Take a Shot

Friendly

"Alright Jaguar," Kage began. She didn't look up. The ninjas were the same places they always were when they were all together in this room: she was in the one and only chair, feet propped up on the table and filing her nails; Shadow was leaning against the wall the door was on, arms crossed; Kage was perched on the table her feet were on, close enough she could kick him; Hije was in the furthest corner from the door, crouched down. It fit their individual personalities well.

"Yeah, yeah, what secret am I supposed to be keeping today?" she droned. This was quickly becoming an exercise in futility. Matt was a terrible interrogator, so it followed that he would be a terrible reverse-interrogator, and he was. On top of that, Emerald's primary skill, above even her marksmanship, was her reverse-interrogation. They were putting her best skill against his worst skill and expecting both of them to get better, and it wasn't happening. Everyone was growing frustrated by this endeavor.

"Same as yesterday," Kage said. "We have some adjustments for you. We don't think you're going hard enough on him."

"Oh, fuck off," she scoffed. "I said at the start that I refused to take him into mortal fear. No one does their best work in that state."

"Jaguar, you need to go harder on him," Shadow chimed in, echoing his brother. Emerald glared his way, jaw set. "We don't want you to pull as many punches today. He knows you won't hurt him, so he's not trying hard enough to avoid the pain."

"He's trying to focus on me not hitting him in the first place. Teaching him reverse-interrogation would work best if we sat behind a desk and I cut into him, but again, I ain't fuckin' doing that." Emerald turned her nose into the air. Shadow and Kage sent each other exasperated looks, then they both looked over the Hije. He was the one who spoke her same sadistic language, more than the other two triplets, so sometimes he could get through to her when no one else could. The youngest triplet ignored them from his corner, chewing on his thumbnail and brooding. Kage rolled his eyes.

"If you hit him hard enough a few times, it should knock some sense into him-" the middle triplet started. Emerald barked out a cruel laugh.

"Yeah? So to make him lose the fear of being hit, you want me to - let me make sure I've got this right," she feigned a look at a fake notebook, tracing her finger down the invisible page then looking up at Shadow with irritation. "Hit him harder?"

"Do you have a better idea, Jaguar?" Kage droned. She frowned, slouching back in her chair and crossing her arms. "That's what we thought."

"Teach him what it looks like," Hije finally growled. All three other ninjas turned heads to look at the youngest triplet. White hair shifted as he looked up, grey eyes matching Emerald's red ones. She raised an eyebrow, arms remaining crossed.

"Elaborate?"

Hije motioned vaguely in the air between them, the two youngest ninjas. Both her eyebrows raised, her mouth opening in a small "o" shape. Kage sent a questioning look at Shadow, who shrugged.

"You're sayin', put me on display?" Emerald asked, pointing towards herself. Hije nodded. Her eyes trailed to Shadow and Kage, neither of whom gave her a facial expression to read. Finally, her eyes moved down to the ground as she thought it over.

"Scared?" Hije taunted. The girl's back straightened as she whipped around, snarling. He matched her snarl with a sneer, standing up slowly. She dropped her legs from the table, standing up from her chair, hair ruffling in the ponytail she'd worn for training today. The snarl transformed into a wicked grin, bloodstained teeth glinting. She loved a challenge.

"Never," she boasted. Hije laughed, the sound eerie in the small, echoy room. He nodded to the girl and vanished. She laughed quietly, turning back to the other two. "Where should we meet up?"