The Samurai's Kunoichi wife (The men of Five Nations International)

by Quinn, Shelli

  Shelli Quinn

  Prologue

  Lightening illuminated the dark sky as the heavens opened up and rain

  poured down. The scared little girl watched helplessly from the hidden compartment

  behind the bookcase of her parents’ home office.

  The sounds of sword against sword echoed throughout the room, as the girl's

  mother and father heroically fought off the hooded intruders that infiltrated their home.

  The intruder’s were dressed in red, head-to-toe.

  They were dressed like Ninja’s.

  And there was too many of them.

  Each time her parents successfully took down one of the deadly intruders,

  another was there to take his place. The scent of blood and death tainted the air, as they

  fought fiercely to stop the deadly enemies one by one. The more they fought, the more

  of them come. They were relentless in their assault against her family.

  She looked on, unable to help in the fight. Her parents had made her promise to

  stay hidden in the safety of the secret compartment.

  She never disobeyed her parents.

  They were the shining example of what she wished to have one day.

  Her father being of Japanese descent was a handsome man, with dark brown caring

  eyes, a narrow face with a strong looking jaw line. His silky black hair was cut low and close

  to his perfectly shaped head. He wore his usual attire of hakama pants in gray and purple with

  a matching kimono and a pair of tabi socks.

  Her mother was of African-American descent, and very beautiful, with smooth

  chestnut colored skin, golden eyes that seemed to glow when she smiled. Her long dark hair, always seem to shine like satin. She wore a yukata an outfit similar to her father's and in the

  same colors.

  She watched as her mother removed one of the sterling silver kanzashi holding her

  hair in place, she impaled it into the eye of one the intruders. Then kicked him away with a

  foot to the mid-section, she continued to fight, clearing a path in an attempt to reach her husband.

  Once she reached his side, they stood back-to-back fighting like two warriors in battle against the enemy.

  He reached behind him with his free hand to give her hand a light squeeze. When she glanced over her shoulder at him, the girl saw her mother smile as she mouthed “I love you.”

  He said it back to her, before he winked at her as a sign that they would fight to the end.

  Together. As one.

  Like everything else they did in life.

  They both glanced towards the bookcase, before raising their swords to carry on with

  the battle. For a moment she thought everything would be alright.

  A short time later she became parallelized with fear at the sight of her mother being

  run-through by the sword, from one of the hooded assailants. Tears slowly seeped from her

  eyes as she watched her mother dropped to one knee but continued to fight.

  She gazed on as her mother took down two more of the hooded men before collapsing

  to the floor. Hearing her father call out to her mother, she glanced in his direction. His face became twisted with rage and pain, seeing his wife's lifeless body on the floor just a few feet

  away, this made him fight even harder. Using his sword he quickly began slicing through

  the assailants’ one after the other.

  When it seemed as if he'd taken down what was left of the intruders, he dropped to

  his knees at his wife's side. He gently lifted her body into his lap.

  Tears continued to fall from the girl’s eyes as she watched her father whisper softly

  in her mother's ear.

  A man wearing the same ninja garb but in all white entered the room and knelt next

  to her father. They spoke in hushed tones for a minute, before they both looked up towards

  the bookcase she was hiding behind.

  The man in white stood, heading over to the bookcase he released the latch opening

  the hidden compartment. The little girl pressed her back against the wall of the compartment, shrinking away from the man in white.

  She gasped in fear.

  The man realized then that she was afraid of him. He removed the hood that covered

  his face revealing that he was her parent’s dear friend and her honorary uncle.

  She ran towards her parents, jumping over the bodies that lay motionless and bleeding on the floor. Once at her parent’s side she began to cry in earnest.

  Her mother opened her eyes, reaching one of her blood cover hands to caress her

  cheek. A weak smile touched her lips.

  “Don't cry my little kunoichi, female ninja; everything is going to be okay.”

  Her father spoke to uncle in their native tongue of Japanese. He was speaking too fast for her understand what he was saying. She had just begun learning her father’s language. Once he stopped talking he hugged her and instructed her to be a good little princess, assuring her that everything would be fine just as her mother had said. He kissed her forehead, before saying. “Remember we love you little kunoichi.” And handed her over to uncle.

  Just then what sounded like an army of people, rushed into the room. Uncle quickly scooped her into his arms. They escaped through the secret compartment, where there was a second door, to a tunnel that lead to the outside at the far side of the estate.

  She glanced back and through her tears, she saw what looked like red and gold glowing lights illuminating the entire estate. But the light disappeared, just as fast as it had appeared.

  The further they moved away from her home and her parents, the more the tears fell.

  She knew that she may never see her parents again.

  Once they were outside the walls of her parent’s estate, they slipped into the back of a white limousine that was waiting for them. Her body trembled as her tears continued to fall

  and she cried uncontrollable. She was soaked to the bone, from the rain. She felt a blanket

  being placed around her shoulders, to get her warm.

  When the tears finally stopped falling and the tremors subsided she looked up, to see

  a young boy sitting next to her. The boy looked to be only a couple years older than she was.

  He was full blooded Japanese.

  Unlike her who was half Japanese and half African American.

  The boy looked at her with serious eyes as handed her a tissue, which she used to dry

  her tear stained face. Uncle sat opposite them facing forward. He spoke to the boy in Japanese, before turning his attention to her.

  “I promised your parents that I would keep you safe and that's what I intend to do at

  any cost, you will for fill your destiny and restore your families good name. After today you will no longer use the Oshima name. Don't worry you will one day be reunited with your

  family. I plan to teach you everything you need to learn to make that possible just be patient.”

  In Japan the people responsible for the senseless attack, were nervously awaiting the call

  to be notified that their orders had been carried out.

  “We should have heard something by now, what if they failed.” Said the man that was pacing the floor of the home library where the men were meeting.

  “Would you stop all that pacing? You knew that it wasn't going to be easy to for fill

  the orders we gave
the team of assassins.” Said the second man seated behind the large, teakwood desk.

  The third man sat quietly in the corner reading the latest stock report. As he listened

  to the other two men he thought to himself, how happy he would be when the day came that he could rid himself of these two spineless fools. For now he needed them and their connections. When they were no longer useful he would dispose of them.

  He smiled to himself.

  “What are you smiling about? Why aren't you worrying? We haven't heard from our contact.” Said the man that was pacing back and forth across the library floor. The man put down the paper he'd been reading, looked up at the man with a deadly glare.

  “Why should I be worried you seem to be doing enough of that for all of us, and has

  it helped the situation?”

  The pacing man noticed the glare and smoothly sat down in the nearest chair before answering. “No, it hasn't.”

  Before anything more could be said the phone began to ring. All three men turned towards it. The man behind the desk answered it hitting the speaker button.

  “Konnichiwa.” He greeted the caller, before switching to English. “The others are

  here with me, so give us an update.”

  The voice on the other end of the phone hesitated, “We were unable to complete our orders, the woman has been taken care of, but not before she was able to utilize the light of

  the golden dragon.” The voice at the other end of the phone paused for a moment. Taking a

  deep breath he continued. “The second target was injured, but got away after combining his light energy with hers, I was barely able to escape their combined light energy blast.”

  The man seated at the desk slam his fist on the hard surface. The man that had been pacing earlier, jumped from his seat yelling.

  “How could you let this happen?” The third man asked in an angry tone where is the girl. “Were you able to take possession of the girl?” The voice on the phone replied. “The second target was a bit more fierce than we anticipated, I barely made it out.

  “But the girl, she was not at the location, therefore we didn't take care of her.”

  The three men looked at each other trying to figure out what their next move should be.

  Whatever it was they needed to be careful, they had two targets out there that may be out for revenge. If it was discovered that they were the ones responsible for the assault on that family they were as good as died.

  The man who thought he was in charge gave the voice on the phone one final order. “Eliminate target number two and bring us that girl, she maybe our only way out if

  target number two can't be found and eliminated, I don't care how long it takes you as long

  as she is in our possession before her twenty second birthday and before they have a chance

  to marry her off. She has to have inherited her mother’s light energy, and we must be the ones

  to control it.”

  “Do not return until she's in your possession, or you will be taken care for failing to complete your orders.” He hissed out before disconnecting the call.

  “That girl may be our only chance to come out of this on top, if her father isn't found soon.”

  Chapter One

  Katsumi stood in the home office of her Uncle Daichi's north Georgia

  estate, outraged by what she was hearing. She was to marry a man she didn't know in

  order to take her rightful place in her families company. Katsumi hadn't heard anything

  about this family until just now.

  Her uncle had taken care of her since the night her parents were killed, just

  before her eighth birthday. Uncle Daichi was the only family she had, besides Amaya.

  Who has been the live in nanny since the day after Kat had arrived all those years ago.

  Amaya was more like an aunt or a grandmother she'd taken care of Kat as long

  as she could remember. Now he is telling her she has other family members she'd never

  even heard of and they were expecting her to marry some strange man in an arranged

  marriage in order to preserve her families legacy.

  A company she knew nothing about.

  She'd just finished college with a Master’s Degree in Business and technology.

  A degree her uncle insisted that she obtain. Of course Katsumi was glad that she had

  obtained her degree. Hopefully she'd be offered a job with a great company, one that

  was on the cutting edge of technology.

  Katsumi would love to work for Fu-Shima Corp. She'd learned about them when

  she was in college. They had offices in Atlanta, Miami and San Francisco but the main

  office was based in Tokyo, Japan. One of the places she plans to visit in the future.

  Working for a company like that would give her the opportunity to use her technical skills and travel, working in each of their corporate offices. She wanted he uncle to travel

  with her. He'd spent almost fourteen years of his life taking care of her. She was so looking

  forward to taking care of him for awhile.

  A job like that would be wonderful.

  But now she was being told that she had to get married to a man she didn't know.

  Katsumi had always obeyed her uncle. Even when he'd insisted she resume her ninjitsu

  and jujitsu training shortly after her parents death.

  She would never dream of defying him, but this was too much.

  Dreaming. That was it, she was dreaming. Maybe if she pinched herself she'd

  wake-up from this horrible nightmare. She used her thumb and forefinger to squeeze the

  skin on one of her arms.

  “Ouch! Well that didn't work.” Katsumi mumbled more to herself, as she dropped

  down on the sofa nearest to her.

  Uncle was standing at the window looking out over his Japanese garden that was

  spread out in back of the large estate. He'd been talking to her, when she didn't respond he

  looked back over his shoulder at her, asking her in a stern voice, “Katsumi are you listening

  to me young lady?” He turned his entire body around to face her.

  Kat knew he had heard her mumbling to herself. The man had ears like a wolf.

  “Yes, uncle I am listening, but I still don't understand why I have to get married

  to some guy I haven't even met.” Katsumi said with annoyance in her voice. Uncle took

  a seat on the sofa next to her and he took one of her hands in his. He gently pat the back

  of her hand as he talked to her, “There is so much I need to explain to you child.”

  Katsumi was quiet as she listened to her uncle. “You have been more like a daughter to me

  than a niece.” He took a deep breath before continuing. “Your parents were good people and they loved you very much, the night your mother was killed they asked me to take care of

  you and protect you. Your parents knew that I would, protect you with my life.”

  Kat looked at her Uncle, what she saw was how much he cared for her. He had aged

  over the years but his dark brown eyes were always filled with love.

  Uncle Daichi was not a very tall man only five foot six, with a medium build. His

  skin always looked a bit tan from spending so much time outside in his garden. His Japanese heritage was evident in his facial features. Hair that was once jet black was now peppered

  with gray. At fifty three Uncle Daichi was still in good shape for a man his age, he continued

  to practice aikido and kendo to stay fit. He'd also taught her several forms of martial arts

  besides the two that she'd mastered.

  He said that way he could be sure that she could protect herself from any and every threat when the need arose.

  She didn't know why? She was never really alone. Her Uncle had two body guards,

  the size of sum
o wrestlers, follow her everywhere. When she had attended college, they

  waited outside the classroom door. Even when she went for a ride on her motorcycle, they

  were not far behind. On a few occasions she'd been able to give them the slip until her Uncle

  found out and put an end to that. Or so he thought.

  Her Uncle was still a handsome man. She knew that he’d lost his wife and child many years before she came to live with him. For some reason he had chosen not to remarry. Daichi had dedicated his life to raising her and she loved him for that.

  It took a special man to raise someone else's child alone and with very little help.

  Well except for Amaya. She was the one Kat went to when she needed womanly advice.

  She was always there to lend her shoulder. When Kat wanted to know why she couldn't

  date like other girls, or hang out with other college kids, or stay on campus like other kids

  did. Since she'd been home schooled until she had completed her high school curriculum

  at the age of sixteen. She began college shortly after.

  Amaya had explained how dating was dangerous these days, or how hanging out was

  not for nice girls, and if she stayed on campus her Uncle would miss her too much. Amaya always had the answers she needed.

  Kat had attended college locally at the University of Georgia. Not far from her

  Uncle's estate that was located just outside of Toccoa near the South Carolina state line,

  it was close to an hour drive but she could be home each night.

  Katsumi loved Amaya like she would a mother since she was the closes thing she'd

  had to one since losing hers. She could barely remember her real mother.

  Realizing what he'd just said, she asked desperate to understand what her uncle was trying to say.

  “What do you mean the night my mother was killed, don't you mean my mother and father I lost them both on that night?”

  Daichi looked at her as he gently patted the back of her hand once again. He stood

  from his seat next to her and returned to his place at the window.

  “No, Katsumi I meant just what I said, the night your mother was killed. Your parents knew that trouble was on the way. Your mother Imani, which means faith in Swahili, had a dream, her dreams were more like glimpses of the future. When she told your father about