sides. We know that they gathered some important information on the opposing armies, but I’m afraid much of what they did is lost.” She looked like she wanted to go on with her speech about Lincoln, but I wasn’t finished.

“What if the information isn’t lost, just secret? Don’t we
deserve
to know? I mean, we are citizens of this country, and the information is so old it couldn’t possibly affect anything if they told us.” I glanced at Courtney, positive she’d figure out that I was telling her to cough it up.

“You pose an interesting question, one that I’m sure would make a good debate. Throughout history, governments have kept information from their people. Anyone else have thoughts on this?” And, like I’d hoped, Courtney’s hand shot up. “Courtney?”

“They would have told us if we
needed
to know.” She glanced at me. “The general public doesn’t need to know everything that goes on. They couldn’t handle knowing how many threats our country receives daily.”

I shook my head. How could she think I couldn’t handle it? That wasn’t fair—she didn’t know anything about me. “How does the
government
know that? What if the public could
help?
”