When Noboru finally looked up they were both there. His eyes were immediately drawn to the girl with long red hair, but it wasn’t the unnatural color that caught his eye, instead it was the two warped red scars on the left side of her face. They were scraggly, and dry, and ugly, it was a hideous sight that Noboru could not stop looking at.

  “You got a problem or something?” The other girl said.

  Noboru snapped out of his gaze, and saw the other girl staring daggers at him. Her hair was also long, but it was a light pink, and braided, her eyes as silver as ingots, it was as if he was staring directly at the full moon. But the most noticeable feature about her was the round pot on her waist, sticking out of it were green veiny plants that seemed to move about on their own in her peripheral.

  “It’s alright….” The red haired girl said. “My name is Ayano, you’ve never seen a slave before have you?”

  Hilt turned back to Noboru again, a befuddled look on his face. “You would’ve seen plenty of Orange Men before leaving the village here. How is this the first time you’re seeing a slave?”

  Noboru pinched the bridge of his nose in thought. The truth was that he’d never seen anyone with markings like that.

  Noboru bowed his head again, but this time it was before Ayano, and the pink haired girl. “I apologize, I didn’t mean to offend.”

  Hilt grabbed Noboru’s hair from the back, and yanked him up. “You’re making us look stupid. Stop.”

  He stumbled for a moment before Hilt released him, afterwards he took a look around saw numerous dock workers staring at him with disbelief, many of whom had disgusted looks on their face.

  It was the purple haired girl who introduced herself next. “My name is Tsubaki, you don’t get out much do you?” She asked Noboru, her expression had changed from one that was annoyed to one of disappointment.

  He looked back at Ayano who kept her head down, shyly avoiding his gaze, and the gaze of the denizens going about their business.

  ‘Who knew a simple mark would cause so much trouble.’ Noboru thought.

  He silently considered what his Kosutta peers have taught him, and the numerous books he’d read couped up inside the Kosutta complex. Noboru was aware of slaves, and their role in Ame, but there was an odd juxtaposition he faced between being read on an issue, and seeing it first hand. No amount of books could’ve prepared him for the ghastly sight on that girls face - in some ways it reminded him of the scars Sejin had left him, but unlike Ayano he was able to hide those marks.

  It was another two girls that appeared shortly after Ayano, and Tsubaki. One of them must’ve been the Inuzuka heir because she had a small pup sitting on her shoulder. The other had a similar hairstyle, and eye color to Tsubaki.

  ‘That’s right, they must be from the Akinoyo clan… sisters perhaps?’

  “What the hell are you doing here?” The unknown Akinoyo girl ignored everyone, and approached Tsubaki directly - even Hilt was taken back by the girls forwardness.

  Tsubaki didn’t budge, or step back at all, instead she held her own refusing to give this girl any ground. “Kaede.” She said. “I’m not here representing the Akinoyo, I’m here as myself.” She was calm, and firm with her words, but Noboru couldn’t help but notice a tinge of hurt in her voice.

  He turned to Hilt, Ebisu, and the other candidates and saw that they were equally shocked by Kaede’s behavior.

  Kaede herself was dressed in an exquisite silver dress with a pink line striped down the middle in a pattern that reminded Noboru of lightning. Underneath she wore silver cargo shorts, and standard shinobi sandals. In truth, everyone was lightly dressed which didn’t surprise him, after all they lived in the coldest region on the continent, they were used to the weather.

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  “That’s not the point, you’re supposed to be dead, remember? After everything you did you don’t deserve to be here!” Kaede yelled.

  “Hold on, calm down.” Ebisu said stepping between the two. “Now isn’t the time to be arguing like this.”

  Kaede stepped back, her face wincing in disgust at Ebisu. “And a bottom feeder like you shouldn’t even be breathing the same air as me.”

  “Well, that’s just unnecessarily harsh.” He replied.

  But Ebisu’s de-escalation technique seemed to work somewhat as Kaede backed away from Tsubaki. “I’ll make sure the proctors keep you on this damn island.”

  For a while everyone seemed to split into their own groups. Kaede, and the Inuzuka heir kept to themselves, while Hilt, and Ebisu were engaged in their own conversation.

  Noboru looked over at Ayano and saw her leave Tsubaki’s side, and go over to Rui, and Kaede. Noboru watched as she tried to mingle with the two of them, and from his perspective it looked like Kaede was completely avoiding Ayano, pretending as if she didn’t even exist.

  Meanwhile both him, and Tsubaki stood alone together taking everything in. He took a moment to study her more closely, she was undoubtedly the strongest woman on the team, her arms were bulky, and large, and he could see her abs through her undershirt just above the pot on her waist.

  “This is the second time in 48 hours I’ve been stared at.” Tsubaki said, snapping Noboru out of his gaze. “First Ayano, now me. Do you like looking at broken things?” She asked.

  Noboru shook his head. “It’s like you said, I don’t get out much.” He replied.

  “That’s surprising, I would’ve expected the heir to the Kosutta clan to be well rounded.”

  “Unfortunately, I’m full of surprises.” Noboru said sardonically. Tsubaki seemed to find his response amusing, but he was not trying to be humorous; the rest of the team was under the impression that he was as great as his sister, that he was a master of the Kiidogan. It indeed would be surprising for them to find out that he was neither of those things.

  It was then that Noboru noticed something around her neck. She wore a necklace just like him, but the pendant was different.

  “Is that… a tongue?” Noboru heard himself say.

  “I’m also full of surprises.”

  Finally, in the distance coming from the village were two other figures. One of them was tall, and wooden. It looked like a large lion standing on its hind legs walking slowly toward them. Next to the wooden lion was another girl, but unlike the other women on the team this girl had jet black hair, black eyes, and her attire was red and black.

  As they approached everyone broke from their conversations, and came together as a group. Once they arrived the girl introduced herself first.

  “Hello, my name is Hitomi, it’s nice to meet you all!” She was excited, and her smile was as bright as the sun.

  The group looked at each other clearly unsure of how to interpret this girls arrival. Rui in particular had a scowl on her face for some reason.

  “Hitomi…?” Ebisu said his voice trailing off. “Are you part of a clan?”

  The girl seemed to fidget in place, her feet ankling together, her index fingers pressing against each other. “W-Well, not in an official capacity. Um, I-I guess you could say I’m by myself.” Hitomi said, her eyes darting right, and left.

  ‘She’s clearly nervous. But about what?’

  But before the group could question Hitomi collectively Hilt had derailed the line of questioning. “Then you.” He said stepping toward the large puppet. “You must be the Kusakyu shinobi.”

  Once again, as the arbiter of the group Ebisu stepped forward, placing a hand on Hilts shoulder. “Let’s not make any assumptions. Would a member of the Kusakyu clan ever wear something like that?”

  The boy in the puppet spoke softly, the words distorted by voice filters within the wooden contraption he was inside of. “I’I’m Endou’s son.”

  Noboru looked at everyone’s faces, Rui, Hilt, Kaede, and Ebisu all seemed to recognize that name, but Ayano, Tsubaki and himself all had neutral or confused expressions. Endou must’ve been someone close to Rubin, a jonin perhaps - Noboru speculated.

  “See Hilt? The Kusakyu aren’t participating this year. You remember Endou right?” Ebisu turned back to the boy in the puppet. “I’m sorry for your loss.” He said with a bow.

  “H-He was a good man.”

  That seemed to calm Hilt down a bit, he sighed a deep breath of relief as if a burden had finally been lifted from his shoulders.

  Noboru felt himself taking a deep breath as well. He looked before him at the odd cast of characters who had assembled at Ryoto port: two Akinoyo sisters who hated each other, a boy hiding in a puppet, the son of the lead jonin, a mysterious dark-haired girl, and even Ebisu, who had an odd curiosity about him. Lastly, there was Noboru himself, representing the Kosutta clan

  He thought about Mikan, Minori, Minaka, and even Sejin—over a thousand years of Kosutta ancestry behind him. Noboru clenched his right fist and closed his eyes. Would he let them down here, or prove himself worthy of his clan name?