The next day, they set out to meet the Yagyu Clan when they were suddenly attacked by the Yagyu Ninjas that jumped out of the water they're hiding in.

"An ambush!" Sonic shouted in alarm.

One of the ninja hissed at them.

"I'm still learning the local lingo..."

Sonic spin dashed one in the stomach.

"...But I think that means 'beat the snot out of me!'"

Kirby let out a battle cry and knocked the Bat Ninja away with his spin kicks while Y/N karate chopped their neck to knock them out cold. Ken strike the Bat Ninja in the stomach with his staff.

"Stinking Yagyu Scum! I knew we shouldn't have trusted their summons! We'll show them what happens to back-stabbing thieves around here!"

Ken smashed the ninja's head with one another Tails was holding.

"Yeah!"

Sonic spin dashed another one, knocking them over.

"You can tell this clan isn't as organized as the others. This ambush is sloppy."

One of the Bat Ninjas tried to attack Sally from behind.

"The Gossamer Clan got the same kind of drop on us, and we were caught in seconds."

Tails stomped down on the bat ninja's head, knocking him unconscious.

"If they're such push-overs, why did the Iron Queen bring them over to help the Dark Egg Legion?"

"I don't know, Tails. Maybe they were easier to uproot without upsetting the whole clan?"

"Maybe she just wanted the Legion to feel better about themselves."

This made Y/N and Kirby snicker.

"Be nice, honey. Those people have been through a lot." Sally said, smiling amusingly.

"Man, I'd forgotten how much I hate getting wet." Sonic said.

"Get over it, bro."

Ken knocked the sai out of the bat ninja's grasp and grabbed him by the collar.

"Now—Are you going to fulfill the invitation to meet with your lord, or do I put you back with the rest of the pond scum?"

"HISSSS... W—Wait... You're the ones he sent for?" Ninja Bat asked in shock.

On cue, Tails was drying Sonic and Y/N with his twin tails while Sally was ringing out her vest and Kirby shaking himself dry as they all glared at the ninja bat.

"Do we look like locals?" Sonic deadpanned.

"HISSSS! Pardon! Pardon! We thought you were just travelers! Simple robbery! Honest! Honest!"

"Just shut up and lead the way." Ken glared.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And so, the bat ninja led Sonic, Y/N, Kirby, Sally, Tails, and Ken into the bamboo forest.

"Not much further! Promissse!"

"Ken..." Sally started. "The Yagyu Clan has no bride for their house, right?"

"Right. The Iron Dominion killed the Bride of Rich Nights and took the Yagyu as their own."

"Does that make things easier or harder for us? Without a proper bride, they may not fall back on tradition, but they may mot want to give up the Iron Queen either."

"I don't know, Sally. If we can't deal with this lord, then we'll just have to play it by ear."

They soon arrived at a ruined temple with two trees on each side of it.

"Apologies again! We are here!" Bat Ninja said.

"Cozy." Sonic commented, not impressed with the temple.

"I think this was a temple from the old days. What the locals call the 'lost dynast' or something like that." Ken explained. "Keep on your toes. I wouldn't be surprised if they tried another ambush."

"They can try all they want. I'll still run rings around them."

They entered the temple to see a magenta male bat with red-violet eyes and wearing black clothes with purple lining and silver armor sitting on a throne, eating grapes.

"The next time you invite guests, I recommend informing your cronies that they're coming. Otherwise we might get the wrong idea." Ken suggested.

"Huhn. You get the Gossamer Clan to roll over and all of a sudden you're high and mighty? Please. The fact you've returned means you did no better against the Iron Queen over there than you did over here. At least you're consistent, I guess. And what's with all the tourists? Are you trying to impress us with a group of Freedom Fighters you haven't been tricked into destroying?"

The current Yagyu Lord Regional Boss laughed at the last part he said, causing Ken to become angry.

"Real classy, Chief." Sonic glared.

Y/N put a hand on Ken's shoulder, making him look at her and calmed down, looking back at the Yagyu Lord.

"All that aside... I'm here to broker peace between your clan and the Free People of the Dragon Kingdom..."

The Yagyu Lord raised a finger.

"Hold it. There's something we need to get out of the way, first. I'll meet with the crown princess of the Republic of Acorn. I'll even meet with the— heh— 'King of the Free People.' But I don't feel comfortable with the Sonic the Hedgehog in my lair. Especially, Y/N the Hedgehog."

"Nah, I wouldn't think so." Sonic smirked.

"I wouldn't dream of meeting with you either." Y/N scoffed.

"And I won't discuss important business in front of mere children."

Tails shook in anger to be called a child.

"'Mere children'?! Ask all your guys with headaches back in the rice fields how 'mere' I am! I fought Master Mogul!"

Sonic and Y/N began guiding Tails out of the temple to calm him down while Kirby blew raspberry at Yagyu Lord.

"Chill out, bud. Saves us from listening to more political babbling."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Once they're outside, Sonic, Y/N, and Kirby listened to Tails' rants.

"...And I've fought Swatbots, and Egg pawns and-and-and I built the Tornado from scratch! More than once!"

"Tails, calm down. That guy is a colossal jerk. Why are you letting him get to you?" Y/N said.

"I've worked really hard to prove I'm just as much a Freedom Fighter as everyone else. He knows who you and Sonic are, but I'm..."

"Our best friend and the one guy I'd pick to have my back anytime. You've done more in your short lift than he's ever going to do. So don't get worked up over one low-life." Sonic said.

"I don't know, Blue..."

"That voice..." Y/N growled, not expecting to see her sooner.

They turned around to reveal Fiona sitting on a bended bamboo stalk.

"I bet someone here is still pretty hung up over this low-life." she said, gesturing to Y/N who growled again.

"Fiona!" Tails exclaimed in shock to see her.

Kirby growled at Fiona, still not forgetting her kicking him off like a rat.

"We were wondering which rock you went to hide under after the whole Moebius thing." Sonic said.

"I got out while the getting was good. I kept myself busy, though."

"Yeah? Doing what?"

"And why are you in the Dragon Kingdom? To cause trouble?" Y/N demanded.

"I'll tell you if you can manage to catch me."

Fiona catapulted herself into the bamboo grove.

"Gladly!"

Y/N followed after her, jumping onto the bamboo stalk and catapulted herself to follow her as the boys followed her as well with Kirby holding onto Y/N's shoulder. She was now close to Fiona who looked back at her with a smirk thanks to her ninja reflexes.

"HAHAHA! C'mon boys! I know you can do better than that! At least, you're keeping with me, Y/N! As expected of you!"

Y/N growled and kept following her to go faster.

"This stuff is so thickly grown together, I can't build up any speed!" Sonic exclaimed.

"I should've just flown us over!" Tails exclaimed.

Fiona landed on a bamboo stalk and held it down.

"Me and Y/N are doing just fine, you boys just need to be a little more—"

She let go and it shot back.

"—Flexible."

Sonic and Y/N quickly dodged it, but it ended up hitting Tails in the face.

"WHOA!"

"OW!"

"Tails!!"

"You alright?"

Tails rubbed his nose in pain.

"Nrrrgh... She's worse than before."

"That's my man. Me and sis will scoot ahead and--"

Sonic was cut off by another bamboo stalk hitting him in the face.

"THAT'S IT!"

This got Sonic and Y/N angry as they both did a spin dash, destroying any bamboo in their way with Kirby holding on as he's feeling dizzy.

"That got him!"

Sonic and Y/N are closing in on Fiona.

"Good chase, you two. You've almost got me."

Suddenly, a hand grabbed Sonic and slammed him down to the ground.

"Oh! So close!"

It was Sergeant Simian as he goes to grab Y/N when she bounced off of his head and charged straight towards Fiona who was surprised and slammed her to the ground, pinning her down by the shoulders.

"That's enough out of you!"

"You're stronger than ever. But here's some info as a consolation prize: I'm running with the Destructix again."

"You don't say..." Sonic groaned out.

"No kidding..." Y/N scoffed still pinning Fiona down.

"Pooteetah..."

Tails caught up with them.

"I'm coming, Sonic! Y/N!"

Just then, he was knocked to the ground by none other than Predator Hawk.

"AUGH!"

"You make this too easy, kid."

Y/N growled, seeing him again and hurting Tails when she was suddenly flipped over and was pinned down instead by Fiona. Kirby was about to attack when Fiona whacked him off with her fluffy tail.

"Looks like the tables have turned, sweetie." she smirked as their faces were two inches apart.

"Get off me!!"

Sonic got up and got into spin dash and went up in the air, catapulting himself from Sergeant's chest.

"I am gettting so tired of dealing with you guys."

He was knocked to the ground again by Flying Frog.

"MRGPH!"

"A bit of grit so the dirt will hurt! WHEE HEE HEE HEE!"

Fiona finally got off of her as her and the Destructix group together standing in front of them. They noticed not all the Destructix are together as they're missing Lightning Lynx, Sleuth Dawg, and Drago Wolf. Behind them, Sally and Ken were coming out of the bamboo grove after they had a talk with Yagyu Lord.

"And it'll be a miracle if we can actually find a Shinobi Chameleon, let alone talk to their bride." Ken said.

"On a similar note, where are Y/N and the boys? I thought we would've found them by--" Sally asked, looking around.

She stopped once she saw Sonic, Y/N, Kirby, and Tails on the ground and the Destructix standing over them and immediately went on guard.

"Oh my gosh! Ken, get ready!"

Ken immediately pointed his staff at them.

"Um--Right! Why? Who are they?"

"Now that we have your attention, there's something we would like to discuss." Fiona said, smirking.