Yukorite stared at his third in line as Mayori looked at him with displeasure beside his master. First Tsume, then Takuma, now Natomi? What was becoming of the code of honor that their ancestors had bestowed upon their clan? What was happening to obedience?
"You went to see Tsume?"
"Yes." Natomi said, not looking up as he stayed on one knee, head bent.
"You ignored my order to report to me immediately and then you go out to see that disgusting thing?"
"No matter what you say about it, milord, I'm afraid that he is your son... After what I observed with young Takuma, I had to see what was so life threatening that a servant would go out against orders."
"At risk of your own hide?" Mayori asked.
"I would rather you beat me and whip me than leave Tsume out there the way he is." He finally looked up and stared at Yukorite. "He is very, very sick. He is unable to move much due to his predicament and with that, can hardly defend himself, let alone look for food and water. Takuma knew this but didn't know what else to do for him."
"If my son hadn't been careless-"
"My lord, to be frank, it could have just as easily happened to Mayori or I. We each had a small battalion to lead in that raid on the castle. The three entry points were from above, level, and below. It wouldn't have mattered who went into the apothecary, the timing is what caused the problem. The enchantress came in unexpected."
"The difference between us and Tsume is that we wouldn't have hesitated to go to the rafters of the room." Mayori growled.
"On the contrary, she would have surprised us just as much as she did Tsume and we would have assumed she was just throwing flour at us just like Tsume did. Either one of us could have ended up in the same situation."
"Again, I would have cut it out." Mayori growled, pointing to himself.
"Then you have a harder heart than I or Tsume. Your honor is extraordinary." He said with a small snarl.
"Silence..." Yukorite said, holding up his hand. "Besides revealing your disobedience, what exactly is your purpose?"
"I have come to ask for a proposition."
"You have my attention."
"Let me care for Tsume and if Takuma so wills it, he may come as well. When Tsume gets his strength back, let me take him to my mother's people, the Laota. There he can live his life there and never come back here."
"You want me to let my third best warrior go out and care for an abomination of nature?"
"That would be correct sir."
"Please, Yuko, let him do it." a woman's voice said.
The three ninjas looked over as Yukorite's wife, Chekome, walked in, looking regal.
"You told me that Tsume was dead. What has really happened to my son?"
"Chekome, my dear, this is-"
"What has happened to my son?" she seethed, pulling out throwing stars with one hand and bo-shuriken in the other.
Yukorite, used to his wife's eclectic and rather violent attitude behind closed doors, only sighed as the other two stared at her in confusion and awe.
"Lady Benitone..."
"Did you think that the wife of a ninja master would be so timid as to not know how to use the weapons her husband spends his life knowing?" she said with a strange grin. "Now, tell me where he is and what has happened."
"You can put your weapons away, Chekome..." Yukorite said with a sigh.
"I think I'll keep them out just in case I don't like the answer you give them, Yuko." She said, her black eyes glinting as she stared at her husband.
Natomi was happy she walked by, for that meant that things might go in his favor.
"My lady, do you know of the condition of your son?" he asked.
"I heard that my son was dead."
"He was banished." Yukorite said. "That means he is dead to us all... except a few apparently."
"Then what really happened to him?"
"On the raid of the emperor's castle five months ago, Tsume came in contact with the enchantress in an unexpected timing. She blew a powder on him but he didn't suspect anything of it. If you remember, some weeks after that he was sick and was acting strange. After three months of odd things happening, we found out in a private meeting that Tsume was somehow... pregnant."
Chekome dropped her weapons in surprise. "P-pregnant?"
"Yes." Yukorite growled. "Disgusting..."
Natomi made a face at his master and looked back at Chekome.
"It was not what Tsume wanted, of course, but it was that enchantress who did it. That powder made it happen... Master Yukorite ordered him to get rid of the child but Tsume refused to do it, despite the threat of banishment. So, he has been banished since then. Young Takuma was taking food and drink out to him because he is very sick, milady. He cannot fend for himself at the moment because of the toll it is taking on his body. Takuma was whipped for his concern and is now hardened by Tsume's loyalty to the banishment. I myself went to see him and... he is in grave danger."
"He was banished for protecting his child?" Chekome growled, looking at her husband.
"It would be the same if he were our daughter who had gotten pregnant by folly. We would do the same to her."
"I understand the politics of it all, milady," Natomi said, standing finally. "This has nothing to do with any of that. Even though it grieved me to see him banished, I myself have kept in honor of his banishment. It was only after I found Takuma whipped and broken did I go and see what could have caused him to risk his pain. Now that I have seen him, I understand Takuma's concern."
"And what has been proposed?"
"I ask for the same treatment as Takuma, and then I want to help Tsume gather his strength. When he is strong enough, I will take him to my mother's people. They will take him in as a servant, of course, but he will be well taken care of as well as his child. The Laota have had lots of dealings with the enchantress, since they live at the base of the hill where the castle is, so they will be a little more lenient in his condition. With that, all ties will be cut off and he will not return here ever again."
"Do it." Chekome snarled, looking at her husband.
"Chekome, it is not your place to speak to me in that manner." Yukorite said calmly, his eyes closed.
"It is also not yours to lie to me about the whereabouts of my son. To tell me that he was dead? How dare you..."
"I thought it would be better to think him dead than in danger or in that disgusting predicament."
"Just because you find it odd and disgusting doesn't mean that I do. I'm his mother and a little more open minded than you, apparently. Also, it was of no fault of his nor a woman's. The enchantress cursed our son and you abandoned him." She spit at him and Mayori and Natomi's eyes went wide. "I curse you, Yukorite."
With that, she turned in a flurry of her blue kimono and left the meeting room.
Mayori and Natomi looked at their master as he still kept his eyes closed and then finally he breathed.
"Your request is granted... Mayori, you will be the one to punish him. The same lashes given to Takuma."
"With or without the added?"
"Without."
Mayori shrugged. "Twenty-five it is..."

***********************

Inoue mixed the herbs that the doctor had given her for Takuma's lash marks on his back. There were so many...
"Takuma?"
"Yes?" he said softly.
"How... how many lashes did you get?"
"I was supposed to get just twenty-five... but I got twenty-five more."
"Fifty?!" she said, looking at his face in horror.
He smiled sadly at her. "I called for Tsume five times; each call was five more lashes. That was the condition of the punishment as well as the lesson."
Inoue gripped the pestle in her hand and began to grind the herbs harder in frustration.
"All because you were being loyal." She growled.
"I was foolish." He whispered.
"No!" Inoue growled, slamming the mortar down. "You were being a true friend."
"It doesn't matter now, Inoue, it's over with. I learned my lesson... that was the point after all."
Inoue's heart broke with the lackluster look in his eyes, the somber look on his face. He had been broken from the inside out. The lesson had been learned alright, and it had destroyed a loving relationship between a good master and his loyal servant.
The door opened and Natomi staggered in a little.
"Father?"
"I got more herbs." He said, holding up the small sack.
"Father?"
Takuma sat up a little as he walked in and leaned on a table. Inoue gasped as Takuma lifted his brows.
"Father! What happened?!"
"I went to see Tsume as well... I was given the same punishment for defying orders. But, I got the master to agree on something."
"Oh?" Inoue said, helping him take of his shirt.
"He has agreed to let me get Tsume's strength up and then I will take him to the Laota Clan. He has also granted you passage, Takuma."
Takuma looked at the whip marks on Natomi's skin and Inoue, who was fluttering over his back, not knowing where to start.
"No." he said.
"What?" Natomi said.
"I won't be going with you."
"Why? You have clear passage, no punishment-"
"I learned my lesson."
Natomi stared at him in confusion as Inoue put her hand on his arm, looking at him. He saw in her eyes the sadness of the revelation.
"If that is what you wish, Takuma." He said quietly. He then remembered the pendant. "Oh, Tsume told me to give this to you. Inoue, give that to him."
Inoue took it from her father and let it dangle from the leather cord in front of Takuma so he could see it since his arms were too sore to do anything. It was the jade pendant that Takuma had first taken from them before Tsume took him in.
As an orphan, Takuma took to stealing and Tsume caught him when he stole the pendant from his mother's jewelry box. Tsume had decided that it was a lucky pendant and asked his mother to keep it. When Takuma asked why he wanted to keep the very girly looking pendant, Tsume had just smiled at him and said, "Because if not for it, I wouldn't have met you. You're going to be an awesome ninja like me one day. We'll be loyal friends until we die, you and I. With this pendant, I will always remember how we met. You have courage, you just lack finesse. So I will teach you, alright?"
"Just set it down..." Takuma said.
Inoue nodded and turned to her father but he was already putting another shirt on.
"Father, what are you doing?"
"I have to give this medicine to Tsume. He was pretty bad when I saw him last night."
"You haven't slept since you came here!"
"I'll sleep later, Inoue." He said, waving her off.
"Come back here!" she yelled, running after him.
When she was gone, Takuma sat up and little and looked at the pendant. He picked it up and watched it dangle, his arms screaming at the movement. He chucked it across the room in anger, the pendant landing behind a chest of drawers. Takuma then curled up, his body aching everywhere, and cried.

*******************

"Here." Tsume heard through the blackness.
He moaned, waking up, and felt something at his lips. He sipped it and made a face.
"What is that?" he whispered.
"Medicine. I was given permission to take care of you until you get your strength back."
"He agreed?"
"Your mother was adamant about it." Natomi said with a smirk. "She's a pretty scary lady; I would have never known."
Tsume laughed a little. "Yes, she's not as meek as she would have you believe."
Natomi smirked and turned around. Tsume noticed the wetness on his back.
"What happened?"
"Hmm? Oh, I was whipped."
"Is that why Takuma isn't here?"
Natomi sighed and pulled out food.
"I'm afraid that he learned his lesson too well. He isn't coming here... ever."
"I figured as much. Did you give him the pendant?"
"I did..."
Tsume had a feeling that Takuma probably rejected it. He deserved it though and understood. He gasped when he felt Natomi touch is distended stomach.
"You're pretty big... A lot bigger than when my wife was pregnant with Inoue..." He pressed on his stomach a little and Tsume looked away in embarrassment. "This is odd..."
"Please stop."
"I'm sorry... Look, we need to get your strength up so I'll be here every morning and night to keep you fed. Then we'll work on walking and such. I would say we'd have some practice as well but you may get too big before we can do that..."
"Once my strength is up, I can practice. I will just consider the extra weight as the sacks of flour that we had to haul up Pouji Hill."
Natomi laughed a little. "That's the spirit."
As much as Tsume hated to rely on someone else, for the time being, it was for the best. When he was strong enough, he would fend for himself and practice his drills. As inconvenient as this pregnancy was, he would use it to his advantage. It would be something to tell the child when it grew up.