What It Takes: Round 2

Asuka had wasted no time in returning to the village and changing back to her street clothes. She immediately left the village, not wanting to stick around for the ninja girl to reappear. The entire day's experience annoyed her to no end. She hated how helpless she felt and hated Ibuki for forcefully putting her into that situation in the first place. Contract or no, she wanted out of this craziness. She spent the rest of the day around town, trying to take her mind off of things.

On her way home, she ran into a couple of punks trying to shake down a businessman for his money. 'Forget window shopping, THIS is a proper stress relief!' she thought, an almost feral grin forming on her face.

She easily disposed of the first three, but as she turned to finish things by knocking out the last one, she saw that he had already taken off. If there was one thing she had to give him credit for, he sure could run pretty fast.

She chased him down relentlessly for the next ten minutes, never being one to be satisfied with losing her prey. He eventually started to lose steam, slowing down as they entered a warehouse district. She finally put an end to the chase by jumping at him with a flying kick to the back that sent him flying to the ground and delivering a punch to his head. He was out like a light.

"Hope you learned your lesson, you jerk!" she said, satisfied that she got all of her targets. As she left the warehouse district to double back to her way home, she idly noted a couple of oddly marked trucks rolling past her, but she paid them no mind.

The next few days passed by in a blur, with her mind working over the details of that Sunday and how she might approach requesting to be let off early from the program. Curiously enough, Sekigawa seemed to have taken a leave of absence for the week, something he had never done before. As a result, she didn't exactly have anyone to readily consult the issue with.

On Wednesday as she helped her father instruct at their family's dojo, she found
her mind drifting once again to the events of the weekend. How vulnerable she was like that, to be forced to her own weaknesses in such a humiliating fashion. How she had to focus so intently and for so long just to begin to chip away at what was hindering her strength…

Focus…

She thought back to the words Sekigawa told her a month ago. 'It is something that could serve someone like you well in the long run, a way to refine and focus that fighting spirit of yours and channel it into something productive both physically and mentally.'

Frowning, she considered the situation she found herself in on Sunday again with his words giving it new context. 'I did focus more while trying to get free than I have in a lot of other ways and I sure as hell didn't give in, either.' She thought to herself, idly correcting a student's stance as she passed them by. 'As…as much as I hate to admit it, I guess it did sort of count as legitimate training…still perverted, though.'

She still wasn't too keen on forgiving Ibuki for what she did to her, but after mulling it over some more, Asuka figured she could at least try to tone down the hostility the next time they met. Ibuki seemed genuinely apologetic, so maybe she could cut her a little bit of slack after all. It certainly didn't hurt that she got a little bit of pay back herself afterwards…

Nodding to herself, she decided to at least give the program one more chance. Besides, if Ibuki's words were sincere, she had promised that she would get out of having to do any more 'escape training', so it wasn't like she was going to get tied up again in the near future. And if she was lying…well, their next rematch would definitely not be in Ibuki's favor this time around.

---

Three days later on Saturday evening, Asuka worked her way back up to the Glade of Ninjas, wondering if returning was a bad idea after all. But already having made it this far, she kept pushing onwards to what she had committed herself to do.

Upon entering the village, she immediately noticed something was wrong. The normally tranquil atmosphere the village usually harbored was noticeably strained. Asuka wondered what could be going on, catching glimpses of blurred forms running in and out of the buildings around her.

Ultimately deciding that it wasn't any of her business (as she was usually kept in the dark about the actual clan business), she went to go change into her ninja garb and waited around for Ibuki. She still wasn't sure how to deal with Ibuki, but figured she'd play it by ear. If Ibuki was being honest with her apology and desire for friendship, then Asuka would give her the benefit of the doubt. If not…a more thorough beat down and a formal request to exit out of the program would be in order.

Asuka waited around their usual meeting spot for a good twenty minutes before getting annoyed. 'Is she avoiding me, or is whatever's got everyone so riled up really that bad?' she wondered. She had been so distracted in her internal conflict about whether or not to even show up today that she hadn't really reviewed the clear signs of discontent within the Glade of Ninjas.

Sekigawa's absence at school and subsequently finding the village busier than she'd ever seen it before were big enough clues as is…but the fact that her presence was either unnoticed or ignored really gave her pause. She normally always felt eyes on her at any given moment when in the village proper, but for once, the feeling of being watched never came to her.

With that in mind, Asuka looked around to see if she could find someone to ask about what was going on.

No one seemed to heed her calls when she tried getting their attention as the zipped by, so instead she marched straight into the main hall at the center of the village, hoping to finally get some answers.

The place was abuzz with even more activity, multiple groups hunched over maps and photos and talking amongst themselves.

Not one for tact, Asuka shouted out again. "Can anyone tell me what's goin' on?!"

That finally got her noticed. She was approached by who she identified as Sanjou, the usual instructor for trainees around the village. "Kazama-san, your training is ceased indefinitely. I had thought you had received the message, but it seems that our resources have been stretched even more thinly than anticipated…you may return home."

With that ominous message, he disappeared into the controlled chaos of the room once more. Still not wanting to have come all the way here to leave empty handed, she made to follow to better understand his vague words. An arm grabbed her shoulder before she could, however. "Sorry Asuka, I should've at least told you before entering the village that myself." She turned around and saw that it was the ninja who had led her to the village over a month ago. She never did catch what his name was, nor cared enough to bother learning.

"Can you at least tell me what's goin' on around here? And where's Ibuki, anyway?" Perhaps she could finally get some answers from him. He glanced around before pulling Asuka to a more secluded spot. "Alright," he started, "I figure you deserve to know what's going on, especially since you and Ibuki have become friends."

"Ibuki? What does Ibuki have to do with this?" Asuka wondered aloud, suddenly not liking where this conversation was going at all.

"Last Sunday after you left, we got in multiple last minute job requests. We've been running low on jobs lately and at the time, nothing seemed off about them. It was all just some standard procedure stuff, like guard duty. We sent some of our ninja to go fulfill each one."

He paused, glancing around again. "All twelve of the ninja we sent went missing around the same time simultaneously. Ibuki was one of them." Asuka gasped. "No way…how could someone get the jump on you guys?!"

"That's what we've been wondering too. We've been searching for leads since then, but whoever these guys are, they were thorough. A lot of possible leads ended up being dead ends, and --"

"That will be enough of that." Sekigawa said, suddenly appearing before the two. "Kazama-san, I am afraid you must leave the village immediately. We are holding a council meeting shortly that requires all available ninja to attend."

"So you were here this whole time after all?" Asuka demanded, not the least bit surprised. "And hey, you sent me here to learn this ninja mumbo jumbo; shouldn't I be allowed to listen in too?!"

"Officially sanctioned ninja only. Go home Kazama-san, we will handle this. And you," he said, turning to give a cold look to her former guide. "Need to stop telling classified information to people who don't need to know it."  Sekigawa gave a final curt nod to Asuka before disappearing again.

The ninja still next to her looked sheepish. "Right…well, I need to be going now, and you do too. Don't worry, with all of us on the job, we'll find our missing comrades soon enough."

"Right…" Asuka said, not entirely convinced. As she watched him walk away, she realized there wasn't really much else she could do here. Turning to leave the building, she paused when a photo hanging from a nearby bulletin board caught her eye. It seemed to be of a company logo of some sort and felt vaguely familiar. 'It must be one of the people who hired them that day…' she thought, eying the other similar photos scattered across the board.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she suddenly found herself pushed forward and out the doors of the building. "The meeting has been pushed up. You must leave immediately." The ninja pushing her stoically said. "Alright alright, I'm leaving! Geez…" Asuka complained, shooing the ninja away and walking down to the forest.

It wasn't until she was on the path in the forest that she realized she had left before she had a chance to change back into her street clothes. Glancing back at the village, she saw that the front gates were closed, preventing her from being able to return to grab them. 'Oh, that's just great. Wearing this get up is bad enough even when I'm surrounded by a buncha ninjas in the first place…but out in public? Ugh.'

Grumpily trekking through the forest, her mind eventually drifted from her current fashion crisis to more pressing matters -- namely, the disappearances of Ibuki and the other ninja. A nagging feeling of worry started to worm her way into her stomach. She still wasn't sure what her stance on her somewhat perverted ninja friend was, but even if she ended up never forgiving her, she wouldn't exactly want something bad to happen to her, either…

Not being able to help frustrated her to no end, especially since these circumstances prevented her from getting some proper closure on where their friendship stood. She still didn't want to be a ninja or anything of the sort, but if that was what it took to at least be able to hear the details they were now discussing…

Her mind drifted back to the photo she saw moments before getting kicked out of the village. There was something about it that kept bugging her, as though she had seen it before, but she wasn't sure where to place it.

Asuka had hoped to finally get a satisfying, conclusive end to the negative emotions she had swarming her head since the incident with Ibuki last week, but instead came out even more conflicted. "That's it, I'm hittin' up town to find some punks to beat up to blow some steam…after I change outta this outfit." She muttered to herself. Although she had taken the time to help around her neighborhood as she usually did in the past week, she hadn't really found any jerks to 'mediate' since last Sunday…

And then it hit her. 'Last Sunday – that's where I saw that symbol! It was on those trucks!' she realized.  She considered running back to the village to tell them about it, but she had already cleared the forest and just entered town. 'It would actually be shorter to go straight to the warehouse district from here than doubling back…maybe I can poke around myself!' she reasoned. If she were lucky, there might be some guys down there to beat up and possibly get a lead on the disappearances – a win-win situation, she figured.

Resolved, Asuka broke into a sprint towards the warehouse district, trying her best to ignore the odd looks her outfit got her on the way.

---

She arrived at the warehouses twenty minutes later, pausing to catch her breath. Asuka wasn't sure which warehouse the trucks might have pulled into, so she opted to snoop around all of them, starting with the closest.

Ibuki had tried to impart how to properly pick locks onto Asuka one weekend, but she had mostly tuned out most of that lesson. She spent a good chunk of time fumbling with the lock to the first warehouse's back entrance without making any headway. Letting it go, she sighed in frustration. Just as she was about to try to just kick the door down, she heard a vehicle approaching. Glancing around the corner of the building towards the entrance to the lot, she saw a truck pulling in. Unlike the ones she saw before, this was completely unmarked. Still, she figured this was worth investigating.

She waited for the truck to finish pulling in, watching carefully as it headed for a specific warehouse, the one second farthest from the lots entrance. As the warehouse's front gates opened, Asuka burst into a full sprint to catch up. As the truck pulled in and the shutters began to close, she leaned back and slid underneath them just before they shut.

Glancing around her new surroundings, Asuka saw that no one seemed to have noticed her entrance. She slunk behind some nearby crates to observe the situation, taking note of the scattered guards loitering around. The fact that they seemed to be armed was very telling in itself. 'I think I found something, alright…but maybe I'm outta my league here?' Asuka wondered, eying their weaponry. She wasn't an expert in guns, but their long rifles and what appeared to be a grenade launcher definitely didn't bode well.

She watched as the truck's back opened up, some of the guards gathering into it to help unload the crates within it. They loaded them up into dollies and pushed them towards a guard standing watch by a wall. To her surprise, instead of unloading them on the ground next to him, the guard tapped his knuckle against the wall behind him, causing the wall to open up, revealing an elevator behind it.

The process would continue like that, with people unloading crates from the truck, pushing them to the wall and taking the elevator shaft down in turns. Asuka couldn't help but wonder what was in those crates, but knew it couldn't be any good. This was entirely too suspicious.

She waited until the last of the crates were being loaded into the lift before making her move. Trying to recall what little she retained from Ibuki as far as stealth went, she tried stalking through the maze of crates she had been hiding behind to get closer to the elevator shaft. Unfortunately for her, stealth was never her strong point and she ended up knocking over a smaller box as she awkwardly moved. The noise alerted the attention to the guard by the shaft, who immediately took notice of the girl
clad in blue contrasting against the otherwise dull colors of the warehouse.

"Hey, we got another ninja running around here, you know what to do!" he shouted, lifting up his rifle and taking aim.

"Oh no you don't!" Asuka shouted, forgoing stealth entirely to bull rush at the alerted guard. Her burst of speed aided her well, as she ducked below his line of sight and swept his legs from under him with a spinning kick. She spun around in time to see the driver of the truck coming at her with a rifle of his own.

Asuka was confident in her fighting ability, but even she wasn't confident enough to think she could dodge a bullet if she wasn't careful. She was exposed without any proper cover, with only the now closing elevator shaft as her only way out. So she dove into it, colliding with the two alarmed guards inside just as something whizzed past her head.

Whatever it was, she noted, it certainly didn't sound like a bullet.

The doors of the shaft had closed completely and the elevator jerked and began its descent downwards. Between the two crates and guards accompanying them and Asuka herself, it was very cramped. Still, she rounded on the closest guard and smashed her elbow over his head, causing him to tumble forward and into the other guard. Before either of them could recover, she grabbed both of their heads in either hand and smashed them together, knocking them out.

She knew she was in trouble now. The truck driver topside had to have called in to wherever she was headed by now, so they had to know she was coming.

Knowing she had a little bit of time to spare before the elevator reached the bottom, she examined the two unconscious guards before her, seeing if she could get any more clues about what she was about to come up against. The nature of their rifles seemed as good a start as any, considering they all seemed to be packing them.

Checking their belts, she found that it really hadn't been a bullet she was shot at with earlier, but a tranquilizer dart. This fact actually boosted her confidence about the situation, albeit in a roundabout, 'lesser of two evils' manner. 'At least I don't have to worry about them tryin' to kill me…with guns anyway,' she thought, 'though that guy with the grenade launcher is still somewhere around here.'

Glancing around the elevator again, Asuka hefted the two unconscious bodies and put them behind the crates, before pressing her back against one side of the elevator herself. When the elevator finally reached its destination and the doors opened, she'd sock whoever poked their head in.

When the doors did open, however, a grenade popped in.

"Oh crap!"

Instead of exploding, it began emitting a noxious gas. 'They're tryin' to knock me out again!' she realized. Suddenly thankful for the goofy mask she was still wearing for covering her nose from the worst of it, Asuka hastily stumbled out of the elevator and into a corridor. Her eyes were still stinging slightly from the exposure, watering as she tried to blink them back into focus.

When she did, she saw that she had more than half a dozen guards aiming at her with what she hoped
were tranquilizer rifles. She doubted she'd be able to avoid getting hit by all of them if they fired at once. Asuka wasn't one to give up though, and cracked her knuckles to begin her assault anew. If this had to be a last stand, then so be it, but at least she'd go down fighting.

"Geez, you guys sure are sloppy at the whole 'guard duty' thing, aren't ya?" a female voice mockingly said from behind them. The guards, guns still trained on Asuka, glanced at one another before moving to the side, parting to let the figure behind them through.

"Well well well…looks like we have another applicant! And what timing too, just before the final roll call!" the revealed woman said. Asuka had seen some ridiculous looks in her life, especially in the past month, but this lady was just absurd. Wearing poofy white trousers with what looked like purple tights underneath, a tight purple and black top in the shape of a spider, traditional Tae Kwan Do footwear, purple gloves and packing hair twisted into spiraling twintails that resembled horns, this lady looked like she was came straight out of a Sentai show.

"No need be so tense boys…I've got this one." She said, casually dismissing them. The assembled guards seemed reluctant to leave, but ultimately deferred to the mystery woman and fell back.

"Hah, I don't know who you think you are or what lame anime you crawled outta," Asuka began, a savage grin forming on her face, "but you're gonna regret not keeping your backup!"

"Oooh, a feisty one…how delightful! It'll make breaking you all the more delicious~" the woman cooed, licking her lips and matching Asuka's grin with one of her own.

She immediately leapt at Asuka, flying down at her with surprising speed with a dive kick aimed at her head. Asuka waited until the last moment before grabbing the offending leg with her hands, snatching the twintailed woman out of the air and sending her crashing down into the ground.

The downed woman immediately got back on her feet, grin still plastered on her face. "Hmm…not bad, I guess. The name's Juri, kiddo…be sure to remember that by the time I'm done with you~"

Asuka watched her carefully, waiting for Juri to make a move again to counter. To her mild surprise, instead of directly engaging her again, her opponent made a subtle kicking motion before tossing a ki blast at her. Asuka grit her teeth, wincing at the advantage her Juri revealed.

"What's the matter, can't do something like this yourself? Hah, talk about pathetic kid~" Juri teased, firing off more fireballs at Asuka. In the tight corridor that they were in, Asuka didn't have as much room to avoid them as she would've liked. Instead of remaining on the defensive, she decided to switch gears and go on the offensive herself. She braced herself and charged forward through the onslaught of blasts, flinching in pain when a few of them connected to her. She kept pace through it all and rammed her shoulder into Juri's body.

The blow sent her flying back into a wall and Asuka pressed her advantage. Before her opponent could recover, Asuka rained blow upon blow on her, severely disorientating Juri with the raw power each one packed. Finally, Asuka flipped the dazed woman behind her, wrapping her body around one of Juri's legs and tugging as hard as she could.

"ARGH!" Juri finally cried, pain racking through her body. Asuka released her, standing back up with a fist prepared to deliver the finishing blow. "Had enough, huh? Well, I certainly haven't!" she said,
sending her fist flying straight at Juri's face. Moments before the impact, Juri's eyes shot open, her left eye glowing with purple energy. Suddenly, Asuka found herself punching the hard tiled floor beneath her, with Juri nowhere to be seen. "What the hell?!" Asuka cried, trying to figure out what just happened. 'That was almost like something Ibuki would do –'

Realizing too late what that meant, Asuka received a blow to the back of her head. Juri, she gathered, had somehow managed to instantly move from her downed position to directly behind her in a mere second.

"Alright kid, you had your fun, but now it's my turn!" the woman growled. Stumbling forward from the blow to the head, Asuka spun around in time to see Juri's fist coming straight at her. She managed to dodge it but was hit in the stomach from a follow-up kick. Wincing in pain, Asuka tried to get ready to counter her opponent's next move, but as she glanced back up, she was greeted to the sight of a human pinwheel closing in on her. The spinning kicks connected multiple times, sending her tumbling backwards onto the ground.

"Not so fun is it, eh?" Juri said smugly, though her voice sounded weaker and strained. She bent down to straddle Asuka, pulling down her face mask and patting her cheeks. Too dazed from the blows to immediately shove her off, Asuka could only growl weakly up at the woman. "Sneaking around like you were, sticking your nose into places it doesn't belong…why, I think a time out is in order for a brat like you, wouldn't you agree?"

Juri abruptly stood up after that, lightly kicking Asuka again. Her legs seemed to wobble, a sign that Asuka's earlier beat down did affect her. "You'll make a nice Doll for Seth at any rate, I suppose. And just in time to be paired up with your other ninja buddies, too~" Asuka began to roll to push herself off the ground, wondering what exactly that last sentence meant, when one of Juri's legs came careening down towards her. The last thing she saw before her vision went black was the feral grin on Juri's face.

---

When she opened her eyes again, she still bore witness to darkness. Blinking a few times, she tried to figure out what had happened.  She remembered fighting her way into the warehouse's lower floors and fighting against that Juri woman…that she lost to!

The details of the fight coming back to her with clarity, she made to get up to see what had happened since she lost consciousness. The act in itself answered her question in great part, as she found that she couldn't move her body properly, and that she seemed to be in one of those smaller, square crates she'd seen all over the place. She had been strictly bound again for the second time in a week. Unlike the earlier time with Ibuki, however, she felt like she had much more rope on her. She squirmed around, trying to get a better feel for what exactly composed her tie.

Her arms were crossed behind her back, tied together at her wrists with rope. More rope was tied above and below her breasts, pinning her arms to her sides…in fact, she felt rope digging into her breasts too, implying they had wrapped them up tightly too. She couldn't move her hands either, as they had been encased in what felt like tape, forcing them to clutch into fists.

Asuka's legs were worse off, covered even more thickly with rope. She could feel it pressing tightly against her across her thighs, above and below her knees as well as the knees themselves, calves, ankles and even around her toes. Worse yet, the more she struggled the more her attention was brought to another detail of her tie; whoever did this to her also made sure to include a crotch rope too. With every motion she made, she caused it to rub up against her, sending an uncomfortable feeling surging through her body.

Her face didn't fare well either. She had been gagged too, and it felt like a fairly brutal one at that. Inside her mouth she could feel a large, rubber sphere had been shoved inside. 'A…ballgag, I think.' She thought as she gnawed at it. Whatever it was, it certainly had her jaw stretched pretty wide.

Above that, she felt what she assumed to be her outfit's cloth face mask, this time being used against her to compliment the series of gags she had. And finally, on top of the mask was several layers of something pinning the other two gags firmly into place. She could feel her cheeks bulging from it all. Rubbing a cheek against one of her bare shoulders, she confirmed that the material over her mask felt like tape.

All in all, she definitely had way more bindings on her than she did the last time she met with Ibuki. She hated feeling helpless like this --

"Eehbhkh!" she suddenly grunted through her gag, remembering the main reason she came out here. Ibuki and the other ninjas probably got captured like this. Asuka thought back to what Juri had said earlier. 'Something about dolls and being just in time to be with my 'friends'…Ibuki and the others might still be somewhere nearby, then!'

Asuka laid herself flat on her back, coiling up her legs to the best of her ability before kicking at the side of the crate in front of her as hard as she could. The impact shook the crate slightly, but otherwise nothing happened. Undaunted, she kept smashing the side with her legs over and over, each impact causing the crate to tilt slightly. Thanks to her crotch rope, however, her efforts also continuously agitated her privates. Finally, she managed to tip the crate over, causing her to tumble inside with it.

She realigned herself and set to work again, this time kicking the side that used to be above her. As she had hoped, every impact rattled this side, signifying this was the crate's lid. She kept at it, focusing on repeatedly pounding away at it with her bound, but still powerful, legs. After the seventeenth hit, the lid finally showed signs of coming loose. Each strike caused her crotch rope to rub smoothly against her, leaving her panting beneath her layered gag and face flushed.

She kept at it until the lid finally couldn't take the abuse anymore; the nails keeping it pinned down popping free and the entire thing coming crashing down. Rolling onto her stomach, she began pushing her legs against the bottom of the crate to crawl her way out of it.

Blinking to get her bearings, she saw that she was in what appeared to be the cargo bay of a ship. "Not good" she thought, knowing that if they were already off at sea that escaping would be even harder. She struggled upwards, delicately balancing herself from a kneeling position to a full stand. She experimentally hopped forward to test the strength of her legs and balance and found to her satisfaction that both aspects held up. The crotch rope still rubbed against her as she moved, but compared to how it felt when she was kicking the crate, this was nothing.

Thinking back to the escape training she had with Ibuki, Asuka recalled the advice of using the environment to help escape if needed. She glanced around, wondering if she could find something sharp enough to help cut away at her bindings.

The cargo bay was poorly lit, and anything she could make out didn't seem to fit the bill. She continued cautiously hopping around, hoping to find something productive. The last thing she wanted to do was accidentally hop straight into the arms of a goon wandering about.

She slowly made her way to the other side of the room to where she saw a staircase and a door, keeping an eye and an ear out for any possible guards patrolling the area. Making it to the other side without any incident, Asuka still hadn't found anything to help cut the ropes. She was beginning to consider picking away at them herself when she suddenly heard movement somewhere in the distance, coming from behind her. She quickly hopped behind a crate, peeking out from behind it to observe.

A guard trudged up from the staircase leading to a lower floor, covered in what looked like… 'Bite marks?' Asuka wondered. He looked fairly annoyed at whatever it was he just went through and opened the nearby door, not even bothering to close it all the way.

After waiting a few minutes to assure no one else was coming that way, Asuka realized she had a choice; either she could investigate what was down the stairs, or she could slip through the conveniently opened door.

Considering her options for a moment, she decided to head down the stairs, rather than go through the door that obviously had at least one guard waiting somewhere behind it. Carefully hopping down each step to make sure she didn't trip, she slowly made her journey downwards. It seemed that it led to a second, smaller storage area. Listening carefully, she could make out the faint sound of growling and chirps. 'Must be a buncha animals here, I guess…' she figured.

Hopping around, she saw that she was right; the room was host to a varied assortment of animals, all caged or leashed. They all seemed to be trying to get her attention once they noticed her, which mildly freaked her out. It wasn't until she reached the middle of the line of cages that she suddenly saw a familiar face. Inside a small, hanging cage, Asuka saw a tanuki that looked exactly like Ibuki's pet, Don. The fact that he was excitedly waving at her in a familiar manner was more than enough to confirm it. For once, she was glad to find this kind of weirdness.

She hopped up to the cage, examining the locked gate keeping him inside. She didn't have anything to pick it open with and wasn't too hot at lock picking regardless, so the bound girl could only look back up to the caged animal apologetically. In response, the tanuki scampered over to a side of the cage and pointed at a wall. She glanced over and saw an assortment of keys hanging from it…one of them had to the ticket to getting him out of there.

As she hopped over to the rack, Asuka reflected on the ridiculous nature of the task she was setting out to do. She had seen with her own eyes how intelligent Don was when he showed up now and then during her training sessions with Ibuki, but all the same…to trust a raccoon-dog to help her escape?

She wasn't even sure if that would classify as the strangest situation she'd been thrown into in her life.

Having reached the key rack, she looked back at Don, only just now wondering how she would even take one back with her hands taped as they were, let alone know which key to use. "Ugmmh." She muttered, realizing she probably had to go through each one, individually. She glanced back at Don, who seemed to catch onto her predicament. His stubby little arm pointed once again, as though trying to tell her which key she needed. She tried to follow his finger, nudging a key with her nose before looking back. He shook his head, this time pointing before moving slightly to the left. She tried nudging the next key over with her nose and was greeted with a nod.

To solve the issue of transport, she very carefully maneuvered the top of her face mask underneath the key, tucking a third of it underneath the top of her mask that hadn't been taped over. It had taken precious minutes to do so and she almost caused it to slip off the rack entirely more than a few times, but by the time it was pressed inside her mask against her cheek and nose, she felt it was safe enough to hop back.

She had to hop even more delicately with the key in its precarious perch, but she kept her focus true and made it back without a hitch. The tanuki reached for the key himself when she neared the cage, and she brought her head closer for him to get it. With a click, Don had freed himself from the cage and hopped out.

"Nghh uhhntyh mh!" she tried to demand through her gag. Her animal companion complied and immediately set out to remove her bindings.

A few minutes later, Asuka stood completely unbound, wincing as she did the finishing touches of removing her ballgag herself. "Oh, gross, this thing is completely covered in my drool! Ugh!" she said in disgust, tossing it aside. She looked around for Don, suddenly realizing that she didn't see him around anywhere. Looking back to the stairs, she saw him scampering up to the main cargo bay area.

Not wanting to get left behind, Asuka rushed after him, watching as he would pause and examine the various crates around him. Before long, he stopped at one crate in particular, motioning fiercely at it to Asuka. Figuring whatever (or whoever) was inside must be pretty important for him to react like that, Asuka began heaving at the crate's lid. Eventually, she managed to pry it loose and took a look inside.

The sight that greeted her made her sigh in relief; inside was the bound form of Ibuki.

Looking closer, it seemed like she had been tied exactly as she had, but with additional restraints wrapped around her upper body and legs, forcing her into a compact ball. She also had a wet rag tied around her face covering her nose, pinned in place by a smaller cleave gag. Asuka hefted Ibuki out of the crate and began untying her with Don's help.

"Hey…hey! Ibuki, wake up already!" she tried, shaking the girl as she removed the cloth gag. Ibuki stirred at that, eyes opening halfway. "W-wha….Asuka?" she said weakly.

"Hang on there; we'll getcha out of this!" Asuka assured her.

"How…how did you manage to get here?" Ibuki wondered, turning her head and finally noticing her pet. "Don-san…you're okay!" she said, smiling weakly at her other friend.

"I, uh, had everything under control," Asuka lied. "I managed to sneak on board right under their noses and everything, just like ya taught me!"

"I…I'm pretty sure I didn't teach you any basic stealth lessons yet…"

"Yeah well, you didn't have to; I'm just awesome like that. How'd you get caught, anyway?" she asked, helping the now freed Ibuki up.

Seeming to regain some of her strength after a moment, Ibuki finally replied. "Got ambushed while protecting a target by a bunch of guys with tranqs and gas grenades. I dealt with them just fine, but the person I was supposed to be protecting turned out to be working with them and got me with a high dosage of tranquilizer." She shuddered at the memory. "They've been keeping me under one way or another since then, bouncing me between different locations. I've lost track of time."

"Yeah, well, I think a little payback is in order, wouldn't you say?" Asuka said, cracking her knuckles. "Let's go free the rest of your buddies and file a complaint to this ship's crew."

---

The trio had set about to help rescue the other captives shortly thereafter. The next crate they opened contained Ibuki's best friend and fellow ninja, Saori. Asuka had seen her around now and then at the village and though they hadn't interacted much, she took a liking to the girl. From what she gathered, like Asuka, Saori was an outsider who got inducted into the village, the main difference being that rather through a work study program, it had been much more willingly.

Like Ibuki and herself, she had been bound strictly into a ball tie and had been gagged with a pair of panties shoved into her mouth with an over the mouth gag and a few strips of duct tape roughly plastered over it. Unlike Asuka or Ibuki's tie, however, she also had earmuffs and a blindfold to compliment her bondage, leaving her completely sensory deprived.

When she had been freed of her bindings and shaken awake, she recounted a situation similar to Ibuki's. She had tried to escape and had almost been successful too, which led to the strict sensory deprivation.

Cracking open the rest of the crates and cases revealed all the captured ninja to be females as well, each one in various states of bondage, mewling meekly into their gags and shifting their bound limbs against each other with the opening of their crates. They all recounted similar stories to Ibuki's and Saori's; they had been given different jobs, only to be betrayed by a client at the worst possible moment.

Some of them had mentioned a "Dolls Program", but whenever Asuka tried to ask what they were talking about, none of them would give her a straight answer. She could smell 'classified information' from a mile away, but considering their shaken states and current situation, decided not to press the matter for the time being.

With their combined might, they managed to overtake the unprepared crew, seizing control over the ship and sending a radio message out to a special channel. More members of the clan would be arriving shortly and the authorities sometime after.

The woman who had captured them both, Juri, was nowhere to be found on the vessel, much to their mutual disappointment. They had been looking forward to a rematch to get even with her.

Standing on the top deck as they waited for their pickup to arrive, Ibuki glanced at Asuka, curious. "I have to ask…" she began, fidgeting slightly, "…why are you wearing your ninja outfit?"

"Honestly? I didn't get the chance to back at the village before they kicked me out and…I kinda rushed directly from there to a warehouse district to investigate a lead I had." She admitted, somewhat abashed.

"You came back to the village, even after what happened last week? You…you even went looking for me after all that, too?" Ibuki said, tone hopeful.

"Yeah, well…you might be a pervert, but that doesn't mean you aren't good people!" Asuka replied. "Just don't go around tyin' me up anymore and I think we can still be friends. Deal?" She stuck out her hand at Ibuki.

"Ahaha…yeah, I…think that won't be a problem."  Ibuki took the outstretched hand before her and shook, idly wondering if she'd ever be able to convince Asuka that she really wasn't that kind of pervert… "Well, it's nice to hear that you're still willing to be friends, but after today you probably don't want to stay involved with our ninja business, huh? I wouldn't blame you, this work-study program was a dumb idea from the start and –"

"Yeah, it's a pretty stupid idea," Asuka blurted, cutting her off, "but I did learn a thing or two about focusin', so it ain't all bad. I'll stick around for a little bit longer…but another incident like this ain't exactly something I'd like to repeat, you know."

"I hear you on that one…" Ibuki suddenly went rigid, having realized something. "Oh god, Sanjou is definitely going to make me go through escape training again after he hears about this!"

"Yeah? Think he'll do the same to me?" Asuka asked, suddenly looking worried herself.

"No...just all of us officially sanctioned ninja that got captured last week…" Ibuki said dazedly. Nearby, her realization had been overheard by some of the other girls. They in turn began to grimace at the thought of being immediately put into bondage again in the near future.

"Oh.  Well, good luck with that." Asuka said, patting her on the shoulders before walking off.

Ibuki whimpered. 'At least I didn't end up losing a friend…that…that makes this all worth it. Right? Right?!' she tried to reason with herself.

Karma, she decided, had a really screwed up way of working sometimes.