"BOOOOYAAH!"

Micky's voice rang through the office hall.

"First place! 13k minutes in stealth, 6k without interruption, employee of the month. And a sweet bonus for vacation in a five star hotel of my choice."

Everyone rolled their eyes. At least inside. Everyone knew how Micky was the favourite of the Clanhead. Donny sighed. Unbelievable, that the chaotic Micky would have the greatest stealth score.

"C'mon Micky, sneaking around is all you do. Have you seen my report? I sabotaged five top secret operations and delayed them untill our clients released their products" Leon chimmed in.

Kaboom

El had thrown his disciple through a shoji blind. The Clan would deduce the damage from El's paycheck. Did he even receive one? The last time he was tasked to tail a high profile CEO it ended in a fistfight. But for a ninja El wasn't low-key enough. It is 2023. Instead of wearing some hoodies or jogging pants, he still insisted on his very eye-catching black robe. The Clan had to pay a hefty sum to let this accident disappear.

Donny smiled at the surveilance camera. Surely their father was having a headache.

Improvise. Adapt. Overcome. That was how their Clan survived untill now. As the ties and loyalty grew thin, money held them together. And the best way to motivate Gen Z ninjas was gamification. Let them compete against each other. Tracking their times, their achievements, their progress. Paying them a bonus if they did well. Of course, with all those drones and cams all around it became hard to hide. But nowadays their disguise were disgruntled teenagers. Some kids hanging out on the street. Nobody bat an eye, if they were recording with their devices or taking pictures. Everyone does that. Also. Hacking was a part of their education. Firearm training, drone racing, doing things from a distant. Much safer than swordfights, like in the past.

To those who didn't know they were a modern family business working in the field of IT consulting. A very good pretense to meet their targets.

Life sure changes all the time. But that their family was a family of ninjas wasn't one of these changes.

Niko, short for Nikolai, is what you would get if you'd mix deadly ninja disciplines with a man who survived a decade in Siberian gulag. Basically you'd have both an immovable object and unstoppable force within one man, who was also quite loyal. At least, that's what The Black Blood Brotherhood thought since they took him under their wing and taught him the way of the ninja. For all past eight years they were feeding a viper. A viper that one day would bite his master and slither into the darkness.

"Bollocks. Utter shite" I kept spitting out my anger, the scene of bloodbath lay before my eyes. The more I looked at it, the more infatuated with it I got. A morbid part of me got curious, but realistic part kept whispering this might happen to you too, friend.

"We couldn't find the bodies, sire" Charlie appeared behind me, jumping down from the ventilation tunnels without a thud. Almost gave me a heart attack. That boy knew his way around dark narrow tunnels, like a true ninja. Me, I never liked claustrophobic spaces, even during my training days, decades ago.

"If master was here, he would tell something along the lines of find the bloody bodies or there shall be no biscuits when you gulp down your tea!" I told Charlie. "He would also add, wanker to remind you how much he cares".

Charlie in turn nodded and was gone in a second, disappeared in the darkness that enveloped the dreadful looking meeting room. Black brotherhood's headquarters always looked grim, but goddamn, this was extreme even for them. Six heads lay on the small round table without their bodies, chairs left empty. They were placed on respective parts of the table, where their bodies would have been located if they were still alive. As if their bodies just disappeared and the heads just dropped on the table. "Well... stranger things have happened" I mumbled to myself.

"Sire, do you think he's still here?" Anya asked behind her black mask, her voice muffled.

"I believe he pissed off long time ago. If he were here, our heads would have decorated that table." I answered to take off the pressure from my disciple. "I think our heads there would have elevated the quality of the scenery, don't you think?"

She didn't reply. She had a thing for bad jokes, never laughed at them that fucker. But again, I've never seen her face, maybe she is hiding a wide grin there.

After making sure that there were no booby traps around the table, I moved forward. Looked at Ismail's face for a few seconds. "Honestly looks better than ever" I thought grimly. Death gave him a macabre aura of charm. He was the leader of TBBB. I guess he died like a leader too, surrounded by his flock. On his sides sat the heads of Ali and the other Ali. Mirza on the left from Ali looked as if he was smiling. He was a funny guy and it seemed he carried that goofy face of his to the other world. Top of Farad's head was missing, his brain glimmering under the single lamp on the ceiling. Honestly, I was quite surprised when I saw his brain, never thought he had one. Then there was Tarik... or who I thought was Tarik, as his head was split in two, his dead eyes barely visible on either sides of the ravine left by the blade.

"The last vanguard of ninjas in middle east, gone, just like that, master" I told to Edward after giving him a call. "Their heads are here, but Niko hid the bodies it seems, I don't know why tough"

"Find the bloody bodies or there shall be no biscuits when you gulp down your tea, wanker" master shouted from quarter a world away. Twenty years and the same analogy kept going strong. I think when he dies and when we put up a shitty memorial for our master, I shall personally ask the organization to carve those words onto his tomb.

"Yes, master. It shall be done" I finished the conversation, although he hanged up before me. It was a grave day for us ninjas, after all "a rogue ninja", the old scriptures said, "is more dangerous than a hungry tiger". I had no idea about his motives and that made him ever more dangerous. It seemed our corporation back in London will have some housekeeping to do, as TBBB were one of our closest allies.

"Anya, call the cleaners" I ordered my underling as I took closer look to Ismail's head.

"Sire, don't forget the gloves" Charlie gave me another scare, appearing out of thin air behind me. I was never as good in scaring the shit out of people. This guy was 24 and he mastered it already. He was going to be a great teacher when he reaches my age.

"Did you find the bodies?" I asked the second time and was gifted with no the second time. "Well, if you can't do your job, then go make me some tea instead. The kitchen is over there" I pointed at the small counter on the opposite side of the room.

"Sire, I did find this however" Charlie mumbled and quickly handed me a piece of battered paper.

It was a sign in kanji, written in blood and it read as "We, the ones you thought obliterated, the ones you thought buried under the heavy dirt of history. We were always there, watching your ways and will be there long since your name and teachings are forgotten. We are coming for you..." it read. That fucker Niko kept the best part for the last. As my eyes kept reading the dreadful but somewhat poetic text, my mind exploded into million small pieces inside my thick skull. The text ended with "We the samurai".

After the bombing of Los Alamos and Washington, Japan rose to power and humanity have entered the modern technological era. Japan ruled the world for a decade. Until their culture are deeply embedded to all colonized countries, Japan gave them freedom. But that is all people thought.

The world is still being run by a secret order known as the Shadow walkers - Kageoka. It is known that the same order was behind the bombing of Los Alamos, when the kageokas sabotaged the manhattan project in New Mexico. And the same bomb was used to drop in Pentagon, destroying the rising power of the old United States.

But due to stretched too thin, Japan seize to colonize after that tragic moment. And all the rest of European countries began to fear Japan. United States was later named United Japanese Territories of America.

The Japanese culture was then introduced widely to the rest of the world. Not just US, but all countries in East Asia. Strict working practices were implemented, working hours was changed to 12 hrs. And innovations are highly encouraged by the government. Even schools and educational systems were fashioned in the Japanese educational system.

But due to these strict work conditions, all Japanese territories were boosts into modernization. Major cities have advanced technologies, connected by the fastest trains ever built. Passports were obsolete between Japanese territories. Though ten years after the world war 2 ended, all these countries gained freedom, the Japanese influence is so strong, these countries remain close allies with each other.

You began to think why is that? Of course they have their own leaders and law makers, definitely one of these countries will have their own laws that would prevent anyone from traveling freely to their country.

But no one is truly free within these countries, the shadow government, still controls us. An office building exploding was masked as a gas leak incident. But according to my friends in this subreddit, the owner of that business was known to have scammed many clients. Another was senator Morgan, who was found dead in her house. Rumor has it, she’s pro borders. After her death, no one wants to pass the bill.

They are not just assassins, they are known to be the best saboteurs. Two years ago, it was reported on an international news, that a man named Kim, Jung un died together with five other people in a fire, in his residential house in Korea. It is rumored that they were planning to overthrow the Korean Prime Minister to give the leadership to the descendant of Kim Il-sung.

Similar thing happened to a group of communist conspirators in China. Every members were killed and masked like a suicide or accident.

The Kageoka is a very systematic organization. They have ranking systems in place. The entry level, are known as Genin, they were given day jobs, investigators, police, guards, even store keepers. Any jobs that would require observations. Next were the Chunin, they have higher authoritative positions. Government and military positions, they gave the missions to the Genin from the higher ranks. The next higher up are the Jonin, they were the leaders, of this shadow government. They can be Prime Ministers, or Deputy Prime Ministers, they can also be anyone who works closely the country leaders. They can be Generals, Senators, or even company CEOs. The descendants of the founders of the largest corporations ruling over the previous territories of Japanese Empire. And they all are reporting directly to the Kage Kami - the shadow leader. No one knows who he is or who she is. All I know, is that, i’m risking my life putting this information here.

I know they’re after me. So, i’m making sure, everyone will know about them before they could even take me. Hopefully, this subreddit will help me expose them.

u/notoninjapuppets

[Sweet & Frosty]

"If you don't tell me where we're going, you're getting there alone," Valentine smirked at Frost to let him know she was only half-kidding. "I got my Flair! We should be celebrating!" Frost, the blue-haired teen stopped walking and turned to face her. They were on a downtown sidewalk in the middle of the afternoon; a majority of people were still at work or school. The street was calm with only a handful of patrons moving between the shops around them.

"So, this is the patience of a Grandmaster?" Frost chuckled at her.

"Shut up," she rolled her dark red eyes at him. "I'd prefer to be patient somewhere else and not have to spend another minute on this Server," she relaxed and leaned closer to bump against him, shoulder to shoulder. "Thanks for doing the dailies with me, by the way. Every day...," she added.

"Aw, what's a few weeks?" Frost nodded. He knew that would be her only 'thank you' on the matter; and, he was glad for even that much.

"Seriously though," she added. "I know what I am, but even I'm tired of seeing them everywhere," she gestured at the shop next to them for effect. It was the closest example; but, she could have easily pointed at the ninja coffee shop or the ninja dry cleaners next door. The front window was covered by a ninja clad in black standing with his sword ready. The word 'Blacksmith' was printed in small letters on the blade. "So, can you at least give me an idea of how much longer we'll be?"

"No idea how long it'll take," Frost shrugged. But, he turned and opened the shop door for Valentine. "But, this is where we're going." Valentine gave him a curious look and walked past him into the store.

"Paladins can use katanas?" she asked.

"We can equip them," he nodded. "The synergy isn't ideal; but, there’s no handicap," he explained.

"Are you window shopping, or....," Valentine asked. If he was picking something up maybe they would be out of there within a few minutes.

"No, picking up a custom order," Frost replied as they walked through the long, narrow shop. The walls were lined with shiny katanas on display. They arrived at the waist-high wooden counter and Frost placed a node down next to the register.

"Hi, I’m here for this?" he asked the ninja clerk. She was a short woman with reading glasses and a brown leather apron over her black ninja garb. She nodded and collected the node before turning around and venturing further into the depths of the building. She passed through a curtain made from hundreds of hanging origami cranes.

"I should start thinking about my next sword, I guess...," Valentine mumbled to herself. She walked away from the counter and began studying the nearest rack of swords. "Because, that's what my Flair does, you know?" she asked Frost.

"It thinks about your next sword?" Frost asked. He smirked; but, Valentine still doubted him for a moment before she shook her head. Her long, wine-red ponytail made waves with the motion. Of course, he knew what it did. He was there every step of the way.

"You know what I mean," she replied.

"The Grandmaster's Patience...," Frost explained her own Flair to her. "...lets you store up to three different swords and switch between them even during attacks. So far you only have two swords you'd want to use; so, you should start thinking about your next sword," he said.

"Since you went through the trouble of being a smart ass about it...," Valentine grinned at him. "...I'm going to enjoy proving you wrong. I only have one sword and still need two more," She was secretly thrilled that he showed interest in the things that interested her. But, when he got a simple detail like that wrong she realized he wasn't interested because of her at all; he just enjoyed that kind of minutia in games. But, she didn't lose heart completely; maybe he included her starter sword.

"I'M SO SORRY FOR THE WAIT!" A portly man with thick upper arms dashed through the curtain of cranes. His face was dirty with grease and sweat and he had a pair of goggles sitting atop the few curls of green on his balding head. He wore a dark leather apron over his dirty black ninja uniform. He carried a long white box wrapped with a golden bow and set it on the counter while he bowed to Frost.

"My name is Glory Smith, I own this shop; it's an Honor to do business with you, Sir Frost."

"Uhh... thank you?" Frost replied. He would have preferred to have a quieter interaction.

"Please, would you do me the honor of inspecting my work?"

"Uhh..," Frost hesitated and glanced at Valentine. She was thoroughly amused with the situation.

"Well, don't leave him hanging," she said. "Inspect the man's work."

"Fine...," Frost's shoulder's slumped as he pulled the box closer and lifted the lid. The inside was lined with black velvet.

"Whooaaaa....," Valentine was awed as soon as she saw the sword. The blade appeared to be made of golden translucent glass and the handle was wrapped with a silky light blue material. Her eyes were glued to it as Frost lifted it out of the case. He turned and held it by the handle awkwardly for a moment; then, he offered it to Valentine.

"I don't know a thing about katanas. Is this any good?" he asked.

"Is it any good?" Glory Smith interrupted. "That is made with the highest grade materials available anywhere! It can't not be good," he scoffed. Then, he seemed to remember his role.

"But, please," he nodded at Valentine. "Sir Frost values your opinion," he said. As soon as her hands gripped the handle, Valentine could feel its quality. It was balanced and light as a shadow.

"It's amazing," Valentine said. She offered it back to Frost. He shook his head, then nodded at the curtain of cranes behind the counter.

"Not like that, go try it out," he said. "There's a training room she can use, right?" Frost asked.

"Of course, Sir Frost!" Glory Smith nodded at Valentine. "First room on the right," he said. Valentine did not hesitate to take the sword around the counter. The truth was she wanted to see what the sword could do too.

"Hey, what's with the,‘Sir Frost’, business?" Frost asked Glory Smith once they were alone.

"You could have taken your commission to any other ninja blacksmith and you chose me. I'm very grateful!"

"Are things that slow for smiths?" he asked.

"Oh not at all," Glory Smith shook his head. "Smiths are in high demand, and I can charge more now. As a result of your commission, I was able to meet Turbo. The quality of raw materials makes a huge difference in crafting. On a small scale, Turbo has higher quality than materials from Sharp Development; truly artisanal quality."

"This was so wicked!" Valentine dashed out from behind the curtain with a large smile on her face. "It has Holy and Ice damage!," she dashed to Frost, then sheepishly offered the sword back to him. "You know that already,” she added.

"Yeah, that's how I ordered it...," Frost nodded. Instead of taking the offered handle, he made a point of staring at it. After an extra moment of looking at her hand, he met her eyes. "...for you."

***

Thank you for reading! I’m responding to prompts every day. This is story #1846 in a row. (Story #036 in year six.). This story is part of an ongoing saga that takes place at a high school in my universe. It began on August 22nd and I will be adding to it with prompts every day until May 26th. They are all collected in order at this link.

Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.

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>* No AI-generated reponses 🤖 >* Stories 100 words+. Poems 30+ but include "[Poem]" >* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail >* [RF] and [SP] for stricter titles >* Be civil in any feedback and follow the rules

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