When The Dead Arise

Chapter 9

Next day was a repeat of the last. You spent more time learning how to best hide your weapons. Snake left when eating, as usual, and you felt as if you had finally gotten the chopsticks down. Jinx resumed with learning Japanese and the flute. Eventually your ankle was ready to go back to the blindfolded backflip. This continued for a week, and then the regular routine was changed.

"Alright," Jinx said at the door that morning, "General Hawk called. You have three months less to do training. To make up for it you don't have free time anymore. Now the mornings will be spent learning weapons, afternoons will be spent with vigorous physical training. The evening will be learning languages and cultures. Got it?"

"Yea, but..."

"What?"

"Who's general hawk?"

"Leader of G.I.Joe," Jinx took a deep breath, "Since you will be forced to do much in little time you will get today off. Learn the rest of this place and have it memorized," she turned to go and stopped, "one more thing. You won't be training alone anymore. You'll have one other person training with you."

"Who?" You asked her. You hadn't spent any time at all with the other ninjas. The past few days had been spent entirely in your room, Jinx always brought in the food. You wondered who it was, though a name was pointless.

She shook her head, "I don't know."

"Will you still be training me?" You hoped she said yes. You didn't know if you would be able to stand Snake Eyes. And you knew no one else.

Your hopes died when she shook her head, "the Blind Master will be in charge of training you." Well, it's not Snake at least. The Blind Master isn't that bad, but what is he really like?

"What about learning Japanese?"You added.

"Don't worry, I'll still be teaching you Japanese, without Snake's help," you sighed with relief, "he's in charge of teaching you how to use weapons," Jinx walked away. That crushed your hopes. Great, alone with Snake for four hours. Just what you wanted. And to start off the day no less.

You decided it was best to spend your time memorizing the place. After all, you still only knew how to get to one place. You began with walking the path to the food hall. Of course, it was empty. You picked a random path, did two turns, and walked back. You did this over and over for several different parts of the building.

Then you stopped by a window that showed the training grounds. Several different ninjas were all over the fields. Snake Eyes was far off watching a group of five. Somewhere else was Jinx, watching some other kids.

"You are becoming suited to this place very quickly," You turned around to see the Blind Master.

You bowed like everyone else, "I guess I have." He deserved this respect. And it felt right to bow to him, even if he couldn't see it. Not with his eyes anyway.

The Blind Master turned his head to "look" out towards the training grounds, "I wonder why that is. You've never been to a new place before, correct?"

"Yes," You lifted your head, stepping to the side and looking out to the training grounds. You watched as Snake did a certain pose and the kids mimicked it. One kid did it wrong, he walked over and rearangged their limbs. You silently cursed at him for being harsh to you when you did something wrong. Now you knew it was because he chose to, with the children he was so kind, gentle and patient.

Wish he could be that nice to me.

"Why is it that you have become so accustomed to this new location so quickly?"

You thought over this question, "I don't know." Why? You had been to new places before, you were constantly traveling in the streets, and every time you wanted to go back. But now, you hadn't even thought that much about your home.