Author's Notes:

Halloween Update! Barely managed it, but I did it!

This chapter finishes the accidental plot this story developed, but there is at least one more chapter to write, although it may be very long in coming as it relates to something that would happen in a story I haven't written yet.

I don't know whether I'm going to do any chapters in between, honestly.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy! Thank you for reading and please review!

Chapter 7: The Soldier and the Ninja

The PT ghost crossed his arms and squinted at the two ninja spirits. The man had obviously had no idea what the woman was up to until she'd said her bit, but judging by his reaction, he did now. So, whoever needed rescue was someone they both knew.

"A mother, is it?" he said. "Died to protect her family? In some kind of ninja battle, I assume? And killed a bunch herself, no doubt?"

Hart's eyes widened. "Ninja battle? Is this about the Arashikage?"

Ayame turned to the greenshirt and pursed her lips. They didn't really need constant interruption from someone who seemed to only be able to hear one side of the conversation. The ghost caught her clue and turned to Hart.

"Don't know yet," he said in answer to the greenshirt's question, "and you're slowing me down figuring it out. Go to bed, kid. I got this."

Hart chewed on his lip a moment, considering. The ghost had a point: he was doing nothing but slowing down the conversation trying to follow along. More importantly, the ghost was looking and sounding more alert than he had in weeks. "Are you going to help them?" he asked.

"Go to bed," the ghost repeated, and turned his back squarely on him.

Hart took that as a yes or at least a probably. He waved awkwardly and left, dearly hoping he wouldn't find the ghost totally oblivious the following day. As soon as the idea occurred to check on him later, Hart knew he wasn't getting any sleep that night: he'd be up here every hour to check on the ghost. He cursed under his breath and kicked some dirt on his way back in. At least if the ghost vanished and didn't come back, it would have to mean he had moved on.

The dead soldier rolled his eyes at him and turned back to the spirits. "He means well," he said.

The Fearless Master snorted at the ghost. "You and him made Tommy's lesson boring to watch," he said. "You owe me." He buffed his immaterial nails on his immaterial gi top. "I'll forgive you if you agree to help my sister."

"Please," Ayame added hurriedly. "You may be able to save her, and you may be the only soul, living or not, who can. We can't get through to her at all."

The ghost scratched his head. "If she's not taking in anything that's going on, she's not going to see me either, I think," he said. "I'm not an expert or anything, but I'm pretty sure that's why the kid's in a big panic whenever I ignore him. He thinks I'll start ignoring everything forever."

"She knows when people come and go," Ayame said. "She just ignores most everyone once she knows they're no threat."

The Fearless Master's eyes widened. "Hold on, she won't be able to tell HE's not an enemy! Do we know what she's going to do?"

The ghost smirked. "Pay me some attention, I'm guessing. And that's what you're banking on, is it?" he asked Ayame. "Between being a ghost and maybe being able to talk to her better because I'm more like her than you are, and being a stranger she's not going to ignore, you think I might be able to get through."

Ayame nodded, smiling.

"You know," the Insane Master said, "if you save someone's life, they die anyway. Not right there and then, but eventually…" he ran his finger across his throat and dropped his head to the side, eyes crossed and tongue lolling out. "BUT," he continued, straightening back up, "if you save a ghost, that ghost is going to stay saved forever. Way better hero work."

Much to Ayame's amazement, the argument seemed to work on the ghost soldier, who nodded thoughtfully. "I'd be a pretty lousy person if I didn't at least try to help," he said. "Fine. Let's go. You go on and just pop over there, I'll find you and follow."

The Fearless Master whooped and vanished, followed by Ayame.

Misao stood guard by the door. No Akai ninja was going to get in here. They would not get her daughter. Kimiko would be safe.

All was quiet.

She stayed and watched and listened and waited. She would not let them in, she would not let them hurt Kimiko. The Akai had attacked them in their home, but they would not get into HER home. They would not get at Kimiko.

She felt the presences before she saw them. She recognized two as family, but one wasn't. One was a stranger. A danger.

Panic and fury flared inside her and she tackled the intruder.

"WHOA!" The ghost soldier didn't have time to react. Despite neither of them having physical bodies anymore, he felt the full impact of the angry ninja colliding with him and went down with her. The next instant, she was being lifted off him as the two spirits grabbed her from behind.

"Tackle him with no weapon, Misao? Seriously, that's been your big plan for 26 years? If anybody comes here, you'll tackle them? I'm so telling the Hard Master, and he's going to stick you in remedial training for years."

"She's ignoring you, dear," Ayame remarked.

She was right: Misao did not seem to understand what was holding her back and was desperately trying to force her way forward towards the ghost soldier, who was looking a little bit stunned.

"She can hit?" he blurted out.

"And it would have hurt a lot worse if she'd had the sense to use a sword!" the Insane Master replied, still holding on tight to his sister.

Ayame was keeping a firm grip on her sister-in-law as well. "Let HIM talk, Dear."

"I'm just saying, she should know better! Shutting up now," he added quickly under his wife's glare.

The soldier straightened up to a standing position again. Duty time.

"I'm not after your daughter," he started by saying. "I'm with these two because I'm a friendly. Name's Will Thorne. I'm a soldier, and I died defending my country. Just like you died defending your family."

Ayame blinked upon realizing she hadn't known the soldier's name up to that point. She hadn't thought of asking. Misao had far less of a reaction; in fact she didn't really seem to notice that what she mistook as an enemy had talked.

Thorne went gamely on. "Look, I'm just here talking to you. I'm not trying to go after anyone in this house. I'm just standing here talking. I'm not attacking. I could, because you can't stop me right now, but I'm not."

The Fearless Master cursed and tightened his hold: Misao seemed to have understood the part of that about not being able to stop the soldier because she was suddenly struggling to escape their grip a lot harder.

"Oh, that worries you, does it?" the soldier asked. He took a step closer. "Is your daughter even here? That guy holding you says you've been guarding this place for 26 years. You realize she's grown up now, don't you?"

"Kimi's her daughter!" Ayame said, suddenly realizing they hadn't mentioned that to the soldier yet. "Jinx! She's a Joe!"

The soldier's eyes widened; it figured. Why would two ninja spirits hang around the Pit if they weren't Arashikages?

"Well!" he said. "You're REALLY wasting your time, then. She's not home, and she doesn't need protecting. That girl could kill me ten times before she noticed I'm dead already!"

Misao frowned and turned her head, looking towards the bedrooms.

The spirits held their non breaths.

"And here you are all worried because I'm here, but she's where I'm usually at! I saw her this morning, she was running the obstacle course with all the others. You're protecting a girl that's not there, lady. And like I said, even if she was, she wouldn't need protecting. It's anyone else coming here that would need protection from her!"

The ghost stopped moving for a moment, frowning and squinting, seemingly concentrating. She tilted her head in a way both Ayame and the Fearless Master recognized: she was trying to hear something.

"You can't hear her because she's not home," Ayame said. "She hasn't been for a while, now. She's grown up, Misao, and she grew up really well. You'd be proud."

"You WILL be proud," Fearless Master added. "As soon as you stop being stupid, we can all go see her."

Misao had not started struggling again, but she was looking back and forth at the soldier and towards the rooms.

"That's true," the soldier said. "She wears a lot of red… was that her favorite color as a kid too? She's training with Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow… don't know if you know them, they're from this clan too."

"Tommy and his adopted brother," Fearless Master specified.

Misao's eyes were now fixed towards the bedrooms.

"You need to let her go see the bedrooms," the ghost soldier said. "You want to see for yourself she's not home, don't you?" he added to the other ghost's intention.

Ayame and the Fearless Master exchanged a glance.

"At worst she's going to jump him again," the Insane Master said, shrugging.

Ayame nodded and they let go. Misao sped towards the bedrooms and vanished in Kimiko's. She reappeared through the wall a moment later.

"See? She's not here," the soldier said. "And that's fine because she's not a helpless little kid anymore. She's a ninja, and a good one, and she doesn't need to hide behind her mommy."

Misao was standing still, eyes unfocused and with a slight frown. She looked like she was thinking hard.

"You did good," Ayame said. "You kept her safe while she needed it."

Misao startled and looked at her, then at the Fearless Master, as though noticing them for the first time.

"Kimiko," she said. "I have to…"

"You don't have to do anything anymore," the soldier cut in. "She's grown up, and she's safe."

The ghostly kunoichi ignored him, her eyes locked on her brother's spirit.

"Tommy's with her?"

The Insane Master nodded. "And he's alive, too. That's a big plus for keeping her out of trouble."

Misao seemed to blur and nearly vanished before she resolved again, no longer wearing her battle stain clothes but a clean red gi. She started smiling and then, burst into tears as relief clashed with exhaustion.

The two ninja spirits rushed to her and the soldier found himself wiping at his own eyes. He cleared his throat and when the three spirits looked at him, he saluted.

"Mission accomplished," he declared. "Just doing my job, folks. You take care, now."

He shimmered, much like Misao had done, but unlike her, vanished completely, his spirit headed somewhere else. It was really time he visited his mother, who had died years earlier. She must have been waiting for him since his death and she was probably going to give him an earful as it was.

The knock on the door was light, but more than enough to wake Tommy Arashikage up. He was alert at once: he could hear his cousin beyond the door, and she sounded anything but normal.

He jumped out of bed and dashed to the door to open it.

Jinx was waiting patiently on the other side, looking shell shocked.

"Kimi, what…?"

"Obake Obaasan just called me," she interrupted, her voice a bit higher pitched than usual. "About Mom."

Storm Shadow frowned and pulled her inside his quarters, closing the door behind her. He put his hands on her shoulder and locked eyes with her. "What's going on?" he asked.

"She... she's moved on," the kunoichi said. "Granny says she's gone, she's free." She giggled, then her eyes suddenly flooded and she was hugging Tommy, laughing and crying at once.

Misao smiled at the pair fondly.

The Hard Master snorted and the Soft Master chuckled at him. "Not dignified enough, Brother?" he asked.

As much as she had wanted to see her daughter, Misao was not selfish enough not to let her older brothers know she was okay and so, she had left the house not to head straight to Kimi but to them. She had been very patient with them, allowing them over five whole minutes of celebrating her recovery before announcing she was going to check on Kimi and disappearing. The others had appeared at her side again nearly instantly, and they had all seen Kimi talk on the phone with the Goblin Granny.

"Dignity would be completely inappropriate in this situation," Ayame said firmly in response to the Soft Master.

The Hard Master chuckled, causing every other spirit present to gawk at him. "I just thought Misao looked liable to offer them cookies next," he said, smiling.

The Fearless Master and Misao barked identical laughs.

"Yeah… no," Misao said. "I got a ten minutes lecture last time I offered Tommy cookies."

"He only stopped when I bodily dragged him away and threw him in the river," Fearless Master added, nodding. "Then we ate the cookies while he dried up and shivered."

"Good times," Misao said. She smiled and slowly swept her eyes around the room, which would have been quite crammed had everyone been solid. Kimi, impossibly big and gorgeous and wonderful, was calming down a bit; Tommy, basically looking like an older version of his teenage self, was looking slightly stunned as he patted her back, eyes wide and a grin trying to shine through the shock; The Hard Master smiled back at her, which she figured she'd never get used to; the Soft Master was smiling too, but it didn't look as cheerful as his old smile – she'd have to find out what had happened to him; and Ayame and Tomisaburo Senior were respectively patting Tommy's shoulder and making faces at him.

It was good to be with family again.