New Soul for the Shaping (attn MoT)(Ninja'd)

[The Ninja]

This white city was a challenge that he was willing to face.  There was nothing like being forced into the open to test one’s skills at not being seen.  Thus far, the Ninja had been successful.  The so-called guards around this… this training area might as well have been asleep for the little resistance they put up.  None of them had known he was there, not even when he stood behind one of them for a few seconds.  Oafs.

 

The look of those men in the training ground brought a smile to the Ninja’s face beneath his mask.  These looked familiar.  The older ones carried themselves like samurai, all confidence and grace.  It didn’t matter how graceful they were when the Ninja came to call, but it was grace nonetheless.  A touch of home, as it were.  His attention was drawn to a woman and a young, gawky boy running laps around the compound.

 

He must have been a new recruit; after the laps, he sank to the ground and appeared to black out.  Curiosity got the better of the Ninja, and he found himself creeping closer to investigate.  The woman- she seemed to be in charge- hadn’t reacted to his collapse, as far as the Ninja could tell.  Just as well.  Carefully, he proceeded, merely a cloud shadow across the courtyard.

 

Snap.  A twig had blown into the courtyard from somewhere and under his feet.  The woman spun around with reflexes honed from years of practice.  Their eyes met.  Then the Ninja unleashed a small metal dart, punching through the woman’s eye and into the brain behind it.  She crumbled without a sound.  The Ninja paused only long enough to close her remaining eye before fleeing.  Part of survival was not being around when the bodies were found.